deercountry | OPEN CATCH-ALL for the rest of March (totally not late)

[The sound of the water made it hard to hear anything else, but Keith was pretty sure he'd just heard his own name. The cute panther ears twisted around as he tried to figure out where it came from.

It had sounded like-]

Lance?

[The ears perked forward when he spotted the other... huh... also a catboy... Well, then. Great. Carefully trying not to slip off the wet rock he was currently stranded on, Keith turned to fully face Lance now.]

Throw me a vine or something, will you? [He'd worry about finding the stupid board game later. He needed to get to solid ground that wasn't about to wash away under him first.]

[Maybe them both being cats is a coincidence or maybe it's some kind of sign, but Lance is gonna choose not to think about it. His tail swishes as he assesses the situation Keith's in. Then he looks down at the glaceon near him.]

Hey, you got that ice beam move?

[She cries in a way that he thinks is affirmative and then he turns back to Keith.] Got something better than a vine!

[And a second later, the glaceon lets loose a beam of ice into the water leading from Keith's rock to where Lance and the ice pokemon stand.]

[Okay... that was kind of cool. But, as Keith stared at it for a moment, part of him had to wonder how safe it was going to be to cross an ice bridge over rushing water in a jungle.]

Uhh...

[Especially when his own hands weren't exactly going to be free to hold on with. He took a steadying breath and carefully stood, scooping something up in his arms as he did, and gingerly made a few steps to turn and face the bridge.

In his arms, he was holding what looked like a half-drowned black and red cat. It didn't look good, the water clearly having been bad for it.

He took a few careful steps towards the 'bridge', and then slooowly made his way on to it. It was killing him internally to have to move that slow, but he didn't want to slip and fall back in, especially when the little cat's life apparently depended on staying out of that water.]

[Lance watches closely as Keith seems to carefully cradle something in his arms and then slowly set out on the ice bridge. He squints at the little black and red thing in his arms and after a second identifies it as a half drowned animal.

God dammit, Keith. Why do you have to do stuff that reminds him why he developed feelings for your dumb ass. Not to mention how much more precarious this just became. He looks down at the glaceon beside him, she has a worried look as she watches the slow walk across the bridge she created.

Lance looks up and around at the trees for vines like Keith asked for initially, just as a precaution. Then he parkours his way up to a branch above him to grab a vine and another then starts fashioning a lasso with them.]

Back-up plan! [He explains. He can throw it now if Keith wants it, or he can toss it if he falls.]

[The noise of Lance climbing a nearby tree got Keith's ears to twitch again, and he looked up to see what was going on. Oh... yeah. Granted, only using the vine to drag himself through the water likely wouldn't have made things much better for the little creature in his arms, but combined with the ice bridge? Yeah. He could do that.

Also, with a little focus, he could use his own ice powers to fortify the bridge as well. Keith nodded.]

Throw it over. I'll loop it around now... just in case.

[The little cat creature made a weak noise, and Keith looked back down at it before giving it a soft pet, mumbling softly to it about getting dried off soon.]

[Lance nods and throws the vine over as requested. He sure hopes that Keith can keep his balance while tying a rope around himself, but he's seen him do some ridiculous stuff rather successfully... and unsuccessfully.

The weak sound fromt he cat creature has the Glaceon at Lance's side making a worried little cry and hopping from side to side anxiously as she watches.]

Hey, it'll be fine. Keith's got this.

[Keith grunted as he reached and managed to snag the vine as it got close enough. He crouched down on the rock, using the lower center of gravity that made to his advantage for the moment, and quickly put the loop over his head. Then, he worked one arm through, switched the little cat to that arm, then put his other arm through before pulling the loop taught around his waist.

He inched forward and placed his free hand on the edge of the ice bridge and closed his eyes for a moment. It grew slightly, getting fortified against the water that was threatening to melt and wash it away. That would help. Thankfully, the way the bridge formed gave it a bit of texture, but the spray from the raging river did make it a bit slippery anyway. Keith put both arms around the small creature now and attempted to stay low as he carefully started to work his way across.

The added benefit of being a catboy right now? A tail... for balance... Keith didn't even realize it, but the tail swayed and moved, helping to keep him upright.]

