Erik Lehnsherr (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sorrycharles) wrote2013-12-05 03:08 am
sorrycharles) wrote2013-12-05 03:08 am
APPLICATION } Ataraxion
P L A Y E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: Rock
OOC Journal: N/A
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: HAHA NO
Email + IM: thehoodedfiguresss@gmail.com + thehoodedfigures
Characters Played at Ataraxion: N/A
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Erik Lehnsherr
Canon: X-Men Movies
Original or Alternate Universe: OU
Canon Point: Post X-Men: First Class
Number: 026 >> 001
A P P L I C A T I O N
Setting: The X-Men Movie universe as defined by the film X-Men: First Class. It is likely an AU set in the 1960s with slight differences established between it and the timelines of X-Men I-III. Mutants are relatively unknown to the world and only just starting to be recognized as a potentially dangerous reality by organizations like the CIA.
Aside from the existence of mutants and their role in established events in history (particularly the Cuban Missile Crisis), for the most part the world resembles our own.
More details can be found here.
History: When we first meet Erik, he is being torn away from his parents in a concentration camp in 1944. Assuming he is at least 32 in 1962, this would put his birth year around 1930. The movie does not touch on his history prior to that, but as established in comics canon, his family was eventually caught after fleeing Germany in 1939.
Soon after losing sight of his mother and father, Erik manifests his mutation and warps the gate separating them. A guard knocks him unconscious, but not before the spectacle is witnessed by Sebastian Shaw (operating under the alias “Klaus Schmidt”). In an attempt to coax Lehnsherr into a more controlled demonstration in his office (moving a coin), Schmidt cajoles him with candy. When that proves unsuccessful, Schmidt has Erik’s mother brought in and threatens to shoot her if Erik can’t deliver. He counts to three.
Then he shoots her.
Erik immediately loses control and wrecks shop in the neighboring torture chamber. Klaus is thrilled. It is implied that he keeps his hold on Erik for at least a few years despite the end of the war, torturing him to gain a better working knowledge of his mutation.
The story picks up again in Switzerland in 1962. Erik is travelling the world hunting Nazis -- “Klaus Schmidt” specifically -- and probably has been ever since he escaped. He cuts several down on his way to pinning Klaus down as Sebastian Shaw, making stops in France and Argentina along the way.
He manages to confront Shaw on his yacht but is ill-prepared to contend with Emma Frost, who cripples him with a reel of his own memories before flinging him bodily off the ship. Shaw is disappoint. Fortunately the CIA and Coast Guard are bearing down upon Shaw at the same time (with Charles Xavier’s assistance) and a violent confrontation ensues. Between this and the distraction provided by Charles, Erik regains himself and swiftly goes to work rending Shaw’s yacht apart with its own anchor chain.
Shaw flees into a submarine docked beneath the ship. Erik attempts to haul the sub out of the water but is dragged along in its wake instead, nearly drowning himself in the process. Charles leaps into the water and convinces him to release his hold.
Xavier, Raven, Moira and the CIA more or less adopt Erik. They show him all of their secrets and he repays them by attempting to steal their classified dossier on Shaw. Charles confronts him as he’s leaving and convinces him to stick with him and the others on the condition that the CIA gives them free reign. Together they recruit several young mutants that Charles locates with Cerebro. These recruits comprise the first team of X-Men. They are very young. Erik is not convinced of their worth.
Unfortunately, in the meanwhile Shaw is orchestrating the Cuban Missile Crisis, meeting with and manipulating military leaders in both the US and Russia. When an opportunity to strike at Shaw arises in Russia, Charles and Erik are flown in only to find that Shaw has sent Frost in his place. The CIA and Charles want to abort the mission but Erik bulldozes in on his own, shredding several guards with razor wire along the way. He strolls up the front steps, binds Emma down and cracks her diamond shell nearly to the point of murdering her, only to allow Charles to draw the information they need out of her at the last minute.
