Which frankly, I want to have sooner rather than later, because Gotham City is SCARY! At least is is when you're dropped in a back alley with nothing but the clothes on your back, and a head full of arcane knowledge that sure as hell wasn't there the night before. Not only would it provide me with an income, but more importantly, once things get going a bit, it'll help me establish a reputation. Still, it seemed like the prudent thing to do, once I figured out what I could do, and that it probably wasn't going to help me get home anytime soon. That takes special dedication, especially in these pre-Internet days. Writing terrible pseudoscientific books, sure, but not like, an entire office and businesscards and stuff. Most of those types usually don't go as far as actually setting up a whole business about it. Again, I can't exactly blame her, this is early days yet, there aren't any homicidal clowns or Lewis Carrol-obsessed pedophiles running around, and Batman is still mostly something everyone pretends is an urban legend for some reason, so someone claiming to be using magic is more likely to be some lonely shut-in making shit up to get attention from someone other than his dozen cats. "I mean." She pauses, and it's clear that the only reason she's in here is either out of curiosity, or because her friends dared her to go make fun of the crazy guy who thinks he's a wizard. "Nevermind, just this old wizard guy, it's not important. And I doubt the Ralph Bakhsi version was a bigger hit in this world than it was in my own. Ugh, right, movies won't be made for 15 goddamned years yet, and most Gothamites aren't exactly the reading type. The girl just looks confused at the reference "Who's Gandalf?" "Wands, robes, long white beards, those stupid pointy hats like in that old Mickey Mouse cartoon, exactly, and trust me, Bruce Wayne himself couldn't pay me enough to dress up like Gandalf for the job!"
I mean, when people say wizard, what comes to mind?" It's mostly a matter of branding, at least to me. Thankfully, there's about a decade separating me from the Harry Potter series, so at least I won't have to deal with those jokes for a while. A few months ago, magic was strictly something for tacky Las Vegas performers and childrens books written by a transphobic soccer mom for me too.
"So, you're a wizard?" The teenaged girl sitting in the rickety guest chair in front of my desk says, her tone making it clear she's not buying any of this for a second. Though I'm not entirerly certain how I'm supposed to count this one, since if there is another version of myself in this universe, which seems doubtful, he would currently be turning 1. This is a hell of a way to spend your birthday. The setting isn't any specific DC timeline, though it's mostly based on the original post-Crisis one, Batman: Year One, Man Of Steel etc., hence why it takes place in the 1980's. A Magician In Gotham- The Last Magician Of Rational ThoughtĪN: Wanted to try and work on one of my other ideas to help me get out of the funk I've been in, this time with a magic-empowered self-insert, which I haven't tried yet.