A catch all. Partially open

[gardienne]

Who: Eponine and Sigma: Eponine and Felicity: Eponine and Howard: Eponine and anyone else who wants to jump in!
What: A catch all post for catch-ups with various people she's in a bad mood with.
Where: Out and about in the Capitol: locations include the park and a local French style patisserie shop.
When: Some time after Jessica has worked her magic and helped Eponine on her way to a makeover.
Warnings: Eponine should just come with a warning sign, methinks. I'm gonna go on a limb and say 'talk of homosexuality, possibly in a negative light', 'talk of social class', 'talk of Harley's march of shame through the Capitol'.


Eponine and Sigma

Perhaps he knew where to find her? Perhaps he knew that she'd be sat on the bench overlooking the pond where they'd fed the ducks on that gloriously happy day when she came back to the Capitol. She was sat on the bench now, with her feet drawn up, staring at the pond. For once, she was wearing a couple of warm looking cardigans, and a shawl on top of that. She had a thick wooly hat as well, to disguise her newly bald head. What was she thinking? Not much. She was just sort of... staring. Meditating on how she had ended up in such a position, and how she could possibly get out of her mess. She turned her head when she heard footsteps, though, and scowled when she saw it was Sigma. She'd been avoiding Sigma since Harley had caught her, and she didn't want to see him now.

"Go away, Monsieur." Eponine said.


Eponine and Felicity

As the morning stretched into afternoon, Eponine ended up at a new favourite little cafe of hers. She liked it in the patisserie: the owners tried their best to speak French, and they loved having Eponine chatter it at top speed. For her part, she thought it was hilarious. Their French was dire, and it was nice to feel superior to people for a change.

So having had a looong conversation, half in French and half in English, Eponine was sat in the window of the cafe. On the table in front of her were several croissants and a little pot of strawberry jam, and another of marmalade, and a glass of orange juice, and a recorder that Eponine was fiddling with. The owners had asked her to record herself speaking so that they could play it in the cafe and inject a bit of authentic Paris into their business, and she was diligently trying to do as she had been asked. But it was frustrating, and Eponine swore under her breath, before trudging back to the counter. But so cross, so frustrated was she with the recorder that she didn't even look where she was going and bumped into someone awfully familiar.

Immediately, Eponine scowled and her free hand went to the turban style hat covering her baldness.

"Excuse me, Madame." She muttered, keeping her eyes averted.

Eponine and Howard

It had been a long day, and Eponine was quite drained by the time she had dragged herself back to the Tribute Towers. She went straight for the lift, but once inside, decided to just ... just not go to District Three. She didn't think she could cope with Jessica and Maximus and Marius - oh God, Marius. But where could she go?

She ended up on the rooftop. She could be alone up there, at least. Eponine settled herself down amongst the flowers, and lay back, looking straight up at the evening sky. After all of ten minutes, she began to wish that she'd brought food with her, but she was too comfortable, too absorbed in her thoughts about Sigma and Felicity to be bothered to move.

Eponine didn't hear the door open, nor did she hear Howard's footsteps until he was almost on top of her. But , with him barely five feet away, Eponine heard, and turned and groaned. No more. Please.

She closed her eyes, and flopped back over onto her back. "What do you want, Monsieur?"

OPEN

She stayed on the roof all night. It was a little chilly up there, and definitely damp, but she didn't really care. For a while, she simply wandered, pacing the garden backwards and forwards, looking quite the ghost in her pale dress and light pink turban. The singing gave her away, though. Her hoarse voice travelled in the still air as she sang ditty after raucous ditty about love and men and death and murder. But, for a change, her mind was quite at peace. Perhaps things could be different after all?

Her song stuttered into silence, though, as she heard a footstep somewhere behind her.

"Be careful, Monsieur. Or is it Madame? This is not the arena and I do not want to die."

Comments

Open...sorry but since it's at night I think Orc is passed out.

[revvinguptheharley]

"Aw I wouldn't kill ya out here, you're not worth the trouble."

Harley had been dressing more and more professionally lately, but tonight she had been out to a party so she was wearing a black dress with several layers of red petticoat. Her hair was styled in an elaborate pair of rings on either side of her head giving her the silhouette of an over sized mouse.

"What was that song? I was digging it~" She teased sauntering towards her slowly with a wide grin.

Re: Open...sorry but since it's at night I think Orc is passed out.

[gardienne]

Eponine froze as soon as Harley spoke. Never, ever would she forget that voice. It haunted her nightmares. But she turned to face Harley, holding her ground even as Harley came towards her. Eponine hunched her shoulders in, and drew her arms forward, a naturally defensive position. It was almost as if she couldn't help trying to hide whilst determindly remaining in plain sight.

"Go away, Madame. I do not wish to see you ever again. And I shan't answer your questions, so there is no need to ask them of me."

