Abax Charles Francis Xavier AU App
player information.
Name: Lae
Are you over 18: Yes
personal lj: Cookies? Do you like peppermint sugar cookies?
email/msn/aim/plurk/etc: Email = Laekhund@gmail.com
characters in abax: N/A
in character information.
X-Men First Class:
Charles Xavier:
Male:
28:
5'7":
139:
canon point: Given the nature of his AU figure his parallel life has mirrored canon up through his receiving his professorship of genetics from Oxford.
previous cr:N/A
history: Canon history.
Marvel Movie Wiki
Marvel Movie Charles Xavier
alternate history:
"You can't control it. It controls you."
Wise words from Charles Xavier to young Alex Summers but what if the Professor himself had never learned that control?
For as long as Charles can remember, from those first moments of childish clarity, mixed in with the memories of a favorite teddy bear and building blocks, Charles has heard voices. So many voices, some young like himself and they were wonderful playmates, even if he never met the owner of the voice, others much older and speaking of things he could not comprehend. He heard them all.
They grew louder and louder in his head, frightening him with the pressure and pain they brought to him but when he sought out his mother for comfort she gave him an icy lecture on the need to grow up and stop bothering her. He'd been five at the time, his father dead not six months and his mother, never a warm figure in his life, retreating day by day further and further into a bottle.
Five year old Charles had tried, oh how he had tried to just 'grow up'. Adults didn't have all these voices in their heads, right? They never seemed as distracted as he was, constantly earning the irritated wrath of his nanny when he'd trip over his shoes and fall in the mud because he was just so damn distracted by all the voices chattering in his head. She had whipped him severely with the belt that night as he'd ruined his good clothes and though the Xavier coffers could afford a wardrobe of good clothes, this meant she had to tell Mother who might sack her and she needed the job because her husband was spending all his money on that little tart down the road...
Charles could remember, crying from the pain in his backside and lower back, telling her that her husband probably was 'carrying on with that little tart down the road' because she was a mean old woman!
She had been gone when he'd woken up the next morning and he'd never seen her again. Her departure was the first of many, so damn many as Sharon and later Kurt Marko hired the best only to see them leave within weeks, claiming that the child was disturbed and needed to be institutionalized. Marko, who had his own unflattering opinions of Charles and would be more than happy to be rid of the heir to Brian Xavier's fortune had pushed for Sharon to sign young Charles over to any number of 'fine institutions.
Sharon, in what Charles would have liked to fool himself was a show of maternal love -in truth she had simply been humiliated by the idea of her child in an institution- had staunchly refused, Charles becoming a source of bitter enmity between herself and Kurt. Enmity that spilled over to Kurt's interactions with his step son and the abuse had started up in true earnest. Physical as well as psychological, Marko also enlisted his own biological son Cain in on the act, fostering a hatred between the two step siblings, when Charles wanted only someone his own age as a friend.
The more Marko and Cain sought to break Charles of his 'weirdness' the more Charles fought back and clung to the voices. He was almost ten now and the voices had been a part of his life for so damn long they were a comfort. Rarely were they directed at him, usually they just talked around him, sometimes making him laugh with their silly words or ridiculous ponderings and though Charles noted that sometimes people gave him uncomfortable looks when he laughed out loud at something the voices said, he realized he'd stopped caring.
He'd stopped caring about garnering his mother's attention, he'd stopped caring about trying to avoid his stepfather's fists, he'd stopped caring about Cain's nasty insults, none of it mattered. The voices kept him company, sometimes gave him an advantage, such as when he learned which voice was Marko's and learned to stay out of sight when the man was on a rampage and they told such fascinating stories.
Some voices would even talk to him, hold a conversation if he asked a question, though Charles came to the feeling that the voices weren't always comfortable with these two way dialogues so he, regretfully, stopped the practice early on. But he couldn't stop listening not when all those mental touches made the cold reality of his lonely existence bearable.
Just after his tenth birthday, Charles began to hear whispers of a different sort in his head. A man and woman came regularly to the manor both so serious looking as they headed towards the wing that housed his mother's rooms. Words in hushed tones 'advanced cirrhosis possible pancreatic cancer' echoed in Charles' head with the dreaded assurance that his mother was dying.
Not that Charles felt the loss as a child should except for the certainty that once she was gone he would truly be alone in the world. Marko would take steps to commit him away somewhere where, according to his stepfather, they would take the voices away from him through electrical shock and Charles could feel the man's near maniacal glee at the idea of troublesome Charles undergoing such treatments. Once Sharon was gone, the voices would follow and Charles couldn't imagine what would be left of him then.
It was during these dark times that Raven came to him.
Sent for by his mother of all people, Raven was Sharon's greatest gift to Charles, next to birthing him. Done without Marko's knowledge, Sharon had searched out orphanages world wide for a 'strange' child and come up with this young girl who was constantly changing her appearance. Charles and Raven had been introduced by the barrister who had sorted the adoption paperwork for Sharon and within an hour the pair became inseparable.
