driftfleet | (no subject)

[Wrath is out working a lot. She needs to make credits so she can get herself a regular sword and an awesome laser sword, and she also needs to pay Winter back for all the credits he spent bailing her out of jail. So she's pulling a lot of guard and escort duty.

But she still comes home to the Windrose to take care of her animals, train, and spend time with Jellybean and Officer Snuggles--and her friends, of course.

But because this is the first system she's been in while mostly recovered, she's getting restless. Without the constant pain of injuries and the medication regime to distract her, she's got way too much time to think. The last two years are catching up with her in a less than helpful way. This means she's going out and picking a lot of fights when she's not working, since she hasn't found any intoxicants that work all that well on her. So if you spot her, she probably looks like she just rolled in out of a brawl, even if she's incongruously sitting and quietly drawing.]

[Castle had been keeping a low profile since The Graffiti Incident, but he still mingled with his Moxie brethren on the planet and made sure to indulge in food as much as he could.

Of course, this had the effect of making him doughy, so he decided to work off some of the calories he was packing in.

His attempts at doing yoga, however, didn't go so well. The bots sat in a line and watched, unmoving, but Castle was sure they were judging all the same.]

Look, you try bending like a pretzel.

[Action closed to Kurt]
[She had a talk with Erik. It didn't go well. She was in her shuttle on her way back to the Tourist when she landed on the Windrose instead. She needs Winn, but she needed Kurt and home more for this. She needed the only other person who could really understand. And he'd need her too. She's just curled up on his bed, waiting for him to come back.

Apocalypse is dead in two worlds now, but his reach for destruction is inescapable.]

[Text closed to Winn]
[Kitty doesn't like text. She rarely uses it unless other forms are really inconvenient. That's not what she's using it now.]

I need you on the Windrose. [So many things half written and deleted before that makes its way to him.]

[Wildcard]
[Kitty hasn't been around much again. Definitely not at night. But she has been visiting the ship during the day when she gets a chance. Trying not to be completely derelict in her duties to her ship and crew. Her home. For as much time as she spends on the Tourist with Winn, it's just not the Windrose.]

(OOC: If you want a custom starter just let me know. Otherwise, feel free to start a thing!)

[ getting a text from kitty makes all the alarms go off in his head; she only ever texts him when he starts a conversation by texting her. getting a text from kitty asking him to get on a shuttle on his own and come to her, with no explanation, no frankly embarrassing offer to come pick him or suggestion she come to him - that sends his brain to full defcon 1. he texts back as he runs to the shuttle, his heart sinking to his toes. ]

on my way

[ he makes record time there, and before long, he's running down the windrose's corridors to find her - grateful he's been keeping up with jim's cardio routine because despite how hard his heart beats and how fast his legs move him - his breath remains under control. he knocks quickly on the door of her room before opening it a crack to pick inside. ]

Kitty? [ concern couldn't be more clearly written on his face if someone had taken a sharpie and spelled it out. ]

Hey. [Her voice sounds rough and she's tucked into the corner of the wall at the head of the bed where she was just sitting and watching the door, waiting for him.

She doesn't know what to say. Doesn't want to say anything. She just wants to be in his arms, but she doesn't move.]

[ it's fine, he does. only slowing to shut the door behind him, he walks right up to her, and pulls her into his arms, stroking her back and kissing the top of her head. ]

I got you.

[ he doesn't know what's happening but the first and most important thing he needs to do right now is reassure her that she's not alone with it. ]

[She unwinds herself to cling to him now that he's close and warm and solid. Her eyes close and she just rests against him. Not crying. She feels too emotionally weary to cry right now. Slowly, the tension seems out of her and she leans more heavily onto Winn, letting him hold her more fully.]

[ he holds her quietly for however long she needs. yeah, he wants to know what's wrong, wants there to be something he could do about it, but he has patience. what he feels she needs from him now - until she says or somehow indicates otherwise - is that he focus on her, not whoever or whatever did this to her, so that's what he does.

he holds her firmly and quietly, but if too many minutes tick by, he'll start humming KISS at her, in hopes of helping her escape whatever it is that's haunting her mind, if only a little bit. ]

[There's a soft catch of breath. Not quite a laugh but almost when she recognizes the song.]

I'm sorry. [Sounding better than her initial attempt.]

[ it's what he did it for. ]

For what?

[ he keeps holding her close, and strokes her hair soothingly. whatever it is, it's nothing she needs to apologize for, but he figures it'll carry more weight if he knows what he's telling her not to worry about. ]

Probably scaring you. I'm okay. [Doesn't she seem super okay? She does seem calmer and better than she did though. Winn time is helping.]

