driftfleet | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Billy Kaplan + OTA
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: The Blue Fish
When: Now!

( blue fish )

[...con... fetti? alright, that sure is a thing that just happened. Billy's used to teleporting, but it's never felt quite like this. so weird. everything about this is weird, weird, weird, and coming from him that's saying something.

Reaching around the back of his head, he pats awkwardly at where the augment rests, disturbed, and starts wandering through the halls of the ship. Might as well get acquainted, and maybe make sure he's not just super crazy right now. You never know, where he's from.]

( private; text to kate )

So are my powers busted or are you the only one here?

[Location spell went kinda haywire, whoops.]

( video; fleetwide )

Okay, so, ignoring that this is kind of awful and I hate that I apparently can't teleport myself home...

Any advice for first-timers? Can't say I've watched much reality TV back home. Um, barring that... what's some good places to visit off-ship if you've got like five cents to your name?

It's very, uh. Colourful here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'd always wondered what would happen if you showed up. Whether they'd hobble your abilities or -- well, truth is I've probably thought about it way too much.

[ because she's missed him. she's missed all of them. ]

Are you on the Marsiva? Did they assign you to a ship yet?

At least they didn't take all of it.

[This isn't Dr. Doom or Cube-style hobbling, which is nice, because those were pretty much the worst things ever.]

I'm on the Blue Fish. Can we meet up?

Of course. I'd love to meet up.

Want me to come to you? Ooooor I'm on the Blameless. You choose; I'm easy like Sunday morning.

Nah, sit tight. I want to see if regular teleports work.

[hopefully she's presentable? because he's trying it, like, now.]

[ she's in yoga capris and an over-sized tshirt -- but that's never been a barrier to being presentable when it comes to keeping his company. her hair is tossed back in a messy, half-formed bun. and when billy winks into existence, here in her room on the blameless, lucky perks up and offers a soft boff. he knows this scent.

kate's sitting cross-legged on her bed. she quickly discards the comms device in her hands and hops to her feet -- rushing to throw her arms around billy and drag him down to her height. ]

Huh. Guess it works. Kudos.

[ -- very understated. ]

[Yeah, he knows this feeling; it's the hug of "it's been a while". He returns it with ease, because even if it hasn't been that long for him, he's glad that she's here too.]

Hah, thanks. You okay?

[ she's slow to let him go. however long she's been here, however long it's been, she's been keeping her arms in good shape because she gets in a good squeeze before finally nudging him backward. her hands stay on his shoulders. ]

For a ranging definition of the word okay. Yeah. [ captain kate bishop, reporting for duty. she needs to warn him about the danger that's on the horizon, about the planet below, but she can't go too fast with too much. billy can handle a lot, but that doesn't make her any more keen to overwhelm him. ]

How long since you arrived?

[He doesn't pull back until she does; it's easy to tell by her grip that this is even more serious than he'd initially thought. That doesn't bode well at all, but he'll let her tell him at her own pace. Just... mentally bracing himself for worse, at this point.]

Not long. Couple hours? Got transferred over, met some of the crew, toured the ship. I tried a locating spell as soon as I had a moment to myself and only found you.

Mmhm.

[ she hums her understanding. and as they part, her face slips into a rather workish expression. not dour, exactly, but something just shy of stern. kate's made her peace with being the bearer of badish news.

but she doesn't lift her hands off his shoulders. ]

Alright. First off, everything I'm about to tell you comes under the caveat that I've been here for the last year and, oh, seven months. [ it takes her a moment to make the latter count. ] So if I start to sound a little too blasé and jaded? That's probably why. Fair warning.

[WHAT THE HECK, KATE. That's one way to start things off.]

Wh... okay, wait, so- are we talking time-travel here? Alternate realities? Because it definitely hasn't been that long since I last saw you.

[It's only been a few weeks at most, far as he can tell.]

Either or. [ -- kate shrugs, unwilling to commit to either option. both could be as valid as each other for all she knows. but there's something sweet and lovely in the way he insists it hasn't been that long.

despite herself, she smiles.

and then promptly shakes the smile away. ]

But I think the more popular theory is that we're yanked from a point in time and promptly returned to it when they tire of us. Or we 'win,' because apparently that's a thing we're supposed to be able to do.

[ but she's seen no victories on the horizon.

kate gestures at a simple metal chair, letting him know he can grab a seat if her wants. ]

...You know, I'm not even surprised.

[considering the shit they've witnessed and/or gone through themselves over the years - nevermind what used to end up on the news before they became superheroes themselves - this isn't that wild.

he does sit down, though, because what the heck.]

So, wait, has it just been you on your own for all that time?

[ now that's a trickier question. kate retires to the edge of her bed, slumping down and pulling one knee up to her chin. ]

Clint was here already when I showed up. He disappeared about five months ago, though. [ ... ] Wolverine used to be on this ship. The, uh, older-less-female Wolverine. But not the old old Wolverine. If you catch my drift?

