![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
[ooc | headcanon]
None of this is official. Just what I believe about Jane's life, based here and there on hints dropped in Thor.
This is subject to revision if I change my mind, js. But most of this is pretty solidly what I've got in mind for her.
Jane grew up in a single parent household. Her mother died when she was quite young - only three years old. She has almost no memories of her, and thought of her steadily less as she grew up. Her father was the center of her entire world. A daddy's girl through and through, she grew attached to her father's work at a young age, and received a telescope for her 6th birthday. She'd spend long nights watching the stars, working on a child's attempt at star maps and sometimes falling asleep right there on the floor beneath her window.
She was an only child, but surprisingly self-disciplined, despite her father's occasional attempts at spoiling her. Fashioning herself as a very serious scientist, she'd study hard and focus on "her work," which at that age consisted of learning about the planets and maybe one or two of the closest starts - at least until she could be convinced to watch some TV. As she got older, she became hooked on sci fi - she was a big fan of Star Trek and Quantum Leap.
Most of her childhood was pretty average in this fashion. Though somewhat serious-minded, Jane was still a goofy, dorky kid, always kind of tiny for her age, and she faced some teasing in school and never had very many friends. But she wasn't completely unpopular, and her happiness lay in her studies, mostly science and math, and in the time she spent with her dad. So while it was rough sometimes, she was mostly pretty okay. Happy, even. She got by.
As she grew older, her dedication to "her work," now much more serious pursuits of astronomy and physics, began to pay off. Though she was never great shakes at the humanities, her stellar grades in the maths and sciences, plus plenty of science fairs and extra curricular activities, earned her spots in some of the best colleges and universities in the country. Fairly happily leaving her teenage years behind, Jane grew into a brilliant and capable young woman who excelled at the sciences to which she applied herself. Her desire as a child to unlock the stars was no whim - it became the real, true focus of her life, and she discovered to her delight that she was as talented as she'd always hoped - always tried to be - at her life's calling.
College led, of course, to grad school, and grad school to a PhD. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until she turned 23. Just a few short months later, her father abruptly passed away. And when he died, it was like all the light in her world went out.
Jane was devastated by the loss. So much so she nearly withdrew from her PhD program despite having only just begun it. That was when Erik Selvig came to find her. She'd known him somewhat, growing up - he'd been good friends with her father. And as her apparent talent in astrophysics became clear in her college years, she started talking to him with a little more frequency, often just for advice, thoughts, or even input on her theories and work. So it was only natural that in the wake of her father's death he'd be the one to fly out and spend some time with her. With both her parents dead, Jane had no real family left to her - no other relatives she knew. She had no family left. She was alone.
Or she would have been, had Erik allowed it. But understanding her drive, the drive she had possessed, he pushed her to keep working. He took time off from teaching to take up temporary residence in the town she lived in, acting as a mentor and almost a replacement father while she got her life back in order and tried to keep her PhD on track. It was with Erik's encouragement that she threw herself back into her work, and worked harder than ever before. It helped her cope - kept her distracted from the loneliness, focused on her goals. Already a somewhat isolated person, she became nigh hermetic, rarely venturing outside except when strictly necessary.
But years passed on, and slowly Jane learned to cope with the grief. Her PhD proceeded well - her work was strong, and with Erik's mentorship and input, it began to prove even groundbreaking. Slowly she began to open up once more to the outside world. She met a doctor, Donald Blake, and even dated for a short time. While it didn't work out, it was a growing experience, and taught her to keep opening up a little more.
By the time she completed her PhD at 28 years old, she'd managed to reclaim a fairly normal life for herself. She didn't have many friends, and most were casual acquaintances, but she was an amiable enough sort of person and got along with most people she met fairly well. Though she was renowned for being fiercely married to her work.
With her doctorate a huge success, Jane continued her research as a post-doc, and hired a grad student to help her with her studies - Darcy. As she'd gotten older and recovered from her father's death, Erik had moved back home and returned to his own obligations, taking time every so often to visit Jane.
