Because a bar is a good place to study!

[merryeccentricities]

Well, it is if you're formerly a Parisian student of a certain era, and you're trying not to wake a roommate who had rather more to drink than you last night.

Joly's leg is starting to regret his decisions regarding skating and the can-can, in deference to which he's gotten a cane (it's retractable and expandable with the push of a button! Oh, the jokes. They will be made). But the rest of him is delighted. He got to visit the infirmary! He finally met one of the doctors here! He's got informational brochures!

He's sprawled in a chair with a nearby table and a bottle of wine and, predictably, at least one spare glass, giddily flipping through booklets with titles like "Diagnostic Module 325-A" and "Interpreting The Automated Differential Diagnosis".

He could be interrupted, though at the risk of hearing about his reading material.




((OOC: I'm going to be variably Here for the rest of the weekend, but the post is open and I'll respond when I can!))

Comments

[capture_eternity]

There is Dorian Gray, sauntering in through the door, wearing a long, trailing black kimono with embroidered golden emblems as a dressing gown over a light purple shirt, a steaming cup of tea in his hand.

"Oops," he says, astonished to see Milliways. "Not the usual door. Oh, hello, Joly! I hope our skate chain didn't damage you that badly!"

[merryeccentricities]

Joly smiles at Dorian, blinks a little at his outfit, and then smiles more broadly. He's seen worse, and not even at Milliways. He nods at the tea steaming away.

"Bringing drinks into the Bar? A sign of a true regular. No, this was my own fault, after you left our company. Bossuet and I decided to test the limits of our expertise, and, clearly, we found them. We're both fine though; what he got the worst of was only a little overindulgence. Did you escape the night unscathed?"

[capture_eternity]

"I did," Dorian says. "Without a scratch. I wasn't expecting the bar, or I would have put my tea down. I'm not really completely awake yet. What did you two to test your limits?"

[merryeccentricities]

" Oh-- a bit of dancing. The waltz, you know-- a little beyond what we should have attempted, maybe, but I say worth the experience." In many ways. " What time is it, in your world?"

[capture_eternity]

"I would have loved to see you and Bossuet waltzing!" Dorian laughs.

Pause.

"And as to your question, the answer is 'Too bloody early'."

[merryeccentricities]

Joly laughs too. " Ah, a fine familiar hour. And we waltzed very well, actually." He grins, mock-ruefully. "It was the can-can that was a bit beyond our skill."

[capture_eternity]

Dorian snorts with laughter.

"On skates??"

[merryeccentricities]

Joly is laughing too. "Indeed! Can you deny it would have been a triumph?"

[capture_eternity]

"It would have!" Dorian says. "Of course you had to try. What went wrong?"

[street_sparrow]

"What have you done to yourself?" Gavroche wants to know. "That wasn't from the skating, was it?"

[merryeccentricities]

" Good morning, Gavroche. No, this is not from the skating. It is from my own poor judgement, which happened while I was wearing skates." He's grinning. "Next time, I shall not attempt Romantic dances while wearing modern implements."

...He probably will. But it's fun to pretend!

[street_sparrow]

Gavroche blinks at him, and really tries hard to look disapproving before the laughter breaks through.

"Did you at least have fun doing it?"

[merryeccentricities]

"Indeed! And behold, the results of seeking knowledge!" He holds up one of the brochures he's reading. "Bossuet and I found ourselves in the infirmary, and I find myself on a path back to my proper studies."

[street_sparrow]

"Bossuet? What injury did Bossuet do himself?" He peers at the brochure.

[merryeccentricities]

"No more than his usual; a bump on the head. Oh, and drinks red - through- green."

It's a fascinating brochure. It's about how to calibrate sensors to accommodate different age norms!

[street_sparrow]

"...drinks red through green", he says warily. "Who was pouring the drinks? And you've jumped a long way ahead in your studies."

[merryeccentricities]

"Who indeed? The drinks were there, for the taking. So they were taken. And yes, I may have skipped a year or two. Clearly, I impressed some of the faculty with my excellent habits."

He tries very hard to deliver that last line with a straight face. He fails.

[pro_patria_mortuus]

Enjolras is used to seeing Joly with a walking stick; it was common in their era, and one of Joly's particular accessories besides. Unless there's visible bandaging, he won't notice the cane as a sign of anything wrong while Joly's sitting down. But the sight of a friend will always make him smile. The sight of Joly with such beaming, nearly palpable excitement over new reading material -- far more.

He had come down for coffee and to trade a borrowed book for another, but both of those will wait. He makes his way over to Joly's table.

[merryeccentricities]

Even caught up in catching up on the tools of his trade, Joly doesn't miss Enjolras arriving in a room. He almost stands up, but settles for a small wave. "Enjolras! I was hoping to see you today." He nods to the book Enjolras is still carrying. "Any good?"

[pro_patria_mortuus]

Enjolras settles down in the next chair.

"Mm. I'm not wholly convinced by his reasoning, but some parts are worth consideration."

