App for xavier_institute!

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Incardine
ARE YOU AT LEAST 16 YEARS OLD?: Very.
IF UNDER 18 YEARS OLD, PLEASE STATE YOUR AGE: I'm very over eighteen.
CONTACT: incardine or NekoIncardine
CHARACTERS PLAYED: None yet!

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Carlyn Niamh Caimbeulach (Koakuma)
CANON: Touhou Project
CANON REFERENCE: Such as it is... She's practically a fandom OC for real purposes.
AGE: 27 (legally), 22 (physically)
GENDER: Your character's gender in this AU. If it differs from their canon gender, please make note of it here as well
YEAR IN SCHOOL/FACULTY POSITION: Librarian, substitute Language Arts teacher,
APPEARANCE: Carlyn's by-far most distinctive feature, the thing that would immediately jump out to anyone at a glance, is her mutation's visible component - two sets of batlike black wings, one just behind her ears, the other more traditionally placed along her back. While it's possible for her to hide them thanks to a holographic device she got during a SHEILD operation against AIM, she usually prefers to keep them out while on-campus.

Almost as striking is her red hair and eyes (sometimes glasses-clad - she alternates between contact lenses and contacts depending basically on how patient she feels that morning). Her hair is usually kept pretty long, though she's been known to cut it short in some cases. She rarely styles it in any special way, other than to take time to properly comb it each morning.

Carlyn's mode of dress, on the other hand, is rather less conspicuous. Proud of her looks, Carlyn tends to dress just a notch on the racy side of professional for her job as a school librarian - usually a nice, full-sleeved shirt (which she had altered for her wings and figure), black mini-vest and tie, any of several lengths of matching black skirt, and either stockings or pantyhose, dependent on her precise mood that day. She absolutely refuses to wear heeled shoes, however - not only for practicality reasons, but because she's perfectly satisfied with her legs as-is and believes that anyone who cares should be the same.

PERSONALITY: Carlyn Niamh Caimbeulach isn't the most easily pigeonholed girl - she hasn't been since before she came to the Institute, and her attitude's only grown more complex since the Phoenix Incident. In general, the attitude she presents to students and coworkers off the job is her truest and most preferred self - but sometimes, she's learned, you can't be who you want to be at the expense of who you need to be.

The things Carlyn displays all the time, are her core values - the things she holds as the highest and most important things in her life, the rock she holds to. (The fact that they're clear derivatives of the core values of the American Library Association are far from coincidental.) In order, they are:
* Never allow another's speech to be censored, no matter how much you dislike it. She has even defended Brotherhood agents when they have acted peacefully, in the name of protecting this value.
* Never reveal another's secrets. If you have been trusted, you must never break that trust. This value, she has been forced to break more than once - and every time, even if it was ultimately for the best, has hurt her more than the last. It's led her to question if she can be a trustworthy person - something she needs to be in her role and in her self-perception. ((It doesn't help that her powers make her optimally suited to be a spies-and-stealth type of character, where finding and revealing secrets is kind of the thing she's best at doing...))
* Except where it breaks the above rule, encourage the free and open exchange of information. Knowledge is power, and bringing power to more people is simply a good thing. (Needless to say, her relationship with SHIELD has typically been uncomfortable - though she has definitely kept secrets that need to be kept from her occasional times working with them.)

Besides this core, Carlyn can generally be claimed to be of three attitudes - her on-the-job self, her self when working as one of the X-Men, and her self the rest of the time.

On the job, Carlyn's extremely focused and serious. From the moment she steps into the library, to the moment she steps out, a certain complex in her behavior takes over. While working, she is serious-minded and quiet, though quick to help students who obviously need the aid... In between getting books sorted, keeping the computers clean, and every other task she needs to keep up with to keep the library in order. A common joke around the school is that two out of every three times "Little Devil"'s powers come out, it's to cow a loudmouthed student or visitor to keep quiet in the library. (When she's not on the job, she's quick to claim that surely it's not that often... But she does admit that the joke is rather funny. Saying it while she's working meets with a rather predictable response.)

