milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

[OOM: Do you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night?
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light.

...

Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes...
Tomorrow comes!]

He can hear a distant song, the fading echo of drums, and there is a light that is too bright to be of the world he knows. He stumbles toward it, eventually all but falling through a doorway into...

Well, into he isn't sure where. He looks around him. Surely his comrades should be with him also, if this is indeed the afterlife the priests often spoke of. But there are no faces he recognizes, and he does not believe that the world beyond would take the form of a wine shop even if such a place did exist.

Bloodstained, tattered, smelling of gunpowder, he weaves his way toward the bar, feeling an overwhelming need to sit.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"And they share thoughts. He always knows what's going on when she does. His name's Mike."

He decides not to mention the part where Mike used to be a giant anthropomorphic turtle.

That is probably wise at the moment.

"This is quite the fantastical place we've landed ourselves in."

Gavroche chuckles.

"And you've only been here ten minutes. Wait until you meet some of the patrons."

Enjolras smirks.

"I may need something stronger than water..."

"Probably", he agrees cheerfully. "Just don't let anybody talk you into into trying Atlantean. It's stronger than it looks."

"No, I think I will stay to wine." He had always abhorred Grantaire's drunkenness.

"It is a wine, I think, but rare and old and... special. Except nothing's really rare here." He nods. "Sure you'll stick to just the water for now?"

"Yes, I think I will."

He looks around the room slowly, trying to take it all in.

"Where does everyone come from?"

"Anywhere and everywhere", Gavroche tells him. "Worlds and times before and after ours, and some that aren't supposed to have really existed at all. I've met Greek gods."

"Greek gods? Have we found our way to the underworld, then? Or is this Olympus?"

"They come here from Olympus. Or sometimes from the modern world, some of them are still around, managing the best they can."

He laughs then. "What a remarkable idea! Gods roaming around among men as though they are still relevant, still hold any power."

Gavroche grins at him.

"They don't have a lot of power, no. I think they just barely get a few followers, so they can survive."

"I'm amazed they even have so many as necessary for that."

He shrugs. "It might be a looser definition of followers then the old days, with temples and all that. Maybe just people knowing their names."

"If knowing a name is enough to give it power, then perhaps the battle is not lost after all."

"It never was, my friend", Gavroche says more quietly. "Not as long as there was still someone to fight it. And things do get a lot better."

"You have seen it, then? The future we fought for?"

"Some of it." He smiles. "Everyone can vote, over a certain age. Women, too. And even the poor have more money than they ever saw in our time."

Enjolras frowns. "But still there are poor, and presumably rich as well, who live off their suffering."

"Ah, brother, there'll always be those. But people know more, and care more, and the poorest are helped. No one has to send their children out to work or see all the family starve. Everyone gets education."

"No. I cannot accept that. Is this what we fought for? Died for? For the poor to be a little less poor, while the rich continue to extort them for their own benefit? Liberté, égalité, fraternité. We must accept no less than this."

"It's progress, to something that won't happen overnight. And I died for Les Amis."

"As did I, my friend. But the fight is far from over, it would seem."

"It is for you, Enjolras", Gavroche says gently. "Unless you can find yourself a miracle too. There's no going back."