ya_assemble | [LN] He flies through the air with the greatest of ease

Dick considered that for a moment. Because both were important, but...

"Immediate concerns, first. What's the situation here? Like, why am I no longer in New York?" Not that New York was being all that great for him, but he needed his own patch. Especially after what happened to 'Haven. "We can get to the stuff where you and Cassie are from later. Believe me, I'm very interested. Just...triage, I suppose."

"Okay, hold your questions to the end, it's a hell of an infodump," Kon said, raising his eyebrows. "Basically, we're in another universe. In this universe, belief is really powerful, and there are a lot of mythical beings, like Santa and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, except they're all real people or mythical creatures that became powerful and immortal through the belief of kids. Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Jack Frost, the Sandman, and Anansi the Spider are a group called the Guardians, brought together by the Man in the Moon and they used the powers the belief gives them to protect kids and give them gifts and easter eggs and stuff."

That was pretty self-explanatory, right?

"One of their worst enemies was Pitch Black, the Bogeyman, who gets power from the fear of the kids of the world. He's a power-hungry moron so he opened this giant magical door that was holding out a great evil, trying to get an army of shadow creatures called fearlings that corrupt and transform children to make more of themselves. Only when he did it, he opened the door to this horrible dark god named Kuk, this being of total darkness. Now that the door is open a crack Kuk wants to get all the way into this universe and then use it as a stepping stone to destroy all of existence - every world, everywhere. He captured a whole bunch of the good myths, including all the Guardians other than Bunnymund and Jack Frost, and imprisoned them in this crystal prison in the pocket dimension outside his magical door, where he can feed off of their belief. His army of fearlings is terrorizing the world and they're trying to make more of themselves out of innocent kids."

Also pretty self-explanatory.

"Kuk's making reality in this world thin so belief and fear are even more powerful. That means things that kids fear become real, like horror movie monsters and stuff. It even sometimes bends reality so certain areas get all twisted up in fiction, like part of a neighborhood can suddenly twist up to be like a horror video game. The monsters and villains are either made up wholecloth or pulled from dimensions where their stories really happened. Kuk's recruited a lot of these monsters and villains to work for him, although some of them cause problems all on their own. The other side of the coin is that the kids' belief is also bringing in good characters from their fiction."

He raised his eyebrows again.

"Us. Either it's just coincidence that writers in this world thought up our stories or the inspiration for them somehow traveled through the multiverse but we're all fiction here and the belief pulls us from the universes where we're real. The belief of the kids also gives us powers or changes them so that we're like the myths here. And those powers are tied into the belief of the kids. The more believers you have the more powerful you are. My powers are a lot weaker here, for instance, but as I've picked up a few believers they've gotten a little stronger again."

That was all the basics, right?

Edited 2015-05-14 02:28 (UTC)

Because he was close (and had better than average eye sight), Kon would see the way that Dick's eyes got wide for a moment before blinking. Blinking a few times, really, because... "When you said infodump, you weren't kidding."

Which meant that he was processing. It was going to take a few minutes, which meant he turned and looked around, watching the area around them. "Okay. So, basically, evil from beyond this world is trying to break in and take out the entire multiverse and we've been called on, thanks to fictional bleed between the worlds, to help stop it." Dick paused. "Some of this is sounding entirely too much like what happened a year ago." Which meant that if a doppleganger Kon showed up, Dick was going to be very peeved.

"The thing that worries me is the villains. We don't know if they come in on their own or if Kuk has some sway and pulls them in specifically to oppose us."

Which mean there was a huge risk that their presence might lead to their bad guys being yanked him.

"Here's hoping it isn't the second one, 'cause if it is, we've got some pretty bad bad guys he might try to yank in."

Like Prime. Or the Joker.

"Oh, and another part of it is Kuk messing with reality means shards of this universe sometimes fall off and into nearby dimensions so sometimes we have to have to go to other dimensions to get them back. So that the borders of this dimension don't crumble and let Kuk in."

Kon called up his brand, a little shining sun-like sigil that hovered over his hand.

"We've all got these. Everyone gets 'em when they pop in now. If you concentrate you'll be able to call up yours, too. They let us open doors to the dimensions with the shards and kinda act like compasses to find 'em. They don't always work so great, though. The doors usually open fine but sometimes they have trouble homing in on where the shards are. The Man in the Moon is this really powerful spirit, though, and sometimes he can peek into the other dimensions and help us out. Sometimes those dimensions are also based on books and stuff here, too, so we can even read up on what the other world is like."

