May Catch-All for Keith

[lonered]

WHO: Keith and Various!
(Some closed top levels, but if you want to catch Keith at all anywhere for any reason, feel free to drop a top level in the post or hit me at seasided and I'll drum us one up!)
WHERE: Around and about
WHEN: The merry merry month of May
WHAT: In person shenanigans
WARNINGS: Updated as we go!

Thread Index
-->Yusuke (5/2) - Keith returns from canon update
-->Dave (5/2, evening) - Dave comes to check on Keith
-->Minato (5/3) - Catching up with Minato. It's been a while. But also it hasn't.

Comments

[lonered]

[Fruit. Keith looks entirely surprised, not sure what to do with all this... niceness and concern. He's starting to suspect he may have friends here. HUH.

It's kind of nice though.]

Oh. Uh. Thanks.

[Nailed it. A pause and he considers the question before nodding.] I'm fine. Just... twisted up right now. I feel like I haven't seen you in months. But also like I just saw you. And now I've got so many questions about what's going on back home. [He has a mom! But only for like five minutes and then he's back here.]

[messianic]

Yeah, you...mentioned that.

[That's... sure a thing? It sounds like a Thing.

It's such a thing that really, he can only think to ask bluntly about it.]

You were home for...awhile, then?

[lonered]

[It's such a thing. SUCH a thing. And well Keith appreciates blunt, so that's all well and good.]

Yeah. Quite a while. Like... defeated the evil overlord, watched a regime change, liberated huge portions of the galaxy... a while.

[So much has happened. And he didn't die. Like. Win win win all around.]

[messianic]

[... Wow, Keith. But also like--]

That seems like the sort of thing you could do in a few days--

[He's joking.]

So... I guess there's something weird with time here too. If you were gone that long, without being gone from here very long...

[lonered]

[Keith blinks at him before a laugh escapes. Thanks, Minato. He needed that.] Yeah. Basically just afternoon errands.]

But... I think so too. Something strange is going on with time in this place. In addition to something strange with everything else, I guess.

[messianic]

[He's here for you.

But also--]

That could be a good thing, honestly... if time isn't passing the same way, maybe we're not missing that much back home.

[lonered]

Yeah, that would be kind of a relief. I don't like the idea of leaving my friends to fight alone.

[Not that they're alone. And he's only one person. But still, it's not right not to be there to have their backs.]

[messianic]

... I understand. Of course you want to be there to protect them, or help them however you can.

[Isn't that only natural?]

And when you get out of here, that's exactly what you'll do. They'll be waiting for you, I'm sure of it.

[lonered]

Exactly, yeah.

[Minato gets it. And the reassurance, well, that earns a smile, a genuine one.] Thanks.

[messianic]

You don't have to thank me for that. It's just what I think.

[A shrug, and--]

Now... what's all of this about your mother, and what you've been through?

[lonered]

[Keith still thinks it's thanks-worthy. At the very least, he appreciates hearing it, because his cynical side does make it hard to look on the bright part of the bright side.

A hesitation at that question. How to begin explaining it.]

I met her. Found her? She left before I have any memory of her. And Dad was gone too, so he never told me anything about her. I never even knew she wasn't human, until pretty recently.

[messianic]

[... Well, so far so good, Keith.]

If she isn't human, then...

[?? What is she?

Well, that doesn't really matter anyway. What he's more concerned with is:]

... How do you feel about it?

[lonered]

She's Galra.... er, an alien.

[Very very purple. Tall. Alien.]

Honestly I'm not sure. I've always wanted to find my mother. And I don't know why she left, but I can imagine. Not like Earth knows about aliens. And she's part of the Blade, and they have a war to fight. But...

[A shrug of one shoulder.] Even if they were good reasons, she still left. And I grew up alone, so... [So he's also hurt and angry and stubborn so who he has no idea how he feels.]

[messianic]

[... an alien. He's half-alien, half-human... that's kind of astounding, but after everything he's seen here in Awash, he can't really be that surprised.]

... Right. Even if she had good reasons... it's still hard to be alone, right? Especially knowing she was out there somewhere the whole time...

[Of course Keith has a lot of mixed feelings; Minato can't blame him at all.]

[lonered]

Yeah. That's pretty much it. But... I think I still want to know her. Know about her. I don't know. But I guess I've got a bunch of time to think about it.

[While he's here dealing with everything happening in this weird gray scale place.]

[messianic]

That's true.

[Keith does have a lot of time to get his thoughts in order.]

Because of that... I think you should take your time figuring it out. There's no rush on sorting your feelings out.

[lonered]

I think you're right.

[May as well consider it while he can, while there isn't a rush.]

Hey. Thanks. For listening to all that.

[messianic]

[...Oh.]

You don't have to thank me for that.

[Honestly:]

We're friends, right? So it's just a natural thing to do.

[lonered]

Right... right we're friends.

[He smiles a little because. That's nice. That's really nice. Friends!]

I'm still grateful though.

[messianic]

[Cute... that's cute, Keith.]

Well, for now you'll just have to take my word for it that I like listening to what's going on with you.

[lonered]

I... yeah. I'll take your word for it.

[He will. But he does appreciate it. He's making friends here, and it's still sort of a new concept to him, despite how close he got to the other paladins before this. He's still more used to being a loner and on his own than not.]

[messianic]

[And now he has friends, and he's gotta deal with it.

So Minato just hums, and nods comfortably.]

Well, since you were only gone a few days here, you didn't miss much, at least. That makes it easy to fit back in...for better or for worse.

[lonered]

[Keith laughs a short laugh at that. There's a bright side, right? And it's true. He's barely missed any time here even if it feels like it's been forever.]

Guess so. Easy catch up.