Erik Lehnsherr

OOC INFORMATION
Name: Nemo
Contact Information:
Personal Journal: nemonclature
Age: 27
Characters Played: -
IN-CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Erik Lehnsherr
Fandom: X-Men (movieverse, First Class and Days of Future Past)
Age: 30s
Canon Point: The night before the Cuba mission - X-men: First Class
Original Universe or Alternate Universe? Original

Personality:

In brief, Erik was abused as a child by the violent and despicable structure of Nazi Germany. This has affected the way he connects to people in the extreme. He grew up thinking himself the only mutant in all the world, which changed the way he considers humanity as a whole in comparison to him, the only individual. Even after meeting other mutants, he retains that us vs them mentality. He grew up alone and for most of his life held a single quest to murder the Nazi scientists and officers connected to Sebastian Shaw, his primary tormentor. As a result, he still considers himself more tool (or monster), than man. And justifies any evil he may do, as part of a greater cause.

He has both a fierce dislike of injustice and a general belief in the worst of mankind. If he sees someone being hurt or abused, it's a toss up which side of him would win out. He might intervene in order to see the evil punished or he might ignore it, because all life is Hell, and what's the point?

Up until he meets Charles in First Class he's a cold, hard man whose only purpose is to kill the monsters who destroyed his life, and take revenge on them for all the people they killed and tortured.  In this way, his personal vendetta is tied up with his larger idea of destroying injustice and bringing down the oppressor. It makes him not quite a total monster, but it also means he justifies his actions by bringing in the greater good.

He's a cynic, a pessimist who considers himself a pragmatist, but that's not to say he doesn't recognise good deeds or good people, those are just exceptions that prove his rule. Most people, given the chance, become the worst side of themselves. In particular, he doesn't trust humanity, i.e. non mutants, and this doesn't change after meeting Charles and the humans he works with.

He doesn't discount himself from this pessimistic view. He knows who and what he is -- He's killed, he's hunted and hurt people, like he says in the film "Peace was never an option." Not for a monster like him. He steals and lies and is ruthless in the pursuit of his goals. In terms of his opinion of himself then, he outright calls himself Frankenstein's monster. He has issues. Maybe not as deep as self hate, but certainly there's a lot of blame and guilt around his mother, probably informing the decision to treat himself as expendable in the pursuit of his purpose - he was willing to drown if it would kill Shaw.

His character, combined with his terrible childhood and later revenge quests resulted in little capacity to form friendships, or even fake them. It's only in meeting Charles et al and discovering he's not the only mutant in the world, that things start to change. Suddenly he's not so utterly isolated. He's not the only one with powers. He's not shouldering this terrible burden alone. Even his revenge quest can be shared. It's a total shift of his world view. And you can see it in the way he behaves. He actually smiles. He wears colours other than black. His emotional capacity for interaction is finally starting to emerge from deep hibernation and you see this in the way he engages with the mutants they seek out and how he tries to help them in his own tough love, terrible emotional robot kind of way.

Look for example at his attempts to support Raven - he doesn't encourage her softly to accept herself, but outright demands it. When teaching the kids, he's the one who shoves Banshee off the ledge. He thinks very poorly of Hank's quest for normality, but when the serum goes wrong and he compliments Hank's new, blue appearance, the compliment is misinterpreted as vicious sarcasm - he's sharp and tactless, even when he's trying to be nice.

He's not a smooth-operator psychopath who can fake!human. He's quiet and self-contained, too used to seeing people as tools or obstacles, not individuals. Plus, he's well aware his mutant abilities set him apart  and is quite arrogant as a result. He considers mutants, his kind, to be far better than the common Homo sapiens sapiens and this perceived superiority definitely affects the way he first categorises and second interacts with people.

Other than the instant connection he felt with Charles, (which I think was an aberration due in a great part to Charles already knowing everything about him due to telepathy - he quickly realised it was: make a friend of this man, or run screaming, because he already knew Erik down to the bone) I think he finds it easier to make superficial connections rather than really opening up. After all, he does see the use in having networks in a variety of places, and he can be pleasant when he really makes the effort.

He's very practical. He owns very little and no doubt survived on charity and his wits at least before he began Nazi hunting. He needs to be able to case a joint, make snap judgements about people and situations and not be let down by them. He's paranoid (rightly so considering his childhood as a Jewish boy in Nazi Germany and later as a mutant in the non-mutant world) and expects danger. If anyone does him a good turn he'll instantly be looking for their angle. Since his mother died, Erik has had no family and no one to trust; he has no real roots, no home and no one he can completely rely on other than himself.

