She was a star collector, he knew about the sky

[gardienne]

... he was a tightrope walker, and she was the talk of the town...

Who: Eponine and Ian G; Eponine and open
What: Eponine has wandered into the planetarium, and is amazed by the 'stars'. For Ian, she's doing a lot of sobbing, and admitting what has happened in the districts. For anyone tagging in, She's looking at the stars
When: Start of week 2
Where: The Planetarium, which is Floor 5, unless I am mistaken?
Warnings Sobbing over Eponine trying to seduce Marius in the District, and about Orc on Floor 6. Otherwise, I shall add as necessary.





For ages and ages, Eponine stayed up on the top floor, playing amongst the waxworks. Far from finding them creepy, she loved them. They were like friends who always listened to what she wanted to say, and never fought back when she lashed out. And they provided a lovely, varied wardrobe. She was back in Lottie's puffy gown though: she loved dressing up as a princess, even if the lack of hoops beneath the dress made it look a bit silly on her.

But after a while, she grew bored and wandered down a floor, eventually stumbling on the planetarium. And there, she stopped in amazement. There were stars - and such stars - all around her. So close she could touch them! And just a nice temperature - they felt of nothing, but a wall. Eponine realised that they couldn't be a star if it was inside... or could it? This place was so amazing: why could they not make the stars shine inside? After a few minutes of open mouthed staring, she lay down in the middle of the room, looking up at the stars. How glorious. She could almost forget that she was supposed to be scared or killing people in this room.

Comments

For Ian

[gardienne]

As she lay back, she began to sing to herself in her hoarse voice. It was an old French song, bawdy in content, but one she was familiar with from the inns in Paris.

"eanneton prend sa faucille,
La rirette, la rirette,
Jeanneton prend sa faucille,
Et s'en va couper des joncs (bis)

En chemin elle rencontre,
La rirette, la rirette,
En chemin elle rencontre,
Quatre jeunes et beaux garcons (bis)

Le premier, un peu timide,
La rirette, la rirette,
Le premier, un peu timide,
Lui caressa le menton (bis)'


But she looked up when she heard footsteps, and broke into a grin when she saw Ian.

"Monsieur!" And then she remembered - she wasn't speaking to him. Oh.


[Little Jeanette takes her sickle, go and laugh, and goes out cutting reeds. On her way, she meets four young and handsome boys. The first, he was a little scared, and just caressed her chin...]

[wantwhatiwant]

Ian grinned as well, though his face was still pretty disfigured from the blisters the gel was working to ease the pain, so smiling didn't hurt so much anymore and he was very relieved to see Eponine still alive.

Even if he hadn't seen her or heard from her since she had shouted at him on the network.

"'Ponine, I should have known you'd be watching the stars." This was his first time on this floor, he had finally decided to move from the third, moving quickly hiding lots. When he had realised there was someone in this room he had thought to avoid it, but the song in French- he didn't understand the words but he could at least place the language, had drawn him, since he could think of two girls in the arena who would sing in French.

He was glad his hunch had been correct. "Are you alright? No one has hurt you have they?"

[gardienne]

"What has happened to your face?" She sat up, touching her own skin where Ian's was damaged. "Who has hurt you?"

She decided to ignore the fact that she had shouted at him. It had been silly. It wasn't his fault.
But she sat up, alarmed now.

"Are they after you still?"

[wantwhatiwant]

"Chemicals, like cold fire, came from the ceiling." He told her, "No one did it, just the gamemakers." And they were always after him, him and everyone else.

"I'm fine, I got some gel stuff, it makes it not hurt as much."

[gardienne]

"They did it because of me." Realisation dawned on her, gripping her heart in an icy grip. It was actually painful, all of a sudden for her to take a breath. They had done it - they had punished the people she was closest to, because she had tried to run away. Again.

Eponine took a hesitant step towards Ian. "Oh, Monsieur - Monsieur, I am so sorry! I didn't mean for them to hurt you, truly."

[wantwhatiwant]

"Ian... Ian remember, not Monsieur." He shook his head, "It wasn't you, it was..." He paused, not because he couldn't speak about it, but because he didn't want to put any thoughts of suicide in Eponine's head. "There was a fire... the stuff came down to put it out, but it burns as well, some sadistic perk of this arena I guess, but it was just an accident, not targeted."

