clayforthedevil | a little idle talk

Bahorel knocks on Feuilly's door. If Feuilly answers, he's there to chat, and to return a book that he borrowed after Feuilly borrowed it from the Library (on Polish crafts. Of course it's on Polish crafts. But it's an interesting book, so Bahorel only teased a relatively little.).

(If Feuilly doesn't answer, Bahorel's got his lockpicking kit, a container of dental floss, some small coins, and a few little sewing tools. It's good to have backup plans!)

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It takes him a moment to pull together the various threads: right, Fauchelevent, who was at the barricade for Marius, knows Javert because he one was mayor of a town where Javert worked for the police. And they argued over the treatment of a poor woman, mother of Marius Pontmercy's wife.

"It was Fauchelevent," he says slowly, "who asked for the spy at the barricade. And--let him go? Well. --As for the church, I can think of--oh--many reasons. But I don't know the man at all."

Except that he's a good man. A good man on the individual level: a man to take in an orphan, release an enemy. A man saving lives that were in his hands to save.

Edited Date: 2015-08-19 07:25 pm (UTC)

" Can you?--Yes, you probably can." Feuilly is bound to understand anything that could lend that sort of patience better than Bahorel does.
" Share any that seem likely; I can only get as far as religious piety. Or martyrdom, I suppose; he seems to have that streak." Not that anyone in this conversation would know anything about that at all in any way! "

Bahorel frowns, not angry now, just thinking. " I've only spoken to him a little, and heard what others have said--I think Enjolras has spoken with him the most, of our number. But he seemed very careless of his own interests." That's not necessarily a bad thing; but Bahorel would never consider it to be really a good thing, either.

Feuilly shrugs at Bahorel's question about church-building motives. "Religious piety is as good an explanation as any. I--the reasons I can think of, why I might do work like that, might not have anything to do with Fauchelevent. You could say that I'm helping Javert with his church--well, you'd have to stretch a point, but I've copied some pages for that manuscript Bible." And that's turned out complicated enough.

He pushes a hand through his hair. "Hm, well, we've never met anyone careless of his own interests before, have we. --I'd like to meet him. It seems wrong, though, reading about someone and--and mixing that with meeting them-- Oh, I don't know, I guess it's no different from reading something someone has written, or reading about someone in a newspaper-- But no, it's not the same. I haven't--oh, for instance, I haven't read that Shakespeare play. The one with, you know, with Harry Percy."

His ears are pink, which annoys him, because he isn't even talking about Harry right now, he's talking about something else. "And I haven't really felt like I needed to read that Hugo novel. Do you think I should?"

"No." The answer is immediate. "Why should you read it? We needed to know what it touched on about our work; enough of us have read it to know that." That was why he read it at first, at least as early as he did.

"And for me, twice so. I wouldn't call Hugo a friend-hah, now I've read more of his work I really wouldn't call him a friend. We'd only met a few times. But we had friends and cause in common." It may not have been a cause that matters--or even makes any sense-- to many of Bahorel's friends here, but that's never bothered him. " I had to see how it went. But you? Read the sections I gave Enjolras. That's all you need to have in detail. Read it if you want; it's a good book, for a book. You'll understand what it's doing better than most. But need to? No. Never, if you don't want to."

And because Feuilly's ears are turning pink, he adds " And you don't need to read any of Shakespeare's opinions about your knight, either. The history doesn't really line up with ours, and I'm sure you know the person much better than the Bard ever imagined him."

...Only very slight Eyebrows. Out of deference to Feuilly's apparent delicacy.

Edited Date: 2015-08-22 11:43 pm (UTC)

He raises his eyebrows a little at the immediacy of the response, but it's reassuring. "I've looked at what Enjolras thought was important. It's not--oh, I won't say I don't care for novels--because you'll lecture me for a week. But I have other things I'd rather read sooner."

Such as things that are not Shakespeare. "Right, I know the history's different. It's not--" Eh. Feuilly shakes his head at Bahorel, almost irritably. Harry will sort out whether he's currently alive or dead, and knowing the history and history-fiction doesn't help Feuilly at all. "--So did you find anything interesting about Hugo?"

The comment about novels gets a laugh. "Yes, I've not yet given up on your capacity for appreciating the arts." As for the rest... Bahorel grins, all indecency. "When he died, the prostitutes of Paris held a holiday in his honor." Hey, that's interesting!

But surely not something Feuilly would care about. Alas. "--I don't know what you knew about him in our time. When I met him, he was a good bourgeois whose fight had all gone into his art and half-vanished there. Louis-Phillipe's pet poet, faugh-- well, that's one reason not to read the book, he goes on for pages about how the Pear isn't really that bad. Ridiculously obvious excuses for himself, there--huh, and for ' 48, too. Clearly, he came around a bit! But it's something to think we're best known in many worlds for a book written by a man who fought against the barricades then."

And congratulations, Feuilly, you've managed to steer a potentially rage-inducing discussion into the lands of mere amusing irritation!

"When who--oh. Hugo." Right. Because he had just asked about Hugo, and was not still half dwelling on the question Harry's presumed death. "Really I only know that he's a writer. There was that play--the one that turned into a fight."

(He does, in fact, know the name; he's also skimmed through some bits of Hans of Iceland, having been stuck in a friend's room with it once, waiting for a meeting. He hadn't been impressed.)

"But what does he do in '48?"

" Yes, that play that turned into a fight" says Bahorel, very dry. He tosses the pen-cap at Feuilly for that. "--Look it up yourself if you want to know. There are books about him, he keeps showing up in the histories." Hugo at least made himself an interesting bit of history to follow. " You're not interested in some old bourgeois writer right now." It's not that hard to tell when Feuilly is interested in something. The fervor is kind of a giveaway.

