Full Name: Jessica Eliza Adler
EGO: Illyn
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Handedness: Ambidextrous
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 121 lbs
IQ: 200
Class Rank: 2 out of 1023
Build: Slender, Fit
Sexuality: Asexual
Beliefs: Extreme Liberal
Birthday: March 29, 2061
Favorite Color: Red, Purple
Alignment: Chaotic-Neutral
Genetics: Afghan, Iranian (maternal), Polish (paternal)

Religion: Shia Muslim (disowned), Militant Atheist

Distinctive Qualities: Intellectual prowess, physical prowess, skill in martial arts, exceptionally limber, heightened senses, analytical observation, rumored psychic abilities, extraordinary wit, ages slowly, persistence

Distinctive Drawbacks: Impulsive, unstable, stubborn, skeptical, intolerant, dishonest, frequent nightmares, considered boyish

Disorders: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Paranoid Schizophrenia, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Selective Mutism, Androphobia (fear of men), Misandry (hatred of men), Sociopathy, Asthma, Cardiac Arrhythmia

Character Inspirations: Irene Adler, Dexter Morgan, Sarah Kerrigan, Lyndis, Karen Stadtfeld, women I've known

Summary: A young girl with extraordinary abilities and an equally traumatic past.  Events in her early childhood left her orphaned, nihilistic, rebellious, and poisoned with an inherent distrust for males.  She is an immeasurable genius and master of self defense.  While mysteriously introverted, she will easily subdue others to get her way.  Deep down she has a very troubled, complex, and arrogant personality.


Characteristics:

Jessica has a rather mysterious and distant demeanor.  A recent addition to Jan's school system, any amount of scorn Jan had once gotten about his washed-out complexion has been diverted onto her.  Her colorless skin, dark hair, thin lips, and pale eyes give her an almost ghostly appearance.  Her peers tend, rightfully, to avoid her completely.  She possesses Jan's same lanky build and high metabolism, but in terms of fitness, she is his exact opposite.  Particularly jaded to pain and discomfort, Jessica is surprisingly strong.  Her senses and reflexes are almost superhuman, and she possesses incredible intuition.  Her energy and endurance surpass even that of Daniel, and her flexibility rivals that of Jan.  Not one for social or conventional fitness, Jessica has studied martial arts religiously since the age of five, making her a dangerous opponent in physical combat.  She is limited by asthma attacks and an irregular heartbeat, neither of which surface often, and neither of which she admits to having.

Jessica's natural intelligence is among the highest ever recorded, possessing a "da Vinci level" IQ.  However, through a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect, the general population's IQ level has increased steadily into the year 2077, making this score slightly less groundbreaking.  Jessica is a notoriously fast learner, possessing the unique ability to acquire almost any skill almost instantly.  She claims this is because she sees the world in a completely different way than anyone else.  Jessica is cunning and arrogant, but practical.  She normally chooses the most direct and efficient way to deal with a problem, regardless of convenience.  Academically, she is rather ambitious.  She performs well in school not to cultivate what she believes to be an "ineffective education," but so that others may take her seriously.  She excels greatly with very little effort, and thus possesses a frustration with mediocrity.  She looks down upon just about everyone for any incompetence at all.  While she has the potential to do just about anything, her life lacks any particular direction.


Beliefs:

Jessica is an ardent Atheist and nihilist.  Not only does she believe that there is no god and that life is meaningless, she is constantly frustrated with people who think otherwise.  She was born into the Muslim religion through her mother and followed it enthusiastically, but after the traumatic incident that caused her death, Jessica was disillusioned and learned to think only for herself.  In doing so, she concluded that what is perceived is all that exists, and that no one's word, individual or establishment, was more important to her than her own.  She holds a grudge against religion itself, seeing it as merely a comforting mechanism for the weak and cowardly.  Jessica believes that all scripture in the world is "nothing but fantastical lies, crafted by ruthless men to control and divide humanity."  She views religion from a historical and societal perspective, rather than a divine one, and relies only on science to explain the laws of nature.  However, through her internal intellect and martial arts training, she has come to recognize the existence of spiritual forces such as tao or qi, not as supernatural hocus-pocus, but as effective means of harnessing the mind and body's natural energy.  As a distinct naturalist, she relies solely on her own human intuition for guidance.

