IC: Contact

[but_civilization]

If anyone has need of me, please leave a message here and I will respond to you shortly.

Thank You.

Comments

Video

[assumedposition]

[Shortly after this encounter, Albert sends an awkward video message to Combeferre. Awkward, because he's walking briskly and holding his communicator in one hand while holding something quite heavy in the other-- though it isn't visible what on screen. He's also somewhat out of breath.]

Monsieur Combeferre! I'm sorry for the short notice, but may I ask a rather large favour of you?

Video

[but_civilization]

I...think that I might help with that, provided that I am able of course.

[There's a bit of a squint at Albert as Combeferre wonders exactly what might be going on. With his friends and "favors" , there tend to be a variety of odd situations that one finds himself in, so he's a little, not concerned exactly, but wondering what he is in for anyway.]

What seems to be the trouble?

Video

[assumedposition]

Ah... it's probably for the best if I don't say it out loud right now. It's a bit ... sensitive.

[He's worked out how to make private filters, but encrypting them to be unhackable is slightly beyond him, and he isn't about to endanger his friend by leaving anything to chance.]

May I come to your rooms and explain the situation in person?

[lecentre]

Michel... Please get in touch as soon as you get this.

[There is a panicked tone to Courfeyrac's speech... But he leaves it at that.]

[but_civilization]

Courfeyrac? Of course. I can come to you at once, or you might come here.

[He was in tonight, and reading, so it's just a matter of minutes before he is checking the message.]

What can I do for you?

[lecentre]

I am unable to find or get in touch with Jehan...

[voice]

[lecentre]

I was wondering, my friend, if you had a spare moment or several to visit with me over a bottle of wine.

Re: [voice]

[but_civilization]

For you, Courfeyrac? Always. Shall we stay here or venture somewhere quiet on the ship?

[voice]

[lecentre]

Wherever, I truly do not mind either way.

[vivelavenir]

[Left outside Combeferre's door, a small package, containing the following lovely item with a note of explanation. (While satire isn't Jehan's strongest suit, it is certainly not his weakest...)]

My Dear Friend,

To the Tiresias who would stop the serpent in order to study it, one veil of modesty to cloak yourself in.

Use it for midnight romances, or perchance, to stalk about after one's friends in places with wider doors-- the kitchens, maybe?

In a suitable style, as decided by my companion the cat; and in deepest black, in mourning for one's dignity.

It will show off your shoulders most dutifully! And with scandal enough to make the pale roses blush.

With Warmest Regards,
The One You Swore to Secrecy,
Yours,
-J.

[He had it coming after his night of drunken confessions, really...]

[but_civilization]

[And left on Jehan and Courf''s door on a post it.]

My dear poet and cat,

I thank you for your gift of elegance and taste! I will be certain to employ your gift on the occasions which call for it indeed, should they arise.

Scandal may well prove to be of use in my designs of course, and I thank you.

-C

[vivelavenir]

[Among things that do not bode well, this letter may rank highly...

As such, Jehan finds a white flower in the gardens to pin to his door, in hopes that the colour of amnesty might be enough to prevent any 'scandalous design'.

...Or at the very worst, its hue would do nicely over the grave of modesty, if it did not!]

[vivelavenir]

[Slipped under the door on a carefully creased and folded bit of paper, in Jehan's looped handwriting, because he cannot quite bear to talk about it face to face:]

Michel,

With regret, it seems le petit soldat, notre cher Albert, and le petit écolier, M. Lupin have both disappeared from this ship.

It is as in the same manner that Marius once did.

I thought to inform you.

-Jehan

[but_civilization]

[And the news hurts a good deal when Combeferre gets the note, feeling it coming as if it is some sort of physical blow. He reels a little reading the note and, yes, it's hard to hear. True, he'd not spoken to either of them for a time, but even so...

He's getting up then, hoping to find Jehan in person, that he might speak to him about this, comfort him perhaps. But the oxygen gardens? Jehan's quarters? It's hard to say. He'll check both.]

[vivelavenir]

[The gardens, based on the note he left for Reynaud; by the little patch he'd planted, with Seraphim's help. Idling by it, anyhow; he had not expected anyone to come looking for him, nor had he wanted it to prompt it by way of the note. Only inform, not put a friend out of their way.]

Voice shortly after the jump

[lecentre]

Mon frere... [There is a bit of urgency in his voice, mixed with a mild bout of hysteria he's trying to keep down.]

Enjolras is nowhere to be found-- not yet that is. I have searched high and low and... and...

Well, I have Jehan and Bahorel keeping an eye out for him as well...

Re: Voice shortly after the jump

[but_civilization]

[The news is not good, certainly, and it cuts to Combeferre's being, but, more important in the moment, is the matter of Courfeyrac himself, just now. It's something that he has to hold together, for the moment.]

Perhaps...well. Let us not be overly... I am well enough to come to join you now, I think. Perhaps between all of us we...

Well, no one ought to be alone just now.

