#I had this outline done for awhile but revised it because we needed to have some fun

[dipplinduo]

*sees your update post on sweet & sour* DIPPERS WHAT ARE YOU PLOTTING???? T_T

Here are some out of context snippets LMAO

[callioope]

Good Things in 2019

@theputterer and @the-strongest-stars tagged me in the awesome annual end-of-year Good Things meme! I’ve done this in 2018 & 2017 and always think it’s a fun exercise of both reflection and looking forward.

Oh boy, though, my first thought was, what even happened in 2019? (Looking at a calendar helped! It reminded me of a few things I forgot)

It’s been a Rough Year, friends. Between OCD and basically travelling almost every weekend in the latter half of 2019, I am very much ready for a new year and hopefully a new slate.

But this is about the positives!

Personal

Played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons! I am now officially in two campaigns. This year, I endeavored to recruit more women to play, including the wonderful @allatariel. I play both my beloved cleric, Maritsa (who I’ve been playing her years now) and my new character, Noara, a ranger elf with a red panda familiar (yeah, my DM let me do that for funsies, so I could get an animal sidekick but also still try out the Horizon Walker subclass). 

Speaking of red pandas, I accomplished my LIFE GOAL of meeting a red panda face-to-face. I got to feed Harriet at the Cincinnati Zoo for 30 minutes. She was adorable. 

Completed all my dental work and had a clean bill of dental health two cleanings in a row! 

Attended DC’s Around the World Embassy Day event, always fun

Attended Star Wars night at a local library, where I got to participate in a short demo/lesson on how to fence with a lightsaber!

Attended 50th Anniversary Celebration of Apollo 11 / landing on the moon (dude they projected the rocket on the Washington Monument and it looked so cool)

Returned to the NY Ren Faire and upgraded my ren faire garb

Celebrated at THREE friends’ weddings and got to catch up with old friends I hadn’t seen in awhile

Ate ice cream at the Ben & Jerry’s Factory in Vermont

Went to NYCC for the third year in a row. Got to wear 2 costumes this year: a 1920s flapper interpretation of an occamy and my Endor!Leia costume (repeat of 2017). Learned the True Pain of sewing. Created feather shawl for my occamy costume. Learned the True Pain of crafting.

Celebrated one year anniversary with hubbie down where we got married: visited the museum we got married in and actually got a chance to enjoy the exhibits, went to our favorite brunch place down there, got to check out Fleet Week and tour an aircraft carrier and uh... I think it was a missile cruiser? 

Went up to PSU for a women’s hockey game for sister’s birthday (made embarrassing HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign for the cameras); also it was an absolutely wonderful fall drive on the way up there

Got to see The Rise of Skywalker in IMAX at the Smithsonian Air & Space Center with the awesome @allatariel! (thank goodness we had each other to get through that movie lol) also got to reuse my Endor!Leia costume. I did my own braids for the first time ever! (usually my talented sister does them) They looked like braids done by a n00b, but I didn’t care because they were passable and I did them myself and that was a Big Thing for Perfectionist Me (to not just... say screw it and undo it and just. give up. but to just let them be as is)

Worked hard at therapy and self care

Got a Sleep Number bed and holy shit let me tell you. i can actually sleep now.

OH! I almost forgot!!! Started playing Assassin’s Creed! I’ve only ever really played the LEGO Star Wars and Harry Potter video games so like. This was big for me. 

Writing

Finally finished Learning Curve. TBH I was a bit shocked that this was in fact the only fic I published in 2019. What a travesty.

However! I have been writing

@allatariel & I sat down, overanalyzed You’ve Got Mail, and drafted up the outline for my in-universe AU, something I’ve been dreaming of starting for years. Have about 4300 words so far.

Just under the wire, I did manage to start my NatGeo AU, which I’ve been dreaming of since my honeymoon in Nov 2018

Started editing/revising my original young adult fantasy novel

Poked a little at my epic fantasy pirate travel novel idea

Books

I read exactly one book, Among the Red Stars, which I enjoyed. It’s about women fighter pilots in Russia in WW2. Inspired by real people.

Music

Saw Panic at the Disco! in concert. I went along with my sister. Not like a huge fan, but they put on a pretty fun show!

Saw Waitress on Broadway!! OH MY GOD. And Sara Bareilles was starring in it. Amazing. I freaking love her music (”How does she know / what a heart sounds like?” gahhh). She was so good, and the show was so good. I literally cried all the way through it just because I was so happy to be there, but also because of the content. Man.

