thecapitol | Just watching the night sky...

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Just watching the night sky...

Who: Eponine and OPEN
What: Eponine's pondering on a rooftop. Do come and join her.
Where: Rooftop of the training centre
When: Soon after the date auction
Warnings: Eponine - so generally quite dark thoughts... and I guess any warnings anyone else cares to bring with them.

At home, when Eponine had to think, when she had a lot on her mind, she walked. She walked and she walked sometimes, wandering the dirty streets of St. Michel until she reached the wider roads where the houses didn't bear down on her, and she could see the stars. She had a particular ditch she used to make for, a deep one, sheltered from the wind, and without too much mud in the bottom, cushioned as it was with grass. Sometimes, her nights in the ditch were the happiest she had had in a long time. She liked it at night better than the day; the streets were empty. There were no jeers or stares or catcalls, and she could talk out loud without people pointing her out as 'mad'.

She likes to walk in the Capitol too. Usually. She knows the place well by now, a year on. She knows the shortcuts and the places to avoid. But the stares - the stares she hates. She needs to walk now - there is so much on her mind after the date auction. Why she was strapped down for a start, but Howard and Marius too... and had that rock man really called her beautiful? She needs to walk... but at night, she is not allowed out of the Tribute tower - and she does not want to be shot again, so sneaking out is impossible. So she does the next best thing. She goes up to the garden on the top of the Tribute tower. Helping herself to an ever-blossoming lily, Eponine settles in the grass. Bringing the lily to her nose, she breathes deep, and just watches the stars. So beautiful... Slowly, in her croak, she begins to sing softly to herself.

"Mon ami me délaisse, Ô gai, vive la rose, Je ne sais pas pourquoi,Vive la rose et le lilas. On dit qu'elle est plus belle,Ô gai, vive la rose, Je n'en disconviens pas, Vive la rose et le lilas."

[Translates as My boyfriend dumped me, oh joy, long live the rose. I do not know why. Long live the rose and the lily. They say she is beautiful, oh joy, long live the rose. I do not disagree, long live the rose and the lily.]

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It was quite amazing, really, to Eponine at least, how much this child reminded her of Gavroche. Not that she knew Gavroche well - in fact, Pruna probably knew him as well as Eponine did. But the defiant personality, the confidence - that was the Gavroche Eponine recognised.

"You had a twirly dress for the dance?" Eponine smiled. "That is what I would like, Mademoiselle. Along, long dress with lots of skirts that floats out when a man turns me." What Eponine generally got were dresses that emphasised her long legs and tiny waist. Sometimes elegant... but not what Eponine thought of when she thought of a 'Lady'.

"I have had ice cream - it is my favourite! Never had I had it before here - such a thing does not exist in Paris..." Though, actually, none of this food existed in Paris, at least not for her. Ice cream made her think of Howard though, and without realising, she began to hum the song she'd been singing whilst she thought back over that horrid argument. After a couple of minutes, though, she sighed and blinked, and realising that she had been daydreaming, flashed a quick smile at Pruna before sort-of changing the topic.

"I will eat anything, truly, Mademoiselle, for always am I hungry and my stomach makes a noise at me and tells me I must eat - always. But my stylists say no - they prefer me to be skinny. I do not care. I eat anyway!" She grinned at Pruna.

"I will tell you something as well. My mama had five children - Gavroche and I, and Azelma between us. But also there were two more boys that she sold. Like you, Mademoiselle. I do not think they had names, and if they did I cannot remember, but I should think they had a better life."
What she meant, in a roundabout kinda way, is that she thought Pruna, too, might have had a better life with a new family.

"Pruna?" She chuckled. "And Ash - but such different names - but why? Tell me, which is your favourite and I shall call you that. You do not like brat?"
Eponine laughed again. "That is good that you have the courage to say that. Me, I was called brat - and then when I got bigger, different names that I did not like. But never did I say against it."

Pruna grinned, she had very much liked her dress for the dance, she grinned when he learned that Eponine had tried ice cream, that was good. It didn't exist in Gauig either and Pruna wondered that when her and Sandy escaped, both going back to Pruna's world like they had planned, if they could take ice cream with them.

"You should just be eating and ignoring them, they do be being stupid and there do no be being much food in the arena so when we do be being here we should be eating everything."

She wrinkled her nose when Eponine mentioned her brothers. Eponine might think they would have a better life but Pruna knew the stories of what happened to kids in Gauig that got sold. It was whispered in the packs of thieves that she often ran with, and everyone hid when the guards decided they needed more kids to capture and sell.

It was a dire threat and one that Taiwin used only when he was very angry with them. Her other guardians never threatened it and they were the boss of Taiwin so Pruna figured it was only him making words that didn't even mean anything.

But they always behaved when he threatened it.

