Bruce Wayne

battroll

Player Name: bluemoon
Player Age: 24
Player Contact: emeralddarkness emeralddarkness ceruleangarnet @ aim
Player/Character HMD: here
Other characters in game: n/a

Character Name: Bruce Wayne
Character Canon: DCAU > Justice League > OU
Character Age/Gender: Mid to late 30s, Male
Canon Point: Just after Season 2 Episode 12, Wild Card

Character Canon History:

ONCE, IN A WORLD WITHOUT THERAPISTS....

So most people know the story of Batman, and DCAU's version is pretty standard to start with, though it does start deviating from the norm before too long. Young Bruce Wayne's idealic childhood as the only son of one of the wealthiest families prob in the world was cut short when his parents were gunned down in front of his eyes by a petty robber, on the way home from a movie. Consequently he, at the age of eight, dedicated his entire life to fighting criminals and stamping out crime, and such was his level of dedication that he actually pulled it off - more than most of us can say about all those plans we made when we were eight. Some time in his teens, he began using his vast family fortune to travel all over the world, studying and mastering pretty much every form of combat - emphasizing martial arts - that he could get his hands on, and studying along the way detective and forensic work, escape artistry, psychology, etc etc etc. Anything and everything that might help him wage his private war.

He was probably in his early 20s some time when he got back, met a pretty girl, AND STARTED QUESTIONING HIS ENTIRE EXISTENCE. The vigilante thing was going well enough (well, sort of - the criminals weren't afraid of him and that made things harder BUT THE POINT WAS HE WAS HELPING PEOPLE) but he'd fallen in love, and didn't feel he could do this when there was someone waiting for him. Finally, though, he made up his mind. He asked her to marry him at twilight, immediately before the two of them were swarmed by bats leaving a cave on the property. Fortunately/unfortunately, he is Bruce Wayne and therefore doomed never to have a normal happy life - due to plot, this girl ended up running out on him the day after he proposed. Having thus been kicked back to plan A (all the more determined now), Bruce, who'd apparently been struck by the thousand bats all around him the day before, hit upon the idea of modeling himself after a bat to strike fear into the hearts of wrongdoers, and the rest is history.

Some little time later, he decided to take in a recently orphaned acrobat circus kid, whose parents had been murdered by a thug trying to lean on the circus as part of an illegal operation at a performance that Bruce attended. Dick Grayson quickly discovered that the mostly-absent guy who'd taken him in was in fact Batman, and even more quickly after that developed a hero persona of his own - that of Robin, the Boy Wonder. Together, they fight crime!

10ish years and lots of supervillains later left Bruce probably somewhere in his early to mid 30s, Robin all growed up and not working nearly as much with Batman anymore due to COLLEGE, and both of them with a lot more experience. Along the way there were a few more love interests, the most notable of which are Selina Kyle - an upscale cat burger slash environmental activist who was much more interested in Batman than in Bruce, Zatanna Zatara, a magician and the daughter of a famous magician he had studied escape artistry with, and Talia al Ghul, daughter of an immortal ecoterrorist who actually knew that Batman and Bruce Wayne were one and the same. Enter the third member of the gang, Batgirl! Batgirl started off as a freelancer, the feisty daughter of the police chief who dressed up as Batman for a while for reasons of her own, at least until her gender was revealed and she decided she'd start going out as Batgirl. Robin seemed to object a little more to her presence than Batman (not knowing that this was the chick he was dating outside the costume), who was largely indifferent. Apparently, though, that dark mysterious thing was what did it for Barbara, and she started to spend her afternoons daydreaming about Batman.

While all this triangle of feels was going on between the three of them (and possibly because of it, at least partially) what remained of the relationship between Dick and Bruce was rapidly deteriorating, until finally one day after Bruce let Barbara into the secret, Dick ragequit the role of Robin. He spent about 2 years globetrotting before developing a new persona of his own, Nightwing. Meanwhile Bruce and Barbara started dating as well as more formally working together, and eventually Bruce found a new Robin - Timothy Drake, the biggest little Batman fan, and son of a career criminal and thug. After his father was murdered by Two-Face (another of Bruce's villains, and tragically, a former friend) Bruce ended up taking Tim in and training him, until Tim started picking up the mask too, taking over Dick's old role - who did eventually find his way back to Gotham, and even started speaking to Bruce again.

