Crane

Crane as he appears in Batman Begins.Face claim: Cillian Murphy

"Craneling"

Jonathan Crane is an original Batman villain who uses an airborne poison to cause terror-filled hallucinations in his victims. While working as a doctor at Arkham Asylum, he would run experiments on inmates to study fear. He has a Medical Degree in Psychiatry, with a specialty in Psychopharmacology, and at least a Master’s in Criminal Psychology, despite being rather young.

## Appearance and Personality

Described as a white man with black hair and very vivid light blue eyes. He is frequently noted to be remarkably attractive. He most often dresses professionally for his job, and definitely takes care with his appearance. He owns maybe one t-shirt, but mostly just has button-ups that he will wear always. He attempted to stick to the most ordinary of color schemes, but once he was outed as Scarecrow, began to dress more often in the Autumn tones that he is secretly drawn to.

He is a very demure and cold person when we’re being nice. Realistically, he is contemptful, arrogant, and boring. Crane is very slow to trust people, and no amount of talking will change that. Crane relies on a person’s actions to decide whether or not they are reliable, and works under the assumption that most people are not. He is very introverted, and the simple conversations and staff coffees he had with the staff at Arkham was enough socialization for him. When those were gone, however, he had difficulty with solitude.

Crane has projected an image of himself different from who he feels he actually is since his childhood. He is capable of pretending to be sociable and caring, but once he joins up with Moss and Sheridan he has no need to keep it up. With them, Crane is learning how he acts without a mask to keep up. He is aware that he is mean and unhelpful, and so is surprised when Moss and Sheridan stick with him even when this is plain.

## Plot

### Allie Arc

#### Allie Moss and Coty Logan

Crane’s first appearance is after the capture of Ash Sheridan, when he is asked by Police Commissioner James Gordon to be her primary psychiatrist. He looks forward to learning about one of the bigger names around Gotham. Crane believes, at first, that her foolish attitude is simply an act, and attempts to goad her into breaking it. When he is unsuccessful, he finds himself contemptful of her status as a feared criminal, when he views her to be an idiot.

During a visit from Allie Moss to Sheridan, Crane learns of her plan to create an antidote to Sheridan’s pain toxin. Realizing the threat that had to the potency of his own fear toxin, Crane offers to help Allie so that he can keep an eye on the process. He and Allie obtain some of Sheridan’s toxin, which Crane reveals to Sheridan in a therapy session much later. Crane seems to take personal offense to Sheridan claiming he is no better than she, as well as the other verbal abuse Sheridan flings at him in her own defense.

Shortly after this, Officer Jean Arlanda arrives at Arkham Asylum under orders to let Sheridan go free as part of a hostage situation. Crane is annoyed at the prospect of losing a potentially interesting test subject, but has no choice but to follow the orders of the police. Sheridan slaps Crane before leaving, adding injury to insult, and he finds himself internally vowing to pay Sheridan back.

#### Allie Moss and Scarecrow

Crane becomes very annoyed when Allie goes back on her agreement to share the antidote with him. Insistent upon learning how her supposed antidote works, to see if it is a threat to his own, he corners her as Scarecrow later. What she reveals gives him comfort, as he is convinced that the antidote will not work.

Crane refuses to help Allie when she arrives at his office later and demands to know her reason for going back on their agreement. He is irritated at the audacity she has to go after the fear toxin so soon after being threatened by Scarecrow. He finds her excuses poor, and asks to know the real reason for her visit. After much arguing, it is determined that she knows he is Scarecrow. He threatens to specifically target her if she reveals his alter ego to anyone.

Crane later encounters a disguised Ash Sheridan and Aleenya Moss. From eavesdropping on them, Crane learns of Sheridan’s persistent crush on him, and he follows them when they leave, mostly to investigate this. They come across Allie, and Sheridan begins to chase her down. Crane follows as Scarecrow.

Scarecrow helps Sheridan corner Allie, who reveals his identity to Sheridan. However, this does not stop Sheridan from attacking Allie, and Crane takes the opportunity to gauge the intensity of Sheridan’s crush, and whether it can be used. When Sheridan threatens to murder Allie, he gasses the both of them. To further his hold on Sheridan, he kisses her forehead during a moment of her clarity, and then kidnaps Allie.

