Sample Application

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X-PROJECT DOES NOT ACCEPT APPLICATIONS FOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS.


Applicants are expected to have read the Rules before applying. Also, the FAQ is extremely useful for applications, so please use it. ;)




Thanks to Kal, Mon and Mackinzie, who have allowed us to use their applications for Frank Ludlum, Catseye and Jean Grey, respectively, as examples. You can find the application here.


Frank Ludlum

Frank was one of our first applications with the new application format and a new character. Kal provided ample information and showed he had thought about how Frank would fit into the game. This app was cleared with only a few modifications.

Basic Information

Player Information

-Player Name: Kal!

-Player Livejournal: None right now.

-Player email address:

-Player's instant message contact info (AIM/Y!/etc): None right now- working on changing that, though!

-Player age:


Character Details

Proposed Character Journal Name: x_pinnochio

Real Name: Frank Ludlum

Codename: None

Aliases: None

Date of Birth: February 5th, 1997

Place of Birth: New York

Citizenship: American

Relatives: Andrew Ludlum, father, journalist, Sinead Ludlum nee Whelan, mother, Jake Ludlum, older brother (21).

Education: Highschool education up to the eleventh grade.

Relationship Status: Single.

Occupation: Student and fledgling writer.

Background:

The story of the Ludlum family is a study in contradictions; on the one hand, Sinead and Andy Ludlum once loved each other passionately and have never been badly-off for money. On the other, neither of them was ready to have a child, let alone two, and the stress of parenting didn’t do much good for their marriage. They had met in Northern Ireland- he a foreign correspondent for a major news outlet, she the BBC’s Northern Anchor- and had fallen passionately in love. When they married and moved back to New York, however, the cracks started to show. Sinead was now unemployed and stuck in a house she didn’t want, and soon fell into alcoholism. Andy coped with this by becoming more and more work-focused and distant from her. The conditions were perfect for the death of a marriage. It took 21 years.

The birth of their first child, Jake, did not stop his mother drinking, and Andy began spending less and less time with his family. By the time Frank arrived, five years later, the two parents barely talked to each other at all. It wasn’t an abusive house as much as a silent one, but that wasn’t any better. To their credit, Andy and Sinead both did try to connect with their children, but little came of it besides awkward silences and empty gestures. Jake and Frank learned quickly to rely on themselves as much as possible.

While his upbringing did make him self-sufficient and cynical beyond his years, let it never be said it made Frank anti-social. His teachers found him to be an excellent student and a hard worker, and his quick wit and snarky demeanour won him friends among his classmates. Things continued like this until he was thirteen. Then Jake left for college in Nevada, leaving Frank on his own with Sinead. Her drinking quickly took a turn for the worse, and Frank could no longer hide the effects this had on him- he became quiet and withdrawn, and his schoolwork started to suffer.

It was this that drew the attention of Mr. Dwyer, Frank’s English teacher. While he could never get Frank to discuss his homelife, he did help him stabilise himself again and get his schoolwork back to its previous level. Dwyer ended up becoming very influential in his student’s life: for one, he imparted a love of language and the power of self-expression that has driven Frank ever since. For another, he exposed Frank to Hunter S. Thompson. Through Thompson’s writings, Frank’s natural distrust of authority figures was cultivated into a deepset hatred of tyranny and oppression. Dwyer didn’t realise that he’d turned his student into a perfect journalist until Frank brought it up himself in a career guidance meeting.

With Dwyer’s help, Frank had a bright future ahead of him. His home life would never be good, but at least he could survive it until he, like Jake, could escape to college. But life had other plans. On his fifteenth birthday, Frank manifested as a mutant. All of a sudden, his parents weren’t distant any more. His father told him in no uncertain terms that this changed nothing, and Frank was still his son. His mother, on the other hand, stopped speaking to him altogether. There was only so much Andy could do to shield his son from Sinead’s growing contempt- and there was only so much Frank would let him do. Then, one morning in June, Sinead was gone. A note was left telling them that she didn’t want to be followed.

For the next two months, Andy and Frank tried to make things work. Frank tried to look after the house, and Andy tried to be home more often. But in the end, fate was against them. Frank’s school life had taken a fast turn for the worse after his powers manifested, and very few of his friends had stayed around to help him deal with things. He was never bullied, exactly, as much as ostracised. In response, Frank started to act out more and more. For once, just for God damn once, people were going to pay attention to him. He pulled pranks, he started fights, he cut class- anything to make people acknowledge him.

In the end, it was Mr. Dwyer who finally offered a solution. He called Frank and his father in one evening and explained that Kevin’s future was not looking good. The school was looking for any excuse to get rid of him, and even if they couldn’t, they could see to it that his academic career was sabotaged beyond repair. The alternative was Xavier’s school. Frank would receive top-class education and training in his mutation. It would be somewhere safe.

Andy saw a gift from God- a way for his son to get the education and training he needed.

Frank saw his dad sign him over to someone else again. And he wasn’t even surprised.


Character Description:

Physical Description: You know that one geeky kid in gym class who’s not quite fat enough to actually be fat but not a million miles off it either? Yeah. That’s Frank. Most of it’s probably puppy fat, but that doesn’t make him any less sensitive about it either. Otherwise, he’s a fairly typical specimen of a teenage nerd- blonde hair cut a little long and usually shaggy, slightly deep set, almond shaped eyes and limbs that might be accurately described as “gangly”. Contrary to what he thinks, he’s not exactly bad looking so much as “unfinished”. One more growth spurt and a little exercise will produce a surprisingly attractive young man. For now, though, “unfinished” will have to do.

Height: 5’9”

Weight: 155 pounds

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Blonde

Distinguishing characteristics: Wears glasses due to mild short-sightedness.

