Day 58: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)
Peter's lunch meeting with Tear had gone far better than he could have even expected. It was a good thing that he wasn't the sort of person who judged by age, seeing how the girl had proved herself to be very capable despite the fact that she was only a teenager. Not that Peter would ever admit it out loud, but Tear was a lot more mature than his
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Not that it changed much, though. Sure, he'd been able to speak his mind for once, but that didn't bring Jones back; it didn't wipe the memories of what Peter had done from his mind. None of that was Harvey's responsibility, but being a helpless witness meant that he had a burden to bear nonetheless.
He hadn't missed the fact that none of the other members of their ragtag group had made any attempt at contacting him, whether on the bulletin or in person. Peter had made his announcement about Jones and that was that. Harvey knew that there wasn't much for them to discuss, and yet this avoidance thing was annoying on its own. They hadn't even handle the "what next?" question, but maybe that was too much to expect for now.
What it meant was that he had nothing planned for the night, which was... new, after all that he'd done. Maybe it was time for another night spent doing nothing, although he hadn't handled that very well before. Grell was always an option, but did he have it in him to deal with the man for a whole night?
He realized he didn't have much time to decide and yet he didn't have the energy to sort it all out. Instead, he took a seat on one of the couches in the Sun Room and eyed the bulletin board, trying to figure out what to do. At least he'd given up on taking a nap; it was a lost cause by now.
[For Ruby.]
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So, when she wandered back into the sun room, she let her gaze dart around briefly, scoping it out. No signs of them yet. Should be safe for her to hang around, find something to do that didn't involve the menial task of arts and crafts.
When she spotted Harvey seated comfortably on one of the couches, a broad, catlike smirk worked its way over her lips and she headed over, standing behind him with her arms crossed for a moment before she made her presence known, following his gaze over to the bulletin board and studying it as she determined if it was what he was looking at -- it was, of course. Nothing much else in the room of interest.
"What do you think? Anything interesting, or am I better off sticking to the funny papers?" So, she was benched from the main game. That didn't mean she couldn't play ball for sport on the side. Harvey was always good for an inning.
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Still, there wasn't much he could do about it. Ruby had made it clear during their last talk that she was the stubborn kind. Even if he tried to push her away, that was only going to make her more interested in sticking around. More than that, she was a lot like Grell in that despite the fact that she grated on him, she was a possible ally. Someone who had apparently seen more than a few unsettling things, if she was to be believed.
Probably nothing as over-the-top as the whole "I'm a death god" thing, but he also wasn't going to underestimate her.
"Depends on what you're looking for," he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "Most of those messages are notes for specific people, so you have to dig around to find something more general." They were there, but he wasn't going to walk her through it. She'd have to go look herself if she was interested.
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"If it's that important, I'll hear about it. What about you? Any secret messages stacked up there for you, Harv?" She was definitely breaking the threshold of personal space by inviting herself to sit beside him without bothering to ask, but she wasn't in his bubble yet at least. She was more interested in picking his brain than his jacked up face anyway.
That, and getting a rise out of him if she could manage. She had to entertain herself somehow, after all. The more she learned about his buttons, the easier it'd be to use him. There was nothing quite so telling about a person as knowing what really ground their gears.
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But she was sitting down now and there wasn't much that he could do about that. The nickname she gave was enough to make him wince his visible eye closed for a moment, but that was the only reaction that he gave. He was almost too tired to get riled up at this point.
"Not as far as I know," he said after a pause. It didn't seem like Grell had left him any messages, and those would be the only ones exchanged in secret. As for Peter and the others, they were all doing their utmost best to avoid each other, so he didn't have the usual check-ins from them either. "I think you're imagining me to be far more interesting than I actually am."
Still, Ruby had managed to survive the past few days, so Harvey couldn't discount her so quickly. He wasn't trying too hard to shove her away for that reason.
