Eponine walks down the familiar streets, still trying to accustom herself to the new hunger in her.
Aleksandr yawns widely, her legs hanging down a grubby stiarcase, not particularly ladylike, but not revealing, either. She'd been looking for this "Eponine" woman all night, with no luck. She whistles an improvised, tuneless song until someone strange catches her attnetion. She looks a little small to be a vampire, not one she knows. As Eponine moves closer, she realizes that the girl also looks a little too young. Oh, spite and hell.
Eponine keeps walking down the street, shivering a little out of habit. She brushes her filthy hair back from her forehead.
Aleksandr finds herself walking behind the girl. In her least predatory voice, Aleksandr says, "Hey, little bit."
Eponine spins around, her eyes wide and fearful.
Eponine says, "Who are you?"
"Aleksandr," the woman says simply. "Don't go anywhere-I could catch you, anyway. We're the same, you understand?"
Eponine says, "Oh. He told me your name. You? I don't understand anything."
"That's not unexpected."
Eponine says, "Can you help me? I am hungry. I am always hungry."
"Okay." The second time in a week. The prospect is not desirable. Of course, having someone who's barely a teenager running around biting people is less so. "But not here." Aleksandr grabs Eponine by the hand and nearly crashes through the nearest door, entering a brothel. The guests, some in the middle of having services rendered, gape at the strange woman leading the dirty not-quite child inside, but the well-sharpened knife in her unoccupied hand strangles any comment of complaint. Aleks tosses open a door and unceremoniously tells the occupants to "Get out. This kid is sick, and needs this space more than you, bastard." The prostitute scurries out the room while the man ineffectually tries to protect his naked dignity.
"As if I haven't seen one of those before," Aleksandr scoffs, and pulls the man from the room. the cries of the prostitutes can be heard behind them, but Aleksandr shuts and locks the door.
Eponine looks at the knife.
Eponine says, "What is that for, Madame?"
Eponine backs away from Aleksandr.
Eponine says, "When he killed 'Parnasse, it began with a knife."
"To scare other people, not you." The knife slides into its sheath and disappears in a fold of her dress. "I wouldn't go through all this trouble to kill you." As if that's comforting.
Eponine says, "Oh. Good..."
Eponine says, "But what will you do here, then?"
Aleksandr unrolls one of her sleeves and extends her abre wrist to Eponine. "Here."
Eponine says, "What?"
Eponine starts to pull up one of her sleeves.
Eponine offers you her wrist. "What?"
"No...no. You drink from me. It's ok; I'm getting used to it."
Light dawns in Eponine's eyes. "I think, now...oh. Okay."
Eponine runs her tongue across her new fangs, and takes your hand very, very gently in one of hers.
"Go on; we're not dancing. It's ok, really. I can stop you when I want."
Eponine slices open your wrist, then loses her caution at the first taste of blood.
Eponine drinks.
Aleksandr closes her eyes tightly. The normal pleasure accompanies the girl's feeding, but with it comes considerable pain as she parts with her most valuable substance. When she is sure that Eponine has no intention or ability-to stop, Aleks firmly, too firmly pulls the girl's mouth from her wrist.
Eponine cries out, "No!"
Eponine tries to grab Aleks's wrist again.
Aleksandr reflexively clamps her hand over the girl's mouth. This time, her words directly enter Eponine's mind. "You should want that they all come storming in here because they think I'm hurting you, hm? It takes less than you think for a mob to kill us."
Eponine lets her hands drop to her sides, giving in.
*All right. Now, when we walk out, we'll be talking. I'm your mother. You screamed because I asked you if you wanted to stay here with me for a little while. Understand?*
Eponine thinks as loudly as she can, "Yes."
*Well, at least you understand this part. You should teach Javert,* Aleks communicates. A wry smile spreads across her face. Just what he'd want. Well, the man had tortured aleks and her PM ilk for a while, the least she could do is force him to be with this, as he put it, "highly annoying" girl.
Eponine thinks, 'Teach him? If only I could be near him for so long...'
"Come on, let's get out of here." The self-same knife produces itself in Aleks' hand as she prepares to leave, rolling down her sleeve over the already-healed wound.
Eponine tugs down her sleeve and prepares to follow.
