20084/Where the Sidewalk Ends

Where the Sidewalk Ends
Date of Scene:	17 February 2025
Location:	Oblivion Bar
Synopsis:	When in doubt, embrace Oblivion.
Cast of Characters:	Detective Chimp, Barbara Gordon

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Detective Chimp has posed:
Gotham City. What a dump.

Though the city's infrastructure continued to steadily decay, the neon gloss of the billboards downtown helped to distract drivers and pedestrians from the rampant potholes that littered the streets and the hordes of homeless people that huddled in bus stops, park benches, and alleyways. But though it was voted 'Most Likely Place to Get Mugged' the past three years straight, Gotham was also the place where one could find just about anything one could desire. As long as one was willing to pay the right people the right price.

Just as a step into the right room in Gotham could lead to amazing opportunities, a turn down any alley could lead to a tragedy or a horror. The trick was knowing which rooms to seek out, and which alleys to avoid. Of course, the smart ones avoided the question altogether, and moved to Metropolis. Joke's on them, they're missing out on one of the best falafel stands in the country.

With the collar of his overcoat turned up against the piercing cold, Detective Chimp turned into an alley that had all the marks of being a dead end in the literal sense. With a burn barrel at the far end, the alley seemed to be populated by the sorts of people who enjoy to dress like bikers, without any hope of ever actually being able to afford even a modestly-priced bike of their own. The first person who saw the chimp immediately put her head back down, and continued rocking back and forth against the brick wall behind her, hands pulling at her hair as if intent on plucking each strand out individually.

Up ahead, a door illuminated with a red light can be seen. The sign over it simply reads 'XXX' written with spray paint on a piece of abandoned sheet metal. But the people in the alley seemed to pay the door little mind as they huddled near the burn barrel, squabbling over whose turn it was to stand closest.

"Yeah... this is the place alright."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
When the Chimp had told her that he had a place to check out, Batgirl had not expected it to be down this dank alleyway. She was aware of the alley, as she was aware of most places within the city. She was the Oracle for a decade, afterall, and had studied the city to a degree that most city planners wouldn't even know the details of which Babs knew of Gotham.

But this place? This was a real shit hole, where some of the most ruined by society, and bad choices, ended up. Now here she was, watching the Detective chimp saunter toward that door marked with a suggestive moniker over its threshold.

Batgirl remained straddled over her bike seat, her boots planted on either side of it, as she just stared. She knew some of the homeless denizens were eyeing them both, especially since she had just roared her powerful motorcycle down the alley mere seconds ago. Having killed the engine, though, Batgirl just sat upon it, her gloved hands on the center column between her legs, as she watched Bob do his thing.

"This place?" She asked him. "What on earth would you expect to find in a run down heroin joint of a strip club?" She'd obviously never been inside that door, even if it held access from maybe better entry points too.

But with a sigh, Babs stood up, and cast one leg over her black armored bike. She stepped off of it, and began to walk away from it, to catch up with the Chimp. When she did, she eyed the door, and what it might be hiding behind it. "though, my inner voice is telling me now, that all of this might be some elaborate form of misdirection..." She yielded, apparently smart enough to maybe make a on-point guess.

Detective Chimp has posed:
"Heroin and fake tits. Obviously."

The tone of Detective Chimp's voice suggested a levity that was more forced than earnest. Walking down a filthy alley full of crackheads is not fun even on a normal evening, and the weather in Jersey had been rough the past few days. The signs pointed to warming temperatures ahead, but that did little to assuage the chill on his bare feet. One of these days he'd really need to invest in a pair of chimp-sized snow boots.

Nearer to the door, one of the men around the burn barrel turned to look directly at the walking, talking chimp, but seemed to be staring right through him. Even looking at the distinctive form of Batgirl, the man with the face tattoos seemed nonplussed. Perhaps it's the only alley in all of Gotham where a visit from someone with a bat on her chest isn't cause for scattering in a disorderly fashion.

When he finally stopped in front of the door, Detective Chimp took a deep breath inward before rapping on the illuminated entryway with his bare knuckles. There was a peculiar pattern to the knock, as if it were some sort of a signal apart from a simple request to enter.

