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controlledvariable) wrote2014-10-03 10:41 pm
controlledvariable) wrote2014-10-03 10:41 pm
Entry tags:
haven; application
Name: Justine
Contact Info:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
faileneume
Other Characters Played: None!
Requested apartment: N/A
Character Name: Stephanie Brown, Batgirl
Canon: DC Comics (preboot)
Canon Point: End of Batgirl #24 + previous game history from![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
exsilium, as the game ended and Steph had chosen to return home.
Background/History: Wikipedia biography.
Previous Game History:
So let's talk about Exsilium.
At the end of her time in canon, Steph arrived in Exsilium, a dystopian city in the year 3313, in a world controlled by a tyrannical AI and its army of cloned, genetically engineered soldiers (the United Earth), where she'd been recruited by a resistance force (the Initiative) who used time travel to try to win their war. Her first few months were fairly uneventful; she made friends, settled in, and was involved in a few game wide missions to various points in time to help with the war effort, although she didn't actively participate due to not trusting the Initiative just yet. There were a number of age/time shenanigans during this point, although Steph wasn't personally affected.
Things began to change in April, when Steph went along on a privately organized mission to the United Earth territories for the purpose of reconnaissance, at which point herself and her friends ended up stealing a spaceship from the UE, that they then brought back to Exsilium and the Initiative, trading the spaceship for more information regarding the war, and more involvement in the effort. As part of this, the Initiative did a test run of a technology that would allow characters to return home, with disastrous results after the UE followed them to a character's world and subsequently destroyed it. The event hit characters, including Steph, hard, and not long after she abandoned her secret identity, letting people know she was both Stephanie and Batgirl, and also began a relationship with Ellie Linton, a friend who she'd developed feelings for.
Everything went kind of down hill from there: the UE released a virus into Exsilium's population, then proceeded to bomb the city under pretence of quarantine and destroying the infection. The characters survived and found a cure for the virus, but NPCs/locals attitude towards them had changed dramatically, and the Initiative and characters began working on reopening an abandoned moon base with the newly acquired (good) AI, so they could operate away from the United Earth and reduce collateral damage. This was a good move, as a few months later, The UE dropped a nuclear warhead on Exsilium with the PCs and a few Initiative members being the only survivors as they'd escaped the moon base.
Between a PC led mutiny, a snowy tundra, disappearances, deaths, and the universe collapsing around them, characters in the game went through a bit of a shitstorm for their last few months, until the United Earth was ended and characters could chose to return home.
These fourteen months of Steph's life resulted in a development that could almost be seen more as regression than progression. When we first met Steph in canon, she was a hurt, angry girl who's main priority seemed to be her own (and her mother's) survival, who had serious anger management issues, and who was more morally grey than the other vigilantes in the city. Having to fight a seemingly unwinnable war with questionable methods had the effect of requiring Steph to put aside the morals she stuck to as Robin and Batgirl, and return more to the ideals of Spoiler, who'd been willing to leave criminals to lie (and die) in the beds they'd made for themselves. When it came down to it, she felt she had to decide whether she wanted to save the world and keep her friends safe, or keep her morals by refusing to kill the bad guys. So she chose to kill the bad guys.
Eventually, this escalated into being willing to accept collateral damage, something that Steph would never have done before Exsilium, but she felt it was the only way to win the war and keep the universe safe. Even if the scientists working for the United Earth likely had no choice, it was either they died, or the entire universe could be lost. Almost more importantly, because she told herself that her actions were necessary, that they were the only option, she believed that being the one to get her hands dirty saved her friends from having to do it, which alleviated some of the guilt she felt over her actions.
Survival became the priority again, the way it was when she was young, because she was a soldier in Exsilium, not just a vigilante stopping crime. At first, this was the survival of everyone, but as time progressed she narrowed her focus a little as she started to become disillusioned with the idea she could save the world. While still fighting the war, she became a lot more concerned with protecting herself and her friends over others; she was more willing to manipulate people and cut ties with anyone she felt was dangerous to her friends, regardless of her own personal feelings towards someone. Although honesty is still her preference, she's become more willing to twist the facts a little, and to play the right cards in order to manipulate people, if she thinks it's for the greater good, or even to protect people from themselves (what an asshole).
Like when she was younger, Steph's anger started to become a problem again. Her time as a vigilante and the friendships she made during those years had helped mellow her out and gave her different focuses for anger, but being thrust into a situation where so much felt out of her control and she was frequently under a lot of stress, resulted in her losing her temper more often, more badly, and in ways that often took longer to repair. This was more noticeable in the later months of her time in Exsilium, as things within the world started to unravel, and personal relationships deteriorated, leaving Steph feeling lost, angry, and desperately clinging to anything she had left.
