2025-11-04: Fontaine Family Dinner
- Log: Fontaine Family Dinner
- Cast: Isabeau Fontaine, Laurent Fontaine
- Where: Kagurazaka - Penthouse
- OOC Date: 2025-11-04
- IC Date: Sunday, August 05 2012
- Summary: Isabeau shares what she's up to with her father over dinner -- a lot of tennis, now school's out -- and they share a keen interest in the Olympics, with Laurent nerding out over his work in Athens, to boot. Once his delicious spaghetti's all done, she reveals she has a surprise for him: a wood-carved replica of his favourite claymore. Laurent expresses his devotion towards his family, and learns a little more about his daughter and her late mother in the process... but luckily, he's able to get her to laugh again, even after Fleur comes up.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Isabeau asked, a while back, what Laurent's favourite display piece was. He has dozens of old weapons up for view; for some reason, it was vitally important that she knew his feelings on them. She even asked to take pictures. An exhaustive amount of pictures, in fact -- though they were all through her phone, so it was easy to take a lot in sequence.
Since then, she's been working on something on the deck. And she has chased away any attempts to investigate what that is; swatting away curious eyes may have certainly been a factor in Ruzica electing to move out. Isabeau, as it happens, is deeply territorial, and she does NOT like people seeing her projects before they're finished.
(While they're still imperfect.)
That isn't the only thing she's been curious about, though. She has proven an apt student on all things Laurent; and not only the answers he gives, either. For instance: sit-down dinners. With discussion! She learned just how those were supposed to work! Until recently, she'd be telling him about her academic efforts over dinner, but ever since she was forced to report that she had gotten poor results on her exams (it's not HER fault, if they'd just test her in FRENCH --), she's had to find other things to tell him about.
Primarily: that's been their club's upcoming tennis meet. "Kanae is a joke," Isabeau scoffs, and she only ever speaks French at home, naturally; "but somehow, she's still the best player we have behind me? The rest, they're dreadful! They can't decide if they want to strike from an open or closed stance, and they're always calling lets," that's what tennis calls a do-over, "and they constantly complain about my lobs and drop shots, as if they're always going to face fuzzy bunny rabbits!" That's the art of either sending the ball sailing deep into the court or just barely bapping it over the net; dealing with either of those serves could get in anyone's head, but dealing with one after the other is downright impossible for a lot of casual players.
"They said they wanted to get better," Isabeau sulks, stabbing at her cabonara with her fork. "But I need to take the ball machine out to get my eight hours of practice because all of them are always whining about having dates or hangouts or whatever to do, even though they're not in school right now, they should have the time! But you're supposed to practice for eight hours a day if you want to be the best, you know? That's what they do for the Olympics." Well, Olympians tend to practice for four to eight hours a day, but is anyone surprised that Isabeau went right to the upper limit? It's been taking up large parts of her vacation, but no one, thus far, has been able to convince her to chill out. "... oh, yeah! You know how the USA took Gold in Women's Tennis? Today it was Britain for the Men's! And the USA took gold in Women's Doubles, but Belarus took gold for Mixed Doubles..."
(More Olympics talk. Isabeau's been following it quite closely and animatedly. She loves the Olympics! Of course she does, it's where the best of the best go!!)
<Pose Tracker> Laurent Fontaine has posed.
Laurent Fontaine is not quite sure what to make of his daughter's interest in documenting his extensive antique weapon collection. But, despite being affable and refined, he is sometimes at a loss with her. Finding out that he is a father does not make him become a father overnight, after all. But when she decided to work on the deck...
Well, he left her to it.
He has a way of looking well-dressed even in casual clothing. He has a polo shirt tucketed into slacks at the dinner in his household, and he wears an expensive watch. For some, dressing for comfort means dressing down; for Laurent, it means being dressed up.
He smiles as he looks over his plate of spaghetti carbonara. Laurent has money, but not the sort of money where he can hire a cook. Which means that he cooks -- and after he befriended an aspiring chef in his school days, he learned to cook quite well. He lowers his fork, with pasta still curled around it.
"Hmm, I'm not surprised, mon chou," he says. "Being an Olympic athlete is... something that requires a great deal of dedication. And dedication, I find, is something many have in limited stock -- and can only devote so much to any one task. And Kanae... well, we both know what she must concern herself with, now."
And by her own choice, concern herself with largely alone. His expression darkens briefly at that -- but then he smiles and mentally brushes it off.
