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CHARACTERS: Combeferre, Jehan.
LOCATION: Combeferre's room ~~of horrors~~
WARNINGS: 200 year old spoilers. Some mention of death. Mostly going to be harmless, though!
SUMMARY: Combeferre offered to be a sounding board, and is being taken up on the offer.
NOTES: ITT: The future is hard.

[As he had made a habit, since his return, of paying Combeferre visits now and again; mostly for the benefit of picking up the novels he had offered, and occasionally on a call for discussing them; his absence would not be much minded in his room. It had become a less sensitive topic as days wore on, but as he didn't want to expressly trouble or unnerve anyone, he limited any forays onto the ship to the kitchens, and to Bahorel or Combeferre's rooms.

But, with the jump coming up no doubt soon, and an itching for the garden just under his skin and burning, Jehan made the decision to... move forward. There was something he did not want to do, but still ought to, if he was to trust himself to wandering again. And only one man had offered to be of assistance with that.

Not that he minded that it would be Combeferre. Quite the opposite; he found himself comfortable in his company, and it was easier to talk to him than most, after the man's own 'incident'.

Therefore, with an uncomfortable air that he tried to contain, and his mind set on doing this before it did itself in, he picked up a hand and knocked on his door.]

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[Comebeferre is nodding at that part,certainly.] You put that well. He does not often notice himself, not for others, I do not think. Too busy for that indeed when there are others about, I would think.

Indeed. Though minds may wander as they like, but bodies may find danger when they do such a thing. It is meant for protection more than anything else, truly, I should think. [Somehow, he is managing not to laugh too much at this. ]

Indeed, I truly HAVE taken notice of this and am glad to do both things. That excess of feeling does you credit,overwhelming though it must be. But I am glad for both of you there is no distortion. You, both of you, deserve to find happiness. That you have it with each other is amazing, and you already share so much. That IS quite worthwhile.

You simply do dress like it. [Combeferre can't help but smirk a little there.] I suppose it still gives you an advantage when it comes to Courfeyrac though, which is smart. A plot worthy of him, I should say. There IS that at least.

Minds wandering can be much more dangerous than bodies wandering; hence the battle for control of minds has led to the death of bodies in many wars over the years.

[He reminded, almost a bit imperiously, plucky from the current topics at hand. It revived him from the previous depth of his pain well, if not entirely; rousing, though not curative.]

We might all be accused of an excess of feeling... but I suppose I never have seen anything wrong with it, or that it lessens anyone's manliness, or fortitude, to be in such a way. Thank you, then. I place my faith in such things with your blessing.

Ah! You say that, but you grin at me cruelly. [He shifted, embarrassed.] ...Is there any harm in such a 'plot', if I admit that some of the carelessness is played up for just that reason? Terrible, that you would call it what it is and fluster me like this...

[And he is flustered. No one is surprised.]

So it has. And that continues to be the trend, I fear. Another thing that is a universal that I would have wished to see changed for the future, perhaps, but...it is hardly surprising as that.

[His radiation obsession does come to mind here, but he's not going to bring that up for the moment, thank you. He has no wish to disturb Jehan in such a way again. The ramifications of how the threat was used though...Very real psychological wars were fought over the issue even though the actual end of the world never came. It's an interesting tactic.]

No, no it does not lessen anything the way you put it. Strengthens it perhaps, instead. Why else does one press on against the odds if they are not granted that strength by something? I think your faith well placed indeed.

I grin in amusement perhaps, but surely not to be cruel to you. I do not see much harm at all. I think it quite cleverly done in fact, if it works. And... [He's already ducking a little, before he says what he is thinking next.] Really, who among us would note the difference?

Of course I fluster. That is my TASK in this. Self appointed, though it may be, I do take it quite seriously.

Men call themselves progressive because they easily forget the past, and ridicule it when they think to remember it. One wonders if men ever think, in their time, of being obsolete in the future and being told that their strides were backwards, and barbaric and hilarious. It is a folly of men, I think, that they forge ahead without looking back. That folly has not quieted yet,.

[He agreed... well, a little more floridly. (He never can quite seem to spare anyone the trouble of lecturing on the lessons of the past, and this setting's snobbery against it only put him more up in arms about it; being now from 'the past' himself, and not only in his sentiments.)

He is thankful, though he does not know it, that Combeferre does not bring up radiation warfare again. How his heart could not bear it, just now.

