Name: Sarah Email Address: laurajenkinsparis at gmail AIM: N/A Google Chat: kat.shakespeare or laurajenkinsparis CDJ: ~lauraparis Time Zone: US Eastern
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Barbara Gordon Age/Date of Birth: 30 | September 23 Sexuality: Heterosexual Fandom: DC Universe Medium: Comics Canon point: Several years after the incident in "The Killing Joke" and after she became Oracle and formed the Birds of Prey. Alternates?: Yes. Please talk to me. Items of Note: Cell phone, a bag of throwing discs, change of clothes (jeans, black tank top, red underwear & bra), bottle of purple nail polish, an assortment of hair ties, wallet (containing Gotham Library card and employee ID, Gotham City ID, $14.50, credit cards) peppermint chapstick, a battered copy of a cheesy romance novel called The Duke and I, a black journals, a handful of pens, glasses case, water bottle. She will also arrive with her wheelchair.
PB: Bridget Regan
PERSONALITY
Barbara has spent most of her life with two different "faces," if you will. One is her public face or, better yet, her cover. The other used to be her Batgirl persona and has morphed necessarily into Oracle. Really, when she decided to become Batgirl, she decided that she needed to divert all possible attention from her as Batgirl so that no one could possibly suspect that the police commissioner's daughter was a vigilante crime fighter. Most important was that she needed to make sure her father didn't know she was a vigilante crime fighter. This, Babs realized, was actually more difficult than she realized. But it's in her nature not to give up or stand down from a challenge. And a challenge this certainly was. This was more true than ever after the incident that left her paralyzed from the waist down and she had to, suddenly, re-evaluate her entire life and work.
Suffice it to say there are parts of Babs that are part of her for real and parts that she's developed. As far as who she really is, here's a quick rundown: brave, stubborn, bold, forward, passionate, spontaneous, analytical, strategic, intelligent. All of these are qualities she has that make her very good at what she does, which is spend her nights protecting Gotham from the crazies. All of these characteristics are always there for her, whether she's being Oracle or Barbara Gordon, but she tones them down with the latter. Because Barbara is, after all, someone who no one could ever expect to have been Batgirl and more than likely not Oracle now. To the general public, really, Barbara is a quiet, smart, hard-working librarian who keeps mostly to herself, wears modest clothes, and couldn't possibly spend her nights coordinating the crime-fighting of the entire Batman family for Gotham City.
Barbara is extremely intelligent, shrewd, and driven. She has an extremely high IQ and, unlike some people in the same intelligence level, she has a good amount of common sense as well. Sometimes her intelligence can be a weakness, in that she can't see the forest for the trees in a sense. Sometimes, the bigger picture is lost because she has her skills and abilities focused on such a narrow subject. But she's also a problem-solver and a strategist. She picks apart complicated problems and solves them.That only works on computers and mathematics and vigilante type things, not with personal lives. Really, Barbara is fairly unable to straighten out her own personal life.
She is careful but she's not perfect. Barbara's one of those people who has a temper and plays the role of fiery redhead very well. She's been known to get angry about injustice in both parts of her life. She has a lot of bold opinions, and sometimes she shares them when she shouldn't. For many reasons, she's a bit of a rebel. One has to be if one is a crime-fighting vigilante. She can be mean and won't hesitate to stab an ally in the back if said ally proves to be an enemy instead. At her worst, Barbara can fall into a dark depression where she questions what she's doing, if what has happened to her over the years was worth it. She has many regrets and a pent-up anger that shows its ugly head now and again, though the frequency of that has diminished over the years, thankfully. She is capable and very, very serious about what she does and what she believes. She's the type who will fight for something she believes in whether it'll kill her or not. She is passionate and full of a desire to do everything that she can for others. She's always looking for ways to make things better, including her own life and the lives of those around her.
HISTORY
Wiki link for a comprehensive history, though I have both condensed it and simplified it below along with some of my own head canon for a cohesive history for Barbara in game.
Barbara Gordon is the daughter of Gotham police commissioner Jim Gordon (though he was a lowly lieutenant at the time of her birth) and his wife. She has an older brother, Jimmy, who always seems to get into trouble. On the other hand, Barbara was always the "good daughter." She did extremely well at school, had an interest in the maths and sciences, and decided early on that she wanted to follow in her father's police force footsteps.
Since her father did always worry for her safety, he enrolled her in various self-defense classes beginning at six years old, which Babs ended up being very thankful for the older she got. (Not because she needed to use her skills but because she wanted to, as Batgirl eventually.) She graduated high school at 16, continued her education in the sciences, library science, and computer science. By the time she was done, she was ready to enter the police academy. Unfortunately her father forbid it, and as commissioner, that meant he literally could forbid it. She ended up with a library assistant job and quietly began plotting her next move.
As someone who had looked up to (read: was obsessed with) Batman for many years, she realized if she wasn't going to be able to get involved in the protection of Gotham any other way. She decided that what she would do was get Batman's interest and, ultimately, his respect. No one would suspect that Barbara Gordon, the commissioner's good, smart, research librarian daughter, was actually a "superhero."
It was at a party, actually, that her opportunity came. With her father in trouble and Batman nowhere to be found (apparently because Bruce Wayne was in attendance and thus couldn't be in two places at once; in reality it should be noted that she's currently unaware of Batman's true identity), and as it was a costume party, Barbara took advantage and, if she has to say it, "saved the day." From that moment on, it was a rush, and she knew she couldn't give it up.
Barbara sought out Batman and eventually convinced him to train her and allow her to join him. She didn't let him down, and she spent years fighting crime in Gotham City at his city. Their crime fighting family grew as Robin, then Nightwing, joined them. She helped Batman train others even as she was training more and harder herself.
One of the most, if not the most defining moment in Barbara's life was the day the Joker showed up at her apartment, shot her, then tortured and abused her as a game to get into the heads of the two most important men in her life: Batman and her father. By the time the entire horrifying experience was over, Barbara was left paralyzed from the waist down and completely lost. It took longer than she would have expected before the entire thing happened to get back to her old self. And even then she was never fully back to herself. She couldn't be. She changed. She would never walk again. She'd never put on her bat suit and join her family on the streets ago. She didn't know how to keep doing what was such an important and overwhelming part of her life. It would be cliche and yet not too far off to say that she had to do a lot of soul searching before she settled into what, in hindsight, was really the only natural path ever: she became Oracle and turned herself into the network and watchful eye and coordinator for Batman, Robin, Nightwing, and the others.
SKILLS
Eidetic memory, genius-level intellect, graduated high school at 16, all sciences (in particular biology and computers), mixed martial arts (several black belts), throwing stars, sparring, can go long hours with little sleep, skilled in computer science and hacking. Even though Barbara is paralyzed from the waist down, she still keeps up her athleticism and upper body strength and can spar more than adequately with anyone who's willing.