| Mystique |
 |
| Name: | Raven Darkholme |
| Gender: | Female |
| Place of Birth: | Austria |
| Age: | Unknown |
| Aliases: | Mystique |
| Origin: | Mutant |
| Origin Earth: | 616 |
| Present Location: | Mobile |
| Occupation: | Spy, Assassin, Terrorist |
| Team: | None |
| Alignment: | Villain |
| Significant Other(s): | unknown |
| Powers and Abilities: | Shapeshifter |
| Portrayed by: | None |
*Born somewhere in Austria, year unknown.
*In 1921 she met Wolverine in Mexico. Both were to be executed. People believed she was a witch due to the color of her skin.
*Met Victor Creed under the guise of Leni Zauber. This led to her first child, an unpowered human named Graydon Creed.
*Her second child, Kurt Wagner, resulted from a relationship with Azazel despite her having been married to Christian Wagner. Accused of being demons by the townsfolk she threw Kurt into a river in order to escape.
*Her next relationship was with a mutant named Destiny, who told Raven she should adopt a mutant named Anne-Marie.
*During this time Raven secured the title of Deputy Director of DARPA. Soon after she forms the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
*A temporary loss of her powers resulted in the destruction of her established alternate identities and all of her banked funds up to that point.
*Once regaining her powers she escaped but had learned that Destiny had been secretly allied with the very anti-mutant conspiracy Raven had been fighting against for years. Raven then became obsessed with eradicating humanity.
*The Brotherhood is brought back together.
*A brief alliance is formed with Charles Xavier, she worked as a double agent for him in exchange for protection from her numerous acts of terrorism.
*Not long after Mystique requested to join the X-Men, which was granted with a probationary status.
*Raven would soon betray the X-Men and shoot Rogue in the back before abducting her.
*A prolonged battle with Wolverine comes to end in her death. Raven's body is auctioned off, purchased by the Hand whom then resurrected her.
*Having grown tired of the mutant conflict she changed tactics, illegally raising funds in order to purchase Madripoor.
*With Madripoor purchased from HYDRA Raven set up operation creating Mutant Growth Hormone in order to boost the island country's economy, using an unwilling Dazzler as an X-Gene donor.
*Magneto, discovering this operation, became outraged and destroyed Raven's headquarters while severely injuring her.
*Destiny reached out to Mystique one last time from beyond the grave, having left very detailed instructions for her to follow. Raven picked up this trail, having been told that it would reunite her with Destiny.
*Near the end of her journey Mystique learned the truth. This trail was never about bringing back Destiny, it was about preventing what would become known as Battleworld.
*Angered by this betrayal Mystique shatters the last artifact, and Earth-616's last hope of survival along with it.
*Having survived the merging of realities Mystique decides to renew her efforts in turning Madripoor into a mutant sanctuary. This will take funding and mutant support, both of which she knows how to acquire.
A mutant like her doesn't live for as long as she has by being oblivious. Very little legitimately catches her off guard, and if it does she'll downplay the hell out of it.
Maybe she doesn't show it as much as some, but yeah. She's totally arrogant. Like anyone else could do what she does as perfectly as she does it.
But she has every right to be so because she simply is better than everyone else. What a silly question!
She's strong enough (and proud to be able) to make the tough decisions others cannot, including the decision to sacrifice dozens of her own kind if it moves things in her direction. Their losses will be remembered. Probably.
As the owner of Madripoor and a devout mutant rights activist she wants to see her mutant sanctuary thrive, and to hell with Magneto and his jealousy. He never made it with Genosha, and he never will. She'll show him how it's done. She'll show them all how it's done.
Raven is not your friend, your pal, your buddy. She may not even be your enemy. Everyone she meets is a potential means to an end. She will lie, cheat, steal, string along, and play with another's emotions for as long as it takes to get what she wants. Sometimes what she wants is nothing more than to royally mess with someone. It's fun. Don't kid yourself.
Greed, power, amusement, it's all the same to her. She's got nothing but time and tricks and the world around her is one big playground full of oblivious little people.
