Nothing's Changed [Open]

[vissernone]

Who| Eva and open
What| Eva plays chess in the park.
Where| Park in the Capitol
When| Week 7
Warnings/Notes| Description of cuts.

The bruises have faded into the sick yellow of urine. The cuts haven't healed yet, and wearing the bandages and stitches - old-fashioned medicine, less than what a Panem Victor could usually expect - is something of a scarlet letter. No one's forgotten that she was cavorting with a would-be assassin, but the Capitol's seen fit to remind them anyway, and unless she spends the next few months indoors Eva's damned to carry the message on her face.

She somewhat appreciates that the hook-shaped slash on her upper lip has pulled her mouth into something of a perpetual sneer. It fits her mood, lately. The cuts along her arms and cheek are a little less thematically appropriate.

The sunlight wafts down to her like steam. Her palm rests on a book in the park, her eyes strolling lazily over the words of a poem she's read a hundred times before. The other hand rests in her lap, on the demure grey fabric of a dress that could blend into any background. Eva doesn't need to accessorize; here, the white bandage around her upper arms and the patch of gauze on her cheek are eye-catching enough.

A chess set sits on the small marble table in front of her. The pieces are arranged up perfectly, each slit in the bishop's hat forming a perfect line. She looks out at the park, relatively unoccupied for a Sunday afternoon what with people watching the final week of the Games, and waits for someone, anyone to come challenge her.

She loves chess. It's just yet another game where no one has to win.

Comments

[gardienne]

"And why should you have everyone's cares, Madame? You are not my mentor, and yet, you comfort me when they bring me back from the woods and you teach me makeup and plait my hair and hug me. Nobody has ever hugged me, Madame. Or perhaps when I was a child."

She shrugs, and sits back down. "You have taught me... you taught me it is okay to care about other people, Madame. That not everybody wishes me gone from their sight. Am I not to care about you as well? Is that not what a friend does? I am not afraid of the Capitol; they have killed me once and they send me to the arena to play their stupid games always. Madame, I am not afraid of them. I think they're stupid."

[vissernone]

Eva maintains her silence for a few moments. The look on her face is very close to pained, and the only way she can communicate to Eponine not to go is to squeezes her hand tightly.

"As flattered as I am for your gratitude, Eponine, I don't want anyone to care for me for selfish reasons. I wouldn't want anyone to risk themselves on my behalf. People have in the past, and it hasn't ended well for me to lose those I care for." Her eyes tense slightly, and her voice intones that that is all the information she'll part with in the matter.

"But...I'm glad that you understand that there are those that care for you, now."

[gardienne]

Eponine squeezes back as best she can, bony fingers crushed even under Eva's grip. But she's a strong girl, for her size, and she grips well.

"You mustn't worry about me, you know, Madame. They won't kill me... sometimes, I think death would be better, sometimes - such terrible nightmares I have now, you know, that I can barely sleep. But no. No, they will not kill me. It is too much fun for them, do you not see, for me to be in love with a man and a boy both together, and neither will love me back. They like to laugh at me, I think, for what I did in the arenas, when I forgot the cameras."

She shrugs, not wanting to enquire about Eva's past too much. What business is it of Eponine's? She doesn't really care, either, come to it. If it doesn't affect her directly, then there is no point fretting, is there?

"You... and Monsieur Sigma, Madame. And Monsieur Wesker sent me a knife in the arena... he says he cares about me too."

And then there are Howard and Marius - the two people she wishes would care, and the two people who refuse to see her.

[vissernone]

"The powers that be, they want to break you, so they can move on to the next thing. I can't see you allowing yourself to lose to them." She reaches forward with her free hand and touches Eponine's chin. "Your strongest bit is your spirit. Weaker people would have crumbled by now, or wilted."

She lowers her voice. "But there are those of us who care, as you can see. Dr. Klim worries deeply for you. As do I."

[gardienne]

"It's just... life. Madame, in this place, I do not want to die. In France, I did not care. But here... it is nice. I would like to live here, even though there are a lot of things I do not like. And even though... well... I think it will be like Paris, if Monsieur Enjolras has his way. But even he, he talks to me here. That is nice."

