Gladys Hartounian

*"You WILL bow to me, Alex. Everyone does. Hell, they WANT to, just because I ask them."*

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Receptionist (formerly)
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**Gladys Hartounian** is a former patient of Dr. Rhoades and an inmate at Alcatraz Extrahuman Penitentiary. While Gladys was described as "helpful and lovely" once, she was also an obsessive, spiteful woman willing to murder to get what she wants. After her time in Alcatraz, she seems to have grown more powerful as her power has apparently evolved, but her own instability seems to have worsened along with it.

## Personality

Gladys never meant to hurt anybody. Sure, she did and she isn't sorry for it, but it was never something she wanted to do at the outset. Gladys is normally a quiet woman; studious, hard working and efficient. Polite and mild-mannered, Gladys is usually described as mousey by those who meet her, and generally speaking, she tends to go unnoticed.

Gladys grew up in a small Minnesota town and generally didn't draw any attention to her. Feeling invisible for most of her life, she tends to latch on to those things that do notice her. She has obsessive tendencies and has a hard time acclimating to change or letting things go. When it's an idea she's latched on to, she will work tirelessly until she's made some kind of progress in achieving it. If it's a person, she'll stalk them until they decide they love her, too. And if they don't, well, she'll kill anyone who might be standing in the way.

When pushed, Gladys lashes out like an angry panther, striking for blood both emotionally and physically. She falls into a fit of rage, where she doesn't care what she does to you; she just wants to hurt you. It's remarkably easy to push her into such a state.

## History

Gladys was born to Rudolph and Elizabeth Hartounian in Shakopee, Minnesota. An only child, Gladys grew up in a very unstable home on the tail end of the Great Depression. Her mother was always mentally unstable and fights (physical and oherwise) with her father were not uncommon. When Gladys was eight years old, Elizabeth killed herself via poison in the bathroom. Gladys is the one who found her the next morning, an incident that continues to haunt her.

Gladys and her father carried on as best they could, and Rudolph was a nurturing and supportive father. Gladys excelled in school but she was never popular. In fact, the other kids hardly noticed she was there. She was a Daisy in a school play and the day of the play, she was late but nobody noticed. When she was noticed, it was usually by bullies who would take her lunch money or by mean girls, who would make fun of Gladys for being a portly, plain girl.

When she was fourteen, her powers first emerged when a bully confronted her as she walked home. She grabbed him by the forearm and told him to go walk into traffic. He did. Horrified at first by what she'd done, she soon realized how much easier her life was becoming without him, so her conscience was never too bothered by it.

In the 11th grade, she fell in love with Mr. Wells, her English teacher. He was smart, funny, kind, he defended her in class (and once in the hall!) from people who were mean to her, he was handsome and he always told Gladys how great her writing was and how proud he was of her work. She began following him after school, sending him anonymous letters and, eventually, photographs of herself. Mr. Wells objected to her advances, contacting her father but Gladys continued. Deciding that Wells only rejected her because he was married, Gladys cornered Mrs. Wells in the grocery store and used her powers to make Mrs. Wells jump off the roof of their house. To Gladys' dismasy, Mr. Wells resigned in the wake of this and moved to another town. Gladys mourned her "lost love".

She attended college at the North Central Minnesota College in Grand Rapids, Minnesota where she received a degree in middle school education. During her education, she worked as a receptionist at a local law firm. There were at least two incidences of obsessive tendencies with a professor at her college and with one of her co-workers. Grand Rapids also experienced three unexplained suicides in that same time.

Gladys eventually moved to Minneapolis where she began teaching Middle School English. She taught for some years, during which time she got her first boyfriend; the gym teacher, Dave Warren. After a fit of jealous rage in the middle of lunch at work, however, Gladys was suspended.

A month after, in October of 1965, she was contacted by Dr. Alexander Rhoades and his partner, an extra known as Thomas, to be a part of the Institute for Extrahuman Studies in New York. Dr. Rhoades promised that he could help her not only deal with her ability, but also cope with the drawback that such powers provide. Gladys gladly accepted his offer and moved to New York City in order to participate in the program and put her life back on track.

