[center][img]http://media1.fdncms.com/inlander/imager/joshua-coveys-commission-of-dc-character-oracle/u/original/2188953/art19337.jpg[/img]
[u][b][color=1a7b30]Name:[/color][/b][/u]
Barbara Gordon

[u][b][color=1a7b30]Alias:[/color][/b][/u]
Oracle
Formerly known as Batgirl to the Batclan[/center]

[u][b][color=1a7b30]Origin:[/color][/b][/u]
Barbara Gordon was born to James Gordon and Barbara Gordon. She was obviously named after her mother. For a while her parents tried for another child, but they were unsuccessful. When Barbara was a young girl her mother just left one day. She tried to talk to her dad to find out where her mother went, but he would just ignore her and drink. 

Barbara's father got better as she aged. But drinking remained a problem for him from that point on. As her father progressed in the Police Force, the more he worried for her safety. He enrolled her in self defense classes at the young age of six. She excelled at it and genuinely enjoyed the sport. She continued her classes and even took other types of martial arts in High School and in College. 

Barbara graduated college at the age of 22 with a degree in Forensic Sciences. She had wanted to be an Officer like her father. However he refused on the basis that he didn't want her exposed like him. He thought it was bad enough he had to fight the corruption in the force and the evil on the streets. So even though she really wanted to be an Officer she majored in Forensics. At least that way she could still be involved. It wasn't until Batman showed up the year before she graduated from Gotham University that she knew what she must do.

By day she would work with the GCPD and at night she would be Batgirl. She thought about Batwoman, but that felt weird. She spent her off time working on a costume and some gadgets modeled off bats, just like Batman. She had to thank her dad for letting her see the ones recovered at the scene. After she graduated college she was quickly able to secure work at GCPD  as a Forensic Technician, thanks to her father and her prior volunteer work done at the department. 

Within a few months Batgirl first hit the streets. Her first few "cases" were muggings, assaults, and a car jacking. What she really lacked was a mode of transportation. She didn't have the proper equipment like Batman to easily go from building top to building top. Which meant she was limited to crimes in progress or happy circumstances. 

Since Barbara wasn't one to rely on luck or happy circumstances. She turned her smarts to crimes in progress. She didn't bother with crimes like petty theft or the like. She went after the long games. Her next few cases were small time drug running cases. There was even a case of human trafficking. Her first major case that put her on the map was busting a gun smuggling ring. She interrupted and arrested Penguin's man. Unfortunately she hadn't gotten enough on Cobblepot and he walked away with his lawyer. His buyer also slipped through his tracks, though she tracked down the would be crime lord a few months later.

After she had the route shut down she received a visit from the Batman. He wasn't happy with what she was doing, but grudgingly let her continue, only after he had trained her. For a few weeks she couldn't even don the costume without his permission. Though after he deemed her capable he did gift her with her own set of gadgets: Batarangs, rope lines, etc. Though it would take far longer for her to earn his trust and to for him to tell her his identity, though she was reasonably certain what it was within a week of meeting him in person. To this day she isn't sure when he learned hers. Whenever it was, he isn't talking.

It was also at that time when she learned her that Dick Grayson was also Nightwing. Which also helped her be certain she knew who Batman was. Before that point, despite Bruce and her father being friends, she hadn't had much to do with Grayson. After that the two went from awkward kind of friends to an awkward mutual attraction over the years.

Barbara, in 2014, came to help a quasi-hero group known as the Birds of Prey. She was contacted by a woman code named Black Canary. At first she was hesitant to help out. Two out of the four members were known criminals, Pamela and Selena. However Black Canary pitched a good case and she agreed on the condition that as soon as the Birds of Prey do more harm than good, she would no longer help them out. The longer she aided them the more they relied on her for leads when Black Canary had other things to take care of. 

When Barbara was 25, two years after her first encounter with Batman, her life changed forever. One uneventful day she had been at her father's apartment, waiting for him to get off work. It was a typical ritual they followed whenever they could. However this time it wasn't her father who came through the door. It was the Joker. He put a bullet through her and her spine. He left her there, almost dead for her father to find. It wasn't until later she learned that the Joker had been after her father, and her presence there probably saved his life.

Even knowing that, Barbara had a bout of severe depression over being paralyzed. She ended up in the hospital for two months and in physical therapy for a while afterwards. Even after she got out of the hospital she took a leave of absence from the Force, not mental or physically able to go back.

Thanks to Bruce Wayne, a friend of her father's, she was able to afford to take leave and to not worry about not paying for her apartment. Or at least that was what the world saw. While she was recovering she asked him for a favor, and he came through. He helped her gather the equipment she needed to become Oracle. 

While she recovered both mentally and physically, often with Dick by her side, she became Oracle for the Batclan first. Then she branched out for the Justice League. She has yet to reach back out to the Birds of Prey.

