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== Description ==
== Description ==
Kitty is short and wiry, all muscle tone and curly brown hair. Standing at 5’2”, she stares people down with big brown eyes and a resting scowl daring people to mess with her. Her forehead is big and a point of adolescent anxiety. She used to care a lot about her appearance - these days she lives in athlesiure wear and messy buns.
Kitty is short and wiry, all muscle tone and curly brown hair. Standing at 5’2”, she stares people down with big brown eyes and a resting scowl daring people to mess with her. Her forehead is big and a point of adolescent anxiety. She used to care a lot about her appearance - these days she lives in athlesiure wear and messy buns.


== Personality ==
== Personality ==
A classic extrovert, Kitty can be incredibly charming when she wants to be - though as she overworks herself more and more, she tends to get snappish. She has incredibly high standards for herself and tries to succeed in all things. She’s starting to burn out from the overextension. She is stubborn and sarcastic. Kitty is solutions-oriented- talk to her if you want advice, not just a hug (intangible hugs aren’t the best.) She sometimes forgives but never forgets - she has held a grudge against a childhood bully for over 20 years now.  
A classic extrovert, Kitty can be incredibly charming when she wants to be - though as she overworks herself more and more, she tends to get snappish. She has incredibly high standards for herself and tries to succeed in all things. She’s starting to burn out from the overextension. She is stubborn and sarcastic. Kitty is solutions-oriented- talk to her if you want advice, not just a hug (intangible hugs aren’t the best.) She sometimes forgives but never forgets - she has held a grudge against a childhood bully for over 20 years now.  


== Background ==
== Background ==
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Though her parents wanted her to return to Chicago for university, Kitty stayed in New York, attending Columbia for undergraduate studies and NYU for her PhD in physics. Even though she had lots of college credit from XS, Kitty still took the full four years to graduate as she tried to balance academics with her obligations as an X-Man. She took a year off after graduation from university to travel and try to regain life balance, something she has always struggled with. Currently she is in year 3 of her PhD in astrophysics at NYU and doing her best.
Though her parents wanted her to return to Chicago for university, Kitty stayed in New York, attending Columbia for undergraduate studies and NYU for her PhD in physics. Even though she had lots of college credit from XS, Kitty still took the full four years to graduate as she tried to balance academics with her obligations as an X-Man. She took a year off after graduation from university to travel and try to regain life balance, something she has always struggled with. Currently she is in year 3 of her PhD in astrophysics at NYU and doing her best.


== Skills ==
== Skills ==
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Leadership - A natural leader, Kitty is quick to identify people’s strengths and weaknesses, which is inherently judgemental. However, she is impatient, a trait that she needs to work on if she wants to lead an X-Team one day. She is good at public speaking.  
Leadership - A natural leader, Kitty is quick to identify people’s strengths and weaknesses, which is inherently judgemental. However, she is impatient, a trait that she needs to work on if she wants to lead an X-Team one day. She is good at public speaking.  


== Powers ==
== Powers ==
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She can only be phased as long as she can hold her breath, since she also passes through air molecules while phased. When she phases through electronics, the current interaction with the displaced atoms tends to short out or damage the device. Denser materials are more difficult for her to phase through, to the point of causing pain. The nature of Adamantium and Vibranium on a molecular level also pose difficulties - phasing through either makes her incredibly ill.  
She can only be phased as long as she can hold her breath, since she also passes through air molecules while phased. When she phases through electronics, the current interaction with the displaced atoms tends to short out or damage the device. Denser materials are more difficult for her to phase through, to the point of causing pain. The nature of Adamantium and Vibranium on a molecular level also pose difficulties - phasing through either makes her incredibly ill.  


== Resources ==
== Resources ==
Financial support from dual-income upper middle class parents. A decent graduate school stipend. The trust of X-Men leadership. A small hatchback car. Access to underworld connections, if she wanted them (she does not).
Financial support from dual-income upper middle class parents. A decent graduate school stipend. The trust of X-Men leadership. A small hatchback car. Access to underworld connections, if she wanted them (she does not).




