Thanks for the feedback, everyone!
Vacation's over (if you can call working on a 30-page paper "vacation"), back to work. In which Jonny goes coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs, Hester is a good little puppet, and I abuse my comma button like there's no tomorrow.
Disclaimer: I may wish and I may beg but I am not the owner of Batman or any related properties. It's all DC's. If I were the owner, would I be writing mediocre fanfiction? No; with all of the royalties I'd be relaxing next to a pool and I'd never work another day in my life.
The Scarecrow Letters II
Dear Jonathan,
Thanks for the advice. I don't know what you mean about cussing not being scary. Gangsters on TV cuss like crazy and people are scared of them. Meh. You know best, I guess. I did the whispering thing at school and people got sooo freaked out. It was funny. My teacher was even freaked until I told her I was just trying to memorize Poe. Scared my idiot classmates and got teacher's OK in one move. Nice!
So you did do something for Halloween. And got booted back to Arkham. Setting up a haunted house with a $100 reward for getting all the way through AND with fear gas pumping in? Seriously, I wish I'd been there. Place was up all night before the Bat-Man (is that how you write it? Every newspaper and TV show has it different) or whatever figured something was up. According to the Vicki Vale Power Hour (I dunno what the real name of that is either, but everybody calls it that. Summer Gleeson's better.) 1,296 people went in and got the scare of their lives. Pretty sure that goes on your top ten list of schemes! That is so cool! I'm sad you're locked up again, but at least you can read this.
Are you sure Scarester won't work as a supervillain name? I thought it was cool. Other supervillains have way dumber names. Captain Cold? For real? Sounds like a Sesame Street villain. If you meet him, don't tell him I said that. Just because his name's stupid doesn't mean his powers ain't. I can't think of any other names that will really fit except Dorothy and I am NOT calling myself that, thank you. I've been thinking about that persona thing. Like, maybe I could be the silent psycho type person. You know, you talk and give the villain lecture and I stand behind you not saying anything but holding a big freaking weapon. I think that would be pretty scary. I just thought of another villain name. I could be the Frightener! Pretty sweet, huh? That could really work great. Scarecrow and the Frightener, the two most terrifying crooks in Gotham history! What do you think, huh? Can't wait to hear from you!
Love,
Hester-Mae
Dear sister,
Trust me on this, your change in persona to a more silent, sinister force will work much better. And no, the gangsters on TV are no more petrifying than a week-old hamster. I see I shall have to educate you further on the true nature of fear. At least you are beginning to put some of my advice to good use. Frightening your boorish classmates whilst receiving your teacher's approval at the same time? Well done! It is also good that you are reading some of the classics. They may be boring to you now, but I assure you that you will be better off for being familiar with them.
The haunted house scheme did work much better than I would have thought. I would be a horrible liar if I said that I was not extremely pleased to see how many people lined up to willingly be scared out of their wits. True, there was a monetary reward involved, but still. I made a little bit of money off of it as well, charging $10 a person to get in. And, as the money was gained legitimately, the police were not able to take it from me, only charging me with multiple counts of poisoning. The usual.
No. Scarester is not an option. Please quit bringing it up. The Frightener is somewhat better, but somehow lacks. Although, until we can find a better solution I suppose it will have to do for now. I shall come up with a better sobriquet in time. I will not make you call yourself Dorothy, rest assured. I receive enough Wizard of Oz jokes as it is.
Again, being a silent menace could work quite well. An enemy that you cannot sense is a primal fear. People fear the dark not because of the darkness itself, but for the things which may be hiding in it waiting to strike. The Bat has used this fear well. I must admit I admire it. A creature without a voice is one without an identity and is therefore seen as somewhat inhuman and therefore somewhat frightening. A mask of some sort would also assist. Something to hide the features and to dehumanize your persona even further. I think you should be quite the little terror after that. I shall have to think of a design. There is no hurry. You still have a long way to go before you are at my side petrifying Gotham into submission. But, as I've said before, you have such marvelous potential. The Joker wasted the potential Miss Quinn had. Oh, she can be quite the competent villain when she really puts in effort, but that's precisely it. Any time she truly lets herself shine, the idiot clown immediately stops her for "upstaging" him. She almost got the Bat himself once, before he stopped her. And she goes along with it to try and earn his "love." Such a shame. She was one of my more tolerable students during my days as a professor. A true teacher feels each one of his students' victories and accomplishments as though they were his own and when you become a rogue in your own right I assure you that I will let you have free reign as long as it does not interfere with my own plans. I appreciate good work.
And I let myself go off on another tangent, where is my mind today?
Fear comes from the sense of potential harm to the self. Look up to my description of fear of the dark. It is not the dark that truly frightens a nyctophobic. It's what could be in the dark. Sometimes what isn't there is far more terrifying than what is. Since you used my last piece of advice to your advantage, let me give you a little homework assignment. Pick a victim from your school. Any victim. Someone who is occasionally mean to you or someone whose face you just don't like. Follow them around without being seen. Let them hear you every once in a while by stepping on a twig or by coughing slightly, but always stay out of vision. Do this for a week or two until the victim knows that they are being followed. After that, stand somewhere in view of their window where your victim and only your victim can see you. Wear something concealing, so that he or she cannot tell who you are. Make sure it is not an item of clothing you will wear again, to prevent suspicion. After he or she panics and either runs out of the room or calls for help or both, get out of sight and head back home. I would suggest not doing this to Madison's boyfriend, no matter how much he may deserve to feel helpless. The little worm would likely use his victim status to gain sympathy from the stupid girl. This little experiment should let you get a feel for the power and control fear can give you. Without harming someone, saying anything to them, or even being seen by them, you can have someone shivering in fear of you, have them screaming from nightmares of you. You should learn from experience the power fear gives. There is no way to simply write it down and expect you to understand. I will teach you the joy in seeing fear in others first, as it was the first thing I learned. Later, I will teach you of the ecstasy fear can be to the enlightened mind who will accept it. This next step will not be easy. It is easy to enjoy power over others. It is a far harder thing to learn to appreciate the thrill of absolute terror running down your spine, filling each of your senses until you are near to bursting with the true consciousness of fear. Even I did not truly appreciate fear until some years into my career. I only saw it as something to inflict upon others to make them suffer. Now I see what a blessing it really is. What a wonder. The glory of it. Why is it that no one else can understand? No, it is not that they can't. They simply won't. You will. I know you will. You will understand fear as I do. I will teach you to. When you understand you shall be as I am, a god amongst insects. They will be the worms and we the enlightened. They will scream and shriek their praises and beg for mercy from us, as good devotees should. Gotham shall be consumed by terror and it will be beautiful. That is the Eden I am trying to create. That we will create. A magnificent garden of panic and horror that is all-consuming with no serpent, or should I say bat, to ruin it. Even he shall be converted to the splendor of my horrifying paradise. He has some appreciation of fear and uses what he knows well. I shall have to break him and cultivate his understanding into something more complementary to my true philosophy. Can you see it, sister? Can you understand what I am trying to do? You are still only a child but I know you must have some comprehension of my plan. If not, I shall help you to understand. You have to understand.
Yours,
The Scarecrow
Jonathan Crane has left the building. Everybody tell Jonathan good-bye! Bye, Jonny! Scarecrow pulls the strings and Hester jumps. Poor kid. Oh well. Until next time, my lovelies.