onthewillowsthere: (look down)
[personal profile] 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]

Date: 2024-09-12 04:10 am (UTC)
kadewest: (NETHERWORLD.)
From: [personal profile] kadewest
"No problem." Kade tilts his head. "Earth history isn't my strongest suit, but I'd be happy to talk through whatever you end up digging up, if you want."

Date: 2024-09-12 03:48 pm (UTC)
kadewest: (LIGHTNING.)
From: [personal profile] kadewest
"No problem," Kade says, and then amends, "You'd be doing me a favor, actually. It would scratch that missing-school itch I get sometimes."

Date: 2024-09-15 06:25 pm (UTC)
kadewest: (LOST.)
From: [personal profile] kadewest
"The way I figure it," says Kade, "talking through the differences in some system--like religion--between different centuries is analogous to talking through the differences in some system between different Worlds."

Date: 2024-09-15 08:39 pm (UTC)
kadewest: (Default)
From: [personal profile] kadewest
"Oh, sure. Mostly Worlds, so I can get a sense of the kind of things a student will need to help... acclimate."

Date: 2024-09-16 03:14 am (UTC)
kadewest: (Default)
From: [personal profile] kadewest
"Let's just say that, what with everyone here coming from different worlds? In some ways, it's like I never left the school." Kade pauses. "That would be a yes."

Date: 2024-09-17 04:07 am (UTC)
kadewest: (DELUSION.)
From: [personal profile] kadewest
"And yeah. A couple of people here absolutely remind me of students, too," Kade acknowledges. Obviously Galahad knows that he sometimes reminds Kade of Nancy.

Date: 2024-09-19 04:15 am (UTC)
kadewest: (OPEN.)
From: [personal profile] kadewest
"Gideon. Magnus. Gu Xiang. Mercutio. Tress. Nina." Oh, Lord, he's just naming all the young people, isn't he? "Grantaire." There, saved it. "I haven't really had a sit-down with everyone here yet."

Date: 2024-09-20 04:11 am (UTC)
kadewest: (VIRTUE.)
From: [personal profile] kadewest
"Well, what do you think?"

Date: 2024-09-20 03:40 pm (UTC)
kadewest: (SECRETS.)
From: [personal profile] kadewest
"Sure," says Kade easily. "That's one similarity."

Date: 2024-09-21 05:58 am (UTC)
kadewest: (CHOICE.)
From: [personal profile] kadewest
"Oooh," says Kade. "I like that descriptor. What do you mean by it? I'm interested to see if it's what I might call Door-touched."

Date: 2024-09-22 04:55 am (UTC)
kadewest: (Default)
From: [personal profile] kadewest
"Intended," says Kade, "or selected?"

Date: 2024-09-23 03:17 am (UTC)
kadewest: (NETHERWORLD.)
From: [personal profile] kadewest
Kade nods slowly. "Door-touched."

Date: 2024-09-24 05:20 am (UTC)
kadewest: (GOBLIN EMPIRE.)
From: [personal profile] kadewest
"Oh, sure. Cora went through a patch of seaweed." Kade pauses. "Maybe you didn't all go to other Worlds before you came here--though I know for a fact some did," though, to be fair, Susan doesn't precisely have what he'd call student vibes, and neither does Janet or Shen Yuan, "but you did all come here. A more... protracted selection."

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onthewillowsthere: (Default)
Galahad son of Lancelot

April 2025

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