Gladys worked as a receptionist for Dr. Rhoades during her time there. She did not assist the others on field work, but she did work hard and efficiently back at the office. The other members of the Institute referred to her as the "busy bee", who was always working hard. Indeed, for the majority of her time with the Institute, she was largely unnoticed and at least one member of the group did not realize that she was an extrahauman.

As time went on, she began to fall for Dr. Rhoades. Not only did he listen, not only was he kind and smart and handsome and funny, but he understood her. Like, he *really* understood her. And the way he would put his hand on her arm and smile...gosh, he was such a dreamboat. After work one day, she cornered him and tried to kiss him but he rejected her advances. As the weeks passed, she began stalking him outside of the office, she went through his mail, got jealous of the other Institute members, sent Rhoades photographs of her in the mail and called him in the middle of the night. Her behavior becoming worse than ever, she worried her colleagues; even Thomas. When Rhoades tried to explain that it would be inappropriate for the two of them to be together, Gladys decided that Rhoades was only rejecting her because of his other "commitments".

She spent the next week either using her power to kill or attempt to kill eleven different people, including a member of the Institute, Rhoades' (female) landlord, a waitress at a coffee shop Rhoades frequented (because obviously the two of them had something between them) and others. Rhoades seemingly gave in and arranged a meeting, but this turned out to be a trap. The Ghostworks spooks showed up to take her away. As a desperate last act, she tried to use her powers to force Rhoades to love her, but it didn't work on him.

Broken (partially literal; the Ghostworks guys didn't take it easy on her), Gladys was removed from the Institute and taken tohte X-Block Alcatraz Extrahuman Penitentiary, where she remained in captivity for 2 years. What happened to her in the prison in unclear, as is the reasons for her being moved or taken to Los Angeles at all. What is clear is that her stay in Alcatraz did not help her at all; her power seems to have mutated and grown exponentially more powerful and her mind seems to have only broken further.

It is unknown what happened to her after nearly dying at the hands of Anna Flint, only that she was not in the hospital when Rhoades checked on her the next day and nobody checked her out.

## Relationships with Others

Relationship Stats
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Gladys does not play well with others. She's awkward and quiet one minute, and explosively angry and manipulative the next.

### Alexander Rhoades

Despite how much she loved Alexander once upon a time, she has grown to hate him. He betrayed her, he made her look like a fool. But you know what they say, "love and hate are close neighbors".

## Powers and Abilities

### **Extrahuman Abilities**

#### **Pheromone Influence**

Gladys is capable of using a chemical pheromone secreted and transferred by touch to disrupt specific neural pathways in the cerebral cortex that leave the brain vulnerable to suggestion. Her targets always try to please her and will do anything in that regard if they feel it would make Gladys happy.

Since spending time in Alcatraz, her ability has changed somewhat. She is capable of controlling at least three dozen people at once. The connection seems to be much stronger than before and at least partially mental in nature, as the mob moved as one "hive mind" and her defeat caused those under her control to collapse. It is unknown exactly what the parameters or specifics of this new ability entail.

## Paraphernelia

### Equipment

**--Pistol:** Gladys has started carrying a policeman's pistol.

## Weaknesses

**--Obsessive:** Gladys has an extremely obsessive and addictive personality.

## Notes

--Gladys' faceclaim is actress Elizabeth Moss.

## Trivia

--Gladys loves music she heard growing up and is "a whiz" at doing the Charelston.

--Loves reading, especilly old, romantic Victorian novels.

--Allergic to peanuts.

--Has a strong dislike for Audrey Hepburn. Like, super strong. It's kind of weird how much she just hates Audrey Hepburn.

--Strongly dislikes television. She blames it for children's short attention spans and declining grades in English.

--Loves poetry of literally any kind.

--Favorite movie is *Gone With the Wind*.