PRODIGAL SON

"you keep this up and soon...bang bang...you'll cry havok!"

[xhcvok-blog]

@phocnixrises

“Jean,” Alex tries to keep his voice even and puts a hand on her shoulder, doesn’t miss the way that she flinches. The mansion is in a state of chaos with students and teachers alike in various states of terror--Alex feels like he has enough energy inside of him to destroy the mansion and everyone inside of it and he’s barely been keeping it controlled, and he keeps seeing Mister Sinister over the shoulders of people--the threat of being dragged away from his brother unspoken and imminent. He’s been trying to keep it together for the student’s sake, to keep Scott focused on making the right calls for the school rather than worrying about him--but he feels like he’s wearing thin, that the little boy that he just deposited in the safety of the danger room must have been able to feel that he is as scared as anyone. 

Seeing Jean right now makes him feel marginally better, but it also reminds him that the burning feeling, the blue glow underneath his collarbones, could incinerate her any second now if he doesn’t focus. “Are you all right? You should get down to the Danger Room, the air is being filtered down there--something about a gas?” A little girl with cat’s eyes barrels into his leg and wraps her small arms around it, and he scoops her up and balances her against his hip. “I’m gonna go find Scott--I don’t want him going through this alone, and I’m sure he’s gonna need to see the real me.” Mister Sinister grins over her shoulder, and Alex tries to push the memory of his brother curled in on himself with a migraine to the back of his mind. 

[xmenreligion]

Brothers&Sisters

[xhcvok-blog]

CAN’T TAKE THE KID FROM THE FIGHT || ALEX SUMMERS

i. songs for teenagers || fake problems ii. camisado || panic! at the disco iii. figure it out || royal blood iv. i’m not part of me || cloud nothings v. thunder/young dumb & broke || imagine dragons, khalid vi. wooderson || the gaslight anthem vii. break me out || the rescues viii. famous last words || my chemical romance ix. i’m so sorry || imagine dragons x. night is young || empires xi. i wanna get better || bleachers xii. underdog || you me at six

pinterest

[xhcvok-blog]

Alex can’t hold back a startled laugh at that, an actual joke out of the mouth of Scott Summers. He feels privileged in a way he’s never going to be able to explain, like he wants to horde that moment of simple brotherly stupidity away in his heart for himself alone--time and distance have made him selfish, eager to steal away these things that should have been his to begin with. He spent an entire childhood playing them out in his head when the amalgamation of ToddandAlex became too blurred or weighed too heavily on him--wondering what Scott might have said if he were there, what his face might have looked like when Alex told him about kissing the captain of the baseball team outside of the homecoming dance, or if they would have been the kind of brothers that pretended not to know each other during school, but were best friends outside of it. He rolls his eyes here and now, the grin on his face every bit like the cat who got the canary. “Say what you will about their morals, but homicidal maniacs don’t get off on lying about what they want. And neither does the idiot with radiation burns I put in Rikers last week.” He’s a little bit proud of it--he’s becoming a better hero and getting better at controlling his powers--he could be someone that Cyclops could call on. 

“That’s only by virtue of the fact that you’re one of the tallest people here. And now you’ve got me, who has the same long legs and competitive streak. I’ll get you.” He grins woflishly, starts to shift his weight from foot to foot. The energy is starting to accumulate inside of him, like water straining against a dam--if he moves around it feels like he’s able to control it better. He rolls his eyes as yet another terrible joke falls out of his brother’s mouth, but at this rate he’s pretty sure that between the energy inside of him and the happiness he’s feeling it’s damn near like standing next to a generator. He’ll be surprised if he’s not actually glowing blue. “You’re on.” He says, and his face softens for a fraction of a second. “Just--promise me you’ll stop if your head starts to hurt or anything, yeah?” Scott’s inability to take care of himself is damn near legendary, and Alex was never there to advocate for that when he should have been--he pushes memories of swinging at adult caretakers in the orphanage in an effort to protect his brother when one of his migraines started up. He doesn’t even know if Scott still gets them--but Alex is sure that even if he did he’d keep the information to himself. 

