1879/Heir Apparent

Heir Apparent
Date of Scene:	28 May 2020
Location:	Genosha, Hammer Bay, Palace
Synopsis:	Backdated to 2018: Magneto talks with his daughter after the festivities of naming her his heir apparent.
Cast of Characters:	Lorna Dane, Erik Lensherr

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Lorna Dane has posed:
The crowds had faded away at last, it was late, and the palace was finally emptying out save for the various servants, and Acolytes that would continue to party into the depths of the night. The youngest child of Magneto had just been presented to the world as his heir. She would become Queen when he passed, and jumped the typically lines of succession many monarchies followed. Not that Pietro seemed the least bit upset about it, he didn't //want// to be in charge of anything--much less their father's nation.

Still, the whole day had been filled with public announcements, parades, and culminated in a massive ball at the end. Lorna was exhausted as she stepped pass the elevator that led to the private royal suite. She reached up with a yawn escaping her lips, pulling at the various hair pins that had held her hair up in an intricate hair style. Her heels kicked off as she stepped onto the thick carpet of the family wing and plucked them up to shuffle along.

She was so //very// tired.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
     It was a night to behold, and none could have been more proud than Erik at that moment. He would have never told her, but Lorna being named Heir to the Throne meant Genosha had made deep strides to becoming seen as not Magneto's personal nation, and a nation for mutants. The King had known that many world leaders would see Lorna in a softer eye than they would see him.

  The formal robes of the Throne had been exchanged for a tuxedo, white tie, and embellished with the crown of Genosha, and various medals from the uprising. The man always had a sense of style, but tonight everything had been taken to the most extravagant.

  Not in his personal bedchamber, but the anteroom to it, where the various outfits he wore tonight had been placed on exact mannequin copies of himself, built of steel of course, Magneto had taken off the crown, itself placed in a display case that usually lived in his office two floors down. He had been taking off the various accents and accoutrements from the ball. His face still smiling from the night of revelry, he would most likely join the acolytes for a drink or two as well, but not in such a formal capacity.

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna made to pass her father's room as she trudged toward her own quarters opposite, but finding the door cracked open just a tiny bit allowed her to peer in and spy the sight of her father setting the crown aside. She still felt wildly uncomfortable with it all, but she had tried. For her father. For Genosha. She blearily remembered her first conversation with him now, a few years ago, she'd been angry. Wanting.. no, demanding answers.. as the chaos of the old regime's fall swirled around them. Pietro and Wanda hadn't wanted anything to do with her.. or him for that matter. Not then.

And she could hardly blame them.

But standing there, barefoot and wearing a dress that flared out at her hips with satin and silken material that was so embroidered with gold and green gems that it was stiff.. she saw a softer man than the King and leader of the Brotherhood that Magneto had once been. He was .. happy. Relaxed. Not paranoid.

A rare sight indeed. A yawn threatened her again, and before she could think better of it, Lorna rapped her knuckle against the door. "Hey Dad.."

Erik Lensherr has posed:
     "I was wondering how long you were going to stand out there." He commented, after hearing the rapping on the door.

  He turned, for a brief moment, he looked like he did as a much younger man, with Magda. There were flashes of that every now and again with the man known as Magneto. Few, and far between, but a treat for those who knew him, who really knew him.

  As he turned, he stepped over to the bar tray in the room, pouring a glass from a bottle of whiskey that had been sent up as a gift from some VIP. "Care for a glass?" He asked, taking the brown elixir into his hand, and sipping. "Exquisite."

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna smiled, tired still, as she entered and pushed passed the door. She dropped her heels at the door and padded over into her father's suite of rooms. A glance was spared for the various manikins in brief before they were dismissed and she made her way toward the man that was her father. She'd spent so long hating him.. resenting everything.. that she had lost track of when she'd stopped feeling that way. Stopped remembering those feelings of abandonment and instead found joy in sitting with him in the study. She'd forgotten when their chess game had become something she actually looked forward to.

"A small one." She hedged, glancing at the crystaline glasses and making to sink into a plush leather chair and pull her legs up. Her feet //hurt// one too many dances, too many hours spent standing and greeting, thanking people..

"Otherwise I'll fall asleep right here." She joked.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
     The bottle clinked on the cut crystal glass as he poured some of the elixir. Then bringing the glass to Lorna. "You did well tonight, Lorna." He says, offering his own glass for a toast.

  His silver hair shined in the light of the anteroom, and those blue eyes were striking at their calmest, but Lorna herself had seen those eyes filled with the kind of hate that can only be forged in the fires of the atrocities Erik had been witness to.

  "Can you feel it? Those people still partying down there? The movement of their keys and cell phones in their pockets? Their fillings chattering along as they celebrate -you-."

