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[jondrette]

[The box-- a computer, she was told, is omitting some sort of light, and Eponine looks at it, her face angled away, her eyes narrowed and her lips parted slightly. She doesn't trust it. But, she was told, that was how you communicated here. When you didn't find people face to face. Reaching out, she raps her hand against the screen, gasping at the hollow sound.] So strange, this computer! I don't understand it. There isn't anything like this in Paris, yet here… In this strange sort of city-- I was told it is not heaven or the hell that I deserve, but rather a city in the In Between. I can only liken it to purgatory, which is better than what I expected. [Her voice is low and hoarse, not fitting for the seventeen-year-old girl that she is at all. Then again, her age is hard to pinpoint in and of itself.]

I'm dead. They said perhaps I was, but I know better. I remember life leaving my body, and… [She pauses, looking away, her eyes fixed at a far-off point, the ghost of a smile forming on her lips.] and I remember his lips pressed against my forehead as I passed. Oh, I am dead, don't try to tell me that I am not, whomever it is I'm speaking to. It's so strange, I'm speaking into a box, and others are supposed to hear me! [She tosses her head back and laughs.]

What a strange, strange world this is. Heaven or Hell or In Between, perhaps it is all the same. They said it was an In Between. Why am I not in hell? All who know me know that's where I belong. I do not belong here, and yet, [she gestures.] here I am. Is it not a wonder?

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[jondrette]

Marius! [She gasps, watching the man in front of her. As he steps back, she steps forward, reaching a hand out to take his arm just above the elbow.]

M'sieur Marius, are you alright? Come now, it's just me. I am here. Your Eponine. Hush, you are pale. [Her other hand, the one scarred from where she'd taken a bullet for him what seemed like just minutes ago, comes up to gently stroke his cheek.] What phantoms have you seen? No, we shall not speak of them.

[She's probably not helping too much, being, y'know, alive, and covered in her own blood, her blouse torn at the neck.]

[saisamour]

[He grabs at the hand that strokes his cheeks and squeezes it almost hard enough to cause pain, and his eyes flicker to her face for a moment before they draw to her bloodied clothing. His eyes widen and he lets go, abruptly, shaking his head and taking another step back to put some distance between them.]

I-I apologize, Eponine, but I must take my leave.

[He nods curtly, and his eyes seem to focus on her but only for a brief while.] I'm sorry.

[And with that, he turns around and allows his long legs to carry him off in the opposite direction.]

[jondrette]

[His quick grab catches her off-guard, but she does not flinch. He's done stranger things, the day in the park when he shook her. And all men in her life, up until now, had their violent tendencies, so she thinks nothing of it. Instead, the only thing she can think of is concern.]

M'sieur Marius- [She tries, but he's already apologizing and heading off in the wrong direction.

She should not have said anything, she realizes, standing in the middle of the crowd. And now he's gone.]