There Is A Flame That Never Dies: Enjolras Catchall!

[solo_patria]

Characters: Enjolras and OPEN
Date: The Month of June
Location: Various. Turtle's Head, A Tavern, The Streets
Situation: Enjolras uses an anniversary to mourn, celebrate his friends, and tries to gather Foreigner stories and information about how the common kedan view them.

Warnings/Rating: Grief, Talk of Death, Alcohol.



I.

There's A Grief That Can't Be Spoken. There's A Pain Goes On And On:

(Turtle's Head: June 5th, All Day and Night)

Enjolras is seated at the turtle's head starring out at the water the best way that he can, a hand on his soul gem, which is warm to touch. His thoughts now turn toward, not Taraja, though he'd come here with her often, taking the long trek because she enjoyed it. Today, he's thinking of the others who have slipped him by, of how Combeferre and he started something two...three mid summers ago, in the midst of the awful memories of the barricade and the love he'd learned not to deny himself. Now, he is alone, just starring out at the depths of the ocean, thoughts of those he's loved, and lost, floating through his mind.

IS he condemned to watch them die, then see them vanish in another world? Enjolras supposes he deserves it, but could it be a lie of Malicant's he's taken to his heart? Could it be corruption of his soul? Either way he's at the head, pacing back and forth from time to time and tossing rocks into the water as he tries to look under control, or at least, to have a private place here, where he can break down with the memory, not of their deaths, but of their lives, and the hard truth that this year, he's on his own; dread anniversaries causing him to think in such a way or not.

"At this time in 1832..." He muses, not quite under his breath. After all, who could not think of home, today?

II.

Drink With Me To Days Gone By:

(June 6th, A Tavern In Keelaiai)

He died today. Enjolras died today, holding the hand of Grantaire of all people. Grantaire, who loved his taverns, and his absinthe and whatever drinks that he could get his hands on. Grantaire who had loved...no, He's putting that thought firmly away. It's hardly for tonight, for blaspheming the men who died with and for him. Tonight is for honor instead.

It only feels right somehow, that he is sitting here, in this tavern, taking up a large table with a shot of this establishment's strongest lined up for Grantaire. And a glass of wine for Combeferre, of the kind they often enjoyed bringing back to their table here, a fruity mixed drink that he thought Bahorel would enjoy, brandy for Courferac and Eponine. All in all, there are several drinks lined up around a round table in the corner, and one Enjolras, chastely sipping at a glass of water, ignoring the filled wineglass by his side for just a while still. He's sitting silently, occasionally studying a slowly burning candle, a look of devoted, almost peaceful contemplation on his face, the candlelight catching on his earrings as he waits, for God Knows What.


III.

Let Us Take To The Streets With A Jubilant Shout:

(June 7th and Onward, Streets of Keelaiai)

"Would you like to talk about your life here, how you feel about the Foreigners?" Enjolras asks a keedan girl outside one of the shops and then a boy who don't seem to shy away so quickly from him. "What's it like for your family now?

From time to time, he's also spotting willing foreigners and darting over, notes in hand to learn what things he might. Books promoting Foreigners as normal can't be written alone, and finding out what image they have to lose is quite important after all! Enjolras is willing to grab anyone he can to tell their stories, whether they really wish to speak with him or not. This could be a problem.


IV.

They Will Come One And All, They Will Come When We Call!

(Choose your own!)

Comments

III

[gathersnomoss]

"Don't you think you've harassed the locals enough?" Maybe Zel could have gotten away, but he's interested to see how Enjolras's information gathering will work. And if the other man will get told off.

Re: III

[solo_patria]

It's a testament to something that Enjolras appears to actually be considering the question, not a snappy answer to it, but honestly evaluating his performance today, and in this particular sector.

"Do you know, I am not certain. No one's come to ask me to stop asking questions. I should think that meant something, yes?"

Re: III

[gathersnomoss]

"It means that you're not annoying enough to have someone be rude to you," Zelgadis noted. "Learned anything interesting?"

Re: III

[solo_patria]

"Ah, then I've not managed to get to nuisance and thorn in their sides yet." Enjolras eyedarts a little. "Good. More time to work. But sadly, I've not managed that just yet. I've made a few 'friends' of sorts..."

That was putting it rather exaggeratedly, but it was something he was doing, anyway.

