Sitting Pretty Isn't Something He Can Do

[tempredmental]

WHO: Keith, OPEN
WHERE: Station, Planet, Glitter Food
WHAT: Exploring, Haunting, Trying not to get in more trouble
WHEN: During the haunting event (backdated)
WARNINGS: Will add as needed, but yes... creepy stuff's going on in here... also emeto mention in the space station part, but not because of Keith

Exploring abandoned space stations, planets with very thin air, gathering data that he probably wouldn't understand so that someone else could study it and come up with an answer... This was all stuff he'd done before in various ways over the years with Voltron, and also a bit with Drift Fleet. Keith figured he could handle this, even with a healing ankle and while recovering from a concussion. He was fine.

The added bonus was that he wouldn't be running for his life or worrying about an attack like when they'd been doing all this with Voltron, too... right? It would be light work, he'd stay busy, and wouldn't be going stir crazy sitting it all out while bored.

Sure. Whatever. Famous last words. Sorry, Tae...

=====

Is This a Space Station or a Liminal Space?

Zero-G was no problem. He'd gotten used to dealing with it while with Voltron. Plus, it actually made things easier on him for the moment since he didn't have to worry about overdoing it on his bad ankle. Navigating around was easy for him thanks to his previous experience, and he was willing to give anyone else a hand who might need it. Though, he might chuckle or be amused at others who were adjusting and having some issues at first. Here was hoping people could handle a little snark.

Just as long as no one got sick... He knew someone with that problem, and it wasn't pretty if that happened with a closed helmet on.

Keith wasn't really intimidated by the empty creepy factor as much as some others might be, and he surged ahead confidently enough, having brought both his weapons with him. Though, once he'd realized that they were dealing with Zero-G, he knew that his wolf wouldn't be very helpful, so, once again, he was out there without Kosmo's teleportation help. He was beginning to wonder if things were happening to him on purpose to get him to not have the animal with him...

And that actually made him a little more nervous than an empty spooky space station.

It wasn't until he had to dodge several surprise attacks that he really started to get worried, and began to wonder if there was something else going on here.

"Hey! Look out!" he yelled at someone's back before flinging his Blade towards a robotic information sign about to paddle the daylights out of them with its screen. The knife pierced through it, sticking out the other side, leaving it momentarily immobilized and sparking.

=====

Surface Woes

While he couldn't actually be the pilot, Keith had been hoping that maybe going to the planet would be less strenuous than running away from the station's automated defense systems.

Boy, was he wrong.

Nothing against Gladio, of course. Those storms were pretty rough, and Keith wasn't sure he could have done much better even if he'd been 100%. But getting rocked around like a loose marble in a box wasn't fun, even with seats and seatbelts. Especially when some of their cargo was getting knocked loose and flopping around with them.

Thankfully, he'd come equipped with his armor, so he was pretty well protected. It didn't prevent the onset of a migraine, though, and he was limited on how much he could carry on an injured leg. He and Gladio were a bit of a pair at the moment, all things considered, but Keith was at least a little bit more mobile. He also turned down one of the breather units.

"I've got my helmet and armor. I'll be okay," he said, gently putting his hand up. "Keep it as an emergency back up in case someone needs it." The air supply in his armor would last a while as long as he was careful. But he knew he'd have to switch to the atmosphere at some point to let it recharge. And that it would likely take longer to recharge in a thinner atmosphere like this one.

As they started their trek towards the base that they were no longer anywhere near, Keith managed to find something he could drag with him so he wasn't being completely useless. Dragging wasn't as heavy as lifting and wouldn't put as much of a strain on his ankle. It also meant he didn't have to bend down to pick it up, which was making him dizzy at the moment. But, seeing someone else slowing down? When he was already one of the slower ones in the group?

He came up next to them, concerned.

"Hey, you hanging in there?" he asked. Like he should talk with that limp, but... he was worried, okay? "Do need one of the breathers?" He had the facemask of his helmet closed for himself at the moment.

=====

It's a Glitter Food Party, or Is It?

When Keith wasn't helping with the station, or stuck on the planet's surface, he was on the Glitter Food. In fact, he kept coming back to the Glitter Food after short trips to the station for gathering information and anything else if only to avoid the stupid security measures and rest so he didn't overdo it.

See, Tae? He was trying to behave... not well, but he was trying...

And he definitely was having some rough nights. He'd been going through a lot the last several months, especially after they'd come back from exploring the mines and tunnels, and he'd found out that Lance had disappeared while sheltering from the zombie storm in Sh'Ka. Between the fire, the capture attempt gone wrong, and being pretty lonely as the last person from his reality left in this one, it was rough.

