Once again.
More photofiction! Bah, am ridiculous. Is all properly labelled under the cuts.
1. Torrens/Keller. Keyword space.
The young man and his water rats are in and out all day long; at first Torrens watches them almost feverishly, but then they become familiar and he is pleased with they return. He is particularly pleased of the young man, who takes up the same space and writes, occasionally glancing over and offering some wry remark. It is odd to think this fellow is the old man he's always read about, but Torrens finds that it is easier this way. He was never quite as fond of Old Kasperl as of the bear, anyway.
~
2. Conrad/Combeferre (LM). Keyword lilac.
Conrad rarely has time, now that Connie is thirteen, to visit his country estate. This is an unexpected pleasure, and he spends all his time outside. To-day he gives his attention to the lilacs, which haven't been thinned in an age. He is snipping the bright leaves and a few of the purple blooms by mistake when suddenly one is lifted from the ground, and he looks askance at a young man in spectacles offering it back. "They're too beautiful to waste," the young man says.
~
3. Luther/Christine (PotO). Keyword sparkle.
She meets him on the train to Norway, an old man who looks out of place among all the young and middle-aged people wrapt in fur and heavy coats. She and Raoul sit in his compartment, because everywhere else is full. While Raoul is there, she looks out the window at the sparkle of snow, but as soon as he leaves to walk for a brief moment, she begins to tell the man everything, why they are here, what they are running from. She can't help it; she looked at his face. Meanwhile he sits quietly and listens.
~
4. Justin/Justitia. Keyword devoted.
Justitia is just as devoted to this cause as anyone, but he has a more secret reason, too. He remembers the stories, he remembers the whispered way they described Colonel Shrike, beautiful but deadly. Once he begged Liberation to tell him of Justin, but Liberation never used enough words to give him all he wanted. Justitia waits for the fighting, then, eagerly, holding his heart, feeling his breath beat: Justin will come then, and Justitia will see him, beautiful but deadly.
~
5. Grantaire (LM)/Zara. Keyword exasperate.
It starts innocently enough. He's drunk (he's always drunk)--he catches her by the waist (like he would any girl)--he kisses her smelling of absinthe (and he always does, unless he smells of wine or stout). It goes bad when she stiffens (they often do), draws her hand back to strike him (he's used to that), and instead presses it against his throat, whispering furiously that if he doesn't let go she'll kill him with her teeth (that part is new, and most unfortunate). For once, Grantaire is exasperated, instead of the one to exasperate. It was only a kiss. He decides to let her go (just like always).
~
6. Mickle/Eponine (LM). Keyword patronise.
For a few weeks, they watch each other suspiciously. She picks pockets of the men who patronise the cafes, she fakes her crippled legs and begs for money. They are not quite enemies, but she is better than she is older than she is braver is prouder. Then, one day, a man catches Mickle with her hands in his pocket, and Eponine gets off her twisted, paralysed feet and kicks him. They run down the street together, and collapse somewhere, winded, chests burning, clutching at each other and laughing for the first time in hours, or years.
~
7. Red Cockade/Red Cockade. Keyword cause.
Before he leaves, she mends his shirt one last time, cooks him supper. She doesn't feel like the housewife her actress mother always warned her against becoming. She is his wife. It is his cause. He thumbs the stitch in his sleeve, puts down his fork, and before he leaves he kisses her; he is her husband.
~
8. Florian/Zara. Keyword tell.
Zara watches impassively as Torrens searches Florian's body for the bullet. She stands by the wall, without saying anything, with an air of protection, as if she's making sure he doesn't suddenly try to assassinate Florian with the thing--whatever it is--he's using to prod around. Torrens prods; he prods again; Florian, feverish, lets out a gasp and cries "Zara!", lost a little in a ragged breath. She starts forward.
"What? Tell me!"
Torrens shakes his head. "He's ill. He can't hear you. He doesn't know what he's said."
"Yes, he does," Zara whispers fiercely, not resuming her place by the wall. "He wants me. I won't leave."