Back at CIA headquarters, the freshly recruited X-Men fall under attack from Shaw et al. Darwin is killed. Charles wants to dissolve the team. Erik is familiar with the potency of a desire for revenge and wants to utilize them and their anger to strike back at Shaw. Charles agrees because he cannot say “no” to that face, apparently.
They relocate to Xavier’s mansion and there is a training montage.
In it, Charles opens Erik up to the idea of making the most of his abilities by using parts of himself other than rage. By accessing suppressed memories of his mother prior to their capture in Poland, Erik is able to turn a massive satellite installation that is miles away. His eyes sweat a little. Charles also has some eye sweat.
Erik opens up enough to establish surface relationships with most of the X-Men -- especially Raven, who he believes should not have to hide her natural beauty. This is really the first time that Erik openly expresses his feelings on mutant superiority. He also shoves Banshee off of a satellite installation to teach him how to fly. Banshee must not be his type.
In private, Erik confesses to Charles that he believes humanity will never trust or tolerate mutantkind once they are exposed to their existence. Charles firmly disagrees, stating that this is an opportunity to show that they can be the better men. Erik states that they already are and gets his crazy on a bit with how mutants are the next stage in evolution, insinuating that humanity is base and therefore obsolete. What he tries to hedge as mutants needing to look out for themselves first is really a declaration of superiority right beneath Charles’ nose. Rather than confront this head on, Charles makes it about Shaw because he’s a weener. He tells Erik that killing Shaw won’t bring him peace. Erik makes it clear that he isn’t after peace and never was.
Then he goes and has sex with Mystique.
Abruptly, the CMC comes to a head at the Cuban blockade. Shaw has taken a hands on approach to ensure that the incident escalates into WWIII and the X-Men (including Charles and Erik) have no choice but to respond. In the ensuing chaos, Erik is able to haul Shaw’s sub up out of the sea from the blackbird and pounds it down onto the beach. The blackbird crash lands on the beach as well. A free-for-all begins between Shaw’s men and the X-Men. On the ground, Charles guides Erik into the heart of Shaw’s submarine, where Shaw is attempting to draw power out of the sub’s reactor to simulate a nuclear detonation.
Shaw says some awful things. Erik punches him in the head. As they struggle, they open up the chamber that’s blocking Charles’ telepathy. Erik demonstrates a significant amount of power at close range, but it’s not enough to overcome Shaw. In the end it’s his finesse that saves him, as he is able to distract and snatch the helmet from Shaw’s head, exposing him to Charles’ influence.
He then dons the helmet and forces Charles to be complicit in Shaw’s murder by forcing the same silver coin from 1944 slowly through Shaw’s brain while Charles holds him at his mercy.
Erik marches Shaw’s corpse down onto the beach and drops it there. He can feel the humans -- Soviet and American -- turning their artillery to aim at the beach and declares that humans and mutants cannot peacefully co-exist.
The ships fire. Erik stops the assault dead in the air, suspending the missiles short of detonation and then turning them back upon the fleet. Charles pleads with him to stop. Erik defies him. Charles gives up on pleading and tackles him into the sand instead -- a struggle ensues wherein there is a lot of undignified slapping and several of the missiles spiral out of control. When Erik gains the upper hand, Moira fires upon him, but he deflects the bullets easily. Unfortunately he deflects one of them directly into Charles’ spine. Charles collapses and Erik rushes to him to snare the bullet out in a panic. The missiles all detonate safely away from the fleet. Erik is too busy having a meltdown to notice.
He immediately blames Moira and moves to choke her. Charles shifts the blame back onto Erik and he lets her go, if only to turn it back into humanity’s fault overall for forcing him and Charles to turn on each other. Charles finally refuses to let him think he’s right and Erik leaves with those who will go with him to quest for the mutant cause, which turns out to be Raven in addition to Shaw’s crew.
The film ends on the note of Erik breaking Emma Frost out of the CIA’s custody.
