video 1

[gardienne]

[Eponine's holding the video upside down. Not that she's aware of that. Actually, she's only just managed to get the thing on and working without a barrage of messages about jumps and vampires and some sort of Smiley. Coupled with men who claim to be dead, no matter how nice they might be, and a woman who hands out silk shifts as if they were dresses - and food - Eponine's just a little bit overwhelmed.]

I cannot be dreaming. It has gone on too long - it is too lovely to be a dream. And it feels too real to be in my mind. But... but only, how can it be true? How can any of this be true? Such things where we can see one another when we are not face to face? And... and the man speaking of a vampire and blood - how can it be? Is it magic? Is magic real?

Comments

video;

[iceboxed]

[well, first things first-]

Hey. You need to turn that box around so this picture's the right way up, okay?

Re: video;

[gardienne]

Turn it -?

[She does so, at least righting the picture]

Like this, Monsieur?

[iceboxed]

That's it.

[okay, this can't be too hard, right. explaining technology to someone who apparently hasn't used it before. and explaining the tranquility. and vampires.

yeah, he might be outclassed here, but he'll give it a try]

Hi, I'm Isaac. [he holds a hand up in greeting, smiling back at her.] Has nobody explained what's going on here to you?

[gardienne]

I have been told that it is a ship, Sir, in the stars. Well, I do not know what the inside of a ship looks like, so perhaps it is true, Monsieur. But I still do not truly understand; and then this thing, and I pressed it, and people talk to me from this box and now I talk to you through it. To me, it seems like magic; it feels like a dream. Only, never have I slept this long. Can it really be so lovely here?

[She shrugs] There are people from where I came from here, Sir, but I did not know them before. But they say they are dead. Or they were... how is it that I walk with ghosts and the vampires the man spoke about, and werewolves? It sounds like a story from the books my mother used to read when we had the inn; that's where she got my name from, you know? She were a great one for reading such romances when I were a child.

voice;

[tervelocius]

If you're dreaming, we're all dreaming. I would personally find the idea of someone else in my head to be more disturbing than that of vampires being real, but I suppose its entirely a matter of perspective.

... And, miss, you're holding the communicator upside down.

Re: voice;

[gardienne]

[She shakes her head]

For me, I do not mind. I am used to such things in my head; often at home, I saw monsters and they shouted at me, and I thought they chased me and I would run - run all through the streets and the houses would lean down on me and threaten to swallow me up and I would be eaten. Only, even though I ran, I knew it was just in my head. But it felt so real - so real. But to say that such things as vampires are real... how can it be? I am not afraid. But it makes me wonder how it can be so, Monsieur.

voice;

[tervelocius]

Human evolution is a fascinating thing. I suppose in some universe it made sense for us to drink blood. That said, I sincerely doubt that their presence is supernatural in any way. Rather, I suspect they're just a piece of science we don't fully understand yet, being unfamiliar with them as we are.

Re: voice;

[gardienne]

[Eponine has no idea what evolution is, really. But, never liking to look ignorant, she offers rather doubtfully,]

I do not know about drinking, but my... Montparnasse. He likes blood. Not to drink though.

I do not know, Sir. I feel like I have wandered into a fairytale where they make me a princess in silk and gold and show me the stars and tell me such things are real. I cannot make my head think it. I want to understand it - but I do not know it. I do not know HOW to understand it. Are there so many universes out there? Is there more than one world?

video

[servant]

Magic is real, but the thing that you're using right now is called technology - closer to science.

You're doing well with it, actually.

[Upside down, sure, but at least she has it working.]

Re: video

[gardienne]

Technology?

[It's an unfamiliar word, and she rolls it on her tongue, sounding it out to herself again.]

Technology? I know nothing of science, Sir. Or magic - only what I have heard from a book when I was little. But often I fancied that magic was real. I think it is a nice thing to think of... but none of this feels real.

[She smiles though, once more showing off her rotten teeth]

I am clever, Sir. I can learn quickly. I know I look stupid, but I'm not, not really. Not as stupid as people think. I can read, you know? And I learned this... this technology.

video

[servant]

I don't think you look stupid at all.

