The Park, Monday Midday

[filleauloup]

It wasn't that Éponine had too many reservations about taking advantage of other people's generosity. If there was anything her father had taught her, though, it was to be careful not to end up too beholden to any one person -- which was why, despite having been assured that she could stay as long as she needed, she'd drawn the line at two nights spent on Allie's couch. Never mind that she had absolutely nothing on her except the clothes on her back (and she'd managed to scrounge up a ratty, oversized hoodie from somewhere, so even if she still didn't have shoes she would consider it an improvement warmth-wise) and Cosette's five-franc piece, which for some bizarre inexplicable reason she couldn't quite bring herself to spend, in her pocket.

Other things about which Éponine had few reservations: keeping money she found on the sidewalk. The twenty-dollar bill was the strangest-looking money she'd ever seen, and she chose to believe that was why it wouldn't stretch quite as far as she'd thought it would. Still, she'd found the bakery and gotten herself a cup of coffee and a muffin, then left before the clerk's slightly skeptical expression turned into the familiar look of you've paid, now can you please go somewhere else?

Which was how she ended up sitting on a park bench, nibbling very slowly at the muffin between sips of coffee and watching people go by, or occasionally staring vacantly into space. Admittedly, in part she was sizing up potential targets in case it came down to her needing to, ahem, lighten people's pockets a bit, but that was because in general she was contemplating what on earth to do with herself now. On the one hand, having to fend for herself in a place that perplexed her as much as this one did seemed a bit daunting; on the other hand, trying to find a way home didn't appeal to her much. Imagine that.

[OOC: It's a slow work day and I don't know what to do with myself, so open.]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

Was there any way for Karla to admit to following Éponine without sounding like a creepy stalker? Probably not, so the narration is going to skip over the parts of where Karla had spotted her leaving J,GoB and hurried after her (with a small side trip to leave Nemit in the Boards because she didn't have his jesses on and it was cold).

"Hi," she said when she'd finally found Éponine again. "I'm Karla. Do you remember me?"

[filleauloup]

Like Éponine could throw stones about following people like a creepy stalker anyway.

She'd been absorbed in a little mental tangent about how the island (she hadn't made it over to the new part yet) reminded her a bit of home, only all squashed into a smaller space, so it took her a moment to snap out of it and reply.

"Oh!" She blinked rapidly two or three times, then nodded. "That was you who was there when I turned up here the other night, wasn't it?"

[glacial_queen]

"It was," Karla said with a nod. Good, her memory was working fairly well, that was one thing Karla could check off of her 'is she recovering adequately' list. "How're you doing? Any pain? I'm glad to see you're eating."

[filleauloup]

"No." Éponine shook her head then tilted it slightly, her expression quizzical. "No, I don't feel any pain, and isn't that odd! Sometimes I think I can feel my shoulder itching dreadfully, but it's almost as if nothing ever happened to it, and I don't understand. I'd almost think I had dreamed that whole night, only I'm sure I didn't."

[OOC: I'm sorry, I had to. I resisted really hard, but I had to. Your wording compelled me. *shakes fist*]

[glacial_queen]

"You didn't," Karla said gently, taking that as an invitation to sit down on the bench near Éponine. "You came across the Causeway, Allie found you, and I Healed you. So you really shouldn't be in pain and I'm glad you're not."

She cocked her head to the side and asked, "You still staying with Allie?"

[I most certainly did not word it that way on purpose! >.> Don't think I'm not looking to work the rain into this conversation, either.]

[filleauloup]

Éponine shook her head. "I couldn't impose any longer." Which was a lie, yes, but some things ran in the family. It wasn't quite up to her old level of brashness, but she added with a stubborn set to her jaw, "I'll be fine."

[glacial_queen]

"Far be it for me to argue with a female that knows her own mind," Karla said dryly, "but it is winter. We might not get much snow, but there's always a chance of cold rain. Are you really that excited about pneumonia?"

She gave Éponine a critical stare. "In your state, I don't give you good odds on surviving it. You're too thin, for one."

[filleauloup]

"I went about all last winter like this," Éponine insisted (which was actually true, even if it hadn't been pleasant), "and the snow was dreadful, so rain can hardly hurt me."

She tried to wrap the hoodie a little more closely around herself as if it would back up her argument, but that only highlighted how ridiculously large it was on her.

[OOC: So mean. SO MEAN. :(]

[glacial_queen]

[Don't pretend. You luuuuuurve me!]

