driftfleet | And We Danced (Masquerade Overflow!)

[Kurt nods at Winn, extending not a hand for the cup when its filled, but his tail to loop around it. The handful of gold rings he's threaded onto it glint dully.] Winn, you've my gratitude for that. Dear as she is to me, those outfits were truly atrocious.

And you-- [He points a finger at Kitty, giving a good show of looking stern. It's easy to slip into the role of older brother figure, especially when he remembers the days when she was young and her hair was prone to haloing around her head.] Cannot. You're forbidden from trying, I don't want to see anything more glaring on you than buttercup yellow. What you're wearing now is a good color on you.

[ he jumps back slightly at the tail - he's seen it before and kitty gave him a head's up, but he didn't really expect it to come into play in any way other than...dangling behind kurt. what are the chances that no one noticed -- ok that's not even worth exploring. does he acknowledge it? leave it alone?

thankfully, kurt's already speaking and he takes that as his rescue, hangs onto it for dear life. he looks over at kitty apologetically - he's getting so nervous right now. ]

From experience, the 'f' word just kind of guarantees it'll happen again. But her taste's definitely improved, she picked the color.

[ he'd make a joke about her taste in men but - no, he's definitely a step up. ]

[Kitty frowns a little at the jump just because she's worried about how Kurt will take it. His opinion is really important to her and she wants this meeting to go well. So, Winn isn't the only one who is a little nervous here.]

Guess who doesn't have forbidding power over me? That's right. Anyone.

[She slips one of her hand into Winn's free one.] I did. My suggestions were all over this dress. [Okay, she really just ruled out patterns and suggested some open areas and lack of restriction.]

[Kurt just smiles and says absolutely nothing, though his head is tilted right toward Winn. He just sips his punch and then glances down at it, wrinkling his nose slightly.] Not bad, needs alcohol.

[Glancing back up at both of them, the wide, toothy grin is gone in favor of a faintly pleasant expression. Polite, until Winn points out the likelihood of Kitty doing it for spite and she backs it up. Then he chuckles, shaking his head.] Well, I can't argue that her taste in clothing has improved, though the cut of her ensembles were never the problem. How much of you went into the dress, Winn?

A -- lot.

[ staying up nights to make it, pricking his fingers became just part of the routine. he's literally poured his blood, sweat, and tears into it. it was easier with kara's dress - red on red is less of a problem.

oh but that's probably not what he meant. ]

But I was just interpreting what she asked for. I could - get you something from the bar, if you want -

[ he offers, pointing towards it. he probably won't be able to mess anything up with fetching a drink, right? and he could have a do-over. be prepared for the tail move. will he ever be prepared for the tail move? it might take a while. ]

Kurt is fine with his punch. [She's pretty sure alcohol is not making this better and while she finds Winn's eagerness to please sweet, it also smells of weakness to her when she stands her next to Kurt—a piece of her past where strength and weakness were everything.]

And we're definitely talking about my clothes a lot considering one of you forgot to wear a shirt tonight. [She smirks at her teammate.] And you should probably call me when you want those rings off your tail. I'm guessing phasing is going to be gentler than getting them back off the old-fashioned way.

She's right. It was kind of you to offer, but there's plenty time for me to drink later. I want to get to know you, now. [His eyes narrow slightly as he glances at Kitty, the only indication that he's doing so. He knows exactly what she's doing, and a small part of him wonders if there'll be a fight on the dance floor. The rest of him knows that's silly.]

Please, Kitty, I didn't forget a thing. What else is a masquerade for, if not showing off? [Kurt snorts, shaking his head.] Oh, I suppose. If it makes you feel useful.

[Seeing the two of them standing together, dressed so finely and with Kitty smiling so beautifully, reminds him for a fleeting moment of himself and Linda. The comparison is like a punch to the stomach, though he doesn't react beyond being still for a heartbeat. Then Kurt nods, following the gesture with:] You both look wonderful together. So, Winn. What is it you do back where you're from? I want to know in your words.

[ weakness, the fragrance he just can't seem to be able to get rid of.

why is he suddenly getting the feeling that he stumbled into the middle of a really old issue? is there anything he can do that wouldn't somehow turn out to be the wrong thing to do?

his nerves are going to be schott by the end of the evening (ok that just made him feel a little better, don't judge). ]

-- thanks. [ that puts him a little more at ease. ok, he could freak himself out wondering if it's sincere, but he's going to choose the saner path of taking kurt's compliment at face value. ] I'm - in IT, I basically deal with all computer-related problems at a media company. And...whatever else Ms. Grant decides I'm doing that day. [ it's kind of hard to really explain his job to people who don't live in the digital age, so he tries to simplify it as much as he can. ]

[Kitty's expression softens at Kurt's compliment. She takes it to heart, but also thinks he's probably thinking of Linda if she had to guess. Lost loves have a way of haunting a person. She knows that all too well. And she doubts that's the look he'd have if he was remembering earlier times with Kitty and Piotr.] Thank you. [She mouths it more than anything.]

