Lol no, I don't have enough knowledge of Marvel to join. The only character I know enough about to play is Spiderman, and he's taken by Ded. I lurk here sometimes because he helped promote my DC RP a bit, and I just want to check in and see how it's going. By the looks of it, it's going well :).
Of all the DC shows, Flash and Arrow stand as my favourites. Season 3 was a little shaky, but the Flarrow crossovers more than made up for it. I swear, if they made a Flarrow show, I'd watch the hell out of it.
I think I'm gonna swap out Detective Chimp for Jim Gordon. I know we talked about doing some stuff Ruby, and I'm sorry if I seem like I'm cutting out on you. Bat folks, look this over and let me know if I need to change anything.
Name: Commissioner James Gordon
Alias: "Whiskey Jim" "Schoolboy Jim"
Origin:
James Worthington Gordon was born in Chicago, the latest in a long line of family of cops. When he was sixteen his father was killed in the line of duty. The death of his father was further motivation for him to become a police officer. He joined Chicago PD soon as possible and made patrolman a year later. He married his high school sweetheart, Barbara Kean, and soon had a young daughter also named Barbara. When the girl was just an infant trouble came to the Gordon family. Jim's sergeant, a corrupt policeman with mob ties, targeted Jim for his refusal to take part in a protection racket in their sector. Jim went to Internal Affairs and reported the sergeant. Unfortunately, the case did not stand and Jim was labeled a rat. He was forced to leave Chicago for a job in Gotham City with the PD.
In Gotham Jim learned to keep his head down and his mouth shut. He moved from the beat to the office as a detective and later Detective Sergeant. To cope with his silence, he began to pick up the bottle and drink. The drinking and his general discontent destroyed his marriage with Barbara. One day she left both him and little Barbara. Jim laid off his drinking in order to raise Barbara, but he continued to languish in a deep depression as he saw the horrors of the job and the corruption that plagued the GCPD.
Enter the Batman.
The masked vigilante tapped Gordon, one of the few straight cops in the GCPD, as an unlikely ally. Reluctant at first, Jim began to slowly see the things Batman could accomplish and soon found himself working with him and Deputy District Attorney Harvey Dent to clean up the streets and government of Gotham. Results began to improve, as the three engineered a state investigation into the GCPD that led to the arrests and dismissal of many of the PD's top brass. The vacuum led to promotion for Jim, first to lieutenant then up to major. Harvey Dent swept into office as district attorney and the future looked good for the city and the small band of reformers.
Salvatore Maroni had other plans.
During a trial, the mob boss horrible disfigured Dent with a bottle of acid. The attack caused Dent's already fragile psyche to shatter. What emerged from the accident was Two-Face. With their once ally now an enemy, Jim and Batman found themselves at odds as they coped in different ways: Batman tore up the streets looking for revenge while Jim retreated into a bottle. With Batman's help he was able to get out of that funk and back into the job. After Dent's arrest, Gordon found himself on the fast track to police commissioner. After a brief time as a deputy, he was appointed commissioner of police.
Tragedy struck again when Barbara was attacked by the Joker. A bullet meant for Jim instead paralyzed Barbara below the waist. The closest Jim came to losing his sanity was when he faced the Joker and almost took his life. If not for the timely intervention of Batman, he would have found himself crossing that line and murdering in cold blood.
As police commissioner Jim continues to clean up the GCPD, work with the Batman against the colorful freaks and villains that plague the city, and make sure that the people of Gotham remain safe.
Attributes:
No powers. Jim is a skilled police detective, in relatively good shape for a man his age, and a decent shot with a pistol.
Stomping Grounds:
Gotham City Gotham Central - Downtown headquarters of the GCPD
People of Note:
Inspector Sarah Essen - Commander of the GCPD's Eastern District, Jim's on and off girlfriend. Lt. Harvey Bullock - A rough and tumble GCPD detective and commander of the Major Crimes Unit. Jim's right-hand man in the department. Crispus Allen - Detective in the Major Crimes Unit, a skilled investigator. Partners with Detective Montoya Renee Montoya - Detective in the Major Crimes Unit, a specialist in interrogation. Partners with Detective Allen Marcus Driver - Detective in the Major Crimes Unit, a strong arm man. Partners with Sgt. Fields Sgt. Charlie Fields - Detective in the Major Crimes Unit, second in command behind Bullock. Mayor Arnold Krohl - Mayor of Gotham City. Jim's boss and up for reelection this year. Councilman David Kane - Gotham City Councilman running for mayor.
Character Goals:
My ideas with Jim are to just pump out some good story-telling and interaction with the good Gotham folks where possible. I imagine this Gordon as a figure similar to Cormac McCarthy's Ed Tom Bell or Jame Ellroy's Ed Exley. He is good man who has been exposed to bad things for far too long and has found himself hardened by it. He still believes in justice and the system, but he is willing to bend it in the form of his partnership with Batman to see things done. As much as I love detective stories, I see this playing out more like a western. The lone man in the wilderness, battling his demons and the wicked outlaws in the name of justice.
