thecapitol | And when we both get older with walking canes and hair of gray

Victory's chainsmoking in the park, chatting up her Avox (who follows her, it seems, only to pick things up) when she comes across Zoidberg. Dr. Zoidberg is far from Victory's favorite Tribute, but he's certainly far from the bottom (although admittedly, foul-tempered ingrates like De Winchester make just about anyone look charming by comparison). Victory's even come to the conclusion that Zoidberg's shortcomings are not his own fault but simply unfortunate contrivances of his own physiognomy, which has devised itself to look as unfashionable as possible. He is, after all, cheerful and easy-going, and that does wonders for making him easy to work with.

When she sees the wrinkled prune that must be his guest, she's suddenly grateful to at least have a Tribute who's a charming shade of fire-engine red and not sour-milk yellow.

She finishes her conversation with the Avox (who is patiently listening to her complain about how she gets terrible geographic tongue when she eats citrus) and walks over, taking a long drag of her cigarette before tucking it into the messy bun in her hair. "Oh, I might have missed you there, the sun's glare is almost painful today. How are you, doctor?"

"I'm well, Victory!" Zoidberg cries, waving happily to his favorite stylist in the whole wide world. The fact that she is the only stylist he knows has nothing to do with it. He looks away from his game of bridge to study the young human woman, milky eyes crossing in concern. "The sun is looking rather massive today. It isn't causing you any pain, is it? Perhaps you need medical treatment from me, Doctor Zoidberg!"

Well, if there's one thing Victory loves, it's people treating her as if she's some sort of delicate flower. As such, as she slumps onto the seat next to Zoidberg, she looks absolutely gleeful despite the exaggerated pout.

"Oh, well, you know I have a nervous condition, so when I talk about pain it's what most people would call agony. It's tolerable, today." She bats her eyelashes. "Who's your friend?"

Zoidberg seems unfazed by Victory's bad case of melodrama, so as she speaks, he just nods and says 'Uh-huh' every few seconds. This method seems to work until she stops talking, which then prompts an awkward silence followed by an accusatory claw pointed at the Professor.

"Who? Him?" He blinks slowly. "That's Hubert, my oldest and dearest friend. He's elderly."

Perhaps it was a bit odd to seek out one who had killed him, but, from watching the tapes, Joly did remember that the "good" doctor had tried to put him back together within the arena. And really, having heard through the grapevine of the crab-man's recent change in circumstances, it did seem only right he say something of congratulations.

After all, what else did one do for someone who had tried, literally, to piece them back together. Clearing his throat, he found himself knocking at the door of the District One suites, a bit nervously, true, but still.

"Come in!" Zoidberg cried out, shuffling and dealing out the playing cards at random, his incompetence on display at every level. Upon spotting Joly, he perked up considerably, waving to his former victim, beckoning him in. "Ah, François! There you are! I've been waiting for you! Join me!"

"Have you?" Joly asked, a bit surprised, as he made his way inside.

"I must thank you, for the arena, first of all, doctor. Your attempts to save my life, as I saw them replayed later, were rather heroic." A bit freaky, but, Joly reminded himself, he would rather have a creature of so much science as Zoidberg for a friend than for someone he had alienated so flattery could not hurt much.

"I am glad the capitol has recognized your brilliance, Doctor."

The crabman patted the chair beside him for Joly to join him. "You are too kind, my friend, although just between us chickens, it was really only a matter of time before I was handsomely rewarded for my competence and bravery."

He leaned in close to the man, inspecting the other's neck for any signs of decapitation or scarring. "Ah, that seems to have healed nicely! If only I could take the credit."

Joly smiled as he took the offered seat, studying Zoidberg rather intently. While there was a part of him that reacted with sheer terror upon seeing him, a larger part was curious, and more about his experiences than biology.

"Between us chickens, hmm?" He asked, winking a bit. "I suppose that much is true from what I've seen of you. So far though, has it been everything it is cracked up to be?

As Zoidberg leaned, Joly bent his head a little, to better show off his now perfectly smooth neck. "It really has. Much as I am uncertain about some of their methods, I must say they are good at bringing one back to life."

"Ah! An eggceptional pun!" He was completely pleased at understanding the joke this time. "So. Does this mean all is forgiven for what happened in the planetarium?"

