OOC Information:
Name/Alias: Demi!
Age: Yup~!
E-Mail//MSN//AIM: aim || SexyNinjaMWAHA
Personal LJ:
demi_rabbit IC Information:
Character Name: Harley Quinn || Harleen Quinzel
Character Journal:
revyourharley Canon: Batman: The Animated Series --> Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker w/ mentions of Gotham Girls
Point in Canon: Right after "Bratgirl" dropped her || Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker flashback time, but after she fell and before she found out about the Joker's death.
Age: Mid-20's. I'm gonna go right down the middle with 25.
Birthday: n/a - she probably forgot. (April 25th?)
Appearance:
Her appearance can vary depending on what sort of costume she's in, as Harley's been known to dress in everything to lacy nighties to a sort of nurses outfit in Arkham Asylum, to a stripper get up, to a school girl. In short, though, she's petite, blond, blue eyes and flexible.
Abilities: Now let's get one thing outta the way, Puddin'. Harley's crazy. Crazy and devoted, but that's it. She can't shoot torpedos from her eyes or anything, or even move at super speed. She didn't fall into a vat of toxins or got bitten by a radioactive spider; her brain was just toyed with and she turned crazy. And in love.
Can being completely enamored be an ability? Well, maybe, but the point is Harley is human. Sure, she is skilled with a gun - ANY kind of gun - and can do a couple flips in mid air, not to mention handle a hammer that probably weighs more than her body and do so with grace, and even survive a 100+ foot fall with pure luck on her side. But doing the splits is nothing special when she's surrounded by people like Clayface, Manbat or Scarface. She's not any clay monster, or bat, or demonic puppet. She can take a beating, give one back, she's got a flare for some sort of twisted sense of maternal nurturing she hands out to her "babies" (her pet hyenas) and...I don't know if you'd call this an ability but she has NO sense of stage fright and enjoys singing or putting on other performances.
Oh. And she's immune to toxins. Thanks to Poison Ivy Red~
Personality:
Hmmm...In a nutshell? Harley is happy. But very, very insecure. Whether this is a result of being happy all the time, or being constantly talked down to is anyones guess; especially hers.
Harley has a vivacious, effusive and highly expressive personality, quick to show affection for her loved ones - Joker, Red, Bud and Lou and even Batman and Robin from time to time, but she is also just as quick to anger and snap at anyone. She is a woman of extremes in all things. Her mood swings, whilst nowhere near as violent as Joker's, are still mercurial to the extreme and often lead to...well, chaos is a strong word, but they get her in trouble more often than not. She experiences all emotions intensely and passionately, and may very well be best described as "as much a slave to her emotions as she is her love and affection for Mistah J".
She is undyingly loyal to her two best loved ones - Joker and Poison Ivy - and often ends up as a bit of a 'door mat' to both of them, being cowed by their more dominant personalities. Of course, it's not like she really fully realizes this most of the time, and even when she does, it doesn't stand in the way of her trotting back to the two of them like a Stockholm Syndrome patient.
Whilst Harley seems merely zanily playful, she is absolutely insane, unpredictable and therefore highly dangerous. Her love for The Joker makes her fiercely defensive and protective of him and she will go nuts in order to do so, or to defend their love to anyone who questions it; and she educates them with a hammer. No joke. She will do whatever it takes to help his dreams come to fruition - as mentioned above, she's a highly determined and fixated woman - as well as pursue her own goals with the same fervor, even if Harley Quinn's dreams are more often than not a mini version of one of the Jokers, or perhaps one that involves she and he settling down and retaining some normalcy.
She is possessive and jealous of both Poison Ivy and The Joker. Friends and lovers and all that dangerous cross over, ya know~ It is speculated that she and Ivy have something of a romantic and sexual element to their relationship. Certainly Ivy would be more willing to give her the affection Joker withholds in order to control her.
Harley also believes that The Batman is the source of Joker's pain and hates him as a consequence; her beloved Mistah J doesn't deserve such cruelty when he's just out to make the world laugh. That belief was held true, even when she was a normal, not quite so crazy psychiatrist. This makes her a deadly enemy to the Dark Knight, none more so than when she is fighting by the side of her man.
History:
Well, not much is known about Harley really.
She was probably a peppy girl who came from a good family, excelled in sports
She came into the series as a potential psychiatrist for the Joker, Miss Harleen Quinzel - fresh out of medical school and ready to tackle Gotham's most notorious villain. And, sure, she started out okay. She listened, took notes and was very professional. But then the green haired man started to say things that got to her. He spoke of his childhood, with a father who beat him around, and how he loved the clowns at the circus and she felt...well, sorry for him.
