Joy developed an ability in her late teens and early 20's that most women don't have: she can read auras... and she can see ghosts. When she's drunk or stoned. All the better if both. One night, after tying-one-on, Joy feels empathy for one ghost in particular: Ethel, a girl-ghost who haunts a movie theater. In an act of impulse, Joy throws a rock at the theater marquee, busts a dozen lightbulbs, startles the ghost, and sets in motion her portal fantasy adventure.

Laura has been Joy's more responsible roommate, as far a paying the bills go, being supportive, and occasionally bailing Joy out of jail. Laura is a contrarian, however, and even though she can post vids and balance finances with the best of them, she still prefers to dress herself and live within the hardcore alt-girl and goth milieu.

Acara Blue Gourami (though hatched Gam Coleoid) struck Joy as being a teenager somewhere between an old seventeen year-old and a young nineteen year-old. Though Joy would admit that, for all she knew, all her Naiad Roommates might be 500 years old (and on some planet in another galaxy - Joy was still 45% sure she was dead and in purgatory by this point). Acara at first found Joy exasperating, likely because everyone in their apartment had decided that Joy should have Acara's bunk.