apocashrriipp

Originally Posted on her Livejournal account of the same name.

NAME: Panda
JOURNAL: Apocashrriipp
EMAIL: panda_pull2006@hotmail.co.uk
AIM: stupidgrrl05
WIKI NAME: None
CHARACTERS: None


CHARACTER NAME: Paige Guthrie, AKA Husk
FANDOM: Marvel AoA
CANON: immediately after Paige realises Colossus has shut the door on them during their mission to save Illyana, leaving her and her team to die.
WHAT THEY LOST: Paige has forgotten Colossus entirely and also all memory of Sam, Elizabeth and Josh surviving Apocalypse's attack on her family.

ABOUT THE CHARACTER: Paige was born to an unusually large family, several brothers and sisters, right in the middle of Apocolypse's genocidal campaign. The war carried many senseless casualties, and Paige's family was one of them. The Guthries were assassinated by Apocalypse's Infinites when Paige was still figuring out her powers. Only herself, Josh, Sam and Elizabeth survived the attack. It's an event she doesn't care to dredge up, as it brings with it painful memories of a once relatively normal life. So instead she deflects queries and tries to focus more on the 'now'.

When she and her remaining family were found by Sinister, he offered her a place on his team, the Elite Mutant Force which she declined. She split away from her family to join Magneto's cause instead, enlisting as part of Generation Next under Colossus and Shadowcat.

It was here that she absorbed herself in training along with Skin, Chamber, Know it All, Mondo and Vincente. It was a rigorous combination of training and pressure from Shadowcat and Colossus that Paige managed to advance her abilities, and without threat to seriously endangering anyone (after all, that was the idea—they were up to their necks in a war). What started out as a curious ability to shed her skin in order to reveal a new form underneath, she was able to advance her powers, branching away from solid forms onto transformations of only part of her body, as well as being able to take on liquid, gaseous and energy-based forms.

During her training she fought even the team mates she loved with a ruthlessness that drew blood and broken bones, constantly fighting to do better. As a result, her combat skills are both varied and impressive, and combined with her ability to shed her skin to reveal a new form underneath she is a formidable opponent. In a grim environment, with her tutors trying to shape their students into ruthless killing machines, at 18, Paige grew to be a woman who enjoyed facades to get her through, throwing up walls when she feels really threatened. A woman who lays the sarcasm on thick, jumps at the chance of a challenge and has a tongue that is razor sharp. Her moods egg her on to spoil for fights, she uses humour and false vanity to protect her real feelings but in many ways, Colossus and Shadowcat got what they wanted. Paige may fear death but she will still run toward it. She does what must be done in order to achieve her goals and it is only with those she loves that she hesitates.

During her training she developed a relationship with team-mate Chamber, a mutant whose power had been discovered early and underwent surgery to allow him to channel the energy from a chamber in his torso. While she maintained her coarse, often wry exterior that she had developed over years, she allowed herself to be vulnerable, thereby exposing a side to Paige that, given better circumstances, might've been much more prominent. She indulged in affection, and found comfort in human contact that she had previously been missing. Unfortunately, it meant she looked for approval in the wrong ways, pandering to Chamber's desires and going as far as to dye her hair red following a comment from him that he 'preferred redheads'. Because Paige had found security in that human contact, she went looking for comfort in some of the wrong places, one of which being during her final mission with Generation Next, the rescue of Colossus' sister, Illyana.

After sneaking into enemy territory to rescue Illyana, Paige and Vincente clubbed together take on Quietus, a Foreman working for Sugar Man in the Seattle Core. Infiltrating enemy ground, Paige posed as a human slave, where she convinced Quietus to take her to his home. She 'poisoned' him with Vincente in a bottle, who ruptured Quietus from the inside out. Paige took grim joy in his death and was unfazed during the gory cleanup.

Together, she and Vincente posed as Quietus, trying to get information on the whereabouts of Illyana, who was suspected to be in his 'care'. However, when they broke down their guise to search Quietus' office on-site in Seattle, they were interrupted by Sugar Man and made a hasty retreat into the shower, where together, they awkwardly talked their way out of his suspicions. Paige let her emotions get the better of her, and assaulted Vincente with kisses while they were posing as Quietus in the shower. But it came not without guilt. As Paige entered into what was to be their final battle together, she was fuelled by not only anger and determination but that guilt too.

Still posing as Quietus, Paige was forced to fake the assassination of Chamber but it results, ultimately, in Sugar Man attacking herself and Vincente, using his tongue to stab Vincente, thereby exposing them both. But Paige steeled herself against her mounting fear and stood her ground in the battle that ensued. With Vincente injured, possibly dying, and Mondo already dead, Paige fought for her own life and for those who remained but ultimately she was betrayed and left to die by Colossus.

THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:

"NO!!!"

When the young woman with a short red bob materialised at the side of the road, she could still feel the sharp, murderous edge of Sugar Man's tongue against her side. She whipped around, falling to the ground with a heavy thud, her entire world pitching over in more ways than she realised. She grunted on impact, air rushing from her lungs as she lay there, momentarily dazed on her back, a billow of dust surrounding her. With a blood splashed face and fresh bruises blossoming in unfortunately obvious place, Paige looked like she'd been spat out of hell. And she had, the last thing she saw was a gut wrenching betrayal she had suspected all along by--

--But just as the last echoes of her scream faded into nothing, the memory went with it, a traitor's name on the tip of her tongue that she couldn't claw back. Rolling, she ignored the flaring pain in her chest and got back on her feet, snapping her head back and forth for bad guys that had been there only a split second ago.

"Wh—"

"What the hell?!"

She twisted again, the gaping wound on her hip flaring up and making her hiss in pain. There wasn't time to deal with it.

"Vincente?? Skin? Chamber??" She called, hoping for an answer and getting none.

If that was this Illyana's fault she'd...well...she'd...probably kick her when...The name was on the tip of her tongue but it evaded her again. Kitty? Had to be. Wasn't looking. Of course, knowing her luck, that'd pop her into some hell dimension and honestly, this place didn't look half terrible. That said, she had no idea where she was and one glower at her surroundings revealed clear blue skies, greenery and scattering of civilisation with not a slave, foreman or power house in sight.

Blue skies...She was caught off guard by that one, allowing herself to gape for a second—she hadn't seen an unscarred sky since....since never. For as long as she could remember it had always been angry. No real sunshine, no real weather to speak of. Just a bruised sky that never healed.

Narrowing her eyes, Paige took a step forward that turned rapidly into a limping gait. She needed cover. Out here—wherever she was—was too exposed. If this was a trick (and anything was possible), she needed cover. A new instinct kicked in, her feet knowing where to take when her head had no idea.

FIRST PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:

[Paige was standing, journal fallen open on the floor. She clutched an injury with one hand and her communicator with the other.]

Shadowcat? Come in, Shadowcat.

[Static.]

Skin? Chamber?...Vincente?

[Static]

...Know-It-All...?

If this is that damn teleporter Ah'll...Ooooh...This ain't a game, kid!

[she shouted at a teleporter she hoped against hope was there.]

Ah have to get back!

[She paused and rubbed her temples. It didn't help anything—she knew that, but she liked to try.]

Know-It-All...Tell me ya can hear me. Ya gotta get me outta here...

INTENT: I love Paige to pieces, I really do. But I am hungering for a new challenge with the character and I think this is it. A combination of a war-hardened Paige and a very open-plan environment is just what I'm looking for to get to grips with a new side to the character that Marvel only looked into briefly. I want to throw everything at her and see what the heck happens