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[gotham_knocking]

This is a momentous day in Gotham. But Alex Knox doesn't know that. He knows that it's a sad day. CIRCUS TRAGEDY is spelled out in big letters on the front page of all the papers. Three dead, one teenaged boy left all alone. Sad, and (given Gotham) probably suspicious.

But as for how Dick Grayson is and who he might be, that is something Knox can't know.

Come say hi.

Comments

[interrogoiterum]

"Hey, I remember that," says Renee instead of 'hi,' as soon as she sees the headline. "I was just a kid at the time, but I remember Tony Zucco."

Poor kid. Even where he ended up, that sucked.

[gotham_knocking]

Knox blinks. "How'd you know that?" He then thinks. "Right. Alternate timelines. Or you're from the future.

"Though I probably should say, no one's actually made any arrests yet. Or said anything. But Zucco would have to be on the short list."

[interrogoiterum]

"One or the other," Renee says, smirking as she offers a hand. "Renee Montoya."

[gotham_knocking]

"Alex Knox, 1995.

"So they pin it on Zucco. Guess I have to wait for that happen. Can't exactly use a tip from Milliways as a news source." He figures anyone can understand what he means.

[interrogoiterum]

"You can't call it an anonymous source you have to protect?" Renee asks. "Or maybe just call someone as an anonymous tip-off."

[gotham_knocking]

"I could. But I don't know what good that will do. It's better to find a source within the department and follow that path.

"Not that the honest cops ever talk to me. Or if they do, they use platitudes from morning to night." Always good for a bad quote, he once said in his youth.

[interrogoiterum]

"That's because honest reporters are as thin on the ground in Gotham as honest cops," Renee points out bluntly.

[gotham_knocking]

"Hey, we tend to tell the truth." Pause. "Though some of us just tell some of it. But we don't like to lie. Makes us look bad when someone's caught.

"And I, Ms Montoya, pride myself on being honest." He still has that medal Rachel gave him long ago calling him a defender of truth. And still cherishes it.

"You gotta be a cop, right?"

[interrogoiterum]

It's less telling the truth as who the truth gets told to and for how much.

"Not anymore," Renee says wryly. "Guess I got fed up of what the job was doing to me."

[gotham_knocking]

"Yeah, I don't envy any of you. I used to date a Fed and she was always telling me she looked forward to the day she could either settle into a desk job in DC or get a nice cushy consultant's fee. And she wasn't under half the pressure you guys are.

"Especially if you're honest." He hopes she is. She doesn't sound bent, and in Gotham the bent cops don't usually pretend not to be.

[interrogoiterum]

"Yeah, we had a special kind of crime," Renee replies. And scowls.

"Not that I want to talk about it. I left that city for a reason."

[gotham_knocking]

"Fair enough." For now. He just met her. That gets her a Get Out Knox Annoying You for Free card.

"Where you live now?"

[interrogoiterum]

"North Carolina," Renee answers. "When I'm not living out of a suitcase. I travel a lot."

[thenewblack]

Teenager? Dick Grayson was orphaned before he hit double digits.

"I recognize some of those," says the blonde teenager, "We might counts as neighbors, more or less."

[gotham_knocking]

"You mean you're from a Gotham, and remember this news story?" He puts the papers aside.

[thenewblack]

"Three or four years ago," she confirms, "Why? You want to skip to the end of the story?"

[gotham_knocking]

"It's tempting. But I don't know if that would even work."

[thenewblack]

"Fair enough. It's new for you though?"

[gotham_knocking]

"Yup. That's why it's in a newspaper." He smirks just a bit. "Tragic, though."

[thenewblack]

"Hmm. Never know how new something is when you look around here."

She checks the top of the paper, notes that it's still local news mostly.

"Watch for the story to wander between sections though. It's not just straight human interest if it's anything like home."

[gotham_knocking]

"You mean the crime aspects. It's Gotham. I expect there to be crime aspects when all the story says is that the elephants pooped." Wouldn't be home without it.

[thenewblack]

"You could probably move a lot of cargo if you could get an elephant to swallow it," says Artemis consideringly, "But as far as I know the elephants were clean this time."

[gotham_knocking]

"But everything else was dirty. As usual.

"You from the city that never sleeps without one eye open?" He used that in a column once. Didn't catch on.

[thenewblack]

"Home of the most consistently creepy architecture in the continental US," she agrees, "And the Bat."

He's like an invisible landmark.

[gotham_knocking]

"The best place to grow up." Funny thing is, he almost means it.

"Alex Knox, some version of Gotham 1995."