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3336 Cream Puff Way

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That's because they're all kinda dumb, it's a problem with the country.

[He's joking, but the change in inflection is very subtle for his joking voice and his normal one.]

[aigue]

Well, I'll agree they aren't up to quite the same standards as the French.

[She might be biased, though. Maybe.]

[advanced]

I was more thinking the Americans, but sure, the French are okay I guess.

[Now he's actually smiling, don't tell anyone.]

[aigue]

We're fantastic, is what you mean. [She grins back, nudging him with her elbow.] Americans have some good qualities too, though. You're very friendly right away, and very good at being rebellious. I can appreciate that.

[advanced]

You ever miss France? Seems like a lot of the people in these places speak English as their default, must make you kinda homesick, huh?

[He's just glad that he hasn't come across any native Russians yet.]

[aigue]

I do. [Especially since she uses English most of the time here, rather than French.] Back in Between we had a few of the Musketeers, so I had company. I don't think anyone else is French here.

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[He hesitates a moment, and then slips into perfect French. The Soldier was grilled in languages on a way to make him seem like a native, so even his accent is as if he were French born.]

Maybe not, but that doesn't mean that you can't speak the language if you want to.

[aigue]

[Renart stops.

Right, okay, she should not be surprised that the guy who was brainwashed by Nazis with a crazy robotic arm knows French. She should not. But she still, and if it wasn't going to end poorly she'd probably hug or kiss him.

She just switches over to French, the modern version.]

Since when can you speak it?? You should have told me!

[advanced]

[For a moment he wonders if he's made a mistake when she stops so abruptly. Perhaps the language is a painful reminder to her, and he should have checked before just launching into it.

Thankfully, those worries are laid to rest pretty quickly by the expression on her face.]

I speak a lot of languages, it just didn't seem relevant to mention before.

[aigue]

Really? Which other ones? I speak a few, myself.

[More than just English and French, and more than a few.

She grins widely at him and resumes walking.]

[advanced]

[He shrugs, these are the skills that HYDRA drilled into him that he's probably the least ashamed of.]

If there are a decent amount of people who speak it somewhere in the world, then I probably speak it too.

[aigue]

Impressive.

[Extremely so. Even she never bothered learning quite that many.]

Do you mind if we speak in French together, from now on? [She'd ask for German too, just because she has close roots with the non-Nazi part of the country, but that wouldn't be tactful with him.] Zephyr's autotranslation is fine and all, but I enjoy speaking it with people who don't have to rely on that.

[advanced]

I don't mind, French is a nice enough language to speak.

[Nor does he have any negative connotations with it. Truthfully, he probably wouldn't mind German either, the majority of his training had been done in Russia and that's where the bad memories were.]

There was a Frenchman in the Commandos, Dernier, didn't speak a word of English.

[aigue]

Thank you.

[She means it. This is going to be weirdly fun.]

Oh? What was he like?

[advanced]

[His lips quirk up just a bit, his shoulders straighter. It's all subconscious, just a reaction to being able to do something nice for someone, instead of something that causes them pain, it's nice.]

Pretty sure he was saying rude stuff a lot of the time, only his best friend spoke any French so we couldn't tell. He was a good man, though, brave. All the Commandos were.

[aigue]

You'd all have to be brave to do what you did during that war. Sounds like someone I'd get along with, at any rate.

[Sassy, at the very least, and she likes sass.]

I might have to make a list. 'Friends of Bucky's I want to one day meet'.

[advanced]

They're all dead, so I think you'd find it hard to meet them.

[Well... not Steve, but he's in a category all of his own.]

But maybe I could meet Beowulf one day?

[aigue]

[She wouldn't be surprised if Zephyr could pull them from before they died, or even after.]

Maybe, if he's still around. Between was supposed to be what was left of every reality, so I don't know if there are any more Fairy Tales out there.

[advanced]

I don't think it could be what was left of every reality, not if places like this exist and we all came from other worlds. Surely there wouldn't be a Meadous, if Between was all that was left?

[aigue]

That's what I'm hoping. Unfortunately, our settlement had the occasional problem with pockets of unreality, and visions of the future that seemingly warped reality. I'm reasonably sure this is all real, but you can never be completely sure.

[advanced]

If it's not real, then you've got a hell of an imagination to dream up all the other people here.

[That's the only reason that he believes it's true, he'd never be able to imagine an embodiment of Fairy Tale fox being his friend.]

[aigue]

[She chuckles at that.]

If I do, it would only be because the humans who made me were even more imaginative.

[And they're rounding on the coffee shop.]

So, know of any poetry, or do you want to owe me?

[advanced]

Poetry?

[What?

When he ventured here before it was literally to peek in and check out what sort of space it was, he hasn't actually encountered The Stain yet.]

[aigue]

Haven't you been here longer than me?

[Well, he's going to get to meet The Stain now. He's behind the counter when they enter, in all his Stain-y glory.]

Payment is poetry instead of money.

[advanced]

Oh, uh, sure.

[He steps forward a little self consciously.]

That night when joy began
Our narrowest veins to flush,
We waited for the flash
Of morning's levelled gun.

But morning let us pass,
And day by day relief
Outgrows his nervous laugh,
Grown credulous of peace,

As mile by mile is seen
No trespasser's reproach,
And love's best glasses reach
No fields but are his own.

[He tilts his head back to look at Renart as if to ask if that's enough, but she doesn't have to answer because the Stain is already issuing a 'right on' and two cups of coffee.]