Hollow insides - open

[gardienne]

Who Eponine and whoever fancies

Where Castle Thorne and the Horizon

When Some time mid - late Octoberish

What Eponine's been brought back to Thorne after spending a night in a cell for attempting to murder Susan.
Horizon - trying to deal with the consequences of her ridiculous behaviour

warnings Eponine is a walking trigger - murder, suicide, blood, making bad decisions. I'll update as needed.

Thorne



Eponine arrives back at the castle as the sun rises. She's sat subdued in the wagon the entire way, with her face buried in her ragged, blood stained skirts. She's a mess; her nose is broken from when she fought Julie in the dungeons a couple of months back, but now her jaw's broken too, and she's missing a couple more teeth.
She gets off the wagon when she's told to. Not that she has much of a choice. If she returns to Nott, she'll have to face the Lord of Justice for her crimes and that will be her locked up for a long time. She's not crying, but she's definitely intimidated as she walks with a confidence she definitely doesn't feel into the courtyard.

Everything looks unfamiliar. She has no idea where to go. But a bloody, slack jawed young woman is definitely attracting unwanted attention, so she moves over to a trough filled with water, no doubt for the horses, and begins to wash as much of the spattered blood off her cheeks as she can. That thumb print of blood on her forehead, though, is consciously left there.

She can sense eyes on her, so she turns and rudely snaps,

"What is it you want? Am I so interesting to stare at?"


The Horizon


Eponine's mansion is gone again. In it's place is a garden, formally arranged in rows of flowers - roses, lilies, violets, tangled bushes of thorns brimming with fruit, and strawberry plants and trees so laden with fruit that the branches hang low. Beneath a weeping willow near the centre of her garden, Eponine lies flat on her back, peering through the branches to look at the starry sky above her. Next to her, a strange almost-figure lies heaped: it's old wood and grass cuttings with pebbles for it's eyes and yellow hawksbits for it's hair.
Eponine's by turns ignoring it and petting it. Occasionally, she might be found with her head upon it's breast, sobbing. Everything is wrong and nothing is right. Nothing can fix her mess this time.
Not all the flowers in the world.

The heady scent of the blooms hangs heavy, overbearing almost, in the cold of Eponine's domain. A song, from under that willow tree, drifts out to catch the attention of anyone passing by.


"Rossignolet du bois joli
Mais enseignez-moi donc
Mais enseignez-moi donc
Enseignez-moi de la poison
C’est pour empoisonner
C’est pour empoisonner"

All of which roughly translates to, "Pretty nightingale of the woods, show me then, show me then
show me about the poison. It is to poison, It is to poison..."
Is it alarming that foxglove is growing, sentry like, in rows nearby?

Comments

Thorne

[souille]

Abigail's face falls as she realises that she wasn't mistaken, that the wreck in front of her really is Eponine. She moves closer, trying to tread the fine line of showing sympathy but not pity in her expression.

She's actually a little frightened as she looks her over, thinking that maybe the castle's authorities were rounding up and bringing back all of the escapees, no matter what means they have to use. She'd come willingly herself, but under the promise that she wouldn't be hurt or thrown back into jail. Looking at Eponine now, she doubts whether that promise will be kept.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to stare. I just didn't expect to see you here."

And looking so much worse for wear.

[gardienne]

"I weren't expecting to be here neither," Eponine says with a weary sigh. She pulls at the tatters of her skirt until a rag comes loose: she dips it in the trough and dabs at her cheeks.

"Especially without nothing. Especially to beg for their mercy." She purses her lips.
"And yet, la. Here we are. Why have you come back, Miss?"

[souille]

"I came back because a friend promised me I wouldn't get put back in jail if I did." And he'd kept his word, which had simply cemented Abigail's respect for Kylo. "It was a better option than trying to survive on my own in Nott, at least."