"I didn't ask that," Torrens says, still searching for the bullet.
"I'm telling him, not you."
~
9. Justitia/Prouvaire (LM). Keyword peel.
They walk together--Prouvaire speaks of poetry, Justitia of art. By the bridge an old woman sells apples from a battered basket, and Prouvaire buys two. Justitia has a pocketknife; he peels like a boy, in towards his thumb, and secretly Prouvaire is afraid he will cut himself. He doesn't, though, and they share the apples talking quietly but eagerly. Prouvaire (secretly) wants to write a poem about the juice on Justitia's fingers, and Justitia (though he does not say so) would like to paint Prouvaire with a white-gold slice of fruit in his hand.
~
10. Florian/Zara. Keyword overhear.
She guards him always, so that no one will overhear when he whispers tired things and things of guilt and things that torture him and she listens without speaking once; so no one will see when his face is drawn and pale and she sits beside him (he asks) without any show of tenderness and he puts a hand on her shoulder to feel her. She is bony and sharp and thin, but she is alive, her skin is warm. He is not warm any longer. He feverishly burns cold. No one knows but Zara, Zara guards him always.
~
11. Mickle/Witz. Keyword duty.
It was his duty to fight for her, to serve her, to obey her. It was more than his duty to die for her. It is her duty to find him, to bury him, to give him the proper honours once the killing is over. It is more than her duty to weep as long as she does, and to remember him long after everyone else forgets.
~
12. Rina/Musichetta (LM). Keyword playful.
Rina is ready to smile shyly when the beautiful young lady comes. The beautiful young lady is plump, fair, has the prettiest eyes...! She is ready to smile shyly, lower her eyes, and blush all through the conversation, ending by whispering the price of the laundering. However, the beautiful young lady laughs playfully, takes her hands, tells her she's a dear thing, asks her does she have a sweetheart, being so sweet?, and soon Rina has forgotten what she meant to do, she's laughing too, and can't lower her eyes from the lady at all.
~
13. Mickle/Madame Thenardier (LM). Keyword place.
The angry fishwives and working women Las Bombas led into battle are still triumphant hours later, congratulating one another, all friends after the fighting together. One, in particular, large and red-haired, laughs triumphantly and swears she got to see the queen herself one place. The others insist she's dreaming again, silly woman, likes to read those romantic books, would just love to see the queen, wouldn't she--but Madame Thenardier knows. You couldn't forget a girl like that.
~
14. Mickle/Marius (LM). Keyword discover.
It doesn't take her long to discover that the young lawyer in her father's court, somewhat nervous but well able to stand up for himself, is not at all like Theo. She thinks at first that they're both a little silly, both a little sweet, and that's true--but this Pontmercy is prouder, slower to anger, and--and he writes wonderful love poetry. Sometimes he shows her what he's working on for his wife, and she wishes a little sadly that it were to her.
~
15. Fantine (LM)/Rina. Keyword just.
Fantine watches out her window, stitching shirts, pricking her fingers. She's pricked them often. She doesn't feel it now, she goes on stitching. Suddenly there's a flash of bright colour in the street, and her heart stops. Colour in this grey place! "What's that?" she manages, to the other woman who shares her room, just for a few days, because it's cheapest. "Just a girl," the woman says. "Pretty little thing. Won't last." "She's beautiful," Fantine says finally. Colour in this grey place!
~
16. Florian/Enjolras (LM). Keyword forget.
Florian is older now, but he doesn't forget. He hasn't forgotten any of them--Stock, Rina, Luther, Zara--his faithful conscience, Zara--Justin last of all. This young man resembles Justin in something stronger than appearance. He has Justin's ideas, and Justin's youth, and he will make Justin's mistakes. He will die like Justin. Florian shakes his head and for a moment considers telling him, explaining what is wrong with his plans, how to succeed, what will fail, but--Justin, when he grew as fierce as this young man is now, never listened to him. He fought against him.
Florian does not want this young man to fight against him.