[Lance finds himself flushing slightly as he watches Keith make the perilous trek with a swishing tail. Of course his own swishes without his knowledge in time with his mood, ears tilted back in a tense focus. He looks ready to pounce into action to help if something goes wrong.]

If you fall I'm never gonna let you forget it, mullet!

[Okay, heckling someone while they're trying to focus to release his own tension and embarrassment was not well thought out, but sometimes his mouth moves before his brain. And when was the last time he used the term 'mullet'…?]

[Keith froze for a second, giving a frustrated growl in response.]

Then shut up and let me do this!

[Great. He was trying to focus and Lance was going to just heckle him the whole time? That was perfect. It was great for his concentration. Idiot. He closed his eyes for a second and then tried to get his head back in the moment to keep moving.]

[He has to literally bite the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from snarking more. Instead, he raises his hands and rolls his eyes in a silent 'jeeze fine.' It's a gesture meant more for his own emotional needs than sending Keith a message.

Then he goes back to watching closely, his hand going to the head of the Glaceon briefly to tell her to be ready to do… something. He's not sure what, he just knows that his powers are useless in this situation.]

[Thankfully, with his head in the game, and even with the cat-like changes, Keith managed to actually get himself over the ice bridge with very little incident. It helped to already have a pretty high natural agility. He immediately dropped to his knees once he was on solid ground, gingerly placing the cat-like creature in his arms on the ground and then quickly unwrapped the vine from around his waist to toss it aside. Then, he checked the creature again.

They were both completely waterlogged. Keith looked back over his shoulder and up at Lance.]

Do you have anything I can dry him off with?

[Lance usually wears layers these days. Comes with the territory of having blood powers that are skin to skin touch activated. So it's not a problem for him to take off his jacket and hand it to Keith. He has quarter length sleeves on and gloves, but it is what it is. There's unique scarring visible on his forearms, but he pretty immediately crosses his arms in a way that makes most of it hard to see.]

Can you, uh, use your powers at all to make a fire for him or something?

[He'd do it himself, but his aren't working right here, not to mention his tend to be radioactive if he's not careful. Last thing he wants to do is make it sick.]

[Honestly, Keith hadn't asked about anyone's new scars since he'd arrived. He figured they'd tell him when they'd tell him. Besides, he wasn't really in a place to talk about it. It's not like he didn't have any of his own, right? But he took the jacket and gently wrapped it around the little feline.]

Not when I'm soaking wet.

[He hadn't figured out how to counter water, yet. At least, not without freezing it first... which was an option, he supposed.

Once he was sure the jacket was wrapped securely, he shifted back away somewhat so he wouldn't accidentally freeze the cat, too, and closed his eyes. The water on him began to freeze, and he flaked it off like chunks of frost. He looked surprised as he did it.]

I didn't think that'd work. [He carefully lit a flame in his hand and held it close for warmth, careful to avoid setting Lance's jacket on fire.]

[And he knows Keith has gotten a glimpse or two before, he doesn't expect him to say anything, his urge to hide them is purely his own complex feelings about them. How they look, what they symbolize about the parts of himself he has come to hate more…

He watches as Keith uses his jacket to wrap the little cat thing up and then frowns at that limitation. The fire Keith's made has been pretty searing hot… he thinks, it's not like he feels it like a normal person. The fact that being wet deters that makes some sense, but he wonders if perhaps they can train and overcome that barrier. A thought for another time, and it looks like Keith has come up with an idea.

His brows go up when Keith figures out the work-around with ice. Huh, pretty innovative. He hates that he gets surges of painful flutters whenever Keith continues to surprise and impress him. Despite that and because of it, his voice comes out tight and a little agitated. But if Keith were to look at him, he'd see his cheeks are slightly flushed.] Not what I woulda tried, but if it works it works.

[He crouches down nearby to watch the fire held near the little cat and then looks around to see if maybe it might be a good idea to get some wood and build a proper one. But everything looks so wet, and he keeps seeing shadows move in the trees that distract him. That's all in his head… the glaceon doesn't seem to be reacting… or is she? Shit, he hates it here.]

[For now, that bit of fire was helping, and getting the black and red creature dry. At first, Keith held back on the flame, both out of respect for Lance's jacket, and out of concern for burning the cat, but the cat started to respond by wiggling a bit loose and moving closer. Having just seen Lance's new little creature friend create an ice bridge, Keith loosened the jacket more to pull it away a bit and turned up the heat on his flame. The creature didn't exactly move to put itself in the flame, but definitely got closer.]

