Jubilation Lee

PHASE 1

Jubilation Lee
Portrayed by Shu Qi
Codename:	None
Affiliations:	X-Force
Birthdate:	November 17, 1986
Journal:	x_jubilee
Player:	Seraph

From mansion enfant terrible to X-Man, Jubilee's path has been a rocky one. A series of bad choices means she's not out of the woods yet. Luckily, X-Force is there to knock some sense into her.

Details

Character Journal: x_jubilee

Real Name: Jubilation Lee

Codename: Firecracker

Aliases: Jubilee (nickname), Short Fuse (temporary trainee codename)

First Appearance: X2

Date of Birth: November 17, 1986

Place of Birth: Palmdale, California

Citizenship: U.S.

Relatives: Unnamed parents (deceased), unnamed great-grandfather, grandmother, and cousin (living in China)

Education: High school graduate from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, attended New York City Police Academy (early withdrawal)

Relationship Status: Single

Occupation: Currently unemployed

Team Affiliation: X-Men reserve member

Biography

Childhood

Jubilee was the only child of Chinese immigrants. Her father was notable in various human rights movements and he and his wife were raising their daughter to be happy, healthy and have a keen sense of social justice. Early on it was discovered Jubilee had issues concentrating, being borderline ADHD, but with patience and tutoring she managed to be a good student. She was also a gymnast, and competed in local competitions.

This idyllic life ended the night Jubilee's parents were murdered in front of her. Returning from a gymnastics meet, where Jubilee had won her competition, the Lees encountered two gunmen who shot down first Mr. Lee, then his wife. They would have slain the young Jubilee as well, only the shots had attracted the attention of neighbours and the alarm was raised. The killers fled, leaving Jubilee's life in tatters. It was later found to be the result of a tragic misunderstanding - the real target was another man called Lee, who was known to have Triad associations.

Unable to find any other family, authorities eventually placed Jubilee with a foster family. Initially, all went well - the foster family were hardworking, but honest, and did their best to care for the traumatised girl. But when the foster father lost his job, things took a turn for the worse. He began drinking heavily, and whilst drunk would frequently beat Jubilee, blaming her for the failures in his life. It was during one of these beatings that Jubilee lashed out instinctively with her powers, burning the man seriously.

Frightened by the display of power and afraid of what would happen to her as a mutant in the social services system, Jubilee ran away, making her way south to Los Angeles. She spent the next year or so living in one of the many malls, shoplifting and performing small scams to survive. It was during one of these scams that she met Jean Grey and Ororo Munroe, who invited the young mutant to come back to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters with them. Much to Jubilee's own surprise, she accepted the offer, and became a student.

Living At The X-Mansion

Prior to the events of X2, Jubilee had been at the mansion for approximately two years. She made friends among the other longer-term students such as Theresa Cassidy, Kitty Pryde and Illyana Rasputin, as well as later arrivals Lorna Dane, Marie-Ange Colbert and Doug Ramsey and was making progress with her schooling and her powers control. She completely got off on the wrong foot with new arrival Amanda Sefton despite the common background of homelessness, and the two girls became bitter rivals. Her extended family was also located in China, and she paid several visits to them, discovering she was well and truly an American.

Her abduction by Stryker's task force and the death of Jean Grey were traumatic, but she was dealing with it when the mansion was invaded for a second time. Forced to kill one of the soldiers in another instinctive reaction, Jubilee suffered traumatic flashbacks and fled to the boathouse, where she was found by Cain Marko and Miles Blaire several days later. The stress caused Jubilee to lose control of her powers and it was necessary for her to use a powers inhibiting device for some time.

The rescue of Illyana from Belasco exacerbated hostilities with Amanda, and after catching sight of the other girl's extensive scarring, Jubilee began digging around on the internet for information about them. She became increasingly moody and frustrated at her lack of control and her friendships suffered for it. Her increasing isolation and feud with Amanda drove her to return Manuel's interest, which further isolated her. Contacted by Patches, Jubilee made a deal with the magic user, giving him some of her blood in return for the false information that Amanda's scarring was an augmentation spell. Following the events of Asgard and the powers fight with Amanda over Manuel, Jubilee found her life pretty much in a mess. She tried to run away to deal with Patches herself, had several clashes with staff and generally alienated all but her closest friends. The knowledge that the blood she'd given to Patches had been used to summon the Halloween demon was the final straw.