He laughs a little. "I take it you're enjoying the Games? I've watched some. It always reminds me of the summer I spent doing field work in Athens..."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Isabeau tends for sportier looks; in this weather, that's shorts, blouses, and boots. Given Laurent has witnessed her up and scaling a three-metre-high fence like it was nothing, let alone all the times she's dropped out of trees around him, one might presume that skirts just aren't practical for her lifestyle.
(She wears them for school! She has to wear them for school. She just, you know, wears bike shorts underneath them.)
Luckily, she likes her father's cooking! (Obviously.) Isabeau isn't a bad cook, herself, but it's also not her artform of choice; it's just kind of something you get good at when your mom thought clocks were a personal insult and forgot that she had to schedule her grand projects to respect dinner half the time.
"They don't have to be Olympians," Isabeau pouts. "I mean... since I don't have a professional team or anything, I might not get out there..." She admits this slowly; it's hard to admit that she might not achieve the pinnacle of everything she does, but she is making her best effort to show a shred of humility to her father. (Even though she couldn't define the word in a sentence.) "But they should at least be willing to put the effort in, right? I don't get how they're all so -- flighty! It's not that hard to stick with something if you really care about it."
Well, it is that hard, Isabeau just has a remarkable amount of diligence for her age.
"Anyway, I beat Kanae the other night," Isabeau boasts, because, like, she already expended all her capacity for humility, it's gone now. "I beat twice as many Shadows as she did!" Was it really twice as many, Isabeau?! She won, shut up. "So if she's just focusing on that, she's still losing. Maybe she should just give up!"
... given how Isabeau mentions Kanae every time she crosses her field of view, she definitely doesn't really want her to just give up. You'd think they were friends instead of bitter enemies, the amount of bandwidth she takes up in Isabeau's brain.
"Yeah, the Games are great!" Isabeau brightens up, mentioning those. "We've had a fantastic showing in swimming -- we got four gold medals!" 'We' being France, of course. "Japan won a couple too, I guess... like, I remember their saber gold medalist, this, like, Miho Ijuuin? She's huge!" Which is a good thing, apparently.
"But -- you did field work in Athens?" She asks, immediately latching onto this New Fact. "Really? What were you investigating? I heard the archeological sites there are always being threatened by the city around them..."
She is, of course, still eating her nice fancy spaghetti throughout all this. That's real skill.
<Pose Tracker> Laurent Fontaine has posed.
Laurent is reasonably athletic, though it is more fencing and going to the gym a few times a week. He certainly can't match Isabeau's level of athleticism.
"Hmm, well... I think it comes down to what they're focused on. I'm not sure how Japanese schools do it, but... some people are pretty casual about what they do in school," Laurent says, with a hint of a smile. Then, he perks up. At the idea of fighting Shadows, he nods.
"Well done," he says. "And hopefully, your achievements will encourage her to work harder. Sometimes, a good rivalry will push someone to reach for the heights they could."
He reaches over and takes a sip of wine -- then he smiles. "Splendid. I knew we'd have a good showing." His national pride is still strong. At the mention of Athens, though, he brightens up.
He is a nerd at heart.
"I was looking into mystery cults from the Roman period," he says. "Very interesting things. And I had to see the nearby sites, of course -- the famous ones, and some of the out of the way ones. The city threatens the sites, but..."
He shakes his head. "They're still astounding to see. I'll have to take you, some day."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Indeed, there's a reason Isabeau would specifically relate the fencing events to Laurent.
"Casual is just another word for lazy," Isabeau sniffs, haughtily. ... but when Laurent praises her for her efforts, she brightens up from her snootiness immediately. "Thank you! Boy, she had better, if she wants to be stubborn she had better at least be good!"
She'll accept being Kanae's rival, apparently. Why wouldn't she? Of course her papa knows what that girl's getting at.
And she's happy at France's efforts, too. "That's not all, either! We got some gold medals in canoeing and judo, too!" And of course, France won some silver and bronze medals, too, but Isabeau doesn't care about those.
"Oh, the mystery cults! So that's places like... the Theatre of Dionysus?" She guesses, not entirely sure that's the right period. "Wow, it must have been so great to see all that stuff in its proper context! Like, so much of that stuff makes sense when it's all together!" She brightens up even more, though, as she chirps: "We can really go?! That would be fantastic, papa!"
<Pose Tracker> Laurent Fontaine has posed.
