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[nick / name]: Era
[personal LJ/DW name]: I don't have one anymore I'm afraid
[other characters currently played]: none!
[e-mail]: samsarasurvives@gmail.com
[AIM / messenger]: samsarasurvives
[series]: X:Men First Class (Film)
[character]: Charles Xavier - not quite Professor X yet, but he's heard the moniker at least
[character history / background]: In the film we're not given much of a direct look at Charles' childhood and subsequent life but there are several points to fact that definitely bear mention: his mother had never stepped foot in her own kitchen and his stepfather only bore mentioning once during the entire course of the movie. Thus is seems safe to say that Charles more or less raised himself in a sprawling mansion in Westchester County, New York until he comes across Raven (later Mystique) in 1944. Thrilled at the fact that he is not the only one who is "different", Charles invites Raven to remain with him and his family from that point forward.
Fast-forward to 1962: Charles and his sister, Raven, are living in England and Charles has just graduated from Oxford after writing his thesis in mutation. During celebrations in a pub where Charles managed to get rip-roaring drunk, he's approached by Moira MacTaggert who asked needs his help convincing the CIA that extreme genetic mutation in the human population has likely already occurred. His presentation to the CIA leads to a demonstration of both his and Raven's abilities, which in turn leads to the suggestion that the two of them be taken to the secretive Division X. However, Charles has other plans - namely tracking down Sebastian Shaw, who is clearly working with several powerful mutants to some nefarious purpose. While the first attempt at locating Shaw works well he does manage to get away; though as a result Charles meets Erik Lehnsherr who has his own reasons for wanting to track Shaw down.
And kill him too, but Charles seems somewhat convinced he can talk Erik out of that part.
Charles and Erik return to Division X, where Charles uses a machine that amplifies his telepathic abilities and allows him to touch the minds of at least hundreds of other mutants. With this newfound information, Charles and Erik set out to recruit other mutants towards their cause. They encounter Havok, Angel, Banshee, Darwin and Wolverine - the latter of whom soundly rejects their offer - and return them to Division X to meet Raven and Hank McCoy.
Xavier and Lehnsherr then attempt to track Shaw to Russia, but encounter telepath Emma Snow in his stead. Questioning her provides them with a better picture of Shaw's plans; namely, to incite a nuclear war between the United States and Russia in order to allow more mutants to arise from the ensuing holocaust. However, upon returning to Division X they learn that Shaw massacred the humans and convinced Angel to join his side. When Darwin resisted and fought back, Shaw killed him as well. As a result of this tragedy Charles wants to send them all back to their families (or in Havok's case, back to a military prison) but Erik points out that they'll need their own army to combat against the mutants standing with Shaw. Thus the entire group returns to Charles and Raven's childhood home, where he begins the process of training them all in the better and more precise use of their powers - including Erik's.
Shaw's continued attempts to incite relations between the US and Russia lead to the Cuban missile crisis, and the newly-formed X-Men arrive in a jet with the hopes of preventing nuclear war. Banshee uses a sonar form of his ability to locate Shaw in a nearby submarine, allowing Erik to pull the vessel from the water and run it aground. The jet crashes - everyone is safe, however, and Erik enters the submarine to find Shaw. Shaw was attempting to use his energy absorbing ability to consume the power of the submarine's nuclear reactor, but Erik is able to confront him and eventually remove the helmet Shaw had been using to block Charles' telepathy. Once that obstacle is out of the way Charles manages to immobilize Shaw from the jet's wreckage but is not, to his surprise, able to convince Erik not to kill the man and thus experiences the man's death simultaneously through his telepathic connection.
Charles will arrive in Poly immediately after these events.
[character abilities]: The wiki for Charles Xavier's powers is an overwhelming overpowered mess, so we'll be setting that aside. Far, far aside. In fact, we'll pretend I never mentioned it, because I am definitely not going to use it.
Charles Xavier is an incredibly powerful telepath. It takes very little effort on his part to pick up the surface or immediate thoughts of those in his vicinity; in fact, he tends to use it as a pickup habit with pretty girls in bars. It is not necessarily a reflex with Charles, but it is the aspect of his ability that takes the least amount of focus to activate. He can also communicate telepathically with others, regardless of their own telepathic ability, with the same ease.
