[There is one question that comes to mind. One question he remembers asking when he began lecturing at the university. One question he repeated when he overheard the whispering about his appearance, his personality, and rumours about his demeanour. One simple question he asks himself when he goes out at night, hidden beneath his mask, yet visible to the world.
He whispers with a quiet and soft voice.]
Then why are you here?
[Why does he go out every night? To punish himself? Of course not.]
[ No, he went out every night to punish people like Joe Chill, who terrorized the people of Gotham. He went out every night to make sure the lowest, pettiest criminal to the likes of Sal Maroni knew there was someone out there willing to hit back harder than they ever could.
For himself? His punishment is a little more inelegant. He keeps reminders of everything that's ever hurt him, so he can look at it and remember the pain it caused. So he could live there and have the motivation he needed to put the cowl back on for another night. ]
Because I was asked to come before I got myself killed.
[Crane immediately speaks as soon as Bruce is finished. There is enough pressure behind his calm and fluid tone that one can imagine how his patients must feel.]
I would say you are here because you want my validation to continue this path you're on, to assuage those who care about you. But the lack of approval doesn't scare you either, does it? It's not even so much about that. It's not even the danger you put yourself in. It's about the people around you.
[Does he emphasise? No. But he can imagine himself in that position and recognise that he, too, goes out night after night to make sure everyone out there understands he is willing to hit back harder than they ever could. Before they could hit him first.]
[ Bruce couldn't disagree. Crane could see through his subterfuge in a way most others could not. It should have been unnerving. But it only puts Bruce on alert. He would have to tread carefully, so he didn't give too much away. ]
Well, I can see why you come so highly recommended.
[The remark causes a noise to rumble in his throat, but he suppresses any other sign of laughter by clenching his jaw. He instead draws a mental circle around the diversion, the changing of focus onto himself, and wipes it away.]
I'm sure.
[He affords it the briefest of acknowledgements but swiftly moves on.]
Or maybe they just didn't care too much to help you.
[Bruce strikes him as an intelligent man who knows what he said is the opposite of encouraging. He knows the other man will understand he knows that. So why say those words? Maybe he just wants to see what happens.]
[ On some level, Bruce can appreciate Crane's confidence. So many people lose that when they're around someone like Bruce. He's known more than his fair share of businessmen and politicians and financiers who would trip over themselves to get on his good side and to stay there. It's nice to have someone willing to stand their ground.
And it was a little irritating.
Because Bruce had to work a little harder to get a good read on the other man. ]
What do you recommend then? How can I put this whole thing to rest?
[ without changing a single thing about his behavior. ]
Change your behaviour. What you choose to do today feeds into tomorrow. You understand crashing a car has consequences. You understand your behaviour is causing people stress.
[What else would he say to a man unwilling to change? Bruce's unwilling to analyse his actions hardly becomes the intelligent man who lies beneath. He considers it an anamoly and that catches his interest.]
You also said you are disinterested in easy solutions, which makes me question why you want to put this whole thing to rest.
[Crane mirrors those words deliberately. Come on, man. You're sounding like you want to take this meeting behind the woodshed and put it down.]
[Do you know how much that sounds like an excuse? Do you know how much that sounds like avoidance? Crane knows that pathetic answer was neither and gathers his hands in his lap. He angles his head, closes his eyes and inhales.]
[Everybody imagines they are special. Nobody understands they are ordinary.]
Let me suggest the opposite. You attend those parties although you really don't want to be there. Other guests doubtlessly attend for similar reasons. Everything about that similarity is normal. People follow societal rules otherwise, well...
[His clinical, detached way of speaking breaks the remark apart. He idly gestures with one hand.]
That's the power of society, you really have to play along.
[Society is predictable. People clamber to shove each other, tredding upon them to climb to the top of the pile, only to hit the ceiling.]
[ Bruce can't decide if Crane is saying this because Bruce has effectively diverted Crane off the trail, convinced him Bruce really cares what his peers think of him. Or because that's what he wants Bruce to think. Was he playing the game? Bruce hates the uncertainty of it. ]
Peer pressure is powerful. Especially in a world like mine.
[Crane falls silent for a moment, staring at Bruce in a manner his peers had found challenging, but his grandmother had found insolent. He understands, truly, the pressure to conform.
