walking beside the guilty and the innocent

[indenture]

WHO: HARVEY DENT and YOU
WHERE: Around.
WHEN: 4/24 - 4/30 (specify!)
WHAT: Harvey Dent has put on his happy face and is ready to share it to the world.
WARNINGS: TBD, will edit as needed.


I. HARVEY ☆ INSIDE AND OUTSIDE HEROPA'S LIBRARY ☆ DAYTIME, ALL DAYS

It's with great determination and self-control unlike any he's had to embrace in years that Harvey is able to make it through a day without flipping his coin every other minute, although he hasn't kicked the habit entirely. It still comes out for the tougher decisions here and there, but for the most part Harvey's mind feels strangely at peace. He feels at peace and wonders distantly if he's deluding himself in feeling that way.

It's been years since he's tried this, longer still since he's really lived a life that could even abstractly be called normal, and even having gone through the surgery Harvey isn't sure he can make this work. Sooner or later, Two-Face always makes himself heard again. He always acts so that Harvey can't forget he's never completely alone. If it were only for Matt's sake this time Harvey would dismiss the idea, but it isn't -- somehow, he's found himself with people that have some amount of faith that he can do this, and it's a strange, uneasy feeling being believed in again. Inspiring, but...

... But right now, his mind is quiet; all he hears are his own thoughts, his own breathing, the soft sound of pages turning as he refreshes himself at the library -- sometimes sitting indoors, sometimes outside at a picnic table with his coat off to enjoy the sun -- brushing up on Heropa law so he can consider retaking the Bar Exam. He spends most of his time there, taking breaks occasionally to grab lunch or coffee somewhere before returning to his studies.

II. TWO-FACE ★ CENTRAL HEROPA ★ EVENING, THE 28TH

The plastic surgery is impeccable, far better than anything he could have gotten back home in Gotham. The technology in this world is far more advanced, and cosmetic reconstruction has certainly benefited from it; the jagged edges of glass from the broken car window in front of him cast unsteady shadows across his face, darkening his eyes in contrast to the thatch of light that hits his cheek from the streetlamp, engulfing his expression like teeth. Shards litter the sidewalk, sparkling like glitter, and he turns his eyes to the inactive spotlight atop the police car's roof before he moves on before whichever cop left it parked there sees fit to return.

About a block away is when he stops at a corner and begins to pluck splinters of glass from his bleeding hand, noting that the surgery has held well even then. The hand is bleeding, but the scars still don't show.

"It was a bad idea," he says to himself -- more than literally -- as he pries a particularly large piece from his palm, holding it up so he can admire it in the light. He touches it to his forehead, marking the center with a small splotch of blood.

Comments

Haaaaaarv

[glassinine]

[Edgeworth himself spends a lot of time at the library, studying intensively himself. It honestly quite rankles him that he was just given his job without having to prove himself at all, and so he works twice as hard as he would otherwise to gain the necessary knowledge so that he's good enough to warrant his position; weekends and days off, when he's not in the office, are spent here.

He's aware of someone else studying that very same subject; every once in a while, a book he needs is missing only to reappear later, or there are those small post-its that the reference librarians use to mark pages to be photocopied still sticking out of particular chapters. Edgeworth takes to observing when the other man is in the library and - gradually - becomes able to pick out when he will be there. In time, he sees someone who looks faintly, strangely familiar, decides it is because the man has been at the library at the same times - and so one day he goes over to him.

He nods in greeting.]

Sir.

[indenture]

[ Harvey doesn't look up immediately, engrossed in his chapter, though without pausing he marks a part of the page with his thumb before glancing over to acknowledge his new company.

Not that seeing Edgeworth here really surprises him -- he's noticed the very same thing, run into the dilemma of needing a book that suddenly isn't there -- but Harvey has been admittedly rather avoidant since beginning this endeavor, less inclined to solve the mystery and just keep to himself. It's with some debate he works out the best way to respond.