"Well, if skill and stubborness are related, then surely one must flow from the other," Laurent says with a smile -- and a sip of his wineglass. (Sorry, Isabeau; he can't provide such things to you.)
"Judo! How splendid," Laurent says, with a laugh. "The more medals for us, the better. I'll have to look for some of the highlights. I've not had the time to watch quite as much as I hoped, I'm sad to say."
He tilts his head -- then he shakes his head 'no.' "Well... perhaps. In this case, it was cults of Venus. Usually, aspects of Venus. But they would also call them Aphrodite."
He puts his hand to his chin -- and then he nods. "Of course, mon chou. Some academic break, perhaps."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"She'll need it," Isabeau insists, of Kanae's implicit skill, "if she wants to challenge me!"
(Isabeau will have to wait a few years before she gets to do a proper Castlevania boss opening, huh? Don't worry, she has a nice glass of juice instead, she's doing fine.)
She nods, of course, quite proper. "You're very busy!" She excuses his lack of attention to the event, easily. "Did they at least see reason and give you that grant you applied for? It shouldn't be so hard..." Isabeau, is, of course, always deeply offended on Laurent's behalf when they knock back his grant applications. How dare they?! Don't they know her papa is trying to ADVANCE THE FIELD OF KNOWLEDGE?!
He was studying Venus, though, and Isabeau leans forward a little when he reveals that. "Oh, how romantic!" She exclaims, apparently not entirely inured to the teenage girl experience, despite the way she trashed her peers for being distracted by dates earlier.
She's all smiles as she insists: "I'd love that!!" And of course it's a matter of academic breaks, because he's a scholar, that's how it works.
Isabeau polishes off her spaghetti, and looks to Laurent, still smiling. "It was really good!" She says, though she rarely gives his cooking a bad review. "The cabonara sauce was so rich tonight... it was great! Oh, may I be excused for a moment? I have something I'd like to show you!"
<Pose Tracker> Laurent Fontaine has posed.
"Then, I hope she rises to the occasion," Laurent says, with a smile.
He is very busy -- and he doesn't argue the point. A university professor isn't an easy job; moreover, his other job -- as a member of the Wild Hunt -- is quite demanding. The recent events in Tokyo have taken some of his attention, even if it has been to learn about them.
"Sometimes," he says about romance. "But did you know that a god's aspects can make them something else? There are aspects of Venus for war, death, fate... all manner of things."
Then, his head tilts to the side. He smiles -- and nods to both of her questions. "I'm pleased you enjoyed. And yes, of course! I'll wait with the utmost expectation, mon chou."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Isabeau has devoted her own time to understanding what's going on supernaturally here, too -- and not always in a group; she has a terrible habit of running off on her own, out there. Luckily, she always returns in one piece!
(The child knows Diarama. Thank God.)
"Well, of course there's an aspect of Venus for war," Isabeau nods, firmly. "Love is a battlefield, you know? There's a song in English about it." Of course she'd be fascinated by that sort of thing. She'll examine it... never.
Instead: she has a plan!! "Thank you! Oh, I'll grab our plates while I'm up..." She goes around to collect the empty dishes, and takes an extra moment to rinse them off and pop them into the dishwasher. Man, doing dishes is easy when you're rich.
That done, she goes out to the deck and gathers something up in her arms, still shrouded by a cloth. She kind of has to slide the glass door shut with an elbow when she steps back inside, but luckily, she's very adept. She places it on the table in front of Laurent, and then takes a seat again as she watches him, expectantly.
Underneath the cloth... is a wooden carving of Laurent's claymore on a wood base! It's at half-size for what must be eminently obvious reasons -- the wood block just wasn't that big -- but the details have all been carved in and sanded down as well as she could lay them down, which, as it happens, is quite skillfully. She's evidently been working in this medium for quite some years; while it is regrettably not a perfect recreation, it's quite a respectable effort for a teenager.
"... I wanted to really understand why you were drawn to that one," Isabeau explains, after a moment. "So I was working on it for a while... I really wanted to get it right. I know... you didn't have to take me in when I found you, you know? And I've caused a bit of trouble... so, I really just... wanted to be able to do something to thank you."
Now she's here actually showing it she feels terribly vulnerable, her gaze darting about despite the way she tries not to shift about nervously. Maybe she should have waited -- should have worked on it more, like that corner on the hilt which never managed to look right --
<Pose Tracker> Laurent Fontaine has posed.
Laurent has done his best to keep an eye on his daughter -- after all, even if she is a new fixture in his life, she is a fixture.
