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fandomhigh_ooc2005-09-28 10:59 am
mparkerceo.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh_ooc2005-09-28 10:59 am
Miss Parker -- backstory & RPG info
There are Pretenders among us. Genuises with the ability to become anyone they want to be. In 1963, the Centre isolated a young Pretender named Jarod, in order to harness his genius for our research.
Until, one day, our Pretender ran away.... - prologue to Pretender
Backstory for the Series
Sometime in 1996 in the show's backstory, 36-year-old Jarod finally figured out the Star Trek thing about escaping imprisonment using the air ducts, and zipped away from the evil Centre. They'd been using his gift to become anyone, any time, to simulate different scenarios since he was about 3, and he'd finally had enough-- and figured out that many of his simulations were used to kill people in hostage situations, bombings, kidnappings, and biological warfare attacks. When the Centre started out in the early 20's, it was a fairly benevolent place, but by the time of Jarod's escape, they were an evil consortium rivaling anything on the X-Files. Jarod is also looking for his family, who he was kidnapped from-- his entire life he was told they were dead, but now that he's had time to study Centre information, he knows they're alive, and is looking for anything he can find that will lead him to them.
Enter Miss Parker (same age as Jarod, give or take a year), a few months after that. The pilot for the show starts with Miss Parker and Sydney, Jarod's long-time mentor, shrink, and father-figure, being tasked with trying to track down Jarod as he impersonates a doctor, a firefighter, a systems analyst, and then computer hacks his way into the secure mainframe of the Centre. We don't find out until later that MP and Jarod were childhood friends as well. In show canon, they probably lost touch sometime in their teens, and the Parker who shows up at the beginning of the show is irritated beyond endurance that 20 years later she's being asked to find the Centre's "Lab Rat" (Golden Boy, Freak, Frankenstein Monster) instead of staying in the corporate (less skeezy) section of the Centre, where she wants to be. Consequently, she'll do pretty much anything to get him back in custody so she can get her life back (and earn her father's approval, and, oh yeah, avoid being terminated by the Centre).
That's pretty much the whole set-up for the show, except for the wonderful B-plots about Jarod's and Parker's childhood together, and the truth behind Jarod's family and the death of Parker's mother. It's not as simple as a suicide, but Parker doesn't know that until the second episode. The first two seasons are fairly coherent and concentrate on this, while Jarod does various "Pretends" and helps "the weak and abused." By third season, the secondary characters were starting to get too confusing (although there were still some good eps), and it all kind of unraveled during fourth (and let's not even mention the wrap-up movies. They sucked. End of story).
My RPG version of Parker
So.... the Parker that I'm playing is basically a Mini-Me version of this Parker. No cloning, no twinning (although that's not beyond the Centre); and we never actually saw a 16-year-old Miss Parker in the flashbacks (as the young actors aged, we probably saw MP & Jarod at 14 at the latest point in the show). Undoubtedly, she wasn't already as defensive and hard-boiled as she was at 34 (although at 10 she was already showing signs of cynicism and temper), but what would be the fun of playing her as a realistic teen? Much of the fun of the show came from watching her be impatient and demanding and bitchy and screamingly frustrated in not catching Jarod. I just added 30 years to the timeline, as it were, and started building a plausible reality where Parker goes away to school at around 14 or so in 2003.
That said, most of what I'm doing with her is pretty much exactly what you'd get if you took "real" Miss Parker and just de-aged her to 16, and gave her a few teenage foibles. She is spoiled. She's a Daddy's girl. She loves her gun. She smokes, she drinks, she snaps her fingers at people and yells when she doesn't get her way. She is emotionally very self-protective. She is sexually confident. The languages I have her speaking now are ones she spoke on the show. The martial arts background is also obvious from encounters shown during the series.
She does have a softer side, usually reserved only for those she regards as "innocent" or unable to protect themselves. She has absolutely no patience whatsoever for fools, wimps, and creeps (she once faced down an armed bank robber about to commit sexual assault on a 15-year-old hostage, and the bank robber was the one to eventually back down). Possibly I'm playing her a little softer around the edges, though I'm trying not to, but this Parker doesn't have the death threats from her workplace, professional humiliation, and sheer frustration of dealing with Jarod hanging over her head. This Parker can afford to be a little more relaxed.
The Tony Tanaka I referenced in a few posts, her ex-boyfriend in the Yakuza, is canon, although they were older when they were involved. So is the Giusseppe who became a priest, and the finger-breaking she gave him. We don't know Parker's first name from canon; the only clue we have is the inital "M" on a Christmas tree ornament. Her relationship with her father is as fraught and problematic as I've presented it; he clearly cares for her, but the man had no idea how to deal with a grieving child-- and is actually something of a bastard later on in using her abilities and job performance to secure his own position at the Centre. He is also probably directly connected in some way to his wife's death.
ETA: As of November 2005, I picked out Maureen as Parker's first name. And as of January, this is now fairly common knowledge in Fandom. She still won't answer to it if she can help it, though.
Parker and Jarod
We never got to see the transition from Best Friends Forever for young Jarod and Miss Parker to Oh My God, You Are So Damn Annoying/I HATE you! 20 years later. There's a lot of reasons for Parker to resent Jarod in canon. He's beyond brilliant, he's got a childish sense of humor, he's an adrenaline junkie, he's smug when he wins, he's emotionally demanding, he's completely manipulative, he's judgemental, and he's often fairly unrealistic when it comes to other people's problems. Jarod resents that Parker is trying to take him back to captivity in order to save her own skin, and that she hasn't quit the Centre, even though she knows that it's corrupt.
