Shattered dreams

[gardienne]

Who: Eponine and Justine, and Eridan, and OPEN!
What: Eponine has heard Eva's transmission and realised what it means
Where: The Tribute Tower, and out and about.
When: Straight after Eva's transmission
Warnings: GALORE. Death, murder, breaking and entering.

From somewhere within the Tribute Tower comes an almighty scream. It lasts long, and Eponine continues to scream inside her head long after her voice has given out. It cannot be happening. It cannot be true. Her mama - God! She falls to the floor where she stands in the common room, legs giving out beneath her. It can't be true. It can't be.

"Mama! MAMA!" She screams frantically into her dead communicator. Where IS Eva? What has she done? Eponine needs to get to her before they kill her. She needs to stop it - God, what is she going to do?

She bolts immediately, running out of the Tribute centre, still holding her useless communicator, still half dressed in her pyjamas and a hoodie. She has no idea where to go, so she runs through the streets of the Capitol, straight towards the official government ones, to beg help, to plea for Eva's life, to offer her own for Eva's. Anything to keep her mama alive and there and unharmed. She runs and she runs and she runs.


After a while, when she can't run any more, she stops. She slides down the side of a house until she's sat on the floor, clutching her sides, trying to get her breath back. She's never going to get Eva back, just begging for it. They're not going to execute Eponine in Eva's place. And Eponine can't find Eva at all. She has no idea what to do, and she kicks her feet at the floor, frustrated. How could Eva do this to her?

Her hands fall from the side, and she scrabbles in the dirt idly whilst she tries to figure out what to do next.
"I..." Her fingers close over a rock, and she looks down, a plan forming. Had Eva not said to cause mayhem?

She stands up, and considers the house with the big windows in front of her. And then she takes aim and throws the stone, shattering the window with a crash!.


(Feel free to have your character run into Eponine in the Tribute Tower, or in the street, or breaking and entering!)

Comments

[hit_girl_mindy]

It was loud, and mean and Mindy had to admit that, for the first time, she felt weary at the thought of fighting. She'd already been hanging on barely, and then this went down. It had taken only a few minutes to access the information: it was going down. Time for craziness to begin, and that meant getting herself involved. Again.

If she had the chance not to be in a death grip, goddamn it, she would fucking take it. The torture had worked a slow kind of insanity in her as she watched her friends die one by one. Good kids too, ones that weren't out to hurt anyone, just mercilessly taken out. She'd already tried checking on Chibi Usa and had her suspicions confirmed. She was a one time gal, and that was a bad thought, but she hadn't deserved to see what they saw.

She was out here though, temporary hesitation or not. First thing was first: she was getting back to basics. She wanted a gun, and once she had that, let them TRY to stop her.

As she was moving out, she notices someone frantic. She should have known, of course. Who else.

"Eps. What the fuck are you doing?"

[gardienne]

"I'm going to save Eva." And don't you dare try to stop her. Still half dressed in her pyjamas, Eponine continues to storm from the building.

"Where is she? I need to find her, Mindy. Now. Now, for goodness sake, for once in your life, actually help me!" She needs to find her now.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy closed her eyes. This was tough. She knew this was what Eponine was going to be doing, knew that she would be going for her mom. How could she not? But...no.

"Eponine. She showed her face. She did this. That woman is dead, don't you get it? Look what they did to me: they don't even know who killed that security bitch. But Eva's stated it was her. Where is she going to go? They're gonna find her, and make an example of her after this. If anything, Eva has two options: get out and fast, or kill herself to not be made an example of. She'll take one, that's for sure."

She swallowed. "But I'll help you find her. She's our mentor, after all."

[gardienne]

"She can't be dead." But Eponine knew that Mindy spoke the truth. Eva was dead. "I won't let her be. I won't." She shook her head. "God, Mindy. What am I to do? What can I do - will - I will take her punishment. Let them execute me. God -" She was trembling, her legs shaking so hard. Never, ever had she felt this blind panic, this grief, this desperation that was overwhelming her. Was this what love truly was? She knew she'd do anything for Eva.

