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harleen quinzel, ceo of quinzel enterprises // ???, the batman

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Poptarts? I'm afraid I desperately need to hear the story behind this.

Ah! This is a tidbit from Rachael Allen's Harley Quinn: Reckoning. (Spoilers ahead for anyone who's planning on reading this book!) 

Pop-Tarts on the towel rack, box getting emptier. I’m seven years old, and I’m crying, and I’m telling him I’m scared of small spaces and please don’t lock me in the bathroom again. I can take care of myself. I’ll be good, I swear. There’s a box of Pop-Tarts on the towel rack like usual. I try to scramble past him, but he picks me up by the back of my overalls and throws me in the bathtub. I’ll only be gone a few hours, he hollers through the door. Gonna meet some friends. He’s lying. If he was only going to be gone a few hours, he wouldn’t have put the pillow and blanket in the bathtub. That time—he didn’t come back for three days. I was down to half a Pop-Tart. And I couldn’t stop thinking that he had gotten into trouble—worse trouble than usual—and he wasn’t coming home, and I was going to die in that bathroom. I remember banging on the door, crying, screaming, hoping somebody—anybody—would hear me. I think I had a panic attack. It’s hard to say. I was only seven.

It's used as a narrative device throughout the book to represent Harleen's claustrophobia - the 'Pop-Tarts on the towel rack, box getting emptier' line pops up over and over again whenever she feels trapped. We only get the full story behind it when an eighteen-year-old Harleen spots her father being attacked outside their apartment -- this memory plays through her mind as she decides to walk away instead of attempting to rescue him. 

My dad is still taking a beating at the other end of the alley, but I pretend I don’t see him. There’s ice cream waiting down the street.

Of course, this is the day that Nick Quinzel dies, burdening Harleen with a lot more regret. 

“I saw him in the alley with a couple of men. He…often has gambling debts.” I look down at my hands. I could have intervened. I could have stopped this. You didn’t know what was going to happen. Didn’t I? “Did you call anyone?” asks Officer Montoya. “No,” I say, still unable to meet her eyes. “I was angry. About our fight.” “I see.” Officer Montoya doesn’t say it. She doesn’t have to. This is all my fault. His death is on my hands.

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has there ever been a time where they feared for their life?  why?

harleen’s seven years old, locked in a bathroom. there's a box of poptarts on the towel rack, twelve foil packages inside. eleven foil packages inside. ten foil packages inside. she read about rationing in one of her school books, and now she pretends like she's traveling the oregon trail.  nine foil packages -- they’ll resupply in the morning,  once the horses are fed and watered.  eight foil packages -- the store’s just down the trail.  seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . nick quinzel doesn’t get home until there’s just half a poptart left in the box -- he left harleen in there for four days. that’s the first time harleen quinzel thinks she’s going to die. 

she’s thirteen, in her bedroom,  tucked in the small gap between the bed and the wall.  there’s a landline on the wall opposite her bed,  but she can’t reach it without somebody seeing her.  even then,  there’s no guarantee it works -- nick’s so bad at remembering to pay the bills,  squandering all his money on poker & alcohol instead. there are men in her apartment,  yelling men,  men with guns,  and they’re angry with her father.  she closes her eyes,  counts every shaky breath,  prays that they won’t hear her.  prays that they’ll kill her dad. she could drop out of school,  get a job,  pay rent.  it’s gotham -- nobody’d notice that she was only thirteen.  nobody’d notice that she was alone.  someone fires their gun,  a warning shot,  and it goes through the wall three feet to the left of harleen’s head.  she doesn’t make a sound.  that’s the second time harleen quinzel thinks she’s going to die. 

she’s fifteen,  in her bedroom again.  nick is screaming at her,  stepping closer and closer.  her back’s to the wall;  she can’t get any further away from him.  he punches a hole in the drywall to the left of her head.  she notices with a detached sense of curiosity that the drywall crumbles directly to the left of the bullet hole that her father’d never bothered to patch.  nick’s never hit her before,  but she thinks tonight might just be the night.  she can smell the alcohol on his breath,  shuts her eyes,  and starts counting to a hundred.  she’s supposed to graduate high school in three months -- she’s so close to getting out.  she can’t die now -- not when she’s fought this hard to get away from him.  harleen quinzel doesn’t believe in god ( not her mother’s,  not her father’s ),  but she sends up a prayer to the universe to get her out of this,  because this is the third time harleen quinzel thinks she’s going to die.

she’s twenty-seven,  walking home from a bar,  not drunk enough to have forgotten the disastrous pitch she’d given on her research earlier that day.  she’s so caught up in her misery that she almost doesn’t see him until it’s too late -- the joker,  then a huge explosion.  harleen tucks herself against a brick wall,  trying to shield herself from the flames,  and joker points a gun at her head.  her life flashes before her life,  and harleen wonders what it’s all been for.  joker doesn’t pull the trigger,  but it’s the fourth time harleen quinzel thinks she’s going to die. 

