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abizarreyodelingincident · 4 years ago

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Linked Universe: Our Nightly Confidant 1

Wind From Home

Twilight considers himself a simple man. A farmer at heart, even if he has the hands of a hero. He's grown in a small village, where everyone knows everything about everyone else. Community is a sense that's been cultivated in him as well as pumpkins on a sky island (whatever that saying means).

He loves his brothers and his sort of dad. This quest... he doesn't want to say it's a blessing. It isn't. The monsters threaten many. Their group hasn't always saved everyone. It's no blessing that hurts so many. But he can't help rejoice the opportunity to meet so many heroes. To find his place in the legacy of the Hero of Courage.

As a Hylian from a human village, he's never worried about his place, but he does find peace in belonging to a group with no such innate distance.

He's one of the oldests, weird as that is. Most of the group are like little siblings to him. Weird, insane and irreverent little shits that give him grey hair. No, he's not thinking exclusively about Wild (Wild's a special case). He's attuned to their moods.

Four asked if he had a special sense for this, the second time he'd done it. A 'special' sense, he had insisted in the middle of their training camp, meaning wolf senses. No. Twilight doesn't feel one side of him bleeds into the other. It's not like that.

It's not what makes his eyes trail after Wind today. His youngest brother (barely losing to Colin by a season) is currently laughing his ass off on a tree stump over Warriors tripping on Legend's items. It is denied, not very convincingly, that the items weren't left there on purpose. Little shits, he's telling you.

The truth is more down to earth, the way Twilight likes it. Dogs train themselves to recognize hylian expressions. They know what sadness and joy and anger look like all too well. They know when to cheer their big two-legged friends. And a wolf? Well, a wolf better learn fast the difference between a real smile and a fake if it doesn't want to end up stuck in a bear trap.

***

First watch is always a bit nerve wracking. Unlike second and third watch, Twilight can't just shift into wolf form to sniff out enemies and make sure the whole forest is secure. Links don't fall asleep easily. Legend wakes up at the slightest noise for the first two hours he looks asleep. Time might just stare at the sky the whole night, not getting a wink of sleep. Sometimes, Twilight himself just... can't stop thinking. Wondering where she is now. If she's alright. If Ordon's safe without him. Once in a while, he'll close his eyes and hear Lumi crying, and Uli's quiet steps to shush her.

The other half of the time, it's staying asleep that's the problem. The Goddesses know they all have plenty of material to fuel their nightmares (he's never forgetting Yeta's face, he's resigned to that).

When the moon's path has almost reached its zenith, Twilight hears the first few moans. His heart drops. He hoped. But he's not surprised. Sometimes, the heart can't take the weight of the mask people plaster on.

It starts small. It always does.

For a time, it's mostly sniffles and choked sobs. Then a small 'I'm sorry.' Twilight grimaces. None of them show their scar easily. The deep scars, at least. Wind wouldn't appreciate an audience. Unfortunately, Twilight can't exactly leave. The next best thing however is to try and cut it short.

So, decision made, he creeps around camp, places himself behind Wind and shakes his shoulder. (Carefully. The group collectively learned not to take sleeping Links lightly. At least, Sky had laughed out the black eye with grace.)

“Hey, Sailor,” he whispers, hoping none of the others react. “It's your turn.”

In truth, it's a touch early for that. But he knows he made the right call when Wind rubs his eyes and freezes at the wet feeling on his fingers. He'd been in the middle of turning around, but he immediately fakes a stumble and buries his face in his rolled up blankets instead. It's a good cover to wipe tears without being too obvious.

Twilight would be impressed if that didn't send pangs of worry through his chest. Oh, Wind...

“Mrm,” Wind mumbles. “One minute?”

“Sure, I gotta take a leak anyway.”

“Yeah, yeah, piss off.” Wind waves him off from under the blanket.

Twilight smiles to himself. He should ask Wind to direct a play next time they visit his Hyrule. Queen Zelda was always in need of entertainment for the stuffy dignitaries. Jackasses couldn't crack a smile if they were whipped.

That faint irritation pushes him toward the end of the camp line, out of the clearing. Once he's out of sight and hearing range, he grabs onto his cursed necklace and sneaks through the underbrush. His senses make navigating through the twigs and branches child's play, and the lack of any pig-like stench reassures him that there's no malice-infected monster around. In less than a minute, he has circled around the camp and positioned himself the near opposite of where his hylian form left through. Generally, people don't make the association if he leaves a few minutes tick by. Out of sight, out of mind.

It's a bit embarrassing how well that trick works.

Wind's head is turned in the direction he disappeared earlier. Skittish, like a rabbit looking out of its hole. Wind must be waiting for him to return from his manly business, which is a bit of a lost bet at the moment. Seconds tick with only the faint brushing of leaves on his fur and the nightly wind for company. Then, all at once, Wind stands up and stomps his way to the stump Twilight had been using for his turn at the watch.

“Damn it!” Wind curses under his breath. The tears are held at bay, barely. “There's no way he didn't see... calm down, calm down dammit, he's gonna come back soon!”

A small boot kicks off some dirt. Twilight flinches in his hiding spot. That's more anger than expected. He's not sure what to do with that. None of them like vulnerability. None of them are used to being allowed vulnerability. He's worked on Wild and Time for a while now, and he's making progress, even if it's only them opening up to him.

It's that same instinct that pushes him to walk through the bush and reveal himself. He's as non-threatening as a large wolf can be, but Wind still whirls around with his sword drawn. Recognition is a second slower.

“Wolfie!” Wind whisper-yells. “Bad dog! I almost skewered you!”

Twilight raises one eyebrow, unimpressed. He is most certainly not a bad dog, and he is quite experienced at dodging last second hits by flailing, surprised preys. Not that he even thought of Wind as prey, never, but Wind didn't have to imply he'd be that stupid.

“Oi, what are you looking at?” Wind grumbles, dropping back on his tree stump. “Stupid dog...”

Twilight fights the urge to growl. He's here to help, not pick a fight. Unfortunately, his struggle had been obvious, because Wind deflates and sheaths his sword.

“Sorry. It's just... I'd been doing so well so far,” he whispers. “Even if they're big mother cuccos about me sometimes, they still listened to me.”

Twilight feels his tail curl between his legs. He knows he's overprotective. He knows it's annoying Wind, but he can't help it when every other time they fight, he sees Colin rushing into the path of King Bulblin.

“Hey, hey, don't be sad.” Wind cajoles, patting his knee like an invitation.

Twilight's too happy to question the change. He plops his chin on Wind knees and looks up. Small, calloused hands run into his fur.

“Do you have family, Wolfie?”

… What? For a second, he slips out of grasp just to better stare at Wind. Then, he sniffs his breath for a second, and whilst there's a fair amount of onions there (dental hygiene, Sailor!), no traces of booze anywhere. So, he softly woofs, tilting his head to the side.

“Do you have a she-wolf and a litter of little pups that trip all over themselves? I bet you're a good dad, aren't you?”

Twilight can't help the shocked whine that burst out of his throat, nor the flattened ears on top of his head. Him? A dad? He was far too young for that! Being a brother to Wild alone was trouble enough as it was, fatherhood remained firmly beyond his grasp. Besides... it wasn't like he had someone with whom...

“Aww,” Wind cooed, scratching behind his ears, “I didn't want to scare you, Wolfie. I just thought you take good care of us, s'all. I bet you'll be a good dad someday.”

Flattered as he is, he can't help puff and huff into Wind's shirt. He's a noble beast, talked down to like a lap dog. At least, he successfully distracted Wind from what nightmare he had.

Together, they listened to the crackling embers, moving only when the flames needed another log or when a critter stumbled too close to camp (a very curious rat that scampered when it met Twilight's eyes).

“How much did he drink?” Wind mutters, a bit later. “Did he pass out with his breeches down?”

A low growl rumbles into his chest. The disadvantage of others not knowing he's Wolfie is hearing that kind of crap about himself. He's a misunderstood man condemned by the judgemental Links of the world.

“What? Don't like him? Twilight's okay. Most of the time. Like, he saw me cry. I know he did. He knows I know, but he still pretended not to... you know?”

Twilight's best deadpan glare expresses that yes, he knows. More importantly, he puts a paw on Wind's chest, making a small inquisitive noise. Why? Did he need to share it with a very innocent wolf that doesn't judge anyone and anything except Warriors' morning hair?

The fragile grin on Wind's face falters. His eyes dart around. “I... it's not like... You won't laugh, right?”

Twilight nods emphatically.

“It's nothing too bad. I just miss my sister and my grandma.”

Oh, Wind...

“... Please don't tell the others,” Wind said in a tiny voice. “They already have a hard enough time taking me seriously. I don't want them to think I'm being a baby who cries about his family.”

The confusion can't overtake the lance of shame and heartbreak that spears through Twilight's body. Had... had they pushed Wind into this? Made him think that because they hide their tears, they'd laugh at his?! Goddesses... Uli would smack him with her wooden spoon for making a mess like this.

Again.

He might have been a bit overbearing once his quest had ended. Colin had been happy about the attention... the first three days or so. Afterward... well... Uli and Rusl had taken him aside, put their feet down and helped him let go of his dead grip on his little brother's safety. And half the monsters he'd faced had nothing on the challenge of letting Colin make his own mistake. He thought he'd gotten better about this.

But he might have forgotten Wind was not nearly as tolerant or hesitant as Colin.

“I'm a Hero too. I'm strong. Why would I cry over nothing? My grandma and my sister are fine. I bet we'll be portaled in my Hyrule soon and I'll have worried for nothing and Twilight and Warriors will be right to treat me like a fragile little boy again.”

He's not. They all know he's not. He's just... the youngest. The most cheerful, most innocent, most... most well-adjusted of them all, and they want so badly for Wind to keep that. He's a wonderful young man. They're all so proud, so impressed with him.

He's gonna have a few conversations with Warriors and Time tomorrow. Goddesses!

“Hey, Wolfie... I know you don't like being around too long, but... Do you mind staying a bit?”

Twilight chuffs, stubbornly burying his face even deeper in his little brother's shoulder. As if someone would be able to pry him off Wind before morning.

***

“Do you ever feel a strange sadness as dusk falls?”

Wind looks up sharply, startled but unwilling to admit it. He'd been polishing that long view of his by himself. “What?” he says, and there's an implied 'the fuck?!' in there. Pirates...

Twilight brushes the grass and then sits on the hill, staring past the coast at the red sun. “My father told me that, the day before I left on my quest. Neither of us knew then I'd have a quest soon, of course. But it stuck with me.”

For a long time, Wind's expression shifted between fascination, embarrassment and a bit of confusion. Twilight really needed to teach him how to maintain a poker face before he played cards with Warriors again. Still, there's no rush.

For all that it tears him in half, dusk also has a way to sooth his old aches. It's a peaceful time. A moment when the day dies, when the living settle and close their doors.

“It's the horizon, for me,” Wind admits. “When I... the first time, I'd never ever left my island, and all of a sudden, I had to leave because that huge ass bird had kidnapped my sister. So I had to leave my home for the first time, and I was on Tetra's boat, staring at Outset Island shrinking and shrinking till it was gone. Even when I pulled out my sister's long view, all I could find was the waves of the Great Sea.”

“Ah, a boar and a bulblin got my brother, my childhood friend and a bunch of kids. Knocked me right out with a hit to the head.”

Wind pulled his lips together and narrowed his eyes. “Well... I didn't get hit or anything, but Tetra threw me out of a cannon so I could infiltrate the fortress. Hit my face pretty hard too. That counts?”

“It wasn't a competition!” Twilight laughs, ruffling Wind's hair. It causes a flinch, and that's the light-hearted mood gone. Great. Twilight breathes through his nose. “You know, sometimes, I really want to smack my dad upside the head.”

Wind blinks. “... Okay?”

“Every goshdarn time I see the sun set, I remember him and my mom and my brother and sister, and... home. Every sunset reminds me of home. Makes me miss it so bad. Now I can't help feel that strange sadness every time.”

Silence.

A snort.

“Goddesses damned!” Wind wheezes out through his laugh. “He...”

“Yup,” Twilight says, leaning his chin on his fist. “He didn't think that one through. Bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, ain't it? So, I do want to make him think before he spouts philosophy at me.”

“Hey, hey, Twilight!” Wind says, impish, tugging on his sleeves. Then, the second he has Twilight's attention, he puts on the most serious face he ever wore. “Do you ever feel a strange sadness... as you put on your pants?”

“You little shit,” he says, brimming with affection.

Wind, not to be undone, jumps to his feet. “Do you ever feel a strange sadness... as you drink milk?”

“Oi,” Twilight stands after him, darting right after the brat.

“Not the strange sadness of being chased by a goatherd!”

Two minutes. Two minutes and six variations of the most profound saying his farmer dad told him. Butchered. Butchered like a lame goat in winter. Twilight is both furious and delighted and it might be why, when he does catch Wind, he unleashes the noogie from hell.

Wind's screams, so closely related to that of a dying piglet, are very satisfying. Worth the kicks to the ribs.

And when retribution is served, Twilight shifts the hold into a one-sided hug with the smooth grace of a man who regularly pretends not to be the wolf that is never seen with him. Wind freezes, realization sharp on his face when he notices the tears gathering in Twilight's eyes.

“But the first thing I'd do if I saw him tomorrow... is hug him. Tell him I'm glad he's okay and that I missed him. Then I'd smack him and run for the hills, because Rusl happens to be the only guy in my village that knows how to use a sword.”

After a whole body shudder, Wind gives up and buries himself in his big brother's shoulder.

#Linked Universe #Linkeduniverse #LU Twilight #LU Wind #Wolf Link

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uniquepoison · 4 years ago

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Juliet Wesson my MC in OBEY ME with profile info

Name: Juliet Wesson

Birthdate: August 14

Height: 5’5”

Race: Cambion (half-human and Half-Demon)

Eye color:

Sclera : black

Iris: silver / gun metal grey

Parent/s:

Dean Wesson ( Foster father)

Original Parents UNKNOWN

Powers:

When dormant:

Supernatural strength and speed can summon weapons at will

Healing injuries faster.

Awakened: (demon form)

Increased speed and strength and healing

Weapon summoning increased with element properties

Powers of duplication (doppelgänger effect)

Use of magic unlocks

Flying

Skin color changes in this state with red to maroon patches covering her fore arms and legs. Her hair, eyes stay the same her hands become sharp claws as her feet remain the same until her powers increase which turns them in to claws too further on.

She has a pair of demon wings which sprout from her back.

Weapon/s:

Ring blade

Daggers

Spear / lance

knowledgeable about gun use too

Bio/ About :

Dean Wesson found Juliet as a baby alone on an abandoned road. He took her home. With connections to some detectives and police there was never a missing file of a baby or record of her. He decided to adopt her as his own and raised her up with a friend a succumbs named Sera.

Juliet grew up learning from her dad, not just about the usual daily tasks and house chores but also to keep herself safe from intruders.

Dean taught her how to use a gun and several weapons. He knew that she was different from others.

Juliet loved her time to herself or with her dad when they would go to town to watch movies or go shopping or simple lunches out. Her hobbies Include singing, video games, dancing, cooking and gymnastics.

When she was a kid she found doing kart wheels and bending her body backwards fun so when she saw a tv show about gymnastics she asked dean if she could learn those moves. She went to gymnastics classes for 6 years. Sadly the studio she was learning from had to close cause of not too many people go to it. She kept herself practicing what she learned even after the closing of the studio even adding new stunts and parquor to her list. This made her body very flexible.

Schooling was a different experience since her classmates would ask her all sorts of questions as to why her eyes were that way or why she has red hair. Some would keep away and some would just be around her just to say they know her without really getting to know her.

She had several incidents of being bullied by other girls but she never acted upon fighting but instead used her wit and cunning powers to keep her bullies in line.

They would trap her in the toilet stall which she can get out off easily by climbing up then jumping off, running back to the classroom before the girls got back quietly smiling at them as they came back leaving them in utter shock and silence they knew if they said anything Juliet would put them and what they had done.

After finishing her studies in grade school and high school Juliet took on jobs that would take her in. Which she had pretty easy offers and she would try them as much as she can. Made her learn how to deal with crazy customers and whiners which didn’t seem to phase her much.

During one day out in the town by herself she wanted to check out the open air festival shops sale,then after buy food for dinner.

As she was checking out the outdoor bargain stalls, She was washed with a sense of eyes peering at her. She noticed two men in her peripheral vision looking at her, without letting them notice she planned to leave the current shop she was looking at. As she walked away the two men followed.

She ran out from the crowd loosing them as she entered the ally. She stood there trying to catch her breath.without warning a hand covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief with a weird-scent that knocks her unconscious.

She was brought to an abandoned hospital, tied into a straight jacket and locked in a padded room. The men that brought her there were not alone. she noticed several of them guarding her door. She noticed that she could not move her legs much. The only thing she saw was a blood mark staining her legs bandages wrapped around them. With her senses heightened she heard the men talking. They talked about their boss and a client.

Turns out she was kidnapped for a reason. Her rare breed was a wanted item in the underground black market, according to her father’s friend who is a underground bounty hunter they met before a Cambion can sell for a crazy amount of money alive. She heard that she was going to be sold to an important client. She knew she had to get out of there and get out as fast as she can.

One day passed from when she was kidnapped. According to her captors it seems their client wanted to view her personally before buying her yet he was abroad when the deal happened. So they have to wait for him to come back on the third day.

As time of the second day was running out Juliet planned to escape before the men shot her legs again with anesthesia.

Around ten she heard noise coming from outside her cell, shouts and guns firing. She heard a male voice unfamiliar to her call her name. She replied calling which cell she was in. She saw the door break from its hinges as it flew across the room falling near her. She looked up and saw a man with dark raven hair with glowing red eyes looking at her.

“I’m here to rescue you” he said as he knelt down in front of her.

“ I... I can’t move. The effect of the anesthesia is still present in my blood.” She replied to him struggling with the jacket around her.

“I see. So for you not to escape they did this... don’t worry I will carry you”

With one swift move the man picked her up in his arms.

She looked around noticing her captors were on the floor unconscious.

Juliet tried moving her legs she knew it was almost time for the anesthesia to wear off. More gun shots were heard from outside along with a huge explosion.

“ crap! Diavolo seems to be having fun out there..” the man muttered.

She looked at him. “ Diavolo?”

“ yes. My friend. Forgive me I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Lucifer. A woman friend of yours came to ask us to save you.”

“ save me.. a friend oh! You mean my aunt Sera! Dad must be worried”

Before Lucifer can reply their way was blocked with more men with guns ready to charge them.

Juliet began to have feeling in her legs once again.

“Shit ! I was told not to fully kill them... “ he said as he stopped in his tracks.

“ Lucifer I think my legs are getting feeling once again. Listen... I have an idea. Once you charge at them throw me I can knock them unconscious.”

“ ok, I‘ll take the right you take the left. “ he agreed.

“No time for games! Give us back the girl!”

The man in the middle shouted. Lucifer smirked.

“ want her? HERE TAKE HER” with that signal Lucifer threw Juliet at the man.

She then jumped up high doing a back flip she launched her self at him kicking him in the face. Gun fire roared as they tried to aim at her and Lucifer. With her fast reflexes she round house kicked the remaining men down. Lucifer was impressed with her moves. She walked towards him with a smile. “ it’s nice to use my legs again.” He nodded as they both headed outside.

There outside stood a man with maroon hair his yellow eyes glowing from the moons reflection. “ Lucifer, there you are. Ah! So you found her.”

“Yes, Juliet this is Lord Diavolo. Prince of the Devildom.”

“Nice to meet you” she replied.

“I’d shake your hand but it seems your still tied up.”

“Um..Diavolo we better get a move on before more men come.” Lucifer said looking around.

“ Oh right! Barbatos is waiting for us in a van we can continue this else where.... your dad is waiting for you..”

The three of them ran off into the dark to a van waiting.

“My Lord, Mr. Wesson sent me the coordinates to his home. And he also wants to speak to miss Juliet.” Barbatos said as they entered the van.

“Wow! Dad really did send you guys... “

“ Yes. He went to great Lengths to find you.” Diavolo smiled.

After speaking to her father on the phone. Juliet was relieved to be going back home.

Lucifer helped Juliet take off the straight jacket while in the van.

They had food and water for her take from the days she was gone.

She explained to them how it all happened. And she was worried that they could hunt her down.

As they finally reached Juliet’s home they were greeted by Dean and Sera waiting outside. Juliet ran towards them hugging them both emotions ran high as she cried in her dads arms. Sera thanked the three demons.

Dean invited them in the house the three agreed following them in.Sera and Juliet went upstairs for her to shower and change into fresh clothes.

Dean led the three into the kitchen. Thanking them once again. Offering them food and drinks. They talked about the people behind the kidnapping. Dean was worried about what the men can do now that Juliet is gone. He was afraid that she could get kidnapped once again. Or even worse things. Diavolo offered a suggestion, of Juliet living in the Devildom. Sean felt that he had no other choice but for Juliet to go. He felt she could be in danger in the human world as it is. She needed a safe place. They came into an agreement but the end result will of course be Juliet’s decision.

When Juliet joined them they told her their ideas and options. She opened up about being scared to go out of her house and what could happen. She didn’t want her dad to get in trouble too. She made a final decision to live in the Devildom.

With that Diavolo requested Barbatos for specially made DDDs. One each for dean, Juliet and Sera. They agreed for her to live in the House of Lamentation along side Lucifer and his brothers. They agreed for Juliet to visit her father any day she wants but with accompany of Lucifer or his brothers. Dean is allowed to go to visit Juliet too as long as he calls Diavolo in advance.

Diavolo also promised a charm of protection (works for humans and demons) around Dean’s house just in case these people track him down. He also vowed to investigate this client and black market seller and buyer to put an end to it .

That night Juliet packed some clothes with the help of Sera and Barbatos.

She hugged her dad tightly. Promising to visit him as soon as she can.

He told her to not worry. And to just be safe.

They opened a portal to the Devildom in the basement Dean and Juliet hugged and he kissed her forehead “ get stronger my sweet pea”

“I will dad. I’ll come back stronger.” She followed the three demons to the open portal And with a flash the four were gone.

They entered into a room with so many doors. Diavolo chuckled and opened the door in front of them. “Welcome to your new home Ms. Wesson, Welcome to the Devildom!”

#obey me #obey me mc #obey me oc #obey me original character #digitalart #oc #original character

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setaripendragon · 4 years ago

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Trapped in the Amber - 1x03

Book 1 :: 01 - 02 - 03 Not a lot to say about this one, except that, on watching this episode for the first time, I was severely disappointed that Sam and Dean went to all that trouble to make those Homeland Security badges, and didn’t even think to use them to, oh, I don’t know, stop a plane from taking off? (Also, ngl, so mad that the continuity didn’t remember that they’d had Dean dealing with poltergeists before when they got to the episode Home.) Also, Moonfiends are completely made up by me, based on this one little bit of folklore I found about young women who look at a blue moon getting pregnant from it and giving birth to monsters. SPN lore is surprisingly limited for a show with hundreds of episodes, so I’m going to be tossing in more of my own lore to fill in the gaps in this story. (This being mostly self-indulgent nonsense, there’s going to be a lot of lore, a lot of ethical debates, and at least some linguistics.) And this chapter is dedicated to everyone who’s liked the last two parts, I absolutely wouldn’t have had the courage to continue posting this without you. Especially @spideypoolalways, and @lyratalus and @millieccino for those lovely comments <3

Allentown, Pennsylvania – Saturday 3rd December 2005

Meira makes Dean tell her about the poltergeist on their way to Pennsylvania. It’s a good story, and it’s also a reminder that John Winchester is a real person, her grandfather by blood. She knew about him, of course, but he was long dead by the time she came into the world, and honestly, she’d never given him much thought. Now, she’s suddenly aware that if it was her in her dad’s place, she wouldn’t be half so composed.

