Day 51: Lunch

[sanguinario]

Edward was glad to wake up to a period of respite. While he had been conscious during breakfast, he'd requested to remain in his room for extra "sleep", which had consisted waiting until the room was vacated to ingest the vial of Venom's blood. The vampire had lost his chance last night, but that might have been for the better; this way he wasn't

Comments

[unheroed]

Harvey had been in the middle of mentally composing the note he was going to put up on the bulletin, and it was that distraction that caused him to only be vaguely aware of someone sitting near him at first. When he finally did drag himself out of his thoughts and glance over, he saw one of the last people he would have expected.

It was strange, but since Jason's disappearance Harvey had hardly given a thought to Batman's so-called sidekick. The plan had fallen apart without Jason around to be the lure, and it honestly didn't seem like there was much point now. Batman was gone as far as he could tell, though he didn't have much to go by. He'd seen no mention of him over the board, not even that symbol.

With that in mind, the whole plot to use this boy as bait had become irrelevant. There wasn't a point, when he didn't even know the kid. But with all that in mind, he honestly didn't know how to deal with him. Playing dumb seemed to be pointless, when he had no ulterior motive.

And so he took a gamble, setting aside his so-called meal as he forced eye contact with Tim. The boy had used another name during their first talk, but that hardly mattered to Harvey. "You know who I am, don't you?" he asked, tone firm. This wasn't something that Tim was going to just wriggle out of, as far as he was concerned.

[unheroed]

Oh, so he was trying to play dumb, was he? Too bad. That didn't work when Jason had given him a juicy amount of information about the kid. Trying to loop the boy around his finger would no longer lead to anything, so he was up for just laying everything out on the table at this point. But why not have a bit of fun in the process?

"That's not what I'm talking about," he said with a shake of his head. Everyone who came from Gotham probably knew the name "Harvey Dent" if they paid even the slightest amount of attention to their surroundings. He didn't know if that was the case in Tim's "version" of Gotham, but why shouldn't it be? If anything, his new name would be even more widespread if he'd actually been using it for a few years there.

"My other name. Or did we never meet when I was using that one?" He raised his visible eyebrow at the boy, knowing that he was playing a dangerous game by using information about a him that wasn't him. But maybe he was in the mood to take risks and gamble. It wasn't like he had much to lose anymore.

[unheroed]

The kid was good, Harvey would give him that. If he hadn't already gotten all of the information from Jason, he might have thought twice at the kid's tone and the blank, uncertain look on his face. He was really making it seem like Harvey was the crazy one here, going on about them knowing each other and so forth.

But he wasn't going to let Tim wriggle away from him like this. It wasn't like the kid could just walk away when they were trapped in this cafeteria, anyway. The place was crowded and this far into the meal, there wouldn't be many empty seats he could escape to. Harvey didn't know if he was the cowardly type, but he got the feeling that wasn't the case, if he'd been working with Batman.

"I don't," he said with a shake of his head. "You can drop the act, you know. Jason told me everything." And maybe he was going to get some satisfaction out of watching the kid squirm. It was kind of pathetic that this was all he could do for entertainment these days, but Harvey tried not to think too hard about that.

But now Tim would have to try and figure out what "everything" meant, and that was the fun part.

[unheroed]

There was such a thing as taking an act too far, and Harvey was starting to think that Tim didn't realize that. He had his number, and there really wasn't much point in trying to hide when he'd already been found.

"Maybe he goes by another name, then," he said with a shrug, only barely masking a smirk himself. Luckily, the bandages did a pretty good job of hiding his expressions, which meant that he could get away with a little more. Not that he was really trying to hide much anymore. "I know that's sort of a common thing these days."

Strangely enough. He'd even fallen into it himself, just a little bit. It was true that he wasn't going by Two-Face here, but that was because Harvey was a bit easier. Two-Face was a name to be known by, not necessarily to be called. If he ever got back to Gotham, then he would make it his mission to make that name a household one.

"So what have you been up to lately?" he asked as he leaned back in his seat and sipped idly at his shake. "I thought a sidekick of Batman's would have been causing more of a ruckus, but I guess I was wrong." Maybe he was laying low until the Bat showed up again, but it didn't really look like that was happening, did it?

[unheroed]

Good. That hadn't taken too long, though Harvey did feel some strange sense of satisfaction when he saw the cover fall away. It reminded him of being in the courtroom, of working someone down until they just threw their hands up into the air and confessed. This wasn't quite to that extent, but it was something.

