Ooo Joy for the ask game?? (Also Piper if you want to!)
Thank you for the ask! Joy is such a fun and complex character to think about. Here are just a couple of the headcanons I have for Joy Mercer:
On Joy’s first day at the Academy she met a surly young girl with a blue stripe in her hair and a “bad” attitude. Joy saw this adorable sulking kitten and promptly adopted Patricia on sight. Her friendship with Fabian came later when she stood up to Alfie and Jerome who were making fun of the boy’s copy of The Solar System is Your Friend. From there the three were an inseparable trio until the time of Joy’s disappearance.
I personally believe that Joy’s mother was killed when she was young (maybe 3 or 4). Frederick Mercer, now left a single father of a toddler, becomes obsessed with caring for her. He was a total helicopter parent before sending her to boarding school. He was originally super sketched out by Mr. Sweet’s scholarship offer, since Joy wasn’t a particularly good student, but he gave in when Mrs. Andrews was sent to bring him into the cult. The idea that he could achieve immortality for himself and his daughter was one he wasn’t able to pass up. The idea that no one would be able to take his little girl away from him or vice versa, seemed like the answer to all of his prayers. Joy on the other hand felt very suffocated by this attention, and saw her time at Anubis as the first breath of fresh air that she had taken in years… which makes what happens to her all that much more tragic.
We see in the show that Joy is a very organized person, who excels in event planning. I could see her studying hospitality in University. Her interest in event planning originally stemmed from a need for control, but through time (and therapy) developed into a love of serving others.
I honestly see Jeroy as end game. That said, it was not smooth sailing for them. I have this idea that they were engaged at one point, but Joy got cold feet due to her own insecurities. She was still carrying a lot of the trauma from high school, and struggled with feeling like anyone could love her. Despite this both were still 100% head over heels in love with each other. An Anubis House reunion of some sort brings the two back together, and after an angsty discussion the two reconnect and go on to have a loving and supportive marriage.
(Pt. 2 with Piper coming soon 😃)
