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Rachel Anne Summers — Phoenix II (cosmicflame) wrote,
@ 2021-09-14 22:59:00

Rachel Summers — Profile

Rachel Summers

Vital Statistics Full Name: Rachel Anne Summers
Nicknames: Ray, Red

Species: Homo superior
Gender: Female
Age: 23
Birth Date: In an alternate future, reality designation Earth-811
Birthplace: Annandale-on-Hudson, New York

Home Location: Earth-811 (her original time, aka Days of Future Past) and Earth-616 (the main Marvel Comics Universe)
Colligo Residence: The X-Mansion
Home Occupation: None; X-Men team member
Colligo Occupation: None

Mutant Classification Codename: Phoenix
Mutation Level: Omega

Mutant Abilities: Telepathy, telekinesis, and projecting her astral self through time. Additionally, she has become the Phoenix.

Telepathy
Rachel inherited her mother's telepathic ability, and it has many uses. She can read minds, track someone by their telepathic signature, shield her own or another's thoughts, project her thoughts into another's mind, alter or control thoughts and memories, psionically attack with "psibolts", separate her astral form from her body, and create telepathic illusions. The latter is used almost constantly to mask her Hound marks from anyone's perception, including her own.

Telekinesis
This was also inherited from her mother. She can manipulate matter with her mind to an incredibly fine degree that includes rearranging molecules (such as her clothing) and atomic structures; and on a larger scale she can levitate enormous weights, "fly" and carry others, destroy or reassemble physical objects, and create shields against physical and energetic forces.

Astral projection across time
Her own unique mutation lacks a definitive name. Basically, she can project her astral form across time, or exchange someone's mind with their own (or a genetically similar body) in another time; for instance, she temporarily placed a middle-aged Kate Pryde's mind into the teenage Kitty Pryde's body. With this alone, she cannot physically travel time— but with her power enhanced by the Phoenix, she can indeed take both mind and body through time. This has been referred to with terms such as "time-slip", "time-switch", "time-warp", and "time jump"; some sources call this "chronoskimming". Perhaps because of this ability, she unconsciously generates a "fourth-dimensional pulse" that protects her from outside temporal interference, like timelines crashing together.

The Phoenix
After Rachel went into the past, she took on her mother's legacy and embraced the power and mantle of the Phoenix. The Phoenix is a primal cosmic force of life and passion, representing both the beginning and the ending of all things. As the celestial avatar, Rachel's innate powers are greatly enhanced, along with additional capabilities such as absorbing great amounts of energy, manipulating lifeforces, creating stargates to cross the universe, surviving in space, and having a cosmic awareness of life and nature. While acting as the Phoenix, she is often surrounded by its cosmic flames or its signature image of a fiery raptor; these "flames" are not actual fire, generating light but not heat.

Depending on the writer and interpretation, the Phoenix is either a completely separate consciousness ("the Phoenix Force") that once lived as Jean Grey without actually being Jean's true self, or Jean Grey herself became one and the same as the Phoenix and the power (rather than a celestial being) is called the Phoenix Force. The Jean/Phoenix issue is very much complicated; regardless of what exactly the Phoenix's relationship to Jean is, Rachel took on the name and power of Phoenix, not Jean.

Affiliation: X-Men

Personality & History Key words: empathetic; grief-stricken and guilt-ridden; impulsive; rebellious; resilient; resolute; somber; stubborn; volatile; sometimes ruthless; sometimes self-absorbed without being self-aware; deep-down mischievous

When Rachel was young, she lost nearly everything. Her parents, Jean Grey and Scott Summers, were murdered for being mutants; her maternal grandparents were killed in anti-mutant riots; and at fourteen, she witnessed Professor Xavier's death in a military attack on the X-Mansion, which only Rachel survived. Anti-mutant forces abducted her. For a year, she was tortured and conditioned her to make her a "Hound"— a slave used to psychically hunt down fellow mutants so that humans could kill them— but she eventually broke her free of her conditioning. She was imprisoned with the few surviving X-Men and Magneto in a mutant concentration camp. She became key in a plot to change the past so that their dystopian time would never happen. Rachel's role was to use her unique mutant ability to send Kate Pryde's consciousness back in time, and in Kitty Pryde's body could prevent a key assassination. Unfortunately, most of the group died trying to carry out the plan, leaving only Rachel and Kate. After changing the past apparently failed, Kate wanted Rachel to have a second chance at life. Rachel physically transported herself back through time, triggered by a posthypnotic suggestion from Kate. Rachel quickly discovered that it was the wrong past after all, over a decade before her birth but in a timeline in which she would never be born. Whoops.

