revivalproject | Playing Catch-Up (OPEN)

Entry tags:

Playing Catch-Up (OPEN)

WHO: Keith, OPEN
WHERE: Around Temba
WHAT: MerMay and Storms
WHEN: During their respective events
WARNINGS: Storms bring talk of parental death, war, abandonment, loss (and this Voltron was a kid's show)

OOC: Just a note that this is for both events. Life ate my brain with a new job, so I missed a lot and I've been completely exhausted as a result. Sorry for falling off the face of the internet. I will gladly match format.

MerMay

This was normal, right? Nothing weird about suddenly being a mer and not having any memory of being anything else. Keith swam around the dome like it was just him walking around Temba. Everything else about being there was the same... he'd been brought there from another reality, he'd been on water filled ships in Drift Fleet... everything except it was all shifted as if he'd always been a mer and nothing else.

This was his life.

How did he explore the planet if they were stuck in a dome? Who knew? But, he'd been to Sh'Ka... somehow. The logistics of it weren't important. His brain didn't even really think about it.

Today, he was grabbing some stuff for dinner... fish, some vegetation... obviously, no cooking. Temba didn't have any way of heating things up. They weren't close enough to any volcanic vents, despite not being far from a volcano. But, that was fine. It wasn't the first time he'd done without hot food...

=====

Storms

The weird mermaid event was over now... and the warning message about the storms had come through loud and clear. Keith wasn't sure what had been meant by the multiple cold spots on the weather radar compared to having been one big spot previously. That said, he was curious enough to stick around and find out.

He might regret that later, but he knew how dangerous the storms could be. He still remembered the first one with one of the storm ghosts leading him off a cliff. Thankfully, it hadn't been a really high one, but the storm had affected his durability due to his Galra side, and he'd fractured his leg in the fall. He wasn't willing to make a repeat of that.

So, he was going to be careful... but that didn't mean he wasn't still going to have to see some memories...

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Cayde was never one to stay in one place, even when danger was brewing. Scratch that, especially when it was brewing. He knew the risks, but he also knew that it was a toss-up as to whether others knew or not, or cared.

Why he made it his business to make sure no one got in over their head? Well, maybe he was just too nice a guy. At least it wasn't a blizzard. Rain was still a pain but it wasn't stopping him any, although wet cloaks made for lousy dramatic entrances.

"On the bright side, at least it doesn't look like there's any reverse dimensions?"

Storms were not something Lark was often in town for, amazingly enough. The woman had rather ample luck, often finding herself far from the city when storms came around. Which made today that much more interesting. What was a bit of rain after all?

It wasn't a bit of rain. She had left Little Bear at home in the hotel and gone out to gather just enough extra food supplies to get them through a few days. And of course that was when a storm rolled in. Which was leaving her huddled up against the rain, annoyed.

And without her magic she could hardly expect herself to just tie lines to buildings and expect that magic to tell her which way to which building. So there was Lark, a bit lost in the overwhelming rain, trying to find her way.

Leo's out and about, because he can't stand being in the warehouse he lives (lived?) in with his brother right now. Unaware that Donnie is simply trapped in Sh'ka, he thinks he's all alone, so staying out and around the other residents of Temba is the only way to keep from drowning (hah!) in that feeling.

Gathering food is good, too. Gotta eat, after all!

He has himself a nice little stack of clams going. Though he has no idea how he's going to prepare it. Cooking has never really been his thing, only doing it when he has to. Not that there's anywhere to really cook, but...

He looks up from his clam collection when he sees another fish-person swim by. Does he knows this one? Hmm...

He raises a flipper in greeting anyway. "Hey!"

"Hm?" Keith paused in his swimming, twisting in the water to look for who had called out to him. "Hey?" Keith had met a few of the talking turtles before... Raphael, Donatello... but not this one. He spun, flipping his tail powerfully to propel himself down to where this turtle (wearing blue this time) was gathering up some clams. Keith was pulling along a satchel with him through the water that he'd been putting his spoils into.

"What's up?"

Keith wasn't sure what was worse... the storms, which left him feeling like everything around him was muffled and toned down for every one of his senses, or the screaming moon, when it felt like every ounce of him burned with energy and the tiniest thing could trigger sensory overload.

Honestly, both. He just hated them both.

But, as he also hated feeling trapped in one spot and honestly felt like he already knew what to expect around here with these things, he'd been out getting some necessities and burning off some excess pent up energy in addition to trying to figure out what the warning had meant in regards to it looking different when this one hit.

He was beginning to realize that the difference in appearance was indicating "spotty" instead of a big singular storm...

"Lark?" This was the first time he'd ever seen her around when a storm hit. She looked utterly miserable, and considerably lost. "Hey... you alright?" He moved closer.