They don’t even stop to find a motel before heading to the airport where Jerry works. He greets Dean with no small amount of relief, and then shakes hands all around. “And this must be Sam, right?” He asks when he gets to Sam.

“That’s right.” Sam confirms. “And this is Meira.”

“Pleasure.” Jerry says, sincere but perfunctory, before leading them inside. He reminisces a little on the way to his office, and Meira listens in fascination, but once they get there, it’s right down to business. “Okay, listen to this.” He says. “It sounded like it was up your alley. Normally I wouldn’t have access to this. It’s the cockpit voice recorder for United Britannia flight 2485. It was one of ours.”

At first, it’s just a crackly recording of a may day signal, and then it fuzzes out to be replaced by a sound that makes Meira reach for her blade on pure instinct. Pain lances through her, and she flinches hard.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jerry asks.

Meira nods. “Took me by surprise, is all.” She says dismissively.

“Alright, well, it took off from here.” Jerry explains. “Crashed about 200 miles south. Now, they’re saying mechanical failure. Cabin depressurised somehow, nobody knows why. Over a hundred people on board, only seven got out alive.”

“Seven people survived?” Meira echoes in surprise.

Jerry’s eyebrows furrow. “That surprises you?” He asks carefully.

Meira shrugs with a grimace. “That sounded demonic to me. Sometimes spirits can affect radios and such, but it’s usually just static, psychic residue. That was way too loud to be residue. And demons aren’t known for leaving survivors.” It isn’t like she can tell them that she understands Hellspeech well enough. It isn’t like human languages, which she’s always been able to understand, but Crowley was one of the few creatures in existence that hadn’t thought she was an abomination. Or, he had, it’s just he didn’t have a problem with abominations, so he’d taught her how to understand his, heh, ‘native’ language.

Yeah, she definitely isn’t telling these two hunters, who aren’t yet her dad and uncle, that the King of Hell, or King of the Crossroads as he is now, taught her how to understand demons. Or that this one is fucking gloating on the radio of a plane it had just caused to crash.

Jerry pales. Sam and Dean both turn to stare at her, eyebrows raised. “Demonic?” Jerry asks, quiet and strained.

“I can’t be sure.” Meira lies. “But that would be my guess, yeah.”

“Well,” Sam says slowly, “we’re going to need passenger manifests, a list of survivors, and-”

“And any way we could take a look at the wreckage?” Dean interjects.

Jerry takes a breath to marshal himself, and Meira is actually impressed by how well he “The other stuff is no problem, but the wreckage?” He shakes his head grimly. “The NTSB has it locked down in an evidence warehouse. No way I’ve got that kind of clearance.”

Dean nods slowly, and then shakes his head in dismissal. “No problem.”

Meira has to bite back a grin, and once they’ve gotten the lists of passengers and survivors from Jerry and they’re leaving, she nudges Dean with her elbow and asks, “No problem, huh?” Dean just grins back, smug and cocky, and, oh, yeah, this is going to be good.

A short drive and an endless wait later, which Meira fills with reading a paperback she picked up from a bookshop across the street, and Sam passes with pacing and frustration until Meira gives in and starts reading aloud in an over-dramatic fashion, Dean returns with brand new fake IDs for all of them. Sam, of course, immediately remembers his impatience, and huffs, “You’ve been in there forever!”

“You can’t rush perfection.” Dean retorts, flipping one of the cards over to Meira, who catches it between the pages of her book, then retrieves it eagerly.

“Homeland security?” Sam asks incredulously.

Meira whoops. “Oh, man. Yes.”

“See?” Dean says to Sam. “She knows an awesome idea when she hears one.”

“The doors this baby is going to open.” Meira agrees in delight. “The prank opportunities will be endless and glorious.”

Sam rounds on her, while Dean bursts out laughing. “Pranks?”

Meira blinks at him in feigned wide-eyed innocence. “Don’t tell me you’ve never wanted to scare the shit out of someone by threatening them with charges of treason or something.” She points out. She wishes Pabbi were here, or Jace. They’ve always been better at coming up with the truly hilarious pranks. Sam just shakes his head and gets back in the car. Meira and Dean share a grin, and then follow to discuss the case and plan their next move.

Which turns out to be interrogating the passenger in the psychiatric hospital. Meira keeps quiet and lets Dean and Sam do most of the talking, wishing she could see the state of the man’s soul. She doesn’t really need to, to know he’s disturbed by what he saw, but it would be nice to know how disturbed. Whether he’d prefer the illusion of normality, or if doubting his own perception is doing more harm than good. In her own, limited, twenty-five years of experience with human souls, she’s never seen anything so damaging as doubting their own perception, but in some cases, she has to admit that the lie does seem to help people hold it together through otherwise traumatic incidents.

“It’s okay.” Sam says, as Meira considers everything she can read from Max Jaffrey’s body language and comes to a decision. She’s pretty sure Sam and Dean are going to hate it, but they can suck it up and deal. “Just tell us what you thought you saw. Please.” Sam entreats, and it works.

Max sighs, and starts, haltingly, to talk. “There was… this- man.” He begins, stops, licks his lips nervously. “And… uh, he had these… eyes.” He gestures vaguely towards his own face.

“Black eyes?” Meira asks.

Max’s head jerks up and he stares at her with wide eyes, while Sam and Dean both turn to stare at her. “Y-yeah. How did you…?”

Meira takes a step forward from where she was loitering, and claims the last open seat, opposite Max. “You weren’t seeing things.” She tells him simply.

“Meira.” Dean growls.

“Man deserves to know he’s not crazy.” Meira replies without looking away from Max, who’s shaking his head.

“That can’t have been real.” He protests. “I saw him-”

“Saw him what?” Sam prompts gently, although the look Meira sees him direct at her out of the corner of her eye is hard.

Max’s next breath shakes. “He- he opened the emergency exit. But that’s- that’s impossible. I mean, I looked it up, there’s something like two tonnes of pressure on that door.” He insists, looking between the three of them, pleading for an explanation, any explanation, that makes sense.

“Do you really believe you were seeing things?” Meira asks him.

He stares at her, then swallows hard. It’s several long, long minutes before he finally answers. “No.” He says, so quiet Meira almost can’t hear him. “Some-something made the plane crash, right? And if it wasn’t- wasn’t what I saw, then… what was it?”

Meira smiles at him, gentle but proud. “It was exactly what you saw.”

“But how?” Max demands.

“The black eyes are a fairly good indicator that the man you saw was possessed by a demon.” Meira informs him, and Max’s eyes widen in belated fear. “Demons do possess far greater strength than your average human, so one could absolutely open the emergency exit while the plane was still in the air.”

“Oh.” Max says thickly. “Demons actually exist.”

“I’m afraid so.” Meira agrees wryly. When it seems Max is too busy processing that to have any immediate questions, she nods. “Do you have your phone with you?” She asks. Max shakes his head wordlessly. “Do you know your number off by heart?” She asks, not hopeful.

But, it turns out, there are some benefits to being stuck in 2005. People aren’t quite so used to their phones doing their thinking for them, and some of them do, still, memorise their own phone numbers. Max rattles his off without a problem, and Meira whips her own phone out to save it. Then she sends him a text. “There. Now, when you get out of here, if you have any questions, you can call me.” She explains.

Max nods. Then he shakes his head. “You’re not Homeland Security, are you?” He asks.

Meira grins at him. “Special branch.” She tells him, then raps her knuckles on the table, and stands. “Don’t worry, Mr Jaffrey, we’ll get the thing that did this.” She assures him, and a little of the fear in him melts away as he nods.

It isn’t until they’re out of the hospital that Sam rounds on her. Meira honestly wasn’t expecting it. “What the hell was that?” He demands. Meira stares at him incredulously. “Why did you tell him that? You scared him half to death!”

“Um, no.” Meira snaps, indignant at this false accusation. “I didn’t. The demon did.”

“And he was perfectly fine thinking he’d imagined the whole thing, so why did you-?!”

“Checking yourself into a psychiatric hospital is the exact opposite of fine!”

“He would have gotten over it! And then he could go home and carry on his normal life, but instead, you had to go and drop demons on him!”

“You have no guarantee that he would have gotten over it!”

“You have no guarantee how well he’ll handle demons, but that didn’t stop you!”

“Oh, so we should have just joined in on gaslighting him, then?”

“Whoa! Okay, time out!” Dad barks, physically inserting himself between Meira and Rob- No, it’s Sam, Sam who is not yet her uncle and Rob hasn’t been born yet. Meira blinks rapidly as she backs up a step, and then another. She didn’t realise how in each other’s face they were getting until Dad intervened. Dean. Until Dean intervened. She closes her eyes for a moment, trying not to feel too much like her family’s been ripped away from her all over again. “Okay, let’s all just chill.” Dean instructs firmly. “What’s done is done, Sam.”

“It shouldn’t have been.” Sam insists through gritted teeth. “People shouldn’t have to deal with all this unless they don’t have any other choice.”

“Hey, man, I agree with you, but there’s no helping it now.” Dean repeats. Sam scowls.

“He already had to deal with it. It nearly killed him.” Meira points out. “I’m not going to go around shouting it from the rooftops, okay. Not least of all because people would think I’m nuts, but… Do you know how hard it is, to have the whole world telling you that you’re the problem? That there’s something wrong with you, not something wrong out there? No one deserves that!”

Sam sighs heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose, and it’s a gesture that’s going to carry through the rest of his life, all the way until he’s in his sixties and a father and an uncle exasperated with his oh so headstrong niece. But instead of patiently and logically ripping all of Meira’s dreams of chaos and glory to shreds, he just shakes his head and heads for the Impala without another word. It leaves Meira feeling strangely like she’s the one who just lost that argument. Or maybe lost something more important by winning it.

“You know, Sam ran away.” Dean says suddenly.

Meira startles, and is half an instant away from saying something really stupid, like ‘yeah, I know, Dad, you’ve told me this story about a dozen times’, but manages to stop herself just in time. “Oh?” She asks instead, her voice wobbling slightly.

Dean glances at her and grimaces faintly in apology. “Yeah. He wanted to get away from hunting, from the supernatural, be normal or whatever.” He shrugs as if to say the notion baffles him. It baffles Meira, too, but then, she never has been and never will be ‘normal’, and she’s never really felt like her life was missing anything. “Then the thing that killed our mom killed his girlfriend.”

“Ouch. I’m sorry.” Meira says, trying desperately to remember that this is supposed to be news to her, not ancient family history.

“Yeah, well, it makes it pretty hard for him to argue that you should’ve let that guy live in ignorant bliss. He tried that, and it came back to bite him, it could come back to bite this guy, too. But I think he wishes the world worked that way. It ought to. People shouldn’t have to be afraid of the monsters in the dark.”

“People shouldn’t have to be afraid of robbers, either, but we still lock our doors at night.” Meira replies softly. “If people knew, if it was common knowledge what was out there, yeah, maybe they’d be afraid, but maybe they’d line their doors and windows in salt, and get anti-possession tattoos, and then go right on living their normal lives.”

Dean huffs a laugh. “Yeah, maybe.” He doesn’t sound like he believes it, though. Meira can’t exactly blame him. There’s a reason the supernatural has stayed more or less hidden for the last several hundred years, and it’s because most people don’t want to believe it’s true, so they refuse to see it. “Still think it was kind of shitty to just drop demons on him and then leave.”

Meira pulls a face, hunching down against a lecture she knows probably isn’t coming. “I gave him my number. And once we’re done with this, I’ll probably call him if he doesn’t call me and give him the full lecture on demons and theology as it applies to reality.” Somewhere Dean and Sam can’t hear her to question her in depth knowledge of the workings of Hell.

“You hunted demons before?” Dean asks in surprise, finally starting towards the Impala as well.

The answer is yes. On a normal day, demons wouldn’t really be difficult for her. She is anathema to them, after all. “No.” Meira lies.

“Then how do you know enough to give the full lecture?” Dean asks, giving her a look as he opens the driver’s door. Meira doesn’t answer until they’re both in the car with a sulking Sam, and once they’re in, Dean doesn’t give her the opportunity. “You said you don’t really hunt, but you’re a freaking encyclopedia. Moonfiends?” He prompts.

Meira sighs, and resigns herself to cobbling bits and pieces of the truth into a coherent whole, because infinite angelic memory isn’t something she’s going to bring up. “Okay, that one is because my best friend is a moonfiend, so I got a first person account.” She defends. “But my aunt and uncle keep- kept a supernatural library, and I read a lot as a kid.”

“Huh.” Dean muses as they pull out onto the road. “Okay, I’m just gonna ask. You best friend is a moonfiend?” He sounds incredulous.

Meira pulls a face at him through the rear view mirror. “Azura.” She confirms defiantly.

“What exactly is a moonfiend?” Sam asks, turning to look at her, putting aside his irritation in favour of academic curiosity. Meira beams fondly at him, because this is why Sam has always been her favourite uncle. “I know you said they’re kind of like mothmen, but mothmen are a really specific type of vengeful nature spirit.”

“Well, no, they’re more like furies. They’re not spirits, they’re corporeal, but they’re born from… desecrated ground. Furies are born from human sins against humans, mothmen are born from human sins against nature.” Meira explains, leaning forward as she gets into explaining. “A moonfiend is actually more like a werewolf in metaphysical characteristics, but like mothmen in physical characteristics.”

“So, they’re subject to the phases of the moon?” Sam checks.

Meira nods. “A moonfiend is born when a virgin, and that’s not just a sexual virgin, but a magical and metaphysical virgin, too, stares too long at an unfiltered blue moon.”

Dean actually takes a moment away from watching the road to turn and stare at her. Sam gapes for several minutes, until he finally manages to ask. “Blue moons happen every three years. Why aren’t they everywhere?”

“Well, half the time the pregnancy kills the mother before the baby is viable. Or the mother kills the baby after she’s given birth because, well, it’s pretty obviously not human. All that on top of just how hard it is to count as a metaphysical virgin these days.” Meira points out. “Or what counts as unfiltered. I mean, glasses, smog, clouds, astral disturbances.”

“Astral disturbances?” Sam questions.

“Okay!” Dean says loudly, interrupting Meira before she can even start to explain. “I’m glad you two have made up, you nerds, but can we figure out our next step here? I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve never hunted demon before.” Meira has to sit back and let the weirdness of that statement wash over her. This is her Dad’s first ever demon hunt. Weird. “Are we even sure it is a demon?” He asks, glancing back at Meira and sounding like he wishes he could hope, but he doesn’t. “I mean, this doesn’t exactly seem like demon MO… does it?”

Meira grimaces. “It’s not tempting mortals to sin, sure, but… they like to spread pain and suffering, death and destruction. It’s like a hobby.” She chirps, all dark humour.

“And this one’s hobby is plane crashes?” Dean demands incredulously. “That seems a little… I don’t know, modern.” He mutters, and Meira snickers. “Jesus. Okay. Evolving with the times or not, it’s still gotta be possessing someone right?” Meira nods when Dean’s eyes flicker to her in the mirror. “Great, so it could be anyone right now. How the hell are we gonna find this thing?” He asks, and Meira’s heart leaps into her throat. It’s stupid, she knows that Dean’s never done this before, but he’s her dad and he sounds overwhelmed and that scares her.

“Dean?” Sam asks, obviously picking up on the same thing. “What…?”

Dean sighs. “I don’t know, man, this is kind of out of our league, don’t you think? Demon’s aren’t like the rest of the shit we hunt. Even wendigos, they still- there’s still rhyme and reason to what they do, you know? Demons, man…” He pauses and sighs, hands going white-knuckled on the wheel. “This is… this is big, Sam. I wish Dad was here.”

“Yeah.” Sam agrees quietly, staring intently out of the wind-shield. “Me too.”

Meira swallows and doesn’t say ‘me three’, even though she really wants to. She wants all of her dads. She wants her grace free so that she’s not quite so helpless without them. “Hey.” She says, and ploughs on even though her voice shakes a little. “We can do this. Okay, it might be an entire order of magnitude bigger than a vengeful spirit, but it’s the same basics, right? So, how do we find our monster once we’ve figured out what it is?”

“We figure out what it wants.” Sam says practically. “Because that’s how we’ll know where it’s going to be.” Then he shakes his head. “But if all it wants is to cause plane crashes… I mean, do you have any idea how many flights take off from even just one state every day? There’s no way we could find it.”

That is a good point. Meira grimaces. She’s still trying to figure out how the hell they can do anything about this when Dean slams a flat palm against the wheel, making both her and Sam jump. “Son of a bitch.” He swears sharply, in a tone of revelation. “The survivors.”

Meira blinks. “Dean?” Sam asks, in equal bewilderment.

“The message, on the voice recorder. The demon, it said-”

“‘No survivors.’” Sam echoes. “But there were, there were seven.”

“Yeah, and if this were a vengeful spirit…” Dean trails off pointedly.

“It’d want to finish the job.” Sam realises, nodding along. Then he dives on the bag at his feet to pull out the list of passengers and survivors.

“It was gloating.” Meira interjects, a touch amused. “Prematurely. It’s gotta be so pissed it failed to kill everyone on that flight. I mean, talk about embarrassing.” Dean snorts. “So, now we know what it wants. Now we’ve just gotta figure out where it’s going to be.”

“Do you think…” Sam begins, tapping a finger rapidly on the side of the sheet with the survivors on it. “I mean, if it was a spirit, I’d say for sure, but… Do you think it’ll want to stick to killing them in plane crashes? Because that would be a way to narrow down who it’s going after next.” He points out.

“Sounds like a lead to me.” Dean agrees, and Sam immediately pulls out his phone and starts scanning over the list, before dialling a number.

“I mean, demons basically are vengeful spirits, just ramped up to a thousand on a scale of one to ten.” Meira muses to Dean while Sam hangs up and tries another. “So, yeah, some patterns of behaviour probably do carry over, at least a little.”

“That is so not comforting.” Dean mutters.

“Hey, Jerry, it’s Sam.” Sam greets. “I was just trying to get in touch with the pilot. You said he was a friend, so I thought you might-” He trails off, and then snaps “Dean.” so urgently that Dean automatically takes his eyes off the road to look over at him on high alert. “The pilot’s going up in less than an hour.”

“Shit.” Dean swears, and floors the gas.

“Look, Jerry,” Sam is saying into the phone, “is there any way you can get in touch with him, convince him not to go up?” A pause. “Please try. We’re on our way.” He hangs up, jaw tight. “How soon can we get to the airfield in Nazareth?”

“Forty-five minutes.” Dean announces, then somehow makes the Impala go even faster. “Forty minutes.”

“Okay, so we need to figure out how to get rid of a demon in forty minutes.” Sam states.

“Exorcisms?” Dean suggests.

“Do you know any by heart?” Sam retorts.

“I do.” Meira offers. It’s not exactly hard when one’s fluent in the language of angels and can invoke the name of god in it. Pretty much anything becomes an exorcism then. ‘Go away’ could count as an exorcism, as long as you followed up with ‘in the name of the lord’ or something similar. “Do we have any holy water?” She asks, not daring to hope.

“Uh, no.” Dean replies.

Meira winces, and amends her request. “Do we have water and a rosary?”

“Rosary is in the boot.” Dean tells her, while Sam retrieves a bottle of water from his bag. After about five minutes of bickering, Meira convinces him to pull over so that she can hop out and grab the rosary. Dean’s peeling out of the layby before she’s even got the door closed again, and then she screws the top off the bottled water, dumps the rosary inside, and sets about blessing it. She really, really hopes this works, and isn’t contingent on her grace being able to affect the world beyond her skin. She’s never officially been ordained or anything, but active grace or not, she’s still a fucking archangel.

“That should be holy water now.” Meira says once she’s done, handing the water back to Sam.

“Should?” Dean barks.

“I’ve never done this before, okay?” Meira shoots back, unable to keep a hint of defensive panic from her tone. “I have the qualifications for it, but I never thought I needed to check that it would work!” Dean pulls a face, but lets it go. Meira swallows down her fear. “You should- you should check on the others while we have the time.” She says to Sam, and he nods. He spends the drive going through the list of survivors and pretending to be a United Britannia Airlines survey. While he’s doing that, Meira calls Max, which turns into an impromptu explanation of how to identify demons.

By the time Meira’s off the phone, Sam’s gone through the rest of the survivors. “I still can’t get in touch with the flight attendant.” Sam states, hanging up the phone again.

“Given her job, I’d say that’s a bad sign.” Dean says dryly.

Sam snorts. “Yeah, no kidding. I’m going to call Jerry, see if he can tell me when she’s working next.” He explains, and then does just that. After a brief introduction, he gives Jerry the woman’s name, “Amanda Walker,” and waits a couple of minutes while Jerry does the research he can’t while he’s stuck on the highway. “Oh?” Sam says, an edge to his voice Meira really doesn’t like. “This evening? Look, Jerry-” A long pause. “No, I understand. Okay. Yeah, we’re on our way. Bye.”

“She’s working tonight?” Dean asks in dismay.

“Yeah. Flight leaves at eight. And there’s no way Jerry can ground the flight.” Sam adds in dismay.

Dean takes a bracing breath. “We’re just going to have to stop this son of a bitch before he can get that far.” He announces, and Meira tries to bolster her own confidence with his.

Nazareth, Pennsylvania – Saturday 3rd December 2005

By the time they get to the airfield, there are already two men walking across the tarmac to a small plane. “Shit.” Dean swears, and they all fling themselves out of the car.

“Mr Lambert!” Sam calls as they jog over. Security inevitably tries to stop them, but Dean flashes a badge at them, almost too fast for them to see more than that it looks sort of official, but it is enough to get them past. “Mr Lambert!” Sam calls again, and one of the two men nudges the other, and he turns.

“Yeah?” The second man says, so he must be Jerry’s friend, the pilot.

Meira looks at the other one, who’s watching them with a sort of sceptical hostility. She holds her hand out to him. “Agent Meira Geyad.” She greets, watching him closely, but there’s no reaction except a raised eyebrow as he takes her hand. Oh, hell. She starts to turn, but then a fist meets her face with enough force to send her sprawling.

“Shit!” Dean swears.

“Chuck!” The other man shouts in horror. “Wha-” He’s cut off by an awful crunching noise that makes Meira’s stomach turn over in guilt. It’s followed by a splash, and the hissing of corruption being melted away by a holy blessing. Holy water worked then, thank God, Meira thinks dizzily, finally healing enough to look up.

