App ⊗ Erik Lehnsherr ⊗ X-Men First Class

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Player Information
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Character Information
Character Name: Erik Lehnsherr AKA Magneto
Canon: X-Men: First Class.
Canon Point: Right before the nondescript island missiles/end of the movie/beach divorce.
Is your character Dead, Undead or Alive: Very much alive.
History: Only the first section of biography and the Remarks section are applicable.
Personality: X-Men First Class is basically the origins story of how Erik became a supervillain, so there's a lot of development and his history's very relevant. Background necessary is that Erik was a jewish child during World War II and that mutants are "evolved" humans, accredited to the "x-gene," a fictional genetic mutation that gives the person a superhuman power. Basically Erik can control metal, but I'll explain later in the abilities section.

Right before they kill his mother, he assumes Shaw is bluffing, but after his mother dies, he has an emotional break which magnifies his powers, destroying rooms and killing two soldiers. This shaped him in a very negative way, recently orphaned and having just become a killer seemingly at the whim of his mother's murderer. The little bit of hope he had that they wouldn't actually kill his mother is lost, and then he is forced to become a lab rat for the Nazi party.

It's not shown at this point how he left, but he is absolutely determined at this point. It's clear from this point on that he is goal-oriented and has a single-track mind. He is extremely cunning and intelligent as Erik Lehnsherr, Nazi hunter. Having picked up a few languages, he murders quite a few people, including non-Nazis. At this point he actually refers to himself as a monster. He also steals the money of the men he kills at least once, and it's implied that's where he gets at least some of his money to travel and so forth. Fueled by rage, he is extremely dangerous. He's also managed to somehow evade the police this entire time. He is also shown to be sarcastic, throwing around some dark-humored jokes at his victims before killing them.

His hunt for Shaw eventually leads him to America whereupon he tries to kill Shaw and basically anybody aboard his yacht, not caring at all for other casualties and almost drowning himself in the process. He is saved by a telepath named Charles Xavier, and then they become super best friends forever! Sort of.

Erik devises a plan for him and Charles to gather mutants for the CIA so they can all go after their common enemy of Shaw, because he believes that "the new species should be discovered by itself," not by suits. The suits later mock the mutants, so he isn't wrong. He has a keen understanding that mutants will be complete outcasts, hated and feared by the general public. This is why it's important to him for them to get together and band as one united group who understand each other and who will throw off their oppressors, as he was unable to personally do during the holocaust. This human-mutant relationship sort of defines him for the rest of forever, as he believes they can't exist together peacefully and that fills him with what turns into absolute hatred for humans later on in life.

But during this stretch of the movie, he is almost totally normal. His skills with teenagers are a little rusty and he can get a little inappropriate (with a cockblock. Or should I say clamjam...) but he's a rather smooth-talker, and he seems to be making good friends with people. Sort of. He and Charles sort of lead the team, and whereas Charles is a very thoughtful professor, Erik has a more sink or swim attitude, asking Charles to shoot at him and pushing one of the team members, Sean aka Banshee off of a satellite.

The thing about Erik is that he's good at hiding his emotions, to a point (except anger I guess, 'cause he always looks mildly to moderately annoyed. Huge brooder.) And whereas he hopes for peace, he always expects war and later dedicates his whole life to preparing for said war. Though this is a preventative measure, Shaw has come to a similar conclusion but he intends to start the war himself and come out on top.

He is absolutely reckless and impulsive, marching to the beat of his own drum and doesn't follow orders very well. He completely endangers operations for personal interest and doesn't mince about that he has selfish intentions.

However, he bonds with the team by telling them that they're perfect the way they are ("Have you ever seen a tiger and thought to cover up her stripes?") He honestly, truly believes this, though it can come off as sarcastic and he's gotten in trouble for that. Perceptively, he can see that Raven aka Mystique, who is naturally blue, has a lot of self-image issues and encourages her to accept herself because she is beautiful. That's basically as sweet as he gets. He's pretty empathetic when he finds the need, he's definitely a man of necessity. Since he believes all mutants are heavily discriminated upon, he's more likely to have kind words.

Although he does have a bit of dark humor, Erik mostly responds to his pain with a lot of anger. So it's remarkable when he jokes to Charles about his time as a lab rat. He's also very guarded, so when he lets Charles dig into some of his most personal memories, it's also a big step for him. All these things make it seem like he's healing, like he's going to complete this journey and then continue on teaching his team about how to control their powers! He shows extreme happiness when he's proven wrong: he believes that rage is what he needs to be at his most powerful, and Charles believes he needs to focus "somewhere between rage and serenity," the kind of balance which is thematic in the whole movie but I won't go into that. Anyway, he's genuinely proud of his progress and shows a side that is not stoic at all, which again, are huge leaps in a good direction for his character.

At this point it goes to absolute shit, but this is where it stops at the point I'm taking him from. But it's important to note that he doesn't trust humans because he's seen the horrors humanity is capable of. And instead of attributing that to one or two humans, he finds this kind of discrimination in all of them due to being a mutant. His already distrusting nature, paired with losing his whole family during the holocaust and spending a good amount of his childhood in a concentration camp, makes Erik a little bit unhinged. During the last leg of the movie, Russian and American ships team up (after the mutants defeat the common enemy of Shaw) to launch missiles at the mutants. Well, the mutants are Erik's only family at this point and he'll be damned if that isn't the last straw and he turns the missiles back on the humans. When Charles tells him not to, Erik wants Charles to tell him he's wrong. Erik wants to know that there's a future for mutants and humans but thinks it an impossible utopia. His tragedy is that for this particular instance, he's right and that ultimately turns him into a villain.

