[open] then shall thy light rise up in darkness

[almaredemptoris]

Who: Jean Valjean (almaredemptoris) & YOU
What: Various activities as the city cools down
When: Throughout March
Where: Olympia
Warning(s): None


I. The Sanctuary

As the riots subside, diminishing from a wild blaze to glowering embers, and it becomes no longer necessary or practical to barricade oneself in his own home, Jean Valjean is quick to answer the call to help. It is not the blessing of Thesa he seeks, nor the bolstering of his reputation, but the soothing of his conscience. When before him are those in need, he feels compelled to lend what aid he can.

So, with a long list of components folded and tucked within his pocket, he sets out with a partner to replenish the ravaged supplies of the Sanctuary. Whoever accompanies him in this endeavor will find in him quiet company as they traverse the market district and the gardens to which the Sanctuary has access. He focuses on the task at hand, addressing occasional comments or questions such as, "Where do you think such an ingredient could be found?"

Later in the week, he may be sent out with a basket of medicinal potions and a list of addresses to visit. He is still learning the city's layout, so hopefully whomever he has been paired with is better versed in the twisting and narrow roads of Olympia, lest they end up turned around.

II. Rebuilding Olympia

When he is not under the direction of the Sanctuary, Jean Valjean devotes what time he can to the broader efforts to restore the city. Whether he is assisting Olympians and fellow refugees in repairing homes and businesses, or assisting in the collection of food, clothing, blankets, and other goods for the city's shelters, he works with a serious diligence. He brightens when he watches after the stray children of men and women hard at work, occupying them with stories and following along with their games. They are as dim shadows of his own Cosette, and he feels a bit more cheerful and a bit more melancholy at once.

He does not volunteer to supervise the cowed rioters as they carry out their sentences of cleaning streets and restoring the palace gardens, but as he carries out his own tasks he might be caught watching them with a countenance that is more pensive than contemptuous.

[OOC note: Feel free to reply in brackets or prose, I have no preference. PM me or use my comment on the plotting post (linked above) if you would like to plot. :)]

Comments

[braidedwonder]

"This poor guy, bein' you guys' neighbor, huh?" He laughs as there's squawks about the way he's worded that, the children immediately pointing out that they've not seen him around. Duo is of course loathe to say out loud that he lives in Wyver these days and instead shrugs, palms to the sky. "Listen, when you look like me you gotta have your ways, yeah? How's all this hair supposed to just go away?"

He certainly isn't going to cut it all off without some kind of crazy reasoning, after all. If he's made it through a war with a good five feet of hair hanging off of his head there's no way a war on Nysa is going to convince him to cut his hair off. Due for a trim soon, yes, but definitely no major changes on the horizon. The long haired boy listens dutifully to the eldest girl, nodding and offering his commiseration about being kept inside for far too long. Of course he hadn't stayed indoors during that whole ordeal, but he'd been a child kept inside due to unrest.

"Well, at least you got kept in with your family, yeah? Could be worse." He smiles, ruffling the young girl holding his braid's hair to make her let go before he casually flicks the length on to his shoulder, a subtle way of saying he was done with having his hair handled.

"This kinda thing happened at home for me and they kept me in the Sanctuary for two days. I think I about climbed the length of a stained glass window out of boredom." That had gotten him a good whack from the sister, but had been fun at the time. The mention of the Sanctuary seems to spur the children on, though, asking if he'd been one of the ones kept inside of this Sanctuary, and Duo quickly remembers to back track. "Oh, no, not that Sanctuary. Another one kinda like.. the temples around here I'm sure you guys go to sometimes."

[almaredemptoris]

His smile turns a degree sheepish as he amends, "Well, it's true that I have only recently come." To the neighborhood is what his words imply, but to this world is what he truly means. He expects that this hidden significance shall be gleaned by the boy, whose talk of a Sanctuary catches him as a hook catches a coat. In his mind he can see as clearly as if they presently stand before him the sort of brilliant stained glass windows of which he speaks, reaching above to a vaulted ceiling and ruling over a stone floor below. These are fragments of another world, one left behind. When the chattering of the children subsides enough that he might slip in a word, Jean Valjean continues, "Moreover, it seems that you've had your own share of troubles these past few days." He gestures briefly to his own eye to mirror the purpled eye that Duo boasts. "Not too many troubles, however, I hope?" This launches the children into a new barrage of questions: What had happened? Did he make someone mad? Was he trying to fight off robbers?

[braidedwonder]

The hint isn't missed for a moment - Duo nods at that as if acknowledging something mundane, but the look in his eyes recognizes immediately that the man means he's a refugee like him. Best not to say things like that in front of curious children who like to parrot things back without knowing their weight, but Duo files it away as he plays in to soothing over his mistake with sanctuaries. Granted, it's only because the word rings a bell with them, and if he'd referred to it as a cathedral as was the technical term, he'd be squirming his way out of something not do easy to explain away.

He's almost grateful for the ease of it - his mind is in no place to think of something elaborate right now.

"Ah, yeah - " The teen goes to elaborate before he's barraged with other questions, waving his hands as if to quell a crowd before he even tries to explain.

