Exsilium - IC Contact

[bodilesswarrior]

Line 1:

This is Barbara. Leave a message and I'll get back to you.

Line 2:

Oracle speaking.

Comments

[crossbearing]

You look shocked, and yet I hear no denial.

( Ha. Ha.

Smugly, Helena leans back against her pillows, fingers laced together behind her head as she watches Barbara. )

Guilty as charged.

[bodilesswarrior]

[She tries really hard to look sullen, rather than amused.] What happened to pleading the fifth?

[crossbearing]

That's boring.

( helena that's not a reason.

She's got her eyebrows raised, and part of her wonders how they can joke and be playful when she feels like her gut is falling away. )

[bodilesswarrior]

That's the law, thank you very much.

[Barbara, meanwhile, is laying back with a lazy smile. It's nice, to just - tease each other. No tension, no shouting, no tears.

Dinah left behind a hole in her chest, it feels like, but this - this makes it seem smaller.]

let's see if i can handle one thread LET'S SEE

[crossbearing]

Vigilantes act outside the law.

( Duh. And also, lol, Oracle obeying the law. )

Don't worry, sweetheart. I won't tell anyone.

I BELIEVE IN YOU~

[bodilesswarrior]

[Barbara crosses her arms above her head.] You better not. I know where you live.

THANK YOU

[crossbearing]

( A quiet scoff. Helena raises an eyebrow, sideyeing Barbara just a little.

Or a lot. )

Learn to trust, Babs.

( She's going to hate herself for this. )

[bodilesswarrior]

I do. [The words are softer, now, as she turns her head.]

[crossbearing]

Yeah?

( Echoing that quietness, facing Barbara a little more, and there's sincerity in this even as her stomach twists. ) Me too.

[bodilesswarrior]

Thank you. [There's an aching sincerity to the words, heavy with guilt.

After a moment, softer still.] You didn't need to give me another chance.

[crossbearing]

Yeah, I did.

( She needed the Birds more than they needed her. She needed Barbara and Dinah more than either of them had any clue of. They were the essentials and she was the part that needed to be cut away; the corruption in the flesh.

That only seemed to get more evident. She means to say something else, but it sticks in her throat and her gaze drops. Tallying up the sins against her soul again, and she has no idea what exactly it is that she's going to do. Protect Chloe and Charlie? Feed Barbara information? Sabotage?

Maybe Batman was right. )

[bodilesswarrior]

[And that - it never struck her, before, that Helena needed them. Needed her. It makes something twist inside her chest.

She made that happen, she and Dinah and Zinda, and then she abused it.

Fix it, Dinah had screamed it at her. She never should have broken it in the first place.]

I - [No. She's said her apologies; she needs something else, something more.]

I made a mistake, manipulating you. But recruiting you - that was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

[crossbearing]

( A quiet scoff, before she can quite catch it back. Her own incredulity is hard to mask. )

I thought I was the last resort.

( A little dryly, and maybe it could be playful, save for how brittle it was. It's true: she had been, hadn't she? Vicious, out of control, mentally unstable, excessive-- the list could go on. ) You uh, seem to recruit more blondes.

( As if she can twist this into a joke, but hey. Zinda and Dinah are both pretty fabulous blondes. And apparently training Stephanie in the future... yeah. )

[bodilesswarrior]

[A soft, indignant snort.] Please. I'm Oracle. If I really needed - I trusted you with Dinah's life, Helena.

[And then her eyebrows arch.] You asking for bleach?

[crossbearing]

Yeah. ( Softer, although it's difficult to remember that part, sometimes. ) Thanks.

( Dinah's life is worth a lot. Worth more than hers, certainly. ANd then, a quiet huff: )

Please, I made it through Swiss boarding school without bleaching my hair, I can survive you.

( Admittedly, that brief flitting temptation had been the familiar barb to stop being called greasy, having her heritage thrown at her like it was something terrible. It was one of those nervous, childish thoughts before her own pride and stubbornness kicked in. She was a Bertinelli and she would bow to none. Certainly not a collection of schoolgirls, whether they were older than her or not. )

[bodilesswarrior]

[That draws a smile, faint and full of admiration. She can't know, really, what that was like for Helena - but she does know it wasn't easy.

It's not the same thing, really, but she knows how people look at her. She can only imagine what it would have been like at school.]

Bet you looked better than all of them anyway. [And that's not really the point, but - well, it's true.]

[crossbearing]

( Amused, Helena huffs out a quiet laugh before twisting off her mattress, wandering the short distance between them to lean against Barbara's bedframe instead, one arm resting on the metal frame and the other propped at her hip as she looks down at her. )

Flattery, huh?

[bodilesswarrior]

[Barbara props herself up on her elbows, gaze almost coy as she looks up at Helena.]

I only flatter when I mean it.

[crossbearing]

Careful. You'll get yourself in trouble.

( quietly, confidentially, as if she were offering incredibly important advice.)