Oracle (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
delphi_bat) wrote2017-10-18 07:02 pm
delphi_bat) wrote2017-10-18 07:02 pm
Entry tags:
App - Suadade
PLAYER
NAME: Steahl
EMAIL: steahl@yahoo.com
PREFERRED PRONOUNS: Female pronouns
BEST CONTACT: AIM: Veldrin Dalharil, PM, email (listed above).
TIMEZONE: PST
AGE: 32
PLAYED CHARACTERS: Khemrys
LINK TO RESERVE: Expired reserve, sorry.
CHARACTER
NAME(S): Barbara 'Babs' Gordon, Oracle
AGE: 28
CANON: DC Comics/Birds of Prey
BACKGROUND HISTORY:
[Batman Wiki: Barbara Gordon, comic career, editorial review, etc.]
Background/Canon Summary: Once upon a time there was a girl, and she was a dangerous thing. Her father was Chief of Police in the city of Gotham, and Gotham was a terrible place. It was full of dark and twisted creatures and darker, poisoned people...and vigilantes. She was a darling daughter, she learned everything so well, but she decided to take an active hand in taking care of the city her father policed. She took after the ways of the Bat.
Batman, now that was a terrible visage that hid a mind much like her own. Even at the tender age of fourteen the little girl knew her mind didn't work like most. She thought too fast and too well. She never, ever forgot. And that was alright in her adopted bat family. Darkness became comfortable, jumping from buildings became freedom, and learning obscure fighting techniques became homework.
She loved it. Nothing had ever felt as right as donning a mask and fighting crime. Batgirl was never the terror in the night Batman was, no, but then she never was good at creating terror. Turning criminals against each other? Yes. She went to college on scholarship nearby so she could keep helping and then one day when she was spending an afternoon with her father everything changed.
There was a clown and he shot her.
And the funny thing, it was a joke haha, yes the funny thing was? The clown didn't know who she was. He was trying to hurt the then commissioner Gordon by shooting his daughter. He hadn't even tried to take out Batgirl and just like that he'd clipped her wings.
Oh, others stepped up to be Batgirl, certainly, but they weren't Barbara Gordon.
No, Babs hit depression, hard. The bullet had hit her spine, and she was paralyzed from the waist down. Sometimes she had sensation but she'd never have mobility again. The man she'd been dating, and was engaged to? She let him go. She ended it.
She tidied her affairs...
...and she almost gave up.
Babs almost killed herself. It would have been easy. Months of spiraling depression and it wasn't Batman that saved her. It wasn't Superman, it was a phone call from Dick Grayson as she'd been tilting her head back to take the pills. He was calling from outside her window and he wanted to come in.
He'd wanted to talk about a case and just hear her voice since it was always easier to deal with a grazing gunshot wound when you weren't alone.
She was...needed. And he trusted her. And she couldn't leave him like that. It had always been all or nothing with Dick; it was fitting he came by when she was at her lowest.
So she became someone new. Or perhaps someone she'd always been underneath. She went from dangerous little girl to a deadly woman. Her name was Oracle and she knew everything. Batgirl could kick a dealer in the face? Oracle used her brain to drop entire cartels to their knees. Batgirl patrolled Gotham? Oracle watched the world and she had a meaner streak than any legend of Krampus.
She built a computer using more than four different alien technologies and her own programming language. She built a reputation. And she had a Rolodex full of vigilantes and super powers to call on. Oracle could stand on her own...figuratively speaking.
Literally, well, all the knowledge in the world didn't help when someone's face needed to be kicked in to make a point. So she went...shopping. There were heroes out there who had fallen, people she could help like Dick had helped her, and that's how she found Black Canary.
And that was the start.
She never looked to run a super team honestly, she was perfectly okay being the person the teams looked to when they were stuck. Until something important needed to be done. Sure, she made mistakes.
Sure she was afraid sometimes. And useless sometimes. And too damn focused.
She was human, as much as she hated to admit it.
The funny thing was, though? She kept Canary alive. And Huntress. And Savant as much as she hated the man at first. It was fun keeping Canary from killing that one. The wrong kind of fun. And Zinda....
When Batman bugged her clocktower she let him, letting 'big brother' watch her to make sure she didn't run mad with power. And then she told him off. When Black Skull found her tower and Batman came to fight the villain to the death? She gave it up. She gave up everything. She activated the self destruct on her tower and forced Batman to make a choice; save her life or go down fighting like he wanted. She played Batman. Not many lived to say that.
Gotham wasn't home after that though, no. She lived as Oracle on the move after that, her money sunk into some lovely tech jets and then into buying a hotel in Metropolis. A place she could give others a new start in, and give her ladies a safe home in since she seemed to be collecting them. Oracle, no, Babs, had a sixth sense about those on the breaking point. She'd been there.
She tried to make sure the people she touched turned out better than they had been.
She didn't always succeed, but she tried.
Between leaving Gotham and setting up in Metropolis Babs was infected, badly. Brainiac, an extraterrestrial Artificial Intelligence , was setting up a cult that the Birds of Prey smashed up. The goal of the cult was to brainwash and find a decent host among the super powered populace. Ideally Brainiac could use the host to build a physical body for himself. Oracle managed to evict the AI from her brain, but a physical infection was left, biotech worming it's way into her system and making sure she felt she could handle it. In th end she required surgery to remove the infection, and she convinced it to go dormant and not fight removal by pointing out she would kill herself if it kept trying to rewire her and then they'd both die. Now it lives on in her perfect memory and she has an uncanny ability to move, mentally, in cyberspace that a biological mind shouldn't have.
She learned to hold on to her friends, to set up and care for them and then she learned to let go. Her best friend, the first person to learn her identity since the Bat-family, Canary...left. For good reasons. For great reasons, and she let her go. The woman she'd dropped in a Lazarus pit and help through the insanity afterward had a child to think about. The team wasn't the same after that though, there was too much to do and the person Oracle trusted, without a doubt to push back when necessary...left.
The 'Birds of Prey' as Zinda dubbed them branched out after that. They expanded their roster, reaching out to any woman with power who might need something else. Anyone with skills not generally known. Oracle...no...Babs...didn't push her friend, she wished her the best and she waited, hoping.
And ran into an enemy. Spy Crusher, ah yes, an attempt (and almost success) at a hostile takeover. A college friend who'd turned rival, a terrifying woman more than willing to destroy everything around her to win, wanted Oracle's team. And Oracle...gave them to her. Not for long, but fear could do amazing things. The government sponsored woman was ruthless, terrifying, and overwhelming. She was also willing to kill the team to succeed and Oracle...wasn't okay with that. Who would be? Crippled, wheelchair bound and shivering, she challenged her one time friend with nothing but a pair of sticks and...came out on top, taking her team back.