"I guess I kinda made someone mad, but they were trying to hurt one of my friends, so.. I couldn't just sit there, yeah?" The children look a little grim as they nod, and Duo allows one little boy to grab his hand to look at his bruised and raw knuckles for a moment. He's here to see Mipha and get those taken care of, but for the moment they're still red and obvious, along with his eye. He's asked if he took care of them and Duo laughs, nodding lightly. "Yeah, don't you worry about a thing. That guy won't be back for more for a little while if he's smart."

His attention swivels back to Jean, though, for a moment to ask his own question - "How were things on this side of the neighborhood, though? Other than the obvious looters and all...?"

[almaredemptoris]

Jean Valjean gestures widely to the surrounding street as evidence. Shards of glass catch the sunlight lying on the pavement beneath empty sockets where once windowpanes filled. Rubble clutters the street and gutters like so many leaves shaken from a tree. Some buildings stand scorched, while others are reduced to haphazard skeletons, their insides exposed to the air. "As you can see, quite a lot of damage was done," he answers solemnly. A mob is like tinder waiting to spark, and anger is like a match igniting it all. The children interject to point out the damage inflicted on key landmarks in the neighborhood - houses belonging to friends and relatives, the school at which they are pupils, and so on. Although their distress is plain, so too do they seem to relish being keepers of such important details.

[braidedwonder]

He'd seen the general chaos around, of course - he'd had to walk in and through the streets before running in to this little rag-tag group. It seems... well, just as bad as Wyver, really, except perhaps the Olympians hadn't quite gone head to head with each other, fist to fist, he would bet. Could be wrong, but there's no ned to express that right here in front of Olympian children who could very well go running back to mom and dad about it. That... well, that's a whole other box of crazy he wasn't trying to dig in to right now. Not when both sides seem to be having a moment of calm at the moment.

"Yeah.. it was the same in Wyver.." Duo confirms, nodding at Jean before the children begin and he devotes his attention there, appropriately flabbergasted at the damages they point out. Houses weren't really sacred things where he's from, but schools, places of worship, that kind of thing.. it leaves a sour taste in his mouth. Of course he's also been a victim of a church massacre, so... there's that, too.

"Well at least everyone's out in force to rebuild, right? That's a good thing."

[almaredemptoris]

The trouble with violence is that it is a beast in possession of no mind and too many limbs. It snatches people up indiscriminately and reduces them to its own mindless: in such a way, it propagates itself. "Yes, more important than the extent of the destruction is the extent to which others lend aid afterward," he agrees. The dark underside of human nature, followed by the side that strives for the light. If all men are capable of the former, then so too are they capable of the latter. At this point, the children tire of conversation, and one of the young boys slaps a palm on Duo's knee as if in some manner of supplication, asking with the earnest look of youth if he can come play with them. "I'm sure this young man has his own errands to complete. We mustn't keep him too long."

[braidedwonder]

Duo nods in agreement, a bit mused by the flowery way (as he would say) that he seems to speak. It sort of reminds him of when the Father would give him proverbs to go by about controlling his anger, making sure that he wasn't driven by jealousy or anything he may have learned on the streets of his dirty home colony. Bad habits were terribly hard to break after they'd been so ingrained, but eventually some TLC had...

Well, not broken Duo of his innumerable bad habits, but made him better about avoiding them or at the very least made him better at hiding.

The braided boy's reverie is broken by the hand on his knee, his attention immediately turning to the boy who so eagerly demands his attention with a grin. "Well, it mostly depends on what you're playin'..." He laughs, then looks between them all.

"Though, it's probably not fair since I'm taller than you guys and all, too." Not by much, considering Duo is a slight boy, still, but it's something to consider. "But if ya wanna get beat that bad I can do that."

The comment immediately raises a ruckus, the boy who'd offered puffing up his chest to declare that he'd still beat him and the lot. Duo flicks an eye to the older man, considering for a moment before offering him an escape hatch for watching over some kind of game for the lot of them. "I'm sure you're friend here had things he wants to get to as well."

[almaredemptoris]

Jean Valjean watches in amusement as the children clamor around the youth, interrupting each other as each rattles off what game they might play. Such is the nature of children, to be made of unbridled joy for life even in the wake of darkness. When Duo passes him a look, he shakes his head and answers, "No, play! I am content to watch." He suspects that the children's parents shall need more time to finish the repairs to their property, and so he is grateful for any help in occupying the children's scattered attentions.

[braidedwonder]

Duo laughs at the chaos around him, glad that for a little bit at least he's not thinking about darker things with all these loud, clamoring kids around him and at his ankles. It's light, after everything that's gone on, and he can at least appreciate that much.

"Well if you're not heart set on going back home or something.." Not that Duo didn't have things to do it's just.. well. He doesn't mind a little distraction. Duo shoos the kids on, happy to follow where ever they're going for the moment. It seems they've agreed on finding some kind of green space in which to play some sort of ball game Duo will have to find out the rules for.

"Maybe running some energy out of you guys will be the biggest help I give your parents today, huh?"