= Scott Summers - Mutant, FC =
== Description ==
Scott is reaching middle age with more grace than his omnipresent sunglasses and multiple motorcycles would suggest – he is tall and trim, standing just over six feet, with lean muscles and broad shoulders. He dresses mostly in unassuming workwear, with sturdy materials and good boots, and keeps himself clean-shaven and neat – well, as neat as any shop teacher can hope for. Though he's somewhat handsome, his straight nose and square jaw and full head of hair draw somewhat less attention than his ruby-tinted sunglasses or visor or, on occasion, the ruby-tinted beam of kinetic force that emanates from it.


== Personality ==
Both personally and professionally, Scott projects an overall air of uptightness and rigidity. He takes things seriously, and is often annoyed and kind of offended when others don't have the decency to do the same. His role as a leader and status as an outsider have a kind of chicken-and-egg mutuality; whichever came first, they are both intrinsic to him and to his relationships with others, particularly Xavier and the other X-Men, as Scott often occupies an uncomfortable middle ground between them. He takes it upon himself to make hard decisions, and accepts the unpopularity that accompanies them with a kind of uneasy grace. Scott is extremely level-headed in a crisis, but in a calculating, strategic way that often bulldozes over people's feelings -- his and everyone else's. Most of the time these tactics are pretty effective, so he has no inclination yet to change them. He does have a sense of humor underneath all that, but you could be excused for thinking he doesn't.


== Background ==
Scott Summers discovered his mutation in the same plane crash that orphaned him, when he fired a concussive blast from his eyes in a desperate attempt to slow himself and his brother Alex down as they plummeted to the earth. They both survived, but the crash left Scott with a TBI that would render it difficult for him to recall much from the turbulent years that followed, even if he had interest in doing so. What he does remember has not encouraged him to keep digging. A group home in Nebraska; his separation from his brother; recurring, debilitating migraines; abuse, bullying, and loneliness. At first he convinced himself he'd only imagined what had happened during the crash, but then it started happening again -- at first only in sporadic bursts, but with increasing frequency and intensity. He ran away when he was fifteen, terrified both of his destructive power and of what the others might do to stop it. He was on his own for only a week before Xavier found him.


= OLD SAMPLE =
Though Xavier's was nothing like the orphanage in Omaha (and certainly nothing like the abandoned barns and empty warehouses Scott had stayed in as a runaway), it became more of a home than a school to Scott, who was one of its earliest pupils, along with Jean Grey, whom he grew very close to over time. It was a foregone conclusion to Scott (and probably everyone else) that he would stay and help the Professor with the school once he'd graduated -- his mutation, which was controlled only by a pair of ruby-quartz glasses the Professor's colleague Hank McCoy fashioned for him, was too volatile for him to feel comfortable anywhere else. At first he just hung around doing odd jobs and tinkering with Xavier's cars, but as the school grew in size and in reputation, these odd jobs started solidifying into a more concrete role (eventually, it even had a concrete salary instead of an as-needs allowance.)


Hard and lean and tough as nails, Jane looks every inch the fighter. Though her average height of 5'5" is hardly imposing, her forceful carriage makes up for what she lacks in size. Her dark-brown hair is kept neat and practical in a close-cropped bowl around her light-skinned face, and below it her features are clean and symmetrical: light hazel eyes and a long straight nose, high-boned cheeks and a hard square jaw. She carries herself strong and confident, a militaristic economy of movement to her motions.
Scott was not the only one of Xavier's pupils to stay on after graduating; he and a handful of other alumni, including Jean, worked together to help the Professor locate and reach out to young mutants in crisis, honing and adapting their mutations to help with this -- as much to demonstrate the use and application of the X-gene as to assist their prospective students. Scott's mutation was more difficult to work around than most, but Hank and the Professor designed a visor that could use ruby-quartz to block, direct, and focus the effects of his power. The newer students called their group the X-Men, nicknaming Scott "Cyclops" for the one-eyed appearance the visor gave him. Under Xavier's guidance the X-Men grew into protectors and humanitarians, both for the local mutant community and for the world at large. At first Xavier actively oversaw these activities, but as their scope expanded, Scott began to take on more responsibility, and eventually was appointed the official team leader.


