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xenamorph Mun
Name: Yon Fellow
Livejournal/Dreamwidth Username:yonfellow
E-mail: brockmtungen@gmail.com
AIM/MSN:
Current Characters at Luceti:
Harry Dresden | The Dresden Files |quicktoanger
Obi-Wan Kenobi | Star Wars |averybadfeeling
Character
Name: Rachel Berenson
Fandom: Animorphs
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Time Period: Immediately following chapter 4 of Animorphs #54: The Beginning and The Ellimist Chronicles
Wing Color: Brown and grey-white, in the pattern of a bald eagle
History: Rachel's biography can be found here.
Personality:
Rachel Berenson's most defining personality trait has always been aggression. Prior to her involvement in the fight against the Yeerks, she was always proactive and forceful in her outlook on life. She faced challenges without hesitation, bluntly calling out behavior she objected to and pushing herself to perform well in gymnastics. Once she became entangled in the Yeerk invasion and helped to found the small resistance known as the Animorphs, however, those challenges were forgotten as she faced the more important battle for human freedom.
In battling the Yeerks, her aggressive nature took a firm center-stage, marking her in the group as the first to accept an active, dangerous plan, to the point of recklessness. Where the others would allow emotional or tactical concerns to interfere, Rachel's only concern when volunteering for such a mission was to ask if it was worth the effort- and usually, she felt that it was.
Initially, Rachel had a somewhat philosophical aspect to her personality, and she used to keep a bulletin board full of pithy quotes and zen words of wisdom, but as the war dragged on, the words of wisdom were quickly replaced by Sun Tzu and messages about being aggressive and pursuing your goals, her deeper side taking a back seat to her role in the war.
This is not to say she was incapable of restraint, or of tactical planning. She was good at using resources and forming strategies on the fly, and she was capable of analyzing strengths and weaknesses quickly. In fact, she often assumed a secondary leadership role when Jake, the appointed leader of the group, was unable to do so. However, it was never a role she excelled at, and her few attempts at leadership were undermined by her impatient aggression.
As the war dragged on, the role of the aggressive champion began to give way to more violent and ruthless callings. Unlike Jake and Marco, who learned to make the difficult decisions by distancing themselves from their emotional concerns, Rachel instead found herself relying on her emotions and instincts- and as her instincts grew more efficient, she found it easier to be more deadly and vicious. She had her concerns about the effect this was having on her mental health, but again, she viewed her role in the struggle as a more immediate concern.
Rachel's home life was fairly idealistic prior to the war, living a comfortable upper-middle-class lifestyle and relatively at peace despite her parents divorcing, and while she certainly favored her father in terms of personality and behavior, she still had a very close bond with her mother and sisters, enjoying a very quiet sort of comfort in their presence despite the eternal fear of Yeerk infestation. However, by the end of the series, her relationship with her mother was extremely tense, with the two similarly-aggressive personalities fraying at each other as her mother consistently refused to accept the guidance of the more experienced Animorphs. As such, Rachel never truly reconciled with her mother prior to her death.
Strengths:
The most significant strength Rachel brings to the table is also her defining characteristic: she's a warrior. She's good at fighting. She fights almost instinctively, with the most straightforward and dangerous approach being her first option whenever the chips are down. She's brave to the point of recklessness, and she refuses to back down from a challenge, whether it's physical or emotional. When it came time for the craziest, most dangerous, most suicidal missions, Rachel was almost always the one the team turned to.
While her appearance can and has led some to believe she's a shallow mall-hopper, she's actually quite sharp mentally. While her academic performance prior to the outbreak of the war wasn't stellar, she does have a keen mind for strategy and can perceive strengths and weaknesses in a target rather well. The only thing stopping her from equalling her cousin's instinctive strategic ability is her aggression- her reckless tactics put the team in extreme danger, but were also undeniably very effective, and it is this same perception and strategic instinct that allows her to be so effective in fights.
