Charles Xavier | X-Men (bethebetterman) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2018-01-24 17:27:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !log, [plot] free for all, ~2018 january, ~25 points, ~~charles xavier (bethebetterman), ~~erik lehnsherr (magnetic_lord) |
WHO: Charles and Erik
WHAT: Power Swap
WHEN: Today
WHERE: Charles's place
WARNINGS: Nah
Since Charles had said they would try things Erik had been in the habit of spending more time with him. There were times he brought Nina with him and sometimes when it was just himself. Today he was alone with Charles at his new house. It was a little too early for anything alcoholic so there was tea on while Erik was setting up the board for a game of chess. It was too cold out lately to want to do much outside and a game of chess in a warm room with a mug of tea was actually very pleasant.
What was less pleasant was the way that everything went from very quiet to feeling like the entire town was shrieking in both ears from one second to the next. Erik ended up dropping the game pieces in his hand and pressing it to his forehead. “Charles, something is wrong.”
***
And at the same moment, Charles’ world went silent.
Well...in a sense. The voices stopped entirely, replaced by a buzzing awareness that surrounded him on all sides. He felt almost as if he was under attack, and his eyes widened in panic.
He raised his hand to his head in alarm, and with the movement, the pieces from the chess game flew in the air and slammed against the opposite wall.
“Something is wrong, indeed. Very wrong.”
He was struggling to keep the panic from his voice.
***
Erik hadn’t even noticed the chess pieces flying. As soon as Charles realized the voices were gone panic had made his thoughts louder and the more things pressed against his senses the less Erik could try to keep them out.
“So many voices…” His voice was strained and he shut his eyes trying to feel the electro magnetic field and center himself but it wasn’t working. “...Charles I can’t shut them out!”
***
That same electromagnetic field was making Charles panic. It was everywhere, in everything, bombarding him with feeling and that buzz in his ears that wouldn’t go away. It was louder than the voices had ever been and so strange and unnatural...at least to him. He covered his ears in defense, but nothing seemed to work.
He could barely hear Erik through the buzz, but when he looked up at him, and his words got through, it became obvious what was happening.
“Somehow,” he said, shouting over the bombardment, “Somehow our powers have switched.”
He hadn’t been here long enough to suffer through any of Madison Valley’s strangeness, and he certainly wasn’t impressed.
Looking to Erik, he felt helpless. How could he teach him what had taken him years to perfect himself?
Erik. He thought, and though there was no telepathic power behind it, he hoped that he could hear it regardless. Erik. Center on my voice. Just my voice. Push the others to the back. Background noise.
***
Erik was relieved when Charles switched over to trying to think at him instead of shouting. He had just shouted his thoughts at him at the same time he’d raised his voice. It had made it both harder and easier to concentrate on but when he switched over to thinking it was more pointed and focused and Erik grasped onto it almost desperately.
I hear you. Don’t stop talking to me, please! it was so loud and there were so many people saying so many things. It was like being in the middle of a stadium full of people all talking at the same time. How could you concentrate on only one voice unless it was right there with you?
***
I won’t, old friend. I promise. It was a promise that he hoped he would be able to keep. He desperately hoped that this terrible pressure, this terrible buzzing would not somehow render him unconscious.
Everything is...buzzing, he thought, confused. And the world seems primed to attack me. Everywhere I feel it. Coming off of everything, some things stronger than others. Is this your world, Erik?
***
Yes, that is my world. And because he was concentrating on Charles and now he was thinking of his power Charles was hit with images of what it felt like and looked like to Erik and possibly more helpful how he shielded himself against the constant attack of noise and feeling. Everything has a signal, especially now, I thought I was being attacked when I first arrived. It was easier to ignore the shrieking from everything else when he was concentrating on talking to Charles but it wasn’t going to last for long. The second he put his guard down it was all going to crash in again.
***
Your helmet, he said. Your helmet should shield you from the voices. It kept the voices from getting in, so it should keep the voices from getting out, as well. At least that was what he hoped. He moved closer to Erik, leaning as close to him as he could, putting his hand to his friend’s temple. It was strange how empty the gesture was now, how there was nothing that came to him. It was blank. And Charles was scared.
The look in his eyes proved it. This overwhelming barrage and the silence of the voices was perhaps the most terrifying thing that had ever happened to him.
***
Erik had lost his power here once before but it hadn’t been replaced by another power and he’d been able to hide how much it had terrified him at the time. This one wasn’t as easy. He put his hand over Charles’ at his temple and took some deep breaths.
It’s at the house. We will have to go there to get it. Because he wasn’t going to admit any doubt that he could make it there himself to get it. Don’t leave me alone.