Raven, Raven talked back to him! She didn't run scared when he responded to words that hadn't actually come from her mouth and she curiously tried to talk back to him in his head. When no one was around, she also showed him what she called her 'true' form, which was the prettiest blue with lovely gold eyes and the most amazing red hair. Charles thought she was beautiful and she thought he was neat not weird or strange.
The pair bonded in the short months before Sharon's death and while Charles wished this had brought his mother some sort of peace, he knew it had simply baffled the woman up to her last breath.
Marko, barely tolerant of Raven's presence in the mansion, had tried to go forward with his plans to have Charles committed. He'd lock Charles away and then send Raven back to whatever hole Sharon had found her in, Charles was well aware of these plans and fretted constantly about them to his sister. Raven, though younger than her new brother, had taken him by the hand and told him that she wasn't going to let Marko do anything of the sort. That she was going to help Charles pass for 'normal' and that they would be okay.
Raven, became his rock, his protector against a world that was growing weary of his games. She couldn't teach him how to control the voices in his head but she began to cue him to what he could -should- respond to and what he shouldn't comment upon. She kept close to him at all times, especially when the doctors came to evaluate him and she would hold his hand and gently squeeze his fingers when he was supposed to speak and when he wasn't.
Charles clung to her desperately for these lessons, trusting her implicitly as doctor, after doctor, gave Marko evaluations that said Charles was a 'sensitive' young man but most geniuses were. For much to Marko's chagrin, Charles was tested repeatedly at genius level IQ and as Raven made it easier for him to focus on his studies and stop freaking out his tutors, Charles' intellect blossomed. With very little effort, he surpassed any and all expectations in terms of his schooling, showing a particular aptitude for literature and science. One tutor even went so far as to encourage Charles towards exploring his scientific ideas with an eye towards publishing his theories and findings. All this infuriated Marko who saw Charles only as the last breathing obstacle between himself and the vast Xavier fortune.
When Charles was fifteen, on the eve of the publication of his first paper on a theory of genetic evolution, Marko made a move. With Raven out on what would come to be known as the date to end all dates, Marko arranged for an 'accident' to occur down in the Westchester manor's personal laboratory. Charles, never an easy sleeper, had taken to ensconcing himself down there at all hours with a microscope and books and Marko saw his chance. An inattentive boy, dangerous chemical combinations, a late night, it was the perfect recipe for something unfortunate to happen; not unlike the unfortunate circumstances that had taken Brian Xavier's life nearly thirteen years ago.
It would have been a perfectly tragic end to the Xavier line had Marko not worn his intentions on the front of his mind. At first, Charles had dismissed the thoughts as simply being his stepfather's usual mental rantings at him but as the man began to set up the caustic conflagration of chemicals it had slowly sunk in that Marko truly meant what he thought.
Shocked and confused, Charles had blurted out that it didn't have to be like this, asking Marko to reconsider his actions. Marko had startled in shock, crashing one beaker against the next before he meant too. The lab had quickly exploded into a wash of flames, mini explosions and crashing glass. Turned around and reeling from the idea that his stepfather had orchestrated this with the intent to kill him, Charles still pushed into the inferno, towards the man's bellows, calling his name.
As he did so, more thoughts rose to the surface of Marko's mind. Memories of the night Brian Xavier died, memories that contained Marko's own poisoned recollections of how he'd left Xavier to die, how he'd stood outside the lab where his friend was suffering a radioactive mishap and thought of the now widowed and wealthy Sharon Xavier. The memories caused Charles to stop and tumble to his knees, his hands cutting on broken glass spread across the floor as he unwittingly found cleaner air down low.
Marko lay only feet from him, the man's eyes locked open and expectant. Expectant that Charles would turn then and scurry away from the fire, leaving him and though a cold anger ran through him, Charles reached for his stepfather, dragging him free of the flames and getting them both out of the lab. In the end, it would be a heroic act that held little meaning, as the direct effects of the fumes from the chemicals Marko had used would claim his life merely hours later but it was important to Charles.
He could have let the man die, surely no one would have blamed him if he had it would have been simply poetic justice. When he'd quietly told Raven what had happened, she had asked him point blank why he hadn't, her expression openly incredulous with the assertion that had she been there...
Charles had silenced her with a sharp thought, the only one in his life. Had she been there, he would have done the same thing. Just because Marko choose his path did not mean Charles had to continue it. Had he just left Marko he would have lived with the man on his conscious the rest of his life. Charles had chosen peace and he would hope that his beloved sister would do the same. Raven had looked dubious and Charles had seen her own conflict with his actions. It was a point he would have to let go and let her find her own path to acceptance.
