driftfleet | (no subject)

[Just about every day that passes has Kitty doing a couple of things on the Iskaulit. One is training in the gym and the other is bringing back the book she's finished and finding a new one. After things fell apart the way they did at home she did a lot of self teaching along with the directed studies the other X-Men set up for her between training her and trying to save the world. The practices stuck. She reads all kinds of things, but often gravitates toward non-fiction science books, so she'll be heading directly for that section.]

[ Already roused by people coming into the library, he peruses his book on particle physics. It is a passing interest, not one he's that invested in, unlike Hank. Still, being in space means he needed to brush up on that knowledge. Everything here was years ahead of his time. ]

[She reaches for a book before noticing him at the end of the row. She leaves the book where it is and walks over to him.]

Made it off the Marsiva I see. [Not that it's any kind of surprise. She already ran into Hank a couple of days ago.]

It wasn't going to take that long.

[ He shuts the book, greeting her with a smile. ]

[He gets an easy smile in return. Partially because smiles begat smiles and partially a leftover response from the Charles Xavier she knew in the prison. Regardless, she's much, much more relaxed than she was when they met.]

They can't have you eating the good food forever. So where'd they stash you?

The Golden.

[ He wonders if the others are aware that it's Mystique's ship. Probably. ]

Though I'm looking to transfer onto the Heron.

Trading Mystique for Erik? [Seems at least one person knew. She doesn't have any idea that Charles and Mystique have a link or bond of any kind though. They never did in her world as far as she knows.] Good call. She doesn't seem like the biggest fan of the X-Men. [Which can't be the best situation for a certain Momma's boy close friend of hers.]

[ He can't help the guilty twinge at that. Long ago, it would have been the opposite. He has to keep reminding himself that he's not guilty for this Mystique and it wasn't his actions that led her here. If they were related, she would have said something. ]

It is probably for the best that I don't antagonize her.

[She notices the twinge and wonders at the cause. It's something she should know. A surprise she got once before in the prison, but not all her memories from there are clear. Some faded with time, others maybe with the augment and the Atroma for increased entertainment value. ~~Or a really convenient way to explain things her player has forgotten or isn't thinking about when she writes tags late at night.~~]

Probably. The Mystique of my world worked with the X-Men even if she wasn't one. This one... [Used her own daughter.] I don't think peaceful coexistence is her top priority. [She's verywary of her, but still somewhat inclined to be more generous with her words at least because of Kurt.]

No. She seems to know something we don't, or at the very least, believes that she can deal with it by herself.

[ Independent. Free. He wonders how badly the world has let her down --

-- I used to think it was us against the world.

The one thing Kyriakos and the library had done was give Charles an outside perspective on his memories. True, the feelings were there but he was already distanced from all of it. Time had changed things. ]

She'll have to make the decision on her own.

[ He's learned from that. ]

I'm all for confidence, but from what I've heard she's been messing with she can't. No one person can. [But that isn't her story to tell, so she won't. She's all for openness and honesty when she's only talking about her own stuff especially around telepaths who it seems pointless to lie to.]

Anyway... [Good segue or best segue?]

How are you finding things?

[ Hm. Charles has his own suspicions, along with others, but now is not the time for them. ]

Not too shabby. I'm surprised at how easy it is to navigate between ships.

Yes. Well, I also have the pilot augment, so I'm not sure how it is for people who don't. Which one did you get?

Communications. I assume I got it for the irony factor.

[ Not that he minds and he can poke good humour at himself. ]

Irony seems like a good enough reason as any. Our ship doesn't have one anymore, but Kurt—my Kurt—is trying to transfer to the Windrose. [As if replacing their communications officer was her main priority.]

Is he? Well, so long as he's not near Hank.

[ Charles doesn't really care if Kurt needs to follow him, though his point stands - he won't stand for being stalked around to prove his "innocence". ]

Kurt's a good man. He's not going to attack someone for things someone else did.

...I am sorry we put Hank [look at her even using his preferred name now] through that. [Her feelings are still...complicated. She doesn't want to hate him, but she also doesn't want to like him and he's annoyingly likeable.]

But you kind of had to be there to understand. [The atrocities, the monster the Dark Beast was, and the losses all X-Men had suffered that made them want to protect whatever they had left.]

[ Charles has his doubts there. Mostly because while Kurt may not attack, he is mistrustful and paranoid. Never a good combination in a person. A good man. Charles has met good men. He knows what it takes to make good men sour. ]

Oh, make no mistake. I understand. What happened in your world made you who you are. Asking you to dismiss that would be rude and downright impractical.

[ He pauses, softens a little. ]

But none of us are in our worlds anymore. It is the first thing I learned when I moved over. It's my choice if I want to carry parts of my world over to the next.

[ He has no reason to trust, except for the one: that not trusting would change the world he is now and he's not willing to sink back into that role. ]

The choices are what separate us in the end.

[They are probably some good doubts to have. She may have a few of her own, but if she's going to err it's going to be on Kurt's side. She knows what he's capable of—what they are both capable of. She's had a year of relative ease and peace to reflect on everything. He's had a month.

She listens to what Charles has to say and appreciates the understanding and what he's trying to impart. It's not so different than her own take on things had been in the prison as she ran the Defense Force—an inmate-run group to protect other inmates and fight against the wardens. When people came to her with concerns about people from their world she understood and took note, but she wasn't going to act against someone if they'd done nothing there. As far as she was concerned it was a fresh start. Sometimes that worked out and sometimes people slipped.]

Like you said, our worlds are what make us who we are. Kind of hard not to carry some of that over, being me and all. But who needs extra grudges?

I ran into him in his lab a couple of days ago.

[ He nods. It is a part of them, after all. And none of them are perfect. ]

How did it go?

Oh, like he's someone I'd want to be friends with, which is [She pauses, putting this thought into words for the first time] not really easy for me. It feels like that should be too far.

[ He's quiet for a while. ]

Erik and I . . . had a complicated history. We were friends, equals. I taught him how to use his powers, to access them without the anger.

It ended badly. Very badly. And it might have stayed that way permanently.

What happened? [She wonders both parts—what went so badly and how did things get back to a good place, but if he only wants to answer the last one she probably won't push it.]

[ He smiles, though it's not a pleasant one and he pats his legs. The meaning is clear. ]

After that, we parted ways. None of us willing to budge. It took a lot of time for either of us to realize that we weren't wrong. But we weren't right either.

[Her lips part in surprise and she barely follows the rest of what he says.] Wait, Erik did this? He's why you can't walk?

...Accidentally?