revivalproject | New Tick Catch-Up

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New Tick Catch-Up

WHO: Keith, OPEN TO ALL
WHERE: Around the Agrii ship and Peanut Party
WHAT: New Tick, Recovery, Investigations, Dealing with Loss
WHEN: Early January
WARNINGS: Grief about people leaving the game, dealing with trauma and injury, recovery from injury, will add to this as needed

You Rang?

Keith was thankful for the warning. It gave him time to get things together. Packing wasn't easy at the moment considering he couldn't really put his full weight on his injured leg, but he managed to get some of his stuff and some supplies for Kosmo and Snow together. He just needed Kosmo to carry it.

It made losing Lance after coming out of the mines all that more pointed. Keith might grumble and complain when people insist on taking care of him, but he was really missing his husband right now.

Thankfully, Kosmo being the 'pack dog' wasn't too much of a problem. The wolf had done it before and was intuitive enough to understand what Keith needed. So, before they could be 'summoned' to the ships, the three of them moved over there. It was easier considering Keith's current mobility issues, and Kosmo was more than happy to help by teleporting them over.

As for being a pilot, he let Gladio drive when the time came. The trip was short, and it was hard enough to get in and out of a chair when bending his knee was painful, and his hands were sore from minor burns. He was better off just standing back and watching.

=====

Mandatory Fun

Keith was not up to going to a party. Not that he ever really was on a normal basis, but he was even less so right now. Upon first arrival, he does his best to just find a place to lay low and rest. It wasn't his normal MO, but he could feel that he needed it, and even Keith could admit sometimes when he needed to step back. He stayed there until an Agrii came knocking to escort him over to the Green Space. Despite his protests, Keith ended up hobbling his way down there, if only to get the Agrii host to leave him alone.

The memories tradition was a hard pass right now, between zombies, his husband disappearing, and then almost being killed in a burning building trap. It hadn't been a pleasant last few months, and the last thing he wanted to do was relive it. Trying to sit on a blanket on the ground was difficult at best considering his injuries, but he managed somehow, and kept to himself as much as he could. He kept absently fidgeting with two matching pairs of rings he was wearing on a cord around his neck. He'd be wearing one pair on his left hand, but the heat from the fire had burned his hands, especially near where the rings would normally be as the metal had gotten very hot.

As for getting to his gifts? He was going to need help with that. Being on crutches made it hard to carry them all.

=====

A Waiting Powder Keg

Even with how distracted he was after recent events, Keith noticed the heavy tension on the Agrii ship. It was honestly hard to miss, even if he'd been trying to avoid certain kinds of contact. The reverent bowing made him uncomfortable. Always had when he was recognized as a Voltron Paladin back home and got that kind of treatment as a result.

He made his way over to another 'He Row' in the dining hall for lunch.

"Hey... you uh... mind giving me a hand?" He sounded almost reluctant to ask for help, but it was hard to carry a tray of food when he was using crutches.

=====

Having a Peanut Party

When he wasn't getting food, doing required Agrii social things, or doing follow-up visits in medical, Keith was trying to keep a low profile. He was either in his assigned quarters on the Agrii ship or back on the Peanut Party. Between trying to rest and heal, avoid contact with the potential killer, and work through losing Lance, he was definitely not in an outwardly social mood.

But, there were things to investigate here. What they'd found in the tunnels... did the computer know anything? Was there a way to get any of the surveillance footage from around that building leading up to the fire? Who was running around with an ugly mask and baggy robe trying to kill people? Keith definitely wasn't being idle in his down time. It just wasn't physical... which was frustrating. Because working out was one of the ways he could clear his head and focus, expend excess energy... all of that.

He was frustrated and on edge.

And, yes... he had managed to figure out a way to set up a crime board with everything on it. Don't @ him.

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It was a good choice of He Row for help too. Gladio was pretty patient with his co-pilot, and honestly? He understood where Keith might be sitting emotionally. Something he knew how to not push at.

"Yeah, of course," Gladio says as he shifts the grip on his own tray so he can grab a second one. "I'm going to really impress you here. I used to do this for Noct when he was younger and still had on and off bad days for his back."

"Impress me, huh?" Keith actually managed something of a smile at that, despite feeling pretty frustrated that he had to ask for help in the first place. "I'm looking forward to being impressed, then."

He was honestly grateful that Gladio wasn't pushing. He wasn't sure if he could talk about all of it, yet. It had been a lot to deal with since the zombie storm, and Keith was not good at dealing with emotions about things like loss and trauma. He was still learning more constructive ways to face his emotions that what he used to do.

Though, his go-to for that right now was a bit out of reach. It was hard to train his fighting techniques with these injuries.

Well then, let the impressing begin. After all, he's got to distract himself still from losing his fiance, and no doubt Keith could stand the distraction from his injury and the loss of his own husband. Just two knights without their anchor points, trying to do their best.

He layers the trays with a minor overlap on one bulky arm and winks. Maybe he's never worked as a waiter, but he knows what he's doing. It leaves his hand free to serve them both.

"You know, we should start building a PT plan for you. Early exercise and keeping up strength is important for any warrior recovering. I've got some weights in my room on the ship that you could borrow. And I know some good things you can do with tension bands for the legs, even on crutches. If you want."

Well, big arms definitely helped with holding stuff like that. It likely didn't require as much effort to balance them as it would for someone with thinner arms. Keith smirked a little in return. Keith was muscular in his own way, for sure, but he had nothing on the bigger man. Gladio was a tank.

The suggestion made sense, honestly. Keith was definitely familiar with the concept. He nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," he said. If anything, it would give him something of an outlet for the restless energy he could feel building while unable to do his full workout and training.

Hey, there's still balance here. But yeah, his arms were good for shit like this. There was a reason he did a lot of carrying of camping gear after the Long Night started.

