» PLAYER INFORMATION
Player NAME: Justine.
Current AGE: 21
Player TIME ZONE: GMT+10 (Sydney, AUS)
Personal JOURNAL: faileneume
IM & SERVICE: n/a
Player PLURK: faileneume
Current CHARACTERS: n/a


» CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character NAME: Stephanie Brown
Canon & MEDIUM: DCU | Comics
Canon PULL-POINT: The end of Batgirl #24, after she talks with Barbara on the rooftop and swings off.
Character AGE: Nineteen, in... comic book years.
Character ABILITIES:

Steph has a fair few skills under her belt, despite being a baseline human. She was an accomplished gymnast on her school team before beginning her vigilante career, and her skills have improved greatly with training. She's undergone a significant amount of training in terms of martial arts, receiving tutelage from two of the top martial arts in the DCU (Dinah Lance and Cassandra Cain), as well as training from Tim Drake, Batman and Barbara Gordon. Although this training focused on hand to hand combat, she's also more than capable in the use of bo staff, escrima and the traditional batarangs. She is trained to use guns, as well as a variety of other lethal weaponry, but lack of practice means she's not as accomplished in these areas. Both as Spoiler and Robin, Steph underwent the typical Bat-training, including but not limited to, chemistry, forensic psychology, undercover work, escapology, etc. As Batgirl, she's had Oracle teaching her how to use computer systems and other technological devices to her advantage, though she's still working on getting good at it.

Between the requisite medical knowledge that Batman expects his Robins to know, the fact Steph's mom is a nurse, and the year Steph spent in Africa working in a Doctors Without Borders style capacity, she's gained a fairly comprehensive knowledge of medical procedure. She can clean and sew up a wound, set bones, administer injections, pop dislocated joints back into place and knows how to treat assorted infections, diseases and responses to trauma (this is important in her line of business where she comes into contact with trauma victims).

As someone who's had to take care of herself for most her life, Steph has the general set of basic life skills: cooking, cleaning, sewing, household repairs, sorting out banking, bills and taxes. She knows her way around engines, particularly motorbikes and likes tinkering when she gets the chance (which isn't often, unfortunately). In terms of general education, Steph took her GED on her own time, after dropping out of high school, and she's probably of average or a little higher than average intelligence. She is, however, extremely resourceful. Not always having access to the high tech gadgets many other Gotham vigilantes are used to, she's learned to make use of her surrounding and turn every day items into tools. And she's an expert at thinking on her feet, partly as a result of her tendency to rush in head first. Currently she's studying at Gotham University, taking classes in Philosophy and Computer Science (canon) as well as Social Policy, Sociology of Education, and Introduction to Psychology (headcanon).

She also nearly snuck up on Batman once.

Character HISTORY: Wikipedia biography.


Character PERSONALITY:
Stephanie Brown doesn't give up. Everything she does and everything she believes in is based around her refusal to quit, no matter how tough things get. She's been told numerous times that she'll never amount to anything and keeps trying anyway, keeps trying to be better, to get more training and do things right this time. At first, Steph kept being Spoiler, because she wanted to prove people wrong about her, because she enjoyed the thrill of the control it gave her when everything else in her life was a mess, and because she wanted vengeance against her dad. But after her dad was in prison, she began to realize other reasons to keep fighting, and the Spoiler became about protecting the people of Gotham and about doing the right thing. Steph recognized a need and she filled it by setting out to stop other kids from having to grow up the way she did, surrounded by violence and neglect. This is one of her strongest convictions and it's why she won't quit regardless of anything that stands in her way.

Her stubbornness can be her downfall on occasion, since she doesn't know when to back down or make a strategic retreat, instead she'll keep trying until she can't anymore, regardless of the costs to herself. It can also lead to her making rash decisions and rushing into things just for the sake of doing something, rather than spending the time to work out a good game plan while people are potentially getting hurt. She's trying to learn a little restraint in that regard, to weigh up all her options before jumping in, and to know when it's better to back down and come back for a second round, but it's not as easy as she thought it would be, and sometimes her eagerness, stubbornness and temper get the best of her, and she still makes mistakes on occasion.

On the surface, Steph might come across as a little shallow. Her sense of humour alternates between dry sarcasm, and dorky puns, with an occasional edge of self-deprecating humour. She uses humour to cover up her emotions, especially fear and insecurity. She tries to always keep a cheerful countenance, and when people don't know her very well, this can be seen as her being dismissive of serious issues or not taking things seriously enough. This is untrue, Steph is cheerful because she wants to be, because she refuses to stay down in the face of all the shit she's been through, because she wants to be a source of comfort for other people (she was a Robin, once, she knows how to be the light to someone's dark) and because in the end even if something does get her down, there are few people she trusts enough to let them see what she perceives as a weakness. Just like she refuses to give up in a fight, she refuses to give up on her spirit and her optimism. Steph is going to enjoy her life, the rest of the world be damned.

