Raise a Glass [OPEN]

[lordshield]

Who: The XV Cast and You!
When: June 6th
Where: Curti Center, Jiminy's Juicery (bar)
What: After saving innocents from the Dream Width, some people just need a drink.
Warnings/Notes: Alcohol consumption, possible violence, whatever people do in bars.

Their first foray into the search and rescue business in the Dream Width had been intense, to say the least. Stressful, heartbreaking, exhausting, and enlightening were other words some might use to describe the experience. After a night of rest and a day to somewhat sort things and people out, the next evening brings about a mighty need to head to the local tavern. Some drink to forget, some drink to remember, some drink to relax. There are even representatives of the Bard's Guild providing live music. You can try to make a request, but chances are they don't know your foreign songs.

Maybe you were invited by one of the excitable young men from Lucis, or maybe you came on your own. There's enough room in the bar for quite a few people, so long as they're of age. Sit right at the bar, or pull up chairs around a table, the choice is yours.

[OoC: Make your own toplevel or tag around. Please put content warnings as necessary. Have fun!]

Comments

[chefbayardee]

Hunk was happy to see Shiro, because a familiar face was always good. And the idea of Shiro relaxing at all in that bar was comforting, in a weird kind of concerned way. Shiro never lets loose!

"I'm fine. The Dream Width was a little crazy..." Hunk's eyes roll with the emphasis. Huge understatement. And then he pushes a button, causing the blue-windowed hatch in the front to open. The bakery smell is overpowering.

"So I baked my troubles away! And then I realized I made too many." There's a box filled to the brim with iced cinnamon rolls, each wrapped in wax paper. "Help me out. You know you want one." And so he looks expectantly at Shiro, because he asked for this.

[spaceforged]

He eyes the box. The bar food has been exactly what he expects out of bars. Hunk’s food is always out of this world. He hasn’t really started drinking yet. Something like a cinnamon roll would help when he got into it. “Yes, I do.” Besides it’s a cinnamon roll. Who turns those down. “Just be careful out here. I’m trying to keep everyone behaving inside but it might get crazy at some point.”

The Dream Width being crazy is an understatement. He takes a breath. He promised to share with Hunk when something bothered him. But he can’t tonight. It was too much. “Yes, the dreamwidth was crazy.” Yet something lingers like a shadow over him. “Did...any of the memories change you to suit it?” Black hair. No scar. He stares down at his Galra made arm in thought.

[chefbayardee]

"I've handled Galra soldiers, I can probably handle drunk people!" The statement is confident but very defensive, partially because Hunk has no idea if he can actually handle drunk people. And it's a bit of a worrisome thought, so he switches gears back to the Dream Width. A worrisome series of thoughts.

"In one of them, I was a high school student." Kanji's was mundane, which was apparently unusual. "In another, I was investigating a destroyed town, and I had this huge clunky gun, and there were zombies, and-" He stops mid-sentence, as if he'd been trying to forget what just bubbled up in his mind.

"One of them had a giant crystal tree, and I was a knight fighting off crystal zombies with an axe, and..." Hunk's voice trails off, and he just sighs. Did he kill that woman? Wasn't it just a memory? But the zombies looked like people from his universe.

"...I wish Coran was here." Not just to figure out if that zombie was Coran or not, but because maybe he knew what that was, why a crystal tree and what Narayana and Eternity meant, and...

Hunk just sighs.

[spaceforged]

"What happened when you were fighting the crystal zombies?" He rests his hand on the speeder with a gentler tone to his voice. Something happened. All of his own concerns have been stuffed into a box. He'll deal with it later.

"...I do wish Coran and everyone else was here too." So he'd know they were safe. Maybe get the answers they need to prevent a terrible future. If they could even stop it. "I...changed in the Dream Width too but, that can wait."

[chefbayardee]

Hunk really wants to just drop this entire line of conversation and ask Shiro how he was doing, because that was what they agreed to. They're on a team, they need to support each other, and- worrying can wait. They can both talk about what they saw. He'll just be first. It'll be fine.

