History
Roy Westerman: 1983 - Present
Roy Westerman was born to life of the third born child of an architect and a daycare provider in Midway City. Due to the demands of his father’s job, Roy’s family moved around a lot when he was growing up, and as such he attended grade school in Metropolis, Star City, and Central City; and briefly attended high school in Coast City before he finally moved to Blue Valley with his family, which is where he finally graduated. Having spent much of his childhood moving, Roy made few close friends and would often spend his idle time reading encyclopedias for fun, fostering a knack for trivia and deep passion for learning. That drive never left him, thrusting him into a search for higher education.
After having done a few semesters in Blue Valley Community College, Roy gained admittance to Midwestern University in Keystone City. He changed his major several times, before finally settling on Psychiatry. This decision would be a major point going forward as the path he put himself on led him to working at Belle Reve Federal Prison, before later being offered a job as a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum, and that is where he met a female nurse which he would later marry. By all accounts, he’s a loving husband and a great father to several children.
So, let’s talk about his time at Arkham. Roy was hire by Director Burton and assigned to treat the “misfits”, or the patients that other psychiatrist refused to work with. To his credit, Roy never complained or asked for a transfer. The simple merit would not go unnoticed by Director Schumacher who later put Roy in charge of overhauling the Intake process and the development of the “Patient Coordinator” program. Then with the arrival of Director Arkham in 2013, Roy’s initiatives were fast-tracked into implementation.
As the guy in charge of Arkham’s patient evaluations and the Intake wing, Roy developed a professional relationship with the Bat Family and the Birds of Prey… and in short, we trust this guy. Maybe too much, I mean this is Gotham and everyone has skeletons in their closet, but this guy? He wears a smiley-face tie-clip, collects board games, and is a huge movie buff. So what’s he hiding? Hmm…[1]
Threat Assessment
Abilities
- Acting: In High School, Roy won a state championship in a drama competition. He has since not explored this much outside of some work in college, but I hear he can still make himself cry on demand.
- Athletics: In high school and college, Roy played a variety of competitive sports from basketball, track and field, swimming, wrestling, and water polo. Though his favorite sport was water polo, Roy was never a fast enough swimmer to be impressive in competitive swimming but his long arms and build made him an excellent goalie. Also, for a large man, Roy is a surprisingly fast sprinter, likely due to his long legs.
- Martial Arts: Roy was a black belt in Taekwondo from his college days and Roy has retained these skills after finding the defensive training offered at Arkham for its clinical staff to be inefficient. Now, Roy has studied Aikido, Judo, and Krav Maga and implemented some of these techniques in the defensive training offered for not only Arkham's clinical staff, but also its security.
- Medicine: While not an actual physician or licensed to perform such procedures, Roy is knowledgeable in everything from simple First Aid techniques to some routine surgical procedures, and even some complex neurological surgeries. Roy is also considered to be an expert on metahuman physiology and consults with the DEO and ARGUS in this capacity.
- Multilingualism: Roy is fluent in English, Latin, Spanish, and American Sign Language.
- Pedalogy: For a long time, Roy was studying to become an English teacher in college. He has demonstrated his skill at teaching in his professional life, working as Arkham's primary in-service instructor for teaching new treatment methods.
- Psychiatry: Roy's primary discipline is the study, diagnosis, and treatment mental disorders; specifically dealing with the clinical and drug aspects of psychology. As a psychiatrist, Roy studies the behaviors, thought processes and abnormalities of his patients. Having worked at Arkham which has curated some of the most fascinating criminal minds, Roy is considered to be a world-class expert in this field.
- Psychology: The academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. As a psychologist, Roy can attempt to explain the mind and brain in the context of real life, in contrast to the physiological approach used by neurologists. Roy is skilled in the observation of such phenomena as perception, cognition, emotion, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Roy is also an expert in the application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including issues related to daily life - e.g. family, education, and work - and the treatment of mental health problems.
- Strategy: Roy is a board game enthusiast and through this hobby has sharpened his mind to tactical, strategic, and creative thinking.
- Strength: Roy's size should be noted. He is a very large man and though he is something of a gentle giant who prefers intellectual pursuits over athletic endeavors, he did some weight training in high school and college, and also some as part of his therapy for his knees. As a result of this and Roy's love for swimming, he is even stronger than he appears and can do some astonishing things when he exerts himself. His actual strength limit is currently unknown but he has been known to carry an injured guard weighing nearly three hundred pounds to safety during a riot at Belle Reve.
- Trivia: Roy enjoyed reading encyclopedias as a child and is quite adept at retaining that information, thanks in part to an exceptional memory.
- Writing: In high school, Roy wrote a novel. It was a silly thing, but it ignited a passion with literature and writing that he still retains to this day. Though he mostly writes nonfiction now, writing case studies and academic research papers, Roy's true love remains fiction. He is an avid reader and enjoys writing other stories when the concerns of the real world allow him the time.