She can also be kind of cheeky, with a special fondness for teasing her friends. It works as another aspect of her sense of humour and as a way to test boundaries - she teases to see how much her friends will put up with. Her friendships with both Tim and Cass often featured gentle taunting and mocking, coming from all parties. Steph also felt the humour and teasing was necessary for keeping Tim down to earth, she always worried that he was going to turn into Batman and didn't want that for him. It's one of the things she regrets about letting everyone believe she was dead; she feels like it contributed to pushing Tim towards that end. Sometimes she doesn't even recognize him anymore.

Steph has a hard time making friends, partly because she has a low tolerance for people who are cruel or false, and a lot of Gotham's seem to fall into that category. She's also had her trust broken enough times that she is wary of people - particularly those in authority positions - and doesn't like giving them power over her through friendship, or relationships in general. It's hard for her to befriend civilians, particularly those that come from a more privileged background, simply because they don't understand the violence that surrounds her life, both from her upbringing and her life as a vigilante. She does have a small group of friends among the superhero/vigilante community, Tim Drake, Cass Cain, Kara Zor-El and Wendy Harris, the first two who have been in her life for years, and the latter two are people she's learning to trust. She's been shown to get along with Connor Hawke, Miss Martian, Traci 13 and assorted other Teen Titans, but has never kept in contact with them. As a result, while she's fairly independent and likes doing things her own way, when the situation arises she's willing to call for back up and can work well with others. She's never had a chance to be on a superhero team, but she'd like to give it a shot one day.

When she does manage to make close friends, she has a tendency to idolize them and will often ignore their faults. This is heightened by the fact that at the beginning of her career as a superhero, Steph had a harder time ignoring people's put downs, and felt that she wasn't deserving of friends. It becomes a problem in situations like what happened in regards to Cassandra and Tim, both of whom have frequently treated Stephanie like she's not good enough, and told her so. Sometimes Steph believes them, but even when she managed to stop believing them, she still never called them out for treating her badly because a part of her couldn't completely ignore them and because she doesn't want to risk losing them just for the fact they doubt her. Her friendship with Cass is an intense one, as a result of both their upbringings, their personalities, and the similarities they share. Although it took them a while to trust each other and work together well, Steph and Cass both care deeply for each other and the friendship has helped both of them grow and change. Cass's respect for Steph - earned when Steph refused to quit even after getting beaten down by Cass - helps Steph to respect herself. And although, as mentioned, Cass can be doubtful of Steph, as when she knocked Stephanie out to keep her from a fight, Cass tries to teach Steph how to improve, rather than trying to make her quit. It was a huge moment for Steph when Cass gave her the Batgirl name and costume and one of the main reasons she tries so hard to make Batgirl into something to be proud of. Cass is her best friend and Steph doesn't want to let her down.

She can be quick to anger, especially when someone is threatening children and sometimes she relishes the violence she gets to deal out as a vigilante. It's cathartic, beating up the sort of assholes that remind her of her dad, and she always feels good in knowing that she stopped the bad guy. Her anger can be both personal, and righteous. She's attacked the Riddler because she blamed him for her father's death, she punched her ex-boyfriend for leaving her alone when she was pregnant and she slapped Batman for making her play his games. On the other hand, she's turned her anger towards the cause that she believes in which has led to her rage at the Penguin for exploiting children and at the Calculator for hurting her friends.

There's a ruthlessness in the way she fights, often hitting harder than someone like Batman would deem "necessary". Sometimes she just likes violence as the first option to solve the problem; it's quick, simple and it's what's kept her alive growing up in a house full of criminals. She's working on trying to find other ways to deal with problems. Steph doesn't kill, but that's mostly out of respect for Batman's rules and the legacy of the costume -- it was Cass's identity and Steph knows how she feels about killing. But she's never understood why they have to go out of their way to not kill the bad guys. She figures they should be able to beat them up as much as is required to stop them and if that means potentially killing them, so be it. Canonically, she's wanted to leave the unconscious criminal in a building about to explode, and she still doesn't get why she had to go back and save him when it was his choice to be there in the first place. Some of Batman's issues with Stephanie stem from this, as he doesn't trust her not to use lethal force. When confronted with Zsasz, Steph was ready to kill him to save Batman and any future victims of Zsasz, an act which Batman scolded her for. She believes she did the right thing, despite Batman's insistence otherwise.