The demon grabs for Sam, getting him by the throat, and Dean yells his name in desperation. Meira starts to spit out the simplest exorcism she knows, but before she can get more than three words in, the demon has dropped Sam and kicked her in the ribs hard enough to wind her. Hard enough to break ribs, actually, but those heal quickly like her fractured cheekbone did. It takes a little longer to catch her breath, and by then, the demon has abandoned its meatsuit, streaming out of Chuck Lambert’s mouth and leaving him to collapse to the ground.

“Jesus.” Dean breathes. “Sam?”

“Fine.” Sam rasps.

“Meira?” Dean checks, dropping to his knees beside her. “You alright?” Meira groans, and takes the hand he offers her, letting him haul her up into a sitting position. “I’m guessing that wasn’t how an exorcism is supposed to go.”

“No, it realised what I was trying to do and left before I could send it back to hell.” Meira huffs, rubbing at her side just to check that her ribs are back where they’re supposed to be.

“Why’d it flinch at your name?” Dean asks curiously.

“Ge-Iad is one of the names of God.” Meira explains.

“Never heard that one before.” Dean says, eyebrows rising. “I thought you used Christ to test for demons.”

“The more often the name is used without faith, the less power it holds over the demonic.” Meira replies. “You can amp it up by using a language like Latin, which is both dead and stuffed full of religious ritual by now, but, you have any idea how many people say ‘Jesus Christ’ as an invective, without a thought as to why they swear that way?”

“And Ge-Iad, that’s, what? Never used?” Dean asks.

“Never without the proper reverence.” Meira corrects, and then tips her head. “Until today.” She adds with a pointed look, which earns her the best devil-may-care grin in her dad’s arsenal.

“Guys.” Sam calls, solemn. “Chuck’s dead.”

“Oh, that petty son of a bitch.” Meira grouses, flopping back down onto the tarmac.

“Uh-uh. Come on, up.” Dean instructs, getting to his feet and holding out his hand again. “We’ve still gotta stop this son of a bitch before he brings another plane down.” Meira whines, but takes his hand and lets him pull her to her feet.

“And we’ve got company.” Sam adds, as the airfield security descend on them.

Sam and Dean both look like deer in the headlights of a semi, so Meira takes charge. She orders security to inform the police of the incident, flashes her fake ID about, and then leaves with Sam and Dean on ‘important business’ before the police actually arrive. “Back to Allentown?” Dean checks, and Sam nods, already on the phone.

“I still can’t get in touch with the flight attendant.” Sam tells them several minutes later.

“We can’t let her get on that plane.” Dean insists.

Meira thinks about the fake IDs they’ve been using and has a really, really bad idea. She’s pretty sure Pabbi would approve. “I have an idea?” She offers. Sam turns to look at her, and she grimaces as she holds up her fake ID. “But… we’re going to need to look the part.”

Sam blinks once, and then his eyes widen. “Oh, no.” He says quickly. “No, there’s no way we can pull that off!”

“Why not?” Meira challenges.

“What?” Dean asks, glancing in the rear view mirror. “What’s the plan?”

“What’s TSA going to do if Homeland Security shows up and tells them there’s a terrorist on that plane?” Meira asks rhetorically.

Dean stares out the windshield for a long moment. “Okay. Monkey suits it is.” He says in a tone of resignation.

“And then what?!” Sam demands, a little hysterically, in Meira’s opinion. “We ground the plane, that’s great, and then we’re in the middle of an airport, surrounded by TSA, and we’re going to have to produce a terrorist for them!”

Meira shrugs. “Not necessarily. We just say we got a tip, or a suspicion that there might be, and when there isn’t, well, can’t be too careful in the pursuit of terrorists, right?” She points out. “We won’t even be lying if we tell them we have a suspicion that someone on board is planning to sabotage the flight. It’s true.”

“And how are we going to do an exorcism in the middle of all of this?” Sam demands.

“I’m not sure.” Meira huffs. “If it was just a case of getting the exorcism out, that would be one thing, but we have to make sure the demon sticks around for me to use it. Easiest way would be a devil’s trap, but it’d probably be a bad idea to go around scrawling pagan voodoo on the walls in front of TSA, huh?” She muses.

Dean snorts. “Okay, here’s the plan.” He says briskly. “Once we’ve got the plane grounded and all the passengers and staff isolated for interviewing or whatever, we’re going to insist on talking to everyone separately, and then whatever room they offer us, you two are going to keep everyone busy while I put a devil’s trap… on the ceiling, probably. Somewhere that’s not glaringly obvious, anyway.” He pauses, glancing back to make sure both Sam and Meira are on board. Meira nods enthusiastically, and Sam sighs in surrender. “Okay, so, what’s a devil’s trap look like?”

“Pentacle.” Meira answers easily. “You can make them more complicated, if you need to hold a stronger demon or a specific demon or you need to limit specific things within it, but… basic devil’s trap is just a pentagram in a circle.”

“Right, easy enough.” Dean agrees.

They stop to get suits at the first place they see. Dean looks hilariously uncomfortable, and Meira really wishes there was something she could say to help, but given that it’s a feeling that persists all the way through his life, she figures there’s not much anyone could say to make him feel better. “Should’ve got one with a waistcoat.” She says instead.

“Why the hell would I want extra layers of this bullshit?” Dean demands.

“Waistcoats are sexy as hell.” Meira informs him, smoothing down the front of her own.

Dean pauses and looks back at the shop with pained consideration. “Nope, no time.” Sam informs him. Dean makes a face at him, but doesn’t protest.

Allentown, Pennsylvania – Saturday 3rd December 2005

The plan goes off without a hitch. Meira knows that the most important part of pulling a prank like this is confidence, so she turns hers up to the max, channelling her pabbi and every archangel instinct she has, and TSA goes along with it. In fact, Meira is honestly a little shocked by how quickly everyone responds, until she remembers that, of course, it’s been four, not forty, years since the whole 9/11 thing. The flight gets grounded, TSA agents scurry about searching people and, helpfully, dragging them to and from the room they let the three of them conduct ‘interviews’ from. Meira is honestly having a ridiculous amount of fun, playing the scary Homeland Security agent looking for terrorists.

“You’re having fun.” Sam accuses under his breath, once they’re done with the passengers and about to get started on the staff.

Meira flashes him a wild, reckless grin. “I told you the prank opportunities were going to be glorious.” She murmurs back. Sam gives her an incredulous look, but doesn’t say more because the door is opening. Meira gives it a minute before she turns around, because if this is their demon, she doesn’t want to spook him before he’s sitting right on top of Dean’s devil’s trap, which he drew in magic marker on the bottom of the chair.

“I don’t see why this is-” The co-pilot cuts himself off when Meira and Sam turn around, his eyes flashing black as the demon loses control of itself for a brief moment in its shock. Or rage. Either one. “You again.” It hisses.

“Us again.” Dean says leaning back against the door.

The demon tries to lunge upwards, but the chair, conveniently bolted to the floor, doesn’t move, and the demon can’t leave it. It looks down, then back up again in outrage. “Who are you?” It demands, looking directly at Meira.

She smiles. “Zirdo zizop ol Ge-Iad, od lis ip darb ziri.” She informs it, and watches it recoil in horror with no little satisfaction.

“That’s not Latin.” Sam comments, looking at her in surprise.

“Nope.” Meira agrees cheerfully enough.

“You, though, you I know.” The demon adds, looking at Sam. He and Dean both go very still, staring intently. “I know what happened to your girlfriend, and if you let her do this, you’ll never find out why.” It taunts, a nasty smirk curling the host’s lips.

Sam stiffens. “Wait.” He says, and the demon grins.

“Sam.” Dean warns.

“What do you know about Jessica?” Sam demands.

“Let me go and I’ll tell you everything.” The demon promises.

Sam splashes holy water in its face, and it recoils with a yell, steaming. “Tell me, or I’ll-”

“Or you’ll what?” The demon spits, mocking. “What do you think you can do to me that’s worse than that?” It jerks its chin at Meira, who arches one eyebrow. “Let me go, or no deal.”

“Sam, we’re not letting this thing go.” Dean states. “It’s probably lying anyway.”

Sam’s free hand clenches into a fist. After a minute in which he doesn’t move, Meira gently pushes past him to stand in front of the demon. “Bols ma a’aiom, pa’aox il adohi ol Onsamir.” She instructs, and the demon hisses and thrashes, actually cracking the floor where the chair is bolted to it. Meira reaches out and puts a hand on the demon’s shoulder. It stills, tensing, staring at her with wide black eyes. “Niizo i etharzi, ammal, od yinay ma doal.” She says gently. “Oyi gohe Zire.”

Holy light suffuses the vessel, and the essence of the demon pours out of his mouth in the form black smoke even as it’s forced from this plane of existence, vanishing in midair.

Sam turns away and punches the wall. Dean watches him carefully, but when Sam just stands there, breathing hard, he goes to check the slumped co-pilot’s pulse. “He’s alive.” He reports. “So, do we need to carry on this farce, or can we just…?” He jerks his thumb at the door.

Meira takes a moment to hate the demon, because Sam’s mood is going to suck all the fun out of this. “I think we should finish. Let’s not give them a reason to get suspicious straight away, yeah?” She prompts, and Dean reluctantly nods, then shakes the co-pilot awake. He comes awake with a jolt, and immediately panics at the memory of the demon. “Calm down, you’re fine now.” Meira assures him.

“And if you want to stay fine, you’re going to act normal and not talk about this, or the nice TSA agents are going to arrest you for being a terrorist.” Dean adds, which doesn’t exactly help the guy’s fear, but it does redirect it nicely.

It’s a little tedious, going through the same rote questions with the rest of the staff, but there’s few enough left that Meira doesn’t mind. It’s worth it for the opportunity to bitch, in a restrained and professional manner, to the TSA agents about wild goose chases and bad information, and how she’s going to complain to her superiors about their lax fact-checking. The agents are so busy reminding her that ‘better safe than sorry’ and that it’s important work that they don’t even stop to wonder about a whole plane being delayed for what turned out to be nothing. Then the three of them are back in the Impala and driving away clean.

“We should have questioned the demon properly.” Sam says abruptly.

“Dude, Sam, seriously. It probably didn’t know jack shit.” Dean insists. “These things like to play with your mind, you can’t let it.”

“And even if it did know something, torturing information out of demons is hard, Sam. Not to mention ethically dubious given that the host suffers everything you do to the demon, too.” Meira points out, and Sam flinches, but his hard glare doesn’t waver. “Do you really think you can torture someone worse than Hell can, Sam? Someone innocent, just to find out what the demon riding their soul knows?”

Sam whips around to glare at her. “Yes.” He bites out, and then looks away, nausea twisting his expression. “No.” He capitulates. “I don’t-”

“Look, Sam. We will find this thing, alright? We will. And we don’t need to drag innocent people into it to do it. We’re better than that. Better than them.” Dean insists.

Meira smiles, bracing her elbows on the back of the front seats and lacing her fingers together to rest her chin on. “Damn straight.”

Marion, Indiana – Sunday 25th December 2005

It’s stupid, but it never occurred to Meira that Sam and Dean might not do Christmas. When she’d asked, a few days ago, Dean had just shrugged and said sure, they could do a present exchange this year, like that was optional. It’s only just sunk in, lying in the dark in a lonely motel room, that there just isn’t going to be Christmas this year.

No tree, no lights, no elaborate Santa traps, no cake for not-bro Jesus so entirely stuffed with candles that you could kill a wendigo with it, no trip to Scandinavia to have snowball fights in ancient pine forests, no stories of hunting pagan gods through the festivities. She’s alone, bound beneath her skin, with no possible way of finding out who did this to her, never mind what they did, or how to get home. She could pray to Pabbi, but he couldn’t answer, not without revealing himself to the Host, and she won’t do that to him, won’t force him to make that choice.

Midnight comes and goes, and the only way Meira knows is because she’s watching the shitty digital clock on the bedside table. She can’t feel the turn of the earth through the cosmos, can’t feel the ripples of time as billions and billions of humans make choices and change things. All she has is what’s trapped under her skin, and it’s nothing. Nothing compared to what she used to have. A family, and an entire universe to share with them.

Unable to bear it any longer, she rolls out of bed, gets dressed, and heads out. Once there, she goes to the vending machine and buys one of everything that looks like it has a cavity-inducing sugar-content, and carries it all over to the Impala. Then she hops up onto the hood, lies back, and starts in on her stash while watching the stars. “Hey, Granddad.” She says, out loud while opening up a pack of skittles, because who gives a fuck. “Looks like you’re the only family I’ve got for Christmas this year. Well, you and not-bro. How’s the garden, Josh? Sorry about no cake this year. It’d feel like… cheating, somehow, if I tried to get Sam and Dean to do it with me. Like I’m stealing something from their future, you know? Even if I bet Dean would get a kick out of it.”

She takes a deep breath, suddenly finding it hard not to cry. “You know, I always got why you fucked off, Granddad. Why you won’t interfere. I don’t think anyone else in my family really does. Except maybe Jace. He might’ve figured it out, but I bet he’s still stuck on the free will thing. That you won’t interfere because we’ve gotta do it ourselves, we’ve gotta make choices, and we can’t do that if the Father of all Father’s is looming over our shoulder. And that’s part of it, yeah, but it’s more than that, too, isn’t it?”

She has to sit up, because otherwise she’s going to choke on her own tears. Skittles spill across the hood of the Impala, and she doesn’t give a shit. “You won’t interfere because you love us. All of us, even the worst of us.” She says to the sky. “Even the actual devil. Even pond scum and slime mould and every last demon. Even me, even though I’m a blasphemy, an abomination, the devil reborn.” She pauses to gasp a few wet breaths. “I always knew, you know? You weren’t there, because you’re everywhere. But I don’t- Sorry, Granddad, but I don’t feel very loved, right now. I know you don’t like to- to interfere, but… but I could really use a miracle right about now, and I don’t know who else to turn to.”

She waits, but of course nothing happens. The stars don’t move, the world doesn’t shift. There isn’t even a change in the wind. Meira smiles bitterly, blinking tears onto her cheeks, and pulls her knees up to wrap an arm around them and bury her face in them. She gasps for air and lets it out in silent screams, with nothing left to pray for. Somewhere in the motel, a door opens and footsteps crunch across gravel.

“Meira?”

Meira’s head jerks up. Dean is standing there, looking sleep-rumpled and a little bleary, squinting at her in concern. Then his gaze drops to the mess of sweets scattered around her, and he snorts. He shoves them more towards the middle of the hood so that he can hop up to sit beside her, and snags a pack of M&Ms out of the pile for himself. “Can’t sleep?” He asks, and there’s a veneer of carelessness to it, like it’s an idle question and he didn’t just find her bawling her eyes out in the middle of the night, but he’s asking, and he’s there.

Thanks, Granddad. Meira thinks, as she tips over sideways to drop her head onto her dad’s shoulder. “I miss them.” She says quietly. “Never done Christmas without them before. Didn’t realise… how hard it’d hit me ‘til I got here, and suddenly it’s like I’m the last person on earth, it’s so lonely.”

There’s a long silence, but Meira doesn’t mind. She just watches the stars, and retrieves a skittle, and then starts in on the haribo. After a while, Dean shifts, but only enough to get his arm free so that he can put it around her shoulders. Meira shudders with another sob, and is so desperately glad when he doesn’t take that as a sign that he shouldn’t have done it.

“I felt the same, after Sam went to Stanford. Me and Dad were hunting separate, and Sam was gone. I knew I could just drive to Palo Alto, and he’d be there, but… That felt further than the moon, when he’d chosen to be there, instead of here.”

Meira nods a little against his shoulder, to let him know she’s listening, and she understands. “Pabbi used to dress up as Santa.” She says, sniffling and trying to put a little cheer into her voice. Pabbi didn’t so much as dress up as Santa as conjure one out of the ether for them, actually, but close enough. “And he’d have this huge sack of presents, right? But he’d only leave one. The rest, he’d say, we had to get for ourselves.”

Dean bursts out laughing. “He made you steal from Santa?” He asks, delighted.

“No, he made us hunt Santa.” Meira corrects, laughing a little herself. “Traps and tricks. A present would magically fall out of the sack every time we scored a ‘killing blow’.” Dean gasps out a startled curse, laughing too hard for anything else.

Once he’s calmed down a bit, he wipes at his eyes, still chuckling, and steals a few of her haribo. “Man, we never did anything that fun.” Dean bemoans, but not too seriously. “Most of the time Dad wasn’t even there for Christmas, tell you the truth, since monsters don’t stop just ‘cause it’s Christmas. One year Sammy gave me this, though.” He adds, lifting a hand to snag the cord around his neck and lift an amulet out from under his t-shirt. “Best Christmas present ever. Though, if you tell him that, I’ll put itching powder in your underwear.”

Meira catches it in the palm of her hand to draw it closer. It’s dark, but as she peers at it, she recognises it, despite never having seen the actual thing before in her life. Recognises it from her dad’s and qaada’s stories, and from some deeper well of knowledge that’s from the part of her that should have been nothing more than the Angel of Thursday, the remix, and instead ended up a little bit archangel.

And maybe it’s just lingering body-heat, but it feels warm in Meira’s palm. She grins, and lets it fall. “It’s pretty awesome.” She agrees. “And my lips are sealed, I swear.”

Love you too, Granddad.

#Supernatural #time travel #next generation #original character #Supernatural retelling #Dean Winchester #Sam Winchester #SPN 1x04 #Phantom Traveler #Meira Winchester #Trapped in the Amber #I'm so sad I didn't get to include Amanda in this #Enochian is THE WORST #seriously #on a scale of 0 to Tolkien #Dee is about -4 with how well constructed his conlang is #there's NO consistent grammar #there isn't even consistent spelling #'no i's in the angelic alphabet' Dee says #and promptly spells ever other word with an i #STILL I DID MY BEST #So have some translations #'I am a vessel of the lord and you will obey me'#'be not amongst us and return to your kingdom of hell'#'go in peace demon and do no harm'#'thus sayeth the lord'#Is Meira praying to Chuck when she prays to her granddad?#¯\_(ツ)_/¯#Idk I like Prophet!Chuck and God!Chuck about the same tbh #I'm leaning towards Prophet!Chuck for this

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distractedhistotech · 5 years ago

Text

Before MSA + 1: Hamster

Arthur had been eating his breakfast when Uncle Lance looked over his newspaper at Arthur and said, “I think it’s time for you to get a pet.”

Arthur stopped eating and blinked at Lance in surprise. “What?” He’d never asked for a pet. Arthur didn’t even think he’d expressed any interest in a pet. Did he even give off the impression of that he’d be able to take care of a pet? “Why?”

“You like your friend’s dog,” answered Uncle Lance. “And having a pet will help you become more responsible.”

Personally, Arthur thought he was already more responsible than normal for his age. He wasn’t sure how he compared to an adult. “I’m not sure I’m ready for a dog.”

“Yeah, not a good idea,” agreed Lance.

Arthur blinked. “So…” If Uncle Lance agreed Arthur wasn’t ready for a dog, then he probably wouldn’t consider a cat either. “So what then?”

“Maybe a bird or a hamster.”

Arthur blinked. “I don’t really get why people keep rodents as pets. Chickens are pretty useful, but I don’t think that’s what you’re talking about.”

Oh, did Uncle Lance’s face just twitched? It was hard to tell because of all the hair, but it sure looked like Arthur had said something that affected Lance. “We’re going to the animal shelter after school.”

Arthur felt weirdly conflicted.

“And then he said we’d be going to the animal shelter after school,” finished Arthur. “I’m…kind of confused. I kind of thought pets were something kids ask for, but Uncle Lance is kind of forcing this on me.”

“Why wouldn’t you want a cute, fluffy pet?” asked Sydney. “I ask Mom and Dad for a pet every year, but they always say that they don’t want to destroy the house.” She paused. “I don’t think it would be that bad…”

“I’d kind of like a pet too,” agreed Lewis. “But, well, it sounds like most animals would be pretty stressed out by living in a haunted house, and I don’t want to do that to ‘em.”

“Plus you don’t have enough room for an alpaca,” added Sydney.

Arthur blinked. “A what?”

Lewis perked up. “Oh, do you know what a llama is?” Arthur nodded. “An alpaca is a friendly, fluffier llama. My parents took Sydney and me to a farm when we were little kids, and it was so much fun!”

Sydney snickered. “We had to drag him away. He wanted to stay with the alpacas.”

“Well, I doubt Uncle Lance will be getting me an alpaca,” said Arthur.

Lewis nodded. “Yeah, you have to get them in pairs because they can die from loneliness.”

…Arthur made a note to ask if that was something that he would need to worry about with whatever he ended up with.

“So can we come with you and look at the puppies?” asked Sydney.

Arthur thought for a minute. “Maybe. You’d have to ask your parents and Uncle Lance.”

Several hours later:

“I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t as long as Mr. Kingsmen says it’s all right,” said Frigg.

Sydney Sr. nodded. “Ditto.”

Arthur stared. “Why are you wearing a skirt?” asked Arthur.

“Hey, if girls can wear pants whenever they want, then I can wear a dress whenever I want,” answered Sydney Sr.

Arthur didn’t know how to reply to that so he just accepted the sympathetic shoulder pats from Lewis and Sydney Jr.

Sydney Sr’s choice in clothing got a surprised double take from Uncle Lance but no comments. He turned to Arthur. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, could Lewis and Sydney come with us?”

Lance raised an eyebrow but shrugged. “I guess. Not much is gonna be going on though.”

“That’s okay,” said Lewis.

“I wanna see the kitties!” added Sydney.

“Not cats this time,” said Lance. “The biggest thing he’s getting is a guinea pig.”

“…Those are cute too,” Sydney decided.

And they all piled into Lance’s truck and started off. It was a bit of a tight fit, but the kids (and Lance but no one was going to say that out loud) were small enough to make that work.

They did not end up at a pet store. This was simply because Lance didn’t want any of the larger animals deciding they wanted to go home with Arthur…or Arthur deciding he wanted a larger animal. The latter didn’t seem likely, but Lance didn’t think he’d be able to say no.

Instead, they wound up at a normal looking house. The kids were visibly confused. “It’s a private rescue,” explained Lance. One that specialized in rodents in particular. If Arthur didn’t see anything he liked, Lance had the address of a bird rescue to try next.

“Do we just go in?” asked Sydney.

“They’re expecting us, but knock first.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, Sydney was the one who ran up to the door and knocked at it. It was opened by a plump, late-middle aged woman. “Yes?”

“Hi! I’m Sydney! My friend Arthur’s here to get a new fluffy friend!”

By that time the guys had caught up to her. The woman smiled. “Oh, then you must be Mr. Kingsman.”

Lance nodded. “Yup. This is Arthur.” Arthur waved. “And his other friend, Lewis.”

Lewis smiled. “Hello, Miss.”

She smiled back. “Hello to you too.” She moved aside so they could enter the house.

The first thing they noticed was a pen full of sawdust and guinea pigs. There were also tubes for hamsters to run through. Sydney let out a squeal and ran over to the guinea pigs, startling a few of them. “Piggies!” Lewis and Arthur followed more calmly.

