InsaneJournal

Name: Jean Grey
Codename: Marvel Girl/Phoenix
Age: 28; Sept 7 1980
Affiliation: X-men
Position: Staff

Background: Jean Grey was born on a quiet Sunday, the 7th of September 1980 to Dr. John Grey and his wife, Elaine, in the town of Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. A small quiet town for a small quiet family. One could say things were perfect. Loving parents, stable home, the picture of normalcy and contentment. That was the truth until one fatal day in 1990.

Ten-year-old Jean was playing with her best friend, Annie. They had been friends their entire young lives, which to them seemed like a long time, but to others was woefully short. Caught up in their game, Annie dashed out into the street and was struck by a car. Jean was only steps behind her. The sudden shock of watching her friend struck by the car galvanized Jean's then still dormant telepathic abilities as she tried in vain to rouse her friend. Annie was slowly slipping away and Jean, unknown to herself, was trying to hold her in the world and failing. Annie died. Jean seemed to have died with her despite the fact that the girl was still breathing. Eyes closed in a look like sleep, Jean laid for months while her desperate family tried to find some way to break the spell Annie's death had cast.

It was then that Professor Xavier entered their lives. Mysterious though he was, the Greys would have given anything to have their beautiful little girl come back to herself. Her recovery seemed a miracle to them once he placed the necessary blocks on Jean's ability to allow her to return to her body. Things in Jean's mind had happened so quickly there had been no time to adjust. With her abilities limited, she now had a chance to learn about things at a more controlled pace.

Freed from her abilities, Jean returns to her semi-normal life. She'd lost close to a year, but it didn't truly matter to anyone. She would make up the time later. A few years later, she developed the ability to not only hear other peoples thoughts, but also to move things with her mind. With her powers increasing steadily and the amount of training required to keep them under control also increasing, Jean moved to Xavier's School full-time. There she would make the friendships which would help to define the rest of her life.

Under Xavier's direct tutelage and supervision, Jean became the first female member of the X-men team and completed her high school education. Upon graduation, she was given her first big choice. Stay on at the school and immediately take up a teaching position, or follow her dream out the front gate and start to build a life for herself. Jean chose to leave for college at nearly 19.

Though her telepathy allowed her access to the greatest minds in any field and thus she could have easily excelled at everything, Jean chose to get by on her own ability to study and understand. She graduated in 3.5 years, which was still better than most people her age. Every chance she had, Jean was back at the school, spending more time there than she did with her family and whenever possible, she invited those she knew from the school to come visit her during her studies. She always had time for it.

However, her dream was to become a doctor, which meant that at the age of 23, she enrolled at New York University to get her Docorate of Medicine. Another four years of work, then another year at residency...a process that made her somewhat waspish due to lack of sleep. Honestly, it made no sense the schedules that they set, but one had to accept doing things the way that the establishment required them. Jean always was one for following the rules. During her residency, which she had chosen to do at Westchester Medical Center, a bare skip from the school so that she could live there, Jean began experiencing strange dreams. Dreams she woke from wondering exactly where they were coming from. They hardly seemed as if they belonged to her.

Upon completing her residency and returning to a normal routine, well as normal a routine as the school allowed, the dreams died down until she was certain they were no more than a phase she had been going through. At least, that was what she thought until the man called Wolverine walked into her life.

Xavier's intervention seems to have stopped the creature in its tracks, at least momentarily...but there is always the worry of something coming out. Something which may not be good.

Personality: Jean is a woman who is imminently capable; the one people come to when they want to get things done. While she is capable of indecision, it seems that it something she tends to keep to herself. It's much easier to seem cool and collected if you don't let others see you sweat. Therefore, Jean doesn't let people see her sweat. She lives by the letter of the law if not the spirit, but only if she believes those laws to be fair and just. Hence why she has seriously considered lobbying for better treatment of mutants in healthcare despite the fact that to do so would put her in the spotlight. The only thing really stopping her is her care for others around her. It's fine for her to put her own life in danger, but not those who didn't ask for it. Since her coming out and being labelled would bring undue attention down on the school, she keeps her peace. She has and will always put others in front of herself.

To many, Jean seems overly boxed in and it is somewhat true. Her abilities require a level of control she has worked exceptionally hard to achieve. It seems as if it has been one long exercise in denial because it has. She has had to force herself to live in her own skull instead of reaching into those of others. Now she has the ability to pick and choose when she will use her powers and when to block others out. Control, dearly bought and paid for, is not something she is prepared to relinquish. For that reason, Jean rarely seems to show her anger in front of others or her sadness either. That is reserved for a special few she trusts deeply.

Unfortunately, there is a part of her that sees her control as something that needs to be broken. It wants out and has been manifesting itself more and more lately leading to uncharacteristic behavior in Jean.

Abilities: Jean Grey is first and perhaps foremost a high caliber telepath. This grants her the abilities to: read minds (surface thoughts, memories, fantasies, dreams, etc), project her thoughts, mentally stun opponents with pure psionic force, initiate astral travel, assume mental control of a target subject, cause hallucinations, and alter memories among other things. It's rare for her to use even half of the abilities available to her as she believes in a person's right to privacy and self-determination, but this is not to say she will not use the weapons in her arsenal if it should come down to it. Her secondary ability is telekinesis allowing her to levitate and manipulate objects, fly, generate force fields, and even create concussive force blasts through molecular manipulation.

Jean is not currently living up to her full potential, however, as Professor Xavier has placed mental blocks against the full use of her powers for the good of Jean herself and those around her. What could happen if those blocks are fully removed or destroyed has not yet been fully explained; however, the word catastrophic has come up in conversation regarding the possibility.

PB: Julianne Moore