INDIGNANT

please don't say you need me, release me.

{evan mock, twenty-four, cis man, he/him} || river alexander masten is a mutant with the ability of wing manifestation. they’ve been in new york all his life where they spend most of their time as a student and resident at the xavier institute. when i think of them, i think of massimo osti jackets, cufflinks gathering dust in a drawer, hands constantly in his pockets, downcast eyes, tense muscles, unsatiated wanderlust, unsaid words kept under his tongue, and the scent of mint, grapefruit, lavender, cranberry, cotton flower, and cactus. they are affiliated with the xavier institute.

click here (or the source link) for his dossier + hmu on dcord @ tin#0007 for plots 👼🏼

“Hmm, unlikely. You know what will fit in your mouth though?” Matteo asked with a wink before leaning down and kissing the other softly. “Just kidding Birdie, I just wanted to steal a nacho” He plucked one of the chips from River’s hands with a grin

“i recon you could,” noah responded with a laugh, “but i’ll be mad if you don’t share with me,” he added, before reaching for a handful of chips. 

with @volitants​ at the xavier institute

Dani isn’t expecting company, but she’s slowly starting to get used to the Institute and the people in it, so when she hears someone walking into the dorm lounge while her back is turned she only jumps a little bit as she turns to see who it is. “Hey, uh. River, right?”

Matteo rolls his eyes as he pushes into the room, “yeah yeah whatever.” He waves off the others question as he uses his foot to shut the door behind him. “Why are you trying to cause drama?”

“I’m Yunjin,” She introduces herself. “I haven’t met much Mutants until in Essex house, and that was a shit show. I think you might be the first person I met with wings as well. How high can you fly?”

It’s probably the most cryptic way to go about this entire conversation, but how does one lead into a conversation where the topic of conversation is: Hey I murdered your Dad against my will. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. “No, no, you didn’t do anything. I just need to–” What does she need to do? Explain herself? Grovel? Apologize? Probably all of the above. “I need to explain something to you, something that happened when I was undercover.” Kind of? She had been caught by that point, but that was neither here nor there. “The night… your Dad died… it was the Brotherhood that was supposed to kill him. It was my job to sabotage them, and it almost worked. But, I was with a mind controller, and she discovered me and what I did.” She takes in a breath, bracing herself for the next words out of her mouth. “She forced me to take us to him. She… made me k-kill him.” She stumbles over the word kill, stomach churning at the confession. “I’m so sorry, I know that doesn’t really mean anything, but I am. I couldn’t stop her or get rid of her. I tried to fight it, but she was too strong.” None of this does him any good, she knows this. But, she desperately wants him to understand that this was not her choice. She was not given a choice. 

“oh.” is all river can say.

after a lifetime of him walking on a tightrope with his father, it’s all he can say. two figures trying, trying, trying to meet in the middle. even now, after he’s dead and gone and buried, he doesn’t know which version of his father he should mourn. is it the father who caught and stopped him from grating off the feathers that began growing on his back when he was eleven? is it the father who unfastened his seatbelt to pull him in for an embrace the second after he’d told him how he felt about boys when he was fifteen? is it the father who’d always told him he could do whatever he set his mind to as long as he found his passion?

those are the only acceptable versions of his father he can mourn. not the one who sat his family down to talk about how they had to keep a tight lid on their mutations for his very first campaign. or the one who told him to be patient because it wasn’t the right time to come out to the public as a family of mutants. or the one who let him walk away from their family when he made up his mind about never protecting people like him—even if it was just for show.

every hope river had, every fear, every sliver of anger—

—all undone in a moment. and by someone who’d been unwilling to kill him.

