Post by Joan Leland on Apr 25, 2011 20:48:57 GMT -5
Real Name: Joan Leland
Alias: None
Age: 34
Gender:Female
Occupation: Psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum
Current Status: Working at Arkham
Alignment: Lawful good with some Neutral tendencies
Costumed Identity Known By Their Enemies? N/A
Costumed Identity Known By The General Public? N/A
Real Identity Known By Their Enemies? Yes
Real Identity Known By The General Public? Yes
Abilities/Skills:
A trained psychologist with years of working experience she's intelligent with a developed keen eye for details and a very good understanding of people.
She's learnt to keep a professional distance and separate her own feelings from what she imagines others to be going through, emotionally she is quite strong as a result.
Basic first aid skills but advanced chemical knowledge. Basically she can suggest medications for a chemical imbalance in the brain but don't ask her to do much about a broken leg.
Due to the residents of Arkham she's not easily spooked anymore and tends to approach most situations calmly.
She acts with careful thought and planning rather than coming to impulsive decisions.
She knows just enough about fixing cars to keep hers in good working condition.
She has a good sense of self preservation and strong opinion on what's right and wrong. While she wants to help people she'll only bend the rules if it's obviously a good idea and she won't get herself killed over it if she can help it.
Weaknesses:
She has a tendency to psychoanalyse people, those she knows and those she doesn't. While she doesn't always voice her observations it can distract her from making friends rather than patients out of people.
She finds it hard to really trust people in general, let alone trust them to know what's good for themselves.
She doesn't acknowledge the infamy some of the more dangerous patients in Arkham may have. While this allows her to treat them just the same as anyone else, and though she isn't naive and won't believe everything they say, it can lead to her underestimating them sometimes.
Her work is a very large part of her life and she doesn't have much of a social life as a result. With much of her free time spent keeping up with the latest research or simply observing a quiet moment by herself with a book she has a tendency to be a little bit of a hermit.
She finds it difficult to relax after a particularly hard day at work.
She's only human. She's not faster, stronger or more powerful than the average person on the street. She hasn't taken so much as a self defence class.
She has a lot of regret over patients who have been released and returned to the asylum along with those in the profession who become patients themselves. She hides it but often believes she has failed them.
Appearance:
About 5'6'' and with a slim, hourglass build Joan isn't exactly lacking in the typical traits for beauty but she doesn't scream it around and attract attention usually. Instead she appears professional, neat and at least looks important despite her thoughts otherwise. She has dark skin, dark eyes and black hair that's kept cut to about jaw level with a small curled fringe. Her clothes don't vary widely from home to work, though obviously she doesn't wear a lab coat outside of the asylum and steers toward more comfortable shoes at home as opposed to the heals she wears to work. Primarily she wears trousers or a skirt with a fitted t-shirt, a shirt only if the occasion calls for it and jeans are reserved for odd jobs and occasionally weekends, never for the office.
Personality: Outwardly Joan is usually quiet, calm and confident. She listens, thinks and always tries to help regardless of the person, trying not to make snap judgements. She appears friendly, open, the person to go to when you're stuck for a babysitter, need a ride and help finding the dog. Outwardly she's the neighbour people are on friendly terms with, know they can depend on but then look back on years later and figure out they really don't know anything about her but the basics and don't know why they never asked because she always made everything about them.
What's going on /inside/ Joan's mind is quite a different story.
Her brain doesn't switch out of work mode easily so she's often hiding some stress while she tries to find ways to rid herself of it, she works too much and even works out of habit when she's just supposed to be having a chat. She has some issues with getting close to people, emotional detachment is something she's become very good at, tell her a sad story and she'll say sorry and look it but really be analysing it and making mental notes. She has a habit for note taking, she'd hate to forget some tiny detail just because she didn't write it down, only for it to be vastly important later. She has the sense to keep her notes hidden under lock and key though, always feeling a little guilty for analysing people who aren't patients at all and hoping they'll never find out what she really thinks or worse as far as she's concerned, discover some of the secrets other people they know have.
