Rachel Berenson

Medical Form [Trans9]

2011-10-10T19:28:07Z

PATIENT MEDICAL HISTORY
Name: Rachel Berenson	Age: 16 years	Sex: Female	Height: 175 cm/5'9"	Weight: 56kg/125lbs
[ ] Magical by nature/practices magic.	[ ] Can't have magic used on.		[ ] Contagious (see notes).
HUMAN (homo sapiens)
Average Lifespan: approx. 78 years	Rate of Maturity: approx. 18 years		Average age of Puberty: approx. 13 years
Normal Diet: [Note on human diet attached] Common Ailments: [Note on common human ailments attached] Specific Notes: 'Morphing' heals any injuries and many ailments.
GENERAL HEALTH
All of the following sense-related questions are to be answered in comparison to an average Homo sapiens. Ask your medical provider for assistance in answering this section.
Blood Pressure: [X] Average \| [ ] Low \| [ ] High
Vision: [X] Fine \| [ ] Near Sighted \| [ ] Far Sighted \| [ ] Enhanced
If Enhanced, further explain:
Hearing: [ ] Deaf \| [ ] Low \| [X] Average \| [ ] High Range \| [ ] Low Range \| [ ] Extremely Sensitive
If necessary, further explain:
Smell: [ ] Cannot Smell \| [ ] Low \| [X] Average \| [ ] High \| [ ] Extremely Sensitive
If Extremely Sensitive, further explain:
Known Allergies: Crocodile DNA Are there any potential complications with healing processes we should be aware of when treating you?: N/A Do you have a healing factor different from the average for your species? If so, explain how here: Capable of 'morphing' which is evidenced to remove injuries in the process. Some instances of it curing ailments have been noted as well. Have you recently been screened for species, sex, and age specific cancer risks?: No. Special notes on care: N/A Record of Past Injuries: [Complete history attached] Ship Health Records: Injuries have been sustained in battle. Broke hand ~~off of Clark Kent's face~~. All injuries cured by morphing.
SEXUAL HEALTH
Have you ever been sexually active?: No. Are you currently Sexually Active: No. Have you recently been screened for STIs?: No. Species specific sexually related health notes and/or issues: N/A
Reproductive Health (skip if N/A)
Date of Last Menses/Estrus/Equiv (skip if n/a): On ship. Number of pregnancies: N/A Number of pregnancies carried to term: N/A Age of first birth/hatching/etc. (if applicable): N/A Total number of births/hatching/etc.: N/A
DRUGS AND MEDICATION
Are you or should you be on any prescribed medication? If so, list below: No. Have you taken any recreational or non-prescribed drugs or substances in the past? Is so, please list them and their frequency of use below: No. Do you currently take any recreational or non-prescribed drugs or substances? Is so, please list them and their frequency of use below: No.

Interactions [Trans9]

2011-01-31T16:02:18Z

CR chart will go here!

Still deciding on format, but I wanted a place holder. :|a

Profile [Trans9]

2011-01-31T05:34:19Z

XENA

Age: Wouldn't you like to know?
Gender: Female
Species: Terrifying
Homeworld: Greece, baby
Title/Rank: Warrior Princess
Organizations: The Amazons
Residence: Ask that again and I'll chakram your head off
Additional Information:
Gabrielle, call me.

OOC Information

Mun: Caitlin
Violations: 1
Application: LINK
Wiki Page: LINK (canon)

((ooc: Profile oh-so-helpfully made by Marco. :|))

Headcanon [OOC]

2010-10-17T07:52:04Z

Dates: war began in 1995 (Rachel being 13), she is taken from 1998 (16).
Rachel is 175 cm (5'9") tall.
She did not kill David at the end of The Return, for various reasons (key ones being that a) he didn't deserve the mercy, and b) she needed to separate herself from the bad guys).

How's My Driving?/Contact [OOC]

2010-10-13T06:55:26Z

Master post here.

