Kyle Delacroix's page

Kyle was born in the norhtwest to parents James and Marie. Her childhood was spent mostly alone - while Marie was a stay-at-home mother, she rarely had interest in having a daughter, and James worked long hours as an engineer.

Whatever that environment was like, Kyle never talks about it, sometimes citing she “doesn’t remember”, or other times simply changing the subject. At any rate, when she was about 12, she and her mother moved to Philadelphia. Marie never talked about why they left or mentioned Kyle’s father again, though she knew that he and Kyle still kept in touch. After the move, Marie had to take on work at both a diner and as a cleaner at a hotel, and while this left Kyle even more alone than she had been, it was a more freeing form of alone. A degree of independence, rather than neglect.

(In reality, Kyle likely understands more now than ever that the fighting and divorce was because her parents were young and confused and didn’t have much of a relationship. She realises that they are just people.)

Her mother’s absence forced her to be responsible early, and much of Kyle’s time was spent reading and, though she rarely admits this, watching reruns of hospital dramas. By the time she was 15, she knew she wanted to be a doctor. By the time she was 17, she realised that there was no way she could ever afford medical school.

Wanting to leave, but unable to deal with guilt from her mother, Kyle went to school in Jersey, choosing a location that was “far enough” away that she didn’t have to go home every weekend, but close enough that her mother wouldn’t freak out.

Kyle’s major in college was in Biology, with several classes in related-fields, primarily other sciences. She put herself through by bartending (a job she despised), and made extra money where she could by tutoring other students. (Possible PC hook?)

Graduating with a perfect GPA, Kyle was faced with a decision. Going on to be an academic was an option. She could have taken a small fortune out in loans and gone to medical school to become a doctor. She could have even settled and become a nurse. A further option was to join the army and become a doctor that way. But none of these sat right with her.

Instead, she began training to become an EMT, with the goal of becoming a Paramedic. It wasn’t that she wanted to be on the front lines, like the Army would have permitted, and it wasn’t that she wanted to put her knowledge to work, like being a nurse would have allowed. Instead, what she found she wanted was to learn how to think in a jam, how to be critical, and additionally - as a measure of how much she had learned. It is intended to be temporary, before she goes back into more academia.

Kyle would have received a call from her mother, essentially saying “Your father is dead.”, as a blatant exaggeration. In fact, her father (who would later clarify this with her) had been given a cancer diagnosis of having less than 6 months to live.

Taking a sabbatical from work, unsure of how much there would be for her to deal with, Kyle began making preparations to travel. She had been careful with money and kept a little in savings, so it was a surprise to her friends when she began asking if anyone was “planning to drive” west and could give her a ride, even part way. Certainly she had to have the money for a plane ticket, or at least they could lend her that much? But she only frowned, replying “I don’t fly”. (There would have been a terrible thunderstorm while flying out to Philly after the divorce. Kyle hasn’t flown since.)

(Also, I’m expecting the father to be dead before I arrive. It probably would have taken a couple weeks to get things sorted out, especially since she wouldn’t know how long she would be there, and then plus the week or two drive. So all told, maybe a month after she gets the call? That’s enough time for him to die. Though if he were to stick around for a bit of the opening, I would not object to that, either.)

Kyle’s book smart, but not very street smart, and as much as she understands about how people work physically, she doesn’t always understand how they work mentally. She might not be the first to suspect someone of lying, for instance. She is personable, and usually polite, very introverted. Her lone companion in life is an orange tabby named Copernicus (sometimes shortened to Copper), who she is bringing on this trip as well.

Physically, Kyle is about 5’6, maybe 125 pounds? She’s not fit thin, but fat thin. By which I mean that even though she has a small frame and looks “thin”, she still has a high body fat percentage because she doesn’t exercise and eats poorly. Typically she loses track of time while working and forgets meals, grabbing something fast food to make up for it. Her favourite is pairing Merlot with chicken nuggets. She jokes that her brain is all she needs, and the rest is just decomposing meat, citing Stephen Hawking as a prime example.

The thing she’s most afraid of is being wrong. Making the wrong decision, arriving at the wrong answer. She will research to a fault until she has, if not an objective opinion, at least one that’s backed by facts.

One of the feats that I gave her is the ability to perform Surgery with the heal skill. I want to note that I’m not imagining her being able to perform a complex heart transplant or anything like that, she hasn’t had the training. I don’t know where the line is for what actually constitutes surgery, but I’m imagining her being able to handle things like: setting a broken bone, anything involving stitching someone up, removing bullets if they’re shot, going up to maybe something as complicated as dealing with appendicitis. I imagine Kyle having a lot of the knowledge on how more complicated things are done, but without having the experience of “Well, how much pressure DOES it take to slice an aorta?”