a/n: hi all,

It's another snowy day in England!

Don't worry; this isn't really the end - it's more of a housekeeping message. As I said in the last chapter, I'll be shifting any future Point Rock chapters over into a standalone story.

Since then I've been mulling it over a bit and decided I'd much rather proceed with the main storyline and flashback episodes as separate stories. What that means though is that I'm going to do a mass transition today/tomorrow and repost this story as two separate stories. Curiouser and Curiouser will no longer receive updates, and I'll be marking it as 'complete'. Instead, I will be updating to these titles:

Becoming Batwoman: The Point Rock Years

Becoming Batwoman: Gotham, Part I

I should have done this months ago, but I stubbornly thought it would be fine. It's not fine. I don't like it. It feels messy. The ocd part of me has finally clashed with the stubborn part of me, and the ocd in me won out.

If you follow me, I am so, so, so sorry for the stupid number of chapter spamming emails you're about to get. If there was a way I could temporarily turn off these notifications, I would. If you're reading this, it also means you're all caught up on the latest bits of both stories. I'll include a note on chapter 1 of each that will navigate you to the 'latest oldest' chapter so you don't have to sift through every old chapter to get to the newest. I hope that made sense.

That said, I aim to begin posting new chapters next weekend and/or the following week. In the meantime, below is something blatant to refresh you on everything that's been going on in the main storyline. We can call it a recap for kicks.

In other news: Batwoman got renewed for a third season! I've not seen any of the second season yet (I prefer to unhealthily binge things than suffer through the weekly anticipations), but I've been reading small recaps to feed my curiosity. It sounds like there are a lot of moving parts - will be super interesting to see how it all unfolds. If you're so inclined, I posted a mini "what would happen if season 2 was a reboot of season 1" story. I don't know the frequency with which I'll update this, but it effectively mashes together certain parts of season 1 with a version that tries to align more closely with the comic book origins.

As always, my sincere gratitude for sticking with this story - especially now that I'm about to hack it to bits.

And, now that I've yammered you all to death, I'll let Kate and Luke take it from here.

Cheers,

EQT.95


"What's all of this?" Kate asked, gesturing at the piles of folders and papers stacked and scattered across two tables.

"Research."

"Of what?"

"A string of crimes from the mid-2000s," Luke answered, slapping a folder onto a teetering stack next to him.

"Uhm, why?"

"Because a number never got solved."

"Did you forget this is Gotham? Half of all homicides never get closed."

"Right, but these are special."

"Why?"

"Because their cause of deaths are unknown."

"What? Really?"

Luke nodded.

"Can I ask an obvious question?"

"You want to know why I'm researching this when we've already got a full docket."

"Yea, basically."

"Remember when Sophie mentioned Butler had become Scarecrow's primary doctor?"

"Uh… not really?"

"It was only two nights ago."

"Yea, but that feels like two seasons ago."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Fine, here's a quick recap: we have nothing on Butler-"

"I wouldn't say we have nothing-"

"You gonna let me finish? This is only half for you after all."

"Who is the other half for?"

"The readers," Luke smirked.

"Right, sure. Proceed."

"So we know Butler has been using blue poppies-"

"-a.k.a Fear Toxin-"

"-on his patients at Arkham. There have been a string of bulk releases from Arkham lately. This isn't uncommon since they're regularly bursting at the seams with inmates as it is, but what is uncommon is that the majority of the patients were under Butler's purview."

"Good word."

"Like that? I heard Sophie use it the other day."

"Sophie?" Kate looked back in surprise. "Wh-when?"

"Oh, it was her weekly call to ask if we'd found anything."

"We? Weekly call?"

"Yea, I sort of had to lie about why we were still using her log-in credentials."

"She knows about that?"

"Yea; found out a couple months ago. Didn't we talk about this?"

Kate paused for a moment before shaking her head. "I think I'd have remembered that."

"Oh, well, that happened."

"Good thing we're doing this recap thing," Kate said with a hint of suspicion in her voice.

"Anyway," Luke continued. "We've simultaneously spent weeks tracking possible leads including suspicious shipments - both land and water, weird cargo holds, and local crime ring activity."

"And then after months of nothing to show, you finally put on your genius hat and found the solution," Kate chimed in, still eyeing him critically.

"Not exactly, but sure. We found out the blue poppies weren't being imported; they were being grown inside Gotham."

"To be fair, we only got confirmation because they got sloppy."

"And by 'they' you mean the inmates Butler has released to serve as his lackeys. We've determined they are using something mobile to keep the greenhouses from being discovered."