That said, she understands that not all criminals commit crime because they want to. Her background gives her enough insight to know that sometimes it's the only option and she tends to be lenient with kids from backgrounds like hers, who get caught up in gangs or drugs, encouraging them to get their life back on track, if that's possible. Similarly, she is critical of Batman's approach to crime fighting, which often focuses on the big crimes and tends to overlook the little people. It's why Stephanie kept being Spoiler, she wanted to stick to the suburbs and the parts of Gotham that Batman doesn't go to.

She's used to dealing with her problems by herself, a symptom of her trust issues and the victim blaming she faced after her dad's friend attempted to rape her. As a result she tries to keep her personal life personal, except from her closest friends, and even then there are topics she doesn't like to talk about. Her child is on that list because she doesn't really like thinking about it; she knows she made the right choice but it doesn't stop her from wondering what could have been. She also doesn't like talking about her mom's addiction, and can get kind of paranoid with regards to her own behaviour, not planning to touch drugs or alcohol for fear she'd get addicted to. She doesn't like to talk, or think, about what happened during the gang wars even though she's trying to make peace with herself about what she did. Sometimes she still blames herself for what happened, but if anyone else tries to blame her, she'll break their nose.

The relationship between Steph and Crystal is a difficult one, despite being the most important in her life, complicated by Arthur, Crystal's addiction and Stephanie's crime fighting activities. She became the Spoiler to stop her dad from ever hurting her mom again and Steph loves Crystal, but she can't forget all the times that she's been hurt both by Crystal, and while she stood idly by as Arthur hurt Steph. Sometimes she blames her mom for letting Arthur stay in the house even though she knows Crystal had no choice. Even more often, she blames her for turning to drugs when things got to hard to bear and for leaving Steph, a little girl, alone to deal with Arthur. But Crystal has recognized her mistakes, apologized for them, and done her best to atone for them. With Arthur "dead", they'd tried to make themselves into a family again without him, and were mostly succeeding until the gang war and Steph's "death", an event that hit Crystal hard. When Steph came back, it was her turn to do the apologizing and she's grateful that her mom forgave her for not returning sooner.

Cystal's opinions on Stephanie's vigilantism has varied through Steph's career; Crystal has encouraged her actions, overlooked them, and told Steph to stop. After Steph's "return from the dead", her mom made her promise to stop being a superhero and Steph said she would. It's been a constant source of guilt for Steph because she hates lying to her mom. In the final issue of Steph's Batgirl run, her mom finds out that she's been operating as Batgirl for a few months, and after a slightly awkward discussion, Crystal tells Steph that she's proud of her. This is an important moment for Steph, and it's taken a lot of weight off her shoulders; she no longer needs to worry about keeping the secret, Crystal is one more person who has started giving Steph the approval that she deserves and it's another step towards making their relationship the mother-daughter relationship it should be.

She's resourceful, mostly because she had to be. She's had to learn to survive with what's available, had to learn to fight with what's available and as a result doesn't rely on the tech and gadgets that other vigilantes tend to. Although she does enjoy having access to all the fancy gadgets that Oracle gets for her, Steph hasn't lost her resourcefulness and she enjoys finding the most interesting uses for the tech she's got.

The most important thing about Steph is that she refuses to be a victim, and that she'll never give up.


» EXSILIUM INFORMATION
Chosen WEAPON: Her canon Batgirl suit, including the utility belts around her waist and thigh, and their contents. As the weapon evolves, the pre-existing technology in the suit will become more developed. Currently it monitors her vital signs, allows communication and recording through an inbuilt earpiece and microphone, has inputs that allow external devices to be plugged in (such as an iPod) and displayed on her lenses, has limited sensors in the gloves to pick up vibrations, and flip-down lenses that allow night vision , and a limited targeting and zoom function; all these would improve as time goes on, and more technologies could develop, such as extra vision abilities in the lenses and the ability to interface with more devices. The suit and her cape is armoured with a kevlar/nomex blend to protect against bullets and knives, as well as being fire resistant, and this could also evolve, becoming stronger without sacrificing range of movement/flexibility. I think it would also be neat if eventually it could evolve some camouflage abilities, maybe to the point of allowing invisibility, or the suit disguising as civilian clothes ( so it looks like she's wearing jeans + a shirt, or similiar).