And then a child tumbled into her life. A young girl who idolized Batgirl and had the widest teleportation range Oracle had ever heard about. It took a while. It took months of unexpected visits, encouraging the girl to make her own name...feeling her way through things but Oracle cracked. A little.
She wasn't Batman after all, she didn't work with fear. Oracle worked with Hope and Information. And she had a whole hotel to house a homeless little teleporter in after all. She'd never wanted to be a terror in the night, Oracle told of better things...and always would.
PERSONALITY:Babs is a person with a terrifying depth of Will. More than the drive to do good, she drives herself to be useful. This echoes through her work as Oracle as well as her drive to maintain as much physical capability as possible. She trains her body daily to the point that she successfully, as a cripple swinging along pipes and girders in a sinking submarine, takes out a team sent to destroy her alter ego.
Her IQ is measured in the near 200 level, the point at which people are either certifiably insane or locked into some useful rut...but she remains a free agent of sorts. She observes, collates, and plans like most people breath and she doesn't forget. As canon puts it, every detail of every moment is etched with burning, acid like clarity, forever observed and preserved in the crystal halls of her mind. She cannot escape the greatest pain she's ever been in; it never dulls. But likewise she cannot help factoring small details she's observed that feed into a terrifying whole. She is what she is and...she's come to terms with that to a degree.
She doesn't always like herself. As Oracle she has to make tough calls. Her agents go into situations where sometimes the action that will save millions...sacrifices hundreds in direct view. Babs is so much more liable as she is now, in her current role, than she ever was as Batgirl. It hasn't broken her though, that's her will and her acceptance of the cost of such bleeding through to keep her whole.
She's paranoid. Living as one of the Bat-family made her rabid about defending her identity; it took a year and more for her best friend to learn who she was and she's likely to revert to such self protective tendencies when forced into a new environment. This also means she prefers to know more about a person she's dealing with than they know about her. She has no qualms about reading a person's file honestly. She'll rarely use the info she finds unless necessary, but it does help her form an opinion on people!
When failure or judgment calls lead to hurting someone she cares about, or censure from those whose opinion she respects, Babs can get....focused. Single minded is probably the best term. She'll work to correct her mistakes and protect the people that matter to the sacrifice of her own health and other, lesser projects. Normally her friends can shake her out of this state, but that involves having friends.
Love. Oh love is a weak point for her. She worked a long time to have a normal relationship. She dated in her daylight life and she was even engaged before being shot...but she could never fully trust people who didn't know her, all of her...and those that did, well. Yes. Babs loves Dick Grayson, Nightwing, deeply and dangerously; it's everything or nothing with him. She can't be just friends, she can't watch him date others. She loves him and wants to keep him or has to let him go. Anyone who hits that level is going to have the same depth attached to them.
In any given situation that Babs enters she is likely to be the smartest person in the room. This isn't bragging this is dangerous fact. Some people in her world got flight and invulnerability, Babs deconstructs MENSA tests for fun. It's isolating in it's way, she can't connect to people as easily as she wishes. She can't even feel entirely human sometimes, a fact not helped by Brainiac finding her a perfect host and her brain slipping over into cyberspace navigation without any effort at all. She...revels in the physical because if she doesn't she's afraid she'll lose every anchor she has to what it means to be human. Sometimes when stressed she'll slip over into almost more machine than human and that's bad and a point she'll need friends to help pull her out of.
Compassionate. That's an interesting word to apply to Oracle but it's true. She'd rather find someone who needs her, someone who needs a purpose, and work them up into not needing her anymore than call on conventional heroes. Likewise she does her best to leave those who are victims in whatever case the BoP is working better off than when she found them. This trait has led her into traps upon occasion, and yes she beats herself up over it, but she will still move to help ahead of any other motivation.
Last but not least....Babs is a leader. She'll feed information to other people who need it, she'll stay in the shadows behind a virtual mask, but her team answers to her and they damn well better learn to trust her because she sees more than they do. She doesn't take orders worth a damn anymore, she's not a child standing in the shadow of Batman, and she has to be able to trust the people under her command to follow her instructions. She'll do everything in her power and more to protect her people, but she'll never work with someone again if they countermand her orders without a damn good reason. She doesn't mind people standing up to her, she needs team members with spine, but butting heads for no reason? No, that gets people killed and she doesn't have time or the lives to spare for that.
CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS:
Dick Grayson/Nightwing: She knew Nightwing from way back in the days when he was Robin and she Batgirl. He was her partner, her equal, and one of her only friends. The one in the know, and that grew over time into love, deep, true, and dangerous in it's reality. It's all or nothing with Dick, she can't do partway, she can't be friends with benefits; he's the only person she's ever trusted to run her systems and keep an eye on her people in the field when she HAS to sleep. The only other voice to be on her comm link, and the only person she trusts implicitly in any circumstance. When it comes to each other they are proud of the other and second guess themselves. They blame themselves for not knowing secrets and pains the other didn't share; they expect to know each other well enough to be able to intuit when the other is in pain or need. They live apart right now because neither one of them is quite ready to commit entirely to the type of bond that they require.
Bruce Wayne/Batman: Batman used to be her hero. He was a hero that relied on thinking more than abilities and she needed that in a role model when she was younger. He was an ideal that could keep up with her need to make a difference...and then she grew up. She loves Bruce, how not? But it's a love that admits how deeply he's flawed and how much he's driven by his own demons rather than a need to help others. She will stand toe to toe with him in an argument, she can and will defend her decisions, and he doesn't frighten her, they're evenly matched. He spied on her when she was first setting up as Oracle, ensuring she didn't get overwhelmed or crazy with the power she was grasping, and she let him, then she chewed him out and made him back off when she'd decided he'd watched her life long enough. When he went into a fight with a death wish she forced him to live, when she headed into a life or death surgery he flooded the doctor handling the case with equipment and haunted every dark corner he could find near her room. There is respect and love and affection there...but they have fundamental differences in how they approach their work, therefor they get along better in daylight hours than they do in costume these days.
James Gordon/Commissioner Gordon (retired): Babs grew up with a single father who was also a police detective, then a commissioner. To say he didn't sleep much would be an understatement. Despite that he did his best to be a good father and Babs NEVER felt like his work came first. Her love of aiding people, her lock picking skills, and her detective skills were honed by Batman, but she learned them from her father. When she became Batgirl she didn't tell him (she later found out he knew) and when she became Oracle it took her quite some time to gather the nerve to tell him she was more than a librarian. Even retired, even not being a cape, her father is proud of her and she visits with him often.
