milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Well, this is new. And that's OK! New is good. Unexpected is not, particularly, and that's why this particular young man's surprise at finding himself wandering strange corridors has quickly melted to suspicion, and then anger.

He schools himself out of it by the time he finds the stairs. He waits at the bottom of them, perfectly still apart from large, dark eyes that flit over the whole place, taking it all in with no expression on his face. Only the Window gets a second look, and when he's finished his surveillance he walks over to it and stands there, staring in mute wonder, one hand pressed to the glass.

He can investigate the room later. This is more interesting for now.

[OOC: Open all weekend! <3]

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Jeannot may have been embarrassed at being caught talking like a knowledgeable person--but he's even more taken aback at having such simple knowledge challenged. His chin goes up and he scowls. "Then you haven't been in the Midi. Or, or Bretagne. In fact--how could you come to France anyway? We're at war. We've been at war for--years."

'We're not at war with France.'

He stares for a while, then narrows his eyes.

'What year is it for you?'

"...1812."

The stubbornness melts out of his face. "What year is it for you?"

'1986.'

He's surprised, but it doesn't show. Or maybe a little in the slight hesitation before he speaks again.

'Well, look around. Lots of people are from different times.'

It's the only thing that makes sense, even if he doesn't get it at all.

Jeannot's surprise does show. 1986? That's the next century. It's...no, he can't do the arithmetic, not even on his fingers, but it's well into the next century.

"What is it like? 1986? Is it..." He hardly knows what to ask. "Is it good?"

James stares at him. That's not a very specific question.

'It's boring.'

What he thinks he probably means is that it's boring being ten in 1986, as it would be boring being ten anywhere. He doesn't yet know that it isn't going to get much better.

'Good compared to what? There's school.'

Something Jeannot doesn't know much about, if he's got a job already.

No, well, he knows it wasn't a very good question, and he's still not sure how to put into words what he wants to know. The things everyone complains about, have they been fixed? "Are there--are there other wars happening? Is bread very cheap? Are there--are there republicans or kings or--?"

Of course there's school for people like Jim, with his clean clothes and his shoes. There's always school for people like that.

There's school for everyone, and it's so much the norm that James would never think to mention it. He contemplates the questions instead. He knows a bit about the world because his parents watch the news and talk about things, and James reads everything he can get his hands on, including newspapers.

'There was a was in the Falklands three years ago. It wasn't very long, and we won. A big loaf of bread is about 30p. And there's a Queen in England, but not in Ireland. Not in the bit of it I came from.'

But Jeannot is probably more interested in France. James considers what he knows about it, and finds it isn't much.

'There's no royalty in France though. There was a Revolution.'

"Thirty!"

But maybe their money is different; he's heard about money changing in the revolution. Which, yes obviously he knows about. Unless Jim's talking about something else. "--In '89, sure. You mean another one?"

'...yeah. Thirty pence.'

It doesn't sound like a lot to him, but he knows very little about exchange rates. At the question, he shrugs.

'Think so. You tell me. If there's a queen or king in 1812, there must be another one to get rid of them. Or something like it.'

"Napoleon is emperor, not king." But what is the difference? He needs to find that out, doesn't he; but who is there to ask? "So--so, yeah. That makes sense, another revolution."

He wraps his arms around himself, and studies James. "What do you learn in school?" The question comes out abruptly.

He's heard of Napoleon! History isn't really his thing, but the name comes up in so many contexts it's hard not to know it.

'Boring stuff. Reading, and science, and maths, and music, and drama, and history, and geography, and P.E, and religion, and-'

It's all so blindingly simple he wants to pummel his teacher's faces in in frustration. School is a touchy subject for James these days.

'-it's pointless. Don't you go to school at all?'

"No." He considers asking what P.E. is, but apparently it's pointless, so. "What about--isn't there Latin and Greek?"

Everyone keeps saying that Latin and Greek are an essential part of schooling: say it derisively, or resignedly, or--sometimes--angrily, like shouting at a solid stone wall.

'Only in secondary school, and only in a few of them. The schools you have to pay for.'

He'll be going to one of them. State schools are not currently doing him any good, and he'll go insane if he has to be held back much longer.

