damned_institute | Day 46: Lunch

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Day 46: Lunch

The mere fact that she'd been susceptible to whatever hold the Institute had had on her yesterday was sufficient to leave Ayumu both upset and angry - no, not angry, downright furious, both at herself and whoever was responsible for that. But there was also the fact that because of it, she'd lost out on an entire day of work, and in several ways had ruined some of what she'd done already. That little conversation with Himura the day before, for instance, was something she'd sincerely prefer not to remember if she'd had any choice in the matter.

Unless the man was a complete moron, which, unfortunately, was one thing she couldn't believe of him, he had to have realized just who her brother was. After all the effort to keep that fact quiet (not exactly a secret, but certainly not advertised; half the Shinsengumi probably never even realized it because there was no reason to) she'd gone and chatted about it with him. Told him all about it, practically painted a bright target around a weakness that shouldn't have existed in the first place.

She'd spent the shift in the Sun Room pretending to sleep, while in truth forcing herself into calm. After years of practice she could shunt away the useless and distracting emotions, focusing only on what was important and needed to be at the forefront of her mind, and by the time the intercom signaled the lunch period she was feeling considerably calmer. The time to silently observe others had, as well, alerted her to something she probably should have noticed earlier: Mello was back. Would her previous objective be reinstated now? He seemed to have far less of a bulletin presence this time, so perhaps not. Still, though, it bore investigating.

None of her thoughts were visible, of course, as she moved through the line, examining the lunch selection somewhat dubiously. Now with the benefit of Yuuko's memories she might recognize the food, but she certainly didn't share the enthusiasm for it that her imaginary self apparently had. Ayumu skipped past that part and settled for the salad bar and some bread, then positioned herself in a place where she could watch both the door and the rest of the room, setting her journal open in front of herself as though planning to write something. There was far too much that she'd missed, too much work to do now.

[for Okita]

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Tim shrugged. "Hey, it's a free fake hospital," he said, noncommittally. He glanced up, wondering who was talking to him and why they'd want to sit here. Grown up. Tall. Bandages over one side of his...

No way.

Tim was practiced at not showing reactions, and it was a damn good thing, too. Nothing showed. He looked bored. Maybe he looked tired or depressed; he always did, these, days, without the mask. Fine.

Anyway, he was probably jumping to conclusions. This man didn't really look like Two-Face. So he had bandages. People here had all kinds of injuries. He saw "patients" with bandages all the time. Maybe this wasn't any different.

Yeah. Maybe.

It was hard to tell if the kid had noticed who he was, seeing how he'd only spared a glance at Harvey in the first place. Well, if he hadn't, then they'd just have to wait for the fun to start when they got around to introductions. He was assuming that Robin knew his real name.

Taking a seat, Harvey managed to look properly belligerent as he took a sip of his food shake and then set it down on the table. He appraised the kid he was now sitting across from, but only in the way someone would during a first meeting. He had to make sure he wasn't obvious. It was easy to see that Tim was well-built, and could probably handle himself in a fight despite the fact that he was pretty small when it came down to it.

"You can't be older than fifteen," he pointed out, his one visible eye narrowing. "What the hell did you do to end up in a place like this?" There was no point in playing Mister Nice Guy, after all. Eventually the kid was going to realize who he was, so he might as well act like himself. With any luck, the Two-Face in Tim's Gotham was similar enough in personality to himself.

Tim took a bite of his pizza.

The inflection was similar, although the voice wasn't quite the same. Mannerisms, similar. Notable differences such as slight difference in posture.

Or was he just thinking that? Just looking for differences? Harvey Dent wasn't blond, unless he'd dyed his hair. But he'd never known Harvey to do something like that, and that schizophrenic crap he pulled sure wasn't likely to suddenly make him go blond. Anyway, the man's eyebrows - er, eyebrow - was blond. Natural.

Okay, so he was looking for differences.

