Mirror Maze: Cypher Side Story

[chasingtherabbit]

She was at the club a week later, as promised. Platinum blonde, blue eyed, hot as hell in fishnets. She made a promise, and she kept it. Cypher didn't, and that stung a little -- but shit happened. Ozzie said it had nothing to do with her charms and everything to do with his dangerous work. Tensions were high, so she didn't ask. She just did her job, went to school.

Ozzie, on the other hand, reached out a kind hand; she asked about you, she's interested, it wouldn't hurt to have something in your life that isn't a fat old man, no don't say another word, take her out.

And between all this? Rumors are starting to fly of a woman with legs up to here and a rabbit motif appearing on the scene. A mad as a March Hare. But Genny and Waylon don't know a damned thing about this new interloper, and Ellis is intrigued but too busy enjoying his newfound domestic bliss with Jackie and playing at being CEO on the side. They'll figure out the newb later. See if they're trouble or worth recruiting.

Comments

[aceinthehood]

"Ah. How cinematic." Every reason, but for a first date and a one night stand Eddie isn't going to stir the pot by pushing. (Is he curious? Yes. But he can research her after she leaves in the morning, or get the story out of Ozzie. These things can wait.) "And then there's you, caught in the middle through no fault of your own?"

[chasingtherabbit]

"Very. I'm sure her mother knows a Bollywood song and dance number about it," she said, and there was no sharpness there, only a wry fondness.

"As for fault, I'm just too curious for my own good. You understand."

[aceinthehood]

"More than you know." He rolled his eyes in good-natured agreement. Curiosity nearly killed the cat enough times that only Timekeeper could keep track of them all. What could he do, it was in his blood. The world would be boring otherwise. "But I'm a private detective, it counts as a job skill."

[chasingtherabbit]

"Except I'm totally not engaging you one bit," she said with a musing smile as the car stopped. Well, time for a nice, if awkward, meal. "Which is okay, if I'm not your type."

The brief pause between car and being seated weren't tense--at least, not for Bunny. But reservations were made, Ozzie ha helped, and there's already a good bottle of wine waiting.

[aceinthehood]

Great. Gotham's greatest detective and he couldn't maintain a decent enough cover to pretend he was into the woman he'd been set up with. Cypher hoped it was just the near-death experience that had rattled him rather than this being a problematic trend.

"It's not you. I'm a rotten date, there's always something on my mind." He gave her an embarrassed smile as they were seated. "Detectives don't really get days off."

[chasingtherabbit]

"No, they don't. But you really need to take one," she said with noe of her dazzling smiles. "You know I've got an array of forensic skills. Do you need a helper to handle the grunt work?"

[suaveandspectral]

Oh hell no. "Unfortunately it's not that kind of work," Cypher said with a regretful smile, toying with the stem of his wineblass. "As much as I would love to have you along, private detectives don't come across dead bodies very much. We mostly deal in interpersonal drama. It pays, and it does get interesting on occasion, but police work was much more exciting for me."

She seemed smart, though plenty of people seemed smart until you put a magnifying glass and a set of tweezers in her hand, but the kind of work he was thinking about did not need outsiders involved. (Cypher had no intention of setting up another Harleen Quinzel situation.)

[chasingtherabbit]

Something teased at Bunny's lips; a gotcha she didn't share.

"But you went straight from police work." She said. Like leaving the force was actually the honorable thing, that it was crooked and she knew it.

Not that many in people in Gotham didn't it, but it wasn't exactly common talk when a cop could be listening, could be ready to get you in trouble. But she was relatively safe, right? With an ex-cop.

[suaveandspectral]

"I found I didn't fit in with a team-oriented environment." Cypher returned her smile--a secret of euphamisms shared between two people in the know. He hadn't realized how filthy he'd felt beneath their heel until he was out from underneath it--taking photos of adultery felt like a breath of fresh air after being pressured to destroy evidence against his colleagues.

[chasingtherabbit]

"Then I guess private investigation is the best route for you," she said with a return smile. "I'm glad it's treating you mostly well..." Though it's apparently destroying his ability to get anywhere with a woman. Oh well, win some, lose some.

[suaveandspectral]

It would definitely have been easier if he wasn't straight, Cypher had often mused. He'd have more of the team open to him--as it stood, Pam was attached and there was a mutual not-my-type going with Tetch. Then again that still left him with Timekeeper and Waylon, neither of whom would fit the bill in terms of personality.

Maybe his problem was that he had standards.

"It does have its share of entertainment," he said, leaning back in his chair with the glass of wine in his fingertips. "I once had a husband and wife each hire me to catch the other cheating. I was tempted to take a picture of them together and then give them each a copy."

[chasingtherabbit]

Or that he set the bar so high that no one could reach it. It was safe in being alone, because then no one could ever disappoint him. It was the mirror of Edward Nygma, who set the bar low so he could be easily disappointed and use people as he needed but never have a real relationship...

