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Not what you think

Created on 2007-10-01 11:44:55 (#13935075), last updated 2009-02-20

5,981 comments received, 6,426 comments posted

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445 Journal Entries, 106 Tags, 41 Memories, <10 ScrapBook Files, 2 Virtual Gifts, 30 Userpics

Basic Info

Name:	Senator Robert Kelly
Birthdate:	1962-06-28
Location:	United States

Bio

Basic Info

Name: Robert Edward Kelly
Age: 46
Birthdate: June 28th, 1962 (Lawrence, Kansas)
Nationality: American
Height: 6'1
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond
Spouse: Nicole Kelly (b. January 10th, 1963)
Children: Beth Kelly (b. May 9th, 1999), Dylan James Kelly (b. June 19th, 2008)
Current Occupation: Senator (D-KS)

Bio (Mostly RP-based)

Senator Robert E. Kelly became the first openly-mutant politician to serve at any level of American government when he outed himself during a senate debate on March 28th, 2008.

A native of Lawrence, Kansas, Kelly grew up in a lower-middle-class family, the youngest of three brothers. His childhood was marred by the suicide of his father William when Kelly was thirteen. Traumatized by his father's seemingly-unexplained death, and his mother's subsequent remarriage, Kelly became a withdrawn teenager. He credits his subsequent academic success to joining the track team at his local high school. "I started running because it was the one activity that allowed me to stay away from home after school," he said. "But it ended up teaching me determination and confidence, as well as making me physically fitter."

In college, where Kelly studied for a liberal arts degree, his cross-country running ambitions were nixed by a severed achilles tendon. His search for another extra-curricular activity took him to the college debating club, where the normally shy Kelly discovered an outlet for his teenage frustrations. "High school had taught me that I was basically good at two things - running, and arguing. When running was taken away from me, I had little idea that the other could be made into a career." His success in the debating arena led him to study for a law degree, and to become engaged in local Kansas politics.

While participating in a student civil rights demonstration that ended with some students coming to blows with riot police in a controversial incident, the young Kelly was photographed apparently defending a black student from a police officer. The photograph, which appeared in Time magazine, gave him 5 minutes of fame, but Kelly credits the demonstration with a far more important result - introducing him to his future wife. "I was sitting on the floor of the ER, with other injured students all around me. Blood in my eyes. My head ringing. I had a broken nose and a concussion. And then this beautiful woman appears in a white coat and says, 'You look like shit, Robert Kelly.' And that was love, I guess."

Kelly married immunologist Nicole Porter in 1987, shortly after receiving his law degree and starting work in a small Lawrence practice. He worked almost exclusively on civil rights cases, and generated a good reputation, while remaining politically active in the Kansas Democratic Party.

In the mid-nineties, Kelly started attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. He has been public about his battle with alcoholism, and claims to have been sober for ten years to date. He still attends meetings. One of the reasons Kelly has given for giving up alcohol is that he and his wife wanted to have children. Another is that his wife had suggested that he run for public office. Their daughter Beth was born May 9th, 1999.

Kelly was elected to the Senate in 2002, and during the past six years has served with distinction on several committees, most notably the newly formed Committee on Mutant Affairs. In 2005, he introduced proposals for the controversial Mutant Registration Act - the legislation that has brought him most attention across the country. "The MRA was legislation in which I firmly believed at the time," Kelly has said. "Although it had elements of a security nature that I still believe, even as a mutant myself, need to be seriously debated, on the whole it was misguided and would have led to anti-mutant discrimination and violence on a massive scale."

In 2006, Kelly and his long-term aide Henry Gyrich were abducted by the Brotherhood of Mutants. Gyrich was killed and then replaced by Mystique for a short period before his hideously-mauled body was discovered. Kelly was imprisoned by Magneto, but managed to escape. For two years, he made no public statement on his capture. "There was, in my mind, no devious scheme to defraud the American public," Kelly explained in 2008. "At that point, I was barely holding it together. Henry, one of my best friends, was dead. I had been forcibly changed against my will into something I could barely recognize as human. I'd never even met a mutant before the Brotherhood took me. Now I was one. The decision I took, to keep my mouth shut, was indisputably incorrect. It cost me my marriage, and almost my sanity, but it gives some indication of how deeply scared I was at the time."

