fitofgrandair: (Default)
Aleron Grantaire // R ([personal profile] fitofgrandair) wrote in [community profile] sirenspull2012-12-16 06:45 pm

VIDEO

This is…

[A man’s face appears, expression an odd mixture of the sardonic and amiable, with perhaps somewhere a buried uneasiness. His eyes speak of unbelief and an energy without direction.] This is the strangest book that I have ever seen. Consider my very conception of books boggled, beaten into an utter absence of understanding. I have seen a book made… What is it they call this, again? No matter, let us say ‘made monstrous,’ reshaped to suit an unearthly purpose. Am I speaking to you? I’ve no idea who you are, or whether you exist. Yet let me speak! For there is no thrill in life equal to the sound of one’s own voice.

Let it be know to all naysayers and reluctant theorists, to every doubting Thomas, that we truly do exist in the most glorious of worlds, where a man may perish one moment and roam free the next! How foolish we are to believe we might die, how foolish to fear the end when every end is a beginning! Why, just think, we may continue in this manner forever, cycling from one life into another into another, and never forgetting, and never finding darkness. The scholars of optimism would call us creatures of eternal light. Why have we wasted such years in shuddering before the great god Death, when we might in rapture have praise the god Unending?

Will it never, never end. [He blinks, appears discomforted for an instant, than shrugs.]

And here stand I, believer in nothing, adherent to no doctrine. You may count me as lost as any other man, here and elsewhere, now and forever. I am a man without port, a creature lacking in connection. I belong to this world no more than to any other… ‘This world.’ I’ve yet to know what this world is, or if it is a world; if I may be classed as alive, dead, mad. What of these titles? Call me exile, call me one of un-belonging. I will answer or ignore to my liking.

But while we’re at it, a drink? What do you say? Ah, I would give my kingdom for a bottle of wine. Of course, my kingdom amounts to a thimble—That isn’t so, I haven’t got a thimble. But I would gladly take the wine, anyway. Come, lend a hand. If you must have payment, let me serenade you with a harangue or two.

I will tell you what most surprises me: that it is not emptiness that waits beyond, but more life, or whatever we would feign call life. This, well… This puts all of my knowing to shame. [Grantaire smirks, any sign of unease covered.] But that I am accustomed to, for who can trust to knowledge? It has been a joy speaking to you; we must do this again sometime. [With that, the screen blanks, and he is gone.]
makeflowersgrow: (sad)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow 2012-12-18 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
She sits down immediately, never one to wait for politeness. In hindsight, she reflects, she ought to have let the gentleman sit first, but that's by the by now. She sits her own tumbler of gin on the table; it's cheap smelling, and probably cheap tasting, but it does the job just as well as the good stuff.

"You don't have to call me a lady, M'sieur Grantaire. I ain't a lady. I'm just 'Ponine to everyone here abouts - and in Paris as well. I like it when people call me that - when they remember."

It means they've taken the time to listen to her and take notice of her. It means she's just a bit more real, a bit less invisible.

"Marius used to remember... it was so lovely when he was here, you know? Such lovely things happened when he was here. I had a new dress, and jewellery, and I went to the ball and danced all night. And I had a room all to myself and he gave me dresses - and a hairbrush. I hadn't had one for years and years - since I was a little girl. I had to sell it all when M'sieur Enjolras came though and M'sieur Marius went."
makeflowersgrow: (Default)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow 2012-12-19 07:27 am (UTC)(link)
Eponine's expression clouded when Grantaire asked. She had sensed, of course, Grantaire's impatience with her rambling, but she couldn't help it. Those memories were the most precious thing she owned, and she wanted- needed - to show it off.

Her reply is a little stiff, then. Of course the M'sieur is only interested in Enjolras.

"He lives in a place known as the 'House of Awesome', or the HoA - I think awesome means good, because it is most surely the most magnificent house I have ever seen. There are marble floors, and a kitchen and a dining room and a sitting room and bedrooms. Oh, and the water runs out of taps for baths - and it runs hot - and you can flick a switch and lights come on and there are such things to make crumbs of your food and to heat things up without flames, and things that make bread jump, and a cupboard that makes ice."

She tries her best to sound charming, to not drop her letters, so her speech sounds a little unnatural. She remembers her odn amazement at technology here; the material things seem somehow more important than the men who lied or brushed off her help.

"My old boyfriend, Monsieur Deadpool lives there. He has M'sieur Enjolras."

She drains her gin with a grimace, though itis difficult to know if the taste or the conversation topic offends her more.

" You can't see him. Do you know where the Starter Apartments are?"
makeflowersgrow: (Default)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow 2012-12-19 08:04 am (UTC)(link)
"What'll you give me?"

