fandomtownies | Fandom Post Office, June 4 (Tuesday)

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Fandom Post Office, June 4 (Tuesday)

It had been June of 1832 when Éponine left Paris, and February of 2013 when she arrived in Fandom, which she tried not to think about too much because the 21st century ~~was nowhere near as happy as Victor Hugo predicted the 20th century would be~~ was still a huge adjustment in some ways, and the extra cognitive dissonance of having skipped simultaneously back and forward in time (it made sense, in a way, to her) didn't help with that.

Working in the post office, though, she had to keep track of the dates, so it was impossible not to notice what day it was. Relatively speaking it had still been just a few months ago, so she remembered exactly what she'd been doing that day.

And yes, she was nearly two centuries and thousands of miles removed now, but that wasn't why she felt like it was lifetimes away. She had no idea how she felt about that (other than extremely lost, which might or might not have been a bad thing but she couldn't decide), so it was a very pensive and relatively quiet Éponine going about her business today. She wasn't really singing to herself like she normally did, but anyone listening closely would catch a steady stream of very quiet humming.

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If you want a less spaced-out and introspective postal experience.

If you don't.

"Dude, I just found the Tumblr of adorable. Where's your phone?"

Bon jour, Éponine, from one with no manners at all.

Ask Marius how Éponine just barged into his room uninvited and started poking at all of his things. As if she cared about manners.

"What new and odd things are you planning to do to it now?" she asked, holding the phone in one hand -- but not quite inclined to hand it over just yet.

"I'm just sending you a link (http://omgbabyanimals.tumblr.com/)," Kenzi said impatiently, then beamed it over. "Ha! There. Have you ever had a pet?" And hop up on the counter there, Kenzi, why not.

"We had a cat when I was much younger," Éponine answered, unconsciously putting her other hand into her pocket to curl her fingers around the five-franc coin she always carried. "Azelma and I, that's my sister, you see, tried to dress it up sometimes when we got tired of our doll, and oh, how it squirmed! We thought it was great fun then, of course, but --"

She laughed, sardonically, squinting at her phone until she figured out how to open the link. "We're silly creatures, we are, as kids," she said as if she were decades removed from childhood. "We don't know any better, do we?"

"Nope," Kenzi said, reaching for the stampy-thing again. "What was your cat's name?" 'What happened to it' in her experience usually involved 'hit by a car/sent to the farm', so she wasn't going to ask that. "And hey. I didn't know you had a sister. How old is she?"

"You know," Éponine said, staring off into the distance thoughtfully, "I don't recall. There was always a cat, you see, to chase off mice since it wouldn't do for customers to see those scampering about the inn."

She set her phone down and wandered the length of the counter and back, humming something that might barely have been recognizable as "Alouette."

"As for my sister," she added, abruptly snapping back to the conversation, "well, I suppose she ought to be almost sixteen by now."

"Hunh." KER-CHUNK! Muahahah.

"Haven't seen her in a while?"

"When was the last time?" Éponine asked, more to herself than anything. "It must have been -- Lord, I don't know. Before I ended up here. Several months at least."

It didn't sound like Éponine missed her much. "Any other sibs? I'm an only ~~at least until canon contradicts~~. You should get a cat now, maybe."

It wasn't so much that she didn't miss Azelma as it was a carefully cultivated sense of detachment from her entire damned family. Also that it was precisely the least healthy way to cope with worrying about Azelma of any coping method she could have chosen.

"Three brothers, but I don't know what's become of the youngest two since Maman sent them away. They were living with Magnon, but Montparnasse told me the cops nabbed her, and the cops, they don't care about brats that small." She sounded more cynically matter-of-fact than concerned, really. "As for Gavroche --" who had been looking after their two youngest brothers for a while, though neither he nor Éponine had realized it -- "I expect he's dead. Everyone else at the barricade was."

"Me, get a cat now! And have to feed it!" Éponine seized on the opportunity to change the subject with an overly loud laugh, but realized with mild surprise that she could manage to do that now. "Besides, I'll have you know I don't have any trouble with rats or the like at my place."

That she knew of, but no need to qualify the statement.

"Though I wouldn't mind one like that," she blurted out; she'd started to scroll absently through the pictures of baby animals and stopped on one particular baby feline.

Éponine, no. That was a lynx. That was a terrible idea, and naturally the one you would have.

Wow, so that was... uber-depressing. Way to go, Kenzi. She hopped onto the subject change while she had the chance. But 'barricade' would get questioned at some point, yeah.

"You should so get one of those!" Kenzi was clearly no help. "I wonder if they have one at Everything But the Monkey?" She grinned and rapped her heels on the cabinets. "Maybe I can talk Bo into one at the end of the summer."

Yes, sadly, talking to Éponine always had the potential for turning into a game of spin-the-wheel-and-see-if-you-get-depressed. Good thing she switched gears quickly, even if it was (in a continued theme) an unhealthy coping mechanism.

"Doesn't she like pets? Me, now, I think I'd much rather a cat than a dog," she mused, still staring at the pictures of the baby lynx (must you encourage her, Kenzi?!?). "We'd a neighbor in Montfermeil once who had a dog, and good God, how it howled without stopping every time he went away! They're not self-sufficient, you see, not like cats, and not very pleasant if you ask me. Now, cats -- they don't mind if you disappear for a few hours or days, since they do the same thing and get themselves into all kinds of mischief, likely as not, before they come back looking awfully pleased with themselves. If I were an animal, I don't think I should mind being a cat."

