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Jan. 6th, 2015 07:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hartleylittleworkingsong〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Marie
AGE: um. I know the words to the Snorks theme song (over 18)
JOURNAL: na
IM / EMAIL: seemarierun AT gmail
PLURK: seemarierun
RETURNING: Yes! I play Robbie Baldwin from the Marvel 616 universe.
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Hartley Rathaway
CHARACTER AGE: 32
SERIES: DC Comics
CHRONOLOGY: The end of Rogues Revenge #3.
CLASS: It's complicated? I think the answer depends on the observer. He is a "reformed" villain and generally considered a hero (or was, pre-Fastest Man Alive and Countdown), but it's never said if he was publicly cleared of suspicion in Bart Allen's death and his actual assist in the retribution murder of Inertia didn't help matters. I think anti-hero is probably the closest to the current truth.
But being realistic, he's going to hate how the government kicks out anyone who doesn't register, and it's not going to be long before he's stealing to fund an imPort shelter or to make more gadgets because whatever job the government gives him isn't going to pay enough to keep him up to his teeth in gadgets and hot meals for the homeless.
HOUSING: I'm good with him living solo.
BACKGROUND:
At Wikipedia
Hartley's parents didn't notice their son had been born Deaf until he was almost 2. Until that point, they just thought he was a moron and had little to do with the child. When they figured it out, they spent millions and millions (if not billions) on research into congenital hearing loss. They then subjected their son to experimental brain surgery and implants. Please note, this is not a cochlear implant (which doesn't produce accurate sound); this is a custom-job that lets Hartley hear perfectly, has no external pieces, and doesn't require a battery.
Presumably, his parents then got even filthier rich by selling the tech, but they only did it because they couldn't be bothered learning sign language or remembering to buy Cochlear batteries so they could occasionally communicate with their imperfect son. Instead, they had doctors experiment on his widdle toddler brain so they could occasionally communicate with him, and then 16 years later they wonder why he hates them.
In between, he was raised largely by his nanny, went to the best schools, spent most of his waking hours with headphones on and tinkering with various sonic devices, and developed a mutual loathing for most of his old money family. After being kicked out of multiple universities, Hartley came out to his parents and was summarily disowned.
He basically fell into a life of crime after that, like his options were crime, hooking, or starvation. Hartley makes bad life decisions, okay? Really, really bad life decisions. So he robbed banks and went to the yearly Rogues conventions and tried for the Rogue of the Year award, because that's what Rogues do.
Anyway, it started to change when Barry Allen died. He reevaluated his life, you might say, and tried to patch things up with his parents. He began to work for the good of the common man, take an interest in local politics, and, shockingly, became one of the best friends of the new Flash, Wally West, and his wife Linda. The next few years were probably the best years of his life.
And then, the downward spiral - because, no, becoming a master criminal wasn't the bad part. He was framed for the murder of his billionaire parents, thrown in prison, broke out of prison - which he's pretty much old hat at, but you know, now he believes in law and order - to clear his name. He flipped back to the evil side due to the work of the Top and then back to the good side when Wally took his mask off. It only got worse, though, because Wally and his family suddenly vanished, leaving Hartley with no stable force in his life.
He was lonely, okay, and so he made a deal with Trickster to infiltrate the Rogues [remember the bad life decisions? Also: this is part of the Countdown retcon, apparently Piper and Trickster were working together the whole time]. He thought it would let him keep an eye on the newest Flash, Bart Allen, who he'd known for years. He was in way, way over his head.
Piper and Trickster were unable to prevent Bart's murder, and, since almost no one knew they were undercover, they were considered amongst his murders. Cue the two of them zigzagging all over the goddamn country while being chased by heroes, villains, and the Suicide Squad. They lost several opportunities to get help through the heroes (because they're morons), and it didn't end well. To wit, Trickster is killed, Hartley ends up dragging his body around and hallucinating that the body is talking to him, and eventually he blows up a satellite with his flute [I don't understand Countdown either].
