InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "The hero has arrived!"

_a_dark_knight (_a_dark_knight) wrote,
@ 2014-01-27 23:06:00

OOC:
Your Name: Rory
Are you over 18: Yes
Time Zone: West Coast North America
Email: rory_black@hotmail.com
AIM/Messenger:---

IC:
Character Name: Bruce Wayne/Batman
Journal Name: _a_dark_knight
Species: Human
Age: 35
Fandom: DC Comics
Canon Point: Post "Death of the Family" and "Batman: Incorporated"
Puncturable: Yes
PB: Josh Brolin

Do you find your character to be a good guy, a bad guy, or somewhere in between? Be as detailed as you’d like: Good. A loner, bit of a jerk, but good.

History: Here

What is the ONE ITEM that your character will arrive with?: Batsuit

Personality:
Bruce Wayne has managed to build himself a strange semblance of a life out of the ruins of his parents death, including a family- of sorts. There are the obvious observations to make about him. He’s intense. Driven to the point of obsessive. Sharply perceptive. Unrelenting. Cold to the verge of cruelty.

Then there are those in the outer ring of Bruce’s true self. Justice League teammates, other heroes he has fought alongside. They encounter a man who demands the most from himself and others, but does so from a place of belief. He knows what he’s capable of, and he knows what others are capable of- even when they don’t believe it themselves. He prefers to lead from the front, and doesn’t appreciate being questioned, but respects skill and will (seemingly) relent when faced with someone better suited to handle a situation.

A step closer are his wards, his adopted family. To them he is even more demanding, but also more open with his feelings. He displays affection, even love, for his wards. He also displays a dry sense of humour in the face of the grim in gruesome, but forces others to decipher his jokes like mysteries- a backward way of showing his appreciation for his family’s skill.

And then there is the real man. Clear to only Alfred and perhaps Dick Grayson, Bruce is at his core a force of will and control, whose entire life has been built around fear. He feels fear every day, cultivates it, and conquers it. And no matter how close they may be to him, those who know him- truly know him- know that Bruce will never fully trust anyone. Everyone is a potential suspect. A potential threat. And he will never let his guard down again. He will prepare contingencies for EVERY eventuality, and will pursue what he thinks is best above all else.

Without his playboy persona to hide behind, Bruce instead will be forced to revert to a more subtle version of his playboy self. With strangers he will be polite, intelligent, and generally keep to himself- unless his curiosity has been piqued by a person in need or of particular interest to him. He will use his considerable skills to remain an unknown quantity and to pursue his own ends. Perhaps he will allow one or two particularly intelligent or persistent individuals to get close to him. Perhaps he will fall in love. But whatever the case, he will stay who he is. Who he has always been. The Batman.

Training, Skills and Abilities:Even from a young age, Bruce Wayne’s potential was plain. He was extremely bright, and possessed an aptitude for athletic and artistic endeavours. No doubt had his life gone another way, he would have proven to be a leading mind in Medicine or Law, who had perhaps achieved Olympic gold in his youth. But Bruce Wayne’s life did not go another way. And so, driven by his obsession with his parent’s death, Bruce Wayne molded himself into something else entirely. A man whose whose intellectual achievements rival those of Leonardo DaVinci, and whose physical prowess allows him to dominate nearly every at athletic endeavour which he attempts. He is the definition of a polymath, a genius, and a savant.

Training
Bruce Wayne spent 7 years traveling the world, and in that time he mastered a number of fields. Studying at the Sorbonne, Oxford, Harvard, or one of a half dozen other institutions by day, and mastering a variety of martial arts by night. As he shifted his focus to crime-fighting, Bruce trained under the likes of Henri Ducard, master detective and manhunter; the Ghost Tribes of the Ten-Eyed Brotherhood, found in the wilderness of North Africa; the Monks of the Hidden City of Nanda Parabat; Master Assassin Ra’s Al Ghul; and many others. After his return to Gotham, Bruce has constantly honed and refined his skills, training alongside other heroes, testing himself against villains, and travelling abroad to continue his studies.

He has been called ‘the Most Dangerous Man Alive’ by Superman, is a leading member of the Justice League, and has single-handedly invented dozens of amazing pieces of advanced technology. He has survived no-holds-barred encounters with various superhumans (including a mind-controlled Superman) and has lived to tell the tale.

His use of advanced meditation and mental states involving brainwave manipulation, self-hypnosis, and his photographic memory are partial explanations of his ability to master so many fields. The only others available are his excellent genes and obsessive, unrelenting mental faculties.