After he buried Marko and once again with Raven's assistance in navigating the social necessities to present as normal to the lawyers, sixteen year old Charles was awarded emancipation and the entire Xavier fortune and holdings came into his hands. He had little desire to stay in Westchester as the manor was repaired and with news of his first published paper circulating around he had offers from the top Universities world wide to come study.
Consulting with Raven about her wishes, they choose to go to Oxford England an academic community where Charles could bury himself in his books. A community where his 'eccentric' behavior was almost expected and Raven could focus on her own life without having to be constantly on guard at her brother's side.
personality:
Charles is and always has been a curious soul. Even the abusive origins of his childhood and the pressure of constant telepathic bombardment have not changed that about him. If anything, the constant stream of voices in his head have kept him intrigued by people, eager to meet the next voice, to learn about the next mystery and constantly wanting to just know more.
Despite sometimes being faced with the worst thoughts from humanity, often times directed straight at him, Charles looks for the best in people. He may not be able to clearly define the difference between a person's thoughts and what they say but he likes to believe that the truth lays somewhere in between the two. Charles takes on a great deal of humanity -and mutant- darkness but somehow it fails to reach him as he's learned how not to take things personally.
Still inquisitive as ever, Charles loves books and he genuinely loves to learn. Oxford may have given him the title of 'professor' for his various thesis in genetics and anthropology but at his heart Charles is still a student. He enjoys working on his papers from the safety of his study, though once comfortable with his surrounds, such as after a year in Oxford, he found that pubs full of people were infinitely fascinating.
He even tries his hand at flirting with the beautiful women now and again, an act that annoys Raven to no end as he is incredibly bad at it. But, occasionally, he will hook into a young lady who finds his boyishly handsome looks or perhaps his accent, fascinating and he strikes it lucky.
Raven had been horrified the night Charles had brought one such young lady home and had tried to rope Raven in -telepathically mind you- to giving pointers. With a resounding -FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF!- Raven had left him to his own devices, which had wound up being a combination of reading his partner's mind for what she wanted and then just, letting his body do what came naturally. It had seemed to work, though Charles came out of the encounter feeling a bit under whelmed and clinical about things. He'd given his 'first' a platonic peck on the cheek the next morning and sent her on her way, looking positively bemused when Raven had asked later if he'd gotten her number?
It was the first indicator that interpersonal relationship and Charles Xavier were not going to work the way they did for other people. Outside of Raven, he's 0 for 0 in keeping any sort of friends, despite his ability to read and empathize with people, its rarely a two way street. Its not that he seeks to be cruel or to push people away, just that he doesn't know how to deal with them and after a life of being routinely dismissed he doesn't see any reason to try.
People are fascinating, yes but at a safe distance as dictated by Charles himself.
This disassociation also allows Charles to maintain a certain level of serenity in the middle of the cacophony that is his mind. It is how he has learned to cope with the never ending rush of thoughts, feelings and emotions of others, a way to absorb all that constant input without letting it bleed over into himself. Sometimes he comes close to being overwhelmed and frustration can leak around the edges of his self imposed emotional exile but for the most part he seeks peace over emotional extremes.
Despite growing up during the second great war and the abusive history of his past, Charles has little to no use for violence. He believes in words, in education, that if you remove the factors that cause people to fear, most people can be reasoned with and a common ground can be found. Though Raven calls him naive and idealistic, Charles is staunch in his beliefs and will turn the other cheek repeatedly rather than lift his hand to strike back. Not that he won't hit back with words, with a spirited debate of a subject or in the defense of another just that he doesn't take things at a personally emotional level.
However, he is still the 'sensitive' young man of his late childhood, anxious and awkward when thrust into unknown social situations, quickly at a loss if Raven is not at hand to help steady him. While he refuses to let it appear to affect him, the nasty mental comments, directed at him personally, as he grew up with as a child and still suffers as an adult still cut and drive him into self imposed withdrawals from the very people he finds so brilliantly splendid. Though he carries numerous doctorates behind his name and has all the confidence in the world when it comes to his mind, his theories and his academic abilities, Charles has very little faith in himself as a person. He expects to be hurt and betrayed because people, no matter how amazing, just can't seem to help themselves.
In the end, the drive to learn, to teach, to help overcomes the desires to hide away from personal pain and suffering. There is too much potential in the world and in people, both human and mutant for Charles to waste his time on self-pity, even if the world is not always accepting of him, he is accepting of the world and has learned to not only accept but to embrace the song of humanity constantly echoing through his head.
abilities/powers: Charles Xavier is still an Omega level telepath, he's just untested and untried in many areas of his gifts.
Reading of Minds - Charles is very, very good at this as he's grown up doing it non-stop his entire life. While passive reading is always turned to 'on' the ability to make it a conscious effort is one thing he has taught himself over the years and he can manage this quite deftly when he has cause to go looking.
