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Scarecrow : Fear Toxin Test 2

Roberto Dennis returned home after a long day of internship at the Gotham Art Gallery. He placed his book bag on the dining room table and trailed up the stairs to his bathroom. When Roberto reached the upstairs a strong flowery smell hit his nose. His sister, Jan, must have bought a new perfume. She always loved to douse herself in too much of it.  

 When he flipped his bathroom lights on, he stared eyes wide in his mirror.  He was sure that he saw a figure behind him in the entrance. He didn’t dare turn around. He remembered this pattern. His mind usually played these games with him, whenever he was spooked.  

Roberto was a visionary creative; he could see his imaginings in front of him clearly and vividly. It made drawing easy but sleep was often impossible whenever his anxiety riled up. 

The figure was that of the dancing man, an old nightmare that haunted him as a kid.  It started after one night at his sister’s dance practice.  He was curious to see what was behind a door at the back of the dance hall. After sneaking through it he, to his disappointment, only found a hall lit with a dim light at the other end of it.  Before Roberto could return through the door he saw a tall pale lanky figure in a purple sparkly suit slide inhumanly into and out of the dim light. Roberto sobbed and ran.

Even after, his family proved to him that the man he saw was one of the dance students at hall, Roberto still suffered nightmares from the incident. To this day he would occasionally see the dancing figure at night in his home watching him.  If he ever allowed his anxiety to build up too much the dancing man would animate.   His mind would show him the figure moving in his peripheral vision, it gliding across the floor with rhythmic grace; or it creeping closer to him as he would try to focus on his work. If he’d turned his back to open air his nerves would tell him that the figure hovered behind him. Whenever he heard a sudden noise his eyes would place the figure near the source of the cause.

Now here it was again, he stares at the man standing in his bathroom door way in his mirror.  Its grayscaled skin in contrasting its sparkly purple dance outfit, its hollowed eyes leered at him. The nightmare seemed taller than usual which Roberto initially found odd, but he quickly dismissed it as his brain playing tricks on him. The figure smiled at him playfully.  Roberto refused to turn around, least his mind prompts the figure to behave in a way that would cause him to lose sleep for weeks. No, he will remain where he was, no matter what it does.

The figure lumbered toward him stopping inches behind him. Roberto felt the hairs on his back raise. His eyes widen in awe at the height of the figure.  Normally, the dancing man would be around his height, a detail that stayed consistent even as he grew up. Now, it looms over him, his head barely reaching the figure’s chest. Roberto for a second questioned the heat source on the back of his neck.  It was his nerves, right? If not…

Roberto swung around thrusting his fist toward the figure. The towering giant bent out of his way. Why would it dodge? It’s a hallucination. Right? As he observed the figure he noted how elongated its proportions were. It was lankier than usual.  Roberto thought back to how the figure moved, he noted its grace. It not the same grace it normally has, it lacked the ethereal nature of its norm. In fact the movement was human enough...

“Who are you?” Roberto asked

Roberto jumped at the man’s chuckle; it reverberated against the bathroom walls. He admittedly was not expecting a response, but he quickly gathered his bearings and ran. He dove past the figure down the stairs and out of the front door. He cursed himself for leaving his phone on the dining room table as he dashed across the street to a neighbor’s apartment. 

Roberto understood there was a 50%  chance that he imagined the whole thing , but this would not be the first time Roberto’s brain has hallucinated over what was actually there. His brother, Tom, used to prank and tease him for being easily startled. Until one night, Tom surprised him in his room and he screamed and ran as his brother chased him. Even after the chase ended and Tom was trying to calm him down, Roberto could only see his brother as the dancing man. He could not comprehend the world as it was until hours later after his anxiety settled. 

Besides, in Gotham it was always safer to call the police then ignore the possibility of danger.

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Jonathan Crane stood on an apartment roof next to the home of Roberto Dennis.  The chaos at the scene taking place below tickled him. He left no evidence of his presence there.  Jonathan always enjoyed his mini-adventures. They were his side hobby to train his intellect and to study the many different ways the human mind can observe, patternize, and function. 

21 year old Roberto Dennis was a sophomore college student majoring in 2D Illustration and VFX Art at Gotham’s Art Institute.  He possessed a strong gift to visualize his creations as if they are real and replicate them as an illustration. In addition to this, Roberto suffers from phobophobia the fear of fear or rather the fear experiencing a symptom of fear, specifically a hallucination that he sees.

The hallucination according to Dennis’s mental health records, personal journals, sketches and paintings, was that of a lanky ghostly man dressed in a glittery purple suit and black dance shoes. The boy’s predisposition and ability to convey his mental images made him an excellent subject to teach Crane more about the mind.

 So,Crane used a light enough dose of fear toxin to only heighten Roberto’s emotion of fear. He theorized that due to Dennis’s history, in a state of extreme hyper anxiety the boy might struggle with discerning fiction from reality. Crane revealed his presence to the Dennis to gage how severe the boy’s anxiety would affect his perception of the world. He was surprised when Dennis failed to immediately realize he was real. Roberto should have still been able to see an actual threat, but his anxiety seemed hyper focused on his imaginary demon.

