Stephanie Brown (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the_dork_knight) wrote2012-05-26 02:50 pm
the_dork_knight) wrote2012-05-26 02:50 pm
Stephanie Brown, the Dork Knight
Basics
Name: Stephanie Brown
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Species: Human
Fandom: DC Comics
Appearance
PB: Alona Tal
Description: Standing at about 5'5, Steph has an athletic build toned by years of training. She's got a warm, friendly face with blue eyes and wavy blonde hair that falls just past her shoulders. She has numerous scars, though most are generally hidden by her clothing. There's a particularly ugly one from a gunshot wound to the shoulder, with an exit wound in the back; as well as numerous long, pale scars, seemingly the result of deep cuts on her arms, thighs and abdomen - reminders of the torture she suffered at the hand of Black Mask. She arrives in this world wearing her Batgirl costume - a full body suit and cowl made from kevlar and carbon fibre reinforced polymer, black with purple side-ribbing, yellow utility belts and a stylised yellow bat on the chest.
Skills
Powers: A utility belt full of crap and a positive outlook?
Abilities: Steph is skilled in gymnastics, martial arts and investigation, having been trained extensively by Batman, the former Batgirl Cassandra Cain, and the Birds of Prey. She's also acquired reasonable first aid skills through working with Leslie Thompson.
Personality
General personality:
Stephanie is a warm, upbeat, optimistic individual. Where other vigilantes have long since become disheartened or jaded, Steph retains a positive outlook and a genuine desire to help others. For all the blows she's taken and all the horrible things she's face, she's pulled through and come out both stronger and more determined than ever to keep on fighting. Other members of the Bat family use fear as their weapon, becoming the instrument of vengeance that lurks in the shadows - that's not Steph's style. For her, being Batgirl is about hope; about growing through her mistakes instead of letting them define her, about helping others not to make mistakes, and making Gotham a better place.
And she has grown a lot in the past couple of years. What began as a rebellion against her father and his criminal schemes has evolved into a real passion for helping people. True, she's still a little overly impulsive and with a tendency to leap before she looks - but at least now she's leaping with her eyes open, taking full advantage of her talent for improvisation and reacting on the fly. She may not bottle up or push away her emotions as other heroes do, but nor does she let them rule her any more.
She's got a strong sense of determination, and she's stubborn as hell when she wants to be: when Steph has put her mind to something, nothing and nobody can sway her. It's both a strength and a weakness. As Spoiler and as Robin, Steph was told time and again to give it up, to hang up the costume. And every time she remained defiant, and she kept at it, making her own costumes and improvising her own gear when she had to - each denial only fuelling her desire to prove herself worthy. Steph isn't a person who gives up easily, if at all. But that same stubbornness has also led her into some tight situations at times as she continues prodding at things better left alone, not knowing when to back down.
There are definitely some daddy issues there. Stephanie's had two father figures in her life: the first was a third-rate criminal who beat on her mother and made her home life a misery; the second took her in and trained her to fight crime only to decide she wasn't good enough for the job. She's mostly gotten past that desire to win Batman's approval now - she knows she's good as Batgirl and she truly believes she's achieving something, and nobody can take that away for her - but in her lowest moments she still feels that insecurity. And she's still prone to getting irritable and defensive when her right to wear the costume is challenged, remembering all those years of being told to give it up as Spoiler.
She's also kind of a dork, with some serious inner monologue issues and a lax brain-to-mouth filter which give her a tendency to put her foot in it, especially in social situations. Nevertheless, she's a bubbly and talkative person - even in combat she has a hard time keeping her mouth shut. In part, it's a defensive thing; she quips to cover up any fear or nerves she might be feeling.
She's open, friendly, eternally stubborn, and a strong believer in second chances.
History
The daughter of an overworked, pill-popping mother and a father who was forever in and out of jail, Stephanie's wasn't the most stable of childhoods. Arthur Brown had been a game show host when he married Crystal Bellinger, but by the time Steph was born he was washed out, unemployed and flat broke. He grew angry, resentful of his wife and baby daughter, ultimately turning to crime in search of a quick pay day. Styling himself after the Riddler, he became the costumed criminal Cluemaster, trying to befuddle Batman and the authorities with clues left at the scenes of his crimes.
