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]

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.

[passingthrough]

Would never work in this song. You've gone too far, Vash.

[goldenglasses]

There is no such thing as too far so long as you have enough alcohol!

And if I'm throwing in some lala's I'm going to go ahead and add some da-da-da's as well because I am a rebel without a cause!

[passingthrough]

I had no idea how dangerous you were. Maybe I should call an adult.

[goldenglasses]

Maybe you should! I am a very dangerous man after all! [He spreads his fingers apart and curls them into a "claw" lowering his tone to an "evil" yet mostly sarcastic level.] I am Vash the Stampede! And if you're not careful I might just uhhhh... [Huh, he was a bit rusty at this joke now. It was sort of nice and it makes it hard to keep his face straight and not start cracking a smile.] I'll, uh, eat you?

[passingthrough]

[She, of course, fails at looking at all afraid even if she is rather vulnerable right now. Too drunk to get her powers to fire consistently and definitely not in the best shape for a fight. Being able to get drunk is only something she can do because she feels safe here most of the time. It's almost a nice testament to her life being in a better place than it was once upon a time except for the part where it's still mostly about nursing a broken heart for the better part of a year.]

Got way too comfortable with cannibal planet, didn't you? We're going to have to detox you.

[goldenglasses]

[He would have been slightly concerned if his performance had actually managed to scare her somehow.]

Oh, yeah? What's your detox plan? I probably won't like it.

[passingthrough]

I'll have to come up with it when I'm less toxicated. Is toxicated a word? It should be a word. We should go write new words into the dictionaries in the library! [Such a wild child.]

[goldenglasses]

What a rebel! You're going to write in all the dictionaries? That sounds like a lot of work. A lot of thirsty work. [If she gets what he's suggesting.]

[passingthrough]

Are you trying to get me drunker? I'm on to you, Stampede.

[goldenglasses]

Well, do you not want to be drunker, Pride? You're probably having a hangover either way, so why not enjoy the evening? Unless you have an anti-hangover power. Because that would be pretty amazing.

[passingthrough]

[She laughs.] People seem to think I need my stomach pumped already and you're offering me more. So many backseat drinkers.

[goldenglasses]

[Vash waves a hand in front of his face.] You don't have to keep drinking. You do what you want and what feels right for you right now. How hungover you feel later can be a problem for us in the future. Let's just deal with the present for the moment.

What do you want to do right now?