driftfleet | eins (video/action)

Entry tags:

eins (video/action)

Who: Darkholme and whomsoever dares.
Broadcast: Fleet-wide
Action: Marsiva
When: March 4th

Broadcast (can also be an action option for anyone close enough to hear the racket):
[The communicator comes online in the middle of clattering to the floor, bouncing and skidding until it ends up wedged against something that props it at an odd angle. Most of what it shows is a bland view of the ceiling, though the audio of a heavily-accented German voice grumbling is clear as a bell.]

Goddammit, what part of let me d--what the? [There' s a loud implosion of air, with a similar bamf sound echoing further away. The voice mutters something, words indistinct but tone harsh. The clarity increases with the volume as the owner of the voice begins to swear emphatically, lapsing halfway through into truly inventive German, punctuated by the sounds of clattering and movement. Someone just realized his swords are missing.]

Action:
[Sometime after he's calmed down (and hopefully found the communicator/been given a heads-up on the situation, Kurt temporarily gives up on retrieving his swords and goes exploring his temporary home. Feeling vulnerable without his weapons and with a distinct lack of shadows to blend in to, he opts to scurry along the ceiling on fours in lieu of using the floor like a normal person. It also lets him inspect the ceiling for visible cameras, ventilation shafts, wiring, or anything to give him information about their captors' technology level.

Occasionally he stops near one of the huge windows, the view catching his attention even after he's given up on recognizing any of the stars. Kurt's been in space before, but never for long and always too busy fighting to get a good look at the sky. His own world is so polluted with the aftermath of two wars that the stars are hazy--and that's on the clear nights. It's not a good time to catch him on the floor, but it is a good one to catch his attention without interrupting anything.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[His scowl wavers minutely when she responds, because taking that without a blink and firing back at him is--pretty close to what he'd have expected from the one he knew. More claws, but time enough for that if or when they're in the same place.

If this isn't a trick.] Missing a surname there, aren't you? Common enough face, I'd hate for you to get egg on yours.

[He's expecting a different surname? Why would that be unless he's used to people from other realities too?]

Got in trouble last time I mentioned it to a Nightcrawler. [And by trouble she just means he looked all sad and uncertain. Which is much harder to deal with than the cursing and threats.] Not as close to his Mom I guess.

They don't tend to be. [He doesn't even blink at the concept of other versions of himself, and why would he? He spent nearly a year in the world they were trying to make their own into.] Heard of one who decided to join the priesthood. Is that the one you've met?

[He actually doesn't much care yet whether the version he kept getting mistaken for is here. Kitty's reaction is what he's fishing for, something to combat or confirm the sinking feeling in his gut that she's exactly who she claims to be.]

He did what now? [Definitely surprised and incredulous of that one.] No, I met the teenager who's also here by the way.

[And it's her turn to ask some questions.] How do you think I died? [Not why. That's clear enough to her, but the how would really narrow things down.]

[Despite the situation, he flashes a sharp and bright grin.] What, can't see me giving benediction to the poor and downtrodden desperate? I'm hurt, right in my withered heart.

[The grin fades when she mentions a teenage version of himself, and vanishes completely when she asks how she died. 'Your bastard husband trampled you to death in a rage and if LeBeau hadn't killed him I would have,' is the most true answer, but if this is Kitty (and he's realizing it might well be) then it's still his job to protect her. She's an X-Man.] You died in the final battle against Apocalypse, at least that's what I thought. We won, by the way. He's been dead for years.

[She really, really can't imagine it. He hated religion. At least her Kurt did. And if he'd given the answer he thought she'd be certain now that is exactly who she's talking to. As it is she's not sure what to make of it.]

He's dead? [That wasn't exactly their goal that day. Other than the way it was their goal every day. And none of them would have remembered the mission in the first place, would they? It's not the ending she painted in her mind with hints from wardens she knew better than to trust and bits from her conversation with Logan here. It's also hard to imagine. A world where he's really and truly dead? Definitely a good thing. Maybe that's why it's so hard to believe.]

That doesn't sound right. We were using the M'Kraan Crystal to change things. [She sounds confused and a little disappointed. Despite herself she was starting to think it was him.]

[Oh, this one still hates religion of all kind with a passion. But the last few years of horror and a couple more being loved by a woman who inspired him to better himself have sanded down the edges a little. Very little. As it is, the thought of Saint Wagner and his idiotic life choices makes his upper lip curl slightly.]

It didn't work, not the way we thought it would. Our guest wasn't completely insane; I've seen the world he spoke about. Lovely place, if you can ignore the fact that our kind were fewer in number. But ours kept going as well, right alongside it. We won the war, started rebuilding our world. Some of us found women foolish enough to marry us. [He's choosing his words carefully, as much from a belated concern about their privacy as a desire not to hit Kitty with the bad news over a video feed. She was so close to Logan, he'll risk a set of claws to the gut if it means she'll have someone close when he tells her what the man became.

