fandomtownies | Fandom Post Office, July 30 (Tuesday)

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Fandom Post Office, July 30 (Tuesday)

Éponine's memory of the past several days was a bit sketchy on the details, but then again, you could say the same of a lot of what she'd been up to. Frankly, she couldn't decide whether to be annoyed with herself or annoyed with Fandom, but somewhere in the middle of all that annoyance was the odd sense of being slightly less conflicted about being here.

None of this was at the forefront of her mind today, though. Someone had dragged in a palletload of identical boxes that all needed to be shipped out to different addresses in multiple dimensions, and it was going to take all day to get them sorted and properly metered for postage.

She was grateful for the distraction, really. But glad she'd left her cat at home today.

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As you do.

Who won't mind a few minutes to not have to deal with this giant shipment.

It had been some time since Sam had last stopped by the post office, so - after peering in the window to ensure that there was not, in fact, a cat there - she made her way inside. She even had two iced coffees with her, though she was fully prepared to toss one into the garbage if Eponine turned out not to be a fan.

"Busy?"

Éponine would drink anything rather than throw it out, but she did happen to like coffee a lot, yes.

"Good heavens, aren't we!" she exclaimed, laughing a little bit, but lighting up visibly when she realized who'd come through the door. "We've hundreds and hundreds of packages to post today, all of them going every which way, and it's quite the job sorting out all the different piles of what ought to go where, and for how much, only I haven't learned all the complicated little rules of how yet so I've got to wait until they're all properly divided to start putting the postage on."

She was babbling a bit excitedly there.

"Did you have something to post? You won't have to wait until all of this is done, I can take care of it now."

"No, no, it's just a social call," Sam assured her. "And to give you this." She held out one of the iced coffees. "It looks like you're in rather dire need of one."

Looking around the post office, she had to admit in a tone that bordered on shock, "I had no idea so many people in this century still sent their mail by post.

Edited 2013-07-30 17:29 (UTC)

"For me?" Just because Éponine was clearly appreciative didn't mean she wouldn't be a little bit greedy about taking the drink and immediately taking a long sip of it. "Oh, that's good, it's nice and cold, I'd been wanting one all morning. How did you know?"

So maybe she was almost grinning.

"Well, how else does one send parcels and things if not by post? How do they do it in your time?"

Sam couldn't help but smile, amused by Éponine's enthusiasm. "It's never too far a leap to guess that someone could use a caffeinated beverage while at work," she teased. "I certainly go through enough of them every day to know that as well as anyone."

Gah. Her customers, man.

"We generally send our messages electronically," she explained, switching on her omnitool display so that Éponine could see it. "Actual packages are rarer. But we do send them, I suppose. It's just quite a bit more of a hassle than sending an email."

"I stop off for one or two while I'm out making my rounds, but I haven't yet had the chance today," Éponine told her.

She set her drink aside, carefully out of range of being knocked over, and leaned forward to peer a little closer at the omnitool. "Pardieu," she muttered half under her breath, "that's ever so much more clever than my phone, and I've only half got the hang of that."

"But that's the thing, you see?" she went on with a broken laugh, straightening and reaching for her coffee again. "We've mail coming in from god only knows how many different worlds and times, and not all of them are as fancy as yours. Why, just last week someone came in to post a letter, and it was some great clay tablet with funny little triangles on it for words. Anyhow, if we all sent our post the way you do, I'd be out of a job."

"You've got a point there," Sam granted. "And I'd offer you a job at my place of business instead, but I wouldn't wish my customers on anyone."

Said the woman who actually had an employee.

"In any case, I'm sure there are practical benefits to using a slower post system," she added. "Less chance of having massive piles of work to do at once, and quickly, for a start."

Edited 2013-07-30 21:31 (UTC)

"Oh, I'm sure I've had worse before," Éponine said, a little darkly, before she caught herself and waved a hand as if to brush it off. "I don't care, really, so long's I can eat on the regular and do what I please with the money besides."

She fell silent for as long as it took to take another sip of coffee, then added abruptly, "I returned your things, you know, from the other week. I didn't think to make sure you got them."

"Oh, I did," Sam said, with an awkward sort of nod. The whole debacle with Éponine as a puppy had been... rather jarring, to tell the truth. She preferred not to dwell too much on it, though the part of her that had been raised sensible knew full well that that was a terrible idea. "Thank you. You've, ah, fully recovered from your time as a dog, I hope?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Éponine said a bit too casually. "I think Alouette was more put out by the whole thing than I was. But it's nice you came to visit today," she went on, like there was a logical segue there. (There was, in her mind.) "After an unpleasant surprise like that I didn't think you would want to."

Sam hadn't been sure, either. But ultimately, the awkwardness of the dog issue hadn't been so severe that Sam was willing to give up being Éponine's friend in order to avoid thinking about it. She was twitchy, but she wasn't that twitchy.

Putting that into words was another matter. "Well, I was hardly going to avoid you forever, was I?" Sam settled on. "In any event, I rather doubt you'll be transforming again anytime soon. With any luck, the town's exhausted its supply of madness for a while after this past weekend."

Sigh.

"You could have," Éponine pointed out, "but I'm glad you didn't. Afterward I told myself, 'Well, 'Ponine, that's it, she's never likely to speak to you again,' and I didn't fancy that idea very much."

That seemed to be more than she'd intended to say, so she changed the subject quickly.

"Don't you go tempting fate by saying such things about the island's madness," she warned, though mostly playfully. "I don't care to have that happen again."

