Kevin MacTaggert

This page is about the Phase 2 incarnation of the character. For other uses, see Kevin (disambiguation).

PHASE 2

Kevin MacTaggert
Portrayed by Domhnall Gleeson
Codename:	Proteus
Affiliations:	n/a
Birthdate:	July 13, 1979 (Earth-617) / July 13, 1997
Journal:	xp_proteus
Player:	Mari

Quote

While he is, in many aspects, an almost godlike being, he is not immune to the effects of a frying pan to the head.

Details

'Character Journal: 'xp_proteus

Real Name: Kevin MacTaggert

Codename: Proteus

Aliases: Mutant X, "Kev"

First Appearance: not yet in game

Date of Birth: July 13, 1979 (Earth-617) / July 13, 1997

Place of Birth: Muir Island Mutant Research Facility of Earth-617

Citizenship: British (though his birth was never officially reported)

Relatives: Dr. Moira MacTaggert (Mother), Joseph MacTaggert (Father)

Education: none

Relationship Status: single

Occupation: none

Team Affiliation: none

Biography

Life on Earth-617

Birth, Manifestation, and Experimentation (TW: spousal rape, child neglect, medical abuse)

Kevin was born at the Muir Island Mutant Research Facility to his mother, Dr. Moira MacTaggert, who was living at the facility to escape her abusive husband, the politician, Joseph MacTaggert. From his conception, Kevin was an unwanted child, the product of spousal rape.Moira tried to love her son, but could not bring herself to do anything beyond care for his most basic needs, and even that was a struggle. Within six weeks of his birth it became apparent that Kevin was a mutant, though it would remain unclear if he had been born that way or if he had manifested as a result of his near constant distress since exiting the womb. Taking him to her lab, Moira was able to determine that her infant son had immense power, but was unable to sustain that power himself, needing to feed on the lifeforce of others.

Perhaps due to her existing feelings towards her son, Moira soon stopped thinking of Kevin by name, instead referring to him only as ‘Mutant X.’ This name is an allusion to her then-partner Dr. Charles Xavier. Xavier and Moira considered Kevin as a possible solution to their shared goal of reversing death by use of his great power. Moira would spend the next three years of Kevin’s life almost constantly experimenting on the boy in an effort to understand the extent of his power, but he would soon prove to be more dangerous than she had anticipated. As a result of the danger his powers posed, Moira switched gears to look for a cure for mutations within her son, continuing to experiment on him for the next three years. During this time, Xavier would fund the construction of a solitary confinement cell to house the boy.

When Kevin was six years old, Moira admitted scientific defeat and stopped experimenting on her son. She blamed Kevin for her failure and locked him in the cell that she and Xavier had built, which would only open from the outside with a scan of her handprint. Kevin now spent his days in a metal room with no windows, no toys, and only a single bed and toilet for furniture. Moira would enter each day to bring the boy food, and he would secretly and subconsciously feed on her lifeforce as well to sustain himself. Each day he strove to make his mother love him and become a “real boy”, and each day he failed.

Other Arrivals (TW: child neglect, medical abuse, self-harm)

When Kevin was around ten years old, more mutants began arriving at the facility to stay long-term. Some he only heard walking outside his cell or above him, but one he heard inside his mind. His mother’s Charles had never been able to find his consciousness to communicate telepathically when he visited, and thus Kevin was fearful of the voice. For several months he heard the other voice with an accent he couldn’t name reaching out, looking for a friend, and finally Kevin would respond- in this way he made his first friend, a child named “Davey” who he had never and would never see. The longer Davey stayed, the more familiar his experiences became to Kevin, as Moira would soon start experimenting on the other boy as well. As both boys aged, Davey told him that there were more people in his head than just him, and that not all of them were nice.

Through Davey, Kevin learned some things about his mother. First, that she referred to Davey as the son she never had, and second, that she was seeing someone new, a man named Sean who she had informed that her son was dead. At this age, Kevin began trying to break out of the cell. Hoping that if he slammed his body against the door enough times he might dent it and be able to escape. Kevin was unsuccessful.

Battle of Muir Island and Escape (TW: child neglect, medical abuse)

Decades passed in the same monotony, and Kevin’s life continued to follow the routine of his daily visits with his mother and the occasional psychic visit from Davey, although his friend was seemingly drugged and left comatose more often as he aged. Then, on Earth-617, the Shadow King’s infection of the island, and possession of his only friend, resulted in a major battle between the X-Men and the Muir Island inhabitants. For the duration of this period, Moira stopped interacting with Kevin as the Shadow King’s hatred amplified her own- Kevin’s powers began sustaining his own body but this impacted his health as he was running out of life force. The battle resulted in damage to Kevin’s cell which allowed him to escape. During his escape he heard his mother tell Cyclops that it was “too late the day he was born.” When Kevin left he initially tried to kill his mother but was stopped by Polaris, he then sought out his father, hoping to get to know the man he had never met. Moira’s hatred of her son seemingly outweighed her hatred of her abuser, and she warned Joe about Kevin’s approach. Moira’s warning was not enough to stop Kevin’s interaction with his father. Kevin, starved for human lifeforce and on his last legs possessed his father’s body. He was immediately disgusted by the man he now knew so intimately and after stealing all of his father’s life force, returned to his own body. This would be Kevin’s first kill, and pulling on the information from Joseph’s mind, Kevin gave himself the name “Proteus,” determined to decide for himself who or what he is.