#### Allie's Death

He quickly regrets kidnapping Allie, given her fame and the size of the search that will inevitably follow her status as missing. He does not seem to have any immediate plans to kill her, and claims that he did it to ensure that she could not reveal his identity to anyone else. Eventually, Allie manages to escape while he is at work, but he catches her not far from his home. He takes Allie into a strategically placed abandoned warehouse, and not long after they begin fighting, Aleenya Moss and Ash Sheridan walk in.

Crane is unmasked by Allie, and does not stop Sheridan and Aleenya from attacking Allie. Aleenya kills Allie, and then promises to blackmail Crane if she ever has need of him. Crane continues about his normal routine afterwards, hoping to be able to be left alone.

#### Julia and Kevin

Aleenya Moss runs into Crane on the street and begins antagonizing him about his secret identity. He agrees to give her some of the fear toxin in exchange for her keeping quiet. He meets with her and Sheridan with the intent of attacking them, but Sheridan prevents this. She threatens and taunts him once again, referencing her insults towards him in Arkham, which angers Crane. He holds onto that anger to enact revenge on her later.

### Arkham Arc

#### Scythe Attack

Crane encounters Sheridan and Moss once again during the attack. He declares their methods to be barbaric, and attempts to leave. Moss forces him to stay, and begins tormenting him with the help of Lily O’Claire. Crane attempts to appeal to Sheridan’s continuing infatuation with him, leaving her confused and unresponsive.

Crane is still stuck at the scene when the police arrive. He explains who was behind the attack and before Crane is allowed to leave, Gordon convinces him to help the police trap the two, since they have a personal grudge against him.

#### Arkham Take Two

With support from the police, Crane is given a phone number to contact Sheridan with. He uses Moss’s curiosity and Sheridan’s crush to meet with them. Upon their arrival, the two are ambushed by police. When Moss reveals Crane’s presence at Allie’s murder, and says he is Scarecrow, Crane puts the blame on Sheridan, who has already been taken to a hospital for her more severe injuries. He informs the police that he had been helping Allie with an antidote for Sheridan’s toxin, and claimed that Sheridan forced him to watch the murder of Allie as revenge. The police go along with the story, and take Moss back to Arkham Asylum.

Upon beginning therapy with Moss, intends to manipulate and hurt Moss without having to resort to his usual experimentation. Crane informs her that Sheridan has been attacked and killed in the hospital. Crane appears unphased that Moss does not seem threatened by his fear toxin. He believes Moss and Sheridan’s impulsive emotions led them to be captured, and he refuses to make the same mistake.

Crane also torments Moss over murdering her sister. Crane then gives her a fake newspaper article detailing the death of her parents in a gas explosion. Before leaving her crying, he insinuates that he may have been behind the explosion, furthering Moss’s panic.

He intends to further his line of questioning about Allie in later sessions, but Aleenya ignores his plans and kisses him. Crane punches and gasses Aleenya before fleeing the cell. He drives himself into an extremely panicked state after this, losing his ability to manage the disgust and anger he feels. It is later revealed that the one who snapped him out of this state is Sheridan. At Moss’s next therapy session, Crane gasses her with the pain toxin he took while working with Allie.

Sheridan returns to Arkham after Moss, still recovering from multiple gunshot wounds. She is in a state of panic, begging Crane to remove the strait jacket she has been confined to. He, instead, offers to help her practice walking after her injuries, only to let her fall to the floor seconds later, with no way of catching herself. This puts Sheridan into hysterics, a state in which Crane leaves her.

After Sheridan is no longer restrained, Crane focuses on questioning and fostering her attachment to him. He makes Sheridan distrust Moss by describing how apathetic the latter was when Crane told her Sheridan had died. Sheridan declares that he will lose his hold on her. To prove her wrong, Crane threatens to gas her during the next therapy session, and only backs off when she is literally begging on her knees, claiming he has beaten her.

After being kissed by Moss, he berates Sheridan about the irrational emotions and attachment to him that got her arrested again. Sheridan recognizes that he is not in his right mind and manages to coach him out of his panic. In a begrudging sense of gratitude, Crane agrees to her request to inform her when the first snow of the season happens. He holds true to his word, and she instructs him to watch the snow. He finds himself doing as she told him later that day.

