IC INBOX (futurology)

[reverseengineer]

username: SOUTHPAW

✉ ☏ 📷

Comments

text | username: xXx_trueblue_xXx | idk the first or second night or something, like 2am

[competing]

psst pidge
hey pidge
pidge!
you awake

text | username: southpaw | why are you like this

[reverseengineer]

why are there so many xs in your username

because someone has to be

[competing]

[ in retrospect, he probably should have realized she was awake. "sleep is for the weak," and all. ]

i would've been okay with just a "yes"
but it's because it's cool? and i'm cool? come on pidge you're smart — do the math

anyway since you're awake can i borrow your headphones again
whoever's bunking next door is having major nasal passage issues and i am not about that life

[ his beauty sleep is suffering here! ]

DO THEY THOUGH

[reverseengineer]

i don't think that was ever cool

[Pidge would know she can figure out what is cool through science.

But even if she can't resist mocking his entirely uncool username, she is sympathetic to his request. Pidge doesn't have trouble sleeping. Well, more specifically, Pidge doesn't really try to fall asleep very often so much as just kind of eventually drift off in the middle of whatever she's putting in too many hours doing. It's totally a healthy way to sleep.

But Lance isn't her, and it's not like she's sleeping in the headphones.]

sure you can borrow them

voice;

[secondnature]

Pidge?

[Well, the directory said that this was Pidge, so he pushes on after a moment.]

I can't find Shiro. I've looked—well, everywhere. Just like I've been looking for the lions.

voice;

[reverseengineer]

[Pidge is glued enough to her phone--or Magitek, whatever, that she knows Shiro's gone. She'd stared at it for a moment, barely able to process, then raced to the library, then tried to raise him through the comm in her helmet. She wasn't even surprised when it didn't work.

She did not think to message her teammates because they'd already been messaged and she apparently overestimates their intelligence. And she didn't think to go find them for emotional support because even now she's too used to dealing with everything herself. So Keith's message is... not expected.]

They texted us all. He was transferred, apparently. Since, you know, it's totally like him to set off alone without even saying goodbye to us.

[secondnature]

[Keep running toward where Lance is so he beats him, or stop and answer Pidge? Reason says do the latter, but his heart says do the former. There's a grunt of frustration as if he can't decide as he connects with her, coming to a halt.

Lance can wait. And Lance can shut up. He's not late because he's got any reason to be late. Pidge got back to him, and this—

This is important.]

It's just like those guys—I'm not surprised that ALASTAIR would just send him away. They probably didn't even give him much of a chance to do anything about it.

[Besides, Keith is the one to rush off alone without saying good-bye. Not Shiro. Never Shiro.

He's aware of that, too.]

Hey, uh, I'm meeting up with Lance. We're headed to your room, okay?

[reverseengineer]

...yeah, that's okay.

[She almost wants to protest, say that they don't need to. But they're a team. They have to deal with things as a team. It's what Shiro would want.]

I'll just... be here.

text; un: G.SLQHV

[twinpeak]

hey, uh. it's Dipper. it's been a while so I hope it's not weird that I went looking for your username
got a minute?

text;

[reverseengineer]

Until they send us out again, I guess I have nothing but minutes.

[She'd like to be working on a way home, but that seems a bit beyond even her capabilities.]

D. Pines?

[twinpeak]

[ ah look now you've gone and distracted him, because: ]

Yeah, wow. You're the first one to figure that out. Not that it's complicated but I guess we don't have many cipher savvy types around.

[reverseengineer]

It doesn't have any repeat letters, which would make it more difficult if it wasn't a simple alphabetical shift. That's one of the first things my decryption program checks. Is Pines your last name?

video; un: redlion | post-event

[secondnature]

[While he and Lance have the most heated relationship of all the paladins, he knows he and Pidge aren't as close. But—still. They're both the arms of Voltron, and have worked pretty well in unison in handling that role.

And what he did—what his other self did—]

So ... I'm not sure if you've gotten over your bug sickness yet, but I wanted to let you know that's what happened to me, too.

[reverseengineer]

I figured.

[Do they have to actually talk about this? She doesn't want to examine her feelings, either on her older self or on Keith or on how her older self reacted to Keith.

She doesn't want to wonder exactly how much truth there was to what they saw, or what she'd find if she had the proper equipment to run a DNA test on Keith.]

It was the only logical explanation. Some sort of... mass hallucination.

[secondnature]

[He would really like to say it was a hallucination. The thing is, Keith doesn't think that's right, and he knows Pidge probably doesn't think that, either. Still, they're both better off going to Shiro with this. That's something Keith is certain about.]

Maybe not a hallucination, but—definitely not a sure thing. [He pauses.]

Did you see that Shiro's back? [See: eager to not talk about it. At all.]

[reverseengineer]

Yeah. [He messaged her. She glances down.] He doesn't remember being here at all.

[racking]

Pidge. It's Shiro.

[ there's a pause. there's a lot to cover, and somehow cover it delicately, but shiro settles on starting small. ]

Are you there?

[reverseengineer]

Shiro? [Pidge straightens. All the weirdness of the past week melting away because finally, something not terrible is happening.]

You're back?

[racking]

It looks like it.

[ His smile fades a little as he admits: ]

I don't remember being here before, Pidge.

[reverseengineer]

[Her expression drops and she inhales sharply.]

You don't remember? But it... it just happened! How could you forget?

[Shiro's got a lot of memories missing from his time as a prisoner of the Galra, but he hasn't forgotten anything that happened since they became Paladins. This is... worrying.]

text | username: xXx_trueblue_xXx | during the great ol' camp out, first night

[competing]

[ idk assuming they aren't together somehow IDK ]

hey pidge
youre smart right?

text

[reverseengineer]

[I mean, if he's asking...]

Extremely. Why?

text

[competing]

lets say you accidentally did something to maybe hurt your teammates feelings
and youre not feeling too good about it
even though TECHNICALLY i mean its nothing new same old song and dance you know
but youre also thinking you hit your head a lot harder shoving that lady out of the way of those falling debris so you maybe arent thinking straight
anyway point is
what would you do to you know
make it up to them
or something
i guess!!!?

text 1/2

[reverseengineer]

[Let her just translate all of that into normal words first.]

You and Keith fought and you're looking for a way to apologize?

text 2/2

[reverseengineer]

And you're asking ME for help?