4/6
There's not a whole lot to write about; so, to entertain myself, I'll write down a bunch of stuff that serves no other purpose than to fill up the pages in greater detail than I have to. Does that sound good to any of you reading this? I hope you don't bore easily, but when you read things from a patient's point of view, maybe you'll make some changes to benefit everyone here. I'm just kidding, nothing ever changes in Arkham or Gotham and you guys know it!
I wonder if anyone's actually reading the journals, I haven't heard anyone mention them since I got mine. It wouldn't surprise me if they dropped the whole idea of the journals; lots of ideas for treatments get brought up and quickly forgotten about. Whatever, it doesn't matter to me who reads this and who doesn't. So, what to write about? How about more pity for my Puddin'? Sounds good to me, people could use more pity for all of us here in the madhouse.
Poor Mr. J! He's almost always locked in his cell, not allowed to mingle with any other patient no matter who they are. No longer can he walk with sort-of freedom in the cafeteria or the rec room and certainly no talking to me. It's so not fair how many places I can go while he can hardly go anywhere at all! Lots of days, I would love nothing more than to bash all the staff's brains out in protest, but I hold myself back. I don't think I could handle solitary confinement as well as Mr. J can, so I will behave to a point so I can move around and talk to my friends.
I almost get a kind of a special treatment here for some reason. I guess the psychiatrists see me as some kind of social butterfly, so I get to visit a bunch of the special criminals like myself to try and make friends with them. Apparently, some of the doctors believe in THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP! As if putting criminals in the same room with other criminals will make them do less criminal activities. Sure, I've made some friends: Red, Eddy, Arnold, Croc, Jervis, and I already knew Mr. Crane from Gotham University, (Two-Face doesn't seem to like me, though. As for Harvey? I dunno.) but besides Red, I didn't really change anybody just by palling with them.
Don't think I'm complaining about hanging out with my friends, it's just that I find it strange how I'm kinda like a link that connects people who normally don't like each other together. I wish everyone who's considered a Rogue would be like a dysfunctional family or something, but the most unity we have is basically: "Oh, you don't like Batman or the police? Cool, I don't like them either!" The enemy of my enemy is my friend, I guess. By the way, who came up with the term Rogues Gallery for anyone who regularly fights a "superhero?" People who break the law without giving something back doesn't seem very rogue-ish to me, but, what do I know?
Let's see, on the subject of Rogues... right now Eddy, Jervis, Two-Face, Red(who I got to visit again yesterday), and a few others nobody cares about are here in Arkham, besides Mr. J and myself, of course. It was so funny talking to Red yesterday: she was throwing a temper tantrum because she wanted to attack this socialite who made some nasty comments about the environment, but when she broke into the mansion, some relative of his had to tell her that he died a month ago! She was mad at me because I neglected to tell her I already knew the guy was dead.
I told her: what she needs to take away from this embarrassment is that she should actually read or watch the news. You don't get everything by word of mouth outside of Arkham. Really, news spreads pretty fast in Arkham. Usually, if it's important, Riddler will tell us the goings-on, but Cavendish and Adams talk to each other so much about news they should run a gossip column. Speaking of doctors, I had my session with Dr. Leland today, and I noticed she was acting a little...off, somehow. I can't really fully explain it, but it's been gnawing at my mind for a few hours, and I don't know what to make of it. Here's how it went down:
I was being honest with her about how my relationship with Mr. J was doing a lot better, and that I wanted to see him more often, not to talk about our next escape, but just to talk to him. Normally, Dr. Leland makes excuses about why Mr. J can't see me or leave solitary confinement, so imagine my shock when she admitted to agreeing with me! Well, she said she wasn't completely sure about our relationship, but, the way she saw it, no matter what cell Mr. J gets put in, he always breaks out anyway so why should it matter? And then Dr. Leland said something else that I think she didn't mean to say, but I couldn't hear what it was.
What I noticed most of all was that Dr. Leland looked exhausted. Yeah, I'm sure the job is tiring, but I mean a different type of exhaustion. Dr. Leland has been working here longer than most of the staff that I'm aware of along with administrator Jeremiah Arkham. Nearly every other doctor, therapist, head of security, etc. has either quit, died by suicide or murder, or gone off to do better things. (I am, of course, referring to Hugo Strange, Jonathan Crane, myself, and a few others.) Actually, Cavendish and Adams have hung on for a surprisingly long time, but I think those guys are special.
Can it be that Dr. Leland just can't take the stress of her job anymore and is deciding to retire? I can see now that she looks older than she should at her age. I've seen Cavendish and Adams give her a lot of dirty looks for as long as they've worked there; if Dr. Leland were calling it quits, I bet those two would have something to do with it. Of course, maybe I'm just reading into things that aren't there (again!). I don't know, maybe there's something about being in Arkham that heightens your perception? What's really confusing me is why I'm feeling so conflicted right now.
Shouldn't I be glad if Dr. Leland goes? I know Mr. J would be absolutely happy to see another doctor bite the dust. It must be that I knew her before I met him. I guess I have her to thank for bringing us together, even if she didn't mean to do it. Hm, I don't think that's it. I might as well sleep on it for now; tomorrow, I'll ask Eddy if he knows if anything's going on.