driftfleet | 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

[Her eyes narrowed.]

I was the right choice for the mission. [Said almost automatically. She honestly believed that, and even though she understood why Logan had made her stop, it didn't mean she thought it was the right option.]

And I was never a child.

[Not really true, but it was how her life felt...]

I didn't say you weren't. I was the right choice, when I was your age. [And if he could go back and do it all again, he'd make every choice the same right up until Linda (perhaps Damask.) Maybe he'd have found an excuse to teleport Weapon X into a volcano. The innocence that he lost to the war was destroyed long before he set foot on the battlefield, and something about her eyes makes Kurt wonder if she could claim the same.

And then she says that, answering the question he hadn't intended to ask. Kurt presses his lips together briefly, his voice soft when he answers.] Don't you think you should take the chance to be, while you're still young enough to? If you're very much like Logan, you will age.

[Laura has no idea what to say to that. She hadn't expected to live to her late teens yet here she was. She hadn't expected to survive her confrontation with Logan, or with the Facility, or with so many other things. But here she was.]

I am...learning to adapt.

Good. That's one of the best things you can do, if you intend to survive to the fullness of your days. Have you--ah, never mind that. [Asking her if she's figured out who she is yet is an intensely personal question, even if it is relevant to the turn of conversation. His mother had, when he was young enough that she'd still hoped he'd be a shapeshifter, instilled in him the importance of self-knowledge. A shifter without a solid sense of self didn't last long.] How long have you been in the world?

I am seventeen.

[A simple question, nice and fact-based, something she didn't have to puzzle over or worry about.]

I'll buy you a drink on your eighteenth. [Its not what he asked, and he doesn't know the girl (who is older than he thought, he'd have pegged her at fifteen or sixteen) well enough to know whether she misunderstood or is redirecting. He has no clue whether the vague deja vu he feels looking at her is accurate at all.] I was fourteen when I left the forest my mother raised me in to become one of the X-Men.

[Downside of being tiny.]

When I was fourteen I-

[She cuts off. She what? Killed her mother? Slaughtered the men who created her and burned their facility to the ground? Lost the only family she had? Became a prostitute? Fourteen was a busy year.]

Ran away.

Fourteen seems to be a theme for people like us. [He wonders about that pause before choosing to ignore it. Despite his talent for riling up people, Kurt does have a sense of tact. The part of his mind that will always sound like his mother also assumes that if any version of Logan is here that knows him specifically, having Laura think kindly of him will be useful. Assuming he swallows his pride and hides behind a young woman, which is laughably unlikely.] Have you made contact with the other mutants here?

[After a pause, he adds:] And do you care if I come down from the ceiling? Looking up at me so long can't be comfortable.

I have spoken to Logan and Storm.

[She shakes her head.]

I do not care.

[Kurt inclines his head in acknowledgement and simply drops, twisting in the air to land in a crouch. Unlike his counterpart there's very little fanfare to it, no theatrics beyond the sheer inhuman flexibility required. Straightening, he continues the conversation without pause.] Are they from your world, near as you can tell?

Yes.

[She was certain about Storm, and almost certain about Logan. But she needed to believe it, so she was.]

There are others who are not. I have not spoken to them.

So that's four variations on a theme, if I'm correct; yours, mine, the children's, and a fourth I know little about.

[Sorry not!sister, Gambit; your reality is dubbed the children's reality. They're all so very young in comparison to him.]

Most of them are kind, that I've seen so far. The short-haired woman, name of Kitty, I could guarantee would be, if you decided to speak with her. She's from my world.

...I have spoken with her as well. Kitty.

[She hesitates.]

She was...nice.

I'm not surprised she was. In our world, Kitty taught the [He almost calls them 'children' before realizing Laura would probably take exception to that.] younger mutants. Was pretty good at it, from what I could tell.

She was a teacher at the Institute too. Before I was there.

Really? Do you know why she quit?

[He doesn't actually care much, though he looks interested enough. The question is a stalling tactic, borrowing time to get the image of that other Kitty's hurt out of his head.]

No.

I think she went into space.

Space. Why does that not surprise me?

[His Kitty had never expressed so much of an interest, but it doesn't surprise him that one would. She was always so much smarter.]

Pity she's not here, we'd have a leg up on the situation.