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[slingshots]

PLAYER

NAME: Zee
AGE: 18+
PREFERRED CONTACT: plurk: zeeco
OTHER CHARACTERS: n/a

CHARACTER

NAME: Carrie Kelley
AGE: 15
CANON & CANON POINT: After Dark Knight Returns, but before Dark Knight Strikes Again begins.
RESERVATION LINK: HERE.
HISTORY:

In Carrie's world, superheroes are a rare breed. Years ago, they were forced either into retirement or service to the government — or jail, with a life sentence. Batman chose to disappear, and he stayed gone for a full ten years. But still Gotham needed him, and the rising threat of a group calling themselves the Mutants beckoned him back into the cape and cowl. The Mutants were just kids, some barely in high school, but they were vicious. They prided themselves on how many they killed, and their leader released an announcement to the press, one bragging about how they would soon bring Gotham to its knees and own it. A small group of them attacked Bruce on the night of his retirement's anniversary, but backed off warily when they saw him get too into the fight. What they'd really seen was the Batman in Bruce Wayne reawakening.

On Batman's first night back on the job he saved two girls walking home from school from a couple of Mutants. One of them was Carrie Kelley, average Gotham middle schooler, and it was in that moment that her admiration for the man in the batsuit began.

Carrie's own parents were neglectful and absentminded, shown as addicts that do very little beyond reminisce about their days as activists. Knowing that she won't be missed, Carrie took it upon herself to make a Robin suit. Having had training at school as a gymnast, she promptly took it straight to the streets — roofs, for the most part — to try her hand at being a Robin. In this world she had only two predecessors to look up to, and it was noted with some wariness that one of them met a decidedly unfortunate end on the wrong end of a crowbar. But this didn't deter her, and after a shaky start she soon got the hang of that rooftop highway so often used by the Batman and his associates. The next step was finding the legend himself to introduce herself.

She caught wind of a Mutant meeting in the city dump, and guessed correctly that the Dark Knight himself would be there. Batman showed in a veritable tank, blasting his way (with rubber bullets, naturally) through the ranks of the Mutants until he reached their leader. He took on the hulk of a man in hand-to-hand combat, but his aging body wasn't quite up to the task. Carrie introduced herself at the most opportune moment possible, deflecting a blow from the leader meant to end Batman. Carrie dragged Batman back to the tank, and half-delirious from exhaustion and the pain of his wounds, Batman brought Carrie with him back to the Bat Cave. Against Alfred's better judgment (and much to Carrie's utter delight), the girl was taken on as Robin.

She proved herself not only to be a competent and capable Robin, but to find nothing sort of absolute joy in the role. She was born to swing over the streetlight-lit streets of Gotham as the colorful, darting shadow of the Batman. She disobeyed a few orders and saved Batman a couple times more before the end of the first book, and came to regard Batman as a surrogate parent. Before the final page, her trust in him was absolute, and his trust in her was great enough to allow her to handle his own faked death at the hands of Superman.

In the time between Dark Knight Returns and its sequel, things take a turn for the worse. Half of the county is buried under a nuclear winter, Lex Luthor is president, Batman has been outed as Bruce Wayne and is officially dead and buried, and Batman and Robin are quietly building plans to change the world. Carrie is in command of an army of "Batboys", recruits from the former Mutant gang that have decided to worship Batman instead of their former leader. Most of her training is theoretical and in simulations only, as they have to stay hidden from the world while they piece together their plans. Nothing has come to fruition just yet, but they're gearing up to kick things off.

PERSONALITY:

Carrie Kelley is a decisive girl. After being saved by a newly returned Batman, she takes it upon herself to become Robin. She isn't sure how she'll find Batman and even less sure how she'll get him to take her on, but she has decided to become Robin and it's really just as simple as that. Her attempts at crimefighting are small things at first, breaking up gambling and drug rings armed with fire crackers and a slingshot, but she eventually does manage to find her way to Batman — while he's fighting for his life against a much younger, powerful enemy. All she can do at first is watch his fight, but when it becomes clear that he's in trouble, a burst of bravery sends her into the fray to lend an assist. Afterward, when the both of them have made it back to the Batmobile, she ignores Alfred's voice over the radio explaining that she really ought to just wait in the corner and leave the medical things to him when they get back to the cave, and splints Batman's broken arm herself.

