1
The room, which had no windows but was greatly affected by the suffocating summer heat, needed fresh air before welcoming a patient, and immediately. Spending his first day at Arkham Asylum, Jonathan had been alone in this room for about fifteen minutes, but had not taken out any of his belongings except for a few insignificant trinkets. The things he placed on the table himself were non-personally important items such as a few ballpoint pens, a clearly new notebook, mints, and water. He hadn't made a foolish move of putting up a frame of himself or those he cared about, or putting his computer on the desk. Instead, he had put in a few psychology books with absurd titles that sounds like they have positive thoughts in it , and a photo of two kids he didn't know who they were. Although he carried important parts of his research with him wherever he went, thanks to a locked eye in his bag, he only took a special notebook to write down his patients data.
Before his first patient came in for a session, Jonathan thought he should prepare his room to be a more comfortable environment, and for this he turned on the air conditioner from the remote on the table and turned it up to eighteen degrees to allow it to take effect quickly. Not going below that revealed the air conditioner was quite old. While the room was slowly refreshing with the air blown from the machine on the wall, he decided to leave the bookcase alone instead of arranging it, it really needs a lot of effort and time. But he was too busy to have time for that.
After casually scanning the place with his eyes, he realized that the only place he could organize was his desk.
How could he make the environment warmer by using only his desk?
This study room needed a serious remodel.
For example, he could have changed the wall paint to a beige, which is a more heartwarming color instead of dirty gray. And he could have provided a more comfortable cushion for the seats that hurt the back while sitting on it. But these king of innovations required a significant amount of money. He noted on his mind to talk to the hospital's director later on so that patients could be in a more comfortable atmosphere. He really had a tremendous talent for persuasion.
He quickly added a few drops of his own calming chemical mixture to the liquid in the electric air freshener on the table.
No, he had to wait a few more weeks for the actual process. Being impatient and rushing the process would only cause him to fail. When the room was sufficiently ventilated within a few minutes, a relaxing ambiance was created thanks to the chemical added to the room odor. This chemical mixture stimulated the necessary areas in the person's brain, trying to convince them that there was no threat against their existing.
When he decided that he is ready, he settled into his chair and pressed a button to contact one of the nurses downstairs.
"I'm ready to welcome the first patient, you can direct them to my room."
"Okay, Doctor Crane. Our patient, Edward Nygma, will be in your room in a few minutes."
"Thank you."
After that, he finished speaking by pulling his finger off the button. His voice still quite calm, but excited that he had a chance to use his expertise for the first time since that incident at the university. While waiting for his patient, he bent slightly to pick up the files of the person he guessed was in the desk drawer.
And bingo.
As he had guessed, the drawer he opened was filled with such papers and files, and what was frightening was that many of them were intimidatingly thick. He ran his fingers through the papers, trying to find the file on the next patient. İt took longer than he expected to find what he was looking for because it was cluttered instead of alphabetically ordered.
Finding the document titled Edward Nygma/Riddler in capital letters, he pulled it out from among the others and closed the drawer. The confidentiality of the patients here was so unimportant that the drawer for the files was not even locked. Before he opened the cover of the document, which was dominated by yellow colors, he thought about what had happened to make it so thick.
But this was Gotham.
It was the home of all kinds of psychosis and many more.
The first thing he did before opening the door was to turn on the voice recorder as his patient was coming soon, although the building was very old, this device did not make as much noise as he thought because it had new technology.
When he opened the file, what greeted him on the first page was the biometric photograph of the patient he was going to meet, looking so unhappy and angry in the photograph that he could have killed someone with his gaze.
Fascinating.
He quickly skimmed over the trivial details like height, full name, age, and slowed down when it came to family and other kind of relations. It is not known what kind of relationship he had with his father according to what is written in this document, but on all previous visits the officials had to separate them because of his unstoppable anger. So his father was still alive, and since he was the only family member whose condition is known, he could be someone important. According to another paper, it couldn't be said that he get on well with the other people in the mental hospital. He was more of a person who kept to himself and did not communicate with anyone unless it's necessary, but did not compromise his arrogance to start a fight. For this reason, they had to change their cellmate many times, but they could not even find a person who would adapt to them.
Edward even had to stay with the Joker, but that was not an option when they got stick in each other's throats the night of the same day.
He takes a strange pleasure in saying sarcastic words to other patients by pressing their veins, and in almost all of the fights he starts, he is the loser because of his physical incapacity. He seems completely devoid of the ability to communicate normally with someone, but judging by the relationships he sometimes establishes, this thesis can be overturned. It is not possible at the moment to determine how he chooses to treat someone as an ally or as an enemy on what basis. However, these individuals
"I wouldn't advise you to believe what those ignorants wrote, I would certainly have done a much more accurate and better job if they had left it up to me to prepare my file."
Jonathan was so caught up in the pile of words he was reading that he didn't hear the door open, or at least that was what he thought should have happened. It was an absolutely intolerable beginner's mistake.
He closed the folder in front of him using his bony and longer than average fingers, then put on an expression that was neither eerie nor inviting. He wanted his patient to feel comfortable and safe, but at the same time he would let him know who was in control.
"Then I would love to hear the truth, Mr. Nygma."
Even though Edward had just arrived in the room, he already looked bored, either pretending or really bored.