Joly grinned at the response, rather pleased that puns could be something of a universal language after all. It struck him as important, somehow, for the future, and means of communication and the like.

"I found yours rather amusing too. It is good to know that no matter what, there are people with enough wit about that I am not committing fowl play with some of mine."

And then Joly's expression shifted a little, as he moved his head to be sure he was looking fully into Zoidberg's eyes, so he could see that he was serious about this.

"My dear Doctor Zoidberg, as I saw from the footage, you went beyond the boundaries that any sane man, or woman, would, in order to attempt to save me. I should certainly think that was more than enough to earn my forgiveness."

Zoidberg was taken aback by the gravity in Joly's expression, but he found that his hearts were warming at the overwhelming flow of positive sentiments. "I've often been told that my medical practices border on insane. It is truly splendid to hear that my efforts are appreciated."

He reached out to touch Joly's hand with a gentle claw. "Does this mean we're... friends?"

"Ah, I do know the feeling." Joly's own tone was fairly heartfelt as he admitted to this. "I do not think my methods have gone so...in depth as the ones you seem to work on, but I've been told rather the same. I experimented a bit with magnetism and the like at home, and no one seemed to appreciate anything of the theory or work behind it..." he's shaking his head a little.

"Sometimes I think that the community is a bit...blinded by their need to keep things as they always are. I can understand a need for pushing limits, to explore. How else do things improve, after all?"

Joly smiled, turning his hand over so that he could squeeze the claw gently in return. "I do believe it does."

He nodded as he listened, engrossed in the tale. "Ah yes, magnetism. A tried and true method of healing. Truly, you are ahead of your time within the field of medicine, François! If only I had been alive in your era, so that I could have attested to your astute mental prowess." He smiled cheerfully then. "It's a good thing time is cyclical!"

"It does have merit beyond those who study it now?" Joly's face lit up at that, pleased with the knowledge that those of his particular school of thought had been correct. Ah cyclical time. I do wonder what Paris would have thought of you."

He had the feeling it would not have been positive, sadly. Which was a shame at that. So much knowledge to be cast aside simply because the one with it was a giant lobster-crab man from the future. How was it that Joly could simply go with this concept now when not so long ago it had terrified him? One could really only guess.

"I think it may be better you come from when you do, at that. Though I dare say the course of medicine would have otherwise been much changed. There is something to be said for meddling in the past, I think? Repercussions and all of that. Ethically, though, well. It is something of a strange balance, no?"

"Oh yes, indeed!" Most of Zoidberg's trips to the past had been mired in wacky shenanigans. It was hard to imagine that he would be accepted most places in the past. And the meddling... oh, the meddling. "Did I ever tell you about my friend Fry? He's his own grandfather, he is!"

"Goodness." Joly's eyes grew wide at the concept right there. "That IS rather a good example of time travel becoming quickly interesting. How does such a thing come ABOUT?"

"Well," Zoidberg began, wiggling into his seat, settling in for the tale. "We accidentally travelled backwards in time to the year 1947, where Fry encountered his own grandmother and unknowingly knocked her up. It caused quite the scandal amongst our social set, let me tell you."

1947. It's a far cry from when Joly himself was last alive, so he's raising a bit of an eyebrow at that. The fact that it is in the past too, is, well, still shocking even though he knows it IS a fact.

"That is truly amazing. And most certainly scandalous." Joly can't help but grin as he leans forward. "How DOES one deal with finding themselves in such a situation?"

"One finds oneself to be lacking in the intellect department, if you know what I mean." Zoidberg winked at Joly, ribbing him with his elbow. "I kid, I kid. Fry is a lovely man. As loyal a friend as a crab could ask for. Sometimes he even lets me lick the crumbs out of the bottom of his sandwich baggies! And once he even told me I wasn't being annoying!"

"Inbreeding HAS been known, eventually, to produce bad effects, indeed. It accounts for lines of royalty at home, I think."

He returned the wink with a smirk, and somehow it was not as odd as he had thought,to be elbowed by Zoidberg, though the description of his friend did cause him to raise an eyebrow.

"It CAN be good when one knows that they are not annoying anyone else, yes." It did not sound exactly like friend behavior to Joly, but then again, perhaps standards were different in the future. It was either that or Zoidberg was not quite a friend but had not gotten the message. Whatever the option, he saw no reason not to continue the conversation by interrupting to point that out.

