driftfleet | .05 if i live the life i'm given, i won't be scared to die

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.05 if i live the life i'm given, i won't be scared to die

Who: Rogue and anyone, really
Broadcast: Video, why not?
Action: The Star Space Station
When: Basically all week, Video Sunday afternoon

[ Video ]

[Rogue doesn't really like addressing the fleet at large, so she keeps it brief.]

Alright, folks, here it is - one of the best places we've been yet ta stock up. What's on your 'must bring back to the ship' list an' [more importantly, maybe] how are ya plannin' on storin' it?

[She's got her own list, but she knows the way these things usually go and she doesn't want to forget anything in case it winds up being a long, long dry spell before they hit another place this good.]

[ Action - All week ]

[Sooner or later, Rogue always falls into a routine. She's too well known in the fight circles now to make any real money, so she's taken to working as a chef/bartender at one of the middling-to-fancy restaurants. When not there, she is either 1) shopping (thank you, space gods, for a place that finally carries lipstick) 2) in the 'datary' checking out books to be 3) read in the garden. or jogging in the garden. Let's be honest, being around actual plantlife feels amazing after the desert planet, the frozen planet, and let's not forget -- space. Garden, reading, ~~wine~~ whiskey, chocolate, lipstick -- a good day. And then it was time to start it all over again.]

[By the time Rogue had given Kitty directions to where to meet, she'd had time to get... nervous about it. Which was dumb, but true. They'd talked fine enough over the communicator, why should meeting in person be any different?

In any event, Rogue hopes that Kitty will like the place. It was one of those middle level spots that she could easiest afford, and she's found a table that would let them both have their backs to the wall, let them both keep an eye on the door. She waits, gloved hands curled around her coffee.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He struck out on his own when things got......complicated. [Guess who was at the center of the complication.] They rob from Apocalypse's forces and give to the people who need it. [He actually became Robin Hood, yes.]

[Rogue would probably strike out on that guess.] ...sounds like the sort of thing he'd be good at.

[If only he could see that about himself.] He started off with the X-Men, though? [Pause a beat, try to reconfigure in her mind:] Magneto's X-Men? [...] Ya know, back on my world, Magneto called his team the Acolytes.

[A little bit of a rabbit trail, maybe, a little bit of a reminder to herself that she shouldn't be too interested in alternate Remys because... complications.]

He did. [Well, he probably had other things going back when the world was more than it became, but he'd been with them. She looks at Rogue, not wanting to be thought of as some other, lesser kind of X-Man. Not that it should matter, but... It's not fun hearing over and over that your boss is the bad guy in other worlds.]

He never called us that. Pretty sure he got the X-Men name from Xavier. He was trying to follow his path.

[Rogue turns that around in her mind for a moment and decides she needs more information.]

So - Apocalypse. He's got mutants workin' for him, doin' what? What's he tryin' ta do?

End game? I'm not sure. He just seems devoted to the survival of the fittest mantra. He has his scientists working on ways to bring out the genetic potential of mutants and use some humans as genetic fodder for the Infinites. Mm, those are his soldiers. Some people get pushed into forced labor prisons. But a lot of it is just genocide too. [Not the most uplifting information.]

[No, it wasn't uplifting -- but this was their lives.]

Okay, paint me a picture here - Apocalypse has soldiers, labor camps - he's taken over countries, then? An' genocide is against the normals?

Normals, sure. Humans. Flatscans. [She hasn't used that word in awhile.]

Big chunks of the world were irradiated and damaged to the point you'd barely recognize a map. New York is his stronghold, but all North America is his. There are human settlements in Western Europe. That's where the Human High Council is.

Are you sure you want to know this?

[Rogue only hesitated a moment, but it wasn't due to any fear of a possible horrible future. Rather, she was taking Kitty's measure, trying to decide if it would be worth the cost to the girl to share what had happened to her home. Evidently, Rogue decided Kitty could take it.]

It's your world, isn't it? 'course I want to know it.

[It's not her first time telling these stories. It's not exactly that it gets easier. In some ways it gets harder because with more distance and more exposure to what life is like without all the horror all the time it can make it harder to revisit not just what her world was like but what she was like in the world. She's definitely changed in her time away and she's not always proud of who she was and what she did. But there's still something cathartic about talking about it and definitely more of a bond. She likes feeling understood and that's hard to do if you're hiding a large part of what made you who you are.