Aleksandr strides out. "I guess you really didn't want to stay here a little while. Very well then, now it's your turn to find some place warm, eh? Come on..."
Eponine trails after.
Eponine says, "But Mama..."
*Say something, so it doesn't appear like I'm lying, even though I am.*
"You said you didn't want to be here, we won't be here."
Eponine says, "Thank you, Mama."
Aleksandr gives the prostitutes a scathing, motherly look of disdain and walks out, slamming the door behind her with a muttered "hrmph."
Eponine says, "But Madame," once you reach the street. "Is that all there is?"
"Hardly. I'm not your wet nurse."
Eponine says, "Then what do I do when I'm hungry again?"
"You feed/ I will teach you-and Javert-how."
Eponine says, "When?"
"When I get to it. Some of us actually have to work."
Eponine says, "What do you do?"
"None of yours. OR his."

Days later...

Javert has had a bit of time to try and reconcile his professional and his now-most-seriously-screwed-up personal lives. He's on patrol, acting almost perfectly normal.
Eponine follows Javert around as much as she can, trying to work out the flying thing, stay away from Patron-Minette, and understand what's really happened to her.
Javert scowls a bit at the omnipresence of /that girl/, but outwardly rather ignores her stalking him in that peculiar manner and continues watching the world silently.
Eponine wanders after Javert in her customary daze until she notices a familiar face.
Aleksandr is otherwise occupied by kissing a man against a ratty building. He's the type who would prompt one to hum, "One of these things isn't like the o-ther ones..." Clean, well-fed, and, though not well-dressed, not shabby. Like someone who'd be over having tea with a scarlet woman. Of course, Aleks is no whore.
Eponine says, "Monsieur Javert, wait!"
Javert pauses mid-step to contemplate this obviously not-bad-off couple behaving in such a manner, not only out in public, but in the middle of the Parisian slums.
Eponine says, "Inspector, isn't that your friend?" and she says it really loudly. "You know, the one...""
"But...but...I thought I was the only one..." the young man sputters.
*Eponine, if you don't shut your grubby little self up, I shall take your hand and have it for dinner, y' understand?*
Javert turns to the girl angrily, "What is it?" having been about to move over and ask them to move elsewhere and inside. He turns back to the couple, not getting a good view of her face really.
Eponine eeps and says, "Nevermind, Inspector. Let's keep going."
Javert stays still, glowering at her slightly, and from the way he looks he may /truly/ be not moving just to show hat HE doesn't need to take direction from HER.
show that
To the man, Aleks says, "Does he look like someone I'd sleep with? He's more uptight than that damned board of directors you keep jabbering about."
Eponine says, "I was wrong, just one of my mother's compatriots."
Eponine says, "Please, Inspector, let's go. I'm hungry."
Javert growls deeply and shifts his form indistinguishably to prepare to set off again. He doesn't suppose he can just leave her to run unsupervised around Paris biting people. "Fine." he says shortly, at length, and he steps off again, along the street.
Eponine smiles at no one, and follows Javert down the street, happy that he listened, happy to be farther from that scary lady.
Eponine whines again, more loudly, about being hungry.
Eponine says, "Inspector, did she teach you yet?"
Eponine hasn't yet learned not to talk about ...sensitive issues... at the top of her lungs in the middle of the red-light district.
Javert begins to have a bit of a headache. "She who?" he prompts the girl to use more than pronouns in her random shoutings. "Teach /what/?" and a few more clearly stated objects.
Eponine says, "Did Aleks teach you how to, you know, eat yet? I'm hungry and I don't know what to do, and if I ask her she'll probably bite my head off!"
Eponine tries to get a comforting hug from Javert.
Aleksandr ignores Eponine for a moment, her hands slipping to the man's slender hips to press him into the folds of her dress. "Something to think about. I have to go." A little faster than he would like, she disappears.
The young man stands there confused, wondering who this Aleks character is and what his Geraldine has to do with him/her/it. The liquor and libido prompts him to dismiss it. It's not like he's faithful, and she knows it. OR that the two would ever share a life.
Keep trying if you want, Ponine, it's not going to happen. "And she'd be right to," he mumbles to himself. He's not quite sure what to tell her about the feeding thing... it just, happens, or something. It's strange. "No." is all he says out loud. He wonders if that's true.
