Helena In Hang Over Land

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ben_icon.gif cat_icon.gif claude_icon.gif helena_icon.gif

Scene Title Helena In Hang Over Land
Synopsis Helena's hung over. Ben and Claude do not care. Cat commiserates.
Date January 2, 2009

New York Public Library


January second, and Helena wasn't up in the morning to offer her culinary delights to the rebel masses as she usually is. Nope, instead, she stayed holed up in her room until finally she emerges on the side of the morning that involves two digits and the eventual nudge of AM to PM. She's clearly had better days, as she stairs blearily around the library to see who's where. Loud noises and bright lights make her wince. Welcome to the day after, Helena. Aren't hangovers fun?

Ben has made a trip back to the library, what with Alex being silly and straining himself. He's dressed in his regular clothes for now. He's made himself at home in the kitchen area, sitting in a chair with the newspaper, drinking a cup of heavily steaming coffee. Just made a pot.

Last night's dragged in cat seems to have lingered. The freshly showered, shaved 'n' fed Claude, still in the same clothes that Helena fetched for him the day before, has not slept much. Instead he has opted for observing the library and its occupants, either by making small talk or peering over people's shoulders to see whatever they were doing. Not always while making known he was even there. At the moment he's nowhere to be seen, though he is definitely still present.

Perhaps it's the smell of coffee that's lured her, bt either way, Ben is greeted with the sight of Hang-Over Helena as she trudges into the kitchen and reaches out with outstretched zombie hands and nose sniffing the lovely, lovely caffeine. Sleeping beauty looks like crap, and she mumbles something in Ben's direction which could be 'good morning'.

Ben looks over at Helena and raises his eyebrows. "It doesn't look like a good one for you." He turns a page in his newspaper, has another sip of coffee. He also does not sound very approving at all.

Unfortunately for Helena, her slow trudging makes it awfully easy for someone to follow her. A swift and light pat on her head should make this clear enough, though the (amused!) cause of it remains unseen.

Helena winces abruptly, and knows full well what it's from. Still, she gives no indication to have noticed, because Claude trained her better than that. She peers balefully at Ben. "It's not like I go out and get sloshed all the time, you know. This was a…special occaision." She reaches from a tub of creamer, pops it with her nail, and then abruptly whirls and splooshes it in what she suspects is Claude's direction.

Ben looks up again. Dairy products are flying now. He squints an eye at her. "Uh huh." Still with the disapproval. "Why are you throwing…?"

But the reason becomes clear soon enough. "Oi! Show some hospitality, yeah?" Calls the Northern Englander, soon appearing wiping said dairy products off of his stomach. Still grinning, though, throwing a short glance up at Ben.

Despite her hangover, Helena's grimace turns into a grin of triumph. "Maybe if you weren't such a peeping tom." she tells the man, and gestures. "Ben, Claude. Claude, Ben. Don't curmudgeon bludgeon each other to death, okay?" With that, she goes to pour herself some coffee. Blessed, blessed coffee. And more plaintively, "Ben? You got anything for a hangover? I hear Vicodin's good."

Ben nods amiably enough at Claude. "Hey." And then Helena's asking for Vicodin, and he scowls outright. "That better be a joke. And no, I'm not giving you anything for a hangover. You're going to act like a teenager, you suffer like a teenager."

"At least I show my face before you can say anything embarassing." Claude notes, then adds, "Oh no, my mistake, too late for that already." Then, wiping the last of the creamer off of his hands and onto the sides of his given sweater, he wanders to sit down. "Wise words, Ben. See? I'm making friends already."

Helena starts to scowl, but then works her expression into something carefully neutral. "You have no idea what's going on." she says to Ben quietly. Claude she just ignores for the moment as she takes a sip of her coffee.

Ben nods to Claude. See? See? Gosh. Helena's given an unimpressed sort of look before he has another sip of coffee. "Nice to meet you, Claude."

Claude's eyes linger on Helena for a moment, before his attention shifts back to Ben, and he gives a curt nod and a big smile. "Nice to meet you, Ben, I hope. What do you do around here?" A question most likely asked to anyone he's spoken to in the last twenty-four hours.

Now Helena doesn't bother to hide her scowl. She moves to a chair and sits down, eyeing the two men and trying not to sulk.
From afar, Conrad hugs you by the way.

"I'm a medic," Ben tells Claude, blinking twice. "I fix people up or monitor them or whatever else needs doing. When called." This would be where some people would ask what the other person did in return. Ben does not.

Despite Helena's sulkiness, Claude seems to be having a whale of a time. He has not felt this useful in a long while. And Ben even accomodates his current need to be fairly anonymous. Splendid. "Aah, a medic. The only one? Do you take shifts?" He seems genuinely interested, at least, looking Ben over for a moment.