Mind to Mind Conversation - He started this back when he was a small child, with all the 'imaginary' friends in his head, some, also small children as a rule, would answer and respond to him for a time and so he received quite a bit of practice. Then there was the arrival of Raven in his life and he was able to consciously develop this skill and he's quite good at it.
Illusion - including masking himself and about a dozen others. He played at this game as a child and can still mask himself and someone close to him if he feels threatened or uncertain. He has the potential to be able to extend that masking across at least a dozen other people if necessary but as he's never done it he will have to test and learn just how strong he truly can be.
Over ride mental free will / implanting suggestions - He has done this in play, mostly implanting gentle suggestions without even truly being aware of it until after the fact. He has the ability to do so much more with it, if (when) he learns what he's capable of doing.
Over ride physical free will - The ability is there but he's never done it to date. Still, he can be taught that he is capable of doing these things.
Transferring his consciousness into another body - Again the ability is there but he's never done it to date.
Erasing/blurring memories - He's done this by accident, back when he was a small child and just playing at making the maids or nannies forget he'd made a mess or asked for an extra cookie. As an adult, he has a greater understanding of just how far he could take this and while intrigued by the idea, he tends to shy away from the necessity.
Multiple versions of all of the above at once, across multiple different people if necessary -
His weaknesses would be his lack of training and experience with his abilities as well as a stunning physical disadvantage in just about anything that doesn't involve running away from something larger than himself. Charles is still more the brain than the brawn.
first person sample:
[When the device clicks on, the picture is shaky, a result of the trembling in the hands holding it. The image flips and turns around, some might recognize the gray walls and sterile decor of the morgue rooms, eventually it gets sorted out and is reflecting the pale face and wide blue eyes of the man holding it.
He looks ready to be sick, swallows convulsively a couple of times, before offering the device a smile that could be broad and warm, were it not held back by anxious uncertainty.]
Raven? [He asks in a quiet, hopeful tone, catching his lower lip between his teeth for a long couple of breaths until it becomes obvious that no one by that name is responding to him. Glancing away, he lifts a finger and swipes it just beneath his eye across his cheek before turning back to the device.]
Ah, right then. My name is Charles Xavier and I seem to find myself in a bit of an awkward predicament. [Understatement!] Is ... I mean, might there be someone, out there, who could give me an explanation of where I am and what this is supposed to mean?
[The device turns a little, the picture is off his face and pointed up towards the morgue ceiling and after a moment of radio silence, his voices comes across the feed.]
By the bye, a toe tag usually denotes you're already dead, so to the person wondering if we're going to die, I'd say that really shouldn't be much of a concern, hmm?
third person sample:
Raven would not be pleased.
The thought crossed his mind as Charles sat quietly on the park bench and tossed the crust of his sandwich to the birds that flocked close by.
'Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie'
Nearby he heard a soft voice actually begin to sing the rhyme and he glanced over to where a young woman sat, two benches down reading a book and intoning the nursery rhyme. A quick glance at her face told him she wasn't even truly aware of what she was doing and his lips curled in a rueful smile.
No, Raven wasn't going to be pleased at all when she found him but he'd just wanted to get out of the house for a little bit. He'd bundled up against the chilly fall weather so at least his sister couldn't chide him for wandering around in his shirt sleeves. The park at this hour was peaceful enough, the close press of only about two hundred voices racketing around, unchecked, in his mind. Most of them were focused on griping about work and Charles hummed softly to himself as he sorted through the cacophony of thoughts.
So many wanting to kill their boss, truly it was a wonder people weren't killing each other hourly. The thought made him chuckle, even as he scrunched his nose.
Raven would chide him for laughing about such things. She was forever trying to impress the need for 'propriety' on Charles, that he needed to be more 'proper' when dealing with people but honestly, it was so hard to take someone seriously when they couldn't stop worrying about whether or not the toilet paper was stuck in the crack of their ass!
"I'm sure it just feels that way but if you need remedial instruction on how to wipe your arse you should ask the young man over there, he's doing brilliantly at potty training," the words were spoken aloud before Charles was even aware of his lips moving and he blinked up into the red, shocked face of a man in a smart three piece suit.
Blinking owlishly at the man, Charles simply pointed to the youngster who was enjoying the ice cream treat his mother gave him for good potty behavior.
"He got ice cream and everything," Charles said with a bright smile that did not dim when the man shuffled off, making a rude remark about Charles' parentage.
It made him laugh softly as he leaned back on the bench and looked up to the open sky above him. A large bird circled lazily in the sky and Charles let his eyes track its progress.
"Charles! Charles where are you?!"He heard Raven's mental calls from miles away, where she was just now arriving home and finding him gone.
I'm in the garden... he sang back to her. 'The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes...'