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"I don't know if you noticed, but you're kinda missing half your face." There was a casual air to the way she said it, like she found it laughable that he could honestly say he wasn't that interesting with a straight half-a-face. She wasn't pussyfooting around his injury, and she wasn't disgusted by it. Instead, she was at ease and completely comfortable talking about it.
"Now, maybe it's just me, but experience says that any guy that gets his face pan-fried ranks pretty high up there on the interesting scale. No matter what kinda secret codes he is or isn't passing around." She shrugs, reaching up to rest her arms over the back of the couch instead of leaving them folded on her stomach. "Everybody's got slow days. Besides, it's not like you see me up there clambering to pass secret coded notes in class. But, it's good to see the past few days haven't done anything to your refreshing optimism."
Despite her terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, there was something less abrasive about Ruby's demeanor than there had been the last time they'd talked. The snark was there, sure, but the aggressive bite? Not so much. The fact of the matter was that she needed allies. Being as caustic as she had her first day had gotten his attention, and he wasn't exactly scrambling to get away, but she needed to show there was a softer side of Hell if she wanted people in her corner.
Besides. Dean would be racking up all her bitch points soon enough. She might as well have fun while she wasn't dealing with work in the strictest sense.
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"Ever consider that it may just have been a freak accident?" he shot back with a frown that showed that he wasn't nearly as amused by this subject matter as she was. Although he realized that that argument was a weak one. He stood out for the sheer fact that Landel or Aguilar or whoever it was who decided who was brought here had picked him. Add the injury to that and yeah, he stuck out like a sore thumb.
To think that there would have been a time when he would have wanted nothing more than to get noticed. He'd gone the extra mile to make sure that everyone in Gotham knew his name, his face -- and that was why the result was so ironic. That was why the Joker had singled him out, had dropped by his hospital bed just to gloat.
He didn't see why she would have expected his mood to be better than a few days ago. No, if anything things got worse and worse as time went by in this place. It all piled up until you had a day like the one he was going through now, where just facing the world seemed like a struggle.
"It's more or less the opposite," he grumbled, dragging a hand down his face as he looked up to the ceiling. He didn't really want to deal with whatever smug look might be on Ruby's face now.
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So, instead of dwelling and arguing it with him, she moved on. Moved on like the fact of the matter was that it didn't matter. Like the way he got uncomfortable every time she mentioned it was all him and no one else cared that he thought it was some big deal. He'd have to come around and get cozy to it sooner or later, Ruby was just paving the way.
"If I'd known you were gonna have this much trouble with sarcasm, I would have saved it." A beat. "Or, is this the part where I pull out the ice cream and we talk about our boy trouble?" The tone was mocking, naturally, but there was genuine interest there. From the sound of it, he'd had a rough few days himself. Probably not near as bad as hers -- he didn't exactly look like experimentation central -- but rough in their own way. And that meant there was more to learn about this place.
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"Unless you want to start answering some questions for once." There was a pattern forming here where she was always the one asking him questions and he wanted to nip that in the bud as soon as possible. He didn't like prying in general, so if she started to think that it was the norm? That wouldn't be good.
What to ask, then? He couldn't even say he was that curious, but if it got the topic of the conversation off of him for a few minutes, then that was fine by him. "So, how have you been handling this torture prison?" She'd acted like she'd had everything under control a few days ago, but had anything changed since then?
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"Didn't realize you had so many." She played it coy, shrugging. "Long enough to know the ins and outs." Dean already knew that she wasn't the same Ruby who he'd met the first time -- and a helluva lot more than that, which she didn't really want to consider right now because it wasn't gonna help to just marinate in her frustration. Point was, there was no reason to keep acting like she'd been there for ages.
"Not quite at the week mark yet." The way she added it to her answer appeared begrudging -- it was best if she seemed like she was admitting something to him that she didn't like being honest with, or that she had a hard time admitting. With any luck, it'd warrant some kind of unconscious emotional response. Feeling special, like they bonded, whatever. Bringing them closer.
"Since we're playing twenty questions, guess it's only fair for you to return the favor. What's your timecard look like?"
