batmanschmatman | 020 [audio]

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020 [audio]

[Warden Filter]

So, in light of Amanda's most recent network post, and some of the stuff Hoffman said to me while he was in the infirmary, I think it might be a good idea for someone to go through his room and make sure he doesn't have anything dangerous stored in there that we don't know about. There's some really bad blood between these two, and I'm pretty sure no one but the two of them really wants them to just keep killing each other every week.

I'd be happy to look through Hoffman's room myself, but if anyone's got particularly strong feelings about wanting to help, I wouldn't say no to an extra pair of hands.

And speaking of weapons and all that, does anyone actually know how she got her hands on the knife in the first place? I know she's unassigned, but I thought people were trying to keep an eye on that, all things considered.

[Private to Ariadne]

Did you ever find out where she got the knife?

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[Ariadne stared at the door handle, trying to ignore the sudden sound of her heart in her ear. She nodded and reached for the door handle. With a firm push, the door swung open and, to her surprise, the room looked mostly normal, despite what she'd seen of Amanda's behavior. Quietly, she stepped inside and flicked on the light. The walls were pale concrete and looked like they belong to the inside of a warehouse, rather than a building, but seemed otherwise normal.]

Edited 2011-02-14 05:41 (UTC)

[Dick immediately started methodically going through her stuff, making sure to cover pretty much every square inch of the room to make sure there wasn't anything hidden in the floor or the walls - which would admittedly be hard since concrete was a material that made it pretty easy to spot any hiding places. He didn't talk, which really meant he was in business mode, since generally he wasn't really one for long stretches of silence, but this was serious enough that he needed to keep focused on the task at hand. Falling back into this sort of routine was... really nice, actually. Even if it wasn't the same as jumping off of buildings and breaking up drug rings and stuff, it was still some detective work, and it was nice to pull out the old skills every once and a while.]

[Ariadne watched him as he worked and she did her best to stay out of his way as she tried to absorb what the room looked like period. It felt distant, emotionally, to her. Concrete was traditionally used for strength or for a more practical purpose rather than a homely feel. Quietly, she finished her more visual inspection and moved over toward Dick.]

Did you find anything?

Nothing incriminating.

[It was true, the room was completely devoid of anything that could be immediately associated with causing someone else physical harm. Not even stuff that could easily be pieced together to make a bomb or any other sort of makeshift weapon. Just normal stuff you'd expect to see in someone's room.]

Howie said he made a list of the stuff he took out of here when he and T'Pol went through everything. He said he'd let us take a look at it when he was feeling more up to it.

[Ariadne nodded quietly, hoping that the knife was the only weapon Amanda had, period. The brief idea of searching Amanda passed through the warden's mind, but she didn't even want to begin to consider it. Anything that had been on her person would have been found by the Infirmary or Toshiko. Nothing else had been there. Plus, Ariadne had left a screaming Amanda in zero and the warden didn't want to go hear that again.]

We'll do that then.

[She nodded again. Make a plan. Plans were good, even if just makeshift.]

[Dick nodded and continued the search, mentally cataloging everything he found and trying to figure out what it could be used for that could potentially be harmful. Yet another useful skill he'd been drilled in back when he was a kid. Your mind is your greatest weapon, Bruce had said over and over again, and it was important to have all the facts in situations like this. The smallest detail could cost someone their life, and he wasn't planning on repeating the mistake of letting some psycho hurt someone he cared about.]

So, what'd she say, down in Zero?

Not much.

[Ariadne furrowed her eyebrows a little, not out of annoyance or frustration but at the beginnings of another headache. They seemed to be coming on more frequently and she didn't quite understand why. Maybe it was the stress of the past few weeks, or being on the Barge period.]

Same sort of stuff she said when I found her. By the end of it, she was just... screaming. She screamed until she couldn't anymore.

[The architect felt a little strange telling Dick this, but she honestly had no idea how to deal with something like that.]

[The vigilante just nodded, continuing his search completely unfazed. It was probably a little weird to the outside observer that all of this was this level of run of the mill to him, and honestly part of him was seriously starting to debate why he hadn't just owned up to the truth about who he was and what he did "professionally", since it would definitely explain away his apparent nonchalance with this kind of thing.]

I talked with Hoffman in the infirmary. Whoever this John, Jigsaw, whatever was, he really did a number on these two.

Yeah.

[Ariadne stared for a few moments. She'd been wondering why he was so seemingly calm, but it was good to have around when she felt like she was being unraveled far quicker than she'd expected. Her mind had been occupied with many more things than having smalltalk about his past, but maybe this was the best time for it.]

Did you... see this kind of stuff as a cop?

[She made a mental note to never be a cop. She couldn't handle it even in the small doses she'd received over the past few days.]

Yeah.

[He pushed himself back to his feet to move over to a different part of the room to continue the search before elaborating, his voice sort of flat and tired but pretty decidedly neutral, like this wasn't a big deal at all because... it just wasn't.]

Not always this bad, but... sometimes this bad. Sometimes worse.

[He was quiet for another moment before asking a sort of a risky question. Still, she hadn't put together the Bat thing during the flood, or recognized his name, so maybe he was safe.] Did I actually tell you where in New Jersey I'm from?

[Ariadne shut her eyes at the mention of it being worse. She didn't even want to imagine what that would be like. When he asked a question, she opened her eyes and tilted her head.]

Bludhaven, right?

I moved there when I was twenty. I'm from Gotham City. This sort of thing - people who try to come up with tests or puzzles or stuff for people to break before they get killed, or coming up with a theme behind their crimes and all that, is really common where I'm from.

[He wasn't looking at her as he elaborated, still focused on the job, and he definitely wasn't going to be saying anything about how it was also common for people to come up with themed retaliations against the criminals, specifically favoring bats and birds.]

[Ariadne nodded, but would definitely have preferred this conversation to occur face-to-face. Still, they were working and that needed to come before backstories.]

You were a cop in Gotham City, too?

[She had no idea the landmine she stood on when she asked that question; she just followed the line of logic: he'd either been a cop at a pretty young age, or he'd been obsessed with the news. To her, he didn't seem the obsessive type.]

Edited 2011-02-14 06:51 (UTC)

[There was a split second where the impulsive, intensely frustrated part of himself almost blurted out the truth. But he controlled it and just kept talking, still in the sort of neutral but worn tone. It might be easier to tell the truth in some ways, but he still wanted to keep it a secret.]

No. But you'd hear a lot about it on the news. And Bruce is rich and famous, right? So there were a couple "let's try and kidnap the rich guy's kid and see if he ponies up cash for him" stunts, so... I've kind of been around it for most of my life.

[Not to mention he'd seen his parents after they'd been killed. It was one thing looking at a stranger's mangled corpse. It was another to see your parents covered in blood, motionless after they fell to their deaths.]

[Ariadne nodded, turning to investigate the wall for a moment before almost immediately turning back to him. She didn't know if she should go over to him to over some comfort or just let him to his job.]

That explains it.

[But she didn't like the way that sounded on her tongue and continued:] I'm sorry that... I'm sorry, Dick.

[She was still a little short on words, despite her effort to find them.]

[He shrugged, finished looking through some of the items before turning back to Ariadne, giving the architect a small smile.]

It's okay. These things happen, you know?

[Ariadne offered a slight smile in return, nodding quietly.]

Yeah.

[It made her feel a little silly for reacting to Hoffman's body, or to this whole situation in the way she had. She made a mental note to work on desensitizing herself to this sort of thing, to be a 'better warden' according to the Barge's standards.]

Did you find anything?

[Dick shook his head and shrugged, looking around the room again.]

It looks clean so far. I can't find anything that looks like it could be a serious issue, unless we're categorizing everything as a potential threat. I'm not sure how people would react to us seriously stripping her room down to like, a blanket and a pillow, maybe a mattress with no springs in it.

[Ariadne wasn't sure she wanted to take it that far either, especially with Amanda's, well, reaction to Hoffman. She rubbed the side of her neck for a moment before shaking her head.]

I don't think that's necessary.

[Dick continued the search, trying not to think too much about the nagging feeling of wishing he could let himself be straight with her about who he was and why he was so used to this sort of thing happening and instead focusing on the new conversation topic.]

What do you know about her? I know you were going to keep an eye on her to her until she got a warden, but did you actually get to see her file?

[Ariadne wished for a moment that she had that file, if for no other reason but to stop asking questions that made Amanda turn on her. Then, that wish promptly disappeared and she shook her head briefly, as if that would persuade the Admiral otherwise. She couldn't handle this every day, she just couldn't.]

No, no, no one has her file. I don't know if she's had a warden here yet.

[Really, she should've thought to ask that first. Really should have thought of that a while ago.]

No one has her file. I've asked.

[He nodded, thinking that over as he kept searching. He started talking almost without thinking about it. Talking kept his mind loose, helped him think through things and focus, and this was the case here.]

It must be hard, being unassigned, or having your warden walk out on you. I mean, I know it's tough when an inmate leaves too but... you're really kind of by yourself when you're an inmate, if you get into trouble. What if you get killed and no one noticed? No one's got you on their item. If you hadn't shown up, Amanda could have stashed the body and no one would have known unless she'd said something.

[Ariadne figures that yeah, it was good that she was there to catch Amanda, but it still wasn't really that awesome of an experience to have seeing someone's guts. Just thinking about it again has the architect paling, but Dick's turned away from her, so she considers it a moot point.]

I think that's how interiming wardening started. It would make sense if that's why the system started.

[Sure, it wasn't a full-fledged and obviously active system, but there was some kind of standard started.]

[Dick was just going to keep chattering as he worked, going over all the stuff and trying to think of how someone could MacGyver it into a deadly weapon. People like the Joker were pretty crafty back home, so at least he had experience, but that didn't stop it from being a little frustrating.]

Well, sure, but what if someone killed her right now? Broke into Zero, got the best of her, shoved her body under their bed or something. Would you know about it? You might notice she was missing, but it could look like another Barge disappearance, like she just poofed back to wherever people go when they vanish.

Edited 2011-02-14 07:52 (UTC)

[Ariadne didn't like the way that sounded. Not one bit.]

I'll go check on her in an hour. And it would have to be a warden. I've never heard of an inmate getting into zero. It's wardens. If someone went to kill her, it would be a warden, and we would have a bigger situation on our hands.

[What she didn't know, though, was that it was the warden item that was the key part of the zero system.]

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