Oh yes, Raven was not going to be pleased but this ... this was wonderful!
case no: 14-07-34
Name: Lae
Are you over 18: Yes
personal lj: Cookies? Do you like peppermint sugar cookies?
email/msn/aim/plurk/etc: Email = Laekhund@gmail.com
characters in abax: N/A
in character information.
X-Men First Class:
Charles Xavier:
Male:
28:
5'7":
139:
canon point: Given the nature of his AU figure his parallel life has mirrored canon up through his receiving his professorship of genetics from Oxford.
previous cr:N/A
history: Canon history.
Marvel Movie Wiki
Marvel Movie Charles Xavier
alternate history:
"You can't control it. It controls you."
Wise words from Charles Xavier to young Alex Summers but what if the Professor himself had never learned that control?
For as long as Charles can remember, from those first moments of childish clarity, mixed in with the memories of a favorite teddy bear and building blocks, Charles has heard voices. So many voices, some young like himself and they were wonderful playmates, even if he never met the owner of the voice, others much older and speaking of things he could not comprehend. He heard them all.
They grew louder and louder in his head, frightening him with the pressure and pain they brought to him but when he sought out his mother for comfort she gave him an icy lecture on the need to grow up and stop bothering her. He'd been five at the time, his father dead not six months and his mother, never a warm figure in his life, retreating day by day further and further into a bottle.
Five year old Charles had tried, oh how he had tried to just 'grow up'. Adults didn't have all these voices in their heads, right? They never seemed as distracted as he was, constantly earning the irritated wrath of his nanny when he'd trip over his shoes and fall in the mud because he was just so damn distracted by all the voices chattering in his head. She had whipped him severely with the belt that night as he'd ruined his good clothes and though the Xavier coffers could afford a wardrobe of good clothes, this meant she had to tell Mother who might sack her and she needed the job because her husband was spending all his money on that little tart down the road...
Charles could remember, crying from the pain in his backside and lower back, telling her that her husband probably was 'carrying on with that little tart down the road' because she was a mean old woman!
She had been gone when he'd woken up the next morning and he'd never seen her again. Her departure was the first of many, so damn many as Sharon and later Kurt Marko hired the best only to see them leave within weeks, claiming that the child was disturbed and needed to be institutionalized. Marko, who had his own unflattering opinions of Charles and would be more than happy to be rid of the heir to Brian Xavier's fortune had pushed for Sharon to sign young Charles over to any number of 'fine institutions.
Sharon, in what Charles would have liked to fool himself was a show of maternal love -in truth she had simply been humiliated by the idea of her child in an institution- had staunchly refused, Charles becoming a source of bitter enmity between herself and Kurt. Enmity that spilled over to Kurt's interactions with his step son and the abuse had started up in true earnest. Physical as well as psychological, Marko also enlisted his own biological son Cain in on the act, fostering a hatred between the two step siblings, when Charles wanted only someone his own age as a friend.
The more Marko and Cain sought to break Charles of his 'weirdness' the more Charles fought back and clung to the voices. He was almost ten now and the voices had been a part of his life for so damn long they were a comfort. Rarely were they directed at him, usually they just talked around him, sometimes making him laugh with their silly words or ridiculous ponderings and though Charles noted that sometimes people gave him uncomfortable looks when he laughed out loud at something the voices said, he realized he'd stopped caring.
He'd stopped caring about garnering his mother's attention, he'd stopped caring about trying to avoid his stepfather's fists, he'd stopped caring about Cain's nasty insults, none of it mattered. The voices kept him company, sometimes gave him an advantage, such as when he learned which voice was Marko's and learned to stay out of sight when the man was on a rampage and they told such fascinating stories.
Some voices would even talk to him, hold a conversation if he asked a question, though Charles came to the feeling that the voices weren't always comfortable with these two way dialogues so he, regretfully, stopped the practice early on. But he couldn't stop listening not when all those mental touches made the cold reality of his lonely existence bearable.
Just after his tenth birthday, Charles began to hear whispers of a different sort in his head. A man and woman came regularly to the manor both so serious looking as they headed towards the wing that housed his mother's rooms. Words in hushed tones 'advanced cirrhosis possible pancreatic cancer' echoed in Charles' head with the dreaded assurance that his mother was dying.
Not that Charles felt the loss as a child should except for the certainty that once she was gone he would truly be alone in the world. Marko would take steps to commit him away somewhere where, according to his stepfather, they would take the voices away from him through electrical shock and Charles could feel the man's near maniacal glee at the idea of troublesome Charles undergoing such treatments. Once Sharon was gone, the voices would follow and Charles couldn't imagine what would be left of him then.
It was during these dark times that Raven came to him.
Sent for by his mother of all people, Raven was Sharon's greatest gift to Charles, next to birthing him. Done without Marko's knowledge, Sharon had searched out orphanages world wide for a 'strange' child and come up with this young girl who was constantly changing her appearance. Charles and Raven had been introduced by the barrister who had sorted the adoption paperwork for Sharon and within an hour the pair became inseparable.