As for the belt it could evolve, very slowly, I imagine, to automatically replace the tools she uses, as well as potentially providing items more suitable to the city of Exsilium that she may not have had in canon. If we want to get very evolved, it could operate in a way that she can always find exactly what she needs just be reaching into the belt, but that would... be a very long way away.

Character INVENTORY:

Her Batgirl suit, as detailed above, including cowl, cape, boots, gloves, and the undersuit made of a simple lycra, and her utility belts. The utility belts currently contains assorted batarangs (incl. ones that freeze, explode, release a smoke screen, release a sticky substance designed to tangle people up, etc) , a handheld computer masquerading as an iPhone, first aid supplies, antidotes to supervillain toxins (e.g., Joker gas, Scarecrow's fear gas, Poison Ivy's pheromones), locks picks, two grapple guns + line, rebreather, tracers, zipstrips in lieu of cuffs, assorted chemical agents (bases to counteract acids, chemicals that will melt through locks/etc),.

» SAMPLES
First PERSON: voice; anonymous.

[Before doing anything on the network, she's spent a good few hours perusing other people's posts, as well as messing around with the settings on her tablet. Upon finding that she could enable an anonymous setting, she'd finally decided to get introductions over and done with.

When she talks, her voice is lacking any trace of a discernible accent, and it's a little rougher than how 'Steph Brown' speaks, not instantly recognisable as a female voice.]

Right, hi, this is new.

Waking up in a weird-ass post apocalyptic Britain - it's Britain, right? The map looked a little off - is not what I was expecting when I got out of bed this morning, but I guess you can't win 'em all.

I won't waste your time asking how to get home, since I figure there wouldn't be so many people around if someone had figured it out. I would like any information people can give me on the initiative. the woman who greeted me seemed nice enough, but are they the good guys, or should I be more suspicious? And do they have a whole big brother thing going on?

[Which is her slightly subtle way of asking if the network is monitored.

After a moment's thought, she adds:]

If there are any bats in the belfry, come say hi.

[okay so that's less subtle, but it's better than straight out asking "yo are there Batfolk here?"]


Third PERSON:
Gotham at night is beautiful.

Admittedly, most of Gotham's citizens might not agree with that opinion, but Steph's always loved her city even as she's hated it. And it only gets better at night. The pollution always hangs in the air, but without the warmth of the sun, the smell of it lessens enough that Steph can almost pretend it's clean air as she swings through it. It's been hot this summer, hotter than usual, and it's left all but the most devoted supervillains too lazy to go outside. It's her first summer in the Batgirl suit, and it's much nicer than the sticking feel of her Spoiler one; high tech fabric goes a long way in keeping her cool. Still, even at night it's warm and she lets herself drop as she swings across rooftops, the rush of air against her face and through her hair cooling her down.

She catches herself with her grapple gun, letting the arc of her swing carry her up on to the roof of a high rise before disengaging the line. Walking to the edge, Steph balances on the railing that surrounds the rooftop, listening to the sounds of the city below. The sirens are almost a constant backdrop to the cityscape, unlike the ping in her ear that means Proxy is contacting her. That's new.

"What have you got for me, Proxy?"

"Penguin broke out of Arkham Asylum twenty minutes ago. I've been tracking him on CCTV, sending you the details now."

Steph groans, but flicks down her lenses and brings up the display of the Penguin, one Oswald Cobblepot, disappearing into an unmarked black car.

"Well, no surprises there," Cobblepot's smart, but he prefers to rely on other people to do the grunt work; Steph knows he wouldn't have escaped without outside help, probably from recently hired goons.

Proxy hums in something like agreement, then adds, "Oracle says to be gentle."

Steph gives that a full second of consideration before she starts making 'static' noises, "Sor--bzz-ry, didn't - ccrckk - that?" Her and Penguin have unfinished business, she knows that's why Babs is telling her to be gentle, but she doesn't want to be. Cobblepot deserves everything she can dish out, especially if he manages to hurt more people before she gets there.

She can practically hear Proxy rolling her eyes on the other end of the line, "Nice try, Batgirl, but there's no such thing as static where Oracle's systems are concerned."

There's a camera over her right shoulder, just a regular security camera, but Steph knows full well that Proxy will have hacked into the feed by now to keep an eye on her, and she's willing to use it to her advantage. So she turns, looks up at it with a contrite expression and shrugs while mouthing I can't hear you. She hears a sigh on the other end of the line.

The last thing the feed will catch before Steph disappears over the edge, is a wink and a cheeky grin. There'll be retribution later, from both of her computer genuines, probably in the form of her Compact getting a new paint job in bright orange, but until then Steph knows she's won this round.

» ADDITIONAL NOTES