She flinches, just a little, at Eva's touch, but settles herself, telling herself off for being silly.

"I think, with such things that you cannot fight, like how Madame Valeria changes my body, and they make us kill in the arena, that you must just get on with it. Truly, I will never kill again. But the only fight I will give is that. There is no point in complaining - you do something or you survive. It is not strength. It's life. Madame, you need not worry about me. They can do nothing to me - nothing, for I have been made a murderer now - and truly so, for Monsieur Alex did not return - and they have changed me to look pretty, and soon they will auction me off for a dance. You do not have to worry because I do not care. Truly, Madame. Believe me."

[vissernone]

"Do you think I haven't murdered, Eponine? I was in those Games too." The scars in her face seem to sink, darken as if a sun is setting on them and the wrinkles around her eyes.

"We all have to find some virtue to hold onto, I understand. But losing it simply means we have to find another, not that we should discount ourselves wholly."

[gardienne]

"I fear that I am running out of virtues, Madame. I was bad before I came here, but the Capitol... Well, I have no dignity left, no honour, no shame. Before I came, I could not have those either... The only thing I had was that I was not so bad as 'Parnasse. But the place has taken that, even."

She reached again for Eva's hand. "I know they have done the same to you. Does it not hurt you? Does it not make you mad? Does it not make you hate this stupid place and the STUPID man who has control? It is like in Paris. Always I thought in Paris that the king was stupid, a horrible man. Always I wished that there was something I could do. but no, there, I just had to wait to die and for it to be over so. But here - I think we have more power to say no. It is this that I hold to - that the others will stop fighting, that the stupid man will die and I can stay here always. I do not think it will happen - but you have taught me hope, so Ishall hope for that, at least."

[vissernone]

"Shhhh..."

Eva leans over the table and presses a fingertip to Eponine's lips.

"You do have something, Eponine. It is something beyond the mere words we have for virtues. You know the core of an apple? What they've wicked away is meat, but the seeds remain intact."

[gardienne]

She smiled against Eva's finger, listening, before moving her head back a little so she could talk.

"Yes I know apple cores. I used to eat them a lot. You think I am like that? The bit in the middle? I think you think too much of me, or perhaps you tell me so to make me feel good. Well..."

She grinned. "I do not care if you do, for it has worked. Madame, always you make me feel happy inside."

[vissernone]

"Well, whether you believe me or not, I'm glad to make someone happy around here." Considering that she mostly ends up killing other people. Perhaps if she could use whatever magic she's bewitching Eponine with on everyone else, she'd be able to sleep at night.

[gardienne]

"I have learned, Madame, that you cannot please everyone - indeed, it is most people that you cannot please. I think they like to be upset, you know? But I say, please yourself over them. I do not care what anyone thinks, and I am not afraid of anything. And you mustn't be, either. Madame, what more can they do to us? You may a well make yourself happy now, as well as I."

She sighs. She hates to see Eva sad. If Eponine had her way, Eva would have almost everything in the world. Dresses, a house - a nice house, friends, family... But Eponine never gets her way.

"Don't be scared of them. This is what I tell myself. Not to be afraid. Not to care."

[vissernone]

"Well, they could always hurt all of you more. It's one thing for them to leave bruises on me. I was born into it." She strokes Eponine's hair, pushing a lock behind the girl's ear.

"And it's a good thing, to be able to detach like that. We must, to survive."

[gardienne]

"Then it seems we were born for the same purpose, Madame. You saw me when I came back from the forest, Madame. You saw the bruise on my cheek. Perhaps you have seen them on my body - but of course, here, they make them disappear. I do not mind being hit. It is stupid to ask for a beating, but I can take it if it happens. So Madame, do not worry for me. Truly, Madame."

She reaches for Eva's hand, stroking it away from her hair to instead touch Eponine's cheek. She cuddles it gently.

"I learned to survive in Paris when I was eight years old, Madame. I have survived since then - and always will it be so. Only, Madame... You are a good friend to me. You are the nicest lady I know. But do not fear for me. I am stupid and skinny but I am tough as well. Do as you must and worry not for me."