new place same faces

[marmoron]

Who: Keith, Lance & Shiro
What: Catch all for household shenanigans for January
Where: Casa Voltron (Imported Housing)
When: January
Warnings: Some household items getting feisty, but otherwise none expected! Will add warnings as they become necessary

Comments

a confluence of paladins - backdated

[marmoron]

[It wasn't what anyone expected to be contending with when they woke up this morning, but they're here now in the city of Hadriel and gathered in the living room of imported housing 3-1 where Keith has been making the best of things for the past month. By which we mean the place is a disaster of weapons he'd scavenged and other oddities. Cosmo trots on over to grab a large mammoth tusk between his jaws and begins chewing contentedly on the floor by the couch.

Keith would call this organized chaos, in that the place is clearly functional and that he knows where everything is, but all the same when he picks up a medieval style battle axe that he just threw on the couch, he looks vaguely sheepish.]

I uh... wasn't expecting guests. [Ever.] I'll put this away.

[He gestures towards the room closest to the balcony.]

That one's mine, but the other two are empty. Make yourselves comfortable, I guess.

[spazzed]

( maybe it had been a surprise to wake up in this place at all, and maybe it had been even more of a surprise to be greeted by fire-breathing, winged jerkfaces — but what really isn't surprising is the way keith keeps his space when he's by himself, and he has to say, he's at least a liiiiittle bit impressed with this collection of both weapons and oddities.

he doesn't ask out loud is that a tusk!? when cosmo picks it up, but you had better believe that question is clear in his expression with the way his eyes go round and wide. that's. pretty cool. and pretty large? definitely cannot be from an elephant.

maybe he'll ask about it later. maybe. ) I can tell. ( he says in a tease, because somehow it's easier than anything else, but there's a warm sort of half-smile behind it.

he'll go check out one of those rooms in a minute, content for the time being to keep looking around the living room and taking everything in. ) Sure you're not gonna mind not being all by your lonesome anymore?

( thanks for this. really. )

[deadlining]

[ The house is a disaster, but in their current situation it still feels like a welcoming safe haven somehow. It's a disaster in a way that is unique to Keith and Cosmo, who have clearly made this place entirely their own. That's comforting, despite the fact that Shiro is used to sparsely furnished military quarters and now doesn't quite know which oddity he wants to place his eyes on first here. ]

Thanks for hosting us. After sleeping in the lions for so long, this is practically a new castle.

[ Though if he's honest with himself, it's going to be weird living in a fairly normal house again. He hasn't done that since he moved into the Garrison dorms when he started his pilot training for the very first time. ]

[marmoron]

[He lingers by the couch, axe still in hand, looking from Lance to Shiro in turn, half braced for some well deserved nagging about the state of the place, but when none comes, he relaxes a fraction. It'd have been enough of an adjustment going from zero to two roommates alone, but it's even harder because it's Lance and Shiro and he still hasn't worked out how to feel about seeing either of them again.

It's... it's probably going to take a while. For now though, it's at least easier to figure out how to feel about Shiro as the two of them never really had a falling out, so that's where Keith's attention goes first.]

...place isn't nearly as impressive as the castle was, but it's something.

[There's a half smile, something that's a little forced, but he appreciates the sentiment. Looking at Lance though, it's hard not to immediately wonder why the guy even wants to stay considering their last argument, but that's just it, isn't it? Lance is clearly over it; the only person still hanging onto why don't you just go is him. He swallows down the contentious response and replies in a more even toned manner.]

Where else would you go?

[spazzed]

( it is a lot to take in all at once, but if there's ever been anything good about having a flighty attention span, it's that it gives the sort of justification in letting his eyes roam that he probably wouldn't feel otherwise. ( but he also doesn't want to make keith feel self-conscious about his digs, so … hm. maybe don't look around too much. there's always time for that later. )

he can tell there's something going on with him, something that the other isn't quite up to divulging — and hoo boy, when he does — but he isn't about to start trying to pick apart the things he doesn't get right when they're trying to get settled, being welcomed into a space that had previously belonged to one person and one space wolf and now has two more bodies to take into account.

so, he shrugs, a small thing that makes him look a little bit sheepish. ) I dunno. ( i didn't think that far ahead. ) But no, uh, seriously. Thanks.

