Post by Helena Bertinelli on Jun 30, 2009 17:53:40 GMT -5
Helena Lucia Bertinelli
Nicknames: Helen, H, Hella
Alias[es]: Huntress
Age: 27
Physical Appearance:
Helena's appearance greatly reflects her Italian heritage. She has thick, wavy, dark brown hair that falls about half-way down her dack, olive toned skin, and dark brown eyes. She's a little on the short side, about 5' 3", and has a curvy figure. She usually wears her hair pulled back in a partial ponytail with some dark locks left to frame her high cheek bones and deep-set eyes.
Upon the death of her family, Helena inherited a great deal of money and dresses herself very nicely as a result. She tends towards comfortable but nonetheless designer label clothing. She usually wears dark jeans, fashionable v-neck tops, a large handbag, and always some form of high heels. The jewelry she wears varies from day to day. Earrings, rings, bracelets; all usually sterling silver or platinum. One accesory she never removes is a long silver charm necklace. Hanging from it are, among other things, a crucifix (her mother's), a classic Italian horn (her father's), a small heart (her younger sister's), and a locket containing pictures of her deceased family.
When she takes on the persona of Huntress to fulfill her mission of fighting against organized crime in Gotham, Helena wears a costume to concceal her identity. She dresses in a color scheme of purple and black in order to blend more easily into the dark corners of the city, and also to emulate The Batman and his "family" to some extent. She wears form-fitting black pants that she can easily move in, black boots, a purple leotard-like top that is made with kevlar fibers to make it semi-bulletproof, black fingerless gloves that have built-in brass knuckles, and a deep purple leather jacket. Around her waist and legs she straps purple utility belts that hold items like grappling hooks and throwing disks, as well as her weapons, which include a silver revolver. Around her eyes she wears a purple mask with two peaks on top that resemble the alert ears of a predator. Built into these ears are devices that allow her own hearing to be greatly intesified. While out on the hunt, Helena usually leaves her hair down to flow and its full, wild length.
Distinguishing Marks:
Helena has a scar on her right palm that she recieved when she was kidnapped by a rival mob family as a young girl. She also has a tatoo on her lower back in black ink and fancy script that reads "Chi la fa l'aspetti.". Which is an Italian proverb that translated means, "he who wrongs someone has to expect something in retaliation" or, in other words, "what goes around comes around".
Played By: Olivia Wilde
Strengths:
Determined
---When Helena sets her mind to something, nothing will get in her way. She will carry out every task to completion and stand by her beliefs. For instance she is set on ridding Gotham of the organized crime that infests it and will use any means neccessary to achieve this goal.
Intelligent
---Helena has always been very sharp of mind. She recieved good grades throughout her school years and is also very clever in day to day life. She can match wits with crazed criminals and fellow vigilanted alike and cn use creativity and logic to work herself out of difficult situations.
Persuasive
---Growing up in a wealthy mob-family with three siblings, Helena learned from an early age how to get what she wanted, a skill she retained and uses to this day. Somtimes this involves playing mind games with the person in question, sometimes it involves artfully lying, and at other times she employs her considerable good looks to persuade those of the male gender.
Able to Fight
---Growing up with three "tough guy" older brothers also taught Helena a thing or two about fist fights. It didn't take long for her to figure out how to use her agility and speed to take down adversaries who were much larger than she. She also took martial arts lessons that taught her some more structured methods of fighting. Today, she defends Gotham with a combination of stealthy, precise attacks and what her brothers taught her, which was essentially to fight dirty.
Weaknesses:
Very Short Temper
---Helena is very easily angered. When she is contradicted or opposed by anyone or any situation she has a tendency to snap or even lash out violently. She doesn’t have patience for people who can’t keep up with her train of thought and hates to be told she’s wrong. Often, this temper leads her to throw caution to the wind and act before assessing a situation, landing her in very perilous places.
Revengeful
---Helena’s personal war against organized crime is driven greatly by a desire for revenge against the ruthless underworld that brought about the slaughter of her entire family. She also tends to seek revenge against any other villains that wrong her or those she cares about. This leads her to be rather violent in her methods of crime fighting, killing or severely injuring the mobsters she hunts. This often makes her seem like more of a villain than a hero and is the primary reason that the Batman does not allow her to be a full-time partner of his, a member of his “family”.
