video, un: ponine

[jondrette]

[A young woman appears. Her long, dark hair is tangled and soaking wet, hanging down in front of her haggard face. Her age is hard to pin down, but it’s clear that she’s seen better days. And worse days, for that matter.]

There is rain that falls from a pipe here!

[This was a fact she’d learned with a shriek when she’d decided to play ‘what does this knob do’ in her room.

Her face lights up when she speaks, though, her accent clearly French.]

First it scalded, then when I tried to turn it off it became incredibly cold! [She giggles though, a rather ugly sound, and moves over to flop down on her bed melodramatically. On her right hand, visible as she gets comfortable, a bright red circular scar can be seen.] And such a bed! Have you ever seen such a bed before?

[She exhales, relaxing into the mattress.]

If this is heaven, I believe I am in the wrong place.

Comments

[unbreakable_king]

Food. There are many creative ways people eat here. Allow me to introduce you to it?

[jondrette]

Oh yes, yes please!

[She loves food. It's maybe the only thing she loves more than Marius Pontmercy.]

[unbreakable_king]

[No better way to a heart than through the stomach.]

WHere are you? That I might show you around.

[jondrette]

[Eponine is a flirt, surprised that everyone seems to be responding so well to her. It's a fun game to play, at the very least, and it does not hurt to have allies.]

I am in my room- 203.

[unbreakable_king]

I shall be there quite soon.

[And could you imagine that some would not embrace the chance to be close to the woman? To play at amusement.]

[jondrette]

[At home, most men wouldn't look her way twice. Here, she's getting all the attention she could want and more. From royalty! Good thing she's dead, 'cause she never wants to go home.]

I will not be going anywhere.

[unbreakable_king]

Oh you are. To dinner. With me.

{Listen, he's just taking advantage of some easy company.]

[jondrette]

[Easy is right.]

You're taking me to dinner! M'sieur! No man has done such a thing for me! I have nothing to wear!

[unbreakable_king]

Check the drawers by your bed. They are filled with clothing.

[jondrette]

[She does, and gasps audibly.]

Such dresses! Oh they are beautiful! M'sieur, what would you prefer me in?

[unbreakable_king]

Whatever makes you feel comfortable.

[jondrette]

Yes, m'sieur!

[She'll be in a dark cranberry dress, when he arrives.]

[unbreakable_king]

[And there he is, in a very lovely crimson coat with golden buttons.]

Good evening, my dear. Your escort awaits.

[jondrette]

[Eponine gasps when she sees him, opening the door.]

M'sieur Rhy! Look at you! And those buttons! [Don't mind her, she's just going to touch the shiny object.]

Are they real gold?

[unbreakable_king]

Honestly, my dear, I do not know. This place provides, but I do not know if it provides that. And I have yet to take a bite. If it really was gold, then I fear biting would only hamper the looks.

[jondrette]

And that is how you break your teeth.

This place is truly that good to us?

[unbreakable_king]

Not with proper gold, my dear. Not with proper gold.

[But he cannot say if it is. He feels burdened lately.]

Come now, there are many forms of food and we can live comfortably enough, beyond the nightmares and our laundry being aired. It is good.

[jondrette]

I'm sure I could not actually tell you the difference.

Nightmares and laundry? [She looks at the blood-soaked clothing she has on the floor behind her.]

If there are more clothes here I would do better to burn my own.

[unbreakable_king]

More like... secrets. They get shared. Your history too.

[But his eyes move to the blood-soaked clothing. INteresting.]

Are you unharmed?

[jondrette]

That... will not be good. [They'll see the terrible things she's done, what she's been made to do. They will see all of it.]

Now I am, yes. Those are from home. [She'd come wearing ill-fitting clothing belonging to a man she'd run into on the streets. They'd agreed to change clothing, so somewhere in Paris there was a man in her skirt and chemise held together with strings.] From my death.

[unbreakable_king]

[Oh yes, they most decidedly were. Have fun with that.]

Yes, well, death gets to all of us in the end.

[jondrette]

[Seriously. It'll involve child abuse and the French. The worst things ever.]

It does. And I am here in it. And you- did you die before you arrived?

[unbreakable_king]

[Now now, there are worse things than the French. Like the darkness of corrupt magic given its own well.]

Well, that’s a very direct question, is it not? Yes, but not immediately. It was, what, four, five months before I arrived?

[jondrette]

You died and it took time to come here? [She wants to make sure she has it right.] And yet I appeared. How odd!

[unbreakable_king]

Not exactly. I'm just... less dead than I was four months ago.

[It was complicated and he REALLY doesn't want to talk about all the times he's died, thanks.]