Raven, Raven talked back to him! She didn't run scared when he responded to words that hadn't actually come from her mouth and she curiously tried to talk back to him in his head. When no one was around, she also showed him what she called her 'true' form, which was the prettiest blue with lovely gold eyes and the most amazing red hair. Charles thought she was beautiful and she thought he was neat not weird or strange.
The pair bonded in the short months before Sharon's death and while Charles wished this had brought his mother some sort of peace, he knew it had simply baffled the woman up to her last breath.
Marko, barely tolerant of Raven's presence in the mansion, had tried to go forward with his plans to have Charles committed. He'd lock Charles away and then send Raven back to whatever hole Sharon had found her in, Charles was well aware of these plans and fretted constantly about them to his sister. Raven, though younger than her new brother, had taken him by the hand and told him that she wasn't going to let Marko do anything of the sort. That she was going to help Charles pass for 'normal' and that they would be okay.
Raven, became his rock, his protector against a world that was growing weary of his games. She couldn't teach him how to control the voices in his head but she began to cue him to what he could -should- respond to and what he shouldn't comment upon. She kept close to him at all times, especially when the doctors came to evaluate him and she would hold his hand and gently squeeze his fingers when he was supposed to speak and when he wasn't.
Charles clung to her desperately for these lessons, trusting her implicitly as doctor, after doctor, gave Marko evaluations that said Charles was a 'sensitive' young man but most geniuses were. For much to Marko's chagrin, Charles was tested repeatedly at genius level IQ and as Raven made it easier for him to focus on his studies and stop freaking out his tutors, Charles' intellect blossomed. With very little effort, he surpassed any and all expectations in terms of his schooling, showing a particular aptitude for literature and science. One tutor even went so far as to encourage Charles towards exploring his scientific ideas with an eye towards publishing his theories and findings. All this infuriated Marko who saw Charles only as the last breathing obstacle between himself and the vast Xavier fortune.
When Charles was fifteen, on the eve of the publication of his first paper on a theory of genetic evolution, Marko made a move. With Raven out on what would come to be known as the date to end all dates, Marko arranged for an 'accident' to occur down in the Westchester manor's personal laboratory. Charles, never an easy sleeper, had taken to ensconcing himself down there at all hours with a microscope and books and Marko saw his chance. An inattentive boy, dangerous chemical combinations, a late night, it was the perfect recipe for something unfortunate to happen; not unlike the unfortunate circumstances that had taken Brian Xavier's life nearly thirteen years ago.
It would have been a perfectly tragic end to the Xavier line had Marko not worn his intentions on the front of his mind. At first, Charles had dismissed the thoughts as simply being his stepfather's usual mental rantings at him but as the man began to set up the caustic conflagration of chemicals it had slowly sunk in that Marko truly meant what he thought.
Shocked and confused, Charles had blurted out that it didn't have to be like this, asking Marko to reconsider his actions. Marko had startled in shock, crashing one beaker against the next before he meant too. The lab had quickly exploded into a wash of flames, mini explosions and crashing glass. Turned around and reeling from the idea that his stepfather had orchestrated this with the intent to kill him, Charles still pushed into the inferno, towards the man's bellows, calling his name.
As he did so, more thoughts rose to the surface of Marko's mind. Memories of the night Brian Xavier died, memories that contained Marko's own poisoned recollections of how he'd left Xavier to die, how he'd stood outside the lab where his friend was suffering a radioactive mishap and thought of the now widowed and wealthy Sharon Xavier. The memories caused Charles to stop and tumble to his knees, his hands cutting on broken glass spread across the floor as he unwittingly found cleaner air down low.
Marko lay only feet from him, the man's eyes locked open and expectant. Expectant that Charles would turn then and scurry away from the fire, leaving him and though a cold anger ran through him, Charles reached for his stepfather, dragging him free of the flames and getting them both out of the lab. In the end, it would be a heroic act that held little meaning, as the direct effects of the fumes from the chemicals Marko had used would claim his life merely hours later but it was important to Charles.
He could have let the man die, surely no one would have blamed him if he had it would have been simply poetic justice. When he'd quietly told Raven what had happened, she had asked him point blank why he hadn't, her expression openly incredulous with the assertion that had she been there...
Charles had silenced her with a sharp thought, the only one in his life. Had she been there, he would have done the same thing. Just because Marko choose his path did not mean Charles had to continue it. Had he just left Marko he would have lived with the man on his conscious the rest of his life. Charles had chosen peace and he would hope that his beloved sister would do the same. Raven had looked dubious and Charles had seen her own conflict with his actions. It was a point he would have to let go and let her find her own path to acceptance.
