Professor Fear III

Chapter 58

Harley loved nature but she was a cosmopolitan girl through and through. The lack of city life was eating at her. The people, the art, the chaos, the criminality... that made the city. - Not to mention her much beloved breakfast sandwich from Sals. It was just a nihilistic mess of uncertainty now. It had been delicious in the first few days but now she was growing bored. She was tempted to give Jonathan a slap upon next seeing him. She hoped that would be soon. She was almost tempted to convince Joker to take her on holiday somewhere far away. Warm or cold didn't matter. She needed stimulation.
On the thought of sandwiches, Harley tried to think back to the last time she actually had eaten.

"Mista J, I'm so hungry!" She decided to declare seeing if she could get any immediate attention for her newfound dilemma.

"Harley, honey, have some fruit, Daria's definitely had her fair share of the tree today." Ivy gestured to the pear tree and Harley swore she saw the fruit swell merely from Ivy's wrist movement.
"Ivy, you know I can never say no to eating your fruit," She threw a wink over to the redhead before rolling the chair over to the tree, collecting four pears and rolling back to the desk.

Daria's mood had perked up even more with the socialising. It showed her as a psychology student that despite her introverted ways, humans were social animals. Those who Daria acknowledged as Scarecrow's friends had put aside their efforts of 'decorating' Gotham to hang out. It was a humanising moment. Daria had always seen the people in the room with her as untouchable masters of their craft, now she was seeing them as people like her - however, still in a slightly higher position than her in their respective world. They did seem to view her as an equal rather than talking down to her, and she was grateful - surprised, even. She wished she had a phone to text Jonathan to come join. She had a comforting feeling that he would find his way to them soon. She couldn't imagine what else he'd be doing, unless he truly aimed to write data about what was occurring in Gotham.
To what effect?

"What's that Daria?" Harley asked before spinning on the chair Daria had occupied earlier. Daria assumed she'd thought out loud. She had been getting strongly invested in the imagined discussion with Jonathan in her mind.

"Uh, nothing I was just thinking about-"

"How boring Gotham is becoming?" she interrupted, now leaning her head on her hands, elbows pressed onto the duty-librarian desk. Her voice was muffled by a mouth full of pear chunks.
Daria felt incredibly conscious of her blinking and looking away from Harley upon saying that. The ex-psychiatrist winked at her when she was able to make eye contact again.
"I feel ya sista," Then she went back to spinning on the chair as fast as she could.
"I am pleased with the current situation," Ivy defended, sitting in a throne-shaped tree, bedded in moss, "The toxin is dissipating. We need to get ahead while we can." To her right, Edward sat on a low hanging thick branch, nodding in agreement. Jervis sat on the floor leaning against the fruiting tree, the sickly looking girl had laid her head in his lap and he stroked her cheek gently. Daria had noticed Edward give Jervis a look of distaste once or twice since the group had made home in the Library. Her curiosity had been caught. She wondered what stories everyone had from the chaos so far. She expected the sharing was to come as the hours progressed.

Harley stopped her spinning, emitting a dizzy groan decorated with a fluttery giggle before letting out a shriek when the Joker got a hold of the chair and started pushing her around the smooth floor of the ground level, knocking into everything and trying best to ignore his intentionally destructive aptitude.

The other rogues shared silence, watching the Joker and Harley play about. The girl laying on Jervis threw up without any warning indications. Edward's expression of distaste increased into a full frown and grimace.
"Who is she and why is she here, she's useless to your projects."
Daria did not know much about the Mad Hatter other than what Jonathan had told her. She was doing her best to detach herself from the situation, she did not know whether the girl needed saving or if she was being cared for.

"She's my Alice! She's been with me for weeks now. The toxin made her oh-so sick. That and her sickness." He smiled very briefly at his own words before adopting a quizzical expression.
"Ivy, any plants you can use on her?"