Hope Abbott

This page hasn't been updated for at least six months and may be lacking in-game information. If you edit the page, remove this notice. Thank you!

PHASE 1

PHASE 2

Hope Abbott
Portrayed by Shelley Hennig
Codename:	Trance
Affiliations:	X-Factor
Birthdate:	18 May 1997

Journal:	Floating away...
Player:	Eva

Tested and tried by her years at Xavier's, Hope is tired of being a pawn and now is stepping on the path of becoming a player, in her own unique way.

Details

Character Journal: xp_trance

Real Name: Hope Abbott

Codename: Trance

Aliases: n/a

First Appearance: June 21, 2012

Date of Birth: 18 May 1997

Place of Birth: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Citizenship: American

Relatives: Parents Jason and Catherine Abbott & her grandmother Hannah Abbott

Education: Bayville Charter High graduate, freshman at Bernard College

Relationship Status: Single

Occupation: College student at Barnard, research assistant at X-Factor Investigations, freelance event planner

Team Affiliation: X-Factor

Biography

Phase 1

Childhood

Hope was born and raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. On the outside she had an idyllic childhood in many ways. Her father Jason was an accountant, her mother Catherine was an stay-at-home mom. As an only child, her parents poured much of their energy in her. She lacked for nothing, though she wasn’t spoiled. Her parents sent her to an expensive private school, Detroit Country Day School, where she started learning French and the violin in Kindergarten and art history in third grade. At school she was a good student, making good grades. Her mom was a stay-at-home mom, though she could be something of a helicopter mom. After school she would do homework, practice the violin and occasionally play in the neighborhood with her friends. Her father worked long hours and as a consequence he wasn’t around that much.

Yet there was always a subtle pressure on Hope. Her parents were social climbers and they were very much concerned with how they would appear to the people around them. Hope was supposed to be the model of a perfect child. Well-behaved, well-liked, well-dressed, well-read, and successful in her grades and hobbies, but not so she would stick out in any way. A good marriage later would be important and a man doesn’t like it if a woman overachieves him in anything. The first time this happened was when she was only six and in first grade. She came home, telling she had beaten one of the boys in her class on a spelling bee they had had. Her parents didn’t congratulate her, but her mother told her that she should have let the boy win. She needed to marry a good boy when she was grownup and boys don’t like it when girls are better then them.

When she was eleven, Catherine decided her daughter needed more sophistication. So she convinced a few of her friends and together they enrolled their daughters in a summer etiquette course/camp for young teens for five days that included things like introducing yourself and others, handshaking, making eye contact, extending and accepting invitations, thank you notes, table manners, giving and receiving compliments, telephone etiquette, poise, posture, the art of listening and leadership. Things like the fundamentals of ballroom dancing, public speaking and how to dress were also included. It was concluded with a formal dinner. This was reinforced by Hope taking Junior Cotillion classes for several years.

Things looked good for Hope in her freshmen year. She enjoyed her classes, had joined the Day Times Newspaper because she wanted to try something new and she even got her first boyfriend Simon just before her fifteenth birthday. He was a fellow student at Detroit Country Day School and also played the violin, where they were closely matched in capabilities. Their relationship was very much still a puppy love relationship, nothing much further then holding hands and a few small kisses. Nothing like unchaperoned dates or French kissing.

When Hope's powers manifested, everything changed. On a sunny spring evening her parents berated her for winning an outside violin competition in which she and her boyfriend both had competed. She won, Simon was pretty angry and broke up with her. According to her parents, Hope never should have won. Wishing she to get away, she felt herself floating up...

It appeared as if a ghost had come out of her body, giving her father a heart attack. Because she lost consciousness after her projection returned to her body, Hope and her father were both rushed to the hospital. There a blood test confirmed she was a mutant. Her mother received an information packet for parents for a newly manifested mutants and did some research. Her parents decided to sent Hope to Xavier’s with the believe that she would be "cured".

Living At The X-Mansion

Hope arrived at the mansion with the belief that she would go to a medical facility where they could cure here. She was quickly set straight and settled in to stay while the Professor explained things to her parents. Though fairly shy, reserved and formal she quickly started to forge relationships, bonding with (and being corrupted by) her suite mates Madelyne Pryor and Tandy Bowen and forging a tentative friendship with Matt Murdock.

