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countryclub2021-12-20 07:51 pm
reddosmod) wrote in countryclub2021-12-20 07:51 pm
Entry tags:
December 2021 Test Drive Meme
DECEMBER 2021 TDM
SEMI-STANDARD ARRIVAL
CH-CH-CH-CHANGES
BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE
CODING
Another month, another test drive meme! Our test drive memes are open to anyone interested - regardless of whether or not you join our game!
All Test Drive Memes are game canon. Players can choose to keep their TDM threads canon or not. TDM threads can be used for AC and can be used as your writing sample for your application.
Our TDMs serve as a way to build into the actual lore and worldbuilding of Deer Country and we strongly encourage everyone to enjoy and participate! Current players are always welcome to pull prompts from the TDM to reference on the Network or bring into logs as well as tag out to new characters top-leveling on the TDM itself.
Characters will always be able to actively die during TDMs as this is an extremely dangerous world. You can still have this be game canon! Check out how character death in Deer Country works here.
If you have any questions about the TDM, please ask down below!
IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: A cat skidding across a frozen lake.]
[Image Two: A man carving ice sculptures]
Prompt Two
[Image One: A woman laughing as she plays with many tentacles.]
[Image Two: A naked girl in a fetal position under water.]
Prompt Three
[Image One: A cold limp hand in bloodied snow.]
[Image Two: Jack Nicholson slamming an axe into a door in The Shining.]
All Test Drive Memes are game canon. Players can choose to keep their TDM threads canon or not. TDM threads can be used for AC and can be used as your writing sample for your application.
Our TDMs serve as a way to build into the actual lore and worldbuilding of Deer Country and we strongly encourage everyone to enjoy and participate! Current players are always welcome to pull prompts from the TDM to reference on the Network or bring into logs as well as tag out to new characters top-leveling on the TDM itself.
Characters will always be able to actively die during TDMs as this is an extremely dangerous world. You can still have this be game canon! Check out how character death in Deer Country works here.
If you have any questions about the TDM, please ask down below!
Prompt One
[Image One: A cat skidding across a frozen lake.]
[Image Two: A man carving ice sculptures]
Prompt Two
[Image One: A woman laughing as she plays with many tentacles.]
[Image Two: A naked girl in a fetal position under water.]
Prompt Three
[Image One: A cold limp hand in bloodied snow.]
[Image Two: Jack Nicholson slamming an axe into a door in The Shining.]
WHEN: End of December, early January
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: Similar warnings from November's TDM. Drowning, freezing to death, trapped under ice, hypothermia, frost bite.
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: Similar warnings from November's TDM. Drowning, freezing to death, trapped under ice, hypothermia, frost bite.
Arriving in December has most of the same from the November Arrival. One difference is that the beach itself has completely frozen over, making it a slick black ice skating range. And that's exactly how Wakers treat it. You can rent skates and sleds. People have taken to the beach to have fun as well as help Sleepers out. Learn how to ice skate and help your fellow Sleepers! Win-Win!
Tents are filled with furs and warmth. Someone is giving out hot soup and hot chocolate to those just arriving. You can find plenty of hot bread rolls. Local seamstresses have gathered and are giving out thick wool cloaks with unique designs. You can find thick fur ushankas, gloves, and scarves. There are coldblood stone snaps as they call them where two small coldblood stones are hooked together so you can make a snapping noise that generates a small spark of flame that's hard to blow out.
Along the Boardwalk are magnificent ice sculptures of various intricate creatures: humans, animals, monsters, Pthumerians and other things. Some Watchers are in the process of working on new mounds of ice and are willing to teach anyone interested in the art of ice sculptures.
Tents are filled with furs and warmth. Someone is giving out hot soup and hot chocolate to those just arriving. You can find plenty of hot bread rolls. Local seamstresses have gathered and are giving out thick wool cloaks with unique designs. You can find thick fur ushankas, gloves, and scarves. There are coldblood stone snaps as they call them where two small coldblood stones are hooked together so you can make a snapping noise that generates a small spark of flame that's hard to blow out.
