harley was usually much more aware of his surroundings, but he was having a very important text battle with his brother. the topic? who would win in a fight - wanda or thor? there was a clear winner here, and it was the scarlet witch. she can literally bend reality to her will harley furiously hit ‘send’, the continued. wanda held her own against thanos twice. sure, thor stabb- he felt his body run into another person, his phone falling out of his hands. “ sorry, i wasn’t looking where i was going. ” he apologized before squatting to pick up his phone and looking for anything the other person might have dropped because of him.
it was not a glamorous job in the slightest, working the night shift in the library. it was even less glamorous when she was sitting behind the desk on a friday night, playing homescapes on her phone because she’d stupidly agreed to switch shifts with a girl that usually worked this one. all in the name of helping the girl go on a date. meanwhile, nadia had received about seven snapchats in the past twenty minutes alone of her friends taking shots somewhere on campus while she tried to decorate her virtual garden. the place was nearly empty so she figured it was time to take a light stroll around with the returns cart, maybe actually do her job for once ? sighing, she maneuvered her way down the aisles, tucking books in their proper places. when a finger came to tap her on the shoulder, the brunette practically jumped ten feet in the air, turning around in a rush and trying not to scream. “jesus fucking christ, you scared the shit outta me !”
despite it being a friday night, harley's plans didn’t involve mixed drinks. he was tutoring one of the first semester asl students and this was the only time they both had availability this week. there was only one rule for their sessions; voices off. as the phrase suggested, that meant neither of them were allowed to speak, and all communication would be through signing or writing things down. he took a walk around the library, looking for his student. she must be running late, he thought to himself as he laid eyes on a girl with dark, curly hair. there she is. he approached her, doing the ‘deaf tap’ on her shoulder to get her attention. to his surprise, it wasn’t her but instead his running partner nadia. “ sorry ! ” he signed, before remembering he could actually speak. “ sorry. ” he repeated in spoken english. “ are you okay ? ”
SHE’D RUSHED OUT of her dorm, being certain that she wouldn’t be to class on time — and the last thing the blonde wanted was that ‘ stain ‘ on the record she’d been keeping in her head since she was a freshman, it was spotless and even while the only person she was accountable to was ‘ herself ‘ mj would argue that she wsa her HARDEST critic. moving through a crowded hall, she came to a harsh halt when she remembered… “ SHIT ! “ the curse word slipped her lips, blue eyes growing wide as she looked down at her watch. “ the curling iron…. “ she mumbled between a gasp and a huff, before she spotted someone near by. “ hey ! “ she called out, as she approached them. “ quick question… for the paper. “ sure that sounded convincing, at least to everyone who didn’t know her. “ have you ever googled how LONG it would take for a heating hair tool to burn down a building? “ she paused again. “ key information for an article, you know how that goes. “
between school, cheer practice and work, harley barely had time to get any of his class assignments done. but one of the benefits of being deaf was that it was easy to study basically anywhere on campus. he had settled down on a couch in a busy hallway and started typing his paper up when he noticed someone walking up to him and looked up. “oh, i used to forget to turn off my curling iron,” he explained, not thinking about the fact she didn’t know he was trans. “it actually won’t catch fire unless you left it around things that can burn. so you’re probably fine.”
