driftfleet | May Mingle (Caprine)

[ There's an obvious tension that she can't really hide, showing just how anxious and prepared she was - she's tense and ready to attack or defend herself if she needs to because that's what she's learned to expect, even from other mutants. Even one of the people she trusted the most had hurt her, so what could a stranger do? She's afraid to even consider it, wanting to make sure she's prepared before anything else.

Still, Raven watches Kitty, her eyes dancing over her and taking her in before she nods her head, once. ] Alright, so you come in peace.

[ Good for her. That doesn't mean she trusts her word in the least - of course she doesn't, why would she? Lifting a hand to touch her hair, she pauses before she frowns. ]

People from my world end up dead if they 'show the blue' in public.

[She can see the tension and she tries to look all the more relaxed and non-threatening for it. She may not know exactly what she does want to accomplish here, but she's definitely not here for that. She remembers how tightly wound she had been when the prison had abducted her. How she mistrusted everyone for months. How she'd thought the whole thing might be a telepathic manipulation. Turns out she wasn't too far from the truth since it was a shared virtual reality, but it had nothing to do with Apocalypse and his forces.]

I know you don't have any reason to believe this from a random girl who just walked up saying your name, but it won't be like that here. Oh, there might be the occasional bigoted jerk or idiot who feels the need to point it out as if you hadn't noticed. There's a woman named Hera who could tell you all about that. Alien, not mutant. Green.

[She's probably talking too much. Maybe the tension is giving her some nervous energy. Maybe get to the point.]

I'm Kitty Pryde. [A little smile.] Or Shadowcat. I'm one of the X-Men. The Raven back home was too or she was affiliated anyway.

[ Nature has Raven wanting to trust her - mutants should look out for mutants, after all, and Kitty had already proved that she was 'one of them', so to speak. It wasn't easy, though, not with all the things she had already been through, and the tension doesn't just disappear. She stares, instead, for a little while, feeling it prickle on the edge of her senses before she breathes out and forces herself to relax and calm down. Getting worked up wouldn't do her any good and she knows it'll just leave her sharp and bitter. ]

I'll have to see for myself. [ Years of hiding from the world and years of being targeted, seeing her friends taken and murdered - it makes someone a little more cautious than they might have been before. She had lost control in front of Charles before, she couldn't drink, she couldn't get worked up or lose concentration... But she had to do it. It was like Hank; she could keep control as long as she didn't get pushed into too many strong emotions. ] One day, maybe.

[ At least Raven can relax a little, nodding her head and softening. ]

Shadowcat. You're one of Charles', then - but not... My Charles. [ As the 'Raven back home' part gives away pretty quickly. ] I - she was with the X-Men?

[She can understand the need to do it on her own. Kitty wouldn't have just believed anyone either. But she hopes it will help even if only a little. She knows it's different for her. She can "pass" as a human even if she tries never to do so. Part of the reason she doesn't use doors. She's unapologetically Kitty Pryde of the X-Men.]

You'd think so, but no. [She brushes back her hair.] This is the part where I should probably warn you everything from my world tends to end with death and destruction. Or in this case, start that way.

It was Charles' dream, but he wasn't around to see it through. [Kitty has no idea what their relationship is like, but in matters of death she's learned to be more gentle about even the ones that happened long before she was part of the story.] Erik formed and led the X-Men in my world.

Raven didn't fight with the team, but she aided us. [And she trusted her children on the team.]

[ There were many of them that could pass - Angel, Banshee, Emma - but others that couldn't, like Azazel. Raven has a fierce, almost dangerous protective streak when it comes to those mutants, wanting to make sure that they're safe, that the rest of the world can't touch them, and it's a violent thing that's more like a tornado inside of her. ]

Don't most things? [ That's how it seems to Raven, at least. What Erik had told her about the end of the world if she'd killed Trask, if she had continued on her path... She wanted to believe him, just like she wanted to believe Charles, and in the end she had made the 'right' choice. She had made sure that every mutant in the world wasn't destroyed by Trask's machines, but she almost didn't.

Still, the idea that Charles wasn't there - it stings, suddenly. ] Charles died? [ The sudden emotion that explodes on her face is more agony than anything else - it burns and it hurts and she stares at Kitty before she makes a hoarse sound, almost incredulous. ] And Erik - Erik was in charge?

[ Well, this means that whatever world Kitty came from had to be some kind of sick, twisted joke... Or it was the world that the Charles and Erik she knew now went back to. It's the only way that would work. ]

I used to think so. [But after the prison and her time here she just felt like her world was unnecessarily harsh. Not that it was the only one of course. And it definitely didn't have the market cornered on problems.]