Dinah Lance/Black Canary: Starting life as a barely teenage crime fighter, Babs didn't really have a chance or inclination to make friends with people her own age. That's probably why she didn't realize she'd made a best friend in Dinah Lance for some time. Oracle found the Canary when her lover, Oliver Queen, died. This threw the martial artist into a depressive spiral, without her cry and feeling like she couldn't help the teams who needed her. Oracle came in and gave her a purpose, Dinah became her hands and feet in the outside world and the woman moved to Oracle's tune for a year and more before circumstances forced them to meet face to face. Dinah is one of the few people who can and will fight with Babs about personal matters, and who forces the wheelchair bound woman to get out and have fun, something Babs forgot how to do for a while. There's a deep bond of trust between the women even now when Dinah lives far away for personal reasons and no longer participates as part of the team.
Ted Kord/Blue Beetle: Ever meet a hero accidentally online? Oddly enough Ted Kord is the one person she didn't come at from the angle of Oracle, she met him in online chat and was talked into meeting him at a computer convention. Awkward was the name of the game since they were both lying about who they were and what they did for a living...but they got over that and found a friend in each other they didn't need to hide information from. She was the reason he came out of semi-retirement, she noticed a heart problem before it got serious, and she's the one who goes by his memorial in Metropolis every time she leaves her tower. He was a friend when she needed one, and someone else who knew what it was like to have a body unable to meet the expectations of the mind. They almost dated, decided not to, and were more comfortable in each other's company than anywhere else for a long time.
Helena Bertinelli/Huntress: For a very long time Oracle and Canary were a team, but there came a time to branch out. Huntress was a very different case from Canary, she was from a mafia family and trying to rise above that, and she was so very, very angry. Frankly Babs didn't know how to handle the woman and her first approach of trying to help her into better circumstances backfired painfully. Just because Huntress left though it did not mean Oracle stopped worrying about her, and working to keep an eye on her. When the woman was in trouble Oracle knew...and when she needed help, she offered instead of coming in to save Huntress. They built up a trust in this way, never lying to each other and not hiding motives. Today Helena is one of Bab's closest friends, lives in the same building as her, and is the team leader for Birds of Prey missions.
Savant and Creote: These two men are a calculated risk that actually paid off for the team. Savant is just that, a quick learning savant with an utter lack of a moral code, memory continuity problems, and a penchant for blackmailing rich people with secrets he's discovered. Creote is his best friend and the only person he trusts to tell him the truth about what his memory is lying about. Creote himself is a very large, ex-Russian military operative who loves Savant. Together they make a terrifying team and you do not get one without the other. He made the mistake of taking Canary on an early mission and trying to get the truth about Oracle out of her. They paid, immensely, for that mistake...and Savant decided he didn't want to be a villain really. It wasn't the best way to live and he didn't want to face the team again...so Oracle gave him a deal. A way to learn some externally imposed morals and make a difference. It was a slow learning process, and Savant doesn't grasp the fullness of WHY some things are right, but with Creote to remind him of things they have learned and they are emerging as useful team members as long as someone can tell them what to do when there's a moral situation they haven't learned yet.
Zinda Blake/Lady Blackhawk: Knowing Zinda is oddly humbling for Babs. This is a woman who was a WWII flying ace, a member of the Blackhawks, and preternaturally good at her job until she got sucked into a time vortex in battle and ended up in the current time. As with many of her team members, Oracle swept in when Zinda hated her new life and being grounded in red tape as the world tried to figure out what to do with the time traveler. She gave Zinda a plane, several in fact, and helicopters too...and Zinda responded with an unbridled enthusiasm for her suddenly better life. She declared Babs her new 'Skipper' and is unswervingly loyal and trusting; it's terrifying. No one else in Bab's life follows her unquestioningly and has such absolute faith in her. She's afraid she'll let the woman down somehow, make the wrong choice in a mission...but Zinda doesn't give her time to mope about that in between bopping around in Bab's apartment and dragging all the girls out drinking. Zinda embodies a sheer passion for the moment that Babs envies and wishes she could embrace as well.
Charlotte 'Charlie' Gage-Radcliffe/Misfit: So once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to be Batgirl. And for a while she was bouncing around calling herself that in fact, causing issues with identity and among those who knew Babs. Oracle was able to trace and catch the girl in the act of 'dark justice' and from that moment onward the girl has been...impossible to lose. After all when you're a teenage teleporter with no one else in your life why not follow your idol around? Some days Babs wants to strangle the girls since she doesn't focus, tends to touch things she shouldn't, and in generally is a pain in the ass. She's rather certain that she never bugged Bruce the way Charlie bugs her, but they're working on that. Misfit is currently 'adopted' by the team and in training with Oracle. It has it's ups and downs.
Clark Kent/Superman: It is very, very hard for Oracle to stand up to Superman like she does to Batman. Superman is an epitome of good in so many books, it's hard when the man seems disappointed in her. Living in Metropolis now she does have to to do it, yes, but being chewed out or chastised by the man of steel tends to send her into a slump for a few days like nothing else can.
Lois Lane: THIS WOMAN IS TERRIFYING! Lois is not in Oracle's level of intelligence, she doesn't watch the world, but she does have a disturbing amount of sway in the arena of public opinion and a tenacious, stubborn tendency to find answers when she chases a story. Not even the Joker has inspired as much cold sweat as this one little reporter in Metropolis, and Babs is glad she has a single piece of blackmail on the woman to keep her off Oracle's back.
J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter: J'onn is a telepath of a high degree and he's known about Oracle since the moment she stepped up to help the JLA with information. He often calls on her aid in situations they don't have enough info for and keeps her secret, though he cannot use her system, he's tried given it does contain some Martian tech. He was one of the people who stepped up to help in her surgery when infected by Brainiac.
JLA/JSA/YJ/Assorted heroes: Oracle has them ALL in her Rolodex and the general respect of most people she's ever given information to or saved the life of. Manhunter, Big Barda, and Powergirl (with some past history there yes) are some of her go-to ladies in later team efforts. Oracle has helped most teams and super powered types within her sphere of influence...and her influence keeps growing.
The Joker: The Joker is the nightmare Babs can't wake up from. He broke her and he almost killed her and she can't forget a single moment of it. Being shot, bleeding on the carpet, unable to move while the Joker tortured her father...no, she can't forget and sometimes the memory near eats her alive. She was glad, honestly, when Nightwing killed him. She was sad for Dick because the killing was hard to do, but yes, she was glad. And when so many dead came back to life she had a night or five of shivering, terrible fear because that meant the damn psychopathic clown was back as well. She has faced him several times since her injury and has never been debilitated, but at night, when she's alone, yes, she's very, very afraid.
Noah Kutler/Calculator: Noah is an obsessive-compulsive information broker and programmer whose mind as fixated on the puzzle of who Oracle is. He has made himself a nuisance in the virtual arena as he tries to hunt down and break Oracle. She has met him, face to face, and managed to hide her identity, but he is a constant worry in the back of her mind.
