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

[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?

[passingthrough]

Us? Are you sharing my hangover? Is that how co-captaining works now? [She reaches out to mess with his hair to show, not tell him what she wants to do right now.]

[goldenglasses]

No, I more meant me in having to clean up after your hangover or at the very least keeping the crew quiet.

[He pouts and looks displeased as she starts to mess with his hair. Yet, he does not stop her. Remembering back to the time on the Three Twins he got talked into a crew "sleep over". Her playing couldn't be worse than the things they put into his hair back then. Hopefully...

She may even find with the high quality hair product that he used today she's still able to get some of it to hold a different shape.]

Besides, I don't get hungover. [Lies.] Once you've had a "classic" No Man's Land cure you're cured for life so you never have to take it again. [Mostly true.]

[passingthrough]

[She laughs lightly and hand that was sweeping through his hair moves more gently, stroking it back instead of trying to do anything more embarrassing with it.] You're a pretty sweet guy, Vash.

[And then with no forethought put into the action she leans in to give him a kiss.]

(OOC: Unless this messes up the timeline too much or you don't want her to take his lip virginity!)

1/2

[goldenglasses]

[He's ready for her to pass out. Ready for her to get up and try to move. He's even ready for her to be leaning over to throw up in his lap.

What he's not ready for is a kiss. He's so taken by surprise that he sits there stunned for a moment. Not kissing back, but too confused for a moment to even try to stop it from happening.]

2/2

[goldenglasses]

[Then that moment is gone and his mind snaps back to the present reminding him that he's supposed to be one of the fastest creatures on his home planet.

Gently he pushes her back so their heads don't collide as he quickly jumps up to his feet.] N-n-no-no-no-no. Actually, I change my mind. You've had way more to drink than needed tonight. Let's get you home and into bed! Hahaha haha! [He chuckles and laughs as if he can laugh away the kiss that just happened. Or at least laugh away the idea that he sort of liked it.]

[passingthrough]

[She laughs in surprise.] Speedster Vash. [Okay, he's not nearly so fast as Pietro or Barry, but she's pretty drunk and her eyes swim watching him pop up to his feet, so she closes them.] Home is good.

[Tomorrow, when she wakes up nice and late and remembers this—and she will remember this—she'll realize she just kissed Vash on Winn's birthday no less and have another wave of feeling awful. Well, emotionally awful along with her hangover. If only she'd aimed for his cheek. Maybe she did and missed? The memories won't be that clear.

For now, a very drunk Kitty pushes herself to her feet, feeling extremely wobbly as she does so.] Hold the ship still.

[goldenglasses]

[Vash can see her wobbling and chances getting close again to make sure she doesn't fall over.] Yeah? I think I can help with that. [He turns his back to Kitty and goes down onto one knee. Hands back and ready to catch her legs if she takes up his offer to ride on his back.]

Climb aboard the SS. Stampede. I'm a much smoother ride or I guarantee your money back. Hahaha! Get it? Back!

[passingthrough]

[She reaches out to steady herself on his shoulders and moves in closer so he can do his thing. Once she's up, she'll slide in so her head is on his shoulder and her arms are draped around his neck, more or less holding on.]

I used to ride my husband like this sometimes. Did you know I had a husband? That sounds so strange now. [Paying almost no mind to his puns. So cruel!]

[goldenglasses]

That was Piotr, right? [Between the calibrations, what he was directly told, and what he had picked up along the way Vash had heard of him.] The metal guy? [Who apparently killed you.] Were you drunk then too?

[Vash has had a lot of practice carrying drunk women (and the occasional male if they'd allow it) home to their beds on his back. His steps towards the shuttle he used to get here are steady and smooth.]

[passingthrough]

When? [The alcohol is strong in this one.] Oh, oh, no. It was just fun. I liked how strong and powerful he was. It made me feel safe when nothing else did. [Nuzzling her face against his neck just a bit.]

You know, until he killed me with it.

[goldenglasses]

[The voice in his head telling him to stop her nuzzling and the other telling him that would just make a bigger deal of the situation and to leave it alone start to have a very loud shouting match that makes it hard to focus. In the end the voice saying to do nothing wins at the moment.]

I'm so sorry, Kitty. There isn't much worse in the world then being betrayed like that by someone you loved. [There is a chance it was a 'putting out of misery' move as Vash didn't have the full context yet. Vash doesn't believe in mercy killing either way.]

[passingthrough]

[He should really look into all these voices in his head. Luckily for him and the voices she stills herself once she's comfortable.]

No, there isn't. [Definitely not a mercy killing. It wasn't exactly intentional murder either, but she's not ready to call it an accident even if that's closer to the truth. He just didn't care about anything but his objective. Not even her.]

Your brother? [She remembers things too.]

[goldenglasses]

[She may feel the way his muscles tense almost instinctively at the mention of his brother. But his tone is light and dismissive when he speaks.] Yeah, well, you know what they say. You can't choose your family. Right?

[And when did this get to be about him? He doesn't want this to be about him. Okay, so he never wants things to be about him anyway, but that's not the point!]

So drink a lot of water and go straight to bed when we get back?

[passingthrough]

[She does her best to turn holding on into hugging when she feels him tense.] Sometimes you can. Not the ones you're born with, but family doesn't have to stop there. [She lost all her biological family. But the X-Men became her family. Her shipmates are family now.]

You know I can't do both of those at the same time, right?

[goldenglasses]

Yeah, I know. I got some good "family" waiting for me back home. [As long as time really doesn't move forward while they're hear and Knives hasn't killed everyone yet.]

You could lay in bed while drinking from a water bottle. I didn't say sleep. I said bed!

[passingthrough]

None here? [He may not like to open up about himself but she likes prying up the edges. It's probably partially the challenge, but it's also how she relates to what she has seen.]

I could drown. Do you want me to drown, Vash?

[goldenglasses]

No way! Have you seen my crew? Ugh! I have this alcoholic Co-Captain. Always bossing me around. Telling me what to do! They are the absolute worst! Beyond obnoxious and loud. I just can't stand it! How could I consider someone like that family?

[And just in case she's too drunk to figure out he's joking.] Yeah, I think his name is Vash or something. I dunno. I didn't bother to learn it.