Cape & Cowl Application
[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Ali
AGE: 24
JOURNAL: aliccolo
IM: aliccolo
E-MAIL: aliccolo@gmail.com
RETURNING: Yes; Matt Murdock & Angelica Jones
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Barbara 'Bobbi' Morse // Mockingbird
FANDOM: Marvel 616
CHRONOLOGY: Just prior to Hawkeye & Mockingbird #1
CLASS: Hero, she'll keep her tags
SUPERHERO NAME: Mockingbird
ALTER EGO: Barbara 'Bobbi' Morse, Ph.D., previously known as Barbara Morse-Barton, biochemist and spy, formerly Agent 19 of SHIELD
BACKGROUND:
Barbara Morse started out her career as a bright and budding biochemist at Georgia Tech, and pupil of Doctor Wilma Calvin. When Dr. Calvin was offered the chance to work on a government program tasked with recreating the super-soldier serum that had been developed for Captain America, she took her most prized student, Bobbi, with her. While working on the serum, Bobbi came in contact with agents of SHIELD, the international espionage agency, and one of the sponsors of the revived super-soldier program. Bobbi found herself fascinated by the world of espionage, and she decided to trade in her lab coat and test tubes for a SHIELD issued gun and a new life as SHIELD Agent 19. She was trained in multiple forms of combat and developed as special affinity for stick fighting. Battle staves became her signature weapon, and ones she would rarely be seen without from that point forward.
Bobbi’s first assignment sent her to the Savage Land of Antarctica, tasked with finding and recruiting Lord Kevin Plunder, a.k.a. Ka-Zar, the infamous English lord who had given up his life of luxury to live amongst the beasts in the jungle. Bobbi tracked Ka-Zar and was able to convince Ka-Zar to return to the United States with her, in order to deal with the swamp monster, Man-Thing. At one point, Bobbi was captured and held hostage by Man-Thing and was rescued by Ka-Zar. She found herself falling for Ka-Zar, though he seemed to have only a passing interest in her. She served as his sidekick during this time, and the pair settled down together in New York. Their partnership faded after Ka-Zar crossed paths with Shanna the She-Devil.
On her own for the first time in years, Bobbi buried her heartache in her flourishing career as a spy. At the request of the U.S. government, Agent 19 agreed to investigate internal corruption within SHIELD itself, briefly adopting the alias Huntress and donning a mask for the mission. She later changed her codename to Mockingbird, a reference to her nickname during her SHIELD training days, as she was known for mocking her classmates relentlessly. Following months of investigation, Mockingbird was able to pinpoint a SHIELD branch director as the source of corruption and treachery. However, during the confrontation, Bobbi was shot multiple times by SHIELD agents and wound up spending the next six months convalescing in hospital. She was later cleared of charges against her and vouched for by SHIELD head Nick Fury, and was offered the chance to hang up her Mockingbird persona and become a full-fledged SHIELD agent once again. However, Bobbi enjoyed her work as a costumed hero and opted to decline Fury’s offer in favor of working freelance.
Mockingbird’s investigations led her to the headquarters of Cross Technological Enterprises, an electronics manufacturer that she suspected of corruption. Lucky for her, the head of security for CTE was former Avenger Hawkeye, also known as Clint Barton. The two fought during their first meeting, resulting in Mockingbird’s arrest for breaking into the CTE warehouse, however Hawkeye was quickly convinced that she’d been correct in her suspicions. The two were essentially forced to work together upon learning that the villain Crossfire had been using CTE as a front, and after an intense battle involving Hawky and Mocky getting kidnapped, brainwashed, and beating each other senseless, they were victorious in their efforts. To celebrate, Bobbi impulsively proposed marriage to Clint, and nine days after they met, Mockingbird and Hawkeye were married.
As the saying goes, once an Avenger, always an Avenger, and right on cue, Clint was called back to active duty once again, this time accompanied by his new bride. Mockingbird made a positive impression on the other Avengers and was invited to join under reserve status. That lasted for all of a few months before Hawkeye was given approval to form a second team of Avengers based out of Malibu, California. Initially Bobbi was unsure that she even wanted to be an Avenger. She’d been quite content to work as a solo act, and alongside Clint, and she often felt her talents were better suited for a career as a spy than as a superheroine. But she loved Clint, and his faith in her convinced her to give it the old college try.
The West Coast Avengers, or WCA as they were often called were tasked with dealing with villains and other threats to America’s west coast, and their adventures took them to the most far flung realms of the universe. Mockingbird battled aliens and sorcerers (and *gasp* Cat-People!) and travelled through Hell alongside her beloved husband and their team mates, and despite not having any superhuman abilities, she proved herself to be a valuable member of the team. But as we all know, in the Marvel universe the status quo is not allowed to flourish or even survive, so it was inevitable that something horrific would happen to Bobbi to shatter her dreams of happiness. Mockingbird’s downfall began with an ill-fated trip to the deserts of New Mexico, where the WCA had assembled in hopes of recruiting the superheroine Firebird to their ranks. During the mission, they were attacked by Kang the Conqueror and somehow the West Coast Avengers ended up in the 1880’s and at the mercy of a gang of banditos. They were rescued in the nick of time by several Old West heroes; Two-Gun Kid, Rawhide Kid, and Phantom Rider, Lincoln Slade. They all had some adventures together, and Phantom Rider began to show a strange interest in Mockingbird. Nobody really paid much attention to it at the time though, mostly because everyone was too busy battling villains and trying to find a way back to their proper place in time.
