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 Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:40 pm
- nice. She remembered the robotic cats that had appeared briefly, more scenery than anything - for the alleys - Eponine's home on the streets. She shuddered at -
Residence
Eponine's room echoes her previous residence at the theatre, except for the fact that her current closet alone is about as big as her first room. It came with a bit of furniture, the bare necessities- an economic desk with stainless steel legs, a bed with white pillows, sheets, and covers, and clotheshangers in the closet. However, she knows nothing about what a proper human room is supposed to look like, and as a consequence, the walls are bared of any photos or posters, the desk is unused, and the closet is empty.
She also doesn't mind dust or cobwebs and never cleans her room- she doesn't need to, as it never gets dirty due to the fact that nothing goes on inside of it. So since she joined, she has never bothered to take a Swiffer or Windex or anything to the dust. So the room gained a three-inch layer of friendly neighborhood dust...
All that changed when Estrelas exploded into LOTUS one day. The moment she made aquaintence with Eponine, Eponine was woken up at sunrise daily with the swish of a duster and the booming of a vacuum cleaner. She quickly learned that unless she kept the door locked, she would come back to heavily-embroided bedsheets and the room smelling like Portuguese room spray. Nevertheless, even though she doesn't need it, Eponine's room is the second-most spotless room in all of the headquarters.
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:03 pm
- the remembrances of the past, then nervously glanced toward the two books lying on her bed, both with the same title, yet carrying two different stories. Fitting titles they had. Best -
About Les Miserables
Eponine does not really matter in the whole scheme of things; that is, in Jean Valjean's life. But she does provide a nice little side story.
The musical version and the book version are pretty much the same, basically; only differences are there is a little more to the book, and the quotes I feel like mentioning from each. XD
Musical Version~
Eponine is the daughter of the Thenardiers. Although it doesn't mention any other siblings, there is nothing that says there aren't.
The Thenardiers are a family of thugs, basically. They used to own an inn. They also used to own a young girl, whose mother had begged and paid them to take care of so that she might have a better life. Of course, she didn't. Her name was Cosette. Eponine and Cosette are approximately the same age.
Fantine, Cosette's mother, died, and the Thenardiers sold her for 1500 francs to Jean Valjean, who had been taking care of Fantine before she died and did this as a last favor. Cosette was whisked off to a happy life of sunshine and roses. XD
Now Eponine...she's a different story. The Thenadiers lost the inn, and became a family of beggars. Soon, they became a family of thieves.
Eponine also became a childhood friend of a young Revolutionary, whose name is Marius. Eponine has fallen desperately in love with this Marius, but he doesn't notice her feelings at all.
One day, Marius and Cosette bump into each other, and fall in love instantly. But Cosette disappears before Marius can ask her name or address. He asks Eponine to find her for him. This Eponine does, despite the fact she wanted Marius for herself. Marius and Cosette fall more in love than ever, and Eponine watches outside at the gate, falling more in love and despair.
The Thenardier gang arrive. They wish to rob this Jean Valjean, certain he must be rich. Eponine refuses to let them pass, and when they tell her to step away, she screams to alert Cosette, Marius, and Jean Valjean people were there. The Thenardiers run away. Marius leaves, to avoid being discovered by Valjean.
Valjean believes the people outside the gate were Javert and the police (long story. I'm just telling 'Ponine's >P), and so tells Cosette to get ready and pack, they had to move to avoid being found by the people.
The Revolution starts. Marius, at the barricade, gives Eponine a letter to give to Cosette. Eponine delivers it, then heads back - and is shot while entering the barricade. She dies in Marius's arms.
The Thenardiers, meanwhile, have pretty much forgotten her and are living the life of the wealthy off the goods stolen from the dead soldiers of the Revolution.
In a Nutshell: Eponine loves Marius who doesn't love her, and dies while acting as the link between the one Marius loves and Marius. Sucks majorly for her.
Songs Eponine sings:
In My Life/A Heart Full of Love, in which Eponine brings Marius to see Cosette.
Plumet Attack, in which Eponine stops the Thenardier Gang from robbing the house.
On My Own, in which Eponine is walking through the streets to deliver the letter to Cosette, and she laments her hopeless love.
A Little Fall of Rain, in which Eponine dies in Marius's arms.
Finale, in which Eponine appears along with Fantine (Cosette's mother) to the dying Jean Valjean as angels.
Random Quotes I Absolutely Love:
'In the rain, the pavement shines like silver.
All the lights are misty in the river.
In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight,
And all I see is him and me for ever and forever...'
'And remember, the truth that once was spoken:
To love another person is to see the face of God..!'
Book Version~
This is slightly more complicated.
The Thenadiers, once again, are complete thugs. Fantine brings Cosette to her new home with them, attracted so by the happiness of Eponine and her younger sister, Azelma as they played together.
The second Fantine leaves, Cosette goes under the table with the cat and dog, and she settles in for a childhood of sadness.
Fantine sacrifices her hair and her front teeth to earn money to send to Cosette, which is spent away by the Thenardiers. By the time she dies and Valjean comes to save Cosette, a son is added to the Thenardier family: Gavroche. Despite the daughters being cooed over and favored, Gavroche is not much liked by the Thenardiess, who pretty much ignores him.
There's more! The Monsieur Thenardier used to steal items of value off the dead soldiers in the Napoleonic wars. One dead soldier happened to still be living, and regained conciousness after Thenardier took his purse and watch. He believed Thenardier to be his savior. The officer's name was Pontmercy, and he would be Marius's father. He taught Marius to search for his savior, the Thenardier, and reward him.