Edited 2015-05-16 21:49 (UTC)

Dick frowned, not liking that at all. Because, yeah. There were definitely some villains that he wouldn't want to see in this world. The Joker was...yeah. Very high on that list. Lex Luthor as well. Sinestro...

"Yeah, definitely hoping it's the second one," he agreed with a grimace.

He found himself rubbing his hand before shaking his head. "This is...this is a lot," he finally admitted. "And I'm feeling a little out of my depth. Though I think that'll probably go away once I've had a chance to really assimilate."

Wasn't entirely true. Dick usually felt out of his depth and outclassed among a lot of the heroes he worked with. But, like Bruce, he'd learned how to hide it and how to work around it. Everybody had a weakness, after all. Dick just didn't go so far as to keep files on all of them. He tended to sort it out as needed.

"Yeeeah," said Kon. "I'm used to this stuff, but, you know. That happens when you get strapped to a nuke to go on a jaunt through Hypertime."

That one had happened after an alternate version of himself had died right on the Justice League's meeting table.

When they'd strapped him to that nuke in that weird hypertime jacket, that'd been one of the few times Batman had ever said something nice to him, even if it was just "Robin speaks highly of you."

In any case, Kon was definitely one of the people in the superhero community that had spent a lot more time on alternate dimension and time travel adventures than most. In fact, he'd lost count of how many alternate selves and alternate future selves he'd met.

"Don't worry, I'll show you the ropes with this alternate dimension stuff," he said with mock arrogance, as if he was ever-so-much-more experienced. "And we've got good people here to work with. Aside from me and Cass - Wondy-Cass, not Bat-Cass - Jack and Bunny are pretty decent. And there's some other superheroes, ninjas, warriors - you know, the usual types we run around with."

Edited 2015-05-17 00:49 (UTC)

"I'm used to parallel worlds." He'd dealt with a few, after all. Not nearly as often as Kon, of course, but there'd been a few.

Dick considered that for a moment before he nodded. "Guess I'll be in good company, then." Though, yeah, part of him would really have liked Bat-Cass there. Or Tim.

He possibly wouldn't even mind Jason. Too much. Eventually.

"I think you'll get along with Invisible Kid. He's one of the two Legonnaires here - him and Brainiac 5. He's got just as much of an annoying habit of sneaking up on people as you Bats do."

And that was the breakdown of their situation there.

"That's most of what you need to know about what's going on in this world. We can get you briefed on anything else about what's going on when I get you back to the Pole."

"Invisible Kid, huh? Now that's a useful ability." Not that the Bats did too badly without any sort of powers. But invisibility was one that Dick actually wouldn't mind if he had it.

Dick nodded, pushing himself to his feet. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Wouldn't mind getting a better lay of the land before anything hits the fan."

Kon pulled a little snowglobe - yes, a snowglobe - out of one of the pouches of his belt, shook it, and said, "The Pole," into it, before tossing it into the air so that the portal appeared on the roof next to them.

He jerked a thumb towards it.

"Get ready for a whimsy overload. The place has more of it than Gotham's had during its whole existence."

Kon stepped through and once Dick stepped through he'd understand what he meant. Santa's workshop was a grand, beautiful place with wooden columns covered in beautiful carvings. Yetis bustled around, working hard as they built the toys, and elves ran around under foot, their belled hats jingling. Strange and beautiful toys in bright colors whizzed around through the air overhead flying through the levels through the workshop. A massive, brightly painted globe loomed over a hole in the floor (one that went down through all the other levels), bright little lights blinking and shining all over the Earth.

Kon flew up in the air and gestured to the globe.

"The lights are supposed to represent the kids. The ones that believe in the Guardians - and now in us. Kinda helps us know how much belief we're working with - and when they go out it sometimes gives us a heads up that there's a problem. If kids disappear or suddenly stop believing, there's usually something making them do it."

Yeah. Yeah, this was...not anything like what Dick was expecting. Sure, he spent most of his life in a cave growing up, with all sorts of cool things down there, but this was...

"Wow."

Dick reached up, pulling his domino mask off so that he could be certain nothing was playing tricks on his eyes using the lenses. Nope, everything was still the same. He managed to pull his attention back while Kon was explaining the globe, tilting his head to look over the lights. "I assume that you start looking for large areas, rather than just one or two lights going out." Even Tim would have had trouble just picking out one or two lights not being there that had been before.