The WCA learned that the time machine Kang had used to send them back in time couldn’t send them forward, so after crafting some nonsensical, hacked together plan, the team prepared to travel even further back in time in order to reach ancient Egypt where they could meet up with Rama-Tut and... well, none of that particularly matters. What does matter is Phantom Rider decided he could not live without Bobbi Barton in his life, and just as the time machine was activated, he struck her over the head and kidnapped her, stranding her in the Old West while Clint and her friends were sent another hundred years in the past. Phantom Rider took Bobbi hostage, and went into hiding from Two-Gun and Rawhide, and he kept Bobbi drugged using an ancient Native American love potion. He convinced her that she was his wife, and he kept her sedated, and raped her repeatedly over the course of several weeks.
Bobbi was finally able to break the drug’s hold, though, and with the help of Two-Gun and Rawhide she was able to make her escape from Slade. He refused to just let her leave, however, and he followed Mockingbird to the top of a ravine, taunting her, telling her that she would never be free of him. After physical struggle, Mockingbird was able to force Phantom Rider off of her, and he ended up clinging to the side of the canyon, begging her to help him up. But instead of delivering mercy, Bobbi delivered her vengeance by stepping away from the canyon and letting him fall to his death.
And just in time, too! Because Hawkeye and the WCA had finally found a way to rescue her from the Old West and return her to modern Malibu. For his part, Clint initially sensed that something was wrong with his wife, though she denied anything traumatic had happened to her and explained Slade’s plummet as a suicide. And for months, she continued to live in denial about what had happened, fearing that revealing the horrific events that occurred during her kidnapping would destroy her marriage.
Turns out, Bobbi’s fears were totally legitimate. The thing about Phantom Riders is there are multiples of them, and they kind of have a way of transferring memories to each other. The next Phantom Rider decided to pay the WCA a visit, and in dramatic fashion revealed to the team that their precious Mockingbird was a cold-blooded killer. They were all shocked and pretty angry, none more so than Hawkeye. He would accept no excuses from Bobbi; Avengers don’t kill. They don’t even kill the man who kidnapped them, drugged them, raped them, and held them ransom for weeks. Avengers are obligated to rescue such people from cliff sides.
And as mad as Clint was about it, Bobbi was even angrier. She was so enraged and hurt over the incident that not only did she quit the Avengers, but she also left Clint, opting to fly solo once again. She bounced around on her own for awhile, and with partners and smaller groups, but it turned out that Mockingbird had been the rubber cement that held the West Coast Avengers together. After her departure, the team began drifting apart, and after some soul searching, Clint and Bobbi reunited in hopes of saving their marriage and their team. Together, they travelled to Detroit and temporarily headed up the Great Lakes Avengers before once again parting ways.
These were trouble times for the lovebirds, and they continued with their on again/off again marriage for awhile before Bobbi decided to return to Malibu and rejoin the WCA as a reserve member! She and Clint were reunited and their love was alive and everything was wonderful. Until she was killed in battle against Mephisto and Satannish, sacrificing her own life to save her husband’s.
Which is great and all, except that woman who died was not Bobbi Morse. The real Bobbi Morse had been abducted by Skrulls months earlier and replaced by a Skrull duplicate, convinced that she was the real deal. For years, Bobbi was presumed dead, and while Hawkeye grieved her death, life on Earth carried on.
But Bobbi was not on Earth anymore. She’d been taken to the Skrull home world, held as a prisoner, and used in simulations to train other Skrull invaders on how to infiltrate Earth’s society. Bobbi was unaware of this fact for quite sometime, however, and initially she didn’t realize that the Malibu compound she was in was really a Skrull prison. She had no reason to suspect anything, really, the illusion was so complete. Her life continued on for a short while, and she lived with a Skrull version of Hawkeye who was not only convinced that he was the real thing, but also as madly in love with her as the real Clint was. Eventually Bobbi got wise to the situation, and she was able to break out of the compound she was being held in, though she was pursued by Skrull!Clint for years all over the Skrull world. Bobbi used her espionage skills to survive on the alien world and was later able to infiltrate the Skrull ranks enough to steal data that included all of the Skrull civilization’s information on planet Earth, information they were using to plan their Secret Invasion! Later, still she was finally captured by Skrull!Clint, who repeatedly toyed with her emotions and taunted her that she was in love with an impostor, and in a sobbing fit of rage, she broke his neck.
