(no subject)

[calmhrtprevails]

The Capital Wasteland is a difficult place for people from other worlds to acclimate to. Fawkes hasn't brought many people to visit, but he's been there when his friend's done as much, and he's seen the looks on new arrivals' faces. It's only fair, he thinks, to make it gradual for Feuilly; he's managed to reach the Bar through a door northwest of Springvale and Megaton, in what's left of a barn. It provides a broad view and an opportunity to turn around and go back before it's too late.

Now he just has to find the Frenchman before opening the door back to the Wastes again.

Comments

[calmhrtprevails]

"There's only the one printing press," Fawkes admits, "or at least only one that's working, just now. Paper's hard to come by as well, I'm afraid. Moira's books are printed on paper that was already made. It's just been bleached so it can be re-used. There are people who make money by scrounging books and papers that can be re-used, though. And the Brotherhood of Steel pays a bounty for every readable book someone brings them, so that the books can be re-printed or added to libraries."

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Libraries." He has to remind himself: bibliothèque, not librairie. "Who keeps the libraries? This brotherhood?"

(He also has to remind himself, somewhat belatedly, that there are giant ants and hairless giant dog creatures that are dangerous, if not ferocious; he glances around hastily. But Fawkes clearly knows what he's doing when it comes to the local dangers.)

[calmhrtprevails]

"For the moment, the are two," says Fawkes. "One is the archives of the Brotherhood, at the Citadel. You can't see that building from here. The other library is in Megaton. The woman who runs it is named Moira Brown. She also runs the printing works in Springvale, and the paper works."

He scans the rubble-strewn street ahead of them and points to a heap of metal sheeting rearing skyward at the end of it.

"Those are the town walls of Megaton. Our destination is very nearby."

[tu_vas_triompher]

He nods. "And it is to the Megaton library that we go? You said--it dates from two hundred years past?"

[calmhrtprevails]

"It's mostly reprinted books from two hundred years ago," says Fawkes. "All of the ones in French are that old. The people around here don't have any trade with people who speak French, but there used to be a library in Arlington that had a collection of foreign language books. That's mostly what people are hoping to get translated."

[tu_vas_triompher]

"I will do all that I can," Feuilly says with great enthusiasm. "On what subjects are they? They are histories, romances, scientific books--?"

[calmhrtprevails]

"My friend had a man from Milliways identify them for us some time back, although he couldn't serve as a translator," Fawkes says. "The ones we'd like to see translated first are scientific and medical material. There's also some histories. Actually, there are other kinds, too, but Moira hasn't printed them yet. You'd have to read them on a computer screen."

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly frowns thoughtfully. "I ought to have asked before this, so that I should bring a dictionary, ah, most correct for the subject. But if I can bring back the books to Milliways I can--consult correctly."

He blushes. "I promise, I do read and write in English better than I speak."

[calmhrtprevails]

"That's quite all right," Fawkes says. "I learned to read properly before I got the hang of speaking clearly myself. I understand how it can be, when you're self-taught."

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Ah? That must be difficult. To learn to read without speaking well. And English is very difficult--the orthography and the pronunciation are so different. I thought, before, that French spelling was difficult. Then I saw English."

[calmhrtprevails]

"It took a long time," Fawkes admits. "Then again, I had nothing but time. Practice eventually makes perfect, as they say."

They've reached the part of the 'street' that runs through Springvale now. There are houses on either side of them, a number of which actually look livable, by run-down slum standards. Others look like what they are: burnt-out, bombed-out wrecks that've been quietly going to pieces for two hundred years.

(One of them has a sign in front of it reading NEXT PROJECT: VAULT 101 HALFWAY HOUSE - COMING SOON!)

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly is amply familiar with run-down slum standards; mostly he just brightens at the sign of habitation and looks with some curiosity at the little hints about life here. "--And--what is it, the Vault?"

[calmhrtprevails]

Fawkes shields his eyes for a moment against the morning sun, then points to the rock formation that's begun rearing up out of the landscape to their right. "Under there," he says, "there's a shelter that was dug before the Great War. They sealed the doors the day the bombs fell, and didn't open them again until about thirty years ago. Even then, they only did it briefly, and their next leader ordered them to lock the doors and act as if no one had ever left. That's Vault 101. My friend grew up there. They've only started interacting with the surface world again recently, and it's very hard for them."