Which, not unsurprisingly, got him caught. A lot. Stephanie's father was in and out of Blackgate Penitentiary throughout most of her childhood, serving out one sentence only to go right back to his old habits the moment he was released. Honestly, Steph preferred it when he was inside. Her father's failed criminal schemes meant the family was constantly in debt, and between lawyer's fees and bail money - not to mention food and rent - Crystal was forever working overtime just to make ends meet, coping with the stress and her husband's abusive behaviour by popping prescription drugs. When Arthur was in prison, things were relatively peaceful. Money was always tight, but they got along okay; Crystal would try and ease back on the pills and life would gain a semblance of normality. When he was home there were screaming matches, tears, ugly bruises on her mother's body; and Crystal would withdraw, finding escape in her pills.
By the age of fifteen, Stephanie was sick of it. Her father was out of jail again and claiming to be "rehabilitated". Steph soon learned otherwise. Eavesdropping on her father's conversations, she listened to him planning the details of his next heist. She discovered where he was going to hit, and when… and she decided that it was up to her to stop him.
Donning a costume of her own, Stephanie became the vigilante known as the Spoiler. Her efforts to take down her father and his gang soon led her to cross paths with Batman and Robin, and together with them she was able to capture Arthur and see him landed back in jail.
And it might have ended there - the Cluemaster's plans had been well and truly spoiled, and Spoiler was free to retire while Stephanie Brown got on with her life. But Arthur simply refused to stay put, and it wasn't long before Steph found herself donning the costume once more. This led to a series of encounters with Tim Drake, aka Robin, and at the end of it Steph wasn't so sure she wanted to go back to her bland, mundane life. Not when she could be living the thrilling life of a crime-fighter, not when she could be out there helping people, and especially not if a vigilante lifestyle meant the possibility of running into the Boy Wonder again. (I know, I know. She was fifteen, give her a break!)
The two eventually began dating, and their relationship would continue on and off over the next couple of years. And it was a rocky few years for Steph, who at sixteen found herself pregnant with her ex-boyfriend's baby - a baby she would ultimately carry to term with Tim's and her mother's support. Choosing to give her newborn daughter up for adoption was a heartbreaking decision, but she knew it was the only way: She wanted her child to have a better chance in the world than she herself had had, a better chance than a teenage mom could provide… and more than anything, a life free of her father and his criminal friends. And that meant a life without Steph in it.
But through everything, Steph's dedication to the role she had chosen for herself never waned, and what had begun as a way of lashing out at the father destroying her family grew over time into something more - a chance for Steph to show her worth, for her to make a difference. She worked hard to get her body back into its former shape. She went back to patrolling. She began training with Batman, with Black Canary, the Birds of Prey and the then-Batgirl Cassandra Cain, with whom she developed a close friendship. And for a while, at least, it seemed like everything was on the up again.
It didn't last.
After a couple of mishaps in the field, Steph found herself dropped from training, with Batman deeming her not suited to the vigilante life. Soon after, her life was further rocked when she was delivered the news that her father had been died - and not in the process of enacting one of his stupid criminal schemes, but in service to his country as a member of the Suicide Squad. In quick succession, Steph had been rejected by one father figure only to lose another.
But Stephanie was made of stubborn stuff. When Tim was forced to give up being Robin after his father learned of his alter ego, Steph put together a new costume for herself, broke into the Batcave and demanded that Batman take her in as the new Robin. He accepted, and for a good three months things seemed to be going okay, with Stephanie training and patrolling alongside Batman. Her impulsiveness and her tendency to leap before she looked still landed her in trouble on occasion, but all in all she seemed to be shaping to be a worthy replacement for Tim.
Unfortunately, she earned herself a black mark by disobeying orders on a mission, leaping into the fray to save Batman and getting captured in the process. Deeming Stephanie too reckless and unreliable, Batman stripped her of her costume and forbade her from being Spoiler.
Hurt, angry and determined to prove her worth, Stephanie stole and attempted to enact one of Batman's long-range plans for wiping out Gotham's criminal underworld. It might have worked, had she known all the details - she had no idea that the "Matches Malone" upon whom the entire plan's success hinged was one of Batman's alter egos. And so, instead of eliminating Gotham's gangs in one fell swoop, Steph had instead inadvertently started a citywide gang war. While everybody was scrambling to control the situation, Steph was captured by the crime boss Black Mask.