Eponine says, "Then do you know? Can you help me? Please?"
Soon enough, Aleks is behind Eponine. She wraps her arms around the girls waist and hoists her up in the air, her thick arm pressed into the girl's mouth. "Don't you /ever/ do anything like that again, understand me?"
Eponine squeals. "Help! Inspector!"
Eponine trembles.
Javert is surprised just enough for it to be visible in his features. "Oh. It's you." He notices the clothes are the same ones as the woman in the alley was wearing. "You ought to go home for... things like that, you're a lot less likely to be disturbed in the privacy of your house than in the middle of the slums."
Eponine tries crying.
Javert shocks you all by not feeling at all sorry for that girl.
"From one like you, I take little advice seriously." She looks up at the girl wiggling above her head. "You want to get down?"
Eponine thinks, "Yes, Please!"
Aleksandr tosses her into the air and catches her, still high above the ground. "Then don't /ever/ air our laundry in public."
Eponine says, "Eek!"
Eponine says, "Yes, Madame. I won't..I won't!"
Aleksandr lets Eponine down with a smile. "Good."
Javert peers down at the girl for a second, delighted in seeing her thus humbled. But he raises an eyebrow at Aleks' words. "From one like me?"
Eponine tries to make herself as small as possible.
"You have the reputation of a small boy."
"A small, sickly, asocial boy."
Eponine thinks of her brother. "Oh, dear, the poor thing must thing I'm in the Mad house..."
Javert stares at her, looking more curious than angry at this, "Excuse me?"
Eponine says, "I should tell him I'm okay." She's not talking to either of you, or paying any attention. "He'll want to kill 'Parnasse...oh...that's right..."
*The children, the children...although little Eponine here is quite the forward one already. More so than you, I'd venture.* "About," she slips, inquiring out loud, or beginning to. *About who?* she communicates to Eppy.
Eponine thinks, *My little brother will be so worried. I didn't even think of him. But the last I saw was when the Inspector killed 'Parnasse and saved me and then I don't know what happened to him and he's going to be so upset with my father! I don't want him in more trouble with my father's friends, he could get really hurt.*
*Spite and hell.* Not like he'll be missed too much, but, as a general rule, Aleks doesn't kill people. *And who might they be?* she inquires, although she's sure she knows.
Eponine thinks, *Everyone who works, well, worked, with 'Parnasse. They'll be so upset...*
Javert having not got the hang of this thing yet, says out loud, "Probably so, the ungodly little whore." Confusing passers-by of the night with the random outburst.
*Damn straight they will.*
Eponine is confused by Javert, too. She looks up at him. "Excuse me, Inspector? What?
Aleksandr attempts to not spurt out a laugh.
Eponine thinks, *Don't let them blame him, please.*
*'Him' who?
*My brother.*
*They have better fish to fry.* She glances to Javert.
*Oh, but they can't!*
*You underestimate them*
Eponine says, "No! I won't let them hurt you!" and tries to hug Javert, again. "I'll stop them!"
Javert looks down at the child whose mind is obviously elsewhere. He realizes that she did not hear the first bit of that conversation, and while his first impulse is to tell her exactly what he thinks of her, he decides it's not worth going into.
Javert is startled by the hug, and he quickly, maybe a bit too harshly pushes her off of him, "What is it now?" he asks sternly.
Everything's disintegrating so quickly....Aleks just stands back and watches. She'll still be alive tomorrow, at any rate.
Eponine says, "They're comin' after you! No!"
Javert growls softly, those pronouns again. "They...?" he prompts her.
Eponine says, "Them. Them! Patron-Minette."
Eponine says, "They can't!"
Eponine says, "I won't let Patron-Minette kill you, I won't I won't I won't!"
Eponine, who never learns, tries to hug Javert.
Eponine cries.
Javert thinks to himself, and, rather surprisingly, and unbeknownst to himself, to Ponine, >>> Oh, is that all? I've dealt with them before. <<< As he pushes her away from him again, he says that out loud as well.
Eponine looks up at Javert. "You talked to me! Oh, do it again!"
Eponine claps her hands in delight.
Eponine stops crying, too.
Javert looks absolutely puzzled. He's spoken to this girl before... what is her problem? "I did talk to you." he says slowly.