[tu_vas_triompher]

"But do they find that they hold things in common with the other people here? You were once all a single nation..."

[calmhrtprevails]

"They speak the same language," says Fawkes, "and they tend to respect the town mayor's authority, because they're used to being ruled by an Overseer. But things start to be very different after that. Most of the people in Vault 101 have lived their entire lives without ever having seen the sky, or walked on uneven ground. I'm told they don't have animals in there, either, except for a couple of kinds of insect."

[tu_vas_triompher]

"I can not imagine that," he says, shaking his head. "Even in the most small, most poor streets of Paris, on has at least the sky and the little birds. Are they happy to see the sky now?"

[calmhrtprevails]

"Some of them are," says Fawkes. "And I'm glad for that. But some of them find it a fearful experience, and don't want to come outside at all. For them, I feel very sorry."

[tu_vas_triompher]

"I have spoken," Feuilly says thoughtfully, "with someone who went across the ocean. In the most poor, the poorest of--of accommodations. Deep down in a ship, you know? She said she thought once she would not ever, never, see the sky another time. She was very happy when the sun was on her face again. But she did not live there all her life."

He shrugs and shakes his head. "No, it would not be the same, even that." There's really nothing in his world that would compare to a life spent entirely enclosed.

[calmhrtprevails]

"No doubt for many of them, leaving the world they were born in is frightening," says Fawkes. "It takes a great deal to shake someone up enough that they're willing to take a chance on something as strange as that."

Vault 101, after all, was not Vault 87, where he was made.

"That half-way house you saw there. The people of Vault 101 who're willing to venture out are making it into a place where they and their fellow Vault residents can ease into the surface world, and bring their experiences back down to the people who still live underground. It'll make it easier to bring them all into the light eventually."

[tu_vas_triompher]

That turn of phrase makes him think of Enjolras--and then of the closed doors and shuttered windows in the barricaded street. "It is the most difficult thing, to give the courage to change. If change can come slowly, all the better, may be. Easier. If one can--can afford to be slow."

Feuilly shakes his head and tries not to look so serious. This is the point at which someone--Bahorel or Grantaire, probably--would crack a joke at his earnestness and set the group laughing again.

[calmhrtprevails]

"I think perhaps-"

"^Mmm_mmm^ooo_ooo^oooooo."

Would Feuilly be willing to settle for a small caravan consisting of a woman in black leather armor, a man in bodged-together armor and baseball cap and goggles, and a heavily loaded-down oversized cow with not one, but two distinct heads moseying into sight? That's laughing material, right?

... right?

[tu_vas_triompher]

Nnnnno. Not so much laughing. Feuilly looks rather more daunted than he had when he first saw Fawkes. He's less concerned about hurting the feelings of the...cow(?).

But Fawkes seems unalarmed, so Feuilly tries not to clutch his bag of books so desperately.

[calmhrtprevails]

"Ah! Someone I've met before," says Fawkes. "Crow! It's good to see you again. How are you doing?"

The tanned fellow in the cap smiles, and raises a hand in greeting. "Good morning!" he says. "To you and your companion both. I've just made a number of sales in Megaton, and I'm on my way to Canterbury while it's still cool."

"Then by all means, don't let me disturb you," says Fawkes. "Unless-"

He looks down at Feuilly.

"I don't think we'll be here long enough for you to need any protective clothing, do you? Crow, here, is a trader who deals in armor and helmets."

[tu_vas_triompher]

He has to collect his thoughts a moment before he can fit together the words of the question. "I do not think so," he answers carefully. "Unless the library is more dangerous than common?"

Feuilly would like to be joking. He hopes very much that he's joking!

[calmhrtprevails]

"Only if Moira's experimenting," says Fawkes.

"The last person I spoke to said Miss Brown was going to be spending most of the day taking in repair work," says Crow."

"Ah, then we should be all right without your services," says Fawkes. "Good luck on your travels, Crow."

The man smiles and bows his head. "Good fortune watch over you," he says, and clucks to both the cow heads to start moving out. It's not long before they've made their way out of the area.