realityshifted Application
Player Name: Mel
Player LJ: melissa_228
Email and/or AIM: melinelly228
Timezone: EST
Other Characters: handysparehand || mouthyplonk || shewalks_away
Character: Jeremiah Arkham
Series/Fandom: Batman mostly, although he makes appearances here and there in other DC-verse comics as well
Deviance: 1
Age: (I am taking an estimate based on his appearance in Battle for the Cowl: Arkham Asylum) 43
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Canon Used: Pieced together from all his comic appearances, pretty much.
Appearance: Because this is comics, his appearance differs GREATLY from one issue to another. Sometimes he appears to be in his late thirties, sometimes his seventies, sometimes he has brown hair or blonde hair or ginger hair or white or grey or he is balding or no hair at all.
Since the majority of his icons come from Battle for the Cowl: Arkham Asylum though we will use this as the basis for his appearance. He is average build, dark hair, wears glasses. Can usually be found in a suit, and wearing a lab coat when he is at work (which is most of the time).
Psychology:
You know that saying "the lunatics have taken over the asylum." Well that applies very well to Arkham. Sometimes the inmates take over the asylum. Mostly Jerry is running it. Either way, the phrase still applies.
First off, someone very much wiser than I put forth the idea that Jerry deciding to go into psychology after his words caused a severely disturbed individual to kill himself is much like someone deciding to go into construction after watching a building be demolished. That right there is clue number one that something may not be right with dear old Jeremiah. He is manipulative and calculating, he would have to be to be able to do that little trick. But on that fateful day more than anything there was a sense of power there, control, something he hadn't really felt until that moment. It's something he has sought ever since. Control was something he lost at a young age, when a childhood cat was left behind when his family moved to a new house. He allowed himself to obsess over the cat, seeing the worst possible scenarios. When he lost control, when he couldn't go back and get his cat, all his worst nightmares played out in his mind. When he found a way to have control again he seized it, and this kind of control too meant he would also have something to care for again. And that more than anything is what he thinks he is, a caretaker. He can't be a proper caretaker without exercising control, because once he lets control go everything will fall apart. Plus Jeremiah just plain loves control, and he will seek it out aggressively at times. He will do this, all the while trying to convince others and himself that this is not his goal at all. He does what he does to help he says, and he says it so well he's even convinced himself.
And that's the thing, Jeremiah thinks he is the good guy in this entire thing. Despite the brutal and sadistic means he takes to treat his patients, he thinks he is doing it for their own good. He views them almost as his children, and he is their caretaker. What he does is for their best interest and he will cure them one day. He cares very deeply for his patients. They and Arkham are his life. He cannot sleep at night due to the place, whether being woken up by staff because of some crisis that they need him for or unable to sleep knowing something is wrong because he is not being called about a crisis. He sacrifices for them and feels that he is unappreciated, abused and taken for granted. He wonders why they hate him, and he cannot see that his actions and his treatment of them is the reason for this. He does do good things for them. He gives them small privileges, he lets them hold onto their costumes, pieces of their identities, mementos from their lives outside. In a way this is also touching on control again though. They have these things because he allows them, and just as easily he could take them away. Mostly he sees himself as constantly sacrificing for his patients, almost assigning himself a martyr complex.
This martyr complex fits in well with his sense of narcissism. He feels he is right, always right. He feels he is the only one who can cure his patients. He feels his tactics are the best and everything else is wrong. He is married to the idea of behaviorism and won't be swayed because it is the approach he has taken. He self proclaims that he can see into the "heart of madness" and believes that he, and he alone has the power to cure even those that are deemed beyond hope. He gutted the original Arkham, burned his Great-Uncle Amadeus' belongings, started everything fresh, because he needed to prove something. His Arkham would be better than any other. He assumed he knew what was right and the past and anything before him was worthless. This proved to be an error even he allowed himself to regret, which is a lot because due to his narcissism and general attitude that he cannot be wrong, he rarely owns up to the error of his ways. Never out loud and very rarely to himself.