Morphs [Canon + Trans9]

2010-10-11T21:17:35Z

Canon:

African elephant
Bald eagle
Shrew
Cat (Fluffer McKitty)
Wolf
Trout
Dolphin
Seagull
Ant
Cockroach
Housefly
Great Horned Owl
Grizzly bear
Rat
Termite
Skunk
Bat
Hork-Bajir (Jara Hamee)
Horse
Parrot
Hammerhead shark
Mole
Mosquito
Flea
Ant Eater
Seal
Polar bear (Nanook)
Sperm whale
Giant squid
Chimpanzee
Eel
Starfish
Squirrel
Cockatiel
Orca (Swoosh)
Cheetah
Honey bee
Human (Michelle Leary)
Beaver
German shepherd (Champ)
Dragonfly
Human (soldier)

Trans 9:

Dragon (Celena)

Notes:
Most common/favourite morphs include: African elephant, grizzly bear, and bald eagle.
Allergic to: Crocodile

Quotes [Canon]

2010-10-07T04:42:03Z

The Encounter:

Marco: Look, these aren't people we know. They aren't my friends. Or my family. (shoots guilty look at Jake) And we did everything we could for Tom. So why should I get killed for strangers? We can't stay lucky forever. Sooner or later, we'll slip up. Sooner or later we'll be standing around here crying because Jake or Rachel or Cassie or Tobias is gone.
Rachel: You know something? I'm tired of trying to talk you into this, Marco. You want out? Fine, you're OUT!
Marco: Hey, Rachel, you're not just doing this to help save the human race. You get off on the danger. That's why you went with Tobias to free that bird. That wasn't about saving the world. That was about rescuing some stupid bird.

The Message:

Jake: I figure this ship is going like, what, twenty miles per hour? Figure an hour, and that puts us twenty miles out, right?
Rachel: (points finger at her forehead) Jake's a total mathematical genius. One hour at twenty miles per hour. Right away he figures out that's twenty miles.

The Stranger:

Marco: This was always insane, right from the start. A handful of kids fighting an alien invasion? Look what's happening. Tobias is trapped in a morph. Rachel is starting to use morphing to get away from her problems.

Tobias: But how does the butterfly know when to beat its wings?
Rachel: It doesn't. I guess it beats its wings the best it can, and hopes it will all work it. It's a butterfly. If just does what butterflies do.
Marco: And what do we do, Xena, Warrior Princess?
Rachel: (grinning) We kick Yeerk butt.

The Underground:

Rachel: (narrating) Unlike Cassie, unlike Tobias perhaps, I'm ruthless at times. But even I have enough sense to know the words "we have to win" are the first four steps on the road to hell.

The Solution:

Rachel: (narrating) I kept wondering: Had I always been like this? Back before the Animorphs, back before that encounter with a dying alien who changed our lives, who had I been?
I tried to remember, but it wasn't like I was thinking about myself. It was like I was remembering some girl I used to know. Like she was an acquaintance I'd forgotten about until someone reminded me. It was like, "Oh, yeah, Rachel. I remember her."
I'd been very into gymnastics, I knew that. Shopping. I guess I'd never exactly been a happy-go-lucky party girl. But I tried to imagine myself back then, and tried to imagine grinding the tines of a fork into someone's ear while I threatened his family.
I almost laughed. It was crazy. I mean, I'm not someone raised in an abusive family or anything. Yeah, my folks got divorced, but probably a third of the kids in school have divorced parents, and another third wish their parents would divorce.
I'd never had to wonder if my parents loved me. I knew they did. They told me. And they showed me.
I wasn't on drugs or anything. But somehow, someway, I had gone from being this occasionally sharp-tongued girl, to being... well, as Marco would say, Xena: Warrior Princess.
What made me feel stupid was that I hadn't realized I was changing. But everyone else obviously did. Jake did. When he knew it was coming down to kill-or-be-killed with David, he'd sent Ax to get me. Not Marco. Not Cassie. "Get Rachel."
And in the cafeteria he had to let me go, knowing what I would do. Afterward, I'd seen Cassie in sixth period. She didn't ask me what had happened. She didn't ask me what I'd said to David. She'd known.
I could have said, "Look at all the battles I've been through." It would have been a good excuse. Except that Cassie'd gone through the same battles. And Marco. And Tobias.
Would Tobias have done what I did? That was the killer question, see. Because Tobias lived life as a predator now. He'd have every excuse in the world. But I wondered if even he would have gone as far as I'd gone.
And, I wondered something else. What if David ignored my threat? Would I... could I...

