Day 53: Music Room

[rocksthecourt]

Well, if it wasn't his favorite time of the week. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. Of course in this case, distance makes Klavier feel like an abused, neglected animal who was only now being allowed a taste of actual food. These people were such savages. It was still absolutely absurd that they were allowed access to this room so

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[unheroed]

It was only when Klavier motioned to the other side of room that Harvey spotted a strange grouping of people. The woman at the piano and the one with the ukulele looked normal enough, but the other three all had different kinds of bizarrely styled hair. More than that, they just didn't look like a cohesive group as they stood there awkwardly with instruments that would likely sound ridiculous when paired together.

Granted, there were some young people who were very musically inclined, so who knew? But Harvey didn't have his hopes up, and it was already clear that Klavier had decided it was going to be better for a laugh than any real entertainment.

"Thrilling," he said in a monotone as he let out a sigh. "It's pretty remarkable what people will do just to get their minds off of the fact that they're stuck in this place." Did they really think it was going to work? Did they really think they would go back to their rooms in a better mood? Yeah, right. "They'd be better off taking things more seriously."

Not that his approach had really gotten him further than anyone else, so maybe he was better off not judging so harshly.

[rocksthecourt]

Klavier offered a fairly genuine laugh at that. "Well. Maintaining morale can be considered as important as investigating, I suppose. There are worse things they could be doing." Didn't he sound like the optimist...

Actually, he severely doubted that was the real purpose of this. They were probably just some kids looking to pass the time in a relatively normal fashion. It was only through coincidence that they also happened to be distracting themselves and those in the room. Even if only for a few moments, it was good to spend a few moments thinking of things other than torture and monsters and homesick memories.

It looked like the group was getting ready to start soon. Now might be a good time to get his headphones on. He shook his head idly, still smiling, as he popped open the CD player. "Most here don't take this place very seriously, I find. If people took half the amount of energy they wasted picking fights with each other and used it to actually cooperate and look for answers, we'd have probably all gotten out of here by now."

Actually, no. That was a gross overestimation of the general populace. But his point still stood.

[unheroed]

Harvey knew about morale as much as the next person, seeing how he'd had to project a public image and try to get people onto his "side." A lot of that had been through his genuine attitude about wanting to fix Gotham, but he'd also been forced to do things to keep up appearances. Either way, he knew that people's mental well-being (which was a joke to discuss in a place like this) was valuable -- it just didn't matter to him anymore.

He personally didn't see what was so entertaining or morale-boosting about a crippled attempt at putting a band together, but he was also much older than the general age group represented in this place. Klavier could have easily been with that group himself, in fact, but apparently he'd rather be on the sidelines.

Watching as the young man put some headphones in, Harvey frowned. "You're watching, but you don't want to hear?" It didn't make much sense, especially since the group hadn't started yet. But so long as he wasn't being ignored...

Klavier had a point about wasted opportunities, though Harvey also knew that there was only so much one could do during the day. At night people generally got serious, but he couldn't exactly blame people for looking for a way to pass the time. That didn't make him any more eager to hear their attempts, though. "You're probably right, but people are people. We aren't machines, so working twenty-four-seven is more or less a pipe dream," he pointed out.

[rocksthecourt]

In retrospect, it probably looked incredibly rude for him to put headphones on mid-conversation like that. At the moment though, Klavier couldn't say he much cared. If Dent wanted to raise an objection, he could take it up with the lunatic who only gave them access to CD players a few times a week. Otherwise, he would have to deal with talking to him this way. Thankfully, Dent seemed more confused than offended.

Klavier, on the other hand, looked thoroughly amused by the question. "Oh, I do. But just in case... it would be nice to have something so I'm not tempted to rip my hair out, ja?" He was smiling so that must have been a joke. Right? "Besides, I don't think I could drown them out with this even if I tried." He tapped the top of the CD player as though to make a point.

Music only a few times a week, a limited music selection, and tampered audio equipment. The place truly was hell at times.

The man's other point was a valid one, however. Klavier pulled his attention away from adjusting the old piece of junk to look up at Dent. "Hahaha. True enough. Even the best of us need to pull our mind away every once in a while." Even he and his brother, who had centered their entire lives around work in one form or another, had their escapes. "...So tell me, Herr Dent. What is it you do when you're off the clock?"

[unheroed]

From what Harvey could gather, it seemed that Klavier was functioning off of morbid fascination. He wanted to see what the group was going to attempt, but he didn't necessarily want to hear the final product. That made decent enough sense that he chose to drop it, though now he had to wonder if he'd be better off with his own pair of headphones.

Granted, he'd really only be able to listen through one ear.

It seemed that he'd taken some sort of wrong turn with his earlier statement, though, as Klavier had taken it as an invitation to start asking him more personal questions. Harvey knew it would be easy enough to avoid answering, but he wished that it hadn't been brought up in the first place; he'd just spent the previous shift trying to do all he could to stubbornly not answer someone's question, after all.

