erik lehnsherr is a handsome shark (sharksmile) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-08-15 06:28:00 |
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It had been three months since Erik’s arrival and he thought he was doing a fantastic job projecting a vibe of ‘Don’t talk to me, don’t look at me, I hate you.’ There were very few people that approached him, and those that did, were the ones he had invited them to. For Nina’s sake, he had told himself each time he had extended the invite out. But there was a small part of him that could acknowledge that some of the people he was now speaking to on a more daily basis were people he also wanted around in his life. Don’t get him wrong, he did just prefer it when it was him and Nina, but there were others whose company he found…tolerable. That was the only word he would allow himself to use. Among them were Rogue and his alternate universe daughters, as well as Charles as much as he was loath to admit that one. And, of course, the younger Storm and her boyfriend Remy, but that was a given. Other than them? Erik hadn’t made much of an effort. And he was okay with that. He had lived many lonely years by himself as he had hunt down Nazis and was on the run - he was used to the quiet life. The people were Displaced were content to stay away and he was content to let them. Today, though, that was about to change. He was out on the back lawn of the mansion, laying under the shade of a tree as he watched Nina run around chasing butterflies and talking to various wildlife she crossed paths with. Her usage of her abilities was growing steadily and it no longer scared her to indulge in her mutant side. He encouraged that, wanting her to fully embrace her mutant side, and in the fall, he would see what programs the X-Men had to offer her. But today, he was content to enjoy watching her be the child she was without fear. The old pain of missing Magda was there, but it was faint today, since he knew she would have approved of how he was raising Nina in her absence. The past could not be changed and Magda wouldn’t want him to go back to his pit of depression while Nina was around. This was about as perfect as his life could get at the moment. Yes, Kurt was aware that Magneto was living in the boathouse on the X-Mansion’s grounds. Was it his intention to meet him when he strolled in that direction? No. To be honest, Magento hadn’t even crossed Kurt’s mind. In fact, Magento had been so successful in keeping a low profile that on this day, Kurt forgot he was even there. Summer was drawing to a close, and soon school would begin, so for the past couple of weeks he’d cloistered himself in his room to get together a curriculum for the classes he was teaching, both Theater and History, and after several hours of that, Kurt needed a break. Wandering the grounds, his thoughts became preoccupied with what sort of musical he wanted to put on at the Community Theater this autumn, but the sound of a child’s laughter broke him out of his spell. He’d never even seen Magneto’s daughter before, so to his eyes, she was somebody completely new, maybe even a local who became lost and accidentally entered. The little girl stopped laughing and they both stood very still out of surprise when they both made eye contact. Kurt never knew how anybody would first react to his unusual appearance, and he hoped he wouldn’t frighten the child. To make himself as non threatening as possible, Kurt softly smiled, careful not to show his fangs, and lowered himself to her height by crouching upon his haunches. “Hullo,” he said in a sweet voice. “It’s a beautiful day, ja?” He waited a moment before asking, “Are you lost? Do you know where your mommy and daddy are?” Erik was enough of a paranoid bastard that he had been keeping an eye on Nina as she had played. So when Kurt appeared, he wasn’t too surprised considering that the man lived at the mansion. He sat up and watched, curious to see how Nina would react to someone who was very obviously not just a human. The small brunette girl stared at Kurt for a few long seconds, before pointing to where Erik was sitting. “On jest tam,” she said, the Polish words flowing easily. “There - he’s there,” she added, in English, her grasp on the English language not as strong as a native speaker and the words a little wobbly. And when Kurt would look over, he would see that Erik had gotten up from his place under the shade of the trees and was approaching them with a fairly blank look on his face. But that look melted into a smile as he held out a hand to Nina and she ran over to meet him part of the way. They walked back together, squirrels and birds following Nina, as they stopped in front of the blue mutant. “Wagner,” Erik greeted, head tilted slightly to the side. Rogue had told him a bit about her brother, but he didn’t know his full story. The Polish language was not unfamiliar to Kurt, but he hadn’t heard it spoken in a long while. While growing up in the circus, Kurt’s troupe would travel all over Germany, and sometimes find itself crossing the border into neighboring countries. In the East, there were a lot of Poles, and a couple of their annual stops was the small town Gryfino, right across the river Oder, and then a little North to the city of Szczecin, known as being a cultural center. Kurt wasn’t fluent, but he knew enough Polish to interact, and definitely enough to understand what the little girl was saying. Kurt lifted his eyes in the direction she was pointing and frowned, immediately realizing who the man was. He didn’t look like the Magneto of his world, but Kurt felt there was somehow a very Magneto-ness about him, or maybe it was just his imagination. He remained crouching even as he was approached and then spoken to, and his tail slowly swung back and forth in the grass behind him like a snake, revealing his apprehension. “Lehnsherr,” he greeted in return, using the same even tone of voice. For a tentative moment, Kurt was unsure how to progress - he’d been told that Erik wanted to be left alone, so he wasn’t sure how his presence would be taken. “Forgive the intrusion,” he finally said, slowly standing to full height. “I’d forgotten you lived out here. I can leave....” Kurt motioned with his hand, ready to turn - it would