Everything Else Aside [Scarecrow]

[Deleted]

Summer couldn’t help but feel a little anxious inside the walls of Arkham Asylum. While she had been prepping for this interview all day, she couldn’t help but feel small inside the intimidating building’s walls. Taking a deep breath, she clutched her ipad close to her chest as she was lead inside by the man she assumed she had spoken to on the phone. Weeks prior, Summer had her people contact the asylum with hopes of interviewing one of their more infamous patients known most commonly as Scarecrow. Most other patients she attempted to arrange interviews with had refused, much to her disappointment. Very rarely had she even entered the Asylum Walls and this was her first one on one interview to this date, despite her rising fame in the journalism and entertainment world. Honestly, walking inside now she couldn’t say she hadn’t regretted spending more time there. It was overall eerie and sent a series of chills down her spine.

Her biggest question was one she wanted to hold off on, though it pried at her curiosity. Why did he agree to an interview when so many others refused? Not like she was complaining, after all, it was what she wanted. One of her interns had advised her that the Asylum were just swimming with stories and it wasn’t until now that she believed it. A man greeted her as she checked in, handing her a visitor pass before leading her down a long stretch of hallway. It was almost like a dream; a weird twisted dream. Summer’s heels clicked as they passed door after door. Summer tried not to look anywhere but straight ahead.

The man led her to a door, giving her a reassuring smile as he held it open for her. *If you need something, just push the red button on the far side of the wall. Someone will rush to you instantly. However, like you requested, other than that you may conduct your interview in private.* The news reporter had asked for the least restrictive environment for her interviewee as they might possibly allow, in order to get on more of a personal level. Summer thanked her guide as he departed and she entered the room, swallowing hard and unable to shake her worries. The red head didn’t know what she was so nervous about. After all, she had conducted numerous interviews and events with people more reputable than this, though she couldn’t avoid this feeling at the pit of her stomach. Forcing a smile, Summer looked up. “Well, for starters, I want to thank you for actually agreeing to see me. I was…um, surprised to say the least.”

(ooc: I wasn’t sure what you wanted to do so I left it all really open-ended as to where they were. I don’t know if you want her to talk to him through glass or if he would be in the same room as her restrained or what. Soooo, feel free to choose and thanks for threading)

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

It wasn’t often that Dr. Jonathan Crane agreed to do any type of interview. Even from the very beginning of his professional turn in career he didn’t offer interviews unless they were ED’d by the police. Dr. Crane just didn’t enjoy talking to those that wouldn’t understand what he had to say and finding someone that actually did was few and far between. People just didn’t see the world the way he did. He could see the world for what it really was, without masks and without veils to cover what it was on the outside and the inside. Some would look at him and say that he thought the world was an ugly place but it was just the opposite. The world was beautiful, his world was beautiful, and theirs was an abomination.

The doctor was informed when he was sat down by 4 orderlies and two guards that he was going to be interview by Miss Gleeson. He was not ignorant to who she was. She had been at almost every crime scene he’d been at, at one point or another, that was discovered in the last ten years. He knew the routine by now. Dr. Crane, in a rather deshuffled mode sat down in the chair and put his already cuffed hands on the top of the table so they could cuff him to the ring on the table. He wouldn’t be able to remove himself from his chair without assistance. He leaned down his head and grabbed the cuff of his orange garb printed with the number 269958. The doctor tugged his forward with his teeth to try and make it more comfortable. It was always difficult for the asylum to keep him in clothes that actually fit, most of them were far too big for him and he was bound to destroy them at one point or another.

Dr. Crane stopped tugging at it and looked up when someone else was escorted into the room. He watched as the guards and orderlies left, an interesting change, they were actually going to allow her to be here by herself? Perhaps they thought she wouldn’t last long, they never did. It didn’t take seven words to come out of her mouth for her to have already made a mistake. There was no point in thanking someone for anything. “There is no need for that kind of language here Miss Gleeson, I am quite aware you’re here for something rather than to be genuine and inviting, like I am welcoming you into my home…” He corrected her and then fell to silence. If she wanted to speak with him she could, but she should have known already that he was a man with few words. The only words he spoke were spoken with purpose and intent.