#### The Partnership Ends

On the night of their escape from Arkham, Crane catches Moss and Lily robbing a store. He confronts Moss to discover how she escaped, and when she does not tell him, he decides to leave her. Lily attempts to keep him there, and he gasses her. Moss also refuses to let him leave, and Crane begins to torment her, noting that Sheridan has not come with. He gloats as though he is the cause of the broken partnership.

Moss carves an ‘S’ into his arm, and though he manages to injure her with a concealed weapon, the only thing that stops Moss from torturing him further is an argument with Sheridan who arrives on the scene shortly. Crane discovers that Cate Hunter, Izzy Tennant, and the Joker are responsible for letting Sheridan and Moss free, and uses his recordings of the escape to blackmail Hunter and Tennant with the intent of keeping allies away from Sheridan

#### Aleenya Moss and Scarecrow

Later, Crane finds Moss following him and recording their conversation. Crane tries to bargain for the recording, and when that doesn’t work, resorts to fighting Moss as Scarecrow. Crane attacks her when he thinks she turned him in. He attempts to leave when he learns that is not true, but Moss kidnaps him.

    Moss gasses Crane with the fear toxin shortly after he awakens. Given the stressful atmosphere, Crane finds the hallucinations more intense than he expected, but he still had to intentionally react strongly to the toxin, so as to not give away his muted reaction from prolonged use.

After the effects wear off, Moss continues carving ‘Scarecrow’ into Crane’s arm, and leaves him disoriented to seek medical attention on his own. He writes off Moss’s insistence of his identity as Scarecrow as merely an attempt at revenge for putting her away when he is questioned by Jean Arlanda and Scarlett Jaide.

#### A Bunch of Other Plot Developing Devices

Crane attempts to avoid any encounters for a long time after this, but is thwarted by plot still moving around him. Lily sets fire to his house as revenge for gassing her. Crane survives the attack, and when questioned by Scarlett Jaide, puts the blame on Moss, insisting that she is targeting him specifically. He is angry with Lily after this, but does not take efforts for revenge. At this point, he would like to fade into the background, and continue his normal life.

### Christmas Arc

#### Christmas Past (AKA: Let’s Frame Crane!)

When Crane learns that he has been framed for a chemicals heist, he assumes Moss is behind it. He is confident that the police will not listen to the beliefs of an escaped convict. He never learns who really framed him.

Anne arrives later to inform him that Scarlett Jaide is coming to arrest him and Crane has to escape with very few supplies. He believes the stranger to be safe, but hears about the search for himself on the radio, and realizes he is truthfully on the run. None of his casual work relationships would shelter a supervillain, and he realizes he only knows two people who could.

#### Christmas Present (Hint: It’s Crane!)

He takes part in the convenient knowledge (or lack thereof) of Sheridan’s location and ends up on her front doorstep nearly frozen. Crane has to constantly battle his pride while asking Sheridan for shelter, and appeasing Moss by begging. He begins to lose control over his emotions again, but Sheridan notices and prevents it. She allows him to stay.

#### Christmas Yet To Come

Sheridan makes Crane play the part of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come in her scheme for Moss. Crane very, very begrudgingly follows along, on threat of losing his protection. However, he makes a very weak attempt, believing that payment is for attempt rather than success.

She gives him a closet to sleep in for a Christmas present.

#### Cate and Izzy Arrested!

Crane recognizes that Sheridan is attempting to make him reliant on her hospitality, and secludes himself from her and Moss, even skipping meals. However, the solitude and monotony  is too much, even for him, and he becomes visibly agitated. Crane has suffered from frequent nightmares since his father’s suicide, but he is shocked to find that they have grown more vivid since joining Sheridan. The dreams drive him from his seclusion, and he is forced to interact with the two.

They learn that Cate Hunter and Izzy Tennant have been arrested because of the recordings of Arkham that Crane kept in his house. He shows his contempt for Hunter and Tennant, which causes Sheridan to become angry, declaring him a fool for avoiding attachment to friends. Crane realizes that Sheridan no longer is infatuated with him, and is genuinely concerned she may kill him in that moment.

### Aleenya Arc

#### Aleenya's Return

Crane is constantly tormented by Moss and Sheridan, though Sheridan insists on not physically torturing him. Their taunts begin to visibly affect him as he stops maintaining his professional look and attitude. He reveals his fury at Moss and Sheridan’s security and foolishness, and Moss turns that into a mindless rage by kissing him again. Crane has nearly brought himself to his breaking point, and blames Moss for ruining the normal life he had lost. He repeats his wish to have been left unnoticed, and dislikes the focus and attention that has been drawn to him.