"There's not much to do here," he pointed out with a shake of his head. "And before this, I was a workaholic. I... spent time with the people I liked, I guess." In the end he had to rely on being vague and hoping that Klaiver knew better than to keep digging. Of course, putting things onto the other man instead was also a good way to get out of this. "How about you?"

[rocksthecourt]

Ahh. Dent was purely a professional, it seemed. Spending time with friends was the usual cop-out answer people gave when they didn't really have any hobbies they were particularly committed to. Which was fine. A man who approached life in a simple way was a man worthy of respect.

In all's honesty, Klavier didn't really have any interest in the man's private life. This was the first time in far too long where he was asking questions for the sake of idle chatter rather than some ulterior curiosity. He was lingering in a wonderful state-of-mind outside professionalism for once. For that reason, he wasn't really committed to the idea of pressing for details. Blame it on an actual full night's sleep and the lovely distant sounds of piano and guitar ringing in his ears.

"Me? I play in a band." He gave Harvey a sidelong smirk and waited to see whether he thought he was joking or not.

[unheroed]

It was difficult to tell if the man was just pulling his leg, but the more Harvey looked at Klavier's expression and saw how calm it was, the more he felt that this wasn't some sort of joke. He knew how to read people, and in this case he actually had to believe what had just come out of his mouth.

Glancing back at the ragtag group with their ill-fitting instruments, Harvey slowly started to feel like he understood what was going on here, from Klavier's attitude to the headphones he'd put in just a few moments earlier.

"Let me guess, then," he started as he turned back to meet the man's eyes, "you think you're above them?" There was a good chance that the man was more talented than any of the other patients standing there were, in which case his behavior wouldn't be out of line. But now Harvey was just curious. He'd never heard of an attorney who was also a musician before.

[rocksthecourt]

Klavier blinked once, looking back at Dent with a mildly surprised expression. That Dent believed him so easily was one thing, but for him to make that assertion? Now Klavier was the one who felt he'd slipped up with his words. He tried covering this, however, with a brief chuckle.

"Ha! I never said anything that, now did I? That sounds a bit harsh, if you ask me." And he would certainly never say anything that would make him come off as a complete jerk. Even if Dent was basically on the money. He smiled. "But if you want to compare, you could say I probably have more... experience, yes."

He hadn't even been thinking along the lines of comparison, honestly. Mostly because there was no comparison to be made. The Gavinners had been topping music charts for seven strong years, while this "Sex Bob-Omb" group... They struck him as the one-hit wonder garage band type who might be popular with the teenybopper crowd for a while. Maybe. That was a extremely optimistic for just having seen some partial sheet music. So really, he'd just been comparing their music to general standards of talent.

Comparing them to the exception would just be extremely unfair. Klavier wasn't a complete monster.

[unheroed]

Even if Klavier did what he could to sugarcoat it, the meaning was still pretty clear to Dent. It made sense that he wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, though, since a few of those kids looked like they were barely out of puberty. Gavin didn't look too old himself, but he was clearly well into his twenties, so there was that.

"When did you start playing?" he asked, more as a way to move the conversation along. It didn't really matter to him in the end, but they had to pass the time somehow, and Klavier didn't seem to be in the mood for a more serious chat.

Besides, he had to admit that he was curious about the idea of a musician-slash-prosecutor. Or was it the other way around? It seemed that Gavin took his job as an attorney more seriously, so maybe the band was just an on-the-side thing. Harvey couldn't really imagine how he had the time for something like that, but he also knew that not everyone was as OCD as he was. On the other hand, Klavier hardly came across as a slacker, either.

It was that uncertainty that made him decide to dig for more information, since he really just didn't get how this all fit together yet.

[rocksthecourt]

It was obvious Dent was just making conversation, but Klavier was delighted the other man was actually interested enough to ask. When he'd first entered the Prosecutor's Office, it was pretty obvious the senior prosecutors were slightly less than impressed upon introduction. Most notably Payne. He'd had to wait until after his first trial before they'd drop the "Kid" nickname. Not that he cared, mind you, but it was an idea he'd grown accustomed to.

"Ah. Since I was younger than any of them, I'll bet." He really wasn't any good at guessing ages, but he was sure none of them were younger than ten. "The band, however, has been going a little over seven years. Perhaps you've heard of us? The Gavinners?"

It probably sounded really obvious when one knew, but few people actually connected Gavin and the Gavinners together unless they knew already. And the fact that Klavier was both a prosecutor and a musician was something that mainly got media coverage in California. Anywhere else would likely only know him from the band. Still, anyone who knew him as a lawyer wouldn't necessarily connect his name with the band unless they were a big fan. So the fact that Dent hadn't made the connection either didn't seem strange.

[unheroed]

It was usually those who started at a young age who ended up being truly talented musicians, from what Harvey knew. Which wasn't much, but it was common sense that getting an early start would lead to having a familiarity with an instrument that others might not. Seven years was a long time for a band to last, especially when one of its members was so young. He'd probably started it up as a teenager, then.