However, her anger and ruthlessness in Exsilium was tempered by experience in a way that it hadn't been when she was younger. While still somewhat reckless, Steph is better at holding herself back and making more strategic choices, instead of just throwing herself into something without a second thought, whether in a fight or in her personal life. She also became a lot more confident in her abilities as a fighter/vigilante/soldier, and was more willing to take charge in a situation or make suggestions rather than doubting herself. She also had a support system that she lacked when she was young; forming almost familial connections in Exsilium allowed her to cope with the more stressful situations in a way that she wouldn't have in her own world.
In the end, Exsilium forced Steph to grow up even faster than she had in her world, by turning her into a soldier in a desperate war. Between the United Earth and internal fighting, it left her exhausted, weary and sick of violence, so she'll be coming into Haven as a young woman who doesn't want to have anything more to do with vigilantism, war, or horror. Shame about that.
That said, it isn't entirely negative. At the end of her time in Exsilium, Steph had begun to make an effort towards unlearning all the bad habits she'd acquired in life, such as her recklessness and self-doubt. As well, she made peace with the fact that being a vigilante isn't the only way to change the world, and that she doesn't have to sacrifice herself and her happiness just to do good things. While still coming to terms with a lot of what happened, Steph is moving towards becoming more balanced, making an effort to recapture her ability to face the world with a smile, and finding ways to help people that doesn't just involve beating the shit out of criminals.
As a note, during her time in Exsilium, Steph acquired a number of tattoos: birds across her collarbones, bats on her back, and the cycle of the moon around her wrist. The lower half of her hair was dyed purple in late November, so it's still noticeable although it's faded somewhat. She also has a few new scars to go along with her old ones, and is a lot more muscled than she was in canon. Most importantly, she has a tracking device implanted in her arm that's impossible to remove without surgery, so that's. probably still in there.
Personality:
Stephanie Brown doesn't give up. Everything she does and everything she believes in is based around her refusal to quit, no matter how tough things get. She's been told numerous times that she'll never amount to anything and keeps trying anyway, keeps trying to be better, to get more training and do things right this time. At first, Steph kept being Spoiler, because she wanted to prove people wrong about her, because she enjoyed the thrill of the control it gave her when everything else in her life was a mess, and because she wanted vengeance against her dad. But after her dad was in prison, she began to realize other reasons to keep fighting, and the Spoiler became about protecting the people of Gotham and about doing the right thing. Steph recognized a need and she filled it by setting out to stop other kids from having to grow up the way she did, surrounded by violence and neglect. This is one of her strongest convictions and it's why she won't quit regardless of anything that stands in her way.
Her stubbornness can be her downfall on occasion, since she doesn't know when to back down or make a strategic retreat, instead she'll keep trying until she can't anymore, regardless of the costs to herself. It can also lead to her making rash decisions and rushing into things just for the sake of doing something, rather than spending the time to work out a good game plan while people are potentially getting hurt. She's trying to learn a little restraint in that regard, to weigh up all her options before jumping in, and to know when it's better to back down and come back for a second round, but it's not as easy as she thought it would be, and sometimes her eagerness, stubbornness and temper get the best of her, and she still makes mistakes on occasion.
On the surface, Steph might come across as a little shallow. Her sense of humour alternates between dry sarcasm, and dorky puns, with an occasional edge of bitter or self-deprecating humour. She uses humour to cover up her emotions, especially fear and insecurity. She tries to always keep a cheerful countenance, and when people don't know her very well, this can be seen as her being dismissive of serious issues or not taking things seriously enough. This isn't quite right, Steph is cheerful because she wants to be, because she refuses to stay down in the face of all the shit she's been through, because she wants to be a source of comfort for other people (she was a Robin, once, she knows how to be the light to someone's dark) and because in the end even if something does get her down, she doesn't want to let anyone else know how it affects her. Just like she refuses to give up in a fight, she refuses to give up on her spirit and her optimism. A positive attitude doesn't mean she's naive and Steph is going to enjoy her life, the rest of the world be damned.
She can also be kind of cheeky, with a special fondness for teasing her friends. It works as another aspect of her sense of humour and as a way to test boundaries - she teases to see how much her friends will put up with. Her friendships with both Tim and Cass often featured gentle taunting and mocking, coming from all parties. Steph also felt the humour and teasing was necessary for keeping Tim down to earth, she always worried that he was going to turn into Batman and didn't want that for him. It's one of the things she regrets about letting everyone believe she was dead; she feels like it contributed to pushing Tim towards that end. Sometimes she doesn't even recognize him anymore.
Steph has a hard time making friends, partly because she has a low tolerance for people who are cruel or false, and a lot of Gotham's seem to fall into that category. She's also had her trust broken enough times that she is wary of people - particularly those in authority positions - and doesn't like giving them power over her through friendship, or relationships in general. It's hard for her to befriend civilians, particularly those that come from a more privileged background, simply because they don't understand the violence that surrounds her life, both from her upbringing and her life as a vigilante. She does have a small group of friends among the superhero/vigilante community, Tim Drake, Cass Cain, Kara Zor-El and Wendy Harris, the first two who have been in her life for years, and the latter two are people she's learning to trust. She's been shown to get along with Connor Hawke, Miss Martian, Traci 13 and assorted other Teen Titans, but has never kept in contact with them. As a result, while she's fairly independent and likes doing things her own way, when the situation arises she's willing to call for back up and can work well with others. She's never had a chance to be on a superhero team, but she'd like to give it a shot one day.
