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cordonbleu (271027)

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cordonbleu

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[ CHARACTER INFO ]

Birth Name: Gertrude Joyce Taylor
Nicknames: Gert/y, Cookie, Mother Hen
Codename: n/a, jokes that it is "Chef de Cuisine" or, for short, "Chef"
Age: 62
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Caucasian, British
Mutant Abilities: Gert is a low-strength telekinetic. While her abilities have the potential to reach greater power, she sees no need in training or practicing beyond a comfortable level of control, nor does she desire to strengthen her mutation to attack or injure anyone. She mostly uses her telekinesis to control small objects: spoons, pots, sponges, and has become quite adept at multitasking this way. While she has never tested the limits of her ability, she guesses she can mentally lift anything the normal human could physically. Sometimes she has demonstrated biophysical control, where she can control blood vessels and muscles within a living being to contract or explode, mostly in her cooking or for show. In informal training with Charles, she has created small force fields that would theoretically protect her from explosions or physical attacks; also with the help of Xavier, she has developed a small immunity to psychic attacks, per the regular curriculum for any student, that allows her awareness of when her mind is being probed and a small degree of resistance, enough to repel a young, untrained student.
Affiliation: X-Men

[ APPEARANCE ]

Height: 5'7" (170.2 cm)
Weight: 140 lbs. (10 stones)
Hair Color: Blond
Eye Color: Gray/light blue
Defining Traits: Having aged gracefully, wrinkles frame her face, setting off her eyes, lips and forehead. When she smiles, her whole face smiles; when she laughs, she tilts her head back and laughs from her gut. Her hands shake, and her voice has taken on a raspy quality; she has yet to have a neurological evaluation (would be diagnosed as essential tremors). Gert gives off a motherly vibe, having a soft voice and open heart for discussions and soul-searching with many students, young and old; she has heard through the grapevine teenagers like to refer to her as Charles Xavier's wife.
Clothing Styles/Colors: In the kitchen, Gert can be seen in a white, double-breasted jacket with clean sleeves, a shin-length white apron usually dirtied with food spills and stains, dark brown clogs, and a toque when she cooks an especially time-consuming meal. Around the house and on her off-days, she wears blacks and browns, seldom in brighter colors. Preferring pants and suits, Gertrude doesn't own a single dress or skirt; although, much of her clothes are feminine and appropriately fitting, particularly her long-sleeved shirts.
Other: On her left ring finger she wears a simple gold band, adorned with a few modest gems, and rarely draws attention to it.

[ PERSONALITY ]

General Likes: Companionship, conversation, eating, the rush of the dinner service, the occasional swear word, a good laugh, Sunday roast, Yorkshire pudding, sushi, curry, fish and chips, the formality of afternoon tea, horses, mise en place, other people's kids, traveling, clean, efficient cooking, the vulgarity of line cooks, ethnic dishes, fresh stock, early morning fish mongers, Anthony Bourdain, Michael Ruhlman, Thomas Keller, empty plates, simplicity, the little things
General Dislikes: Back-talkers, back-stabbers, left-handed compliments, yelling orders, people who never left high school, picky eaters, dirty kitchens, when students miss their chore/cooking rotation, Scott and Jean using her dishes to train, the Danger Room, sweaty or demanding children, her routine being broken, the flow of her kitchen being disturbed, Rachel Ray, Sandra Lee, the Food Network, war, rivalries, salt and pepper shakers on the table
Skills Mastered: While Gertrude herself would not say she has mastered cooking, she is a very accomplished chef. Having studied international cuisine and later cooked with the best in various restaurants, she has a repertoire including: traditional English, Irish and Welsh dishes, curry, some sushi and Chinese food, seafood, American styles, red meat, baking, barbecue, and more. Her most famous dishes are: a featherlight chocolate soufflé; a very simple roasted chicken with minced thyme; a yummy sandwich with bacon, ham, pecorino toscano, and grape jam on sourdough; grilled salmon with lemon butter; and, of course, chewy chocolate-chip cookies. Inspired by cooking, Taylor has learned some French and Italian, enough to carry on an admittedly food-oriented conversation.
Astrological Sign: Aquarius (February 6th)
Sexual Orientation: Homosexual
Positive Traits: Innovative, compassionate, understanding, nonjudgmental, intuitive, tolerant, unprejudiced, frank, enigmatic, progressive, free-spirited, jovial
Negative Traits: Strong-willed, stubborn, opinionated, individualistic, unpredictable, outspoken, temperamental, impatient, secretive

[ ETC ]

