fandomtownies | Fandom Post Office, June 25 (Tuesday)

And your level of postal hell.

And/or her cat. One's more likely to talk back, though. Just saying.

Sam was only just getting back to town after her assignment in London this weekend, and after depositing her bag in her apartment, she find herself wanting to get out and about. Spotting Éponine through the window was only accidental, but it did suffice to get Sam to make her way into the post office. Because some people weren't creepers.

She did not, however, notice the cat just yet -- until she was inside and saw just what Eponine was doing on the floor.

"Hello," she said, immediately feeling her nose begin to itch. "New--" Achoo! --"friend?"

Edited 2013-06-25 16:14 (UTC)

Éponine looked up, which gave Alouette -- who had decided she didn't feel like getting attention right at this particular moment -- the opportunity to scramble off her lap. "Bless you -- oh, you're back! I thought I might have frightened you off."

That's not an answer to the question, Éponine, and you wouldn't have to be surprised about that if you didn't do things like lurk outside and watch people for weeks.

Anyway.

Alouette chose that moment to wander over and mew inquisitively at Sam, since now she wanted attention.

"Yes, I decided I wanted a cat, and now I've got one."

"Not unless you had something to do with my being called away to revamp a navigation system several centuries past your time," Sam teased, with the smile on her face hopefully obvious enough for even Éponine to detect the teasing. "In which case I should really thank you; it was quite pleasant over there. Not a single angry phone call all weekend."

She was triumphant.

Peering down at Alouette politely and hoping that she wasn't actually making the scrunched-nose face that she felt like she was making, Sam remarked, "He's, ah--" Achoo! --"he's cute."

Don't think she wouldn't do something like that if it suited her purposes, Sam. But no, she hadn't.

"You see, you did get to do a bit of traveling yourself after all!" Éponine said. "But that wasn't any of my doing so there's no need to thank me."

She frowned slightly, looking between Sam and the kitten for a second or two. "It's a she, so the animal doctor tells me, though I'd made up my mind on her name even before I found that out, and does she bother you?"

"No, no, I love animals," Sam assured her earnestly, before amending apologetically, "...Though I could do without the allergy attacks. But I'll be fine, truly."

Just with sneezing. There was definitely going to be sneezing.

Ignoring the fact that her eyes were watering a bit, Sam inquired, "So did you just go to the store and buy her, then?"

Éponine burst out laughing at that.

"Indeed I didn't, no sir!" she exclaimed. "I found her and her brothers and sisters in an alley near where I live. They would cry so all night, and it was dreadful, really, have you ever heard a racket quite like that before? Anyhow, Kenzi and I went looking for them, and they're all supposed to go off to different homes or so I'm told. Only I'd been wanting a cat for a bit now, since Jack put the idea into my head, and I rather took a fancy to this one."

Alouette inched closer to paw at Sam's foot.

"Well now, Alouette, if you decide you like her more than me, when I'm the one who's to be feeding you from now on, I think that's a bit rude," she concluded, feigning indignation.

Well. Partly feigning indignation.

"Well, that's nice of you," Sam said truthfully. She'd always felt that getting a pet who truly needed a home was a better move than buying one from a pet store and endorsing whatever unsavory practices they had there. "I don't know if I would have the grace to forgive that kind of racket, even if it did mean I'd get to have a pet. Though I suppose the cuteness of the pet in question might play a role."

"And please, Alouette, I'm nothing special," Sam assured the cat in an exaggeratedly humble sort of voice. "You're far better off with the one who can feed you and pet you without--" Achoo! "--sneezing all over you."

See? Case in point.

Well, Éponine's feelings about not going to the pet store were strong, but not out of principle.

"Good lord, if you ask me, there's no more certain way to make sure the lot of them stopped squalling than seeing that they aren't hungry enough to do it constantly. It's only practical." Okay, she did have a tiny soft spot for animals, despite that declaration, because she looked over to where the kitten had flopped onto her side and was stretching out, and smiled.

"She is a pretty little thing, though, isn't she?" She did seem rather proud of that fact. "But what would you do about a pet, if cats make you sneeze?"

"I'm all right with dogs," Sam explained, following Éponine's gaze to Alouette and smiling a bit herself. What could she say? Anyone with a soft spot for cute animals was okay in her book. "I've always seen myself with some kind of retriever. Maybe someday, when the Alliance has enough bright and innovative new recruits not to need to shuffle me around from place to place anymore."

She glanced down at that, like the idea of even hypothetically no longer being one of the Alliance's bright and innovative new recruits was bothersome to her. But in no time at all, she was back to looking fondly at the cat again.

"So she's quieted down since you took her in, then?"

Edited 2013-06-25 22:00 (UTC)

"Oh, a bit, but you'd better believe she's not slow to make her displeasure known, either." Éponine held up one hand to display a couple of long red claw scratches, though she didn't seem to think they were anything to worry about.

