Video Post

[solo_patria]

[The video opens with Enjolras, who looks a bit worse for wear, considering his arrival here was right after he'd been gunned down with eight shots, knowing that all of his friends had died before him, save for Grantaire. But he IS here, and obviously startled, and in pain though he is, there is a bemused expression on his face as he peers out skeptically at the new technology, not entirely sure he understands the explanation he was given, but willing to make the attempt at mastering it, if this is how communication on this strange new island works.]

Greetings, those of you who are seeing this. I am...not quite sure of how I might address people I have not seen when I attempt to speak to them. The progress of the keedans seems to be above that of man where I am from to have wrought such an invention as THIS and the things it allows us now.

I am Enjolras and I have come from Paris, at the hour of what I thought to be my death in 1832, and instead have been installed here by some means I cannot fully comprehend. In that life, I wrote, and read the law in hope of practicing one day. [Best not to mention what else he did in a place the mysterious Emperor might see it. He mistrusts this figure already for being what he is.]

In this new one, I am not fully certain of what I shall do, but I have seen the other on this island making postings of all sorts and thought that I should speak as well. I am told that seeking a job here is quite important, but tell me what there is most need of, and I shall gladly apply there if they will have me do so, and if there are others I might speak to who know more of the world whence I came?

[And he is frowning, deeply, troubled by some stray thought perhaps, as the video feed shuts off, leaving him remaining there in his suite, pensive.]

Comments

action;

[philosophe]

[....Oh. Oh! That is a familiar room, and that is an even more familiar face contained in that room. So without even bothering to respond on his own console, Combeferre is bolting out the door and down to Enjolras' room, knocking.]

Enjolras. It is Etienne, do open the door.

Re: action;

[solo_patria]

[The knock is a bit of a surprise, certainly. Enjolras had simply followed his escorts for the moment, resolving to learn more later, and had not considered, in being told of how many people were here that his friends would be here among all people. There is a part of him that still does not entirely believe his own circumstances and asking for his mind to stretch into accepting that the friend that he saw fall, who he holds most dear in any world would be here with him was something that was not at all possible. So it is with extreme surprise, and yes, an actual smile that he flings open the door. And then he sees his friend, not dead, not on the ground or bleeding as he'd last chanced to look at him and he cannot find words beyond stepping forward to embrace Combeferre tightly.]

When I was told that there were many people trapped here I could not think any of you were among those. I saw you falling. Etienne.

[He is confused, and he is grateful and so much more besides. While Enjolras is not a man accustomed to overt showings of emotion, he is certainly doing a good job of hiding that fact today, he decides, from the smile sweeping across his face.]

action;

[philosophe]

[He is smiling just as broadly, and steps forward to return that embrace just as tightly. He had not expected this, at all -- returning to Enjolras, then losing him once more, and now he is returned again. This place does boggle the mind sometimes, but he finds he cannot mind it so very much at the moment. To see his dearest friend once again, when he had thought him dead and gone, truly -- it is wonderful.]

There are some few of us present, yes -- and you, you are returned to us, thank God; but do you not remember it? You were here before. [He just hugs him for a moment, then stands back to study those wounds absently.] Courfeyrac is here as well, and Prouvaire, Pontmercy, and Grantaire. There is also Gavroche, do you remember the gamin?

[virginprice]

[...my, this is an odd situation. He seems to remember nothing, though he was certainly here before.]

Welcome to Keeliai, Messire Enjolras. You will find many of your friends dwelling here, which I hope will be a comfort to you.

[solo_patria]

My thanks then. It is good to know that they are close. A comfort indeed, I should say.

[virginprice]

Indeed. My name is Alcuin, and I am acquainted with them as well- I hope that we shall become friends in time. [He was never that close to the last Enjolras, but he admired him.]

video; because I am horrible

[cynisme]

[ for all the awareness of the world around him that Grantaire likes to boast, he is genuinely confused. Bed ridden for days, struggling against the shakes, the sweats, and Jehan holding him down, he hasn't checked the network for what feels like months but was likely only a week or two. He's managed it now, slowly getting up to piss and thinking, in that moment, that he doesn't feel nearly as shitty as he had before. He's tired, but he's slept too much, he can't get another wink of it, so he's curled up in his chair to listen to people babble about nothing for as long as his eyes and pounding head can handle it.

And then he sees this. ]

Everyone knows where we come from, Enjolras, we've been here for some time. Did you hit your head?