Brief moments passed before the sound of locks being unlatched could be heard, and the door swung open inward to reveal what appeared to be a somewhat normal dive bar, with nary a stripper in sight. Neither heroin nor fake tits would be enjoyed this evening, from the looks of things.

The man who stood in front of the door was large and imposing, with the sort of build one might expect of a bodybuilder or a barbarian. But the physical size wasn't what made him truly striking, in the dim light of the alleyway. For he was a bright shade of blue, with glowing red eyes, and a large pair of horns curved out from his forehead.

"Oh. Hey Chimp."

"BD! It's been a minute... how's your mother?"

"She's still got that cough, but the doctor said it's not contagious."

"Nice. Nice. Well... we'll be heading in then."

The large demon didn't seem to be moving out of the way, causing Detective Chimp to look a bit uncertain. But the demon wasn't looking at the chimp anymore, he was looking at his companion.

"Yeah... you guys can't come in."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The fake tits comment earned a smirk from the Bat, but she did not comment any further upon it. Instead, she just stood back, and watched the plot unfold. She kept a stoic air about her, as the guards sussed them both out, though she felt a lot more attention was being paid to her, than it was to her counterpart tonight. When the door opened, Babs shifted a little upon her boots, at the sheer size of the blue skinned demonic form that took up much of her view of what had been seemingly just a bar behind him.

At their exchange, Batgirl's verdent hued eyes swapped between the two, though DC was quite a bit shorter, so she just glanced down in his general direction while keeping the bulk of her vision upon the bouncer.

At his decision of them not entering, she shifted her weight on her black boots, boots that seemed to be apart of the form fitting armored suit she was wearing, and with her large motorcycle behind her, she probably did cut an air of trouble for this place. They likely knew who she was, especially with her red braid draped over her left shoulder, and hanging down her chest.

"I can wait out here." Batgirl spoke, and this time, when she spoke, The Detective would note that her voice was being modulated by some tech in her throat guard, causing her voice to sound eeriely demonic in tone, if still feminine, the kind of voice a sultry Succubus might have.

"Let him go in, as we are simply conducting an investigation, with no intent to stay long..."

Detective Chimp has posed:
"No, screw that! Batgirl has every right to be here, she's as weird as they come!"

The blue devil looked like he hated this part of his job, but also seemed to have little use for Detective Chimp for some reason, despite his overall friendly demeanor. Rubbing the back of his bald head with a large blue hand, he looked at the pair behind a world-weary expression, and seemed ready to close the door to the cold alleyway before all of the heat from the bar escaped into it.

"It's not like that Batwoman. Er... Batgirl? If it were up to me, you'd be welcome to come in. It's not your fault who your friends are. But any friend of Detective Chimp's is not welcome at the Oblivion Bar for as long as Detective Chimp is not welcome at the Oblivion Bar. Which is forever, because he sucks and never pays his bar tab and clogged the toilets in both the men's and women's restrooms."

The chimp looked a bit bashful as his personal business was discussed, but didn't seem to have any handy refutations of the actual facts of the matter. He held up a finger though, as if to interject a point.

"I hear what you're saying, but I think you're being a little unreasonable. For one thing, everyone knows that the women's toilet was already on the fritz. You can ask anyone. And as for the other thing..." A quick look over his shoulder at this companion, and then the chimp gave her a nervous smile. There was no time to work out a story, and it was clear that he didn't expect this outcome, but probably should have.

"... my friend here is actually here to pay off my tab. Because... actually... we're on a case together. And... you know all those Bat types have got like... crazy bitcoin. Just look at her suit... like she was poured into it. That ain't cheap."

Tiredly, the demonic bouncer gave Batgirl a hard appraising stare. To his credit, he only paid moderate amounts of attention to how much it might have seemed that she was poured into her suit, and instead looked her in the eyes through a pair of glowing red ones.

