Keith Kogane

[ continued from here ]

Lance was trying his damnedest to see over the sea of heads but even standing on the tips of his toes he could barely see over the tops of some of the larger students. He struggles to push himself up higher on his toes but finds all of his struggling to be futile. He lets himself fall back flat on his feet as he groans and turns his eyes on Keith. Well, it was a surprise to see Keith here, he thought he came along but hey, at least they’re not all completely separated again. Lance puts on a grin and nudges Keith with his elbow once.

“I mean I’d offer to lift you but I kind of have noodle arms” he stuck his arm out as if to show him what he meant. He knew Keith knew about his lack of strength they were teammates after all and had watched each other on the training decks once upon a time.

While he wasn’t exactly as interested in finding out who or what was making such a scene on the other side of the crowd, Keith took notice of the boy beside him and how it seemed to be important to him. With confusion clouding his mind and only the things he had so far to go off of, he came to the conclusion that perhaps making an ally in this other guy was in his best interests.

He wasn’t really an expert at this kind of stuff -- or rather, he didn’t feel like he was -- but Keith was pretty sure showing a shared interest was important when making friends. He wouldn’t know for sure, though. It just seemed like the right thing to do and the guy seemed friendly enough, even comical as he gestured to his lack of upper body strength.

Though it felt awkward, Keith tugged the corners of his lips upwards into a smile at the supposed joke. He wasn’t really sure of his own strength, but he curled his hands into fists and flexed his arm muscles, violet eyes cast downwards for a moment. When he raised them, Keith gave a shrug.

“I could try lifting you. It’s... probably easier if you got on my shoulders, though.” 

                                                                first impressions   x

" Are you okay? "

" Hey! Wake up! "

" What's happening over there? I can't see. "

" Oh gosh, sorry! Did I hurt you? "

" Who's there? Is anyone there? "

" I'm lost. "

" Are you lost? "

" Who are you? Where are we? What happened?! "

" Get off of me! "

" Sorry, I tripped! "

" Are you new here? "

" I'm new here, can you help me out? "

" Somebody help me! "

" You look really familiar. Do I know you? "

" What are you doing in there? This place is off limits! "

" You're not allowed in here. It could be dangerous. "

" Do you work here? "

" Can I help you? "

" It's not very polite to stare, you know. "

" Get out of the way! "

" You could have been killed! "

" You saved my life! "

   He wasn’t good at Alchemy. Keith had decided this the moment the lesson began, hands fumbling for ingredients as the professor listed them off. He wasn’t quite sure why he had taken the course: out of curiosity, or perhaps a subconscious sadistic desire to enhance his own suffering? Already terrible at paying attention in any class that required an academic focus, Keith had metaphorically shot himself in the foot before he even began.

It was unfortunate that his brew didn’t turn out with the desired effect. An antidote for a mild venom, gone wrong. As the liquid starting bubbling over the edge of his work station, Keith attempted to suppress the onslaught, only to have the compound start thickening, until it exploded everywhere! Decorating both himself and the nearest person to him, which happened to be someone by the name of ‘Briar’, as he had learned during roll call. 

“...I’m. Sorry.” Keith wasn’t sure what else to say, as he was soon called out by the professor and told to escort himself and Briar to go and get cleaned up. Frowning, Keith looked to the girl and sighed deeply.

   If it were up to Keith, he would have preferred to not see any of his former teammates at this weird school. Cemented in the belief of the fact that he had only arrived here because he’d succeeded in crashing his ship into the barrier in the last moments he was conscious, he had devised a reasoning that people who died arrived at Hiraeth. As such, seeing someone he knew at the school would bring alarm and a feeling of guilt, that perhaps his efforts had gone to waste and everything still ended badly.

He couldn’t help worrying, though he could control whether his worries appeared on his face or not. When he spotted Pidge though, that worry he felt in his gut flashed over his face, at the same time she seemed to spot him. Having planned to duck out of the way had he not been taken aback, Keith swallowed his pride and closed the distance between them, looking as awkward as ever.

“Pidge,” he started, unsure of how to address her. He didn’t know what she remembered before arriving, still didn’t understand how they got here at all. Rubbing the back of his neck, Keith sighed deeply. 

Izuku stood waiting, eye cast downward as the request was looked over by a member of the faculty. He really should have made Keith come and hand in the request with him but no he had to insist to do it by himself. The woman looked up from the request at him before she grabbed the large stamp and slammed it down on the page. When she lifted it back up the bright ‘APPROVED’ stared back at him. She smiled and handed him the page wishing him good luck. He beamed and ducked his head respectfully thanking her before he turned and left. 

