indispensible | ten. spam & video. like the empires of the world unite.

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ten. spam & video. like the empires of the world unite.

spam } open

[It doesn't take Vin long to realize that the people she is seeing who look like Elend aren't really Elend. It wouldn't make sense for him to be here, after all. They are illusions - she understands later, a wish gone wrong. And anyway, most of them are walking around without a book in hand. Not him. The thought almost makes her smile.]

[But the first expression she gives the people who wear Elend's image is a dual flash of sorrow and joy, an incomprehensible twist of emotion that she'd much rather conceal. This, though, she can't control, and turns away as quickly as possible when she feels it creeping across her face.]

video } open

[She is in her cabin now, a large stone room expensively furnished, and looking annoyed. There is a pile of records in front of her, and in the background, Lunatic of God's Creation Is playing.]

This is ridiculous. I can't figure out how to make it stop.

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[Her hand rests over her belly.]

That's what I am. A furnace. I eat the metal, and it fuels me. It lets me do things like that, or this--

[She tugs the coin she Pushed away back towards her; it zips past Helena's head and into Vin's open palm.]

Or other things. Lots of things.

Are you afraid of me?

[Helena's head flicks to follow the coin's passage through the air, her blonde hair flying out around her head. She takes Vin in, her fingers scratching down the open teeth of the zipper as she answers.]

Yes. [The answer sounds simple, but she doesn't move to leave. She's still scared, yes... but she's also captivated.] What else can you do?

[Vin thinks this is probably the smart answer. She is frightening. She doesn't deny this or try to downplay it. She simply is what she is, and if people are afraid of her because of it - so be it. People have been afraid of her before.]

[She smiles slightly - not the grin of a creature who loves being feared, but a reassuring flash of expression from one girl who is sometimes afraid to another.]

[Then she closes her eyes and sniffs the air, flaring tin.]

You had toast for breakfast. And juice. And you've been in the garden not too long ago. Near the roses. You didn't touch any of them, just walked around.

[The smile Vin shows is reassuring. She's human but not human, and that smile is the human part showing through. It's enough for Helena to relax ever so slightly more, still watching the dark-haired girl.]

You have many gifts. [She steps forward, moving closer slowly, like an animal.] Can you tell more than this?

Edited 2014-06-20 02:11 (UTC)

Well, I could pick you up and carry you around.

[She is pretty sure that wouldn't go over very well, though. Instead--]

Hold still.

[And she takes off running, rounding the entire deck in about ten seconds. She accelerates quicker than she should and runs faster than a horse, skidding to a stop far enough away from Helena that the other woman can step back and away if she wants to.]

[She does shift her body back, but it's not quite a step. Her hand goes to her mouth, hovering there, fingers resting on her lower lip. You're fascinating, Vin. After a moment, she asks:]

Why are you here?

[Why? Her eyes close briefly, brow creasing in pain. She shakes her head, but it is not a no. She doesn't want to be fascinating. She only--]

[She opens her eyes and looks at Helena again.]

Because I miss my husband.

[Helena just watches her, head tilted, eyes following her change of expressions, the shake of her head.]

You are married? [A beat, then, low:] What happened to him?

[Some people might correct her, say was. But she is still married. She married in blood and died in blood and is still married as long as there's blood in her.]

He died. [She shrugs.] He died, and I miss him.

[She doesn't apologise, though she is sympathetic. She's dreamed of marriage, of love.]

So you came here to bring him back.

Yes. [She nods.] To bring him back, and then maybe after that me. But him first.

He would like you, I think. [He liked her well enough, after all, and she was as feral and wild as they come.]

Do you think so? [That's a strange thing to say, Vin. Being liked is almost a foreign concept.] Tell me about him.

He . . .

[How to summarize Elend in a few sentences? Her brow furrows. She hasn't really told anyone too much about him, not even Stark. It takes a few false starts before she figures out what to say.]

He is a noble, and an emperor, and a politician. He's very clever and reads well. He is - a leader. People trust him in a way that they don't trust me. So we worked together. He led, and I fought, and then we learned how to fight together.

I met him at a dance. He was reading by the stained glass window. I was pretending to be someone else.

I love him. I trust him.

[With that, her words fail, and she just stands quietly, looking down at her hands.]

[Helena shifts a step forward, another, listening to her words, the way she explains her love. She doesn't interrupt; her hands drift without effort, slowly tipping up to show palms to the sky in a pose that might almost be prayer. There's a long pause after Vin finishes, a breath of contemplation before her voice comes, quietly.]

You are lucky. To have a love like this.

[The gesture does not immediately scan as prayer to Vin - to whom the concept of religion is a wholly uncomfortable one, given as she was something of a living saint for too much of her life - but when she understands, she's strangely unbothered. Maybe because it's for Elend, not for her, that makes the difference. Either way, it's not a threat.]

Yes. I'm very lucky.

[She didn't expect love in her life. She barely expected safety.]

And he was lucky, too, to have a love like mine.

Yes. He is lucky to have a wife who would do this-- [She tilts a hand back at the wrist, fingers spreading out, not quite a wave, indicating the spread of stars and the Barge in general.] That would come here for him.

Edited 2014-07-16 11:04 (UTC)

[She smiles, soft but for once not careful. Helena understands. She didn't have to explain or defend herself. It makes her relax, just a little.]

I like it here, now. There are flowers, and my inmate, and people like you,

People like me? [She tilts her head, watchful, wondering, but with an almost smile.]

Clever, dangerous people. He likes friends who are more dangerous than him.

[And in recent years, he has become very, very dangerous.]

Edited 2014-08-14 00:30 (UTC)

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