When serving with the X-Men, Carlyn's attitude is slightly more relaxed, presenting a confident, self-assured front alongside a dutiful, focused attitude. Since her powers are ill suited to direct combat, she has to rely on weapons to protect herself when her powers can't do the job, a fact she admits does kind of make her less cool than the likes of Wolverine. It also means that, when she's called in, either things are particularly bad and they need every trained mutant they've got, or her powers are needed for a specific reason - which tends to amp up her focus significantly. She's not the most banter-prone individual when in a fight, though she's capable of snapping back to at least some of the one-liners that tend to be tossed around her when the mood strikes her.

Off the job, Carlyn seems to become an entirely different person - her self-assured confidence mixing with a light attitude towards anything short of grave circumstances to provide an infectiously happy aura. When she isn't working, she doesn't want to be serious about anything, and it shows. The fact that she's, physically, little older than many of the students gives her a certain odd comfort hanging around them, playing games and discussing the friviolities of life with them with a comfort she never experienced in high school. She's not as good when someone needs more emotional support, but she's certainly willing to try.

That said, when she gets the chance to head off with other faculty and enjoy some alcohol and more adult partying, she will practically jump at the opportunity - especially when it involves hitting proper Irish pubs across the state. Usually, when she leaves campus, she carries a SHIELD-designed portable holographic generator to conceal her wings... Though she's been known to not bother with that (usually when heading out with Dr. McCoy or others whose mutations are not easily concealed).

She doesn't consider herself proud to be Irish - just glad of it - but Carlyn is quite insistent on the spelling of her name. Pronouncing or spelling it "Carolyn" in reference to her will anger or at least annoy her in almost any situation. (However, her actual knowledge of Irish Culture is rather limited to traditional Irish-pub food and being a dictionary of beers and ales.)

Old Personality (for comparison and notes):
Carlyn Caimbeulach's had a few years and a lot of incidents under her belt. The Sentinel incident was one of the highest-profile occurrences she had to encounter, but it was not the only one - and later ones allowed her to make use of her powers more directly. This has forced her to mature quickly over time - perhaps even to harden a little, though she is still a free-hearted party type when she gets the chance, and is still known to pull little tricks on others, earning her X-Men codename of "Koakuma" - a Japanese phrase meaning 'Little Devil'.

Six years of antisocial tendencies from before she learned how to control her powers made Carlyn an avid reader and researcher, to the point where her mind, alone, is a veritable library of facts and knowledge. Her PhD library and information sciences clearly reflects this, and her hobby time of reading up on various topics makes her able to keep up with discussion on just about any topic, though she is rarely an expert in any one field beyond some side curiosities. They've also created a certain complex with Carlyn, causing her to take the library with deep seriousness. From the moment she steps in to the moment she steps out, she becomes deeply serious and adamant on enforcing the library's rules, keeping everything straight, and generally being obsessive on the job. It's said that two-thirds of the times she's used her powers since she learned to control them have been to make someone scared enough of her to agree to stay quiet in the library.

Carlyn's personal ethical code is very simple, based on the core values of the American Library Association, and are kept to with absolute firmness:
* Never allow another's speech to be censored, no matter how much you dislike it. She has even defended Brotherhood agents when they have acted peacefully on this basis.
* Never reveal another's secrets. If you have been trusted, you must never break that trust.
* Except where it breaks the above rule, encourage the free and open exchange of information. (Needless to say, her relationship with SHIELD has been uncomfortable.)

Carlyn's powers, long since mastered, have granted her a certain self-assured aura that is difficult to repress. She doesn't use them at all times in all cases, but she isn't afraid to use them - either in heroic work, or simply as part of her job at the institute. She's stopped using them when pulling tricks on people, though - enough students and staff at the Institute know the telltale signs of her powers enough to make it too obvious it's her.

She's not proud to be Irish - just glad - but Carlyn is quite insistent on the spelling of her name. Pronouncing or spelling it "Carolyn" in reference to her will anger her. (... Her actual knowledge of Irish Culture is rather limited to traditional Irish-pub food and being a dictionary of beers and ales, though.)

POWERS/ABILITIES:
Carlyn has two visible sets of wings on her body - both black and batlike. The wings on her back aren't strong enough to allow her to truly fly, but let her glide fairly stably for long distances. (For a while, she tried using a jetpack to get into the air, gliding for control. It actually worked, but the only one she could get was too bulky for real use. She occasionally jokes about saving up and buying a couple of Iron Man's repulsors off of him. So far, she hasn't had the opportunity to make that joke to his face. Probably a good thing.)

