The Harlequin

The Harlequin was one of the ghosts encountered by the residence of Cinder Island in the comic Cinder Isle. She emerged as a result of Alistair removing her Gender curse postmortem and carrying a few of her soul fragments with it. These fragments remained in a kind of limbo state for decades if not centuries until the breach in the vault caused the curse fluid to leak through a fault line cave and flow to Cinder Isle creating the T1-G1 Virus but also freeing her and other ghosts to roam the island forests at nighttime. He exacts back story is unknown, but it's said she had lived her life as a male circus performing sorcerer due to her Gender Curse. One day an accident occurred during a performance which led to her death. However, due most likely to the internal issues she had spawned from the Gender curse parts of her soul held on to the mortal plain and remained fused to her curse when Alistair found it and removed it from her dead body. After years of being dormant sealed in the curse vault on her soul was set free when the vault was breached. After emerging on Cinder Isle she was encounter by Shane Gardiner and attempted to use her now limited abilities to cause mischief and pranks to her own amusement. While her attempts at mischief continued, she eventually seemed to become one of the first ghost to become clear headed and realize what and where she was. She encountered Shane again several months later and used her power to help him. She used it to both give him an enchantment to let him gain muscle quickly with only minor working out, and she also cursed Shane's bullies Bridget and Frank to gain half a pound of body fat each time they bullied someone. After so long she had become not only fully aware of the truth of what she was but also helped convince other ghosts of it. She failed to convince the ghost known as The Queen however. This led to her having her head severed. But as she was already a ghost she did not die. She was then helped by Sandra and Natalie to find another ghost in the marshlands where they had been staying who could help her and tell the girls about what they knew. She and her friend the Nurse then helped convince and prepare the group known as the Quad to explore the Red Lake where they had come from and learn the origins of both the ghosts and the virus. 
After the truth was discovered, the Harlequin mainly remained her usual laid back self-up to the point of saying goodbye to the members of the Quad and was allowed to at last be laid to rest by Alistair Huntington who opened a portal to the afterlife for her and the other ghosts. Before she departed however, she confessed her feelings to the Nurse and kissed her hoping that once she eventually joined them in the afterlife, they could be together. 
== Design/Appearance ==
The Harlequin is depicted as a woman in her late teens to Early 20s who is always dressed as a circus clown. She has white make up and Perma smile on her face, wears her hair in two large pig tails, and wears a very goofy dress with high heel knee boots and gloves. As a ghost she is semi-transparent and has a limited power to fly. 
== History ==
The exact origin story is not known due to her memory being fragmented due to her being a ghost. What she does remember is that she lived as boy due to being a victim of the gender curse. She ran away from home at a young age due to an alcoholic father and neglectful mother and joined the circus. She was a sorcerer but it's unknown how involved she was in their society vs. the Non-blood life. At some point a trick she was performing went wrong and she was killed by accident. After her death her grave was visited by Alistair Huntington who sought to remove her Gender Curse postmortem. Unknown to him however, due to her having a degree of conflict left within and unfinished business in her life stemming from living with the Gender Curse, fragments of her soul remained when Alistair removed the curse and were sealed in his vault along with the curse. Years later when Alistair attempted Suicide and unknowingly breached his vault and caused an Earthquake that connected the vault to the nearby Cinder Isle Harlequin's Soul fragments flowed along with the red water to the island and were released along with her spirit, freeing her to wander the woods of the island as a ghost. 
A few weeks after the initial outbreak of the T1-G1 Virus, The Harlequin was the second ghost encountered by Shane Gardiner. While she seemed a bit more aware than the others at the time it is unclear if she knew she was a ghost at this point. Either way she sought to entertain herself with her limited abilities and used them to steal Shane's bike and cut it in two claiming to have made two unicycles. Annoyed at this but too scared to talk Shane fled. While Harlequin tried to pursue to give him back the two halves of his bike, he got away leaving her to entertain herself again. 
Months later Harlequin was watching Shane and his friend Natalie work out at the school gym and using her powers she enchanted him to gain muscle mass very quickly with minimal work out after having taken a liking to him. She also witnessed the two school bullies Bridget and Frank approach and insult the two others. Not likeing bullies, she appears to Shane and with his consent she curses the two of them to gain a half pound of body fat every time they bully someone. The effects are mild at first, but it can be noticed to begin as things escalate between the group. Unfortunately, things become physical between the four students and Harlequin is found and criticized for her careless behavior by another ghost known as The Mistress. She then floats away while the group's fight is stopped by the school nurse and the Mistress goes about on her own bit of fun. 
She appears again when the ghost known as The Queen attacks a pier where military guards are shipping barrels of the infected red water off the island. The Queen is still confused an unaware of what and where she is and is hostile towards most others. The Harlequin tries to talk her down but she ends up with her head cut off. While she is not hurt by this due to being a ghost she is rescued by Shane (who soon transforms into Sandra) and Natalie who take her to the Marshlands at the south of the island where she has been staying with another clear-headed ghost known as the Nurse. There she has her head reattached and explains what little she can to the girls due to her fragmented memories. She then recruits Sandra and Natalie on a mission to travel to the bottom of the Red Lake to find out where all the ghosts and the virus came from hoping with their help, they can find a way to move on to the next life as well as a way to help their town deal with the virus. 