A lot of their later childhood, Parker was left to the care of Sydney, Jarod's mentor, at a time when her own father was neglecting her, and Sydney had to put Jarod's needs as his protege/experiment first. Parker's father has a habit of demanding results and then benignly dismissing success, while building up Jarod's accomplishments even as he yells about how Jarod's destroying the Centre. To say that these two have a sibling rivalry on the show is an understatement.
That said, Jarod is always calling her. Teasing her. Sending her clues about her mother's death. Warning her when she's in danger. Pretty much, he's stalking her through the whole series, even if it's at one remove, while she's doing the same thing, although ostensibly only to get him back to the Centre. He sends her presents of stuff he knows she needs off and on. They are both very possessive of each other, romantically and sexually. They save each other's lives a couple times, only to run away. In the last movie, they pretty much acknowledge the soul mates thing, but it never really gets a satisfying conclusion.
The Jarod I'm implying in the early posts of the game is still stuck at the Centre, still a lot more innocent and idealistic than Parker, and much less experienced. I have ideas about the last time they saw each other, but hopefully I'll get a chance to reveal them during the course of the game.
ETA: And again, as of November 2005 in-game, we have a Jarod in-game (
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
jarodpretends), a Townie working at Caritas and the Fourth Sin. As of late March 2006, Parker and Jarod were romantically involved at Fandom; as of October 2006, they have broken up. For a full listing of all the posts with their exploits, check out my Jarod/Parker memories for Parker's livejournal.Sydney, Angelo, and Broots
Like I mentioned above, Sydney is Jarod's father figure, but in a real way, he's also Parker's, since her dad is so distant. He's a survivor of a childhood spent in the Nazi death camps, a twin who was used in experiments by Dr. Mengele, a shrink who now works on benign IQ programs with children at the Centre, and a guy with some huge regrets about Jarod. He's also quite fond of Parker, since he's known her since she was a kid, but it's not the kind of thing she responds to in a very positive way.
Angelo is an autistic empath/failed Pretender, the same age as Miss Parker. Angelo canonically palled around with Parker and Jarod, running around the air ducts and tunnels of the Centre, when they were all younger. He and Jarod are buddies, and while later Miss Parker referred to Angelo as "Cousin It", most of her distaste was because Angelo was being used by the darker elements of the Centre to track Jarod. At this point, he hasn't done anything like that.
ETA: And as of August 2006, it is now known in-game to Parker, Jarod, and a few others, that Angelo is Parker's twin, and the canon circumstances of his transformation from a normal kid to the Angelo he is today. While this directly contradicts canon, the show actually left the revelations regarding the identity of Parker's twin brother clouded enough that this is not an impossible stretch. Parker and Angelo are now even better friends than they were before.
Broots! Broots. Broots! Heh. I'm so glad MP has a Broots to abuse. On the series, Broots (
dorky_broots) (no first name in canon; the player picked one out) was MP's personal computer expert, the one who ran search engines and computer researches in trying to find Jarod. A divorced dad, he usually cringed whenever MP yelled-- except when he'd gleefully inform her of something she missed. He's very bright but uncomfortable with physical violence and the machinations of the Centre. Parker is uniformly awful to him, deserves the Worst Boss Ever award, except, again, when he really needs protection or consideration. She said later in the series that Broots was more of a brother to her than the guy who was eventually revealed to be her twin (looong story, not worth getting into). In the game, Broots's Player and I decided that Broots had worked as an intern at the Centre, and knew Parker from there; so again, basically, he's a mini-Me version of the show's character.In conclusion...
Parker and I have things in common, but the ones we *don't* have in common are more important. I am nowhere near the bitch she can be. I tend to get compulsive and way too organized, but I am neither rich enough nor obsessive enough to be able to play this game all the time. If she is not playing with you, it's because after several months in this game, I already have several on-going storylines, existing character friendships, and limited time. Talking to me to set something up is your best bet for getting to play with my character.
Fanfiction and Resource Links
The Centre
My bud Perri's page on the show, for any information you might need. Really complete, with a comprehensive timeline. Also, check out Long Way Home, one of her stories (Jarod-centered), and, okay, the long, unfinished-but-not-cliffhangered novel that we co-wrote, Little Girl Lost. My only other story for the show is Nicotine Disdain, at my web page.
Julie Fortune's Pretender fanfic
Really, the best there is. Nine great, in-character stories for the series, wonderful Jarod/MP stuff, awesome characterization, super action. Read her other stuff in other fandoms while you're at her page, she's a great author.
Catherine's Fanfiction Recommendations
All kinds of Pretender stories, too many to really run down. Types for every taste in fanfic, though.
Vids: Thank God for You Tube.
StuckHereWithNoTV has several good Pretender vids. So does leochick. Do a search on Pretender, Jarod, and Miss Parker on YouTube, and even more come up.
Right! Well, now you know the basics. All four seasons of Pretender are available on DVD from Amazon.com and BEST BUY, if you are interested in learning more about the series. It's also being re-run in the States on the Hallmark Channel, weekdays at 2a.m.
Thanks for being such fun to play with, guys. [updated 03/19/07]
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beging stalkingjoin from the sidelines even before the enrollment period opens.]no subject
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...stopping now. :)
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Yeah, I loved the woobie stuff, but it was what? 20 minutes out of 2 hours? Sheesh. And argh. Too stupid to be believed, the rest of it. Thus I erase it from my brain, because it makes NO sense.
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Yeah, I miss the good Pretender days too, damnit. Unfortunately, I think that like Chris Carter, they didn't have any idea where they were going to go with the set-up, and thus it devolved into repetitive stupidity by S4. le sigh.
Your BFF is good. Trust the BFF!
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I'm going to break down and buy the dvds one of these days...
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Must get them, that way they're not subject to the vagaries of bad programming schedules and the like. Plus, no commercials. Plus, I can skip the stupid ones!
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