Katarina Armstrong/Spy Smasher: Katarina was a friend. Sort of. Once. Babs met this woman in college and they were fast friends, enjoying the same topics, voracious in their learning, competitive, they kept each other on their toes and spurred each other forward into excellence. Or that was what Babs thought. Babs enjoyed competing, but Katarina enjoyed winning by any means necessary and she sought such wins with single minded determination. It came out truly in a track race where the blond tripped and nearly broke Bab's ankle on purpose in order to take first, and after that Babs began to wake up to see just how ruthless her 'friend' was. They fell out of touch after college and Babs let her career and such alone. Sadly in the interim Katarina climbed to power within the US government and decided to target, and take over, Oracle's operation. For a little while, through intimidation and blackmail, she succeeded. It took a very firm statement, delivered via her sticks, and additional statements from every cape and friend of Oracle's in a ten thousand mile radius supporting said statement to make the woman back off, back down, and go away.
STRENGTH OF HEART MOMENT SUMMARY: [End of issue 108, Birds of Prey]
There are several moments in the comic arcs where Babs could have been pulled from, but the most important is this one: WHO and WHAT she is. At the end of the Spy Smasher Arc she realizes just how much she and Katarina could have been alike. Katarina uses people, without pity or remorse, and Oracle could easily do the same. She's in a position to use people without anyone ever knowing, and that's somehow worse. Instead she and Zinda drive out to a burned, abandoned building and Babs offers a hand to the young Charlie. There's room for foundlings in Oracle's operation.
There's room for people growing, changing, and questioning.
As she puts it "I never wanted to be like her. I'm about a better way. I'm about hope."
It takes strength to choose such a hard route, especially when it's so easy to move and shuffle people who aren't as intelligent
as you. It's hard to reach out to people you know will be a problem. It's hard to have faith in the people around you and she chooses to do so anyway, which is a long way from where she started with her paranoia.
POWERS
SAMPLE - THE AWAKENING:
She blinked, and blinked again, narrowing her eyes in a vain attempt to pierce the shadows around her. Had someone hit the car? She'd taken in Charlie, slipped into the car...and now she was in the dark. She could feel the chair under her, solid and simple, she wasn't in a crumpled mess, but by all rights it should never be this dark in Metropolis.
That left a few options. She didn't recall the distinctive scream of a Boom Tube, or the aching stench of a demon, her mind could have been hijacked perhaps?
It was looking that way in fact since the moment she started wheeling forward in the darkness a stained glass ramp lit up under her wheels. "Well then Alice..." she sighed, peering at the intricately worked scenes from....her own life. She rolled across Batgirl in flight and dipped from Gotham nightscapes to the bleeding red ruby of the Joker's attack, to chrome wheels etched in stark, metallic gleams across the glass.
As far as mental trips went this wasn't to her tastes.
"And what is little bat? Or should we call you wheelsy now?" The Joker laughed from a platform ahead of her.
Her fingers worked at the compartment in her wheelchair, batons sliding sure and firm in her hands as she crested the glassen rise. Sadly for her temper the damn clown wasn't visible, just three stark stone plinths rising from the cool green glow below. The whole platform was done as her Oracle mask, all cool smile and calm eyes below her useless feet. "Funny," she noted darkly, scanning the area again before she let the batons slide back home in her chair.
"I know, I crack me up!" The voice laughed again. "So here's the deal wheelsy, you get a choice, how fun is that?!"
"I don't think so."
"Awww, play along, I promise it'll be a blast!"
She ignored the voice this time, looking the plinths over. They were simple and roughly hewn, a stark contrast the worked glass under her. "I don't like games." And she didn't. The more she looked the more she thought this was a game. There was a hologram of a batarang floating above one plinth, the stark cut of the bat signal glowing across another, and the third, oddly enough, held a silk top hat. At least that gave her an idea? "Zatana? If you're here speak up! This isn't my arena!"
"Oh no no no, no life lines wheelsy, this is all you. And me. I'm here, but I've always been that laughing little voice in your head haven't I? Anywho, c'mon, surprise me!"
Well, no helpful little magician popping up to help her, that wasn't good.
"You know you'd look good in a hat! Why not? And it might actually make you crack a smile every once in a while! Lighten up, take a risk!"
No. Her hand swam out to snag at the hologram reflexively, the batarang dissolving into the screens of her home array. Comforting, and a far better weapon than just one batarang could be.
"Oh booo. Boooo! So predictable wheelsy, you and the bats, always the bats and your toys! I swear you never get a proper gag, function function function. Whatever happened to style?!"
"Take your hat and shove it," she growled at the darkness, green programming code flashing across her glasses for a moment.
"Oh, well, in that case be a party pooper. You coulda been one of the greats kid! A touch of proper chaos wouldn't that have been something?!"
"Not my way," she sighed, watching the hat dissolve into a sparkle of glitter and dust. Well, that was...interesting wasn't it? "I'm ready to wake up now, crazy dreaming aside."
"Oh are you? Your way is so...so dull! You're more like the Bats every time I look at you ha! All duty and order and getting yourself shot. Fine, see if I try to help you again! Take your stupid toy weapons and your place as a city shield and get out of my playground!"
Damn, the man was crazy as hell even in her own head. She closed her eyes a moment, blocking out the glow, and when she opened them she was...back in the dark, the reassuring shiver of batteries humming through her chair and her hands empty. Well then. "Hello?"
This time the clown didn't answer her. She'd take that as an improvement.
SPECIAL ABILITIES:
CANON STUFFS!
~High IQ
~Perfect recall
~Physically fit
~leadership skills
~deductive reasonining skills
~Speaks/reads/writes eleven languages as well as her own programming language. These are: English, German, Japanese, Cantonese, Portugese, French, Spanish, Italian, Navajo, Russian, and Swedish.
~Instinctive touch with technology
~Ability to multi-task and coordinate on a grand scale.
INVENTORY:
~One wheelchair, handleless, she doesn't like to be pushed.
~Two heavy batons for attack and defense as stored in her chair
~Three batarangs as stored in her chair
~One custom built laptop
~Three credit cards in various names not her own
~One long sleeve shirt (worn)
~One pair jeans (worn)
~One workout bra (worn)
~One pair socks (worn)
~One pair underwear (worn)
~One pair glasses (worn)
~One pair sneakers (worn)
~Three compression bands to tie legs together if necessary stored in chair
~One communications earbud, in ear, out of range
~One cellphone
NOTES/ASPIRATIONS
Babs is a well rounded genius with world watching experience. The world of Penrose is going to be immensely small and I'd like her to either take up the mantle of a Finder or handle massive coordination with planetary moogles. Either way could be interesting.
She'll stay fit and stay in practice, but I'm looking forward to her taking on at least one student that she can train to be her hands and feet on missions. she can also tighten up/improve the Elo system given time and a need to do so!