When she does manage to make close friends, she has a tendency to idolize them and will often ignore their faults. This is heightened by the fact that at the beginning of her career as a superhero, Steph had a harder time ignoring people's put downs, and felt that she wasn't deserving of friends. It becomes a problem in situations like what happened in regards to Cassandra and Tim, both of whom have frequently treated Stephanie like she's not good enough, and told her so. Sometimes Steph believes them, but even when she managed to stop believing them, she still never called them out for treating her badly because a part of her couldn't completely ignore them and because she doesn't want to risk losing them just for the fact they doubt her. She will call people out on shit if it doesn't relate to her, or if it's hurting them, as is evident in the way she tells Tim how worried she is about him after Bruce dies. Her friendship with Cass is an intense one, as a result of both their upbringings, their personalities, and the similarities they share. Although it took them a while to trust each other and work together well, Steph and Cass both care deeply for each other and the friendship has helped both of them grow and change. Cass's respect for Steph - earned when Steph refused to quit even after getting beaten down by Cass - helps Steph to respect herself. And although, as mentioned, Cass can be doubtful of Steph, as when she knocked Stephanie out to keep her from a fight, Cass tries to teach Steph how to improve, rather than trying to make her quit. It was a huge moment for Steph when Cass gave her the Batgirl name and costume and one of the main reasons she tries so hard to make Batgirl into something to be proud of. Cass is her best friend and Steph doesn't want to let her down.
Steph is fiercely protective, both of her friends and of people that she thinks need protecting, often those that are ignored or put down by the current system. If someone hurts her friends, she's very unlikely to ever forgive them for it, and while she isn't necessarily inclined towards self-sacrifice, she'd take a bullet for her friends. That also means she'll occasionally stick her nose into other people's business if she's worried about what her friends are up to, and she's the sort of person who'll go behind someone's back to threaten their new friend/significant other not to hurt them. Sometimes she feels a bit guilty about not trusting her friends to look after themselves, but she can't help worrying about people. When it comes to people who have been hurt or abandoned by the system, she feels more need to look out for them and to protect them from the world.
She can be quick to anger, especially when someone is threatening children and sometimes she relishes the violence she gets to deal out as a vigilante. It's cathartic, beating up the sort of assholes that remind her of the people she grew up around, and she always feels good in knowing that she stopped the bad guy. Her anger can be both personal, and righteous. She's attacked the Riddler because she blamed him for her father's death, she punched her ex-boyfriend for leaving her alone when she was pregnant and she slapped Batman for making her play his games. On the other hand, she's turned her anger towards the cause that she believes in which has led to her rage at the Penguin for exploiting children and at the Calculator for hurting her friends.
There's a ruthlessness in the way she fights, often hitting harder than someone like Batman would deem "necessary". Sometimes she just likes violence as the first option to solve the problem; it's quick, simple and it's what's kept her alive growing up in a house full of criminals. She's working on trying to find other ways to deal with problems. Steph doesn't kill, but that's mostly out of respect for Batman's rules and the legacy of the costume -- it was Cass's identity and Steph knows how she feels about killing. But she's never understood why they have to go out of their way to not kill the bad guys. She figures they should be able to beat them up as much as is required to stop them and if that means potentially killing them, so be it. Canonically, she's wanted to leave the unconscious criminal in a building about to explode, and she still doesn't get why she had to go back and save him when it was his choice to be there in the first place. Some of Batman's issues with Stephanie stem from this, as he doesn't trust her not to use lethal force. When confronted with Zsasz, Steph was ready to kill him to save Batman and any future victims of Zsasz, an act which Batman scolded her for. She believes she did the right thing, despite Batman's insistence otherwise.
That said, she understands that not all criminals commit crime because they want to. Her background gives her enough insight to know that sometimes it's the only option and she tends to be lenient with kids from backgrounds like hers, who get caught up in gangs or drugs, encouraging them to get their life back on track, if that's possible. Similarly, she is critical of Batman's approach to crime fighting, which often focuses on the big crimes and tends to overlook the little people. It's why Stephanie kept being Spoiler, she wanted to stick to the suburbs and the parts of Gotham that Batman doesn't go to, and try to make a difference there.
She's used to dealing with her problems by herself, a symptom of her trust issues and the victim blaming she faced after her dad's friend attempted to sexually assault her. As a result she tries to keep her personal life personal, except from her closest friends, and even then there are topics she doesn't like to talk about. Her child is on that list because she doesn't really like thinking about it; she knows she made the right choice but it doesn't stop her from wondering what could have been. She also doesn't like talking about her mom's addiction, and can get kind of paranoid with regards to her own behaviour, not planning to touch drugs and being careful with her alcohol consumption for fear she'll get addicted too. She doesn't like to talk, or think, about what happened during the gang war even though she's trying to make peace with herself about what went down. Sometimes she still blames herself for what happened, but if anyone else tries to blame her, she'll break their nose.
