OOC information and notes - Timeline, headcanon, etc.
1989(ish): Naomi is born. Mainly here for reference.
2017: Naomi, by this time a working doctor, is outed as having the Healing Touch and her career is ruined. Delphi steps in and relocates her to America (St. Francis Hospital, Santa Balboa, California).
2018: Under the Knife/Second Opinion, with a few months between the end of SO Chapter Five/UtK Chapter Six and the final chapter of Second Opinion.
Very late 2019/early 2020: Naomi falls ill. I imagine Derek pulled strings and got her to America. Here Naomi is diagnosed with her fatal disease. Naomi moves to Cumberland, Maryland Maine* and finds work at CIFM. (I personally date this at roughly December 2019.)
Late spring - late summer 2020: Trauma Team. Statements place the game as taking place during the mentioned dates (Locked Room Mystery, Carpet of Blue Death).
2021: Under the Knife 2. Again, mainly here for reference.
2028: New Blood. More reference.
* The game manual states that Trauma Team takes place in Maryland, but in-game all signs point to the game taking place in Maine. Checks of multiple city names shows that several locations (Cumberland County, Portland, Higgins Beach, Backcove) are in fact real Maine locations; Resurgam First Care fits with "Resurgam" being the motto of Portland, Maine; and in "Seeking Atonement" the Raging Bomber heads east from New Hampshire to a Portland airport, and you can't get to anywhere in Maryland by going east from New Hampshire. Geography does not work that way! So I am retconning this IC, which shouldn't exactly be difficult.
- My ideas on Naomi's past: her mother was ill throughout Naomi's childhood and they moved around a couple times in attempts to get treatment (this includes America/Canada/England, which is where she really picked up her English). Her father devoted pretty much everything he had to taking care of her mother, which is part of why Naomi decided to become a doctor later in life. Eventually her mother died, at which point her father took her to India for a while before re-settling in Japan. Her father, whose own health had deteriorated over the years, died soon after Naomi entered university. Naomi eventually decided to work towards a career in medicine and surgery (with additional study in at least pathology--this is what helped her become a medical examiner in Trauma Team); it's mentioned in medal challenges that her impression of med school was mostly tests and exams, so I think she sort of went through her studies with less of an emotional investment until after Delphi. She was only a year into her work as a full-fledged doctor when she discovered she had the Healing Touch, news of it got out a few months later, and the rest is history. Or in her history.
- She has surviving relatives, but they haven't wanted anything to do with her since the whole "evil devil doctor" thing. She doesn't really know them anyway, so nowadays it's not much of a loss to her.
- When she came to America after losing her career in Japan, Naomi had pretty much only her own money--a little inherited from her parents (formerly of pretty decent wealth, but moving and hospital bills drained a lot of it and then she had to pay for something like eight years of school on her own, which also meant she had to work a whole lot), none from the relatives who cut her off. Since then she's attained a decent income, as her work tends to be with high-level organizations (Caduceus, the FBI) and she lived pretty sparsely before Alyssa.
- Naomi doesn't like the media as a profession. Every time they're in her life they make trouble.
- She'll watch the odd episode of a medical drama for amusement. No bugs on the heart? No way.
- While at Caduceus Europe, Naomi's history was more or less an open secret within the staff: the information was restricted to only those who worked there, but for the first six months or so everyone knew. After that any new workers who didn't know were introduced to her with "Dr. Kimishima? Yeah, she's our GUILT specialist," a mention of her Healing Touch, and maybe a vague allusion to her history with Delphi that would generally be passed over by the average newbie.
- Naomi was friendly to everyone at Caduceus Europe but never really got close to anyone in particular, and I imagine her rejecting more than a few invitations to after-work dinner parties. It wasn't because the others treated her differently--in fact, Caduceus Europe welcomed her pretty easily. (It says something when Victor is the biggest jerk among three variations of Caduceus staff who isn't an enemy plant.) Naomi just didn't want to develop much more than friendly working relationships.
- Naomi discovered she had the disease by collapsing in the middle of work. Caduceus was very puzzled that she tested positive for chiral reactions with results that didn't match any known GUILT, and nothing was ripping up her internal organs like most strains hi Kyriaki. Strings were pulled, Derek may have had to use his world medical star influence, and eventually Naomi got cleared to go to the US. Some tests, research, and exploratory surgery later Derek determined that it was a derivative of GUILT and more surgery was attempted. This was partially successful but failed to eradicate the GUILT entirely, leading to Naomi's in-game conditions.
