Day 53: Sun Room, Morning

[scarefaux]

With breakfast finished and a new acquaintance made, the Scarecrow's mind turned to his other friends. The disappearance of Depth Charge's friend had brought back memories of how he'd felt when Kaiji went missing: helpless, useless, as though he should have and could have done something more to find him. If only he had his brain, then maybe he

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[scientist_skye]

Something about the way Ema's nurse carried herself when she collected her ward from breakfast and led her to the Sun Room seemed relieved. One of the benefits of her "sleep study" had been more acute eyesight, and Ema put it to use here, glancing upward occasionally. Something flickered in the nurse's expression when she passed her less fortunate peers who dealt with patients who were sulking or cranky or otherwise uncooperative. It seemed like a lot of people were out of sorts, and no wonder. Ema hadn't seen her own shadow, but seeing Lana's shadow had been bad enough.

As if to corroborate Ema's observation, the nurse focused her attention down at the girl. "You seem to be in a much better mood this morning than most, Marie. And certainly better than you've been the past few days. I'm very proud of you." The woman's tone was an off-putting blend of sincere and condescending, causing Ema to purse her lips a little in distaste. "Oh, don't look at me that way; this is a good thing! Especially since you seem so eager to help your fellow patients with their own sour moods today. Don't think I didn't notice how you improved Mr. Fuhrmann's spirits. I'm hoping you can do the same for another patient, in fact." Ema's face only twisted further as the nurse's attention turned away from her. Given, her knowledge about psychology was incredibly limited, but wasn't it bad form to treat one of the patients like a sentient version of the Sun Room cats?

The nurse led Ema into the Sun Room and toward a man sitting by himself. Once they were about a yard away from him, she spoke up again. "Marie, this is Mr. Eckhart. Aaron, this is Marie. She'll be sitting with you this shift so that you two can get to know each other." Ema stared at this Aaron Eckhart person (whoever he really was). The bandages that covered half his face were difficult not to notice.

After the nurse left them alone she leaned in slightly, her eyes wide and her voice hushed and filled with a sort of incredulous horror. "What did they do to you?" She tried, without success, to imagine what kind of nighttime experiment would leave a man's head to have to be half-bandaged in such a way. Had they cut into his skull? That would have been awful--she'd gotten off lucky in comparison!

[unheroed]

With the way that his bad mood was practically radiating off of him in waves, it was really no surprise that a nurse had decided that he needed to be cheered up. However, the last thing he needed was for some little twerp to start bothering him about this and that. Getting himself introduced the wrong way wasn't a good way to begin the conversation, either. He almost called after the nurse to give her a piece of his mind, but...

In the end, he was distracted by the way that the girl was gawking at him. While she seemed genuinely horrified, that wasn't necessarily a good thing. It was better than people who tried to act like they didn't mind when they clearly did, but he wasn't much in the mood for hosting a Q&A session.

Of course, she'd already made the wrong assumption, and so after grumbling to himself he shook his head, though he wasn't bothering to make eye contact just yet. "Nothing. Not anything more than what they've done to you, anyway." If she was smart, she'd be able to figure out that that meant he'd gotten the injury prior to coming here. For now, he'd consider it a test and would wait to see how she did.

[scientist_skye]

Nothing. Ema backed off slightly, sitting straighter and frowning deeply. "That happened before you got here, then? Why didn't they heal you?" Not that she expected him to know, but it wasn't an unreasonable question to ask in general. Based on her own experience, this place was capable of closing wounds and speeding up the healing process significantly. Her infected rate bite cleared up in a matter of days, for one. More strikingly, Ema was pretty sure she should still be incapacitated by migraines like she had been just after the experiment, yet the worst she had felt the past couple of days was a nagging ache in her temples (and, of course, sharp pangs of pain at high-pitched noises, but that seemed like it would be a permanent side effect of the experiment). The fact that they had decided to leave him in whatever state he arrived seemed odd and almost counter-intuitive. If this place was a scientific experiment like she had been led to believe, didn't it make sense to have your test subjects in the best possible health upon arrival? Otherwise, your data would end up skewed by preexisting conditions.

She pulled out her journal and jotted these observations--and the related questions--down. She'd have to come back to them later.

The latter half of his response caught Ema a little off-guard. Did he mean to suggest that nothing had happened to her, either? Or did he somehow know that something had? Both conclusions left her feeling uncomfortable; either he was willing to disregard the possibility of something having happened to her or he knew despite never meeting her before now. "It was a reasonable theory, you know," she answered, somewhat reproachfully. "Things happen at night. Monsters attack in the halls and they take people to do experiments on them." Unthinkingly, Ema reached up and rubbed at one of her ears, her expression losing some of its defensive ire as her gaze shifted to some nonspecific distance away. Just thinking about it brought to mind the pain of that night.

