OOC
GAME: Crossover
DESCRIPTION:
DATE: November 2008
PB: Liv Tyler
JOURNAL: withscience
IC
Comic Character.
Name/Alias: Moira MacTaggert
Universe: Marvel
Powers: An uncanny predilection towards the sciences and genetics. Moira has always been prodigy-like in the speed with which she grasps her predecessor's realm of work. She's also a pretty damn capable nurse and her powers of OCD could, quite possibly, take over the world.
Status: Refuses to talk about it. Not due to any sense of embarrassment or shame, but out of a hardfast desire to be judged on the basis of her own identity, rather than that of the Marvel den mother and Xavier and Banshee's old flame. She generally reveals herself to other X-Men (and it's not like it's hard to guess anyway), but otherwise prefers to be introduced as Moira Huntington, not MacTaggert.
Character.
Name: Moira Helene Huntington
Age/Birthdate: 29 / January 2, 1980 (CAPRICORN)
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Occupation: PhD student and human genetics research assistant at NYU.
Appearance: Moira used to be lanky, gangly, and awkward in her youth, but she's picked up a modicum of grace with the years, and has instead grown into an extremely tall and curvy woman. She's a little self-conscious about her height and weight, but at least she's shed her ungainly movements in favour of clipped and suppressed professional behaviour. It's not unusual to see her looking less than her best, however; while naturally pale and good-looking, insomnia and being overworked generally means Moira looking even paler, and carrying around some impressive bags under her eyes.
PB: Liv Tyler
Personality: Moira is blessed with a sensible head on her shoulders and the calm, weathered attitude of a woman who's been through quite a bit. Her attitude is firm and no-nonsense, almost forceful in her self-possessed confidence; she often feels like she knows what's best for others, and doesn't mind telling them so — for their own good, of course! By that token, Moira really doesn't enjoy admitting when she's fucked up, nor letting people see her fall apart; most people don't like it, of course, but her professional pride borders on an almost masochistic desire to push herself to the edge. As efficient as her driven nature is, Moira has an unhealthy tendency to push herself to extremes, forgetting food and sleep when she's in the midst of research. It results in chronic fatigue, a lot of insomnia, and a hell of a weakness for carpal tunnel.
Unsurprisingly, she has a scientific approach and the researcher's curiosity towards all things. It manifests most prominently in her intrigue regarding the reincarnated life, and Moira's constant attempts to assimilate information based on it. When she's not buried headfirst in a stack of books and papers, Moira has a sharp wit and a wry, warm sense of humour; she cares very deeply for other people, and possesses an almost maternal edge in her concern for others. She has the mellow zen of a den mother, constantly self-sacrificing and looking out for the well-being of others. Moira MacTaggert spent her life patching up the wacky and disorderly X-Men family — Moira Huntington can't help that those habits have carried over. She's heavily involved in various humane societies around the city, and aids in volunteer work whenever she can.
She's also a complete tech geek. The nature of her work means being almost neurotically organised, and Moira sometimes considers herself married to her Macbook and PC — yes, she has one of each, and can never decide which one she likes more. Her life is one rotating cycle of wireless hotspots and trolling links on digg.
After realising how much time she spent sedentary in front of computers and in libraries, Moira started doing yoga a year or two back; she still sticks to it every day, to her own pride. She also knits bad mittens and keeps a cat named Charlie. Strictly speaking, she doesn't feel like she needs anyone — work is a priority, after all — but the closer she gets to hitting thirty, the more worried she becomes about ending up the lonely cat lady.
History:
Moira was born only four years after MacTaggert's first comic book appearance, and has thus spent her entire life walking hand-in-hand with her comic book counterpart. Each major plot event in the X-Men world meant unexpected ripples hitting her in real life: when MacTaggert cut off her engagement with Xavier, Moira went through all sorts of high school romantic woes and tribulations. MacTaggert contracted the Legacy Virus when Moira was fifteen, and she was incapacitated with mono for weeks. Her alter ego "died" when Moira was 22, thus leading to hitting a heavy depressive period in university; it took her a couple years to pull out of that crushing existential crisis, especially with juggling intense biochemistry and genetics classes at the same time. She slipped off the dean's list and was practically steps away from suicide when Crossover finally tracked her down in Boston and told her what was up.
