I AM THE BLUE FREAKING SKY

A lot of her backstory is based on btas’s mad as a hatter, SO:

She worked for Wayne enterprises as a scientist but often worked on her own side project under the working hypothesis that free will isn’t real (or can be manipulated) using some mixture of electrical signals and chemicals. She tests this on her rats who eventually become her assistants later. While working there she was in love with a coworker named Alice, kind of feeding into her obsession with the story Alice in wonderland

At some point in the meantime she met with one Edna Nashton, another Wayne enterprises employee to work on a primitive version of a VR headset (au takes place in kind of a vintage era with some advanced technology), though Edna is a bit more nefarious with it and wants to use it to gather blackmail, etc. Edna presents this to Bryce Wayne who says no outright, which has her curious about the work of Dr. Tetch

Blah blah again mostly like the episode, Alice’s boyfriend breaks up with her and she takes this as an opportunity to take her out on the town (like a one sided date), using her experimental technology to impress her and make it seem like she is more popular and socially adept than she is etc., we know how it goes. The only thing I changed is she accidentally kills her Alice, the technology is not quite as refined or safety-tested as it becomes later.

She’s arrested and sent to Arkham, and the loss of Alice is what sends her into delusion. She is driven by finding a perfect Alice (like she thought she had with Alice Pleasance) among other book characters, and often fits people she meets into the different characters. Her way of making sense of the world in a way. Alice being the main character, it is more important that her Alice be the most fitting to the character in literature. She is prone to anger (and violence) when her Alices break the delusion she has built for herself. She is also driven by her obsession with the mind and the illusion of free will, as well as her own insecurities (“people don’t like me so I can make them like me”)

The penguin who can both see a little of herself in her and seeing the potential in her work breaks her out and has her working for her. She kind of caters to her delusions and obsessions, and gives her funds to work more on her technology. They have a bit of a close friendship/mentor/mentee thing going on, and they enjoy regular tea. Something I find funny is my penguin has a horrible yet authentic cockney accent and my mad hatter has a fake British accent she puts on to fit her own character. Which penguin tolerates lol ANYWAY

Penguin uses mad hatter and sees penguin as the white queen (maybe previously as the dodo… curious). Basically penguin gives mad hatter people she wants information from and lets her poke around their brains and give them tea with fun chemicals in it etc., since penguin deals largely in information

She actually has a little bit of song inspired lore… I like to listen to music while I draw… I read “run rabbit” and immediately thought of Willing Well II: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness (around the 4 minute mark), where as a very vague summary the author of the story becomes isolated from the world/delusional because of his work and enters his story to kill all of his characters to free himself. Which I imagine would/could happen to Jerica since she is deluded into thinking she lives in wonderland and a lack of a perfect Alice would drive her mad (read Jokers Asylum: Mad Hatter). There are a few things that aren’t quite so fitting just because those songs tell their own established stories etc. but you get the idea