[ video | action | open ]

[tempredmental]

Who: Keith, and you!
Broadcast: video
Action: on the Huntress and the Iskaulit
When: Right after and the first several days after the meteor hits the planet

video immediately after planet explodes

[Keith was on the bridge of the Huntress. They'd just had a bit of a rough ride as he'd held on as long as he possibly could to get as many people as possible, so they'd barely made it at the last minute, pushing the ship as hard as it could go.]

We still have people to look after, so don't give up, yet. Let's get everyone patched up and loaded to that station.

[He cut it off there. He had work to do.]

=====

action on Huntress and Blameless shortly after planet explodes

Keith was exhausted. He had been having trouble sleeping all the way through this, and the evacuation had come at the end. In typical Keith fashion, he had pushed himself to the limit, and now he was feeling it. He dropped the ship back into position in the Fleet after having unloaded their refugees to the station, and engaged the autopilot. Then, he excused himself from the bridge. He was headed for the Blameless, but would be back later.

Once back, he'd be checking the pilot's station to make sure the ship was doing okay after the crazy run, working out in the cargo bay, attempting to make something edible in the kitchen, or not-hiding in his room.

=====

action on the Iskaulit, Blameless, Heron, Bishop, or Huntress throughout the week

With the song of the planet really and completely gone, it was an odd sort of silence. Keith wasn't sure when he'd actually gotten used to feeling it, but now it was gone, and he was almost more restless than before. He gave up on the exercise equipment on the Huntress and was spending some time in the bigger gym on the Iskaulit instead. Pull this kid out of the gym before he exercises himself into a coma.

Comments

iskaulit-- some unspecified day of your choosing

[axi]

[This isn't Kaname's first trip to the Iskaulit, but it is her first to the gym there. After (already) needing a change of pace from the tradmill in the Bloodsport, she found this area on her last exploration and decided to come back another time. Another time turns out to be now.

She's got a towel, and a bottle of water when she enters, hesitating once she sees Keith in the middle of whatever he's doing. He receives a polite nod and half smile before she enters.]

Excuse me. [For a moment she stands to look around and find the best spot to set up.]

[tempredmental]

[Keith was using the punching bag at the moment, and looked over when someone else came in, putting his hand out to stop the bag from swinging back and hitting him.]

Ah... um. [He knew he'd been spending a lot of time in there over the past few days, so he felt a little bad that he might be monopolizing things.] I can go if you want.

[axi]

[A corner to the side looks good enough. She's dropping her towel on the mat when she hears him, and she turns to look at him, confusion evident.]

Hm? Not at all! Why would I want that? [Her smile's more friendly now and she shakes her head.]

It's a public space, and from the looks of things, everyone needs occupied right now.

[tempredmental]

[Keith nodded, looking almost a little grateful that she was okay with him staying there.]

Yeah... okay.

[His first instinct to settle into another fight stance, ready to go at the bag again, but he paused when he saw her setting up again.]

Are you just working out?

[axi]

[Kaname stops again, this time with a small chuckle.] Mm, to start with. I've still got to find a place for actual practice, but this works for now.

[She moves to sit on the floor with one leg stretched straight out on the mat. Leaning forward, she grasps her foot and stretches parallel to the floor, head turned to look at him.]

There's just more room to move around here, which is what I need.

[tempredmental]

Practicing what?

[He went back to working on the bag as they talked.]

[axi]

Choreography and dance routines. Back home, I'm a member of a singing group.

[Another beat and she's switching legs, doing the same as before with her other one.]

Even if the others aren't here, I don't want to be out of practice. Who knows what might come up?

[Which sounds a little strange when she's talking about a girl group. But there are reasons.]

[tempredmental]

[It probably would sound strange, but Keith's threshold for strange was pretty high after a lot of what he'd been through, even before ending up in the Fleet. Besides, she could probably use it to earn credits in a system somewhere along the way. He just nodded.]

Makes sense.

[He'd been in the gym for a while already, so after several more hits, he did decide to take a short break. It wasn't that he couldn't talk and train at the same time, but just that it could be hard to keep his rhythm going sometimes when he was talking. Plus, he'd been running himself pretty hard with investigating the dreams, and then the evacuation, so he wasn't at the top of his game. He grabbed his water bottle and took a drink.]

Have you used it a lot here?

[axi]

[A brief look of confusion crosses her face before she realizes what he means. She exhales slowly through her nose before spreading both legs out in front of her and leaning forward to hold her feet.]

No, I only recently arrived. Just before the comet, actually. [Her tone is a little somber, but she's not as broken up about it as most new arrivals might be.]

It was a relief to hear you'd gotten most of the population evacuated. That's pretty impressive for a fleet this small.

[Kaname isn't being condescending. In fact, she's praising them.

Keith's offered a sympathetic smile.]

Am I right in guessing you've been working yourself ragged with this and the aftermath?

[tempredmental]

Yeah. [He couldn't really disagree. They'd done a lot in the time that they had, even though there had still been losses, but no one could argue against the effort they put into it.]

I guess you could say that. A bunch of us got some weird dreams leading up to it. We knew something was coming, but we couldn't really figure out what. Luckily, the people of this planet were already pretty superstitious, so it was enough to get a bunch of them to move to the station before the actual rush began.

That helped a lot.

[Though, the silence bothered him. They'd been here long enough that the planet's song had sort of gotten settled into the back of his mind. The sudden drop off like that had left him a little shaken. It was definitely something very akin to a death, and it almost hurt.]