Concerned for where Jubilee's actions were leading her, Madelyn Bartlet and Hank McCoy took her under their wings and tried to give her the reassurance she needed. A breakthrough with Dr. Leonard Samson revealed emotional problems brought on by the deaths of her parents, and she began to make progress. Despite the occasional lapse (such as accusing an over-stressed Scott Summers of keeping the students in the dark and thus threatening their safety), she advanced to the point that she asked for and was eventually granted permission to become an X-Man trainee. She and Amanda acheived an occasionally uneasy truce and eventually became friends; Jubilee and Madelyn also visited the graves of her parents. The news that the killers had themselves been killed in a gang war gave Jubilee the last impetus to move on with her life and she made plans to become a police officer following graduation. She also met and began dating David, a college student living in New York.

West Coast Annex

Following her part in the fall of Selene and the riot in Seattle, Jubilee decided to move out of the mansion and into New York to live with David. She made visits on weekends and kept in touch with her friends, aiding in missions when called on. Then came the discovery that her boyfriend was actually a small-time drug dealer: she lost her place in the police academy, her boyfriend and her apartment all in one day. Following consultation with Scott, it was decided that a clean break was in order and she decided to return to California.

July 2006 - April 2007: After leaving the mansion, Jubilee then spent 9 months at the West Coast Annex before an incident during a training run caused her to re-evaluate her goals and just why she was doing what she was doing. After a conversation with Warren Worthington she decided to head back to China and Hong Kong in order to visit her family and perhaps find out something about where she’d come from in an attempt to understand where she could go.

Hong Kong

May 2007 - mid-December 2007

Hong Kong was not what she’d been expecting and the pressure of having no friends her own age, and grandparents who really didn’t understand their westernised granddaughter were twin stresses that made her feel alienated and lonely. The cousin she’d been looking forward to reconnecting with had joined the army and was stationed on the other side of the country. In an attempt to gather some meaning from the trip, Jubilee enrolled in the local university, studying the culture and attempting to learn more about Chinese history.

Jubilee quickly learned that while she might look Chinese, her accent made her stand out as decidedly foreign and the local campus students were not shy about letting her know she was Jooksing, or an outsider. She persevered though, not letting her grandparents know just how out of place and lonely she was beginning to feel. She thought about going home many times during this period but her natural stubbornness and refusal to give up had her determined to stick it out.

A chance encounter with a fellow outsider introduced her to the local Hong Kong club scene and finally, Jubilee felt as if she’d found somewhere that ‘got’ her. She quickly made friends with a group of local club kids and was soon spending way more time out dancing then concentrating on her studies, her grades, already struggling, began to take a nose dive. It was during this time that Jubilee also started experimenting with speed in order to keep up with the other kids and also keep her grades within a reasonable level. It was around this time that she also met James, a young man seemingly on the outskirts of illegal activity in Hong Kong but there was something that drew Jubilee to him, a touch of home that allowed her to ignore certain things she may not have back home, like the fact that he was a minor drug dealer.

When Jubilee’s grandfather found out about her lapsing grades and where she’d been spending her nights rather then studying, they fought. As a result of this conflict, Jubilee walked out in a monumental huff, ending up on James’s doorstep, much to his surprise. He allowed her to stay with him, but with the express knowledge that he wouldn’t change his business habits for her and that if she lived with him, she needed to accept what he was doing. Jubilee didn’t want to go back to her grandfather, and while she had reservations about James’ line of work, she justified it to herself as fulfilling a harmless need - after all it was only a few little tablets and she had never seen any of her friends get hurt from them.

She expressly ignored her previous police training, considering that part of her life over with. She settled into her new life with James, sleeping in most days until noon, and then going out to clubs at night. She spent most nights with her friends, dancing and generally enjoying the complete lack of expectations or pressure on her at all. For someone who had always had the idea that people expected more of her, expectations that she’d repeatedly failed to live up to, even if just in her own mind, it was a healing time, and she began to feel like she was finally figuring out where she belonged in the world and was happy.

It was just as this peace was achieved that James came to her and asked her for a favour; he’d been having trouble getting supplies across the border and needed her to help carry some for him. It was the first time she’d been asked to expressly break the law, something she might never have imagined doing in earlier days. She accepted the request and agreed to help him, not caring that she was breaking a law. She was picked up at the border and the police asked her to make a deal, a reduced sentence if she turned informant. She agreed finally, realising that her feelings of loyalty toward her friends didn’t extend as far as going to jail for them.

