Reality Shifted
Character: Barbara Gordon, aka Oracle
Series/Fandom: DCU
Deviance: 1
Age: Somewhere in her thirties. Probably.
Gender: Female
Species: Human
Canon Used: Many, many comics, but she'll be taken mostly from Birds of Prey. I'm drawing most of her early history from Flawed Gems, though I may have possibly fudged some things, and her more recent past from Oracle: Year One.
Appearance: Barbara has bright red hair that she tends to keep cropped to her shoulders at most. Her eyes are blue-green, and can appear as either depending on the artist light. They're usually framed by thin, squared glasses.
From the waist up, she has the physique of a martial artist.
She uses a manual wheel chair.
Here is a picture.
Psychology: Despite always being more independent from Batman than Robin, and moving on from her Batgirl identity, Barbara is perhaps the apprentice most similar to Bruce. She's analytical, pragmatic, and independent; she can gauge and influence other people far more easily than she can herself; she's compassionate, but can seem callous. She doesn't trust easily, or open her heart quickly - and even when she does, it can be hard to see. She strives to be perfect at what she does, and feels guilty when she isn't.
She's a tactician, which demands a certain detachment to her decisions; she's a leader, which demands a certain distance from her comrades. Though she doesn't always succeed in putting her mind above her heart, it's what she strives for. This makes her seem cold to some; it was one stumbling block in her relationship with Black Canary, and drove Power Girl away entirely.
Her need for control is, in many ways, practical; she's the coordinator of her operatives, the guiding force. However, sometimes she's too strident, too set in her plans; that she can't be in the field herself is both the flaw and the fuel. Early into her alliance with Black Canary, she learned to pull back a bit, to trust more.
Distance has always come naturally to Barbara. She was always on a different level intellectually from her peers, and later she had a secret life most people couldn't comprehend. The fact that those connections she did make were sometimes shattered or simply faded away didn't help. (This doesn't mean there's no levity to Barbara, by any means; she has a wry sense of humour and can, on occasion, be an outright dork. That isn't the image she strives to portray, however, and only some people see every side of her.)
The loneliness would gnaw at her sometimes, but then she would focus on excelling at whatever she wanted to do, be it martial arts or university. This hasn't changed much; she still has few true friends, all of them fellow vigilantes or names on a screen. She tends to make missteps, either being too withdrawn or too…involved. (She was only spying on Dinah for her own good, honest! And that Nightwing cam is just, you know, for security. Yep.)
It was easy to isolate herself when she was shot. It was easy to isolate herself when she was shot. From Bruce, the man who was once a role model, and inspiration, and now a partner in the fight for Gotham. From Dick, cheerful, passionate youth all grown up. From Jason, the Robin who'd slowly but surely burrowed his way into her heart.
She was unsure of her place in the world, feeling bitter and helpless and ashamed. Jason's brutal death worsened these emotions tenfold.
Soon enough, she learned how to use it to once again chase criminals and save lives, in the meantime learning how to defend herself physically. It gave her confidence again.
Years later, she's sometimes wistful about the life she lost, but always proud of the life she now has. Her goals have always been to excel at whatever she did, and to make the world a better place, and she's never stopped doing either, from vigilantism to politics.
As Oracle, she may well be a stronger force for good than ever before.
Other Skills/Abilities: Barbara is a brilliant academic, helped by her photographic memory. She maintains an invaluable database, constantly gathering information; being an expert hacker, she also has access to the files of the CIA, FBI, NSA, and Interpol.
She's been training in martial arts since she was a teenager. When she lost the use of her legs, she mastered Eskrima. She remains adept with batarangs, as well as firearms. Due in part to her use of a manual wheelchair, she has tremendous upper body strength.
She's honed her detective skills for just as long, even though she's never been part of a police force.
Other Weaknesses: Barbara has the weaknesses of any mortal human. She's also paralysed from the waist down.
History: Barbara was born to Roger and Thelma Gordon in the suburbs of Ohio.
She lived happily enough for a time, spending much of it with her best friend Marcy, fantasising about being super heroes. Marcy made them - little drawings that became little dolls - and Barbara became them.
During one of their adventures, Barbara learned that her mother and aunt had been in a fatal car accident. Her father took Thelma's death very hard, drowning his sorrows in alcohol. Barbara's superhero fantasies became her refuge.