The words are out before Eponine can stop them, a knee-jerk reaction to people like Grantaire who ask for her help. Her cheeks colour, and she picks up her glass, realising it's empty only when she raises it to her lips.
She puts it down and mutters, "What the hell?" before staring back at Grantaire, her mouth pressed into a hard, thin line. She wants to retract her question, but she doesn't know how to without sounding clumsy and ignorant - and that she will not do in front of such a fine speaker. So she sits and waits, hunched over and determined. She may as well make some profit from Enjolras, after all the losses he has caused her.
makeflowersgrow: (frowning/distressed)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow 2012-12-19 08:38 am (UTC)(link)
Awkward. She feels so awkward.

Eponine finds she can't hold Grantaire's gaze as he suggests prize after prize, so she stares down at her bare feet peeping out from below her maid uniform.

"I don't -" she begins to whisper, but stops as Grantaire mentions Marius.

"Don't, M'sieur.Don't tell me such lies. M'sieur Marius - he would not - not with a girl like me."
Somehow, talking of Marius makes her look smaller, younger than her years. There's a sort of innocence to Eponine, unpractised as she is at hiding her pain over Marius from anyone but the man himself. But it's tempered with the harsh reality that Eponine knows; even here, she works every minute she's awake, eighteen to nineteen hours a day, and comes away with a pittance. But how is Grantaire to know?

"I ain't a lady, M'sieur, and if you please, I don't want to be made a mock of... Keep it. I don't want it."

She pushes the money back to him, before removing two wallets from her apron that are obviously not her own. "Wine, you like? I will buy you wine, and then I will tell you of your M'sieur."

makeflowersgrow: (Default)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow 2012-12-19 09:15 am (UTC)(link)
"All the same, M'sieur..."
She shakes her head and stands up. "Don't. Not of M'sieur Marius."

She walks quickly to the bar without further ado, wrangling for wine and gin. She comes back to Grantaire monents later with a new bottle of wine and another tumbler of gin for herself.

"It's a strange place, this. It is like France but the monsters in the shadows are not my father's gang and me, but real monsters of nightmares and that strange time when you are awake but so dizzy from cold or hunger, M'sieur, that nothing is quite real. People will give you a job too - but you must be careful who you talk to, M'sieur. We are in trouble, M'sieur Enjolras and me. You should be careful...
There are two - they callthemselves companies - but they do not have businesses. There is SERO - they do scientific things; they have clever people. But AGI are worse. They run the clubs and bars. But M'sieur, here, slavery is allowed. There is a brothel here; it is known as XXX and there some girls are paid. But some are slaves. It was good money, there, if you didn't think on it..."
She sounds wistful. As much as she had loathed herself, she had been fully independant and doing okay.

"I told your M'sieur and - well, we have both heard him talk before. He would not wait for ms to help, M'sieur. And he was caught. And if AGI catches you, they sell you as a slave. A man named Loki bought M'sieur. But he is gone and Deadpool has him. And he let me get in trouble. I tried to help him, but I was found too, and searched and... And I lost my job there. No money, you see."
makeflowersgrow: (horrified)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow 2012-12-19 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Eponine listens in confusion for some seconds. Why is Grantaire laughing? And what does he mean? But as he stands to address the pub, it becomes clearer, and Eponine immediately tries to tug him down at once, alarm clearly written in her features.

"M'sieur, you must be quiet," She hisses. "You cannot say such things here. You do not know who is listening. Do you wish us to be arrested?"

"It is a bad place, M'sieur, and there are bad people. People who hate us 'newcomers' - any excuse and we are to be in prison. Their prisons are nicer than France's, though. But you must not end up there. You are a nobleman. It is not right. Please, not another word."
makeflowersgrow: (half smile/tired)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow 2012-12-19 07:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"Elsewhere?" She drains her tumbler; it makes her bolder in front of Grantaire, plump enough to suggest,

"You may come back to my lodgings - to Madame Hattie's house? We can talk in private there, and it is not too far away."

In all honesty, she's just glad that Grantaire's sat down again, and stopped talking about dangerous topics. But - what will Hattie think? Eponine decides she doesn't care; she does enough for Hattie for her mistress to allow her a liberty.

"Will you come with me? Or would you prefer the Newcomer Flats; you will have a room there?"

She picks up his almost-full bottle, to conceal it beneath her apron. Waste not want not and all.
makeflowersgrow: (Default)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow 2012-12-20 07:06 am (UTC)(link)
Once outside, Eponine beckons Grantaire close.

"Follow me close, M'sieur, or you'll lose me. Unless it is that you do not mind being seen in my company?"

She begins to walk.

"Hattie... Well, she is a lady, and she makes me call her so. She has blonde curls and blue eyes, and she wears lovely clothes. She can be lovely, when she likes, but she can be horrible too. She gave me a room but she makes me work for nothing. And she marched me to my third job so she does not have to provide. She can be spiteful and call me names; she likes me to remember I am poor. But she lent me a dress for the ball and her own jewellery, snd she teaches me to be a lady."
makeflowersgrow: (regret)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow 2012-12-20 08:26 am (UTC)(link)
"What?"
Eponine peers down an alleyway.
"You don't mind, do you? It's quicker not to go through the real streets."

