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[heavymetals]

Player Information

Player: Ricks
Contact: limerick; ricksroll @ discord
Invitation: Dee
Are you over 18?: Yes


Character Information

Character: Erik Lehnsherr
Canon: X-Men Cinematic Universe; three months after Days of Future Past
Age: 43 years old
History: Link
Possessions: None.
Weapon: None.

Powers/Abilities: Erik is an extremely powerful mutant, with not many others being revealed to be stronger than him. His abilities revolve around magnetokinesis; he is capable of creating and manipulating powerful magnetic fields, which allows him to control metal in a variety of ways:

• Metal manipulation: He can easily move pieces of metal of various sizes, using smaller ones like bullets or greater ones as blunt instruments. He's capable of altering the trajectory of bullets and other metal-made projectiles, and changing the way certain mechanical devices work. He can launch several items in rapid succession, and at great speeds, and he shows to be capable of performing several of these actions at once.

• Flight: Erik can fly by gliding on magnetic fields he creates, or by wearing metallic items that he can control in order to fly or levitate. He can also draw himself to metal, as if he were a magnet.

• Metal sensing: Erik can sense the presence of metal across great distances, with the ability being stronger and more accurate the closer that metal is to him. This of course allows him to know exactly how to use his environment to his own advantage, and often catch enemies by surprise.

• Magnetic force fields: Through the creation of magnetic fields, Erik is capable of generating strong force fields which are impossible (at least so far) to penetrate. Although only used to shield himself in canon, it's reasonable to assume he could use this ability to also shield others who are near him.

• Metallic bonding: Not a characteristic of his power often seen, but highly useful, Erik can implant metal into objects or people in order to control them.

ON POWER CAPPING: Erik's abilities have the potential of causing widespread destruction in the setting, and he also is capable of flying— while it's unclear how far or for how long he's able to do it, it stands to reason he could normally cross great distances. Usually the way I handle limiting his abilities in a game setting is through stamina depletion: if he tries to fly for too long or too high, he gets exhausted quickly, to the point of passing out if he tries to keep going regardless. The same thing if/when he tries to cause widespread destruction (unless plotted for some reason, and with previous discussion and permission from the mods, of course), that he simply becomes too tired to keep going. His powers also quickly wane in intensity and reach. He can definitely feel this limitation and will struggle as soon as he tries to do anything more extreme with his abilities.


Application Questions

Who is the most important person in their life and why? What might be different if this person hadn't been around?
Erik's path in life has been influenced by key people throughout his life, for better and for much, much worse, but none have quite impacted his life as much as Charles Xavier has. While they didn't meet for long, Charles was the first person to show Erik that he wasn't alone after decades of isolation, and to bring him into a new reality as he learned of the existence of other mutants. Not only that, but Charles also helped Erik further unlock his abilities, and retrieve memories of love and family that he'd thought long gone. While Shaw's influence in Erik's life was intent on turning him into a monster, Charles instead showed him that there was still light in him, that he still had something human about himself, and that there was so much potential in him to do better, that he could have more than what he thought he deserved. The fact that he took that trust and used it to further his own goals still doesn't change that impact, as even now (and in the future too) he still is and always will be partial to Charles's influence on him. Through this connection, Erik has found a new purpose for himself, a new cause to dedicate his efforts to, and a new reason for his existence, even if he may not always make the best choices, and at times even betray those who've placed their trust on him— with Charles himself likely being highest on that list. At his current canon point, this is an especially relevant choice, when he has seen again what his own extreme actions can lead to, and he's determined to find a different path for himself, instead of hindering their cause as he has in the past— trying for a sort of coexistence alongside humans, something that Charles advocated for when they first met.

Is there an event in your character's life that they'd do differently? How so and why?
Erik's life has been, so far, a compilation of harsh decisions that have often led him to extremes. He's not really the kind of person that looks back in regret, even when he knows he could have acted differently he still doesn't linger in the thoughts of how things could have been if he'd made different choices, for better or worse. That said, there are a few things he probably would do differently had he known then what he knows now, but more recently, and possibly more pertinently, he would have chosen a different path in handling the situation with Trask. Upon learning of the future and how Raven's actions would lead to the near extinction of mutantkind, Erik decided, in the heat of the moment, that killing her would then eliminate that future. Instead the ensuing scuffle publicly exposed the existence of mutants to the world, and led to President Nixon approving Trask's Sentinel program. He took it a step further by hijacking the Sentinels and trying to use them to kill Nixon and his retinue, which very nearly wrecked any chance of fixing the future, as well as nearly wrecking the few relationships he'd forged in the past ten years. If he could, he would go back to that point and consider a different way of approaching the issue, or at the very least giving another plan a chance before deciding to act on impulse and go to such an extreme.

What's the greatest challenge you foresee your character facing in the setting?
There are a few things that Erik might have difficulty adapting to, from the fact that mutants aren't known or generally feared, to the limitations he'll find imposed on his abilities. Above all else, his main struggle will be one that he's already dealing with back in his own world: after Raven successfully stopped him from killing Nixon, and upon realising his actions nearly made things worse for their kind, Erik went into hiding, finding a remote place to settle down in with a new identity. After ten years of dedicating himself to the mutant cause, and having poured all his focus into hunting down Shaw before then, what he lacks now is purpose, and it's something he will still struggle with here. Maybe even more so now, as he'll find himself in a new reality that he doesn't know at all, and less of a desire to settle down anywhere here.

What's the easiest thing you foresee your character adapting to in the setting?
For a long time now, Erik has been a survivor. Since escaping from Shaw's control, he's learned the hard way how to get by with little, and using what few resources he has at his disposal to see to his basic needs. So that's something he'll find easy adapting to— the limited resources, the failing infrastructures, the basic amenities. He's incredibly adaptable and even as he has questions about this place and how he got here, his priority will be to find the means to guarantee his own survival at the least, and potentially a select few he's close to. Even the high crime rates won't be an issue for him, because situations that might prove dangerous to others wouldn't even worry him, as Erik knows just how to defend himself when he needs to, and he isn't actually concerned that any low-level criminal is going to get the upper hand on him.


Samples

Sample: Link