[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

[onthewillowsthere]

"It's where she stores the medicinal plants we gather. She wanted to show me, but I can't fit.'

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I do hope you'll report back in detail about the experience," says Susan earnestly.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I will," Galahad says, with absolute sincerity. "I will keep notes."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I've never thought to seek animal transformation," says Susan then, thoughtfully. "I suppose it was never really an option. Aslan did turn the Calormene prince into an ass, once - Rabadash, after he tried to invade Narnia and..." she trails off, frowning, and then shakes herself. "But that was the only time I've heard it done."

[onthewillowsthere]

"What happened to Rabadash?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"He could only turn back into a human if he was in Tashbaan - the capitol city. Calormen knew peace under his reign, which is rather hysterical given how it started."

[onthewillowsthere]

"God did that?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

In a distant sort of voice, Susan says, "He aggressed upon Narnia. Rabadash did. He brought a force of Calormene horsemen north to do battle with Archenland, which lay between our nations, because he sought my hand and I did not wish to accept his suit. Aslan intervened, because Narnia was Aslan's treasured country. Galahad," she says, gaze focusing again as she glances at him. "Lancelot said that my counterpart was the Tisroc of Calormen's Empress. I thought he meant Rabadash's father, the fusty old man I knew as Tisroc when I was Queen, but -" her brow furrows. "What if this was the divergence point?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"For your Evil Twin?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Yes, for my momentary replacement."

[onthewillowsthere]

Again, he waits, to see what else she might say.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I suppose there's no way to know."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Not without asking," he agrees, with a momentary press of his lips.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"And I don't suppose we shall have the opportunity." Susan is quiet for a moment. "Perhaps it's for the best." This is said with immeasurable doubt, however - Susan likes to understand how things work.

[onthewillowsthere]

"It doesn't have to be."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

She looks up a him, blinking.

[onthewillowsthere]

"For the best. It doesn't have to be. You can be disappointed. Or angry. About not getting to know."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Galahad," says Susan, after a protracted beat where she first purses her lips as if to argue, then pauses to reconsider, then parts her mouth with surprise, and finally furrows her brow thoughtfully. "I do so appreciate you."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Thank you. I appreciate you too."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"You've got quite a refreshing outlook," she tells him.

[onthewillowsthere]

The look he gives her is, in its subtle way, faintly bemused -- why should he pretend not to feel the things he's feeling -- but he does know why, he's loved Claudius long enough to know why.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan considers whether to make the conversation more personal, for a moment, weighing her options, and then decides that as she's committed to a friendship with Galahad and she appreciates the perspective he brings to the table, she might as well venture the information. He can politely disengage if he'd rather not delve into it. She confides, "I'm not always terrifically in touch with my emotions."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Why?" he asks -- just curious, not accusatory.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Ingrid - my friend Ingrid from home - would say that it's a classic example of repression, which is a way of protecting myself from the full brunt of reality."

[onthewillowsthere]

"If you chose not to feel anything, you wouldn't have to feel anything," he suggests.