Her real power comes from the wings on the side of her head. They are capable of inducing emotions on people who are within eyeshot. Any induced emotion tends to be focused on Carlyn - feelings of friendship, for example, basically charm a person into being friendly towards her, while feelings of fear make the person scared of her. Pointedly, the induced emotions don't entirely negate the target's capacity for logic - but neither do they help. Knowing you've got no reason to be scared of the redhead doesn't help much when you're totally scared of the redhead. This power can be focused on one person, or used to affect everyone in line of sight. Telepaths can divert Carlyn's powers to more-or-less negate them, and Scott Summers' ruby-quartz lenses are known to block the effects as well (more typical sunglasses don't help). Carlyn's most common effects are friendship, trust, happiness, boredom, and fear - though the most high-profile effect she's ever used with them was calming an entire panicking crowd during a high-profile supervillain attack in Times Square a year ago.

Outside of her mutation, Carlyn is a doctorate-level librarian, laden with a virtually endless supply of trivia and basic knowledge of just about everything. Her organizational skills are also occasionally useful, and she's a solid cook, with an odd specialization in Japanese-style okonomiyaki and yakisoba. Like any true book freak, her collection of books, films, video games, and other items fits far more objects onto a shelf than should be physically possible.


AU HISTORY: Born in Las Vegas, Nevada, Carlyn Niamh Caembeulach was raised relatively normally - her mother a teacher and her father a stay-at-home heir to a modest family fortune. A bright, friendly girl, Carlyn was introduced to writings well beyond her age very early, and quickly took to an old George Carlin quote: "I'm not proud to be Irish. Just glad." This made her fairly tough against the bullies in the elementary schoolyard, who targeted her for her 'weird' red eyes.

There were a few signs of trouble in her life - a mother with pro-equality sensibilities matched against a surprisingly fierce conservative father - but no real negative circumstances. During the summer after sixth grade, however, a few things happened, seemingly all at once. Carlyn's mutation manifested seemingly overnight - two sets of batlike wings appearing as she slept. Come morning, she panicked - especially because her father had grown fairly loudly anti-mutant over the years.

As she moved to speak with her parents, however, both seemed completely accepting very quickly. While this made sense for her mother, Carlyn was utterly baffled by her father's matched reaction. She figured, initially, that it was a case of accepting his daughter in spite of his previous proclivities... Until her friends, similarly, reacted positively. Followed soon by the school bullies suddenly becoming completely friendly to her. Along with seemingly everyone else she spoke with. Only one legally-blind classmate wasn't so affected.

Carlyn realized the truth very quickly - her wings had an effect on anyone who saw them, causing them to be friendly to her against any natural proclivities they had. The effect, to put it lightly, was emotionally scarring, leaving her afraid of interacting with anyone in person. As she went into seventh grade, she was suddenly the most popular girl in the class - and she completely and utterly didn't want it, entirely convinced that it was her freakish powers talking, and not anyone's sincere feelings. The only time she felt she could speak to anyone normally in person was when she wore a hat that could conceal the headwings... And, of course, her school district had banned those decades ago, and didn't count the issues with her mutation as the only allowed exemption for that ban. This left her rapidly turning increasingly reclusive, scared to interact with anyone, except online. The library - where she could hide between bookshelves - and the internet - where even photos of her didn't have effect on people - were her refuges by three weeks into seventh grade.

Her father, of course, had realized what was really going on very quickly, and started fighting with her mother over it, more and more frequently. By her senior year, they were divorced, with him actively fighting the courts to ensure he never had custody of his 'mutie freak' of a daughter. This caused Carlyn to drop out of school entirely, becoming so reclusive for days and weeks on end that she refused to let even her mother - the one person she knew for a fact still loved her - see her, reduced to an emotional wreck.

Her mother had finally realized how bad things were by this point, and contacted well-known mutation researcher Charles Xavier, asking what could be done to help her daughter. Xavier, in turn, asked Emma Frost to help her, figuring her touch would be better suited to helping the young teen. (It didn't hurt that Emma was already in Vegas that weekend.) Emma, reviewing what she knew and speaking with Carlyn's mother, figured out the girl's powers enough to have a good guess to the solution. Emma then simply walked upstairs, opened Carlyn's door - to Carlyn's shock (though Carlyn had known there was a guest in the house) - and placed a hand against the girl's temple, smiling lightly as she more or less telepathically slapped Carlyn's synapses related to her wings into functioning properly, finally allowing the red-head to control her powers - a fact that astounded Carlyn immensely, as the implications of being able to control her power started to dawn on her. She figured out enough to suppress her abilities sufficiently to return to school, finally starting to become confident as she built some in-person friendships she could truly believe were real. She graduated eight months later, though with a GPA far below what everyone knew her to be capable of - but with the unusual honor of being voted prom queen by a now-fully-aware class, over the concerns of a conservative-minded principal.

