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]

[Her eyes blink open slowly.] I know. [She scoots back a little more, making room for him to sit, but making no attempt to sit up.] He wouldn't want me to be sad like this. But that just makes me miss him more.

[goldenglasses]

[He shifts his weight on his feet, but doesn't move to sit just yet. Remembering that surprise kiss and unsure how much Kitty might have sobered up since then.

He knows he's not the one she wants to be with her in this room right now. Yet, he's also aware of that lonely ache that says anyone is better than being alone.

Finally he moves to sit down on the bed. Closer to the end near her feet to be safe.] I know. It's okay to miss him and it's okay to be sad sometimes, but only if you don't allow it to consume your life.

[passingthrough]

[She's still pretty drunk. It's more of a mood shift.] What life? Reality star? Prisoner? Missing person? [It's been a long time since she felt much control over her life, or at least much illusion of control.

When she was very young it felt like she had a future full of possibilies. And then she got her powers and lost her parents and life became about survival, not living. Then she was trapped in a virtual reality prison that called itself a prison and one that calls itself a fleet and claims to be real. In her time in both she's bounced around from trying to continue some sort of mission of surival and protection to feeling like she might have a future again through sheer power of will.]

[goldenglasses]

Your life as Kitty Pride. [He says it forcibly. Trying to get his point home.] Those other labels don't matter. Those are just where you are at the moment. They are not you.

[passingthrough]

[She can sense you spelling Pryde wrong in her head, Vash.]

Who am I? [Daughter, genius, dancer, tech nerd, teammate, assassin, freedom fighter, gene traitor, teacher, failure, experiment, defense force leader, crewmate, pilot, engineer, captain, girlfriend, almost fiance, single.]

[goldenglasses]

[No! His auto correct is spelling it wrong!]

You are Kitty Pryde. You are a Co-Captain of a ship full of some remarkable people. You are the type of person who will put someone else before yourself. You will do everything you can to keep your friends and loved ones safe and happy. You are an X- man. You are an amazing dancer. You are a good person who misses someone terribly right now. And your ticket to the future is open and blank. The future that you have is wide open for you to be anything else you want to be.

[passingthrough]

[Auto correct brains are the worst!]

That's a lot of things to be. [Not that it's a bad thing. Some of those were very heart warming.]

[goldenglasses]

It is, but that's one of the great things about life and people. We're all complex and unique.

[passingthrough]

Is all this optimism real, or is it just how you cope? Fake it til you make it kind of thing?

[goldenglasses]

[Vash leans back slightly back onto his hands. He gives a soft hum as he thinks over his answer for a moment.] It's mostly real, but I would be lying if I said I didn't also use it as a way to cope at times. [More than he himself even realizes sometimes.]

Even if it was a fake it until I make it, is it really that bad of a thing? To try to stay optimistic and happy? Wouldn't that mean in the end I'll be happy again?

[passingthrough]

I didn't say it was bad. Just wondering. [You're a curious guy, Vash. She doesn't always know what to make of you.]

[goldenglasses]

I was curious myself. Sometimes it feels like people see that as a bad thing.

[Humans are complicated.] I'm glad you don't seem to think it's a bad thing.

[passingthrough]

[No humans here. Just mutants and plants.] I know all about coping and hoping.

...That rhymed. [Still pretty drunk even if the conversation is otherwise more sober.]

[goldenglasses]

It did rhyme. Think you're ready for bed now? Or are you hungry?

[passingthrough]

Bed. Food sounds very bad.

[goldenglasses]

Alright. Sleep well and I'll see you in the morning. [FREEDOM! He gets up to head to the door again to go get those painkillers and a bottle of water if he isn't stopped again.]

[passingthrough]

[This time he earns his freedom. There are no more whispered words or even spoken ones as she slips quickly back to sleep. So much for that water she was supposed to drink! The hangover can keep her company tomorrow.]

[goldenglasses]

[Vash leaves quietly. Only coming back in briefly to leave a bottle of water and a few pills to hopefully help with the hangover in the morning. There's even a box of donuts left behind too. His personal three favorite hangover cures.]