Now, onto the abilities that take more effort from Charles:
That which requires the most focus and attention from Charles in order to properly execute are the following:
Since I realize that Charles' abilities are really quite powerful and could, if ill-used, lead to a lot of godmodding or other such behavior in poor RP form, I have absolutely no intention of having Charles use ANY of these abilities on anyone without the express permission of the other player(s) involved in a scene or interaction.
Outside of these abilities, Charles is in fairly good physical shape (though he's no hand to hand combatant, as thus far he's had no reason to learn or suspect that he would be in a situation that his telepathy wouldn't be able to help him with). He's also a recent graduate with a doctorate focusing on genetics, and thus has had a fairly well-off classical education that would be expected from an Oxford student in the early 1960s.
Did I mention he's smart? Really, really smart. Genius level smart.
[character personality]: Let's start with the positive, shall we? Charles Xavier is an idealist amongst idealists. He believes in the core good of humanity, and that given enough motivation or cause, nearly anyone can be swayed towards doing what is Right. Granted, there are clear exceptions to this rule; people who have gone too far down the path of destruction and harm to others to be turned around, but in those cases Charles also believes in the power of the inherent structures (government, police forces, prisons, due process) - when well managed - to keep them in line and far away from those that can be harmed.
This idealism leads him to be a sort of champion for what he feels is Right and Good. Charles will happily argue in the name of that idealism and has every expectation that people will come around to his way of thinking eventually, as he wouldn't bother arguing with someone who themselves do not possess the capacity for Right and Good.
However, there is a downside to this just as there is to anything. Charles is not only coming from a position of wealth, privilege and a white savior complex a mile wide, he is coming from this position while having spent a lifetime knowing the most intimiate workings of the minds of those around him. He is incredibly cocky and self-assured, at times unwilling to reconsider his position or adjust his expectations to be more realistic or allow others to grow and react to situations at their own rate (for instance, not realizing that Raven was uncomfortable witnessing him flirt with women or that she felt the need to be accepted as she was instead of how she appeared to be).
Being a bonafide genius who has managed to obtain his doctorate in his mid-twenties also tends to color his thinking, either to his merit or detriment at the case may be.
Despite his insistance on the use of morality to uphold the Right and Good, Charles himself has a somewhat fluid moral compass. He has no qualms using his abilities on non-mutants to further his specific goals (Right and Good goals, naturally). With those he respects however, like Raven and Erik, he does not use his abilities without their express permission.
The way in which Charles goes about wielding his faith in what's Right and Good at others will inevitably distance him from some and put him on an impossible pedestal to others, with yet another group recognizing that Charles has yet to address the various privileges that allow him to think that his way is the best (and possibly only) way.
Not to mention being more than a little vain and having a penchant for drinking. Not enough to be a full-blown alcoholic or anything, but he has definitely subscribed to the social drinking that went hand-in-hand with education, money, or...well, just about any aspect of the 60s.
Essentially, Charles possess an endless wellspring of optimism in the face of reality. An occasionally idiotic wellspring, given the nature of reality. He has quite a lot of growing to do, although he doesn't realize it.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]: Just after Erik has killed Shaw and Charles has lived through the sensation of having a coin slowly pushed in one side of his skull and out through the other.
[journal post]:
Video? No, no, that isn't what I wanted at all really. There's still sand in my hair...
Text is better. This thing is impossibly tiny...oh, it's recording.
Of course it is.
Hello! Citizens of...this fascinating clockwork-type city! I was hoping someone could point me in the direction of...someone else who could tell me exactly how I managed to arrive here. Wherever here might be, naturally.
Also a place that might be willing to provide clothes. For, ah, free since I seem to have left my wallet behind. Yes.
[third person / log sample]:
The problem with pain, Charles realized, was that it was impossibly distracting. Not that he hadn't realized this some time around his first broken bone and then realized it again with the onset of his first hangover, but. This pain, this particular sort of pain had him on all fours in the sand without being able to remember when he'd taken the steps necessary to leave the jet and get onto the sand in the first place. Clearly, he thought, he was going to have to explain to Erik that he could not do that sort of thing...
