Lost Lion. Please Help?

[lionunchained]

WHO: Shiro and You!
WHERE: Around
WHAT: New Arrival Exploring
WHEN: Beginning of January
WARNINGS: None yet. Will update.

This was certainly not the last place that Shiro remembered being. He had last remembered returning to Earth and ending up with his new robotic arm. As he stood there for a long moment, wracking his brain, there wasn't much more after that. Certainly, there wasn't enough he would have suddenly found himself here in a world that seemed far more dilapidated than the Garrison was with far fewer technologies.

The information that suddenly came to him was certainly helpful, but very disturbing to him. After all, what had most of his recent life been like other than some other being deciding he needed to be somewhere that he didn't consent to going?

Typical.

But Shiro was out in the town and exploring. Sure, he had the device and he did pause a few times to review it, specifically looking at the map more than anything else, but still, he'd rather see them for himself. After he had figured out where he was going, he could see if there was anything that he could assist with. If he was going to be here, might as well do something productive.

Comments

[lionunchained]

Shiro smiled, hugging Keith back as the other came over to him. Certainly, he was different than before, but Shiro was still the same person even if he looked different.

"Yeah, it's good to see you too. Though I wasn't expecting it to be here."

[tempredmental]

Keith pulled back.

"Yeah... No one expects 'here'." He managed a really dry chuckle. "But it's better than some places, at least.

"When did you get here?"

[lionunchained]

"I've kind of gotten that opinion." That no one really expected to end up here. "Yeah, better to be seen than not at all."

Which yeah, he'd much prefer being seen than not.

"Not too long ago. A few days ago."

[tempredmental]

"Oh." Keith looked a bit surprised. How the heck did he miss that? He gave Shiro a small smile. "You seem to be handling things okay. Did you have any like questions or anything? I've been here a while now."

[lionunchained]

Well, it was literally only a few days ago. Like two. Not like he had been around here for a month without Keith noticing. Not that it really bothered him.

"Yeah. It's at least better than how things have been. I mean, there are still important things to do at home, but at least if I can't be there, this is more tolerable than other options."

He thought for a moment about that. "Anything you think that everyone should know when they get here?"

[tempredmental]

"Well..." Keith considered it for a moment. "There's a weird thing about time here. People can show up from the same world, but from different points in time." So, with that bit of information... "So, I guess we'd have to figure out if we're from the same point in time." They certainly looked it...

[lionunchained]

"Really? That's strange. We had just returned to Earth. Not long after I got this actually," he said, raising his mechanical arm to show Keith.

That should certainly tell him when he was from.

[tempredmental]

Keith nodded, working through a few thoughts in his head before answering.

"I remember that," he said. It was kind of hard to forget, honestly, considering everything that had happened when they first activated the arm. "It's actually been a while since then for me." Though, how to explain how that was interspersed with Drift Fleet and then Agra-10, considering he'd first been pulled just after Shiro...... 'disappeared'. (Keith just couldn't get himself to say the other word...) "Plus, on top of that, I've been here for a while since getting pulled from home." Keith had no real idea how old he was anymore at this point. It was all too confusing and there were too many overlapping timelines and slippage and gravity wells to make it strange, but, if he had to guess, he'd figure around 23 now. He was catching up to Shiro...

"So, the Atlas isn't finished, yet, then." Which meant the Lions were still on the moon near Saturn, and they hadn't fought Sendak or that weird Altean mech.

[lionunchained]

Shiro listened to what Keith said. Clearly, he wasn't quite sure what to say in regards to that. But even that was enough.

"A while? How long is a while?"

He really wanted to know what else had been going on, but he shouldn't do that.

"No, the Atlas is not finished yet."

[tempredmental]

Keith pursed his lips, and then sighed, just deciding to spit it out.

"I think it's been around three years," he said. "Time is weird and I was first taken back after that battle with Zarkon when you... you know. And I went home and came back here like... a lot, and don't really know how or why. And there was the quantum abyss where I was stuck for two years, but it was only a few months for you guys back home... and then the three year time slippage after the battle with Lotor where we had to sacrifice the Castle of Lions to close the holes in reality." He frowned. "Plus the time here, so... I think it's been three years because I'm pretty sure I'm 24 now." He looked back at Shiro.

"We do get the Atlas finished, and I was probably around 21 when that happened..." He shrugged. "So, I'm guessing three years."

[lionunchained]

Shiro just kind of stared at him for a moment after he had said all of that before he spoke. "So... you've been back and forth between here and home? For three years?"

Man, this was a lot to take in.

[tempredmental]

"Something like that." Keith frowned. "It's really hard to explain. And it hasn't been this place the whole time, either. When I first got pulled away from home, it was to something called 'Drift Fleet'. We were there for a long time. I haven't been back home since getting pulled here, though... and Lance and I came here from the Fleet, not from home, so I'm not sure if that has something to do with it or not."

