(no subject)
Feb. 4th, 2012 04:27 pm[- OOC Information -]
Name: Mara
Do you play any other characters in Outer Divide? NOT YET. :D
[- Character Information -]
Character Name: Charles Xavier
Fandom: X-Men: First Class
AU or OU: AU
Canon Point: n/a
Journal:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
radars
Icon: http://www.dreamwidth.org/userpic/1025586/1151250
Appearance: Just a general idea of what they look like.
History: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_X (canon version)
http://cerebel-fics.livejournal.com/93560.html (AU fic that explores the beginning of this universe)
Bullet points are as follows:
- Born 1928 in England. Grew up with a distant mother, a dead father, and a potential stepfather suitor who, as Charles' telepathy revealed, only wanted his mother for her money. Charles eventually forces the man to leave telepathically, rendering his mother more distant and depressed than before. Frustratingly enough.
- Discovered and recruited 1940 by the British government to use his telepathy against the Germans. Yes, at the ripe old age of 12. He was taken away from his mother at this time.
- Charles matures into the use of his power as an agent of the British government, with official backing.
- 1942: Charles discovers he's not the only person with the powers in the world, and meets Erik Lensherr, a young boy forced into servitude by the German army.
- 1943: The two ally together and help crush the Germans. (Note: In this version of history, due to the influence of the two powerful young mutants, America was only involved in the war on the Pacific front.)
- 1943: After the war, Charles is offered a permanent position in the British government. At Erik's urging, he declines.
Now we go into post-fic.
- 1944-1946: Erik and Charles' involvement in the war does not remain a secret (though their identities do, for now). The shockwave of mutant realization passes through the entire world, with varied and terrifying effects. Mostly: 1) governments realize that they want mutants for themselves, and 2) governments realize that they want mutants locked up. Mostly both at the same time.
- As a result, Erik feels compelled to help the new movement towards creating a haven for Jews and mutants both in Israel. Erik and Charles both become key figures in the new Israeli government as it moves towards independence. They represent the mutant half of the immigrants.
- 1946: The Zionist movement becomes a disaster even faster than it does in our course of history. The presence of mutants (militarized) makes Israel confident; an independent state is declared in 1946 and this action immediately sparks a volatile situation into an outright war.
- 1946-1950: A brutal war is fought in the Middle East, and Israel *wins*. The conflict itself spreads into many nations, which tend to emulate the Nazi example (to great controversy) in order to contain mutants.
- 1951: When testing Cerebro, a telepathic enhancement device, Charles' life is threatened by gunmen. He lashes out to bring them down, and accidentally takes out much of a major city.
- 1951: The Middle East settles into an uneasy peace. Charles outspokenly advocates for resolution and diplomacy in order to make sure that war never happens again. Cause it's the second he's experienced, and he is not a fan. Erik argues for the necessity of arms and violence. The formerly inseparable friendship begins to fray.
- 1952: Charles returns to England, accepting a public job as a mutant advocate and pursuing his degree in genetics. He accepts great restrictions on his powers. Erik thinks it's the wrong choice.
- 1953-1956: Charles continues in his advocate job, traveling back to Israel regularly. But he and Erik almost never see eye-to-eye anymore.
- late 1956: Finally, mutants in Erik's employ decide enough is enough. They take Charles and throw him out into the desert, tied up, no water, with a helmet to block any telepathic call for help. They leave him for dead. He is found just barely in time by an American agent - a young shapeshifter named Raven.
- 1957: Charles recovers under Raven's care. He is upset, angry and betrayed. Charles assumes Erik was behind the murder attempt.
- also 1957: Erik assumes Charles is dead by the hand of dissidents. It makes him even crueler in cracking down on anti-Israeli sentiment.
- 1958-1960: After a brief and unhappy stint working for the US government, Charles persuades Raven to leave with him and start working on behalf of mutants everywhere. 'Professor X' becomes something of a cult figure among mutants, a mythical figure representing freedom and peace and coexistence, even though such an ideal is still far from being realized.
