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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[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.

[scientist_skye]

Asking about the visitations and releases on the bulletin board was a really good idea, if for no other reason than it gave her a chance to learn what other patients in the institute already knew and prevented her investigation from becoming redundant. Ema just needed to think of a way to properly word her question; subtlety and metaphor and speaking between the lines were not things she was terribly adept at. Maybe she'd ask Lana for help later.

Mr. Dent's response to her determination, however, left something to be desired. Sure, maybe he was just being realistic, but it seemed to her that he was just willing to let this happen! "That doesn't mean I won't try! Even if nothing comes of it and I still get brainwashed, I'm not just going to let them do whatever they want to me!" Well, any more than they already had done to her. The thought gave her pause as a shiver worked its way up her spine. When she continued, her tone was a bit more sober. "I know that when they brainwash you, they mean it. My roommate didn't even recognize me when she was taken to Special Counseling. But... I refuse to let that be an excuse to give up. We can't let them get to us, Mr. Dent. No matter what."

[unheroed]

It was difficult to try and hold back a sigh when the girl protested his more realistic view on things. Harvey realized where she was coming from, of course, since no one wanted to believe that they would give in as easily as everyone else had. There was that need to be special, to be the one that broke the pattern, but it wasn't always that simple. This wasn't a movie, after all, and there was no main character here who would come out on top because the plot dictated they would.

Granted, it was no surprise that someone so young would be a bit naive and short-sighted. He couldn't really hold that against her, even if he was so far past that sort of thinking. Granted, when he'd been her age he'd been intent on becoming an attorney so he could make Gotham a better place; he'd followed that dream up until recently, and it was only now that he'd come to see how foolish it had been for him to believe in it.

"Do you think everyone else who's fallen victim to it hasn't tried?" he asked her with a slight frown. "Of course everyone's going to do their best, but you also have to be prepared to realize that there might not be an easy way out of this." She'd been taken for experiments; she should have known what it was like. In fact, that was knowledge that Harvey himself didn't have.

Before he could give her any more words of wisdom, however, the intercom went off, announcing that the shift was over. Harvey shrugged and stood from his seat, stretching for a moment before he looked back down at the girl. "Either way, it was nice to meet you." Surprisingly, that wasn't a lie. "Give your sister my regards when you see her."

[scientist_skye]

Ema wanted to continue to protest Mr. Dent's continued pessimism. Of course everyone else fought back, what reason did they have not to? And she'd done her best to stand up to the doctor who had experimented on her... at least up until the point that he'd rubbed her nerves so raw that she pretty much gave up on the endeavor and endured the rest of the procedure in silence.

But still. She'd tried her best, at least, and there was some kind of moral victory in that.

The intercom's announcement of the next shift cut off any opportunity that Ema had to respond to Mr. Dent's words directly. Already, he was on his feet and their nurses were approaching. Ema would have to let the subject go for now. "It was nice to meet you, too," she answered, smiling. It was an earnest sentiment. "I will."