After he buried Marko and once again with Raven's assistance in navigating the social necessities to present as normal to the lawyers, sixteen year old Charles was awarded emancipation and the entire Xavier fortune and holdings came into his hands. He had little desire to stay in Westchester as the manor was repaired and with news of his first published paper circulating around he had offers from the top Universities world wide to come study.
Consulting with Raven about her wishes, they choose to go to Oxford England an academic community where Charles could bury himself in his books. A community where his 'eccentric' behavior was almost expected and Raven could focus on her own life without having to be constantly on guard at her brother's side.
personality:
Charles is and always has been a curious soul. Even the abusive origins of his childhood and the pressure of constant telepathic bombardment have not changed that about him. If anything, the constant stream of voices in his head have kept him intrigued by people, eager to meet the next voice, to learn about the next mystery and constantly wanting to just know more.
Despite sometimes being faced with the worst thoughts from humanity, often times directed straight at him, Charles looks for the best in people. He may not be able to clearly define the difference between a person's thoughts and what they say but he likes to believe that the truth lays somewhere in between the two. Charles takes on a great deal of humanity -and mutant- darkness but somehow it fails to reach him as he's learned how not to take things personally.
Still inquisitive as ever, Charles loves books and he genuinely loves to learn. Oxford may have given him the title of 'professor' for his various thesis in genetics and anthropology but at his heart Charles is still a student. He enjoys working on his papers from the safety of his study, though once comfortable with his surrounds, such as after a year in Oxford, he found that pubs full of people were infinitely fascinating.
He even tries his hand at flirting with the beautiful women now and again, an act that annoys Raven to no end as he is incredibly bad at it. But, occasionally, he will hook into a young lady who finds his boyishly handsome looks or perhaps his accent, fascinating and he strikes it lucky.
Raven had been horrified the night Charles had brought one such young lady home and had tried to rope Raven in -telepathically mind you- to giving pointers. With a resounding -FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF!- Raven had left him to his own devices, which had wound up being a combination of reading his partner's mind for what she wanted and then just, letting his body do what came naturally. It had seemed to work, though Charles came out of the encounter feeling a bit under whelmed and clinical about things. He'd given his 'first' a platonic peck on the cheek the next morning and sent her on her way, looking positively bemused when Raven had asked later if he'd gotten her number?
It was the first indicator that interpersonal relationship and Charles Xavier were not going to work the way they did for other people. Outside of Raven, he's 0 for 0 in keeping any sort of friends, despite his ability to read and empathize with people, its rarely a two way street. Its not that he seeks to be cruel or to push people away, just that he doesn't know how to deal with them and after a life of being routinely dismissed he doesn't see any reason to try.
People are fascinating, yes but at a safe distance as dictated by Charles himself.
This disassociation also allows Charles to maintain a certain level of serenity in the middle of the cacophony that is his mind. It is how he has learned to cope with the never ending rush of thoughts, feelings and emotions of others, a way to absorb all that constant input without letting it bleed over into himself. Sometimes he comes close to being overwhelmed and frustration can leak around the edges of his self imposed emotional exile but for the most part he seeks peace over emotional extremes.
Despite growing up during the second great war and the abusive history of his past, Charles has little to no use for violence. He believes in words, in education, that if you remove the factors that cause people to fear, most people can be reasoned with and a common ground can be found. Though Raven calls him naive and idealistic, Charles is staunch in his beliefs and will turn the other cheek repeatedly rather than lift his hand to strike back. Not that he won't hit back with words, with a spirited debate of a subject or in the defense of another just that he doesn't take things at a personally emotional level.
However, he is still the 'sensitive' young man of his late childhood, anxious and awkward when thrust into unknown social situations, quickly at a loss if Raven is not at hand to help steady him. While he refuses to let it appear to affect him, the nasty mental comments, directed at him personally, as he grew up with as a child and still suffers as an adult still cut and drive him into self imposed withdrawals from the very people he finds so brilliantly splendid. Though he carries numerous doctorates behind his name and has all the confidence in the world when it comes to his mind, his theories and his academic abilities, Charles has very little faith in himself as a person. He expects to be hurt and betrayed because people, no matter how amazing, just can't seem to help themselves.
In the end, the drive to learn, to teach, to help overcomes the desires to hide away from personal pain and suffering. There is too much potential in the world and in people, both human and mutant for Charles to waste his time on self-pity, even if the world is not always accepting of him, he is accepting of the world and has learned to not only accept but to embrace the song of humanity constantly echoing through his head.
abilities/powers: Charles Xavier is still an Omega level telepath, he's just untested and untried in many areas of his gifts.
Reading of Minds - Charles is very, very good at this as he's grown up doing it non-stop his entire life. While passive reading is always turned to 'on' the ability to make it a conscious effort is one thing he has taught himself over the years and he can manage this quite deftly when he has cause to go looking.
