Fever Dream?
Magnetic fields buffered zir, a gentle pulse, soft and controlled. If Eel had a mother, ze felt this was how it would feel like. Warm. So warm.
Quiet baritone words sung in Polish and hummed, with the magnetic fields pulsing and ripping in rhythm, waves tingled down zir spinal rig. Tingles rushed through the sixteen year old’s nerves.
Tucked into a nest of blankets and pillows, ze melted into the crook of a couch. Zir head rested on someone's warm lap, fingers stroked through zir dyed hair. Hands scritched at zir hairline
Eel slowly roused from the comforting black, fully burritoed in the blankets. Whatever had put zir to sleep, there had been no nightmares. Just restful unconsciousness. Maybe ze had passed out after days of no sleep.
Couldn't been Daken stroking zir hair. That wasn't his deal and usually the fucker reeked one way or another with his musky pheromones. Ze decided to stay nestled in the comforting pulse, rhythmic to their heartbeat, buried under the crook of a loving arm, eyes closed.
Daken must've dropped zir off at at Amp's, after ze was doused with relaxation pheromones.
Eel frowned at the thought of Daken shoving zir face into his armpit to get zir to relax.
Zir jackass brother enjoyed that too much.
At least it was for a good cause this time,to get Eel to sleep at zir Kuya's.
Yeah, that must've been it. No one else in zir "family" network had magnetic powers. Fucking Toothpaste, the memory of him a curse, didn't count. Any comfort that X-9 provided, had always ended up in pain and torment from their manufacturers, Transigen.
Eel curled into a ball, thigh nubs being raised to zir chest, arms being tucked in between. Ze leaned into the touch. Kuya worked a lot, it was rare for them to offer this.
The hair stroking became knuckles brushed against zir cheek.. And quiet baritone murmurs. A heavy arm kept Eel tucked into zir Kuya's side, gently held.
Ze kept zir eyes closed. Eel didn't feel any of zir prosthetics or adaptive collar, that was fine. It always felt uncomfortable and strestrictive to sleep with them on. Though ze rarely felt safe enough to sleep as mostly bare meat, nubs and all.
Amp must've worked out recently, the arm wrapped around zir felt...heavier and thicker. His voice sounded deeper. No matter, Eel hadn't seen Amp in a while and ze usually blocked out a lot of sensory info to avoid being overwhelmed.
Eel shifted and schooched more into the sense of warmth and protection under the warm arm.
Nice.
Maybe if Daken didn't stink so much, and kept his mouth shut, ze would sleep more.
Eh, him being home enough to puppy pile was enough. But he was usually out nowadays, to seek pleasure in the redlight district.
Eel noticed that the deep baritone voice spoke in Yiddish.
Odd for Amp, he usually talked to zir in English, or mangled Spanish or broken Ladino.
Durme Durme was a favorite of Amp's. The ladino lullaby soothed Eel on the long nights ze was rescued out of Transigen at age 8.
Too bad ze didn't have zir smart goggles plugged into zir neurojack, Shmeargle translate would help right now.
But...warmth.
Eel happily sighed as the presence wrapped zir tighter in blankets and kissed zir on the forehead. A pleasant electric buzz was left to linger on zir skin.
The Yiddish singing continued. Maybe Amp just wanted to practice his Yiddish? Eel gave a sleepy shrug. It didn’t matter, ze felt safe, a rare emotion for zir.
The arm tightened around zir, the voice’s shushing noises pressed to zir ear.
The Yiddish continued the magnetic field rippled and pulsed out in time to the words.
The pulses comforted zir in the way that rain hit against a glass window or the steady calm rocking of zir boat at night, with the sea winds blowing outside and the tinkle of the wind chimes.
The lyrics seemed familiar, as though Eel had heard them before.
"Ah...the soundtrack to Schindler's list?? "
Eel sleepily muttered that.
The singing stopped.
The grip around zir tightened.
"...No, child." The voice said in English and in a deep voice.
"...it's a song from my childhood, I've sung this to all my other children."
….Eel's eyes snapped open, gaze flickered to the arm wrapped around zir.
Defintely not Kuya.