~
17. Florian/Courfeyrac (LM). Keyword empty.
There's a silence.
Then there's a young man laughing. He has the strangest laugh--more joyful than Rina's, more cynical than Zara's, louder than Stock's, wiser than Luther's, far madder than Justin's.
Florian raises his eyebrows and observes the boy casually; just someone in the street. All the same, though, when the laugh is over and the boy leaves, the crowded place seems oddly empty.
~
18. Mickle/Cosette (LM). Keyword conduct.
Mickle is sitting in the sun in the Great Augustine Square when the pretty woman in black comes by. She always wears black--apparently it's mourning, although Mickle couldn't say for sure, not knowing anything about the woman. This afternoon, though, Mickle lights her pipe and waves. To her surprise, the woman waves back, a small, tentative wave, as though she means to conduct herself like a lady no matter what. All the same, though, she's smiling, for the first time since Mickle started watching her.
~
19. Mickle/Witz. Keyword abrupt.
When she gives him orders, he watches her face--sometimes her eyes, sometimes her lips, sometimes her nose. Every part of her face moves at some time or another, and he catches every movement. He wants to learn her so well that he'll never mistake her meaning.
One tired morning, when she speaks, she is abrupt and quick. He would be crestfallen, except that he has succeeded--from her face, he can see that she is not displeased with him.
He is so happy that he almost smiles; but he doesn't. It wouldn't be decorous.
~
20. Caro/Torrens. Keyword frost.
Caroline is less tired in the winter than in summer. Somehow the cold pushes her up, keeps her from staying still, unlike the unbearable heat. She is forbidden, because of her illness, to go outside, but she walks restlessly through the Juliana, until she finds a frost-patterned window and stops to lay her fingers on it. It isn't long before he stands behind her. She turns a smiles, a little sadly, and he nods and holds out his arm. She takes it, and he leads her back.
~
1. Rosa/Neville (Mystery of Edwin Drood). Keyword soft.
"Oh, but, Mister Landless," she protests, hiding her blush behind her hands, "it isn't proper at all for me to walk with you, and you know it quite well! I do wish you would not--"
His voice is soft. "I can't very well tell you I love you with someone about, can I?"
~
2. Aryton/Pencroff (TMI). Keyword hearth.
Pencroff realises, their first day on the farm in Iowa, that it is the first time Ayrton has been in a real house in more than twelve years. He is quick to try for all the comforts, including a fire in the hearth, and even quicker to sit with Ayrton by it, talking cheerfully about what a blessing it is. Ayrton nods, but his eyes never leave Pencroff, never glance towards the blazing fire.
~
3. Archie (Horatio Hornblower)/Harbert (TMI). Keyword sun.
Archie can't believe that the young fellow standing on the quay has ever sailed before. He's so excited, leaning forward into the icy wind and smiling with pleasure, waiting for the passenger ship to start boarding. But he says he has, often, and Archie also doesn't suspect him of lying. He has too honest eyes, eager and anticipating, like Horatio's sometimes, when Horatio looks at the sea.
~
4. Rosa/Neville (MED). Keyword wait.
Neville, when he visited, would wait outside until Helena came down, but if she had not brought Rosa with her, he would not move. They would talk where they stood, under the second-floor window, where any girl in the dormitories could look down and see them.
She often did.
~
5. Bahorel (LM). Keyword stone.
"Watch out for Bahorel," Courfeyrac shouted again, to some innocent girl passing by. "If you're not careful, he'll leap you. He'll throw stones! You should have seen what he did to me. Went right for the throat. He doesn't distinguish between the sexes!"
Bahorel laughed, and fingered the lint in his pocket. It was all very well for Courfeyrac to say that--when it came to romance, Courfeyrac didn't distinguish either.
