Logs:Midnight Talk

Midnight Talk
Dramatis Personae Barnes, Wasp
In Absentia	2020-12-05 "I think I'll just keep on being one of the good guys."
Location <QC> Across the Rift – Somewhere near the US/Quebec border
The giant Ram Promaster van has seen better days, going by it’s dented and patchy exterior, but it has all of its windows and wheels, and can hold 14 people. Maybe a little less if some of them have certain mutations. Pulled to the side of a lonely stretch of highway, it also currently poses as a cramped and cold motel for the occupants inside, huddled figures under blankets just visible through the faded tint of the windows. One person is outside the van however, dressed in heavy blacks and sticking to the shadows between the vehicle and dense forest that locks in the road. Squatting with his back against the bus for support, Barnes is as quiet as their surroundings, a mask over his face to keep his breathe from fogging in the night air. His gaze alternates between the treeline, the road to either side, back to the star filled sky above. One of the occupants of the bus, who was meant to be sleeping at this time, opens the door quietly and hops out. He has a blanket around him, his X-Men uniform with plenty of insulation underneath that. "Hi there!" he says in a whisper that somehow still manages to convey the exclamation point clearly at the end of his greeting. He rubs beneath his eyes lightly. "How's the watch going?" Barnes tenses as the door opens, ready to rise as needed. It slowly starts to seep from his back and shoulders at Wasp’s casual exit and greeting. He nods in reply, following it after a quiet second with a somewhat muffled, somewhat confused, “Your majesty.” Kate’s badgering has had some effect, it seems. “It’s quiet. Boring. What you want on watch. You... can’t sleep?” he asks, with some hesitancy, like it may be a part of Wasp’s powers. Wasp gives a royal wave, holding up his hand to wobble back in forth in the most regal manner he can muster. He sits down. "Can't sleep," he confirms, "just got a lot on my mind, I guess. Figured when I joined with the X-Men, I'd be getting kids out of danger and not putting them right in the thick of it." He rubs his arms and some buzzing emanates from his body. "It's pretty weird for me not to be able to sleep this time of year." A quick huff escapes Barnes. “You didn’t put them there. They did that to themselves,” he softly corrects. “We just helped.” A grimace pulls behind his mask, tightens the corners of his eyes. “When someone really wants to fight, it’s hard to stop them. Doesn’t make it any easier when you can’t.” He glances over at the buzzing before his gaze moves to the treeline. “That because you’re, ah. Bugs?” he ventures, attempting to pose it like any other everyday question. "Yeah... the winter is when I'm at my weakest. Lots of my body is going into torpor around now and I can't be as everywhere as usual," says Bug, resting his chin in his hand. "The insulation helps keep in the warmth of the hive, though." He holds the finger on one hand with the other, rubbing the back of it. "I've learned to trust Spence knows what he's doing, but... I dunno. He must be holding a really really wild wild card in his hand to be gambling all these kids like this." “Your body,” Barnes repeats, his nonchalance starting to break. “You don’t sound like you mean...” He brings a gloved hand from a pocket to gesture to Wasp, looking back at him while uncertainly finishing his question. “You?” The hand goes back into his pocket, a small and awkward shrug following. “I can’t speak for him, but you say you trust him. And Kate must trust him, to give him the bus. That must count for something.” His tone doesn’t quite manage to reach sure. "I do mean me. I swear, you people with just a single body and mind really have a pretty reductive view of the self!" says Wasp, though his tone is cheery as ever. "And... Spencer's been fighting for a long while. He's just a kid, but he's dedicated himself to his work. And still seems like he's not abandoned his sense of kindness. It takes some kind of strength to stay upbeat when you're out fighting a war, I think!" Barnes tips his head back against the van, eyes on the sky. “It is hard to wrap a single mind around. Though I’ll admit my mind takes a bit more time to wrap around most things.” His brow furrows, a sigh leaving him in a rush. “’Most things’ were a lot simpler when I was kid.” He’s quiet for a long moment before he speaks again. “It’s strength a lot of people don’t have. The ones that do… They’re the ones you follow. If he makes it long enough, he’ll have a real team behind him.” "Were things really simpler back then? I hear that, but I figured it'd be just as complicated only in a different way," says Wasp. He rests his cheek against his hand. "Like, what kinda food should you turn into a jello and serve as a dinner? Seems like it was a real big deal back in the day!" He grins crookedly for a moment, and then looks down at the ground as it fades. "Yeah. I just... I dunno. I feel like I should be doing more so that kids don't