“Death” and Dimension Hopping

Riding the high of wielding that much power for the first time in his life and still hungry after such a long time without eating, Kevin went on a bit of a rampage, attacking civilians and feeding on their life force to sustain himself. He began experimenting with his powers for the first time in his life, and created significant amounts of panic by way of granting an entire village the ability to grant their own wishes, repairing castles to their full medieval glory, and on one notable occasion fusing two bodies together just to see what they’d look like. The X-Men searched for him, hunting him down, but he was difficult to track- as a being of psionic energy who could hop from body to body, Kevin could look like anyone and be anyone, and his mind was undetectable to telepaths.

Kevin took up residence in an abandoned castle ruin, where he was approached by Charles Xavier and the X-Men. Charles demanded that Kevin return to Muir Island and the repaired cell or be killed. Kevin asked what his crime was and if there was no possibility of redemption for him, if all he was doing was listening to his powers. Charles told him that redemption wasn’t possible for people like him. Kevin told Charles that all he wanted was freedom, for him and everyone, but that if attacked he would fight back. Charles sent the X-Man, Colossus, after Kevin, knowing that metal was one of the boy’s weaknesses. Colossus, following orders, did not relent in his attack even as it became clear that Kevin could no longer fight back. With his last burst of power, Kevin decided to change his reality, and managed to transfer himself to a different universe, one where he’s loved, resulting in his supposed “death” in Earth-617.

Resurrection

Kevin found himself back at the Muir Island Research Facility in a severely weakened state. At the cemetery on the facility grounds, Kevin was drawn to the corpse of this universe's Kevin MacTaggert, who had died in childhood. Kevin possessed the body and transformed it into an approximation of his own, changing the body from that of a small child to that of a grown man.

Searching for both help and revenge, Kevin would stumbled his way to the door of the Muir Island Research Facility where he encountered both David Haller and Moira MacTaggert. Despite the fact that Kevin was on the verge of collapse he tried to attack Moira physically, causing Haller to reach out to grab him. This triggers Haller’s psionic abilities to give him a read on Kevin, and Kevin soon collapses, falling unconscious to the ground. Through his read on Kevin, Haller was able to ascertain the connection between Kevin and the version of Haller in Kevin's home-universe. This connection also granted Haller some knowledge of Kevin's home-universe and the horrors that Kevin had faced there.

Haller took Kevin back to his apartments, realizing that keeping Kevin elsewhere in the facility would be a bad idea. Following a night spent remembering past horrors, Kevin woke in Haller's bed and was confused by his current state. Haller helped Kevin bathe for the first time ever, teaching the other man how to shower.

Over the next few days, Haller realized that Kevin could not stay at Muir Island, and announced to the mansion that he would be returning with another inter-dimensional traveler.

Physical Characteristics

Height: 5'11"

General Build: skinny and boney

Eyes: blue

Hair: red

Other Features: Kevin isn’t anything remarkable as a person, he’s simply a ginger man. What makes him easily distinguishable is the perpetually gaunt look to his features, his too-wide eyes that seem to be constantly looking for any source of light he can find, and the fact that he looks at other humans as if he might eat them (the more powerful the mutation, the longer he’s likely to stare at you).

Powers

On Earth-617

Kevin’s powers were much stronger on Earth-617. There he could generate force fields, possess entire groups of people without ever leaving his own body, teleport to anywhere in the known multiverse, and transform any kind of matter into whatever he chose- his control was fine enough that he could even temporarily grant others an activated x-gene with a power of his choice (usually by making them psionics as that is the power-set he is most familiar with). The traumatic events leading up to his almost death on Earth-617, and the debilitating effects of using his powers in a weakened state to transport himself to Earth-404, have left Kevin permanently weakened in his new universe. On Earth-617, Kevin was able to access the astral plane and had thought about trying to fuse the astral plane with the physical plane, though he never amassed enough power to actually try this.

Unaware of this ability until he had used it, Kevin was able to hop dimensions from Earth-617 to his current universe, but doing so burned him completely out of his body, and left him as a disembodied being of energy upon his arrival.

Current Universe

Psionic Abilities

Kevin's psionic abilities include possession, passive telepathy, and astral projection. All three abilities are branches of the same power and thus share limitations.