[u][b][color=1a7b30]Attributes:[/color][/b][/u]
[list][*]Martial artistry
Barbara's training began when she was six. Her father had enrolled her in self defense classes fearing for her safety because of his job. Later she trained in judo and karate, earning black belts. She was a star athlete even before she took up the Batgirl mantle. After the Joker shot and paralyzed her from the waist down, Barbara continued to train in the martial arts as Oracle. Despite her handicap she has maintained a high level of physical fitness. Being in a wheelchair doesn't slow her down much anymore. She also has extensive skills with eskrima fighting sticks, small firearms, and batarangs. She customarily keeps a pair of eskrima sticks stored in the armrests of her wheelchair as a contingency.

[*]Intelligence and technological skill
Barbara has a genius-level intellect and possesses a photographic memory. She likes to think of herself as the most intelligent person from the Batclan. As with her physical skills, her technological skills were developed before she took up being a superhero. Her skills in this area include a vast knowledge of computers and electronics, expert skills as a hacker, advanced research skills, and graduate training in Forensic Sciences. 

[*]Gagets
Like Batman does, Barbara originally used a wide variety of computer electronics and gadgets during her tenure as Batgirl. As Oracle she often tweaks the Bat Boy's toys to make sure they stay ahead of the newest villains. 

[*]Information broker
As Oracle, Barbara places her considerable skills and knowledge at the disposal of many of the DC Universe's heroes. She is a skilled hacker, capable of retrieving and dispersing information from private satellites, military installations, government files, and the properties of Lex Luthor. However the Batclan usually ranks first on her priority list.[/list]
[u][b][color=1a7b30]Stomping Grounds:[/color][/b][/u]
Gotham City
GCPD
The Internet and other secure online databases.

[u][b][color=1a7b30]People of Note:[/color][/b][/u]
Batclan
[list][*]Bruce Wayne/Batman
[*]Dick Grayson/Nightwing
[*]Jason Todd/ Robin
[*]Alfred[/list]
Birds of Prey[list][*]Poison Ivy
[*]Black Canary
[*]Starling
[*]Catwoman
[/list]
Justice League[list][*]Whomever happens to on it. :)[/list]
GCP Forensics Friends

Tim Drake

[u][b][color=1a7b30]Character Goals:[/color][/b][/u]
The main goal is I would like for other players to come to her for support and information. That would make me feel like I did a good job at settling her in as a support character. Basically I'd just like her involved with everyone, even if it's only in a minor way.

I'd also like to explore Barbara both as Oracle and as Barbara. How is she doing mentally as well as physically. How does mainly interacting with people through a computer hinder her improvement. Also how does she juggle Grayson and her isolation?

[u][b][color=1a7b30]Sample Post:[/color][/b][/u]
Batgirl lowered her binoculars as Jim Gordon put the cuffs on Calendar Man. Barbara heaved a sigh and relaxed for the first time since she had placed the call. It was one thing to know what your father did at work. It was another to actually be the one who called the cops to lead them to the bad guy and sit back and watch. No wonder her dad had thrown a fit when she had mentioned being a cop. He didn't want to go through that everyday. 

Barbara was glad he didn't know that it was her who was Batgirl. He was happier just thinking of her being a lab monkey. And this way she could do what she loved.

Babs lifted her binoculars again as a dark shape rose from one of the roofs. She tensed all over, ready for anything. A heartbeat later she relaxed again as the dark shadow vanished back into the night. A smile danced briefly on her lips. No matter how had Batman tried, he always showed he cared. It was just harder to spot. Still, even with his belief that everything would be fine, Batgirl didn't leave her spot on the roof until Calendar Man was bundled into a cop car and driven off.

The window to Barbara's apartment slid open easily. She gently popped off the screen and slipped in. Her computer glowed softly in a blue light. She walked over and wiggled the mouse. The screen flashed into life and exposed all the hard work she had done the past week. It had all started on Monday. There had been a robbery at Gotham University's Planetarium. Someone had stolen hundreds of dollars worth of lunar models. 

Batgirl, had taken over the case, believing it was a one time occurrence. When another robbery occurred at the Museum. Several valuable pieces from the Roman wing, directly connected to Mars went missing. Batman ended up working on that one with the boy wonder since Babs was still trying to get leads on the first robbery. It wasn't until the third robbery on Wednesday that she put them together.

On a napkin at breakfast she had scribbled:
Monday= Moon's Day
Tuesday = Mars' Day
Wednesday = Mercury's Day

Each of the robberies corresponded to a crime. When she headed off with the Robber on "Thor's Day". She had been confronted with a rather, eccentric man. He had dressed up like Thor, the one from the movies. He even had his own hammer that tossed out lighting like a Tesla rod. That revelation had been a surprise, but a well tossed batarag had the offending object dropped to the ground.

Calendar Man, as he had proclaimed himself had then run off. For a portly man he moved quickly. If he hadn't stopped to change costumes, she might have lost him. As it was she caught him half way changed from his Thor Costume into a costume with calendars on it. She had let him finish dressing before she tied him up and left him for the police. She also left a map to his hideout pinned to his calendar doffed chest. 

Barbara shook her head as she powered down the computer. Sometimes even Gotham continued to surprise her. But at least tomorrow at work should be interesting when she got to go to his hide out and catalog his stolen goods.