~
6. Mina Harker (Dracula)/Erik (PotO). Keyword flutter.
Things that flutter still frighten her. Black things that ripple in the wind send her into tears--she hasn't recovered as well as they hoped she had. Jonathan offers to take her to France for a while, give her a holiday, and she agrees. He takes her to the Opera--she's been so happy here that they forget how dark and full of curtains a theatre or Opera-house is. In the middle of the second act, having restrained it since the lights went down, she begins to cry, unable to help herself. Other patrons turn around to hiss at her, and Jonathan begins to lead her out--as they go past one of the boxes a voice whispers, "Don't you like the Opera, M.?"
"My wife is ill," Jonathan says coldly.
"Ah... a pity."
The next day, two tickets for that evening's performance arrive, with a note that reads, to make up to you last night, when you were so unfortunately forced to leave early. Jonathan tears them up. Mina keeps the note.
~
7. Cosette (LM)/rosencrantz (Hamlet). Keyword petal.
the laughing girl has petals in her hair! he smiles and twirls a daisy between his fingers. she laughs and holds a rose in both her hands. the smiling boy is giving her a gift. he has so many things to tell her that he isn't sure which one ought to be told first, and she wants to listen so much that begins to beg him to speak.
~
1. Keyword smell.
The scent of bread baking fills Ragueneau's shop, but he isn't there to smell it. He's off somewhere Lise doesn't care about reading poetry with some people she doesn't care to know. She taps the counter and wishes for someone to come, just to keep her busy.
The dressmaker looks through the shop window and sees the woman in the bakery, tapping impatiently. She smiles a tight, sharp smile and pushes open the door.
~
2. Keyword ignored. >_>
The dressmaker is about to leave with her day-old loaf when the woman in the bakery suddenly, impulsively, opens her mouth to say something. Her first thought is to say that her husband is an idiot, flour costs too much, they cheat you revoltingly at all the stores, the weather is disgusting, it's amazingly what foolish things people think of in the name of love these days, and go parading it all over the place, too; but all those things are so plain and ugly and flat. She wants to say something that will make the dressmaker stay, something that will make her want to say. Their eyes meet over Lise's hesitation.
"My husband is an idiot," she says.
The dressmaker settles against the counter, ready to listen.
1. Torrens/Keller. Keyword space.
The young man and his water rats are in and out all day long; at first Torrens watches them almost feverishly, but then they become familiar and he is pleased with they return. He is particularly pleased of the young man, who takes up the same space and writes, occasionally glancing over and offering some wry remark. It is odd to think this fellow is the old man he's always read about, but Torrens finds that it is easier this way. He was never quite as fond of Old Kasperl as of the bear, anyway.
~
2. Conrad/Combeferre (LM). Keyword lilac.
Conrad rarely has time, now that Connie is thirteen, to visit his country estate. This is an unexpected pleasure, and he spends all his time outside. To-day he gives his attention to the lilacs, which haven't been thinned in an age. He is snipping the bright leaves and a few of the purple blooms by mistake when suddenly one is lifted from the ground, and he looks askance at a young man in spectacles offering it back. "They're too beautiful to waste," the young man says.
~
3. Luther/Christine (PotO). Keyword sparkle.
She meets him on the train to Norway, an old man who looks out of place among all the young and middle-aged people wrapt in fur and heavy coats. She and Raoul sit in his compartment, because everywhere else is full. While Raoul is there, she looks out the window at the sparkle of snow, but as soon as he leaves to walk for a brief moment, she begins to tell the man everything, why they are here, what they are running from. She can't help it; she looked at his face. Meanwhile he sits quietly and listens.
~
4. Justin/Justitia. Keyword devoted.
Justitia is just as devoted to this cause as anyone, but he has a more secret reason, too. He remembers the stories, he remembers the whispered way they described Colonel Shrike, beautiful but deadly. Once he begged Liberation to tell him of Justin, but Liberation never used enough words to give him all he wanted. Justitia waits for the fighting, then, eagerly, holding his heart, feeling his breath beat: Justin will come then, and Justitia will see him, beautiful but deadly.