The mun did not plan well, and doesn't have a title or author to hand, but it's a slim book of political and economic theorizing from the 1890s or so.

"And you, my friend?"

He's rather expecting a long and enthusiastic answer. It will be welcome, whatever it entails.

[merryeccentricities]

Why, it's like they've met before.

Joly holds up some of his own reading material-- this one on interpreting readings of environmental hazards on the tricorder. "I am doing splendidly. Bossuet and I discovered the infirmary after the dance the other day-- by the way, I think you rather missed out on that, there was some very interesting business with the lights that you might have liked to see, though I cannot imagine you on roller skates-- and I met your acquaintance Doctor Tam, and I shall be allowed to continue my studies there! Starting my studies, I should say, given how much progress in the field I have to discover."

He's not going to tell Enjolras about The Joys of Diagnostic Technology-- Enjolras would listen, Joly knows, but not understand, and Joly is aware enough to not be an utter bore. Besides, there are other things to talk about that Enjolras can understand, or at least so he's hoping.

"But that's not why I was hoping to find you today. After we'd gotten ourselves sorted out, and Bossuet was resting"--he doesn't elaborate, as he would if there were a real disaster; Bossuet needing to rest off a night at a party hardly needs explaining-- "I met a remarkable fellow, his name's Autor, maybe you've met him? I wish I'd met him sooner, he's made a real study of the place, it's going to be so helpful in my own explorations. At any rate, he's been here some time, and well, we wound up discussing the society here-- what it is that a person might consider unique to Milliways as a home, you know. As a people."


Joly is not ready to discuss everything that Autor prompted him to consider- not here, in the coomon room. But the theater is the relevant issue here, anyway.

[pro_patria_mortuus]

He'd be welcome to talk about The Joys of Diagnostic Technology. Enjolras wouldn't understand much of it, of course, but he enjoys his friends' enthusiasm. He'd enjoy Joly's enthusiasm in this moment, specifically; there's a very dear familiarity, too, in having a friend enthuse about incomprehensible science.

Anyway, he smiles back, and it's quite sincere. "Good," he says, to the news about Joly's enrollment in the infirmary. "I'm glad -- that's very good."

Joly is continuing on, and Enjolras listens, and shakes his head slightly: no, he hasn't met Autor. But he's interested, visibly so, at the news that Autor is a remarkable fellow who's been making a study of Milliways. "Oh?"

[merryeccentricities]

" Yes, here," Joly hands over the somewhat battered copy Autor gave him "you can see, he's even made his own map! Which, of course, it's still worth making my own study, even if the place didn't change size-- and I've checked with Gavroche, it definitely does--, but now I have other research to compare. We might be able to start finding a pattern! And I think I'm well warned to know about the holidays, at the very least."

He's still not sure what he's going to do about the holidays, but it's nice to know they're coming.

"You should talk to him, if you get a chance. He thinks much as we do, in a way-- in his vision for his own world. I admit he's a rather serious fellow, could seem a bit reserved to some, but I have faith that you can look beyond that." Joly's smiling; it is of course a joke. Autor is serious, but next to Enjolras he looks like...well, like Joly. "He has his secrets, you understand, as such efforts sometimes require. But he is in earnest."

"And he is also, in his own way, not able to return to his home yet-- though he can travel to other worlds, as we can't, on our own. So Milliways is his home too, for now, as it is ours. And we were speaking about what this place-lacks, in spite of everything. Well, he asked if I thought there was anything. And I mean-- there is, isn't there? Something that makes this place feel...impermanent, not like a home, not in the way a city or a nation would be home. It's not just size; there's a lack of common culture, common connections. At least- so it seems. Though I'm only recently arrived; you may have found otherwise, by now."

Joly rather strongly suspects Enjolras has, in fact, not found Milliways especially homelike. But it is Milliways; strange things happen, and perhaps there's been some sort of overnight epiphany here involving portals and the Spirits of Milliways Patrons of Old, or some such.

[pro_patria_mortuus]

Enjolras accepts the guide; he's reading through it as Joly speaks. And, to someone who knows him, very clearly making mental notes: yes, this Autor fellow (is that really his name? Well, it's no stranger than a fan-painter named Feuilly) is clearly someone worth talking to.

All the same, his lips twitch at the joke. "I'll do my best," he murmurs, dry, under Joly's continuation.

And the continuation: yes. Guide or not, he's listening seriously, and he lifts his head from the booklet at the end. "No," he says. "That's been my experience as well. It's a café, it has its regulars and lodgers, but the surrounding neighborhood is lacking."

Not especially homelike.

[merryeccentricities]

Joly has to laugh at that. "No- perhaps a more athletic man might enjoy it more. Seems to lend itself to rather solitary pursuits. We were discussing ways to change that."

Deep breaht. If it sounds absurd in front of Enjolras it probably is absurd.

"We're actually planning to get a theater going."

That wasn't so bad.

"Only planning, right now, the very earliest stages-ha- but we mean to see it through. It would be something to bring many of us together, and I'm sure in this bar there must be people with all manner of talents. I was hoping I could convince you to help us with it."