and it feels like jealousy, and it feels like I can't breathe

[atthemercyof]

OOC Information:

Name/Alias: Sarah
Age: 24
E-Mail//MSN//AIM: notyetfallen@hotmail.co.uk || StarkResilient @ Aim
Personal LJ: BatmanBoxers
How did you hear about Badfic? Through a thread at dear_mun with psychic_labrat

IC Information:

Character Name: Erik Lehnsherr || Magneto
Name that appears on plaque: Magneto
Character Journal: atthemercyof
Canon: X-Men: First Class
Point in Canon: Just beyond the scene on the beach, but a little before he gets his purple-red get-up and rescues Emma. I prefer his fashion choices before, frankly.
Age: Not given, but he’s probably on the later side of 35.
Birthday: Not revealed.
Appearance: Tall, broad shouldered, slight waist. Erik’s got a European air to him, tanned and strong looking. His appearance is classic, fitting to his time of the 1960s. Scarred, but he covers it up, and he has a tattoo on his inner arm. He’s about 6ft, weights around 190lbs, dark hair, bluish-grey eyes, sharp features in his face.





Abilities: Erik’s mutant power is one over magnetism with a series of resulting effects. He’s able to manipulate and shape the magnetic fields around him and allow himself to use this to his advantage. His power is predominantly used against objects that have metal within them (like a bell, a soldier’s helmet, a coin). He can also affect a large amount of metal at once, ie lifting a 30,000 tonne nuclear submarine from the water, moving a satellite. Useful for finer movements, magnetising himself to the floor of the jet when walking, emptying the barrel of a soldier’s gun, moving a coin, removing someone’s filling. In this, Erik should be able to fine-tune his ability to let him dissemble machinery, or perform manoeuvres that would require finesse and steadiness.

In the X-Men: First Class canon, this relies exclusively on his feeling, Erik leaning favourably to pain and anger to warp objects to his command. This tends to let him down at the last hurdle as we see when he tries to stop the submarine the first time, almost drowning himself in the process. Charles teaches him eventually that serenity smoothes out the process. It’s generally believed that Erik can levitate simply because killing Shaw brought him a level of peace, as we don’t see him able to do so beforehand. It’s not known whether or not he can achieve this via magnetic fields, or rather he’s using belongings on his person to lift himself (and others) but either way, it takes a considerable amount of strength to do so.

Erik’s power also gives itself to subterfuge and subtlety. Erik can get through most security measures. He can unlock doors by manipulating the locks, remove a guard’s weapon for him, turn their hands against themselves. He’s seen entering the CIA compound to rescue Emma Frost, and one would assume his team, lead by him, has been able to get in on merit of their mutation alone.

Aside from that, Erik’s got skill in hand to hand combat, though he chooses to use his power more often than not. In some of the scenes, we see him travelling the globe in search of Shaw. This would imply he’s good at a number of things; mostly tracking, getting in and out of bordering countries, blending in when he has to. One would assume that Erik either bribes or threatens a lot of people, works his way through the legal system and stays under the radar, or eliminates the threat when he has to.

He’s a brilliant tactician, which can be seen when he’s alone with the Professor. The game of chess would imply a level of intelligence enough to keep up with a telepath. It would also be appropriate to think he’s smart enough to escape Shaw’s reign, because it’s clear that the other man would not have let him go willingly.

He also has the ability to resist psychic attack, as the helmet he owns makes him impervious to having his thoughts read/others implanted into his mind.

Personality: Erik see-saws from one extreme to the other, making him often unstable and volatile. He seems cold on the outside, barriers erected around his thoughts even before the helmet. (He isn’t fond of the idea of Charles knowing him inside and out). He seems disdainful of the children who wish to be normal, treating Hank as though he’s abhorrent for wanting to help Raven neutralise her appearance. But Erik does seem to take on the role of general/begrudging parental figure eventually, being the first one to point out that they are children, that they can’t have too many expectations heaped upon them.

At the same time as this aloof chill, there can be bouts of boyish enthusiasm. When Charles and Erik go on their recruitment drive, we get a montage that wouldn’t be out of place in a buddy-movie, Erik content to play out his powers for cheap thrills and amusement. He seems far more relaxed with Charles than we see him at any time, comfortable in his skin at the telepath’s side. He seems to radiate to him, spends most of his free time debating with him, partaking in games of chess, which means he is able to be a friend, just has difficulty with it.

There’s a vulnerable side to him too, how quickly he would turn to suicide in the hope to stop Shaw, his reaction to hearing Charles inside his thoughts for the first time, the tears when he is given back memories of his mother. Erik wants to be seen as a ruthless assassin with a world important mission, but in reality he carts around a lot of guilt, and a very small ounce of hope for redemption.

