driftfleet | (no subject)

[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)

Really? I always pictured mole people. [He's joking as he leans his elbows onto the counter. Picking at a donut and occasionally eating the pieces he breaks off.] I wonder if they're like that naturally or from the resets this place goes through or some sort of terraforming gone wrong.

[Could the Plants of his world make a creature like those? Could HE make something like those creatures if he actually tried to use his powers?]

Hilarious. [It does get a little smile though before she reaches over to the donut he's disassembling slowly and takes a piece of it for herself.]

Kind of hard to say with alien life, but most of what we see stays within a certain realm of norms that I'd say they safely fall outside of which makes me think those last two possibilities or something in that range seem more likely.

[If he was feeling his usual gluttonous self he would have at least balked at her taking some of his donut, but he just wasn't hungry.]

Hopefully there's nothing toxic here that the people left to avoid that we're all casually breathing in.

I ran some tests, but that doesn't mean there couldn't be something the tests weren't picking up.

I hope so then. Because I hate being cooped up on that ship. N-not because of the company of course! [He adds quickly. Regardless of if she actually thought that's what he meant or not.] I'm just not the biggest fan of recycled air.

[Or space ships in general. The first one he was on exploded.]

I knew it. I knew you didn't like being on the same ship as me. It's hard to hear. [She never thought it was that and still doesn't.] But to call me recycled air is a little below the belt.

What? You mean the way I left broken bits of glass in all your shoes didn't give it away enough?

Oh, or was it the lit stick of dynamite I put in your dinner the other night? Be honest with me. It was the dynamite that gave it away, wasn't it?

The dynamite sealed it, but baking cookies with raisins instead of chocolate chips was really what tipped me off. What kind of a monster does that?