![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Victory Road IC Inbox
Hey, it's Pidge. Can't answer right now-- Rover quit it! --so leave a message and I'll get back to you when I can.
Rover, what did I say--?!?!
Hey, it's Pidge. Can't answer right now-- Rover quit it! --so leave a message and I'll get back to you when I can.
Rover, what did I say--?!?!
[The growing tension in her body language is obvious; Keith can tell he's making her viscerally uncomfortable, but he's never been the best with managing his temper and though he'd like to think he has a better handle on it, this is one of those times it's physically difficult to bring himself back in line.
It's not Pidge's fault. He knows, but the way he's unfolded his arms and his hands have formed fists at his sides gives off a different impression. He takes several deep breaths, though his posture remains wound up and taut.]
What was his consciousness doing in the Black Lion? Was he trapped in there for a year?!
[Never mind. Just fucking never mind. All of that's irrelevant white noise to him, what matters is--]
So does that mean we have Shiro back with us? Or is he-- [Gone. Forever. No longer the Shiro they started their journey with? His voice catches in his throat, and for the first time his expression cracks into clenched teeth and bitterness.]
It's not Pidge's fault. He knows, but the way he's unfolded his arms and his hands have formed fists at his sides gives off a different impression. He takes several deep breaths, though his posture remains wound up and taut.]
What was his consciousness doing in the Black Lion? Was he trapped in there for a year?!
[Never mind. Just fucking never mind. All of that's irrelevant white noise to him, what matters is--]
So does that mean we have Shiro back with us? Or is he-- [Gone. Forever. No longer the Shiro they started their journey with? His voice catches in his throat, and for the first time his expression cracks into clenched teeth and bitterness.]
Edited 2019-08-14 04:36 (UTC)
| | [Pidge just shakes her head a little.] I told you, I don't know all the specific details. Just what you told us after you spoke with him. But he's not gone. Allura was successfully able to transfer his consciousness into the new body and... Like I said, it's complicated. But he is back with us. For real. [She draws in a quick breath - honestly she's not sure what else to say about Shiro's situation now - then levels a solemn gaze on Keith again.] We didn't tell him any of this. On top of everything we saw when we finally got back to Earth, we just... We decided it would be better for Shiro to just know that ultimately things eventually managed to work out. And that's the truth. |
[Keith takes a deep breath, then another. It does little to quell the desire the yell. Shiro dies, Shiro gets cloned and then more magic fuckery happens to bring Shiro back. That should come as a relief, and it does, but it's a tiny pinprick in a chasm of things that are wrong.]
Alright. [It's not alright, not really. But what else can he say about it?] Fine. I get why you didn't want to tell Shiro. Why didn't you tell me? I thought we were a team! That isn't -- shouldn't be how a team works.
[He unclenches his fists, eyes fixed on Pidge. He realizes he never pushed anyone for answers before, but he didn't think the same people who called themselves his friends would be hiding something of this magnitude from him.]
What else are you guys hiding?!
Alright. [It's not alright, not really. But what else can he say about it?] Fine. I get why you didn't want to tell Shiro. Why didn't you tell me? I thought we were a team! That isn't -- shouldn't be how a team works.
[He unclenches his fists, eyes fixed on Pidge. He realizes he never pushed anyone for answers before, but he didn't think the same people who called themselves his friends would be hiding something of this magnitude from him.]
What else are you guys hiding?!
[The shout makes her flinch a little, averting her gaze for a second. He's right, after all. And honestly she's more than a little ashamed that this was something that they never got around to discussing at length.]
I wasn't sure if you wanted to know, that's all! The last time you were here, you- Shiro said not to tell you about the future. And you never asked, so I didn't say anything!
[Though to be perfectly fair to Keith, Pidge had never really found the opportunity to offer the information to him either. Another thing that she definitely feels some shame about.]
We're not hiding anything, Keith. Not on purpose. Anything else you want to know, you can ask me right now and I'll tell you. Just ask.
I wasn't sure if you wanted to know, that's all! The last time you were here, you- Shiro said not to tell you about the future. And you never asked, so I didn't say anything!
