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Post by Javert on Mar 20, 2009 20:49:39 GMT -5
Javert smiled a half-smile at Jason's expression and shade, but then made a small disapproving tutting sound at what followed.
"Trying to distract me by placing the blame elsewhere, Cluont? That disappoints me. However for the sake of my own amusement, I shall comply. Do tell me, what great tales about me are circulating at present? I do hate it so when others seem to know more about me than I myself do."
The inspector shook his head. "I have to say that the brilliant theory of me being raised by wolves is still among my favorites."
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Post by Inspector Jason Cluont on Mar 20, 2009 21:09:41 GMT -5
"Hmph. You might be a mean son of a bitch, but you're far too civil for that," he smirked and then drew quiet, looking down at the blanket.
"They do say things, about your being a gypsy, saying it's nearly as bad as being a Jew, having your...your...circumcision. And with that boy always after you, with his poetry and letters...makes them talk more. Some of them think he's only playing a joke on you to see if you'll bite."
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Post by Javert on Mar 20, 2009 21:15:02 GMT -5
Javert chuckled and shook his head once more. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
"They say a lot, apparently. Just not a lot of truth." The inspector spoke softly. He didn't care much about what 'they' thought, really... he knew he was better. Both as a man and an officer of The Law. He knew this because it was his entire purpose in life, to be better than the muck he had been made from.
"What I'm interested in... is what you think."
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Post by Inspector Jason Cluont on Mar 20, 2009 21:22:59 GMT -5
"What I think? And what do I think?"
He sounded a bit confused, frowning, no doubt a credit to the drugs.
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Post by Javert on Mar 20, 2009 21:25:28 GMT -5
"I don't know, Cluont... which is why I'm asking you. What do you think of 'That Great Twat'?"
Javert looked the other man in the somewhat clouded eye. He actually wanted to know this... Hell might be freezing over as he sat there.
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Post by Inspector Jason Cluont on Mar 20, 2009 21:42:41 GMT -5
Jason gave some kind of non-committal grunt and thought on it a moment, rolling his head one way on the pillow and then back again to look at Javert.
"I think you're a fine officer, and I wonder if you might have been more idealistic in your youth. I do often wonder at your hair, considering the rest of the state of you. It's neither in fashion nor practical and I cannot fathom why you leave it so long. I think you need to take better care with your morning ablutions and shave more closely. I think you're in rather fine shape--better than--for a man your age, or any age, really. I wonder that you've never been married because you can't possibly have gone this long without some kind of...experience," he sniffed here and then continued "and I think you're a bit less gruff than you've let on, what I've seen today. Also you hit really hard."
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Post by Javert on Mar 20, 2009 21:52:07 GMT -5
"Well, you're surely better at the guessing game than they are."
Not that that was such a surprise, considering the pitiful deduction qualities of some of their colleagues.
It was then and there Javert made a decision... one he had never consciously made. He might've shouted something at Valjean in his anger so many years ago... but this was of an entirely different order.
He looked at Jason.
"If I give you the story, will you give me your word that you won't repeat it?"
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Post by Inspector Jason Cluont on Mar 20, 2009 21:54:32 GMT -5
He nodded, furrowing his brow curiously and pushing himself up against the headboard to sit and watch the man.
"I'll trade you tales, then."
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Post by Javert on Mar 20, 2009 22:01:16 GMT -5
Javert sighed and closed his eyes for a few seconds, when he opened them again it was as if he were gazing into the past.
"I was born inside a jail. The son of a fortune-teller and a galley slave." The inspector was quiet for a little while, thinking.
"You could call it idealism, I suppose... or ambition... or common sense. Growing up there, I made an oath to myself to never land on the wrong side of the bars again. I wish I could say it was easy... that I was superhumanly strong through it all." He heaved another sigh.
"But it was far more difficult than I can even rightly describe... it was so easy to slip, to fall... tempting, even, at times. However, I got through it, signed up for the army the second I could. Anything to uphold The Law, to be on the right side... to not be like them."
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Post by Inspector Jason Cluont on Mar 20, 2009 22:03:33 GMT -5
Well, that must have been the terribly truncated version. But their histories were very different.
"And...the hair?" he quarried, raising an eyebrow.
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Post by Javert on Mar 20, 2009 22:06:26 GMT -5
Javert shrugged.
"I've had it this way for as long as I can remember and do not feel a need to change it."
Some things just really had simple causes.
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Post by Inspector Jason Cluont on Mar 20, 2009 22:27:36 GMT -5
He laughed, then, openly with a warm and pleasant baritone and pushed his hand through his own graying hair.
"I had long hair when I was in China, it was better fitting, there."
The morphine was wearing off quickly and he gave a wince at a twinge in his leg before continuing.
"My father was a policer in Rouen--along with Justin Daumont's father and step-father. If mine hadn't packed me off to the Orient, Justin and I would grown up together..." idly he wondered if he were saying too much.
"The...relationships of the family were complicated at best, I can't begin to explain things. Justin was complicated." He broke off a moment, but preceeded it with a sharp look to Javert. "We were never lovers, whatever you heard. But he did stay here, slept...here." He dropped his hand to the other side of the mattress and glanced up to the smallish uniform that still hung from the poster on that side. The wardrobe on that end of the room was still half-full of the dead man's things, and there were, shockingly, sedition pamphlets still scattered messily on the desk.
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Post by Javert on Mar 20, 2009 22:38:03 GMT -5
"You with long hair... now there's a sight I'd pay good money to see." Javert grinned at his colleague.
The inspector found any family relationship complicated, not having much tuck with it himself... the other relationship, however... well, he had no experience there either, but the thought was oddly... comforting, in a strange way.
"I suppose it is good to have a friend one can count on in his hour of need... you're a good man, Jason. Though I do still consider you a fool for the obvious reasons in that aspect."
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Post by Inspector Jason Cluont on Mar 20, 2009 22:40:57 GMT -5
Justin had certainly been more than a friend, though neither man had ever realized how much more. He said nothing of it.
"What are you talking about? His drinking? His step-father ruined him." he growled. "He never wanted to be a cogne."
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Post by Javert on Mar 20, 2009 22:43:13 GMT -5
"The drinking, the pamphlets, the entire package. And it's too easy to blame one's relatives. If you don't like your fate, change it."
Javert himself was living proof that such a thing could be done.
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