"That true? You're here to pay off his tab?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
When she stood in better lighting, like they were in now, her suit's many details became a lot more obvious. There were clear indications of armor plating on her thighs, over her stomach, her chest, her biceps and forearms, with her boots obviously heavy duty, and her mask molded specifically for her head, the ears clearly having high tech elements built in to them too. Plus, the edges did have dark gold on them, including the bat symbol that adorned her bustline, and the edges of her utility belt around her waist. It was a hell of a suit, looking like a billion damn dollars went in to its design.

Batgirl didn't seem to care if people tied her over in it either, as her confidence was as sky high as her Blimp was, that was incidentally flying over their heads right now, keeping tabs on what was happening down here...

"I'll pay his tab, and I'll add some interest. Plus, everyone in the bar can have a round of drinks on me..." Batgirl said, her demonic-toned voice somehow still pleasing to most ears, a sensuality in how she was speaking, or how the modulator was adjusted to be intimidating in some instances, and possibly alluring in others.

"He won't be a problem, I promise it..." She added, barely above a whisper, as she gave a small glance toward the chimp, then back to the bouncer.

Detective Chimp has posed:
The sigh released from the blue devil was loud enough to be heard all the way down the alley at the burn barrel. But none of them seemed to notice. Whatever the effect that Batgirl was going for, it seemed to have worked its magic. Though it was clear that he was reluctant to do so, the hulking demon moved out of the way, allowing access to the warm bar within. And Detective Chimp wasted not a single moment brushing past and getting out of the very cold alley. His overcoat was relatively warm, but certainly didn't offer the same protection against the stiff Gotham winds that Batgirl's armored costume did.

"Swear to god... if this is another one of your schemes..."

But the bouncer was already behind him, and Detective Chimp was busy hanging his snow-dusted overcoat up on the coat rack just beyond the doorway. The corridor was dimly lit, and went straight several meters to a dead end and with a door on the right. Nothing especially interesting, aside from a couple of pictures on the wall of people that wouldn't necessarily be considered celebrities, except to the sort of clientele that might visit this particular bar.

When Chimp opened the doorway at the end of the hall, however, the full scope of The Oblivion Bar was revealed. It wass small and cozy, with wood paneling and lots of phthalo green paint. The sconce lighting seemed to be powered by old incandescent bulbs, and there were both booths and a few tables spread around the bar where a single man with a soul patch and flippers for arms was carefully mixing up some cocktails. Or possibly potions.

Though it looked like a lot of bars from the seventies and eighties, it was the subtle details that revealed the character of the place. There weren't a lot of illuminated beer signs, for one thing, but there were paintings on the walls that seemed to be watching the movements of the patrons. The bar also had a surprising number of bookshelves along the walls, and most of the tomes seemed to be fairly ancient.

But the clientele were of a very different sort than the average Gotham bar. Though overwhelming human in appearance, the style of dress was drastically different from one person to the next. A cocktail waitress with luminescent fairy wings carried drinks to a table of hooded figures. One of them reached to grab its drink, wrapping a squid-like tentacle around the Long Island Iced Tea. A man with pointed ears leaned against the bar, chatting with another man with a large pair of antlers sticking out of his scalp. And a bearded man seemed to be deep in conversation with both a woman carrying a staff, and his pet falcon.

But none of these seemed to be who the chimp was here to see.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
It was just a moment after they had been granted access, that Batgirl's motorcycle came on again. The engine roared to life, and its bright as hell headlights lit up the far wall, as it was once more alive... without a rider. Batgirl herself? She didn't even look back over her shoulder either, as the cycle began to drive itself away, the speed casual, but fast enough that it was moving in to an adjacent alley within moments, before it took a turn and vanished in to the darkness.

They were inside! But where the hell were they going, exactly?

It was not common for Batgirl to step in to places like this, while in costume, but she had not worn her caped costume for a reason. this one made her look a little different from Batman. It helped her stand out, almost like a fusion between Batman and Catwoman in fact, especially with the small black leather backpack behind her shoulders.

Her green eyes scanned the wall, as the ambient light played off of her armored body. she walked with the Detective, and their bouncer escort, before she took in the details of the bar itself. Her gloved hand went to her waist, and her thumbs hooked behind the utility belt over her lower stomach, the bat-symbol buckle used as a shelf for her thumbs, as she just softly shook her head.