She will NOT be regaining her ability to walk, she has some mobility after her surgery, some ability to wiggle toes, and she can feel her legs more reliably, but that's it.
NAME: Steahl
EMAIL: steahl@yahoo.com
PREFERRED PRONOUNS: Female pronouns
BEST CONTACT: AIM: Veldrin Dalharil, PM, email (listed above).
TIMEZONE: PST
AGE: 32
PLAYED CHARACTERS: Khemrys
LINK TO RESERVE: Expired reserve, sorry.
CHARACTER
NAME(S): Barbara 'Babs' Gordon, Oracle
AGE: 28
CANON: DC Comics/Birds of Prey
BACKGROUND HISTORY:
[Batman Wiki: Barbara Gordon, comic career, editorial review, etc.]
Background/Canon Summary: Once upon a time there was a girl, and she was a dangerous thing. Her father was Chief of Police in the city of Gotham, and Gotham was a terrible place. It was full of dark and twisted creatures and darker, poisoned people...and vigilantes. She was a darling daughter, she learned everything so well, but she decided to take an active hand in taking care of the city her father policed. She took after the ways of the Bat.
Batman, now that was a terrible visage that hid a mind much like her own. Even at the tender age of fourteen the little girl knew her mind didn't work like most. She thought too fast and too well. She never, ever forgot. And that was alright in her adopted bat family. Darkness became comfortable, jumping from buildings became freedom, and learning obscure fighting techniques became homework.
She loved it. Nothing had ever felt as right as donning a mask and fighting crime. Batgirl was never the terror in the night Batman was, no, but then she never was good at creating terror. Turning criminals against each other? Yes. She went to college on scholarship nearby so she could keep helping and then one day when she was spending an afternoon with her father everything changed.
There was a clown and he shot her.
And the funny thing, it was a joke haha, yes the funny thing was? The clown didn't know who she was. He was trying to hurt the then commissioner Gordon by shooting his daughter. He hadn't even tried to take out Batgirl and just like that he'd clipped her wings.
Oh, others stepped up to be Batgirl, certainly, but they weren't Barbara Gordon.
No, Babs hit depression, hard. The bullet had hit her spine, and she was paralyzed from the waist down. Sometimes she had sensation but she'd never have mobility again. The man she'd been dating, and was engaged to? She let him go. She ended it.
She tidied her affairs...
...and she almost gave up.
Babs almost killed herself. It would have been easy. Months of spiraling depression and it wasn't Batman that saved her. It wasn't Superman, it was a phone call from Dick Grayson as she'd been tilting her head back to take the pills. He was calling from outside her window and he wanted to come in.
He'd wanted to talk about a case and just hear her voice since it was always easier to deal with a grazing gunshot wound when you weren't alone.
She was...needed. And he trusted her. And she couldn't leave him like that. It had always been all or nothing with Dick; it was fitting he came by when she was at her lowest.
So she became someone new. Or perhaps someone she'd always been underneath. She went from dangerous little girl to a deadly woman. Her name was Oracle and she knew everything. Batgirl could kick a dealer in the face? Oracle used her brain to drop entire cartels to their knees. Batgirl patrolled Gotham? Oracle watched the world and she had a meaner streak than any legend of Krampus.
She built a computer using more than four different alien technologies and her own programming language. She built a reputation. And she had a Rolodex full of vigilantes and super powers to call on. Oracle could stand on her own...figuratively speaking.
Literally, well, all the knowledge in the world didn't help when someone's face needed to be kicked in to make a point. So she went...shopping. There were heroes out there who had fallen, people she could help like Dick had helped her, and that's how she found Black Canary.
And that was the start.
She never looked to run a super team honestly, she was perfectly okay being the person the teams looked to when they were stuck. Until something important needed to be done. Sure, she made mistakes.
Sure she was afraid sometimes. And useless sometimes. And too damn focused.
She was human, as much as she hated to admit it.
The funny thing was, though? She kept Canary alive. And Huntress. And Savant as much as she hated the man at first. It was fun keeping Canary from killing that one. The wrong kind of fun. And Zinda....
When Batman bugged her clocktower she let him, letting 'big brother' watch her to make sure she didn't run mad with power. And then she told him off. When Black Skull found her tower and Batman came to fight the villain to the death? She gave it up. She gave up everything. She activated the self destruct on her tower and forced Batman to make a choice; save her life or go down fighting like he wanted. She played Batman. Not many lived to say that.
Gotham wasn't home after that though, no. She lived as Oracle on the move after that, her money sunk into some lovely tech jets and then into buying a hotel in Metropolis. A place she could give others a new start in, and give her ladies a safe home in since she seemed to be collecting them. Oracle, no, Babs, had a sixth sense about those on the breaking point. She'd been there.
She tried to make sure the people she touched turned out better than they had been.
She didn't always succeed, but she tried.
Between leaving Gotham and setting up in Metropolis Babs was infected, badly. Brainiac, an extraterrestrial Artificial Intelligence , was setting up a cult that the Birds of Prey smashed up. The goal of the cult was to brainwash and find a decent host among the super powered populace. Ideally Brainiac could use the host to build a physical body for himself. Oracle managed to evict the AI from her brain, but a physical infection was left, biotech worming it's way into her system and making sure she felt she could handle it. In th end she required surgery to remove the infection, and she convinced it to go dormant and not fight removal by pointing out she would kill herself if it kept trying to rewire her and then they'd both die. Now it lives on in her perfect memory and she has an uncanny ability to move, mentally, in cyberspace that a biological mind shouldn't have.
She learned to hold on to her friends, to set up and care for them and then she learned to let go. Her best friend, the first person to learn her identity since the Bat-family, Canary...left. For good reasons. For great reasons, and she let her go. The woman she'd dropped in a Lazarus pit and help through the insanity afterward had a child to think about. The team wasn't the same after that though, there was too much to do and the person Oracle trusted, without a doubt to push back when necessary...left.
The 'Birds of Prey' as Zinda dubbed them branched out after that. They expanded their roster, reaching out to any woman with power who might need something else. Anyone with skills not generally known. Oracle...no...Babs...didn't push her friend, she wished her the best and she waited, hoping.
And ran into an enemy. Spy Crusher, ah yes, an attempt (and almost success) at a hostile takeover. A college friend who'd turned rival, a terrifying woman more than willing to destroy everything around her to win, wanted Oracle's team. And Oracle...gave them to her. Not for long, but fear could do amazing things. The government sponsored woman was ruthless, terrifying, and overwhelming. She was also willing to kill the team to succeed and Oracle...wasn't okay with that. Who would be? Crippled, wheelchair bound and shivering, she challenged her one time friend with nothing but a pair of sticks and...came out on top, taking her team back.
And then a child tumbled into her life. A young girl who idolized Batgirl and had the widest teleportation range Oracle had ever heard about. It took a while. It took months of unexpected visits, encouraging the girl to make her own name...feeling her way through things but Oracle cracked. A little.
