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Yeah? Good thing for me then that I'm not being paid to scare you.

[look, meeting himself is not the strangest thing that's happened to Magneto this month]

If I wanted you to be afraid, I would have been far more threatening.

Why don't you come over here and chop some food with me, you fish headed bullet nosed piker? I'll show you something to be scared of.

[This is very surprising for her to hear!]

You're not...? My horns don't even bother you?

[No, she's never heard of you Mister! Not many humans would be unafraid of her mutant race, because of how destructive and homicidal they are towards humans. Nana knows this, and doesn't blame them.

Unlike the rest of her kind, she wouldn't want to kill anyone.]

Edited 2021-02-06 00:03 (UTC)

[Erik smiles a gentle smile at her.]

They are just horns...nothing to be afraid of. You don't seem like the type to use them in anger.

Someone is in a mood.

What are you getting paid for then?

I am, you should be afraid!

...You’re still not scared, are you?

Nope.....I will admit the threats are creativite.

Well done.

I wasn’t actually going to- no, you know what? I was. Because I’m scary! You’re going to wish you were a fiddlehead fern by the time I’m done with you.

Really, I’m very dangerous and scary- why aren’t you afraid yet?

Because metal is metal and you have a lot of it on your person.

It can be useful to someone like me.

Officially? To bring you in.

[Kane sizes the fearsome mutant up, now that they're finally face-to-face. Mags is every bit as imposing in person as he was at a distance, but there's a presence about him, a charisma, that couldn't be felt through a sniper scope.]

I could have done it too, you know. You need to get better people.

[Erik is sizing up the young man as well. His expression is guarded but he is keeping his hands at his sides.]

Normally I wouldn't have bothered sending them in first, but I was curious.

And yet you want something or you wouldn't be here.

So what is it?

[Kane's eyebrows lift in surprise, but he's too well-trained to drop his guard completely.]

They gave me a little doohickey that was supposed to make me invisible to your senses. Should've figured that wasn't gonna be worth much.

[He's begrudgingly impressed. The older man knew he was coming, maybe even knew he was being scoped, and still gave nothing away.]

Helluva risk you took just for curiosity's sake.

What do you need metal for? What are you, a scrap yard owner?

They should have made the machine invisible to my senses as well. All these years and they only use plastic when they have no other choice.

[Erik smiles slightly]

Well it's been a while since they've made an attempt so I figured I should too.

[Erik chuckles.]

It's rare that I meet someone who doesn't know who I am.

I have it. I wanted information from Hank McCoy. I got it. You, I'm just curious about.

That's gonna change soon. There's a new guy calling the shots, and you must've done him dirty somehow somewhere because he's got a real hard-on for putting you back in that hole.

[Kane lets a breath he didn't know he was holding go when he sees that smile.]

They're not going to stop with just me.

Well, I’ve been... away. For the last couple of years. You wouldn’t believe it if I told you. So who are you, some kind of big shot?

It's not really my horns that could hurt... I'd never hurt anyone.

[The girl tenses, as her voice comes out quiet. Even though this man seems nice, she knows she shouldn't say much further than that.]

I'm not supposed to tell. Not outside the family I have.

And Papa said it would be dangerous if they find out...

[...And he still died. It'd hurt Nana to say it. Although it'd be easy to read her sad expression to understand that something terrible had happened to her Papa, Kurama.]

Edited 2021-02-07 00:42 (UTC)

[Another gentle smile]

I know that feeling my mother once told me the same thing.

You see I'm different like you.

[She blinks, and looks up at him in confusion. What does he mean by that, she wonders.]

You are? But... I don't sense it.

[He doesn't have horns or vectors. No, he's not a Diclonius. Nana would have otherwise known before they'd see each other. She would have felt his presence from miles away.

What is he talking about?! Nana suddenly looks to him in alarm. She had let her guard down. What if he runs off and tells the other humans? That she's not at all normal?

Distress is present, over her posture and in her tone of voice.]

I-I shouldn't say anymore! Please, don't tell!

I won't bother you. I won't go after anyone you know.

[Erik kneels down so he can look her in the eye and make himself seem smaller. He pulls a coin out of his pocket and sets it in his palm.]

Some mutants look different while others....their differences are on the inside...but people are still afraid of us.

[He twists his fingers and makes the coin spin and flip.]

But we are just people....maybe a bit better then normal humans, but we are still people.

My name is Erik....but most people know me by the name Magneto.

That name sounds pretty important, but... sorry, not ringing a bell. I’m Janie, nice to meet you. I never came up with a cool nickname for myself.

{A slight shrug]

Pissing people off is my stock in trade. I wouldn't expect them to stop hunting me since they hunt any mutant who doesn't sit down and shut up.

And why is that?

[Nana tenses. She looks ready to run away from him. But, he's kneeling? He's really not afraid...

In disbelief and surprise, she can't look away from what he does with the coin; her pink eyes opening wide. Is he making it flip on its own?! As she listens to his words, there's a bit of truth in them. Yes, of course people were scared.

