un: keith || video followed by voice

[fighterpaladin]

... What the Hell?

[Keith’s image comes on screen before it disappears once he realizes the device on his arm also has a video feed. Instead, he makes sure the thing transmits only his voice which sounds anything but happy right now.]

What--... What is this? What happened? [This time.] Is anyone getting this?...

[Two seconds.]

Guys...?

[A second and a half.]

C’mon! Lance? Pidge?...

[A second.]

Hunk? Princess?

[Half a second.]

Come in!

Comments

[ryuji]

[A lot smarter people have been scouring the library for reference points as to what the hell happened that might've led to this place coming into existence. The only thing Ryuji knows is that this place, this entire hunk of metal and weird science-y crap, is at least 500 years past his point in time. And it doesn't feel like this is the natural progression of his own world, either.]

Huh? What did you say? Something about virtual reality? Man, we got one of those, don't play around with that shit. You get locked into the world until you can beat the level.

[Or did they fix that? Ryuji has no clue, he tried it once and had to become a level one wizard just to kill, like, a million boars to get the hell out of the thing.]

Dunno. Nobody does. One minute we were back in our home worlds and the next we got sucked up into this mess. It was Christmas Eve for me one second, and the next, I was in some sorta closet trying to get out. Think it's been about... like, 5 months since everyone woke up here.

[fighterpaladin]

Y-Yeah. [No. But there's no need to bring about confusion (or eventual panic) when he is only suspicious of something, not certain. Besides... If this guy is human, and he is from the past, there's a very high chance he wouldn't even know or understand what an 'alternate reality' is or entails. Hell, Keith isn't even sure if humans from his time would fully grasp it. ... And what it means to be stuck in it, if that's what's happening here.

It's one Hell of a big problem, though. Because if that's the case, he needs to get all of these people out of here, too. ... And possibly return them to their own realities. ....... Somehow. Where's Pidge when you need her?] Virtual reality is, uh, cool. Yeah. [... Did that even make sense with what they were talking about before? He shifts, awkwardly, where he's standing. Not that the other guy can see.

Thankfully, what Ryuji says next is enough to distract him (the rest just supporting his theory of what happened).] ... Five months?

[ryuji]

[Oddly enough, he's traveled across realities in a weird sort of way, and he's come to accept that not everyone is from the same world. So, alternate dimensions, timelines, whatever. Ryuji's more interested in knowing how similar earths were different. Like, for example, in his Japan, Dr. Pepper was known as Dr. Salt. It's the little things you have to cling to when you're stuck in survival mode, apparently.]

Yeah, months. Your hearing okay?

[It's a legitimate question, he has no idea how Keith woke up or where, but there's a good possibility that he's still coming to.]

Anyway, we're tryin' to figure more shit out about this place, but it hasn't been super easy. All the logs of everything look like they were wiped before we woke up. Kinda like someone doesn't want us findin' out about what happened to bring us here to begin with.

[You're not easily swayed by paranoia or conspiracy theories, right, Keith?]

[fighterpaladin]

[Yeah. Alternate realities can seriously be something. Of course, he has no way of knowing that Ryuji is that aware of them.

The question makes him frown, though, something beginning to boil inside.]

Yeah, my hearing is fine. [It's the idea of having been stuck here for five months that isn't.] But how have you been here for five months? [That's a very long time.] Is there-- [But then Ryuji is telling him what they have been trying to do and, after that, there's definitely something boiling inside.]

What does it matter, what happened to bring us here?! [So what if the logs were wiped? What if whoever brought them here doesn't want them finding out what happened?] You are telling me that you guys have been here for five months trying to find out what happened instead of how to get the Hell out?! [Wait until he finds out that it's been five months and no one managed to pry those ships open yet. He'd be all for finding more info, if they had come here willingly. Which, was not the case.

So, to answer your question, no, he really isn't. Space-madness aside and all that. Ahem.]

[ryuji]

[Yeah, he recognizes the sound of anger all too fucking well, as he's insanely prone to it himself, letting his temperament guide him in any given direction on a good day, and completely obliterating him on a bad one. And he doesn't want to come off jaded or insincere, but being here for that span of time has pretty much taught him a lot of things, having gone through the same motions himself. He's chilled out a little bit since then, all things considered.]

Yeah. That's pretty much it. We can't really get out. And some of us, like, don't even have a place to go back home to. It's like, 500 years in the future or something like that from where I'm from, so even if I did, Tokyo probably wouldn't be the same. Shit, if there even is a Tokyo anymore.

[He doesn't get the high science that went behind the events leading to the construction of the reverie station, but a lot smarter than him people have begun investigating it. Looks like the world was in crisis and a lot of bad shit was going down.

Does he really want to shatter Keith's hopes this early?

Probably better to tell him now than for him to find out himself, going down in an angry blaze of glory over the whole thing.]

Dude, what I'm about to tell you, don't freak out about it. But everyone that's been brought here is like. We're stuck, but not just our bodies? It's kinda like our souls are bein' tethered to the station itself. If you die, you just wake up like nothing happened.

So, yeah. There's no way out.