"I'm not X-23. I'm not your experiment. I'm not your fucking property! You are the last person who will ever think they can own me. No one owns me! I'm not a thing. I'm Laura Kinney! I'm the daughter of Sarah. I'm the daughter of Logan. I'm Wolverine!"
(Closed RP blog for Doomsday Rising)
“Someone who understands the secrets of secret training rooms,” Jubilee repeated, leaning her entire weight against Laura’s concrete beam. “The Professor wouldn’t touch this with a ten kabillion foot psychic pole.” A little more dirt crumbled from above. “All the same…” she pressed a ceiling panel haphazardly above, one arm on the concrete as the rest of her ascended the ladder.
“I swear. This is New York, New York! If there’s not someone willing for a hot, under the table shilling to make this work here then I don’t think there’s anyone in the fucking world. I say we hit up Craigslist. That’s where the,” she glanced around playfully, whispering, practically hissing as though someone would bust her as soon as she said it, “illegal shit goes down. Someone will come crawling out of the woodwork. Besides, it’s practically done anyway.”
Laura was about to push her friend off so she could work, but the ceiling cried for help and there wasn’t anywhere else for Jubilee to put her weight on to get that fixed. The whole thing was a real safety hazard held together by wood, concrete and sweat, but it was theirs and they were sure to make it work.
“Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,” Laura sang under her breath. The lyrics made no sense, but neither did New York sometimes. “Well, it’s not like anyone can jump us or take the money we don’t have. We put up a listing for a quick, clean service, they can use the gym’s showers and coffee machine… it’s practically a stable job with benefits,” she said as she stuck two more planks into the concrete block. “You hungry? This won’t go anywhere until we find someone who knows what they’re doing.”
“At last.” Jubilee wiped the sweat from her brow. “Three months.” She gave a laugh that landed somewhere been exhausted and maniacal. “Three fucking months of digging hand to claw. Literally holding up the ceiling to construct additional pylons so neither of us gets motherfucking buried alive. At last, we have expanded our basement to my satisfaction,” she finished triumphantly. “And yours, I guess.” She flashed two sparkling finger guns at Laura.
A bit of dirt crumbled down the side of the wall.
“Ah, fuck. Come on!” With a heavy sigh, Jubilee picked up another two by four to stabilize the place. “Are we gonna need an actual real deal contractor just so no one fucking dies down here? Because it’s starting to look that way. My back hurts, like, so badly. I’m not saying that I give up, but… We’re going to need someone good. Someone who works like a shit ton, but not for a lot of money. Someone who will go sort of, like, law adjacent when it comes to permits.”
Laura put her hands on her hips, looking around at their makeshift, do-it-yourself basement. A lot of controlled explosions and raw strength – combined through their powers – had been needed to get that far and it looked… well, not pretty, but workable. Or so it seemed, before crumbs of dirt fell from the ceiling once again. Godfuckingdammit.
“Someone who understands of secret training rooms, because we sure as hell don’t. We should have asked the Professor for help, doesn’t the mansion even have a nuclear bunker?” She sighed, picking up a heavy block of concrete to start building another pylon. “Not that we would have been able to pay for that level of professionalism or anything, and this shouldn’t appear on anyone’s paycheck. Who else do we know? No union workers, that would hit the legal part.”
Character name / alias : Laura Kinney / Formerly X-23, now Wolverine
Faceclaim: Seychelle Gabriel
Affiliations: X-Men, Nomads
Age: 29
Species: Metahuman
Gender: Cis female
Sexuality: Bisexual
Identity: Secret
Powers and/or abilities: Genetically enhanced with Logan’s DNA, Laura possesses all of her father’s basic powers, with the difference that she has two bone claws on each hand and one on each foot. These claws are coated in adamantium, but that’s not true for the rest of her skeleton, also differentiating her from Logan.
She has an accelerated healing factor, longevity, immunity to diseases and poisons, as well as superhuman senses (especially smell, which she uses for tracking). Her stamina, reflexes, durability and agility are all enhanced by her mutation as well as her training.
Since childhood, she was raised to be an assassin, and thus is an expert martial artist and black ops agent.