So, when things started disappearing, he wasn't sure how to react. He was finding his stuff in different places. Kosmo was smart, but he wasn't a prankster... was he? Or was Keith just forgetting where he'd put things lately because of all the stress combined with a concussion? He wasn't sure.

His bayard, his sword, his Paladin helmet... maybe some of his other items like his sketchbook, or that cute photo of him and Lance on Risa from several years ago... He'd moved most of his stuff to the Glitter Food by now, in the ship's replica of the house he and Lance had been working on in Temba, so most of it was there for this trip. It wasn't that far from the bridge, after all. Not that he was currently flying it. He hadn't been cleared for that, yet.

But when the rings he and Lance had been wearing for first their engagement and then their marriage disappeared, Keith had a fit.

Hoepfully... someone could find some of his missing stuff for him before he panicked any further...

=====

A Spooky Apparition

After getting back from the planet, though, it was a different tale. Keith had noticed the weird shapes and ghostly looking things, and he honestly thought it was another trick. The planet had those electric beings that liked to attack, so he was nervous about them at first. Was he going to be attacked? But no. These didn't seem to be very aggressive. But he'd seen 'ghosts' before from the storms back on Agra-10. These were a bit different, but Keith wasn't sure he could trust them.

Especially when they started taking the forms of people he knew... people that had been there before, which counted for a lot of the people he knew from home, as many had spent at least a short stint of time in this reality, but others as well... others who he'd been recently thinking about.

Don't mind Keith if you were walking past. He was just starting at the ghostly form of a familiar figure... He probably doesn't even know you're there.

Comments

Glitter Food

[crystalmaster]

Radley happens to be near enough to hear the fit and he comes running. "What happened?!" he demands, really expecting to either find someone hurt or more creepiness with the apparitions.

[tempredmental]

Keith whirled on Radley, visibly angry. Thankfully, he hadn't attempted to destroy anything, yet. At this point, he was more likely to just hurt himself again with his current run of luck.

"My rings are missing!" he snarled, teeth clenched.

Sure enough, the necklace Keith had been wearing since last October with the four rings on it wasn't in its usual place around his neck. Sure, it wasn't anything super fancy in regards to what he'd been using to keep it there. It wasn't like he had access to fancy necklace chains on Agra-10, but the rings were fancy and extremely sentimental. However, he'd taken it off to shower, and now it was gone.

[crystalmaster]

"What the ... ?! These ghosts or whatever they are, are really stooping low!" Radley fumed. "Where'd you see them last?"

[tempredmental]

Oh, Keith had a few choice words for those 'ghosts', definitely. He growled a bit, glancing back at the bathroom door. Yes, he was dressed... but his hair was still wet, leaving a kind of shaggy wet dog effect.

"In the bathroom," he snapped. "I put them on the counter... where I always do. Now they're just gone."

[crystalmaster]

"I'll help you look," Radley said. "Let's try your room in case the ghosts put them there."

[tempredmental]

"They keep fucking with my shit," he growled, turning abruptly and stalking back to where he was living as best he could while limping. It was hard to walk angrily on an injured ankle.

Since the ships had an entire replica of Temba in them, Keith had taken up residence in the replica of the building he and Lance had picked for a house. So, he headed there first.

[crystalmaster]

"You mean they've been picking on you more than others?" That was weird, unless they just wanted to see him flip out.

[tempredmental]

That got Keith to pause for a second.

"You mean not everyone has had more than one thing moved or taken?"

Were they picking on him more? He didn't know. He thought the ghosts were being assholes to everyone.

[crystalmaster]

"They probably have. I'm not sure I've got a complete list of everything they've been swiping," Radley says.

[tempredmental]

"Up to now, it's mostly that they're moving stuff around," he grumbled, starting the walk again. "This is the first time something's gone completely missing. Usually, it's still fairly close by... I thought maybe I was just misplacing stuff or forgetting where I initially put it until I actually saw something move." He was still recovering from a concussion, after all. "But... this?" he asked, referring to the rings. "This was definitely not me."

[crystalmaster]

"Seeing it move is pretty freaky." He had seen that too. "It started playing with the glasses and tossing them around through the air."

[tempredmental]

Keith stared at Radley for a second as he tried to imagine what that might have looked like.

"Yeah, that... yeah." He frowned a bit. "That does sound freaky." He'd only seen his bayard get moved from one table to another, and that had been weird enough as it was.

[crystalmaster]

"It's like what my friend Scotch would read about poltergeist activity in restaurants," Radley said.