Tortured for hours, Steph nonetheless held firm, refusing to spill any information. She eventually managed to escape, delivering Black Mask a decent pounding before he pulled a gun on her. She wrestled it out of his grasp, but at the last couldn't bring herself to betray Batman's code by shooting him. That moment of hesitation was almost fatal; Black Mask gained the upper hand, seizing the gun and shooting her.
It took all of her remaining strength to claw her way up to the roof, which was where Batman found her. She died soon after in Leslie Thompkins' clinic.
Except she didn't, because nobody really dies in comics and it was only a matter of time before somebody retconned it. Hell, there are some stories that deserve to be retconned (SEXUALISED TORTURE AND KILLING OFF CHARACTERS FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT IS NOT COOL, DC).
No, Steph didn't die, although it was a close thing. And Leslie, realising the girl might well be in danger of retaliation chose to fake her death and smuggle her out of the country to Africa, where she could recuperate in safety.
Returning to Gotham, she was reunited with the Bat family and with her mother. Crystal was, of course, less than thrilled by her daughter's continued determination to patrol Gotham's streets as Spoiler, as was Tim, and she ultimately gave in to both of them and promised she'd hang up the costume.
And she tried to keep that promise. She really did. And she tried to be content. After all the drama, all the chaos and the pain, life was finally looking up. No longer burdened by the constant dread that her husband might at any moment drop in on their lives and tear apart what little sense of routine and happiness they'd managed to find in his absence, Crystal had finally been able to kick the prescription drug habit. She was happy in her job, and for the first time in a long time, the Brown family wasn't drowning in debt. As for Stephanie, she'd graduated from high school and was about to embark on a new chapter of her life in college. She'd been given a chance for a fresh start, and she knew she shouldn't waste it.
But when that Bat signal lit up the night sky, when an alert was broadcast across the police scanner she kept promising herself she'd toss out… she just couldn't bring herself to ignore that. And when her friend Cassandra Cain announced she was leaving Gotham and passed on both her old costume and identity to Steph…
See, here's the way Steph figured it, or at least the way she justified it to herself at the time: She had promised Tim and her mother that she would stop being Spoiler.
But she'd never told them she wouldn't be Batgirl.
She had a somewhat shaky start. Oracle - that is, Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl and current leader of the Birds of Prey - wasn't thrilled to see Stephanie stepping into her old costume, nor was she sure the young woman was up to the task. But when Steph found herself pitted against the Scarecrow, battling enemies both physical and (thanks to his hallucination-inducing fear gas) imaginary, she showed the strength of her will and proved to Barbara and to herself that she was worthy to carry the Batgirl title.
Recognising Steph's potential, Babs vowed to guide and support her; while Steph, in turn, promised to have Barbara's back.
At Batgirl, Stephanie has flourished, growing in skill and self-confidence and proving herself again and again to be a talented crime-fighter. No longer the girl rebelling against her criminal father, nor the teenage vigilante seeking excitement and an excuse to be close to her crush, nor the well-intentioned Robin who sought to obliterate Gotham's criminal underworld to win back Batman's approval - Steph is a strong, capable young woman, determined not to be defined by the mistakes she's made, but to grow from them. Who's driven by a genuine desire to help people who can't help themselves, to make the world a better place - to help bring a little hope back into Gotham.
What they have on arrival
Steph arrives wearing her Batgirl costume. Designed by Barbara Gordon, it's equipped with kevlar and carbon fibre reinforced polymer, making it effective light-weight body armour against ballistic, flame and electrical attacks. Of course, it also comes with the disadvantage of making her stick out like a sore thumb in this world, and it's unlikely to be so effective against bladed weapons.
Her utility belt contains various crime-fighting paraphernalia, including:
- Grapple gun
- Batarangs; bat-shaped throwing stars (x10)
- "Gooperangs"; batarangs with sticky "goop" cartridges (x3)
- Smoke grenades (x3)
- Flashbangs (x3)
- Tracers (x3)
- Lock pick
- Flashlight
- Binoculars
- Basic first aid supplies (bandages, alcohol, painkillers)
- Collapsible bo staff
Sample
Steph woke with a crick in her neck and a monumental pounding in her head. She was lying in a patch of grass, which she guessed made for a softer landing than, say, the sidewalk, but every one of her limbs ached as she pushed herself up into a sitting position.