she’s still twenty-seven,  working at arkham,  treating the man who tried to kill her two months ago.  he won’t talk to her,  so she takes a risk.  she lets him out of his straitjacket,  trying to prove that she’s not like the rest of his doctors -- that she actually believes that he can get better.  before she knows it,  the joker’s arms are wrapped around her.  harleen holds her breath,  terrified that he’s about to snap her neck.  it’s the fifth time harleen quinzel thinks she’s going to die,  but all joker does is hold her. 

she’s twenty-seven and arkham asylum’s on fire.  all the patients are roaming the halls,  set free by harvey dent -- by two face.  harleen’s former patients are out for blood,  and killer croc charges at her.  for once,  harleen doesn’t close her eyes. if this is the end for her,  she wants to watch as waylon’s teeth close around her. that’s not what she sees,  though.  she sees pamela isley,  shrouded in light.  an angel,  here to save harley.  “ you’re only truly saved if you leave this place, ”  she says,  but harleen’s not listening,  because that was number six,  and because she has to find joker before it’s too late. 

she’s twenty-seven and she’s found joker,  but harvey dent’s found her,  too.  he blames her in part for what happened to him -- hates her for believing that these criminals can change.  he lifts his gun,  prepared to shoot her in the head,  when joker swoops in.  he bashes in the good side of dent’s face,  only stopping when harleen grabs his arm.  when he looks at her,  she sees something in his eyes that she’s seen only once before -- the monster.  that’s seven . . . and it’s eight. 

she’s twenty-seven,  but she feels like she’s aged ten years in the past hour.  she’s begging joker to stay,  to turn himself in,  to continue treatment with her. she can help him,  she says.  they’re interrupted by a security guard -- one harleen knows well.  he points a gun at j,  refuses to let the murderer leave arkham.  harleen picks up dent’s gun,  points it at the guard.  she doesn’t mean to pull the trigger -- only means to stop him long enough to reason with him.  but harley’s never held a gun before . . . doesn’t know how easy it is to accidentally pull the trigger.  her hands shake,  her finger slips.  bam !  her friend is dead on the ground,  her gun smoking.  she can’t let go of the gun, because she’s just killed another human being,  because the only thing left for her to do now is kill herself. that’s nine. 

she’s twenty-seven,  and she doesn’t remember leaving arkham.  harley  only remembers a fit of laughter,  only remembers letting joker pull her into his arms.  only remembers a bloody,  desperate kiss.  the days after that run together -- they hole up at amusement mile,  make a bed in the abandoned tunnel of love.  it’s good.  harley’s happy,  as long as she doesn’t think about anything that’s happened.  as long as she doesn’t think about how she’s a murderer under a murderer.  things crumble slowly,  then all at once.  she’s making him walk with her around the fairground,  trying to stretch his muscles,  encourage his body to heal.  she talks while they walk,  doesn’t realize he’s not talking back.  joker comes to a stop by the old ferris wheel,  baskets swinging wildly in the wind.  he grabs her by the throat,  lifts her up,  presses her back into the rotting wood. she feels the splinters drive themselves through her shirt into her back.  “ shut, ” joker growls, “ up. ”  he doesn’t drop her until her vision starts to go black.  that’s ten. 

she's twenty-seven. she's twenty-seven. she's twenty-seven. she's twenty-seven. she's twenty-seven. she's twenty-seven.  she's twenty-seven. she's twenty-seven. she's twenty-seven. she's twenty-seven. she’s twenty-eight. she’s twenty-eight.  she’s twenty-eight. she’s twenty-eight.  she’s twenty-eight. she’s twenty-eight.  she’s twenty-eight. she’s twenty-eight.  she’s twenty-eight. she’s twenty-eight.  she’s twenty-nine.  she’s twenty-nine.  she’s twenty-nine.  she’s twenty-nine.  she’s twenty-nine.  she’s twenty-nine.  she’s twenty-nine.  she’s twenty-nine.  she’s twenty-nine.  she’s twenty-nine.  

harley quinn stops counting. 

