Hartley Rathaway 🎶 Pied Piper (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
socialactivillain) wrote2016-05-31 09:26 pm
socialactivillain) wrote2016-05-31 09:26 pm
MoM - Application
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Hartley Rathaway, "The Pied Piper"
CHARACTER AGE: "Thirty-plus"
SERIES: DC Comics
CHRONOLOGY: Just after the New Year's Evil Rogues story and Flash #135, before Geoff Johns came along to ruin everyone's fun.
CLASS: Reformed villain, mostly. Hero? Maybe let's not go that far.
HOUSING: Heropa something-or-other. Maybe with other Rogues.
BACKGROUND: Hartley Rathaway on the DC Wikia
PERSONALITY:
Most people, when meeting Hartley Rathaway for the first time, are left asking only one question: holy shit who is this hippie and why is he yelling? Does he know he’s that loud? Does he know he’s the last man in North America who still has a ponytail? Does he know that oversized Neil Young shirts in pirate cuts have never been cool even once? Does he really think he’s making it work?
Okay, so that was more than one question, but that's just the kind of person he is.
Despite being the eldest child and only son of a very rich couple, Hartley wasn't exactly hugged enough as a child. Faced with a childhood full of surgeries to "repair" his deafness, to say that he didn't grow up into the most well-adjusted adult would be putting it mildly. No, his need for attention drove him to drop out of college, start wearing tights and polka dots, and hypnotize people for money that he probably definitely didn't need. Good life choices, right? But it did get him the attention he so badly needed, including a newfound family, of a sort, in the Rogues.
Family's always complicated, though, and the Pied Piper eventually went straight--that is to say, he reformed--and left the Rogues behind, though he never quite kicked the habit of dressing up. Or stealing things. But stealing things for the homeless instead of just for attention meant he was being a good person, right? That's at least how he thinks of it. There are some habits and color schemes you just can't quite kick, no matter how much you grow out of supervillainy.
Almost as if to spite his wealthy background, Hartley's a very generous person. He'll go to great lengths to help a friend or someone in need. Even if that help comes in the form of whipping up some improbable gadget in under ten minutes to help take down a supervillain, or "stealing" food for homeless squatters. Okay, so maybe he still makes poor choices, but no one can ever accuse him of not having his heart in the right place. He’s just a very passionate person. No one has ever had to ask him his opinion on anything, because he's always already voicing it in great detail. Whether it’s about his political leanings (angry socialist hippie) or what he thinks of your life choices (he's judging you), he always has something to say, and he's more than happy to say it.
Opinionated though he is, he's usually fairly chipper and pleasant about it, if sometimes overbearingly sarcastic. He's not above taking pleasure in the suffering or inconveniences of those he thinks deserve it, like, say, one-percenters. Especially if he gets to be the one to inflict said suffering or inconveniences. Like that time he picked a fight with the rich grandson of a dead supervillain that nearly came to blows because Hartley thought the guy was, and I quote, a "spoiled, capitalist parasite". So, while he means well, he still frequently comes across as a dick. But not to anyone he thinks matters. Usually.
All that aside, Piper is friendly and personable a good deal of the time, always happy to lend a hand or tag along for the ride when someone needs company or backup. When he isn't starting fistfights or protests or storming angrily out in the middle of a conversation, he's actually a really good friend. Though he is incapable of keeping his mouth shut ever, so he'll talk shit about your stupid life choices, but at least he'll do it to your face. Whether you want him to or not. See, he's very sociable, but not always the greatest at things like tact, or understanding other people's points of view. Sure, he'll fight and argue til he's blue in the face to fix social inequalities, but anyone who disagrees with his opinions is just stupid and wrong, and he's not afraid to say so. Loudly and at great length, because he is so deeply convinced of his own absolute correctness in all things.
All in all, Hartley retired from a life of robbing diamond stores and museums to become the not-at-all mild mannered, sarcastic, geek sidekick of the Flash, tasked with helping him with his weird bullshit supervillains and weird bullshit life problems. Kind of a lateral move, in the grand scheme of things.
