(no subject)
Player nickname: Suu
Player LJ: persephonics
Way to contact you:
Email: the.rosario.impale@gmail.com
AIM: nebulochaoticism (I'm often invisible but usually around.)
Other: PM works, too.
Are you at least 15?: Plus ten years.
Current Characters: None at DDD.
Character: Joanna Beth "Jo" Harvelle
Fandom: Supernatural
Character Notes:
History: Jo's the daughter of two Hunters-- Ellen and Bill Harvelle. When she was a
young child, her father was killed as the result of a mistake made by John Winchester, and it's
said that what really caused his death was-- while it's not confirmed to be true by anyone but
a demon, who is obviously not the best source for the truth--, John himself, shooting Bill in the
head to put him out of his misery. Since then, she's lived with her mother, running the Harvelle
Roadhouse and watching hunters come in and out, and learning about the job through their
stories and what she sees. She grew up dreaming of becoming a hunter like her father, but her
mother was incredibly, 100%, not-even-considering it against it. When the Winchesters came
back into their lives, Jo finally sees her chance to prove herself, and when she manages to
sneak out to work a case with the boys, her natural aptitude for the job shines through. As
time goes on, though, Jo and Ellen get tangled up in what seems to be the Winchester curse
of 'anyone near them is constantly in danger', and the Roadhouse burns down. Both Ellen and
Jo disappear until Season 5, where they both are helping a friend deal with a demon
infestation-- on different sides of the battle. It's eventually revealed that the 'infestation' is really just one force: War, one of the Four Horsemen, who's using his power to twist everyone's perception to make them all think that everyone else is a demon. When Dean and Sam strip War of the ring he's using to control the town, the Harvelles join the Winchesters and Bobby and make a plan to assassinate Lucifer. The night before they make their move, Dean tries to make his own move on Jo, who turns him down, stating that if it really was her last night on
earth, she wanted to spend it with some self-respect. The next day, the group runs afoul of
Meg and her Hellhounds, and Jo-- moving to save Dean-- is mortally injured. As she slowly
bleeds out, unable to move her legs and aware that she's not going to survive, she concocts
a plan to destroy the Hellhounds and keep them from going after the Winchesters, setting a
salt-and-shrapnel bomb and luring them in, where she'll detonate it as the others run. As she
says goodbye to Dean, he kisses her-- first her forehead, cracking her strong front, and then
her lips. Right after, Ellen reveals that she's not going to just let her daughter die alone, and that someone has to open the doors to let the Hellhounds in. Jo dies as if in her sleep before she can set the detonator off, and Ellen takes over, telling the Hellhounds (and probably Meg) to
"go back to hell, you bitch."
Personality: There are a lot of ways to describe Jo, but it really depends on who
you've got her near. Around strangers and 'civilians', Jo gives every indication of being a little standoffish and probably not fitting in well; she says that she dropped out of college because while she was there she was just 'a freak with a knife collection', which implies she probably didn't go out of her way to get close to anyone while she was there. And when you're aware of a whole other world besides what people see every day, and you know that any indication
of believing in that world would get you alienated at best and openly persecuted at worst,
well, it's no surprise she's not one to get too close to new people. But this isn't to say that she can't be friendly or charming-- she did work as a waitress at the Roadhouse, as well as a
bartender, so it's safe to say that she's also probably not completely socially inept.
Around fellow Hunters, though, she's a whole 'nother animal: Jo is confident in the face of
danger, sharp-witted, and quick to plan and act. She's got a natural talent for research and
she's got the practical skills Hunters need, as well-- a working knowledge of anti-supernatural
weaponry and a collection of knives, including one solid iron one with her father's initials on it. She's also implied to be a hell of a crack shot, and she's got a spine of steel to hold her up; in short, Hunter!Jo is a great deal like her mother and also in some ways a great deal like Dean, for whom she has feelings that walk that line between a crush and strong, strong admiration-- or perhaps straddle it. Whereas she gets along with just about all of the main cast of Supernatural, there's a solid understanding between Dean and her-- both of them grew up
idolizing their fathers, though in Jo's case it's the near-worship that a child gives a parent who's gone. As a Hunter, Jo epitomizes the archetype: independent, strong, and capable of thinking on her feet.But even that doesn't totally describe her. Jo-- just Jo, not a hunter or a stranger-- is stubborn to the point that she can make some pretty idiotic decisions, like offering herself up as bait to a spirit targeting young women. She's a little temperamental, and her father's death-- and the Winchesters' role in it-- is a sore spot that is almost guaranteed to cause her to lash out. She mouths off to her mother, desperate to be more than just a little girl in her eyes and aching for respect-- from everyone. She's also impulsive when emotionally stirred, at least in the second season, though the fifth season sees her return a little calmer and more willing to stop mouthing off and make the hard choices. It's Jo that, after being gutted by a Hellhound, gets her mother and the Winchester brothers to take off the rose-colored glasses and accept that she wasn't going to survive, and moreover-- while shaking from blood loss and having her 'guts held in by an Ace bandage'-- came up with a plan to continue the mission and open up the path for the Winchesters to take on Lucifer, sacrificing herself to kill the hellhounds after them. She holds up her strong front throughout all of the preparations, and even when her mother decides to stay back to open the doors to the trap they set, she doesn't fight pointlessly against it. She only shows any sign of the absolute terror she feels-- what 24 year old wants to die the way she was going to?-- when face-to-face with Dean, just before she and her mother send the boys on the way, and even then there's no sobbing and wailing. She holds up well under pressure, even this sort of pressure, and when Dean, knowing (as they all do) that she's not going to survive tells her he'll see her on the other side, "probably sooner than later", she hands him her shotgun and tells him to "make it later". It's only when he kisses her forehead, cementing the goodbye, that she looks like she's as scared as she must be and the shield comes down.