[Hey, she never said it wasn't the digital age just because they didn't have, you know, electricity everywhere anymore. There was some pretty advanced tech running around all the same. Also, literally running around since a lot of it was in sentinels and infinites.]

He's good at it. More than just that too. [But she doesn't want to interject too much. She wants them to talk. If she weren't still feeling protective of Winn she might even step away for a few minutes, but she's not ready for that yet.]

[There is absolutely no path that doesn't lead through old issues, one way or the other. Such is holding a conversation with a man fresh out of hell; but on the bright side, they're being civil and that's more than Kurt's managed with certain mutants.

Kitty's 'thank you' gets an incline of the head before Kurt primarily focuses on Winn's explanation of his job back home.] Multi-faceted man. Social media company, or something more traditional?

[After a pause, he decides to be kind and explain the probable discrepancy between his and Kitty's knowledge of 21st century technology. His glass is transferred from tail to his left hand, the silvery ring on it glinting as he motions vaguely.] I spent nearly a year in a world where the advance of technology wasn't as interrupted as our own world. One of my team-mates took it upon himself to familiarize me with the most common uses--when he wasn't making me exceedingly grateful our world took a different path. [Kurt pulls a face, because having Wade Wilson as a man's guide to the internet is a traumatic thing.]

[ he smiles at kitty at the compliment before looking back at kurt, offering him an appreciative smile as well. ]

Nowadays you can't have a media company - or any company actually - that doesn't touch on social media, but CatCo is still mostly traditional media.

[ oh. oh no. oh no no no. he can deal with the blue, he can deal with the hands, he can deal with the tail, but you can't possibly ask him to deal with a dislike of the internet, that's like having to deal with someone hating your only child. ]

Clearly he did it wrong if you're saying that - [ how could anyone make the internet sound like anything but wonderland? yes ok, it can and is used for evil, but if you know what you're doing - you can literally help save the world with it. he should know, it's the other thing he does. ]

[Kitty knew he'd been in another world, but it was still strange to think of him there—of what he learned and experienced that wasn't something they would have shared. Of course she also had her prison memories which were much the same. She didn't exactly like the thought of those things that distanced them because he's the closest person to her now and she revels in that closeness—the intimacy it brings.

But she still hangs on every word, curious about it.] Which teammate? [Would it even be someone she knew a version of?]

That depends on how you define doing it wrong. His intention was to disturb me, and he certainly gave that a good try. [He'd succeeded more often than Kurt likes to admit, but not nearly so often as he should have. Few things live up to the horrors that stumbled from the labs of Apocalypse's geneticists, but Wade's world managed to turn his stomach a few times.

Speaking of Wade, when Kitty asks who was trying to troll him, Kurt's mouth twists into a sly smirk.] Wade. Incidentally, the man can reattach severed limbs, and missing his head doesn't stop the bastard from complaining. [Kurt says this casually, as though unaware or uncaring of the very obvious and horrible implications. He's well aware, but if this man is going to be around his Kitty then he'll have to face the world she came from.]

[ winn is faced with the realities of the world she came from pretty much every time they talk - and every time it breaks his heart. he can't imagine coming from such a hell, he sometimes has trouble simply dealing with the lunacy of his own life. as horrible as his father is, he's never actually had to deal with the trail of dead bodies he leaves in his wake. he never had to deal with severed limbs as party-talk.

the discomfort is written all over his face, as he tries to process and understand what was just said -- all while wondering if he really wants to understand. true, their plans called for a sleepless night, but it's supposed to be a good kind of sleeplessness, not the haunted kind.

at the beginning of the night, he decided to pass on the bar - he wanted to stay awake and energetic through the night. now? he's reconsidering that decision.

the part of himself that's always afraid, always on guard against the madness that might be hidden in the crevices of his mind sounds an alarm - to that part, it feels like one of those decisive moments - who does he choose to surround himself with, and how will they influence the path he takes in the future? the rest of him doesn't want to take this to heart, doesn't want to believe the implications. he's happy with kitty. he can just be happy with kitty. it can be as easy as that.

kurt could just be trying to scare him off.

it can be alright. it can. he's allowed to be happy, truly happy, not faking happy, for once in his life.

he rubs the back of his head, suddenly accutely aware that he's been silent for a while. ]

Is that like, his mutant superpower?

