Kelly Anne Murphy
OOC
What should we call you? You can call me Thunder.
How did you find us? I was guided here on a stormy night by a rather excitable Ouija Board. ALSO, someone sent me a message asking if you could promote over at jonasslash .
Contact info? landonkt@uab.edu or commenting here will get my attention rather quickly.
Ever roleplayed before? Yes, actually, YEARS AGO. I used to mod on a few RPG boards back when that was the popular way to do it, but I haven't done it in a while. If you want an example of my writing style (and aren't horribly opposed to Jonascest) you can check it out here:
Under Broken Skies
Did you read the rules? Rootbeer float.
IC
Full name: Kelly Anne Murphy
Nickname(s): Kelly, Kam, Murphy's Law.
Played-by: K-Bell.
DOB: January 6th, 1980
POB: Murphy, North Carolina
Patient or Doctor? Neither. Kristen Bell is listed as Secretary, and I hope I'll allowed to apply for that; if not, I apologize...
She's been at MHI for almost eight months.
Likes and Dislikes:
Likes: Warm breezes, mountain views, vitamin water, sarcasm, staying up late, Ryan Phillipe, computers.
Dislikes: Rude people, grapes, folk music, users, bad grammar, memorizing dates, being clumsy.
History (at least three paragraphs):
Piper Jane Grant was born in small medical clinic in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. I know, you don't care about Piper, you want to hear about Kelly - but stay with me.
Piper's mom, Sara Grant, was a struggling real estate developer who had managed to put aside her drinking problem during her pregnancy, but unfortunately, returned to it shortly afterward. Piper's dad, Douglas Daniel, was an investment banker and part-time country music singer, but seeing as Piper never met him, or even heard his name, that's fairly inconsequential.
For the first nine years of her life, Piper was pushed back and forth between her mom and her grandparents. No one seemed to be able to take responsibility of her for very long. Not because she was particularly difficult, but because, between her mom's alcoholism and her grandparents increasing age, it was difficult to look after her.
Eventually, Piper got used to the idea that she would never find her home with her family; she turned to books for solace. She fell in love with the worlds created within the words of Tolkien, Ellis, and Lewis. Most of her teenage years were spent with her nose in books.
When she was 16, Piper fell in love with a boy - Lucas Graves. Lucas was tall, and handsome, and athletic, and amazingly enough, just as in love with Piper as she was with him. The first six months of their relationship were completely magical; every bit of neglect or hardship that Piper had ever felt disappeared when she was in his arms. She knew that she wanted to spend her whole life with him.
Sadly, a difficult test of how much Lucas reciprocated that feeling emerged at the six month mark. Piper became pregnant and Lucas vanished.
The first few months of her pregnancy found Piper crying almost all the time. She would leave school spontaneously so she could drive up into the mountain roads and cry. But, after a couple months of that, Piper came to a realization: she could let life defeat her or she could go down fighting. So life hadn't dealt her a fair hand - she couldn't spend her whole life blaming her mistakes on her past.
She focused on school. She had been a straight-A student since high school started, and at seventeen she was already being courted by schools like Yale and Columbia. She could do right by this child, even if it's father wouldn't.
Unfortunately, Piper's daughter, Beth, died from complications during birth. Piper didn't show up to the last two months of school or go to graduation, but she did graduate - with honors.
She went to college, too, although it was more to get away from home than it was because she wanted to go. She didn't go to Yale or Columbia - she ended up at UNC. She had become numb to the ideas of social interaction: her mom never talked to her, the only man she'd ever loved abandoned her, her child died in her arms. Even her books no longer cheered her up. She spent two years as a dedicated English major - the kind of person that took too many classes, spent all night studying, and volunteered to do extra projects - because academics were the only part of her life she had left. After those two years she burned out and suffered a mental breakdown.
Piper's life was too broken to fix. She hated everything about who she was and who everyone else was. One night she found herself in a package store, arms full of bottles, with every intention of drinking herself to death. But then she thought of her mom. She couldn't let herself turn into that. Piper went home that night, packed up everything she owned, and left North Carolina forever. Piper Jane Grant died that night. Kelly Anne Murphy took her place.
Kelly moved to a new town, made new friends, and slowly forgot everything she knew about Piper. She liked the things she was learning about herself she'd never had the time to learn before.
Her new friends called her "Murphy's Law" because she seemed to have terrible luck and was horribly clumsy, but Kelly would take showing up at the wrong restruant for a date over losing a child any day. She settled into her new life and started to love herself again.
She even went back to school under her new persona and got a Master's Degree in Computer Engineering. When it comes to technology, Kelly's an absolute wiz.
She still doesn't date much, and even when she does, it isn't for long. Most of her friendships are pretty shallow, and her apartment is small, but Kelly loves her life and she wouldn't trade it for anything.
She applied to work at MHI a few months ago, and with her degree and meticulous attention to grammar, it was difficult to turn her down.
Personality (at least two paragraphs):
Collected. When you first meet Kelly, there's a good chance that's the first thought that comes to your mind. "Here's a girl who knows where the bodies are buried." However, after spending twenty minutes with her, you might change your mind. Kelly's witty, sarcastic, and incredibly scatter-brained. She's able to stay on top of things, but usually only by running to make up for the time she had to spend cleaning up the mess she made up along the way.
In a lot of ways, Kelly is like Piper: they both love books and solitude. But, Kelly has made it her mission to be as different as from Piper as possible - going as far as to spend a brief two months as a lesbian.
Kelly doesn't get very close to people; most of her friendships are superficial. She finds it difficult to trust anyone and has almost no desire to find lasting relationships. All of that said, Kelly is a compassionate person.
Beneath the surface, Kelly is still just as unstable as she was when she had her break down, but she's had years of experience learning to hide it. In most cases, you'd have to spend a lot of time with her to think of her as more than a smart, good-natured goofball.
Collected. That's the first word you might think when you meet Kelly; and that's the way she likes it, that's the way she's spent the last ten years of her life molding herself to make it.
Thread Sample:
"Shitshitshitshitshitshit..." The words spilled from Kelly's mouth like the water spilling across her desk. She grabbed the waterbottle that she had knocked over and turned it rightside-up as her left hand searched for something that could soak up the expanding puddle. Water continued to trickle across her desk, splashing any paperwork in its path. Kelly couldn't remember there being this much water left in the bottle.
"Way to go, Murphy's Law," she spat at herself quietly as she finally just slipped her jacket from her shoulders and threw it on the spill. "It's like I'm trying to get fired."
The phone started to ring noisely; Kelly settled back into her chair and, completely ignoring the mess in front of her, she grabbed the reciever. She smiled as she put it to her ear.
"Good morning," she sang in a cheery voice. "Martin Hatcher Institute. How may I help you?"
Journal Sample:
[lj-cut text="private"]
Finished Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions during my shift today. I don't read often while I'm at work because a.) I'm not really supposed to and b.) it's a lot easier to not do my work when I'm doing one of tech experiments - at least then it looks like I'm working. But this book was so brilliant that I couldn't help it. I'm definitely adding it to the top shelf in the bookcase.
Tomorrow I think I'll ask Dr. Hatcher if he'll look at some of the new networking parameters I've designed for MHI's iNet.
I love my job, and I feel like I'm really doing something worth while - although I'm not techinincally the one helping the kids - but sometimes I wonder: is this really the best thing I could be doing with my degree?
[/lj-cut]
Hi there!
My name's Kelly and I'm here to help. Anything you need, just let me know.