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Is anybody here a fan of Poe? I got this in my locker last jump:

[There's the sound of a paper rustling. Firo clears his throat.]

"Thy soul shall find itself alone
‘Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone;
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy..."

[He continues to read, impatiently speeding up at the end so the lines of the last stanza run together.]

To be honest, I never really got the end back when my friend used to read it. But it’s creepy, isn’t it? Really suits this place.

What I'm wonderin' about is if it's supposed to be some sortta threat or message. 'Cause just comin' out and sayin' it would be too easy, right?

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I do not know. Sometimes I think it would be useful to know the countries of the world, and about them. They teach that, Sir. The students know about that - and if I did, I could talk to them. Or about pictures and in different languages. Monsieur Marius knew other languages. I used to hear him sometimes through the wall.

[She sighed at his questioning]

We needed the money for the room... Gavroche... yes, he is better alone. He has made friends with some of the students - he is clever, my brother. He eats better than I... I would like to leave, sometimes. Sometimes I think, yes, yes I will, and I go off by myself and sleep in a ditch for a few days. But if I am not there, then the gang will use Azelma, and she is not like me. She cries. How can I let her cry when I die by myself? Or my Pa sends the gang to look for me and they bring me back. I cannot leave. It is better, sometimes, to be with them than by yourself always, no?

If that's the kinda thing you like, I guess. You could go to a library for all that.

[He doesn't know if the weird library here would be helpful, though.]

...It's good you look out for your sister. I don't think anybody wants to be alone, but a real family wouldn't be so cruel to their kids. I know nobody in my family would.

[They're abnormally nice for criminals.]

A library? I could not - they are in houses, Sir.I cannot go into a house; they would call the guard on me straight away for stealing.

[She says it in an attitude that might suggest his stupidity in that suggestion.]

Perhaps, then, Sir, your family is nice. It is not always so; my family - my father, he is not a nice man - but your family sounds lovely, Sir. You are lucky.

You don't have public libraries where you're from? What about the guy who speaks all the languages, can he lend you any?

A guy who acts like that can't be called family at all. I am lucky. Really lucky. If any of 'em were here, I'd introduce you.

[He's happy to talk about his family, not realizing that it might be unfair to her and her situation to do so.]

Books are expensive, Sir. Even if there was a library, I would not be allowed in. You need... to go into a place like a hospital or a church, Sir, you need shoes. Sometimes Pa gives me his, but I would rather not wear them, for they are too big and the toes let in the water so they squelch under my foot. But sometimes he wishes me to go to the church.

[She sighs wistfully. If only she could have a family like this man describes. She's jealous, very jealous, and it tortures her to hear about them. But at the same time, she wants to hear about this Luck. It will, if nothing else, help her to imagine a nice family for herself when she's alone.]

Will you tell me of them, Sir? I like to hear such stories.

...Oh. Um, I'm sorry.

[Even he had shoes when he was a kid, and he'd hardly consider his situation back then enviable.

He's happy to jump to a different topic.]

Sure! Anything in particular you'd wanna hear about?

Sorry? But for why, Monsieur? It is not a thing to be sorry about. It is just the way of Paris... there has to be the poor and the rich... I am perhaps a bad girl, and now I am poor. It is just the way, Sir. There is nothing to be sorry about.

I do not know, truly. What can you tell me? Of how you... I do not know. I cannot think of what you might do. Do you have a bedroom? And a kitchen? Do you have a pet?

[She has very little conception of a 'real' family. What she truly wants to know is what it's like to be loved. But she doesn't know how to ask that - and it makes her fidget anyway, for fear she should be pitied, or scorned if people should know that.]

Hey, you can't say it's your fault. And... maybe it'll get better someday.

[He makes a mental note to tell her about Alveare.]

Yes to the first two, but a pet. ...Well, I got this kid named Czes livin' with me. He's small and sometimes gets in the way, so would he count as a pet?

[He laughs; he missed making fun of Czes. It's too bad the kid isn't here to react.]

I do not know... I think, at home, I would soon be dead. But that is... well, I cannot change that. I think I will either starve or be murdered; six months, perhaps, if I am lucky. The winter will get me this year.

[That probably seems really depressing... but Eponine is nonchalant about it all. And she truly doesn't fear her death at all.]

Czes is a boy, no? Not a goat? Can a person be a pet, Sir?

...Oh. Maybe you'll get lucky. Things don't always turn out the way you think they will.

[It is pretty depressing.]

He's a person, yeah; the little brother of my, um... friend. It was a joke.

You tell jokes with me? Now that is a good thing!

[She laughs at that. She is quite unused to people joking with her though - but she likes it. It makes her feel, almost, like she's gained a friend. Like Marius with his; they laughed together.]

Of your friend? Do you live with your friend then? I think that would be nice, to live with such people. Is he annoying? My brother was very annoying when he lived at home.

[He has to laugh with her; if she's not too upset by her situation then he shouldn't drag her mood down.]

Yeah, it's the three of us together.

Oh, definitely. He's a real brat sometimes. Most of the time. He always behaves for her, but not for me... He's not all bad, though.

He sounds like my brother, full of mischief. Why do you live only with them? Do you not live with your parents as well, Sir? Or perhaps your friend's?

Do you think it's a little brother thing?

Nah, my parents died a while ago. And she, um... she doesn't really have any.

[She never had any, unless Szilard counts and Firo refuses to even think of him as Ennis's dad.]

I do not know, Sir. Perhaps. My little brother, he is always so happy, so jovial. Always he looks for an opportunity to laugh and nothing more!

But... everyone must have a parent once - even a set like mine. She must have had a mother once.

[She doesn't say she's sorry that his are dead. She ISN'T sorry - death is a way of life, no? She doesn't mourn it. She just accepts and moves on.]

He doesn't sound so bad. Czes is kinda gloomy sometimes.

[He hesitates, wondering if he should risk getting into the alchemy stuff. It's something he's tried to keep quiet about for fear of people prying too much about the elixir.]

Well... She's a little, um... different. But it doesn't matter, does it? She has me and Czes and everybody else now.

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