[Oracle, metafic] Taken to Task


"What," the voice from behind her demanded, "the hell was 
*that?!*"

Wincing, the Writer steeled herself and turned around to 
face the irate Oracle. "Um. Hi, Barb--"

Barbara Gordon was obviously in no mood for pleasantries. 
"Don't 'hi, Barbara' me. I want to know what you were 
*thinking* with that--that-- "

"Nasty, evil, and thoroughly wrong piece of fiction. Believe 
me, I've been beating myself up about it since it woke up in 
my brain."

Nothing more daunting than facing an incensed redhead. 
"Yes, well, why did you post it, if you felt so badly?" 

"Because it was *done,* and it refused to leave me alone." 
The Writer sighed. "Look, I wasn't kidding. I really do 
think you and Dick belong together in canon. I'm sticking 
the blame firmly on KJ's shoulders. She was talking about 
'predestination' and how it all felt forced, somehow--"

Barbara snorted. "After several decades of buildup, I don't 
see how that could be. And as for 'destined'--well, we all 
thought he was 'destined' to be with Kory forever, too. And 
look what happened there."

"Preaching to the choir, Barbara. I'm not arguing that."

The Oracle regarded the Writer for a moment, and finally 
said, "So how are you going to make it up to me?"

"Um. Uh." The Writer glanced through her files. "Another 
date with Roy?"

Barbara appeared to consider that seriously, then shook her 
head. "No. He's very sweet, but..."

"Yeah. Roy. I know. You'd kill him. Well, there's--"

"There is," Babs said pointedly, "the possibility of you 
writing a fic with Dick and I, a reasonable one."

"Right, sure." The Writer hesitated. "You *do* know--you 
know how I feel about you, right? On the list of favorite 
characters you're right up there. And I've gotten more nice 
feedback on 'Two Bullets' than a lot of other stuff I've 
done...."

"Regardless. Put your money where your mouth is. You 
claim to be a Nightwing/Oracle, ah, ''shipper,' and yet 
you've never written anything to prove it."

"Yeah. I know. I've been a little *busy*...."

"Oh, don't tell *me*; I know what you've been busy with." 
The Oracle narrowed her eyes and the Writer's computer 
suddenly started madly scrolling through files.

"Hey, that's--!!"

"Metafic, I can do whatever I want, I'm the *Oracle.* Now, 
what's this? 'Babs-GL' ...?"

J'onn J'onzz's soft voice echoed from somewhere off in the 
distance. "I've been wondering about that myself, 
actually...."

"J'onn!!" The Writer shook her head, exasperated, and 
muttered. "Like I don't have enough of you in my head--but 
anyway. Yeah, that's from that panel in the 'Created Equal' 
series, you know the one, it totally floored me."

"Hmm." Barbara read through the notes, nodding. 
"Interesting. How are you going to resolve the Kyle 
situation?"

"I know what I have to do, I just don't want to *do* it. 
That's part of what's been holding that up. But you know, 
that's a canon-verse, or nearly, so you and Dick...well, that's 
a strong probability. I've also got, let's see, a possible 
sequel to 'Leaving Delphi'--Dick got jealous about that, it 
was really cute--and, um, one or two other ideas...."

The Oracle looked up, eyes narrowed. "*I don't sleep with 
women,* let's get that clear right now!"

The Writer felt her mouth drop open, startled. "No, I-- I 
*know* that! I hadn't even *thought* about it." She shook 
her head. "Stereotyped as a slash writer even by my own 
fictives. But no. There're the AUs I talked about with 
Carmen where Dick's parents never died and you became 
Nightwing instead of him, and the one where you take over 
after he dies, and then the Hypertime fic where Oracle, 
Babs-Nightwing, and Babs-GL all get together and talk...."

"Yes, but I know where your mind goes. I'm sure there's something 
buried somewhere--aha!" Her eyes widened. "'Dick/Babs/Roy or 
Dick/Babs/Garth?' –ohmylord...."

The Writer buried her face in her hands and spoke from 
behind them, muffled. "I promised, no *women*--and I 
was just, um, speculating...."

"That's--That's-- "

The Writer peeked out from behind her fingers. "Sorta 
intriguing?" She watched the Oracle sputter, alternately 
amused, appalled, and maybe even a little attracted by the 
idea--not that she'd ever admit to it. Or that the Writer 
would ever do it without Barbara's approval. "But anyway. 
It's on my list. The GL one, I mean."

"*ahem* All right. You owe me fic for that travesty; make 
it a good one, I'm watching."

"I'll do my best." The Writer turned to make a note in the 
file, moving the story up on the "to-do" list, and when she 
looked around the Oracle had vanished.

"This must be what Jim Gordon feels like," she muttered, 
and went back to work.


{end}

All apologies to Falstaff. He started channeling Babs and 
we got into a really interesting discussion about fic, and 
metafic, and the nature of character; too interesting, in fact, 
to leave as part of a reaction metafic. I'll have to think 
about how I want to respond to her last challenge and get 
back to you (and her) sometime, Staff....

Coming before long to a list near you: "In Brightest Day...".  
Just as soon as I stop obsessively picking at it.