thecapitol | (no subject)

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Who: Eponine and Justine
What: Justine's taking Eponine for lunch to try to get Eps to warm up to her.
Where: At a restaurant of Justine's choice
When: The lunch time after Justine's arrival

Warnings: Probably a bit of everything. Goodness knows what they're going to talk about.

Eponine stands outside the Tribute Towers somewhat nervously. She's dressed properly for the first time since she died last, in a dark purple skater style dress, and black tights and shoes. Her long, dark hair is styled in two thick braids, pulled right away from her face and away from the burn on her cheek, so that they do not get caught in the puss leaking from scrubbed away blisters and raw, angry skin.

She waits, hunched over in herself, and with her arms folded. This is the first time she's been out properly with her burn, and she's quite conscious of it. And she's worried - is this all an elaborate ruse to trick her into a medical? At least she's kept this Justine away from Eva and her house. At least the little house is still a small sanctuary in all of this horror.

When she sees Justine, she waves a little and starts forward.

"I thought you were joking me, Miss, that the Peacekeepers were coming after me. I thought it were a trick. I am glad no."

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"I would never do that, Eponine. Using common decency to trick someone is downright rude." No, Eponine had never officially introduced herself, but Justine has always been a fan of the Games and she knows the woman's name from that. Justine is dressed in her usual sweeping white, eyes sparkling with expertly done silver eyeliner, and her shoes click loudly on the ground as she walks to Eponine.

"And may I say that you look lovely today?" Besides the brand. It is unsightly. But at the same time, Justine thrives on the unsightly. She likes prodding it and dissecting it and making people scream. But she won't do any of that today. "I hope you won't mind that I decided to bring you a gift."

She holds out a flawless hibiscus flower for Eponine to inspect. Justine didn't want to get a rose--everyone who's ever dealt with President Snow associates roses with him--but she wanted to get something that was tasteful and yet exotic enough to speak to wealth without bragging. A hibiscus works for that. "I was worried you might be self-conscious with your brand, so I thought maybe wearing this would help. I could put it in your hair, if you like, and all eyes would be drawn to the color, and nowhere else."

Unfortunately, the expense or exoticness of a hibiscus is quite wasted on Eponine. She has never seen such a flower before, and has little concept of them being valuable. But then, perhaps Justine's flower is a statement, not for Eponine, but for the general public.

She sticks out a bony finger, running it over a petal ever so gently.
"For me, Miss?" She can't believe that anybody would give her a flower.
"A princess gave me a flower once. For my hair. She said I was more beautiful than I think." She smiles sadly. "Perhaps now she'd scream at the sight of me. I don't care."
She does.

But she bends a little so that Justine can weave it through Eva's tight braids. She's trembling, she's so excited.
"I never have a present. Well, when Orc was murdered. I felt it my birthday, I had such gifts. Before, not even on my birthday! I do not know even, when it is to be!"

"Oh, I don't think she'd scream at the sight of you, my dear Eponine." Justine is gentle as she weaves in the flower. It sits to the side of Eponine's cheek, drawing attention away from and partially covering her brand.

"There." She pats Eponine's undamaged cheek gently. "You're gorgeous." She then nudges Eponine's arm, guiding her to begin walking. "If you don't know when the day of your birth is, why don't you choose one? Then people will know when to celebrate you."

"I don't know anyone who would." Eponine delicately touches the flower as she follows Justine. She fancies herself to be a little bit beautiful now. Justine is beautiful. Eponine feels gangly next to such a self assured and angelic looking woman.

"I don 't have no friends. Only Eva, and she gives me a bedroom and forgave me losing her savings to my Pa. I shouldn't ask her for nothing. Mr. Albert gave me a doll. She 's so lovely. I've always wanted a pretty doll, since that one in the shop in Montfermiel, but the old man gave it to Cosette, not me. But it should have been mine. My Papa swore Father Christmas would bring it to me. I only got five francs, though. And that were the last of anything nice."

Eponine is at least quite easy work. She blabbers freely, trying to sound charming.

Just because she looks angelic doesn't make her an angel. But damn, can she do a good impression.

"How kind of Mr. Albert to give you a doll, and just too bad that Father Christmas didn't see through your father's promise." Justine plays along. She allows Eponine to babble, to tell her all about her troubles and the unfairness of life. "But I'm sure that your friends would love to be able to give you something every now and then. Let me tell you, I adore spoiling my friends. It does me well to see them happy because of something I did."

They are mismatched. Justine with her easy grace and perfect Capitol mannerisms; Eponine with her starved body and oozing brand. But she gives off the impression that she notices none of this, that there isn't a disconnect at all.

You're an equal in Justine's eyes, Eponine. That's why she spoils you.

"It was that Cosette's fault. She stole my dolly." Eponine seethes, even now, even a decade later, over the injustice that Cosette received the doll. "She's horrid, Miss, but nobody never sees it. All they see is her pretty hair and her nice teeth and her smile, and she is an angel and a love and all the rest of it. Me, I am the devil. It is a wonder this stupid place don't give me horns and a tail to make it complete, for they give me everything else I do not ask for."

