fh_trips | New Gotham, Tuesday

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graduate backpacking 2010

New Gotham, Tuesday

The Policeman's Ball was tonight. There was time to check out New Gotham and shop for dress clothes first, of course, or do a lot of other things. But that was the cool part of the day.

[ocd ~~going~~ up]

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Priestly was looking even possibly a little respectable. Mind you, his hair was blue, but it was slicked back and his goatee was nicely trimmed and everything.

Cops made him vaguely nervous, so he was trying to downplay the "look at me! look at me!" thing just a little.

Which would be why Jim Gordon had to take a minute before he could place the kid.

"Priestly? Right? That's your name?"

Priestly nodded. "Yes, sir. Dinah's friend."

Jim nodded, pleased to have picked the kid out, even with the different hair. "So what do you think of this so far?" He toasted a politician across the room and said around his glass. "Buncha glad-handers and media suck-ups along with the cops. Wish they hadn't paid $500 a plate to be here."

"Hey, you do what you gotta do to raise funds, right? At least it's a pretty classy looking shindig."

"Enh, at least people donate in this city. Restaurants put out a good spread," Gordon had to agree. "So, you kids enjoying that backpacking thing? Dinah said there were glitches."

"Yeah, we kinda got stuck in --" How to explain Milliways and Portalocity to the uninitiated? "-- Limbo for a bit. But, hey, you do that much traveling, you're bound to run into a roadblock or two, right?"

"Yeah, but that's what you guys paid for that travel agency to handle." Portalocity might be getting a very fierce phone call later, once Jim got the phone number off Dinah's phone. "So what's the plan after the trip's over? Back to that school, like Dinah?" He frowned. "She's not doing that for a guy, is she?"

"Nah, I'm gonna head back home. I'm starting culinary school in the fall, and I wanna save up some cash, first, you know?" Priestly shrugged. "It's probably for several girls, too." Wait, that sounded wrong. "In a friendly way. She's got lots of friends of both genders."

Reassured, Jim nodded then asked, "Gonna be a chef? Hear there's good money in that. Less stress than cop work. And it works for Alfred Pennyworth, gotta say."

"Yeah, got the idea working at my friend's sub shop. Not really gonna be in it for the money, though."

"Better to do what you love," Gordon admitted. "Having a family makes you think of the practical stuff. But you're young. You got time." He toasted Dinah and Barbara across the room. "Worked out for me, even though I never saw Police Commissioner coming."

"Really? Did you start out as a beat cop, or what?"

"Oh yeah. What, thirty years ago now?" Jim squinted, then shook his head. "Thirty-two. Beat cop, then detective, then lieutenant-- kept getting promoted when other guys got burnt out or taken out. Gotham's not for the uncommitted, kid." He frowned around the room. "Hunh."

"So you were the one who could stick it out. That's pretty hardcore." Priestly followed his gaze. "What?"

Gordon's eyes were tracking a couple men in ill-fitting tuxedoes, then back over to another one in a bowler. "Trouble," he said tersely. "No dates, acting like security but they're not, and that hat-- Kid, find a good place to get your head down and stay down, got me?"

"What? Why? We're, like, surrounded by cops."

"And guys pretending to be cops," the Commissioner said grimly. "Those uniforms aren't standard issue, and I'd know that hat anywhere. We got trouble." He pointed at Priestly. "Head down! Dinah will kick my ass if you get hurt, but I gotta go be Head of the cops now--"

"Hey, I know how to handle trouble." Usually by getting rescued by pretty girls. "You do your thing."

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New Gotham, Tuesday

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