Application for paradisa

[alwaysaquestion]

NAME: Rea
JOURNAL: animegl
EMAIL: animeglChuunin@hotmail.com
AIM: NearTheHeart
WIKI NAME: Animegl
CHARACTERS: Apollo solar_absorber | Uzumaki Naruto futurehokage

CHARACTER NAME: Renee Montoya
FANDOM: DC Comics
CANON: After The Five Lessons of Blood.

WHAT THEY LOST: The memories of her former partner in Homicide, Crispus Allen. His death is one of the things she feels guilty about not being able to prevent. It’s also the reason behind her ultimately quitting the force after his killer walks.

ABOUT THE CHARACTER: Renee was a police officer and Homicide Detective for the Gotham City police. She was born and raised in Gotham, a city known for being cut-throat and criminally active. All the freaks, some time, some way, always set their sights on Gotham at some point. The people’s only line of defense was the Gotham police and the vigilante Batman. Renee was one of Commissioner Gordon’s faithful followers, as well as a supporter of Batman and his alliance with the police. When the U.S. government decided to abandon Gotham after an earthquake struck and destroyed most of the city, Renee was amongst the few police officers to stay and defend it against all the vultures circling the dying city. Commissioner Gordon ended up using Renee as a go-between in order to form an alliance with Harvey Dent, hoping to bank on Renee’s past kindness towards Harvey. It worked too…up until Harvey double crossed them and kidnapped Renee and the rest of her family.

Harvey took Renee’s kindness to mean that she was interested in him and the kidnapping was all a stepping stone in his great plan to woo her…or something. When the initial wooing didn’t work (and he had her parents on his side there for a minute…or not) he kidnapped Gordon and put him on trial for all his wrong doings towards Renee. But Renee persuades Harvey to take Gordon’s defense against Two-Face and ends up playing out the entire trial in his head. Harvey won and Renee and Gordon are released as Harvey is arrested. Sometime after Gotham is opened up again and everyone returns.

Renee gets her first bitter taste of vengeance when Gordon is shot three times in the back on his birthday. Going against her partner’s wishes she enlists Batman’s help to get a confession out of a crooked cop, Jordan Reynolds, but he is able to twist his words in such a way that they aren’t able to hold him and he walks. Pissed off beyond belief, Renee follows him to his apartment and breaks in with the intention of killing him. Luckily her old partner Harvey Bullock arrives in time to talk her down. Disaster strikes again when Renee finds out someone has been tailing her and taking photos, as one of the photos shows up on the police bulletin board one morning, a picture of her kissing a woman. Outed at her job, she has no choice but to figure out how to tell her religious parents that she’s gay. The fallout was pretty bad and her parents disown her. And things get even worse when a planted bag of heroin shows up in her gun safe and her gun is traced to a murder. She faces trail, is found guilty, and is then broken out of prison by-guess who-Harvey Dent/Two-Face, who is still 1) completely in love with her and 2) responsible for outing her and framing her. Anyways, Renee breaks up with him for good, they fight, and then Batman jumps in for a last minute save.

After all that Renee goes through a bit of a match off against Corrigan, a crooked forensic technician who sells crime scene evidence on the side. There was an Internal Affairs case going against him that Renee smashed by kicking Corrigan’s ass for some information. This leads her partner Cris to start his own investigation. Unfortunately Corrigan finds out about his snooping and has him killed. The news of Cris’ death fits Renee hard and she has a bit of an emotional breakdown and focuses on nothing but making sure Corrigan is brought down. In the end they aren’t able to charge him for Cris’ death and he walks. A vengeful Renee follows him home after a night of drinking and puts a gun to his head, but she isn’t able to pull the trigger. She resigns from the force the next day.

Some time passes and Renee falls into a slump of depression and alcoholism. One day the Question hunts her down and hires her as a private investigator to help him investigate a crime group called Intergang. From there, their partnership takes off and there’s lots of detective work, bonding, snarking, suicide bombers, smoking, complaints about the smoking, martial arts, and ex-girlfriends. Speaking of which, it turns out Intergang was planning to bring about a prophecy that asked for the daughter of Cain to be sacrificed. Turns out the “daughter” they want to sacrifice is Renee’s ex, Kate Kane, otherwise known as Batwoman. Meanwhile, the Question, also known as Charlie, is dying and Renee has to save Kate’s life and try to figure out a way to save his. The former works out better then the later and the title “the Question” gets passed down to Renee.