"Nice place." She quietly said, her voice still suitably modulated to help hide her true identity, as she glanced at the denizens of the bar's interior.

At least she didn't feel out of place in her armored bat suit...

A freak show bar? Or just a side of Gotham Babs' wasn't normally the kind of person they would let come inside?

She wasn't really sure.

"You have a payment app you prefer?" batgirl dryly asked of the bouncer, as she was clearly intending to uphold her side of the deal.

Unless they only accept cash, then they might be washing dishes...

Detective Chimp has posed:
Although Detective Chimp's escort might have looked a little different than normal, it didn't appear that any of the patrons were fooled by her getup. Some of them were clearly nervous to have a Bat in the building, while others appeared largely indifferent. Some of the patrons appeared to be so old, that it was likely they hadn't left the bar since before Batgirl was born. Especially Clem. Clem looked like he'd been there for a hot minute. Maybe a hot millenia.

An oversized frog sat on the bar, with a straw in its mouth that bent all the way up and then back down the glass of a nearly empty Long Island Iced Tea.

"We prefer gold coins."

The blue devil looked down at the Bat with a stern expression that gradually began to melt away.

"But we also accept just about everything else. Except for wooden nickels. We had to update our policy on those after DC started drinking here."

Behind the bar, a relatively new sign clearly stated 'We Do Not Accept Wooden Nickels.'

The bartender was an aged-looking man, with silver hair. A relatively nondescript black turtleneck blended in well with the somewhat shadowy surroundings, but he looked a bit 'normal' for a place like this. Judging Detective Chimp for a brief couple of seconds, he nevertheless reacted somewhat warmly to the notion that the Oblivion Bar's most notorious deadbeat was about to have his tab paid off.

"That'll be thirteen thousand, six hundred ninety four dollars, and twelve cents."

Looking only a bit sheepish, the chimp lit up a cigarette as he pulled up a stool at the bar.

"Hang on a sec, Jim. I'll also take a pint of Old Style. Helps me think."

"That'll be thirteen thousand, six hundred ninety seven dollars, and forty one cents."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The Bat in the Devil's Den.

She stood mostly without motion, her armor making her kind of uniquely covered up, compared to the other denizens of this place. It was not common for a Bat to put themselves in such an easily visible place as this, but this bar was no common place either, was it? She stood with her hands at her sides, and her eyes shifting to those who spoke. to the big blue demon, Babs rose her stare up, and at the revelation of the price that the chimp owed the place, she looked to the chimp himself.

"Really?" She asked, her voice still modulated to help hide her true identity in this place of Unknowns. She knew it was true, though, and with a heavy exhale, Babs reached a gloved hand of black behind her back, to a spot on her utility belt that hugged her trim waistline. She detached something with a 'click' and swept her hand around, to offer something that looked like a cross between a bblack hockey puck, and a hardened donut. It had small lights that lined its edges, glowing a dim yellow gold in shade. "this is a power core. You can link it to your bar, your phones, your car battery, and it'll charge any of them within seconds. I don't know if this place has a power bill, but this device could reduce that to zero. I can set it up too, if you'd like. The value? It is many times over what the Chimp's tab is worth. Energy is dominance in the modern world, afterall."

She was bartering now, mostly because she did not have any cash on her, and she assumed the bar did not have a Cash App that she could transfer funds to.

Detective Chimp has posed:
The old man behind the bar seemed confused as he held the small black puck up to one of the lights hanging down above the bar. He appeared to be old enough that something like that would be unfamiliar to him, and for a moment looked at Batgirl as if she was playing some sort of con. A likely scenario, given that she was in the company of one of the bar's most notorious conmen. It said a lot about Jim's forgiving nature that he allowed the ape to continue drinking despite owing so much, and despite having played so many different scams. But then, the Chimp was a pitiable creature, and clearly didn't have a lot of other places to go.

"No shit. The H3 model... didn't know those were out yet."