( don't make this awkward. don't make this awkward. don't make this awkward.

he looks to shiro then, nodding at the bit about sleeping in the lions. ) No kidding. Great bonding opportunity and all, but whew.

[deadlining]

Living together in one house will be a different kind of bonding, but having both own rooms and own beds is going to do wonders for comfort... is what I would like to say, but this whole town is freezing, so that detracts a couple of points.

[ Better than the implanted clone memories of escaping from Galra custody and then nearly dying on a snow planet, naturally, but there are a lot of things that are better than that.

One thing the dragons had going for them was that the Colosseum felt automatically warmer for their fire-breathing, malevolent presence in it. ]

[marmoron]

[More bonding experiences, huh. Keith isn't going to say it because he can't say it without inviting in a xonversation he is unwilling to have, but the thought is bittersweet. While they're talking about coming together, he's already thinking of ways he can try and get the door to take them back to their home. It doesn't matter that people have tried and failed for years to do that, but that doesn't matter. He has to try.]

About that. I got a heater. It's small and it doesn't seem to do much for more than one room, but it works.

[It's just about the only electrical appliance that has worked, actually.]

You should take it, Shiro. You're the only one who doesn't have anything warmer fo wear for insulation.

[Then looking at Lance:]

No problems with that, right?

Shiro vs Furniture

[deadlining]

A) CHAIR - early in the event

[ There have been a few cases of small household items doing things they're not meant to do in the house and initially Shiro tried to pass it off as a trick of his tired mind... but then network posts about the issue started to surface and the kitchen cabinet began slapping itself open and closed, all of which was much harder to ignore.

So Shiro's come around to some thinking and most of the thinking was centered on Keith's treasure trove of novelty weaponry. Or is that vintage weaponry? Either way, Shiro can swear he's seen one of those twitching and he's absolutely not about to let anyone be bisected in the living room.

Which is what leads to the present situation of Shiro tossing a bunch of weaponry out on the balcony in order to get a door between people and blades. This is going peachy as none of the weapons are protesting, but in turn it lulls Shiro into a false sense of security.

And an unexpected challenger arrives!!

Shiro drops a bunch of swords with a loud CLANG as a chair jumps against his back, knocking him to the ground. Trained fighter he is, Shiro manages to turn around to the chair quickly and somewhat hold it off with his arm, but uh.... this is really awkward. ]

B) HEATER - some... undefined... time

[ And then some other morning there is a yelp coming from Shiro's bedroom. ]

Get off me!!

[ Concerned housemates coming in will find Shiro using the blanket to get some distance between himself and the portable heater that is feeling aggressively cuddly. ]

B.

[marmoron]

[Keith's up with the sun as usual, quietly sitting on his bed, just gathering the mental fortitude it's going to take to deal with whatever is going to try and injure him in the house today when that yelling makes him jump.]

I'm coming in!

[That's yelled back without a second thought as he grabs the Marmora knife, ignores the menacing rattling of swords on the balcony, and barges into the room next door....

....to find Shiro huddled behind a blanket as that godforsaken heater tries to give the poor man a hug. For a second, Keith has no idea what the hell he's looking at because it's just so absurd.]

Shiro - you... [Forget it the heater's gone rogue. No more need for questions.] Don't move!

[Now excuse him as he goes and fucking tackles the heater to the ground. Good thing he's wearing paladin armor otherwise this might've left a nasty burn. As it is, the heater is very angry about this situation and making ominous rattling noises and blowing hot air that is most definitely floofing up Keith's hair.]

[deadlining]

[ Sweet freedom at last! His shoulder stings from where the heaters heated surprise attack first made contact, but in the grand scheme of things that is as good as no problems at all. Shiro gratefully lowers the blanket and is greeted with the wonderful sight of Keith's hair doing the music-video-wind-machine thing in a really odd angle, while... kind of laying on the floor. And the heater is in there somewhere. Yeah.