Rules and order are important to her, no matter the person or their relationship it's rare that she'll even bend the smallest amounts and only then if she believes strongly that it will do a great amount of good or to save a life, though she will usually hesitate to work out if the life is actually in danger. Secrecy is even more important. She expects people to be able to trust her even if she doesn't exactly trust them, part of that trust is not blabbing all their confidential secrets to the first person who asks nicely or applies a little pressure, the police require a warrant to see her notes at work, she doesn't see why anyone else should get them any easier. She's not happy even if they do have a warrant but rules are rules.
She's not easily scared, despite the people she's frequently surrounded by at work she fears very few, having only what she describes as a healthy awareness of what they're supposed to be capable of and treating them like anyone else who needs help. No one is more or less special than anyone else in her world view, with the possible exception of children, while she can't stand to see anyone suffer she would see them suffer the least.
Trust doesn't come easily to Joan, she's been around too long and heard the lies of too many patients, friends, family, boyfriends. She always appears friendly and open and she does like to be always honest but she's also instinctively keeping thoughts to herself and looking for those few words where someone slips up and proves they're just making it all up or don't even know what's good for themselves. There is only one she trusts entirely and that's Gerald, who's her cat. All he wants is food, warmth, to sleep around her apartment and a little bit of fuss. She provides, he's company, he's too simple to analyse and he can never be dishonest because he's just a cat, she loves him for it.
Background:
Joan was raised in a small town in Michigan, about an hour from Detroit. Daughter of Melissa, a teacher and David a mechanic and the middle child with two brothers, Darrel, the eldest and Ian the youngest. Her childhood was pretty good, the usual occasional family fall out, hellish nightmares of family gatherings at christmas were about as bad as it got, over all it could simply be considered very normal. She was just one of those normal children, smart but with an energy that bubbled and didn't really aid concentration but ebbed enough for her to take an interest in her classes the more she grew up.
She was 14 when her mother decided she preferred the attentions of a fellow teacher over that of Joan's father. As things started to fall apart and rumours spread round the school the bond between her and her brothers got stronger to cope as she drifted away from her friends, trying to avoid the gossip. Darrel provided an escape when things got too much, driving them out to the mall until things had cooled down again before going home. Ian would do the actual cheering up, somehow brushing things away with a laugh to make it seem less like things were doomed and broken though he was hit the hardest by it really. Joan meanwhile started to take care of business and keep everything going. Everything was to be sorted when dad got home, as far as she was concerned he had enough to worry about without having to look after them on his own, using the work to keep herself busy and for something else to think about.
By the time she was 16 they had it down to a fine art, her and her eldest brother even working in dad's garage on weekends and after school while Ian was more inclined to do his own thing. Her usually in the small office, dealing with the customers and paperwork while Darrel actually got to help out on the cars. On quiet days though she would come to hang out with them both, enjoying actually getting to spend time with her dad and watch him fix the cars, until she'd learn enough to help out there too anyway. She still considers it practical to at least know the way around an engine and look after her own car, sometimes using it as stress relief after a very bad day at work but dismantling her car everytime something goes wrong in life would just be inconvenient.
Joan didn't have much time in school left to decide what to do with herself, she worked hard and did well for her effort but she hadn't worked out where she wanted to point her focus. Darrel had already decided he enjoyed working at the garage and was working towards some relevant qualifications. Ian was suddenly announcing he was going to be an artist but it somehow suited him.
Psychology started off as a passing curiosity, she'd decided she wanted to do something important and toyed with the idea of becoming a doctor, understanding people better could only help and it was a little more in connection with the patient, an idea she liked. As it turned out it was fascinating and she found herself deciding to pursue the subject. University she did well at, made a few friends, finished among the top group in her class and really threw herself into her work. Learning and observing, working out what to look for and how to put people at ease, sometimes practising on strangers just to see how much she could work out about them. The downside came when she started doing the same to friends and boyfriends, trying not to let on, hiding the flaws she did find and ultimately distancing herself a little from everyone so she wouldn't be too tempted to interfere and try to 'fix' everyone.
