Application [Trans9]

[pretty_lethal]

Character's name: Rachel Berenson
Character's LJ: pretty_lethal (main) / lethally_pretty (extra icons if needed)
Character's canon: Animorphs

Brief (around 300 words) personality outline of your character: Rachel might look like a typical dumb blond to any passerby, as she adores shopping, fashion, and gymnastics. If they make the mistake of implying anything like that, however, she’ll be quick to prove them wrong. Her love for shopping is, in part, due to the thrill of the hunt—she can track and kill like no other. Underneath that oft innocent-looking surface, she has one mean temper. And she never, ever takes any crap from anyone. She is not afraid to tell you exactly what’s on her mind, with a ruthless ferocity. When spoken to, she often lets it out in the form of a sharp wit and sarcasm and she admittedly does enjoy the banter she can get in return from a worthy opponent.

Ever since the war began, that intensity has become worse. She can—and most certainly will—channel all of that brutality and impatience into the fight. She will always favour the direct approach, with “let’s do it,” being her most infamous quote. Often, she’s described as an “adrenaline junkie,” and it’s an apt statement. She really does enjoy the thought of action, and she will still take bloody, deadly battle over idleness and weakness. If there is one thing to be said about her, it is that she will not back down from a fight—especially considering how likely it is for her to be the one starting it. 

Despite her strange enthusiasm for the war, Rachel is not without her own emotional damage as a result. A part of her is scared of what she’s become, as she realises just how much she has become involved. While she doesn’t often wish that it never happened, she does feel the affects. She believes that the others are a little bit scared of what she’s become, and what she is capable of. She sometimes feels used, where she is the one sent to do the dirty work, to let the other Animorphs keep their hands ‘clean.’ 

But she has accepted this duty all the same. Something that can’t be denied about her is how much her friends matter to her. Sometimes she may get angry with them, or hurt, or otherwise, but she would still do anything for them. With her family, it is much the same: while her sisters can annoy her, she obviously still cares deeply for them; her mother can be overbearing at times, and will rarely let Rachel have her way, and Rachel is therefore willing to use force on her for her own sake, if necessary; a part of her wants to escape, to live with her father, whom is never around; and her cousin—being the leader of the Animorphs—she feels almost threatened by, but she respects him, and no longer considers challenging his leadership. 

She is willing to make the sacrifices necessary to protect those she cares about, and she will never, ever let anyone hurt them. 

Brief (around 500 words) history and background of your character OR link to a really good wiki page with their history. In either case, explain where they cut off from the timeline:
http://animorphs.wikia.com/wiki/Rachel / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Animorphs_books 

Rachel Berenson lived a fairly normal life, up until she was about 13. She was the pretty, popular girl, despite her attitude, a bit too tall for gymnastics, but dedicated to them anyway. Her family was a bit fragmented, but nothing too complex or conflicting. Her parents divorced, her living with her little sisters and her mother. She had some good friends; she did well in school, etc. And then it all changed. 

She was walking home from school with an unlikely group – her best friend, her cousin and his annoying best friend, and a boy she barely knew from school – when, cutting through a construction site, a space ship crash landed in front of them. An alien—an Andalite war prince—emerged, told them about the parasitic alien race taking over their planet—and gave them the power to morph into any living thing they touched. The only weapon, besides secrecy, that a group of kids would have against an invasion. They were then forced to watch him be murdered by Visser Three, the Yeerk in charge of the invasion. In only a few weeks they are joined by Ax, the younger brother of the alien that gave them the power. 

From there, things quickly escalated. The group began to fight battle after battle, and a few more things changed in Rachel’s life. She grew further apart from her other close friend, Melissa, gymnastics became less of a priority, she developed feelings for Tobias—even as he became trapped in the body of a bird—and, most importantly, she became the warrior of the group, gung ho about all of the fighting and adrenaline. 

They meet the Ellimist while in a tight spot at the Yeerk pool, and he later gives Tobias back the power to morph, while helping them save a few free Hork-Bajir to start a colony—something that would remain significant, but that she would continue to resent the being for. 