Rachel: Yeah, "Oh, that's what this is about." What did you expect me to do to David? Did you think I was going to kill him? Did you? Is that why you let me go after him? Is that why you sent Ax for me? Because you think I'm some kind of violent nut you can call in whenever you need some dirty work done?
Jake: Look, Rachel, every one of us has his strengths and his weaknesses.
Rachel: And my strength is being some kind of crazy killer?
Jake: I didn't say that.
Rachel: You didn't not say it!
Jake: Okay, fine, Rachel. You want to do this, fine. I think you're the bravest member of the group. I think in a bad fight I'd rather have you with me than anyone else. But yeah, Rachel, I think there's something pretty dark down inside you. I think you're the only one of us who would be disappointed if all this ended tomorrow. Cassie hates all this, Marco has personal reasons for being in this war, Ax just wants to go home and fight Yeerks with his own people, Tobias... who knows what Tobias wants anymore? But you, Rachel, you love it. It's what makes you so dangerous to the Yeerks.

The Illusion:

Tobias: (Rachel is about to kill Taylor) No, Rachel! No!
Rachel: You know she should die.
Tobias: She will. This is the Yeerk who lost a prisoner. Leave her to Visser Three.
Rachel: What she did to you…
Tobias: Rachel. Be Rachel. Not her.

The Weakness:

Rachel: How do you do this? How do you make decisions that may get people killed? How do you live with that?
Jake: It's a war. We do what we have to do because we're forced to do it, right? Someday it will be all over. Someday the Andalites will come. Or the Yeerks will decide we're not worth it. Someday we'll win.
Rachel: Maybe. But how do you make decisions that get your friends hurt? That maybe someday will get us killed? How do you keep it from getting inside your head and just eating away at you? (narrating) Then I saw something strange on his face. For just a fleeting moment it was the face of a terrified kid on the edge of tears. It shocked me. I knew what I was seeing. It was my face when I'd realized the old man had died. My face when I'd thought I'd lost Cassie forever. But then the mask came down. And he was Jake again.

The Unexpected:

Rachel: (dropping a bag on a table at The Gardens) Consumerism completely baffles you, doesn't it, Cassie?
Rachel: (facing the group) Can you imagine my elation, my total euphoria, when Cassie, OUR Cassie, said she wanted to go shopping?
Marco: (nodding) You were expecting to lay down serious cash at the mall.
Rachel: Exactly! See? (turning to Cassie) Even Marco understands. (shakes her head) But no, Cassie drags me to the zoo--the ZOO--where she ransacks the gift shop and comes up with a postcard. A POSTCARD. Cassie, buying a postcard at the zoo is not shopping. Say it with me now. Postcard. Zoo. Not. Shopping.

The Deception:

Marco: Look. Maybe the situation isn't as desperate as we think. Yet. Maybe the Yeerks are just seeing what they can get away with. They push, we push back. They don't try that particular move again. They shove, we don't shove back, they shove again, but this time, harder. And eventually, we fall on our butts.
Rachel: (nods) Right. We don't wait around for the cavalry. We fight with everything we've got, with or without the Andalites. Self-defense is always justified. We've known that from the beginning. End of story.

Cassie: (smiles, but not happily) If there's one person I trust to keep his decency, it's you, Jake.
Marco: (folds his arms, nods at Rachel) You, we're not so sure of.
Rachel: (flips him off)

The Sacrifice:

Rachel's mother came to a stop. Reluctantly, I ordered the others to stop as well. "Hope for the best?" she repeated. "That's all you have to offer? Am I the only one of you people worried about our kids?"
I could not help myself from retorting. "You do not need to be afraid on behalf of Rachel," I told her. "Rachel is the one who frightens others."
"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" her mother demanded shrilly. "To know that my oldest, my first child, my little girl, has become some kind of monster? Some kind of bloodthirsty freak?"

The Answer:

"Rachel, I have a job for you."
I explained what I wanted her to do.
"You're sure, Jake?" she asked solemnly when I had finished. "Because if you tell me 'Go!' I'll follow your orders. You know what that means."
"Yeah, Rachel, I know what it means."
Still she hesitated. "It won't be the Yeerk, Jake. It'll be Tom. It'll be him."
"I know that," I said. "And I ... if it happens, if it comes down that way, I don't have a plan for getting you out. You'd be on your own."
"That's how I like it."
"Okay, then. Get started. Make sure Cassie doesn't know."
"You still don't trust her?" Rachel said angrily.
"She loves us both, Rachel," I said. "I can't make her part of this. I can't let her know in advance, so, you know, if it happens, if it happens, I don't want her spending the rest of her life wondering if she could have stopped it somehow."
Rachel said, "Okay, Jake. You're right. And you're right to use me for this. Not exactly something I'm proud of, maybe, but later, you know, if — don't be blaming yourself, okay?"
She angled her eagle's wings to take the wind, and flew away.

