checking in

[searchingfordistraction]

There's so much to do and see in Gotham, why waste his time tracking down a phone number when Bryce Wayne's penthouse is the most well-known private residence in the city?

The security is also an infinite improvement over some of what he's encountered lately. He examines it from afar for a little before he decides to just do this the polite way.

Well. The relatively polite way. He's not exactly immaculate after three days' wandering. Easier to let himself get spotted openly scoping out the security than to try to talk his way into the building.

Comments

[searchingfordistraction]

"Scarcely a dull moment," he assures her.

"And how are things going on your end?"

[gothamsheiress]

Very dry: "I had to make some truly creative excuses for you running out on me."

They reach the elevator and she lets go of his elbow to rummage in her purse for a key card.

[searchingfordistraction]

"I'm sorry to have missed them."

He's sure it was passingly entertaining, for a moment or two.

[gothamsheiress]

"Sure."

The elevator arrives, and she swipes her card to take them up to the penthouse. When the doors ding shut, she leans against the wall and folds her arms, looking Jim over.

"Where have you been keeping yourself?"

[searchingfordistraction]

"Oh, here and there. Staying in one place too long is boring."

And, in Gotham, in the circles Jim has been travelling in, a bit foolhardy. He can handle any trouble he attracts, but that doesn't make it any less inconvenient.

[gothamsheiress]

"And you'll be heading back to the bar after this?"

[searchingfordistraction]

"In a few days," he says. "I don't want to miss all the fun."

Even if he hadn't seen the movie, he'd still know something was up. The rumblings sparked in Gotham's underworld by the Joker's crashing that meeting have been spreading, audible to anyone who knows how to decipher them. And Jim has been listening.

[gothamsheiress]

Her eyebrows go up.

[searchingfordistraction]

"Well, he's not going to disappear," Jim says reasonably.

He doesn't think he needs to specify who he's talking about.

"No one seems sure of what he's up to or when he's going to get there, but he's certainly got all the right people in quite a state."

[gothamsheiress]

"The Joker?"

Nobody else has been showing up in the rumor mill on a regular basis. She sounds dubious, though; he's a secondary concern at best at the moment, a joke to the mob.

[searchingfordistraction]

"The Joker," he confirms, looking amused.

He doesn't understand why people don't take full advantage of the information available to them in Milliways, but if she hasn't discovered yet that the Joker is Moriarty to her Holmes, he's not going to be the one to tell her. Not at this delicate stage in her narrative. He's here to watch it play out, not destroy it.

[gothamsheiress]

She shrugs.

"We'll deal with him. He's been showing his face to the cops enough."

[searchingfordistraction]

"As you say," he says agreeably.

[gothamsheiress]

"Want to tell me what I'm not thinking of?"

The answer will probably be no, but she may as well ask.

[searchingfordistraction]

His eyebrows arch in something like a smirk.

"Where do I start?"

That would be a no.

[gothamsheiress]

She snorts.

"Didn't think so."

[searchingfordistraction]

He gives her a brief smile and falls silent.

Even if he were inclined to stomp all over her narrative, he still wouldn't help her. If she can't make better use of the remarkable resources she has at her disposal, she doesn't deserve it.

(His contempt cuts both ways: if the criminals of Gotham can't work out who the Bat is, they don't deserve to know.)

[gothamsheiress]

"Well."

They're nearing the top of the building.

"If you won't answer that question, will you answer a more personal one?"

[searchingfordistraction]

He cocks his head, mildly curious.

"Maybe."

[gothamsheiress]

"What did you get out of Jimmy O'Malley?"

[searchingfordistraction]

"Very little."

He looks slightly aggravated now.

"I'd have made him a bit more interesting if I'd known I'd be stuck with him so long. I thought the Bat would be a bit more perceptive than the average citizen. You've been quite a disappointment."

He shrugs.

"But I have got to see Gotham, so it wasn't a total loss."

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce sighs.

She's used to people thinking Roberta Wayne is an idiot; she's used to people villifying and berating the Bat. It shouldn't sting to hear Jim Moriarty call her a disappointment.

It's just . . . a very effective choice of words.

"I know I said it before, but you're very, very good."

[searchingfordistraction]

"You could be better," he answers.

It's true enough. She could be better. Better than she is, at least. There aren't many people he could, or would, say that of.

[gothamsheiress]

Her eyebrows go up.

"I know. Is that a compliment?"

[searchingfordistraction]

"Statement of fact," he says.

His expression gives nothing away.