backdated to June 5th

[pylades_drunk]

It's almost an obscenely beautiful day, Grantaire thinks, but then it wasn't a particularly miserable June when they'd put up the barricades, either. A little warm, and the middle of a cholera epidemic, but the weather hadn't been ugly.

This, though, is something else. Lilac scents the air; the weather might be described as perfect. Fruit ripens early on the branches of trees he wasn't even aware had ever borne fruit.

In the past, he'd celebrated the anniversary of their deaths with friends who had been there, drinking and vacillating between a hedonistic revelation of the shortness of life and a somber acknowledgement; in the more recent past, since he'd stopped drinking and some of them had disappeared, it'd been a smaller, sort of private reflection.

Today, he wanders in the park with a friend who knows what he's thinking of. They talk about other things, and they talk about their friends, and they let the specter of mortality wander into their conversation as it wants to, for there's no stopping it.

"Do you ever think about what happens if we disappear?" Eponine asks. Grantaire doesn't keep such close tabs on her that she feels smothered by it, but she's grown to enjoy that he texts to check in from time to time. When she was first here, she thought he might be using her as a stand-in for her brother. Now, it's just good to have someone who knows Paris, who has anything in common, on days like today.

"I try not to," Grantaire rejoins, picking a plum off a low branch. "I've only just started thinking in future tense. At any rate, that just calls up questions of the afterlife, and most of those possibilities are ridiculous or awful. Probably, nothing. We just --- stop. It'd be worse for the people here."

They ponder that for a moment. "Let's not do it, then," she says a little over-brightly, and holds up a hand. "Plum?"

"Certainly," he says, and throws her one.

Smirking, she steps back to catch it, right into the middle of the path.

Comments

Re: [just Eponine please]

[daughterofawolf]

Eponine looks around when she steps right into the path, and smiles when she sees Regan wave. They haven't spoken much, but she knows a few things from conversing and from just liking to know things: she's deaf, and speaks in hand signs; she's a bit younger than Eponine and seems friendly; she's close with Richie, which makes her one of the few girls who is.

Eponine's taken it upon herself to keep her eyes open when Regan is teaching signs, and to ask around a bit about how to sign. There's even a show a bunch of the little ones watch in the common room on the weekend that has a bit of sign at the end. PUMA Squad, though she'd deny actively watching it to anyone who asked. It's not only interesting -- and she hates not knowing anything -- and opens up a way to speak to her, but it could be useful, speaking without words, the same way argot had been back at home (or in that case, speaking without meaning anything to other people).

She glances at Grantaire, who waves her off toward Regan with a smile, and waves back.

Carefully, and as slow as any non-native speaker, she signs, "How are you?"

[negative_feedback]

It's always a pleasant surprise to see Hearing people sign. She knows it's been something that people have been learning, especially since she came into the city. The show that Saoirse watches has some, and all of her friends at the Home have been learning how. It's one of the things she's liked the most about coming here. Everyone wants to learn.

When the girl greets her, Regan's smile brightens. "I'm good. How are you?"

[daughterofawolf]

"Good," she signs back, smiling both because she's pleased to understand and also to be asked. Then she makes a little well expression and rephrases, "Okay. Today is..."

She can't think of the word for strange or tough, so she pulls out her phone and turns toward Regan with it, then taps out It's a strange day... Does she want to just share this? What's the harm in it? If Regan's scared off by people being dead at home, there's a lot more to scare her about Eponine.

I know that I end up dying on this date at home. But it makes me glad to be here, too. My friend Grantaire -- she gestures to him -- was there too.

"So," she signs with a little smirk, "I think 'okay'."

[negative_feedback]

Regan nods. She can't imagine what it must be like, to know she's dead, back where home is. It has to be such a... final feeling. And this girl is handling the idea way better than Regan thinks she would.

"I guess 'okay' covers it," she agrees. "That's crazy, though. How are you so calm?"

[daughterofawolf]

Eponine furrows her brow, because Regan signs rather faster than she's quite up to herself, but she's learning that if she doesn't focus on every word and instead tries to get the gist it's better. She understands crazy and how and calm, and from there's it's not much trouble to figure out what she's being asked, along with Regan's concerned, perplexed expression.

"Sorry," she says about her staring, "I only know a little sign language." She emphasizes little, making a face. She thinks for a minute. There's no nice way to put this.

"Home was bad," she signs, trying to figure out how to put it into words she knows. Her grammar's shoddy, but she thinks she's getting it across. "I knew I could die, all the time. But I ...saved a friend." She hand spells saved. "It's good that it meant something."

"And," she adds, "it's been more than a year knowing."

[negative_feedback]

That's different, Regan supposes. It's still crazy to her, and having a year to process something does make it a little easier, she knows. She doesn't know when she could ever talk about Beau again, but thinking about him doesn't hurt the way it used to.

"And now you're here," she points out. And definitely not dead, she wants to add, but doesn't because it seems... rude.