[ maybe that would explain why he hadn't been visited, but then again he could fill in the gaps on his own. Why would Enjolras want to be in his presence when he's at the pinnacle of his own wretchedness? ]

Re: video; because I am horrible

[solo_patria]

Grantaire...

[It is as Combeferre said then, and Grantaire looks particularly worse for wear just now. Enjolras, thankfully, has already been unsurprised by this news, otherwise he may be far more worried, but for the moment, he is giving Grantaire a sympathetic glance, remembering Combeferre's words on the subject, and not wishing to make things worse for him right now. Considering what he has so lately (or not lately? impossible to tell) done for Enjolras, falling into the lie about things is about the easiest thing that he might do. And perhaps Combeferre is right and he has been here before, and truly injured his head. He does not really believe it, but he sees the possibility at any rate, over a period of a long moment that he hopes does not feel as long to Grantaire if he wishes to be believed.]

I am told that something of the sort has happened, yes. [For all that Enjolras is not one given to speaking less than the truth, well, he is still speaking it in a way. They HAVE all wondered about and assumed this, so...He is inclined to go with it.]

I am told that you have been having a rough time of it, Grantaire. Would it help were I to come to see you? There is much to speak of when you are...purged of the effects so much drinking has left you with, but for the moment, I would at least see that you are all right, if you are willing? The last that I remember of the time we saw each other...

[His lips are quirking in a small smile as he considers what to say to this man who he disdained, often with good reason, if he went a bit too far, who has redeemed himself with his support at the darkest possible moment. It lasts for just a moment, but is there, remaining, mostly, in the crinkles around Enjolras's eyes.]

I certainly owe such a friend as you showed me some care.

[cynisme]

[ something is wrong. Grantaire is observant, perhaps too observant, and with his mind unclouded by drink and sharpened by a raging headache, his mind is working overtime. It aches with every pulse of blood in his body, but it's clearer than what he would consider normal, clearer than he would normally like.

They've gone through this already, the relief of seeing one another again after dying hand in hand. He's held Enjolras close and refused to let go, he's come to terms with the fact that the reason Enjolras hadn't visited was that he had finally realized the truth of all of it: that Grantaire had died for Enjolras, not for anything else but Enjolras, for no reason but Enjolras. He came to expect an inevitable bitterness, had told himself that was why his Apollo had yet to visit him on what he believed to be his death bed.

And yet this was different, this was going backwards, and he's confused. He missed something, but he doesn't know what.

Yet, for all his sober, morbid cynicism, he can't help but soften at Enjolras' words. There is a sadness there, underneath the pins and needles he's bares for the rest. A sadness reserved for Enjolras' eyes only.]

I will take your pity if it means i would have your company.

[notdreaming]

[ Huh. Well, she has heard about people returning without memories. Maybe it's a good thing that she didn't really know Enjolras when he disappeared. ]

Hello Enjolras. I'm Kara, I come from a planet called Krypton. [ And she has no clue what the year would translate to in Earth Time so she doesn't bother with it. ]

Jobs are kind of hard to come by, lately. The kedan are... stressed, because the turtle isn't doing so well. [ They were kind to her when she arrived, and she will continue to defend them as long as she's able. ]

[solo_patria]

[Perhaps so. He HAS been confused by many people so far who have known him here, so better that this is not the sort of thing that comes up with this young lady.]

Mademoiselle Kara. From...another planet? I had been told that there are people of many worlds here but to hear it said by another foreigner is a bit jarring, I must apologize. Is it not? How DOES one care for a turtle that is not well when it is large enough to house an entire island then? I do see how that may become a problem here.

[notdreaming]

Yes, from Krypton. [ She's perfectly patient with the alien thing. Everyone has to go through it, pretty much. ]

Well, that's the problem. We don't know.

video;

[dracobin]

[He thinks nothing of switching to video immediately, used as he is to conversing with Enjolras in person. Perhaps he should have thought this through, but--]

Enjolras--Enjolras, what is wrong? You have been here for months; why are you saying all these things?

Re: video;

[solo_patria]

[Combeferre? COMBEFERRE, THERE IS A DRAGON IN HIS VIDEO FEED. COMBEFERRE, DRAGONS EXIST. OH MY PATRIA, COMBEFERRE. Enjolras's expression as he stares at the camera is one of starring incomprehension.]

But you are a being of legend, monsieur. Of the tales told to children. A dragon...

And you have me at much of a disadvantage. [He is frowning here, confused, clearly] My apologies. I am told that I may have become...confused, my memories muddled. May I make your acquaintance again?

