Who: Helena and Harley What: Dream things and worries When: Recent Where: Their house Status: complete Rating: PG-13
Helena hadn’t dreamt any further. It seemed to be a rather abrupt ending to her dream life, but at least she was alive and had a relationship that made her happy. It was all she could ask for after everything else she’d suffered in her life. Now and then she had some dream repeat themselves, though luckily mostly the ones that didn’t result in her waking up in a rage. That night she’d had another repeat dream, this one being when Claudia, Myka and Pete learned about the Janus Coin and the sphere that projected Helena. She agreed with Pete that the Janus Coin needed to be destroyed and talked Myka into letting him do it. It was for the greater good, and Helena had been ready to sacrifice herself to protect the Warehouse.
Of course, that wasn’t quite how things had gone, but nothing really went according to plan when Artifacts were involved. When Helena woke up, she felt that heaviness that came with the emotional weight of that dream. Slipping out of bed, she headed into the bathroom, washing her face and pulling on her robe. When she came back out, that’s when she noticed the black sphere sitting on the bedside table. Instantly, her demeanor changed. Her eyes turned icy and the features of her face grew harsher.
She walked over to it, but didn’t dare pick it up yet. Instead, she simply stared at it. The thing would be useless without the Janus Coin, and she seriously hoped that that Artifact didn’t show up.
"Mmm babe?" Harley sat up and stretched. She had a sleep mask on that had googly eyes glued to it, and a tank top that looked like it had seen better days.
She pushed the max off and looked at her wife. Something was very wrong, and she could almost feel the coldness wash off of Helena. Naturally, she said, "Brr... did it suddenly get chilly in here or is it just me?"
It wasn’t always for the best that when Helena was hit with negative emotions, she tended to get her current facial expression and get extremely guarded about her emotions. But it also wasn’t always for the best that she act on what she was feeling either. And right now she was some mix of angered and emotional over this ‘gift’ she’d received. Looking over at Harley briefly, she took a breath before picking up the black sphere. The only thing on it was that there was a slot for a coin to slip into. Otherwise its surface was completely smooth.
“A so-called gift from my dreams.” She held it out for her wife to see, and resisted the urge to try and crush the thing, which she knew she couldn’t. “This sphere is what projected my hologram during the time my consciousness was on the Janus Coin.”
“Oh.” Harley came out of bed, wanting to get a better look at it. “So this is whatcha were in? Kinda like a pokeball. I don’t recommend searching for pokemon with safe search off. I’ve seen things with Bulbasaur that haunt me.”
She reached out. “Can I touch it?”
“Not precisely. I was in the Janus Coin. This device is just some holographic projector.” It was probably more technical than that, but Helena hadn’t put much into figuring that out. The hologram thing tended to piss her off to the point that she didn’t look into anything regarding it.
“Yes, it’s harmless.” She held it out closer to Harley for her to touch it, or even take it in hand. It was roughly the size of a magic 8 ball, perhaps a little larger. While there was a tiny button, which looked like a reset button that needed a pin to push it, that revealed the slot for the Coin, the only other thing about the sphere was that it also worked a little like a puzzle box, in that the top half lifted, twisted and came back down, which was how the hologram was activated. However, with nothing inside of it to activate currently, nothing would happen.
So it wasn’t really like a pokeball. Maybe with the right paintjob. A bit of red and white. Harley took it and spun it around in her palm. She tried to twist and activate it, but nothing happened. Pouting at Helena, she held it out. “It’s busted!”
“It is not busted, it simply needs the Janus Coin with someone’s consciousness on it inserted in it. Then it would work.” Or perhaps a different trigger mechanism could be worked out, but she’d let Asami handle that. “Without that, it’s rather just a boring black sphere that holds negative connotations for me.” It had been her prison, a way for the Regents to control her and let her help when they needed her too. However, it had also kept her entirely more isolated. It was a fate akin to being bronzed, except that she at least wasn’t conscious when the thing wasn’t activated.
“Oh. Well that’s good. It’s kinda pretty.” She really wanted to see it work, but she also knew what it meant to Helena. The negative side of it. What it had done to her and what it mean to be a prisoner unable to touch anything. And she still remembered when that had really happened and how hard it had been on the both of them. But they’d come through it stronger together.
“I suppose in its own way, it is pretty.” It was a pretty black sphere, even if she wasn’t convinced that it was all that pretty, it had its own beauty. She didn’t even know who had created it in the first place. And she didn’t really want to know. “I’ll give it to Asami, see if she can make anything useful out of it. As it is, it’s useless simply sitting here gathering dust.”
“What about sawing it in half?” Harley suggested. “To see how it works or what’s inside? But I guess if you don’t wanna damage it…”
If it could store a person or something or make a realistic hologram it could maybe be useful. Harley could see supervillain uses for it which was only mildly concerning. “If it was me I’d wanna smash it.”
“Believe me, all I wish to do is smash it. But I also know it’s not precisely responsible for my imprisonment. This was merely the window to my cell that allowed me to see the outside world once in awhile.” It was a rather poetic way to look at it, but that was more or less the truth of it.
“Not to mention I doubt Asami would forgive me if I destroyed this without her at least getting a look at it.”
“Well, we should let your girlfriend take a peaksy, I guess.” Harley winked at her. “Maybe you’re right an’ it could be turned to something good. We got so much bad sometimes that turning the bad to good is kinda… nice. Like tracin’ a scar.”
Helena lifted an eyebrow at Harley’s comment, but she just smiled softly and shook her head. She didn’t agree with that, Asami wasn’t her girlfriend. But she could take the statement without refuting it out loud. “Precisely. This could have something good come out of it. My time machine, however, couldn’t have much good come out of it.” Though it had also been a personal catharsis for her to pulverize it. And what good could come out of it, she’d already handed over to Asami to do something with.
“I guess we’ll find out.” Harley wrapped her arms around Helena, and faced her nose-to-nose. “I worry about you sometimes. I know what this shit does to you and… I don’t wanna lose you. So no matter what happens to you in your dreams, that ain’t you. That don’t have to be you.”
She wrapped her arms around Harley and took in a slow breath. “I know I have a choice here. I didn’t suffer the same atrocities my dream self did. I thought that I’d moved past these issues. But clearly things can still trigger these responses. But I promise that you aren’t going to lose me, love.”
“Write that down. Next time you need to talk to someone, y’know, professionally.” Harley could only ever offer unprofessional and wifely advice. Though her advice right now was probably ‘go find someone for meaningless and wild banging you really need it.’
“I’ll put that in writing,” she responded. Helena needed the reminder sometimes. Some days were more difficult than others. Right now, Helena wasn’t quite certain that she needed meaningless and wild banging, she wasn’t precisely in the mood for that. But perhaps getting her mind off the dreams and onto something else would help.
If not wild banging, then something else. Harley separated from Helena and tugged on her hands. “I know it’s real late but lets put a stupid movie on and I’ll give you a nice footrub while we watch.”
Helena had to smile a bit at that. “I think that sounds like an excellent idea, love.” It would at least get her mind off of certain things she didn’t want to think about. Plus it was time spent with her wife, and she never said no to that.