The relationship between Steph and Crystal is a difficult one, despite being the most important in her life, complicated by Arthur, Crystal's addiction and Stephanie's crime fighting activities. She became the Spoiler to stop her dad from ever hurting her mom again and Steph loves Crystal, but she can't forget all the times that she's been hurt both by Crystal, and while she stood idly by as Arthur hurt Steph. Sometimes she blames her mom for letting Arthur stay in the house even though she knows Crystal had no choice. Even more often, she blames her for turning to drugs when things got to hard to bear and for leaving Steph, a little girl, alone to deal with Arthur. But Crystal has recognized her mistakes, apologized for them, and done her best to atone for them. With Arthur "dead", they'd tried to make themselves into a family again without him, and were mostly succeeding until the gang war and Steph's "death", an event that hit Crystal hard. When Steph came back, it was her turn to do the apologizing and she's grateful that her mom forgave her for not returning sooner.
Cystal's opinions on Stephanie's vigilantism has varied through Steph's career; Crystal has encouraged her actions, overlooked them, and told Steph to stop. After Steph's "return from the dead", her mom made her promise to stop being a superhero and Steph said she would. It's been a constant source of guilt for Steph because she hates lying to her mom. In the final issue of Steph's Batgirl run, her mom finds out that she's been operating as Batgirl for a few months, and after a slightly awkward discussion, Crystal tells Steph that she's proud of her. This is an important moment for Steph, and it's taken a lot of weight off her shoulders; she no longer needs to worry about keeping the secret, Crystal is one more person who has started giving Steph the approval that she deserves and it's another step towards making their relationship the mother-daughter relationship it should be.
She's resourceful, mostly because she had to be. She's had to learn to survive with what's available, had to learn to fight with what's available and as a result doesn't rely on the tech and gadgets that other vigilantes tend to. Although she does enjoy having access to all the fancy gadgets that Oracle gets for her, Steph hasn't lost her resourcefulness and she enjoys finding the most interesting uses for the tech she's got.
The most important thing about Steph is that she refuses to be a victim, and that she'll never give up.
Abilities/Powers:
Steph was an accomplished gymnast on her school team before beginning her vigilante career, and her skills have improved greatly with time and hard work. She's undergone a significant amount of training in terms of martial arts, receiving tutelage from two of the top martial arts in the DCU (Dinah Lance and Cassandra Cain), as well as training from Tim Drake, Batman, and Barbara Gordon. Although her martial arts training primarily focused on hand to hand combat, she's also more than capable in the use of a bo staff, escrima sticks and the traditional batarangs. She is trained to use guns, and after coming to use firearms in Exsilium she's more than proficient with them. Both as Spoiler and Robin, Steph underwent the typical Bat-training, including but not limited to, chemistry, forensic psychology, undercover work, and escapology. As Batgirl, she's had Oracle teaching her how to use computer systems and other technological devices to her advantage, something else that she improved upon during her time in Exsilium.
Essentially, Steph is a very good fighter. While not quite on the level of Dinah or Cass, she's at a point where she can hold her own against a fight with not only them, but can also use her training and resourcefulness to take down metahuman foes. Spending a significant amount of her days in Exsilium training has made her even better than she was in canon, both in skill and in strength, since she bulked up a fair amount during her fourteen months in the city. Her natural skill and inclination towards punching things is now backed up with a significant amount of technical knowledge and practice that kept her alive while fighting the United Earth's soldiers.
Exsilium also provided her with the opportunity to improve on other skills, particularly stealth, reconnaissance, and espionage, as she was required to sneak into an assortment of situations during her time there. Her tactical knowledge has increased as well, thanks to time studying tactics as well as working closely alongside various mentors who were more tactically minded (Oracle, Cable of X-Men fame). Working for Tony Stark for several months also allowed her to expand on her knowledge of engineering, to the point where she reversed engineered her batarangs and designed the tracking device that is currently in her arm (smart move, Steph).
And between the requisite medical knowledge that Batman expects his Robins to know, the fact Steph's mom is a nurse, the year Steph spent in Africa with Doctors Without Borders, and working in a medical clinic in Exsilium for several months, she's gained a fairly comprehensive knowledge of medical procedure. She can clean and sew up a wound, set bones, remove bullets or shrapnel, administer injections, pop dislocated joints back into place and knows how to treat assorted infections, diseases and responses to trauma.
(She also nearly snuck up on Batman once.)
Items/Weapons: Her Batgirl suit, with utility belts attached but empty (since I'm assuming all that shit in there would count as separate weapons), her bo staff with a shiny new blade extension, and a plain gold ring on a gold chain.