[Though to be perfectly fair to Keith, Pidge had never really found the opportunity to offer the information to him either. Another thing that she definitely feels some shame about.]
We're not hiding anything, Keith. Not on purpose. Anything else you want to know, you can ask me right now and I'll tell you. Just ask.
Wait, Shiro told you....
[Of all the things that PIdge could've said in explanation, that was somehow the last thing he expected to hear. It's also more than a little hurtful. Shiro ... seriously thinks he can't handle the truth, huh. Keith deflates, shoulders slumping a little as he drops eye contact.
He stays quiet for a longer moment this time. Now that the immediate anger is gone, he doesn't know where that leaves him anymore. He bites the inside of his lip, no longer sure how to express anything. But when he looks back up at Pidge, he's.... sorry. He's sorry he yelled at her and is making her uncomfortable, but there's still too much he has to say before that.]
What's Shiro trying to keep me from finding out, Pidge?
[His tone's gone quiet, but a moment later he shakes his head.]
...Never mind, I'll ask him that one myself. [A beat.] ....if Griffin hadn't shown up... were you ever gonna tell me?
[Of all the things that PIdge could've said in explanation, that was somehow the last thing he expected to hear. It's also more than a little hurtful. Shiro ... seriously thinks he can't handle the truth, huh. Keith deflates, shoulders slumping a little as he drops eye contact.
He stays quiet for a longer moment this time. Now that the immediate anger is gone, he doesn't know where that leaves him anymore. He bites the inside of his lip, no longer sure how to express anything. But when he looks back up at Pidge, he's.... sorry. He's sorry he yelled at her and is making her uncomfortable, but there's still too much he has to say before that.]
What's Shiro trying to keep me from finding out, Pidge?
[His tone's gone quiet, but a moment later he shakes his head.]
...Never mind, I'll ask him that one myself. [A beat.] ....if Griffin hadn't shown up... were you ever gonna tell me?
| | [Pidge quickly shakes her head again, determined to nip this misunderstanding in the bud.] It was only because you said you didn't want to know last time you were here. We were just following your own request. [She won't talk about how hard it had been, when he'd come from a time before meeting any of them. It had been confusing, really, trying to figure out how to even interact with someone who didn't want to know how they'd become friends. Somehow they'd all managed. It had become a reflex that she must've held onto ever since. At his next question, though, Pidge has to pause to think for a second.] ...If I knew that you wanted to know, I would've told you. I should've asked if you did, though. The fact that I never even offered it is on me, and I'm sorry about that. |
[At that, Keith scrubs at his forehead, breathing out.]
... to be honest at first I didn't wanna know. I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around the whole... being here before and not remembering a damn thing about it, y'know? Like what time spent here even means. What we're even doing here. Then you guys were all from the future and had all these memories I don't have and...
[He swallows, looking away.]
And you guys have been here for a long time. Longer than I've even known you back in our world. I didn't know how to act around any of you. Maybe I still don't. [Read: he definitely doesn't.] And it's like Lance keeps saying [A beat.] ...or used to keep saying, I don't even know what tense I should be using anymore.... I'm the lone wolf.
[A brief lapse into silence and then:]
I don't know where I'm going with that. Point is, I asked Shiro and he told me nothing serious happens so I figured I could ask when I'd figured out how I even fit in here. That's the reason I didn't ask for details. But it didn't even cross my mind that you guys had left Shiro out of this or that you'd hide something this big.
[He breathes out heavily. looking back up at Pidge to finally look her in the eye again.]
Look. I get why you didn't want to tell me right away. Not like there's anything I can do to stop any of this from happening when I get back. I know I won't remember. [And oh how bitter he sounds about that.] And I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I apparently didn't give a rat's ass about you guys before. But we're a team now, right? Friends, supposedly? I want to know.
... to be honest at first I didn't wanna know. I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around the whole... being here before and not remembering a damn thing about it, y'know? Like what time spent here even means. What we're even doing here. Then you guys were all from the future and had all these memories I don't have and...
