After Many Things

[merryeccentricities]

The dream with the inventory and the surplus of penguins is familiar; that the penguins take off flying is (also familiar) not at all, and Joly blinks half-awake in some confusion. Which turns to panic because he's gone he's gone where is he, and that sets him gasping, awake completely.

As soon as he is entirely awake, the weird panic vanishes. No one is missing; Bossuet is right next to him, the cats are asleep on the furniture that they should least be sleeping on, and even the beetle is still on the ceiling where he'd flown last night before they could put him in his warren.

Joly rubs his eyes and curls up closer to Bossuet again, already starting to fall back asleep , half smiling. Maybe they'd both had a little too much last night (last week) after the fireworks, but that's all right, everything's all right, they're both here and Bossuet is missing Guignon she's gone too--

Joly frowns. He's used to fretting, but there is...nothing wrong? Maybe things are a little complicated now, but it's a complication he doesn't mind. Of course he is upset, they're all upset with the political situation being what it is,all that fighting at the barricade just to see another king--

He blinks and sits up. He hasn't thought about the barricade in weeks, really; not since the anniversary. And the barricades of 1830 haven't been on his mind in months and months, even though it just happened--

--three years ago.

Maybe he's having a stroke? Or drank something he really shouldn't have? That would be comforting, he knows how to worry about medical problems.

He's just sure he isn't having one.

"Um." he says, very quietly, to a room somehow missing everyone who should be in it.

Comments

[merryeccentricities]

Joly grins. "Oh, I have lots of theories about that. Would you like me to tell you about brainwaves, and potential electromagnetic projections, or the possible way that the energy of the human body would interact with the medium of--of--" he claps his hands together in triumph and sits up. "-- Aether! They had actual aether in that world! And oh, I did have a lot of theories. I think it entirely explainable without getting religious, if you want to avoid that."

He blinks as he thinks that over. "--What part of us do you think came through here? Do you suppose our actual bodies fell through our doors?" It's not an argument. Joly's been wondering this himself for a while.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"Hm! You mean--us us, not the, ah, the usses that were here with their, ah, daemons? I--well, I certainly feel as though I have a body. I eat, I sleep, I confess that I have an amorous disposition--but hmm, I suppose you mean, ah, was there--was there something left in Paris?"

[merryeccentricities]

Joly smiles and shoves at Legle fondly for the amorous disposition remark. "--Yes, I suppose. I'd say that it makes the most sense to assume something like the Federations's transporters, with our bodies being, oh, sort of remade on the way here, and that works for some of us, but I...remember opening the door..." He frowns, but only in attempted recollection; shaken as he had been, he barely remembers arriving in Milliways at all. The 1830 of the daemons, dreamlike as it's becoming, is still more immediate than his own June 7th.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

He squeezes Joly's shoulders at the little shove. "I...hm, I admit it, I have no explanation whatever. I have always assumed that there were--well, call them earthly remains if you like." Lesgle waggles a hand at the phrase: ooh, genteel. It's easier than saying he'd assumed there was enough left for a funeral. "Do you have any plans to study it?"

[merryeccentricities]

Joly catches one of Bossuet's hands in his and hmms cheerfully, thinking. "I was studying it at first. But then it didn't seem very pressing, and there was so much else to learn. But if other versions of us are going to start coming in and borrowing our time here I may have to consider it again."

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

Lesgle twines their fingers together comfortably. "Well, you know I'm always a willing subject for study, happy to sit under any array of blinking lights or buzzing buzzers. --So I suppose they're back in their world now? I wonder if one could send a message in any way."

[merryeccentricities]

"We might leave messages with Madame Bar? Milliways is likely the same place for every time and world. If it happens again, or if it's been happening--it might be we could even carry on a correspondence!" Joly grins. "That would be amazing, I'd have so many questions for them."

He smiles, thinking of possibilities. After a moment, he says "Oh!--It was something like a cat. But it wasn't a cat."

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"That's true; at the very least we can leave messages. But do you think--were we somewhere else while they were here? Or did we alter.... Hm? Oh! Oh. Yes. Yes, something like a cat..."

He sketches a curve with his hand, the line of a sleek animal with a long tail. "Silvery. And spotted."

[merryeccentricities]

Joly smiles. "Something soft and very clever. A beautiful creature.--I'll have to see if I can find anything like it, I would like to see one again. I don't think it was something native only to that world? --Yes, we can leave them messages. I hardly know what. Mm- I don't know where we went. Or if we did go anywhere? If we were entirely separate from them , I don't think we'd have the memories left over? It doesn't feel at all like your flu." He blinks. "I was sick, though. But I don't know anyone who remembers having the flu, er, together."

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"Combeferre could probably name the creature from a description--but here, you're far ahead of me when it comes to these computers; is there a way to ask a computer What sort of animal is soft and silvery and spotted and very clever, with a tail? And if not, what good is a computer?"

Lesgle yawns and scratches his beard, trying to put his mind to the question of where they were if they weren't here, or who they were, or what it all meant. No conclusions present themselves in any useful way. "Mmh. You'll need someone cleverer than I to solve this, I think; but as I said, I'm always happy to sit as an object of study."