Passive Telepathy

Kevin's mind is undetectable to other telepaths, but if he can hear another telepath who has projected loud enough for others to hear, he can respond to them telepathically. While he cannot project on his own thoughts, he may communicate with someone who is already on his telepathic frequency.

Astral Projection

In his current universe, Kevin can still access the astral plane but at a much greater cost. Where he used to be able to access the astral plane whenever he wanted, manipulate it, and continue with other tasks, doing so now leaves him in a vegetative state and severely drains his energy, making it dangerous to do.

Possession

Kevin can only possess one host at a time, and doing so removes his consciousness from his own body, essentially leaving his own body in a vegetative state behind him. On his path to the new host body, Kevin takes the form of a floating being of energy, on Earth-617 this being was green, but now it is purple. He cannot use his other powers while possessing a body not his own. While Kevin is possessing his current body, its own lack of any sort of will, as well as its status as being “his” body (even if from another dimension”) mean that it functions as if Kevin was always the inhabitant of the body.

When Kevin first possesses a body, there’s a brief flash of purple light around the head area but then the body looks seemingly “normal,” though if Kevin is piloting the body, it adapts to his mannerisms making it not ideal for stealth and pretty obvious that something is not right. Kevin’s own body, as mentioned, enters a vegetative state where yes he can experience the potential downsides of not moving/eating/drinking- but this also leaves his body defenseless and open to physical attack. If it comes down to a choice of returning to his body to defend it or maintaining his state of possession, Kevin will always choose his own body as preservation of his own autonomy is paramount to him.

When Kevin possesses a body, he "burns through" it quickly. The timeline of his burning through a body depends on what he is doing with the body. If he's merely stopping them from doing anything to harm him or his teammates and leaving the body immobile- then Kevin can keep the possession for up to 24 hours. Although, the body will start to fatigue around the 5-hour mark, and weak to the point of uselessness by the 12-hour mark. At 24 hours, the host body would die. If Kevin is making the host body do things (ex. Talking, moving, use of the host’s powers, etc.) - Kevin would have at most 2 hours (1 hour for use of power application) of usefulness prior to the onset of fatigue and the body would die by the 5-hour mark.

Animals are the easiest for Kevin to possess, followed by children. If Kevin is possessing another mutant he can in theory use the host’s powers, albeit with the time constraints on burnout mentioned above. However, his ability to actually use the powers effectively is another matter altogether. For example, for powers like Sam Guthrie’s where it’s basically “point and shoot”, Kevin might be able to force Sam to shoot off like a rocket, but without the practice that Sam’s had with his powers he would be unable to control the trajectory, speed, etc. nor would he be able to access the additional applications (force fields etc.) without practice, which his limited time in possession of the body and its powers does not allow. For powers like Jono Starsmore’s, while Kevin might have a prerequisite understanding of the telepathy, he’d have no real understanding of how Jono’s fire works and would thus struggle significantly with using them.

Matter Manipulation

When Kevin encounters a material he wishes to manipulate he first uses his passive telepathy to look for a "living will" from the material. Kevin's perspective on the world is animist in nature and thus to him rocks, fossils, and dirt do have a spirit thus allowing him to see the living will within. But while Kevin views things like rocks, fossils, and dirt as having living energy, they also do not have a consciousness to push back against his manipulation which makes it easier for him to manipulate with a lower energy cost compared to a human or animal (expanded more in the mass to time ratio section below).

When working quickly his constructions currently have the elegance of a child's play-doh creations. Upon entry to the game, Kevin’s abilities are going to be limited mostly to “earth-bending”- but as he learns to better control his abilities he’ll be able to create golem-like constructs and other constructs from soil and plants. Kevin's own body is his only physical tether to the world, and the only vessel that will not rapidly decay with use. He cannot manipulate it without risking that connection or putting himself at risk of destroying himself. Kevin is typically unwilling to manipulate and change his own body to shapeshift as he A. doesn’t understand how the human body works and B. is afraid of damaging his only tether.

When Kevin analyzes a material like rocks for a living will, he is able to determine the metal content of the rocks thus allowing him to determine if he can manipulate the rock or not.

What matter can Kevin manipulate?

Yes: Dirt/sand, fossils, plants/wood, bones, living creatures (animals and humans)

Maybe: Rocks (depends on metal content)

No: Metal (any metal, but he’s specifically susceptible to iron), plastic, rubber, glass, concrete, synthetic polymers, carbon-fiber/fiberglass

As shown on the chart above, rocks are a case by case basis for Kevin. Kevin’s “read” of a material would indicate to him which rocks have metal in them and thus be things that he cannot manipulate.