[tempredmental]

"I've heard of stuff like that," Keith said. He'd be surprised if there was any reality that didn't have some kind of ghost story or supernatural thing going on. He'd seen his share of ghost hunter type shows and spooky movies over his lifetime.

Over their walk, Keith's pace had calmed down and he was no longer attempting to walk 'angrily'. Which was good. It was honestly too stressful on his ankle, making his limp worse, and slowing down was giving him time to also calm himself down at having lost the necklace and rings for the moment.

He led Radley inside once they got there.

The Agrii had done a decent job of replicating what Keith and Lance had put together in Temba, and Radley might recognize some of it from when he'd come to help after Keith's ladder had broken and he'd dislocated his elbow. The cub-sized snow leopard type creature, Snow, was stretched out on the floor in the front room, and she gave both of them an uninterested look before putting her head back down to continue napping. Kosmo gave them both a tail wag.

The fish tank was empty... a sign that Lance's pets weren't there, but the stuff he had acquired while in this reality still was. Hence why Keith now had both pairs of their ring sets.

Keith went to the bathroom first. Bathroom to bathroom, right? That made sense. Maybe too much sense. He'd been using one of the generic ship showers because the one in the house hadn't been working when the Agrii duplicated it in the ship, and he'd never gotten around to actually fixing it in the Glitter Food's version of their house. But, as he poked around, digging through a bunch of skin care things he didn't really use and had all belonged to Lance, Keith didn't find the necklace.

"It's not here," he growled.

[crystalmaster]

Radley was glad to see Keith calm down during their walk. As they went inside, he chuckled at Snow and said Hi to her and Kosmo.

He frowned when the bathroom was empty of the rings. "Maybe try the bedroom?" he suggested.

If the rings weren't in the house, they could be anywhere on the ship, a hugely daunting prospect.

[tempredmental]

Kosmo stood up and started following them around the house.

Keith clenched his fists and turned quickly, pushing past Radley with some urgency. He didn't mean to be rude, but he wasn't really thinking clearly. And where the bathroom had been small, the bedroom was slightly bigger and had more places to look. So, Keith began pulling stuff out and moving things around, just generally making a mess as he checked in as many little places as he could.

[crystalmaster]

Radley tried to help look, although he was really starting to fear that the rings wouldn't turn up in the house at all.

[tempredmental]

Keith was starting to fear the same thing, and he leaned heavily on the foot of the bed, trying to keep his temper and anxiety in check.

"I can't... find them..." He took a deep breath, sounding like he was on the edge of another freak out.

[crystalmaster]

"Okay," Radley said, trying to sound soothing and calm. "Let's keep looking around the house. Maybe they're in a different room."

[tempredmental]

"There aren't that many rooms," Keith snarled a bit. It was true. The place was small. A one bedroom, one bathroom place with an open floor plan in the front. He stalked back out to the main room and started going through the unfinished kitchen. After Lance had disappeared, Keith had sort of stopped working on the place, so it was a half-done mess of a remodel. But there were a few cabinets and drawers that could be hiding a small thing like a necklace...

[crystalmaster]

Radley followed him out and again tried to help look. It was really worrisome wondering where they could be if not here somewhere. The ship was so huge....

[tempredmental]

Keith searched everything he could. He even double searched the spots where Radley had looked because he had this need to see for himself. Nothing personal, Radley. But he was getting more and more anxious as they searched more places with no luck. There wasn't much in the way of furniture in the place, so there weren't a lot of surfaces or other spots that the necklace could be hidden in the house.

Once he'd looked everywhere he could think of, Keith slammed the last cabinet door shut with some serious force. Both animals jumped at the sudden sound.

"It's not here!" he snapped.

But it might be somewhere else Keith would spend a lot of time... The diner? The ship's bridge? One of the shuttles? All were pretty relevant locations for him.

[crystalmaster]

Radley could understand that need to look for oneself, so he didn't comment when Keith rechecked places.

He jumped at the sound too.

"Okay, then let's try some other possible spots," he said, thinking of things like the diner as well.

[tempredmental]

Keith took a breath again, focusing on that. In... hold... and out... focus.

"Fine." Kosmo gave a little whine, knowing Keith was upset, and he moved closer, pressing against the pilot's side. "I don't know if I should look in places I normally go, or places I don't," he admitted quietly. "Have you had anything disappear like this, yet?"

[crystalmaster]

"Try the easiest first and then branch out if you need to," Radley suggested. "And no, I haven't. Mostly it's been the loco poltergeist stuff for me."