Rogue's answer makes her smile.]

Then the fun continues. He had four horsemen.

Edited 2016-03-05 02:29 (UTC)

[Rogue nodded slowly.] Heard tell he was collectin' something like those back home too, but that was after my time.

[So... go on.]

[She smiles.] I'm not even sure what to say. Describe my whole world? What do you want to know?

The basic points, I guess. You said chunks of the world are destroyed -- he did that? Is that what he's tryin' ta do? An' what's the Human High Council? What are we fightin' for?

[She's not much one to invade so much, but how else was she going to understand?]

Part of that was the Human High Council retaliating with nuclear strikes. I don't think he wants to destroy everything. He wants to keep a lot of it for himself while killing off or repurposing anyone he sees as weak.

[Nuclear strikes. Great.]

...so then I'm guessin' the Human High Council isn't as Nazi as it sounds? It's more an attempt for them ta just keep from gettin' wiped out?

Oh, they can be dicks, but they're trying to keep themselves alive. [So she's not too hard on them even if she'll take down their sentinels if they go after her and hers. Or she would if she were still there and there was still a there there.]

[Rogue considered this for a moment. She turned over all the information Kitty had given her, put the pieces together as she took a sip of her drink. Then she set the glass down very carefully, giving the motion far too much attention, before looking back up at Kitty.]

Sounds like a nightmare.

You get to wake up from nightmares. [She manages a smile.] Then again, here I am.

[Rogue was quiet for a moment, then she nodded.] Yeah, ya are. How're ya settlin' in?

It's okay. It doesn't entirely feel real. I keep waking up thinking I'll be back at the prison and all this will be just another psychological thriller of theirs.

Do you feel settled? I know you've been here awhile.

[Rogue shrugs one shoulder.] Yes an' no. I have the hang of it, but space is weird. I've spent time out in it before, an' I'm awful glad ta have the stars in this place, but I can't say I really like it.

I am pretty sure it's real enough, though. [Too many things had been wrong when she'd got here; the balance of her powers had also changed. It wasn't a shift. So.] So - there's that.

I don't think you're really just in my head or anything. [Even if technically everything she experienced in the last year was just in her head while her body was locked up in a life containment pod. She couldn't tell the difference then so she wouldn't be able to tell it now so all she's really saying is she doesn't think her mind is making it up.]

Good. 'cause then I'd be really confused. ['cause, ya know, that's her schtick.]

We wouldn't want that. All real people in bodies and minds. It's a new and exciting adventure. [Except she usually thought of people in the prison like that too. At first because she just believed they were and later because it was easy to forget when all your senses were telling you something.]

I guess I should be doing things like finding a job while were here. How long are we usually at stations like this? Is there a pattern?

[Rogue shakes her head.] If there was, it all got set off when we were pushed into the nebula by that other fleet. Folks'll say that was an 'attack', [she felt it was important to qualify], and they surely were shootin' at us, but they stopped as soon as they had us where they wanted us. Since then, every communication with Atroma's been different - weird an' patchy, and they ain't sendin' us those annoying 'letters from the audience' anymore.

[She just... assumes that people have filled Kitty in on this stuff. Just because she hates talking to newbies about timelines and fending off the same. questions. always. doesn't mean that half the fleet isn't usually falling over itself to do just that, just like in Luceti. And that's why she doesn't even pause to just relate this all back to Kitty's question.] So it's pretty easy ta get a job here, an' they're used ta people comin' an' going. What kinda work do you wanna do?

[She'd heard about the attack before, but Rogue connects some dots that hadn't been connected before. Like the way the communications seem likely directly connected to it. She'd also never heard of the letters from the audience before, but she doesn't ask for a follow up on it. She'll just take this in.]

Want to do? [What does she want to be when she grows up? Too hard to take it there.] Something in my skill set with the most reward for the output. Bonus points if I get to explore in the process.

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.05 if i live the life i'm given, i won't be scared to die

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[ Action ] I'm so sorry I've been so slow. Thank you for putting up with me!

[ Action ] I'm slow myself right now.

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