#### Let’s Break Crane!

The Joker magically and suddenly appears at Sheridan’s house, and interrupts Crane’s seclusion. It is unspecified what happens, but the Joker leaves the house laughing and Crane storms out of his room. It is possible that Crane was reminded too much of his past from the Joker’s attitude, and that the Joker left with a half-formed idea of Crane’s past identity.

The thing that truly breaks Crane’s will is being consoled, appearingly genuinely, by Moss and Sheridan. He accepts that he was beaten by them, but in doing so falls into severe depression and anhedonia. In addition to accepting his defeat, he is grieving the loss of his anonymity. He does not respond to any taunts, nor being attacked beyond this point, and shows no sign of his usual annoyance or arrogance. After a while, Sheridan is disturbed by the change and decides to take him out to do evil deeds.

#### Let’s Fix Crane!

Sheridan and Moss choose a random civilian to torture, and try to get Crane to join in. Crane is confused by this, as he has never tortured someone physically or without some experimental purpose. However, he becomes agitated by the victim’s lack of fear, and the brutality of the torture. Crane takes over by intimidating the victim and then gassing her.

He begins laughing at the sudden reappearance of his emotions, and his ability to enjoy the effect the toxin had on the victim. This is the first time Crane has ever used his toxin purely for his own enjoyment. Moss snaps him out of his euphoria, however, and he hands the torturing back over to her.

After this, Crane begins joining Moss and Sheridan more often, though he makes it clear that he still finds them infuriating. He becomes much more sarcastic and outspoken, and constantly trades insults with Moss. He goes out of his way to drag his feet, but is reassured by the return of his desire for villainy.

#### Calendar Man

Sheridan points out to Crane that he has lost infamy since he has been hiding so much. Crane agrees to create more of a presence of Scarecrow, and asks Sheridan and Moss to arrest him after one of his plots in order to give himself a more intimidating presence to the police force, as well as more publicity. It will also be his first public admittance of his identity. He makes Sheridan promise to get him out before the trial.

#### Arkham Take Three

Crane returns to Arkham Asylum with Moss and Sheridan to intimidate his former coworkers. Crane makes the doctors gather on the threat of releasing all of the inmates. He torments them, and lays out his plan to use some of them as experimental subjects. He uses this time to make sure the people he had had friendly interactions with realize who he truly was.

He focuses on Madeline Johnson, unaware that she was Moss’s doctor. Moss stops him from gassing Johnson, and he agrees to spare her. Crane takes no note of Johnson’s attempt to stop him, and is thus shocked and infuriated by Moss kissing him to stop his plans. He believes that she planned this to make him look like a fool of a villain, and gasses her as revenge. He is surprised when Sheridan instantly attacks him.

#### Crane and the Cops

Crane awakens in a holding cell at the police station. He is furious that Sheridan turned him in in such an undignified way, but nonetheless uses his opportunity to intimidate the police. Moss visits him while in custody, and Crane explains that while he hates Moss’s methods, and doesn’t like her personally, he doesn’t expect her to change because of his thoughts. He uses this to point out that he has no intention of changing his attitude because of her either.

Crane shows a very calm and collected attitude when being interrogated by Jean Arlanda and Minerva. He uses his past with Minerva to taunt her, until she eventually has to leave. He lays out a plan to ruin Minerva’s life in front of Arlanda, in order to intimidate her. Scarlett Jaide later meets with Crane to get the information that Arlanda and Minerva couldn’t, but Crane successfully angers her enough to derail the conversation yet again.

#### Ending the Espionage

Crane is slightly confused by Moss promising to kill O’Claire in his defense while they are breaking him out. He is dragged along with Moss and Sheridan’s plan to use fireworks inside the abandoned Major Crimes Unit building and the Capitol. It is revealed that Sheridan is still angry at Crane for gassing Moss, and they force him to apologize.

Crane explains that he feels that it is not entirely his fault the plan failed. He accepts that he played a part, however, and apologizes for that. He partially apologizes so quickly because he wants to get back to the house quickly. Crane has a slightly heightened fear of dying during the escapade because of beginning withdrawal from the fear toxin. He hides it successfully until he is returned to the solitude of his room.

