[ OPEN ] i know some places and i've seen some faces

[falcony]

WHO: sam wilson and anyone/everyone.
WHAT: captain america cookout.
WHERE: sam's horizon domain
WHEN: third saturday of september (aka, about 3 weeks after the jailbreak)
NOTES: see below!

HELLO ALL AND WELCOME TO SAM'S CAPTAIN AMERICA COOKOUT!!!!

Over the last week or so, Sam has been going out of his way to contact as many people as he knows to invite them to a cookout at his place in the Horizon. He knows that after the jailbreak, a lot of people were separated, and this was his first thought on how to bring people together. The purpose behind it is simply because Sam thinks that the one thing all of them have in common, opinion on the Singularity and their situations aside, is that they were all brought here and can actually access the Horizon. He sees merit and use in coming together when they can, especially in ways that don't involve the politics of the land they're now living in. So, what better way to do that than around food?

The long and short of it is - this is a peace meal. Leave your issues at the door. Sam has very few rules and there is very little he will give in terms of what this cookout will entail, but three things he will make very clear:

1.) There will be no fighting at his home. You want to duke it out? Take it somewhere else. There will not be warnings or second chances. Don't be an ass.
2.) There is no meeting or serious reason for this cookout. Literally, he just wants people to come together who may no longer be able to see each other due to the travel constraints. It's meant to be fun. Come have fun. (he knows y'all know what that is, even when some of you pretend you don't). Bring food if you want to! There is also a kitchen (if you know what that is) and places to crash. Hope you like seafood!
3.) Anyone who can come into the Horizon is welcome. He'd love it if everyone came, so spread the word.

The cookout itself is set up out front, with picnic tables and chairs and fire pits and lights abound. There are tables set up near grilles if anyone wants to do any actual cooking outside, and a table (probably multiple) set up with sides and napkins and utensils. There are a variety of different places to go and sit and hang out while you're eating. Anything and everything you can want is available - food, drinks, yard games, music playing from out in the trees that will remain consistent unless someone tries to find the speakers and hijack the playlists, etc. If you can't find something outside, you're more than welcome to check the house.

All throughout the party, too, there will be a new friend. Red, as Sam fondly calls him, is a blood-red hunting hawk with silver in between the feathers. He can be found circling around Sam quite often, or perched on his shoulders, but also if you are out and about you can often see him checking up on anyone and everyone. He's a very curious little bird, and also pretty sassy, if you want to interact with him.



If you haven't, or have, been to Sam's domain before, feel free to take a look around. Anywhere is open (save for one locked bedroom) so everyone has open access, but most of the cookout itself will be located in the front yard.

OOC: This is mean to be an OPEN LOG, so leave your TLs or closed threads below! This party will last basically as long as people want it to, but the idea is for it to be an afternoon into the evening. Y'all have free reign save for destroying Sam's home, but if you have any questions, hit me up on plurk (disarmingly or disco (dai#3757). Sam's TL is below, and he will be bouncing around like the good host he is, but lets get a little party started.

Comments

Eponine Thenardier - the Hanged Man - open

[gardienne]

1

Eponine's not sure if she should be at the party or not in all honesty. She doesn't know the host - she doesn't actually know many people - but she's never been to a party before, never even seen one to know what it is. And she so desperately wants to know. She stands with her back pressed to Sam's house, completely unsure of herself or what to do. If she catches someone's eye, she'll smile, tight and brief, before glancing away again. She has no idea what to do right now and so watches from between the strands of hair that cover her face, to try to figure out how to fit in.

Food

It sounds crazy really, that the smell of imaginary food has her salivating. But it's so easy to forget that none of this is real. It's so much better than reality that it's difficult for Eponine to even acknowledge that none of this is going to affect her once she wakes up. She queues up for fish - more fish! - and takes whatever anyone offers her until her plate is heaped. Once got, she heads to a more isolated spot under the trees so she can stuff her pockets with the fish. Perhaps it's pointless, but old habits die hard, especially now that she's on her own in Nott.

Eponine smiles sheepishly when she's caught.
"I were... I'm saving it, for later, you know?

Firepits

The warmth of the bonfire draws Eponine closer and she sits by the edge of it, staring into the flickering flames. This place has been a rollercoaster for her so far, and it's nice to be able to just have a moment to reflect. When she notices someone sat near her, she smiles, though the sadness in her eyes probably betrays how she's really feeling.

"You are well? Me, I am better for a warm fire and a full belly, but well?" She shrugs. "It's nice here, isn't it?"