Nothing really significant happened for a little while, not beyond the usual death threats and supervillains and Gotham almost being destroyed or having all her citizens killed, anyway - normal stuff. Eventually, though, the Joker (Batman's worst, and most persistent villain, in this or any other verse) hit on a scheme to help bolster his meager finances - convince Lex Luthor to hire him to kill Superman! Bruce, never content to sit idly by, followed Joker to Metropolis with the excuse of meeting Luthor for a partnership deal that the two of them had. He met Superman, had Superman find out his secret identity, learned Superman's true identity in turn, saved both him and Lois Lane (who he was dating on the side while in Metropolis, and who eventually accidentally also discovered that Bruce and Batman were the same), was saved (along with Lois) by Superman, and eventually decided to team up. They made an uneasy truce, and even started to kindasortaalittlemaybe like each other, or at least tolerate each other, though neither wanted to team up with the other party full-time. Batman and Superman both survived their first meeting, despite all efforts to the contrary by both Lex and Joker, and Bruce made his way back to Gotham after neutralizing the clown.

Life went on, and he and Superman teamed up a few more times for various different reasons, as he and Nightwing sometimes teamed up (and sometimes even didn't spend the whole time they were out bickering, glory be). Eventually, a few years later, Superman was called on to defend the world, and to start doing so by disarming all the world's warheads. Only this is superheroes and nothing is that simple, which is why not long after SUDDENLY ALIENS. As it turns out, using Superman as the defense of the world was a terribly cunning plan that had been created by an alien, one of the aliens which had formerly invaded and destroyed Mars! They'd been woken up again by a manned mission to Mars, which had also woken the last surviving true Martian. He'd jetted off to Earth to try to warn them, but had been snagged by Area 51 and locked up until it was too late.

Good job, government. Good job.

So the Martian Invaders from Mars showed up before anyone could do anything about it and started going all War of the Worlds on everything. Nobody could do anything, which meant that if anyone was going to, it'd have to be heroes.

Batman had been following some leads with regards to weird things happening before any of this showed up, Superman was obviously in what with the whole pledging to defend everyone thing, an Amazonian Princess named Diana ran away from home to help out, the Flash - the fastest man alive - showed up to help, as did an ex-military intergalactic policeman, Green Lantern, and an alien of a different flavor, Hawkgirl, and finally that Martian who'd tried to warn us originally, after they busted him loose. Eventually the six of them defeated the aliens more or less by the skin of their teeth, decided that you never really knew when aliens might invade because things like this seemed to happen every second Tuesday, so they banded together to form The Justice League!

Batman proceeded to build them a watchtower in space because Batman and then the 5 actual members and the one part-time member (that'd be Batman, because Bruce is bad at being a team player) had many adventures of varying shades of ridiculous. And started to make friends with basically all the members of the JL, despite his best efforts to the contrary. Indeed, he was sort of starting to fall for Diana, who similarly seemed somewhat enamored with him, but neither of them knew quite what to do with these feels so nothing actually... happened with that. Just UST.

ANYWAY so a bunch of crazy world-hopping world-saving highly unlikely and often ridiculous (but ~dramatic~) team missions later, the Joker reared his ugly head again. This time he basically hijacked Las Vegas, planting multiple bombs all over the place and then using a gang of superpowered teenagers to fight the Justice League while they tried to find the bombs and disarm them, and while he filmed and broadcast the entire thing. Eventually Batman managed to turn Joker's ace in the hole, appropriately named/nicknamed Ace (all of those superpowered teenagers were playing card themed) against Joker himself, the Flash managed to get the bomb away from everyone in time, and the day, she was saved.

And then he's not going to be there.

Character Personality:

Bruce is a man of many masks.

There are a good number of people out there who claim that Bruce is the real mask, these days, that Batman has become Bruce's true self, and that he's only himself when masked in a different way. I disagree. I think that the Batman persona is as much a mask as the playboy persona - which I generally refer to as 'Brucie' rather than 'Bruce', just to differentiate. Therefore, this section is going to be divided up, just like he divides himself up. First we're gonna look at Brucie.