After the mess that was figuring out where even he was it was nice to have something to do that he was familiar with. Sure tests and training camps didn’t really equate over to monster slaying but he had a partner in the same boat as him so it couldn’t be all that bad could it? He returned to Keith bearing the approved request with a smile.

“We got approved,” he stated, “we’ve got the run of the school grounds even at night until we clear out the bug problem.”

“I’m a little worried about what kind of bugs we’re going to be seeing, there isn’t much information on the page about them.“ The contents didn’t say much about them except that they had no idea what they could do and to be prepared for anything, “Flight, poison, there’s a number of things that could give us a hard time clearing them out.”

“Webs could cause us some problems too.” 

  ( @bladedscul )

   Keith waited, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. He was used to feeling like he didn’t belong: it was a feeling that had almost become a comfort in his daily life, so many could consider him much more settled than the average student in Hiraeth. His cool, collected composure was a gift, even more so when venturing out on a mission with unknown dangers.

When he’d seen the mission board, Keith had been relieved. Finally, it was something he could focus on that would also let him train these weird new abilities he had received. The training room could only supplement so much combat experience, and truthfully he could use a good round with his blade against some real targets. That was why he had approached someone and asked to partner up --- normally, he was more of a lone wolf, but had developed a fondness for partnerships ever since his days spent running with the Blades.

Seeing Izuku head back his way, Keith straightened up and looked at the request form that had been stamped. He nodded at Izuku’s instructions, keeping a mental note that they could even investigate during the night. 

“Bugs are bugs. If we see them, we’ll crush them,” Keith responded simply, shrugging off the worries Izuku was putting out on display. Hesitating a moment, the former paladin sighed quietly and reached out to place a comforting hand on the other’s shoulder. He thought to himself, ‘what would Shiro say’? Keith had to remind himself that his calmness wasn’t shared with everyone else. 

“We have to make sure everyone else is safe. We’ll take care of it. You watch my back, and I’ll cover yours.” The words felt foreign leaving his mouth. This was why he wasn’t suited to be a leader. 

⊰ @bladedscul ⊱

 Okay, she had to calm down and think about this. Yes, she’d been suddenly kidnapped with no idea where she was or where her friends were and subsequently forced into a magic school when she’d graduated hers years ago, but on the bright side whoever was behind this did seem to be letting her roam freely in said magic school. Granted, only as freely as one could be on (at least what they claimed was) an alien planet, but it was an improvement over hearing her own voice discouraging her from amidst a maze of fog.

 She hadn’t yet found anything that could clue her in to just how it happened - sleeping magic, mass teleportation, anything that wouldn’t be found in Elrios that could do something like this - but perhaps someone else had. She took a moment to look around, scanning faces for someone who seemed like they had a decent head on their shoulders, before deciding on a somewhat-serious-looking young man to a side and approaching.

 “Hey, don’t you think something seems a bit… I don’t know,” she vaguely gestured with both hands for a moment before deciding on a word suddenly, “suspicious, about all of this?”

   This hadn’t been Keith’s first time teleporting, with a recent history of intergalactic missions and wormhole jumping. Still, the sensation of being transported to this Academy was a lot different. The slight ringing in his ears, for example, was only a little worrying. Had his mind not been preoccupied with thoughts of his own mortality, Keith might have been more curious about this school he had seemingly found himself in. He had wondered briefly if it was a joke, if maybe that explosion hadn’t killed him... but in the end, he chose to follow his gut and just go with the flow.

He stopped himself from jumping as a voice filled his ears, separate from the chatter of those around. Most of their conversations were the same: incredulous blabber about being on an alien planet (been there, done that), newfound powers (he’d randomly become a space paladin overnight, already), or just generalized anxiety and longing to return home. Keith didn’t know what the latter felt like, seeing as how his “home” was a shack in the middle of a desert. A place where even his parents left, a place where he had been left alone ever since Shiro originally left for the Kerberos mission.

Focusing on the girl who had approached him, Keith tightened the fold on his arms as they rested across his chest, muscles having been aching ever since arriving at this strange school. The girl was asking if he thought the whole thing was suspicious, which caused Keith to nearly roll his eyes. Obviously things were a little suspicious -- who got randomly summoned to the far reaches of space to attend school? 

All he offered, though, was a shrug of his shoulders. He wasn’t good with small talk, nor was he proficient at speaking with strangers. The awkwardness he’d long since thought had vanished was bubbling to the surface once more, and Keith found himself sighing solely out of frustration with himself.

“Yeah, it’s suspicious. I’ve never heard of a school that forces students to come halfway across a galaxy to attend it -- especially if said students didn’t even enroll of their own free will,” he said with a frown. Dark eyes flicked from the girl to the various students dotted around.