Kelly and his wife, Nicole, separated in 2006, and Kelly began a relationship in 2007 with his former intern, Kay Dernier. Their friends suggest that they had been planning marriage, but Dernier ended their relationship shortly after Kelly's divorce papers came through later in the year. Soon after, Kelly reconciled with Nicole, and they remarried on December 1, 2007, welcoming a new son, Dylan James, into the world on June 19th, 2008.

Also in 2007, Kelly hired the mutant Jean-Paul Beaubier as his consultant on mutant affairs, effectively replacing Gyrich. The outspoken Beaubier became the first openly-mutant staffer on the Hill, generating both controversy and publicity for Kelly's office, particularly for Kelly's new pet project - a bill to criminalize hate crimes targeted at mutants.

As a result of Beaubier's employment, and the surfacing of the bill, Kelly's offices were the target of an attack by the Friends of Humanity in late 2007. Intern Rebecca Vilas was shot and killed in the presence of Kelly's family, Jean-Paul Beaubier, and other interns. Kelly and Beaubier attended her funeral.

2008 saw Kelly's office at the forefront of further controversy as Kelly finally revealed his mutant nature during a senate debate, moments before he was shot by an unknown assailant. Kelly survived, crediting former terrorist John "Pyro" Allerdyce with saving his life. He renounced the Mutant Registration Act, and the Hate Crime bill was finally passed by a slim majority in the Senate.

Kelly is currently one of the most well-respected political figures in Kansas and in Washington, although rumors about his private life are a concern. His office is, however, not well-staffed due to fears about mutant and human supremacist terrorism. He is running for re-election in Kansas, despite the fact that the Kansas Democratic Party has strongly discouraged him from standing.

Mutant Abilities

Kelly is a water mutant and has been told by Mike Connor (

shaman_x that he is essentially psychic energy that takes the form of water. Kelly, however, has been reluctant to fully explore his new abilities.

His natural form is water, and so, in a "dry" (human-appearing) form, his skin will become gradually damper and more slippery if he loses concentration. He cannot retain his human form if he is asleep or unconscious, and his body will gradually change from entirely dry to entirely wet.

He can absorb and expel water at will, and travel almost anywhere in his wet form.

An additional form is the one he takes on when swimming - he develops gills in his upper back, and his body changes shape to become more aerodynamic. He can swim much faster and withstand greater depths than a normal human.

He cannot, however, talk to fish (he's tried).

Family & Relationships

Kelly is currently married to Dr. Nicole Kelly (

sewing_on_ears), and they have two children, Beth and Dylan.

His father William died when Kelly was 13, and his mother Patricia remarried. Kelly is not close to his stepfather, Ethan Stewart. However, they have recently made some efforts to get to know each other better.

Kelly has two older brothers, Billy, a traveling salesman (and alcoholic), and Stephen, who works for a Christian charity.

Jamie McDonald (

bullet_jamie), a private investigator, is Kelly's best and oldest friend, and occasional lover. The two met in high school, where Jamie was captain of the track team. They lost touch when Jamie joined the marines, but were later reunited. Jamie lives with his partner, reporter Ian Patterson, and Ian's two children, John and Joel. John is currently attending New York Military Academy.

Kay Dernier is Kelly's former press secretary, and ex-girlfriend. She broke up with him, wielding a baseball bat, when he revealed to her that he was a mutant.

Rachel Conway (

senseofliberty) dated Kelly for several months at the beginning of 2008, and worked in his DC office for a time as his press secretary and then as his senior researcher. She left both him and DC in August 2008, having received a job offer in Gotham. They remain friends.

OOC Info

This is a muse journal. I'm not making any money out of what is only a writing exercise. All opinions expressed herein are those of the character, and not necessarily those of the mun.

Kelly's canon is primarily based on his X-Men movieverse character, and events shown in X1 and X2. For my purposes, his "death" in X1 was not what it appeared, and he was subsequently not impersonated by Mystique. Currently, Kelly happily interacts with X-Men muses from both movie- and comicsverse, as well as from a number of other fandoms, and he's available for all kinds of RP fun.

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