Between Xavier's School and the X-Men, Scott kept himself busy, focussing on his work more than on anything else (including Jean, which might have posed a more serious problem if they didn't work together.) His faith in Xavier was difficult to shake -- their infrequent disagreements couldn't override the sense of purpose the X-Men gave Scott, nor his dedication to his mentor's vision of cooperation and coexistence. It was more difficult to find faith in himself; as the X-Men and the broader mutant community faced worsening threats and disunity, Scott was faced with impossible choices and compromises, some of them devastating to him and to the team. He clung to the belief that they were still ultimately doing good -- that was what really mattered, right?


===== PERSONALITY =====
== Skills ==
Can figure out how to drive or fly pretty much any vehicle you put him in (though he universally brakes too fast.) Very handy with vehicle maintenance and repairs. Very mechanically inclined – good at welding and machining, good eye for troubleshooting engines and other machines, working knowledge of electrical, pneumatic, and HVAC systems. Close quarters combat, firearms, and field first aid; keeps up to date on certifications and registrations and so on, nags everyone else to do so too. Much better at navigating situations with his eyes closed than the average sighted person. Could probably keep himself alive for a good long time if he were ever stranded in the wilderness. Shoots a mean game of pool.


A hard-ass with a somewhat vicious personality streak, Jane is dedicated to the point of obsession.  A clear product of her time in the military, organization and some level of paranoia are integrated through her entire life. Have her as an ally, and she'll defend you to the death.  Have her as an enemy, and it might be wise to just give up now.
== Powers ==
Scott can punch you with his eyes. Actually, Scott is a walking, talking portal into an alternate dimension consisting only of preternatural kinetic force, and his eyes are the crack in the dam. He tries not to think about the mechanics; it's easier to just say he can punch you with his eyes.


'''Applications:''' It's not clear exactly how much force Scott is capable of funneling through his eyes, or through his visor. He's fond of throwing out hyperbolic guesses, but he's never actually ripped a planet in half or punched a hole in a mountain. (Perhaps he could perforate a small mountain; the planet thing is out of the question.) It's also not entirely clear what comprises his optic blasts; they seem to have properties of both light and force, traveling at the speed of light and capable of ricocheting off dense or polished surfaces while still packing a wallop. Due to this property, Scott has developed an uncanny trigonometric sense, and can pull off elaborate "banked shots" of up to five or six rebounds. He himself is immune to his own optic blasts -- this allows him a handful of low-tech cheats to modulate the force, from squinting to splitting the beam around his fingers, though these methods are imprecise and not very reliable. Absent any modulation, the optic blasts are about the width of his head and powerful enough to push a small car in neutral. His aim is fairly precise, but depends more on the direction of his head than where his eyes are looking; there is no recoil to worry about.


==== BACKGROUND ====
'''Limitations:''' Most obviously (and most notoriously), Scott literally can't turn it off – he is heavily dependent on outside accommodations to control the magnitude of his blasts and prevent accidental discharge; absent these aids his only other recourse is closing his eyes, which is disabling and inconvenient in a different way. The ruby quartz used in these safeguards also renders him red-green colorblind, and both the visor and his glasses restrict his peripheral vision. He can only blast his rays in straight lines based on his natural field of vision, and can only blast in one direction at a time -- the direction the visor is pointed, not the direction he's looking. Neither the visor nor the glasses is completely able to completely block the light his eyes emit; though this is more or less unnoticeable with enough ambient light, it makes Scott quite unstealthy in darkness, unless he closes his eyes.