Previous Game History: None
Personality: On the outside, Charles Xavier is an eccentric, intelligent, friendly and flirtatious young man, kind to a fault, generous, and trusting. He's always the first to extend the hand of friendship and trust. He believes in the goodness of people, and isn't afraid of being vocal about it. He likes a good time, enjoys flirting with lovely ladies, and shows off his intellectual ability and emotional insight almost every chance he gets.
That is … in canon.
This AU version of Charles has learned caution and has seen terrible violence. He certainly can turn on the charm and is still prone to trust, but he's quieter. He knows the value of secrecy. He uses telepathy only subtly, making absolutely sure that the other person won't know they're being read.
The most important single factor to note about Charles' development is that he is a telepath. In this universe, he has been a telepath for a very long time -- as long as he can remember. It didn't come upon him suddenly, and it didn't shatter his world. It has always been a part of him, and it is absolutely integral to his personality and outlook.
Charles is raw to the world around him. He is young, and he hasn't learned how to shield himself very well. As a result, he gets a constant din of telepathic input. The greater the population within a few miles of him, the greater the din he must endure. He feels others' emotions, sees their thoughts, understands them perhaps better than they do themselves. The effect that this has on a young, impressionable boy in a held-back, repressed society is devastating. Charles has grown up seeing sex, violence, revenge, pettiness, anger, jealousy written on the thoughts of everyone around him. But, by the same token: love, kindness, sympathy. He's always seen that there's more to the world than what people think, and the amount that he's seen makes him older than his years in experience. He'd like to think it's made him wise. He'd be wrong about this.
Charles is abandoned. Abused. He doesn't like to think of it this way -- in fact, he never hasthought of it this way. He adored his mother and father beyond belief when he was small -- hefelt their love for him and echoed it back wholeheartedly; after his father died, though, his mother grew distant. Regardless, Charles' adoration and his need for love never waned. She took a new suitor, Kurt Marko, with a son named Cain. Kurt was physically abusive to Charles. However, in England, in this time, physical discipline was common and accepted. Charles didn't have the context to recognize this as 'abuse'; all he knew was that Kurt was after his mother for her money, and that Kurt made him feel wrong. Hurt. Angry. Charles started to justify it to himself: if he could only drive Kurt away, then maybe his mother would love him again. Maybe he would have his voracious need for affection sated.
And so for the first time, little Charles acted against the wisdom he felt he had and struck out in a jealous rage. He twisted Kurt's mind and warped him and drove him away in a brutal telepathic attack that left him weak and sick for days.
Charles' mother had always known her son was strange. Fragile, smart, not normal. She couldn't have known for sure what he'd done, but she suspected strongly, and now she felt more alone than ever. Her son was an alien to her, her husband was gone, and her newer companion was gone. She turned to liquor, and Charles resorted to increasingly desperate attempts to get her attention. All of this failed.
Charles believes at heart that people are good, that they are worth it, that peace is possible and achievable and the right way. Frankly, Charles has lived his entire life hearing the surface thoughts of everyone around him -- every secret, every petty jealousy. Especially in the suppressed, quiet British culture of the 1940s, this must have been a shocking contradiction to the young boy. He only managed to survive by making his faith in humanity absolutely unshakeable, part of the core of his being.
Of course, Charles has been through not one but two wars, now. Both time he was on the winning side, and both times he a major cause of that victory. He's seen a lot of men killed. He's caused a lot of death. The first time, he believed he was right with the absolute unshakeability of youth, but the second time, he faced atrocities and slaughters on the part of his allies, and he couldn't take it. He sees no side as absolute good, anymore. Everyone is worth saving, yes, but governments and institutions lead necessarily towards violence to keep themselves in power, and Charles can't trust that. Rogue peacekeeping, therefore, is the only answer he's managed to come up with, and even that is a fragile stopgap, and his reasoning is fraught with internal psychological contradiction.