Following Charlie’s death Renee moves into a lighthouse he left behind with his old friend Tot. She peruses the Crime Bibles, sort of the holy book of crime that Intergang reveres. She becomes obsessed with collecting every available copy and analyzes the differences in each book, learning how the religion functions so she can shut it down. Meanwhile, Flay, one of its followers, leaves a trail for her to follow until he finally threatens her into meeting him for a final show down. The battle ends with Flay being impaled on stakes and the other followers bow down to Renee as their new leader.

Renee can be very hard to get to know. On the outside she’s very tough, confident and even mouthy. But she’s pretty much the same on the inside to. She’s very much a prime example of what you see is what you get. Justice is one of the few things she believes in, and she’s willing to fight tooth and nail to make sure justice is served. That’s why she joined the police force, and when that system failed her she had to find a new way to fight for it. She can come off as a bit of a brute, sometimes even as a downright bitch, but she always voices the truth, even if that person doesn’t want to hear it. She’s blunt, but she also knows when to keep her mouth shut.

Honesty comes easier to her when it’s in terms of other people. One of her biggest issues is that she’s so used to ignoring certain parts of herself that she may not like to think about. Her sexuality for starters; she was closeted for a good deal of her life and she wasn’t outed by choice. For the longest time it was something she knew about that she never wanted others to know. Raised the way she was she knew her parents wouldn’t accept her so she felt it was better to hide that part of her away so she wouldn’t have to face that rejection. Her anger management or lack thereof, that Cris tries to bring to her attention but gets rebuked. Also, the fact that she has a history of solving her problems by drinking them away and her thing about pushing everyone who cares away in times when she desperately needs to ask for help.

Since becoming the Question, Renee has become much more comfortable in her own skin. She’s still stubborn, confident, and mouthy, but there’s not as much pent up anger behind it. There’s even times when she feels most like herself when she’s wearing the mask then when she’s not. The mask liberates her. She’s always been a fan of handing out beat downs. It’s not that she’s violent; she just really gets a kick out of beating up scum bags. She toys with them, steals their weapons and beats them down with her wit and charm (amongst other things).

Renee’s self image can be very conflicted at times. She is who she is, with no apologies or negotiations, but she is, as I said before, very good at ignoring her bigger issues. That isn’t to say that she doesn’t recognize when she has a problem. She is first and foremost a detective and as such she has a heightened awareness of…pretty much everything. It’s getting her to admit it out loud that takes a bit of time and a lot of patience.

Jumping back to the detective portion of her brain, it’s actually a really important part of her character. She’s observant, quick thinking and not afraid to ask questions and be a total snoop. She’s infinitely curious, a trait she and Charlie share, and that’s one of the reasons she fits the mantle as the Question. Her years as a cop give her an edge in reading people and telling bullshit from facts, the guilty from the innocent. She’s quick-witted, direct, and her assessments are usually correct.

Despite her attempts to play cool at times, Renee carries a lot of baggage and guilt along with her. She blames herself when she’s not there to prevent something-like Cris’ death-and then she blames herself again for not being about to make things right. Nobody likes raining on Renee’s parade more than Renee does. So she pushes herself to not make mistakes and to always stay a step ahead. Aside from all that, she is capable of normal human interaction. She can be sweet and funny and caring towards the people she loves. She can be sarcastic and has been known to try and actively annoy people (Charlie) when she feels they deserve it. Her relationship with her parents is still strained and there’s been no sign that she’s spoken to them since she moved away from Gotham, a fact that probably stings a lot since she was close to them.

Some quick facts, she’s quit drinking and smoking since becoming the Question (probably in honor of Charlie). She spends her free time doing handstands on the ledge of the lighthouse (no I’m not kidding), and otherwise bothering Tot. Apparently she’s also a Monty Python and the Holy Grail fan since she’s been seen quoting it with Tot.