He smiles and nods his thanks as she takes the dishes. He is, he imagines, lucky in that regard. That gives Laurent a moment; a moment when he takes a sip of his wine, and his expression turns thoughtful for a moment. What would Ruza say, if she were here?
He knows she would love her niece. And that gives him that longing that doesn't quite ever leave him.
He sits up straighter, though, and smiles when Isabeau returns. Laurent does all of the expected reactions -- surprise and interest, eyebrows lifted, and one hand running through his short beard as she lays it down and undoes the wrapping. Laurent sucks a breath in with genuine surprise, when the carving is revealed.
"Ah, mon chou!" he says. "This is exquisite. I--well, I knew you were talented. But this! You've truly outdone yourself." He smiles at her, then, as he looks at the claymore. Then, he looks back at her. "You did wonderfully. And I'm really grateful for it, Isabeau. I..."
He considers how to phrase this. "I've been glad to have you here. To get to know you. I never expected you to exist. But..." He smiles. "...I'm grateful, every day, for my family to have expanded and that you're in it."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Tragically, keeping an eye on Isabeau is proving to be something of a difficult task. She keeps disappearing up trees and through abandoned buildings and into the Dark Hour.
She doesn't quite realise that he is deliberately doing those reactions -- attentive as she is, she's only known Laurent a few months -- but luckily, that means they're all exactly as reassuring as they're meant to be. And--!
And he called it exquisite!!
Isabeau is positively beaming; her countless enemies at school would surely insist such an expression is impossible on her haughty face, but here she is, looking entirely over-the-moon about it. He said she outdid herself! He said she did wonderfully!!
And -- and -- "Really?" Isabeau asks, and it's more a telling question than she thinks it is, excited as she is, to confirm that she's wanted. "I'm so happy! I've been really glad to get to know you, too, papa... I always knew you were out there. I was searching for a really long time... ever since mom died, you know? She didn't ever tell me much about you, but I knew you had to be out there somewhere... I just knew it!! I just knew... there had to be some place I belonged, even after she died." She looks down, then, at her hands; she doesn't speak of what happened to Fleur, much, but they were clearly very close.
(Though he certainly would have pulled up, when going through the entire legal process, that the Laportes had no wish to claim her; and given the way her stepfather didn't fight the adoption beyond making sure he really was her father, well...)
<Pose Tracker> Laurent Fontaine has posed.
Laurent has always been a deliberate sort. He isn't without spontaneity, but it proves easier for him to be considered in his reactions. It is both a defense mechanism and something that makes him happy.
And it doesn't make the reactions insincere.
He smiles a little bit more at her question. The nervousness is noticed. He nods to her. "Of course," he says. And then his expression falls for a moment. "Your mother... of course. Had I known, I'd have looked for you sooner. But--ah--your mother and I never knew each other well."
He can put together what must have happened with the Laportes. For the best, then, that he adopted her.
"Family has always been important to me," he says. "My father--your grandfather. He... was distant from me and Ruza. And your Aunt, of course... I wish she could meet you." Not could have met -- no, he doesn't speak of her in the past tense. He doesn't dare.
"I can't forsake family," Laurent finishes. "But. It's not just some sense of duty, in case I've implied such. I've come to appreciate your company. You've brightened my life up quite a bit, mon chou."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Isabeau seems to be far more given to spontaneity, which... at least fits with a passing familiarity with Fleur. For all she insists that people ought to be dedicated, she's clearly picked some things up from her mother.
Had he known. Had he known! Had Ruzica told him, she thinks, bitterly, and to herself; it isn't entirely a fair thought, of course, because Fleur didn't settle on telling her the truth until they'd gotten home that day, and she wouldn't meet the Girl with Golden Eyes again until she found Laurent herself. Nonetheless, how can she dismiss the thought in her heart that she could have met him at the start of her miseries instead of all the way at the end?
"She said I didn't need to be defined by a man," Isabeau says, quietly, "but I think she was the one who didn't want to be. She should have told you... but by the time I was old enough to say so, she had no idea where you were."
And of course Fleur could have tried harder to find him, but no one could ever tell her what to do, because the only person who has ever been responsible is Isabeau.
Well, Isabeau and her father, clearly. That's why Laurent is so great!
She listens, attentively, as Laurent talks about her grandfather, a frown crossing over her freckled face. Luckily, it isn't just duty; she's plainly relieved, hearing that. "I really want to make you happy, papa," she says, with that same relieved smile. "So I'm really happy to hear that, you know...? I don't want to be distant from my family at all!"