"Awesome," Gladio says with a smile. It would probably help deal with his own tension too. "Alright. Do you want the soup that tastes like peanut butter, the sandwich that tastes like peanut butter, or the salad that tastes like peanut butter? Or... well look at that. Looks like some stuff from the planet. Maybe those won't taste like peanut butter."

Keith smiled a bit in return, and then glanced along the counter as Gladio pointed out the options. He chuckled slightly, but was a little surprised at the new options from the planet. He shrugged.

"I mean, I'm not adverse to peanut butter? But, variety is cool. I'll just take whatever your getting."

Probably the Agrii found a way to steal the limited crops the speedy boy of the other ship spent time fussing about.

"If I had a choice I'd be getting meat and cup ramen, but I guess we'll just see what we can work with here."

Which was fried fish (tastes like peanut butter), a salad from Temba plants (no peanut butter dressing thanks), and a bowl of cut up fruit. Surely that would be enough to start with.

"Seem fair?"

"Man... my friend would be so disappointed in the idea of just eating cup ramen," he said with a small chuckle. "But, also, the idea of everything tasting like peanut butter would probably bother him, too." Maybe not Pidge... but definitely Hunk.

But he watched Gladio's choices and then nodded.

"Fair." Though, he did eye that fruit. It wasn't the sticky red ones that accelerate flames, were they?

"Nothing wrong with Ramen cups, though Ignis did judge me for it some," Gladio laughs. Apparently they have vaguely similar friends. Who would have thought it?

And thankfully, no, it wasn't a red fruit. It was something that looked more like a lychee to Gladio, maybe some papaya too. Or whatever the planet had that was similar.

"Honestly, you can tell the Agrii didn't go for culinary stuff. Or maybe it's those supplements."

Character archetypes? What's that? But Keith laughed a bit, too. "Trust me, Hunk would judge you hard. Me, though? I practically lived on the stuff for a while." Getting kicked out the Garrison at 18 with no where to go and just having been aged out of the foster system really forced a person to learn how to budget lean.

"Maybe..." Keith sobered at the thought, frowning slightly. "Obviously, it doesn't work on us." If it did, he probably wouldn't be needing help carrying a tray right now.

"Maybe it's not designed for our biology. Medicine for dogs and for people don't always overlap," he points out. So there was always the chance it didn't work because of that.

Or maybe they didn't have enough built up in their systems.

Keith nodded.

"Maybe," he said. The info they'd found seemed to indicate as such, that the supplement had been specifically designed for the Agrii. It could be the reason. "Unless it does something else to some of us." Which was also a possibility.

With their food now picked out and retrieved, it was time to grab a table and eat.

"Yeah, but do you want to be the one eating it regularly to test?" Gladio asks, smirking.

No doubt they could ask the doctors, but it seemed like they were busy enough on their own. But one had figured out some zombie shit, right?

"See a place you want to sit?"

(no subject)

tempredmental - 2025-02-06 21:27 (UTC) - Expand

Knuckles didn't look much happier to be at a party. He was standing off to the side with folded arms, as he often was. But he still was actively trying to be more a part of things at least as far as helping people went, and when he saw Keith's problem he went over.

"Need some help?" he asked.

He was wearing an Indiana Jones-type hat. He hadn't been sure what to think of it, but after putting it on he found he liked it a lot.

Keith made a huffy sigh kind of noise, staring at the three packages. Two of them (one pink/purple and the other orange) were small enough that he could probably just tuck those under his arms and hobble away with them, but the third pink and purple gift was rather large, and there was no way he was going to be able to maneuver that even by itself, let alone with the other two, when he could barely put weight on his left leg.

"Yeah," he said in a resigned tone. "I can't..." He clenched his jaw. "This is so stupid. I can't carry the stuff."

“Okay.” Knuckles reached for them. “Where do you want them?”

"It seems kinda silly to put it all down here, open it, and then still have issues getting it back to my ship," he said. "Probably should just take it all back, right?"

"Makes sense to me," Knuckles agrees. "... Which ship is yours?"

He doesn't pay a great deal of attention to the passenger lists, usually, and isn't sure if Keith is on the same ship with him.

"Uhh Glitter Food," Keith answered. Ugh, what a horrible name for a ship. He hated it. Then again, he also hated Peanut Party. The least they could have done was ask them for input on names. "If you're not on that one, I can let you on." Keith wasn't great at keeping track of rosters, either, since he was generally bad with names. He should probably try to be better considering he was the pilot, and that space station they had been at a while back had considered the pilots to be in charge of the ships.

Edited 2025-02-07 15:49 (UTC)

Knuckles hated both names too.

“Yeah, I’m on the other one,” he said.

He moved to head for the direction of the ships.

Keith nodded.

"I appreciate the hand, though," he said. Thankfully, now that the gifts have been presented and the fireworks were done and the party was basically in the wind down stage, the "He Rows" were allowed free rein to leave as they wanted. No one stopped them as they both headed for the exit.

Keith headed for the shuttle bay.

"Other than all of this, how have you been adjusting?" It had been a while since they'd first met, and Keith hadn't really had a long chat with the Echidna in quite a bit.

"Yeah, sure."

He sighed a bit. "Alright, I guess. I don't really feel like I fit in here." But then again, he felt that way pretty much everywhere, including back home.

Keith understood the feeling. He'd felt awkward and unable to fit in with things for a good portion of his life. But, he also wasn't like Knuckles or the turtles, and he couldn't help but wonder if that was part of it.

"Is most of your home like you?" he asked.

“There’s a lot of animals that walk around like people, but I’m the only echidna,” Knuckles says.

"The only..." Oh. That sounded pretty lonely. He nodded. "Yeah... that sounds rough."