Ten years later, Eponine is offered to Marius as a sort of helper by the Thenardier, who now calls himself Jondrette.
Marius also, at this point, sees Cosette every day at the park when he goes for his walk. He does not, however, speak to her, shy as he is. One day Cosette and Valjean are not at the park. Marius has no idea where she's gone, but he's devastated. He asks Eponine of a favor: to find the girl's address.
Marius discovers Jondrette is planning to ambush somebody and take their money. That somebody happens to be Valjean, who now calls himself Leblanc. Marius goes to Javert (a policeman) for help, and together they foil the thief's plan. The Thenardiers are arrested, but they get out later. Gavroche is out at the time, and comes back to find his family gone. He goes off, singing ditties merrily, set to make a life of his own a beggar/pickpocket boy. Marius moves to a different place.
Eponine, when let out, looks for Marius, but discovers he has moved. She asks his neighbor where Marius has gone and waters his garden for him.
Then she sets out to find him, and once she has, she leads him to Cosette.
Marius and Cosette write letters back and forth. Then they meet in person. They are utterly in love.
Eponine often stalks Marius, but Marius merely disregards her as a friend with nothing better to do.
One day the Thenardier gang appear near Cosette's house. Eponine had followed Marius there. They are planning to rob it. Eponine tries to convince them the family is poor, there is nothing to steal, and when they persist, she threatens to scream. They go away.
Valjean and Cosette one day are to move away. Marius is heartbroken. The Revolution has started, so he goes to the barricade, but asks Gavroche to take a letter to Cosette. Eponine comes back with a letter from Cosette - but has no intention of giving it to Marius.
Then she sees Marius in the line of fire. Desperate to protect him, she steps in front of him and takes the shot through the hand and out the back. Marius runs off.
She lays there bleeding, waiting for Marius to come back and notice her. He finally does, and she gives him the letter, not wanting him to hold it against her, as she figures he too will die soon. As a last favor, she requests him kiss her on her forehead when she dies. He does, then immediately forgets about her as he reads the letter from Cosette.
Gavroche also dies during the Revolution, when he goes out bravely to gather ammunition while no one else dared to.
The Mosieur Thenardier get rich from ransacking the valubles from the dead soldiers of the Revolution. Madame Thenardier is absent from the ending and is presumed dead, however, Azelma and Mosieur Thenardier, with the money Marius throws at him, move to America and take part in the slave trade.
In a Nutshell: Um...same as the musical. XD
Note: some of the summary above might be slightly incorrect. Been a long time since I've read the book.
Random Quotes I Absolutely Love:
(Okay, this first one is really weird and really long XD But I like it.)
'"Look! Look, this doll [the kitten] is more fun than the other one. She moves, she cries, she's warm. Come on, let's play with her. She'll be my little girl; I'll be a lady. I'll come to visit you, and you look at her. Bit by bit you will see she has whiskers, and then you have to act surprised. And then you'll see her ears, and then you'll see her tail, and that will surprise you. And you must say to me, 'Oh! Good heavens!' and I'll say to you, 'Yes, madame, my little girl is like this. Little girls are like this nowadays.'"'
'"God will bless you," [Father Mabeuf] said, "you are an angel, since you care for flowers."
"No," [Eponine] answered, "I'm the devil, but that's all the same to me."'
'[Eponine] opened her fingers and let the coin fall to the ground, then, looking at [Marius] glumly, "I don't want your money," she said.'
'"I'm not the daughter of a dog, I'm the daughter of a wolf."'
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:17 pm
- forgotten, she decided with a finality so strong it surprised her mildly. Had her creators added that in? Finality was a nice feeling, she also realized, leaning back on her bed, and closing her eyes sleepily. It lent such a sense of...of -
Disclaimer
Official arts (c) Jyoti
General concept of LOTUS (c) Jyoti and Enhaya
Concept of PROTOTYPE001Eponine (c) me, Kiarna
Les Miserables the novel (c) Victor Hugo
Les Miserables the musical (c) Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:18 pm
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:30 pm
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:32 pm
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:33 pm
A Brisk Workout!Group RP with Archer (FllnFalcon), Shane (VOrcot), Laurel (Amiliane), Moira (Teh Twink), Estrelas (..Le Chat du Noir..), and Aletta (Yiiei)[ORP] A Brisk Workout!
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:33 pm
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:35 pm
Halloween + Ireland = FUZZYGREENMONSTER?
By Kiarna
One Person RP Wraith Sian 23/09
TO ALL RECRUITS:
To reward you for your excellent work on recent missions, Shee and I have made arrangements for everyone to take a little vacation around Halloween.
Please be ready with a costume and anything else you believe you may need. Shee can provide most things if you ask.
On October 31, a jet will be leaving for Ireland to join in the Halloween festivities. Please inform me soon if you wish to go.
-Wraith Sian
After much wild searching and puzzlement, she finally thought to look down. With effort, she stopped her jittering foot and began looking around a second time. Hopefully no one saw that; that was definitely too fast for a normal human foot.
But for once, she had more on her mind than the usual paranoia.
As she walked quickly toward her room, she considered the bulletin note again.
Vacation...Halloween...Costume?
"Halloween," she said out loud, trying to taste the word of what it might mean. It might have worked, too, had she not pronounced it wrong: "Huh-yao-ween." As it was, it sounded vaguely clown-like. Paired with costume, Eponine wondered if she should wear a red nose and pinstripe costume and rainbow wig to Ireland.
