you were pretty much evil;

[gluegun]

Date & Time: a cold night in january sometime
Location: outside the city
Characters: alison & helena
Summary: creepy clone meets uptight clone
Warnings: helena is in this log

The transition to Exsilium has been anything but easy for Alison. She keeps mostly to herself, not trusting the rag-tag group of people she finds her. It’s easier to fight with aliens than to understand them, and she doesn’t want to think about the magic and horrors that are all suddenly possible here. She tries to keep to herself; it just doesn’t always work.

Today she’s trudging through the snow with a purpose. She’s taken to spending time with the children in the city, trying to make sure they’re at least comfortable even if they can’t get everything they need. Her heart goes out to them, and she hates that she can’t do more.

So today she’s holding onto a dish of something that smells incredible, and she’s marching through the snow in her now-ruined designer boots. One, two. One, two. She puts one foot in front of the other and tries not to think too hard about her life.

Comments

[sestra]

It's the smell she notices first. When it comes to food, it always sort of takes over Helena's motions, even if she's not always aware of it. Eat, whenever you can. So she immediately stops and looks over in its direction.

And then she sort of starts smiling for reasons entirely unrelated to food.

Not Sarah. Not Cosima Niehaus. Another sheep. There's something inside her that reacts right away with the push to just kill her, but there's another part that sounds too much like Sarah that shoves it back for now.

The other clone doesn't seem to be aware of her presence at all yet, though, so Helena does what she does best: she starts following. Silently, hunched over, her limbs tucked in close.

What she wants to know most of all right now is which one.

[gluegun]

Alison is humming, of all things. It's something soft, under her breath and not really discernible. Occasionally, her marching steps will turn into something a little more whimsical-- a step on the tips of her toes here or there, evidence that she's succeeding in retreating to some far-off happy place.

It'd be easier, though, if it wasn't so cold. She shivers, can see her breath escaping in clouds.

After a few moments, she says allowed, "They should've hired a city planner. Even an apocalypse hell needs infrastructure."

[sestra]

She's - is she humming? Helena doesn't know the song, but the sound of her voice is familiar enough. She sort of watches with half-amusement at the way the other clone walks turns into something light.

And then there's almost something like jealousy. For that ability to be light, to think about better possible things. It makes her grunt out in frustration, albeit quietly, but the feeling keeps coiling in her gut.

The sound probably gives her away, but she doesn't bother trying to hide it or pretend she's not there. She fully intends on revealing herself eventually at any rate, so she just sort of starts humming something herself (a folk song, from home, but it comes out eerie given it's depressing in nature), laughing a little over the apocalypse hell remark. "If only," she mutters, to herself.

[gluegun]

She catches the sound by chance, as it interrupts her dedicated conversations with herself. Alison isn't stupid; she knows this place is dangerous and that she has to be on-guard. But she's still got two hands on the dish, so when she turns around and brandishes it it looks more like she's hugging it closer to her stomach.

"Tell me who you are and maybe this won't end too badly," she manages to get out, sounding fairly confident. Half of a battle is just bluster, right? At least, that's how she's always treated the thugs in the city.

[sestra]

It's not threatening. Not really. It just sort of makes Helena laugh again, louder this time. She slips forward lightly on her toes, coming into better view. There's a hood pulled up, shielding most of her head, but she stands up a little straighter and it falls back, some of her blonde curls tumbling out as she blinks at the brightness of the snow.

Helena's not quite smiling, but there's definite amusement in her lips. "Do you not recognize my face?"

You should. It's the same one after all.

[gluegun]

...shit. Alison takes a step back instinctively. But the next moment she's berating herself for that show of weakness. She lifts her chin and clenches her jaw, taking in Helena from head to toe. Her gaze manages to be disparaging even if something like fear is keeping her silent for a moment.

The clone who kills, she thinks coldly. And not for anyone else's sake, like Beth. But just because there's something... wrong. She's the one who hurt Kira. She kills for no reason.

(You're not much better, a voice in her head says. But Alison manages to tune it out, just as she has for the past few weeks.)