❝ hey ! hey you ! ❞ is the only warning the other gets before el’s saccharine smile & overbearing energy is forced directly into their face. there’s a pen in her left hand & a clipboard in her right — her trusty sword & shield — as she gazes at her newfound prey with an excitement that only a sleep-deprived university student jacked on far too many energy drinks can have. ❝ where are you heading ? hope you don’t mind if i join you. you see, the student union is conducting a top-of-the-semester survey, so i need to pull your ear for just a second. shouldn’t take too long at all ! ❞ her words come out a mile a minute, barely room for a breath, let alone a response. ❝ first order of business : what are you most looking forward to at suffolk this semester ? it can literally be anything at all. ❞
harley couldn’t help but jump as el was suddenly in front of him with no warning, a somewhat over-enthusiastic smile on her face. he moved to the side of the walkway, making sure to leave enough room for other people to pass by them. walking while talking to non-signers was hard enough, but she was talking so fast he could barely keep up as it was. ❝ i’m heading to class. ❞ he explained, taking a moment to figure out everything else she had said. he had understood the words conducting and survery. she was going to pull on his ears ? subconsciously, his right hand went up and touched the battery compartment on his cochlear implant, situated behind his ear. that couldn’t have been what she meant, so he waited until he had more information and could process what she was trying to tell him. ❝ do you mind slowing that down a little bit ? you sound like me after an all-nighter and one too many cups of coffee. ❞ harley smiled. ❝ you want to know what i’m excited about this semester ? i’m...not sure. i’m just glad to be back. i guess i’m excited to catch up with everyone and see how their breaks were. ❞
it’s elle again! took me longer than I thought it would, but i’m here with the bio of my second son, harley. he’s my newest oc; i’ve had him for about a year, but i didn’t get to rp much during that time. i’m fluent in asl, so harley has a special place in my heart. usually my gifs that include him signing won’t actually match the signs up to what he’s saying, but this one does. he’s signing ‘hello, my name is....’ so it felt like an appropriate intro post.
[ chella man, genderqueer trans man, 21, he/him ] did you see who just walked in? it was that JUNIOR, the ╳ + HARDWORKING AND - DISORGANIZED ╳ one? you know, the one who lives at SONTHENA HALL, HARLEY HUA! i heard they are majoring in ART and they can’t wait to get out of here to BECOME AN ILLUSTRATOR. crap! stop staring, here they come!
name. harley hua
hometown. detroit, mi
major. art (illustration)
birthday. may 27th, 2000
gender. trans man, genderqueer
orientation. pansexual
religion. jewish
languages. english, asl, some cantonese and french
hobbies. cheerleading, drawing, comic books
[ BIO ]
[ tw. gender dysphoria ]
harley was born hard of hearing, although it wasn’t discovered until he was six. his audiologist discouraged his parents from teaching him sign, saying he would stop talking and stunt his language skills, so he grew up using his hearing aid and filling in the gaps with lipreading.
his yearly hearing tests showed he was gradually going deaf. he kept getting stronger hearing aids and being able to catch less and less of what was happening around him. the expectation was that he would get better at reading lips, but that only got him so far (only 30% of the English language is visible on the mouth!)
he had been a social kid, but he slowly withdrew into art. there, he could create anything he wanted. he often drew superheroes, or just ‘regular’ civilians (usually men). for a few years, harley took a sketch book and at least three graphic pencils everywhere he went.
in middle school, harley was eligible for a cochlear implant. his parents urged for him to get implanted, but decided to let him make the decision himself. he found a way to compromise with them; he agreed to get the surgery, but in exchange his parents agreed to pay for him and his brother to take ASL classes.
once activated, the implant was an immediate change. the world sounded different through it than what harley remembered, but he could understand his teachers and classmates better than he had in a very long time. he was able to join in again, and went from the kid scribbling in a notebook alone to being very outgoing. once he was able to use an ASL interpreter in classes, his confidence and grades shot up.
in high school, harley was very popular. it didn’t take long for his friends to give him a makeover, convincing him to throw out his baggy tshirts and most of his jeans, in favor of more feminine pieces. mini skirts, heels and crop tops (at least, when he could sneak them past his parents). he grew out his short hair to better hide his cochlear implants, smiling and nodding when he couldn’t keep up in conversations instead of drawing attention to his deafness. for the first time in his life he fit in, and he didn’t want to remind people that he was different.
