» Wayne, Bruce, Batman

BRUCE WAYNE
turn fear against those who prey on the fearful


Played by Toast

FANDOM: Batman / DC Universe
AGE: 31
RACE: Human
SEX: Male
ORIENTATION: Heterosexual
PLAY-BY: Christian Bale

SKILLS

Bruce Wayne is an expert on various different types of martial arts ranging from Kendo to Brazilian Jujitsu. For a simple human, he can jump fairly high and do some pretty neat stunts and flips. He can also easily locate all of the vital points within a human body to render even the most daunting of foes immovable. Even if he has no special powers, he utilizes his human strength to the utmost efficiency, and his physical condition is comparable at least to that of Olympic athletes.

He has the capacity to move like a ninja, silent as a doorknob and elusive as those stupid flies you can't ever seem to catch. As mysterious as the night, Batman can turn himself invisible in every sense of the word (except literally). He fades with the shadows (and he's a ninja). In any case, he betrays no sign of entrance or exit.

He is extremely resourceful, utilizing whatever he can to gain the upper hand. During his tutelage with Henri Ducard, he has been trained with a variety of swords (katanas, sabers, scimitars, you name it), throwing knives, nun chucks, and other sorts of exotic weaponry escaping the common imagination. He will not hesitate to find function for his various gadgets and is actually quite good at assembling them himself.

While donning the suit, he is invulnerable to most knife stabbings and gunshots, save for the really, really big or really, really accurate ones.

The man is clever, perhaps excessively so. Even if he has yet to reach the pinnacle of his inventive brilliance, he is a sure contender for one of the most astute minds out there. His innate ingenuity is mostly hidden by the various faux personas he tends to mask himself with, ranging from a charismatic dull-witted socialite to a gruff undercover criminal, but it is by all means there. His ability to think outside the box trumps the brain power of any general police force, and he thrives off the obscure, minute clues left by less-than meticulous criminals. There is no such thing as the perfect crime, after all.

He's no superhero; that much is for certain. He is human and will be handicapped by basic human anatomy. He will also die as a human -- but he is very tenacious, and only those with enough guile to outsmart him utterly will be able to accomplish this. If nothing else, he is a survivor. He also has this knack for refusing to kill people, which has before and will continue to bite him in the arse. (Exhibit A: Joker)

PERSONALITY

Refusal to kill aside, he's actually not as kind of a man as one might think. He won't hesitate to shatter his enemy's bones or perform every single act of torture he deems necessary. While regretful, he finds it inevitably acceptable to hospitalize his "victims" for a year or so, just as long as they don't die. His rational is quite simple: a year of that hospital time will do wonders for these usually unsavory individuals and allow them to think over their life decisions. Similarly, an incapacitating, usually excruciating bludgeon to the knee is certainly preferable to death. This voluntary choice to not be an executioner stems a little deeper than a simple moral code.

Although he strives to shield the innocent, he is far from saintly in many of his actions. Bruce is often tempted to send all those rotten-to-the-bone crooks to the grave, but he is only fearful that this one push will send him across the edge, opening a can of worms that he will most certainly regret. His crusade against all those agents of destruction and chaos falls short at execution. He will never deal the final blow, preferring to leave the fates of criminals in the hands of lawful judicial systems. On the other hand, he won't cry over spilt milk. If someone dies beyond his direct control, he will move on, regretful as it may be. To him, there is also a thick enough line between actually killing someone and choosing not to save them. He has done the latter before, and he won't despair over himself if he ends up having to do it again.

Following the murder of his parents, he harbors a deep-rooted sense of responsibility to invoke his own, personal justice upon those who prey upon the undeserving innocent. He would much rather not see another little boy become subjected to the sufferings that he had, be it a Gothamite or not.

Contrary to popular belief, he does work fairly well with others should the need arise. He does his best to veer away from relying on others, but he understands that it is often inevitable (especially since, in Pandora, you know, superpowered baddies and magic and stuff). Otherwise, he is rather successful as a lone-wolf type figure and will kindly ignore people or ask them to bugger off if he doesn't need them around, or if the circumstances are too dangerous to have anyone else involved.

