Day 51: Breakfast

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie Kisaragi, indomitable bouncing ball of sunshine and unfathomable ebullience, was tired. It'd been a long night full of gibberish and getting nowhere fast

Comments

[unheroed]

Even with that crazy costumed kid using some sort of weird webbing material (where the hell had he even found something like that?), even with all of them surrounding the frilled-up, parasol-toting girl, nothing had worked. She'd simply taken that moment to disappear, and by that point no time had been left

[ihaveaslot]

Hammer wasn't quite delusional enough yet to believe that his lawyer would actually be waiting in the cafeteria with him, but he felt like it was unfair to look down on a man for hoping. To be honest, even if his lawyer was here, he wouldn't be able to pick him out from the fuzzy sea of faces that greeted him. Nurse Still-A-Three walked him over to the food line, and was just about to start piling up god knew what onto his tray before the irritated CEO waved her off, muttering something about not being legally blind before piling up as many french toast sticks and syrup as his tray could hold. Normally, he'd be having some delicious crepes or a danish or something, but french toast. He could live with that

[unheroed]

It was hearing his fake name that drew Harvey out of his churning thoughts. He regretted looking up a split second after he did so, since the last thing he wanted to do was give the nurses the impression that he was receptive to that title. But it was too late for take-backs, especially when it looked like a nurse was leading a patient straight to him.

The guy looked reluctant (understandably), and while Harvey had only barely been able to make it out, had he said something about lawyerJust a coincidence, he was sure. He didn't recognize the stranger's face and even if the man had known him as Harvey Dent, he doubted that he would be so easily identifiable anymore. Not when people were used to seeing an unblemished face plastered up on their televisions, billboards, and bus ads, anyway

[ihaveaslot]

Wasn't this guy sunshine and rainbows? Hammer couldn't blame him; he wasn't sure how he'd muster up the energy to wake up with that ugly thing wrapped around half of his face. He could only guess what was underneath all of that - actually, he would rather not. Instead, he'd rather take guesses at why he wasn't going to find a lawyer within fifty miles of this place. Well, he guessed this place being Siberia was looking a little more likely.

"You know, I figured as much when my first, oh, fifty requests were turned down. But hey, can't fault a guy for trying, right? I'm more wondering why they can't seem to get my name right." Actually, Hammer couldn't tell. What was more annoying, having his requests ignored or being called by the wrong name constantly? Yeah, it wasn't too hard to figure out. Figuring out why, though, was a riddle that he didn't feel like answering. And it sounded like this guy, Mr. Botched Mummy Halloween Costume, knew what was going on

[unheroed]

Definitely new. If the guy still didn't know why they were using the wrong name, then he had probably just woken up. Harvey didn't know why he was the one who had to get saddled with dealing with a newcomer, though. He would have thought that the nurses would have figured out by now that he was not a friendly person. There were plenty of other dim-witted patients around who would be better suited for this job, and yet here he was

[ihaveaslot]

Had Hammer known he was imposing himself on Mr. Eckhart here, he might have felt a tiny bit charitable and kept quiet during his meal. Actually, that was a lie, because Mr. Eckhart seemed charitable enough to answer his questions and then some. Well, he wasn't going to let the guy get away with a half-assed explanation! Hammer was damn well entitled to an explanation for all of this bullshit and he was going to get it from someone. Hence why Mr. Eckhart had his full attention, something that was pretty hard to get without waving a camera or recorder in Hammer's face

[unheroed]

And there was the look of skepticism. Harvey would have judged the man for it if he hadn't felt the exact same way on his first day here. It was the natural, sane response, but the more time that was spent in this place, the more things you learned to just accept. The newest items on that list were being able to move through time and the transformation from male to female. He was just glad that the latter hadn't been tested on himBut the newcomer didn't need to hear about any of that. He could try and brush it off and call it crazy for as long as he wanted, but sooner or later he was going to have to face the things that were shoved in front of him. Harvey had already gotten to tell one person "I told you so"; he wasn't sure he wanted to seek this guy out again a few days later to do so again

dskajd sorry for the fail! backthread y/n?

[ihaveaslot]

Well, of course not. They didn't have a special jail for important folks, as much as Hammer would have liked that. To be honest, the notion of going to jail never really sunk in for the man, so he didn't seem that worried at all. After all, this wasn't really a ... jail, right? It was some kind of hospital. Asylum, as "Mr. Eckhart" put it. What a place to get an accidental transfer too. Whoever this "Mr. Rench" guy the nurses mistook him for must have been a real psychopath.

Come to think of it, maybe this guy was too. That was something Hammer considered briefly, pausing inbetween a mouthful of syrup with french toast, before shrugging and deciding to answer the guy's question. This shit was probably international news at this point. Besides, he hadn't spoken to his lawyer yet. The PR department probably already issued press releases, if they knew what was good for them.

"Justin Hammer, CEO of Hammer Industries, is who I am, Mr. Eckhart. Or whatever your name is...?" He waved his fork around vaguely, although he didn't care too

there's no fail here! and sure, we can keep going for a bit.

[unheroed]

Oh, no wonder. Harvey would have rolled his eyes if he had both showing, but with one it really just didn't have the same effect. So he was dealing with the CEO of some sort of company, though it sure as hell wasn't one he'd ever heard of. This guy thought he was well-known and important and worth something when he was probably small fry in reality. Not that Harvey cared either way. This Hammer idiot was probably the sort of person who would have attended one of Wayne's parties -- in other words, the last guy he wanted to be talking to

[ihaveaslot]

Harvey Dent. No bells ringing, which meant that this guy had no bells to ring. A nobody, as it were, so Hammer sadly had to throw out all notions of political intrigue and brainwashing going on. Darn, and he was sort of hoping that it was somewhat true. It would have been a little more entertaining, at least

[unheroed]

Contract with the Pentagon. Harvey frowned in thought, though he kept his visible eye off of Hammer for the moment. If the guy wasn't talking out of his ass, then it was true: he should have heard of his company. The fact that he hadn't made no sense, since he was hardly the sort of person who didn't keep up with the news. Unless the company had come into the public eye in the past two weeks or so, he should have recognized the name.

Which meant one of two things: either this guy was lying, or this was another example of that weird alternate universe crap. Jason's existence was the only reason that Harvey had even entertained that idea, and the kid wasn't even around anymore. For that reason, he wasn't so willing to explain it away like that. Sure, it might be easier, but the fact that the existence of an alternate universe counted as easier showed just how screwed things had gotten

[ihaveaslot]

There was a soft sound of plastic hitting paper as Hammer dropped his fork, staring at Harvey like his bandages just unraveled on the spot and a skeleton popped out or something. Really? Really, truly? He had never heard of the freaking Stark Expo? The look on Hammer's face was almost humorous as he squinted, blinked, rose brows, and otherwise looked like someone turned him upside down and was shaking the spare change out of his pockets.

Really? He didn't know where to even fucking start with that. How does one explain the entire history of the weapons industry starting with Stark's dad (the father to us all, ahh, that was such a good line), to some guy who didn't even know what the Stark Expo was. Holy crap. Holy crapHammer was so stunned that it took him a bit to realize that Harvey had asked a question, and he rubbed at his non-existent glasses again as he finished contemplating how it was possible that someone might not know ... Did he at least know about Iron Man? Not that Hammer was going to bring that name up, but holy crap.

[unheroed]

And now Hammer was looking at him like he had three heads. Either that, or a burn wound that covered half his face, but they'd discussed that when he'd first taken a seat. Which meant that the guy really thought that he lived under a rock because he didn't know about Hammer Industries or Stark Expo