Saw Sara Bareilles again, in concert, in Philly. I love her so much.

Television

Finished Critical Role Campaign 1! Oh man, what a ride. Gosh, I love that show. I really need to catch up in C2 now. I’ve started it but I’m only on episode 26 or 27.

I’m not sure whether I finished The Clone Wars in 2018 or 2019. I think it was early 2019. This show was amazing and this was the character development that Anakin Skywalker needed. I love Ahsoka Tano. I cannot wait for the last season.  

Finished Rebels!!! AGAIN, what a ride!!! I still love Ahsoka Tano. I also love Hera Syndulla and Sabine Wren. Sabine’s Darksaber arc was fantastic.

The Mandalorian OMG BABY YODA!!! Yes, I have succumbed to the adorableness of Baby Yoda. Most adorable SW character forever. But also just an enjoyable story in general. This, this is how you craft a story. still NOT over the darksaber omg. 

The Good Place is continuing to be good. Not as crazy about season 4, but I’m so glad they decided to limit the seasons.

Got my sister to watch Rebels!! And then even a few episodes of The Clone Wars!!! Mwahaha >) 

Finally got around to watching The Great British Bake Off, what a sweet show!

OMG I ALMOST FORGOT Anne With an E!!! Gosh what a wonderful wholesome delightful show. No I haven’t watched S3 yet because I am Lawful Good to a fault and just patiently waiting for it to come on Netflix

Film

So, I woefully neglected to mention The Aeronauts in this post about my favorite movies in the 2010s and that was a Mistake. Because I really enjoyed this one

But otherwise probably check out that list. Because I don’t go to the movies that often, actually, and anything I really loved from 2019 is most definitely listed there.

Did I meet my 2019 Goals?

Writing: Fandom

Finish Learning Curve YES

...and How to Lose a Spy in 10 Days Uh, no, not so much

Begin and complete the in-canon universe You’ve Got Mail AU YES, it is begun but no it is not complete

Try to knock out a few other projects on my 30+ SW ideas Umm, I did start / poke at a few things in addition to the YGM and NatGeo AUs, but nothing really “knocked out”

Try my hand at creating more visual fan works (like moodboards/photosets, step 1, learn proper terminology) ahahahah, no. 

Writing: Original

Query more agents for my completed original novel YIKES, No. But I wasn’t anticipating that I’d decide to heavily edit/revise my manuscript.

Actually get around to deciding which idea I want to work on next and work on it Yeah, sure, I decided. How nice of past!Liz to make this goal so reachable as “deciding” lol

Reading

Be more supportive in helping my friend run Book Club so that it can actually meet more regularly HA, oops. Book Club died, but kind of in favor of being able to start a second D&D campaign. At least that’s the trade off I’m looking at. I had some OCD-related glasses issues this year that inhibited reading a lot.

Try to read at least one book for myself outside of Book Club lol WELL the one book I read this year was not part of Book Club sooo

Goals for 2020

Writing

I’m not going to make this a completion goal, but instead...

...I’d like to just focus on creating a regular writing schedule/habit. Whatever the project, I just want to make sure I carve out significant time each week just to write. I don’t want to set a specific goal like “x hours a week” for now, but I want to make sure that I am writing each week.

To achieve that (because what are goals without maps):

If the words don’t immediately jump onto the page, then I’m going to try outlining or summarizing. I’m going to let go of overthinking how sentences are phrased, and just pretend I’m describing the story idea to a friend.

That blank page is staring at me and I’m just going to fill it with words no matter what I might think of them!

And I’m going to let everything else expand from there. And see how that works.

Edit my original manuscript

Query more agents re: original manuscript

Look into the idea of perhaps forming or joining a writer’s group for original writing oh gosh that is so scary

Other

Get back into reading

Develop a routine for working out

Eat healthier

Continue focusing on therapy goals

Get around to watching: Black Sails, Mad Max: Fury Road, Arrival

Get better at responding to things in general

Tagging: @allatariel, @magalis, @mythologicalmango, @skitzofreak, @threadsketchier, @brynnmclean, @ruby-red-inky-blue, @siachti and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it!

Happy New Year y’all!

