whatsacactus | (no subject)

[He shrugs, and as Keith shrugs into his flight suit he helps smooth it out over one shoulder.]

Or leave it. We might be able to come back here one day.

[Shiro smooths it out while Keith zips it up. He holds his breath, going through the motions of getting the boots on. His mind is elsewhere though.]

...I'd like that. It'd be nice.

[Shiro lets his hand fall against the back of Keith's neck, and then he leans in to kiss his forehead.]

Let's get to work.

[He turns first, heads downstairs. He's not really hungry, and he knows that burning the monster, being back in that basement comes with the strong possibility of nausea that would spoil a meal anyway. So he just heads on outside towards the speeder. He'd put it on the hand hover-tractor to get it here, but they can use that to move the creature's body.]

[He could live like this, he thinks. Them, together, taking care of a house and farm. It's something that'll likely never happen. What they've started working out aside, there's no telling there will ever be peace long enough for them to settle.

He gets what he's doing with the speedster and helps move it. With an empty hover-cart, he walks with Shiro back to the basement door and gets it open.]

Hope this is big enough for the thing.

Should work.

[But he still has to brace himself to go back down into the basement. It takes an incredible act of will to follow those stairs down into the dim light.

Everything is as they left it. Shiro grits his teeth as he leans down to heft the monster onto the cart, waiting for Keith to help him.]

[Keith keeps a close eye on Shiro, his attitude, how he's holding himself. He wants to be ready in case he has to carry him out of here.

He manages to get the other side of the creature with no issue. Getting it onto the cart took some arranging only to make sure it won't weigh one side down more than another. Once it's on, he dusts his hands off.]

Not bad. Let's get it out of here.

[After this, there won't be a reason for Shiro to come down again. Keith can come down later and sort everything out, bring back up what they can take to Allura and the others. He makes sure they get it to an out of the way spot, closer by the generators than the animals are willing to come.]

Not sure how to do what's next.

[He holds it together. As much as being in a prototype laboratory that mirrors the druids' all too closely, having Keith-- mitigates some of what he feels. Still, he's glad once they wheel the creature to the surface and he can be under the sky again, open air.

He leans against the lift and exhales a bit.]

It should be easy, but I'll need you to reprogram the tech. C'mere.

[The generators are housed in a small outbuilding, lined up neatly side-by-each, powered by crystals he thinks might have come from a Balmera. Unlike the castle, these ones work in tandem, each covering a portion of the dome that protects the garden. He's pretty sure they can take one out of the sequence for a few minutes without collapsing the dome, and then it's just a matter of creating a new area of effect, burning the body and having done.

They probably don't need to go to this much trouble, but. He's learned it never hurts to be paranoid when considering what the druids, what Haggar was capable of. If she and Honerva really are one in the same...

He shakes his head.]

See if you can pull this one out of sequence.

Uh. Right.

[Oh boy he hopes he doesn't fuck this up. He kneels down with one of the generators on the end. Okay so. He can hopefully figure this out. He pops open the control panel and peeks into it, poking at some of the wiring. He hears something shut down, a small section of the barrier.]

Okay. That's... one part.

[He looks at Shiro, then at the carcass.]

Guess a little further away is smarter.

[He hovers over Keith's shoulder to help him if he looks like he needs it, but he doesn't volunteer any corrections. Keith's always been competent, although he rarely saw it for himself. He had an innate talent for just about anything he tried, and he didn't ever need much instruction.

It's part of why he took to piloting so well. It was mostly instinct, and awareness. Ever since that first time Shiro took him up into the air, flying just made sense to him. Shiro knows that this will too.]

Yeah. We'll do it outside. Program it for a small grid, four-by-four meters, about ten high.

Got it.

[It's something to focus on. He desperately needs it right now, or he may end up thinking too hard about everything else, asking questions they may not be ready to answer for themselves. No, given instruction is the best thing he can have right now. He programs those specs, takes a little longer to figure out the conversion into Altean. It's outside the little building and close to the edge of the barrier.]

Should do it.

[He pulls the handcart towards the area that Keith gestures to, and then - with his help - unloads the creature in a heap. It looks smaller in the light, sad and pitiable, and its skin has gone sallow and white in the sun. Its injuries are mostly congealed now, but the damage they did to it was brutal. It never had a chance.

His expression twists into something very much like regret, and then he backs away from it. They take the time to stack some wood around it and nearby, enough that it'll burn.

He'd retrieved the matches from their makeshift aid kit inside before coming out here, but he can't light them one-handed so the box gets tossed to Keith in an underhand.]

Here.