[lecentre]

[He should be covering his break down a little bit better- should be thinking of how it would affect Combeferre for him to be so hysterical over it...]

I... no, I agree completely... Though I would hate to burden you so-- I should come to you... Yes. All of us should come to you, rather. That sounds much better, does it not?

{Voice}

[vivelavenir]

[Courfeyrac is his duty, but Combeferre is his friend. And so there is a duty to him as well, now that Courfeyrac has come to him, and Jehan has said the difficult words that needed to be said: that Enjolras may not return, there is no great use in searching, even if he may. Better to be together, than to wander alone.

Now, to the one in greater need, because he can offer not much more:]

I am so sorry, Michel.

Let us be not alone, nor idle, nor in dread of the worst.

If I can help, but tell me how, and you would have anything I could give at a moment's notice.

We are all with you, in this, and for as long as we might be.

Re: {Voice}

[but_civilization]

[Much better at that. At the moment, Combeferre is uncertain of much of anything. His survival is one of those things that he will just have to learn to cope with, he supposes, in all of this, because there are the others here, and he can overcome these things enough to aid them, and the others of the ship as needed, of course, but for the moment, everything is difficult, and, much as he hates to burden Jehan, as he did not dare burden Courfeyrac, he finds himself letting out a long, almost shuddering breath at the message.]

No, surely not alone. I would not have that for the world if we might avoid it now. I...

[The next few words are quiet, rather broken, though his eyes behind his spectacles are dry.]

I'd somehow imagined that, should this day ever come, I would be there to guide him home, not...

[And he is stopping there, abruptly, glancing down for a long moment, to get his thoughts into some order.]

Some company might be appreciated, of all things.

[vivelavenir]

[A note, left beside the door to his room, atop a small box. Upon opening the letter, between the folds are pressed, yellow roses. It reads as follows:]

Dear Combeferre,

It has taken seeing Feuilly's face, exactly as I last recall it, to remind me that we are not so young as we once were. How many years might have passed here, in this equipoise of time and being? One, perhaps two...?

You must thank Mademoiselle Seraphim, if anyone at all, for she is much more accomplished than I in wisdom of the kitchen, and without her great help, I cannot have made this small gift to you. (Absolutely no microwaves were involved, friend.)

Accept it as a token of my friendship, in gratefulness that these have not been years spent alone, but in your eminent company. It is in celebration of a life that has matured so wonderfully, with the curiosity and faithfulness unparalleled. (May it also, though poor in substitute, be a reminder of home- and how your siblings must have like to have celebrated with you, and in their honour.)

Life, believe, is not a dream
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day.
Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall ?

Rapidly, merrily,
Life's sunny hours flit by,
Gratefully, cheerily,
Enjoy them as they fly !

What though Death at times steps in
And calls our Best away ?
What though sorrow seems to win,
O'er hope, a heavy sway ?
Yet hope again elastic springs,
Unconquered, though she fell;
Still buoyant are her golden wings,
Still strong to bear us well.
Manfully, fearlessly,
The day of trial bear,
For gloriously, victoriously,
Can courage quell despair!

(I recall you saying you enjoyed the sisters Brontë.)

Happy Birthday(s). Belatedly.

Bien à vous,
-J.


[Inside the box the note sits upon, find one small, rosewater cake.]

[Letter]

[vivelavenir]

[He could not have paid a visit or called. Such a face to face interaction was unthinkable at the moment.

So, too, he could not have gone to Bahorel. Not when Bahorel had predicted it. It would feel far too much like accepting his perdiction as fact if he had gone to that man, his great friend.

But Michel... Michel had been with him from the start, the very first minutes, and Michel loved Reynaud almost so much as he did, and so.

And so, this note, left under his door at a time he knew Eponine to be out:]

Michel,

Reynaud has not come back to the room in some hours- for a time that feels very much like a day or so now. Perhaps he is with you- though I do not think him thoughtless enough not to mention so? Or perhaps he has gotten misled- though he is not one to wander?

-J.

[He had been unable to write more than that, really.]

Action!

[but_civilization]

[The note slides in under the door and Combeferre is reading it the moment he finds it, with an increasingly sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, although, perhaps this is like the time they'd thought Jehan lost for a while. In any case, he should not be alone just now, so there is only one response needed. Combeferre is quick to prepare some tea, finding a few transportable cups and stepping out in search of his friend. Something to provide comfort might be a good idea just now.]

-> Voice. Dated slightly before the jump.

[vivelavenir]

My friend.

I'm sorry to contact you at such an awkward time.

You must be making preparations to leave, and seeing to your little brood-- what has become your family.

But, if you can spare a moment...

Re: -> Voice. Dated slightly before the jump.

[but_civilization]

Never awkward.

[The words are firm, because between them all, there could be nothing of awkwardness. Not here and now by any means.]

We have been readying ourselves, yes. [Packing, mostly, what could be carried. Notes, all of the handwritten ones, other things from home he doesn't want to risk, the other necessities crammed in where he can. It's hurried, but it may be important later.]

Anything for you, you know that.,