Paramount to his psychology are his personal struggles with his dual life. Perhaps the degree will be lessened (or even altogether extinguished) in Pandora, but in Gotham, the mantle of Batman has been an inconceivably heavy one. With the inevitable sacrifice of his personal life, the original Bruce Wayne of his childhood and early adulthood seems to have diminished night by night. He no longer lives for the man named "Bruce Wayne", but for Batman, and for Gotham.

APPEARANCE

Standing to a height of about six feet and weighing approximately 190 pounds, the man is no dainty flower. According to his BMI, he should be considered "overweight", but most of that weight is muscle mass, so it's all okay. He is not considerably bulky on first sight, because much of this muscle mass is actually rather lean and compact. Especially when sporting a slick business suit, his physique still looks excellent, but it is a far cry from anything "bulky". Constant martial arts and endurance training allows him to sport the finely toned, ripped body he has today.

He has dark brown hair and hazel eyes. His clothing choices are absolutely eclectic. While a trademark outfit includes the custom-tailored Gucci or Armani (read: overpriced and a glaring example of conspicuous consumption) suit, Bruce will just as quickly don a biker outfit, a hobo trench coat, a janitor's uniform, or even a ridiculous manly beard, rendering him utterly unrecognizable as appropriate to his purposes.

While donning the Batman gear, none of this is visible, and this is only to be expected as he does expend the utmost effort to conceal his identity. While wearing the suit, most of what you see is actually quite functional. The cape serves as a memory cloth that can simulate gliding in the air, and even the pointy ears contain some sort of honing, communication device. Unfortunately, such devices most likely will not work in Pandora without a good amount of tinkering, if even that.

HISTORY

As a son of the powerful mega-conglomerate Wayne Empire, young Bruce was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His family loved him, his servants (except for maybe trusty and wise Alfred) coddled him, and he even found dear friends among the children of such servants. While playing in the manor's garden with one such friend, Rachel, he fell down a dilapidated well and sprained his wrist. At the bottom of the well, bats swarmed around the terrified boy (as it was connected to a much larger cave) and planted a phobia within him. Eventually, his father, the charismatic Dr. Thomas Wayne, carried him out in his strong, fatherly arms and set his bones straight.

A few days later, the family (father, mother, and young Bruce) departed from their estate to attend an opera. Since fate had a terrible sense of humor, the showing featured a swarm of contortionist bats. Young Bruce attempted to sit through it, but just couldn't and pleaded with his father to leave. A good parent, Thomas understood his son's plight and motioned for the family to leave. As soon as they ventured outside, they were confronted by a mugger. Despite Thomas's attempts to resolve the matter peacefully, to the point of giving up his valuables without a struggle, he and his wife Martha were both mortally shot in a moment of the mugger's own anxiety. Bruce survived, but the night had given the boy a final trauma that would distort him from the carefree, golden boy he was into a cynical and vengeful young man.

But he still continued to live in the lap of luxury and be carefully raised by a compassionate and emotionally invested butler. He was accepted at Princeton University and enrolled there. Wayne Enterprises continued to thrive as a self-functioning corporate behemoth, and he was promised a leading position when he grew up, his future pretty much guaranteed. Despite the trauma, Bruce Wayne was still very much naive and accurately described as a sort of Prince of Gotham.

While he was a young Princeton undergraduate of twenty-two, news of the early release of his parents' murderer, a seemingly regretful Mr. Chill, blared through radio and television. Bruce attended the man's hearing, fully intending on sacrificing everything in order to fulfill his personal justice by a launching a bullet through Chill's face. Fortunately, a crony of mob lord Carmen Falcone, having been spited by Chill, beat him to the chase, and Chill was shot dead before Bruce could even lift his own pistol.

Frustrated by Bruce's cold reaction to the death, his childhood friend Rachel drove him from the courthouse to Falcone's doorstep so that he could "thank him". Now angry and uncertain, he confronted the mob lord, only to have Falcone himself (laconically) educate him about the true disparities of the world. His parents had died, but so what? He'd still never seen the face of true suffering. He was still the pampered and coddled Prince of Gotham.

Ironically, this exchange with Falcone enlightened him somewhat. That very night, he cut his ties to endless wealth and power, abandoning his title of "Prince" and set off by himself to see the world, to acquaint himself with this so-called "true suffering". For more than a year, he lived among criminals, repudiating his earlier assumptions about the simple nature of right or wrong. He learned the fear of failure and the thrill of success. He attempted to understand the world of the criminals without fully becoming one of them. He was eventually captured and sent to prison in Bhutan, and he hit an epic failure dead end.