"I'm not talking a little fall of rain," Karla objected. "I mean cold, torrential downpours." She looked at Éponine with worried eyes. "If you'd like, my friend has a suite in the local hotel. I can let you stay there a few days until you get back on your feet."

[filleauloup]

[*CRIES*]

Éponine couldn't help giving Karla a bit of an odd look. It was a very tempting offer, but generous enough that she couldn't help being wary.

"Perhaps," she finally allowed, reluctantly. "But only if I've nowhere else to go."

[glacial_queen]

Sorry, Éponine. But you really didn't have anything that Karla wanted. Sometimes people were just nice to be nice.

"I'll handwavily leave the key with the hotel in case you need it," Karla said, not entirely pleased with the arrangement but not willing to push further. "Please use it if you need."

[filleauloup]

Give her time to get used to that concept, Karla.

"All right," Éponine agreed, because she really wasn't above taking advantage of that if she absolutely had to, and broke off another small chunk of her muffin to nibble at.

Then, abruptly: "I still don't understand how you healed me. Was that really magic?"

[glacial_queen]

"It really was," Karla said with a nod. "My people are the Blood, we're skilled in healing the body, the soul, and the land via Craft--what you consider magic."

Which was a fancy way of saying 'I'm a witch-Queen from another world.' Sometimes it paid to be circumspect about these things.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack spotted Éponine during his dinner break and waved. Call it a weakness: He was always looking out for the new residents who seemed somehow more displaced than the nor, and this girl fit the bill.

"I didn't talk to you properly at the party," he said apologetically. "I'm Jack. Are you settling in all right?"

[OOC: Apologies for the threadfail Saturday.]

[filleauloup]

"I remember you," Éponine replied, looking somewhere between faintly perplexed and amused to be getting an apology for something like that. "And I can't be sure that I'm settling in when I haven't decided yet whether I want to."

She didn't sound terribly opposed to the idea, at any rate.

"Éponine," she added abruptly, once she realized he'd introduced himself. Not the smoothest of conversational transitions, but oh well.

[OOC: It's okay! I ended up failing too.]

[bitten_notshy]

"Pretty name," Jack commented, smiling a bit at her evident slight amusement. "And no matter what you end up doing, the island's not a bad place to spend some time. May I take a wild guess that you're French?"

Once upon a time, he would have immediately started speaking French at a surmise like that; the habit had been mostly worn away.

[filleauloup]

"My mother was terribly fond of romance novels when she named my sister and I," Éponine replied, but she couldn't help brightening a bit at the compliment. "And your guess isn't all that wild, monsieur, even if it's the funniest thing to think I've come so far from home."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack waved a hand. "I was a fifth child," he said. "I don't think anyone thought about my name for more than a minute or two. Better a name from a novel, I'd think."

Glancing over, he added, "How is being here funny?"

[filleauloup]

At least he'd gotten a name, unlike her youngest brother, but she didn't mention that.

"How isn't it?" asked Éponine, who thought this was a perfectly reasonable question. "To say I walked from Paris, and not only that but hundreds of years in . . . I'm not sure how long, but not long at all, and all without meaning to do it?"

[bitten_notshy]

"I'm always thrown when people end up here without trying to," Jack said. "You hear about it, but it doesn't make any more sense to me than it does to you. What year was it in Paris?"

He sounded a tiny bit choked on the name of the city; being attacked by a ghost werewolf had a way of souring one's views.

[filleauloup]

She wasn't particularly enamored of the city herself at the moment, and frowned slightly in commiseration.

"1832." Éponine popped a bit of muffin into her mouth (she didn't mean to look like she was guarding it in case anyone got the idea to steal it, but it was habit) and stared off into the distance for a moment. "No one seems to think it's all that strange but me."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack shrugged. "It was 1899 when I first came here. Turned out this time suits me. But no, people don't go traipsing about in time at home for me, either."

[filleauloup]

Éponine considered that for a moment. "When you came here, did you mean to?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Complicated," Jack said. "I knew I was going to boarding school. I knew it was in Maryland -- which I wasn't especially happy about, by the way. But being 110 years forward, no. That bit was a surprise."

He settled on a bench near her. "What were you trying to do when you came here?"

[filleauloup]

"Only trying to get away from a bad spot," Éponine said carefully, because she didn't want to think too hard about whom she'd left behind. "Students trying to start a rebellion, fighting in the streets."

She absently rubbed at her shoulder.

"I got a bit caught up in it."