Joan

Joan, also known as John or JohnHax, is a side character that appears in a couple of titles of the Elsaverse. She is a hacker who lives in Sangrive and is one of Michelle Won's informants; Won also acts as a motherly figure for her. She hasn't any powers known, although she could still develop one, as she is young enough.

Character Overview
Joan is a young and talented hacker from Sangrive who, some time ago, met Detective Won on an online forum, becoming her informant. On that hacking forum, Joan goes by the nickname "JohnHax" and poses as an elderly man; however, Won also uses a male nickname and saw through it. As Joan's mother is an addict, Won decided to take care of Joan and tries to protect and guide her, acting as a motherly figure. For instance, as Joan is also a skater, Won told her to wear a helmet and proper protective gear to avoid injuries in her head and wrists, convincing Joan as those body parts are extremely important for what she does. In her daily life, Joan shows a careless and punkish attitude that hides her age-related insecurities; she is actually a kind young woman with strong values.

Joan's involvement in the plot starts a couple of weeks after the riot at Mayhem's concert, when Alexis is looking for a way to find evidence about Charles Reyes being there and involved in the incident. An IT guy from her company suggests hiring "JohnHax" to do that job; when they talk online and Joan learns that Alexis' goal is to help Mayhem's singer, Jessika, she quickly agrees to do the job for free, as she's a big fan of Mayhem's drummer, SeraB. Her task seems easy enough: finding online pictures or footage frames of Charles at the concert venue; however, Joan spends a couple of weeks without making any progress, as someone else seems to be deleting Charles' trace in that concert from the Internet. Joan even describes her mysterious opponent as someone unnaturally good at his job, but she eventually changes her approach and manages to find one picture that was taken just immediately before the riot erupted. The frame shows Charles punching someone while smiling, and Alexis is so grateful for the pic that offers her hacker some money for it. But Joan's word was to do the job for free, so she rejects the offer; then, after talking a bit more and learning that Alexis is actually a friend of Jessika and SeraB, 'John' tells her that a friend of 'him' is a big fan of SeraB, and they schedule a meeting. As soon as Joan and Alexis meet in person, Alexis realizes that this alleged friend of her hacker is indeed her hacker, which almost causes Joan to panic; however, Alexis reassures her and offers to pay her for her job: this time she even mentions the amount, 10k dollars, but Joan stands firm in her convictions and rejects it again, keeping her word even though she gave it as 'John'. Finally, she spends some awesome hours playing the drums with her idol.

A couple of weeks later, and soon after Won's arrival in Sangrive, Joan contacts the detective because a hacker friend of hers, known as "Vector Victor", is missing and has released some sensible data he was keeping. This seems to imply he's dead, and Won says that the victim in the murder case she and her new partner are currently working on fits Joan's description. Joan seems deeply affected by it, as she has never thought of hacking as a life or death business, but Won reassures her and asks Joan to stay safe, reminding her of an offer she made to her in the past.

Miscellaneous

 * After their meeting with Joan in Darkness Falls Episode 2, Won reflects on how the internet is an unfriendly place, especially for women, which is why both Joan and herself use male names for their online profiles. This is inspired by Tlaero's own online experience, as she hid her gender for years under a neutral nickname to avoid harassment.