Experimental Psychopharmacology [Crane] (open)

[nmartin]

After eighteen years, Natalie was finally almost complete in her educational journey. From the age of four starting out in kindergarten up until earning a Bachelor's Degree with high honors from Gotham University, the end was almost in sight. For a couple of months, anyway. The winter break that followed last year's fall semester couldn't have ended sooner in her own opinion. Traveling back home to see her family was a must due to the holidays, even if she didn't really care to go back when she had so much more important things to do. Even while she was in the company of her family at the Christmas dinner and her younger cousins tried to get her attention by showing off their new gifts, Natalie had an air of disinterest around her that while she was sure everyone noticed, no one had said anything. She'd always sort of been that way. Intensely focused on her schooling, even though she didn't have to try nearly as hard as she did in order to get good grades.

The train back to Gotham was horrendously long; about nine hours, give or take. Of course there was a hold up at the station, but with all the heightened security and the sheer amount of people, she expected there to be so. It would've gone by a lot quicker if she'd decided to take a plane there and back, but Natalie had a passing dislike of planes. Not quite a fear of them, she just didn't want to take the chance at this point.

A few days after her return to her small apartment on Gotham, spring semester finally started up. Her last one, and the one that she had been looking forward to since she signed up for her classes.

A long day by anyone's standards, but the majority of her college career centered around being on campus for at least twelve hours. In her mind, it'd help her to keep herself focused on her work and not anything else that could possibly detract from that. Besides, she had at least a two hour break between the behavior analysis course and the pharmacology course. That was plenty of time.

The second break that'd been self-assigned for her wasn't necessarily a break, but more of a way to insure that she had a decent amount of time to help Dr. Crane with whatever he might need for the next class period. She'd been assigned a sort of work-study type of job, working closely with Dr. Crane due to the fact that he was the resident expert in the field of pharmacology, which was right on par with what she was going into as far as her potential career was concerned; psychiatry. The study of the pharmaceuticals behind the field was a must, and apparently, he was the best in Gotham concerning them.

After her first two classes and her only real break of the day, Natalie wandered through the halls of the university in search of Dr. Crane's office. It wasn't far from his classroom, which was a good thing. She planned on heading to his office well before the class started so that she could meet him first, because she assumed that's what student assistants did. Though, she'd never been one before so she could've been totally wrong, and that's what made her kind of nervous.

A few doors down from the one she had first thought to be his office, and she saw the name on the door; Dr. J. Crane. A light was on, but she didn't want to just barge in there. Instead, she knocked on the glass window quietly. Enough to be heard, but not obnoxious enough to be totally distracting in case he was in the middle of some important work. She waited for a verbal cue for her to come in the room, or him to open the door, or something. If he was even there.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Professor Crane had woke up early that morning. He did the usual routine. Showered, brushed his teeth, applied his old spice deodorant, and dressed in his usual brown or dark blue suit for the day. He did all this trying to forget about his nightmares that filled his head as he slept. It was always useless. His condo wasn't too far of a drive for him.

He required no coffee, or anything else. The entire time he drove to the university, his eyes never wandered off from the road. He had constantly read about a being known as the Joker, who had a taste for the theatrics like the famed Batman. Harvey Dent, the Ex. D.A. now turned psychotic. Yeah, this city was going down hill. It seemed as though a need for someone of his caliper would be in high demand. Then again, it also presented the perfect opportunity for him to do his own experiments. On live subjects.

He pulled into the spot marked " J. Crane" He stepped out of his car, hitting the lock button as he walked into the university. As he walked to his office, the majority of students walked through him like a ghost. A select few acknowledged his morning, but it neither made or broke his day. He stopped in front of his office, unlocked it and entered. He closed the door and locked it behind him.

He moved over to his chemicals. He had formed a gas that made people hallucinate their worst fears. It spent no more than a week on the streets before a cure was developed. What a thing. Fortunately, the cure for the gas was a liquid. He was experimenting with different hallucinogenic drugs, as well as that cure, to make something new.. Something people wouldn't be able to handle.. Something, that couldn't be cured.