(tw: dysphoria) but something was different, and it wasn’t his cochlear implants or the fact he was one of the only asian kids at his predominately white high school. something about the way he looked bothered him. he would often stare at himself in the mirror, and he knew the girl staring back at him in the mirror was pretty, but he couldn’t connect with ‘her’. she felt like a completely different person, almost like a mask he wore despite not understanding why he ‘needed’ to wear it or why he felt so numb to his own body.
the huas weren’t really hurting for money, but sending two teenagers to college only a year apart would be tough for any family. harley didn’t want to put that kind of stress on his parents, so he focused on cheerleading scholarships. he toured suffolk because it has one of the best cheer programs in the country. it was a dream school, but he doubted they’d want him on their team, let alone offer him enough money that he could afford to attend. yet that’s exactly what happened, so harley accepted and moved to boston.
during his freshman year of college, he realized nobody cared what he looked like in college. many of his classmates showed up to lectures in their pajamas. he started experimenting with his clothes, trading out the feminine pieces he’d been wearing for the past four years and wearing the things he wanted to; androgynous and masculine pieces. at first he wasn’t so sure why it made him happy, he just knew it did.
(tw: dysphoria) harley had never paid much attention to the trans community. he certainly never thought of himself as trans or genderqueer. sure, he often felt like an alien stuck in someone else’s body, but he assumed that was normal - something every girl secretly felt. after joining his college’s gsa and meeting trans people for the first time and hearing their stories, it began to click. harley came out towards the end of his freshman year of college, and started transitioning a few months later. his parents didn’t try to stop him, but it’s clear they don’t understand. a small part of harley is bothered by this, but he doesn’t let it get him down. it took a long time for them to accept he was deaf, too, but they eventually came around. they’re just slow to accept changes. between that and their refusal to learn ASL, harley isn’t on the best of terms with them, but he doesn’t stop to let this get to him.
overall harley is a very happy kid. he’s at his dream college, living his best life and preparing for the future he’s wanted since he was a kid
[ HEADCANONS ]
not wanting to take much money from his parents, harley works as a bartender three days a week at a popular bar near campus
if he’s not at work or in class, he’s either practicing cheer, working out at the student rec center, or at one of two coffee shops (one being the starbucks in his building, the other being an independent mom-and-pop cafe not far from campus)
he’s basically a jock villager from animal crossing. as stated before, he’s really into cheerleading. since getting his top surgery last summer he’s fallen in love with swimming. he also lifts weights and goes running a couple times a week with nadia.
harley is very busy, and his schedule is constantly fluctuating between working late nights and practices at any time of day. he’s pretty much always sleep deprived, and lives on an insane amount of coffee (he doesn’t like energy drinks).
harley’s preferred method of communication is asl. he uses interpreters in class and is involved with the deaf community in boston. but since most people on the squad only know a limited amount of sign, and other people he knows on campus don’t know the language at all, he often relies on the combination of his cochlear implant and lipreading to communicate. if he can’t hear with his cochlear implant (dead battery, too much background noise, etc) he won’t be able to understand enough by reading lips. but on the other hand, if he’s using his implant to communicate, watching the other person’s mouth helps him fill in the blanks.
[ WANTED CONNECTION ]
teammate // they do cheer together, so they spend a lot of time with each other
asl friends // harley prefers asl, so it would be great for him to have people to sign with!
regular customer // your character hangs out at the bar harley works at. conversely, they’re a bariste at one of the cafes harley is at multiple times a day
workout buddies // they lift weights together
rainbow family // in the queer community, they say you make your own family. harley doesn’t have a great relationship with his parents, and his brother is attending school on the west coast, so harley could use some lgbtq+ family in boston
comic book nerds // harley loves comic books. they were a major escape for him growing up and how he got into drawing in the first place. so maybe your character is also really into comic books, or they just share a passion for the mcu movies
[ FINAL NOTES ]
That’s all I got, but I’m open to almost anything with him. Looking forward to getting to explore him more here!
took me way too long to write up chandler’s intro post, so i will not be getting to harley until tomorrow morning. that said, feel free to message me and i can tell you about him and we can plot!
