[closed]

[marmoron]

Who: Keith + various closed starters
When: August
Where: Around
What: August catch all.
Warnings: Violence, death, vampire attack, inebriation


[ Starters below. If there's something you would like to do, feel free to PM or poke partyraven to get something rolling!]

Comments

Yata

[marmoron]

[ Between the frost elementals, the shades and the threat of running into Cywld infected monsters while outside, it's no surprise that the folks building the memorial had insisted on a buddy system for anyone they hired to go looking for Forget Me Nots. Even so, it still feels a little ridiculous to be traipsing around the Wilde with some other dude he's only just met while clutching a piece of paper with a diagram of the flower in question printed on it.

Keith's never beem the best at making a situation less awkward, but in this case he does have some things to say. Dressed in paladin armor with his helmet on to keep the sun from burning his skin, he pauses just before the pair of them enter the forest proper. ]

Okay, Yata, was it? Let's make this quick to avoid any problems. Don't know how much you know about being in the Wilde, but don't touch anything that looks diseased and try not to draw too much attention to yourself. [ He says, while wearing armor that is, y'know, fire truck red. ] We don't want to be dealing with Shades. Stay sharp.

[ OH boy can't you just tell this is going to be so much fun... ]

[thevanguard]

[ Yata just shoots him a sideways glance, one eyebrow arching upwards. ]

Seriously, dude? Why don't you worry about finding your little flower first and let me worry about anything showing up to try and eat us. Don't know how much you know about the Wilde, but it seems like the entire place is "a problem". [ Yeah, that was complete with quotation marks and everything. ] I don't think we're avoiding anything.

[marmoron]

[ Oh great. Someone who can't just take well intentioned advice without having to be a smartass. You can practically observe Keith trying not to eyeroll as Yata talks. ]

Okay, dude. [ Air quotes audible. ] I'm just trying to help. But duly noted that you don't appreciate the commentary.

[ And with that, Keith steps into the forest proper with the paper in hand as he keeps an eye out for any flowers that look like they could match. ]

[thevanguard]

[ Yata exists to be a smartass. It is his destiny.

But he just rolls his eyes at the sour retort, stretching his hands behind his head as he walks along beside the other guy. Although his newly-furred ears atop his head by his antlers are already swivelling to catch any sound around them. ]

Does anyone actually appreciate commentary?

Allura

[marmoron]

[ Despite the many reasons that going into the Wilde is a hazard, it's hard to deny that it's also relaxing to get away from the city proper. Though this isn't exactly the desert, nor a climate Keith is particularly used to, there's still something a little thrilling about walking through a snowy forest with Allura. Not for work or to go looking for trouble like he did in the past, but just to hang out.

He won't think too hard about what that means exactly because that'll catapult him right into uncertainty and it's easier to just exist in the moment. Right now, that moment involves ducking to dodge an incoming snowball

So maybe he shouldn't have lobbed one at her while she was cooing over a squirrel, but he's laughing as he scoops up some more snow. ]

Okay, okay, I'm sorry. If I let you hit me, would you call it even?

;3;

[quintessent]

I'm not certain. You should stand still and find out.

[Said with a laugh, and lobs a second once she sees him going to retaliate before finishing packing it into a ball. It breaks apart mid air, harmlessly turning into a shower of white powder before it can hit Keith.

By now, Allura has been out to the Wildes a handful of time, mostly on missions or errands, but she was never so struck by the beauty of the planet as during the winter. The snow seemed to make everything shimmer, bright and white and new. It felt like new beginnings. Or maybe that's just her being silly.

She holds another snowball, in mock-threat,] Do you surrender?

/o\

[marmoron]

[ Keith grins, quickly smooshing the snow in his hands into a ball. ]

Surrender? Dunno about that. Doesn't sound like it's in the paladin code, Princess.

[ Teasing of course, but watch him not put that snowball down all the same. ]

I'm offering a ceasefire.

He's so cute in that icon

[quintessent]

I should have expected no different.

[Her grin pulls longer. She seems to make a show of considering his offer, looking down at her own snow ball, then at him.]

Very well, I accept on the condition that you help me build a person out of snow.

[There were a handful of them that popped up from time to time at the Northern outpost when she visited and they were all charming. She's been wanting to try her hand at them for awhile.]

She makes him pull cute faces

[marmoron]

You mean a snowman?

[ The correction is offered with a laugh, but admittedly he also has no idea why it's snowman and not snowperson." Or "snow creature" for that matter. Hm. ]

I've never made one of those before either. Didn't really get a lot of snow where I grew up. [ Glancing down at the snowball in his hands, then holds it out towards Allura. ]

We could start by combining these.

[ Combining snow, combining lions .... practically the same thing. ]

countdown to mood whiplash

[quintessent]

It could be a snow woman.

