driftfleet | You can check out anytime you'd like.. [Hotel Corona Mingle]

You can check out anytime you'd like.. [Hotel Corona Mingle]

Who: The Fleet!
Broadcast: If you want
Action: Hotel Corona or Planet Ikke
When: December 7th onward

a wheel-shaped space station

[After the mystery and isolation of their last destination, the Marsiva seems determined to head to brighter, busier territory. After a long journey through remote, nebula-painted space, speeding along at a brisk pace for the Host ship, the Marsiva brings her Fleet to a sudden and prominent point of traffic.

It seems that the Fleet has happened upon some sort of vacation destination! Maybe Atroma thinks that the passengers deserve some rest and relaxation... or just wants to distract them with something huge and shiny.

Welcome to Hotel Corona! Feel free to enjoy yourselves and enjoy the sites! If a hotel resort isn't your thing, you can head on over to the nearby planet and explore it's icy wonders.

In order words: it's a mingle!! Everyone get in! ]

[>> Plot Post]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You were certainly that. I hope you didn't end up in any other rooms on your way back?

Well...... It was empty and hippo themed. I mean, not exactly hippos because they had toupees and wings and I think I saw a tentacle, but...I'm pretty sure it would have been just as alarming sober.

[There's a moment where it's clear he's trying to picture what Kitty has said... and fails to do so. Eventually he just shakes his head.]

The rooms here are eclectic, to say the least. I don't know who would actively choose some of them.

I don't think I want to meet the people who would choose some of them. [She smiles. It's almost normal for a second which is weird and so the cycle continues.]

...did you need me for something?

[She had mentioned trying to find him. If it was just for the apology about the incident in his room, then it could prove a useless question. But he's got a lot on his mind, so he would rather get to the point if there is one.]

[Something about that reminds her so much of her Erik that for a moment she's at a loss for words. It happens every now and then. A tilt of the head. A word choice. A look. She just hasn't really noticed it since he came back. Since things changed.]

...Um, yes.

I have something for you. [Pushing ahead.] Can I meet up with you to drop it off? It doesn't have to take long. [Which also leaves it open in case they want it to take longer.]

[He considers for a moment, then nods.]

I'm in the museum cafe.

It'll probably take about ten minutes to get there from here. [Big place.] See you then. [AND HE WILL! DUN DUN DUN...! Okay, it's just Kitty with a wrapped package. Didn't really require music cues.]

[He's in his 'usual' spot in the cafe, a table in the back corner against the windows. Erik puts down the book he was reading when Kitty approaches, glancing at the package she's carrying but not commenting yet.]

You made good time.

[While she hadn't noticed him in his spot before she does look for him in the corners first because it's where she would be if alone which is the time habit is most likely to take over.]

Fast as a speeding shadow and or cat. [What?]

For Hannukah or just because everyone else was getting gifts. [She holds it out.] It's not a bomb.

[Erik blinks at the proffered gift, taken aback. He look askance at Kitty as he reaches out to take it from her.]

You got me a gift?

Seems like it. There's a bow and everything.

[He has to bite back the instinctive "Why?" question, and instead starts unwrapping it.]

You didn't need to get me something. I haven't paid attention to the holidays that much.

[He had observed Hanukkah on his own early in December, and had a family dinner with the others from his world nearer to Christmas. It had already been more than he expected to do, without factoring in when people decided to give him things.]

[He'll find the package contains a mug with the letter E in black, white, and silver containing a mix for hot chocolate.]

Winn and I made it a big thing with us, and it just spread out from there like a holiday virus. You can always regift it to someone else whose name starts with E. Or tell them it stands for excellent or something.

[He turns the mug in his hands, and if anything, it's less rude than the one Pietro gave him.]

I... no, I won't do that. Thank you.

[Again, he feels the slight sense of guilt that comes with having not given presents to anyone. It hadn't even occurred to him that others might give him things.]