For a second, he can't help but simply stare. A deeply buried part of his subconscious suggests simple laying back down and leaving this for Keith to handle, but Shiro's never listened to that part before and he won't start now.

Thus, he peels himself out of bed and gives floored Keith a quick nod. ]

.... morning. Thanks for that. Think we can just look him into this room until he calms down?

[marmoron]

Mornin'. Why's this thing a 'he' ?

[As the heater continues to try and thrash about under Keith's weight, he pins it down under a forearm and brings the point of the knife up to the air vent.]

Stop wriggling, damn you.

[Because of course this is exactly what Shiro needed to see first thing in the morning right. Right. Good thing Keith has so much experience engaging in diplomatic negotiations with inanimate objects. The heater retaliates by raising the temperature of that hot air even further, causing Keith to scowl.]

[deadlining]

[ Shiro slept in his uniform, so he really only needs to slip into his shoes and he's already in the process of doing that when Keith asks his question. That question makes him pause for a second. Then he shrugs. ]

People who suddenly wake me up in my own bed tend to be, you know?

[ Maybe he'd have more shame about that if he was saying it to literally any other Paladin but Keith knows him too well, so he has to deal with this. ]

[marmoron]

[There's a noticeable pause at that as Keith actually turns to look over his shoulder at Shiro.]

...that was more thought out than expected.

[But maybe there is just the beginnings of a familiar smile.[

Guess I should've known.

[deadlining]

[ Shiro smiles back at that. Things are still awkward, but hey, they're making steps. Sometimes steps involve wrestling a heater or two. ]

'Thought out', yeah. Let's go with that. And while we're on "let's" - let's get out of here before you're toasted.

[ He's at the door now, ready to slam it shut and lock their little companion in there for good. ]

aaaand a;

[spazzed]

( no one ever really thinks the inanimate objects in their living space will one day come around to a mind of their own — even if that would make for a pretty gnarly b-horror movie, he'd watch it — and as tired as shiro must be from literally everything that's been happening lately, between things back home and here, it's no surprise that he chalks it all up to an overactive, exhausted imagination.

at least until it becomes apparent that if it is an overactive, exhausted imagination, it's happening to literally everyone in the city all at once. and that can't be possible. because it just doesn't seem likely at all.

not the point. the point is that while shiro has the bright idea to move all the sharp-and-pointies out onto the balcony where they won't end up slicing someone in half ( or several uneven pieces, we don't know ) there is a very rude piece of furniture that sees fit to interrupt him, and while it might come across as something funny to watch from the start to some …

watching his hero one-arm wrestle with a chair is no real laughing matter. ) What the— hold on!

( maybe he'd been on his way to try to help move the weapons, or maybe he'd been on the verge of his own mishap — then again, when isn't that true with this one — and he leaps at the chair in the sort of comical way one might expect from a saturday morning cartoon, lance's eyes wide and his arms reaching to try to get a good hold on the thing where shiro is holding it at bay.

he just isn't expecting it to buck back against him and send him toppling back on his butt. and that butt is bony. ow.

one moment, shiro. he needs to pick himself up again, and then he'll be back at it. )

[deadlining]

[ Dignity is a distant memory now, so Shiro decides to shelf the feeling of embarrassment for the indefinite future and instead moves straight to being grateful that Lance is in the room. He can really use some assistance right now and his trusty teammate is by his side---- and then no longer by his side, because a chair kicked him off his feet.

The worst part of this really is that Shiro wants to be judging, but he can't, not while he's in this precarious position himself. This probably means the only way forward is to get out of it and at the very least the chair is a little distracted now (can a chair be distracted?).

Arm still busy holding the chair away from his upper body, Shiro tries to knee it into the underside of its seating area to get more leverage to push it off. The chair loses its footing on the ground, but instead of toppling over kicks down hard onto Shiro's stomach.