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It had been some time since Harvey had thought that hard on how long he had been here, though. The number of days didn't really matter in the end. He could have kept track, but he didn't need a row of scratch marks to inspire him to get out of here.
Although that wasn't even the plan anymore, was it? No, he needed to tear Aguilar apart first.
"I think I'm creeping up on three, myself." It was something that he'd refrained from telling her the first time they'd talked, mainly because she'd come on way too strong that time and had pissed him off more than a little. But... three weeks, shit. It made him wonder why his rank wasn't a little higher, at least. Though it wasn't like he cared that much. The solid food wouldn't be something he could make much use of and he didn't care much about how the soldiers treated him either way.
"So are you still desperate for information or have you figured all that out yourself?" She had pinpointed him as a good resource before, which wasn't necessarily untrue, but neither of them had sought the other out after that first chat. That probably meant Ruby had found her own way, one way or another.
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But, it wasn't the kind of thing that bore dwelling. After all, three weeks was still three times as much time as she'd put in, and that meant he had something to contribute. Even if it wasn't everything he thought it was.
"I was never desperate. Something you'll learn about me -- I don't do desperate. I make do all on my own -- when I have to. But, I'm also smart enough not to say no to anything you've got handy, if you're offering." She raised an eyebrow.
Not specific information, but anecdotes. The kind of thing like oh, by the way, I ran into a giant ape in the kitchen that nearly killed me. Or the fact that she, as a demon, had been possessed and lost her memories of it. Those were the quirks that you only saw through experience. And those were the things she wanted to hear.
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If there was anyone she even cared enough about in this place for something like that to affect her. Probably not, after just a week.
The fact that she had to make it clear that she was never desperate only made her seem even more so to Harvey, especially since she was already trying to subtly ask for more information. It wasn't a stupid move on her part, of course, seeing how information was the only thing in this place that held any sort of value.
"I've still got to have some clue of what you want to know first," he pointed out with a shrug. He wasn't all that eager to help her, especially since he didn't even know if she could give something in return. He wasn't going to go out of his way to tell her things, but if she had something specific on her mind, then... well, maybe.
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But, there was one thing. Now that Sam was off the table and she could actually think of her own goals before her goals for him and where she wanted him to be, she realized something she wasn't especially happy about. That pit in her gut, the one that welled with guilt and burned in her veins just a little. The one that had been there ever since her little trip to the vet.
"Upstairs. Word on the street is they do experiments." God bless the uniform that hid the scar down the center of her chest that'd give an indicator that she knew from more than just word on the street. "What do you know about them? What are they trying to do?"
It was the closest to honesty that Ruby had ever been, and Harvey would never know.
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"I know as much as you really can about it without having been through it myself," he said after a pause. "My roommate went through it, but you better believe that he was being tight-lipped about the whole thing. Whatever goes on up there, it isn't pretty and no one who goes through it is interested in sharing the details."
Which meant that if Ruby wanted concrete details she was going to have to track down someone who'd gone through it and actually be civil enough to get them to open up to her. Harvey didn't see that as being particularly likely.
"It's hard to say what they're trying to do. The general guess is that they're exactly what we're calling them -- experiments. They're changing people around, either to make them better or break them down." It was no secret that they were treated like living specimens rather than humans in this place, after all. Forget what Aguilar said; he wasn't treating them like they were people.
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Were they trying to break her down or build her up to something else? It had felt like her soul was seared, damaged beyond what it already had been. What had once been an emaciated skeleton of a being, torn and abused, was now charred beyond recognition. But only the doctors would really be able to tell her what their plan for her was, it'd seem.
"Your roommate got a name? I mean, I'm just saying, if I'm supposed to go around getting the first hand account, might help if I knew where to start with who'd seen the sharp end of those knives." She shrugged, raising one eyebrow in invitation. It wasn't a particularly demanding request -- she wasn't entitled enough to think that he had to tell her. But there was genuine interest that invited him to want to.
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