Big Long Bio/Permissions/etc meme-thing (BEWARE THE TEAL DEER!)

[justwantsafety]

Character: Harley (full name being "Harley Q" but even he doesn't know what the Q stands for.)
Series: Digital Devil Saga
Taken From: From when he dies in the first game -- or more accurately, the end of the battle with him, when he falls, just before he's breathed his last. Probably.
Age: 5... or somewhere in his 20's, approximately. It said he was 27 if you look carefully during the intro. (it's a lil complicated.) Let's go with "adult"?
Gender: male


Appearance: (see his profile for a good picture) Roughly 5'9", lean and well enough muscled. He's human, at a glance... with fair skin, vividly ( unnaturally?) orange hair that's somewhat grown out, matching orange eyes, and what looks like a tattoo on the back of his left hand (a fairly circular shape -- mun's still trying to get a good clear picture of it, though.) He wears a gray uniform of lightweight body armor, plus long gray scarves, around his head and neck, and hips, with splashes of his Tribe's color, green. There are a number of odd little details about him, however, like a complete lack of overall body hair, and how entirely lacking he is in the usual little oddities which normally help to define someone, such as specific wrinkles, any freckles, or minor asymmetries. If anything, someone who examines him closely enough to actually pick up on these details might suspect that he's either A, meticulous about his own appearance beyond reason, or B, not exactly... natural. (A can probably be ruled out, on watching his overall behavior. B is more likely.)

His other form, the Asura demon known as Hayagriva... that's another matter. It's not quite humanoid, but it's bipedal, certainly, with hoofed feet. It has a head with an elongated muzzle and large mouth full of big, sharp teeth, vaguely horselike in appearance with a mane that runs down from forehead, between its ears, to its upper back. Two horns are concealed, but can fold up from the long bridge of its nose, one to stick up unicorn-style from the front of the mane, the other sticking up on top of the snout. Four arms are concealed under lightweight plates on its upper torso, and from nose to hooves, it's covered in a wide sort of striped pattern of black and white, like a tiger's, more than a zebra's. At something like 9' tall, horns not included, with a fair bit of muscle, this probably isn't a sight most people would want to come across on a dark night. (note: this is my own redesign of his canon Asura form, because his canon form was totally made of fail compared to the other developed characters' Asuras.)



Personality: Normally, he can be a little cocky -- not so much prideful as simply confident in himself and his abilities. He's fairly well aware of his own (human) strengths and limitations. Creative, resourceful... not bad with strategy, unless it comes to flirting, according to a few of his female Tribe members... (if anyone knew what flirting was, at least) but what he lacks in maturity, he makes up for with sincerity. He's loyal to those loyal to him; as the closest thing he has to a "family" is his Tribe, he's bound to take his obligations to his closer allies seriously.

To say that he's a coward at heart might be accurate, but it might be more so to call him a survivalist. When confronted by horrors he never knew existed before, and/or impossible odds, his reaction is usually to turn and run... hopefully, without too much embarrassment in the process. He'd be willing to forgo many things, especially possessions, if he had to, to keep himself and his Tribe alive. He knows that vehicles are replaceable, whereas friends aren't, and would gladly vacate his territory and base and leave them to his opponents, if it meant living to regroup elsewhere and start over. Should he find his back to the wall, with no further options of escape, however, he'll attack without holding back. There's always the chance that a last-ditch effort could pay off, and if not... at least he can try to do as much damage as he can, before he's through. In a scenario where he thinks he might stand a fair enough chance, or the stakes are worth it (keeping in mind that he holds living in very high regard) he'll do what he's able, or at least hold out however long he can.

Unfortunately, the situation he's found himself in (in canon and elsewhere) is far from "normal." Thanks to the results of the event which gave him his Asura form -- notably, seeing his comrades slaughtered and devoured, and having to face his worst fears, ones he hadn't known he even had, until then -- he's been rather traumatized, and his confidence has taken quite a beating. After an encounter that panics him and sends him fleeing in terror, he'll likely be skittish for a good while, until something or someone makes him try to focus, or he finds somewhere safe enough to hide for a while until he feels secure enough to try to face things again.

Also interesting to note, he seems to use the "ostrich defense" which includes having a somewhat selective memory -- while he accused the Embryon of becoming monsters and attacking and devouring himself and his men, he made no mention of himself changing or attacking anyone. When stressed, and his Atma was flaring up, pressuring him to change, his reaction was to grab his wrist (his mark is on the back of his hand) and try to fight it off, until shock and alarm apparently aborted his Asura's attempt at pushing him into changing form. There's a saying about denial and Egyptian rivers, but Harley may well have never heard it.

As for his Asura's mind... While not truly sentient, it isn't unintelligent, being focused more on its own rather primal desires than anything else -- hunting, violence, and devouring its targets. It doesn't so much speak to him as it tries to put ideas in his head, to impose its own will on him, interfering at times with his priorities and instincts. He's able to suppress it, usually quite easily... though it's considerably more difficult when he's hungry, and next to completely impossible if he should go too long without feeding and starve himself, or slip into his involuntarily half-transformed berserker state. In the latter two instances, it will override his human mind, and leave him in an animalistic, feral state. No, he really doesn't enjoy that.