[He swallows, looking away.]
And you guys have been here for a long time. Longer than I've even known you back in our world. I didn't know how to act around any of you. Maybe I still don't. [Read: he definitely doesn't.] And it's like Lance keeps saying [A beat.] ...or used to keep saying, I don't even know what tense I should be using anymore.... I'm the lone wolf.
[A brief lapse into silence and then:]
I don't know where I'm going with that. Point is, I asked Shiro and he told me nothing serious happens so I figured I could ask when I'd figured out how I even fit in here. That's the reason I didn't ask for details. But it didn't even cross my mind that you guys had left Shiro out of this or that you'd hide something this big.
[He breathes out heavily. looking back up at Pidge to finally look her in the eye again.]
Look. I get why you didn't want to tell me right away. Not like there's anything I can do to stop any of this from happening when I get back. I know I won't remember. [And oh how bitter he sounds about that.] And I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I apparently didn't give a rat's ass about you guys before. But we're a team now, right? Friends, supposedly? I want to know.
[For some people it is a bad thing. Some people don't have the patience or kindness to deal with Sasha and her curiosity. Some people just would rather not bother with someone who didn't know about the simple existences of indoor plumbing and electricity. Luckily it seems Pidge has nothing but time to waste.]
What kind of needs?
[Sasha follows Pidge around the kitchen wit her eyes, not really wanting this conversation to end anytime soon. It's nice. She hasn't really talked this much to someone in a while. She's missed it.]
Like a smoke signal? [That's the only signal Sasha's familiar with.]
What kind of needs?
[Sasha follows Pidge around the kitchen wit her eyes, not really wanting this conversation to end anytime soon. It's nice. She hasn't really talked this much to someone in a while. She's missed it.]
Like a smoke signal? [That's the only signal Sasha's familiar with.]
[Pidge shrugs as she sets the chair into position, making sure it's not going to wobble under her once she starts to climb on top of it.]
Depends. Sometimes I just need to build a bigger version, or a more powerful one, or one that can just do something that regular ones can't.
[And then she's hefted herself up onto the chair, reaching for the higher cabinets of the pantry and pulling the doors open to search for wherever Hunk has stashed his latest batch of cookies.]
Mm.. Not quite like that... Do you know what a radio is?
Depends. Sometimes I just need to build a bigger version, or a more powerful one, or one that can just do something that regular ones can't.
[And then she's hefted herself up onto the chair, reaching for the higher cabinets of the pantry and pulling the doors open to search for wherever Hunk has stashed his latest batch of cookies.]
Mm.. Not quite like that... Do you know what a radio is?
| | [Pidge watches him for a moment, her expression shifting into something more sympathetic. Because she does understand. It's just as confusing being from the future, and trying to skirt around subjects that the other hasn't experienced yet. If she didn't still have Rover napping in her lap, she'd be moving in for a hug or something; that's what Hunk would do and it's almost always helpful.] We are a team. And we're definitely friends. So I'm telling you now, I don't mind if you need to stop me in the middle of a sentence to clarify something, or if there's something you don't wanna hear. [She shifts slightly, looking down at where her fingers have started playing idly with a stray feather on Rover's head.] I'm... I'm not great at the social stuff either. You have to tell me if I've done something wrong or I won't get it. But I'll try harder from now on, too. [Then she goes quiet for a moment, chewing on the inside of her cheek and smoothing that feather back down.] ..What did Griffin tell you? |
That thing that plays music inside the Pokegear.
[She nods because that's as much as she knows about the concept of radios. Never heard or seen one before the Mom lady shoved the 'gear in her hand.]
It's not a TV, though, right?
[As for those cookies, Sasha gets the idea that Pidge is looking for them and points to another cabinet on the other side of the kitchen. She may or may not have samples a few. Or a lot of them.]
[She nods because that's as much as she knows about the concept of radios. Never heard or seen one before the Mom lady shoved the 'gear in her hand.]
It's not a TV, though, right?
