Barbara made her way onto the sidewalk in front of Selina's apartment building. It was becoming clear no one here seemed to be treating latex as if it was a fetish. The outfits ranged from latex versions of Victorian fashion from her books to cyber goth
to weekend casual with latex jeans and t-shirts. But like Selina had said not everyone was in latex, or entirely in latex. One of the faces in the crowd stood out; Jason Blood. He was in a overcoat and button down shirt. Barbara made her way over to him
as he stood looking at her outside a coffee shop.
"Jason Blood?" Barbara confirmed that it was him.
"Miss Gordon," Jason smiled, "Do you prefer Barbara or Babs? I know when I last met you it was Babs."
"Ah, I guess Babs is fine," Barbara conceded.
"Walk with me," Jason turned into a park, "We have much catching up to do."
"Yeah," Barbara joined him.
"Are you in college? Last time we talked you had started at the state school for computers I believe."
"Yeah, well, Connecticut College Computer Sciences division."
They walked along a path for a while and while they remained in plain sight, they were too far for casual ease dropping.
"This is not your world, I am not your Jason Blood and you are not my Miss Gordon," Jason said flatly.
"That's what Kitty alluded to," Barbara sighed.
"She probably told you about Zantanna and Swampthing too," Jason said calmly, "She was right, wrong and not lying to you."
"That doesn't make sense."
"People can only handle so much information at any give time," Jason noted, "I am not insulting Selina but she is reason for changes, even if she doesn't understand what happened. Only a hand full of us truly know what happened. She was the target of spell
cast using a very powerful artifact. It was simple and straight forward and it had massive reprocussions that one saw coming. 'Make Selina Kyle less criminal and more normal', but how to do that with out making Selina Kyle not Selina Kyle."
"So everyone is a clepto pervert?" Barbara shot back.
"You still have that wit. No," Jason shook his head, "Selina just stopped stealing. That was easy. Instead, the latex and fetish and embracing of sexuality became the baseline. The polar rubber trees was just a means to that end. People are more fight
and flexible, high school gym programs include use of self defense, and climbing. Look around, you see those two lasses in Edwardian Drag suits? They aren't lesbians, they are waiting for their boyfriends. The census bureau released their latest results
last week. 90 percent of American women assert that they are openly bisexual. Since people have embraced their own sexualities and alternate sexualities as a mater of coarse there is almost sex crimes, and with another bit there is no Gana-herpa-syphilitus..."
"What?" Barbara asked in shock.
"Something a learned working with troops during the Gulf War," Jason said, "It is a generic term for any STD. And as a cosmic counterpoint, a universal counter infection became airborne and there are no new cases of AIDS, Herpes, Genital Warts, Syphilis
and so on for the last five years. If that added to or reduced the cosmic chaos I could not tell you. Now the fact that Bat-kitty as you call her appears on a red carpet in latex at four years old is less headlines then a four year old appearing on a red
carpet."
"So the Edwardian Drag kings making out while they wait for their boyfriends is perfectly normal since all the girls are bi?" Barbara tried to wrap the thoughts in her head, "Please tell me, that..."
"Selina and Bruce, yes. Selina and Dick, yes. You and Sarah don't have sex, but you might find her too touchy feely for this you."
"Selina and Bruce, Dick, please don't tell me that... me ... and ..." Barbara couldn't bring herself to say it.
"Here's to you Mrs Robinson..." Jason started singing, "Just remember, incest is still taboo. There is another question that you aren't ready for now, That will have to wait till later, for now... Coffee."
Jason lead her out of the park and across the street was a coffee shop.