driftfleet | Just Keeping Swimming

Just Keeping Swimming | March Planet Mingle

Who: Everyone!
Broadcast: If you want!
Action: Anywhere on Mafik
When: The month of March

[Welcome to Mafik, the water world! Hope you brought your best swimming gear and don't have a paralyzing fear of water, because that's all that's here! So get out those wet suits and enjoy life under the sea!

In other words, it's a mingle! ]

> System Information

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[She doesn't recognize the people in the picture, but she knows who they must be. The family he lost. A story she all but glossed over on her on her way to feeling betrayed and furious with him for his involvement with Apocalypse. She looks at them all happy together, not attempting to take it from him, but still looking with interest.]

Oh Erik...

[She glances back up to him, and then very much to her own surprise and probably his, she hugs him. She's careful of the hand with the photo in it of course, but there's just so much to feel that it felt easier to say it with a hug. That she's happy for him having this token. That she hurts for him losing his family. That she's sorry for the way she handled it before. That she's there for him.]

[It definitely comes as a surprise, if his stiffening spine is any indication. Underwater hugs are strange enough. He hadn't expected this kind of reaction... though if he's honest, he hadn't known what to expect. All he had thought about was the fact that Kitty had once shown him a photo of hers, and it seemed right to show his own.

On a quieter level, it makes him feel better, to know that others have seen Magda and Nina. That he's not the only one to know their faces.

After a few protracted moments, he manages to relax a bit, and lay his hand on Kitty's back. His other still clutches the photo. He's thankful that the water means he can't really tear up. Otherwise, he might be in trouble.]

[She's questioning all her life choices up until she feels him relax and respond to the hug.] I'm sorry. [That it happened. That she didn't give him some kind of comfort when she found out. That she was too busy hurting over what he did when he was in pain.]

[He swallows past the lump in his throat. It doesn't seem to matter how much time has passed - it still manages to affect him like it was just yesterday.]

You don't need to apologise.

I know, but... [She pulls back again to look at him.] I care. [It feels like more words should be flowing after this, but they are stuck somewhere in her throat so she hopes they're just clear in her eyes.]

[Had more words come, it's not certain Erik would have been able to handle them. As it is, just "I care" is enough to make his heart clench. It's not as though he doesn't know that others care about him, or what he went through - what his family suffered. And yet it's so rarely voiced that it still strikes him anew how fortunate he is to hear those words. From anyone. This was a bridge he had been prepared to burn when he came back here, after all.

It's all he can do to nod finally, raw gratitude flickering in his expression.]

[She steps back again, feeling the weight of the moment with the silent but powerful way he responds to her.] Thank you for showing me. [She knows exactly how it can feel to share something like that. It's important and vulnerable and at least for her she doesn't want to overwhelm people, but she wants them to understand the gravity of it.]

[He puts the photo back into his bag, closing the flap. Later he'll move it to the Heron, somewhere more permanent, when he's less worried about it vanishing. For now he's glad he had it on hand.]

I'm glad to have the opportunity.

[Even as he says it, it's a bit of a surprise to realise how true that is. It wasn's something he'd anticipated being able to do, even a few weeks ago.]

Me too. [Glad she had the opportunity to see it because they are communicating again. Glad he was able to get it. Glad he's still around at all so there was time for some healing.]

I actually got something from the temple too. [It's not that she feels uncomfortable sharing it, but she doesn't want him to feel like she's one upping here. Not when that really did mean a lot to her. But he shared and she wants to as well even if it is similar to what he's already seen.]

[Nodding, he folds his arms lightly over his chest. Important as this was, it's a bit of a relief for Kitty to shift the focus away from him somewhat. Besides, he brought up the treasures first. It's only natural to keep talking about it.]

It seems everyone who made it to the end did. Was it something good?

[She nods.] It was a disc I got while I was in the prison. It's footage from a dance recital I was in when I was younger. And then you see me going up to my parents afterward and I can hear their voices. [And they say pretty great things too. The kinds of things you always want to think of your parents saying and feeling toward you.]

Do you want to see it? I uploaded it to the network so it would be harder to lose.

...sure. I'd love to.

Sorry, there's a little dancing first.

[She navigates to it and hands him the device when it plays. There's the recital which starts with several children on a stage. It might be hard to pick Kitty out until the others clear off to the sides while she performs a ballet solo. She looks about eight in the video but she's clearly a good dancer even at that age. Fortunately, the video doesn't have too much dancing before everyone comes up for a final bow and then Kitty is heading off into the crowd to her parents who hug her and tell her how proud they are and how much they love her. That's everything. Hearing their voices again. Hearing those words. She couldn't have asked for anything better except having them back, and hopefully being accepted by them as a mutant who has lived a hard life and done things that felt necessary, but never made her proud of herself.]

[He would comment that there's no need to apologise for dancing footage, but his attention is immediately taken up with the video. His expression softens as the young Kitty is hugged by her parents. It's not hard for him to imagine what this means for her - and he knows how it would feel for him, from both sides. To have video of your parents, and yourself, at a time when everything was all right.

Erik looks up again, and smiles slightly.]

It's wonderful.

[She's seen it enough times that she doesn't always cry anymore, but she still feels deeply of the emotion as she nods her initial response.]

Thank you. I don't think that video ever actually existed even though the moment did, but the wardens always had their ways. Suddenly, I'm glad they did.

[Normally he would find it disquieting, the idea of some mysterious entity filming events from your life and then giving it to you years later. But right now he knows how cherished it must be for Kitty. He'd feel the same way, if he were given something like that.]

Sometimes it's better not to question how, and just be glad for the result.

[Oh, it's fully disquieting, but she can't bring herself to care in this case.] That is almost never my way, and yet I totally agree when it comes to this. [Which would normally just make her more suspicious of it, but she can't.]

It's not quite my way either. There are merely some exceptions.

I'm definitely taking the win even if I don't trust the people who gave it to me.

...Applies to actual Winn as well.

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Just Keeping Swimming | March Planet Mingle

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