Mind to Mind Conversation - He started this back when he was a small child, with all the 'imaginary' friends in his head, some, also small children as a rule, would answer and respond to him for a time and so he received quite a bit of practice. Then there was the arrival of Raven in his life and he was able to consciously develop this skill and he's quite good at it.
Illusion - including masking himself and about a dozen others. He played at this game as a child and can still mask himself and someone close to him if he feels threatened or uncertain. He has the potential to be able to extend that masking across at least a dozen other people if necessary but as he's never done it he will have to test and learn just how strong he truly can be.
Over ride mental free will / implanting suggestions - He has done this in play, mostly implanting gentle suggestions without even truly being aware of it until after the fact. He has the ability to do so much more with it, if (when) he learns what he's capable of doing.
Over ride physical free will - The ability is there but he's never done it to date. Still, he can be taught that he is capable of doing these things.
Transferring his consciousness into another body - Again the ability is there but he's never done it to date.
Erasing/blurring memories - He's done this by accident, back when he was a small child and just playing at making the maids or nannies forget he'd made a mess or asked for an extra cookie. As an adult, he has a greater understanding of just how far he could take this and while intrigued by the idea, he tends to shy away from the necessity.
Multiple versions of all of the above at once, across multiple different people if necessary -
His weaknesses would be his lack of training and experience with his abilities as well as a stunning physical disadvantage in just about anything that doesn't involve running away from something larger than himself. Charles is still more the brain than the brawn.
first person sample:
[When the device clicks on, the picture is shaky, a result of the trembling in the hands holding it. The image flips and turns around, some might recognize the gray walls and sterile decor of the morgue rooms, eventually it gets sorted out and is reflecting the pale face and wide blue eyes of the man holding it.
He looks ready to be sick, swallows convulsively a couple of times, before offering the device a smile that could be broad and warm, were it not held back by anxious uncertainty.]
Raven? [He asks in a quiet, hopeful tone, catching his lower lip between his teeth for a long couple of breaths until it becomes obvious that no one by that name is responding to him. Glancing away, he lifts a finger and swipes it just beneath his eye across his cheek before turning back to the device.]
Ah, right then. My name is Charles Xavier and I seem to find myself in a bit of an awkward predicament. [Understatement!] Is ... I mean, might there be someone, out there, who could give me an explanation of where I am and what this is supposed to mean?
[The device turns a little, the picture is off his face and pointed up towards the morgue ceiling and after a moment of radio silence, his voices comes across the feed.]
By the bye, a toe tag usually denotes you're already dead, so to the person wondering if we're going to die, I'd say that really shouldn't be much of a concern, hmm?
third person sample:
Raven would not be pleased.
The thought crossed his mind as Charles sat quietly on the park bench and tossed the crust of his sandwich to the birds that flocked close by.
'Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie'
Nearby he heard a soft voice actually begin to sing the rhyme and he glanced over to where a young woman sat, two benches down reading a book and intoning the nursery rhyme. A quick glance at her face told him she wasn't even truly aware of what she was doing and his lips curled in a rueful smile.
No, Raven wasn't going to be pleased at all when she found him but he'd just wanted to get out of the house for a little bit. He'd bundled up against the chilly fall weather so at least his sister couldn't chide him for wandering around in his shirt sleeves. The park at this hour was peaceful enough, the close press of only about two hundred voices racketing around, unchecked, in his mind. Most of them were focused on griping about work and Charles hummed softly to himself as he sorted through the cacophony of thoughts.
So many wanting to kill their boss, truly it was a wonder people weren't killing each other hourly. The thought made him chuckle, even as he scrunched his nose.
Raven would chide him for laughing about such things. She was forever trying to impress the need for 'propriety' on Charles, that he needed to be more 'proper' when dealing with people but honestly, it was so hard to take someone seriously when they couldn't stop worrying about whether or not the toilet paper was stuck in the crack of their ass!
"I'm sure it just feels that way but if you need remedial instruction on how to wipe your arse you should ask the young man over there, he's doing brilliantly at potty training," the words were spoken aloud before Charles was even aware of his lips moving and he blinked up into the red, shocked face of a man in a smart three piece suit.
Blinking owlishly at the man, Charles simply pointed to the youngster who was enjoying the ice cream treat his mother gave him for good potty behavior.
"He got ice cream and everything," Charles said with a bright smile that did not dim when the man shuffled off, making a rude remark about Charles' parentage.
It made him laugh softly as he leaned back on the bench and looked up to the open sky above him. A large bird circled lazily in the sky and Charles let his eyes track its progress.
"Charles! Charles where are you?!"He heard Raven's mental calls from miles away, where she was just now arriving home and finding him gone.
I'm in the garden... he sang back to her. 'The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes...'
Oh yes, Raven was not going to be pleased but this ... this was wonderful!
case no: 14-07-34