KINGBREAKER

independent roleplay blog for a personal interpretation of gabriel summers, a.k.a. vulcan, from the x-men franchise/the marvel universe, unaffiliated with any specific fandom. sideblog to @apotheotica, prompts are to be sent over there, not here.

there will be plenty of triggering content ahead, so please read the rules beneath and the profile page before interacting.

rules/guidelines specific to this blog:

the mortal skin that binds them now is on the smaller sight. sleek, delicate, unassuming. the perfect lure for her favorite type of prey: the arrogant and the prideful.

it moves quickly and swiftly through the streets, a dark mass of clouds gathering overhead to signal an imminent rainfall. as if her eldest brother can see her, spites her even now.

it only takes pause when another passes by it on its journey. the sensation starts as a tingle in the back of their skull, then culminates into something akin to a full force blown. they wobble, as if physically struck- fearing for a moment their kin have come to slay them again.

but they don't recognize the face they see, eyeing them with the most mild type curiosity.

"it's rude to stare." it slips harshly off her tongue before she can think better of it.

GABRIEL'S SIGHT IS TWO-FOLD. he sees as all others do, yes, but if he focuses enough, if his powers are active in the right way, he sees beyond the shapes and flesh, sees the energy beneath the creature. most normal humans are unremarkable, their life glowing by itself, little light for a man who has lived among the stars, for a man who has broken planets apart. easy to snuff out if he so wishes.

so much about gabriel's life among the ordinary folk lately has been about control. about learning how to act like a person rather than a thing larger than life; it is hard when his powers make him this way, shape him into a looming creature rather than a man.

it is that very feeling that makes him stop in his tracks, eyes widening at the sudden influx of energy in his radar. whatever is masking itself nearby is good at the job, considering he hadn't felt that surge of dark, otherwordly energy until it had been right by him. perhaps he is getting careless, blinded by how mundane most seem to be, but as he scans his surroundings, golden-orange gaze shifting darker as he looks beyond his eyes, he sees them.

an unassuming vessel, dark tethers all around.

finally, a small break in the horror of a meaningless life.

he can't help but smile, the expression uncanny in his features. "my apologies. i haven't... felt something like you in so very long." the rain clouds above gather but gabriel has never been particularly bothered by the weather. if he so wishes, he can make the rain evaporate before it touches him at a mere whim.

"what are you?"

rude, perhaps, but he has never been too bothered by the convention of manners.

ONE OF THE MOST FEARSOME ASPECTS OF VULCAN'S POWERS may as well be its versatility. energy permeates almost everything in life, in the universe itself, therefore manipulating it to the extent he can makes him a terrifying creature. one thing some may also overlook is how proficient a tracker it makes him: if he knows an energy signature he can track it through the vastness of space, through the ends of earth itself.

it only takes willpower and focus, both of which he has in spades to rectify the mistake of not having been there in the first place.

he hadn't been there when david was caught. gabriel had been elsewhere, following a mission or another too dangerous for anyone else, and he had figured david was far more important remaining behind in the commune. he is their leader, after all. their heart and soul. gabriel is the sword, the weapon; one they should not need but that they still have, for situations like these.

( do not misunderstand: david haller is more than capable of razing their enemies himself. he has not earned the moniker of god-mutant for nothing.

the difference between them is willingness.

david needs good reason to kill, gabriel needs reason to stop killing. )

the others in the commune are afraid of his reaction when he arrives, but his rage for once is quiet. cold. he tells them not to worry, he can solve this. they do not doubt him but he can tell there is fear for how strange his reaction is. he flies above their little refuge and glows like a miniature sun, the tendrils of his own energy extending outwards to find what he seeks for.

when he finds it, he blinks out of view, the speed of his flight breaking sound barrier. he stops just before the facility, hidden in some forest far away from the commune itself, and sneers. hundreds of meters beneath him, the trees begin to burn like the all-consuming rage in the furnace of chest.

now, he can let it loose.

he blasts downwards, breaks through concrete and steel, absorbing the electricity surrounding him like a black hole might, the entire place losing power not because of any structural damage but because of his energy drain. machines stop whirring, lights go out, and whatever organic thing tries to stop him burns at a glance, like a god of fire and wrath has descended upon them.

nothing can survive it to tell the tale of horror of the scene.

"you people don't learn. you people don't stop. we leave, we find our own places, and even so, you still hunt us." he comes close to one of the scientists cornered by his approach. crouching down to their eye-level, he frowns, lowering his temperature just enough not to instantly incinerate them, but they still burn, skin beginning to peel. "i do not understand why david cares for your well-being. lesser beings should at very least know their place, but he is a better man than i. all i can offer you is the mercy i was taught: the finality of death."

he reaches out to grab at them, at their face, and they burn, flesh and skin melting away into charred bones, into something impossible to recognize as formerly human. he stands back up to find who he came for, the signature energy in his mind still clear, much to his relief.

david is stuck to machines, foul things that lost power but remain locked, the inhibitor collar still working perfectly well, likely having a battery of its own. he growls at the impudence of it all as he reaches out to depower it, the irony of the gesture not having gone unnoticed by him. he cracks it open and pulls legion into his arms, all of his deadly heat dying down to a warm embrace as he presses his face to haller's shoulder.

"i would never leave you. i am just sorry i wasn't there to stop this in the first place."

"what does it matter to you? are you here to pick up the pieces for your old friend? i care little for the reparations of manipulators."

the venom in the other omega level's voice is palpable. any person closely affiliated to charles xavier would get a similar rage from the younger mutant, the air around him heating up as a reaction to his emotions.

gabriel summers is a living nuke.

a living nuke with the temper of an angry adolescent.

neither of these are good on their own, but together, they make for a very unfortunate mix.

"en sabah nur was courteous enough to free me after his plans were through, if that is what you are asking. no thanks to any of you." not storm, who had left him to his own fate in the hands of known tyrant, not xavier, who had tried to tamper with his brain, and not even his brothers, the worst betrayers of all, had bothered searching for him after krakoa fell. "i can take care of myself, as i have always done."

WIDE EYES WATCH THE DARK FIGURE. this is but a boy of thirteen at best, curled up in some unknown corner of the sewers in gotham. among the strange things that live here, a scrawny boy with glowing eyes curling up in fear hardly seems like the scariest possible thing one could come across, even if it is still quite odd.

he begins to speak, but what comes out of his mouth is a collective of clicked, hissed words, with a strange birdlike quality to its noises. he is human by birth, but not by upbringing. he seems to catch himself, then, remembering the other language he was haphazardly taught by dai'andral's books and half-lessons.

( he still remembers the scent of her flesh, burning, alongside her feathers. his powers, newly discovered & out of control. the horror, the fear. ever since then, he's lived in fear of himself. )

"it's dangerous. i am dangerous." he sounds afraid as he curls up further into himself, callused hands grabbing onto his own knees. "you should go, sir."