"Mindy... I can't live without my Eva. I - I'll take all of their brands. All of them. Let them burn me to death, or slit my wrists or drown me slowly or whatever they like. Just - I cannot bear for her to be gone from me."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"They won't do that," Mindy said, shaking her head. "It's one thing to cause some minor trouble, but this is going to deeply affect the Capitol and its something she incited. There isn't going to be any trial, any dealing. They will make an example of her, unless she makes sure to die. So...get used to that. We're all still here, and if you love your mom that much, fulfill her last request and blow shit up."

She was quiet. "I'm sorry. I know you care about her. She's our mentor."

[soldieronwards]

He was planning on ignoring the scream. There are more important things to be done right now. Bucky's forming plans the moment the transmission ends, setting compassion aside to be the weapon he knows he needs to be. There are people in power who need to be killed, and he is a killer. It's a perfect match.

That's why when Eponine bolts past him as he's walking calmly and quietly through the Tribute Tower, he doesn't look very much like the frustrated and openly emotional man she encountered once on the rooftop or the casual, friendly person who spoke to her over the network. He looks cool and remote, and he almost lets her run past.

But she nearly runs into him in the darkness on her way out of the building, and so he can't let that stand. His left hand, the metal one, darts out to try to grab her by the wrist.

"Have some sense, girl."

[gardienne]

She shrieks again, this time out of fear than heart break. In her panic, she had not even realised it was Bucky. She tries to tug her arm free immediately.

"Stuff your manners up your backside, Sir. I need to find my Mama. Let me go!"

[soldieronwards]

He barely recognized her, either--so now he blinks at that familiar voice, halfway polite and yet still crazed and defiant. A sliver of familiar light shows through his cold demeanor. "'Ponine? You--"

He shakes his head. "Listen. This isn't about manners. You go out there like this, half-dressed, running crazy, you'll get killed for good."

[gardienne]

"I need to save my Mama! I can 't let her - oh, let GO!"

She tugs her arm again . "Do you really think I care if I die, Bucky?" She adds, sadly. Without Eva, she has nobody. She's dead already.

"Please. Please, Bucky. I need to save my Eva."

[soldieronwards]

Surprise flashes into Bucky's eyes. "The woman who made that broadcast? She's someone to you--?"

And then--well, he's already started to let some of the cold mask down, so he might as well. A stricken look crosses his face. "Hell, 'Ponine, she's already dead. She knew it would happen the moment she took down the system. That was a suicide run if I've ever seen one."

[beastlybeauty]

On the streets, there's a woman staggering like a ghost, her white dress splashed dramatically with red and clinging to her skin, her arms crisscrossed with sticky and bleeding cuts, and little spots of purple blood dotting her sleeves.

Her eyes keep moving from building to building, from person to person, eerily calm and just gauging the damage.

Until someone runs past.

"Eponine?"

[gardienne]

Justine's voice sounds like it's so very far away to Eponine. All she can hear is the pounding in her ears, the blood, her blood, reminding her that she is still alive, still living this wretched life another second, another minute, whilst the person she's cared about more than anyone ever before might be - No.

It takes a second for Justine's voice to register, longer for Eponine to slow down and stop and turn and focus on - on -

"Miss?" She asks, dazed. "Miss, what is it that has happened? Do you know where Eva is?"

[beastlybeauty]

"What is it that happened?"

Justine wants to snap in her face that she got stabbed, that's what happened, you stupid street rat, but it doesn't show on her face. She just lets her hands fall limp to her sides.

"Your Mama is already gone, my dear. They'll find her before you can. They're taking her away, like they took my mother away. I'm so sorry."

[gardienne]

"Take her - away? Your Mama - is she - oh." Eponine dimly remembers Justine telling her about her mother being taken away from the Capitol.