That was the one thing she understood: they were going to Ireland. A small smile spread over her face. Shane would be happy, then. And maybe he could even show her around, like he'd promised. That is, if Wraith didn't actually have a surprise mission waiting for them when they got off the plane. She wouldn't dismiss that possibility entirely; Wraith was still an unknown to her, despite having taken her previous mission with him.
Suddenly, her legs froze in mid-step; she tripped. Eponine pushed herself back up and rubbing her elbow, wondering what was wrong. Then her vision came back into focus, and she noticed where she was.
Abruptly, she began walking again, but this time in a different direction entirely. She entered the library.
...
After many long hours of engrossed searching and reading, Eponine retired back to her quarters.
Most of it was searching. Nearly all the books she had picked up in hope of learning what Halloween was were more about the history of Halloween, or fun activities to do on Halloween, or stories to tell on Halloween, etc. Finally, she'd had the brilliant idea of looking it up in the dictionary:
Hal·low·een (n) Short for All Hallow Even (All Saints' Eve); October 31 observed especially with dressing up in disguise, trick-or-treating, and displaying jack-o'-lanterns during the evening
Upon which, then, she had to look up trick-or-treating.
trick or treat (n) A children's Halloween practice of asking for treats from door to door under threat of playing tricks on those who refuse
Upon which she thought, These humans certainly have very cruel practices! then flipped to the J section.
jack-o'-lan·tern (n)
1. IGNIS FATUUS (upon looking it up: 1. a light that sometimes appears in the night over marshy ground and is often attributable to the combustion of gas from decomposed organic matter 2. a deceptive goal or hope )
2. a lantern made of a pumpkin cut to look like a human face
3. a large orangish gill fungus (Omphalotus olearius syn. Clitocybe illudens) that is poisonous and luminescent
And upon which she thought, These humans certainly have very strange practices!
So, from what she had gathered, Halloween was the day before Saints' Day, in which human children gathered together and threatened old peoples for candy. (She decided to disregard the whole jack-o'-lantern stuff; it was too out of place for her to figure out.)
Well, whatever Halloween was, she'd have to get a costume. Eponine dug her hands in all the numerous pockets of her coat, then grimaced; the money situation was dire. She'd need something cheap. And hopefully nothing too conspicuous.
Ah, well, there was a first time to everything.
Let's go shopping.
...
Shopping was...scary.
As squealing teenage girls glomped each other excessively, Eponine winced at the noise and hurried past the girls - only to bump into a group of laughing young men. Mumbling a sorry and not meeting anyone's eye, she moved on.
With the date nearing Halloween, many of the shops had put up grossly enthusiastic Halloween decorations. Eponine had already screamed when she had rounded the corner into a ghost shouting, "BOO!"
She ducked into an alley to escape the sheer numbers of humanity, and screamed again.
The shrill sound echoed through the narrow street, dying into silence.
Eponine studied the thing that had scared her. Her foot was tapping again.
HALLOWEEN COSTUMES FOR KIDS
50% OFF
BUY NOW!!!!
She went in, she came out. In her hand, she swung the shopping bag cheerfully.
It was the perfect costume.
Even if the shopkeeper had looked at her a little strangely when she bought it.
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:37 pm
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:25 pm
A Night to RememberGroup RP with Faustus (Ninetailednightmare), Estrelas (..le Chat du Noir..), and Samantha (Graphophobia)[ORP] World Convention
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Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 12:37 am
The Winning Entry Oh gosh, please dun kill me, but I put all my effort into here! I hope that it shows and counts. Besides, someone needs to keep Estrelas under control.
I will NOT actually RP Eponine breaking down like this. Too cruel, I would murder myself before doing that. But I thought that exploring the themes of alienation and isolation versus interaction and intimacy would be a good plot for poor little lonely Eponine.
Here she is swerving back and forth between intimacy and isolation. Just when she starts feeling all warm and happy, she remembers her true nature and pulls away. It is fear that drives us to isolate ourselves, because interaction is risky, and everyone runs the chance of being hurt.
Her creators gave her human needs but the not the means to achieve them- never being allowed out of the theater, not to mention her neglect at the hands of the theatar Manager. Let's hope that Eponine can find it On Her Own.
What happens at the end? That's up to you to decide, isn' it?
This doesn't actually have anything to do with what has happened or what will happen. The entry is actually more of a "what-if" blurb. What if Eponine was breaking down?
However, it gives good insight into her psychological state and alienation as well as her need to connect with other people.It had been a very pleasant day for Eponine until she was abruptly attacked and forced into a desperate defense.
She had been in the gardens, her favorite place in LOTUS and peossibly in the world, and not without reason.  You couldn’t help but attach concepts such as Love and Friendship and such to the place where you learned to live. Eponine wasn’t sure if humans did it too, but everyone and everything wore coats she had put on them herself. In her mind, Mister Sain wore a policeman’s helmet and a costume taken off of the robotic Javert’s back. Estrelas had been fitted with a whimsical dress, a swishing confection of floaty fabrics and rhinestones she had once seen in the audience of a matinee. And Shane had nicked Enjolras’ vest right out of the barricades.
And the Manager… Not that he hadn’t left a hole through her, but somehow she felt more than slightly afraid to hang a symbol on his reddened face.
Eponine hung languidly on the grass as if she had been poured there. She felt strangely numb, as if her mechanical innards had frozen over. But occasionally a burst of tepidity unfurled, temporarily thawing her dazed state before the ice crept back again. Eponine clutched at the area where her heart ticked as the sluggish frost crept back.
