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

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[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."