#here I am voltron-posting in 2023

[vld-has-messed-me-up]

Okay controversial Keith opinion here, but; his haircut could just as easily be described as a wolf cut rather than a mullet.

[ch1ckpeapancake]

Intro Post

Hello! Welcome to my blog! My name is Charlie and I use He/Him pronouns.

I am physically disabled and very involved in the Cpunk space.

I follow back frequently, and I love interactions with moots!

I am a trans masc & unlabeled guy so keep that in mind!

Come hang out on Bluesky!

Not super active right now, but I plan to have more original posts soon!

Ive been working on a tag system, and while my whole blog is not up to date here it is:

#The Shark Swims

These are my original posts. They may be on a wide spectrum of topics.

#Asked and Answered!

All asks I get will be answered under this tag!

Fandoms (Under the cut)

- Night in the Woods (Video Game)

- The Secret History - Donna Tart

- Homestuck

- Undertale (Video Game)

- Warrior Cats - Erin Hunter

- Portal (Video Game)

- Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland

- Dream SMP

- Minecraft (Video Game)

- Sky: Children of the Light (Video Game)

- The Owl House (Cartoon)

- Amphibia (Cartoon)

- Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared (Web Series)

- Brandon rodgers

- Helluva Boss (Web Series)

- FNAF

- Sherlock (TV)

- She-Ra and the Princess of Power (2018)

- Foxtrot (Comics)

- Calvin & Hobbes

- Dilbert

- Peanuts - Charles M. Shulz (Comics)

- Zits (comics)

- Jerma985

- We Bare Bears (Cartoon)

- The Last of Us (Video Game)

- The Last of Us (TV)

- Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan

- Voltron: legendary defender

- 전지적 독자 시점 - 싱송 | 0mniscient Reader - Sing-Shong

- Ghost Eyes (Web Comic)

- Hollow Night (Video Game)

- Gravity Falls

- Stardew valley (Video Game)

- 况術廻戰 1 Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime)

- Hunger games trilogy- Suzanne Colins

- Bluey (Cartoon 2018)

- Steven universe (Cartoon)

- Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021)

- Heartstopper (Webcomic)

- Heartstopper (TV)

- Ducktales (Cartoon 2017)

- The Song of Achilles - Madeleine Miller

- Discworld - Terry Pratchet

- Hiccup series - Cressida Cowell

- Barbie (Movie 2023)

- Nimona (2023)

- Nimona (Webcomic)

- OMORI (Video Game)

- A Short Hike (Video Game)

- Dead Poets Society (1989)

- とつくにの少女 I Totsukuni no Shoujo | The Girl from the Other Side (Manga)

- Stray (Video Game)

- If We Were Villains - M.L Rio

- Pride and Prejudice & related fandoms

- Adventure Time (Cartoon 2010)

- Cult of the lamb (Video Game)

- Girl Interrupted (1999)

- The Amazing Digital Circus (Web Series)

- My Little Pony Friendship is Magic (TV)

- Scott Pilgrim - All media types

- Ramshackle (Webseries)

- Good Omens (TV)

- Sonic (All Media Types)

- Formula 1 RPF

- Red White & Royal Blue - All media types

- Rainworld (Video Game)

- Beastars (All Media Types)

- Octonauts (TV)

- Mouthwashing (Video Game)

[transformersandturtles]

Hello hello, this isn't my normal kind of posting but it's been about uh. . . 8 months since I've done private/1 on 1 roleplays (of course excluding my MK1 Syzoth acc) and have been curious in finding a new RP partner. Information under the cut!

Hello! If you don't know me, my name is Seven and I use They/Them! I am 18, a hs graduate, and am currently pursuing 2d art as a hobby and tattooing as a career! I do have a busy home life and am not on 24/7. Time zones aren't a problem, I'd prefer an RP partner 17+. I am autistic and have social anxiety so it is hard for me to reach out first but I am always happy to start talking! ^^

I mostly do AUs or post-story kinda stuff but I'm down for any kind of fun/chaos. Here is a list of fandoms I will RP -

bold/color is what I'd prefer most.

• ROTTMNT

• 2012 TMNT

• Transformers One

• Transformers Animated

• X-Men (live action + 97)

• MCU/Avengers

• DC (mostly Batman/Batfam)

• Pokemon (Mostly the game stories)

• How To Train Your Dragon

• Mortal Kombat 1 (2023)

• Digimon Adventures

• Spider-Man (ITSV & ATSV)

• Voltron Legendary Defender

. . . And more but mostly these!