[She doesn't register Winn's distress at first. The signs are obvious, but not necessarily glaring. He's not dodging under the food table or making any pained comments. And more than anything, what Kurt is saying doesn't faze her in the least. It doesn't even register as something she should think about as difficult for someone else to hear. That's what her life has gotten her to. There's a level of normalcy and familiarity with the strange and grotesque that makes the queasiness of others difficult for her to understand. Of course she still has a big, overprotective heart and a different sort of story might have had a bigger impact, but clearly this isn't something that killed the man, so she sees no tragedy here.]

Kurt, you and your Pale Riders. Have you adopted Moonstar or anything in one of your adventures? [Smirking at him.] Oh, but speaking of severed parts, I don't think I mentioned this to you before, but people have been telling me Logan's hand should have grown back with his powers. I'm assuming it has something to do with the Summers' power. I don't know.

[Logan isn't really good party conversation for any of them though and she trails the thought off, looking at Winn and finally picking up on some of those signals. She slips an arm around him, rubbing his back as they talk.]

Yeah. It's a healing factor kind of like another teammate of ours.

[She definitely wants this night to end the way they planned. Not because it's been awhile since she had physical intimacy though that is always a plus. Just because so much of it has been wonderful and she just wants to keep living in that. Happiness always felt like this rare, impossible thing and if she is always going to want just a little more. Can you be addicted to it?]

Edited 2016-05-10 18:37 (UTC)

[Kurt only notices the discomfort because he's watching Winn; to be specific, he notices it consciously because he's looking for it. The part of him that will always sound like his mother is urging him to take advantage, tear the man apart because what future can a person that kind and soft have with someone from their world? Linda was kind too, toughened by the world but still full of dreams.

Those were the happiest times of Kurt's life.

Kurt snorts, his upper lip curling in a sneer.] Hardly. And are we certain it's Scott's powers and not that the man put a huge fucking metal cap on his stump like an idiot? How the hell was his hand supposed to grow back if it had no where to grow? I swear, before that last war I'd have told you the man didn't have the common sense of a goose.

[Now he visibly reacts to Winn's discomfort, once the man's had a chance to collect himself. Good man, trying to carry on when it's clear he's not used to being diplomatic about these things. Kurt inclines his head in agreement with Kitty's explanation, his voice lowering slightly.] Wade Wilson has one of the most powerful healing factors documented, as well as an insanely high pain threshold. Taking off his head and putting it somewhere was about as unpleasant to him as if I were to strip a normal man to his underwear and toss him outside hog-tied. It was a major annoyance and highly inconvenient, but not much more. I'm not that much a monster, Winn. [He punctuated with a crooked grin.]

[ his head is reeling, suddenly wishing it couldn't understand language anymore. he wishes hiding under the table was an option - he'd take it in a heartbeat, he'd take any chance to back out of this conversation. it takes him back to the places in his life he most wants to leave behind; the son of a murderer never had much of a chance among orphans. he learned invisibility out of necessity, and right now, all those instincts are screaming at him to hide.

he stays put, but his face loses a shade of color, his shoulders slump, and he leans into kitty's arm for support as much as he dares. he's not the one who's been through this nightmare, he should be dispensing comfort, not accepting it, but he can't bring himself to turn it away. he's not that strong, not yet. but what he can try and bring to the table is understanding - he knows what kurt must have gone through was unbelievably terrible, beyond words. he knows what trauma can do to people, knows that being able to joke about it - sometimes, it's all you can do to keep what sanity you got. and it's that part he tries to cling to. kitty is a good person, there isn't a cell in his body that doubts that, and kurt is her friend. he has to be a good person too.

besides, as horrifying as the mental image is, he can picture frat boys doing the same. superpowers are rare and new in his world, but in kitty and kurt's - they're commonplace, normal. of course they'd breed a different tolerance, different reverence. it's an extreme version of people who pop their joints out of place. he can do this. he can find a way to understand, to bridge their gaps, to communicate. ]

Sounds like he hit the superpower jackpot.

[Kurt is getting a look from Kitty right now because she has realized Winn is uncomfortable and she's sure Kurt knows that and is clearly pushing him further. She means it to be a warning look for him to back off, but the hurt sneaks into it too. She wants this to go well. It's important to her and maybe she didn't express how important to him before, because she didn't realize it herself. She wants her teammate's support. He's always had her back on a mission or as a friend.

Of course it also leads her to wonder why he'd be pushing now. To make sure Winn is good enough for her is obvious enough even if the thought is ridiculous to her. If anyone isn't good enough for the other here it's her. He's had enough darkness forced into his life with his father. He doesn't need all the baggage she carries, but he's so good to her she can't bring herself to walk away for his sake. And she wants to think it would be okay. The less obvious to others answer is something she can relate to easily. Pushing people to see if they'll really accept you. How often did she do that in the prison? How many times did she "show off" her power by thrusting an arm into someone's chest without warning? How many times did she use the truth as a weapon to distance herself? She can't know if it's the same for Kurt. He lived so much more of that hell than she did now. But even if she's not thrilled with him right now, it also makes her worry for him.]