The Beginning:

Rachel: (narrating) It was a war, after all. A war we had to win.

Rachel: 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?
Ellimist: Yes. You were brave. You were good. You mattered.
Rachel: Yeah. Okay, then. Okay, then.

Application [Trans9]

2010-10-06T04:33:49Z

Character's name: Rachel Berenson
Character's LJ: pretty_lethal (main) / lethally_pretty (extra icons if needed)
Character's canon: Animorphs

Brief (around 300 words) personality outline of your character: Rachel might look like a typical dumb blond to any passerby, as she adores shopping, fashion, and gymnastics. If they make the mistake of implying anything like that, however, she’ll be quick to prove them wrong. Her love for shopping is, in part, due to the thrill of the hunt—she can track and kill like no other. Underneath that oft innocent-looking surface, she has one mean temper. And she never, ever takes any crap from anyone. She is not afraid to tell you exactly what’s on her mind, with a ruthless ferocity. When spoken to, she often lets it out in the form of a sharp wit and sarcasm and she admittedly does enjoy the banter she can get in return from a worthy opponent.

Ever since the war began, that intensity has become worse. She can—and most certainly will—channel all of that brutality and impatience into the fight. She will always favour the direct approach, with “let’s do it,” being her most infamous quote. Often, she’s described as an “adrenaline junkie,” and it’s an apt statement. She really does enjoy the thought of action, and she will still take bloody, deadly battle over idleness and weakness. If there is one thing to be said about her, it is that she will not back down from a fight—especially considering how likely it is for her to be the one starting it.

Despite her strange enthusiasm for the war, Rachel is not without her own emotional damage as a result. A part of her is scared of what she’s become, as she realises just how much she has become involved. While she doesn’t often wish that it never happened, she does feel the affects. She believes that the others are a little bit scared of what she’s become, and what she is capable of. She sometimes feels used, where she is the one sent to do the dirty work, to let the other Animorphs keep their hands ‘clean.’

But she has accepted this duty all the same. Something that can’t be denied about her is how much her friends matter to her. Sometimes she may get angry with them, or hurt, or otherwise, but she would still do anything for them. With her family, it is much the same: while her sisters can annoy her, she obviously still cares deeply for them; her mother can be overbearing at times, and will rarely let Rachel have her way, and Rachel is therefore willing to use force on her for her own sake, if necessary; a part of her wants to escape, to live with her father, whom is never around; and her cousin—being the leader of the Animorphs—she feels almost threatened by, but she respects him, and no longer considers challenging his leadership.

She is willing to make the sacrifices necessary to protect those she cares about, and she will never, ever let anyone hurt them.

Brief (around 500 words) history and background of your character OR link to a really good wiki page with their history. In either case, explain where they cut off from the timeline:
http://animorphs.wikia.com/wiki/Rachel / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Animorphs_books

Rachel Berenson lived a fairly normal life, up until she was about 13. She was the pretty, popular girl, despite her attitude, a bit too tall for gymnastics, but dedicated to them anyway. Her family was a bit fragmented, but nothing too complex or conflicting. Her parents divorced, her living with her little sisters and her mother. She had some good friends; she did well in school, etc. And then it all changed.

She was walking home from school with an unlikely group – her best friend, her cousin and his annoying best friend, and a boy she barely knew from school – when, cutting through a construction site, a space ship crash landed in front of them. An alien—an Andalite war prince—emerged, told them about the parasitic alien race taking over their planet—and gave them the power to morph into any living thing they touched. The only weapon, besides secrecy, that a group of kids would have against an invasion. They were then forced to watch him be murdered by Visser Three, the Yeerk in charge of the invasion. In only a few weeks they are joined by Ax, the younger brother of the alien that gave them the power.

From there, things quickly escalated. The group began to fight battle after battle, and a few more things changed in Rachel’s life. She grew further apart from her other close friend, Melissa, gymnastics became less of a priority, she developed feelings for Tobias—even as he became trapped in the body of a bird—and, most importantly, she became the warrior of the group, gung ho about all of the fighting and adrenaline.

They meet the Ellimist while in a tight spot at the Yeerk pool, and he later gives Tobias back the power to morph, while helping them save a few free Hork-Bajir to start a colony—something that would remain significant, but that she would continue to resent the being for.