Charles blinked at the water. The tide was wrong. The sand was wrong. The sun was in the wrong place. It was impossibly quiet.
The wreckage of the jet, the submarine, Moira, Raven, the team, the Russian navy, the US navy...gone. All of it. Not even a trace or a telepathic echo to tell him where they'd gone. Where he'd gone, for that matter.
He wasn't anywhere near the blockade it would seem. So where was he?
In a strange fit of panic he wondered if perhaps his mind was trapped in itself, the result of experiencing the death of someone he'd been telepathically linked to, but surely his brain could have fetched something more... appropriate than this? Again, wherever this was exactly. Nothing and no one familiar was anywhere nearby, and he tried casting his net again, calling out familiar names in his mind. No response from any of them, not even Erik - though perhaps that was to be expected, considering.
Things that didn't bode well at all.
Charles frowned at the unfamiliar horizon just as he became aware of an incessant but not exactly new sensation of a ticking clock in his head. Well. It was new to him but it hadn't just began, so when had it? He wasn't sure of that either.
"Great," he muttered, running a sand-covered hand through his hair before immediately realizing the poor choice and spending too much time trying to shake the grains out. This was all very strange, but he'd get to the bottom of it. He had to. People didn't just 'appear' on abandoned beaches in strange places full of ticking noises did they?
No. They didn't. So he would definitely get to the bottom of this.
[personal LJ/DW name]: I don't have one anymore I'm afraid
[other characters currently played]: none!
[e-mail]: samsarasurvives@gmail.com
[AIM / messenger]: samsarasurvives
[series]: X:Men First Class (Film)
[character]: Charles Xavier - not quite Professor X yet, but he's heard the moniker at least
[character history / background]: In the film we're not given much of a direct look at Charles' childhood and subsequent life but there are several points to fact that definitely bear mention: his mother had never stepped foot in her own kitchen and his stepfather only bore mentioning once during the entire course of the movie. Thus is seems safe to say that Charles more or less raised himself in a sprawling mansion in Westchester County, New York until he comes across Raven (later Mystique) in 1944. Thrilled at the fact that he is not the only one who is "different", Charles invites Raven to remain with him and his family from that point forward.
Fast-forward to 1962: Charles and his sister, Raven, are living in England and Charles has just graduated from Oxford after writing his thesis in mutation. During celebrations in a pub where Charles managed to get rip-roaring drunk, he's approached by Moira MacTaggert who asked needs his help convincing the CIA that extreme genetic mutation in the human population has likely already occurred. His presentation to the CIA leads to a demonstration of both his and Raven's abilities, which in turn leads to the suggestion that the two of them be taken to the secretive Division X. However, Charles has other plans - namely tracking down Sebastian Shaw, who is clearly working with several powerful mutants to some nefarious purpose. While the first attempt at locating Shaw works well he does manage to get away; though as a result Charles meets Erik Lehnsherr who has his own reasons for wanting to track Shaw down.
And kill him too, but Charles seems somewhat convinced he can talk Erik out of that part.
Charles and Erik return to Division X, where Charles uses a machine that amplifies his telepathic abilities and allows him to touch the minds of at least hundreds of other mutants. With this newfound information, Charles and Erik set out to recruit other mutants towards their cause. They encounter Havok, Angel, Banshee, Darwin and Wolverine - the latter of whom soundly rejects their offer - and return them to Division X to meet Raven and Hank McCoy.
Xavier and Lehnsherr then attempt to track Shaw to Russia, but encounter telepath Emma Snow in his stead. Questioning her provides them with a better picture of Shaw's plans; namely, to incite a nuclear war between the United States and Russia in order to allow more mutants to arise from the ensuing holocaust. However, upon returning to Division X they learn that Shaw massacred the humans and convinced Angel to join his side. When Darwin resisted and fought back, Shaw killed him as well. As a result of this tragedy Charles wants to send them all back to their families (or in Havok's case, back to a military prison) but Erik points out that they'll need their own army to combat against the mutants standing with Shaw. Thus the entire group returns to Charles and Raven's childhood home, where he begins the process of training them all in the better and more precise use of their powers - including Erik's.