She volunteered at a school for the mentally challenged in the holidays which eventually lead to an internship, which lead to another internship at a much smaller and less high profile asylum than Arkham when she didn't have classes and continuing to work there for a time even once she'd finally gotten her Doctorate until she finally her sights on more challenging patients. Those who needed possibly the most help, were the most difficult to understand and predict and undoubtedly would be good for the world if they got better, if only because they might stop trying to destroy it.
She joined the team at Arkham soon after, working hard to adjust to the big difference to the patients she was used to. She works too hard but it enabled her to get a handle on things and she even felt she was doing something good and important at last. The years passed with criminals and far too many breakouts for her liking. It wasn't until Harley Quinn broke the Joker out of Arkham though that she really took a hit to her confidence and content little life, always wondering if there was some way she could have prevented it and becoming a little more guarded and less trusting for fear that she never saw it coming. It played on her mind, effected her work a little and in the rare few days holiday she took almost a month later she ended up buying Gerald on the spur of the moment. A little kitten, soon to be a great fluffy grey tabby, his simplicity and endless contentedness helped and still continues to do so.
Current Associates:
Current Enemies:
Other Relationships:
RP Sample:
Joan fumbled for her keys, trying to juggle groceries and her coffee to reach her pocket until she was just forced to put the coffee on the ground and free up a hand. The familiarity of her little apartment greeted her as she open the door, a glance of less than a second showing everything's just as she left it, right down to the cat still sleeping on the window sill. She's been gone almost three hours, you'd think he'd at least turn around to sun the other side from time to time. Still there's a soft smile for the fluffy tom and she stoops to pick her coffee back up, kicking the door quietly shut behind her and carrying her food for the week into the kitchen area.
It really wasn't a big apartment, three rooms in total; bedroom, bathroom, the kitchen and living room being only separated by a sudden end to the carpet and a short bar counter it didn't seem worth counting it as two rooms and with a grand view of a car park and the shabby hotel across the road it wasn't wasn't winning any awards for location either. Joan could afford better. Joan could afford better several payrises ago, now comfort in her surroundings was the only thing to keep her there. That and so far a lack of break ins. Some of the extra money saved was helpful in at least making the place quite pleasant inside.
The groceries she placed on the kitchen counter and begun to sort away with finally a stir from Gerald the cat in case food was on offer. Joan sipped from the coffee somewhere between shutting the potatoes in a cupboard and reaching back into the bag, pausing as her attention shifted to Gerald. Suddenly up on the counter and trying his sweetest meow just as she pulled a can of tuna out of the bag. A smirk and Joan puts away the tin anyway, childing the cat "You're not supposed to be up on the counter" he still gets a quick scratch behind the ears. Many failed attempts had taught Joan that it was easier just to wash the counter everytime she wanted to use it than to try and train Gerald out of it.
Food away, everything neat and tidy in the kitchen, still half of her coffee left. Joan decided to put off tidying the rest of the apartment and reached for the newspaper. More stories of the masked men and women of Gotham.
She skimmed over the first few pages to get an idea of things before removing a lockbox from behind the cleaning supplies under the sink. Yes, she had a short filing cabinet by her sofa and it was built rather like a safe but even mostly hidden under a cloth with a plant on top as soon as it was recognised for what it was it looked expensive, it was not a place to hide things. While she was happy to keep notes on neighbours, friends, strangers, villains and occasionally files from work in it, indeed she'd bought it partly to remove the feeling of guilt over keeping notes at all for the first three, she'd always felt a little worse about her notes on the more heroic people of Gotham. They required something less obvious. That was the lockbox, an inexperienced attempt at hiding things.
An evening spent settled in on the sofa with Gerald curled up next to her and work all around was certainly familiar to her though, even if it was just making notes on the more unusual inhabitants of the city before she got down to some real work.