Physically, she has the ability to acquire the DNA of any animal she touches, and later to transform into that animal. Of all the Animorphs, she always had the largest number of potential morphs. She tends to favor large, powerful morphs. Her favorite bird of prey is the Bald Eagle, and her two preferred battle morphs are the African Elephant and the Grizzly Bear. She likes a morph that's too powerful to stop and too tough to bring down. She has also spent much of her life involved in gymnastics, in which she performed well despite her height, and so her human form is in good shape, flexible, and relatively strong- for a teenaged girl- as well as being considered fairly attractive conventionally.
A full list of morphs available to Rachel can be found here
Weaknesses:
The biggest strength for Rachel is also the biggest weakness. Her fierce aggression and reckless rage have gotten her into more than her share of trouble, and it has only gotten worse as she battled the Yeerks. She scares her cousin, she scares the team, and at times she even scares herself- because there is a part of her, she knows, that isn't just good at fighting. A part of her that enjoys it.
Her emotional instability extends beyond anger. Like all the Animorphs, she has been undeniably changed by the battle, and not for the better. She's lived in a constant state of stress and exhaustion for years, slowly losing her grip on her humanity, and becoming distant from everybody who wasn't on the team with her, partly out of paranoia and partly due to her increasing inability to relate. She spent her formative years unable to confide in anybody, knowing that anybody in her life could be a slave to the Yeerks who would enslave her and her friends at a moment's notice.
Her violent tendencies, however, have served even to alienate her from the rest of the team on occasion, as she became more distant from even her cousin and her closest friend. The only person she's truly become close to is Tobias, who she relates to very personally. Tobias is one of the few ties Rachel has left to her humanity- ironic, since he is himself trapped in the form of a hawk- and on the rare occasions when Rachel displays her gentle side, it is typically toward him.
Even he, however, has been the victim of her flaws- because of the extremes she has been forced to visit and the virtual lack of human connections, she occasionally became somewhat selfish and manipulative emotionally toward him. The most pointed example of this is her repeated attempts to convince Tobias to trap himself in human form again, as a Nothlit, and return to a normal life- a normal life he himself hated, but one that would make it easier for her to be close to him. At one point, she even attempted to trick him into becoming a nothlit against his wishes, bringing him to a dance and attempting to distract him until his time had run out.
Mentally, Rachel's intelligence and instincts have been poorly honed- while she is perceptive, her judgment is clouded by her emotional tendencies. While she is smart, she hasn't taken any particular pains to educate herself. While she has a keen strategic mind, she rarely is capable of the patience or the subtlety to carry out any plan that doesn't revolve around destructive violence. Her former thoughtful and philosophical tendencies as a child were abandoned, with the wisdom and inspirational phrases she once kept in her room to center herself being replaced by aggressive and militant ones. Additionally, Rachel occasionally struggles with claustrophobia, even suffering panic attacks when in a tight, confined space for a long period of time, such as when tunneling to the Yeerk Pool in the form of a mole.
Physically, Rachel may be in exceptional shape for a 16-year-old girl, but she's a 16-year-old girl nonetheless. She has no extraordinary strength or durability by human standards, rendering her quite vulnerable in human form. These limits apply to all of her morphs- while they are often faster, tougher, or otherwise more powerful than her human form, they are still fairly typical examples of their species, no tougher or stronger than another of their kind.
The morphing technology itself has a number of limitations. Before she can use an animal form, she must acquire its DNA by touching it while in human form. While tight clothing- typically skintight- can be absorbed into a morph, any loose clothing, shoes, or other items cannot, which can lead to the clothing being destroyed if the morph is too large. Morphing too often is tiring both mentally and physically, and it is at times slow and invariably unpredictable- to say nothing of quite unpleasant to look at. These weaknesses are compounded by the fact that you cannot shift directly from one morph to another- you must first pass through your own natural form. Rachel herself is also allergic, specifically, to the DNA of crocodiles, and suffers from severe side effects and a loss of control of her morphing ability when the DNA is in her system, eventually leading to the expulsion of a fully formed crocodile, and it is unknown if she is allergic to any other DNA of creatures she has yet to acquire. However, the most pointed weakness of the morphing technology is the time limit- if you stay in morph for longer than two hours, you become trapped in that form, unable to return to your natural shape, known in the Andalite language as a nothlit. This time limit is not exact, but it becomes exceptionally difficult to demorph near the two-hour mark, requiring an exhausting effort of will.