This segues nicely into his sense of denial which was touched upon a little earlier. He cannot admit to being wrong, to being brutal or hostile or most importantly, he cannot admit that he himself might not be the most sane individual anymore. There are moments where he will question his own sanity, but he believes it merely to be a symptom of the asylum, when clearly something broke that day he talked a disturbed man into suicide. He cannot even admit to his own susceptibility to mental illness due to his family history. It might be a big reason why he actually chooses behaviorism as his specialty. It means that he is only crazy if he allows himself to be crazy. And again, that actually connects to his obsession with control too. The mind, biology, all that isn't what determines a persons sanity, it's their behavior and choices. He will only be crazy if he chooses to allow himself to be crazy.
Apart from his psychological issues above though, Jeremiah is a very intelligent and logical individual. He uses his logic to aid his denial at times, uses his intelligence as a tool for his control and narcissistic tendencies, but he has these qualities. He has had a few instances where he has nearly come close to losing it, but he always pulls himself back from the edge, at least in his own mind. He is always a little more fractured after these instances, but mostly he hardens himself a little more on the outside while fracturing that tiny bit more on the inside. He knows how to handle a situation, he knows how to deal with his inmates. While the staff around him are destroyed by Arkham and their inmates he seems to get a bit harder and tougher.
He is sharp and sardonic and he has high expectations for those around him, both staff and patients alike. When they fail to live up these standards he is a bit disappointed but it is to be expected. He feels at times he is surrounded by incompetents and philistines. Sometimes the patients themselves seem to be the only ones around him capable of intelligence or strength or endurance, his staff always seeming to allow themselves to succumb to their environment. He has endured them and not lost his mind, but really that might be a sign that he had all ready lost it long before coming to this place.
Other Skills/Abilities: He can "see into the heart of madness." He is highly intelligent and he has a good understanding of human psychology. He has proven to be able to manipulate thoughts and emotions. He is very good with a rifle. He might possibly be an awesome softball coach.
Other Weaknesses: His narcissism and denial is a huge weakness. These things really prove to be his undoing so much. He is also human, and prone to the usual human weaknesses.
History: There once was a little boy, and he lived with a mommy and a daddy and he even had a pet cat. I imagine this cats name might have been Schrodinger. He also had a crazy great-uncle somewhere, and a crazy great great aunt too. There was craziness in the blood. But anyway his mommy and daddy decided it was time to move far far away, but oh no they forgot the cat. Now poor little Jerry - that's the little boy - he wanted to go back, but his dad said tough, and anyway the neighbors will feed the cat or give it a new home. Jerry boy though, he just obsessed and obsessed that his poor cat was starving and victim to some horrible fate. It was a fairly scarring experience and one that stuck with Jeremiah his entire life.
But life went on, he went to school. He was intelligent and had potential, except those qualities were wasted. He was an indifferent student and more or less lazy and aimless. He had no real ambitions and was happy wasting his time. That all changed one day when he was 16 and he walked into a store just like any other day. Except this day wasn't like any other day. It seems an inmate from his great uncle Amadeus' asylum up the way had escaped and was holding the store at gunpoint. As he entered the store, the escapee turned his gun on Jeremiah. There was a split second of panic, but then he something clicked. It was as if he could see right into the madman's mind, see all the things that led to him being there holding them all at gunpoint. So the words came naturally, and Jerry's healing touch is very impressive, because the gunman turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. Jerry is obviously very good for the mental well-being of all. But it was a momentous day, because Jeremiah had found his calling. He would become a psychiatrist and one day he would run his great-uncle's asylum.
