Fic: Oh, The Times, They Are a-Changin'
Title: Oh, The Times, They Are a-Changin’
Rating: G
Word Count: 616
Summary: Gotham is changing, and it’s changing fast. A selection of drabbles set after TDK.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Batman. Sad, isn’t it?
One
It had started off as something temporary. It was never meant to be permanent; Batman was meant to start the ball rolling and Gotham’s cops and politicians would follow his lead and clean up the city. It had all seemed so simple back then, but somewhere along the line, something had gone wrong.
There was a time when it felt as if Gotham would no longer need Batman; it was as if the city was ready to start walking on its own two feet. But then along came a Joker...
Now, it’s as if Gotham is trapped in a non-stop cycle of hope and desperation. Something good, something brilliantly good will happen and the mood in the city will be upbeat and happy until something terrible happens and it feels as if Gotham will self-destruct. And all the while Batman stands, watching over his empire, learning to swim with the tide he has created and trying not to look back.
Batman was only supposed to be temporary, but now it’s a job for life.
Two
Of all those arrested in Gotham over the past year, almost half have been people in masks, from wannabe vigilantes to disguised criminal masterminds. It’s all personas and copy cats. There are fake Batmans (half of them end up populating Gotham’s ERs at weekends) and at the moment there’s a craze for fake Jokers amongst the criminal underworld.
It’s all about the masks. From the Batman himself, to that new cat burglar people keep reporting, to that hooded drug dealer in the Narrows all the cops keep bitching about. Even the mob has started to hire and liaise with masked criminals. Arkham Asylum is home to many of them.
Gotham feels like a war zone these days, with all the enemies in disguise. All it took was one man and now everyone seems to be playing dress-up. Talk about escalation...
Three
Arkham Asylum. Once ridiculed by the world, working there is now every psychiatrist’s dream. Ever since The Joker was incarcerated and Crane was caught, the big names flocked there, desperate to add to their egos by curing either one of them. Everyone fails, it’s inevitable, but there’s a steady stream of masked criminals making new homes behind Arkham’s bars and an even steadier stream of therapists queuing up to treat them.
There was a time when Arkham was nothing; when it was underfunded and falling down; when people talked about getting rid of it and sending the crazies elsewhere. Even now there are people who say it should be knocked down but that won’t happen, not while the world’s eyes are focussed on Arkham.
Funny what a few freaks in costume can do for a place.
Four
A year ago, Gotham’s streets were dangerous places. There were the streets you didn’t go down because they were under mob control, areas no one dared to visit at night because of gang rivalries. Today, the streets are still dangerous. But it’s not just the mob: there’s the Bat; the new costumed gangs; the other small time vigilantes in lycra. The mob is old news, it’s being pushed out. It needs to update. The mob doesn’t dominate, not anymore.
There are new lines being drawn, new divisions on the streets. There are new rivalries and new leaders and the mob’s old power is fading fast. There’s no longer one collective, or even several large groups: everything’s fractured and broken. In this new Gotham, it is the mob that is sinking, the mob that needs to relearn how to swim, the mob that has to change its ways.
The days of streets run by gangs are over. The times are truely a-changing.
Rating: G
Word Count: 616
Summary: Gotham is changing, and it’s changing fast. A selection of drabbles set after TDK.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Batman. Sad, isn’t it?
One
It had started off as something temporary. It was never meant to be permanent; Batman was meant to start the ball rolling and Gotham’s cops and politicians would follow his lead and clean up the city. It had all seemed so simple back then, but somewhere along the line, something had gone wrong.
There was a time when it felt as if Gotham would no longer need Batman; it was as if the city was ready to start walking on its own two feet. But then along came a Joker...
Now, it’s as if Gotham is trapped in a non-stop cycle of hope and desperation. Something good, something brilliantly good will happen and the mood in the city will be upbeat and happy until something terrible happens and it feels as if Gotham will self-destruct. And all the while Batman stands, watching over his empire, learning to swim with the tide he has created and trying not to look back.
Batman was only supposed to be temporary, but now it’s a job for life.
Two
Of all those arrested in Gotham over the past year, almost half have been people in masks, from wannabe vigilantes to disguised criminal masterminds. It’s all personas and copy cats. There are fake Batmans (half of them end up populating Gotham’s ERs at weekends) and at the moment there’s a craze for fake Jokers amongst the criminal underworld.
It’s all about the masks. From the Batman himself, to that new cat burglar people keep reporting, to that hooded drug dealer in the Narrows all the cops keep bitching about. Even the mob has started to hire and liaise with masked criminals. Arkham Asylum is home to many of them.
Gotham feels like a war zone these days, with all the enemies in disguise. All it took was one man and now everyone seems to be playing dress-up. Talk about escalation...
Three
Arkham Asylum. Once ridiculed by the world, working there is now every psychiatrist’s dream. Ever since The Joker was incarcerated and Crane was caught, the big names flocked there, desperate to add to their egos by curing either one of them. Everyone fails, it’s inevitable, but there’s a steady stream of masked criminals making new homes behind Arkham’s bars and an even steadier stream of therapists queuing up to treat them.
There was a time when Arkham was nothing; when it was underfunded and falling down; when people talked about getting rid of it and sending the crazies elsewhere. Even now there are people who say it should be knocked down but that won’t happen, not while the world’s eyes are focussed on Arkham.
Funny what a few freaks in costume can do for a place.
Four
A year ago, Gotham’s streets were dangerous places. There were the streets you didn’t go down because they were under mob control, areas no one dared to visit at night because of gang rivalries. Today, the streets are still dangerous. But it’s not just the mob: there’s the Bat; the new costumed gangs; the other small time vigilantes in lycra. The mob is old news, it’s being pushed out. It needs to update. The mob doesn’t dominate, not anymore.
There are new lines being drawn, new divisions on the streets. There are new rivalries and new leaders and the mob’s old power is fading fast. There’s no longer one collective, or even several large groups: everything’s fractured and broken. In this new Gotham, it is the mob that is sinking, the mob that needs to relearn how to swim, the mob that has to change its ways.
The days of streets run by gangs are over. The times are truely a-changing.