Samples
First Person:
Third Person:
"Answer this, Ellimist: Did I... did I make a difference? My life, and my... my death... was I worth it? Did my life really matter?"
"Yes," he said, "You were brave. You were strong. You were good. You mattered."
"Yeah. Okay, then. Okay, then."
Her eyes open. She didn't expect that.
Her back hurts, as well. Which is odd. Should be her head. The polar bear hit her head.
Of course, if she thinks about it, that shouldn't hurt either, because she's dead. Isn't she?
She remembers dying. The Ellimist couldn't save her, not without breaking the rules of his game with Crayak-
There's some part of her that seethes at that. All of this destruction and pain and devastation, all for some childish game between two cosmic video game nerds-
But that. Not helpful. Why is she alive? Is she alive? Is this heaven?
She sits up and glances down at herself. A white sundress. A distinctly unattractive one. Typical. She goes to heaven and they stick her in an ugly dress. And her back still hurts. She reaches over one shoulder to massage the sore muscle, and-
Wing. Wing? Is she half-morphed? For a moment, she panics, but she gets a hold of herself. No. No, she has arms. Even Cassie couldn't give herself both wings and arms. Okay. Not morph. She glances over her shoulder, and sees a familiar pattern- it's the wing of the Bald Eagle. No mistaking it.
Maybe she's allergic to some DNA she's acquired? But, no. She hasn't acquired anything. She's dead.
So if she's dead, why is she alive?
She sees a building, and steps inside. Immediately, a bizarre and unpleasant rush sweeps over her- and she's not in a little shack on a beach anymore. She's in a larger building.
If this is a dream, I'd like to wake up now.
But wait. If she wakes up, she's dead.
The sundress is too loose. She can't morph in it. Can she even morph? She frowns, tries to picture the eagle.
After a moment, brown feathery patterns begin to appear over her arm. And then her hand shrivels away. Yes, she can definitely morph. After a quick glance to make sure nobody's watching, she shucks off the sundress and finishes the change, and a few minutes later, a bald eagle flies out of the door, clutching an ugly white sundress in its talons.
Maybe this dream isn't so bad after all.
Name: Yon Fellow
Livejournal/Dreamwidth Username:
yonfellow E-mail: brockmtungen@gmail.com
AIM/MSN:
Current Characters at Luceti:
Harry Dresden | The Dresden Files |
quicktoanger Obi-Wan Kenobi | Star Wars |
averybadfeeling Character
Name: Rachel Berenson
Fandom: Animorphs
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Time Period: Immediately following chapter 4 of Animorphs #54: The Beginning and The Ellimist Chronicles
Wing Color: Brown and grey-white, in the pattern of a bald eagle
History: Rachel's biography can be found here.
Personality:
Rachel Berenson's most defining personality trait has always been aggression. Prior to her involvement in the fight against the Yeerks, she was always proactive and forceful in her outlook on life. She faced challenges without hesitation, bluntly calling out behavior she objected to and pushing herself to perform well in gymnastics. Once she became entangled in the Yeerk invasion and helped to found the small resistance known as the Animorphs, however, those challenges were forgotten as she faced the more important battle for human freedom.
In battling the Yeerks, her aggressive nature took a firm center-stage, marking her in the group as the first to accept an active, dangerous plan, to the point of recklessness. Where the others would allow emotional or tactical concerns to interfere, Rachel's only concern when volunteering for such a mission was to ask if it was worth the effort- and usually, she felt that it was.
Initially, Rachel had a somewhat philosophical aspect to her personality, and she used to keep a bulletin board full of pithy quotes and zen words of wisdom, but as the war dragged on, the words of wisdom were quickly replaced by Sun Tzu and messages about being aggressive and pursuing your goals, her deeper side taking a back seat to her role in the war.
This is not to say she was incapable of restraint, or of tactical planning. She was good at using resources and forming strategies on the fly, and she was capable of analyzing strengths and weaknesses quickly. In fact, she often assumed a secondary leadership role when Jake, the appointed leader of the group, was unable to do so. However, it was never a role she excelled at, and her few attempts at leadership were undermined by her impatient aggression.
