Oracle - CoMUX

Coming into the Gotham scene at age 18, Batgirl has been part of Gotham's vigilantes for the last six years. She's known for her kickass motorcycle, purple-lined cape, and vibrant mane of almost too red hair.

Speaking of redheads, another prominent redhead of Gotham is the spunky, young head librarian known as Barbara Gordon. Niece and adopted daughter to the well-respected Jim Gordon, she's quite a presence in the public Gotham charity scene and has done amazing things to revitalize the libraries of Gotham City.

Biography

+ Early Life

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The first half of Barbara Gordon’s life was the happiest she would ever remember. Her loving parents, Roger and Thelma Gordon, had a quaint middle class house in the suburbs of Dayton, Ohio. She was a mischievous and fearless child, and spent much of her time not in school venturing around her neighborhood. She climbed trees, rode her bicycle everywhere, and had almost zero interest in staying stuck inside when she could instead be rambunctiously exploring the world outside.

As a kindergartener, she found a passion for learning. She excelled in school, easily surpassing her peers. Early reader, early mathematician, and an inquisitive kid, she found interest in every subject. When she was seven, her parents — trying to keep her life experiences rich and diverse — sent her to an Young Engineers summer camp hosted by Wayne Enterprises in Gotham, New Jersey. It also gave her family an excuse for her to spend time with her already-beloved Aunt Barbara and Uncle Jim.

Her time at the summer camp invoked a passion for a different kind of learning. While she still spent a large amount of time outside, Barbara now had a hunger to understand computers and other complex machines. For Christmas, her parents splurged on a computer kit — there were almost two dozen wrapped packages, each containing a part to her new computer. She spent her entire winter break assembling her new computer, and then became an expert in its upkeep.

Barbara skipped second grade, and then sixth grade, landing her in the seventh grade at age ten. Now on a fast track through school, Roger and Thelma’s only child focused her education on mathematics, science, and technology. She was so caught-up in her own passions that she barely noticed that her father was starting to slide back into his once perfectly maintained alcohol addiction.

Her father was not an abusive drunk — but instead a quiet and melancholy one. He slipped into his own mind, becoming more and more absent both physically and emotionally. He spent more time in his shop in the backyard and less time with Thelma and Barbara. When Barbara with her robotics team advanced to regionals, Thelma begged Roger to come out of his slump to see his daughter compete.

On the drive to downtown Dayton, there had been an accident: the family station wagon had crossed an intersection against a red light. Both died en route to the hospital, and — while the medical examiner ruled that Roger was well above the legal limit for his blood-alcohol ratio — mismanagement of the case by the first responders lead to no clear evidence that he was actually behind the wheel.

Thirteen and a sophomore in high school, there was a large dispute on where Barbara should live. In the end, her Uncle Jim won out and was awarded custody of his young, genius niece. She moved to Gotham, leaving behind her family home to be sold off and all liquid assets — including the payout from her parents’ life insurance policies — placed in a trust for Barbara.

Alone, weird, and grieving, Barbara turned to her schooling as an escape. She worked tirelessly on her classes, avoided almost any and all chances to make friends or to socialize, and eventually ended up a nerdy recluse.

Until, of course, she fell in with the other nerdy recluses around school and became part of a small, but insular group of outsiders. While they talked computers, and pop culture, and roleplaying games, they also obsessed about vigilantes. Using their computer skills, they created a network that’s sole purpose was to keep tabs on the vigilantes in Gotham, New York City, and Metropolis. They started publishing underground podcasts about these vigilantes — which became known as VigiWatch.

For Barbara, this prompted a deep obsession with Gotham’s central vigilante — The Batman. She used her uncle’s connection through the Gotham Police Department to get information on the vigilante. With the city’s own corruption and weirdly organized crime, Barbara began to understand and even empathize with the idea of vigilante justice. This spurred heated arguments at home, particularly when Barbara would openly defend The Batman to her uncle.

In one of these arguments, her anger got the better of her and she accused her uncle of just being part of the corrupt justice of Gotham, and that he was probably The Batman’s biggest foe. Both angry, Barbara stormed off to her bedroom while Jim stormed off to his study, leaving her Aunt Barb to handle the dinner clean-up.

After two hours of stewing, that anger turned to guilt. She knew her uncle was a good man, and so she went to his study to offer her apologies. As she came to the door, she heard quiet voices. At first, she thought it was her Aunt Barb talking things through with Uncle Jim, but as she pressed her ear closer, she decided it wasn’t Aunt Barb. Just barely opening the door, she was able to peek inside and spot Uncle Jim talking to none other than… Batman.

