Application

[impulsivepaladin]

Personal Information
Name: Robin Terrae
Age: 34
Personal Journal: robin_terrae
Email / AIM / MSN / Plurk: robin.terrae.rp@gmail.com / Mekkyakushi / robinterrae
Current Character(s): N/A

Character Information
Character Name: Keith
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Character History:

To begin, we must journey 10,000 years into the past, with the advent of Voltron, a mythical robot created to defend the universe. Instead, one of it's Paladins betrayed the others and King Alfor of the planet Altea was forced to split it into its five components and hide it within the far corners of the universe, hoping for some time in the future when it's five Paladins would join together again and awaken the greatest weapon in the universe.

Present day....

Not much is known about Keith's early life. The most we know was that he was a orphan and at some point before the series started, he met Takashi Shirogane (henceforth known as “Shiro”) and had joined the Galaxy Garrison, only to wash-out later due to “disciplinary issues,” even though he was the best pilot in his class. Our introduction to Keith is when Shiro returns to Earth, crash landing in a alien ship, a full year after he and his team were lost in space while on a mission to Kerberos. He storms the Garrison's temporary base where they are holding Shiro (who is trying to warn them of an alien invasion; instead they ignore and sedate him), frees him and ends up escaping from the Garrison guards with three other Garrison cadets who had sneaked out that night and saw Shiro crash land: Lance, Hunk and Pidge.

Taking them to his home, a shack in the desert, Keith explains that after he had been kicked out of the Garrison, he had been drawn to the desert, as something, some sort of energy, was 'calling' to him. He explains to the others that he found where the energy was concentrated at, and while there, had discovered caves full of paintings of a blue lion. Hunk broke in and said that he had found in Pidge's diary a number sequence from the alien chatter that he was able to turn into a frequency and map out – said map ended up matching the rock formations that Keith had discovered the energy concentrated at and so our five heroes decided to go exploring.

When they do, they find the cave with Keith's drawings and as they approach, the drawnings begin glowing. Keith points out that they've never done that before, right as the floor they are standing on gives way and they fall down through it, only to end up landing in front of a massive blue robot lion, surrounded by a shield. At first the boys are all convinced that this is Voltron, until Lance approaches the shield and knocks, causing each of them to receive a vision of five robot lions combining into one large robot. They realize that that was Voltron and wait a second, where are the other ones?

The lion drops then, its jaw opening to give them entrance and it's Lance who does so first, entering the lion and taking a seat in its pilot's chair, the others following behind. Although Keith is the one who felt the lion, it's Lance who ends up being its pilot. Blue guides them into space, where they take on an alien warship before escaping into a wormhole. The wormhole leads them to Planet Arus and too a seemingly abandoned castle. Exploring it, they discover two cryo-pods with two figures sleeping inside. Awoken, they reveal themselves as Princess Allura of Altea, the daughter of King Alfor, and her companion, Coran.

After discovering that they had been asleep for 10,000 years, Allura explains what is going on to the Earthlings – an alien race called the Galra, lead by their emperor, Zarkon, are trying to take over the universe. The only force that can stop it is Voltron and these five Earthlings who are now its new Paladins. The Princess explains where they can find three of the lions they still need, unfortunately the Red Lion is still missing and Allura will need some more time to locate it. So the group splits up, Shiro and Pidge to retrieve the Green Lion and Lance and Hunk to retrieve the Yellow. Once they return, Allura reveals that she has located the Red Lion, but unfortunately it's located on the Galra ship that is heading for them. Knowing this lion is Keith's, Lance and Hunk prepare to act as decoys, while Shiro, Pidge and Keith manage to sneak aboard to the ship. On the ship, they split up, Shiro and Pidge to rescue some captives, while Keith searches for his lion.

Oh course, considering this is Keith, who is not the most patient of people, this takes a little while. In fact, he ends up going in circles a few times, growing frustrated every single time he ends up back where he started until he remembers something Shiro had taught him: patience yields focus. Taking a deep breath, he concentrates and discovers it really is how like Hunk and Lance said, he'll be able to sense it's presence and go right towards it. Becoming Red's Paladin isn't as easy, however, as Keith finds it, but unlike when Lance found Blue, Red refuses to acknowledge him in any sort of way. In fact, it takes Keith getting blown out into space after protecting it from some Galran soldiers before Red springs to life, catching him in its jaw and accepting him as its new Paladin.

