ʜᴇʟᴇɴᴀ ʀᴏsᴀ ʙᴇʀᴛɪɴᴇʟʟɪ ✝ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴜɴᴛʀᴇss (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
crossbearing) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
exsiliumlogs2013-10-06 07:16 pm
crossbearing) wrote in exsiliumlogs2013-10-06 07:16 pm
and is it getting harder to pretend that life goes on without you in the wake
Date & Time: 5th - 14th October - or later??? let's see what happens :')
Location: Various!
Characters: Helena Bertinelli & Open
Summary: why does everything happen so much
Warnings: Helena. Potential mentions of death, violence, PTSD, will revise here as necessary. Let me know if you'd rather avoid all mentions of such things and I'll figure a way to work it out of narrative, etc etc.
VR ROOM.
( Helena misses church. Damned as she might be, this crisis is the sort that sparks that need to believe, that there is some solution, that there is a higher power to look to for guidance, as some manner of compass. It's hard to believe for exactly the reason that she needs that power, because what manner of God could let this sort of thing unfold?
The type that gave man free will, some part of her acknowledges, but that makes it no easier to comprehend. What she's working on isn't just some church, though. It started that way - stained glass and incense burning, frankincense drifting through the air, white candles burning and wooden pews in an old stone building, but this is the chapel near her uncle's farm. The world is not yet complete, the church settled in gentle rolling hills, the scent of orange blossoms in the breeze, and each scent in important, because it pulls her to better times. It is Sicily, but it is some different version of Sicily, entirely peaceful, without the undertow of desperation and violence and the code that she swam against each day. It is a Sicily without her family.
She's working on it; characters might wander in to find her working on the programming, or the program in action, or simply leaning against the wall and thinking about what to do with it next. )
Observatory.
( Suffice to say, the stars were never this clear in Gotham. Not even in Sicily, and she might smirk at the thought if it were not for the circumstances. She had started to wonder if all those sharp edges that scraped away re-sculpted parts of her were being softened off, a few months ago. Before Barbara's manipulation fell into place, before finding Spoiler alive and before Exsilium was carved off the map. She might think that she was coming here at night but she's been keeping odd hours. Avoiding people in non-deliberate patterns, before schedules don't seem to matter for the moment. Sleeping patterns weren't for vigilantes, after all. Maybe this is something she's well suited for.
The thought returns in cycles as she watches the stars as if challenging them to give her some answer, to give her anything, and if a smile emerges then there is nothing especially pleasant in it.
She wears all black, because Sicilians are always attending funerals - she said that once, but she doesn't recall that it was the first time she met Barbara Gordon. It only seems appropriate, at the moment. )
Various - your call!
( Running! Let's go running! Do you want to join the random serious business running lady? Do so at your own risk. Improvised workouts around the base. )
Dorm - closed to roomies and current CR.
( Hey guess who hasn't been in the dorm much because she's been VRing constantly and is probably sort of avoiding everyone hi ladies )
Location: Various!
Characters: Helena Bertinelli & Open
Summary: why does everything happen so much
Warnings: Helena. Potential mentions of death, violence, PTSD, will revise here as necessary. Let me know if you'd rather avoid all mentions of such things and I'll figure a way to work it out of narrative, etc etc.
VR ROOM.
( Helena misses church. Damned as she might be, this crisis is the sort that sparks that need to believe, that there is some solution, that there is a higher power to look to for guidance, as some manner of compass. It's hard to believe for exactly the reason that she needs that power, because what manner of God could let this sort of thing unfold?
The type that gave man free will, some part of her acknowledges, but that makes it no easier to comprehend. What she's working on isn't just some church, though. It started that way - stained glass and incense burning, frankincense drifting through the air, white candles burning and wooden pews in an old stone building, but this is the chapel near her uncle's farm. The world is not yet complete, the church settled in gentle rolling hills, the scent of orange blossoms in the breeze, and each scent in important, because it pulls her to better times. It is Sicily, but it is some different version of Sicily, entirely peaceful, without the undertow of desperation and violence and the code that she swam against each day. It is a Sicily without her family.
She's working on it; characters might wander in to find her working on the programming, or the program in action, or simply leaning against the wall and thinking about what to do with it next. )
Observatory.