Personality: Erik is the sum of his experiences, which have unfortunately trended towards torment and murder. He was torn away from his family as a boy and made to watch his mother die inches away from him because he couldn’t move a coin on command. He was then tortured by her killer for years in an effort to trigger demonstrations of his mutation.
He exists in a sort of emotional void as a result, with other people held far off lest they break through and force him to think things he doesn’t want to think or feel things he doesn’t want to feel. At the time of First Class, his relationship with the first round of X-Men is limited this way. Raven is the exception to the rule -- as with Charles -- more out of her own persistence than Erik's. She begins as attractive convenience and builds into an ally as the film goes on -- Erik is drawn both to her potential and the bold nature of her mutation, while she's drawn to his philosophy and pride in her as well as himself.
But for the most part, he operates on his own terms and at his own speed, pacing relationships into a distant comfort zone that most of them never leave. Unfortunately for the world, he is the perfect storm of charismatic and aloof. Stringing people along while he keeps them in this holding pattern is second nature. He does it without trying.
Even Charles repeatedly reads more into Erik’s commitment to good than ever actually exists. Part of this is Charles being blinded by his own optimism, but as it’s a misconception that’s convenient for Erik, he doesn’t really overexert himself past a cursory effort in trying to correct it. That he made the effort at all is a testament to his connection to Charles above and beyond the usual using-of-people-like-steppy-stools, although I don’t think he really recognized the depth of his own attachment until the moment he realized he was shot.
There is a mutual respect there, but it’s never enough for Charles to really change Erik’s mind on anything. Throughout the film, Charles pleads with Erik to stop, often to no avail. It’s more that Erik genuinely enjoys Charles’ company once he’s wedged himself forcibly into his life and perceives him as a (naive, misguided) equal. As far as Erik’s concerned, his ongoing betrayal is a necessity fueled by Charles’ blind faith in humanity. It’s Charles’ fault.
Nothing is Erik’s fault.
Ever.
This is an extreme allergic reaction to guilt as opposed to psychopathy or ignorance. A defense mechanism. The only thing Erik is comfortable feeling strongly is anger. He can’t afford to let himself be weakened by doubt or regret and the pleasure he draws from life is fleeting at best, often built up on an adrenaline rush or the satisfaction of exacting revenge. He has to be in control. Being bound up in a tube full of liquid with a pipe rammed down his throat will be received poorly. It’s worth noting that his ability to co-exist with polite company breaks down when he’s under heavy stress of this nature. When cornered or stripped of his peace of mind, he becomes paranoid and volatile to the point of wild-eyed confrontation, violence and even homicide if he can’t be shut down.
He is primarily driven by his desire for revenge. Initially just against Nazi collaborators and Shaw. Later against humanity as a whole. Where Charles seeks a peaceful co-existence with humanity, Erik seeks dominance. His justifications are extensive and kind of a dubiously coherent mix of evidence derived from his personal experiences and delusion. This is where his only real passion in life seems to lie -- he is more than willing to kill in pursuit of it, at one point nearly sacrificing himself for a shot at Shaw.
Outside of activities directly relevant to his making the world a safer place for mutants, at 32, he is generally cynical, impassive and abrasive. Hard to be around. The more he gets to know people the more likely he is to loosen up, however slightly.
His distaste for humanity is driven by his belief that they are to blame for all the bad in the world and no doubt heavily derived from his experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland. He is oblivious to all associated irony, and while he may accept that there are some “good” or at least “tolerable” humans (like Moira) he considers them to be tainted by their own primitive nature overall. He is hard-pressed to feel anything for them.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations: Erik is an Omega mutant -- one of the most powerful mutants on the planet within the X-Men universe. He possesses metallokinesis that is heavily intertwined with magnetism, which makes him a terrible person to have on a spaceship, probably.
