Arkham's Revolving Door [Jonathan]

A phobia, a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding. Dr. Crane had spent many years at Gotham University studying and teaching about phobia's. He became a master of classical conditioning, meaning he could create a phobia in someone with a few simple steps.

Sitting in the room with his second doctor since he had been there was just the beginning of a glorious plan. The situation between the therapist and himself was normal at first but started to escalate quickly into an intense conversation. Dr. Crane had managed to easily flip the conversation on the doctor, suddenly getting him to do most
of the talking. With a few words from himself every few moments he finally found what he was looking for. The mans fingers had jumped nervously. This was going to be far too easy.

All therapy sessions were recorded naturally, but by the time it was looked at for any reason they would be long gone from Arkham. The camera didn't bother him as the scene played out in front of him. His doctor had began to talk more than him. This was always the turning point, they would begin to get nervous as he would ever so often slip a word in or two. Sometimes he didn't even have to, the static expressionless stare that pierced from his eyes was enough.

It only took about ten minutes for the next events to transpire. The result was the doctor finally calling in someone for help. Dr. Crane stayed where he was seated in the room as he saw two men in white coats come in the subdue him. It was the same every time, he wasn't wild he wasn't fighting....he wasn't doing anything but sitting. After some deliberation he was escorted back to his cell. Everything was going perfectly.

–

Dr. Crane never particularly enjoyed visiting the rec room. The word visit didn't apply to him in any way, visiting with anyone just didn't happen. Until recently of course but this situation was different. In this situation there was something to be gained from visiting with another.

Stepping into the rec room after being escorted there he saw the common and not so common insanity that occupied the room. His eyes scanned the room for a few seconds and inwardly felt that he was rather uncomfortable here. They came to a stop as he noticed the man he was looking for sitting on a couch not too far from where he stood.

With a slow stride Dr. Crane walked to the back of the couch and placed himself at the back of it. He saw his shadows crawl from the floor over the back of the mans head and on to the floor. After a few annoying moments he finally took notice of him. Dr. Crane didn't say Hello, he didn't say a word at first. He didn't feel any need to respond to him until he less than gracefully stood and offered to play chess.

Dr. Crane studied his plastic cane for a moment before lifting his eyes to lock with Edward Nigma's. “Black...” He stated simply not saying another word. Turning from the couch he moved towards an open board on the far side of the room. Pulling out the chair on the back side of the board he sat and waited for Nigma.

The item that Nigma had requested that he retrieved was on his person. The trick was going to be handing it to him without suspicion. In this environment it wouldn't be hard to get anything passed the doctors or the guards, the surveillance camera's just needed to be avoided. An idea was already in his mind as to how he was going to go about this. What he was having trouble doing was placing his trust in Nigma's ability to do this. Dr. Crane made it a strong point to never depend on others, for anything. In this case he had made a small exception, to gain something he wanted far more.

He waited at the table patiently knowing Nigma would probably be a bit sluggish behind him. Everything from this moment on had to go perfectly.

Dr. Crane said nothing in response to Nigma's taunts. They both knew that chess had a certain art to the game. Just because someone goes first doesn't necessarily give them an advantage on the board. It gives the other player an idea of the possibilities of moves you will make next. This continues on until one mind gets several steps ahead of the other and traps them into a checkmate. It was comparable to the way that they both lived.

Dr. Crane actually looked good considering everything he had been through. It had taken a considerable amount of time to recover in the hospital wing but once he had he was ready to be released back into his cell and eventually the rec room where he was sitting. There were still a good amount of bruises and lashes about his body from where bones had morphed and fallen back into place. The most noticeable was the large bruising and scaring along his collar bone region. Regardless of these injuries he was handling himself quite well.

His eyes didn't leave the board in front of them until Nigma finally sat down and locked eyes with him. He understood what he was implying with the look. He had indeed gotten the phone from the doctor that saw him. How he was going to get the phone to Nigma had already crossed his mind. First they had a game to start.

Dr. Crane let the bag hit his face but didn't react to it much. With somewhat of a sigh he grabbed the bag that had fallen to his lap and held it in his left hand. He wondered exactly how he planned to do what he said he could using just a simple smart phone. Dr. Crane was never one for advanced technology, he was more into advanced chemistry. If there was anything electronic in his way he always could find a way around it instead of using it. Not that he didn't have a decent amount of knowledge into anything electronic, but doing what Nigma claimed he could wasn't one of his stronger suits.

He grabbed his black pieces and began to set them up in the correct order. The again taunting statements that Nigma often made not seeming to have much of an effect on him. All that he was given was a dark look of warning. He wouldn't grace his remarks with a response, they had something more important to do. He turned the little pieces to face Nigma making sure all of them were straight and facing forward. Once everything was straight and ready to play he sat back a bit in his chair and waited for Nigma.

“You're move....Just let me know if you need help..”

Dr. Crane continued to hold the plastic baggy in his hand. Of course he planned to use it, but not in the way Nigma expected him to. There was good reason for The Arkham staff to rarely let The Scarecrow into the rec room, or in any room with others for that matter. It was even harder to keep him in a room with a doctor. He had a plan for getting the phone to him, but for now they needed to just pretend like they were just playing a simple game….But weren’t they always?

Dr. Crane’s eyes shot to the piece that Nigma moved forward. This was going to be an interesting game though, he was sure they probably wouldn’t get through to the end of it. He had his own plan in mind for that. They had plenty of time to test who could immerge the victor in their games after they were out of this place.

His taunting remarks didn’t faze his features but did make him look down at himself. A large part of where Croc had sunk his teeth into him was still quite bruised and red in places. The actual wounds themselves had healed but a large scar stretched from his shoulder to his neck. Despite the damage it did it him, it was still worth it. Every last drop that went into him was not wasted, it worked perfectly.

Not really paying any further attention to his injuries “I had an experiment going, it worked well…I just want to make sure you can keep up.” He paused and offered a sinister smile. “You can’t kill fear..” he said while picking up the pawn in front of the king just as Nigma did and met the white piece in the middle. Dr. Crane knew a good deal about the game, it was easy enough to figure out. The most important space in the board was the middle; the most important piece was the king. Castling early in the game was the key to victory in many cases. The only disadvantage that he had was that he never really had a partner to practice with. It wasn’t like he went out looking for one either.

His eyes glanced to the side as another patient walked by them and pressed himself up against the wall for what seemed like no reason at all. From the outside it may have looked like it qould be more difficult for him to transfer the phone, the more people were around. To Dr. Crane however, although he disliked crowds, knew that there was something very special about getting a group of people together. Fear….was incredibly contagious.