EXPIATION APP

[mightymorphin]

Player: Elfmind
Contact: evilbo or ask for Discord
Age: Over 30
Current Characters: None

Character Name: Morph (birth name presumably Kevin Sydney)
Character Canon: X-Men '97
Canon Point: After the events of Tolerance is Extinction part 3
Age: Approx 26

Crime: Impersonation/False Personification. Morph took Charles Xavier's form on international television in an attempt to calm rioting after Xavier's near-death, and they also commonly take the appearance of publicly-known superheroes in fights, including a few Avengers and Mr. Fantastic.

Background:
Wiki link here for original series events, with the following occurring in X-Men '97:

Six months later, Morph has returned as a member of the team, with an updated appearance - as we see in the first episode, it is demonstrated as their 'default', with their original look used as a disguise they wear in public. In the first episode, Morph joins their teammates at a club looking for the runaway mutant Roberto da Costa as well as in destroying a Master Mold located in a desert. In the second episode they join the team in witnessing Magneto's UN trial and later fighting off the X-Cutioner when the trial is attacked.

Morph has a larger role in the third episode. As the team is beset by nightmare visions caused by the Goblin Queen, Morph is confronted by a showering Wolverine... who promises them that 'they all know' before the illusion takes the form of Mr. Sinister. After the team regroups and is rescued by Jean after fighting off more illusions, Morph leads a small group to one of Mr. Sinister's hideouts and joins in the fight against the Goblin Queen, briefly having their mind taken over by her in the process.

Later, Morph is at home in the mansion with most of the team when the news breaks about the devastating attack on the mutant island of Genosha. They are there when the X-Men go the Genosha to assist in the aid effort, and also when they locate Bolivar Trask in Madripoor, who is revealed to have become a Prime Sentinel. While Morph is shot in the head with an energy blast during the fight, they reform and are conscious at the end of the fight, seemingly no worse for wear.

In the finale what the team has learned is summed up; a technopath named Bastion orchestrated both the attack on Genosha and the emergence of the Prime Sentinels, and is now controlling them. Morph is in the mansion when it is attacked by massive numbers of Prime Sentinels, which are only stopped by Magneto using his powers to unleash a massive planet-wide EMP. Professor Xavier returns to Earth shortly after, and the X-Men realize that they only until the end of the next day to force Magneto to restore the Earth's magnetic field before it's gone forever. Morph ends up on the Gold team, who fights both Mr. Sinister and Bastion, defeating the former but unable to stop Bastion before he flees to Asteriod M.

The Gold team rigs up a Sentinel to fly after him in pursuit, arriving on Asteroid M to join the Blue team - who have taken down Magneto, at a cost - and assist them in fighting Bastion off for good. Unfortunately, the Magneto Protocols were activated, a missile launch that targets the asteroid and doesn't succeed in destroying it, instead sending it hurtling towards Earth. While the X-Men couldn't prevent Bastion's death, they coordinate in an attempt to stop the asteroid's trajectory and stop the catastrophe.

Likely because their powers were of little use in that scenario, Morph was left behind on the Blackbird with a few others, including an unconscious and heavily injured Wolverine. Logan is calling out for Jean in his sleep, and it's in that moment that Morph decides that they can say what Jean can't, taking her form to confess to Logan that they love him.

Magneto awakens and stops the asteroid from crashing down onto the planet, but shortly after that the entire asteroid is seemingly teleported away, taking the assembled mutants with it. We see that certain members of the team have been thrown either forwards or backwards through time, but where Morph may have ended up has not yet been revealed.


Personality:
As a member of the X-Men, if Morph has a certain role on the team it's that of the jokester (and cameo machine). They're often ready with a quip or sarcastic commentary, and commonly use their powers to impersonate other people as a punchline. Morph has a fairly cheerful, mischievous disposition without being too immature, and they're able to retain a mostly optimistic outlook even following tragic events. Despite being away from the team for long stretches of time, they still fit in well with the found family dynamic that the X-Men have created.

In the original cartoon Morph used a masculine, human-looking appearance, but during the six months before the start of '97 Morph returned to the X-Men using gender-neutral pronouns and with a more inhuman-looking visage. It's been confirmed that Morph's decision to switch to using their natural look was spurred on by their desire to move on from the trauma they suffered, and that being able to stop using the face they associated with pain also became a way of being more open with their identity. In that way, their nonbinary identity is intertwined with their experiences and also with their powers - they have been described in a genderfluid manner without the word being used directly, but regardless Morph is equally comfortable using both male and female forms. In fact, they use their shapeshifting in every episode where they appear for more than a minute, so they undeniably rely on their powers even in day-to-day life. Mutants are an often-persecuted minority, so Morph still uses their human look in public places where mutants may not be welcome, but they almost never wear that face at home.

