When Harvey woke up, he wasn't shocked by the fact that it was suddenly morning, but that it had come so soon. This wasn't the first time that it had happened to him, but he thought he'd gotten past it. It was almost as if for every two or three nights that he accomplished something, there had to be one where he barely got out into the main hallways before night ended.
He wanted to blame that girl for it, but chances were it was just Landel messing with him again. This did give some more credence to Jason's claim about a night ending early for him, though.
And now, what did he have to look forward to? Another field trip. The last thing he wanted to do was have to face off against those clueless townspeople who were undead in disguise. Or would things be different this time? He couldn't imagine that they would let the illusion fall away, though. Did those poor souls even realize what they were? Not that it was his business, but he could glare at them more if they were aware of their own hunger for flesh and just managed to hide it behind plastic smiles most of the time.
Still, he couldn't just write the trip off. He didn't want to be shoved into the middle of a zombie mob again, but he hadn't gotten to inspect the town as closely as he would have liked last time. It was in Doyleton that he'd gotten a gun, after all. He couldn't just dismiss it.
His clothing for this trip consisted of some slacks and a heinous sweater, but he lucked out by also being provided by with a black, waterproof coat that went down to the knee. He zipped it up as high as he could to hide the sweater, and then moved with the nurse out to the buses.
They actually arranged for him to get a breakfast shake for the bus ride; Harvey didn't thank them, but took the drink and the pointless coupons and got onto one of the buses. If he was lucky, his bandages would keep any other patients from sitting next to him.
Though last night hadn't been a night which ended after barely entering the main hallway, he still wondered what exactly had been useful about this visit to the ruins. He had discovered a building filled with corpses which were well decayed, along with a cryptic message written upon the wall. Perhaps the forest near it would be of more use...
Tenzen had barely been able to hide his weaponry before the nurse entered his room in an infuriatingly cheerful manner. The bundle of clothing she carried had been plenty to inform the ninja of what was awaiting him, but she chose to announce it nonetheless; today was the day for the field-trip. Another day spend in a useless manner, as was the case with most days, and he had to wonder why they would insist dragging them to that useless and silly little town. But the excursion wouldn't be disregarded completely; at least it had been useful in acquiring his axe, even if he had to plow through several mobs of walking corpses in the progress. Hnn, he had to wonder if the town's population had been significantly halved due to 'unknown reasons' last week, though the mild amount of satisfaction that said pile of corpses in such a 'happy' little place would provide was short-lived; the head doctor made a habit of making it seem as if the night hadn't even happened. It was likely that that silly town shared the same fate.
At least his outfit wasn't warranting for one's eyes to be gorged out, unlike several examples he had seen walking about the last time. It consisted of a plain pair of black trousers, a turtle neck and a navy jacket of an odd material (which would - according to the nurse - 'protect him from the rain'. The idea of a ninja of Iga needing protection from the rain was laughable. Such ignorance!). He quickly changed into the alien kind of clothing before being escorted to one of the large, yellow vehicles.
Taking the brown paper bag containing his sad excuse for breakfast and a book of coupons before boarding, he ended up taking a seat next to a man he recognized from his visit to the morgue.
Even though this was his second time doing the field trip thing (he would never understand the day staff's insistence on making them feel like grade-school children at every opportunity), Harvey still found it hard to get used to seeing everyone in clothing other than that gray, smiley-faced uniform. It bothered him that he'd gotten so accustomed to it in the first place, though. Even though he'd been given an ugly sweater, at least it was something different. And the raincoat hid it, anyway.
The point was, his gaze lingered on the man from the morgue for a little longer than usual, simply because of what he was wearing. It looked like the man had gotten off easy in terms of humiliating outfits. Maybe they were crueler to the kids.
What Harvey was surprised by, though, was the fact that the man even recognized him. It had been dark in that room, not to mention they'd only met for a minute at most. And he had his bandages on now, which could either make him easier to find or easier to miss. There were a lot of bandaged patients running around, after all. Then again, wrappings over the face weren't quite as common. He took it to mean that the stranger was pretty sharp when it came to observation.
So was Harvey. He nodded to the man as he took a sip of his vitamin shake, making certain to squelch any feelings of envy that might arise if he took note of the other man's lunch.
"What was through your door?" he asked, expecting the man to pick up on his meaning. They'd split off after running into each other in the morgue, and he was curious about what had been behind door number one.
Whatever had been a point of interest to prompt a stare that was a little longer than usual, Tenzen didn't know. And quite honestly, the ninja held little interest for such petty, irrelevant matters. At the very least the man appeared to be one to be getting down to business, something he could appreciate; most individuals were particularly keen on wasting his time on small talk.
"A room likely dedicated to cutting up corpses," he answered matter-of-fact-ly, keeping the tone of his voice neutral. They had only met once, so it was rather obvious which door the man was referring to, even if he wasn't familiar enough with the institute to know what the room was called.