In her mind, it generally made sense why he was the way he was - crazy and off the wall and utterly evil - because to The Joker, it was funny; he just wanted to make people laugh, especially the police and Batman. And, sure, he may have gone around it the wrong way, but the more time she spent with him, the more Harleen saw the supposed "good" side of him. And in time, she even went so far as to call the affections she had developed for him love.
"I found The Joker's psyche disturbing, his dementia alarming - and his charm irresistible! What can I tell ya? The guy just did it for me."
And then the horrible happened. The Joker escaped! Her poor, poor super villain! All alone out there, with no one to talk to, no one to understand why he did what he did or help him. And when the Batman brought him back wounded and beat to shit, she all out ran to him, and cradled his half conscience form on the ground. And that was the final straw for Harleen.
The Joker was locked up in his cell again, incompassitated and rather unable to even attempt a breakout again. And Harleen drove to a costume store, where she snatched just about everything she'd need to make a costume. A low budget costume, sure, with a five fingered discount as well, but it worked. As the prim and proper Harleen was just a memory now.
When she and the Joker had just met, he had made a quip about her name: "Harleen Quinzel; twist a few letters around and you have harlequin." And when she broke into Arkham Asylum and blasted the glass off his prison cell case, she introduced herself as the new and improved:
"Harley Quinn!"
And after that, she became the Joker's most devoted assistant. Lover. Part time lover. Fanatic. Fanatic assistant. Toy. Puppet. Girlfriend. Part time girlfriend. Friend. Sidekick. You name it, really. She constantly revisited Arkham Asylum, both as a ward and a constant escapee. Where Harleen had been focused and determined and able to achieve almost anything she set her mind to to matter what, Harley was obsessed, and seemingly the only thing that kept her going was her very own Mistah J.
Their relationship, for lack of a better word, is a prime example of an abusive one. The Joker, best described as an unpredictable maniac at times, assaulted her physically and mentally, everything from talking down to her, to shoving her off a desk, to elbowing her in the face. You name it, he did it. Thing often got the the point where Harley claimed she would leave, or attempted to stand up for herself, but these ideas were usually quashed by threats or Harley's own fear of losing her love. Of course, as in most abusive relationships, there were the tender moments as well.
Volatile and unpredictable in his reactions, the Joker would occasionally draw Harley back in with kind words, affection, praise - the same things you'd normally give to a wife or lover. And, no matter how fed up Harley seemed one moment (to the point where she runs off to assist B-Man, Bratgirl and Bird Boy, or even gives a couple smooches to the infamous Batman) she's always willing to accept his "apologies". He was the fuel for her life of crime, and the true meaning for her very existence! Or at least that's how she felt.
Then along came Ivy~ Red, Patty. Two of the three Gotham City sirens became simply the best of friends, almost overnight, when they were attempting to steal materials from the same museum and got caught. Well, not caught, but one of them managed to trip an alarm and the two had to make a speedy get away in Ivy's car. It was, say, a bonding moment between the plant fanatic and the crazy girl clown (and later, in the timeline of Arkham Asylum, Harley would skip around playing nurse and free Ivy, even if that was not an order of Mistah J for her to carry out).
Fast friends they became, and while it was no where near as devoted a relationship as HQ and the Clown Prince, the blond certainly became devoted to the other villainess, who was certainly a whole hell of a lot more willing to show affection than her lover. There were generally hints of a relationship between them from time to time, as there were between Harley and the female version of the Joker - both of which were a whole lot more equal than that with Gotham's notorious Clown, but what's a girl to do when choosing between a friend and her man?
Well, she chose the man.
And while she still was used as a bit of a doormat by both - their dominant personalities far more apt at manipulating her than she would be them - Harley loved them, as well as her Babies - Lou and Bud.
And love makes a girl do stupid things, be it blindly following The Joker into his twisted plot to kidnap one of the Robins (Tim Drake) while the crime fighting trio of Batgirl, Batman and Robin were at their peak and brainwash him. For three weeks, she and the Joker worked on Robin, brainwashing him and utterly breaking his psyche. Poor boy.
"Robin? There's no Robin here. Maybe they mean our little Jay."
"But instead of going through the joys of childbirth, we decided to adopt!"
"Sweetie~ Get mommy's bazooka."
