thecapitol | She has to pick-a-pocket or two -ooo, she has to pick-a-pocket or two.

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She has to pick-a-pocket or two -ooo, she has to pick-a-pocket or two.

WHO| Eponine and OPEN
WHAT|Eponine's ran out of money on the credit card thingy and she's quite got the taste for the high life, soooooooooooo she's supplementing herself the best way she knows how. Which means you guys (and Capitol citizens) might find their pockets a wee bit lighter. Or you can just catch her at it. Either or.
WHEN| Around five days after the tributes are given their credit cards.
WHERE| Central The streets of the Capitol.
WARNINGS/NOTES| Pickpocketing and thieving abound. I suppose if your character's natural reaction is to swear. I dunno. It's completely up to you if you catch her!
Cut for length

Eponine has mixed feelings about this new life in this strange place. The natural citizens of the place remind her of the 'lovely ladies' she'd see at home in the parks, which she finds strange. And of course, there is the whole idea that people want to kill her for entertainment. Death as entertainment she can understand; did the crowds not flock to the guillotine in Paris? But her death? And her continued ressurection to be reslaughtered in thenastiest of conditions? Eponine had decided that she'd rather face her father and his gang five times over than go back to the arena. She was a lowlife and a petty criminal, but she was not that low and she would not sink to that level.

On the other hand, though, Eponine loved the decadence of the city, with it's bright colours and rich foods and sumptuous materials. She had clothes, strange clothes, and people fussing over her and as much food as she wanted. It was like being in heaven. And she longed to properly belong to the Capitol.

She certainly had the spending down to a t. Eponine had spent her whole allowance within five days of being given it, something which she regretted. Had she not meant to save it so that she could take it home? It was a problem indeed, but one Eponine knew how to solve. As she walked through the streets, easily noticeable in a long skirt and reasonably modest blouse, she slipped her hand into the pocket of a Capitol man, withdrawing a small wallet, which she pocketed quickly. Again and again, she pounced, choosing her targets carefully.

And again and again, she was foiled at the last moment. Sighing, Eponine turned a corner. This street was busier, and she'd be less obvious. Carefully, she moved on silent feet towards the nearest person not paying attention. You. She considered carefully, before slipping her hand into the pocket where she saw the biggest bulge.

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"I traveled a lot with my uncle. We spent some time in France when I was younger."

And he took French at school, but he was already fluent at that point.

"Twice. I've died in there twice and I would prefer to not add a third time. But doing this--" meaning the pickpocketing "--is not safe. There are worse things than death."

"Did you like it? France, I mean? I would like to travel - see England and Italy and the other places I am told about... I suppose I have travelled now though - and through time, though it sounds mad! Such a thing should not be possible."

She looks at Alex, considering. "How will you avoid death, M'sieur? I am not afraid of jail, though. I have been locked up before; it is not such a bad thing."

"It was nice. The food was very good and I enjoyed the weather."

The last couple of times he'd been to France hadn't been quite so nice, but that wasn't France's fault.

He frowns a little at her last question. "By not getting killed by someone else. I almost managed it the first time." He hadn't reckoned for a shark though. He almost wished he shared her view of being locked up. She must have had more pleasant captors than him.

Pleasant captors, or terrible living conditions. Although, admittedly, the police were like giant cuddly teddies compared to his.
She couldn't relate to his portrayal of France, either. Good food? And good weather. It had been a rainy day when she left.

"And how do you not get killed? I tried hiding, but I was still killed by the first person I met."

True, hiding didn't always work. And it wasn't like he would have been able to hide from that earthquake in the last arena.

"Luck. That's what it comes down to. The only other option is to be the one doing the killing."

He knows he shouldn't be talking like this. For all he knows, she's pulling the wool over his eyes and is actually some sort of French assassin. He's pretty sure she's not though. She moves more like a thief than an assassin.