[xhcvok-blog]

Alex was never afforded the chance to really get comfortable in his own body--he had to focus his energy on protecting Scott inside of the orphanage, and after that he had to play at being Todd--and then the whole shooting plasma out of his chest thing had happened and that had been a whole other thing to make him feel like he was watching himself from behind a barrier. Now he’s literally in someone else’s skin, and it still feels like he wants to crawl out. He spares a cursory glance around the room to make sure that no one else is around (he’s not keen for Scott to get word of this just yet, Alex is pretty much a hero in his own right at this point, but his older brother is always going to be laser blast the entire city until the culprit reveals themselves, ask questions later, when Alex is in danger), and lets some of the composure that he’s been trying to hold himself with slip--he’s safe for the moment being, Barbara is potentially the most levelheaded person he’s apparently ever met, and they haven’t had a proper conversation yet. 

“I’m good, but I imagine that’s because I’m not in any danger of expelling a bolt of plasma any time soon--for the first time in a while.” He chuckles, a little breathlessly as he slides into a chair across from her. From himself. He looks different somehow--he really is tall, even sitting he has at least a head on Barbara, and he’s pretty pleased in that moment with the decision to have grown his hair out--he looks pretty separate from Todd, so that’s something. “I gotta admit, I pretty much expected the worst--I can barely control it and I’ve been working at it for the better part of a year now. But, by the looks of everything I saw--you’re definitely smarter than me, so.” He shrugs his shoulders and worries his bottom lip between his teeth. “So, uh, I don’t really know what to do. This is weird, and I definitely didn’t do anything out of the ordinary last night--did you?” 

[xhcvok-blog]

The subject of his adopted family is one he hasn’t found a way to really bring up with Scott beyond the basics--with all of the things that have been going on in his older brother’s life recently, it’s just been better to focus on the fact that they are together now, despite all the years of separation. Jean, the family that he didn’t know that he had until it was too late, and then suddenly not too late again, is pretty much the only person who knows any of the specifics--that knows about the ghost of the boy he had never met that continues to follow him around, even here. He wonders if she can tell when he’s thinking about the Blandings versus when he’s thinking about other things, if that’s why she’s awake now--even if it isn't, he’s more grateful than he could ever vocalize to her, another fact that he’s sure she knows by now. It’s pretty much a family trait--not knowing what to do with other people’s kindness. “Would you believe me if I said it was the Horrors of Spider Island?” He chuckles and sighs, worries his bottom lip between his teeth. 

“Hayley, my adopted sister, is getting married. She wants me there, but--my feelings are--mixed.” He keeps his eyes focused on the television in front of him, on the reflection on the liquid in his mug. It feels like he’s just starting to settle into himself--he has his brother back, he has Jean who is every bit a member of his family, and he’s still terrified of his power for the most part--but he’s getting better at it. He’s not afraid of his name being called when dangerous situations come up--he’s not sure about the long term, but he can see a version of himself that could be just as much a part of all of this as Scott and Jean are. Seeing his adopted parents again--he just doesn’t need to be reminded of it. “I love her, but I don’t--want to deal with the rest of it. Not when I actually feel--okay.” 

[xhcvok-blog]

🔅

🔅: What’s a place that holds special meaning to them? Why?

Alex may not always feel like he fits at the mansion, but it’s always going to be the place where he was reunited with his brother after being separated for the most formative years of their lives. It wasn’t a moment filled with tears and grand gestures of affection, but even having Scott in front of him, pressing something warm into his hands and telling him that he was safe felt momentous, and like something he could believe in for the first time in a long time. 

[xhcvok-blog]

🔥: What’s a place that left them motivated in some fashion?

The Living Pharaoh kidnapped Alex and dragged him all the way to Egypt, forced a telepathic link between them so that he could steal Alex’s power and use his body to send massive shockwaves--Alex will always be motivated by Egypt because of that. He’d been content to keep his head down and keep living as Alex and Todd up until that point--but after that, he decided that he needed to embrace who he really was, even though that appeared to be really dangerous and unstable then. He wasn’t going to let anyone use him again. 

[xhcvok-blog]

☩, ✨, 💋

☩: Do they practice any sort of religion? If so, is it the same as their family’s?

Alex doesn’t practice any kind of religion, mostly as a reaction to his upbringing with his adopted family. They went to mass every Sunday, and Alex was expected to as well--which was explained to him when he tried to suggest that even though he might not have any recollection of his parents, they might have practiced a different religion. Once he moved into the mansion, it was a way to assert his individuality. 

✨: What motivates them? Is it a deep rooted passion/motivation, or is it something they struggle with from time to time?

Alex is motivated by a desire to be in control of his own destiny--and an anger at all of the ways he hasn’t been able to up until moving into the mansion. He wants to find out who he is as a person, as a brother, and as a hero, on his own terms--which is frustrating a lot of the time. He uses anger as a motivation a lot of the time as well, for a while it was one of the only things that could trigger his power, along with fear. 

