sirenspull_logs | Old habits die hard...

Entry tags:

Old habits die hard...

Who: Eponine and anyone who happens upon her
When: May 21st
Where: Sector 5
Summary: Eponine, terrified that the luxury of the newcomers' apartments will be snatched away from her, is up to her old tricks. She's found the richest area of town she could, and is on the look out for anyone she can pickpocket or who would be interested in 'entertainment'.
Warnings: Eponine will try her best to pick your pockets. So, I guess, if you're the type to swear... language?

Eponine had been in Sirens Port for a few days now. She didn't really understand what had happened, how she'd ended up here, or why. Or really, where here was.
But in her opinion, ANYWHERE was better than France. Especially when that 'anywhere' provided her with the most luxurious room she had ever had all to herself, AND gave her food. It was more than Eponine had ever dared to dream would become a reality for herself.

But Eponine was all too aware that dreams ended. And she was determined, that when this dream ended, she wouldn't be thrown back into a nightmare empty handed.

Which was why she was stood in the shadows of Region 5. After exploring, she had determined that this was a more affluent area of town, and the people here more likely to be carrying valuables. She stood, waiting patiently, for a target to walk past. And then, on silent feet, and with a featherlight touch, Eponine would be pushing her hand into their pockets to take anything she could.

((ooc: So Eponine is pickpocketing. Feel free to catch her nicking your stuff; I have an open-write policy, so I will go with whatever you dream up for her!))

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Axel waved a hand at her. "You don't have to 'monsieur' me," he said, offering her a thin smile. "The name's Axel; got it memorized?"

He noted that pleased look on her face and chuckled to himself. Axel didn't really give compliments, he just called 'em like he saw 'em, and if it happened to be something complimentary then so be it. She did have a good pokerface, he'd give her that; not everybody would have stood their ground after being confronted about pocket-picking.

Tugging open the door and stepping into the little sandwich shop, he rubbed his chin in thought at her inquiry.

"A... bout eight months now, I think," he replied. "Been kind of a crazy ride, that's for sure. And you? I don't think I've seen you around before, are you new?"

She nodded at his first question. Axel. Another strange name... but then, perhaps he thought Eponine was a strange name.

"Eight months? But - I think it would be better if I went home now. If my father had to look for me for eight months..." She gulped. He'd murder her as soon as look at her - or else leave her to the mercy of the Patron Minette, which essentially amounted to the same thing. "I am new here, Monsi- Axel - I arrived just a few days ago."

She grinned. "I've never had a whole room to myself before - such luxury. And if people are as willing to give things away - perhaps I shall like it better than France. Do you like it here?"

Axel rubbed the back of his neck and sidled up to the order counter, perusing the menu a moment before frowning a bit at her.

"Hate to be the harbinger, Eponine, but if it were that easy to just go home I doubt this place would have half the population it does," he said. "I'm not sure what happens to the people we leave back home, but..." How the hell did you explain a time paradox? "Well, I'm not sure how it works, but they might not even realize we're gone, so far as I can tell." He scratched his head. "I guess that doesn't make a lot of sense, huh? Honestly there's plenty going on around here that doesn't make much sense, but I guess you get used to it."

He chuckled a little then at her enthusiasm.

"I think the trick is finding the right people," he said. "In my experience, the people who have the most give the least, and the people who know what it's like to have nothing are a lot more willing to share what they've got. It's kind of a matter of perspective, you know?" He gestured vaguely at her. "I mean, a rich guy who's never worked a day in his life might look at your torn clothes and presume you're incapable of contributing anything to better his life, so why's he gonna be inclined to help you out, especially if you just tried to pick his pocket, you know? But me, well... I dunno. I guess I see somebody who deserves a shot, if they're that desperate to get their hands on some wherewithal. And maybe they deserve a sandwich for having more stones than a lot of people.

"What kind'a sandwich do you want, anyway?" he asked, segueing quickly into the next order of business. "I haven't tried everything, but everything I've tried is good."

He paused a moment to mull on her question. Did he like it here? It was better than being dead, that was for sure, and he supposed he didn't not like it here. He had a pretty cool roommate, his closest friends were here, he'd met a lot of interesting people, and he was in prime position to keep an eye on Xemnas and the rest of the Organization...