Sample Entry: Haven test drive threads
Sample Entry Two: At least two paragraphs in third person/prose format, please. A link to a previous log or thread with the character is also acceptable. All links must be one year old or less.
Contact Info:
Other Characters Played: None!
Requested apartment: N/A
Character Name: Stephanie Brown, Batgirl
Canon: DC Comics (preboot)
Canon Point: End of Batgirl #24 + previous game history from
exsilium, as the game ended and Steph had chosen to return home.Background/History: Wikipedia biography.
Previous Game History:
So let's talk about Exsilium.
At the end of her time in canon, Steph arrived in Exsilium, a dystopian city in the year 3313, in a world controlled by a tyrannical AI and its army of cloned, genetically engineered soldiers (the United Earth), where she'd been recruited by a resistance force (the Initiative) who used time travel to try to win their war. Her first few months were fairly uneventful; she made friends, settled in, and was involved in a few game wide missions to various points in time to help with the war effort, although she didn't actively participate due to not trusting the Initiative just yet. There were a number of age/time shenanigans during this point, although Steph wasn't personally affected.
Things began to change in April, when Steph went along on a privately organized mission to the United Earth territories for the purpose of reconnaissance, at which point herself and her friends ended up stealing a spaceship from the UE, that they then brought back to Exsilium and the Initiative, trading the spaceship for more information regarding the war, and more involvement in the effort. As part of this, the Initiative did a test run of a technology that would allow characters to return home, with disastrous results after the UE followed them to a character's world and subsequently destroyed it. The event hit characters, including Steph, hard, and not long after she abandoned her secret identity, letting people know she was both Stephanie and Batgirl, and also began a relationship with Ellie Linton, a friend who she'd developed feelings for.
Everything went kind of down hill from there: the UE released a virus into Exsilium's population, then proceeded to bomb the city under pretence of quarantine and destroying the infection. The characters survived and found a cure for the virus, but NPCs/locals attitude towards them had changed dramatically, and the Initiative and characters began working on reopening an abandoned moon base with the newly acquired (good) AI, so they could operate away from the United Earth and reduce collateral damage. This was a good move, as a few months later, The UE dropped a nuclear warhead on Exsilium with the PCs and a few Initiative members being the only survivors as they'd escaped the moon base.
Between a PC led mutiny, a snowy tundra, disappearances, deaths, and the universe collapsing around them, characters in the game went through a bit of a shitstorm for their last few months, until the United Earth was ended and characters could chose to return home.
These fourteen months of Steph's life resulted in a development that could almost be seen more as regression than progression. When we first met Steph in canon, she was a hurt, angry girl who's main priority seemed to be her own (and her mother's) survival, who had serious anger management issues, and who was more morally grey than the other vigilantes in the city. Having to fight a seemingly unwinnable war with questionable methods had the effect of requiring Steph to put aside the morals she stuck to as Robin and Batgirl, and return more to the ideals of Spoiler, who'd been willing to leave criminals to lie (and die) in the beds they'd made for themselves. When it came down to it, she felt she had to decide whether she wanted to save the world and keep her friends safe, or keep her morals by refusing to kill the bad guys. So she chose to kill the bad guys.
Eventually, this escalated into being willing to accept collateral damage, something that Steph would never have done before Exsilium, but she felt it was the only way to win the war and keep the universe safe. Even if the scientists working for the United Earth likely had no choice, it was either they died, or the entire universe could be lost. Almost more importantly, because she told herself that her actions were necessary, that they were the only option, she believed that being the one to get her hands dirty saved her friends from having to do it, which alleviated some of the guilt she felt over her actions.
Survival became the priority again, the way it was when she was young, because she was a soldier in Exsilium, not just a vigilante stopping crime. At first, this was the survival of everyone, but as time progressed she narrowed her focus a little as she started to become disillusioned with the idea she could save the world. While still fighting the war, she became a lot more concerned with protecting herself and her friends over others; she was more willing to manipulate people and cut ties with anyone she felt was dangerous to her friends, regardless of her own personal feelings towards someone. Although honesty is still her preference, she's become more willing to twist the facts a little, and to play the right cards in order to manipulate people, if she thinks it's for the greater good, or even to protect people from themselves (what an asshole).
Like when she was younger, Steph's anger started to become a problem again. Her time as a vigilante and the friendships she made during those years had helped mellow her out and gave her different focuses for anger, but being thrust into a situation where so much felt out of her control and she was frequently under a lot of stress, resulted in her losing her temper more often, more badly, and in ways that often took longer to repair. This was more noticeable in the later months of her time in Exsilium, as things within the world started to unravel, and personal relationships deteriorated, leaving Steph feeling lost, angry, and desperately clinging to anything she had left.