Shaw's continued attempts to incite relations between the US and Russia lead to the Cuban missile crisis, and the newly-formed X-Men arrive in a jet with the hopes of preventing nuclear war. Banshee uses a sonar form of his ability to locate Shaw in a nearby submarine, allowing Erik to pull the vessel from the water and run it aground. The jet crashes - everyone is safe, however, and Erik enters the submarine to find Shaw. Shaw was attempting to use his energy absorbing ability to consume the power of the submarine's nuclear reactor, but Erik is able to confront him and eventually remove the helmet Shaw had been using to block Charles' telepathy. Once that obstacle is out of the way Charles manages to immobilize Shaw from the jet's wreckage but is not, to his surprise, able to convince Erik not to kill the man and thus experiences the man's death simultaneously through his telepathic connection.
Charles will arrive in Poly immediately after these events.
[character abilities]: The wiki for Charles Xavier's powers is an overwhelming overpowered mess, so we'll be setting that aside. Far, far aside. In fact, we'll pretend I never mentioned it, because I am definitely not going to use it.
Charles Xavier is an incredibly powerful telepath. It takes very little effort on his part to pick up the surface or immediate thoughts of those in his vicinity; in fact, he tends to use it as a pickup habit with pretty girls in bars. It is not necessarily a reflex with Charles, but it is the aspect of his ability that takes the least amount of focus to activate. He can also communicate telepathically with others, regardless of their own telepathic ability, with the same ease.
Now, onto the abilities that take more effort from Charles:
- With a certain level of concentration, he can track the relative location of an individual. He could, for instance, say that someone was on the third floor in the northwest corner of a building, but could not say if they were hiding in the walls, under the bed, or were using some form of invisibility. He can use his ability to create an illusion, making people appear where they are not or suddenly vanish from view where they actually are; however sounds out of place within the illusion will eventually shatter it regardless of his concentration.
- He can also push others into doing what he suggests through a combination of vocal command and psychic suggestion, though the commands are always relatively simple (for example "stop" or "get in the car").
That which requires the most focus and attention from Charles in order to properly execute are the following:
- He can, with some effort, freeze persons in place for a period of time, either individually or as a group, excluding certain persons by choice. It's unclear how aware of this phenomena the victims (for lack of a better word) of this ability, and as I player I would leave it up to the discretion of the player(s) of the other character(s) involved.
- He can also "posses" a person for a short period of time, essentially hijacking their body and mind. When this occurs the victim has no memory of any action they committed while Charles was in control. This ability has a very short time limit. The person affected moves in a stilted, unnatural manner and does not speak. In the film he does not use this ability on any mutants, it should be noted; thus it would have a much higher rate of failure should he attempt it on someone else with abilities. Especially another telepath or someone who can guard against telepathic intrusion.
- Charles can remove the memories of a person. The memories must be of a specific timeframe (not of a just a particular person, for instance) and contact is essential for this ability to work. Those he uses this ability on find themselves in something of a fugue state in regards to the time period they've lost.
- Finally, Charles can focus his ability to access specific types of memories within a person, based on emotional association. Touching the person he is trying to read helps this ability greatly, and he can access memories that even the person he is reading had forgotten they possessed.
Since I realize that Charles' abilities are really quite powerful and could, if ill-used, lead to a lot of godmodding or other such behavior in poor RP form, I have absolutely no intention of having Charles use ANY of these abilities on anyone without the express permission of the other player(s) involved in a scene or interaction.
Outside of these abilities, Charles is in fairly good physical shape (though he's no hand to hand combatant, as thus far he's had no reason to learn or suspect that he would be in a situation that his telepathy wouldn't be able to help him with). He's also a recent graduate with a doctorate focusing on genetics, and thus has had a fairly well-off classical education that would be expected from an Oxford student in the early 1960s.
Did I mention he's smart? Really, really smart. Genius level smart.
[character personality]: Let's start with the positive, shall we? Charles Xavier is an idealist amongst idealists. He believes in the core good of humanity, and that given enough motivation or cause, nearly anyone can be swayed towards doing what is Right. Granted, there are clear exceptions to this rule; people who have gone too far down the path of destruction and harm to others to be turned around, but in those cases Charles also believes in the power of the inherent structures (government, police forces, prisons, due process) - when well managed - to keep them in line and far away from those that can be harmed.