"I do sometimes worry about that very same thing, actually. But I always had Bossuet, at home, to reassure me it was not as bad as that. At least, I hope that he was telling me the truth." Given that the expose of Enjolras, and Musichetta's visit, it was uncomfortably clear to him the Capitol already knew everything about the three of them, and it made very little sense to deny anything or refuse naming names anymore.

"Good friends can actually be very hard to find."

"And how!" Zoidberg cooed in agreement. Unfortunately for Joly, however, the crab beast had somehow missed that little detail of Enjolras' exposé and so had no idea who Bossuet was or what he might possibly mean to Joly. "Now, now. Tell me all about your ol' pal, Bow-sway. Out with it. Doctor's orders!"

Actually, the fact that it had been missed was probably better for Joly right now. While he could have recovered from a conversation about the indecent things he did in his bedroom, it was still not the sort of thing he knew what to do with outside of his most intimate circle of friends. And even then, he would probably need to be very drunk. So this worked out fairly well, actually.

"Ah well, Bossuet, well, he is Lesgles, really, but the joke behind that is complicated..."

Joly had learned that many of their jokes among their friends were not the sort of humor people from other places tended not to really understand, and so it did not matter too much.

"Bossuet is my dearest friend, or something more...I've heard the term soulmate used here. I would say that it applied." If Joly was certain of the definition anyway. "You know, I do not think I have ever seen him in a bad mood of any sort, though he has more reasons than most. Luck has never quite been on his side, and every black cat chooses to walk across his path in the street, but he has made almost an art of laughing at the misfortunes life sends one's way."

How else to describe someone who meant so very much to him? It was almost difficult to really find the words that would make any sense. How could he point out that Bossuet seemed to balance him, that they shared a love of terrible puns, a mistress, and so much more?

"He WAS studying law...in his own particular fashion." Joly continued, a grin crossing his face. "Until he lost his place at school to save Marius of all people from getting chucked out." Marius, he thought, must be well known to almost all of the capitol by now, and did not need elaboration.

"As it turned out, that made him much happier, and who is anyone to begrudge someone the joy of being freed from study? And really, I could not see him a full lawyer somehow. He is brilliant enough, and can string together words like nearly no one else, but the law school seems to have this way of crushing people in the end, and the law at home is not something I should think anyone with much of a heart could uphold. Which he certainly has, so somehow it's made sense. We have an understanding that we've never really had to speak, it's simply BEEN, and we share nearly everything."

"We have been living, with our mistress, in what used to be just my lonely rooms a long time now, though our landlady did suggest that with his luck,we never should leave him alone there, something would be bound to end up destroyed or on fire or anything else, simply due to Bossuet's presence. Much as I miss him, I think it is far better that he is not here. I cannot help but imagine that any arena he entered would begin to backfire, just because he dared to be standing there. Though, well, I think we are all dead at home, which is a painful thing for Musichetta. I'd rather not have seen her left alone if there had been any way of preventing it, though I am not sure what. "

Joly's expression turned a little sad at that, because, having seen 'Chetta's shock on seeing him again, he had felt terrible beyond simply missing her, and now that she was gone again and he had learned the details of what happened at the barricade, he missed both of them, even more. Still, it would be wrong and selfish to want either of them here beside him when it came to so much horror. He only missed them sometimes, that was all.

"I am rather lucky." He concluded, though his smile was a little bittersweet. "To have had someone like him, and like 'Chetta as well. Most do not get that sort of chance."

"Ah," Zoidberg said, nodding in understanding. He of course was not the most understanding of creatures, but he was able to get through Joly's monologue and comprehend the majority of it, so that was something, right?

"So this fella is your boyfriend, eh? And the pair of you share a female? That's very progressive for you olden-times folks." He was quite proud of Joly for being so modern in the way he lived his life. "But I have to say, there's a lot of money in being a lawyer. A man could do worse for himself. After all, he's got a wife and a husband to support, may as well bite the bullet and get through school, am I right?"

He shakes his head, tentacles drooping sadly. "How very lucky you are. I've never understood you humans and your romantic whatnots. On my planet, the females lay their eggs and the males fertilize them. And then we die!"