Personality Description:

Inner Self:

Contrary to what one might think, Frank is an intensely passionate person. Thing is, he’s never learnt how to deal with that, and the only example of extreme emotions he’s seen is his mother whenever she got drunk, so Frank tends to suppress his emotions as much as possible. This is of course really, really unhealthy, and usually leads to things building up until he does something ludicrously stupid to try and fix things. Which leads us onto point two- when he’s upset, Frank has a very poor sense of impulse control and a sense of poetic justice that would make Aesop cry tears of blood. A good example of this was his response to being told he was going to school at Xaviers- Frank decided that if his school didn’t want him, then clearly they wouldn’t need any of his past contributions to the school newspaper, and set fire to the entire back catalogue. It’s a miracle he wasn’t expelled. The one exception to this cycle of repression and then ludicrous response is writing- if Frank can express himself through his writing, then he can vent his emotions without needing to do something stupid.

In terms of his relationships with others, Frank is again very conflicted; he’s very lonely, but he’s also got abandonment issues out the wazoo and doesn’t like letting people get close in case they leave again. As a result, he’s either very distant or intensely clingy, and hasn’t quite worked out why that doesn’t work yet. This stems from his family relationships- the only one which could be described as healthy is his connection with his brother Jake, and even then Frank’s pissed he left to go to Nevada. Frank feels an intense amount of guilt about his mother leaving, and blames himself for the breakup of his parents’ marriage. He’s also just about aware that it wasn’t actually his fault, though, but that hasn’t really sunk in, so he’s also really, REALLY resentful of her for leaving. While also being hideously guilty. No-one said he had to be simple. His dad, however, is a whole magnitude more complicated. There’s a lot of resentment over how absent he was in Frank’s early life, as is to be expected. However, that’s balanced out by respect; Andy is a damn good journalist, and Frank’s kind of in awe of that side of his father. As a result, he wants to follow in his father’s footsteps without admitting that’s what he’s doing. He’s yet to articulate that, however, so he doesn’t realise how stupid that is. His relationship with his father is a bit better than it used to be, however, due to how much work his dad’s put in to fixing it. Whether or not it’ll continue to improve is up for debate.

But it’s not all doom and gloom! Frank is an intensely loyal individual with a very strong sense of right and wrong, and it’s this that prompts him to his excessive behaviour- cruelty and the abuse of power are red flags in front of a bull for him, and he will not stop until he’s done something about it. He places a great deal of weight on his personal integrity, and as of yet hasn’t found anything worth compromising it for. Then again, he’s yet to meet the women of the mansion! :P


Outer Self:

Everything in the last section? Forget that. BECAUSE NO-ONE KNOWS. Frank spent most of his young life learning to be self-reliant, and that extends to his emotional state. As far as anyone else is concerned, he’s just a very sarcastic and slightly book-wormish nerd who occasionally does something ridiculous to prove a point. He likes to be the class clown, the guy everyone laughs at, and will happily take that role whenever he can get away with it- mainly because it makes people stop asking questions.

Academically, Frank’s doing pretty well. His main love is English, and he will read absolutely anything he can get his hands on. He doesn’t really enjoy math very much though, but he puts up with it for the sake of his grades. The main thing going for him is an absolutely exceptional work ethic that helps him overcome his natural distaste for anything he’s not immediately good at. This is probably because he’s got a bloody-minded streak a mile long and refuses to admit when he’s stuck on something.

His big hobby is of course writing. At the moment that’s mainly small essays or short stories that don’t really go anywhere, but he’s got vague designs on putting together a blog. The idea of something discussing the Mutant perspective on highschool might be cool...

Powers

Frank is a floramorph- he can transform his body into living plant matter. In his case, wood. Hold off with the erection jokes please, he’s heard them all already. When Frank has turned, he’s a lot tougher then he is normally- his nerves don’t work the same way, so his pain tolerance is a lot higher. He’s also a lot harder to damage due to the higher density of his wood form, and his endurance is a lot better, although he can’t quite figure out why.

The reason is his currently undiagnosed secondary ability- tactile florakinesis. He can manipulate any plant matter he can touch. When he transforms, it’s this ability that allows him to move, and while he doesn’t know it yet, this is going to be the piece de resistance. With a lot of practice, Frank will eventually be able to manipulate his own body quite extensively, repairing damage and some crude shapeshifting being two such examples, as well as causing plants or trees he touches to grow quickly and attack his enemies.

With a bit more practice, things get more interesting. By intertwining his body with other forms of plant matter, Frank could express his abilities through them, essentially adding them to his body. By extending himself outwards, he could eventually become the centre of a superorganism animated by his power.

So far, so sexy, right? Well, hang on. There’s a lot of downsides, too. For one, right now Frank can only turn into wood, and even that tires him out. He can currently maintain his transformation for about an hour before he gets too tired to continue, and rapidly shifting back and forth is pretty exhausting. Secondly, he can’t eat or digest anything while shifted- his stomach acid turns into sap when he shifts, and thus can’t break anything down. Theoretically this could be overcome by growing leaves and photosynthesising energy, but guess what? He can’t do that yet! Thirdly (and most obviously) Frank is ludicrously vulnerable to fire, which could really mess him up if he’s not quick enough to get away from it.

Finally, remember that superorganism thing I was talking about? Well, it comes with a very serious price. The human mind isn’t designed to deal with that much sensory input and control, so Frank’s brain is designed to optimise a bit. With extensive use of his powers, he gets less and less human in his thought patterns as his psyche copes with the strain. His emotions stop behaving normally, too- damaging his extended “body” would drive him into a rage, while murdering a friend would barely make him bat an eye. All that matters in this state is ensuring the continuation and propogation of his plant form.

These psychological changes reverse themselves once he’s in human form for a while, wearing off slowly. The longer he uses his powers for anything but walking around, the longer it takes for him to start thinking normally again.


