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[sorrypardonyesthankyou]

☄ tl;dr: Weird but well-meaning psychic high schooler / early 20something who knows more about the future than you probably want to hear. ☄ First Impressions ♚ VISUAL: Ruth's a girl in her late teens with straight dark hair that she always wears down. Her most arresting feature is the blindfold she wears (often yellow, but sometimes other colours--she sort of coordinates with her clothes) and the smooth, eyeless skin underneath it. ♚ FASHION: Her X-Men uniform is yellow and black or yellow and blue, depending on the art. It's essentially a skintight sleeveless jumpsuit. When she's not in that, she's depicted in the school uniform (pleated skirt, blouse, blazer, &cet.) and various combinations of casual skirts, jeans, and shirts. For a while, they drew her with a fringed blanket or shawl wrapped around her 24/7, and I am not at all sorry it seems to have fallen by the wayside. ♚ AURAL: Born in North Carolina and mostly raised in New Jersey, Ruth has either a hint of a Southern accent or a touch of an East Coast one (or a mix of both); whatever it is, her accent isn't as strong as her brother's. (She's depicted as occasionally dropping her "G"s, whereas his dialogue is written out in ways that imply a much thicker accent, such as "gawn" for "gonna.") More notable is her stuttering habit of throwing extra words into sentences. Excuse me, pardon, please, no, sorry, thank you, yes--Ruth compulsively says these, sometimes in places where they make sense and sometimes in places where they don't. The main time she doesn't is when she's getting snarky. (NB: Spurrier's X-Men: Legacy lowkey suggested that this might not have to be a permanent tic, but later writers have kept it, so here we are.) NB#2: I choose to assume she doesn't write out her stutter in text--or, if it comes out, she erases the extra words. If they show up in her texts, it's because she wants them there. ♚ MENTAL INFORMATION: Ruth's mind is canonically difficult to read because "it's not spelled right." She sees the future--all the futures--and combined with the shattering effects of the trauma she's experienced, it makes her thoughts a difficult jumble to sort through. Stronger telepaths can overtake her, however; at one point in canon, she was possessed by a powerful mutant. And depending on when we're writing from, there might be evidence of another presence inside her head. ♚ MAGICAL INFORMATION: Ruth's powers are a genetic mutation rather than a magical gift. If that changes how your character would perceive her, I'm interested! We can work out the deets together. ♥ ☄ Background Deets ♚ BACKSTORY: Ruth was born without eyes or open eye sockets. For her mother, this wasn't a problem, even after it caused Ruth's father to walk out on the family. For her older brother, Luca, it was. He physically and emotionally abused her whenever they were alone, growing more violent as he developed a drug addiction and then traded it for religious, anti-mutant fervor. Eventually, in a fit of rage, he tried to kill his little sister using a chainsaw. Their mother defended her and ultimately died for Ruth. Luca was arrested and sentenced to death, while Ruth was sent to an aunt in Prospect Plains, New Jersey, to be cared for. For years, she had a happy childhood, as close to normal as she could get. Because it's mentioned that most records of her existence were "lost" by the time she was sent to Xavier's school, it's likely that her aunt kept her out of school and the public eye in general; unfortunately, the details are scarce beyond "she was happy." The world shifted again when Luca's execution was scheduled. By then, Ruth was a teenager, one who wasn't entirely sure why she had to see her brother's death but certain she needed to be there for him. She went alone, using telepathy to convince everyone around her she was supposed to be there. Unfortunately, Luca's time on death row had been used in darker studies than Ruth knew; at the moment of his death, his soul broke free of his body and dive-bombed Ruth's, stealing half her powers and leaving her stuttering and confused. For a time, she seems to have repressed everything about her life before her aunt took her in--but eventually, she's told that she was found beside her mother, who died protecting her from her brother. The rest of the details seem to have resurfaced, as David Haller put it, "broken and bent by trauma, tangled in misplaced loyalty." ♚ IN CANON: Ruth is weird, even in a school where standards of "weird" are pretty relaxed. Some students, like Hellion and Frenzy, seem to find her predictions of the future laughable or frustrating. Others, like Anole and especially Trance, find them unsettling and even frightening: the problem with Ruth's foresight is that it usually doesn't predict good things. She does have some friends, however; she rooms with Pixie and seems to be on good terms with Rockslide. Among her teachers, Ruth seems closest to Rogue, who's seen worrying about her and defending her to people (hi, Logan) who don't have quite the same level of patience for her muddled communication skills. In 2019, Ruth committed suicide during a storyline, and I personally read that story like she's now somewhere between ~18-21ish. She comes off to me as someone who'd be out of high school even if Terrible Things weren't happening, but not out of school for very long. Ruth's main storylines occur in Young X-Men, parts of the Necrosha event and its fallout, and Spurrier's X-Men Legacy + Way of X. She appears in other storylines to greater and lesser extents, but her roles range from background character to plot catalyst; they don't provide the same weight as far as character development goes. ♚ FOR RP: I'm happy to play her from any point after she comes to the X-Mansion, pretty much, right up to the present. For cross-canon, my general approach is generic "sometime in comic-book time [at the Jean Grey school if she's still in school, living on her own if you're more interested in Grownup Ruth] when there isn't currently a crisis happening"--though