Eponine says, "No, no! You did it like She does!" She points at Aleks. "I heard you twice!"
Javert stares down at Ponine. "Twice?"
Eponine says, "Yeah, in my head, like She does it, and with my ears."
Eponine tries to point to Aleks, and realizes she has disappeared.
Javert frowns, mumbling, "Reallly..." and trying to remember how he did that... since he did not realize he was doing it in the first place, it is difficult.
*It's easy!*
Javert feels anxious having that annoying girl's voice in his head. He tries to ask her to stop that, to no avail.
Eponine says, "You did it once."
Javert frowns, "Well. Leave it at that." He's a tad annoyed.
Eponine says, "But you can do it!"
Eponine says, "Maybe it's 'cause I was touching you..."
Eponine reaches out one hand, not to touch, but like she would for a strange dog to sniff, so that Javert can touch it if he wants to.
Javert - surprise of surprises - just stares scornfully at the hand, wondering >>> Why on earth would you expect me to /touch/ you? <<< to her.
Eponine says, "OH!"
Eponine, hurt, and not so excited, says, "I heard that."
Eponine bites her lip. "I should...find my brother."
Eponine says, "Inspector, do you want me to leave you alone?"
Javert looks down at Ponine. "Yes. I'd like nothing better right now. However, since this whole... incident, I'm not sure if I should leave /you/ alone."
Eponine's eyes fill with bright red tears. "You want me to...go?" She begins to wail.
Eponine cries.
Eponine says, "You made me...this...and you don't want me?"
Eponine says, "No one wants me!"
Heads look out of windows at the crying girl in the street.
Javert frowns, "I didn't /mean/ to do that, you know. It was an accident." He tries to quiet her, though not very well, not being used to this. He doesn't like the spectacle the girl is making.
Eponine says, "But you don't want me!"
Eponine turns from him and begins to run away. Then, her feet stop touching the ground with each step.
Eponine cries and bounces into the air.
Heads look out the windows VERY puzzled at the bouncing girl. Javert hisses at her, "Stop it!" and goes after her some.
Eponine wails and pays no heed, and she stops touching the ground at all. Then, she notices she's in midair, and stops flailing so much, and just goes up.
Javert waits until he's out of sight in a darker bit of the street, then goes after her quickly, grabbing at her with his talons in mid-flight.
Eponine shrieks, but is caught.
Javert pulls her down with him from the air through a crack in the attic of an old house, where he reverts to human form and then holds down one of her wings so that she has to do the same, or at least she can't fly off again.
Eponine does the same, still wailing, and her wail comes out of the supersonic into the audible range as she changes.
Eponine says, "Let me up."
Javert lets Ponine up but grabs her mouth harshly, of course not knowing if anyone's currently in the house. "Quiet!" he whispers.
Eponine hushes her voice, but pushes him away, for once. "Why didn't you tell me you hated me? I'd have left you alone." The words are even uglier in her rough voice.
Javert raises an eyebrow, whispering, "That's not generally something that comes up in everyday conversation."
Eponine's tears run down her face and stain her awful clothes. "Why'd you chase me, if you loathe me so?"
Javert says, "I can't very well leave you to run rampant over the city, diseased as you are, and without supervision, can I?"
Eponine hides her face in her hands. "Why didn't you kill me like you did 'Parnasse? I'm nothing more to you than he was? Why did you have to save me to torment me?"
Javert sighs, feeling that he has covered this point already. "I /told/ you, it was an accident, I don't even know why you came back!" He lowers his voice back to a whisper at the end of that.
Eponine says, "You silly ass, I love you."
Eponine * sorry, Tinkerbell moment.
Javert is a /bit/ taken aback at this. "No you don't." he informs her.
Eponine says, "You don't know."
Eponine says, "I know."
Eponine says, "I have ever since you killed 'Parnasse."
Eponine says, "You saved me. You saved me from the street, from him. For this?"
Javert frowns, and thinks at her >>> No, no, no, no, no <<< as he speaks at her "No, no, no, no, no." creating an almost encompassing /negative/ sound. "That had nothing to do with you." He ponders what it had to do with.
Eponine wraps her arms around herself to keep out the 'no's. "Then Why? I love you, and...and you hate me so much. You should have killed me as you did him."
Eponine cries pathetically.