The military child of a military family, Jane was army from birth. The oldest of three children born to a pair of career army officers, Jane and her siblings had a strict upbringing. As an army brat, Jane did not have a lot of stability in her early life, the family moving from base to base as her parents' assignments changed. Even so, there is a certain kind of familiarity from one base to another, and even with the constant shifting her family was a solid presence in her life.
'''Accommodations:''' Scott has a number of visors and glasses designed to help him control his mutation (he loses or breaks them at a surprising rate.) The glasses are just, like, red glasses; they can't do anything but contain the blast. The visor is capable of a good deal more -- it can narrow the beam to the diameter of a pencil, or widen it up to a 90 degree angle originating from the center of Scott's skull. The narrower the beam, the easier it is to concentrate a high amount of force, but the visor is capable of reducing the emanating force such that the beam amounts to little more than a laser pointer, as well as increasing it until the beam is analogous to a pressurized water cutter. The visor can be controlled with a dial at each of Scott's temples, or remotely via touch sensors in the gloves of his X-Men uniform; these controls are intuitive for Scott now, but they took him a few months to get the hang of, and he has a strong preference for the dials on the visor itself.


In between all the base-hopping and disciplinarianism, Jane's childhood was largely uneventful. Routine, even, as might be expected living from military base to military base. That routine was rather shaken up halfway through her high school career, though, when her mutation first began to manifest. Destructive as her powers were, her manifestation jeopardized her parents' careers as officers. Though not inclined to be overly supportive of their mutant daughter, her parents recognized the danger of having an uncontrolled mutant around and, at least, gave her enough support to get her powers under control so that she didn't end up getting them all thrown off base. As with many things in her life, this support came in the form of additional discipline: you had /better/ learn to control yourself. Or else.
== Resources ==
 
Through the X-Men, pretty much anything the X-Men have access to; his favorites are the plane and his bike. He also has two backup bikes, a Ford Ranger usually loaded up with maintenance tools and equipment, and a car that he mostly uses for auto shop demonstrations, which can no longer be said to be any particular make or model but is, despite appearances, still operational. Around Xavier's or the X-Men he has a little extra leverage due to his seniority (and, though he wouldn't admit it, no small amount of favoritism.) Multiple suits and visors that are able to contain and manipulate his mutation, and scads of ruby-quartz glasses.
With two military parents, there was always a lot of pressure for Jane and her siblings to follow in their footsteps and join the Army as well. Throughout school, Jane always worked hard, and her exemplary academic record let to an acceptance at West Point by the end of high school. The acceptance pleased her parents, earning her their rare and coveted pride -- up until the point where she chose not to join the military academy, instead enlisting straight out of high school. It was the army path, for sure, but certainly not the one her parents had expected for her.
 
Jane's military career was characterized by the same diligence she had applied to her studies up until this point. With her impeccable record, when she applied for the MOS of Explosives and Ammunition, she was assigned there immediately. Distinguishing herself during her deployments to Iraq, Bosnia and Afghanistan, she rose through the ranks, becoming a Master Sergeant by her mid-twenties.
 
Even so, despite her outstanding services, the military is not the most tolerant of institutions. When her mutation came to the notice of her superior officers, it put an end to her military career. Quietly honorably discharged for unsuitability, Jane was forced, for the first time in her life, to join the ranks of civilians and find a place for herself in the regular world. Recently discharged and looking for a job, Jane made her way to New York City, hopeful that in a city so large there would be some niche in which her years of training can be put to good use. After spending some time scraping by in a series of private security gigs, the opening of the Mendel Clinic provided her an opportunity to put her skills to work -- she has been working there as their head of Security, a job which (for better or worse) keeps her quite occupied.
 
 
==== SKILLS ====
Jane's time in the military has left her equipped with a solid base of the skills one might expect from a dedicated soldier. Her specialty was in Explosives and Ammunition, and as such she is experienced with a large range of explosives, weaponry, and ammunition. Her marksmanship is excellent, and she has extensive training in close-quarters combat. Well-trained in resisting interrogation though moderately in giving it, her skill base falls most prominently in the Tough And Mean field of activities.
 