Sample Post:
These are end times.
Not biblical, seventh seal breaking end of days times. This is something else. This is like standing on the ice of a frozen lake in late winter. The cracks are beginning to show and every movement creates more cracks. On the other side of that ice is a new age, something lurking beneath that dark water that we can see through the ice but cannot truly fathom until the ice breaks. They say that it will be an age of gods. Even now men and women walk the earth who can defy the laws of physics. Each passing day more and more of them come into the world and the ice get a little bit thinner. What looms behind the sheet is a new epoch of existence. The superheroes of today are a vanguard for a new tomorrow. This is the last age of the human race. What waits for us behind that ice is the new humanity.
I don't believe much will change whenever what's coming finally comes. It will still be loud and violent and cruel because that's humans, no matter the place or the time. Ever since the first monkey bashed the other's one head in for a few extra grubs we've skipped hand in hand with violence like a constant companion. That violence will be the legacy we leave the planet when we're gone. The one thing that will change is how the battles will be fought. When men and women can level buildings with a single blow and melt steel beams with their gaze, what hope does an ordinary cop have? In a world like this, what can one man hope to accomplish? I don't have an answer to those questions. I just do what I've been doing for twenty years: Roll up my sleeves, start another pot of coffee, and get to work.
The Bowery Gotham City
Jim's unmarked cruiser rode in the wake of three GCFD trucks. The trucks' sirens wailed. Their brights lights lit up the night. Jim kept both hands on the wheel and kept close to the fire trucks. The call: a four-alarm fire in the Bowery. Civilians and prosties gawked on the adjacent sidewalks at the convoy. Jim caught the eye of a wino on the sidewalk. The wino flipped him off. The wino tossed a bottle. It smashed near his rolling car. Jim swore he could smell the cut-rate booze. It made his mouth water.
The Thirst beckoned. The Thirst was his siren and bright lights. It tried lured him away from sanity and towards the rocks of binge drinking. Six months without a drink. Six months spent fighting something he was afraid to discover was true. White knuckle sobriety was his way. He didn't truck with AA. Nothing there but sob stories and thinly-disguised Christian tracts. The second of the twelve steps: You must admit there is a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. He rejected that notion. Over twenty years as a cop proved that if a greater power actually did exist, there was no way in hell it could ever restore anybody's sanity. He would not utter false notions even for the sake of his own sobriety. He would not be beholden to a sponsor or a higher power.
The trucks pulled up to a four-story flop house. Three other fire trucks were on the scene watching as an inferno consumed the building. It roared and blew heat outward. Ten minutes since the call and it was already fully involved. The firefighters kept adjacent buildings wet in case the fire tried to spread. Containment was their mandate now. Anyone in the burning building could not be saved. Jim shook his head and watched from his cruiser. The sixth building to go up in the past month. Every single fire burnt hot and fast, taking out the building in less than a half hour. The previous five were ruled arson. This one would be too.
A knock on his window. A fat, gray-haired man in a firefighter suit stared at him. Jim rolled down the window and caught the smells of smoke and burning. Heat pulsated from the fire and radiated against his face. The fire burned too hot to be natural.
"Commissioner Gordon," he said with a nod.
"Commander. Someone is burning this city to the ground, one rowhouse at a time."
"So it would seem, sir. This one was stronger than the last one. It's those chemicals I found at the last fire, it has to be."
Intuition melded with experience. Thoughts and ideas clicked and unclicked. A hunch coalesced into a theory. Hypothesis formed from hysteria. Experimentation. Theory in practice.
"It's a stronger dose," said Jim. "Whoever is doing this, Commander, is experimenting. These rowhouses are where they're testing these chemicals."
"For what purpose?"
A scream went out from the burning building. A few seconds later he could smell the unmistakable scent of a human body burning alive. Burning hair and fat had its own personal fragrance. He put his hands on the wheel to steady them. The Thirst screamed at him, it begged for him, it needed him... and right now he needed it.
"I don't know," he said slowly. "But we're going to find out."
That's a damn good sheet. Though I was looking forward to more Detective Chimp stories, if none of the Batplayers have a problem with the sheet, Gordon's accepted. Looking forward to seeing what you do with him.
Woh woh, I'm still in this, sorry I've been having problems in real life. Sorry about my absence. I'll have a post up tomorrow
Okay, that's cool. I hope everything's okay.
That said, @Morden Man, feel free to apply anyhow. Once you, @Architect and @Hillan have applied, I'll officially (I mean, officially-officially) close the RP.
Yeah, I agree. The Court of Owls storyline was the first thing I read out of the New 52, and it got me wanting to broaden my horizons in terms of the DCnU's titles. I also really enjoyed Jeff Lemire's run on Green Arrow, and Brian Buccelato's on the Flash. The more recent Deathstroke series was pretty enjoyable, too.
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