His eyes narrowed suspiciously, "What did you do 'ponine?" Because she must have thought there was a reason for them to punish her.

[gardienne]

"I don't believe it." Simple as that. She crossed her arms defensively about herself, though, when he glared at her.

"I was arrested, Monsieur - and I will call you Monsieur, for I do not want you to be burned again because of me. I was arrested in the District and brought back with the Peacekeepers. I tried to run away."

She stared defiantly at him. Let him try to object to her. Let him try to challenge her actions. But after a minute, she hiccuphed and she covered her eyes and turned away as her tears began to flow.

[wantwhatiwant]

"Fuck..." He opened his mouth to tell her how stupid that had been. How it was the last thing she should have done, because running away from this place was plain idiocy- all the while blaming himself because if she hadn't gotten so embarrassed before the arena tours she might have actually spoken to someone instead of running.

And then she began to cry and all his words died in his mouth, he stared at her for a moment, not sure exactly what to do. Then put his hand on her shoulder, "Hey Eponine, don't hide. It's okay, you can tell me."

[gardienne]

For a minute, she stayed perfectly still whilst he touched her shoulder. It took all of her self control to stay still. But after that minute, she turned, and leaned into him, still crying.

"I tried to kiss Marius... I tried to - oh God -" She couldn't even say it. Instead, she simply cried steadily.

For anyone else who wants to stargaze

[gardienne]

She lay on her back in the middle of the room, princess skirts spread out about her. All around her, there might be murder and chaos, but here, in her little starry oasis, she was completely oblivious. She was quite taken by the magic and the beauty of the place.


But the slight noise had her up straight away, reaching for the glass shard she had tied onto her dress with Eva's wire.

"Who is there? Come out now. I am not afraid of you."

i heard you been messing with my homeboys eppy! ... we should team up on that

[keep_surviving]

"No one's asking you to be. Geeze, what do you own the floor?"

The pretty young woman stepped into the planetarium, a bow held in left hand, briefly glancing up before fixating on the glass in Eponine's own hand. "Woah there, stabby."

She waved the bow at her. "Let's just focus on who has the long ranged weapon here. You keep that see-through shank away from me and I'll be outta your hair in no time, okay?"

Keeping a nice wide gap between her and stabby, Diana began to circle the room.

Most definitely. Pay Howard back one, especially!

[gardienne]

Epomime didn't drop her shank at all. Rather, she scrambled to her feet, and as Diana circled the room, so then did Eponine track Diana, pivoting so that this stranger was always in her sight.

"Who are you? What is your name? Try anything, Madame, and I will scream, and then you will see."

[keep_surviving]

"Actually, I think I'd probably hear a scream not see it." Diana continued to move, eyes flickering up to keep a watch on Eponine but otherwise not really bothering with the girl who'd have to cross the room in order to hurt her.

But she was becoming increasing irritated with the lack of anything useful in the room. "Also, yeah, a scream. Now I'm terrified. It might... hurt my ears or something."

[gardienne]

"You will be terrified." Eponine took a step closer to Diana. "I have friends. Big friends. They will hurt you, you'll see. And then you will be sorry you doubted me, Madame."

[keep_surviving]

"Oh yeh." Diana rolled her eyes. "Totally terrified right now."

Seeing Eponine moving closer, Diana straighten up. "I said, back up."

She pulls on the bow string, letting it twang back into place. A warning. "I don't see your big friends right now. Plenty of time to shoot one of these into a screaming throat before anyone gets here."

[gardienne]

"If you are going to kill me, shoot me in the eye, Madame." Eponine flinched as the bow twanged, and immediately frowned. She hadn't wanted to do that. She didn't want to show any fear at all.

"I do not care if I die - I should like to die, especially here, in such a beautiful room. But I will not have pain. That i will not have. Shoot me in the eye if you dare. But Monsieur Orc - Charles - he will be after you if you hurt me, and he will use his hands to split your head open."

She advanced a step, just a little bit cocky in her threat. "Madame, are you afraid yet?"

[keep_surviving]

Diana stopped and lowered the bow, one eyebrow rising up in puzzlement. "Orc? You mean Charlie?"

She points to Eponine, then herself. "You think you can make Charlie smash my head in?"