Following the Skrulls’ failed invasion of Earth, Bobbi found herself dropped back onto her home planet and face to face with a ninja-clad Clint Barton, now calling himself Ronin. Bobbi was immediately welcomed back into the fugitive lifestyle by Clint and his New Avengers, since the band of heroes were now outlaws during Norman Osborn’s Dark Reign.
It was a frantic lifestyle to be thrust back into, and while Mockingbird proved to be an invaluable member of the team, she also sought the independence she always craved, not only in order to cope with the trauma of her ordeal, but also to put to use the information she had gathered from the Skrulls. Finding that she was only one of several SHIELD agents who had been abducted and replaced only to find the agency dissolved upon their return to Earth, Bobbi took it upon herself to form a new espionage unit, the World Counter-Terrorism Agency, or the WCA. She planned to work and finance the WCA on her own and in secret, but was quickly found out by Clint, who insisted on accompanying her on the agency’s inaugural mission. The mission was dangerous and the pair were both preoccupied by the unresolved issues between them. But they did make an amazing team, and after some deep thinking and a quick trip to Malibu, Bobbi and Clint decided to give their romantic relationship another try, though this time they would start out by dating.
Mockingbird continued to work along with the Avengers throughout Osborn’s Dark Reign and during the Siege of Asgard before taking on a more permanent role with the WCA, with the newly re-dubbed Hawkeye at her side once more.
PERSONALITY:
On first glance, Mockingbird is a talented, efficient spy and Avenger, a woman whose talent and skill in battle is only matched by her cunning and wit. But behind the fancy mask and glasses is an intensely private woman, one who has overcome a great many set backs in her lifetime. Any number of the traumas she has faced would shatter someone with a weaker will or need for perfection.
Bobbi Morse is a smart lady, in several aspects of the word. In case the Ph.D. in biochemistry wasn't a give away, she is very highly educated, sometimes bookish, and incredibly curious. She also graduated from SHIELD's spy school at the top of her class, and her knowledge of the art of espionage is tip-top. She’s a master martial artist and stick fighter, speaks several languages fluently, and is tech savvy when it comes to hacking and coding thing. If Bobbi decides to learn something, not only will she learn it, but she’ll become a self-taught master. She’s a handy girl to have around in a pinch, sometimes pulling random skills seemingly out of thin air.
But aside from being educated and intelligent, she's also a bit of a smart ass. Her code name Mockingbird stemmed from her constantly making fun of her classmates at SHIELD, and while she isn't mean spirited by any means, Bobbi has diminutives and nicknames for everyone she meets, and she's quick with a quip or a clever line. Some would call her spunky, and that really isn't a bad way to describe her. She's cheerful, supremely confident in her own abilities, and friendly, in a spirited, teasing way. She makes everyone feel welcome around her, even as she taunts them and gives them patronizing nicknames. It’s difficult to be angry with her though, she’s just too darned charming.
Bobbi seems to crave independence, and while she is certainly capable of playing nicely with the other kids, she tends to prefer working on her own, or alongside Clint. This partially has to do with how private she is. She has her secrets, and she will do anything to keep them. Bobbi sought the life of a secret agent, she enjoys flying under the radar and working undercover. She never particularly wanted to be a superhero. She accepted that lifestyle mostly to appease her husband, and since her return to Earth, she's more firm in living the life she wants to, and not answering to anyone else. She's incredibly stubborn, you won't meet anyone more strong-willed than Bobbi Morse, except for maybe her ex-husband.
She has a survivor’s mentality as well, and has a self-preservationist streak. She’s a rape survivor, and to this day she continually relives the trauma. This colors how she perceives herself and the world immensely. She doesn’t like to be cornered or touched, and she is quite particular about who she opens up to about the circumstances surrounding her rape. Clint’s reaction to her rape was especially traumatic for Bobbi. She felt he was blaming her for what happened, and she still has never quite overcome the sense of betrayal she felt toward him. Her abduction by the Skrulls served to further shatter her self-image. She is untrusting, often coming across as paranoid. She has recurring nightmares regarding her rape at the hands of Phantom Rider, and about the Skrulls.
Both of these incidences have a common resolution as well, one that Bobbi is not willing to discuss with anyone: Mockingbird is capable of committing murder. While the death of Lincoln Slade was not directly caused by her, the flashbacks haunt her constantly. She feels remorse and guilt over having caused his death, emotions which are intensified by the rage she still feels over his violation of her. Her killing of the Skrull masquerading as Clint also haunts her, for similar reasons. That experience was almost more intense in some ways, because up until she snapped his neck, he continually claimed to be Clint Barton, and professed his love for her.
Speaking of Clint, Bobbi adores that man. He is her lover, her partner, her best friend, and probably the only person on earth who truly gets her. And while their relationship has its rough patches, Bobbi lives and breathes for that man, and would probably do anything he asked. That isn’t to say she couldn’t survive without him. She could, and she has. But Mockingbird’s world seems boring and empty without Hawkeye, and she’d much rather have him by her side than anyone else.
