Jessica Yamada
<infobox>
<title source="name"><default>
</default></title> <image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group> <header>Basic information</header> <label>Civilian name</label> <label>Alias(es)</label> <label>Gender</label> <label>Worm start</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> </group> <group> <header>Personal Status</header> <label>Status</label> <label>General location</label> <label>Family</label> <label>Relationships</label> <label>Occupation</label> </group> <group> <header>Parahuman Status</header> <label>Legal status</label> <label>Team(s)</label> <label>Previous team(s)</label> <label>Power</label> <label>Known classifications</label> </group> <group> <header>Media</header> <label>First appearance</label> </group> </infobox>Dr Jessica Yamada was a parahuman psychologist employed by the Protectorate.
Personality
Dr. Yamada was exceptionally dedicated to her job. She was willing to lecture Chevalier for breaking her rules, and to work with numerous dangerous parahumans.
She was an expert in parahuman psychology; providing information on Trigger Events that Weaver was unaware of, and sitting in on PRT meetings as a consultant.<ref name="18.z">18.z (Donation Interlude #3; Jessica Yamada, Therapist)</ref><ref name="22.1">Cell 22.1</ref> Her focus was mainly on child parahumans.<ref> I should warn you I predominantly work with juveniles. - 18.z (Donation Interlude #3; Jessica Yamada, Therapist)</ref>
She disliked much of cape culture, such as the names they would choose.<ref name="II2.5">“I never liked the codenames,” Jessica said.
“We might be very different people in that. There’s something fun about them. They’re revealing.”
“They are, but they often reveal just how badly the patient wants to escape, to leave their humanity behind and dive into something well beyond humanity. Some don’t surface completely. Some hurt others on the way down. Some drown in that vast, incomprehensible sea.”
I drew in a deep breath, then sighed. “Feeling poetic?”
“My own kind of escapism, maybe. I think sometimes about a world where all of my patients can go by their real names.” - Excerpt from Flare 2.5</ref> She encouraged her patients to use their real names<ref name="18.z e5">Weld closed the door and settled in the reinforced chair she’d brought into her office in anticipation of the appointment.
“Have you picked a name?” she asked.
He chuckled lightly. “I’m Weld. That’s it for now.”
[...]
He was at the door when she called after him, “and Weld, I want you to pick a proper name!” - Excerpt from Interlude 18.z</ref><ref>“What should I call you?” Jessica asked. “I prefer to use real names wherever possible, but I understand if you’d prefer the confidentiality of a codename.” - Excerpt from Interlude 18.z</ref>, feeling that the use of codenames to refer to patients took away their humanity.<ref>Jessica didn’t correct the head nurse. She hated using the codenames; it reinforced the idea of the patients being less than human. - Excerpt from Interlude 18.z</ref>
Dr. Yamada disliked lying to her patients, but was willing to do so when she felt it was necessary.<ref>“But something popped in the suit just now.”
“We wear the same suits for multiple patients. That was a safeguard to protect any patients that might collide with us. It’s not meant for you. Don’t worry.”
Jessica hated lying to her patients. - Excerpt from Interlude 18.z</ref> She disapproved of the PRT's policy of rotating therapists, but did not voice this disapproval when it was brought up.<ref>“We rotate. The PRT doesn’t want any therapist developing a bond to the point that they could manipulate a cape. By rotating through three or four for a given area, they can ensure that one therapist will be able to identify manipulations on the part of any of the others.”
“Doesn’t that kind of defeat the point? Not letting us develop a bond, no trust?”
Yes, Jessica thought, but she said, “It’s not my place to say. Is that what you’re hoping to get, here? A one-on-one relationship? A bond of trust?” - Excerpt from Interlude 18.z</ref>
She felt that she had encountered more monsters than Legend, which let her stay calm in dangerous situations with patients.<ref>“I… why aren’t you scared of me?”
“Because I have no reason to be,” Jessica lied, meeting the girl’s eyes.
The truth is that it’s because I’ve spent more time in the company of monsters than Legend, she thought. Trust me, honey, you aren’t the scariest I’ve run into, not by half. - Excerpt from Interlude 18.z</ref>
Jessica smoked in grad school, a habit she didn't return to until 2011, when she was overwhelmed by the state of the Brockton Bay Wards.<ref name="18.z 1" />
Known Clients
History
Background
It took her eight years to train as a psychiatrist.<ref>Nothing that graphic, but the penalties are severe, and they include extensive jail time, and forfeiting the credentials it took me eight years to get. - Interlude 18.z</ref> She went to graduate school.<ref name="18.z 1">Waiting nervously, restless in her inability to offer any assistance at all in a crisis like this, she headed up to the roof and bummed a cigarette from one of the interns, smoking for the first time since grad school.
[...]
Jessica sat on the edge of the roof, legs dangling. She was on her fifth cigarette. - Excerpt from Interlude 18.z</ref>
Post-Leviathan
She saw Shadow Stalker after she was kidnapped and tortured by Regent and the Undersiders.
Post-Slaughterhouse Nine
On June 16th, 2011, she saw Glory Girl and Sveta at the Parahuman Asylum.
On June 17th she saw Clockblocker, Weld, and Flechette in the Brockton Bay Wards. She warned Miss Militia that her Wards were suffering from low morale. On June 18th she saw Kid Win and Vista.
On June 19th she was called in to cover for a colleague named Richmond.
On June 20th she saw Clockblocker, but the Mayoral debate was attacked by Coil, disrupting things. At 6am the next morning, she had a conversation with Eidolon about his problems.<ref name="18.z"/>
Post-Echidna
Dr. Yamada was present during Skitter's Surrender.