After a long pause, she shook her head roughly and returned her attention to the man in front of her. Wallowing in her misfortune hadn't done her any good yet (ever), so there was no need to resort to it now. "My name's Ema, Ema Skye. What's your real name?"

[unheroed]

The idea that he could have been healed upon entering the institute wasn't even something that had really occurred to Harvey before. It really should have, since it seemed as if most people came in spic and span, but he hadn't considered it an offense since he didn't want to be healed in the first place. Everyone would have called him nuts for being so against the idea of skin grafts or the sort of intense high-speed healing they had here, but...

Either his burn wound was too severe for Landel's to handle, or they weren't healing him on purpose. While it was annoying on principle, in the end he was fine with it. It was bad enough that the nurses tended to force painkillers on him. "Don't ask me," he said with a shrug. He wasn't going to mention that he didn't care, though, since that would just cause the girl to ask more questions.

It bothered him that she had started to write things down as if he was some sort of test subject, but the only outward sign of it that he gave was a tightening of his jaw. More than that, she seemed to be sulking about the fact that he'd been rude to her, and he didn't give a crap either way. He knew about the monsters and the experiments and everything else, so --

When she said her name, he paused, staring at her for a moment as he studied her features. Looking now, he could see the resemblance. So this was Ema. "... It's Harvey," he said finally. "I know your sister. I've heard some about you."

[scientist_skye]

"Harvey..." Ema parroted softly, the gears of her mind turning as she tapped the end of her pen against her cheek. The name was awfully familiar, she just had to go through her memory and actually place it. There was so much data from the last several days that she honestly needed a moment to recall. Harvey...?

Ah! "You're Mr. Dent!" Ema cried out suddenly when it came to her. Funny, Lana hadn't mentioned an injury when she'd called attention to him as they passed the previous night, nor had she really given Ema time to get a good enough look at the man to notice herself. It seemed like a pretty big omission, especially from someone for whom details were her life. Ema would have to ask Lana about it the next time the sisters saw each other. Possibly tonight.

"Lana pointed you out last night in one of the hallways. The light was bad so I didn't get a good look at you, but it's nice to actually meet you." Gone were any remnants of her earlier offense or indignation, replaced with a friendly smile and, beyond it, a slightly appraising look. The fact that Lana had specifically mentioned this man by name (and that he had been kind to her!) hadn't gone unnoticed by Ema, nor had Mr. Dent's comment that Lana had mentioned her before now. She couldn't help but wonder what kind of relationship was developing between the two of them.

Not that Ema expected anything major after only a week. But even the largest fires started with a spark, right? There'd been time enough for that, at least, in between the nightly hell that this place presented.

"...What did Lana say about me?"

[unheroed]

That thoughtful look on the girl's face made Harvey slightly nervous, mainly because he had no idea what was going through her head and he didn't like it when someone was scheming right in front of him.

But then she blurted out his last name, causing him to jerk in his seat slightly as he gave her a one-eyed blink. With that sort of reaction, he could only assume that Lana had actually mentioned him to the girl. What had she said about him? He had to wonder. He wasn't really good kid material for a number of reasons, but... the girl actually seemed a lot more open now that she knew who he was.

Did that meant that Lana had spoken well of him, then? Interesting.

As Ema went on to explain how she knew about him, Harvey only nodded, somewhat distracted. He didn't remember seeing the two of them, but that wasn't so surprising. It was easy to miss people in the halls at night, so the fact that Lana had picked him out was also noteworthy. Then again, he stood out more than the average person. Despite that, it seemed like Ema wasn't quite sure of what he looked like under the bandages. Probably better that way.

She asked the obvious question next, but it was also an awkward one. He clenched his jaw for a moment, shifting in his seat. "She mentioned that you'd been through a lot. I think she was worried about you." Some of that information he'd gotten from Gant, but he didn't need to complicate matters. He also wasn't going to mention how Lana didn't quite agree with Ema's own title of being a forensic scientist. It would just get someone in trouble, and he didn't need to deal with that.

[scientist_skye]

"She was?" It was a stupid question that was out of her mouth before any thought went toward it whatsoever. Of course Lana had been worried about her--she'd made that much clear to Ema herself countless times over the past several days, in her own way. What was surprising was the fact that Lana had expressed her worry to someone else, even if it was indirectly. Lana had a tendency to be guarded toward people she didn't know or trust--she had to be, in her line of work--so Ema could only take this as more evidence to support her hypothesis about the two of them.