She sets off down it, regardless.
"I do not writhe in her claws. But dress up... You know how long it was since I had a new dress before I came here? That old skirt was my mother's. A woman died in that blouse I had before it came to me. And I had worn those for two winters already. M'sieur, it is natural for girls to long to be beautiful, or at least well dressed. So do NOT scorn me. If I were a lady, grand men would love me. So do not scorn me. Do not."

She turns back, obviously upset. "She thought I had murdered her sister - I did not, M'sieur - but it was work or the guillotine - or perhaps here, gallows. I do not know, and I had no wish to find out. But My Lady - I hate that - she is not so bad."
makeflowersgrow: (half smile/tired)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow 2012-12-20 09:10 am (UTC)(link)
"Well, then, lust. Still, they would look and smile, and bring me gifts and try to win my favour. Perhaps they would stutter through their speeches of undying love for me. They would offer me an arm as we minced through the streets, instead of laughing or crossing the street to avoid me. That is what Hattie can show me."

She smiles sadly, forging ahead so she can keep her back to Grantaire.

"Is lust so bad, M'sieur? I do not think it is."

She ducks down a little opening.
"Now this one, never at night, M'sieur. Monsters lurk here, and they will try to eat you. It is best not to go out once the sirens sound, but if you cannot help it, stick to bright areas."

She chatters on like this for the half hour of walk, talking about the monsters she's seen. As they get closer, Eponine can't go through alleys; they don't exist near Hattie's house. Instead, there are leafy trees and wide streets. Hattie's house sits by itself, surrounded by a pretty garden. It's a two storey affair, and looks relatively modest on the outside.

"You must be very quiet now, M'sieur. Hattie doesn't know you're here. We will go to the kitchen so I can clean and you must say, if you do not mi nd, that we are old friends, and you heard I lived here. If she comes."
makeflowersgrow: (offhand reply)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow 2012-12-20 09:40 am (UTC)(link)
Eponine opens the front door, looking carefully for Hattie, before beckoning Grantaire in. The hall is wide and impressive, with marble floors and glittering chandeliers and a big, sweeping staircase. Eponine's bare feet make no sound as she goes to the far end and opens a wooden door. Again, she beckons to Grantaire, urging him inside before shutting the door.

The kitchen is huge, though more rustic in style than the hall. The lighting is soft, and the furniture is all wood with jints of marble. A large scrubbed table stands in the centre of the room, surrounded by chairs. Eponine puts the wine down, and fetches a glass for Grantaire.

"You would like food? Cake? Or fruit? Or eggs?"

She picks up a pail by the table, and sticks her hand in. "Cold. I must boil a kettle again."

She fills the kettle snd sets it to boil, Before turning to Grantaire.

"Now you may speak."
makeflowersgrow: (determined not to show fear)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow 2012-12-20 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
As he doesn't say anything about food, Eponine pours the boiled water into the bucket, tops with a bit of cold, and adds soap and bleach. Having done that, she heaves it back to where it had originally stood, and sits down on her knees next to it.

"Yes. He is enslaved." She picks up her brush and plunges it into the water, before beginning to scrub the floor.

"Well, M'sieur, I will start at the beginning. There are two companies, that people say are equally evil, but that I do not know about. There is SERO, and AGI. Now SERO, I have nothing to do with; it is for the educated, the people who know of magic and science. But AGI - they cater for everyone. They run - and excuse me - they run the brothels and the prostitutes and the newspapers and such things called 'televisions'.
When I first came, I was taken there and told I was to work there."

She looks up, gaging his reaction.

"You can judge me for that, but I had no one, and nothing. I needed somewhere to stay, and I was already known as a thief. Nobody would hire me. But whilst I was there, I saw that there were people worse off than me. They were chained and drugged and given the worst jobs. Some jobs - they were not pleasant. They were -"
She shudders.
"-But what they had to do... No. Far worse than me. And so when M'sieur Enjolras came, he made me come to him and I was telling him this, and he wanted to help the slaves. I said..."

She told him she'd help, because he was Marius' friend. Eponine crawls forward into the patch she had scrubbed, scrubbing the next bit of floor now."

"I said I would help, and that I could get him the key for the slave quarters and he could free them. Only, he did not wait, and he was arrested and sold at the slave markets. And somehow, my boyfriend ended as his master. I didn't know though, but I was told he was a slave and so I thought I would help him, so I broke into the club, where I was told the papers were - but I was caught as well. I was fired and now they look for me to step out of line. If that happens..."

She looks up at Grantaire. "Well, I do not know. Sold or kept chained in their club, I suppose."

(no subject)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow - 2012-12-21 08:46 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow - 2012-12-21 23:13 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] makeflowersgrow - 2012-12-22 08:20 (UTC) - Expand