(Untitled)

[is_fear_itself]

Jon Crane's left his costume behind for a change, and he's sipping a cup of tea, a book open on his lap and a tape recorder balanced precariously on the arm of the chair he's staked out as his own. He marks his place in the book and looks up to ask his question.

"Do you believe in the thin line between love and hate?"

A why or why not is

Comments

[jdoesmith]

Jane gives him a silent once over. She doesn't know who he is but his appearance is cataloged in her mind. Fun fact, at the end of the day she writes down everything she can remember.

"Yeah. Love can easily turn into gate," Jane says with a shrug. "So they're just... linked that way.We-- People I mean tend to hate people they love more strongly than strangers too."

She's rambling and stuffing her hands into the jacket she has on. She doesn't speak like an educated person, more like someone who learned things on the fly.

[is_fear_itself]

One thing Jonathan really honestly loves about the Nexus is the fact that people don't call the cops on people here. He can just sit in the open and read, which is the sort of thing usually limited to Arkham, and there, people are obnoxious.

"Reluctant to bring yourself into the equation, are you? Personal experiences are welcome." He surveys her in turn, finding nothing interesting to comment on - but he never was one to judge by first appearances. "Still, you raise a cogent point. Do people hate their loved ones because they have idealized them into more? Because they need spend a longer time with them and so notice more flaws?"

[jdoesmith]

"My personal experiences in the wide birth of human emotion are somewhat limited," she admits with a shrug. The short woman has no problem admitting she's not very experienced when it comes to that.

"I used to hate my old man because I thought he was sheltering me. We.. He was all I had," she shrugs again. She likes to look unremarkable to the world. "Children dislike it when they feel they are being too protected. We-- People. They notice things about people they live close to."

She glances at him then shrugs. "I exclude myself because I'm not prone to hating people, just habits. And dogs. I do not like dogs."

[is_fear_itself]

"Ah." Crane meditates on this for a few moments, raising an eyebrow to himself as a thought occurs, and sets the empty cup of tea down, closing the book and waving to a seat in invitation. He can be semidecent when he's not wearing the costume. Sometimes.

"'Not hating people' makes you somewhat unique, you realize." His tone indicates he doesn't believe her, but he's a bitter, cynical old bastard, so it's not surprising really. "Do you hate dogs because you fear them?"

[is_fear_itself]

Although Crane has never seen a talking dog while not under the influence of some drug, he also makes his second home in a mental asylum, and thirdly, this is the Nexus, so that sort of thing is generally not as weird as it would be back home in Gotham.

He reaches down to pet the dog, not having anything in particular against dogs in general, and having lost his fear of being bitten a long time ago. "Hello, there. What's your name?"

He smiles at the question, "I don't know. I imagine people who don't believe in it either haven't met someone they hate and love equally, or their brains aren't wired to think that way."

[is_fear_itself]

Crane opens his mouth to reply to that, before closing it and thinking more about it. Surfacewise it sounds like the kind of thing one of his cellmates would mumble in their sleep, but on a deeper level it clicks with him. "Yes... conditioning, of course." He examines Snitter more carefully, wondering if he's a stray or just a dog who got separated from his owner.

"I do... I have several names, actually. You can call me Crane, if you like. Where are you from, Snitter?"

[victormakesart]

She eyes the tape recorder, and she has the littlest twinge of... stagefright? That wordchoice is too ironic, even for narration. Today is another day of awful sweaters, this one has a teddybear dressed in a Santa suit, holding a present that is clearly out of perspective. She has to be doing that on purpose. "No. Some situations, maybe, with some people, but no. Ah, um, they're both strong emotions that can't be quantified, but the expression's been soaked with water then wrung out so much that folks use it for the slightest bit of affection that gets shifted into the slightest bit of annoyance."

fkldjbsdg I'm sorry I totally missed this!