As the war dragged on, the role of the aggressive champion began to give way to more violent and ruthless callings. Unlike Jake and Marco, who learned to make the difficult decisions by distancing themselves from their emotional concerns, Rachel instead found herself relying on her emotions and instincts- and as her instincts grew more efficient, she found it easier to be more deadly and vicious. She had her concerns about the effect this was having on her mental health, but again, she viewed her role in the struggle as a more immediate concern.
Rachel's home life was fairly idealistic prior to the war, living a comfortable upper-middle-class lifestyle and relatively at peace despite her parents divorcing, and while she certainly favored her father in terms of personality and behavior, she still had a very close bond with her mother and sisters, enjoying a very quiet sort of comfort in their presence despite the eternal fear of Yeerk infestation. However, by the end of the series, her relationship with her mother was extremely tense, with the two similarly-aggressive personalities fraying at each other as her mother consistently refused to accept the guidance of the more experienced Animorphs. As such, Rachel never truly reconciled with her mother prior to her death.
Strengths:
The most significant strength Rachel brings to the table is also her defining characteristic: she's a warrior. She's good at fighting. She fights almost instinctively, with the most straightforward and dangerous approach being her first option whenever the chips are down. She's brave to the point of recklessness, and she refuses to back down from a challenge, whether it's physical or emotional. When it came time for the craziest, most dangerous, most suicidal missions, Rachel was almost always the one the team turned to.
While her appearance can and has led some to believe she's a shallow mall-hopper, she's actually quite sharp mentally. While her academic performance prior to the outbreak of the war wasn't stellar, she does have a keen mind for strategy and can perceive strengths and weaknesses in a target rather well. The only thing stopping her from equalling her cousin's instinctive strategic ability is her aggression- her reckless tactics put the team in extreme danger, but were also undeniably very effective, and it is this same perception and strategic instinct that allows her to be so effective in fights.
Physically, she has the ability to acquire the DNA of any animal she touches, and later to transform into that animal. Of all the Animorphs, she always had the largest number of potential morphs. She tends to favor large, powerful morphs. Her favorite bird of prey is the Bald Eagle, and her two preferred battle morphs are the African Elephant and the Grizzly Bear. She likes a morph that's too powerful to stop and too tough to bring down. She has also spent much of her life involved in gymnastics, in which she performed well despite her height, and so her human form is in good shape, flexible, and relatively strong- for a teenaged girl- as well as being considered fairly attractive conventionally.
A full list of morphs available to Rachel can be found here
Weaknesses:
The biggest strength for Rachel is also the biggest weakness. Her fierce aggression and reckless rage have gotten her into more than her share of trouble, and it has only gotten worse as she battled the Yeerks. She scares her cousin, she scares the team, and at times she even scares herself- because there is a part of her, she knows, that isn't just good at fighting. A part of her that enjoys it.
Her emotional instability extends beyond anger. Like all the Animorphs, she has been undeniably changed by the battle, and not for the better. She's lived in a constant state of stress and exhaustion for years, slowly losing her grip on her humanity, and becoming distant from everybody who wasn't on the team with her, partly out of paranoia and partly due to her increasing inability to relate. She spent her formative years unable to confide in anybody, knowing that anybody in her life could be a slave to the Yeerks who would enslave her and her friends at a moment's notice.
Her violent tendencies, however, have served even to alienate her from the rest of the team on occasion, as she became more distant from even her cousin and her closest friend. The only person she's truly become close to is Tobias, who she relates to very personally. Tobias is one of the few ties Rachel has left to her humanity- ironic, since he is himself trapped in the form of a hawk- and on the rare occasions when Rachel displays her gentle side, it is typically toward him.
Even he, however, has been the victim of her flaws- because of the extremes she has been forced to visit and the virtual lack of human connections, she occasionally became somewhat selfish and manipulative emotionally toward him. The most pointed example of this is her repeated attempts to convince Tobias to trap himself in human form again, as a Nothlit, and return to a normal life- a normal life he himself hated, but one that would make it easier for her to be close to him. At one point, she even attempted to trick him into becoming a nothlit against his wishes, bringing him to a dance and attempting to distract him until his time had run out.