So yes, he hasn't gotten there but the potential is very near.

Later in life, he has completely and utterly embodied the people he has hated most. He orders a genocide on all humans, he attempts to sacrifice a girl in his stead, he lets Charles die, he doesn't listen to reason... It's all part of a rather slow demise where he gets further and further away from his own humanity. Right now (thankfully) he is not at the point to attempt genocides or anything like that, and hopefully since human-mutant relations aren't going to be an issue, he can start back up on that track to being "normal" again, like he showed in the middle of the movie.

So basically he's a guy who's plagued by a sad past and it haunts him and shapes him for the rest of his life, turning him from a victim into his abuser and then eventually tenfold. He's cold, stoic, impulsive, so super serious, doesn't play too nice with others, has a temper issue, has a huge victim complex that extends to all mutantkind, a pessimist, morose, threatening, unapproachable... But as Charles said to him, "there's good too." He genuinely cares for mutants, he's smart, he's quick on his feet, a natural leader, kind of charismatic, business-oriented, gets shit accomplished... and (for now) protective, if you're on his side.

Abilities/Strengths and Weaknesses:
Abilities (Mutant): Can manipulate electromagnetic fields, which means he can move/change metal, but also means that he technically has the ability to do things like fly*, change the northern lights, control lightning, create wormholes and a ton of other gamebreaking things I don't want to deal with. Thankfully in the movies he's significantly weaker than in the comics and they don't explore a whole lot of his ability beyond metal, so I'll limit his powers to metal/smaller things because he was created in the 60s and I'm not sure the writers initially realized how much of a godmode they wrote. I just wanted to leave the full explanation to clarify that, for instance, he can still control a non-magnetic metal (because technically everything is electromagnetic and I'm not good enough with science to figure this out) and I don't know, float a little bit like he does in First Class.

*To explain: "Gravity, the weakest of the four forces, is about 10^-36 times the strength of the strong force. This weakness is easily demonstrable - on a dry day, rub a comb across your shirt to give it static electricity, then hold it over a piece of paper on a desk. If you were successful, the piece of paper lifts off the desk. It takes an entire planet to keep the paper on the desk, but this force is easily overcome with everyday materials employing the electromagnetic force."

Abilities (Human): Speaks at least 3 languages fluently (German, French, English, possibly Polish, Yiddish maybe??) with one that is suggested to be passable or better (Spanish.)

Strengths: He is a decent liar, has strong resolve, and extreme determination.

Weaknesses: Due to his personal experiences, he is extremely prone to anger, acting on his anger, becoming withdrawn, and putting himself at personal danger to exact revenge. He has low optimism and little fighting ability outside of his mutant gifts.

Samples
First Person Sample: Test Driven!
Third Person Sample: ooc: this is so embarrassing but I wrote this sample while I had a different canon point chosen and when I edited it to reflect his new canon point I forgot to edit out the part with Az. Anyway I'm keeping it in because I already submitted this app and I thought it'd be unfair to keep editing but I wanted to leave a note about it! Sorry, carry on.

His eyes snap open upon hearing an awful muffled caterwaul, and his eyes adjust to the light streaming from a window. No, not a window, bright lights above him. From the smell alone, he gathers that he is in a hospital. Feeling the unforgiving metal underneath him, it takes him less than a second to hop off in a panic and send it toppling over, and to roll a comically-placed trolley of surgical tools over until it crashes into a wall. He's in the clothes he was wearing from the last moment he remembers. Certainly, he's in no fit state for surgery, which is disconcerting to say the least. It feels almost as if someone has just plucked him from where he was and laid him to rest on that table.

There's only one person he knows who's capable of that. What a cruel joke to play.

He isn't aware of when this happened, but as if leaning on a crutch, he has a scalpel in his hand. The cold touch is a comforting one as he grips his newfound weapon tight and realizes he should stop holding his breath. He gathers himself and takes a look around, wondering where Azazel is, if this is something he concocted in his odd mind. If it is, he is in some serious trouble. Something catches in Erik's throat when he opens his mouth to speak, and he doesn't call for him. In fact, he doesn't make a sound.

Heavily weighing in his gut is the knowledge that his teammate, a man he proclaimed his brother, wouldn't have done this.

Walking out of the room, it feels as if a small weight lifts from the pit of his stomach. He really is not a fan of operating rooms.

The lights are mostly off, and everyone else seems to have retired for the evening, including the sick. That is most definitely leaving him uneasy and he feels a cold, clammy shiver prickle up his spine as his thoughts solidify around the complete shock if being in this situation. He ignores it the best he can, which is something he's particularly good at.

He can't block out something so primal as fear, he can only mask it. The understanding of being caught or trapped, of having one's autonomy taken away: these are the things he would kill to ensure no one ever has to endure them. He chases that fear down with anger, bitter and strong and consuming.

There is a faint glow of light coming from the end of the hall, so Erik walks towards it in hopes that someone else is there, someone who can explain this to him or someone in his situation so he can stop this guilty ache of feeling like something terrible happened and he is a survivor. Though he seems calm and determined, eyes sharper than steel and gait fluid as water, he feels mostly trepidation.

Peering through the window in the door, Erik finds something almost as eerie as waking up fully dressed on an operating table: someone just like him, sleeping peacefully on top of the covers of a recovery bed. The sheets look undisturbed, the body untouched. He opens the door a crack and invites himself in, because it's very likely he will be the one with more information once this person wakes up.

But at least now he's not alone.