Brucie is the cover persona. He is, therefore, specifically designed to be harmless, to be clever enough to do what is needed when it is needed, not to be so clever that anyone really notices it, except maybe as a waste of potential. Brucie is very content to by and large cruise through life, refraining from taking much of an active roll, but keeping a close enough eye on things that if something needs him to step in, he's able to do so. He gets a great deal of the credit, though that's not his primary motive, and does the job when he needs to. He mostly leaves all the work to someone else.

He's something of an airhead, good natured and kind but so shallow that he practically reflects himself. He smiles and laughs and generally hardly seems even to remember the tragedy of his childhood. That spark of sorrow isn't completely forgotten, of course not, but he's grown very adept at disguising it.

Brucie makes friends fairly easily (not just because of the money, though surely that helps) but is incredibly loyal to those friends. Part of this is his core personality coming through - after all, there's only so much he can do to hide it. Generally he's self-sacrificing, when something can hold his attention for long enough to merit self-sacrifice. Unfortunately, this doesn't come along very often, but he is a very dedicated supporter of any generally good causes, and will give freely of his time and money and fame. Unlike many others of the elite, he is a genuine philanthropist, and good causes are more than a pleasant waste of time in between everything else - but, with a few exceptions, he seems content to wait for them to come to him.

Brucie comes across as somewhat naive, which can make him shrewd and foolish in turns. When it's something he actually cares about, and he pays attention, however, he's hard to trick.

Finally, Brucie is a playboy. He is constantly surrounded by lovely women, goes through them at an almost alarming rate. He's very good at dancing attention, of convincing the latest girl of his affections right up until he drops her, or she clues in to the fact that she's not the most important thing in his life and drops him. He never seems to be looking for something serious, and so whenever things start going too far in that direction, it's generally the sign to cut and run. The interesting thing about this game is no matter how often he plays it, he's so good at being very sincere (probably by falling half in love with any girl where the relationship starts turning even a little serious) that every new girl seems to think she's different, that she'll be the one to make an honest man out of him. Of course, this has a flip side too - Brucie likes pretty girls, but doesn't much care for being mobbed. He'll take the gaggle of hangers-on, but if any start to get too pushy, that's a little uncomfortable. He dislikes gold-diggers - it's always nice to find someone who seems interested in more than the size of his bank account. Unfortunately, they're the sort that can be difficult to identify - it's not like his fortune is a secret.

In many ways, Batman is Brucie's polar opposite. Where Brucie is affable and approachable, Batman goes out of his way to be terrifying.

Batman is a thing deliberately spun of shadow and of nightmares. He is a demon, the monster under the bed or in the closet, but one who hunts the other monsters. Batman has a reputation for being crazy, which (let's be honest here) he really has earned. Here is a man who spends his spare time dressing up in a glorified Halloween costume, leaping off rooftops and dodging bullets so that he can break burglars' noses, and the noses of all like them. He is also crazy intense. There is almost always something more important going on right now, and so he doesn't have time to waste on people who aren't making it worth his attention.

Batman is an extreme loner, 'antisocial' being almost as good a descriptor for him as 'intense' - probably at least partially because he doesn't have time to waste on all you idiots, there is far more important stuff going on. If nothing else, he could be making himself better prepared for anything he might have to face next. Batman is a man who has made 'crazy prepared' into an art form. He never knows exactly what to expect, so his answer was to get ready for everything. Yes, everything. Partially as a result of this, and partially because it's how he has to be, he has made himself fearless and unflappable. Batman not only courts death on a nightly basis, but actively seeks it out - and if he's to be any use at this, has to do it without hesitation. In this game, where one mistake can equal death, hesitation can be a mistake - and besides that, you can't affect change if you are standing still. Batman is therefore very much a creature of action, and anybody in his way had better move quickly, or prepare for him to move him - on his first meeting with Superman, when Superman tried to stop him from leaning on a snitch, he grabbed the man of steel and literally tossed him across the room. He doesn't have time for niceties.