( Suffice to say, the stars were never this clear in Gotham. Not even in Sicily, and she might smirk at the thought if it were not for the circumstances. She had started to wonder if all those sharp edges that scraped away re-sculpted parts of her were being softened off, a few months ago. Before Barbara's manipulation fell into place, before finding Spoiler alive and before Exsilium was carved off the map. She might think that she was coming here at night but she's been keeping odd hours. Avoiding people in non-deliberate patterns, before schedules don't seem to matter for the moment. Sleeping patterns weren't for vigilantes, after all. Maybe this is something she's well suited for.
The thought returns in cycles as she watches the stars as if challenging them to give her some answer, to give her anything, and if a smile emerges then there is nothing especially pleasant in it.
She wears all black, because Sicilians are always attending funerals - she said that once, but she doesn't recall that it was the first time she met Barbara Gordon. It only seems appropriate, at the moment. )
Various - your call!
( Running! Let's go running! Do you want to join the random serious business running lady? Do so at your own risk. Improvised workouts around the base. )
Dorm - closed to roomies and current CR.
( Hey guess who hasn't been in the dorm much because she's been VRing constantly and is probably sort of avoiding everyone hi ladies )
observatory
He doesn't mean to find himself in the observatory, but once he does he stops - transforming from a car into a flimsy six feet of smooth metal and the occasional spot of glowing orange highlights. Which was another thing that was obnoxious. He's human sized and it throws everything off. He completely misses Helena, too focused on trying to find a certain constellation and a very particular star within it and stewing in his own petulant attitude.
It had only been, what? One thousand years since the time he was from? If Cybertron existed - and why wouldn't it - and if he could get back there he could find out everything. How he found the Knights, how they restored the planet-- anything. And then when he got back he could fix it all. He could make amends.
Rodimus had to. There wasn't another option. )
no subject
It's a break from staring at the stars, at least, although it takes her a couple of moments to process adequately to comment. )
If you're what my motorbike is going to evolve into, there better be more purple.
( That is not a helpful comment to make. )
no subject
That's never not going to be weird. ( Muttered, because he doesn't like it!! ) You'd better hope not, only Decepticons use purple.
( It's a thing. And also not a helpful comment to make - they're really on a roll. )
no subject
( Excuse you, sir. ) Decepticon, huh. They weren't even trying to make themselves sound good, were they?
( Where there's a wheel there's a way
:D
:D )
no subject
( Purple is absolutely not on his list of favorite colors, but Helena can have three guesses at to which ones are. But her statement makes him grin, so there's that. )
I know. And then they go and name themselves things like 'Black Shadow' and wonder why no one ever thinks they're the good guys.
( That was bad and you should feel bad. )
no subject
( So. Seriously, though, all that red. ) It is a little more subtle at night time than all that, though.
( Indicating his... everything. Is this guy a robot? Is she talking to a robot? Android? Thing?
A quiet snort. ) I've heard worse, but that is pretty bad.
no subject
Who wants to be subtle? ( Rodimus could probably do with learning to be, it's true. The flames on his chest don't help. ) It's distinctive - people see it and they know it's me.
( And that's clearly the important part here! He'd mention Overlord, but that's still a sore spot that he doesn't want to think about so he's not going to think about it while holding an otherwise pleasant conversation. )
It's not like creativity is a requirement for joining up. Although I don't get why anyone would want to, even when they were winning.
no subject
( So there, tin can. With a long suffering sigh, ) Great. Another ego.
( Even a male robot has an impossible ego. She was just wants to smack him on the nose with a rolled up copy of The Female Eunuch.
Watching him carefully, with interest. It's a strange question, with all the things that have unfolded recently, with her life in general. )
I don't know. People do strange things when their desperate. ( A beat. The United Earth wasn't desperate. So many weren't desperate. ) Or hungry for power.
no subject
I've got the moves to back it up. ( Overlord, he thinks, and then his smile falls and he visibly squirms. Right - moving away from that and the faces that come with it. )
Well yeah. ( Said with perfect mimicry of the way someone might say 'duh'. ) I guess it doesn't matter now that we've won.
no subject
( Skepticism about the ability to atone, its sincerity, what the implications can be seems arrogant. That people cannot make mistakes and change, that one way is the right way, always. She brings down harsh judgment, but only on the people that have made no move to ever atone. It connects to his point about people not thinking they're in the wrong, but when people sprout about their moral superiority, well-- it doesn't make her all that eager to listen to them, either.
