Elaine Girbachs

Elaine Girbachs © Juke Box Productions AstroFacts Status: Real Name: Elaine Base of Operations: Small Town somewhere in the Plains States Personal Data Relationships: Dr. Gearbox- father Occupation: High School Math Teacher Date of Birth: Late 1950s/Early 1960s Civil Status: Married InfoDump Appearances (in Publication Order): Astro City: Beautie #1 Event Timeline Elaine Girbachs Elaine Girbachs, daughter of the criminally infamous robotics inventor Dr. Gearbox. She possesses his knack for robotic engineering, but proved far more skilled. Witness what was probably her greatest creation, the sentient, and highly original robot known as Beautie. History Continuously shunned by her father, she attempted to prove her skills and abilities all the same. Unfortunately, things deteriorated further after Elaine's mother died. She took to reprogramming the droids and robots that Dr. Gearbox built to help him around the house. But her crowning achievement was creating a life size robot of the famous Beautie doll, a toy that was on display in stores everywhere. She intended the doll to be someone to help keep her company when her father was away and to help out with other tasks. But the introduction of Beautie to Dr. Gearbox was met with slurs and insults about the absurdity of what she had done. He once again berated Elaine screaming at her that math and sciences were subjects meant for men, and that she should stay out his affairs. Understandably upset, she took her pain and anger out on Beautie, ordering her to go away, that she never wanted to see the android again. EVER! Her father perished while battling Honor Guard. Seems his Robosaur vehicle malfunctioned due to a design flaw that 8 year old Elaine observed earlier. When she tried to bring this to her father's attentions, she was chastised and ignored. Dr. Gearbox never took the time to acknowledge his daughters achievements and abilities. His narrow-mindedness and biases overcame his ability to take pride in his offspring and her superior technical and engineering skills. Elaine did all she could to compartmentalize the history of her and her father's relationship, focusing instead on her future. She became a math teacher at the local high school. Through the years Beautie's internal programming kept slipping and the natural questioning of who she was, and where she came from, kept overriding her dominate instructions to go away. Forget. On each return visit with Elaine, she would be dramatically turned away, physically, emotionally, and most damaging of all, mentally. Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, these encounters became more and more frequent. One particular visit, M.P.H. secretly followed Beautie and overheard the toxic dialog Elaine delivered to her incredible creation. Following Beautie's abrupt departure, M.P.H. approached Elaine, who explained some of her disturbing history with her father. It was perhaps, an attempt at emotionally justifying her abusive attitudes regarding Beautie. M.P.H. took what she had to say and offered a response. A kinder, more humane approach, pointing out that while she can't do anything about her dark relationship with her father, her "daughter" is out there now, and needs her help. Whether Elaine ever has a change of heart and accepts Beautie is currently a tale yet to be told.