be up to Erik to decide whether or not he wanted company. Erik probably let the silence after Kurt’s offer go on a little longer than what was comfortable, before his demeanor changed. He turned to his daughter and smiled. "Jesteśmy w porządku z miłym niebieskim człowiekiem dzielącym tę przestrzeń, prawda?" Nina didn’t hesitate to smile back widely at her dad, nodding her head, before looking over at Kurt again and waving. Erik turned to Kurt, the smile still on his face, which was a strange look for Erik to those that knew who he was. “You’re free to stay, sharing space is an important concept to learn, isn’t it?” And coming from the mouth of Magneto, the words sounded completely hypocritical to what his personal philosophy concerning humans and mutants were. It could be a little unnerving, seeing him act out of what was his normal character. Erik didn’t take his eyes off Kurt, as he patted Nina’s back. “Go play, Nina,” he suggested. The girl didn’t hesitate to laugh and run off to chase some of the animals. The irony of what Erik told his daughter did not go past Kurt, who turned a mournful eye toward the little girl as she playfully skipped away. Such innocent joy. What sort of bias was Erik teaching her? Hate passed on from one generation to the next, prejudices against humans. Kurt opened his mouth to speak his mind, but then slowly closed it, judicially deciding that he didn’t want to start an argument. At least not now. Instead, Kurt casually remarked, “Her mutant power is a connection with animals, or nature in general?” There had been changes in Erik, upon meeting Magda and seeing that not all humans were completely terrible, but her death and Nina's death had set that progress back considerably. Humans, in Erik's experience, brought more pain and suffering than anything good. The few good humans he had known, such as his parents and his wife, had been taken away by the poison of the rest of humanity as far as Erik was concerned. He would never disparage them, but he considered them to be the exception and not the general rule. “Animal empathy, with telepathic communication with them,” Erik explained, as he watched his daughter crouch at the treeline and seemingly talk to a rabbit that was there. The smile on his face as he watched her was genuine. The look he shot Kurt from the corners of his eyes was of curiosity. “You teleport through a hell dimension?” Kurt’s gaze shifted from Nina to Erik when he noticed the smile . That’s something you don’t see every day, he thought. A happy Magneto. So, when Erik turned to ask his question, he might’ve caught Kurt staring, which in turn made Kurt a little embarrassed. “Er, ja. Ja.” He rubbed the back of his neck, sheepishly. “I do, But it’s only for a split second. It’s not like I actually see the place. Actually, it took me a long while to even understand how my teleporting actually worked, but it makes sense. My father, Azazel, came from that dimension. You might even call him a demon.” “Azazel and Mystique had been in my employ at one point,” Erik explained, recalling the blue fuzzy mutant in his world. “Your counterpart in my world exists. It makes me wonder if there was more than a professional relationship between them since our worlds have more similarities than not.” The rabbit Nina had been talking to was joined soon by a squirrel and the giggles of the young girl were clearly heard across from the lawn where the two men were standing. “In your world, Nina is called Anya and suffers as my Nina does.” Because of course Erik looked up as much as he could about the other worlds he existed in. “I know,” Kurt muttered in regards to the similarities between the two X-Men universes. “Once I was told that my alternative universe self wasn’t fuzzy, but instead covered in tattoos, I became curious and needed to find out more.” The differences between the two Mystiques’ backstory was very interesting, but didn’t do much to change his opinion of her. “She was here before. I mean, the Mystique from my universe. She’s gone now, or at least I think she’s gone. For all I know, she could’ve left Tumbleweed under an assumed identity, but the last anybody’d seen or heard of her was in November of last year. I also understand your Mystique was here, too, but that was something like two years ago and before I was around.” Kurt sardonically smiled when Erik voiced his suspicions. “Then you don’t know? In my universe, Mystique is my mother.” He then turned to watch the child at play with a measure of sadness. “I’m very sorry to hear that about your family. That sort of thing should never happen to anyone.” Mutant or human. “Oh I’m very well aware of that. I’m just wondering if she is in my universe.” After all, things weren’t the same across each universe. Wanda wasn’t his daughter in one of them and the twins weren’t his kids in another. Pietro from his own world...that was complicated. So who knew? His thoughts about that, however, were interrupted by Kurt’s condolences. Any, mostly amicable, talk that they were having was shut down quickly at that. It rang false, this stranger telling him he was sorry about his family so soon after that sneering smile. Erik cleared his throat, eyes hardening. “Thank you,” he forced himself to say stiffly. If he stepped out of line, he knew he risked losing access to Anka Irene. “I’ll let you carry on with your walk.” Nina, by now, had gathered a small furry army of animals and was chasing them around and letting them chase her in turn, in a strangely endearing game of tag. Satisfied that she was occupied by her playmates, Erik nodded once at Kurt and turned to walk back to where he had been relaxing before the blue mutant had wandered into their presence. Kurt watched Erik walk away, and he felt a pang. Yes, Erik had imposed solitude upon himself and his daughter, but was it necessary? Didn’t everybody feel the need for company, even once in a while. Kurt didn’t let Erik get very far before he took a gamble and called out, “If you or Nina need anything, let me know.” He wanted to say more, but first waited to see how Erik would receive his offer. Erik didn’t verbally respond, but he did lift a hand with his thumb up to acknowledge Kurt. He probably wouldn’t take him up on the offer, but at least they both knew it was there. |