She's been alive for a very long time. She's even had a few children of her own. Yes, she's a terrible person, but in her own twisted ways she still looks out for her own kind. And really, compared to her they're ALL immature, squabbling children. Sometimes someone has to step in to fix things. That someone would be her.
Raven makes the typical superspy look like an open book. If you get anything out of her it's only what she wants you to know, and to you the very best of luck in figuring out if it's actually true or not.
Mystique operates for the good of all mutantkind. At least, that's what she claims. Her methods of trying to reach this goal may seem entirely selfish, and they very likely are. Even her claim that she's an agent for their species is pretty self-centered. No one else gave her such a title. Many would prefer she stop doing what she's doing altogether. Those people simply cannot see the bigger picture.
Her X-gene allows for an incredible amount of molecular manipulation of her own being, having so much control that she is able to perfectly copy another person's voice, mannerisms, retinal patterns, fingerprints, skin-pore patterns, dental records, even their very clothing (excluding other X-Genes.) Any DNA sample is enough for her to work with, however this alone won't allow her to assume their voice and personality. She can change her shape, skin and bone into entirely inhuman constructions from nightmarish creatures to seemingly inanimate pieces of scenery. She can choose which parts of herself to morph at will, only taking a second to become something completely different from the last. With this she can also triple her own physical strength and dexterity, and boost her natural senses as desired. This ability also lets her mimic the look and feel of non-biological material, such as glass and metal.
An added bonus of her metamorphic ability Mystique can, by choice, prevent herself from ever aging. She also has vastly enhanced healing and is immune to toxins, drugs, and poisons. Go ahead and shoot or stab her, physically she'll be fine.
Her power also makes her mind nearly immune to any psychic-based contact. Trying to read her thoughts requires considerable effort from a master psychic, though care must be taken as her mind is a very unsettling place. Just as she physically morphs herself on a whim her thoughts are a chaotic, disorienting mess which will be quite uncomfortable for anyone brave enough to try. Trying to reach her mind is never a good idea.
She's able to morph her very brain however she sees fit. Having a dominant limb is a thing of the past, she can multi-task with any appendage equally well. Ever snap a guy's neck with nothing more than your bare feet? It's quite invigorating! You should give it a try sometime.
While she isn't faster than a speeding bullet she is plenty fast in a combat scenario and can give scrappers a good run for their money. She's also quite talented at running, climbing, leaping, and landing falls. Climbing a rope upside down isn't a very big deal for her.
Whether they realize that it's actually Mystique or not, she's got a scary amount of people, humans and mutants alike, that she can lean on in order to get things done. Many times they know her as some made-up alias or copied figure and never know who they're really helping, but that's not her problem! She's had generations to plant these seeds. In this day and age the world is her garden.
Remember Madripoor, that island country full of corruption and other unsavory things? Mystique owns that now. She used cash stolen from various heists and bought it from HYDRA. It's hers now. Neener.
Thanks to Dazzler's 'contributions' she is both fully capable of producing MGH and has created quite a supply chain for it as well. Maybe she didn't start the craze but she's sure learned how to capitalize upon it.
Imagine if for twenty years you were preparing for armageddon. Food, water, shelter, weapons, vehicles, fuel, medical supplies, anything and everything. Now imagine that you've had over two centuries to be amassing wealth and storing useful gear across the globe. Sometimes when a billion dollar fighter jet is lost it isn't because it was destroyed over the ocean, it's because she took it home with her. Some of these locations can be found in Austria, New York, Seattle, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.
She's assembled this ragtag group of evil mutants more times than she cares to admit, though over time the name 'The Brotherhood' has come to carry some decent weight to it. Why abandon brand recognition? The Brotherhood's ranks are a very fluid number but she's been a General amongst their ranks since the beginning. These mutants will follow her lead, sometimes straight to death.
She can imitate anyone's quirks, nervous tics, habits, peculiarities, demeanor, and gait with only a brief moment of observation.
Her survival requires always being on alert. Even without boosting her own senses she is a very observant creature to the point of it almost becoming a whimsical hobby.