“They are adorable,” agreed the woman. “But they’re extremely social so you’d have to adopt at least two.”

Lewis grinned. “Like alpacas.”

“Right.”

“I probably should start with only one pet,” commented Arthur. ��So no guinea pigs then. “So, I guess we look around a bit…”

There were some rabbits, some gerbils, a couple of chinchillas, several hamsters, a squirrel, and a sugar glider.

“Where’d the squirrel came from?” asked Sydney.

“Oh, an older man rescued her as a baby and raised her. He died not too long ago, and she doesn’t know how to take care of herself in the wild,” she explained.

“…Can I feed her acorns?”

“She prefers pinecones.”

Arthur just stared at all the animals that had were in enclosures or wandering around. So…how was he supposed to do this? Did he just choose one? He experimentally poked a gerbil that was chewing on a pellet.

The gerbil didn’t react. Arthur had to admit it was kind of boring. He should probably stick to a pet that he had some interest in.

…Arthur had no idea how to do this. He thought about the interactions between Vivi and Ben. He should look for something like that? But these were hamsters. Could they even form the same type of bond with a human as a dog?

Arthur felt something hit his foot. He looked down and saw a hamster ball containing a tiny hamster. He picked up the ball. “Is this a baby?”

She shook her head. “It’s a dwarf hamster. They’re smaller than the other breeds.”

Lewis snickered and playfully elbowed Sydney. “That sounds familiar.” Sydney’s response was to jump on him. The woman ignored the rough housing in favor of showing Arthur how to open the hamster ball.

Arthur studied the hamster as it scurried around his cupped hands. He quickly put it on the table, where it scurried about. When he put his hand on the table, the little hamster started scurrying back and forth over it.

“Aw…she likes you,” said the woman.

Arthur blinked. “Really?” He pet the top of the hamster’s head. She nuzzled into his hand. “I think…you’re right.”

And that was how Arthur found himself with a hamster in a cage with several pet supplies.

“Cute…” cooed Lewis.

“What ‘cha gonna call her?” asked Sydney.

“Um…” Arthur watched the tiny hamster running on her wheel. It was a pretty small cage. He should use his saved up allowance to get her a hamster ball and some tubing. “My family seems to have a habit of using Arthurian names…” He wasn’t sure he wanted to name his pet after one of the people he’d left behind. “I’m not sure I want to use that sort of name.”

“What about Shakespeare?” asked Sydney.

“I don’t know any girl names from that except for Juliet,” said Arthur. Not the best option.

“What about Puck?” suggested Lewis.

“What does hockey have to do with it?” asked Arthur.

“No, it’s a character from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’,” explained Lewis.

“But she’s the size of a hockey puck,” added Sydney. “So she is sort of like one.”

“Definitely shouldn’t try using her like one though,” said Lewis.

Sydney winced. “Yeah, that would be awful.”

Arthur shuddered at the mental image. “No, no, no pucks.”

“Maybe Cadence?” suggested Sydney. “I have no idea if that’s Camelot or Shakespeare or what, but it sounds fancy.”

“Fancy counts I guess,” said Arthur. “Sure, let’s go with that.” He stuck a few fingers into the cage. “What do you think?” Cadence the hamster sniffed at his fingers for a moment before going back to running on her wheel. “Cadence it is.”

They watched Cadence for a few more moments.

“So, how are we going to introduce Cadence to Vivi and Ben?” asked Sydney.

“…Do dogs eat rodents or is that just cats?” asked Arthur.

“They have sharp teeth,” admitted Lewis. “So I guess they might.”

“Ben’s pretty tame though,” said Sydney. “Have you ever seen him act threatening at all? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him bare his teeth or growl.”

Ben was pretty well behaved. Maybe it would be okay to introduce him and Vivi to a small dwarf hamster.

Vivi and Ben stared at the small hamster currently running around the dojo in a hamster ball. “She’s adorable,” said Vivi.

“Yeah, it kind of makes me want one,” agreed Lewis. “I think my parents would want to wait until Belle’s a bit older though.”

“I’m not sure I’ll ever be responsible enough to take care of another living being,” said Sydney.

“Does that include children?” asked Arthur.

Sydney paused. “That is a good question.” Her eyes averted, and she giggled. “Heh, Ben.”

Ben was batting at Cadence’s hamster ball. “Is that okay?” asked Arthur.

“Um…probably. Ben sometimes chases squirrels, but this doesn’t look like that,” said Vivi. Ben decided to lay down with the ball and Cadence between his front paws. “See? He’s making himself smaller so he looks less intimidating to Cadence.”

“Does Ben have any animal friends?” asked Lewis.

Vivi frowned. “Actually, for some reason he seems to scare most other dogs. No idea why.”

Ben winced because he knew why other dogs didn’t like him. Along with most animals. Including Cadence, who seemed rather nervous about her current position. He wasn’t exactly sure how to calm her down though. Hamsters were…simple.

“I think he’s scaring her,” said Arthur. He immediately walked over, picked up the ball, and took a few steps away from Ben. “Hold on a sec.” He opened the ball and let Cadence tumble into his jacket pocket. She poked her head and front paws out.

“That’s so cute!” gushed Vivi even as she moved to comfort Ben. “How’d you teach her to do that?”

“I felt kind of guilty I couldn’t spend as much time with her, and I thought if holding her was good enough…” Arthur trailed off. “I’m not sure how to keep her from making a mess.”

“Hamster diapers!” proclaimed Sydney.

“I’m not sure that’s a thing,” said Lewis.

Arthur’s head was bowed in thought. “But maybe I could make something like that…”

“How would that work?” asked Lewis.

“Well, it would need an impermeable outer layer and some sort of absorbent layer. But Cadence wouldn’t wear it unless it was comfortable so it would need some cloth. Or maybe I could make it like a pocket liner…” muttered Arthur.

“Wow, you’re serious about that,” said Vivi.

Arthur blinked. “Er…Should I not be?”

“I like the idea,” said Lewis. “You can bring your cute pets with you everywhere without getting your shirts dirty.”

Sydney nodded. “There’s diapers for birds!” Everyone gave her an odd look. “What? I saw it on TV once.”

“Sydney…”

“It wasn’t a cartoon.”

“Ah. Nevermind then.”

Arthur, Vivi, and Mystery felt like they were missing something.

#Arthur Kingsman #Vivi Yukino #Lewis Pepper #sydney scoville jr.#Mystery the not-Dog #Hamsters #and other cute critters #Lance Kingsman #Uncle Lance #Mrs. Pepper #Sydney Scoville Sr #SSS felt like wearing a skirt today

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pepplemint · 6 years ago

Text

Fanfic Recc:s

I had this since a long time back actually, I think. I figured I might as well post it and give ya’ll something lol.

—————————-——————-———GEN——————————-——————-———-

Room with a View by isabeau25 (10,089 words): Lance manages to carve out a space for himself in a hidden part of the castle. The rest of the team find their way there eventually. ———- This was one of those fics I didn’t really expect to get as into as I did. Is really sweet and focus on the original team as a family. You know how you sometimes see art where everyone in a giant cuddlepile and it’s just too sweet and everyone is so comfortable with each other? This have got the same feeling, plus some Langst

————————————————- Accepting Amelioration by XILVerify (4887 words): Shiro trusts his team with his life, but after what he and his daemon experienced at the hands of the Galra… well, trusting them with his soul is the one thing he just can’t bring himself to do. Or so he thinks. Daemon AU. Post season 1 speculation. ———- Shiro and Hunk is a pair that have gotten very little bonding time in canon, so seeing them together here put in a situation where they are trapped in a distressing urgent situation is both interesting and engaging. I don’t know much about His Dark Materials or daemons to be honest but it’s explained well enough within the fic and I enjoy these representations very much. WARNING: Mentioned previous-to-fic assault

————————————————- The Purity of Sin by IcyPanther (105,002 words): Lance's first diplomatic mission had gone wrong. Very, very wrong. Instead of allies on planet Macka, he and Keith found only enemies who want to sacrifice them to their Goddess. The two Paladins are going to have to work together to survive the harsh desert, severe injury, relentless pursuit, with the added problem that in addition to losing copious amounts of blood, Lance is losing his senses one... by one... by one... ———- I’m sure most people have heard of this fic already but god damn it is INTENSE. You will feel stuff. I am terrible at keeping attention and tend to stay away a bit from longer fics but I couldn’t stop reading. WARNING: Explicit violence, religious rituals, character death

————————————————- Bury the Sun by maychorian (26,734 words): Sam Holt has been a captive of the Galra for more than a year. He has lost all hope of escape or rescue. But when a new prisoner arrives in his underground cell, a boy who seems to carry the sun in his smile, everything begins to change. ———- An unexpected pair as Pidge’s dad kinda takes Lance too under his wings. This is really sweet at the same time as you can never forget the terrible situation they are really in. WARNING: Violence and mentions of torture

————————————————- I'll Be Your Journal by BreakTheDawn (5756 words): “Lance,” Hunk had pleaded. “I can’t believe you just did that to me,” Lance covered his face as his breaths started to become heavy and uneven. Looking back, Hunk doesn’t know how he knew, but he did. He knew at that point that if he didn’t fix that. Didn’t fix Lance. Then he would lose him. Hunk could not let that happen

....

Or, that one time that Hunk crossed the line. ———- I just love Hunk and I love seeing his perspective. Also Hunk and Lance friendship... There’s too little of it in the world honestly.

————————————————-

The Cost of Winning by IcyPanther (9596 words): "The Blue and Green Paladins serve no purpose to the Empire," the Galran commander smirked at his bound captives. "And as such you have no use except as arena fodder." He chuckled. "Give us a good show before you die." / Lance is determined to protect Pidge and save her from the arena. She will not die here. Over his dead body. Hopefully it's not quite that literal of a promise. ———- I’m starting to see a pattern here uuuh anyway I love this fic, I love Pidge and Lance working together. WARNING: Violence, Character Death

————————————————-

A Little Unsteady (Hold Onto Me) by DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee (13,385 words): Takashi Shirogane is nine years old when he holds his brother for the first time. “I’m here,” he’d whispered to his fussing baby brother, “I’m here, I’m here, I’m here.” And Keith stopped crying. He didn’t laugh; he looked up at Shiro with big, skeptical eyes. A challenge. Like this tiny person was saying ‘oh yeah, prove it’. And Shiro, newly nine years old, promised that he’d prove it.Shiro and Keith's childhood in moments. ———- There’s a lot of Keith’s background story here that I fell really strongly for (though not canon compliant, I just like it.). If you’ve ever had that kind of relationship where you are like an older sibling figure, you can really feel this in your bones. WARNING: Child Abuse

————————————————-

Leave Them Stunned and Stuttering by BossToaster (ChaoticReactions) (10,527 words): Five Times Shiro couldn't be knocked off balance, one time he was, and one time he trusted the team to see. Or, when sibling bonding goes wrong. ———- A little bit Everyone/Shiro. It’s fun to see the team all bond over trying to mess with Shiro.

———————————————— Fatalistic Daydream by Engineer104 (27,873 words): Being a low-ranking Galra soldier stationed in a virtual backwater isn’t stopping Pidge from finding out what happened to her family. But the secrets she’s keeping from her friend Keith on top of the unwanted attention of an Altean prisoner-of-war are definitely...slowing her down. ———- Interesting AU where the Galra and Alteans are actively at war. Technically this is tagged as Pidge/Lance but there isn’t anything actually romantic so I feel it fits the gen category.

——————-——————-——-—--—--SHANCE———————————-——————-—-

Racing on the Thunder by Jennypen (5435 words): Freshman Shiro is pretty hung up on Senior Lance at the Garrison, but no-one else shares his opinion. At least, not until a hostage situation changes everything. ———- I love this!! Baby Cadet Shiro (who are not so baby-looking) pining after the older Cadet Lance, and Lance is a BAMF.

————————————————- Closer to Your World by CastleSL (29,576 words): Students will be carefully selected and tested for the opportunity to fly out to Kerberos for scientific research. Only one student may be selected. Application and Testing will commence during the third trimester, June 21XX. There was more on the page, statistics and requirements and more details, but it was legit. The flyer was printed on standard Garrison announcement paper, the document signed by the Dean and board of directors. The chance to go to Kerberos. Hunk took a moment to think, then clapped his hand on Lance’s back, smiling. “Well, I’m rooting for ya, buddy.” He said, and Lance beamed like that was all he needed in the world. ———- It’s been a while since I read this fic but it’s nice with a lil longer Shance fic - it’s also really well written. A sequel is also being written right now that is also good. WARNING: Mentioned character death

————————————————-

Full Moons and the Mornings After by Impetus (6496 words): Shiro is an unlucky werewolf who can’t control himself during the full moon. Lance really needs to stop letting stray wolves into his apartment. ———- This is like my favourite werewolf fic ever hahahaha. I love when werewolves are portrayed as big dumb dogs. It’s really cute and they’re both big pining messes.

————————————————- Jaded by Impetus (8728 words): Shiro is the leader of Voltron. He is the strength and the calm in the face of the thundering storm of the Galra. Lance is someone Shiro doesn't quite understand. Shiro is someone Lance wants to understand with all of his heart. ———- WARNING: Major character injury

————————————————- The Luxury of Lacking Confidence by oldmythologies (13,695 words): They knew how it worked; Lance was always the damsel in distress and Shiro was the big strong hero who came to save him. When Shiro’s lion is hit by a vicious attack, he is knocked off course and careens into an ice planet. Lance finally elects himself the hero and has to save Shiro from his own injuries and the Galra ships searching the planet. Shiro, feverish and low on blood, is forced to confront his demons; Lance has to learn how to fight them off. ———- WARNING: Major character injury

————————————————- Tris for Guys by quiddative (2907 words): It was all Keith’s fault—him and his stupid biceps showing up at intramural basketball two nights ago without his trademark cropped jacket (which was almost as outdated as his mullet) and making everyone swoon. And what was worse, even Shiro, their hotter-than-hell yet sweeter-than-sugar RA and current object of Lance’s helpless affections, seemed impressed. He actually went up to Keith after his team had pummeled everyone else into the ground, clapped him on the back, and uttered the words that Lance had been daydreaming about for approximately fifteen thousand years: “Great job, buddy!” So, as soon as he got back to his room that night, he logged into his student account and signed up for the first available complimentary personal training session the college’s gym offered. ———- The story of how Lance thirsts so hard he even makes the ultimate sacrifice and goes to the gym. Lance’s “voice” here is great.

————————————————- Slowly, Surely by needchocolatenow (2997 words): Shiro is tasked with an assignment to deliver important cargo to Altea. Lance is his second. -- Or, the fic in which Shiro and Lance take a road trip through space in an unfortunately named shuttle. ———- Just a really cute story where humans have moved into space and Shiro pines and is as awkward as a kid with his first crush.

————————————————- ordinary people are everywhere by lein (5625 words): The note, situated in the bottom right corner, reads simply: ‘Will you be my Valentine? Yes or yes.’ Surrounded by little hearts and unaddressed, it seems a little out of place nestled next to the carefully crafted drawings of both pigeon lance and the deviantart stamp Pidge sent to Keith that made him cry for upwards of an hour before he had wordlessly crawled atop the table to recreate it as closely as he could. Shiro grins as he picks up a black dry erase marker and circles a yes. ———- This fic is so underrated! It’s super cute and I fell in love already at the summary, but the fic in itself is really well written and nice.

————————————————- Lance's Guide on How to Embarrass Yourself in Front of Your Insurance Adjuster by Eilera (2035 words): “This is for my mama, Hunk. She was so worried about this whole thing. They just finished renovating. I’m not gonna let her down. If my name isn’t Lance fucking Hernandez Martine-holy fuck he’s gorgeous.” “Oh no. No. Lance do-“ Lance didn’t even hear him because there was a fucking gorgeous god walking up the path to the front door.

(In which Lance is helping his mama with an insurance claim and he was not prepared for the smoking hot insurance adjuster.)

———- Lance is Lance and this was funny and cute.

————————————————- Left Side Or Right? by liddie (2698 words): When Lance accidentally locks himself out of his dorm room he finds himself on Shiro's doorstep hoping that this falls under Shiro's offer of "Let me know if you need help with anything."

Luckily for him, it does. ———- Piiiining I love it...... I really do

————————————————- Lactose IntolerLance by humblenoodle (1807 words): Shiro's aware, at least, that his current course of action is humiliatingly stupid, and he should really stop while he's still ahead.

But it’s not like he could just casually waltz up there and ask for Lance’s number, maybe even a date. That’s not how this worked. ———-

This was really funny and cute, pining Shiro at his most awkward.

————————————————- Define Dancing by starbear (5495 words): “Dancing?” Shiro made a small, scoffing little laugh. “You’re kidding, right? “What? No,” Lance said, “Why?” “I can’t dance.” “Lies.” “No, I’m serious,” Shiro said, “Two left feet. I’m terrible.” “That I absolutely do not believe. I bet you’ve just never really tried.” Lance stood, abruptly, an unsettlingly determined look on his face. “C’mon, let’s do it.” “Do...what?” “Dance, duh,” Lance said. “Let’s go.”

Shiro learns how to dance, and falls in love along the way. ———- I tend to like fics that are snippets through time, but this one stand out :)

————————————————- Ten Days by WashiPuppy (??? words): Most people never got to learn exactly what their mind is worth, how resistant it is. Lance knew now, and the answer was ten days. It only took ten days for something in him to break that he wasn't sure he could get back.

Shiro had survived a year and come out as someone still able to smile, to be kind and gentle with those around him. Scarred, but not shattered.

Lance wore no new scars. But he still hadn't made it ten days.

———- So you like slow burn? Well what about the characters doesn’t even interact for three thirds of the fic lmao. Honestly though this fic is really good and well written! The focus isn’t on romance at all and I even forgot about it a couple of times, but none the less it’s 100% worth the read.

————————————————- Black to Blue by PuppetMaster55 (153,825 words): Lance, the undisputed (no longer, since he finally got the team to stop questioning his position like a month ago) leader of Voltron finds himself in the absolute strangest scenario: being the Blue Paladin.

Lance, still finding his place on team Voltron, wakes up to the weirdest world: one where he's the Black Paladin.

OR, I take a universe where Lance was always the Black Paladin and have him swap bodies with canon Lance, throwing both sets of teams for a trip.

———- I mean I assume most people have already read this fic but just in case someone missed it? Read it. This is the Lance as Black Paladin au you always wanted.

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Breaking Wind by AshesTheTerrible (10,044 words): Shiro is settling into his new body and finally trusting himself to rekindle things with Lance. Intimacy proves to be a lot of stumbling after such a long time without. And nobody is safe from awkward bodily functions during sex, not even Shiro. ———- Like the mature dumbass I am I love this fic about farting. It’s really well written and have such a good, soft relationship though it’s worth it ok. WARNING: Explicit

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ticket to ride by mettaverse (2085 words): The officer raises his hand. “You were going thirty miles over the speed limit for a date?” Lance opens his mouth and the officer lowers his sunglasses just to glare at him. “Sixty in a thirty lane. You know how fast that is?” “Um. Fast? Pretty fast?” “Dangerously fast.” He pulls a pad of paper out of his pocket. “I'm gonna have to give you a ticket.” ———- Short AU-fic that I just find really cute

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How to Dig Your Own Grave by flyingisland (8804 words): The complete anthology, written from first-hand experiences and mortifying, soul-crushing interactions between Lance McClain and one very attractive neighbor. ———- This fic is kinda wonderful. Lance mess up so bad over and over and it’s hilarious. It’s all fine though in the end ;) WARNING: Explicit, Sex Work (Pornography)

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easier to lose by quiddative (???? words): Shiro is at the peak of his NHL career. Unfortunately, being famous has its downsides, particularly when it comes to dating. And that’s on top of the fact that he’s still in the closet.

However, a chance meeting with college student Lance, who seems to be the only person in the entire city who doesn’t know who he is, gives him hope that maybe he won’t die alone after all. Just as long as he can keep his identity a secret. ———- This fic isn’t actually finished when I add it here, but I expect it to be soon. I kinda love sport-AU’s not gonna lie. This one hit me right in the weak spot.

———————-——————-—-—--—--KLANCE————————-——————-————-

Five Minutes by WhatTheBodyGraspsNot (4176 words): When Keith is unwillingly tricked into a speed dating session by Shiro, he finds himself meeting several unusual characters. The most unusual of all, however, is the loud one in the letterman jacket. He's obnoxious and has no regard for the other people around him and he keeps making his way closer and closer to Keith within the ring rotations. Can Keith pull himself together to get through this meeting? Or will he find himself interested by the end of their five minutes? ———- I like Keith being stubbornly set on being bitter and hating things he’s dragged into lol. Even when he kinda really doesn’t.

————————————————- gladly break my heart (for you) by godsensei (1747 words): “You want me to... touch you?” Lance asks, a mildly dubious look on his face. Keith feels his face go hot. “Yes! You touch everyone else. I just-- we’re boyfriends, right?” he asks, feeling stupid, but so hopeful. Lance searches his face for a moment, before his eyes soften, a sweet smile blooming on his lips. ———- This is just fluff and touch starved Keith and I’m all for it. ————————————————- i want your heaven and your oceans too by mothpoem (11,610 words): “Not—not that you’d be my rebound! I mean, you’d be helping me take my mind off of this guy, but to be a rebound, I’d have to have dated him first, I think, and he doesn’t even know I like him, so. You wouldn’t be a rebound. At worst, we become badass partners-in-crime with a grudging respect for each other, at best, we’re soulmates for life and this is fate trying to help us find happiness. So. Um.” Lance swallows and looks up at the Blade of Marmora soldier through his lashes. “What say you?” They look down at their hands for a moment, fingers twisting together in deep thought. Then they’re pulling their gloves off, revealing pale, half-bruised knuckles of the human variation, and their mask is dissolving, giving way to big blue-purple eyes and an achingly familiar jet-black cowlick. “Who,” says Keith Kogane, in that low-pitched rumble that makes Lance’s stomach roil in the good way—holy fuck—“is this guy you’re trying to get over?” ———- I drew a scene from this fic so I guess in a way I’ve already recc:d it, but I’m gonna do it again. I love awkward misunderstandings and Lance’s rambling in this fic is both kinda hilariously in character and well written. WARNING: Canon-typical violence ————————————————- Keith's Type by AmbitiousSkychild (24,050 words): “How would anyone notice what anyone else’s type is in the middle of all this?!” Matt demanded, laughing. “What’s Keith’s type?” Lance blurted out like an idiot. “It’s… obvious,” Pidge said. “He gets all flustered over shitty puns and most physical comedy. And have you seen the way he stares at Hunk when he’s going on about the mechanics of something? Like how the lions work? I’ve literally seen him blushing when Hunk goes into explanation mode.” “So, you think he has a crush on Hunk?” Lance squawked. “No. You bonehead,” Pidge laughed. “I’m saying any dad-joke-telling, klutzoid with good grades has probably got a pretty good shot at Keith.” Or: It figures that after years of getting it hilariously wrong face-to-face, Lance finally gets good at talking to Keith through a screen, which is, like, one of his biggest accomplishments. Then, Pidge makes the comment that Keith has a type, while heavily implying that it's Matt. But, listen, with everything going on with Voltron, the coalition, the Blade of Marmora, and Coran, Lance isn't going to get distracted worrying about it. Ask anyone, he's always been great with measuring levels of importance.... ———- I kinda have a weakness for the emotional jealousy, the one that isn’t angry and hot but insecure and hits where it hurts. And yeah. Matt and Keith have (kind of?) a past together and Lance is alone-ish after Keith left the team. ————————————————- King and Reaper by PastelClark (35,512 words): Allura had told them once that Voltron was their destiny. If anything, Keith thinks, Lance had proven that while finding the lions might have been on the dime of some greater plan, compliance to their supposed fate was not strictly required in any remote sense of the word. In fact, by Lance's standard of doing things it was all rather bullshit. (Or: The story of the destruction of Earth and its aftermath, feat. questionable science in regards to weapons of mass destruction, gratuitous Star Wars references, theoretical chess games with the emperor of most of the known universe, explosions, the greatest bromance of all time, the worst romance of all time, far too many guns, concussions, extreme misuse of the French language, awkward flirting, and Lance in an overly-dramatic trench coat.) ———- BAMF rebel leader Lance and mental images that kinda kick you in the inspiration, honestly. Everyone is older and different. Voltron kinda failed.