[Said wryly, and she takes the snowball from Keith, molding the two together before stooping to work on gathering some more, scooping up handfuls to start forming a base.]

Really? [Then again, she doesn't know a lot about Earth.] It's the same for me - Altea's weather was much more moderate.

[None of these intense heat waves or cold snaps that seemed common on Geardagas. Even if they did, most of the population lived within the rings that surrounded the planet.]

Tieria

[marmoron]

[ While Tieria is out in the Wilde at night, he'll come across something curious that has washed up on the river banks. It's motionless and stiff -- unnaturally so, and should he come closer to inspect it, he might even find it a little familiar?

> Investigate? ]

[virtuell]

[ Tieria likes nighttime, recently. When the stars are up in the sky and he'd far outside the city, away from its lights, then it's a little easier to feel as if he were back in space, where he belongs. Though gravity is still inescapable, it's just... nice, to see the nightsky. It makes it easier to think.

He's really not looking for anything in particular as he walks, except... well, it's a little hard to ignore a humanoid body washing up? Finding a corpse isn't what he wanted out of this day, but he can't well leave it be when someone might be missing--

--- the annoying pilot boy?

Shit. Tieria walks a little faster, and soon is kneeling by Keith, trying to check for a pulse. ]

[marmoron]

[ The first thing Tieria will note on his check is that Keith's skin is cold to the touch -- far too cold to be a temperature a human body can sustain without gradually going into hypothermic shock. Perhaps that's just from being in the river a little too long? Though the pale ashen color of his skin isn't exactly reassuring either.

As for the carotid pulse he's checking for, there doesn't seem to be one present in the place it'd usually be for a typical human. Monster changes certainly make first aid a bit complicated from time to time. ]

[virtuell]

[ ... well. That's bad. Tieria may have threatened this boy, but he does not precisely want him dead. If he's alive and keeping his scret, that is really just fine.

Tieria wonders what he might have been doing up here, leading to him drowning like this - if it is drowning, anyway.

Not that it matters, the steps he needs to take remain the same. Theoretically. Though he is instructed on how to perform CPR, he has never actually had to do it.

But the upside is, Keith can't wind up deader than dead, so. Worth a try anyhow, even if his wet cold body is definitely gross.

He draws Keith a little further out of the water, places his head properly so if he feels like breathing again he can start anytime, really, and begins delivering compressions to his chest. ]

[marmoron]

[ Keith has had a long time to contemplate his own death. At times that extended period of uncertainty, of walking around with a guillotine suspended above his neck never knowing when it was set to drop had seemed worse than the actual dying. If he'd been given some time to mull this over in peace, maybe he'd actually have some pithy quip about the end of the line, but as it is waking is a sudden and violent whole body experience as a weight repeatedly slams down on his ribs like something or someone wants him to spit out his soul.

What comes out of his mouth isn't that, of course, but water from the river that trickles from the corners of his lips and onto the ground. It's all purely mechanical, the way pressing on a water balloon would make water slosh out, and the realization that the sole effect of clearing water from his airway changes nothing about how well he is or isn't able to breathe is as jarring as the next time his ribcage is compressed.

Keith's eyes snap open, his vision swimming and unfocused before he spots the familiar sight of the sisters in the night sky. Questions like where the hell he is, how long he's been out, whether Allura was able to escape from those horrific monsters -- all of those are distant, hazy, seemingly inconsequential when his throat feels raw, and there's a warm body just within reach to soothe it. A living, breathing creature with a vivid pulse and warm blood in its arteries.

Keith's hand snaps out before he's even bothered identifying what or who it is. his grip is icy and vice-tight to keep his prey immobilized while he sits up and locks with... ]

...You?

[ What the hell is this guy doing here? He halfway wants to know, but it's not really conversation he's after right now. His grip tightens, making the joints in his hand crack and pop from the residual stiffness. God, he's starving. Perhaps that much will get clearer to Tieria as well when Keith yanks on his arm to pull the other boy closer. ]

That's fine by me.

[virtuell]

[ For a very short moment, Tieria gets to experience satisfaction. It's not relief, because he doesn't care that much of Keith lives or dies, but Tieria is still pleased that Keith is waking up as he should – even with his lack of CPR experience.

This contentness is extremely short-lived however, as Keith graps a hold of him with a speed that catches Tieria entirely off-guard. Before he knows it, he's held in place by Keith and a feeling of dread spreads all through his body as he struggles to break free, shoving against Keith's damp chest, in vain. ]

Let go of me! Is this a way to treat someone who just saved your life?!

Red Wine

[marmoron]

[ A lot has happened in the last couple of days between dying, reanimating and dealing with what feels like the endless number of consequences that have come about as a result. It's bad enough that he's dealing with being undead and everything that goes with it now, but being able to feel what his bonded partners feel on top of it can get a little much sometimes.