"Can't say I've heard of it," Harvey admitted with a shake of his head, "but I'm also not exactly up to date on popular music." It was possible he'd heard one of the band's songs without realizing it, but he wasn't exactly going to ask Klavier to recreate one of their singles here. He probably wasn't even the singer...

The real question here, though, was obvious. "If you got started off doing the band thing, then what made you want to be a prosecutor?" It wasn't a very logical path, at least not from Harvey's perspective. Klavier probably had a good explanation for it, seeing how you had to have a good reason to want to suffer through law school and everything else that becoming an attorney entailed.

[rocksthecourt]

Pity. Dent had no idea what he was missing. Oh, to imagine all the songs and bands the man was depriving himself of. Them included. It truly was a shame. Ah, well. To each their own, he supposed. Some people simply didn't appreciate the importance of music.

"I'm afraid you have it backwards there, Herr Dent. I was studying to be a prosecutor long before there ever was a band. We only started my last year of law school." Which had been a surprising turn of events. Who could imagine a simple hobby would turn into something lucrative? "As for what got me interested... My brother was planning to be a lawyer first. I suppose you could say... that's what piqued my interest. Initially, that is."

Strange. This was the first time he had spoken of his brother out loud since he had disappeared. And yet he didn't feel like he was being torn apart from the inside out just by mentioning it. Either he was more comfortable talking to Dent than he'd thought or he was starting to handle the reality of the situation a little better now that time had passed. Or it was the music. It could always be the music.

[unheroed]

The nickname came out of nowhere, and Harvey was left to stare blankly at the man for a moment. Klaiver was of German descent, though, so it made sense. He just hadn't been expecting it, and he wasn't all that used to getting caught off-guard. He did his best to brush it off with a well-placed cough, but he figured Gavin would notice either way.

As the man went on to explain, Harvey nodded, realizing then that even if Klavier's love for music had started at a young age, he hadn't developed it into something more than a passion until he was already studying law. It was still hard to imagine someone having the time or the energy to start up a band while in law school, but maybe the man was just that dedicated. Either that, or quite the procrastinator.

While Harvey was an only child, he could see how a sibling might be a point of inspiration when it came to a career choice. It was as good of a reason as any, he supposed, though it did make it seem like Gavin might have just been following in his brother's footsteps instead of making his own choices. From the sound of it, though, his reasoning had evolved and matured over time. "Fair enough," he said with a shrug. "So would you say that you put your job as a prosecutor above your band, then?" Maybe it was cruel to ask the man to put one above the other, but he was curious.

[rocksthecourt]

Oh, yes. Klavier definitely noticed. Of course, he didn't plan on saying anything about it, but the reaction did earn a huge grin. No, not so much the reaction as it was the fact that he'd been surprised at all. Was he unaccustomed to things like that? Now Klavier was really curious about the kind of atmosphere Dent worked in. He seemed like so much more of a straitlaced adult than anyone found in the L.A. Prosecutor's Office. He bet Dent didn't converse playfully with others terribly often. That just made Klavier want to do so more just to trip him up more in the future. He had to admit it was kind of... endearing. In an odd sort of way. Heh.

And here Klavier also understood one more thing. The point of these questions, it wasn't just for the sake of conversation or curiosity, really. Dent wanted to know how dedicated Klavier was. There weren't too many prosecutors, or lawyers in general, who moonlighted in other professions. The split focus probably seemed strange. So when the question was asked, Klavier didn't see anything cruel about it. In fact, it spoke very highly of where Dent placed his priorities.

"Absolutely," he said without even having to think on it. "The band is really just a hobby in comparison. My only true instrument... is the law. And it's one I plan to play so long as there is breath in my body. ...As I'm sure is the same for you."

[unheroed]

Why did the man have such a huge grin on his face? Was it all because of his reaction? Luckily, it seemed like Klavier was smart enough to not comment on it or outright laugh about it, which meant that Harvey was relatively willing to let it go. If anything, it just meant that he was going to have to get used to being called that. (It was better than Harv, that was for sure.)

Gavin gave his response quickly, and while the way he described it was a bit over-the-top and borderline cheesy, he seemed genuine in his sentiment. That was good to hear, and he nodded. It was automatic, and only afterward did he remind himself that he wasn't even a prosecutor anymore. Due to circumstances out of his control, yes, but the realization was enough to twist the knife.

"It doesn't look like we'll get a chance to for a while," he responded in order to avoid the indirect question Klavier had posed. He didn't need to get into it now, but surely the man could understand why someone with a wound like his wouldn't be able to continue working.

Thankfully, he was actually saved from any potential awkwardness when the intercom went off, announcing that it was time for them to move back to their rooms. Harvey stood up promptly, but not so quickly that it would be suspicious. "Well, it was good to talk to you again, Gavin," he said, actually meaning it. "I'm sure I'll see you around soon." The other man didn't seem like the sort who would be disappearing anytime soon. Then again, who knew?