There's a low noise as amused air escapes her pressed lips. "That's- No, you can't be-"

Diana step back and bends slightly, musical laughter filling the large room, pretty mouth open and smiling, tugging the skin of her cheeks into forming dimples. "Oh-Oh my god, that's- that's amazing. I can't- I can't breathe!"

Composing herself a little she looks up at Eponine again. "Why aren't you laughing?"

[gardienne]

Eponine, on the contrary, had gradually sunk into a sulk as Diana laughed at her. Her eyes narrowed, and her lips pursed, rendering her cheeks even more pinched, exaggerating their hollowness. She wrapped her arms tighter about her body, glass shard all but forgotten in her bewilderment.

"There is nothing to laugh at, Madame. You better tell me what you're laughing at, or I will use my glass. Do you hear me?"

[iphigeneia]

Felicity thought, by mistake, that she had finally found the exit she had longed for. But the stars here were deceivers and instead of the fresh outside air, she felt confined in this new room, no matter how beautiful it was.

Face stricken for a moment, she was about to leave when she heard the voice call out to her through the darkness. Felicity froze in her tracks, staying still for several palpable seconds before she turned on her toes to face the source of the noise.

In the darkness, she couldn't see anyone clearly. All she could see was the silhouette of a young woman. She was little more than a shadow on a backdrop of golden stars, but for a moment, Felicity could have sworn she saw Pippa.

No. Not Pippa. The voice was not Pippa's, and besides, Pippa was lost to the Realms forever. Pippa had betrayed her, broken her in a way no one else ever could. Pippa was not here, and whoever it was lurking amongst the celestial patterns was someone unfamiliar and probably quite dangerous. Felicity reached into her pajama pouch to double check that her folding knife was as she left it. It was.

"I am here," she finally answered, approaching the other girl confidently. "You've no reason to fear me, just as I've no reason to fear you. Isn't that right?"

[gardienne]

"I do not know." Eponine rose in a jerky, swift movement. "How am I to tell if I do not know who you are, Mademoiselle?" She drew her shard of glass from where she had attached it, pressed close to her stomach with the belt from Lottie's dress, and levelled it at Felicity.

"Who are you?" She already recognised the accent as upper class: it only increased Eponine's distrust for the speaker.

almost tagged this from courf's account whoops ;;

[iphigeneia]

"You're correct, of course. My name is Felicity." She laid her hand across her stomach, feeling the outline of the knife in her pocket, letting it's presence reassure her. Her nerves were starting to eat at her, but she would be strong. She would not run unless she had to. She quickly swallowed back the quaking she felt inside and continued, "And who are you, miss?"

Re: almost tagged this from courf's account whoops ;;

[gardienne]

"Eponine." Eponine answered shortly. She moved to close the distance between the two of them, the better to see Felicity.

"Mademoiselle, will you kill me? I will not fight if you do not wish me harm."

[iphigeneia]

Felicity stood up straight as Eponine approached. It was both an effort to seem taller and to seem more intimidating, just in case the other girl was trying to trick her. "I've no intention of killing you. As far as I know, you haven't done anything."

[gardienne]

Eponine, on the other hand, still walked with a trudge, with her head down and her shoulders hunched forward. It would seem as if she was trying to make herself small, invisible. But Felicity's height did not intimidate her in the slightest.

"This is not a place, Madame, in which me having done something means death. This is a place where I will die, and you will, and a lot of others too, will die, for everything and nothing in particular. But if they like to watch you, you will die." She shrugged, still with her eyes fixed on the floor.

"I am sorry, Madame, that you are trapped here and I have to tell you this, but... But there is nothing to be done except to die sooner or later."

[iphigeneia]

"So I've been told." She kept her eyes fixed on the girl, folded in like a cocoon. Felicity wondered if that was a strategy, staying small, or if Eponine simply did not know how to carry herself properly. She thought back to the factory girls Pippa had taken in and tried to sculpt into proper ladies. It had been a failed experiment, succeeding only in making minions of them. Felicity decided that no matter what, she would never attempt to shape anyone into the form of life she'd been trapped in.

"I may not be able to prevent my own death, but I can attempt to be just in my actions. I will not kill anyone without cause. I do not attack unprovoked. Not like this." An argument? Or a fistfight? Yes, she could engage in those at will. But she couldn't see herself attempting to murder anyone unless they'd made the first attack. A preemptive strike did not factor in her mind just yet.