Re: III

[gathersnomoss]

"of sorts?"

Re: III

[solo_patria]

"That should come with some sort of clarification, shouldn't it?" Enjolras asks, expression turning wry. "A few people haven't sent me away asking that I never return." It...was something.

Re: III

[gathersnomoss]

"Thought so," Zelgadis said. "Most people don't like to be pestered when they're trying to get things done."

Re: III

[solo_patria]

"Rather not."

Enjolras has to agree there. The only real reason it had worked in Paris was because there had been eight, sometimes nine of them and lots of people who, sadly, had nothing better to do than watch a student rally, or take take flyers they may or may not be able to read.

"That IS why I'd thought to get them younger and the word at least out. Something more in depth would take more planning, naturally. Gauging these results so far, though, there seems a lack of interest I ought to have suspected."

Re: III

[gathersnomoss]

"You could always try offering something in trade," Zelgadis said. "People are willing to do a lot more if they think they're getting paid for their troubles."

III.

[peacefullywreathed]

"For one thing," said Solomon from--he was decently sure--behind the Frenchman, "some of them know what happened to family members who have vanished." He was interrupting, he knew, but Enjolras was talking to the client Solomon had come to see anyway. After his stint as a busker he was quite happy to go back to mediating between the living and the dead.

He still couldn't conjure the dead any more than he had been able to beforehand, and a number of the kedan had refused to see him again, but others had been curious about his new potential range of skills, willing to give him a try and had ridiculous notions about seances and other idiocies. If nothing else, it was providing some good on-the-job training.

Re: III.

[solo_patria]

"Indeed?" Enjolras asked, recognizing the voice as belonging to the man he'd prepared tea with not so long ago.

"Due to Foreigner presence or the result of our actions in the war?" He guessed, thinking it a very good reason not to wish to speak to them, as opposed to the other reasons. He RESPECTED each sort of reason, deep down but some carried more weight in the natural hierarchy his mind assigned to them than others. It may be an invasive question, in fact, it certainly was, but it was an important one all the same. If someone, somewhere, had caused kedan to be hurt because of them, it would go a long way to answering the question of why they were so disliked now.

"And am I in the way now?" he added, "I did not realize I'd been here so long."

[peacefullywreathed]

"Both," Solomon said with a shrug. "I've been investigating kedanese missings since before Malicant's defeat. A lot of them were in the palace dungeons, which I would personally define as a result of our actions in the war, but not all. Perhaps two thirds of those I've found haven't died or did as a result of gang-violence or the invasion." Sometimes he'd managed to find remains. Mostly, the trail petered out.

"My brother vanished a couple of months ago," said the kedan, eyeing them both. "Detective Wreath said he could at least find out whether he's dead. He's been more helpful than the Snakes."

"That depends," said Solomon, inclining his head toward the kedan. "I don't necessarily mind your presence. What are you doing, exactly?"

[solo_patria]

This was news to Enjolras. The gangs and their Dust had made life problematic before the war itself. He and Shepard had investigated a form of Dog-fighting rings once, long ago, and there had been something about it discovered way back when he'd first come into contact with Malicant, the first summer he'd been here, so he would have attributed it mostly to the gangs. All that said, the idea that there was a third for whom circumstances were different did cause him to wonder. The idea of the war causing some o it did make sense but the rest...

"So then another third..." he winced a little at Solomon's words there. "My God, that's frightening." He spoke to the kedan now as well, of course. "A good detective is hard to find." he said, his thoughts turning to Javert and what he might have done with all of this. It was hard to imagine the man taking personal interest, certainly. "I do hope he is found well enough." He said, and then turned back to Solomon.

"Ah, at the moment, looking for war stories, or...things that relate to how the kedan have lived during the war and after. Things to do with our presence, what it may have caused for them, and how we're seen now. We have a reputation and I should like to know how it was earned, but also how we might began to lose it."

[peacefullywreathed]

"I'm being general," Solomon said with a shrug. "But, yes, judging by the bodies found in the palace dungeon, a great many kedanese missing were as a result of Malicant, and therefore because of us. We didn't try very hard to oust him from the palace, after all."

He said it matter-of-factly. Though Solomon avoided getting embroiled in she-said-he-saids with the city's leaders, or about them, the fact that most of the Foreigners didn't seem to comprehend why the kedan took issue was astounding to him. It seemed obvious. So while Solomon didn't feel particularly guilt-stricken over what they'd done wrong, he didn't bother being angry at the kedan, either. There was something of a political bent in helping the way he was.