Alias: None
Age: 34
Gender:Female
Occupation: Psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum
Current Status: Working at Arkham
Alignment: Lawful good with some Neutral tendencies
Costumed Identity Known By Their Enemies? N/A
Costumed Identity Known By The General Public? N/A
Real Identity Known By Their Enemies? Yes
Real Identity Known By The General Public? Yes
Abilities/Skills:
A trained psychologist with years of working experience she's intelligent with a developed keen eye for details and a very good understanding of people.
She's learnt to keep a professional distance and separate her own feelings from what she imagines others to be going through, emotionally she is quite strong as a result.
Basic first aid skills but advanced chemical knowledge. Basically she can suggest medications for a chemical imbalance in the brain but don't ask her to do much about a broken leg.
Due to the residents of Arkham she's not easily spooked anymore and tends to approach most situations calmly.
She acts with careful thought and planning rather than coming to impulsive decisions.
She knows just enough about fixing cars to keep hers in good working condition.
She has a good sense of self preservation and strong opinion on what's right and wrong. While she wants to help people she'll only bend the rules if it's obviously a good idea and she won't get herself killed over it if she can help it.
Weaknesses:
She has a tendency to psychoanalyse people, those she knows and those she doesn't. While she doesn't always voice her observations it can distract her from making friends rather than patients out of people.
She finds it hard to really trust people in general, let alone trust them to know what's good for themselves.
She doesn't acknowledge the infamy some of the more dangerous patients in Arkham may have. While this allows her to treat them just the same as anyone else, and though she isn't naive and won't believe everything they say, it can lead to her underestimating them sometimes.
Her work is a very large part of her life and she doesn't have much of a social life as a result. With much of her free time spent keeping up with the latest research or simply observing a quiet moment by herself with a book she has a tendency to be a little bit of a hermit.
She finds it difficult to relax after a particularly hard day at work.
She's only human. She's not faster, stronger or more powerful than the average person on the street. She hasn't taken so much as a self defence class.
She has a lot of regret over patients who have been released and returned to the asylum along with those in the profession who become patients themselves. She hides it but often believes she has failed them.
Appearance:
About 5'6'' and with a slim, hourglass build Joan isn't exactly lacking in the typical traits for beauty but she doesn't scream it around and attract attention usually. Instead she appears professional, neat and at least looks important despite her thoughts otherwise. She has dark skin, dark eyes and black hair that's kept cut to about jaw level with a small curled fringe. Her clothes don't vary widely from home to work, though obviously she doesn't wear a lab coat outside of the asylum and steers toward more comfortable shoes at home as opposed to the heals she wears to work. Primarily she wears trousers or a skirt with a fitted t-shirt, a shirt only if the occasion calls for it and jeans are reserved for odd jobs and occasionally weekends, never for the office.
Personality: Outwardly Joan is usually quiet, calm and confident. She listens, thinks and always tries to help regardless of the person, trying not to make snap judgements. She appears friendly, open, the person to go to when you're stuck for a babysitter, need a ride and help finding the dog. Outwardly she's the neighbour people are on friendly terms with, know they can depend on but then look back on years later and figure out they really don't know anything about her but the basics and don't know why they never asked because she always made everything about them.
What's going on /inside/ Joan's mind is quite a different story.
Her brain doesn't switch out of work mode easily so she's often hiding some stress while she tries to find ways to rid herself of it, she works too much and even works out of habit when she's just supposed to be having a chat. She has some issues with getting close to people, emotional detachment is something she's become very good at, tell her a sad story and she'll say sorry and look it but really be analysing it and making mental notes. She has a habit for note taking, she'd hate to forget some tiny detail just because she didn't write it down, only for it to be vastly important later. She has the sense to keep her notes hidden under lock and key though, always feeling a little guilty for analysing people who aren't patients at all and hoping they'll never find out what she really thinks or worse as far as she's concerned, discover some of the secrets other people they know have.