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna murmured a thank you as her father handed her a glass and she idly shifted the contents back and forth, watching the way the colors shifted in the soft light. She glanced back to her father meeting his gaze, green to blue. Her mother's eyes, the only that entirely belonged to Suzanna looked back at him. Her head tilting to the side as she stretched her senses to the lower levels of the ballrooms and the alike.

She stifled another yawn, and took a small sip, feeling the slight burn as the liquid went down her throat. "I'm pretty sure they're celebrating having free food and more drinks than is sensible." She drawled lightly, her voice dry as she seemed uncomfortable with her father's praise. She still wasn't used to it. To the eyes of the world on her.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
     "Probably. But the impetus for the festivities was you." He said calmly, taking another sip of the liquor. "Mind you, it was cause to celebrate. And I do not appreciate food going to waste." He chuckled once.

  "And so begins a new chapter in Genosha's history." Another sip from the glass before taking a seat next to Lorna. "What is it you came in for?" He asked, realizing he kind of led himself off the conversation.

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna sighed, glancing down at her glass in hand and swirled the contents about again, watching as the liquid sloshed back and forth. She grimaced faintly, "I don't really see it that way.." She mumbled, and glanced back up at her father as he asked what she'd come in for. She seemed to take a moment, puzzling over her thoughts and feelings. The same ones that had bothered her since her father had told her of his plans to name her as his heir.

"I'm uncomfortable with this .. whole heir thing.." She mumbled, and averted her gaze, crossing her legs. "I didn't say it before.. but just.." Her eyebrows pinched and her lips drew into a small line. "It's uncomfortable to talk about what would happen when you die."

Erik Lensherr has posed:
     "You think it's comfortable for me to think about dying?" He says with a small chuckle again. "But the older you become, the more at ease with the inevitable you become. The true injustice would be not preparing beforehand. Which I am not planning on dying any time soon, mind you." He says, attempting to reassure Lorna a little, in some strange way.

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna sighed, and took a sip of her drink again, both hands locked around it as she pursed her lips together and shifted on the leather seat. "I can't imagine a Genosha without you." She mumbled, and she blinked repeatedly, a shaky smile pulling at the corners of her lips as she reached up to dab the sudden moisture that formed there before it could disturb her make-up.

"Sorry, I'm just emotional about it. It's been bugging me all day. That people are celebrating something that will mean I've lost my father and will be something I don't look forward to." She sniffled once, and exhaled a shuddering breath.

"It's all the Acolytes talk about and its easy enough to ignore them.. but today was just difficult."

Erik Lensherr has posed:
     Magneto reaches for his glass, and finishes the drink. "It is not to celebrate my death, it is celebrating the strength of Genosha being bigger than myself. Our nation, the nation of mutants, will be strong beyond my life."

  Erik straightens up a bit in his chair, and sounding a bit more serious. "I am not an easy man to kill, Lorna. And does it look like I am anywhere near as old as I am? I will most likely live for many more decades, long enough to see my great-great grandchildren."

  He sheds his jacket, laying it over the side. "You do not have to like it, but you do have to accept it, because what we just did, in front of the whole world, cannot be undone so easily."

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna kept her gaze held low as she inspected the way the light played off the glass in her grip. "I know." Her voice was soft, "I mean.. I know realistically, it's likely not going to happen any time soon. And I.. I'm not trying to say I'm not honored by .. by your confidence in me to ... to continue what you've started here in Genosha.. I just.." Her eyebrows pinched and she swallowed the thickness that gathered in the back of her throat.

"Can't I still be sad at the thought of that future too? Because it means.. sometime.. some day, that I'll be here and you won't be?" Her gaze finally lifted up to her father and remained there. For all that Lorna had lived a fairly sheltered life, she had also felt horribly alone. Her father being the first one to share in her powers, and moreover, the only one in her family that seemed to be there. Her mother was dead, and no one from her side of the family had ever stepped up to be in her life.

She looked away, and took the time to down the rest of her glass. "I wouldn't hold out for a grandchild anytime soon, Dad." She joked, or tried to in a rather lame manner.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
     "You may be sad. But don't wallow on it." He says, cautiously.

  Erik reached out to his youngest child, squeezing her hand with strength. "Oh, I'm sure Pietro has you beat already in that department." He comments, giving a low laugh. "Now..."

  "I must give you one instruction, should I...pass on unexpectedly." Before Lorna can interject about morbidity, or anything else vis a vis grim outcomes, Magneto asserts himself. "Beneath my office, is a cache, and can be opened by you, and you alone. It will be up to you, to get it out from the ground, and activate it."

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna offered a weak smile toward her father as he gave one of her hands a squeeze. She returned the affection, and set her glass aside on the smooth wooden end table beside her. "I'll try." She promised, and likely knew she was just as apt to break that promise. No matter how far into the future her father died.. she was going to wallow. It ran in their family.

