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[greyhatted]

Player Information:
Name: Lena
Age: 32
Contact: lenasillfame (AIM) | lenainverse
Game Cast: Westley (The Princess Bride)

Character Information:
Name: Penelope Garcia
Canon: Criminal Minds
Canon Point: Post 8x24
Age: 36
Reference: Criminal Minds @ wikipedia | Garcia @ wikipedia"

Setting: Criminal Minds is set in the modern-day world, mostly taking place within the United States and occasionally other countries. Following the cases of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), based in Quantico, Virginia, whose job is to track and stop serial killers and other dangerous individuals. The show often references actual events, both historical and from the recent past to include everything from previously tracked and captured serial killers to events such as 9/11 and the DC Sniper attacks. Essentially, the canon setting is "reality."

Of course, the show canon has several small additions by virtue of its plotlines. Several notorious serial killers, including George Foyet "The Reaper" and "The Keystone Killer" in Philadelphia, were introduced during the series and although these individuals never actually existed, their crimes and profiles were based on known serial killers. Additionally, the main characters in the show have varying degrees of minor fame in their own right. Former Special Agent Jason Gideon and Doctor Spencer Reid, for instance, are known in certain circles for their expertise and skills. Penelope Garcia is a known hacker who is among the most elite in the world. Each of the BAU team members is an established FBI Special Agent and each have their own unique skills and notable career accomplishments.

The main purpose of the talented BAU is to profile criminals. Profiling is a field based upon using behavioral observations of a killer's crimes in order to deduce what kind of person is committing the crimes. The hope, of course, is that the profile can be used in combination with police and forensic work in order to catch the killer, either by narrowing the suspect field or using proactive techniques to lure the killer. The canon conveys profiling as a scientific process, based on keen observation and expert analysis -- though not an exact one. Many times, the profile has to be adjusted as new or contradicting information is discovered. Profilers are not omniscient, though occasionally they do make surprising revelations and shockingly accurate analyses.

Personality: The first thing people typically notice about Garcia is her individuality. In person, they'll notice her brightly colored clothes and funky hairstyles that scream 'look over here!'; over the phone in a professional capacity they'll notice a cocky overconfidence which she demonstrates using clever catch phrases declaring her superiority. As off-putting or strange as that might sound, Garcia very quickly is able to convey both her extreme competence at her profession and also the kind, caring, and empathetic person she is.

Perhaps the reason Garcia is best able to connect with people is that she perpetually wears her heart on her sleeve. She is highly emotional and makes no attempts to hide her feelings about anything, which complicates her job at the FBI as she is forced to view horrifying images of violence on a daily basis. Unlike her team, which have to be in the field and control their reactions, Garcia exhibits intense, visceral responses to the crime scene photos and information she analyzes. Her office is decorated with bright colors, troll dolls, and pens with feathers on the end, and her teammates have stated that she decorates in this way so that she will remember to smile despite it all.

Nearly guileless, Garcia has trouble keeping secrets; although loyal enough to make every attempt at keeping a confidence, she is a terrible liar and very often doesn't even attempt to do so. When asked to keep a secret she may agree, and with all that is inside her she will try, but inevitably she finds herself getting caught, most likely because her attempts at being evasive are laughably transparent. Likewise, she has an equal lack of subtlety in almost everything she does. When Penelope Garcia feels something, everyone around her knows it. She tends to seek out others to discuss her problems and, unlike the profilers she works with, has no trouble admitting when something bothers her or when she doesn't understand something -- or someone.

Having lost her parents to a drunk driving accident at eighteen and also because of her current profession, Garcia has a great deal of empathy for victims of crimes and their families. She runs a support group for the families of murder victims in her spare time and is very supportive of all the members of her group. Garcia often becomes visibly upset when she must view or analyze aspects of a crime for her team, and even more so when one of her teammates is in danger, particularly her best friend Derek Morgan who seems to have, as she puts it, a hero complex. Garcia is extraordinarily loyal of and protective over her team, making every effort possible to keep them safe. But more than that, she likes to keep them sane and smiling despite the horrors they face in the course of their work. Garcia often uses her sharp wit and dramatically overstated self-confidence in order to make the field agents smile when they call her for requests.