He is quick to anger, even quicker to close himself off if something gets too close to home. He’s impulsive when he gets lost in his thoughts of vengeance, destructive to deal with the pain of his past. Erik places the helmet on his head to protect himself from what he sees as the most terrifying power. Erik’s free will is important to him. He’s had his control taken from him by too many people, the Nazis, Shaw, the government. He would be rather cut off from his only friend than have it a possibility that Charles would use his power against him. His superiority complex often shines through when discussing the humans, because Erik believes the Mutant Race is homo superior, that he should do everything in his power to make it so Mutants take what it is their due. He would also be protective of others like him.

Strengths: *Strong.
*Intelligent.
*Good with strategy.
*Superhuman.
*Strong-willed.
*Passionate

Weaknesses: *Stubborn.
*Violent.
*Intolerant of humans.
*Cruel.
*Traumatised from the Holocaust.
*Deeply flawed.

History: Erik’s family are originally from Dusseldorf, Germany. His mother was a seamstress, his father a veteran from the First World War. He comes from a Jewish family. At the beginning of the war, his family choose to flee Germany, heading for Poland where they are eventually caught and forced into Concentration Camps. Erik’s film canon begins here, in 1944. Soldiers try to separate him from his mother, and it’s this strain and panic that awakens his mutation. He’s held back as they close the gates, but Erik is able to seize upon that metal and tug it to him, warping it with an invisible power he has no knowledge of. He’s almost successful before a soldier hits him over the head with the butt of his gun and knocks him out.

When he wakes up, he’s being dragged to an office. A man is within, he calls himself Herr Schmidt, says he is interested in Erik’s ability. The boy is too young to understand what’s going on, argues with him, asks for his mother incessantly. Schmidt tells him about evolution, about how what Erik can do makes him superior, asks him to move a coin. The child is unable to, because he lacks the correct emotional strength to do so. He asks for his mother again. Shaw rings a bell and two guards bring her in. He takes a gun out, aims it at her head, tells Erik he will count to three or fire if Erik will not lift the coin. Erik strains himself, but is unsuccessful. His mother lies dead on the floor behind him. It unlocks Erik’s power. His rage means he is able to do a number of things. He crushes the bell, a filing cabinet, the soldier’s helmets as Shaw praises him. He places his hand on his back like a father, tells him the way to unlock his power is via pain and anger, then tells Erik they will make him stronger. He hands him a coin.

It is not given in his canon how he escapes, but there is belief that Erik stays with Shaw for a long time, being experimented on and tortured to make his power stronger. When we next see him, he is in Switzerland, a hotel with a board in front of him. On that board is a map, photographs, pins and thread. It’s clear he’s been hunting Schmidt, but at this point it’s not obvious why. Erik goes to a bank in Switzerland, a suitcase full of Nazi gold in his hands. He means to threaten the bank owner, because he will be able to tell him where Schmidt is. Instead of using just this bribery, Erik turns, tells him that the gold bar would have been made from his people’s belongings. He threatens, stops the man from setting off an alarm with his power. He makes his demands, starts pulling forth the man’s metal fillings. It’s then we see that Erik is ruthless. He promises to murder him if he ever tells anyone he is coming.

His next stop is Argentina. There is a bar where German men reside. Erik is calm, takes a seat, comments on the beer. He comes off as every normal man, but when he turns he approaches the other men. He lulls them into a false sense of security, tells them his family were from Dusseldorf, that they had no name. This clearly symbolises that Erik is a holocaust survivor, but it is only after he proposes a toast, turns his arm to bear the tattoo that the men realise. One opts to go for his knife. Erik takes it, asks him, ‘blood or honour, which would you like to shed first?’, stabs the man through the hand. The bartender goes to shoot him and Erik uses his power to shift the aim, kill two men with both the gun and the knife. This is the point where the Frankenstein’s Monster motif comes in. He is looking for his “creator”, for Shaw. Knowing from a photograph that Schmidt is in Miami, Erik kills the last man.

The next we see of Erik he is under the water of the yacht. He’s wearing a wetsuit with a knife strapped into his boot. Erik sneaks aboard the ship with something of trepidation. It’s very clear it’s been a long time since he saw the man. Emma Frost uses her power to bring back memories of Schmidt’s torture, bringing Erik to his knees. The last shot of his mother dying is enough to make him move without thinking, throw his knife straight at Schmidt. She catches it, kicks him off board the ship. Erik starts using the anchor beneath the water to crush the wood. Because the CIA are closing in on them, and because Erik is destroying the boat, they flee to the submarine beneath the ship. Erik tries using his power to stop them, holds on and is pulled underneath the water. He’s drowning, but killing the man who murdered his mother.

