Application : high_seas

[tactilelearner]

[Name]: Lynn
[Age]: 26
[Contacts]:
♦ DW: sepiaepiphany
♦ AIM: celia0sword
♦ Plurk: harlequindream
[Timezone]: PST
[Other Characters]:
Kyouya Otori - hostclubshadowking
Alex Tate - oneofthelost



[Name]: Rogue
[Canon]: X-Men Evolution
[Age]: 17
[Gender]: Female
[Canon Point]: post series

[History]:
Plot summary
Episode summaries

[Personality]:
Rogue wants to be seen as a loner, someone who doesn’t need anyone, manages to take care of herself, and doesn’t care what everyone else thinks about her. She is described by one of her friends as “the girl who shuts herself off from the world.” In actuality, that’s pretty far removed from the truth.

Rogue cares about people and doing the right thing. She doesn’t always manage to live up to her own standards, but she tries. Even when she’s with the Brotherhood, she’s quick to try and stop arguments that come up between them and the X-men at school. When Scott threatens Todd (whom Rogue has made no effort to hide she can’t stand), she’s ready to protect Todd simply because it’s the right thing to do. When Evan is picked on at school following the reveal of mutants, Rogue steps in against the two bullies. She returns, even after learning that she was lied to and used by him, to help Gambit save his father, despite storming off. If it means doing the right thing and helping the people she cares about, Rogue is willing to risk almost impossible odds. When Jean’s powers begin to go out of control, Rogue risks herself to get close enough to siphon some of the energy out of Jean so Scott can reach her and talk her down. Later, she uses the powers of a child, Leech, to take down Mystique, who is under the influence of Apocalypse, and, ultimately, shut down Apocalypse’s power and trap him.

Despite her desire to do the right thing, Rogue is troubled, and that leads to a great amount of anger. Mystique lets it slip to Rogue, when she is among the Brotherhood, that the X-men are using her in their training simulations. In reaction to this, Rogue challenges Scott to a race on snowmobiles, nearly killing the person with her, Scott, and the person with him in a reckless disregard for safety that surprises everyone. When it’s revealed that Mystique impersonated the X-men to frighten Rogue into joining her, Rogue switches sides, abandoning her former allies. Later, she learns that the one friend she’d made outside the X-men (a girl from England named Risty) was really Mystique in disguise. The betrayal sends Rogue into a destructive spiral, already set in motion by the personalities she’d absorbed. In one lucid, angry moment (before she struggles to control herself), Rogue responds to an attempt to calm her down by stating that she has no friends, the revelation about Risty having left her unable to trust anyone. When Gambit accidentally touches Rogue during the rescue of his father and she learns that, once again, she was used for her powers, she abandons him (temporarily), right at the door to the house of a family that wants him dead and has his father as bait to draw him there. Mesmero and Mystique use Rogue to gather the powers of the X-men, Brotherhood, and Acolytes to wake Apocalypse. During this, Mystique is apparently turned to stone, and her son, Nightcrawler, gets the statue. When told that she can help save Mystique (who has also been revealed to be her mother), Rogue struggles with the decision. She finally gives way to anger, however, and pushes the statue off a cliff, destroying it. The act continues to haunt her until it’s revealed that Mystique was not, in fact, trapped inside the statue.

Rogue values her agency. Having been used and lied to so many times, the ability to make her own decisions is very important to Rogue. She turns on Mystique, joining the X-men, when she learns that her choice was manipulated by Mystique posing as the X-men to make her afraid of them. She is also in favor of Kitty and Lance going to the dance together, telling Kitty not to worry what anyone else thinks. When the personalities inside of her try to take over, it is Logan who helps her fight the most, reminding her that the Rogue he knows wouldn’t let anyone push her around. Her reaction to Gambit kidnapping her (claiming he wants to help, as she’d been talking about leaving the X-men) is to get him to untie her then hang him out of the train car while telling him she doesn’t like to be pushed into decisions. She pulls him back in only when he threatens to blow the car up. When she returns to the X-men, she does so because she wants to.

A teenage girl is going to have crushes, and Rogue is no exception. She is shown to have a very minor, likely very passing crush on a student involved in the high school’s theatre, but little is ever made of that. The two crushes that receive the most attention are on Scott Summers and Gambit. Both of these, interestingly enough, begin after the person she has them on attempted to kill her. In the case of Scott, it was actually Mystique, disguised as Scott, who seemed to attack her, but the fact remains that Rogue thought it was Scott. The two were assigned a school project, and Rogue flirted heavily though it. After joining the X-men (and learning the truth), the flirting was toned down but still present, though it stopped shortly after Scott and Jean officially became a couple. Gambit actually attempted to kill Rogue. When he shows up at Bayville High (looking for the Brotherhood, who no longer attend) and threatens two bullies who were giving the X-men problems, Rogue is quick to engage. He leaves, and she follows, dragging Kitty along (and telling no one else) despite having another class to attend. When possessed by Mesmero and collecting powers for Apocalypse, Rogue takes on the Acolytes one by one. Though she is being controlled, Mesmero’s powers seem to only dictate the end result (as seen when he controls Gambit and others, who use their powers to his goal but retain personality flairs), and she steals Gambit’s powers after fighting her way close enough not with a touch (as she does to everyone else) but a peck on the lips. Despite being angry enough at being kidnapped to lean Gambit out of a train car, Rogue makes no attempt to escape once they reach Louisiana and actually seems to enjoy herself with Gambit until she learns he was using her. Even then, she returns to help and ultimately keeps the gift he gives her -- the Queen of Hearts from his deck of cards, a card he referred to as his “lucky lady.”