PLEASE NOTE I AM STILL NEW TO X-MEN AND DC SO PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH ME AND LMK IF I EVER GET ANYTHING WRONG MY KNOWLEDGE IS LIMITED 😭

I also do Crossovers! Mostly other fandoms x Pokemon or x HTTYD but I'm really up for anything! With that, I also do tend to put in headcanons so if something doesn't line up or sounds odd please lmk.

I also do -

• Canon x Canon (Rom/Plat)

• Oc x Canon (Rom/Plat)

• Oc x Oc (Rom/Plat)

There doesn't have to be shipping or pairing or anything, but if it is Oc x Canon I do wish for it to be two ways and even (i.e. Your Oc x Canon and my Oc x Canon. Doesn't have to be equal words but equal sentencing is preferred but not required!)

Here are some things I will NOT do -

✘ No smut! Don't care age or anything, will not do it at all. Time skips are fine, but nothing more.

✘ No form of any kind of -cest. I'll do familial bonds but no blood relaxations at all! If they're in the family tree, leave them be! Also no adults x minors or anything of the sort.

✘ I will not be doing this "OC Name: *waves* Hello!" format. Nothing against it, I just personally won't use it, I like to be detailed.

There is probably more to this but that'll come and go depending on RPs.

I have been roleplaying for about 8-9 years and am very detailed in my responses! I try to match replies so if it's short then it's short or if it's long then it's long. I am a writer so I do put in details from time to time that may be too much so if that is ever the case please lmk and I'll tone it down.

Here is an example of my writing style for RP! -

Lucius blankly stared at his acquaintances, almost bewildered by them. "Have none of you played a game of Uno in your life?" He questioned, a slight country drawl to his words, something that often came out when he drank too much or got emotional enough. How the hell had a bunch of people his age never even seen a deck of Uno? "It's like, a classic, y'know? Have y'all been livin' under a rock?" Despite living in New York for years now, he never shook off that Midwestern talk.

Logan Howlett, by far the oldest of the whole table at the moment, gave a small snort as he let out the smoke of his cigar. "A rock? No. Runnin' for our lives is more like it. Not every day for pleasantries or domesticity." He stated firmly, before setting down a red reverse card onto the short pile. "Your turn, bub. . ." He leaned back in his seat with a huff.

--

I do have OCs and information and stuff for all of them! Feel free to DM me if you're curious and we can talk it out on what fits! ^^

[violethowler]

An Updated Guide to the Timeline of VLD

Last Edit: 10/19/2024

After reviewing my timeline notes in more detail, I decided I wasn’t happy with editing my original VLD timeline guide, but I didn’t want to just delete the earlier meta outright. So I decided to start over and make a brand new meta that reflected my current research notes without me having to constantly go back and edit the old one every time I realized I had missed something.

And boy am I glad I did because in the process I noticed details that I completely overlooked when I made the last timeline guide that trying to edit the original post would’ve led to redoing the whole thing anyway.

So now I present to you my most complete and up-to-date notes on the timeline of Voltron Legendary Defender as of April 2023. Under the cut because this is going to get long.

Part I: The Time Period of the Show

While the show never gives exact dates on when major events in the series take place, we can narrow down when the Paladins left Earth by examining context clues and supplemental material. From there, we can use that to determine a rough idea of the show’s timeline.

Pidge’s flashbacks in S1E05 Tears of the Balmera and the fact that Iverson doesn’t mention her, Lance, and Hunk’s bickering being a pattern when he berates their failure in the simulator during S1E01 The Rise of Voltron indicate that the day of Shiro’s return to Earth was the trio’s first time in the simulator together, and that this was fairly early in the school year.

From a Watsonian perspective, it’s not out of the question that a future Earth might follow a different school calendar. But from a Doylist perspective, since the show never says otherwise, we can take it as a given that since VLD is an American cartoon, the Garrison follows the same academic schedule as American schools. Which start the school year in late summer/early fall and end in late spring/early summer.

At the start of Lance, Pidge, and Hunk’s simulation run in S1E01 The Rise of Voltron, Lance calls out “Galaxy Garrison flight log 5-11-14.”