Now with four lions in their possession, the Paladins and team awaken the fifth lion, the Black Lion, and go out to defend the castle and Arus from the approaching ship. Of course, this takes a little bit of maneuvering, as they try to figure out how exactly they are supposed to form Voltron, when Shiro finally gives a motivational speech when all hope seems lost and they form Voltron and kick some alien booty. Yay.

After that, they begin on training (Allura is a crazy taskmaster by the way), trying to work out their differences and focusing on working together as a cohesive unit. It takes awhile, after all, these are four teenagers and a space dad thrown together in order to save the universe. But they make do, taking on the Galra to various degrees of success, defeating the monsters Zarkon's witch, Hagger, sends after them and even managing to take back the castle after the captain of the ship they managed to bring down, Sendak and his second in command, take over the castle after splitting up the team and taking two of them captive. Following this, the team decides to leave the planet Arus (the castle is a space ship. Coolest space ship ever), and head towards space, first to free a being called a Balmera and the creatures who live on it, before heading out across the universe to take out the Galra and free various planets from their rule, while getting out the news that Voltron has once again returned.

It's during these battles that the Paladins discover the ugly truth of what the Galra are doing – harvesting raw Quintessence (energy, pretty much) from planets, which in turn, is refined into the energy that the Galra use to power their empire (and most likely gives Zarkon his nice long lifespan, because how else is the guy alive after 10,000 years?) and effectively destroying that planet. During a mission to stop one of their harvesting sites , Allura is captured after tossing Shiro to safety. When the Paladins go to rescue her, Zarkon confronts them, influencing Voltron to disengage (and for Black to spit out Shiro) and revealing himself as the original Paladin of the Black Lion. Keith jumps in with Red to keep Black out of Zarkon's hands, but is almost killed before Shiro can rescue him. The Castle Ship and her crew attempt to flee through a wormhole and are mostly successful, until Hagger manages to hit it with one of her spells, causing it to become unstable and separating the Paladins from each other.

Character Personality:

Keith is, by all accounts, rash, impulsive and more prone to action then thinking. That's not to say that he's so simple and one dimensional. Far from it, actually. Keith is actually a young teen of many layers and depths, but usually doesn't bother to show anything beyond what's on the surface. He's never really had a reason to, until now.

While yes, Keith is all of those things; it's implied that 'disciplinary issues' is what got him kicked out of the Galaxy Garrison even though he was one of their best pilots. He almost injured the Balmara during a fight with the Galra before he was reminded that it was a living creature. He's likely to be the first one to go out into a battle, even if it's one he can't win. He can be prone to moments of rage, where he sees nothing but his target. It causes his reflexes to become even faster, allowing him to make an even deeper connection with his lion, making him and Red a formidable team, but it also makes him lose touch with all sense of reason. Zarkon comments on it, saying that Keith fights like a Galra Soldier.

Keith is not above goofing off and being a dork however. While it takes a while to come out, he's not above letting loose and participating in the food fight against Allura and Coran for instance. There's also his moments with both Red and Lance. With the former, in trying to convince Red to take him on as it's Paladin, he stands in front of the lion and starts yelling: “It's me, Keith! I'm your Paladin! I'm bonding with you!” and in the latter, being all affronted when Lance claims not to remember their bonding moment after defeating Sendak, “We had a bonding moment! I cradled you in my arms!” In fact, Keith's bonds are probably one of the most important things to him: he's close to Shiro, after all, he even took on Zarkon himself in order to protect the other; he yells at Pidge when the other informs them that she wants to leave Team Voltron to try and find her dad and brother and while his rivalry with Lance tends to start out heated, it tends to calm down a little the more they are together: when Lance's lion is stolen and Keith retrieves it, he's not above teasing Lance about it, even pretending that his comm has static just to bait him even more. In fact, Keith and Lance make the most complimentary team in the group, their elements (Fire and Water) balance each other out, as do their strengths and weaknesses (for instance, Keith is a fast, up close fighter, while Lance is more rounded and his bayard keeps him at a distance).