And when it came time to reveal "Joker Junior" to the "world", Harley and The Joker extended an invitation to the remaining two bats to where the insane duo - made trio - had set up to play house: Arkham Asylum. Needless to say, Batman and Batgirl were not too happy to see their younger companion dolled up to looked like the Joker, and the two of them attacked the "happy family".
Harley, armed with a bazooka and little J.J., took on Batgirl, who chased her into a more desolate and ruined part of the Asylum. The rain, and a few good punches, along with the mishandling of the bazooka ("Mommies little helper!"), coupled with the rather dangerous cracks in the establishment and the gorge seemingly cut through the old and abandoned establishment, both women toppled into the pit.
Batgirl managed to grab ahold of Harley's costume cuff and an outcropping of rock, and while the do-gooder tried her best to pull Harley up with her, the cuff tore and the villainess fell to - what everyone else supposed was her death.
Barbra and Bruce never found Harley's body. They didn't rule out that she had somehow survived the fall, but as the Joker was shot by J.J., it was correctly assumed Harley wouldn't be causing any trouble without him. And to further prove that she survived, she appeared in the end of the Batman Beyond: The Return Of The Joker as an old lady, chastising the villainess twins DeeDee for being caught, and the two of them refer to her as "Nana Harley".
First Person Sample:
[have some boobs.]
[some stylishly clad, full body suit boobs with alternating red and black swatches as the owner of this new device fumbles with it curiously. give her a moment; this technology is kinda ancient in accordance to her, but the woman's a genius and after a moment the whole feed is treated to a view of her made up face and black mask, big blue eyes as well.]
Helloooooooo~ Is this thing on?
[Harley fiddles with the device until it focuses on her completely and the blond holds up a towel. is her new jersey accent grating on your ears yet?]
Is this your idea of a welcome? It ain't much, but I guess I can say thank you. So thank you. [she blows a kiss to the screen.]
But really now. Where Bratgirl? And my J.J.? Mommy misses her lil' Junior~!
[a giggle. and a pause. and then: ]
Has anyone seen my babies? You can't miss 'em; promise~!
Third Person Sample:
Her butt hurt.
But then again, most of her body did. It was a pretty common result of falling, ya know, even if the costumed villainess had landed on an outcrop of rock and material not too far from where the ginger Bratgirl had dropped her. Or...at least, Harley had figured it had been a slab of rock; she had remembered the feel of dirt and grit beneath her as she'd twitched, and the sensation of rain falling on her face before having momentarily passed out, but now...
Well, now there were people around. People were everywhere, in fact. And - upon a double take - not just people! Big old slimy, nasty octopuses! The blond almost shrieked, immediately looking around for the bazooka she had dropped earlier and J.J. and - oh, well, darnit! It was just about hopeless, especially if that gorge had lead to some sort of - of alien underground society filled with yucky, smelly, talking things, and stupid little boys and girls with blue hair.
Despite the sore and tender state of her back and body, Harley stood up carefully. She brushed herself off some, the red of her costume stained with dirt and what could have possibly been blood...Or make up. You didn't really know upon first glance, and Harley was too interested in her surroundings to really inspect the damage done to her clothing. It seemed...she was in a line. A long line. And what with all the crying and whimpering around, this was either some sort of funeral or an execution.
But for now, curiosity overrode her survival instinct, and even thought it took hours to get to the front of the line, the costumed woman flounced forward to greet the Vogon as if she had all the energy in the world, leaning over the desk and invading the aliens personal space, despite the sign that clearly stated it was unadvised to get too close to the creatures.
"Can ya tell me why everyon's snivvlin' and snifflin' like theirs mommy just had a heartattack?" she cooed sweetly, batting her eyelashes.
The alien regarded her with something close to detest, and shoved a bag toward her - the same type that Harley'd seen others walking around with once they'd reached this smelly ol' grump and headed toward the large doubledoor exit behind the large line.
"What's this for -"
"Your home world was destroyed." The thing spoke slowly and carefully, as if it doubted the villainess' ability to understand it. And sure, Harley gave the Vogon a look that was the epitome of confused at first, arms securely wrapped around the bag. What - what did that mean for J.J.? He was her baby, after all - and, oh! What about Bud and Lou? And what about Red? Harley hadn't seen a single green thing here yet. And - and -
What about Mistah J?!
"...That's not very funny..."
Links:
here! Notes: May Harley have her babies? Her pet hyenas Bud and Lou? I promise they'll be good.