She trailed off to watch Alouette, humming absently, then spoke up again abruptly. "It seems unfair, you not being able to have a dog because of that. I don't think it would suit me at all, having to jump whenever someone else says I ought, but then . . ." She shrugged. "That makes you a bit important, doesn't it, if they need you to do so much?"

Oh, Sam was totally wincing at those scratches. Awkward gremlin bite antics aside, she was beginning to think of Éponine as a little sister of sorts, so those injuries would not do at all.

...This from the military girl, yes. The military girl who worked in labs.

As for Éponine's guess that she was 'important' -- Sam let out a surprised laugh. "I'd certainly like to think so," she said. "They've got quite a bit of talent on hand, though. It's just difficult to have enough when there's so much to do, and I've got easier access to transportation than most." With a bit of a wry smile, she added, "And there's always the chance they didn't want to spend money on the fuel to get someone else to London when I have a perfectly decent interdimensional taxi service at my fingertips."

The scratches were nothing much compared to the story some of her scars told, so she hardly paid them any mind.

"Undoubtedly." Éponine nodded, frowning in concentration and looking a touch more focused than usual. "It's convenient enough, God knows, if they've got that sort of thing on hand through you, so you see? That means you are important after all."

Her expression turned sly. "To say nothing of how that gives you a bit of power, d'you see?"

Sam chuckled again, because she really didn't see it that way on her own, but she was willing to hear Éponine out. "Oh?" she asked. "How so?"

It was immediately evident to Éponine, who was used to looking for everything that could be construed as a tiny bit of an advantage against the rest of the world; an odd mixture of surprise and envy flashed across her face when she realized it wasn't nearly as clear to Sam.

"You've control over something other people need, understand?" she asked, and now her tone had shifted so, however absurdly, she sounded like someone explaining something to a child. There was a vaguely protective quality to her demeanor, as well. "It's through you they've got to go if they want to make use of it, so they've got to make sure you're willing to let them."

"But of course I'm willing to let them," Sam countered, surprised by the implication that she wouldn't be. "I'm a part of the Alliance. I've got a duty to listen to my superiors and fulfill the parameters of my assignment. And it's really not as though they couldn't simply station another technician here in my absence."

Granted, explaining the idea of duty and military ideals to Éponine Thénardier was bound to be a difficult thing for anyone to try to do. But Sam was doing a particularly bad job at it.

Bless you for even trying, Sam, since it was a task of Sisyphean proportions.

"You said yourself they haven't quite got enough to go 'round," Éponine pointed out, and now she looked faintly amused. "Why go to the trouble of sending someone else in your place, someone who'll likely have to learn all from scratch what to do, if it can be at all avoided? It's stupid, is what it is, when they've already got you here, and, I'd guess, they might be willing to make sure you're satisfied with the assignment, to spare themselves that trouble."

"I think just about any technician worth their salt can wrangle a coordinate optimizer and basic multiversal positioning," Sam countered. "And I'm sure there are specialists who are more competent at customer service than I am."

Because she was awkward and flaily and she knew it. It wasn't a secret.

"It's military," she tried her best to explain. "Certainly my superiors hope I'll be satisfied with the assignment, and I am, but they've got more important things to do than run in circles trying to appease me."

Alouette chose that moment to try to attack Sam's foot with what might have been meant as an intimidating yowl and ended up a rather adorable squeak.

"My father was in the army," Éponine said distractedly, watching the kitten. "A sergeant. Served under Napoleon, he did, at Waterloo. That's what he likes to say, anyhow," she added, rolling her eyes.

"But look here!" she went on with an emphatic wave of her hand as if to cut off the previous line of thought. "What's the point of dancing to their tune if you don't get something out of it for yourself every once in a while?" Yes, that probably sounded scandalous to someone looking at it from Sam's perspective, but Éponine didn't seem to care if it did.

Well, if it was any comfort to Alouette, Sam was a little startled, and started to take a step back before she realized who the culprit was.

"But I do get things out of it," Sam reasoned. "Honor and dignity and the ability to challenge myself, for a start. And then there's the ability to wear a uniform..." Her tone turned fond at that last one, and the sides of her mouth quirked up in a private smile that she wasn't going to explain. "And the Alliance is leasing my house for me. Really, I've got everything I could want."

She paused.

"Well. Except for the dog."

Edited 2013-06-26 00:53 (UTC)

If 'honor and dignity' resonated with Éponine in any way, the only hint of it was a fleeting expression of sadness. The more she heard about it, the more it didn't seem like a bad life, and . . . well, she vaguely resented never getting that kind of opportunity.

Which was why the only response she had was, "Perhaps you ought to get the dog, regardless."

Alouette, for her part, seemed satisfied with the reaction and squeaked one more time before trotting off to a corner to groom herself.

Upon Alouette's departure, Sam made a rather undignified sniffling noise, but it was clear that she was relieved to have a break from the onslaught against her sinuses.