Re: Open...sorry but since it's at night I think Orc is passed out.

[revvinguptheharley]

Harley just chuckled like it was all a joke.

"Aw you're not still sore about our playtime are ya? You're back to your boring normal bland self again aren't you? So where's the harm?"

Of course Harley knew exactly where the harm was. But there was a wicked voice in her that begged she poke at the girl verbally.

I miss Orcy

[gardienne]

"Playtime?" Eponine spat, as hard as she could, at Harley. "Don't you talk to me of such things. Don't you make light of what you did to me."

Was it not enough that Harley had dragged her around? The glue Harley had used had caused Eponine to lose big chunks of her hair, and that in turn, had caused Eponine's mentor, Jessica, to shave her head completely. Eponine was upset enough about that.

"Don't you dare. You are a WICKED woman."

We'll do another thread with him soon I promise.

[revvinguptheharley]

"Guilty." She brought her fingers to her chest to gesture at herself.

"But you DID start it by hurting my friend. Just like your friends tried to hurt me. It's like they say, you reap what you sew. In this case you brought pain into one persons world and got humiliation for your troubles."

After a moment she added "Of course you don't really care about that do you? It's all about Eponine."

Sounds fabulous. Not that I don't love Harley though!

[gardienne]

"She deserved it. She made me a murderer. She MADE me murder her. She took the ONE good thing I had, Madame. She stole it from me and she took it and now...." Eponine shrugged and sniffed. "And now I am perhaps as wicked as you are."

Hi! Open

[justgaveup]

He'd wanted to be alone up on the roof. It felt like someone else was always up there, and Perry just needed some time alone with his thoughts. He didn't expect life to be all shiny and nice, but he'd like for it to calm down every now and again.

But he didn't mind who was up here. Last time they'd seen each other, she'd attacked him with a piece of glass.

"Don't worry, I don't have any glass with me." Perry joked softly.

Hey!!!

[gardienne]

Eponine recognised the voice, and turned to face Perry with a beaming smile.
"Monsieur! You're alive. Oh, I am glad.! I lost you in the arena, before! Were you okay? How long did you last?"

:D

[justgaveup]

Perry laughed softly, something he was getting better at doing each time it happened. It sounded almost normal. Despite the things that were happening, the things that were sad, he was becoming... not human. But something.

"I was okay after we split up. I made it to... the fifth week?" He gave a shrug. "It was okay. How about you? How are you, are you okay, now that it's done?" This time around, anyway.

Re: :D

[gardienne]

"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm always okay." She smiled tightly. "I have a dog now, Bisou, she is called. Orc got it for me to make me happy after Madame Harley had her way with me. She is lovely though, Bisou. She is a poodle: Orc said it was the only French dog that he knew."

[futilecycle]

Eponine's cold tone shook him and Sigma was stopped in his tracks, watching her from a few feet away with sad eyes. It was his greatest fear that Eponine did not genuinely love him, and only cared for him so long as he would give her attention. This paranoia entraps him now and Sigma wonders wearily if he has been used, if the little girl he had thought of like his own daughter did not exist and Wyatt had been right all along. Were this the truth, he felt his heartbreak might be the end of him.

Yet it was also true that children could hold a grudge for a very long time. Each day, Eponine seemed more and more similar to his own son. It was this thought that prevented him from turning to leave and mourning her disappearance from his life.

"May we speak, for only a moment," Sigma pleads, taking another tentative step closer. He could not help but imagine the sunny, youthful girl that had sat there only weeks ago in this specter's place. "I know you are not happy with me, my dear. But would you truly hate me over one disagreement?"

[gardienne]

"Why should I oblige you, Sir? You did not oblige me. You let that woman lead me away by my neck."

Eponine shrugs anyway, though, but makes no move to make room for Sigma on her bench. If he wants to talk, he is standing up, or kneeling in front of her. And she is determinedly not looking at him: instead, she looks at the ducks on the pond.

"You are just like my Pa, you know? He'd let anybody do whatever they wanted to me. He'd encourage them half the time. You're the same. I didn't think you were."

[futilecycle]

Sigma stiffened. The comparison to her father wounded him deeply and he could do nothing to hide his offense.

"I had her release you," he argues, his usually low voice raised, "in such a way that no one would have gotten hurt! Should I have taken you by force, the hooks may have torn your mouth open, Eponine, or you could have been strangled." He falls back to a conversational tone, but there is a tremble to his voice. "I would have gladly done it, but instead I found a solution in which everyone came out happy. Except you, apparently," he scoffed. "What on earth possessed you to do such a thing in the first place?"

[gardienne]

"Release me? RELEASE?" Eponine breaks her vow to stare, astonished at Sigma. Did he really think Harley had released her from the chains and the clowns and the shoes because Sigma said so? She bursts into laughter, both incredulous and bitter.