The topic itself, however, was significantly less exciting than the fact that Lana was making a friend, so Ema quickly sobered herself and took a deep breath before elaborating on Mr. Dent's comment. If Lana trusted him, so would she. "I was taken for a sleep study a few nights ago; that's why I assumed they'd done the same to you." After a pause, Ema decided against elaborating further. It wasn't really the point of the conversation, for one, and Ema wasn't eager to recant her experiences that night yet again. If Mr. Dent wanted to know, he'd ask. "And there were a lot of things going on back home before I even came here, but Lana and I cleared most of it up last night." Another pause, this one thoughtful. "Did Lana tell you about any of that?"

[unheroed]

The fact that the girl seemed surprised made Harvey wonder about a few things. While it had seemed clear to him that Lana cared for her sister and was protective of her the way any older sibling would be, it was possible that she didn't make that as clear when she was interacting with Ema herself. The reason for that was less obvious, but some people just had a difficult time showing affection directly to another person, even a family member. If there was one thing that stood out about Lana Skye, it was that she was closed off. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it was still something to note.

In any case, it looked like Ema had decided that there was no point in keeping secrets. She mainly told him what he'd already heard, not adding in any of the details -- and yet he knew better than to ask. Harvey was aware that he could be a hypocrite at times, but he wasn't going to badger someone with questions when he knew how he would have reacted to that kind of behavior. "No, I haven't been lucky enough to get taken here yet," he said with a shake of his head. Maybe he should have felt bad for getting short with her earlier now that he knew the context she'd been thinking from, but... he tried not to.

"She told me about the sleep study," he explained, pronouncing the last two words with the appropriate amount of disgust. He hated that kind of sugarcoating. "But I didn't know about the rest." He almost wanted to ask if it had something to do with a certain police chief, since he now knew that Ema knew the man, but it was probably better if he didn't get too deep into this whole mess. "Things are better between you, then?" It was a pointless question, but it was probably what he would have been expected to ask.

[scientist_skye]

"Hopefully, you'll be lucky enough never to go at all," Ema replied emphatically, frowning deeply as she balled her hands into fists. Despite the fact that she purposefully used the most euphemistic term available to refer to the experience, she had no illusions that the 'sleep studies' were anything less than torture and trauma hiding behind a veneer of science. Even if she hadn't been personally subjected to it, the very idea was enough to offend her on a deeply core level. Ema huffed a little, expressing defiance and refusal to bend without outwardly declaring it. She wasn't going to become a useless girl who couldn't even talk about what happened to her, let alone take action against it. Not again.

Thankfully, the conversation shifted back to Ema's relationship with Lana, for which Ema was especially grateful. "Yeah, they are," she answered, forcing herself to calm down enough to unclench her fists. "Confronting Lana's shadow was hard and confronting the truth was even harder, but I think... I think we'll be okay." The sentence felt odd coming out of her; it was the first time Ema was able to say that with complete honesty since the whole mess with Joe Darke--and Chief Gant, she knew now--started two years ago. It didn't feel bad to say, but it did feel a bit alien. "That's probably the only good thing that's happened since we've gotten here."

[unheroed]

Harvey wondered if there was even a chance of that, or if everyone here eventually got nabbed to be poked and prodded at. He couldn't be sure, since there was always a chance that the patients who disappeared did so because they didn't make it through their experiments, or they were released once it was over with. It probably wasn't worth thinking about too much, though -- if his time came, he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it. He'd been powerless against the staff when they'd come for Lunge, hadn't he? And he'd never heard of any other patient being able to resist.

When the girl used the word shadow, Harvey raised his visible eyebrow, not having realized that was what she'd meant. So others had been exposed to it, too. Harvey hadn't really figured otherwise, but seeing how Gant had apparently been asleep all last night, it wasn't something he had been able to confirm. Now the girl had him curious about what she'd heard, but once again, he knew he wouldn't want to talk about his own experience. The girl's phrasing just made him more certain that Lana had gotten involved in something shady that she shouldn't have, though.

At Ema's last statement, Harvey scoffed and shook his head. "It's hard to imagine that's even possible here." He tried to think of a good thing that had happened to him and the only thing he could come up with was finding a gun. That probably said a lot about him, but he didn't care.

[scientist_skye]

Ema knew better than to take Mr. Dent's scoffing personally, although it did dim her demeanor somewhat. "I don't think it's common. Dr. Landel seems more intent on making us all miserable. Why else would he do all of this to us?" Her question was rhetorical, since Mr. Dent couldn't reasonably have an answer, but it did lead to a fairly legitimate one; what could the man possibly be trying to do with all of this? "And it didn't come easily. Still, I know I'm lucky that she's here and that we're okay." It was almost funny, how being tortured and (literally!) facing her sister's deeply-set self-hatred made her lucky.