But right now she was warm. Her thoughts was a muggy, thick honey, pouring sluggishly from the sun above and into her CPU, then pouring out again, leaving behind the hint of sticky sweetness, wonderful and warm but totally incomprehensible. Perfect for her mood. Entering the gardens was like thrusting herself into the climax of her solo. One moment she dragged herself lamenting and drifting aimlessly, the world blurry as a haze of tears. And the next, with a sudden burst of light, heat, and the contrabass booming majestically, Eponine flew into the center of the sun, her emotional circuits a throbbing hurricane of heat... She was invincible for just that moment, shining on the rest of the world, secure in the knowledge she wasn’t just on the pedestal- she was the pedestal…
Of course that same exhilaration she saw daily in the form of Estrelas thinking she had outwitted her rabbit for a moment. A moment of shallow gloating in a heavy Portuguese accent that ended in a sharp yelp as the torch lamp fizzled off again, its umbilical cord cut by a rabbit’s menacing teeth. And for Eponine, who had thrown herself ahead of her hunters and slammed through the sewers, the moment of triumph was always shorter.
Still, the sunlight fell in cascades upon her face, adding its gentle warmth to her own mechanized heartbeat. The gardens cupped its hands around the robotic girl; steady with the assurance that the manager was in his dark cold world, although it was a cavern glowing with his ruddy, angry face that closed in on her daily. And it worried her that she was finding herself unable to crank up the usual jittering paranoia that accompanied the word “man.” Normally even the pulse of lips that began the M-sound was enough to send her into a fit of coldness, shooting bolts through her circuits and galvanizing her wires into vibrations. And now she was noticing that occasionally it failed to shoot her through a frenzy.
That scared her even more.
But her thoughts were pooling on the grass just outside her ears, or so she imagined. Her thoughts were maple syrup but with a more silvery tinge in her mind’s eye.
And slowly she sank into the gardens, which absorbed her as she dropped into her own mind. Just when she was drifting between her waking state and her other waking state, black shapes appeared in the corner of her eyes. There was a whole swarm of them- were they people? And why would anyone wear black on a day like this-
There was a snapping buzz as all of a sudden, Eponine went from a sleeping state to a maelstrom of chaotic hysteria. Her circuits hissed and snarled at one another as her self-defense programming kicked in.
Threat. Threat. Threat alert, red alert!
She whirled around to face the black dots, but they scattered like bullets, only to reform again, hanging and wavering in the air. Eponine’s eyes widened, showing a bit of circuitry at the edges. She lunged towards them, her feet moving too fast for any normal human’s, tapping a rapid heartbeat against the ground. She was fizzling with it; Eponine felt like she was burning up in herself.
And when a hand grabbed her shoulder with a cracking grip, everything flared to life- the world was blindingly, terribly clear, and the fright that had seized her crushed her; it was horrible, Eponine thought her head would explode. Her programming launched a counter without her knowing it, her arm flying back.
There was the jolting crack and splintering wood, then a startled squawk that sounded all too familiar. Her heart racing, Eponine barely managed to get her body back under her main controls. Somehow her circuits simply refused to lie back down into her normal state. What was happening to her? Even the panic that normally accompanied the inability to resume control over her own self-
Oh. There it went. Eponine slumped down, still fighting her twitching hand, which was trying to snap out and grab the attacker.
“Coo-ee, ‘Panaine, what has gotten into you? Oh, you are a crazy madwoman that has the chance you might possibly go loony!”
Despite the scolding words, a bemused smile stretched across the tanned face so far Eponine found she was preparing masking tape in case the head should crack in half. A certain Portuguese woman was holding two halves of a spade, the edges ripped off where Eponine’s wrist had just gone through.
But Eponine wasn’t as relaxed. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. What she was just doing- oh dear… That definitely fell under the category of “weird” and “not normal human behavior.”
“Oh! I was just… You know… Doing perfectly normal things…” She attempted a casual laugh that sounded more like a cat choking on a whole cantaloupe. “You know…Well, like Tai-chi, but it’s more-“ She stopped when she realized that the entire time, Estrelas was jabbering her head off and pushing her around.
“On my radishes! Oh Eponine, my radishes, look at them! Now Ah have to replant them! And dancing like that! On my radishes!” Eponine was slightly soothed by the steady stream of nonsense and radishes. “If you dance, there is only one way to do it. Here, Ah show you.”
With that, Eponine watched helplessly as Estrelas grabbed her hands, lead her away from the radish patch, and started up a quick two-step, humming the tune rather loudly, her feet pounding the ground.
“Wahh! Estrelas-“ Eponine cried. “Umm, can you let me-“
“Los ángeles en el cielo
mirado nos y sighed
nos amaron un amor que
sabíamos podríamos nunca estar.
¿Es usted alambique el míos?
¿Incluso después de todos estos años
que me esperan y que esperan
para volver, es usted alambique allí-IIII!!!”
As Estrelas struck the climatic final note, Eponine could feel the fiberglass in her support structure vibrating and secretly wished that it were her hearing core that was in danger of exploding instead. Eponine wasn’t a wimpy robot. She had squatted in the sewers of New York for months, contenting herself with the uncomplaining company of cockroaches and mice. She had clung grimly to the underside of a train and her own mechanical life as the said train flung its way through the darkest of tunnels and the rockiest of terrain. And that one awful time when she had literally run up a pole to escape a group of men that were probably from the theater and only pretending to be street boys- oh yes, Eponine was designed for durability.
But bad singing was not something she was designed to tolerate.