It would have been difficult to get him to accept that she had ever conduct an interview with someone as high profile as his case. After all his case was the first masked professional in Gotham, even before the Batman. But after so many years of others coming after him he had sunk into the shadows, a sea of others. But when there was a shadow on the wall….A light hiss on the air….A chill in their bedrooms….The master of fear was never far from thought.

His fingers crossed among one another and he began his blank, lifeless stare toward her. His glacial eyes were just waiting for some movement in her body to show she was going to crack. He ached for a sign of weakness that she was begging to show and oh was she begging. She was begging even if she wasn’t aware of it….

[Deleted]

Being alone in a room with the man before wasn’t an opportunity that she ever thought she would undergo. Her emotions were a mix of fear and hostility toward him, especially after her recent discussion with Heather. The realization hadn’t actually hit her until she sat down across from him, taking in his appearance, which differed from what she imagined. To see him without the plain, Scarecrow mask that he usually adorned made the infamous figure that haunted her stories almost human. Summer had never imagined him as anything more than a monster and was honestly relieved to see that he had been restrained in one way or another. She squirmed uncomfortably in her seat to get comfortable, crossing one leg over the other and then sitting up straight. Summer assumed their conversation was being monitored, especially after the wisecracks that she had heard the guards making when they allowed her in. Summer had simply blown it off the jab with a roll of her eyes, but then seemed to insist that in a matter of minutes she would be asking to leave the room. While the man before her did prove to be intimidating, the young reporter refused to let him get the best of her.

Summer’s warm smiled wavered for a moment, though returned full force. It was safe to say that she despised the man before her, simply because of what she had done to her dear friend. The poor girl was transformed and forever scarred by him and so unbelievably brainwashed to accept that. Though she may not have seen the wickedness of Jonathon Crane’s ways, Summer did. At a momentarily loss for words, she managed a small chuckle. “Well, let’s just get to the point then, shall we?” This was all a new experience for her. Only as of recently had her connections scored her the ability to conduct interviews with anyone in the Asylum and each time was just as unnerving as the next. Still, the pretty redhead managed to put on a brave face despite the fact that he stomach felt as though it was tied into a series of knots.

“I have been covering your trail of disasters for a good couple of years, Dr. Cane. But some of your most recent actions have just hit a little too close to home for me. There’s just-“ Summer paused, dying to ask the question that clouded her mind from properly conducting this interview. His cold, lifeless stare was enough to send a series of chills down her spine; it was like he wasn’t human. With a deep breath, Summer was finding it hard to hold her composure. What was wrong with her? “I want to know why you took Heather…”

outfit: click here!
notes: sorry! it's not my best. I promise the next will be better <3

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Someone would have been hard pressed to get Dr. Crane to believe that they weren’t being monitored in here. He happened to know from his own experience that Dr. Arkham taped everything he did. He left out the part that Dr. Arkham taped nearly everything that everyone did, but they didn’t matter. He was taping him for a reason more than the others and this conversation with Miss Gleeson would be recorded for further study as well.

The ring on the table in front of him kept his hands cold, but he couldn’t remove his hands from it anyway. Eventually the metal would heat from his hands, but he had no plans on moving in the chair aside from conducting this interview that she wanted. It certainly wasn’t the first time he’d talked to the press but it had been a while since the last time. He was looking her over, but it wasn’t her forum, it was within her eyes. Some said that Dr. Crane had a stare that could pierce into your soul and eat you alive from the inside out. To him, it was just his way of reading her body language; the eyes could tell you many things.

When she laughed nervously he didn’t budge, he didn’t crack a smile and he didn’t return her demeanor. She began to ramble as he predicted she would, it always began that way but when she finally asked a viable question he nodded in response to it, trying to think of an answer she could actually comprehend. Of course, she could never understand the real reason as to why Miss Glass was needed.

His left palm turned up on the metal table, although it couldn’t press far due to the resistance from the chain. ”I didn’t take Miss Glass….Miss Glass came to me. He tried to describe it in the easiest way for her to grasp but there were cryptics in his words that only he could truly make out. ”She may have no known it or been aware of it at the time, but it shows quite well now.” He followed his sentence and turned his palm back down. He didn’t feel the need to further elaborate on that as he had made it clear.