[sol1056]

three anons: what the hell was all that in S7

Picking out the three that are most to the point for this answer, but I’ve got another dozen or so that overlap. Not sure I’ll have time/energy to answer the rest individually, so hopefully this meta will be sufficient. 

I mean it could be that they had different execs back then who were better at their jobs and kept Shiro around. No one disliked black paladin Shiro, even the DotU fans were ok with it, and the writing in s1-2 was mostly very good. Changing all that was a bad idea. I would have left on the spot if Shiro died or was benched, like now, I'm only around for closure. Maybe they were different execs with this decision & the EPs leaped at the chance. Well, we know who's also gonna be in trouble if that's the case.

With your theory on how storyboards were reused and characters shuffled around for cost cutting, might this not also partly explain the Adam flashback scene and how it was staged? I mean, they were originally supposed to be roommates and the scene was meant to appear in season 2 but got cut. What if they just reused the storyboard (or even animation, if it was already mostly done) the way it was and then just changed the dialogue? This could explain the lack of intimacy in the staging, too. Ezor and Zethrids interactions were more openly intimate maybe not (just) because they‘re villains who die immediately after, but because the decision to make them an item came before storyboarding was done, so the staging is more suggestive. I mean, if you think Shiro was mostly pasted in in the first half of s7, that might make sense.

If cost was the issue and they already had the black paladin Shiro version written, and got the greenlight to change it to Keith then things don't add up. Because they changed it once more! Which could have been avoided if they stuck to the Shiro one. And it goes without saying it would be better written to follow canon instead of the mess we got, like, I cant imagine this NOT discussed. So if it wouldn't be cost effective to change it again for Keith and it would be badly written, why did it happen?

Behind the cut: the most likely chronology of revisions, the clues in S7 as to its original form, and what this means for S8 and the Black Paladin position. 

This is everything I’ve been able to figure out between interviews, podcasts, tweets, plus researching the industry and a few reality-checks with friends more familiar. As always, any mistakes are my own. 

version 0: "five teenagers"

This would’ve been the first pitch after getting the green light, and probably only a loose synopsis, with just the pilot given a rough storyboard. A post-apocalyptic Earth conquered by the Galra, who are seeking Blue. The execs rejected JDS' mechanism for the discovery of Blue, in favor of simply having Keith ‘sense’ Blue. The execs also rejected the idea that Shiro would die only a few episodes in. This summary seems to be the basis of the "five teenagers" part of the teaser.

version A: "shiro kicks the bucket"

Timelines would've dictated moving onto an outline pretty quickly, detailed down to the episode level, including bits of dialogue, motifs, turning points or emotional beats. In this revision, Shiro dies/leaves at the end of S2 and does not return. This is the “originally we wanted him to kick the bucket” version, which the execs rejected.

version B: "shiro goes away for awhile"

If I'm interpreting the hints correctly, the "does Shiro die or not" question got tossed back and forth all the way into S1/S2 pre-production. Rather than rearrange everything, the easiest fix would've been to leave most of the story intact and write only a new ending where Shiro returns. The execs reject this rewrite, saying Shiro can’t be gone that long. This is the “we tried to just have him gone for awhile, but the execs said he had to come back sooner” version.

version C: "enter the clone"

Again, easiest fix is to insert Shiro/Kuron, remove Keith, and reverse that just before Shiro's return in version B. This impacts only the middle seasons (S3-S6); the clone compromise satisfies the execs. Kuron's characterization makes a lot more sense if it’s Keith, in visuals (ie Kuron leaning against the wall in Keith fashion), dialogue (fighting with Lance), and action (leaving without consulting the team). It's also why no one mentions Keith's absence. Because in the original version A, Keith was standing right there.

version D: "wtf is going on", aka Season 7

When JDS mentions having a full season written with Shiro as Black Paladin, it didn't make sense how they'd have a script and not use it. With @ptw30's visual detective work, I think I may've figured it out.

Technical notes: first scripts are all written for a season, then voices are recorded, and then the combined script+recording is used to storyboard. Production seasons are 26-episodes, independent of actual broadcast seasons; VA may be recording scenes across two 13-episode seasons completely out of order, since the recording schedule's going to be based on who's available, not chronology of the file numbers. The biggest staff changes are usually in April ('staffing season') when new shows get the greenlight and start sharking around to catch writers, designers, directors, etc.