He has an innate awareness of metal in the space around him and a far-reaching ability to manipulate it at his mercy with an impressive degree of fine control. In First Class, he deflects bullets fired from close range, dredges a full-sized submarine up out of the ocean and rotates a massive satellite dish. In X2, he pulls the crippled blackbird out of a free fall, closes up the hole blown into its hull and brings it to a dead stop at his location. Erik has hurled cars, stripped firearms down mid-assault, torn a bridge asunder and filtered iron directly out of the blood of a human being. He is a deadly mix of brute force, finesse and bad attitude.
Metal that he exerts control over does not need to be ferrous and is subject to side-effects dictated by physics. The more friction there is involved in warping metal over itself, the hotter it will get, and so on. His abilities are also known to cause electromagnetic interference, both deliberately when he desires and as a byproduct of him using his powers for other purposes.
He can also levitatebecause why not by using metal around him as a counterbalance/anchor or by plating metal around his person, which appears to be the case in Days of Future Past.
I AM CONFIDENT he will need to be heavily limited to be viable, but because this is my first time applying here I’m not sure to what constitutes a potentially game-breaking amount of power. A cap that muffles his ability to manipulate metal on such a massive scale both in terms of mass and distance seems advisable. I’m not sure how specific you want me to be in terms of meters or kg but I am v. open to discussion about it.
Inventory:
clothing -- a three-piece suit, two turtlenecks and a couple of dress shirts, slacks, overcoat, brown leather jacket, boots, several hats (panama, fedora, cheesecutter)
accessories -- sunglasses, belt, tie, watch
silver 5 reichsmark coin
hair product (important!!)
Appearance: Erik is tall and rangy, long of limb, broad across the shoulders and in good physical condition. He’s square-jawed and hard through the nose and brow, with flinty blue eyes and short brown hair that has a tendency to curl when it isn’t kempt. The lines wearing their way in around his face are profoundly resentful of the world and everything on it.
They also place him in his early 30s.
He is usually glowering. He tends to show too many teeth when he isn’t.
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Age: 32
AU Clarification: N/A
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
The hollow tonk of a palm flattened to the tube’s interior heralds Erik’s call to consciousness, to be immediately followed by the sharper rap of his fist. Tonk. He lurches when the pipe rammed down his throat retracts -- chokes -- bucks and bounces his fist off the glass a second time as translucent fluid sinks away from his breastbone. The impact echoes dull around him, thick in the fluid that fills his ears. Again. And again.
There’s a five-fingered smear of hot red streaking the glass before he’s spilled out of it in a heap, spluttering and retching. He can’t raise his voice to shout for help -- what comes out instead is more of a guttural sob. There is the floor, a dribble of saliva from teeth sucking at fresh air and hair slicked flat to his skull. The splay of his hands blanched pale through a membrane of blue slime. Blood slipping thin into the runoff.
A resonant groan that rolls through struts and smooth metal like thunder.
Also: the pasta curled onto the end of Erik’s fork before he places it deliberately in his mouth. The flat edge to his stare leveled cool across the table. The fact that he seems to be chewing very slowly into the silence stagnating between them.
“Is this ‘talking?’” he wonders aloud once he’s swallowed, brows pinched and fork turned down into a meal he’s hardly touched. Bruising shadows the back of his hand down to his wrist, vanishing up his sleeve in a green and brown haze. “Is that what we’re doing here, Charles?” He’s asking his pasta, now, fork twisted hard to the bottom of the bowl. His knuckles bleach beneath fresh scabs under the strain.
“Talking?”
Comms Sample:
[ Erik does not introduce himself, but appears hard-faced and grim on the readout. He does not smile; his eyes (an affable blue) are set dead on the camera at an apathetic remove. The lines around them are matter-of-fact. They look like they’ve been there for years. ]
For those of you with a ‘gift,’ who rely upon -- or even value -- the courtesy and discretion of their peers in keeping such matters beneath the radar,
[ there is a distinct clink and slosh when he reaches out of frame to tip an invisible bottle over an invisible glass ]
I advise you to think twice before placing your faith in my erstwhile colleague.