Uncle Jim wasn’t Batman’s biggest foe… he was one of his biggest allies. Her uncle kept bringing up a singular fact: Batman needed more allies. Crime in the city was out of control, and the corruption within the Gotham PD was too thick to overcome. Knowing now that her uncle supported the vigilante, she decided the best option was quite simple: Barbara should help Batman. Barbara should become like her Uncle Jim — she should become a cop.

Leveraging Aunt Barb to help her, Barbara convinced her uncle to enroll her in martial arts classes. Putting in the same amount of effort she puts in all other learning endeavors, Barbara quickly advanced in her class and earned her first black belt by the end of her junior year. By the time she graduated, she was one of the youngest competitors at the regional martial arts tournaments.

Earning a full ride to Barnard College in New York City, Barbara embraced her move from Gotham as a way to really focus on her goals. She was accepted into the Criminal Sciences department and began to work on her degree that would help pave the way for her to eventually apply for Gotham PD.

However, during her winter break visit her sophomore year of college, her uncle got wind of her plans and expressly forbade her from continuing this silly endeavor. He played every card he had, including the fact she was barely seventeen and had no idea what she really wanted to do with her life. Furious, she almost threw it back at him that she knew he was working with Batman — but then remembered how dangerous it would be to expose that secret.

Instead, she sought her revenge by dressing up as a girl version of Batman to the Winter Masquerade Ball as a subtle cut at her uncle. If he wouldn’t let her become a police officer, then she could instead become a vigilante. As luck would have it, before she could reveal to her uncle her costume, the Masquerade was hit by a group of masked goons headed up by the villain Killer Moth. They targeted the Ball’s special guest, Bruce Wayne. Using her training in martial arts, Barbara managed to hold her own against Killer Moth, allowing Bruce to escape with other hostages. Soon after, Batman arrived. The villain escaped in the chaos of Batman’s arrival.

Long last in the presence of someone she idolized, she was thrown off by his disapproving and warnings against the vigilante life. She felt that Batman was on the same side as her uncle, directing her off the path she felt was hers. She told him she was not backing down, that she would find and stop Killer Moth, with or without his help.

Taking her computer skills to the next level, Barbara hacked the Gotham City traffic system in order to track Killer Moth’s escape to his hideout, where she infiltrated and captured him. He was delivered to the nearest Gotham PD precinct with a little note attached to his costume:

To: Gotham PD
From: Batgirl.

On the last night of her winter break, Batman once again visited the Gordon home, but this time, he ended up in the garage while Barbara was working on her motorcycle. He didn’t come with compliments, but neither did he come with reprimand. He simply offered her a chance to do what she was meant to do: bring justice to an unjust Gotham. Only once she agreed did he reveal that he was actually Bruce Wayne. Dumbfounded, all she could do was accept the gift he brought: her very first utility belt, complete with her first set of batarangs.

That same night, Barbara announced to her aunt and uncle that she wasn’t going to return to Barnard, and instead transferred back to Gotham and enrolled in Gotham City University. Presumably dropping her wishes to become a cop, she instead majored in library sciences… with a minor in criminal law, of course.

Now with a Masters degree in library sciences, Barbara works as the head librarian of the Central Gotham Public Library. With a generous grant from Wayne Enterprises, Barbara oversaw a major upgrade to the library’s facilities and computer systems — including a remodeling of the attic space into an auxiliary base of operations for the Bat Family. She has worked with Batman for several years now, finding her stride and balancing her life as both a librarian and vigilante.

Character Details

Barbara is intelligent, mischievous, and confident. She enters almost every situation with the ease of a chameleon. She does not mind being the smartest person in the room, and is not terribly modest or humble about it either. She knows who she is, what she's capable of, and does not see the need to shy away from that.

Relationships

To be determined.

Logs from Previous Iterations of Barbara Gordon

Please click here to read logs from previous versions of Barbara Gordon.

RP Logs & Journals

January 05, 2019: Rifts In Reality: Between

Avengers…and others assemble to hunt the the source of the rifts.

(permalink: log:8325 | tags: black_widow hawkeye_b iron_man kang nyc oracle psylocke rifts_in_reality sage she_hulk wasp | posted: 06 Jan 2019 05:09)

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