Along the Boardwalk are magnificent ice sculptures of various intricate creatures: humans, animals, monsters, Pthumerians and other things. Some Watchers are in the process of working on new mounds of ice and are willing to teach anyone interested in the art of ice sculptures.
WHEN: End of December to mid January
WHERE: The Pthumerian Ocean and the Farther Shores
CONTENT WARNINGS: possible drowning, injury, hypothermia, giant friendly tentacles, confinement in a goo egg, nudity/exhibition, body horror of varying degrees
WHERE: The Pthumerian Ocean and the Farther Shores
CONTENT WARNINGS: possible drowning, injury, hypothermia, giant friendly tentacles, confinement in a goo egg, nudity/exhibition, body horror of varying degrees
A new year is upon us and the winds of change can drive rough and tumultuous waters, now filled with big chunks of ice. Some incoming sleepers will be facing more obstacles of ice, cold and wayward currents that can take them off course and delay their arrival on the shores. But many are in luck as the massive tentacles of a benevolent beast from the deep can be seen rising from the waves on the horizon as it collects as many sleepers as it can who have begun to shift from their squid form before they are safely out of the choppy waters and onto the ice covered beach.
The tentacled behemoth will wrap new sleepers up in a protective, transluscent and spherical fish or squid egg filled with a gooey liquid to help further suspend and cushion them on their journey to shore. However, this protective egg is a toss of the coin in how helpful it can be. Merely by chance, a sleeper may find themselves in either a red or blue tinted egg that they wil likely need help getting out of, and quickly, seeing as the warm goo that is cushioning them doesn't exactly provide air for those who require it.
A Red egg will provide extended magical warmth even when a sleeper exits it into the cold, they will feel as though they are stepping into a heated room and wearing comfortable warm clothes, even if they are naked. Wakers who assist someone getting out of a red egg and who are splashed with the gooey contents will also feel this effect, and if they are clothed they may feel... overheated and overcome with the strong compulsion to get their clothes off.
A Blue egg is not so helpful, if a sleeper finds themselves in this egg, they will start to transform back into their squid form, even if their mind is continuing to reform and remember themselves. They can regress all the way back into a squid or be unfortunate enough to get trapped in a grotesque halfway fusion of squid and their regular form, but either way their mind will still be normal and somehow some will be able to speak. Just like a red egg, this can happen to Wakers who come in contact with the blue egg's goo. This effect can last for an hour or longer depending on player preference.
Characters who attempt to make their way out to sea to make contact with the tentacled monster will never seem to be able to reach it to see what it looks like. The waters will become darker and colder, and more tumultuous the farther they go either by boat or swimming (why you're swimming is beyond literally everyone else, but you do you). Chances of ending up in the freezing water and dying by drowning or freezing to death are extremely high if this attempt is made, and locals will advise against it if asked.
The tentacled behemoth will wrap new sleepers up in a protective, transluscent and spherical fish or squid egg filled with a gooey liquid to help further suspend and cushion them on their journey to shore. However, this protective egg is a toss of the coin in how helpful it can be. Merely by chance, a sleeper may find themselves in either a red or blue tinted egg that they wil likely need help getting out of, and quickly, seeing as the warm goo that is cushioning them doesn't exactly provide air for those who require it.
A Red egg will provide extended magical warmth even when a sleeper exits it into the cold, they will feel as though they are stepping into a heated room and wearing comfortable warm clothes, even if they are naked. Wakers who assist someone getting out of a red egg and who are splashed with the gooey contents will also feel this effect, and if they are clothed they may feel... overheated and overcome with the strong compulsion to get their clothes off.
A Blue egg is not so helpful, if a sleeper finds themselves in this egg, they will start to transform back into their squid form, even if their mind is continuing to reform and remember themselves. They can regress all the way back into a squid or be unfortunate enough to get trapped in a grotesque halfway fusion of squid and their regular form, but either way their mind will still be normal and somehow some will be able to speak. Just like a red egg, this can happen to Wakers who come in contact with the blue egg's goo. This effect can last for an hour or longer depending on player preference.