She glances at Justine, realising that she's let her tongue get away from her again. Apologetically, she shrugs. "Sorry, Ma'am."

"Oh, don't apologize. It must be so frustrating, to see other people get everything you deserve when they've done nothing but smile and look pretty."

Most of the Capitolites they pass ignore them as they walk, but Eponine has all of Justine's attention.

"All of we intelligent women have had to face it at one point or another. Life will hand the beautiful and dim what they want. The smart ones--we're given a hard life, and we earn everything we get."

Partially a lie. She doesn't really believe these things. Life is a crapshoot, Eponine was born in a low class, and she has no right to all the things she longs for. But, as usual, Justine keeps her true thoughts to herself.

"We?" We - Justine said 'we'. Is she really likening herself to Eponine? Such a pretty woman, and a powerful one as well, and clever - and she thinks Eponine's the same? Eponine's delighted at the compliment. In her childish way, she warms immediately to Justine.

"I think you're pretty, Miss. I think it is nice to see people without so much make up on. I think it makes you more pretty."

"Thank you, my dear. I feel that we have a people have lost sight of natural beauty."

Act like a friend. Act like an equal. Give the girl exactly the love and validation she craves.

"I think you're beautiful as well. You don't need makeup or fancy clothes either--but the occasional accessory never goes amiss. I think you pull off flowers very well."

"I think there are too many alterations here, Miss. You know, Miss Valeria made my eyes yellow, and teeth that were so sharp, and claws, Miss? And my breasts - well... She says it is what men like, not skinny girls. I did not like my body changed so. I might not be much, but I am me, you know?"

She touches the flower again, taken by the compliment. "Eva did my hair for me." She offers, shyly.

"Eva is clearly good at hair, then."

She rests a hand on Eponine's arm, continuing to casually guide her as they walk.

"Miss Valeria clearly overstepped herself." Justine actually doesn't think that's true--Valeria has the right to do whatever she wants to people beneath her--but saying that wouldn't be useful. "She tried to make you seem appealing to sponsors, but she didn't think of what you would find appealing at all. Have you asked if she could perhaps undo some of her adjustments?"

"I do not have them now, do I?" Eponine grins, not seeming to mind Justine's hand on her arm so much. She is lovely, this Justine.

"No, when she goes, so do they, and nobody is so bothered. There are still a few men who like a skinny woman like me. Or... Well. Eva is perhaps the only one to send me presents in the arena. She sent me some food and drink. But not this time. I don't think she has money now because of my Papa."

"Oh, believe me, my dear, you have plenty of admirers."

Noting that Eponine doesn't seem to mind the touching, Justine keeps guiding her, smiling all the while.

"What did your Papa do to Eva?"

"Do I?" She brushes her hand against her plaits self consciously. She would so like to believe that she has admirers.

"My Pa? He tries to fleece her - he demands all of her money from her for taking me away, and because he says I need new clothes and the like. He took so much of her money - all of it, I think. And she just gives it because she loves me. I were so mad at him, though. I shouted and shouted, and he hit my head off the wall until I were dizzy with it."

"Absolutely, you do."

They came to a modest (by Capitol standards) restaurant, full of murmuring people. Justine led Eponine through the door, encouraging her to come sit at a reserved table right next to the window, overlooking the Capitol's glittering streets.

"That sounds cruel of your Papa. Unfortunately, fathers aren't always kind. Sometimes, they're very selfish."

Eponine looked doubtfully at the chosen table. Right in the window, so that more people could stare at them. She didn't want to sit down. But she also didn't want to make a fuss in front of all of the Capitolites. So she slid obediently into her seat.

"My Pa were not a nice man, Miss. He just wanted every penny he could bleed from me. Indeed, he would not let me back home sometimes unless I had twenty Francs, or he would beat me till I could not stand and then throw me out anyway." Eponine didn't sound particularly upset. It was just how it was.

"Was your Papa as mine, Miss?" Justine sounded like she knew what she was talking about.

Justine glanced out the window. She pretended not to notice Eponine's slight discomfort. It wouldn't do to make her feel completely secure. She should be just uncomfortable enough to need Justine to steady her. It would teach her that Justine was there to help when she needed it. Learn to associate the feeling of reassurance with her.

"My father was a selfish man. Mother went away, and I just wasn't important enough for him to care for. Instead of tending to his daughter, he decided to indulge himself, and he left as well. He left me alone."

It was a simplification. She was the reason for it all. She knew she was. Eponine didn't need to know that.

"You were left alone?" Eponine looked suddenly quite upset. She could empathise with that. And it was news for her that a Capitol lady like Justine could come from a background quite similar to her own. Eponine was quite imagining Justine out on the streets, sleeping under hedges as she herself had often done, bare-footed and frostbitten, tough until the last.

"My Pa threw my brother out. Gavroche, he's called. He were here once. He lived inside the elephant for ages and ages, but he wouldn't let me in there. He gave me apples sometimes, when he took enough... I didn't know people in the Capitol lived so. Just in the Districts."

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