Prompt Post - Part Ten
I am REALLY, REALLY SORRY about taking so long, guys, and about not being around much recently. I've been busier than I have in a while, and it just kept slipping my mind between uni applications and volunteering and all sorts- for some reason I thought we were much further off a new post.
If there is anything I haven't responded to, as of now, I'm ( Read more... )
This is why the story starts:
Jonathan Nathaniel Crane Pennyworth is twelve years old. He has black hair, blue eyes, and a three way split personality. And you thought you had problems. When he was eight, his maternal grandmother died of sheer meanness. His mother, who never wanted a child to begin with, left him with her mother, his grandmother. This was her second worst idea concerning her son. The worst was not providing a suitable guardian for her son in the (likely) event of her mother’s death. His great-uncle (on his grandfather’s side), one Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth, would have been happy to take the boy in.
When his grandmother died, Jonathan Nathaniel Crane Pennyworth was sent to the London City Orphanage, where, in another place and time, he was bullied mercilessly by his peers, and threw himself with wild abandon into a life of villainy and crime. He would have been Dr. Jonathan Crane; The Scarecrow, the master of Fear. In this world, that would not happen. It could not happen.
Dr. Jonathan Crane had died. He wasn’t supposed to; he was supposed to become a hilariously old man, and die surrounded by his… “children” and their “children”. But, he died: his soul flopped out of his body, squelched onto the ethereal plane.
Yeah.
When his soul severed itself from his broken body, the strain of a dismal life filled with failures snapped the thin bonds between Jonathan Crane, Dr. Crane, and Scarecrow. However, since all three souls are, technically speaking, the same soul, a filing conundrum was created.
The soul of Jonathan Nathaniel Crane Pennyworth was, well... a bit grimy, to be honest. Small, and kind of broken, but still good. The soul of Dr. Crane was also a bit grimy, but that’s to be expected from a doctor. Doctors have to do grimy things in the name of service to others. Scarecrow on the other hand… Scarecrow wasn’t all the way bad, but he certainly wasn’t a good soul. There is a cruelty inside the Scarecrow, a certain lack of empathy that shows inside his yellow eyes.
However, all this is moot. They’re the same person; they have to be treated as the same person. Which lead to the conundrum of existential filing: Jonathan Nathaniel Crane Pennyworth required another chance to make good on his potential; Scarecrow needed to get himself a few helpings of whoop-ass; Dr. Crane needed some empathy. Thus, the deal:
“Become what you always coulda been. The world always needs some kinda hero, Johnny-boy; so you’re gonna be a hero. The thing about heroes is, is they don’t kill. So if you take this deal, and kill another in cold blood, you’ll die. Refuse this deal, and you’ll be torn asunder, shattered into your component pieces and flung from yourself, never to return as you are now. So, that’s essentially dying, then. You will die, forever, and be remade into someone, something, entirely different. Make your choice, guv.”
“I- Where will I go?”
“Choose, and find out.”
“Who will I be?"
“You’ll be who you’ve always been, only this time ‘round you’ll strive to better yourself.”
“Will it hurt?”
“Sometimes it’ll hurt very badly, but not this part. You’ll wake ‘s’if from a dream, and soon forget the life you’ve had.”
“If I kill someone-”
“If you kill someone and mean it, if you feel no remorse, the deal is null and void. We understand shit happens, after all.”
“Will I remember… this?”
“You’ll remember the deal, your name, a few little things from the past. No more than you need to.”
“Will I die?”
“Everyone dies, Johnny-boy. But an argument could be made that you were already dead to begin with. Come with me if you want to live, and all that.”
“And them? Are they coming too?”
“You can’t leave yourself behind, Johnny-boy. Sorry.”
"And my skills?"
You'll have to relearn some things, but mostly... mostly you'll have all the skills you have now.
“I- Where will I go?”
“Choose, and find out.”
He chose.
He found out.
And he forgot.
It might be kinda slow for a while, but things will get veeery interesting.
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