After the initial wave of ‘wtf’ faded and the explanations were rolled out, Pyro’s mood didn’t really take a turn for the upwards. He wasn’t too keen on boats, didn’t like being in the middle of nowhere and was even less okay with a random person having to share space with him. Heading to the top of the ship, ignoring all the apparently excited people and their own explorations -although it looked like most of the folks were heading straight for the bar, John just pushed on to find Rogue and not deal with this.
She was right, there was far too many people in far too small a space. The likelihood of him setting people on fire just went up by 80%.
Even if the weather was fucking awesome by most standards and he didn’t hate the fact that the salt air was possibly the cleanest he’d breathed in a good long time, the fact that several people bumped into him on the way to the top of the ship was enough to keep that little storm cloud over his head.
Rogue had made her way up and outside as quickly as possible, mostly ducking out of the way of others. Like she’d told Pyro, this place felt like one giant cell to her, despite the friendly trappings and offers of fancy room and food and drinks and whatever the hell else people were talking about. The part that sucked was that there wasn’t really anywhere to go. They were stuck in the middle of an ocean, surrounded by people.
She felt itchy.
At the moment, she rested on the front railing, her dark hair with its signature white streak loosely blowing behind her as she stared at the horizon with a faint frown on her lips. She wasn’t really looking at anything in particular, just trying to enjoy a quiet moment for just a second, away from all the people around her.
Sneaking up on people he thought of as sort-of-friends (because he wasn’t exactly sure how to categorise people anymore) wasn’t really something that he tried to do. So spotting Rogue, shoving his fists into his pockets, Pyro made a point in scuffing his feet and speaking up before he got within punching distance (habit). “Hey. At least up is still the way outside.” Because getting lost in a maze of a ship wasn’t his idea of fun.
“Y’okay?” He knew she didn’t like this, but it also sounded like the start of her year hadn’t been all that great either, aside from a party and then losing her house, friends vanishing probably wasn’t what anyone wanted around here. He wouldn’t count Mystique as a friend, but he’d sort of known what to expect with her, and now it was just … weird.
The foot scuffle had her tensing just a little, but her shoulders eased when she heard his voice, and Rogue glanced over her shoulder. “Hey - and yeah, that’s a plus.” Sunshine and fresh air was at least better than it could have been, right? Turning has he walked over, she leaned back on the railing a bit, glancing past him towards the towering tiered decks behind him as she shrugged.
“Just feelin’ a little trapped, even though I’m out here in the sun and wind. S’all a little weird in general.” She hadn’t checked in with what few friends she had, yet - aside from St. John - so she was glad that she at least wasn’t completely alone at the moment.
“What about you?”
John didn’t have much in the way of friends, he didn’t really feel like he needed them. He’d been fine as a loner, didn’t care much for other people’s bullshit anyway. The few people here he’d started to get to know seemed to be around, and he’d seen most of the X-Men that he didn’t know, not really, check in with each other like the boy scouts they were all raised to be.
“Pulled onto a ship in the middle of the ocean, yeah, weird in general for sure.” Couldn’t blame her for feeling trapped either. “Kinda dreading figuring out the rooming situation, but I’ll worry about that one later.” Like way later, like maybe figuring out if he could break into a different room somewhere.
If he could avoid it until absolutely necessary, he would.
“I checked with one of the robots. Apparently I’m rooming with someone named Melissa Gold. Another person from that universe neither of us is from, I think.” Shoulders lifted and fell in a shrug, as one gloved hand lifted to tuck her hair behind one ear against the wind. She didn’t always wear the suit that Fenris had given her and Cisco had fixed, mainly because it wasn’t that comfortable to wear under regular clothes such as those she wore right now - low-rise jeans and a short-sleeved dark blue v-neck, which is why she wore black gloves that stretched almost to her elbows.
“If you’re in a crap room, you can crash in mine if you need to. Didja see anything interestin’ on your way up here?”
The robots, that was another thing. But everyone had their own measure of what was okay and people were apparently figuring out if these ones would try and take over the world or strangle all of them in their sleep. St John would just limit contact and try to stay polite. Evil Robotic Overlords probably digged politeness. “Man, have they all just ended up here?” It seemed like anyone even remotely like them came from that universe.
“My old room mate showed up, but he’s that world’s verison too.” For the best, John was sure. A Bobby that didn’t know him was a Bobby he didn’t need to fight with.
“They got like every place you could possibly eat all around, some activities shit if you wanna burn energy. Like half a dozen bars, because booze and seasickness go hand in hand, right?” But then there were a lot of people heading straight for the bar, because apparently this shit was like a take-two level event in repetition. John hadn’t asked, wasn’t sure he cared.
