Boredom.. it's a killer ( open )

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The rec room wasn't exactly entertaining, but it was better then being in her cell. Harley sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest and gave a grim glance around the rather large, empty room. The walls were high the lighting was dim and it seemed like time was on pause. She shuffled in her seat and sighed heavily, " Nothing! nothing to do...."

She stood up and grumbled, she was getting edgy on the inside and she was getting close to the point of exploding. Harley began to walk along one wall, humming to herself, a finger curling the tips of her long blonde locks.

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It had happened again. He'd failed. Failed to keep Alice and himself safe from the Queen of Hearts' minions. Alice had been taken away from him again, and he was back in the Queen's dreadful prison with no hat and no tea. No hat? No tea? No, no, no! This wouldn't do at all, but Jervis Tetch, better known to Gotham City as The Mad Hatter, wasn't allowed to have such luxuries in Arkham Asylum. The recreation room of the facility was quite large, the lighting rather dim, and at the moment, it was nearly empty save for a few other inmates and some guards. Jervis sat at a table by himself and proceeded to move his white pawn to take out his invisible opponent's red knight. He often played chess by himself while imprisoned, simply because there are very few people here that are capable of making the game a challenge for him.

Suddenly, he heard a semi-grating female voice yell from across the room that there was nothing to do. Really? Jervis thought that there was plenty to do if one knows how to use their imagination. There were books to read, games to play, television to watch, and a gym to workout in if one desired to do that. Then, he saw her. Walking along the wall of the rec. room and twirling her long blonde locks with a finger. Jervis froze mid-move on the chess board, his initial thoughts about the girl having suddenly flown out the window. Could it be? Is it she? The girl sort of looks like her, but he wasn't sure. She had the right hair color, the right body, the right appearance, but...he'd been fooled before.

"Alice?" he called out to the bored blonde curiously after moving his white knight. "Is that you?"

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"Hmm?" She was broken from her boredom by a voice. Her baby blues shifted across the room to the steel tables that were bolted to the ground with some crummy chairs to sit in. It wasn't hard to know who was who in here, Jervis Tetch had spoken up, she knew him vaguely .

Sliding off the wall she unfolded her arms and decided to join him, she smiled and gave a cheerful wave before the space between them closed. She didn't sit down but stood there and viewed the set out of the chess game. She wasn't fond of the game but hey, to each their own, her voice as pitched and bubbly, Hiyaa Hats, hows the game goin' ?"

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Hats? Jervis couldn't remember a time that Alice had ever called him that. It was always Mr. Hatter, or just Hatter. He narrowed his sapphire-blue eyes at the young-looking blonde woman and moved a lock of his bright red hair behind his ear. He crutinized her closely as she approached him. The lady gave him a cheerful wave, and her voice was pitched and bubbly. He thought he'd seen and heard her around here before, but he couldn't quite place her. Then, it hit him. She isn't Alice after all. Why is she locked up, though? Did he miss something the last time he was incarcerated?

Cocking his head to the side in curiosity, he asked, "Dr. Quinzel? What are you doing here in prisoner's clothes? Did we perhaps go a little mad while working here?"

He giggled a bit and gave a mischievous grin as he asked the questions. Then, he paused for a moment to move another chess piece before answering Quinzel's own question.

"My game is going fine, thank you. Although, it would be much more fun with an actual opponent to play with," Jervis replied, gesturing towards the empty seat that the cute blonde was standing beside. "I'd ask if you'd like to join me for tea, but sadly, I cannot have my parties here. Care to play a game with me?"

[Heather Glass - VerMillion]

Whenever the guards put you into the rec room, you can never be too sure what to expect. It ranges everywhere from being quiet and boring to being perhaps a little too exciting. Like that time that one patient attacked and nearly killed one of the others before the guards could rush in and stop him. Of course, that only happened once, and VerMillion hasn't been in the asylum for long enough to know just how weird that particular incident was. Not that it made her nervous, if only because she can't be nervous.

But she has made it a habit to give the whole area a quick look around when she comes in, just to see if there's anything going on that she would want to know about immediately. Though today her look around only tells her that it's a rather quiet day - not that many patients and those that are present seem to be rather quiet on average. Hmm, might be a good day to make Heather come out then. Oh, look - someone she recognizes! Looks like Bruno is enforcing the rules regarding the television remote again - better leave him to it then.