"Maybe I'm just crazy," he said, keeping his tone the same. He finally looked up and looked the man in the face. Well, in half of his face. One of his faces?

Oh, wow, that shouldn't be funny. Luckily, he didn't smile.

Maybe this guy really was Harvey Dent. If that was true, chances were that he was suddenly in a whole world of trouble. Maybe two worlds of trouble.

And to think, he'd been having a good day up to now.

"Why, what did you do?"

The obvious joke about hanging judges and beating kids with baseball bats went unspoken on his tongue. Even if the guy really was Harvey Dent, there was no point in bringing that up.

Two-Face had no idea who he was outside of the costume, so he wasn't really in danger. He couldn't shake the feeling, though, that this was going to get worse before it even thought about getting better.

"Maybe I'm just crazy."

It was when he heard that suggestion that Harvey realized he'd become less and less likely to actually suspect someone of being crazy when he met them in this place. There were a lot of people who had proved themselves to be at least marginally sane, though at the same time there were definitely a few patients around who belonged here without a doubt. Kind of like that guy who thought he worked on a spaceship, or that Scourge idiot.

Still, Harvey knew for a fact that Tim here was sane enough. He might be on the crazy side for deciding to work with someone like Batman, but that was a whole different story. Besides, it wasn't like Harvey could judge too much for someone being a little off in the head.

There seemed to be a hint of accusation in the kid's tone when he tossed the question back at him. Maybe he was starting to put it together, then. Harvey held back on answering, taking another sip of the drink as he watched the teen.

"I don't recall saying I did anything," he said calmly. "It just seems weird that you'd be picked out for something like this, is all." Though truthfully, there were a lot of younger people here. Harvey still hadn't pieced together why that was, but he wasn't quite as set on playing detective as he'd once been.

Tim continued eating, but he wasn't really tasting the pizza anymore. He was just going through the motions, pretending to be some unsuspecting person. There was no way that Harvey knew who he was. He was just some kid, he looked completely different with a mask on, and chances were that this Harvey was from a totally different world, anyway.

Was he from Bruce's world, then? If so, then he'd be more likely to figure out Robin's identity. Although, it had never really been about the person under the mask, in Tim's experience. Not with Harvey.

He shrugged. "Yeah, I don't really know why the people in charge picked me, either. It's not like I'm some guy who used to be an alien or something!" He laughed, naturally enough, as if the concept was entirely bizarre. In a way, it was really out there, but with the people he'd met here, if someone told him they were an alien, he'd probably believe it. The weirdest instance he had so far was Kurt, but Kurt was obviously metahuman. Anyone who saw him at night would know that much.

The thing was, though, why was Harvey here? Harvey and Harley were both here. The rhyming was a nice touch.

From the way the kid was talking, it sounded like he had met a few of the nuttier patients during his time here. That probably meant he'd been around for at least a few days. It might take a while to run into someone that out of touch, but there still seemed to be a fair amount of them around (if the bulletin was anything to go by).

Harvey could tell what Jason meant, though. The kid gave no indication that he would have a good reason for being here. Even though he was someone who dressed up in a mask (and probably a cape too) and ran around fighting crime, he was doing his best to act like he was a normal teenager who had been dragged to this place for no reason.

It was a good thing that Harvey had the advantage over him at the moment. He wondered how the boy would have reacted if he'd realized he had his number.

Still, that wasn't the point of this. Now he really got to test Tim and see how well he could act. "Yeah, me neither. Guess they just have a thing against guys with burn wounds," he said bitterly. "By the way, it's Dent," he introduced himself, extending a hand. "Harvey Dent." He looked the kid in the eye as anyone would do when giving their name, but he was watching closely for any reaction.

OH, really, you don't say, Tim thought. He'd been expecting it, though, and met Harvey's gaze with no problem. Yeah, okay, he was Harvey freaking Dent, wasn't that super.

