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The Living City: Change and the Urban Environment, Friday, Period 3

There was an e-mail sent out to meet at the Causeway today for field trip purposes. And as you might expect, Bruce led his class through the portal strictly on time as the class started.

"Welcom to Gotham City in the year 2015," Bruce announced. A few ground rules," Bruce declared. "Stay in pairs at all times. Crime is less frequent during the day, but it still happens. Keep your eyes and ears open, either for your own protection or, if you're a crimefighter of some sort, so you can do some good. Keep in mind that Gotham is huge. If you stay with me for a few minutes, I'll take you to the roof of the Wayne Enterprises Building so you can get a feel for exactly how big it is. And the way I have our portal set up, we'll have a few hours here, but will be back in Fandom right at the end of class. So if you want a lunch you don't have to pay for, meet back here in a couple hours."

"And if you need ANY help while you're on your own, call me immediately. I have resources, even in the past," Bruce noted.

"Aside from that, explore, unless you'd rather stay with me for a slow moving guided tour."

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On a field trip!

Less a lecture and more ground rules. But feel free to ask Bruce questions, such as "No, seriously, how common are muggings?" Or mayb find a buddy to buddy system with!

Tag along with Bruce as he shows you some things in Gotham.

Bruce led the people sticking with him to Wayne Enterprises (http://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/Wayne_Enterprises), where they took a back route in because, as he explained it, he was the man who ran the company but decades older. The secret elevator helped him avoid questions.

Anyway, the secret elevator led straight to the roof of one of the tallest buildings in Gotham. Gotham Harbor was to the east. Skyscrapers rising up all around. Police blimps in the sky. The occasional scream of someone being mugged. From up here, you could get an overview of everything beautiful and terrible about Gotham.

Feel free to ask Bruce Questions.

After a trip up a skyscraper, Bruce brought his group down to Gotham Park, a green area in the heart of the city that has not been taken over by sentient plants in weeks! Tough luck, Poison Ivy! The park is huge with plenty of picture opportunities, places for muggers to hide, and a zoo where the animals are frequently pawns to criminals. The zoo is free to enter.

And if you want to wrap up your tour with some good deeds, you can see firsthand that not everything in Gotham is terrible. There are people in need being helped all the time. Roll up your sleeves and help serve lunch to people who are getting a helping hand they need.

Take a self-guided tour. Bruce recommends the buddy system, but do what you must. Maybe fight some crime. There's totally crime everywhere if you look hard enough, but it's mostly the people who aren't brave enough to do crime at night.

Whether you're just wandering around sightseeing or looking to do some shopping, downtown Gotham City has everything you could possibly look for. It's just like Manhattan, only bigger and more Art Deco.

There are only two reasons to visit the harbor. Either you want to check out the beauty of the water and check out the private boats, or you're looking out for crime to fight. Look hard enough and you'll find some crime. But if you're just sightseeing, you should be safe enough.

In a rough neighborhood, this is one alley (http://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/Crime_Alley) that everyone seems to avoid for no clear reason. In the middle of the alley, with an old movie theater still within sight if you turn around, two white roses can be found on the ground in a very specific place.

Nobody will cause you trouble here today. They've learned that Crime Alley is off limits.

If you have a very specific DCAU Gotham location you want to visit that isn't listed, go ahead.

"Welcome back," Bruce said to anyone who had split off earlier. "Lunch is on me. This restaurant and nightclub (http://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/Iceberg_Lounge) usually isn't open in the afternoon and, frankly, this is a major inconvenience to the proprietor. He's doing it only because it pays for him to look charitable right now when the authorities are looking closely at his income. His name is Oswald Cobblepot, better known as The Penguin. Hence the theme. While this business is legitimate - frustratingly so for him - it helps him cover up his illegal dealings. But he'll be arrested in two days with his assets frozen, so I don't mind giving a little money his way right now."

Once inside, it was clear that "The Penguin" and "The Iceberg Lounge" were both part of a very strong theme. Everything was in shades of ice blue and white, the wait staff were dressed, basically, like sexy penguins, the stage had an ice theme, and everything on the menu was a bad antarctic pun. But the quality was all top notch, exactly as you might expect from a flashy mob boss who wanted to make it very clear that NO REALLY, he was putting all his efforts into legitimate business.

After arriving back in Fandom at the end of class.

This was NOT the week that I wrote class before passing out at night! And now I'm running late enough that I'm probably going to have to drive to work. Oops.

Edited 2015-01-23 13:05 (UTC)

Four

Sparkle

Sparkle could have gone for a wander, but he figured taking the guided tour around Gotham from a guy who actually knew the place was pretty valuable experience. So, here he was, looking out at the view and giving a low whistle.

Damn this was one hell of a city.

Four was not exactly wild about heights (AT ALL), but the view was stunning. "How many people live here?"

.... Shut up, Sparkle was making a beeline for the zoo, at least for a quick look at the animals. He was a sucker for zoos, okay? And maybe if he was lucky he'd catch sight of some giraffes or something before it was time to move along.

