The Scarecrow (Jonathon Alex Crane)

Basic Information.

• Gender: Male
• Race: Human
• Height: 5'6"
• Age: 31
• Hair: Black
• Eyes: Blue
• Profession: Psychiatrist
• Title: N/A
• Birthday: November 13th 
• Word: Invisible.
• Bisexual.

Characteristics.

• Has a keen intelligence  that usually lands him in trouble of one kind or another.
• Usually pessimistic.
• Is slender, with short black hair, glasses (he's farsighted), usually wears at least a button shirt if not more formal attire, and has unusually brilliant blue eyes. He usually looks a little on the bony side, being that he's borderline anorexic and not really concerned with getting enough to eat. Usually there are... other... things on his mind.

Family.

• Alex Crane (father)
• Marlene Crane (mother)

History.

 Born to Alex Crane, a child psychologist, and Marlene Crane (previously Marlene Spencer), a model, Jonathon's early childhood had little to no problems of any sort. His mother was doting and utterly spitten with her little boy, and his father was distant but companionable. Around the time that he was starting to think for himself, somewhere around the age of 4, his father suffered a large blow to his ego when one of his colleagues professionally accused him of being less than honorable around the children he was treating. This was political manuevering nonsense, but still, it annoyed Crane Sr. and affected his mood and professional life enough that he began to drink his problems away. Marlene suffered the worst of Alex's drunkeness at first, until she slowly began to sink into the background; she took more and more jobs, just to get away from the home, and was out late at night (further infuriating Crane, who thought she was having affairs). At the age of 8, Jonathon received the first blow from his father. He wasn't sure how to take it. When more started to come, he threw himself into his studies and focused on being as away from home as his mother (whom he now resented for abandoning him).

This did nothing to improve Alex's mood, which had now slipped into mild dementia, particularily late at night when the worst of his problems cropped up. He woke Jonathon up very early in the morning to have long, confusing talks with him about subjects that didn't really matter. Upset about this strange turn of events, Jonathon went into the age of 12 after having received a particularily brutal beating from his father about what, exactly, he did at school, when no answers could seemingly satisfy his father, who never made it clear why he was asking and what answer was expected.

Then, the bullying started. Jonathon was a miniature version of his father but slightly less hefty, and he was an easy and favorite target of the school's bullies, particularily because of his gawky frame and the bulky glasses his father always bought for him. (This was another point of resentment.) Threatened as he was from all sides, Jonathon withdrew almost permanently within himself, and as an unconscious tactic to save himself -- Scarecrow appeared. A personality, fairly independant from his own, that could deal with everything life was handing to him. Adding to the appeal, Scarecrow was angry all of the time, and Jonathon could rant to him and the other Him would agree; it was comforting to have something like that, being that he was terrible at forming friendships. His reputation for being a wuss and a bookworm didn't help.

On the night of the prom, Scarecrow -- not yet named as such -- dressed up in the costume that would later give it the name, and he jumped out in front of the car of one of his bullies. That bully had taken to the prom the girl he'd asked, who had refused Jonathon but accepted the bully, and for that -- not to mention other things -- the Scarecrow wanted to get them back, bad. In the end, the car swerved to the side and there was an accident, killing the girl and injuring the boy. Jonathon/Scarecrow escaped into the darkness, unreported. He was thrilled with this development, in terms of how powerful it had made him; he wanted more of that taste.

He went to college, and then to university. Yale, specifically, to get away from Gotham and his family. There he discovered the area of Psychology, but initially sided away because he didn't want to follow in his father's footsteps. However, the treatment of adults soon began to appeal to him, not only because of the knowledge that would be gained intellectually but because patients would tell him what made them tic -- what made them afraid. Jonathon and Scarecrow were both sold. He turned out to be more brilliant than his father, certainly in these years, who had become disgraced within the profession and had divorced his mother a year after Jonathon had arrived at Yale. Both were estranged from Jonathon in their own ways. While there, he had a slight fling with his male professor, which turned out to be his first sexual experience that held any meaning -- although when he realized it could be construed as a way he was getting a better grade, Jonathon terminated the affair immediately, not wanting to be known as that type of person.

Graduating with honors in the area of Psychopharmacology, he took up a post as an assistant teacher at Gotham University, where his father had graduated. He had a solid year there before one incident where he was required to teach class, and had become fed up with how psychology was taught. In order to illustrate fear, he pointed a gun at one of his students. That afternoon he was let go from the University. However, Arkham Asylum was having trouble keeping doctors, and he was allowed access to real patients there; it seemed like a perfect stepladder for an eventual solo career. In the Asylum ranks, he flew up quickly until he achieved the title of Head of Psychiatry, prescribing medication sometimes of his own manufactor that heightened certain senses and made it quickly known what that person was afraid of.

There, he was content. Scarecrow was at his side, after all.

A few years after joining Arkham, Jonathon received a call that his father was making accusations about him, mirroring his incident in Jonathon's childhood. His anger and resentment spiked, Jonathon decided -- with Scarecrow's help -- to make a few phone calls a week later. Alex Crane was found dead in his apartment, apparently of a drug overdose. (No forced entry... Jonathon had seen to that.) The day was, ironically and planned, Father's Day. To complete the joke, the same procedure was pulled for Marlene Crane, whom Jonathon hated for never being there after his earlier attentive childhood; this time, similarily, on Mother's Day.

There was never a decision he was more happy about.

Personality.

Cold, calculating, stiffly meticulous and with a dry and somewhat sadistic sense of humor. Jonathon tends to be more flowery with his language when he's uncomfortable in a situation, or if he wants to be seen as absolutely professional. His inner personality tends more towards melancholy, and aimless anger, lamenting about the directions his life has gone.

Scarecrow, on the other hand, tends to be snide, vicious, spitting and doesn't really get along with others. He constantly mentally abuses Jonathon in some way or another, insulting him or being unresponsive when needed, but he does, in fact, care for Jonathon a great deal. They are, after all, two halves of the same whole.

Likes/dislikes.

Jonathon tends to like simple things, sleeping, reading, learning new information, and quiet atmospheres. Scarecrow is similar, except that he prefers to have people around to observe; even one is preferable to none.

Fears.

Jonathon prides himself on being afraid of very few things, but the fears exist. He's afraid of being trapped somewhere, as happened with his father a lot in his room; he's not comfortable around hammers, which his father loved to use as a striking tool; he's afraid of telling someone that he cares about them, as such a thing never existed for him before; and he's afraid that anyone who is close to him will eventually betray or hurt him.

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