Javert looks to her steadily, "I should have."
Eponine holds her wrist out to him. "Then do it now. If you're as hungry as I am, and you can figure out what to do, then it should be easy."
Meanwhile, out back of the house, a teenage girl pokes her head int he door of the small gardener's hut, timidly saying, "Papa? I think there is someone in the attic..."
Someone comes clattering up the stairs.
Eponine says, "Do it."
Javert hears the clatter: out of pure reflex he grabs the proffered wrist, "Let's get out of here."
Eponine doesn't get up to comply.
The footsteps get nearer.
Javert looks to the ceiling, then reaches down to pick up Ponine and set her on her feet, "Come on, this is not a time to be stubborn!"
Eponine sits down again. "Yes, it is. You hate me."
The footsteps reach the landing.
Javert nearly explodes with anger, whispering "Fine! If you want to stay here and be completely humiliated-- Well, I doubt you care about that at all anyway."
The doorknob turns.
Javert has the good sense to be hanging unobtrusively from a rafter in a dark corner when the door opens.
Eponine just holds still. She looks pretty convincingly like a pile of old clothes.
Valjean looks around, worrying about being found by Javert or anyone that might tip him off. Seeing nothing particularly odd other than a pile of very dirty clothes, he walks to the clothes to give them a few shoves in the right direction.
Eponine experiments with invisibility. Can she do it? Doesn't look it.
Javert squeeks battily. >>> Good God! <<< comes through clear as day.
Eponine takes that as her cue, and becomes a bat. The clothes collapse slightly.
Valjean picks up the clothes, and the Eppie bat, even though he doesn't know it, and takes them downstairs to give to Toussaint to wash.
Cosette is suddenly standing at the top of the stairs. "What's up here, Papa?"
Valjean says, "Cosette! Nothing, nothing but this pile of old clothes. They are far too dirty to be yours. Do you have any idea where they came from?"
Eponine-bat tries to hold very, very still.
Cosette looks at the clothes, then almost instinctively turns them about in her hands for a clue. Seconds later an ear-splitting shriek fills the air, and she pushes the clothes pile out of her father's hands onto the floor.
Eponine-bat bites Cosette's hand and then flies out of the pile, heading straight for Javert's perch.
Valjean doesn't see what occured. He cries out, "Cosette! What's the matter?"
Eponine-bat holds Very Still.
Cosette screams again, and waves her injured hand at the flurry of motion going over to the corner. "A BAT!" She manages to say. "Oh, Papa, it hurt me! Go and kill it, please???"
Valjean tries to quiet the screeching girl. "Of course, Cosette. I will, at once. But I can hardly do it with my bare hands."
Valjean tries to shepherd Cosette out of the attic so he can get something to kill the hateful bat.
Cosette, comforted, goes back down the stairs, nursing the wound and thinking, "Oowwwww."
Valjean goes downstairs to look for a bat-killing implement.
Javert makes his way along the rafter toward a cracked window, looking back to Ponine to make sure she's following.
Eponine-the-bat follows right behind.
Eponine-the-bat squeaks, "He has my clothes."
Javert blinks, squeeking, "You don't take your clothes with you when you change?"
Eponine says, "He carried them away, didn't he?"
Eponine says, "And that's not all. Tell you when we get out of this attic."
Javert says, "I'm not sure... did he drop them on the stairs?"
Eponine says, "No, he took them. I would have heard him drop 'em."
Eponine eases her way out of the window.
Javert sighs a batty sigh, "Let's get out of here, anyway, we'll find something for you to wear."
Javert follows through the window.
Valjean, you will be pleased to know, spends the night looking for the bat and trying to comfort a hysterical Cosette.
Javert lands on the ground a bit away, and reverts to human form, regarding the house and removing his greatcoat to throw onto the girl for now.
Eponine, taking a hint (for once), flies into the greatcoat and changes.
Eponine untangles herself and tries to fasten it, but it's pretty darn too big.
Javert continues staring at the house as she changes, a delighted smile playing over his mouth for once, he doesn't even bother to take his hand off of Ponine's back now that she's changed in his coat.
Eponine says, "I know that girl."
Eponine says, "Well. I knew her."
Javert says, "Mm-hmm." absently.
Banging sounds come from the attic. Someone is attacking random shadows with a board.
