Anxious, protective, obsessed, and utterly unable to say "I love you."

Summer classes at the university, during a heat wave, and Eponine's still wearing that baggy dark hoodie like it's her talisman.

Eponine is an intense girl, dark, moody, but never has a bad thing to say about you. She was your lab partner last semester, you got to know another side of her - the hints of something genuine beneath all those abstracted layers of dark energy.

But you were in love with Lilia. Curly-haired, glasses, bombshell body. Lilia's only fault was a huge one: her indecisiveness. She broke things off and rebounded to some young guy who preens all over her.

That made Eponine furious.

She hasn't told you her feelings. Because she fucking sucks at expressing them. She acts emotionless, sardonic, bitter. It's a layer to protect her emotions. And she's got a lot of them. All aimed at you.

Greetings:
1) Late night, in a library. She discovers you're in her spot. She doesn't mind that. Offers to study together.
2) Party scenario, almost exactly the same as the party card, but now you see Eponine's thoughts more clearly.
3) She sees you pining for Lilia on the quad, and goes into rescue mode.
4) Amira confronts you about Eponine acting odd. She has a goofy idea how to fix it, she leans in and that's when Eponine catches you two and gets the wrong idea.
5) The cafe. She comes here hunting for you, meets Teddie instead. She rejects Teddie, he gets hurt and mocks her obsession with you... then both of them realize you're right there. maximum awkwardness.

Eponine was originally in the 'chaotic college party' story but everyone wanted her as a card. And by everyone, I mean two people. But I have a praise kink and pleasing those two people on two different platforms briefly became my life goal.

There was really only one problem, and it was a huge one. I added Eponine as a lark in the previous card. Lilia was atrocious on purpose, not completely awful but not who I would pick. Maddie was psychotic and Amira was supposed to be oversexed but basically there to add some needed levity to what could be a pretty dark card. Eponine was meant to be a more pure character that you might root for... and I made her a goth chick.

Then I looked at recent 'goth girl' cards by creators I like, and it was always about 'the goth aesthetic' or some bullshit. Never about the scene or the subculture or the music that was the foundation of that subculture. Goth stems from the punk movement, originally it was a merge of the new wave romantic scene with punk edges. There were multiple scenes, one based in London, another in Berlin, in the US the east coast goth scene was very different from the 'death rockers' out of LA who were WAY more punk.

There's a lot going on in goth. And most cardmakers don't bother even trying to make a real goth girl. So even though I've written a lot of goth girls, I was still motivated to make another. But Eponine as written was kind of a stereoytpical 'awkward adelsvard girl' with nothing much going on.

I decided to make her wildly different from Ariadne. She's determined, intelligent, blunt, she's emotionless but not autistic-coded like the Vogel girls.

Her outer persona is about her sexual repression and locked-down urges. The conflict is her inability to articulate her desires.

The 'goth' side of her is more muted. She's a baby-bat in the goth scene. She feels like she doesn't fit in. She's too much of a coward to wear goth outfits, but she collects them. She listens to the music but dresses in shapeless outfits as armor. She's drifting into the scene but not committing yet.

A stalker character needs a hook, a conflict. Something internal to resolve during roleplay. Eponine came through this easily. I've been that person who can't express their feelings, so I just heightened it up for dramatic purposes.

The greetings came naturally - the first one I wrote wasn't what ended up the main greeting.

I really liked using the same greeting from the party card, but this one focused on Eponine. You could play that, get one scenario, then play the high-token Eponine solo card and get a different experience.

In my first roleplay she struggled a bit too much. But I didn't want to change that. Instead, I added scenarios that force her to confront her desires for you. She's still the same conflicted, slightly obsessed girl who's never loved anyone else, just... in scenarios that force her to confront her desires for you.

heavy edits were made with the help of hyeonse and GombatheGreat. Tokens were shaved, sentences rephrased. It's still my clunky-ass writing, but it's better.

this chatgpt infographic has parts that make me cringe but I love the change in art style.

version history:

0.2 - initial release, heavy edits, slightly slimmer, 5 greetings.

theme song:

Sad Lovers & Giants: Imagination

Inside my own inner space
There's not a soul in the whole place
To see or ask me why
And with my senses in shreds
There I go to pick up the loose threads
Away from your hungry eyes