Besides, he was good at it.

"Stories?" asked the kedan, baffled and tugging at his hair. "You mean ... personal stories?" He frowned. "To be honest, until someone directed me to Detective Wreath I'd never met a Foreigner before."

[solo_patria]

"We did fail there, it's true." Enjolras pursed his lips, considering those days. They'd been afraid, and perhaps they'd let fear make them too cowardly. It had been easy, at the time, to say that it would be a stupid choice. Now, though, with a young kedan in front of him he did feel badly about it.

It was, after all, the truth that Solomon was speaking there. Simply a truth he'd not considered. They'd done a great deal, but had they done all that they could? Perhaps not. It was sad, as the state of their relations was sad too. "You make a lot of sense, monsieur, to put the words into a context. "That does help."

He seemed to be, apparently.

"And yes." He nodded to the young kedan. "I want to know what life is like for you too, from the kedan side and our own. I want to know all about your lives too, not just ours. What do you do for work, or fun? Did we do anything stupid and wrong that no one tells us to our faces?" There's a little smile, uncertain though, as Enjolras answers there.

"I think if we learned from each other more, it would help us all to get along a little more. If someone could read about your life, and you could read about one of ours...Maybe we'd understand each other a little more, you know?"

[peacefullywreathed]

"Well ..." The kedan looked between them, clearly baffled--or at least clearly to Enjolras. "Are you ... writing this down, or something? Weren't you the Foreigner who had that newspaper? Is that what you're doing with it?"

"Why don't we go inside?" Solomon suggested a touch dryly. "I can give you an update, you can give Mr Enjolras and interview, and he can expand his horizons."

"Oh, well ... okay." The kedan shrugged and turned from his small row of windowboxes to open his door to them, and Solomon put out his hand to cast shadows across the doorstep so he could see where he was going. He'd been here before after his accident, though, and knew the hall was short before the small sitting area, spartan but nicely furnished.

[solo_patria]

"Sort of." Enjolras nodded an assent. "Something bigger, these days, and for everyone. Including people like yourselves, everyone not a foreigner who's willing. Ah, that DOES seem like a good idea."

He hoped his thanks was clear, since he could not signal that with a nod or smile, the way he might have otherwise.

"I'm hoping to make a book, to write about everything as many people who'll be willing to help me, saw. And I didn't want things to get too unbalanced." he added, on the way in. That the kedan version of how the war had gone might have to play a part in things would probably help in the long run, and was probably true from some perspectives so...best to know than not and to leave it uncovered, after all. Neutrality wasn't easy, and he was still learning the art, but it would help them all in the end. ...Right?

I.

[unetrustworthy]

It was by chance that Midii came upon him. The thought of using the bonds with the baby turtles to make an attempt at contact had never once left her mind. Not since the idea was first hypothesized, and certainly not after learning there were several other Turtle Parents willing and eager to try.

But they weren't ready. Not yet. Not with everything going on, and certainly not with more recent developments coming to light.

She made her way to the Turtle's head almost by accident. Hoping against all logic and reason that it might provide some insight as to how to go about all this. It was there she found him, murmuring to himself. She didn't catch much, but she did catch a date.

1832.

"What happened in 1832?"

He was from centuries before her time, but still a fellow citizen of France. Which meant that his present (?) would have been her past. Her History.

Re: I.

[solo_patria]

When they were ready, Enjolras would be amongst them, eager to know more than that their turtles are safe and well. There were a million little questions that came to mind about all of them and their new purpose here, but for the moment, personal things came to mind.

He nearly jumped at the presence beside him, not having registered that Midii had arrived. In a way, it only made sense that if he talk about this, it would be with her. He'd already told her of The Trois Glorieuses after all. As far as history went, he was hardly surprised it was a date she wouldn't have known. Priorities shifted as worlds changed, but even then, their small rebellion did not seem one that had been long remembered. Something in him smarted at that, considering all they had done, but well. What was there for it but remembering now?

"We attempted to fight for the freedom of the French Republic, for bread for the people, and to overthrow our king again." he answered her, eyes rather heavy with a particular sadness. "And we all died, to a man, over the next several hours. It's a strange anniversary. I don't think I like it."