“Estrelas…” she finally said, wincing as she pulled her hands out of Estrelas’ own. “…Did you see the black spots?” She waved her hands around, her eyes flitting wildly. “…They were just there-“
Without warning, a swarm of the black things assailed her vision again. Eponine covered her eyes, hoping that the own darkness of her palms would drown out the black things.
“THERE THEY ARE!”
“Hahah, you are pulling my foot,” Estrelas chortled, leaning on the remains of the garden spade.
Hmm… That sounded familiar- wait… If a normal human couldn’t see it…
“Well- yeah, I am,” Eponine said, her mechanical heart ticking even faster. “Yes!” she declared, laughing nervously. “I’m just kidding!”
However, as if to protest, the black swarm suddenly blinked back in, then zoomed in on her, causing her to flinch backwards.
“Are you still dancing? That is not what Ah showed you!” Estrelas said and demonstrated the Portuguese two-step again. Eponine, her mechanical mind taking in it all, copied it, and in no time, both women were grinning like lunatics and laughing and quickly stamping out a fast heartbeat on the earth to Eponine belting out a very fast version of “Do You Hear the People Sing.” She had never been this close to a person before; Estrelas was twirling and tapping around her and occasionally jostling her too. All of a sudden, her friend had burst open- everything about her was meaningful; every gesture said something!
Eponine had never been able to see this in anyone before- it was as if Estrelas was a book that opened itself in her hands. Right now the light stamping of her foot communicated an energy and a joy to simply be alive, and something for Eponine- friendship? Love? Happiness? Yes, they were friends! Friends! Eponine felt as if her little robotic heart would burst with a sudden warmth. She had never been this close to a person emotionally. It suddenly occurred to the robot how lively the human cheer was, and she felt a sudden surge of affection for the older woman.
Wouldn’t it be so nice just to confide to someone her true self? Of course it was a dream, but the dream felt more real as Estrelas tried to sing along and they both broke up into hiccupping laughter.
“You know Estrelas, it’s really nice to have a friend,” Eponine suddenly said.
“Oh my- you- are- never out- of- breath!” Estrelas gasped, grinning. “Ah must stop, there is a stitching in my side,” she said ruefully.
Eponine suddenly skidded to a halt. One moment she had been carefreely singing and whirling about, the sun was so shining and the world was so bright! The next, she realized her mistake. Humans couldn’t do that. She quickly sat down on the ground and feigned puffing.
“I’m tired too! Phew! I can barely catch my breath!” she exclaimed nervously, spacing herself away from Estrelas as if humans could identify her by touch. The happy close feeling evaporated and shot away like a fleeing deer. Eponine felt suddenly cold, as if Estrelas was shut away in a hazy barrier, blurry through her own isolation. She clamped close like a jumpy bivalve. A few tendrils of intimacy tried to leak in, but fearing for discovery and fearing for the fear that lurked in her half-waking state, Eponine pushed them out. Estrelas was closed off. Somehow Eponine could not seem to see her anymore. Losing that emotional sense she just had a while ago was like losing an actual physical sense. The robot felt a pang of loss as she realized that maybe the Manager was right- she and other people were worlds apart, totally unconnected…
Meanwhile, Estrelas had taken off her shoe and was picking out grime from under her toenail, all the while chattering happily and humming. Eponine watched and wished for a moment that she could open up again, but chided herself for that.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want it- oh no, there was nothing more she wanted than to open herself and wear her very soul on her sleeve, and to be with someone- not just in a material way, but to be able to finish each other’s sentences, share a secret joke with the meeting of a gaze, even to be able to Have a Row and yell at each other, and then apologize the next day- all those things so many people took for granted and piled up in their own hearts, all those things normal humans could have… Eponine took full advantage of her emotional capacity to secretly stare enviously at people in the parks. As she hid in the bushes and watched all the people, all the humans, she slowly tried to open up, but… Being so close to someone, being with someone… That was… No, it wasn’t bad, it was the best thing in the world. But it was-
“-Awfully dangerous!” Estrelas declared.
“Huh?” Eponine looked up, startled, her hair frizzing in her shock. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Had she been speaking aloud, had she just revealed everything, had she just killed herself in her daydreaming-
“Yes awfully dangerous! Happen in Lithuania. You would have thought that men knew better than to simply jump off a ten-foot wall to escape from somewhere! Ah heard all about it on the news, you know,” Estrelas declared smugly. “The Anchored Man was talking to a lady and they were saying, ‘Why do boys do that?’ And you do not need to ask a lady in a man’s clothes why, because it is stupid!” Estrelas declared.
Eponine visibly deflated with relief, all the tension running out of her.
“…It is dangerous, it’s too dangerous to do,” she murmured, but she wasn’t talking about daredevil young men in Lithuania.
The black spots had returned, and this time, Eponine was able to count seventeen of them before they fizzed again.
 Eponine didn’t sleep. She couldn’t. She didn’t even have a Standby or Sleep mode like the other robots. But they didn’t have emotions.
Sometimes she wondered if that was a fair trade-off.
The night was haunted by the black dots. She thought that as the room grew darker, the spots would blend in and maybe she wouldn’t notice them as much. No, not only were they still glaringly obvious, they had bred, or multiplied, or something, and now there were more of them staying for a longer time…
But they were there, they were darker than dark, they were like nothingness, little black holes in her vision, stabbing holes in her Visual Cortex-
She sat straight up in bed.
No. This couldn’t be happening.
Could it be possible that Eponine, the invincible robot, the computer than in a span of months saw more of humanity than humans themselves, who hung on a thread so far away from the people, was… Breaking down?