"Maybe I will one day," she said thoughtfully. "But not yet. If nothing else, I wouldn't want her and Alouette becoming rivals."

Éponine got up to wander over toward the counter, and surreptitiously nudged the box of tissues into view.

"Would that be such a bad thing?" she asked slyly. "It might make things interesting -- but then, fancy the fur flying every which way if they fought! Then you would only sneeze more, and that wouldn't be terribly pleasant."

She turned abruptly, fiddling with a stack of postcards.

"You needn't stay, you know, if she makes you sneeze so much."

Oh, thank goodness. Sam shot Éponine a look of extreme gratitude as she hurried over to gather some tissues. Because yes.

"I suppose it would be interesting to watch," Sam granted. "Maybe from a safe distance. With those goggles with a nose covering on."

Juuuust to be safe.

"And are you sure?" she asked. "Because I really don't mi--"

Okay, and that was another sneeze. Kind of a big one.

"All right, I should really be going," Sam decided, slightly muffled around the cluster of tissues she was holding to her face. Which were actually doubly helpful now: they were also concealing how much she was blushing. "Um. Sorry!"

"My company's hardly worth the risk of you sneezing until your head falls off," Éponine said in a reasonable tone, still fussing over the postcards on the counter. "You'd be no use to your customers or your Alliance then, would you? I'll likely leave her at home after this, anyhow, since she does keep getting into the post bins and God knows I have enough mail come back undelivered and full of tooth marks as it is, and besides, I had no idea she'd be a nuisance to you, and it isn't as if I thought you would stop by in the first place."

And there she was, babbling again, like she was trying to get one last rush of conversation in for good measure.

"That's probably for the best," Sam granted, though she did follow it up with, "Though she'd hardly be a deterrent to keep me from coming by again if you did decide to bring her, so don't leave her at home on my behalf. I'd just take my allergy pills beforehand."

Because Sam did enjoy Éponine's company, so there.

"Anyway, I'll just-- stop by another time, then. Er. Sorry again for the-- ah, this."

She gestured lamely to herself. That should sum up all the awkwardness.

It was the apparent indication of a repeat visit that had Éponine turning around now, and staring at Sam as if she'd lost her mind. Looking surprised, and not in a bad way, but suspecting madness anyhow.

Really, she was going to have to start accepting the possibility of actually having friends sometime.

"It was nice of you to come by and say hello," she answered, a faint smile twitching at the corners of her mouth, "and I am glad you didn't really run off for good. Now go on, as it won't do for you to have a nose so stuffed up you can't breathe at all."

Jack had a parcel to mail, but his main priority was saying hello to Eponine. It was going to feel good to have a conversation that had nothing to do with wolfiness.

"--oh, you did get a cat," he said as he came in. "What's her name?"

"Well, of course I did. Didn't I say I would?" asked Éponine, putting on a show of exaggerated indignation. "Alouette, go on, say hello to Monsieur Jack. You ought to, since it's thanks in part to him that you're here now."

The kitten chose not to listen to her (of course), pouncing on a nearby dust bunny instead.

"Very well, then, suit yourself, but it's rude of you." Éponine got to her feet, and left the kitten to her own devices. "Good day, monsieur -- oh, I see you've something to be posted."

"Friend of mine moved off-world," Jack said, handing over the package marked with Ronan's most recent address and full of teas and snacks that couldn't be replicated outside earth. "I don't know how packages to him get there, but I'm assured that they do."

He glanced over to Alouette with a grin. "It's all right. I wouldn't trust a cat who got too eager over visitors, anyhow."

"Yes, it's sensible of her to behave that way," agreed Éponine, moving behind the counter to weigh the package. "She doesn't particularly trust me yet, either -- it's that or she's decided I taste good, but as there isn't enough of me to make that much of a mouthful I don't think that's the case."

Alouette had gone into the tiny kitten version of stalking-prey mode, apparently intent on circling and pouncing Jack's foot from the side.

"How fast d'you want this to arrive? I haven't a clue what sort of tricks it takes to get from here to there myself, but they do the job all right."

"Depends on what it will cost," Jack admitted. "There are some cookies in there, but probably as long as it gets to him within two weeks or so it'll be fine."

He let Alouette chomp on his shoe for a moment before gently shaking his leg to get her off. "Ah, yes, I can see she's a fierce huntress. Has she caught any mice yet?"

"No, but it isn't for lack of trying, surely. Lord, how she will pounce on anything, and it's only the third day since I got her! I expect sooner or later I'll wake up to a present from her," Éponine concluded before rattling off the shipping options and prices. "There aren't cookies like this where your friend is now, I take it?"

Alouette seemed put out for a moment, but got distracted by a few dust motes floating around in the sunlight.

FYI, my brain is still broken by this.

Fandom Post Office, June 25 (Tuesday)

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OOC [FPO 6/25]