Despite her history, Rachel isn't irreparably broken and still believes in Xavier's dream. As one of the X-Men, she fought for it while struggling with her guilt and anger. She grieved her mother a second time after learning that Jean had died as Phoenix in this timeline. She tended to overreact and lash out with her powers when people she cared about were threatened; when humans meant to kill Kitty Pryde, Rachel would have killed them if Magneto hadn't reminded her that she'd then be no better than those who put them in camps. Soon Rachel took on for herself the power and name of the Phoenix, intending to make up for her mother's mistakes so that "Phoenix" would again stand for good.

Rachel's tendency towards impulsive and emotional decisions leads her to abuse her powers. For instance, she stole the X-Men's lifeforces to battle the Beyonder and nearly destroyed the universe just to stop him, until Ororo Monroe (Storm) convinced her not to make that terrible mistake. The X-Men were Not Happy at what Rachel had done; only Rogue and Kitty had willingly volunteered their lifeforces, and Ororo protested but Rachel took hers anyway. In the aftermath of that incident, Rachel went up against the Black Queen, Selene, seeking vengeance for Selene's victims and to wipe out the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. Wolverine confronted Rachel with the fact that X-Men don't murder, but she said he'd have to kill her to stop her— so he stabbed her through the heart and lungs. She barely clung to life by holding her wounds closed with telekinesis. Believing that the X-Men must hate her and utterly exhausted by everything, she was all too easily lured into a reality-snatching trap [her canon point].

Rachel is in something of a delayed adolescence thanks to her traumatic past. Since what would've been her teenage years were spent as a Hound and later in the concentration camp, she's new to experiencing the intense emotions, hormonal confusion, and boundary pushing that are common amongst teens. There's still a lot of psychological healing to do, and she has to learn how to properly control her powers and use them responsibly.

Abilities: Lockpicking and other burglary skills, some knowledge of robotics and engineering via experience with the Sentinels, use of some future technology (due to coming from the future), swordfighting.
Weaknesses: Magic and magical objects resist all of her abilities, Phoenix power included, but they can still affect her. Very short fuse. Despite the usefulness of her abilities to search for people, being asked to upsets her (sometimes to the point of going catatonic) since it reminds her of being a Hound.

Likes: cheeseburgers and especially bacon-cheeseburgers with all the trimmings, french fries, Coke, coffee, apple pie, orange juice, the paranormal, science fiction and fantasy
Dislikes: collars, porridge, wearing green, picking up on raunchy thoughts
Fears: losing control of her Phoenix abilities, failing her mother's dreams for her, tarnishing her mother's legacy, the possibility of ever returning to her home era or seeing its attitudes and events repeated, robots, artificial intelligence

Religion: Agnostic
Politics: No involvement
Education: Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, until it was destroyed when she was 14

Appearance Height: 5'7"
Weight: 125 lbs
Build: A bit scrawny; she is recovering from malnutrition in the mutant concentration camp
Eyes: Green
Hair: Red, short
Skin: Fair

Wardrobe: She has not yet developed a personal style, as she's still getting used to the freedom to select (or telekinetically rearrange) clothes.

Distinguishing Marks: Hound marks— tattoos of black lines radiating from the center of her face— which she telepathically masks from perception. Sometimes this masking drops, especially when using her Phoenix powers rather than her mutant abilities. (The arrangement of these marks greatly varies by the artist depicting them)

Manner of Speech: Rachel is well-spoken and does not have a strong regional accent. Sometimes her speech can become distracted while she picks up on thoughts. Something different happens to her voice when she unleashes her Phoenix powers, stronger and more forceful. (In the comics, this is indicated by a speech bubble with thick, wavy borders)

General Presence: It has been remarked that Rachel is like some Holocaust survivors, carrying guilt for having lived when others died, and for doing terrible things to survive. Even without being the Phoenix, Rachel is a psionic of the highest level. As those abilities aren't usually reflected in her appearance, she can easily be underestimated by her looks. Physically, she isn't imposing at all; psychically and to those who can sense power, she is.