After sliding the puck into his back pocket, Jim looked as if he meant to get back to cleaning glasses. He had a bar to run, after all, but Detective Chimp's obnoxious throat clearing got his attention again.

"You forgot about my pint, Jim. I don't know if Detective Girl here drinks on the job... but eh..." Looking back at Batgirl, DC seemed flummoxed for a while. His look was clearly appreciative, on more than one level, but he also seemed a bit uncertain.

"I don't really know what she eats. The same thing that hot yoga teachers eat, probably?"

Sighing, Jim filled up a pint glass, and set it before the Chimp.

"Only food we serve here is Twinkies, and roasted newts."

"Fine... we'll just head to the back. 'SHE'S' here, right?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The energy core getting its own surveying inspection was to be expected. It was mostly unknown tech, only seen in the most advanced tech circles. Her company produced them, well, Barbara Gordon's company did. There were Chinese knockoffs too, of course, but that was how the tech industry worked. "It's not." Batgirl quietly said, as to the device's state of being open to the public market.

"Sell it, if you must. china pays good money for them." She said, as her true nature was to hope that kind of green energy tech would spread far and wide in this world. Sure, it had critical minerals in it, as any battery did, but that was the point of pushing tech as far as possible, to get away from the harmful ways of Humanity's need for energy consumption devices.

She drew in a light breath, and softly shook her head from side to side. "I'll make sure to put you on a payment plan, to pay me back." She quietly muttered to the chimp.

But at the talk of going to the back, she glanced over her shoulder, then regarded the Chimp again. "This is quite a place you've brought us to." She muttered to him next, when the appropriate moment presented itself, as she turned away from the bar, the leather of her suit creaking gently against the motion of her body within it.

Detective Chimp has posed:
The Oblivion Bar was relatively cozy, not much bigger than the average hole in the wall. As Detective Chimp walked through the sparse crowd, he exchanged finger guns with a man who appeared to be made of stone, in a western getup. He exchanged fist bumps with a statuesque woman with two heads, but only one breast. There was every indication, judging purely by the treatement that he received, that he was far more popular with the customers than he was with the management. But most of the customers seemed to ignore him, so he probably wasn't exactly the Ted Danson stand in around this place.

Around the bar, past the pool table, past the men's restroom, the women's restroom, the unisex restroom, and the restroom that simply says 'Cthulu', the ape walked with a cigarette in one hand and a rapidly disappearing pint in the other. But when he arrived at a doorway separated from the rest of the bar only by a beaded curtain, he paused to turn back and give the Batgirl a serious stare.

"Remember one thing... she always lies, unless you ask the question correctly. It takes a little bit of time to get used to."

He put a hand on the beaded curtain as if to draw it back, before pausing again.

"I'd better not go in there. The two of us have a... sort of a history. She'll like you though. You're just her type."

The hairy hand pulls the curtain back, enabling easy access to a room which appears to be enveloped in a darkness blacker than Gotham City during a power outage.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
There was a clear cut challenge to being a Bat in a place like this. But part of Babs was glad she was not wearing her standard suit, as her current suit made her look more like a Ninja of some Bat design, but then again... the lack of a cape probably is not enough to make those in here not know precisely who she is and who she rolls with. Do any of these people have a hatred for Batman? She had no idea. They battled non-Humans in Gotham City, seemingly more and more of them every passing year too. But none of these faces rung any internal bells inside Batgirl's head.

She eyed the woman with the two heads, the one breast, and she chose not to linger her stare on any of those three features. Instead, she watched her escort, the chimp...

When they stopped outside of the beads, Babs waited, and glanced at them, before down to him. "Charming..." She quietly said, when she was instructed not to lie. At the news of being this person's type, Batgirl just exhaled lightly. "Redheads?" She asked, but she didn't wait for an answer. Instead... she just walked through the lines of beads, letting them impact against her chest armor, over her shoulders, and across her masked face. She passed through them, and in to the dark.

Her eye covers snapped in place, immediately, and she activated the nightvision mode of her mask, attempting to see what was before her. The last thing she wanted was to get jumped in the dark in the back of a demon bar...

