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

[indenture]

Innocent people need lawyers too. And not every guilty person is necessarily a criminal.

[ He raises his eyebrow then, before shrugging his own shoulders in turn. Not that it matters too much -- he's not out to argue semantics. "Guilty criminals," to him, means something specific, not some thug who robbed a jewelry store or something. There's a reason he's normally prosecution.

Harvey tenses at the mention of Matt's name. ]

Matt has integrity. Don't force him to represent a murderer.

[glassbox]

I ain't a murderer.

[ Lil eyes him for a long moment, confrontational. She sees the way he tenses at the mention of Matt Murdock -- she remembers, how he'd asked her not to tell Matt what had happened that day on the boat. There's something there, even if she doesn't know exactly what it is.

Finally, she leans onto the table, reaching across it purposefully pat him on the cheek in a way that isn't entirely friendly before she withdraws. ]

Y'might got this pretty new face, but I know you're still you under that.

[indenture]

[ Harvey eyes her back, something darker in his gaze then; his eyes narrow, brows low, and that lock of hair casts a shadow down his face to his pursed, scowling upper lip.

He pulls back from her touch, hand lifting as if he expects her to grab him, or rip at his face, try to undo his hard work. When she doesn't, he almost relaxes, but not entirely.

Definitively and defensively, he says: ]

This is me. Who do you think I am, Lil?

[glassbox]

[ Her eyes narrow at him slightly. She can't explain why exactly -- she didn't sit down with him to pick a fight, that wasn't her intention at all -- but she suddenly feels a little volatile, now that they've come to this subject. ]

I ain't gonna bring up what happened between us, 'cause I said I'd let it go.

[ She leans forward, lowering her voice. ]

But I know what y'did t'Frank Castle. An' I ain't let go of that yet.

[indenture]

[ Harvey frowns, the lines beneath his eyes and across his forehead standing out more starkly when he does even if it does little to ripple his "attractiveness." It's a drawn expression, past the point of stern but not quite hitting angry.

Not quite. The color rising in his cheeks indicates he's close and perhaps, with effort, keeping it down. ]

Don't know what you're talking about. [ He says it stiffly, his voice also low. ] But I'm sure Frank Castle had whatever it was coming to him. Calling me a criminal -- what about him?

[glassbox]

[ Her own expression skirts the border of angry too -- intense, but not yet bad tempered. She's focused on him almost singularly, as if it's important to her somehow to get to the bottom of this, to know him and what's going on here, underneath the surface of his newly handsome face.

It's hard to say if she understands why herself. ]

It ain't about bein' a criminal or not. [ She's always been more of a morally grey type anyway. ] It's about hypocrisy, Harv.

[indenture]

Don't call me a hypocrite.

[ He feels his temper, hot and blunt like a hammer, strike against his temples as if trying to escape. His back teeth grind together and his hands shake slightly, though he tries to still them. ]

Don't talk to me about hypocrisy. [ He flings his law book off the table. ] What the hell do you want? What do you want?

[glassbox]

[ She doesn't flinch. But not a lot of things can get her to flinch anymore, not after what she's been through. When his book flies off the table, it draws her attention -- a fleeting distraction -- before her stare finds his face again, a frown drawing at the corners of her generous mouth. ]

Maybe I jus' want you t'know that y'ain't foolin' me.

[ She tilts her head up at him. ]

I lived with you, Harv. An' I survived you. I know y'better than y'might want me to.

[indenture]

I'm not trying to fool anyone, let alone you. I couldn't care less about fooling you.

[ Scowling, clenching and unclenching his hands into fists, Harvey stands up to try and calm himself down, walking over to pick up his book. He takes deep breaths as he goes. ]

You don't know me. Not all of me.

[glassbox]

Maybe not. But this is startin' t'look a helluva lot like the you I already know.

[ She stood up, annoyed -- unconsciously turning to her height, the feeling of physical advantage, in her irritation. Bad habits built out of a bad marriage. But she doesn't get violent, not like this, maybe because there's still some thread of something vaguely like friendship with Harvey for her, or because she still has enough common sense not to start a fight in front of a library. ]

Y'might not be tryin' t'fool me, but seems like you're tryin' t'convince someone. Matt. Or y'damn self.

[indenture]

It's a fucking book, I didn't kill anyone.

[ Annoyed himself, Harvey picks it up and tosses it back on his table a little roughly before he takes his seat again, rubbing his temple with two fingers. His face is a bit red, though not evenly so -- more on the right side than the left -- but otherwise he seems a bit more in control of his emotions. ]

What are you, a therapist? You got no business acting high and mighty.

[glassbox]

[ She stays standing, looming above, hands flat against the table as she eyes him, stubborn more out of instinct than any real desire to argue with him. ]

I ain't actin' like nothin'.

[ Though maybe she is being a bit more belligerent than she needs to be. Isn't that how it always is, with Lil? But after a moment, she sits back down, crossing her long legs. ]

Guess I'm jus' tryin' t'decide what t'make of all -- [ She gestures at him vaguely. ] -- this.

[indenture]

You should be happy. Matt would be.

[ It's not necessarily meant as a jab, but rather something Harvey is convincing himself of. He's certain of it; Matt would have to be. Batman would have been, and Matt wasn't half as obnoxious as that guy.

He straightens out his hair with his fingers idly, combing it back into some semblance of order. ]

I don't need your approval either way.

[glassbox]

No. Y'don't. And y'don't care if I'm happy about it either.

[ She isn't offended by it, not by the tone of her voice. But she wants it stated, out in the open, because that's how she likes things -- exposed. ]

Y'never did really explain what the deal with you an' him is. Matt, I mean. Did y'do all this jus' for him?

[indenture]

No, I don't. We barely know each other, and hardly well enough to pass judgement on either of our choices. Habits. Pasts.

[ His lips curl mildly, the hint of a very familiar-looking sneer, but he doesn't let it grow. ]

Not just for him.

[ Though, mostly. ]

Matt's and my relationship is none of your business. He's just an inspiration.

[glassbox]

It is my business.

[ Though she doesn't justify that statement. As far as she's concerned, just knowing them both makes it her business, nevermind the complicated ups-and-downs of her quasi-friendship with Harvey, or the attraction she feels for Matt. ]

He ain't just an inspiration. Y'don't shove people off of boats over goddamn role-models.

[indenture]

No it isn't. Matt and I go way back, the details are too complicated and sordid to involve anyone else in them.

[ The look on his face is a bit snide just for a moment before it falls neutrally again, eyes shifting downward. He shakes his head, inhaling and exhaling slowly through his teeth. ]

Don't question it.