Characters who attempt to make their way out to sea to make contact with the tentacled monster will never seem to be able to reach it to see what it looks like. The waters will become darker and colder, and more tumultuous the farther they go either by boat or swimming (why you're swimming is beyond literally everyone else, but you do you). Chances of ending up in the freezing water and dying by drowning or freezing to death are extremely high if this attempt is made, and locals will advise against it if asked.
WHEN: Late December to mid January.
WHERE: All over Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Surreal/existential horror, out of body experience, temporary memory loss and fugue, imprisonment, frozen death, blood, possible insanity and violence, monster/creature leech
WHERE: All over Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Surreal/existential horror, out of body experience, temporary memory loss and fugue, imprisonment, frozen death, blood, possible insanity and violence, monster/creature leech
All throughout Trench there's a phenomena of bloody snow piling high in whole districts within minutes and snowing people into their homes or whatever building they happened to be in at the time, even a tent on the boardwalk can be covered. Most of the blood is a stark red, but other blood type colors can be found in large or small swaths here and there. At first it seems like an inconvenience that you can either wait out with whomever you've found yourself snowed in with or dig your way out of, but the blood in the snow is thick and heavy and pressing in against the walls and windows and if you choose to try and dig, the influence of blood in the air will hit you hard and the ill effects will come on fast and halt you in your efforts...
Soon, the rooms appear to warp, minds become foggy as what appears to be an illusion or a reality warping takes hold, no longer does the room look like your home or the store you were browsing, and you can't quite remember what it was before or why you were there. The roof over your head is different, and the slow motion of the fan causes the cracks in the plaster to show shadows in ways that just don't match your memories. It is strange, but as you walk through the new space, you do not feel in danger. Something is just not quite right.
You recognize the furnishings but you can't place when you bought them. It looks like a hotel room and this is a suite for two. How long have you lived in this place? The door of the kitchen or perhaps the pantry opens, and someone else emerges with the same look of vague confusion there. You recognize them, but not quite. Their name is on the tip of your tongue until they speak. Do you know each other? Yes, you do. This is your house, right? Weren't you just standing there together not long ago...?
It must be your home: Some Sleepers, for one reason or another, might accept the surreal experience as the new reality even as they grow weaker and ...thinner? Their life feels impermanent, almost like you could peel the wallpaper away to find something entirely different underneath. But it isn't a bad life. It's simple, comfortable, food is always magically available somewhere when they need it and the people they are with are family, are they not? You're pretty sure that's what you remember. The scope of the vision grows, somehow you find yourself in the bar of this hotel where a bartender stands waiting. He doesn't feel quite real, but he'll happily chat over a cocktail 'on the house' with guests, who he assures have always been there.
But some Sleepers find themselves rejecting this vision, as comfortable as it is, it's still wrong. This isn't their home. This feeling everything should be fine is a lie. Everything is wrong, and at a certain point, they snap. The idea of sleeping a night in this place is just too much and the moment that their mind refuses this reality completely, it is replaced by a singular urge: to destroy this lie entirely. Paranoia and a frantic instability overtakes them and they find whatever weapon they can to start breaking everything in sight, even attacking their fellow Sleepers and hunting them through the shifting little hotel spaces that seem to move around them rather then them moving within it.
Violent Sleepers can be subdued and reasoned with, but it may be difficult. Powers are also dampened, though not gone, if Sleepers can remember that they have them at all. All sleepers, docile and violent will start to weaken to the point where they collapse and they will eventually die, but if they are lucky enough to pull themselves and/or each other out of it, they'll be able to see clearly that it's the bartender that they should attack. Once they do, there will be a screech and the illusion/reality alteration will falter and the bartender's true form is glimpsed.
Once the creature is wounded sufficiently, Sleepers will find that there is a fleshy pulsating rope attached to the base of their skull as the creature was feeding on their hopes and dreams of the future, keeping them in a state of complacency, confusion and conflict. The only way out of this is by attacking the bartender or death.
Soon, the rooms appear to warp, minds become foggy as what appears to be an illusion or a reality warping takes hold, no longer does the room look like your home or the store you were browsing, and you can't quite remember what it was before or why you were there. The roof over your head is different, and the slow motion of the fan causes the cracks in the plaster to show shadows in ways that just don't match your memories. It is strange, but as you walk through the new space, you do not feel in danger. Something is just not quite right.