It was with this precise state of affairs that Jane turned 29, and in studying old data of stellar phenomena, discovered a pattern that led her to call Erik back out to New Mexico to observe something with her. That "something," of course, turned out to be a lot more than she bargained for - and leads directly into the events of Thor.
Avengers-related headcanon is minimal. SPOILERS
Her canon point pretty much everywhere is post-Avengers, and what she knows is minimal: having seen the attack on New York, she realizes SHIELD likely moved her for a reason, though she's not sure precisely what that reason is. She knows the "gate" that allowed the Chitauri to come through was a wormhole, and she's suspicious of its provenance. She saw Thor on the news, and it gave her A Lot Of Feelings.
[/spoilers]
Other developments will obviously change in game, but that's what she starts with when I app her post-Avengers.
Other random facts:
1) She's not big into pop culture. She does watch a little TV now and then, but she's more into reading. Unsurprisingly, she likes sci fi the most, though her favorite books tend to be nonfiction.
2) She's an awkward sort of person. She can be pretty fierce and confident, but that's largely around and in the context of her work. In her day to day dealings with other people she can and does get flustered.
3) Jane has a ton of dorky logo t-shirts and flannel button-ups because she shops almost exclusively at Good Will. She doesn't care a whole lot about fashion. That said, she would clean up real nice if she ever had a reason to do so.
4) She lives in the trailer because the rent on the lab is more hilariously expensive than she likes to admit. At least, it strains her already modest budget quite a bit.
5) Her academic pedigree is very impressive, but she works in the middle of nowhere New Mexico in part because she traced certain phenomena out there. But the real reason is that it's quiet, and she can work unimpeded. She enjoys having free reign over what she does, and she's more fond of the little town than she often lets on.
6) Erik is family. Period. Though she doesn't think of him as a father figure - just family. He's more like an uncle to her.
7) Her awkwardness in social situations extends to people who are significantly younger than her. She's just not really sure how to act around kids, having not acted much like a kid even when she was one.
8) Truthfully, in her core she is pretty serious and withdrawn, even to the point of secrecy. But that's not what you see on the surface, because on the whole, that's not what she's like. Jane is friendly, for the most part, and cares about the people who do get close to her. But she doesn't get close to many people in the first place. She rationalizes it by saying she spends most of her time with and on her work, anyway - and this is true - but it's kind of a lonely existence, even if she protests that she's just fine.
9) She finds dates awkward. The only reason she dated Donald was because he was more unconventional than the dinner-and-a-movie rigamarole you usually get.
10) She still dreams in science fiction. Deep down she wants a real adventure - to actually visit the stars she spends so much time studying and trying to understand.
11) She didn't do well in humanities in school - english, history, languages - not because she lacked the aptitude, but because she didn't care.
12) Lack of pop culture knowledge aside, the sort of random trivia Jane does absorb tends to relate to famous figures. She's not big on strictly inspirational quotes, but she enjoys knowing what greater minds who've come before have thought of and expressed to the world.
13) Not the definition of physically fit. Jane is skinny largely because she eats like a rabbit. She's not a vegetarian, but she eats infrequently and lightly. She's the sort of person who gets so involved in her work she'll forget to eat for hours. Gym was her worst subject, though for a few years she did play soccer.
14) In college, she audited one or two mechanical engineering courses. Mostly later, in her senior year, when she realized that the sort of astrophysics work she'd be doing might require some fairly specific equipment that she would not be able to afford to buy. Still, she's largely self-taught when it comes to the machines she builds. She borrows books, she googles, and she gets her hands dirty. Still, she's no Tony Stark. She gets by.
15) She carries a torch for Thor even two years later because she made the decision to go after him. She decided she wanted to find him. In her mind, logic dictates that if it was her choice, then it's really not fair of her to give up because she's frustrated or tired of waiting. If she was better - smarter - faster - she'd have found him already. So she hangs on, pushing herself to make it work.
16) Yes, she is Doctor Jane Foster. But she almost never introduces herself that way, and is rarely even addressed that way. Largely because she still thinks of herself as a kid with a telescope - but also because she thinks the formality is kind of unnecessary, not to mention sometimes misleading. She'd insist on it if someone pissed her off, though.
