Player Information Your Nickname: Linds
OOC Journal: none
Under 18? no
Email/IM: Bettie bloodshed gmail/aim/plurk
Characters Played at Singularity: Gem (AU)
Character Information Name: Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto
Name of Canon: XMFC
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Canon
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men:_First_ClassCanon Point: A few days after the beach divorce, but before he picks up Emma (time is wonky in that movie).
Setting: Erik, perhaps out of all the characters within XMFC is a product of his setting. Growing up in Europe during the 1930s/1940s, he directly suffered under the Nazi regime as a Jew. Europe during this time was hell on earth for people of the Jewish faith (along with many other minority groups). Ghettos in the major cities at first, then transportation to concentration camps…or death camps. It’s difficult to say which is worse--the concentration camps where life might be eeked out, only to find a slow death, or the death camps where immediate death could be found. Erik and his parents were clearly taken to the former. Children were always separated from their parents during the ‘sorting’ from the trains--it’s during this act that causes Erik to act out, and get Shaw’s attention.
While only a minor piece of the movie shown, Erik’s early life is shaped by the effect that this setting has on his life--the torture, the experiments, the grooming. The Nazi’s were notorious for their experiments on children--anyone who was ‘special’. They were attempting to advance science, and harness it for their own gain. And Shaw? Simply exploited that--shaping Erik in the process.
When we next run into Erik, we see him at the beginning of the 60s. As a note--besides the rise of the mutants…there is no difference between *this* decade and our own. They are the deciding change and factor in the world. From this point their world will always be alternate to our own.
The early 60s were filled with turmoil. The Cuban missile crises, the civil rights movement…the world was no longer a place where ‘good’ and ‘bad’ were easily defined. The atomic bomb had been created and used against a human population decades earlier, soon starting the Cold War between America and Russia. It was a game of one up-man ship. There is no real time in the world where everyone, no matter what country they were from, was more unsure of their place in the world. Of how much they could control their fellow man--how much they could even control the science that was being created in the world around them. It was a brave new world…but it was frightening as well.
It’s the birth of the atomic bomb, and the use of it that causes the initial mutations to arise in the first Mutants. They are the first wave, the next breed of human--the next step in evolution. They are the minority, though, and like the African Americans in America in the 1960s, they were starting to find their voice, trying to find a way to get out from under an oppressive system that was scared of them for no other reason that they were the ‘other’.
The parallel has been made repeatedly, comparing Charles to MLK Jr and Erik to Malcom X, but the analogy fits. While MLK Jr tried to find a peaceful way to gain equal rights, Malcom believed that harsher tactics were needed. By the end of the film, this is where we’re left with Charles and Erik. One trying to use peace to get the humans to work with the mutants, to live in harmony. Erik? Believes there can be no peace. He’s been proven terribly right, and is more than willing to fight against a people that he believes will never accept them.
Personality: Erik is a man forged by pain and fire. Anger and revenge. As a child his inability to control his powers lead to his mother’s death. From that moment forward he was tortured and manipulated by Sebastian Shaw, to believe that the only true way to access his powers was through pain and anger, bourn of every failure, every hurt wrecked upon his spirit and body. By the time we find him as an adult, he has become a hollow shell—driven only by the desire to revenge, to avenge—to find vengeance for his mother, for his people. This is compounded by his belief that he is the only mutant out there—having never met another, he believes he is truly alone—a ‘monster’ created by Shaw.
Additionally, a great deal of his motivation comes from being not only a mutant, but Jewish. Having been persecuted because of his religion (and having very strong and very raw first hand knowledge on how the Nazi’s started), he is in a singular position to see how the discovery of mutants could quickly turn bad for all mutants. His view on the world is colored by the horrors visited upon him— he is wary of all humans. He does not trust that they have the mutants best interests in minds—and rightly supposes that they will try to stamp out that which they fear.
If he had never met Charles Xavier, Erik most likely would have continued to struggle to fight Shaw on his own, and most likely would have failed. It his relationship with Charles that shapes him, and molds him into what he becomes by the end of the film. Erik is not one to trust anyone—even as Charles tries to get under his skin—initially there is always a wall. Having spent years of his life not trusting anyone, even meeting a soul that is able to touch his isn’t something he can just…let in. He is man who hasn’t known love (true love, not the warped ….whatever that Shaw showed him) since his mother died—it has made him cold, and seemingly unfeeling. But at the offer of a friendship—the chance to find a place with his own kind (the mutants), he finally relents, and follows Charles.
As the weeks go on, however, he does slowly let Charles in—and it is his friendship that lets him unlock his true potential—as Charles puts it, the place between rage and serenity. There is very little that is serene about Erik, but pulling away from the rage just a *bit* allows him to find clarity in his life. He also is shown trying to help the other mutants be comfortable and love who they are. He tries to give Raven the confidence that she sorely lacks to be who she is--not what she thinks others wish her to be. Even after all he's been through, and how hard he has had it, there is a great deal of compassion in him.