"From what I can tell, we're the only two from Gotham left here," he pointed out with a shrug as he took another sip of his meal and then set it down. "It seemed pointless to keep up the charade." Unlike Batman (and apparently the people he teamed up with), Harvey wasn't big on keeping secrets. He'd do it if it was a means to an end, but he was an upfront person by nature. If there was no reason to hide anymore, then he wasn't going to.

Besides, if it was really true that they were part of alternate dimensions, then chances were they wouldn't be going back to the same place if they ever got out of this place. Unfortunately, that was seeming less and less likely. He was a realistic person, and he knew how much the odds were stacked against them.

"So what have you been up to without a certain someone around?" he asked, leaning forward slightly to watch the boy's face for any reaction. This was a good way to get an idea of what Tim was doing during his time here while also checking to see if Batman was really gone.

[unheroed]

That was probably the most generic answer that he could have received, and a frown formed on Harvey's face as he felt a fist clench. He was being civil right now, but his temper could flare up at the slightest provocation. He would have liked to think that Tim here knew that, if his version of Two-Face had been prowling Gotham for as long as Jason had said.

Granted, the fact that Tim was being so closed off made it pretty obvious that he knew he had to be careful. But withholding information could earn him a fist in his face just as easily.

"Lately? Not much. For a while I was working with Jason. We had plans to corner Batman, but then he went and disappeared on us" -- and on Tim, for that matter; even though Harvey knew the vigilante probably hadn't had any control over his vanishing act, it still seemed cold to leave his charge behind -- "with Jason following soon after, so..."

So he had found himself at a loss, plain and simple. That was obvious, but he wasn't going to admit to it so easily. He'd run around with random people gathering supplies and searching the institute both inside and out, but for what purpose? There was no clear path to escape; hell, no one had made it out on their own merit thus far, at least not as far as he knew. It was getting bleaker and bleaker, but the stubborn part of him refused to just give in.

If he stopped going out at nights, that meant he'd lost to the head doctor, and that was one thing he wouldn't allow. He'd rather off himself.

[unheroed]

While Tim didn't say it explicitly, it was still pretty obvious from what he did say and his tone that Batman was definitely gone. The kid had been left out to dry, intentionally or not, and Harvey had to force himself not to compare himself to the boy. He still didn't know if being stuck in here was any better than going wherever the disappeared patients went, but since he didn't have a say in it either way, it didn't seem to be worth thinking about.

Neither of them had tried to get at the other's throat yet, though, and that was the interesting part. Harvey didn't have anything against the kid personally, so if Tim didn't try too hard to annoy him, then he wasn't planning to harm him. He hadn't had anything against the idea of using the boy as bait, but that had been when Batman would have been around to care.

Now, they were both just stuck here without any way out. And so he'd ended up comparing anyway.

"Seems that's the pattern, yeah," he said with a furrowed brow. Jones was still around, but who knew how long that would last? Not that Harvey was trying to jinx it, but everything here was far too uncertain. It was a good thing that he didn't get too attached. For all the bleeding hearts, this place had to be torture. "I've been trying for the basement but it's pretty much been a bust so far. Have you tried the supply rooms?"

He didn't really know how to make a grappling hook, but logic dictated that that would be the first sort of place to check for the materials for something like that. It was no skin off his back to give Tim some advice, so why not?

[unheroed]

The janitor's closet. Well, that was one place to look for the materials needed for something like a grappling hook, but there were probably other storage rooms that the kid could check out. If he was giving up that easily, before he'd even made some real progress, then that was his problem. Harvey knew first-hand how frustrating things could get, with the lack of time and everything else that got in the way. That didn't mean that giving in was the answer.

"Yeah, seems that people try to keep quiet about it. I don't know much myself, but I've seen the entrance, at least." That had been enough to intrigue him, although Harvey realized that was probably the point. Anyone would be curious after seeing that ornate ballroom with its impossibly high ceiling hidden away under a fake crazy house.

And there really wasn't much else to say. Harvey wasn't going to offer information up to the kid that easily; not that he had much in the first place. It seemed that they'd reached a certain level of understanding, though. No death threats had been exchanged, and--

Well, there was one thing he wanted to ask about, and that was this supposed other version of him that Jason had mentioned. But before he could bring it up, the intercom came off as a sign that this wasn't the time. He'd have to track Tim down at some other point.

"Guess that's it," he said with a shrug as he stood. "There are other places to look for supplies. Find someone who has maps, if you don't have your own."