<Pose Tracker> Laurent Fontaine has posed.
Laurent certainly picks up on those characteristics of Fleur's in their daughter. He doesn't remark on those, though -- he isn't sure that would be wise or welcome, just yet.
"Mm. I don't... want to second guess your mother too much," he says. "I wish she had told me. But... I can't say for certain what went through her mind, why exactly she did why what she did. I think... while I regret it, we should look to the future, no?"
He tilts his head -- and then he smiles at her, as she speaks. "I don't intend to be distant, either." He doesn't want to repeat his father's mistakes. "And rest assured, I'll be pesky and irritating as required."
He cracks a wry smile at that.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"If I'd argued more," Isabeau insists, quietly, as she looks down at their very nice tablecloth, "she'd still be here."
And perhaps, in that moment, Laurent will understand something terrible: it's not just that Fleur is dead, but that Isabeau blames herself.
(How much of her cantankerous nature, then, was a response to that day --)
"B-but it's okay," she says, looking up to Laurent, even if her smile's a little put on. "When I finally find her, I'll ask what she was thinking for you, okay?" It's not that Fleur is ambiguously-not-quite-dead, of course; Isabeau is just always trying to track down ghosts.
And as far as coping strategies go, it could certainly be worse. At least that one can be supported through a dozen gadgets.
Isabeau laughs, though, when Laurent cracks a wry smile. "Come on, papa! You're like the one person who doesn't get on my nerves!" Maybe she'd get along better with everyone else if she was sweet with them like she is with him! No, it must be the rest of the world which is wrong.
<Pose Tracker> Laurent Fontaine has posed.
Laurent is very quiet for a moment as he looks at his daughter. He has seen himself in her, before, but he does now in a different way.
The blaming of herself resonates, with his own feelings about Ruza.
"Oh, mon chou. You can never know for sure," he says, his voice soft. He smiles, then, at what she says -- thought that too is a little forced. "Please do."
He won't take that illusion from her, even if he doesn't think a ghost is likely. He understands holding on.
Then, he smiles, and he sits up a little straighter. "Now, now," he says. "You may underestimate your father's ability to be irritating. We do coursework on it, when we learn to teach, in university!"
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Mm..." Isabeau hums, looking terribly downcast. "Maybe..." She doesn't sound entirely convinced, though; perhaps they're more alike than it first seemed, despite their separation.
After all, she was the sensible one, and her mother was the one constantly consumed by her flights of fancy; she should have realised how dangerous it was, instead of just -- assuming her mother was mighty enough to defeat any kind of wave.
(And Isabeau isn't yet old enough to realise that assuming her parents are bulletproof isn't a child's fault, but indeed an essential part of the psychology of the young. Neither does she realise she could relate it back to her confidence in Laurent!)
Still, she nods, when he asks her to, and she's relieved that he doesn't tell her she's believing in nonsense like so many people like to do. It isn't nonsense, by her reckoning -- ghosts really ARE real!
Ghosts really are real and one day she's going to figure out the EMP frequency to free her mother from whatever death trap has stopped her from reaching out until now. It's got to be some kind of death trap, right? There's no way mom would just ignore her now she's a ghost.
But Laurent seems to have the perspective, at least, to realise that a maudlin subject like that is worth breaking up with some humour. Isabeau scoffs: "There's no way! You can't tell me there's a -- some kind of -- 'Fundamentals Of Provocation' running at Tokyo University!" She folds her arms, and insists: "If there was, you'd have got me in to take it already."
<Pose Tracker> Laurent Fontaine has posed.
Laurent nods once to her, even if he can tell that she isn't quite convinced. But, he wouldn't be so easily convinced either.
He stays quiet on the subject of ghosts. But, he smiles nonetheless -- and it's playful, this time.
"Perhaps there is, perhaps there is not," he says. "Perhaps some mysteries... simply have to wait until you're in university, hm?"
There is a twinkle in his eye when he says that. Clearly, he is joking. But in what direction is he joking?
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"You're teasing me!" Isabeau pouts, arms still firmly folded. "I could do university work, you know. I'm smart enough! This stupid country just has a stupid writing system that sucks! But if I went back to France, I'd get into the Sorbonne, easy!" Sorbonne University is one of France's finest institutions; she must be quite confident if she's declaring she would enter it easily.
Then again, Isabeau has never been lacking in confidence.