Edited Date: 2015-08-24 05:32 am (UTC)

"Hernani," he yelps, laughing now, while he scrabbles to find the pen-cap. "Hernani. And--all right. I do want to know about '48. Of course I've read about it in general and Hugo's name is all around, but--here, if you give me a list of books, I'll catch up, and you can lecture me better then?"

There's the pen-cap. Feuilly carries it back to Bahorel personally, rather than throwing it. "Forgiveness?"

No, Bahorel's going to remember this dire insult unto eternity! As soon as he stops laughing.

He does grab the hand Feuilly's offering the pen cap with and pull him down far enough for a quick half-hug. "Truce, truce. --On this!" No way he's giving up on the prank war, it's gotten him laser needles.

But about this, he's already jotting down titles of books and articles. "--And who are you so occupied with, right now?" It's kind of obvious, but hey, it's fair to ask!

Edited Date: 2015-08-24 12:16 pm (UTC)

Oh yes, Feuilly is braced for Bahorel's retaliation in their little war. He's also hugging Bahorel--for a minute, until Bahorel's question, which gets a snort. "I'm occupied with my fan commissions."

"Oh, indeed?" Eyebrows. "I always knew you had a touch of the libertine waiting to express itself." He adds a note about a particular edition to his book list.

"-- He seems a good hearted sort, even if he did manage to get into a fight with Bossuet."

"It's not--libertine--" But now Bahorel is teasing him about Harry, and that's worse. Feuilly scrunches up his face and glowers, blushing, at the floor near Bahorel's feet. "Oh--yes--I heard about that."

" I'm impressed; it's not everyone who can provoke Bossuet into taking a swing at them. I'm sure it's good for his health." This is a genuine certainty in Bahorel's beliefs. Which Feuilly probably knows.

Feuilly also knows at least enough about Bahorel's own personal life to make that blushing and glaring ridiculous. Bahorel laughs, and swats at his leg. "I'm saying I'm happy for you. Even if you are being as ridiculous as a banker."

Yes, but that's Bahorel's personal life. Feuilly isn't used to having a personal life.

Especially not one that opens him to comparisons like that. "A--banker? Really? A banker? --But you're right, it takes some goading to get Lesgle that angry. Which I told Harry."

"Hah, and Bossuet's already looking to make peace. They'll be fine by the end of the day. "

Feuilly should be used to a personal life, dammit. It's an outrage that he isn't, one of the endless quiet injustices of their old life that make Bahorel want to scream down walls.

Since he's talking to Feuilly, who tends to the quieter side, he expresses this by ruffling Feuilly's hair in the most annoying way and conceding "Perhaps nothing as respectable as a banker. Merely a shop owner. Though not a tailor's shop; I hear they're utterly shameless."

Edited Date: 2015-08-25 02:08 am (UTC)

"Oh, for--what do you expect, anyway? What do you want me to be doing?"

Really, Bahorel--what?

Cunning debate tactic, Feuilly; Bahorel is having a very hard time explaining himself through the laughing. "What--? I was congratulating you! " He had been! With just the least bit of joking! And Feuilly's managed to get offended, even with the comment about tailors.

In certain respects, the whole affair with Hotspur makes hilarious sense.

"A little teasing's the usual charge from friends when taking up with a new lover, you know. But fine, fine, my apologies. I shall be more serious, as befits the situation." He passes a hand over his face and pulls his face into a very solemn expression.

" I'm congratulating you, Feuilly. That's what's happening here. You've made a strange friend, but he thinks the world of you, and you're in a strange place and finding your feet better than nearly any of us; and I wish you every joy of it, and I'm telling you, you have nothing to blush over and no reason to apologize to anyone." His voice is rough now. "And if you're taking advice, I say throw a rock at anyone, especially me, who makes you feel for one second you have to give any account for it."

He's not joking in the least.

Oh. Oh God Bahorel is saying lover and--

Feuilly is too red and sputtery and too busy wrapping his arms very tightly around his knees, small and indignant and protective, to say anything. Which is just as well, because he catches the change in tone at the end. The result is an even tighter ball, because now he can't look at Bahorel, but-- "Mmmh."

A monosyllabic grunt counts as an expression of gratitude for years of friendship, right?

Sure, it's eloquent enough in its way. Bahorel puts an arm around Feuilly's hunched shoulders. And Bahorel could absolutely go on--

But because he isn't entirely merciless, he changes the subject. "You're looking at Gauguin for your fan commissions?" There's a cover of a book, bright and recognizable, propped open among the other references.

Edited Date: 2015-08-25 04:16 pm (UTC)

Oh, fine. Feuilly leans affectionately against him. And starts to uncurl at the question. "Oh--yes--well, no, not exactly. I, I got distracted. I was, I was looking into some of the work painters were doing at the end of the nineteenth century, start of the twentieth--they talk about post-impressionism--" He uncurls a little more, reaches out to pull over the Gauguin book. "--He painted in Tahiti. Which--oh, you probably know some of the colonial history--but the paintings are wonderful--"

Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? It's a series of questions certain to pull Feuilly's attention.

" They are--I'd love to see the originals." Color printing may have eventually exceeded the hopes of his own day, but he knows still a book-sized replica will never match the effect of a full canvas. "Were you looking to them for the style, or the history?" Either one's interesting! And probably going to get them into arguments! Bahorel grins, and settles into the familiarity of Yelling About Art.

"I found them because I was looking at the style--I need to read more about the history, I have some books out from the library--colonialism, exoticism--the paintings are very troubling, and there's something--here, this title is nothing but questions, and--"

Feuilly is more of a Stammering About Art type, not so much Yelling About Art. But that's friendship for you: different people.

Edited Date: 2015-08-25 11:07 pm (UTC)