However, her anger and ruthlessness in Exsilium was tempered by experience in a way that it hadn't been when she was younger. While still somewhat reckless, Steph is better at holding herself back and making more strategic choices, instead of just throwing herself into something without a second thought, whether in a fight or in her personal life. She also became a lot more confident in her abilities as a fighter/vigilante/soldier, and was more willing to take charge in a situation or make suggestions rather than doubting herself. She also had a support system that she lacked when she was young; forming almost familial connections in Exsilium allowed her to cope with the more stressful situations in a way that she wouldn't have in her own world.
In the end, Exsilium forced Steph to grow up even faster than she had in her world, by turning her into a soldier in a desperate war. Between the United Earth and internal fighting, it left her exhausted, weary and sick of violence, so she'll be coming into Haven as a young woman who doesn't want to have anything more to do with vigilantism, war, or horror. Shame about that.
That said, it isn't entirely negative. At the end of her time in Exsilium, Steph had begun to make an effort towards unlearning all the bad habits she'd acquired in life, such as her recklessness and self-doubt. As well, she made peace with the fact that being a vigilante isn't the only way to change the world, and that she doesn't have to sacrifice herself and her happiness just to do good things. While still coming to terms with a lot of what happened, Steph is moving towards becoming more balanced, making an effort to recapture her ability to face the world with a smile, and finding ways to help people that doesn't just involve beating the shit out of criminals.
As a note, during her time in Exsilium, Steph acquired a number of tattoos: birds across her collarbones, bats on her back, and the cycle of the moon around her wrist. The lower half of her hair was dyed purple in late November, so it's still noticeable although it's faded somewhat. She also has a few new scars to go along with her old ones, and is a lot more muscled than she was in canon. Most importantly, she has a tracking device implanted in her arm that's impossible to remove without surgery, so that's. probably still in there.
Personality:
Stephanie Brown doesn't give up. Everything she does and everything she believes in is based around her refusal to quit, no matter how tough things get. She's been told numerous times that she'll never amount to anything and keeps trying anyway, keeps trying to be better, to get more training and do things right this time. At first, Steph kept being Spoiler, because she wanted to prove people wrong about her, because she enjoyed the thrill of the control it gave her when everything else in her life was a mess, and because she wanted vengeance against her dad. But after her dad was in prison, she began to realize other reasons to keep fighting, and the Spoiler became about protecting the people of Gotham and about doing the right thing. Steph recognized a need and she filled it by setting out to stop other kids from having to grow up the way she did, surrounded by violence and neglect. This is one of her strongest convictions and it's why she won't quit regardless of anything that stands in her way.
Her stubbornness can be her downfall on occasion, since she doesn't know when to back down or make a strategic retreat, instead she'll keep trying until she can't anymore, regardless of the costs to herself. It can also lead to her making rash decisions and rushing into things just for the sake of doing something, rather than spending the time to work out a good game plan while people are potentially getting hurt. She's trying to learn a little restraint in that regard, to weigh up all her options before jumping in, and to know when it's better to back down and come back for a second round, but it's not as easy as she thought it would be, and sometimes her eagerness, stubbornness and temper get the best of her, and she still makes mistakes on occasion.
On the surface, Steph might come across as a little shallow. Her sense of humour alternates between dry sarcasm, and dorky puns, with an occasional edge of bitter or self-deprecating humour. She uses humour to cover up her emotions, especially fear and insecurity. She tries to always keep a cheerful countenance, and when people don't know her very well, this can be seen as her being dismissive of serious issues or not taking things seriously enough. This isn't quite right, Steph is cheerful because she wants to be, because she refuses to stay down in the face of all the shit she's been through, because she wants to be a source of comfort for other people (she was a Robin, once, she knows how to be the light to someone's dark) and because in the end even if something does get her down, she doesn't want to let anyone else know how it affects her. Just like she refuses to give up in a fight, she refuses to give up on her spirit and her optimism. A positive attitude doesn't mean she's naive and Steph is going to enjoy her life, the rest of the world be damned.
She can also be kind of cheeky, with a special fondness for teasing her friends. It works as another aspect of her sense of humour and as a way to test boundaries - she teases to see how much her friends will put up with. Her friendships with both Tim and Cass often featured gentle taunting and mocking, coming from all parties. Steph also felt the humour and teasing was necessary for keeping Tim down to earth, she always worried that he was going to turn into Batman and didn't want that for him. It's one of the things she regrets about letting everyone believe she was dead; she feels like it contributed to pushing Tim towards that end. Sometimes she doesn't even recognize him anymore.
Steph has a hard time making friends, partly because she has a low tolerance for people who are cruel or false, and a lot of Gotham's seem to fall into that category. She's also had her trust broken enough times that she is wary of people - particularly those in authority positions - and doesn't like giving them power over her through friendship, or relationships in general. It's hard for her to befriend civilians, particularly those that come from a more privileged background, simply because they don't understand the violence that surrounds her life, both from her upbringing and her life as a vigilante. She does have a small group of friends among the superhero/vigilante community, Tim Drake, Cass Cain, Kara Zor-El and Wendy Harris, the first two who have been in her life for years, and the latter two are people she's learning to trust. She's been shown to get along with Connor Hawke, Miss Martian, Traci 13 and assorted other Teen Titans, but has never kept in contact with them. As a result, while she's fairly independent and likes doing things her own way, when the situation arises she's willing to call for back up and can work well with others. She's never had a chance to be on a superhero team, but she'd like to give it a shot one day.