There was a pause as Tenzen briefly glanced at the contents of his bag. A sad excuse for a breakfast indeed, but at least the fruit was bearable. He fished the apple from the bag before he asked:
It was the same, then. That was something of a letdown, but Harvey wasn't going to dwell on it. If anything, it meant there was one more place that had some useful supplies. He wasn't sure if it was worth the long trip just in order to get some scalpels, but it was something he was going to be certain to keep in mind nonetheless.
"Same as you," he replied. "An autopsy room." He didn't understand why the man hadn't just used that term, but he got the feeling he didn't want the answer to that question.
Thus far, the stranger hadn't done anything to offend Harvey, and so he figured he might as well go ahead with an introduction. "Harvey Dent," he said, sticking his hand out toward the other man as the bus started up and moved out of the unloading area.
It caused him to experience a stab of paranoia, to know they were going back to the town where he'd ended up running for his life from the walking dead, but Harvey quickly ignored the feeling. He had lost the right to say he wasn't cut out for elements of horror the moment those flames had burned up his face.
So the room - or rooms, as turned out to be the case - had been called an autopsy room. At the very least he now knew what was hidden beyond the other door, but as he already acquired a number of scalpels he didn't expect to return there anytime soon.
The buses had began making their roaring sounds and began moving away from the institute, indicating that this silly trip had finally started. At least he had already experienced traveling with these futuristic vehicles, so he wasn't as surprised as he had been last week.
"Yakushiji Tenzen," he responded to the introduction that had been spoken in the mean time, offering the man a small nod of his head for the mere sake of upholding at least a sense of politeness. The man had extended a hand, but the ninja wasn't certain of it's meaning or how he should even respond to the gesture. The man was obviously a foreigner, however. Then, was this some sort of foreign way to greet one another?
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Dent-san," he added for good measure.
What a mouthful. Not that he should have expected any different, but Harvey was at least accustomed to learning how to pronounce foreign names. It came with the territory of being a lawyer -- your client sort of expected you to know how to say his name when you were representing him in a court of law.
Yakushiji, Yakushiji, Yakushiji. He'd manage. The name clearly wasn't Chinese, that much he knew. Japanese, probably. When he heard the honorific, that was more or less settled, and he dropped his hand. If he'd felt the need to be respectful to this man, he might have bowed his head -- but he didn't, and so he left it at that.
"So, this your first time?" he asked with a nod to the bus itself. It was a simple way to figure out just how long the man had been around, and if it turned out that this was Yakushiji's second trip, then Harvey would probably have a few questions for him about the zombie incident.
Trying to ignore just how surreal his life had become, Harvey sipped on his shake and glanced out the window as he waited for an answer. He still wasn't quite used to how green this area was.
Tenzen spared a glance out of the window, watching the greenery pass by as the vehicle continued moving. Dent seemed to be curious with his questions, but on the other hand, there was little left to discuss in this facility.
"It is my second time," he responded to the question, shifting his dark eyes back to the other man. And the fourth time the institute came up with such nonsense, if his 'source' had spoken the truth last time.
It looked like they shared that one thing in common, then, even if it was just a matter of how long they'd been stuck in this place. Harvey nodded in response to the man's question. "Same for me. Did you manage to avoid getting bitten?" Even though there'd been some murmuring going around about how people had been infected, all of that had seemed to die out (no pun intended) by this point.
Just in time for it to happen all over again, maybe? Harvey didn't want that to be the case, but he wasn't going to buy into false hope either.
This conversation hadn't amounted to too much, but he'd determined that Yakushiji was capable enough to handle a zombie attack and was willing to give information. He also wasn't annoying, just serious. In any case, he might be worth talking to in the future, but Harvey's interest didn't extend beyond that.
He wanted to blame that girl for it, but chances were it was just Landel messing with him again. This did give some more credence to Jason's claim about a night ending early for him, though.
And now, what did he have to look forward to? Another field trip. The last thing he wanted to do was have to face off against those clueless townspeople who were undead in disguise. Or would things be different this time? He couldn't imagine that they would let the illusion fall away, though. Did those poor souls even realize what they were? Not that it was his business, but he could glare at them more if they were aware of their own hunger for flesh and just managed to hide it behind plastic smiles most of the time.
Still, he couldn't just write the trip off. He didn't want to be shoved into the middle of a zombie mob again, but he hadn't gotten to inspect the town as closely as he would have liked last time. It was in Doyleton that he'd gotten a gun, after all. He couldn't just dismiss it.
His clothing for this trip consisted of some slacks and a heinous sweater, but he lucked out by also being provided by with a black, waterproof coat that went down to the knee. He zipped it up as high as he could to hide the sweater, and then moved with the nurse out to the buses.
They actually arranged for him to get a breakfast shake for the bus ride; Harvey didn't thank them, but took the drink and the pointless coupons and got onto one of the buses. If he was lucky, his bandages would keep any other patients from sitting next to him.
[For Tenzen.]