Character Aims:

For one thing, Frank’s eventually going to start a blog. “I Am A God-Damn Tree Man”, as it will be named, is going to be a window into mutant life aimed at non-mutants. It’ll also allow him to showcase his writing to a wider audience, hopefully with an eye towards making a living out of it. I think that might be a fun route to go down- Frank getting to see how journalism works and how it effects minority rights and society in general. Plus, it’ll give him lots of targets to get really angry at, which is always fun!

I also really want to deal with transhumanist stuff, too- Frank’s power could very easily dehumanise him if he’s not careful with it, and considering the lives most Xavier students lead, the temptation to go full-on tree may get to be a bit much. I’d like to play with that a bit, although not until later when he’s a bit more established and comfortable with his powers.

I think Frank may end up trying to attach himself to Kyle Gibney, mainly because he’s an English junkie and Kyle’s his English teacher. The other students, however, are a bit more complicated. Right now Frank’s kind of a mess, and doesn’t really want people sticking their noses in until he’s got his head back together. I think maybe he’ll get along with Topaz because she’ll leave him alone on occasion, but that’s purely based on how the player would feel, of course.


Sample Entries:

Feb 2oth.

Hell of a way to turn 16, man. Most kids get fuckin’ cake.

Alright. So I’m getting this out of the way before the rumour mill gets started (and fuck, this place might as well be a tabloid). Yes, I did come home after curfew last night. Yes, I did come home with a woman. No, she was not a hooker. That’s my mom. She’s in town for a couple of days and decided she wanted to see me. She won’t be around the mansion much- I’m going into town to see her. Easier for both of us. So please, can I stop getting the stink eye now?



Catseye

Catseye is a good example of a previously played character who had a strong voice but not an overwhelming amount of in-game canon and who had been out of the game for some time before being picked back up by Mon. At the time of this application, Catseye was a previously played character with 2 years of game history, then one year of limbo in the unplayed characters drawer.

Basic Information

Character: Catseye

Proposed Character LiveJournal name: (This must start with "x_", as in "x_avier","x_juggernaut", "x_storm" or "x_coldhands".) We prefer that you use a name that will easily make the character journal recognizable, usually this is the character's name from the canon movie or comics. However, this is not a hard and fast rule (for example, Jamie Madrox's journal is x_crowdofone, and Paige Guthrie's is x_foliate)

I'd keep x_catseye.

Player name: Mon
Player Livejournal:
Player email address:
Player's instant message contact info (AIM/Y!/etc):
Player age:


Character description:

(If your character appeared onscreen in the first or second X-Men film, we would like to request that their description stay consistent with what was shown. In addition, if you are applying for a character that has been previously played in X-Project and is now open for applications, we would request that you familiarize yourself with the character's in-game backstory.)


Details:

Real Name: Gabrielle Elizabeth Smith

Codename: Catseye

Aliases: Sharon Smith

Date of Birth: 1 August, 1989

Place of Birth: New York

Citizenship: American

Relatives: Harold (dad), Rebecca (mom), Evan (older brother), Harrison (younger brother)

Education: Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters (2004-2006), home-schooled by brother Evan (2006-2008)

Relationship Status: Single, though she is very much in love with her MiniSquid.

Occupation: Cat, student at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters (entering high school as a freshman?)

Team Affiliation: none at present, hopefully future X-Man.


Physical Description:

Height: 6'0"

Weight: 155lbs

Eyes: Purple

Hair: Purple

Other Features: Retractable claws on her hands and feet, plus a prehensile tail, even while in human form.


Mental/Emotional/Social Description:

(How does your character think? How does s/he deal with others? How about him/herself? Does s/he handle stress well? What is his/her base emotional state? Is s/he usually sad, happy, sullen, depressed, angry...? Is s/he very clever, or a little slow? What is s/he particularly good at? How about what s/he's bad at? How well adjusted is your character? Does s/he handle one-on-one situations well? How about small crowds? Large crowds? Formal affairs? Authority figures? What does your character fear?)


Catseye thinks like a cat. She's always considered herself a cat who morphs into a girl, and not the other way around. As such, she thinks a lot in terms of personal fulfillment- keeping herself fed, warm, and happy. Her animalistic need to fulfill those goals can make her seem a little bit emotionally detached from her fellow students at times. She'll run away from problems that seem too complex to tackle at first glance and only return once she's worked out a strategy.

Catseye will oftentimes hang back and watch events happening around her without participating. Her base emotional state is very typical of a cat- very relaxed and laid back, almost dismissive so long as she doesn't want anything from anyone. When she wants something, however, she can be a shameful flirt. She also has the tendency to anger easily if she is having trouble getting through to a friend. She can be very blunt to others and because of her tendency to think of herself as a cat and not a human, she can display a teeny bit of a superiority complex, being condescending to 'humans' at times. Despite this, however, Catseye is fiercely protective of 'her humans' at the Mansion and cares for them very deeply. She treats them as her kittens a lot of the time. She has adjusted well to mansion life, so well that after being away from the mansion for two years she is missing the place very much and wishes to return.

She thinks of herself as incredibly clever, especially when it comes to disciplining unruly or silly humans with her five pointy ends, and she is by no means stupid when it comes to working out the moods and problems of her friends. She is rather cunning and sneaky, as well. It's mostly in human academics where Catseye falls short of 'clever'.

Catseye handles people and crowds of all sizes very well in cat form, her preferred shape, but when forced to be human, she can be incredibly self-conscious and can become nervous in any social situation, though she has made some progress with coming to terms with her human form since she first came to the mansion, and doesn't get nearly as self-conscious as she once did. Her curiosity makes her likely to set aside her nervousness about appearing in crowds in human form if she has the promise of experiencing something new.


Background:

(Where did your character grow up? What kind of family was it, large or small, formal or close-knit? What was his/her socio-economic status? How many languages does s/he speak/read/write and what is his/her fluency level in those languages?)