It wasn't a relief — she abhors having her life turned topsy-turvy more than anything else — but it was, at the very least, an explanation. Moira started going to regular therapy, courtesy of a reincarnated psychiatrist on Crossover's records, and she managed to pull herself up by her bootstraps and eventually graduate.
Thankfully, life has been quieter since then. Moira MacTaggert has been canonically dead since 2001, and aside from the occasional spiritual appearance, remains off-scene. That meant this Moira could finally heave a large sigh of relief — in the seven years since then, she's been slowly coming into her own, and calmly rejecting the comics stereotypes, even going so far as to befriend Magneto. She eagerly wants to learn more about the reincarnate world and its technicalities now that she has some space to breathe, without being tugged this way and that as the result of unknowing comic book writers.
In what was undoubtedly a cosmic throwback to her predecessor, Moira's grandparents actually do come from Scotland, but the Huntingtons are, by now, all-American. Moira hasn't properly visited her ancestral home yet, though she's passed through London several times. Her international travels mostly consist of having been to Switzerland and Germany with colleagues for symposiums and genetics conferences. (She once got drunk off red wine in Zurich with a coworker and they slept together. She's still embarrassed.)
She has two younger brothers (twins: James and Christopher), neither of whom possess anything near her scientific flair. Even their parents couldn't understand where it came from; the Huntingtons were a family of professional writers, television production assistants, photographers, and one lawyer. Moira and her immediate family family grew up in Massachusetts, and their father still resides there, even after the decease of his wife several years ago (to breast cancer, as it happens). After finally slogging through her bachelor's, Moira moved to NYC for grad school when her undergrad bff went there.
She comes from a fairly rich family. They could afford to send her wherever, but they believe in outright independence, so Moira has been standing on her own financially ever since plunging headfirst into her education. Those student loans are going to bite hard after her PhD. She knows she can pick up the phone and beg her father for help whenever she swallows that pride, but so far, that day hasn't come.
She got engaged at the beginning of her masters to a somewhat older man — it was a mistake, especially considering her lingering suspicions that Moira MacTaggert's marital fail wouldn't leave her alone. This husband didn't abuse her like Joseph MacTaggert did his wife, but their relationship was still moody and complicated, and they never made it past that pivotal second-year marker. She wasn't entirely blameless in the whole affair, either; Moira was uncomfortable for most of the last year, and he ended up receiving the brunt of her sharp temper and less-than-stellar skills of compromise. She sucked it up and coped, but after she graduated, they knew they'd reached an end.
Moira's still trying to reach the point where she can talk cordially to him again. Since being estranged from her fiance, she hasn't bothered to carve out a niche for a man in her life, aside from a few sporadic dates with another PhD student. It's on-again, off-again, and she isn't all that passionate about him. He's just convenient.
In the meantime, she finds herself instead far more fascinated by science, and its applications to reincarnate memory and powers. Where is it all stored? Where in the world does it come from? In an effort to expand her knowledge, Moira attaches herself to authority and sources of information; she talks to the Crossover administration quite often, and makes a point to stay on informative, friendly terms with them.
She took a proactive role during the earthquakes, banding together with other interested partners in order to secure a safehouse at Georgia Bradford's house and tend to injuries. In the wake of mass disaster, Moira shed her usual tendency to slip to the supportive sidelines, in instinctive favour of other, more dominant figureheads like Charles Xavier. She stepped up in her own right, and finally grasped a frontline role in pulling the community back together along with her cohorts. She still doesn't believe she deserves anything merely by virtue of being Moira MacTaggert — the X-Men owe her nothing, and if they trust her and desire her friendship, it's more of a plus than a given — but she would still like very much to help.
Plot ideas: Getting closer to the other responsibility-minded people of Crossover, and helping out with the new council! Also continuing her experiments on people's powers, which I didn't get to do much with in the 1.0.
soundtrack
"the professor & la fille danse"; damien rice
"the scientist"; aimee mann
trivia
- Moira looooves clam chowder above all else.
links
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/vpas/about/index.html#departments