At her core, Mystique is a spy and an assassin. Given any reason to she will secretly remove another person from the world and take their place, sometimes for years at a time, all the while pulling strings and causing damage in order to tip the scales the way she wishes them to fall. Keeping her out of any location which she wants access to is increasingly difficult to accomplish.
Not just intelligent by design, she's lived for centuries and experienced a great many things. She's seen secrets the world never wants revealed. While she's no super-genius, she may well surprise them sometimes.
She can read, write, and speak in so many different languages that she's probably forgotten about several of them. This includes English, German, French, Hungarian, Russian, Japanese, Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Farsi, Czech, Ukrainian, and a little Italian.
If it was designed for combat chances are real good that she'll excel with it, from martial arts and machine guns to napalm bombs and nuclear warheads. This mutant is never without the skills and means of inflicting serious harm upon anything within her vicinity.
At some point in Raven's life she had been programmed with three control words. Currently the only people to know her control words are Shogun and herself. Should anyone else gain access to these words they could use them to effortlessly manipulate, sedate, or even kill her.
So, this whole 'Battleworld' thing. The dividing and subsequent mashing together of realities… It could have been prevented, you know. It was Mystique's lover, Destiny, whom even after her death had guided Raven along a journey which would have allowed her to set everything right at the last second. The only problem was that Mystique had been led into it believing that it would reunite her with Destiny. When she discovered it had all been a trick by her former mate she became incredibly bitter and gave up on these instructions. The world as everyone knew it came to an end and she just let it happen.
Her mutation carries with it several limitations: She cannot alter her mass. She cannot completely mask her scent. Physically she is only capable of altering her size by a factor of fifty percent. She cannot completely mask her pulse, respiration, or body temperature, however they can be significantly reduced. Copying another's voice requires that she hear at least ten syllables first. Due to a need for necessary organs and internal operation she also cannot make the core of her body less than four inches thick. She cannot directly copy another mutant's abilities, however some can easily be replicated such as a healing factor or physical alterations. She can only change herself so much to withstand the heat or cold, if a human cannot survive with appropriate clothing then she probably will not fare much better. Finally, should she fall unconscious she will always revert to her true form.
Mutants shall prevail, as the superior species they are destined to win in the end. Countless numbers of her kind have fallen, and probably will continue to fall, in this pursuit. She would sacrifice more herself if it would bring them closer to victory. Darwinism does affect all. Humanity, though… They will all burn, and she is all too happy to light the match.
There's Kurt Wagner, the son she threw off of a bridge and into a river in order to save her own skin. He's turned religious, which is annoying, and he's become one of the good guys, which is simply unacceptable. It secretly upsets her quite a bit that Kurt simply refuses to ever see reason. Then there's Ann-Marie Darkholme, the adopted daughter. Things haven't worked out so great between them either, but there's still some hope that she will come back around. There's also Graydon Creed. She would sooner correct that failure than admit to it.
The problem with manipulating everyone is that in the end you are left with no one. At best she may have temporary allies, though even then it's usually do to some amount of coercion from her. She doesn't really have friends and what family she had were pushed away countless times in the past. The only people that would ever help her in a bad situation are probably those that actively want something out of her.
She's better than everyone, of course. Except that this mentality sometimes gets her into trouble. Yeah, so she might get a little cocky, or she might underestimate her opponents once in a while, but she always comes out victorious in the end. It's nothing to concern herself with.
About the only way in which Raven can be trusted is that she will screw you over in the end.
She's not actually The Devil (They were just friends with benefits), but may as well be if you want to make a deal with her. She's petty, treacherous, and knows where so many of the bodies are buried - but she's also incredibly effective and has the ear of a surprising amount of major players. The Mutant Rights thing isn't up for negotiation, though; you want politicians killed, secrets found (Or buried), drugs and bombs and yellowcake uranium, she's your gal. But hunting other mutants, well, that's more of a personal matter.
IC Events
Logs tagged with "mystique" or "re:mystique" will appear below. Those before 1/25/2017 are from previous instances of the character.
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