POWER:
Mockingbird is a trained SHIELD agent and is proficient in several martial arts disciplines and is skilled with many kinds of weapons. Her weapon of choice is a pair of battle staves which can be combined to form a bo-staff. She generally wears the staves strapped to her forearms, spring loaded for easy release and access. She is also proficient in the use of firearms and explosives.
Since Mockingbird has no canon superpowers, the power she will be granted upon entry into the City is power mimicry and negation. These powers can be used together, or separately.
She can mimic any superhuman ability she encounters, at the same skill level as she encounters it at, leaving her opponent powerless in turn. However this is entirely temporary, and she loses the ability to mimic powers after one hour, after which both parties return to their previous states. This is not a bankable power, either; she cannot access anyone else’s powers unless they are within her line of sight, nor can she remember how to use the powers after that initial hour passes.
She can also negate the powers of others she is in contact with, rendering opponents baseline human for up to an hour. She will do this consciously, at-will. No physical contact is necessary, her opponent need only be within her line of sight to be affected.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:
[video -- vaguely Southern accent]
[The camera flickers on to reveal the looming image of Mockingbird against the backdrop of a busy City street. The reflection of the communicator is easily visible in her oversized sunglasses, as are the headlights of passing vehicles, and despite the fact that Mocky has a smirk pasted on her face, it’s obvious that she is totally pissed.]
How many years of my life were wasted on that planet, huh? How much time have I spent on my own, on the run, trying to get back to Earth, trying to get back to reality. I had it, I was home. I was reclaiming my life, I was home and now this?! No! No, no, no! I don’t even know what this is, but I don’t want it!
[It’s getting hard to tell if she’s more heartbroken or angry, enough emotion is coloring her voice and expression. Even her body seems slumped and shattered. This is a humbled, defeated looking Mockingbird. After a moment though, she seems to have collected herself, breathing in deeply and standing up straight and tall.]
A person can only take this so many times and just bounce back. You can only get your heart ripped out and have your dreams trampled so many times before you just want to give up. Maybe next time will be my time, maybe next time I’ll give up. But I guess I’m stuck here, and if I’m gonna be stuck here, I may as well put myself to good use. If you know me, you know what I can do. And you probably know who I’m looking for, too. If you see Barts around, send him my way, will ya?
In the mean time, anyone wanna fill me in on what the hell is going on? Whose ass do I need to kick today?
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
She’s always been a survivor, she’s always prided herself on her knack for getting out of a jam, striding out with her head held high, having a back up plan just in case anything went wrong. She’d been caught off guard one time too many, and she’d learned from her mistakes, and she made it a point to scrounge her way out of the darkness no matter how overwhelming and harsh. Surviving on the Skrull home world would have been impossible if not for that drive. Assimilating back into life on Earth would have been nearly as.
But that didn’t mean surviving was easy. Sure, she could flash a pretty smile and spout out a clever line or two and no one would be the wiser, but on the inside, Bobbi was starting to crack. It seemed like all she’d done in the last few years was run and hide and survive in someone else’s world. And she was lonely, so lonely that her whole body ached. Human connection, emotion, all of it was sacrificed in the name of living one more day. There was no chance to breathe, no time to relax, not one single moment to curl into a soft bed, or take a nice hot bath and just let it all soak in.
She found herself sobbing in the shower everyday, collapsing to the tile, body shaking beneath the stinging spray. The running water was loud enough to muffle everything, and after a certain point, her tears would become so mixed with the shower that she’d forget which was which.
And when she’d emerge, all shiny and clean, no one would be the wiser, not even Clint who knew her so well. If he caught the sadness in her eyes, he didn’t press it, and he never let on. Not that Bobbi would have answered any questions about it, either way. There were some things even he couldn’t know. He’d crack some smart ass line, and she’d make one back, and they’d go about their business like everything was fine, like she hadn’t just spent an hour in the bathroom wasting water. Quips were easier to deal with than answering difficult questions about all the trauma she’d been through. Those troubles were her own. No one else had to know.
But as she’s entering the MAC building for the first time, studying the sterilized hallways that remind her more of an insane asylum than a housing complex, she can’t help but long for him, and wish he was there with her to tease her or hold her or... just be near her. There were things she wished she could tell him, burdensome secrets she needed to get off of her soul, ones that she’s regretting never confessing to him as she lets herself into the efficiency room that’s been assigned to her. If only she hadn’t been so stubborn, if only she’d been more open about the hurt. It was easy to say this now, though, too easy to recognize her own faults. What she needed was the ability to recognize her mistakes before she made them, not seconds and decades later.
The room is pretty much what she expected, small, ordinary, and lacking the fluffy pillows and down comforter she’d secretly been desiring. But the room does have one thing she wanted, one thing that at this point in her life, Bobbi simply can’t live without.
The water is so hot she nearly burns her skin, but it’s refreshing to wash the tears from her eyes and the sweat from her body. Bobbi is nothing if not a survivor, after all. And the first step on the road to surviving is starting out clean.