"There was this giant, creepy crystal tree. A bunch of knights. Swarms of these terrifying zombies, covered in crystals. They kept coming at us. One of them looked like Sendak." He sighs. It was probably just weird Dream Width memory magic. But then he swallows the lump growing in his throat. He'd know that mustache anywhere. "Another looked like Coran."

As it turns out, the cockpit of the Speeder was a great place for Hunk to pull his knees up to his chest, to start to curl up into a little ball. An awkward, uneasy laugh creeps from his throat because what else can he do to prepare himself to say words that should be completely insane?

"I... think I killed Coran?"

[spaceforged]

He'd listened with eyes growing slowly wider. Whose memory would have Sendak in it? That doesn't make sense. They change to fit into the memories. No memory would change to suit them...could it? Shiro stands rooted in place for half a breath.

"I don't think so." No. Coran is alive. He reaches out to touch Hunk's shoulder once. He's here. "We know so little about how memories work in the Dream Width. It could be the memory shifted to make you understand how devastating the situation was for the person. In one memory, I had both my arms and no scars at all."

He holds up his hand. Still metal. "My hair was all black again. More than one us participated in that memory at the same time." Shiro drops his hand. "Did anything else happen?" If they can piece this together he can help Hunk move past this. Or at least, help him cope.

[chefbayardee]

He just paused, taking in a deep breath at Shiro's reassurance and, thankfully, that hand on his shoulder. Like always, the leader of Team Voltron had a great head on his shoulders. Maybe... maybe it was just weird Dream Width magic. Shiro got his arm back for a while, after all.

"We... we fought off the zombies. There was this creepy laughing woman in the shadows. She said something about Narayana and Eternity, and..." Hunk trails off for a moment, balling his hands up into tight fists. "I definitely killed her." He sounds disgusted, ashamed. How could he not, after unleashing a supercharged series of axe strikes at her, after seeing her spit up blood from so close?

"Then there was an earthquake, the ground split open, giant crystal pillars shot out, and... then it was over." And Hunk just sighs out a ragged, shuddering breath. Did he die in that memory? "One of the other knights got a hit on her too, and I think he was a king? But she... she was so creepy. Messed up lab coat. Crazy laugh. Purple eyes."

And then Hunk looks uneasily back towards Shiro, making eye contact. He knows darn well that Ashelia's drawings for Futaba had purple eyes. But they can't be connected, can they? It's gotta be a coincidence. But they all thought the same about Keith's Blade of Marmora dagger...

[spaceforged]

Shiro's jaw works and he covers his mouth with his metal hand. There's no way Ashelia's drawings and the memory are separate events. But what the hell does it mean? Eternity. Where had he heard that in relation to this world? Had it...been the Goddess of Death? He needs to check his notes again.

"...A knight and a king. A crystal tree and zombies." Each detail makes this go from bad to worse. "Hunk. I think you confirmed for us what we already suspected." He crosses his arms over his chest, brow furrowed and lips pressed into a thin line. His tone is brisk, commanding attention as he slows down and meets Hunk's eyes again.

"Our answers lie in the Dream Width. You may have stumbled upon the memory of a servant of the Goddess. Or something else. Either way that was important. I just don't know what it means or if you failed or not. ...we'll figure it out." They have to.

He can feel a timer settling in his chest and ticking down. His burden. One breath in. "Pass me that cinnamon roll? And eat one yourself. ...and Hunk, you did what you had to. Remember that above all else." It's how he got through the year in the Arena.

[chefbayardee]

"Y-yeah." Almost robotically, Hunk grabbed a cinnamon roll and handed it to his friend. Shiro always knew what to say. They've destroyed so many Galra flagships, and those definitely had people on them. This one just hits close to home because he was so close.

And then his hand grabbed a second cinnamon roll, and he started munching on it with the ferocity of someone who was going to eat every feeling he'd ever had. If there was actually some Goddess of Death involved, how can they beat that?

"We'll figure it out." The words are surprisingly clear given how much food he was fitting into his mouth. But in the meantime...

"Sho... How were your memoriesh?" That's where the mouth full of food went. "You shaid you got your arm back?"

[spaceforged]

"Briefly. It seems memories shape us to fit in it. In one memory there was no such thing as my arm so...I had it back." He treads carefully over the subject. His arm throbs as if reminding him that it's gone.

