Stephen Strange

This character is currently unplayed, but is open for applications. If you are interested in applying for this character, you can contact the mods at x_moderators @ googlegroups . com and you can find the application form here.

This page is about the Phase 2 incarnation of the character. For other uses, see Stephen Strange (disambiguation).

PHASE 2

Stephen Strange
File:StephenStrange.jpg Portrayed by Logan Lerman
Codename:
Affiliations:
Birthdate:	March 15, 2000
Journal:	xp_strange
Player:	N/A

I am sure we will be seeing each other again in the future. Take care Stephen Strange. I expect great things from you.

Slated by some to become the next sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange is a young English magic user with a love of pranks.

Details

Character Journal: xp_strange

Real Name: Stephen Strange

Codename: TBA

Aliases: TBA

First Appearance: August 26, 2015

Date of Birth: March 15th, 2000

Place of Birth: Philadelphia

Citizenship: Dual US/UK

Relatives: Eugene Strange (father), Beverly Strange (mother), Donna (younger sister), Victor (younger brother)

Education: Studying medicine at Columbia University

Relationship Status: Dating Clea Lake

Occupation: Student

Team Affiliation: Generation X

Biography

Childhood

Born in the year 2000, Stephen Strange was the eldest child of Eugene, an American living in England, and Beverly Strange, a surgeon and a medical lecturer respectively. Stephen was born while the couple was vacationing in Philadelphia. Two years later, Stephen's sister Donna was born at the his paternal Grandparent’s Nebraska farm, and Victor, the youngest, was born in 2009. In England, the family lived in a townhouse in Islington, a spot chosen by Stephen’s parents for it’s close proximity to good schools and a quieter part of the city, ideal for raising a young family. They were particularly taken by the small park nearby, somewhere they expected their eventual children to be able to play in peace. The only downside of this purchase was both parents had to work slightly longer hours than they would have liked in order to match the lifestyle of their neighbours and keep up with the Jones’.

The absence of Stephen’s parents left their children competing with one another for their parent’s precious time leaving Stephen and Donna with a slightly adversarial relationship that lasted into their early teens. Stephen loved his sister, but he also saw her as competition for his parent’s love. His parent’s were exasperated by their children’s attitude but didn’t know what to do about it and left it assuming their children would just grow out of this phase. While Stephen and Donna never came to blows each was eager to point out the other’s flaws and mistakes in as snarky a comment as possible. Victor on the other hand was the one thing that that both siblings agreed on. They both doted on him and he provided some of the few situations where the siblings had to work together for the common good, to the fear of anyone who picked on Victor. Aside from the few bullies who he and Donna ganged up on, Stephen was relatively popular at school, spending most of his breaks playing football if the weather was good, or as with most of the British weather inside the library studying. When the weather allowed Stephen played on his school team, and his father and mother made sure to attend every game, no matter what they were doing otherwise, similarly to the way they’d attend all of Donna’s dance recitals.

At age eight, while running off to the park at night to play football with friends one last time before heading to camp, Strange was beset by a horde of demons controlled by apprentice sorcerer Karl Mordo who had been granted a vision of Stephen with the Eye of Agamotto, an artifact Mordo saw as his inheritance. Luckily for Stephen he was rescued by the Ancient One, a millennia-old sorcerer who protected the Earth dimension as its Sorcerer Supreme,who took Mordo to be his apprentice and learn better ways. As he was leaving the Ancient One suppressed Stephen’s memory of the incident, not wanting to affect the boy’s future growth. The Ancient One also suppressed the majority of the magic which happened that night leaving only a murky feeling of magic in the area. It was impossible to avoid the magical community from sensing that something had happened, but by the time anyone arrived to investigate Stephen had already left for camp and the Ancient One had returned to Tibet with Mordo in tow.

Although normally quite astute, Stephen’s parent’s never noticed the episode since the next day Stephen headed off to camp. They put down his tiredness and wanness to a restless night due to first camp jitters, although his mum did start wondering if she was sending him off too soon and had to be talked out of calling the whole thing off. It was a good thing she didn’t since at camp Steven met his two best friends: Clea and Bas.