He is passionate, but not always in possession of the best judgment.
[ A wind upward at the corner of his mouth fails to reach his eyes. ]
This message has been brought to you by ‘Magneto,’ and half a bottle of chardonnay.
[ The video cuts out before his voice does. ]
Enjoy your stay.
Your Name: Rock
OOC Journal: N/A
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: HAHA NO
Email + IM: thehoodedfiguresss@gmail.com + thehoodedfigures
Characters Played at Ataraxion: N/A
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Erik Lehnsherr
Canon: X-Men Movies
Original or Alternate Universe: OU
Canon Point: Post X-Men: First Class
Number: 026 >> 001
A P P L I C A T I O N
Setting: The X-Men Movie universe as defined by the film X-Men: First Class. It is likely an AU set in the 1960s with slight differences established between it and the timelines of X-Men I-III. Mutants are relatively unknown to the world and only just starting to be recognized as a potentially dangerous reality by organizations like the CIA.
Aside from the existence of mutants and their role in established events in history (particularly the Cuban Missile Crisis), for the most part the world resembles our own.
More details can be found here.
History: When we first meet Erik, he is being torn away from his parents in a concentration camp in 1944. Assuming he is at least 32 in 1962, this would put his birth year around 1930. The movie does not touch on his history prior to that, but as established in comics canon, his family was eventually caught after fleeing Germany in 1939.
Soon after losing sight of his mother and father, Erik manifests his mutation and warps the gate separating them. A guard knocks him unconscious, but not before the spectacle is witnessed by Sebastian Shaw (operating under the alias “Klaus Schmidt”). In an attempt to coax Lehnsherr into a more controlled demonstration in his office (moving a coin), Schmidt cajoles him with candy. When that proves unsuccessful, Schmidt has Erik’s mother brought in and threatens to shoot her if Erik can’t deliver. He counts to three.
Then he shoots her.
Erik immediately loses control and wrecks shop in the neighboring torture chamber. Klaus is thrilled. It is implied that he keeps his hold on Erik for at least a few years despite the end of the war, torturing him to gain a better working knowledge of his mutation.
The story picks up again in Switzerland in 1962. Erik is travelling the world hunting Nazis -- “Klaus Schmidt” specifically -- and probably has been ever since he escaped. He cuts several down on his way to pinning Klaus down as Sebastian Shaw, making stops in France and Argentina along the way.
He manages to confront Shaw on his yacht but is ill-prepared to contend with Emma Frost, who cripples him with a reel of his own memories before flinging him bodily off the ship. Shaw is disappoint. Fortunately the CIA and Coast Guard are bearing down upon Shaw at the same time (with Charles Xavier’s assistance) and a violent confrontation ensues. Between this and the distraction provided by Charles, Erik regains himself and swiftly goes to work rending Shaw’s yacht apart with its own anchor chain.
Shaw flees into a submarine docked beneath the ship. Erik attempts to haul the sub out of the water but is dragged along in its wake instead, nearly drowning himself in the process. Charles leaps into the water and convinces him to release his hold.
Xavier, Raven, Moira and the CIA more or less adopt Erik. They show him all of their secrets and he repays them by attempting to steal their classified dossier on Shaw. Charles confronts him as he’s leaving and convinces him to stick with him and the others on the condition that the CIA gives them free reign. Together they recruit several young mutants that Charles locates with Cerebro. These recruits comprise the first team of X-Men. They are very young. Erik is not convinced of their worth.
Unfortunately, in the meanwhile Shaw is orchestrating the Cuban Missile Crisis, meeting with and manipulating military leaders in both the US and Russia. When an opportunity to strike at Shaw arises in Russia, Charles and Erik are flown in only to find that Shaw has sent Frost in his place. The CIA and Charles want to abort the mission but Erik bulldozes in on his own, shredding several guards with razor wire along the way. He strolls up the front steps, binds Emma down and cracks her diamond shell nearly to the point of murdering her, only to allow Charles to draw the information they need out of her at the last minute.
