When Extroverts Attack [Grant]

[Carmen Hernández]

Carmen was still settling in at the asylum, trying to learn the ropes as quickly as possible. She knew that she was seen by probably almost everyone as young, inexperienced, and naive because it was all extremely true, but now that she'd been given the chance she wanted to prove that she had what it took to succeed. It was a bit of a daunting task, though, because the learning curve felt like running headlong into a brick wall. She could see why so many interns gave up, but she wouldn't! She'd climb over that brick wall, they would all see!

Fortunately, she didn't have to spend her entire day at the asylum worried about not making a fool of herself. She got the occasional break to help her catch her breath, which was very, very necessary sometimes. This time she went to the actual break room to check to see if there was anything actually edible in the vending machine. She decided that a bag of chips was close enough - she just needed something to keep her hunger at bay until she was finished for the day.

But in addition to a bit of food, she also wanted to do something else with her break - talk to someone. Unlike so many of the other people who worked at the asylum, she was a bit of a social butterfly and she did not like sitting around by herself. So when she grabbed her bag of chips out of the machine, she turned to see who else was in the break room. There weren't very many people at the moment - it only usually got crowded at lunchtime anyway - but she spotted an orderly with an unfamiliar face sitting at a table by himself.

And because she'd made it a personal goal to meet as many of the others at the asylum as possible, even though there were enough of them that it might take a while, she said, "Hey, I haven't met you yet!" And she walked right over and took a seat at the table across from him. "I hope you don't mind, but I'm new here so I'm trying to meet everyone," she said with a quick smile, "My name is Carmen Hernández - I'm the new psych intern." She opened up her chips as she introduced herself, popping one into her mouth when she was done.

And she looked so much like a 'new psych intern' she probably didn't even need to say that - she didn't look big enough or tough enough for some of the more physical jobs at the asylum, or old enough to be in a position of greater responsibility, and her mannerisms seemed far too scattered for a secretary or other administrative work. No, even though she was dressed the part of a young, professional woman she was too full of obvious energy to seem like someone who knew how to keep anything organized. So there were few things besides an intern that she seemed likely to be, at least to judge by the surface level.

[Arthur Grant]

The biology textbook he was reading was dry, in fact, all of the textbooks he was reading for this semester were dry. Arthur Grant was an extremely smart young man, he had the chance to go to any college he wanted, but he ultimately decided to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, of his father. His brothers, cousins, and even his brothers-in-law were cops. It was a family career, it was expected of him, so he was a good son and did what was expected of him. He graduated at the top of his class from the Gotham City Police Academy. He remembered the large lumbering man of Commissioner Loeb giving a sweaty speech that day, he remembered the look on his father's face, it was one of the only times he recalled him being happy. Officer Grant was the new golden boy, partnered up with Sergeant Charlie Aldrich. He still remembered that night with Pamela Isley, he still remembered being ushered into Dr. Arkham's office. That was the night he was saved, more or less. Or at least that was the night he started going down a path he actually wanted to go down. Dr. Arkham gave him a choice, he gave him a chance to start working under his wing while he went to medical school. It has been less than a year but Arthur has already been making great strides.



That night was 9 months ago but the events still play out in Grant's head, and the dry textbooks don't really help. He sat by himself, he never really interacted with the other orderlies, or anyone really. He interacted with Dr. Arkham quite a bit, and he wasn't against interacting with anybody he just mostly kept to himself. He wasn't considered weird or out of place, surprisingly people seemed to get the hint and respected his privacy. Dr. Arkham ran quite the tight shift here, and that was one thing Grant respected about him. Today was denied to be different by the powers that be when someone approached him. He didn't mind, he had been playing with the idea of trying to get to know some of his coworkers a bit more. And she was a psych intern, which meant she probably still went to school and that they both probably went to the same university. They also were closer together in age, Grant's only real friend for these past nine or so months has been Dr. Jeremiah Arkham.

What's the worst that could happen? 


"You're right, we haven't met. My name is Arthur. As you can see by my purely white uniform, I am an orderly." He smiled briefly at his attempt at humor. He noted what page he was on and closed his book. He wasn't planning on eating so maybe Carmen could help him pass the time until lunch was over. He wasn't much of a talker though, so he planned on letting her do most of the work. "Psyche intern? Are you still a student? Chances are we both go to Gotham University."

He smiled again, albeit briefly. He then would push his book to the side and lean in for a moment. He was going to attempt being social with someone that wasn't more than twice his age. His family has all but disowned him so making new friends wasn't the worst idea, it seemed 'normal' enough to say the least.

[Carmen Hernández]

Carmen had few expectations when she sat down, especially because Arthur wasn't the first person she'd met at the asylum and not all of her new coworkers proved to be friendly. Not that any had done worse than indicate that they weren't nearly as interested in meeting her as she was in meeting them, but when she got a name and a smile without any coaxing that caused her own smile to increase.

And, fortunately for him, she very much was a talker. Though it wasn't because she had a huge ego or didn't attend to her conversation partner, she was simply very comfortable about talking and didn't mind it if the other person was not the type of person who would keep up with her. And between the fact that he put his book away and the smiles he cast in her direction, she took it to mean that she was not merely being endured but welcomed. Or at the very least he was humoring her, but since she was just meeting the guy she'd take it.

"Pleased to meet you, Arthur!" she said with a genuine smile as she quickly attempted to commit the name to memory. A flicker of surprise crossed her features when he mentioned the university. "Oh, you go to Gotham University too? No way! Yeah, it's my first year there - I'm a grad student getting my doctorate in psychology," she explained, her enthusiasm quick to come to the surface, "I was so excited when I got into their grad program, and then I needed an internship, and I wanted this one but I didn't get it, but I guess they had some people drop out? So they asked me if I was still interested and here I am!" She beamed at that, obviously quite pleased with how that worked out.

But she suddenly turned the tables by asking, "So what about you? What are you studying?" While she was happy to do more than her fair share of the talking, she also had a bag of chips to eat before she needed to be back on the clock so she wouldn't be letting him leave the entire conversation up to her. She glanced at the biology textbook, but she knew that didn't necessarily mean very much as basic biology was a requirement for a huge variety of fields, especially if he was an undergrad, and even the more advanced stuff led into a surprising variety of fields. A lot of very important things are alive, as it turns out.