"You're mad. You truly think you helped? You think you changed anything? That woman had me walk about the Capitol with hooks in my mouth and a lead about my neck and a fake bottom strapped to my own - you know how it came to be there, Sir? She did as she had planned , regardless of what you said. You're stupid. You didn't even stop her. And now I truly have nothing left."

[futilecycle]

Sigma turns pale to hear that Eponine did not follow through on her word, or at least this is what he assumes. "Then you should have given her what she wanted!" he bellows, furious. He hates to hear he has accomplished nothing or that he has put his trust into the wrong person. He is shaking with anger, now, at himself more than anyone. He is upset he allowed himself to be tricked.

Rather than leave it at that, he calms himself down and tries to explain. "I tried, Eponine. Were you not listening to me?! I did what I thought was best for you, as I have always ever done." And he had truly believed that she would give up the cat, be released from her torment, and then he and Eponine could share Nye instead. "You hurt Homura, my friend, terribly. It was never right for that woman to torment you so, that I do not question. But all you had to do was return the animal to her as we agreed. What went wrong? What makes you think you were left with nothing?!"

[iphigeneia]

Being a bonafide Francophile, Felicity was always in search of the authentic French experience. Being that such establishments were hard to come by, she would settle for whatever close resemblances she could find. The patisserie was charming enough, though for Fee, nothing would ever quite measure up to the authentic Paris in her mind.

She'd just entered the establishment when she spotted Eponine. It took a great deal of effort not to frown at the girl and let her presence ruin her pleasant afternoon. In fact, she'd made her mind up to simply ignore her and was content to do so until fate conspired against them and contact was made.

"You are excused, mademoiselle," Felicity said, adjusting her coat instinctively, in case Eponine had tried to pickpocket her. "Do watch where you are going next time."

[gardienne]

"It might have been you who bumped I, Felicity." Eponine scowled, and raised her eyes, determined to meet Felicity's gaze. It sounded funny using Felicity's first name without a title before it, but it felt quite liberating as well. It was a test - to see if what Enjolras had supposed was true, that they were all equal. Eponine didn't believe it for a minute.

"Perhaps you ought to be excused from me. Now if you please, I must give this to Madame Flegget and you are in my way."

[iphigeneia]

Felicity found herself intrigued by Eponine's boldness. She didn't appreciate being sassed, but she found this spark a great improvement over the defeated little mess that she'd encountered at the end of the leash.

"That would be impossible. I am far to careful for that, Eponine." She arched an eyebrow. "But as I have manners, I shall let you go ahead."

[gardienne]

Eponine rolled her eyes, but pushed past Felicity to try to return the tape recorder. Her debate with the shopkeeper ended in Eponine swearing in French, before snatching the recorder back, and once more pushing past Felicity so she could grumpily fall into her chair and continue to try working it.

"And you may leave, Mademoiselle." she called to Felicity, when she looked up. "This is not a place for you. Go away."

[iphigeneia]

Unfortunately for Eponine, Felicity understood the exchange at the counter. With eyebrows still raised, she took the opportunity to glide over to Eponine's chair to loom over her. Speaking in practiced French, she wondered aloud, "Why on Earth was he speaking to you like that? Surely you did not mean to offend him."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"It's a free rooftop."

Howard shuffles. He doesn't seem to have a speed between rapidfire pacing, feet hitting the ground like on some subconscious level he's trying to break through it, and a timid little drag that leaves the overlong hems of his pants tattered and dirty. And he sits down next to Eponine, a few feet away, far enough that she'd have to make an effort to get up and hit him.

"How's your neck?"

[gardienne]

Eponine shrugs in return. "Why do you care?" She's genuinely puzzled about Howard's attitude, and she rolls onto her belly so that she can look at him properly.

"Monsieur, I don't understand your attitude to me. After everything, why did you try to help me? You should have been laughing."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard pauses for a long time. He sits next to her and watches as the sun starts to dip down, changing colors as it nears the skyline.

"Because I still love you a little."

[gardienne]

"No you don't. You love men. Or was that a lie?"

Eponine didn't give a jot for the colour of the sky. She didn't give a jot about the fact that she was lay on top of one of the tallest buildings in Panem. She forgot completely about her troubles with Sigma and Harley and Felicity and Enjolras and everyone else. She tried to understand where Howard was coming from.

"How can you love me after what I did to you?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

He flinches when she says he loves men. Outright flinches.

"Look, just because I'm not sticking it in you doesn't mean I don't care about you, okay?" He shakes his head and glowers out at the sunset. "I can still, you know. Remember who you are besides all that crazy stuff."

He pauses. "So. Is that your way of admitting you were a dick?"