She lay in bed late into the afternoon, staring that the black dots that blocked out the world that she had wanted so much. Eponine was crying again, and her practice back at the Theater with the Manager had trained her sobs to silence.
There was a muffled lethargy about the room, as if everything had gone a bit gray… Even the piece of paper with “Eponine was Here” written on it seemed a bit more limp than usual. The reds and the blues and the yellows all hung in one homogenous gray. Even the sun filtering through the economic gray blinds seemed wilted and cold.
The darned black things were swimming lazily in front of her eyes again, flickering on and off to reappear here and there. They had multiplied again. She had watched them do so.
Eponine was numb and chilled. She felt a sort of detached sadness, the kind that one felt when bad things happened to someone you didn’t know. It was as if she were a stranger to herself. The room seemed so cold, and was it her distorting vision, or was the ceiling bulging and waving? Each movement of her fingers seemed to take an eternity for the command from her internal unit to sluggishly float through the wires. She felt like honey. But not warm, sweet, sticky honey… Actually she felt a lot more like tar. The kind they used to patch up the floors sometimes, back in the theater…
Eponine found her mind drifting back to when she first was… She couldn’t bring herself to believe she was ‘born.' Humans were born. People that loved other people and were loved back were born. Eponine had been manufactured. Made. Built. Programmed. The engineers and neurologists and scientists and all the people that had been bought to make her, all those people… She wondered if she was someone’s dream. She hoped not. She didn’t want someone’s dream to slowly fade away so far away.
Instead, she recalled the tumultuous applause her debut had triggered, the sudden shining feeling that she was the core of the sun.
For a moment she felt a little lick of warmth in her metal heart. But it quickly numbed over again, leaving a slight tingling.
Oh, if she were a person, they could call up doctors to fix her. She could tell them what was wrong. The sudden plume of warm life flared up again as Eponine imagined herself telling a white-coated doctor that she had a pain in her back and couldn’t keep her food down. That sweet image, that darling reverie, it floated her! Yes! And here he was, telling her that she was terminally ill… And although they couldn’t fix- um, couldn’t heal her, she didn’t mind, because when she reached out, webs and spires connected her to all the people in the world, and people smiled at her, laughed at her, spat at her, loved her, hated her, they all were bonded to her in the simple fact that humans were not made to live alone! Love or hate, all people needed connections, open ways to each other. They had that need.
Eponine had that urgent desire to throw her heart open to someone special too. They had given her that. But they had forgotten to give her the sacred materials to bridge the gap, to reach someone. It wasn’t that they forgot to put it in, it was that they put in this metal body instead… A silent, robotic version of herself shook its head every time she reached out, warning her that it was dangerous, it was too risky. 
The room was turning black, and more black had appeared. They were bolder now, refusing to be contained in the corners of her vision now that they realized she had no control over them. She opened her Les Miserables to the section Fantine, but stopped when the little black demons rushed over whenever she tried to concentrate on the text, but not before she read Valjean’s care for Fantine: “He took her hand, felt her pulse, and asked, ‘How do you feel?’” (p. 200).
She could be fixed. She could be fixed! A sudden warmth melted the icy numbness- hope! It was hope! Eponine sat up so fast her head pounded. This was a simple procedure, right? All she needed was a bit of a “jump-start to CPU,” she recalled one of the computer engineers telling someone. That was if she started to break down. And she was.
Eponine flew out of bed, the flame within her burning brightly and charging her to action. Her hand flew to the doorknob, ready to declare her problem-
Wait.
That would mean admitting she was not human.
No one knows quite the trembling agony that seized Eponine there.
For a moment, one could see her balancing on the edge of forever. She lifted a hand to the knob, then ran back and lay down again. Then with a sudden spark, she threw herself back to the door. This process was repeated many more times.
I must! To save myself! No! But that means giving away my Secret… But I must not die! I can’t die! I’m not human, I’ll only break down and shut off forever! Forever’s a really long time! Telling means to connecting! You’ll destroy yourself that way! But I’m going to fall apart anyways! Would you rather have a long, drawn-out painful death? That’s the price of connecting with someone. I must go! No! You can never be with someone anyways. You are alien, you’re not one of them… Estrelas said I was her “Bestest friend in the world!” Well, she thought you were human! Angel likes me! Angel is a rabbit! Mister Sain once called me capable! I’m sure he likes me! Mister Sain doesn’t know I’m not even a real person! I am a real person! I’m not real! I’m real! I can never be with anyone! Yes I can! No I can’t!
Finally, with a shuddering hand, Eponine pressed the intercom button.
“Estrelas is IN!” a thick Portuguese accent shouted, so loud from the room next door that Eponine hadn’t even needed to bother with an intercom.
“Estrelas! Hi, it’s Eponine!”
“You missed breakfast, Ah was going to bring you up something but Angel-“
“Estrelas… Umm.. Can you get Mister Sain and both of you come to my room?”
“….”
“Estrelas?”
“Mister Sain… Is… Not happy with me right now…”
“I’m sorry, but it’s kind of important…”
“Well, you are my Bestest Friend in the World, so Ah will brave Mista Sain’s awful temper and do so. Taaa-taa!” It clicked off, but Eponine didn’t notice. She was trembling again as the world faded to almost complete black, then blinked back on like a faulty television. Estrelas’ last sentence shook her to her mechanical bones. Bestest Friend in the World. Bestest Friend in the World.
She quickly arranged herself in a comfortable position. Her spine felt sort of like jelly, and her body seemed so heavy… But she was about to press the intercom again and shout at Estrelas, No, don’t bring Mister Sain, don’t come here, I was kidding, please go away, but the door opened.