In March of this year, S5 was released. At least some of the storyboarders were released in time for staffing season; in April, Hedrick moves to a new project. With S7/S8 being unchanged since version B, I suspect Hedrick delivered the scripts for S7 and S8 by winter of last year, at latest. Even that would be tight, since that's expecting animation to deliver 26 episodes in an 8-month timeframe. [edit: probably delivered much earlier, given the studio leaks show images we can recognize from S7/S8, so some amount of these seasons were in production by then.]

In June, S6 dropped, and a week later, Hamilton was announced as the new story editor via the Lets Voltron podcast. With the lead time required in production, there doesn't seem to be any reason to even need a story editor, at this point. All the pre-production work should be done.

In August, S7 dropped. Hedrick's editor credit is only for the first half of the season; Hamilton gets it for the second half. That means the last six episodes were written after Hedrick's departure. (May Chan's S2 script was reused in part, and she gains a belated co-writing script credit for that. Hedrick should've received the same; it's standard.)

Let's recap a few things we know (and a few we can intuit) about S7:

The season was already written with Shiro returning as Black Paladin, possibly also recorded and storyboarded. 

S6 reversed the S4-S5 trend, lending strength to exec arguments that Shiro is necessary in the story.

After S6 dropped, the EPs said the wolf's name was a spoiler. See this post from @pwt30; tl;dr is that perhaps the EPs intended the wolf to be Shiro's spirit. 

Despite Shiro's return, he's absent for the majority of the first half; when he is present, he barely speaks a half-dozen words, and none are plot-relevant. See @ptw30's post for more details. 

There's a glaring incontinuity when Allura says the paladin armor protected the team, yet Shiro is frozen with the other non-paladins despite wearing armor. 

Keith never offers for Shiro to pilot, nor mentions it, nor even seems to consider it an issue.

Not everything dovetails since I don't have the full picture, but here's my theory: S7 was originally outlined with Shiro's spirit in the wolf, rather than Black. I have no idea when/how JDS would've thought up the CA:WS parallels for his sole writing credit, but Shiro's "I died" and Lotor's psychotic breakdown are squeezed into S6E6, which was written by Josh Hamilton, Hedrick's later replacement. The only other Shiro-in-Black point is a few minutes at the end of S6's final episode. Shifting from Shiro-in-wolf to Shiro-in-Black really only affects one episode, with a bit of editing for another.

Anyway, S6 ends version C, and we segue to version B. For the first half of S7, the clone's body may have been in stasis while the team traveled through its various non-adventures. The episode we now know as S7E1 may have been the mid-point, with about six episodes of Shiro being unconcious. After watching the numbers drop from S3 to S6, the execs may've rejected another six episodes of where-is-Shiro and insisted he come back ASAP.

S7 only has two episodes that must be in order; the rest are pretty rearrangeable. All they had to do was insert Shiro into the background and record a few lines. (Several lines are pure voice-over, which also saves cost/time by not needing to animate moving mouth.) But the moved episode is only his memory/awakening, and the logical next episode would be Shiro's reconnection, and the rest of the season would roll from there. Without moving the entire second half of the season to the start, moving only his awakening episode would mean Shiro does nothing for 5-6 episodes and then abruptly reconnects.  

In a recent interview, JDS said at first the execs weren't enthused until JDS talked up the new mecha they'd give Shiro to captain. Honestly, there's no way JDS got to be EP without giving a really good pitch, but there may've been another element to his argument: nostalgia. The EPs seem certain everyone suffers from their same nostalgia dementia, which if you do, then you probably have been waiting for any glimpse of that og!Keith. If Shiro returns at the start of S7, then Keith's time in Black has been limited to a few disastrous episodes in S3, and a single big battle in S6. The beginning of S7 is the only time we'd ever see the Voltron84 formation working as a unified team, and returning Shiro too soon would defeat the whole purpose of showing how the team has grown in his absence.

The solution seems to have been to remove Shiro's reconnection completely, and keep Keith in Black. That would mean re-recording Shiro's lines from the midpoint onward, and editing in Keith over Shiro. The savings would be that only half the seaon would have to be reworked, not all. The loose end of the space wolf --- an artifact of version B --- was left in place.  

What I'm not sure of is whether the following are significant enough changes to warrant removing Hedrick's name and replacing it with Hamilton's. It could be, if supervising the revision process is enough to override the previous credits. I have no idea about that part of the industry, and it's the kind of edge case you're just not going to find a lot of blog posts about, so if you know, tell me. Otherwise, your guess is as good as mine.