"That's the best we can do," said Kon, floating back down towards Nightwing. "Which sucks but we're still working out how to go proactive with this thing. I mean, we do patrols, but there are so few of us..."

He didn't land, which wasn't surprising. Anyone that knew Kon well knew he spent most of his life in the air, often floating or flying when even other fliers might have walked. Probably had something to do with the fact that unlike a lot of heroes that'd gotten their powers later, he'd been "born" with the ability to fly, so that it was just as natural to him as walking.

And now that he was free of Project: Gladiator - where he'd been kept completely grounded and sometimes powerless in the red rooms when he wasn't on missions - he spent even more time in the air.

"I'll give you the tour. Over there's the lounge." He pointed at an area with lots of comfy couches and chairs. There were also big screen TVs and a multitude of game systems hooked up. "That's where a lot of us hang out. That way's the kitchen. Don't ask me where the yetis get the groceries, none of us know."

The floating doesn't bother Dick in the least. After all, it was just sort of something that Kon did. Dick was used to it. So were most of the people who hung around Kon very much.

He followed along, taking mental notes of the places that Kon was pointing out. "Probably better not to ask, honestly. Though, to be honest, I'm a little surprised at the yetis." That wasn't part of the Santa Claus myth that he knew of back home.

"Apparently the yetis make the toys and the elves just test them." He leaned down enough to whisper, "They're not very bright."

Case in point, nearby, one of them accidentally electrocuted himself by chewing on some Christmas lights several elves were decking a small tree with. He got up, dazed and a little charred, but mostly fine afterward.

"They kinda think like little kids? Really, the yetis do all the work. Which, I know it looks like a house-elf Harry Potter situation, like they're slaves or something, but they legit just like building crap. Phil says it's just their culture. They like building crap and they like doing it for the kids." He added, since it wouldn't be immediately obvious, "Phil's one of the yetis in charge."

Kon started to lead Dick down the stairs to the first of many workshop levels.

Dick couldn't help but wince at the one that was electrocuted, though it didn't seem to bother the elf much. Shaking his head, he followed Kon down the stairs. "This is all just seriously trippy. You're sure I haven't been hit by something the Scarecrow cooked up?"

Though, really, this wasn't something that was in Crane's usual repertoire. There wasn't anything scary, just...weird. "Maybe Hatter."

"Nope," he said. "And it's not Mysterio, either."

A pause.

"Who's a villain you haven't met. Yet. That, uh, brings us to the 'what happened back home' part of explaining things I still need to get to."

Which was kinda huge.

"About two odd years ago we had another Crisis back home. A huge one. It involved our universe and another universe - with another version of Earth filled with superheroes. We won but reality was so damaged the only way to save both universes was cram them together. So now Earth is this giant melded mess and the population doubled overnight. Gotham, Philadelphia, both New York Cities, Metropolis - they're all part of one giant megacity now, that takes up a huge chunk of New Jersey and New York. Bludhaven's going to be part of it soon - the way they're rebuilding, and the way Gotham shifted, means they're going to start overlapping. Already Bludhaven's overlapping with Atlantic City a bit."

At least Bludhaven was rebuilding at all. He knew that was something Nightwing might like hearing.

Admittedly, he didn't want to admit that the reason it'd finally gotten cleaned up was because of Luthor's actions as president. A lot of the US had gotten cleaned up and relative order had been restored thanks to Luthor - a demonstration of how absolutely idiotic he was for being a supervillain and using his position of power for evil when he could be off curing cancer or stopping world hunger or whatever.

And that? That was a LOT more to take in than even the earlier information about this world.

Dick paused, leaning against the nearest wall to take it in. And, honestly, was feeling a bit more exposed than normal for having his domino off. Still, he was good at keeping his expression controlled. It was necessary more often than not.

He drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Okay, wow, that...that's good. I mean, the bit about 'Haven. The rest of it is kinda...yeah, a lot to take in." And he would absolutely agree about Luthor. A great mind that could have been doing so much more had he been willing to let everything with Superman go by the wayside. "Is Cassie from the same time, then?"

"Yep."

He tapped his temple

"The weirdest thing of all was once it happened, we remembered we'd all met the heroes of that other world before. A whole bunch of times! Cosmic crap messed with our memories and there's this guy named Access whose job was keeping the worlds apart and making us all forget. He was able to travel between the two of them - he helped us all during the Crisis. A lot of our memories of what happened are fuzzy but I remember that much."