Oof. ]

[spazzed]

( okay now look, mister — you can judge all you want if it comes down to it, but the fact remains that despite all the things they as paladins have both seen and experienced since they'd taken up the mantle, none of those things had been hostile pieces of furniture, and since this is an entirely new thing for both of them, this room really should be a judgement-free zone.

give him a second and he's really going to give that chair what-for.

when he pulls himself back up into the semblance of a sitting position, he looks over just in time to see the chair bearing down on shiro like it's its job to be a pain in the butt ( or … stomach, as the case may be presently, oof indeed ) and it's only a split second later that he's trying to tackle the thing again, because try, try, try again until something is done and this stupid thing gets knocked off its feet.

do chairs have feet? they have legs, so. hm.

at least this time around he somehow manages to find himself sitting on the thing, which provides ( at least momentarily ) enough weight to keep it still. lance looks down at where shiro is still a bit sprawled on the floor, and he gives an apologetic sort of grin. ) I'd help you up, but I'm pretty sure if I move, this thing's gonna attack again. ( pause. )

Did you do something to make it mad? ( why else would it be attacking you, or something. despite everything else in that house going all kinds of stupid. )

[deadlining]

[ Shiro is immensely grateful that for once, second time was the charm instead of third. Although his stomach certainly hurts right now, it's his ego that is truly getting a beating. There is something deeply degrading about surviving even the complete disintegration of your original mortal body and then having yourself shown up by a kitchen chair. Some part of Shiro's pride would surely be taking irreparable damage if this went on any longer.


He sighs heavily and begins to pick himself off the floor - because thank you very much, he doesn't have any problems doing this. ]

I don't know, that depends entirely on how close friends it has made with Keith's weaponry collection?

[ Cautiously, he looks down to the blades scattered across the floor. Thankfully they seem perfectly immobile right now. ]

[spazzed]

( he might not weigh all that much, but at least this time around his lanky self is enough to keep the chair in place; it tries to wiggle, as much as a chair can wiggle and it's taking more effort than lance had planned to keep it from going after shiro again.

this. this is not good. this is not good at all and he honestly wishes he was better about thinking on his feet ( or in this case, his butt ) in order to figure out how this is going to end up playing out, something that doesn't end up with shiro getting flattened by a piece of furniture.

lance would help him up if he could — but both keeping his position and allowing the other man to keep some of his dignity are both important contributing factors here, even if … well, there really isn't going to be a moment in which he's not going to want to help shiro in any way he can.

this is getting really deep for a bit of introspection about getting attacked by a quiznacking chair.

he looks at the blades too, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. ) I've never heard of furniture being in cahoots with cutlery. ( lance did you honestly just say cahoots. ) But I guess … stranger things have happened.

( we're sorry, shiro. )

i'm not scared are you scared i'm totally not scared;

[spazzed]

( to say that the past however-long ( hours, maybe half a day, time passes weirdly in this place when you're not paying attention to it or getting attacked by suddenly sentient and hostile household appliances ) has been something would have been putting it incredibly mildly, all things considered; most of the dangerous sharp-and-pointy things are still outside on the balcony, and it's anyone's guess if they're ever going to start causing a fuss but none of them are about to go out and check, and everything else in the house is … decently quiet, for the most part, for the time being.

they're all tired down to their bones. there are bits of furniture strewn across the main room, accompanied by tufts of fluff that have no doubt come both sofa and chair cushions alike, and if one side of that sofa looks like the highest point of the arm has been stabbed through?

it's because it had been. repeatedly. and lance is pretty sure he's about to see that in his nightmares.

he's not happy about it.

enter the reason they're both taking up space in keith's room, even if it's closest to the balcony and therefore closests to all the sharp-and-pointies, and this boy right here is having a hard time settling down because he's been so keyed up for so long he's running on fumes and stale air, the last vestiges of adrenaline that will no doubt leave him feeling even more drained than a normal kind of exhaustion would, and he finally makes himself sit down at the edge of the other's bed. even if his hands can't sit still, even if he occasionally drums his fingers against the outside of a thigh, even if that thigh can't keep from bouncing like he's ingested an entire pot of coffee and is about to run a marathon.

his heart might just beat out of his chest before this is all over, but that's fine. that is a perfectly normal reaction to inanimate household objects coming alive and trying to murder you.

or just spoon you to death. which leads to forking. which —

no. bad memories. we are not making that joke again, and that is final.

he looks over at keith finally, teeth worrying the edge of his lip as his leg keeps bouncing. this boy needs a xanax or something. ) So. That. ( pause. clear throat. another pause. ) Was something.

