Absolutely everybody -- at or near the fireplace

[cook_the_rude]

This evening, there are several people relaxing by or near the fireplace the fireplace, doing slightly unexpected things. Among them are:

• Katrina Crane, seated in a comfortable chair, reading -- a romance novel?
• Pearse Harman, scribbling down bullet points for tomorrow's sermon while at a table with a glass of -- beer?
• Teja, in his usual chair by the trilobite tank, with all four cats and a soundly sleeping Egil, playing his -- guitar?
• Lady Margolotta, at a table drinking cocoa and cuddling a cute, pink-nosed -- rat?
• Dr. Hannibal Lecter, lounging on a sofa with his feet up, reading a book on -- demonology?
• Dorian Gray, sitting cross-legged in from of a coffee table, sensuously enjoying several different -- cupcakes?
• Madame Thénardier, hunched on an ottoman right by the fire, voraciously reading a book by -- Hilary Mantel?

[[OOC: Say in your tag whom you want -- open until it scrolls! Not trying to emulate the sheer numbers on the last one, though...]]

Comments

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

He scratches his beard, studying Teja's face. "In Paris, you know, that question would mark you for a police agent fishing to make an arrest, snapping up me and as many of my friends and connections as you could. You aren't, of course, a Paris police agent."

[ostro_goth]

Teja chuckles. "I was asking for the bigger picture, the political grievance, the injustice of your time," he says. "From what I learned so far, you were fully justified -- at least as I, a free Goth, would have seen things. We deposed our kings, lawfully, by decision of all fighting men in Thing, when they failed us."

Pause.

"Just so you know: - the traitor king Theodahad died by my very hand."

He sounds proud of it.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"I understand--and felicitations on the regicide, by the way--but I thought it might be useful to you to understand that when I see a policeman I don't generally see a friend. When some officer leans over my dinner to ask why I don't like police, and what have I done, I don't take it as a harmless inquiry." He scratches his chin again, then pulls over a chair.

"Well--if you go back to 1789--or, for you, forward--you'll see that the French people--ah, deposed the Bourbon king. Some people were satisfied to make him nod politely in the direction of a Constitution. Others saw that a king and the people's sovereignty could never co-exist. That king was executed. Europe was set against the tender new-hatched French Republic, and a fair portion of France was set against itself as well. In the interests of concise reporting: a military man, Bonaparte, found the opportunity to put on an emperor's crown. Goodbye again, Republic!"

Bossuet winces. Yes, this is the very, very short version. "Of course, you may know all that already. Well! Bonapartes don't last forever, even an eagle is short-lived. His military glory waned, and the Bourbon family returned to the throne. This was Louis XVIII, brother to the Louis who lost his head. He mollified the wealthiest few with a Charter, granting a Constitution and the vote for some 1% of the population. The king held the sole power to propose and sanction laws, and to appoint or recall ministers. That Charter! It looked enough like a concession to justice to keep people quiet. But when his brother Charles came to the throne, he made himself unpopular enough that even men who had smiled at his coronation began to complain. --Charles, we overthrew in 1830, two years ago for me. We were in reach of a Republic again, it was so close that you could see it, and then--oh, men like Lafayette talked behind closed doors, and we had another king."

He knows he's been going on for a long time, and looks apologetic. "You may regret asking for the bigger picture."

[ostro_goth]

"I do not," Teja says. "It seems that you freed yourselves from tyranny, only to have it come back again and again from dark corners, like an especially persistent zombie."

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"That's what power does, without a watch kept on it." Lesgle folds his hands over his knees and looks down at the floor. "Well, you've had the short version of the long view; without the history, the immediate grievances seem small, but without the thousand small grievances the history loses its meaning. All the little things: the muzzled press, the hungry workers. The cholera that came in the spring. Thousands dying of it in Paris, and of course the poor hit hardest. Algeria, good God! And every complaint stamped down into silence by police and soldiers, and this called 'peace.' That lie, and plastered all over it, the lie that we had fought and died in 1830 to put this fat king in place."

[ostro_goth]

"If that is peace, then it is the peace of the graveyard," Teja says, grimly. "And suppression is rarely the one big massacre -- it is the countless small cruelties over the years, slowly worsening."

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"Yes. And so they bear watching, even the small cruelties." He passes a hand over the top of his head, still staring down at the floor. "'The peace of the graveyard.' Well, this is a graveyard."

[ostro_goth]

"It is not," Teja says. "Some of us may be dead, but we are not lying within the ground, slowly putrefying. This is a place of second chances, of paths not taken."

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"Mmmm. But policemen still act like policemen, and the same privileges and prejudices apply, if in smaller ways."

[ostro_goth]

Teja raises an eyebrow at him. "There is a fine line between persistence and peskiness," he says, "and you are dancing quite elegantly upon it."

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"It's how I would speak to a friend."

[ostro_goth]

"With witty barbs, elegantly dancing on lines, poking while amusing?" Teja says, quite amused himself.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"About things that matter to me."

[ostro_goth]

"You should join Security, then," Teja says.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"I shouldn't have to, just so that someone like Gene Hunt won't look at my friends with contempt. At Enjolras and Joly--Joly, of all people! Does that seem right to you? You said you were bouncers in a bar; but this isn't simply a café that you can leave if you don't get along with the staff. Or if the staff doesn't like your politics or your nationality or your color or your friendships."