————————————————- Keith the Amnesiac by jilliancares (8878 words): In which an accident leaves Keith temporarily without his Voltron-filled memories and he may or may not spill a few of his better kept secrets to Lance. ———- This story is great if nothing else because it feels so realistic in how it handled Keith’s amnesia. This is very much just what it’s like to have those small differences in how you perceive the world vs how you normally do.

————————————————-

Let's be (dis)honest by noero (1581 words): Lance is backed against his bathroom wall, one hand gripping his sink and the other nervously combing through his hair. Keith is in front of him — down on his knees — calling Lance’s bluff. ———- Nothing really to say about this other than I liked the competitiveness between Keith and Lance and it was fun. WARNING: EXPLICIT

——-—--—--——————-——————-OTHERS——————-——————-——————-

Sun In Our Eyes by MatchaMochi (9349 words): “Think you can beat me hotshot?” He doesn’t falter, just nods and holds up his sniper. His hands don’t shake, his lips don’t tremble, (his heart though, that wild erratic thing stuttering in his chest, makes the blood rush to his ears, makes him think: Oh god.) ///

In which Kinkade pines and Lance has too many feelings. ———-

So this is THE Kinkance fic, but just in case someone didn’t read it yet - I’m gonna add it here. (RYAN/LANCE)

———————————————— i'm willing to wait for it, i'm willing to wait for you by ThePackWantstheD (10,338 words): Lance McClain is hard to hate. He’s easy to love. Or: James Griffin falls fast and hard for a charismatic cargo pilot, dates him for six months, and then waits for him for five years.

———-

This ship isn’t something I ever considered until this fic, but heck it got me on board. I like everyone’s reactions and James’ belief. (JAMES/LANCE)

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no need to say goodbye by smolsarcasticraspberry (13,557 words): The juniberry tree blossoms every seven years, and when it does, a gateway opens up to another world - a world that Shiro first explores as a child. There, he meets Allura. They do not speak the same language, but children do not need words to play. Every seven years, when the gateway opens again, Shiro steps through to visit the girl he knows on the other side. But the gateway only stays open as long as the juniberry flowers bloom...

———- This is one of those stories that are simply wonderful, even if you’ve never seen the original show because it build up such a cool new world in the relatively few words. It also deals with Shiro in the aftermath of war and pining. (SHALLURA)

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Drip Like Honey by avoidingavoidance (7171 words): In which Romelle recommends a hot Tumblr boy to Allura, but when she checks him and his stream out, she finds that he seems awfully familiar.

———- Obviously this is right up my alley. Da-mn. Allura is top as heck. WARNING: Explicit (SHALLURA)

———————————————— Frostbite by Rueitae (6109 words): Pidge is a renowned super villain. Lance is a hero in training. During their latest encounter, Lance pushes his powers to their limit and Pidge has some soul searching to do.

———- I doooo love superhero AU’s and this is both super sweet, funny, well written and paints a clear picture of the universe which we are thrown into. I like it a lot. (PLANCE)

#shance #klance #fanfic recs #voltron fanfic recs #fanfics #i need many tags so i can find shit again #There's gen and shallura and others too #mainly gen shance and klance though

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the-lightning-strikes-again · 6 years ago

Note

Would it be amazing if one of the paladins maybe like Keith, wanted Lotor to watch action/adventure movies or so like "THE MUMMY" or "NATIONAL TREASURE"? Since we all know our Lotor can be an adorkable nerd :3 What do you think? BTW, Love "Adrenaline Rush" and "Second Law" ;) Love it! Hope you update it, cuz the more I read it the more I completely loved it

Hi, cutereylochan! I adore those movies and watched both this week per your reference. Thank you for your support, and please enjoy this Second-Law-universe drabble you inspired! — “How fascinating,” Lotor murmured, his slit eyes blown wideat the screen. He distractedly dipped his claws back into the popcorn bag,spearing a few pieces and lifting them to his lips, crunching down with delightand suspense. “The special effects in this movie are quite more…complex comparedto Pride and Prejudice.”

Beside him sat a cross-legged Keith. The large viewingscreen in the Olkari headquarters was playing another human movie called The Mummy. They were both wrapped inblankets, various wrappers and a half-empty pan of brownies between them.

Keith was the most animated he had ever been. “Right? Like,the fighting, the suspense, the CGI of the bad guy. It actually has aplot.”

“All very impressive,” Lotor said, lips twitching. “Unless,of course, it is natural for ancient humans to return to life in such a manner?Please tell me it is not.”

Keith huffed in amusement, his voice muffled from munchingon popcorn. “Seriously—out of the whole movie, that’s what you question as aspecial effect?”

“I have seen many things, young paladin.” Lotor nearlymissed his mouth when eating another piece of popcorn, his eyes blown wide at theimage of the mummy speaking Ancient Egyptian to the woman named Evie. “Anundead person waging war upon a planet is not the strangest concept in theuniverse.”

“But you like this movie, right?”

The alien man munched on the popcorn, humming. He tilted hishead, his ears flicking. “Yes. I especially appreciate the odd, budding romancebetween this…gunslinger O’Connell and the librarian, Evie.”

Keith exhaled and leaned back against the couch, groaning. “Oh no, you’re as bad as the rest of them.”

“Do you truly dislike romances so much, Paladin Keith?”

The younger boy grimaced. “Ugh, it’s like romance is allanyone cares about. What about the adventure? The action? Man, even the friendship between O’Connell andJonathon?”

“These are all honorable topics,” Lotor said lightly. “It iswell you enjoy them.” He dropped his hand back into the popcorn bag. “But Isuppose one craves what one does not have.”

“Dude, I get plenty of action and adventure in my real life.Doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it in my movies, too.”

The exiled prince turned and raised a brow at Keith. “If Iever questioned your Galran heritage before, know that I do not now.”

“You’re half-Galran like me,” Keith retorted, throwing apiece of popcorn at him. It hit Lotor’s broad shoulder and then slipped downhis robe. “Shouldn’t you like the fighting?”

“In ways I do.” The man bit his lip, revealing a sharp, hesitantfang as he suddenly leaned forward to grab for another one of Hunk’s browniesfrom the pan. “But I have never seen a romance portrayed in entertainmentbefore. It is a new and wondrous thing to see.”

The boy grimaced. “Well, at least we’re watching a movie with both.”

“Yes, Paladin Keith. The best of both worlds.” And just as Lotor was about to bite into his brownie, theresuddenly came a gasp from a nearby hall. He froze, his slit eyes suddenlydarting to the threshold.

Pidge stood in her pajamas, carrying a blanket around hershoulders, lips dropped open. “How dare,”she whispered. “You…you guys are watching action movies without me? The Mummy? Without me?”

“You went to bed,” Keith called out. “Wasn’t gonna wake youup for a movie you’ve already seen.”

The human girl gave him a glare, then turned to Lotor and gavehim big, pleading eyes. “Without me?”

The prince grimaced, then lowered his brownie. “I read therating and thought it…perhaps too mature for one of your age.”

Her eyes narrowed to slits. “Oh. Come on, dude. It’s likePG-13. And I’m totally 15.”

Lotor tilted his head. “I would hate for you to have nightmares.”

“Dude. The way you eat fish bones gives me more nightmaresthan this movie.” She blurred forward and suddenly scooted between the two,grabbing a brownie from the pan and setting her eyes onto the screen. “Oh man, Imhotep’sstill regenerating? Sweet. I haven’t missed it all.”

Lotor made a strangled noise in the back of his throat. “Youare truly not disturbed by the contents of this movie?”

She looked up at him and quirked a brow. “I’m a paladin ofVoltron?”

“Yes, but—”

“—Hey, wait a minute,” came a new, male voice from thehallway. One Lance McClain popped his head in, his eyes wide. “Did I hearImhotep? The Mummy? You guys arewatching a movie without me?”

Keith groaned. “Considering you guys just wanna watchromances without any adventure at—”

“—Ah, man. This movie’s got some good romance, what are you talkingabout.”

Lotor’s voice raised in delight. “You refer to O’Connelland Evie, yes?”

Lance gave him finger guns as he walked in, wearing hiscartoon Voltron pajamas. “Better believe it, baby! These guys are like, my jam.”

“Do you not,” Lotor said, leaning forward in contemplative happiness, “enjoy how they are opposite in nature and yet so very complementary of each other’sstrengths and weaknesses?”

“What the cheese, dude, yes. I’m totally an O’Connelllooking for my Evie.” And then Lance plopped down in front of them all,stealing the brownie pan from Pidge and the edge of her blanket as she squawked.

Lotor stared at the pile of friends about him and felt a great lightness in his heart, before he returned his attention to the movie. “Paladin Keith, is it possibleto rewind this scene? I fear I missed something important—”

#The Second Law #The Mummy #Movie Time with TSL Lotor #omg this was fun to write!#Thanks for the note #I hope you enjoyed this!#The TSL version of Mystery Science Theater 3000 haha

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a-corndog-named-schibbs · 6 years ago

Text

Shallura Week - Day 5

Day 5 -- Protect | Partner

Happy Shallura week, everyone! I played a little fast and loose with the prompt but I really wanted to get this fic out there this week.

A few notes on the setting: This is a kinda-sorta future fic, kinda-sorta au where Allura found the other surviving Alteans and relocated them to a new colony on a space station. Since she now has a people again, Allura is officially queen of New Altea and Shiro, as her husband, is king consort.

Basically, it’s Shiro and Allura becoming new parents (featuring the other paladins as very enthusiastic uncles and aunts)

Enjoy!

Shiro is on a diplomatic mission when he gets the phone call.

As King Consort of New Altea, one of his major duties is to be the public face of the colony and make a good impression on new allies. While he doesn’t exactly consider himself the type of guy who can charm the pants off of anyone (that’s more of Lance’s thing) he’s certainly used to being in the public eye and making speeches enough to do a good job of it. Besides, Hunk’s with him and Hunk has established himself as the guy to turn to in diplomatic situations for years.

The potential allies in question are a race of bird-like aliens, fairly peaceful in nature but big on ceremony. Shiro and Hunk had to be ritually bathed, dressed in ceremonial robes, and be guests at a traditional welcoming dinner, a five-course meal where each dish had to be prepared and eaten in a painstakingly specific way, all before the diplomatic meeting could begin. Hunk seemed happy enough to learn about the new culture and normally Shiro would be interested too, but circumstances being what they are, he can’t help but wish he was back on the colony with his wife. If Pidge’s predictions are correct, it’s going to be a very important day for him any day now.

Thankfully, the aliens seem open to the idea of an alliance with New Altea and Shiro and Hunk finally, finally get them to sign the treaty so they can go home. They’re about to get back in their pod when the communicator in Hunk’s pocket goes off.

“Hello?” Hunk answers it before holding the comm as far away from his ear as possible while the person on the other end yells something unintelligible, “Okay, calm down, he’s right here.”

Shiro takes the comm from Hunk, “Hello?”

“Why aren’t you here?!” It’s Keith, sounding more stressed out than Shiro’s ever heard him.

“Why aren’t I where?” says Shiro, “What’s going on?”

“Why the hell did you have your phone off?! I’ve been trying to call you for hours!”

“We were in a meeting. They didn’t want any interruptions while we discussed the new alliance. Keith, slow down and tell me what’s wrong.”

“Your wife’s going into labor, Shiro, that’s what’s wrong! Her water broke while we were out and now we’re in the medical wing and she is —ow! —trying to squeeze the life out of my hand!”

Shiro almost drops the comm in surprise, “Oh god, okay, all right, don’t panic.”

“I’m not panicking, I’m just — ah! — in pain.”

“”That was more for me than for you,” says Shiro, “Okay, just…stay with Allura and make sure she’s as comfortable as possible. I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

“Please hurry, I think my fingers are breaking!”

Shiro hangs up and turns to Hunk, “We need to leave immediately.”

“Way ahead of you,” says Hunk, firing up the pod, “Congratulations, by the way.”

“Don’t congratulate me yet,” says Shiro, “This baby still needs to be born.”

They reach New Altea in record time and it still doesn’t feel fast enough for Shiro. The moment they land, he jumps out of the pod and races through the space station in the direction of the medical bay, leaving Hunk far behind.

He reaches the hospital room just as Pidge is exiting it, scrolling through a medical file.

“How’s she doing?” Shiro asks between gulps of air, trying to catch his breath.

“Well, I’ve got good news and bad news…”

“What?” Shiro’s heart drops to his stomach.

“The good news is that Allura’s in stable condition and taking her labor like a champ. She’s being monitored by a nurse-bot that I personally programed with as much up-to-date knowledge of both human and Altean reproduction as I could possibly find. Coran and Keith are in there as well and have been staying with her the entire time.”

“Well, then what’s the bad news?”

“The bad news is that you’re still standing around talking to me! Go on, get in there!”

Shiro doesn’t need to be told twice. The automatic doors slide open as he enters the delivery room. Allura’s laying in the hospital bed, with Keith on one side of her and Coran on the other, gripping their hands like her life depends on it. Her expression is pinched with pain, but it soon softens to relief when she sees Shiro enter.

“Thank the Ancients,” says Coran, “We were worried you’d miss the most important part.”

Shiro takes Keith’s place at Allura’s side and pats him on the shoulder, “I’m glad you’re here, buddy. I don’t know what I would have done if Allura had gone into labor by herself.”

“Oh, it was no problem,” says Keith, trying to shake some feeling back into his hand.

Shiro smiles, “Why don’t you go call Lance? He’ll want to be here too.”

As Keith leaves the room, Shiro turns to face his wife, “How are you holding up, Princess?”

“I’m — ugh — doing all right. I’d be a lot better if this baby would just come out already.”

The nurse-bot hovering around the room checks Allura’s status on the monitor, “It won’t be long now, Your Majesty. We’re almost in the final stage.”

“Good, that’s good,” says Allura. She frowns, “I hope Keith will be all right. I fear I’ve hurt his hand rather badly.”

“He’ll be fine. Besides,” Shiro holds up his prosthetic hand for Allura to take, “you don’t need to worry about that with me.”

“I just want the baby to be here already,” says Allura, taking the offered hand, “I’m ready to be a mother. I just want this part to be over.”

“I know,” says Shiro, pressing a kiss to her hair, “I’m ready for it to be over too.”

It’s hard, seeing Allura in so much pain. He knows it’s nothing compared to what Allura is actually going through, but that doesn’t stop the pang in his chest every time she yells in pain or tears roll down her cheeks. He lets her squeeze his hand as hard as she wants, the only thing he can really do for her right now.

Luckily, Altean labor isn’t nearly as long as human labor because it’s only a few hours later that the nurse-bot prompts Allura to push. Allura grunts in pain and grips Shiro’s hand even tighter and soon the sound of a baby’s wails fills the room.

“It’s a boy,” says the nurse.

Shiro looks up. There, laying in a towel in the nurse’s arms, is the tiniest, loudest, squirmiest baby Shiro’s ever seen. His skin is a few shades lighter than Allura’s and he’s got a few wisps of white hair sticking to his head. His face is scrunched up from crying and he’s covered in gross, purplish-red womb goo.

He’s the most beautiful thing Shiro’s ever seen.

The nurse hovers forward to hand the baby to Allura.

“Wait…” says Allura, “It’s tradition on Altea for the maternal grandfather to be the first to hold the baby.”

“Ah, yes,” says Coran, “I wish King Alfor were here for this moment too. But I’m sure his spirit is still with us, watching over his new grandson.”

“Coran,” says Allura, “We want you to be the first to hold him.”

“I…what?”

Shiro nods, “We’ve already talked about this moment, Coran. We can’t think of anyone who would make a better grandfather for our son than you.”

“I…w-well, I-I…If you insist.”

The nurse passes the baby into Coran’s arms.

“Hello there, little one,” Coran coos, “What’s his name?”

“Alfor Shirogane,” says Allura, looking to Shiro, who nods to confirm, “An Altean first name and a human last name.”

“It suits him,” says Coran, “Hello little Alfor, I’m your grandfather!”

After a while, Coran has to hand the baby back to the nurse so she can clean him and check his vitals. Once Alfor is confirmed to be healthy and goo-free, she hands him to Allura so he can nurse for the first time. After that, it’s Shiro’s turn.

He makes sure the baby is supported with his flesh arm. He uses his metal hand to shade Alfor’s eyes from the bright hospital lights.

“Hi, Alfor,” he whispers, “It’s me. It’s your daddy.”

Alfor blinks his eyes open for the first time.

“Oh, Shiro…” says Allura, sitting up so that she can look at her son, “He has your eyes.”

“And your ears,” Shiro points out.

“Yes, thank goodness.”

“Hmm?”

“Nothing, nothing.”

Shiro gently brushes Alfor’s cheek with his thumb, “But no Altean marks.”

“He’s a mix of both of us,” says Allura, “Of both our worlds. That’s just how I wanted it.”

At that moment, the door slides open. Lance is the first to burst in, his arms full of gift bags.

“Heard there was a new baby in need of spoiling! Uncle Lance is on the case! Now where is the little nugget?”

Keith, Hunk, and Pidge push their way in after him. They all give a collective gasp when they spot the baby.

Shiro and Allura decide to let Keith hold him first. Allura demonstrates to him how to hold his arms and Shiro passes the baby over to him.

Keith’s face does funny things as he stares down at Alfor.

“Keith?” says Shiro, “You okay?”

Tears spill down Keith’s cheeks, “He’s too adorable! He’s too small!”

“Uh-oh,” says Lance, fishing a tissue out of his pocket, “We’ve got a cryer.”

Keith hands the baby to Hunk so he can wipe his face off, “Shit. I said I wouldn’t do this.”

“You can’t say ‘shit’ in front of the baby.” Pidge says, grinning.

“Okay, you’re both being crossed off the potential babysitter list.” says Shiro.

Hunk coos and babbles over the baby for a while, marveling at how small Alfor’s hands are compared to his own fingers, before passing him to Lance, who is equally taken with the small, squirmy bundle. Meanwhile, Allura opens the gifts Lance brought. Inside are several picture books, a set of blocks with the Altean alphabet on them, onesies in a rainbow of different colors, and two lion plushies, one black and one blue. By now, Alfor has been passed over to Pidge and seems to be making an effort to grab her glasses. Keith intercepts his hand and Alfor grips his finger instead.

“God, he’s just so tiny,” says Keith, “He needs to be protected.”

Shiro can relate. Alfor’s barely been here an hour and already Shiro can hardly even bear the thought of something bad happening to him.

Pidge hands Alfor back to Allura, “Well, to the surprise of no one, he’s the best-looking baby in the universe.”

“Glad you agree,” says Shiro, “I was worried I only thought so because I had my dad-goggles on.”

“Aww man, I didn’t even think about that!” says Lance, “Shiro’s a real space dad now!”

“Don’t…”

Too late. Lance and Pidge are already chanting, “Space dad, space dad, space dad!”

“Nurse, would you show these jokers to the door?”

The nurse-bot shoos the four younger paladins toward the exit.

“Wow,” says Hunk, to himself as they leave, “I can’t believe I’m an uncle! Again!”

“You’re a Hunkle!” Pidge giggles, as he herds her out the door.

“Lance,” Shiro hears Keith whisper on his way out the door, “I think I want a baby.”

“Um…do you mean like right now or like a couple years down the road? Because I’m game if you mean down the road, but, uh…”

The door slides shut behind them and the room is quiet once more. Alfor lets out a big yawn.

“All tuckered out from the excitement, isn’t he?” says Coran, suppressing a yawn of his own, “I know the feeling.”

Allura leans Alfor against her chest, “Rest, little one. Your family will watch over you.”

Shiro climbs into the bed next to Allura to watch his son drift off to sleep. He wraps his arms around both of them. What Allura says is true. No matter what happens, he will be here to watch over his son. They both will.

#shalluraweek #shallura #shiro #allura #keith #hunk #pidge #lance #coran #with a little klance snuck in there because i have no self control #the gang's all here and ready to celebrate the newest member of the family #not the most original name for a shallura baby but come on you know they would #my posts #my fanfictions #parent au #in case i want to do more with this

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takaraphoenix · 6 years ago

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Riiight! So I just watched season 6 of Voltron: Legendary Defender (or as I like to call it season 4B...). SPOILERS ahead, obviously. But have my personal opinion and knee-jerk reactions to it!

(The following is a chronological list of my reactions, followed by a summarization of my thoughts.)

Lotor calling the Paladins his colleagues is very precious to me. Also, daaamn I really do ship Lotor and Allura a lot by now.

Hunk. Having interest in Galra history. Hunk being the engineer and getting to boss the others around. Just, generally, Hunk having a speaking-roll beyond being a comic relief is... such a nice change of pace. Hng. HUNK IS SUCH A BOSS IN THE FIRST EPISODE.

OH GODS FINALLY KEITH GETS TO ASK ALL THE QUESTIONS. Do not talk about this later, Krolia. Nothing is more important than the truth, gods damn it.

THEY NEARLY KISSED. ALLURA AND LOTOR NEARLY KISSED. AND GOT COCKBLOCKED. Hng. I feel teased about that.

Lance calling himself “a third wheel”. I mean, seriously, first he stumbles in with Hunk and Pidge, pointing out how he is not really part of Team Punk, then he calls himself that. Ah. I live for the brief moments of Langst that we get.

I am very appeased by the “This is how Krolia ended up on Earth” flashbacks. THAT was very high on my checklist of things this season had to include.

Lance referring to himself as “a boy from Cuba”. I really appreciate that, because I fucking hate it when shows publish external canons – through tweets and interviews and side-books – but don't actually acknowledge and vocalize said canons on the actual show. I don't like having to do homework when watching a show. I want my canons on the show.

BABY KEITH IS FUCKING ADORABLE.

Keith adopting a fluffy space-wolf is just all the yes.

So Keith is now two years older than Lance due to time-works-differently-here-shenanigans during his and Krolia's mission, did I read that right? That's nice. I approve.