PHD Level Training:
Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Mechanical, Electrical and Chemical Engineering, Theoretical and Quantum Physics, Finance and Business, Linguistics, Criminology, Forensic Sciences, Computer Sciences, Psychology, History (focus on Gotham City and surrounding region), Mythology, Medicine (specialty in emergency medicine and surgery), Military and Strategic Studies, Politics, Sociology, Extra-Terrestrial Societal and Technological Studies (Kryptonian, Apokalyptian, Martian, Thanagarian).

Master level Martial Arts Training including (but not limited to):
Ninjitsu, Jiu-Jitsu (Brazilian and Japanese), Aikido, Karate, Muay Thai and Western Boxing, Wrestling (various styles), Judo, Kali, Varma Adi, Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido, Various styles of kung fu (Shoalin, Wushu, Wing Chun, Northern and Southern Animal Styles, Richard Dragon and Lady Shiva’s personal styles). These encompass a handful of his vast repertoire, and include all weapons (handheld, thrown or long ranged), accumulated teachings (physiological, mental, spiritual) associated with each art.

Comprehensive understanding and experiential training of the following non-academic skills:
Escapology, Code Breaking, Diving, Driving, Parachuting, Computer Hacking, Wilderness Survival, Marksmanship, Automotive/Airplane/Helicopter Mechanics and Piloting, Gymnastics, Lock Picking, Pick Pocketing, Acting, Tracking, Interrogation, Detective work, Firearms (trained only), Meditation, Hypnotism, the Occult (no practical knowledge), Superhuman combat and strategy.

Note: I feel like I need to add something here, because, well… IT’S BATMAN. It can be somewhat intimidating reading Bruce’s list of skills, but obviously take it all with a big pinch of salt. Although Batman is obviously a genius and contender for the leading martial artist and detective on his world, he is neither infallible nor unbeatable. One minute he’s fighting Darkseid with the Justice League, the next, a punk with a bottle gets a lucky hit and knocks him out. He tends to scale up or down depending on whom he’s facing, and I intend to write him as such. So if he’s against Malcolm Reynolds or Indiana Jones, he’s going to be pretty evenly matched, but if he’s against Goku or Thor, he’ll pull out all the stops and somehow manage to hold his own and remain a credible threat. If the logic seems flawed, it is- he’s a superhero :P

Also, mastering dozens of martial arts or fields does not make him ‘better’ than a person who has mastered one. If a character is an expert in a single or handful skills, feel free to assume they know more about their area of expertise than Batman does, be it medicine, marksmanship, or mathematics. He’s the Batman, not the Batgod.

Log Sample:
White flakes drifted down slowly, their purity snatched as they landed on the streets and buildings of the black city below. Neon signs cast halos in the moist air, lending an eerie otherworldly quality to the scene. A thin layer of snow blanketed the sidewalks, the ledges, the gargoyles.

No weather, however inclement, would stop the Game. Dealers held their corners, wrapped in puffed out coats and Timberlands. Junkies wrapped themselves in whatever they could get their hands on, shivering from the cold or from withdrawal. The police cruised by in their cars, windows up, heaters on full. And, from a perch five stories up on a fire escape, He observed.

He'd seen it a thousand times before. He'd see it a thousand more. But he watched all the same. It had been an hour and thirty one minutes. Thus far, everything was as it aught to be. The lookouts were scattered across the block, watching for police or stick-up crews; the dealers spoke with the junkies; the runners took money and handed off the product, heading to their main stash for refills occasionally. It all moved like clockwork.

He weighed his options. Simply attacking the corner would be beyond pointless. It was a tactic the police used time and again. In an hour another crew would have taken the corner. It was a law of nature. Of physics. Supply created demand. Nature abhorred a vacuum. Et cetera, et cetera.

The real method was surveillance. Intelligence work. Building the case, understanding the networks at play. Following the little fish to the medium to the big. Watching the money as it flowed from drugs into political coffers and land developments.

"How goes the evening, sir?" a voice asked over his radio earpiece, the signal so clear it was as if Alfred was crouching next to him.

"Uneventful" Batman rasped, barely a whisper, the microphones at his throat picking up and amplifying his voice. A pair of assaults and an armed standoff at a convenience store, fairly tame for a Tuesday night in Gotham.

"Taking the time to catch up on your surveillance?"

"So it would seem" he replied wryly.

Down below, a dealer shoved back a junkie, and silver flashed in his hand as he went for his gun.

"I've got work..." he rasped, Batman was already in the air, his cape extended out behind him as he glided silently down on the scene like some dark, avenging angel...

Forum Post Sample:

I was pulled here via some sort of wormhole or pandimensional tear. Looking over earlier posts, I'm not the first person this seems to have happened to. Any theories or pertinent information for a newcomer would be appreciated.

Did you read the rules?: Yes

Did you read the important facts for players?:Yes