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
N/A
NAME: Ali
AGE: 24
JOURNAL: aliccolo
IM: aliccolo
E-MAIL: aliccolo@gmail.com
RETURNING: Yes; Matt Murdock & Angelica Jones
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Barbara 'Bobbi' Morse // Mockingbird
FANDOM: Marvel 616
CHRONOLOGY: Just prior to Hawkeye & Mockingbird #1
CLASS: Hero, she'll keep her tags
SUPERHERO NAME: Mockingbird
ALTER EGO: Barbara 'Bobbi' Morse, Ph.D., previously known as Barbara Morse-Barton, biochemist and spy, formerly Agent 19 of SHIELD
BACKGROUND:
Barbara Morse started out her career as a bright and budding biochemist at Georgia Tech, and pupil of Doctor Wilma Calvin. When Dr. Calvin was offered the chance to work on a government program tasked with recreating the super-soldier serum that had been developed for Captain America, she took her most prized student, Bobbi, with her. While working on the serum, Bobbi came in contact with agents of SHIELD, the international espionage agency, and one of the sponsors of the revived super-soldier program. Bobbi found herself fascinated by the world of espionage, and she decided to trade in her lab coat and test tubes for a SHIELD issued gun and a new life as SHIELD Agent 19. She was trained in multiple forms of combat and developed as special affinity for stick fighting. Battle staves became her signature weapon, and ones she would rarely be seen without from that point forward.
Bobbi’s first assignment sent her to the Savage Land of Antarctica, tasked with finding and recruiting Lord Kevin Plunder, a.k.a. Ka-Zar, the infamous English lord who had given up his life of luxury to live amongst the beasts in the jungle. Bobbi tracked Ka-Zar and was able to convince Ka-Zar to return to the United States with her, in order to deal with the swamp monster, Man-Thing. At one point, Bobbi was captured and held hostage by Man-Thing and was rescued by Ka-Zar. She found herself falling for Ka-Zar, though he seemed to have only a passing interest in her. She served as his sidekick during this time, and the pair settled down together in New York. Their partnership faded after Ka-Zar crossed paths with Shanna the She-Devil.
On her own for the first time in years, Bobbi buried her heartache in her flourishing career as a spy. At the request of the U.S. government, Agent 19 agreed to investigate internal corruption within SHIELD itself, briefly adopting the alias Huntress and donning a mask for the mission. She later changed her codename to Mockingbird, a reference to her nickname during her SHIELD training days, as she was known for mocking her classmates relentlessly. Following months of investigation, Mockingbird was able to pinpoint a SHIELD branch director as the source of corruption and treachery. However, during the confrontation, Bobbi was shot multiple times by SHIELD agents and wound up spending the next six months convalescing in hospital. She was later cleared of charges against her and vouched for by SHIELD head Nick Fury, and was offered the chance to hang up her Mockingbird persona and become a full-fledged SHIELD agent once again. However, Bobbi enjoyed her work as a costumed hero and opted to decline Fury’s offer in favor of working freelance.
Mockingbird’s investigations led her to the headquarters of Cross Technological Enterprises, an electronics manufacturer that she suspected of corruption. Lucky for her, the head of security for CTE was former Avenger Hawkeye, also known as Clint Barton. The two fought during their first meeting, resulting in Mockingbird’s arrest for breaking into the CTE warehouse, however Hawkeye was quickly convinced that she’d been correct in her suspicions. The two were essentially forced to work together upon learning that the villain Crossfire had been using CTE as a front, and after an intense battle involving Hawky and Mocky getting kidnapped, brainwashed, and beating each other senseless, they were victorious in their efforts. To celebrate, Bobbi impulsively proposed marriage to Clint, and nine days after they met, Mockingbird and Hawkeye were married.
As the saying goes, once an Avenger, always an Avenger, and right on cue, Clint was called back to active duty once again, this time accompanied by his new bride. Mockingbird made a positive impression on the other Avengers and was invited to join under reserve status. That lasted for all of a few months before Hawkeye was given approval to form a second team of Avengers based out of Malibu, California. Initially Bobbi was unsure that she even wanted to be an Avenger. She’d been quite content to work as a solo act, and alongside Clint, and she often felt her talents were better suited for a career as a spy than as a superheroine. But she loved Clint, and his faith in her convinced her to give it the old college try.
The West Coast Avengers, or WCA as they were often called were tasked with dealing with villains and other threats to America’s west coast, and their adventures took them to the most far flung realms of the universe. Mockingbird battled aliens and sorcerers (and *gasp* Cat-People!) and travelled through Hell alongside her beloved husband and their team mates, and despite not having any superhuman abilities, she proved herself to be a valuable member of the team. But as we all know, in the Marvel universe the status quo is not allowed to flourish or even survive, so it was inevitable that something horrific would happen to Bobbi to shatter her dreams of happiness. Mockingbird’s downfall began with an ill-fated trip to the deserts of New Mexico, where the WCA had assembled in hopes of recruiting the superheroine Firebird to their ranks. During the mission, they were attacked by Kang the Conqueror and somehow the West Coast Avengers ended up in the 1880’s and at the mercy of a gang of banditos. They were rescued in the nick of time by several Old West heroes; Two-Gun Kid, Rawhide Kid, and Phantom Rider, Lincoln Slade. They all had some adventures together, and Phantom Rider began to show a strange interest in Mockingbird. Nobody really paid much attention to it at the time though, mostly because everyone was too busy battling villains and trying to find a way back to their proper place in time.