"I do be liking Ash because Sandy did be giving it to me and it do be being a hero name." She said, "But Pruna do no be being bad and it do be the name people do be knowing so they can be sending me weapons in the arena." She wrinkled her nose again, "I did no never be saying so before, and Taiwin did always be calling us brat, but here I did be thinking they did be giving me a name and so they should be using it."

"This is exactly so, Mademoiselle Ash. I eat and eat whilst I am here. Always am I hungry, and I eat and eat, and sometimes I am sick, and then I eat and eat some more." The rich food didn't agree with Eponine's belly, after so many years of eating little more than air. But she didn't care. She liked the food and she was going to enjoy it.

"I think they are stupid, these sylists and these mentors. It is good to be fat, or plump at least. That means you are rich. It is a sign of the poor if you are thin like me. But they do not care what we think, so there is not much to be done, is there?"
She might hate the Capitol, but rebellious Eponine was not.

Still, it was horrid that they sent children to fight.

"You can use a weapon, Pruna?"

She was remarkably sensible for such a young girl - perhaps she had had a life like Eponine's, or Gavroche's? If she had been adopted, perhaps it was not into a family like Cosette's? It warmed Eponine to her, made her feel connected to Pruna, in the same way she recognised Howard's gluttony as a quality she possessed herself.

Pruna nodded, agreeing with that. It was the same in her world, being plump meant you were rich and had nothing to do but eat and talk and eat some more. Pruna had seen such people, usually when she was sent to assassinate them.

"Of course I can be using a weapon." She grinned. "I did be killing lots of people."

"In the arena?"

Eponine looked at Pruna in astonishment. Was she lying? How could a child kill people? And if they did kill, for it happened sometimes, they certainly didn't tend to boast calmly about it like Pruna was doing. Eponine couldn't imagine Pruna killing.

"And before." Pruna had gotten more confident since Sandy's reaction to her god and so she smiled brightly as she answered. "I do be being good at it."

Modest Pruna was not.

"You killed before the arena, Mademoiselle?"

Eponine was shocked. Not at the idea of murder, but - "But you are a child! How is it you are big enough to murder a man? Did they not struggle against you? It is not a good lie, I think."

She shrugged, "There do be being ways to be killing people before they do even be knowing you do be being there." She grinned showing the gap in her teeth.

"Being small do be helping because they do no even be noticing you." She pointed a finger at Eponine.

"I do no be being a liar!"

"But you are but a child, Mademoiselle. How is it that you can kill?"

Eponine didn't seem at all perturbed by Pruna's actions - didn't even notice. Her eyes had shifted from Pruna to fix on one of the bushes behind the girl, and she twirled the lily absently in her hand.

"You could not even reach a man's throat, Mademoiselle. How did you kill them?"

She was casual, unperturbed. Eponine didn't like murder - but she was equally desensitized to the idea of it - though admittedly, her own deaths in the arena had disturbed her - especially her last, being munched alive by R. But they weren't talking about that so Eponine remained unbothered.

Pruna grinned, "There do be being lots of ways. Like you could be having just a needle but it do be having poison on it, you do no even be having to be being strong to be pricking someone with a needle."

She reached out to point at a spot on Eponine's knee, "Or about there, there do be a place that if you do be hitting it just right even the biggest man will be falling down."

Eponine jerked back as far as she could when Pruna touched her knee; a reflex from Paris, engrained by the arenas now. But she listened carefully. Why, the girl sounded almost professional about it - more so even than Montparnasse.

"I... I supposed you could. But... Mademoiselle? Do you like to have your life like this? Would you rather not wear a lovely dress and have a cat and a doll to play with? That is a better life, I think."

Pruna wrinkled her nose, she liked her job and though she hated the fact she had been kidnapped she didn't actually mind the arena's. And she saw no reason she couldn't wear a lovely dress and kill people, there were ways to kill without getting blood on your clothes.

"What do a doll be being?" She asked first.

"You do not know a doll, Mademoiselle?" Eponine laughed.

"Oh, but they are so lovely - it is as if you have your own little girl, or a little boy, and you might dress them up and comb their hair and put them to bed and smack their bottoms when they are bad. They are not real, you see? You play the game in your head. But you hold your dolly so -"

She arranged her arms in a simple cradle, balancing her lily as if the bloom was the baby's head, and the stem it's body. She stroked one of the petals, and bent her head to coo at the blossom, before looking back at Pruna.

"You see? You would have a real doll here, not a flower... but I do not have a dolly. I had one when I was little, but she was lost a long time ago, Angelique. I always wanted one, like the old man gave Cosette, with all the skirts and the lovely hair, and the boots on her feet, and the real eyelashes - but no."

Eponine missed dolls. She missed childhood. And even 'grown up', she still dreamed of that doll that had started her troubles. So she probably sounded a bit overeager as she continued to nurse the lily and chat.

