Open!

[thegirlwonder]

Who| Helena Wayne and OPEN!
What| Helena dealing with undeath and meeting new people.
When| Post-Announcement
Where| District 4 Suites; Common Area; Training Centre
Warnings/Notes| None as yet?

[Prompt 1: District 4 Suites]

For the past few days, since returning back to life, Helena has holed herself inside of her room, fiddling with the communicator, studying a map of the city (because it was always good to be familiar with your surroundings) and listening to this whole destruction of District Three thing. She doesn’t have any emotional connection it, not yet. She’s still dealing with the fact that, somehow, she’s alive after having been killed.

I’m going to kill Loki. Possibly literally.

Still. It’s time for her to venture out. She can’t stay holed up forever. It’s not like her.

[Prompt 2: Commons]

Food. Food is good. Food is always good. Though what she’s craving is something hideously junky and laden with carbs and sugars and possibly everything that’s bad for her, she’s fought against the urge. If she’s going to stay in tip-top shape, if she’s going to win next time (and Helena really does hope that she’ll win), then she needs to stay healthy. Lean meats, lots of veggies, milk, and water. All the things a healthy, growing teenage girl needs.

And all I really want is a cheeseburger topped with bacon, chili, onion rings, and barbecue sauce.

But no. She can reward herself later. For now…well, for now, she’s going to try to be serious and healthy about this.

[Prompt 3: Training Centre]

She’s a fierce little fighter, but there’s not a lot of finesse there, as anyone watching would see. She’s a tough brawler - all street fighting fury but no martial artistic finesse. But she is working out her anger and her frustration, which is probably a good thing. She needs to be calm, cool, collected, and centered. She’s lost, but this place more than anywhere makes her feel comfortable at some sort of level. After all, this was what she’d done for hours at end back at home. Fighting, training, honing.

Between it all, though, she takes breaks. Rests. Watches everyone else, and scopes out the competition.

And maybe the possible allies? I don’t know. Can there be such a thing here?

Comments

[grimbiker]

Sirius had taken to the Training Center but he'd taken a break from telling the difference between what berries he could eat and what would kill him. Instead he turned to watch his fellow Tributes.

He should learn their strengths and weaknesses for outside the Arena. Too bad he was a terrible judge at what kind of fighting was actually good. At least he could tell that this girl could kick his ass.

"Oy, nice work there."

[thegirlwonder]

She'd been busy pummeling a punching bag within an inch of its life when Sirius spoke to her. She stopped for a second and twitched in terror before covering by grabbing a towel, wiping the sweat from her face and neck. Her ponytail pressed against the back of her neck, damp and lifeless, half-slipping out of its hair elastic.

"Thank you," she said, careful to keep her voice friendly. After all, he wasn't going to kill her here. That was for the Arena. Calm down. You're safe here. You are. "But it could be better." She wasn't as good as her mother, yet. She'd get there. Helena was nothing if not determined. "Should be, considering..." what happened between her and Loki. She took in a deep, shaky sigh.

As much as telling herself that she was okay, it was obvious that she really wasn't. Not yet.

She looked back at Sirius. Jeez. Is every guy here of the tall, dark, and-slash-or handsome variety?

"Hi, by the way. I'm Helena." She could have given her last name, but she didn't. Wayne or no, that didn't really matter here.

[grimbiker]

Sirius saw her startled reaction so he kept his distance, watching her until she turned to him.

"Better than me." He assured her. It didn't really matter if he kept quiet about his lack of skills or not. Either they'd kill him fast to get him out of the way or let him suffer a little longer as they didn't consider him a threat. In the here and now, it made little difference.

"I'm Sirius. Like the star, not the word," he said it all in the same breath. He was used to introducing himself like that if he was in the mood to correct someone ahead of time.

"Been here long?"

[thegirlwonder]

"The Dog Star," Helena said off-handedly, not at all guessing what deeper significance that meaning may have to the man standing in front of her. "Brightest star in the sky." A list of other facts came up in her mind, but Helena didn't quote it all. You don't get to be Batman and Catwoman's daughter without learning all of your stuff.

"I...worked out a lot back home." How much was safe to divulge here? Helena didn't know. Besides, she was used to keeping secrets. Another part of my family's legacy, that.

"Less than a couple of weeks," she confirmed. "I was dropped into the middle of the arena and it was nothing like Legends of the Hidden Temple." Though, god, Helena wished it had been. It was a hideously old game show, way before her time, but she'd watched repeats of it as a child.