Jessica is extremely liberal-minded, and advocates many forms of self-expression.  She would present herself more liberally if she were not particularly insecure with her gender.  She avoids fashion, stereotypes, and mannerisms that would easily identify her as a woman.  She sometimes goes by more ambiguous nicknames "Jess" or "Jesse" to remain unjudged.  Some of her more radical desires, however, have been repressed by her adoptive father, whom she despises.  She forms grudges easily, claiming such indiscriminate convictions are necessary for survival.  She greatly distrusts all authority for being corrupt, and sees humanity itself as a lost cause.  She claims that all humans can do in life is try to get a little satisfaction out of it before it's over.

Initially born into poverty, Jess's current household is financially wealthy, but not extravagant.  While she can afford to be more sophisticated, she is generally simple and untidy.  This only applies to certain things, however, since she has vowed never to be as disgusting as a man.  People generally aren't important to her, so Jessica lies and deceives often, not for purpose, but for amusement.  She sees no harm in withholding the truth because her truth is relative.  Jessica is a moral relativist, seeing morality as something chosen by the individual, rather than a greater cause to obey.  In her case, treating someone badly does not weigh heavily on her conscience, therefore it is not wrong.  Good and evil are constructs of society which mean nothing to her.


Culturalism:

Jess cares little for her cultural background because she sees it as another arbitrary way for humans to be discriminated.  Deep down, such an opinion might reflect how culture reminds her of her parents.   Jessica has mixed Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and Eastern European background.  While some of her lineage has been forgotten, she knows her father was primarily Polish, and that her mother was partly Afghan and Iranian.  During the time she was alive, Jessica's mother largely advocated cultural pride, while her father was largely indifferent to the matter.  Neither parent had any ties to extended family.


Transformation:

The trauma that Jessica experienced as a child is the only matter which still causes her intense emotional pain.  Throughout her early life, Jessica recalls her father Karel Goralski being short-tempered, abusive, bigoted, boorish, and misogynistic.  He beat her mother often and frequently told Jess that he wanted a boy instead of a "weak little girl."  She recalls her mother Farishta (née Shirani) being sweet, loving, profound, caring, and protective.  Jess has nothing but pleasant memories of her mother, and remembers that she had the same remarkable intellect and clairvoyance that Jess herself now possesses.  Having few advantages herself, Jessica's mother always believed in educating her daughter well, while her father, a proponent of hard manual labor, thought that educating women was a waste of time.  Farishta was incredibly selfless in that her sole desire was to raise her only child well.  She took the blame for everything in the family so that Jessica might not be harmed.  Her faith dictated submission to her husband, but eventually she did what was best for her daughter and divorced Adam, getting a restraining order in the process.  After vanishing for some time, Jessica's father finally snapped completely.  Jessica's mother sensed danger, but Jessica with her childlike optimism comforted her and convinced her that everything was going to be fine.  Karel broke into his wife and daughter's apartment armed with a switchblade.  Jessica hid and watched in horror as she saw her mother violated and murdered by her scum excuse for a father.  It was then that the seeds of fear and loathing were sewed into Jessica's mind forever.  Adam then cornered Jessica and attempted to strangle her.  Jessica recalls that the madness in his eyes was inhuman and infectious.  At her first opportunity, she pulled out the knife which was firmly lodged in her mother and stabbed her father multiple times until he finally collapsed.  Jessica was 7 at the time.  It wasn't until almost a day later that the police showed up at the scene, finding her holding the knife, trembling, and covered with the blood of both her parents.  She was so belligerent and hysterical at the time that she had to be sedated before being taken to safety.  She was given psychiatric counseling, but doctors believed the damage to her mind was irreversible.