Relationships Orientation: Heterosexual
Status: Single
Significant Other: N/A
Children: None
Past Love(s): Franklin Richards

Technically, all of Rachel's family is dead; but alternate counterparts exist in the main Marvel Universe
Parents: Jean Grey and Scott Summers
Sibling(s): Half-brother Nathan Christopher Charles Summers (later known as Cable), sort of, as their shared father isn't of the same reality, and Nathan's mother was a clone of Jean... but Rachel bonded with him despite the complications
Relatives: Alex Summers (aka Havok, uncle), Lorna Dane-Summers (aka Polaris, married to Alex in Rachel's past), Christopher Summers (aka Corsair, paternal grandfather), Sara Grey-Bailey (aunt), John and Elaine Grey (maternal grandparents)

Best Friend(s): Katherine "Kitty"/"Kate" Pryde
Friends: Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler), Logan (Wolverine), Ororo Monroe (Storm), Piotr/Peter Rasputin (Colossus), Rogue (Earth-616, unknown to Rachel in Earth-811)
Mentors: Professor Charles Xavier, "Magnus" (aka Magneto, real name never revealed to her before Colligo)

Disliked: Loki; Hela; Dr. Doom; Cain Marko and Black Tom Cassidy of Earth-616 (but neither in her own time)
Enemies: Ahab, Master of the Hounds; Sentinels; Nimrod; Selene and the Hellfire Club; The Beyonder

Random Trivia Rachel was born in her mother's parents' house.

Rachel, as a baby, had a Bamf (Nightcrawler) plushie.

As children, Rachel and Franklin used to play hide-and-seek in the dinosaur sections of the American Museum of Natural History.

In her early teens, Rachel was one of the New Mutants.

In Rachel's home era, Storm taught her burglary skills. In the main timeline, she learned swordfighting by watching Kitty's ninja skills.

Like her mother, Rachel sometimes focuses her powers meditating while sitting cross-legged— and levitating a few feet off the ground.

Alhough Rachel very much believes in Xavier's dream of peace between mutants and humans, to the point of giving impromptu speeches to those straying from it, she sometimes rants about humans for their anti-mutant actions and thus sounds just as bigoted herself.

Xavier used to tell her, "Murder is for the unimaginative."

Rogue said of Rachel knocking down a construction site to stop Nimrod, "What a mess! Looks like, when the chips're down, Ray's as nasty an' ruthless as Wolverine!" (Uncanny X-Men #194)

Magneto once said of Rachel, "In too many tragic ways, we are kindred souls— survivors of the holocaust, children of the abyss." In her time, he was "both friend and hero" and took charge of the X-Men after Xavier's death. (Uncanny X-Men #196)

She also said to Magneto, "We're much alike, Magneto. We saw those we loved herded to their death. We couldn't save them. Now we both have a second chance." Unfortunately, the second chance she had in mind was destroying the universe to give it a fresh start. (Uncanny X-Men #203)

Rachel has referenced or shown interest in Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter (as of her 2000s appearances), possibly Farscape ("frelling").

Hela, Norse goddess, called Rachel "Starsoul Firehair" and "child of light and darkness". (X-Men Annual #9)

The Beyonder called Rachel "newborn star". (Uncanny X-Men #202)

In later appearances, she is sometimes called "Starchilde", usually by non-Earthlings.

When Rachel met her newborn sort-of-half-brother, she formed a psychic link with him so he could always call on her for help.

Rachel's hair was buzzcut in the camps, so she started growing it out after her time travel to Earth-616. These comic issues were published in the eighties, so this naturally meant growing it into eighties hair— still short, but with a rat-tail braid. A few years later in Excalibur, she had a mullet. Many, many comic characters also had mullets, but hers became a flaming mullet in Phoenix mode. The timeline for

cosmicflame is adjusted forward so that she exists in more current times, and thus she has no such hairstyles, via handwaving retcon of please-no-mullets-ever-that's-too-tragic.

OOC Information Fandom: Marvel Universe
Canon Point: Uncanny X-Men #209, in which she disappeared after being stabbed by Logan— but before her last pages where she was kidnapped by Spiral to Mojoworld. Instead, she has been kidnapped by the Collector.
Why Collected: She comes from Earth-811, which is a different reality from the mainstream Marvel comics and the movieverse, and she has been called unique in the multiverse, said to have no true alternate counterparts. Also this.
Played-By (Actor): Carey Mulligan
Mun (Player): Immora
Layout Credit:

immora, adapted from a layout by

rp_tutorials
Disclaimer: This is a roleplaying journal and has no affiliation with Carey Mulligan or Marvel Comics and subsidiaries. The header image is "Rachel Summers: PHOENIX 2" by Rain Beredo.