Rules and order are important to her, no matter the person or their relationship it's rare that she'll even bend the smallest amounts and only then if she believes strongly that it will do a great amount of good or to save a life, though she will usually hesitate to work out if the life is actually in danger. Secrecy is even more important. She expects people to be able to trust her even if she doesn't exactly trust them, part of that trust is not blabbing all their confidential secrets to the first person who asks nicely or applies a little pressure, the police require a warrant to see her notes at work, she doesn't see why anyone else should get them any easier. She's not happy even if they do have a warrant but rules are rules.
She's not easily scared, despite the people she's frequently surrounded by at work she fears very few, having only what she describes as a healthy awareness of what they're supposed to be capable of and treating them like anyone else who needs help. No one is more or less special than anyone else in her world view, with the possible exception of children, while she can't stand to see anyone suffer she would see them suffer the least.
Trust doesn't come easily to Joan, she's been around too long and heard the lies of too many patients, friends, family, boyfriends. She always appears friendly and open and she does like to be always honest but she's also instinctively keeping thoughts to herself and looking for those few words where someone slips up and proves they're just making it all up or don't even know what's good for themselves. There is only one she trusts entirely and that's Gerald, who's her cat. All he wants is food, warmth, to sleep around her apartment and a little bit of fuss. She provides, he's company, he's too simple to analyse and he can never be dishonest because he's just a cat, she loves him for it.
Background:
Joan was raised in a small town in Michigan, about an hour from Detroit. Daughter of Melissa, a teacher and David a mechanic and the middle child with two brothers, Darrel, the eldest and Ian the youngest. Her childhood was pretty good, the usual occasional family fall out, hellish nightmares of family gatherings at christmas were about as bad as it got, over all it could simply be considered very normal. She was just one of those normal children, smart but with an energy that bubbled and didn't really aid concentration but ebbed enough for her to take an interest in her classes the more she grew up.
She was 14 when her mother decided she preferred the attentions of a fellow teacher over that of Joan's father. As things started to fall apart and rumours spread round the school the bond between her and her brothers got stronger to cope as she drifted away from her friends, trying to avoid the gossip. Darrel provided an escape when things got too much, driving them out to the mall until things had cooled down again before going home. Ian would do the actual cheering up, somehow brushing things away with a laugh to make it seem less like things were doomed and broken though he was hit the hardest by it really. Joan meanwhile started to take care of business and keep everything going. Everything was to be sorted when dad got home, as far as she was concerned he had enough to worry about without having to look after them on his own, using the work to keep herself busy and for something else to think about.
By the time she was 16 they had it down to a fine art, her and her eldest brother even working in dad's garage on weekends and after school while Ian was more inclined to do his own thing. Her usually in the small office, dealing with the customers and paperwork while Darrel actually got to help out on the cars. On quiet days though she would come to hang out with them both, enjoying actually getting to spend time with her dad and watch him fix the cars, until she'd learn enough to help out there too anyway. She still considers it practical to at least know the way around an engine and look after her own car, sometimes using it as stress relief after a very bad day at work but dismantling her car everytime something goes wrong in life would just be inconvenient.
Joan didn't have much time in school left to decide what to do with herself, she worked hard and did well for her effort but she hadn't worked out where she wanted to point her focus. Darrel had already decided he enjoyed working at the garage and was working towards some relevant qualifications. Ian was suddenly announcing he was going to be an artist but it somehow suited him.
Psychology started off as a passing curiosity, she'd decided she wanted to do something important and toyed with the idea of becoming a doctor, understanding people better could only help and it was a little more in connection with the patient, an idea she liked. As it turned out it was fascinating and she found herself deciding to pursue the subject. University she did well at, made a few friends, finished among the top group in her class and really threw herself into her work. Learning and observing, working out what to look for and how to put people at ease, sometimes practising on strangers just to see how much she could work out about them. The downside came when she started doing the same to friends and boyfriends, trying not to let on, hiding the flaws she did find and ultimately distancing herself a little from everyone so she wouldn't be too tempted to interfere and try to 'fix' everyone.
