Day 43: Intercom, Evening

[damned-intercom.livejournal.com]

Hello! I.R.I.S. here once more to announce to you, our honored guests, that you have officially made it through a day of our typical Landel's treatment. Of course, it isn't quite over: we will now have you retire to our designated patient quarters with one of your agency partners to inspect their sleeping area and the tools that we provide them with for the true bulk of our behavioral testing. On an added note, we would like you to notice once again that the meals we provide to our subjects are of the highest quality.

For those of you feeling apprehensive about taking part in our more intensive methods, please be aware that we would never imagine putting all of you in any danger whatsoever. This last shift will be your last at our Institute; afterward, we will escort you to our Head Doctor's personal observation station to survey some of our test Next-Wave participants in the rigorous trials we put them through – all for their betterment, of course.

Once again, we hope that you are satisfied with what you find, and as always, direct any questions you may have to your console.

The nurses began to escort the patients to their rooms. They didn't even seem to be brought to awareness by words such as "testing" and "subjects."

[ All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. (Find all of the newly changed room assignments and shift introductions here.) If you are introducing your character during this shift, you may either choose for them character to wake up before their roommate gets back, or after. ]

Comments

[herr-inspektor.livejournal.com]

'Harvey Dent'. Lunge left his hand fall back to his side with a nod, briefly turning the name over in his head. Most likely the man was American or English. The range of nationalities in this place really was startling, not only in itself but in the suggestion of power than came with it. How far beyond these walls, he found himself wondering, did the influence of this place reach?

Across from him, Dent appeared to be making a few assessments of his own. That he was so wary of him was interesting, although it could equally have been written off as situational rather than a genuine part of the man's character. There was only one way to find out. Lunge watched the side of his face he could see closely, all the while reflecting the suspicion with calm, comfortable authority. With his back to the desk and his hands hanging loosely at his sides, body language-wise he was an open book. As open as it could be, that is, given that almost every movement was being carefully monitored on both sides of the room. If Dent twitched, he would notice.

"That's right. I'm with the BKA." Eileen hadn't seemed to recognise the initials at breakfast, but he let it slide for the moment. Explaining where explanation was not necessary would likely be taken as patronising or smug on his behalf. "I arrived here late last night."

[dualistic]

For someone who was apparently involved with the German police force (Harvey was fairly certain that was what those initials indicated, and he didn't often doubt himself), this Lunge seemed surprisingly open and willing to talk. Then again, if he was an inspector then he probably knew how to coax people into letting their guard down. Harvey had used the same tactics in the courtroom, and while he had no reason to distrust this man, he was definitely going to be careful around him.

Lunge was probably very close to the law and doing the right thing and all of those ideas that Harvey had also once considered worth following, which meant he wasn't going to be too thrilled to see the gun he had pilfered last night. Harvey might even need to find a better hiding place for the weapon.

"That's weird, seeing how I just met a prosecutor from Germany. Name's Franziska. Do you two know each other?" It wasn't such a huge stretch to assume that they did, seeing how there were at least a few people from Gotham here; while he hadn't known Jason, Jason had known him. Harvey still hadn't settled how that worked in his mind, but he was trying not to think about it too hard for the moment.

The second part of what the man said registered with Harvey at a slight delay. Last night, huh? He must have woken up here in the institute, which meant... "It must have been pretty abandoned, then," he remarked.

[herr-inspektor.livejournal.com]

Once again, the initials seemed to get the right impression across even when the exact meaning hadn't carried. Interestingly, they also appeared to be a cue for Dent to start talking more easily; he'd barely spoken more than two or three words without an accusing stare to back them up before, but now the question sounded honest. And in Lunge's experience, that usually meant one of two things: either the subject had genuine respect for the law, or they had something to hide and wanted to sound sincere.

It wasn't difficult to guess which of the two Lunge felt more inclined to believe. I never stop listening either, Dent.

In spite of the diagnosis, he made an attempt to answer truthfully. Fighting lies with lies (particularly needless ones) was not a strategy he particularly wanted to take quite so soon. The hand at his side jerked briefly with recall as he searched the files in his mind for any female prosecutors he had encountered. Dietrich, K. Gerhardt, P... "I've never met anyone by that name," he answered eventually, "although it's entirely possible that we've just never met before."

In regard to last night, he nodded. "Virtually. I only got to look around for fifteen minutes at most, but I didn't see anyone else." Not in person, at least. The mud tracks and blood had let him know that he wasn't entirely alone, but other than that, 'abandoned' just about covered it. "I've heard that the rest of you were in the local town."

[dualistic]

So they didn't know each other, huh? Harvey thought it was strange that the two Germans who had popped up were unconnected, but hadn't he already decided that trying to find a pattern was impossible? He finally took his seat again, though he still didn't acknowledge his dinner. If this man was going to be around every night (and scrutinizing him, since that's honestly what it felt like), then when was Harvey going to find a chance to force down even the smallest amount of food?

He would worry about it later. At least his sense of smell was mainly clogged up by his own scorched skin, meaning that he couldn't smell the steak. He didn't need his hunger to be provoked.

"I guess not," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. It didn't matter all that much to him in the end. "Maybe you should track her down. I don't think there are all that many Germans around." Then again, neither this Lunge nor Franziska seemed like the type of people who would falter without familiarity. Granted, they would still be able to compare stories; it was odd that he was an inspector and she was a prosecutor.

Once again, it wasn't his business and so he said no more about it. At Lunge's last comment, Harvey let out a brief, bitter laugh. "You got that right. You should feel lucky that you were on your own here." There had really been no benefit to getting caught in that mob -- it hadn't given them any new information or any clues (other than reinforcing how messed up this place was). Of course, it had given him the chance to get a weapon, but Harvey certainly wasn't going to mention that to Lunge.