Anyway, this would've meant Shiro was switched in for Allura, Allura was put back in a lion, and Keith was switched in for Shiro. This would explain why Shiro speaks as the leader of Voltron despite no longer being a paladin, and the uneasy sensations a lot of people got about the characterizations. It was most striking in the last three episodes: Shiro felt like Allura v2, while Keith felt like Shiro v2. And that further, the Altean-Earthian ship just 'lighting up' for Shiro --- and becoming that oversized white mecha --- may've meant as Allura's fourth (fifth?) deus ex machina.

I'd be willing to bet that mid-battle, Allura repeated her stunt from the end of S2, heading out to destroy Sendak's crystal by herself. She wouldn't need Sam to hack her brain, and then we'd also have a call back to when she got knocked down by the crystal-ball thing on Naxzela. If she was the one meant to go toe-to-toe with Sendak, that would explain the bizarre neutrality of Sendak's words --- he says nothing personal to Shiro, at all --- and the even more bizarre silence on Shiro's part. Allura's words wouldn't fit Shiro, so he's silent.

And lastly, it'd mean that the one leaping out of Black to cut down Sendak wouldn't have been Keith. It would've been Shiro.

Where would the story go from here?

If I look at the events of S7, the first half is terribly disjointed, really. If Shiro was supposed to wake at the midpoint, an episode (or two) is missing. One for him to reconnect with Black, and a second that would provide some minor conflict to settle him back into position. Those two episodes were likely replaced with the unexpected and frankly over-told two-parter of the Earth flashbacks.

Two problems with that, one technical, one structural.

First, the flashback two-parter has a lot of moving parts. Brand-new designs, characters, and backdrops. It's far too elaborate to be done in an ultra-compressed timeframe, not without several heart attacks and therapy bills on the part of the animation staff. (Plus, the US-based storyboarding team is already downsized, so fewer hands to do the work.)

Second, it doesn't make a lot of structural sense, especially against the big revelations in S6 of an existing Altean colony. Within the story, there's no reason to halt everything and travel across the universe to take however long to build a new castle, when the Altean colony question is far more pressing. Returning to earth also violates the structure, because it's really just a standard milieu: start on earth, head out to have adventures, and return home at the end.

But here, they're returning home and then possibly leaving again. That's just... a rather peculiar and imbalanced way to do it. It doesn't help that doing so means literally telling Romelle her people are just gonna have to rot, the paladins are certain they need the castle more. Why would you take one of the more compelling storylines you've come up with, only to background it again, and wreck the traditional bookending milieu structure at the same time? Especially if that means coming up with major set-pieces and brand-new designs in the space of several months, after a chunk of your core staff are already onto other things.

I think those two flashback episodes -- and the rewritten finale episodes --- may've been cribbed from S8. In other words, the second half of S7 was the original end of S8. That would mean repurposing already-created storyboards and animation artifacts, so there's a huge time savings there (not counting the need to re-record voices and edit the visuals to match the changed-around parts). 

[note: if there’s anywhere you want to frontload introductions for the spin-off, it’d be in the final season, not the penultimate season. Here it feels like a big honking distraction, rather than an organic segue into the next iteration.]

That change necessitated that utterly bizarro mecha that appeared out of nowhere with the most ridiculously impeccable timing. There needed to be a reason to pull the team back out to space to deal with Haggar and/or the alt-Alteans and/or Lotor or whomever else it turns out to be.

So... where we go from here depends on when S8 gets released, because that’ll tell us how much they did (or did not) edit the episodes. Another clue will be whose name gets listed as head editor for an episode; if we see Hedrick’s name reappear at the top, we’ll know we’re dealing with episodes that are enough unrevised to qualify as being Hedrick-edited, that it’s a version B episode. 

My expectation? They’ll move Shiro’s reconnection to the first part of S8, and add an episode or edit pieces of another, to blend it into what would’ve been the first half of S8 (probably with filler to mask the gap). Then add an episode to segue into the version B finale of S7, where we’d end with the original VLD lineup. With the time needed for animation, that’d be the easiest (if potentially awkward) way to repurpose as much as possible of existing artifacts. 

