Meggan Szardos

PHASE 1

PHASE 2

Meggan Szardos
Portrayed by Carey Mulligan
Codename:	none
Affiliations:	eXcalibur
Birthdate:	December 22, 1992

Journal:	xp_meggan
Player:	Rachel (player)

Adopted daughter of the Szardos Clan, Meggan has progressed from the small furry girl she was when found to a young woman curious about the world(s) and her own powers.

Details

Character Journal: xp_meggan

Real Name: Meggan Szardos

Codename: none

Aliases: "Monster"

First Appearance: April 10, 2005

Date of Birth: unknown, but she has been given December 22, 1992 as her 'birthday'

Place of Birth: unknown

Citizenship: German

Relatives: (Adoptive) Szardos Clan Margali (adoptive mother); Stefan, Kurt Sefton, Amanda Sefton and Jimaine (adoptive siblings).

Education: She returned to Xavier’s after a hiatus to continue both her education and gain a better control over her powers. In the nearly 3 years since she was gone, she gradually progressed from barely literate, to a 9th grade reading level.

Relationship Status: Formerly dated Korvus Rook'shir

Occupation: None

Team Affiliation: eXcalibur

Biography

Phase 1

Monster in a Cage

Meggan, whose origins are unknown, was one of the foundations on which was built a travelling freak-show, which, supplemented by magic tricks and a few other such things, provided the Grgic Clan with income. Eventually, though, poor diet and lack of fresh air and exercise took its toll and she started to get sick and feeble. Intent on making the most profit possible before 'the monster' died, the Grgics took the freakshow and their other acts to a gathering of the Rom clans, billing her as a 'half-demon' for sale. The Szardos clan also attended the festival that year, with Kurt and Amanda both present as a result of Amanda's fleeing the mansion after Manuel's reaction to his father's death. Margali heard of the Grgic 'demon' and, fearful for Amanda's safety, decided to investigate. Her healing powers were quite enough to tell her that this was no demon, but a sick child, and she wanted to help... but she was spotted before she could leave the show. The Grgic Clan could have made a lot of trouble for the Szardos family, and they knew all about Margali's foolish acceptance of monsters into her family. If Meggan disappeared or was taken away by authorities, they would have known who was to blame. They were, however, willing to *sell* Meggan, since she had almost outlived her usefulness... should a buyer appear.

Following a family conference, Amanda bought Meggan with the money she earned on a job with Domino. Meggan promptly latched onto her and refused to let go. Never having had anyone care and sympathize with her before, Meggan was determined not to let Amanda out of her sight and Amanda was just as determined to protect her and keep her safe. Determining the school was the best place for a child of Meggan's needs, Amanda returned with her. Formal provision was made for Margali to adopt the child, and Kurt and Amanda, as her siblings, became her guardians at the school.

Living At The X-Mansion

Meggan quickly adapted to life at the school. At the time she was found, she had barely more fifty words of German and Romani combined and had no socialisation, so it was necessary to teach her everything. She proved a fast learner, however, and began settling into her strange new life, with medical tests discovering her to be far older than she appeared - somewhere between thirteen and fifteen. Utterly devoted to her 'Manda, she was not impressed with Manuel de la Rocha, who at the time was still angry and hurt over his girlfriend's departure. Indication that Meggan was some kind of empath as well as a shapeshifter made things more complicated, and there was an incident in the kitchen where the small furry girl bit Manuel. Even after Amanda and Manuel reconciled, Meggan refused to like the Spaniard. She much preferred Amanda's best friend Angelo Espinosa, and adored Kurt, Nathan Dayspring and Moira MacTaggart, who assisted Amanda in raising her.

In June 2005, Meggan was targeted by Patches, a black magic dealer and kidnapped by him, to be used for sale. She was retrieved by Pete Wisdom, and the ordeal resulted in a developmental leap, progressing her to full sentences. Amanda began asking for more help with Meggan, realising she was unable to carry the responsibility of raising her alone. There was an incident involving her synching herself to electricity that gave Moira a deeper clue as to her actual powers in June 2005. Then there came Amanda's relapse with her magic addiction, and she accidentally used Meggan as a power source when the younger girl synched herself to the magical items in Amanda's study. The incident resulted in Meggan being moved out of Amanda and Marie-Ange's suite and into one with Dani. Meggan took the separation badly and threw several tantrums, as well as becoming more and more withdrawn, unconsciously mimicking Amanda's own behaviour.