He offers his left hand over amiably, the skin rougher than that of his right but relatively unmarked (visibly) by any scarring. ]

Hi, Miles. You didn't need this book, did you? I'm probably going to be a little longer.

[glassinine]

[The face might be strange - but he knows the voice. He's had more contact, after all, with the voice than with the appearance, and it is unmistakable -

But the change in his appearance...it seems nearly miraculous. Edgeworth stares a moment before finally coming to his senses, reaching out, taking the man's hand.]

I am...sorry, Mr. Dent. I - did not recognize you. You've - changed your appearance.

[Which seems an idiotic thing to say, truly. And rather insulting. He hopes the man will forgive the clumsiness of his tongue.]

[indenture]

[ Harvey doesn't seem offended -- in fact he smiles faintly, a strange shy sort of smirk that looks alien on a face that before couldn't smile more than just halfway. ]

For the better, right? I had some work done, I-- [ He pauses, glancing down at his book before he marks his place with a sticky note and closes it shut. ] I thought it might be easier moving up into a legitimate practice if I looked less like a movie monster. The specialists here are pretty incredible.

[glassinine]

You did not look anything like a "movie monster."

[That's said firmly, fiercely. Of course there are far more salient elements in that statement to reply to, far more important things to comment upon, but Edgeworth must first protest that.

But a moment later, he nods.]

But the change is remarkable, and quite heartening. It looks like no damage has been done at all.

[indenture]

Miles, you don't have to say that. I know I was ugly -- half my face was melted.

[ He smirks crookedly then, which is a little more twisted, one more used to having to compensate on the right side. He shrugs his shoulders, folding his arms over the book in front of him.

Then his smile is a bit more sincere. ]

Thanks. I'm hoping it's a step in the right direction. Sort of... counting on the possibility.

[glassinine]

[A small nod - though, truthfully, even simply not protesting Dent's claims of hideousness makes him uncomfortable. Still, he leaves it be.]

In the direction of practicing law, I'm assuming?

[indenture]

[ Harvey nods his head, his eyebrows raising and eyes -- well, eye, since the left one is only a glass replica -- looking cautiously alight at the idea. ]

You got that right. I don't know what else I'd do -- I've been at this pretty much most of my life by now. It's a step down from District Attorney, but we all have to start at the bottom. Sometimes more than once.

[glassinine]

[Edgeworth...Well. He's not the sort of person who has a face that's even capable of lighting up; he's a grim sort of man by nature, after all, and his expression tends towards the morose even when he's just at rest. But there's definitely a lessening of moroseness that answers those words, a new energy that enters his face; he nods to the chair beside Dent and asks:]

May I sit?

[indenture]

Be my guest. We might as well sit together, as long as we're both here.

[ Harvey moves his own chair over slightly, since he was positioned closer to the middle of his table than to the edge, having been the only one there. ]

Hard at work yourself, huh?

[glassinine]

Yes.

[He pulls a chair to a decent distance away from Harvey - close enough to be friendly, far enough to not be too friendly - and offers a little nod of acknowledgment.]

My knowledge of the law is still not yet where it needs to be for me to be a truly effective prosecutor.

[indenture]

I know what you mean. It almost feels like starting all over again.

[ Which in several ways it kind of is, particularly for Harvey. How long has it been since he practiced law? A couple of years, if he counts the time spent in the City. But since becoming Two-Face... that accounted for almost a decade of his life, a decade-long hiatus.

The thought makes his lips tighten, but only briefly. ]

Law isn't quite like riding a bicycle, unfortunately. But at least the fundamentals stay with you.

[glassinine]

[Edgeworth, however unknowingly, echoes Harvey's thoughts.]

How long has it been for you?

[indenture]

[ Harvey sits back, tilting his head upward as if he has to calculate the math in his head and doesn't already have it nearly memorized. ]

About ten years or so. That accident broke something in me that I've been trying to fix ever since.