💋: Where did they have their first kiss? Do they remember who it was with?

It was the captain of his high school baseball team during his senior year, on the bleachers while a school dance raged inside. They both knew that nothing more could come of it than that, moments stolen when no one else was looking, so they left it there. Alex liked him a lot, but he also knew that it wouldn’t have been fair to subject him to a life that Alex didn't even like. 

[xhcvok-blog]

Alex is far more interested in what’s going on in Lorna’s life, what’s caused her to draw so far into herself--but that’s part of the reason why they get along so well. Both of them are objectively terrible at talking about their feelings, and far more inclined to punch things as a method of coping--but he thinks that the fact that she’s here right now, a smile on her face that seems to reach her eyes in a way that it hasn’t in a while, means that she might be getting closer to trusting him with--whatever it is she’s been struggling with. He huffs out a laugh and shrugs his shoulders when Lorna asks him how he’s doing--he wonders if there’s ever been a time in his life when that question wasn’t loaded to all hell. “I’m thinking about getting my masters--but that would mean being away from the mansion more. And I don’t--know if I want that. Scott needs me here, y’know?” He takes a long sip of coffee, drags a hand through his hair before flopping back into his desk chair. 

“I think I’ve opened and closed this page about--500 times? And that’s not to mention Hayley texting me about wedding dresses, as if I know what the hell the differences are.” He laughs and rolls his eyes, props his feet up on the edge of his bed. He feels his face soften as he takes in his best friend among the chaos of his living space, and for once it feels like they could be any twenty somethings--complaining about family and the terrifying nature of committing to something. A slow smile spreads across his face and he nudges her ankle, twists back and forth gently in his chair. “C’mon, tell me something. You’re not still hooking up with that one guy--the one with the tech startup? I miss waking up to texts asking if the nice body makes up for being a part of the capitalist hellscape.” 

[summcrseye]

@xhcvok

There were years of Scott’s life that were nothing more than a vague fog, beginning with the accident that took his parents and continuing long after that point. The orphanage was a time that he doesn’t like to look back on fondly or otherwise, but the specifics of it are lost to him. It is probably for the best, Scott assumes. After all, the important things remained regardless of what traumas he faced, what battles and villains he stood through and against. He remembered his brother, knew his face the second he saw him, felt the relief run through his veins as he went towards Alex and wanted, more than anything, to put his arms around him and tell him that everything was going to be fine.

He didn’t, of course. Scott had never been the kind of man who indulged even his most simple of fantasies. Finding his brother again was something that had once seemed impossible, and that was enough good fortune that he didn’t wish to ruin it with something like sentimentality. The last time he had his arms around Alex, after all, they had been plummeting to near certain death. He brought his brother back to the school, spoke to him in only the barest of terms, and late at night, when everyone else was asleep, he allowed himself to bring Alex a cup of cocoa and sit, silently, beside the fire.

Things had progressed since that point. Scott had progressed, regressed, changed in every way that mattered in the past few years, and through it all, Alex had been by his side. “I know what you’re going to say,” Scott said, nudging his brother away from him as they walked to the centre of the Danger Room, the sliver of a smirk on his face, “but just because we’re immune to each others’ powers doesn’t mean we’re useless to each other in training. What simulation do you want to go with today?” Scott had never been one for talking, at least when unaccompanied by action.

[xhcvok-blog]

“Are you sure you wanna do this?” Scott’s face may only hint at a smirk, but one spreads across Alex’s own features easily. He had been hesitant to accompany his older brother to the Danger Room--he’s not exactly confident in his ability to control his powers, and he’s not exactly eager for the great and powerful Cyclops to see that--but the small nudging of his older brother’s shoulder against his own is enough to cause warmth to spread through him, to feel like he’s here with Scott rather than the leader of the X-Men. He’s sure that in the twists and turns of grief and guilt and all of the other weights his brother carries with him, Scott thinks that he needs large displays of brotherly affection and hours and hours of time devoted just to the two of them--but Alex has always been more like him than he realizes. Just being down here, with the hint of a smile and the brush of a shoulder, Alex knows that this is his brother’s version of hanging out with him, just because he wants to. “Immunity or not, I’ve been told by several homicidal maniacs after my bloodline that I’m more powerful than you.” 