[As for those cookies, Sasha gets the idea that Pidge is looking for them and points to another cabinet on the other side of the kitchen. She may or may not have samples a few. Or a lot of them.]
| | [Pidge glances back in time to see where Sasha's pointing, then sighs and goes about the business of resetting herself. Close the cabinet. Climb down from the chair. Take everything to the indicated Correct Cabinet.] It's not, but it works similarly. A TV picks up pictures and audio in the same way a radio does. They're all transmitted to TVs and radios by- [What's the easiest way to put this.] -by something called a "signal." If they can't find that signal, then nothing comes out of it but static. [And now that Pidge has set herself up where the cookies should be, she's giving that search another go.] |
[It's a relief to hear Pidge affirm their friendship, especially after Lance's weird meltdown, though his own expression softens only a little. His interactions with Griffin were tense, even before they became Garrison cadets, but their particular dynamic had never come up with the paladins before and naively, Keith had thought that it might never come up. He leans against the wall, arms folded.]
He said that Sendak attacked Earth. That the Garrison may be one of the last strongholds on Earth.
[He frowns.]
That they waited for Voltron for three years and that we never came. [A beat.] Accused me and the rest of the team of not caring enough to bother saving our home planet. I already know that's not true, even without knowing what actually happened.
But why did it take three years....?
He said that Sendak attacked Earth. That the Garrison may be one of the last strongholds on Earth.
[He frowns.]
That they waited for Voltron for three years and that we never came. [A beat.] Accused me and the rest of the team of not caring enough to bother saving our home planet. I already know that's not true, even without knowing what actually happened.
But why did it take three years....?
[His answer has her nodding slowly. The usual sorts of things, then. It must've been hard to hear from Griffin, though; she knows there was some kind of history between him and Keith, though she never really heard the whole story. But hey, the cat's out of the bag now, and Pidge isn't about to go back on her promise to talk honestly about anything Keith wants to know.]
He made the same accusations at me, too. [Which makes her frown a little, her expression tinged with annoyance.]
It wasn't on purpose. We'd been fighting Lotor, right where the Galra homeworld used to be. Eons away from Earth. The fight got pretty crazy. Lotor kept popping in and out of the quintessence field, and we had to follow him into it and trap him there to stop him... And over the course of things we realized that a ton of holes had essentially been torn into the very fabric of reality. In order to fix it, we had to create a massive explosion... using the Castle of Lions.
[She pauses for a moment there, laying her hand gently over the top of Rover's head with another small, thoughtful frown. It's a strange feeling that tugs at her; that battle had simultaneously happened a long time ago and not. The timeline obviously doesn't add up, since she'd gone back and forth between the Pokémon World and home between the events she's explaining. Logically she knows that's just the way things are around here, but it still feels weird.
And talking about what had happened to the castle... Somehow she still feels that loss pretty acutely. It had been home for such a long time, and they'd rushed to get everything they called their own onto the lions that... Well, there hadn't exactly been time to say goodbye to it.]
What we did repaired the damage, but we knew something was wrong. We couldn't get in touch with anyone for some reason, but we knew to head back to Earth, hopinh that my dad had made progress on fusing Altean technology with ours. The lions needed to recharge so it was kind of slow going, but we did our best to hurry, and then... [She lets out a soft, tired sigh.] We found out that we'd all been missing for three years.
The explosion... It had to be the equivalent force of a black hole in order to fix the holes in the quintessence field. Which apparently must have been enough to throw us into the future in the blink of an eye. We-- We had no idea until Zethrid and Ezor caught us and asked about Lotor. So by the time we were able to reach Earth... [Pidge trails off there, her gaze having dropped toward the floor as she shakes her head again.] We came as fast as we could. As soon as we heard. It just... wasn't enough.
He made the same accusations at me, too. [Which makes her frown a little, her expression tinged with annoyance.]
It wasn't on purpose. We'd been fighting Lotor, right where the Galra homeworld used to be. Eons away from Earth. The fight got pretty crazy. Lotor kept popping in and out of the quintessence field, and we had to follow him into it and trap him there to stop him... And over the course of things we realized that a ton of holes had essentially been torn into the very fabric of reality. In order to fix it, we had to create a massive explosion... using the Castle of Lions.
