driftfleet | (no subject)

[She nods.] A friend. A teammate. A lot of X-Men have been coming in. People I recognize. I know their counterparts, but I think he really is from home.

Are they like you? [ Someone with cool powers, he means. ]

Yes, you can barely tell us apart. Except he is covered in short blue fur and has a tail.

--A smurf?!

[She stops walking and looks at him very seriously. She's not offended or upset, but she is nervous for her socially awkward vampire friend.] Sascha, if you meet him or talk about him his name is Kurt. Only Kurt. Are you hearing me? [This has never been more for your own good, okay?]

[ The sad thing is, he was honestly thinking that he would get to meet a real, live smurf. ]

...................

Kurt the smurf?

[She just stares at him.] I'm not responsible if he teleports pieces of you off.

Smurfs aren't even furry.

They always looked furry in the story books...!

Papa Smurf and Smurfette had hair, but I don't think they were... What am I even talking about? [She's just going to take her hand back and pocket it for now.]

[ Bawwww...there goes the hand. Sascha deflates a little, but he won't ask for it back. He'll just hold the hand she was holding with his other hand. ]

Smurfs?

It was rhetorical. [Stop saying smurfs. Is it making anything better?]

[ No, sob ]

Oh....

[She walks in silence, but she doesn't try to walk faster or go through something solid to shake him.]

[ That's a relief at least! He did expect her to kind of walk through the first available wall. But hey; he'll take it, walking quietly alongside her. ]

[After some extra silence.] Are you getting along better with your crewmates?

........

One of them is still an angry ghost, and the other one calls me the creeper.

[She could point out which of his actions might be leading to this, but she's played that game before and it doesn't really get anywhere. Maybe a little commiserating.] That sucks.

It's okay! They don't try to kill me or anything. [ Which is a bonus over home, technically. ]

And...I got to have a walk with you.

That is a really low bar. [Kind of a sad one. Reminds her of some of her own low bars. She looks over at him.] Why do you like me this?

Having walks with people...? [ He looks over, tilting his head a little. ]

Because I don't get to do it a lot. It's way better than walking alone everywhere.

[She nods slowly.] It is better than walking alone.

Yeah...I do a ton of that already, so this is super-nice.

Have you met any other vampires yet?

I think I met one...but he likes biting way more than I do. [ But then again so did the vampires back home, so. ]

Sorry to hear that. ...Do you think he's biting people against their will here?