When she does manage to make close friends, she has a tendency to idolize them and will often ignore their faults. This is heightened by the fact that at the beginning of her career as a superhero, Steph had a harder time ignoring people's put downs, and felt that she wasn't deserving of friends. It becomes a problem in situations like what happened in regards to Cassandra and Tim, both of whom have frequently treated Stephanie like she's not good enough, and told her so. Sometimes Steph believes them, but even when she managed to stop believing them, she still never called them out for treating her badly because a part of her couldn't completely ignore them and because she doesn't want to risk losing them just for the fact they doubt her. She will call people out on shit if it doesn't relate to her, or if it's hurting them, as is evident in the way she tells Tim how worried she is about him after Bruce dies. Her friendship with Cass is an intense one, as a result of both their upbringings, their personalities, and the similarities they share. Although it took them a while to trust each other and work together well, Steph and Cass both care deeply for each other and the friendship has helped both of them grow and change. Cass's respect for Steph - earned when Steph refused to quit even after getting beaten down by Cass - helps Steph to respect herself. And although, as mentioned, Cass can be doubtful of Steph, as when she knocked Stephanie out to keep her from a fight, Cass tries to teach Steph how to improve, rather than trying to make her quit. It was a huge moment for Steph when Cass gave her the Batgirl name and costume and one of the main reasons she tries so hard to make Batgirl into something to be proud of. Cass is her best friend and Steph doesn't want to let her down.
Steph is fiercely protective, both of her friends and of people that she thinks need protecting, often those that are ignored or put down by the current system. If someone hurts her friends, she's very unlikely to ever forgive them for it, and while she isn't necessarily inclined towards self-sacrifice, she'd take a bullet for her friends. That also means she'll occasionally stick her nose into other people's business if she's worried about what her friends are up to, and she's the sort of person who'll go behind someone's back to threaten their new friend/significant other not to hurt them. Sometimes she feels a bit guilty about not trusting her friends to look after themselves, but she can't help worrying about people. When it comes to people who have been hurt or abandoned by the system, she feels more need to look out for them and to protect them from the world.
She can be quick to anger, especially when someone is threatening children and sometimes she relishes the violence she gets to deal out as a vigilante. It's cathartic, beating up the sort of assholes that remind her of the people she grew up around, and she always feels good in knowing that she stopped the bad guy. Her anger can be both personal, and righteous. She's attacked the Riddler because she blamed him for her father's death, she punched her ex-boyfriend for leaving her alone when she was pregnant and she slapped Batman for making her play his games. On the other hand, she's turned her anger towards the cause that she believes in which has led to her rage at the Penguin for exploiting children and at the Calculator for hurting her friends.
There's a ruthlessness in the way she fights, often hitting harder than someone like Batman would deem "necessary". Sometimes she just likes violence as the first option to solve the problem; it's quick, simple and it's what's kept her alive growing up in a house full of criminals. She's working on trying to find other ways to deal with problems. Steph doesn't kill, but that's mostly out of respect for Batman's rules and the legacy of the costume -- it was Cass's identity and Steph knows how she feels about killing. But she's never understood why they have to go out of their way to not kill the bad guys. She figures they should be able to beat them up as much as is required to stop them and if that means potentially killing them, so be it. Canonically, she's wanted to leave the unconscious criminal in a building about to explode, and she still doesn't get why she had to go back and save him when it was his choice to be there in the first place. Some of Batman's issues with Stephanie stem from this, as he doesn't trust her not to use lethal force. When confronted with Zsasz, Steph was ready to kill him to save Batman and any future victims of Zsasz, an act which Batman scolded her for. She believes she did the right thing, despite Batman's insistence otherwise.
That said, she understands that not all criminals commit crime because they want to. Her background gives her enough insight to know that sometimes it's the only option and she tends to be lenient with kids from backgrounds like hers, who get caught up in gangs or drugs, encouraging them to get their life back on track, if that's possible. Similarly, she is critical of Batman's approach to crime fighting, which often focuses on the big crimes and tends to overlook the little people. It's why Stephanie kept being Spoiler, she wanted to stick to the suburbs and the parts of Gotham that Batman doesn't go to, and try to make a difference there.
She's used to dealing with her problems by herself, a symptom of her trust issues and the victim blaming she faced after her dad's friend attempted to sexually assault her. As a result she tries to keep her personal life personal, except from her closest friends, and even then there are topics she doesn't like to talk about. Her child is on that list because she doesn't really like thinking about it; she knows she made the right choice but it doesn't stop her from wondering what could have been. She also doesn't like talking about her mom's addiction, and can get kind of paranoid with regards to her own behaviour, not planning to touch drugs and being careful with her alcohol consumption for fear she'll get addicted too. She doesn't like to talk, or think, about what happened during the gang war even though she's trying to make peace with herself about what went down. Sometimes she still blames herself for what happened, but if anyone else tries to blame her, she'll break their nose.