"Heh... yet." Keith wouldn't be surprised if there was something else they hadn't noticed about these storms... He sighed. "So what are you braving this weather for?"

Honestly, it was not often that Lark was around when the storms hit. Luck, or perhaps guidance from Mila that put her out of the way of the better part of the harm storms might cause to someone with magic so tied into the core of their being. So yes, miserable was an accurate description of how she felt.

"Not really," she admitted, and was it just her ears deceiving her or was her breathing a little labored? No, the fact that she was dizzy from perhaps not enough air suggested that it was in fact difficult for her to breathe right now.

An asthma attack then, an poorly timed. How miserable.

Keith cringed a bit. She sounded worn out and exhausted, honestly. But, he wasn't exactly familiar with asthma, so he definitely wasn't going to be able to figure that out on his own.

"Do you need help?" he offered.

"Hey, don't jinx us!" the Exo laughed. Only Cayde could laugh in a storm, but he was of the mind that it was the best thing he could do when he couldn't shoot whoever was responsible for them in the face.

"Looking for openings," he replied.

"Yes," she says, her voice rough as she tries to catch her breath. "Somewhere safe. To sit. Breathe."

Keith just made a face, even if it was slightly amused. Honestly, he was pretty sure they were beyond getting jinxed.

"Openings for what?" he asked. He pushed some of his wet hair from his face. It was long enough already, but having it drip down his nose was really annoying.

That was just a sign that he needed a haircut, in Cayde's opinion.

"The ones pulling the strings have to slip up at some point. Won't figure out anything hiding from these things."

Keith wasn't sure what the building they were near was, but it was inside, at least. He reached out, offering her some support if she wanted to lean on him before starting to move and find an open door for them to get inside. He remembered that, with these storms, they had to get inside something far away enough from everything in order to not be as affected, but... would this building be large enough for that? He wasn't sure. But it was better than nothing for now.

If it didn't help, then he'd just have to carry her somewhere else until they found something large enough to get away from the rain and weather.

Never.

Keith nodded. "Yeah. I can see that." He glanced out at the storm again. "That message we got, right? About how it looked different on the screen? I wanted to see if we could tell from down here why it might have looked different. So far, it just seems to be that it's spotty instead of one big storm."

It was a slow creep around them, and Keith didn't really seem to notice right away... but the fog was starting to get a bit denser...

He's got a knife, just say the word!

"I'm thinking that was just a matter of Agrii perception. The storm is spotty though, which...kind of makes sense when you think about how that kid was describing it."

Cayde looked up, glad he didn't have to worry about floppy wet hair to get in his face. Maybe that was why he noticed the subtle shift in the atmosphere around them. His optics narrowed as he glanced around. "Hm....that a good thing or a bad thing..?"

Not happening, dude.

"Yeah." Keith was reminded of watching weather radars back home, as they had to learn to interpret those for flight school. Sure, the Agrii kid's description wasn't loaded up with weather jargon, but the description was accurate enough, and the image in Keith's head definitely fit the idea of spotty storms.

Honestly, though, it wasn't Keith's hair that was messing with his perception. The storm was. He did, however, frown a bit in concern over Cayde's words before finally noticing it himself. He sighed, a frustrated sound, like he was annoyed about missing something he should have noticed. But, he stood up a bit straighter, more alert, like he was waiting for the worst.

Fast building fog like that was never a good sign, especially in storms on this planet.

They weren't wrong to be alarmed. The area around them began to shift, what was left visible of the town fading quickly into the thick grey mass, and, as it faded, the rain disappeared, and they were... not in Temba.

It looked like a military base in a desert. Keith narrowed his eyes. He knew this place. It was the Garrison base in Arizona where he'd gone through flight classes and military training. But... why were they here? And it looked like it was the past, definitely not how he remembered it looking the last time he'd been home to see it.

"The storms can do this now?" he muttered to himself.

Keith was on edge... he had good memories here, but he also had bad ones... which would this be?

Whatever he was preparing for, an entire scene-shift certainly wasn't it.

"What the-"

Cayde whipped around, half expecting to see Temba at his back but everything around them looked pretty convincing. He couldn't even feel any rain, a point that made him glance skyward just in case.

"It's changed us and opened up weird dimensions, you're questioning environmental changes?" he pointed out. "This isn't mine. You know this place?"

Point taken. Keith huffed a bit, and then nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do."

He took a breath, wondering just where this was going to end up, and started walking towards the base. No one seemed to see them, like they were observing this a la A Christmas Carol. Keith was looking for any clue as to when this might be. Then he caught sight of a particular shuttle in the hangar.