Batman is unbreakable. The image that he likes to cultivate for himself, however, is that of a man who is always on the edge of snapping. Forcibly questioning criminals is a little less effective if they knew you'd never kill, and didn't think that you were always hovering pretty near to the edge of breaking that rule. That, however, is one thing that he does not do - he does not kill. This doesn't mean that he won't go in for a little light maiming.

As a creature who wraps itself in shadows, Batman is very dark - but, and undeniably, good. He is dedicated with all his being to his cause, and though he's not nice, he's undeniably good.

Batman is not all that Bruce is, but Batman is a good part of Bruce, especially by now - trying to separate the two entirely would be a little like cutting out one of his lungs - it's not all of him, but still might very well kill him. And, though Brucie is generally more distinct and separate a mask, one that can be far more easily told apart from his true self, there are still areas where the lines are blurred.

One trait that all three share, because it's such a core part of his personality, is that Bruce is good. Down to the center of his soul. He flirts with darkness, he likes to wrap himself in shadows and play with that fine line between light and dark, but he is a good man. Another is that he is the strangest sort of optimist. Generally speaking, on a day-to-day basis, Bruce keeps on living by assuming that the worst thing will always happen. Everyone will betray him, through mind control or insanity or just because they go bad. Heroes will turn from the light. Someone will hijack nuclear missiles and turn them on Gotham. People will be kidnapped and held hostage and killed. And there, against this little fount of negativity, is the fact that he really does honestly believe he can change all of this. If Bruce ever stopped and really, rationally thought through what he does as Batman, he'd probably decide to move to Finland and take up peat farming - but despite being almost alarmingly intelligent, and constantly assuming the worst of every situation, he believes right down to the center of his soul that he can make real, positive difference by dressing up in a fright mask and beating the snot out of wrongdoers. He doesn't think he's good enough to truly fix things, or at least not yet, but really truly believes that they can be fixed, and never wavers in that belief - something that not even Superman, the quintessential boyscout and cheerful optimist, can claim. He's not perfect, he's not good enough, he keeps on falling short of his goal, but he really believes that if he was only good enough at this he could fix things.

One of Bruce's strengths and, in a way, weaknesses is that he's a perfectionist - every detail must be thought of, every contingency planned for, every proper step taken in its proper place. The problem with this is that he's chosen a calling where perfection isn't attainable, so he spends a lot of time beating himself up over things he couldn't have called, because in his mind he should have called them. He is very much a martyr. If asked to choose between sacrificing himself and sacrificing someone else, he will choose himself every single time. This is the case with virtually everyone; it takes an insane amount just to make him not go deliberately out of his way and also endanger himself to save someone, and usually even still the only times he doesn't are when he knows they'll be fine without him.

He's not very forgiving. Bruce holds grudges, long and close - it takes him a lot to get over something. Part of this is doubtless that he has decided to make himself responsible for pretty much everyone, and Bruce is a papa wolf. He's protective of everyone and everything, just as a matter of course, and while he's not overbearing, if you harm someone close to him he will make you very deeply regret it as soon as he possibly can. Bruce always comes the closest to snapping when someone close to him is endangered, partially because he blames himself - he wasn't good enough to save them. It is a possibility - unlike the mask he's constructed for himself in Batman, Bruce really might snap one day, and knows it. He tries to keep himself from falling down the cliff that he walks every night.

Bruce is a loner, because he's afraid to care for others - if he cares for them, they could be taken away. It kills him that he does care so deeply, and so much, about so many. Try as he might not to, Bruce cannot stop himself from caring - and, at the same time, he needs others around to keep himself sane, and remind him of why he's fighting. He's a very broken man, who has picked up the pieces of himself and built them back together in what seems the best way he can, but if not for the masks he wears he'd probably crumble apart again. Bruce is not comfortable just being himself, which is why he's not, why he has faces he presents to the rest of the world. The shadow of his parents still hangs over him, all that happened that night in Crime Alley, and that much will never change. He's not a happy person, and has not been for years and years, but he doesn't expect that, at this point. He doesn't need it. There's more important things that are waiting. This intense focus makes him a very good leader, though not a very personable one. Bruce has a hard time around people, but is very good at using them. He likes to keep himself distant, to stop getting too involved - if he didn't keep a tight grip on things, it would be very easy for his inner trauma patient to break loose at every gunshot. After all, he learned to disguise his wounded heart after that night, but never healed it.

