(ง'̀-'́)ง (hairbender) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-07-05 01:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, asami sato, h g wells |
This is not the best time of year for me, not since I dreamt of it.
Who: Asami and Helena
What: cheering Helena up because it's a bad day for her
when: 7/3/17
Where: FI workshop
Status: complete
Rating: PG-13
It was that time of year again, the one that Helena always dreaded. She couldn’t express how much she hated this time of year, how much she hated the fact that she would get so worked up over the death of her daughter in the dreams. The pain, the anger, the rage, the despair would always come crashing down on her no matter how much she felt that she’d made progress. But she had at least accepted it would be a pain she’d always feel.
Yes, her daughter was alive in this world, but the one from her dreams had died horribly and tragically. And that would be something she’d always feel.
This morning, she’d come into Asami’s lab to work. Partly for a change of scenery and partly so Harley and Christina didn’t have to deal with her antics for a little while today. She’d come in early and was very busy working on a circuit board to go in something she was working on. She had some tea sitting by her, but it had long since gone cold.
Asami needed the distraction herself. Though her problems were a lot less important than Helena’s. A dream girlfriend showing up and ruining a budding relationship didn’t compare to the death of a child, so she kept her conflict to herself as she brought Helena a fresh cup of tea and a bagel. “How’s it going?”
Helena was pulled out of her working trance when she heard Asami. She looked up at her, managing a smile, though it was just a mask and not one she actually felt. “Things are progressing. I may be able to have this prototype in working condition sooner than expected.”
Typical that she’d respond about the project she was obviously working on, and not taking a more personal take on the question.
“What exactly is it? I’ve been trying to figure out on my own, but I give up.” Asami hopped onto a table and swung her legs. The only outward sign of her own distress was the way she kept squeezing her palm between thumb and forefinger.
Normally, Helena would pick up on the palm squeezing, but right now she was too distracted. Or maybe far too hyper-focused was the better way to put it. “A scale model of a Tripod from War of the Worlds. Minus the heat ray function.” She was constructing the circuits and the body of it first. She’d add the legs later that would have given it away.
“Remote controlled? Or self-driving?” Asami was immensely curious, and she should have known better but she hadn’t guessed. Probably because the design didn’t match any movies. “You could put a heat ray function. Just enough to warm someone like a heater.”
“Self-driving,” Helena clarified. She had only seen a very select few clips from movie adaptations of her books, mostly confined to trailers she’d seen on TV in this life. They’d definitely changed her original designs. “Perhaps, but that is not my intent with this model. I am testing the self-driving capabilities that I can program into it.”
They’d have to watch them, Asami thought. She always liked the old 50s one. “That’s fair. You know, you could probably patent the design and technology.”
She leaned in closer peering at the machinery. For some reason her vision blurred - her chances of poaching Lena for Future Industries was yet another fallout from everything. “I could market it for you. High end radio enthusiasts. Or toys.”
Helena looked at Asami. “You really think so?” She hadn’t actually considered that, only that she needed to work currently. “Radio enthusiasts may be the better market. I would rather not market these as toys.”
“Could make cheaper plastic versions for kids and amateurs,” Asami pointed out. “And then these versions for people who are really serious. It’s the same way with drones. A $50.00 drone to learn on, then that $400.00 model.”
Helena leaned back in her chair, pondering that. “You believe there is a market for them? Both as children’s toys and the serious collector?” Obviously, she was more than aware of the reach her books had in this world, but she still wasn’t completely sure if it would have any shelf life.
“Little walking tripods? Definitely. Kids and adults would love them! War of the Worlds did have it’s copyright expire at the end of last year.” That meant that Helena could do what she wanted, even write a sequel and not be sued. Though there probably were already a couple sequels.
“Well then, perhaps there is appeal to that. Though we should wait and see how this prototype turns out before getting ahead of ourselves. It may not even work the way I want it to.” Which wasn’t saying anything about her ability to program. It was more functionality. Though she already knew there would probably need to be several versions of the prototype made to work out issues and so forth.
“Like we couldn’t break it down and make it work.” Asami enjoyed working with Helena. Her gazed drifted to the window and the hangar in view. What was she going to do with that Mustang now? Lena wouldn’t still want to work on it, would she? And Asami didn’t have the appetite to work on it without her.
“Now how are you really feeling?”
“One way or another, we shall make it work.” It at least gave Helena a definite project to work on while she got through this time of year. Keeping herself busy when she didn’t sleep would be good. And sleep came in short spurts at this time of year, and it was always riddled with nightmares of losing not only Christina, but Harley and everyone else she cared about.
“Why do you ask?” Helena responded, trying to work around answering and not lying about how she felt. At least she’d made progress where she wouldn’t lie and say she was fine. At least not with the people closest to her.
“You seem distracted. I know what’s distracting me, and I can guess what’s distracting you. But it might make you feel a little better talking about it.”
Helena drew in a breath and it let it out slowly. This wasn’t exactly an easy thing to talk about. “The day my daughter died is approaching.” Bastille Day, July 14th. It was just one more reason Helena hated Paris specifically, and France generally. “This is not the best time of year for me, not since I dreamt of it.” She didn’t like having this kind of emotional baggage from her dreams, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
“Maybe you should do something special with her.” Emotional dream baggage was the worst kind of baggage, and Asami buried hers even deeper down. It wasn’t important, not right now. “Just the two of you on that day. Replace the terrible memory with a good one. It’s… what I’m going to do with Korra, when she gets to certain dreams.”
“Perhaps I should. I am just fearful that I would not be able to control my mood.” Helena drew in a deep breath and leaned back in her seat. “Though perhaps taking her to Disneyland or some place of that nature may not be such a bad idea. Something where I could watch her enjoy herself and maybe even enjoy myself a little. Though the latter is extremely difficult to manage.”
“Something tells me, that when you see the smile on her face you’ll be able to smile too.” Asami had no experience with children, but she thought it had to be similar to dear friends, at least where sharing emotion might be concerned.
“Seeing her smile does tend to make me smile.” Christina had been her life for so long, that their happiness did tend to rub off on one another. Helena also had a very strong bond to her daughter.
“There you go. Take her to Disneyland on the 14th, and make it a special day just for the two of you.” Problem solved! Or at least greatly reduced.
“Then I shall make the arrangements for that.” At least it was also summer, so she didn’t have to work around Christina’s school activities. It wouldn’t solve the problem, but hopefully it would make things a little more bearable.
“If you need anything, let me know.” Asami put her hand on Helena’s. “And that goes for anything, any time.+”
This time, a more genuine little smile crossed her face. “Thank you, Asami. I do appreciate it.” And she really did. It helped having people around who didn’t take her crap or take her at face value.
This time, Asami wrapped her arms around Helena, and maybe she needed a bit of a hug herself. “Brainiacs have to stick together.”
Helena returned the hug tightly, rubbing Asami’s back a bit. “We most certainly do.” She definitely appreciated it.