She wasn't Batman after all, she didn't work with fear. Oracle worked with Hope and Information. And she had a whole hotel to house a homeless little teleporter in after all. She'd never wanted to be a terror in the night, Oracle told of better things...and always would.
PERSONALITY:Babs is a person with a terrifying depth of Will. More than the drive to do good, she drives herself to be useful. This echoes through her work as Oracle as well as her drive to maintain as much physical capability as possible. She trains her body daily to the point that she successfully, as a cripple swinging along pipes and girders in a sinking submarine, takes out a team sent to destroy her alter ego.
Her IQ is measured in the near 200 level, the point at which people are either certifiably insane or locked into some useful rut...but she remains a free agent of sorts. She observes, collates, and plans like most people breath and she doesn't forget. As canon puts it, every detail of every moment is etched with burning, acid like clarity, forever observed and preserved in the crystal halls of her mind. She cannot escape the greatest pain she's ever been in; it never dulls. But likewise she cannot help factoring small details she's observed that feed into a terrifying whole. She is what she is and...she's come to terms with that to a degree.
She doesn't always like herself. As Oracle she has to make tough calls. Her agents go into situations where sometimes the action that will save millions...sacrifices hundreds in direct view. Babs is so much more liable as she is now, in her current role, than she ever was as Batgirl. It hasn't broken her though, that's her will and her acceptance of the cost of such bleeding through to keep her whole.
She's paranoid. Living as one of the Bat-family made her rabid about defending her identity; it took a year and more for her best friend to learn who she was and she's likely to revert to such self protective tendencies when forced into a new environment. This also means she prefers to know more about a person she's dealing with than they know about her. She has no qualms about reading a person's file honestly. She'll rarely use the info she finds unless necessary, but it does help her form an opinion on people!
When failure or judgment calls lead to hurting someone she cares about, or censure from those whose opinion she respects, Babs can get....focused. Single minded is probably the best term. She'll work to correct her mistakes and protect the people that matter to the sacrifice of her own health and other, lesser projects. Normally her friends can shake her out of this state, but that involves having friends.
Love. Oh love is a weak point for her. She worked a long time to have a normal relationship. She dated in her daylight life and she was even engaged before being shot...but she could never fully trust people who didn't know her, all of her...and those that did, well. Yes. Babs loves Dick Grayson, Nightwing, deeply and dangerously; it's everything or nothing with him. She can't be just friends, she can't watch him date others. She loves him and wants to keep him or has to let him go. Anyone who hits that level is going to have the same depth attached to them.
In any given situation that Babs enters she is likely to be the smartest person in the room. This isn't bragging this is dangerous fact. Some people in her world got flight and invulnerability, Babs deconstructs MENSA tests for fun. It's isolating in it's way, she can't connect to people as easily as she wishes. She can't even feel entirely human sometimes, a fact not helped by Brainiac finding her a perfect host and her brain slipping over into cyberspace navigation without any effort at all. She...revels in the physical because if she doesn't she's afraid she'll lose every anchor she has to what it means to be human. Sometimes when stressed she'll slip over into almost more machine than human and that's bad and a point she'll need friends to help pull her out of.
Compassionate. That's an interesting word to apply to Oracle but it's true. She'd rather find someone who needs her, someone who needs a purpose, and work them up into not needing her anymore than call on conventional heroes. Likewise she does her best to leave those who are victims in whatever case the BoP is working better off than when she found them. This trait has led her into traps upon occasion, and yes she beats herself up over it, but she will still move to help ahead of any other motivation.
Last but not least....Babs is a leader. She'll feed information to other people who need it, she'll stay in the shadows behind a virtual mask, but her team answers to her and they damn well better learn to trust her because she sees more than they do. She doesn't take orders worth a damn anymore, she's not a child standing in the shadow of Batman, and she has to be able to trust the people under her command to follow her instructions. She'll do everything in her power and more to protect her people, but she'll never work with someone again if they countermand her orders without a damn good reason. She doesn't mind people standing up to her, she needs team members with spine, but butting heads for no reason? No, that gets people killed and she doesn't have time or the lives to spare for that.
CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS:
Dick Grayson/Nightwing: She knew Nightwing from way back in the days when he was Robin and she Batgirl. He was her partner, her equal, and one of her only friends. The one in the know, and that grew over time into love, deep, true, and dangerous in it's reality. It's all or nothing with Dick, she can't do partway, she can't be friends with benefits; he's the only person she's ever trusted to run her systems and keep an eye on her people in the field when she HAS to sleep. The only other voice to be on her comm link, and the only person she trusts implicitly in any circumstance. When it comes to each other they are proud of the other and second guess themselves. They blame themselves for not knowing secrets and pains the other didn't share; they expect to know each other well enough to be able to intuit when the other is in pain or need. They live apart right now because neither one of them is quite ready to commit entirely to the type of bond that they require.
Bruce Wayne/Batman: Batman used to be her hero. He was a hero that relied on thinking more than abilities and she needed that in a role model when she was younger. He was an ideal that could keep up with her need to make a difference...and then she grew up. She loves Bruce, how not? But it's a love that admits how deeply he's flawed and how much he's driven by his own demons rather than a need to help others. She will stand toe to toe with him in an argument, she can and will defend her decisions, and he doesn't frighten her, they're evenly matched. He spied on her when she was first setting up as Oracle, ensuring she didn't get overwhelmed or crazy with the power she was grasping, and she let him, then she chewed him out and made him back off when she'd decided he'd watched her life long enough. When he went into a fight with a death wish she forced him to live, when she headed into a life or death surgery he flooded the doctor handling the case with equipment and haunted every dark corner he could find near her room. There is respect and love and affection there...but they have fundamental differences in how they approach their work, therefor they get along better in daylight hours than they do in costume these days.
James Gordon/Commissioner Gordon (retired): Babs grew up with a single father who was also a police detective, then a commissioner. To say he didn't sleep much would be an understatement. Despite that he did his best to be a good father and Babs NEVER felt like his work came first. Her love of aiding people, her lock picking skills, and her detective skills were honed by Batman, but she learned them from her father. When she became Batgirl she didn't tell him (she later found out he knew) and when she became Oracle it took her quite some time to gather the nerve to tell him she was more than a librarian. Even retired, even not being a cape, her father is proud of her and she visits with him often.
