Kathy Kane // Batwoman |
Laura Pulver as Kathy Kane |
Name: | Kathy Kane |
Age: | 30 |
City: | NYC |
Team: | None |
Occupation: | CEO/Detective |
Player's TZ: | East Coast |
Please note that this Batwoman is not the current DC Batwoman. I created this character before DC brought her back. This Batwoman is my re-imagine of the original, with a modern flair.
The background itself is very thorough.
Part 1
Kathy 'Kate' Kane was born into the circus life. Her parents were part owner of a lesser known circus and their star trapeze act as well. The circus, with her parents included, was not the most up and up business venture. There were all sorts of illegal activity going on, from some minor smuggling and the expected con games in the midway to embezzling and money laundering. Despite being crocks, her parents were loving people and Kate grew up in an albeit odd, but happy, family.
Before she could walk, she was being taken up into the uppermost part of the big top, learning the family act and by the time she turned six, was a budding star of the trapeze and high wire herself. She was the sweetheart of the circus.
Though she never attended public school she did receive an education. She, along with the other children in the circus, had tutors to keep up their 'book' learning. She also had an eclectic circus education. Being that she was everyone's little sweetheart, the other performers were happy to teach them their tricks of the trade, it was cute to see her taming the lion and tiger cubs or throwing knives at sandbags strapped to the Spinning Wheel o' Doom.
She also learned a lot from watching TV, her second love. She grew up watching Charlie's Angels and the Avengers, idolizing the female characters of those shows. Reading was another of her favourite pastimes and many nights, when she should have been sleeping, were spent curled up with a good book. She loved reading about 'normal' girls and their lives, the things she missed out by having such an odd upbringing.
Part 2
As she grew, she started to notice the darker side of her circus home. She was no slouch in the brains department, even if she had no formal education. She didn't quite know what was going on around her, but picked up on the hushed whisperings and secretive exchanges. It twigged at her brain and it wasn't too long before she began to learn more and more as she got older. When she wasn't performing, she was snooping around, learning more, imagining that she was working for Charlie on a case.
When she was older, her early teens, she realized that the circus and most of her friends were corrupt. It didn't sit well with her all, but there wasn't much she could do. She knew circus folk had a bit of a rep and she could hardly go to the police over her suspensions. She couldn't leave either, for where would she go?
When she was sixteen, that changed. Her parents were killed in a car accident and she became an orphan. Their part of the circus was left to her and she decided she had had enough of this life. She sold her part of the circus to the other owner and invested most of her money. She used the rest to go to Hollywood. She wanted to be a TV actress; a star like her idols on favourite shows.
To say she was naive would be an understatement. She spent about six months in Hollywood and then gave up. With no acting training no one would touch her. She was offered a few modelling jobs, she was pretty and tall enough, but it wasn't the work she was looking for. The money she had kept out to keep her alive in California was quickly dwindling, so she returned to the circus, broken hearted.
She returned 'home' to a surprise though. The circus had gone bankrupt, and so had she. Her money had been poorly invested and most of it had vanished mysteriously, much like a few of the circus performers. With no money and no where to turn, she had few options. She chose the lesser of the two evils that were open to her and started to seek out modelling jobs in New York.
Part 3
Kathy was able to squeeze enough money out of her circus friends for pictures so she could get into modelling. She also started using a new name at this time, thinking Kathy Kane was just too plain and not glamorous enough for a model. It was a struggle, with her barely making enough to live. One thing she did put some of her money towards was her education. Time passed and with the help of her growing tiny savings, Kate was able finally pass her GED and enrol in correspondence university classes. Between her work and class work she barely had a free moment, but she was content. She was the sort who was most happiest when busy and working towards a goal.
Over the course of the next few years she was able to land at least one steady gig, working only out of New York. This meant she could switch from correspondence classes to an actual university. She was still crazy busy, as her course load was even heavier and she kept crazy hours for modelling. On the upside, the job was as a local spokes person for a fitness chain, so she was expected to work out and stay fit.
Heavily influenced by her younger years spent rapt in front of the TV watching high profile female police officers, secret agents and detectives, Kate's university education eventually wound up focusing on forensics, psychology and criminology. Her plans were to give up modelling once she was done university and enter the police academy.
Unfortunately, her savings were not what she thought they were - yes, Kate was not the best with money, so she couldn't give up modelling. If her schedule in university had been hectic, juggling work and her course load, it was insane at the academy. Aside from this, because of her modelling she wasn't taken very seriously by the rest of the students and some of her instructors. Eventually, after half a year, she had to make a choice. Modelling, with it's steady stream of money, won out.
Kate was once again heartbroken and spent most of the rest of the year in a funk, moving mindlessly from shoot to shoot. The dark clouds overhead finally broke when she met Harv Stanley, a P.I. She had seen him snooping around one of the shoots and then later at a publicity party for a cosmetics company. He wasn't nearly as handsome as any of the male models she had dated on and off, but there was ruggedness to him that she found immediately appealing. At first he blew her off, thinking she was just another vapid bimbo. She quickly undid his first impressions of her after striking up a conversation with him.
Call it intuition, but she knew he wasn't part of the business, and her first guess was right. He was following one of the other models she had been working with on and off lately, a jealous boyfriend had hired him to see if she was cheating on him.