”But I thought we were here to get to the middle of things Miss Gleeson, or is that not what you really meant?..” He turned his chin up ever so slightly and paused in his words. ”I can’t imagine anyone here would want to be wasting anyone’s time….”

[Deleted]

There was just something about the man before her that she couldn’t even begin to describe. She practically loathed him from removing one of the considered ‘safe’ parts of her life and taking the woman and distorting her into almost another person entirely. While the Heather she knew and loved was still there, something else had evolved as well. It concerned her greatly and took some of the stability out of her life that Summer craved. At the same time, it terrified her to know that something so close to home like this could happen. What was next in line for her in this city of mysteries? She was the one who reported the crimes, getting involved only to the point where she discovered the facts and then hung them out to dry. Never before had she felt so emotional about a story she was forced to cover and it was all because of the man in front of her.

That was really the one thing that was crawling uncomfortably under her skin. She looked nervously up at the clock behind him, simply to avoid eye contact. When really, she was furious at him! Summer wanted to scream at him for everything he had done to Heather, but at the same time she didn’t want to react so dramatically. The redhead couldn’t help but scoff, “Yeah, because kidnapping is voluntary now.” Her anger only distracted her temporarily from the knot of nerves in her stomach. His reaction caused her jaw to clench, but she didn’t want him to know he was getting the best of her. “Well I have all day, and based on those chains…so do you. You know what’s funny, they were all making bets that I wouldn’t last ten minutes in here with you, but we are nearly the ten minute mark now and you don’t seem all that scary.” The redhead practically mocked. But was he Intimidating, yes.

Glancing down at the floor, she looked up to meet him directly in the eye, taking into account how practically lifeless his expression was before she continued. She felt like anything she said to him, he wasn’t going to care in the slightest despite whatever she said, only causing her anger to bubble. “Heather is one of my closest friends. We used to meet for lunch every single day before you took her and now because of you she's stuck here. So before I destroy whatever bit of a name you have left from the comfort of my studio while you rot in here, I want to know why you did it.”

outfit: click here!

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Dr. Crane seemed entirely relaxed in his position, though nothing about this place was comfortable. Time had given him this gift; it was the gift to remain comfortable in uncomfortable places. The sense of comfort itself was a lie to begin with but in his case he had grown accustom to having everything as hard as metal. When her eye contact had broken he noticed immediately. Weak…She wasn’t going to last long. Now she actually had a reason to look at the clock behind him. She was now on the track she had placed herself on to get out of here as quickly as possible. She would be just another one….

The sarcasm that left her mouth he didn’t dignify with a response. He had already told her what was wrong with her logic on that part and he didn’t care to repeat himself. Instead it gave her room to speak more and him gather even more from her. She seemed to be solid in every way but one, her eyes. Her eyes were telling it all. Another shot at the condition he was locked up in came but it didn’t affect the doctor. If she wasn’t frightened she’d be able to hold contact with him and not the clock above him….It had become her false veil of safety.

When her eyes left the clock and went down, she finally did something that he didn’t expect. Her eyes met his. His fingers curled slightly and the doctor inched his way closer to the table, she had gained his interest in her recovery. Why was she fighting it so? But as she spoke it began to make sense. Of course she would want to speak with him, it wasn’t professional at all, and it was a personal matter for her. If anything what he had done to Miss Glass was an incredible improvement.

“ You mean to slander my name? Someone has beaten you to the punch…However I cannot deny you the freedom to be able to do what you wish outside of these walls. There is nothing you can say that dig my sentence any deeper than it already is without your “Assistance”. However I won’t stop you from trying.” He tilted his head and his fingers left heat impression of the table as he tried to lean over it. The chain pulled immediately and didn’t let the corpse move far at all. He hung just over it, barely standing as the chains pulled at his ankles and observed her. “ I had told Miss glass that none of her friends truly meant anything to her or her to them…I think she will see that true as you slander my name and burn hers in the process….”

A sinister smile crept onto the sides of his mouth.” Do you think it will be her defending your statements?...Or my name?....Or are you so determined to ruin hers?” He had baited her in that moment. Of course the way Miss Glasses name would latch to his wasn’t a problem for him. He had told her before that she was no longer one of society and that its grip had no power over her anymore. Even if she changed her path and walked out the door, which was always opened to her to leave, she would never go back to a normal life. Forever she would be branded as he.

