Flamebird

Player —

Player Name: Amit!
Pronouns: He/Him
Are you over 18? Yes
Contact: PM
Current Characters: None.
Who Invited You?: I asked the mods for an invite here!

Character —

Character Name: Mary Elizabeth "Bette" Kane
Character Canon: DC Comics
Character Age: 21
Canon Point: Bette is coming from the end of the story in DC's Legion of Bloom anthology.
Link to History: https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Mary_Elizabeth_Kane_(Prime_Earth)
Inventory: What items will your character have with them? Do not feel obligated to note worn items unless they have a special ability.

*Flamebird costume - Bette's red-and-yellow costume comes with a mask that has goggles that can emit a bright, blinding light. Gloves can also emit electricity and have grapple lines hidden in them.

*Utility belt. Inside her utility belt are:
*Electricity-emitting birdarangs (6)
*Flash grenades (6)
*Electrified bola (1)
*Gas mask (1)
*Bracelets that turn into handcuffs (1)
*Flashlight (1)

Powers —

Skills:

* Acrobatics/Athletics: Bette is a highly trained athlete and pro-tennis champ who's trained for strength and endurance. While trained in a variety of martial arts, her specialities are kickboxing, judo, and jujitsu.

* Investigation: She has some training in detective work and interrogation techniques. As demonstrated in Batwoman #23, she's also quite a negotiator - she's able to extract information from a source not by torturous means, but by playing to his personality (he's ambitious, she knows it, and so she appeals to that personality trait of his to get information out.)

* Electronics: Batwoman mentioned that Bette was good with computers. As far as electronics go, having come up with many of her own gadgets herself, she knows her way around a bit of gadgetry.

*Military Protocol: Though she's been trained in military protocol for a couple of years, this training isn't something Bette tends to fall back on much, because it doesn't really suit her personality.

*Education: She's also studied sports medicine and forensic psychology, before transferring to West Point, but hasn't obtained a degree in either.

*Multilingualism: In addition to her native English, Bette also speaks some Japanese.

Superpowers: Pyrogenesis (non-canon) She's able to generate fire, but only in small amounts. We're talking fire balls and fireblasts, that sort of thing. She won't be able to control or manipulate fire that she hasn't generated herself, and there won't be any fiery auras enveloping her or anything. It's a very simple, very basic pyrogenesis ability that she probably won't fall back on too much at first, but that she'll train in and try to get better with. The thought is that the power replaces the flamethrower gauntlets that Bette wore in her Hawkfire identity. A result of the power is that she'll have some degree of protection from high heat and fire, but it's only equal to the amount of fire she's able to generate, so a stronger pyrokinetic or a forest fire gone wild could absolutely deal a little bit of damage to her.

Limitations:

* Baseline human: Sure, Bette's trained in martial arts and she's athletic, but she's far from indestructible and nowhere near one of the top ten martial artists in her world.

* Impulsiveness/Flashiness: One of Bette's biggest weaknesses and limitations is that she tends to jump first without thinking. This has already gotten her into trouble once, when she was gutted and left in a coma for a few weeks. You would think she'd have learned from this experience, but it's only made her more determined to be a better hero. Bette isn't your traditional Gotham vigilante - she's loud, she's flashy, and she's not at all stealthy, which means in that in situations that require her to be any of those things, she's already losing the battle. She's an unorthodox fighter, which can be a strength because it means that she can be underestimated, but with someone more skilled or trained than her, it can also be a limitation because despite her fearlessness, she can make the wrong move, such as choosing to smash someone in the face when the smarter move would have been to use their strength against them in a fight, as she's done in Batwoman #22.

*Limited protection through her meta-ability: Her metapower also doesn't imbue her with superstrength or the power of flight or anything - she can generate some fireballs and fireblasts, but she's still susceptible to being burned by anything that's more powerful than what she can generate.