Nowadays, he's using the basement of his parents falling-apart mansion as his Phantomesque hideout, talking to rats, and plotting to get revenge on the ones who killed Bart Allen and basically killed Trickster, too. He stole Trickster's will, which he knew contained the records of the intel they'd gathered undercover and participated in the murder of Inertia, using his flute to hold the speedster in place. This was the first time he'd ever killed someone, and, despite Inertia being a baby-killing psycopath, he feels like shit about it.
PERSONALITY:
To begin with, Hartley is something of a social crusader, with a particular interest in the needs of the homeless. "Something" in this case means that it is both a hobby and a complete obsession. It's to the point where other liberal characters, who he barely knows, says that he's so far gone he makes them look conservative. He has organized the homeless people of New York and worked out arrangements for them to "steal" the leftover food from restaurants each night (which legally must be disposed and not donated).
He is a complete socialist and believes capitalism to be an evil rebranded as the American dream and forcefed to the masses. He can turn even a trip to a diner into a rant on how "the customer is always right" is the worst thing to happen to the workforce. Hartley has "liberated" and renovated empty, neglected properties for the homeless to live in, and, when caught, his defense was "property is theft."
Furthermore, he is stubborn to the point of immobility when he thinks he's right about something, so the above topics come up all the time, and, no, he will not get down off his high horse about them ever.
As to his good points, well, he has a nice sense of humor and a solid grip on punnery (pretty much de rigeour in the DC universe). It's much more of a sarcastic, dry wit than knee-slappers, though. He doesn't find inanity amusing. Hartley is... somewhat loyal. He's a bit more honest than your average supervillain. Part of it is the whole Rogues Code thing (the score is the most important thing, no hurting women or kids)- the Gem Cities are a weird place to be a supervillain; they're not as mass murdery as, say, the ones from Gotham.
He's a nerd in his own way. Hartley geeks out for music, science and literature. He uses lines from Shakespeare as quips in battle. From grade school onward, he's been listening to everything from Beethoven to Rammstein, spending hours if not days locked up in his room tinkering with gadgets. This might have a lot to do with why he doesn't have a lot friends.
Of course, his lack of friends is really just a sign of how terrible he is at relationships. DC characters aren't known for their excellent love lives, but Hartley's partners haven't managed to ever have a second issue, including the one that he lived with briefly. Another one seemed like a supremely dysfunctional relationship. He doesn't have any real friends, currently, considering that James is dead, his relationship with Wally and Linda West tanked when Bart Allen died, and he was never that close with the other Rogues. He does have a much younger sister, Jerri, who would most likely be in the late teens, who he seemed very protective of and close to in her appearance. However, she hasn't appeared since, and so is presumably in some sort of facility for those with disabilities since their parents' death.
The bottom line is that Hartley's a decent enough guy. Even with the caveat that Flashes tend to be the most naive superheroes this side of Superman, you don't accidentally end up one's friend - and, even if he does trust you to an extent, he doesn't trust you with his wife, elderly aunt, and little cousin. Yet, Hartley's been trusted with looking after each of them, and more. He's the sort of guy you want to invite over for dinner and party games. He'll bring the wine and the pleasant conversation... just don't sit him next to any bible thumpers or social conservatives. He'll let you use him as a sounding board for all of your problems and, surprisingly, offer fairly good advice that makes you wonder why someone who is such a trainwreck is so observant.
Speaking of trainwrecks, Hartley's still working with a questionable set of morals. First of all, there's the whole thing where he was a supervillain for about a decade. This is not normal adult behavior, and his reasoning was fucked up: he got off on the power trip of mind control, when he'd never had any real control in his life, and he felt that the excitement of crime was what was missing in his life. [Not, you know, family or friends or finishing that college degree. Nope. Crime.] In fact, before he even realized that he could create instruments that controlled people, he stole a small fortune from his parents. The tendency is there.
Even if he has reformed, by and large, he's still willing to make a man 40 pounds overweight swim 5 miles in the open ocean to the shore. I mean, the man was probably shark food, but that was Hartley's solution to how to "prove himself" to the Rogues. This man is supposedly a genius, and that's the best ploy he can come up with for faking a murder. He's more than willing to break out of prison when even he thought that he had killed his own parents.
