driftfleet | video/action : open!

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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[His face softens a bit because now he gets it.]

Yeah. I miss Winn too.

[Not that Barry sees him that much, but he wishes he could.]

It's his birthday today. I mean, here it would be. There who knows what day he's on if he's really there. [A little softer.] Who knows where he is really.

[He pauses for a moment, because the answer to this is way too complicated, but he can try.]

Well, as far as I know, he made it back to his Earth. It's been a while since I've seen him in person, but Kara and I talk a lot and if he had gone missing, she would have let me know.

If you can trust the things you're seeing. Live in a shared virtual reality for months that were really years sometime and see how much you trust what you're seeing after that. [Didn't make a lot of sense, but actually accurate and not just drunken ramblings.]

[His head tips to the side.]

Like living in a video game?

Sort of, but it was less Mario and more just your life without your actual body involved. And your life was suddenly trapped with a bunch of other people in a place you couldn't leave kind of like this.

[He makes a face at that.]

So you've been through something like this before?

The last place was a shared virtual reality. We were only awake in our actual bodies a couple of times while I was there. Not that we knew that until I'd already been there a long time thinking it was regular reality.

[That totally sounds like The Matrix. OMG KITTY WERE YOU IN THE MATRIX. Barry manages to swallow that down a bit, though.]

That ... must have been really disorienting.

[She was kind of in the matrix! Less leather though and no colored pills.]

Honestly? Still is. Not sure I ever left, you know? It would explain a lot about this place.

Maybe it would. If it's a computer, though, maybe we can hack our way out.

[She laughs at that like he just told a good joke.] Sorry, that was something we tried back there.

It got messy. But it meant they had safeguards which at least meant we might have been on to something. So, yeah, maybe.

Well, at least you tried. I can't really say I've done much of the same trying to get us out of here.

Maybe it'd be different here. Worth trying. I feel so tired when I think about it though. [Which doesn't mean she's ever stopped. Just that it's more draining.] It's just been years of this with some unseen overlord holding all the cards. I just wanted something else for awhile. Even if it was just more of that but was with Winn. I guess I did have that for awhile and just got greedy though.

[His face softens a bit at that.]

We'll figure it out. Once way or another, there has to be a solution somewhere.

Yeah. [Softly.] Just keep walking. [Something her friend, Allen, had told her once long ago that she holds on to when she feels like it's all too much.]

I'll let you know if it's at the bottom of this bottle and report back.

Okay. And if you change your mind about company, just let me know.

[He'll be there in a flash.]

You're a nice guy, Barry. Will do.

I try.

[But with that he will disconnect, and head off to find another way to keep himself busy. /scene]

video/action : open!

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }

video }