It’s Christmas! You can be the ghost of Christmas present! Who: Harley and Helena What: Karma is a bitch. Meaning thanks to her dreams, Helena’s now a hologram. When: Morning December 3rd Where: Harley's house Warnings: none Status: Complete
Helena’s dreams had been silent since she’d gone off the rails, so to speak. While that was welcome considering she needed the respite to try and begin putting her mind back together and extracting herself from her dream self, it still left her with a sense of dread for what was to come. She hadn’t yet seen what punishment she was going to receive from the Regents, and the way her last dream ended hadn’t felt like an ending.
Her waiting had come to an end the previous night. And the punishment she’d received had been anything but what she’d expected. The Regents hadn’t killed her nor had they bronzed her again. They had done something else. Something that she hated.
The Janus Coin, an Artifact named for the Roman god Janus, had the ability to strip a person’s consciousness from their body. That consciousness would be stored on the coin itself, while the body was left with no memory of anything, and thus needing to be given a new identity. Sitting across from Regent Kosan, he explained what would happen, and Helena reluctantly allowed him to do it. Not that she’d had a choice in the matter because she didn’t. And she really didn’t want to be bronzed again, so it was complying with the coin being used on her. Helena’s memories were stripped from her one by one, from the beginning of her life up to the present moment.
Until finally, there was nothing.
Helena woke up with a start, though the instant she did, she found herself having fallen through the bed. Sitting up, she looked around, her head and shoulders popping out of the bed where she’d been sleeping, the rest of her body not being seen, but it definitely wasn’t under the covers.
“Bloody hell,” she muttered, briefly wondering if she was still asleep. But as she lifted one of her arms, she saw how her body wasn’t solid. Her arm passed clear through the mattress and blankets, then returned to looking normal once it wasn’t passing through anything. A horrifying thought occurred to her, and she stood up and looked herself over. She looked like a solid person like she normally did. But there was something different.
Walking over to the wall, Helena lifted her hand and pressed it against the wall. However, instead of her palm pressing against the hard surface, it simply passed through the wall as though she were a ghost.
And she didn’t feel anything.
“No. No no no.” She spoke as she pulled her hand back and stared at it. She wasn’t real. She could pass through solid objects. And her dreams had put her in this state. “No!” She exclaimed, completely forgetting that Harley was there.
Harley had been deep in sleep. Whether she was reliving a nightmare or a dream wasn't exactly clear, but it was forgotten when Helena's scream woke her up. She groggily sat up, pushing a sleep mask up onto her forehead and then rubbing one of her eyes. Everything was still a little blurry, and it was way too early in the morning, especially after Harley had busted out the good stuff the night before.
"Dollface? What's wrong?"
All at once, Helena wanted to scream and cry. To rage. To do anything to vent what she was feeling currently. But as it was, she couldn’t even lash out at anything because she would simply go right through it. This was not what she needed to happen. Yes, it was punishment that was needed after the things she’d done, but for the effects to carry over into her waking life? That seemed a little uncalled for.
At least she’d taken time off work, otherwise she’d have to have Harley dial and hold the phone for her so she could call in sick or something. But that did nothing to help alleviate her worries as they currently stood.
Though when she heard Harley, she looked over at her, tears hanging in her eyes, but not yet moving down her cheeks.
“My dreams have struck again.” She did, however, count her blessings that she hadn’t woken up with the Janus Coin being a gift to her.
Harley chewed on her lip, slipping out of bed. Her night clothing had consisted of red santa pants and a t-shirt with a cross-eyed reindeer on it. Something that wasn't entirely to the mood of the moment but that was typically a Harley thing. Be off in mood just a little bit but most of the time that seemed to help. She stretched, then padded over to Helena with the bearing of someone who was half-afraid she'd startle a deer.
"Tell me bout it?" She reached to pull Helena into her arms, only to grab air and stumble through her and into the wall. "Oof! That's new!"
The one good thing in all of this was that Helena was clothed. Albeit in a tanktop and pajama bottoms, but the clothes at least stuck and were as holographic as the rest of her. When Harley reached for her, she tried to say something, but it was too late. Harley went through her, and Helena didn’t even feel it. Her incorporeal body shimmered as Harley passed through her, though she went back to looking like a normal, solid person once the ripples stopped a few moments after Harley passed through her.