'Maybe not Greek,' he adds, a moment later. 'Latin gets taught more in Ireland, but it's no use to anyone anymore. Most schools do French or German or Italian.'

He's going to assume that the schools you have to pay for just means the schools you have to pay a whole lot extra for. But anyway, that's interesting, about the Latin, and Jeannot tucks it away to think about. "Why German and Italian?"

The utility of French seems obvious.

((Aaah sorry I didn't see the notification for your reply!))

James replies with more patience than he feels. He's been making a study of responses to perceived helpfulness, when he can be bothered to remember.

'Because we're all in Europe, and there's lots of cooperation. Most people can speak English at some level, but we should learn too.'

He is interested in languages. It seems obvious that being fluent enough to pass as a native would be useful - and anyway, who wants to go anywhere with TOURIST practically tattooed on their forehead?

[OOC: No prob at all! :D]

Patience is very effective: his audience is listening attentively and starting to look almost companionable. "What kind of cooperation? For--" What do people talk about, when they talk about the world? "For trade? And alliances? --France is helping the Polish now, I think."

This goes along with other observations he's made about dealing with people. And it's a shame, because treating people how they deserve to be treated is far more fun. For him.

'Poland isn't in Europe, it's controlled by Russia.'

He is hazy on the details of all this, because while he reads everything and watches the news, math occupies most of his brain.

'It's for trade, and to stop Germany trying to take over. They signed something that means all the borders are going to be open in a few years, and anyone will be able to live anywhere.'

If this were two or three years later in Feuilly's life, he'd hotly contest the statement that Poland isn't in Europe. As it is, he just nods; it's one of those places that isn't France. "Yeah, it's controlled by Russia now, too. That's why Napoleon is going to send troops there, to Russia. Someone was talking about it in a café yesterday."

No one happened to be talking about Germany, not by that name, so he can't really add much to that: but it all sounds awfully familiar in a general way. "But you said there wasn't a war? Just that, that--Falklands--thing, you said."

He would so like to be able to show off and explain what happens with Napoleon and Russia, but he can't because he doesn't know. He makes a mental note to change that.

'Yeah. So?'

He doesn't know what that has to do with anything.

'There was the Second World War years and years ago, and they chopped Germany in half. There's a wall between us and the Communists. Everyone on our side works together-' he is not sure exactly how, but the EEC is definitely a thing, '-and everyone on the other side does what Russia says.'

"So--how is, uh, is Germany taking over?" It sounds a lot like a war to Jeannot. Whoever or whatever Germany is.

...Okay, as James go on, it's clear that Germany is a country after all. One that's been divided up. Again, familiar, although his understanding of world politics at the moment is limited. "That's the kind of thing that's happening all over--because there's a war."

James fixes him with a stare, his patience fraying now.

'There was a war, forty years ago. Millions and millions of people died. This is all to stop it happening again.'

His father has said that. Books say that. James...is having trouble working out what exactly is wrong with wars, because the alternative they have at the moment doesn't seem much better.

Jeannot stares right back, a little impatient with his impatience. He doesn't think he's asking stupid enough questions to earn him that look. "Right, but--but if it was cut in half and Russia controls one side, then why is it Germany you're worried about? Why not Russia?"

'They are. The Americans, anyway. Americans don't like Communists.'

No one does, apparently.

'But it was Germany who started that big war, and one before it when even more people died. They wanted to make sure it didn't happen again, and it hasn't. America hating the Russians is much newer, because they were on the same side in the war.'

Americans seem to hate everyone who doesn't have money, or does things differently, but James doesn't know enough to know if that's wrong or not.

'They fought Communists in Vietnam too, only about fifteen years ago. And they lost. And they both point their nuclear weapons at each other, which could kill everyone in the world. They don't care. They only care about winning. It's not a real fight though. It's called the Cold War. No one actually does anything.'

He's really going to need to find a map, isn't he. America, Poland, Russia, Germany, England, Ireland, Vietnam--he's keenly, painfully, aware that he's arguing something that's at and beyond the limits of his knowledge. And this English? Irish? boy is ready to sneer at any moment. But who else is going to talk to him about anything like this?

He digests it, and finds the least embarrassing question to ask. "Why don't they like Communists?"