Hartley can be a little... I hate to use the word melodramatic, but it's true. He'll go on tirades, but it's more than that. He overthinks about his personal issues, gets bent out of shape over little things, but it takes a lot for him to really lose his temper - and then he'll stomp on someone's face without blinking. Or in one special case... hold a man still with his music while the Rogues murder him.
POWER:
To begin with, Hartley is some sort of sonic technology savant. It's not really a power, but it might as well be for the purpose of how much shit DC has crammed into this guy. Aside from being able to craft reeds and woodwinds (up to and including bagpipes) that have an incredible non-standard use (see #1), Hartley has come up with a ridiculous number of other gizmos, including but not limited to:
* Tuning forks that incapacitate people and/or blow things up
* Sci-fi looking sonic guns that are nasty
* Devices that put a "sonic barrier" around a house that functions as a forcefield
* A horn that produces a visible, solid staff of music notes that he can slide down (I don't know. This one won't happen, I'm just offering examples of things he could make).
* A flute that ... somehow created a giant, sentient music note that had a crush on Hartley. (Just... let the words roll over you a few times)
* MacGyvered a PA system and a touch tone phone (separately) to hypnotize people
He's also got one of the best working knowledge of speedster tricks and vibrations outside of the actual speedster set.
1. MIND CONTROL OF HUMANS AND OTHER ANIMALS: By playing his self-designed "special" instruments, he's able to mind control humanoids and animals alike. These instruments presumably don't work for other people, as Hartley uses them to channel the portion of the Anti-Life Equation stuck in his head to control them. *waves hands* WoooOOOOooooOOO Cooomiiiiics. I wish I could explain the Anti-Life Equation to you, but ... it basically means whatever DC wants it to mean in that issue. Wikipedia's failed attempt to explain it is here.
With people, he can have them attack each other, stand still, give him money, not notice him walking in and robbing them blind, etc. Additionally, he can control what they say and don't say, so there's no one yelling "help I'm being mind controlled" to the cops. With animals, he's able to get them to do feats that are seemingly beyond the animals' natural capabilities (or at least not without prolonged, extensive training). He's particularly good with rats.
2. Technology-dependent enhanced hearing. I'm including it here because it augmented his hearing past normal parameters, allowing him to hear a cop whisper a block away.
3. His flute? I'm not sure if you'd rather me count being a genius of ridiculous bullscience as a power, but if I can squeak that through, I'd like his main weapon to come with him.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[AUDIO]
[His tone is mild, pleasant. For someone who has been ripped from his reality into a new one, he doesn't sound too aggravated.]
It never ceases to amaze me how a country can expound the virtues of capitalism, singing them from the highest mountains, while secretly borrowing just enough elements of socialism to keep a third of its population from starving or freezing to death and fascism to keep everyone distracted from what's really going on.
[... he wasn't going to just take this without complaint, however. Hartley is playing the annoying guy in a bar argument who will throw up his hands and say "Hey, I'm just playing the Devil's Advocate here, if someone takes offense to his words." Nice and easy, everybody's cool.]
But this is America, home of the free and the brave, the land of the unburnable red, white, and blue - oh, except when you need to dispose of a flag properly. Then, it's illegal to do anything but burn it. [A soft heh of air.] Don't you hate those sudden key changes? It's the sign of a bad composer.
[There's a pause in his words, a good whole rest, like he's thinking over everything that's happened in the past few days.]
They could give us more time to decide whether or not we want to play. Like I said, it's jarring. Welcome to your new Earth. Now decide if you're going to enlist, or you don't get a house, job, or the address of the nearest homeless shelter. Even felons get directed to halfway houses.
But capitalism builds countries on the backs of disposable human beings. At least here in sunny Heropa, they make it clear from the start.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE: Test Drive Meme thread. As a note, there was OOC discussion of details so nothing was godmoded.