Life, she had quickly learned, was not as safe as those game shows would have you believe.

"How about you?" She hadn't yet learned to tell who had been here awhile, versus who was a newbie. Everything was new to her, after all. "Or are you, you know, a native to this place?" Because boy would that help.

[grimbiker]

The dog star. Very good. This girl knew her astronomy.

One of Sirius's eyebrows quirked up at her excuse of working out back home. Sure, he bought that she did that. He was also sure she had some training that she wasn't letting on about. He hoped for her sake that the message he sent was you're going to have to do better than that.

"Not a native, no. I was--" forcibly abducted "--brought here a week ago. The Arena didn't go well for me."

[thegirlwonder]

Oh, she caught that quirked up eyebrow, Sirius. "Hey," she said. "We all have our little secrets," she added, quirking up an eyebrow of her own. There, Sirius. Was that better for you?

"Yeah," she added then, softening up. "It sucked kinda hard for me too." Helena offered Sirius a smile at that. Shared experiences and all that. "We should start a support group or something." One which would probably be joined by every single person there who'd been killed in the Arena.

"I only lasted a night on my own," she added then. "Before it happened."

[grimbiker]

Sirius shook his head ever so slightly. Well, it was a start.

"I think I made it a few hours. It would have been longer if the Gamemakers hadn't sent me a nice surprise." Running headlong into another Tribute had not been his finest moment but it wouldn't have happened if his "best friend" hadn't turned on him. Normally he would have made a sarcastic comment about how that was very nice of them but what with District 3 having been incinerated...

"They can get rather creative." And sadistic. Mostly sadistic. "You can't really train for that here." He shrugged.

3

[aintyourdad]

By now, a visit to the training center has become practically part of Joel's daily routine. It seems that many, if not most, of the returning tributes make it one of their first stops on returning to the Capitol, so it's a good place to spot the returning faces.

A good place to catch up on news with some amount of relative privacy, too.

A new girl, today. Young, maybe a couple years older than Ellie, tops, and seems almost as vicious - at least against the punching bags. She seems angry - no surprise there, but anger can get you killed. Flying off into a thoughtless rage doesn't do anyone any good.

"Don't let 'em get to you," he mutters in passing. "They won't stop tryin', so don't let 'em."

[thegirlwonder]

Helena grunts and throws one final punch at the bag before turning around. She's still jumpy. The sudden people speaking to her is throwing her off a little bit after the...well. After the death and undeath.

It was funny. In all of her short years, people hadn't really made her jump. Going out into the field with her mother to fight random thugs as part of her training - none of it had scared her. And now...

Helena shakes her head. Does she put on a brave front here? Does she remain herself? What is the thing to do?

"It's good advice," she finally says. "But it's easier said than, you know, followed." She reached up and pulled her ponytail into a bun, studying the man who had spoken to her. Older than her father, but just as gruff. "You don't really expect to die and come back from it."

[aintyourdad]

"Oh, trust me, I know," Joel murmurs, pulling out a bow and giving it a test on the bowstring idly.

"It's the biggest goddamn shock, and I've seen some shit. But they don't let up, that's for sure."

[thegirlwonder]

Helena looks at the bow. She had just started to think about using one back home - after all, she'd named herself Robin after Robin Hood, and he used a bow - but before any of that could happen, her mother had been killed and she'd wound up here.

And yet, both instances are entirely unconnected.

"How long have you been here?" she asks, looking away from the bow and back at Joel. "I mean. You sound like you've seen quite a bit if you're saying that they don't let up."

[aintyourdad]

"Few months," he murmurs. "Maybe four or five by now. It's tough to keep track, with the arenas."

He pulls out an arrow, nocks it, fires at a target. It hits square in the head. If it was a clicker, it'd be down with that one shot, never even hearing it coming.

[thegirlwonder]

The communicator, Helena decides, needs a calendar app. Or something.

She watches Joel nock the arrow and then loose it, mystified. "Throwing knives I can use," Helena says, once the arrow hits its mark. "Bata - er - boomerangs, too. I've had some training with battle staves, too. But bows and arrows..." this was Helena's weakness. "I hadn't gotten to start training with those yet." Her eyes dart back to Joel. "I'm impressed."

[aintyourdad]

That would only work if they could bring the communicators into the arenas with them. That's the problem. The arenas do a lot to fuck with his sense of time - night and day cycles aren't always consistent when everything is artificial.

"I wish they'd give us guns more often," he says with a shrug. "But bows have their uses. Quiet. Easier to sneak up with 'em."