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⸻ tell me when it's over if the high was worth the pain.

in a world devastated by an epidemic of organ failures,  geneco presents itself as a savior,  perfecting lab-grown organs & monopolizing the newly emerging transplant market.  its share price skyrockets & the rich get richer ⸻ but if you can’t afford one of the company’s transplants,  never fear: geneco has payment plans,  allowing all people a chance at life. 

peeking at the fine print? if a customer falls behind on their payments, geneco retains the right to repossess its property and is not responsible for any subsequent medical issues following the removal of the organ. 

harleen quinzel's dreamed of being a doctor since she watched her mother die of heart failure. when she turns 18, she finds that geneco controls medical education worldwide, leaving her no choice but to enroll in one of their training facilities. she's certified as a transplant surGEN, and, for a few years, manages to convince herself that she's helping people in need -- the organs she works with give people the second chance that her mother never had.

that naivety wears off as she finds herself operating more and more on the rich -- plastic surgery pays more than organ transplantation, and those who ask for it are more likely to pay upfront. all the while, harleen watches gotham's population become more and more addicted to zydrate -- geneco's patented painkiller. harleen sets up her own lab, determined to find a treatment for the addiction -- but is quickly stopped by geneco. there's money to be made, after all. devastated, harleen turns to zydrate herself. when geneco finds out she's been stealing the drug, they offer her two choices: prison or accepting work as a repo woman. harleen accepts the latter and begins repossessing organs.

plot ideas.

patients!! let her get attached!! let her try to help!!

coworkers / former fellow med students! grapple with the guilt of working for a mega-corporation that owns health.

rich people benefitting from all of this??

vigilantes trying to take geneco down.

people from gotham's underground -- z dealers, black market organ traders, or just normal people trying to survive.

harl's targets -- let her hunt your muse trying to get their organs back. let her hesitate. let her try to help you live.

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@batcloak​ reminded me that this panel existed and i’m all of a sudden oh so emotional because look at harleen! look at her defend this other woman who loved and was abused by joker! look at her! this is so important to me because even though neojoker is up to no good joker shenanigans™️ harleen still is going to defend her here. she’s hellbent on stopping her but she’s still not gonna stand here and let j talk about her like that !!

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i’m never gonna shut up about this ( everybody say thank you stjepan ) but exactly?! exactly?! this is such a good take on her relationship with j & how harls leaning heavily into submission was a survival mechanism & also how that affects her relationships going forward

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⸻new to town with a made-up name.

harleen quinzel escapes gotham city, new jersey in 1926, her sights set out west. she flees mobsters coming to collect on her father's gambling debts and swears to make a new life for herself in hollywood. after a few weeks working odd jobs, she meets one mr. @crimeroyalty, a producer at one of the biggest studios in town. seeing the potential ( or something else ) that harleen has, he casts her in a picture and gives her a new name. thus harley quinn is born, and she takes america by storm.

things are good for a few years. life is all wild parties and a torrid affair with her producer, harley all the while maintaining her golden reputation with the public. as time goes on, however, she starts to realize that not only will jack never leave his wife for her, but also that he's deeply involved in the kind of business she thought she left behind in gotham. every attempt at confrontation ends poorly, and with no way to get out of her studio contract, harley turns to drugs and alcohol to cope. as hard as the studio tries, they can't keep the rumors out of the papers, and harley's career takes a massive hit.

( just wait until the pamela isley rumors hit newsstands. )

plot ideas

co-stars / rivals / industry newcomers -- work with harley on set! be her friend, her enemy, her lover!

small town escapes -- let harley run away for a little bit and try to live a normal life, befriending your character, who may or may not actually know who she is.

press / tabloid / fan interactions - trying to worm your way into an inside scoop.

crime!! harley's past catching up to her or her getting involved in some super shady shit.

let harley kiss a girl pls

harls ruining her career and your muse is there to witness / pick up the pieces ??

harls returning to gotham and catching up with ppl she knew a long time ago . . .

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⸻ ft. @godblooded

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romance arc ⸻ you started this story a little hard, or awkward, or stubborn. that's okay. it's harder than it should be to admit, but what you really want is love. that's what your story is all about - not just the act of loving, but the allowance of it. the confession that you do not want to fight or bleed or save the world, but to simply feel the way two hands fit so easily together. you will have two chairs and a table and you will shut your blinds, and you will say the word love without faltering. this is a happy ending, and you do not need to feel guilty. it hurts our hands to fight - never to hold.

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accidentally evil⸻ you didn't mean to. it was honestly an accident, but who would believe you? you need to watch your back now, because everyone is after you. why wouldn't they be? for all they know, you did it on purpose. when you die, it's from finally being caught by the wrong people. you die afraid, and still running. unbeknownst to you, you are swiftly avenged. your unnecessary death does not go unpunished.

stolen from @funnystvff ! steal from me !