He fidgets with the plate on his chest--something that Hank had come up with to help him control his blasts, and shrugs his shoulders. “Your idea, your potential revenge for embarrassment on the basketball court, you chose.” Alex takes a deep breath and feels the energy start to flow through him with a little more activity, like it’s turning circles around him. He’s never asked if Scott’s mutation feels the same way, considering it’s basically the same thing channeled through a different part of him, but standing next to him now he feels like he’s practically radiating it. “We could make things interesting, like--first one to fall goes into the city and gets pizza from that one place?” He raises an eyebrow in challenge, nudges Scott’s shoulder again. 

[xhcvok-blog]

@phocnixrises

“Yeah, yeah, of course I’ll be there.” Alex rolls his eyes and smiles gently at the image on his laptop screen, his adopted sister’s face moving from visibly relieved back to incandescently happy. “As long as mom keeps the freak of nature stuff to herself, we’ll be fine. Maybe I’ll get Scott to come with me, I’d like for you to meet him.” Alex has his issues with his adopted family, but he’s reminded in that moment that Hayley has always existed separately from them in a way--even in the grief of losing her brother she had always made Alex feel like he was wanted as Alex, a favor that he could never begin to repay her for, and that had forever endeared her to him--even though she has repeatedly told him that saving her life from the boy that had killed Todd was more than enough for a lifetime. They still meet up regularly, and ever since she’d gotten engaged, she’s been determined to involve him as much as possible--which is why he’s reluctantly accepting her invitation to go shopping for a wedding dress. 

He hangs up with her a few moments later, but the uneasy feeling has already settled in the pit of his stomach. He loves his sister dearly, but he doesn’t want to see his adopted parents again--especially now that he’s keenly aware of what he lost in the time that he spent in their home, time that could have been spent protecting Scott, or learning how to use his mutant ability sooner instead of incinerating someone on accident. It’s a problem that doesn’t immediately present a solution, and he’s been unable to stop turning it over in his brain even though he’s trying to sleep. Eventually he decides it isn't worth trying anymore and wraps his blanket around his shoulders, makes for the common area downstairs. It’s blessedly empty, considering people are constantly moving in and out of the mansion at any hour, and he settles with a mug full of some tea that Hank swears by and a terrible sci-fi movie from the 50′s called The Horrors of Spider Island. 

He’s about thirty minutes into it when he feels a gentle hand on his shoulder, a familiar gesture from an all too familiar and warm face. “Looks like I’m not the only one who can’t sleep.” He says in way of greeting, gestures for her to sit down.  

[starlitmemes]

More & More! Headcanons

Send some symbols to hear about more in-depth about my muse(s)!

World Views/Experiences †: Did they come from a religious family/culture? ☩: Do they practice any sort of religion? If so, is it the same as their family’s? 📿: Have they ever had a supernatural experience? 💣: Did they ever get caught in a situation because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time? ✨: What motivates them? Is it a deep rooted passion/motivation, or is it something they struggle with from time to time? 💊: Have they ever dabbled in drugs? If so, what kinds? ☣: Have they ever been severely ill? If so, did it leave an effect on their overall health in the long run? 💉: Do they suffer from any sort of chronic illness or bodily fragility? ✪: Have they ever let a rare opportunity slip them by?

Locations 🔅: What’s a place that holds special meaning to them? Why? 💧: Are there any places they avoid? If so, why? 🔥: What’s a place that left them motivated in some fashion? 💋: Where did they have their first kiss? Do they remember who it was with? 🌟: Do they have any places they want to go before they die? For what reasons do they want to go there? 🌙: Where is the most unusual place they’ve fallen asleep at?

People ✘: Who do they detest the most? Do they typically avoid this person or antagonize them? 👊: Have they ever been involved in a physical fight? 💞: What was their first love like? 💔: Have they ever had their heart broken? If so, why or how did it happen? 💍: Have they ever been engaged before? What broke it off if so? 💛: Have they have sex? If not, are there any personal reasons why?

[xhcvok-blog]

@canaryofprcy @bctwiing @thencvaprime @osbornsgcblin @fastasquicksilver

[xhcvok-blog]

@magneticmistrcss

Being someone else has been--a mixed bag, thus far. He hates that he feels good at it, it reminds him of the worst days at home with his adopted family, when his father would slip up with a casual Tod--I mean Alex, or when his mother would touch his shoulder and croon that Todd used to love this, I thought you might as well. He fought so long to be Alex Summers again, and now suddenly he’s literally a complete stranger. He likes the feeling of holding himself like he’s not a threat, but he also kind of misses the strange and ever constant thrumming of energy moving through him, waiting for him to call on it and expel it--it’s a sudden silence after he was just learning to live with the noise of himself. 

