(Untitled)
Who: Helen and Deneve
When: Nowish
Where: The Foxhole
Format: Action, present tense
What: Questions and clearing ups.
Warnings: Always the possibility of language with Helen.
( tell me when you hear my silence )
When: Nowish
Where: The Foxhole
Format: Action, present tense
What: Questions and clearing ups.
Warnings: Always the possibility of language with Helen.
( tell me when you hear my silence )
What is that?
[Deneve raises an eyebrow at the circlet. Helen can't be expecting her to actually put that on.]
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[Okay, maybe she doesn't want Deneve to answer that one.]
It's a souvenir. I didn't know if you'd go to that fair thing, so I brought a part of back to you.
[The latter part of her words are said through a mouthful of deep-fried bird, of which she also offers out to Deneve.]
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[She crosses her arms and leans against a wall. Which might look a bit standoffish to anyone who didn't know her. But actually she's relatively relaxed.]
I was there for a short while.
[And while she doesn't say outright that she didn't care for it, there is no interest in her voice.]
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[Helen folds her arms behind her head and leans her chair back on two legs.]
The fights were kinda quaint. I've seen better.
[She's watching Deneve through her one good eye.]
Heard I missed a damn good one.
[Her words might sound vague to the average ear. But Deneve's is hardly that.]
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Where did you hear that?
[She asks even though she already knows.]
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Don't you think it's where I didn't hear it that matters?
[She isn't as good at hiding her own emotions. Opposites in so many ways.
Anger, confusion, fear, all those and more flicker across Helen's face.]
Why the hell didn't you tell me about that?
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There was nothing to tell.
[She can hope the conversation will end there, that Helen will let her keep this buried like she has been for the past weeks. But really, she knows better.]
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Seriously, Dene? You're not actually asking me to buy that, are you?
[She huffs.]
Is this because Pris had to rescue you?
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It would also be incorrect.]
I wasn't badly hurt.
[Pointed glare at Helen's injured eye.]
And I still couldn't strike him.
[And she would say 'rescue.' It was probably the word Priscilla herself had used. As if Deneve was some little nothing that needed saving.]
I didn't want her help. And I don't want to talk about it.
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So, what, you need to be half-dead before I can be bothered to know about it? And hell, I'm glad she was there to help you!
[Flashbacks of Pieta, how that guy started picking off their best like it was nothing. For Denever to have faced him one-on-one...
Helen grits her teeth, one hand forming such a tight fist that her fingers feel locked in place.]
Fine, we won't talk about her.
[Because she doesn't let Priscilla talk about Deneve either.]
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{After all these years, she's sure Helen knows when Deneve is stonewalling her.
Doesn't stop her from trying, though.
But Helen's concession at least is a relief. She's sick to death of talking about Priscilla lately. It's beginning to make her want to break things. Which begins to make her wonder if Helen has actually started rubbing off on her.]
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[Helen knows it's a battle of wills, and that Deneve just might be more stubborn than she is.]
I don't care if a dog tries to hike his leg on you, I wanna hear about it! Dammit, Deneve!
[It's rare for her to use Deneve's full name these days. They've been friends for so long, Helen doesn't think they even need words sometimes. Only sometimes.
It takes a moment for her own temper to dwindle, because that's how she is, explosive, loud and hot, an inferno one minute and a campfire the next.]
Just...don't shut me out. Not me.
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Because it's not as though Helen's words don't reach her. They do, the yelling and the asking both. Helen has always been the best at getting through to her, even when no one else could. But while someone else might meet that emotion with her own, Deneve only glances aside, eyes to the floor, and lowers her voice.]
You weren't there. I didn't see a need to worry you over a failure that came to nothing.
[She pauses, and the silence in the bar seems very heavy.]
I shouldn't have tried to fight him without you.
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[On that much, they can agree.
Would she have made the situation better? Or worse? That's anybody's guess.]
I'm gonna find a healer for my eye.
[Helen mutters miserably. Because yeah, she did go and get her fool self hurt and rescued too.]
Hey.
[]
Are you really not gonna put on the crown?
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[But she doesn't sound harsh. Or at least not as harsh as usual. She just doesn't like seeing Helen with a wound like that and synchronizing yoki was never a strong point for her.
... pause.]
Why? So you really want me to?
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No one ever has to know. Think of it as our way of making up.
This time.
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