Christopher Philip Summers | Marvel Boy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
marvel_boy) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
nextgenerationmarvel2012-11-02 01:51 pm
marvel_boy) wrote in nextgenerationmarvel2012-11-02 01:51 pm
Entry tags:
The Once and Future Things
One could learn a lot about the future from the past. That was what Topher was learning by observing the students at the Xavier Institute, watching new relationships echo old ones, noting how old family feuds still existed but took on new and bizarre forms, and seeing how people with similar powers eventually developed similar personalities. For example, the relationship that was developing between his cousin Rachel and Brooke Wyngarde amused and worried him, considering the history between the Wyngardes and the Greys. Plus there was the fact that Brooke tended to expel negative energy the way that most people expelled carbon dioxide. (Except for the ironically, ridiculously conveniently named Willow Woods. She'd actually developed some sort of plant-affinity and took in carbon dioxide and expelled oxygen. Handy to have around if you were ever trapped in a dark, dank room, he figured.) He'd actually spent a day shadowing Brooke, sucking in her energy before he realized that if he spent too much time with her, before soon, he would be knocked out and Animus would be set free.
Given his family's history with wielding great power to terrible effect, he'd since made it a point to avoid Brooke at all costs. After all, it wasn't as though Topher's lineage on his mother's side was known for keeping a cool head. Magneto. Wanda Maximoff. Pietro Maximoff. Lorna Dane, his mother. Potentially Zaladane, though he was still so very unclear when it came to her. Granted, his father's side seemed to have psyches that were far less shattered, but the fact remained that even through marriage, on that side of the family, there had been people who also had issues with power. Rachel generally seemed to be the only one who hadn't gotten overwhelmed with power, which said a lot about her and her mental prowess. People generally looked to Professor Xavier or Aunt Jean as the world's most powerful telepath, but Topher would place his bet on Rachel.
And it was she who was one of the people he modeled himself on - she was strong, smart, a capable leader. Everything he wanted to be one day.
The other influence was, of course, Captain America. Topher set down the comic book he was reading - an old Captain America one, illustrated by Cap himself (an issue in which he punched Hitler) - and stretched. He sometimes wondered about Cap's lineage - how they dealt with the power handed to them - both the power of being descended from an icon and the power that undoubtedly coursed through their veins, courtesy of the super-soldier serum. There was much he could learn from the Sentinel of Liberty, from the example that he set, that would make Topher worthy of one day leading the X-Men...and get him as far away from committing the sort of things that his grandfather did - or that his mother or Aunt Wanda did on their worst days. After all, just because he had this dark, ugly thing inside of him that could burst out when he wasn't careful didn't mean he needed to be tied down to it. Rachel hadn't ever succumbed to the dark side of the Phoenix, and Cap had never let himself fall to any demons in bottles or anything the way some of his colleagues had.
He could do this. He could grow into being a strong, capable, dependable leader. He could learn from the past and bring the X-Men into a brighter future, if they already weren't by the time he was old enough and ready enough to lead. After all, he was learning from the past, and that was one of the best things anyone could do, right?
Given his family's history with wielding great power to terrible effect, he'd since made it a point to avoid Brooke at all costs. After all, it wasn't as though Topher's lineage on his mother's side was known for keeping a cool head. Magneto. Wanda Maximoff. Pietro Maximoff. Lorna Dane, his mother. Potentially Zaladane, though he was still so very unclear when it came to her. Granted, his father's side seemed to have psyches that were far less shattered, but the fact remained that even through marriage, on that side of the family, there had been people who also had issues with power. Rachel generally seemed to be the only one who hadn't gotten overwhelmed with power, which said a lot about her and her mental prowess. People generally looked to Professor Xavier or Aunt Jean as the world's most powerful telepath, but Topher would place his bet on Rachel.
And it was she who was one of the people he modeled himself on - she was strong, smart, a capable leader. Everything he wanted to be one day.
The other influence was, of course, Captain America. Topher set down the comic book he was reading - an old Captain America one, illustrated by Cap himself (an issue in which he punched Hitler) - and stretched. He sometimes wondered about Cap's lineage - how they dealt with the power handed to them - both the power of being descended from an icon and the power that undoubtedly coursed through their veins, courtesy of the super-soldier serum. There was much he could learn from the Sentinel of Liberty, from the example that he set, that would make Topher worthy of one day leading the X-Men...and get him as far away from committing the sort of things that his grandfather did - or that his mother or Aunt Wanda did on their worst days. After all, just because he had this dark, ugly thing inside of him that could burst out when he wasn't careful didn't mean he needed to be tied down to it. Rachel hadn't ever succumbed to the dark side of the Phoenix, and Cap had never let himself fall to any demons in bottles or anything the way some of his colleagues had.
He could do this. He could grow into being a strong, capable, dependable leader. He could learn from the past and bring the X-Men into a brighter future, if they already weren't by the time he was old enough and ready enough to lead. After all, he was learning from the past, and that was one of the best things anyone could do, right?