"Please, I'm sure the truth will only bring me down to level four. And no, I don't want to share the same floor with those creeps once again."
Jonathan raised one eyebrow questioningly, pretending to be surprised at what he heard. Knowing who was on the fourth floor, it wasn't all that surprising that he refused to go down to that level again.
"Why don't you do yourself a favor and sit down?"
The red-haired man, who had just arrived in the room and had the attitude as if he was the real leader of the place, did not neglect to look around carefully before heading towards the seats. He knew they thought he wasn't a major threat.
And that would have been true, at least physically. He could show how much of a threat he was without resorting to brute force like Victor or Waylon, but that just doesn't interest him. After
Edward was seated, Jonathan sighed a sigh of relief and attempted to initiate a conversation again.
"I believe we have had a rather unpleasant start, and I would like to correct that.
Jonathan stopped for a moment to observe his reaction, he saw nothing helpful but he won't think of giving up easily.
"Doctor Crane."
"Private detective Nygma."
As Jonathan raises a counterfeit eyebrow once more, Edward is both happy and angry to think he's met a doctor who doesn't know much about him. He wore a mocking smile.
"It seems you don't know as much about me as you think, Doctor Crane."
He turned his gaze to his hands clasped on his knees, which were black and white because of his prison attire. He put special emphasis on the word doctor.
"Honestly, I'll just say you're right. But I'd love to learn more with using a first-hand source."
Edward hesitated for a moment, if he told this to another doctor, he would be rewarded with a stern look or starting to get on the other side's nerves. Was this guy stupid or something?
No, he wasn't stupid.
He knew very well what he was doing.
According to the bullshit in that stupid document, he suffered from narcissistic personality disorder and the doctor, who was trying to be sincere, thought he could make him talk by flattering his ego. Well if he thinks he can achieve anything with it then he really was a big idiot. Edward was too clever to be fooled by such a simple trick.
For Jonathan, it was just a casual conversation, trying to find out how the other person would react if they tried to be manipulated before he got the information he wanted. He had purposely revealed his secrets, when he thought he was saving himself from a trap, he would be caught in real danger. While this was a fairly simple move for Jonathan, Edward wouldn't be able to guess what he was thinking as he tried to play his hand. Because he didn't know the person in front of him yet. It could be someone as stupid as he thought, or it could be someone pretending to be a complete idiot. The advantage of the job was that the patient would never know it, since it was the first interview.
After about a minute of uncomfortable silence, Jonathan attempted to speak again.
"And how are you today, Edward? Do you mind if I call you Edward?"
"No, no, Doctor Crane."
His spitting words left a bitter taste in his mouth. It was hard for him to know what he was thinking, as he didn't know the other person well enough yet, and he hated this feeling of the unknown. He would only have to wait a few more minutes to see revealing his true identity, but being an impatient person, there were few things he hated more than that.
"You can say Mr. Crane if it makes you feel more comfortable."
"And isn't it unfair that I'm missing out on this when you have the right to call me by my name?"
"Sorry Edwa- Mr. Nygma. It would be unprofessional for both of us if you knew my real name yet."
"Pff whatever."
Jonathan had made this mistake on purpose. While he was thinking that there would be silence again because the dialogue between them was broken, Edward interrupted.
"So why did you come here out of all places? In other words, although you have a profession with a clear future, you are putting your own life at risk. Are you considering suicide or something like that?"
Edward only gave a faint smile before a dangerous gleam spread in his eyes. While killing was something he avoided unless needed, it was a very useful method for the threat.
"Because if that's the case, I can effectuate your request."
"No, I'm not suicidal. I'm just here to help the people everyone has given up hope on. To you, this may seem like something pointless , but I want to take my chance."
Jonathan took a deep breath before speaking again, and using the index finger of his left hand, he pushed his glasses up his nose.
"Also, we're here to talk about you right now, I know you're trying to change the subject but please don't do that again."
Wow.
The new doctor was really a weak-willed or stupid idiot who didn't know how to play his cards.
"Although this attitude of yours flatters my ego, it is much more interesting that you came here voluntarily."
Aha!
Jonathan sensed a hint of sarcasm in his voice, his body language betraying a slight hint of anger as he spoke the first sentences. The thing that pissed him off at this speech had to be told that he had an ego.
"Are you consider yourself as an egoistic person like it says in this file?"
"Hah! İ know you think you can took advantage on me but I don't have an ego!"
He was annoyed at being told that he had an ego while he specifically avoided talking about himself. His self-conscious demeanor indicated the opposite.
"Why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself, Edward? So I can get to know you better? For example, we can talk about who you are or what you like."
"Or, without further ado, we'd be saving both of us wasted time by coming straight to why I'm doing all this."
"Learning these things is secondary to me unless you want to. I don't know what the previous doctors tried to do, but I don't want to know the reason for your past actions right now. I just want to know who you are apart from all this Riddler persona."
Edward had to pause for a moment, could the doctor be serious when he was saying this?
Of course not.
It was humiliating for him to even think of such a ridiculous thing.
And this doctor was just trying to trick him by playing some kind of mind game on him. He licked his palm.
"Hi, I'm Edward Nygma, I'm really unpleased to meet you."
Jonathan waved his hand in the air disapprovingly.
"No, not Edward Nygma. I'm looking for Edward Nashton."