Jean-Paul Beaubier
| Jean-Paul Beaubier | |
|---|---|
| File:Northstar.jpg Portrayed by Olivier Martinez | |
| Codename: | Northstar |
| Affiliations: | Xavier Institute - Staff |
| Birthdate: | May 26, 1970 |
| Journal: | x_cynosure |
| Player: | Suzene |
Jean-Paul Beaubier has recently returned to the X-Men after an extended leave of absence to deal with family issues.
Contents
Details
Character Journal: x_cynosure
Real Name: Jean-Paul Beaubier
Codename: Northstar
Aliases: Jean-Paul Martin
First Appearance: July 13, 2004
Date of Birth: May 26, 1970
Place of Birth: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Citizenship: Canadian
Relatives: Jean-Baptiste Beaubier (father, deceased), Melisande Beaubier (mother, deceased), Louis Martin (adopted father, deceased), Jolie Martin (adopted mother, deceased), Raymonde Belmonde (father-figure/mentor, deceased), Jeanne-Marie Beaubier (twin sister)
Education: Degrees in Literature and History
Relationship Status: Single
Occupation:
Team Affiliation: Former member of Alpha Flight
Biography
Childhood
Jean-Paul was twice-orphaned at a young age, once at age two when his birth parents died in an automobile accident, then again at five when the Martins, relations of his mother who had taken him in, met the same fate. Jean-Paul was quickly adopted, but, as the traumatized boy was not a demonstrative or loving child and prone to acting out, he was quickly given up from his first family, and passed on to others who were no better equipped to deal with the troublesome boy than their predecessors had been. Jean-Paul's behavior grew worse as he grew older, progressing from cold distance to outright disrespect and rebellion against his foster parents. At thirteen years old, after a violent confrontation with his current fosters, he finally ran away. He spent almost three months scratching out a living on the streets of Montreal. His days were spent picking pockets, scrounging from dumpsters, and stealing from vendors to live, his nights sleeping in the doorways of shops or in alleys or abandoned buildings, always looking over his shoulder and desperately lonely, though he would not have admitted to it under any circumstances. To make matters worse, it was at this time that Jean-Paul's mutation began to assert itself, making the boy somewhat quicker on his feet than most, but also bringing with it an increased in metabolism that caused the boy to slowly starve on a diet that would have been inadequate to begin with.
This bleak lifestyle came to an end when Jean-Paul tried to steal from a book vendor patronized by Raymonde Belmonde, a local business owner. Raymonde grabbed Jean-Paul's wrist to halt him, earning a hard punch to the jaw for his trouble, and was alarmed to find that the boy was little more than skin and bones in his grip. A promise of hot food and the bookseller's grudging promise not to involve police took a lot of the fight out of the half-starved youth and, over the course of the meal, Raymonde coaxed the boy's story out of him. Raymonde ultimately decided that the boy was not going back into the care of people that had failed him so utterly and managed to call in a significant favor from a local politician, who pulled the strings necessary to establish Raymonde as Jean-Paul's legal guardian. Monsieur Belmonde took on the task of civilizing the suspicious young urchin. Though Jean-Paul never took very well to formal schooling, once the boy's mind was stimulated, it turned out that Jean-Paul had a voracious curiosity that went to work on every book in Raymonde's possession. Raymonde also introduced Jean-Paul to the pastime that would quickly become the young man's greatest passion: skiing. Jean-Paul received his high-school equivalency at seventeen, but put off college in favor of pursuing athletics; it wasn't until years later, when being outed as a mutant forced him to step away from professional competition, that he chose to pursue higher education.
Jean-Paul sought and gained his emancipation from the foster system at age sixteen. Though he had grown to trust Raymonde deeply, Jean-Paul's guardian was not a young man and the boy was not willing to chance that he would be at the mercy of others again if anything should happen to Raymonde.
Jean-Paul competed in the Winter Olympics when he was eighteen and once held four Olympic gold medals, all of which he turned over after publicly acknowledging his status as a mutant in 1990 when he began working with Department H. Jean-Paul has been out of the closet as a gay man to the public and media since 1994 as well, prompting his first sabbatical from the Depatment. Seeking a respite from the scandal at home, Jean-Paul time spent backpacking through the French countryside. On a whim, he applied to the D'Arbanville Circus in France and took a spot among their acrobats using the alias "Paul Martin". He developed a close relationship with the circus owner's hoyden daughter, Clementine D'Arbanville, to whom he confided his identity. He remains in sporadic contact with her.
Alpha Flight
When Department H finally announced the activation of the final stage of the Flight Program, Alpha Flight, Jean-Paul was one of the first members. He grew close with Walter Langkowski, and was reunited with his sister Aurora. The twins participated actively in Alpha Flight on and off until 2004. The twins were notorious for constantly fighting and reconciling, but it wasn't until the Christmas of 2003 that the two of them swore never to speak to one another again.
They had decided to spend Christmas together, Aurora bringing their close friend, the man who altered her mutation and her boyfriend, Walter Langkowski, to dinner. Little did either of them know that Langkowski would propose at that dinner. Jean-Paul suddenly found himself thirty-four, alone, and in love with his sister's fiancee with little of what he considered a future and ended up taking it out on his sister. Visibly shaken, he turned cold, even rude. Aurora, hurt and appalled that the man she loved most in life, her brother, could not be happy for her on such a joyous occasion, she confronted him in anger which only managed to start a huge argument, eventually leading to their separation, convinced this was the end of their relationship.
