Hope Michaelson

[NPCs]

Name:	Hope Grace Michaelson
Age:	35
Gender:	Female
Occupation:	Doctor
Secondary Occupation:	No Seriously Doctor
Appearance:	Hope is relatively tall standing at 5' 9".  She has a slender build maintained through swimming or running in the gym.  It gives her something to do when she's not working. Her naturally blonde hair falls to beyond her shoulders but is usually held back in a French knot, braid, ponytail or crocodile clip (depending on how much effort she feels like putting into it.)  Her hazel eyes provide a contrast to her otherwise Nordic ancestry appearance.  She is attractive but its something she doesn't see in herself.
PlayBy:	Katherine Heigl
Initial Personality:	In most every day situations Hope comes across as not necessarily cold but quite closed off and uncertain maybe even shy. She is even more so around males especially those she finds attractive. If you first meet her in a medical situation however its like you are seeing a completely different person.  She is strong confident and not afraid to take charge.  This is an area she knows well and it shows in both her demeanour and her work.
Underlying Personality:	In the Medical field what you see is what you get.  It is the one area where Hope truly feels comfortable and knowledgeable.  If you want to see the person that Hope has the potential to be it is there.  She's even been known to joke during surgery.  However lack of confidence is a very good way to describe Hope in most every day circumstances. Her shyness diminishes somewhat when she gets to know someone and she can prove to be a true and loyal friend.  Despite her shyness she does have a positive outlook on life she just has difficulty getting that outlook across cause her voice can kind of get lost among the others.  Again this is usually due to her believing everyone else knows better than she does.  It means she is very good at following orders.  Unless of course she can see a medical reason why the order should not be followed then she is more than happy to make her opinion more forceful.
Known History:	Born 2487 on Ariel.  Mother was a nurse, father was enlisted alliance though high up in the enlisted ranks.  Hope is an only child.  It was noticed very early on that Hope was smart incredibly smart however her family was not exactly wealthy and could not afford to send her to the private advanced schools.  She did however graduate the public school system at the age of 15.  She graduated from pre-med undergraduate course at 17.  This however already put her family in debt and knowing that they would not be able to afford to help her with medical school her father spoke to his commanding officer in the Military.  Hope had no issue in letting the Military pay for her schooling in return for her enlisting and putting her skills to use there. She had after all grown up in a military family and it was something her father encourage her to do. When she became of legal age Hope enlisted with the Military and went through basic training and followed by officer training (which it must be said she did not excel at and it was formally written - "Hope will never be able to lead a team unless it is of a medical nature - I can not recommend her for combat or front line service").  The Military allowed her to do continue her final year of Medical school and her intern-ship on Ariel.  Wanting her to get the best possible education possible.  Upon finishing her intern-ship she got several offers for residency from some of the top hospitals in Ariel however it was then that the Independent war broke out.  Hope went off to serve on one of the main Alliance mobile hospital ships with no questions asked.  Trauma surgery had always interested her after all and where better to hone her skills then during the war.  So she worked on the Alliance soldiers and the browncoat prisoners of war.  She treated them all the same after all a patient was a patient no matter what side they fought for and it was her job to keep them alive. After the war finished she wanted to go more where she could be of more help then in the military hospitals and the Core worlds so she travelled to some of the larger hospitals in the Border and Rim.  There she became more of a generalized practitioner though she has kept up her trauma skills.   Her most recent tour has been to a hospital in Capitol City on Constance.  However a recent incident with the Chief of staff means that she now finds herself unemployed and seeking a job with less politics than a hospital.
Other History:	Her family though somewhat loving did have an overbearing Father.  The house was run very military style and Father's rule was law.  All though not physically abused both Hope and her mum were verbally and emotionally abused.  Hopes father leading them to believe that they really had no idea about anything.  This was despite the fact that Hope was very smart.  Her father always used to say she was "Book smart not street smart and that won't get you nowhere." Apparently she also had no common sense.  Being smart in the public school system meant that she never really got to socialise with people her own age.  This further diminished her social skills and self confidence.  Her knack for biology and medicine however was praised enough that her confidence grew in that area alone.  In fact in her third year of Medical School she actually questioned an instructors statement in relation to the best way to do a surgery.  It was along the lines of "I know its been done this way but would it not make more sense to do it this way."  The instructor though not so keen on being questioned was impressed with her ingenuity and his response was although this is the proven technique it was sometimes necessary to think outside of the square in certain circumstances.  Hope found herself selected to become his intern the next year and became almost his protoge. They actually had a relationship despite him being married at the time.  Of course he soon realised that she might outstrip his skill and knowing that he would not be able to fault her medically faulted other areas of her life.  As such the emotional abuse continued and was one of the reasons Hope left the civilian hospitals and remained in the Alliance Military until the end of the war when she wanted to offer more help to people then she current was.
Skills:	A highly skilled and trained doctor.  A natural swimmer and can hold her breath for nearly 2 minutes underwater. (Don't know how that's helpful here but it is a skill ;))
Weaknesses:	Shy beyond all measures.  Is  no confidence in her knowledge of anything outside the medical field.
Hobbies:	Swimming when she can. Music - she can play the piano and guitar.  Reading - Has a wide library selection from Biographies and histories to romances, action and fantasy.  There are of course numerous medical volumes in her library too - despite her love of reading it doesn't make her more confident in her knowledge of things.