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Profile: Joanna Patricia O'Neill
Nov. 23rd, 2013 10:33 pmName: Dr. Joanna Patricia O'Neill
Birthday: April 21 | Age 40
Character History:
Born and raised at the outposts, Jo is the daughter of a small town policeman and a diner waitress named Anna. And that, she will tell you calmly, is all she knows of her mother, who died within hours of Jo's birth and was something of a drifter before she met her father. Murphy O'Neill did his best raising her, but he was a gruff, rough sort of man, used to living the bachelor's life and he wasn't entirely sure what to do with a girl. As a result, Jo grew to take care of herself for the most part; she managed the household, got herself to the small school at the outposts, pulled excellent grades and came home to make her father's dinner, cleaned up the house and fell into bed every night to do the same thing. And likely it would have gone on like that forever, if it hadn't been for Murphy himself.
His Jo, he could see, had a sharp brain. And while there wasn't anything wrong with the school in the small, somewhat remote town where they lived - it'd done well enough for him, and his parents, after all - there was no denying that there were more resources in the city. And so, despite vehement arguments that turned into towering rows with Joanna herself, she found herself at the age of twelve shipped off to St. Louis, where she lived with a distant cousin and applied herself again to classes. She didn't find it all that easy to make friends in the city, despite the fact that she'd been rather vivacious and popular in her old school. Jo turned shy, and kept mostly to herself, preferring for a great many years to watch people, make observations to herself, but not to engage.
She did as she was supposed to, excelling in school and even picking up some extracurriculars - ballet in particular, but she also played at being a cheerleader for a few years while in high school - and after graduation, she quit town, going two states away to college to start her life.
She went first to the University of Notre Dame, where she majored in psychology, pushing herself through to graduate with honors in four years, and after that, medical school, choosing the University of Washington on the west coast. After that internship, residency in psychiatry, all with visits home - mostly to the outposts and her dad, but occasionally closer to the Castle. When encouraged, she challenged up, and was a Seven of Hearts when she returned home permanently in her thirties to find her aging father seriously ill.
There was no returning Outside for Jo after that, and she moved back into her childhood home, nursing her father until finally he passed away shortly before her thirty-sixth birthday. It was expected by everyone who knew her that she'd leave the Deck for good then, returning to her life outside as a clinical psychiatrist, but she chose not to. Instead she sold the cottage and with the proceeds moved to Town to set up private practice.
Over the last few years she's built up her practice - though she'd be the first to say in a dry, quiet sort of way that the number of Cards who should seek professional help is nowhere near the number that actually do. Over the last few years, as well, she's challenged up higher in the Suit, finally attaining Ten of Hearts a few weeks after she turned forty..
Her dad would, she knows, be very proud.
Personality:
Though she's conquered the shyness of her childhood, Jo is still a very quiet sort of person. That doesn't mean she's unapproachable - she can't be and do the job she does - but she's not someone who seeks attention on the regular. Nonetheless, she can command it when she needs it, and when she wants to be, she can be effervescent and charming, with a well-developed sense of the ridiculous.
She's not the most trusting of people outside her inner circle, which is the down side of the job she held on the Outside for a great many years; psychiatrists working in hospital settings tend to see people at their worst rather than their best.
Quirks & Secrets:
+ Strictly a beer drinker
+ Takes her tea with a lump of brown sugar and a dash of cream
+ A giggly drunk
+ 5'3"
+ Her accent is that of a typical Deckborn, but her paternal grandparents came from Kerry, and sometimes Jo's phrasing is reminiscent of their accent
+ Excellent poker player, but prefers to use her poker face in Go Fish.
