|Open| The creature has a purpose, and his eyes are bright with it

[antichristsplusone]

WHO: Martin and anyone who's interested!
WHAT: Life, the universe, mostly daily life. More toplevels as required
WHEN: October catch-all
WHERE: Primary settlement, also Horizon

Outskirts of the Primary Settlement

Martin has a gun.

Martin K. Blackwood has a gun.

It's not like it's been suddenly thrust upon him right now, at least, he's been doing some training with Roland in and out of Horizon (ammo didn't run out there, after all; and until his hands had stopped shaking after every time he fired it, he was much happier knowing he couldn't misfire and legitimately hurt someone, though hiding the practice from Jon had been... difficult. Nearly as bad as the kids).

No, it's mostly still something he's just existentially baffled by. He never thought he'd reach the point in his life where he'd have a gun on him as a permanent accessory. So, at the very least, since that's a thing now, he'd like to at least make sure he can use it properly.

He's taken about a half dozen pieces of firewood to use as target practice, and lined them up on a fence at the very edge of the commune, so his firing disturbs as few people as possible - but a gun in a country town made of wide open spaces isn't subtle, still - and the field is out of rotation right now so the only targets he has are the wood, and he'll see people coming from a long way off.

So. Here he goes. Christ.

Horizon

His library may be small, but these days Martin keeps its doors wide open, and a little 'shrine' made of pebbles, sticks and already strung through with spider's silk next to the entrance, less than six inches tall.

The library itself is the same as ever: a huge, modern public library with rows upon stacks of shelves, arranged as per the Dewey decimal system; but at the front of the library, nearest the doors to Martin's office, a new shelf has been set up, filled (sparsely, at the moment, but neatly) with labelled tapes, and on the nearest table is a player-recorder for them, with a note taped to the table next to it in a neat hand: "Please don't tape over anything, thanks! ~Martin"

Once or twice a day, it's pretty easy to overhear Martin talking to himself in his office, with the door shut to keep unwanted noise out.

Wildcard
Martin's daily routine is otherwise remarkably consistent. Mornings spent with the kids he lives with, lunch through til the afternoon working on his own projects and interests, evenings helping the family with dinner, and nights to himself. So far he's yet to travel past the primary settlement, despite his curiosity.

Comments

[gardienne]

"Read what?" Eponine looks innocently back at Martin, as if the book shaped lump under her blouse isn't obvious. But then she cackles.

"Fine, M'sieur. I am caught. Only... only you have so many. I didn't think you couldn't spare a beggar just one book." She tries to manipulate him, as she does with so many. Her shoulders slump in defeat, and she looks sorrowfully at the book before holding it out to him.

"Me, I have always wanted to read a book on.... on..." She moves her fingers under the letters, muttering the sounds quietly before triumphantly saying, "Astronomy."
She has no idea what that is.

[antichristsplusone]

"Miss... Miss Thenardier, wasn't it?" His face is only sympathetic, but his tone has the faintest edge of exasperation. "This is a library. The books are all here to be taken, so long as you bring them back later. And even then, since it's Horizon, I can probably just make another one. You're not in trouble."

And she doesn't have to try and make him pity her for anything, he thinks privately. It's not like he's not aware of her trying, he's fully used to being emotionally extorted.

"And also, you've picked a rather difficult book, when, uh. You don't seem to be... necessarily the strongest reader."

[gardienne]

"Eponine," Eponine replies tersely. "I ain't a 'Miss'. No one's never called me Miss Thenardier. I am 'Ponine or Jondrette's brat or that."
She scowls and a pink flush of embarrassment colours her cheeks. "And I can read. My mama taught me when I were a child. I can read anything I want. I ain't like the other women. I can read, Sir."
She's fiercely proud of her meagre skills; they're the one thing that sets her aside from the other street rats. And now here is some stupid, pompous oaf stomping all over it? Eponine shakes her head.

"I ain't never been to a library before, Sir, but if their keepers are so rude as you, no wonder it is so empty."

[antichristsplusone]

He blinks in surprise, mouth opening a little as he falters on what to say, but that's all the reaction she gets. He's too used to that sort of talk to let himself give more.

After a few seconds, he just clicks his tongue quietly and closes his mouth. "Alright. I'm sorry for offending you, Eponine, I didn't mean anything by it. I more meant that the book you picked has a lot of very unusual words, so even though you can read, it might still be very confusing. If you like, I could help you find something a bit more... enjoyable, for you."

He gives her a slight smile, thin but with a sort of resigned patience. "Do you like stories, Eponine?"