She had to deal with one of her patients' disappointment after hearing the news about the Cauldron treatment.<ref name="23.4 e1">“I’m so sorry I’m late. I never do this,” Mrs. Yamada said. She entered the office, a raincoat, boots and a messenger bag in her arms, her hair a touch damp, clearly flustered. “What a way to start us off. I’m so embarrassed.”
[...]
“It’s a matter of professional courtesy,” she said, more like she was talking to herself than to me. She was still getting herself sorted out, her raincoat hung up, rain boots replaced with slippers she’d been holding beneath the coat. “Being prompt, it indicates that I respect and value your time. You can’t confide in me if I don’t respect you.”
Respect me?
I looked down at the floor for a moment. She was looking at me when I raised my eyes to her. “With all sincerity, it was due to forces entirely out of my control, with complications at every turn.”
“Bureaucracy,” I said.
“You’re not wrong,” she said, “But it was something else. A patient of mine, institutionalized, she’s reacted badly to certain events in the last month. Someone she idolized left the Wards, and-”
I could see her stop, composing herself, the stress and preoccupied attitude melting away.
“-And this isn’t about that. This session is about you.”- Excerpt from Drone 23.4</ref> She was paid a visit, and her patient accepted an invitation to the Irregulars.<ref name="27.5e2">“Sveta idolizes me. She sees me as a hero, a spokesperson for our kind. Her therapist asked me to come visit, because she heard about what happened in the Echidna attack, what Cauldron was doing. All of her progress, gone. So her therapist wanted her hero to show up. Give her guidance, support. It worked.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” I asked. I saw Eidolon open fire, not a dramatic attack, but a subtle one, a series of darts that left dark streaks in the air. My entire body tensed, as if I could jump into the fight. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref>
After a rocky start, Dr. Yamada settled into being the primary therapist for Weaver.<ref>Taylor was Yamada’s patient, for most of her stay in the Wards. - Comment by Wildbow on Teneral e.1</ref>
Post-Gold Morning
In the aftermath of Gold Morning, she had a session with the Green Maiden.<ref>Teneral e.1</ref> She also assisted with a new research project.<ref>Eclipse x.1</ref><ref>Eclipse x.5</ref>
Early Ward
She formed a therapy group in the two years before the Wardens offered her a long term position.<ref name="II2.5 e6">“With the full-time position I’m taking with the Wardens, I have the chance to help a lot of critical individuals. The people I’ll be helping will be people who can help a lot of people in turn. An incredible number, in some cases. As attached as I am to my current patient caseload, and as much as I would like to take you on as a patient, it made the most sense to go this route.” - Excerpt from Flare 2.5</ref> As the therapy group increasingly gained the ambition to become a hero group, she reached out first to Weld and then to Victoria Dallon to speak to them.<ref>“When Jessica- When Mrs. Yamada asked me to sit in with the group and help out. She asked Weld first, didn’t she?”
“Ah, you caught that,” Sveta said. The smile disappeared. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure if you did, and I didn’t want to risk hurting your feelings.” - Excerpt from Shade 4.6</ref> As Victoria spent more time with the group, she noticed something wrong with the group, a feeling Jessica agreed with but could not discuss due to confidentiality.<ref>“You’re not wrong,” Jessica Yamada said.
I stared out over the water. There was something sinister at play with the team.
[...]
“Double agent? Someone under the influence of another?” I asked.
“Telling you would be telling you who,” Jessica said. “Which, unfortunately, would be betraying confidence.” - Excerpt from Shadow 5.1</ref>
She attempted to persuade Amy Dallon to seek professional help and maintain distance with her sister. Instead, Amy warns her about Jessica's impeding burnout.<ref name="II16.y">Interlude 16.y II</ref>
Post-Fallen fall
Jessica became unresponsive to calls and texts immediately following the portal sabotage by The Fallen<ref>Each and every one of us had one name in common, someone they cared about, and for some, one of the only responsible adult figures who cared about them in turn. She had every reason to be right at the epicenter, which didn’t make it better.
Today had proven more than anything that these guys still needed her. What the hell was this team going to do without its therapist? - Excerpt from Pitch 6.9</ref>. In her absence, Victoria tried to fill her role in helping the therapy group.<ref>I don’t know how I’m going to help these guys, Jessica.
I found myself actually hesitating before approaching Sveta, Tristan and Chris. The group had lost two of its members and its mentor in a matter of nine days. - Excerpt from Torch 7.5</ref>
Jessica survived the sabotage and was stranded alongside Riley and Jamie Rinke near a remote settlement.<ref>Interlude 9 II</ref> Meanwhile her notes about Breakthrough get delivered to Victoria Dallon as a contingency measure.<ref>Polarize 10.13</ref>
She presumably killed Bonesaw in self-defense while there and quit her job afterwards.<ref>This- a whirl of intensity, Jessica reaching out with a bleeding arm, grabbing a thin wrist, slamming it down into rocky ground until the attacker dropped the blade. Frantic, even though it meant losing traction, Jessica reached out and swiped the knife, sending it flying ten or fifteen feet.
The hands that grabbed her arms were small. Fingernails dug into forearm, and came away with fine white lines caught beneath small fingernails that had been painted pink.
Jessica knelt on the offending hand, pinning it down, and strangled-
Strangled Bonesaw.
[...]
Bonesaw never came back. Jessica quit being a therapist. - Excerpt from From Within 16.12 </ref-->
Trivia
- Yamada's exceptional therapeutic prowess has become something of a meme in the fandom.
Fanart Gallery
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Detail of image by @rosyrach on Twitter.
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Image by @rosyrach on Twitter.
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Image by Igor for We've Got Worm art contest
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Image by VNL for We've Got Worm art contest
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Hugging Victoria, by terriblydrawnparahumans
References
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