driftfleet | (no subject)

[That was about what she was expecting honestly. She was pretty sure he'd said something about humans being on Gunsmoke for around a hundred years and there were memories of his from before that time. She smiles softly.] You don't look a day over a hundred and thirty two.

Does everyone make that joke?

[He chuckles.] I bet they would. If everyone knew my proper age, so congratulations. You're one of the first to make it. [That should give her an idea of how few people knew.]

[Definitely pretty low.] I'm not the first one to know, am I?

No, not the first. But you're one of the first who found out-- [A pause as he tries to think of the right wording. When someone hadn't just died? When he hadn't just nearly died? People finding out seems to revolve around death he's suddenly realizing.] --when the situation hasn't been overly stressful.

Or, well, there was that one time on my birthday the Atroma sent a birthday cake with over a hundred candles in it. Set the sprinklers off on the ship. I tried to play it off Atroma just trying to cause drama, but I'm not really sure how many people believed me. Then again, you could say a fire on a space ship is also a highly stressful situation.

So I think Anders might know depending on how hazy his memories are from having been returned home briefly.

Did it go over okay in those overly stressful times? [Looking at him curiously. Compassionately. She can kind of imagine what overly stressful reveals of being immortal might look like. She could also be wildly wrong, but it would make a certain amount of sense.]

Ahhhhhhhhh... yes and no? [He answers with a soft laugh as he rubs the back of his head in embarrassment.]

Well, I mean there was this group who picked me up when I was lost and dying in the desert. They actually lived in a ship that didn't crash so they figured out what I was on their own. That one went over alight! [Called him one of the "ones who live outside of time" and they hoped he'd "take care" of his brother for them.] They got me back on my feet and I showed them a bit more about how to take care of the Plants that kept their ship afloat. It became a bit like a home for me.

[You know, until a madman nearly killed everyone because they knew him!]

Sounds like you told me about the yes. I'm glad you had a yes though. [She's a little worried it became a no by the end. Too many of her good memories end with "and then they all died." Her family. Her students. The X-Men. At least the people from Marina are still theoretically alive.]

Homes are good places to have.

Yeah. Well, there isn't really much to say about the nos. [Lots of tears and disbelief before he runs away from the problem.]

And they really are. I have to admit. I probably shouldn't let it, but the Twin Roses is starting to feel like a home too.

Just starting to? Did the Three Twins? [Wondering if the change jarred him that much or if he's really been here this many years without it feeling like home.]

[Vash grins like a kid who just got caught with his hand in a cookie jar. Or possibly several jars.]

Okay, so maybe it's long past the point of almost feeling like home.

[The Three Twins had something, but it wasn't exactly 'home'. There was something different about the Roses that he couldn't quite put words to. Even if it was currently looking him in the face.]

That's better.

[Who are you calling an "it"?]

I was so attached to the crew so quickly. By now, the ones I started with are all gone, but I'm still pretty attached. That's why Winn and I went so long never picking a ship to join together. We had our homes and leaving was too hard.

Oh, the crew I became attached to straight away. I guess at the start I was too use to changing towns every few weeks. Sort of like we do drifting from planet to planet. I make connections to people easily enough, but it was a bit strange to have one singular location to return to and see those same people all the time. So it took the Three Twins as the ship a lot longer to feel like a home to me. By the time the ships merged I was much more use to the idea of people I care about being mostly all in one spot all the time.

Is that weird? That's probably a weird thing to say, isn't it?

It's not that weird. Chicago felt like home to me when I was a kid, but after that I'm not sure how much any of our bases really did. And we had to move around sometimes or just be out for long periods on missions. People felt like home, but not the places.

I guess that changed in Marina for me and now here.

[She tilts her head, looking at him curiously.] So you still feel that way even though no one else from the Three Twins is still with us? [She's glad, but she wouldn't be surprised if that made it harder for him.]

Well, yeah. [I've gotten use to people leaving and hopefully they're not dead.] A friend of mine back home once said: All of life's journeys come with meetings, partings, and reunions. And I think she's right. Of course I miss them and I hope to see them again some day, but you and your crew became like family as well.

Even Chuuya. I wouldn't tease him nearly as much as I do if he didn't feel like home.

We get lots of the first two. I wouldn't mind a little more of the third.

I'm glad we feel that way to you. [Glad she does. She didn't like the idea of sharing captain with him at all when they merged. In fact she largely ignored it and continued to think of herself more or less as sole captain even if there was no grand evidence to point to this way of thinking. But his opinions and ideas have become more important to her as she realizes what's behind his facade.]

I would like more of the third too.

[Vash wouldn't have blamed her for not thinking of him as a co-captain. He usually tries to avoid acting like it.]

Although, I would have appreciated if you stopped eating all my crew members a little sooner.

I mean, they were tasty and I was bored so... [She smiles at him.]

At least you're still here?

Yeah. Three years and counting. [He chuckles.] In another couple years I will probably owe Crowley a drink or something. When we both showed up here he said he was stuck in the last place he was at for six years. Seemed hard to believe right then.

I'm over two years since February. No telling how long I was actually in the prison.

Crowley's the one that owns Malum, right?

Yeah, that's him. I guess at least the two of us are stuck here for the long haul. [And he can't seem to decide if that's a good or bad thing.]

Oh, I don't know. I was the one who was in Marina the longest for a while and I'm still here now. Plus, all the ones who left who were there before me. [But she doesn't mind the idea at all. He has a pretty shitty world to go back to and she likes having him around. She likes the idea of a little stability in a life that's rarely been very stable.]

That's true. I didn't think to add in the time people have been stuck in other places. Crowley was stuck in his last one for six years. [And he doesn't remember his nearly five years in Luceti.] I was surprised to hear how unsettling common this all is.

But, being stuck here with you isn't so bad. [He doesn't really think over the fact that he said that out loud at first. Then it dawns on him as he quickly adds.] There have been a lot of great people I've met on this weird road trip. It's been worth it all for that.

I only knew of two people in Marina who'd been to a similar place before, but here it's almost as common as not having been somewhere else.

[She looks up at the comment about being stuck with her not being so bad.] It's not so bad being with you either. [She doesn't bother to add the disclaimer, but it's true. A lot of people have made it worth it. Including some who aren't here anymore.]

Do you know anyone who's from Marina or maybe someone you didn't know but who was there as well? That seems to happen pretty often too.

I swear that when I first woke up here half of the people were from some kind of evil castle.

Chekov is the only one who remembers Marina who is here now or who's been here the whole time I have been. There are people who passed through there though like you. Like Allen Walker. [They'd been very close there. Things had been more tense and awkward meeting him here without those memories, not that she could blame him for it.] Others. But you could all just be from different realities too.

Works for me!

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