Team-bonding? I approve. Altean D&D? Very weird, but why not. But I did not expect Lance to be a party-pooper. Would have thought he'd have played human D&D with Hunk and Pidge at the Garrison.

CATBOY LANCE CATBOY LANCE CATBOY LANCE.

Dear Allura, please fucking finally talk to Lance. You clearly have no feelings for him and the mice had literally spelled it out for you that Lance has feelings for you. Talk to him. Tell him there is nothing and never will be anything. So he can properly move on. This pining and weirdness and inappropriate flirting is highly unprofessional and annoying and now, thanks to new OTP, also really super pointless.

TALLER KEITH FOR THE WIN. SERIOUSLY. It's been driving me fucking insane that 90% of fanart artists in this fandom draw Keith like one whole head shorter than Lance, while in fucking canon, the two are essentially the same height. So with him actually being taller than Lance, maybe finally things will be... more evened out. -__-

Nooooooo. Fuuuuck thiiiis. Even though “Altean managed to escape and hide on a different planet” makes a lot of sense. Seriously why would all Alteans be dead. I like Lotor, I am not approving of the “It was all a ruse” thing. He's been so good lately. Fuck canon, I live in denial.

THAT'S TOO MANY SHIROS. WAY TOO MANY SHIROS. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON. Did Haggar seriously clone herself an army of Shiros...? Whut.

WHAT IS THAT THING ON KEITH’S CHEEK. Because by logic alone, it can’t be a “Galra mark” as everyone claims. First of all, the Galra don’t... usually... have marks? That’s the Alteans? And secondly, that’s kinda not how genetics work? You can’t just suddenly “activate” that half of your DNA?? All the other half-Galra just look a certain way. You can’t just... turn it on. It’s a scar, right? Because it is right below where the certainly very hot laser-sword was pressing down on Keith. And in design, color and making, it looks very much like the scar Shiro has running over his nose.

Kiddo!Keith is even more adorable than baby!Keith.

So... they actually killed Shiro off. Okay. Did not expect that. Thought he was just “locked away” in controlled!Shiro's mind or something. Straight-up dead? Did not see that coming.

Argh. The whole fucking sudden “Oh by the way Lotor fucking experimented on Alteans and killed a whole lotta bunch” pisses me off so muuuch. I like Lotor. I ship him and Allura. Why would you do this to me, DreamWorks?? I so rarely ship canon straights. And when I do, you turn half of the ship into a genocidal crazy scientist... hng... It’s the quintessence though, right? I mean, Allura said it herself and we saw the Paladins react to it within moments. If Lotor has been experimenting with this shit for millennia he has been as... corrupted by it as his father. His whole rhetoric is the same as his father’s too. So. Can we un-quintessence him...? Please...??

HOLY SHIT THEY’RE GOING HOME. Does that mean we will get to meet their families? All of their families?

Now, to what I thought about it.

I genuinely think that the whole “oh by the way Lotor is a crazy scientist” thing came hard out of left field. Literally everything about it. From his rapidly changing behavior to “by the way a bunch of Alteans are still alive” and finally in “Oh and Krolia and Keith happen to meet not just the Alteans but that one specific Altean who uncovered that Lotor was behind a giant-ass conspiracy to murder a bunch of Alteans for his own agenda”. That was just... all about that was bad writing.

And yet again a season where neither Hunk nor Lance had plotlines. But at least they had a bit more to say in the past. Still. Really hoping next season on Earth, where the two of them have their families, will actually give them more focus.

Generally, I don’t... like most of the stuff that happened this season? Lotor going crazy, Alteans still being alive (I hate that no franchise ever that says “last of their kind” actually pulls fucking through with that and they always reveal “ooops was a mistake. There’s still a bunch of them! Never mind! :D”), the castle blowing up like that.

I also did like a lot though. Krolia origin story, or rather Keith origin story, Keith adopting a wolf, Keith now being taller than Lance. It was, yet again, a Keith centric season. Honestly, when I started watching this show, I was really under the impression this show would focus on the team and not just, you know, mostly on Keith. Hope they even it out more in the future, because now with the whole origin story out of the way, his sub-plot seems to be mostly done.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I will return to my cave of denial where Lotor is still a good guy and he and Allura are having an epic romance, yes? Yes.

#Voltron Legendary Defender #Season 6 #Spoilers #Phoe's Random Show Rants

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gascon-en-exil · 7 years ago

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A Not Actually Definitive Ranking of Fire Emblem Games

So after a lot of deliberation I’ve decided not to revisit last year’s Zelda ranking project on a full scale for FE, but that doesn’t mean it’s not something I really wanted to do. 2018 is the year we’re going to get alternatively hyped for and disappointed by FE16, after all. With that in mind have an abbreviated list that will end up being one very long post. I’ve got games to gush over and an anon or two (and very likely actual followers…eep) to piss off, so here we go.

The “personal favorites of the series, love revisiting them” Tier - FE10, FE2/15, FE4

I’m never going to argue that Radiant Dawn is a perfect game or even just a perfect FE game, but damned if it doesn’t manage to do so much right all at once. An extremely ambitious story that builds off its mostly conventional predecessor in a variety of interesting ways, deconstructing a bunch of series narrative standards (life in a defeated country kind of sucks and there are people that don’t warm that quickly to young and inexperienced rulers, go figure) and taking an eleventh hour hard right at Nietzchean atheism as read by a Pride parade. Kind of falls on its ass by the end, but every experimental FE story does the same thing so I can’t fault this one. I love the army switching as motivation to try different units almost as much as I love the oh-so-exploitable growth and BEXP mechanics. Its Easy mode also hits a sweet spot for me of being challenging enough to not be a complete snore while also allowing the freedom for all manner of weird self-imposed challenges that don’t even require grinding. By all accounts Hard mode is one lazy design choice after another, but I don’t play at that level so no complaints here.

Never played Gaiden, but to its credit around half of the unique gameplay mechanics I like in Shadows of Valentia were also in the original: the modest army size, the novel approaches to inventory management and magic, the pretty basic class system with just a hint of nuance. The remake threw in some hit-or-miss questing, dungeon exploration, and achievements, but all the rest was either a solid addition or a continuation of NES-era annoyances that I could live with. And the story…SoV makes me dislike the DS games even more just because this game does so much with so little. Even leaving aside the mostly great voice acting there’s a bunch of new content that characterizes almost everybody and makes half of them (the men, anyway, because this is a remake of a Kaga-era game and therefore misogynistic as can be) gay because why the hell not, and then some development that constitutes the only solid attempt at worldbuilding Archanea-Valentia-Ylisse has ever really gotten and also retcons some stuff from Awakening into making sense. It’s even got some solid DLC with lots of character stuff for the Deliverance, the least sucky grinding of the 3DS games, and probably the only context in which I’ll ever be able to comment on anything from Cipher.

No remake needed for Genealogy of the Holy War to make it competitive with the rest of the top tier - just an excellent translation patch and the standard features of an emulator. I’ve never watched Game of Thrones and probably don’t plan on it, but I gather that this game provides the same essential experience with less blood and female nudity and marginally more egalitarianism for all. I can forgive it for being the original Het Baby Fest since you’d be hard-pressed to find a single entirely healthy and well-adjusted individual anywhere on Jugdral and I relate to that just as much. Screwed up family dynamics for everyone! It’s also arguably got a more fun breeding meta than either of the 3DS games, lacking Awakening’s optimization around a single postgame map with very specific parameters or Fates’s high level of balance that ironically stymies analysis. This is another game for interesting inventory management and unit leveling that isn’t too obnoxious, which mostly makes up for the maps taking an eon to play through even with an emulator speeding through those enemy phases. This would be a strange game to remake, but if it got a localized one of the same caliber as SoV I fully acknowledge that this could climb to the #2 spot. SoV would probably have the queer edge though unless they do some strange things to the plot or just make Gen 2 really gay…but then again Gen 2 is the part that’s more in need of fleshing out as it is. (Also, this game has So. Much. Incest. That’s not even really a kink of mine especially as it’s all straight incest, but I just find that hilarious in light of how Tumblr’s purity culture speaks of such things.)

The “good games, but don’t come back to them as much” Tier - FE7, FE9, FE8

Blazing Sword is not here for nostalgia purposes, especially since when I first played the game at 14 years old most of what I like about it didn’t really register. It was just that game with RPG elements that I liked and permadeath that I didn’t, and it took a few games after that for me to become an established fan of the franchise. Massive props for putting such an unconventional spin on a prequel to a textbook FE; this is a game in a series about war in which no war is fought, how crazy is that? We actually get to see the backstory of FE6′s tragic antagonist, even as it’s completely tangential to the plot of this game and so just feels like random Jugdral-esque family drama without context, and on top of that we get the first hints of interdimensional travel and kinky human/shapeshifter sex several years before either of those became controversial talking points about how they were ruining the series. I am so there. Lyn doesn’t matter to the saga, but her character arc is distinct and self-contained and also she picked up a disproportionately large fanbase while being bisexual and biracial so go her. Eliwood is sympathetic and homosocially-inclined even if his growths frequently make me want to cry (at least he gets a horse unlike his similarly-challenged son), and I can live with Hector even if I could have done without his lordly legacy. Throw in some average-for-the-time gameplay with just enough variety across the two routes and even more good character work *waves at Sonia and Renault and Priscilla -> Raven/Lucius and Serra and…* and it’s all in all a solid experience. The ranking system can go die in a fire though, which funnily enough it did after this game. Yay!

Like most early 3D games - except on Gamecube so it’s even more embarrassing - Path of Radiance has aged terribly by every aesthetic measure aside from the soundtrack. It’s also painfully slow, and my computer can’t run Dolphin apparently so an emulator’s not going to fix that for me. Those obvious flaws aside, it’s still an entertaining game, and more importantly it’s the prologue that had the crucial task of setting up all the pins RD knocked over in stellar fashion, whether we’re talking about the basic storyline that actually isn’t or the many het relationship fake-outs (more so in localization…I guess we’ll never know if NoA was actively planning that when they pushed Ike/Elincia like they did). PoR is also a love letter to Jugdral in both gameplay and themes, albeit an occasionally critical one. The jury’s still out on whether Jugdral or Tellius succeeds the most (fails the least?) of the FE settings at developing a complete world with a nuanced and resonant saga narrative, but that Tellius manages to be competitive while being kind of clumsy overall with racism and shifting the series’s overarching motif of dragon-blooded superhumans to one of kinky interracial sex is pretty impressive. The less I say about Ike the better since it’s only his endings in RD that save him for me; suffice it to point out that his worldview and general personality were clearly designed to appeal to a demographic that does not include me.

And finally comes The Sacred Stones, truly my average benchmark FE as I like it but struggle to have any particularly strong feelings on it one way or the other. The story is standard but has a few intriguing quirks, like the light vs. dark magic meta, surprise necrophilia, and how the main antagonist’s sexuality sort of depends on which route you take (except he’s still never getting laid so does it really matter?). It also seems to have been the first game to have made a legitimate effort toward the kind of replayability that’s normal for RPGs, what with the branched promotions, the route split, and the actual postgame. That’s all much more engaging than just filling up a support log. The gameplay is also more polished and (I think?) more balanced than the other GBA games, if one is willing to overlook the minor issue of Seth. Let’s see…something something twincest that’s now an IS running gag, something something guys talking intimately about their lances, something something SoV did the whole dungeon crawling with monsters bit better but I can forgive SS for not taking it that far. Moving on….

The “they have Problems” Tier - FE14, FE13

Probably qualifies as a fandom heresy, but yes I’m putting Fates first of these two. Fates is in every conceivable way for me the “You Tried” game, because I had such high hopes for it from the moment we got the earliest promotional content. I was expecting a World of Warcraft-style conflict between two morally grey factions with myriad convoluted grievances against each other messily resolving themselves one way or the other according to player choice (though note that this is already somewhat damning with faint praise as no one’s going to call WoW a storytelling masterpiece), with Conquest in particular a true villain campaign that I imagined might play out as European Imperialism: The Game. What we actually got was…not that, not at all, but amid all the complaints about plot holes and idiot balls and moral myopia most fans seem to have forgotten just how much there is to this game. It’s three full stories that together average out to be just about passable, with possibly the biggest gameplay variety in the series that fixed most of Awakening’s more broken elements (pair-up, children being unquestionably superior to the first generation) while also adding in new features that undoubtedly appealed to someone or other like Phoenix mode and the castle-building aspect. I can even mostly forgive the obvious growing pains Fates exhibits in terms of queer content, as they were pretty much inevitable once the developers realized that (almost) everyone was picking up on the subtext and that that approach just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Again, they tried, and if the results included face-touching fanservice and plot contrivances left and right and two-way cultural posturing that inevitably crosses over into real world racism at some point I can still step back for a moment and acknowledge that Fates began as a distinctive, high-concept setting on par with Tellius and Jugdral that was willing to do something different with the narrative norm (for two of its routes at least, and even so I’m not begrudging Birthright its conventionality because that grounding is important overall). And who knows? Maybe a later game will come along and retroactively make this setting coherent.

Fates might have more sexual fanservice, but if there’s any FE that I feel ends up a slave to fanservice in a broader sense it would be Awakening. Yeah, I get that when it was in development everyone thought this would be the final game, so it makes sense that the finished product turned out to be a nostalgia-laden greatest hits piece. It’s still hard to forgive Awakening for feeling so insubstantial, doubly so since it ended up revitalizing the franchise and now it and Fates are everywhere. It’s got a plot that only makes some sense in light of SoV and possibly on a meta level (following my theory that the plot structure is meant to mirror FE1-3 in sequence), the first iteration of an Avatar dating game heavily coloring the characterization and support system, and a queasily feel-good atmosphere that allows almost no character to actually remain dead and centers everything around the self-insert and the power of friendship. So much for the series’s traditionally dim view of human nature and recurring theme of the inevitability of conflict. What’s more, in spite of its theoretically broad scope (including a criminally under-explored time travel plot with a bad future) and numerous call-backs to older games Awakening does surprisingly little for developing the series’s most frequently-visited setting. I think it was in large part how generic this game has always felt to me even before release that I never got very hyped for it and as a consequence was never very disappointed by it. It’s just….there, with its nostalgia and its chronic “no homo” and its host of hilariously broken mechanics. I wonder if we’d have ended up viewing Awakening more favorably if it really had been the last game? Eh, probably not.

The “needs a remake or needs a better remake” Tier - FE5, FE6, FE3/12, FE1/11

I don’t have a specific order for these, except that FE1/11 is almost certainly the bottom since 5 and 6 have remake potential and, lack of localization aside, New Mystery was a better remake than Shadow Dragon.

I still haven’t fully played Thracia 776, but I’ve watched and read through Let’s Plays and have read more than enough analysis and meta on the game to where I can definitively say that I wouldn’t enjoy playing it too much and don’t feel all that emotionally connected to the story except insofar as it relates to the overall Jugdral saga. The concept of a standard FE plot that ends with the playable cast losing is an intriguing one, though they really could have done better than the weird non-ending that is this game’s final boss. I’m also not as invested in Leif the fallen aristocrat as I usually am those types of characters, possibly because it’s a foregone conclusion that he eventually gets his kingship anyway. I would like a remake, hopefully one that smooths over some of the original’s mechanical roughness and also makes a bunch of characters gay because the material’s certainly there in places, but I also admit that I’d rather have a remake of Genealogy first. Or, for that matter….

Binding Blade doesn’t have the potential for an amazing story-driven remake that Thracia does; after all, it’s basically a soft reboot of FE1 with an equally bland lord saved by his Super Smash Bros. fanbase and possibly his weirdly large harem. That said, there’s a fair amount of character potential and worldbuilding opportunities what with the series’s first true support system and the content of its unorthodox prequel. Even by itself I feel like BB does more to sell Elibe as its own distinctive world than any of Marth’s games ever did for Archanea, and that’s even with the reality that like the Archanea games this playable cast is inflated with some really forgettable characters (that seem to have followed a semi-rigid numerical quota by class in this instance. It’s weird.). This game never really stuck in my mind as a good playable experience either, not helped by the fact that it feels simple and antiquated compared not only to the GBA games that followed it but to the Jugdral games that preceded it. Good on them for throwing out some of Thracia’s more unwieldy mechanics, but did they have to throw out skills, hybrid classes, and varied chapter objectives too? The space limitations of the GBA couldn’t have been that severe.

While I’ve been spending much of this post ragging on Archanea, I will say that (New) Mystery of the Emblem has some interesting character beats, like the resolution of the Camus/Nyna/Hardin tragedy, Rickard and the situationally bisexual(?) Julian, and some of the antics of Marth’s retainers. I did like bits of the remake’s new assassin plot even if most of it is cribbed from the Black Fang; Eremiya’s no Sonia, but Clarisse and Katarina have their moments. Also, Kris isn’t that offensive to me since I was never all that engaged in Marth’s inconsistent personality and from what I’ve seen his/her supports don’t all devolve into a dating sim. New Mystery has a broader array of characters than either the original or the previous remake, without requiring the player to kill off characters just to get some of the new ones. That said, the reclassing in the DS games is still broken and allows the player to strip even more character out of their personality-deprived units. I’m getting to the point where I’m having trouble separating the two actually, so I’ll just go ahead and remark that I think everyone can agree that Shadow Dragon is the worst of the three remakes so far, with no supports, the aforementioned killing of units, a prologue that adds to the story but only exists on Normal mode and also requires you to kill someone off (seriously, what is it with this game? Is it commentary on the necessary sacrifices of war that they tried forcing on the player for one game until they realized it was a terrible idea?), the needless removal of features from earlier games like rescuing even as others like weapon ranks and forging were left in, that first clumsy iteration of reclassing, and little to nothing that I can see as elevating the story above the standard fantasy adventure fare of Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light that might have been good in 1990 but didn’t look so hot in 2008. Archanea just feels so lifeless overall compared to every other setting in the franchise, to the point where I don’t even feel that guilty about putting the first game in the series way down at the bottom when over in the Zelda ranking I raised the NES games above ones I found more fun to play solely because of their historical significance. Isn’t FE1 arguably the first tactical RPG? I feel like I should appreciate it more, but I just can’t. *shrugs*

#Fire Emblem #Mostly serious but not entirely

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hailqiqi · 7 years ago

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1, 5, 13, 22, 28 I can send them five times so you do each one, but I fear you might hate me for this, so I give you a Chichester ("I give you a choice" but my phone has decided I need to give you some British town, and I'd give you that too! It has a nice gallery, I've been there once)

1 - ‘We’re not just friends, and you fucking know it’Posted to AO3 here.

Who said Prompts have to be answered Promptly?

The market wasbeside one of the most spectacular ice rinks Lance had ever seen.

The ice was ashimmering, silvery white - something about metals in the water making it moresilver than the ice back at Earth - and the rink was surrounded by trees withpale green trunks and baby blue leaves. Lanterns strung between them twinkledlike stars in the night, and what looked like fairies glowed amongst the leavesand zoomed across the rink itself, leaving coloured trails behind them as theyweaved between the skaters (he’d been told they were a type of firefly, butthey looked like fairies so Lance was going to call them fairies and just bedone with it).

Topping it alloff - literally - were the wispy pink clouds that drifted lazily in the nightsky above it, only partially obscuring the view of the magnificent swirlinggalaxy that was host to the Ulippa system.

It was themost breathtakingly romantic sight Lance had ever seen. The rest of theteam had gasped in awe as well, and Pidge had honest-to-goodness squealedwhen she saw it. Lance hadn’t even known she was capable of it.

Tysa, theirguide, smiled gently at them. “I see you like the gliding ring, Paladins.Unfortunately it is only for those who know the fine music of pairdom.”

Aaaaand thereit was. Lance had always hated being single on Valentine’s Day, but that was nothingcompared to how much he was coming to hate being single on Ayurla.

Romantic lovewas celebrated on Ayurla. It was a goal, something that everybody must try andattain, and in order to encourage that it felt like just about every coolactivity on the planet was reserved for couples. Love was the foremost thoughton everybody’s mind and being in love seemed to be the be-all and end-all toeverything. It was like Valentine’s Day 24/7.

Lance couldunderstand it if Ayurlans had soulmates or something, but Tysa had said thatmost Ayurlans had many partners over their lifetimes - and multiple partners atonce wasn’t uncommon, either. He’d also been confused when Hunk had asked aboutmarriage or life-long commitments, seeming surprised that humans were prone to tiethemselves to one person for the rest of their lives.

Lance didn’tget it. What was the point of being in love if it wasn’t going to be forever?

Hunk nudgedhim with his elbow, breaking him out of his reverie. “Maybe we should justcheck out the market, then?”

“Eh, I guess,”Lance replied, stretching his arms over his head. “I’m kinda disappointedthough. I’ve never been ice skating.”

“Well, itdoesn’t look like that’s going to be possible, so we may as well make the bestof it and explore the market.” Typical Shiro, always encouraging them to makethe best out of a bad situation.

Not that itwas a terrible situation. The market really did look cool: there were foodstands selling everything from frozen candies to steaming tie-dyed soups thathad set Hunk bouncing up and down with excitement; Lance had seen glimpses ofjewellery that looked like it was set with starlight and fabrics thatglittered; other stands had been overladen with displays of every kind of techgadget you could imagine (and then some).

Lance reallydid want to check it out, he’d just rather go ice-skating first.

“If you reallywanna go ice-skating, why not just ask Pidge to go with you?” Lance whippedaround to see Matt grinning at him mischievously, but before he could react theolder man doubled over in pain as Pidge’s fist connected with his gut.

“I told youalready, we’re. Just. Friends!” She ground out, emphasising the last twowords with smaller hits. Her cheeks were red, but it could’ve just been thecold - their paladin armour was temperature-controlled but only covered up tothe neck, and nobody had bothered to bring their helmets despite the fallingsnowflakes.

“If you decideto change that, you’d be welcome on the ice,” Tysa chipped in serenely.

Lance felt hisown cheeks heat up in response (to the cold, obviously). “Uh, thanks. We’llkeep that in mind.”

“Sure wewill,” Pidge added, crossing her arms as she looked away from the group. “So,Tysa, can we go explore the market? There were a few stalls that Matt and Iwanted to check out.”

Her cheekswere a deep red now.

Could he stillblame that on the cold?

“Certainly,”the guide answered. “I will be waiting here in case you need any assistance.”

—

Lance ended upwandering the market with Hunk and Allura. The market was as fascinating as ithad looked and his companions kept alternately shoving interesting foods andshiny trinkets in his face, but Lance found himself too distracted to take itin properly.

Pidge had beenblushing around him a lot lately.

She always hadthough, hadn’t she? The light dusting of pink that often coloured her cheekshad been a familiar sight to Lance for as long as he’d known her, even backwhen he’d thought she was a him. She was probably only blushing more oftenlately because her stupid brother had a habit of opening his big mouth andsaying things like he had earlier.

Lance foughtback a wave of irritation at the thought. Stupid Matt and his stupidsuggestions. Pidge and him had a good thing going - they played games in hisroom together, watched movies together, sometimes sat up in the observationdeck together when they couldn’t sleep. He’d help her find bugs in her code andshe’d help him with his hand-to-hand. They had an easy rapport - they spentmost of their time together joking and laughing, and they were comfortableenough with each other that casual hugs and touches and leaning on each otherwere all just part of hanging out.