Following the events of Lost In The Woods and Amanda's decision to leave the school, it was agreed with Kurt that Meggan would be better off returning to Margali, requiring the stability of a close family unit. She joined the caravan in December 2005 and had been relatively happy there, until it was decided in October 2008 that she could better learn to control her powers by returning to the school.

Returning To The School

In October 2008 Meggan returned to the school. She joined the New Mutants on a field trip soon after, learning first-hand about the supposed field trip curse due to the events of Day Zero. Once the team made it to safety, Meggan was reunited with her Kurt and Amanda, and engaged in some much needed bonding time.

During this time period, Meggan discovered that she was able to levitate--she continued to work on getting a handle on this in the ensuing months, managing to stop herself from sleep-levitating after quite a bit of trial and error. This little quirk made it an interesting time to be her roommate.

That Christmas, Kurt and Meggan (worried about Amanda due to Pete's apparent death) lured Amanda home to Berlin for the holidays. She confirmed Amanda's suspicions that Pete had indeed been her mystery "Rescue Man" years ago.

Revenant

The beginning of March 2010 was a good one as Meggan helped to welcome Nick into the family. However, within a scant few days she began to have strange nightmares of being chased, being drowned in increasingly violent scenarios, and a strange hunger. She dismissed them as having eaten something she shouldn't have, or stress from past events, when in fact it was Selene trying to get a foothold in her mind, through her empathy. Her behavior changed soon after, and she found herself unable to tell anyone of the nightmares.

Everything came to a head when--following her causing a disturbance during a test--a worried Adrienne Frost used her powers to Read Meggan's homework, and saw that Selene was controlling her. When she confronted her on the staircase, things took a turn for the worse as Selene possessed Meggan completely and shoved her down the stairs.

While possessed, Meggan broke Selene's cultists out of prison, before breaking into the American Natural History Museum, where the stones from Nova Roma had been placed. X-Force intervened, with Kurt teleporting her to the offices at Snow Valley, and placing her in a restraining circle. After a few failed attempts to get through to Meggan, he began to read Treasure Island to her...to comfort Meggan, if she were able to hear even a fragment of it.

Meggan was finally freed of Selene's influence with a ritual to remove the witch's essence at the Hellfire Club. Once she was herself again, Kurt teleported her out of the fray, and back to her room to recover.

India And Beyond

When India and Pakistan were devastated by an earthquake and explosions, Meggan was one of many who volunteered to help in whatever way required. Meggan was paired with Megan Gwynn to help raise more tents for the refugees. However, nothing went smoothly as an earthquake--generated by an Imperial Guardsmen named Quake--struck, and sent them scurrying for safer ground. During the course of rescuing Catseye, (who had created a distraction to allow the two to get away from Quake) Meggan learned that she was able to do more than just absorb a little electricity from a light socket.

She was able to pick up a live wire for approximately three minutes without being harmed, and throw it at him, until Catseye was able to finish the job and knock him out. The only damage done from holding it closely to her was a singed shirt. The only injuries--including a few gashes that only needed nine stitches, and some bruises-- were those caused by Quake. That, and mild case of dehydration. She knew she had just been lucky, as others had fared much worse.

Two months passed, and in June 2010, Meggan discovered another neat little trick she could do with her powers: making gills. While attempting to discover just how long she could remain underwater before urgently needing to come up for air, she frightened a fellow student into thinking she was in distress. Hurried explanations followed, and after being timed (and promising to always put up a sign when using the pool to test things) it was determined that her limit was one hour.

Meggan began her Junior year of high school that fall.

2011

As Meggan began her Junior year of high school the previous fall, she also succeeded in passing the written test which would allow her to possess a learner's permit for driving. She did everything she could to learn what she was supposed to do so that she could pass the driving portion. Since she was expecting to take her test in the frostiest months of winter, she roped Kevin Ford into teaching her how to drive on ice in a deserted parking lot. That Valentine's Day, while the slightly warmer weather was thawing the ice, she went to take the driving portion of the test, finally succeeding in gaining her official license.

As a reward for passing this milestone, Kurt (with Stefan having chipped in) later surprised her with a gift of a compact car, to her joy.

A spell gone awry in a thrift shop caused the students to be haunted by spirits in need of particular items to let them rest in peace. Meggan and Nico’s task ended with the delivery of a cameo broach to the granddaughter of the spirit attached to them, allowing her to move on at last. The end of May saw Meggan being recruited by David Haller to aid in catching a killer.