Lots of different powerful powers back home. Less buffet style than... [She cuts herself off since Kara's powers are supposed to be a secret. That's still odd for her to wrap her head around. Dual identities weren't all that necessary back home. Especially not for her when the only family she had left were the X-Men.] The superhero you mentioned back home.

Kurt teleports.

[The saddest part is, Kurt was trying to help by explaining Wade's powers further, put it in a context that wasn't so horrible for Winn. It was even the truth; Deadpool mostly was simply annoyed. But like Cain in Avalon, he pushes too far against the weak points that he doesn't always realize he's noticed.

So he's quiet now, letting Kitty take the lead because of the two she's less damaged. Kurt would be bitter about it if he weren't so proud of her for how far she's come, how much of the sweet girl he met years ago survived the war. He hums noncommittally in agreement with Kitty's explanation of powers back home, speaking up only when she uses his as an example.] As well as walking on the ceiling and disappearing in shadows. One of my best friends back home could turn himself into living ice, and one of my ex-girlfriends was a telepath.

My wife as well had the extraordinary ability to burn water. [He cracks a faint grin at that.] I maintain that had to be a superpower. No one can be that horrible a cook naturally.

[ winn visibly relaxes at the change of subject - all these powers can come with horrible stories, and have been involved in horrible stories, he has no doubt. but right now, those horrible stories aren't being told, right now, they're being presented as something exciting. something that just might be a touch safer for a first meeting with the person who means the most to the person who's becoming the most important to him on this fleet, aside for kara.

amazement replaces fear in his eyes now. ]

Cool. [ the ability to disappear in shadows and teleport away would have come in real handy for him as a kid, but he tries to put those memories away once more and focus on the present. ] Literally, in the case of ice-man - [ he smiles a little at the joke - though the use of past tense stops it going too far. somehow, considering the world he's from, he doubts it's there because she's improved. his expression turns more sympathetic than amused. ]

That superpower is really common in a college dorm. [ the things he's eaten -- make the protein cubes seem like a feast for kings. ]

[Kitty smiles softly, grateful that the only horror in Kurt's next tale is his deceased wife's cooking. Except for the part where everyone is also dead now, but they couldn't talk about anything if they had to avoid that. She's also amused by Winn's comment.] Ice Man was actually his codename.

And the food they provide here really makes me wish we had someone with the chef augment on the Windrose. [Not that she really wishes augments on anyone.] I think it would take an actual miracle to improve it.

It really was and he was so proud of picking it himself. I told him that for the sake of his future offspring, I was naming them. He'd have probably named them the Snowman. [No he will not try to pronounce abominable. It's a terrible word made solely to tongue-tie people whose native tongues are not English.

He's just going to raise an eyebrow at Winn.] Can't say that I've ever had the pleasure of eating a college student's cooking? I should be thankful, I take it.

Seriously? [ you don't go with the painfully obvious choice, man, everybody knows that! that's a hop skip and a jump away from ending up with a color in your code name. ] Yeah, good call there. [ that future offspring should erect a monument in his honor for sparing them that. some people shouldn't even be allowed to name pets, let alone people. ]

Let's put it this way -- any day half the dorm wasn't food-poisoned, you can pretty much guarantee either parents or deliveries were involved.

Oh, I remember delivery. I miss that. [So many of their stories end with "and then they died" or "no college because no civilization" but she isn't letting that get her down. It's a familiar difference in the way she sees things and way they tend to play out with the other people trapped with her. At this point she just likes it when there is any familiar ground instead of focusing on the differences. Besides, it's good when places survive and even thrive.]

Mm, so what would your codename be, Winn? I mean, if you're going to judge Bobby's we should have something to judge back.

I'm jealous. Closest thing we had to delivery when I was a child was when Mom would bring back take-out from Winzeldorf. [Or, when he was very small, when Creed would chase down a deer or boar. For such a gentle child Kurt quite enjoyed hunting with Victor, but out of respect for Kitty's history with the man he's kept his own memories close to the vest.]

Ja, what would your codename be, Winn? We could pick one for you if you can't think of one. [He might have a little too much fun with that; of course, this is coming from a man whose codename is a worm. Granted it wasn't his first choice, but given teenage Kurt leaned heavily toward demon names..]

And We Danced (Masquerade Overflow!)

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I thought I replied I'm so sorry guys.

it happens <3 no worries!

All the <3

<3

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