And, for all of the rest of it, here was the part of the tour that Sparkle felt most comfortable with. Though it was weird being on this side of the serving line, he knew the drill already.

And, you know, maybe kind of felt good about helping out. It sucked being the guy in the lineup hoping for a hot lunch.

Jalian d'Arsennette y ken Selvren

Jalian would probably wander off a bit, but it was a good idea to get the lay of the land first. Cities were still a bit of a novelty, too, so she was curious.

Minako Aino

"At this point? About 10 million," Bruce said. "It's up to 12 in my time."

Four let out a low whistle. "That's a lot." He turned to Bruce. "That's a lot, right?"

"Second largest city in the country in this world," Bruce said.

Gwen Stacy

After last week's description of this class, no way in hell was Gwen wandering off alone. She'd already died once, jeez. Besides, if she went off on her own she might have missed this vie-

"I think that guy just stole that chick's purse."

"Wait for it," Bruce said, catching where Gwen was looking. "A lot of criminals think it's safer to work during the day. The local vigilantes are most famous for working at night."

A car screeched around the corner, spun seemingly out of control, leading to the tail hopping the curb and smacking the thief in the legs, sending him tumbling into the air. As he landed, a man in a blue trench coat and fedora got out of the car, put the guy in a headlock, ran him into the car door a couple times, grabbed something from the thief's coat, hopped back into the car, and sped off. It may have been hard to tell from this distance, but the guy from the car apparently didn't have a face.

"I'm not sure he knew that man even robbed someone," Bruce said, facepalming.

Hanna Heller

Hanna had purchased a bag of popcorn, and was considering throwing some to the animals. The ones without the explicit DO NOT FEED signs, anyway.

"This is wonderful," she commented to Sparkle. "Although, I think I would want to see these animals in their own homes, more."

Edited 2015-01-24 08:05 (UTC)

"Yeah, but nobody poop-scoops on the African Savannah," Sparkle noted, turning a little grin Hanna's way. "Still, it is pretty awesome. You big on travel, or do you just not like seeing living things all cooped up like this?"

Hanna hid a giggle behind on hand, and threw some popcorn to the birds. "Both, I think. I did not get to travel until the last month, and then I visited-- oh, Morocco, and Spain, and Germany. Spain was the best. We rode on motor-scooters there." She gave him a sideways look. "Have you been many places?"

This Gotham City was enormous far larger than the cities they had driven through in Europe; she could spend days getting lost here, or finding new things to try.

"A few, but all mostly through the school," Sparkle replied. "Before I came here, I never left Toronto, but the school goes on big trips for some of their semester breaks, so I've seen, like, Italy and Africa, and then I've visited other places besides with friends."

But Nar Shaddaa was really nothing to brag about. Ever. Galaxy far far away or not.

"Italy, I have read about. Africa-- which parts?" Hanna questioned. "I should very much like to visit Egypt. And the Seychelles... Toronto, I do not know a great deal about." She hummed, thinking. "I would like to go back to London, and visit it again. I was only there for six hours on the way to the U.S."

"South Africa, mostly," Sparkle replied, shrugging. "Never been to Egypt, though that would probably be freaking awesome. And the Seychelles? There's this really nice resort there that the school took us to. Seriously. Lots of travel."

He was not going to add that he'd kind of stepped in a dead zebra at one point. Nope.

"London sounds kind of cool, though. I wouldn't mind hitting up London sometime."

"Maybe that's what I can do," Hanna mused. "Just travel for the rest of my life. People were very kind to me while I was on my own... London has the Eye, I could see it from the airplane. And so many old buildings, and the Botanic Gardens..." She smiled a little, and pointed at the ostriches. "See all of these in their own habitat, not behind fences."

"Hell of a goal," Sparkle replied, looking at the ostriches thoughtfully. "I wouldn't mind doing something like that either, I don't think. No idea where the hell I'd get the money for it, but it'd be fun, anyway."

"It will be harder, when I'm older. For you as well, I'd think. People want to take care of younger children, and teenagers. Or take advantage," Hanna commented. "But still. They don't expect you to have money, if you're young. How to get money when you're older..." She tilted her head, and crossed her arms, watching the ostriches. "Without drawing too much attention. That wouldn't be wise." So stealing really wasn't her idea of a good plan, no. "There have to be jobs where you travel. Only travel."

Yeah, Sparkle didn't have his breath held for there to be a wealth of people out there who would be interested in his well-being while travelling the globe.

"Yeah, I guess that'd be it. Become a pilot or something, I guess that's the most obvious one. I really can't see me flying a plane, though."

Maybe he could do the flight attendant thing instead. He had a great smile.

Hanna hummed, eating some popcorn. "I like planes. But I don't know if I want to fly one... perhaps I could find out. Are they very expensive, flying lessons?"

A baby ostrich was fluttering at the edge of the fence, and Hanna had to laugh, and toss some of the popcorn to it.

"A courier," she said at random. "That would be good. To deliver things safely. To Shanghai, and Sydney, and London."

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The Living City: Change and the Urban Environment, Friday, Period 3

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