The WCA learned that the time machine Kang had used to send them back in time couldn’t send them forward, so after crafting some nonsensical, hacked together plan, the team prepared to travel even further back in time in order to reach ancient Egypt where they could meet up with Rama-Tut and... well, none of that particularly matters. What does matter is Phantom Rider decided he could not live without Bobbi Barton in his life, and just as the time machine was activated, he struck her over the head and kidnapped her, stranding her in the Old West while Clint and her friends were sent another hundred years in the past. Phantom Rider took Bobbi hostage, and went into hiding from Two-Gun and Rawhide, and he kept Bobbi drugged using an ancient Native American love potion. He convinced her that she was his wife, and he kept her sedated, and raped her repeatedly over the course of several weeks.
Bobbi was finally able to break the drug’s hold, though, and with the help of Two-Gun and Rawhide she was able to make her escape from Slade. He refused to just let her leave, however, and he followed Mockingbird to the top of a ravine, taunting her, telling her that she would never be free of him. After physical struggle, Mockingbird was able to force Phantom Rider off of her, and he ended up clinging to the side of the canyon, begging her to help him up. But instead of delivering mercy, Bobbi delivered her vengeance by stepping away from the canyon and letting him fall to his death.
And just in time, too! Because Hawkeye and the WCA had finally found a way to rescue her from the Old West and return her to modern Malibu. For his part, Clint initially sensed that something was wrong with his wife, though she denied anything traumatic had happened to her and explained Slade’s plummet as a suicide. And for months, she continued to live in denial about what had happened, fearing that revealing the horrific events that occurred during her kidnapping would destroy her marriage.
Turns out, Bobbi’s fears were totally legitimate. The thing about Phantom Riders is there are multiples of them, and they kind of have a way of transferring memories to each other. The next Phantom Rider decided to pay the WCA a visit, and in dramatic fashion revealed to the team that their precious Mockingbird was a cold-blooded killer. They were all shocked and pretty angry, none more so than Hawkeye. He would accept no excuses from Bobbi; Avengers don’t kill. They don’t even kill the man who kidnapped them, drugged them, raped them, and held them ransom for weeks. Avengers are obligated to rescue such people from cliff sides.
And as mad as Clint was about it, Bobbi was even angrier. She was so enraged and hurt over the incident that not only did she quit the Avengers, but she also left Clint, opting to fly solo once again. She bounced around on her own for awhile, and with partners and smaller groups, but it turned out that Mockingbird had been the rubber cement that held the West Coast Avengers together. After her departure, the team began drifting apart, and after some soul searching, Clint and Bobbi reunited in hopes of saving their marriage and their team. Together, they travelled to Detroit and temporarily headed up the Great Lakes Avengers before once again parting ways.
These were trouble times for the lovebirds, and they continued with their on again/off again marriage for awhile before Bobbi decided to return to Malibu and rejoin the WCA as a reserve member! She and Clint were reunited and their love was alive and everything was wonderful. Until she was killed in battle against Mephisto and Satannish, sacrificing her own life to save her husband’s.
Which is great and all, except that woman who died was not Bobbi Morse. The real Bobbi Morse had been abducted by Skrulls months earlier and replaced by a Skrull duplicate, convinced that she was the real deal. For years, Bobbi was presumed dead, and while Hawkeye grieved her death, life on Earth carried on.
But Bobbi was not on Earth anymore. She’d been taken to the Skrull home world, held as a prisoner, and used in simulations to train other Skrull invaders on how to infiltrate Earth’s society. Bobbi was unaware of this fact for quite sometime, however, and initially she didn’t realize that the Malibu compound she was in was really a Skrull prison. She had no reason to suspect anything, really, the illusion was so complete. Her life continued on for a short while, and she lived with a Skrull version of Hawkeye who was not only convinced that he was the real thing, but also as madly in love with her as the real Clint was. Eventually Bobbi got wise to the situation, and she was able to break out of the compound she was being held in, though she was pursued by Skrull!Clint for years all over the Skrull world. Bobbi used her espionage skills to survive on the alien world and was later able to infiltrate the Skrull ranks enough to steal data that included all of the Skrull civilization’s information on planet Earth, information they were using to plan their Secret Invasion! Later, still she was finally captured by Skrull!Clint, who repeatedly toyed with her emotions and taunted her that she was in love with an impostor, and in a sobbing fit of rage, she broke his neck.
