Sharon

Vital Statistics

First Appearance: Fooker's Girlfriend...? (March 10, 2001)

Full Name: Sharon Murphy

Known Aliases: "smurphy"/"smurfy", "Red"

Status: Alive

Species: Human

Gender: Female

Height: 5' 7" (170.18 cm)

Weight: 130 lb (58.96 kg)

Hair: Red

Distinguishing Characteristics: Fiery temper

Marital Status: Married to Jason "Fooker" Barker

Character Description

A sassy, savvy, sexy she-geek that started as a one-story character, Sharon quickly became a fan favorite. When she stole Fooker's heart, she stole our readers' hearts as well. Sharon quickly became a minor reoccurring character until the universe-shattering events of Surreptitious Machinations, where her heroic actions promoted her to a full-time GPF Software employee. She currently serves as GPF's secondary system administrator.

Sharon started out as a sys admin for Quantum-Net, GPF Software's ISP. We first encounter her at a party thrown by Fooker's neighbor, Chuck. Instantly, she and Fooker hit it off, and to everyone's astonishment, started dating. (Yeah, you heard me. Fooker had a girlfriend.) Unfortunately, it seemed never meant to be; the two separated when Fooker discovered Sharon actually enjoyed using a Mac. ("Real geeks use a character prompt!" he exclaimed.) When the two encountered one another during the harrowing events of "Special Delivery", Sharon's reaction to our favorite "ubergeek" was quite cold. It was chilled even further when Sharon started dating Dexter shortly thereafter. However, during the events of Surreptitious Machinations, she and Fooker reconciled somewhat, only to be torn apart once again as Fooker left to assume his secret agent duties full-time. Dwayne hired Sharon as Fooker's replacement, and she acted as GPF Software's lead system administrator until Fooker rejoined the company. The two now share sys admin duties.

Sharon has an interesting past and personality that we hope to explore thoroughly. She's highly intelligent and very quick witted; she's ready to spar with anyone who presents an intellectual challenge, which also occasionally reveals her fiery temper that she keeps carefully in check. We know she's diabetic (type II, if you really want to know) and had to lose a large amount of weight to maintain her health. Since then, she maintains a healthier-than-average lifestyle for a geek, spending regular time at the gym. Her eyesight is terrible, and she wears industrial strength contact lenses. We also know she's allergic to "dust, pollen, chocolate, and COBOL programs." And like many hard-core geeks, Sharon has quite an affinity for caffeine.

Sharon is rather quick to jump into relationships, as her bouncing between Fooker and Dexter seems to reveal. However, she seems to have cooled quite a bit in this respect, which is probably because she has strong feelings toward Fooker. Now that he's back in her life for an extended basis their relationship appears to be stable, although not without its occasional rough edges.

During Surreptitious Machinations, Sharon proved to be an invaluable asset, especially when she single-handedly saved all of New York City from being vaporized by C.R.U.D.E.'s orbital weapons platform. Hopefully, this won't go to her head.

It was eventually revealed that Sharon was adopted as a baby. For some time, very little was known about her birth parents; her birth father was completely unknown, and all she had about her birth mother was a name. Upon further digging with some online research, Sharon eventually learned that her mother's "name" is really the alias of notorious fugitive on the FBI's most wanted list. Just when she thought she had tracked her birth mother down online, the trail turned cold.

During To Thine Own Self..., Sharon joined Fooker and their friends in helping Ki rescue Nick from the clutches of Nick's alternate universe self, Emperor Nicholas the Puissant. It was during this excursion that she discovered that her doppelgänger was nothing but a technophobic janitor employed by the Emperor to mop up the dungeons of the palace. This was certainly humbling, given the far loftier and diabolical heights her peers' alternates had reached. Sharon and her friends eventually returned to their home universe relatively unscathed, if a little unsettled by the experience of meeting their alternate selves.

During this excursion, however, she also learned more about her past. The alternate universe's Trudy revealed that Sharon is Trudy's younger sister, meaning Sharon inherits from a rather nefarious and dysfunctional family tree. Although she was at first shocked by this revelation and denied its plausibility, she has since decided to take it upon herself to acclimate her sister's "alternate self" to her new surroundings and perhaps rediscover and heal their fractured family.

Sharon played a minor role in Scylla and Charybdis, tagging along with Fooker and Justin as they are beamed aboard a Grey survey ship. She was present when they discovered that Nick had been aboard the vessel for over a month, as well as being witness to the climactic showdown between Nick, the Grand Protuberance, and Colonel Lionel Barker. The story ended with her long-awaited wedding to Fooker with the Great Skaboola officiating. (Whether their "marriage" will hold up in an Earth court of law remains to be seen.)

In Sharon's dream world of Harry Barker, she fills the role of Lily Potter from Harry Potter. She is the mother of young Harry, a gifted hacker who knows little about his true past. Fooker is his father. Both are deceased, murdered by the notorious Gnawthrylilees, leaving poor Harry to live with his aunt Trudy and her husband Trent.

Selected Milestones

Relationships

Trudy Trueheart, Sharon's older sister
Esther Matusevitch, Sharon's biological mother
Victor Glowerhausen, Sharon's biological father
The Murphys, Sharon's adoptive parents
Gwynn (last name unknown), Sharon's distant cousin
Jason "Fooker" Barker, Sharon's husband
Colonel Lionel Barker, Sharon's father-in-law
Justin Barker, Sharon's brother-in-law

Group Affiliations

GPF Software: Employee, System Administrator

Miscellaneous Notes

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version 3.12

GCS/IT d- s: !a C++++$ ULAVHIS++++$ P++++$ L+++ E++ W+++$ N+++
o K w--- O+ M++ V- PS+ PE Y++ PGP+ t 5+++ X- R tv+ b++ DI++ D++
G+ e++>+++ h+>++ r++ x+
-----END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----

(Ungeek this Geek Code courtesy of the Geek Decoder)