"Oh, boy..." This was early on, shortly after he'd been accepted into the Garrison as a cadet. It had been a rough time. He had a feeling he knew where to go if this was what he thought it was.

"This is a memory... like when we were stuck in those mines," he said. "I have a feeling the storms are controlling the calibrations this time." He'd been through them enough between Drift Fleet and here to recognize it for what it was. "Guess we gotta go do something." He moved towards the main building where the simulators were.

Cayde wondered how much of it would hold up if he decided to try wandering off, but they had to be here for a reason, and he'd feel bad if he left Keith to it.

"Wait, seriously?" he groaned. "I knew I was getting some odd sorta deja vu from this... What, they figure we got too wise to going into the suspicious tunnels so they're bringing the memories to us now?" He had to pause at that because it was a fair assumption. The last time he saw where things were going, he'd made away as far as possible rather than get stuck again.

And then Keith was moving again, and Cayde hesitated before starting after him. "-but wouldn't that be what they want us to do?"

He could always try. It wasn't like Keith didn't know what this place was.

"Maybe," he said. "Probably got tired of people trying to run away." Keith pushed open a door and headed inside, holding it long enough for Cayde to follow. Look, he wasn't rude. He wasn't going to just let it swing closed in the guy's face.

"You got a better idea?" Keith asked, glancing around for a moment. As he walked down the corridor, he looked for anything that might indicate where he was for this memory. Which memory was it? Anything that would indicate a date or a time...

The offered support is gladly taken, and Lark lets him guide her along. Her entire focus is on taking deep, measured breaths. That was the most important thing for her. To not end up dizzy and falling over.

But it's getting rather unlikely that she's going to make it without falling over.

Keith was definitely ready to carry her if he needed to, and, if she stumbled or showed signs of falling, he'd scoop her up and do just that, even if she tried to protest.

Once inside, he moved towards the center, as far from the outer walls as possible to see if it helped. Hopefully, the building was big enough.

"What else do you need?" he asked.

Curiosity got the better of him. If this really was like Calibrations, he wanted to know just how much they were in for.

Cayde still snorted, somewhat amused at that. "Is it really running away if you know you'd otherwise be walking into a trap?" he countered.

He stepped inside, looking around. "If it turns out to be anything you'd rather not anyone else see, let me know and I'll find my own way out."

"Thanks..." But, honestly, at this point, Keith had been through calibrations often enough that it didn't bother him. It wasn't like Cayde had a choice, right?

But it wasn't like Cayde was wrong about avoiding a trap vs running away. He couldn't argue.

As they made their way through, they got closer to a large room near the simulators, and a booming voice could be heard coming towards them. A large man towered over a group of cadets, barely in their teens. Cayde might be able to recognize a very young Lance and a very young Keith. They weren't next to each other.

The man was berating the whole team, calling them all sorts of names that all drill instructors tended to call cadets. The group all stood at sharp attention, staring straight ahead. He was reprimanding them, saying that because of one person, they were all going to be on extra training for the next month. To emphasize his point, the instructor stopped in front of Keith, leaning down into his face.

The rest of the cadets groaned. Once the instructor moved on, still yammering away about the importance of discipline and acting like a team, the cadet next to Keith leaned in close.

"Thanks for that, jerk," he said snidely. "Because you had to show off, now we're all paying for it." Little Keith's eyes narrowed.

"I could fly circles around this whole unit if I wanted to," he snapped back.

"We all know you're only here because Shiro sponsored you," the other cadet continued. Keith visibly bristled.

"I'm the best pilot in this class, and you know it."

"Oh, yeah?" The tone was a sneer as the cadet smirked at Keith. "Is that what your mommy and daddy told you-?"

The other cadet barely finished the statement before younger Keith had spun and decked him across the face with a powerful left hook. The cadet flew backwards a couple of feet and landed hard on the floor. The whole class gasped in alarm, and the instructor spun to see what the commotion was about. Keith launched himself at the other cadet, pinning him down and was about to pummel him some more, but the instructor had already started moving. The massive man, at least three times Keith's size, grappled the boy by the arms and dragged him off the other cadet.

The commotion faded, the figures around them slowly disappearing into the air, leaving them alone in the room.

"Heh..." Keith rubbed the back of his neck. "I uh... had some issues as a kid."

So far as Cayde was concerned, there was always a choice. No one was making him witness anything, and really, the only reason he saw any of the memories he had was because it was an accidental trigger or he'd actually been invited to do so.

The Hunter was grinning crookedly as he watched the scuffle. "Nah, that kid had it coming," he said. At least compared to some memories, that was relatively tame, all things considered.

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Playing Catch-Up (OPEN)

Storm

Storm

MerMay

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Re: Storm

sorry i'm not going to be around for most of the night after this. But I will be tomorrow

no worries

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