"Right. And the one constant is that they're bouncing from one Delia Pflaum-owned property to another. Any idea how many more she has?" Kate asked.

"Nope, but Parker is on it."

"Parker from episode 10."

"Right. And Delia Pflaum is Dr. Butler's missing-presumed-dead wife."

"When do we talk about the bulletproof armour?"

"I'm getting there if you'd learn some patience," Luke retorted. "In all of this, Tommy Elliot was released from Arkham-"

"-the prick-" Kate muttered.

"And the key to his release was that he managed to steal the Batsuit technology."

"With the help of Cobblepot. Do we need to talk about that?"

"No, this recap has already gotten too long."

Kate shrugged. "May be important."

"That's flagrant foreshadowing."

"Only because you just admitted to it," Kate scowled in disapproval.

"So the batsuit technology was sold to some unknown buyer," Luke said, bypassing Kate's response entirely.

"But we have suspects," Kate clarified.

"Right. And I'm beginning to think we're going to narrow in on one shortly."

"Now that feels like foreshadowing," Kate said.

"No, that's called story progression," Luke replied. "If we never solved anything then what's the point of this?"

"Ask the writer," Kate shrugged.

"Can we just finish this?"

"Ask the writer," Kate repeated with a smirk.

Luke shook his head in annoyance.

"So where are we? Blue poppies and Dr. Butler-"

"-check-"

"-unfiltered release of Arkham inmates-"

"-check-"

"-greenhouses-"

"-check-"

"-batsuit technology-"

"-check-"

"Oh! The public hates you."

"That's harsh," Kate frowned.

"Fine. Public sentiment is not on your side."

"But only because of Fear Toxin-"

"Yes, the Gotham parade attack. Almost forgot the biggest thing," Luke said, shaking his head in realization. "A Fear Toxin-like substance was pumped into the bat balloon and exploded onto a crowd of people. That's what started this whole thing. Since then, the Fear Toxin has crept up in any number of other attacks, the batsuit technology has been duplicated and distributed to the bad guys, and Batwoman is being blamed for the city's failure to capture these goons."

"That's a severe exaggeration of the facts," Kate criticized. "The public is annoyed more isn't being done. They are criticizing Batwoman because that's the only thing to criticize. The GCPD and Crows have all but abandoned the city."

"But that's changing because of the rail gun."

"Yes," Kate said proudly. "Sophie said the gun will be field ready next week."

Luke paused, giving Kate a hesitant look. He knew repeating his concerns wouldn't do anything to temper Kate's blatant enthusiasm.

"So what does any and all of this have to do with unsolved cases from years ago?" Kate asked, pivoting back to what started the whole discussion.

"Ten," Luke corrected.

"What?"

"Ten years ago."

"That feels important."

"That's because it is," Luke clarified. "Ten years ago is also when Delia Pflaum went missing-"

"-Butler's wife-" Kate inserted.

"-presumed dead. Yes, we already said this," Luke added. "It's also when Dr. Butler became Scarecrow's primary doctor."

"This is starting to ring a bell," Kate said. "So what's the connection?"

"That's what the next chapter is for."

"You're going to make me wait?" Kate complained.

"This is just a recap, remember?"

Kate sighed in annoyance. "Fine. Anything else?"

"I've been able to enhance the recording from a few nights ago when you were trapped in that warehouse."

"When was this?"

"The night you had to cancel on Sophie," Luke clarified.

"Oh, right, right. It honestly felt like a throwaway situation at the time."

"That's because you were thinking about Sophie."

"Wh-no, no," Kate lied poorly.

"Mhm," Luke sighed. "The last thing is about the parade."

"Is that important? It was months ago."

"Yea, but we identified the cause of the balloon popping."

"Really? When?"

"Last week."

"Where the hell was I?"

"I think you were double-booked with a flashback episode," Luke answered easily. "I'll be sending you an update this morning that you'll review."

"This morning?"

"Yea, you're still asleep."

"So that hasn't happened yet," Kate said. "I thought we were only doing recap stuff."

"Yes, but the writer isn't going to include this part in the next episode."

"Lazy piece of-"

"Hey, hey, woa; it's for good reason."

"And that is?"

"Gives more time to cover all the sexual tension between you and Sophie."

"I… wh-what?" Kate looked like she had just been slapped.

"You're in for a surprise when you wake up."

"When I - wait-"

"Melvin is right, by the way," Luke said with a smirk. "'You two are waging a war for the most built up sexual tension of any couple in the history of ever, ever.'"

"How... what?" How did you know that?"

"It's all online."