He went on, "But there are these two cosmic beings that are like, the living embodiment of each universe, and they're brothers or something, who didn't want to be separated. And apparently our world's been close to merging with the other one for ages. We teamed up to hold it off a bunch of times and just forgot after - but most of us remember every time we met each other now."

"Huh."

Dick shook his head, mouth twisting slightly. "I'm not going to ask for specifics. This is still in my future, after all." Then he paused and looked up at Kon. "You wouldn't tell me if I died or anything, right?"

Not that he knew that Nightwing hadn't been spotted in that other world yet. But, then, the Bats were always doing things strangely.

"Far as I know, all of the Bats are fine. Not everyone's fallen back from the Crisis yet but that's more a time dilation thingy. As far as we can remember most of the heroes got through it." A pause. "Hell, some people that were dead are back. There was a weird time distort-ey thing where people were pulled from all different points in their personal timelines. So a lot of them got yoinked from when they were alive without messing with causality. Like Ted Kord."

A pause.

"That might be the only reason I've stayed around despite the future being changed. The Legion had Starman take my body and put it in Superman's chrysalis thing in the Fortress of Solitude. It was there for a thousand years before the three Brainiac 5's managed to revive me and Bart and then we traveled back to the past. So right now, I'm alive and my body's dead under the Fortress at the same time. That future's probably never going to happen now - which means that version of the Legion might not exist or might have splintered off into an alternate dimension or something."

This crap was confusing. He'd have to ask Brainy about the implications of that.

That got even more of a grimace out of Dick, though he was glad to hear that everybody seemed to be fine. And the bit about people who had been dead coming back was even better.

"I think we should find something different to talk about. This sort of thing is definitely more Tim's territory. Not sure my brain can keep up."

Which was bullshit and he knew it. But the self-deprecation was just a thing, part of the mask that he used around those who didn't know him as well as the original Titans or any of the other Bats. And he knew Kon could probably see through it, too. But it was more his way of signaling that he'd had about all he could take of the current infodump.

"Yeah, well, it's, uh. Not really something to look forward to. Luthor's president again and pretty much thinks he can get away with murder, and..." He paused as he realized he was talking more because he was angry than because Nightwing really wanted the information. "I'll stop."

His gaze went a little odd and distant for a moment, like the light suddenly went off behind his eyes.

It lasted just for a moment, as if he'd forgotten Dick was there, and then the lights were back on again and he grinned and started to fly down the stairs.

"Just wait until you see the workout room. There's these weird clockwork robots and magic constructs that shift around and stuff. And platforms you can flip off of."

Yeah, he really didn't like the way that Kon just switched there. He followed, though, nodding. "Gee. I don't know why you'd go and mention those platforms. Though if there's a gym somewhere..."

He walked over, looking at the kid. Who...wasn't really much of a kid anymore. "Hey. I didn't mean that I never want to hear about what's happening back home. I'm just reeling a lot right now and I need to get myself centered better before I can take more of it in. You don't need to shut it down like that."

Kon worked his jaw for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. On the one hand, Nightwing was apparently overwhelmed by it all which meant explaining why he'd shut off for a second would just add to the pile.

On the other hand, he knew it looked weird. His head just...went away sometimes. Occasionally he found himself drifting and Cassie sometimes had to snap her fingers to draw him back out of his own head when he blinked off.

"It's not - it's -" He didn't really know how to explain.

"Some bad stuff happened," he said, his tone of voice going strange and flat all of a sudden. "Sometimes when I think about it my brain switches off for a second."

And there it went again, a troubled gaze off into the middle distance before he snapped to attention again, perkiness filling the vacuum.

"Don't worry about it. We can get into that later." He tried to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal. "I think we'll hit the sleigh room next - you should see the sleigh, it's like the mystical equivalent of a muscle car. There's even a button you can push that's like firing off some magical nitro. The thing goes at like a kajillion miles an hour. Way cooler than the Batplane."

Edited 2015-05-28 10:23 (UTC)

Eventually, Dick had every intention of getting to the bottom of that look. It worried him, seeing his friend that way. He just couldn't do it now because, contrary to popular belief, the Bats were just human. Even Dick could get overwhelmed by too much information.

"Nothing is cooler than the Batplane. Ask Tim sometime." And he managed to flash Kon a smile, even if it was a little wan. He was getting there. "I'm assuming that our physical states being somewhat amplified now is what keeps bad things from happening when it's going that fast?"

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