Let's celebrate life!

[delightable]

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.

Comments

[currupted]

I don't watch the Games, Cyrus was quickly learning, was not a good response to give in Tribute Tower. He'd known her face, distantly, and the name struck a chord that made him think he must have heard her mentioned before, but only now did the two properly connect in his mind. (His lack of a briefing was becoming a greater source of bitterness with every passing day.)

But he smiled, as if in sudden recognition. "Of course," he said. "Who else, but Miss Thenardier? It's a pleasure." He inclined his head slightly in a bow, because it felt like the right response to the curtsey, somehow.

[gardienne]

"You don't need to pretend, Sir. I like it well that you don't know me." She grinned and winced as her skin pulled tight.

"I thought I should like it, not being invisible, but I find I do not like it. At home, I could outsmart the police. I were caught once in all my years - and then my lies free me, Sir, after only a check and to make me carry a license. It is not so bad." She shifted uncomfortably: the checks had been awful, and degrading and all the rest of it and she was supposed to go back every other week. But Eponine hadn't. She tried to keep her tone light.

"But here, everyone knows me and always they watch. And always, always I am caught doing something stupid. I hate it."

[currupted]

Cyrus decided not to tell her that You aren't supposed to outsmart the police.

"Well," he said instead, with regret-- "You must understand that we have to be careful. We don't want things like this to happen." This being, of course, Orc's death. The occasion of his memorial. "Perhaps, if we'd been watching better, we'd have been able to keep all of you safe. To help you before this happened."

There-- that was safe, right? Turning the blame not on the Capitol, but on a failing of the Capitol.

[gardienne]

"You arrested my Mama. THAT was stupid." Eponine folded her arms again, smile gone. She wasn't budging on this one.

"And that horrid Miss. Blackhorn, she says that perhaps my Mama is already executed, or that they will, and that she is a criminal and it ain't true at all. I was not going to sit whilst you arrest my Mama, and I tell you again, you stupid man, that I should do it again, over and over, and worse, if you take my Mama away. I don't care how many brands I have, you understand. Eva is everything to me, more than Orc, and I will keep her. You understand."

[currupted]

"--Your Mama?" Cyrus racked his brain, trying to think of any mention of a mother-daughter Tribute pair he'd heard of among the otherworlders. It might not be unheard of, were Eponine from the Districts, but to bring in a parent and a child--?

Then he heard Eva, and it fell into place. One of the few Victors whose name he recognized. A friendship. He nodded, slow, in understanding.

"...I understand," he said, and propped his smile back up. "I'm not such a stupid man, you see? Besides-- there's nothing to worry about. No one is going to take your Mama away."

[gardienne]

"They did before. That's why Orc was murdered. We were trying to save Eva from those madmen." Eponine folded her arms. "I won't let you take her away from me, I promise you that. You understand?"

[currupted]

Oh. Cyrus' smile slipped again. He'd never much liked the taste of foot.

"...I understand." She wouldn't let him. Even Cyrus didn't have any power over where Eva was kept, or what was done to her. He was being made a stand-in for every out-of-touch fool working in the Capitol again. Believe me, he wanted to say, You don't want the Capitol wearing my face. Pick another.

"Believe me," is what he said. "I would not dare take her from you, even had I the power. Which, incidentally, I don't."

Both a pointed reminder that he was not necessarily who she seemed to be mistaking him for, and a kind of twisted reassurance-- In this, at least, you are safe from me.

[gardienne]

"I'm..." Eponine rubs her hand over her face. She gets what Cyrus is telling her. She gets that it isn't him... but he is a public figure. It's he that is within Eponine's reach, and it is he that she can, and will, lash out

"I'm sorry, Sir. I am. I suppose I am just... tired. I am frustrated. I cannot do right. I am... I am like you!"

[currupted]

"Like--?"

Cyrus stares at her for a moment-- and then he grins, and then he laughs. It's more surprised than mocking; it's incredulous, and startled at her audacity.

He stifles it quickly - they are still at a funeral, after all - but it's harder to kill his smile. He regards Eponine from over the rim of his glass as he takes a long, calming sip.

"How perceptive," he says. "I guess we have some common ground, after all."

Having been forced to take that look into his own psyche, he reaches out to rest his hand very briefly on her shoulder. A parting gesture. He's made a solid bargain, but he's also been spit at and laughed at, and that's more than sufficient for one conversation. "Look-- I should go and speak with the others. But it's been a pleasure, making your acquaintance. Will you wait for a message from me?"

[gardienne]

She doesn't much like being laughed at, and she sulks. But she nods. "I'll do what you like, whatever you like, if you give him back to me."

And with that, she turns away, going back to Neal's drawing of Orc, and her secret hiding place.