However, she feels she can't quite agree with part of what he says.

Never in her lifetime has she ever expected to encounter someone like him. He is so new and unfamiliar. Finally, she looks to the man directly. Did the doctors and the others from the facility know about people like him?

Papa didn't, and he was one of the more important normal humans who worked there.

She can't stop staring as she attempts to politely speak of her disagreement.]

I-I don't think I'm better than all the normal ones... The bad ones, I know I'm better than them. There are good ones, too.

Edited 2021-02-07 01:57 (UTC)

{Erik chuckles quietly]

Not everyone needs a special nickname...honestly I am not fond of mine.

It’s not bad, a letter or two off from Magenta, but if you aren’t fond of it, I’ll call you Erik.

So, am I talking to a super hero or a super villain and I’m sorry. I’m not scared either way.

[Erik nods his agreement.]

I have this...friend. He believes we should work with humanity. Try to be like them so they accept us.

I believe we should be who we are.....as we are. Not better, not worse...just ourselves.

[It's a simple explanation of what he does believe...but he is trying not to spook her.]

We just have something a little extra inside us. I can move anything made of metal for example.

[He nods at that.]

I'm not one of your people, but I've got friends who are. One of them asked me not to take that shot at you. I can get away with it this time but if they send me after you again I won't be able to make the same excuse.

[Erik nods having a feeling he knows how the pipeline calling off the mission happened though he doesn't voice it since now is not the time.]

I owe you for that choice and I always pay my debts.

Is your friend a mutant too, or a normal human?

[Nana's quick to ask this. She's fascinated to learn that there are mutants that aren't quite like her.

She feels she'd agree with his friend as she's about to softly explain.]

The rest of my kind, Diclonius... they're not nice at all.

[It looks as if one of her prosthetic arms comes off on its own. But if he looks close enough, he'd see the transparent outline of the arm of one of her own vectors that does this action.]

One of them escaped from where I used to live. She tore my old arms and legs off, with her vectors... These special arms. She was bad, and had killed normal people.

[With the same vector, she reattaches her arm.]

Most shouldn't know I have the same powers. If they did...

[Nana's voice slightly shakes, and her eyes lower.]

Edited 2021-02-07 02:50 (UTC)

This world is all subtly different from what I remember growing up. I met Charles after the war when I was working in a hospital in Israel. I gather from some incidental conversation that event never happened here. I honestly wonder what shaped you...me...into the person you are.

Many things......I don't know what your experiences in the camps were...but mine were.......an experiment.

I met Charles when he stopped me from killing the mutant who did that to me.

I lost my entire family to the Nazis. I survived as one of the sonderkommando, one of the Jews who worked in the crematories of Auschwitz. I saw what happened to those who were experimented on. Some of my friends, turned into monsters then destroyed. I tried to use my power, but sickness and malnutrition robbed me of my powers until after Magda and I escaped the camp.

She and my daughter Anya were my life after Magda and I made a new life in the Carpathians. And then one day a greedy employer saw me use my power. He brought authorities, who burned down our house and held me as my daughter died. I killed them all. And then my wife denounced me as a monster and fled from me.

When I met Charles in Israel, he never understood why I felt that humans would always be a danger to mutants.

My Charles helped me unlock my potential....and yet he could not understand my anger. Why I needed Shaw dead so badly. It was less about what we believed and more about how we chose to accomplish our goals.

Though even after we left each other we kept being drawn back together again and again.

What I found through the man behind that experimentation in Auschwitz is that I despise men who take others' free will and turn them against their own people. I ask much of the mutants who follow me, but I have never stolen their free will or their responsibility to their own people.

That's a point of contention that I've had with Charles, despite our friendship.

It is something we share, you and I.

I allow all the mutants who choose to follow me the choice to do so. I even spent ten years in prison trying to protect one of our own in a high position.

And even then my Charles judged me for doing so because he didn't understand.

Yes...he is a telepath...he has a school for people like us.

[Erik's voice is soft and slightly sad as he talks about Charles. He misses his friend every day even if they don't agree.]

It is a good place...a safe place. No one would hurt you there....use you.

There are other young mutants there too.

Charles's mutation allows him to change the will of others so easily. He doesn't understand my violent opposition to it. I am who I was forged to be. I was born with the ability to manipulate electromagnetic fields, but that is not who I am. Even without my power, I am dangerous. I have found ways to oppose those who threaten mutants even without my power, because taking away my power doesn't take away who I am.

The only humans foolish enough to try to keep me imprisoned even temporarily have been SHIELD. And they failed.

[The subject matter of this school urged her to question about it more than her puzzlement over what a telepath could be.

Her tone of voice was that of a hushed fascination.]

A school for mutants? Where?

[The very concept sounds so amazing to Nana. She would want to tell Mayu, Yuka, and Kohta all about this.]

Alright! Now we are talking! Finally a skinbag who isn’t quaking in his boots!