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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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

She wrinkled her nose, "I do no be knowing how to be getting past them. Me and Sandy did be trying to be smashing them, but we could no even be finding them."

She thought for a moment, "We do be eating here though, so there might be food in the kitchen, I bet there do be being ice cream there and we do no even be having to be leaving the tower."

"Do you suppose we might help ourselves though?"

Eponine grinned an impish smile, and held her hand out to Pruna.

"I do not care about trouble, if you are willing to risk it, Mademoiselle. Shall we?"

Pruna's grin was just as impish and she scrambled to her feet. "I do no be caring either, let's be going!"

She grinned at the older girl. "You can just be calling me Pruna, or Ash."

"I am sorry. I forget, Pruna. It is hard, after so long - ten years - of calling everyone 'Monsieur' and 'Madame' that I forget."

Still, she lifted the heavy latch on the rooftop door, and held it open for Pruna to slip inside, before she followed.

"It do be being okay 'Ponine" She grinned and slipped in before waiting for Eponine and putting a finger to her lips before whispering. "Do you be knowing where the kitchens do be being?"

"It's in the basement, I think. Near the training centre. Do you not smell the food when you are in there sometimes? They will have ice cream!"
She whispers back, before edging past Pruna, and, keeping as close to the wall as possible, she begins to edge quickly down the stairs. Down and down and down and down and down and down and down.

Eventually, they reach the basement. Quite out of breath, Eponine hisses, "You are okay, Pruna? You still would like ice cream?"

Pruna didn't seem out of breath at all and she grinned and nodded. "Yes I would still be liking it." They had come this far after all. She crept onwards, looking for the door to the kitchens.

Eponine crept forward, keeping tight to the wall. It took a few tries before she found the kitchen - but find it she did. She beckoned to Pruna to come, before sliding into the room.

And then she stared.

Eponine had never seen a kitchen before. Not a modern one, anyway, and the appliances that stood around looked completely foreign to her.

"Pruna? Do you know where the ice cream will be?"

Pruna stared as well. She had spent a lot of time in the kitchen of the Poison Apple, but that was a world away from here, she stared at all the metal and back at Eponine.

"It do be needing to be being cold. So we do be needing to be finding the coldest place." She said after a moment thinking the problem through. "You do be looking on that side, and I will be looking on this side." Surely if they opened every thing they would find it eventually.

"Yes, we will look."

Eponine crossed to her side immediately, and began to open cupboards. In a whisper, she hissed,

"At home, we had a cold room when I was a child; it was called the larder. It was a big room, and cold, but not so cold for ice cream. If there are any room size doors, Pruna, look in those. Perhaps they have the magic to make them as cold as snow here."

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