Later, Marco discovers a boy at their school—David—who has found the ‘blue box,’ that gave them the power to morph in the first place. Rachel is among the group to vote to give him the power to morph—not necessarily to save him, but to increase their firepower. It doesn’t take long for him to quickly go bad. After a case of mistaken (bird) identity, they believe he has killed Tobias, and it is Rachel that Jake sends for, for help. He knows, by then, how she will react. Over the next while, Rachel acts increasingly more aggressive to David, while the others let her, and she even goes as far as threatening his family. Rachel realises just how far her violent tendencies go, and begins to resent Jake for using them to his advantage, despite his concern for her. In the end, it is Cassie who comes up with the plan to stop David—trapping him in rat morph—but it is Rachel who does the dirty work. She goes ahead with the worst of the plan, to save everyone else from it.

It is only after an awkward situation of Rachel becoming literally two people—‘Wimp’ Rachel and ‘Mean’ Rachel—that she begins to confront and understand her dark side. She begins to realise that the ruthless warrior part of her is just as important as the scared girl part of her, who is smart and reasonable. She is dangerous and incapable of really helping if she does not have both sides of her. There are two sides of her, and she cannot abandon one for the other.

Some time later, Jake is forced to leave for a few day trip, at which time the Animorphs plan on lying low—until they learn about Visser Three’s new feeding ground. They plan to assault him while they have the chance, but they are stopped by a member of a species similar to the Andalites, who is there to evaluate the progress on the take over of Earth. Not one to miss an opportunity, Rachel believes it the perfect time for a series of hard and fast attacks against known Yeerk ‘Controllers’ in the community, to show the Inspector that the opposition is still strong. Marco backs down from vying for temporary leadership, putting Rachel in charge, as the only one willing to do it, but she begins to make mistakes. First, a man dies because she hadn’t been willing to back out earlier, and then—after making a mistake with morph choice—Cassie is captured. The mission to rescue Cassie is successful, but Rachel can’t help but fear how it all turned out. She confronts Jake about how he can possibly do it, and asks him to never leave again.

It isn’t long after that that the war escalates dramatically. The Animorphs are able to contact the Andalite fleet, after saving both of Marco’s parents, but they are denied help. The Yeerks attempt to start an all out war, but they are narrowly stopped by Ax’s necessary choice to threaten the entire city with destruction. The colony of free Hork-Bajir is threatened, and they fight a bloody battle to save them, and relocate them.

Soon, the evil being Crayak—rival of the Ellimist—makes himself more known to Rachel in particular. He could see her dark side, and its potential use. He wants to make her his tool, and—using David and her guilt over that sad situation—attempts to bribe her with awesome power to kill her cousin and take control. She is made desperate by the contrast between the weak, pathetic rat and the power of ‘super Rachel’ that she is promised. But she can’t bring herself to do it. She may be cruel and ruthless, but she insists she’s one of the good guys. She is eventually left alone, dismissed as a fool and a coward for not realising her potential, and she finds a way—using her brain, this time—to escape from her desperate situation. Afterwards, David begs her to kill him, instead of sending him away to live as a rat once again. She cries, torn apart by the decision, and eventually she spares him.

It is then discovered that the Yeerks are onto the human nature of the Animorphs. They begin to run DNA tests, searching for animal DNA in the blood of humans, or for similar matches of human DNA as is found in the animal blood left at the scene. Through this, they discover Tobias’s mother, and they realise that it is now necessary to save their families, before the Yeerks find them. Rachel is the second person to save her family, though she does not explain that situation to them until after forcing them to leave, in her grizzly bear morph—she knows her mother would not go willingly. Her aunt and uncle—Jake’s parents—are made controllers by her cousin Tom, before they have a chance to save them, but at least her immediate family is safe for the time being. The war is just getting huge.

Currently, I’ll be taking her from after the book ‘The Diversion,’ wherein the Animorphs are discovered, and they successfully escape (most) of the families, hers included. This may be changed once I update her.

If the character has magic, mutant, or otherwise metahuman abilities, please explain what they are and outline EXACTLY how they function, as their powers may not work due to the nature of the ship or may need to be limited somehow: Rachel has been given the power, through an alien technology, to become any living thing she touches—and ‘acquires’ the DNA of. This can be used for fighting, infiltration, etc. She has 39 morphs, including grizzly bear, African elephant, and bald eagle.

Non-superhuman special abilities of note (Is your character a master ventriloquist? A naturally-occurring super-genius? The best martial artist in the world? Say so here): Rachel has the amazing ability to always look good.