FINAL NOTES:
NAME: Marie
AGE: um. I know the words to the Snorks theme song (over 18)
JOURNAL: na
IM / EMAIL: seemarierun AT gmail
PLURK: seemarierun
RETURNING: Yes! I play Robbie Baldwin from the Marvel 616 universe.
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Hartley Rathaway
CHARACTER AGE: 32
SERIES: DC Comics
CHRONOLOGY: The end of Rogues Revenge #3.
CLASS: It's complicated? I think the answer depends on the observer. He is a "reformed" villain and generally considered a hero (or was, pre-Fastest Man Alive and Countdown), but it's never said if he was publicly cleared of suspicion in Bart Allen's death and his actual assist in the retribution murder of Inertia didn't help matters. I think anti-hero is probably the closest to the current truth.
But being realistic, he's going to hate how the government kicks out anyone who doesn't register, and it's not going to be long before he's stealing to fund an imPort shelter or to make more gadgets because whatever job the government gives him isn't going to pay enough to keep him up to his teeth in gadgets and hot meals for the homeless.
HOUSING: I'm good with him living solo.
BACKGROUND:
At Wikipedia
Hartley's parents didn't notice their son had been born Deaf until he was almost 2. Until that point, they just thought he was a moron and had little to do with the child. When they figured it out, they spent millions and millions (if not billions) on research into congenital hearing loss. They then subjected their son to experimental brain surgery and implants. Please note, this is not a cochlear implant (which doesn't produce accurate sound); this is a custom-job that lets Hartley hear perfectly, has no external pieces, and doesn't require a battery.
Presumably, his parents then got even filthier rich by selling the tech, but they only did it because they couldn't be bothered learning sign language or remembering to buy Cochlear batteries so they could occasionally communicate with their imperfect son. Instead, they had doctors experiment on his widdle toddler brain so they could occasionally communicate with him, and then 16 years later they wonder why he hates them.
In between, he was raised largely by his nanny, went to the best schools, spent most of his waking hours with headphones on and tinkering with various sonic devices, and developed a mutual loathing for most of his old money family. After being kicked out of multiple universities, Hartley came out to his parents and was summarily disowned.
He basically fell into a life of crime after that, like his options were crime, hooking, or starvation. Hartley makes bad life decisions, okay? Really, really bad life decisions. So he robbed banks and went to the yearly Rogues conventions and tried for the Rogue of the Year award, because that's what Rogues do.
Anyway, it started to change when Barry Allen died. He reevaluated his life, you might say, and tried to patch things up with his parents. He began to work for the good of the common man, take an interest in local politics, and, shockingly, became one of the best friends of the new Flash, Wally West, and his wife Linda. The next few years were probably the best years of his life.
And then, the downward spiral - because, no, becoming a master criminal wasn't the bad part. He was framed for the murder of his billionaire parents, thrown in prison, broke out of prison - which he's pretty much old hat at, but you know, now he believes in law and order - to clear his name. He flipped back to the evil side due to the work of the Top and then back to the good side when Wally took his mask off. It only got worse, though, because Wally and his family suddenly vanished, leaving Hartley with no stable force in his life.
He was lonely, okay, and so he made a deal with Trickster to infiltrate the Rogues [remember the bad life decisions? Also: this is part of the Countdown retcon, apparently Piper and Trickster were working together the whole time]. He thought it would let him keep an eye on the newest Flash, Bart Allen, who he'd known for years. He was in way, way over his head.
Piper and Trickster were unable to prevent Bart's murder, and, since almost no one knew they were undercover, they were considered amongst his murders. Cue the two of them zigzagging all over the goddamn country while being chased by heroes, villains, and the Suicide Squad. They lost several opportunities to get help through the heroes (because they're morons), and it didn't end well. To wit, Trickster is killed, Hartley ends up dragging his body around and hallucinating that the body is talking to him, and eventually he blows up a satellite with his flute [I don't understand Countdown either].
