xover: Tom Harper / Jason Bard

OOC

GAME: Crossover
DESCRIPTION: Reincarnated comic book characters.
DATE: June 2009
PB: Simon Baker
JOURNAL: gumshoes

IC

Comic Character.
Name/Alias: Jason Bard
Publisher/Universe: DC: New Earth.
Powers: Superior reasoning and logic skills. Jason Bard isn't the world's greatest detective, but he is in the top, say, five of the DC universe — Batman came to him after excluding Ralph Dibny and Roy Raymond as possibilities.
Status: Secret and discreet. There's no particular stigma to being associated with Mr. Bard, but Thomas values his privacy in both occupational and reincarnate respects — plus, he finds he's more useful that way.

Character.
Name: Thomas Ethan Harper
Age/Birthdate: 36 / April 19, 1973
Sexuality: Heterosexual.
Occupation: Special agent, Criminal Investigative Division in the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Location: His fiancé's apartment in the upper east side. Sometimes he jokes that he's like Cat's kept woman.

Appearance: Tall and athletic, Tom possesses wide features and an easy smile. He has the appearance of someone who was boyish and awkward for far too long, but his thirties meant finally growing into those broad shoulders and solid good looks. He wears suits most of the time — a consequence of the job — but the second he's safely in the office, Tom usually loosens his cuffs and rolls up his sleeves. He likes being comfortable, alright? The man also tries to stay looking clean-shaven and respectable as much as possible, but some stubble after a few days of hard work isn't unheard of.
PB: Simon Baker

Personality: In any given conflict, Thomas usually emerges as an amiable peacemaker, putting his hands up and inviting others to calm down and think rationally about this — even if it might take a well-intentioned cuff to the back of the head to make people listen first. He never had any younger siblings, but a plethora of rambunctious cousins taught him the benefit of the middle ground and being a voice of reason and grounded sanity. In fact, he practically embodies his company's espoused values of fidelity, bravery, and integrity — Tom is dedicated to the ones he loves, refreshingly brave when the chips go down, and strives to maintain a healthy sense of self-respect.

Of course, part of this chivalrous exterior might be the product of gruelling background checks and his occupation's constant focus on fighting against corruption. But whether this trend of self-sacrifice came as the result of nature or nurture, Tom has it regardless; he'll come to the aid of complete strangers, in large part due to Jason Bard's influence. On the other hand, Bard is infinitely cheekier and cockier than his newer counterpart. Tom might have a relaxed confidence around women, but his flirtatious nature has been toned down considerably since his engagement.

He also rarely flies off the handle over the network — but in person, he can be much more irascible and tetchy. Despite his easy-going nature and charm, one of Tom's damning traits is his tendency to fall into darkly grumpy moods. He can be impatient and easily-frustrated, and most of all, he abhors being one-upped by total strangers. His pride can handle a lot of buffetting, but something just really grinds his gears about the relative anonymity of the Internet — presumably part of the reason he was been so quiet on the Crossover networks until the earthquakes. He also hates asking for directions and tended to pull pigtails in kindergarten — stereotypical, right? But he's well-meaning, if a little guarded of his own privacy, and a relatively amiable man all-around. He likes to talk quite a bit, and thrives off social interaction with some substance behind it — another natural consequence of the long-standing, significant friendships he's developed through his work.

Though he's not particularly technologically-handicapped, Thomas still possesses a certain old-fashioned physical rustique; he reads the paper every morning, possesses a black belt in karate, enjoys jogging and hiking, and playing tennis with Cat — he's almost always soundly thrashed by her, but he's okay with that.

History: Tom was born the younger son to parents Richard and Alice Harper. His older sister, Christina, is long-since married and with a teenage daughter of her own, whom Tom babysits every so often. The Harpers lived and thrived in Oregon, where their son took to camping and fishing like a fish in water. The family was quietly religious, but not overbearingly so; both children were loaded up with dollops of old-fashioned Christian ideals, but not the dogma. Largely thanks to firm parents and teachers, Tom mastered the doing-well-unto-others, but turning the other cheek took a few more years to understand. But by the time he was in high school, he'd developed a reputation as the peacemaker in his social circle. He'd witnessed far too many clashes between his parents — and between himself and his sister — to truly enjoy confrontation.

After high school, drifting a bit aimlessly, he took a couple years off to work. Once he tired of withering away in retail jobs and being a mall rent-a-cop, however, Tom finally went in for his bachelor's and got a four-year degree in criminal justice and sociology. He graduated at age twenty-four, then went in for a federal work study program, working a bit longer to save up for law school — but in the end, he decided not to go.

Instead, he started paying off his student loans. By now, Jason Bard's military-sleuthing influence was starting to trickle in, and partally inspired by his experience as a rent-a-cop, Thomas started gearing himself for applying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Background checks, aptitude tests, and interviews went swimmingly — he had to retake the physical exam once, but eventually got accepted and has been in prime physical condition ever since. Tom left his hometown and went to Quantico, Virginia for training. Upon completion, he was automatically assigned to the field office in Seattle, Washington, where he stayed there for the next three years in training under his veteran special agent.

