Crestfall Bio

For my class last month I had to craft a bio for my protagonist and my antagonist. Here's what I wrote for Crestfall:


Jessica Crest grew up in the 80’s. If you were to ask her, she’d tell you that there were no real anomalies or abnormalities with her upbringing and she wouldn’t be wrong in saying so. Her father was a leading research scientist for Sinecorp in the sprawling metropolis of Neon City.

Sinecorp was the premiere pharmaceutical research corporation in the world during the 80’s, and the research that Richard Crest brought to the table proved invaluable. Richard’s foremost field of study was the effects different chemicals had on rats in a controlled environment. His study went into cosmetics, paint, and even some electrical equipment. His knowledge helped Sinecorp grow from a reputable science lab, to a heavy competitor in the corporate business world.

Jessica’s mother, Kelly, was also a scientist who’s knowledge rivaled that of her husband. She’d backed out of research full time to focus on raising Jessica. She would do some independent consulting for smaller clients from time to time, and she would help Richard on some projects until he made one of his “breakthroughs”.

They weren’t the Rockwellian picture of the perfect American family, but they loved each other very much and they figured that, in many ways, was better for them.

Jessica did very well in elementary school. She was polite to the teachers, made friends quickly, and always managed to get her homework done. She got along with almost everyone, except the bullies.

Jessica didn’t like it when the bigger kids, like Jimmy McMillon, pushed around the smaller ones. It never seemed fair to her. One day, she’d decided that she’d had enough.

Jimmy was picking on a young boy far smaller than Jimmy himself. Jimmy demanded all of the money the young boy had. Through a stream of tears, the boy explained that he had no money to give to Jimmy, so Jimmy knocked the boy to the ground and dumped a bag of garbage on him.

Jimmy turned around, clearly pleased with himself, and saw Jessica standing in front of him. He smiled a coy smile.

“What? Did you want a piece of this?” He asked her.

She said nothing, she just stepped up to him and punched him in the crotch. Jimmy fell over in tears. Jessica helped the young boy to his feet and brushed him off. She never spoke of this to anyone.

When she was about 15 years old, her father lost his job. He never spoke of it and she never got any real details. It confused her. She knew her father loved his job and he made good money. He was fairly reputable in his field too. She couldn’t understand how anyone would let a wonderful man like her father go.

Richard and Kelly began taking on more independent work. They would study the effects of chemicals and fumes on rats and mice and other small rodents in the lab they had built in their basement.

On a day that Jessica would always remember, a man in a black suit came to the door. Strangers were often coming to visit her parents and she never really thought about it. But this man seemed different. His shoes were polished, and his shirt was pressed. His bow tie was a bright against the black of the suit. He wore extremely dark aviator sunglasses and the way he towered over her made her feel smaller than she had ever felt in her life. When her father saw the man he barked at her to go into her room and stay there.

Her father and the man argued for a long time. She couldn’t hear the specifics but every now and then she catch certain key words like “personal policy”, “not that kind of research”, and “weapons”. She was no genius but she put the pieces together fairly quickly. This man was trying to hire her father for some kind of weapons research and her father would have nothing of it. She smiled. Her father would always be around to protect her.

The next morning her father busted into her room and told her they were going to visit her grandparents. She was startled, but she was excited to see them. She grabbed a suitcase and started packing some items. Her father stopped her and told her to only grab a few things. He ushered Jessica and Kelly out to the car and drove to the countryside to visit his parents. Neither of her parents spoke on the car ride and that made Jessica uncomfortable, but she knew she could trust her parents to protect her.

Her grandmother greeted Jessica with a big hug and a freshly baked cookie. Jessica ran inside to eat a few more.

When she was inside, Richard gave his mother a kiss on the forehead. She was crying but promised to stay strong for Jessica. He thanked her for watching his little girl then he and his wife got back in the car and drove away. They didn’t say “goodbye”.

Jessica was heartbroken. She didn’t understand why her parents had left her behind. She was old enough to understand, wasn’t she? Her grandparents calmed her down and they played board games into the evening. Her grandmother answered a phone call late into the evening. She gave out a startled gasp and ran to the living room. She turned on the TV.

On the local news station, there was footage of a car on fire, plumes of smoke billowing up through the sunroof. The ticker along the bottom of the screen proclaimed that a loud explosion was heard just minutes ago. Now this car was on fire. There appeared to be two unidentified people inside the car and the police would keep them updated as often as they could.

The car belonged to Richard and Kelly Crest.

It took Jessica a while to get over the death of her parents. She focused all of energy into her studies and she graduated high school at the top of her class. When she turned 18, she went to the Army recruiting station and signed up for Explosive Ordinance Disposal. That’s when her life really changed.