Hello, There's Been An Error

[merryeccentricities]

Joly gets a few bursts of static, some mention of the Directory and Consulate, and "Fifth", and Courfeyrac, before the call goes definitely silent.

So...Bossuet and Courfeyrac are going to the Republic, of some point, and..Fifth? Or they're going to THE Fifth? Or, given how drunk they obviously are, they're going to GET a fifth, or had one, and then...

then "the Labyrinth", which might be taking them anywhere, never mind where they think they're going.

No, Joly isn't about to sit around waiting for them to get back. He sets the watch-hand for 2. "Combeferre? We had talked about exploring the Labyrinth? I think we might have to plan to do that right now."

Comments

[merryeccentricities]

"Well, I can't leave them here! I don't know how long we'll be gone. Maybe I'll take them on the leashes... you can get a new coat from Bar, of course. You do realize the Labyrinth is outside? Oh-- we need to leave notes, too, we don't want all our friends setting out after us. There's paper on the desk, write something for Enjolras, would you? I'll leave a note for Bossuet, and we can drop one off at the Bar, too."

Years of living with Bossuet have done nothing to convince Joly that plans will go smoothly.

[wings_of_a_swan]

"I'll borrow a cape, if you don't mind," says Combeferre.

He scribbles a note to Enjolras:

My dear Enjolras,

I've gone with Joly to the Labyrinth. I told you that we've meant to explore it for some time, and we've been planning our expedition. We have had to speed up our plans thanks to Bossuet and Courfeyrac sneaking off to the Labyrinth while drunk. We're going to extricate them and hopefully learn something about the Labyrinth as well.

Regards,

Combeferre

Then he looks at Joly. "Let's contact them on the watches as well?"

[merryeccentricities]

Joly, now trying to get the cats into their harnesses instead, nods. "Yes, please go ahead--I don't think we can reach Bossuet or Courfeyrac but -- oh no , Tarsal, not the cabinets!"

He heads off in pursuit, assuming "but contact the others" will be obvious.

[wings_of_a_swan]

Combeferre looks at his watch and presses '1.' "Enjolras?"

He thinks Enjolras is in the library, though he's not sure.

(He spares a moment to grin and roll his eyes at Joly putting cats in harnesses. Joly is, at times, much too endearing.)

[pro_patria_mortuus]

A few moments pass. (In the library, Enjolras remembers what his watch chiming twice means, extracts it from his pocket, listens and waits briefly to see if there's any more message coming.)

Then his voice comes through the watch: "Yes?"

Fortunately, he's in a relatively isolated corner. He's not really sure of the etiquette of carrying on one-sided conversations into one's watch in a library.

[wings_of_a_swan]

"Enjolras? It's Combeferre--this is a wonderful device, isn't it? Can you imagine medical care with this? Sick people always able to see a doctor? Yes, well--I wanted to let you know that Joly and I are going to the Labyrinth now. We'd planned to go sometime later, but Bossuet and Courfeyrac just wandered in there drunk, so we're going to fetch them."

[pro_patria_mortuus]

There's a very brief pause.

(In the library, as Combeferre can doubtless picture, Enjolras is wearing the expression of a man repressing the urge to bury his face in one hand.)

"Do you want me to come?"

From his tone, he assumes the answer will be yes.

[wings_of_a_swan]

Combeferre can indeed picture it. He's seen it before. He's worn it before, he suspects.

"No, I don't think so," he says. "But please keep an eye on your watch? I'd like to try using the watches to communicate with you from the Labyrinth. I want to test it and see if it works."

Combeferre is still not finished playing with, and learning about, the watch's technology. Why miss an opportunity to do so?

[pro_patria_mortuus]

"All right, if you like."

The you here is plural, to include Joly.

"Be careful, though. We don't know what's in there besides what Bossuet ran across."

And Bossuet ran across A DRAGON.

Besides, Combeferre and Joly are brave, brilliant, loyal, observant, and not in the slightest known for reinforcing each other's tendencies towards common sense.

[merryeccentricities]

Joly nods, but also says out loud "Yes, we should be in time to catch up to them. We'll try to call if it looks like they've gone too far or-- or anything." He clips the cats' leashes onto his knapsack and regards the whole affair thoughtfully. "And I think I've taken every precaution...? Combeferre, does it look like we're forgetting any thing?"

[wings_of_a_swan]

"I don't think there's much chance of that," Combeferre says dryly, looking at Joly's heaps of provisions, supplies, and cats.

"Let's be off? You know how to get there, don't you?"

[merryeccentricities]

Joly nods. "I've been avoiding it until I could stage a proper expedition-- which this isn't." He grins. "Well, it can be an investigation! We can make preliminary notes."

Speaking of notes. He starts writing one for Lesgle, and nods at the watch Combeferre is still holding. "Can you reach the others?"

[wings_of_a_swan]

Combeferre quickly lets Bahorel and Feuilly know what is happening.

He casts a look at Joly's belongings. "Shall we? And let me carry some of that."

[merryeccentricities]

Joly frowns and nods at the coat-closet. "Get a cape on, first." By the time Combeferre's done that, he's gotten at least some of the blankets and spare boxes rearranged into a separate pack.

He points his cane to the door. "Shall we?"

[wings_of_a_swan]

They go.

The woods are dark, and Combeferre doesn't know where to turn. He suspects Joly doesn't, either.