She volunteered at a school for the mentally challenged in the holidays which eventually lead to an internship, which lead to another internship at a much smaller and less high profile asylum than Arkham when she didn't have classes and continuing to work there for a time even once she'd finally gotten her Doctorate until she finally her sights on more challenging patients. Those who needed possibly the most help, were the most difficult to understand and predict and undoubtedly would be good for the world if they got better, if only because they might stop trying to destroy it.
She joined the team at Arkham soon after, working hard to adjust to the big difference to the patients she was used to. She works too hard but it enabled her to get a handle on things and she even felt she was doing something good and important at last. The years passed with criminals and far too many breakouts for her liking. It wasn't until Harley Quinn broke the Joker out of Arkham though that she really took a hit to her confidence and content little life, always wondering if there was some way she could have prevented it and becoming a little more guarded and less trusting for fear that she never saw it coming. It played on her mind, effected her work a little and in the rare few days holiday she took almost a month later she ended up buying Gerald on the spur of the moment. A little kitten, soon to be a great fluffy grey tabby, his simplicity and endless contentedness helped and still continues to do so.
Current Associates:
Current Enemies:
Other Relationships:
RP Sample:
Joan fumbled for her keys, trying to juggle groceries and her coffee to reach her pocket until she was just forced to put the coffee on the ground and free up a hand. The familiarity of her little apartment greeted her as she open the door, a glance of less than a second showing everything's just as she left it, right down to the cat still sleeping on the window sill. She's been gone almost three hours, you'd think he'd at least turn around to sun the other side from time to time. Still there's a soft smile for the fluffy tom and she stoops to pick her coffee back up, kicking the door quietly shut behind her and carrying her food for the week into the kitchen area.
It really wasn't a big apartment, three rooms in total; bedroom, bathroom, the kitchen and living room being only separated by a sudden end to the carpet and a short bar counter it didn't seem worth counting it as two rooms and with a grand view of a car park and the shabby hotel across the road it wasn't wasn't winning any awards for location either. Joan could afford better. Joan could afford better several payrises ago, now comfort in her surroundings was the only thing to keep her there. That and so far a lack of break ins. Some of the extra money saved was helpful in at least making the place quite pleasant inside.
The groceries she placed on the kitchen counter and begun to sort away with finally a stir from Gerald the cat in case food was on offer. Joan sipped from the coffee somewhere between shutting the potatoes in a cupboard and reaching back into the bag, pausing as her attention shifted to Gerald. Suddenly up on the counter and trying his sweetest meow just as she pulled a can of tuna out of the bag. A smirk and Joan puts away the tin anyway, childing the cat "You're not supposed to be up on the counter" he still gets a quick scratch behind the ears. Many failed attempts had taught Joan that it was easier just to wash the counter everytime she wanted to use it than to try and train Gerald out of it.
Food away, everything neat and tidy in the kitchen, still half of her coffee left. Joan decided to put off tidying the rest of the apartment and reached for the newspaper. More stories of the masked men and women of Gotham.
She skimmed over the first few pages to get an idea of things before removing a lockbox from behind the cleaning supplies under the sink. Yes, she had a short filing cabinet by her sofa and it was built rather like a safe but even mostly hidden under a cloth with a plant on top as soon as it was recognised for what it was it looked expensive, it was not a place to hide things. While she was happy to keep notes on neighbours, friends, strangers, villains and occasionally files from work in it, indeed she'd bought it partly to remove the feeling of guilt over keeping notes at all for the first three, she'd always felt a little worse about her notes on the more heroic people of Gotham. They required something less obvious. That was the lockbox, an inexperienced attempt at hiding things.
An evening spent settled in on the sofa with Gerald curled up next to her and work all around was certainly familiar to her though, even if it was just making notes on the more unusual inhabitants of the city before she got down to some real work.