But then Mattwould make some stupid comment and suddenly they’d be five feet apart, cheeksburning and unable to look at each other. It made conversation stilted andawkward and Lance hated it.

“Look, Hunk,it’s a divining ball! I used to have one of these!” Allura grabbed somethingthat looked like a Magic 8 Ball and held it to her chest, closing her eyes.Hunk said something in reply but Lance tuned it out, running his fingers oversome of the shimmery red love-heart cushions instead.

What made itworse was that he couldn’t figure out why Matt’s comments affected himthe way they did. Him and Pidge were friends, just friends. Sure, she waspretty in her nerdy way (more like beautiful), and he felt like he was just ina constant state of being impressed when he was around her, and then he foundit hard to do anything but smile when he was around her, but that didn’t mean…

Wait.

Lance’s eyeswidened and his fingers stilled as the pieces slot into place.

Oh.

He lookedaround wildly, gaze finally settling on a painting of a pair of Ayurlan loversin a park as he tried to reign his thoughts in.

This wasn’thow it was supposed to happen! When Lance fell in love it there was meant to befireworks and a choir of angels, the whole shebang. He was meant to seerainbows and roses and just know that she was The One the moment he sawher (or at least the moment he realised).

Yet here hewas, very clearly feeling something for Pidge and yet there hadn’t been anyfanfare. He couldn’t even figure out when things had changed, couldn’t pinpointthe moment he fell for her. At some point it had just become as natural asbreathing.

But falling inlove wasn’t supposed to be quiet, was it? It was meant to be somethingthat consumed your whole being, filled you with burning, fiery passion,stopping you from thinking about anything else. At least that’s what all thesongs said.

So did he loveher?

“Hey, Lance! Buddy, are you okay?” Hunk’sconcerned face was suddenly filling his vision, and Lance leaned back to getsome space. “You look out of it.”

Lance blinked,shaking himself out of his stupor before replying. “Uh, yeah, sorry man. Just…”Just what, exactly? Just realised I might be in love with our other bestfriend? “Just got a lot on my mind.”

“Oh, youshould try this then!” Allura smiled enthusiastically as she pushed the silverball at him. “It’s a divining ball!”

“A diviningball?”

“Yes! I usedto have one as a girl. You hold it to your chest and ask for help, and it tellsyou what you most need to hear.”

Lance raisedone eyebrow. “Sounds more like a motivational ball.”

“That’s what Isaid!” Hunk chimed in. “It really works though. It told me I need to stopthinking about things that probably won’t happen, and I have to admit it’s gota point.”

Lance shotthem both a disbelieving look before taking the ball from Allura and holding itin front of his chest. “Like this, then?”

“Yes, justlike that,” Allura confirmed. “Then you close your eyes and ask it inside yourmind for help.”

He closed hiseyes.

I think I’m inlove with someone but I don’t think that’s how love works.

The ball inhis hands grew warm.

“Love exists,whether it is acknowledged or not.”

Lance openedhis eyes. Huh.

That madesense.

“Uh, buddy?What did you ask it?” Hunk and Allura were looking at him, confused expressionson both of their faces.

Lanceshrugged, his cheeks flushing, “Just…things.”

He looked downat the ball again, then held it up to his chest and closed his eyes.

Okay, so if Ilove her, what do I do about it?

He felt warmthspring to life under his palms again, and opened his eyes expectantly.

“Love makessilence golden, but silence can never make love bloom.”

Well. Okaythen.

Confidencebloomed in his chest, and he grinned. This was gonna be great.

“Here Allura,I gotta go,” Lance said, pushing the divining ball back towards Allura. “Thanksfor this!”

“Where are yougoing?” She called after him, confused, but Lance ignored her as he pushed hisway through the crowds.

He just had tolook for a big blue and orange guy with a gap in the crowd next to him. Sheshouldn’t be too hard to find.

—

“Pidge!”

Pidge whirledaround as he made his way towards her, breathless from pushing his way throughthe crowds. He’d had to go all the way to the other side of the rink, but he’dfinally found them.

She frowned athim. “Hey, Lance, what’re you-“

“Do you wannago ice skating with me?”

“What?”Pidge’s eyes blew wide, and that light pink Lance had come to love coloured hercheeks. “Lance, we can’t. Tysa said, remember? It’s not for friends.”

Lance snortedand looked her in the eye. “We’re not just friends, and you fucking know it.”

Pidge’s mouthdropped open.

Lance suddenlyfelt the rush of confidence deflate and took a step back, bringing a hand up tohis neck and looking away nervously. “Uh, that is, if you wanna be. Uh, go.Ice-skating.”

Screwing uphis courage, he looked at her again and held out his hand, patently ignoringMatt cracking up a few steps away.

A warm smile slowly bloomed across Pidge’s face, making her eyes shineand her cheeks flush as she reached out and placed her hand in his. “Okay.”

--> Continued Here

#plance #lidge #pidgance #flirtyrobot #my writing #prompts

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rosesnvines · 7 years ago

Text

Little Mouse and Koumainu

OK, so, @kalluralove, this is for the prompt Lion and Mouse, and, well, let’s just say this was so much fun (and a lot clicked right into place). I also want to point out that I did not include any descriptions whatsoever simply because I have no clue if I want this to be an alternate Earth with both aliens and humans or if it’s all humans. I kinda like both, so, if I don’t figure it out for the next couple of installments (what did you expect, to do just one? This AU deserves exploring, especially after this long of an introduction), I’ll probably keep it this way with no descriptions, and you can determine if it’s humans and aliens, or just humans. Hope you enjoy it!

“Allura! Allura, hurry it up, you’re going to be late for your first day of school!”

“Coming, Coran!” yelled Allura before stuffing the last of her breakfast in her mouth.

“Oh come on, Allura, if you can’t finish breakfast before you leave, then you’re just going to have to get up earlier,” remarked her father as he sipped from his coffee.

“Sorry Father, I’m just so excited! I can’t wait to go to school! And I can’t wait to have my cousin as my teacher!”

Alfor chuckled. “I’m sure you do, but if you talk about it for another minute, you’re going to be late.”

“Oh, right. Goodbye, Father.” Allura gave her father a quick peck on the cheek.

“Goodbye Allura, and good luck!” He waved to her as she dashed out of the room. She grabbed her backpack, sitting by the front door, and dashed out to the car, Coran already waiting for her, twiddling his thumbs impatiently.

“You can’t be late like that again, they, and your father, won’t like it,” said Coran as he pulled out of the driveway.

“Sorry, Coran, I’m just so excited, and nervous. I’ve never been to a real school before. I wanted to make sure I have everything,” replied Allura as she fumbled with her seat belt. She finally got it buckled as he turned off their street.

“Ah, yes, high school, such four short and exciting years. Depends on which clique you belong to as well.”

“Clique?”

“Ah, yes, some cliques are looked down on and are considered the scum of the earth, while others are practically the royalty of the school,” Coran stated matter-of-factually.

“What? No one should be treated like the scum of the earth! I’ll run for class president and try to change that!” exclaimed Allura.

“Ah yes, if only it were that simple. Unfortunately, it seems that every year, certain cliques, or sometimes, certain people, are treated the same way. And, also unfortunately, those behaviors stay with those teenagers, and . . . well, it accounts for a lot of the behaviors you see in adults today, the nicer ones tend to be the ones who were bullied, and the meaner ones tend to be the bullies,” he explained, only glancing at her every now and then so as to keep his eyes on the road.

Allura glanced at him in surprise, “Really?”

“Well, that’s the general idea, it’s not always the case, mind you,” he pointed out as he took another turn.

Allura leaned back in her seat and let out a sigh. “So, there’s not much that I can do, huh?”

“Oh no, there is something you can do. You can still make a difference, it’s up to you when and how. Every change starts with baby steps. Well, here we are. What do you think?” asked Coran as he slowed to a stop in front of the school.

“Wow!” said Allura with a slight, squeaky gasp.

“Rather impressive, isn’t it? Well, I think it’s time to say goodbye, your first class should be starting soon!”

Allura bent over gave Coran a quick hug. “Thank you!” She quickly unbuckled her seatbelt, grabbed her backpack, and got out of the car.

“Oh, and remember to get together a list of all the clubs you want to join and their times!”

“Yes, Coran.”

“And remember to invite your cousins over for dinner this Saturday . . .”

“Yes Coran.”

“And ask them what they like!”

“Yes, Coran, I will! Don’t worry, I’m not a little girl anymore!” Allura said with an exasperated sigh.

Coran began to tear up. “I know, but you will always be one to me and your father.”

“Really?” asked Allura, placing her hands on her hips.

“Alright, you’d better get in there. You’ve still got plenty of time to find your locker and your first class. Have fun!” And the next second, Coran zoomed off, leaving Allura wondering what in the world just happened. But she shook it off and dashed for the school, excitement building with every step. Her fellow classmates were already piling into the school, everyone chatting away as the students flooded into the halls. Allura ignored most of it, she was much more focused on finding her locker and her first class. She took out her schedule and searched for her locker number, eventually finding it down a couple of halls. She used the combination given to her and unlocked it, unloading everything she would not need for her first class into the locker. She closed it, locked it, and turned her attention to finding her first class.

“Well, hello there gorgeous. You’re new here, aren’t you?” asked a boy. The first thing she noticed were his ears.

“Your ears . . .”

“Uh, yeah?” he asked, touching his left ear.

“They’re hideous,” she straight up stated.

“Hey! They heard what you said about them! And they’re not happy! Neither am I!” “Hey Lance! Stop flirting with pretty girls and come help us!” Allura glanced behind the boy, two others were standing behind him with boxes.

“Yeah man, Mr. Takashi is not going to like it when he finds out you’ve been slacking,” said the taller of the two.

“Well, tell him that Keith was slacking off too!” Lance blurted, pointing out the dark-haired teen, who was at that moment walking out of the room with two boxes.

“As you were saying, Lance?” he asked coolly, a small smirk forming on his face. Lance grumbled as he shot Keith a glare and ducked into the classroom.

“Hey, um, do you guys need any help?” asked Allura.

“No thanks, we’ve got it,” said Keith as he walked past. The tone of his voice seemed to change for her, it became much softer, and, in a way, kinder. Allura hoped she wasn’t blushing at that moment as, she had to admit, Keith was kind of cute.

“Hey, are you new here?” asked the smaller of the other two.

“Why yes, my name’s Allura, and my first class is with Mr. Takashi!”

“Really! Same with us! We’re heading that way, so maybe you could join us. I’m Katie, by the way, and this big guy is Hunk.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Hunk, giving her a hand to shake, balancing the box with the other.

“Nice to meet you too!”

“Come on you slowpokes, class is going to start in a couple of minutes!”

“Hold your horses, Keith, we’re coming!” called out Lance as he walked past them with another box.

“Well, that’s Lance, and the grumpy guy up ahead is our class rep, Keith,” Hunk said, formally introducing the other two.

“Yeah, we’ve met. Clearly she doesn’t like my ears, and they’re still hurt about it.”

“I’m sorry, but they were the first things I noticed. Now that I look at your whole face, I think they fit you well.”

Katie leaned in and whispered, “You really shouldn’t have complimented him.”

“Oh, really? So, would you be interested in joining me for a date?” asked Lance with a flirtatious grin as he stepped in line with Allura.

“Lance! Today is her first day of school, give her some air!” Keith blurted. They had caught up with him, he was standing in front of a class room.

“Aw, Keith can’t open the door.”

“Well considering both of my hands are full, no duh,” Keith snapped.

“Well then, let me be of some help and get the door for you,” suggested Allura.

“That would be wonderful, thank you,” said Katie.

“Oh, um, thanks,” said Keith. Allura quickly opened the door and the four filed through.

“What are all these boxes for?” asked Allura as they set them down near the teacher’s desk. “And, where is everybody? Isn’t class supposed to be starting soon?”

“Yeah, well, considering everyone else shows up right as class starts, or a few minutes late . . . well, that’s the main reason Mr. Takashi trusts us with helping him get a few things ready for class,” replied Hunk.

“And these boxes are all of his lab supplies,” replied Katie. “My dad lets him keep it in the teacher’s lounge.”

“And what was making him late again?” Lance asked Keith as he leaned up against a desk in the back corner.

Keith let out a sigh. “His arm.”

“Again?”

“Yes, Lance, again, it’s full of metal to keep it from falling apart, and it gives him lots of problems still, like when the weather changes or . . .”

“There’s metal in his arm?” asked Allura.

Keith glanced at her for a second before replying with, “Yes, the accident shattered it. The doctors did everything they could to make sure they didn’t have to cut it off. So, this is what Shiro has to live with for the rest of his life. But he’s happy that he still has both arms.”

“Oh, I-I’m sorry,” stuttered Allura, as memories of her mother flooded her mind.

“Don’t be, you didn’t know,” replied Keith, his voice soft and soothing. It helped Allura to get over the near anxiety attack and smiled at him.

“Well, hello there. Looks like the regulars are here, and, well, you must be Allura Altena,” said the young man who entered the room. “I’m your science teacher, Shiro Takashi.”

“Oh, hello! Pleasure to meet you!” said Allura as they shook hands.

“Wait a second, Altena? Are you by any chance related to Ms. Altena?” asked Lance.

“Yes, Romelle’s my cousin,” replied Allura.

“OK, are there any students here not related to one of the teachers?”

“Yes, you and me,” replied Hunk.

“I know that,” said Lance.

Shiro chuckled. “Don’t worry about it Lance. Why don’t you guys get situated for science? I’m sure the rest of your classmates will be showing up any minute now.”

“Yes, about that. Can I have a different lab partner? Keith’s getting on my nerves.”

“Actually, yes, that’s a very good idea. I want Allura to have help to get situated into her new routine,” replied Shiro.

“Well, I’m available,” said Lance with a sly grin.

“Keith, since you’re the class rep, I want you to help Allura.” Keith glanced at him in shock before shooting a glance at Allura and the chair next to him.

“Wait, what? Him?” asked Lance as he glanced between Keith and Shiro in shock.

“Yes, him. I know how you are, Lance, and I’m sure Mr. Altena would like Allura to finish this class with top grades instead of being hit on by you every five minutes.”

“Oh, fine. So who’s my partner?”

“Hunk.”

“Yes!” they cheered and high-fived before dashing to their seats. Katie took the desk nearest Keith as Allura sat down in the chair next to him. Just then, other students came trickling in.

“We could move to a different desk, if you’d like,” Keith told Allura.

“Oh no, this is fine. But, thank you.” Allura smiled brightly at him. Keith nodded before sitting down next to her as Shiro began calling out names for partners. Katie ended up with a tall girl named Shay. A couple took the desk in front of Keith and Allura.

“So, you’re not stuck with Lance, anymore, huh?” asked the guy.

Keith shot him a smirk, “Worried that he’ll steal Nyma from you?”

“Nah, it just gets annoying after awhile,” the guy quipped.

Nyma huffed, “What are you talking about Rolo, it was annoying to begin with.”

“Oh, um, real quick, Rolo, Nyma, I’d like you to meet the new student at Arus High, Allura Altena.”

“Hello, nice to meet you,” Allura said with a smile as she shook hands.

“Nice to meet you too!” Nyma replied as she smiled back pleasantly and shook hands with Allura enthusiastically.

“Ditto. Altena, huh? Are you related to . . .”

“Romelle’s my cousin,” Allura replied with a laugh.

Rolo chuckled. “Go figure. Her brothers are here.”

“Bandor and Avok?” Allura asked excitedly.

“Yeah, but we share the last few classes, including your cousin’s art class, with them, so you won’t be seeing them until after lunch,” Keith explained.

“Can I get your attention please?” came Shiro’s voice above the din. Everyone had finally found seats. After a few seconds, the class finally quieted down. “Thank you. Seeing as how today’s the first day of school, there won’t be much homework.” A cheer went up at that. “However, we will be going through a couple of things in class today, since it’s mainly about meeting your lab partners as, you can tell, things have been switched around. There is another reason for that, but I will get to that in a second. To start off class, I would like everyone to stand, state your name and one or two things about yourself. We’re going to go one by one. But first, I’d like to introduce to you a new student! She’s the cousin of our own Miss Romelle Altena. Please stand, Allura!” A cheer went up as Allura rose and gave a few bows.

“Hello! Thank you all for such a warm welcome. Yes, I am Allura Altena, Miss Altena’s cousin, and this is the first school I’ve ever been to. I was homeschooled my whole life because my father is an ambassador and moves around alot. We’re finally in a position to where I can attend a public school for the rest of my education. And, I’m sorry, Mr. Takashi, that was more than one sentence, but I’m just so happy to be here!”

“That’s perfectly alright, Allura, we’re happy to have you. Who’s next?” Lance’s hand shot up, followed by Katie a mere second later. Shiro sighed. “Alright, Lance, make it quick.”

“Hi, I’m Lance McClain, my family’s from Cuba, and I think you’re hot.” He shot her a grin and winked.

Nyma leaned back. “That’s what I mean,” she muttered with a groan.

“Um, OK, thank you Lance. Yes, Katie?”

“Hi, I’m Katie Holt, my dad’s the president of the school, and my brother just graduated this last year with his teaching degree. He might come and teach here!” announced Katie with a huge grin.

“That’s wonderful Katie! Maybe you could ask your dad if Matt could come help me?” asked Shiro.

“I’ll mention it,” replied Katie as she sat down.

“Thank you. Oh, wait, Keith, you’re class rep, you should go real quick.”

Keith let out a sigh as he reluctantly stood up. “Fine, let’s get this over with. I’m Keith Takashi, I’m Shiro’s adopted brother, not full brother, so don’t ask about it. And I like my peace and quiet,” he said, shooting a glare at Lance.

“Um, OK, thank you, please take your seat. Uh, next?” By the end of class, Allura learned quite a few things about her classmates. For instance, Hunk was Samoan and loved food, Rolo and Nyma started going out officially over the summer, and Shay had a fascination with geology, stones and jewels in particular. The next few classes proved to be a blast. Allura mainly hung out with Keith, Lance, Hunk, Katie, Shay, Rolo, and Nyma until lunch, especially when a group of interesting teens entered the cafeteria. Well, more like they ushered her away from them and told her about them in whispers, though Allura instantly recognised one of them. There were two guys and four girls, Lotor, as Keith grumbled, acted like he was the prince of the school. Not only was he handsome and athletic, he was smart too. There was Acxa, his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Zethrid who was more of a bodyguard than anything, and Ezor was basically the school gossip, she could spread rumors like no tomorrow. Then there was Narti and her seeing cat, as she was allergic to dogs, and would often help Ezor by gathering information to spread rumors. And the second guy, whose arm was draped over Ezor, the one Allura recognised, was none other than her cousin Avok. She wanted to rush up to him and announce her presence, but Keith and Lance, agreeing on something for once that day, held her back.

“No!” hissed Keith.

“But that’s my cousin!” Allura hissed back.

“Never go near him when Lotor or any of those girls are around, he acts like a complete jerk!” snapped Keith. Allura let out a soft growl as she wrenched her arm away from him. But by then, they had detained her long enough for the group to pass. She glared at Keith, but her look softened a bit when she realized he was eyeing her with concern. Was there something else they weren’t telling her? Perhaps she could find out later, when her cousins would come over on Saturday. But first, she had to invite them. Her chance came when Romelle recognised her as she entered the classroom.

“Allura! It’s been too long!” she exclaimed as she pulled her into a hug.

“It’s good to see you too, Romelle,” replied Allura with a smile.

“Hi there, Allura!” called out a teen who was easily two years younger than Allura.

“Why, Bandor, you’ve grown! I feel like it was only yesterday you and Avok would pull at my pigtails.”

“Well, sorry about that. I don’t know why Avok did it, but I only did it because I liked touching your hair. It’s so soft and fluffy!” he explained as he touched it again, very, very gently.

“Yes, well, we’ll have time to reminisce later,” began Romelle.

“Oh, speaking of, Father was wondering if you could come over Saturday for dinner.”

“Oh, we’d love to! But really, please go sit down, class is starting!” Romelle exclaimed as she shooed them towards the desks. Bandor quickly and cheerfully showed Allura a desk that was next to his, which so happened to be in front of Keith. At that moment, Lotor and his group sauntered in, and Avok caught sight of Allura.

His eyes seemed to light up as he rushed towards her. “Allura, it’s so good to see you!”

Romelle cleared her throat, “Avok, please take your seat, class is about to begin. You’ll get to visit with her later.” She softened for a moment and gave a knowing smile to Avok. He seemed to catch her hint, grinned at Allura and quickly took his seat between Lotor and Ezor. Allura didn’t see him again outside of their shared classes for the rest of the day, even when Coran came to pick her up and give Romelle their address. That’s when she pondered over both Keith’s and Lance’s hesitance to let her speak to him. Was Lotor influencing him in a bad way? If the next few days were going to be similar, then she would have no choice but to wait until Saturday to find out anything. But an even greater surprise greeted her upon her arrival, as the television was blaring news about an attack.

“Father, what’s going on?” asked Allura when she noticed his full attention was on the television set, and his face was ashen with shock.

“This, uh, robotic beast showed up an hour ago, and has begun terrorizing the city. We don’t why it’s here, or what it wants. Authorities have tried everything they can think of and have had to take extreme precautions, but none of their weapons seem to have any effect on it. We can only hope and pray that something happens soon to end this.”

“No, not now, not ready yet!” he whispered harshly.

“Father, what . . .”

Alfor beamed at her as he rose and gave her a hug, though there was still a bit of tension in his face. “Allura, you’re home, wonderful! Can you please go to your room? I, I must talk to Coran about something. Please.”

“Um, alright?”

“Thank you.” Her father smiled at her, patted her cheek, and walked off with Coran. Allura let out a sigh, she was dying to know what it was that worried her father. But she went to her room and put down her backpack. Yet another surprise was waiting for her in her room. A tiny box was sitting on her end table in her bedroom. With a gasp, she eagerly pounced on it and opened it to reveal a pair of pale blue, drop earrings.

“Oh, these are beautiful,” she whispered as she put them on. This must have been what her father wanted her to find! She let out a shriek when a flash of light emanated from the earrings once she put them on, and a little mouse appeared, floating in the air.

“Hello Allura, I’m your arusin, Chuchule! Nice to meet you!”

“Ah! Who are you? What are you? What do you want? Father, Coran!”

“No, no, please, no! You can’t tell anybody about me!” Chuchule quickly flew between Allura and the door.

“What? Why not?”

“You must keep me a secret, or else the master of the robeasts will find me, and we won’t be able to stop him!”

“But, but why me?”

Chuchule placed her little paw on Allura’s shoulder. “Because you were chosen. You clearly have skills, kindness, and courage, otherwise, you would not have been chosen.”

“Chosen? By whom?”

“I can’t say who just yet, you’re not ready to meet him. But we do have a robeast to take care of!”

