# [closed post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan has devised another activity to occupy her days. By the calendar's reckoning, the start of spring is roughly a week away. Between her and Tress, they've got the outline of a plan for the next Dark, and Susan is happy to rely on people who've got greater interest in and skill for growing things insofar as agriculture goes. But the growing season here shall be longer than usual, and Susan should like to have some idea about what that might mean for the ecosystem,

This is her flimsy excuse to pardon the latest stack of books she's currently carrying out of the library. There is a marginal off-chance that preparatory reading on soil biota could, potentially, be useful. Perhaps she might even talk someone else into reading on the subject as well, so that they might discuss it.

Comments

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh!" She fixes him with an expectant look. "And how did you find that?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Grantaire shared his wine with me. It wasn't bad, but it was-- disorderly. Hard to think."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Yes, that's the typical effect," Susan nods. "It can... accentuate choices. Enable both bad and good ones. It removes your inhibitions, you know. Amplify your moods."

[onthewillowsthere]

"You've tried it, then. Did you like it?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"More than once," Susan says. "I was quite the party girl in London."

[onthewillowsthere]

He waits, to see whether she'll answer his question.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I like it sometimes," she decides. "It felt rather more desperate than fun for some months. I believe it might be growing fun again."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Claudius said it can be a kind of chemical restraint. For sex."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"A restraint? In what manner?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Because a person who is drunk is not in command of himself, and may be teased or spoiled to better effect."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Ah." Susan nods. "I tend to think of that as unrestrained, myself. I think that can be rather fun." See: recent experiences, such as with Lancelot after Bacchus's party, or with Janet in the rug-room. "The important thing, I think, is that you start with a good mood." After all, maudlin choices can accelerate quickly. See: other experiences that hardly bear mention or thought any more.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Does it make you more sad, if you are sad already?" He drank defiantly, and he remembers being defiant, speaking heresies and complaining about Saint Augustine.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Not necessarily," says Susan, in that fastidiously precise way of hers. "I have drunk as a distraction from grief. But I believe, perhaps, that there is always a chance of getting caught up in your own head, rather than released from it, when you are drunk, and if you're sad you shall become devastatingly sad."

[onthewillowsthere]

That's very good information to have. Sometimes Galahad is devastatingly sad for no reason at all, and it's useful to know that a game of drinking for Claudius would be ill-advised under those circumstances. He nods. "Thank you."

At this juncture, they arrive at Galahad and Claudius' room, and Galahad opens the door. The room is tidy but lived-in, with Claudius' things on the desk and vanity, Galahad's stack of books on his nightstand, and the record player on its own little table next to the kotatsu.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan appreciates the tidiness, as she takes in the details of the room - she has, of course, stopped by before, but this is the first time she's spent longer than a moment or two inside of it. "What sort of table is that?" she asks, as she takes in the one that seems to have a blanket instead of legs.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I don't know what it's called, but it's warm. Claudius brought it back." Claudius didn't say it was a gift for Galahad -- it was probably as much for Claudius himself -- but the long winter, hard in so many other ways, has been uncomfortable and sometimes painful for his hands and feet, and when he sits at the cozy table he imagines that Claudius was thinking of him.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It looks lovely." Susan hesitates a moment. "Where ought I sit?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"You may sit there, if you would like to try it."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan would like to try it! She sits carefully, glancing to Galahad to ensure she's got it right.

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods and switches on the kotatsu; at once warmth begins to radiate out from the heating element affixed to the bottom of the table. It is lovely. Meanwhile, Galahad begins setting up the Little Violet record on the record player.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"How marvelous," Susan breathes. She doesn't often get terribly cold but this is awfully cozy.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad's hands flutter for a moment, signing warm, good -- he loves the kotatsu. As the music begins, he joins Susan, tucking his cold feet under it.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

There are things Susan would like to ask Galahad - for example, ought she learn sign language? - but she'd also like to give the music he wants to show her her full attention. She leans in, focusing.

[onthewillowsthere]

He sits quietly, equally attentive to the album -- Code Red -- as the brassy, jazzy sounds of swing flow from the record player. Music is a seemingly-endless source of novelty, new sounds and words he almost feels as flavors, as if every new kind of instrument or pitch of voice is something he can capture on his tongue.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan listens to music in the same way she does many things: with a great deal of focus and deliberateness. Now she closes her eyes, taking in the instrumentation and the words, tasting the way they feel together. It's good. She likes it. Her lip curls.