((GAH, I'm so sorry, I didn't spot the notification that you'd replied!))

[merryeccentricities]

"There is, actually-- I can show you how, later. Unless you really want to see right now? The tablet should work. It's a little early to head for the Library, I think." Keen observers may note that Joly is in fact not even much heading for the bedside table.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

Lesgle makes a noise of effort--enh--and gives up the attempt on getting out of bed. "It can wait; I am content to know that your computer earns its keep. I really should learn my way around those things..."

[merryeccentricities]

Joly, who's been making general efforts at getting well under the covers, sighs significantly, then laughs and rolls over to the table instead. "Well, who am I to discourage you from learning?"

He grabs his own tablet and leans back over to show Bossuet. "...look, see, there's this program? And-- uh, cat-like, silver, spotted..." he types in words, quickly.

...And there it is. "Genet." His voice is suddenly very soft. He taps on a picture of a little soft-silver creature; it expands to fill the screen.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

Laigle has to angle himself to see the screen properly--and then, yes, there it is. That's Musichetta: her daemon, at least. Whose name is--is--is on the tip of his tongue. He reaches out, his fingertip nearly touching the screen. "Yes, that's right," he says, his voice a little rough.

[merryeccentricities]

It's strange, the feeling of looking at a photograph of a strange animal and feeling as if he were looking at one of the dearest loves of his life.

Strange, but not unwelcome, and he's smiling a little even if he might start crying soon. There's no portrait of Musichetta, no locket or sketch to remember her by, and he's suddenly grateful to the memories of his other-self for this connection, unlikely as it is, temporary as it might be.

Joly takes Legle's hand, fighting the urge to apologize; Bossuet had wanted to see this too, and he loved her, too, and probably there's no way around that without at least a little sting. And their own daemons belong to another world; he can't reach out to hold Guignon, or feel Alcmaeon curling up against Bossuet or his daemon for connection and shared comfort. But he holds Bossuet's hand tight, and has to hope it's enough.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

It is enough; it isn't; this elegant little creature isn't the Musichetta that Lesgle misses, but it's a hint at how another-him felt about her, and about Joly. After taking a long look, he leans down to kiss Joly's shoulder, and then rest his head there. "Maybe we can leave a message." (Another thing that won't be enough; what can they possibly say?)

[merryeccentricities]

Joly sets the tablet aside before shifting to wrap both arms around Bossuet. He laughs, very softly, at Bossuet's suggestion. "A message to her--? I couldn't. There's too much to say, and none of it's mine to talk about. And for myself?" He laughs again."I'll give him all sorts of useful notes about medicine and science and maybe even our own world's history." He laughs again, and kisses the side of Bossuet's forehead. "But that part of things he has to figure out for himself."

Joly's quiet a moment, smiling a little at nothing. "I think he may have an advantage there anyway. With the way daemons are--the way I remember they are, anyway."

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

He nuzzles Joly's shoulder silently for a little while. "No, well, you're right," he says at last. "I've never managed to say what I wanted to say, writing notes to Musichetta; never said anything useful. --Yes, I think we all did manage better, with daemons It--I remember--"

No, it's gone now. Lesgle thunks his forehead lightly on Joly's shoulder before sitting up. "Right, well. What else does this computer do?"

[merryeccentricities]

Joly frowns a little, but picks up the tablet again. He starts to tap the screen and opens his mouth to say something, frowns again, shuts his mouth, looks over at Legle, and frowns harder. As frowns go, it's rather fond and probably not very effective.

He puts the tablet back down and rubs his nose for a moment, thinking.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

Lesgle would call the frown highly effective; he raises his eyebrows at it immediately. "You are rubbing your nose," he says, "which is the sign of a sagacious mind. Will you tell me what you're thinking, my dear, with your sagacious mind?"

[merryeccentricities]

joly blinks at that--he's never really noticed his own habit-- and then laughs a little. " I was just trying to remember. Well, what that version of me remembered. About Musichetta,and the daemons, but--mm." But his memory keeps getting fuzzy about everything beyond Milliways, and the people he talked to in Milliways. And the untranslatable experience of the daemons, and the odd sensations of their interactions with each other, and with other people--

He fidgets a moment. "...have I been very slow for very long?"

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"Hmmm?" Slow is the last thing he'd call Joly. Laigle blinks at him. "I think I'm the one who's slow; I don't follow you?"

[merryeccentricities]

..Really?

Joly frowns in frustration,trying to think of how to explain (and what is he trying to explain?) and settles for making a frustrated noise and pulling the sheet halfway back over his head in surrender.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"Hey, now!" Laigle studies the sheet situation for a moment, then begins prodding slowly and gently at Joly's elbow and anything else in reach. "I know you're under there, Jolllly."

[merryeccentricities]

Legle's scientific investigation of the sheet situation may reveal that there is a Joly, and he is still ticklish. Joly shouts and flails and falls over onto Bossuet's lap. " No fair- aha! --no fair!" He flails again, trying to turn so he can look up into Lesgle's face. He is very put out. Legle can probably tell by the giggling.