Crane was positive that Dennis did not visibly see him in his bathroom; he was seeing the dancing man.  Interestingly, it seemed that Dennis did notice his height.  Perhaps, the figure took Crane’s physique in Dennis’ head?  He also found it impressive, that Dennis was able to determine from analyzing his movements that something was off. It seemed the boy was so intimately familiar with the form and behavior of the imaginary dancing man that he can recognize when something about it was not ‘normal’.  A fascinating detail revealed about Dennis’s gifted mind in tonight’s experiment.  

Crane anticipates continuing his study but he will give Dennis a break for now.

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Scarecrow: Fear Toxin Test 1

Pat James walked with his little brother, Max, home after soccer practice.  Upon entering his home Pat switched the kitchen light for, so that his brother may finish his homework.  Afterwards, he traveled into the den and settled down to catch his favorite show “District Noir.”  

10 minutes into the show, Pat noticed that his mom left the den window cracked open.  Paranoid, he got up and investigated the widow, pushing it up and down to see if it felt looser than normal. When Pat concluded that nothing seemed out of the norm with the widow, a strange aroma hit his nose. The aroma smelled flowery with an itchy twang like lavender.  Pat coughed and sneezed, shutting the widow soon afterwards. He assumed that his next door neighbor, Ms. Pam, planted a new type of flower in her garden.

Still paranoid, Pat proceeded to check and double checked all the rooms in his home.  When he found nothing suspicious or out of place he returned to the den, reclining back on the couch and zoning his attention into the show.

An odd tapping sound drew Pat’s attention to the kitchen’s entrance. When he saw nothing he stood for a better view, only to immediately retreat in horror to the opposite side of the den. Pat climbed on top of the den’s recliner wide eyed. 

It was a neighbor’s dog, Berlin, Mr. June’s one eyed German Sheppard.  The beast was senile past due to be put down. Pat’s memory of the old fanged creature tearing into him as a kid resurfaced.  While he was playing Frisbee with a friend he had fallen through a loose wooden plank in Mr. Junes’ gate. That’s when the retired police dog got him. Pat made it a mission to avoid passing Mr. June house ever since.

  Pat figured that the dog had gotten loose again and Max probably failed to shut the kitchen door all the way after he entered.  Speaking of Max, Pat was determined to keep the beast away from him. Pat jumps down from the recliner dashing toward the back door. He could hear the barking and snarling as he fiddled with the door lock. Finally he unlocked it and dashed out with the dog’s mouth barely missing his shirt.

Pat dashed around his home to his open front door. He could feel Berlin snapping at his heels. Pat slams the door in the dog’s face hearing it whimper.   Pat then dashed toward the back door, seeing the angry dog round the corner before slamming it shut.

Relieved Pat checks the kitchen for his brother.  When he didn’t see him Pat proceeded to search his house for his brother. He called his name several times but he received no answer. He saw no sign of his little brother at all.  It was odd that Max’s homework was left halfway finished.  Before Pat would allow himself to panic he called his neighbors. Maybe Max escaped to a neighbor’s house when Berlin entered their home.  

Ms. Pam picks up the phone.

“Hello, Ms. Pam” Pat tried not sound alarmed.

“Hey Pat, is there a reason why you locked your brother outside of your house?”

 Pat blanked- twice. “What?”

“Yeah, he said he thinks he scared you and you ran out of the house through the back door. He tried to keep up with you but slammed the front door in his face. He tried to go for the back door too but you shut it before he could get to it.”

Pat didn’t believe what he was hearing “What?”

“Pat, are you ok? Would you like to come over and chat?”  

Pat blanked again still confused at what he just heard but he decided to dwell on it later.  “Y-yeah it would be better for me to explain and  say sorry Max in person. I’m on my way Ms. Pam Thank you.”  

With that he hung up, grabbing his keys off the kitchen table. Pat paused for a second at the front door, analyzing the world around him. He turned on his phone flash light looking down at the floor for dog tracks. He saw none. He checks the den’s carpet for any paw prints and he saw none. 

Of course that is not the nail in the coffin dogs don’t always track dirt or mud into houses but…

Pat exits the front door, walking around his home looking for any fresh paw prints, particularly in his mom’s floral decorations. He found none.

Giving up, he traveled to Ms. Pam’s house with his head down, unsure of how to explain his actions to his brother.

…..…..

Later in an unknown location:

Jonathan Crane reclined in his office seat, as he concluded the last on his observations in his notepad. He smiled to himself. He left no signature of his presence being at the James’s house and the potency of his new toxin was ‘gentle’. It might not have any residual effects.

Crane wondered if Pat would try to search for answers. Would Pat allow his doubts to haunt him and frail him? The results would yield long term but Crane might check in on boy once in a while.

Crane stood up out of his chair stretching. His side projects were always relaxing and invigorating. They were a great warm up for his studies and missions.  It was a welcomed break from the norm.