[As much as he is speaking to a being of legend, the being of legend in question seems to know him as a friend so he will treat him this way, although that thought is perhaps the oddest yet.]

video;

[dracobin]

Yes, so you and the other Amis have told me. [They have been over this before: legends, and piles of gold, and kidnapped maidens, and all of it. The explanation for this sudden memory loss is--not inconceivable, he supposes, but the unfamiliarity in Enjolras's expression, to say nothing of the unfeigned surprise, smarts all the same.]

Oh, of course you may--my name is Temeraire, I am quite real, and from China by way of Britain, though I am some twenty-five years behind you, if I recall correctly; it was 1807, last I knew. [He pauses, whiskers twitching with barely-concealed worry, before he blurts:] Can you recall what happened, perhaps? What might have caused your confusion?

i'm sorry he is so abrupt ;_;

[mopirates_moproblems]

Good, you're back.

[Please excuse the admiral paying you... basically no attention as he turns away from the console.]

Find your friend and dry him out. It's no longer amusing.

Hehehe have a confused Enj

[solo_patria]

[An unfamiliar Englishman making demands? Oh Enjolras LOVES this.]

Back? Then you knew me before the accident that they insist I had. Yes, I do intend to check on Grantaire. I am told that another of our number is doing that as we speak, however.

Hehehe have a confused Enj

[mopirates_moproblems]

If your compatriots claim you had an accident, then certainly they know better than I. Perhaps you have simply lost your memory. It can take one that way, if they hit their head.

[video]

[inseine]

[It begins with a distracted mutter.]

Well, you are very late!

[It takes only a quick glance over previous unencrypted correspondences for Javert to make an astute conclusion: it seems that our golden angel of death has taken a sharp clunk over the head and become an amnesiac. That makes Javert's position annoying, but it is not one from which he will shrink away. He appears in full video, calm and stony, with the same proud military stiffness between his shoulders that he wore at death's door upon the barricades. His lower lip curls into an grimace, and he resumes,]

Undoubtedly your comrades have informed you -- or will inform you! -- but it is my unpleasant duty to remind you myself. That you did not leave me behind. Sadly. [It could be Enjolras's imagination that a flick appears at the corner of Javert's mouth. Difficult to say.]

Do not worry. You will find myself minding my own business around Keeliai and not tossing myself in with your lot. [He arches a brow, bending intently into the feed.] I rather prefer this arrangement.

[The latent message is clear: Don't start trouble, and he won't bother you.]

[video]

[solo_patria]

Monsieur Le Inspector.

[Enjolras is given to eyeing him calmly, even if the gaze is also cold, and his eyes harden at the sight of this man who would have betrayed their cause the way he did. That said, he is not about to rush out and find where the man lives or anything of that sort here.]

Indeed I am quite late, and no. I was not told that you had come. But is it so unfortunate as you would say, or mere coincidence? I suspect the business that I intend to mind here will not bring us near you if it is as you say.

[And you aren't allowed back in their fort at any rate. Even here. So there is that.]

I find that this arrangement suits as well. I do hope that it can last.

[video]

[inseine]

[Javert's eyes roll toward the ceiling, the lines around his muzzle scrunching with an expression resembling exasperation.]

You talk coincidences! I am tired of coincidence, [he murmurs with abandon.] What is coincidental about finding other dead men upon dying, yourself?

[Javert rattles his head and fixes his earnest, forthright gaze on Enjolras. His nostrils flare in a silent sigh.]

It can last, [he says evenly.] So long as you manage not to give me any convincing arguments to quit the deal.

[kvarterskommissarie]

[ It is the mention of Paris and a time period not too far from his own that draws him in. Sure, it's a good 42 years between them but compared to the others he's met here that are from worlds full of actual magic, those 42 years may as well be 42 minutes. ]

Greetings, monsieur. It's been some time since I last saw Paris, but it was a wonderful experience.

[solo_patria]

Monsieur. There is a comfort in meeting someone who is from the same planet, and even more so in meeting someone who has experienced Paris. [And the clothing alone tells Enjolras enough that his nod is friendly.] It is good to meet you.

video;

[lecentre]

[Do forgive Courfeyrac... He had been wallowing with Pontmercy over your disappearance and now...]

Enjolras?!

video;

[solo_patria]

[Courfeyrac is more than forgiven, of course. Enjolras is also quite relieved that he does not have to explain to someone else that he has no memories of where he was before, or at least it seems like that is the case from the way he is greeted.]

Courfeyrac! It is SO good to see you, brother.