002. ✝ voice.

[crossbearing]

( The speaker, whoever she is, speaks with perfect English, but she's got a pretty strong Sicilian accent; she plays it up, a little. It helps to have another barrier between herself and when she's Huntress. Helena has no need to sound anywhere near so rough and terrifying, save for when she's living up to her last name.)

It looks like I chose a bad time to get acquainted with the city. ( A beat, and maybe you can hear that wryness in her smile. ) Or, maybe the city chose a bad time to get acquainted with me.

( Really. She could imagine more ridiculous accusations at home, though she tries not to let the slow-burning and eternal irritation show; and she's good at that, at the very least.

Hardly a moment to breathe, let alone think, since she got here. Spoiler being alive, Grayson being Robin, and then plague, bombs-- no, she's really not had much time to get a feel for the place. Using this thing seems to be the done thing, though, and at the very least, is a means for keeping tabs on people, known or otherwise. )

I imagine, with all the rebuilding that everyone will be busy for quite a while. Are there any programs that need support staff, right now? I'm a history teacher, at home.

( Let's see what we get. There's no time like the present, right? )

Comments

voice;

[5055034455]

History, eh? Whose?

[crossbearing]

Depending on the curriculum, a mixture of American and World history. A version of Earth.

( Hello, Saul Goodman. She remembers you. )

[5055034455]

With a focus on any specific era, or...?

[Hello, lady with the pretty accent.

'sup.]

[crossbearing]

I had to teach from all over the place, really. High school requires a lot of flexibility.

When I was at university I focused on Sicilian history. ( In part because in Sicily but also because studying the mafia in her own time. )

[5055034455]

Oh, ugh. High school? You must be one patient woman.

[Teenagers.

Teenagers.]

So let me hazard a guess, here: you're Sicilian?

[crossbearing]

I find teenagers and children to be far more honest than adults. Adults have a tendency to dismiss them too quickly.

( They do, however, have their moments. Gum under the fucking desks, man. )

Correct. And you are American.

( Joyous day. )

[5055034455]

[Honest? She must work at one hell of a school. Plagiarizing little shits, etc. etc.

As hers was, his wry smile is audible.]

Correct.

[crossbearing]

( Emotionally honest, really. At least, they make more sense than adults. She is aware of all the other problems. )

My condolences.

[5055034455]

[Really.

Has she not seen Degrassi, or what?

Her response gets a genuine laugh out of him.]

Wow. Not a fan of the ol' red, white, and blue?

[crossbearing]

( She is just good at life. )

I've lived there too long to be a fan.

( Gotham.

Not that she thinks Sicily is perfect. )

[5055034455]

[A click of his tongue, followed by a frown she can't see.]

That's a shame. Whereabouts?

[crossbearing]

( Evading the truth will cause problems later, she suspects. And Stephanie is so much more lax about her identity, that she wonders what clues people would pick up simply by their association. It's a pain, and she'll tell her as much. )

Gotham. Do you know it?

( Lightly, as if she doesn't know that he knows the potential implications. )

[5055034455]

Know of. Never been there, personally.

[So it's not a lie, really, because he hasn't. But it's not the whole truth, either. Just like he didn't give the whole truth to Kate.

...or anyone, really.]

From what I've heard, though, I can see how living there might get old fast.

[crossbearing]

Lucky you.

( A drawn out pause. )

Gotham is a complicated city. She gets into your blood.

[5055034455]

[Word choice, word choice. Saul arches an eyebrow Helena can't see. When he speaks again, he sounds innocently curious:] There aren't many things in this world that get into someone's blood without doing damage.

[Infections, contagions, parasites...

He hasn't forgotten a single detail from Stephanie's accounts of what happened to her, back in Gotham.]

Why didn't you just move somewhere else?

[crossbearing]

That is what took me to Sicily. "Just move somewhere else."

( She scoffs. No, Gotham is a parasite, the kind that will kill you if you ever try to drag it out. Gotham is death, and symbiosis. Gotham has almost killed her, but it gave meaning to her life in the same breath. )

Unless you have lived there, you can never understand.

[5055034455]

You had to let it get that far under your skin before you realized you should move?

[Not accusatory; still just curious. But he won't argue with her about not understanding, because no, he doesn't. Everything about Gotham goes clear over his head and just brings to mind comic books and cartoons.

It's a problem.]

[crossbearing]

I didn't realise I should move; it was out of my hands.

( She was eight years old, and a systematic slaughter of everyone holding the Bertinelli name was in motion.

Gotham took away all she had. It robbed her of her mother, it robbed her mother of a chance to be anything but Franco Bertinelli's wife.

Abruptly: )

Where are you from?

[5055034455]

[Saul's not good with considering things like childhoods. So that's a complicated question — where is he from originally? From after his parents got divorced? After his mom re-married? From after all that happened again?

There's only one easy answer.]

Albuquerque.

[crossbearing]

If only place names counted in Scrabble.

( Let's be honest, being able to spell that would be a killer for word score.

So what if she gets her students to play scrabble on rainy days? It helps with spelling. )

[5055034455]

[He chuckles. If only.]

Right? I think that'd be impossible anyway, though. Isn't there only one Q? ...unless you get a blank tile, but that won't do you any good points-wise.

[crossbearing]

I'm not sure how you could built it out of another word, either; seven tiles maximum for a player at any time, after all.

( Absently noted. She's troubled about other things. )

[5055034455]

Buque, if you're playing in Spanish.

[He is a fount of useless knowledge, sometimes.]

[crossbearing]

Perhaps we can play in Italian.

( it'd be a massacre


aha )

[5055034455]

I don't know enough Italian for that. I could try to wing it, I guess, but you'd probably kill me.

[ahahahaha?

But really, Helena, don't get his hopes up. Now he wants to play.

:( ]