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"Greetings, this is the inbox of Princess Allura. While I am grateful that you have reached out to me, I unfortunately cannot answer you directly at the moment. But if you leave a message and wait a tick, I will surely get back to you!"

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[there's a weariness to her voice when she finally does respond.
and it is not from trying to remember how to breathe air.]

Keith...I am here. I...

...we failed them.

[There's a wash of relief at hearing her voice. Okay. Accounting for the team is important. But he hears that tone in her voice too, and he understands it.]

I know.

[His own voice sounds frustrated. Tired. He's not convinced that their presence there didn't actively make things worse, destabilize things further. For now he's keeping that to himself.]

Their world tore itself apart. We need to figure out what went wrong.

[So if they encounter it in the future, there isn't a repeat.]

I haven't heard from all the others yet. Shiro and Hunk are accounted for. Let me know if you hear from Pidge or Lance or Lotor.

We did not do enough, is what went wrong.

[there's a snap to her voice. not at Keith, but at the whole of the situation, the prospect of failure and an entire world destroyed. one which she was sent to help.]

I have heard from Lotor. But...not from Lance, nor Pidge. I will contact them immediately.

[Keith is quiet for a moment. He understands the frustration, the pain of it. They're all feeling it.]

Then we try to figure out what we missed. What we didn't do. So it doesn't happen again.

[Keith's words are still quiet, still low and surprisingly level. He's furious about the whole situation, but for the moment he's jammed it down. How the team is doing is more important. He'll find something to scream at and hit later. ...for training. Productive stress relief.]

I would reach out to Astoria and ask, but it seems that she has been preoccupied since our return.

[a long pause.]

I am, uncertain how to feel about her.

Preoccupied seems to be her usual state of being.

[Keith hesitates only a moment before answering that next part.]

I don't trust her. I just haven't settled onto what the reason I don't trust her is. ...whether she's withholding information from us deliberately and putting on a pretense of not knowing. Or actually not knowing.

[Neither option engenders trust.]

[it's her frustration and dismay of what occurred on Akvos that goads her, a bit careless in speaking her doubts over what is, obviously, not a secure network from Astoria.

but even still. perhaps she will listen...]

What troubles me is she's made little to no effort in having us act as a team. When we arrived at Akvos we had been separated, but perhaps if our bonds as members of the Circle were stronger, we'd have been reunited much sooner.

There are those brought here who are not even properly trained for combat.

Yeah. The people she's pulling here, a lot of them aren't fighters. And even the ones who are, we're far as hell from a team.

[Keith isn't a fan.] Even if some of us aren't combat-ready, at least some organization of who is and isn't, and who can offer support. But our numbers are changing all the time too.

[Many challenges to overcome.] And some information about where we're being flung would also be helpful.

At least we have some control over ourselves and how we organize. The rest is at Astoria's whim. So... we should try to do something about the part we can.

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