It's from then on that Robin is on the job. She's glad to be taken on, but never says so quite in words. She leaves her feelings to actions (an enthusiastic hug for Bruce Wayne once he announces that she can stay on as Robin), and really says very little. When she does speak it's in short slang phrases, saying only as much as necessary and leaving her snark (of which there is plenty) to be discovered and taken offense at or missed completely. Either way is fine with her, really. She's a fan of private jokes, and feels no need to explain them. Batman patronizes her once in regards to the helicopter, stating that it's voice-activated technology, and she wouldn't understand it. She accepts this with a shrug and a small smile, and later reprograms the entire thing to respond only to her slang commands ("ace the cloak, billy in close"). She rebels against Batman's commands a few times, and isn't one to blindly follow orders. These times typically turn out to be for the best though, and her quick thinking and ingenuity keep Batman from being angry enough about it to fire her.

She does have a more serious side, though. While she's shown as continuously (if quietly) glad to be Robin, she has watched people die. She's watched children die — her friends, even. The Joker's first task once out of Arkham was to kill an entire studio audience, but his second strike hit a little closer to home. Batman and Robin arrived at the fair too late to stop him, but not too late to see the bodies — men, women, and so many children — that he'd left in his wake. Carrie learns the real stakes of the game that she plays, and there's a solemnity behind the surface innocence.

But despite her capability, her willingness to put herself into dangerous situations, and her adaptability, Carrie is still only a kid. She tries to be brave and in control, but there are moments she just can't. She fights one of the Joker's henchmen once, a large man with an obsession with girls and puppets, and begins to panic when he gets his hands around her neck. She's saved when a jolt of the roller coaster they're on flings him over the side and to his death, and she has to take a few minutes to recover from the shock. It had been not only the first time she'd been in real lethal danger, but the first time she'd had a hand in a death. She snaps out of it when she sees that Batman is in danger though, and snaps back to her senses just in time to save him. After this instance of helplessness she learns to handle fear and panic better.

Toward the end of the story, Batman has attracted enough attention from the government that they feel the need to send out their biggest guns against him. That being, of course, Superman. Superman's challenge is issued in the form of a single word burned into the ground before Batman and Robin ("WHERE?"), and when Carrie asks what it means, Bruce turns to go and says only that it means she's fired. By then she knows him well enough not to take this at face value, and follows after him after a short few seconds. Batman has a plan, of course, and Carrie trusts him enough not to demand to know if it'll be okay, not to freak out when he says that yes, he figures he'll die. She’s learned a lot by that point, from how to form an on-the-fly plan to how to trust a partner completely, and Batman has a capable and devoted student in her.

ABILITIES/SKILLS:

Though Carrie doesn't have any superhuman abilities, she's still a Robin. That means she has:

- Had Bat-training, which means fairly advanced self defense and combat.
- Great aim, in particular with her slingshot but also with pretty much any projectile weapon she picks up.
- Acrobatic abilities.
- Hacking and technological competence, including the ability to fly a helicopter?!
- Lock-picking, bomb-setting, being very sneaky, undercover acting, all the things that go with fighting crime the government doesn't want you fighting.
- A propensity for picking up skills quickly.

INVENTORY/COMPANIONS:

- Utility belt, involving: grappling gun, slingshot + pellets (metal, incendiary, smoke, and sleeping gas), tracers (which function as mics), a batarang or two, lock picking kit, swiss army knife, first aid basics, rebreather.
- Her Robin outfit (winter edition, with pants, scarf, and boots).
- Totally sweet green shades.

FACTION CHOICE: Stars

REASON: Though Batman has taught Carrie a more logical and Moon-aligned method of thinking over time, she's at heart still the instinct-trusting idealist that would fit neatly within the Court of Stars. She loves a good plan as much as the next guy, but what's a plan without flexibility? She can shift her approach at the first sign that it's needed, and tends to come up with unexpected and creative outside-the-box plans when left to her own devices. She trusts herself and her instincts, and while there's usually logic and facts to back it, it's really not mandatory.

TATTOO: A boxy lil Corvus constellation, on her left inner wrist.

SAMPLES

NETWORK: Here!

LOG: Here!