Following the Skrulls’ failed invasion of Earth, Bobbi found herself dropped back onto her home planet and face to face with a ninja-clad Clint Barton, now calling himself Ronin. Bobbi was immediately welcomed back into the fugitive lifestyle by Clint and his New Avengers, since the band of heroes were now outlaws during Norman Osborn’s Dark Reign.
It was a frantic lifestyle to be thrust back into, and while Mockingbird proved to be an invaluable member of the team, she also sought the independence she always craved, not only in order to cope with the trauma of her ordeal, but also to put to use the information she had gathered from the Skrulls. Finding that she was only one of several SHIELD agents who had been abducted and replaced only to find the agency dissolved upon their return to Earth, Bobbi took it upon herself to form a new espionage unit, the World Counter-Terrorism Agency, or the WCA. She planned to work and finance the WCA on her own and in secret, but was quickly found out by Clint, who insisted on accompanying her on the agency’s inaugural mission. The mission was dangerous and the pair were both preoccupied by the unresolved issues between them. But they did make an amazing team, and after some deep thinking and a quick trip to Malibu, Bobbi and Clint decided to give their romantic relationship another try, though this time they would start out by dating.
Mockingbird continued to work along with the Avengers throughout Osborn’s Dark Reign and during the Siege of Asgard before taking on a more permanent role with the WCA, with the newly re-dubbed Hawkeye at her side once more.
PERSONALITY:
On first glance, Mockingbird is a talented, efficient spy and Avenger, a woman whose talent and skill in battle is only matched by her cunning and wit. But behind the fancy mask and glasses is an intensely private woman, one who has overcome a great many set backs in her lifetime. Any number of the traumas she has faced would shatter someone with a weaker will or need for perfection.
Bobbi Morse is a smart lady, in several aspects of the word. In case the Ph.D. in biochemistry wasn't a give away, she is very highly educated, sometimes bookish, and incredibly curious. She also graduated from SHIELD's spy school at the top of her class, and her knowledge of the art of espionage is tip-top. She’s a master martial artist and stick fighter, speaks several languages fluently, and is tech savvy when it comes to hacking and coding thing. If Bobbi decides to learn something, not only will she learn it, but she’ll become a self-taught master. She’s a handy girl to have around in a pinch, sometimes pulling random skills seemingly out of thin air.
But aside from being educated and intelligent, she's also a bit of a smart ass. Her code name Mockingbird stemmed from her constantly making fun of her classmates at SHIELD, and while she isn't mean spirited by any means, Bobbi has diminutives and nicknames for everyone she meets, and she's quick with a quip or a clever line. Some would call her spunky, and that really isn't a bad way to describe her. She's cheerful, supremely confident in her own abilities, and friendly, in a spirited, teasing way. She makes everyone feel welcome around her, even as she taunts them and gives them patronizing nicknames. It’s difficult to be angry with her though, she’s just too darned charming.
Bobbi seems to crave independence, and while she is certainly capable of playing nicely with the other kids, she tends to prefer working on her own, or alongside Clint. This partially has to do with how private she is. She has her secrets, and she will do anything to keep them. Bobbi sought the life of a secret agent, she enjoys flying under the radar and working undercover. She never particularly wanted to be a superhero. She accepted that lifestyle mostly to appease her husband, and since her return to Earth, she's more firm in living the life she wants to, and not answering to anyone else. She's incredibly stubborn, you won't meet anyone more strong-willed than Bobbi Morse, except for maybe her ex-husband.
She has a survivor’s mentality as well, and has a self-preservationist streak. She’s a rape survivor, and to this day she continually relives the trauma. This colors how she perceives herself and the world immensely. She doesn’t like to be cornered or touched, and she is quite particular about who she opens up to about the circumstances surrounding her rape. Clint’s reaction to her rape was especially traumatic for Bobbi. She felt he was blaming her for what happened, and she still has never quite overcome the sense of betrayal she felt toward him. Her abduction by the Skrulls served to further shatter her self-image. She is untrusting, often coming across as paranoid. She has recurring nightmares regarding her rape at the hands of Phantom Rider, and about the Skrulls.
Both of these incidences have a common resolution as well, one that Bobbi is not willing to discuss with anyone: Mockingbird is capable of committing murder. While the death of Lincoln Slade was not directly caused by her, the flashbacks haunt her constantly. She feels remorse and guilt over having caused his death, emotions which are intensified by the rage she still feels over his violation of her. Her killing of the Skrull masquerading as Clint also haunts her, for similar reasons. That experience was almost more intense in some ways, because up until she snapped his neck, he continually claimed to be Clint Barton, and professed his love for her.
Speaking of Clint, Bobbi adores that man. He is her lover, her partner, her best friend, and probably the only person on earth who truly gets her. And while their relationship has its rough patches, Bobbi lives and breathes for that man, and would probably do anything he asked. That isn’t to say she couldn’t survive without him. She could, and she has. But Mockingbird’s world seems boring and empty without Hawkeye, and she’d much rather have him by her side than anyone else.