( you think??? )

who're you calling scared, scaredy cat

[marmoron]

[There's a lot of tense, adrenaline fueled energy between the two of them that fills up the small room like a thick cloud. Unlike Lance, Keith doesn't fidget -- he leans against the wall, eyes closed and taking deep breaths. His fingers are still wrapped tight around the handle of his Marmora knife, and judging from how his knuckles are blanching white, it doesn't look like he plans on letting go of the thing any time soon.

The house is getting to him in a bad way; he needs, for his own sake, a place he can de-escalate and unwind from the stress that comes with being in Hadriel. The stress that comes with having two people he never thought he'd see again back in his life, talking to him like he really is the person they remember.

It'd been fine. It'd all been fine when he was the only person here from the world of his memories and it just didn't functionally matter if he's a clone or not, but now it's constantly rubbed into his face with every time Lance looks at him with implicit trust in his eyes.

So maybe the fucked up thing is that on some level, he's grateful for the distraction that comes with the things in this house trying to maim or kill them because it means less time to be worried about being an imposter. But that isn't it either because he really really needed not to be questioning whether he's even safe in his own room.

The couch sprouting eyes had just about been the last straw. Something needed to just stop and... okay, maybe hacking at it with the knife wasn't the best way to go about trying to get the couch unpossessed by whatever's going on, but it sure as heck is too late to stop himself from doing that.

So... now he's with Lance. And of course, it's not because either of them are frazzled.]

...Yeah. [Curt. Overly so actually. He takes a deep breath, opens his eyes and then loosens his grip on the knife just a fraction. God what if it starts acting up, too. Another deep breath as he represses the desire to just fling the knife across the room. Definitely not frazzled.]

That one was new.

[With a calm he does not actually feel, he walks over towards the bedside table and puts the blade inside a drawer.]

nobody!!!

[spazzed]

( he fidgets because he has a tendency to not know what to do with his hands — or other parts of him, really, at any given time — and it only gets amped up when he finds himself in a high-stress situation, which has a tendency to be more often than not lately.

or maybe just since he'd taken up the mantle of paladin. but he really wouldn't trade any of that for anything in the known universe, because there have been some pretty neat things amidst all the chaos. but. that isn't the point now.

there's still something going on with keith that has nothing to do with what's been happening in the house itself, he can tell every time he takes more than a second-long glance; of course he'll never claim to be able to read him, especially nowhere near as well as someone like shiro could, but he finds himself trying anyway, because he wants to, even if this could all be circumvented by just opening his mouth and asking dude, what's up.

which, maybe he would have been more inclined to do it before now. before waking up in this place and feeling like everything has settled around him a couple of inches too far to the left, off-center and weird. even if they still have that space-crazy nonsense under their belts, things have been … kind of ironing themselves out, haven't they?

but then again, maybe he's thinking too hard about it. trying to read too much into it. and while he's never had much of a problem overthinking before, there's a first time for everything, and there's a niggling little feeling in the back of his mind that says this is that time.

away from those thoughts and back to the matter at hand, lance is convinced this house is very slowly trying to kill all three of them, and something needs to be done about it. he doesn't know what needs to be done about it, but the decision has been made that definitely something needs to happen, and. maybe it's only a matter of time before either of them come up with something that could be thought of as a plan of action.

he breathes in, exhales, breathes in again and holds it. ) New. Yeah. That's one way to put it. ( he says this as the other crosses over to place his blade in a drawer. )

Are you, uh … okay? ( you don't look okay and i'm not okay either but i'm going to ask about you because it takes the focus off of me and i do actually want to know if you're okay. )

damn straight son. nobody's scared in this house

[marmoron]

["Are you okay?" Lance asks, and part of Keith just wants to burst into an ugly, bitter laugh. He doesn't though, and instead sits down heavily on the bed about an arm's length away from the paladin,]

Well let's see. It's freezing, the kitchen knife tried to stab me, the couch has eyes, the balcony's full of weapons that want to cut us in half. But you know, I guess this is an improvement over almost getting killed along with a buddy by some squid aliens while there was a mammoth stampede going on.