Dinah Lance/Black Canary: Starting life as a barely teenage crime fighter, Babs didn't really have a chance or inclination to make friends with people her own age. That's probably why she didn't realize she'd made a best friend in Dinah Lance for some time. Oracle found the Canary when her lover, Oliver Queen, died. This threw the martial artist into a depressive spiral, without her cry and feeling like she couldn't help the teams who needed her. Oracle came in and gave her a purpose, Dinah became her hands and feet in the outside world and the woman moved to Oracle's tune for a year and more before circumstances forced them to meet face to face. Dinah is one of the few people who can and will fight with Babs about personal matters, and who forces the wheelchair bound woman to get out and have fun, something Babs forgot how to do for a while. There's a deep bond of trust between the women even now when Dinah lives far away for personal reasons and no longer participates as part of the team.
Ted Kord/Blue Beetle: Ever meet a hero accidentally online? Oddly enough Ted Kord is the one person she didn't come at from the angle of Oracle, she met him in online chat and was talked into meeting him at a computer convention. Awkward was the name of the game since they were both lying about who they were and what they did for a living...but they got over that and found a friend in each other they didn't need to hide information from. She was the reason he came out of semi-retirement, she noticed a heart problem before it got serious, and she's the one who goes by his memorial in Metropolis every time she leaves her tower. He was a friend when she needed one, and someone else who knew what it was like to have a body unable to meet the expectations of the mind. They almost dated, decided not to, and were more comfortable in each other's company than anywhere else for a long time.
Helena Bertinelli/Huntress: For a very long time Oracle and Canary were a team, but there came a time to branch out. Huntress was a very different case from Canary, she was from a mafia family and trying to rise above that, and she was so very, very angry. Frankly Babs didn't know how to handle the woman and her first approach of trying to help her into better circumstances backfired painfully. Just because Huntress left though it did not mean Oracle stopped worrying about her, and working to keep an eye on her. When the woman was in trouble Oracle knew...and when she needed help, she offered instead of coming in to save Huntress. They built up a trust in this way, never lying to each other and not hiding motives. Today Helena is one of Bab's closest friends, lives in the same building as her, and is the team leader for Birds of Prey missions.
Savant and Creote: These two men are a calculated risk that actually paid off for the team. Savant is just that, a quick learning savant with an utter lack of a moral code, memory continuity problems, and a penchant for blackmailing rich people with secrets he's discovered. Creote is his best friend and the only person he trusts to tell him the truth about what his memory is lying about. Creote himself is a very large, ex-Russian military operative who loves Savant. Together they make a terrifying team and you do not get one without the other. He made the mistake of taking Canary on an early mission and trying to get the truth about Oracle out of her. They paid, immensely, for that mistake...and Savant decided he didn't want to be a villain really. It wasn't the best way to live and he didn't want to face the team again...so Oracle gave him a deal. A way to learn some externally imposed morals and make a difference. It was a slow learning process, and Savant doesn't grasp the fullness of WHY some things are right, but with Creote to remind him of things they have learned and they are emerging as useful team members as long as someone can tell them what to do when there's a moral situation they haven't learned yet.
Zinda Blake/Lady Blackhawk: Knowing Zinda is oddly humbling for Babs. This is a woman who was a WWII flying ace, a member of the Blackhawks, and preternaturally good at her job until she got sucked into a time vortex in battle and ended up in the current time. As with many of her team members, Oracle swept in when Zinda hated her new life and being grounded in red tape as the world tried to figure out what to do with the time traveler. She gave Zinda a plane, several in fact, and helicopters too...and Zinda responded with an unbridled enthusiasm for her suddenly better life. She declared Babs her new 'Skipper' and is unswervingly loyal and trusting; it's terrifying. No one else in Bab's life follows her unquestioningly and has such absolute faith in her. She's afraid she'll let the woman down somehow, make the wrong choice in a mission...but Zinda doesn't give her time to mope about that in between bopping around in Bab's apartment and dragging all the girls out drinking. Zinda embodies a sheer passion for the moment that Babs envies and wishes she could embrace as well.
Charlotte 'Charlie' Gage-Radcliffe/Misfit: So once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to be Batgirl. And for a while she was bouncing around calling herself that in fact, causing issues with identity and among those who knew Babs. Oracle was able to trace and catch the girl in the act of 'dark justice' and from that moment onward the girl has been...impossible to lose. After all when you're a teenage teleporter with no one else in your life why not follow your idol around? Some days Babs wants to strangle the girls since she doesn't focus, tends to touch things she shouldn't, and in generally is a pain in the ass. She's rather certain that she never bugged Bruce the way Charlie bugs her, but they're working on that. Misfit is currently 'adopted' by the team and in training with Oracle. It has it's ups and downs.
Clark Kent/Superman: It is very, very hard for Oracle to stand up to Superman like she does to Batman. Superman is an epitome of good in so many books, it's hard when the man seems disappointed in her. Living in Metropolis now she does have to to do it, yes, but being chewed out or chastised by the man of steel tends to send her into a slump for a few days like nothing else can.
Lois Lane: THIS WOMAN IS TERRIFYING! Lois is not in Oracle's level of intelligence, she doesn't watch the world, but she does have a disturbing amount of sway in the arena of public opinion and a tenacious, stubborn tendency to find answers when she chases a story. Not even the Joker has inspired as much cold sweat as this one little reporter in Metropolis, and Babs is glad she has a single piece of blackmail on the woman to keep her off Oracle's back.
J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter: J'onn is a telepath of a high degree and he's known about Oracle since the moment she stepped up to help the JLA with information. He often calls on her aid in situations they don't have enough info for and keeps her secret, though he cannot use her system, he's tried given it does contain some Martian tech. He was one of the people who stepped up to help in her surgery when infected by Brainiac.
JLA/JSA/YJ/Assorted heroes: Oracle has them ALL in her Rolodex and the general respect of most people she's ever given information to or saved the life of. Manhunter, Big Barda, and Powergirl (with some past history there yes) are some of her go-to ladies in later team efforts. Oracle has helped most teams and super powered types within her sphere of influence...and her influence keeps growing.
The Joker: The Joker is the nightmare Babs can't wake up from. He broke her and he almost killed her and she can't forget a single moment of it. Being shot, bleeding on the carpet, unable to move while the Joker tortured her father...no, she can't forget and sometimes the memory near eats her alive. She was glad, honestly, when Nightwing killed him. She was sad for Dick because the killing was hard to do, but yes, she was glad. And when so many dead came back to life she had a night or five of shivering, terrible fear because that meant the damn psychopathic clown was back as well. She has faced him several times since her injury and has never been debilitated, but at night, when she's alone, yes, she's very, very afraid.
Noah Kutler/Calculator: Noah is an obsessive-compulsive information broker and programmer whose mind as fixated on the puzzle of who Oracle is. He has made himself a nuisance in the virtual arena as he tries to hunt down and break Oracle. She has met him, face to face, and managed to hide her identity, but he is a constant worry in the back of her mind.
