In Every Atom, Broken, Is a Name [OPEN]

[celebrityskinned]

WHO| Venus Dee Milo and open
WHAT| Venus shows people where the blind spots are.
WHERE| The corner of Castor and Juvenal.
WHEN| After Lonestar's post.
WARNINGS| Likely some mentions of torture and suicide.

Venus does the perfect approximation of just lounging at a bus stop, playing on her network device and checking her receipt for all the things she bought at the jewelry store. Capitol citizens passing by pay her no mind, except to sneer at the brand across her cheek. She knows she should be wearing it like a badge, but no amount of conviction seems able to stop her wincing every time that look of disgust crosses someone's face.

She feels strangely detached, as if she's spent all of her energy either in berating herself for her laundry list of recent mistakes or in acting like they haven't brought her down. She knows that there's chaos around her, and yet she feels like the shrapnel and debris in the air misses her, that the wind doesn't touch her. She knows that she should feel the hum in the earth as the water behind the dam reaches a breaking point, and yet there's nothing. Nothing but the sun beating on her face, her scarred, ugly face.

She's accomplished nothing here. Even Wyatt and Maximus' safety was incidental to anything she did. She has a fistful of locations where someone, anyone might go forth and make fire with a spark that she's to dim to light.

She sits there, browsing some tabloid on her device, and she waits.

Comments

Re: [cw: sexual abuse]

[gardienne]

"I know." Eponine knows that she's not the only girl to be used in such a way. Weren't there dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of girls like her in Paris? And Perhaps more and more in England and America? And now here as well... nothing changes. And perhaps, perhaps Venus is just like her?

"Eva was a whore." Eponine states. It makes her feel better, not in a malicious way, but just knowing that someone so strong and so brave as Eva was the same as her made Eponine feel strong as well.

She grins. "I cannot believe you care what these bastards think of you. I don't care if they hate me. I want them to hate me. I should not care to be liked by such miserable people who enjoy to see so many murdered and hurt. Pah." She spits at the floor, contemptuous of the Capitol.

Having got that out of her system, she plasters a fake smile on her face. "Here. This is what I shall do."

[celebrityskinned]

"You're not the only one here, I mean."

And that's all she can bring herself to say, as if saying the name of the crime committed against her in childhood itself is beyond her capacity. So she fluffs Eponine's stringy hair a little and looks at the face in the mirror.

"I care what they think of me because that's what makes me powerful." She uses the toe of her platform shoe to smear Eponine's saliva into the tile, cosigning the statement. "And that's why we got to keep smiling."

[gardienne]

"You as well?" Eponine reaches for Venus' hand. It is a hard thing to admit to, prostitution. It is a dirty, embarrassing thing, that makes Eponine feel like scum when she thinks about it properly. Lower than scum, really. And for someone nice like Venus, who had everything going to her, it must be absolutely devastating. At least Eponine had no prospects, nothing to lose when it had happened the first time. At least she was used to it by the time it got here. But it is nice to have that bond, to share the strength that Eponine has eventually learned to draw from it.

"Yeah, well, I don't have power, smile or frown. I am sick of being bottom of the pile, no matter what I do. I have no supporters, only the tight men who don't never give me nothing. I have no magic. I have no schooling. I don't even have good looks, or nobody to love me. Not so many like me, and I am watched constantly. I am so fed up. So perhaps for you, it matters. But for me, I am beyond caring what they think. I want this place to hurry up and change for the better, or hurry up and let me die. This is not living. Venus, I just want to be free."

[celebrityskinned]

"Not prostitution, but- yeah." She can't say more. She hasn't claimed it and welded it to her bones like Eponine has. She opens the beast's mouth now and then closes it, shoves the monster back into the closet where it belongs.

She looks at Eponine's face in the mirror. "Think Eva'd be pretty pissed if you went and died on her. Her letters looks a bit like she was banking on your future. Okay, come on. They're going to get suspicious."

She pats Eponine's shoulder and opens the door to the restroom, back to the hall. Back to the constant, oppressive surveillance.