During these darkest hours, he was approached by a man who called himself Henri Ducard, who presented himself as a representative of the League of Shadows and their leader, Ra's al Ghul. Revealing his knowledge of Bruce's identity, Ducard offered him a chance to become strong, strong enough to transcend the limitations of a mere vigilante and to fit the shoes of a true warrior of justice. Bruce accepted this opportunity and assumed training under the League of Shadows headquarters, located in a nook of the Himalayas. For the next several years, he trained feverishly under the Ducard's wing in order to master Kendo, Taiga, Jujitsu, Brazilian Jujitsu, the art of becoming invisible, the art of facing six hundred men in battle, ninjutsu, other schools of martial arts, and most importantly, to conquer his fears, to bask in them, and to become fear itself (via purdy psychedelic blue flower drug induced hallucinations).

On his initiation to become a full-fledged brother of the League of Shadows, his sense of justice was put to the test. Ra's al Ghul placed an unarmed criminal in front of him -- a murderer, but unarmed nonetheless -- and instructed Bruce to execute him, and to lead the men of the League to raze the corrupt Gotham to the ground. It was Gotham's time, they had insisted, comparing it to the fallen cities of Rome and Constantinople. Having developed his own sense of justice, Bruce refused to comply. Tragically, his refusal was unacceptable, and his bond with the League fell apart right then. A struggle ensued, the mountaintop temple was burnt down, and many were killed. However, Bruce was able to save his mentor and friend, Ducard, from the burning temple, and left him in the safekeeping of the local village.

After seven long years, he resumed contact with Alfred and returned to Gotham. He began hatching PLANS to clean up the filthy streets of Gotham, as a symbol rather than a man. He discovered the expansive cave in the vicinity of the mansion. He became one with his childhood fears -- those goddamn bats. He befriended Morgan Freeman Lucius Fox, the head of Wayne Enterprises' Applied Science department and all of the shiny trinkets that came with him. More PLANS brewed in his head. He did some remodeling in his underground batcave. PLANS PLANS PLANS.

A bunch of Kevlar, a sweet ride on the Tumbler, a pleasant conversation with incorruptible cop James Gordon, and some other workshopping later, he began to disguise himself into the image of a bat, because it was time for (and I quote) "his enemies to share his dread." During the day, he braved the city as billionaire playboy douchebag Bruce Wayne. During the night, he became the motherfucking Batman.

He did some acrobatic and action-y stuff to bring down the Falcone and discovered an even larger threat beyond the petty metro crime lords. He reunited with Ducard, who was in fact the real Ra's al Ghul all along, and had his mansion burned down. The League of Shadows was still very much intent on the destruction of Gotham, since tearing apart the great cities of the world was their grand purpose and all. Cillian Murphy and his beautiful face was also around to do some bad stuff, including trying to pollute the city's water supply with that psychedelic hallucinogen from earlier on at the instruction of the League of Shadows.

Batman TAKES THEM ALL DOWN in a grand, climactic finale involving explosions and driving a train to the ground. Ra's al Ghul also dies for real this time. Poor Liam Neeson.

For the next six months, Batman battles crime and corruption in the city with detective skills, intrigue, and brute force. Rachel suddenly turns into Maggie Gyllenhaal and starts going out with Harvey Dent. The Joker appears and RUINS. EVERYTHING. FOR BATMAN. But that's all cool because everything is eventually resolved despite everything falling apart around him (including M. Gyllenhaal dying and Harvey Dent going crazy and then also dying) and the city now hating him because Batman decided to turn himself into a martyr.

Bruce Wayne has been taking up the mantle of Batman for about a year. He was driving his Tumbler -- a new and upgraded one due to technical difficulties with the old one -- around (while pretending to flee from the cops) when black cords came out of nowhere and took him to Pandora, Tumbler and all.

ROLEPLAY SAMPLE

I'm Batman.



It's been so long. ;_; I'm Batman! I'm Batmaaan!

application made by Syndrome (drizztsyndrome) of CAUTION 2.0

YOUR APPLICATION IS
ACCEPTED

That is all.