He died saving Erik's life. Someone had gone back into time to change things. Apparently he just broke them instead. [Hell of a thing to come from a broken timeline that was never supposed to exist in the first place. Broken enough that when it was discovered they banded together to set it "right" even if it meant erasing their lives in the process. Of course that's not how the story ended according to her Kurt. Somehow it managed to get even worse. Her world had a talent for that.]

Erik is a good leader. I don't always agree with him, but who do I always agree with? [Not that she would know having just met her.] He always did his best by us. By the world.

He was also older than the one here.

[ The way that Raven's heart feels is intense and painful and she can't quite put it into words- because of course Charles would die for Erik. Even if they weren't in love, even if they weren't a thing, Charles would let his lie go on the line to make sure that Erik was safe. She's sure he'd do the same for her, but that's not the case in this world. Charles died and Erik lives and it's the stupidest thing she'd ever heard and it hurts. ]

Why do people keep going back in time? [ It comes out as an exasperated huff, even as she appreciates the fact that someone had come back to stop her, once. It's so stupid, she thinks, that the world gets so bad that it all has to change through mutant strength, and she hates the fact that the world is never good. There's no easy future for their kind, and it makes her feel sick to her stomach, chills running through her body.

Still, she can't quite hide her irritation. ] Being older doesn't make him any less of an idiot.

[ ... Perhaps not the best thing to say about someone else's leader, but Erik had been her's, once, too. Raven frowns, glancing away for a moment before she shakes her head. ]

He's probably different from mine- the one I know.

I don't know, but for my experience I'm not a fan.

[She's not offended about hearing Erik called an idiot. She's probably said something similar in the past in one of her less mature moments. Honestly, she's heard worse about Magneto from people from various worlds. The Rogue who called herself Marie in the prison seemed particularly offended by his existence. She couldn't really blame her given the story she told. It was just hard to reconcile it with the man she'd known. The man who had taken her in when she was a girl of 13, terrified and freshly orphaned. Logan had been her mentor, the one who trained her and spent most of his time with her, but for a girl missing her parents it wasn't too hard to imprint on more than one father figure at least a little.

She can also tell the news about Charles isn't easy for Raven even if she doesn't know all the reasons why. She'd never heard anything about them having any kind of affiliation in her own world. Then again, much of Mystique's past is a mystery even from her own son despite how close they are. She never even told him who his father was.]

There are a lot of differences between our worlds. Henry McCoy is one of the few people I'd break the world "evil" out for. Doesn't really apply to yours. [Hank McCoy, mutant cinnamon roll.]

I imagine desperate times call for desperate measures.

[ But that wasn't really anything she knew about; the only experience she had was with Charles and what he had told her, the things she had heard second hand about the world ahead. That wasn't really the thing that had changed her mind when it came down to her and the gun; it was knowing that what she was going to do would damn mutants for decades that had held her back and made her drop the gun and turn to walk away, transforming into someone else so she could blend in with the crowds. She can't imagine what the future would be like, how the world could possibly be worse for mutants, but it was something that would happen and Trask was the cause.

Raven hadn't hated many people in her life, but Trask was one of them, up there with Shaw. There's no way she can deny that.

The news about Hank makes her pause, though, her eyes widening - and she wants to laugh. It would be so easy to do it, too, to laugh at the very idea of Hank being evil; the same Hank that thought taking her blood would be a good first date, the same Hank that fumbled with his glasses and was awkward and shy around her even now. She can't put the two together and she shakes her head, arms crossed over her chest. Oh, she is more than prepared to defend him if necessary but she thinks it might not be something she has to do here. Kitty seems sensible. ]

He's not evil, not in my world. I've never met someone as... Nice as he is.

[ An understatement, but... ]

I know. I wasn't the most pleasant when he arrived, [There may have been death threats] but he was safe on the Marsiva and Erik helped talk me down. [Something she appreciated though she was sure it was for Hank's benefit as much if not more than her own.] Not to mention Hank himself being nothing like the monster back home. We might even be friends.

...I'm still trying to get used to that. [It feels natural enough when she's with him, but also deeply wrong when she thinks about it. But even Leto was able to confirm he never even becomes the thing she once knew.]

It's easier to see people as I would at home. It's just not a good idea. [Part of why she wanted to meet this Raven for herself.] Have you met the other you yet?

[ Why does every conversation always come back to Erik? Raven purses her lips, crossing her arms and trying not to appear small even as she holds her head up high, tilting herself forward a little. It's frustrating, that everyone else seems to have this higher opinion of Erik when she's trapped here half loathing him and half missing the close, intense friendship they shared, missing the man that shaped her into someone stronger than she had ever been. Her jaw is a little tighter, but she does her best to shrug it off. ]

I'm sure everyone I know from my world is different from the ones you knew in yours. Hank, Charles and Erik. [ It's difficult, though, and she can appreciate Kitty's struggle; Charles and Erik aren't the men she remembers either and even Hank had changed a little, lost in the world that they had been in long before this one. She still feels out of place and alone, but she's working on it - it's all she can do.