[This is much closer to something he's comfortable with. He's capable of doing the wiring and engineering stuff (they all had to be, to some degree), but this? This is more his speed. He gets a little closer, keeping his mouth and nose covered, then sets to work getting a small flame started. It takes three tries with the matches before anything catches, and he wishes they'd had some kind of fuel to put on the corpse.

He steps back and sets to getting the smaller barrier up.]

Hope it burns quick. I don't like leaving a portion of the dome open like this.

Shouldn't take long.

[The corpse was desiccated to begin with, and the wood's dry. Shiro just sits down on the grass a short distance away as the small barrier seals up and the fire starts to burn. He's almost mesmerized by it, jaw worked off to one side in contemplation as he watches.]

[Once he's sure the barrier won't stutter itself back off, Keith comes to sit next to him and watches.]

...I like this.

[The whole thing. Being here with Shiro, being almost domestic about it.]

I wouldn't mind this.

[It takes him a moment to come back to himself. His mind is worlds away, with the rest of the clones that may or may not still be alive. Like this poor creature, they didn't ask to be made. Or killed. Any of it. The urge to return there, to see if any are left alive, is so intense for a moment he has to close his eyes against it.

He's only half aware of what Keith is saying, he has to deliberately dial himself into the same frequency. Cock his head to one side. Part of him, bitterly, wants to ask, what, burning monsters? but he doesn't. He knows better, and Keith deserves more than that from him.]

Yeah?

[He nods, sort of mesmerized by how the flame color is tinted through the small barrier field. It's interesting.]

It's quiet... can wake up, know what needs done. All the plants, and these creatures...

[He can just barely picture himself having a place similar to this. But only if they keep the universe safe, only if they retire Voltron, only if he survives that long, if ifif. There are so many factors.]

[He inhales. Holds it a moment. Then,]

Maybe once we're done.

[It's not the promise he wants to make, but it's the one he has. They have responsibilities. The universe needs them, and there's no saying how long that tenure will be for. Shiro would love to say that they've done their part, that they could be finished tomorrow, that they can take all the time in the world to be together, to just... to just live. He can't. But-- he can give Keith hope. It's what he's always done, and it's not a difficult instinct to reach for now.]

If we're ever done.

[He isn't pinning everything on a hope. He knows if he wants that sort of life, he'll have to fight for it. And whatever happens with Shiro, he knows he wants Shiro to be happy too, no matter what. He'd do anything to make sure they can all be happy when everything is over.]

At least it's something to work for.

[Shiro just leans against him quietly, slouching just enough that he can rest his head against Keith's shoulder.]

No fight goes on forever. We've already come so far.

[A benefit of having grown some, now he's tall enough for Shiro to be able to do this.]

Yeah, we have. I know we'll finish it.

[With that, he carefully reaches for Shiro's hand, holding it against his leg. The flames burn for a while longer. Keith doesn't want to get up and leave it, not until he knows he can put the barrier generator back to rights. ]

...Where you found the speedster, did you see any tools?

Edited 2018-07-01 21:14 (UTC)

[He squeezes Keith's hand a little. Just... letting him know he's there.]

Not that I saw. Nothing useable. I think the damage is fairly recent, it looks like one of the animals chewed through the wiring harness.

[He hums to himself and thinks that over. He's sure he can find something to work with to fix it. They've managed to figure out everything else here.

He sits with Shiro while the last of the body burns. Makes sure everything is set back to rights between the ashes and the generator. Once he's done, he dusts his hands off and smiles at Shiro.]

Okay. Let's take a look at the speedster.

[He heads back to where they originally left it by the house and pulls over chair to sit on while he looks it over. He can't do much without some tools to get the panels open but--]

Definitely the wiring. Wonder how they even got in there.

[Shiro isn't especially religious, it was just... never a large component of his life. But he says a prayer for the creature as the last of its ashes blow away, and hopes that it can find peace.

Then it's just a matter of following Keith. It's always nice to see him with a purpose, and it helps take his mind of everything else that's happened. He's content just to watch, smiling faintly as Keith looks the speeder over.]

I guess they got bored after ten thousand years.

Mm. Probably.

[He manages to get one panel off so he can dig in and get a better look. Most of the wires at least had a covering on them, but yeah there's one bitten clean through.]

Can't say I blame them. At least I can probably get this up and running again. Gotta be some pliers somewhere.

[He fiddles with a couple other things he can see, smiling a little.]

Did you want a ride if I can get it going?

[Absentmindedly, he summons the bayard and then waves it a bit to get Keith's attention.]

If you ask it really nicely, I bet you could get it to turn into a set of pliers.

[He tosses it to Keith in an easy throw, and then lifts one shoulder in a shrug.]

You kidding? I'd love one. Too bad there isn't another one, we could have a real race.