### Scarlett Arc

#### Ash’s Backstory and Scarlett’s Return

Crane, in a search for a sense of agency, attempts to go out on his own much later. He is ambushed by ninjas when he finally does, and he calls Sheridan for help in a panic. Over the course of a few days, they learn the seriousness of the threat from Jaide’s army. Crane makes efforts to actually be helpful because of this.

####

Crane helps support Cate Hunter when she is injured by Jaide, who is attempting to arrest both her and Izzy Tennant later on. Both Hunter and Tennant are injured, and Crane tends to the wounds on the way back to Sheridan’s house without prompting. He explains that he believes Scarlett became this adamant because of Sheridan and Moss pretending to be police, and holds a lot of resentment for them instigating such a large fight.

#### Not So Safe House

He takes Jaide seriously much faster than either Sheridan or Moss does, and tries his best to prevent them from taking unnecessary risks. He insists that they do not resort to their usual methods of brute force. He trusts in his former ability to remain hidden and unnoticed, and attempts to get the others to use this to their advantage.

When Sheridan’s home is taken by Jaide’s army, Crane is the least disheartened. Seeing that Sheridan is unresponsive, he begins consolidating their supplies and demands that anything unnecessary be thrown out. He is shoved by Sheridan when trying to make her drive away from the house, but they ultimately leave.

#### Crane and Aleenya Fight

Crane wastes no time in rationing their supplies, and insists that they remain on the move between places to stay as frequently as possible. Due to his father’s paranoid delusions, Crane grew up in a home stocked much like an apocalypse shelter, and he begins using his memories of that time to help. He is annoyed by Sheridan’s helplessness, but does not suggest leaving her behind. During an argument with Moss, he reveals that he thinks Sheridan is moping because she cannot lord over them anymore.

He gets genuinely angry (and just a bit hurt) at Moss for criticizing his work, as he believed he was being helpful to all three of them and was ready to properly work together. He does not admit to himself that he would appreciate being recognized for genuinely trying to help. Moss threatens him, saying he is no longer welcome with the two of them, and Crane bitterly points out that that is no different than usual.

Sheridan tells Moss to not hurt Crane, claiming that he is the only one who hasn’t been hurt by Jaide yet. In the end, Crane lets the argument end against his favor so that Moss will listen to him later. Crane does not accept Sheridan’s apology, as he would rather she help them than be repentant.

#### Saved by Haymich

Crane begins feeling the effects of his withdrawal soon after losing his privacy from Sheridan and Moss, as well as access to the toxin he had stored in Sheridan’s house. He mostly succeeds in hiding the building anxiety, caused both by the withdrawal and by the real threat of Jaide. It starts catching up to him when the warehouse they are hiding in is attacked by ninjas. He finds himself trembling without reason, and feels physically ill from the fear caused by being attacked. To escape with Sheridan and Moss, he briefly uses himself as a diversion.

After they successfully escape from the ninjas, Crane vomits. His body is unused to the adrenaline and fear without traces of his toxin, so reacts negatively with the extreme situations. He allows Moss to believe that he was merely disgusted by the filthy alleyway.

#### Arkham Take Four

Crane realizes that he will not be able to hide his anxiety, sweating, and shaking much longer, and enlists Moss’s help in getting some fear toxin from his supply hiding at Arkham. He claims it is to fight Jaide, and agrees to give Moss some of the toxin after they finish. Crane knows that it is a needlessly risky objective, but he considers it to be worth the risk to prevent Moss and Sheridan from learning of his addiction.

Crane is able to get to his hidden testing room with help from an unknown hacker and get the surplus toxin, as well as some materials for making more. He is highly irritated by the fact that whoever was giving them directions was able to manipulate the screens in his hidden room as well, and seemed to be able to respond to his words and actions. He follows its instructions until they are out of the asylum, however.

#### Turning Points

When Sheridan shows signs of helping them again, Crane is slightly surprised that she does not hide her animosity towards him when it arises. The person who helped Crane and Moss in Arkham leaves a message on the hotel screen, informing them that it knows where the missing Commissioner Gordon is. Crane is wary of trusting it, and disdainful of it naming itself the Calculator, as the time of named villains has passed.