Later, Marco discovers a boy at their school—David—who has found the ‘blue box,’ that gave them the power to morph in the first place. Rachel is among the group to vote to give him the power to morph—not necessarily to save him, but to increase their firepower. It doesn’t take long for him to quickly go bad. After a case of mistaken (bird) identity, they believe he has killed Tobias, and it is Rachel that Jake sends for, for help. He knows, by then, how she will react. Over the next while, Rachel acts increasingly more aggressive to David, while the others let her, and she even goes as far as threatening his family. Rachel realises just how far her violent tendencies go, and begins to resent Jake for using them to his advantage, despite his concern for her. In the end, it is Cassie who comes up with the plan to stop David—trapping him in rat morph—but it is Rachel who does the dirty work. She goes ahead with the worst of the plan, to save everyone else from it. 

It is only after an awkward situation of Rachel becoming literally two people—‘Wimp’ Rachel and ‘Mean’ Rachel—that she begins to confront and understand her dark side. She begins to realise that the ruthless warrior part of her is just as important as the scared girl part of her, who is smart and reasonable. She is dangerous and incapable of really helping if she does not have both sides of her. There are two sides of her, and she cannot abandon one for the other. 

Some time later, Jake is forced to leave for a few day trip, at which time the Animorphs plan on lying low—until they learn about Visser Three’s new feeding ground. They plan to assault him while they have the chance, but they are stopped by a member of a species similar to the Andalites, who is there to evaluate the progress on the take over of Earth. Not one to miss an opportunity, Rachel believes it the perfect time for a series of hard and fast attacks against known Yeerk ‘Controllers’ in the community, to show the Inspector that the opposition is still strong. Marco backs down from vying for temporary leadership, putting Rachel in charge, as the only one willing to do it, but she begins to make mistakes. First, a man dies because she hadn’t been willing to back out earlier, and then—after making a mistake with morph choice—Cassie is captured. The mission to rescue Cassie is successful, but Rachel can’t help but fear how it all turned out. She confronts Jake about how he can possibly do it, and asks him to never leave again. 

It isn’t long after that that the war escalates dramatically. The Animorphs are able to contact the Andalite fleet, after saving both of Marco’s parents, but they are denied help. The Yeerks attempt to start an all out war, but they are narrowly stopped by Ax’s necessary choice to threaten the entire city with destruction. The colony of free Hork-Bajir is threatened, and they fight a bloody battle to save them, and relocate them. 

Soon, the evil being Crayak—rival of the Ellimist—makes himself more known to Rachel in particular. He could see her dark side, and its potential use. He wants to make her his tool, and—using David and her guilt over that sad situation—attempts to bribe her with awesome power to kill her cousin and take control. She is made desperate by the contrast between the weak, pathetic rat and the power of ‘super Rachel’ that she is promised. But she can’t bring herself to do it. She may be cruel and ruthless, but she insists she’s one of the good guys. She is eventually left alone, dismissed as a fool and a coward for not realising her potential, and she finds a way—using her brain, this time—to escape from her desperate situation. Afterwards, David begs her to kill him, instead of sending him away to live as a rat once again. She cries, torn apart by the decision, and eventually she spares him. 

It is then discovered that the Yeerks are onto the human nature of the Animorphs. They begin to run DNA tests, searching for animal DNA in the blood of humans, or for similar matches of human DNA as is found in the animal blood left at the scene. Through this, they discover Tobias’s mother, and they realise that it is now necessary to save their families, before the Yeerks find them. Rachel is the second person to save her family, though she does not explain that situation to them until after forcing them to leave, in her grizzly bear morph—she knows her mother would not go willingly. Her aunt and uncle—Jake’s parents—are made controllers by her cousin Tom, before they have a chance to save them, but at least her immediate family is safe for the time being. The war is just getting huge. 

Currently, I’ll be taking her from after the book ‘The Diversion,’ wherein the Animorphs are discovered, and they successfully escape (most) of the families, hers included. This may be changed once I update her. 

If the character has magic, mutant, or otherwise metahuman abilities, please explain what they are and outline EXACTLY how they function, as their powers may not work due to the nature of the ship or may need to be limited somehow: Rachel has been given the power, through an alien technology, to become any living thing she touches—and ‘acquires’ the DNA of. This can be used for fighting, infiltration, etc. She has 39 morphs, including grizzly bear, African elephant, and bald eagle. 

Non-superhuman special abilities of note (Is your character a master ventriloquist? A naturally-occurring super-genius? The best martial artist in the world? Say so here): Rachel has the amazing ability to always look good.