Catesye grew up on the streets of New York. Her family owned a house very far upstate but her father was put off by his infant daughter's physical mutation and when at less than a year old she developed the ability to change into a tiny purple kitten, Harold Smith abandoned his daughter in Manhattan in a snowstorm that stranded the rest of the family in the house for a month. He told his wife and young son Evan that Gabrielle, the baby, had died in her crib. The rest of the family, presumably, is very close-knit. Older brother Evan clearly cares a great deal about all members of his family since even after discovering that his baby sister hadn't perished as an infant, he chose to keep her existence a secret from his parents (his father a member of the FoH) and younger brother Harrison, instead meeting Catseye in public places by himself.

Catseye, after being left in the snow for dead, was raised on the streets by a pack of alley cats, although the pack died out while Catseye was still young since she did not age as a regular cat did, but rather as a human. Catseye wandered about alone until she was informally adopted by an older woman dubbed The Cat Lady. During her tenure with the Cat Lady, Catseye discovered she could change into a girl. When the Cat Lady was incapacitated by a stroke, her animals, including Catseye, were taken to a local animal shelter, where Catseye was discovered to be a feline metamorph and taken to Xavier's. She remained at Xavier's for nearly two years.

After Forge discovered Catseye's true identity and located her family, Catseye went with him to reunite with them but found a FoH sticker on the car and fled instead. Brother Evan spotted purple hair he recognized as being his sister's and tracked the car she'd been in back to Xavier's, where he reunited with Catseye. After several months Catseye went to live with Evan to try to rebuild connections with her family.

In the two years that followed Catseye has met with her mother, but her younger brother and father still don't know of her existence. She has been schooled at home by Evan, but has come to realize that Evan has his own life and can't spend it teaching her all by himself. BigBrother needs to go out, he needs to see his friends and while Catseye enjoys her solitude to a degree, she finds Evan's place lonely at times. She misses her humans at Xavier's very much and after discussing it with Evan has decided to return to the school to finish her education.


Powers:

(What are your character's mutations? How good is s/he at targeting/using/controlling the power? Have the powers manifested yet? How did they manifest? If the power can do damage, how effective is it? What is the range, speed, flexibility of the power? Is there a physical manifestation? What does it look like? Can s/he control when it appears and when it recedes?)


Catseye is a human/feline metamorph. She has complete control over her powers, which manifested at birth. Her powers allow her to inflict considerable damage with teeth and claws. When in her regular (housecat) cat form she retains human intellegence except for the ability to speak, while also demonstrating all the typical abilities of a cat. Catseye can also shift into a mountain lion/cougar-sized feline. She has little human intelligence in this form, however, and instead operates on animal instinct. The physical (human) manifestation of Catseye's powers are her retractable claws (on hands and feet) and her prehensile tail.


Character aims:

(What does your character plan to do while at Xavier's? Why is s/he here? Which other characters do you think s/he'll interact with most? Who do you expect s/he'll like? Hate? Can you envisage any future relationships, romantic or platonic, for this character?)


While at Xavier's, Catseye plans on completing her high school education. She also plans to volunteer at the animal shelter. She's returning to the school to keep an eye on her friends as well, to help keep them safe. She'll most likely interact with Forge, Kyle, Rahne, Dani, Paige, Marius, Jay... everyone who has pastrami or a warm bed, really, as well as the younger students. I expect she'll like her old friends and some of the younger students like Yvette, Inez, Cessily, Callie... she likes Scott, Cain... in reading all her logs and journal posts, I can't seem to find people she _won't_ interact with, even if she likes certain people more than others.

Player Information

Player Experience:

(Please list your previous experience with RPGs, fics, writing, etc. If any part of this experience is anonymous, and you'd like to include it, feel free to do so and we'll keep it in the strictest confidence. Just drop us a note.)


Player aims:

(What do you want out of your game experience? What do you envision for your character - do you want them to be an X-Man or join X-Force or Elpis or just graduate without blowing themselves up or become the only guidance counsellor to not need stress leave? What sort of plots do you like? Are you into action? Suspense/horror? Political thrillers? Romance? Slice of life type scenarios?)


Plot ideas:

(Please briefly describe at least one possible plot idea. It can be directly for your character, or something for the game as a whole - possible X-Men, X-Force or Red X missions, character interaction opportunities like a school dance or a field trip (with or without the field trip curse!), an event that leads to powers or other development for your character or just a little two-character adventure. Don't worry about it necessarily fitting into our universe -- it's just to give us an idea of your independent plot-writing abilities.)

Have you guys ever done an Ani-Men thing? I was gonna say "Days Of Future Past" but since Nute had it in the 30 Days thing I will go with Ani-Men instead since I'm apping a catgirl and the Ani-Men have Cat-Man. Could be something Nate comes across with Elpis? Instead of mutant-child- soldiers they find a bunch of half-animals, half-men are being created as superstrong soldiers by crazy Count Nefaria?

I'd love to see Catseye's family involved in some FoH stuff as well.


Sample entries

(Please write two sample entries for your character. Think of this as a chance to let us see inside the mindset of the character as you perceive them. These should be public entries and not personal introspectives as there are no 'locked posts' on the character journals in-game. At least one entry should be to the character's personal journal, whilst the other can be to x_journal, x_staff, x_students, x_snowvalley or x_team.)

Personal journal:

Meep. Catseye has come back! Catesye thinks that the mansion looks mostly the same but that it smells of many New People. Probably this means there are lots of new warm beds to sleep in. Catseye must go investigate the new beds right after visiting the kitchen to make sure there is pastrami and that it is still delicious.


x_journal

All your warm laundry belongs to Catseye!



Jean Grey-Summers

Mack's app for Jean Grey is a great example of the level of detail we tend to look for in previously played characters with considerable in-game history and how to take the existing game canon and put it into your own words so the mods can see your take on the character's game history. At the time of Mack's app, Jean had four years' prior history in the game, and had been unplayed for 10 months.