A few weeks later Harlequin is met by the Quad along with a group of other ghosts. She has acquired Enchanted rope to tie up and bind the still hostile queen ghost and convince her to create shield ruins that the three girl members of the group can use to traverse the lake. While they go on their mission the Harlequin stays behind to watch the queen and talk with Gavin who can't join them. Upon their return she helps determine the blue crystals they gathered have a strange aura and that putting them back together may help uncover the truth of what happened to them all. Over the next several weeks she pops in an out as Gavin is assembling the crystals and after the group rescued her from the lake, she and the Nurse have somewhat adopted the ghost known as the Girl and help look after her since she died at such a young age and needed help realizing what she really was. She leaves one night to tuck the Girl into bed but playfully mocks Zoey after realizing she is wearing a sexy nighty under her dress and is clearly planning a night of fun with Gavin. 
After the crystals are revealed to be Alistair Huntington who hopes to undo the damage he caused once he's fully reassembled Harlequin continues to help the other ghosts and prepares them to finally be able to move on to the afterlife with his help. When Alistair regains enough power to perform the spell, she and a group of other ghosts bid the Quad farewell as he opens them a portal. Before she leaves however, she turns to the Nurse who has elected to remain behind for a while longer to help finish putting Alistair back together with her healing magic. After spending so long with her Harlequin has developed feelings for her and asks her to remove her plague mask. The Nurse is hesitant as she doesn't like the way she looks but agrees to remove it. The Harlequin then says she is beautiful and kisses her. The Nurse likely felt a degree of dysphoria in life due to also being a victim of the gender curse and never really saw her transformed and true face up till then. Harlequin then bids her and the other a final goodbye hoping that when the Nurse joins them later the two of them can be together in the next life once again. 
== Traits/Personality ==
The Harlequin is very mischievous but in a more playful and comical way. She is also the clearest headed of the ghosts and seems to have become self-aware first. She does use her powers mainly for her own entertainment, but she also uses them to help those she likes and punish those she feels deserve it. While she does not directly harm anyone, she has been known to take her pranks a bit too far to the point that they escalate to much more damaging results. While what she manages to remember about her old life is rather grim with abusive parents and running away from home she seems to have developed more into the "Laugh it off" and "Make it fun" type of personality. 
While she is very fun loving and a bit of prankster, when the situation requires a more serious focus, she tends to have limited degree of the leader personality as she helps to rally all the other ghosts who have become clear headed to help them and the quad uncover the source of the virus and figure out how to help them move on to the afterlife as they are meant to. She also grows to admire and feel attracted to the Nurse after spending so long with her in the Marshlands and helping her care for the Girl. 
== Relationships ==
===== The Quad =====
The Harlequin remains mischievous and pulls playful pranks at every opportunity, but she is also the main ghost to open a dialogue with and held the quad out of a few situations and helps to fully establish a partnership between them and the other clear-headed ghosts to both discover the origins of the virus and help them all find a way to be laid to rest. She mostly interacts with Natalie and Shane/Sandra as they are the one to have encountered her the most but over time, she becomes friends with the full group is one of the most helpful ghosts of the group. 
===== The Nurse =====
Both the Nurse and Harlequin were among the first ghost to become clear headed and realize what they really were and as such they both grouped together and came to settle in the Cumberland Marsh on the south side of the island. They both lived in an abandoned fishing shack and wondered around the island at night freely but worked together to help the Quad find out the origins of the virus and howe to help them and the other ghosts. After the Girl was rescued by Zoey, Natalie, and Sandra both Nurse and Harlequin take her in together to help her realize what she was and care for her while they wait to find a way to be laid to rest. After Alistair is restored enough to help them Harlequin joins the other ghosts through the portal to the afterlife, but the Nurse stays behind to help finish repairing Alistair. As she says goodbye Harlequin asks the Nurse to remover her mask. The Nurse is hesitant as she had lived and died as a man due to her gender curse and never liked how she looked but she agrees to remove her mask and Harlequin assures her she is beautiful as her ghost form is of her true self not her cursed self. The pair then kiss and agree to meet up for a date in the afterlife when the Nurse joins them. 
===== The Girl =====
Originally Harlequin and other ghosts assumed the Girl was killed by the Abomination. However, when she was rescued by Zoey, Natalie, and Sandra both Harlequin and Nurse took her in to care for her while they waited to find a way to be laid to rest. At first the girl was still confused and didn't understand she was a ghost now, but after at least a few weeks with the other two they helped to make her realize the truth and had effectively taken her in as a daughter until they were at last led to the afterlife by Alistair and the Girl entered the portal eager to see her true parents again with Harlequin soon behind her. 
== Abilities/Powers ==
The Harlequin is a ghost who possess the ability to float, fly, and become both invisible and intangible at will. As she lived as a sorcerer in life, she was an Amethyst Blood based on her ability to affect others physiology and give and remove curses. She is mainly able to effect peoples' bodies through curses such as giving Shane Gardiner the enchantment to gain muscle mass very quickly through only moderate workouts and give Bridget and Frank a curse to cause them to gain weight whenever they bully someone. Her abilities are mainly focused on effecting peoples' bodies but it's possible she can also enchant objects as she somehow managed to obtain enchanted rope which could bind the Queen even though she was a ghost. 
== Gallery ==
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== Trivia ==
* It is never specified but assumed that after she moved on to the afterlife and Alistair reversed the damage done by the Virus, he likely also saw to it that any curses or enchantments left on anyone by the Harlequin were removed so the effects would stop but the results would stay the same. Meaning Shane would no longer gain more muscles so easily but maintain his improved body and Bridget and Francine would both remain obeses but would stop gaining weight when bullying someone. 
*It is possible that due to her Amethyst sorcerer abilities she may have in fact been capable of curing someone of the virus since it was actually a form of a magic curse but due to its complexity and the fact most sorcerers have no knowledge of it, she was likely too weak to detect let alone remove it. 
== See also ==
Category:Females
Category:Cinder Isle characters