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

[tempredmental]

Who: Keith, OPEN
What: Catch-all for March... includes event prompts, siren mini-plot, TDM prompts
When: Mostly the second half of March, but also open to early early March, like the first few days
Where: Around Trench, Jumanji jungle, Catacombs, Moss King's Summer House

Content Warnings: Will note in tags

• Siren's Call
• Last Chance for the Carnival
• Jumanji
• Catacombs
• Moss King's Summer Home

Feel free to make your own top level for a wild card. Hit me up on Plurk at sailorgundam06 or on Discord at SailorGundam06#2608 if you want to chat. I also have a plotting comment here or you can PM this journal!

Comments

[tempredmental]

[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?

[azurestar]

[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.]

[tempredmental]

[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.]

[azurestar]

[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.]

[tempredmental]

[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?

[azurestar]

[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?

[tempredmental]

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.]

[azurestar]

[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.

[tempredmental]

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.]

[azurestar]

[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.]

[tempredmental]

[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.]

[azurestar]

[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.]

[tempredmental]

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.]

[azurestar]

…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.

[tempredmental]

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...]

[azurestar]

[Lance bristles when Keith states the obvious. And also his fear spikes enough to have him go full flare and set another tree on fire nearby. His glaceon immediately starts firing ice all over the fire as well.

Lance has to take a second to try and calm down, breathing fast and scared and looking like he wants to run full tilt away, eyes white. What if it draws him here? He wouldn't again, would he? Fuck, he can't think, his auditory hallucinations rising. He closes his eyes tight and places his hands over his ears, trying to do breathing exercises. And talking to himself under his breath.]

S-stop it. You killed him. Don't- don't make it worse.

[tempredmental]

Lance! [Shit... this was bad.] Lance, focus. I didn't kill anyone. What are you talking about?

[azurestar]

[He is focusing! Just give him a second to breathe a little and shake his head in response. Can't answer right now, Keith. Trying to ground himself. He grips the tree branch and focuses on the way it feels under his hands and picks a leaf that hasn't caught fire to study and describe to himself.]

Green, used for- for… photosynthesis. Smooth… [The glow starts to die and the glaceon takes care of the flames and Lance is clinging to the branch looking like he wants to run still, and like his stability is very fragile, but it's there. He answers keith.] I-I'm fine. Just… memories.

[tempredmental]

[Keith almost shouted at him for looking at a leaf and talking about it being green, when that seemed to settle something. He noticed the dimming glow and just breathed a sigh of relief.]

Memories... right. Okay.

[Right. Memories.]

Come on. We should try to keep moving. You okay enough?

[Keith didn't mean to sound brusque in the moment after something like that, but, well, he was still not in a great place mentally either. Different reasons, but the danger of the situation really had him on edge, and he just wanted to find that damn board and get out.]

[azurestar]

[He swallows thickly, still not great, but less of a hazard than he was. Then turns concerned eyes to Keith.]

Dude, I could… run a marathon if it got us out of here faster. What about you? H-how's your poke-cat?

[His voice is hoarse and on the unsteady side, but he's in the present moment and that's a win. And he's in the present moment enough to pick up on Keith feeling really on edge, and now that's his focus.]

[tempredmental]

[Okay, yeah. Keith caught that change in Lance's voice. Keep moving, then. He nodded.]

I think it'll be okay. Probably just needs some rest.

[As if to support that, the Litten had dozed off in the crook of Keith's arm.]

[azurestar]

[Well that is admittedly really cute. Also, now he's wondering if they can really take the tree jumping route if the cat is gonna sleep like that. He lets out a breath and starts to climb back down.]

Alright. Guess we're sticking to the ground, huh.

[tempredmental]

Wait.

[Keith had an idea. He still had Lance's jacket since his own had been too damp to dry the animal off with, so... He worked quickly, but he managed to tie the sleeves in a way to turn it into a sling of sorts, tucking the Litten into it like a pack.

It made a tiny noise of protest, but huddled close to him, as Keith was also working at keeping his own body temperature up for the cat's sake.

Just... staying in the trees did seem kind of safer right now...]

That should work.

[azurestar]

[Lance stopped his descent and got back onto the tree branch as he watches Keith make a little pouch for the Litten using his jacket. Oh, well that was really cute and actually might work. The glaceon hops back over to his shoulder and tilts her head as she watches the process as well.]

…Well okay then… need a hand up?

[tempredmental]

Sure.

[Keith climbed up to meet Lance at his level in the tree.]

Alright... let's go.

[And off they went to look for the board.]