#### Aleenya Saves Haymich

Crane is surprised when Moss returns to the hotel with Haymich Stevens, and informs her of this through cynically pointing out that usually Sheridan was the one who returned with strays. He gets irritated when Sheridan points out that he was also freezing to death when he joined them, and Moss claims that Haymich saved their life. Crane points out that Haymich actually abandoned them when the army came. While Haymich refutes him, Crane ignores whatever he says, as he does not think that Haymich is reliable. Crane immediately denies Sheridan's thought of Haymich being the Calculator, not beleiving that someone as capable as Calculator would willingly freeze to death.

Crane is also irritated at the news that the Calculator has been busy without them, saving former mobster families, and semi-shady bars. He thinks that the Calculator is trying to rub in the fact that Crane and the others are useless and on the run. They remain useless for several days after Haymich leaves, and this only angers Crane more.

During this time, however, Crane has another one of his frequent nightmares. He became very worried that Moss and Sheridan heard his sudden awakening, but believes that they were still asleep when he checked. He reads his father's suicide note once again, as he does whenever he has the nightmare.

#### Calculator Starts the Game

Crane shows contempt for Calculator when he contacts them, still believing he was flaunting his power in front of them. However, he is ready to cooperate to take down Jaide. He complains and drags his feet for the sake of, it and is genuinely surprised and irritated when Moss threatens his life to make him come with.

He is very wary through the entire break-in, and tries to make it go as smoothly as possible, if only so that he himself will not be killed. He swears revenge against Calculator when they are betrayed, and left to fight the entirity of Jaide's army on their own.

They magically survive. We can talk about this later idk.

When the three run into Gordon and Arlanda after escaping the department, Crane is even more infuriated at Calculator, since he realizes that they were only being used as a diversion. However, he is very insistent about leaving the area so they are not caught by the army. Though this is the first time he has interacted with Gordon since his identity was revealed, he is more preoccupied with leaving safely.

#### Taking Down Jaide

Crane is very annoyed to find that Haymich is in their hideout when they arrive, as it makes him feel unsafe to know that there is someone that can find them so easily. He also finds Haymich to be annoying in general. However, he easily agrees to moving to a new location, even if it is to the home of one of Sheridan's friends, and he takes the time to actually chill the fck out a little bit.

#### Recovery Stages

Crane, though he complains the whole time, helps stitch up the dangerous injury Moss acquired while trying to help Gordon. He makes sure to point out often the distain he still holds for them, but also tries to keep Moss talking so that she doesn't pass out before he is finished.

He returns to sulking on his own when she is stable, but reacts in exasperation to Sheridan calling him an idiot. At the same time, Moss wakes up to argue over his continued living with them. When he is asked about whether or not he would like to continue living with Sheridan and Moss, he avoids the question. However, his avoiding the question caused him to be genuinely thanked by Moss and he doesn't know how to deal with that either.

Crane spends much of his time after this having to deal with the fact that he is hesitating to leave Moss and Sheridan's support. He hates the idea of depending on them, or even slightly being okay with their presence -- and he hates even more that he was inadvertently pleased when he was thanked for his help.

## Background

### Plain Beginnings

Crane’s birth name is Roger Madden. Roger grew up caring for his father, who suffered from paranoid delusions. There is little to no mention of Roger’s mother, besides the child support cash that came in every month. Roger was placed several grades ahead of his classmates in elementary school, jumping from Kindergarten to 3rd grade. Roger almost religiously kept a journal updated.

He seemed a fairly normal boy, regardless of his intelligence, and sought to make friends with the kids in his class. Roger became enamoured with Halloween as he had his first sleepover with a friend named Tyler that night, and also thought his father could learn that being scared can be a good thing. He wondered if he could make his father’s paranoia something fun like Halloween.

### Bullying

After this, however, Roger started getting bullied for being so young. At first he got angry at the aggressors, but felt safe in the knowledge that he had a few friends of his own to protect him. As they grew up, Tyler turned against Roger, and Roger found himself friendless. Roger endured years of being beaten up in school, and turned to reading for solace. He started learning what he could about mental health, fear, and all things related to it, finding particular interest in the Goosebumps series of books.