He licks his lips and draws back, but only seems to fill more of the room.
Does he think Bruce does this because he wants to? Because he doesn't? Neither, really.]
[ It's funny how often Crane stops and stares at him. Bruce never looks away from him, even if the staring edges into uncomfortable. And he can't help but feel like he's being sized up. ]
And because I like a good martini or three.
[ Under normal circumstances, Bruce thinks he'd get a chuckle or two out of the people he's chatting with. He doesn't think he'll get much of a reaction from Crane. ]
[ Crane exudes intensity in a way Bruce is familiar with because he could match that energy. So the smile is. Unexpected. Something else to note about Dr. Crane. ]
No I can't handle more than three if I'm the designated driver.
[One change in expression to pull the rug from beneath his feet. One more back to normal to toss it aside. He draws his smile into a line that thins his face; changing expressions is simple for a man who can control his emotions. Perhaps that is one reason he enjoys wearing his mask. He doesn't have to hide. He doesn't have to pretend.]
Isn't that illegal?
[But he's smiling inside? It is illegal. But does he care?]
[ When Crane's face thins, Bruce's doesn't change. He's settled somewhere between relaxed and confident to give credence to the idea that he finds drinking and driving perfectly acceptable. Nobody gets hurt. Everyone gets home safe. Except that last time, when his Ferrari 812 GTS ended up in a ditch.
It disgusts him. This person he's pretending to be, someone who's got so little regard for the life others. It's subtle, but if Crane is watching him closely, he can probably detect the minutest shift in his expression as he speaks. ]
[Crane, too, refuses to change his expression. The skin over his face feels tighter, and his skin begins to itch; mental problems with physical solutions and nothing more.
Instead, he focuses on those slight changes, those physical tells nobody can control. And he turns from sizing Bruce up to staring him down. His stare becomes unblinking, revealing over ten seconds that he really doesn't like feeling threatened.
That is the only reason anyone would lie.]
Not at all. The Batman has bigger problems, doesn't he?
[ The session didn't feel productive. Not in a way that was meant to help Bruce's mental well being. Maybe it was because he didn't feel like he needed the help. Maybe because he's spent these last many minutes feeling like he's being appraised for an experiment. Or a fight.
Dr. Crane is unusual. Not only in his demeanor, but his mannerism. The staring would be off putting if Bruce were someone else. The near uncanny way his face can change would be unsettling if Bruce were anyone else. But it makes him curious instead. Because such things usually means something deeper is happening.
[Appraised. Studied. Dissected. People generally become uncomfortable over having their lives picked apart. Fewer still understand how it can be beneficial, to be broken down and rebuilt, for their maladaptive behaviours to be replaced by something better. Those people - like Bruce at this moment - divert and pretend and lie and mislead.
Crane hardly shows it on his face, but he is glad when people find him uncomfortable. It always means he is hitting those sore and sensitive spots that are the root cause of their problems. Bruce is lying about his public image, and one's public image is something shared with your loved ones.]
Correct. [Wait for it.] And perhaps your loved ones believe the same about you.
[There we go. Bruce and his problems are likely about more than loss. Who wouldn't be concerned about a family member who wears a false face and goes around gallavanting in the dark? Do you even make it home at a good hour, sir?]
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He whispers with a quiet and soft voice.]
Then why are you here?
[Why does he go out every night? To punish himself? Of course not.]
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For himself? His punishment is a little more inelegant. He keeps reminders of everything that's ever hurt him, so he can look at it and remember the pain it caused. So he could live there and have the motivation he needed to put the cowl back on for another night. ]
Because I was asked to come before I got myself killed.
[ But that doesn't scare him either. ]
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[Crane immediately speaks as soon as Bruce is finished. There is enough pressure behind his calm and fluid tone that one can imagine how his patients must feel.]
I would say you are here because you want my validation to continue this path you're on, to assuage those who care about you. But the lack of approval doesn't scare you either, does it? It's not even so much about that. It's not even the danger you put yourself in. It's about the people around you.
[Does he emphasise? No. But he can imagine himself in that position and recognise that he, too, goes out night after night to make sure everyone out there understands he is willing to hit back harder than they ever could. Before they could hit him first.]
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You sure you're not a mind reader, doc?
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Not at all. I just happen to be good at what I do.
[The implication being his colleagues, well, aren't.]