And yes, he's realizing that, despite his reservations, he's starting to treat her like she is who she claims to be. His mother would shoot him, but he's tired. Their world is dead, the X-Men with them, and he just wants for a little while to believe that really is a friendly face.]

Kurt? [The name comes out softer than before. It's almost like she's saying it for the first time, because this time it's not just "any Kurt" it's "my Kurt?" The news he's bringing her is surprising and she's not sure how she feels about it, after spending a year adjusting to the narrative she believed, but it pales in comparison to the thought that he's here. Someone from her world is actually with her again.]

I can't get to your ship. [Seeing him in person feels very important right now.] Not until they send you to one of the others.

[He really wouldn't have expected that change in tone to hit him so hard, but it steals the breath from his lungs in one fell swoop. She sounds so much like her, and so much like the Pryde he'd been deliberately cruel to. The next one he draws in is shaky, and the expression he offers her weary.] Gott I hope so. I've spent the last--close to a year surrounded by strangers with faces I know. You look better with short hair, in my opinion.

[It's a minor relief to have an excuse to scowl, hide behind annoyance while he regains his equilibrium.] Of course not, that would be a kindness on the behalf of our kidnappers. Do we know anything about them? Or how long I'm likely to be trapped here? [He moves closer to the windows as he speaks, walking for fear teleportation will sever the connection.]

[She could not care less about the Atroma right now.] They don't matter. [Okay, they matter and she's happy to tell him everything she's learned, but they aren't an immediate anything. Maybe the rest of this isn't either, but it feels urgent after a year away from home.]

Where have you been? A place like this? [Another place bringing the realities together?]

[They matter a lot, but right now he's in accordance with Kitty. Whoever these people are doesn't matter as much as regrouping, as getting to hold her and feel her breathe. They buried her.] Nein. Some of our war criminals managed to escape from our world into the one our guest was from. I volunteered to hunt them down and bring them back for trial or execute them there, ended up spending time with a splinter group of the X-Men. Logan was one of them; Dead Man Wade was another. They went by Wolverine and Deadpool there.

[She watches him, just taking in every detail she can through the video. There are so many questions. Some of which she's not ready to ask.] The Logan who's here...I think he might be from there. [She'd heard the "Wolverine" thing before.]

I've been here for a month, and I was in a prison—a nice one—for almost a year before that. They pulled me from home just seconds before... [You know.]

[With how closely she's watching, she might catch how his jaw tenses minutely when she mentions Logan being here. He certainly hopes it's a different Logan; he can't justify his betrayal of X-Force to himself, much less to anyone else.] He'll be furious with me, no doubt. He was very close to his version of me, the one who decided to be a goddamn priest of all things. [And there's the sneer, along with with the small expression changes that generally mean he's rolling his eyes.]

I suppose it would be hypocritical of me to be angry at your wardens, considering the circumstances. [That doesn't mean he won't be. What crime did she commit in anyone's eyes but Apocalypse's? However..] You knew before I told you.

I didn't know at first. [Because every part of her believed he'd stop. Of course he'd stop. That's why she didn't phase.] Then one day a couple of months in they decided to give us a little gift—videos that showed glimpses into our futures back home. The ones we would have had if we weren't in prison. Mine was blank. I figured it was because of resetting the timeline at first, but when I asked about it they showed me the seconds I was missing. [Nothing like a bird's-eye-view of your husband crushing you to death. She wants to ask about Piotr again, but she can't quite make herself.]

Why is Logan going to be mad? He doesn't care that I'm not like his version of Kitty. [He even gave her a cigar.]

Gott, Kitty. [He really wants to hold her right now, and find some way to kill these people she's talking about. What kind of way is that to tell a woman she died? The years might have worn away at the morals he clung so harshly to, but at least he still has enough decency to be appalled at that.

It takes him a second to focus on her question, distracted by the thought of his team-mate finding that out alone and the revived consideration of how close that nearest ship is, anyway.] Hmm? Oh. I--the last thing I remember is feeling the life being drained out of me. If that's the last he saw of me, then he was under the assumption I died. So did the Kurt he knew.

Kurt... [She didn't handle the news of her death well. There was a public, drunken declaration about how trusting people gets you killed. And then being carried out of the bar—because why wouldn't a prison have bars?—by a man she hardly knew. And that was just the first bad night. Others followed. Bad life decisions were made. And then it got better because that's what it does sometimes. She's had months to deal with her own death which doesn't even count because she's alive.

But now he's telling her that he died too? That's really not okay. Someone should be able to go back someday.] What happened?