Though, that could make for a fun story some day too, right?

Detective Chimp has posed:
Turning on the night vision mode might have been a prudent tactical decision. It also might have been a horrible choice. Assuming, of course, that the human detective wanted to keep her sanity intact, never a sure bet when dealing with the patrons who would frequent a bar that exists within a pocket universe. But as the night vision mode was switched on, the oppressive darkness of the place turned to a fuzzy green glow, and the outlines of shapes quickly snapped into soft focus.

The most obvious thing to assault the mind was the sense of space. The room was huge, cavernous even, far larger than the bar to which it was attached. The space where Batgirl stood was smooth and flat, made of solid stone that had been polished by eons of foot traffic. A path led off to the right, carved through the natural otherwordly stone, and heading down into some sort of pit that spread so far to the left and the right, and so far into the distance, that it was like standing upon the shore and staring out at the ocean.

But though there was no sky above, the black water within reflected the light of stars that had been burned out before the Earth was formed.

As the water began to ripple, then part, the space became cooler as something massive began to emerge from the water. Rising up, up, a head of inhuman proportions, like that of some deep-dwelling cephalopod, until an entire host of eyes had raised above the water, all of them fixed toward the Batgirl.

A long tentacle, covered in suction cups the size of minivans, slithered from the deep and flopped upon the shore, the very tip of it resting upon the rock outcropping that lead back to the beaded curtain, and the distant sounds of revelry from the Oblivion Bar.

Though her mouth didn't move, her words could nevertheless be felt in the bones of the ear, in the base of the skull, and the pit of the stomach, when she said, in a voice older than the concept of time...

"You smell like Chimp."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The number of dark and scary rooms that Batgirl has tread in to without the greatest care given for her own well being could not easily be counted. Of course, since she spent a decade in a wheelchair, she maybe avoided more than some of her fellow Bat-family had, but still, she's had her fair share of bad decisions, in the name of pushing forward toward the intended goals she desired to complete, or see through.

Such as she was now. She had her eyes scanning the room from her twilight vision, seeing the strangeness of this magical realm, which had her faintly frowning. Batgirl was not great with magical stuff. But, she confidently pressed on, and ended up beside that watery ocean within this strange plain. The tentacle rose up, and slammed down near to where she was. She did not move her ground, as she did not think whatever this was wanted her dead. why would it? She had no reason for it to, that she knew of, and she had not gotten the sense that coming back here would end with her demise...

When she heard the voice state the fact, she smirked, and glanced back the way she had come. "He is afraid to come in here." She replied. "I think he has probably upset you in the past. But, it seems that everywhere I go with him, he has upset whomever it is that we meet."

The modulator in her suit is now off, and Batgirl is speaking through Barbara's voice, not hiding it anymore. Maybe she felt it was pointless to do in front of this entity?

Detective Chimp has posed:
Towering over waves of her own creation, the entity nevertheless seemed to radiate a certain warmth as she treaded water with a countless number of undulating appendages beneath the water's icy surface. So many eyes focused on Batgirl, and each of them seemed to be seeing something different. Another time, another place, another Batgirl... and when she spoke it was with the certainty that came with an intimate knowledge, of both the beginning and the end. Yet despite it all, she remained warm, both literally and figuratively.

"One of his cousins... I see. But you smell much less foul. Much less. That is good."

Another tentacle the size of a redwood washed up on the shore, and the Entity was pulled forward under her own power, getting an even closer look at the currently Uncaped Crusader. There seemed to be no mouth on the creature, her voice instead vibrating from somewhere at the back of her head, and transmitting in all directions, the same volume through all of time and space.

"You know of icy depths. You seek a darkness that has washed upon your shore. You are here with a question. But it is not the question that you truly wish to ask. Tell me, Batgirl, daughter of Gotham... are you content with a lesser question?"

The beaded curtain was shut, with no sign of another detective, certainly not a drunken chimp. But perhaps it was better that way, as he might not have understood what the entity meant. One might feel a sense of sympathy for anyone who ever accidentally walked through that beaded curtain on the way to the little Cthulu's room.