You recognize the furnishings but you can't place when you bought them. It looks like a hotel room and this is a suite for two. How long have you lived in this place? The door of the kitchen or perhaps the pantry opens, and someone else emerges with the same look of vague confusion there. You recognize them, but not quite. Their name is on the tip of your tongue until they speak. Do you know each other? Yes, you do. This is your house, right? Weren't you just standing there together not long ago...?
It must be your home: Some Sleepers, for one reason or another, might accept the surreal experience as the new reality even as they grow weaker and ...thinner? Their life feels impermanent, almost like you could peel the wallpaper away to find something entirely different underneath. But it isn't a bad life. It's simple, comfortable, food is always magically available somewhere when they need it and the people they are with are family, are they not? You're pretty sure that's what you remember. The scope of the vision grows, somehow you find yourself in the bar of this hotel where a bartender stands waiting. He doesn't feel quite real, but he'll happily chat over a cocktail 'on the house' with guests, who he assures have always been there.
But some Sleepers find themselves rejecting this vision, as comfortable as it is, it's still wrong. This isn't their home. This feeling everything should be fine is a lie. Everything is wrong, and at a certain point, they snap. The idea of sleeping a night in this place is just too much and the moment that their mind refuses this reality completely, it is replaced by a singular urge: to destroy this lie entirely. Paranoia and a frantic instability overtakes them and they find whatever weapon they can to start breaking everything in sight, even attacking their fellow Sleepers and hunting them through the shifting little hotel spaces that seem to move around them rather then them moving within it.
Violent Sleepers can be subdued and reasoned with, but it may be difficult. Powers are also dampened, though not gone, if Sleepers can remember that they have them at all. All sleepers, docile and violent will start to weaken to the point where they collapse and they will eventually die, but if they are lucky enough to pull themselves and/or each other out of it, they'll be able to see clearly that it's the bartender that they should attack. Once they do, there will be a screech and the illusion/reality alteration will falter and the bartender's true form is glimpsed.
Once the creature is wounded sufficiently, Sleepers will find that there is a fleshy pulsating rope attached to the base of their skull as the creature was feeding on their hopes and dreams of the future, keeping them in a state of complacency, confusion and conflict. The only way out of this is by attacking the bartender or death.
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He lets out a huff and gets to it already.] Short answer? I died… Back in the dream, the magic that held us there wasn't perfect, it was falling apart. And that magic could also bring us back to life when we were killed, but each time there was a price, and it got worse with each death. Losing pieces of your memory was one of the prices… I even forgot how to speak English for a while once.
[He sighs and gives Keith a moment to process all that. The unstable magic that made up the nightmare and the revival process is also part of why he thinks most people don't remember when they leave and come back. You lose something of yourself each time you die and Ramona told them that there wasn't enough power to bring back everything perfectly each time, or something along those lines. It would make sense for the same rules to apply to fully leaving the nightmare and then all that power dragging them back. Some things get lost and can't be restored.]
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"I died."
He had to force himself to breathe for a moment, trying not to freak out. He'd been through this with one friend already... with Shiro. And, yeah, Shiro was more than a friend, he was his brother, but still. That didn't make it easier to think that there was stuff at work in this place that had been killing them and bringing them all back to life.
(Good thing he didn't know about Shiro's dream adventures, or even what happened back home at the Omega Shield...)
But, the way Lance talked about it... that he'd forgotten English "once"... Keith's head immediately associated that with meaning Lance had died multiple times in the dream, and that didn't help the wrenching sensation in his gut that he was probably going to have to face losing people like that here, too. No matter how prepared for the idea he might be (they were in a war, for crying out loud), that didn't mean he liked it.]
Oh... [Honestly, he was kind of speechless. What does one even say to something like that? He hadn't known how to answer Shiro in the Black Lion's consciousness, either. It just... it was like getting verbally smacked across the face. It stunned him.] I... [He took a breath. No. He was bad at words. Even in normal circumstances, he messed things like that up. He was pretty sure anything that could come out of his mouth right now was just going to screw everything up.