[gardienne]

"Ain't this a story, then?" She bites her lip ruefully. "I wanted one of them where the man don't notice the woman for an age, despite her being beautiful and that, but then, there is a fate, like a fairy or that, what brings 'em together and they dance in their arms and they are in love. D'you know such a story?"

She smiles. Apparently, her anger has dissipated with the promise of a better book. "That Nadine were gonna teach me to read my words more but she is a bitch and a liar and I shan't have nowt to do on her, Sir."

She sighs heavily. "So, M'sieur, you will have to do. A beggar can't choose, can she, really?"

[antichristsplusone]

"That one's a book of facts, a-and information, on stars and the sky and such. It's not really interesting unless you already like that sort of thing."

He moves to walk back into the library, and gestures for her to follow. "I've got a section that's pretty much dedicated to those sorts of storybooks, actually. And they're nice and easy, so you can use them as practice to get used to reading."

The shelf he leads her to is smaller, the books more colourful and interesting than the astronomy book Eponine's 'stolen', and he picks up one titled Cinderella and other Fairy Tales.

(Not particularly imaginative, he critiques himself, but passable, surely.)

"Here, this has lots of stories about girls who find their Prince Charming and their happy endings."

[gardienne]

“Isn’t this for children?” She looks at the front cover but she’s not sure of what it says. Her cheeks flush again. But embarrassment sours Eponine again and she has to take it out on poor Martin.

“I am not stupid, you know? I want proper tales of love an murder. Not children’s stupid stories. And always they are blonde. The brunette is always left on her own. It’s not nice.”

[antichristsplusone]

"Well- by the way you've described it, you can either have books you want that are a bit too difficult for you to read comfortably--" which will frustrate you and make you hate them for being too hard, he thinks "--or the simple children's ones that you can read." And you'll resent them for being condescending.

He tucks the book under his arm, out of habit mostly. "Eponine, I'm not trying to be rude, but if you can only read a small amount, you're not going to get better unless you practise with the easy ones. Even if it feels a little bit insulting, I know you're not a child."

[gardienne]

She sighs. Obviously it makes sense. Obviously. Doesn’t mean she has to like it though. Reluctantly, she holds her hand out for the book.

“It’s not fair, you know? Everything I do and I am the worst. Everything I think I am good at, and no. It’s a lie. I am always the last at anything good. Only I am good if it’s something which ought not be done at all. It’s not fair.”

It’s humiliating, and so frustrating.

“I’m sorry. It ain’t your fault. I just long for a better lot in life, you know?”

[antichristsplusone]

"Well- that's not really being fair on yourself, is it? I was in school 'til I was seventeen, and I got a job not long after, so I've had plenty of experience with words and numbers and such, but. I-it doesn't sound like you've had, um. Very similar opportunities in your life. And all that's not your fault," he says gently.

He puts the book in her hands, but doesn't let go immediately. "Look, I'm sure you'll find something you're good at eventually, something that you think other people'll look up to you for." He gives her a soft smile. "But until then, if you like, I'd be happy to help you learn how to read some more."

[gardienne]

"I ain't never been to school." Eponine chuckles snidely. "Guess that'd make me the cleverer then, if I can read without none of that schooling. I always fancied being a student though, tramping about in a long coat and scarf with my books under my arms and my fingers all black with the ink. I used to watch 'em, but my folk weren't so keen on that. Waste of time and all... and I suppose it were."

She glances from the book to Martin and straight back to the book. "Why? What d'you want for it? Sweets? Or money? Or... but you don't look the sort for that. Money mayhaps? All the fancy students have money to pay their tutors."

[antichristsplusone]

Martin's cheeks turn pink at that implication. "I-I don't-- I'm not going to ask you for anything, th-this isn't a- a-a plot to get something out of you. I just thought- if you want to learn, I just wanted you to know that there is an adult on your side."

[gardienne]

“ I don’t need an adult , Sir, for I’m not a child. What I were hoping were a friend. Always I try to make friends, but that Julie has me a punching bag. That Coraline is such a brat that she needs a slap. I like Susan though.”
She lets go of the book again.

“Nobody does nothing for free. I am not stupid and I’d rather know the cost now so I can find your payment, Sir. If it’s all the same to you.”

[antichristsplusone]

"You do not look like you're older than twenty, and I'm thirty-four," he retorts easily, the lie coming naturally from years of practise. "And-- and anyway, there's nothing you can give me, you know? Not here, I can make anything I want just like you can."

He looks away as he thinks, and his eyes land on the table with his tape recorder. "...actually, if you want to pay me something, how about you tell me stories about yourself? Real ones, stuff that's happened to you. So I can write them down for... safekeeping, I suppose." He looks back at Eponine with a smile. "How's that sound? A story for a story."