Living At The X-Mansion
Jean-Paul left Alpha Flight and accepted a job offer from Charles Xavier as a new counselor for the students. While at the school, he was once again reunited with his sister after she appeared on the doorstep one morning and was found by Sam Guthrie. She then proceeded to mistake Hank McCoy for Walter, attacking him in the medlab until Jean-Paul came down to retrieve her. The twins reconciled, and Aurora remained at the school, refusing to leave her brother's side.
Jean-Paul began to train simultaniously with the X-Men as well as his teaching duties, taking key roles in helping some like Shiro through dangerous situations. However, Jean-Paul's time at the school was destined to be short. After only three months, he and his sister decided that it would be best to return to Canada, away from both the X-Men and Alpha Flight for some time.
After Xavier's
After leaving Xavier's, Jean-Paul retired with his sister to his home in Laval in the hopes that the quiet, semi-rural environment and the presence of someone she trusted would help quiet the turmoil in her mind. Jeanne-Marie, however, continued to slowly deteriorate, her mental state swinging from dangerously fractured to guilt-wracked lucidity. She would alternately curse and attack her brother in her worst hours, or plead for his forgiveness and beg him to not send her away, to not let others see her in her misery. Spurred equally by an arrogance that lead him to believe that he could cure his sister on his own and a deep concern for her mental state if she should perceive herself as abandoned again, Jean-Paul obeyed her wishes.
After an incident that lead to Jeanne-Marie literally killing his pet cat with kindness, Jean-Paul became reluctant to leave his sister alone for more than few minutes, fearful of what she would do to herself, all the while deepening their unhealthy codependency. Finally, her brother's smothering devotion caused Aurora to lash out in a full fury, leaving Jean-Paul unconscious, battered, and bleeding. In the aftermath of the attack, Jeanne-Marie came back to herself. Horrified by what she had done, she alerted James and Heather Hudson to her brother's injuries and fled. She left Jean-Paul only a brief note stating her intention to come to peace with herself on her own or die in the attempt.
Jean-Paul searched vainly for his sister for over a year. Though he's at last attempting to move forward with his life, there is a part of him that is braced for his sister to swoop in out of the blue and scatter his life to the four winds once more.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 5' 11"
Weight: 150 lbs
Eyes: Arctic blue
Hair: Glossy black
Other Features: Jean-Paul has subtly pointed ears. There is a tattoo on his left bicep, sun-faded to the point of illegibility. He acquired several new scars during his stewardship of his sister: a short, jagged one over which obliterated a Gemini tattoo over his heart, and two razor-thin white lines, one across the right side of his throat, the other low on his stomach.
Powers
Northstar's mutant powers first began manifesting in his early teens, but it was not until he was nearly seventeen that the full extent of his superspeed and the accompanying flight kicked in.
Northstar is a flight-capable speedster, exceptionally agile and able to reach incredible speeds on land and in the air. The overall durability of Northstar's body increases at high speeds, allowing him to withstand the ravages of wind, friction, and air turbulence. Though this aspect of his mutation provides him with a certain amount of protection from damage caused by high-velocity collisions (ie: he won't break his own neck if he runs into a wall at full tilt), Northstar can knock himself out if he slams into objects at high speeds. This increased durability also gives him a certain amount of protection from blunt-force trauma when he's moving at superhuman speeds, but knives, claws, and bladed weapons slice through his defenses easily. Northstar possesses the same vulnerabilities to the elements and injury as most humans, save for a resistance to extremes of cold. He is as susceptible as any normal human to mental attacks. His speed is not just flight, it applies to all his motion, and he is able to deliver jackhammer-speed blows and simply avoid or outmaneuver his opponents.
Northstar's mutation increases metabolism to something faster than the human norm, a condition exacerbated by his athletic activities. As a result, Northstar's body tends to burn through its fuel quickly; he needs to keep careful track of what he eats to be certain that he's getting both enough calories to function and proper nutrition. As a side-effect of his rapid metabolism, Northstar also has a minor healing factor and recovers from injuries significantly faster than the human norm. For example, where it would take a normal human a month or more to heal a broken arm, Northstar might have full use of the limb after two weeks.
Northstar is able to hit a top speed air speed of Mach 2 and is able to maintain that for up to two hours, and a top land speed of 500 MPH for roughly twice that long. Pushing these limits is a terrible strain on Northstar's system; he'll end the journey sweat-lathered with his body starving for oxygen, heartrate through the roof, reserves drained, and needing to pass out for a day to recharge. It also takes much longer to fully recover from such punishing exhertions at forty than it did at twenty-one.
Due to his focus on physical fitness, Northstar's endurance and strength are at peak human levels for his size and build.
Equipment
None.
Trivia
Jean-Paul hates being called JP and goes mainly by "Paul".
He is openly gay, but not effeminate.
He is very health conscious and active in a variety of outdoor sports.
Plots
2004
2009
Meta
Player: Suzene
E-mail: 180px
AIM:
Player Icon Base: Olivier Martinez
Meta Trivia
Formerly played by Ande with the journal x_vega
