When all the world is a hopeless jungle...

[gardienne]

Who: Eponine and Sigma (closed); Eponine and OPEN
What: Sigma's upset Eponine, D3 is gone, Jessica's a mess and her friends are dead. Eponine is slowly collapsing.
When Straight after Sigma's announcement. The open part is after Eponine's encounter with Sigma
Where: For the open part, on the kerb of the Tribute Tower
Warnings: EVERYWHERE - references to death, torture, sex, genocide, prostitution: actual attempted murder, blood, underage drinking and drugs: SPOILERS FOR ZERO ESCAPE



Eponine's mascara runs down her cheeks in ugly black stripes. She doesn't care, doesn't realise. Sigma's a Game Maker. Her adopted Pa, the man she had learned to love... She covers her face with her hands, splattered with red and white blood, and sobs.

She's tried to stay strong, all through the District Three mess. She's tried her best to be there for Jessica and not to mess up - again - and she's tried to do as she's told. But... but there's nobody left now. Nobody at all.

Eponine clutches a bottle of cheap brandy in one hand, and re-arranges her blood-stained skirt with the other. It hadn't taken long to find a man desperate enough to give her enough for a shot of morphling and a bottle of brandy.

She sits now, contemplating the drug. She's never taken anything like it before. The man said it would take her 'over the rainbow'. It's a nice wish.

She takes a swig from her brandy and bends to hide her face in her skirts, back heaving from the force of her sobs.

She just doesn't know what to do any more.

Comments

Eponine and Sigma

[gardienne]

Eponine belts from her room to Sigma's stopping only to push something quite small, but very sharp into her pocket. This cannot be happening again. It can't be - She hammers on the buttons for the lift. Come on, come ON!Once inside, she paces, furious, terrified, FURIOUS. ARGH!

When she reaches his room, she hammers on the door with all of her strength.

"Open up. OPEN UP, I say! You need to tell me NOW - God, you deserve the plague and scurvy and all the rest of it! OPEN UP RIGHT NOW, YOU DISGUSTING OLD MAN!"

She begins to kick the door as hard as she can.

[futilecycle]

He's lived this before, the same circumstances are repeating themselves. As with every Zero, it has always been a cycle: the brief, blissful period of loving and being loved before the storm breaks. He has set the cycle back in motion and there is no stopping it, yet Sigma has no intention of leaving Eponine to stew in her anger alone.

But he knows what happens, next.

"Eponine. I was hoping you would come. Let us speak: I shall explain everything to you."

He unlocks the door and backs away to the far edge of his room, forcing her to enter.

[gardienne]

She does enter, a wild animal spitting her anger at him.

"Don't you speak to me in that so calm way. You're DISGUSTING. You're FOUL, Old Man. You KILL all of these people and you say you love - NO! There is not a kind bone in your body. YOU LIE TO ME! YOU TRICK ME!"

She advances on him, so angry, so furious. So disappointed.

[futilecycle]

Nye perks up, hearing Eponine enter, a companion that he and his master are always delighted to see. When she enters fuming with rage, Nye responds with a yowl and hides on the other side of the bed, hackles raised. Nothing is right.

"I don't believe I have ever lied to you," Sigma answers calmly still, straightening up. "Did I not tell you I had already survived a Game, several crownings ago? Did I not tell you I have done things in my life that are unspeakable?" He sighs. "If you would allow me to explain..."

[gardienne]

"You've killed all these people. You've - how am I supposed to believe that you're not working for them?"

She shakes her head, completely overwhelmed. "You - it's YOU, isn't it? You're how they know to kill my friends." She ignores Nye. She's taking the damn cat when she gets rid of Sigma for good. She slips her hand into her pocket, feeling the knife there.

"You're worse than my Pa."

OPEN - using the main prompt above

[gardienne]

Re: OPEN - using the main prompt above

[notdavinci]

Siroc had been quite careful about venturing out of the tower so far. Given what the news had been, he'd hardly wanted to be caught out during a new curfew established in the two or so hours he had been out getting the lay of the land, and end up, well, like the people in the video, even though he had very little idea of what they were being punished for,exactly. He knew the look of people conditioned to fear, and seeing that had made him cringe enough, before they'd panned over to the body, and hadn't wanted to break any rules that would land him in the same position. Still, eventually he'd decided to take the risk, to test the limits of his relative freedom, and nothing actually terrible had happened.

