Dungeon Residential Camps, Somewhere, Wednesday, Day One of Two

[not_a_whiner]

The first day had been eminently entertaining - but the Toymaker was already growing bored. He reached in and tweaked the strings of his tiny universe, adding subtle changes: speeding up time, moving hallways. One of the two might be more noticeable than the other, but he looked forward to seeing if Fandom's finest felt the time discrepancy.

He split this day in two. Bound the pathways of the first and second camps together. And sat back.

The maze changed. That was what it was built to do. Its denizens would just have to find ways to cope with it.

[camp one | camp two | camp three | ooc ]]

Comments

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[filleauloup]

"Moose," Éponine echoed absently, still peering closely at the figurines. "That's a funny name to go with a funny-looking creature. D'you suppose it has a name, though?"

She was mostly fine, really, just . . . halfway off in her own little world.

She drifted a few steps to the side to examine the figurines from a different angle, singing to a tune that might be recognizable as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star:"

"Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman,
Ce qui cause mon tourment?
Papa veut que je raisonne,
Comme une grande personne . . ."

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[not_a_whiner]

So... she was French. Kaidan didn't speak a great deal of the language, but he could make out the accent - and that song.

"I doubt it, unless someone here named it," he said. He sucked in a breath, racking his brain to remember words he'd learned before the universal translator.

Really should've gone to bed with his omni-tool.

"Comment... Uh. Comment allez-vous?"

He was aware he sounded painfully not-French. And wasn't sure if that was right. Wasn't it 'ça va'?

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[filleauloup]

"He ought to have a name, now he's an important officer in the army," Éponine decided, but she turned toward him looking surprised, if pleased; no one ever did anything but skip right to the informal address with the likes of her. (Well, Marius had showed her that courtesy for a little while, until she'd been stupid and showed him where Cosette lived.)

"Très bien, monsieur, et vous?" She was trying to make her voice sound lighter, but she never did succeed at that sort of thing; it just cracked more. She tried, though.

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[not_a_whiner]

The formal address had stuck by Kaidan when the informal hadn't, for reasons that had everything to do with why some people called him polite and other people called him stuffy.

He could parse that, though, and awkwarded out a, "Bien, merci." He rubbed the back of his head. "You... don't sound okay."

Because he wasn't going to chance that notion on his scraps of high school French.

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[filleauloup]

That was all right.

Éponine smiled, staring at some indeterminate point just past him. "I've work to do, and I'm not there to do it," she explained distractedly, as if this made perfect sense. "And anyhow, I don't like it here -- it's so dark and unpleasant, like when . . . well, never mind."

It reminded her a bit of being locked up at les Madelonettes.

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[not_a_whiner]

"Yeah, it's..." What, exactly? "They could've at least given us some chairs. Maybe a rug. Some tiles."

He wasn't even completely joking.

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[filleauloup]

The corners of Éponine's mouth twitched upward and she laughed. (It sounded just a little bit off, like it usually did.)

"It seems like such a little thing, doesn't it? I don't care to stay here forever, but if we have to I suppose a little furniture might make things almost bearable." If she sounded like she was trying to resign herself to the possibility of being stuck here, she was.

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[not_a_whiner]

"I'm heading out there again in a while," Kaidan said. He pointed towards the rug/carpet/blankets-- whatever they were-- he'd picked up yesterday. "There's some blankets left over. If there's... anything you need, I won't mind keeping a look out."

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[filleauloup]

Even on her worse days, Éponine was rather obstinate about hanging on to (the remnants of) her pride, and shook her head.

"Oh, there's no need to worry about me. If there's anything I need, I'll find it." This did not mean she wouldn't help herself to one of the carpets, or whatever they were, at some point; it would just be when no one was looking. "You'd better be careful, though. It's awfully noisy out there in the dark."

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[not_a_whiner]

"All right. And... merci."

Kaidan was not so sure he shouldn't bring her back anything. Pride was one thing, but it didn't help much in the face of survival.

"Ça ira," he added - the short pause was so he could remember the phrasing. Still wasn't sure if he was getting it right. "Ça va s'arranger."

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[filleauloup]

It most likely wasn't one of her better decisions (not that she had many of those) to be stubborn about this, but Éponine figured she'd gone hungry for longer than this; she could hold out a little longer.

She actually did look at Kaidan now, but her smile was half-hearted. "Peut-être." From her noncommittal tone, she didn't seem readily inclined to pin any hope on that.

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[not_a_whiner]

Shepard had been a great deal better at inspiring people to hope. So there was an awkward moment where he was silent and scratching the back of his head.

He half-turned to go - then thought better of it.

It was a fairly awkward dance all in all, but at least he could throw out a-- "Uh-- by the way. Comment vous appelez-vous?"

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[filleauloup]

Shepard might not be terribly successful with her either, if that was any consolation, Kaidan.

"Éponine, monsieur," she answered, a faint look of amusement crossing her face. "Et vous?"

Re: Camp One - Fireplace

[not_a_whiner]

Shepard would just need the right Paragon interrupt, surely!

"Kaidan," he said, and gave her a little nod.

Then he finally did turn and leave. Because awkward, otherwise.