#rat bite fever

Gotta show some Neil for his special day.

As a child, he had experienced rats chewing at his fingers. They were wild, products of mistreatment towards big manors at the Wayne Orphanage. It’s likely with how overcrowded it was, it wasn’t taken care of either. Understaffed. My theory was, Edward didn’t just wake up screaming to rats chewing on his fingers. He was a child, one of many who may have left those wounds untreated. He was one of the many kids who’d developed Rat Bite Fever. These symptoms can go from minor, to life threatening if it’s left untreated. He’d had experienced perhaps one of the worst sicknesses of his life, maybe going as far as to be hospitalized. As a child, experiencing something because of a furry little rodent could stick with you for a long time. Edward was smart. When he was able to live on his own, he’d studied up on psychology to better understand other people, and himself. Therapy required insurance, and insurance was expensive. What else could you do then self therapy? He got the rats to serve as exposure therapy to a trigger of his. The revelation that the GCPD had a rat feeding info to the wrong people was something he played into. The constant rat undertones all originated from something present in his life. His trauma with rats. In the end of the day, he probably doesn’t care for them much. The rats were crowded up in a cage, not nearly big enough to be considered proper. They died just like the cops.. But damn I’m thinking about Ed having two particular rats, the very first two he had got to help him conquer his trauma whom he cares for and talks to all the time. What are their names? Echo and Query. Iykyk.

🥵❓

Happy chewsday to you too, Juno!