Keep saying my name like that and I might be foolish enough to try a jump to that ship there. [He jerks his chin toward one of the closer ships, not that the camera extends far enough to show it. The smile he offers is fleeting and meant to disarm his too serious statement.

That's a loaded question. The most truthful answer is that he betrayed X-Force for the sake of avenging his wife's murder and in the process of trying to escape back to their world ripped a hole in an already weakened dimensional barrier. The other part is that at the end, he and Jean were all that was left and Jean had become a monster to save their world. None of that he can bring himself to tell her--not until they're face to face.] The travel back and forth between the dimensions were weakening the barriers. When I tried to go home, they tore. Somethings between them came through and began attempting to eat--everything. While the rift was still small enough, I grabbed the edges and teleported with them. Sealed it shut.

No more saying it then. [She has a feeling the Atroma have this game rigged. Much as she'd like to see him right now she figures the attempt would get messy and she doesn't want to delay it by trying to speed it up.

She listens to his story, eyes sad.] Of course you did. Our world could really use some happy endings. [But she guesses it won't be for either of them.] We are here though. [Maybe this is their happy ending—trapped in space as someone else's spectacle.]

Good. I'd hate to come all this way and end up a pile of guts floating through space. [Even if he's seriously beginning to wonder what will kill him. Beast had it spot-on when he called Kurt slippery; so many times he should have died, and didn't.

His smile turns as wistful as her eyes are sad, and without entirely realizing it his thumb starts idly rubbing at the ring on his left hand, hidden under the gloves he's wearing.] We did, Kitty. It wasn't an ending, but our world was better, for a time. I wish you could have seen it. [He wishes she could have met Linda. Kurt has to close his eyes then, drawing in a slow breath through his nose. The smile he flashes looks halfway genuine.] Ja, we're here.

[Okay, but could you just be shuffled now so there can be hugging?] Yeah, me too... [She's quiet for a moment, not wanting her voice to start doing unpleasant things like showing too much emotion over any of that. She does watch the motion he's making and while she can't see the ring it does remind her of something he said earlier that she'd wanted to come back to.]

Who is she? Your wife.

[The question is unexpected enough that he twitches, a movement that would've been a startled jerk if not for the years spent training to be still and silent. And then he realizes that he'd reached for the ring, and his mouth jerks in a way that was probably meant to be a smile.]

Linda. Her.. human, believe it or not. [He hadn't exactly had anything against humanity, obviously, but had always assumed he'd end up with another mutant. Kurt has to swallow, hard, against the lump in his throat before he continues speaking, and even then his voice is rough.] One of the sweetest women I've ever known. Nearly killed me the first time we met.

[She can believe it. She has some personal experience in that same arena now.]

Well, it's better to get that out of the way at the beginning instead of the end. [Kitty, stop. Probably not the best way to try and lighten things. Someone can be a little cynical about love sometimes, but she is happy for him? Okay, not exactly the emotion. Not when he was on the verge of death and now he's here separated from her.]

I'd like to meet her. [Not that she can, but for what it's worth, you know.] I'm sure she's great.

[It is a horrible joke for her to make, which is probably why he laughs. He's always had a warped sense of humor. It was probably meant to be a full-throated laugh, but the tightness of same turns it into a strained cackle.] You're an atrocity of a woman, Kätzchen. Why did I miss you?

[Sweet, atrocious woman. He wants to hug her, and also to curl in on himself and the hollow ache that's made breathing painful since the day he came home to find his wife--murdered. It's difficult to even think of what Dukes did.] She was. We--There's so much I need to tell you. Not just Linda.

Can't imagine.

[That initial response gets a smile from her. It softens sympathetically as he continues. She wants to hug him too. Her Kurt. Really, truly her Kurt? She's still not sure she completely believes it, but she wants to. She's been happy, grateful even, to see all these other X-Men, but it's always a bittersweet thing where she feels like she's not living up to whatever Kitty they know and doesn't really share the experiences with them. Not that she wants anyone to have gone through the things she has, but it would make her feel less lonely which she's struggled with since she was pulled from the prison.]

I want to hear it. In person would be better. [But she also doesn't want to break the connection and wait. What if they just leave it open for the next few days or whatever it takes?]

It'll have to be in person. There's--it's too much. [Too personal, he means, and too private which is another thing altogether. The video feed is supposed to be private now, he's noticed that, but Erik didn't give him his mother's old job because he was a trusting lad.

Finally, finally he turns away from the window and its tantalizing view of the other ships. It's too risky tonight; being in space means there's no universal magnetic field to help him determine whether he can push it to three miles. Tomorrow might be a different story.] You said I'll be sent to one of the others and we can travel then. Do you know the longest I can expect to be.. contained, here? [Just acknowledging that he, a teleporter, can't just leave is claustrophobic enough to make him think of Ororo.]

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I am so sorry I thought I replied to this.

<3