[lionunchained]

"Huh... that's all very strange. We'll figure out a way to get home. I know that we will. It may just not be easy to find right now, but we can't give up."

Says the guy who has been here only a few days.

[tempredmental]

"Yeah... yeah, I guess we will."

Keith didn't sound overly enthusiastic, though. Still, he pushed past it.

"So, have you been finding everything okay in the past few days?"

[lionunchained]

Yeah, probably easy for Shiro to say that. Harder for Keith when he's been here all this time.

Shiro smiled faintly and nodded. "Yeah, I've been figuring things out. At least I feel like I have at least."

[tempredmental]

That and even harder when he had a reason to stay... He moved his hands, using the fingers of his right to rub an odd lump under his glove on the left ring finger.

"Oh... yeah, that's good." He smiled, shifting again to put his hands in his pockets. "It's weird, but we've been through some weird stuff, so I imagine it's not terribly hard to get the hang of in a few days."

He turned back to the hangar, nodding towards the glowing data point inside.

"Have you tried any of those, yet, besides the one at the fountain with the basic information?"

[lionunchained]

"It doesn't seem too complicated at least," Shiro remarked. "All the information that is here. At least that's how it is on the surface."

It could always be a lot more complicated than Shiro thought, but there wasn't exactly much he could do one way or the other except to figure out what there was to do.

"Aside from that one? No, I haven't. Any of them you think I should?"

[tempredmental]

It was definitely more complicated, and Shiro would eventually find out why. Keith wasn't going to keep him in the dark for long. But there were other things to cover first.

"Depends on what you want to do..." Keith said with a small shrug. "Each one is related in some way to where it is. So, there's one for medical, one for farming, one for engineering, one for piloting... And they're close to where they're useful. So like, the hospital, the farm building, the power plant... here in the hangar..." Keith gestured back to the hangar where the orb in question was visible inside.

"So, yeah... Lance has been helping out with the farm stuff because that's what his family does back home, so it was familiar. And since the ships don't seem to go anywhere in general unless there's a reason for us to go somewhere, having a bunch of people be pilots seemed kind of silly. I think we have like... one pilot per ship right now... something like that." He shrugged a little.

[lionunchained]

"Very efficient of them to make it so easy for someone who has no previous information on a topic to be able to do it."

It was. When there was really no choice, but for someone to do something, it was easier to make it as fool-proof as possible.

"Farming? Somehow, that definitely seems like something Lance would like to do. Might not be a bad option."

Yes, he might be considering learning more about it.

[tempredmental]

"It's certainly useful," Keith offered. "It ties in to a few things on the ships, too, with the food supplies and other things. There aren't any other pilots on my ship, though, so I'm not giving that up just yet."

His attention went back to his hands, though, and that telling ring-shaped lump under his glove.

"Have you run into Lance, yet, since you got here?" Since they were talking about him, anyway...

[lionunchained]

"And no reason why you should give that up. It makes perfect sense for you to have that skill."

Since it was a good pilot.

"I have, but only just recently."

[tempredmental]

Keith snorted a little. Yeah... it did make sense, didn't it? Leave it to Keith to lean on something familiar like that.

But, about Lance...

"He didn't happen to mention anything about me, did he?"

[lionunchained]

Shiro just smiled. "He did. Congratulations."

Yes, Lance had of course mentioned his good news and Shiro really did think it was good news.

[tempredmental]

Keith let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, a small smile appearing on his face for a moment.

"Of course, he'd want to beat me to telling you." Lance and Keith, most competitive couple ever. Each stage of their relationship had been a race to see which one of them told Shiro first back in Drift Fleet. And sure this was a different Shiro, but the situation overall wasn't much different. Keith wasn't surprised.

He undid the strap on his left glove and pulled it off. His ring matched Lance's, but with a red stone.

"Though, with us not remembering this place when we go home, it kind of makes things... difficult."

Because, back home, Lance and Allura were getting closer, and Keith had set himself up with a barrier to the others... having settled into the role of leader instead of teammate. It was different. Keith was starting to feel sharply aware of that.

"It probably isn't the best idea to keep this going, but I don't want to let it go." And, really... who was he kidding? If they did go home, and didn't remember any of it, then it didn't matter, right? It wasn't like it would hurt.

[lionunchained]

"To be fair, he tried to avoid mentioning your name, but there were enough hints that I took a guess. So he didn't really tell me."

He looked at the ring as Keith took off the glove, showing off the ring.

"Very nice."

He nodded his head. "I understand completely. You can at least have it here. And you never know what will happen back home as well. It might still happen."