driftfleet | (no subject)

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?]

Yes. Of course. [He says it with such conviction that there is no trace of doubt to his statement. That's because he's learned after so long how to lie to himself. He needs to believe they will defeat them and get home to help the people of his world again so he simply does.

It's the same way he can talk about how the world is made of Love and Peace. That killing is never the answer and sound like he completely believes himself.] It likely won't be this week, or maybe even next week, but some day we will.

[He's not sure he'll actually be happy when that day comes. He knows he needs to go back and protect the people from his brother, but it's been so good to not have the stresses of home. To have met someone as wonderful as Kitty and then having to say goodbye. Can he do that now?]

You sound confident. [And while it doesn't make her believe it any more than she already did, it is still reassuring somehow.] I don't know if I really want it to be this week or next week anyway. I just got some new books from the library and I was going to try a thing with my hair. [And this is the place where she has a life, such as it is. Only this place or others like it and she knows she could be in a worse one.

She pulls back from the hug, a little reluctantly and not too far.] But they should be defeated. [That's the mission. They're the bad guys. She fights the bad guys. No matter what happens to her in the process. That's how it works. That's how it always worked. Maybe not always, but the life of that child who loved to dance and learn about computers feels so distant.]

Oh yeah? [He smiles a little in amusement.] Then it better not be this week because I would really like to see what you do to your hair. [For a very brief moment his hand starts to move to touch her hair. A secret desire he hadn't even really admitted to himself before.]

Yes. [He's happy to latch onto the change in conversation as he moves his hand into his pocket. Trying to play it as if that had been his intention the whole time.] They need to be stopped. [He doesn't really like the word defeated. So many people seem to translate that to "kill" too often for his taste.] This drifting from planet to planet and helping where we can is nice. I don't mind that and after things are-- taken care of --in my world I would have been happy to sign up to it.

But people need a choice. They can't keep snatching people away and forcing them here for entertainment value. It's not right.

[She brushes back her own hair almost as if to complete the move for him.] You know, something wild like a ponytail. Gotta give the fans what they crave.

[Her hand glances down to where his disappears for just a moment.

And fear not, Vash. She's totally capable of thinking of "stopped" as killed too!] Do you really think we're helping? I figure it's more likely these things are set up for the benefit of drama for their show or experiment or whatever this is.

Whoa! A ponytail? Now that's living large if you ask me.

[Vash thinks about her question for only a moment.] Yeah, I think we are. [And this time he's not lying to himself about that.] I mean, not everywhere we go needs help. But, for those that we are able to help I think we are.

Are we being sent to those places on purpose? That I don't really know.

I figured you'd agree on the hair. [And disagree on the way things work on these worlds, but she finds she doesn't want to convince him otherwise. She doesn't know that she's right after all. She just has a lot of good reasons to not trust what she sees. But that doesn't mean it isn't still better to help because what if it is real?]

You really care about people, don't you? [She sees that part of herself in him. She also sees the pain that can bring in him. Especially when you're also a destroyer in some ways or those people just don't want help from you.]

Have you ever considered gravity defining hair? I hear its all the rage.

[He can't help but smile and chuckle softly at the accusation. Remembering how often someone back home would be surprised to hear just how much the outlaw worth sixty billion cared for the life of others.] Yeah, I guess I really do. Every single life and soul is so different and unique. It's amazing, don't you think?

I'm a rule follower. Laws of physics most of all. [Says the intangible girl who never met a rule she couldn't break.]

Amazing. [She repeats, agreeing a little, but maybe finding his attitude the most amazing part of it all. After everything he's been through to still see things that way is...beautiful. She starts leaning in toward him slowly, not to hug again. She catches herself in the act, lifting a hand up to touch his chest and push herself back again.] Um...

[She retreats further, back through the counter top to the other side, ducking her head to let gravity take over with her hair so it shields her eyes from view for a bit.] The animals out in the desert are definitely unique here.

Edited 2018-04-09 15:26 (UTC)

Oh yeah, sure. You're physics number one fan. Particularly on the subject of solid matter. [Yes, he gets the joke she's making there.]

Yeah. It really is. [It is said absentmindedly. He's more interested in the way she starts leaning in towards him. Clueless about her actions as he can't picture someone wanting to be close to him of their own free will.

Yet, he can't hide his momentary disappointment about being "right" as she simply reaches up to touch his chest before Kitty pushes back and is then suddenly through the counter. It's only on his features for a flash of a moment before it's covered up by his normal idiotic grin. Like it was never even there.] Oh, yeah them. You could say they are a bit... extra amazing. In a nightmarish sort of way.

[It was only a moment, but she took note of the look on his features. She looks back at him, brushing her hair away again as she makes herself comfortable on a stool. In as much as one can ever really be comfortable on a stool.] They're probably the kind of thing most people think of when I mention mutants.

Edited 2018-04-10 15:18 (UTC)