~
5. Grantaire (LM)/Zara. Keyword exasperate.
It starts innocently enough. He's drunk (he's always drunk)--he catches her by the waist (like he would any girl)--he kisses her smelling of absinthe (and he always does, unless he smells of wine or stout). It goes bad when she stiffens (they often do), draws her hand back to strike him (he's used to that), and instead presses it against his throat, whispering furiously that if he doesn't let go she'll kill him with her teeth (that part is new, and most unfortunate). For once, Grantaire is exasperated, instead of the one to exasperate. It was only a kiss. He decides to let her go (just like always).
~
6. Mickle/Eponine (LM). Keyword patronise.
For a few weeks, they watch each other suspiciously. She picks pockets of the men who patronise the cafes, she fakes her crippled legs and begs for money. They are not quite enemies, but she is better than she is older than she is braver is prouder. Then, one day, a man catches Mickle with her hands in his pocket, and Eponine gets off her twisted, paralysed feet and kicks him. They run down the street together, and collapse somewhere, winded, chests burning, clutching at each other and laughing for the first time in hours, or years.
~
7. Red Cockade/Red Cockade. Keyword cause.
Before he leaves, she mends his shirt one last time, cooks him supper. She doesn't feel like the housewife her actress mother always warned her against becoming. She is his wife. It is his cause. He thumbs the stitch in his sleeve, puts down his fork, and before he leaves he kisses her; he is her husband.
~
8. Florian/Zara. Keyword tell.
Zara watches impassively as Torrens searches Florian's body for the bullet. She stands by the wall, without saying anything, with an air of protection, as if she's making sure he doesn't suddenly try to assassinate Florian with the thing--whatever it is--he's using to prod around. Torrens prods; he prods again; Florian, feverish, lets out a gasp and cries "Zara!", lost a little in a ragged breath. She starts forward.
"What? Tell me!"
Torrens shakes his head. "He's ill. He can't hear you. He doesn't know what he's said."
"Yes, he does," Zara whispers fiercely, not resuming her place by the wall. "He wants me. I won't leave."
"I didn't ask that," Torrens says, still searching for the bullet.
"I'm telling him, not you."
~
9. Justitia/Prouvaire (LM). Keyword peel.
They walk together--Prouvaire speaks of poetry, Justitia of art. By the bridge an old woman sells apples from a battered basket, and Prouvaire buys two. Justitia has a pocketknife; he peels like a boy, in towards his thumb, and secretly Prouvaire is afraid he will cut himself. He doesn't, though, and they share the apples talking quietly but eagerly. Prouvaire (secretly) wants to write a poem about the juice on Justitia's fingers, and Justitia (though he does not say so) would like to paint Prouvaire with a white-gold slice of fruit in his hand.
~
10. Florian/Zara. Keyword overhear.
She guards him always, so that no one will overhear when he whispers tired things and things of guilt and things that torture him and she listens without speaking once; so no one will see when his face is drawn and pale and she sits beside him (he asks) without any show of tenderness and he puts a hand on her shoulder to feel her. She is bony and sharp and thin, but she is alive, her skin is warm. He is not warm any longer. He feverishly burns cold. No one knows but Zara, Zara guards him always.
~
11. Mickle/Witz. Keyword duty.
It was his duty to fight for her, to serve her, to obey her. It was more than his duty to die for her. It is her duty to find him, to bury him, to give him the proper honours once the killing is over. It is more than her duty to weep as long as she does, and to remember him long after everyone else forgets.
~
12. Rina/Musichetta (LM). Keyword playful.
Rina is ready to smile shyly when the beautiful young lady comes. The beautiful young lady is plump, fair, has the prettiest eyes...! She is ready to smile shyly, lower her eyes, and blush all through the conversation, ending by whispering the price of the laundering. However, the beautiful young lady laughs playfully, takes her hands, tells her she's a dear thing, asks her does she have a sweetheart, being so sweet?, and soon Rina has forgotten what she meant to do, she's laughing too, and can't lower her eyes from the lady at all.