They didn't solve the problem. Her father kept spiralling down and down and nothing she said ever helped, nothing her Uncle Jim did worked for very long. He'd promised he wouldn't leave her, but by when she was thirteen, he died on an operating table.
James Gordon was appointed her legal guardian, and she had to leave her old life behind, and her best friend. Marcy promised that it would be just the same, that they would be friends forever, but that, too, became a lie.
The prospect of life with people she'd never met, in a city she'd never seen, was a daunting one. But Jim Gordon had the greatest job (and she could sneak a look at his files when he wasn't looking), and Barbara Gordon didn't mind sharing her name, and little James was so cute. Eventually, they adopted her officially, and she became Barbara Gordon once again. (Babs for short, to avoid confusion.)
One night, her second father almost caught her at that sneaking, but he was distracted, waiting for something.
That was when Barbara saw Batman for the very first time. He and her uncle - her father, now - discussed a case, and Barbara sat silent in a corner, enthralled. Before leaving, Batman slipped her a note; "Don't get caught - he'll be angry!"
Barbara decided he needed a partner. Gotham was a big city, after all, and she knew more than most how dangerous it was. She saw how frustrated and sad it made her father, and how hard he fought to make it better.
She convinced her parents to let her take Karate lessons. She memorised the entire layout of Gotham city. She pushed herself in school enough to skip several grades. She excelled on the track team like never before. Soon enough, she was outrunning everyone both physically and academically - and figured she had to tone it down. She pretended to rip a tendon, taking care of track; she achieved average grades, knowing she was already graduating two years early; she started training with a private sensei, rather than a public class. She continued her frequent trips to the library, but disguised her reference books as fiction. She redid her wardrobe, aiming for a conservative, generic appearance.
She was accepted at Gotham State University at age sixteen, and pursued a degree in library and information systems. She was also becoming something of an unofficial partner for her father, who'd accepted her voracious curiosity. This, she wouldn't give up.
Being buried so deep in study and sparring and subterfuge made it a bit easier to handle Barbara the elder leaving with James Junior, never to return.
Soon enough, Barbara had her Master's, and had quite forgotten about becoming a super hero, choosing instead to focus on choosing a career and finding an apartment in Gotham, so that she could be truly independent. She received many job offers, and chose to be the head reference librarian at the Gotham City Public Library.
Then, one day, her father gave her an invitation to the Policemens' Masquerade Ball. Batman was still the one she thought of when anyone mentioned heroes; she still had the doll Macy had given her so long ago.
Ever the perfectionist, Barbara made her costume fully functional as vigilante attire. She even snuck into the police gymnasium to test everything else. (Her father never did realise she'd made a copy of his passkey.) She told him she wasn't going, wanting her entrance to be a complete surprise.
That night was full of surprises.
On the way to the ball, she encountered Bruce Wayne being menaced by Killer Moth and his costumed cronies. She made short work of them - and encountered Batman. He was harsh with her, telling her not to play games, that she'd better be careful. Barbara, stunned and hurt, told him he had no idea what she could or couldn't do, but that he'd find out.
She almost went on to the party after that, but then she realised she'd just stopped a mugging, maybe even a murder, and that there was no reason she couldn’t do it again. By night, she became a masked vigilante, just as she'd dreamed of as a little girl.
By day, she decided the library was too limiting. When her father had to drop out of the race for a congressional seat, Barbara decided to take his place; an obscure bill meant that her rapid schooling and college degree made her eligible despite her young age. Congresswomen Gordon and Batgirl got to travel the world.
She was a bit too liberal for re-election, and became an associate director at Humanities Research And Development Incorporated. Meanwhile, her adventures as Batgirl became more and more absurd, and she had to learn to deal with all manner of strange criminals.
Along the way, she earned Batman's respect and trust, and though she never worked as closely with him as Robin, she went on a number of missions with them. They became part of her family, too.
Her dedication was only truly shaken once, when she was almost assassinated by a man called Cormorant. He killed a dummy instead, but it was a brutal reminder of her own mortality. It took Batman getting captured to make her take up the costume again. When she faced the man who tried to kill her, she freezes for a moment, but used both her father and mentor as inspiration. If she could help others, it was worth the danger.
Then she took out the stunned, quivering killer with one blow, and went on to save Batman from Cormorant's employer, General Skarr.
Eventually, however, Barbara began to find her life as Batgirl less fulfilling for various reasons - in the end, she was wearing someone else's symbol, she hadn't been a girl even when she started, her weapons were her own but still imitations of another's - and retired on her own terms.
