* [closed post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan cherishes her time in the lab with Galahad. She likes the care he takes, his attention to detail. It's lovely to know that they can work equally well in parallel, side-by-side with complimentary tasks, quiet and totally focused on their individual projects, and in collaboration. When they do speak, he's delightfully precise with his words and direct with his questions in a way that is, in turn, novel and refreshing. They've made great headway with their work, and now that the Mansion has settled into winter and there are fewer arthropods to easily discover and inventory, outside of the soil samples they continue to take and investigate under the microscope, they can settle into cataloguing and categorizing their notes from the spring, summer, and autumn. Sometimes Constance is present, too, and that's also lovely: they all get along well, and there's something ever so settling about three heads bent carefully over scientific pursuits. Typically, when Constance is there, Susan and Galahad work independently so as not to distract her, but sometimes the three of them break for tea and a brief chat. Outside of sex and archery practice, it's really one of the highlights of Susan's days.

Today's stint in the lab has been varied: Constance is elsewhere, and Susan and Galahad started with a discussion about adapting Earth-based classification systems to accommodate otherworldly species (this is a conversation that they have weekly, at the very least), and then fell into separate projects - Galahad has been drawing insects not captured in any books in the library to create a scientific field guide for their local environs, and Susan has been counting microscopic organisms in winter soil samples to compare with the measurements Lan Zhan took on the day Lan Wangji was switched out. But there's also something pressing on her conscience: the year is slipping more rapidly toward Dark, and she's been procrastinating on an essential task out of reluctance to speak to Magnus. It's high time she regain momentum.

She pushes back from the microscope, makes a careful note of the current tally of living organisms, and turns to Galahad. "When you've got a moment," she says, "I should like to show you something." Cognizant of the fact that he gets easily chilled, and to provide him with an out should he require one, she clarifies, "Outside."

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

"No more than one a month, unless they're to be celebrated privately, or else I think it will become burdensome to keep them," he says, thinking of how Laertes had become wrung out, tea leaves used for too many cups of tea.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, certainly not," says Susan, firmly. "I meant - when we do have events, what proportion ought to be based off traditions we come from, and what proportion ought to be new ones we've established here?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"That may call for a survey," not sounding at all sorry -- and perhaps he and Susan have spent enough time together that she, like Magnus and Claudius, can pick out the subtleties in his flat voice. "Which holidays have the most importance to people."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan isn't as adept as Magnus at reading the specifics of those subtleties, but she can pick them out and she's improving on her further understanding of what they all mean. At this one - made familiar by being attached to a well-worn subject - she sets a smile on her face and directs it down at Galahad and Regina. "I do so love a good survey," she agrees.

[onthewillowsthere]

He gives Regina one last stroke along the length of her spine, then gets to his feet. "Otherwise we would risk bias towards the holidays of our own world and country."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Perhaps after we've surveyed everyone, we ought to do a second survey to see which celebrations people would most like to see, from the entire list, with blanks to suggest new ones," says Susan, thoughtfully, as she quickly changes from her low indoor heels to her outdoor snow-appropriate boots and fetches her coat from the hook on the wall. She leans down to give Regina a vigorous good-bye scratching about the ears, and then rises again. "Shall we?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad nods and follows, turning over survey questions and how best to phrase them.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan waits until they've exited the Mansion and made it halfway across the lawn to the forest -- when they're clearly well out of earshot from any other person -- before she asks, "Have you been to the caves before?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Once. With Magnus. Not recently."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Ah, yes. One of Susan's lingering concerns. "Do you suppose he visits them often?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Not often. He's taken Sunny twice and Alex three times. Gu Xiang once."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

This assuages a small amount of Susan's concern, but not all of it. She still dreads sitting down with him - even with Lancelot there - to discuss her request.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Why?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Lancelot and I have been working on a project in Little John's old quarters. It's what I should like to show you."

[onthewillowsthere]

In spite of his measured responses, he's now tremendously curious about what Susan is working on -- though he still only nods quietly. "I would like to see."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"You know that Dark is rapidly approaching," she says, as the woods loom closer. "We've got about a month before it begins."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes." He's been keeping track of that too.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"And you know I've been making preparations." They haven't really discussed it outright, but she hasn't hid that fact from anyone, and throughout the year, she and Tress have put out a number of leaflets and Welcome Table announcements about the stages of preserving fresh foods and setting goods aside in anticipation of the month.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes." Claudius has remarked on it, too.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan slips along one of the side-trails she's been taking to the caves, gesturing for Galahad to follow. It's a short distance this way, well under the cover of trees from any prying eyes. "Setting aside stores, that sort of thing."

[onthewillowsthere]

"You have stored up supplies in the caves."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Most of the supplies are in varying pantries in the Mansion," casting another look over at him. "But I wanted a cache of supplies Luo Binghe doesn't know about and to which he hasn't ever had access."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad's back, already sword-straight, manages to straighten further, and his gaze sharpens. "You know."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan nods. "Bacchus told me," she says. "When we were casting the play, since Luo Binghe auditioned. He wanted to explain why he didn't wish to involve him in the production. It goes without saying that naturally I agreed he mustn't be included."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I should have told you," he says, allowing himself the space of a few seconds for self-recrimination. Then he releases it: it's unhelpful and self-indulgent to linger. Susan knows, and it's good she knows. "Good. Luo Binghe has done nothing to make amends to Claudius or to our community."