#halfdent

>. Had she gone too far this time?

"Don't -- Don't you fucking start with me right now, H a r v e y. I don't want to hear it--" Binary hated it. Hated that he was the only one who could see right through her bullshit and never hesitated to call her out on it. No matter how hard it was to hear the truth, he forced her to listen --;; and most she hated she'd never want anyone else.

"---- What do you want me to say? That no -- I don't recognize even an inch of my old self anymore? That I can no longer relate to that girl in those photos from two years ago?"

She wanted to throw something. To yell at him, to tell him to leave her alone -- but she stood rigid, her mind dissociating from the storm that was erupting within.

"So spare me the crap and tell me already. That I'm too far gone. That Roy -- Roy and his fucking asshole company managed to do what he sought to do all along. To ruin me. To make me rotten to the core."

Not everyone believed in second chances. Not everyone believed that luck would deliver them their truth. In her eyes, there was nothing but search and destroy...But if that was the bitter truth...why was her eye welling up with tears at the mere thought of becoming the very thing she sought to become all along?

"I don't---I don't want to be ruined. I never wanted this, Harvey ---"

Tear after tear, the mascara smudged underneath her eyes. A soft, hitched breath escaped her cramping lungs as she struggled to meet his gaze.

Seeking his comfort as much as denying herself of it.

"...---Will I ever be f r e e ...?"

Veronica doesn't take help easy, used to doing things on her own. They got through most of their life that way just fine ( nevermind that they can't really remember bits and pieces of the years in between ), and they had been doing well enough here, too. She's capable of handling herself.

This is something she can't, blood dripping down her side and her head pounding from being slammed into a brick wall. She'd at least managed to fight back and run from the assailant; she didn't see the face and frankly didn't want to turn around to check. Veronica had taken every precaution they could've. Self defense items in their pockets, in their car, even the stupid patched up trench coat they just can't seem to get rid of. They'd even taken self defense classes, for fuck's sake. They knew what streets to avoid coming home, and it had been enough. Why, all of a sudden, was it not?

Static is starting to buzz in her head and they can't tell if it's from adrenaline or panic starting to set in. They're overwhelmed and everything is melding together in weird blurs of lights and sidewalks and fuck, this hurts, what did they even hit her with? Are we leaving a trail? What street is this? Where's our car? Phone. Phone, where's our phone?

Veronica fumbles with bloody fingers on her phone to find a contact, trying to take deep breaths. Stay calm, stay calm, don't cry. Her aunt's a good three or four states west; she can't get here in time. A lot of her friends are in the same boat or they're asleep. ( lucky assholes. ) She calls the only other person she knows might be awake and hopes-- prays-- he's not in the middle of something. She doesn't really wait for a hello before she starts speaking; she'll apologize later.

Deception. Honesty. Reflective words, a duality, but both meaningless for a man like Gotham's King of Crime. His empire rests on a foundation of corpses and the tools used to create them, bolstered by promises left both fulfilled and empty, truthful and false. It seems pointless to question, even the half-assed answer to an equally lazy rhetorical. Yet, Oswald cannot help but think. He cannot help but to open his mouth and answer the question he regards as twice-meaningless.

There  was  a  plan.  A  simple  plan  ,  &  all  Anya  had  to  do  was  stay  put.  Lay  low  ,  &  𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓.  If  they  did  that ... Everything  would  be  fine.  Untill  it  wasn't.  Days  turned  into  a  𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐏𝐋𝐄  𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊𝐒  ,  &  like  clockwork ... Anya  left  where  she  was  told  she  would  be  safe  ,  &  was  being  picked  up  &  hauled  away.  Anya's  misdeeds  of  their  past  were  𝐍𝐎  𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓  any  longer  ,  &  while  it  was  a  stretch  to  call  them  𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐄  ,  the  condition  inflicted  upon  her  by  her  𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐑  𝐎𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒  ,  they  couldn't  very  well  let  a  woman  who  could  potentially  be  controlled  by  the  right  people  ,  &  it  was  off  to  Arkham  for  her.  That  aside  ,  Anya's  stay  there  was  hopefully  going  to  achieve  something  else  other  than  the  safety  of  Gotham ... It  could  also  prove  to  serve  as  a  way  to  keep  another  𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘  𝐀𝐆𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐄  inmate  within  those  walls.

The  processing  phase  was  jarring  ,  but  only  in  the  sense  of  it  being  more  of  a  distant  memory.  It  wasn't  𝐔𝐍𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄  experiences  she  had  been  put  through  where  she  had  spent  her  childhood  years  ,  a  familiar  feeling  which  Anya  𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐍𝐆  𝐓𝐎  while  she  was pushed  through  the  process.  Clothing  was  exchanged  for  an  𝐈𝐍𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒  𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌  ,  &  that  familiar  pull  to  let  someone  else  deal  with  this  was  felt.  She  pushed  that  feeling  aside  ,  ignoring  the  𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆  from  her  loyal  protector  in  favor  of  the  only  thing  she  could  think  about ... Finding  Harvey.