“But, but, how are we supposed to defeat it!” asked Allura with worry as she sat on her bed. Should she believe this little mouse? She really had no choice, what with the robeast being shown on the TV recently, and the little mouse suddenly appearing out of nowhere. And Allura knew she wasn’t dreaming, nor was she hallucinating. So this all had to be real.

“Oh, that’s easy! It’s magic! When I join with your earrings, you gain all of my powers! You can run faster, jump farther, and leap higher than you’ve ever have before! You’ll also be stronger, with faster reflexes, have a sixth sense that warns you of danger, and a fantastic tail that you can turn into a whip that lets you swing like a monkey!” Chuchule let out a giggle at that.

“Really? That, that actually sounds like fun.”

“Oh, and you do have a special power that you can use only once each time you transform. You throw your whip up in the air and shout, ‘Power of Quintessence!’ and the robeasts will be transformed back and damage will be undone!”

“Wait, back? Back into what?”

“Oh, robeasts are normal people transformed into robeasts by an evil witch!”

“Why is this evil witch doing this to these poor people?”

“Because she and her evil friend want the powers of Voltron!”

“What is Voltron?”

“Voltron is a team of superheroes who protect everyone from evil! There’s typically two to start off with, and then the team grows. There’s seven in total, five of whom make up the actual Voltron team, as they are five large cats and there’s only two of us little mice. We mice have to make sure that Voltron stays together, and is kept a secret! That is, once we’ve done our first job and find the five cats. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything, after all, we are the only ones who can return the robeasts back to normal and revert the damage done! The five cats are needed mainly to defeat them in battle.”

“Well then, let’s not waste any time, we have to save everybody!”

“That’s the spirit! All you have to say to me is ‘Chuchule, squeak on!’”

“Chuchule, squeak on? Whoa!” Chuchule responded immediately and flew into the earrings. Allura’s attire quickly changed in whirl of flashing, colorful lights. She was now dressed in a pink and white suit, a whip clipped to her belt that resembled a mouse’s tail, a matching mask, and her long hair was up in two buns made to look like mouse ears. “Whoa,” she said again, this time in astonishment as she checked out her new look in the mirror. “Alright, time to go save the city. I hope my partner shows up soon to the scene.” As quietly as a mouse, she left her home and rushed to the last known location of the robeast. It wasn’t long to find it after that, the creature wasn’t hard to spot, especially since it was leaving a rather large path of destruction in its wake. Allura gritted her teeth, she was glad that Chuchule had the power to not only revert the robeast, but also to revert the damage. There was certainly a lot of it. She chased down the robeast, only to pause as she finally got a good look at it. It was a huge, purple-skinned humanoid with large, wing-like ears, red eyes, and a wide, black-lipped, fishlike mouth full of long pointed teeth. It had clawed humanoid hands, while its feet had five long claws instead of toes and a large spike pointing back from the heel. Two short, rayed fins spread from the top of its shoulders like wings, and rayed fins run along the back of the calves. Two pointed drill-like spikes protrude from its chest.

“Batbeast, coming through! I’m looking for Voltron! Has anybody seen Voltron?” it called out. Allura winced, its voice seemed like a mix of squeaky and gravelly, and it was very annoying. The fact that it was the ugliest thing she had ever seen didn’t help either.

“H-hey Batbeast, are you looking for Voltron?” she shouted, catching its attention. It turned and looked at her before breaking out into a grin.

“Oh ho! One of the little mice! Voltron would no doubt do everything they can to protect you!”

“Say what?”

“Oh, don’t you know how important you are to the team? What, did you think you could take me on all by your little self?”

“Oh, well, um . . . yah!” She jumped out of the way as the Batbeast’s hand came slamming down on the spot where she had been standing. She rolled and leapt to another building, the Batbeast lumbering after her.

“Oh man, I’ve got to be careful! Hmm . . . maybe . . .” She grinned as she leapt over the Batbeast’s head and landed gracefully. Years of ballet and karate were definitely paying off. She rushed towards the Batbeast, leapt, and kicked it hard, sending it flying. She unclipped her whip and sent it after the Bastbeast, catching a hold of its leg and pulled hard, smashing it into the ground. It moaned as she walked forward, keeping her eye on it with her hand on her whip and the whip on its leg, just in case. “Alright, robeast, time to revert! Power of . . . Ah!” The robeast’s other leg kicked out, sending her flying onto the pavement.

“Neat trick, but you’ve got to do better than that,” the Batbeast grinned. Allura glanced at her hand, she had held onto her whip. She quickly rose as the Batbeast let out a growl and charged, jumping out of its way. Was she seriously only able to revert back to normal and leave the fighting to the cats? Or was she unable to fight this monster by herself? She let out a gasp as the Batbeast pulled a sword out of sheath that she hadn’t noticed before. OK, so yes, she was not meant to fight the robeasts by herself, but she was the only Voltron team member there! She leapt and rolled out of the way of the Batbeast’s sword. She had to disarm it if she wanted a chance! She ran as fast as she could, turned around, and wrapped her whip around the Batbeast’s arm, pulling it down as hard as she could. The Batbeast struggled against her, the two practically equal in strength. Suddenly, his arm went slack, causing Allura to stumble, before he yanked on the whip, pulling her towards him. With his free hand, he grabbed her, and trapped her behind two metal poles.

“Hey!” she called out as she pushed on the poles. They budged just a tiny bit, maybe she could push them off.

“Team Voltron! I have your precious mouse lady! If you don’t show up when I get to zero, I will cut her in half!” he roared, raising his sword over Allura’s head. She whimpered as she pushed even harder on the poles, move already! “Ten!” OK, so it budged a centimeter, keep pushing. “Nine! Eight!” Another centimeter! She didn’t need it open all the way, just enough to slip through. “Seven! Six! Five!” The Batbeast was too busy glancing around, hoping, apparently, to see the Voltron team arrive before they took him by surprise. As such, he wasn’t focusing on the fact that Allura was making some progress. “Four! Three!” Allura began to panic, she wasn’t going to make it! Or maybe. “Two! One! Zero!” The sword came crashing down as Allura fell through the poles to the ground. She didn’t even get a chance to get up when someone’s hand pushed her down and ordered her to stay down. Next thing she knew, she heard a clang. She glanced up to see a boy with a black lion’s mane on his shoulders blocking the Batbeast’s sword with his own.

“The black lion of Voltron,” muttered the Batbeast as his lips curled into a evil grin. The black lion pushed on the swords before kicking the Batbeast. He turned and gave Allura a hand.

“Are you alright?” he asked her as she rose from the ground.

“Yes, thank you,” she replied with a smile. She paused as she gazed into his eyes. Two thoughts popped into her head, they were beautiful eyes, and she had the distinct feeling she had seen those eyes somewhere before.

“Were you expecting to take care of the robeast yourself?” he asked, breaking into her thoughts.

“No, just keeping it from hurting innocent civilians until you arrived, that’s all,” she replied as she pulled her hand away from him and crossed her arms. “Though, if you hadn’t gotten here when you did . . .”

“We would have lost you, and from what my asurin was telling me about the mice, that’s not a good thing,” he said. The Batbeast interrupted them with its groans as it rolled over to get back up. The black lion readied his sword while Allura readied her whip. “Wait, is that a whip?” asked the black lion.

“Uh, yeah,” replied Allura.

The black lion let out a grin. “I think I have an idea. You see those poles there and there?” he asked, pointing out two poles opposite of each other.

Allura let out a soft gasp. “You want me to trip him?”

“Yup, but keep your whip slack until I give you the signal, alright?”

“Right, but, what’s the signal?”

“I’ll nod at you.”

“Got it.” Allura dashed off to one pole and quickly swung her whip around the other, keeping the whip slack. She then waited, the Batbeast had gotten back up and had locked eyes with the black lion.

“Hand over the belt buckle of the black lion, and I will stop rampaging this city!”

“What are you talking about? We’re just getting warmed up.” The Batbeast let out a roar as he charged the black lion. Allura kept waiting, her fingers itching to pull her whip taut, but she waited for his signal. He nodded, she pulled, and the Batbeast fell over. The black lion jumped up and brought his sword down on a symbol Allura hadn’t seen there before, or anywhere. “Use your powers now!” he shouted. Allura raced over and held up her whip.

“Power of Quintessence!” Her whip detached from its handle and raced around the robeast in a ribbon of pale purple light before it expanded to include the entire city. When it returned to Allura’s hand, the robeast was now a regular person confused as to what was going on, and the damage to the city had been repaired.

“That, that was amazing!” stated the black lion as he rushed to Allura’s side.

“Thank you! Whoa.” Allura nearly stumbled as a wave of drowsiness swept over her. Black lion placed his hands on her shoulders to steady her. “I guess that’s why we need two mice,” she muttered with a soft chuckle.

“Are you going to be alright?” he asked her.

“I, I think so, just need to sit for a minute,” she replied quickly. Now that the danger was past, she noticed his voice. Its softness, the way he spoke, it was just as similar to her as his eyes. Where had she heard it before?

“Oh wow! That was so cool! How did you guys do that?” The two superheroes glanced up as the owner of the voice nearly got into their faces with his camcorder. Allura nearly gaped when she realized that it was Lance who was holding the camcorder, with Hunk and Katie trailing behind him.

“Hey, back up! Can’t you tell she needs some rest?” snapped the black lion as he pushed back Lance.

“So, you’re superheroes, huh? What are your names?” asked Lance, not one bit phased.

“Ugh, you can call me Komainu,” replied the black lion.

“Komainu?” asked everyone, even Allura. But it did force her to think about a superhero name. Unfortunately, she couldn’t exactly think straight.

“Yes, the guardian lions of Japanese mythology. You must know your Japanese mythology quite well,” came another voice.

“Mr. Takashi!” blurted Hunk.

“Just Shiro outside of school, Hunk,” came his reply.

“Yeah, well, I need to go, have a lot of other things to take care of today.” He paused and turned to Allura. “Are you sure you’ll be alright?”

“Yes, I will be, thank you.”

“Oh, we didn’t get your name!” blurted Lance.

“Oh, um, I’m sorry, I’m a little too tired to think right now. I think I should head home and sleep. I’ll get back to you on the name.”

“Hmm, how about . . . Little Mouse? I mean, no offence, but you look like a mouse,” said Hunk.

“Well, that is the idea, but there is going to be another mouse joining our team, so, I don’t know if that will really work,” replied Allura.

“We can figure that out when the other mouse arrives. For now, I think Little Mouse works,” stated Komainu.

“Hey, shouldn’t you be going somewhere?” asked Lance, somewhat annoyed.

“And I will be, once I make sure that you stop annoying Little Mouse long enough to go home and get some rest.”

“Um, I didn’t agree to the name . . .”

“Hey it works,” said Lance with a shrug.

“It is kind of catchy,” remarked Komainu. Allura thought about it for a second.

“Oh, alright, Little Mouse it is. You’re right Komainu, it is kind of catchy.”

“Glad you agree. Now, are you going to go home, or should I carry you there?”

“No! No, no, no, thank you, I’ll, I’ll go home now, thank you.”

“But can’t you stay a little longer? There are so many questions I want to ask!” quipped Lance.

“You’re going to have to wait for a time when she’s not so tired, alright?”

“Komainu has a point, you should let her go home and try again next time, alright?” said Shiro as he placed his hand on Lance’s shoulder.

“Oh, alright. As long you promise me an exclusive!”

“I’ll consider it,” replied Allura before leaping away. For a while she thought she was being followed and checked to make sure that she wasn’t. She didn’t see anybody, but the feeling soon subsided, not long before she crawled back into her room and nearly collapsed on the bed, right as Chuchule flew out of her earrings, completely exhausted.

“You did great for your first time on the job, Allura!” squeaked Chuchule.

“Thanks Chuchule,” replied Allura with a smile as she rubbed the little mouse’s tummy. “Now, I don’t know about you, but I feel like I could sleep for weeks.”

“Oh I feel the . . . same . . .” muttered Chuchule before falling sound asleep. Allura chuckled before she drifted off, quite glad that she didn’t have much, if any, homework to take care of. Eventually she would have to figure out how to handle both school and being a superhero without sleeping on her feet. But for now, sleep was good, really good.

#kallura #kallura positivity #kalluramonth #lion and mouse #miraculous ladybug AU

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sleepymarmot · 8 years ago

Text

MEA liveblog #7

Spoilers!

Multiplayer

This interface is a mess. I move my mouse onto "exit lobby" and it turns into "kick player". Buttons just jump around and transform all the time.

And the APEX mission shit needs to be fixed. When you select a mission to play, don't direct me to lobbies who play the same enemy/map/difficulty but not as the mission! Join lobby, see "custom", exit lobby, select "custom game", re-select mission, join, end up in the same lobby, rinse, repeat...

At least I can end up second when I join on wave 5 as a human vanguard lol

F Human Vanguard card!

Tempest

Non-custom weapons of different rank shouldn't exist as separate items in the inventory! Unlocking a higher rank should upgrade the old item like in ME3! This stupid inventory system exists solely because of crafting! If you need inventory limits so much, let them apply only to the crafted items! I've already complained about rewards being lost with no warning if the inventory is full and it's still bullshit!

I crafted the N7 chestpiece! 25% shield on kill (of course), 5% damage resistance, 2% shield restoration, 2% health&shield regen speed, 2% max shield. I called it "N7 Slayer X". And turns out, it was dad's armor...

Oh right, it needs a new color scheme!

Havarl

I like this ex-STG, he's talking properly.

I don't like the sound effect from Annihilation -- it's like water in my ears!

Hey Peebs, how do you immediately know where the next piece is as soon as we pick the current one?

Kadara

Here's the bar fight. Animation is not bad but has no energy.

Told the asari dancer that I'm done here and she needs to talk to the dude herself, but the quest still sends me back to him -_-

Tempest

So, Kesh was adopted?

Okay, Kalinda is 100% Marjolaine. Peebee's personal storyline is even more copy-pasted from Leliana than Drack's is copypasted from Wrex.

Aya

So many sidequests again!

The Moshae's words about the definition of victory! That's the smartest thing I've heard in this game in hours.

It's really weird to hear her talk so sweetly to me... When we first met she didn’t seem to like me.

When Vetra said people were staring at her, I couldn't resist suggesting they're just all in love...

I suggested taking people who sold their Aya slots onto the Nexus. That's not even charity -- the same ambassador gave me a task to convince angara to come there anyway! So this would kill two birds with one stone.

For the visitor who wanted contact with his family, I had to reload. The options didn't even seem too different... Got it right for the other two: gave an honest professional answer about health issues, and a confident casual answer about finding work.

Great, now I have to head back into the city to buy stuff... This is literally a fetch quest lol

Eos

Omg, the Architect is in orbit now!

The Roekaar fight in an old settlement was very chaotic and fun with Flamethrower/ED/Lance, though it'd probably be easier to just charge

Tempest

Aaaand Jaal gives me his loyalty mission. It's funny that I'm going to do my own love interest's mission last...

Jaal's LM

I continue to be unimpressed with the Roekaar being pure antagonists. :/

Didn't shoot the guy, told Jaal he was badass.

Why are loyalty missions so short?

BTW Ryder just looks wrong in N7 armor... She's not Shepard, that's not her allegiance or her story.

Tempest

Jaal, just as we're leaving Havarl you decided to invite me for a visit down there?

Turian ark

Avitus has very stylish armor

For fuck's sake, Bioware, why do you hate gay men so much?

I convinced Avitus to take the mantle. It was a very sentimental decision for Ryder -- because her situation is very similar. Her SAM and the connection he had with her father are unique, but she didn't think of that in that moment.

Nexus

"Better to find your wings as you fly" Easy for you to say, Sarissa, your predecessor wasn't a loved one

Tempest

I'd agree with Peebee about relationship and baggage, but of course I felt obligated to take the romantic option

(I don’t think there’s an option to agree with her, though, so it’s only for the best)

Voeld

Liam, Vetra, don't fight!

Whoops, sorry for leaving you to die in the purification field, Vetra

...I liked the old color scheme better. Green light looks more alien, but less pretty.

Nexus

Final memory -- here we go!

My theory was that the Archon was somehow Ellen, but that made so little sense I didn't even write it down :D This is simpler.

BTW there's finally Shepard's gender we had to select in the beginning -- in translated subtitles :D Didn't hear it even once in the audio -- could it be Bioware actually took their foreign audience into consideration? :O

Honestly, it's weird that the Reapers info is so secret... From the OT I got the impression that Shepard was yelling about it to everyone at every opportunity...

Fine, fine, you made me emotional with Liara's message.

Shit, I was expecting this decision...

I feel pretty sad now. That's all?

Peebee's LM

Oh, so that's why she lives in an escape pod :D I thought this was only a characterization thing, not a Chekhov's gun!

I said I wasn't mad, though I was a bit. But I mean Ryder *is* mad but also having the time of her life so...

Shit I just shot Kalinda instinctively lmao

Ok I replayed the entire sequence and Idk. This is really the hardest choice in the game...

I'm tempted to say "Yes, literally" :D

Since it's so hard to reaload, it's fair game to watch videos before deciding for myself. Okay, "Yes, literally" is way too harsh.

Alright, this Ryder is not going to make Peebee sad, but I've already planned a Renegade-ish playthrough with a Ryder who values knowledge over everything, so... :D

(Btw, I love that MEA's brand of a more ruthless protagonist is not "uncontrollable brute" but "intellectual snob". As tedious as this game is, I'm already super eager to play character who has those values & takes urgency of tasks seriously.)

This mission is enjoyable and the choice feels maybe the most meaningful... But it has all the classic Mass Effect problems. Kalinda sends a shitload of people to murder us, we murder them, but when she's helpless and we have a finger on the trigger all of that suddenly doesn't matter. Sidonis all over again. Sure, murdering people begging for help is bad in a lot of ways, but she did just try to kill us, a lot of times... Plus, why the fuck can't Ryder jump over and catch the Remnant thing?! That needed to be a second, Paragon interrupt after the Renegade "shoot her." And Ryder is a goddamn biotic, as is Peebee, as is Kalinda! Peebee, Pull is your first goddamn skill! It'd actually be completely plausible if the artifact had shields and/or armor and therefore immune to Pull or Singularity -- but not giving the characters even an idea to try is just stupid!

Tempest

Inviting Peebee to live with together made me revisit my room and inspired me to make some changes. You know what, I'm going to play music in my quarters and change into the short-sleeved pajamas. It's my own ship, why do I walk around it in street clothes? The jacket is stylish but too much to wear at home. I wish we had a "formal" outift for Nexus/Aya/other hubs in addition to the "casual" clothes we wear on the ship.

Shit I went to read someone's post about Peebee's LM and caught a spoilers about the romance post-LM

Addison is right, getting pregnant in that situation was irresponsible

Ah the continuity in this game. "Found more outposts"? I have every possible outpost and all planets at 100%!

"On hold: Place an outpost" bitch where

Voeld

What, there's still a cold hazard?! What was the point of the vault, then?!

Whoa, so the angara believe exaltation not just kills their people but destroys their immortal souls? Wow! That should have been said by a major character during the main story, not by an easily missed NPC!

Oh great, I died and the game refuses to load the last autosave

Dear game. Why did you create four autosaves for the same second. All glitched. Half hour of gameplay lost... God please let the last manual save work. I was sure I saved in between, but just now my PC decided that we still have daylight savings clock change when we do not, and the timestamps on all recent saves are messed up. This especially sucks because I'm trying to rush Peebee's romance because I don't know when the sex scene comes up but I want to make sure it's not when my mom is home while I play it on her PC lol

Tempest

Fuck, that was cute! And Peebee did tackle Ryder, as promised! :D I wonder what she says through Zap in the platonic version...

Addison please don't say the baby screams "like a banshee". I fucking jumped.

"Before you say anything: no PDAs" :D

Level 50! Time to craft myself a powerful new Dhan. I've been running with rank three all this time...

I love that whenever you ask about Kalinda and then return to the general dialogue tree you say "Let's talk about something else" and Peebee responds "YES. Please."

Voeld

Alright, so: the kett leaders are dissatisfied with the Archon because he hasn't reported to them recently, the communication with the kett homeworld(?) might be disrupted in general and the Scourge might be to blame.

Tempest

Damn, SAM has a pretty insightful speech about death! The only thing that can't be rationalized after experiencing it, which is why it fascinates. I actually haven't heard it explained this way before.

My movie night quest hasn't progressed since I brought Jaal his device...

Eos

Ryder watching and playing football with two giant guns floating near her hips... omg

Elaaden/Kadara

What? I'm completely confused by all these identical salarians.

I don't understand this choice. He promises to give us the intel if we let him go... what proof do we have besides his word? And how would arresting him stop us from getting intel from his computer etc?

Reloaded to see both options, chose to arrest him

Havarl

I'm not hugging Jaal's mother wtf

Ryder has surprisingly good facial animation when Jaal shows his mementos

In theory Ryder should like Jaal for being such a nerd but the only thing he makes me feel is mild irritation. His interest in "taking things apart" is an informed quality just like his supposed emotional openness. It's not reflected in his dialogue or storyline at all.

And now I'm finished with all quests in the ally category. I wanted to finish the game asap, but now that we know the patch is coming on Thursday, I'll wait for it.

Multiplayer

Extracted from Silver for the first time as Human Vanguard (level 8, rank IV)! It was against Remnant, so Observers and Destroyers were the only problem. Nullifiers are ridiculously easy for a melee character -- like Ravagers, but without acid.

Got Krogan Vanguard from a pack. Will I have to tolerate the Rage overlay?

The first game with Kroguard was going well, he's got a stong melee even though he's slow... and then wave 6/upload/Kett killed us all :(

Completely unrelated to anything, but I just realized that if you pick the romantic option in the escape pod with Peebee, they don't actually have sex. Call me stupid because that's what Peebee's initial condition is, but I thought Ryder's response changed her mind! When Ryder said "Let's not rush things" I interpreted and meant it in the emotional sense, as "It'd be dishonest to hide that I have a crush on you, but you don't owe me anything, and if you don't ready for a Serious Relationship and Grand Romance yet that's fine because I'm not either, so let's just hook up and leave reflection for later" -- which I thought was pretty sweet and interesting? Because this whole relationship to me was built on the fascinating contrast between Peebee's emotional reservations and casual/flirty attitude, and conversely, on Ryder very consciously respecting Peebee's emotional space. Maybe I just fundamentally don't understand sex and romance lmao. But if character A propositions character B, character B says they have feelings for character A, and the scene promptly fades to black, I assume they do the do because that's how these things are filmed? Only in comparison with the other option, which is actually pretty explicit, it became obvious to me that's not what the director meant. I'm pretty disappointed because I thought it was a good subversion of Jack's "either sex or romance" thing in ME2. And it messes with my headcanon/characterization... I guess I'll have to retcon it into one of the two options. I'll probably go with casual, not romantic in that case. But I just read that Peebee will tell you she's glad you said no, so... :/

Multiplayer

Failed a Silver APEX mission agains the Remnant as a human vanguard :(

Got an asari sentinel!

The patch is here, but I can't launch the game now :( This needs some work.

Ugh, I stop playing for two days and have no motivation to pick the game up again...

#mass effect #mea spoilers #blah blah blah

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