Rogue has a very interesting relationship with her power. She grasps it quickly and is even excited when she realizes how to control the abilities she takes from others, at least for a short time. When she first steals from Nightcrawler and figures out his teleportation, she smiles and even laughs, amazed at what she can do. As she understands them better, she’s careful with them, but she uses them. Rogue is, to some degree, the ace in the hole for the X-men. Besides being able to take powers, the fringe benefit of her held touch knocking out an opponent is sometimes put to use, and she’s often able to fight fire with fire, absorbing a power and throwing it back at the person she got it from, such as when she takes on Blob to help Jean, who he has kidnapped, despite being part of the Brotherhood. She volunteers herself, also, to siphon power off Jean when it gets to be too much so Scott can reach her and help her control herself. She uses it several times when in New Orleans with Gambit, taking down the people who would otherwise have hurt him. However, she does show some quiet resentment of her power when the topic of closeness comes up. She tells Scott she wishes she could actually get close to people and scoffs when Kitty mentions her going to the dance because “No touching? Sounds like a fun way to dance, huh?” When Gambit removes her glove for her and puts her hand close to him, telling her to touch him and see for herself that he means her no harm, she pulls away. Despite having the offer and that it would probably be safest if she knew what was going on, Rogue chooses to use her power only when she sees no other alternative, not as a first resort.

Ultimately, what Rogue fears is rejection. She has been a pawn so many times, she worries people will use and discard her. Even her friends, people she knows care about her, are subject to this fear. She has a use to the X-men, after all, and there is the distinct but quiet fear that she will outgrow that usefulness. When that happens, she expects and fears that they’ll simply abandon her. To protect herself, Rogue attempts (even if she doesn’t succeed) to keep everyone at a distance, physically and emotionally.

Rogue wants to be seen as everything her codename implies: alone, aloof, and self-reliant. In reality, she is a scared girl who is devoted to her friends. Her temper may sometimes get the better of her, but she always tries to do the right thing. No task is too small or too daunting when something important (whether it’s personal, like her friends, or much larger, like the world) is on the line.

[Abilities / Strengths & Weaknesses]:
Rogue’s power is tied to touch. The slightest brush of skin-to-skin contact (especially if she and the other person are unprepared for it) results in the transfer of someone’s personality, emotions, and abilities to Rogue. It can also result in pain for one or both parties, especially the person touched. A controlled tap is shown to just transfer minor things, such as when Rogue uses it to borrow Kitty’s dance moves and also momentarily picks up her speech patterns. However, when both parties are unprepared, such as when Gambit’s knuckle brushes her face, she is capable of knocking someone out with just a bit. Usually, that kind of damage is a concentrated effort, as Rogue uses it for a two-fold purpose: to knock out an enemy mutant and borrow their powers. The longer she touches someone, the longer she keeps their powers and displays their personality obviously. While Evolution does not show the ultimate form of this power, it’s safe to assume that this incarnation of Rogue, like her comic book predecessor, could kill someone and permanently keep their powers if she held onto them until they died. If Rogue takes several powers in rapid succession, she can combine them.

However, even once the obvious signs fade, the core of the personality and the muscle memory of the abilities appears to retain. Like with Kitty’s dancing, which is retained, sometimes this is a very minor, low-key occurrence. Other times, it’s very dangerous. When strong influences build up in Rogue, their personalities think the body is theirs and can and will war over control. All of the latent powers she has borrowed up not used manifest as the personalities battle for control. A strong telepath is needed to remove or lock away the various out of place fragments, leaving Rogue physically and mentally drained for several days, at least.

Rogue is also shown to be trained in gymnastics and probably martial arts. She primarily fights without her powers and is shown dodging attacks and delivering her own with honed skill long before she takes the powers of anyone who might have had that knowledge. She is shown briefly using either a shuriken or throwing knife with great accuracy. She is also capable of using a bo staff, though whether that is a result of prior training or having absorbed Gambit’s powers in ‘Dark Horizon’ is difficult to tell. Most likely, it is from prior training, since the powers she takes from Gambit and the others are all siphoned out of her by Apocalypse, but the muscle memory might have remained.

[Limited Powers]:
Unlike in the show, when Rogue absorbs someone’s powers, she will not display them at full capacity and control. Instead, she will be able to control them as much as the person she has borrowed them from in world, subject to any restrictions placed by the setting. (I can further limit this if the mods would prefer.)

[Other Important Facts]:
Due to the nature of her powers, any skin-to-skin contact will be discussed in detail before it happens. (Permission post here.)

Additionally, it will take touching twelve different people and absorbing their powers before Rogue begins to go out of control, as seen in ‘Self-Possessed.’ (Which will be tracked here under 'additions'.)

[Samples]:
♦ Thread:
Test Sail post
♦ Post:
[It’s a little weird, but Rogue’s trying very, very hard to think of the book as a kind of tablet. Light, portable, and communication-based. “Magic book” just sounds weird in her head. Not that she dismisses the idea. Because, well, after Apocalypse? And… everything?

Anything is possible.]

I never got to go on the ocean before.

[Today, she’s writing. Why? Because she doesn’t want to disturb her crewmates, whom she has a break from. It’s quieter to write, won’t disturb them while they’re working.]

Only experience I have is a twelve-foot motorized boat in a Louisiana bayou, and that’s pretty different from all of this. I’m trying to learn, though, and I think I’m getting the hang of it.

[Without thinking, she mutters to herself:]

Could make it a lot easier, but I don’ know how that’d go over. Don’ need any trouble righ’ now.

[She shakes her head, dismissing the thought.]

Guess all I can do is give it some time. At least I’m not seasick, right?

I do miss my friends, though. But that’s only natural, isn’t it?

I’ll be fine, though. Always am.