He's suffering from some fairly deep trauma from Erik's attempt on his life. It includes hyperawareness of his surroundings, inability to truly sleep or rest unless there's someone he strongly trusts nearby, and a difficulty trusting if he's unable to see a person's mind. His psychic shields are terrible -- not because he's incapable, but because he's got psychological blocks in place that prevent him from cutting himself off from the thoughts of others.
In short: Charles is brilliant and compassionate but extremely flawed. His view of the world is too black and white, a mottled idealist cynicism, balanced on a knifes edge and perfectly ready for someone to shove it one way or the other.
Powers/Abilities: According to the wiki, Charles Xavier has a truly ridiculous list of powers. His psychic range is 250-300 miles, and within that range, he's able to read minds, communicate with them, erase memories, create illusions, mind control, astrally project, and more.
Needless to say, I won't be playing him with all of those because omg godmode.
Charles' range will be decreased to one that you feel is comfortable (10 miles, maybe? 20?), and his powers will decrease exponentially the further away the person he's attempting to influence.
He will retain all other powers except astral projection.
Possessions: With Charles, that's honestly not much. His clothes, maybe a nice knife, some good boots.
Reason for Playing:
Why do I want to play him? -- he totally fits into my niche. He's a badass who just wants to be loved.
Why AU? Because I'd like the chance to explore Charles as a more weathered, more experienced individual, while still keeping him the same optimist we saw in canon. I think it'll be a great challenge, and I also relish the opportunity for WTFery as he interacts with possible non-AU canonmates.
Why here? Because I am deeply enthused about a game where you mod, and because I would really like to play him in a game where he doesn't have the OOC baggage that he did in Bete Noire. And because his telepathy and willingness to meddle where he doesn't belong will be a great source of plots in a premise as open as this one.
[- Original Character Supplement-]
World History: Tell us about the world your character comes from.
Character History: How does that character fit into that world? How do they interact in it?
[- Writing Samples -]
First person: http://dear-mun.livejournal.com/42317378.html
Third person: http://cerebel-fics.livejournal.com/93560.html < if this is not okay, I can easily rustle up another sample for him. God knows I've written enough.
Name: Mara
Do you play any other characters in Outer Divide? NOT YET. :D
[- Character Information -]
Character Name: Charles Xavier
Fandom: X-Men: First Class
AU or OU: AU
Canon Point: n/a
Journal:
radarsIcon: http://www.dreamwidth.org/userpic/1025586/1151250
Appearance: Just a general idea of what they look like.
History: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_X (canon version)
http://cerebel-fics.livejournal.com/93560.html (AU fic that explores the beginning of this universe)
Bullet points are as follows:
- Born 1928 in England. Grew up with a distant mother, a dead father, and a potential stepfather suitor who, as Charles' telepathy revealed, only wanted his mother for her money. Charles eventually forces the man to leave telepathically, rendering his mother more distant and depressed than before. Frustratingly enough.
- Discovered and recruited 1940 by the British government to use his telepathy against the Germans. Yes, at the ripe old age of 12. He was taken away from his mother at this time.
- Charles matures into the use of his power as an agent of the British government, with official backing.
- 1942: Charles discovers he's not the only person with the powers in the world, and meets Erik Lensherr, a young boy forced into servitude by the German army.
- 1943: The two ally together and help crush the Germans. (Note: In this version of history, due to the influence of the two powerful young mutants, America was only involved in the war on the Pacific front.)
- 1943: After the war, Charles is offered a permanent position in the British government. At Erik's urging, he declines.
Now we go into post-fic.
- 1944-1946: Erik and Charles' involvement in the war does not remain a secret (though their identities do, for now). The shockwave of mutant realization passes through the entire world, with varied and terrifying effects. Mostly: 1) governments realize that they want mutants for themselves, and 2) governments realize that they want mutants locked up. Mostly both at the same time.
- As a result, Erik feels compelled to help the new movement towards creating a haven for Jews and mutants both in Israel. Erik and Charles both become key figures in the new Israeli government as it moves towards independence. They represent the mutant half of the immigrants.