Basic Information

Proposed Character Journal Name: X_jeangrey
Player Name: Mackinzie
Player Livejournal:
Player email address:
Player's instant message contact info (AIM/Y!/etc):
Player age:


Character description:

(If your character appeared onscreen in the first or second X-Men film, we would like to request that their description stay consistent with what was shown. In addition, if you are applying for a character that has been previously played in X-Project and is now open for applications, we would request that you familiarize yourself with the character's in-game backstory.)


Details:

Real Name: Dr. Jean Grey-Summers
Codename: Phoenix
Aliases: Marvel Girl, The Black Queen, Phoenix, Jane Smith, Red, Jeannie, J
Date of Birth: October 27, 1973
Place of Birth: Upstate New York
Citizenship: American
Relatives: Elaine Grey (mother), Dr. John Grey (father), Sarah Grey (sister), Joey Bailey (nephew), Gailyn Bailey (niece). Jean's brother-in-law was killed in an accident, and her sister has decided to return to using her maiden name.
Education: BS from Columbia University and MD from George Washington University
Relationship Status: Married to Scott Summers
Occupation: Science Teacher, Doctor

Physical Description:


Height: 5'11"
Weight: 150
Eye Color: Green
Hair Color: Red (Length, just past shoulders)
Distinguishing Features:

Mental/Emotional/Social Description:

(How does your character think? How does s/he deal with others? How about him/herself? Does s/he handle stress well? What is his/her base emotional state? Is s/he usually sad, happy, sullen, depressed, angry...? Is s/he very clever, or a little slow? What is s/he particularly good at? How about what s/he's bad at? How well adjusted is your character? Does s/he handle one-on-one situations well? How about small crowds? Large crowds? Formal affairs? Authority figures? What does your character fear?)

Mental
Jean Grey is an intelligent woman who finds her passion in teaching and being proactive in mutant issues and rights in politics. She is a doctor and has a vast amount of medical knowledge and has an unquenchable desire to learn, be it the physicality of the knowledge that comes from a library, or in the intricacies of those around her. She is a quick study and has a great memory. It is this memory that has shaped the person she has become. She keeps in mind every act she has committed, good or bad, by every part of herself. And it is because of this memory that she tries not to make the same mistakes again, but she is only human. Jean sees her abilities both as a blessing and a bane at times. She often sees people as others may not see, whether she, and they, like it or not . The minds of others are like doors to her, sometimes closed, sometimes opened, but nonetheless solid and present, echoing with the secrets of what may lie behind them. She has worked to gain the trust of those she works with and cares about, because she has the potential to learn those secrets with a mere turn of the door handle. It gives her a power she takes seriously, though sometimes the "louder" minds tend to blare at her like a foghorn. She tries to keep those secrets, though sometimes she can play dirty. Her mind is prone to having more...psychoses than others, partially due to her abilities and the amount of thoughts and feelings she has to take in.

Emotional
Jean loves with all of her heart and soul, and reacts with other emotions the same way if she doesn't catch herself. She often slips into the 'mother' role with students at times. She is warm, compassionate, and loving, but is also firm and not afraid to speak her mind if need be. Even after all the horrors and hardships she and others have experienced, Jean is still a fairly optimistic person. Her temper can be something to behold if someone she loves has been hurt or threatened. She has a great sense of humor and is not afraid to show it. She can also be rash and impulsive if she lets her emotions get to her.

Social
Jean is active in social circles. While she is usually cordial if someone comes to meet her, she will usually sit back and listen to the feel of the room first, taking the 'temperature' as it were, before she dives in. People see her just as she is, warm and friendly. She believes in charity and often makes charitable contributions to various causes, as well as attends events and tries to raise money for those events using her political ties. Of course, given previous track experience at social events, she tends to much more selective about who she talks to.

Background

(Where did your character grow up? What kind of family was it, large or small, formal or close-knit? What was his/her socio-economic status? How many languages does s/he speak/read/write and what is his/her fluency level in those languages?)

Childhood

Jean was born in upstate New York, where she lived with her parents and older sister until she was thirteen. When Jean's powers began to develop at thirteen, her lack of telepathic shielding threatened to drive her crazy and simultaneously deeply disturbed her family, particularly her mother. Wanting to help his little girl, Dr. Grey contacted his colleague, Professor Charles Xavier, and asked if he could train Jean. Xavier agreed and, in order to both focus her studies and protect her unshielded mind, Jean moved in to Xavier's mansion and became his and Erik Lehnsherr's first student.

The Early Years

Jean studied at Xavier's home on her own, then was joined by Hank McCoy, Scott Summers, Ororo Munroe and others as Xavier extended his school. Continuing her education, Jean went to Columbia University for her undergraduate degree and it was while she was a student at Columbia that the sixteen year old Scott ummers was brought to Xavier's. The two of them became good friends while she was home during summer breaks and on weekends as she worked on further controlling her powers and they remained close when she moved to Washington, DC to study medicine. It was while she was studying in DC that her interest in politics was formed.

Pre- and Post-X1

Jean and Scott's relationship began when he was twenty-one and she was twenty-six and developed quickly, to the point that when she finished her degree and returned they moved in together, developing a psychic link and soon getting engaged. Approximately two years later Logan entered the picture and the events of X1 took place. Although not particularly attracted to him on an emotional or mental level, the physical attraction to Logan was definitely hard to deny, particularly with her strengthening telepathic and telekinetic powers upsetting her control of her mind. She fought against the attraction but it did place a strain on her and Scott's relationship. Alkali Lake and Jane Smith Jean believed that it was an interaction with her expanding and no longer properly controlled telekinesis which was causing the Blackbird engine not to start after the dam at Alkali Lake was destroyed. Deciding to sacrifice herself to save her teacher, her team, her love and her students, Jean left the plane and held back the water while lifting the plane to safety. Despite the increase in her powers which made it possible, the strain was too much to handle and she lost consciousness. However, her powers were not exhausted and her subconscious reflexes managed to get her to the top of the water and keep her afloat but could not deal with the flotsam in the water. She took at least one sharp knock to the head (and probably several) resulting in complete amnesia and damaging her to the point where she could no longer use her powers, let alone control them.