[unetrustworthy]

There was always an alternative possibility, of course. That their worlds really were different enough that the dates wouldn't have matched.

Not that either of them would consider such a thing. (Not aloud)

"I wouldn't like to remember the day I died, either." She frowned deeply, not as surprised as she once might have been at the news. A thought occurred to her. Sentimental. "Was...is that the day Eponine died too?"

[solo_patria]

Finding any countryman or woman here was like finding your very own long lost sibling, wasn't it? Considering that idea didn't work somehow, so much as her accounts of the world meant, along with what he'd hoped but it did feel more and more likely, somehow.

"It was." he agreed, a sigh slipping from his lips at the mention of Eponine. "I only came to know her here, but she was with those we took into the cafe. Gavroche too." he added, actually wincing at that. "They were brave, of course. I did not understand Eponine's role until here but she took the bullet for one of...did you have the chance at meeting Marius or hear her speak of him? She did it out of love for him; although he never knew until then, so I hear it. So much love...and so much loss. Is that what life comes to, do you suppose?"

[unetrustworthy]

A small pang in her heart. Midii remembered Gavroche. He had been close to her age back then, yet he'd reminded her so much of her younger twin brothers. Although they had never grown quite as close as she and Eponine had, he was still a kindred spirit. And hearing of his death all over again....

"We never spoke directly, but Eponine talked about him often. It was...one of the many things we had in common."

Unrequited Love. The kind a girl would risk her life over, though Eponine was not rescued at the last moment as Midii had been.

[solo_patria]

"It was?" Enjolras asks, his expression sad there. Unrequited love is no way to live a life. "She taught me much about...that sort of an experience that was...directed at me though I did not notice it in life or until late.

And the world itself. I know that mine is changed, for knowing her. I am glad to have had the chance. But yes. today. She was so brave, as Marius has mentioned. I am honored that I know...knew her among the others." Eponine, after all, is another to add to the list of those beloved friends from Paris he misses.

Odd to say this out loud, but maybe he needs it all the same.

[unetrustworthy]

It was.

In some ways, the pain had been twice as bad for Midii--no matter how melodramatically Eponine would have protested that no love would ever compare to hers--because...it had happened to her twice. Once, in the midst of war, just as her surrogate sister. Perhaps not fought with the same style of weapons or means of defense, but there were only so many variations to one of the worst parts of human nature.

The second time, however, had been in Keelai. Technically also in the middle of a war, but one far less violent (at least, until the explosions had gone off that fateful day). A far more powerful relationship than the one she had shared with Nanashii, and one that even promised the potential of reciprocation on the friendship level, but still Unrequited. So she would always believe, because he had left before being given the chance to say or prove otherwise.

"I'm happy to have been able to know her as well. She was the kind of person that...couldn't help changing the life of anyone she grew close with."

At least, from Midii's experience. For all that Eponine downplayed her importance in life, it was impossible not to state that she had proven a very strong role model, confidant, and even sense of family that the younger girl had sorely missed. And currently lacked once more.

[solo_patria]

Enjolras considered himself lucky to have missed out on the unrequited love train, though he was not sure who among his friends he might have fallen for anyway. He did love a man who was no longer present, but it hardly counted, knowing the feelings had been returned. To live as Eponine had, as Grantaire and now Midii had spoken of...the world seemed so cruel to make it happen in that way.

Twice though. War was enough to invoke horrors where it was concerned, and Keelai... things here were insane enough, without that to puzzle out. But where hopes remained...one could lose themselves in those, for a time. Enjolras held his own hopes about Combeferre, about what they may have done in future, here, that he sometimes looked to, when he felt at his lowest. Those hazy dreams were a comfort where few things could be , sometimes.

"Rather." he agreed, idly tugging at one of his hoops. "I see the world, all of it, in new ways now that she has been here. That I've known it through her eyes. I wish I might return home with the knowledge and with time to use it. It could change more of the world itself."

Simply hearing of the ways that she had moved through the world had made Eponine seem strong, yes, even as she HAD felt inferior. Hearing of that world itself, how much worse it was than even Enjolras knew, and how any soul emerged from it...

"Eponine's done much for those who knew her too. It's funny, how I only had the chance to understand because of her...of our death. Irony can be cruel, I suppose, no?"