[She pauses for a moment there, laying her hand gently over the top of Rover's head with another small, thoughtful frown. It's a strange feeling that tugs at her; that battle had simultaneously happened a long time ago and not. The timeline obviously doesn't add up, since she'd gone back and forth between the Pokémon World and home between the events she's explaining. Logically she knows that's just the way things are around here, but it still feels weird.
And talking about what had happened to the castle... Somehow she still feels that loss pretty acutely. It had been home for such a long time, and they'd rushed to get everything they called their own onto the lions that... Well, there hadn't exactly been time to say goodbye to it.]
What we did repaired the damage, but we knew something was wrong. We couldn't get in touch with anyone for some reason, but we knew to head back to Earth, hopinh that my dad had made progress on fusing Altean technology with ours. The lions needed to recharge so it was kind of slow going, but we did our best to hurry, and then... [She lets out a soft, tired sigh.] We found out that we'd all been missing for three years.
The explosion... It had to be the equivalent force of a black hole in order to fix the holes in the quintessence field. Which apparently must have been enough to throw us into the future in the blink of an eye. We-- We had no idea until Zethrid and Ezor caught us and asked about Lotor. So by the time we were able to reach Earth... [Pidge trails off there, her gaze having dropped toward the floor as she shakes her head again.] We came as fast as we could. As soon as we heard. It just... wasn't enough.
[That... is a lot of information to take in, and as she speaks Keith grabs the nearest chair and takes a seat because he needs to process this sitting down. It's difficult to wrap his head around a lot of this, though he can't deny that it sounds exactly like the kind of bullshit they'd run into in outer space.]
Okay. I thought we were fighting Zarkon. Who the hell is Lotor?
Okay. I thought we were fighting Zarkon. Who the hell is Lotor?
Oh- Right. [Pidge actually looks the tiniest bit embarrassed for a second. She'd clearly forgotten just how far back Keith was coming from.]
Lotor is Zarkon's son. Ironically he did help us beat Zarkon for good and was kind of... on our side for a while. But that ended up not lasting, obviously.
[She makes a face there. Sometimes she still kicks herself for cutting that guy even the slightest bit of slack.]
Lotor is Zarkon's son. Ironically he did help us beat Zarkon for good and was kind of... on our side for a while. But that ended up not lasting, obviously.
[She makes a face there. Sometimes she still kicks herself for cutting that guy even the slightest bit of slack.]
[A blink.]
He has a son?!
[WHO LET THAT GUY BREED!!! What a horrid thought; Keith is just gonna facepalm for a second, then look right back up.]
That's so.... guess we should've seen that coming. Guy's been around for ten thousand years, he can't have just been obsessing over Voltron that entire time.
[Stated mildly, though he's repressing a Whole Body Shudder.]
He has a son?!
[WHO LET THAT GUY BREED!!! What a horrid thought; Keith is just gonna facepalm for a second, then look right back up.]
That's so.... guess we should've seen that coming. Guy's been around for ten thousand years, he can't have just been obsessing over Voltron that entire time.
[Stated mildly, though he's repressing a Whole Body Shudder.]
Edited (woop icon) 2019-09-01 22:01 (UTC)
[Pidge almost wants to laugh at that initial reaction. Because-- Well, it's all too familiar to her, really. She's pretty sure they all had their own mini crises to realizing that Zarkon had an actual family.]
Yeah... It's gross to think about, though. So we try not to.
[She'll give Keith a sympathetic smile, though. Sorry, buddy. The future is a strange place.]
Yeah... It's gross to think about, though. So we try not to.
[She'll give Keith a sympathetic smile, though. Sorry, buddy. The future is a strange place.]
I could not literally have less of one.
Knowing what you're up for just... helps plan things.
Knowing what you're up for just... helps plan things.
Okay then, that's what you'll wear.
Glad we got that settled.
Glad we got that settled.
Page 25 of 45