"You didn't do it on purpose," Sam told her firmly, "and I suppose I didn't leave you much of a way to commuicate to me that you weren't a dog." Not that Éponine would have taken such an opportunity even if she'd left one open, most likely.

"I'd just like the island to stop pestering me for a while," she added, a little more vigorously than she usually sounded. "If it would like to be mad on its own time, when I'm distracted or asleep, I suppose I'll allow that."

No, she'd shamelessly taken advantage of the human-lupine language barrier there.

"So long's it leaves you out of it?" Éponine laughed, though there wasn't much mirth in the sound. "Wouldn't I just like that myself! I don't care for it either."

"Was your weekend as... colorful as mine was?" Sam wondered, sipping her coffee.

"Yes, and I don't remember everything but I didn't care for it much," Éponine said quickly, "even if some parts of it were . . . awfully nice."

She was a little bit reluctant to admit that part.

"Sounds exactly like mine, then," Sam said. "The island really knows how to walk the line between nearly comfortable and painful, doesn't it?"

"I don't like it. It isn't very considerate," said Éponine, so . . . that was a yes, if a grossly understated one. "Still, I'd rather that than go elsewhere."

Sam paused, sipped her drink, and then wondered, "Why? If you don't mind saying."

Éponine looked down at her own drink, playing with the straw for several moments before replying.

"This is the nicest place I've ever lived," she said finally, "and I've no intention of ever going back where I came from, but where outside this island could a girl like me get on without seeming too strange?"

Sam nodded in understanding. "There've got to be other, similar places, though," she put in. Softly. It wasn't meant to be a persuasive argument. "Dimensional hubs, that is. Likely safer ones."

Éponine half-smiled and shook her head, glancing at Sam as she did. "That might be, but I really do like it here."

"Hey ya," Kenzi said, wandering in and then blinking at the packages. "Someone somewhere's needing to send Christmas presents? Really early?"

"Good lord, as if I know one way or the other," exclaimed Éponine. "If that's the case, it's certainly not Father Christmas, or he's much less imaginative than I'd have thought he'd be, as they're all exactly the same. I didn't ask. What do I care, so long as he gives us his business?"

Kenzi snickered, and boosted herself onto the counter. "Point. Just trying to figure why else they'd all be the same. Maybe they're merchandising samples." Swinging her legs she asked, "So how'd this weekend shake out for you?"

Éponine rolled her eyes. "I can't recall everything, and I didn't feel as if I was myself, but seems as if I had quite a good time." She didn't exactly sound thrilled about it. "It was one of those weekends again, wasn't it?"

Edited 2013-07-30 21:21 (UTC)

"Yuuup," Kenzi said, popping the 'p'. "But this time it wasn't the Island, it was some magic rings and some crazy people. Once people got the rings off them, it stopped, I guess." She sighed sadly. "And all the cool stuff I conned off them went away too."

"Of course it did," muttered Éponine. "What in hell did they do?"

She wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"They wished for crap, and it just happened." Kenzi wrinkled her nose. "Only it sounds like what they wished for was for all of us to hook up with people we don't even know, or to do stupid crap like work at the Perk or become firefighters. Because they're our fans."

"Fans . . .?" repeated Éponine, who was still unfamiliar with the term in its contemporary context. "I don't see why what we do with our lives is any of their concern, anyhow."

Kenzi was finally looking uncomfortable. "I guess some of the stuff that happens here, got broadcast wherever they're from as a TV show. And they liked it so much, they just had to come visit."

"Well, it wasn't very polite of them to interfere," Éponine decided, making a face. "Though I s'pose I'm glad everything is back as it was."

"Me too. Even though I really would've liked to keep that deed to Efferton Manor." Kenzi sighed. "At least if I go back inside the Perk, I'll know I can leave under my own power... you can always go back and listen to the Radio archives, if you don't remember most of what you did."

"I'm not dying of curiosity," Éponine replied, "but I do remember a boy who --"

She sighed, scowling.

"But that was stupid, anyhow. As if I would ever, no indeed, certainly not like that, I don't care how charming he was!"

She was trying to be better than that. And anyway, really? Really?

"A boy?" Kenzi looked hopeful for her. "I mean, you weren't really acting like yourself, exactly, but, was he cool? Was it fun? Which boy?"

"He was . . ." Not all that different from what Montparnasse could have been, only without the cruel streak, she realized. And it had been nice to be treated so indulgently. "He was very nice, I s'pose," she concluded. "Only I haven't seen him since. Probably more of the island being absurd, I'd bet."

"Awwww." Kenzi grimaced and drummed her heels. "Easy come, easy go. But I like you better as yourself, than without the accent, and wanting to smash the patriarchy. Not that it couldn't stand a good smashing. But stealing things is more fun."

Smash the . . .

Éponine was just going to give her a blank look for a few seconds.

"Good God, who in hell was walking around looking like me the last few days?" was what she finally came up with.

Kenzi snickered, relief making that continue longer than she meant for it to. "Some chick who was all attitude? Beats the hell out of me."

~~Somewhere in South America, Kennedy should have been going, 'hey'.~~

~~Oh, she was.~~

"Thank goodness that's over with, then," Éponine grumbled.

The video for All That Jazz is not embeddable, but I'd like to go back to Sunday night again please because LOOK AT THIS.

HEE. So did you die from explosions? :>

a;alksjdflkajsdasdjpfoiajsdlkfa mnrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.

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Fandom Post Office, July 30 (Tuesday)

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