#i dont know why i got so focused on crazy quilt of all characters but here we are

[hatterhare]

More Pauline Backstory stuff because inspiration strikes randomly and hard

Content Warning:

Abuse (general) / Misogyny / Murder (blunt force + beheading) / Death / Adultery

Pauline Margaret Tailor - later Pauline Margaret Dekker after marriage - was born on December 11th, 1942 to her parents Dolly Tailor (Mother) and Joseph Tailor (Father). She had an older brother - Daniel Tailor - and a younger sister - Juliet Tailor - whom she got along with well.

Joseph Tailor was not a kind man and would often enact strict rules on his wife and children - particularly Pauline and Juliet. This led to Pauline having an extremely close relationship with her mother. Her mother, being a seamstress, would teach her daughters how to sew and create things from bits of fabric left over from her projects. Pauline immediately fell in love with the idea of creation and especially all the different colors things could be made from. She heavily associated different colors with different emotions and would color code everything in her life accordingly - including her diary.

As Pauline grew older, her childhood fascination with color and emotion grew more intense. She would spend hours detailing how different colors made people react - in a multitude of contexts. Writing all of her observations down in notebooks she kept under the boxspring of her bed. She wasn't very popular in school due to her bookish nature and she didn't have much interest in dating. She kissed a boy on a dare, but she either didn't notice when people liked her or outright ignored them.

Unfortunately, when she was in her senior year of high school, Pauline's brother got killed in a hunting accident. Their father brought him home wrapped in a quilt their mother had made and he was buried in the backyard. When washing the quilt, Pauline had what seemed to be a mental break at the time as she began to panic and describe in detail exactly what her brother felt in his final moments. She clung to the quilt as she was carted to the hospital, as even though it caused her distress, it was also somehow keeping her close to Daniel. Since then, Pauline has been fixated on the idea of quilts and quilting and began making blankets as a way to ease her mind when she begins to miss her brother or other things upset her.

Eventually, Pauline tried to apply for college, but found it difficult to get in as a woman in her time. She eventually brought all of her research on psychology and color to the Dean's office - who promptly laughed in her face. Saying, quote, "Doll, with a pretty face like yours, you shouldn't be writing about this sciencey stuff. Why don't you go home and worry about what's for dinner instead, hm?" Pauline left in a hurry, bursting into tears behind the head office. There she met George Dekker, a clean dressed man who offered her a hankerchief and asked her what the trouble was. The two immediately hit it off, despite some of George's odd behaviors. Eventually after a lengthy courting process, the two of them got married and moved to Gotham City.

George claimed the move was for work when Pauline questioned him why they were so close to so much crime. She felt uneasy, but accepted it as an answer. For a while she and George were happy, she was a homebody who was happy to be so and George brought home enough money to be comfortable and spoil his wife. But, as the years went by, George grew increasingly distant. He became cold to his wife, working extremely long hours at work only to come home in such a bad sorts that he barely acknowledged Pauline outside of barking at her to fetch his dinner. The money too was starting to inexplicably drain from their funds.

In such stressful circumstances, Pauline took up her old hobby of sewing quilts and soon the living room became a mess of random scraps of fabric and various pins stuck in the furniture. One day, George accidentally pricked himself on one of Pauline's thick needles. He used her current project to stop the bleeding. Proceeding to berate his wife, screaming at her and throwing her sewing supplies at her and into the walls. Eventually slamming the door as he left in his anger. Pauline cried as she picked up her supplies, eventually picking up the quilt her husband had bled all over. She was struck with the same kind of vision she had when she was cleaning her brother's quilt. A vivid play by play of George's memories. This time she stood strong as she watched the apparition of her husband - who had been secretely leading an underground mob and sleeping around with various women in the city.

Pauline became so blinded by rage that when her husband finally came home from work - she bashed his head in with a cast iron skillet. Proceeding to cut off his head and carrying it in her tote bag to where she saw the mob hanging out. She plopped it in front of the members, using it as intimidation to get them to follow her orders - which after some apprehension they eventually did. With the help of the gang, she avoided time in jail. Going to her husband's funeral stone faced under a black veil - it would be the only time wearing no color was enjoyable to her.

She continued to lead the mob for 40 more years. Using her men to do what she always dreamed of doing and amassing wealth and a reputation along the way. She learned to be a sharp shooter, getting scarily accurate with a pistol. She also found creative ways to use her memory seeing ability to dig up dirt on her enemies in a way few would detect. She also discovered that she could pull pieces of soul onto her needle if she pulled it all the way through someones skin - and she could trap them within her blankets if she used it to quilt with.

During her 40s, she met and fell in love with a lounge singer named Pearl Darling. The two had a secret affair. Pauline used her men to keep it private, silencing anyone who dared to try and out her. The two remained happily together until Pearl passed at the age of 68. Some of her soul now resides in a small felt doll Pauline keeps on her nightstand.

As Pauline has gotten older, her vision has started to decrease, meaning she can no longer see colors as vibrantly as before. She has become obsessed with the idea of becoming younger, kidnapping random citizens to steal souls as she researches the key to immortality.