Though her interpersonal skills are not always the best, having attained the rank of Master Sergeant has left her with some skill in the field of leadership and teaching, as well. Though she is far from the most PLEASANT boss to work under, she is good at -- ah -- /encouraging/ her team to achieve their missions. She has some skills in combat first aid, and a lifetime of discipline leaving her fairly well-handled under pressure.
 
Outside of military life, Jane's skill base has not had a lot of room to develop. Living in New York with its abundance of ready cheap takeout is ideal given her general lack of proficiency in the kitchen. Though Jane would never make a good homemaker, she has lately taken up the habit of knitting while TV-watching in her downtime. It's something to do with her hands. One day she might even be good at it!
 
 
==== POWERS ====
Jane's mutation creates forcefields -- though in her case, the shields are more offensive than defensive. She projects strong and highly destructive forcefields, capable of cutting through most materials that they come into contact with.
 
Under normal circumstances, she can create and hold a shield with only minimal concentration for up to half an hour; though it is possible for her to extend their life to a span of a couple hours, longer sustained shielding requires her to be concentrating on little but their upkeep. As well, shielding a greater area is more taxing -- though a smaller size of shield (ten square feet or less) takes little effort on her part, the bigger the area that she attempts to shield, the quicker she will tire and not be able to sustain it. So while she might shield herself for a long period of time with relative ease, expanding the shield to cover, say, an entire apartment complex would expend her energy enough to allow only a quick burst of expended energy before the shield vanishes again. For this reason, her shields are more adept at attack than defense -- creating small projectiles to cut through objects (... or, say, people) requires only brief short bursts of projection, comprising only small surface area; such a use of her powers requires only minimal energy and concentration for a quick attack.
 
Though it takes very little effort for her to create the projections, it takes a good deal of concentration for her to ''keep'' them from damaging things they come into contact with. She is capable of creating shields that do not destroy what they touch, but doing so requires constant and sustained effort from her; a slip of her concentration and her shields will return to their natural cutting state. For Jane, exercise of her powers is much like exercise of her body; overwork will make her drained and tired, though regular practice helps her limits stretch and grow. Her mutation and her physical activity are fueled by the same sources -- so exercise to increase her stamina on one axis is beneficial all around, though, conversely, overtaxing herself physically will also leave her more sluggish and tired when it comes to expending energy with her mutation.
 
 
==== RESOURCES ====
 
A steady job with comfortable benefits, for whatever that's worth when you have to pay Manhattan rents. A decent network of contacts among mutants in the city. A few solid people she can tap from her army days who don't hold the mutant thing against her.

Latest revision as of 05:07, 20 March 2024

Applications on rEvolution are made in the Google Form listed in the #applications channel in Discord. Note that these are only guidelines; for each field you are welcome to be more or less detailed, as you see fit; we don't ask for novels, we ask only that you provide enough to give us a clear concept of your character, and to justify the skills and powers that you want to use once you have been approved.

Below are some applications that have been approved on the game in the past that can be used as examples.

Kitty Pryde - Mutant, FC

any notes about the app could go here. this character has had their app updated since approval -- please see Kitty's page for up to date in game information.

Description

Kitty is short and wiry, all muscle tone and curly brown hair. Standing at 5’2”, she stares people down with big brown eyes and a resting scowl daring people to mess with her. Her forehead is big and a point of adolescent anxiety. She used to care a lot about her appearance - these days she lives in athlesiure wear and messy buns.

Personality

A classic extrovert, Kitty can be incredibly charming when she wants to be - though as she overworks herself more and more, she tends to get snappish. She has incredibly high standards for herself and tries to succeed in all things. She’s starting to burn out from the overextension. She is stubborn and sarcastic. Kitty is solutions-oriented- talk to her if you want advice, not just a hug (intangible hugs aren’t the best.) She sometimes forgives but never forgets - she has held a grudge against a childhood bully for over 20 years now.