On the plus side, all limbs were present and accounted for. So, yay for that?
"Unh... O, you still there?" Hopefully the radio transmitter in her cowl hadn't been damaged by the fall.
As she spoke, she touched her fingers to her temple; it stung like hell, but she didn't think she was bleeding. "Damn. Ow. I ever mention I really hate those Reaper guys?"
She eased herself to her feet, squinting through the darkness; the tree cover blocked out even the lights of the city.
Trees... She must have followed the Reapers out further than she thought. Robinson Park was at the other end of the city.
The first stirrings of unease fluttered in her chest.
"Hey, O, any chance of a trace on these guys?"
The silence at the other end of the radio link was becoming increasingly conspicuous.
"Oracle? Proxy?" She paused; the silence stretched out. "Um... anybody? No? No one?"
No response.
"So... I'm talking to myself right now. Just standing here, talking to myself like a--"
Her boot brushed something, causing her to look down. A dagger lay on the grass, gleaming dully, alongside a small leather pouch whose contents clinked metallically when she picked it up, a silver hand mirror and a neatly rolled up sheet of paper.
"Huh. You don't suppose the Reapers just... accidentally dropped this stuff while we were throwing down? Dropped it... very neatly in a carefully arranged pile? That, uh, that's possible, right?"
The flutter of unease was growing stronger.
The pouch held only a handful of foreign coins, and a cursory glance at the map revealed it to be equally unhelpful; the land mass it showed was nothing she recognised. In the end, she stuffed both into an empty thigh belt pouch, sticking the bulkier dagger and mirror through her utility belt. Oracle could make sense of them later. Right now, it was time to get back to base.
Rubbing her neck, Steph pushed through the trees... and as she emerged that vague sense of unease in her chest resolved itself into one great, big oh shit.
Steph stood frozen, staring at the high walls of the castle.
"That... y'know, I'm pretty sure that wasn't there before."
Player Info
Name: Jess
Age: 24
Do you have any other characters here? Nope!
Name: Stephanie Brown
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Species: Human
Fandom: DC Comics
Appearance
PB: Alona Tal
Description: Standing at about 5'5, Steph has an athletic build toned by years of training. She's got a warm, friendly face with blue eyes and wavy blonde hair that falls just past her shoulders. She has numerous scars, though most are generally hidden by her clothing. There's a particularly ugly one from a gunshot wound to the shoulder, with an exit wound in the back; as well as numerous long, pale scars, seemingly the result of deep cuts on her arms, thighs and abdomen - reminders of the torture she suffered at the hand of Black Mask. She arrives in this world wearing her Batgirl costume - a full body suit and cowl made from kevlar and carbon fibre reinforced polymer, black with purple side-ribbing, yellow utility belts and a stylised yellow bat on the chest.
Skills
Powers: A utility belt full of crap and a positive outlook?
Abilities: Steph is skilled in gymnastics, martial arts and investigation, having been trained extensively by Batman, the former Batgirl Cassandra Cain, and the Birds of Prey. She's also acquired reasonable first aid skills through working with Leslie Thompson.
Personality
General personality:
Stephanie is a warm, upbeat, optimistic individual. Where other vigilantes have long since become disheartened or jaded, Steph retains a positive outlook and a genuine desire to help others. For all the blows she's taken and all the horrible things she's face, she's pulled through and come out both stronger and more determined than ever to keep on fighting. Other members of the Bat family use fear as their weapon, becoming the instrument of vengeance that lurks in the shadows - that's not Steph's style. For her, being Batgirl is about hope; about growing through her mistakes instead of letting them define her, about helping others not to make mistakes, and making Gotham a better place.
And she has grown a lot in the past couple of years. What began as a rebellion against her father and his criminal schemes has evolved into a real passion for helping people. True, she's still a little overly impulsive and with a tendency to leap before she looks - but at least now she's leaping with her eyes open, taking full advantage of her talent for improvisation and reacting on the fly. She may not bottle up or push away her emotions as other heroes do, but nor does she let them rule her any more.