She'd  get  her  answer  𝐒𝐎𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐑  than  she  thought.  Rather  than  taking  her  to  what  would  be  her  cell  ,  another  𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐑  memory  that  drove  that  urge  to  once  again  ,  let  someone  else  handle  it  ,  instead  she  was  taken  to  another  room.  Unsure  of  what  this  was  ,  sceptical   eyes  looked  around  the  small  and  relatively  𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐄  room.  Bare  save  for  one  thing.  One  person  ,  save  from  her  and  the  orderlies  escorting  her.

Him.

The  𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃  they  let  go  of  her  ,  legs  were  moving  to  get  her  across  the  space  of  the  small  room  as  𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐘  as  they  could  carry  her.  A  moment  of  weakness  in  her  eyes  that  she'd  been  holding  down  with  everything  they  had  in  order  to  just  know  he  was  okay.  But  there's  a  long  there.  That  𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊  stops  her  short.  Her  head  shakes  ,  &  actual  tears  well  up.  Something  that  they  don't  premit  themselves  to  do  often.  It  stings  ,  but  there  isn't  a  tear  that  falls  down  just  yet.  Eyes  search  his  for  something.  A  sign  that  they  aren't  𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆  𝐎𝐍  𝐂𝐎𝐀𝐋𝐒  ,  &  her  chest  tightens.    ❝ I'm sorry , I ... I didn't think they'd recognize me. ❞ It's the truth. They thought they had masked themselves enough. But perhaps that had 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃  in  the  first  place.  More  likely  that  they  already  knew  where  she  was.  A  good  plan  ,  that  apparently  worked.

[  𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐃  𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐄.  ]      𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐕𝐄𝐘.   ❝  oh  she  laughs  !  She  can  smile  too  .  ❞

𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐒  ,  𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐒  ,  𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒  𝐒𝐇𝐄  𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍  𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘  𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖  𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓  𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘  𝐀𝐑𝐄?   The  laugh  had  come  to  her  seemingly  out  of  nowhere.   Her  life  until  this  point  had  been  nothing  but  waking  nightmares  for  them.   If  she  though  hard  enough  ,  the  last  time  she  𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐃  herself  to  smile  ,  to  laugh  …  They  found  out.   They  𝐀𝐋𝐖𝐀𝐘𝐒  knew.   Somehow  …

Legacy  had  a  way  of  finding  out  everything.

Even  now  ,  in  a  𝐑𝐄𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒  attempt  to  find  freedom  that  she  still  wondered  was  real  or  not.   She  could  kill  him  right  now.   It'd  be  easy.   It  𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃  have  been  easy  before.   It  𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃  have  been  easy.   But  for  one  reason  or  another  ,  she  couldn't  do  it.   A  momentary  error  that  they  were  still  debating  was  a  good  one.

It's  when  @halfdent  brings  𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍  to  the  gesture  of  hers  ,  that  laugh  that  had  snuck  out  without  her  knowing  ,  causing  her  face  to  darken  to  a  light  shade  of  pink  to  betray  the  pale  almost  ghost  like  features.   Had  she  known  who  her  mother  was  …  she  would  know  her  to  be  the  one  to  give  her  those  features  ,  along  with  the  one  green  eye  she  possessed  to  pair  with  the  𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐋𝐘  icy  blue  one  on  the  other  side.   Eyes  look  down  from  him  ,  cast  now  to  her  fidgeting  hands.   There  is  was  ,  the  quick  𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐋  of  emotion  to  bring  back  the  cold  exterior  she  learned  to  be  the  safer  expression.

❝  Are  bad  jokes  something  everyone  does?  ❞    It  was  a  𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐂𝐊  deflect  from  her  own  actions.   Common  when  someone  pointed  out  something  that  made  her  nervous  ,  as  if  𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆  didn't  make  her  nervous  out  here  ,  so  long  without  returning  home.   So  long  that  she  was  beginning  to  wonder  when  she  would  be  pulled  back.   It  happened  every  time  she  ran.   One  way  or  another  ,  they  always  pulled  her  back.   They'd  been  watching  ,  waiting  for  that  to  happen  ,  but  those  agents  never  came.   The  joke  had  been  the  first  time  she  had  let  that  guard  even  in  the  𝐒𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓.    ❝  Or  is  it  just  you?  ❞    The  words  she  spoke  were  English  ,  she  was  fluent  in  the  language  along  with  many  others  ,  but  the  accent  that  went  with  it  𝐎𝐁𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐋𝐘  had  a  Russian  sound  to  it.    ❝  You're  different  from  most  people.  ❞

"No, I know this number is only for emergencies." Peter said talking quietly into the phone, his tone pitched lower than it normally was, though it sounded more like he was afraid the other would be angry with him more than anything. he didn't want to get in trouble, despite already being in trouble.