~
13. Mickle/Madame Thenardier (LM). Keyword place.
The angry fishwives and working women Las Bombas led into battle are still triumphant hours later, congratulating one another, all friends after the fighting together. One, in particular, large and red-haired, laughs triumphantly and swears she got to see the queen herself one place. The others insist she's dreaming again, silly woman, likes to read those romantic books, would just love to see the queen, wouldn't she--but Madame Thenardier knows. You couldn't forget a girl like that.
~
14. Mickle/Marius (LM). Keyword discover.
It doesn't take her long to discover that the young lawyer in her father's court, somewhat nervous but well able to stand up for himself, is not at all like Theo. She thinks at first that they're both a little silly, both a little sweet, and that's true--but this Pontmercy is prouder, slower to anger, and--and he writes wonderful love poetry. Sometimes he shows her what he's working on for his wife, and she wishes a little sadly that it were to her.
~
15. Fantine (LM)/Rina. Keyword just.
Fantine watches out her window, stitching shirts, pricking her fingers. She's pricked them often. She doesn't feel it now, she goes on stitching. Suddenly there's a flash of bright colour in the street, and her heart stops. Colour in this grey place! "What's that?" she manages, to the other woman who shares her room, just for a few days, because it's cheapest. "Just a girl," the woman says. "Pretty little thing. Won't last." "She's beautiful," Fantine says finally. Colour in this grey place!
~
16. Florian/Enjolras (LM). Keyword forget.
Florian is older now, but he doesn't forget. He hasn't forgotten any of them--Stock, Rina, Luther, Zara--his faithful conscience, Zara--Justin last of all. This young man resembles Justin in something stronger than appearance. He has Justin's ideas, and Justin's youth, and he will make Justin's mistakes. He will die like Justin. Florian shakes his head and for a moment considers telling him, explaining what is wrong with his plans, how to succeed, what will fail, but--Justin, when he grew as fierce as this young man is now, never listened to him. He fought against him.
Florian does not want this young man to fight against him.
~
17. Florian/Courfeyrac (LM). Keyword empty.
There's a silence.
Then there's a young man laughing. He has the strangest laugh--more joyful than Rina's, more cynical than Zara's, louder than Stock's, wiser than Luther's, far madder than Justin's.
Florian raises his eyebrows and observes the boy casually; just someone in the street. All the same, though, when the laugh is over and the boy leaves, the crowded place seems oddly empty.
~
18. Mickle/Cosette (LM). Keyword conduct.
Mickle is sitting in the sun in the Great Augustine Square when the pretty woman in black comes by. She always wears black--apparently it's mourning, although Mickle couldn't say for sure, not knowing anything about the woman. This afternoon, though, Mickle lights her pipe and waves. To her surprise, the woman waves back, a small, tentative wave, as though she means to conduct herself like a lady no matter what. All the same, though, she's smiling, for the first time since Mickle started watching her.
~
19. Mickle/Witz. Keyword abrupt.
When she gives him orders, he watches her face--sometimes her eyes, sometimes her lips, sometimes her nose. Every part of her face moves at some time or another, and he catches every movement. He wants to learn her so well that he'll never mistake her meaning.
One tired morning, when she speaks, she is abrupt and quick. He would be crestfallen, except that he has succeeded--from her face, he can see that she is not displeased with him.
He is so happy that he almost smiles; but he doesn't. It wouldn't be decorous.
~
20. Caro/Torrens. Keyword frost.
Caroline is less tired in the winter than in summer. Somehow the cold pushes her up, keeps her from staying still, unlike the unbearable heat. She is forbidden, because of her illness, to go outside, but she walks restlessly through the Juliana, until she finds a frost-patterned window and stops to lay her fingers on it. It isn't long before he stands behind her. She turns a smiles, a little sadly, and he nods and holds out his arm. She takes it, and he leads her back.
~
1. Rosa/Neville (Mystery of Edwin Drood). Keyword soft.
"Oh, but, Mister Landless," she protests, hiding her blush behind her hands, "it isn't proper at all for me to walk with you, and you know it quite well! I do wish you would not--"
His voice is soft. "I can't very well tell you I love you with someone about, can I?"
