Jessica Murphy (art by Mimi)
Name: Jessica Murphy
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: Cheerleading, swim team, babysitting, being a lifeguard, teaching swim lessons, and reading.
Appearance: Jessica stands at a relatively average 5'4, and weighs in at 115 lbs. A lot of this is muscle weight due to how active she is. Even during stretches of inactivity, for example between the summer and swim season, she doesn't gain much weight due to her fast metabolism. Some of her weight is a bit of the curvaceousness she has picked up over her teenage years, with most of these curves being around her hips rather than around her bust. She has a heart shaped face and brown eyes. She uses makeup only on days where she isn’t planning to go swimming, usually choosing a small amount of eye shadow and mascara. She has a rather pale complexion with rosy cheeks. She has large dimples and a small button nose. She has average sized ears with attached earlobes that are normally complemented by small, silver-colored, hoop earrings. Her blonde hair, when not put up, goes down to the base of her neck. However, it is normally in a simple bun with bangs in the front. She typically dresses in a comfortable manner, usually wearing a t-shirt and jeans. For footwear she normally wears a simple pair of sneakers, but occasionally wears flats or heels if she's feeling fancy that day.
On the day of the trip she was wearing a light green t-shirt with a tiny pocket over the left breast. She was also wearing dark blue skinny jeans and gray sneakers.
Biography: Jessica was born in raised in Seattle, living in the same house the whole time. She is the oldest child of three, having two younger sisters, Sara being two years younger, and Brittany six. Her parents both work at nearby corporate buildings, her dad writing up presentations for executives, and her mom works in human resources.
Prior to starting school Jessica was sent to day care due to her parents working full time. When she first started school Jessica was a bit shy, but by the end of her first year she had a lot of friends in her class. At the end of her kindergarten year her parents signed her up for swim lessons. She loved it almost immediately due to her feeling it was like flying, but without being able to fall.
Most of elementary school passed without incident, other than that in fifth grade she was allowed to stay at home without her parents or a babysitter, although her parents only would do this when they were going to be a short distance away and not for longer than two hours at a time. They also made sure they had their phones on so that if there was an emergency they could get home. They gradually let Jessica watch her sisters for longer and longer amounts of time. This is when she first had to keep watch over her siblings, and led to her starting to babysit to earn a little money once she was in eighth grade.
In middle school she joined the cheerleading squad, due to having a few friends who were also trying out and also because she enjoyed the exercise. Now that she's in high school, she tends to have a slight dislike for girls who joined cheerleading just to be popular, rather than actually enjoying it.
In late middle school she didn't have to watch over her younger siblings as much, as her parents started trusting them to stay home without her. However, she still took the time to look out for them and give them advice. With Sara, they go through periods of being really good friends, and then times where they rarely speak to each other. This is due to Sara often getting slightly obsessive over perceived insults. Jessica rarely has a problem with Brittany, mostly due to the larger age gap. Brittany often tries to live up to Jessica and recently joined the middle school cheerleading squad. This level of reverential attitude is part of Jessica's conflict with Sara, due to a bit of jealousy on Sara's part. She gets along pretty well with her parents. They occasionally have to get on her if her math grade is slipping, but otherwise they are pretty happy with how she's doing.
Once she got to high school, Jessica joined the swim team to continue her love of swimming. In the summer before her sophomore year she became a lifeguard at the public pool after getting her certification. She has only had to rescue one kid during that whole time, a little kid who had parents that didn’t pay much attention. She also became an instructor for a few classes of beginning swimmers, and she instantly liked being called Miss Jessica. She tends to be a bit soft with the kids, except in situations where something is unsafe.
In school her attitude depends on the class. In English she's very involved in class discussion and even takes the AP level of the class. She also stops by after class to discuss books she's been reading with her teacher. Typically she reads mystery novels, but occasionally will read some sort of romance. She likes the mystery novels because she enjoys trying to figure out the clues before the character does, and the romance novels are appealing because she likes reading books where relationships go somewhere good since she gets tired of seeing the brief and dramatic teenage relationships. She also takes AP French. In other classes she tends to get involved in off-topic discussion a lot, although she always makes sure to get her work done. The exception is math where she has to focus the whole time to have a chance to do well. She gets A's in most of her classes, with the occasional B thrown in, except in math where she's had to study hard to get C's throughout high school.
Socially, she does pretty well, getting along with most people. She tends to have a rather happy personality, although her way of explaining things, while being good with kids, can come off as condescending to those her own age. She tends not to have a problem during normal conversations, but explaining something to someone sometimes causes problems. She hasn't given up trying to explain things though because she feels like she has a responsibility to help people when she can. She tends to hang around with the other swimmers and cheerleaders, but also has made friends in different groups from her AP English class. She tends to decline commenting on certain activities of friends, such as partying or drugs. It's not enough to stop her from being friends, but she avoids being in that part of their lives.
She tends to like guys who stay out of trouble, which isn't always obvious when she starts dating them, leading to a breakup later. She's dated quite a bit. Part of the problem is that she isn't very good at communicating what she wants in the relationship, usually leading to annoyance when the guys don't match up with her unspoken standards. Jessica usually makes the mistake of judging by first impressions, leading her to date guys she doesn't know well at all. Another reason is that the guys she goes for generally get annoyed over how she cares more about feelings and going out, and not so much about anything physical.
She plans to go to college after high school and become an elementary school teacher. This is because she's discovered she likes teaching kids through teaching swim lessons.
Advantages: Jessica's positive attitude is unlikely to earn her many enemies. Her swimming has given her a lot more stamina, which would help her run longer, or deal with being exhausted for a lot of the time. She's also flexible. Her first aid and CPR knowledge from being a lifeguard could help her take care of injuries she gets, and also to help out any of her friends.
Disadvantages: She tends to be very nurturing, attempting to help people rather than hurt, which would make it very hard to harm others, even in self defense. Her condescending tone could cause issues with others. Her high metabolism could lead to her being exhausted quickly due to the low amount of food she'd have on the island.
Designated Number: Female student No. 013
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Designated Weapon: Sledgehammer (10 lbs head)
Conclusion: I'd say hammer time, but that thing weighs so much she'd be lucky to hit her own foot. - Matt Richards - 'Hammer time' on an 18 year old? That's just creepy dude
The above biography is as written by bacon. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.
Evaluations[]
Handled by: bacon
Kills: None
Killed By: Suicide by drowning
Collected Weapons: Sledgehammer (designated weapon)
Allies: Jason Meyers, Joe Carrasco
Enemies: Aileen Aurora Abdallah, Owen Kay
Mid-game Evaluation:
Post-Game Evaluation:
Memorable Quotes:
- "Don't you want to live?"
Other/Trivia[]
Threads[]
Below is a list of threads that contain Jessica, in chronological order.
V5:
- In Situ
- That's Crate!
- WonderWander
- Today I'm Dirty
- Everybody Looking For Something
- Call An Optimist, She's Turning Blue
Your Thoughts[]
Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Jessica Murphy. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!