Nowadays, he's using the basement of his parents falling-apart mansion as his Phantomesque hideout, talking to rats, and plotting to get revenge on the ones who killed Bart Allen and basically killed Trickster, too. He stole Trickster's will, which he knew contained the records of the intel they'd gathered undercover and participated in the murder of Inertia, using his flute to hold the speedster in place. This was the first time he'd ever killed someone, and, despite Inertia being a baby-killing psycopath, he feels like shit about it.
PERSONALITY:
To begin with, Hartley is something of a social crusader, with a particular interest in the needs of the homeless. "Something" in this case means that it is both a hobby and a complete obsession. It's to the point where other liberal characters, who he barely knows, says that he's so far gone he makes them look conservative. He has organized the homeless people of New York and worked out arrangements for them to "steal" the leftover food from restaurants each night (which legally must be disposed and not donated).
He is a complete socialist and believes capitalism to be an evil rebranded as the American dream and forcefed to the masses. He can turn even a trip to a diner into a rant on how "the customer is always right" is the worst thing to happen to the workforce. Hartley has "liberated" and renovated empty, neglected properties for the homeless to live in, and, when caught, his defense was "property is theft."
Furthermore, he is stubborn to the point of immobility when he thinks he's right about something, so the above topics come up all the time, and, no, he will not get down off his high horse about them ever.
As to his good points, well, he has a nice sense of humor and a solid grip on punnery (pretty much de rigeour in the DC universe). It's much more of a sarcastic, dry wit than knee-slappers, though. He doesn't find inanity amusing. Hartley is... somewhat loyal. He's a bit more honest than your average supervillain. Part of it is the whole Rogues Code thing (the score is the most important thing, no hurting women or kids)- the Gem Cities are a weird place to be a supervillain; they're not as mass murdery as, say, the ones from Gotham.
He's a nerd in his own way. Hartley geeks out for music, science and literature. He uses lines from Shakespeare as quips in battle. From grade school onward, he's been listening to everything from Beethoven to Rammstein, spending hours if not days locked up in his room tinkering with gadgets. This might have a lot to do with why he doesn't have a lot friends.
Of course, his lack of friends is really just a sign of how terrible he is at relationships. DC characters aren't known for their excellent love lives, but Hartley's partners haven't managed to ever have a second issue, including the one that he lived with briefly. Another one seemed like a supremely dysfunctional relationship. He doesn't have any real friends, currently, considering that James is dead, his relationship with Wally and Linda West tanked when Bart Allen died, and he was never that close with the other Rogues. He does have a much younger sister, Jerri, who would most likely be in the late teens, who he seemed very protective of and close to in her appearance. However, she hasn't appeared since, and so is presumably in some sort of facility for those with disabilities since their parents' death.
The bottom line is that Hartley's a decent enough guy. Even with the caveat that Flashes tend to be the most naive superheroes this side of Superman, you don't accidentally end up one's friend - and, even if he does trust you to an extent, he doesn't trust you with his wife, elderly aunt, and little cousin. Yet, Hartley's been trusted with looking after each of them, and more. He's the sort of guy you want to invite over for dinner and party games. He'll bring the wine and the pleasant conversation... just don't sit him next to any bible thumpers or social conservatives. He'll let you use him as a sounding board for all of your problems and, surprisingly, offer fairly good advice that makes you wonder why someone who is such a trainwreck is so observant.
Speaking of trainwrecks, Hartley's still working with a questionable set of morals. First of all, there's the whole thing where he was a supervillain for about a decade. This is not normal adult behavior, and his reasoning was fucked up: he got off on the power trip of mind control, when he'd never had any real control in his life, and he felt that the excitement of crime was what was missing in his life. [Not, you know, family or friends or finishing that college degree. Nope. Crime.] In fact, before he even realized that he could create instruments that controlled people, he stole a small fortune from his parents. The tendency is there.
Even if he has reformed, by and large, he's still willing to make a man 40 pounds overweight swim 5 miles in the open ocean to the shore. I mean, the man was probably shark food, but that was Hartley's solution to how to "prove himself" to the Rogues. This man is supposedly a genius, and that's the best ploy he can come up with for faking a murder. He's more than willing to break out of prison when even he thought that he had killed his own parents.