+ Studied ballet in her youth, and continued it while at college - though it had to be dropped when she went to medical school
+ Has a lingering Mountain Dew habit from her medical school and residency days
+ Divorced; her ex-husband, Ryan, was a classmate at Notre Dame who stuck with her through medical school. They divorced a few years ago
+ She has an eight year old daughter with Ryan named Luna
PB: Gillian Anderson
Birthday: April 21 | Age 40
Character History:
Born and raised at the outposts, Jo is the daughter of a small town policeman and a diner waitress named Anna. And that, she will tell you calmly, is all she knows of her mother, who died within hours of Jo's birth and was something of a drifter before she met her father. Murphy O'Neill did his best raising her, but he was a gruff, rough sort of man, used to living the bachelor's life and he wasn't entirely sure what to do with a girl. As a result, Jo grew to take care of herself for the most part; she managed the household, got herself to the small school at the outposts, pulled excellent grades and came home to make her father's dinner, cleaned up the house and fell into bed every night to do the same thing. And likely it would have gone on like that forever, if it hadn't been for Murphy himself.
His Jo, he could see, had a sharp brain. And while there wasn't anything wrong with the school in the small, somewhat remote town where they lived - it'd done well enough for him, and his parents, after all - there was no denying that there were more resources in the city. And so, despite vehement arguments that turned into towering rows with Joanna herself, she found herself at the age of twelve shipped off to St. Louis, where she lived with a distant cousin and applied herself again to classes. She didn't find it all that easy to make friends in the city, despite the fact that she'd been rather vivacious and popular in her old school. Jo turned shy, and kept mostly to herself, preferring for a great many years to watch people, make observations to herself, but not to engage.
She did as she was supposed to, excelling in school and even picking up some extracurriculars - ballet in particular, but she also played at being a cheerleader for a few years while in high school - and after graduation, she quit town, going two states away to college to start her life.
She went first to the University of Notre Dame, where she majored in psychology, pushing herself through to graduate with honors in four years, and after that, medical school, choosing the University of Washington on the west coast. After that internship, residency in psychiatry, all with visits home - mostly to the outposts and her dad, but occasionally closer to the Castle. When encouraged, she challenged up, and was a Seven of Hearts when she returned home permanently in her thirties to find her aging father seriously ill.
There was no returning Outside for Jo after that, and she moved back into her childhood home, nursing her father until finally he passed away shortly before her thirty-sixth birthday. It was expected by everyone who knew her that she'd leave the Deck for good then, returning to her life outside as a clinical psychiatrist, but she chose not to. Instead she sold the cottage and with the proceeds moved to Town to set up private practice.
Over the last few years she's built up her practice - though she'd be the first to say in a dry, quiet sort of way that the number of Cards who should seek professional help is nowhere near the number that actually do. Over the last few years, as well, she's challenged up higher in the Suit, finally attaining Ten of Hearts a few weeks after she turned forty..
Her dad would, she knows, be very proud.
Personality:
Though she's conquered the shyness of her childhood, Jo is still a very quiet sort of person. That doesn't mean she's unapproachable - she can't be and do the job she does - but she's not someone who seeks attention on the regular. Nonetheless, she can command it when she needs it, and when she wants to be, she can be effervescent and charming, with a well-developed sense of the ridiculous.
She's not the most trusting of people outside her inner circle, which is the down side of the job she held on the Outside for a great many years; psychiatrists working in hospital settings tend to see people at their worst rather than their best.
Quirks & Secrets:
+ Strictly a beer drinker
+ Takes her tea with a lump of brown sugar and a dash of cream
+ A giggly drunk
+ 5'3"
+ Her accent is that of a typical Deckborn, but her paternal grandparents came from Kerry, and sometimes Jo's phrasing is reminiscent of their accent
+ Excellent poker player, but prefers to use her poker face in Go Fish.
+ Studied ballet in her youth, and continued it while at college - though it had to be dropped when she went to medical school
+ Has a lingering Mountain Dew habit from her medical school and residency days
+ Divorced; her ex-husband, Ryan, was a classmate at Notre Dame who stuck with her through medical school. They divorced a few years ago
+ She has an eight year old daughter with Ryan named Luna
PB: Gillian Anderson
