name: joel henderson
aliases: jo-jo, j
birthday: may 4th, 1980
age: (better call saul: 22-24), (breaking bad: 28-29)
gender: male
sexuality: omnisexual (?) if someone is hot then theyre hot bro idk
personality: quiet, not keen on violence but will fight if necessary, irresponsible, reckless, flimsy morals, cares deeply about loved ones, can be intense
family situation: grew up with his mom, dad, and older sister until his parents divorced when he was twelve and his dad remarried his step-mom. he didnt take the divorce super well, he didn't understand it, and he definitely didn't understand when his step-mom began doing weird shit with him mere months after moving in. - present day he's cut off all contact with his parents and step-mom, occasionally talks to his sister charlotte
history/place in the story: grew up normal until his parents divorced, shit hits the fan. he'd started smoking by 14 and smoking pot at 16 to cope with what was going on at home with his step-mom. his sister moved out at the age of 21 and joel would stay the night at her place a lot. at 18 he became addicted to harder drugs to the point where his sister told him he couldnt stay there anymore. she didnt want to get in trouble if drugs were ever found at her house. he moved back home and the weird shit with his step mom started again almost immediately.
in a desperate attempt to get away from everything he started staying the night at his dealers house (nacho). they have an on and off thing for a while, just kind of fucking around when they're high. he helps nacho deal for a little while unbeknownst that he's literally working with the cartel.
he works with them until a deal goes wrong with tuco and he escapes by the skin of his teeth. scared someone's gonna be after him he packs up and leaves in the middle of the night, irrationally scared and probably high out of his mind. the event leaves tuco arrested but eventually released as they are unable to reach joel to speak to him about the incident. at 20 he finds himself sort of stuck in arizona, essentially homeless and at rock bottom. he kind of trips around the southwest for a while, never staying anywhere for more than a couple weeks. eventually after like 2 years he bites the bullet and goes back to new mexico, after finding out through word of mouth that tuco's actually in jail for beating up some old man. joel shows up one night at nacho's house emaciated, wide-eyed and alarmed from looking over his shoulder the past two years. perhaps a little unprofessionally, nacho lets him in. after a while he tells joel he'll try to find him some work, but it wont be with the cartel in any way. he becomes an errand boy for gus fring after fring assures him safety from both the people who almost killed him and any collateral damage that comes from the cartel, however, any slight deviance in loyalty and everything falls apart.
mike tells joel nacho dies and joel kind of just nods quietly and leaves. mike tells gus that one of his guys is a risk and gus sends victor down to follow him to make sure joel doesnt do anything irrational. he relapses to the point of hospitalization. by necessity, his family gets called in. mike goes over to keep an eye on joel in the hospital, and is one of the first to witness first-hand how fucked his parents can be. after he's released from the hospital, he gets an earful from gus for the shit he did and a goodnight threat present in the middle of the night at his home. it's a big spot for his arc as he learns to completely separate his personal and professional life. from here on out he's a lot more reserved, kind of thick-skinned. he stops doing drugs and has other coping mechanisms. whether they're healthy is dubious. he helps bury lalo and howard after their deaths and continues to work for gus like he works a completely regular 9-5 job.
he's in and out until the superlab is finished, very occasionally dropping in to guard, until victor gets murdered which is when he becomes a regular with tyrus, coming in every second shift. after gus and tyrus blow up he panics wildly and ends up being shot by one of the vamanos pest guys in the beginning of season 5a, as he posed too much of a risk.
living situation: he owns a flat in an apartment complex out in one of the suburbs. it's got a bedroom, a bathroom and a living room/kitchen area. it's small and after beginning to work for gus he could absolutely afford a larger place, but he's come to call it home and can never bring himself to really leave. it's kind of a perpetual "i'll do it later" deal. he's not there a lot though. he's on the road a bunch of the time, or he's at work. when he gets some time off he spends it cleaning the apartment because it gets dirty over the weeks he's not there.
fashion sense: joel wears a lot of over-sized t-shirts but pants that fit. most, if not all of his clothes are thrifted. typically, he sticks to neutral tones, black and grey. but! if he's going out he knows how to dress up. he has some nice clothes and he owns some nice pairs of earrings. mostly though he'll dress up pretty inconspicuously.
car: after he gets settled he ends up buying a blue toyota rav4.
clothing colours: lots of black when he's working with gus, grays and blues when he's on his own.
relationships in the show:
walter- acquaintances, theyre on acceptable terms. walter's against joel as a guard, but jesse assures him he's ok
jesse- they're not acquaintances but not friends. they're ok. they would definitely hang out were they not both gus' employees
gus- his boss but gus has a very risky soft spot for the guy, sort of in the same sense that mike has for jesse. maybe joel reminds him of max, maybe gus is just human.