It was a surprising revelation for her, and one she would think on often later as the consequences of her decision played themselves out. James paid her bail, and immediately drugged her that night with spiked wine, shipping her off to Madripoor. Jubilee spent several days, perhaps weeks aboard the ship - she couldn't really tell as she awoke in a dark hold and was never allowed above deck. Eventually, the ship made landfall and she escaped using an explosive lightshow to blind the crew.

Madripoor

Mid-December 2007 - February 2008

Jubilee eventually found out that she was now in Madripoor. She contemplated attempting to contact her friends back at the mansion but quickly abandoned the idea as undesirable when she thought about their reaction to the situation so far. Embarrassed about the absolute mess she'd gotten herself into, she was also sure that she didn't want to be rescued this time, just like all the other times they'd had to rescue her from her own stupidity. She wanted to work her own way out of the mess, and she also wanted revenge on James and she knew just how to get it. If she just kept an eye on the ship she knew was run by the smugglers, she thought she might be able to find something to ruin her former boyfriend.

During this time, she supported herself by hanging out at local clubs and coffee houses, getting tourists to feed her with hard luck stories. She also attempted the occasional 'date' with some of the men that caught her eye. It was on one of these dates that she realised that it was more the promise of a hot shower and a safe bed to sleep in then any attraction to the man she was with that dominated her thoughts.

It was a revelation of sorts, and she was still trying to work out just what it meant when she met up with some old friends.

Physical Characteristics

Height: 5'1"

Weight: 104 lbs

Eyes: black

Hair: brown

Other Features: one piercing in each ear, healed scars on her left shoulder from Repodemon

Powers

Jubilee generates explosive plasma constructs that remain briefly stable before releasing their energy violently. Through concentration, she is able to control these 'fireworks' to some extent, timing their detonation or reabsorbing them harmlessly. She can generate power as minute as small 'sparkles', or as an explosive force equivalent to several tons of TNT.

Jubilee's powers are fueled directly by her metabolism, and as such she has been shown to receive an extra boost of energy from high-carbohydrate and high-sugar foods such as candy bars and energy drinks. This often brings with it the resultant low blood sugar crash after the rush wears off, however.

Further Information

Jubilee's fat cells are like super-storage batteries, allowing her to fuel her power for an extended period.

Primary fuel: (currently stored energy from food.) She doesn't have a very high capacity here, hence why she gets hungry after it runs low. If she's just eaten high sugars and carbs, that maxes it out.

Secondary fuel: (fat reserves.) Because her liposomes (fat cells) store so much energy, it'd be harder for her to burn off through normal exercise. While she probably doesn't show it, being naturally slender, she's got a small amount of body fat that exercise won't do anything about. If she has to dip into this reserve, especially for large amounts of energy, she would suffer massive exhaustion from using secondary fuel.

Tertiary fuel: (protein from muscle tissue.) Most likely, she'd pass out before getting to this point, as it would require constant energy output over a very extended amount of time, such as hours of nonstop energy production, or her powers going amplified and out of control, as someone like Fabian Cortez could do.

Equipment

None currently.

Trivia

Jubilee continued her gymnast's training even after her parents died, albeit intermittently. She also made a living in the mall sketching cartoon versions of people. At the mansion, she began learning to play the violin, although not well.

Jubilee changed dramatically during her time away and has become a much quieter, terse speaker then she once was. She'll never be entirely mute but she does think quite a bit more about the things she does say now.

Plots

2004

Asgard (plot)

Repodemon

Skippy (plot)

Remy's Eleven

2005

Lost In The Woods

Mutants and Molotovs

Reavers (plot)

X-Men Mission: Mercy Flight

2006

X-Men Mission: The Perfect Nanny

2008

The Shadow King (plot)

These Earthly Things

Operation: London Calling

Bedlam

Meta

Player: Seraph

E-mail:

AIM:

Player Icon Base: Shu Qi

Meta Trivia

Played by Seraph until July 2006, at which time the character was given up. Seraph then took up the character again in January 2008, to take a new direction with her.

Seraph, with socking by Dex, wrote a series of logs describing the events in Jubilee's life between the Annex and Madripoor, as a way of getting back into the character's head.