"But we have to save her. Please. I don't want Eva to be alone when they kill her. Perhaps they'll kill me instead. Please, Miss, come with me. Beg for me with them. They'll listen to you. Oh - oh, but are you hurt?" It's as if she's just noticed that Justine is bleeding.

[beastlybeauty]

"There's nothing you can do. There's nothing either of us can do now. She knew this."

Justine wants to give her a good swat. Did she think the blood was ornamentation?

But she keeps her cool. "A Tribute came to my office. He killed my patient and tried to kill me."

[unconchonable]

Eridan has been causing all sorts of mayham, not because of some human woman felt the need to give the command, but more so his own frustration and anger. He's since been in a fight with a drag queen, to only be interrupted by one of the escorts taking her place. The prince has since left that scene, but not unscathed. Aching bruises welt across his skin from where hits connected, though he pays them no mind.

Pain is hardly anything new.

Since that encounter, he's destroyed a great number of things, from vehicles, to buildings, to even attacking people. Brandishing a broken pipe he's busted off himself, he's found himself in what seems to be a neighborhood of some sort. As luck would have it, a rock goes soaring in front of him, crashing into a large window. Shattering it, which causes him to back away to avoid any shards that may rain down upon him. His attention directed towards the assailant: Eponine, once he's done staring at the damage dealt.

He squints at her behind his thick-rimmed glasses, his hand clenching the pipe tightly. If she seems like a threat he'll be sure to neutralize her without a second thought--but it occurs to him that she looks awful familiar, like a girl he could have sworn he saw arguing with Dave in the Arena towards the start, and so he stays his hand.

"You a tribute?" He barks at her almost threateningly as he approaches her with caution. "You lookin' to break shit, cause some right bloody fuckin' choas? You don't quite look the type, but I ain't here to judge ya none if ya are."

He's actually perfectly fine with garnering himself a partner in his vandalism escapades. Sure it's fun on it's own, but there's always more fun to be had when you've got yourself a partner.

[gardienne]

"I am a Tribute... Sir." Eponine backs off a little. She is not interested in getting into a fight, especially when it would be her fists against a broken pipe.

"I... I didn't do it." She looks guiltily at the window she's smashed. She's fairly certain that this boy is a tribute as well. He looks the same as Terezi after all.

"But I could. If I wanted to." This is possibly the first time that anybody has suggested that she is innocent looking, and Eponine is quite defiant about it. She doesn't want to be so good as all of that.

[unconchonable]

"The name's Eridan."

He raises an eyebrow at how she denies that she threw the rock, yet there's no one else to hoist the blame upon. He would argue it, but it's pointless when he knows she's denying it to just deny it at this point.

"Well, do you want to?" It's asked as an extended offer as he glances at the broken window. The answer is clear to him, or so he likes to think, but if she's got her own reservations against it, he'll be fine to leave her here.

[gardienne]

"I don't want you to tell the Peacekeepers on me, Mr. Eridan. I don't want them to know what I have done. I don't want to be in trouble."

But make trouble. That is definitely something she wants to do. Why should they get away with killing her Mama, and facing no consequences? Eponine's quite determined that someone ought to pay.

[unconchonable]

"Well, as far as I'm concerned--" he starts, giving her a placid sort of expression, "If you don't tell, I won't tell."

He waves her on, beckoning her, "You should finish what you started, right?" Perhaps he feels a little sorry for her, she looks like some scared animal, unsure of what direction to run. Eridan is quite the opposite, there's no fear in him, only anger, hatred, and a need to wreck shit. There's too much he's mad at, and maybe having some company would better suit is destructive endeavors.

He approaches the window that still has large shards within in, the fractures from the rock making it quite easy to bust the rest out with his pipe, before he hoists himself upon the frame of it. He turns to look back at her, offering his hand.

"You comin' or not?"

[currupted]

Cyrus has abandoned his Peacekeeper detail. They'd wanted him out of the Tower, and so he'd dismissed them-- Stephen is still in the Tower (he thinks, he believes, he hopes), and until he can be assured that he isn't, Cyrus is going nowhere.