Wildcard

[I'm up for absolutely anything short of killing her!]

food

[coerthantorment]

Estinien has been hanging around the outskirts of the event, mostly because he doesn't see anything all that appealing about it. He's not sure how long he'll bother staying, given that he came here mostly to keep an eye on his people and to watch the activity of those he's already deemed can't be trusted. Though... Eponine wasn't the one he was thinking of, when he made that decision.

He's sitting in one of the trees when she draws near, stuffing conjured food into her pockets. It seems absolutely absurd, given the circumstances, but also it seems to speak to the same deeply engrained desperation that he's already come to recognize in her activities.

He hops down from his perch, speaking to her while he's still a safe distance away.

"You survived, then?"

It's a simple question. He hasn't heard anything about her since the escape and he'd started to wonder if she was captured. No word of her in the Free Cities or in Solvunn.

Re: food

[gardienne]

Eponine turns guiltily to face Estinien. He already knows she's a thief though, and desperate for food besides, so the guilt that flickers across her features quickly disappears. She grins at him.

"You know me, Estinien, Sir. I am a cockroach, no? No matter how hard I am stamped on, I am there for more always."

She shrugs, and licks one of the prawns she'd been stuffing in her skirt before she was caught.

"Where did you go to? Me, I am in Nott, but I wish... I wish I'd thought of a better place to go."

Re: food

[coerthantorment]

He's not sure why she would have to feel guilty in the first place, given there's no lack of resources in this place. Even outside of the Horizon, he can't really blame her for stealing. Starvation does things to people, and it seems like she's been living with it for most of her life.

She compares herself to a cockroach, and he thinks he's an accurate comparison, though maybe not for the reasons one would expect. It has nothing to do with comparative beauty or wretchedness. He finds himself glad to see her less desperate - whatever counts as happiness in her world.

Nott, though? Is that where some of them went? He can't imagine why. Why stay in Thorne when they could go elsewhere?

"I went to Solvunn," he says simply, shrugging a shoulder. "Why travel to Nott? Are you still a fugitive, then?"

Re: food

[gardienne]

Eponine shrugs noncommittally.
“Nadine we’re going there. I thought she wanted me. She asked me to go with her and M’sieur Flagg and that. I thought they wanted me… so I went.” She sighs.
“Alas, lies. They were planning to kill me or something. That awful Julie, that one what breaks my nose, what hits my head open and that, she tells me. And they choose her over me. So now I am stuck in Nott and on my own. I ain’t staying to be murdered by such a woman as Nadine. Tricking a woman to think she loves her is the worst I think.”

[coerthantorment]

Nadine is someone he's familiar with only from observing - mostly the way she hung around Flagg's cage. Flagg himself, Estinien is sure to be some kind of mad man. The way he shaped his territory in the Horizon was enough to tell him that. The idea that Eponine followed those two only to be forced to run, left on her own again...

This girl truly is no end of trouble, he thinks, grimacing. He has no idea if Eponine is correct about Nadine's intentions, but it doesn't truly matter in the end. Her own mind is one of her greatest enemies.

"...Have you been left in the streets?" he asks.

[gardienne]

“Not left. I ran. I chose it. I’d rather sleep in a ditch then wait to be killed.”

She sighs again. “Have you ever been loved, Sir? What does it feel like? So I don’t make the same mistake again?”

[coerthantorment]

The question completely catches him off guard, his heart clenching miserably. He has been loved, yes. He is loved. Yet, having lost that love so painfully once before... it's impossible to think about without the hurt of it churning his gut. How can he describe such a thing, when it's been indelibly associated with the pain of loss?

It's a feeling he's even more terrified of losing a second time, and as such has often rebuked it. More than a few times, though, he's been given it despite his efforts. He doesn't have a good answer. He doesn't want to answer something like that.

"..." He tries to find words, but lapses into silence instead. "I don't know. Love is shown... is felt... in different ways."

It's such a terribly sad question. He's quiet for another moment, before taking a step closer to her.

"I do not yet know if it's possible," he says. "But... if a way can be found to cross the border... we could attempt to bring you to Solvunn. There's shelter here."

[gardienne]

Eponine just nods. She doesn’t understand his pain - or no. She doesn’t try to see his pain. She doesn’t want to understand. Because how can love be so great when it is so utterly terrible?

“Why’d you do that? After how horrid I’ve been to you, Sir? About you?” She laughs unhappily. “And look who has more friends now? Me, I shall be happy if someone eventually notices I’m gone, and you, you have Himeka and others. Why would you help me?”

