"20. What kind of touch do they need the most right now? Forehead kiss? To hold someone? To be held? [Insert other options here]?"
"26. What's something they're in denial of, if anything?"
Both for Arkham Knight Jon, if that's fine with you UwU🙏💕
Ok first JYTFGH thamks for the ask Finz. I feel so honored ;-;
Jonathan is fairly touch adverse. His years of being beaten and slammed down by the vigilantes of Gotham have taught him that physical contact directed at him is only meant to bring harm. His attitude towards touch only became worse after the whole “visit to gator land gone wrong” incident. Jonathan’s dislike for contact all stems from the many injuries he has suffered. Really the only person he allows to touch him is Edward. Unlike others, Edward earned that privilege through caring for Jonathan after the asylum incident. His hard work to help Jonathan heal brought both so much closer to each other. Jonathan learned from Eddie’s efforts that he can put a decent amount of trust into him.
What he needs most is to be held, especially after being injected with his own creation (thanks batman). Jonathan needs to be gently embraced in a quiet atmosphere, with his hand enclosed in Edward’s own. He loves the feel of Edward’s calloused and skilled hands. When Jonathan holds onto Edward’s hand, he can feel Edward’s strength. It makes him feel equally strong.
26.
Jonathan is mostly in denial of the state of his health, physical and mental. He does attempt to relieve his chronic pain through over-the-counter medications, highly addictive sedatives, illegally procured prescription pain meds and morphine; however all are in short supply and there’s not always the guarantee he’ll have what he needs the next day. In his state, rationing pain alleviating drugs isn’t always the easiest to do.
If he is in the company of others, he has to do everything in his power not to show his discomfort or curse aloud from the pain that plagues him day in and day out. He cannot be seen as weak in any capacity. Though once Jonathan is in his sacred privacy, it’s a whole different story. There have been days so excruciating, he’s shed tears from the pain. Only the crows that reside in his China Town safe house and Edward have been privy to these moments. Occasionally two or three crows will flutter down from their roost to comfort him. Some will affectionately coo, others will bring him “gifts” which are really anything relatively shiny they can find in the safehouse (coins, syringes, pens, dropped feathers, etc etc).
Now on the topic of his mental health. Beforehand, he firmly believed that he was fine. However, his views were quick to change after his defeat at the end of AK. It promptly transformed from “I am fine and sound of mind,” to very depressingly, “I am now too far gone to be helped.” Beforehand he was in denial of how he was. Now he’s in denial of being able to mentally heal to any scale.