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Tenzen had barely been able to hide his weaponry before the nurse entered his room in an infuriatingly cheerful manner. The bundle of clothing she carried had been plenty to inform the ninja of what was awaiting him, but she chose to announce it nonetheless; today was the day for the field-trip. Another day spend in a useless manner, as was the case with most days, and he had to wonder why they would insist dragging them to that useless and silly little town. But the excursion wouldn't be disregarded completely; at least it had been useful in acquiring his axe, even if he had to plow through several mobs of walking corpses in the progress. Hnn, he had to wonder if the town's population had been significantly halved due to 'unknown reasons' last week, though the mild amount of satisfaction that said pile of corpses in such a 'happy' little place would provide was short-lived; the head doctor made a habit of making it seem as if the night hadn't even happened. It was likely that that silly town shared the same fate.
At least his outfit wasn't warranting for one's eyes to be gorged out, unlike several examples he had seen walking about the last time. It consisted of a plain pair of black trousers, a turtle neck and a navy jacket of an odd material (which would - according to the nurse - 'protect him from the rain'. The idea of a ninja of Iga needing protection from the rain was laughable. Such ignorance!). He quickly changed into the alien kind of clothing before being escorted to one of the large, yellow vehicles.
Taking the brown paper bag containing his sad excuse for breakfast and a book of coupons before boarding, he ended up taking a seat next to a man he recognized from his visit to the morgue.
"So we meet again," he said curtly.
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The point was, his gaze lingered on the man from the morgue for a little longer than usual, simply because of what he was wearing. It looked like the man had gotten off easy in terms of humiliating outfits. Maybe they were crueler to the kids.
What Harvey was surprised by, though, was the fact that the man even recognized him. It had been dark in that room, not to mention they'd only met for a minute at most. And he had his bandages on now, which could either make him easier to find or easier to miss. There were a lot of bandaged patients running around, after all. Then again, wrappings over the face weren't quite as common. He took it to mean that the stranger was pretty sharp when it came to observation.
So was Harvey. He nodded to the man as he took a sip of his vitamin shake, making certain to squelch any feelings of envy that might arise if he took note of the other man's lunch.
"What was through your door?" he asked, expecting the man to pick up on his meaning. They'd split off after running into each other in the morgue, and he was curious about what had been behind door number one.
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"A room likely dedicated to cutting up corpses," he answered matter-of-fact-ly, keeping the tone of his voice neutral. They had only met once, so it was rather obvious which door the man was referring to, even if he wasn't familiar enough with the institute to know what the room was called.
There was a pause as Tenzen briefly glanced at the contents of his bag. A sad excuse for a breakfast indeed, but at least the fruit was bearable. He fished the apple from the bag before he asked:
"What of your door?"
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"Same as you," he replied. "An autopsy room." He didn't understand why the man hadn't just used that term, but he got the feeling he didn't want the answer to that question.
Thus far, the stranger hadn't done anything to offend Harvey, and so he figured he might as well go ahead with an introduction. "Harvey Dent," he said, sticking his hand out toward the other man as the bus started up and moved out of the unloading area.
It caused him to experience a stab of paranoia, to know they were going back to the town where he'd ended up running for his life from the walking dead, but Harvey quickly ignored the feeling. He had lost the right to say he wasn't cut out for elements of horror the moment those flames had burned up his face.
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The buses had began making their roaring sounds and began moving away from the institute, indicating that this silly trip had finally started. At least he had already experienced traveling with these futuristic vehicles, so he wasn't as surprised as he had been last week.
"Yakushiji Tenzen," he responded to the introduction that had been spoken in the mean time, offering the man a small nod of his head for the mere sake of upholding at least a sense of politeness. The man had extended a hand, but the ninja wasn't certain of it's meaning or how he should even respond to the gesture. The man was obviously a foreigner, however. Then, was this some sort of foreign way to greet one another?
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Dent-san," he added for good measure.
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What a mouthful. Not that he should have expected any different, but Harvey was at least accustomed to learning how to pronounce foreign names. It came with the territory of being a lawyer -- your client sort of expected you to know how to say his name when you were representing him in a court of law.
Yakushiji, Yakushiji, Yakushiji. He'd manage. The name clearly wasn't Chinese, that much he knew. Japanese, probably. When he heard the honorific, that was more or less settled, and he dropped his hand. If he'd felt the need to be respectful to this man, he might have bowed his head -- but he didn't, and so he left it at that.
"So, this your first time?" he asked with a nod to the bus itself. It was a simple way to figure out just how long the man had been around, and if it turned out that this was Yakushiji's second trip, then Harvey would probably have a few questions for him about the zombie incident.
Trying to ignore just how surreal his life had become, Harvey sipped on his shake and glanced out the window as he waited for an answer. He still wasn't quite used to how green this area was.
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"It is my second time," he responded to the question, shifting his dark eyes back to the other man. And the fourth time the institute came up with such nonsense, if his 'source' had spoken the truth last time.
"What about you?"
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Just in time for it to happen all over again, maybe? Harvey didn't want that to be the case, but he wasn't going to buy into false hope either.
This conversation hadn't amounted to too much, but he'd determined that Yakushiji was capable enough to handle a zombie attack and was willing to give information. He also wasn't annoying, just serious. In any case, he might be worth talking to in the future, but Harvey's interest didn't extend beyond that.
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