ooc: Profile Meme
[Character Name] Rachel Berenson
[Canon] Animorphs
[Point Taken from Canon] Right after her death (and subsequent infodump) in #54/The Ellimist Chronicles
[Age] 16.
[Gender] Female.
[Sexual Orientation] Heterosexual, but very much in love with her boyfriend, so it doesn't matter.
[Eye Color] Blue.
[Hair Color] Blonde.
[Height] Tall. Way tall.
[Other] She's kinda. Dead.
[Clothing] Only the most chic and fashionable for Rachel. She has special love for Express and Ralph Lauren.
[Background]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Berenson
http://animorphs.wikia.com/wiki/Rachel
[Personality] In the words of her cousin, Jake, “Rachel is the original Nike girl: Just do it. Just do it, and if that doesn’t work, do it harder and meaner.” She’s not an idiot, but she’s not much for tactics, either. She’s brave to the point of recklessness and in the series’ many, many moral debates, she’s the one who will be the strongest voice for a) going forward with the plan, and b) going forward with the plan even if it costs lives.
Rachel’s initial reaction to most situations is “How can I get it out of my way?” and her immediate solution is “cause as much destruction and mayhem as possible;” she often has to stop, back herself up, and remind herself why killing and/or maiming everything in sight might be a bad idea-especially when you can become an elephant or a bear at will.
She’s invaluable to the war effort mainly because she’s the toughest fighter the kids have. While not fearless, Rachel is very opposed to allowing fear to rule her, and often advocates going ahead even against her better judgment. The other Animorphs often use her swaggering to bolster their own courage, and when Rachel thinks a plan is too insanely dangerous or violent, you know it’s little more than an elaborate suicide waiting to happen.
Unique among the Animorphs, Rachel enjoys the war. She enjoys fighting and the rush she gets from it, and it’s that, Jake says, that makes her so dangerous. She’s well aware that she’s deteriorating into someone who lives only for the fight, but has also seemed to embrace the fact to a degree: she understands that, in any other situation, she would be the bad guy, but since she’s not, she’s being harnessed for the right reasons.
In a combat situation, she’s most likely to kill first, ask questions later. In a normal, everyday situation, she’ll just be standoffish, and in a situation in between the two, she’ll be physically aggressive and very willing to threaten.
Her sharpness and lack of mercy extends itself to most of her friends: she has little patience with Marco, who, despite being the closest to her on the morality spectrum, is cautious and suspicious in combat situations, and criticizes her both teasingly and seriously for always being willing to start a fight. In lighthearted moments, it’s just by restating his catchphrase (“This is insane!”), mocking hers, or calling her Xena: Warrior Princess. Rachel can usually go tit for tat with Marco when it comes to sarcastic insults, and they have a constant war of one-upmanship going on. The higher the stress, the more deep and penetrating their barbs can get, in spite of the fact that they’re usually on the same side in group arguments.
She makes a little more effort for her best friend, Cassie, and her boyfriend, Tobias, who are both more concerned with winning the war humanely.
Rachel isn’t much for “looking inwards” or being overly analytical of her own feelings, but the only times she really doubts her ruthless methods are when Tobias seems to disapprove. Tobias is trapped as a hawk and lives as a predator who kills to survive; if he thinks she’s crossed a line, she has.
She only seems to doubt the war when Tobias is involved. Alone of the Animorphs, she doesn’t seem to realize that Tobias is happier as a hawk than he was as a human, and tried to trap him in human form once. She does accept that he is a hawk now, but not that he wouldn’t become a human permanently again if he could; in reality, the only thing tying him to his humanity is Rachel herself. In spite of all that, her love for Tobias is fierce, protective, and absolute; her last words were “I love you.”
She does have a dark side, which is best illustrated when it gets separated from her good side. The “Mean Rachel” is a psychopath who will pin a girl to a wall with knives in a mall, simply for mocking her, and demands Marco be punished and whipped for being a smartass. Rachel normally keeps this side of herself in relative check, but does enjoy mayhem and violence, and it only gets worse as the series goes on. She keeps it inside the war effort and related endeavors, but she’d kill an aggressive Controller as soon as not.
And Rachel has a certain dislike for authority. Even when she knows it’s a bad idea, she can’t help herself from instinctively taking over the leader position when her cousin, Jake, is out of commission. She has challenged him on his leadership, even after she gave it a shot and realized her hit-and-hit-harder tactics simply didn’t work for the position-she is, however, self-aware enough to realize this and wonder at what is wrong with her.
In spite of all that, she’s not without compassion or perceptiveness, or other normal, sappy feelings. She gets crushes on TV stars, uses her powers to sneak into a fashion show, cries when someone begs her to kill them, cries when her father moves out of town, and does her best to share her strength with her friends. When Marco’s mother is apparently killed, Rachel watches the scene carefully, and reports to Marco on the lack of a body, knowing she’s not doing him any favors (this would be the third time her “death” had failed to turn up a body), but still understanding his need to know.
Overall, she’s an aggressive, assertive, sharp-tongued girl who does not back down, but might still have just enough of her old self left to enjoy what time she has.
[Specialties/Abilities] In her normal form, Rachel is an amateur gymnast, making her very flexible, agile, and poised. She can navigate any mall, anytime, anywhere, and is one of those gifted few who can walk through a hurricane and come out the other side with perfect clothes, makeup and hair.
She’s also an experienced guerilla fighter who’s spent the last three years beating back an alien invasion. She manages this through alien morphing technology; by touching any creature, she can absorb their DNA and call on it later to morph into that creature. The Wikipedia link provided contains a full list of the morphs Rachel acquires in canon, but I’ll go into two of her favorites here.
Her signature battle morph is the grizzly bear, which she loves for its pure, destructive power. The grizzly’s main drawback is its terrible eyesight, but Rachel makes up for it with its other senses and the fact that not many people will really want to mess with a crazy grizzly bear that is very willing to rip your head off.
Second-favorite battle morph is the African elephant she acquired in the first book. She tends to use it for mass trampling and/or intimidation; again, it takes a brave soul to challenge an elephant intent on stomping you flat and tearing down every building in sight.
She also has a high tolerance for weirdness, after dealing with several species of aliens and the reality-warping abilities of the Ellimist, Crayak and the Drode.
[Affection] In dire situations only, she will allow hugs and arms across shoulders. Wait for her to initiate it. You might save a limb that way.
[Fighting] Fighting is what Rachel loves, so go for it. However! Morphing reconstitutes your body from DNA anew every time, so if, say, she's in bear morph and you rip off her arm, she only has to back off, demorph, and remorph to be good as new. If somewhat more exhausted. Injuries she's survived like this include gunshots to the eye and cobra venom. The only reason she's dead now is because she was outnumbered, outgunned, and forced into a corner.
[Other Permissions] Ask me first with telepathy, although it shouldn't be too difficult. Just really, really embarrassing. No fourth-wall breaking, and she won't return the favor.
[Other Facts] Her greatest passions in life? Shopping, gymnastics, her boyfriend and war. Her catchphrase is “Let’s do it!” And she was killed by a polar bear.