Helena totally hates them both right now. But she rises after finishing roughly half her coffee, color returning to her cheeks even if she's still wincing. She gets up and starts rooting through the cabinets, determined to try and put something in her stomach. A couple of cream of what packets are found, and she sets to work.

Ben shakes his head. "I don't do shifts. Beyond actual work shifts with the ambulance. I work as an EMT. Aside from that, I, uh, drop by. You should consider putting a damp cloth on that creamer stuff to get it out. Dairy gets gross."

Claude listens carefully, then breathes out a laugh at Ben's advice and simply answers, "Not my clothes. I'm going to get some new ones later." With that out of the way, he tilts his head at Helena. "You already regretting taking me in, then? Figured I'd have about two days at least, myself."

Helena lifts a brow at Claude. "I don't regret taking you in." she says. "Your hygiene has already much improved." Stirring her porridge, she goes back to her seat. "Have you had a chance to look at our database yet?" she asks her mentor.

Ben smiles a little, amused by something or other. He nods to Claude. "Got it." He turns another page in the newspaper. "Ooh, sudoku."

Claude nods, stretching his arms forward for a moment. "Some of it. I still have to go through the details, but that'll come later. Some pretty interesting stuff hiding in there." As Helena should know by now, speaking so lightheartedly about this has nothing to do with how seriously he's taking the situation. After all, he's still here, isn't he?

He is indeed, still here. "I saw Peter." she informs Claude, her tone stiff. "He's in a HomeSec facility. And he absolutely refuses to come out of his little box." A little angry there? Oh, just a bit. It's not that she's ignoring Ben, exactly, but she's not paying him any mind at the moment since he neglected her any hangover cures. So there.

Ben pats about for a pen. There are puzzles to be done! Puzzles! He's still paying attention, though.

Claude has no mind for puzzles. Someone is being an idiot again. "Do you know what?" He joins in Helena's mild show of anger, grin fading with his words, "I'm starting to think that dear Petey may actually have lost his mind. This is TWICE I hear of him doing something as whacked as a goose in a tumble dryer, and I'm guessing this time he hasn't got the convenient excuse of not remembering to use his common sense."

Helena could kiss Claude right now. "You should beat some sense into him." she growls under her breath, but leaves it at that. She looks over at Ben suddenly. "You don't have to cross the Hudson at all to get home, right?"

Ben blinks at Helena. Say what? "Uh… why?"

"Next time we meet. The pup'll have sense a-plenty." Claude frowns, already looking as though he's plotting exactly how that sense will be applied to Peter's head.

"Eve's vision." Helena says. "If we can't prevent the Vanguard from taking out the bridges, then you could get stuck. Or hurt." She looks back at Claude, expression thoughtful for a moment, but quickly dismisses it. No way.

"…Oh," says Ben, blinking. "That's… huh. Those can be changed, right? I'd suggest trying to let it slip out that PARIAH or something were about to try something like that and hope the residents would get ready for it."

Claude simply sits, listening, looking between the two others. Eve, another person he has yet to pry for information with? If he catches Helena's thoughtful glance, he's not showing it.

"They can." Helena conceeds. "But all the same, I wouldn't want you to be stuck, especially if things go bad." She still looks a little weary, but between coffee and porridge, she's much better. She eyes Claude. "There's lots of people you haven't met yet." she tells him.

Ben scratches the back of his head. "Huh. Maybe I'll crash somewhere else, then. I can build myself a little house out of books here." He comes up with a pen and sets to work on the sudoku boxes.

Claude peers over to Ben's newspaper, nodding. "I know." He admits, reluctantly. "Give me a day or two and I'll have your every recruit tired of me in no time, promise. Or the ones that are stationed here, in any case." With that, he looks back yp to Helena, eyebrows lifted. "You haven't got everyone concentrated here, have you?"

Helena shakes her head. "No," she says. "Just the ones who need a place to live. And we'll be getting a new place soon, so this will be used just for meetings and a public point."

Ben scritches at the newspaper with the pen, which, as it turns out, is out of ink. "Feh." He tucks the pen back into his pocket, finishes his coffee. "I'm off. Take care. Again, nice to meet you, Claude."

"Good." Claude answers Helena, like he'd almost expected a different answer. Ben gets a wave and a smile, before he gets up himself. "I should probably get outside for a while. Do me a favor?" It's harder to say no when the favor hasn't been named yet, see.

Helena blinks at Ben's abrupt departure and lets out a little indignant snort. "Wierd." she mutters. "Next time I won't bother to care."