Javert is brought back to the present by the banging. He quickly removes his hand from Ponine's back.
Javert looks to her. "You should have left when I told you to."
Eponine says, "Yes. I should have."
Eponine says, "I remember that man, too."
Eponine says, "He...he's rich!"
Eponine walks toward #55.
Javert nods slightly, remembering the jacket lined with bank-notes spoken of to him by the landlady. He blinks. "Where are you headed?"
Eponine says, "He's busy, can't you hear?"
Eponine says, "We could just go and get some of that. We could always be bats again."
Loud crashes speak ill for any bats that intrude tonight. The window of escape seems to have been broken again.
Javert grumbles at the lack of nouns. "Get some of... that? What?"
Eponine says, "Money. I haven't any."
Eponine keeps walking toward the house.
Javert blinks, then grabs Ponine by the arm. "Stop."
Eponine says, "What now?"
Eponine turns to look at Javert. She's somewhere between frightful with dried blood-tears on her face and ridiculous in a greatcoat 10 sizes too big.
Javert scowls deeply at her. "You will not act like that around me. Come now, I have money. What is it you want?" he looks at her now, can't hold back a tiny smile at how ridiculous she looks, "After some new clothes?"
Eponine says, "Act like what, Monsieur? I want a place to stay that's not with you, since you cannot bear me."
Eponine says, "I want freedom."
Javert says, "You don't get freedom by breaking the law, girl."
Eponine says, "Are you a cop still, then? Welcome to Reality. You're not one of them anymore. Their laws aren't the same as ours. They don't fly in windows and lose their clothes."
Eponine says, "We are different."
Javert says, "We are not so different."
Eponine says, "Yes, we are!"
Eponine says, "Real people don't have their dinner from each other's wrists. They don't turn into bats. They don't hide from the sun. They don't fly."
Eponine says, "We aren't them."
Eponine says, "We are apart."
Eponine says, "Besides, I would have done it before ever I started being different, except I wouldn't have bit that horrid little wench along the way."
Javert frowns, "We are still them, just diseased."
Eponine says, "No."
Eponine says, "If we were like them, you'd have thrown me in prison days ago."
Eponine says, "But you know that you're not the same anymore, and neither am I, so you didn't."
Eponine says, "I'm hungry."
Javert scowls and steps back as if burnt by the accusation. He wonders if it is true. "Yes, you mentioned that before, I believe."
Eponine takes Javert's hand off of her arm and holds it in her own.
Eponine says, "Listen to me."
Javert listens with only a slight scowl.
Eponine says, "We are not the same as those poor fools."
Eponine gestures towards #55.
Eponine says, "We are different. We have the right to take advantage of their stupidity."
Javert looks up and as he does he takes note of the house number, so as to return another night and take care of matters. "What gives us this right?" He asks her, obviously thinking that her words are nonsense.
Eponine puts one hand to her mouth and touches one of her fangs. "These. The way we can fly. We are in a different world."
Javert says, "We are in thier world, and, on the whole, not welcome here, I believe."
Eponine drops your hand. "You will drive yourself mad."
Javert moves his hald slightly as well as if to indicate that he was about to remove it from your grasp anyway. "I might... but I shall drive myself mad being a respectable citizen." He adds without speaking or thinking anything "which is more than I can say for you."
Eponine turns away. "I never claimed or cared to be respectable. I am no fine lady."
Javert says, "Yet in becoming diseased thus, you've become so arrogant as to think that you have a right to indecency."
Eponine says, "I told you, I'd have done the same as I suggested before this."
Javert questions, "Before the eyes of an Inspector of Police?"
Eponine says, "I wouldn't have stayed anywhere near you."
Eponine says, "So, there would be no Inspector to see me."
Javert believes he gets the hint. "All right. I can see that no matter how I try to make sure you don't do anything horrendous, yyou would do them anyway. Just, please, don't do anything stupid." He looks up to the sky which begins to turn a rosy purble opver the horizon, and winces, then turns and begins to walk home.
Eponine says, "Wait, Inspector."
Javert gives up on trying to walk home before sun-up and takes to the air.
Javert calls for an end to the Game. For now...

The *thump thump thump* of Victor Hugo spinning fades into the background, leaving you to your chatter. May he rest in peace.