- 1946: The Zionist movement becomes a disaster even faster than it does in our course of history. The presence of mutants (militarized) makes Israel confident; an independent state is declared in 1946 and this action immediately sparks a volatile situation into an outright war.
- 1946-1950: A brutal war is fought in the Middle East, and Israel *wins*. The conflict itself spreads into many nations, which tend to emulate the Nazi example (to great controversy) in order to contain mutants.
- 1951: When testing Cerebro, a telepathic enhancement device, Charles' life is threatened by gunmen. He lashes out to bring them down, and accidentally takes out much of a major city.
- 1951: The Middle East settles into an uneasy peace. Charles outspokenly advocates for resolution and diplomacy in order to make sure that war never happens again. Cause it's the second he's experienced, and he is not a fan. Erik argues for the necessity of arms and violence. The formerly inseparable friendship begins to fray.
- 1952: Charles returns to England, accepting a public job as a mutant advocate and pursuing his degree in genetics. He accepts great restrictions on his powers. Erik thinks it's the wrong choice.
- 1953-1956: Charles continues in his advocate job, traveling back to Israel regularly. But he and Erik almost never see eye-to-eye anymore.
- late 1956: Finally, mutants in Erik's employ decide enough is enough. They take Charles and throw him out into the desert, tied up, no water, with a helmet to block any telepathic call for help. They leave him for dead. He is found just barely in time by an American agent - a young shapeshifter named Raven.
- 1957: Charles recovers under Raven's care. He is upset, angry and betrayed. Charles assumes Erik was behind the murder attempt.
- also 1957: Erik assumes Charles is dead by the hand of dissidents. It makes him even crueler in cracking down on anti-Israeli sentiment.
- 1958-1960: After a brief and unhappy stint working for the US government, Charles persuades Raven to leave with him and start working on behalf of mutants everywhere. 'Professor X' becomes something of a cult figure among mutants, a mythical figure representing freedom and peace and coexistence, even though such an ideal is still far from being realized.
Previous Game History: None
Personality: On the outside, Charles Xavier is an eccentric, intelligent, friendly and flirtatious young man, kind to a fault, generous, and trusting. He's always the first to extend the hand of friendship and trust. He believes in the goodness of people, and isn't afraid of being vocal about it. He likes a good time, enjoys flirting with lovely ladies, and shows off his intellectual ability and emotional insight almost every chance he gets.
That is … in canon.
This AU version of Charles has learned caution and has seen terrible violence. He certainly can turn on the charm and is still prone to trust, but he's quieter. He knows the value of secrecy. He uses telepathy only subtly, making absolutely sure that the other person won't know they're being read.
The most important single factor to note about Charles' development is that he is a telepath. In this universe, he has been a telepath for a very long time -- as long as he can remember. It didn't come upon him suddenly, and it didn't shatter his world. It has always been a part of him, and it is absolutely integral to his personality and outlook.
Charles is raw to the world around him. He is young, and he hasn't learned how to shield himself very well. As a result, he gets a constant din of telepathic input. The greater the population within a few miles of him, the greater the din he must endure. He feels others' emotions, sees their thoughts, understands them perhaps better than they do themselves. The effect that this has on a young, impressionable boy in a held-back, repressed society is devastating. Charles has grown up seeing sex, violence, revenge, pettiness, anger, jealousy written on the thoughts of everyone around him. But, by the same token: love, kindness, sympathy. He's always seen that there's more to the world than what people think, and the amount that he's seen makes him older than his years in experience. He'd like to think it's made him wise. He'd be wrong about this.
Charles is abandoned. Abused. He doesn't like to think of it this way -- in fact, he never hasthought of it this way. He adored his mother and father beyond belief when he was small -- hefelt their love for him and echoed it back wholeheartedly; after his father died, though, his mother grew distant. Regardless, Charles' adoration and his need for love never waned. She took a new suitor, Kurt Marko, with a son named Cain. Kurt was physically abusive to Charles. However, in England, in this time, physical discipline was common and accepted. Charles didn't have the context to recognize this as 'abuse'; all he knew was that Kurt was after his mother for her money, and that Kurt made him feel wrong. Hurt. Angry. Charles started to justify it to himself: if he could only drive Kurt away, then maybe his mother would love him again. Maybe he would have his voracious need for affection sated.