It's easier to move on, though, shaking her head. ] No, I haven't. I've only seen the people I know, no one else.

[She sees the way Raven pushes herself up and she mentally reviews what she'd said, wondering if she'd been unintentionally aggressive. She guesses it's something else. Erik maybe. Definitely seems like those two have history of some kind. It's not like just anyone would call him an idiot.]

They are. You are too. [How many familiar faces has she seen who didn't recognize her for who she really is now? Too many and yet not enough to really adjust to it. The X-Men had been the only family she had left and now they're just a tilted reflection of what was once people she knew and loved. Everyone except Kurt. Her Kurt. He may have two mothers here now, but she's his family. Not the woman who chose to abandon him and torture Rogue. And she is still undecided on this woman. She feels young, and maybe she's never had a child, but it's Mystique and who knows with her when it comes to age. She doesn't think Kurt even knows how old she really is.]

It's weird meeting a version of yourself. Not that you really need me to tell you that. Probably something you'd assume. But take whatever you'd expect and double it. There was another Kitty at the place before this one. It's your first time though, isn't it? In a multidimensional prison like this? [Her last one had literally been a prison or at least called itself that, but they were no more free here.]

[ Raven's relationship with Erik was an intense thing; he had been the person that inspired her to be stronger, to break free of what she felt were chains in Charles' hands, to branch out and find herself. She knows that the way she had handled it was a mistake and dangerous for both her and her brother, but she also understands that she needed to do it. They're coming to terms with the changes now, though, and that's okay. It's something they needed to do. ]

I didn't come from a world where Charles was dead - I would be different if my brother was dead. [ It comes out as a bit of a snap, but she doesn't mean it to - and she doesn't think about what she's revealed. To her it's obvious that she and Charles were once a family, but she doesn't consider that it isn't the same in the other worlds; she doesn't want to imagine what it might mean to Charles to be in a world where he was that alone for so long.

Slowly, almost carefully, she nods her head. ] It's my first time. I don't know what to expect, but I've heard some things. At least I can try to be prepared. [ She can try and wrap her mind around it all before she stumbles into one of the Kurts or her other self; she can hide away with her family until she can figure things out in her own mind. That's what she has, and no one can take that from her. ]

[Kitty's eyes widen. Did she just hear what she thinks she just heard?] Charles is your...what now? [She doesn't even want to picture how weird and intertwined that makes the family tree like the part where Raven's unofficially adopted daughter, Rogue, is married to Erik.

There's more she should explain and say about the other places and she can certainly understand how the changes that happen there can affect things with people you think you know. She had that experience with both Charles and Allen in different, complicated ways. But right now she can't get her mind off of the brother thing because what?]

[ Raven blinks and she frowns, her mouth opening before it snaps shut. That confirms it more than anything else; obviously, in all these other worlds, she and Charles aren't related. She and Charles aren't a family, and it makes her heart ache - she had hurt him, true, and she had abandoned him, but it didn't stop them being a family, it didn't stop them being important to each other. The very idea of them not being something in another world makes something uncomfortable twist inside of her, and she frowns, her expression tightening. ]

He's my brother. [ She doesn't clarify that it's through a strange adoption, that Charles had taken her in and they had grown up together in an empty house with no real parental guidance, that she and Charles had moved around the world together, from New York to Oxford and back again - because she doesn't need to. The ties of family don't end at blood, and she knew that. ]

And I'm his sister. I'm not an Xavier, though.

Sorry. I didn't know. [There's maybe some extra apology wrapped up in that word too that she'd mentioned the man's death at all or that she was making it clear that at least as far as she knows the same connection never existed in her home. She could spend a lifetime apologizing for the sins of her world.

She won't though. She will accept that they are siblings without prying further into the how and why of it. She assumes it's in the same sort of way Rogue is her daughter. She's the last person to question how families form. She's been trying to rebuild one for herself ever since her parents were murdered.

She also wonders how this never came up in the prison when she was close to Xavier. It wasn't too hard to imagine he might just not have been from the same reality as the man here. He was clearly from the past. He could still walk and his hair was kept shorter. But if they were they same could it really have just never come up? She wouldn't have forgotten something like that. The augment maybe? She pushes the thought away for the moment.]

It must be strange to be the only one not coming from Kyrakios. [She means it sincerely and not as a taunt. It sounds hard to her.]

It's fine. [ It wasn't something the rest of the world really knew. Their little gang that went up against Shaw did, of course, meaning Hank and Erik knew, but everyone else that came across them would hardly make the connection. They didn't look similar and they didn't share a mutation that might bind them as relations; it's only the choice that made them family, their hearts handed over to one another.