mike- again, they're both ok. they've gone on drop trips before and joel is kind of quiet by nature which mike doesn't hate. he answers the questions he's asked and does most stuff without being asked why.
saul- he does not like this man. he's annoying. please shut up. this is why i call gus when i get arrested instead of you jesus christ
nacho- good. joel got along with amber and jo really well and they had really good times getting high and messing around, and then also sober as well. joel still misses him sometimes, pours one out for him.
lalo- knew of him when he worked with nacho and then encountered him briefly when he worked for gus. most of their distaste sits in the fact that theyre on opposite sides but they would probably get along ok if they had the opportunity.
arc: joel goes from being incredibly rebellious and angry, fighting everything and everyone to being quiet and doing what he's asked, no questions. he's learned that it's easier to shut up and take what you can get and not always wonder where things are coming from. if something bad happens to you, those people will get what's coming. just wait.
cons: he can be impulsive. especially in the heat of the moment- if he's fighting someone he doesn't always know when to stop. though he's learned to not question much of anything anymore, he still has a tendency to run his mouth.
pros: he doesn't let money get to his head. he's got a lot of it, but he doesnt concern himself with how he's going to invest it. he keeps it hidden and only spends what he needs, just enough to not make anyone suspicious. he's street smart. good at lying on the spot and staying calm in a tense situation. if he gets arrested he says he wants to call a lawyer and instead of actually calling one he calls gus, something like that.
death?: i think eventually, after gus and tyrus die, he's sort of the only one left standing. saul can't help him, and mike doesn't really know what to do. he knows a lot. about walt, about the cartel, he's in deep and he panics. hard. jack welker decides he's too much of a risk, that he might go to the cops and so they shoot him in one of the houses that's being fumigated. they bury him out in the desert and he's never heard from again.
philosophical disposition: "life is a bitch and then you die" kind of deal. he thinks that life is definitely beautiful, or that it can be, but he doesn't see an ulterior purpose.
moral disposition: innocent people dont deserve to be hurt in any way, shape or form. also think holden caulfield from catcher in the rye.
triggers: he gets really freaked out when people touch him unexpectedly. he gets worried when he's in a room alone with someone else and the door is closed.
skills: he's good at fighting but more so with a knife rather than a gun. he knows how to use one, he just doesn't like them very much. he's rather agile and quick on his feet, good at sneaking around.
hobbies: the crossword puzzle in the paper- him and mike will share answers among the little conversation they have, hiking- kind of an acquired hobby after all the years of running, but he's found a sort of fucked up love for it, reading- he'll read anything but has a soft spot for graphic novels and 50s science fiction, and word searches - he carries a book around with him to most places. it helps pass the time
fears: he's scared of being alone, dying, drowning, claustrophobic
average day when he's not doing anything: wake up, shower, coffee. then he'll get dressed, probably clean the apartment. he doesnt have a lot of days where he's truly not doing anything or that he's at home for a prolonged period of time, so his place gets messy pretty quick. after he's cleaned it's probably already afternoon, so he heads out. he'll go anywhere, just drive around, to a park, a diner, somewhere with a lot of people. he'll sit and watch and eat something. he'll struggle with the crossword in the paper. maybe he'll get antsy and call someone to make sure they're doing ok. he doesn't function super well on his own. he'll go home before dark. somehow always ends up nachos before 12am.
extra (how truly fucked up is YOUR most recent oc????) :
- gave up hard drugs when he ran away/when he started to work for gus but he'll still smokes a blunt every now and again to help him fall asleep
- probably hasn't had a solid good nights sleep since he was 13
- struggles with intimate relationships, he doesnt value or understand sex as a result of forming a deep bond with someone, it's just something you do, or that someone does with him.
- not a lot of people know about his past with his family. i feel like random as it is, badger would know. he probably talked about it when they were really high one night and badgers just kind of like "wow...that sucks balls man. im sorry" and it just kind of hangs in the air. i think jesse would have found out later when they become friends and joel's processed it a little more so it's not as cathartic, but it's still important.
- he does want stuff though. he wants a life. he has goals or whatever. he wants a quiet life with a partner and he wants a normal 9 to 5 job and a cat and he just wants to be happy.
- he gets really relaxed when he's drunk or high, which is why it was so difficult for him to stop. he's done sex work before and doing something to take the edge off before anything happened helped make it more tolerable.
-alternate universe where he dies before everyone else he dies in a shootout in the desert