[Open] Life is a record playing on repeat

[seestheman]

WHO| Clara and Dennett, Clara and You
WHAT| Clara's back in the Capitol after her first arena and general other things in the weeks that follow.
WHEN| From a day or so after the Hellrena That Wasn't up until post-D3 announcement.
WHERE| All over
WARNINGS| Slapping of a scientist in one thread. Other than that, not much.


Out in the Capitol (Beginning of Week Four)
There's something about almost dying (or actually dying and being brought back, as the case may be) that makes a person really savor the little things in life. Like shopping. Not that Clara would consider herself a shoppaholic or anything like that, but she's always enjoyed it and it's as good an excuse as any to get out of the tower to explore the city.

Plus after the past few weeks, she could use a little retail therapy to make her feel like her life hasn't spun completely out of control.

Which is what has led her to a store front with signs boasting about their Amazing Tribute Memorabilia At The Best Prices!!!! There are, from what she can see in the window, paintings, photographs, calendars, t-shirts, and a wide variety of other things featuring the faces of a number of people she did and didn't recognize.

"You've got to be kidding me." Clara doesn't mean to say that aloud, but it comes out anyway as she tries to wrap her head around this.

Training Center (Anytime)
To say that Clara doesn't have much in the way of combat training is a huge understatement. The closest she's ever come to it was some self-defense classes and watching her mom's Tae-Bo tapes in high school (and even then, the VCR died when she was 16, which put an abrupt stop to that), and neither of those are all that useful when it comes to surviving in a death match.

She's at a punching bag, sloppily throwing kicks and punches that don't have much strength behind them. If the punching bag was a sparring partner, or an actual assailant, it would be remarkably easy to find an opening to strike back and take advantage of her lack of fighting skills.

Central Commons (Week Five)
The illness running rampant in the Capitol has made Clara more than a little wary about leaving District 10's suite for the past few days. For the most part, the only places she's been willing to go to for an extended period has been downstairs to train or to District 5 to see Alex (and even then, she usually managed to convince him to come up to 10 since there was someone on his floor who had contracted whatever this mystery illness was). But getting the gift of a respirator made her feel a little bit better about getting about going into the more public areas of the building.

Which is why she's sitting alone at a table with a large coffee (that's closer to a dessert of some sort, considering how much chocolate and caramel are in it along with the truly ridiculous amount of whipped cream on top) and a pastry of some sort, occasionally taking off the respirator for a sip or a bite. While she may be reading a trashy romance novel, she's mostly just enjoying the change in scenery and would welcome some conversation.

Comments

[seestheman]

"I don't think I'd want to meet someone who isn't a local who doesn't find this place strange." There's something in her voice, it isn't quite a laugh, but it's different from how she sounded before by just the slightest bit. But at least she's on decent terms with him, even if it's for just a moment.

"If it was taking more time than originally expected, shouldn't the press conference have been moved back? That's taking a big risk. What if something else had gone wrong?" There isn't anything accusatory in her tone, as if she's starting to really clue in on the fact that, yes, he had a hand in some of the things that had gone wrong, but he wasn't the only one involved.

She almost says something about how Sellars killing Alex if it didn't work out to his precise specifications should be illegal since, last she checked, it's against the law to kill another person. Except there's one word that came out of Dr. Norton's mouth that stood out to her. "What do you mean 'was?' Did he have a sudden change of heart, or...did something happen?"

[biomechatronic]

Well, true enough. He'd feel the same if he thought about it. He's just trying not to think about it.

"In retrospect, yes, it should have. I should have pushed harder, but I thought--I thought I could handle it, and I thought Sellars--I thought it was a calculated risk." Sellars, faced with the public spectacle of his product not rolling out on the announced date, and having to announce it at the press conference...? It would not have gone well for Alex.

Oh. Oh, Dennett, you nerdy idiot. Nerdiot. "...Mr Sellars is dead." And it's bad to speak ill of the dead, even though Dennett's not a superstitious man. Please don't ask how. He knows only part of the story, but enough to piece together a very ugly picture of his former employer.

[seestheman]

Clara manages not to be completely tactless. Which is an accomplishment, considering the first thing that comes to mind about that little piece of news is Good. Which isn't fair, despite how much new information she's suddenly gained about Sellars over the course of this conversation alone.

"How?" She isn't even sure she wants to know, since she has a feeling that it wasn't just a random heart attack or something along those lines. "He seemed fine when I met with him."

[biomechatronic]

It was his former employer, but all things considered, Dennett would have an embarrassingly hard time scraping up any real sympathy. From what he's pieced together...he couldn't say Sellars hadn't deserved it.