***
Never, Charles assured him. Erik, you’re never alone.” He’d promised him that and he planned to keep his promise, despite the fear he felt. He was terrified of what he was facing, his head buzzing and the whole world seeming like it wished to attack him. He didn’t know how Erik could stand to live with this.
Come then...we shall make our way to your home?
He didn’t know how he was going to go that far, but for Erik, he would.
***
For Erik what Charles was feeling was normal and missed. At least now that he’d adjusted to how much more strength there was to the fields than there was in the time he’d come from. Being there without seeing, hearing and feeling the electromagnetic spectrum felt like half of his normal senses had been cut off. If it wasn’t for the overwhelming voices in his head Erik would feel deaf.
Use the phone, call a cab. It was just too far to walk but as soon as he said it Erik shook his head...still without releasing Charles’ hand. “No, don’t use the phone until you are used to it. The signal will be too much.” It was hard to tell when he was slipping in and out of speaking purely mentally and verbally.
****
The same would have been true for Charles. Of course, he’d just finished several years of being without his powers, but now that he had them back, the world would have been so quiet...except that it wasn’t. The electromagnetic fields from everything around him were buzzing in his mind, making it impossible to hear anything other than their endemic presence. He didn’t know how Erik could stand it.
He squeezed Erik’s hand tightly, needing to know that he was there, that someone was there, otherwise he wasn’t sure if he could take it. He was trying to think, trying to think of a way to do this, but he couldn’t think past the shrieking.
What if we...what if we… If he had any control over these powers he could move them both, but he didn’t. He was likely to drop them and cause serious damage. We can’t just stay here. I have to make the call. If they could restore Erik’s mind to him, perhaps one of them, at least, could make rational decisions.
***
How do I function long enough to call someone? He needed to know how Charles did it, how did he keep the voices at bay? If he could do it for just a few minutes then he could call or use the app you could put on your phone to call the car. Or he could call someone that had a car that they knew but he’d rather deal with a stranger than someone they knew.
***
Explaining someone how to do something that had taken you years to perfect was not an easy thing. He needed to come up with something that would work quickly and without a lot of practice, since they needed to get Erik the helmet as quickly as possible.
Finally, he found in his mind a picture of Westchester, when they were both there, and happy, during the time that they’d been working together. The best days of Charles’s life, and he could only hope that Erik felt the same.
Concentrate on that image. Do you see it? Just focus all your energy on it.
***
Erik could see it. Erik would always look back on those days in Westchester as the best in his life until now. Maybe he’d had beautiful and peaceful days before the war and before the camps but he could barely remember them. Westchester seemed like a brilliant and warm dream.
Erik closed his eyes and focused on the memory and the image. I wish we had never had to leave there. Concentrating on the memory made his thoughts calmer.
***
It had to end, Charles thought, sadly. ’Nothing gold can stay.’ He hadn’t wanted to leave either, but duty had called them away, duty that had come between himself and Erik and had torn them apart. He had never felt quite whole since that day on the beach, and the loss had nothing to do with his legs.
He squeezed Erik’s hand tightly in his own. It was strange not to have his powers, but helping Erik came naturally.
Don’t lose the image. Hold onto it, when the voices come back.
***
He was making the image his safe spot then. The thing to concentrate on when his thoughts and the thoughts of others became too much. I’ve never lost that image. I never will. He wanted to kiss Charles so much right now he knew that it probably leaked through mentally but he didn’t act on it.
“I can make the call. We can get there and then I can help you with what you are going through.”
***
Charles did feel it, yes, and he would not have necessarily been opposed, except that the time warranted different action. They had to solve this, they had to stop the pain. And then...well, perhaps. It was a pleasant idea.
“And I will help you, as best I can. I know how difficult it was for me to bear at first. And how for a long while I wished nothing more than to turn it off.”
***
“I can’t live the entire week or however long this lasts in the helmet. I will have to learn something.” Erik heard something of how Charles might not mind and he kept that filed away for later. Right now they had to have priorities and who knew how long the calm in his head would last even with the image of westchester.
Deciding it was better to not try a conversation he installed the app in his phone and input the request for a ride. “We need to get you down to meet the car. But as soon as that hurdle is over it shouldn’t be too hard to get the rest of the way.”
***
“We will work on it. You are as strong as I am, Erik - stronger. If I can control the voices, so can you.” He meant that with all of his heart. He had complete faith in Erik, if he did not sabotage himself.
“I can do that,” he said. He didn’t usually have any help in the way of powers in getting himself around. He could do what had to be done. The ice and snow might be a problem, but he would make it work. He had to.
***