Ben pauses. "Weird? What? Thanks for warning me. Did she get a timeframe on this? How's the bridge supposed to go?"
"Explosions, from what I can tell." Helena says. "We haven't figured out a time frame yet, I don't think." She eyes Claude. "Depends on the favor."

"Draw up a list for me of people who might need a bit of a physical workover." In other words, "I need to get myself back into shape." Then, after Claude wanders out of the kitchen and disappears into thin air, "Maybe someone who'll actualy fight back." A poke at Helena? Maybe, but he feels she can take it.

Ben smiles faintly in the direction Claude disappears in; he looks down at Helena. "I might still be across the bridge. Is there a way of warning people? The average Joe people, I mean."

Helena shakes her head. "I don't know. I'm afraid they'll do something more drastic, or even speed up their timetable." She wrinkles her nose in the direction of the disappearing man before looking back up at Ben. "The Ferrymen should already know. Don't know if HomeSec does."

Ben squints an eye at her. "It's clear in the dream that it's Vanguard doing it?"

Emerging from a room within the library where she has stashed archery supplies, an amount of clothing, and some other items, Cat makes her way into the more open areas. She's dressed in a plain blue hooded sweatshirt, sweatpants, and athletic shoes; as if she'd been training in some fashion or other. Her hair is held back in a ponytail. The two are spotted, and she heads their way. As she draws closer, her expression can be seen as pensive.

Helena cocks her head to regard Ben, almost squinting right back in a similar fashion. "I don't know." she admits. "But I can't think of any other group out there that would do it, and I could see it being part of their plans." Helena, for the record, looks like the sort of crap one can expect when a skinny blonde decides to go on a drinking binge after emotional distress and is paying for it the next day. "Hey, Cat."

"I guess they forgot their t-shirts," Ben drawls. Turning his head, he nods to Cat. "Hey." He thinks for a moment before offering, "Uh, working out?"

"Stormy," Cat replies, as she takes a moment to survey the blonde. Her head tilts, and the question 'what happened?' is all over her face, but she opts not to ask it. The eye contact she attempts lingers a few seconds as she answers Ben without turning his way. "I was, and talking with Teo for a bit also." She speaks quietly, though, having become familiar with Hangover Nation years ago at Yale, maybe even before.

It's yet another occasion her panmnesia is more blessing than curse, being able to recall every excruciating moment of every hangover since 2002, the worst parts being when light and sound were present.

"He makes me want to throw food at him? How is it that he always makes me want to throw food at him?" Helena asks Cat rhetorically with regard to Ben. She then adds quietly, "Teo brought me home last night." Which is her way of inquiring as to whether Teo told Cat anything.

Ben looks like he's holding back a sigh. He stuffs his hands into his pockets and glances toward the exit.

"He did?" Cat asks, her voice still at what she remembers perfectly well as being (for her, at least) hangover-safe volume. "That's a story I haven't heard." Her features change, shifting into something of an I've been there before, sister look. Moments later her gaze falls on Ben. "Why does she want to throw food at you, Ben? And… should I be helping her do it?"
Helena shrugs, not entirely sure she wants to delve into it, but perhaps surprisingly does not contribute to the peanut gallery on Cat's question. Hers was entirely rhetorical.

"While I'm sure it would be just adorable, no, not really," Ben drawls blandly. "Pardon me." He starts edging toward the door.

Helena murmurs, "Ben's very intent on pointing out how much of a teenager I am lately." drawls Helena, watching his retreat over the rim of her coffee mug.

"You don't have to go on my account, Ben," Cat replies, her eyes drifting between him and Helena, as if wondering whether she might be the reason for his exit. And Helena's words cause a single brow to lift, but they aren't otherwise responded to.
"I'm not, Cat. See you both around later." Ben raises his hand to wave and slips out.

Helena just shakes her head. "It really doesn't matter what I say," she tells Cat once he's out the door. "He reacts like it's shit. I've pretty much resolved to stop trying."

"Men," Cat replies simply. Her eyes roll, and she settles into a chair gently. It may be cliche, but the use of the word in that context seems to fit well, even without her knowing what more could be underlying the Stormy mood and visit to Hangover Nation.

The eyes rest on the blonde for a few moments after Cat sits in silence, she showing that expression she hopes is received as understanding. Then, like she's done a number of times before, she decides Helena wants to keep whatever caused her alcohol tangent of the night before to herself. It strikes her she may well have gone to visit Peter and returned, a thing which should give her relief, but… the situation suggests it probably didn't go well.

Cat rises from her seat and places a hand on the blonde's shoulder briefly if she'll allow it, then moves elsewhere in the library. There are books to read and keep her mind occupied, always a useful thing.


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January 2nd: Where Do We Go...
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January 2nd: Sharper than Knives
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