The relationship between Steph and Crystal is a difficult one, despite being the most important in her life, complicated by Arthur, Crystal's addiction and Stephanie's crime fighting activities. She became the Spoiler to stop her dad from ever hurting her mom again and Steph loves Crystal, but she can't forget all the times that she's been hurt both by Crystal, and while she stood idly by as Arthur hurt Steph. Sometimes she blames her mom for letting Arthur stay in the house even though she knows Crystal had no choice. Even more often, she blames her for turning to drugs when things got to hard to bear and for leaving Steph, a little girl, alone to deal with Arthur. But Crystal has recognized her mistakes, apologized for them, and done her best to atone for them. With Arthur "dead", they'd tried to make themselves into a family again without him, and were mostly succeeding until the gang war and Steph's "death", an event that hit Crystal hard. When Steph came back, it was her turn to do the apologizing and she's grateful that her mom forgave her for not returning sooner.
Cystal's opinions on Stephanie's vigilantism has varied through Steph's career; Crystal has encouraged her actions, overlooked them, and told Steph to stop. After Steph's "return from the dead", her mom made her promise to stop being a superhero and Steph said she would. It's been a constant source of guilt for Steph because she hates lying to her mom. In the final issue of Steph's Batgirl run, her mom finds out that she's been operating as Batgirl for a few months, and after a slightly awkward discussion, Crystal tells Steph that she's proud of her. This is an important moment for Steph, and it's taken a lot of weight off her shoulders; she no longer needs to worry about keeping the secret, Crystal is one more person who has started giving Steph the approval that she deserves and it's another step towards making their relationship the mother-daughter relationship it should be.
She's resourceful, mostly because she had to be. She's had to learn to survive with what's available, had to learn to fight with what's available and as a result doesn't rely on the tech and gadgets that other vigilantes tend to. Although she does enjoy having access to all the fancy gadgets that Oracle gets for her, Steph hasn't lost her resourcefulness and she enjoys finding the most interesting uses for the tech she's got.
The most important thing about Steph is that she refuses to be a victim, and that she'll never give up.
Abilities/Powers:
Steph was an accomplished gymnast on her school team before beginning her vigilante career, and her skills have improved greatly with time and hard work. She's undergone a significant amount of training in terms of martial arts, receiving tutelage from two of the top martial arts in the DCU (Dinah Lance and Cassandra Cain), as well as training from Tim Drake, Batman, and Barbara Gordon. Although her martial arts training primarily focused on hand to hand combat, she's also more than capable in the use of a bo staff, escrima sticks and the traditional batarangs. She is trained to use guns, and after coming to use firearms in Exsilium she's more than proficient with them. Both as Spoiler and Robin, Steph underwent the typical Bat-training, including but not limited to, chemistry, forensic psychology, undercover work, and escapology. As Batgirl, she's had Oracle teaching her how to use computer systems and other technological devices to her advantage, something else that she improved upon during her time in Exsilium.
Essentially, Steph is a very good fighter. While not quite on the level of Dinah or Cass, she's at a point where she can hold her own against a fight with not only them, but can also use her training and resourcefulness to take down metahuman foes. Spending a significant amount of her days in Exsilium training has made her even better than she was in canon, both in skill and in strength, since she bulked up a fair amount during her fourteen months in the city. Her natural skill and inclination towards punching things is now backed up with a significant amount of technical knowledge and practice that kept her alive while fighting the United Earth's soldiers.
Exsilium also provided her with the opportunity to improve on other skills, particularly stealth, reconnaissance, and espionage, as she was required to sneak into an assortment of situations during her time there. Her tactical knowledge has increased as well, thanks to time studying tactics as well as working closely alongside various mentors who were more tactically minded (Oracle, Cable of X-Men fame). Working for Tony Stark for several months also allowed her to expand on her knowledge of engineering, to the point where she reversed engineered her batarangs and designed the tracking device that is currently in her arm (smart move, Steph).
And between the requisite medical knowledge that Batman expects his Robins to know, the fact Steph's mom is a nurse, the year Steph spent in Africa with Doctors Without Borders, and working in a medical clinic in Exsilium for several months, she's gained a fairly comprehensive knowledge of medical procedure. She can clean and sew up a wound, set bones, remove bullets or shrapnel, administer injections, pop dislocated joints back into place and knows how to treat assorted infections, diseases and responses to trauma.
(She also nearly snuck up on Batman once.)
Items/Weapons: Her Batgirl suit, with utility belts attached but empty (since I'm assuming all that shit in there would count as separate weapons), her bo staff with a shiny new blade extension, and a plain gold ring on a gold chain.
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