Hannelore Ellicott-Chatham

Hannelore "Hanners" Ellicott-ChathamFirst mention of the full name in is Marten and Faye's obsessive-compulsive neighbor. She lives in the apartment above theirs with her robot companion Winslow.
==Biography==
===Background===
Hanners is the 22-year-old only child of two billionaire parents and lived on a space station for much of her childhood with her father. She and Dr. Case have each revealed that her childhood on the station was not very positive. She was essentially afraid of everything and everyone, save for the Station's AI. Hannelore had gone into fits of madness, forcing the staff to tie her to a bed and force feed her, even going as far as sedating Hannelore until she was catatonic. Dr. Case told Marten and Marigold a popular theory was Station has implanted something onto her brain, causing Hannelore to calm down significantly to the point she decided to live on Earth.
Her mother, Beatrice Chatham, is a ruthless business woman who did not show much affection to her only child. She has said she doesn't even know when Hannelore was conceived, much to her daughter's chagrin. Her father, with whom she is still in regular contact,http://www.formspring.me/hanneloreEC/q/1905763233 is an eccentric inventor who seems to have a rather far and away concept of science in general, despite making a fortune in his ventures. She felt neglected by her father but has stayed in touch with him. Contact with her mother is less frequent and more stressful, and Hannelore has matter-of-factly described her mother as "evil", although seems to recognize that there is some danger of taking after her.
Her parents are divorced and estranged. Hannelore has a robot companion, Winslow, who keeps her company. 
Hanners has no roommate and in fact believes she couldn't cope with one due to her OCD.
====Religion====
Hannelore did not have a religious upbringing. She has never been religious.http://www.formspring.me/hanneloreEC#!start=1916714246
====Education====
Hannelore is college-educated. Her major is unknown: she seems well acquainted with logic and science but that could have been a result of her upbringing rather than her education.
There is contradictory information on this: on Formspring she said that she didn't attend college,http://www.formspring.me/hanneloreEC#!start=1916714246 but in the strip she says she did, and in Q&A Jeph Jacques said she didn't.https://jephjacques.tumblr.com/post/11097408311/qa-dump-08 archived. Later on he said that she was joking about college.https://jephjacques.tumblr.com/post/11265563239/qa-dump-09 archived
===500–999===
==== Meeting Marten ====
Hannelore met Marten in the Beer is good bar. After intruding into Marten's discussion with Steve, Hanners told them about her OCD, and Marten told her about Faye. On their way to her home to play Scrabble Marten and Hanners discussed their jobs. That's when Marten found out that they live in the same building. She introduced him to Winslow, they played Scrabble, and Hanners let it slip that she actually stalked Marten for a bit. Faye walked in on them in an awkward moment after Marten accidentally tasered himself. On the next day Hannelore visited Faye and Raven Pritchard in Coffee of Doom., Dora Bianchi and Faye invited Hannelore to watch TV, and she felt asleep in Marten's apartment.
Marten was the first human character she met but she's established friendships with everyone in the CoD circle. Of her coworkers, her favorite is Faye, who feels to her like a big sister and is only scary "SOMEtimes".http://www.formspring.me/hanneloreEC, archived in 2012 Overall, her best friend is Marten.http://www.formspring.me/hanneloreEC#!start=1916714246
====Joining Deathmøle====
Members of the music group Deathmøle were looking for a drummer. Realizing that they need someone who either already owns a drum set, or has disposable income, Marten invited Hannelore to join the band. After a short and unproductive consultation with Dr. Corrine, Hannelore agreed and went drum shopping with Marten.
===1000–1999===
==== Getting a job in Coffee of Doom ====
Hannelore used to be self-employed with a business in which she counts things for people,http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2011/07/14/267909/questionable-content-cartoonist-jeph-jacques-on-post-college-career-paths-the-space-program-and-what-hes-learned-from-readers/, taking advantage of her OCD. Later on, she accepted a part-time job at Coffee of Doom on a suggestion from her therapist rather than for the money. She has found less joy in her counting job since taking up the drums but has continued it at a reduced level.http://www.formspring.me/hanneloreEC/q/1905580144 She is the patron of the "Ellicott-Chatham Home for Widowed Drumsticks".
===2000–2999===
===3000–3999===
==== Meeting Tilly ====
Tilly Birch was assigned as a personal assistant to Hannelore by her mother. After trying to resist Tilly, Hannelore reluctantly agreed for a trial run. Tilly was about to leave after two days, when Hannelore discovered that this assignment was part of her mother's negotiations with Tilly's father. 
After a confrontation with her mother, she has recently left Northampton for parts unknown on a voyage of self-discovery.
==== Traveling ====
Hannelore got a nose piercing and brushed a yak. She visited an underwater science laboratory and The Space Station.