She's got a strong sense of determination, and she's stubborn as hell when she wants to be: when Steph has put her mind to something, nothing and nobody can sway her. It's both a strength and a weakness. As Spoiler and as Robin, Steph was told time and again to give it up, to hang up the costume. And every time she remained defiant, and she kept at it, making her own costumes and improvising her own gear when she had to - each denial only fuelling her desire to prove herself worthy. Steph isn't a person who gives up easily, if at all. But that same stubbornness has also led her into some tight situations at times as she continues prodding at things better left alone, not knowing when to back down.
There are definitely some daddy issues there. Stephanie's had two father figures in her life: the first was a third-rate criminal who beat on her mother and made her home life a misery; the second took her in and trained her to fight crime only to decide she wasn't good enough for the job. She's mostly gotten past that desire to win Batman's approval now - she knows she's good as Batgirl and she truly believes she's achieving something, and nobody can take that away for her - but in her lowest moments she still feels that insecurity. And she's still prone to getting irritable and defensive when her right to wear the costume is challenged, remembering all those years of being told to give it up as Spoiler.
She's also kind of a dork, with some serious inner monologue issues and a lax brain-to-mouth filter which give her a tendency to put her foot in it, especially in social situations. Nevertheless, she's a bubbly and talkative person - even in combat she has a hard time keeping her mouth shut. In part, it's a defensive thing; she quips to cover up any fear or nerves she might be feeling.
She's open, friendly, eternally stubborn, and a strong believer in second chances.
History
The daughter of an overworked, pill-popping mother and a father who was forever in and out of jail, Stephanie's wasn't the most stable of childhoods. Arthur Brown had been a game show host when he married Crystal Bellinger, but by the time Steph was born he was washed out, unemployed and flat broke. He grew angry, resentful of his wife and baby daughter, ultimately turning to crime in search of a quick pay day. Styling himself after the Riddler, he became the costumed criminal Cluemaster, trying to befuddle Batman and the authorities with clues left at the scenes of his crimes.
Which, not unsurprisingly, got him caught. A lot. Stephanie's father was in and out of Blackgate Penitentiary throughout most of her childhood, serving out one sentence only to go right back to his old habits the moment he was released. Honestly, Steph preferred it when he was inside. Her father's failed criminal schemes meant the family was constantly in debt, and between lawyer's fees and bail money - not to mention food and rent - Crystal was forever working overtime just to make ends meet, coping with the stress and her husband's abusive behaviour by popping prescription drugs. When Arthur was in prison, things were relatively peaceful. Money was always tight, but they got along okay; Crystal would try and ease back on the pills and life would gain a semblance of normality. When he was home there were screaming matches, tears, ugly bruises on her mother's body; and Crystal would withdraw, finding escape in her pills.
By the age of fifteen, Stephanie was sick of it. Her father was out of jail again and claiming to be "rehabilitated". Steph soon learned otherwise. Eavesdropping on her father's conversations, she listened to him planning the details of his next heist. She discovered where he was going to hit, and when… and she decided that it was up to her to stop him.
Donning a costume of her own, Stephanie became the vigilante known as the Spoiler. Her efforts to take down her father and his gang soon led her to cross paths with Batman and Robin, and together with them she was able to capture Arthur and see him landed back in jail.
And it might have ended there - the Cluemaster's plans had been well and truly spoiled, and Spoiler was free to retire while Stephanie Brown got on with her life. But Arthur simply refused to stay put, and it wasn't long before Steph found herself donning the costume once more. This led to a series of encounters with Tim Drake, aka Robin, and at the end of it Steph wasn't so sure she wanted to go back to her bland, mundane life. Not when she could be living the thrilling life of a crime-fighter, not when she could be out there helping people, and especially not if a vigilante lifestyle meant the possibility of running into the Boy Wonder again. (I know, I know. She was fifteen, give her a break!)
The two eventually began dating, and their relationship would continue on and off over the next couple of years. And it was a rocky few years for Steph, who at sixteen found herself pregnant with her ex-boyfriend's baby - a baby she would ultimately carry to term with Tim's and her mother's support. Choosing to give her newborn daughter up for adoption was a heartbreaking decision, but she knew it was the only way: She wanted her child to have a better chance in the world than she herself had had, a better chance than a teenage mom could provide… and more than anything, a life free of her father and his criminal friends. And that meant a life without Steph in it.