But at the comment about Pietro, she shot up an eyebrow. "What? Pietro? Seriously? I doubt it. He's too snarky to be in a room with anyone not Wanda for more than five minutes." She shook her head and rolled her eyes.

But as her father spoke and changed back to a more serious tone her gaze snapped back to him. She frowned, leaning forward and propping her chin up with her hand. "You mean.. below your office.. below the palace itself.. all the way down past the sub-basements I'm not supposed to know about?"

Erik Lensherr has posed:
     "He -would- take my advice regarding prophylactics to heart, wouldn't he? It's about the only advice of mine he would." Erik comments, then looks to Lorna as she mentions the sub-basements. "Yes, those are the ones. Underneath it all, it rests, in case of circumstances beyond my control."

  "Promise me, you will open it, should the time come."

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna arched a brow upward at the comments about her father's advice and she didn't respond to it either further. She instead shifted in her seat, letting her hands fall back to her lap and making her dress crinkle with the motion. "Alright.. sure.. I promise." She mumbled, her head tilting as she curled her magnetic powers down around the palace structure and back. She wasn't entirely awake enough to probe about to try to find what her father spoke of.. But she'd look later.

Whatever it was that her father wanted her to go find.

She sat up a little straighter in the chair, "If something crazy happens. Here's hoping it doesn't. And that Fabian is wrong. So I don't have to be stuck here listening to his special level of fanatical crazy he has."

Erik Lensherr has posed:
     Erik gives a bit of a shrug, the comments about Fabian speak for themselves. It wasn't anything that Magneto didn't feel himself. "He is useful, in his strange way. At least he can be trusted to defend us. Even if you have to kick him down when he starts to aim above his station." Declares the Master of Magnetism.

  "If they want to jump in front of bullets for a man who can stop them a mile away, who am I to deny them their wish?" He only half joked as he said that.

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna shifted in her seat, the stiffened crinoline of her dress crinkling as she did and she stifled yet another yawn. Tired as she was, it was always worth it to stay up and have a conversation with her father. She propped her elbows up on her knees, and so on to her chin. "They literally worship you dying and mutants rising up all over the world in return. Just the way they look at me makes me uncomfortable." She wrinkled her nose, and made a face.

"Seriously, I don't see what use Fabian has beyond behind crazy, but I'll take your word for it." And to be fair, since she'd joined Magneto on Genosha, some Acolytes treated her with varying degrees of awe and worship. Some dismissed her, like Exodus, others.. well.. it was uncomfortable to say the least.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
     "If any of them get out of line, you let them know. And if that does not work, you let me know." He says, sternly, very much a father meaning to protect his daughter.

  "But as with most people, you filter the grain from the chaff. But first and foremost, you take care of yourself." Pearls of wisdoms for the future, or a warning? Probably both.

  "I will die when I am damn well good and ready, and not a moment sooner." He adds in, just in case any had been listening in, which again, would be a big deal.

Lorna Dane has posed:
A roll of her eyes followed and Lorna shook her head. "They don't do anything. It's just.." The looks. The stares. The soft words of murmuring praise and worship over something that she had no control over. Sure, she was Magneto's daughter.. but she hadn't //earned// anything to go with that praise and admiration. It was //creepy// that their whole religion was built about her father's death.

She sighed heavily, dramatically, and leaned back in the chair. "But if they do anything I'll let you know.." She murmured in an almost practiced way. Similar conversations had been had before and would doubtlessly happen again. Magneto's commentary on dying when he damn well wanted to earned a quirk of her lips into a smile though, and she shook her head once.

"I'm sure that they'll take those words and write them in whatever little holy book of your sayings they've collected." It had to exist, right? All good religions had a book or something. "Anyways, I should go to my quarters and get out of this dress before I ruin it even further." She got up, and this time allowed the yawn to escape her.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
     "Most likely, along with how I like my eggs and soldiers." Erik commented, standing up and asking for the glass with his hand. "But for you, time for rest." He says, smiling and looking over the Princess and future Queen. "And lo, the savior of us all took two eggs, five minutes each, and with two slices of bread did dunketh them into said egg. Coffee was also had. No cream, one lump." What followed was what normal people would call a laugh. It lasted three or four seconds, proof that Magneto himself could tell a joke at others' expense.

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna rolled her eyes skyward, smiling faintly as her father mocked the Acolyte's all the while.. still keeping them under his roof. They were 'useful'. An amused glance was spared back to her father as she stretched and made to go, grabbing her heels off the floor as she did so. She paused to give her father a hug, a brief one, goodnight.

"Night Dad."

Erik Lensherr has posed:
     "Good night, my Noth Star." He whispered as they embraced, a brief affirmation of her from years ago. He would let her go on her way, and of course, needed to finish changing clothes himself.