I'm happy to adjust however you'd prefer! For canon CR and people familiar with the morass that is X-Men comics, I'm up for pretty much everything. I especially like dealing with post-Legacy stuff when Ruth's got her boyfriend living in her head, but I realize that is Some Weird Shit, so if you're not up for it, we can definitely go earlier. ♥ Also interested in playing around with Hickman X-stuff now that Spurrier's writing about her again, and would love to do Way of X-specific or other Krakoa-set things. ☄ ABILITIES BULLSHIT ♚ OVERVIEW: Ruth's a mutant--she has genetically based superpowers, as well as visible physical differences stemming from her mutation. ♚ THE DEETS: ♔ No eyes: Ruth's face has smooth skin over her eye sockets. ♔ Precognition: Perhaps Ruth's strongest, most notable skill. She can see the branching options of the future--sometimes clearly, frequently less so. ♔ Astral projection: Ruth's ability to project herself beyond the bounds of her physical body works in a few different ways. She's able to spirit herself around the physical world, the astral plane/psychosphere, and into the minds of others. ♔ Empathy: One of the earliest powers Ruth developed. She's sensitive to the moods of others, remarking as a little girl on her brother's discomfort in public. When Charles Xavier dies, she feels it so overwhelmingly (either directly from his death or through David Haller's explosive reaction to it--or, you know, both) that she begins to cry. Despite not having, uh, eye holes. Her empathic abilities are often wound up tightly with her precognition. At times, they cause her physical pain. ♔ Telepathy: Ruth can read minds. Pretty straightforward. ♔ Telekinesis: Ruth can make things move with her mind. Also pretty straightforward. ♔ Immunity to reality warping: Perhaps because of her other psychic abilities, she's canonically not taken in by a reality-shifting illusion that dupes many of her compatriots. ♔ Psychic sight: It's made clear in various ways (her ability to walk without any evident guide such as a cane or service animal, the fact that she's read Alan Moore's Watchmen, her utter mortification when she realizes she's spying on David while he's naked) that on some level, Ruth can see through her psychic powers. This is presumably similar to Matt Murdock's abilities; however, unlike Daredevil, X-Men never really delves into how this works. It's an ability she developed later in her childhood, as her memories of her mother's kitchen are of a place she knew by touch. ♔ Jedi mind tricks: She can manipulate people to believe what she wants--or could, at least, at the time of her brother's execution. Given Luca's skill in tricking David into doing what he wants, he may have stolen this ability. ♔ Look, just a bunch of shit, okay: Her wiki basically lists it all. ♚ WEAKNESSES: ♔ Not useful in combat: While Ruth can do a pretty good job of wandering through other people's fighting (thanks, precognition!), she's pretty fucked if she needs to fight someone directly. Dani Moonstar has little difficulty staving her off, and Ruth herself recognizes that she isn't really meant for attack roles--she leaves the Young X-Men after their first team-up. ♔ Unspecific visions: Ruth's ability to see the future isn't always as detailed as others might prefer; she doesn't have complete control over what she perceives of the future. Sometimes, the branches of fate are clear to her, and sometimes, all she has are bad feelings and the certainty that something's going to happen. ♔ Vulnerable to stronger psychics: On Muir Island, Ruth is possessed by Proteus, an extremely strong mutant. Similarly, Jean Grey could probably kick her brain's ass. ♔ Generally fucking weird: Between her stutter of throwaway words and her less than stellar socialization (she's going to tell you the story of Illyana Rasputin's trip to Limbo, and there's NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT), Ruth can be a little off-putting. She means well, she's just...weird. ♚ NOTES: Ruth has a LOT going on, and I just want to note that I'm aware her powerset is wide-ranging and a little OP. My interests in her abilities are secondary to my interest in her as a character. Basically, I'm here to write interesting threads, not win a bunch of psychic dick-measuring contests, and I'm happy to talk things out so both our characters get time to shine. Just let me know if I can do anything to better serve our CR! ☄ OOC ♚ BACKTAGGING: Backtagging is fine, but in general, I prefer to work steadily on threads if possible. I'll always get in touch with you to discuss details if I need to handwave something that hasn't happened yet for another thread. ♚ THREADJACKING: Always welcome. ♚ FOURTHWALLING: I'd prefer to avoid fourthwalling at this time. ♚ PHYSICAL AFFECTION: Ruth's...not super used to physical affection. It's not necessarily unwelcome, but it might end up a little weird, lmao. ♚ PHYSICAL VIOLENCE: Sure, with the caveat that we might need to do some OOC talking as we go! While Ruth is a mutant and an X-Man, she's not really a combatant just ask Dani Moonstar. She's remarkably good at wandering through battles without getting hurt; she's less good at actual physical fights. ♚ RELATIONSHIPS: Ruth doesn't have a lot of experience in this area (quelle surprise). When she's confident, she can be hella confident (the first time she met her canon boyfriend, she introduced herself and kissed him full on the mouth), but that doesn't change the fact that relationships of all kinds...aren't really her strongest suit. I'm open to shipping her--m/f, f/f, whatever--but depending on the circumstances, it might be a slow burn. ♚ DIFFICULT SUBJECTS: While X-Men is often kind of silly, both intentionally and otherwise, Ruth's character and storyline deals with some serious issues, including: ♚ Physical and emotional abuse ♚ Family deaths ♚ Murder ♚ Mental illness ♚ Suicide ♚ Trauma and recovery If you have questions or concerns regarding these issues as they pertain to Ruth or potential threads, please feel free to comment, PM me, or PP me at prettydoes. Modified from this code.