004 | video

[cynisme]

[This is only a video because Grantaire can't be bothered to fuss with his console right now. Getting onto the system's been difficult enough as is, with how much loathing his more sober, withdrawing self has for the rest of humanity and the like. It doesn't help, of course, that he's been spending every other morning bent over the toilet since his best attempts at rationing his own stash of wine and spirits began to fail. He may have never heard the term porcelain altar before, but he understands the sentiment deeply.

Now though, he's laughing. Not with amusement, but with a disgusted grimace that comes with a dark sense of irony. He's pale, doesn't look nearly as well as he did before, what with his body has been going through since the turtle-wide rationing began. His face is swollen around his eye and nose, and there's blood crusted around his nose and in his mouth. Alcohol withdrawal wasn't the only cause of his current state.]

Bien sur, this would happen the first time I've gone out in days. This is lovely. [His voice dripping with sarcasm, he spits blood into the napkin in his hand before pointing at his face.] This is what your amicable natives do to foreigners when stability begins to crumble. Vagrants are always the first to be blamed when the world goes to shit, and anyone who expects any differently is lying to themselves and everyone around them. Hopeful, optimistic lies like that get the innocent and naive killed. Luckily, I'm neither innocent nor naive, and can handle being bloodied by mongrels every so often. I only hope that I've not broken another tooth.

[He doesn't even bother signing off properly or with any salutation. He just shuts the connection with a wince and a roll of his eyes.]

Comments

[video]

[poeticverses]

My God...

[Jehan is stunned for a moment. He knew the kedan were tense but...]

Have you sent for Combeferre? Would you rather someone else come and...

[video]

[cynisme]

[Grantaire just rolls his eyes, perpetually short with everyone at the moment.]

I'm fine All I need is ice and some more to drink to dull the pain. If you've been holding out on me, now would be the time.

[video]

[poeticverses]

[Jehan bites his lip but retreats for a second. He comes back with a bottle of wine]

My luxury item for the week. I will bring it over.

[What he doesn't tell R is that he's got a few more stashed away, all traded for or given in rations and a few half bottles that he decided to save when the rationing order went out. Most people think drinking is a moral failing, but Jehan has seen otherwise perfectly moral and devout men give in to drink. He doubts it's that, so he started stashing his wine in case R took poorly to the rations.]

video;

[trifurcate]

Deities, they really did a number on you didn't they?

[She pauses a beat.]

Do you need a hand or should I let your healer friend see to you?

video;

[cynisme]

I'm alive, and there is nothing for Combeferre to do to fix me. I don't need him to mother me.

video;

[trifurcate]

[You still look like a wreck.]

Would you like company then, of the non-mothering sort?

[And as much as her words might make it seem as if she's asking if he wants a different kind of comfort altogether, her tone has nothing of its usual mischief.]

[virginprice]

They attacked you? Simply for being a foreigner? [That would definitely be alarm in his tone. This is not reassuring news.]

[cynisme]

They attacked me because they wanted to attack me. What part I played it in hardly matters at all. Angry men find whatever reason they can to lash out on their appointed scapegoats.

[Meaning of course, that he would rather not outright say what he did wrong, how he provoked them. He had been angry himself, the world spinning and his temper shorter than it had been since he was a child throwing tantrums.]

[virginprice]

I did not say you did anything wrong. [Until now, at least, but that was a very prompt denial. Hmm, Grantaire. Hmm.]

I was just- I knew that tensions have been raised, but I had not thought that they had reached this point.

video;

[amonfire]

I had a similar run-in shortly before the rationing started. [ Amon pushes back his hood and taps on the side of his mask where a few haphazardly sewn-in stitches ran the length of his jaw line. ] Here, there- it is nothing new.

video;

[cynisme]

[He snorts and rolls his eyes, pressing the napkin to his nose with a wince.] Before the rationing even, what a paradise the afterlife is. And still the delusion that we're guests persists. I would be surprised, but people will always be naive and stupidly hopeful.

video;

[knowsherway]

[If you push enough buttons, you can usually get things to work. That's how Eponine got the video thing going.]

Must have gotten in someone's way, to come out looking like that.

[Was there a brawl in the street and she missed it? How disappointing. She'll make up for it by poking at him a bit.]

video;

[cynisme]

[Oh Eponine. If only you had shown your face for the first time when he wasn't loathing everything. Well, more loathing than usual at least. He puts the napkin to his teeth, to try to soak up the blood, giving her an inquiring squint.]

And you would know, Petite Thenardier. When did you show up here?

video;

[knowsherway]

[Tsk, so unpleasant, Grantaire. But she won't fret. Unpleasantness is easy to ignore.]

A day ago, or maybe two.

[She's been rather busy, poking her nose into various nooks and crannies.]

And you, monsieur? How long has it been for you?

[If he says 'not long', then she'll shake her head, because getting into a fight already takes a special kind of person.]

voice;

[mopirates_moproblems]

It was only a matter of time, with tensions rising at such a pace.

[James doesn't sound surprised, or all that sympathetic. Mostly resigned.]

See that you disinfect them well. Bullet wounds or not, there's no sense to courting infection.

voice;

[cynisme]

Your ability to state the blindingly obvious, monsieur, is simply astounding. All hail your prophetic gaze.

[And he would disinfect them if he had enough liquor to spare, s i g h.]

Re: voice;

[mopirates_moproblems]

And I bow to your desperate need to antagonize everyone you speak with, sir.

[e y e r o l l. He can't spare a few mouthfuls of wine? The withdrawal will be just as bad if it's delayed a few hours, James knows.]

audio;

[heinously]

[ He knew it. ]

You say this as if there were not armories about. [ Were there? Albel hadn't a clue -- not yet. ] When a man is attacked, he fights back. Unless you take a particular liking to pain?

audio;

[cynisme]

[It's a good thing this is an audio, because he is so very much not in the mood to look at smug faces. He gives Albel nothing on whether he fought back or not, but...]

If there are, I wouldn't expect any to give a pistol to me nor any of my compatriots. Monarch's don't tend to arm their disillusioned masses.

Audio;

[notamachine]

Milk'll help set your tooth if it's loose. Won't do anything if it's broken, though.

Audio;

[cynisme]

Milk. Mm, and of course that should be easy to get with the shortage. [He's sarcastic, sure, but he's not ungrateful for the advice as he touches his tooth with his tongue, to check it's state.]

Re: Audio;

[notamachine]

[Amused snort.] You need enough to hold in your mouth for a minute, not an entire cow.

[philosophe]

If you are in pain, I may have something that will help. .....If you are willing, that is.

[cynisme]

That would depend on what your method is this time, mon ami. [Still, it does hurt a lot and he doesn't have the option to drown himself in liquor to ease the pain, so he visibly considers it.] I hope this time it doesn't involve blood letting, I'm not sure my face could handle that at present.

video;

[storm_warning]

[Ororo has her arms crossed as the video comes up, he expression one of experience and distaste for this kind of thing.]

Welcome to public opinion. Funny how it flops back and forth when things go sour.

[Then, with just the slightest softening of tone.]

You need some ice for all that?