[is_fear_itself]

Crane examines her outfit with clear uncertainty. He doesn't hate Christmas or anything, he just never knows how to behave around people, and his fellow inmates weren't exactly big on it. Can't even trust them with candycanes.

"Have you ever really hated someone?" He doesn't sound like he thinks she has, based on the little he knows of--well, of normal people in general.

aaah, no worries!

[victormakesart]

Victor just likes ugly clothes, it seems; as long as it's garish and a few sizes too big she'll wear it. She's a Hanukkah girl, anyway.

She pauses, purses her lips. Then shakes her head, a little bit like she's ashamed of it. "Maybe I should try harder at that."

♥♥♥

[is_fear_itself]

"I don't know about that." He taps the tape recorder, turning it off, since he has his answer from her, and then indicates a free seat as an invitation to sit down if she likes.

"--both emotions obviously deal with a good deal of devotion of thought to the person... or thing. An obsession, even, that leads to ...deep examination, sleeplessness, constant mental activity towards it." He's actually struggling for words, for once, and sighs, "It's possible to love something that everyone else finds despicable. It--it's possible to love something you should hate, and in time grow to hate something as violently and passionately as you once loved it, and then back again to adoration... more exaltation, I suppose."

[lapetitmauvais]

Sprawled on a nearby couch, Sebastien looks up, his eyes flicking over the stranger with interest. The tape recorder merits merely an arched eyebrow. They say vampires cannot be recorded by one of those things any more than one can be photographed with a camera.

We shall see.

"Of course." He shrugs. "Why not?"

He goes back to toying with his cigarette lighter, but there's that obvious codicil hanging in the air between them, so he sighs and looks up again.

"Love and hate, they are intense emotions, yes? If you have strong feelings for someone, if they provoke some passion in you, good or bad, it is only natural these feelings can get...tangled."

[is_fear_itself]

For his part Crane is ignoring the tape recorder entirely, almost as if hoping everyone else will forget about it as well.

"Why not? Well, because when it comes to a question as personal and opinionated as that, there'll be at least one person who vehemently denies it applies to them." Frankly he's surprised he hasn't gotten one yet, and possibly disappointed as well.

"I--... yes, I agree with you." No idea why his agreement seems to bum him out though, "Have you experienced it yourself?"

[lapetitmauvais]

Sebastien nods, politely ignoring the stranger's crestfallen expression.

"Yes. My Sire is a good example." He is quiet for a moment. Two hundred sixteen years and he's still brooding over it. "He turned me and then he left me to die. I hate him for it, but I love him, too. Because me made me. He is all I have left."

[is_fear_itself]

"Did he have a reason for leaving you?" Dracula's been to Gotham like five thousand times, but Crane doesn't understand vampires a single iota.

[andthethrill]

It's for the best that he isn't in costume. Mitchell wouldn't grasp the implications of the getup, or the history of it, but he'd still be put off.

As it is, Doctor Crane gets an answer from a scruffy drifter with dark hair. "I've heard enough about it. But I've never experienced it."

[is_fear_itself]

"Not the sort to believe what you haven't observed directly," Jon replies, turning to give him a closer look. Plenty of homeless people in Gotham, so he's not too surprised or perturbed.

"Perhaps someday you'll experience it, and I assure you, it isn't pleasant."

[andthethrill]

"Call me a skeptic," he agrees. He's got a Gotham accent, in fact. A little more polished than you'd expect, but maybe he's just someone who's fallen on hard times.

"Speaking from experience yourself?"

[is_fear_itself]

"All right, I will." He recognizes a homegrown Gothamite anyway, and smiles a bit more, wondering if the other man knows his face. Possibly, it's usually in the papers when he does something, but... it's possible this other man comes from a Gotham regrettably free of Crane, or one of the bizarre ones where he looks completely different and stunningly gorgeous.

"I am, actually, but I don't feel like divulging it at the moment." He mumbles, "I'm Dr. Crane." If that doesn't scare the guy off, he'll know.