But then--

"Look!" Combeferre points. There's a triangle-shaped light floating in front of them. He takes a step, and another, and the light moves on ahead.

He turns to Joly, drawing a deep, excited breath. "It's shaped like a delta. Didn't you say that was how the Labyrinth was marked? This must be the way."

[merryeccentricities]

It seems like a good idea, or at least a plausible idea. They follow the light for a while, but it's not getting any closer. Joly's about to ask Combeferre if he doesn't think it might be some sort of optical illusion when he notices that they are not exactly walking through the usual Outdoors of Milliways. It's stone under their feet.

...and stone around them, too. Lot of twisty little passageways sprawling out on every side, all of them looking the same. He reaches out to catch at Combeferre's arm. "Ah-- look. When did this happen?"

Because it seems like something one of them should have noticed, surely.

[wings_of_a_swan]

...yes, it does. Combeferre has been accused of absent-mindedness often enough, when he's concentrating on some scholarly pursuit, but surely this is too much even for him.

"I don't know," Combeferre says. "But I think we can safely say we are in the Labyrinth."

They go on until they see a wall directly in their path, with no way of going around it.

The wall has two doors, each high and arched and improbably covered with purple sparkly material, and each door has a guard.

"Good day, messieurs," says Combeferre. "We're looking for a couple of friends of ours who have come in here--do you happen to know the best way?"

"This way," says one guard, pointing to his door.

"Don't listen to him, he's a liar," says the other. "My door is the right way."

Combeferre looks at Joly, eyebrows raised, and pulls him aside to whisper. "Is this meant to be a judgment of character? Or a logic puzzle?" He shakes his head. "I wonder how Bossuet and Courfeyrac managed to even get inside, as drunk as they are."

[merryeccentricities]

Joly would dearly like to be able to defend his friends, but, well. Here they are. "I've heard the Labyrinth changes. Maybe they found another door; or maybe this one is just to confound us, or even to accomodate us. If it is a puzzle, how shall we approach it? I would suggest math, but even the most basic constants may be slightly different in this universe."

He holds up the compass hanging on his belt to prove his point. It spins lazily and unendingly. "And we don't know these fellows; so I suppose we'd better hope it's a logic puzzle."

[wings_of_a_swan]

Combeferre frowns, and then smiles. "If it's a logic puzzle, I know how to solve it. We ask either guard this question: If I asked the other guard whether you would tell the truth or lie, what would he say? And you see, if we're talking to the liar, he will say the other guard will say he--the first guard, that is--will tell the truth. If we're talking to the truthful one, he will say the other guard will say he will lie."

Combeferre beams. Surely this is the simplest and most explicable way out of their dilemma.

[merryeccentricities]

Joly thinks about it. He...thinks it makes sense? Anyway Combeferre seems sure it makes sense. "Right, I'll just ask this fellow, then."

He walks up to the guard on their left. "Monsieur, plesae tell me-- "

...wait, how is this supposed to work again? He's supposed to ask...if he asks the guard...if he asks the other guard...? Joly blinks.

He kneels down,to where the cats are milling around on their leashes, and scoops one up in each hand. He stands back up.

"Please tell me, am I holding a cat in each hand right now?"

[wings_of_a_swan]

"No," says the first guard.

Well, that answers that.

Combeferre and Joly walk through the second door, and...

...they're still in a Labyrinth. The walls are pale marble, and as they walk forward, the narrow paths turn into spacious courtyards. Still hemmed by walls, of course, but wide and with pillars and large flagstones, and sand spilling over them.

It's decidedly less claustrophobic than before, which is a good change.

[merryeccentricities]

It's warmer; Joly takes off his overcoat and one of his scarves. The cats scamper about to the end of their leashes. Joly tries the watches; nothing happens to show that any transmission is coming.

...There's sand. And flagstones. The compass spins.

Joly tries the watch again; a weird burst of something like music comes through,but with instruments he doesn't recognize, then fades out.

...It's a very nice field to be wandering through. Still.

" I don't see how they could have gotten this far before us with no sign, do you?"

It's idle talk, really. He won't start fretting properly for another half hour at least. But idle talk would help.

[wings_of_a_swan]

"No," says Combeferre. But does this place follow any sort of rules? Such as the laws of nature? If not, then Bossuet and Courfeyrac could have gone through the same door and ended up somewhere completely different. Combeferre will not mention this to Joly just yet.

If Joly wants idle talk, Combeferre will provide. "I hear you had a conversation with the spy," he says.

By Combeferre's standards, this is light gossip.

[merryeccentricities]

Well it's certainly distracting! Joly laughs at the abruptness, but sobers a little remembering the actual conversation. "Yes. I suppose I did. I hadn't really meant to, it was..."

He frowns. "I don't think the man wants to be here; I don't know why he stays when he arrives. But he seems very unhappy."

Joly is aware that he's possibly the only one of his friends who cares even a little about the spy's happiness. But he finds he does care, a little.

[wings_of_a_swan]

Combeferre doesn't care.

Oh, he cares, in a philosophical way. But does he feel any particular or personal warming to the unhappy spy? He does not. That sort of sweetness, that small and valiant generosity, is Joly's forte, not his, and Combeferre loves him dearly for it.

"I hope he didn't say anything to distress you," he says. Combeferre has heard things from Enjolras that suggest the spy can be crueler than necessary.