And Matt’s tombstone in S4E02 Reunion confirms that these numbers represent a date:

Pidge confirms that the 0010.05.25 represents a birth date, since looking at it is how she determines that Matt’s birthday is wrong. Because this is obviously a tombstone, we can logically conclude that 0014.04.28 represents a death date.

Lance’s 5-11-14 flight log number in S1E01 is most likely a reference to the fact that the show started production between April and June of 2014.[1][2]

And when Keith shows the other paladins his notes that he’s compiled on his search for the Blue Lion, a page-a-day calendar can be seen on the back wall showing that the paladins left Earth on the second of whichever month it was.

Meanwhile in S1E02 Some Assembly Required, Hunk refers to Shiro’s rescue from quarantine as Monday night. This would put the paladins’ departure from Earth on Tuesday afternoon, as Iverson confirms in S7E07 The Last Stand: Part 2 that the Paladins left Earth the day after rescuing Shiro.

So, if we look at the months in 2014 near the start of the American school year where the 2nd day of the month was a Tuesday, we can narrow down when the Paladins left Earth.

And the only option that meets all of those criteria is September 2nd, 2014.

Obviously the show doesn’t take place in 2014 because the technology the characters use in their daily lives on Earth is significantly more advanced than what we have in real life even in the 2020s. Not to mention Veronica name dropping World War III in S7E07 The Last Stand: Part 2 as a historical event.

However, it’s also obviously can’t be too far into the future, because other than having more advanced technology, much of what we see of Earth civilization looks fundamentally similar to our present day in terms of things like clothing and architecture, just with some futuristic flourishes here and there:

The fact that the years on Matt’s tombstone in S4E02 both begin with 00 as the first two digits raises the possibility that Earth decided to create a new calendar that started 14 years before the paladins left Earth.

However, it’s more likely that the production staff simply wished to leave it ambiguous how many centuries into the future the show takes place, as from a Doylist perspective there is no purpose to having Earth be on a different calendar system unless it’s relevant to the story.

Not to mention that it doesn’t make sense from a Watsonian perspective, since a change as widespread as the mass-adoption of a new calendar system would have to be in response to a major event that deeply changed society on such a widespread level that the society decided to define it’s calendar by how many years have passed since that event.

And the known event in the history of VLD’s Earth that might have this level of significance is World War III, which the showrunners have said in interviews resulted in “everyone on the planet realizing war sucks. We’re one Earth.”[3]

However, none of the characters act like it’s a recent event that happened within their lifetimes. The one time it’s mentioned in S7E08 The Last Stand: Part 2, Veronica speaks of the conflict as if it was a long time ago. Long enough that she has to preemptively clarify that the underground tunnels used to reach the Garrison’s supply depot are still structurally sound.

On top of the logistics not working out for World War III to have been the cause of a dramatic change in Earth’s calendars, Matt being Pidge’s older brother means that he would’ve been born before the hypothetical calendar change would’ve been adopted. 

Yet S4E02 only shows Pidge’s attention being drawn to the year on Matt’s birth date being wrong when her tear slides over to the 10, when the lack of anything before it would’ve stood out first if he was born before the calendar reset to Year 0.

So we can safely take it as a given that the extra zeroes in the years on Matt’s tombstone are there to maintain a sense of ambiguity over what century VLD takes place in.

Which fits with how showrunner Joaquim Dos Santos described how the writers kept the history of VLD’s Earth “nice and nebulous” rather than going into detail on the logistics of World War III.

However since we know that the dates we do have used the 2014 calendar as a basis, and that the Paladins left Earth on Tuesday, September 2nd, all we have to do is find a year ending in 14 where September 2nd is on a Tuesday that’s far enough into the future that there’s enough time for all the advancements of VLD’s earth, but not so far ahead that it’s completely unrecognizable to the 21st century audience.

Which works out well because the next year ending in 14 with September 2nd on a Tuesday is 2414.

Part II: Known Character Birth Years

If we treat it as a given that Season 1 of VLD starts in the year 2414, then we can use that  to narrow down the exact birth years of the human Paladins, as well as Allura, Lotor, Matt Holt, and Kova.

Kova is the oldest character whose birth year is known to us, as Haggar states he is 28 deca-phoebs old shortly before the destruction of Daibazaal and Altea.

Allura and Coran were in cryo-sleep for 10,000 Earth years, and Coran’s pedantic comment in S1E01 about the castle being 10,600 years old and built by his grandfather indicates that this number is exact.