Garcia is extremely confident about her programming, hacking, and information seeking abilities; it is in this capacity, and in her self-designed office riddled with monitors, where she is most comfortable. Her constant boasting about her abilities is something of a trademark. She constantly makes up new ways to declare her superiority, referring to herself as "fount of all knowledge" and "oracle," to name a few. And most often she lives up to those words, pulling information from obscure or well-hidden sources at all cost. Once she has a goal in mind she won't stop until she achieves it, and this makes her an invaluable part of her team despite her role being different.

In many ways, Garcia's confidence is tied to her mastery of her world -- her world being, often times, her computers. She displays noticeable discomfort when her office is rearranged or someone else leaves objects on the desk, and even when someone else is in the room whens she is trying to focus. The surest way to get Garcia upset is to interfere with her computer system -- this far easier said than done, but on the few occasions someone has managed to disrupt her computerized world she seeks vengeance obsessively and single-mindedly, refusing to rest until balance is restored.

Despite her (warranted) confidence behind the computer, Garcia has a bit of an inferiority complex when faced with interpersonal interactions outside of a computer context. She can be shy or easily rendered speechless when introduced to attractive men, and has stated that she is aware that she's not "the type that men see across a smoky bar and write songs about." Her lack of confidence is also seen when she gets flustered, usually by spouting off a flirty retort that is intended for Morgan but it ends up being a superior on the other end of the line. Her best defense to feeling flustered or uncomfortable is to change the subject or to bombard the object of her discomfort with words, using her verbal talents to attempt to smooth things over and usually managing to fumble or sidestep her way out of it.

Garcia's fierce and endearing sense of herself is absolutely vital to her, as is her faith in goodness. She believes that everything happens for a reason and trusts her instincts -- and when she consciously attempts to override herself, it inevitably ends with Garcia being very uncomfortable. When she tries to take over as media liaison and tones down her wardrobe along with stepping out from behind the computer-filled "dark hole" that is her office, she is vastly uncomfortable because she is going against her own inner voice, trying to be someone that she's not. She states repeatedly that without her belief that things will work out, she won't have anything. It is with this philosophy that Garcia is able to find her place in a world that might, at first, view her as a bit off-center.

Upon finding herself in a world that is between life, death, and dreaming, Garcia will inevitably freak out. She does not love change, and especially when said change involves being in an unfamiliar place without her support system. She will likely latch on to anyone who is compassionate and comforting and do her best to take a deep breath and find some balance in the world. It is likely she will spend a good deal of time on the communication device, both trying to reprogram it to suit her needs and chatting with whoever happens to be on, since virtual chatting is a comfort zone for her. Finding people that are basically sci-fi superheroes would certainly pique her interest! Once she forms some friendships she will feel much more comfortable, even if missing home will be a theme in her life for a long time.

Appearance: Garcia is 5'7" tall and has a larger body type. She has naturally blonde hair and brown eyes, though she often makes color changes to her hair to include deep red and pink or black streaks. Garcia is said to "wear her individuality like a shield" because of her fashion sense, which consists of bold and colorful fabric combinations, bright makeup, large accessories, and spunky hairstyles that range from pigtails to ringlets to standing-up spikes. She also wears eyeglasses, and has been shown to wear a different set of glasses to coordinate with her colorful outfits. A classic Garcia wardrobe choice.

Abilities: Garcia is listed as one of the few people in the world dangerous enough for authorities to keep an eye on, in terms of her hacking abilities; essentially, a hacking prodigy, self-taught. She designs her own systems and can operate multiple computers at once for highly complicated tasks. She is also an expert at sorting and finding data and information.

Inventory: Garcia would have her clothing (likely a brightly colored dress and light sweater, platform shoes, clunky jewelry that includes a necklace, rings, bracelets, earrings, and hair accessories), her eyeglasses, and her tote bag which includes her laptop, a tablet, and at least two cell phones, all decorated with stickers and rhinestones. Her bag would also contain extra makeup and a few assorted things like a pair of stockings and clear nail polish. She also probably has a troll doll in that bag somewhere.