In regard to living, human things that Kevin is trying to manipulate or reconstruct, Kevin is now limited by the resistance that faces him when he tries. Lower order lifeforms like plants and animals do not have a well-formed self-image or the awareness to cling to it, and as a result may be easily influenced and encouraged to change form. However, human beings have a strong sense of identity, and it is this sense of bodily integrity which Kevin must fight against to change. Much like with possession, Kevin's matter manipulation comes at the cost of his "burning out" which results in his succumbing to fatigue and passing out, if he pushes himself too far he can end up in critical condition and require medical attention after using his powers. Kevin cannot create or destroy matter. Reduced mass is shed, condensed, or bled off as energy, usually heat, while added mass must be taken from Kevin's own energy.

Kevin can maintain his manipulation for up to a total of two hours of “normal energy expenditure” before succumbing to fatigue, though use of his power changes increases the rate at which he spends that energy. Below I’ve provided equations to demonstrate the expenditure of that energy and have provided examples for expenditure with resistance (manipulating a human arm) and without resistance (manipulating a bag of dirt).

Equation for manipulation with resistance

[(2 x # of pounds of matter manipulated)/1 min elapsed time] = amount of "normal energy expenditure"/minute not to exceed 120

Example of manipulation with resistance: manipulation of a human arm

[(2 x 11) /1 min elapsed time] = 22 minutes worth of "normal energy expenditure"/minute

• Because Kevin would reach fatigue after 120 minutes of normal energy expenditure in this way, he can only maintain the manipulation of the arm for around 5 minutes before he succumbs to fatigue.

Equation for manipulation without resistance

[(1 x # of pounds of matter manipulated)/1 min elapsed time] = amount of "normal energy expenditure"/minute not to exceed 120

Example of manipulation with resistance: manipulation of a 50lb bag of dirt

[(1 x 50)/1 min elapsed time] = 50 minutes worth of "normal energy expenditure"/minute

• Because Kevin would reach fatigue after 120 minutes of normal energy expenditure in this way, he can only maintain manipulation of the bag of dirt for around 2 minutes before he succumbs to fatigue.

General Weaknesses

Kevin’s powers are useful within a 250ft range, but within that range there are a number of factors that can revert his targets back to their original state:

• Kevin succumbing to fatigue
• In the event his target is a human, the target can push back and overpower Kevin’s will
• Kevin loses focus
• Kevin chooses to stop manipulating the target
• Kevin is attacked and weakened (particularly by something metal)

Psionic scramblers can prevent his powers from affecting the wearer.

Kevin is vulnerable to metal, which can disrupt the psionic energy he outputs and weaken his body. While he is, in many aspects, an almost godlike being, he is not immune to the effects of a frying pan to the head.

His power can be neutralized by inserting a metal object, such as a blade, into the subject's body to break the psionic connection required to manipulate the person.

Potential Applications

Kevin's powers could be used to heal and stabilize those in the field until they may be transported somewhere they may be treated, but such changes would revert upon the withdrawal of his influence. He has never used his powers for that purpose and it would take considerable training to ensure that Kevin would not accidentally make it worse by virtue of his knowing nothing about how the human body works.

Offensively, the psionic aspect of Kevin's powers might be honed to the point where he becomes more attuned to a subject's past experiences and use them to his advantage. If an attacker has previously broken a limb he may tap into that memory and "convince" the bone that it is broken again, or that a person who has previously been transformed into another form could be incited to return to it. Perversely, this would mean he is more effective against opponents with more experience. Doing something like telling another person’s heart to stop beating which is something Kevin would consider, would be substantially difficult as not only to do most humans consciously want to keep living, but the human body is also typically doing what it can to keep itself going- but if Kevin were fighting someone who had experienced a cardiac arrest, it would be easier for him to convince their heart to stop beating.

Equipment

Examples: Illyana's Soulsword, etc

Trivia

Little snippets that reflect your character's personality. eg: Who does and doesn't know about Haller's multiple personalities.

External Links

[html link xp_communication posts]

[html link xp_journal posts]

xp_logs posts

Meta

Player: Mari

Player Icon Base: Domhnall Gleeson

Meta Trivia

One of the things I think of most often when thinking about Kevin as a character is the phrase, “the opposite of nurture isn’t nature, it’s neglect.” I really really want to look into how that neglect shaped Kevin and how that’s going to impact how he forms interpersonal relationships.

How I play Kevin is going to be highly shaped by his appearances in Uncanny X-Men (1981) #Annual 15A and Astonishing X-Men Vol 4 #4-11! I HIGHLY recommend checking out those Astonishing X-Men issues if you're interested in Kevin!

I chose to have Kevin's XP self resemble how he appears in the astral plane in Astonishing X-Men Vol 4 because I think that self determination and autonomy are defining aspects of Kevin's story and I wanted to highlight more of how he was human looking when he was first assumed monstrous as a baby, and that it is the dehumanization that made him be viewed as monstrous rather than anything about Kevin himself.