Open to the Public (OPEN)

Jervis Tetch had made short work of escaping from the confines of Arkham Asylum, having not been permitted either his hat nor anything reminding him of his old life prior to incarceration. The Gordon girl had been so good to him. She had often visited him on those days it was permitted, and had even had tea with him in the dining hall on more than one occasion; no small feat for a young lady, considering the other...'guests.'
But it was a worrisome game. Always listening to psychologists drone on and on, trying to turn his ticking time piece on him to no avail, reminding him he was diseased...
Jervis did not like it one bit. 
And so he had resolved to escape, and escape he had. It was considerably simpler than he would have assumed possible. But every looking glass had its exit, didn't it? Or so it always seemed to Jervis, and when the guard at the door had done such a job of painting the tiles red, perhaps he agreed. Jervis had abandoned the piece of broken mirror he had used before making his hasty exit, retrieving his hat but no other personal effects. His poor watch had been destroyed...but he had kept the pieces....he had only needed a matter of days to repair it.

Wayne Enterprises...that was a name that Jervis knew well. They had not been interested in his methods of obedience when he had submitted his work, but of course why would they be? It all undoubtedly seemed quite mad. But it worked, it all worked! It always did. Jervis found himself wondering if Bruce Wayne could perhaps use a demonstration in person...a forced demonstration. His experiment at the church had proven that he could utilize his hypnotic methods to affect crowds...populate an entire Wonderland? Oh, how delightful indeed!
Collapsing his hat and hiding it within his coat, Jervis and his two towering companions in their matching attire had infiltrated this gathering, tricking the guards at the doors, the crowd bustling in to see just what was going to happen and what sort of future might be announced. 
Jervis had plans for his own sort of future.
He and his Tweedles kept a low profile in the back of the room, having 'borrowed' press credentials from some initially unwilling contributors, and he checked his watch to be sure it was in working order: it ticked merrily and softly as he examined the time.
Now to wait...

Helena had needed a brief change of venue. New York was as helpful as it could have been, but she wanted results faster than what Barbara and Sergeant Tipton could give her. Mostly, she was frustrated with how all of ‘New York’s Finest’ really weren’t all that great. Then again, they were somewhat limited by things like legality. With her upbringing, legality was all well and good, but if need be, you still worked outside the law if you really needed results.

The name came up when she was reading the paper one morning. There was an article talking about how the head of Wayne Enterprises, a man by the name of Bruce Wayne, was going to make some announcements regarding his business. Reading between the lines, it wasn’t exactly hard to tell that the changes would likely be severe and life-altering to some of the higher ups, many of whom were listed, and one surname she recognized. Helena never heard much of her father’s busy, but every so often names would slip out. No one thought much if a child heard those, and the men who pulled her out of the house that fateful night never considered that a girl who was so terribly distraught would still be listening to what was said. The same name had been brought up then, and now here it was in black and white for a third time.

Helena’s lips also quirked just the tiniest bit as the article, nearing its end, gave a brief history on Mr. Wayne. Apparently his parents had been killed too. But she doubted that he ever went on the run to protect to his life. Gotham seemed to be full of orphans, so maybe he would look the other way if one of his higher-ups went missing.

The event was packed when she arrived, which was good, she supposed. The only downside to this was she only had a name to go off of, no photograph of the man in question, a Mr. Contini. With any luck, if she didn’t hear any mention of his name as she made a circuit of the floor, he would be seated by the podium. Then, once speeches were made and alcohol flowed, she would have a little chat with Mr. Contini, seeing just what he knew about the Bertinelli’s. She did catch a glimpse of the man of the hour, Mr. Wayne, who was current attached to a giggling woman. He didn’t look that distraught over losing his family. Maybe he had wanted them gone in order to get his inheritance sooner? Or maybe there wasn’t much to miss when they were gone. She shouldn’t have been one to judge like that, so she turned away from the playboy, and continued to casually look over the room.

Jervis...no, the Hatter, kept his place near the back before he noticed a familiar face enter the room. It was that girl from the incident at the cathedral, with the priest and the ticking and the candlestick maker...no that wasn't right, not that last part. The butcher and the baker were nowhere near them at the time, the candlestick maker surely would only have been called in for repairs afterward. What was her name? Helga?
"Ohhhh frabjous day..." he giggled to himself softly as he moved forward with his Tweedles toward the woman. He moved up behind her and withdrew his pocket watch, holding it in his hand so as to muffle the ticking slightly to direct it.
"Don't turn around, dear." he purred softly amid the din of soft discussion around the room, "You only want to listen to the sound of my voice."

The Hatter linked arms with the woman and resumed his place at the back of the room, scanning to see if he'd been spotted. It seemed not, and he kept his huge top hat in his opposite hand. No need to put it on indoors just yet. It was incredibly rude to do so. Nearly as rude as making personal remarks, he remembered Alice had once said to him. Rude little girl herself, how dare she....! Scanning the room, he leaned toward one of the well dressed men standing next to him and opened his hand holding his watch a little more to expand its ticking. His voice continued in its calm, gentle tone.
"You'd like to give me the contents of your wallet and then leave the building." he said soothingly.
The man's eyes widened as he stared forward at the podium, succcumbing to the hypnotic rhythm of the soft ticking. He nodded and smiled, drawing out his wallet and handing it to one of the Tweedles before he happily took his leave.
"Let's all move one place on." the Hatter giggled quietly, having freed up the space beside him, and standing abreast of his comrades, leaving space for Helena now. Though he kept his arm linked with hers.
"I do hope you're doing well, my little Helena." he said as he leaned against the much taller woman, "Are you doing well? Do tell, do tell."