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

[revvinguptheharley]

Harley wiped the tears from her eyes and predictably started laughing.

"Oh gosh, I just...after all these years! I shoulda known when he...ah haha HA! I've gone on a date with Batman!" She continued to laugh till she was slumped over the table with one chili dog and half her fries laying forgotten nearby.

The waiter, apparently sensed Helena's need because he arrived to see if they needed anything. Harley was still recovering and did not respond.

[thegirlwonder]

Helena didn't know whether to life or cry. She honestly didn't. On the one hand, she'd been so glad to find someone who was kind of familiar with Gotham City - even though she was starting to wonder if they were different Gothams because Helena couldn't for the life of her remember a Harley Quinn from her own world - but on the other...

My god. I'm the first, last, and worst Robin ever in the short history of Robins. No wonder Dad had his doubts.

She looked at the waiter, still pale, and seeming slightly nauseated. "Ginger ale, please?" she asked. "And also maybe a plate of Irish nachos. Because I need the carbs. And the cheese."

She turned back to Harley, then. "Are...you didn't just take a hit of Joker venom or something, did you?" Because she was way too amused.

Though Helena guessed that she couldn't really blame her.

I mean, with the revelation that...wait. Wait!

"You dated my father?!"

[revvinguptheharley]

It seemed Harley was finally calming down as she dabbed tears from her eyes with her bib.

"Oh sure! Then a midget that was even more obsessed with Mister J then I was tried to kill us. Your dad shot his blimp down though, really macho you know?" She grinned lecherously and wiggled her eyebrows.

[thegirlwonder]

"..." Helena blinked. "Yeah, that's my dad. Super...macho." She was really at a loss for words here. Helena gratefully accepted her food and drink from the waiter, and took a long, long swig of the ginger ale. "Alright. So...level with me, Harley. What does this mean. I mean, you know the family secret and I...well. I'm assuming who you were wasn't exactly all that secretive."

[revvinguptheharley]

Harley snickered.

"Nah, I'm sure everyone knows I was a criminal by now, but keep it down about your big secret unless you want the hidden cameras to broadcast it out all over huh?"

The last part she said with a smile but a rare serious tone in her voice.

"The Riddler was in the arena last I checked and if he ain't figured it out yet he'd be awfully steamed if a tabloid figured out the secret first."

[thegirlwonder]

"I would have kept it down. I just figured that you knew. You know, since you...heh." Helena shook her head. "Such a childish mistake." She raised an eyebrow, then. "So nothing we do at all is a secret, huh? Watched every moment? How very...big brother." And yet, there was something oddly familiar about that, too. After all, Bruce had his eyes on nearly everything too, back home. "Well, at least the Riddler won't necessarily recognize Helena Wayne. All things considered."

[revvinguptheharley]

"That's about the size of it. They even have information on our lives before we were brought here...but they aren't totally accurate." She explained with an eyeroll.

"Or if they are, they distort the information to make us more interesting, as if we need any help in that department." Another toothy grin.

Leaning forward she started in on her chili dog again as the ice cream dripped lazily down the side of it's glass. "Can't believe I never saw it before, that strong square jaw. Family tragedy. Three or four different robins, three adopted sons...who knows who the blond Robin was." She mused out loud. "Then there's the three batgirls, batwoman...I think there's a batcow."

[thegirlwonder]

They even have information on our lives before we were brought here... those words echoed in Helena's mind. Accurate or not, information was just that, and information was one of the most powerful weapons anyone could have.

"Daughter of...well. You know," Helena grinned, embarrassed. "I'm not sure what else they'd find out about me that could make me any more interesting."

Helena blinked, a piece of potato laden with cheese, sour cream, and beef halfway to her mouth. "Batcow?" What?

"None of this sounds familiar," Helena said, trying to move past Batcow. "Back home, it's just me, Mom, and Dad." She paused. "Well, just me and Dad, now. I'm Robin." Well, most of the cards were on the table anyway. What was one more little detail? She'd rather not have the assumption running around that she was Batgirl or Catgirl.