It was certainly something, and the nature of their relationship was in the sort of territory at home where people could choose to infer a slightly more innocent meaning, so the fact that Zoidberg got it at once was really rather promising. And it gave Joly opportunity to discuss home without getting caught up in a lot of explanation or euphemisms. That was always nice, too.

"He is indeed, and yes, the three of us live together in sin. Which really is rather wonderful, and yes, a bit progressive. Well, so much that none of our parents know the details." Because really. No one wanted any upset parents or siblings showing up to defend any of their honors or lost virtues. Losing that particular virtue had, after all, been quite enjoyable for Joly.

"Ah, well, the law we're dealing with at home is rather..." Joly had to choose his words carefully so that it did not look like he was against government like the Capitol, even though, from a great many angles, The Capitol and the King seemed quite a bit alike. "I could not see him lasting long at it, I suppose. There are simply too many areas which might invoke...catastrophe. Not near so much as our friend Bahorel, I must admit, but still."

The fact that the law students of his friends were Bossuet, Bahorel, Courfeyrac, Enjolras, and Marius was really quite disturbingly frightening to contemplate. Or it had been, when it was something of a joke and all of them were actually alive.

"And then you die?" Joly looked a bit horrified at that, though he did not want to insult someone else's culture exactly. "Oh but not being able to meet your children. That must be rather hard."

Zoidberg nodded sadly. "I never got to meet my parents. Instead, I was raised by my lovely aunt, Sadie. You see, my people have an elaborate and highly complication nanny system, which consists of hideous females who cannot find a mate raising the offspring of their dearly departed relations. It's really very effective. I suggest you all try it!"

"I suppose in some cases that would happen among us." Joly mused, considering mothers who died in childbirth when fathers ran away, or were already dead. Sometimes old maiden aunts did take over, when they existed. And sometimes they actually were...less than aesthetically pleasing, particularly when they were elderly.

"It is not exactly a planned thing, of course. We like most of our parents and children to stay together since they do not, ideally, die after, or as a result of, or during procreation, but the cases where there IS such a relative, it is hardly unheard of,really."

"I think humans would be a lot more understanding of others if they were forced to spend more time with their aging female relatives." Zoidberg declared with a firm nod.

"THAT is certainly true." Joly's nod back was rather earnest. "Many of the things that I know, one of the reasons that I was studying medicine, in fact, are due to my grandmother. She taught me so much about natural medicines, of seeking cures that do not just come from a bottle...I do miss her."

His interest piqued, Zoidberg leaned in even closer. "Your grandmother was a doctor, eh? How nice that it runs in the family! Doctoring doesn't run in my family. I wanted to be a comedian, like my beloved Uncle Harold. But Aunt Sadie said no."

"Ah well, not in the ways that most universities would consider doctors." Joly mused,not certain how to entirely explain. "But well, there is a tradition of medicine, naturally based that she knew very much about. I was lucky to begin to learn some of that. And in some cases, I do think that the older ways, particularly when they are not so invasive can be better for certain ailments. It is one of those things that the establishment has yet to agree on, I fear." But it was something that he might have carried on had he lived to practice with the degree and license of his own.

The other declaration is a bit, well, surprising to say the least. Television being what it is, Joly's now seen a BIT of comedy being aired, all right, more than a bit, and he's considered it to be the sort of path he might wish to take if he should ever leave an arena behind him in a time before any rebellions have taken place. After all, celebrity status WOULD be a good way to get up close and personal with many people, and he'd enjoy it besides, but with Zoidberg, well.

"That is a little strange to hear, actually. "You seem to have such a great passion for science and for medicine, you know. I'd not have thought it was not always so for you."

"Do you really think so?" Zoidberg asked, blinking slowly. "Most people seem to think I'm a terrible doctor. Nobody understands me!" His large eyes welled up with tears. "No one understands the passion for people and financial benefits that is Zoidberg."

"I think that your heart is in the right place." Joly answered, hoping to be careful around some of Zoidberg's uh...dubious medical skills and ideas. "And that you are something of the visionary yourself. You see beyond the medical work that they do here. I'd bet the same in your time too. And you certainly have demonstrated both those passions here."

And when we both get older with walking canes and hair of gray

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