driftfleet | (no subject)

[She realizes he's not going to get that one. Ah well. She just smiles.]

You behind a counter. Me ordering. Kind of familiar. [Her first thought is at the bar on poker night, but after a moment she realizes that's not what it's most like. She leans against the counter and her smile drops for the moment.]

Hey! I'm usually in the kitchen when we're not short staffed at the bar! [Said as he bends over to peer over their choices. A twinge of a memory; a dream? He pushes it aside like most things he rather not deal with or talk about it. Just pretend they're not there.]

So! What's your flavour of choice? The powder ones aren't too bad with the citrus flavour. The honey ones are also really good. I haven't tried any of the cream filled ones yet.

[He's going to do his best to happily chatter on and on to push away any odd memories that come up.]

[He's doing better at it than she is because when he finishes she's just staring at him. Because that definitely made it all come back more vividly. The donuts in the different flavors. The ones he'd highlight and the ones he wouldn't.]

Okay...that's eerie, right?

Yeah? You think so? [He helps himself to one of the honey ones, but doesn't eat it with his usual gusto. This planet was doing its best to destroy his usual jolly mood.]

Because of how everything tastes like oranges? [He knows that's not what she means.]

[Not the orange. Never the orange!]

You really don't like thinking about it, do you? [Of course it's possible he just doesn't remember, but she doesn't really buy that.]

[He sighs and gives the game up.] Hazy memories that seem more like a bad dream then reality at times? Yeah, I try not to think about it too much.

Was there something bothering you about what we saw? [She saw so much of what he usually locked away. The reason for his sixty billion bounty. His greatest mistake. His brother. Rem. So much.

Or was it something personal that he saw? Kitty has lived just as hard, if not harder, life as he has.]

Sometimes hazy, sometimes clear for me. [They hang on better for her than regular dreams, but it usually takes something to jar them loose to the forefront. Maybe if only because she saw so much during the calibrations from people experiencing her memories and being in others.]

They don't bother me. I mean, except for the way that someone I care about had to go through all of that. [She slides her hand across the bar to rest it over his—the one not holding a donut—and give it a squeeze. She manages to not be awkward about the touching this time.] And you're kind of a private guy and I had...a lot of donuts.

[He gives a soft chuckle. Appreciating her words and the feeling of her hand in his own. He quickly finishes the donut in his other hand so he can place it over their combined hands. Hoping he isn't going too far. He was enjoying the contact.]

Yeah, well, I think I'm the last person in the galaxy that can give you a hard time for over indulging in donuts.

I'm just glad you don't hate me for what you've seen. And aren't too scared to demand I get off your ship. Most people I think would wish for me to stay away if they knew what you do. [He thinks this way because that is what usually happens. The people who don't freak out and stick around when they find out are few and far between.]

[She doesn't pull away from it. It does feel a little like they're trying to pump up before some kind of team sport, but it's nice too.]

Vash, I can't even imagine hating you. [If anything what she saw made her care about him more. He cared so much and he isn't the fun-loving, sometimes doof, he portrays. Or he isn't only that at least. He's seen bad things. He's felt what it's like to be different. Estranged. Hated for being what he is. It made her feel like she understood him better and could connect with him more.] You're basically an honorary mutant with all the titles and privileges that come with that of course. [Which are none.] And I don't scare easy.

Oh, great! I hear that being a mutant comes with a great package deal! Also heard there's a free trophy when you sign up.

[He makes the joke, but there's something missing to his tone. He wants to put on his joking face, but something about this planet is making it so very hard.

Maybe that's why he likes feeling her hand cupped in his own. That warm feeling of someone being alive. That he wasn't in an empty ghost town once again.]

Is there a uniform I get to wear?

I got a free cheese grater when I signed up, but I think I did hear something about them switching to trophies due to lactose intolerance issues. [She jokes back, but she's always joked even in serious times. Especially in serious times. She's never really far from either. It's not a mask for her, but a coping mechanism.]

Want a uniform like mine? It's great with the cleavage.

Nah, on second thought my style is already a classic. I don't see any reason to change. Besides, I think it would make my hips look fat.

[He glances down at the long red sleeve of his jacket's right arm. Red. The color of determination for flowers. He wears the color as a reminder of Rem's ever lasting determination to save everyone.

But lately all it reminds him of is his brother's name; written in blood.]

I think I hate this planet. [He blurts it out loud before he can stop himself. Feeling more at ease to speak his mind to Kitty then most in the fleet.] It's too quiet. What do you think happened?

Edited 2018-03-28 04:16 (UTC)

[She gives the hand underneath hers another squeeze.] Nothing good. I thought maybe the Atroma were backing off again, but it seems like more and more lately they want to rattle us by showing us more of the dark side of these planets. [She'd been in the fleet a year before there was anything too notable. Sure, there was the poison moon, but things functioned well enough for the people there. They were making it work. It wasn't really until they were attacked by slavers that it felt like things turned to her. Then they had calibrations. Were they being "calibrated" for this kind of reality TV? It wasn't long before they lost an entire planet and several fleet members to save it. She wasn't awake for it, but she knows what it did to everyone. Then they were attacked—shot out of space onto a cannibal planet of all places. Apparently it won't end there.]