Weaknesses
- Bad Knees: While in college, Roy blew out his knees. He has had extensive therapy to allow him to live a normal life, but strenuous activity or even just awkward movement might cause his knees to give out or cause him pain.
- Insomnia: Since the passing of his son Joshua, Roy has a hard time sleeping.
- Migraines: In college, Roy discovered he was afflicted with migraines. He takes medications, herbal supplements, and has to often 'decompress' for an hour or more everyday after getting home from work in order to keep this problem in check. If the migraines are not kept in check, Roy can suffer from aphasia where he seems unable to speak correctly and may black out. Also, possibly connected to this condition, Roy is partially color blind which becomes more severe when stressed.[2]
Arkham Employee File
Employment History
- Arkham Asylum: Resident Psychiatrist (7 Years).
- DEO: Belle Reve Intern Psychiatrist (1 Year).
Education
- Medical Doctorate Degree in Psychiatry.
- DEO Certified in Metahuman Pathology.
Notes
- Married: Wife & 3 Children.
- In addition to his duties with intake interviews, employee is in charge of the APC assignments and personally oversees any high-profile patients unassigned to a Patient Coordinator.
- Employee’s current caseload includes: Edward Nygma (#48140), Sandra Wu-San (#51976), Jonathan Crane (#61505), Pamela Isley (#66181), Jane Doe (#72003), and Lonnie Machin (#89608).[3]
Trivia and Notes
Trivia
- Roy's favorite color is red.
- Despite being a self-proclaimed 'foodie', Roy's favorite food is Ramen noodles. Yep. Those cheap things that are a staple to every collegiate's diet. Though, to his credit, Roy does enjoy 'classying' his noodles up and does a fair amount of experimenting with them.
- Roy's favorite drink is ginger ale. Technically, it's raspberry ginger ale, but as that's something not easily found he will settle for ginger ale.
- All of Roy's kids were born on a Friday.
- Roy is allergic to iodine. Working in a medical environment, he has to be careful not to expose himself to that.
- Roy has very eclectic musical tastes, enjoying just about every type of music from country western to classical to oldies to even some rap and heavy metal. He particularly seems to enjoy ballads.
- Roy's oldest daughter is not his biologically. He adopted her shortly after marrying her mother. Still, you wouldn't really know that as she looks and acts more like Roy than her mother and Roy absolutely adores her.
- Roy's second child is autistic. She only speaks one word at a time or in certain gibberish phrases, but is an excellent listener and is able to communicate more complex concepts with sign language. She is also particularly responsive to Roy and Roy is the only person that she'll let touch her when she's having a particularly bad fit.
- Roy was originally meant to be named Joshua but shortly after he was born, his father convinced his mother to name him Roy instead, after his grandfather who recently passed away. Thus the suffix at the end of Roy's name. Later in grade school, Roy wanted to change his name, having hated the name 'Roy' and when asked what name he wanted, Roy said "Joshua", unaware that his parents had originally planned to name him that. After hearing and being told why he was named Roy, Roy took a better appreciation for his name and later on developed a firm pride in his name. Roy would later name his stillborn son Joshua.
- Though he was raised in a religious family, Roy now defines himself as a "spiritualistic atheist" or sometimes simply as an "agnostic". He will even just label his religious beliefs as "complicated".
- Roy Westerman is a fan of William Shakespeare.
- Roy is a big movie buff and on long car rides, likes to pass the time by having people name off two actors to see if he can "connect" them by making a chain of actors' roles in shared movies.
- Despite having experience playing the piano, violin, and trumpet; as well as singing in a choir, Roy is more or less tone deaf. Still he loves music and does his best to keep his random bursts of singing to when he's alone.
- Roy was once an exceptional dancer. He has experience performing a variety of dances, including but not limited to: line dancing, Charleston, square dancing, salsa, waltz, and a bunch of other ballroom style dances. Still, his skills are likely rather rusty on account of his bad knees and lack of practice.
- Roy is able to whistle in short bursts at a very high pitch. This quirk has proved useful in gaining the attention of some rowdy patients, especially those with sensitive hearing. Also, Roy has a very powerful voice when he wants to be heard and is often able to make himself heard even over a massive loud crowd, such as a riot.
- Roy always wears his smiley face tie clip to work. It was the first gift his oldest daughter bought for someone with with her own money.
- Westerman family has a dog called Aurora.
- His employee number is 38-702.
Notes
- Author's Note: Okay, so this is obviously a fictional version of me. I have not lived in these fictional cities (at least, not anymore than the rest of you have) and I am not a psychiatrist. I also changed a lot of my personal "backstory" to fit into Earth-27's narrative and to fit me into the staff of Arkham Asylum. That being said... I am actually 6'5" (Roy).
- Roy and the Monitor are two parts of the Fatewriter.
- Roy's address is a nod to his other projects, the Erebus Saga and the Zodiac Pack.
Links and References
- Appearances of Roy Westerman
- Character Gallery: Roy Westerman