[Deleted]

A mix of annoyance and rage caused Summer to clench her manicured hands into tight fists. Her nails dug into her pale palms, leaving crescent impressions that only seemed to deepen. It was hard to control herself, she could honestly say that she practically hated the man that sat precariously before her. Even in his position, he made the young reporter feel surprisingly small. She had planned this encounter in her head for the last matter of days, occupying a majority of her throats and becoming the source for the bundle of nerves in her stomach. Needless to say, this wasn’t going nearly had she had assumed, but what was she to expect?

She bit her tongue and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Summer had managed eye-contact, but it was still hard to look into his emotion-less eyes despite how effortless she was making it seem. It wasn’t until his next statement that she nearly leapt out of her chair. Her cheeks matched the shade of her hair as she instantly. “That’s a lie! Why would you tell her that?” She got up from her chair, running her fingers through the red waves before she turned to face him again. No wonder it was so hard to get through to her, Heather had even snapped at Summer “I would never do that to Heather. If anyone’s burned her name it’s you. Successful radio show host turned Arkham inmate in a matter of weeks. I honestly don’t know what she sees in you.”

She folded her arms across her chest. What was she even hoping to get from this to begin with? Closure? It wasn’t like anything that he was going to say would make her feel better about the situation. At the end of the day, she was still going to be furious about what he did to Heather. He stole a part of her life away, hitting way to close to home for comfort. It made her realize that despite the capes and masks, this city still wasn’t safe.

“You are impossible.” She said quietly, calming down to the point that she could approach him once more and sit back down in the chair provided for her. Summer wasn’t going to walk out yet, he wasn’t going to get the best of her. The silence was killer, but she smoothed her skirt and cleared her throat. “I met VerMillion today…”

outfit: click here!

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

When he resided here as a practicing doctor under Dr. Arkham’s rule, there were certain reasons why you did and didn’t conduct interviews with patients. There were reasons behind some patients being allowed to have them and others never being allowed. There was always a reason behind needing to go to school just to be a janitor in a place like this or any regular prison for that matter. It was all about the mind games that the inmate would play. In seconds one could have you caught with a hook in the mouth and you wouldn’t even know it until it was too late. Dr. Crane knew how to make someone do what he wanted far too well, from his profession and experience.

So when Miss Gleeson had leapt from her chair and shouted her objections to what he had done he could only offer her the barest sinister smile in return. She danced so easily into the palm of his hand and her fears of making it worse were only allowing him to turn her when he wished. It was a dance that was only done with the mind and would never be in physical appearance but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

Dr. Crane let her huff and let her puff without a word to give back to her at that moment. He was studying her body language, how fearful she was of losing VerMillion. But what she didn’t want to accept was that Miss Glass was already lost to her and would never be hers again. Surely, before the interview took place, they had told her that she wasn’t going to get far with him. There were very few that ever did, if they could last long enough. She had lasted longer than expected already, but not without an outburst. It would only be a matter of time now, but the more she came back to herself and tried to press on, the more the only real question pushed at his mind.

Dr. Crane didn’t let himself move back into his chair. The question kept him standing and hunched over the table toward her. Every part of him was chained to something, his feet to the floor and his hands to the table, but he has some wiggle room. His left hand ventured out until it pulled the right and the right ventured out until it pulled the left. His open palms pressed on the table to steady himself as his shadow crawled over the table and attempted to swallow her. “Did you?” He asked her softly, almost too softly for a man like him.

The edge of his chains that held his feet were beginning to make noise with his effort to be closer to her.”I wonder then…If you are so willing to converse with the things I have created….just how willing you are to immerse yourself in the truth..” The life seemed to leave his eyes at that moment as he stared at her but it was short lived. Suddenly the door came open and an orderly grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him back into his seat. It had become more and more this way of late. They would barely let him conduct an experiment before they shut it down. “We’re sorry miss but we’re going to have to ask you to leave.” The orderly behind the one hold Dr. Crane asked her while he held open the door. The doctor collected himself and simply stayed stationary where they made him sit.

But he kept his eyes on her the entire way out.