By pooling their powers with her sister to bridge the gap that magic and telepathy alone could not, they were able to form a web on the astral plane that eventually helped catch the person before another person could die at the woman’s hands. Meggan’s request to speak to her, and try to understand what made her the way she was didn’t provide very much in the way of closure. She also learned that confronting someone who had no emotions to speak of—someone who felt cold emotionally—caused her to physically look as though she had been standing in a deep freeze for an extended period of time. Retreating to the warmth of the outside worth made this reaction pass.

Artie’s adoptive mother sought to keep the students as her own in early June, empathically coercing them to join her in the tunnels as Morlocks. After a short time Meggan was able to shake off the effects, and—not wanting any blood spilled, if the others attempted to defend it as their home—find Kurt (already searching the tunnels) to explain the situation.

July’s normal expectations of fireworks instead brought terror, as an old foe attacked Jean Grey and the mansion, simultaneously dragging the students and faculty who hadn’t left on vacation into nightmares, consisting of each person’s worst fears being realized. For Meggan, that meant falling under the control of Selene once more, this time becoming a protégé to her, of sorts, aiding in mayhem and various horrors. With the aid of Jubilee and Amara, she broke free and they were able to take down the witch, wake up, and aid the other residents still affected.

Staying behind with Crystal to help with anyone that may be in need following the ordeal, she was unfortunate enough to be one of the first people seen by a mind controlled Kyle Gibney, who attacked the empath, slashing her arms, and biting her right shoulder. The wounds left behind were bearable, as were the nightmares (which she promised her sister she would talk about) resulting from that encounter with Selene, even if it hadn't really been her this time.

While relaxing at Silver for Yvette’s 19th birthday party, Meggan was affected by the same mix of Laurie’s pheromones and Pixie’s dust as everyone else in attendance. As a result, that night she embarked on a hugging spree, and hallucinated an assortment of strange creatures, including singing bubbles and flying pancakes. Returning to the mansion, she watched reruns of Lost in Space, sent a text message to Kevin about how nice it would be to build a pillow robot, built a pyramid of cans in the kitchen instead, and left a rather cryptic note on the toaster concerning a White Rabbit. All in all, it was a memorable night for her.

Once recovered, she began self-defense lessons with Wade.

The middle of August saw Meggan going on her first date ever with a boy from Salem Center, with Wade and Kurt threatening him enough to ensure that he would be on his best behavior. He developed an overwhelming phobia of New York eating him alive, and was never heard from again.

A few days later saw Meggan bidding Kevin a sad farewell once he broke the news he was leaving town, after whisking her off to a midnight breakfast at The Waffle House.

October proved an interesting time, as Meggan met Korvus, and agreed to help him acclimatise to life in the mansion and pop culture in general. This, in turn, led to him asking her to Homecoming at ESU...once they got around some cultural confusion on what that topic entailed. The date began awkwardly, until they gradually grew more comfortable with each other.

Preparing for Halloween, Meggan decided to go to Wade's hayride, dressed as a character from The Last Unicorn. A trinket of Amanda's triggered magical complications, with everyone believing they were their costumes. As Amalthea, she and Angelo--as El Santo--performed a spell, conjuring up a spirit that agreed to help her locate the Red Bull. As part of its mischief, it pointed her at Kyle, whereupon she charged him, unicorn-style, until the spell came to an end. Amanda reassured her no harm would come from raising the spirit.

November saw Meggan and Korvus decide they were offically dating, albeit slowly and finding their way at their own pace.

2012

In February, while on an excursion to see a documentary following the lives of real-life superheroes, some vandals took the opportunity to shatter the windows on Meggan’s car. It wasn’t all bad, though, as Valentine’s Day saw Korvus and Meggan exchanging Valentine’s Day gifts, and sharing a first kiss.

Later that month, she attended a field trip to a mutant awareness rally. While taking the break from the legal stalls at a fair, (and telling Korvus about her past in the cage) some of the Friends of Humanity that were protesting the affair suddenly manifested powers of their own. After some turmoil, Meggan attempted to cling to a distraught electrokinetic, and aid in taking the edge off the worst of his pains via her ability to eat electricity. Korvus took things from there, using Nandaki as a lightning rod to defuse the situation. She later apologized to him for not warning him in advance that she could do such a thing.

April saw her passing two milestones, as she was accepted into Empire State University...and Wade taught her how to hotwire cars.

Genosha And Its Aftermath

A protest the students were attending went wrong when everyone gathered were kidnapped, and transported to Genosha, rendered powerless once they had reached their destination. When rescue came (at the cost of some being apprehended in the process) Meggan and Molly escaped with Catseye through the air ducts, stealing an ambulance in the process.