Under the influence of her friends Hope slowly started to spread her wings a little, but when her mother realized this, she clamped down hard. Claiming Hope needed to make up for her mutation, she send her many books and pushed to to start learning embroidery and calligraphy. She also started calling daily. Hope withdrew and tried to do what she wanted. Supported by her friends, she managed to make a stand to her mother when she wanted to pile ever more work on Hope. In reaction her mother wished to send her to Switzerland. After David Haller found her trapped outside her body once more the truth came out and the Professor managed to get Catherine Abbott to back down.

January 2013 brought a difficult point for Hope. Under influence of the Slenderman for the first time Hope's anger other emotions were allowed free reign and though calmed down a lot, they still are simmering in the background. Hope continued her classes, training and violin lessons and continued to spread her wings.

Summer 2013 brought yet another confrontation with her parents, when she stood up for her own educational choices and when she outed herself first to a friend named Amy Wright and later to her hometown of Bloomfield Hills during a search and rescue. Once more deciding to withdraw her from Xavier's, this time Jean Grey came to her rescue. Hope's father Jason though saw a new side to his daughter and they have been rebuilding their bond.

Search for her own identity

Returned to Xavier's for the new school year, Hope followed her own educational choices and started exploring even more who she was. She joined Red X, feeling drawn to it after her experience helping to find the young girl back in Michigan. New arrival Namor Mazur of Attilan forced Hope to question who she was deep inside, something she is still figuring. Joining the Model United Nations team of the local high school she took a class at and the organizing committee of a Red X fundraiser gala gave her new challenges.

Her first Red X Mission in early May in Avalon, saw Hope working to evacuate various residents. Caught in the wave, she became desperate to flee and physically unable to, she fled astrally, somehow managing to shift to the astral plane. Namor managed to pull her from the water and Dr. Grey helped come back to her own body, leaving Hope with a new aspect of her powers to explore. In August 2014 she, along with her fellow students, found herself on the wrong end of the field trip curse once more when a mutant lost control of his powers at a District X art fair and brought a bunch of paintings to life. Hope and Topaz ended up helping the out of control mutant, who was having a stroke, with Hope's first aid skills allowing her to treat him until someone came to take him to the mansion for treatment.

In September, Amy contacted Hope and introduced her to a forum for the Foundation for Genetic Harmony - a group based out of Europe which claimed to strive for the betterment of mutants.

This was just a cover, however, as Hope learned the hard way when she went home - accompanied by Laurie Collins - to help Amy convince her mother to let her take an internship with the group in Europe. When Laurie recognized the foundations spokesperson, Sarah Ryall, as a former Brotherhood member, Laurie, Hope, and Amy were kidnapped and taken back to the "foundation's" headquarters. There, Hope and Amy were brainwashed and given new "mutant" names, and they joined a class of four other teens, also recruited by the foundation's promise of making the world better for mutants. In reality the organization, run by Rudolph von Habsburg, was striving toward creating a world where mutants ruled, using the Foundation to recruit teenage mutants who would be able to help with that goal.

Over the following weeks Hope fell into an easy pattern with her fellow classmates, working with them on projects that revolved around advancing mutants in the world and what would happen if mutants were to take over. Eventually Hope managed to break her conditioning when she learned about a very distorted version of Genosha that didn't mesh with the version she'd heard about while living at the mansion.

When a party put on by the Foundation was attacked by X-Force, Amy turned on Hope, accusing her of bringing her "friends" down on them. The X-Men later raided, and the group turned on Hope, beating her, but she was rescued before they could injure her too badly. She was brought back to the mansion to recover, where she withdrew from her fellow classmates and tried to just get through everything quietly.

The End of the World

January 2015 was a time of more change. It started with Muir Island being attacked, where Matt Murdock was killed. Julian Keller provided his mourning friends with wine, which would later turn out to be a bad idea. Shortly after, she went to Egypt with team to gather information about the group who attacked Muir Island. When the mansion was attacked, Hope helped to act as one of the last defenses. It was all for naught, however, when destroyed the mansion and reality fell apart.