“Sometimes it feels that way.” Rogue shrugged, turning back to the railing to look out at the ocean again as they talked. “I’m starting to think that no one from my world’ll ever actually show up here. I guess it doesn’t really matter.” Letting out a slow breath, she tilted her head while she listened to him talk about what the ship had to offer.
“Sounds like a perfect way to waste time to me. I heard there was a casino, but it has this bullshit rule about having to be 21 to even go in - and you don’t even play for actual money. Everything on this ship is free, even the alcohol you mentioned.” Shaking her head, she glanced back at him.
“You swim? I feel like hitting the pool and trying to forget we’re stuck in the middle of BFE.”
For John, no one from his world showing up wasn’t a bad thing; he’d burned a lot of bridges, and at least no one here was looking at him like he was going to set someone on fire -it happened once and he was sure the cops were going to shoot him, Bobby and Marie (they’d already shot Logan, so why not the mutant kids too). So it didn’t really matter to him that none of the others were here, he got the impression it mattered a little more to Rogue.
“Yeah, free shit kinda loses its appeal when you’re playing for stuff.” John wasn’t going to complain about that though, he could see that gambling when you weren’t winning shit would be boring, yes. But then there was the free shit aspect of everything and he didn’t exactly care too much. Alcohol didn’t interest him though, the gambling was a sore spot on the whole but the ship seemed to have a lot going on anyway.
“Sure, swimming.” Not something he’d done a lot of, but he knew how to not drown so there was that. “BFE?” He didn’t get that reference, the frown and head tilt probably enough to explain that one.
Pushing off of the railing, she led the way back towards the main part of the ship so they could use the stairs. “Guess we should pick up some kinda swimsuit first,” she mused while walking with him. “At those little boutiques, right?” Like John, Rogue hadn’t done a lot of actual swimming herself, but she could float and she could doggy paddle, so she’d be a little bit okay, at least.
“Bum Fuck Egypt. Means middle of nowhere,” she replied, shooting him a grin. “Which is exactly where we are right now, ya know?”
At least it would be cool for them, it wasn’t exactly chilly or overheating, and John tended to run hot all the time, but it was something to do for sure. “Yeah, probably. Use the weird free money wristbands.” Because why not, right?
“Middle of nowhere would’ve done.” He smirked back, because she was right, in the middle of an ocean somewhere, no idea what world they were even in at this point. It didn’t seem like they had much option but to grin and bear it, so whatever they could do in the meantime. “At least it’s not raining?”
“Which are also weird, right? That these just work for us and that’s it?” Lifting her arm, she ran her finger tip over her wristband, then glanced back to John.
“Yeah, yeah - but now you’ve got a new phrase to toss into your vocab whenever you want, so you’re welcome for it,” she shot back. At his next statement, Rogue automatically glanced up at the sky, then relaxed when she saw it was still clear.
“You realize that if it rains anytime soon, it’s gonna be your fault, right?”
“Can’t toss us on a ship, in BFE,” he smirked when he said it, emphasising it a little, “and expect us to manage on very little or nothing to work with.” Because who knew how long they’d be there. He didn’t like the idea of been shifted around at a whim, but it would undoubtedly suck more if they were forced into poverty too.
“Hey, weather is Storm’s area of shit, not mine.” And he’d make that widely known.
“Good point. I guess free’s better than being given some allowance every week or month. I wonder how long this’ll last. Cruises are usually what - one week? Ten days?” With any luck, they’d be back in Tumbleweed by the end of the month at the latest.
Rogue smiled a bit, then shrugged. “Yeah well I didn’t see her doing too much to help out during that heat wave we had, or the blizzard. Who even knows what anyone can do these days?”
“Yeah, it’s like two weeks max.” That whole old age people and cruises thing was something that was fleetingly embedded in John’s awareness, which fine, he could cope with. And if it was just a week, ten days, two weeks, that would be fine. They could probably find enough on this ship to amuse themselves that long and then move on.
“Doubt it, this place does what it wants, right? Probably includes the weather.” Besides, Storm was younger than him here, that shit was confusing enough, probably meant she wasn’t just as Weather Goddess like as he’d known her.
“Here’s hoping that this thing lasts just that two week period then,” she replied, hoping that they wouldn’t be there too long. At his words about the place doing what it wanted, Rogue let out a faint sigh, then nodded as they hit the stairs.
“Good point, we’re pretty much at the whim of whoever put us here in the first place. Something else that doesn’t sit right with me.” She shifted her shoulders, uncomfortable at the thought, but there wasn’t a whole lot she could do about it, so Rogue decided that for now, she’d just wait and see what happened.