This is subject to revision if I change my mind, js. But most of this is pretty solidly what I've got in mind for her.
Jane grew up in a single parent household. Her mother died when she was quite young - only three years old. She has almost no memories of her, and thought of her steadily less as she grew up. Her father was the center of her entire world. A daddy's girl through and through, she grew attached to her father's work at a young age, and received a telescope for her 6th birthday. She'd spend long nights watching the stars, working on a child's attempt at star maps and sometimes falling asleep right there on the floor beneath her window.
She was an only child, but surprisingly self-disciplined, despite her father's occasional attempts at spoiling her. Fashioning herself as a very serious scientist, she'd study hard and focus on "her work," which at that age consisted of learning about the planets and maybe one or two of the closest starts - at least until she could be convinced to watch some TV. As she got older, she became hooked on sci fi - she was a big fan of Star Trek and Quantum Leap.
Most of her childhood was pretty average in this fashion. Though somewhat serious-minded, Jane was still a goofy, dorky kid, always kind of tiny for her age, and she faced some teasing in school and never had very many friends. But she wasn't completely unpopular, and her happiness lay in her studies, mostly science and math, and in the time she spent with her dad. So while it was rough sometimes, she was mostly pretty okay. Happy, even. She got by.
As she grew older, her dedication to "her work," now much more serious pursuits of astronomy and physics, began to pay off. Though she was never great shakes at the humanities, her stellar grades in the maths and sciences, plus plenty of science fairs and extra curricular activities, earned her spots in some of the best colleges and universities in the country. Fairly happily leaving her teenage years behind, Jane grew into a brilliant and capable young woman who excelled at the sciences to which she applied herself. Her desire as a child to unlock the stars was no whim - it became the real, true focus of her life, and she discovered to her delight that she was as talented as she'd always hoped - always tried to be - at her life's calling.
College led, of course, to grad school, and grad school to a PhD. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until she turned 23. Just a few short months later, her father abruptly passed away. And when he died, it was like all the light in her world went out.
Jane was devastated by the loss. So much so she nearly withdrew from her PhD program despite having only just begun it. That was when Erik Selvig came to find her. She'd known him somewhat, growing up - he'd been good friends with her father. And as her apparent talent in astrophysics became clear in her college years, she started talking to him with a little more frequency, often just for advice, thoughts, or even input on her theories and work. So it was only natural that in the wake of her father's death he'd be the one to fly out and spend some time with her. With both her parents dead, Jane had no real family left to her - no other relatives she knew. She had no family left. She was alone.
Or she would have been, had Erik allowed it. But understanding her drive, the drive she had possessed, he pushed her to keep working. He took time off from teaching to take up temporary residence in the town she lived in, acting as a mentor and almost a replacement father while she got her life back in order and tried to keep her PhD on track. It was with Erik's encouragement that she threw herself back into her work, and worked harder than ever before. It helped her cope - kept her distracted from the loneliness, focused on her goals. Already a somewhat isolated person, she became nigh hermetic, rarely venturing outside except when strictly necessary.
But years passed on, and slowly Jane learned to cope with the grief. Her PhD proceeded well - her work was strong, and with Erik's mentorship and input, it began to prove even groundbreaking. Slowly she began to open up once more to the outside world. She met a doctor, Donald Blake, and even dated for a short time. While it didn't work out, it was a growing experience, and taught her to keep opening up a little more.
By the time she completed her PhD at 28 years old, she'd managed to reclaim a fairly normal life for herself. She didn't have many friends, and most were casual acquaintances, but she was an amiable enough sort of person and got along with most people she met fairly well. Though she was renowned for being fiercely married to her work.
With her doctorate a huge success, Jane continued her research as a post-doc, and hired a grad student to help her with her studies - Darcy. As she'd gotten older and recovered from her father's death, Erik had moved back home and returned to his own obligations, taking time every so often to visit Jane.
It was with this precise state of affairs that Jane turned 29, and in studying old data of stellar phenomena, discovered a pattern that led her to call Erik back out to New Mexico to observe something with her. That "something," of course, turned out to be a lot more than she bargained for - and leads directly into the events of Thor.
