driftfleet | OPEN

Entry tags:

OPEN | VIDEO

Who: Kitty and all the people of fleet!
Broadcast: Yes!
Action: Windrose if you want
When: At some point before the masquerade

We have a masquerade coming up, and I was bored so I thought I'd mettle in people's lives for my own amusement. First, the disclaimer, there is nothing wrong with going to a dance solo.

Now, for anyone else, who wants a date?

Sorry, not me. Taken. But there are probably some of you out there thinking a date would be fun, and sure, why not? So speak up. Let's make some love connections. Or, you know, awkward dancing connections. I'm a mutant, not a miracle worker.

(OOC: Please feel free to threadjack.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ that sounds depressing. he frowns a little. he shouldn't be surprised - and he isn't - it was a prison, and depressing seems to be her theme. it's just...sad, to keep discovering more and more, even if it's the little things. ]

When is your birthday? [ his tone is innocent enough, but he's already trying to figure out what he'd have to do to throw her one to make up for all the ones she's missed. ]

Is it weird if I say I don't think my birthday is going to land on my birthday? [She laughs. It is weird.] I was born on August 15, but I don't think I'll actually turn 21 until after that. My birthday was Day 340 in the prison and then I left on Day 360 and got here on February 1st. So, I guess it will be January 10?

...you're 20?

[ suddenly feeling so. old. and a little creepy. he hadn't really thought about how old she is - it was clear that she's younger than him, but she's so mature it just didn't click that the gap may be that big. he took her drinking. which, considering everything she's been through in her life, she probably does anyway, but still - ]

Oh, come on. It's just a number. [She really couldn't care less how old he is. They fit together well. What else matters? But it's not the first time she's been with someone who was nervous about the age gap. Actually, the only time it didn't happen was with Tyki. Not because there wasn't one, but because he just didn't care.]

Yeah -- [ at least she's over 18 - and maturity wise she probably surpasses him - it's just - going to take a little wrapping his brain around it. ]

So we're back to calendar vs. actual - who'll win round two?

[She can understand that it might have been jarring. She just doesn't want to worry about something like losing him over it. Not now that she's getting invested. It's a relief when he moves on.] Um, I don't know. It feels weird to celebrate in January, but I wouldn't want to prematurely age myself.

[ he's already too invested for her to lose him that easily. or. at all. pretty much the only thing that could make her lose him is if she tried to hurt kara. ]

You're 20, you can take it. I vote calendar.

[ not just because my girlfriend is 21 will make him feel a little less like a creep...but also because that way he won't have to wait as long with all the birthday ideas that already pop into his head. ]

Maybe I can just have my birthday in August and continue to say I'm 20. It's not like people here wouldn't understand being pulled out on a date that didn't match up with when they were coming from.

So, what about you? When's your birthday?

New Year's. I skipped from February to March but screw it, the first time in years I have someone to kiss at midnight, I'm keeping it in place.

[ he didn't really mean it as the far future planning that it comes out as - but if pointed out to him - his main concern would be freaking her out, not as much himself. ]

[Oh, she's a little freaked out by it. She ducks her head, feeling the blush in her cheeks. It hasn't escaped her how close to being a year away that is. She's touched because that kind of certainty and excitement about their future is something she wanted from Reid, but he isn't Reid. This is new and sweet and good and...impossibly fragile no matter how tough they are. Things can happen that they can't control.]

You don't know how you're going to feel by then. [She shouldn't say it. She should just let it go. But she's reminding herself. Reminding herself she doesn't get happily-ever-afters and forevers even if she wants them.]

[ it's only when she speaks that he realizes the implications of what he just said ]

-- sorry, sorry, way too soon, right? [ awkwardly chuckling is a go even if a part of him -- really doesn't want to take it back. he's an all in kind of guy. ] I was just making a - dumb joke - you know it's like the puns with my name, it's just compulsory by now. [ his name is win.slow.shot and he was born on new year's. if he's not a cartoon somewhere in the multiverse, the multiverse is just doing it wrong. ] Absolutely no pressure here, I swear. [ she has a painful track record with men, the last thing he wants is to be a part of it ] ..did I freak you out?

...Yes. [Just going with honesty because it's what she does best even when it's hard.] But in a very sweet kind of way.

It's just a lot of things could happen, and I probably worry about those too much. [But saying it's too much isn't the same as stopping.]

[ he gives her hand a little squeeze and smiles apologetically. he understands where she's coming from - it's those things that might be happening that will now keep him awake at night slaving over theories and calculations so that he could take her home with him. ]

I'm sorry. I need to think more before I speak, it's a life-long struggle.