When he got to middle school, Roger noticed that the bullying he dealt with was slowly switching from being physical to social. He attempted to renew a regular life by making friends in the new school, but Tyler interfered. To cope, Roger decided that Tyler and the others were jealous of his intelligence. He picked apart the mechanics of his social exclusion and bullying, deciding for himself what made a person liked or not. During this time, he set his sights on colleges focusing on psychiatry, so that he could cure his father’s delusional cycles. He was struck with an unfortunately awkward period of puberty right as he entered high school.

### The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

In high school, Tyler became second in command to Jack Gildenshire, a youth known to have dangerous family connections. Jack tormented Roger most of all, finding enjoyment in subjugating the other. Roger was jealous of the affluence the boy has in the school. He found himself drawn to the assigned reading of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, associating himself with Ichabod Crane, and Jack with Brom Bones. He was shocked by the anger the story makes him feel, and lost control when Jack tormented him after reading the story. He knocked Jack unconscious by accident, and considered murdering the other. Roger was frightened by the urge to kill Jack, and fled the scene.

Roger discovered the next day that the school was holding a memorial for the Gildenshires, and was horrified by the thought that he actually did murder Jack. He missed the true story of what happened to Jack, so for the next several months had to cope with believing himself to be a murderer. He fell into depression, hating himself for not feeling guilty about Jack’s death. He constantly battled with his own desires, which were growing increasingly manipulative, and his stronger desire to make his father proud, and cure him. This led to him having suicidal thoughts throughout the rest of high school.

### Guilty Manipulation

Roger focused on being ignored and unnoticed through the rest of high school. His bullying slowly disappeared as a result. He also began manipulating the people around him, regretting it and hating himself when he was alone. He targeted Tyler, as he found the boy’s faith in God interesting. He made consistent efforts to ruin nearly all aspects of Tyler’s life in secret, all the while trying to see if Tyler lost the belief that God loved him. While this entertained Roger, he was ashamed of himself, and felt guilty when thinking about how his father would react. When Roger began considering going after Tyler’s family, he realized he was going too far and backed off.

### Gerome’s Suicide

The day after Roger graduated from high school his father committed suicide. Roger found the body alone, along with the note left behind for him. Roger found that the contents of the note almost exactly resonated with his own reasons for considering suicide. Gerome felt that he had let Roger down, and was holding Roger back from greatness. Roger was especially drawn to his father’s belief that Roger could succeed without anyone else. However, Roger still felt ashamed of the cruel things he had done. His goal to cure his father’s paranoia became meaningless, and he found nothing left to hold him back from his other desires.

    Roger decided that he had lied to his father too much, and could no longer hold any relation to him. He mutilated the corpse of his father, to make it look like he had been attacked, and took all of the hidden cash littered around the house, due to his father’s distrust in banks. Roger created a trail of blood from the house by cutting his arm, and painfully dragging it across the ground, hoping it would look realistic. He ended the trail in a secluded alleyway nearby, and killed several pigeons to make it look like he had lost too much blood to survive. He ran away from the site, deciding that Roger Madden was dead, and tending to his horribly dirtied and infected arm wound.

### Changing His Identity

Roger had researched extensively into the black market during one of his lapses in control. He used this knowledge, and the cash he took to buy a new identity and entrance into an esteemed Gotham university several months later. His looks changed considerably after high school as his puberty ended, and he emphasized that by changing his attire, attitude, and appearance as much as he could. Knowing that professionalism gave him the best prospects for a job, he used the remaining cash to switch from his scruffy, uncaring look, to a more clean-cut background. He took the name Jonathan, which he considered a more dignified name, and took the last name Crane as a homage to the story that had started him down this path.

### Getting to Arkham

Crane did not hold back from secretly manipulating the lives of his classmates, and even the people that considered him a friend. He used what he had learned about relationships to become a part of a friend group, but kept himself distanced from them mentally. He had his first romantic relationship during this time, finding entertainment in her arrogance and lack of hesitation to be mean. Their most common pastime was sitting outside and theorizing about the lives of people who walked by. After he graduated and had a stable job, he never spoke to them again.

Crane found an internship with Arkham during his postgraduate career. He quickly connected with the heads of the asylum, and was offered a job when he had received his doctorate. Crane was much better at networking than his current, bitter demeanor would show. He made work friendships, all of which Crane found shallow and fake. He kept in mind his father’s belief that he needed no one else, so always kept his distance from others, while making the motions of friendship.