Obsessive Tendencies
---As Helena’s vendetta against the mobs of Gotham illustrates, she has a tendency to develop obsessions. She also fixates on such things as being accepted by the Batman and his allies. Furthermore, she is very much a creature of habit, feeling the most at ease when things occur the way she expects them to. The only time she was ever officially mentally evaluated was following the kidnapping incident of her youth. If reevaluated today, there is a distinct possibility she might be diagnosed with a form of obsessive compulsive disorder.
Damaged by Childhood Traumas
---The two great traumas of Helena’s childhood, her kidnapping at age six and witnessing the murder of her entire family when she was thirteen, wreak havoc on her mind to this day. She still has nightmares and flashbacks of the day her family was killed which cause her to lose sleep and can rattle her so deeply when she is awake that she loses concentration on the matters at hand. Reminders of her family have such a strong emotional impact on Helena that it can be quite easy to provoke her or throw her of guard, both very dangerous when in a life or death situation. Memories of her kidnapping (which are fainter but still traumatic) have left her with a distrust of most people and an unwillingness to be close to anyone.
Personality Traits:
Confident
---Helena has a great deal of self-confidence. She knows who she is, what her goals are, and how she wants to achieve them. Once she makes a decision she rarely looks back and doubts. She voices her opinions and is not afraid to step up and take control of a situation.
Loyal
---Helena is intensely loyal to those she is close to. Granted, it isn't easy to become close to her, but once you do she will fight to defend you. For instance, she is loyal to Nightwing who is her only true ally, and is somewhat loyal to the Batman as well, even though he only somewhat accepts her. She is also very loyal to the memories of her deceased family members, though not to their business of swindling and corruption.
Focused
---Helena is a very focused individual and is not very easily distracted from what she has her mind set on. She is very much a realist and sees situations for what they are and doesn't become caught up in extraneous things that might be going on.
Stubborn
---When Helena thinks she's right she can't be swayed, plain and simple. She'll argue for hours if that's what it takes to get things to go the way she wants them to. When she thinks she knows what's best for a situation, that's what she's going to do. Sometimes this trait goes to the point of being pigheaded and severely frustrated many people in the past by how firmly she puts her foot down.
Personable
---Helena has a generally likeable way about her. She's a good conversationalist, she has a sense of humor, and, in general, makes friends easily. However, this isn't to say she's a social butterfly. She does enjoy herself and always has company when goes out to parties and such with her wealthy "friends", but when she's on her own she enjoys her own company.
Secret(s/)Motive(s):
-Helena is motivated by a desire to bring down the crime families that ravage Gotham and caused the death of her family. She wants to ensure that no one else will have to suffer the pain of losing loved ones to the ruthlessness and senseless greed of organized crime. Also, as stated above, her personal war is in no small part fueled by a desire for revenge.
-Helena has told no one that the vigilante Huntress who prowls Gotham’s alleys is actually her own alter ego. Even the Batman and his allies, like Nightwing, whom she occasionally works with have no idea who the woman behind the purple mask is in the daylight.
-Helena determinedly hides the fact that she is attracted to the mysterious Nightwing, another masked hero with whom she occasionally fights crime. He is the only member of the Batman’s “family” who truly accepts her and seems to understand where she is coming from. Even though she has no more of an idea of who he is than he does of her, she cannot help but be interested him in a way that is more than professional.
Family Members:
All of Helena’s immediate family was slaughtered in a massive hit by a rival mob. She has a few very distant relations still living in Sicily and other parts of Italy, but she hardly knows them. Growing up, her immediate family consisted of:
-Guido Bertinelli (father)
-Carmella Bertinelli (mother)
-Anthony Bertinelli (older brother)
-Rocco Bertinelli (older brother)
-Gabriella Bertinelli (younger sister)
She also had two sets of grandparents, three great-grandparents, eight sets of aunts and uncles, and fourteen cousins, all of whom were killed in the mob hit.
Partners:
Huntress is not truly accepted by the Batman, who finds her methods of crime fighting too violent and risky. She has occasionally worked with the Dark Knight, but he always seems to treat her as more of a villain that a vigilante. Nightwing, on the other hand, who is sometimes part of Batman’s team but usually fights alone, does accept Huntress as a legitimate hero and the two work together on some cases.