This is not to say that Charles and Erik's relationship, and his own motives, are not strained. Despite everything, Erik is shown to be unflinching in his drives—he will ignore orders to go after Emma, and is always willing to push the line (usually with violence) to get what he desires. He takes what Charles says about mutants being the more evolved kind and clings to it—using it as the rallying cry to prepare for when the humans turn on them. In many ways, Erik is idealistic, but it has been tempered and embittered by his real life experiences. He knows how cruel the world can be, and he is quite willing to be cruel back—no longer willing to be at the mercy of anyone.
When the humans attack, instead of turning the other cheek (as Charles might have), he is willing to destroy all of military fleets—he is near the end of his rope, here, having been confronted by Shaw, and killed him. Charles says the one thing that would upset any Jewish person –“they are just following orders” –and it is this that makes him finally snap. Erik has come too far to allow any step back. All his worst fears are culminating in that moment--he proves Charles right, that the Navy doesn’t care who’s side the mutants are on, as long as they are dead. It seems that the world is attempting to repeat history against the other minority group he’s a part of. This time, though, he’s not a child. He’s powerful, and he can fight back.
So he does. Violently.
Despite this—and perhaps a show of how far Erik has come—when Charles is injured, he gives up his revenge to comfort and try and help his fallen friend. The bridge between them has already started to burn, but it is clear that he has clearly changed for the better—he is willing to care for *mutants* now, and protect them. It is no longer just ‘him’ in his life—it’s ‘us’.
Even with Charles’s injury though--Erik’s path is clear to him. He has to do what he feels is necessary to protect his kind. He won’t wait to act on defense, to try and reason with them. For Erik, it has, and always will be--action. But this time there is a drive now. To become the leader of mutanthood as we know it. To be the counter point to Charles, and lead their kind in his own way.
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions: Abilities
--Can manipulate any item that has metal and/or metal ore in it. This gives him the ability to ‘hover’ by using any surrounding metal to propel him upwards and/or in any direction he wishes to. He can channel this through his own body, which gives him faster than normal reflexes. As he gains more control over his powers, his abilities will evolve and become more powerful. If I get him in, I’ll have these abilities develop “in game” along the lines of his abilities in the movies, not comics.
This might include
--ability to manipulate minuscule amounts of metal (including the iron in blood)
--creating a magnetic force field around himself and others for protection
--Quite fit, and is also adept with a gun and knife, and other normal physical fighting techniques.
--Adept at languages; due to his travels and near obsessive quality towards things he sets his mind to, he’s learned various languages (most European ones, including Yiddish and Hebrew) to make it easier for him to hunt down the Nazis and Shaw.
Weaknesses
Erik doesn’t always know when to stop. When he wants something, he’ll drive forward with a singular purpose, only realizing too late he’s crossed a line, destroyed something he cared about. It gets him in trouble, to say the least.
His attachment to his mother could be considered a weakness as well.
Power Limitations
As his powers are currently, I don’t think he needs limitations, yet? If it arises as he starts to develop more abilities, I’ll discuss with the mods.
Inventory: 1 metal helmet that has yet to be painted that ugly purple color
1 german coin
A few turtlenecks
1 X-men Suit, designed by Hank McCoy
Appearance: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9sbuBUhEA60/TwWg8S8uNUI/AAAAAAAACEo/6vg97zdTw7U/s1600/Michael+Fassbender+as+Erik+Lehnsherr+aka+Magneto+in+X-Men+First+Class+%25282011%2529.jpg One badass mother fucker. Six foot two, lean and muscular (with a waist that most women would kill for, seriously). Pale eyes, that seem grey, green, or blue, depending on the light. Looks a bit older than his age, due to what he’s been through, but he works with it.
Age: 32 ish?
SamplesLog Sample: http://savevoid.dreamwidth.org/10893.html#cutid1 (was given permission by Carolyn)
Network Sample:[Erik chooses audio. No need to show his face to those which aren't returning the favor. Holograms don’t count, to him. Or whatever that thing was. Besides...he'd rather let them see him in person. You can hear the crunch of ground muffled as he talks.
His tone is sharp, each consonant sounding against his teeth, the slight German accent more noticeable in his irritation.]
Whomever controls Hypatia…you must awful clever, to be able to pull someone like me, here. And I have to say the showers were a
very nice choice. Must have read my file, somehow.
[Or seen his arm.]I assume if you’ve done this to me--then you didn’t just stop with me.
Let me make it quite clear. If you do not tell me where the others are, and release us, I will take care of this myself.
And I assure you, it will be far from painless.
I was a lab rat once.
Never again.
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