[ 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?

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.

[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]

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.]

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?

[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?

[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.

[tempredmental]

Well, I meant the other stuff. The Lyukians were really into all that fortune telling and palm reading stuff, and us coming in talking about prophetic dreams really set them moving. It would have been a lot harder to convince people who were more skeptical.

[He shrugged at her next questions, though.]

Not everyone does, but it was almost like random. A bunch of us who don't normally get dreams like that suddenly had them. I don't get it.

[axi]

That makes more sense. I guess everyone was fortunate in that way.

[Straightening up, she slowly moves into a side split.]

Could it have something to do with the augments? I'm not thrilled about those in the first place.

[tempredmental]

Someone else suggested that, too. A few people that don't normally get dreams like that suddenly did, so that's actually an interesting point.

Also, what just happened? It only resembled one of the three different dreams I've seen people talk about. [It resembled the one he had... which was pretty good nightmare fuel right there.] That has me worried.

[He crossed his arms, leaning against the wall for now.]

[axi]

It does leave a way for us to receive messages or dreams as a whole. That's not an idea I like.

[Kaname stays like there, brow furrowing.]

What about the other two? Were they much different?

[tempredmental]

Well, it sounded like they were just as creepy and startling. Some people had a dream about being chased and hunted. The other one was about everything around them just dying.

[He frowned.]

I'm not sure if I can really link them together. They seem so different from each other. But, the other two didn't happen here. Just the fireball and exploding planet.

[axi]

Do you think there's a chance they could be warnings as well? Even metaphorical ones.

[Kaname isn't one to put so much stock in vague possibilities, but she never entirely discounts them either. She lets out a hum before moving into a sitting position on the mat.]

I'm sorry, I doubt this is the best topic of conversation right now. My name's Kaname.

[tempredmental]

It's possible. And I don't mind, really. I mean, no... it's not the best topic, but we can't just ignore it. It has to be important for a reason. One of the dreams just happened right in front of our faces. So, what do the other two mean, right?

[He sighed.]

Better to work on this than not.

[He nodded.] I'm Keith.

[axi]

Hopefully nothing, if that's an option. [Now, she raises her arms above her head to stretch them, leaving them there.]

There's not much I can offer except someone to speak with. Hopefully that helps at least a little. [Keith receives a soft smile.]

Is there anything you'd like to talk about? I like the distraction.

[tempredmental]

That would be nice, but I have a feeling that it's not going to work that way.

[He sighed and considered her offer.]

Well, my dream was what happened to this last planet. The others aren't as clear to me because I didn't see them firsthand. But, I'm curious as to which one we might encounter first. It would help to focus on the right one and worry about the other one later.

[axi]

[Kaname moves one arm over her chest and uses her other to pull it across more.]

When you saw it, was it clear it was a meteor? Or was it more obtuse? [Even if she wasn't here for it, she is taking a genuine interest in what's happened.]

It might be a way to see how literally the others should be considered.