She washed ashore and would likely have frozen to death if a local trapper hadn’t found her. He got her to the closest airport and they took her to a hospital in Vancouver. She was revived there, but with no ID and no memory there was not much they could do for her. Once she was physically recovered they released her, and she started life in Vancouver as Jane Smith with regular hospital visits to test if her memory was returning.

As Jane she lived in Vancouver for a year working odd jobs, usually in shops and waitressing as there aren’t that many jobs you can do without a degree or papers, and got along fairly well. It wasn’t until the anniversary of Alkali Lake that her problems started – her powers began to resurface but Jane had no control. The fits were sporadic and seemingly unrelated at first, but it began to be clear to Jane’s friends that some of her lost memories were related to these fits and that there was something strange about her. She lost many friends who were directly exposed to her powers – mostly they were simply frightened off, but in at least one cause someone was hurt by Jane – and she became more reclusive. By midwinter most of her new friends had totally abandoned her, only her boyfriend Thomas remained, trying to convince Jane to seek help.

He was the one who found information about Charles Xavier, an American who might be able to help, and convinced Jane to visit Xavier’s school. He offered to go with her, but she refused, not wanting to expose him to any more of whatever was going wrong with her.

Jean's Return

Jane came to Xavier's in March of 2005 and wasn't in the building more than a few minutes before she encountered Scott. Seeing Scott opened the psi-link (which had been closed but not broken with Jean's 'death') the pain of which, along with Jean's returning memories, triggered another of her power episodes. Jean collapsed and woke in the medlab with her memories fully restored.

The first week of Jean's return to the school found her living with an inhibitor as she worked on rebuilding her destroyed psychic shields. Even after she could shield her self, she spent a long period of time sleeping in The Box to avoid projecting her nightmares of drowning to the school at large.

The next several months were spent getting reacquainted with her friends and students at Xavier's and in the wider world, and forming new or shifted relationships including a strong animosity with Betsy Braddock, owing to the other woman's affair with Scott. Jean also worked extensively during this time to regain control of her powers. Additionally, after the events of Bad Blood, Jean confronted Alison and was thrown into the lake, leading to another powers incident and the flash boiling of several gallons of water. She and Alison then made a deal that Alison would wear a shirt revealing her scars once Jean mastered her hydrophobia and swam across the lake. The two women then began to work extensively on conquering Jean's fear.

All of this culminated in August with Jean and Scott getting re-engaged and Jean beginning to work seriously about getting back on the X-Men, which she accomplished in early September. Jean had regained her life, which was thoroughly proven when she and Scott eloped the Christmas after the G8 riot.

Not So Plain Jane

On a planned field trip to DC with students interested in mutant issues and sports, Jean encountered a mutant called Mesmero who was working for Sebastian Shaw as a lobbyist under the name of Parker Matthews. Matthews, in an attempt to use his hypnotic powers to get Jean to sleep with him, accidentally released Jean's suppressed alter ego of Jane Smith who, in the year since Jean had returned to life, had become the receptacle for all of Jean's negative emotions. Jane, now free, left Scott and the school to become the Black Queen for the Hellfire Club.

Jane, after having been the holding pen for all of Jean's anger and fear, decided to strike back at Jean for, in effect, stealing her life and decided to do this by hurting the people Jean cared most about, twisting their feelings for Jean and casting events in the worst light possible. Scott was, of course, the most obvious and easy target, as Jane convinced him that she had never felt Scott was worth her time, that he'd rushed her after her return from Alkali and that, with his lost eye, she had always had to take care of him too much. She also slept with Bobby Drake and sent a video tape of the event to Scott, leading to her and Scott having sex in an alley and Jane erasing Scott's memory of that encounter.

Eventually the connection between Jane and the Hellfire Club came to light and Scott quite rightly assumed that Jean could not be in her right mind. After a private confrontation between the two of them which landed Scott in jail, Shaw arranged to have the X-Men admitted to the club so Jean could be removed, during which time Scott, which Charles' help, invaded Jean's mind to release her from Mesmero and Jane's control, leading to a reintegration of the two facets of Jean's personality. During this attempt Scott let go of Charles' shielding influence and was almost lost inside Jean's mind, the psychic pressure of which scarred him slightly, causing the mental link the two of them shared to become severed in order to protect the integrity of Scott's mind.

Jean returned to the manion to begin the process of dealing with (and apologizing for) what she had done, as well as relearning how to cope with all the negative emotions she had been suppressing for so long. She was helped on this process by Jamie Madrox, Lorna Dane and David Haller who had all had not dissimilar experiences in their pasts, and while many of her friendships were repaired, those between herself and Bobby and Theresa Cassidy never have.

Also during this time, Jean and Scott finally went on their much delayed honeymoon, as well as taking a trip to Vancouver and spoke with Jane's friend Thomas so Jean could at least try to close that chapter of her life.

Scott's Abduction

Jean's slow, careful recovery was rather severly derailed when Daniel Lyman abducted Scott - not being on the team, all Jean could do was sit and wait and stew, although she did convince Ororo (despite her better judgement) to allow her to come on the pickup when they did finally find him.

During the rescue mission Jean ended up slipping away from the asault team and, following the psychic and audible clues to the room where Scott was being tortured, ended up once again losing control of her darker impulses and put the torturers out of commission with excessive force.

The only upside of the entire thing was that her mental link with Scott was reinstated, but faced with what she had done she and Charles decided that she clearly was not coping with the reintegration of her darker side. At Charles' suggestion Jean decided to take a hiatus from her work at the school to spend some time at a monastary in Tibet where she could deal with what she had done uninterruptedly and relearn the iron control that both of them felt a psi with her power levels had to have. This decision tore at both Jean and Scott, since it meant she could not be there to help him recover from his ordeal, but in light of what she had done Jean considered herself a danger and could not delay.