Background

Katherine “Kitty” Pryde is the only child of Carmen Pryde and his ex-wife Theresa, second generation Jewish Americans, and the only grandchild of a Holocaust survivor. She grew up in a upper middle class suburb with access to extracurriculars, good public schools, and Jewish community.

Shortly after she turned ten, Kitty was kidnapped after school by members of a Chicago based criminal organization. She was held hostage to threaten her father, who to Kitty’s shock was involved in white-collar crime through the bank he worked at. After her return, Kitty was enrolled in self-defence classes.

After her thirteenth birthday, Kitty began to experience terrible headaches and nightmares of falling through the floor. One day she woke up to find she had fallen through the floor, in the first manifestation of her mutation. She was shortly thereafter recruited to the Xavier School, where she excelled throughout academically. Kitty was fascinated with the X-Men team and joined up as soon as she could.

Though her parents wanted her to return to Chicago for university, Kitty stayed in New York, attending Columbia for undergraduate studies and NYU for her PhD in physics. Even though she had lots of college credit from XS, Kitty still took the full four years to graduate as she tried to balance academics with her obligations as an X-Man. She took a year off after graduation from university to travel and try to regain life balance, something she has always struggled with. Currently she is in year 3 of her PhD in astrophysics at NYU and doing her best.

Skills

Accomplished martial artist - after her kidnapping as a child, Kitty was enrolled in self-defence classes, and arrived at Xavier’s School already familiar with Krav Maga and Brazilian jiujitsu. She took exclusively self-defence and strength classes for her physical education requirement to maintain her aptitude and continues to train.

Flexibility - Kitty began ballet classes at three years old. While she would never get to a competitive level in ballet, her dance training (continued for a time at XS as well) makes her light on her feet in combat and very flexible in general.

Languages - She went to Hebrew School as a child prior to XS and has a good grasp on liturgical Hebrew and a shakier grasp on Modern Hebrew. During her time at XS she took Japanese and has moderate fluency. For her language credit at university, she took Russian, which she has about children’s level fluency in.

Computers - Originally not interested due to her powers interfering with technology, Kitty found herself deeply interested in computer science while at XS. She took extra credits of CS and majored in it for her undergraduate degree.

Leadership - A natural leader, Kitty is quick to identify people’s strengths and weaknesses, which is inherently judgemental. However, she is impatient, a trait that she needs to work on if she wants to lead an X-Team one day. She is good at public speaking.

Powers

Kitty walks through walls. Specifically, Kitty can move the atoms of her body through the atoms of other bodies and objects without destroying or changing them. She can render different parts of her of her body intangible at will, or her whole body to let projectiles pass through her. However, since she learned to control it her phasing has been a conscious ability, so if she is unaware of a projectile it will hit her very tangible body.

After years of training at Xavier School, she has developed control to make objects and other people intangible as long as she is making contact with them. She has only successfully phased two other people with her at a time.

She can only be phased as long as she can hold her breath, since she also passes through air molecules while phased. When she phases through electronics, the current interaction with the displaced atoms tends to short out or damage the device. Denser materials are more difficult for her to phase through, to the point of causing pain. The nature of Adamantium and Vibranium on a molecular level also pose difficulties - phasing through either makes her incredibly ill.

Resources

Financial support from dual-income upper middle class parents. A decent graduate school stipend. The trust of X-Men leadership. A small hatchback car. Access to underworld connections, if she wanted them (she does not).


Scott Summers - Mutant, FC

Description

Scott is reaching middle age with more grace than his omnipresent sunglasses and multiple motorcycles would suggest – he is tall and trim, standing just over six feet, with lean muscles and broad shoulders. He dresses mostly in unassuming workwear, with sturdy materials and good boots, and keeps himself clean-shaven and neat – well, as neat as any shop teacher can hope for. Though he's somewhat handsome, his straight nose and square jaw and full head of hair draw somewhat less attention than his ruby-tinted sunglasses or visor or, on occasion, the ruby-tinted beam of kinetic force that emanates from it.