It’s then that Charles Xavier falls into his life, wrapping his arms around Erik and speaking directly into his thoughts. He states I thought I was alone, suggesting that Erik was never sure of the fact there were other mutants. He seems to calm under Charles’ commands, floats along the water and lets Charles escape. He goes willingly to the CIA facility, because they will have information he needs. It’s then that he finds out Schmidt goes by Shaw now, was probably never German in the first place. They meet Hank, and Erik treats the other mutants with a cool kind of awe. Once he acquires the files on Shaw, he tries to slip out, is accosted by Charles. It’s important to know that when Charles says he knows everything, he replies “Then you’ll know to stay out of my head.” Erik doesn’t agree with being vulnerable. The telepath offers up something Erik never has, friendship, someone to turn to, to work with. He returns with the proviso that the only people finding more mutants will be actual mutants, that he and Charles will be the ones to search instead of the CIA. His distrust is obvious, he prefers the smaller group of mutants, doesn’t agree with any outside influence.

Erik is in awe of the other man, but finds him foolish. “What an adorable labrat you are.” There’s something about his optimism that sits badly with Erik’s past of torture and pain. But still he stays, watches over him as best as he can. Their friendship is an unconventional one, but one that grows over time anyway. They go on a recruitment drive, happy to use their powers for cheap thrills. His time is spent with Charles debating, playing games of chess, showing off a quiet kind of domestic attitude.

Erik ends up going with the CIA and Charles to Russia where they think Shaw will be. They end up disappointed, because he has sent Emma Frost in his place. Still, Erik will not waste the opportunity, fights his way into the dignitary’s home, past all the soldiers and their guns, is ruthless in it, doesn’t mind injuring to get his way. He finds Emma Frost, and with Charles’ help, uses the metal in the bedpost to tie her down. Erik will go as far as cracking her diamond form to find out what they need. That Shaw is planning Nuclear War.

The CIA base is attacked, and they move to the Xavier mansion. Once again we see Erik’s unwitting parental skill near the children, more specifically, Raven. He aims to help her understand that her mutation makes her beautiful, that there is no reason to hide beneath it all.

His training shifts while he‘s there under his friend‘s care. This is the moment he shifts from simple rage, to rage and serenity. Charles unlocks his mind a little, urges Erik‘s most beautiful memory to the forefront. He learns then the prospect of rage and serenity. By using both, he is able to shift a satellite.

Things go south from there. The small gang find out that Shaw plans to start a Nuclear melt-down on the cusp of the Cuban Missile Crisis by provoking each side into firing on the other. This way he will be able to absorb the energy he needs. They suit up, find the X-Jet, go to war. Things deteriorate. Erik's trust issues quickly get out of hand when he resurfaces the submarine, goes to hunt down Shaw. He fights him, takes the helmet from him to protect himself against his friend, caring very little as long as he can exact his revenge. Erik ends up shoving the very same coin through Shaw's skull, revelling in the victory very little. When the humans turn on them all, Erik turns back, sends the missiles towards them instead.

He and Charles fight, and in the fray, his friend gets wounded, paralysing him from the waist down. Erik pleads with him, begs him to stay on his side, the one that means fighting the humans, becoming the better men, but when that is a lost cause, he leaves.

First Person Sample: [ There’s a small moment of static silence, the creak of something metal in a room somewhere. Then a deeply accented voice filters out. ]

This is not the first time I have been held against my will, nor the last. Whoever you are, I will find you, and I shall make you very sorry. I am not kind.

[ With a sliver of darkness. ] Are we in accordance?

Third Person Sample: He can feel the absence in his mind. It’s like a wound, Erik can’t help poking at it the more time goes on, something slowly going rancid with every beat apart. The smooth metal of his helmet sits snug on his head, protects his very inner thoughts from harm, but with that in place, his mind is a dark place indeed. Staring at the muted grey of the walls, he lifts a hand, runs a fingertip along the edge and for one, long, rebellious moment he thinks about shrugging the whole thing off, opening himself up to whatever it is he’s missing.

Mystique’s blue skin is startling against the dull of their headquarters, and she moves like a lioness when she comes closer, smiling down at him softly. It’s on the tip of his tongue to ask her what they’ve done, why they took the knife and stabbed it into the very soft part of a man they both cared for more than life itself. But he doesn’t, stills his voice.

“Can I do something for you?” he asks, voice dusty from misuse. He doesn’t talk to her much.

“The others were wondering,” she starts, long since losing the hesitancy around him, done away with her childish crush, “We need to do something, Erik.”

“Magneto,” he corrects, twisting something short and shining between his fingers, “You cannot be too over-familiar here, Mystique. We’re an army now.”

“So what are we doing?”

Erik’s fingers fly as he settles the chess piece into place, rough and crude, and fashioned solely by him. He thinks of a man he left behind, a home much warmer than this, children ruled by a man who‘s optimism has robbed him of his legs. Erik cannot stand by and watch that be destroyed by human kind. “We’re going to win.”

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Notes: I headcanon Erik as slightly more caring, but his motivation is still all the same.




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