Character
JANET REILLY
Race: Human
Age: 18
Sex: Female
Sexuality: Homosexual
Relationship: Single
Height: 5'3"
Build: Strong & Stout
Player
JANET CRAWFORD
Nationality: American
Age: 38
Sex: Female
Sexuality: Heterosexual (?)
Relationship: Married with Child
Height: 5'3"
Build: Overweight & Flabby
Personality
A bored housewife using her son's console while he's at college, Janet is not the most technology-savvy. She often has no idea what she's doing in a game world and will interrupt discussions to vent her own frustration and lack of understanding. She's a confident person, especially in-game, and has no issue marching up to the first NPC or PC she sees and demanding a manager. Bossy and overbearing as she can be, Janet is generally a good person, but she also believes good people help themselves and that responsible people take care of their own messes. She believes in the law, organizations, and stands firm by the rules as the best possible method of solving a problem. When there isn't a book to go by, Janet is excellent at systematically finding the most efficient way to get things done. She also takes her commitments seriously. If she is in a guild, group, or other organization, you can expect her to show up on time and perform to the best of her ability (if you don't do the same, she'll tell you about it.) However, it's worth noting that the TerraSphere world is Janet's new opportunity to develop who she thinks she could have been (and can maybe still be!) so players may notice she takes sudden leaps of faith or makes unpredictable choices in an attempt at self-exploration.
One side of Janet that she never had the chance to explore in life is her romantic attraction to women, which has started to affect her real life as well now that her son is gone at school. Janet is an extremely overprotective and paranoid parent, and her opinions regarding this subject may suddenly and violently surface when encountering young players or NPCs. Despite this, she isn't much of a "motherly" type. Janet can be known to complain a lot if she doesn't feel she's being taken seriously or if she doesn't like what someone is doing, which can be often, but she also gives credit where it is due and acknowledges good work. Apart from the fact that out of guilt/paranoia she's hiding her age and real-life identity (because the internet told her not to reveal those details to strangers) as well as her online day-gaming from her husband, Janet is generally a very frank, open, honest person. She's not afraid to roll up her sleeves and work hard and takes pride in a job well done or a task well accomplished. She feels significant guilt over wrongs and moral dilemmas, especially those of a religious nature, and tends to worry and regret choices she's made and things she's done.
Positive: Dedicated, Organized, Confident, Honest
Negative: Stubborn, Judgmental, Bossy, N00b
Biography
Janet Reilly (her maiden name) grew up as a simple farm girl in Wisconsin with several brothers, all of them good, decent country people. It was hard work on the farm, but there was always a proper way to do everything and a system set up so that as long as they all worked hard to help Ma and Pa, they’d all do okay. Janet was a strong young woman who wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, used to cleaning out the barns, lifting heavy bags of animal feed, and slinging bales of hay. She was homeschooled and learned to drive a tractor at age thirteen to help in the potato fields. She’d always wanted to take it over herself when Ma and Pa got old, but her parents were very firm about one of her brothers taking over the farm instead.
A young man at church took a shine to Janet in her teens—he wasn’t from around those parts, just visiting family in the area—but he began to pursue her relentlessly. Janet wasn’t too keen on him to begin with, she had other duties to take care of, but her mother was all in a tizzy over the handsome, wealthy young fella from the city who wanted to court her little girl. Somewhat reluctantly, Janet caved. Her parents knew what was best for her, and there was nothing wrong with young Mr. Crawford. Maybe she was just afraid of what came next when she got too old and nobody else wanted her, or when it was time for her brother to take over the farm and she’d have nowhere to go. They were married in the spring, much to the joy of the community and her family, and Janet moved away from home to the suburbs at eighteen years old.
Mr. Crawford’s work took him away from home often, but he made quite a lot of money, so Janet had no need to work. She focused on raising their son David instead, doing her best to impress the solid values her family had taught her onto him. It was hard when they didn’t have the same type of work to do together, however, and Janet became quite the bored housewife with nothing else on her hands to take care of. She joined ladies’ groups in town, the PTA, and the homeowner’s committee for their neighborhood. Her greatest concern for her son was that he would be exposed to any explicit content in film, fiction, or music, so Janet policed him relentlessly, previewing anything he wanted to see and even demanding access to his personal e-mail.
Their biggest conflict was when Janet found a virtual reality console just like the ones she’d seen everyone being warned about on the news. The ensuing fight permanently damaged their relationship, and when David finally went to college and left the nest, he wouldn’t even speak to her. Things were quiet for the next two years—too quiet. Though she tried to immerse herself in her committees, Janet was… bored. Restless. Unsatisfied with her marriage. She found herself thinking wistfully about the farm, and her old life, and how things might have been different if she’d made different choices when she was young.
While cleaning out David’s old room to convert into a guest room, Janet remembered the VR console she’d confiscated back then. She wondered if she could return it. Did it even still function? She’d always previewed and tested everything of her son’s before—it couldn’t hurt just to plug it in and make sure it still worked before she brought it back to the store and asked a manager to refund her.
Unfortunately, Janet Crawford didn’t have the best grasp of how technology worked. As TerraSphere booted up, she found herself trapped in the character creation screen and couldn’t figure out how to exit. Hoping if she finished the process, she’d be able to close out, Janet created her character. About halfway through, she became immersed. She couldn’t help but make herself as she looked twenty years ago, selecting the least violent/inappropriate specializations, and hesitated over the name. She’d heard you shouldn’t put your real name out on the internet, or the stalkers might find you. Instead, she used her maiden name—Reilly, fitting for the face and the avatar she’d created of her past life. After that… well, it wouldn’t hurt to keep playing while her husband was away during the day, would it?
Out of Character
Played by: @Buzz
Player tag: @Janet Reilly
(Silver Spoon) Tamako Inada
(Silver Spoon) Tamako Inada (again)