Hartley can be a little... I hate to use the word melodramatic, but it's true. He'll go on tirades, but it's more than that. He overthinks about his personal issues, gets bent out of shape over little things, but it takes a lot for him to really lose his temper - and then he'll stomp on someone's face without blinking. Or in one special case... hold a man still with his music while the Rogues murder him.
POWER:
To begin with, Hartley is some sort of sonic technology savant. It's not really a power, but it might as well be for the purpose of how much shit DC has crammed into this guy. Aside from being able to craft reeds and woodwinds (up to and including bagpipes) that have an incredible non-standard use (see #1), Hartley has come up with a ridiculous number of other gizmos, including but not limited to:
* Tuning forks that incapacitate people and/or blow things up
* Sci-fi looking sonic guns that are nasty
* Devices that put a "sonic barrier" around a house that functions as a forcefield
* A horn that produces a visible, solid staff of music notes that he can slide down (I don't know. This one won't happen, I'm just offering examples of things he could make).
* A flute that ... somehow created a giant, sentient music note that had a crush on Hartley. (Just... let the words roll over you a few times)
* MacGyvered a PA system and a touch tone phone (separately) to hypnotize people
He's also got one of the best working knowledge of speedster tricks and vibrations outside of the actual speedster set.
1. MIND CONTROL OF HUMANS AND OTHER ANIMALS: By playing his self-designed "special" instruments, he's able to mind control humanoids and animals alike. These instruments presumably don't work for other people, as Hartley uses them to channel the portion of the Anti-Life Equation stuck in his head to control them. *waves hands* WoooOOOOooooOOO Cooomiiiiics. I wish I could explain the Anti-Life Equation to you, but ... it basically means whatever DC wants it to mean in that issue. Wikipedia's failed attempt to explain it is here.
With people, he can have them attack each other, stand still, give him money, not notice him walking in and robbing them blind, etc. Additionally, he can control what they say and don't say, so there's no one yelling "help I'm being mind controlled" to the cops. With animals, he's able to get them to do feats that are seemingly beyond the animals' natural capabilities (or at least not without prolonged, extensive training). He's particularly good with rats.
2. Technology-dependent enhanced hearing. I'm including it here because it augmented his hearing past normal parameters, allowing him to hear a cop whisper a block away.
3. His flute? I'm not sure if you'd rather me count being a genius of ridiculous bullscience as a power, but if I can squeak that through, I'd like his main weapon to come with him.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[AUDIO]
[His tone is mild, pleasant. For someone who has been ripped from his reality into a new one, he doesn't sound too aggravated.]
It never ceases to amaze me how a country can expound the virtues of capitalism, singing them from the highest mountains, while secretly borrowing just enough elements of socialism to keep a third of its population from starving or freezing to death and fascism to keep everyone distracted from what's really going on.
[... he wasn't going to just take this without complaint, however. Hartley is playing the annoying guy in a bar argument who will throw up his hands and say "Hey, I'm just playing the Devil's Advocate here, if someone takes offense to his words." Nice and easy, everybody's cool.]
But this is America, home of the free and the brave, the land of the unburnable red, white, and blue - oh, except when you need to dispose of a flag properly. Then, it's illegal to do anything but burn it. [A soft heh of air.] Don't you hate those sudden key changes? It's the sign of a bad composer.
[There's a pause in his words, a good whole rest, like he's thinking over everything that's happened in the past few days.]
They could give us more time to decide whether or not we want to play. Like I said, it's jarring. Welcome to your new Earth. Now decide if you're going to enlist, or you don't get a house, job, or the address of the nearest homeless shelter. Even felons get directed to halfway houses.
But capitalism builds countries on the backs of disposable human beings. At least here in sunny Heropa, they make it clear from the start.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE: Test Drive Meme thread. As a note, there was OOC discussion of details so nothing was godmoded.
FINAL NOTES:
