@keith.kogane

[secondnature]

[Being back is ... strange. Right out of where they went to face Haggar, to get a better understanding of her mind. Keith stood and spoke to a younger version of Zarkon. He told Keith that he took things too far, that he was willing to lead his team into anything. Keith felt certain, felt like he knew what he was doing—but the doubts creep in now. Steadily. Certainly.

Allura was gone when they got back. In a coma, it seemed. What sounded like a good idea at the time doesn't seem like it now.

But if nothing else, he feels ... like he understands things here better. More than ever. Pockets of resistance. People being wiped out. Having to keep fighting. Keith has seen Earth in that position, and he's seen them not give up. Their enemies back home were external, but here, it's ... everything. It's the world that's been built.

(And in timey-wimey stuff, Keith was gone for a week.)]

Hi everyone. I'm back.

This is weird to even talk about. A lot of us don't know what happens when we disappear. I don't even know if what happened to me is what happens to everyone. But I went home.

I lived a year of my life. More than that, really. It was almost two years. I woke up and I had ... I knew what it was like to experience that. But I remembered being here, too. Has anyone heard of something like that happening? My experience with other dimensions doesn't seem to include this.

I look like myself again. That ... might not make sense, actually. But I have all my hair back. All of it. And not just what I was letting grow out because I had no choice to get it back. [This is where Keith puts in a picture of himself. Unlike before, his hair is shaped, rather than growing loosely, and it's long. Like on the verge of being long enough to pull back into a ponytail. It is a Definite Difference in hair growth, even if he got off that bus in that wild accident a couple months ago.]

Anyway. I think we should look into this. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. I'm not the guy to look into it. And I don't mean that just to put myself down, so hold off, Jughead. I mean it because I'm not the guy who gets any of this time and space stuff. That's not really my thing.

Oh, and my chest hurts. Kinda like how it did when I got my knife back. Or exactly like it.

Comments

@stephen.strange

[rehandle]

[ oh.

it's helpful in that's halfway to solidifying a theory he and a few others have held for a while. but to get that evidence all in one go, and to find it wrapped up in the possibility of going back only to be pulled away again...

as all coins are, it's double sided. as one side wins the toss, the other loses.

but the connection is unmistakably open. a link to their original universes, their original times. they exist here in a pocket, with there having, all told, more influence than here on the state of their lives. and if Keith's hair has those years of growth, if they didn't re-shave him and feed him back through the system the way they do new arrivals ... though, actually, there's something he needs to check about that. ]

Welcome back, Keith. Thank you for this.

About home. Do you remember if going back was a surprise, or was it as if you'd never been away? Was your hair as it last was here when you went back, or was everything as it had been at home, before here?

[ and then, in the interest of keeping open lines of communication with people he's already discussed this with: ]

@leo.fitz this seems to fit the mold, don't you think? And they didn't process him on the way back in. If we're going by Occam's razor, that would suggest this release and return wasn't intentional.

@hafid.alghul you may want to take a look at this too.

[secondnature]

[There is a long moment where Keith looks at both of those names. He's seen Fitz around, but hasn't really spoken to him. Talking about theories and science have mostly left Keith ... confused, and it makes him ache for his team. The ache is mostly balanced now, partly because he just got back, and partly because he's been here long enough to start to develop new friends and connections.]

I guess I left that part out. That's my fault. Thanks for the questions.

[He's sincere. Keith isn't the best at summarizing. Truthfully ... he hates it.]

I didn't remember here when I went there. I just know I lived that, and came back somehow. And that I wasn't changed back from how I was there.

At the same time, you mentioned "processing" ...

If I already have the implant, do I need to be processed again? Though I definitely didn't have my power there, or anything to do with it. I would've remembered that coming up. It comes up while I fight, sometimes even if I don't draw on it.

[rehandle]

[ it's a little late for him to realise that talking about somebody in the same 'breath' as talking to them isn't exactly tactful. there's almost an apology... but they've got enough to be getting on with. he'll get back to humanity and sensitivity later. ]

That's a good point, and the extra information is helpful, thank you.

It's possible that the implant was still a factor in your body there, but given how prevalent in our lives it is here I'm not sure how likely a total shutdown when split from whatever we're running on in this world would be. If the whole system functions online, maybe, but there must be some parts of the technology that are built in and would run without access. Combine that with the absence of your power or associated sensation and experience, and I'm inclined to think you were dropped back into your timeline without these things.

Which confuses the issue of how your body would've aged and grown to replicate that passage of time on the return, without the need for re-introducing those alien elements. But travelling across time, space and dimension is already complicated. The details need figuring out, but it's clearly not impossible. Those will come.

For the most part, the current theory held by a few of us still holds up. An open connection to our home universe/time/dimension, either poorly or expertly controlled, likely connected with the thing in our chests that suppresses our powers and enables the empathy bond, amongst other things. I don't know why they'd want to send us back, but it is still possible that this was intentional.

Aside from the hair, the memories, the chest pain, anything new? Any reason you can see why moving you forward in your life might benefit whoever brought us here?

[secondnature]

[This guy is really good at asking questions. Keith has no reason to be evasive about any of it.]

I have a lot more experience with my team as their leader. I've traveled through more of space, and I've helped us bond with both each other and our lions. I have a theory of my own, that some strong life force is within all of us and connecting us. Back home, we call it quintessence, and it's in every one. Too much of it, or even contaminated quintessence, can be bad, though I don't know if that's what's going on here. It can prolong lives but not give new powers, unless a special kind of alien alchemy is involved.

Beyond that, I have a lot more experience in dealing with proper military figures. I'm a high ranking official with them, and I've helped develop the Earth's defenses so that its prevailing force could go off into space.

There is some other stuff, too, but I'm not sure it's relevant.

The thing is, being able to find out that I know all of that would mean that they either knew it before I got here, or they looked through realities to see that this would happen. That's extremely dangerous for the fabric of reality.

[rehandle]

Looking isn't as harmful as it could be, but the idea that they may have trawled and handpicked a reality to pull you back from is alarming.

[ and then, as always, the fear that they might have that power now. the fear that he was brought here from a time when the time stone was with him. fear that in trying to save it from the clutches of one tyrant, he placed it directly into the hands of another.

but if keith went away as he was and came back here without any of the trappings of his world, there's no proof to say they even came here with their belongings in the first place.

there's a lot to consider. but ultimately: ]

For now, I don't think they have that kind of firepower.

@leo.fitz

[retravel]

Thanks for the ping.
And thank you for sharing these details, Keith. They're extremely helpful.

[ he saw the lad on day one, and he's quite right, the hair has changed, and combined with all the other information, the appearances and disappearances, his own research into natural and unnatural activity in the last year, that means — ]

I'm with you both on this. Our flickering in and out of different timelines doesn't read as intentional. Everything about "the group" who held us for a time points to an orderly modus operandi, at odds with this randomness. Systematic, streamlined dropoffs during times of peak traffic. Agents who step out of line being swiftly terminated.

There's an element of unintentionality in this, even if we've been used with intent after the fact. Does that track?

[ he has a clearer theory than ever, but he wants to be sure this makes sense, that Strange agrees with him to an extent, before he puts the rest out here. ]

[rehandle]

I think so. Unless Keith's a trial run, but the implications of that (discussed above) are huge, and I don't think that's what we're dealing with here.

[ he desperately hopes that's not what we're dealing with here. though, there's been a niggling something that he can't quite pin down - ]

Though we should also consider smaller details, like the specificity of returns. To our beds? Like a save point. To my knowledge the universe doesn't specifically assign individual drop off locations for unplanned interdimensional travel that adjust to an updated billing address.

[retravel]

[ save point, he says, and fitz's fear of being in another horrible vr simulation intensifies. no thank you. ]

I've two ideas, and I'm not sold on either but:
Loki once commented that everything seems to flow from within or through us. Emotions, powers linked to who we are, [ that's a theory he hasn't publicly posited before, though others have touched on it. ] personal items.

I realise this is a half-formed theory, so no one needs to remind me, but for the purpose of this exercise: If we accept my prior statements as true, then it stands to reason that the same interactant that causes all of that is causing us to flicker (hence why our chests ache afterward). And if that's the case, it seems natural that we'd reappear at a place where we've spent a great deal of time, housing our other personal items, like we're following a homing beacon through spacetime.

Alternatively, perhaps our disappearances are unintentional, but we're being "rescued" intentionally. The multiverse may not have our personal addresses, but I'm sure whoever drops us off in batches has been keeping track. Could be they have a measure of control, just not enough to keep us solid all the time.

[secondnature]

Are you using "solid" literally?

@hafid.alghul

[batricide]

[ well, strange pinged him so here he is. keith went home? ]

Did you return to the exact moment you left?

[secondnature]

I did. Have you ever heard of something like that happening? My experience means that time passes. A lot of time sometimes.

[Keith and the others had ... well. Actually.

He'll mention that.]

I should be clearer, actually. We ended up doing something that shot us into the future three years. My team and I. We didn't know it had happened when it did. But as far as I know, I was three years into the future both before I left and after I returned.

[batricide]

Not unless it involves magic, pocket dimensions or time travel.
And even then, I haven't heard of a case where everything was forgotten and then remembered when coming back.

[ if he had access to his files back home he could look through everything the league ever dealt with but...

but this means its back to the drawing board. ]

[secondnature]

What if I was already ... from that future, and only just remembered it now? It doesn't explain the hair, but—I don't know. Now that I'm saying it, it doesn't make any sense.