But through everything, Steph's dedication to the role she had chosen for herself never waned, and what had begun as a way of lashing out at the father destroying her family grew over time into something more - a chance for Steph to show her worth, for her to make a difference. She worked hard to get her body back into its former shape. She went back to patrolling. She began training with Batman, with Black Canary, the Birds of Prey and the then-Batgirl Cassandra Cain, with whom she developed a close friendship. And for a while, at least, it seemed like everything was on the up again.
It didn't last.
After a couple of mishaps in the field, Steph found herself dropped from training, with Batman deeming her not suited to the vigilante life. Soon after, her life was further rocked when she was delivered the news that her father had been died - and not in the process of enacting one of his stupid criminal schemes, but in service to his country as a member of the Suicide Squad. In quick succession, Steph had been rejected by one father figure only to lose another.
But Stephanie was made of stubborn stuff. When Tim was forced to give up being Robin after his father learned of his alter ego, Steph put together a new costume for herself, broke into the Batcave and demanded that Batman take her in as the new Robin. He accepted, and for a good three months things seemed to be going okay, with Stephanie training and patrolling alongside Batman. Her impulsiveness and her tendency to leap before she looked still landed her in trouble on occasion, but all in all she seemed to be shaping to be a worthy replacement for Tim.
Unfortunately, she earned herself a black mark by disobeying orders on a mission, leaping into the fray to save Batman and getting captured in the process. Deeming Stephanie too reckless and unreliable, Batman stripped her of her costume and forbade her from being Spoiler.
Hurt, angry and determined to prove her worth, Stephanie stole and attempted to enact one of Batman's long-range plans for wiping out Gotham's criminal underworld. It might have worked, had she known all the details - she had no idea that the "Matches Malone" upon whom the entire plan's success hinged was one of Batman's alter egos. And so, instead of eliminating Gotham's gangs in one fell swoop, Steph had instead inadvertently started a citywide gang war. While everybody was scrambling to control the situation, Steph was captured by the crime boss Black Mask.
Tortured for hours, Steph nonetheless held firm, refusing to spill any information. She eventually managed to escape, delivering Black Mask a decent pounding before he pulled a gun on her. She wrestled it out of his grasp, but at the last couldn't bring herself to betray Batman's code by shooting him. That moment of hesitation was almost fatal; Black Mask gained the upper hand, seizing the gun and shooting her.
It took all of her remaining strength to claw her way up to the roof, which was where Batman found her. She died soon after in Leslie Thompkins' clinic.
Except she didn't, because nobody really dies in comics and it was only a matter of time before somebody retconned it. Hell, there are some stories that deserve to be retconned (SEXUALISED TORTURE AND KILLING OFF CHARACTERS FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT IS NOT COOL, DC).
No, Steph didn't die, although it was a close thing. And Leslie, realising the girl might well be in danger of retaliation chose to fake her death and smuggle her out of the country to Africa, where she could recuperate in safety.
Returning to Gotham, she was reunited with the Bat family and with her mother. Crystal was, of course, less than thrilled by her daughter's continued determination to patrol Gotham's streets as Spoiler, as was Tim, and she ultimately gave in to both of them and promised she'd hang up the costume.
And she tried to keep that promise. She really did. And she tried to be content. After all the drama, all the chaos and the pain, life was finally looking up. No longer burdened by the constant dread that her husband might at any moment drop in on their lives and tear apart what little sense of routine and happiness they'd managed to find in his absence, Crystal had finally been able to kick the prescription drug habit. She was happy in her job, and for the first time in a long time, the Brown family wasn't drowning in debt. As for Stephanie, she'd graduated from high school and was about to embark on a new chapter of her life in college. She'd been given a chance for a fresh start, and she knew she shouldn't waste it.
But when that Bat signal lit up the night sky, when an alert was broadcast across the police scanner she kept promising herself she'd toss out… she just couldn't bring herself to ignore that. And when her friend Cassandra Cain announced she was leaving Gotham and passed on both her old costume and identity to Steph…
See, here's the way Steph figured it, or at least the way she justified it to herself at the time: She had promised Tim and her mother that she would stop being Spoiler.
