#crawford: here is the thing that almost killed me and did kill my mentor

[miskatonique]

KATHERINE MCMICHAELS CHEAT SHEET !

since my muses are not super well known in the contemporary rpc ( and i’m too lazy to do a full about page at this very moment ) i decided to put together little posts for them that give their general backgrounds, vibes, and plot possibilities !

this is a mix of canon and headcanon, and these are subject to change / adapt as i get more used to writing the characters

BACKGROUND:

Film: From Beyond, 1986

Dr. Katherine McMichaels, 28, is an extremely ambitious psychiatrist specializing in radical ways of treating patients with schizophrenia. Katherine has been accused of using her patients as a means of reaching her own acclaim rather than sincerely trying to help them. While she always starts with good intentions, it doesn’t take much for Katherine to focus more on the big picture of how this will look on her CV rather than the actual people she’s supposed to be helping. 

A lot of times she’s not in a position to directly see the hurt that her actions cause to her patients, which just allows her to go on to do more hurt to other people without learning anything from her actions.

That’s literally all of the background we get on Katherine in the movie LMAO. She feels very much like one of those women who was undermined all throughout school and has had to craft one of those “don’t fuck with me I’m smarter than you” personas. 

While the hardass persona is partially true, she definitely has a tendency to get emotionally attached to her patients, or at least the narrative that she’s constructed in her head about her patients. We see this when she meets Crawford for the first time at the psych ward and she’s the only person who believes his story about what happened with the Resonator and Dr. Pretorius’ death.

When she, Crawford, and Bubba go back to the Pretorius Foundation to take another look at the Resonator, Katherine is immediately struck with the same hunger for knowledge of the other world that got Pretorius killed in the first place. 

Multiple times Crawford and Bubba have to keep her from diving too deep into the same obsessive, ambitious madness that took Pretorius, and it’s only when Crawford and Bubba are hurt by the creatures that Katherine finally makes an effort to turn away from the Resonator and the unknown knowledge it promises.

VIBES / PERSONALITY:

Halsey vc: If I can’t have love, I want power!! Katherine definitely thrives off being in positions of power, either in relationships, academia, or in her career. She will do just about anything to further her acclaim and doesn’t care how many people she has to step on or throw under the bus to get there

That being said she’s incredibly overworked. You may not always be able to tell because she holds herself so well ( dressed nice, dark circles covered up, seems to have her shit together always ) but she’s learned to survive by busting her ass, staying up all night, surviving on coffee and spite to make ends meet

She expects a lot from the people in her life! Friends, lovers, co-workers, patients, etc! This can make her overly critical of those she cares about, sometimes, but usually it’s coming from a good place. 

PLOT POSSIBILITIES:

Pre-movie I can see her butting heads with people due to the nature and methods of her work. A work rivals thing would be HOT, not gonna lie.

But also give her friends from undergrad / phd..... give her friends from childhood who have grown apart and are trying to understand each other’s lives again and Katherine has to be like “I occasionally make people’s mental health worse so it looks good on my CV” and the other person is like “hey what the fuck”

Post movie! Katherine trying to atone for her past work / the pain she’s caused! She’s also extremely traumatized now too because of what she’s seen from beyond! She might even develop some kind of higher powers of cognition that were unlocked by the Resonator so maybe she’s psychic now and your muse needs a psychic's help with shit! idk!

I think she’s bi but preference for women, so ladies..... come smooch....