As it is, I'm pretty sure this involves magic, pocket dimensions and time travel. All of the above.

Not ... that I'm an expert. Just. Experience. That's all.

[If Pidge were here, she could (and would, most likely) have a theory. He knows not to rely on her to magically solve everything. It hasn't been that easy back home. And here ... here he has people like Damian, who he doesn't even get along with, but who might have the know-how to figure this out.

So he'll tell him what he needs to know.

And trust him.]

@ignis.scientia

[cheffeur]

[That's... interesting, but also potentially completely damning for his plans of avoiding the future he's been told about.]

So you're saying you physically left this world, returned to your own for two years, and then were brought back.

[He's trying to think of something- anything that could refute that. Merely implanted with a different timeline's memories? It wouldn't explain the appearance change. Or perhaps--]

And it's not possible you're an altogether separate Keith on the timeline, who has been retroactively given the memories experienced by another here before?

[is that how this works. He has no idea. ~Timelines and dimensions~.]

Another question this rises is how this happened, without the interaction of the group that saw to our arrival here. It would mean that the ability to leave and return is either outside of their control, remotely accessible, or they're able to remove any and all memories that would give us clues as to it from your experience.

[Whatever the case, he's... actually really troubled by this. He doesn't want his friends to die. He doesn't want to go blind. He wants to fight against the timeline that's been narrated to him, given the knowledge he has here. And losing that knowledge and returning to the exact point he'd left from? Having it all play out as orchestrated, despite his best efforts?

It's terrifying.]

[secondnature]

I'm definitely not an alternate Keith. That's not how it works.

[There's no way for him to know that. Keith's lips twist. There is always the chance that he's just remembering what he didn't know, like he said to Stephen Strange, but that's never a sure thing. He's debated before about whether he's a clone. This could point to that somehow, but it's hard to say.

He's not going to mention that. At all. It's just ...

No, he won't.]

I think it has to do with whatever's inside of us. The blue stuff. That might keep us anchored here somehow.

But either way, I don't think the memories thing is what it is. Unless the blue stuff caused that. We don't know what it is.

[cheffeur]

What makes you so sure? That concept makes more sense to me, intrinsically. Using my own world as an example, myself and Noctis arrived from one point in time- Prompto arrived before I did, but from a point several weeks afterwards. But in his timeline, neither Noctis or I had ever disappeared.

It seems likely to me that each instance would be a separate timeline altogether. It's possible that you were pulled again from a different timeline, and to prevent a paradox, you and the Keith already present were simply amalgamated.

But of course, all that is purely conjecture.

[There's no way to prove any of it, either. And perhaps he's trying too hard to think of a way to deny the path his own timeline is on-- but oh well.]

You mean whatever it is that causes our chests to glow with contact? That wasn't present before our arrival here, so it couldn't be the cause of our initial arrival. And if it's meant to keep us anchored here, it clearly failed, if you returned home.

[secondnature]

[Thankfully—for Keith's sake, not Ignis'—those words help Keith figure out why it can't be that. The memories are always the important part. He can't really be a different Keith, can he? But the movement of time. Looking through dimensions. Honerva trying to find a world that suited her best, that gave her the life she wanted.]

It's possible that we started out as alternate versions. I mean, it makes sense with you and Noctis, and maybe even me and Shiro. [Ignis likely has no idea who Shiro is, but Keith doesn't pause to provide context.]

But I don't think it's really possible to fuse two people together like that. It would be based in memories, not appearance. And where would this other me have gone?

But I know different realities can move at different paces.

@jughead.jones

[drivein]

Hey, use it when it counts. Gave us all a bit of a scare.

[ and how easy it is for people to disappear and reappear. ]

Do you remember anything that would have triggered this? A thought, or a memory? A curious bright flash of light from an unidentified man in black?

[ look, he's gotta seep some sarcasm in there. ]

[secondnature]

No. And there wasn't any guy in black. Unless you think fighting the UNA did something?

[Look, he's gotta miss the pop culture reference. It's what he does.]

[drivein]

You know what? Forget the men in black. It's a people on Earth who don't know about aliens thing.
Yeah, so.
It's hard to tell what sparks it, and who comes back and who doesn't. The whole thing is ancedotal and hard to measure. We need to find something steady that everyone shares so we can measure it.

[secondnature]

We all share our emotions.

@kaldur'ahm.shayeris

[shorelined]

Where did you wake up?

[secondnature]

My bed.

The same as always for everyone here.

[shorelined]

That is different from all others who come from their homes, isn't it?

[secondnature]

Yes and no.

We never knew where people disappeared to before, and we don't know if they're really going anywhere when they're gone.

But it's not the same as being brought in the first time. That's for sure.