But, could he leave it just like that? No response?]
I... I don't know what to say... [He stared at the ground between his feet for a second. "I'm sorry you died," just seemed contrite and empty.]
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But it's hard when he sees Keith has to force himself to breathe and looks like he's creeping towards some kind of crisis. He wants to reach out to touch him and ground him, but so far every time they have gotten too close he's come close to disaster. He clenches his fists in his lap and just does his best to give his full attention to him. Try to understand or… just be there.
Then Keith finally speaks and… Lance is reminded that though dying so many times has made him sort of jaded on the subject (by necessity given his situation, but also he suspects he is genuinely used to it), for other people it's a big deal. Even knowing one can be brought back. The first person close to him to die when he came to the nightmare, was actually Keith himself, and the memory of finding his corpse and then the ghost on loop still haunts him.]
You don't have to say anything. I'm fine with it. Really, I am… [His eyes flicker from Keith to the ground and back as he considers his next words, then carefully:] seems like it threw you for more of a loop, though.
[Gentle offer to talk about what's bothering him, because Lance has a hard time with the idea that Keith would be that upset over just him dying a couple times… well, six times (not counting omega shield). Because he came back, right? He's sitting right here, talking to him, so he's clearly fine and alive and… fine (he's not fine (hah, ain't that the truth)).]
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No, it was not okay. None of this was okay.
Keith leaned his elbows on his knees so he could just hunch over with his head in his hands.
And Lance was fine with it.]
You shouldn't have to be fine with it!
[Keith barely held back the tremor in his voice, and somewhere behind them on the boardwalk, a passerby yelped when a small fire suddenly burst into existence in a nearby trashcan. Not realizing that was his doing and honestly just ignoring the yelp, Keith shook his head.]
I just... You know why. [Getting kicked out the Garrison because he couldn't deal with the Kerberos crew being declared dead. Nearly tearing apart the Voltron Coalition before it had a chance to form because he threw a fit in the middle of a meeting after Shiro disappeared from the Black Lion. He didn't exactly have these freakouts in private.
Keith did not handle death well.]
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He bites his lip hard enough to draw a bit of red blood and looks away, feeling a prickling at his eyes. Again, it's swallowed down with great effort and he tightly crosses his arms, shoulders hunching. Not only can he not comfort Keith the way he wants to, Keith is talking about something really complicated and difficult for both of them for different reasons. It's a lot.
His head turns to look at the fire when it bursts to life nearby and faintly, he realizes the connection. But that's an issue to address later perhaps. Right now, he just nods when Keith says he knows why. Because he does. There are many things he knows about Keith that he banished to some far corner of his brain where it could hurt him less, but now confronted with this, the information is brought back to the fore.]
I know. [His voice is barely above a whisper. Then he closes his eyes and heaves a bit of a rattled and shallow breath (thanks Maul).] I really wish I could tell you it's not gonna happen again. To any of us… but we'll always come back to you. Sleepers don't stay dead in the Waking World either.
[His voice took on a peculiar soft tone when he says that they'll always come back. One he's used only when talking to Allura, at least to Keith's memory. Immediately, Lance is looking away again, belatedly realizing how he'd just sounded.]
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I don't know if that's better.
[Part of him even wanted to disbelieve it, but he knew better. What reason would Lance have to making that up? None. Lance wasn't going to sugarcoat something just to make him feel better. Keith knew that. Plus, the idea of coming back from the dead, just to still be in a terrible? Keith was pretty sure that could almost be worst than staying dead.
By now, someone had come by to start putting out the fire in the trashcan, and that finally got Keith to look back at the commotion.]
What's going on?
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He's no fool, when faced with that reflection back on yourself it forces you to wonder… but there's been so much to endure he's never had time to really sit with it. Honestly, he hasn't had enough of a proper breath to sit and process basically everything. Keith might be right, but ultimately does it matter? They revive and they can't stop that process, they don't choose. And there are many deadly things that make death common, so avoiding it is hard.