“oh,” he says again, quieter this time. “look, you—you came to me at a bad time. i—i got a lot going on right now, and…” river’s eyes shift, unsure how to string up the next bunch of words coming out of his mouth. “i get it, like, yeah, you were doing your mission or whatever, and—” it only hits him right then that he’s looking at his father’s murderer. willing or not.

morbidly, river chuckles. “fuck, dude, i always thought whoever killed my dad would look more like blofeld or something.” maybe a seasoned hitman who felt no remorse. or someone who had some clever speech to orate before doing the deed. it was nothing like that, apparently. “but… it’s just you.”

he awkwardly scratches the back of his head, nails digging deep against his scalp as he does. he feels tears prick at the back of his eyes. “i mean, he wasn’t a good guy, so. and not that i’m, like, a fan of the brotherhood or anything, no—they’re a bunch of even worse freaks than we are—but i get it… i get it. if it didn’t happen then, it would’ve happened eventually, right? he’s—he’s not a good guy.” river flashes another breathy chuckle at finley—but this time, it’s unclear whether he’s laughing or crying. his hands are shaking, and only now does river notice his nervousness: how his fingers have been drumming against the pocket of his jeans for what feels like an eternity.

         there’s heaviness in the air between them, shared by a common understanding—they owe much to the world they live in. at least, they feel that they do. but joseph is equally eager to get away from topics like that. haven’t they all suffered enough? they might not be entirely in agreement with the idea that training is supposed to be fun ( the theory work is a slog! ) it doesn’t have to be marred by them considering their burdens. “i’m not very good at throwing punches yet,” they admit, edge of their lip twitching with the beginnings of a smile. “honestly, i don’t think i’m very good at fighting in general. what do you think about it?”

    “i know. what happened? is this was a crisis feels like?” she groaned but then a stern nod followed. “keep on… keepin’?” one eyebrow raised. surely that meant just keep going or something but she didn’t want to assume. “everything does suck, i’ll give you that. who would actually attack here. i mean, a lot of people would after it’s true form is known but still, who would actually go through with it? i’ve tired to look for the good in people but it’s not looking so great, like it’s missing.” then the rain started. “urgh!”

“wait if you can’t get your wings wet how do you take a shower?” noah asked his eyes wide as he looked at river. seeing as it hadn’t occurred to him that river couldn’t go swimming, he definitely hadn’t put any thought into the logistics of taking a shower. “i mean sometimes,” he shrugged, “my mom tries to keep my schedule full. i think she’s worried i’d get into trouble otherwise,” he continued, his brow momentarily furrowing, “also i don’t know many people with pools.”

   “oh…” she repeated, this time with less shock and less passion. “i wouldn’t say it’s just you. a lot has happened.” things looked different to her now. hina had been the professor that hadn’t mind the students laughing at her whimsical nature but she now felt flat as she continued to think about what had happened, that a place of education was attacked… but perhaps it wasn’t a place of education at all and that made her uneasy. “i would laugh in a normal situation but i don’t find it funny.”

“River, open the door” Matteo whisper shouted, knocking on the door with his knuckles. This hadn’t been how he was expecting his night to go, but here he was, trying to stop relationships from imploding.

location: the pool @ xavier’s participants: noah sanouk & river matsen ( @volitants​ )

“i could get used to this,” noah smiled as he sat down on the edge of the pool, careful not to let his robe touch the water as he submerged his feet. “i can’t remember the last time i had a pool day,” he smiled as he slowly undid the belt of his robe and shrugged it off. “are you just going to stand there?” he asked, eyebrow arched as he leaned forward to scoop a handful of water to splash river. 

“Maybe, I mean, I hope so.” Though, things couldn’t be normal again. Not after she lost both Theo and David, there was no way for things to be “normal again”. “Normal is whatever we deem to be normal for us. Like, you being a bird? Me causing mini tornadoes wherever I go? That’s normal.” To them, maybe not to non-mutants but that didn’t matter. “Do you not want to become a superhero?” 

“Don’t worry, we don’t have to talk about that. I can imagine that’s all ‘been talked about to you. But hey, welcome to the Dead Father’s club.” River would know that Jaewon’s been there.  “Shit’s my life’s boring. The only interesting thing that’s happened to me is I had to deal with a guy who wanted to get his dick tattooed.”

Her muscles relaxes, however she continues to watch him warily as he takes his place next to her, when she does not detect any threat from the winged-stranger, she turns her lower body back to their human form, now she’s sitting barefoot, talons gone to mimic how he is sitting. “There’s a lot of places, you know? But this is close to where I live.” She shakes her wings to ruffle her feathers. “My wings are a bit different from yours. So that’s cool.”