If we don’t get S8 in the next 1-2 months, though, all bets are off, and there’s a much greater possibility that the entire final season is being redone from scratch. I’d expect Keith to stay in Black, in that case, but I’m always willing to be pleasantly surprised.  

edited to add: see this followup for another detail that supports the reversed-seasons theory

[agent-absinthe]

Warmth

(Just somethin’ cute that I found in my old WIP’s that I ended up revising and finishing!)

“Fuck!”  Absinthe yelped as the car suddenly swerved on the icy road.

Merlin’s knuckles were white against the steering wheel from gripping it and he put the car in park, tapping his glasses to get in contact with Harry.

“Harry, I’m afraid Absinthe and myself will not be able to make it back to HQ, the blizzard is getting too strong.”  

It was a freak storm that came out of nowhere and one of the strongest that Scotland had seen since the 1930’s.  The two had gone on a bit of a road trip to retrieve a drop done by an informant a few hours from the facility and now it seemed that they were stranded.  The wind softly whipping the car side to side.

“Yes, yes hold on let me see where we are.  Mhmm, yes my place isn’t too far from here I think we could make it.  I’ll let y’know when we arrive safely.”

“Oh, a sleep over, how exciting.”  Elise tried to make the best of the situation and felt accomplished when Merlin gave a smile.

“I haven’t been to the house in quite some time, hopefully everything is functioning.  I’ll getcha some clothes to sleep in and I know I’ve got some tea there.”

“As long as its warm.”

She was jittery with excitement, she had the biggest crush on the techie.  It was the reason she had volunteered to come with him in the first place and now they would have to stay at his personal home?  Fantastic.  By some miracle of god they had managed to make it the last couple of miles, almost sliding into a ditch twice.  It was a small, rustic style cottage that screamed look at how comfy and cute I am!  Come stay here!  When they finally made it in Elise was surprised to see that the interior had been remodeled as modernized and tech savvy, all except for the obnoxious tartan décor and stone fireplace.  

“F-f-fuck it’s cold in here.”  Elise was shaking as she piled wood into the fireplace and lit it while Merlin attempted to get the heater working.  

“The house may look modern, but don’t let it fool you because it’s old and rickety.”  Merlin cursed typing on a wall monitor.

Elise held back the snort of laughter that threatened to bubble out of her mouth.

“Yes, like me.” It was like he had read her mind.

“Honey, I didn’t say that!”  

“No, but y’where thinking of it weren’t y’?”  He teased.

The home suddenly whirred to life and they could hear the heater kicking up.  Absinthe followed him to the kitchen as he put on a kettle, pouring a good fingers worth of scotch into each waiting and chipped mug.  The tea and alcohol helped to warm them as they stood huddled in the kitchen and chatting till both had their fill, a shot or two from the bottle included.  

“It’ll take some time for the whole house to get warm.  Follow me love, let’s get ya some clothes to sleep in.”

Her heart skipped a beat at the pet name and she followed him down the narrow hallway.  Unlike Harry’s/Eggsy’s home that was riddled with small collections the walls of the cottage were bare except for a few pieces of art and pictures, the scheme was a mix of modernist slate and fucking green tartan.  Merlin’s room was of no surprise with it’s beige comforter and a suspended flatscreen being the only thing gracing the walls.  He opened some drawers and pulled out several pairs of sweatpants, socks, and opened the closet door to find a sweatshirt or jumper.

“I’ll take these grey ones and ohhh so many sweaters-”

“Jumpers.”  He corrected.

Absinthe let out an over the top sigh at being corrected, but took the dark blue one he handed her with a smile and left to go change in front of the fire place where it would be warm.  When she came back in the room Hamish was talking to Harry over the flat screen, the connection fuzzy and slow.

“Ah, glad to see both of you are in one piece, if the storm lets up tomorrow we’ll send someone out.  Until then try to stay warm, maybe cuddle a bit?”  Harry Hart laughed at his own suggestion and cut the connection.  

“I turned the bed warmer on and the blanket is weighted-”  

“Wait, wait, wait.  You aren’t giving me the master bed are you?”  

“Of course, yer my guest, I’ve fallen asleep on that couch loads of times.”

“No!  I’m not gonna steal your bed.  For fuck sake we’re adults, we can sleep in the same bed without making it a-a-awkward.”  Absinthe’s teeth began clacking on the last word as she shivered.

“Y’alright there, lass?”

“Ya, it’s just fucking freezing in here.”

Merlin shifted his weight before sighing and lifting up the blankets, “c’mere then.  I’ll stay with you until the house heats up.”