end up in that position. But we don't got a lot of luxuries for that right now." Something rough and close to a laugh breaks out of Barnes’ chest. “The jello was after me. If you want to compare something, ‘being vegan’ in my time was just the three days before payday when all you can afford is beans.” His own amusement fades away as Wasp becomes serious. “We do the best we can,” he says, resting a hand on Wasp’s shoulder. “It’s all we can do.” The vibration underneath Wasp's skin is more evident with touch, as well as the lightness of his frame. He is quiet for a few moments and then suddenly laughs, "Wait! You had to live in the old times and you didn't even get to have jellies?! That was like the pinnacle of white culinary achievement! What's better than totally bland food except for totally bland food that wiggles?" The laugh catches Barnes off-guard, pulling his gaze to Wasp. He blinks, peering at the other man a moment, before his expression smooths and he looks back to the treeline. “Bland food that wiggles. Sounds like bad gefilte fish,” he muses. “You’ll have to be disappointed for me, your highness. I’m having a hard time wishing I was there.” "If I was going to hire an ad man for gefilte fish, I don't think that you would be my first pick!" says Wasp. He also looks ahead again, scanning the horizon with his multifaceted eyes. "I've been thinking some about there being a whole parallel world that these kids came from. Do you think they have different food? Music? Movies? I don't want to traumatize these kids any more but I want to ask a million questions about that stuff." “Good gefilte fish speaks for itself.” His gaze flicking up to the sky, Barnes watches a satellite go past. “I’m curious too. Small things that seem insignificant can change so much about a place,” he muses. “You’re right to be cautious, but there’s also a chance that one of them feels better talking about something familiar. One of ‘em might even know the other you.” "Whoa! Another me who I'm not?" says Wasp, his eyebrows shooting up at the thought. He makes a common gesture that indicates his mind is blown. "I guess they're X-Kids, though, huh? Back where they come from... I even recognize a couple of them. But maybe the other me, if there is one, is a bad person! An evil twin! Then they're probably anticipating my inevitable betrayal. Maybe that's why they are keeping things 'classified'." A pout briefly appears on his face. "Or maybe I'm actually the evil one. I haven't been to confession in some time." “If you are the evil twin, I don’t mean this with any offense. You aren’t doing your best at being evil,” Barnes deadpans. “Or would that be your worst? Either way. Shape up.” His eyes crinkle at the corners, the rest of his smile hidden behind his mask. It doesn’t stay long. “I don’t think I want there to be another me. If there is, maybe he made better choices.” "This is about as bad as I get," says Wasp. "I think I'll just keep on being one of the good guys, and hope that my good twin is excellent. I'd like to meet him, though! Maybe we could mind merge, and then I would be even more me?" This last idea seems to excite him quite a bit. "Why don't you want there to be another you? I think it's kind of neat. Multiple dimensions are real and whenever you screw up, there are probably an infinity number of yous that didn't screw up! Good for them!" Barnes stiltedly mimics the mind-blown gesture. “You could be even more you, in two worlds at once,” he offers, but falls silent as Wasp continues. His hands return to his pockets. For a long moment, he doesn’t seem to know where to look, before his gaze finally falls to the snow in front of them. “I was born in 1920. The best versions of me that didn’t screw up probably came home safe from the war, along with—a lot of other people. And still died long before now. If there are more versions of me right now... I just hope their world is a lot better than ours.” "I wonder how that would work, to communicate across worlds like that... I don't think that those kinds of connections last cross-dimensionally. But who knows? I could maybe meet a whole bunch of mes and become a gigantic ultra-dimensional swarm!" says Wasp with a wide grin on his face. His eyebrows pinch inwards slightly when Barnes starts to speak. "Well. Probably there are a lot of versions of you like that, and probably a lot who aren't. Somewhere out there, probably there is a you who never made a bad decision once. But for most of us, we just end up where we end up." “If there are infinite universes, wouldn’t that mean a never-ending chain of yous to merge with? That’s enough to make a fella’s head start to hurt.” Shaking his head lightly, Barnes looks back up at Wasp. “I could have ended up in worse places, I suppose,” he concedes. “At least the company is good.” "Yeah, if I figured out a way to do that, then probably I could grow faster and faster, exponential growth!" says Wasp, putting his hands up in the air, and then feeling the cool air, pulls the blanket closer to himself. He then laughs, "Yeah! Take it from mes, I am great company!"