This would put the destruction of Altea and Daibazaal in 7586 B.C.E., as Coran’s narration in S3E07 The Legend Begins indicates that the other planets in their solar system were conquered quickly after Zarkon and Haggar woke up from their Rift baths, meaning that both the Altean and Galran homeworlds were destroyed within a very short window of time.

Since Kova was 28 when Daibazaal was destroyed, he would’ve been born in 7614 B.C.E.

Meanwhile, S8E02 Shadows showed that Haggar only became coherent again after she gave birth, and flashbacks in S8E10 Knights of Light: Part 2 depict her participating in the conquest of the system. Which indicates that Lotor was born in between the destruction of both his parents’ home worlds.

In an interview recorded at WonderCon 2017, Lauren Montgomery and Joaqim Dos Santos talked about how despite initially having more knowledge and experience than the other paladins she was “just as young as anyone else”, and that she was handling overcoming her prejudice against the Galra “like any teenager would.” [4]

This indicates that Allura is still a teenager herself in the first 2 seasons.

Something which is supported by the fact that Allura was born less than 28 years before the fall of Altea yet looks to be around Keith, Lance, and Hunk’s age. Which indicates that while Alteans can live for hundreds of years as evidenced by Coran helping his grandfather build the Castle of Lions 600 years before the war against Zarkon, they age at roughly the same rate as normal humans until they reach adulthood.

Since she’s visibly older than Pidge, the showrunners’ remarks about her acting like “any teenager” put her age before being put into cryo-sleep somewhere between 17 and 18, the ages listed for Lance, Hunk, and Keith in the Paladin’s Handbook.

And we can presume that the ages listed in the Handbook are mostly accurate given that Colleen Holt confirms in S8E01 Launch Date that Pidge was 15 when the paladins left Earth, which is the same age that the Paladin’s Handbook gave for Pidge as of the end of Season 2.

So, if Allura is the same age as Keith, Lance, and Hunk, then she would’ve been born between 7603 and 7604 B.C.E.

As for the human characters, the cast and crew of Voltron have consistently said that Shiro was the oldest of the paladins, and that his age was somewhere in his early twenties. The only time a specific number was given was in the context of providing a maximum limit to his age range. Saying that while he was at least 20, he wasn’t older than 25.

However, the fact that his official birthday is February 29th means that it’s impossible for him to actually be 25 as the Voltron Paladins’ Handbook claimed.

Because leap years only happen once every 4 years, in years that are divisible by 4 into a whole number (The only exceptions are years that are by 100 but not 400).

It’s not possible for Shiro to be 25 in Season 1 because that would require the year of the Kerberos mission to be a leap year, since Shiro’s 24th birthday would mark the 6th time that February 29th occurred on the calendar since his birth.

The year before 2414 would be 2413, which cannot be divided by 4 into a whole number (trying gets you 603.25). However the year before Kerberis, 2412, is divisible by 4 into a whole number (603), meaning that 2414 is in between two leap years.

With all of this in mind, the only way for Shiro to be older than 20 but younger than 25 in 2414, is if he turned 20 in 2412, as his 20th birthday would mark the 5th time since he was born that February 29th occurred on the calendar. This puts the year of his birth in 2392, making him 22 years old when he returns to Earth in Season 1.

Meanwhile, Pidge being 15 when the Paladins left Earth in 2414 would mean that she was born in 2399.

Meanwhile, the Coalition Handbook, which is written from the perspective of 1 deca-phoeb after the Paladins left Earth, talks about Krolia’s arrival on Earth being “about 19 Earth years ago,” indicating that Keith’s parents met in 2396.

The Handbook’s indication of a 1-year timespan from Season 1 to Season 5 is confirmed by Sam’s debrief during the flashback portions of S7E07 The Last Stand: Part 1. Commander Iverson mentions that Sam’s return to Earth in S5E05 Bloodlines happened a month before the meeting and says that the Keberos mission was two years ago.

Krolia’s arrival being about 19 years ago appears to reinforce the Paladin’s Handbook listing Keith as being 18 by the end of Season 2. Pidge’s age means that S2E13 Blackout can’t happen any later than April 2, 2415, meaning that Keith – whose birthday is October 23rd according to the show’s official social media accounts – turns 18 at some point during the first 2 seasons of the show. This puts his birth year in 2396 and indicates that his parents had to have met sometime that January, as we’ve seen little evidence to suggest that Galra pregnancies are any longer than human ones.