“See?  I knew you wanted to cuddle.”  

“Huddle,” He corrected, “and y’better get over here before I change my mind.”  

Elise didn’t waste any time and crawled into the bed, quickly making herself at home and giggling when Merlin slid in awkwardly.  She saved him the embarrassment of trying to figure out how to lay by wiggling into his side, nose pressed into his shoulder, and arms wrapped around his torso.  

“Wow.”  She mumbled, surprised by how defined his arms felt through the sweatshirt.

“Hmm?”

“You’re just, well a lot more solidly built than I originally thought, especially since you’re so gangly.”

“Excuse me?  Gangly?”  He turned over to face her.

“Oh come on you know what I mean!  Tall and gangly.”

“I let ya come into my bed and y’ insult me in my own home-”

She rolled her eyes and began scooting away, “Oh my god I didn’t mean it in a bad way!  I’m sorry!”

He let out a deep laugh and pulled her back to him.

“Oh stop and come here, I’m kidding.”  Merlin felt one of her legs curled around his side bringing their bodies impossibly close.

It was making him nervous.

“So, Tequila won’t be upset by this right?”  

“Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I just heard- I thought y’two were a thing.”

“No, we had a fling awhile back but we’re too good of friends to take it anywhere serious.  Just the occasional fuck if we both need it.”

Another silence that was only interrupted by the howling wind and snow outside followed.

“What about you?  I mean you totally don’t have to tell me, I just never hear anything about you around HQ.”

“No.  As sad as it sounds I don’t think I remember the last time I had someone in my bed wearing my clothes.”

His breath hit her neck and Absinthe shivered at the deep sound of his voice which prompted him to pull her closer.  Close enough to feel the outline of his hardening cock in the sweats he was wearing.  

“What?  You’re so handsome that’s ridiculous.”

“Handsome, huh?”  He chuckled.

“Oh I’m so sorry do compliments make you uneasy?”  Elise rolled her eyes.

“Are you sassing me?  In my own bed?”

“Aye. M’ sassin’ ye.”  Absinthe snapped in an over exaggerated Scottish accent.

Merlin looked like he had never been more insulted in his life, “ye are such a brat.”

“Brat?!”

“Mhmm, a cheeky, little American brat”

“I’m anything but little and I don’t take kindly to taunts from bullying Scots.”

There was no semblance of chill in the bed or room any longer, only the tingle in their bodies that came from getting soaked in cold and then warmed back up quickly.  If either had been wearing their glasses they would have fogged from the heat of their mingled breathing, the flirting eased Merlin’s nerves and he let his hand that was spread between her shoulder blades slide down dangerously close to her ass.

“Ye gonna do somethin’ about it then?”

“Mhmm, something...so...awful” Elise angled her face closer to the Quartermaster’s as a distraction, inching her fingers under his jumper to press her still cold hand to his lower abdomen.    

Hamish hissed and jerked from the cold sensation, grabbing for Elise’s wrist as she cackled at his response, her laughter dying when she found that one wrist was pinned to her side as the other lay trapped under Merlin.  He looked pretty smug about the situation and leaned over her, enjoying the halfhearted struggle she made to free her wrist.

“And jus’ like a Statesman it seems ye didn’t quite think everythin’ through now, did ye?  Or maybe this is how y’wanted to end up all along?”

Elise grinned and tipped her hips up slightly to rub against the stiff line in his sweatpants she was aching to get at, “seems like you’re enjoying this just as much as I am, Quartermaster.”

He suddenly flushed with embarrassment and released her mumbling apologies, trying to save a little bit of his dignity.  There was a mutual attraction and Merlin would be lying if he said he didn’t slightly hope this was how the night would turn out, but he was beginning to lose his nerve.  It had been awhile and he had heard rumors regarding the agent currently under him, that she got around and then acted like it never happened.  Hamish did have a nasty habit of developing feelings when it came to sexual interactions, although his rational train of thought was quickly losing track as she held him in place with a leg hooked around his.

“Like I said, we’re both adults here and if you have no interest in me I completely understand.  You do seem like the buttoned up, wait till marriage with a skinny blonde kinda guy so I won’t be offended, but I am going to be straight up with you and say that I’ve wanted to be in this position since we first met.”

“Really?”  It came out a bit more surprised and breathless than the Kingsman would have liked.