Back at CIA headquarters, the freshly recruited X-Men fall under attack from Shaw et al. Darwin is killed. Charles wants to dissolve the team. Erik is familiar with the potency of a desire for revenge and wants to utilize them and their anger to strike back at Shaw. Charles agrees because he cannot say “no” to that face, apparently.
They relocate to Xavier’s mansion and there is a training montage.
In it, Charles opens Erik up to the idea of making the most of his abilities by using parts of himself other than rage. By accessing suppressed memories of his mother prior to their capture in Poland, Erik is able to turn a massive satellite installation that is miles away. His eyes sweat a little. Charles also has some eye sweat.
Erik opens up enough to establish surface relationships with most of the X-Men -- especially Raven, who he believes should not have to hide her natural beauty. This is really the first time that Erik openly expresses his feelings on mutant superiority. He also shoves Banshee off of a satellite installation to teach him how to fly. Banshee must not be his type.
In private, Erik confesses to Charles that he believes humanity will never trust or tolerate mutantkind once they are exposed to their existence. Charles firmly disagrees, stating that this is an opportunity to show that they can be the better men. Erik states that they already are and gets his crazy on a bit with how mutants are the next stage in evolution, insinuating that humanity is base and therefore obsolete. What he tries to hedge as mutants needing to look out for themselves first is really a declaration of superiority right beneath Charles’ nose. Rather than confront this head on, Charles makes it about Shaw because he’s a weener. He tells Erik that killing Shaw won’t bring him peace. Erik makes it clear that he isn’t after peace and never was.
Then he goes and has sex with Mystique.
Abruptly, the CMC comes to a head at the Cuban blockade. Shaw has taken a hands on approach to ensure that the incident escalates into WWIII and the X-Men (including Charles and Erik) have no choice but to respond. In the ensuing chaos, Erik is able to haul Shaw’s sub up out of the sea from the blackbird and pounds it down onto the beach. The blackbird crash lands on the beach as well. A free-for-all begins between Shaw’s men and the X-Men. On the ground, Charles guides Erik into the heart of Shaw’s submarine, where Shaw is attempting to draw power out of the sub’s reactor to simulate a nuclear detonation.
Shaw says some awful things. Erik punches him in the head. As they struggle, they open up the chamber that’s blocking Charles’ telepathy. Erik demonstrates a significant amount of power at close range, but it’s not enough to overcome Shaw. In the end it’s his finesse that saves him, as he is able to distract and snatch the helmet from Shaw’s head, exposing him to Charles’ influence.
He then dons the helmet and forces Charles to be complicit in Shaw’s murder by forcing the same silver coin from 1944 slowly through Shaw’s brain while Charles holds him at his mercy.
Erik marches Shaw’s corpse down onto the beach and drops it there. He can feel the humans -- Soviet and American -- turning their artillery to aim at the beach and declares that humans and mutants cannot peacefully co-exist.
The ships fire. Erik stops the assault dead in the air, suspending the missiles short of detonation and then turning them back upon the fleet. Charles pleads with him to stop. Erik defies him. Charles gives up on pleading and tackles him into the sand instead -- a struggle ensues wherein there is a lot of undignified slapping and several of the missiles spiral out of control. When Erik gains the upper hand, Moira fires upon him, but he deflects the bullets easily. Unfortunately he deflects one of them directly into Charles’ spine. Charles collapses and Erik rushes to him to snare the bullet out in a panic. The missiles all detonate safely away from the fleet. Erik is too busy having a meltdown to notice.
He immediately blames Moira and moves to choke her. Charles shifts the blame back onto Erik and he lets her go, if only to turn it back into humanity’s fault overall for forcing him and Charles to turn on each other. Charles finally refuses to let him think he’s right and Erik leaves with those who will go with him to quest for the mutant cause, which turns out to be Raven in addition to Shaw’s crew.