He walked over to his desk and sat down. He pulled out the chemical sheets he had been working on. He concentrated and ran all the different potions and combination's he would make. He narrowed it down to 3 he thought might do the trick. Just then he paused. His concentration was broken. He dozed off into the zone he was usually in. He reached over to his desk, and opened it. His hand went inside and he pulled out a burlap sack. But this was no ordinary sack. It was a mask that he had made. This was the future.. Of his experiments. He could feel an indescribable sense of power radiating from it. He couldn't help, but raise it up to his face. At that second, his moment would be interrupted by a simple knocking on the door. He quickly threw the mask back in his drawer, and slammed it.

"Come in"

He yelled out to the person behind the door.

[nmartin]

As soon as she heard the professor behind the door, Natalie pushed the door open quietly, hardly peeking her head out from behind the window until the door was out of her way enough so that she could naturally be seen. She seemed to enter the office as quietly as she could, and closed the door silently as well. Turning back around, she faked a pleasant enough smile, and spoke up. "Hello, Professor Crane." She said, her voice only a few levels up from whispering.

It was pretty clear that Natalie was nervous despite trying her best to appear as calm as possible, even though she didn't have much of a reason to be. At least, that's what she kept forcing herself to think in the back of her mind. Really, there wasn't anything for her to be acting so awkward over. Clutching a notebook that had a piece of paper with all the rooms that her classes were in resting on top closer to her, she glanced down at the paper for a minute, then back up to Dr. Crane. "I'm Natalie Martin, the psychology department assigned me to be a student aid for your classes?"

Only at this moment did she happen to look over at his work and saw a couple of the different chemicals, but nothing about it seemed 'odd' at all. Aside from his teaching job, she was more than aware that he was one of the top doctors at Arkham Asylum. He specialized in drugs for mental illness, so there was nothing strange about the office-sized lab in her mind. Just because it didn't phase her though, didn't mean it was any of her business what he was doing. Instead, she just remained quiet after introducing herself.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

He rested his cheek in his hand. His eyes were fixed on the door as it opened and a very young woman stepped in. She was roughly 4-6 years younger than himself he guessed. She was beautiful with darker hair. He could tell from her quiet tone that she wasn't very social. Which was good. His last student aid was a blond haired girl who barged into his office yapping on her cell phone. This would be a major improvement. She may even have an actual interest in his work. It was necessary to give her a warning.

"A student aide huh?"

He said to her as he stood up and crossed his arms behind his back.

"It would be fair to warn you that the assistance they assign me rarely ever sticks. I'll be the first to tell you im without a doubt the strangest man on campus, but if your truly interested, you could learn more from me than ANY other professor.."

He grabbed his coffee cup and walked over to the machine he had in the corner of his office.

"Bassically, my effort is a result of your effort."

Crane said refilling his mug. He slowly sipped a bit from the top of it. It was usually good to lay down the law for his assistants at the beginning.

[nmartin]

The first thing that Natalie had noticed about the professor was how young he appeared to be. He really couldn't have been more than maybe thirty-something years old, and she had her doubts if he was even that old. From what she did know about him though, he was some sort of a genius in the field, so his age didn't deter her from the fact that he had to know what he was doing in order to have such a prestigious title and all that he had.

When he stood up and gave her the warnings about just who he was and what she could learn from him, she didn't say anything in return. Instead she just nodded, which was a completely normal response from Natalie. In fact, she hardly ever seemed to talk unless it was completely necessary. Which, that worked out for the better most of the time anyway.

At his last comment, she felt the need to say something back. Nodding again, she grinned and spoke up. "I know that psychopharmacology is what you .. specialize in? That's what my main interest is, too. So.." She drifted off kind of awkwardly, and shrugged it off. "I think you'd be right."