Hell, he hadn't been going to take the conversation there. Lesgle scrubs his face with his hands and changes the subject. "I ought to get back to work. But, by the way, Shephard is looking to barter for some livestock. I thought of your Gotlanders, of course, and told him I'd ask around, though I don't know if you can arrange any trade. I'm no farmer, it might be the wrong season to sell pigs or cows, but-- They are in a bad way, over there where he lives." There's not much Lesgle can do about it, but he's come to care quite a bit about Shephard's earth.

[ostro_goth]

"I suggest it because then, you may change it from the inside," Teja says. "It is the same challenge that I gave Gene Hunt, back when he kept complaining we were too lenient."

Pause.

"I saw the note, and I have been thinking of it -- it is good of you to remind me. I can arrange a trade -- it was a good year, they may have some surplus that they would slaughter around now, as to save on fodder for the ones they wish to breed. It would be a few sheep."

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"A power structure should be changeable from without. If it's not, if it's only answerable to itself, it begins to tip towards injustice and corruptions--maybe small, maybe not. Come now, Teja, you said yourself--"

He takes a breath and shakes his head. It wouldn't be the first time someone with power has said pretty words about what's right and done nothing that might inconvenience him.

"--I'll go back to work now. But do see Shephard. I think even one cow or pig would make a difference."

[ostro_goth]

"I shall seek him out," Teja says.

Pause.

"We disposed Theodahad by Thing -- the assembly of all fighting men," he then says. "I joined Security because I saw -- and still see -- that as the best way to be a fighting man again that may have his say. If one shares in the burden, one may share in the decisions. That is what I challenged Gene Hunt to, and that is what I now challenge you to, now."

He will not leave well alone: - he is Teja, he never leaves well alone.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

Bossuet isn't good at leaving well alone either, if it's as distinctly not well as this. "So only fighting men may have their say? Granted, I'm no damsel in distress, and neither is Bahorel--or Enjolras, or Joly. But this is not about me. Someone else might find himself--or herself--personally disliked by someone on the Security staff. People shouldn't have to be fighting men to be allowed to say there is a problem. They shouldn't have to have an acquaintance in the Security office. Suppose--ha. I don't know if you've met Fauchelevent's daughter. A pretty, sweet little thing, can't be twenty years old. Suppose she had to speak with Security, and found Gene Hunt with his feet on his desk and his bottle of liquor and his heavy breathing about tasty bits of girls. Would she get very far? There needs to be--"

He scrubs his face with his hands again. This is frustrating. "A person needs to be able to expect basic professional courtesy. Good God, Teja, if you can't see your way to suggesting any other form of change, you might at least challenge Gene Hunt to put on the smallest pretense of concern for the people he protects."

[ostro_goth]

Teja is already decided to do so; the part about the books, and not letting the man have visitors in peace, was truly out of line.

"Pitting Gene Hunt against Fauchelevent," he says instead, "would be truly cruel and unusual; for if he treated Cosette discourteously, then her father would step in. But there are those who have no fathers here; and all should be able to come here without a father's protection. Which is why we are here."

Pause.

"Also, I have seen Gene with Guppy Sandhu's children, especially his oldest son; and in dealing with them, he is considerate and patient, almost like a stuffed plush bear, albeit a battered, smelly one. I am sure he would never say such a thing to Cosette. I shall find out why he took such umbrage at you and your friends in particular: - but that is all I shall do."

Almost all. But he will not promise a patron to take his side in a conflict with Security; that way lies chaos. Security must solve this among themselves.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"Which is why you are here," Lesgle agrees. "And which is why people that aren't thick-skinned young men need to be able to speak with Security--or to eat their dinners in peace." He laughs bitterly. "And hell, there are troubles a girl might hesitate to tell her father about--or her husband--but it doesn't make them less troubling."

It's on the tip of his tongue to add that a member of Security could potentially be the cause of such troubles, and therefore Security needs some process to allow the careful handling of complaints--but this has been enough of an argument already. He sighs. "He doesn't like our nationality or our politics, at the very least, or whatever conclusions he's come to about our morals, none of which presents any threat to the Bar's safety. I doubt he'll make any pretense of it, but you never know; if you encouraged his hiring, he may feel the need to put up a front for you that drops before people he doesn't see as having any power over him. I don't know, but that's usual among the police. You come from a time before the police."

Mmh. He gives his face nother scrub and gets to his feet. "Thank you for hearing me out, at least."

[ostro_goth]

"Your complaints are not of a kind, or delivered in a manner, that I would not listen to them," Teja says.

Pause.

"Your morals? Those are truly none of his concern; you may drink and wench all you wish, here, as long as you are not doing the wenching in a public place."

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

Bossuet laughs again, tiredly rather than bitterly. "God only knows what he'll say or how much I'll regret it. --All right, these dirty dishes won't find their own way back to the kitchen, and I have a front of professional ethics to put up for the sake of the wait-rats. I'll see you about. And I hope you can make some arrangement with Shephard--thanks."

[ostro_goth]

"Indeed," Teja says. "And that, at least, I can do. I shall see you around, Lesgle."