Then again, Batman would probably link that to apples and trees. )
Depends what you count as winning.
no subject
( He needs to do something about it. )
Well we're not fighting, and we're not the ones locked up. It's the closest thing to winning either side's been in four million years.
no subject
( She can't argue with that, though the admission is almost a surprise. A relief, in some small way. ) Sometimes you need to be shown the way, though. You get so used to believing that you have to be one thing that the possibility of change doesn't seem like it could possibly be real.
( You have to want it, you have to fight for it, but sometimes you need someone else to look for that potential.
But hold up, because-- ) Four million years?
no subject
Depending on what you want to consider the start of it, yeah.
no subject
Start of what, exactly?
( Arms crossed, just watching him, wondering if robots or whatever have any of the same tells that people do. )
no subject
( Sometimes, but nothing about Rodimus shows that he's lying, mostly because he isn't. )
no subject
What are you? AI?
( Megatron, Optimus Prime, none of these names sound familiar and he's not like any tech she's seen at home. )
no subject
no subject
( DRYYYYYYYYY. Dry like a delicious white wine. Delicious white wine on a sandy beach on a hot day. Or something. )
Cybertronian. Okay. ( Actually paying attention and making a mental note to look into that, if she can. )
That's assuming you know what I am.
( Helena don't fuck with him )
no subject
( Helena why would you do that he's the world's biggest five million year old baby. )
Human, like everyone else here. ( Duh. ) Though I don't think you're from my universe because you haven't tried to shoot me the moment you saw me.
( Earth was a really bad place to be a giant talking robot for a while. After some of their species kind of accidentally all of New York and significant parts of both Koreas. )
no subject
Of course, she scoffs. ) Not everything that looks human is human. Just a bit of advice.
( Men. Even when they aren't human, they're morons. At least that's something to count on. )
Uh huh. What did you do that's worth shooting you for?
( lightly, as if she isn't incredibly wary. )
no subject
( a gesture at helena's everything. all that squishy fleshy parts that rodimus clearly doesn't have. but back to that question - )
I didn't do anything, I wanted off your planet, okay? ( he eventually did get off, and got a hole in the chest for his trouble. still! ) Deceptions destroy one city and suddenly everything that looks like them is an enemy. We were trying to help you.
( and rodimus was of the staunch opinion that someone who tries to shoot a helper probably doesn't deserve to be helped anymore - they weren't wanted and he never really understood why they stayed, hiding. )
no subject
A single city contains a lot of us tiny organics. And humans have done enough awful things to one another to know that whatever is prepared to do that much damage won't necessarily stop at just one.
( Tight, jaw tight. ) The reason we're all on this damn base? Because one city was destroyed that wiped out half a million tiny organics. Of course they were scared of you, you moron.
( uh oh she's gesturing sir gesturing )
no subject
( It's clear that Rodimus doesn't agree - why bother helping a species that just wants them gone? They didn't have an obligation after getting their asses handed to them, not when it kept costing them the lives of autobots. )
We stopped the Decepticons from taking over your world - we helped you - and all you did was kill us.
no subject
( Growled out, aggressive and to hell with the fact he's some kind of machine or whatever. )
You helped the humans in your reality, good for you. But helping people doesn't ever stop them from judging you, and fear isn't rational.
no subject
( He's already in a bad mood and this conversation isn't helping any. They didn't have anywhere else to go - Optimus saw it as their job to help when they could, but it wasn't as if they could just go home. But anywhere would have been better than Earth, than feeling like they couldn't do anything to better their situation and were just sitting, waiting for someone to bring one of them down.
Rodimus has always been about acting, and oftentimes without thinking. It's his hallmark. But he considers his point made and closes up, narrowed glowing blue optics focusing on the stars instead of Helena because he is actually five and doesn't want to have this conversation anymore!! )