To touch on the topic of trauma, Morph was on their first official mission with the team when they were left for dead and then brainwashed by a mad scientist supervillain, an experience that lead to them struggling to fight against the resulting 'darker side' that craved revenge. Though Morph was eventually able to fight it back enough to save their teammates, they were hospitalized for a stretch of time afterward to have the mind-controlled device removed from their brain. It's a lot to go through, particularly for someone who wasn't a seasoned superhero yet. Those experiences left Morph with a paralyzing fear of Sentinels that they had to overcome to save their friends, and lasting PTSD surrounding those events, including nightmares. While their first attempt to rejoin the team inevitably failed, now that they've returned for good it's clear that their fear of Sentinels has more or less been conquered, though they still react pretty negatively to both dealing with Sinister and a brief bout of mind control caused by the Goblin Queen.

It's important to note that while Morph seems to be out to the team gender-wise, with the other X-Men using their correct pronouns in dialogue, there's evidence that Morph is still in the closet sexually. After all, most people's idea of a nightmare wouldn't be their naked best friend threatening that he knows, and that the whole team knows, something - we're never told outright, but Morph's confession to an unconscious Logan in the last episode makes it clear that these are feelings that they've kept close to their chest. Though the X-Men even call each other family, Morph is the closet to Logan out of anyone else in the group, very good friends with him even outside of any romantic feelings. It's also 1997, so combine the era's relative homophobia with the fact that it's their best friend and Logan is already involved in another love triangle, and it makes a whole cocktail of reasons that Morph is keeping their feelings to themself.

Ultimately Morph fits that character trope of being the funny guy (gender neutral) who would rather focus on jokes than to address their feelings, but this is balanced by the fact that they have become more honest with themself about their identity. This may still be an ongoing process - even with the timeskip it has been a year or less since Morph started identifying as nonbinary - but they have the benefit of a found family that supports them, and (presuming!) Expiation being more accepting than the era they come from might even help Morph come to terms with the rest of their pesky feelings.


Abilities: Morph is a mutant with the ability to shapeshift, though their powers are a little less straightforward than someone like Mystique. When they take a person's form, they also take the associated physical traits, which includes mimicking physical powers or mutant abilities. Good in-universe examples include mimicking Colossus, who can create a layer of techno-organic metal over his skin, or Quicksilver whose speed powers are determined by his body being ridiculously adapted for super speed rather than some outside force. Morph has in the '92 cartoon shifted into animals during a fight, so those are also fair game. It's been confirmed that Morph's shifting is on a molecular level and includes changes in DNA, though presumably they can't shift away the DNA that makes their powers possible.

Their shapeshifting includes 'props' like clothing or weapons, and they have also shifted Wolverine's claws separately in such a fashion. These items they create have no special properties (i.e. they can mimic steel but not adamantium), and they additionally have to remain on Morph since they are attached to them as an extension of their body. If Morph creates a sword, they can't drop it from their hands and would have to instead reabsorb it back into their form.

There's a few limitations to their powers. They can't mimic any abilities that aren't purely physical (they couldn't become a telepath or mimic Magneto to get his powers, for instance). They're also generally weaker in power than whoever they're copying; when Morph took the form of the Hulk they still needed telekinetic assistance to smash in Sentinels. It has also been confirmed by Word of God that Morph can't continuously use their powers in such a strenuous fashion without starting to literally melt. Also - for some reason - Morph retains the same scent no matter what form they take. The main thing to remember about Morph is that they are a jack of all trades and a master of none, making them adaptable and capable of changing roles, but they would be outclassed in demanding fights or against serious opponents.

Additionally, Morph has been shown to be capable of reforming their body after an injury; they take a headshot in one episode that briefly splatters their head apart and reforms it just as quickly, and they're back on their feet within minutes. This seems to follow along exactly with how their body worked in the Exiles comics - basically, Morph is a gooey mass all the way through, without actual bones, veins, or traditional vital signs. This makes them pretty resistant to physical damage, as they don't bleed and can reform themself, though presumably energy blasts and fire would still pose a problem.

Aside from their mutant powers, Morph has been trained in hand-to-hand combat as a member of the X-Men and has been shown to use shifted swords well enough that basic weaponry training may have also been included. They are also a good enough actor to have fooled their own teammates while taking the forms of their friends and allies.

Inventory:
- A combat uniform made of unstable molecules - this allows Morph to shapeshift while wearing it and the uniform be no worse for wear later.
- An X-Men comm badge.

Samples:
Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3

Questions: Nah