“Mhmm, I’m surprised you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly shy about my signals.  But again, I won’t be offended if I’m not your type.”

“Ah, fuck lass I think yer gorgeous.  Jus’ as soft as I thought ya would be and even better lookin’ in my clothes than I imagined.”  He returned to his previous position on her, resting his forehead on hers and rocking his hips in earnest now.

“Ya?”  Absinthe replied in a high voice and finally brought their lips together.

Much like the storm outside- it did not start out soft, but rather immediately went into a ravaging.  Teeth clanking together and lips bitten before pausing for Hamish to eagerly push the jumper over her head, he pulled back slightly to get in the full view of her torso- round hips and all.  Thumb rubbing over a nipple hardened by the cold and pleasure before his mouth descended on it, flicking his tongue in a way that made her quake.

His hand also made quick work of her sweats so he could get to what he wanted and Elise screeched, “no no no you’re hands are still so- COLD!  Cold!”

“But you’re so warm- and so fucking soaked already.”  The crudeness was accompanied by his warming fingers gliding over and opening her lips so he could circle her clit.

The foreplay was making Absinthe grow impatient and she took matters into her own hands using her feet to push down Merlin’s pants and wrap a hand around his cock.  She had not had the pleasure of seeing it yet, but the weight and swell of it in her palm let her know that he was going to fill her to the brim.  He took her wrist again with a shaky grip to stop her rhythm, resting his face in her neck and chuckling.

“Love, if y’keep doin’ that I won’t make it much longer.  Ye do have me quite wound up.”

“Fuck me, then.” and softer, “please?”

Hamish found that his hips fit against hers quite nicely and despite being on the edge already he took the time to rub himself against her cunt until a high-pitched whine made him take pity and finally fill her up.  His full body lying on hers as he began with slow, deep thrusts like he had all the time in the world.  

“Oh, fuck Hamish.”  Elise hadn’t been quite ready for how deep he could get nor the lovely feeling of being stretched just enough for satisfaction.

“I know, I know.  Fuck, we should’ve done this ages ago- is this alrigh’?”

“God yes, I want more though.  I can take your cock, I promise.”  

The movement got sharper as he moved to his elbows for leverage and kneed her legs open wider, “aye, I bet I could bend y’over and do with ya as I please and you’d jus’ take it like a good girl.”

This was too much too fast for both of them, but Hamish was determined not to embarrass himself by finishing so quickly and alternated between slow thrusts accompanied with deep kisses and nipple play and the quicker, harder ones that made her keen, his own moans filling the room when she kept constricting around his cock.  Elise looked up at him with flushed cheeks and swollen lips- oh he was so fucked.

“Fuck, lass m’sorry but ya feel to fucking good and m’not gonna be able to hold back much longer.”

“Please don’t hold it back, I want you to cum for me.”

Her begging for it was too much and Hamish jerked back, dotting her thighs and his hand with cum, gasps muffled in her hair and neck.  Elise held him as he recovered, scratching his back and bringing his hand up to her mouth so she could lick it clean.  

“Ye ok?”

“Me?  I’m fucking great, a little uh- wet, but great.”

“Let me get ya somethin’ to clean up with.  In the mornin we can shower and maybe go another round if yer feelin’ up for it?”

After the required clean up, which to Elise’s surprise included Hamish slipping under the covers and devouring her to orgasm till she begged him to let up, they returned to a cuddling position and drifted off between soft kisses.  She wasn’t sure how the Kingsman would act in the morning, half expecting to wake up and find that he was already dressed and waiting for a recovery vehicle trying to ignore her as much as possible- after all it had happened before.  That wasn’t the case with Hamish.

“G’morning.”  The Scots accent was rougher with sleep and so were his chapped lips as he placed kisses along her shoulder.

“Mmm, good morning.”

“Harry called and said we’ve got a few hours before they’ll send anyone out to get us.  Snarky bastard dinnae overlook the clothes we seemed to have thrown about the room, so m’sure there’ll be talk when we get back.”

“Does that upset you?  We can always deny it.”  It was true, they could, but her stomach dropped at the thought of Hamish not wanting to be associated with her.  

“Let em talk.  Now how about that shower?  I’m dyin’ to see ye properly and from how sweetly you begged last night M’sure you’d be just as happy to see my cock.”

Elise stretched and turned to face him, “Only if you promise I can get on my knees in the shower.”

“Anythin’ for you, love.”