Fears: Monsters. Yes, monsters -- demons, inhuman beasts, and creatures of interesting (read: threatening) description. Specifically, monsters attacking, and especially eating people. Especially him. Hence being recently traumatized (more on that in his history section. Poor guy is not going to fare too well with what happened to him for a while, considering that he now turns into one!) Plus, enemies that do not play by the same rules and thus cannot be fought (ghosts?) although he'll try what he can to figure out what rules they -do- play by, so he's not left defenseless. He doesn't do well with being helpless, but maybe once he calms down, he can try to deal with some of his many Issues...? Or not. It depends on what happens, really.


Weaknesses: As a human, physically... his hair color? It's a very vibrant sort of orange, so unless he manages to conceal it (his tagelmust is often ineffective at this, funny enough) he can stick out like a sore thumb, which is not to his benefit when he tries to be discreet. As an Asura demon, his form is especially susceptible to the cold. Add to that, his demon form is highly carnivorous, with a high metabolism... and it leads to him having to ingest probably more meat than a human should logically be able to hold, on a regular basis. If he goes too long without eating like this, fighting it won't necessarily work. His Asura will eventually take over, and be bent on hunting and devouring whatever it thinks can sate its hunger -- preferably, very freshly killed, and on two legs. It's more of an animal than not, so it's not picky as to who it targets. ♥

Mentally? Where to start? He avoids his Hayagriva form, not being comfortable with it yet at all because of his fears, and what happened when he gained it, roughly two hours before he gets killed the point at which this mun likes to snag him from. Thanks to avoiding it, he doesn't have a good understanding of its strengths or weaknesses, or even really what it looks like. (A cruel prank to play on him would be to show him to a large mirror while he's Hayagriva.) When he panics, he has a tendency to not think, but to go on instinct. He'll run, but if cornered, attack, and not hold back -- at times like those, strategy mostly goes right out the window in favor of lashing out as hard and fast as he can, which often leaves him vulnerable.

In less dire circumstances, there's actually quite a gap in his knowledge that most people don't have, what with having lived a normal life and all. Though he comes off as being in his 20's or so, there are things that even kids are aware of, that he's not, which extends to smaller things about daily life... how to cook, what liquor is... too many things to list, which confuses him to no end when he feels like he should know these things, or does actually have relevant knowledge, (or what he feels should be relevant, but isn't) but misinterprets it due to not knowing enough. And although he does seem to recognize some things that he has no real reason to know of, he isn't able to figure out why, and it frustrates him... darn those past-life fragments!

Speaking of which, the most significant of his clearer fragments of past-life memories happens to be related to his aforementioned fear of monsters, and he'll probably end up having nightmares either because of it, or the events he's more recently witnessed. The rest of his apparently incongruous memories and skills mostly confuse him greatly, and between his inability to place them properly within what he understands of his own history and that they seem to cast doubt on what he knows of himself, they may well be able to be manipulated against him, perhaps to make him question his own identity or more.


Strengths/Abilities: (Interestingly enough, this space won't be empty!) Let's start with that he's not a bad leader. Not the best, but when he's trying to be calm and rational, he does know something of strategy. He's creative, perhaps unusually so for someone from the Junkyard. When calm, he has a fairly easy way of getting along with people -- he may well try to put them at ease and cheer them up if they need it, but he knows well enough not to let his guard down around and be oblivious of potential threats. He's a survivor, and his faction was known for holding their own, despite their small size and lack of resources.

He's physically quite fit, but he's not much of a hand-to-hand fighter, doing better with ranged weapons instead. He isn't that bad of a marksman, and normally uses a crossbow -- though he doesn't have much ammo. He was shown to use bolts that exploded shortly after impact, although they didn't really cause all that much damage, and others that decidedly didn't explode. I predict that they'll probably prove to be more of a security blanket type thing for him, to simply know that he has them. His Asura is fire-based, attacking with flames when using Atma powers, similar to pyrokinesis, or else charging with its horns, and sometimes uses a combination of the two ways of attacking. Hayagriva is also mostly immune to fire, what with being based on it (not too much unlike the way Pokemon works, with the weaknesses and strengths against types -- in the games, casting fire-damage spells against him can heal the fire-based Asuras. I'm not sure I want to go that far, though!) and has a strong constitution which makes him resistant to ailments like poison. This, unfortunately for him, has no bearing whatsoever on his human form -- if someone drugged him up that way, the effect would probably carry over to Hayagriva also... just not from Hayagriva to Harley, so much.

Further note on his Asura, when there's a high level of solar interference, he might end up in a state of half-transformation when provoked to fight -- it'll give him the horns and upper backside of his Hayagriva form, and makes his eyes glow an odd gold color. In this state, his Asura's lust for battle is nearly overwhelming, and he will attack in a berserker fashion, recklessly, often missing, and sometimes hitting something (or someone?) he didn't mean to, without any regard for his own defense or focus on strategy. ...which might actually have fit better under the "weaknesses" section, but here it is.