He isn't running. Not yet. But there's purpose in his steps as he moves through the halls of Tribute Tower, his expression intense, the look in his eyes furious and incredulous at the same time. Eva. The assassination, the jailbreak, the branding, and now this? No warning! No hint of a contingency plan! Most of what he's feeling is pure outrage - it's only when he thinks of Stephen that he feels the beginnings of fear.

He doesn't intend to find Eponine. He's only rounding a corner, storming as fast as he can toward District Six (toward his brother, toward the place his brother should be), glancing down at his communicator every three steps and swearing viciously under his breath every time he confirms it's still dead.

He stops only when he hears the frantic footsteps ahead of him - it occurs to him suddenly that when he shouted the Peacekeepers away, they took their weapons with them. He slows, suddenly more alert, suddenly wary, squinting down the corridor to try to tell who it is - if they've got a destination, like he does, or if they're coming at him with intent to injure.

"Stay back!" he barks. "Back! Where I can see you!"

[gardienne]

Eponine stops immediately when she hears Cyrus' voice, though it takes her a minute to recognise it. But when she does, a feeling almost of relief washes over her. This Capitol man will know exactly where her mama is.

So she begins to run at him frantically. "Sir! Sir, are you so scared of me? Come - you'll know where she is. Take me to her. Take me to her RIGHT NOW."

[currupted]

He backs away. Not quickly - he's not so willing to give up ground - but with his hands up, defensive. One curls into a loose fist.

"Take you to who--" he begins, but interrupts himself, because it is not important. It is not remotely important. "Get out of my way, Eponine. I'm warning you. I do not have time for this."

There's fury in his voice, just under the surface. A desperate, helpless anger, that he's making only the most cursory effort to stifle.

[gardienne]

Eponine stops short again wheb she sees Cyrus' fist, and she laughs bitterly.

"What? You think you are the first man to threaten a beating if I don't do as I am told? You think, truly, that you will be the first man to hit me till I can hardly stand or it hurts for a week to sit on my arse? Pah!" She spits at him. "Do you not know that that is why I kill my very own father? So you be careful, Sir, for I am in the mood to bite tonight." She laughs bitterly and moves right up close to him.

"I won't move until you tell me where Eva is, and you tell me exactly how to get to her. You tell me right now!"

[futilecycle]

After what he has done, Sigma needs to be seen in the Tower.

He has taken a winding path away from their raid to confuse potential witnesses. When at last Sigma makes it through the door of the Tribute Tower, he's constructing a story in his head that he had been trying to wrangle Tributes and put them in their place - until his cybernetic eye finds Cyrus in the darkness, and he knows he's found a solid alibi. Sigma begins strolling confidently towards him, ready to use all of the force his titanium enhancements will give him to break up the argument in progress-

Until he realizes whom it is he's arguing with.

There's a sharp pain in his chest accompanied by overwhelming despair; this girl would be the death of him. He's between them in an instant to stop Cyrus from killing her - already understanding what it is Eponine must have approached him for, he must play to Cyrus' side of the argument.

"Enough! What's going on here?!" The question is directed at Eponine, and his eyes are wild with rage. It is genuine - it was his greatest fear to lose her tonight, and if she has been foolish enough to threaten one of the highest on the Capitol's pecking order, she had already signed her death warrant. He holds out his hand to push her back, should she advance on them.

Without turning his body, he looks back at Cyrus, apologetic. "Sir, my sincerest apologies. She is not well, and I should have known better than to leave her door unlocked, tonight." He shakes his head in frustration, lowering his voice. "That was her mother in that broadcast, you see." He hopes Cyrus picks up on his false pity. Clearly, this child got her insanity from her mother's side, his expression reads. "Having raised one myself, I know children are at their most unreasonable when it comes to their family. Allow me to assist you." His offer is threatening, and he finds himself grateful that he had chosen short sleeves, tonight - he may be as old as sin, but his cybernetic muscles appear powerful enough to make up for that.