[Because Merlin knows that people have looked at him and thought the same thing, just a servant in his roughspun clothes. But he's always been a fast learner, not to mention more than what he seems.]

There's a lot to get used to, but people will help you along the way. What's your name?

Re: video

[gardienne]

I do not mind, Sir. I am used to just getting on with things. I do not mind. Only - it's so lovely here. I can hardly think that I must not be dreaming. Even the people - they are so lovely. And such food - have you seen, Sir? There is just food - that I might help myself to, as much as I like! How is this not a dream?

I'm 'Ponine, Monsieur. Eponine Jondrette.

Text

[toomuchtenacity]

Not magic. Science and technology.

Re: Text

[gardienne]

[Oh. JUST what Eponine had been dreading. Text. It took her a while to reply whilst she first read the words and then typed out a reply.]

I do not know thes things. It sims like magic to me to have warter that comes from a tap when you turn a handel and fire that burns with out wood.

Text

[toomuchtenacity]

You can just reply with voice to this if you want.

What year was it where you are from?

voice

[gardienne]

Thank you, Madame.

The year... it was eighteen... eighteen thirty... oh, what did Monsieur Prouvaire say? Thirty one? Thirty two? I do not know, truly. I lost count, Madame. It is hard to tell what year it is sometimes.

video;

[chambermaid]

Magic is very real.

Re: video;

[gardienne]

It feels like magic, Madame. All of this. It feels so... Lovely. But magic has never worked for me before. It is so; I fear it will go, Madame before I have had enough and I will wake in the hay barn with the farm dog barking and the farmer threatening the National Guard.

video;

[chambermaid]

Oh, you do not need to refer to me with such deference. [ she smiles softly, kindly.] Magic has never worked for me, however the device you are using is not magic, I am told.

[sans_evremonde]

[Have a Charles who looks...relieved that he isn't the only person feeling entirely lost and overwhelmed here right now. Anyway, Eponine's getting a smile.]

No, I don't think it IS a dream, which means...well it means a great deal of things I suppose, but if you're dreaming then we're sharing it if that's any sort of comfort. I'm not sure myself of all the details with these things. they're easy enough to work but without knowing how...

I guess we're lucky, well I'm lucky, because it could be worse for me. It sounds like you're happy enough too but you're right that it doesn't make any SENSE. Magic MIGHT be an answer. It's a good one I guess?

[The girl reminds him of a younger version of someone else that he knew, in Paris, though she was closer to his age and actually burned with hating him and with some good reason behind if. If he can avoid another person who has come from a similar life hating him here, or help her in the process, well, Charles certainly would like to try it. It's nothing more than what he SHOULD do as it is.]

[gardienne]

Or, if I dream, perhaps it is that you are in my head, Sir? It would not be the first time that I have talked to people who are not truly there.

[She looked at the man warily. If he didn't know, then he was the first person she had seen that did not.]

Is magic a good answer, Monsieur? There was no magic in Paris. It makes no more sense than a dream.

[sans_evremonde]

But that would mean that you are inside my head as well. Is that possible, dream sharing in SUCH a way? We don't have anyone who does that sort of thing in London or in Paris that I know about so I wouldn't have heard... Have you? [And he might as well go ahead and confess to this now, since he knows the feeling, and it might not be that badly received here. ] I've...the same thing has happened. Usually people I knew would come to me, well, in my head and I was far away enough to go along with things. [It's not uncommon, he supposes. God knows his father in law...he knows the man's been there with his bad Bastille memory turns after all. ]

We didn't have it either, in London, but I suppose it's better than to think we're going to wake up at any moment. Or to not wake up. I don't think that I'm meant to.

[jilt]

It's all terribly real, I'm afraid. It's a bit much to take in when first arrived, but you'll grow used to it.

[gardienne]

Terribly real? But no, Madame. It is wonderfully real - but oh! So wonderful that I hardly dare believe that I am not dreaming.

[jilt]

Wonderful isn't the quite the word most put to the place upon arrival, but I imagine you're not the only one to do so.

Are you well? Has someone explained this place to you, my dear?