Maybe that's how it was in the other worlds, and she clings to that hope. She wants to believe that there might have been more, because no matter how sour she was towards Charles and no matter how she needed to be free of him at times she could never, ever deny the fact that he was her family. They were all they had left, and she couldn't just forget that.

Still, Raven shakes her head, shifting a little and holding herself a little higher. All of this is a tangled mess of families that aren't families and confusion that leaves you feeling twisted and bitter - and she knows it. All she can do is try and appreciate what she has now and accept that she's stuck here and that they all have to move forward now; they have to try and figure things out as best they can.

Still, Kitty keeps going and manages, again, to hit a sore, open wound. ] It's different. [ Charles is different, Erik is different, Hank is different, and it makes her reactions harder to manage. ] But we're working on it.

[Finding the open wounds is probably her secret, secondary mutation. Or maybe she just feels some of the same with her Kurt being from several years into a future she'll never see. She knows it's changed him and the prison changed her. They still relate well to each other. There are times it's like it always was and she predict exactly what he's about to say and everything is comfortable and familiar. And other times when it's more distant. He's never a stranger to her, but he's not exactly the Kurt she knew and she knows she's not the Kitty he knew.]

Good. I mean, the working on it. That's the important part. I wouldn't expect anything less. I mean, there aren't many of us here. We need to be able to stick together. [Yes, she's including herself in that and she knows she doesn't have the history or the bond in their group just like she doesn't in the other group. But she's not going to ignore them either.]

[ We need to be able to stick together. Raven hesitates if only because she's not sure what to say; it's been a long time since she was part of a group or a unit that wanted to stick together and she has to try and accept and come to terms with the idea of it being a possibility now, here on the fleet. She's been along for so long that she's almost forgotten how it feels to be part of a group - and it's only her yearning for things to change and get better that makes her somewhat agreeable to it. She missed her family, and that's what she longs for now.

She doesn't really want to get into the dramatic mess that is her relationship with her brother, her "it's complicated" other half and her once-leader, so she shakes her head and shrugs a shoulder, trying to be nonchalant. ] We're trying. I don't think we can do anything else, not when we're trapped in close quarters. All we can do is try our best for each other - all of us.

[She nods.] I can understand that. Tight spaces tend to...accelerate relationships for good or bad. [She'd be pretty understanding if she could read brackets too. Family has always been important to Kitty. At least ever since she lost hers.]

So, I have you at something of a disadvantage knowing a little about your world from the others and a little about you kind of from your counterpart. If there's anything you want to know about me, just ask.

Let's hope it's good rather than bad. [ She and Charles are easier, she thinks, because there's a shared desire to be back to each other that neither of them can deny. Erik, however... That's a different matter. The bitterness and anger she still feels towards him is like poison in her mouth, leaving her feeling dirty when she thinks about him. One day it might get easier, but for now she has to simply swallow what she's given.

At least she manages to smile, almost. ] I don't know what I should know. [ She doesn't want to know about a dead Charles and a world where Magneto leads the X-Men, but she knows she is curious. Another time, maybe, but for now it feels like too much. ]

You got it. Putting another hope down for good. [She smiles a little as if it's betting on black at the roulette table or something.]

Yeah, it's probably right up there with getting asked what you're world's like. There's a lot to cover and it's hard to know where to start or even what really matters. The offer stands if you ever come up with something.

It's hard. [ Which is difficult for her to admit, really, and she turns her head away. How can she ask about Kitty's world when it sounds like hell in her eyes? The other Mystique might have adapted, but to her - it's a physical pain that she can't quite wrap her thoughts around, making her want to find her brother and just... Just be there. It even makes her long for Erik, in a twisted way. ]

It's like asking how much pain I want to be in, hearing about other worlds where everything is different. [ She shakes her head. ] Is there anything you want to ask me?

That's fair. My world is almost never pleasant to hear about. [Try living it.] I just figured you'd ask about my powers or something. Favorite color. Food I miss most. [She smiles a little. There are a few things about her that aren't a rabbit hole of terrible at least?]

Mmm, I kind of want to ask what Erik did that made him an idiot, but that feels like cheating. Is this the form [Gesturing at her.] someone you knew? Is it one you use a lot?

It's up to you if you want to talk about your powers. I know not everyone is comfortable sharing with a stranger. [ Mutants are mutants, and shoving your nose into their business and demanding to know what they could do might end up with you having more friends than enemies. There are some, of course, that don't mind being obnoxious and proud - she could name a few names - but Raven has learned better. She knows that she's one of those that would rather keep to herself.

Kitty still manages to ask the questions that make Raven want to both laugh and cry, and she crosses her arms. ] You can ask him that one. [ Let him have the job of describing why he's an asshole, she's not going to do it. ] But this - this is just me. It's how I've always chosen to look. I don't know where it came from, it's just... Raven.

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