He has a hatred for hospitals or facilities of any kind (unsurprisingly). He has very little tolerance for discrimination on account of eugenics. So when entering the dome, he's going to mistrust pretty much everything. I've taken him from before the beach, humanity turning on them and the whole missiles, gunfire, paralysis debacle, so he won't have the Magneto level hate for humans. But he certainly won't be willing to trust people who drag him away unawares and subject him to tests, including cutting off his powers. So much PTSD.

This whole laboratory wake up is going to retard his ability to connect with and reach out to other people significantly. Basically back to Nazi-hunting Erik. He's going to be cold and paranoid for a while, until someone manages to break through to him, and then he'll slowly start to categorise people into worth it and not worth it (mutant/human or some game-relevant variation).

In the films he eventually replaces his Shaw hunting with his desire to eradicate humanity/save mutantkind. But this has undergone a sort of retcon in Days of Future Past, implying that he needn't become the megalomaniac villain he does in the early X-men movies. Which means, while he does have that arch villain inside of him, I won't necessarily be playing him as a character with those kind of world-dominating aspirations.

At this current canon point, he still wants to kill Shaw, and his inability to do so will certainly take precedence over any other large scale goals. 

Is this character immune? Yes

Background: Captured along with his mother in Nazi Germany and taken to a concentration camp. Then after he accidentally lets out his powers, he's removed and placed under the control of Dr. Klaus Schmidt/Sebastian Shaw, who tortures, trains and manipulates him into using his power by using Erik's mother as blackmail material and ultimately killing her. Then after WWII, Erik escapes/is freed from the camp. This part is conjecture, but I imagine he's young enough to become some sort of ward of the state for a while. After this he must work a little before saving enough to begin his quest to hunt down Nazis and kill them, (since he presumably needed some form of capital). He systematically seeks out Nazis, kills them and I'm guessing robs them at least of enough money to get him to the next target. Each one a stepping stone to the ultimate prize - Shaw.

He finally tracks Shaw down and intends to take him out (or die trying) but is stopped by Charles, who, through telepathy, shows him he isn't the only mutant in all the world. This life changing moment leads to Erik throwing his lot in with Charles, putting his vendetta on hold long enough to seek out and train other mutants. He goes with the others to Charles' house, and generally spends most of his time slightly bemused by the fact that these people are so affluent, so soft, so .... nice. I think he is also, perhaps subconsciously trying to quietly influence Charles and the rest to his way of thinking - us against them and we strike first.

The night before Cuba, him and Charles spend most the time playing chess and battling wits. He's upfront about his desire to kill Shaw, effectively laying all his cards on the table. He then goes to his room to find Raven waiting for him. It's my opinion they don't have sex (I think he considers her too young, if not physically, then at least a little too innocent? Plus in terms of continuity it would mean a quickie before she goes to face Charles, and that doesn't really mesh with either of their characterisation. So maybe they fool around a bit, but basically part on good terms.) He eventually goes to sleep and is taken before dawn.


Other Notables: Powers: nerfed to 0%. (He is gonna freak the fuck out!)

Inventory: A silver deutschmark. Set of clothes: black polo neck, black trousers, black belt, black shoes, brown leather jacket (omg).

SAMPLES

NETWORK SAMPLE:
 
[Voice]

Can anyone tell me what kind of alloy they use for the implants? Or, alternatively, is anyone willing to let me take a look. Nothing intrusive, I assure you, they're just not that easy to study by yourself.

I can offer remuneration. 

**

More network samples here at the test drive meme


LOG SAMPLE:

Erik is sitting very carefully upright. His elbows tucked in at his sides, his spine straight. He is in control. He is. Because if he weren't... if he weren't... 

He's in a cell. They have him in a cell and they've cut into his back. They've cut into him and he can feel the metal there inside his spine where they cut into him inside his flesh where they cut -

He reaches out and picks up the glasses. His hand shakes, the glasses bend, the plastic frames close to cracking in his grip. Erik lets his breath out from between his teeth. Smooth, slow. The frames return to their correct shape and he puts them on, the view from the lenses swirling round as the camera turns.

He says nothing, makes no move to communicate, just sits there, still, silent and full of banked hatred.