Well, until he finally met someone who made him want to raise his standards on his own life, in all arenas, who made him want to be better, stronger, everything that he could be...

"That would have been the truth, no?" she asked, before another sip of wine went into her mouth. She swallowed it down, musing. "I think I'll stick to forensic anthropology. Making sure the dead rest peacefully."

[suaveandspectral]

"Quite a noble look at it." As the salads arrived Cypher launched into a few stories of his time on the force, neatly excising the details of how the administration had seen his surplus of insight.

He'd been better, once. It would have been less of an act, or at least a more enthusiastic act, to trade life stories with the beautiful woman across from him. She wouldn't find it so easy to tell how distracted he was by other matters.

The tumor was gone, but the cancer lingered. Since Red Hood brought him back from Egypt Cypher had thrown himself into his work so hard he caught bruises, working his fingers to the bone to prove that he was once again an asset to his former friends. People like Waylon trusted too easily, people like Jonathan would never reforge what was once broken. All he had to give them were results--and anything besides that was selfishness. Selfishness had gotten Harvey Dent murdered.

[chasingtherabbit]

"You can tell a lot from a person's bones. What they eat, where they lived, who they were, what did they do for work, how they made love, the children they bore..." Bunny said, picking at her salad.

Something was wrong with Edward Nashton's bones. She just didn't know what yet. She couldn't peel back the layers and find out, either.

"All the things I want to have. But no one will ever read mine," she added. "Or jump them."

Yeah, she can tease.

[suaveandspectral]

"Oh, I wouldn't say that." Cypher offered a grin over a forkful of tomato. "You might have an interesting death. Or an interesting life." Sex was definitely not off the table, even if he wasn't as engaged as he should be in order to be a courteous date.

[chasingtherabbit]

"My life is already very interesting," she said, blinking her eyes once. "I'm a melanin challenged waitress with a kink for truth and justice."

She crunched a crouton, tilting her head. "I suppose I should ask what yours are."

[suaveandspectral]

"Truth and justice is a pretty interesting kink." Cypher leaned forward slightly, still grinning. "I would say we're of a single mind on that one. Strong women with strong moral values certainly hold my attention."

[chasingtherabbit]

"I don't smoke, I work out and I give to charity, too," she ribbed gently. Finally, some bite on the hook. She seemed a little happier now, at least. "And I look good in fishnets and leather... half of which is my uniform at Ozzie's."

[suaveandspectral]

"I reunite children with their parents, I do pro bono legal assistance on the side, and I find leather to be particularly alluring." Kinks, ironically, were a safe discussion topic. Plenty of people who weren't secret superheroes had kinks.

[chasingtherabbit]

"Pro-bono is entirely sexy," she said with a grin. Alright, he wasn't entirely a dead fish. Good, she could work with this. "Can you tell me about any good cases that really-- helped you along? Not financially, but -- in what you do. Made you feel like it was the right thing?"

[suaveandspectral]

It took Cypher a few minutes to come up with a good example. He sat back, put his fork down, and began relating one of his more exciting cases--the King Hatshepsut incident, concerning a museum professor obsessed with the female Egyptian king whose successors had tried so hard to rub her name right out of history.

He'd saved lives and saved a maddened woman from doing something monstrous, it was truly a generous duty. But it had been so fun.

[chasingtherabbit]

Bunny sat and happily soaked up his stories--she only had practicum to compare, though that had some interesting things if you didn't mind discussing corpses at dinner. (She kept the details few and small, and didn't get into anything gross.)

By the time salads were cleared and entrees were half-eaten she was pretty sure that she'd seen him smile more often tonight than she had in the last month.

[suaveandspectral]

And then he'd saved the professor in his underwear from being sacrificed to Horus and then they'd had a dramatic fight in a collapsing pyramid and then--

It was so nice just to gloat for once. Bunny was in no place to judge him, she was just a date rather than a father or a colleague. He adored her discussions on corpses, finding rates of decay far more interesting than the nature of his pasta.

"They went away after I threatened to throw my lawyer at them, but I still get the occasional bit of hate mail. It lets me know I did things right."

[chasingtherabbit]

Bunny might be encouraging his good mood with toes against his ankle, teasing with contact. Confidence is hot. Eddie Nashton is rapidly becoming more and more hot as the night goes on. This is good. She likes this.

"I'm glad it all worked out for you in the end," she said, smile bright, pink lips over white teeth. "And hate meal does mean you're doing it right."

[suaveandspectral]

The touch garners a reaction from him this time, a slight widening of the smile as he presses back against her foot. "And I do like to do a good job."

He sets his fork down as the check comes wandering back to them. Ozzie had insisted on paying, to avoid any distractions by Cypher's frugal tendencies. "Speaking of that, I hope my rating as a date has somewhat improved?"