"He was shot. Killed. By. Uh. Your husband." Who had been, if what Dennett had seen was any judge, a bit of a mess.

[seestheman]

"What? Alex would n-" She stops herself before she finishes that sentence. Of course Alex would, if push came to shove and it was a life and death situation, which, all things considered it could have been (even though it would be ridiculously hard to kill him these days, which is one of the few things she's been able to take comfort in since she signed the paperwork). Or if he was protecting someone. But there has to be a reason, because she knows Alex is a lot of things, but a murderer isn't one of them. "When? And why?"

[biomechatronic]

AAAAAND that was why Dennett had hesitated telling her. Alex is a good man; he deserved far better than what had been done to him, what Dennett had done to him. He didn't want anything to come between Alex and Clara.

"There was a confrontation, of some sort, on the roof of OmniCorp. Alex had already been...damaged...by that point." Mattox, no doubt, but he'd never asked and Alex hadn't volunteered the information. And the EDs--few things had rounds big enough to do that much damage to the graphene armor. "B-but he's fine, or he was, when I last saw him. In Detroit, I mean."

[seestheman]

Clara doesn't have any doubts about the fact that Alex is a good man. While she may not know the exact details, she knows that he's done things that were wrong (and that she's been kept mostly in the dark about other than seeing the look on his face when he came home on some nights) for the greater good. And she knows that he would never kill anyone unless there's a damn good reason for him to do so.

Though she would love to know what the good reason to kill Raymond Sellars of all people could be. Sure he wasn't a good man, but that wasn't a killing offense. "Why were they on the roof in the first place?" Which...really seems like a minor, unimportant thing to latch onto, but she does for some reason.

"And what do you mean damaged? I thought that..." The suit? That's not right. And while she logically knows that it's a part of him, she can't quite bring herself to say that either. "...the armor was supposed to protect him."

[biomechatronic]

"Mrs Murphy, I think maybe--" He was going to say she should ask Alex, but if he's putting the pieces together correctly, Alex wouldn't remember anything of it, himself. "I only know what Alex told me. But you were there, on the roof, with your son." He can paint a picture, all too well, some sort of bait or bargain, with the family as chips, but he can't...quite...bring himself to accuse Sellars so outright.

Some sort of twisted loyalty? Or was it shame for the fact he'd worked for him for so long?

"It did protect him." He puffs up a little bit. He does good work, even if it's work on weaponry, which he'd sworn he'd never work on. "He faced off against several of the...well, you've seen the ED-209s?"

[seestheman]

And there's the missing piece to all of this that she had been certain was there. She still doesn't know what Sellars did, but it had to be awful enough that Alex could validate killing him. And if involved David...well, that only makes her all the more relieved that Alex did what he did.

"Oh my God." An odd silence comes over Clara at that revelation. While she hadn't actually lost him like she had believed, she could have, considering the fact that the little bit she knows about ED-209s are that they're top of the line military weapons and that they're goddamn huge. And the idea of Alex, even with the armor, taking one of those...it's terrifying. Metal plates and circuitry and programming aside, Alex is only human and those things were made to either kill humans or terrify them enough with the threat of being killed. "How did he survive?" It's less a question for Dennett and more her just being amazed that Alex survived that on top of everything else.

[biomechatronic]

Dennett doesn't know what had finally provoked Alex, and he doens't really want to speculate. He is willing to credit Alex for having been pushed to it, and with his wife and son as possible hostages, it wasn't hard to construct a number of extremely unsavory scenarios.

How to answer the next question? The answer was simple: luck and Dennett had done good work. He'd been asked to design something that could survive the worst Detroit could throw at it. He achieved it. But that would sound like bragging. "All that matters is that he did, and when I last saw him, he was fine, and ready to see you and David again."

Just popping a wrap tag on it.

[seestheman]

It's nice to know that whenever they go home (because it's a matter of when, not if. It has to be), that there's an actual chance of...well, not going back to normal, but at least trying to find something resembling it.

There are other questions she wants to ask him, but right now doesn't feel like the right time. Not when she's still wrapping her head around the fact that she's been on this bizarre roller coaster of loss and gain for months and she knows that the eventual end to it has a fairly decent chance of being a good ending. "I...thank you, for everything." She can't help but take a step or two back as she plans her escape. "I know that we need to talk about other things, but...I need to take some time to take all of this in." Clara backs away, as if doing so will make sure that there isn't any room for debate. "We'll talk later, I promise."

She fully acknowledges that it's rude to leave before he can get a word in, but she'd rather this ends on a good note instead of her walking away from him in a huff. She can apologize to him later, when she's had a chance to really process everything he said.