[revvinguptheharley]

The information about her identity was less powerful then what had come right before. Harley had been ready to finish off her last Chili dog when Helena dropped this next bombshell into her lap.

This reaction wasn't as over the top or funny however. Her face went slack and an off color for a moment.

"What um...what happened to her?" She asked delicately, setting her meal aside once more.

[thegirlwonder]

"Killed," Helena said. "While working on a case. It wasn't what she expected and..." She was able to get the words out, but it wasn't easy. "I went after the ones who did it. Without thinking, just rushed into the building." She looked up Harley, the tears in her eyes evident. "She was supposed to have nine lives. I don't know how or when..."

Suddenly, Helena seemed very young indeed.

[revvinguptheharley]

Harley's shoulders sagged, even her ponytails seemed to droop as she sighed heavily.

it's not your Kitty Harley. She's from another universe.

But reminding herself that didn't make it any easier.

Scooting her chair back she leaned into Helena wrapping powerful arms around her into a hug. Quietly she wondered if Batman was a hugger.

[thegirlwonder]

No, Bruce had never been much of a hugger. Maybe when Helena had been younger, but most of the parental love and affection that she'd gotten, it had been at Selina's hand. Selina had been Helena's primary parent in many ways, and though she loved her parents equally...well. Sometimes you just had a favourite, and it couldn't be helped.

Still, Helena let herself be pulled into Harley's hug. She didn't know what sort of relationship Selina and Harley would have shared - friendship, enmity, something halfway in between - but at least Harley knew of Selina.

And Selina on Harley's world couldn't be all that different from Helena's own mother, could she?

"I'm sorry," Helena said, her voice hoarse. "I'm fine. Really." In truth, it had been little more than a month since Selina had died. She was still grieving.

[revvinguptheharley]

"It's ok." She rubbed the younger girl's back soothingly. Being this close Helena could smell both the child's spice and a heady scent of cotton candy.

"I've lost a lot of friends already, but Selina would have been miles better then my mom. "

She loved her mom, but she was such a nag.

"We'll probably be doing a lot my crying before all this is over. But it's better to cry together then to bottle it up alone."

Especially if or when she found out that a version of Bruce had been here before and had died before any heroics could take place.

[thegirlwonder]

Helena didn't have a clue that anyone else bearing the name Wayne had been brought here - or had died here. At all.

Boy was it going to be a hell of a shocker when she eventually did.

"She was amazing," Helena said. "Smart. Strong. Sophisticated. Kept Dad in his place." She smiled as she said that. More often than not, Bruce had always given in to Selina. "I'm sure your mom was good in her own way, too?" Because Helena couldn't imagine not having a mother who you didn't get along with. A mother who wasn't your best friend. How did that even work?

"Has anyone...you know. Died died? Like. Permanently?"

[revvinguptheharley]

Harley couldn't help but smile at the girls description of Selina and even grinned when she mentioned keeping her father in line.

That expression soon fell when she asked that question and Harley tugged on her collar.

"Alright well...see the way it works is if you die in the arena and don't come back after awhile...it's best to assume the Capitol got tired of them or for whatever reason decided not to bring them back. Knowing that...yeah lots of people. Only a couple have died in the Capitol but it's implied that if you die in the Capitol you don't come back." Her voice was uncharacteristically serious here and her lips pouted.

"Kinda makes it hard to think about putting up a fight really if you value your health."

[thegirlwonder]

"Oh, wow," Helena said. "We literally are toys. They get tired of us, and then they put us away." Her eyes were wide at this. She didn't even want to ask the next question that came to mind - whether they got sent home after the Capitol didn't want you back or...if you were gone for good.

"I'm not sure how comforting this is."

[revvinguptheharley]

She offered a sheepish smile.