After other escapees managed to meet back up and set up an impromptu camp, Marius and Catseye were given the task of informing Meggan that her boyfriend and family were prisoners back at the Citadel, and nobody knew what was being done to them. As they all traveled through the forest, Matt told Meggan about overhearing the adults discussing plans to kill any Magistrates who attacked. The two were conflicted, a distressed Meggan contemplating all the possible consequences.

An unexpected attack by the Magistrates sent her into the trees to keep watch, and warn as helicopters approached. As she began her return to the ground, Callie (transformed into Mutate 557) made a tree to grow its branches into a cage around her, trapping her with vines and branches doing their level best to suffocate, claw, and bind, until Lorna sliced her way through.

A team was sent to attack the Citadel’s motor pool, and a Mutated Amara attacked. Knowing something might inadvertently go wrong if her concentration slipped, Meggan synched with fire for the first time. She managed to direct it away from Adrienne Frost and therefore any explosives, buying them a few minutes until the woman could knock Amara out with concussion grenades.

Approximately a week following their return from Genosha, Meggan and Kurt went out to the grill to test out what she could accomplish when synched to fire. They discovered that while she could move the flames short distances, she could not extinguish it. Making the flame cover a smaller portion only worked so long as her concentration was unwavering—once distracted, it returned to its original state.

Of course, there was no rest for the wicked. What should have been a fun trip to a Renaissance Fair turned into a disaster when a little girl's mutant powers made everyone believe they were actually in the Renaissance. Thankfully Amanda and Nico were able to save them. August brought with it another failed trip when a concert Meggan attended was attacked by anti-mutant protestors.

Faux Limbo and the End of the World

Meggan, surprisingly, managed to stay out of trouble for most of 2013, until she was kidnapped and brought to faux Limbo, where she had to be rescued by a special team of X-Men. She laid low after that, recovering and carrying on with her daily life until January 2015, when the world began falling apart - literally. When the mansion was attacked by The Dark Phoenix, Meggan tried to help defend it, but it was all for nothing. Reality fell apart, and Xorn rescued the survivors from the fallen world, depositing them into a new world - Meggan among the group of survivors.

Phase 2

2015 ended with weather causing an accident while a group from Xavier's was on the way back from a bus trip to a museum. Meggan was among those that tried to prevent others from crashing into the scene. Later in December, Meggan was thrilled to learn of Kurt's engagement to Jubilee.

Meggan hoped to stay out of trouble in 2016, but such was not to be. A parasite targeted her, as well as Topaz, in an effort to use the two of them to essentially birth a new astral plane. As a result of this, Meggan ended up trapped in a mindscape that she eventually dubbed "Candyland Hell." It was a place filled with molasses rivers, cartoon animals, and other assorted oddities (highlights including a unicorn that Emma Frost would ride after being injured, to Meggan's almost unending hilarity after waking; flying marshmallow Peeps; M&M dragonflies; and squirrels attacking Quentin Quire) for that extra dose of the surreal.

In the end, the telepaths of the mansion (thrown into the astral world with them) and Hope (also sucked into the mindscape, but able to traverse both minds) were able to free Topaz and Meggan of the infection. The parasite briefly fought back against the extraction, and tried to attach itself to Haller, before an idea involving Quentin's powers rescued him. Meggan blocked it from attaching further.

Meggan lost her love for anything that included syrup for a time, after witnessing Quentin almost drown in a river filled with it.

In May, she and Korvus separated amicably. Since he was leaving to help with the reformation of the Imperial Guard, they agreed it would be too difficult to maintain a relationship from afar. It wasn't fair to either of them if they remained a couple under the circumstances.

In August, Meggan earned a Bachelor's of Science degree from Empire State University, having majored in Marine Biology. After careful thought, she chose to continue with her education and try for a Master's. After putting in another two years of study, she would succeed in her goal.

The next year was relatively quiet for her, aside from Meggan (and also Megan) becoming one of the assistants for Matt in his law practice. The next December, she was thrust into a Danger Room simulation gone wrong, which replicated The Iliad. Having been dropped into the middle of a Greek camp alongside several others, they got to work figuring a way out of the scenario.

In 2021, when an angry water spirit decided to attack Baltimore due to pollution, those that could breathe water (including herself, Namor, and Alani) were drawn into matters to attempt to broker peace and save the city from giant crabs. To her credit, Meggan restrained herself and did not bite Namor when he annoyed her.