Phase 2

New World

Hope was part of the group rescued by Xorn and brought to the new universe, pieced together from bits of other universes that had been destroyed. Upon discovering they were the only surviving students, Hope and Topaz retreated into themselves, stealing wine to help them drown their feelings and generally avoiding the world and just keeping one another company in their suites.

Adrienne Frost found out about this and made a deal with the girls: she would supply the wine and the girls would go into therapy with Rogue. Julian Keller also asked her to be his personal assistant, partially to draw her from her shell. When more and more new, yet familiar faces started arriving, Hope took more rigorous measures and went to an three week cultural exchange program/finishing school in Switzerland. When she returned from there and the return of her old fellow students from Asgard, Hope was more ready to face this new world.

One of the first things she did was approaching Doug Ramsey, asking him for further training in the art of observation, background checks and disguises. With Wade Wilson she is aiding skills in the area's of lock picking, hot wiring, working with security systems and other skills. Especially in Doug's area's Hope proved to be an apt student, picking them up quickly. Her job as an personal assistant allowed her learn and really get to work in one of her passions, namely event planning. Generally working on at least one event a week and given a lot of freedom by Julian, Hope learned quickly.

January 2016 found Hope in a few spots of trouble. First, she ended up being trapped on the astral plane with the other psi's as a consequence of the events of Xorn, as well as being accused of corporate espionage at Keller Industries. X-Factor investigated, but in the end it was evidence gotten by Julian and Sue that cleared her name.

Hope also set about expanding her set of 'gray skills' with Marie-Ange Colbert tutoring her in art of sedatives and other potions and Jubilee teaching her pickpocketing. After the loss of Julian's hands and her boss going on sick leave, Hope found her responsibilities at the office increased greatly as she shed most of her PA duties and assumed most of Julian's charity work. At the June she started bundling those duties though to join X-Factor Investigations and at the end of August she had to leave completely because she started attending Barnard College.

The Art and Science of Being a Player

Early September 2016 brought a long desired goal close as Hope interviewed with Emma Frost about joining the Hellfire Club as White Herald. A few days later she received a message from CJ Ward about having seen Scanner and Garrulous in Richmond, Virginia where they were working to get a set of anti-mutant laws passed. Working with Doug, Darcy, CJ and new young woman named Cara Montgomery, they captured Scanner and Garrulous, undid the damage Garrulous did and worked to stop the sponsors of the bill. At the end Hope met up with Ian Archer again as well and she, CJ, Ian and Cara agreed to form a network to keep an eye on mutant affairs. Celebrating this led to a little more and Hope slept with Ian and CJ.

After this she focused on her studies, both college and 'gray skills' The X-Factor staff also started to train her in other skills. December 2016 saw Doug organize a kind of graduation exercise where Hope found and searched for a jewelry thief.

2017 brought Hope starting to plot on her own for the first time. Her father spoke about his issues with CEO of Regent Crest Trading where he was CFO and Hope embarked on a plan to make her father CEO. Her first step was securing a successful business deal with Worthington Industries for him.

Physical Characteristics

Height: 5’8

Weight: 39 lbs or 63 kg

Eyes: Hazel

Hair: Brown

Other Features: Her ears are pierced.

Powers

Hope has the power of astral projection. She goes into an altered state of consciousness to release her astral self. Her body falls unconscious when she leaves. She can stay outside her body for a few hours. Her range is about a km away from her body. She can see an hear, but she cannot feel or smell things. Her astral form appears as a pearly ghost to the people around her and is visible to everyone. Her astral form is capable of flight and can pass through walls. She can communicate with humans by a form of projective telepathy, much like Jane Doe.

In her astral form Hope is capable of perceiving people's aura's and read their emotions that way. There is a whole arrangement of colors with each their individual meaning. The darker the color, the more intense the emotion is. Different patterns can also have different meanings.

Hope is also able to shift to the astral plane. She is not able to manipulate the plane itself with one exception: she can cloak herself and hide. She also has her aura reading ability which expands to the ability to perceive people's bonds. She can see the links between people and the colors, thickness and flow within tell her a lot. Another extension of her aura reading ability is the ability to track a psi print on the astral plane.

In her astral form she is invulnerable to physical attacks and getting hit by an energy blast will force her back to her own body with a shock.