It's implied that Keith's sense of social interaction is a bit lacking, as he doesn't understand the idea behind Lance's chant of “I say 'vol', you say...” since he answers “Voltron” every time; until Lance gives up and tells him that they're work on it. But he does have a quick and dry sense of humor and quick to retort to any sort of comment Lance makes, usually at Lance's expense.

He's intuitive as well. Not only was he the one that sensed the Blue Lion's energy and led the rest of Voltron's future paladins to it, but he's also the first one to discover that their bayards can be used in conjunction with Voltron as well, as his forms the Blazing Sword when inserted into Red's ignition. When Pidge's great secret comes to light, Keith's reaction is more of a shrug, stating that he already knew about it. In the same vein, Keith can be a bit cautious as well, usually outside of combat situations, such as when it takes him a while to warm up to the Arusians. Being hugged by one takes him aback, until he realizes how cute and small it is and hugs back, only to be greeted by probably one of the deepest voices in the series thus far.

Keith could probably be summed up quite plainly in Allura's words, when telling them all about the Red Lion: “The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master. It's faster and more agile then the others. But also more unstable. It's pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts then skill alone.” He is the very embodiment of the fire he's supposed to represent: he burns hot and passionate, raging against everything in his past, but when controlled, it can be a deadly and formidable enemy.

Powers and Abilities: First and foremost, Keith is a damn good pilot. He was the best in his class at the Garrison before he washed out and even one of the rebels comments on it when Keith is chasing their ship through an asteroid belt. Keith is also small and fast, he's the second shortest of the Paladins and his speed in combat is unmatched among the others. His bayard, or Paladin weapon, materializes in the shape of a double edged sword. Also, while it's never mentioned again in canon, Keith was able to sense the energy of the Blue Lion, even though he wasn't its Paladin, and was able to lead the rest of the group to it.

Samples

Network:

[ Keith looks a bit uncomfortable doing this, but he's not one for public speaking. But this is something he knows he can't do himself. It's too damn important. ]

So this Bending thing. It can be used to make just about anything, right? I need someone to teach me how to do it, or at least the more complex stuff, because there's something I need. Something important. Mechanical. It's from home, but it's a bit more involved then just an apple or clothes.

If you're willing, let me know. We'll work out some sort of payment or exchange or... something.


Third Person:
Of all the districts in Nautilus, Keith usually found himself drawn the most to the West. It was almost like a pull - if Keith had to put it into words, he would probably say it was in-between the pull he had felt when he had been led to the Blue Lion in the desert on Earth and the pull that had eventually led him to Red on that Galra ship. In all honesty, it was most likely the sky; the red tones reminded him of the desert at sunset, of one of the few and only places he had considered home on Earth and of Red; the majestic alien robot lion that had claimed him as its Paladin and given him the home that he had now.

It was strange, he realized, growing up, he had mostly been on his own. As an orphan, he hadn't let himself form too many close companionships, not wanting to bother; he found he preferred to be on his own, anyway. At least until the Garrison and Shiro. But then Shiro and his crew were gone, presumed lost, dead, in space and Keith had found himself alone again, alone and acting out, getting himself kicked out of the Garrison and into the desert. Not that he had minded the desert, it had been comforting for a while, before Shiro had crashed right back into his life again and the others inserting themselves right in as well.

After all they had been through, it felt strange without them. Despite whatever he may have wanted, Voltron had changed him. He had a team now, a family in Shiro, Pidge, Hunk, Lance, Allura and Coran. He had a place, a room on the ship, a cockpit in Red and a position as the right arm of Voltron. He had a purpose, to defend the universe from Zarkon and the Galra, to keep them from doing to others what they had done to Shay and her people, the Balmera, to Shiro, to Pidge's family and to Allura and Coran's people and their planet. It was a strange feeling, but a comforting one as well.

But now... now all he had was his bayard and his training. He didn't even have Red, which was what had led him to swallow his pride and his nervousness and use the communicator to see if someone could teach him how to Bend the more complicated and mechanical stuff. He didn't want them to do it for him – no, this was Red and Red was his – but to at least give him pointers and a direction to start in.

Just like Blue had done for him in the desert.

He would handle the rest.