She was placed into the foster care system, which was initially a problem because no one wanted to care for a psychotic, misguided little girl.  She had no permanent home for two years until a network researcher named George Adler took pity on her and eventually adopted her.  To this day, she reluctantly acknowledges him as her father, calling him only by his first name.  As a father figure, she still hates and distrusts him.  She hates men for their "dominating, abusive nature" and hates women who submit to them, as well as any establishment that advocates submission in general.  She remains convinced that there exists no loving god who would allow such terrible things to happen to people.  She fears sexuality and swore that she would never be dominated.  In her intent to push men away, she never uses cosmetics and never shows unnecessary skin.  She would go further than this, but her adoptive father "just wants her to have a chance in the world."  She never speaks of the events of her trauma to anyone -- not even George.  She still carries around the switchblade that killed her mother and father.  Ever since that day, she claims her mind became warped forever, suggesting that her extraordinary capabilities are a result of her mind's inherent instability.  While the way she sees the world gives her uncanny potential, she also suffers severe psychological drawbacks such as hallucinations, nightmares, and lack of self control.  She experiences a serious twitch in the bottom left corner of her mouth whenever she is frustrated.  She trusts only herself, but she is also filled with self-loathing, blaming herself for ignoring her mother's premonition and ultimately allowing her death.


Sociality:

Socially, Jessica is almost completely withdrawn.  She has formed a few friendships in the past, but all of them have ended in tragedy.  Sometimes she believes herself to be cursed.  Boys in school pick on her for not looking and dressing like the other girls.  In 2077, a girl who doesn't use cosmetics is almost unheard of, and most boys remark that she isn't petite enough to be attractive.  As a front to mask her virulent nature, she feigns shyness in public.  She uses the ensuing sympathy from this impression to catch her aggressors off-guard.  Everyone believes her to be detached and distant, but her true nature is rather dominating.  She has a rather dark and sadistic sense of humor if she happens to engage socially.  While she can normally control herself, Jessica is a short-tempered sociopath at heart.  She finds it pleasurable to harm those who anger her because it puts her in control.  She can use both verbal and physical means to accomplish this.  Having lived in many dangerous areas, she can pick locks with ease and she has taken the lives of several assailants who have targeted her on the streets at night.


Relationship with Other Characters:

Jessica and her adoptive father moved to Jan's rural school district very recently.  George, who has lived in various cities with Jessica for business, wanted to investigate the source of a rare form of coding that had materialized in the area.  Jessica had originally attended girls' private schools to feel secure, but the only school in her new hometown is a co-ed public high school.  She despises the area as much as Jan does, and continues to blame George for the decision to move there.  The way by which Jessica and Jan first got to know each other involved a twisted process of mind games, which are arguably still ongoing.  While neither Jess nor Jan socialize much with others, the two keep a lot from each other as well.  During the time they do converse, they argue violently because of their conflicting views and refusal to compromise.  Jan claims that, from her beliefs and behavior, he can extrapolate a severe trauma at a young age.  However, he can't discern exactly what happened and is determined to find the answer.  Having been bullied in his time by aggressive, domineering women as well as men, Jan holds a grudge against "women like her."  Possessing an indignant hatred for Jess and everything she stands for, Jan is also infatuated with her.  He admires her blend of genetics, her naturalistic appearance, her ghostly eyes, and mostly of all her mind.  He notes that her intellectual abilities rival even his own, even as he utilizes his cerebral accelerator.  He is fascinated that someone could possess such a perfect mind through purely natural means.  Jessica is another of the few people Jan cannot predict, which both interests and frustrates him.  She considers herself rather unattractive, though Jan remarks on this matter that she really is crazy.

Jess initially possesses no such infatuation.  Her hatred for Jan at this point is pure, though she believes this is entirely mutual.  Already distrusting him for being male, she does not appreciate his constant probing of her mind for answers.  She believes Jan is torturing her mind simply through his sadistic nature, and she is largely unaware of his obsession.  She claims to have already figured him out completely, but Jan is unaffected by this, because "self truth cannot harm the self-aware."  She underestimates him frequently and often overlooks the potential granted to him through the cerebral accelerator.  Jan claims Jessica's weakness is her blind rage and overconfidence.  Although she would never admit it, Jess greatly fears that Jan will one day figure her out.  As Jan has never taken interest in another human being before, he fondly refers to her as "the woman."

Daniel, having been accustomed to much more conventional women, is genuinely frightened of Jessica.  He is uneasy in her presence, and urges Jan to stay away from her for his own safety.  While he doesn't understand Jessica nearly as well as Jan does, he astutely finds her "broken and feral mind" alarming and unsettling.  Jessica finds Dan's conservative values despicable and degrading, while Daniel himself just tries to avoid her as much as possible to avoid quarrel.  Jan, however, is determined to uncover all the secrets of this mysterious girl, no matter the cost to him.