Almost.

Her smile returning--she refused to be brought down--Ema opted for some small talk. "Is there anyone else here from your world, Mr. Dent?" Okay, so for her 'small talk' generally consisted of inquiries, investigations, and science. At least it was an innocent enough question. Right?

[unheroed]

The more that Ema talked about her moment of growth with her sister, the less Harvey found himself caring. He was sure that it was great for the both of them, but it wasn't something that had much to do with him. He was glad that she was able to move on to another topic eventually, since griping about how much Landel wanted to make their lives hell was becoming more and more redundant. They were only pointing out things that were already obvious because they didn't have anything better worth saying with so little in the way of leads, and that was frustrating.

Not sure how she could keep that smile on her face despite everything, he ignored it and shook his head. "Not anymore. There were a few people, but as far as I can tell they've all left now." There wasn't any sadness or remorse in his tone. He'd been pissed about Jason up and leaving, not to mention his lost chance at making Batman pay, but it wasn't anything worth crying over. It occurred to him that Tim Drake was probably still around, not to mention that nutball from the library the day before, but they hardly seemed worth mention. He didn't really know them, and so he didn't see them as worth counting.

[scientist_skye]

Mr. Dent didn't seem to be all that bothered by the apparent release of people she knew, which surprised Ema a little. For her part, even though Mr. Edeworth and Mr. Wright were both released before she arrived she was still worried about them. What had the institute done to them prior to their release? Or, worse, was 'released' a euphemism for something more terrible? Ema wouldn't have been able to mention them so calmly.

Then again, Mr. Dent seemed like a man who kept his emotions close to the vest, so maybe it was just him being stoic and not a lack of concern. That was pretty admirable, if that was the case. No wonder he and Lana got along; they were similar in that way.

"People really come and go, don't they? There are always notes on the board about people being released, but does anyone actually know what it means? To be released, I mean." Pusring her lips in thought, Ema jotted down a note to herself in her journal. She'd have to see if anyone actually had an answer to the question. "Do you have any idea, Mr. Dent?"

[unheroed]

Instead of expressing any concern over his released acquaintances, the girl just moved on to ask a more pertinent question. That, Harvey liked. Whether she'd taken a cue from his lack of emotion when he'd delivered the information or if she also had her priorities rearranged wasn't too important; actions stood out more than the intent behind them at times.

"There are rumors," he started with a shrug. He hadn't ever thought too much about it because those people who he knew who'd been released hadn't matter that much to him. "I've heard things about them coming back as visitors and acting like they've totally fallen for the--" he was about to curse, but some old instinct of his from when he'd been in the public eye reminded him to not swear around someone so young "--stuff that this place feeds us."

It was the sort of thing that would only stand out if it happened to you, and Harvey had avoided it so far. Maybe the institute realized that he wouldn't care all that much if Jason Todd was brainwashed and had decided to leave him be as a result. That would have been nice.

[scientist_skye]

"That happens?" Ema's pen started moving across the page in front of her once more. "I knew that the visitors acted brainwashed and all, but I didn't realize they could be former patients! I wonder what finally sets all of this-" she waved her hand around to indicate the institute as a whole "-into your mind? It doesn't seem like they're actively brainwashing us so much as they just keep insisting that what we know isn't real. Scientifically speaking, that's not at all the same thing." This new bit of knowledge was troubling. Was Dr. Landel capable of that kind of full-on brainwashing? If so, why brainwash some and not others? And why let the doctors address patients by their actual names during the nighttime experiments?

The more Ema learned in her investigations of this place, the less sense it made. That was frustrating--it was the exactly the opposite of the way investigation was supposed to work!

"Well, if they try to brainwash me and release me, I'll resist," Ema insisted, her hands balling back up into fists. Of course, everyone probably did, but that was beside the point. "I won't make it easy for them."

[unheroed]

Having never experienced it himself, Harvey didn't want to give the girl the wrong information, and so he shrugged as she tried to further question him. "I don't know too much about it. If you think of a clever way to phrase it, I'm sure you can ask on the bulletin." Actually, it wouldn't even be that hard, to ask about "cured" friends coming back to visit.

As intent as she seemed on being stronger than Landel and whatever he had up his sleeve, Harvey didn't think it was as easy as that. More than that, he didn't believe in lying in order to shelter a young person and allow them to think they were right when they weren't.

"I'm pretty sure that at some point they drop the act and do some real brainwashing, something like what they do for the Special Counseling. I have no idea why they don't do it off the bat, but... my guess is it's not something you can resist." As far as Harvey was aware, Lana would have appreciated him bursting the girl's bubble rather than allowing her to carry on with a delusion.