When Halloween rolled around, she was one of the many residents of the mansion to fall into a horror scenario. In her case, she joined Arthur and Molly in a fight against zombie versions of Nica and Maya. As the fear mounted, Meggan was bitten. A plaintive request for brains while at the cusp of being slain by Molly would go forever unanswered as the spell was broken, and all were saved. Apologies were made in the aftermath, though nobody could have helped themselves.

The same year, Meggan would join Excalibur; the next June would see the team would help return a young king to his throne. When Alani was knocked out in a bar fight in the other dimension, Meggan helped get her friend out of danger.

When the team was temporarily locked in the Chapel thanks to wormhole weirdness, the vending machine chose to do things in the vein of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Meggan happened to be the recipient of Ten Lords A Leaping; gingerbread men that sat up in unison, twirled, danced, and then, as she put it, "self-destructed into a shower of crumbs and cookie limbs strewn all across the table."

Things were relatively calm until March, when a mission led to Meggan being injured; while the injury itself wasn’t too serious, a tear in her hazmat suit led to eXcalibur inadvertently bringing a virus back from another dimension. The ensuing chaos led to everyone in the mansion temporarily swapping powers. Meggan ended up with Kyle’s, while Forge (unfortunately only temporarily) regrew a hand and a leg after being saddled with her abilities.

Physical Characteristics

Height: 5' 5"

Weight: 119 lbs

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Brownish Blonde

Other Features: When first found, Meggan was a small, furry creature, with bat-wing ears, fangs and long spindly limbs with only four fingers on each hand, reacting to the perception those around her had of her being a 'monster'.

Due to the nature of her powers, this is not her 'true' form, and she has eventually discovered that for herself.

As she has continuously worked on not letting that get to her as often (and it is hit or miss at times) she now attempts to maintain the appearance of a regular person with brownish blonde hair, and nothing too out of the ordinary like fur or claws.

However, if it is too cold where she is (be it her room or the classroom) it is more than likely that she will grow a bit of fur, out of habit.

Powers

Meggan is not precisely an empath, although that was the initial assumption. Her powers are actually closer to, say, Synch's... only she doesn't synch herself to powers, but to other beings... or things. When she does it with people, she picks up emotions, instincts, and occasionally a thought or two if it's a very clear, simple, strongly held one... an obsession, or a goal. Animals work the same way, but a little simplified. Plants are more difficult, and she tends mostly to pick up physical attributes from them... bark, a few leaves, turning green, that sort of thing. Inanimate objects are very difficult, and she won't learn those for a long time. Electronics she can attune herself to, but shouldn't... explosions are more or less inevitable, given her patchy control and the energy involved. The easiest of all for her, after people, is the elements... fire, earth, air, and water are easy. Meggan's natural affinity with nature and the elements also gives her a very minor magical aptitude, since she can adapt to attune herself to any form of energy, including the magical. She does not, however, have much power, unless actually latched onto a leyline or some other supplemental source. Her body, until she learns to control her powers better, will automatically reflect whatever's going on in her mind, or whatever it is she's attuning herself to.

At the point she arrived, having had absolutely no conscious practice with her powers, she was very much at square one... although attuning herself to people is instinctive, she had to learn to control when it happens, and learn to do the rest.

Meggan can tune in not only to emotions, but to pretty much anything... although only one thing at a time, and she's going to need considerable practice before her powers are anything like under control. They are, however, completely passive, if that's the right word... although they can play havoc with her body and mind, she can't project at all. No matter how badly she loses control, it won't affect anyone but herself, unless she manages to inadvertently short something out.

Equipment

None.

Trivia

When Meggan was first moved out of Amanda's room, she locked herself in the bathroom and ate Dani's oatmeal soap.

Her favorite books are Treasure Island, The Hobbit (along with the rest of the Lord of the Rings novels), and Robinson Crusoe.

Her favorite movies are The Princess Bride, Muppet Treasure Island, and The Last Unicorn.

While Meggan is a huge fan of all ice creams, her favorite is butter pecan.

Meggan speaks German, Romani, and English.

Amanda gave Meggan a monkey charm bracelet for her birthday in 2008, which she cherished. When Selene possessed Meggan during the events of Revenant, it was destroyed.

Primarily prefers the genre of jazz music. Despite this, she has a secret love for ABBA.

Having been introduced to the wonders of the Waffle House by Kevin Ford, Meggan is now a waffle lover. In January 2011, she succeeded in building (and devouring) a Leaning Tower of Waffles.