He'd found a cafe, which had offered him a "Tribute Special", and had been heading back to the tower, relatively relieved that nothing horrible had happened, that was, until he reached "home" itself and found the bloody and crying girl sitting outside. Immediately he moved towards her, trying to keep his movements non threatening as possible, particularly when he saw the bottle in her hand. Who knew what she might think if he rushed up quickly in that state? Whatever had happened to her had been bad enough to involve blood as well, so he didn't want to look threatening in the least, and maybe he managed it as he finished crossing towards her, and eased himself down near her, but far away enough that she wouldn't feel threatened either when he did it.

"Mademoiselle?" He asked, pitching his voice quieter than usual, doing his best to mimic what he thought Captain Duvall might do, then blinking as the word came out as 'Miss' instead. Apparently the translation they had mentioned even went as far as this. "Er...Miss, forgive me for intruding but you look to have a problem and I...may I help you with it somehow?"

Re: OPEN - using the main prompt above

[gardienne]

"Oh God, a problem." Eponine looked up at Siroc, and burst into hysterical laughter, which dissolved once more into sobs. "God, yes, a problem. My family are dead. My friends are dead. My tongue is dead. My district - dead. God bless the Capitol, yes? And now soon, I shall be dead."

She put her face back in her skirts again. "And I do not know what there is to do any more, Sir."

Re: OPEN - using the main prompt above

[notdavinci]

This was hardly the time to tell anyone that things would get better. Maybe it was the kind of lie that other people could manage to make believable, but Siroc had been here only a short while and he knew perfectly well that in the long run, there was not a lot that he thought COULD get better. At least not without a lot of change.

For the moment, though, he might be able to focus on a few things when it came to the poor girl in front of him. He was lucky he still had a district, and that he hadn't made friends to lose here yet, and he had thought it was bad enough that they had lost their language just as he'd arrived, but that last part of what Eponine said really made him frown.

"Dead? Have they threatened you with anything?" He asked, thinking he wouldn't be surprised at all if they had, after all, there'd been the latest warnings and examples made. "That is, have they done it to you specifically? If they have, I...there's ways to keep your head down that I'd think would work here, to make sure you'll be all right." As he said those last words,he snorted.

"Well, relatively speaking, I guess. All right is kind of out as long as we're stuck here, right? But maybe it can be a little better, though first, I need for you to take a few deep breaths, I've uh, got a handkerchief." He added, offering the piece of cloth. "And after, well, I know a little about surviving when the world drops out from under you. It won't change anything's that happened, but it might be something that can keep you safe right now."

[gardienne]

"I'm a murderer. Oh, God. They'll come for me even now - Perhaps they'll chop my head from my shoulders as they do at home? Or shoot me again? I don't know. I don't know, but I have hurt Sigma now, and already I am a bad girl and Miss Cruentus, already she watches..."

Eponine took a swig from her bottle. , and slumped, her hands crossed and dangling from her knees, leaning forward a little.

"I don't care any more. I have nobody much left anyway. I don't care if I die."

[iflipmyhair]

It was draining. The whole situation with Sigma was draining. So many things she wanted to say and ask but didn't dare. So many uncertainties and worries she couldn't voice. And yet she knew she had to hold it together, as she drifted away from the tower to get treats for Madoka.

It was hard not to think of her cat without thinking of the real Madoka. Or the beast that had taken the shape of the real thing in the Arena. That was the point, though, wasn't it? To remember. The Capitol's cruelty knew no bounds. And the more she thought of it, the more she felt her rage build up. But when that happened, she would simply think to herself, not yet.

Not yet. It was what kept her going. There would be a time for the Capitol to at last answer to its sins, before God, before the world. But not today, not tomorrow. Not for some time yet. Her only prayer was that she would survive long enough to--

She saw a figure in the corner of her eye as she neared the Tribute Tower once more. Quickly, upon recognizing who it was, the kitty treats were tucked away in the band of her skirt and under her shirt, before Homura at last walked over to the pitiful creature on the sidewalk.

"...Eponine."

That needle in her hands didn't look very promising at all. Far less so than the alcohol, actually.

[gardienne]

Eponine looked up, and groaned. Homura was perhaps the last person she wanted to see.

"I thought you had gone. I thought they'd killed you."

She sighed, and swigged her brandy.

"What do you want?"

[iflipmyhair]

Homura's face, meanwhile, didn't change.

"No. I've simply been scarce." Her eyes go down towards the needle. "Do you really intend to jab yourself with that thing?"

[gardienne]

Eponine shrugged. "P'raps. The man said it would take me over the rainbow. I should like that. I do not think brandy works so well no more."

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi is still unsure how to process this information. It's not what she expected and she already has so much on her plate... So really, she's just trying not to think about it.