He lets out a breath and is relieved when Keith seems to notice the fire, it shifts the focus away from that topic. Saves him from figuring out what to even say to that when he'd rather just not face it right now. He huffs out a bit of an amused sound and pitches his voice in bit of a more lofty, sing-song.]
Oh, nothing. You just set a trash can on fire.
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Wait! What?
[Keith stared at Lance in shock.]
But I wasn't even over there!
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It's your powers, dude. Sometimes they're triggered by emotions.
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Yeah. I know, man. But there're people in town who can help you figure it out.
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He put his head back in his hands again, shaking it 'no' as he did. This was getting to be a lot. By now, the fire behind them was taken care of, but, instead, a thin sheet of ice was forming on the stairs beneath them as Keith's protective anger gave way to what he was really feeling...
He was scared.]
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Hey, just take a deep breath and let it out slow.
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Okay. I'm okay... [Deep breath.] I'm okay.
[He was going to be okay, at least. He wasn't, yet, but he was going to try and get there.
Patience yields focus.
He still clung to that at times when he needed it, even if Shiro had already admitted it was just a throwaway phrase in the moment to get Keith to calm down. It had worked, after all.]
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Yeah. Just focus on your breath. You're okay.
[He's picked up some coping tactics over the years of nonstop trauma. And though his own breath is shallow, wheezy and rattled, it helps him too.]
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He frowned in concern.]
Are you injured?
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Yeah. But it's been looked at, it's fine.
[It's not fine, but there's not much either of them can do right now about it.]
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Are you sure?
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Yes. I'm- I'm fine. I just helped you across the beach, didn't I?
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[Even if it had been really awkward to deal with... his friends not making any injuries worse was kind of important.]
Look, I'm probably fine to walk on my own now anyway, so... [He automatically wrapped the coat and robe tighter around himself, even if the effects of that egg had made it way to hot for him to be wearing them... not that he knew it was the egg. He figured it was this coldblood thing, right?] I guess... I don't know.
[He was going to need a place to stay and to get some real clothes... but he felt like he'd already put too much on Lance's shoulders at this point. He didn't want to ask.]
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[And that's the honest truth as he sees it. His breathing has always been off when he exerts more on his lungs. After insisting that, he nods, picking up on the fact that Keith probably wants to get some real clothes. And Lance definitely wants to get away from this situation. He won't be able to keep his emotions locked up for long.]
Come on, I'll take you to Shiro's house. You've got a room there already with some clothes and stuff.
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Can you just-... promise you'll go see someone to make sure it didn't get worse? Please?
[He sighed, and grabbed the railing, bracing his other hand on the steps before pushing up.
Okay... that was definitely an improvement. He felt wobbly, but he was up and standing. He grabbed the pack, slinging it over his shoulders.]
So, that's where I was staying before, then?
[Which was fine. Keith was okay with staying with Shiro.]
no subject
Jeeze, alright. I will.
[And with that, he stands and hovers near Keith in case he needs help. But it looks like he's got his bearings and his stregth back enough to handle himself well enough. Once Keith has his pack, he starts leading the way down the boardwalk to the lantern that can take them straight to Shiro's. It's not far.]
Yeah. We all stayed there, actually. I uh, decided to live somewhere else, though.
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Thank you. [His voice was quiet, but he was still glad Lance had promised.
He did his best to keep up, but it wasn't exactly easy, yet. Standing was one thing. Walking and doing coordinated movements was apparently another, and it took a bit for him to get himself really going. He stayed near the railing of the boardwalk as they went for as long as he could in case he needed to grab on to something... which happened a couple of times, but he didn't fall. He'd take that as a win at this point.]
Why'd you move out? [Wouldn't staying together have been... better? Or something? Like... they were a team. Weren't they?]
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As they walk along, he keeps his attention on how well Keith is moving and slows down to keep pace with him. But he stays just a step ahead so that he has a reason not to look directly at Keith. It's easier on him that way, and he's already feeling the strain again. Especially when that question comes, it takes everything in him not to snap that it's not Keith's business. His answer is clearly not the whole truth and his voice is tense and dodgy.]
I… got tired of hearing Shiro have sex?
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1/?
2/?
3/3
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