And of course, it's hard to look at Jo's personality without exploring the relationship she has
with Dean. At first glance it just looks like a crush, based off of physical attractiveness and him being a Hunter (much like her father). But as Jo comes into her own as a Hunter, giving Dean
a case she's put together and then lying to her mother to join him and Sam working it. Dean
takes on his rarely-used 'responsible adult' mantle and tries to talk her out of pursuing a life as a Hunter, but when she confides in him that she wants to become a Hunter to feel closer to
her father, there's a stronger bond formed. However, when it's revealed by Ellen that her
father died because of a mistake that Dean's father made, Jo leaves, running off to hunt on
her own. The next time she runs into the Winchesters, she's working and living on her own in
Duluth. A possessed Sam shows up at the bar, and offers an olive branch-- and when she
asks if Dean's making the same offer, the demon possessing Sam grabs onto that and tells
her that Dean sees her as a schoolgirl, a little sister, but never romantically, and then tries to move in on her, telling her he could be more to her-- which she wholeheartedly rejects, only to be knocked out by Sam. Even when she suspects-- probably thinks she knows-- that it might be
true, she refuses to let her reaction show; she's steely even when called on the torch she's
carrying. And when Dean actually makes a move, on what could be (and indeed does become) her last night on earth, she turns him down, saying that if this WAS her last night on Earth, she'd like to spend it with some self-respect, though it was probably a very, very tempting offer. She's got a strong sense of self, and she's not about to go sacrificing her own dignity to be another of Dean's by-blows. It might even be a sign that she's come to terms with the complicated nature of their relationship-- by turning down the night with him, she preserves the balance between them. Dean's important to her in a way that no one else is, important third only to her mother and father, and there's a status quo there that she's a little afraid of breaching. If she sleeps with him, will things change? And can she afford that change, on the eve of such an important event? As she's dying half a day later, she probably has at least a flicker of regret that she hadn't taken him up on it, but she seems at peace (well, comparatively) as he leaves.
Other: Jo enjoys kittens, long walks on the beach, and shiny, shiny knives.
She's a top-scorer on shooting arcade games, and she hustles (pool, said games, probably
cards) really well, too. She's also got a lot of know-how when it comes to the supernatural--
what she doesn't know offhand, she knows how to find out. Also, I'm pulling her from mid-
season 2.
Additional Links: One and
Two.
First Person (entry type):
Okay. You know what? I get it. I do. It's not like it's easy for me, either. But if there's one
thing that Mom's been trying to drill into me from day one, from the first time I told her I
wanted to hunt, it was that when there's a job? You finish it. You don't quit because it's hard,
or you're scared, or the odds are against you. Not if it hurts. Even if no one else wants to
admit it, I know what's next. Sam and Dean... they might make it. I hope to God they do.
But even if they do, I know I won't be there to see it. And if I can do anything--
anything-- to help... Well, it's the right choice. This is too important for them to back
down now. If they can stop Lucifer... stop the Apocalypse... I'll do it. Dad would
have done the same, too. It's a Hunter's job to finish things. So let's finish this.
Third Person:
Jo has a lot of secrets.
Some of them, well, they're normal for a girl like her: that sometimes she still says the "God
bless Mom, and Dad" prayers from her childhood; sometimes she dreams about coming home
and seeing her dad's truck parked behind her mom's. That she's got a secret stash of candy
under her bed, along with dog-eared copies of Gone With the Wind and Wuthering Heights, and a tattoo on her hip that her mother would throttle her for.
Others, well, for anyone but hunters, they aren't so normal. She knows thirty ways to tell if
someone's being ridden by a spirit or possessed. She can tell pure silver at a glance now, and
if anyone ever found the camera film case of rock salt in her purse, or the solid iron knife she
keeps tucked in her boot, she'd have a lot more explaining to do than 'I really wanted a Red
Vine'. When she was in college, she'd had to get a special mattress to hide her weapons. That's something the civvies wouldn't have understood.
And there are a few she's trying to keep from herself. The low-burning sense of resentment she
feels whenever fathers are brought up around the Winchester boys. A strange jealousy when
Sam bursts into the scene and Dean immediately picks up and darts out with hardly a goodbye. The growing sense that she can't stay here at the Roadhouse anymore-- that though she loves her mother, she can no longer live with her. The road's calling her, and she finds herself pulled in too many directions-- to stay, to go... It's a painful choice and so she tries to forget it.
So when she finally puts the last finishing touches on the casefile-- photos, last known contacts-- and tucks it under her arm, she prepares herself for a rehash of an old fight, and she wonders if she has it in her to keep one more secret-- a big one-- from her mom. Because it's gotten long past time she stood up on her own and traded in those girlish secrets for greater
mysteries, and while Ellen might not get it, she's sure her dad would have.