Suite: Fashion queen that she is, Garcia would be most at home in the Earth Sector where she can be surrounded by art and textiles. The drab brown and grey of the surroundings wouldn't bother her just as the boring FBI offices do not, because she will inevitably find a way to surround herself with life and color via her decorating habits.

In-Character Samples:
Third Person: (Spoilers for Season 8 finale)
Garcia won't ever get used to funerals. She doesn't imagine anyone could. Even as she glances around at her team and finds them dry-eyed and stoic as they listen to a eulogized description of Strauss' career, she knows they're hurting. Hotch, standing tall and strong, ever the leader. JJ, who would walk through fire to protect her family and didn't bring Henry so he'd be spared having to watch a casket being lowered. Reid, who's lost so much and still, somehow, holds it together to help others. Rossi, who's seen more death than all of them, saying goodbye to another loved one. And Morgan -- Derek, her hero, who's probably blaming himself but who holds her hand so tightly anyway.

They're brave because they have to be, to do the things they do. Like stopping the maniac who killed Strauss. Like all the times they have to be away from home and lose sleep and see horrible things out of nightmares just to keep people safe. No wonder they can't cry.

But it's okay. Garcia cries for them, always, more than willing to shed the tears they can't. And then later when they have a drink in Strauss' honor she'll be the one laughing loudest and making sure all the glasses stay full. Making sure that all of them know that she loves them and would do anything for them, regardless of whether they ask her to. That even if they can't admit they're hurting, she'll be bringing cookies to the office all week (of course they'll be at work, they have a stack of cases a mile high and lives on the line) and hugging them in the corridors. And if Garcia's just a little more outlandish than usual with the nicknames and the flirting, it'll all be worth it to know they're smiling. They need it, and so does she.

Garcia's learned a lot since that first funeral, where there were two coffins and no family left to hug. She stayed in black for a long time after that, literally. Dropping out of Cal Tech -- out of the world, really -- huddled up in a dark room with black lipstick, her computer monitor the only light she'd let into her life. There, she sat with the anger for years, until she was ready to start letting the colors in again. A little orange here, some pink there. Blue polka dots. The rainbow of fiery hair in her troll collection.

The colors made her smile. It quickly took over her apartment; making up for lost time, perhaps. She had her hacker friends, faceless avatars that jeered each other on in l33t-speak, but it wasn't until she hacked the FBI that she really let the light back in. That she found a new family. That she learned how to love again and vowed to never, ever stop.

Everything happens for a reason. Maybe it sounds corny or cliche, but it's what Garcia knows to be true. The death of her parents was horrible, but without it she'd have never spent all those years hacking and never been recruited to the BAU, where in spite of icky crime scene images and really upsetting days spent pacing her office as she waits for the results of a raid on an UNSUB's house, she is happier than she's ever been.

And it's because she believes such that, as they leave Strauss' funeral together, Derek's hand holding hers, she knows she'll be able to smile again. They all will. Garcia wipes her tears with a pink polka dot handkerchief and gets ready to suggest a place where they can sit around and have that drink. As long as they're together they'll find a way to be okay.

Network:
[An alarmed face appears on the video. Blonde hair with pink streaks, slightly runny makeup, brightly colored chunky jewelry, thick-rimmed glasses. She has not calmed down a single bit since arriving and isn't afraid to show it. Immediately, she starts rambling.]

Okay. I'm used to weird, but this is like -- the freaking Twilight Zone. I get that the, uh, people who escorted me to what is apparently the place I'm supposed to live now kept trying to get me to calm down but... well! How ever is explaining things in terms of 'death and dreaming' supposed to calm a girl down?! Not that I'm sure they're not very nice aliens, I just prefer my Sci-Fi weirdness come with a pause button.

...And what in the name of the 1990's is going on with this GUI? [Someone is not impressed with the communication device.] It's not even portable. No way I'd have a dream without a decent tablet. At minimum.

[She may not take a breath anytime soon, unless someone cares to interrupt...]