History:
Helena Lucia Bertinelli was born in Gotham General Hospital on a sweltering July evening, the third child of Guido Bertinelli, head of the long-standing Bertinelli crime family, and his wife Carmella. She instantly became Daddy's Little Girl, while her two older sibling, Tony and Rocco, took on the role of protective (and annoying) big brothers. Four years later, their family unit was rounded out with the birth of little sister Gabriella. They had a privileged life, living in a large, ritzy penthouse in Gotham's fashionable downtown and attending the best private schools. Overall, they enjoyed a warm, loving home life filled with good food, good laughs, and an enormous extended family.
This abundance of wealth came, of course, from their father's "business" which consisted of all the illegal and unpleasant activited associated with a crime family. Of course, as children, Hestia and her sibling had no idea what Daddy really did for work, thinking instead that he ran a shipping company. However, as she got older Helena began to realize that whatever it was her father did was somehow dangerous and required secrecy. In one frighteneing memory, four-year-old Helena, lonely while her brothers were at soccer practice and her baby sister asleep, crept to the door of her father's office to ask if he'd play with her. Inside, Guido was in the midst of working out a rather messy "business deal". His daughter overheard many of the details and, at supper later, asked him about it. Guido, from whom Helena inherited her fiery temper, was furious and would have hit the young girl if his level-headed wife hadn't stepped in and reminded him that she hadn't meant it and really didn't understand what she'd heard. Helena got off with a very serious warning to never listen in on her parents' conversations again, and was then taken out for icecream as an apology for the outburst. This, however, was the beginning of Helena's apprehension in regards to the family business.
Just two years later, the most traumatic event of Helena's otherwise happy childhood solidified her negative impression of her father's line of work. Sittign on the steps of her posh elemtary school, Helena was waiting for the famiyl driver, Joseph, to bring her home. She was the last child left, which was very unusual, and was beginning to get antsy as her teachers clearly wanted to leave themselves. Finally, a black rolls royce with darkly tinted windwos drove up and the tired little girl scrambled into the car without even waving goodbye to the patient women who had waited with her. By the time she realized that Joe was not at the steering wheel they were already three blocks away from the school and heading down a road that most cdertaintly didn't lead tp jer appartment. She was six years old and being locked in a moving car meant, of oourse, that she was firmly caught. The car and it's wilent driver drove to a large warehouse, Helena screaming all the way, where she was deflty bound and gagged by more strange, silent men and left in a tiny, dark room. No real physical harm came to her during her three day captivity but the she was scarred; she couldn't believe her father was part of a world where capturing helpless girls was the norm.
Years later, the biggest mental blow imaginable combined with these old scars to shape her into the woman she is today. It was the day of her second cousin Gina's wedding and, as Italian culture dictated, there was more food and people than Helena had seen in one place before. She, her siblings, and her multitude of cousins and begun a game of hide and seek. Helena had hid herself very well underneath the couch in the bride's dressing room and quickly fell asleep on a full stomach. It might have been moments or hours later when she was awoken by a louder racket than the party had begun with. She emerged, bleary eyed, from her hiding place to see the last memebers of her family being gunned down by men in suits. She returned, in a daze to her hiding place and remained there until the police discovered her.
Just hours after the enormous funeral, the young girl was shipped off to Italy to live with distant relations she had never met. There she attended prestigious private schools and recieved extensive counseling, but her mentality was irreversibly changed. She at last saw the evil in the world, evil her own family had helped thrive. Evil that stemmed from organized crime. Rather than attending a European university as her family wished, Helena decided to return to Gotham city to study history at Gotham University and, more importantly, begin her personal war on the mob. She adopted the persona of The Huntress and for the last several years has been a solo vigilante occasionally aiding The Batman and his "family", but never being truly accepted by them due to her violent and often deadly methods of fighting crime.
Your Name: Tori
Age: 17
Means of contact:email, im.....Maria, just call me.
Passphrase: accept
Roleplay example:
Staff priviliges. (aka, if I don't get this bio up right now Maria will come to my house and break my record collection.)