[ considering what she's been through, he can't really blame her. he worries too much even without those experiences. ]

Don't? Just be you. You say some pretty good things.

I just... [She pauses, not sure if she should admit this fear to him.] You're so cute and smart and fun and...you're not going to be single very long at home.

[ he wants to tell her so badly that no - no he won't be because he's going to bring her with him, and they'll be together there too, if she keeps wanting him.

but he can't, not until he has a way to do it. ]

Experience says otherwise -- experience says crazy robo-cat gentleman.

...I've heard that before. [Reid hadn't been with anyone before her. Not outside of a surprise pool kiss when he was protecting a starlet. And then... Then it changed. She can't meet his eyes. She doesn't like comparing him to someone else. He probably doesn't like it either. But it's still a fresh enough wound that it isn't fully healed and the thought of getting a matching one because Winn suddenly remembers the love of his life is...hard.] It's not like I would want you to be alone there either. [She wouldn't. He still has a life to live there and these places don't care about time and space. Somehow it's moving even when they are here together.]

Hey - [ he gently tries to lift her face up to look at him. ]

Is this about - the bad breakup? [ he doesn't like being compared, but he likes her struggling alone even less. they got together knowing that both of them were still at least a little hung up on other people, this is understandable even if unpleasant to be polite. ]

[She lets him guide her gaze back up to meet his.] ...Yeah... Sometimes people just...wake up with new memories of home or disappear for a few days and come back with them. [Just like the prison. She checked.] It could happen to anyone...who isn't like me. [Dead.]

[ anyone who isn't her.

the pain is unmistakable in his eyes. ]

...I didn't know that.

[ there's still so much he doesn't know about this world, an it's a terrifying thought but it's not what matters now. what matters is - she's right, he has no way to reassure her, no way that she'll believe, no way that will be true.

can't they catch a single break? ]

That happened to him? [ gently. he can't imagine how painful that must have been for her, and he's not really sure there is a right course of action there, either. it's awkward as hell, talking about her ex, but more than her boyfriend, it's important to him to be her friend. she needs a good friend. she deserves the best friend. she got him - so he's just going to try his hardest. ]

[She reaches up to touch his face when she sees that look in his eyes. And for a moment she just wants to take it all back and tell him everything will be okay because she doesn't want him hurting and she just keeps telling him things that make that happen.]

...Let's go in your room first? [This isn't a hallway conversation. It hasn't been for awhile and yet...]

[ he takes her hand in his and tries to smile for her as he nods ]

Good thinking.

[ he leads her to his room quietly, but stops before shutting the door behind them ]

Do you want - some water or something? [ because he knows he's not going to want to leave her once they get talking, and he should offer - in case they have another big cry ahead of them. ]

I'm okay. [She puts her chess board down and takes a seat. Well, you got a girl in your bed, mister!]

Are you sure you want to hear this? About someone I was with? [Someone she loved. Someone...she still loves.]

[ he shuts the door and goes to sit next to her. ]

I'm sure...that I want to be there for you.

[ and honestly this is the part that feels more appropriate to his life - listening to the girl he likes talk about someone else she likes, or giving his friend advice about the girl he likes - yeah. that's more consistent with the winn schott existence. ]

[She puts her hand in his before she starts.] He and I were...close. In a good place. [She doesn't want to go too much into any of that with Winn. It feels cruel and unnecessary.] And then one day he just disappeared. It happens. It was only for a week, but it's not like you know that. So it was one of the longest weeks in my life and when it was over... He was two years older and the last thing he saw was the woman he was in love with being shot to death.

[ he shuts his eyes - just for a second - from the sheer pain of it all. he wants to scream. as happy as he is to get to be with kitty - this is not how he wants her to be available. it's cruel, and harsh, and unfair - like everything she's told him about her life. he wants to find a person who's responsible for all of it and it terrifies him because that sort of thinking is a hop skip and a jump away from his father's frame of mind (although, all that kitty's been through is way more justifiable a cause for such rage than stolen toy designs - but even so). he wants there to be something he could do, or say, to make it better.

he wants making it better to be an option.

he pulls her into his arms for a tight hug. is that cruel too? being with her, when he can't guarantee that the same won't someday happen to him? is he a bad person, for caring for her? but then, shutting herself out isn't going to help her either, and this is her choice. besides, if anyone in the multiverse is likely to die alone unless he manages to bring her home with him -- he kinda feels like it's him. for the first time in his life, he's kind of happy about it. ]

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