Axel made a soft 'hm' sound and then nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I think I do like it here," he said. "Things get a little strange sometimes, and there's definitely cons to go with the pros, but overall it ain't a bad place to be, I think." He pursed his lips for a moment. "But then, the situation I came here from was pretty comparably awful, so I might be biased."

Though, it seemed whatever life she'd come from was not terribly desirable, either, so maybe she would share the bias.

No, the first bit of that made no sense to Eponine. How could time pass here but not at home? But, she wasn't going to keep questioning. Eponine hated to appear ignorant.

And besides, she was distracted by the smell. Food. Eponine would bottle it if she could, and squirt it when she was hungry. She could practically taste bread and tomato - maybe chicken? She looked at the menu, reading it slowly, with a finger below the words, sounding them out.

Eponine blushed when he mentioned her clothes, and her pickpocket attempt.
"I'm sorry... In France, I don't usually get caught." which obviously makes it okay.
"But when I do, people don't buy me food. The poor beat you, and the rich try to hold you until the police come. I think you are kind... Like Marius. He bought me food sometimes..."

She broke off into a daydream about Marius. About the time he bought her a warm loaf from the bakery and she had sat under the bridge and ate the whole thing, all at once, and she had been so full, she had had to loosen her belt.

She was brought back to reality by his question. "Chicken, if you please."

"Your life was bad, at home, Monsi- Axel?" Oh. That was sad. "Biut what do you mean by strange?"

He chuckled a bit. "Well, I'd wager most of the people back home in France aren't quite like a lot of the people you'll meet here," he said. He wasn't going to tell her that he was an accomplished assassin--he wasn't looking to scare her, and besides, those days were kind of behind him--but he didn't suppose a normal person who hadn't spent years of their life learning his trade would have been so quick to notice their pocket being picked. "There's a lot of folks in this city with special abilities, so I'd be very careful about whose wallets you try and lift."

Axel believed in letting people make their own mistakes; he wasn't going to tell Eponine what to do. But he wasn't going to not warn her that her actions might have been dangerous. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly when she said he was kind, though.

"I... er..." Well, he wasn't so sure about that. "Well, maybe I'm not always a good guy, but I'm not really a bad guy," he settled on. It was an old faithful response, but it really was appropriate.

He ordered her chicken sandwich and a turkey club for himself, and then decided to add a cup of soup to each order. Well, soup was good when you were under the weather, right? And it would have been rude to get soup for himself and not her. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she looked like she hadn't really had a good meal in two weeks.

Thumbing through his wallet to pay for the food, he glanced down at her when she inquired, and then shook his head.

"Mm, not bad, exactly," he said. "I mean, it wasn't easy, I'll admit, but I had a couple really good friends who kinda made the crap worth it." He sighed a bit, something heavy in his posture then. "But I made some mistakes I couldn't really take back," he added vaguely, "so... I'd rather be here, where I've got a second chance to fix the things I screwed up last time, you know?"

He tapped his chin then before reaching to take the tray with the food on it, nodding his head toward a table.

"Well, this place isn't exactly your run of the mill seaside town," he said. "Most people around here have unusual abilities, like I mentioned. And they told you it isn't safe to go outside after dark, right?"

"No."

Her attention was mostly on the food. The soup smelled heavenly, and it looked good and thick. And she could see butter on the chicken sandwich. BUTTER! For her!

"I am not scared of the dark, monsieur. And I think I am quite safe from the pickpockets and the street gangs. They do not bother with the likes of me."

Unless it's for a quick fumble, and as long as she can pinch something valuable, then it could be worse.

"I am glad your home is not too bad... Sometimes... Sometimes I think that it is not worth looking back. You cannot change the past, but you can refuse to know it's there. Especially when it hurts."

She half smiled. "You have to think now on what you are doing. Otherwise things go wrong now. But monsieur - Axel - always thhink about the future. That is yours to dream and nobody can say you're wrong or it won't come to anything. Not if you can believe."

She sat down at the table, holding her sandwich in her hand. It smelt so delicious. So delicious that she didn't want to eat it. Because when it was gone... She nibbled at the crust, before her restraint broke and she took as big a bite as she could, filling her mouth with bread and chicken.