The film ends on the note of Erik breaking Emma Frost out of the CIA’s custody.
Personality: Erik is the sum of his experiences, which have unfortunately trended towards torment and murder. He was torn away from his family as a boy and made to watch his mother die inches away from him because he couldn’t move a coin on command. He was then tortured by her killer for years in an effort to trigger demonstrations of his mutation.
He exists in a sort of emotional void as a result, with other people held far off lest they break through and force him to think things he doesn’t want to think or feel things he doesn’t want to feel. At the time of First Class, his relationship with the first round of X-Men is limited this way. Raven is the exception to the rule -- as with Charles -- more out of her own persistence than Erik's. She begins as attractive convenience and builds into an ally as the film goes on -- Erik is drawn both to her potential and the bold nature of her mutation, while she's drawn to his philosophy and pride in her as well as himself.
But for the most part, he operates on his own terms and at his own speed, pacing relationships into a distant comfort zone that most of them never leave. Unfortunately for the world, he is the perfect storm of charismatic and aloof. Stringing people along while he keeps them in this holding pattern is second nature. He does it without trying.
Even Charles repeatedly reads more into Erik’s commitment to good than ever actually exists. Part of this is Charles being blinded by his own optimism, but as it’s a misconception that’s convenient for Erik, he doesn’t really overexert himself past a cursory effort in trying to correct it. That he made the effort at all is a testament to his connection to Charles above and beyond the usual using-of-people-like-steppy-stools, although I don’t think he really recognized the depth of his own attachment until the moment he realized he was shot.
There is a mutual respect there, but it’s never enough for Charles to really change Erik’s mind on anything. Throughout the film, Charles pleads with Erik to stop, often to no avail. It’s more that Erik genuinely enjoys Charles’ company once he’s wedged himself forcibly into his life and perceives him as a (naive, misguided) equal. As far as Erik’s concerned, his ongoing betrayal is a necessity fueled by Charles’ blind faith in humanity. It’s Charles’ fault.
Nothing is Erik’s fault.
Ever.
This is an extreme allergic reaction to guilt as opposed to psychopathy or ignorance. A defense mechanism. The only thing Erik is comfortable feeling strongly is anger. He can’t afford to let himself be weakened by doubt or regret and the pleasure he draws from life is fleeting at best, often built up on an adrenaline rush or the satisfaction of exacting revenge. He has to be in control. Being bound up in a tube full of liquid with a pipe rammed down his throat will be received poorly. It’s worth noting that his ability to co-exist with polite company breaks down when he’s under heavy stress of this nature. When cornered or stripped of his peace of mind, he becomes paranoid and volatile to the point of wild-eyed confrontation, violence and even homicide if he can’t be shut down.
He is primarily driven by his desire for revenge. Initially just against Nazi collaborators and Shaw. Later against humanity as a whole. Where Charles seeks a peaceful co-existence with humanity, Erik seeks dominance. His justifications are extensive and kind of a dubiously coherent mix of evidence derived from his personal experiences and delusion. This is where his only real passion in life seems to lie -- he is more than willing to kill in pursuit of it, at one point nearly sacrificing himself for a shot at Shaw.
Outside of activities directly relevant to his making the world a safer place for mutants, at 32, he is generally cynical, impassive and abrasive. Hard to be around. The more he gets to know people the more likely he is to loosen up, however slightly.
His distaste for humanity is driven by his belief that they are to blame for all the bad in the world and no doubt heavily derived from his experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland. He is oblivious to all associated irony, and while he may accept that there are some “good” or at least “tolerable” humans (like Moira) he considers them to be tainted by their own primitive nature overall. He is hard-pressed to feel anything for them.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations: Erik is an Omega mutant -- one of the most powerful mutants on the planet within the X-Men universe. He possesses metallokinesis that is heavily intertwined with magnetism, which makes him a terrible person to have on a spaceship, probably.