But she'd never told them she wouldn't be Batgirl.
She had a somewhat shaky start. Oracle - that is, Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl and current leader of the Birds of Prey - wasn't thrilled to see Stephanie stepping into her old costume, nor was she sure the young woman was up to the task. But when Steph found herself pitted against the Scarecrow, battling enemies both physical and (thanks to his hallucination-inducing fear gas) imaginary, she showed the strength of her will and proved to Barbara and to herself that she was worthy to carry the Batgirl title.
Recognising Steph's potential, Babs vowed to guide and support her; while Steph, in turn, promised to have Barbara's back.
At Batgirl, Stephanie has flourished, growing in skill and self-confidence and proving herself again and again to be a talented crime-fighter. No longer the girl rebelling against her criminal father, nor the teenage vigilante seeking excitement and an excuse to be close to her crush, nor the well-intentioned Robin who sought to obliterate Gotham's criminal underworld to win back Batman's approval - Steph is a strong, capable young woman, determined not to be defined by the mistakes she's made, but to grow from them. Who's driven by a genuine desire to help people who can't help themselves, to make the world a better place - to help bring a little hope back into Gotham.
What they have on arrival
Steph arrives wearing her Batgirl costume. Designed by Barbara Gordon, it's equipped with kevlar and carbon fibre reinforced polymer, making it effective light-weight body armour against ballistic, flame and electrical attacks. Of course, it also comes with the disadvantage of making her stick out like a sore thumb in this world, and it's unlikely to be so effective against bladed weapons.
Her utility belt contains various crime-fighting paraphernalia, including:
- Grapple gun
- Batarangs; bat-shaped throwing stars (x10)
- "Gooperangs"; batarangs with sticky "goop" cartridges (x3)
- Smoke grenades (x3)
- Flashbangs (x3)
- Tracers (x3)
- Lock pick
- Flashlight
- Binoculars
- Basic first aid supplies (bandages, alcohol, painkillers)
- Collapsible bo staff
Sample
Steph woke with a crick in her neck and a monumental pounding in her head. She was lying in a patch of grass, which she guessed made for a softer landing than, say, the sidewalk, but every one of her limbs ached as she pushed herself up into a sitting position.
On the plus side, all limbs were present and accounted for. So, yay for that?
"Unh... O, you still there?" Hopefully the radio transmitter in her cowl hadn't been damaged by the fall.
As she spoke, she touched her fingers to her temple; it stung like hell, but she didn't think she was bleeding. "Damn. Ow. I ever mention I really hate those Reaper guys?"
She eased herself to her feet, squinting through the darkness; the tree cover blocked out even the lights of the city.
Trees... She must have followed the Reapers out further than she thought. Robinson Park was at the other end of the city.
The first stirrings of unease fluttered in her chest.
"Hey, O, any chance of a trace on these guys?"
The silence at the other end of the radio link was becoming increasingly conspicuous.
"Oracle? Proxy?" She paused; the silence stretched out. "Um... anybody? No? No one?"
No response.
"So... I'm talking to myself right now. Just standing here, talking to myself like a--"
Her boot brushed something, causing her to look down. A dagger lay on the grass, gleaming dully, alongside a small leather pouch whose contents clinked metallically when she picked it up, a silver hand mirror and a neatly rolled up sheet of paper.
"Huh. You don't suppose the Reapers just... accidentally dropped this stuff while we were throwing down? Dropped it... very neatly in a carefully arranged pile? That, uh, that's possible, right?"
The flutter of unease was growing stronger.
The pouch held only a handful of foreign coins, and a cursory glance at the map revealed it to be equally unhelpful; the land mass it showed was nothing she recognised. In the end, she stuffed both into an empty thigh belt pouch, sticking the bulkier dagger and mirror through her utility belt. Oracle could make sense of them later. Right now, it was time to get back to base.
Rubbing her neck, Steph pushed through the trees... and as she emerged that vague sense of unease in her chest resolved itself into one great, big oh shit.
Steph stood frozen, staring at the high walls of the castle.
"That... y'know, I'm pretty sure that wasn't there before."
Player Info
Name: Jess
Age: 24
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