[Vash has been here for every planet of this cycle. Waking up on day one. He has seen the ups and downs of each planet.

So why are all the ones that remind him of home are usually awful?]

I really hope the people this planet was for never arrived. [Except he's seen too many photos of happy families in some of the houses to believe that.] Or that they left already. Or-- or they're asleep and waiting somewhere.

Either way. It's too quiet. [At least on the ships when he was a kid and it got so unbearably quiet he could go and look at all the sleeping people and fantasize of the noise they would make when they were awake and living again.]

[The state of the rooms—mostly cleaned out with the occasional personal affects and photos left behind make it hard to believe they were simply never here. But as long as a person is wishing for things there's no reason to tell him not to shoot for the stars.] They might have left. That seems likely. [How far did they get though?]

We could see if there are any boomboxes. Blast some music around town? [Is that more creepy or fun? Also, it's kind of how she met the first Vash she ever met back in Marina. Which might have been something he saw in her calibration too.]

Heh, only if we play the same song over and over again. That shouldn't make this place seem even more odd. [He does remember the memory of the other Vash. It was so odd to think he has experiences that he can't remember. His mind usually being so sharp and good at remembering every person he's come across before.]

Am I very different from the other Vash you knew? Or didn't you know him well enough?

[Hard to know how much she actually talked to that other Vash before. He only saw the one memory and she's never mentioned it before.]

[She isn't surprised by the question with her mind on calibrations. His must be too and they never really talked about a lot of it.] It was the only time I interacted with him. He didn't stay long.

Sorry I don't have more insight there though running into other versions of yourself is not as much fun as it sounds. Assuming it sounds like any fun.

That's okay. Maybe it's better that way. If you actually got a chance to know him then you probably would have kicked me off the Roses ages ago. Given you a better chance to know what an aggravating guy you had on the ship sooner.

There was one other person who said she knew me before. It was one thing to hear it, but another thing to actually see another me.

It's... weird. Weird to think about another life I have no memory of.

[She listens thoughtfully.] Lots of weird.

Most of my experience is in versions of me. People who knew a Kitty Pryde in their world, but me. [And while they never explicitly said anything she always imagines those versions to be less broken and more put together than herself. She always figures she's a bit of a disappointment compared to the others. Maybe the better fighter. There was always fighting.]

But when Pavel came here he told me he remembered being in Marina longer. Except he said I was there too. That he had a couple of weeks of memories of me that I don't have. [And in those memories they started to become a couple just to make it more complicated for everyone forever.] Definitely weird.

Yeah. I suppose that would be even stranger for me. Another Vash that is different from me. Not exactly something I thought about before.

And three weeks? It doesn't usually seem that long, but when it comes to memories? It probably feels like a lifetime.

I can understand why you question how much of this is real sometimes.

It does but...I'm pretty sure time was wrong in Marina. I thought I was only there for about eleven months? But once I was here I could feel how compressed all that time felt. I didn't notice at the time. Everything seemed normal, but I think I might have been there a lot longer than eleven months.

So, yeah, hard not to question reality when I spent so long being completely fooled by a false one. And it seems obvious now looking back because of all the impossible things that were happening, but impossible things happen here too.

I think life is full of impossible things that somehow still manage to happen. [Like blowing a hole in a moon or something like that.]

All I know is if this world ends up not being real as well? It would be worth it to be able to have met everyone here. I don't regret coming here and getting to meet you and everyone. [He chuckles a little.] This traveling has actually been a nice break when we're not visiting planets that are trying to kill us.

[She lets go of his hand by phasing it out from between his, but it's only so she can pass through the counter to get to the same side he's on. Once she's fully there she solidifies and wraps her arms around him for a hug.]

I don't regret it either. I still want to make the Atroma regret it, but I don't.

[Vash is a bit surprised when she lets go and is suddenly through the counter that he doesn't hug back straight away. Maybe it's the constant thinking he's been doing lately of his life back home. Of those dead cities that had been emptied solely for his attention. That thought process that tell him he shouldn't be loved and care for.

The hesitation is only for a moment before he pushes those thoughts out of his mind and lets himself melt into the hug. Wrapping his arms around Kitty in return.] Good. I'm glad. I know some hate every moment of this journey. I'm glad you're not one of them.

[Then finally a bit of a smirk.] And don't worry. I'm sure one day we will make Atroma regret it.

[She closes her eyes when he returns the hug and lets it linger.]

Do you really think it'll play out like that? Us overcoming them? [She's heard the X-Men beat Apocalypse but still managed to lose the war after thinking they'd won. But whatever she would have taken from all that extra tragedy, she didn't really live it. And she's here, but she didn't beat the wardens, she didn't even escape them. She didn't have any more choice coming here than she did going there. Will the Atroma be the ones they overpower? Did she already lose if she doesn't believe it will happen?]