Wrong skin tone for one. Whoever comforted zir possessed an olive tan, a skin tone commonly found in those of middle eastern descent including Askhenazi Jews. Lighter then Amp’s own dark brown.
Ze eyes looked out to the room, sunlight streamed through large windows and skylights. Family photos and bookshelves covered the steel walls that glinted in the sun.
A Newton's Cradle and tubs of magnetic putty sat on the iron-framed coffee table in front of the couch that ze rested on.
...oh shit.
The magnetic pulses stopped, the magnetic field wrapped around felt still and tense.
….X-9 always had a tense field before being attacked or released a electro-magnetic pulse during bouts of Transigen’s experiments. Amp would tense up his field when he concentrated on a particularly tricky custom prosthetic or when angry at the news.
Eel stayed very still and closed zir eyes, ze didn't know if the tense magnetic field was an example of the former or the latter. Ze didn’t feel like being attacked while half awake and stripped of half of zir body parts.
Whoever held zir, released zir breath and the hairstroking continued. The magnetic field released its tension and started to pulse again. Slowly. Ze felt slowly ripple through zir forehead, down zir neck, it trailed over zir spinal rig, down zir arms and the remaining flesh of zir legs.
…it felt similar to how Eel felt after an ASMR-video binge.
Against zir, older judgement, Eel closed zir eyes.
….this had to be Magneto. Ze didn't know of any other magnetic jewish mutants that knew Yiddish. With this level of control.
…..Fucking Daken dropped zir off at Magneto's house. Ze knew they had met....but this...fuck.
Ze stayed very still. The thought of moving, looking up and confirming it..no. Just no. And ze felt vulnerable. Too vulnerable. No hover-tail, bare leg stumps, an arm holding zir in place while being touched...
...it was always easier to just let the scientists do what they needed to do and then forget what happened...especially if ze was restrained.
Better to stay still. Ze inhaled in and out, trying to stay calm.
The hair-stroking continued and the Yiddish started up again. This time, torn out of sleep and stuck in the awkward position of being too scared to move, Eel was able to make out more of the words, in time with the magnetic pulses.
Oyfn pripetchik brent a fayerl,
Un in shtub iz heys,
Un der rebe lernt kleyne kinderlekh,
Dem alef-beys.
Refrain:
Zet zhe kinderlekh, gedenkt zhe, tayere,
Vos ir lernt do;
Zogt zhe nokh a mol un take nokh a mol:
Komets-alef: o!
Lernt, kinder, mit groys kheyshek,
Azoy zog ikh aykh on;
Ver s'vet gikher fun aykh kenen ivre -
Der bakumt a fon.
Lernt, kinder, hot nit moyre,
Yeder onheyb iz shver;
Gliklekh der vos hot gelernt toyre,
Tsi darf der mentsh nokh mer?
Ir vet, kinder, elter vern,
Vet ir aleyn farshteyn,
Vifl in di oysyes lign trern,
Un vi fil geveyn.
Az ir vet, kinder, dem goles shlepn,
Oysgemutshet zayn,
Zolt ir fun di oysyes koyekh shepn,
Kukt in zey arayn!
Magneto....sounded sad? His voice started out tentative, but it became stronger as Eel relaxed into the voice and the soothing magnetic fields.
Not being fluent in Yiddish made...it difficult to translate, but the rough gist that Eel understood was about a rabbi teaching children the alphabet. Next to a roaring warm fire.
The last stanza was changed from what Eel was familiar with.
Mutant children bearing the exile.
Exiled from one's homes, exiled from one's history, community, and family.
Eel swallowed. Being raised by mad scientists and cyborgs made it hard to relate to regular people. Ze didn't consider zirself a person in the traditional sense.
Being at Temple itself was difficult, too much anxiety, too much stimulus, too much socializing and unwanted touching.
….this was surreal. Waking up to Magneto singing to you, petting you as a beloved child, while wrapped in blankets.
It felt more like a very very bizarre fever dream born out of familial desperation for something, anything, that was comforting.
The song being about using knowledge to find comfort in Exile....yeah ze could relate to that.
As the song ended, ze started to slowly withdraw into the pile of blankets, slipping out of the elder mutant's grip.