[She doesn't even think about not getting something in return. If anything the hardest part for her when giving gifts is that it is showing that she cares even though that's also the point. It's just a display of affection she's not really used to making. Oh, it's the easiest thing in the world for Winn or Kurt, but for many of the others on the fleet it feels like it has more weight.

That's probably why she manages to start saying some of the things she's been thinking even though she didn't mean to do this here and now. Head tilted down, not meeting his eyes to start.]

I wasn't there. I wasn't in your world. I'm not you. I don't know what it was like for you. Part of me wants to hate you for it, because that would be easy and I could convince myself it's righteous or something, but... [She looks back up.] The bigger part of me just doesn't want to lose anyone else. [And he's been trying. She can see that.]

You've always been good to me. [She stops there because she has to stop there. Because she doesn't know what her voice will do if she doesn't. Now that she's said all this she really wants to flee, but she stays still for the moment.]

[Kitty's words strike him unexpectedly, and he's still for a long few moments. It's been months since the day he upended their relationship by admitting he'd been En Sabah Nur's horseman. He had assumed that that was the end - had walked into the conversation thinking it would be. It was Kitty's right to not speak to him again afterwards, considering he had become the antithesis of her life's work.]

You have every right to hate me. [That much is said quietly, but with assurance. He knows exactly what his crimes are. It doesn't matter that he may not have been in control the whole time. He can't tell where the line is.

He had grown mostly used to acceptance and forgiveness from Raven, from Hank ... from Charles. He didn't expect it from anyone else. And yet, he too knows what it feels like to not lose anyone else. It drives his every action now. He sets the mug aside on the table, unsure his hands will remain steady.]

You've always given me the benefit of the doubt, and I'm not sure that's wholly earned. [The shadow of Magneto lies over them both.] So... thank you. For this, and for this. [He gestures to the mug.]

I don't want to hate you. [A beat later, softer.] I don't hate you. [She was angry at him. Furious. She felt deceived and disappointed and a lot of it is because of that Magneto shadow. The man she knew before. Anger burns itself out if you don't let it burn yourself or others instead. And then she was just left with this awkward, unsettled emptiness. Who was she punishing?]

And you did make pretty good bread. [A twinge of a smile. He may have done little to deserve the chance, but is it so wrong to give someone a chance? He never misused it. Not in the fleet. Even when things changed in his memories he was honest with her when it was the very worst thing he could have told her.]

[He echoes that with a faint smile of his own. Maybe this is just how long it takes, for people to confess their uglier feelings to him. Hadn't Charles just done the same? Erik is hard to be around, with the things he's done. He knows this. Distance and time can be painful, but sometimes it's necessary to air things out.]

I do what I can.

[With bread and living alike.]

I know you do. [The look on her face says it's more. She knows he's been trying. Some of that trying was just staying away and not defending actions which were every bit as valid and meaningful as deciding to return with the X-Men and making her bread. It doesn't wipe out whatever debt he feels toward whomever he killed and hurt back home in Apocalypse's name, but she's not the one he has to answer to for that.]

Should I let you get back to what you were doing? [It's an offer either way. For time to think about this alone or to try and talk more. She's not sure which way she wants him to go honestly. This isn't easy, and yet it's easier than the distance. She's never been so good at that even when she's choosing it.]

[There's a pause as he considers. Eventually he shakes his head.]

I was only reading. I come here once a day.

[She pulls out a chair and takes a seat watching him as if he'll stop her in the process.] What are you reading? I've made a pretty heavy dent in the science books.

[He doesn't snap at her, so that's a good sign. Turning the book over, he shows her the cover.]

It's from the museum gift shop. I'm reading it with the assumption it's fiction. [Because this museum has not been the most factual of places.]

[She smiles.] Good assumption. That place is terrible. I mean the nebula is beautiful, but I'm not even from here and I can tell the information is wrong. Too bad. I like museums. I think I even got Tyrion that book and a few others.

It's more akin to an art gallery, as long as you don't read the placards.

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