[coerthantorment]

Her questioning it does cause him to hesitate for a moment, because he knows that she has scorned him on multiple occasions, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect she'd find some way to scorn him again were they to try to escape across a border together. Letting himself get that tangled up in her mess would be an incredibly foolish proposition... and yet.

Eponine continues to dig her own grave, and he feels as if he's watching from the ground above as the hole deepens and the dirt piles up.

"'Tis because you're in shambles, girl," he says, glancing downward. "You're a pain in my arse, and you know as much. And yet, when have you ever been given the chance to truly stand, free of need and suffering? I would rather judge you for what you do when you are not drowning in misery."

A drowning person cannot fully control themselves. They will grasp for anything and anyone that will allow them their next breath. He sees that reality in Eponine, and would rather see a time that she could stand on dry land.

[gardienne]

"I'm wicked, Sir. The devil himself is in me." She says defeatedly. "And to you, I am a pain. To Nadine and Julie and the guards at the castle and my Pa and the gang, and the police and all that have met me, I am a pain in their arses, thorns underfoot and better kicked away. So they do. Get rid of me. Every time. Every time, I am on my own in the end to look after myself."

She shrugs. "I can do it anyhow. I don't need nobody but myself to take care of me. But Sir, it is so nice to know you care. It makes my heart feel warm, and truly, I thought I were turning to ice, it is so cold."

Eponine chuckles. "Maybe you are just a glutton for punishment, Estinien, to help a wretch like me over and over."

[coerthantorment]

Well, it's something, though it does little to break through the wall of self-deprecation she raises around herself. This seems to be how it goes. One moment she is acting as if she could do nothing wrong, and the next, she seems to believe she's the primary force of all evil in the world.

It's strange, having this conversation, given that he knows in the past he would not have suffered this sort of nonsense for even a moment. Yet, he feels more responsibility for his actions now than he ever did before.

"You have a chance in this place, Lady Eponine," he says. "For as wretched as you feel you are, you could be allowed to become something else. Does that hold no appeal to you at all?"

He certainly knows the value of starting over.

[gardienne]

"Yes." Eponine pauses, trying to articulate how she feels. For once, she actually stops and evaluates her words.

"Yes, I do. I would love to be someone else. I wish I could be pretty and have a life where people love me and want me. You know, Nadine were teaching me reading and writing proper? I can read and write, Sir, but sometimes, it's a bit slow. My Mama, when we were little, she learned me my letters and reading and writing and that, and my Pa teaches me numbers and adding and that, but she makes it better. Well, she was. But..." she sighs.

"Perhaps I am just that sort of a person? As much as I hate to be so, someone has to be on the bottom of society, no? I wish I were pretty but..."

Eponine looks down at her feet. It's hard for her to admit, to open up and share how she actually feels.

"Sir, do you know what it's like, over and over, for all of the life you remember, to be called names? I am whore, bitch, slut, gamine, c- well. I hear it so often that I don't care. I answer and laugh and shout back. But it never stops. And soon, that is all I am. For years, Sir, no one has used my name. I am 'girl' or slut or so. And then you become what you are named, no? And even here, I try to escape it, but... but it doesn't go away. I am Eponine, the woman so desperate for food that she will do anything she's told. I hear the rumours, even before I had acted on them? So what is the point? Every time I try to make myself better, I am pushed straight back. It is a struggle against the tide, Sir, and I am so exhausted that I cannot swim no more. My heart hurts too much to fight."

1

[iobject]

The man who approaches looks underdressed, even for this occasion. His sweatshirt and sweatpants hang rumpled on his frame, and his beanie covers his head. But he approaches with a plate of food, a soda, and a smile.

"Hey there."

He holds out the food and soda for Eponine.

"The line for food is pretty long right now, and you looked hungry."

[gardienne]

Eponine wouldn't know underdressed if it danced in front of her, so she doesn't at what the man's wearing. More to the point, she doesn't notice. Her eyes are on the food, and her face lights up when she realises it's for her.

"Really, Sir?" she asks. "If it ain't too much trouble?"
But she snatches them anyway, because she's hungry, as usual.
The food smells delicious but it's the drink that catches her attention. She peers into the cup, looking at the bubbles. They tickle her nose, and she looks in astonishment at the cup.

"What is it?" she asks, doubtfully.

[iobject]

"No trouble." As she takes the food and drink from him, he shoves his hands into his sweatshirt pockets. He cocks his head, but there's no surprise on his face that she doesn't recognize soda. There've been weirder differences between worlds for him.

"It's soda. Try it--it's sweet."

[gardienne]

"Soda?" She repeats the unfamiliar word, but she does as she's told and takes a tiny sip of the drink. At first, she looks disgusted by the taste, but she blinks and goes back for another sip.