He got a visit from Martin while he was still in training in Seattle, and Tom didn't take the news well. He practically chased the old man away, but a few more months of conversation — and most importantly, meeting a couple other reincarnates with powers — finally brought around the newest Jason Bard. For the uninitiated: Bard is a private detective in Gotham, a former police officer and associate of Jim Gordon's, and Barbara Gordon's once-fiancé until she was attacked by the Joker.

When Tom finally finished his pseudo-apprenticeship, he was a full-fledged agent at age twenty-eight. A bit on the younger side of all new agents, but he wasn't alone. Plus, he — and Jason Bard, the officer and detective — had taken as easily to the profession as if he'd been born for it. He transferred to the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington DC, where he met Catherine Walters at a combined government function, who was to eventually become his fiancé. He was fully aware of his reincarnated identity when he first met Cat, who was the new Oracle. Tom doesn't argue with the fact that a very large part of him is Jason Bard, or at least so much like him that it's not worth arguing the difference — but he's dead-set on not repeating the other man's mistakes in his emotional life. He has absolutely no intentions of letting his engagement slip.

Catherine works for the CIA, but it's more a joke between them than a point of contention; he'll kid with her about the two agencies' rivalries. Tom stays aloof from it, mainly, and tries to stay communicative and approachable whenever he crosses paths with the Agency. The FBI convicts; the CIA predicts. They both fulfil a valuable role in government duty, in his opinion, though they could still learn how to cooperate better. And look at him, guys! He married one!

Either way, government duty permanently beckons — with eight years of Bureau experience under his belt, Thomas was next moved to the New York branch, where he continues cutting his teeth in the Criminal Investigative Division under the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. Despite being separated from Cat, he's pretty happy working at the branch in Central New York. He visits his fiancé in DC every so often (and vice versa) via the Acela Express. The trip takes precisely 2 hours and 48 minutes. He's clocked it. He generally uses the traveltime to do paperwork.

At his job, the Criminal Investigative Division (CID) "coordinates, manages, and directs investigative programs focused on financial crime, violent crime, organized crime, public corruption, violation of individual civil rights, drug related crime, and informant matters associated with these investigative areas". NYC being such a hotbed of crime and ever-increasing, it only makes sense for him to be stationed here — the city's also been flagged with a few notices of particularly unusual crimes happening, and Tom has suddenly found it his unofficial task to make sure Crossover doesn't attract the attention of too many fellow agents in NYC.

About two years ago, he had an extremely close call with a knee injury, which sent him to the hospital. The knee wasn't ruined, but it definitely riled up Bard somewhere in the back of his head, and made Tom wonder if he's somehow doomed to handicap thanks to his handy-dandy reincarnate identity… just like Cat. He's only talked to her about it a few times, but he's actually really nervous about being incapacitated like Bard was. He loves his job, but most of all, he loves the variety of it: going from testimonies to search warrants and evidence to intelligence-gathering to arrests to investigations to office meetings to paperwork. He doesn't want to turn himself over to solely deskwork.

Plot ideas: Cat and all the rich potential therein! Birds of Prey! Batman! Non-comic wise: possibly getting another injury to his knee, getting carted into the ER and meeting Allen. His coworkers hearing more and more about the Weird Shit going on in NYC, and Tom inadvertently having to do some evasive maneuvers to get them off the scent, thus compromising some of his ~integrity~ in favour of protecting this goddamned community. And tied to that: his department hopefully steadily hearing more and more about Orbis' sketchiness, until he's finally assigned to infiltrate the company and earn a position within them. At which point he will start working as a mole, but have to… juggle what he knows about the reincarnates vs. "so how legal is this company?". MAYBE ONE BEAUTIFUL DAY HE IS OUTED AS A DOUBLE AGENT AND IT IS GLORIOUS AND DRAMATIC AND PAINFUL. i have so many ideas, guys. i just need to figure out how to implement them. 8|

RANDOM FACTS:

Really loves peanut butter.
Has an assortment of favourite words — 'conniption' is one of them.
Keeps a dog-eared copy of 'The Catcher in the Rye' in his desk drawer.
Pulled pigtails in kindergarten. ;)
Online usernames are usually based off Rudyard Kipling's poetry.
He reads the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin monthly.
Is a fan of cheesy detective fiction; Robert Ludlum, Dean Koontz, etc. Fully aware it's trash. Also Stephen King, but that's beside the point.
Tom's interested in law, criminology, psychiatric profiling, politics — a general umbrella interest in the world itself. This occurs, however, at the considerable expense of his pop culture knowledge. Don't ask him shit about American Idol or which new iPhone to recommend. You'll only get a blank look.