Mentally, Rachel's intelligence and instincts have been poorly honed- while she is perceptive, her judgment is clouded by her emotional tendencies. While she is smart, she hasn't taken any particular pains to educate herself. While she has a keen strategic mind, she rarely is capable of the patience or the subtlety to carry out any plan that doesn't revolve around destructive violence. Her former thoughtful and philosophical tendencies as a child were abandoned, with the wisdom and inspirational phrases she once kept in her room to center herself being replaced by aggressive and militant ones. Additionally, Rachel occasionally struggles with claustrophobia, even suffering panic attacks when in a tight, confined space for a long period of time, such as when tunneling to the Yeerk Pool in the form of a mole.
Physically, Rachel may be in exceptional shape for a 16-year-old girl, but she's a 16-year-old girl nonetheless. She has no extraordinary strength or durability by human standards, rendering her quite vulnerable in human form. These limits apply to all of her morphs- while they are often faster, tougher, or otherwise more powerful than her human form, they are still fairly typical examples of their species, no tougher or stronger than another of their kind.
The morphing technology itself has a number of limitations. Before she can use an animal form, she must acquire its DNA by touching it while in human form. While tight clothing- typically skintight- can be absorbed into a morph, any loose clothing, shoes, or other items cannot, which can lead to the clothing being destroyed if the morph is too large. Morphing too often is tiring both mentally and physically, and it is at times slow and invariably unpredictable- to say nothing of quite unpleasant to look at. These weaknesses are compounded by the fact that you cannot shift directly from one morph to another- you must first pass through your own natural form. Rachel herself is also allergic, specifically, to the DNA of crocodiles, and suffers from severe side effects and a loss of control of her morphing ability when the DNA is in her system, eventually leading to the expulsion of a fully formed crocodile, and it is unknown if she is allergic to any other DNA of creatures she has yet to acquire. However, the most pointed weakness of the morphing technology is the time limit- if you stay in morph for longer than two hours, you become trapped in that form, unable to return to your natural shape, known in the Andalite language as a nothlit. This time limit is not exact, but it becomes exceptionally difficult to demorph near the two-hour mark, requiring an exhausting effort of will.
Samples
First Person:
Third Person:
"Answer this, Ellimist: Did I... did I make a difference? My life, and my... my death... was I worth it? Did my life really matter?"
"Yes," he said, "You were brave. You were strong. You were good. You mattered."
"Yeah. Okay, then. Okay, then."
Her eyes open. She didn't expect that.
Her back hurts, as well. Which is odd. Should be her head. The polar bear hit her head.
Of course, if she thinks about it, that shouldn't hurt either, because she's dead. Isn't she?
She remembers dying. The Ellimist couldn't save her, not without breaking the rules of his game with Crayak-
There's some part of her that seethes at that. All of this destruction and pain and devastation, all for some childish game between two cosmic video game nerds-
But that. Not helpful. Why is she alive? Is she alive? Is this heaven?
She sits up and glances down at herself. A white sundress. A distinctly unattractive one. Typical. She goes to heaven and they stick her in an ugly dress. And her back still hurts. She reaches over one shoulder to massage the sore muscle, and-
Wing. Wing? Is she half-morphed? For a moment, she panics, but she gets a hold of herself. No. No, she has arms. Even Cassie couldn't give herself both wings and arms. Okay. Not morph. She glances over her shoulder, and sees a familiar pattern- it's the wing of the Bald Eagle. No mistaking it.
Maybe she's allergic to some DNA she's acquired? But, no. She hasn't acquired anything. She's dead.
So if she's dead, why is she alive?
She sees a building, and steps inside. Immediately, a bizarre and unpleasant rush sweeps over her- and she's not in a little shack on a beach anymore. She's in a larger building.
If this is a dream, I'd like to wake up now.
But wait. If she wakes up, she's dead.
The sundress is too loose. She can't morph in it. Can she even morph? She frowns, tries to picture the eagle.
After a moment, brown feathery patterns begin to appear over her arm. And then her hand shrivels away. Yes, she can definitely morph. After a quick glance to make sure nobody's watching, she shucks off the sundress and finishes the change, and a few minutes later, a bald eagle flies out of the door, clutching an ugly white sundress in its talons.
Maybe this dream isn't so bad after all.