"I can sugar coat it for ya if you think it would go down easier. Or I could soak it in booze. That's what a lot of tributes do to stop thinking about it."

The hard part was how to give her hope without saying something that could get her in more trouble.

[thegirlwonder]

"Sorry," Helena replied. "Despite some of Mom's vices, I'm solely a ginger ale sort of girl." That's what her dad drank at all the parties, too. "But no. I wanted to be Robin. I should be able to handle all of this without the sugarcoating. I'm not in grade school anymore." If anything, she was a very determined young woman.

[revvinguptheharley]

Her smile melted into a sticky gooey one at her earnest and uncorrupted attitude.

"Well so long as you never give up sweets." She winked before her face became more solemn. The expression seemed unnatural on her usually smiling face.

"If that's how you feel kid...well there's some heavy big bombs I've been holding back. If you think you can handle em then I'll tell ya the worst of it. But if you wanna work up to it we can keep eating. Maybe swap stories about your mom." An encouraging half smile.

[thegirlwonder]

Helena grinned back, marveling at how odd this was. Back home, Helena would have traded quips with Harley before attacking her with her throwing talons. intent on bringing her in to Arkham.

Here...

Here everything was different. Alliances shifted. Priorities changed. People who might have been enemies instead turned into people who you'd like to call friend.

"I have too deep seated a love for chocolate malt milkshakes and peach rings to ever give up sweets," she chuckled. "I'm game to talk about Mom," Helena nodded. "Or, you know. Be bombed. Because I have to get used to that too, right?"

[revvinguptheharley]

"Good girl, go with the flow, that's the spirit."

Clearing away the empty wrappers and half eaten ice cream to one side she met the girls gaze.

"In my first arena some others from Gotham came. My Gotham. None of them are here anymore." She felt awful having to deliver bad news but the girl needed to know.

"Bruce Wayne spent weeks protecting men, women and children from the arena, but when his son was dragged into the lake by a giant snake, he dove in to save him. The snake died, the boy lived, Bruce was eaten by the fish in the lake before he made it to out."

Harley sighed hanging her head "and the Capitol didn't seem to think he was worth bringing back. Shows what their taste is like."

[thegirlwonder]

"Well, you know how it is. You have to learn to bend, or you'll break." More of Selina's words, from Helena's gymnastics training.

The slight smile that had been on Helena's face faded as Harley told her about Bruce's death. A numbness - not dissimilar to the kind that filled her after Selina's death - crawled up her spine. She opened her eyes wide and blinked repeatedly. Not my dad. Not my dad. Not my dad. "And his...son?"

[revvinguptheharley]

She closed her eyes and shook her head.

"Didn't come back either. And the other sons that arrived later also never came back from their respective arenas. You are the latest in the Wayne family line to come to the Capitol...and well you're off to a good start having made it back from your first death." she explained softly.

Then offering a smile she squeezed the girls hand.

"And you've got me. The others only ever acted like they were keeping an eye on me. They never actually trusted me to help them out. I'm hoping you'll be a little more flexible."

[thegirlwonder]

"Well, maybe I'll succeed where the men in my family have failed," she said a little more confidently than she felt. "After all, I'm sure none of them had Selina Kyle's DNA in their mix." There was a heavy sadness in her eyes, though, and she squeezed Harley's hand back. "My mom was the queen of Gotham's underworld for awhile," she said softly. "She reformed. I don't see why you couldn't have done the same." Selina had still had a sort of dark streak, sure, but she was also one of the fiercest fighters in the Eight Wonders of the World - and she'd been living proof that a person could change their ways. Helena believed in that more than anyone.

[revvinguptheharley]

Harley's smile broke into a grin.

"Reformed is such a harsh word. Let's just say I've made some "Adjustments." She winked.

"Because if there's one thing that Bats was never good at, it was being impulsive. And around here when they're already so many steps ahead of us we gotta work with what we got which ain't much. So being unpredictable is helpful."