thecapitol | My Orc playlist only has 19 songs on it.

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My Orc playlist only has 19 songs on it.

Who: Orc, Skittles and you.
What: Music soothes the savage beast.
Where: Capitol Recordings Music shop.
When: Sometime during the family visits.
Notes: Probably talks of suicide, religion, child death and alcoholism.

It started out as a pun.

Not a particularly good pun either. An audio company had given Orc a contract to be the spokesperson for their "Rock and Roll boulderphones" A pair of thick puffy, wireless headphones designed to look like various types of rock. From diamonds to shale.

He had a pair hanging around his neck right now as he starred dumbly at row after row of digital displays where people were sampling songs, albums and even audio books. The headphones were designed to hold the data internally but could be wirelessly linked to data pads and other electronics.

It was all too complex to him but they had designed the headphones so even he could use them.

Now he just had to find some music he would like. He used to listen to rock and country music back home. The same things his dad listened to.

But he was a new man and it was time for some new music in his library.

Maybe someone could help him find something he would like.

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"You know, I had a record deal, once."

The record shop has big, plushy arm chairs in front of listening stations, and Venus flops down into one, looping her knees over the armrest. She has big headphones around her neck and a lollipop in her mouth. For the moment, the fact that she's only twenty-one seems fairly obvious.

"How've you been, big guy?" She could try and tease him now, but what comes out next is genuine. "I really like the Christmas gift you got me. I've been using them."

Orc blinks and looks to her surprised to hear her familiar voice.

"Oh uh...hi. Doing OK I guess."It was a lie. He glanced down at his rainbow colored sheep who was chewing on a thick cable it had found on the floor. Gently his thick stone fingers scooped her up and separated her from the cord.

"I'm glad you liked them." He added and was once again glad he couldn't blush.

Well, it wasn't like Eponine was going to be much help. She liked music though. She liked the quieter music, the country songs, and the old Irish tunes and the ballads of love and loss. She liked the whirl of heavy disco and techno when she wanted to forget everything, when she was so drunk on whiskey that she didn't know what she was doing. Right now though, she was hiding from her father. Dressed to the nines, in an expensive looking dress that showed off her long legs, and made up with more slap than she ever wore, she looked as if she should be in a ballroom or the front window of a shop in Amsterdam rather than in a record shop.

She was hoping a record shop would be the last place either her father or anyone else thought of looking for her. It was pure brilliant coincidence that Orc just so happened to be there too. He was easy to spot, of course, over the shelves, and Eponine, smiling her first genuine smile in ages quickly made her way to him.

"Orc! You are here too!"

Orc perked up and smiled his craggy smile. Eponine had been so scarce lately he was starting to worry that she had vanished completely. But here she was again and he felt warmth and delight in the familiarity.

"Oh, hello Eponine." He greeted her with a deep rumbling voice. "Do you like music?" He felt himself burn with embarrassment at what he felt was like a stupid question. Still it was out there already and he hoped she had gotten used to him asking stupid questions.

Edited 2014-05-12 10:14 (UTC)

Eponine nodded in return. "I used to learn all them songs from the big theatres in Paris. My brother used to be able to get tickets sometimes for us to stand there, and he'd let me come on occasion. It were good... but these?" She gestured at the racks of CDs and little devices that lined the walls. "I do not know of these. I do not understand how they keep the music in them. Are you choosing new music though?"

Orc chuckled at her not understanding, even though he himself had no idea either.

"Yeah, I want to listen to things that make me feel...happy you know? Like how you make me feel."

Because being around Eponine for the most part made him feel good. He was needed and appreciated.

"Yeah?" Oh Orc. He always made her feel better. She wrapped her arms about his waist, hugging tight.

"Well, you must show me happy music. I know all the dead bawdy ones - I sing 'em. But they're not for proper company. Show me music like you have at your home. You must be fed up of French now."

"What's the sheep?" She sits forward, reaching forward. "Can I pet it?"

It's almost a comical image, the big stone boy with a fluffy lamb in his arms, it bawwing away.

"You ready for the next Arena?"

"What does bawdy mean?" He questioned before smiling and nodding.

"Well, I guess I like a bunch of the music my dad liked. We called it country music, or rock and roll music." He explained leading her to the section of the store.

"But I don't know if they have any of the songs I know here." He added unsure.

"It means rude, I suppose." Eponine paused to think as she replied. "Like, they were songs about women and men together and the woman getting drunk and pregnant. Or what we get up to in the alleys and the like. Just bits of fun about love, you know?" She laughed as she replied.

She followed him to the section. "I do not know these. Country sounds lovely though. It sounds like it should be the sound of grass and water and cows and the like. Now that is a beautiful music." She looked at the CDs, completely clueless. "Which is it?"

He couldn't help but smile, everyone liked skittles.

"Skittles." He introduced her "You can pet her. She's so soft even I can feel it."

The sheep actually yawned and studied Venus with big shiny eyes full of curiosity.

His expression grew somber as she inquired about the arena though and he shook his head.