When they first met the three of them couldn’t have been more different, each of them came from wildly different backgrounds and would never have hung out with one another if the camp counselors hadn’t thrown the group of them together as a team for the exercises. It was one of those random occurrences that would change the course of the rest of your life. Though it didn’t start off that way: the three campers couldn’t find any common ground to connect with. They supported different football teams, they watched different TV shows, they were interested in different things. It seemed destined to be one of those camp friendships, fleeting and with no solid base until they met Cata, the horse sized mythical cat. The 3 campers had stumbled across the injured creature while doing one of those interminable camp exercises which involve wandering around lost in the woods while the camp counselors relax back at the camp. Stephen was initially freaked out by the huge cat beast, but Clea’s compassion overcome any fear she felt and she dragged Stephen and Bas along to help the injured animal.

It was obvious to the three of them they couldn’t get an adult to take care of their new friend, that would only mean Cata would be taken away to a lab somewhere and poked and prodded. Instead the three of them took care of the Cath Palug as she healed, and somewhere, in between the sneaking away at all hours of the day and nights camped out by an open fire in the woods the three of them started to become real friends. Over the course of the summer the three of them became inseparable causing no end of mischief to the camp counselors. It was a summer which seemed to fly by too quickly, sending them off back to their own lives. Although they swore to keep in touch and often did, it was hard for the three who came from such different parts of London to meet up. It was at camp, over the next few years that their friendship mainly deepened and matured.

At age eleven, Strange aided his injured sister, Donna, who had fallen off the edge of a cliff and seriously hurt herself as the two were riding their bikes through a centre parks resort. Luckily one of the things the summer camp had taught the boy was basic first aid and he was able to tie a tourniquet before the ambulances arrived to take Donna to the nearest hospital. The experience plus watching the doctor patch his sister up at the hospital later, had the effect of inspiring him to pursue a medical career like his parents, something which filled them with pride.

Stephen’s gift for magic manifested in his young teens, though without a teacher Stephen manifested his magic as a raw force, often appearing to have unbelievable luck, managing to walk away from a fall that should have broken bones or a feeling that he should study a particular topic for an exam, Stephen’s magic manifested in small ways that made his life that much easier. The first time he realized he was causing the phenomenon Stephen freaked out. This couldn’t be happening, it was impossible. He entertained the idea that he was going insane, that was the only explanation he could think of. But he wasn’t and he came to realize that this was real, magic existed. Imagine his jaw dropping when he found out that his best friend Clea was also a magician. Although their talents varied the two of them worked on their control together, developing a rudimentary control over their magical powers.

To fulfill his ambitions to be a surgeon, Steven threw himself into his studies; he knew the road he’d chosen was hard but knew that if he tried hard enough and stuck to his guns he’d succeed as he always had in the past. The next 6 years passed by in a blur. Stephen spent terms at school, captain of the football team and a solid student, not a natural genius but someone who get his grades through perseverance and hard work. However, once a year Stephen took a break, he spent his summers camping with Clea and Bas. They went from campers to senior campers, and Stephen was looking forward to coming back as a camp counselor, sending a fresh generation of campers off into the woods on interminable exercises while waiting back at camp...or hiding in wait in the woods with super-soakers. Summer camps really were the highlight of the year. That all changed in the final year of camp when a television "monster hunter" heard about the rumours of a giant cat in the woods near a camp.

Living At The X-Mansion

Steven and his friends ended up moving to the X-Mansion after they and Cata were discovered by Amanda Sefton and Megan Gwynn, with Amanda offering to teach them more about magic. Steven eagerly threw himself into the classes, his new life in America, and of course playing pranks on the various residents. He also started dating Clea after a game of Spin the Bottle at a party.