[gardienne]

"I don't know how old I am, Sir. Maybe eighteen? Twenty? Summat like that, I think. We never celebrated birthdays or nothing and it is easy to lose track, no? Nothing ever changes anyway."

She shrugs - but her neutral expression becomes suspicious when he mentions recording her.

"You'll write a book? About me? Like... like I'm one of them important men in history and that? Perhaps somebody, some day, will have an inn named after me if you do that. I'd like that."

[antichristsplusone]

"Exactly." He smiles warmly. "Everyone's important, Eponine, so if no-one else is going to then I'd like to hear your story. Your side of things, so people can't say horrible things about you or what you were thinking when you did something. You deserve to have people on your side, and I'd like to be one of them."

[gardienne]

Eponine smiles prettily. She's glad of the attention, of course, and more grateful that someone else is being nice to her.

"So many horrid things, Sir, you know? When I try and I try, but no. No, people can be cruel, you know?"

She sighs and though it's fake, she's certainly practiced enough to make it sound real.

"What story will you know? When we lost the inn? When we came to Paris? Or beneath the bridge? Or when I took a necklace from a sleeping woman? Or... or when I found Marius? Prison, Sir? Or the crimes what put me there? Or prison here? What will you know?"

[antichristsplusone]

He rubs his chin thoughtfully. "How about... for every book I give you, I get one statement from you in return? Then we can talk about the book, too, if you enjoyed reading it or what you might like next, and you don't have to try and remember all the incredible events in your life at once?"

[gardienne]

"They ain't incredible. Just normal, you know? It's just what happens."

She tightens her grip on 'cinderella' though.

"Let me read it, then." When it's safe in her hands, she opens the book, and begins to read. She's slow, steady, occasionally stumbling over longer words or sounding out some as well. Eventually, she looks up and sticks her tongue out at Martin rudely.
"See. Told you I could read."

I'm literally just googling "high school required reading"

[antichristsplusone]

He gives a light chuckle at the tongue poke he can't help it. "You really did. Alright, I'll let you have that one for free, I set the bar way too low. Let's get you a better book, come on."

Because this time he'll bring her to a shelf of actual novels, and plucks one to pass to her. "Crime and Punishment. I had to read it in high school, so it might suit you."

Haha!!

[gardienne]

Eponine had chuckled when he stuck his tongue out at her. She looks over this new book curiously though, before she makes her dictate evident.
"Sir? You give me a book on prison?" She wrinkles her nose and sticks it back on the first shelf she sees.
"Why should I want to read about such as that? It is like asking a dog to read a book about being a dog. There are enough nightmares in my head about crimes and punishments, however unjust, to need to read of it. Have you seen a man guillotined? You shouldn't be so quick to read it then, if you had."

[antichristsplusone]

He grimaces at how her roughness bends the other paperbacks that she shoves the offered book into.

"A-actually, it's really not... anyway, uh. No, s-some people find that when they're having a lot of thoughts on something, reading about it from another person's point of view can be good for them. It sort of, um, helps them... process it? Come to terms with how horrible what they went through really was."

He scans the shelf again, and pulls out a new one, Little Women. "Here- this might suit you more, then."

[gardienne]

" I weren't beheaded, you know? What should it matter to me if some other stupid man was? They deserved it anyhow, I should think." She shrugs. "There is no point to think what is done. Will it change it? No. Will it affect what will happen? No. Had I been any longer in that damn prison, they would have booked me. And if they catch me again, you get a tattoo on your arm so everyone knows what they think you are. But I ain't. That's why that punishment were unjust. There were lots more they could have locked me up for, but not that."

She grins suddenly. "Good job I am good at lying, ain't it? They believed all I said, the idiots. Who would believe me when I say I'm fourteen?"

Eponine takes Little Women with a frown. The girls on the cover look so decidedly good. Maybe it'll be better? Well, it's better than reading about prisons or guillotines or something anyway.

"Thank you, Sir."

[antichristsplusone]

He lifts both hands in a light 'don't even mention it' sort of gesture.

"You're welcome. Now- I don't really care if you lie to me, generally speaking, but when you give me your statements I'd really appreciate it if you were as honest as possible. If people realise there's a lie in a story someone's telling about themselves it makes it really hard for them to believe anything they say after that, a-and we do want people to believe it, sincerely."

[gardienne]

"I won't lie. I swear. Not if you're listening to me."

She tightens her grip on 'Little Women', as if Martin is going to pull it back off her.

"And if I ain't in trouble." Eponine grins. "So what story do you want in payment? My life where it begins, or where it should end? Or them bits between? If you are to write my story though, Sir, perhaps we start at the beginning, before my parents lost the inn and to Paris we went?"