While Keith hasn't really set foot inside Desmodus Mori before, the bar is meant to cater towards vampires and if only for a little bit, he would like to be distracted. He approaches the bar, trying not to make eye contact with anyone, but as luck would have it there's a familiar face present anyway. He sighs internally.]

That drink any good?

[judgementor]

[It isn't his favourite place to be, but he told Steak that he wouldn't keep feeding off him and he means to keep that promise, even if it means walking in here whenever he feels the urge to and just... dealing with it.

He doesn't acknowledge tha someone has joined him until he's spoken to, at which point he slides his attention sideways and then returns it to the glass, before he finishes the small measure he has left and sets it down.]

Utterly vile. [Red Wine replies dryly.] But it does its job. I don't come here to enjoy myself.

[marmoron]

yeah, well.

[ Keith grabs the seat next to Red Wine and plonks himsle down, elbows resting on the bar. ]

What happened? Did you get into a fight with the person you normally feed from?

[ He doesn't even bother reading the drink list just sort of jabs a finger at one of the listed options to place an order with the bartender. A pause, then a sidelook back at Red Wine.]

You want another?

[judgementor]

I prefer not to drink from anyone if I can help it.

[The times he has have, aside from once, been violent and unpleasant and against his own will (let alone the will of the person he was targeting), and besides... Steak has enough of his own problems. He doesn't need to be burdened with Red Wine's as well.

He looks at Keith when the offer is made, and then to the glass in front of him. Not an enticing concoction. Something to soothe an itch and nothing more. Moments drag out as he considers, then he puffs out a soft sigh and turns his attention to the other drinks on offer.]

Very well. But something more palatable.

[The list is quickly scanned and he makes a choice, and while he waits he glances sideways at the young man again.]

I didn't expect you'd look to me for company.

[marmoron]

[ Considering the turn his relationship with Allura has taken between being bonded and feeding, he wonders if staying clear from the get go would have been the saner choice all around, but hindsight is 20/20. Repressing a sigh, he straightens up and folds his arms while waiting for their order. ]

Sometimes it's easier to be around people who don't care.

[ Phrased like a true diplomat. He huffs wryly. ]

Did you almost kill someone while feeding?

[judgementor]

... No.

[He almost doesn't answer, but at the last moment of decision there's a drop in his shoulders and he looks down at his hands, clasping them together on the bar. He frowns.]

But I could have, and he might have let me do it.

[Steak's sword swinging for him is still a vivid memory, but so is the hesitation, the way he hadn't fought when he was caught.]

I won't take the risk.

post-that entire mess

[loverboi]

[ the morning after lance brought keith home is odd. lance wakes up believing that all of that was a dream, that he didn't have to face the anxiety and fear that came with having a gun pointed in his direction. he's absolutely exhausted after last night and would sleep in more if he weren't immediately anxious again after waking up.

he should check on keith, though. after all, the guy died and came back to life to...that. lance still doesn't know what happened and he'd like to get the full picture. he wants answers.

around 11am, keith will get a knock on his door. ]

Keith? It's me.

Re: post-that entire mess

[marmoron]

[ The night passes sluggishly like it'd all been caused by mass delirium. Perhaps being out of it had turned out to be more self protective than anything else -- this way Keith doesn't spend much of the night replaying the last twenty-four hours of his life so much as just staring blankly at the shadows cast by the light of the Sisters on his ceiling.

Clarity is slow to return, but it does, gradually, and with it comes this horrible emptiness in his chest that threatens to swallow him whole, echoing the way the world seemed to end the day he learned that his dad wouldn't be coming home. Or the phrase "the Kerberos mission failed due to pilot error" became a tangible reality.

He doesn't quite remember getting up to close the curtains as the sky starts to brighten up, nor does he really remember falling asleep. But he does startle at the knocking, head aching as he sits up. Shit, he doesn't actually feel much better. ]

Hey.

[ .. he doesn't sound great, either for that matter. All that yelling from yesterday night from getting shot's made his throat raw. Keith coughs, getting to his feet, but he hesitates before opening the door.

Does Lance really want to be dealing with him right now after the nightmare he got put through yesterday?

Stupid. He shouldn't be doubting his best friend. And yet? His hand stays on the door knob, fingers gripping it just a little too tightly. ]

Are you okay?

[loverboi]

Oh, yeah, I'm fine.

[ he doesn't sound fine, but he can put aside his...newfound trauma...for now. for keith. he needs support more than lance does. and honestly, talking to keith -- should this go well -- will help him, too.

keith really doesn't sound all that great. good thing lance has more healing potions with him in his room, though he doesn't know how much it'll help. he'll make the offer if keith needs it, though. he stands outside, grimacing slightly over the door standing between them. ]

Think I can come in for a bit?