"It's like sugar. Sugar and water and - and it makes my tongue tickle. You know, Sir, before we were here, I had longed to try sugar, but no. Not since I were a child, for it were an expense and when there ain't money for a carrot or an apple or so, you don't worry about a sweet. But here, in prison, I were showing Susan how to pick a pocket, and la! We relieved a guard of his sweets."

She smiles ruefully, fully aware of how silly she sounds. "It is nice, this soda thing, but I think I prefer a chocolate or a bon bon. I like gin the better, you know?"

[iobject]

She has such an odd way of speaking, and she talks about sugar like it's a huge expense. As far as he's concerned, the expense of a sack of sugar is pretty on par with a bag of apples or a bundle of carrots. Which means she comes from a very different world than him--or time, but he assumes world.

"Well, you'll have to talk to someone else about the gin," he says, shoving his hands in his pockets. He's promised himself not to even begin to threaten his sobriety by touching anything alcoholic. "Chocolates shouldn't be too expensive to get on the outside. Bon bons, probably, but not chocolate. Where are you from?"

[gardienne]

“Paris, Sir. Well, I were born in Montfermiel. It is just outside Paris proper. But most of my life is Paris herself. You have heard of her, no? So many here have not heard of Paris. But then, I don’t know nowhere save London or America. I should have liked to have gone there but… but I would’ve been dead before the new year if I hadn’t come here.”

She stops, suddenly awkward. People don’t like to hear about stuff like that. People don’t want to know. She knows that. Pink flushes on her cheeks.

“Sorry. I ought not to talk on that.”

[iobject]

"No, I've heard of Paris. I've never been, but it's a pretty famous place."

He waves off her apology, his smile softening a little. "No, don't worry about it. I'm glad that you came here, if that was your future." He doesn't know people's circumstances, but he's been around too much death to be uncomfortable talking about it.

[gardienne]

“I think it is. Sir, I don’t look so bad here when I can imagine meat on my bones and to be clean, Sir. But home, I were on the streets. Here in Nott, the same now. But no one ain’t out for murdering me here. I would have died from cold or hunger or my Pa and his friends at home. Here, perhaps the cold will get me? We will see.”

She speaks rapidly, without pause. It’s a trait of someone who knows they’re not listened to and someone who is desperate for someone to hear. At last, she stops to draw breath, to look at Phoenix, to see if he’s judging her.

“I weren’t scared of death, Sir. Still not. It’d be a nice rest. God though, I wish it’d be quick. If it were my Parnasse or Papa ior the one, they’d have me for days, I know. Where di you come from? America? Everyone says America here.”

[iobject]

Phoenix leans back a little at the deluge of words, but that's the only real way he reacts. This is hardly the first loquacious person he's dealt with, and hardly the weirdest nor the most eager to admit to terrible circumstances at home. He has cultivated a very high tolerance for weird people.

"You seem a little young to not be afraid of dying," he comments. "I'd say it's still pretty healthy for you to be scared of it." He shrugs at her question, more distracted by all the things she said and what it implied than anything. "Yes, somewhere like that."

He's from Japanifornia, in Japanimerica.

[gardienne]

“Why be scared of summat you can’t stop? And anyway, if it’s quick, it’ll only hurt for a minute. Then… nothing. It will be as if I’m asleep, won’t it? Finally finally at rest where nowt bad can keep happening.”

Eponine shrugs off his concerns. She is scared - or she was. She was scared of what the gang would do to her when they caught her. She was scared of the pain they’d put her through for betraying them. She was scared of a slow death all alone. But here, Susan wouldn’t let it come slowly, and she wouldn’t be alone. She’s manipulated enough people into feeling sorry for her that she knows she’ll never be truly abandoned.

“What’s it like there? My Pa used to talk of going on a ship for a new life there.”

[iobject]

“I’ve heard from some trustworthy sources that that’s not how it goes.”

Ghosts. He’s heard from ghosts. And a lot of them.

But no need to frighten her with those stories. He cocks his head, considering her question. It’s hard to answer when he knows nothing else.

“Fast paced,” he settles. “There’s always too much happening to keep up with, but I like it that way. There’s also all sorts of people from every country or walk of life you’ve ever heard of. It’s a good place if you like people.”

[gardienne]

“We’ll, I don’t believe in church no more so it can say what it wants. You know, you ain’t allowed in without shoes but it’s us what don’t own none that need it more. Stupid.”

Eponine smiles at Phoenix’s description. “I like fast too. And people. I like watching it all just go on, you know?”