What's in a Name?

Janice Shirley

Janice Shirley- Northern Irish (Scotch-Irish) descent; Janice is a dark, mordacious person Mia Vasquez-Rivera encounters in her young adult years during her time working at her writing internship in Syracuse, New York who is known for her antipathy towards other people and sarcasm. Often shy and standoffish, she had limited involvement in school affairs as young girl and preferred to fade into the sidelines, although she had a small close group of friends that she interacted with during her lunch period, which she considered to be "the only part of the school day she could tolerate." Originally born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, she moved to New York as a means of advancing her career and seeking better job opportunities. An aspiring comedian, she has an interest in comedic journalism and tries to participate in stand-up comedy gigs during the evenings, meanwhile working as an insider for a local magazine during the day. Janice also has an artistic side and enjoys creating impressionistic art pieces when alone, an interest she mutually shares with Mia, who also sketches people and her surroundings in her spare time. Mia quickly notes that she has an unusually strong sense of irony, as she will find humor in the simplest situations, much to her amusement. She jokes that her sense of irony acts like a metal detector and that she can't give somebody an answer without a cliché or hint towards the irony of life. She tends to be guarded and project her anger through her acerbic words and ironic sense of humor, often pointing out some hurtful, ill-worded truths to other people as a defense mechanism when feeling vulnerable or threatened. Janice occasionally tends to fake a mild stutter or sore throat as well to get herself out of unpleasant situations and be left alone. A compulsive, angsty, ravenous young woman with big dreams and a hunger for art, she also has a fiery, critical, and fault-finding streak that can make her appear contrarian and judgmental. 

She will seldom refrain for providing her stance or "two-pieces" on a topic in which her opinion is required and will somewhat hypocritically mock those she considers to be "wannabes" and "followers". She can also be incredibly moody and sometimes has a habit of being self-absorbed when things go unexpectedly. When it comes to Janice identifying her passions, it is almost always something creative in nature, whether that be writing, drawing, painting, designing, knitting, baking, playing an instrument, or photography. She also has somewhat of a geeky streak, with her fascination with Chinese culture, namely obscure manhua and the streetwear of big cities like Shanghai. Her favorite shirt says "invented by men, perfected by women", and she claims to be a fan of different music artists such as Frou Frou and Blondie. Her old address in Essex Court is lined by sycamore trees that have red and gold leaves in autumn and is within walking distance to Rosedale Road. Janice is curious-minded and has a thirst for new knowledge, with a continuous desire to want to learn more about everything. Regardless of her coy demeanor, she is often described as a very intelligent girl, with a strong character and desire to always get what she wants and do what she thinks is best for her in the long term, often at the expense of her parents' wishes. She lets her weirdness out in bursts and has the ability to weave the chaos and suffering of humanity into an intricate tapestry of understanding. She becomes embarrassed easily by praise however, especially if it feels insincere, and might feel nervous if someone compliments her too much. As a feminist whom is politically active, Janice is highly broad-minded and tends to be tolerant of people from different backgrounds. 

She has small feet and often wears three pairs of short socks to fit inside her wedge shoes due to their usually being two sizes bigger. A liberal person who doesn't believe in marriage, she later dates and pursues a civil union with a young man known for his long blonde hair named Blake Tawes, with whom she gives birth to a single son that they named Taylor. He had previously studied architecture at CalArts and later chose to run for the mayoral place in San Diego County with her support. Janice will display a falsely nonchalant, apathetic façade towards others as a means of deflecting attention from herself and appearing as though she doesn't care, although she secretly yearns for attention from others. She openly seeks male companionship to compensate for the loneliness and hurt she feels from her experiences with her abusive father. She tends to be guarded and have trouble trusting people due to the bullying she has experienced in her younger years and will disregard comments directed at her by ironically telling said individual that they "didn't need to say that." Conversely, she is hard on herself and others and can sometimes manipulate conversations and twist people's words around unintentionally due to her own self-deprecating nature. Janice is always discovering new recipes and loves to bake sweets, especially cupcakes and sugar cookies, for her friends on random occasions and loves to mix Chinese and old-school clothing pieces from online thrift stores. She is the first person who introduces Mia to her future love interest Cason Hughes after noticing his attraction toward her. She is a creative and artistic person, with the ability to create art, especially bracelets, from unconventional items, including the scarves that her maternal grandmother used to send her from Peru. 

Her father was a British expatriate with Irish and English ancestry who was working for a petroleum company in Peru, during which he met and fell in love with her mother, a practical, studious woman living in rural Cuzco who worked as a cabling engineer in Lima, the nation's capital. It is also heavily implied that Janice has a poor relationship with her estranged mother as well, whom she laconically, if explicitly, refers to simply as a "loose cunt", with little more to be shared. She carries a significant amount of baggage from her past with her dysfunctional family and is stated to have "a lot of problems", according to Mia's flamboyantly gay coworker Donovan Castro. Sensing Janice's despondency, Mia initially tried to befriend her when first being accepted into her internship, but quickly found that Janice did not want to return her friendly feelings. Their initially cordial encounters eventually became verbal attacks and cutting remarks directed towards her in Janice's part, aimed at berating her and lowering her self-esteem. Janice also has a competitive streak that caused her to want to antagonize Mia during her time at work as she sought a promotion for herself and to better her own career as a future writer and comedian. Once she and Mia had a very heated falling out due to their inability to see eye to eye and Mia's growing tired of Janice's negativity, Janice anonymously created an online blog titled "Ihatemiavasquezrivera.com". The site would ridicule Mia and poke fun of and question her intelligence and capabilities also expressed slight jealousy at Mia's romance with a mutual love interest of them both, Cason Hughes. This added more fuel to her hatred towards her as their feelings for each other intensified and relationship blossomed into full fruition. 

Janice is quite fond of waffle cones, and she also has a recipe for fish and chips and knows how to prepare Thessalonikian sheep dip. She is slightly below average height at 5 ft. 3 in, with a tendency to dress in a semi-grunge fashion and tends to speak with an Irish accent that she sometimes times to mask as means of professionalism. She has never missed an episode of America's Got Talent and tends to consider Hazbin Hotel to be her guilty pleasure. Although the website was eventually shut down, she and Mia never become good friends and part ways in hostile terms but try to maintain a civil bond for the remainder of her time working alongside each other for the sake of pacifying their work environment. Janice has fair skin and is considered overweight in appearance, despite having a slim face. She has chestnut brown eyes and hair that is also naturally a dark chestnut shade, but often dyed a platinum blonde shade and styled in a short, choppy bob. She will ultimately prevent her thoughts from running away with her, since she would much rather ensure the happiness of those whom are closest to her. She also likes to humor people by sitting on the floor with her legs crossed and speaking in funny accents and often makes small noises to liven the mood or fill the silence as a means of keeping conversations flowing smoothly. Janice is perceptive and very good at reading people and situations, which allows her to become very close to Kayla Phelps during her time spent at Syracuse University. She is quite clumsy and prone to injury as well, a trait some people find endearing that she will often brush off, and her group of friends have come to describe her as being "funny and adorable, with a tendency to be dramatic." ENTP 6w7