Bruce is also extremely strong willed, and doesn't seem to think anything is impossible, and anyone who says something is just hasn't looked hard enough yet. One can hardly blame him, when one looks at his night job and just the world in general that he comes from - one where Kansas farmboys turn out to be superpowered aliens from a dying world, where alternate dimensions break through and invade, where magic spells are real.

Character Abilities:

Nothing supernatural, but well. He's Batman.

As the only non-powered A-list hero in a world that contains titans like Superman and Wonder Woman, and characters with abilities like The Flash, or with weapons like Green Lantern's ring, Batman freakin defines badass normal. He not only takes on beings who are basically gods in terms of power, but (given a bit of prep time, and usually with the aid of a gadget) he routinely beats them. When he's not doing this, these beings who could punch planets out of orbit if so inclined frequently rely on him as the deciding factor for victory - and with good reason, as more often than not he is exactly that. On the 'still ridiculous but not quite so extreme' he's also done things in canon like scale several hundred foot sheer cliffs on the tops of frozen mountains mostly without gear so he could fight the ninjas on top, and barehandedly killed alligators which are of a size to suggest time travel from the Jurassic or so, while underwater and without any gear.

Yeah idk.

He knows about a zillion ways to make you hurt (FUNNILY ENOUGH a number which roughly coincides with the number of ways he can make people talk in a hurry), even more to take you out without bothering that. He is a master in just about every form of combat under the sun, and though he doesn't frequently use weapons, has proven that he can if he's ever given cause to - most specifically swords, though given everything else this insane man can do one assumes he's at least familiar with most other things too. He is also very handy with throwing stars, and probably boomarangs, as he's made himself a tool that's effectively a cross between the two which he uses to great effect.

On top of this, he is the world's greatest detective and a veritable walking repository on information on half the subjects under the sun. He is a survival expert, escape artist, and master of deception and manipulation. He has systematically trained himself to not only function but practically thrive on less sleep than most normal people would need just to keep themselves from hallucinating. He is the master of too many disciplines, and is well beyond an olympic level gymnast and all around athlete, and usually performs these athletic feats when dressed in however much body armor and while dragging a full length cape.

tl;dr: he can do it, he's Batman.

Character Inventory:

The Batsuit - which includes things like lots of body armor, a lead-treated flame-resistant cape, being flame-resistant itself, traps all over for lockpicks etc (though the majority of the goodies are in the belt and everything else is just for emergencies)

Boobytrapped bat belt stuffed with all sorts of goodies, including but not limited to lockpocks, gas grenades, little electronic doohickeys, portable computer and scanner, batarangs, batrope, etc

Small store of emergency cash also in batsuit

Samples:

Sample

Bruce watched the world tick by from the window of his car, building after building, and person after person. It was odd how your method of transportation could change your perceptions so thoroughly - to see the world in a car was so different than to see it by a train, or a jet, or the Javelin. Everything more immediate, but still separated by a pane of tinted glass. Sometimes it felt like a fairly good metaphor for his life.

There were so many problems in the world, and so many problems specifically in Gothem, even now that Nightwing had joined Batgirl and Robin more often than not. He was starting to dislike being so close to home (he had to grow up some time, Bruce thought, and tried not to regret the fact that he was somehow losing him again - he'd done this, it was better this way) but in the mean time it was an extra level of protection that Gotham could use, especially with the Joker once again out.

And that's when his micro communicator beeped. Bruce checked it automatically, and answered with a single word. "Batman."

It was Joker. He'd finally surfaced. Bruce's eyes narrowed as he listened to J'onn explain the situation, and then checked his watch.

"Understood. Give me thirty minutes." He flicked off the communicator and looked towards the front of the seat. "I'm afraid you'll have to make my excuses to the board, Alfred, this really can't wait."