Weaknesses: Very few, as she can regenerate from almost anything, except having her head cut off. Cosmic amounts of energy could harm her enough and most likely kill her. The length of time for her to heal may vary if the injury is near fatal, which can give the enemy an advantage. She can be put out of commission by certain drugs and there’s a trigger scent that her handlers used to give her to make her go into a berseker state, in which she’ll kill anyone in sight, friend or foe.
Personality traits:
- Protective vs aggressive: She wants to survive, first and foremost. She’ll fight tooth and nail to keep the freedom she’s gained and she’ll do the same for the ones she cares about. Unfortunately, her very nature is of a feral creature and the way she shows emotions or handles her problems is just as unhealthy as her father’s. Yay, genetics!
- Honest vs rude: Laura is... blunt. She’ll say whatever she thinks to your face, although admittedly she has gotten much better with her people skills. She doesn’t like playing games and in spite (or perhaps exactly because) of being as assassin, she prefers to speak/hear the truth.
- Nurturing vs distrusting: Touch-starved feral child. She has an inherent distrust of organizations and people, but once she gets comfortable with someone or if she sees a child in need of care as she once was, she’s an incredibly sweet, nurturing person. Basically think of a wolf, aggressive and suspicious at everyone except her own.
Headcanons:
- Laura volunteers at orphanages and shelters to read to children, as her mother used to do for her during her upbringing at the Facility. She’s the living proof that a little kindness can go a long way.
- She fears nothing, that was beaten out of her a long time ago, but she hates being in enclosed spaces.
- She loves crossword puzzles and will do them while laying around in absolutely lazy positions. She has perfect posture in combat, let her rest a bit!
- Animals tend to be fearful, distrustful or even aggressive around Laura, much to her dismay.
Life before the Accords:
X-23 was the first successful project of the Facility. After 22 failed attempts to clone the Wolverine, Dr. Sarah Kinney decided to test out a theory and create a female subject through artificial insemination, giving birth to a little girl that was hardly ever allowed to be a child at all. Raised in captivity to be the perfect weapon, X-23 lived a life without comfort, subjected to physical abuse and emotional negligence, with sparse moments of much-needed care with Dr. Kinney.
At the age of 7, through radiation exposure, X-23's mutation was triggered and she started her training to be an assassin. Four years later and with successful experimental missions under her belt, the Facility began selling her services to those willing to pay a fair amount for a quick and efficient way of dealing with their enemies. X-23 did as she was told with the life she had always known, until she started catching glimpses of the world outside.
Fearing that the same situation could be replicated by cloning the subject and wishing to save her from the impeding fate of living weapon, Dr. Kinney gave X-23 a clear mission – destroy the Facility, including every sample of genetic material, and kill her handlers. Unfortunately, Dr. Kinney’s found out about the plot superiors and used the trigger scent to send X-23 into a blind rage, leading her to kill Dr. Kinney while the woman was trying to help her escape. With her final breath, Dr. Kinney told the 13-year-old girl the truth about being her mother and gave her the name she would use from then on – Laura.
For over a year, Laura wandered the outskirts of San Francisco, managing to survive by herself with the skills honed throughout her still short life. She’d seen the files that linked her to the Wolverine, a connection she didn’t know what to do with, and once she encountered him the first instinct was to attack and flee. It took some time until they could get used to each other, and she doesn’t forget that in spite of everything, Logan didn’t leave her alone then, taking it upon himself to raise her to be a full person and not what the Facility tried to make of her.
Eventually, she also joined the Xavier Institute, where she learned how to make friends – and some trouble too, of course. Laura still considers herself more of a lone wolf than anything else, but she has her people and they can count on her, because she knows that she can count on them as well.
Following the Accords:
The one thing Laura hates the most is being labeled and at the mercy of powers-that-be deciding her fate, therefore she didn’t sign it. She also didn’t want to go to Genosha because she doesn’t negotiate with people that want to trap her kind in one place. She has been on missions with the Nomads, but hadn’t come to live at the Mousehole until reuniting with Logan.
“You are the last person who will ever think they can own me. No one owns me! I’m not a thing. I’m Laura Kinney! I’m the daughter of Sarah. I’m the daughter of Logan. I’m Wolverine!!!”