Tibet and The Rose

Jean spent several months at the monastery in complete peace, until the day when, deciding to utilize the Rose, a meditation aid that had the added effect of allowing mutants to reach beyond their limits in accessing and utilizing their powers, she visited it's chamber and discovered Mystique in the process of stealing it. Jean contacted the X-Men, and Scott returned to active duty for the first time since the events of Search and Rescue. After recovering the Rose from the Chinese authorities and neutralizing Mystique by knocking her unconscious and implanting a telepathic suggestion to keep her unconscious for several hours, Jean returned to the mansion with the team, though it was not until a mission on Youra that Jean returned from hiatus to the team.

The Preservers

Following the bombing of the Tel Aviv Elpis office, the FBI caught a young member of the Preservers planning to bomb a conference at the United Nations. At the request of Val Cooper, Jean telepathically scanned the young man while he was in custody to gain further information about his motives and contacts. After Jean left the room to recover from the distress of what she saw, the young man exploded. Jean's information about the suicide bombers being literal suicide bombs allowed the X-Men to raid a Preserver safehouse in Portugal and take many prisoners. Unfortunately, in the process Scott was affected by the mutant who was creating the bombs. Jean worked tirelessly alongside an FBI medical team but they were unable to help Scott and he resorted to knocking her out in order to escape the facility they were in, a fact which briefly caused some stress in their marriage. Jean would deal with The Preservers years later in Budapest.

Robert Haverford

After dealing with dinosaurs and gender-swapping, Jean participated in an Amnesty International event in New York and was approached by a man named Robert Haverford, a philanthropist with whom Jean agreed to dine with to discuss the school. At dinner, Haverford drugged Jean and Scott to question them about the disappearance of The Rose, then set off in pursuit of it, chasing it through historical and religious sites Charles Xavier had visited in his youth. With Ororo's help in determining Haverford's next destination, Jean and Scott traveled to Peru to intercept him and his partner and arrange for their arrest. Jean would encounter Haverford again, however, in 2009, when Haverford (using the alias Vargas) stole papers of a WWII Japanese commander from Christopher Summers. Jean and Scott went to investigate in Madripoor after Chris completed some reconnaissance and found Haverford's hotel. Scott was kidnapped and possessed but Jean caught up to him in Kota Kinbalu and the possessor fled. She and Scott tracked Haverford in the jungle using Jean's powers and dumped him deeper in the jungle after removing supposedly supernatural-power-granting orchids from him, despite Haverford's having eaten one.

Tara Trask

Jean had many encounters with Tara Trask throughout Trask's troublemaking timeperiod, first encountering the psi in 2007 after Jean was forced to enter Nathan's mind to restore him after Trask invaded it. Jean confronted Trask with Wanda and ordered her to stay away from Nathan, which she did for less than a year before masterminding an assassination attempt on T'Challa. She was behind another in Budapest, which Trask revealed when Jean and Nathan traveled to Chechnya, supposedly to rescue Ilyas Saidullayev. Instead, Jean wound up fighting the Chechen telekinetic while Nathan confronted Trask. Trask and Jean were also both heavily involved in the Taygetos arc, their association culminating in Jean's defeating Trask on the astral plane, destroying her astral form which led to the other woman's coma and subsequent death.

Family Complications

In February of 2008, The Shadow King threw the Astral Plane out of whack, causing Jean to think she was eleven years old. This led to spending a week with her mother at the mansion (not to mention some awkward encounters with Scott, Betsy, Ororo, and others), who had to re-explain Jean's manifestation to her eleven year-old brain but found herself enjoying having her little girl back. Upon recovering her mind, Jean regained her awkward relationship with her mother, but the two made steps to reconnect. In addition to her own family complications, 2008 also found Jean faced with her husband's, as Scott's father resurfaced. After reading the mind of the pirate Corsair who is attempting to rescue children on their way to Madripoor at the same time as the X-Men are, Jean discovers Corsair is actually Christopher Summers, the father assumed dead for fifteen years. She informed Scott of when he assumed Corsair was after Jean and had punched him. Jean prompted Scott to meet with his father to learn of Chris's past.

Wakanda

In June 2008, Jean fought a Wakandan called Achebe who had helped an ancient Wakandan god wreak havoc on the mindscape in order to gain worshipers and defeated him in astral combat, though the experience disoriented Jean greatly. Her aid to the Wakandans led to improved relations between the X-Men and Wakanda. When Wakanda's leader, T'Challa faced an assassination attempt Jean co-led the team sent to stop it. In Wakanda she and Nathan faced Tara Trask's associate, Ilyas Saidullayev, who was under the influence of Kick which led Jean and Nathan to have to meld their minds together to defeat him in an enormous telekinetic battle and leave him in a coma, to be taken into SHIELD custody. Emma separated them, but there were lingering side effects, including knowledge particular to the other that neither possessed beforehand.

Doctoring

During her time at the school Jean has been especially involved in helping students and fellow staff members through her medical expertise, including Marius St. Croix, Monet St. Croix, Jennie Stavros, Tatiana Caban, Angel, Cammie Black, and Yvette. She was instrumental to Nathan in Chechnya when she fought fellow telekinetic Ilyas Saidullayev and stole medical supplies to tend Nathan when he was shot, and administered the blood test establishing that Manuel de la Rocha was related to Valentia. She was also of great aid to the various mutants who had their powers switched, and to Jean-Paul Beaubier in the aftermath of his torture by Taygetos.

Vacation

In September 2009, Jean received an email from Scott telling her that the Professor suggested they go on vacation, which Jean took him up on. She and Scott then relocated to the West Coast Annex in order to create and lead the Professor's brand new second team of X-Men.