"So it do be being a fake child?" She wrinkled her nose and looked utterly confused at Eponine's actions. Why would you hold it like that? Why would you make such silly noises?

Why would you play a game? With something that wasn't real nonetheless. She wondered if Eponine was perhaps a little mad.

"Who do Cosette be being?"

"Yes, mamselle. A pretend child to love and mother and call your very own. And if they are not baby dolls, you might brush their hair and fix their dress. You... don't like such a thing?"

She noted Pruna's expression, shrugged and dropped her hands, and the lily, with a sigh.
Of course she wanted to know about Cosette. Of course she did. Everyone wanted to know about Cosette. She bent down to pick up the lily, trying to compose her thoughts. How to describe Cosette. The girl who has everything that Eponine ever wanted.

"Cosette... she was a child who lived with me. Her mama was a bad lot, and so was Cosette. She was always sneaking and taking my things, and Azelma's. She's my sister. And then a man took her away and gave her a doll and now..."

She smiled a bitter smile. "She is a grand lady in Paris, and I am a gat. It is the way of such things, no?"

"But why? What do the point be being? Why do you be doing all that?" She wrinkled her nose and did so again as she explained Cosette.

"So the doll did be making her a grand lady?" She was a little confused, thieves didn't become grand ladies, at least not as far as Pruna knew.

"I don't know. I do not know if there is a POINT, besides giving you something to love and to cuddle at night time. It is a toy. Had you no toys?"

Eponine had had toys. Not many, it was true, but more than most children she knew. She had loved her toys.

"No, the doll did not make her a lady. The man did. I do not know what happened to her. She was taken away and I did not see her for maybe ten years - ten years! And then we had changed over. She stood in the beautiful dress as I had done when we were little, with her hair curled, like mine used to be, and I stood in rags and no shoes, with my hair... well, that is how she used to be when she was the servant."

Pruna shook her head, she at least knew what toys were, some of the street kids she had ran with had a few, broken and dirty but fiercely protected. Pruna had never had one though, had never needed any she guessed, if she had needed one she would have had one.

"So he did be taking her away and you did be changing places? Do you be being her servant now?"

Edited 2013-08-27 09:32 (UTC)

"No... no, not a servant. She would not have a woman like me to be her servant. She would want someone cleaner than me..."

Someone who didn't have sticky fingers. Someone who didn't loathe her for everything she had and everything Eponine had lost. Eponine tried to work out what she was saying, so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she didn't even register Pruna shaking her head.

"I am just another girl she sees on the street - but she does not see. She looks through women such as I. In my country, people like me, we do not matter. It is only when you have money, like Cosette, that you matter."

"That do be being stupid." Pruna rolled her eyes, "If you do no be mattering you should be making yourself be mattering. If people do no be seeing you then you can be robbing them, or killing them. Everyone do be mattering you do just be having to be doing things worth noticing."

"I don't want to kill. It is not nice... but perhaps, if I go back... but it will do no good, anyway, for if I were to kill, they would throw me in jail and chop off my head! And I am not going back to jail - it is horrid in there; worse than home or the streets or anywhere I have lived.But thieving... that is, perhaps, what got me sent there in the first place."

It was difficult to explain to a child - or to an adult, really. She wasn't good at articulating her feelings.

"I do not want to be renowned as a thief or a murderer, Mademoiselle Pruna. Is that really what you would like to be known as? I would just like... oh, what the hell? It will never be, so there is no use in thinking it."

"Well it do be being what I do be being good at." She shrugged, "If you do be being good at something else you can become noticed for that." She wrinkled her nose.

"What would you be liking? If you do no even be thinking it it will never be happening."

"You are like my... well, Montparnasse. He says 'why should I do something else, 'Ponine, when I earn a penny killin' and thieving.' He says that I am stupid for suggesting something else. But it is not nice, killing. I killed a boy in the arena - and he has not come back! It is not a good thing, I do not think."

She shrugged shyly. "I would like to..." She can't even say it. It wouldn't happen. Not now, especially not now.

"I think I would like to eat some ice cream."

Pruna had never earned a penny doing anything, at least not until she had came here but she got the concept, she didn't think Eponine was stupid though. Even if it was silly to think that killing was bad and being sad about it, when they had to do it here anyways.

She wrinkled her nose, knowing that Eponine hadn't told her the truth but then she grinned, "We should be going and getting some!"

"And from where, Mademoiselle? We cannot leave the tower, unless you know how to fly? Or perhaps you know how to get past all of these magic boxes that show us everywhere... what is the word? Cameras! Yes - they seem always to be everywhere."

She doesn't like those, though she's getting more used to them after a year. But perhaps Pruna, from her strange world, knew how to get past them

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