"I'm not going to do that. I am not going to kill."
Eponine replies quickly, almost as if Alex had been trying to insult her. Her lack of murders is what separates her from her Papa and the gang, the complete scum of her society and she doesn't want to sink lower than what she is. Marius would never speak to her again if he thought she was a murderer.

Eponine realises immediately that she should not have told this boy that; that he could use it against her and kill her. But it is too late to un-say it, so she decides to brazen it out.

"I would rather die early and come back here. I like it in the city. So much food! Why would you try to fight when you can come back to this?"

"Because I want to go home," Alex replies. "Every time I die I get further and further from home."

Every time he dies he's forced to think about all the people in his life that died and never came back. If not for a chance illness he would have died with his parents. And over the last year and a half he should have died multiple times, but he didn't. Now, he's here, in this bizarre place where he either has to kill or die. And he can't kill, he can't let these Capitol people break him, turn him into the sort of person he's tried so hard not to become.

"All I know how to do anymore... is fight."

"How? Why do you get further?"

Eponine is tactless at best. But her expression softens. Nobody, no matter what age or sex should be forced to fight.

"Have you been here long? Can you not - run away or, or REFUSE? They cannot make you fight if you do not want to. Can they?"

Alex shakes his head, not ready to talk to anyone yet about his losses. At the same time, he's said more to this girl than the other people he'd spoken to here, probably because she was closer to his age than the rest.

"I've been here four months. The day I arrived, they chucked me into the Arena. That alone tells us how little they care about what we do or do not want. We're not people to them; we're toys. And what do you do with a toy that doesn't work they way you want it to? You throw it away."

"This is what they did to me, too. I had no idea what was happening. But this arena was my first one."

She smiles sympathetically. "It is horrible, no?"

Is that what you do with a toy that doesn't work? That is NOT what you do in Eponine's world. You keep it or sell it or turn it into something else. Nothing is ever thrown away.

"Perhaps they would throw us back to our worlds? I'm not scared of these Capitol people anyway. They can do no worse than making us kill each other."

"Can't they? There's always something worse. We just might not have thought of it yet. And they're nothing if not creative here."

That was what Alex had learned over the past year and a half. There was always a way for things to get worse. Always. This was just the first time he'd been unable to quickly find a way out of things. Before he'd always had someone or somewhere to try to escape to. Here he was alone and had no idea who he could possibly trust.

"We shouldn't be talking like this. They could be listening."

Eponine looks around. The nearest Capitol person is at least three shops away from them.

"Could they? There is nobody here - you shouldn't scare yourself!"

Ignorance really is bliss sometimes. Still, she casts about to change the subject.

"And in these times, in between... what are we supposed to do?"

The technological capabilities Alex had observed so far in the Capitol would have to wait for some other time, when Alex didn't feel so exposed. He had a feeling it would have to be a bit more extensive than simple 'they have flying cameras'.

"We should be preparing for the next Arena. But I think they want us to lose ourselves in the frivolities the Capitol offers us. Why else would they have given us a 'line of credit'? Especially when none of us are able to get jobs here."

"I do like it here... There is so much food - and free money. I do not trust that - nobody gives anything for free, but I can't help it. I have spent some."

Most of it. She's never had money before to do what she likes with and it did go to her head at first.

"I asked the lady if I could have a job. She told me to grow a back bone - but I wasn't scared. It is just better, I think... I would rather work here than fight."

"If I understand the way things work though, the only way to get out of fighting... is to win. Why would they give you a job here in the city when they can have you fighting in the Arena instead?"

Fighting, and dying over and over and over. That was the thing about the people in the Capitol that bothered him the most, their sick fascination with death.

"I suppose I just do not understand, M'sieur,"

She sighs.

"Why do they want us to keep dying? Does it not get boring?"

"Maybe it's like with the gladiators in Ancient Rome. They develop favorites from Arena to Arena. I know football would be terribly boring if there were new players every game."

Alex tried not to think about the fact he'd just compared the best sport in the world to his current situation.

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She has to pick-a-pocket or two -ooo, she has to pick-a-pocket or two.

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