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."

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.

Susan is (as always) a woman on a mission.

It's much too cold out to spend hours in an unheated shed outdoors, so she's bullied entreated Lancelot to help her bring in box after box of papers from the one with the dog-house in it. Her favorite parlor continues to shape itself to her preferences - the lock from the day Lancelot was overcome by his traumatic neuroses is still there; too, the fireplace has grown larger, the seating more attuned to her preferred comfort level (a soft, enveloping armchair; a couch firm enough to offer appropriate support, and so on). Lately, she's transplanted an electric kettle to the credenza at the back of the room; the Mansion has since generated a wet bar dedicated entirely to tea; she's further supplied it with some fresh-baked biscuits. There's a corkboard in the corner propped on an easel where she's been compiling ideas for the first play, which is still largely contained to trying to guesstimate exactly how large a cast they should aim for based on how many people Nina might convince to act, rather than serve in behind-the-scenes roles. Slowly, she's moved some of the books cluttering up her bedroom to the shelves here - in truth, though this is a public space, she's started thinking of this parlor in particular as her room. She can't help but wonder if one day, a door will appear connecting it to her bedroom, thus completing her slow acquisition of it.

In any event, by the time she moves in the tenth or twelfth box, the room has generated storage along one wall: long, deep shelves perfectly sized to hold the boxes, bookended by built-in filing cabinets where she can place the papers once they're sorted. So she tucks all the boxes away on the shelves save one, which she places on the sturdy coffee table. Perhaps something inside will offer some clues, either about why they're all here or about what's to come. Today, the door is wide open; she will be glad of most company. In the meantime, there's a record of her favorite sort of music on the gramaphone the Mansion has recently provided this room, and she's swaying in time to it as she opens the box.


Typist note: this post is intended to cover pretty much any time between the body swaps and Dark! Feel free to have anyone stop by to rifle through some mystery silly papers with Susan... or to just chat generally.