[His voice never rises in volume, but the intensity in it keeps dialing up, the tension obvious in Keith's shoulders as his hands curl into fists at his knees. There's so much more he could add to this, but he can't keep talking -- can he? Lance is already dealing with quite a bit himself, and it wouldn't exactly be particularly "leader-like" to simply dump more concerning bullshit on Lance's lap just to decompress.

So he doesn't. Keith sighs, abruptly changing course and looking up over towards the other boy.]

So yeah. I'm fine. A little cold. How are you?

they would never be, there is nothing to be afraid of in upside down haus

[spazzed]

( he has to ask. he has to ask because it's the first thing on his mind and it's going to stay on his mind because there isn't room for much else, what with all the information-dumping earlier and fighting the freaking furniture. he's nearly forgotten about the whole ordeal at the colosseum, you know, the initial waking up and trying to play campfire in the middle of fire-breathing dragon territory — he's not about to come close to forgetting about the hacking up of aforementioned dragon that happened directly after, or coming away with some neat-as-heck souvenirs, but there's been so much since then that his capacity to contain it all has gone flat, and he can only think there's going to be so much more the longer he stays here.

so. yes. he's focusing on the simple things and the simple questions even if they're moot at this point.

of course, the answer he gets is one he might have expected, just because it's keith and all things considered, it had been an incredibly stupid question to ask, because the answers are obvious; still, that flat tone as he lists everything off that's gone wrong in the past however-long yields him a flat stare as he goes but just for a second or two, because while keith hasn't exactly been very foregoing about this place as a whole, hasn't been great at explaining what's going on here, it's very, very clear that there's a lot to unpack when it comes to answering the question are you okay.

he doesn't blame him, not really, because he doesn't know how he'd go about explaining this place, either. experience tends to be the best way to learn about things, though, so … we suppose the longer he stays here, the more informed he'll end up being.

and the thing of it is he wants keith to talk to him about what's been going on. what he's been going through. not just the monsters and the horrors of this place on a very basic level, but everything in-between. because. again. it sounds like there's a lot he isn't telling him. ) Yeah, sounds like you're totally fine. ( it doesn't. even sound sarcastic — maybe just a little disappointed because it sounds like his question hadn't been taken seriously.

or maybe not even that. he isn't about to push for something keith clearly isn't ready to answer. maybe they'll get there, eventually. he sits back a little more, wanting to pull his knees up to his chest but stopping just short of it. at least he isn't fidgeting anymore. ) Cold. Terrified of everything in the kitchen. ( he's trying to be funny, but where's the lie. honestly. ) Still trying to get used to this place, I guess. It's. Something.

( not the most eloquent way to go about things, but. again. where's the lie. )

[marmoron]

[Keith takes a deep breath in and holds it for a few seconds until the desire to dig his fingers into his knees subsides by some small margin. The pressure to stay vigilant never abates completely, but at least the desire to keep it together for Lance's sake finds more solid footing.

Lance is new here and is obviously going to feel that much more scared for it. It may also be his own fault for not properly explaining what all's been going on here that the guy is as confused as he is -- Keith at least recognizes that much. It's an work in progress, really. Being responsible for more than just himself is something he's trying to pick back up.]

Don't worry too much about it, Lance. [A beat.] About the stuff in the house. Or being here.

[Yes, because anxiety is absolutely something you can turn on and off like it's just a matter of flipping a switch. Keith's doing so great at this himself. After a moment though, he looks forward again, gaze focused on the opposite wall.]

Gotta admit though. Kinda surprised you're staying here. Thought you wanted me to leave.

[It's stated evenly; he doesn't want to fight about it really. Keith's tired and just wants a clarification on this as he's sick of pretending that this isn't on his mind for the sake of getting along.]