Unfortunately, life wasn't all fun and games - being magic tends to attract unsavory things. In one case, the unsavory things were Slenderchildren. He and Clea saw three of their classmates pulled into a portal by one of the children, and gathered the others up to open a portal and rescue her. They at least had the good sense to let someone know what they were doing first. There was also a teeny tiny incident that resulted in the entire magic class being shrunk down, and having to find their way to Amanda's room to fix themselves. And then another incident with a magical card game. That last one, however, wasn't a fluke - it was a test planted by the Ancient One, although Stephen wouldn't find that out until later, when Clea and Topaz were kidnapped by a wayward portal to another dimension. The Ancient One took Stephen aside after the rescue to discuss future, saying he had great things in store for him.

Life, Continued

The last year of high school couldn't be a quiet one, of course. Stephen went out on a high note, first with a VR game gone horribly wrong, and then a demon bear getting out at the local high school. And life marched on, with Stephen continuing both his mundane and magical studies. The magic continued to go well, and helped in several missions and rescues as time went on. He even got to be in Harry Potter, sort of, during one of the many mansion disasters.

He left the mansion in 2021 to study under the Ancient One and broaden his magical horizons.

Physical Characteristics

Height: 5'11

Weight: 70kg

Eyes: Grey

Hair: Black

Other Features: None right now

Powers

Stephen’s mutant power involves the transfer of energy to any object he holds, specifically mystical energy. This is similar to Gambit’s powers although Stephen’s powers don’t generally result in explosions. It’s more along the lines of creating batteries. At it’s very core this is an ability to manipulate the mystical energy of whatever object he is holding to his will (at its core). He can also act as a conduit, taking energy from one object and storing it in another. Stephen can use the magic he drains in this way to power his own spells or to place in object creating magical artifacts.

Where his powers come into his own is in conjunction with magic, building of the future. The canon Stephen Strange while being a very gifted sorcerer is also a very heavy user of magical artifacts. As far as this plan goes the logic is as follows.

Magic needs a focus and energy to work. The focus being the spell or artifact and the energy being the power provided by the user of said magic. So if Stephen can place energy into objects as well as remove it then he should be able to place the energy in a shape of a focus. He should also be able to provide energy to the focus, either from himself or via stored energy in another artifact. Initially this would be something very simple for example taking a lighter and enchanting it to belch out a thick impenetrable smoke when lit to allow for an escape. As years into the future Stephen gains more skill then he will be able to make more and more complicated artifacts. However the stronger the artifact the more time and energy it would take to create And Without rituals and a strong enough power source he won’t be able to make super powerful artifacts which would act as a limit while allowing the exploration of a new branch of magic in XP.

Currently Stephen’s main abilities are in the realms of basic elemental magic and transmutation. He is largely self taught magician, what control he has worked out in conjunction with Clea through experimentation more than anything, and those branches of magic appeal to his logical mind. This is focused along the lines of being able to launch a firebolt or lightning blast. He is no equivalent to a mutant like Firestar who is able to control flames at will. Stephen’s magic would allow him to create a certain shape of fire and then no longer have control of it. Alchemy is the mixing of elements, used to make a pot of tea appear out of a lump of clay. Or the reshaping of an element which is much easier. To force one element to another takes a massive amount of both energy and skill, something only the greatest masters can do. But it can be used for reshaping materials too. It takes more skill, you have to shape the object in your head and maintain the concentration required to cast the spell forcing the object into the shape you want (ala Full Metal Alchemist style although not as quick or easy).

Equipment

None.

Trivia

None.

External Links

xp_communication posts

xp_journal posts

xp_logs posts

xp_generation_x posts

Plots

2015

For Cata!

Roadside Assistance - event

2016

Something Slender This Way Comes

2017

Honey, I Shrunk the Magic Class

How To Kill A Spider

Psi War

Dark Dimension Homecoming

2018

Ready or Not

Generation X: Demon Bear

Sins of the Father

The Danger Room Paradox

2019

Fear in the Dark

An Eye for an Eye

House of Horrors

2021

A Fistful of Nanites

Meta

Player:

E-mail:

AIM:

Player Icon Base: Logan Lerman

Meta Trivia

Stephen Strange - Phase 1 was originally an NPC from 2003-2015, the magic tutor for Amanda Sefton. In a karmic twist of fate, she is now teaching the younger version.

Stephen was temporarily retired in 2022 because of his player's time constraints and he was made available for applications a year later.