~
2. Aryton/Pencroff (TMI). Keyword hearth.
Pencroff realises, their first day on the farm in Iowa, that it is the first time Ayrton has been in a real house in more than twelve years. He is quick to try for all the comforts, including a fire in the hearth, and even quicker to sit with Ayrton by it, talking cheerfully about what a blessing it is. Ayrton nods, but his eyes never leave Pencroff, never glance towards the blazing fire.
~
3. Archie (Horatio Hornblower)/Harbert (TMI). Keyword sun.
Archie can't believe that the young fellow standing on the quay has ever sailed before. He's so excited, leaning forward into the icy wind and smiling with pleasure, waiting for the passenger ship to start boarding. But he says he has, often, and Archie also doesn't suspect him of lying. He has too honest eyes, eager and anticipating, like Horatio's sometimes, when Horatio looks at the sea.
~
4. Rosa/Neville (MED). Keyword wait.
Neville, when he visited, would wait outside until Helena came down, but if she had not brought Rosa with her, he would not move. They would talk where they stood, under the second-floor window, where any girl in the dormitories could look down and see them.
She often did.
~
5. Bahorel (LM). Keyword stone.
"Watch out for Bahorel," Courfeyrac shouted again, to some innocent girl passing by. "If you're not careful, he'll leap you. He'll throw stones! You should have seen what he did to me. Went right for the throat. He doesn't distinguish between the sexes!"
Bahorel laughed, and fingered the lint in his pocket. It was all very well for Courfeyrac to say that--when it came to romance, Courfeyrac didn't distinguish either.
~
6. Mina Harker (Dracula)/Erik (PotO). Keyword flutter.
Things that flutter still frighten her. Black things that ripple in the wind send her into tears--she hasn't recovered as well as they hoped she had. Jonathan offers to take her to France for a while, give her a holiday, and she agrees. He takes her to the Opera--she's been so happy here that they forget how dark and full of curtains a theatre or Opera-house is. In the middle of the second act, having restrained it since the lights went down, she begins to cry, unable to help herself. Other patrons turn around to hiss at her, and Jonathan begins to lead her out--as they go past one of the boxes a voice whispers, "Don't you like the Opera, M.?"
"My wife is ill," Jonathan says coldly.
"Ah... a pity."
The next day, two tickets for that evening's performance arrive, with a note that reads, to make up to you last night, when you were so unfortunately forced to leave early. Jonathan tears them up. Mina keeps the note.
~
7. Cosette (LM)/rosencrantz (Hamlet). Keyword petal.
the laughing girl has petals in her hair! he smiles and twirls a daisy between his fingers. she laughs and holds a rose in both her hands. the smiling boy is giving her a gift. he has so many things to tell her that he isn't sure which one ought to be told first, and she wants to listen so much that begins to beg him to speak.
~
1. Keyword smell.
The scent of bread baking fills Ragueneau's shop, but he isn't there to smell it. He's off somewhere Lise doesn't care about reading poetry with some people she doesn't care to know. She taps the counter and wishes for someone to come, just to keep her busy.
The dressmaker looks through the shop window and sees the woman in the bakery, tapping impatiently. She smiles a tight, sharp smile and pushes open the door.
~
2. Keyword ignored. >_>
The dressmaker is about to leave with her day-old loaf when the woman in the bakery suddenly, impulsively, opens her mouth to say something. Her first thought is to say that her husband is an idiot, flour costs too much, they cheat you revoltingly at all the stores, the weather is disgusting, it's amazingly what foolish things people think of in the name of love these days, and go parading it all over the place, too; but all those things are so plain and ugly and flat. She wants to say something that will make the dressmaker stay, something that will make her want to say. Their eyes meet over Lise's hesitation.
"My husband is an idiot," she says.
The dressmaker settles against the counter, ready to listen.