POWER:
Mockingbird is a trained SHIELD agent and is proficient in several martial arts disciplines and is skilled with many kinds of weapons. Her weapon of choice is a pair of battle staves which can be combined to form a bo-staff. She generally wears the staves strapped to her forearms, spring loaded for easy release and access. She is also proficient in the use of firearms and explosives.
Since Mockingbird has no canon superpowers, the power she will be granted upon entry into the City is power mimicry and negation. These powers can be used together, or separately.
She can mimic any superhuman ability she encounters, at the same skill level as she encounters it at, leaving her opponent powerless in turn. However this is entirely temporary, and she loses the ability to mimic powers after one hour, after which both parties return to their previous states. This is not a bankable power, either; she cannot access anyone else’s powers unless they are within her line of sight, nor can she remember how to use the powers after that initial hour passes.
She can also negate the powers of others she is in contact with, rendering opponents baseline human for up to an hour. She will do this consciously, at-will. No physical contact is necessary, her opponent need only be within her line of sight to be affected.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:
[video -- vaguely Southern accent]
[The camera flickers on to reveal the looming image of Mockingbird against the backdrop of a busy City street. The reflection of the communicator is easily visible in her oversized sunglasses, as are the headlights of passing vehicles, and despite the fact that Mocky has a smirk pasted on her face, it’s obvious that she is totally pissed.]
How many years of my life were wasted on that planet, huh? How much time have I spent on my own, on the run, trying to get back to Earth, trying to get back to reality. I had it, I was home. I was reclaiming my life, I was home and now this?! No! No, no, no! I don’t even know what this is, but I don’t want it!
[It’s getting hard to tell if she’s more heartbroken or angry, enough emotion is coloring her voice and expression. Even her body seems slumped and shattered. This is a humbled, defeated looking Mockingbird. After a moment though, she seems to have collected herself, breathing in deeply and standing up straight and tall.]
A person can only take this so many times and just bounce back. You can only get your heart ripped out and have your dreams trampled so many times before you just want to give up. Maybe next time will be my time, maybe next time I’ll give up. But I guess I’m stuck here, and if I’m gonna be stuck here, I may as well put myself to good use. If you know me, you know what I can do. And you probably know who I’m looking for, too. If you see Barts around, send him my way, will ya?
In the mean time, anyone wanna fill me in on what the hell is going on? Whose ass do I need to kick today?
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
She’s always been a survivor, she’s always prided herself on her knack for getting out of a jam, striding out with her head held high, having a back up plan just in case anything went wrong. She’d been caught off guard one time too many, and she’d learned from her mistakes, and she made it a point to scrounge her way out of the darkness no matter how overwhelming and harsh. Surviving on the Skrull home world would have been impossible if not for that drive. Assimilating back into life on Earth would have been nearly as.
But that didn’t mean surviving was easy. Sure, she could flash a pretty smile and spout out a clever line or two and no one would be the wiser, but on the inside, Bobbi was starting to crack. It seemed like all she’d done in the last few years was run and hide and survive in someone else’s world. And she was lonely, so lonely that her whole body ached. Human connection, emotion, all of it was sacrificed in the name of living one more day. There was no chance to breathe, no time to relax, not one single moment to curl into a soft bed, or take a nice hot bath and just let it all soak in.
She found herself sobbing in the shower everyday, collapsing to the tile, body shaking beneath the stinging spray. The running water was loud enough to muffle everything, and after a certain point, her tears would become so mixed with the shower that she’d forget which was which.
And when she’d emerge, all shiny and clean, no one would be the wiser, not even Clint who knew her so well. If he caught the sadness in her eyes, he didn’t press it, and he never let on. Not that Bobbi would have answered any questions about it, either way. There were some things even he couldn’t know. He’d crack some smart ass line, and she’d make one back, and they’d go about their business like everything was fine, like she hadn’t just spent an hour in the bathroom wasting water. Quips were easier to deal with than answering difficult questions about all the trauma she’d been through. Those troubles were her own. No one else had to know.
But as she’s entering the MAC building for the first time, studying the sterilized hallways that remind her more of an insane asylum than a housing complex, she can’t help but long for him, and wish he was there with her to tease her or hold her or... just be near her. There were things she wished she could tell him, burdensome secrets she needed to get off of her soul, ones that she’s regretting never confessing to him as she lets herself into the efficiency room that’s been assigned to her. If only she hadn’t been so stubborn, if only she’d been more open about the hurt. It was easy to say this now, though, too easy to recognize her own faults. What she needed was the ability to recognize her mistakes before she made them, not seconds and decades later.
The room is pretty much what she expected, small, ordinary, and lacking the fluffy pillows and down comforter she’d secretly been desiring. But the room does have one thing she wanted, one thing that at this point in her life, Bobbi simply can’t live without.
The water is so hot she nearly burns her skin, but it’s refreshing to wash the tears from her eyes and the sweat from her body. Bobbi is nothing if not a survivor, after all. And the first step on the road to surviving is starting out clean.
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
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