[open post -- winged and once-winged insects]

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad has collected every insect guide he could find in the mansion's library, and now he is camped out in a laboratory it seems to have created particularly for him and Susan -- the room has its own microscope, so that he can stop borrowing Claudius', and every single shelf is filled with glass habitats or mesh tents for keeping insects.

With his single-minded determination, he has filled many of them -- the tents house carefully potted foot-high milkweeds with tiny butterfly eggs affixed to their leaves, or potato plants he hopes will soon harbor potato beetles, or butterflies resting on the mesh. In the glass habitats there are millipedes, gleaming tenebrionid beetles, huge and bumbling scarabs, the dogbane leaf beetle Lancelot helped him capture, shiny blister beetles, leafhoppers in every shade of green, a pair of picasso bugs, an mantis he found in the greenhouse pretending to be an orchid flower.

Many of these insects stay only long enough to be identified and documented. Galahad and Susan between them take careful notes, make drawings, take pictures. When possible, they identify to species; more often, they identify genera or family, country of origin if they're lucky. Then they let their subjects go again. Neither of them has the time nor the inclination to feed and care for the immense diversity of insects living on the mansion's grounds. Potato beetles are one thing, but catching other tiny insects for the tiger beetles every morning is unsustainable. Galahad doesn't mind. Once he has a picture and the notes, the insect is saved, even if they don't see it again.

In the morning he trains with Lan Wangji, so it's an afternoon now when he's perched on a stool in front of the microscope, inspecting a chlaenius beetle to see whether it's possible to confirm a species. Unfortunately, these beetles are too fast and squirmy to put on a slide alive, so he's ethered it first. Now he's working diligently on his sketch, his pale head bowed as he studies the tiny body.

[Open especially to anyone who needs to be reassured that Galahad is back after the mod event and he's just fine now]

Comments

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Is that so!" says Susan, impressed. "I should like to read the book where you found that." She pauses. "And I ought to keep her away from small pets, I suppose."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Like the rabbits," helpfully. "I'll bring you the book tomorrow."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh goodness, yes, the rabbits," says Susan. "And Nina's little ferret, too." She's not yet had a formal introduction, but of course she knows about her.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Khitka."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Khitka," Susan repeats. They're at her door, she opens it slowly, carefully - Regina has developed a taste for trying to dart out if Susan or Lancelot aren't paying attention.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad is attentive, though -- he wants very much to meet Regina, and when he sees her nose at the door, dark and inquisitive, his eyes widen slightly.

"Hello, Regina," he says.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

She meows loudly, imperiously, comes out enough to wind around his legs once, and then leads him into the room with her tail lifted proud and vertical.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad follows, enraptured. Regina looks like none of the castle cats, and her wails are fairly singular too. Once he's inside, he sits down cross-legged, politely.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan follows, kneeling on the floor close by. Regina comes over to her, rubbing her head against her knees and purring.

"Go, visit with Galahad," Susan urges, and Regina goes over to sniff at Galahad's shoes.

[onthewillowsthere]

He holds out his fingers to her so she can sniff those as well.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Regina rubs her neck against them!

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad practically glows with pleasure, and begins scritching her neck the way Percival showed him years ago.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Regina starts purring loudly, shoving her face against Galahad's hands, working her wet little nose between his fingers. Susan watches for a moment, then rises smoothly and goes, first to flip the kettle on and then to fetch the little basket of Regina's treats and toys.

"Here," she murmurs, setting the basket to Galahad's side. "She likes the little cloth mouse especially."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad's expression has remained serious as he scratches her and strokes her, but he's radiating pleasure. He doesn't look up at Susan when he answers.

"Does she like it to be pulled or will she play with it by herself?

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Both," says Susan. "If you pull it until she grabs it from you, she'll be very pleased indeed."

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods, and reaches into the basket to find the mouse. Once he has it he places it on the floor and begins drawing it along by the head, wiggling the little cloth body as he does.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Regina watches avidly, then makes a chirpy sort of chatter noise. She shifts her posture, slowly, casually, stretching out on her haunches, tail starting to lash back and forth as she tracks the movement of the mouse.

Then she leaps at it.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad gives it a little half-slide half-toss across the room as she does.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Regina's paws skitter as she adjusts her telemetry, and then she's catching the mouse with one claw and growling as she kills it dead.

[onthewillowsthere]

As he watches, a smile pulls at the corners of his thin mouth. He glances up at Susan.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan smiles back at him. "She's quite fierce, isn't she?" she asks, proudly.

[onthewillowsthere]

"She's a good hunter."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Regina, who has snapped the neck of the little cloth mouse, comes trotting over with her tail held high, meowing around the toy in her mouth, and then drops the mouse at Galahad's knee.

"Oh, well done, fierce girl."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Well done," Galahad says as well, scratching her chin again to reward her. There's a good chance he will just sit here and play this game with her until she gets bored.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Regina is thrilled. She loves to hunt (toys and the occasional bug) and here's a person directing their full attention her way! She'll kill the cloth mouse four and a half more times, and then abandon it, stride her way onto Galahad's lap like he's so much furniture, and then curl up there, purring.