Katarina Armstrong/Spy Smasher: Katarina was a friend. Sort of. Once. Babs met this woman in college and they were fast friends, enjoying the same topics, voracious in their learning, competitive, they kept each other on their toes and spurred each other forward into excellence. Or that was what Babs thought. Babs enjoyed competing, but Katarina enjoyed winning by any means necessary and she sought such wins with single minded determination. It came out truly in a track race where the blond tripped and nearly broke Bab's ankle on purpose in order to take first, and after that Babs began to wake up to see just how ruthless her 'friend' was. They fell out of touch after college and Babs let her career and such alone. Sadly in the interim Katarina climbed to power within the US government and decided to target, and take over, Oracle's operation. For a little while, through intimidation and blackmail, she succeeded. It took a very firm statement, delivered via her sticks, and additional statements from every cape and friend of Oracle's in a ten thousand mile radius supporting said statement to make the woman back off, back down, and go away.
STRENGTH OF HEART MOMENT SUMMARY: [End of issue 108, Birds of Prey]
There are several moments in the comic arcs where Babs could have been pulled from, but the most important is this one: WHO and WHAT she is. At the end of the Spy Smasher Arc she realizes just how much she and Katarina could have been alike. Katarina uses people, without pity or remorse, and Oracle could easily do the same. She's in a position to use people without anyone ever knowing, and that's somehow worse. Instead she and Zinda drive out to a burned, abandoned building and Babs offers a hand to the young Charlie. There's room for foundlings in Oracle's operation.
There's room for people growing, changing, and questioning.
As she puts it "I never wanted to be like her. I'm about a better way. I'm about hope."
It takes strength to choose such a hard route, especially when it's so easy to move and shuffle people who aren't as intelligent
as you. It's hard to reach out to people you know will be a problem. It's hard to have faith in the people around you and she chooses to do so anyway, which is a long way from where she started with her paranoia.
POWERS
SAMPLE - THE AWAKENING:
She blinked, and blinked again, narrowing her eyes in a vain attempt to pierce the shadows around her. Had someone hit the car? She'd taken in Charlie, slipped into the car...and now she was in the dark. She could feel the chair under her, solid and simple, she wasn't in a crumpled mess, but by all rights it should never be this dark in Metropolis.
That left a few options. She didn't recall the distinctive scream of a Boom Tube, or the aching stench of a demon, her mind could have been hijacked perhaps?
It was looking that way in fact since the moment she started wheeling forward in the darkness a stained glass ramp lit up under her wheels. "Well then Alice..." she sighed, peering at the intricately worked scenes from....her own life. She rolled across Batgirl in flight and dipped from Gotham nightscapes to the bleeding red ruby of the Joker's attack, to chrome wheels etched in stark, metallic gleams across the glass.
As far as mental trips went this wasn't to her tastes.
"And what is little bat? Or should we call you wheelsy now?" The Joker laughed from a platform ahead of her.
Her fingers worked at the compartment in her wheelchair, batons sliding sure and firm in her hands as she crested the glassen rise. Sadly for her temper the damn clown wasn't visible, just three stark stone plinths rising from the cool green glow below. The whole platform was done as her Oracle mask, all cool smile and calm eyes below her useless feet. "Funny," she noted darkly, scanning the area again before she let the batons slide back home in her chair.
"I know, I crack me up!" The voice laughed again. "So here's the deal wheelsy, you get a choice, how fun is that?!"
"I don't think so."
"Awww, play along, I promise it'll be a blast!"
She ignored the voice this time, looking the plinths over. They were simple and roughly hewn, a stark contrast the worked glass under her. "I don't like games." And she didn't. The more she looked the more she thought this was a game. There was a hologram of a batarang floating above one plinth, the stark cut of the bat signal glowing across another, and the third, oddly enough, held a silk top hat. At least that gave her an idea? "Zatana? If you're here speak up! This isn't my arena!"
"Oh no no no, no life lines wheelsy, this is all you. And me. I'm here, but I've always been that laughing little voice in your head haven't I? Anywho, c'mon, surprise me!"
Well, no helpful little magician popping up to help her, that wasn't good.
"You know you'd look good in a hat! Why not? And it might actually make you crack a smile every once in a while! Lighten up, take a risk!"
No. Her hand swam out to snag at the hologram reflexively, the batarang dissolving into the screens of her home array. Comforting, and a far better weapon than just one batarang could be.
"Oh booo. Boooo! So predictable wheelsy, you and the bats, always the bats and your toys! I swear you never get a proper gag, function function function. Whatever happened to style?!"
"Take your hat and shove it," she growled at the darkness, green programming code flashing across her glasses for a moment.
"Oh, well, in that case be a party pooper. You coulda been one of the greats kid! A touch of proper chaos wouldn't that have been something?!"
"Not my way," she sighed, watching the hat dissolve into a sparkle of glitter and dust. Well, that was...interesting wasn't it? "I'm ready to wake up now, crazy dreaming aside."
"Oh are you? Your way is so...so dull! You're more like the Bats every time I look at you ha! All duty and order and getting yourself shot. Fine, see if I try to help you again! Take your stupid toy weapons and your place as a city shield and get out of my playground!"
Damn, the man was crazy as hell even in her own head. She closed her eyes a moment, blocking out the glow, and when she opened them she was...back in the dark, the reassuring shiver of batteries humming through her chair and her hands empty. Well then. "Hello?"
This time the clown didn't answer her. She'd take that as an improvement.
SPECIAL ABILITIES:
CANON STUFFS!
~High IQ
~Perfect recall
~Physically fit
~leadership skills
~deductive reasonining skills
~Speaks/reads/writes eleven languages as well as her own programming language. These are: English, German, Japanese, Cantonese, Portugese, French, Spanish, Italian, Navajo, Russian, and Swedish.
~Instinctive touch with technology
~Ability to multi-task and coordinate on a grand scale.
INVENTORY:
~One wheelchair, handleless, she doesn't like to be pushed.
~Two heavy batons for attack and defense as stored in her chair
~Three batarangs as stored in her chair
~One custom built laptop
~Three credit cards in various names not her own
~One long sleeve shirt (worn)
~One pair jeans (worn)
~One workout bra (worn)
~One pair socks (worn)
~One pair underwear (worn)
~One pair glasses (worn)
~One pair sneakers (worn)
~Three compression bands to tie legs together if necessary stored in chair
~One communications earbud, in ear, out of range
~One cellphone
NOTES/ASPIRATIONS
Babs is a well rounded genius with world watching experience. The world of Penrose is going to be immensely small and I'd like her to either take up the mantle of a Finder or handle massive coordination with planetary moogles. Either way could be interesting.
She'll stay fit and stay in practice, but I'm looking forward to her taking on at least one student that she can train to be her hands and feet on missions. she can also tighten up/improve the Elo system given time and a need to do so!
She will NOT be regaining her ability to walk, she has some mobility after her surgery, some ability to wiggle toes, and she can feel her legs more reliably, but that's it.