"A lot of memories were strange. Oh and...thank you for helping me out of mine. We didn't find out anything new but, we have something. That's more than we had before." Shiro peels the edge of the cinnamon roll and pops it into his mouth. It's like brushing his fingers over heaven.

He doesn't swoon but he makes a small pleased sound. He doesn't often go for sugar. But this is exactly what he needs right now. "I missed pastries I recognize." Oh god. He missed so many things. "Next time I'm going to push for everyone having proper equipment."

[chefbayardee]

"Yeah, seriously." Hunk rolls his eyes, before just groaning. "I started using the magitek laser from my gunblade to launch us back to the airships. We had nothing to get us back safely!" And he huffs at that, because they didn't need anyone else getting stuck out there.

"Should I try to draw something up?" And he doesn't really wait for an answer. While he might already be mentally sketching stuff out, something more important is on his mind. "If you have any requests, the kitchen would be more than happy to hear them, Shiro."

And he just looks smug. Better believe he heard that noise, boss.

[spaceforged]

Shiro swallows. His face flushed briefly with embarrassment. Hunk heard that noise. Oh no. “I’m not really a sugar person but, sometimes it’s nice.” Sometimes he wants it just as much as the next person. He isn’t going to get away from this without a small admission. “I’ll think it over.”

Using the magitek laser to get back to the ship is a good idea. He reviews the equipment he’d have used and had for Kerberos. “Anyway, we’d need tethers, space suits.” He ticks the two off in his head and opens up the possibilities. “Some kind of emergency propulsion for anyone who can’t muster it up themselves. A magitek jetpack?” It could be possible? He looks to Hunk for confirmation. “Is it possible, Hunk?”

[chefbayardee]

"It should be!" Hunk lets the sugar-reaction slide for now. He'll just have to make some more desserts the next time Shiro gets stressed out. "If magitek gets used in airship propulsion, we should be able to downsize it for, well, people-sized people."

"I've thought about repurposing the grappling hooks from our Voltron armor as tethers, but I'll have to run some tests, get access to some materials, stuff like that." Naturally, he's already trying to do away with the stress surrounding their last venture. "Since we might go back out there tomorrow," the tone is sarcastic and very annoyed "we might need to get a list of ways to get back to the ships on our own. Magic, magitek, and... even weapons with ropes tied to them."

"What do you think?" Hunk pouts a bit, knowing it's a bit of a daunting task, but Shiro's probably already got ideas. He's Shiro, it's what he does.

[spaceforged]

“I think that’s a great idea. I can help you with funding. I’m sure we could get more as we build on this idea. I’ll check with Safer Osu’s airship Captains and see if they don’t have any sort of safety equipment we could repurpose for materials. Or at least get an idea of the price range.” He peels off another section of his cinnamon roll and takes a moment to savor it. He quite likes cinnamon rolls. On their own not too sugary.

“Either way we can reduce some of the stress of ventures. I wish our armor was working completely but for now this is enough.”
He stares down at the pastry as he adds, a touch sheepish. “...and maybe sometimes a not so sweet dessert would be nice. Just don’t go out of your way for me. I don’t do this often.” But he needed it tonight.

“All the same, thank you. I needed something like this.” He gestures widely. The talk, the food, the company. All of it.

[chefbayardee]

Hunk sees his friend Shiro taking his time with that cinnamon roll. It might even be the closest he's seen to Shiro relaxing, aside from that pollenball fight so long ago. They need more chances to relax.

"No problem, Shiro." It made him sigh just a bit to realize that it took horrible, traumatic dreams for them to get some kind of unburdened moment. Shiro told Hunk to treat this like a vacation and he was, but... Shiro wasn't.

"And whatever we can get for supplies will help. I can pay you back with another cinnamon roll in... a month or two?" Hunk pauses, looks to the sky, and just smirks. "Or you can just ask whenever you're craving a snack. It's not out of my way if I eat them, too."

And then he takes the closest thing one can imagine to an accusatory, sarcastic bite out of his own cinnamon roll. If Shiro's vacation comes from infrequent, homemade desserts, then Hunk is happy to oblige.