Best sandwich EVER.

"Thugs aren't the most dangerous things after dark around here, kiddo," Axel said, nibbling experimentally at his sandwich. "There's good reason to be scared of the dark in this city..."

He smiled a bit at her optimism. He thought maybe he'd been so forward-thinking once upon a time, but life had gotten in the way. He didn't really think himself a pessimist, but jaded realism was easier to stomach than sunshine and rainbows these days.

"I wish I had the energy to have your attitude," he said honestly. "I mean, my life isn't so bad here, either, past transgressions aside. I'm not sorry I'm here, not by a long shot, really." And then he wagged a finger at her. "But ignoring your past is no good. If you don't learn from the mistakes you've already made, you'll just make them again, and that doesn't do anybody anything."

"Well, what is there to be scared of?" She laughed. "I think perhaps that you might be thinking of being scared too much. You should not let yourself be scared."

She took a bite of her sandwich, chewing more slowly now so she could savour the taste, whilst Axel spoke.

"My mistakes could not be avoided, I do not think. Perhaps I should have run away when I was little, or taken care of Gavroche. I do not think on my past, monsieur."
In her past, she sees terrified faces of the people Montparnasse murdered in front of her, and the lecherous sighs of the men who paid to satisfy themselves with her.
"For me, there is only time to go on. Perhaps here, I can have butter every day. Maybe learn to be an angel. And you, monsieur. Your future will be different too. Your future can be anything."

"Monsters," he said conversationally, through half a mouthful of sandwich manners be damned. Licking a daub of mayonnaise off his thumb he pointed at Eponine then. "Like real ones. I know, I know, there's plenty of folks here who didn't believe it at first either, but it's the truth." He shook his head then. "And there's nothin' wrong with being scared; it's a survival thing, you know? Sometimes being brave is good, but other times? Courage is just veiled stupidity."

He sipped at his drink as she continued, then looked thoughtful.

"Well, I guess prolly a lot of the stuff I ain't proud of was kind of unavoidable in its own right," he admitted. "I don't think that means you should just forget about it, though. Not everything." However unavoidable it might have been, some pain was good to hold onto. It made the good times all the better.

Axel chuckled a bit then. Was butter every day that remarkable?

"Can you learn to be an angel?" he mused aloud, tapping his chin in thought. "Can't quite imagine what those lessons would be like." He took a bite of soup and then wagged his spoon at her. "I get what you're saying, though, and I agree, honestly. I can say I'm happy here and mean it, 'cuz I don't have to worry about a lot of the crap I had to worry about before."

He still technically worked for the Organization, but it was much more on his own terms now. Plus Saïx wasn't the same thorn in his side anymore, wasn't a threat to Roxas and Xion anymore... There were new dangers here, new challenges, and old wounds to be ripped open anew from time to time, but all things considered, it wasn't such a bad Next Life.

"Monsters?" Excuse her incredulity. "Monsters are not real. It is your mind playing tricks... isn't it? But - I - I like the night time. I like walking. I cannot walk at night? But what about -"

She's not going to ask. She doesn't want to say that she is a 'girl of the night'. But that does give her a lot of money, and she knows, without that source of income, she's screwed.
She shrugs lightly over his assertions about courage. She doesn't believe that he's right, but she doesn't want to argue either. After all, he bought her lunch. She should probably respect that.

"I don't care. I want to forget all about everything. Except perhaps -" -Marius. She wants to remember every single kind glance that Marius gave her.

"Perhaps, monsieur, not an angel as you think of it. Not a real angel with wings and a white dress. I fear I shall never be that. But everybody can learn to be good, and to live good lives. Perhaps it is not too late for me to send my soul to heaven when I die."

He just shook his head. "You're not the first person to suppose monsters aren't real, but... well, I mean, if you wanna bet your life on it I can't stop you, but I'm looking you in the eye and telling you they're very real." He took another bite of his sandwich and then sort of wagged it at her. "You're a big girl, I'm sure you can take care'a yourself, but I'm gonna say think twice before just going outside by yourself after the sirens go off."