"Gary Summers," he said. He smiled, though it was brief, and accepted the handshake. It was an alias he'd only used once or twice. The one he normally used, well, like he was really going to give that name to Two-Face. Not a chance. He supposed he could have given his actual name, since the nurses called him that, but old habits died hard.

Oh my god I am shaking hands with Two-Face, he thought. He wondered what Bruce would say. Would he be proud of his acting? Man, after this, he sure hoped so. This was just the most surreal thing ever. It was different with Harley, since she was so obviously crazy.

Harvey...wasn't. He just seemed like a normal guy until you realized how off his nut he was. He knew that Harvey had been temporarily sane for awhile. That sure hadn't lasted, but maybe some things were just too good to be true.

He went back to eating his pizza, and asked, "Hey, did you run into a monster or something? Those bandages are heavy duty."

He really couldn't resist.

All in all, Tim did a good job. Maybe there was some tension in his shoulders, but it wasn't anything most people would have noticed. Harvey was just used to analyzing people's body language as they stood before him on the witness stand for questioning, and so he picked up on it. Not that it mattered when he already knew, but it was interesting nonetheless.

He didn't let the handshake linger, but he did make note of the fake name and nodded in response to it. Gary Summers. He'd have to let Jason know about it and see if the younger man had any idea of whether or not there was some significance to the pseudonym.

The fact that Tim went ahead and asked that question when he obviously knew (had it been tossed acid in the courtroom where the kid came from?) gave Harvey an idea of how much of a punk he was. There was no need to hide the annoyed glare he sent him. "No, it didn't happen here," he said bluntly. "Not that it's any of your business."

He took another sip of his shake as he watched Tim eat his pizza. Harvey wasn't even the biggest fan of the stuff, but what he'd give to be able to eat something like that right now. Still, he could just imagine how much the acidic tomato sauce would hurt on his wounds.

Tim wondered idly if he was going to catch hell for that remark. Not that Harvey had any reason to be pissed about it. It was a legitimate question!

No, really.

He shrugged off Harvey's bad mood. "Okay, okay, just asking," he said. "See, I haven't run into any monsters, so I was just curious."

He was playing a pretty dangerous game, and he knew it, but he'd never been able to resist things like that. He was something of an adrenaline junkie, and he did have kind of a mean sense of humor.

It was actually kind of strange that Harvey had the bandages. Those wounds were old wounds, weren't they? The shake said otherwise, though. Was he really not able to eat?

When and where, exactly, was this Harvey from?

The emphasis implied all sorts of things. Maybe the kid thought he was a monster, and while Harvey didn't even know if there was a history between some other version of him and "Robin," he wasn't about to get caught up in that kind of bullshit. He was who he was, and he was going to play this however he wanted. The kid was just a means to an end, as he'd told himself before, so he wasn't going to get too worked up about it.

"Guess you're lucky, then," Harvey responded. "Were you not around during the attack back in town?" He kept coming back to that, but what had happened had just been so ridiculously bizarre. As much as he wanted to get it out of his mind, the images of those moving dead bodies wouldn't leave him.

And here he thought he'd been desensitized.

He got the feeling that Tim probably had run into something and was just lying, but he was going to have to get a better idea of that before he jumped to conclusions. If the kid wasn't used to the creatures here, that might make him easier to take advantage of, after all.

"Huh? Oh, you mean the zombies, right?"

What a bizarre conversation this was turning into. Not that it had exactly started out normal.

"I thought that kind of thing only happened in the town or something."

Never mind that people died in the institute at night, or blood ran from the walls, or any of that. mostly, he wanted to see what Harvey knew. And if he played dumb, then hopefully Harvey would forget he ever spoke to "Gary Summers."

It was a little strange that Harvey was able to play it so sane, though. Generally, Two-Face was a lot freakier than this. Was that a difference between their worlds? Hey, maybe it was better to not ever know.

He had to make sure to warn Nightwing about this, thought. Batman, too, although maybe Bats already knew. Or maybe Bats wasn't here anymore at all.