He has an innate awareness of metal in the space around him and a far-reaching ability to manipulate it at his mercy with an impressive degree of fine control. In First Class, he deflects bullets fired from close range, dredges a full-sized submarine up out of the ocean and rotates a massive satellite dish. In X2, he pulls the crippled blackbird out of a free fall, closes up the hole blown into its hull and brings it to a dead stop at his location. Erik has hurled cars, stripped firearms down mid-assault, torn a bridge asunder and filtered iron directly out of the blood of a human being. He is a deadly mix of brute force, finesse and bad attitude.
Metal that he exerts control over does not need to be ferrous and is subject to side-effects dictated by physics. The more friction there is involved in warping metal over itself, the hotter it will get, and so on. His abilities are also known to cause electromagnetic interference, both deliberately when he desires and as a byproduct of him using his powers for other purposes.
He can also levitate
I AM CONFIDENT he will need to be heavily limited to be viable, but because this is my first time applying here I’m not sure to what constitutes a potentially game-breaking amount of power. A cap that muffles his ability to manipulate metal on such a massive scale both in terms of mass and distance seems advisable. I’m not sure how specific you want me to be in terms of meters or kg but I am v. open to discussion about it.
Inventory:
Appearance: Erik is tall and rangy, long of limb, broad across the shoulders and in good physical condition. He’s square-jawed and hard through the nose and brow, with flinty blue eyes and short brown hair that has a tendency to curl when it isn’t kempt. The lines wearing their way in around his face are profoundly resentful of the world and everything on it.
They also place him in his early 30s.
He is usually glowering. He tends to show too many teeth when he isn’t.
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Age: 32
AU Clarification: N/A
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
The hollow tonk of a palm flattened to the tube’s interior heralds Erik’s call to consciousness, to be immediately followed by the sharper rap of his fist. Tonk. He lurches when the pipe rammed down his throat retracts -- chokes -- bucks and bounces his fist off the glass a second time as translucent fluid sinks away from his breastbone. The impact echoes dull around him, thick in the fluid that fills his ears. Again. And again.
There’s a five-fingered smear of hot red streaking the glass before he’s spilled out of it in a heap, spluttering and retching. He can’t raise his voice to shout for help -- what comes out instead is more of a guttural sob. There is the floor, a dribble of saliva from teeth sucking at fresh air and hair slicked flat to his skull. The splay of his hands blanched pale through a membrane of blue slime. Blood slipping thin into the runoff.
A resonant groan that rolls through struts and smooth metal like thunder.
Also: the pasta curled onto the end of Erik’s fork before he places it deliberately in his mouth. The flat edge to his stare leveled cool across the table. The fact that he seems to be chewing very slowly into the silence stagnating between them.
“Is this ‘talking?’” he wonders aloud once he’s swallowed, brows pinched and fork turned down into a meal he’s hardly touched. Bruising shadows the back of his hand down to his wrist, vanishing up his sleeve in a green and brown haze. “Is that what we’re doing here, Charles?” He’s asking his pasta, now, fork twisted hard to the bottom of the bowl. His knuckles bleach beneath fresh scabs under the strain.
“Talking?”
Comms Sample:
[ Erik does not introduce himself, but appears hard-faced and grim on the readout. He does not smile; his eyes (an affable blue) are set dead on the camera at an apathetic remove. The lines around them are matter-of-fact. They look like they’ve been there for years. ]
For those of you with a ‘gift,’ who rely upon -- or even value -- the courtesy and discretion of their peers in keeping such matters beneath the radar,
[ there is a distinct clink and slosh when he reaches out of frame to tip an invisible bottle over an invisible glass ]
I advise you to think twice before placing your faith in my erstwhile colleague.
He is passionate, but not always in possession of the best judgment.
[ A wind upward at the corner of his mouth fails to reach his eyes. ]
This message has been brought to you by ‘Magneto,’ and half a bottle of chardonnay.
[ The video cuts out before his voice does. ]
Enjoy your stay.