Oookay... [Keith also looked around, debating if building a fire was a good idea, but also noticed that the flooded and rushing river had kind of soaked everything nearby with some of the spray.] Any idea on how to get out of here? [He looked back at Lance.] We have to find that stupid board game, right?

[Well that's pretty cute. It likes the fire like a little cat moth or something. Cat moth… his mind must be pretty strained and exhausted. He runs a hand through his hair as the crisis over the creature is seeming to pass as it gets warmed up and energized by Keith's flame.

The next logical step is escape, huh. And he dropped his own board somewhere, but he has been able to keep playing on someone else's before. Keith's might be nearby… hopefully. He really really wants to get out of here.]

Y-yeah. D'you know where yours is?

Uh... [Keith looked back at the flooded river for a moment, and then took a deep breath, letting it out in a huff of a sigh.] Hopefully somewhere downstream?

[He cringed a bit. The kitten seemed to be drying off pretty quickly now, since raising its temperature seemed to help that, so he picked it up carefully, and slung Lance's now somewhat damp jacket over his own shoulder before standing. He kind of felt bad giving it back wet...]

Come on... we're going to have to find one, whether it's mine or yours or someone else's. [He was already assuming that, because Lance had asked about his, that the Blue Paladin had already lost his own.]

[Lance heaves a breath and nods. Well, they have somewhat of a lead on it at least.]

Better get going, then.

[He says with a roughness to his voice as he stands up. He looks down at the little black and red cat as it seems to be much better. But its legs are still tiny. He gestures to the glaceon and it leaps up onto his shoulders for a ride. His own tail swishes and his cat ears twitch a bit.]

Looks like your Pokemon's doing better.

Pokémon? [Keith looked confused for a second, but then realized what that was about.] Oh... is that what this is? Wait. I those those were just... they're real?

[Litten tucked himself into the crook of Keith's arm, making a little 'ten' kind of noise.]

[Lance snorts in some amusement despite himself and how everything sucks right now.]

Is now a bad time to point out that there's people who'd ask that same thing about us and our lions?

[Basically, yes? And no. Real and reality is relative in his experience so far. He tries not to think too hard about it.]

[Keith considered that for a moment, and, honestly, if he hadn't experienced it himself, he'd probably wonder if everything about him was real, too.]

Alright, fine. [He shook his head.] Let's just... find that boardgame and get out of here.

[He turned, moving to start stalking through the jungle. He decided to follow the direction of the water flow in case the board he'd been using washed up downstream.]

[Lance huffs a breath and reaches down to give the glaceon a path up to his shoulders.]

Just 'fine'? You're taking the fact that some people watched us on TV in their worlds pretty well.

[His tail swishes and his ears flick, betraying some of his amusement. And his nerves about where they are.]

Shiro told me that some of his favorite people from Star Wars are here. I supposed it's possible that we could exist as TV characters in someone else's world, too.

[He shrugged. Yeah. It was a weird thing to think about, but they also needed to get out of death jungle here, so he was going to focus on that first, and freak out about being a fictional TV character later.]

…Well alright, then.

[Lance shrugs, but there's a lot of tension all through his body. Part of him had zeroed in on the topic to distract himself. But also he does want to get the fuck out of here asap. He swallows and looks around at the trees with simmering unease, panic. His ears go back against his head and his tail flicks in agitation. Then he lets out a shuddered breath and heads to a tree to leap up into it like a cat… because that's what he half is right now.]

Come on, we've gotta keep moving.

[His voice is a bit unsteady. He was in a tree when- nope, if he keeps moving, it'll be fine… it'll be fine. The tree catches fire under his hands. Oops.] Agh, dammit.

Hey, careful! Fires are gonna attract attention!

[Yeah, Keith was kind of just... not noticing the emotional component to Lance's powers going haywire right now due to his own anxiety about this place. He swished his tail in frustration, finding it hard to keep up in the tree with the kitten creature tucked in one arm. He did scramble up as best he could, though, and tried to freeze the tree to stop the burning...]

OPEN CATCH-ALL for the rest of March (totally not late)

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