As to the other topic...]

You have noticed. [Reminded, ducking too, well into his collar, but more from sheepishness; clearing his throat and speaking more lightly.] Tormenter, who likes so well to observe and take note of all things, from butterfly wings to mechanics, yeast cultures to electric; who would take something as darling as that and put on the cap of science and not philosophy!

[Teased back; well, it was a bit true though, really...; under his breath.

Snorting softly, he reached out (he was still not too far) and gave him a playful, light swat.]

Is it the task of a scientist, to observe as if we are animals in a zoo? Or the task of a brother, to observe simply to make sure we blush? I did not know I had one, if that is the case; I submit my horror at either conclusion.

Have we done such ourselves, at home, do you think? Joly and I more than the rest of you perhaps.

[Combeferre can recall a few conversations of medicine where this has come up at any rate, and now, being a part of somewhere that has been skipped over almost completely in terms of what others will remember, it's given him cause to contemplate his own behavior of the past.]

I do regret that now, in newer ways than I had before. We focus so much on the present, and the future that we still discount so much. An instinct, for me, but not one which I approve of in myself. Remember the lessons of history and philosophy. I often forget to do that much. It's one thing I've come to learn here, I suppose. And something I must rectify.

[He will work on that, at any rate. It's not as though there is a lack of information or material that he's been presented with in the media libraries after all. And the other topic is, of course, better.]

I HAVE noticed. [And at this point, his spectacles are slipping down his nose, and he is laughing at the swat.] But I notice nearly everything as you point out. Who says that love cannot be both things as long as it is not reduced to merely science? Hmm?

As to my SPECIFIC task...it depends on the day, really. As to yours...let us consider what that may be, actually.

I would not accuse, no. I would not call a want for progress a snub of things past.

[...Though yes. If they had, and if Jehan were willing to say it, perhaps Combeferre and Joly the most, out of necessity. Not out of cruelty or ignorance, as was much more common; alas.]

More... I would say that thinking men progresses in anything, beyond thought and means, is a bit arrogant. We will always want for the same things, and be, fundamentally the same. As we are always born anew, it is only through remembering the knowledge of the years before we were even a concept of fate that we do not start anew, I believe.

You do yourself a disservice, to; for I have known you to be a philosopher, and have respected that in you very much. Should you see some error in your manner of thinking, only you are at liberty to decide it is an error, and I have every faith that you of all men will seek to be without error-- you are good like that.

[And he meant that. Of the many men he'd call good; and really, Jehan's opinion wasn't that difficult to come by... but his deeper sentiments, he hoped, were; Combeferre was really among the best. He was measured, and kind, and thought very much before acting, and then acted in the interest of all parties... what other definition of 'good' could there be?

But Jehan does roll his eyes a little, at love being a science.]

I thank you to take your surgeon's fingers, gloved and poised with the scalpel, away from the cheery, springtime concept of love; who must fly like a nymph on the wind away from every attempt to grasp it, or to understand it. It's effrontery, to think that it can be observed, and logic applied to it, and noted. It will laugh, and call you quite silly, and change its form to thwart you.

[He promised.]

My specific task? Why, what would you consider that to be? I cannot think I have much use at all, beyond talking a lot.

That does have a measure of sense. I think we often do take the past for granted, particularly as we pursue new things here. I think that is not uncommon here either, if it comes to that.

[Combeferre considers those in engineering, those who he has been learning from, and well. At times he would say there is a pursuit of progress, much like his own, that leaves him dizzy, even so. And he is smiling at Jehan's next words.]

Ah but at times one needs a friend to point it out all the same in order for it to be noticed. Still, yes of course. I must consider it more carefully, I think, before I come to a conclusion as to the errors in my thinking, if they exist. But that I am able to do so, and to recognize the flaws in myself, well. I do not know if I am so good as you seem to think, Jehan, but you flatter me, and give me hope I may continue in the path.

And as for love...

[He does think, to some degree that it is something one can observe perhaps, that there is a sort of law to it, or well...]

Perhaps it is our reaction to love then, that can be measured, rather than the quality itself. I mislabel, I think, and treat the way I view it as a general approach, as though it were an appendix or rupture I could repair or analyze. You are too right about that and that I am sometimes too scientific for my own good.

As for your task? You are the burst of air that sustains us all, and reminds us that good triumphs and has a greater strength than we can say. You are the representative of that. Directly. And you have very much use in that.

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