milliways_bar | (no subject)

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'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the...stable? There was...not much of anything going on, really. Javert has been sleeping out here for the last couple of weeks, and tonight will be no different. Cheval has been nosing around for his next bottle, so he fetches it from Bar, trying not to yawn too obviously where anyone can see. He also considers another blanket, but it seems indulgent, so does not.

Bar also produces a gift, which he stares at for a moment. This again? But then, he supposes it is the season. He asks the bar to keep them for now, and walks back through the snow to the foal. It may be Christmas night, but it the same as any other to him and he is sure it will stay that way.

Valjean, watching this exchange, follows him out.

[OOC: Merry Christmas, everyone! This post open through New Year. If you want to chuck random animals etc in, go ahead. The more cracktastic the better, say I. If not, no worries - he's taggable at the bar too. Also, I will be tagging up everything I owe as soon as I've wrapped the last few presents over here. <3333 you all!

ETA: I completely forgot to set this up the way I planned. Ah well. Valjean, when I tag him in, is also entirely taggable by anyone. And will probably be in a far more festive mood, lets be honest. Also, feel free to tag each other if you want to be all 'wtf I'm in a stable' to someone else! I'm allgood with that. <3]

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"He seems really patient, even if people have what might be kinda stupid questions," she says. "And that's important. Some people think that just because they know something, everybody should, that it's common knowledge. And sometimes it isn't."

"Guppy knows to explain, but he never dumbs down his explanations," Teja says. "His son Fry, I sometimes do not understand in the context; he thinks lightning-fast and jumps from idea to idea. But then, Fry is only five."

"I think I might've met him a while back," she says. "We were down at the bar getting some ice cream and we met a boy about that age, really smart, kinda looked like Guppy. We missed the introduction thing, but we had a nice talk."

"Really smart," Teja says. "Yes, that is Fry."

He hugs Egil.

"You are shaping up to be very smart as well, puppy!"

"Smart, and tall," she says. "And probably hungry--anybody joining us for dinner, or is it just us? We should probably go start cooking soon."

"I invited Jean Valjean for dinner, but he prefers to stay with Javert," Teja says. "But he promised he would come another time, very soon. He is a truly good man; one of the few to do the Christian religion proud."

Edited 2013-12-27 21:01 (UTC)

"That's good," she says, nodding. "I sorta invited Javert but he said no; I'm glad he'll have company anyway."

"That was bold and good of you," Teja says, "and of course he said no -- he said no to everything tonight, as far as I can tell. He refused to take the blades I meant to give him, also. He is exercising the power of 'no' as a small child would; maybe he never truly had a chance before, and now refuses everything."

"He's got a right to say no to things," she says. "When I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to. Saying no meant you put yourself above other people and above God--but it doesn't. Sometimes it just means you're asserting yourself, your independent existence."

Teja nods. "And he is over fifty years old," he says. "What manner of a life must he have had, if he never had a chance to assert himself and deny those around him in that manner, before?"

"Exactly. So he can say no all he wants--it doesn't mean I'm gonna stop offering. I'm a lot more stubborn than people give me credit for, you know."

Stubborn and patient.

"Especially if he is saying no to good and useful things," Teja says. "I can see that Javert has no practical need for a sword, unless Vlad Draculea returns, and Javert decides to challenge him to a duel; but a short, handy knife? Everybody needs such a thing. Food, also. He aims to be self-sufficient and pay for all that he takes or uses; but he does not realise that he may pay in other ways than money or work. He is stubborn; but we shall see who is more stubborn, in the end."

Pause.

"Also, in the end, he will tire of needless physical hardship. Hopefully."

"I can't fault him for wanting to pay his own way," she says. "I do too--that's why I'm trying to set up a business. Maybe more than one business. If you don't owe anybody anything, have to rely on anybody for anything, nobody else owns you. You're your own person. Maybe he's a little more extreme with it now than he needs to be, but that's fair."

"You understand him well," Teja says. "Well enough so you do have a good chance to out-stubborn him."

"I know people, and I can let things go. Some things you can't take personally."

Some things you can. Some things are intentional. But a lot of things aren't.

"It's a shame nobody's coming. I think you're gonna like what I'm cooking tonight."

"I think they chose to be with their own families," Teja says. "Or, in this case, horses and nemeses."

"It just means more pastelón for us," she says. "I hope you're hungry. I know I am. Egil gets his own food, but we all get the same dessert--you're excited about that, aren't you, puppy? We get pudding tonight."

"Good food, to share as a family," Teja says. "What pudding is it -- or is that a surprise?"

"It's coconut," she says. "One of Andi's family recipes--coconut with a little bit of cinnamon. I kinda borrowed your skull-shaped molds for it; I hope that's okay."

Why not make skull-shaped pudding desserts? There's no rule against that.

"It is," Teja says. "We can clean them well before I next cast metal skulls."

Because metal skulls are equally necessary.

"We should get one set for food and one for not-food," she says. "I want to cast some in different-colored clear resin and make ornaments--I want a Halloween tree. Resin might be heavy for that though, but we got time."

"For a Halloween tree, one would rather use dark, dead. twisted branches, than an evergreen that smells of resin?" Teja says.

She looks down at the branches she's holding.

"Metal. You're gonna make us a metal tree, that we can take apart because otherwise we'd never be able to move it. That'll hold resin skulls just fine."

"That is an interesting idea," Teja says. "Metal -- I could use wood-pattern metal, mokumegane, if I stick to bronze and brass and the like, rather than precious metals."

"I don't want it to look like an actual tree, but like... the idea of a tree. Of a tree in a nightmare. All jagged and clawlike, you know? It's gonna need a fence or something to keep Egil away. I don't want him falling on it. Or... no branches at all, for the first couple feet."