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

[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.

:( ]

[crossbearing]

Only in the literal sense.

( So friendly. )

Is that what you do with your time here? Play board games?

[5055034455]

...wow, okay, maybe I don't wanna play Scrabble with you after all.

[What is that, huh? Extreme Scrabble? Scrabble: Sicilian Edition? Scrabble: One of These Tiles is Laced with Anthrax???]

And no, not really. Is that what you do with your time here? Kill people?

[crossbearing]

You Americans are too soft. In Sicily, the stakes are high.

( No, she's just being a dick. Or trying to joke?

There's a reason she's bad at friends. )

Only when they try to pass off mud as espresso.

( her life is really hard. )

[5055034455]

[...oh no are they about to bond over shitty coffee? Maybe she's not so bad at friends, because it's suddenly like she didn't fake(?)-threaten his life at all.]

Oh my God. Right? These assholes. I don't think decent coffee exists anywhere in this place.

[crossbearing]

( A snort; really? She didn't think Americans would be well qualified for this conversation. )

To be clear, Starbucks is not decent coffee, either.

It'll be here, probably in the Hold.

( For Initiative private use.

Yeah, she's never been a fan of the State. )

[5055034455]

[Whoa, Helena. Whoa. Don't go badmouthing Starbucks. That's a personal offense.]

First of all, Starbucks is decent. I keep my expectations low, see? I'm looking for decent coffee, not amazing coffee. But, hey, if you suspect we're being held out on — and who doesn't, am I right? — then let's team up and raid the place. Seriously. I'm desperate.

[Never mind that he works for them and could probably just.

You know.

Ask, maybe, instead of getting fired. Job perks, right? Except probably not.]

[crossbearing]

It is all milk and sugar.

( No, don't try to tell her otherwise. She is a coffee snob. Sicilian and an heiress? Yeah, total coffee snob. Never mind how much bad coffee she has tolerated for the sake of all nighters and general madness. )

Teachers are not well equipped to raid anything. I can advise you on tactics, if you insist.

[5055034455]

[Pfft. Not everyone can be so lucky. Anyway, Saul prefers Cuban espresso over the traditional Italian.

File under: THINGS HE WILL NEVER SAY OUT LOUD TO HER.]

Not equipped to raid, but equipped to advise? Hm. Interesting.

[crossbearing]

( Dryly: ) There is a great deal to be learned from history.

[5055034455]

And from living in Gotham, I suspect.

[Not that he's saying there's a connection, but that's totally what he's saying.

...saying it nonchalantly, of course.]