He grabs another arrow. "I know a kid who's better with them than me."

2

[revvinguptheharley]

One of the best parts of Capitol life was by far, the food.

Sitting at a table across from Helena, Harley had a feast fit for a king...a king with a short life expectancy anyway.

Three full sized, fully loaded chili dogs, some curly fries, and some kind of monster ice cream milk shake with sparkling candy sprinkles and swirls of fudge.

She was tiring a bib around her neck with three black diamonds on display while licking her lips.

It's good to be Harley some days.

[thegirlwonder]

Holy god that milkshake.

Helena's staring at it for a long, long moment. She can't help it. Compared to the glass of nonfat milk she has...

Not that I'm worried about the milkshake going straight to my hips or anything. She'd never been one of those girls. She'd faked it well at Gotham Academy, but she'd never actually gone to the restroom to purge the way most of her classmates had. But that would give me a hell of a sugar crash. And she couldn't afford that, could she?

In spite of herself, her stomach may have rumbled against her in argument.

[revvinguptheharley]

Harley caught sight of the girl admiring her milkshake. Deciding to have a little fun she took a spoonful and luxuriously, almost obscenely licked the cream and candy from the spoon in three long, slow strokes.

Then she winked playfully and slid out a seat patting it in invitation for Helena to join her.

[thegirlwonder]

Okay. Helena's eyes narrowed at that. Tease. And yet, something about the way she did that reminded Helena of Kara, and of going out for frozen yogurt with her. Kara'd stuff her bowl full of everything while Helena would get an original flavoured yogurt, topped with fresh fruit. Kara'd tease her consistently until Helena gave in and took a bite of Kara's obscenely sweet concoction.

Then she'd trade in her healthy snack for something a little bit more indulgent.

God, but she missed her best friend.

After a moment's hesitation, Helena stood up and walked over to Harley.

"That was evil, what you just did there," she said with a raised eyebrow, taking the offered seat.

[revvinguptheharley]

That prompted a giggle and Harley rewarded the girl by sliding the sweets closer to her.

"Evil perhaps, but if I was shy about sin I wouldn't have a collection of mug shots back home." She laughed at her own joke "I probably wouldn't have won my way out of the arena either for that matter."

As casual as if they were longtime friends Harkey tucked into her first chili dog surprisingly neat despite the messy nature of the meal.

[thegirlwonder]

Helena looked at the milkshake. It wasn't as though she couldn't have gotten one on her own - certainly, she'd had the option - but it was a really friendly move on Harley's part. Helena appreciated that, considering everything that had gone on.

But then she'd said that part about the mugshots.

Calm down there, Wayne. Even your mom had mugshots of her own.

Helena took in a shaky breath. Right, wrong, criminal, hero. None of that mattered here. Somewhere in her heart of hearts, she knew that. This world was not as black and white as the world that her father had seen. And if anyone had taught her about the gray area between the both, it had been her mother.

Still, she studied Harley closely, wondering what crimes she had committed. She seemed awfully perky.

"So you're a..." what was the right word, here? "Champion? Victor?"

[revvinguptheharley]

"Yes and yes, also a mentor, idol, and general nuisance." She joked cheerfully. "We had a special mini arena where there could be multiple victors and the fans nominated me to take a run at it. I was a lucky one out of four." She explained.

Finishing her first chili dog in two huge bites she dabbed at her lips with a napkin and swallowed. "Harley Quinn, District Nine, nice to meetcha!"

2

[retrieverchef]

Except what the Avox serving her places in front of her is actually the best of both. The hamburger is made from lean meat and topped with gourmet cheese, sauteed onions, and barbecue sauce. There's a selection of vegetables on the side. It's healthy food but not even close to boring. He'd seen the way she looked at everyone else's food.

[thegirlwonder]

Helena looks down at the plate, eyes widening with pleasant surprise. She inhales deeply, and boy if the scent of the barbecue sauce doesn't hit her in the culinary feels. She looks up at the man. "Thank you," she says warmly. "But..how did you know?" Clearly, someone didn't think she was being obvious about the food that she had been eating versus what she was just served.

[retrieverchef]

His lips twitch into a small smile at her reaction. He watches her with understated pleasure.

[thegirlwonder]

"Oh god, I'm sorry. Manners." Helena indicated the space in front of her. "Would you like to have a seat? Or is that not something that you can do during working hours?" He was the first Avox that Helena had met, and she didn't really know anything about the Avoxes yet.

Ah, ignorance.