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Well, I can see why you come so highly recommended.
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I'm sure.
[He affords it the briefest of acknowledgements but swiftly moves on.]
Or maybe they just didn't care too much to help you.
[Bruce strikes him as an intelligent man who knows what he said is the opposite of encouraging. He knows the other man will understand he knows that. So why say those words? Maybe he just wants to see what happens.]
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And it was a little irritating.
Because Bruce had to work a little harder to get a good read on the other man. ]
What do you recommend then? How can I put this whole thing to rest?
[ without changing a single thing about his behavior. ]
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[What else would he say to a man unwilling to change? Bruce's unwilling to analyse his actions hardly becomes the intelligent man who lies beneath. He considers it an anamoly and that catches his interest.]
You also said you are disinterested in easy solutions, which makes me question why you want to put this whole thing to rest.
[Crane mirrors those words deliberately. Come on, man. You're sounding like you want to take this meeting behind the woodshed and put it down.]
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Do you know how many parties I would have to turn down before the end of the year? Social life would be ruined. Nothing about that sounds easy to me.
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Do you know how much that sounds like diversion?
[Do you know how much that smells like bullshit?]
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Despite what you may think, Gotham's social politics is a very tricky beast, Dr. Crane. Saying no to certain invitations could get you blacklisted.
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Perhaps being excluded from society is the cost of being normal.
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There's nothing normal about me or my life.
[ Or society for that matter. They do live in a world that needs a man who dresses as a giant bat, after all. ]
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Let me suggest the opposite. You attend those parties although you really don't want to be there. Other guests doubtlessly attend for similar reasons. Everything about that similarity is normal. People follow societal rules otherwise, well...
[His clinical, detached way of speaking breaks the remark apart. He idly gestures with one hand.]
That's the power of society, you really have to play along.
[Society is predictable. People clamber to shove each other, tredding upon them to climb to the top of the pile, only to hit the ceiling.]
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Peer pressure is powerful. Especially in a world like mine.
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[Crane falls silent for a moment, staring at Bruce in a manner his peers had found challenging, but his grandmother had found insolent. He understands, truly, the pressure to conform.
He licks his lips and draws back, but only seems to fill more of the room.
Does he think Bruce does this because he wants to? Because he doesn't? Neither, really.]
But you go because it is necessary.
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And because I like a good martini or three.
[ Under normal circumstances, Bruce thinks he'd get a chuckle or two out of the people he's chatting with. He doesn't think he'll get much of a reaction from Crane. ]
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Crane's face brightens with a smile.]
I had you pegged at four.
[Isn't this fun?]
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No I can't handle more than three if I'm the designated driver.
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Isn't that illegal?
[But he's smiling inside? It is illegal. But does he care?]
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[ When Crane's face thins, Bruce's doesn't change. He's settled somewhere between relaxed and confident to give credence to the idea that he finds drinking and driving perfectly acceptable. Nobody gets hurt. Everyone gets home safe. Except that last time, when his Ferrari 812 GTS ended up in a ditch.
It disgusts him. This person he's pretending to be, someone who's got so little regard for the life others. It's subtle, but if Crane is watching him closely, he can probably detect the minutest shift in his expression as he speaks. ]
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Instead, he focuses on those slight changes, those physical tells nobody can control. And he turns from sizing Bruce up to staring him down. His stare becomes unblinking, revealing over ten seconds that he really doesn't like feeling threatened.
That is the only reason anyone would lie.]
Not at all. The Batman has bigger problems, doesn't he?
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Dr. Crane is unusual. Not only in his demeanor, but his mannerism. The staring would be off putting if Bruce were someone else. The near uncanny way his face can change would be unsettling if Bruce were anyone else. But it makes him curious instead. Because such things usually means something deeper is happening.
Bruce wants to know what. ]
I suppose he does.
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Crane hardly shows it on his face, but he is glad when people find him uncomfortable. It always means he is hitting those sore and sensitive spots that are the root cause of their problems. Bruce is lying about his public image, and one's public image is something shared with your loved ones.]
Correct. [Wait for it.] And perhaps your loved ones believe the same about you.
[There we go. Bruce and his problems are likely about more than loss. Who wouldn't be concerned about a family member who wears a false face and goes around gallavanting in the dark? Do you even make it home at a good hour, sir?]
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