01 ✜ VOICE ✜ Huntress's Comm

[amiga]

[All that can be heard at first is this song. It is about halfway through when it suddenly (and appropriately) begins to quiet a little.]

Helluva wake up call you've got here.

[A beat.]

JSA, can you hear me, gang? What's your status? Robin? Come on, answer me!

[The first song ends, segueing nicely into this. She sighs heavily. This music is getting annoying.]

For whatever it's worth, I'm 99% sure I was dead, not half an hour ago. I could be mistaken, but that's not something a person just forgets. I was resting pretty peacefully. And I wasn't being bombarded with disco music.

This crap is giving me a headache. I've always been more of a Motown fan anyways.

[And as if on cue, the song changes. There's a muffled groan like she's exasperated.  Seriously, coming back from the dead and having Diana Ross piped at you really makes for a lousy day.]

Good grief! I'll bet Batman never had to deal with this crap! Come on, guys! What the hell just happened to me?

Comments

[video; Dick's comm; encrypted forever]

[batmantled]

[ it's not her. not again.

not this time.

which really is both a relief and a deep-down, hollow-inside disappointment. both things he can't really afford to work through now, while she's fresh out of the porter and obviously by herself. ]

The backing tracks must be new. I'm, uh- [ ...:c ]

...I bet you don't know who I am, do you?

[encrypted video always!]

[amiga]

[And this will be when Helena has a minor heart attack. Because OMG it's Dick and he's so very young and she hasn't seen him looking so young since she was like... ten. Does this mean this is the other Dick? The weird teen version that took over her Dick's life? This guy does seem a bit older than nineteen...

Welp.

Goodbye collected exterior. Hello on-the-verge-of-sobbing-ness. Also she's finally got the video function to work hooray!]

Dick. I could never, ever forget you. Never, ever.

[batmantled]

[ oh oh no. ]

...That's, um. Wow. You-

Listen, can we start over? You're Helena, right? Helena... Kyle? [ is it too much to hope for ]

[amiga]

[hopes... dashed. face... falling.

She shakes her head.]

Wayne.

[batmantled]

[ ...huh. so a world with her in it where bruce maybe isn't a deadbeat.

it's not an entirely unwelcome thought. ]

Bruce Wayne?

[amiga]

[Maybe this is a good sign? She nods quickly.]

Daddy.

[batmantled]

[ ...oh. well.

yeah, he kind of has to burst out laughing. just a bit. ]

Man. I guess we know who Dad loves best.

[ -and a beat ]

...I don't call him that, do I?

[amiga]

[When he laughs, she laughs. She can't help it, even if it is mostly nerves.]

No, never. Or at least not while I was in earshot.

[batmantled]

I'll have to test it out sometime. Just to see the look on his face.

[amiga]

That probably depends on which Bruce Wayne you tested it on.

[Speaking of which...]

Is he here? It doesn't have to be my dad. Uncle Bruce would know me, too.

[batmantled]

Uncle Bruce? [ wat helena ]

...No. Um-

It's actually been a few months. He did leave a lot of material goods behind, though, if it's any consolation. [ he knows it isn't ._. ]

[amiga]

Uncle Bruce is... the other version of Dad. The younger version. [A pause.] It's a world-hopping thing. I used to do it all the time.

[But this is curious. She doesn't know people can leave, so she's assuming he's dead. :c]

... What happened to him?

[batmantled]

So this stuff's got to be be old hat by now.

[ but oh this occurs to him belatedly. :c ]

It's pretty random who the porter sends back? I was actually [ dead ] home myself when he left. You won't remember anything about this place when you do go back.

[amiga]

Something like that. I shouldn't be so blasé about it, but this isn't my first rodeo. It just has a different set of rules.

[She takes this in for a moment, shaking her head once he's done speaking.]

I wouldn't remember anything anyway.

[batmantled]

[ oh watch his face just. fall. ]

...Right.

[amiga]

[oh dear :c]

Like I said, it's peaceful.

[also he was there with her....]

Say, I was wondering something. How did you recognize me?

[batmantled]

[ ...well there's a bit of a too-long pause. ]

I don't know how sane this is gonna sound right now, but the porter brought in another Helena a while back. Maybe not exactly you, but in the same general family of Helena's. We got to be pretty good friends.

[ wow look he even said that with a straight face. ]

[amiga]

[Even with the mask on she manages to give him a look.]

Was that Helena Bertinelli, or Helena Kyle?

[batmantled]

Trust me, Helena Bertinelli's not. Um-

[ welp that look sure wears him down. ]

She's the Huntress in my world, okay? And I'm 98% sure that's where the similarities end. The- other Helena doesn't exactly exist where I come from.

[amiga]

So no matter how I slice it, you're not my Dick.

[Disappointing, but still.]

The other Helena, Helena Kyle. Was she also... is she Bruce's daughter?

[batmantled]

Yeah, she was. Only she'd never met either of us before she ended up here.

[ oh he sees that disappointment, there. :c ]

...Honestly. I-

I mean, I know just hearing it from me has to be a poor consolation, but I'm sorry we're not people you know, Helena.

[amiga]

[She musters the most convincing smile she can, lips pursed as she nods.]

It's not your fault, Dick. It's not any of your faults.

[She even manages a small laugh, and it hardly sounds bitter at all!]

I have memories of two worlds and neither matches up to yours. But I wonder if there might be more in common than we realize.

[batmantled]

Well, we're both from Gotham. Kind of makes us family, in a way.

[ the emphasis on family there is mostly for him. ]

-Listen, are you... do you want to get something to eat? We could talk about it more in person.

[amiga]

Yes. We're family.

[She nods, looking somewhat relieved.]

That sounds nice. I should probably find a change of clothes first.