[In contrast to the moody captain of last month, the longer they spend in this system the better attitude the Vision seems to have. The initial drama of his unexpected trip home has passed and he's learning to integrate that year of experience with his life here.

Aside from a few upgrades to mechanical components that would likely baffle anyone without the Engineering augment, the only real addition to the ship he's been involved in has been dedicating yet more of the cargo bay space to a pet project: Misty's swamp. Yes, an entire little corner is now a miniature swamp, cordoned off by a low wall to deter the maintenance bots (and Officer Snuggles, so he doesn't get muddy all the time). The Vision's current project is an air filtration system to make a current separating it out as well so the entire ship doesn't smell like swamp, but it's still a work in progress.]

Hey, I still have you beat at worst scare with my middle of the night save me from being eaten call.

[ he presses another soft kiss, this time to her forehead, and brushes back her hair. ]

You wanna tell me what made you so...okay? [ in today's presentation, okay means the exact opposite. ]

Good point. [She's not keeping score though. The last thing he says gets a soft smile, but it fades quickly enough.] I talked to Erik.

...Did Hank tell you what was happening back there? What they remembered? [She assumes he didn't or Winn would have already told her.]

[ he'll take that short lived soft smile, ok. ]

No, [ he shakes his head ] he said he needed a little while to work through it on his own, I didn't push.

[ and in a way, listening to kitty now feels like a betrayal of hank, but hank will understand, he hopes. he needs to be there for kitty, and kitty needs to talk about it. besides, he did say he was going to tell him eventually, so it's not like it was going to be a secret from him, right? ]

[That's good because all the spoilers are coming. But she knows nothing about Hank's experience with it other than Erik's assurances that none of them had died.]

Apocalypse.

Apocalypse happened.

[ for a second - everything stops. his breath catches in his throat, that just closes up around it, his heart skips a beat, his brain stops processing. and then - it all comes back on in overdrive, his heart racing, his head racing, he tries to control his breath - let it out in small, quiet, shuddering puffs as to not disturb her, not to alert her to how badly he's freaking out right now.

because as bad as hearing that word is for him, it's nothing compared to what it means to her.

he holds her tighter. ]

That's not... It's not the bad part. [Well, it is. It's terrible and she feels for them. She never wanted to be right about what Leto saw in Hank's future. And it probably impacts her more than she even realizes, but it was overshadowed. She tenses up just to manage getting the words out.]

Erik was one of his horsemen. He worked for him. [So much hurt and betrayal and anger for a man who...who isn't and never was the one who took her in and made her an X-Man.]

What?

[ he can't help it, he pulls a little back so he could look her in the eyes - what she's saying, it just makes no sense. yeah, he's never met erik, or even heard that much about this version of him but...it seemed pretty clear he's one of the good guys. when hank came over to talk to him, he didn't flinch at the sound of erik's name, he didn't warn winn to stay away from him...loyalty to a friend would only go so far, wouldn't it? and winn's a friend too, hank wouldn't let him blindly walk into danger, would he?

it makes no sense. ]

Why? [ he should be offering comfort right now but honestly he can't think of a single thing to say or do that would be at all comforting at the moment. all he can think of to do is to try to make sense of it all - because it makes none at the moment. ]

[She meets his eyes, but she can't explain this to him. She can't even explain it to herself.]

Does it matter? [Asks the girl who demanded to know why when faced with the same revelation. But in the end even finding out something as tragic as his wife and daughter just having died wasn't enough to sway her. She lost people too. She never became the thing she hated. She would do anything for love, but she won't do that. No, she won't do that...]

[ he pauses for a beat - yes, yes it does. he can't reconcile the man who's so important to so many good and brave people with the servant of a monster. but right now, the only thing that matters is kitty. ]

Not now.

[ he holds her close again. there are so many things he needs to know now, but he can't ask - not kitty, and definitely not hank who has asked for time. and it feels like all the fears and concerns are going to eat him up alive but he's just going to have to let them. ]

["Not now" is a great answer because she does care and she will care, but she isn't ready to let go of the hurt yet. She needs to feel it before she can let it go. Not that she's thinking about the process of healing and accepting. Right now she's just overwhelmed and reacting. She's just glad she's not doing it alone.]

We can stay here tonight, right?

Of course.

[ without a moment's hesitation. he'll do anything to make her feel even the tiniest bit better. staying on her ship, that's something he would do for her even if things were as normal as they ever get for them. ]

[She's wanted it for awhile, but didn't ask because she knew he'd say yes even if he wasn't ready for it.]

I told you he's the leader of the X-Men in my world, right? Erik.

Yeah, married to your world's Rogue, cutest baby boy, right?

[ he tries to think back to everything she's told him, but it's been a while since they spoke of the x-men of her world, and she's told him of so many different versions of everyone it's sometimes hard to keep up. ]