CHARACTER NAME: Hartley Rathaway, "The Pied Piper"
CHARACTER AGE: "Thirty-plus"
SERIES: DC Comics
CHRONOLOGY: Just after the New Year's Evil Rogues story and Flash #135, before Geoff Johns came along to ruin everyone's fun.
CLASS: Reformed villain, mostly. Hero? Maybe let's not go that far.
HOUSING: Heropa something-or-other. Maybe with other Rogues.
BACKGROUND: Hartley Rathaway on the DC Wikia
PERSONALITY:
Most people, when meeting Hartley Rathaway for the first time, are left asking only one question: holy shit who is this hippie and why is he yelling? Does he know he’s that loud? Does he know he’s the last man in North America who still has a ponytail? Does he know that oversized Neil Young shirts in pirate cuts have never been cool even once? Does he really think he’s making it work?
Okay, so that was more than one question, but that's just the kind of person he is.
Despite being the eldest child and only son of a very rich couple, Hartley wasn't exactly hugged enough as a child. Faced with a childhood full of surgeries to "repair" his deafness, to say that he didn't grow up into the most well-adjusted adult would be putting it mildly. No, his need for attention drove him to drop out of college, start wearing tights and polka dots, and hypnotize people for money that he probably definitely didn't need. Good life choices, right? But it did get him the attention he so badly needed, including a newfound family, of a sort, in the Rogues.
Family's always complicated, though, and the Pied Piper eventually went straight--that is to say, he reformed--and left the Rogues behind, though he never quite kicked the habit of dressing up. Or stealing things. But stealing things for the homeless instead of just for attention meant he was being a good person, right? That's at least how he thinks of it. There are some habits and color schemes you just can't quite kick, no matter how much you grow out of supervillainy.
Almost as if to spite his wealthy background, Hartley's a very generous person. He'll go to great lengths to help a friend or someone in need. Even if that help comes in the form of whipping up some improbable gadget in under ten minutes to help take down a supervillain, or "stealing" food for homeless squatters. Okay, so maybe he still makes poor choices, but no one can ever accuse him of not having his heart in the right place. He’s just a very passionate person. No one has ever had to ask him his opinion on anything, because he's always already voicing it in great detail. Whether it’s about his political leanings (angry socialist hippie) or what he thinks of your life choices (he's judging you), he always has something to say, and he's more than happy to say it.
Opinionated though he is, he's usually fairly chipper and pleasant about it, if sometimes overbearingly sarcastic. He's not above taking pleasure in the suffering or inconveniences of those he thinks deserve it, like, say, one-percenters. Especially if he gets to be the one to inflict said suffering or inconveniences. Like that time he picked a fight with the rich grandson of a dead supervillain that nearly came to blows because Hartley thought the guy was, and I quote, a "spoiled, capitalist parasite". So, while he means well, he still frequently comes across as a dick. But not to anyone he thinks matters. Usually.
All that aside, Piper is friendly and personable a good deal of the time, always happy to lend a hand or tag along for the ride when someone needs company or backup. When he isn't starting fistfights or protests or storming angrily out in the middle of a conversation, he's actually a really good friend. Though he is incapable of keeping his mouth shut ever, so he'll talk shit about your stupid life choices, but at least he'll do it to your face. Whether you want him to or not. See, he's very sociable, but not always the greatest at things like tact, or understanding other people's points of view. Sure, he'll fight and argue til he's blue in the face to fix social inequalities, but anyone who disagrees with his opinions is just stupid and wrong, and he's not afraid to say so. Loudly and at great length, because he is so deeply convinced of his own absolute correctness in all things.
All in all, Hartley retired from a life of robbing diamond stores and museums to become the not-at-all mild mannered, sarcastic, geek sidekick of the Flash, tasked with helping him with his weird bullshit supervillains and weird bullshit life problems. Kind of a lateral move, in the grand scheme of things.