"I don't think I'll ever really be ready for the arenas. But I guess it'll happen one way or another and I'll try not to kill anyone who doesn't deserve it."

"I dunno if it's beautiful...alot of it was about drinking." He explained as he took a set of headphones off the hook and gently placed them on Eponine's head.

It took him a moment but he found a country song for her to listen to, something with string guitars and fiddles as well as a strong drum line behind it. The lyrics seemed to be about a man taking foolish risks for a pretty girl.

"OH!" Eponine gasped as the music filled her ears. Somehow, despite knowing that Orc used headphones to listen to music, she hadn't expected it to fill her ears in the way it did. After her initial surprise, she relaxed into it and closed her eyes, listening intently to the lyrics.

As the song ended, she smiled, opened her eyes and lifted the earphones from her head.

"How do you always make everything so magically beautiful for me?"

He looked shocked that she liked it so much and she had known him long enough to tell by now how hotly he was blushing under his stones.

"I uh...I didn't write the song...but I'm glad you liked it." He seemed to misunderstand her meaning. He had not made the song after all, but this moment he had helped to create was going to last for both of them.

Edited 2014-05-15 21:33 (UTC)

"Not the song." Eponine chuckled a little as she took his hand. "Though it was lovely. No, you make me so much more happy when I am with you, You show me always such beautiful things. You make everything magical and I love you for that."

"That's a good attitude, but that sounds like it's worrying about other people." She pets the sheep, drags her hands over the soft ears, lets it lick her wrist. She looks almost sad.

"How are you taking care of yourself?"

His eyes went wide with understanding and as gently as he could he put his arms around her.

"I don't really know how...but I'm glad I do that for you know?"

Why couldn't it be that easy?

He rose a craggy eyebrow in confusion.

"Shouldn't we be looking out for other people? It's better then being selfish."

As for how he was taking care of himself, Orc looked clearly sheepish. The sheep bleated as if it could sense the pun involved.

"Well they cook for me...and pick my clothes. There's a handler that shows up whenever I get lost...I think he's over there." He pointed at a stylishly dressed minion in the crowd who was pretending to study the table of contents on a candy bar.

"Good. I don't care about nothing, Charles, if you are happy as well. It is why I have not seen you - I don't want my Pa to know of you, or he will not stop harassing you for money and the like. That is why I have not seen you, not nothing else, and don't you think it."

She hugged Orc back as well as she could. She missed the warmth of proper flesh - but truth be told, she quite preferred his rock to his human form. Perhaps because it was how she had first known him: a lot of it was due to her own vanity. Either way, though, she was slowly beginning to truly appreciate Orc for his personality as well as for his unconditional love for her.

"You can do both, you know." Venus glances over at the handler, who seems like one of the more professional sorts she's seen around the Tributes lately. In her opinion they've really been scraping the bottom of the barrel for staff. Too many Tributes with special needs.

"It's not always selfish to take care of yourself."

He enjoyed the affection even if her words puzzled him a bit, but he managed to catch onto one part and his face screwed up in confusion.

"Your dad is here? Like how some of the others have family here now too?"

He looked unsure at this and turned his attention back to the sheep giving it another petting with his thick stone hands.

"When I'm in the arena...I just try to find people I know...you know?" He explained more to try and sort it out himself. "But even if I find them, I'm not very good at keeping them safe. I try but...things go wrong. People get hurt." And it was usually his fault.

"I can't take care of anyone really." Not even himself apparently.

"Yes. My Pa and my sister, Azelma - I have said to you of her, no? - and Gavroche, my brother, is back again, though I do not know where he is."

She didn't sound at all happy about any of it.

"Azelma, she is so stupid a girl. I shut her in my room as much as I can and let her play with the clothes I have left - my Pa has sold so much of my things. He wants money, you see? But 'Zelma, she is stupid. She chews on whatever food I give her and she plays with my necklaces, and pockets them too, I think. But I don't mind. But my Pa - oh, I WISH he wasn't here. I am sick of him."

Orc stiffed up to hear how Eponine was being mistreated yet again.

"If he's giving you trouble I can throw him out of your room." Orc offered "He's supposed to be your guest...and that means he should be on his best behavior. Selling your stuff ain't right."

"That's the nature of a death game, you know. People getting hurt." Even she can't seem to protect people, and that's only just become important to her. She leans forward and bops noses with the lamb.

"Point is to try, right?"

The lambs nose wiggles and sniffles before flicking it's tongue out to flick over her finger.

"Yeah, I guess that's all anyone can do right? Try?"

Even if it seemed hopeless, even if he was afraid of failure.

"What would you do if you actually won?"

"You ain't going near him." Eponine laid her hand on Orc's chest. "It don't matter what's right or wrong. It just is and I just have to lump it, okay? I'll be lucky if I get away with him just selling my things and dragging me along to meet the stupid people. Are none of your family here?"

Orc's brow knitted in confusion and irritation "No, none of my family is here, but why won't you let me help? I'm alot scarier then he is." He concluded convinced that whatever her father was doing, he could convince the older man to stop.