Part 4
The two dated on and off for awhile, but trouble started as Kate began to show too much interest in his work. It was slow at first, showing up for lunch unexpected and going through his case files but then later taking a more active hands on role in his work. He realized she was determined and finally relented, taking her on as a partner. It added strain to their romantic relationship, as Kate seemed to have a keener mind than Harvey and often beat him to the punch. He was old school, having learned everything from his former partner and mentor, while Kate was university trained. She made mistakes as well, not having the street smarts Harvey did. After several arguments, some fairly heated, the two decided to make their relationship purely business. Despite it being a mutual discussion, both were hurt by it. It was one of those hard choices each had made for the other, while they secretly still carried a well tucked away torch for the other.
Just as life was starting to gel for Kate and she was reaching a point where money was finally not a problem (her agency had recommended a good accounting firm to her) she received a strange, and very official looking letter, summoning her to one of the cities gigantic office buildings.
Kate arrived to the surprising news that she had an uncle; Bartholomew Burnside. Past tense, since he had just passed away and with no heirs of his own, had left his company to her. She now owned controlling interest in B.A.T. (Burnside Amalgamated Technologies). To say that Kate was stunned was an understatement. All the years of just making it were over. She now had money, oodles of money. B.A.T. had several lucrative military contracts and was on the cutting edge of defence technologies. After the shock settled in, Kate had her first meeting with the BAT board of directors. They made it pretty clear to her that since she knew nothing about running a company her input was neither needed nor required. After telling the suits where they could go…have breakfast…they finally sat down and hammered out some guidelines.
Because of her somewhat known, and pretty, face, Kate would act as the public figurehead of the company. She would attend ribbon cuttings, parties and other social functions on behalf of the company, putting a 'friendly face on military development'. This suited Kate fine, as she really didn't have any interest in the company and wished to get back to her normal life.
Life did return to normal for Kate eventually. She and Harv enjoyed the infusion of cash into their small business, using it to expand and thus take on some bigger cases…real cases with real crime, rather than just cheating husbands. They were also able to hire some office staff, freeing up valuable time for the both of them. Kate also dropped all of her modelling contracts, which freed up more time for her. The only real difference, other than no cash flow worries, was the occasional B.A.T. required business trip on the company jet.
Part 5
The next two years flew bye in a blink. Their PI firm was doing well, handling several mid-range profile cases and making enough cash for the two of them to live quite well. Over that period, Harv and she also tried to rekindle the romantic side of their relationship, but nothing had changed in that respect and they snuffed it pretty quick.
When BAT technologies started losing a couple of high level contracts to a rival firm Kate made a special trip to the head office to investigate. It didn't take long for Kate to uncover enough information to confirm her suspensions, they had a mole. But, finding out who was proving to be more difficult. Everyone in the company knew who she was. This was hampering her effectiveness so Kate declared she was going back to NYC.
The company jet flew off, but Kate wasn't on it. She had decided to go undercover and wound up donning black garb, complete with a black ski type mask. So, like some sort of thief or spy like the TV shows she had enjoyed so much as a child she skulked around the building at night, spying from rooftops and following employees home. She was almost arrested once as a burglar, but managed to escape. She found herself not only using her gumshoe skills, but some she hadn't since her days at the circus.
Kate was able to uncover enough evidence on the espionage to make charges stick, sending the information anonymously to the authorities. With the mole gone, BAT once again started to rake in the contracts, it's stocks going up and everyone none the wiser as to who cracked the case. Not even Harv knew about her night job, thinking instead she was off making public appearances for BAT.
Truth be told, Kate enjoyed the skulking around. It was far more exhilarating, reminding of the happy times at the circus with her family. She had done undercover work, but nothing that compared to this and over the next few years, the idea stayed in the back of her mind, nagging her. That voice got louder when she remembered the rumors of some Man Bat skulking around Gotham. It had been her idea!
At age twenty-seven, Kate's world came crashing down around her. Harv was killed, murdered while working on a high profile case. Kate was distraught, though she soon moved on to angry. She was determined to track down Harvey's killers and once again those nagging voices in the back of her head called out to her and she agreed. Using the boogeybat stories, Kate once again went undercover, this time donning an actual costume. The case nearly killed her. While a great detective and in good shape, she lacked real experience in the skulking around New York department.
Mentally, she made a list as she went along, of all the areas she needed to improve in and what tools she would need to make this work. By the time she had enough evidence on the bad guys, this time going so far as to capture them as well, her mind was made up regarding her future.
Part 6
Kate closed the PI firm so that she could spend the next two years doing nothing but bringing herself up to peak physical performance. She spent a lot of time at BAT industries as well, learning a little about technology, enough to swipe what she needed to make the much needed gadgets and gizmos her new line of work required. Kate had always been content with her career as a PI and even as a model, but the thought of taking things to the next level gave her a profound sense of freedom.
Kate wasn't sure what to believe about the Batman rumours. But with all the craziness the world seemed to be going through with super soldiers, mutants and aliens, she figured it might be possible. Or it was a rumour concocted by the police to scare criminals. Using the growing urban legend to her advantage and the amusing irony of using a logo that was reminiscent of her company's acronym she became a 'bat' woman. She had no interest in being an unstoppable criminal smashing bat, but rather one that focused on detective work.
If there really was a Batman out there he had to be sticking solely to Gotham, so what would it hurt for her to share his rumors with her; they would theoretically be on the same side after all. And, after a year of being out there and no personal Batman sightings in any of the cities she had visited, she still wasn't convinced he wasn't just a myth after all.
Case Files
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