*Lack of money/celebrity power - Bette is, at her heart, a pampered, privileged, protected princess. Yes, she's been through a lot, but she's always had someone watching out for her, whether it's the ability to fall back on the Kane fortune or her own money for shelter/food/supplies, or having people like her uncle Jacob Kane and aunt Catherine Hamilton-Kane to give her a cushy, protected life. Though she doesn't realize it yet, this is the first time that she's honestly on her own, without any familial connection or celebrity power as a well-known pro-tennis player. That will take some getting used to.

Personality —

A child beauty pageant princess and a tennis champ, Bette Kane is brash, willful, and impulsiveOne of her defining traits is that she tends to lead with her chin and then thinks things through later. While that sort of attitude has paid off for her when she’s on the tennis court, it’s a different story when she’s out in the field as a crimefighter, since there are more factors at play. That, tied in with a sort of desperation to prove herself, means that Bette sometimes tends to bite off more than she can chew. Even after a near-death experience caused by these tendencies, Bette didn’t learn. If anything, she became even brasher and more impulsive, desperate to prove herself to those who said that her way was wrong. This desperation can lead Bette to be a little unfocused at times – a definite weakness when paired with any overconfidence she might be feeling in the moment.

Unlike many heroes, Bette doesn’t fight because she’s suffered through some personal tragedy, or because she was granted great powers and now has to deal with the great responsibility that comes with them. Bette fights is because it’s the right thing to do – the world needs a hero. Part of it is also because Bette craves action and adventure – and adrenaline rush – and being a tennis champ and a beauty queen weren’t enough to satisfy those urges. She’s fighting for anything specific, as has been pointed out to her by many. This hasn’t deterred her from fighting, though. Every time she’s knocked down, she’ll get back up. She doesn’t know when or how to quit. Depending on who you are, this is either a charming trait or a highly annoying one, but she won’t quit until she’s proved herself.

She’s a snarky individual, and this is how she tends to deal with things. There’s a smart, snappy reply for anything and everything that’s thrown at her – whether the moment is lighthearted, or a more serious one where she’s trying to lighten the mood somehow. It’s a popular saying in the family that Kane women are made of granite, and much like her cousins Kate and Beth, Bette herself is carved of the same stuff, though the colouring and personality of the granite may be a little different. Some of that snark also comes from a sort of protection for Bette. She sometimes puts on a tougher front than she feels, but she doesn’t back down.

Family and friends both mean a great deal to Bette, and she’s willing to do anything for them if it would help or benefit them. When her cousin Kate starts working for the DEO under duress, Bette teams up with her uncle Jake to help Kate break free of the DEO’s control. She’s also the one who calls the entire family together - including Kate’s fiancée Maggie and Kate’s stepmother Catherine - to help Kate out of the situation she’s found herself in. (At this time, Kate had been having issues with both Maggie and Catherine, but Bette realized that some things were more important than petty squabbling.)

Though tough and relentless when she’s up against villains in the field, Bette also has a compassionate side to her. She’ll cut an opponent with wit, but when it comes time to tie up a bad guy and interrogate them, Bette doesn’t believe in torture. She’d rather talk to them, suss them out, and find a way of working with them. She’s good at talking and convincing people that way, when the situation calls for it, seeking out compromises and information.

Gameplay —

Areas of Interest / Brainstorming:
Weirdly, Bette's going to be one of those people who is EXCITED to have fallen through the confluence and wound up in the game setting. Back home, she's had a hell of a time making it both as Flamebird and Hawkfire, getting a Titans team together, and keeping any partners she has as partners. She's going to see this as a fresh start and go gung ho into life here, trying to shed the baggage of her past and become the best hero she can possibly be. Bette will probably be excited to join a guild at first, but the fact that it's government-sanctioned - she's had some bad experiences with government-adjacent entities, like the DEO, will probably mean that she's eventually going to try to set up a team of her own or something, if she can find anyone interested in teaming up with her. There are a lot of DC characters here - a lot of Batfam ones too - and given Bette's status as an outsider amongst them, there may be some conflict between her and some of them, but Bette's also an eternal optimist, so depending on how it goes with other players and what their thoughts on Bette are, maybe she'll be able to take some past grievances and grow some actual friendships!
Samples: TDM thread