Continued from; timoremdei
Of course he looks surprised, he wants to say-- why wouldn't he, when someone has taken a direct hit from his toxin and isn't going mad with fear within the first ten seconds? It's not normal. She's not normal. That is becoming abundantly clear to him.
He can see the subtle signs that it's doing something. The slight flush that indicates her heart rate has picked up, the subtle tremor of her fingers... It couldn't be a bad batch, it simply couldn't be, not with all his chemistry knowledge, with all the work he had put into controlling every single variable to ensure that there were no bad batches....
So it must be her. She must be the problem. Something about her is different. Perhaps a neurological issue? Defects within the hypothalamus could be to blame-- he doubted it was the amygdala, since the physiological signs of fight or flight had manifested somewhat.... Ah, but he can't do a necropsy on a live subject to find out, and he doesn't have access to MRIs or even a simple EEG at this juncture.... Unless he wants to make one himself, but truthfully, the manufacture of fancy gadgets and gizmos were better left to minds like Nygma or Tetch. His knowledge of the mechanical was... Well. Limited to fixing trucks, mostly.
"Who am I," he parrots back to her calmly. "That is quite the question, isn't it?" His rheumy eyes watch the way she wipes at her own. "I might ask you the same thing."
"You might." Elise tries to ignore the itching around her eyes. The telltale signs that she is developing an acute case of hemolacria, as the blood vessels tried their best to expel the foreign substance from her bloodstream. "Though I believe it is considered polite to answer questions before asking them in return." The pale healer could share her name; it would mean nothing to him. But drawing out the conversation gave her body time to recuperate. Blinking, the first bloody tear fell freely.
His face, or mask, was not familiar. Though Elise would hardly call herself an expert on the many masked individuals who roamed the streets of this city. She was too new and, perhaps, too uninvested in the ongoing feuds between the Bat and whomever the day's lucky rogue was. There was plenty to do. The alleys burgeoned with people in need of medical attention, who did not care to question how they were helped as long as they left in a better state than they arrived. And they did. She was good at her job.
Eyes darting, there was no easy escape in sight. And with how he was currently regarding Elise, like an inconvenient, or worse, interesting bug under a microscope, it felt unwise to resort to magic. Still, underneath the heavyset clothes, he looked frail. At least she did not have to worry about being overpowered.
"What was that supposed to do?" The question was genuine, even if her intentions were duplicitous. Hopefully, if she could keep him talking, a solution would present itself. Or he would grow bored. Either worked.