Tim didn't want to think about that last possibility.

"Hell if I know if that's how it works," Harvey said, managing to make a shrug look annoyed as he glanced across the room at nothing in particular. The truth of the matter was that he'd just heard different from the man he'd spoken to last shift -- apparently the creatures had been here in the institute as well -- but he wasn't going to share that with Drake. It might be a pointless bit of information, but seeing how that's all they really had here, Harvey would rather keep it to himself.

"Still, in my experience zombies count as monsters, so you have seen some," he pointed out as he glanced back at the kid. Either he'd been bluffing or he was trying to draw Harvey out and get him to say more about what he'd been through.

Both of them were being careful while seeming casual, and Harvey wondered just how much he would be able to get out of the kid before the shift was over. He'd drained over half of his protein drink already, so it might not be too much longer.

"What, you run into a lot of zombies where you're from?" Tim asked. He knew he was pushing buttons. Of course he knew. But old habits died hard, and it was easier to deal with Harvey by being a pain in the ass than by being anything else.

He wondered why, of everyone else in the whole damn place, Harvey had to sit next to him. It put him on edge, that was for sure.

"Anyway, I've heard there were bigger, nastier monsters, but I haven't actually seen any. Maybe people are exaggerating? Panicking? I don't really know."

He believed that there were bigger things out there, though. He really did. But he liked to let people think he was in denial. There was no reason to let anyone know his ability level; the deal with Joshua and Mr. H was a little different. And obviously Bart knew. But Harvey? He wanted Harvey to decide he wasn't worth the time or effort, and get lost.

"Hardly," Harvey quickly shot back as his brow furrowed. It pained him on the burnt side to do that, but it was hard to kick the habit when he'd been moving his face in certain ways for all of his life. One would have thought he'd learn to be careful when every wrong move made him hurt, but maybe it was his own brand of masochism.

"Do you?" It was hard to imagine a Gotham that was overrun with the living dead, but he got the feeling that Drake was just being a smart ass. Jason hadn't mentioned that Robin was such a little prick, but it was a good thing Harvey didn't have to play nice during this conversation. His anger management wasn't what it used to be.

As for the kid's skepticism, Harvey couldn't really judge. He'd felt the exact same way until he'd run into a few of the things himself. Chances were Robin was due for a monster attack by now, and if not that, then he and Jason would have to play their part instead.

"I'd say don't believe it until you've seen it," he said with a shrug. "I'm sure your time will come soon enough." It was best to be ambiguous about his own experience with the things.

"What, zombies? I'd have never even believed in zombies if I hadn't seen them with my own eyes."

Tim was sure he was pushing Harvey's buttons. It was all over his normal half of a face. Sure, it wasn't the best idea in the world, but he was actually...kind of enjoying it.

He wasn't sure he liked the way Harvey said that thing about "your time will come." It was...almost ominous. But he was probably reading too much into it. What he wouldn't give to find Bruce and run this all by him, but, apparently Bruce was gone. Again.

Maybe he'd talk to someone else about it.

"Boy, I sure hope not," he said at last. "I don't think I want to believe in monsters."

Harvey doubted anyone wanted to believe in monsters (anyone who did was the sort of person who actually belonged in here), but he got the feeling that Tim was just trying to say the things he'd expect any kid his age to say provided they were normal. In other words, not him. Still, the mask was easy enough to see through when Harvey had a vague idea of what was hiding underneath it.

"Maybe you'll never have to," he muttered in response, though his tone was doubtful. If Drake scraped by his time in this place without even seeing a monster, then that was just another sign that the world was truly unfair. Harvey had already learned that a few times over, but these days he searched for justice wherever he could. Usually it had to be enforced by his own hand, however.

"Just how long have you been here and dodging the supposed monsters, anyway?" There was a good chance the kid would lie, but there was always that small chance that he would speak the truth. Either way, it would be interesting to hear his answer.

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Day 46: Lunch

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