And so for the first time, little Charles acted against the wisdom he felt he had and struck out in a jealous rage. He twisted Kurt's mind and warped him and drove him away in a brutal telepathic attack that left him weak and sick for days.
Charles' mother had always known her son was strange. Fragile, smart, not normal. She couldn't have known for sure what he'd done, but she suspected strongly, and now she felt more alone than ever. Her son was an alien to her, her husband was gone, and her newer companion was gone. She turned to liquor, and Charles resorted to increasingly desperate attempts to get her attention. All of this failed.
Charles believes at heart that people are good, that they are worth it, that peace is possible and achievable and the right way. Frankly, Charles has lived his entire life hearing the surface thoughts of everyone around him -- every secret, every petty jealousy. Especially in the suppressed, quiet British culture of the 1940s, this must have been a shocking contradiction to the young boy. He only managed to survive by making his faith in humanity absolutely unshakeable, part of the core of his being.
Of course, Charles has been through not one but two wars, now. Both time he was on the winning side, and both times he a major cause of that victory. He's seen a lot of men killed. He's caused a lot of death. The first time, he believed he was right with the absolute unshakeability of youth, but the second time, he faced atrocities and slaughters on the part of his allies, and he couldn't take it. He sees no side as absolute good, anymore. Everyone is worth saving, yes, but governments and institutions lead necessarily towards violence to keep themselves in power, and Charles can't trust that. Rogue peacekeeping, therefore, is the only answer he's managed to come up with, and even that is a fragile stopgap, and his reasoning is fraught with internal psychological contradiction.
He's suffering from some fairly deep trauma from Erik's attempt on his life. It includes hyperawareness of his surroundings, inability to truly sleep or rest unless there's someone he strongly trusts nearby, and a difficulty trusting if he's unable to see a person's mind. His psychic shields are terrible -- not because he's incapable, but because he's got psychological blocks in place that prevent him from cutting himself off from the thoughts of others.
In short: Charles is brilliant and compassionate but extremely flawed. His view of the world is too black and white, a mottled idealist cynicism, balanced on a knifes edge and perfectly ready for someone to shove it one way or the other.
Powers/Abilities: According to the wiki, Charles Xavier has a truly ridiculous list of powers. His psychic range is 250-300 miles, and within that range, he's able to read minds, communicate with them, erase memories, create illusions, mind control, astrally project, and more.
Needless to say, I won't be playing him with all of those because omg godmode.
Charles' range will be decreased to one that you feel is comfortable (10 miles, maybe? 20?), and his powers will decrease exponentially the further away the person he's attempting to influence.
He will retain all other powers except astral projection.
Possessions: With Charles, that's honestly not much. His clothes, maybe a nice knife, some good boots.
Reason for Playing:
Why do I want to play him? -- he totally fits into my niche. He's a badass who just wants to be loved.
Why AU? Because I'd like the chance to explore Charles as a more weathered, more experienced individual, while still keeping him the same optimist we saw in canon. I think it'll be a great challenge, and I also relish the opportunity for WTFery as he interacts with possible non-AU canonmates.
Why here? Because I am deeply enthused about a game where you mod, and because I would really like to play him in a game where he doesn't have the OOC baggage that he did in Bete Noire. And because his telepathy and willingness to meddle where he doesn't belong will be a great source of plots in a premise as open as this one.
World History: Tell us about the world your character comes from.
Character History: How does that character fit into that world? How do they interact in it?
[- Writing Samples -]
First person: http://dear-mun.livejournal.com/42317378.html
Third person: http://cerebel-fics.livejournal.com/93560.html < if this is not okay, I can easily rustle up another sample for him. God knows I've written enough.