Wraith Sain had always been a formidable figure to her. She felt as if he were a blue-eyed gravity and she were a stone shooting to Lotus. Now as the door slammed open, she remembered that day on the banks of the River Seine… It seemed so dim right now, so far away…
“Estrelas said you wanted to see us?” Wraith asked, and Estrelas smiled brightly, holding Angel away from the Indian man.
Eponine felt a sudden blaze, as if the sun had come in with them.
She opened her lips, then closed them, then opened them again, and repeated this over and over again.
Eponine suddenly felt warm and cold at the same time. She teetered on the edge of eternity, the very cliffs of time. The winds within her, the fears, the hopes, the dreams, the memories, they all blew at her, trying to push her one way or the other. She didn’t know which side would triumph.
She looked up again, trembling to the very roots of her soul, and saw both humans’ and rabbit’s faces turning concernedly at her.
And then there were only the two shining people, herself, and the moment of chance, where the possibilities concerning the lonely robotic child’s fate could fall either way.
End
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 11:34 pm
Urban Legend
Something found somewhere (Note: AllMyUrbanLegends.net is a made-up address. In fact this entire thing is a work of fiction.)
http://www.AllMyUrbanLegends.net
"Human Robot"
First Sighted: ????
Medium: Email, Forum
Status: Possibly true
Analysis: Camron Mackintosh Theatre Group had once commissioned New Frontier Development for a “robot with human emotion” after receiving complaints that the standard theater robot lacked the “beauty of human mind.” This request was completed, but the robot was reported to have malfunctioned. Camron Mackintosh Theatre Group refuses to elaborate. The order that was sent out for more replacements was cancelled and no further models were made. If the robot truly had human emotion is not known, but New Frontier’s press release stated that they will not be attempting anything like the project again.
Forward
Real Life I-Robot!
Hey you guys you won’t believe this. This is so freaky but it’s true. It was on the news a while ago but you might have missed it.
A while ago a theatre commissioned a robot that could act so humanlike it could fool the average person. And so the engineering team took it one step further and gave the robot real emotions!!! Can you believe that?
Anyways, but it turned out that the robot got mood swings and frequent bouts of depression. And it couldn’t turn off because no one gave it a power button.
So all of a sudden it disappears. Just like that! And still today, no one knows where it went! It’s still dangerous and at large.
That’s not the end of it! One day a man was walking down the road and all of a sudden he sees a weird human shape lying on the side of the road just outside an open manhole. He goes to investigate, and the moment he touches it the thing jumps at him. It was a horrible cry and sounded a little bit like “Ohnosorrydidntmeantobotheryounowilljustwalkawayandyouforgetme!!!!” He saw a bit of machinery in the gaps when it shrieked at him. He then remembered he had a pistol so he shot it in the face and the chest and barely escaped with his life and ran to the nearest police station. However, when they came back to the manhole with a full squad, there was nothing there at all! No blood at all.
Scary, huh?
So if you ever see anything on the side of the road that looks like a human but not, then walk away quietly and head to the nearest indoors.
FORWARD THIS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS!!!!!
If you don’t forward this to at least 15 people then tonight you will hear a tapping at the window and when you go to look there will be a robot outside and it’ll smile at you and then break the glass and attack you!!!!!!!
But if you forward this to at least 15 people the phone will ring and it will be your crush asking you on a date!!!!!
Hurry up!
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 5:30 pm
Valjean's Hideaway
They were everywhere! In the shadows! Sitting down, crawling up her legs! She needed to get out. They were coming. They were already there! Only one escape. They’ve barricaded the door. Window! They haven’t come in the windows yet, hurry! Just a matter of time before the faces appear in the glass!
The shadows were ghosts along the walls of the sewers and the sewers were the bowels of the city. And like the various organic systems that dutifully did out with unwanted waste, the sewers were overworked and underappreciated. No one spared them a thought until they malfunctioned from sheer exhaustion, which was when the only attention received came from complaints about how the shoddy stuff just wouldn’t hold.
But right now, someone was giving the sewer the gratitude it deserved, for huddled in the corner was a murky form as shapeless and indistinguishable as the clots of glum murk that flowed in the slow river. For all anyone could tell, a pile of grime probably just accumulated in the corner.
Slowly the grime slipped aside to reveal itself as just a threadbare, patchy layer coat. Sunken deep within its folds, a pale face peered out, the movement of the muddy brown eyes the only sign of life.
And underneath all the collected grime, her mechanical heart pitter-patting a frightened bird’s chirping, was Eponine. The rare dapple of light that fell into the depths of the tunnels flicked across her eyes, catching the reflection of life, or life as close at it got down in the tunnels below.
She didn't leap back as, with a sudden defiant surge, a wave of sewage churned down the tunnel. It barely overflowed to where she sat, just barely currying the hem of her threadbare coat with smelly murk. The occasional light that leaked in from a manhole here and there dropped on the colorless brown sludge, and for a moment, the putrid river was something beautiful. It seemed fitting for Eponine's mood. Occasionally, in her life, light made it seem like something beautiful.
Maybe she shouldn't think life. Hard to have life without living in the first place.
Her thoughts wandered back to her flight. Surely the Manager was searching for her. Not only was she an extremely valuable investment despite her flaws, but he would surely want her back to return to the company for destruction...