### Experimentation and Batman

Once he had obtained a permanent position at Arkham, and a fair bit of renown, he secretly began to experiment on certain patients. He made himself a research center in the forgotten, cavernous basement areas of the asylum. He went undiscovered, even when Batman arrived in Gotham. Crane found himself drawn to the chaos of Batman’s battle against crime, and decided to use it as an excuse to begin testing the toxin he was building on ordinary citizens.

As he was building the toxin, he was exposed to its effects several times on accident. He learned that the toxin was an addictive substance, and has since had to periodically use it intentionally on himself. Crane did not want to draw attention to himself by killing any of his inmates during the testing stages of the toxin, so he created the Scarecrow identity to use it on civilians. He went about a few classic fights with Batman, but none so extreme that the Caped Crusader could investigate too far into his identity. During this time, he kept a very low profile at Arkham, so that his record looked remarkably innocent.

Crane kept the Scarecrow mask and act years after Batman disappeared, finding that its look increased the effect of some of his experiments. He somewhat misses the fights with Batman, and regrets that they did not last, but believes himself to have won the war against Batman, as he was the only villain to not have been unmasked at the time.

## Relationships

Ash Sheridan - Crane views Sheridan to be the epitome of fools. He resents her ability to find a stable home and life, and looks down on her loyalty and attachment to her friends. Part of him still thinks that she is pretending to be foolish, especially when she starts losing her patience. He is agitated by how calculated her actions appear, when her attitude does not match.

Allie Moss - Crane looked down on Allie attempting to create antidotes for the dangerous toxins around Gotham, mostly because of her acting career. He refused to believe that his creation could be broken apart by anyone less than a genius. He mostly viewed her as more of a nuisance than a threat, and was relieved when Aleenya killed her. He has pretty much forgotten about her by now.

Aleenya Moss - Crane’s rival, basically. They cannot have a conversation without arguing or insulting each other. He is disdainful of her violence and brute force, and often wonders if she is a bigger idiot than Sheridan. He finds the idea of getting closer to her horrifying, and claims that he has never been more irritated by one person. Nonetheless, he sticks with her and Sheridan, and would rather keep her around than live with only Sheridan. While he finds her infuriating, Crane has stated that he does not expect her to change her ways because of his disdain.

The Joker - Crane tries to avoid the Joker. He finds the unpredictability of the other unnerving, and does not want to have to give him credit for taking the limelight with Batman. He also believes that The Joker, much like Moss, would target him for mischief if he got too close. Crane is unaware of the Joker’s identity.

The Calculator - Crane does not trust Calculator, and does not like the idea of a new name gaining ground in Gotham. However, given that he is not doing much for himself, can mostly only sulk in response to Calculator’s growing infamy. Crane will never forgive Calculator for leading him, Moss, and Sheridan right into the arms of the cops while they were trying to rescue Gordon.

Minerva - There is reference to a history Crane has with Minerva from before he worked in Arkham. It was all planned out, but I cannot remember any of it anymore. Pretty sure he used her somehow to advance his status in Arkham, but basically ruined her life because of it.

## Fun Facts

* Crane is farsighted and wears reading glasses.
* In The Sims Medieval, Crane’s fatal flaw would be hubris.
* Crane carries his father’s suicide note with him constantly.
* Crane has an addiction to his own fear toxin, and goes to great lengths to keep it hidden. Because of this, his reaction to its effects are muted, though he shows severe symptoms of withdrawal, including severe anxiety that can sometimes border on paranoia.
* Crane has a frequent recurring nightmare of jumping from a building, as well as finding and mutilating his father’s corpse. He sees these same things when under the influence of the fear toxin.
* Crane fears death, but fears taking his own life much more.
* Crane has a large scar on his arm from staging his own death.

Made on the Rinmaru Games Geek Boy Avatar Creator: http://www.rinmarugames.com/playgame.php?game\_link=geek-boy-avatar-creatorDrawing of Crane look at me goFull drawing with Crane and the Joker. I am more proud of this than I expected to be.Made on the Rinmaru Games Mega Anime Avatar Creator: http://www.rinmarugames.com/playgame.php?game\_link=mega-anime-avatar-creatorArt by DoubleLeaf: http://doubleleaf.deviantart.com/art/Scarecrows-200174361