The West Coast Annex and Re-Return to Xaviers

After Jean and Scott arrived at the West Coast Annex, they began to work with the Southern California chapter of Red X to assist on various humanitarian missions in the area, believing Red X's tenets would be ideal in helping build skills with the trainees, as well as fellow team members and themselves in their efforts to help protect the West Coast from any would be problems. Despite Red X's attempts at helping reconstruct parts of the city in 2008 after the San Diego earthquake of 2006, there was still mistrust and hatred of mutants coming from some citizens, which Jean and Scott hoped to quell. Their efforts garnered some success, but the road to healing emotional scars is a long one.

New chapters of the Friends of Humanity cropped up to combat the "threat" of the West Coast team in their city, as well the Red Xers in their cadre. A riot, brought about by a young group of FoH members on the UC San Diego Campus against supposed mutants forced Jean and the West Coast team to have to stop things from getting out of hand. While people on both sides were injured, luckily there were no fatalities. The riot reinforced Jean's desire and commitment to Xavier's dream of trying to foster peace between mutants and humans.

After learning of the dwindling numbers of teachers in Westchester, Jean decided to come back to Xavier's to help out. Scott chose to stay behind at the West Coast Annex to lead the rest of the team.

Powers

Jean Grey-Summers is a powerful telepath and telekinetic. She has also developed a sort of 'pyrokinesis' as another aspect of her powers, and has demonstrated various stunts, include a radiating heat shimmer, flash boiling water, and sparks of flame coming off of her and her TK shield, as well as being able to set things on fire. Given the destructive nature of this ability, she only really displays it when she becomes angry or loses self-control.

She has the most control over her telekinesis, able to use it with great precision (though not as fine as someone like Nathan Dayspring). And while her telepathy can be more powerful than other telepaths, it is not as powerful as the Professor's. She could have the potential to surpass the Professor if she allowed herself to, but she subconsciously holds herself back, afraid of what she might do, and what she has done.

Her control over her abilities have shifted over the years after her "death" and subsequent attempts to regain her mental focus through various means. Her time at the West Coast Annex has allowed her to, for the most part, regain her control back to her former level.

Character Aims

(What does your character plan to do while at Xavier's? Why is s/he here? Which other characters do you think s/he'll interact with most? Who do you expect s/he'll like? Hate? Can you envisage any future relationships, romantic or platonic, for this character?)

I plan on re-establishing Jean's presence with the X-Men, rebuilding old friendships and gaining new ones. Being a doctor and a "matriarch" of sorts, there are very few people she would likely NOT interact with, except for the ones she has hurt in the past and have a less than friendly relationship with that might be problematic for that person (ie Bobby Drake). Betsy Braddock holds a special place in her heart. And by "special" place that is a spiky, ice-covered section. Most of their interactions usually involve the figurative brandishing of cat-claws and thinly veiled cordial-esque snark. She and Dr. Amelia Voght are also not on the best of terms.

Player Information

Player Experience:

(Please list your previous experience with RPGs, fics, writing, etc. If any part of this experience is anonymous, and you'd like to include it, feel free to do so and we'll keep it in the strictest confidence. Just drop us a note.)


Player aims:

(What do you want out of your game experience? What do you envision for your character - do you want them to be an X-Man or join X-Force or Elpis or just graduate without blowing themselves up or become the only guidance counsellor to not need stress leave? What sort of plots do you like? Are you into action? Suspense/horror? Political thrillers? Romance? Slice of life type scenarios?)


Plot ideas:

(Please briefly describe at least one possible plot idea. It can be directly for your character, or something for the game as a whole - possible X-Men, X-Force or Red X missions, character interaction opportunities like a school dance or a field trip (with or without the field trip curse!), an event that leads to powers or other development for your character or just a little two-character adventure. Don't worry about it necessarily fitting into our universe -- it's just to give us an idea of your independent plot-writing abilities.)

Future Plot Idea: Though Tara Trask died, somehow when Jean dismembered her psionic form, the essence of Trask seemed to have slipped into Jean's mind and hid itself away there, biding her time and trying to keep Jean, and other psionics, unaware of her presence. This was why she was pretty much a shell after the defeat. She finds a way to operate through Jean, taking over her body while she is asleep, doing a lot of small things as not to be noticed, but leading up to something bigger (not sure yet on what). Subconsciously Jean knows something is wrong and when Trask starts to take over she begins to have dreams about the woman, but doesn't know why as of yet.

Problem: Socker no longer available for Trask.

Sample entries:

(Please write two sample entries for your character. Think of this as a chance to let us see inside the mindset of the character as you perceive them. These should be public entries and not personal introspectives as there are no 'locked posts' on the character journals in-game. At least one entry should be to the character's personal journal, whilst the other can be to x_journal, x_staff, x_students, x_snowvalley or x_team.)

Journal: x_jeangrey

Subject: Ow.

Scott thought a trip to the beach would be fun since the weather's been warm enough to swim. I fell asleep on my towel and forgot to reapply sunscreen. Needless to say, I woke up with my back the color of my hair. I am now stock piling vats of aloe vera.


Journal: x_jeangrey

Subject: Update

It's been awhile since I've written on this thing. If a digital journal could get dust... Anyway, I figured it was time to start up again now that I'm not as distracted at the Annex. Let's see...updates...The milder winter in California was definitely a change of pace. I kind of missed the snow...glistening white piles that look like powder. Crunching along in jackets and parkas. Getting your car buried. The biting cold. The wind. Okay...It's sort of a bittersweet kind of longing, really. Piotr tried to put some fake flocking on the Christmas tree to make it look more festive but he wound up squeezing the can too hard so we wound up having "snow" covered presents and carpeting.

And in other news...I'm coming home. Scott and I had been discussing it and we feel like I'm more needed at the school than at the Annex. And for those of you expecting a reprieve on my infamous mid-term exam because of my home-sickness come December, sorry, no such luck.