Honestly? It was far easier for Joly to push himself a little, to shove the doubts that arose when he let himself consider them far into the back of his mind. In truth, it was a tactic he'd employed at home, often enough. While he was with an actual patient, he could manage to stave off panic, focusing only in the moment, but when it came to working on cadavers, or the like, or facing the idea of having picked up an illness itself or when he was simply terrified, he did revert to humor, and to puns, finding them enough distraction, usually, that he could manage to carry on in what it was.
But, no, for Joly, there was no ill intention behind the joke, and he fell silent, nodding at Enjolras's answer.
"We are gladiators of a sort at that." Joly agreed, nodding. And really, the thing was almost completely true. Conscripted as they were. He could certainly see the reasoning behind that sort of explanation, though he doubted that it was a comfort to one who had come from such a life as that to be launched into another one.
Not to regard Venus as a woman though? It seemed to Joly like the sort of technique that would prove badly for everyone in the end. While it was certainly true that gender had played very little of a role in the arena, and that women had the right to be seen as equals, entirely discounting a woman's femininity was a dangerous one to make. It was confusing, certainly, and not something to ask Enjolras about, surely.
"I can see why one might avoid a person who killed them." He begin, a million inappropriate comments about la petite mort rushing through his mind, though he ignored them in the face of this, more serious tone. "I admittedly do not have plans to spend much quality time, if any, with my own. As matters of interpretations go, it seems straightforward enough. Though..." His nose crinkled a little at the next bit.
"I can think of fewer things that put a man into a better or more distracted mood than his lover's presence, that IS true. And all right, not so interesting as all of that. I was expecting greater scandal somehow. I suppose that IS best left to Courfeyrac, or is that worst?"
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But, no, for Joly, there was no ill intention behind the joke, and he fell silent, nodding at Enjolras's answer.
"We are gladiators of a sort at that." Joly agreed, nodding. And really, the thing was almost completely true. Conscripted as they were. He could certainly see the reasoning behind that sort of explanation, though he doubted that it was a comfort to one who had come from such a life as that to be launched into another one.
Not to regard Venus as a woman though? It seemed to Joly like the sort of technique that would prove badly for everyone in the end. While it was certainly true that gender had played very little of a role in the arena, and that women had the right to be seen as equals, entirely discounting a woman's femininity was a dangerous one to make. It was confusing, certainly, and not something to ask Enjolras about, surely.
"I can see why one might avoid a person who killed them." He begin, a million inappropriate comments about la petite mort rushing through his mind, though he ignored them in the face of this, more serious tone. "I admittedly do not have plans to spend much quality time, if any, with my own. As matters of interpretations go, it seems straightforward enough. Though..." His nose crinkled a little at the next bit.
"I can think of fewer things that put a man into a better or more distracted mood than his lover's presence, that IS true. And all right, not so interesting as all of that. I was expecting greater scandal somehow. I suppose that IS best left to Courfeyrac, or is that worst?"