Eponine had witnessed the "death" of a robot before. Despite the fact that it was shut off when its circuits had fizzled, and unlike her, it had the emotional capacity of a doorknob, she had felt rather awkward. And scared. And sad. Was she merely an object, to be thrown away once she outlasted her usefullness? Sure, she was made to last and last and last, for durability and longievity, but then again, she was made to be the perfect performer, and that had not exactly worked out.
She had seen a RAD team destroy a malfunctioning robot before too, when she watched the Starlight Express performance from backstage, hidden amongst all the other robots. She had tried to keep perfectly still. One more mud-smeared face would not stand out amongst the other denizens of 1800 Paris's underworld, at least not to the stagehands and other crew. In the middle of its song, the Rusty robot... Just snapped... She remembered too clearly the RAD team bursting in...
It was the Manager that had called the RAD team. Everywhere she looked, the tell-tale red stripes on silver body armor seemed to appear. Advertisements for cars. Perfume jars. Rides to Mars. They found find her, she knew it.
And then what? How would they destroy a robot like her? ...Would they offer anesthetics before she "died?" Unlike every other robot, she could and would feel physical pain if injured or "killed."
Estrelas had spoken of an immortal part of humans, the soul. Did she have a soul? Did she even have a mind?
People with souls had other people. In the dark of the tunnels, Eponine's eyes glowed strangely around the edges. Maybe that's what made souls- other people. People made souls for each other, and they were immortal as long as immortality lasted...
The darkness of the tunnel was comforting and moist, like a womb. Eponine had never known a womb, aside from the furnace where her component parts were cast from the molten blood of the earth. Wombs sheltered and nourished and protected you from the, but then there would come a time to be born. You could not have a soul without other people, after all. In the tunnels, something stirred.
If she could have opened up the scene before her, there would surely have been a special printed message on the inside. It was exactly like a card. Why had she never noticed the sheer beauty of the LOTUS headquarters before? It was so bright it was nearly blinding, pure white buildings like icy ivory nestled in the comforting green of nature. But then again, you could not see out from within a womb. You needed to be born first.
Smelling like the sewage and shelled in mud and sludge and recycled waste, Eponine began to walk to the back where she could open her window and slip in unnoticed. But then she stopped, turned around, and headed for the front door.
-End-
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:07 pm
RAD Teams
Eponine quickly clicked through the pages of the online encyclopedia. She had no idea who exactly the RAD teams were. After all, you didn't bother to educate the deer about the deer hunter hobbyist. And then, she wondered if she really wanted to know. Quote: RAD Team: Rapid Android Destruction Team
Activities:
A police force for robot control. The RAD answers calls to disable potentially dangerous robots or other potentially dangerous machinery, including stationary computers or software AI. Although most of the work is physical, RAD members are highly knowledgeable about coding, structure, and other computer-related topics. This knowledge is used to quarantine and shut down runaway programs and dangerous AIs. Along with dealing with hazardous material and dangerous mechanical forms, RAD forms also deal with humans on a daily basis and are trained for safe capture of criminals.
Equipment:
Every standard RAD member has the basic equipment. All RAD members wear a communication lens, which is similar to the civilian police lens in that it can show heat signatures, any sent .VCOM-type images and holograms, and provides ear-to-voice communication with other carriers. However, RAD lens can also pick up UV and Infrared lights as well as radio waves and other signs of robotic activity. The defensive shell is nanofiber and almost indistinguishable from standard civilian skinsuits but has been modified to provide more protection against extreme temperatures, electricity, pH levels, and physical blows. The three stripes on the sides provide a show of rank. The first strip is always red, and the color of the other two show the rank. The more protective armor consists of specialized military ProcShell armor and normally forms a breastplate, backplate, and elbow and knee pads.
Weaponry includes, along with standard police human-disabling gear, Stunpoppers, which are used to disable the majority of robots by shocking the circuits, nanobot grenades, and other machinery disabling devices. Variations due to job requirements exist.
Requirements for Joining:
Screening and Invitation only. RAD are one of the most exclusive protection forces and require not only technological knowledge but athletic ability and human skills as well.
History of the RAD team
The RAD was first developed during the Sudan Android Crisis in 2032 under the codename Nightingale, so called because it utilized high-frequency sonar blasts to disrupt or destroy fragile circuitry within a robot. The project was scrapped after the discovery the supposed research facilities for military androids was actually a polio rehabilitation center. But with the advent of robots for nonmilitary use, standard police forces were unable to deal with illegal or malfunctioning robotic machinery, and it soon became clear that a specialized force was needed. Originally called the MUD Team, or Machine Unit Destruction Team, the beginnings of the RAD were bumpy and lacked significant federal funding. The equipment was poor and the members untrained and often unqualified. With the Civil Safety Bill of 2050, the RAD received its first start upwards and over time, became the highly trained specialized elite forces they are today.
Ranks within RAD
One Red Stripe: Trainee. Not yet fully part of the RAD.
Three Red Stripes: Essential RAD member. Can perform all basic duties with minor specialization.
Two Red Stripes, One Blue Stripe: Can perform all 3R duties but distinguished for greater Finesse.
One Red Strips, Two Blue Stripes: Even higher in ranking.
Three Blue Stripes: Commanding authorities of field RAD teams.
A middle stripe within a colored stripe denotes specialization, if any. For example, a silver band in a base colored stripe denotes a malicious program specialist.
With a long theatrical sigh, Eponine sat back on the chair and fiddled with her raggedy cuff, still staring at the information on the screen. Now that she was part of LOTUS, did that afford any legal protection should they come after her? Or was she still property and denied of any rights...
Property...
What was property anyways? Could property break down and cry?
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