Like Kenzi would recognize a healthy coping mechanism? (Like Kenzi didn't want a baby tiger?!)

"I don't know, hasn't come up yet. She hasn't got one right now." Except for Kenzi. Not that she knew that. "Yeah, my cousins had a dog that chewed shoes, which... .dude." She held out one boot-covered foot. "So not happening. But a cat, that would be fun, and hey, you can feed them different stuff. And maybe they'll hunt the stupid gremlins?" Kenzi grinned. "I turned into a raccoon, once. No, twice. Maybe you'll turn into a cat for a while."

Who let these two talk, really?

It was the mention of hunting gremlins that caught Éponine's attention, though. "If that isn't a brilliant idea, keeping those damned gremlins away! You're a genius, that's what it is. But what was it like, turning into a raccoon? And why? Did you get to choose?"

The Island was seriously into potential mayhem. Probably her fault. Or Ingvar's.

Kenzi grinned hugely, then had to shrug. "No idea. I just suddenly felt weird, and I was a raccoon. I didn't get to pick. It lasted, I dunno, four days or so? Toby took care of me, and so did Bo. It was fun, mostly I just slept and ate and picked up anything shiny that caught my eye."

Edited 2013-06-05 04:32 (UTC)

"I'd like to be a cat, if I could choose," Éponine decided as she swung herself up to perch on the counter too. "But of course it doesn't work that way, and I'd end up saddled with something dreadful like one of the great funny-looking reptiles in the menagerie in the Luxembourg. Wouldn't that be ridiculous!"

Though being a raccoon sounded like fun, too. "And exactly how many shiny things did you come away with when it was all over?"

"Heh heh heh." Kenzi's giggle was an evil giggle. "Soooo much crap. Pens. Coins. Keys. Some nifty jewelry, damn, those earrings were nice... Now, I did turn back into a girl while I was on a window ledge. But! A very buff guy helped me get down, so, that worked out. Stay off roofs if you find out you're a cat, I guess. That might help. What reptiles, like, crocodiles? Or alligators? Naaah. I had a roommate who turned into a baby cheetah once. That was a trip."

"Worth much, any of it?" Éponine asked. Habit, okay? "You didn't have to give it back, did you? And I don't know. With my luck I'd turn into some awful giant snake, perhaps, and imagine! Lying about all day and too slow to move. I think it'd be horrid."

She swung her feet back and forth, humming quietly again.

"Did it hurt, changing back?"

"Naaah. Well, the earrings. I guess they were a family gift, and I would've felt like a sucky person to keep those. The rest of it, people just replaced." Kenzi tilted her head. "Nope, it was way too fast to hurt. Cold, though, jeez. The clothes didn't change with me. I was lucky the second time, Toby was right there with a coat so I didn't end up flashing anyone but him." And Priestly, but he'd missed the show, so, yay.

"You gave the earrings back?" Éponine looked like she couldn't decide whether to be confounded or impressed by that. "That must have been much easier when you could say you couldn't help it at the time, and people would believe you."

"Yup. Although I'm not sure Karla believed me. But she was sad about the stupid things..." Kenzi made a face, not loving being caught in sentimentality. "And, enough people around here have done weird or stupid stuff while animals or gremlin-bitten that there's kind of a default letting-things-go policy." She paused, considering. "I should really take advantage of that more often, and claim I was gremlin-bitten when I get up to crap."

Just had to let her in on that one, huh, Kenzi? Because Éponine definitely looked like she was filing that bit of information away for future reference. Somewhere close at hand. (She was also pretending not to notice the sentimental moment, and hopefully if she ever had one of those it would get similarly ignored.)

"It does seem convenient," she said, frowning slightly in thought.

"If the sheriff is getting caught thinking he's Saint Nicholas--" Heh. Kenzi grinned. "The rest of us should get a pass, sometimes."

Of course she did! Urchins of the world, unite!

They ought to form a club. There were enough of them on the island for one.

Éponine made a vague nonverbal noise then turned to Kenzi, her eyes a touch more focused and her fingers tapping lightly against the back of her phone. "And if someone were to capture those things in one of the little moving pictures I know this is supposed to make . . ."

Oh, good. A new way to collect blackmail material. Exactly what she needed.

"Now you're catching on." Kenzi grinned and said, "And you know, Youtube? Is free. And the whole world can see it."

You're welcome, World.

It was just such a good thing Éponine wasn't her father, or any other member of Patron-Minette. What they would do with that kind of technology would be horrifying.

Éponine made a hmph sound that was equal parts amused and mildly miffed. "Yet another thing I'll have to learn, I see!"

Which, yes, was maybe a not-so-subtle suggestion that someone, cough cough, ought to show her.

I have no idea what to do for Barricade Day tomorrow.

. . . yes, we actually have a fandom holiday.

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Fandom Post Office, June 4 (Tuesday)

Mod Your Post Office [6/4]

Talk to Éponine [6/4]

Re: Talk to Éponine [6/4]

Re: Talk to Éponine [6/4]

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OOC [FPO, 6/4]