[axi]

[She remains in place with her legs stretched, looking contemplative.]

Can you really call it superstition when it all happened? [The question's more to herself, but it's certainly audible.] Like premonitions? A warning, I guess...

How'd that happen? Not everyone has an ability like that, do they? [Now she's pointedly asking Keith.]

I hope you don't mind the questions. I'm still trying to get a handle on this part of things.

video

[legs4days]

... Keith?

[Hunk's voice came out more strained than he intended. Was that even his voice? He didn't know he could sound like that. For a seemingly endless moment, the ordinarily cheerful yellow paladin stared in stone silence. Despite the small image, Keith could tell that Hunk's eyes were puffy and his eyes were blood shot.

Then suddenly the corners on his mouth twitched upward as he choked back a relieved laugh.]

K-Keith! Man you're a sight for sore eyes. [In the most undignified manner, Hunk reached up to wipe his nose with the back of his hand with a loud snort.] I didn't know if you made it off the planet. From the shuttle I watched the meteor hit.... I...

I couldn't do anything.

Re: video

[tempredmental]

Hunk?

[The sound of Hunk's voice hit all the wrong chords in Keith's mind. Hunk was a pretty open guy, so it was easy to tell when he was upset, even for someone like Keith. Immediate worry welled up in the back of Keith's head as he listened to the Yellow Paladin sort of babble his way through some thoughts.]

Hey... Hunk. Easy. Take a breath, okay? We did what we could. You can't think like that.

You're okay, right? You're not hurt?

Re: video

[legs4days]

[Hunk tried his best to settle himself but he was failing miserably. All the built up anxiety was looking for a place to be released. Even though his body was still trembling, Hunk was smiling. If not a bit worn.]

No, I'm not hurt. I was in a shuttle when the meteor struck. But the coms were down and I couldn't get in touch with you all and.... I'm just glad you're alright.

Re: video

[tempredmental]

Yeah... I'm fine. We're fine.

It's okay, buddy.

[Even if it was a tired looking smile, Keith was glad to see it. Keith's own small smile looked just as worn out.]

[padadin]

[If Keith is headed for the Blameless that can only mean one thing, and that's Shiro being there to receive him. He's just finished taking a shower, and comes across Keith on his way to his room, dirty clothes under an arm, comfortable sweatpants and long-sleeve shirt on his body.]

Hey, buddy. How are you feeling?

[tempredmental]

[He was actually on his way to see Lance. The Blue Paladin had asked him to come over, but stopping to see Shiro wasn't actually a bad thing, either, and Keith could use the moment. He stopped, considering his answer for a moment.]

Worn out.

[And he looked it, too. He hadn't been sleeping well. He'd been putting together as much information as he could about those dreams. And then this evacuation just really pushed him the rest of the way past his limit. He always could push hard, and dig in to find some sort of hidden reserve of energy or motivation to keep going, but even that was getting hard to find at the moment.]

You okay?

[padadin]

[He nods in understanding. Sure, Shiro is better at keeping a poker face and an encouraging attitude during hard times like this, but the truth is, he knows how Keith feels. Because he feels exactly the same.

Shoulder Touch (TM) go.] I'm fine - also tired. It'll be a good idea if we take it easy during the time that it takes us to reach the next planet.

[tempredmental]

Yeah, but... there were still two other dreams. We have to figure those out. What if they're warnings like the last one?

[Keith was still pretty shaken by that. That dream had shown him exactly what happened to anyone left on the planet, and that just... clung to him.]

We have to make sure nothing else like this happens. Or, at least, make sure we can save more people.

[padadin]

[Some times, Keith's paranoia made him a bit too obsessed with certain ideas. But his main drive is instinct, and it works for him - for everyone, really, considering the Blue Lion. He wants his friend to rest but... yes, he can't deny it, this is important.]

You're right, if there's more that we could do, then we should. Two more dreams - tell me about them, Keith. Let's be better prepared this time.

[tempredmental]

Well, I didn't have them myself. But, I think Hunk and Shay had them. [Funny, that... of the three people from home that had them, they each had a different one.]

Shay said that she felt everything around her dying. The trees, the whole planet. She was really shaken up by it, and I can understand why. She's been there before.

And, for Hunk, he said he was being hunted by something... chased. I know others had those same dreams, too. I have them recorded back on the Huntress.

I'm just wondering if the words we all felt go together? Or if they're just going with whatever words were in the same dreams from different people. Is it one big message? Or three separate ones?

[padadin]

What Shay felt may be what just happened. But Hunk's... that's different kind of danger. [He thinks about it for a second.] The general impression I get is that they're different messages, but if they're arrived together... there must be a reason for that, isn't there? From what the others said, this hasn't happened with singing planets before.

[tempredmental]

No... she told me about a dream. It wasn't like mine, and it wasn't like Hunk's. It was about things dying around her. And she felt words, too. I don't think it had to do with Lyuku. I think it's a third message. It matches one of the other dreams some other people reported having.

[Keith sighed.]

I just wish I knew which one was next.

[padadin]

The things dying wasn't because of the explosion? You're right, then. This may be bigger than we thought. Hopefully as soon as we arrive to the new system, we'll be able to identify which dream it matches. [After dropping his dirty clothes in the laundry pile, he starts making his way to the kitchen, still unaware Keith is here for Lance.] I'm gonna get some tea, do you want some?

[tempredmental]

No... it was a slow rot.

[Keith considered it, but he knew he had someone expecting him. He shook his head.]

Not right now. Maybe later. Thanks.