Personality

Both personally and professionally, Scott projects an overall air of uptightness and rigidity. He takes things seriously, and is often annoyed and kind of offended when others don't have the decency to do the same. His role as a leader and status as an outsider have a kind of chicken-and-egg mutuality; whichever came first, they are both intrinsic to him and to his relationships with others, particularly Xavier and the other X-Men, as Scott often occupies an uncomfortable middle ground between them. He takes it upon himself to make hard decisions, and accepts the unpopularity that accompanies them with a kind of uneasy grace. Scott is extremely level-headed in a crisis, but in a calculating, strategic way that often bulldozes over people's feelings -- his and everyone else's. Most of the time these tactics are pretty effective, so he has no inclination yet to change them. He does have a sense of humor underneath all that, but you could be excused for thinking he doesn't.

Background

Scott Summers discovered his mutation in the same plane crash that orphaned him, when he fired a concussive blast from his eyes in a desperate attempt to slow himself and his brother Alex down as they plummeted to the earth. They both survived, but the crash left Scott with a TBI that would render it difficult for him to recall much from the turbulent years that followed, even if he had interest in doing so. What he does remember has not encouraged him to keep digging. A group home in Nebraska; his separation from his brother; recurring, debilitating migraines; abuse, bullying, and loneliness. At first he convinced himself he'd only imagined what had happened during the crash, but then it started happening again -- at first only in sporadic bursts, but with increasing frequency and intensity. He ran away when he was fifteen, terrified both of his destructive power and of what the others might do to stop it. He was on his own for only a week before Xavier found him.

Though Xavier's was nothing like the orphanage in Omaha (and certainly nothing like the abandoned barns and empty warehouses Scott had stayed in as a runaway), it became more of a home than a school to Scott, who was one of its earliest pupils, along with Jean Grey, whom he grew very close to over time. It was a foregone conclusion to Scott (and probably everyone else) that he would stay and help the Professor with the school once he'd graduated -- his mutation, which was controlled only by a pair of ruby-quartz glasses the Professor's colleague Hank McCoy fashioned for him, was too volatile for him to feel comfortable anywhere else. At first he just hung around doing odd jobs and tinkering with Xavier's cars, but as the school grew in size and in reputation, these odd jobs started solidifying into a more concrete role (eventually, it even had a concrete salary instead of an as-needs allowance.)

Scott was not the only one of Xavier's pupils to stay on after graduating; he and a handful of other alumni, including Jean, worked together to help the Professor locate and reach out to young mutants in crisis, honing and adapting their mutations to help with this -- as much to demonstrate the use and application of the X-gene as to assist their prospective students. Scott's mutation was more difficult to work around than most, but Hank and the Professor designed a visor that could use ruby-quartz to block, direct, and focus the effects of his power. The newer students called their group the X-Men, nicknaming Scott "Cyclops" for the one-eyed appearance the visor gave him. Under Xavier's guidance the X-Men grew into protectors and humanitarians, both for the local mutant community and for the world at large. At first Xavier actively oversaw these activities, but as their scope expanded, Scott began to take on more responsibility, and eventually was appointed the official team leader.

Between Xavier's School and the X-Men, Scott kept himself busy, focussing on his work more than on anything else (including Jean, which might have posed a more serious problem if they didn't work together.) His faith in Xavier was difficult to shake -- their infrequent disagreements couldn't override the sense of purpose the X-Men gave Scott, nor his dedication to his mentor's vision of cooperation and coexistence. It was more difficult to find faith in himself; as the X-Men and the broader mutant community faced worsening threats and disunity, Scott was faced with impossible choices and compromises, some of them devastating to him and to the team. He clung to the belief that they were still ultimately doing good -- that was what really mattered, right?