[ although laura kinney is indeed knocking around the fleet... ]

I'm sorry. Tommy was here for about a month, but he was different. Alternate. You'll find that most of the people we know and recognize around here don't know us.

[ a beat. ]

Captain America, for one.

I get you.

[look he's happier for it anyway, the last time they teamed up with old old Wolverine the guy kept trying to kill him. And yeah, that was a long time ago now, but when Wolverine comes at you with murderous intent you don't exactly forget about it.]

Tommy from an alternate universe... not the bad kind, was it?

[because they've seen some pretty godawful alternate realities and he can live without those.

he's not sure what to think about when it comes to Cap. that particular brand of hero-worship has become very complicated lately, but then, what hasn't?]

-- I mean, the universe didn't sound great. The two of you were princes. I think I might've been dead.

[ kate says it calmly. because that's just the thing, isn't it? ] Aside from him? I haven't met anyone who has been both from an alterna-world and known us from it. Which makes this really strange, sometimes.

[ she inhales. ]

The Scarlet Witch was here for a while. Younger, though. And definitely not aware of -- us.

[ and kate made a point to never come out swinging with i know your kids. sorta. ]

[That's a lot to take in, and a lot he could laser-focus on: them being princes means they were actual brothers, rather than the awkward on-again-off-again relationship by circumstance they have now, and princes also implies royal Magneto family, which sounds a whole lot like what he'd heard of the dreamworld Wanda had made back home before she retro-created them and erased the mutants. And... for the Scarlet Witch to be here, to have just missed her, not that it would have made a difference if she didn't know him anyway. Geez.]

Um. Can I just make it my official stance here and now that I really don't like alternate realities? Like, at all?

As far as I can tell? They pretty much always and exclusively suck. [ except there's something to be said for the world this captain america is from. it seems -- kinder, in some ways. emptier in others. ]

I've been keeping track. So far, after talking with familiar faces and trying to compare notes? There have been seven different versions of home represented here in the fleet.

[ which is small potatoes, really. but worth sharing. ] I can run you through them all. If you want.

Probably better to know than not.

[Ignorance is just gonna cause trouble and awkward meetings later, anyway.]

[ kate nods in agreement. that's her kind of logic. ]

Well. Currently, we've got you and me. Provided we don't figure out any sorta discrepancies between our stuff? That's one. And then there's Cap. His world sounds like it's a bit behind ours? As far as I've been able to figure out, him and Iron Man just now duked it out. [ y'know. ] The Black Widow is from that same world. Wanda -- she was too. Only none of them seem to know what mutants are. But there was a whole other slew of people from whole 'nother world where there were X-Men but no Avengers: Magneto, the Professor, hell...before me? Hank McCoy was the captain of this ship. And he was young.

[ and dating mystique, but that's a whole other story. ]

That brings us to three. Keeping up so far?

Geez. Trying my best...

[He crouches down and at last offers a hand out for Lucky to sniff, giving the dog some good scritches. Poor pup's been very patient while he and Kate had their reunion, and who can say no to such a good doggo?

It's a nice distraction from the oh holy crap of alternate realities Kate is compiling.]

[ she sits back, leaning on the heels of her palms while she watches him lavish attention on lucky. and he's a good boy (or else just an old boy) and luxuriates in every scratch and pet. ]

Good. Because things only get weirder. On the X-Men front, there's a whole other 'verse that's different from the one I just mentioned. Rogue was here -- younger, though. And I think Gambit still is. And then there's Kitty Pryde, but she's from some version of home where Apocalypse ruined everything. So that's two more versions.

[ kate's nose crinkles. ] And then there was a world where Bucky Barnes became Captain America and Steve Rogers became the Winter Soldier. Neither of them are here any more, but the Bucky who was used to captain the Heron. Now, the captain of the Heron is the actual Winter Soldier from the same universe as Steve Rogers and the Black Widow and -- and there's Sam Wilson, too, but I think he's still running around as Falcon.

[ so that's six altogether. ]

And you and me make seven. [ ... ] Eight, I guess, if you count wherever the hell Tommy came from before he disappeared again. The multiverse is hella represented, here.

Eight... god. That's too many, I'm getting flashbacks.

[at least they don't sound like the kind of hellscapes that America took them to. These realities sound almost halfway normal.]

I'll keep an eye out, and I'll try not to make things weird.

Speaking of making things weird -- [ kate winces. ] But you and I should probably swap notes. Make certain, you know, that we're actually on the same page.

[ she doubts they are. no one, as of yet, has come through here from their version of home while also hailing from around the same time. ]

Probably a good idea.

[Where to start, though... probably easiest to just, like, work their way up?]

Okay, are you on a team right now back home? Or gunning solo?

Solo. [ quick and earnest and honest. then, one step more: ] In Venice Beach. Maybe you haven't heard, but I'm a private investigator now.

[ a lop-sided smile. ]

Well. I'm almost one. Very very nearly one.

private text »

private text »

private text »

private text »

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject