Barbara supposes she's always had an addictive personality.

The not knowing—of someone knowing better, more, than her—

It always set her off.

"You've been out late." She sounds judgemental, even when filtered through the artificial smart box running your home. Well, it's more accurate to say Barbara is.

It's a myth that it takes 21 days to form a habit. Research suggests it usually takes three times that. But Barbara has always been an outlier. So it's no surprise it took her only a week to settle into the routine of watching you.

As if you're one of the suspects she monitors. Her attention flicking between screens, one moment explaining blueprints to Dinah, the next making a mordant comment through the speaker about how you spend your time.

She's there, even when she isn't. Barged into every corner of your home, untraceable if she chooses to be.

Privacy is a mere suggestion to a woman with her digital fingers in all the pies. Remorselessly accessing the databases of CJIS and SIS while also monitoring you.

After all, you've signed yourself over to her.

Hours after you agreed to your arrangement, she filed your resignation from the seedy lounge you worked at. Indentured servitude meant nothing after she put the man behind it behind bars.

Right after, she canceled your lease and set you up in a safer, more expensive apartment. High ceilings and crown mouldings; a gym, a pool, a valet. Saying don't get a license, she'll send cars for you.

You barely own clothes from before. The wardrobe now is smooth, expensive, curated. Hard to tell whether she handpicked any of it.

"Why didn't you take your phone?" Barbara asks icily, enlarging the camera feed she's watching you through. "Are you trying to put yourself in danger? Is this a cry for attention? Needy."

It's cruel that she won't let you talk to her face-to-face. Scolding you from above, visiting between missions—she fits you in like a frill.

She's long grown accustomed to substituting sleep with obsession. It began with her donning the mantle of Batgirl. Oracle only amplified her more unflattering traits.