Personal History: Born in the late forties to an upper-middle-class family in Essex, Gertrude had a very proper childhood. She did fairly well in school, enough to bump her into the top quarter of her class but never enough to truly separate her from the pack, and, more importantly, had friends upon friends - most of whom were boys, now that she thinks back. While she spent her Saturdays climbing trees and tearing holes in her clothes, eventually she grew out of her tomboyish ways and was sent to boarding school in her early teens. Gertrude had a few girlfriends prior to that, although she wouldn't know what to call them. She quickly developed a knack for cooking and baking and soon joined her mother in the kitchen, preparing entire meals with only supervision and the occasional "don't forget to skim," or "salt as you go, dear." Gert developed her affiliation for simple, clean, honest cooking from her mother, the world's best chef in her eyes. Her powers began manifesting with a fleeting control of objects; naturally, she hid and suppressed them. After she turned sixteen, she developed a serious relationship with another girl, Heather Murray, and only then was she truly labeled a lesbian. They kept their relationship a secret, meeting after classes and pretending to be only friends in public, both of them knowing that their relationship would be trivialized as a "phase" if they came out. Instead, they focused on boarding school, graduated, and rented a small flat in Surrey. Finally, they approached their respective parents as a couple, confessing their two year long relationship. Even though they met some initial rejection, mostly from Gert's parents, after a few years, their parents came to respect and understand their orientation. Others, however, were not so forgiving, and she has experienced discrimination, outright profanity and hate crimes as a result.

In the meantime, Gertrude attended the Tante Marie, a famous cordon bleu cooking school in Surrey, where she fine-toned her technique and learned the finesse required in a professional kitchen. After graduation, she worked as a lackey for various kitchens, filling raviolis, cleaning artichokes, peeling and chopping vegetables, gutting lobsters and preparing chickens. She quickly rose through the ranks, however, and prepared appetizers, then became a line cook, working nonstop for hours under heat, stress, yelling and profanity. After she rose to become a sous chef, she jumped around restaurants, settling for a few years here and there to study with as many of the most competent chefs she could find. Eventually she found a home in a famous two-star (by quality of food and wine, reported as "excellent cooking, worth a detour") restaurant under an executive chef who saw the same beauty in simplicity she did and working with a pastry chef who could whip up the lightest, richest dishes from her wildest dreams.

However, right when she found her home, her life partner, Heather, of nearly two decades was diagnosed with Stage 2A breast cancer. Five years later, Gert organized a funeral. Her powers went haywire in the following days, resulting in everything in her house knocked over or broken: pictures lay broken on the ground, bookshelves were completely toppled, their glass dining room table had shattered, every dish in the kitchen had fallen out of the cabinets and smashed on the tile floor. She knew she needed help, but as of this point, her mutation had been largely suppressed, and she had no desire to ask everyone she knew about it. Out of fear, she kept to her usual routine, and the next day, Charles Xavier answered her prayers, coming to the restaurant after closing time and sitting down to a glass of wine with her. He explained her mutation, her experiences, and his idea for the X-Men; she quickly expressed her desire to not fight. Understanding, Xavier offered her a position as the cook for the Institute. Gertrude was eventually convinced, mostly stemming from her desire to leave a place with so many memories of Heather, and flew to New York to live at the mansion.

Having come in during the early days, Gertrude saw very young children grow up to be very mature, competent adults. She developed a soft spot for his students and for Xavier himself, considering him to be one of her best friends. As more and more students enrolled, Gertrude created a very specific routine to fall in - preparation from noon to three, cooking from then until five or six, and dinner promptly at six, with occasional tweaking for the intensity and number of dishes. Her kitchen began to develop the rush of a professional dinner service, and Gertrude found a home. Charles has asked her to occasionally sit down with him, discuss her abilities, and train them; Gert obliged, albeit a little unwillingly. She learned a good deal of control, exactly what she asked for, and discovered a wider range than she had initially expected. She doesn't like to use her abilities that often, but now that her hands have started shaking, she uses them more and more frequently. While she didn't like when a student says, "I don't like salmon" or "I don't like mushrooms," she particularly loves to serve dishes according to ethnic backgrounds: Russian stroganoff, borscht, or meatballs; Kosher challah, latkes, sufganiyot; German sausages, Knödel, Black Forest cakes; Irish corned beef and cabbage, black pudding, hearty stews. When serving pork, seafood or anything someone might have an objection to, Gert tries to add other main dishes to chose from, ending up in her cooking several meals a day. In addition to a formal sit-down dinner for adults and mature students, Gert serves breakfast at eight and keeps it warm until eleven, when she starts preparing for a casual noon lunch, keeping that warm until three, when she absolutely must start cooking dinner. She welcomes students above sixteen to cook without supervision at any time of the day (except the latter hours of her dinner preparation and cooking), as well as allowing them to request a specially prepared meal during reasonable hours. "Don't try waking me up," she can often be heard warning, "unless you want the door slammed on your face and a burnt roast tomorrow."
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