"All I'm seeing is a stalker. So you better cut it out."

[sestra]

Her mouth quirks when the clone steps back, and part of her twitches to move forward in the same motion. She mimics the glance over, though, taking in the mystery sheep much the same way. This one is not much of a fighter either, but the way she holds herself proves she wouldn't go down so easily. It just makes her want to know more. Was she one of the ones Sarah knew?

Stalker. Helena's heard worse aimed at her, words much more cutting and hurtful.

"You know who I am. Tell me who you are." It probably won't work, but hey, she'll try there to start.

[gluegun]

Alison pretends to consider this for a moment. And then, "Yeah, no. That's not how this works."

She draws herself up and tries to set her shoulders, trying to mimic the confidence she always saw in Sarah or Beth or anyone other than herself, really. She can be intimidating enough on her own, but she needs something stronger, deeper, to deal with Helena. The other clone doesn't fall into her paradigm at all.

"You're going to stay away from me. Got it?"

[sestra]

She almost laughs. As expected. But she'll get the name, one way or another. Just like she found out Cosima Niehaus's. They're all stuck in this place, after all.

The amusement's still in her face, more strongly now, as the other clone puffs herself up. There's something almost whimsical as she rolls a little on her heels and takes in the supposedly threatening stance (whimsical, but on the edge of diving off the deep end at the same time). "Little sheep makes demands. Can she support them?" Helena doesn't really think so, but it's not like she's gunning to take a knife to her throat either.

sorry for slow ;;

[gluegun]

So, here's the thing. Most of what Alison knows about Helena is second-hand. The deaths, the backstory... everything's been passed through filters. So while Alison tries to reconcile what she thinks she knows with what she sees, she's still operating under her initial assumptions. It makes it easier to be confident.

The laughter irritates her, Helena's tone even more.

"Don't push me," she says through gritted teeth. "There's no where to hide or runaway, here. We all know what you are. And there are more of us."

It's the first time the clones' numbers have felt like a strength.

do u see how slow i am

[sestra]

This time, she does laugh. Her shoulders shake with the sound. "I am not hiding. Not here."

It's - actually kind of nice. Not hiding, not running. Honestly, she's been sort of staying away from the others for the most part, trying to grapple with her own issues. Because she can, for once. "They know I am here. I have saved them." She kind of takes pride in that, in knowing Sarah and Cosima Niehaus are alive because she killed the beasts. It makes her feel important.

hugs you in a way alison never will helena

[gluegun]

That actually surprises her long enough for Alison to let go of some of the fiercely coiled tension resonating from her frame.

"Why?" she asks. "Why would you bother? It's no secret you want us dead."

clings to

[sestra]

Aha. Another surprise, just like she managed to surprise Cosima about the biological relations with Sarah. Helena thinks she could get used to doing this.

Her lips curl. "I killed the beasts." There's a subtle emphasis on beasts that implies Helena still thinks of them as unholy demons rather than the zombies most people considered. They needed to die more. "You do not need to be dead here right now."

That instinct to kill the others is still there, will probably never go away - but she wants to do like Sarah told her she could. She wants to figure things out for herself, and that means leaving the other clones alive while she does so.

pats your head

[gluegun]

"Need to?" Her voice squeaks. She hates that, but it's the truth. Murder is not something she's ever had to be used to, and death always seems so far away from the suburbs. A distant relative passes or someone knows someone who knows someone who died. It's never this close.

(Ainsley was close.)

"No one needs to be dead. I can't believe I'm even trying to talk to you about this," she trails off, shaking her head. "You killed the monsters? Great. Good for you. It doesn't change anything."

i am the worst slides in even later

[sestra]

Killing had always been a necessity in Helena's life. That's what was expected of her, once she came under Tomas and Maggie's influence.

But she has that choice now, and she wants to exercise it.

"It changes the fact that Sarah Manning and Cosima Niehaus would be dead if I had not stepped in. It changes the beasts from being alive." If she sounds a little irritated, it's because she doesn't want this other clone to try and take that away from her. Those were her decisions. She made a difference in something, because she wanted to.