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

[goldenglasses]

Oh, well of course! You can't get the full stunning glory of my masterpiece on camera! No, no, no! It needs to be viewed in person in full glory!

Now I believe I'm here to sweep you off your feet or at least leave you in the dust. BUWHAHAHAHAHAHA! [Yes, he finds himself hysterical and can't see how anyone could possibly think otherwise.]

[passingthrough]

Careful. I used puns on the last guy I fell in love with. They're dangerous. [She doesn't rise to his level of laughter but he gets a little smirk.]

[goldenglasses]

Ha! I would never bristle at a challenge!

And where is the "party" I'm missing out on? I want a swig.

[passingthrough]

[She pushes herself up.] You want to beat a drunk girl at a mental challenge to make Winn fall in love with you? You need this more than I do. [Holding the bottle out for him.]

[goldenglasses]

Well, I just wanted to beat you at puns to become the Captain of Puns on the ship.

But if you're going to put it like that you can win. [He grabs the bottle and takes a swing of it.]

[passingthrough]

Are you sure? He's a really good kisser when he's here.

[goldenglasses]

Yeah, still going to pass as I'm afraid I'm just not into men. He's all yours. [He nearly adds a comment about not "stealing him away" but thinks better of it.]

So, is this a tradition to welcome in the new year for you?

[passingthrough]

[Or not hers at all since he's gone.]

No. Last year I threw a party instead because it was Winn's birthday. [Protip: It's still Winn's birthday.]

[goldenglasses]

Oh yeah? [They were going to need more alcohol is Vash's guess as be plops himself next to her.]

He's a pretty great guy, huh? Happy birthday to him.

[Vash refuses to speak about him in past tense terms. He's just away at the moment. They don't know if he's really gone forever.]

[passingthrough]

[In some ways that makes it harder. He could be back tonight. She may never see him again. What does she do with that? You know, besides get drunk on special occasions and cry herself to sleep more often than she'd like to admit.]

No. He's the best guy. [Sorry, present company. But instead of reaching for the bottle she shifts to lean against his chest, resting her head on his shoulder, near his neck.]

[goldenglasses]

[He starts to hold out the bottle expecting that's what she wants. He's only a little surprised when her head hits his shoulder. He doesn't move to shake her off and holds still so she can rest a bit.

It's been awhile since he's had to clean someone else's vomit off his jacket. Now he's wondering if that record will be broken at some point tonight.]

Oh, really? Why is that? Because he can dance?

[passingthrough]

[She has a steel stomach! Not literally. But the food in her world isn't the best quality. She can probably hold all this down. Or maybe not. It's been a long time since she was there. Good luck with the jacket, Vash.]

Because he loved me. [Softly. It was more than that. It was his intelligence, humor, warmth, and thoughtfulness. It was everything that made him who he was. It was the way he held her and bopped her nose and dried her tears and stroked her hair. But it was also the way he made her feel safe and loved and special and needed and wanted. She misses feeling those things. She misses giving those things back to him.]

[goldenglasses]

Yeah. [Vash gives his head a nod.] I think that's a good summary. [No jokes or sarcasm to that. The fact that she knew he loved her back was enough.]

To Winn? [He holds up the bottle and offers it to her. Because he knows this is not the healthy way, but it's the only way he himself deals with problems of loss.] A great man who, and I'll take your word on this, is as an amazing of a guy as he is a kisser.

[passingthrough]

To Winn. [She takes the bottle and drinks more of the burning fluid down.] He's a very thoughtful lover. [This is definitely the alcohol talking. It's TRUE! But as open as she is she would have drawn the line somewhere before that.]

Who's yours? The one who's hardest to get over?

[goldenglasses]

Hardest? [That didn't seem possible to pick. Meryl and Wolfwood spring to mind quickly as being a couple of the more recent. Or perhaps it was that little boy who perished along with the city that he lived in. Then there was--]

Rem. They're all hard, but if you twisted my arm and made me choose it would probably be her.

[passingthrough]

[She was thinking past loves. But his answer doesn't exactly dissuade her from that, but she died when he was still a kid, right? Didn't she see that in his calibrations? Or maybe not. It is hard to think straight. She nods slowly against him.] They're all hard. [Agreeing.] But it's Winn.

What do you miss most about her?

[goldenglasses]

[That would require him having a past love. Forever in denial about Meryl. So he goes for the people he's actually missing.]

Her singing. She was always so happy when she sang and you could hear it in her voice.

[But he didn't want this to be about him.] What about you? What do you miss the most?

[passingthrough]

[She's had three or four and she's a fraction of his age. Get on it, Vash! Ruining the curve!] That sounds nice.

Everything. [Okay. She can do better.] Waking up beside him. [The way he'd smile at her. The way they'd fail at getting out of bed at any kind of reasonable speed. The cuddling and talking and joking.]

He was a good singer too. Did you ever hear him?

[goldenglasses]

No. I don't think I got the chance. Did you have a favorite song he use to sing? [He offers her the bottle once again as a good role model should.]

[passingthrough]

I guess you can't make fun of it since you're not really from Earth so you won't know who they are. But one of my favorite bands when I was younger was KISS and they had this song called I was Made for Loving You. It kind of became our song.

[goldenglasses]

Their name is KISS and they made a song called Made for Loving You? That doesn't sound that funny. I bet they specialize in love songs.

How did that song go? What are some of the lyrics?

[passingthrough]

[She chuckles.] Right. You figured us out.

First you need lots of do do do's before you get to the music, but it's... uh... [Just skipping the first verse and going straight to the chorus. But she'll go ahead and sing it.]

I was made for lovin' you, baby.
You were made for lovin' me.
And I can't get enough of you, baby.
Can you get enough of me?

[goldenglasses]

Those lyrics sound pretty good. Even without all the do-do-do's! I bet those really add a lot to the song.

[passingthrough]

Oh, they do, do, do. [See what she did there? She's already laughing at her own joke, so don't worry if you don't. It's covered.]

[goldenglasses]

[He joins her in the laughter. It has never taken much to get him laughing.] What about some lala-la? I've always been a bigger fan of la-las over do-dos.