That's when she notices the pair by the chess table. She doesn't know them, but she does recognize them - she'd have had to have been pretty terrible at her news radio job if she didn't know her famous faces, even though it takes her a few moments of thought to place them - it's harder when everyone's in the boring asylum uniform instead of their very distinctive costumes. But while she's trying to put that together, she doesn't realize that she's very obviously staring at them - that's kind of a habit for her though.

It's hard to guess whether or not either of them would recognize her. She'd gotten pretty famous back when she was doing her radio show, but of course since it was radio that means that her voice was much more famous than her face and only among people who listen to the radio. Her face did get splashed all over the news when Jon kidnapped her, though. And apparently there's all these rumors about Scarecrow and this fire-haired girl he's been keeping around lately (all of which aren't completely true, sadly). So it would really depend on how much these two pay attention to things, though Poison Ivy seemed to know all about it when she met her. Of course, Poison Ivy seems to keep well-informed about everything in general - everyone else she's met around here seem to be more hit and miss.

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A small giggle escaped her as she sat down, crossing one leg over the other as she glanced down at the chess pieces and moved one, she figured a game..even boring as chess would be something better to do then nothing at all. After her move, she settled her chin on the palm of her hand as she rested her arm on the table," Flew right over the KooKoo nest, hats.... Been awhile since we ever seen each other."

Harley paused for a minute then bit her lower lip as she thought for a moment, before carefully wording herself as she asked her chess mate a question," How wonderland?"

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Jervis grinned at the bubbly, but obviously bored blonde as she sat down across from him at the chess table. He frowned slightly as she moved a piece, since he had planned on starting a new game. He never felt quite like himself while imprisoned, though, mostly because of the drugs they force-feed him, so he let it go and moved one of his white pawns to take out the red piece she'd just moved instead. He had to chuckle a little when she said she'd flew over the coo-coo's nest.

"Yes, indeed it has been a while since we've seen each other. The last time I saw you, you were an intern," Jervis said, casually resting his chin in his hand. "It appears I've missed something the last time I was free of this dreadful place. Although, I do believe I remember hearing about your...incident..."

He trailed off as he thought he recalled hearing about Miss Quinzel becoming a part of the Joker's gang. His girlfriend, as a matter of fact. Harley-Quinn was her name now, if he wasn't mistaken. No, this young woman was definitely not Alice. Just as he was about to ask her how she ended up here and the Joker still out there, Quinn asked him how Wonderland was. Immediately, his shoulders slumped a bit, and the somewhat pleasant grin he'd had upon his face turned into a small frown.

"Wonderland is great, but...without Alice and the rest of my friends, it's a bit dull, I must admit."

Jervis sighed and happened to look over to his right. When he did, he did a slight double-take as he saw another young woman, this one with bright red hair, staring at them from a short distance. Instantly, he thought of the Queen of Hearts, who also sported bright red hair, but this girl didn't exactly strike him as the Queen. Not with the curious way in which she was looking at himself and Miss Quinn, anyway.

"If you think we're wax-works, you ought to pay, you know," Jervis spoke to the red-head.

This young lady looked a bit familiar as well. While Jervis didn't keep up with the news regularly, i.e., every day, he does pay attention to it when he's inclined to read the newspaper or watch television. At the moment, however, he couldn't quite place where he'd seen the red-head before. Sometimes, Jervis either doesn't care about certain things he sees in the news, simply because it doesn't interest him, or he just forgets what he's seen or read about because he gets side-tracked with other things.

Turning back to Harley-Quinn, he asked, "So tell me, Miss Quinn, how's the Joker treating you?"

[Heather Glass - VerMillion]

It's always kind of tricky, remembering far back enough that she's actually remembering things that happened to Heather and not to her. Fortunately, most of the memories about the rogues don't make Heather that nervous so they're not too confusing. And even better, their conversation both helps her remember and confirms what she's remembering.

Though not before she's been caught looking at them. Smirking at his statement, VerMillion says, "I'd pay, but I don't have any money. The police and the Penguin took it all." Not that it would be a very useful thing to have at this point. Besides, she already has pretty much everything that she's allowed to have - she's not considered to be a dangerous or a disruptive patient so she gets all sorts of privileges. And other privileges for other reasons...

