That's more than bad faith... that's just cruel -

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

Harvey takes the same route back from Jessica's office he always does. The same carpet, the same walls. At least, he was pretty sure it had all been the same.

He is also pretty damned sure his office is supposed to be at the end of the corridor and through the same glass door he knows he walked through. In fact, he knows this is where his office is supposed to be.

"Donna -" he calls.

The response from his secretary should have been immediate. Faster than immediate, actually. That it isn't is concerning. She was sitting at the desk when he had walked by. He had seen the red hair and the all-knowing eyes as she watched him without watching him.

He turns around expecting to find Donna's desk behind him - with or without his secretary - and the rest of the corridor outside his office, but all he sees is a door.

That isn't right.

He knows it isn't right. Not only is the door not supposed to be closed (he hadn't walked far enough into the office to close it) it is supposed to be glass. All of the office doors at Pearson Hardman are glass. This door isn't glass, therefore, it isn't the door to his office. It's not even very likely it's a door inside the firm.

Harvey does realize that focusing on a mysterious door is not the most productive use of his time, but given the unfamiliar surroundings, he's not entirely sure where else to focus his attention. At least, until he has some idea just where the fuck he is. And why he's there.



[ooc: Feel free to bump into Harvey anywhere really - random corridor, main entrance, etc.]

Comments

[scaleshavefallen]

The best part about the Nexus being so massive is that sometimes, I need to search people out if I want to have any human interaction. It's easy to spend the whole day talking only to myself and the horses, and that's just fine with me.

Today, though, I come out of my room and there's a man in the hallway.

That's new.

"Hello," I say as I check my pockets to make sure that I have my key, then close my door behind me.

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

Harvey hears a door open and a voice off to his left. He turns in that direction with a snapped, "Who the hell are you?"

Which, maybe, isn't the first question he should ask, but it will likely be followed by a 'where the hell am I' in the very near future.

And, typically, his people skills are a bit less brash than that, but he is supposed to be in his office and not some bizarre non-law-firm-looking corridor.

[scaleshavefallen]

The assessment is quick to snap forward in my mind. Well dressed, imposing, not used to not being in charge. Probably expects others to jump when he says so. I have worked with men like him before, and I have not liked it.

"My name's Will," I say, letting his harshness roll off of me, trying my best not to react to it. By how confused and angry he appears, he's probably new, and I'm sure I said some things I regret when I first walked into this place. "I'm guessing you're not where you think you should be."

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

For all he knows there is a 'Will' who works at the firm on a floor that is far from his office. Maybe an associate, maybe a paralegal, maybe a janitor. He doesn't know. But this guy doesn't look anything like an employee of Pearson Hardman. Needless to say, this only contributes to the level of confusion.

He narrows his eyes as he responds to the man's statement. "I'm supposed to be in my office. In New York." He waves a hand at the hallway. "This -" the pause is purely for effect, "-doesn't look like New York."

[scaleshavefallen]

"It's not," I say simply. I put my hands in my pockets, slouch a little. I look at a point a bit past the man's head, just close enough to fool most people into thinking that I'm actually looking at them. I am non-threatening. I am a non-entity. "I was in Baltimore and I walked through a door and I was here."

He doesn't need to know what I was doing in Baltimore. It could be anything.

"No one knows exactly what's going on here, but this place is called the Nexus. It is, ah, well, a hotel, of sorts." That's not a particularly good answer, and I doubt it will satisfy him, but it's all I have. "There's a handful of people here, maybe thirty or forty, and everyone has a different story for how they got here."

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

Harvey notices the guy not-quite-meeting his eyes. It's a little off-putting and makes him suspicious. Especially after the comment about being in a city, then ending up here - wherever the hell 'here' is.

"It's a hotel - of sorts - you mean like, 'you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave'?" Because that's bullshit and he'll say exactly that if it comes to it.

[scaleshavefallen]

I laugh at that, a bit of a quiet chuckle, because it's true, in a way. "Yes and no, actually," I respond. "You can walk out the front door, but you're probably not going to find your way back home. Some people are stuck here, for no good reason. Some people are able to open doors and go back to where they came, travel freely. There's a door here that apparently goes to ancient Rome. It's all a bit..." I pause, looking for the word. I'm a little sensitive about the word crazy these days. "It's all a bit unbelievable."

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

Harvey frowns again. This is ridiculous.

"So, you're telling me that if I open this door," he points to the one behind him that was supposed to be the door to his office, "it won't lead back to my law firm in New York?"

Though, honestly, of all the things he's heard in the last five minutes, that one makes the most sense, since the door directly behind him is not, in fact, a door that he would ever believe would lead to Pearson Hardman.

[scaleshavefallen]

I look at the door, as if maybe it could provide some insight into the situation. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't. "It might," I answer, "or it might not. There's -- there are no rules or patterns to the way it works, well, whatever it is. You might open that door again and have it be a regular hotel room, or it might take you back to where you came from, and you can continue on your day thinking you've just had a stress-induced hallucination and that maybe you should take that vacation you haven't made time for recently. It really does seem to work differently from person to person. There's very little consistency. It's, well, maddening."

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

Harvey blinks at the man who's talking to him.

"This is bullshit," he states firmly. He really doesn't have any other way to describe the situation. 'Bullshit' is pretty much it. He's just been told that the door he walked through comes to this bizarre place that isn't really anywhere - or something - but that if he opens the same door, he may or may not end up where he came from.

The only part of any of it that makes any amount of sense is that he might be having a stress-induced hallucination. His life did just, quite suddenly, get a lot more stressful - the other named partner at the firm has declared his return and even Harvey knows that's not going to be good for business - or for Jessica (his boss).

"I still think this is bullshit - but, assuming that any of what you've said is at all true, how the fuck do I get out of here?" Because, really, he's not interested in going mad... at all.