ABILITIES: Renee is a highly skilled martial artist, a skill she relies on in most situations. Back in her cop years, she was a proficient brawler, but under the then Question Vic Sage’s insistence, Richard Dragon, another skilled trainer in the arts, trained her. While not averse to using weapons if she has to, hand to hand combat is her usual way of handling things and it’s nearly impossible to catch her by surprise. Thanks to her years as a cop she’s familiar with and can use firearms expertly, but generally she prefers weapons like clubs or nun chucks that she can use to knock people upside their heads. Another thing she picked up from Vic is the use of meditation as a way to clear her mind. It’s her go to for when she needs extra focus on a case and feels like there’s something she’s missing. The meditation has also given her a strong control over her mind that allows her to resist brainwashing or other mind manipulations.

In her role as the Question she has to “suit up” in a particular way. She comes equipped with a Pseudoderm mask that covers her entire face and makes her completely expressionless. Despite this, the mask allows her to see and breathe normally while wearing it. She also carries a chemical compound called Binary Gas in her belt that binds the mask to her face and changes the color of her hair and clothes. From the canon point she’s taken from her hair changes from brown to black, but it’s also been known to change to blonde.

THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: Renee was used to strange and nonsensical things happening to her. Hell, she could probably fill up a book with all the strange things that had happened to her just in the past year. Killer clowns, psychotic split-personalities, men and women dressed up as bats and fighting for truth and justice…yeah, she’s seen it all. Growing up in Gotham would do that for you. Yet despite all this, she still finds herself mildly surprised when one moment she’s standing in the rain, surrounded by a bunch of crazy murder fanatics and the next she’s standing in the middle of a cozy lobby, dripping all over the expensive looking carpet. What. The. Hell.

She glances around the room, scoping it out, learning the lay of the land, expecting some of the Crime Bible fanatics to jump out at any minute and attack her, or pledge their undying loyalty. Or maybe she’s already dead and this is one last hallucination before the lights go out for good. Uh…not a comforting thought. Tentatively, she crosses the room until her foot brushes against something. She looks down and sees a journal, a perfectly normal, average looking journal. Warning bells go off in her head. Still, it may be a clue to where she is. She picks it up and flips it open to the first page and…nearly drops the journal. Her name was printed clearly across the top of the page. That’s not creepy or anything, right? She makes a mental note to wonder about that later and flips to the next page. And then the next. And then the next.

The words “magic castle” and “paradisa” and “wishes” seem to be making a lot of appearances, but Renee just can’t get past the absurdity of it all. And she thought she’s seen and heard it all. She snaps the journal shut and resists the urge to throw it at something. After a moment, she makes up her mind. She just needs to find the ringleader of this place. That’s where she’d get her answers. Straight from the top. “Maybe I should make detour and find some dry clothes first. These pants are starting to chafe.”

FIRST-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: [Anyone who happens to be walking down a certain hall this afternoon will be treated to an interesting sight. A woman is walking down the hall, idly flipping through the pages of her journal. What’s interesting is that she’s soaking wet and to make things even more unusual…she doesn’t have a face. The space where it’s supposed to be is completely blank.

Water droplets were falling from her bangs and onto the pages of her journal. She mutters something under her breath and then speaks louder, unaware that she’s being recorded.]

I spend months chasing down this insane cult, sacrificing my time, health and sanity all so I can go head to head with some lunatic that wanted to make me into the image of his prophecy. Then, before I can think up an escape route from the crowd of worshiping lunatics I’m suddenly here in some…magic castle. [You can practically hear the air quotes.]

My god, I’m here for five minutes and already I’m ranting to myself like a crazy person. Next thing I know they’ll be locking me up in Arkham. [Tired sigh.]

Days like this…I wish I still drank.

INTENT: She’s probably my favorite female character in all of comic books and I think I’d enjoy getting into her head and putting her into interesting positions. Plus, the game already has her ex-girlfriend (Kate), ex-stalker (Harvey) and the guy who changed-and probably saved-her life (Vic). It’ll be great to expand on her interactions with them as well as people from completely different worlds.