Before she could decide on her next step, her life was changed forever.
The Joker knocked on the door and shot her through the spine, rendering her forever paraplegic. All because of her connection to Jim Gordon, and his to Batman. It had nothing at all to do with her, and that just made it worse.
At first, she withdrew entirely from the world, bitter and ashamed. (Why did she ever open that door without looking? Why hadn't she kicked the gun out of his hand the moment she saw it?) She felt so helpless. She had lost so much in her life but she had never, ever been helpless. Not like this. She was desperately frightened of being defenceless, and of being inconsequential.
But she'd had skills long before becoming Batgirl, and she was tired of being afraid.
With the help from a grant from the Wayne Foundation, she put together a powerful computer setup in her room. She was already skilled in research, and became proficient at hacking; she began to earn money. She became immersed in the internet before most people knew it was there. She found freedom and acceptance online.
Then, one night, he father was frustrated about a case. The criminal he was chasing used computers to commit her crimes. Barbara started chasing her in the only way she now could.
Her father insisted that she get out more. She understood why, but she didn't enjoy it; she felt limited and awkward, when once she was so graceful and powerful.
To make matters worse, that criminal - Mavis Powell - found her, and pushed her into a busy street. Barbara very nearly died. It was so easy to nearly murder her, and Powell had laughed as she did it.
Barbara felt helpless once again, but more than anything, she felt angry.
She used the connections she'd made online to find someone to train her in self-defence.
She would spend months training under Richard Dragon in the Philippine art of stick fighting called Eskrima. She would, of course, master it. She honed not only her skills, but her new identity.
Its guise came to her in a dream. She approached an Oracle of Delphi as Batgirl, who removed her mask to show Barbara her own face.
She then knew exactly how to handle Mavis Powell. The internet became her cowl.
All it took, really, was using her Powell's technopathy against her to permanently end the thread she made.
And so Oracle was born.
Barbara continued to enhance her computers, to broaden her database, and eventually maintained a unique, powerful system. After being a member of both the Suicide Squard and the Justice League, she decided to found a team of her own, though she remained a resource to vigilantes, especially the Bat family.
Her first agent was Power Girl, but when the mission ended badly enough to leave blood on their hands, she decided to stop working for Oracle on a regular basis. Then, Barbara joined forces with Black Canary. After several missions, and some personal revelations, Barbara grew to trust her more, and allow her more freedom.
This was brutally interrupted by the Cataclysm, an earthquake that left her city in ruins. Barbara has spent most of her time aiding the relief efforts - and now, Gotham has been quarantined…
Canon Point: Currently, she's experiencing the events of No Man's Land, but she'll progress into Birds of Prey.
Reality Description: Gotham, a sprawling, gritty metropolis, was never the easiest city to live in. Rumour has it that a warlock was buried alive beneath the land millennia ago, and his malevolence seeped into the very soil.
For a long time, Gotham was corrupt to the core, with those in power more concerned about their own welfare than their city's. Jim Gordon, Harvey Dent, and Batman began to turn the tide years ago, all in different ways. Jim is Commissioner now, doing his best to weed out corruption and combat constant crime, Batman is the nightmare of Gotham's criminals, and Harvey…well.
Harvey helped Jim and Batman take down the mob that had a stranglehold on Gotham, but lost half of his face and his grasp on sanity in the process. He became Two-Face, one of the first of Gotham's many strange, unbalanced villains. Law enforcement would have far more than common criminals and crime lords to deal with.
Harvey's tragedy is, in some ways, a reflection and a warning. Harvey was troubled but resilient, damaged but determined; tragedy tumbled his mind into chaos. Gotham itself perches precariously on that brink at the best of times. It has its heroes, with and without masks, but they are only human, and they are outnumbered. Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison never seem to hold their inhabitants for long.
Still, the city had a wary hope about it, beneath the shadows and grime.
Then came the Cataclysm. The Earthquake that reached 7.5 on the Richter scale.
Gotham was gutted. Shattered. Thousands dead, more wounded, more homeless. The capes and the cops and even some of the criminals, those who weren't taking advantage of the situation or weren't driven to crime by it in the first place, strived to salvage what's left, but it would be a long, arduous road.
And now, it's been declared a No Man's Land, with all access in or out destroyed. To make matters worse, Arkham's residents are free to fight over the city's remains, and Batman is nowhere to be found.