Helena took a few steps, then turned to look at Harley. The urge to scream was intense, but she suppressed it. However, the urge to cry was very much still there.
“I received my punishment for trying to end the world. Instead of being bronzed, they used an Artifact called the Janus Coin which pulled my consciousness out of my body. Everything went black after I was taken out of my body, but apparently now I’m just a bloody hologram.” And then she moved to punch the wall in frustration, but her fist just passed through it, and she let out a pathetically frustrated noise.
Harley rubbed her head where she'd smacked it, and turned to look at her girlfriend. Her mouth made a fish shape and then she chewed on her lip. But it wasn't so bad, she was alive and she was there, they couldn't touch but she was there. She kept her freak to herself, even if she reached to pat Helena on the shoulder only for her hand to pass through her. She made her own frustrated noise. "Can you even feel that? Does it hurt? Why didn't they just kill you that would've been kinder."
As Harley’s hand passed through her again, Helena again wanted to cry. She understood why she needed to be punished, but she didn’t want to suffer this in her waking life. And if she stayed like this, how would she be able to work? Or keep up her relationship with Harley? Or hug her daughter or anyone ever again? “I bloody wish they had killed me. But the Regents aren’t kind. I may be incredibly sadistic when I want to be, but they’re far worse than I could ever be.”
"That's bullshit." It wasn't fair. It was torture, it was cruel, it was something a villain right out of Gotham would do. Sure beat up someone who deserved it but at least end them. There were only a few crimes worth actual torture over, and honestly Harley didn't consider near-extinction one of them. What kind of person that made her she didn't want to think about. "What if you got free, that'd only make you crazier!"
“Precisely my point.” The only positive to her current situation as opposed to when her dream self had been bronzed and she’d been paralyzed was that she could talk and move around. She just couldn’t touch anything. Really, what was it with her dream self always being deprived of one or more of her senses? Helena really didn’t like this trend. Though one of the previous questions Harley had asked finally registered in her mind. “No, I can’t feel anything when you try to touch me. And it doesn’t hurt. I simply don’t feel anything in the physical sense.”
“That has to be maddening. It would drive me crazy. But at least you can hear and talk. Imagine if you… couldn’t see, or feel… In your dreams did you …” She flailed her hands. “Know you were but ain’t sensing anything? Like a sensory deprivation chamber?”
“More than maddening, really. I simultaneously want to scream and cry.” Helena brushed a hand through her hair. And when she did, she still appeared to be a solid person, even if she couldn’t actually feel her fingers moving through her hair. “Yes, you’re right, it could be wore. I am at least able to see, hear and speak. I cannot touch, and I obviously cannot eat in this state either.” Though at the question, Helena thought back on her dream. “I have no idea. While I was conscious in the dream, I was still in my body. When everything went black shortly before I woke up, I assume that’s when I was fully on the Janus Coin. I suppose that in and of itself is akin to the state of death as there was nothing.”
That was trippy. Harley felt like she needed to be on some kind of drug but unfortunately her dealer (Pamalam could grow just about any kind of natural drug she wanted, in seconds) wasn’t exactly around. “That..probably ain’t so bad. I mean it sounds like you were basically sleeping, instead of floating around in some kind of Lovecraftian void. If you’d never woken up it probably would have been like being dead.”
“Yes, most likely. I will say as terrible as it is, it is slightly more humane than having been bronzed. With this, I certainly wasn’t conscious once I was fully on the Coin.” Which yes, Helena knew it sounded like a trip to explain, but that was her world. Artifacts could do all manner of strange things. “Though this is not precisely ideal for my waking life. I mean, how am I supposed to do anything?”
“I dunno. You can’t even do me!” Harley threw up her hands like that was somehow the worst outrage. “What happens if you gotta poop?! Is it gonna just fall through the earth and out the other side? Can you get hot? Cold? Too bad you can’t open up vaults from the inside….”
Well, not being able to do Harley was definitely very high on the list of outrages about this situation. “I have no idea. I don’t think I’m even breathing currently.” Which was odd because she was able to talk. She could apparently run her fingers through her own hair. But she couldn’t touch anything else, and she was fairly certain she wasn’t breathing. She couldn’t feel her heart beating either. “This would be so much easier if I had the ability to touch things.”
