#before gotham

[askthatchapinthehat-blog]

School was... tolerable. The material moved a little too slowly for my tastes, but it was a place of learning, so I suppose I enjoyed it well enough. I was certainly grateful for the respite from home.

As for my other interests... no, not really. I never found girls appealing in the way that my fellows did... nor did I find my fellows interesting in the same fashion. I simply didn't see any attraction in attraction. As far as I was concerned, romantic infatuation was a vulgar, childish past time designed to hurt any players foolish enough to partake in it.

Besides, I had already fallen in love with an idea; an idea that curiosity could be brave, that dreams and poems presided over reality, and that the world didn't have to make sense for it to be true and right.

Little did I know that idea was real, and had a name.

A very lovely name.

[askthatchapinthehat-blog]

Oh, I've always loved animals. After all; I did grow up in the countryside.

I found wildlife fascinating, and being a quiet child with a slight case of macrocephaly the company I kept was not usually of my own species.

Children are generally the most impressionable between the ages of three and seven.

After the age of seven, you see, they tend to have a solid and independent grasp of morality.

The borderline between these two stages can be a turbulent time for the developing mind, and memories of notable events that fall within this area appear to be particularly deep set.

My father did not know this.

- but then, he never was that bright.

[askthatchapinthehat-blog]

Yes.

[askthatchapinthehat-blog]

Well, I did. I used to play piano. I was always ahead of my studies at Oxford, so I used to teach myself in my spare time. I'd always wanted to learn, and it wasn't very difficult- really, I wonder why people think that it's complicated at all.

It's been a long time since I played though.