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⸻ normal is a setting on the dryer. people like us, we don't get normal.

i am constantly fascinated with harleen's struggle around her own definition of womanhood -- around how she has associated marriage and motherhood with stability and happiness since she was a very young child, but about how the only thing she ever wanted was to be a doctor.

after she loses her medical license, she's directionless -- there's no hope or dream for her to return to ; the one thing she's always wanted is now an impossibility. she attempts to fill that void by seeking stability with joker -- we see this play out in the first susq when her fantasy is to be a perfectly normal couple in the suburbs with a couple of babies.

oooooof course, having that, especially with joker, isn't going to make her happy -- it's not something that she's ever wanted, just the thing she's imagined will fix all her problems. if she gets domestic bliss, she still won't be happy -- and that, 9 times out of 10, will send her on a destructive spiral -- she won't stop until she ruins herself and her relationship. if she manages to get pregnant, her postpartum depression amplifies this effect -- if she doesn't, her grief over her inability to do so also makes things worse. she's convinced that if she plays the role of perfect wife and perfect mother well enough that all the other pieces will fall into place.

she is capable of being happy as a mom and a wife, of course, but she has to acknowledge that she isn't the kind of person who can be fulfilled solely by being those two things. she needs her career & she needs to be making gotham a better place -- if she's not, she won't ever be able to be her best for her family. that being said -- it is a bit of a struggle to get her to accept that, as she's terrified to return to the same environment that she lost control of her life in all those years ago.

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⸻ white knight presents: harley quinn ( color / insp )

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⸻list a song for every letter in your url.

C - coney island, taylor swift R - ready for it, taylor swift I - i did something bad, taylor swift M - me and i, abba E - evermore, taylor swift L - look what you made me do, taylor swift O - out of the woods, taylor swift Y - you're on your own, kid, taylor swift A - all too well (tmv)(tv), taylor swift L - long story short, taylor swift T - tolerate it, taylor swift Y - you need to calm down, taylor swift

tagged by @batfall tagging anybody reading this !!

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⸻if clarity's in death, then why won't this die? ( color )

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⸻ why did the author kill you off?

pure shock value. nobody wanted you to die, except maybe the author, once they realized how much the audience loved you. something about you sparked joy, be it your smile, your sense of humor, or your dashing good looks. everyone thought you were safe, simply because no one could bring themselves to imagine the story without you in it. which is, of course, exactly why the author killed you. chances are you died mid-sentence, with a smile on your face, oblivious to your fate. impaled, crushed, decapitated, whatever gave your friends (and the audience) as little time to intervene as possible. they might not even get time to grieve- the story will move on, rushing away, no time to even say goodbye. people will talk about your death scene in hushed voices, wary of spoiling others, teary eyed and tongue tied.

tagged by @arkhampsych!!

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Your headcanons and graphics are LITERALLY so perfect!!!

Ahhh thank you so much Kate!!! This means a lot ♡♡♡

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nsfw preferences⸻ bolded is yes ; italics are conditional ; strike-through is a hard limit, disliked, or not applicable.

INCLINATIONS & HABITS

submissive / dominant ( literally only with @godblooded's characters ) / prefers to top / prefers to bottom / likes to switch ( again, only for kat's bruce and alana ) / heterosexual / heteroflexible / gay / lesbian / bisexual / pansexual / asexual / demisexual / enjoys sex with men / enjoys sex with women / enjoys sex with genderfluid, agender, demigender, or nonbinary individuals / enjoys sex with all genders regardless of how they identify / enjoys sex with multiple people at a time / enjoys intimacy with women / enjoys intimacy with men / enjoys intimacy with genderfluid, agender, demigender, or nonbinary individuals / enjoys intimacy with all genders regardless of how they identify / initiates / waits for partner to initiate / spits / swallows / morning sex / night sex / sex any time / no sex drive / low sex drive / average / high sex drive / hypersexual / fluctuating sex drive

BODY & APPEARANCE

slender build / medium build / athletic build / muscular build / curvy build / voluptuous build / chubby build / wears boxers / wears boxer-briefs / wears lingerie / goes commando / shaves / trims / waxes / does not shave / cup size a-c / cup size d-f / 1-5” in length (5.5) / 6-9” in length / 10” or over in length

SOUNDS

silent / quiet / loud / grows in volume over time / bites hand / bites partner / pillow to muffle themselves / calls out partner’s name / curses / fakes / exaggerates / prefers a quiet partner / prefers a loud partner / prefers a partner who grows in volume over time / turned on by dirty talk / turned off by dirty talk

TURN-ONS & KINKS

having their hands pinned / pinning partners hands / having their hair pulled / pulling their partner’s hair / being watched ( by their partner ) / being watched ( by a third party ) / watching their partner / receiving oral / giving oral / giving praise / receiving praise / biting or marking / biting or being marked / spanking / being spanked / teasing / being teased / having toys used on them / using toys on their partner / giving anal / receiving anal / choking / being choked / dirty talk / being tied up / tying their partner up / being worshipped / worshipping their partner / humiliating / being humiliated / degrading / being degraded / knife play / blood play / being pegged / strapped / strapping / pegging their partner / whipping / being whipped