“There’s probably something scientifically screwy about that.” Harley reached over, pretending to grab Helena’s boobs. “I wonder if there’s a way to read you. Like with sensors or something.”
She was taking this way too well now.
“There really is.” Though she arched her brows as Harley pretended to grab her breasts. There was even a short, amused little chuckle at it. “That I do not know. It could be possible. I mean, I am still here in some capacity.” Though Helena was at a loss for what, precisely, that meant.
“You can’t use a network can you.” Harley frowned. “I’ll have to ask on online if there’s anyone that wants to get all science projecty!” But she’d fight them if they wanted to really hurt Helena. “If you want I mean.”
“No, I can’t.” Which suddenly reminded her of something else she couldn’t do. “You are free to ask. Though while you’re at it, I need you to dial a phone for me. Specifically calling Anatoly. I should tell him what has happened since I have an appointment with him tomorrow. Which I can still attend, I just may need you to come with me, if you’re free, to open the doors for me.”
Harley nodded her head. “I’ll ring him up when it’s not bumfuck early in the morning.” She leaned against the end table, worrying at her lip. “Wait, you could just walk through the doors can’t ya?”
“Yes, I can.” Helena looked at the wall, then just shrugged as though she held a brief conversation with herself in her head, and then she just walked through the wall. After a few moments, she poked her head back through the wall and looked at Harley. “You know, if this had happened on Halloween, I could’ve made the best ghost ever.” And now it was Helena’s turn to focus on the lighter side of things because it was easier than her starting to cry at any rate.
“Are you kidding me? It’s Christmas! You can be the ghost of Christmas present!” She flailed her arms and then bounced in place. “WE CAN PRANK PEOPLE!”
Helena came back through the wall completely and tilted her head a bit. “That could certainly be something to do. I have no idea how long I’ll be in this state, but might as well try and make some light of it to keep from losing my mind any further.”
“I love love love it!” She bounced in place again, then settled down. “I’ll take you in tomorrow, I think…”
“Well...I may need to walk. A car will probably pass through me as well.” Helena pursed her lips. “Or I could just ask Anatoly to make a house call. Because walking to his office may draw more attention than needed. I can’t exactly put winter clothes on over this either.” And then she sighed. “Or maybe I should just cancel the appointments until this passes. If it passes, anyway.”
"We'll do the housecall doll. I'll pay him extra. It's worth it and it'll be easier that way." Harley's voice was soothing and reassuring. "I'm sure he'll be okay for an extra hundred bucks an hour."
Helena managed a little smile. “Thank you, love. I appreciate that. With any luck this shall be the only appointment needing to be changed.” Though she wouldn’t be holding her breath on that matter.
Harley made a kissy motion, then blew a kiss at her. It was the best she could do. “What do you think will happen? If it keeps going for a long time?” She didn’t want to think about it, but she had to.
Helena caught the kiss, then blew one back to Harley. “I have no idea. I do not know what is sustaining me in this state other than my dreams. I am hoping, and rather concluding, that considering I am in this state due to my dreams, my dreams are not yet completed. So I would hope at some point I may become a solid person again in this life.” She also didn’t want to think about the long term ramifications, especially as they pertained to her relationship with Harley and to her daughter.
It was enough to make Harley blush. And to curse a little. But there was definitely some hope to the idea that it might be fixable, even if it was just a dream fix. Harley wanted to be an optimist, she usually was. She had to be, to survive. “It’ll be fine. Promise.”
“I hope so.” Helena was fast becoming a pessimist after everything her dreams had thrown at her, but she would try to hold onto some amount of optimism. “At least this time I can hold conversations.” Which was a vast improvement from having been completely immobile and unable to speak when she’d been bronzed.
“There is that. And I can tease ya, ya know.” Harley winked. It was painful not to touch her. She was surprised by how much, but she was a very touchy person. She liked to drape herself on people and her hands tended to wander.
Helena had no idea how long this was going to last, but it was already torture to her. She just wanted to reach out and hug Harley, to touch her. But as it was, she would need to make do for the time being. “Well, I wouldn’t object to the teasing. It would only make things that much better once I am a physical person again.”
Harley grinned. “Well, you better get comfy, cuz I’m about to put on a show for you.” What? She could be a little pervy.