She frowns a little as she watches her try to clean herself in the trough. "Come inside, I'll help you clean up." The rooms in Castle Thorne given to the summoned who'd stayed weren't fancy, but they at least offered a little more dignity.

[gardienne]

"Do you think that's true for me as well?" Eponine studies Abigail's face, trying not to look or sound as anxious as she feels.
"When I was here last, they put me in the prison in the prison because I was bad, and in Nott... he said he wouldn't tell, but I don't believe him."

She looks around the yard quickly, scanning for a sign of Sasarai.

"Some people have made it clear I am not wanted. Look, even paid me to go." She lifts her rags. Tied to her waist with a bit of old rope, dangling down the side of her leg is a bulging blue coin purse.
"But I ain't got nowhere else to go. Who would let me in their house looking like this?"

[souille]

"I don't see why not." As long as she stayed out of trouble, that is. She couldn't see what Thorne would gain by locking either of them back up. "I thought I was in prison because I was bad, too, but I don't think it's that simple. Whatever method they were using to judge us was wrong, especially since they want our help. They'll look after us, I'm sure of it."

"I've looked worse than that before, believe me. Come on, you can have a bath and I'll get you some new clothes."

[gardienne]

"Just like that? New clothes?" Eponine shakes her head. This place is like a ship rolling in the waves. One minute, she is sinking in despair, and the next, she is riding high with every opportunity within her grasp. She chuckles to herself.

"Do you have a hairbrush too? It has been that long since I have brushed my hair, it is all knots. Nadine was working to get them out, you know? Me, I hadn't brushed my hair since I were a child before here... but after that Julie, you know?" She smiles awkwardly; it's more of a grimace than anything.

"I went off on my own. Me, I don't care if I am beaten and that if I have done wrong. I hate the strap on my arse, and I'll do anything to avoid it, but it is okay, isn't it? It is sensible to be punished so. But to stay and be prissied by someone what is going to kill you anyway? Me, I am not so stupid as that. I would rather nothing than that." Eponine shrugs.

"I thought it would be better alone... but everything is wrong and nothing will make it go right again, and honest to God I don't know what to do."

[souille]

Abigail nods, knowing Ronan would find another pile of clothes for Eponine to have if she asked him.

"Yeah, I have a hairbrush." She smiles. "It's easier to get the tangles out when it's wet, so I can brush it through while you bathe if you like?" She'd never taken on this sort of caring role before and she felt a little daunted by it, but she desperately wanted Eponine to be her friend, and she knew if their roles were reversed she'd want someone to look after her.

"I tried to go it alone, too." Abigail winces a little as she thinks of the hard weeks barely scraping by in Nott. "But things have started to look up since I came back here."

[gardienne]

Eponine's mouth drops open in sheer astonishment. She stares at Abigail without saying anything.
"Why?" She eventually says. It comes off more challenging than she means it to be.
"I mean, I ain't got nowt but the clothes I stand in. I can't give you nothing back for you to brush my hair. But you want to?"

Eponine swallows hard. She knows, at least this time, she doesn't deserve any kindness. Oh, but how lovely it feels... and how guilty she feels at the thought of it.

"I don't mind being alone, you know? It is lonely, but... but it's safe? Almost? No. I'm too stupid to know the right word. It ain't safe. Bad things happen to women like us when we are alone on a street. Women like us become bad... I'm bad."
Eponine grows quiet for a moment, and scuffs her heel in the dust.
"Do you care?" She stares hard at Abigail. It won't work - Eponine won't take Abigail's help if Abigail can't acknowledge the wickedness in Eponine and accept it, rather than immediately try to change it.

That's why Susan's currently bleeding out on a street corner and Eponine is stood still spattered with the girl's blood.

[souille]

"I'm bad, too." She detests the vulnerability she feels at admitting it, at letting her guard down just a little and allowing the things she'd done in her own world to prick at her in this one. "But that's okay. It means we know how to survive, and that's the most important thing for us to do here."