[Video]

[im_a_leg]

Whoa! [Hunk laughs] Holographic interface, awesome! This is way better than possessed mermaid planet tech. A little creepier, though. Uh, no offense. Just.. you know. Being teleported away from people I was standing right next to without being asked is a little rude where I come from.

On the up side, really digging the local food options so far. Tons better than space goo, not that I don't hold a respect for nutritionally dense jello with an oatmeal-like consistency. Here's to hoping it isn't gonna make me start chanting about how safe and warm I am.

And hey, speaking of, fingers crossed that I got tossed into here with my buddies. Anyone seen any other paladins of Voltron laying around? Well, hopefully not laying around. Hopefully, you know, standing. Like healthy non-injured people, which they mostly were like five seconds ago.

Comments

[pidge_out]

[She's kind of tempted to eat a little more of the batter, but she fights the urge.] You're kind of a food wizard, Hunk. I'm sure it'll be fine.

No no, he gets along with most of us just fine. Usually he only fights with Allura 'cause he's got a thing against royalty or something.

[im_a_leg]

[He leans in to give Pidge a one-armed hug, glowing with the food praise.] Thanks, buddy.

Huh. Yeah, he seems alright. Though it is pretty easy to get under Allura's skin.

[pidge_out]

[Hunk hugs always seem to come with an imaginary "squeak!" sound. At least that's what Pidge imagines. She'll just grin and roll her eyes in response.] Uh-huh.

[And then she's giving Hunk a look that's half-amused half-skeptical, an eyebrow raising.] You never have, though.

[im_a_leg]

Well, yeah. [He shrugs] Why would I want to do that?

[pidge_out]

[She shrugs right back.] I don't know. Maybe if you got mad enough.

Anyway, Darin's just kind of like a weirder Lance. Also older and not into the princess.

[im_a_leg]

Nah, I'm saving all my rage for the Galra. The bad ones anyway. [Another grin.] Besides, Allura's cool. A little bossy sometimes, but hey, that probably just comes with the Princess territory.

Okay, so that leads me to my next question. Why are some of us here but not like... Keith and Lance? And I'm getting the feeling that time's being seriously messed with.

[pidge_out]

[That gets her to snicker a little.] Yeah, that's probably a good plan.

That is a little more... complicated. [Pidge shifts her positioning a little bit, like she's getting comfortable to do something that might take a while.] There's this energy here in this part of the multiverse that can cross through reality and space-time and pull things - people mostly, but apparently items too - into this universe. There used to be machines that could harness that energy and use it to peoples' advantage, but you can probably guess that it all went pretty terribly after prolonged exposure to the Ingress. Typical, really, but that's what happens with that kind of tech without extensive testing but you have to admit that it's actually really impressive...

[She'll go on like this. Hunk should probably get her back on track.]

[im_a_leg]

[Yeah, he's got this. He's fluent in Pidge.]

It sounds super cool, but how is it that I come in here knowing stuff that other people don't, exactly?

[pidge_out]

[Hunk, you're the best.]

Oh- Well, since the Ingress energy can move through time as well as space, it can pull us from different points on a timeline. So... you must be coming in from what's essentially our future.

[im_a_leg]

Well that's-- that's deeply unsettling. This is a power I neither want nor deserve and is absolutely in the wrong hands.

[pidge_out]

[Pidge nods a little.] Shiro's the furthest behind. Then me and Allura. And then, well, you.

[And then her expressions seems to shift slightly. It's subtle, but it goes from matter-of-fact to piqued-interest.] So tell me everything!

[im_a_leg]

[He slides the first batch of cookies into the oven, setting the small towel he'd used to protect his hand with on the counter.]

I.. dunno, man. Isn't that like, the exact part of every sci fi movie ever where the world blows up? Paradox upon paradox, trapped in a space taco of folding realities that eventually cause the universe to implode?

[pidge_out]

First of all, they only say that kind of thing in movies because it makes everything sound more dramatic. And second of all, that's only a theory. There's been no way to prove or disprove it.

So come on, Hunk. What am I missing?

[im_a_leg]

[Hunk is like wet tissue paper. He gives so easily.]

Okay, I GUESS it wouldn't hurt to tell you about how you can hack trees now.

[pidge_out]

[And here it is, big bright eyes of curiosity.]

I can what?? How??

[im_a_leg]

You're asking me about hacking? It was a lot of stuff about us all being cosmic dust and your connection to your lion making it easier. None of the rest of us could do it. But it was pretty wicked cool, man. You just touched the tree, and boom. Hacked it! Transformed it into a walking wooden robot.

[pidge_out]

[Pidge is mentally filing all of this away to make further notes on later. For now, she's just leaning forward in her seat, excited.]

Who taught us that??

[im_a_leg]

The Olkari! They're absolute genius engineers. Got kicked out of their cities by the Galra and forced into the forest. And you know what they did? Figured out how to hack nature and make it do everything their city did.

[pidge_out]

Whoa wait, everything? They could make all the same kind of tech with plants and leaves that they did with metal and plastic?? Just by knowing that everything's made out of "cosmic dust"?

[im_a_leg]

I'm not gonna lie, some of the dust stuff went over my head. But! I was in the tree mecha with you and I got to check out some of the tech. I could totally draw up some plans.

[pidge_out]

You should totally do that- Wait, tree mecha? Did we build entire robots out of twigs and leaves?

[im_a_leg]

We had these fancy headbands and you kinda just... touched the tree and made it into a walking machine. It was really cool. I'll draw out some diagrams so you can see what I mean.

[pidge_out]

I couldn't have just touched the tree, Hunk. The headbands probably did most of the work. [Of course she... doesn't know for sure. But hey, Pidge'll just work with what she's got.]

But okay, so. Designs after your cookies come out.

[im_a_leg]

It was really close to just touching a tree! Something in the headband helped transmit electronic waves somehow, but honestly I didn't have a lot of time to look it over. I could totally diagram that out for you too, but I don't know what the energy conductor was.

[pidge_out]

[Pidge's lips purse a little in a mixture of thoughtfulness and confusion, leaning forward a bit on the counter.]

I bet you ten bucks it's quintessence. Which I still don't totally have a grasp on in terms of how to make it work for us.