"No you ain't." Eponine shook her head. "He's not scary anyway. I'm not scared of him. But he'll just ask you for money and rob you blind - he'll make me rob you myself, and when I refuse, he'll beat me until I give in. If you say nothing and do nothing, I shall be well. I promise you."

But this was making her magic too much like a nightmare. "Come - Charles. Show me properly. Make some more magic for me. Come - let's go from here so we can be alone for a while."

He growled like a bear at the idea that Eponine's father would do such a thing, "If he raises a hand to you ever again I'll make him wish he were dead." He snarled suddenly startling himself with how angry the thought made him.

Even skittles seemed to take offense to Eponine's father as she bleated out a challenge to him wherever he might be.

At her request he took a few breaths to calm himself. "I'll go anywhere with you Princess Eponine."

"There's little point in being angry. It is simply what happens." Eponine sighed, and bent down to hug Skittles. "And you, Skittles, must tell your master not to be so silly. He will get me in trouble if my Pa knows, do you hear me?"

She straightened up, right up onto the tips of her toes so that she might kiss Orc on his craggy lips.

"Come. Make me forget everything my brave knight. Show me a good time. Show me your magic!"

He knew she was right, anger had never served him well in the past. Skittles bleated once again and nuzzled into one of Orc's hands indicating she was hungry.

Managing a smile, especially after a kiss he scooped them both up and turned for the door with his girlfriend in one arm and Skittles in the other.

"I'll do my best." He promised.

He always tried his best.

"I'm not going to win." She shakes her head. "Not while I'm as good as I am in the Arena. They'll want to keep me in."

If they learn how much she doesn't want to win, they may pull a fast one on her, like they did on Enjolras. So she doesn't say that.

"What about you?"

Orc's shoulders sagged and he looked as though Venus had just popped a balloon he was enjoying.

"I didn't think about that...I guess I'll never win either then. I'm too dangerous, even when I'm trying not to hurt people I hurt people." He sighed and ran his fingers along Skittles wool.

"It's dumb...I should have known better. I just...I imagined what it would be like to win without having to kill anyone you know? To show people it could be done."

Edited 2014-05-22 21:11 (UTC)

"You know, people have done it." She sits back on the armrest of the big plushy chair, making eyes at Skittles still.

"They've just hidden until everyone else died. Maybe you just have to outlast the elements."

Skittles seemed drawn to her, or maybe she'd just had enough of Orc because the sheep got up and trotted over to nudge at Venus's hand.

"I'm not very good at hiding." He confessed, "And I have to protect Eponine. I used to have to protect Howard but he's out now."
He sounded distracted, like he was trying to imagine in his head what he would do.

"I guess if I won I'd just do the same stuff I always do. Drink, hang out with people who are nice to me." He tapped the headphones around his neck. "Listen to music."

"What are you talking about? You can just find a nice mountainside to sidle up against, stand really still and pretend to be a boulder." She makes little perpendicular shapes with her fingers and thumb, like a picture frame, and her hands make a halo around her grin.

"Tell you what. If I run into Eponine in the Arena, I won't kill her, alright?"

His smile made his beady eyes crinkle as he thought about it.

"Thank you. She's...kind of difficult sometimes. But she's a good person." He explained "She's just had alot of bad things happen to her you know?" That was something they could all understand.

Venus nods. "I was a little bit like her when I was her age. Except I could blow things up, so..."

It's a miracle half the teens here are as put together as they seem. Venus shakes her head.

"Girl needs love."

That actually made Orc chuckle a low rumbling sort of chuckle, he only realized too late that was probably inappropriate.

Best to breeze past it. "Everyone needs love." He agreed. "Real love. Not the fake stuff the people who live in the Capitol throw at us." He added having become rather uncomfortable with a number of fans who had paid for private time with him hoping to learn if he was rock "All over".

"That's real love too, you know. It's just...it's something worthwhile in its own right."

The devotion of a fanbase kept her alive for years. She looks at a poster on the wall. "It's loving their idea of you, rather than who you are, though."

A familiar look of confusion slid over his face.

"But their idea of who I am isn't who I really am...so isn't that wrong?"

"You sound like my boyfriend. Truth this, truth that." She shakes her head and rolls her eyes. "Who's it hurting, really? They find strength in it, you find a shield in it."

Orc seemed to consider this and his face relaxed as her words found some kind of foot hold.

"Yeah...I guess it is better if it gives them strength." He agreed and actually smiled at the thought.

"I didn't realize I was helping people." His fingers dragged over Skittles wool again earning a happy sound from the sheep.

"That's what celebrities do. They give people hope, or they give them someone to feel better than, but either way it soothes people." She shrugs. "That's why I got into the business, I guess."

Orc considered this some more and glanced around the shop slowly at the people sneaking shy glances at him or being blunt and just starring. Normally it made him feel self conscious but now it felt different. Was he really encouraging these people simply by existing?

"That's pretty heavy." He concluded "But...nice. Helping people and all." He smiled at her with that innocent way he had when something made him happy.

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My Orc playlist only has 19 songs on it.

only six? jfc man!

I don't like alot of sad music on my ipod, it makes me sleepy.

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