So Jeremiah had a goal and ambition, and off he went. He went through school, crushed on B.F. Skinner and then the day came and he found himself in control of Arkham Asylum. Of course, his first days were a bit rocky. Narcissism plus being a newbie can be a bad mixture. So Jeremiah figured he'd start everything fresh, because the old ways obviously didn't work. He tore down Arkham and rebuilt it, hoping to make it escape proof. He also burned all Amadeus' possessions, because he didn't need any guidance from crazy dead relatives. So with the new Arkham built he went to work on his patients. Behavioral health through negative reinforcement was obviously the way to go. Cornelius Stirk will have medication whether he likes it or not, Professor Crane (a.k.a. Scarecrow) really needs to get over this anti-social thing of wanting to scare people. What better way to get that out of him than using a holographic projector to make him think crows are attacking him. Someone hears voices in their dreams, best way to fix that, wake them before they ever fall asleep. And pretty soon he's conditioned Arkham into such a state of fear that the inmates have no choice but to obey. Of course Batman has to come along though, Batman ruins everything. Including Jerry's perfect asylum where he was going to cure everyone and they would all become nice functioning members of society. But, but he will cure Batman too! He will get him to take off his mask and admit that he is just as crazy as all the people he throws into Arkham. Jerry might have taken some bad advice from Zsazs, but you know, first day, wanted to make a good impression. Things went to hell, Batman got out with some help from Nightwing and Robin and Commish Gordon, and then he had to be a jerk and all threatening and tell Jerry that he is as crazy as his patients. So now Jeremiah can't look in mirrors cause Batman might be right. Thanks a lot, Bats.
So things go on, and Jerry boy gets more experienced at running his asylum. People escape now and then, but they always come back. He will contain those who can't be cured, keep them safe in Arkham and he will actively work to cure those he feels aren't without hope. Of course this is Arkham and no one ever gets better, only worse. But don't tell Jerry that. He actually tries to give his patients some nice things too. He lets them keep their costumes, hold onto momentos of their lives outside, gives them a garden, all sorts of stuff.
Alas, people always have to wreck stuff. Like Bane, god what a jerk. He decides it would be a good idea to blow up Arkham and free all the inmates. The Joker can't just leave Arkham like that though, so he decides to hold Jerry hostage for a bit, threaten his life and pretty much drive another wedge between Jeremiah and sanity. He makes it out alive, thanks to Batman, but his asylum, it is ruined.
All the inmates get recaptured, but without an Arkham there is no where to put them but Blackgate Penitentiary. Jerry's got to be there, too to look after his kids. But Blackgate is pretty much packed to capacity and no one is happy to have them there, prison staff or inmates alike. So of course the best way to solve this dilemma is softball! But it doesn't really solve anything and Jerry is having a tough time of it, making sure they don't mess with his kids. That's his job, and he does it out of love, so it's all right.
But it turns out the Joker has really awesome taste in real estate! Really! He had gotten loose, and he had taken a bunch of hostages at the "Mercey Mansion." Well, Jerry had put all his money into a fund to create a new Arkham Asylum, because he had to get his patients out of Blackgate. So when he meets Gordon and company there after Joker is stopped, welllll.....he spots an opportunity when he sees one. So he has found his new Arkham, yay!
And he gets things running smoothly again. He's got his asylum, he's got his patients and he's built a nice little staff for himself. Of course, the worst man he has ever met had to ruin that. Warren White is the worst human ever. Jerry is very pissed about his 401k, dammit. But long story short, White was a white collar criminal charged with embezzling who lost a lot of people's investment money. He thought he would plead insanity and that would be easier than jail. Of course, as well as being the worst person anyone has ever met, he is an idiot, because he decides Gotham is the venue for pleading insanity. So he gets sent to Arkham, and events unfold which involve the devil being summoned and White becoming Great White Shark. Jerry laments on everyones uselessness and apparently the proper medication involves a shotgun. Jeremiah takes a very soft approach to the care of his patients, obviously. The day is saved though, and Batman convinces Jerry that this was all obviously the Scarecrows fear toxins, so solitary for you Jonathan!