"Sorry," she adds, "But you're hard to recognize without your hat." But if she's sorry for staring, she doesn't act like it since she keeps on doing it. At least until, after a moment of reflection, she asks, "Mind if I watch your game?" Yet she fails to wait for a reply to that before she's finding a spare chair and pulls it over, straddling it backwards so that her arms can rest on the back and her head can rest on her arms. Though at least she's placed it a few feet away from the chess table so that she's not exactly in their faces.

"I'm VerMillion, by the way," she adds once she's settled and resuming her staring. That's the name that she used when she was on the radio. Or it's the name that Heather used - oh, but that's where it gets rather complicated. This is why it's best if she just states the name that they should call her, whether or not they may have heard of any other name. It saves having to explain how she's not Heather, even though she is Heather.

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"Ha! Touche..." Jervis said to the red-head with a slight grin.

She then asked if she could watch he and Harley's game of chess. Without being invited, the girl pulled up a chair and sat down backwards upon it. Hatter frowned a little at this -- mostly at the way she sat. It wasn't proper. Still, it wasn't often that Jervis had young women willingly wanting to be in his company, which was a rather pleasant change, so he didn't say anything. Instead, he eyed the red-head as she continued to stare at he and Harley. She was staying out of their personal space, and said that the Queen's forces and the Penguin had took all of her money, so she couldn't be all that bad. Right? The girl then told him that he's hard to recognize without his hat. This made him blush a little out of flattery. After that comment, she introduced herself as VerMillion. The Hatter cocked his head to the side a bit. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but he just couldn't place where he'd heard it before.

"What an interesting name... Well, you seem to recognize me all ready, but just in case you may somehow be mistaken, my name is Jervis Tetch. I'd much rather be called Hatter, though, if you don't mind," he said to VerMillion after a moment, scrutinizing her.

She was cute, that much he could see, but like Harley, she wasn't Alice. At least, he didn't think she was, anyway. Sometimes, Alice likes to disguise herself for whatever reason or purpose, so who knows? The only way Jervis would find out is if he just talked to her. Her reactions and actions would let him know if she's Alice or not.

"Do you like tea? I like tea. I can't brew my own here, though, and the stuff they make is not tea. Too watered down and...blah. Oh, what I wouldn't give for a good cup of Earl Grey right now... I also miss my hat. My lovely hat. I feel practically naked without it! They won't let me have that here, either."

He was starting to babble, but he didn't care. She was there to socialize, so if she wanted to do such a thing, then she could and should listen to him. Suddenly, he fidgeted in seat and looked sharply at VerMillion.

"I'm curious, my dear. What, exactly, is a lovely creature like you doing in the Queen's dungeons? Tell me a story..."

[Heather Glass - VerMillion]

Completely unbothered by his scrutiny, VerMillion hardly cares if other people want to look at her just as intently as she looks at them. And she also seems to be unbothered by her present company, even though she's nodding quickly when he introduces himself. "That's what I thought! See, we used to report on the news on the radio, and since people called in we had to know everything about the stories - fact check and research. So we know a lot of stuff," she explains with a shrug. No more than is a matter of public record, of course, but she knows her Gotham rogues. So she knows pretty well who she's talking to right now, and yet she doesn't seem to be nervous about that at all.

After that he starts to ramble about tea and his hat - neither of which she finds that interesting, but he manages to conclude before he loses too much of her interest. But that in itself probably makes him one of the better conversationalists in the room - there are far too many people here who either don't talk or are too psychotic for her to have the patience to carry on a conversation with them. "I'm more of a soda person," she comments, "And why won't they let you have your hat? Did you break a rule?" Because it's been her experience that the asylum staff are really quite generous when it comes to having things. Well, not to Jon so much... And of course much of her perception on that matter is because none of the staff see any real need to restrict what she's allowed to have.

His question catches her just a little by surprise, but the pause afterward is because she has to figure out where to begin. Because, well, she could sum up how she and Jon got caught, but if he wants a story then there'd need to be more to it than that. "Well... before we met Jon we just had that radio job and kind of a normal life, really. But then Jon rear-ended our car, and then he kidnapped us because he had our wallet, but then the cops came and rescued us, but then Jon escaped from the asylum and kidnapped us from work so we were with him. Then the Penguin came and took all our stuff and locked us in this nasty little prison place, and our mind broke, but Jon rescued us so we were with him again. But then Nightwing and I think the other guy's name was Arsenal found the hideout and Jon lost. So that's why we're here now." Which she doesn't think is that much of a story, but then again it's not like she can tell which parts of it are supposed to be exciting. Well, not without Heather's help, anyway.