003.

[velocette]

[LOCKED to WARDEN FILTER]

[He's thumbing through papers, frowning a little.]

Who's the best fighter on board?


[LOCKED to HARVEY DENT]

Hey. Guess we're hitched to the same wagon now.

Comments

[velocette]

I'll get a list, let you choose. You might have to learn a new skill. And you'll have some jobs you do for yourself, that I'll give you. I'll be doing them with you.

[halftheman]

The hell am I? An inmate or a foster child to give chores?

[velocette]

They both scrub toilets where I'm from. [And having been both, more or less, he also knows they both resist having boring responsibilities.]

You do a job to keep the ship running, same as the others. The jobs you do for me won't be like that, but it's up to discussion.

[halftheman]

[ First coin toss; it goes up, glitters, and falls into his palm. He looks at it, and then says: ]

Take your jobs and get fucked.

[ Harv would have played nice. Two-Face patently refuses. For now. ]

[velocette]

I don't buy that. It'd be easier if I could I guess, but you really want to leave it up to chance you should flip for each job.

[halftheman]

[ Oh shit did you just engage them both? Harvey-- and Two-Face-- are confused. Briefly. There's quiet, as they engage in an internal conversation. ]

We could.

[velocette]

Okay. We'll throw out the ones that come up bad.

[halftheman]

[ Few people have tried to work with the coin. Most doctors take it away, try and make him something he isn't. Or they give him too many choices, they don't realize how that cripples him, giving him and Two-Face too many things to argue over. ]

[ This is a new tactic. ]

We'll see. He may want them. You never know.

[velocette]

If he does we'll figure it out.

[He gets a cigarette, and then shuffles papers.]

Let's narrow down the ones I was going to look into.

Kitchen.

[He'll pause, let them flip the coin. The list he goes through isn't too long:

- Library
- Showers
- Gardens]

[halftheman]

You gonna put me someplace I got access to sharp things, Warden?

[ Come on, even Harv knows that's stupid. ]

It comes down bad, he says yes cause you're given him what he wants.

It comes down good, I say no.

[velocette]

No, no. You have to earn sharps, same as any prison. ['Earn' meaning 'make', of course, but he'll leave that unsaid. It's not like he'd be giving Two-Face a new idea anyway.]

You work in the kitchen, you'll be scrubbing floors or serving food. You'll be kept out of the prep area.

[halftheman]

[ You think he hasn't already tried to make one by now? ]

Satisfactory.

[ He flips all the same, catches the coin. ]

Bad head. [ There's a brief pause, an internal conversation. ] No go.

[ Two-Face isn't about to scrub floors or serve food. He's too proud. He'll figure out some other way to get a bad. ]

[velocette]

Never heard it called that before. [Bad head, instead of tails.]

Library.

[halftheman]

[ He holds up the coin; first side, a clear Liberty head. Then he turns it. Scratched out, another head. ]

We un-rigged the game.

[ And then he flips. That comes up, and then goes down. ]

Came up clean.

You stoppin' there?

[velocette]

Clever.

[He says that earnestly, almost appreciatively. It's better than a standard coin, for the symbolism it could hold (and he loves his symbolism).]

Yeah, we'll stop there. If you end up needing some other kind of job we'll just go through the rest of the list.

--I forgot to tell you a couple things. [He pauses, smokes a few drags, thinking, trying to recall.]

I'm deaf. More than half the time, I'm deaf. You need to get in touch with me you can do it in person or send me a text message. Sometimes it happens when I'm talking.

[halftheman]

Deaf?

[ How does that-- how is he-- you are so strange, boy. ]

Right. That's hell of a selective hearing problem you got there.

[velocette]

So I've heard. [Get it? Get it?]

Did you read Art of War in law school?

[halftheman]

[ He snorts softly. ]

Yeah, I did.

[velocette]

You learn anything from it?

[halftheman]

I like to think so.

[velocette]

How 'bout Aristotle, Plato?

[halftheman]

Some. Why?

[velocette]

We'll see how they do when they're up against the real world.

[halftheman]

I can already tell you they don't.

[velocette]

[oh, he grins]

Then you're gonna surprise yourself, if you decide not to bullshit the jobs.