And that would be all he'd say. Axel believed in letting people make their own mistakes--he couldn't stop someone from doing something they really felt they needed to do, even if he knew it was a choice that would hurt them. As much as he'd wanted to stop Roxas from leaving, to stop Xion from returning to Sora, he knew that they would have found a way to do it anyway. Eponine could believe whatever she wanted to, but he wasn't about to just let her walk blindly into danger without a fair warning. Axel wasn't that much of a jerk.

He chewed thoughtfully then as she continued, and a hint of a smile played across his lips.

"That I suppose I can agree with," he said. "I don't think it's ever too late, honestly, so long as you give it your best shot."

He'd blown it more than his fair share in the past, but even so, here he was. He had his friends and they had forgiven him. He had made more new friends than he could have ever imagined he would. Was this living a good life? He really couldn't say, but he was trying, and that was more than he'd done before.

"So people do not ever go out at night? The ladies, they... where is it they go?"

Because, quite frankly, that was the only sort of job that she could imagine securing for herself. Nobody ever wants Eponine. Unless it's for that.

"I am, Monsieur. Here - here is a good place, I think. It is clean and people are nice. And so much food."

Unfortunately, so much rich food after years of living mostly on imagination was making Eponine sick, but she didn't care. It tasted too delicious to stop.

"Well no, folks still go out at night," he said. "There are places that stay open all night that sort of work like safehouses for people who get stuck out after dark, and a lot of people have abilities that allow them to tackle these creatures confide--ladies?" Axel blinked, then his eyes widened when her question registered. Oh. Oh. "Er... I dunno, actually," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck a bit awkwardly. "I ah... I've never really gone looking for 'em, you know?"

He had no doubt there were prostitutes in Port, but he'd never really been interested in hiring any. He waved a hand.

"I'm sure there's something here that you're suited to do that doesn't require you to put yourself in that kind of danger all the time," he said, though he didn't clarify what sort of danger he meant: darkness or prostitution.

He sort of laughed then, sipping at his soup again. She just seemed so happy about the food he couldn't help but be a little amused. And... saddened, in a way. As much as he supposed he was capable. What sort of life had she lived previously that she would take so much pleasure in a simple sandwich and soup?

"Yeah, it ain't too bad," he agreed. "Folks are reasonably pleasant for the most part. And there's definitely some good food to be had." He set his soup down and wagged a finger at her. "I'm sure you'll do fine."

"Thank you, Monsieur."
She began to wrap the remainder of her sandwich in a napkin so she could finish it later; she was so full that she couldn't eat any more.

"For everything. I will try to find work - and please -"

She wants to ask him not to think badly of her. It's not something she's proud of.

"Thank you for the soup. I promise, one day, I will find a way to repay you."

He noticed her closing her napkin around the sandwich and waved a hand.

"Mm, wait, they've prolly got a box," he said, getting to his feet and moving back to the counter. The attendant looked a bit put-off by the request (because they were Newcomers, Axel had to presume) but dutifully produced two takeaway boxes. Axel returned to the table and dropped one in front of Eponine. "That way it won't get squashed," he said before placing the remaining half of his own sandwich in the other box. Normally he didn't have a problem eating a whole sandwich but he really didn't have much of an appetite today. Ugh, he really didn't want to be getting sick, that was so lame.

Closing the box over, he shook his head. Axel was fairly perceptive, even on an off-day, and it wasn't hard to tell that Eponine was uncomfortable about the whole prostitution topic. If that was what she'd done back home that was really none of his business, but it wasn't something she had to do here, of that he was confident. Granted, what she did with her life in Siren's Port was her choice, of course; he wasn't going to judge her for that. He was going to hope she found something less hazardous, but ultimately it was her life.

The headshake segued easily into her next statement though, and he chuckled.

"Nah, don't worry about it," he said. "I've gotten by a few times on unprompted help before, so... call it paying it forward, yah?" He grinned and put the plastic lid back on his soup. "I'm sure you'll figure something out," he said then. "This place might be a little scary at night, and it might have its share of bigots and jerks..."--he cast a look toward the man behind the sandwich counter, who avoided his eye and busied himself restocking lettuce--"but all in all it ain't a bad place to start over."

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Old habits die hard...

now it's my turn to apologize for the delay XD

Lol! Not a worry!

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Goodness, I'm sorry!! My computer must have ate my replies :(

it's all good, i've been busy this week anyway <3