Skills

Can figure out how to drive or fly pretty much any vehicle you put him in (though he universally brakes too fast.) Very handy with vehicle maintenance and repairs. Very mechanically inclined – good at welding and machining, good eye for troubleshooting engines and other machines, working knowledge of electrical, pneumatic, and HVAC systems. Close quarters combat, firearms, and field first aid; keeps up to date on certifications and registrations and so on, nags everyone else to do so too. Much better at navigating situations with his eyes closed than the average sighted person. Could probably keep himself alive for a good long time if he were ever stranded in the wilderness. Shoots a mean game of pool.

Powers

Scott can punch you with his eyes. Actually, Scott is a walking, talking portal into an alternate dimension consisting only of preternatural kinetic force, and his eyes are the crack in the dam. He tries not to think about the mechanics; it's easier to just say he can punch you with his eyes.

Applications: It's not clear exactly how much force Scott is capable of funneling through his eyes, or through his visor. He's fond of throwing out hyperbolic guesses, but he's never actually ripped a planet in half or punched a hole in a mountain. (Perhaps he could perforate a small mountain; the planet thing is out of the question.) It's also not entirely clear what comprises his optic blasts; they seem to have properties of both light and force, traveling at the speed of light and capable of ricocheting off dense or polished surfaces while still packing a wallop. Due to this property, Scott has developed an uncanny trigonometric sense, and can pull off elaborate "banked shots" of up to five or six rebounds. He himself is immune to his own optic blasts -- this allows him a handful of low-tech cheats to modulate the force, from squinting to splitting the beam around his fingers, though these methods are imprecise and not very reliable. Absent any modulation, the optic blasts are about the width of his head and powerful enough to push a small car in neutral. His aim is fairly precise, but depends more on the direction of his head than where his eyes are looking; there is no recoil to worry about.

Limitations: Most obviously (and most notoriously), Scott literally can't turn it off – he is heavily dependent on outside accommodations to control the magnitude of his blasts and prevent accidental discharge; absent these aids his only other recourse is closing his eyes, which is disabling and inconvenient in a different way. The ruby quartz used in these safeguards also renders him red-green colorblind, and both the visor and his glasses restrict his peripheral vision. He can only blast his rays in straight lines based on his natural field of vision, and can only blast in one direction at a time -- the direction the visor is pointed, not the direction he's looking. Neither the visor nor the glasses is completely able to completely block the light his eyes emit; though this is more or less unnoticeable with enough ambient light, it makes Scott quite unstealthy in darkness, unless he closes his eyes.

Accommodations: Scott has a number of visors and glasses designed to help him control his mutation (he loses or breaks them at a surprising rate.) The glasses are just, like, red glasses; they can't do anything but contain the blast. The visor is capable of a good deal more -- it can narrow the beam to the diameter of a pencil, or widen it up to a 90 degree angle originating from the center of Scott's skull. The narrower the beam, the easier it is to concentrate a high amount of force, but the visor is capable of reducing the emanating force such that the beam amounts to little more than a laser pointer, as well as increasing it until the beam is analogous to a pressurized water cutter. The visor can be controlled with a dial at each of Scott's temples, or remotely via touch sensors in the gloves of his X-Men uniform; these controls are intuitive for Scott now, but they took him a few months to get the hang of, and he has a strong preference for the dials on the visor itself.

Resources

Through the X-Men, pretty much anything the X-Men have access to; his favorites are the plane and his bike. He also has two backup bikes, a Ford Ranger usually loaded up with maintenance tools and equipment, and a car that he mostly uses for auto shop demonstrations, which can no longer be said to be any particular make or model but is, despite appearances, still operational. Around Xavier's or the X-Men he has a little extra leverage due to his seniority (and, though he wouldn't admit it, no small amount of favoritism.) Multiple suits and visors that are able to contain and manipulate his mutation, and scads of ruby-quartz glasses.