===4000s===
When Hannelore returned she hugged Dora—a result of personal breakthroughs on her journey. She also visited Marigold, and Faye and Bubbles at Union Robotics. There she also met Marten and Claire. They discussed their relationships with parents.
==Personality==
Hannelore suffers from OCD and other issues including another anxiety disorder, but faces her anxiety problems with incredible courage and shows concern and compassion for others. She retreats from the sass competitions of the other characters, but is capable of intimidating flashes of extreme assertiveness, all of which happen when a friend is in trouble. Of the main characters, Hannelore is, together with Marten, probably the most empathic. She is really, genuinely interested in other people, is capable of surprising insight, and really good in helping them to handle their own anxieties. Her interactions in the QC universe often seem symbiotic, in that, when she helps out one of her friends, this in turn helps her to battle her own anxieties.
On more than one occasion she has entertained thoughts of extreme violence, including preemptively constructing her reactions to any number of violent encounters (even if they are perpetrated by her close friends) and imagining killing them when she believed they are witnesses to her committing a felony. Her readiness for violence extends so far she even has an app on her phone for planning bombardment from orbit. Her quirks can be disquieting to the point of coming off as creepy. She has even acknowledged being "creepy".
Her OCD-fueled ability of counting has also aided her in becoming a very talented drummer, as she believes that "Drumming is counting using your whole body!" She would like to count all the gold bars in Fort Knox.http://www.formspring.me/hanneloreEC/q/1905610947 In the past she said that the weirdest thing she'd been hired to count was a tossup between sand grains and back hairs, but recently she has said that the weirdest was teeth.http://www.formspring.me/hanneloreEC/q/1905586628 She is also subject to having her mind racing over thoughts not related to counting.
Hannelore has many quirks to her personality. She tends to search the internet for random things and at one point claimed that she had found every existing picture of cute animals, although she has a great dislike for certain animals and has compiled numerous lists supporting her distrust.
She loves kitties and owns a National Geographic Big Book of Kitties volume that she uses to cheer herself up when she is down. She also asks Pintsize to download pictures of sexy firemen for her and when she encounters some firefighters in reality returns the pictures because "they are really sweaty". She eventually swaps them for pictures of cute veterinarians holding kitties. She likes vanilla ice cream because it tastes clean.http://www.formspring.me/hanneloreEC/q/1905569960 Marigold got her interested in yaoi anime and manga, specifically "Magical Love Gentlemen."
Despite her challenges, Hanners does try to keep up with the gang's banter, even in situations where she is out of her comfort zone. She enjoys drinking with the rest of the gang.
Hannelore is childlike in some ways, for example her naivete and a love of making loud noises. Her literal-mindedness may be another example.
When in fear she tends to flail, something her friends are aware of. They try to avoid putting her in situations where she would, or warn bystanders of her impending action.
It has been hinted that she has a crush on Indiana Jones, but he is not her ideal man.
For a long time, Hannelore was extremely intolerant of hugging ("Hugging Hannelore Heralds Heavy Hyperventilation"), but recently, she has, spontaneously, hugged twice. When she was all excited over landing her part-time job at Coffee of Doom, she spontaneously hugged Marten (much to both Marten's and her own surprise), and at the conclusion of the pretend-date with Sven, she (consciously) hugged Sven when he offered a handshake (much to Sven's surprise). Most recently she gave her father a hug for his birthday (something she hasn't willingly done since she was a baby), indicating a slow but steady character development on her part. She has also demonstrated the ability to temporarily suppress her anxieties when helping her friends, though she openly states that she will eventually freak out when it's more convenient.
Hannelore is happy with her life on Earth. Her happiness level, as measured on the Fournier-Goldman scale, is over 10% of the lethal level. Marten calculated it to be over the lethal level, but Hannelore's father found an order of magnitude error in Marten's calculations.
The space station AI, who may well know her better than any human does, described her as having "a sparkling intellect, a kind heart, and a boundless capacity for joy".
=== Phobias ===
She is afraid of clowns.http://www.formspring.me/hanneloreEC/q/1916721027 She has a mortal fear of Tapirs. 
Her phobias also include the font Myriad Pro.
===Hobbies===
Hanners has recently started knitting. Her other crafts hobby is making stuffed dolls.
She has learned to bake, which she does enthusiastically.
She doesn't play most video games, considering them too stressful,http://www.formspring.me/hanneloreEC/q/1905584314 but she is intrigued by watching someone play World of Warcraft and enjoys Katamari Damacy.
Hannelore plays Scrabble.
She is the drummer for Deathmøle.
She can understand Morse code and speak it fluently and without pause. She does this in Strip 1912, where she follows up Marten's joke telegram to Dora with the sequence (... .. -. -.-. . .-. . .-.. -.-- --..-- / -- .- .-. - . -.).
===Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n Roll===
====Sexuality====
Hannelore is in practice celibate because her mental health problems preclude physical intimacy. Even the idea of kissing grosses her out. Hanners has very little knowledge about sex in general, not even about porn cliches, and no experience besides being kissed once as a teen. She does not understand many of the gang's sexual jokes and either blocks them out in order to avoid finding out about them, or ventures questions but is coherent enough not to take much notice of Pintsize's answers. However she does surprise the others on occasion, for example when Dora and Faye find her asking Marten what a vagina feels like.
Her theoretical orientation is heterosexual, or possibly hetero-romantic asexual. She enjoys sexy pictures of men, and has fantasized about Indiana Jones. She has also directly stated that she is not interested in women. Her ideal man is apparently Mr. Clean, though she has no desire to have sex with him.
====Drugs====
Hannelore's most common source of mind-altering substances is her heavy-duty psychiatric medications, which can cause embarrassing side effects or even outright personality changes.
Hannelore avoids illegal drugs, but used to smoke Nat Sherman cigarettes, although during a conversation with Sven, Hannelore admits she gets the urge to smoke again sometimes. She continues to drink caffeine and alcohol, with a particular fondness for dry martinis and Tom Collins.
====Music preferences====
At first Hannelore only listened to Bach, but has diversified her tastes since hanging out with the others, for example singing Atlas from Battles. She has listened to enough country music to recognize Sven's work. Listening to metal, as opposed to playing it, she usually finds stressful.
She sometimes plays "Ride of the Valkyries" during a particulary epic cleaning session. Her ringtone is "What a Fool Believes" by The Doobie Brothers.
She has a strong dislike of free-jazz. She has developed a dislike for Richard Strauss's "Thus Spake Zarathustra" from her time spent in space. She does not want to be in a Metallica cover band, suggesting some dislike of the band.
Hannelore appears to have a fondness for percussion instruments. In addition to being the drummer for Deathmøle, she owns a gong, as well as a T-shirt for the Avedis Zildjian Company, which makes cymbals.
== Trivia ==
* Prior to Marigold she was Jeph Jacques's favorite character.http://forums.questionablecontent.net/index.php/topic,9135.msg662552/topicseen.html#msg662552 
* The Ellicott-Chatham family is named after Chatham and Ellicott City, places in Maryland not far from where Jeph Jacques grew up.http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Chatham+Ellicott+City
* Forum member bogusman82 points out that her full name is an anagram for "Can her mental health cool it?".
* Hannelore's idea lightbulb is energy-saving.
* Hanner's twitter account has a cameo in https://xkcd.com/574, titled "Swine Flu".
* Through strip 1860, she has appeared in over 20% of all of the strips, despite not making her first appearance until strip 515.Count of character appearances
* "Hannelore" is a German name
== Memorable quotes ==
: See Hannelore Ellicott-Chatham/Quotes
==Gallery==
:See also :Category:Images of Hannelore Ellicott-Chatham
Hannelore flashdance.png|Jeph Jacques was inspired to do this when Hannelore went dancingSee tumblr post and night club arc in 
Laserhanners.png|No evidence she went to high school, but this is from the yearbook photosLivejournal post "Lasers and Lightning Backgrounds"
Qc-messes-print.jpg|Hannelore in .
==Speculation==
: See also: Guide to strips featuring Hannelore
===Apartment number===
Hannelore's apartment number is shown in two separate comics as being 33, 36, or 42, though the landlord states that her apartment is 226. Given that Hannelore lives upstairs from Marten, who himself lives above the first floor, it's logical that Hannelore at least lives on the third floor. Since apartment numbers typically include the floor number as their first digit, both 33 and 36 would make more sense than 226. However, not all apartment buildings follow that numbering scheme. Excluding a simple mistake on the part of the artist, one possible in-universe explanation of Hannelore's apartment number changing could be her occasional paranoia, particularly of assassins, robots, and evil henchmen, as a result of being the daughter of wealthy and influential people. She may routinely switch the number on her apartment around in order to try and fool any potential threats. Such activity is well within the bounds of what we know of Hannelore's character.
===Other===
If researchers in the QC universe found out about the relationship between Serotonin and bone density before they learned about the mental health role of serotonin, then both her absence of bone problems despite growing up on a space station and her mental health problems could be explained if she took serotonin-reducing drugs as a child. This idea was torpedoed on Formspring where she said the station spins to create a constant 1g.
Hannelore's mother's uncertainty about how she got pregnant with Hannelore raises the possibility that Hannelore was some sort of genetic engineering experiment by her father. Her mental health problems might be a side effect of the genetic modification if so, instead of being hereditary. Genetic modification of her nervous system might also explain her superhumanly fast reactions. At least one person took it for granted that she would have had augmentations.
She has wondered whether she has a clone somewhere, saying it's the sort of thing her father might have done.