It's not difficult with all the other things on her mind. She's leaving the tower to find something more distracting to do--and to get away from the way the air seems to hang threateningly over her, when she notices the sobbing girl on the curb. Initially, Terezi just keeps on walking, going only a little bit out of her way to avoid Eponine's presence. She doesn't owe her anything, especially after all of the nasty things she said about Fraysong. She's still more than a little annoyed at that, but...

Maybe she's going native on this place. The people from District 3 are dwindling, as are the people representing it. They're in this together, whether they like it or not.

That train of thought has her slowing down, lingering in the middle of the sidewalk and turning her attention over her shoulder towards the crying girl. Eventually, she heaves a tired sigh and trudges into a nearby cafe. A minute later, she returns to Eponine, stopping in front of her to hold out a warm, damp cloth.

"Here. You smell like a wreck. Someone is going to think you murdered someone out here." Blood might be dramatic and exciting for the Games, but she's found that out in the Capitol, they have a pretty strong aversion to it. It's all glitter and make-up on this side.

[gardienne]

"Maybe I have. Wouldn't be the first time." Eponine hiccoughs and glances up, puzzled, at Terezi. As far as she's aware, Terezi loathes her, or at least dislikes her, and so she's definitely surprised at the gesture of kindness. Hesitantly, she takes the towel, and begins to dab at her hand which still clutches the brandy bottle.

"I am fed up, you know? So fed up of all of it."

[pythianjudgment]

"It's not that hard to imagine. A lot of use are." Terezi smells the confusion in Eponine's hesitation. She crosses her arms over her chest, not intending on forgiving the girl so quickly, but kicking someone when they're down leaves a bad taste in her mouth.

"What happened to get your panties in a twist this time?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

"I join you?"

Not over it, not by a long shot, Mindy is there, front row seats to see Eponine in a usual state of mania. She would normally be motivated to help the young woman, but sadly Mindy was feeling very much not like herself tonight.

"Bad news I take it?"

[gardienne]

Eponine glances up at Mindy, and shrugs her approval for the girl to sit down.

"Sigma... he's a Game Maker, same as those who do this to us." Eponine sounds exhausted. And drunk. Quite a bit of the bottle is gone already, and even as she speaks, she's raising the bottle to take another swig again.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Fucked up," Mindy murmured, shaking her head. "I can't see how anyone would want to do this kind of shit to us and sleep at night. I know some who at least barely can. Shows they have some actual soul in their bodies."

She sat down, looking down at her hands. "Jesus. What a week."

[gardienne]

"He said he loved me. He said I were his daughter. How can he love me? He cannot love me."

Eponine coughed and wiped her tears with her palm. "And District Three... God, everyone is crying always. I feel I shall never be happy again."

[polyturtle]

Sigma. Of all people to--no. He wasn't surprised, not shocked, just disheartened by the sudden announcement of the stance. Honestly, he was surprised by few things at this point.

It seemed odd, knowing how Sigma had been enraged about his own son's murder at Don's hands. But, he knew Sigma could be that cold. He knew Sigma was intelligent and capable of a lot of things. So, if Sigma really wanted to support the Capitol - and who knew if that was even sincere and not a means to save himself, like everything the Capitol was doing - then Don was just going to have to be more wary around him and what he says. Doubly, even, if he didn't have reason to be wary already.

He was walking from Fontem, when he spotted the disconsolate figure on the street. She looked like she needed a hug. Just don't stick him with that needle on accident.

"...Hi."

[gardienne]

"What d'you want?" Eponine knows the voice without having to look. She doesn't want to look. Don still gives her nightmares.

"If you're here to tell me that you will kill me next, I should rather you just do it now and not leave me waiting if you please."

[polyturtle]

"I think there's been enough people making threats to one another right now."

Even if Eponine didn't notice the change in Don's demeanor, killing her didn't seem to be what he had interest in, anyhow. And, for a moment, he wasn't sure what else to say.

"For what its worth...Eponine." Once he did, well, it seemed a good time as any, anyhow, speaking of threats. She may not have been looking at him, but he looked at her. "I should tell you I'm sorry about being a jerk before. I wasn't in a good place." He paused. "You look like you've been better yourself."

[gardienne]

That garners a laugh from her. "A jerk, Sir? You killed me! You were not in a good place, no? So you take it out on the street girl that nobody cares about. PAH! You are so stupid for that."

She finally looks up at Don, only to spit at his feet. "Pah, I look bad, yes? Well, yes, of course. They bring me back from that stinking arena as I am from Paris and then that Jessica gives me tuberculosis and makes me homeless and then the man who said he was going to be my Papa says he is a GameMaker and shows his loyalty to the Capitol. My real Papa is dead, and my Mama home in Paris, and my brother and sister arrested and Eva doesn't speak to me - so YES, Sir, I am not looking pretty today."