He huffs out a breath and flops down on Lorna’s bed, crosses his hands over his--Barbara’s--stomach. “The good news is that I don’t think Scott suspects anything--if he knew what was going on he would lose his whole ass mind, you know he treats me like I’m made of glass most of the time.” He rolls his eyes, but a familiar warmth swells in the pit of his stomach when he thinks about his brother, even though his good intentions are more often than not a little stifling. “Bad news is, I’m pretty sure he thinks I have a girlfriend--even though my girlfriend would really be me.” He can’t help but laugh at the sheer absurdity of the situation, drag his hands down Barbara’s face. Carefully of course, they’d made solemn promises not to wreck each other’s bodies before they could give them back. 

[xhcvok-blog]

@batgirlsback

Alex wakes up to the sound of an alarm going off--not an all together uncommon occurrence, he has classes to teach and a standing breakfast date with Scott, and he likes to burn off some energy with an early morning run. He doesn’t think twice about it, until he reaches for his phone and his hand hits the empty air, and he realizes that the alarm going off isn’t the sound he remembers it being. He can feel the panic start to flood through him as he takes in his surroundings, but it’s not accompanied by the warm flood of energy just underneath the surface of his skin, in the pit of his chest. It’s just panic, pure and unaccompanied by the threat of the sudden expulsion of energy. It carries him out of the bed and into the bathroom to confirm his suspicions--that he’s not currently inside of his own body. 

The panic seemingly floods him in double time when the actual meaning of that statement really settles in his brain--that there’s someone in the mansion right now with his body, and more importantly his potentially destructive mutation--and no idea how to control it. Luckily whoever this is doesn’t seem to be too fussy--and he manages to find jeans and a hoodie that won’t look too much like an idiot put them together in a short amount of time. He has no idea if they’ll even let him into the mansion as a complete stranger, and he can’t bring himself to consider the possibility that his body might do serious damage to it and the people inside--potentially to his own brother. He just needs to get there--that’s what he has to focus on. 

Not for the first time he curses the distance between the mansion and the heart of the city--a veritable wall separating it from the outside world--but he breathes a sigh of relief when he finally lays eyes on it and sees that it isn’t a smoldering pile of ashes. He manages to sneak past Scott and several students, finds himself (and what a weird thought that is) sitting tensely in front of a pile of papers at the dining room table. “Alex,” He clears his throat and sets his mouth in a straight line. “How are you--feeling?” 

[xhcvok-blog]

@colcnelcheeseburger

Alex has only faint memories of his father--hands wrapped around a small wrist, a giggle after being thrown into the air and caught yet again, anything more detailed was obliterated by the crash. He found out later from Scott, when Alex had been hungry for details about what little life Alex Summers had apart from Alex Blandings, that Christopher Summers had been in training to become an astronaut--and that had felt like something sliding into place, an explanation for his own restlessness, his own longing for something that he doesn’t think he’ll ever find. When Captain Marvel had waltzed into the mansion looking for the professor, exuding the kind of confidence that he’s sure can only come from having faced down the literal expanses of the universe, he had found himself wondering if his father had been anything like that--if he had walked with his head held high, if he had the same kind of brightness in his eyes (Scott had said that Alex resembled their father more than he did, so maybe that was something he carried as well). 

That was the primary reason he made sure that he was one of the X-Men that she dealt with regularly--he was hoping that he could somehow absorb a missing piece of himself through someone else. But then they had fallen into a weird sort of friendship--Carol had powers that were somewhat similar to his own and she helped him feel less afraid of using them, and maybe she could tell that Alex was as lonely as they came, even in a house full of people and his flesh and blood brother. It doesn’t really matter to him how, he’s just grateful to have it now, and he's grateful--as he storms out the mansion and ends up at Avengers Tower, energy buzzing just below the surface of his skin. He’s already seen Tony Stark firmly steer clear down a separate hallway as he hunts for her in the building--and he huffs when he finally finds her idly flipping through channels on a massive television. “Carol,” He flops down on the couch, folds his arms across his chest. “Tell me you have a lead on something I can obliterate.” 

[marvel-dc-art]

Astonishing X-Men v4 #13 - “Until Out Hearts Stop” (2018) pencil by Greg Land ink by Jay Leisten color by Frank D’Armata