Éponine Thénardier (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
filleauloup) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomtownies2013-06-25 08:35 am
filleauloup) wrote in fandomtownies2013-06-25 08:35 am
Entry tags:
Fandom Post Office, June 25 (Tuesday)
It was probably a terrible idea to bring a kitten to work with her, but at least Éponine had decided to let her stay in the post office while she was out on her route. ("Your legs are so short, you'll get tired dreadfully quickly trying to keep up with me," she'd said while arranging a corner with food and water and a little nest of blankets.) That was something, at least.
Her time actually spent in the post office looked less like working and more like sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor, playing with Alouette.
She'd argue that she was valiantly trying to protect all the paper objects in the room from a curious kitten's sharp claws and teeth. Technically, she wasn't even lying about that.
Her time actually spent in the post office looked less like working and more like sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor, playing with Alouette.
She'd argue that she was valiantly trying to protect all the paper objects in the room from a curious kitten's sharp claws and teeth. Technically, she wasn't even lying about that.
Re: Talk to Éponine [6/25]
"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."
Re: Talk to Éponine [6/25]
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.
Re: Talk to Éponine [6/25]
"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."
Re: Talk to Éponine [6/25]
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."
Re: Talk to Éponine [6/25]
"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.
Re: Talk to Éponine [6/25]
"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."
Re: Talk to Éponine [6/25]
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.
Re: Talk to Éponine [6/25]
"Maybe I will one day," she said thoughtfully. "But not yet. If nothing else, I wouldn't want her and Alouette becoming rivals."
Re: Talk to Éponine [6/25]
"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."
Re: Talk to Éponine [6/25]
"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!"
Re: Talk to Éponine [6/25]
And there she was, babbling again, like she was trying to get one last rush of conversation in for good measure.
Re: Talk to Éponine [6/25]
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.
Re: Talk to Éponine [6/25]
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."