Avengers-related headcanon is minimal. SPOILERS
Her canon point pretty much everywhere is post-Avengers, and what she knows is minimal: having seen the attack on New York, she realizes SHIELD likely moved her for a reason, though she's not sure precisely what that reason is. She knows the "gate" that allowed the Chitauri to come through was a wormhole, and she's suspicious of its provenance. She saw Thor on the news, and it gave her A Lot Of Feelings.
[/spoilers]
Other developments will obviously change in game, but that's what she starts with when I app her post-Avengers.
Other random facts:
1) She's not big into pop culture. She does watch a little TV now and then, but she's more into reading. Unsurprisingly, she likes sci fi the most, though her favorite books tend to be nonfiction.
2) She's an awkward sort of person. She can be pretty fierce and confident, but that's largely around and in the context of her work. In her day to day dealings with other people she can and does get flustered.
3) Jane has a ton of dorky logo t-shirts and flannel button-ups because she shops almost exclusively at Good Will. She doesn't care a whole lot about fashion. That said, she would clean up real nice if she ever had a reason to do so.
4) She lives in the trailer because the rent on the lab is more hilariously expensive than she likes to admit. At least, it strains her already modest budget quite a bit.
5) Her academic pedigree is very impressive, but she works in the middle of nowhere New Mexico in part because she traced certain phenomena out there. But the real reason is that it's quiet, and she can work unimpeded. She enjoys having free reign over what she does, and she's more fond of the little town than she often lets on.
6) Erik is family. Period. Though she doesn't think of him as a father figure - just family. He's more like an uncle to her.
7) Her awkwardness in social situations extends to people who are significantly younger than her. She's just not really sure how to act around kids, having not acted much like a kid even when she was one.
8) Truthfully, in her core she is pretty serious and withdrawn, even to the point of secrecy. But that's not what you see on the surface, because on the whole, that's not what she's like. Jane is friendly, for the most part, and cares about the people who do get close to her. But she doesn't get close to many people in the first place. She rationalizes it by saying she spends most of her time with and on her work, anyway - and this is true - but it's kind of a lonely existence, even if she protests that she's just fine.
9) She finds dates awkward. The only reason she dated Donald was because he was more unconventional than the dinner-and-a-movie rigamarole you usually get.
10) She still dreams in science fiction. Deep down she wants a real adventure - to actually visit the stars she spends so much time studying and trying to understand.
11) She didn't do well in humanities in school - english, history, languages - not because she lacked the aptitude, but because she didn't care.
12) Lack of pop culture knowledge aside, the sort of random trivia Jane does absorb tends to relate to famous figures. She's not big on strictly inspirational quotes, but she enjoys knowing what greater minds who've come before have thought of and expressed to the world.
13) Not the definition of physically fit. Jane is skinny largely because she eats like a rabbit. She's not a vegetarian, but she eats infrequently and lightly. She's the sort of person who gets so involved in her work she'll forget to eat for hours. Gym was her worst subject, though for a few years she did play soccer.
14) In college, she audited one or two mechanical engineering courses. Mostly later, in her senior year, when she realized that the sort of astrophysics work she'd be doing might require some fairly specific equipment that she would not be able to afford to buy. Still, she's largely self-taught when it comes to the machines she builds. She borrows books, she googles, and she gets her hands dirty. Still, she's no Tony Stark. She gets by.
15) She carries a torch for Thor even two years later because she made the decision to go after him. She decided she wanted to find him. In her mind, logic dictates that if it was her choice, then it's really not fair of her to give up because she's frustrated or tired of waiting. If she was better - smarter - faster - she'd have found him already. So she hangs on, pushing herself to make it work.
16) Yes, she is Doctor Jane Foster. But she almost never introduces herself that way, and is rarely even addressed that way. Largely because she still thinks of herself as a kid with a telescope - but also because she thinks the formality is kind of unnecessary, not to mention sometimes misleading. She'd insist on it if someone pissed her off, though.