Aside from all that, for what good it'll do him, he has a fair grasp on most other skills one might need in the military... from how to drive various vehicles, from trucks to tanks and aircraft, to dismantling and rebuilding weaponry, and using computers. (Unknown to him, he's also an artist. Again, yay for past lives?)


History: (Note: It's strongly hinted at that everyone in the Junkyard is a reincarnation of humans who had died prior to the introduction of Asura demon forms to it. The canon is never entirely explicit on how/when the reincarnations happened, aside from that it had to do with the mystery girl's powers and ability to manipulate/guide energy and data, under the right circumstances -- the energy which makes up everything, apparently including souls themselves. It seems that she managed to download a large number of various people straight from God/the afterlife, and used them in the simulation she was making... don't ask. It's screwy.)

Harley came into being five years ago, as the leader of the second-smallest of the Tribes in the Junkyard -- a post-apocalyptic, dead world of constant rain, with its inhabitants divided up into six Tribes, each of them based in various places around the Karma Temple, which set laws that the Tribes all had to abide by. It was a place of constant skirmishes, but an across-the-board stalemate, as no one truly had much advantage over anyone else. The people could nearly be described as automatons; although they did have personalities, they didn't have but traces of them... and little to no actual emotion.

This all changed at the beginning of the first Digital Devil Saga game, when a strange object was discovered at the border-area between the Embryon and Vanguard tribes' territories. Harley and a handful of his troops were there, facing off against Serph and his party, when the object opened. As this happened, an odd light covered the battlefield, branding each Junkyard denizen somewhere with an Atma mark, a symbol of having an Asura demon form. They transformed for that first time, and amid the chaos, the Embryon slaughtered and devoured all of the Vanguards but Harley, and all came to their senses after the chaos with little to no memory of what exactly had happened. Harley, having been witness to the transformations and grisly slayings, fled the scene in shock and terror, reaching his base in Svadhisthana again and ordering everyone to withdraw and begin to fortify their positions. Although he couldn't truly feel just yet, fear's effects were already influencing his decisions, and he left the front doors of the base unguarded while he tried to figure out what was going on and how to protect his Tribe from it.

The Embryon, meanwhile, had decided to pay him a visit, to question what he knew about what had just happened to them all, and what the situation now was. They entered without issue, and found Harley and two of his men near the front, having pushed up crates and supply boxes to duck behind. Harley told them to stay away from him, visibly shaking and upset. He told them that they'd turned into monsters and eaten his men, and in admitting to what happened to put him in such a state of fear, his emotions finally woke up fully. Terrified, he fired on them, hoping to drive them away. No dice. Argilla, in denial, horrified that she could've done something like that, also woke up inside, while she fired back, downing the men who were backing him up during this. Harley watched as his men and the Embryon began to change into their demon forms to continue the battle, and fled the room. This pattern continued for a good while, with Harley retreating in fear every time the Embryon neared, and trying to throw up obstacles to keep them from following him, even going so far as to tell the Embryon that they could have his base if they'd only leave him alone, but they just wouldn't take a hint!

Finally, they cornered him in his office, where he tried again to tell them he didn't know anything... only to have the Embryon Heat grab him by the collar and demand he tell them things that surely no one in their right mind would have expected Harley to know. (The identity of the girl the Embryon found in the aftermath of the battle, where the object had been? ...yeah, Harley left before he ever saw her... way to be logical, Heat! but at least venting his frustrations woke Heat up, so...) Heat then threw Harley across the room, where he hit the back wall. Terrified for his life, likely also weak from hunger for not having eaten since they'd all changed, back on the battlefield, and realizing that these three weren't about to stop pursuing him, (and still believing they wanted to eat him, like they'd eaten his men) Hayagriva started to take over, and he declared that he saw how it was -- eat or be eaten -- and attacked them in self-defense.

Unfortunately for him, the odds were three against one, and his sorry butt lost.

Beaten and exhausted, weak and hurt, his hoofed legs finally gave out from under him as he closed his eyes and fell -- only to land somewhere other than the room in Svadhisthana. Or maybe the mun's being sadistic, and took him from after that...


[Permission stuff]

Affection: Do what you want to him; he won't generally understand what it is. He's pretty much entirely clueless. Update: Yes, he knows what a kiss is, and he knows about hugging. He also now knows at least the textbook definition of sex, having seen a book with diagrams, but thinks the whole thing sounds disgusting, and won't want to try it, even if someone's nuts enough to want to do that with him. XD

Fighting: He's mostly defensive, so likely won't want to fight until pushed first or cornered. Go ahead and pick on him; his mun does! ♥ ...not that he'll appreciate it, but it's totally allowed. Just watch out, though, since he can usually hold his own, and when distressed enough, doesn't tend to hold back.

General Fsckery, mental and otherwise: I approve. I approve wholeheartedly. ♥ Just do please poke me, and I'll be happy to work with you on it!

Other Facts: He's pretty clueless thanks to life in the Junkyard, and bound to ask a lot of questions about things most people find obvious. Patience is a virtue?



Further Reading:
GiantBomb.com wiki article on Harley
Wikipedia and EI articles on type-6 personalities (Enneagram classification)