video/action : open!

[passingthrough]

Who: Kitty Pryde + everyone
Broadcast: Network
Action: Iskaulit: Dance studio
When: New Year’s Eve (slightly backdated)

[Not long ago she’d been considering the best way to handle Winn’s birthday now that he’s gone and all. She considered enlisting a close friend or two to be on duty for support or distractions or just barricading herself in her room and feeling it and dealing with that. In the end she went with booze. Lots and lots of booze.

When she turns the feed on she’s lying down on a series of three chairs, holding the communicator above her head.]

Did I ever tell you about the time I was in Marina—the underwater prison place—and this tiny alien or robot or possibly dog man thing took over and made it rain fruit punch and then made us dance in a dance marathon and if we didn’t he was going to put us in a room with a moose. And I’m not drunk! [She laughs like she just said something very funny.]

No, no, I mean I am drunk but it’s also true. It was a very strange place. Did you know you had to get a wristband if you wanted to have sex with someone? Yeah. It was like being at a bar and wanting drink. [Speaking of wanting to drink. She looks around for her bottle and then lifts herself up enough to achieve drinking.] Oh! And then it was like enforced monogamy where you could only be with your band partner.

Wristband. Not like music band. You didn’t have to have sex with the person you played the flute with. [More laughing.]

What was I…? Oh, yeah, do you know I haven’t kissed anyone in moooonths? Yeah. Like May. May 10th. [Winn disappeared May 11.] In the prison you couldn’t do that because every two months—if they were months—they would send out these mistletoe robots that would make you kiss someone or lots of someones. Usually lots of someones. They had shrinking forcefields and confetti. I had to kiss a guy without lips once. Did I mention it was a weird place?

Comments

action.

[passingthrough]

[She lifts a hand to wave at him.] Did you come to dance? [It is a dance studio after all. Not that he sounds anything but concerned, but that's easily filtered out, isn't it? She pushes herself up and manages to sit on just one of the chairs with only mild clumsiness.]

Kitty. Is me. I am. Yes. Hi. [Good first impression is go.]

[astrobleme]

[Yeah, that confirms what's more than obvious: she's drunk. The way she moves, the clumsiness, even the quality of her voice... Shinji can't help but be reminded of Misato-san on one of her benders. A painful reminder. Jagged.]

Oh, I'm... [He's a little surprised, a little taken aback, but he answers anyway:] I'm Shinji. I was just, uh... I saw this place was open, and the lights were on, so I came in to check it out... [He rubs at one of his arms self-consciously.] I don't really know how to dance, ma'am. I was just wondering if you were all right.

[passingthrough]

Nice to meet you, Shinji. [She smiles a lazy smile since lazy is about all her body is up for achieving right now. But hey, she got all the words in order there. Well done.] Didn't mean to make you worry. That's sweet. The worrying over a stranger thing. The not knowing how to dance part is tragic though. We'll work on that one.

[astrobleme]

Nice to meet you, [Shinji echoes, looking off and down and away again. It makes him a little nervous to be around somebody so forward, another perfect stranger, even though he's probably seen her on the network before. For the most part, he just keeps to himself throughout the day, tending his plants and playing piano.] I wouldn't say it's sweet, it's just... it seems like the right thing to do. [If only because no one else is around to check in on her.

Er. Wait a second.]

We'll--work on it? Dancing? Huh?

[His voice is that spike of performance anxiety.]

[passingthrough]

Back home there weren't a lot of people worried about doing the right thing, so it still seems sweet to me.

[She smirks.] You sound nervous. Dancing is fun.

[astrobleme]

[That's unfortunately true for most places, or Shinji has learned. But he's too busy balking at the whole dancing thing to comment on that.

A little dry, a little resigned:] Dancing's fun up until you step on somebody's foot and they start yelling at you...

[passingthrough]

Clearly you need to try dancing with someone who can become intangible at will. See? [She hits the back of the chair with her hand a couple of times which only proves how solid she can be really.] Oh, come on! [She closes her eyes to better focus while she's drunk and then her hand slips through the chair as if it wasn't there, fingers wiggling with the rest seemingly not attached.] There we go.

[astrobleme]

[Shinji has seen plenty of weird crap during his time with the Fleet--talking candlesticks, seriously?--but this intangibility stuff is on a whole different level.]

Wh... [He blinks a few times, his eyes widening.] Are you a-- [Is it rude to ask this sort of thing?] Are you a g--g-ghost? I mean, not that there's anything wrong with being a ghost, but, you know... just...

[passingthrough]

You think you might be meeting a drunk ghost right now? That's topping the list of likely explanations?

[She takes a deep breath and looks at him thoughtfully.] ...Fair.

I'm a mutant. It's my power.

[astrobleme]

[Ah, Shinji's cheeks are suddenly stained a bit pink.]

That's-- [And he reaches up to rub his face, his mouth, with more of an embarrassed, withering look.] Look, Kitty-san, I've seen some pretty weird crap around here, and back home, so a drunk ghost wouldn't be... the weirdest thing... out there...

[Kitty's explanation doesn't explain much about what's going on, but he can accept it.]

You can just pass through anything?

[passingthrough]

[She gets it. She does. Things are weird and she's one of those things.]

Pretty much, except it would suck a lot for an android. [Or anything electronic.]