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Abigail Raines Code-Name: Xiu (literally meaning shadow, or darkness)Position: X-Men (Reserve, Trainer)Ethnicity: English in heritage, grew up in the jungles of GenoshaSex: Female
Age: 26
Appearance:
Hair: Copper Brown
Eyes: Light Blue
Skin: Slightly pale, fair.
Weight: 130 lbs
Height: 5’6”
Other: Raines is just around average height and, when not using her abilities, looks much like any other girl her age. She can smile and laugh with the best of them, so long as you don’t start asking about her past or her nightly activities. While very athletic and obviously in great shape, she tends to try in loose-fitting clothing when not “working”.
Date Of Birth: October 22nd, 1993
Place Of Birth: London, England
Education: A little bit of elementary school, self-taught from there. Can read and write at near a high school level, but suffers with math and advanced sciences.
Mother: Deceased
Name: Bridgett Raines
Age: 51 (died at 35)
Race: Mutant
Father: Deceased
Name: Matthew Raines
Age: 53 (died at 37)
Race: Mutant
Other Relatives: Older sister, Melissa Raines, missing.
Powers: Abigail is a shadow manipulator, her powers granting her the ability to shape, expand, grow and shrink shadows as well as physically manifest them into solid forms. Abigail can use this to her advantage when trying to hide, making the shadows in corners grow larger and darker which makes her harder to spot. Though she is far
from invisible, it has worked for her many times in the past. She can also physically interact with items that would otherwise be out of reach, manipulating shadows other than her own or even use them as both an offensive or defensive mechanism. In extreme circumstances, Abigail can cover herself completely in shadows that are as hard as titanium, making her impervious to physical attacks, the darkness all around her attacking at her command. This form, however, does have its risks.
Power Limitations: The distance from which Raines can manipulate a shadow tends to be only a couple dozen feet, at best and the further away, the more strain it puts on her to use the shadows. She also can only lift as much with the shadows as she could if she was doing it herself, making the shadows very much an extension of herself. And while she has total control over the shadows, she has to focus on them. They are not constructs capable of independent action but physical manifestations of her will. Also, the more that Abigail uses her powers, the more it manifests on her physically, changing her appearance. First, her coppery hair starts to turn black, then her eyes lose all color and black out, then her skin gets darker and darker. After physically covered in shadows, her mind begins to get affected. Her emotions drain and the dark, cold logic of the power she taps into begin to take over, slowly but surely. If Abigail loses focus in the state, the darkness can take over entirely and cause her to lash out at friend and foe alike. Not until she eventually wears herself out and loses consciousness will she be able to break free of the shadows. Abigail fears that some day even that won’t be enough, but only time will tell.
Hobbies and Interests: Raines loves to sing, she has since she was a young child and while she rarely does so in public, anymore, she has a lovely voice. She is also a skilled pickpocket and thief as well as an expert hand-to-hand combatant and can wield a knife with the best of them, something she’s learned to hone quite a bit over the years (more in Background).
Background: Abigail Raines was born into a lower-middle class family in London. Her father was a steelworker and her mother a daycare administrator, raising people’s children out of her own home. and to the knowledge of few and far inbetween, they were mutants. The life of the Raines family was fairly easy-going, all things considered, and Abigail lived what she considered to be a happy life. She went to school, played with her older sister, and even went to choir after school every day. She had the voice of an angel, her mother would say, and she loved every minute of it, singing any and every chance she got. That is, until her sister’s powers manifested.It turned out that Melissa (three years Abigail’s senior) was a firestarter, much like her mother, but unlike Bridgett, Melissa’s powers were quite explosive, and when her powers manifested in 2003, taking out half of her school cafeteria - which was, thankfully, empty at the time, pitchforks and torches were raised against the younggirl. Despite the generally accepting attitude the officials of England had towards mutants as a whole, it was made pretty clear that Melissa was a danger to herself and others. Fearing the worst, Abigail’s parents packed up her, her sister, and followed after Magneto and his Acolytes to Genosha, where mutants of all types weresupposed to be welcomed.While life was anything but normal on Genosha, Abigail was glad to see that her family didn’t have to hide their abilities anymore and couldn’t wait to become a firestarter like her mom and sister! Or maybe even be able to move things with her mind like her father! But the day couldn’t come soon enough, as a year later, the island wasattacked by Sentinels. Melissa and Abigail ran and hid as the robots attacked, cowering under the heavy coverage of the forested areas outside of the city as they watched their homes burn to the ground.
Through dumb luck and determination, the two girls survived three endless nights of attacks, unable to even try and search for their parents and friends. The Sentinels continued to survey the cities and take down any and every mutant found for weeks before finally leaving. Abigail and Melissa survived off the land, using what little they knew of the island to forage for berries and hunt, though neither were really any good at it.
Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months as Abigail and her older sister learned more and more of the harsh environment they’d grown to call home, constantly on the move in case the Sentinels came back - or worse, if the animals that inhabited the wilds around them decided they would be dinner next. After five years of living on the island with no human contact, the young girls saw their first ship pass by. While they had learned the island better than they could have possibly imagined and taught themselves skills of survival, they knew they had to do whatever it took to get off the island. To get back to society and try and find some scrap of the humanity they’d so long ago left behind. So, the pair built as big of a fire as they could, Melissa using her powers to make the fire grow even bigger and the smoke rose into the sky.
Hours later, a ship made its way inland and, before the pair truly knew what was happening, a dozen armed men seized upon them. While the men came looking for a fight, they didn’t anticipate that both of the girls were mutants. Abigail’s powers had manifested slowly over the years, first being little more than being able to make shadows darker or pull them around her, she’d quickly learned to lift or move items with the shadows. While still a novice in many ways, she was determined not to lose her sister. Not after all these years.
So as the men converged on the young girls, they lashed out, Abigail with tendrils of shadow and Melissa with fire shooting from her hands. Unfortunately for the girls, it wasn’t the attack squad’s first foray in dealing with mutants and they were quickly overwhelmed, power dampening collars slipped around both of their necks. The girls were put on the freighter - apparently a slaver ship, in a cargo unit filled with dozens of other mutants, hands bound and hope lost. As they continued to travel, beatings were often and usually without reason. If they asked questions, they would be beat, if they looked up when spoken to, beat. Breathe too loud. Beaten. It became pretty clear that there was little to nothing the pair could do and, when they reached Beijing, Abigail saw her sister for the last time as someone in what looked like a military uniform took possession of her sister. Words were exchanged, money for the firestarter. Abigail cried out, tried to fight against her captor, begged and pleaded to go with, but to no avail. The only souvenir she was left with was a broken jaw and a few crushed fingers.
Mutant after mutant were unloaded from the ship until there were only three left. Abigail and two young men she hadn’t spent much time with. After what felt like hours, an older man in a business suit approached and nodded at the three. Though he was obviously Chinese, he spoke in a perfect English accent. As he lifted Abigail’s head in his hands, icy grey eyes met with her own. “Get them some clean clothes. Then get them prepped. This one’s gonna need to be broken in.”
Just when Abigail had the slightest tinge of hope that the beatings would end, after a long trip to Hong Kong, an even longer shower and some fresh clothes (still with the collar on), the young girl was brought into what she could only describe as a dojo. Through several months of training and severe beatings, it was made clear exactly what
the girl was to her new master. She would be his hand. If he wanted something done, she would do it. Whether it be steal an invaluable item from a rival family, or see to it that a police captain’s wife not make it to dinner that night, Abigail did unspeakable things under her master’s new name for her: Xiu. The name was tattooed on her left wrist, a constant reminder of who she had become and that she would never be Abigail Raines again. Or so she thought.
By the time Xiu was 20 years old, the name was uttered with fear on the streets of Hong Kong, though her master was the only one who knew the face to go along with it. She worked in the darkness, the night was her only companion, and where she went, great loss was sure to follow. Birthdays came and went without any accolades or celebration and, as she began to rely more and more heavily on her abilities to keep her from feeling anything at all, it became clear just how dangerous her powers were to her and those around her.
It wasn’t until Xiu was 25 years old that she had a chance at freedom - and she took it. A rival family attacked her master’s urban fortress and, like many times before, he removed her collar and sent her after their forces. Take them down quickly and quietly before they could get to him. The dark logic in her told her that her master couldn’t harm her so long as she was without the collar. If he were to die, she could slip away in the midst of the power struggle that was sure to follow. And so she let the assassins in, quietly letting them slip past until she was certain the job would be done. And for the first time in nearly ten years, Abigail Raines was free.
The problem with spending half of your life in the jungle and the other half as a thief and assassin is that it doesn’t exactly lend itself to daytime skills. Though she’d learned enough to know how to get out of the country quickly and quietly, she knew little of the struggle between humans and mutants - having been insulated for so
many years. So, when she got passage into Florida, she was shocked to see the anti-mutant propaganda left and right. Genosha had just been the beginning.
The hurt and anguish she saw caused by the hatred towards her kind set a fire inside of Abigail that she hadn’t felt in a very long time. This time, when she donned the shadows, she did it for those who couldn’t protect themselves. For young mutants who couldn’t protect themselves, for families who couldn’t get to safety by themselves. She wore a mask, she stuck to the shadows, but she stayed her blade. Travelling across the country, stealing to eat and feed others like her, Raines has become a mercenary, helping anyone and every mutant she can. Maybe some day it will make up for all the blood she’s spilled.
Personality: Despite her troubled past, Abigail does her best to be upbeat, to try and smile and laugh and enjoy what little moments she can in a world that has turn its back on her and her people. While she doesn’t hate humans as a whole, she doesn’t tolerate bigotry or hatred towards her kind and is fiercely protective of any mutant she sees being treated badly or abused by humans especially. This is in big part due to her life as a slave. She was subjected to turture and other horrors she never speaks of and it weighs heavily on her and gives her little tolerance of those who take advantage of others who are weaker or can't fight back. A bit of a recluse due to years spent by herself, it takes her some time to warm up to strangers and share any bit of her past. She tries her best to fight past it and break down the walls she’s built, but its proven difficult. More so than she really cares to admit.
Special Notes: Model - Emma Stone
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