thecapitol | Let's celebrate life!

Who| Everyone who wants to mourn Orc, or wants free food
What| A mingle log, where Holly is holding a memorial party on the roof to celebrate Orc's life
Where| The roof
When| A couple of days before the arena
Warnings/Notes| N/A unless you count people being sad about death

Orc's death really shook Holly up. There's nothing she can do about it, nor does she have the courage to speak out about it. But she doesn't have it in her to just pretend it never happened. She was quite fond of Orc, he deserves to be remembered and people deserve to have a place they can do so, regardless of whether or not he was a rebel.

So, a couple of days prior, she starts posting fliers and handing them out to anyone who will take one. They're sparkly, colorful and visually loud just like the Capitol. But their intent is clear; on the roof, she's holding a memorial party for Orc for anyone and everyone to come and celebrate his life.

The memorial is held in the evening, and when the time comes, there is a buffet table with various foods, snacks and drinks, all supplied by Holly herself, and Jolie who helped a little as well. The area is cleared around Eponine's secret place, where a little shrine is set up with a picture of Orc surrounded by candles and other mementos relating to the boy. There's also a podium, where anyone is free to say a few words for him if they so choose.

It's the closest to a funeral that she can get, because she knows she'll never have permission to hold a real one.

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Eponine watches Clara for a long time before she finally approaches her. She herself had spent a long time knelt next to the shrine, partially through grief for Orc, but to guard her secret spot as well. She didn't want people to find her hairbrush or her little gold-coloured necklace or any of the other treasures she's buried beneath Orc's rock. It was her rock long before it was his, after all.

But between one thing and another, Eponine had been called away from her spot by the rock, and upon returning, she notices Clara watching. It doesn't feel right just walking into the scene and plopping down again, so she watches Clara instead. She wonders what the woman's thinking - did she know Orc? Was she as close to him as Eponine had been?

She approaches Clara from behind, tapping her on the shoulder, before she sits down on the floor next to her.

"You knew him too, Ma'am?"

Clara hopes her small jump when Eponine taps her shoulder isn't that obvious. She's somewhat surprised that she didn't hear her come up behind her, but then again, that happens sometimes when she's lost in her thoughts.

"Not very well, no," Clara murmurs. "I mostly know...knew him from tidying up after him on our floor." There's a small, sad smile on Clara's face. "I thought there'd be more time to get to know him."

He was 15. That's the thing that keeps occurring to her. There should have been all the time in the world to get to know him. "Kids aren't supposed to be able to die." It's probably the mom in her bringing that out. "Especially not like that."

So that's where Eponine vaguely recognises this woman from, from the District floor. Her expression mirrors Clara's.

"Did you see it, Miss? Did they show it on those screens? Me, I have refused to look. I see it over and over when I close my eyes. That is enough. But they make us look the criminals, no? He were just trying to help me find my Mama."

"I...I don't know if they have," Clara admits. "I've been avoiding the news as of late." Especially after hearing about how Orc died. This seemed like the type of place that would air his death on repeat and she didn't want to see that.

"You must've terrified your mom doing that. I'd be livid if my son put himself in danger like that."

"She's not really my mum." Eponine shrugs. "But she says I am her child - that she wishes to look after me. I wanted to look after her - I wanted to take her from the prison to say sorry for what my real Papa did to her before.... Well." Before Eponine had stabbed him to death.

"And Orc loves me too much to let me just go - he comes with me, and I lead him to die. I didn't mean it, though . It weren't a trick to make him die, Ma'am."

Clara's almost tempted to ask about what her father did to this woman she thinks of as a mother figure, but she gets the distinct feeling that she doesn't want to know. Anyways, she knows what it's like to have people pry into private matters. This girl doesn't need that, especially right now. "Sometimes the family you choose is just important as the one you have by blood. And it sounds like she loves you very much if she told you that."

She never had any suspicions that this girl, or anyone, really, led Orc to his death on purpose. If anything, it sounds more like children acting without thinking and believing they're invulnerable. "Anyone who believes you meant to is a moron. I don't think very many people lead their loved ones into situations like that intending for them to die."

"I think Eva loves me." Eponine can't help smiling. "She calls me words that my brain won't let me say since that dreadful Penny took my French away. She says it in Spanish though - but they're nice words. They mean 'darling'. Nobody never called me that since I were a really little girl, and still in velvet bonnets and lacy petticoats. But Eva does. I don't think I've ever loved anybody so much, Ma'am."

Eponine stops herself before she can go further. This woman doesn't want to hear Eponine prattle about Eva. She's here to mourn Orc.

"I didn't think I should come back, really." She says, awkwardly. "It were supposed to be him alive. But I did so hate to see him cry. D'you think God shall let him in? He were such a good boy, my Charles. I hope that God they say lets an exception and says he can go to heaven. He don't deserve hell."

She pauses, and mutters, "You must excuse me, Miss, when I talk so much. You can just tell me to get lost if you are sick of me chattering at you."

"Parenthood does things to people," Clara says with a fond, knowing smile, "Even if the child in question isn't connected by blood."

When she was younger, Clara was more religious. She went to Catholic school and came from a big Catholic family, after all. Over the years, her faith's...it hasn't disappeared, more like it diminished. And she has a hard time believing in a kind, loving God would have let what happened to Alex happen. But right now this girl seems like she needs that, and Clara's willing to give it to a point. "I'm sure he did. God's supposed to forgive our sins, after all. I'm sure that Or- Charles is at peace now."

Clara reaches out for the girl's small hand and gives it a gentle, motherly squeeze. "No, no, it's fine. Grief...it can eat at you if you don't let it out, and it sounds like you need to do that."

"You're a mother, Ma'am?" That makes Eponine feel sad. It must be awful - well, she's realising it is awful to be separated from the people you love and care about the most in the whole world. But in a way, Eponine supposes, it must be good that Clara's children, if she has them, aren't here. At least they aren't subjected to all that the Capitol has to offer.

"You reckon, though? The priests and that always said it were for the people who can afford shoes. I don't know if Orc could. What if that God won't help him? What if he goes to hell?But could it really be worse than this place? I live in hell every day, Miss. I so wished that it would end in my death - but no. I feel it were I who held the cannon to him, and murdered him with my own hands. Truly, this is the worst they have ever done to me."

"Mmhmm," Clara says with a small nod, "I have a son back home." Which she doesn't elaborate on because, yes, talking about David doesn't hurt as much as it did her first week here, but it still hurts.

"I went to Catholic school and none of the priests I've met have said anything like that. Orc...he wasn't perfect, but no one is. I'm sure he's in heaven looking down and wishing you'd stop blaming yourself."

"I'm glad he's not here." It's cold comfort, Eponine knows. "He might still be there when you go back to him. If you can ever go back, Miss." She wants to take this stranger's hand, and squeeze tight, just a little message that Clara's not alone.

"Eva's lost her son, you know? I bet that she will talk to you of it. Perhaps not now. She has been burned, the same as me, and beaten more than I, and I do not know what she did to get us out of there, but I know what I would do, and she is so the same as me, so I bet she did that. But in time. Perhaps after the next arena, Miss."

She smiles softly. "I think you are kind, Miss. To mourn a boy you only see, and to comfort a woman like me. I like what you say though. I shall try to believe that."

Let's celebrate life!

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