Carlyn's years in hiding had brought her a passion for books and research. While she initially considered Profesor Xavier's offer to start taking college work at Xavier's school, she instead decided to attend the University of Virginia and get a Bachelor's in Library and Information Science, joining one of the school's sororities and working more on her confidence and self-assuredness, quickly developing into a forward-minded, flirtatious, overly self-assured irresponsible mess of a girl. During these years, she did join the X-Men on a few specific operations where her powers could be directly useful, though she only officially gained the codename "Little Devil" after graduating.

It was at this point she chose to attend the Xavier Institute, taking a job to manage the school's library and information resources, in hopes of advancing scholarship in metahuman studies - not just mutants - in the hopes of bringing greater acceptance to them to the world. She started taking correspondence and online courses to work towards a Master's degree, in part so she could earn enough to afford a proper apartment. (Xavier, perhaps inspired by stories of her party-girl behavior, offered her room and board on campus along with a modest paycheck, to put her in an environment where she'd have to keep herself in check.)

The Sentinel Program changed things rapidly - particularly when the Sentinels attacked the Institute, forcing Carlyn to evacuate the students (her powers being ill-suited to fighting the robotic Sentinels). This in turn meant that she never directly saw the Phoenix's sudden rise. Fortunately, she also mostly escaped the strange timeline warps that had hit so many other Institute students, only suffering a drop to her physical age by a few years. She wound up working on helping Xavier rebuild the school (the library being a particular focus, for obvious reasons), and working on her Master's degree in her spare time. Three years in, she stepped away from teh school entirely for a while to work on her Doctorate... In between a number of encounters with others in the Marvel Universe.

Only about a week ago did she formally return to Xavier's Institute as the head librarian and substitute teacher, specializing in the language arts. She was considering taking a role at Emma Frost's school for a while, but ultimately chose to return to Xavier's school.

SAMPLES

NETWORK SAMPLE: http://xavier-institute-ooc.dreamwidth.org/463.html?thread=5839#cmt5839

LOG SAMPLE:
7:02 AM in the morning. Quite precisely Carlyn's least favorite minute of any work day. Two minutes after her cellphone's alarm went off - playing a Psy ringtone she must have downloaded last Friday night - and right when it would restart, louder, forcing her to actually get up to walk over and turn it off, and then start preparing for the workday.

Looking at her phone, she quickly verified it was Thursday - the library opened at nine, then. Always nice to have to hours instead of one in the morning, for sure. Fumbling for her glasses, Carlyn quickly put them on, bringing her vision of her personal apartment back to clarity. One bedroom, everything except the bed pretty much spic and span. The main room had a small kitchen, but more importantly, a large couch, a TV, and a very large number of bookshelves. This being only Carlyn's first week back on campus, she hadn't had a lot of time to fill them with stuff yet, though one was already burgeoning with some of her old favorites.

More importantly, it was on campus, and it had an interesting rumor attached - some students believed that there was a hidden tunnel between the library and her apartment, giving her a way to investigate people sneaking into the library at night. Total fiction, of course, but handy to make people think that sort of thing. No, the key amenities of this apartment were more modest - a combination shower/bath, and being right next to the elevator. Oh, and AC/USB wall outlets for her phone and such. Always valuable, those.

Quickly going over her phone's calendar, Carlyn noted that she didn't have any morning appointments today - always nice, that. More importantly, that meant plenty of time for a good, long shower, to get her contacts on, and to prepare a decent breakfast. Hooray long mornings and maintaining a decent sleep schedule for the work week, she guessed.

More importantly, of course, was the student projects. They'd be starting early in the semester, most assuredly - and she'd need to be prepared to help with all kinds of topics. Isolate some of the most desired collections, mark a few areas as reference... So much to do. And then came the fun part of the work week the next day.

So much to do...