This idealism leads him to be a sort of champion for what he feels is Right and Good. Charles will happily argue in the name of that idealism and has every expectation that people will come around to his way of thinking eventually, as he wouldn't bother arguing with someone who themselves do not possess the capacity for Right and Good.
However, there is a downside to this just as there is to anything. Charles is not only coming from a position of wealth, privilege and a white savior complex a mile wide, he is coming from this position while having spent a lifetime knowing the most intimiate workings of the minds of those around him. He is incredibly cocky and self-assured, at times unwilling to reconsider his position or adjust his expectations to be more realistic or allow others to grow and react to situations at their own rate (for instance, not realizing that Raven was uncomfortable witnessing him flirt with women or that she felt the need to be accepted as she was instead of how she appeared to be).
Being a bonafide genius who has managed to obtain his doctorate in his mid-twenties also tends to color his thinking, either to his merit or detriment at the case may be.
Despite his insistance on the use of morality to uphold the Right and Good, Charles himself has a somewhat fluid moral compass. He has no qualms using his abilities on non-mutants to further his specific goals (Right and Good goals, naturally). With those he respects however, like Raven and Erik, he does not use his abilities without their express permission.
The way in which Charles goes about wielding his faith in what's Right and Good at others will inevitably distance him from some and put him on an impossible pedestal to others, with yet another group recognizing that Charles has yet to address the various privileges that allow him to think that his way is the best (and possibly only) way.
Not to mention being more than a little vain and having a penchant for drinking. Not enough to be a full-blown alcoholic or anything, but he has definitely subscribed to the social drinking that went hand-in-hand with education, money, or...well, just about any aspect of the 60s.
Essentially, Charles possess an endless wellspring of optimism in the face of reality. An occasionally idiotic wellspring, given the nature of reality. He has quite a lot of growing to do, although he doesn't realize it.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]: Just after Erik has killed Shaw and Charles has lived through the sensation of having a coin slowly pushed in one side of his skull and out through the other.
[journal post]:
Video? No, no, that isn't what I wanted at all really. There's still sand in my hair...
Text is better. This thing is impossibly tiny...oh, it's recording.
Of course it is.
Hello! Citizens of...this fascinating clockwork-type city! I was hoping someone could point me in the direction of...someone else who could tell me exactly how I managed to arrive here. Wherever here might be, naturally.
Also a place that might be willing to provide clothes. For, ah, free since I seem to have left my wallet behind. Yes.
[third person / log sample]:
The problem with pain, Charles realized, was that it was impossibly distracting. Not that he hadn't realized this some time around his first broken bone and then realized it again with the onset of his first hangover, but. This pain, this particular sort of pain had him on all fours in the sand without being able to remember when he'd taken the steps necessary to leave the jet and get onto the sand in the first place. Clearly, he thought, he was going to have to explain to Erik that he could not do that sort of thing...
Charles blinked at the water. The tide was wrong. The sand was wrong. The sun was in the wrong place. It was impossibly quiet.
The wreckage of the jet, the submarine, Moira, Raven, the team, the Russian navy, the US navy...gone. All of it. Not even a trace or a telepathic echo to tell him where they'd gone. Where he'd gone, for that matter.
He wasn't anywhere near the blockade it would seem. So where was he?
In a strange fit of panic he wondered if perhaps his mind was trapped in itself, the result of experiencing the death of someone he'd been telepathically linked to, but surely his brain could have fetched something more... appropriate than this? Again, wherever this was exactly. Nothing and no one familiar was anywhere nearby, and he tried casting his net again, calling out familiar names in his mind. No response from any of them, not even Erik - though perhaps that was to be expected, considering.
Things that didn't bode well at all.
Charles frowned at the unfamiliar horizon just as he became aware of an incessant but not exactly new sensation of a ticking clock in his head. Well. It was new to him but it hadn't just began, so when had it? He wasn't sure of that either.
"Great," he muttered, running a sand-covered hand through his hair before immediately realizing the poor choice and spending too much time trying to shake the grains out. This was all very strange, but he'd get to the bottom of it. He had to. People didn't just 'appear' on abandoned beaches in strange places full of ticking noises did they?
No. They didn't. So he would definitely get to the bottom of this.