But things go back to the relatively normal state at Arkham. Sporadic breakouts here and there, psychiatrists and staff being killed, defecting over to the other side (looking at you, Miss Quinzel :|||!!!) or driven insane by the inmates. The usual. Then an earthquake hits. That's not good, for many reasons. The biggest being that the US has decided that saving Gotham is a total waste of money. This means Arkham is out of luck. They are running out of food and medication to placate the inmates. Staff quit one by one, Jerry's BFF David gets killed by the inmates, and then he is left alone the only "sane" man in the place. He holes himself up in his office with his trusty shotgun and agonizes over what to do. He can't leave his kids to starve to death and pick each other off one by one, so he decides to set them free. The only thing he didn't tell them was that Gotham was being isolated from the rest of the country, roads and bridges out of the city being closed indefinitely. So they would be left to their own devices in an abandoned city while Jerry figured out wtf he should be doing.
Eventually he comes back to Arkham, reopens the asylum, offers some aid to earthquake victims before bringing the patients back in, but pretty much Gotham has been saved and Arkham is back in operation. Things are slowly swinging back into the relative norm for the place.
Canon Point:Relative norm is still pretty strange, but even relative norm can only last so long. Canon point is sometime after the events of Absolute Terror. Jonathan Crane was showing that he might possibly be ready to join the Arkham general population, except he missed his friends and was annoyed with being bullied by other inmates. So he pretty much tore Arkham apart with a few finely crafted words. He scared a bunch of guards and inmates into killing themselves, and the rest he scared so badly that they wanted him far far away from them. But Scarecrow was apprehended again, in pretty poor physical condition really. And like any good father he welcomes his prodigal children back with open arms and INTENSIVE therapy (it's for their own good, really!). And that's where we are now! A few weeks after, perhaps? Sometime after that but before any major events have happened.
Reality Description: Well we live in a universe call the DC-verse. There is Metropolis somewhere, and San Diego has become Sub Diego (but we don't think about that really), but where our focus goes is a nice dark sinister town somewhere in New Jersey (who would've thought!) called Gotham.
The city is dark, scary and sinister. There is a posh upper class somewhere, but the city more or less is crime infested and dangerous. It is home to some pretty terrible criminals, and the heros....well the cost of saving the day usually involves a lot of destruction. I cannot imagine what the property and car insurance rates are like in Gotham, seriously.
But we're not too worried about Gotham proper, because Jeremiah rarely gets there. He is too busy working and things to go out and socialize or have a night out on the town or anything. We're concerned with Arkham, which lies on the outskirts of Gotham. It has gone through a couple locations, but at the moment it is based at the former Mercey Mansion on Mercey Island. It is seperated from Gotham proper by the Sprague River.
The asylum has top notch security thanks to Jeremiah (at least he thinks so, the number of escapes that happen there...well that statement might be less than true, but don't tell him that). He also has designed parts of it to be almost labryinth like. There are several different sorts of treatment rooms for Electro Convulsive therapy, desensitization, solitary confinement, etc. There is also a rec room, a lounge for staff, an infirmary, a cafeteria, showers, and Jerry's office. There was a portal to hell at one point, but that got taken care of, thank you very much.
The asylum also is divided into three parts. The general population is in one wing, the more high profile and dangerous patients in another. Outside of the asylum itself there is a third building, high security that only Jeremiah can enter. This is a solitary facility, where non-violent patients are left and actually seem to receive help. They are far more delicate than any of the other patients and need to be left on their own away from the hostility of Arkham. They are also some of the worst/most tragic cases and no other doctor but Jeremiah wants to or is permitted to treat them. He actually regards this as a place to go for relaxation almost, since these patients do seem to appreciate his efforts on their behalf.
He also lives at work, an apartment somewhere in the facility. He has to be close by in case of emergency. He lives economically, much of his money going into improving his asylum.
Did you read the rules? Yes