- After Naomi's diagnosis/Derek's failure to get rid of the entire disease, she stumbled on a recently diseased patient the Caduceus doctors had failed to save--a reminder of what she herself would become within a year. It was here that she discovered her ability to hear the dead's final words. She decided to put that to use and work with the dead--she had the talent so she ought to put it to use, and there was something morbidly appropriate about switching from live patients to dead subjects--so Derek recommended her to CIFM and introduced her to Gabe (whom he knew from med school), who helped her settle into the area (which would be why Gabe knew Naomi and referred to Derek as an old friend).
- Naomi's ability to hear the dead's last words stems from her perceiving a connection with the dead--meaning her phone won't go off if she doesn't know she's near a dead body (like if someone's hiding it) and if she's convinced someone's dead or about to die (see also: Seeking Atonement, her phone ringing in reaction to her fears about Alyssa) her phone will ring even though the person hasn't died yet. In addition, it's linked to Naomi rather than to the phone and in fact the cell phone she uses in Trauma Team isn't the one she first discovered her power with--she bought a new one upon moving to Maine. She can also apply this ability when her phone is dead--it vibrates and such mysteriously even with no power, and she can hear just fine on it. (Related to that, only she can hear the dead on her phone. If anyone else tries, it won't work.) Also the phone vibration accompanying her power applies to the dead only, as otherwise Naomi uses ringtones and such as notifications for calls and texts.
- Naomi's illness is sort of a spinoff of GUILT. It's not identifiable as any one strain, but it is related to her work and research on it after joining Caduceus Europe. (I imagine something vaguely resembling Pempti, only it got into her genes or whatever. No, I don't think that could actually medically happen but this is Trauma Center.)
- TYL plot-mandated details go! Related to stress/depression, if her game over screen is any indication--fail a case and die of the disease? Yikes. The disease progresses slowly, unlike typical GUILT strains--not much at first, so between Derek's help and some medication there's the lack of symptoms seen in Trauma Team, but without both Naomi's going to have a little more difficulty (and likely some pain) and a little less time (probably two more months max).
- On that note, I believe she does still have the disease in a very very dormant form that will only pop up either with immune system failure at an age typical for normal women (don't ask me about the demographics part) or lots and lots and lots of stress and hard living.
- Now, Alyssa. I totally call Naomi as living in a tiny apartment furnished with only necessities and work stuff because she didn't expect to be living anywhere for a long time when she was slated to die soon. After adopting Alyssa, the two of them look for an actual house because Naomi doesn't want to raise Alyssa there.
- Naomi's still not a great cook, but she's become big on health food just a few days before arriving in SC.
- Naomi stays on at CIFM because of location, Alyssa, and politics. She could take up surgery again, but her work was in Europe and the US already has Derek to perform their miracle surgeries. Naomi wants a stable life for Alyssa, and moving them both to Europe wouldn't do that at all (not to mention it might dredge up the past given her work there, and she doesn't want Alyssa to know about that yet, if ever). Besides that, the FBI seems pretty content letting her continue as is and making them upset could lead to all sorts of trouble.
- At one point she meets Derek and Angie post-Trauma Team and Derek is just all happy to see her alive and well.
- CR-S01 was released from prison around three years after Trauma Team. Resurgam had a party. Naomi was invited and she brought Alyssa. Awkward cute ensued.
- Little Guy is totally sort of an uncle figure to Alyssa. CR-S01, when he's out of prison, is the awkwardly aloof big brother whenever Alyssa happens to be in Portland (or he's in Cumberland).
- Naomi never really notices that Little Guy may like her that way. When she suspects, she ignores it--she likes him, but she doesn't want to go there with him and if he really wants anything to happen he'll make the first move sooner or later.
- In the future, Naomi is stressed during the Neo-GUILT and Stigma outbreaks, and she's very protective of Alyssa. However, she doesn't like to talk about why it gets her so upset. Alyssa doesn't mind as much the first time, but by the time Stigma rolls around she's sixteen and more frustrated with Naomi's secrecy. It's around this time that Naomi actually tells Alyssa about her history with Delphi. Alyssa's surprised and a little wary at first but accepting of it.