So, if Pidge and Keith’s ages in the Paladins’ handbook are accurate, then we can assume Hunk and Lance’s ages are too.

Lance’s birthday is listed by the show’s official social media accounts as July 28, so the timeframe of Seasons 1-2 means he would’ve already been 17 by the time the Paladins left Earth. This means that he would have been born in 2397.

Hunk is a little tricky since his birthday is January 13th, as neither the show nor the handbooks give any details to definitively confirm whether he turned 17 during the first 2 seasons, or if he was already 17 when they left Earth.

However, some context clues regarding the nature of the Garrison’s Cadet Program and the glimpses of his backstory that we got in S7E01 A Little Adventure can help make some educated assumptions.

In her goodbye to Matt at the Kerberos launchpad in S4E02, Pidge says “I can’t believe I have to go through middle school without you.”

Since Pidge makes no mention of attempting to enroll at the Garrison while Matt and her father are in space, this logically indicates that Pidge is entering 8th grade and that the Galaxy Garrison cadet program is for students at the high school level (Grades 9-12).

The fact that the MFE pilots had graduated by the time Sam returns in 2415 supports this, as their presence as background cameos in S1E01 and in the flashbacks of Keith and Shiro’s past from S7E01 indicate that they, Lance, Keith, and Hunk all enrolled in the cadet program the same year. This means that when the Paladins left Earth, Lance and Hunk were starting their senior year of high school

Keith and Lance being 17 and 18 during Season 1 is consistent with that, as 17 and 18 are the typical ages at which most American teenagers graduate from high school [5].

In the United States, many schools in grades K-12 use students’ birthdays to determine grade placement, with students who are born before a certain cutoff date (usually around the beginning of the school year) being placed in a higher grade level than students born after the cutoff [6].

For example, Lance and Keith are shown to both be in the same class at the Garrison in S7E01 even though Keith being born a year earlier means he’d theoretically be in the grade above Lance. But Lance’s birthday is in July, and Keith’s is in October.

So, if Lance’s July birthday is before the cutoff for enrollment for their grade level, then logically the same is true for Hunk’s January birthday, meaning that Hunk is already 17 during Season 1, putting his birth in the same year as Lance’s.

And knowing how the Garrison’s Cadet Program functions as an equivalent to high school means that we can figure out how old Matt is.

In the Shiro’s Story Ready-to-Read book, Shiro describes how he and Matt were selected for the Kerberos mission after they finished school:

Since Keith is still wearing his cadet uniform when he confronts Shiro about his disease, this means that Sam and Sanda’s argument about Shiro being on the mission had to have happened during a period when classes were in session, as the flashback of their hoverbike racing in S7E01 and the lack of comments from Hunk about being caught out of uniform in S1E01 indicate that students are permitted to wear casual attire outside of school hours.

This means that Shiro and Matt had to have graduated the year before the Kerberos Mission, and then spent the following year training and preparing.

From this, we can conclude that Matt’s senior year at the Garrison corresponded to Keith, Lance, and Hunk’s freshmen year, putting Matt in the cadet program’s graduating class of 2412.

This would mean that Matt started classes at the Garrison in the fall of 2408.

And when Pidge says that his birthday is wrong in S4E02, she only does so after the camera draws viewers’ attention to the year. Which indicates that the month and date are correct, putting Matt’s birthday on May 25th. Based on what we’ve established about cutoff dates for grade placement, this would mean that Matt was 14 years old when he started classes at the Garrison, putting his birth year in 2394.

Part III: The Main Narrative

Knowing that Season 1 begins in September 2414 allows us to use the date of the Paladins’ departure from Earth as a baseline from which to determine a timeline of the show’s main storyline.

As previously established, the meta references and context clues within the first season place the paladins’ departure from Earth in S1E01 on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2414.

Since this is “1 year later” from Shiro’s capture on Kerberos, this puts the crew’s abduction in September 2413.

Since the Paladins’ Handbook reflects events up to the end of Season 2 and refers to Shiro’s capture as being “about a year ago,” we can safely assume that entirety of Seasons 1 – 2 take place before the end of 2414 in order for the character ages in the guidebook to be accurate by the end of S2E13 Blackout.

And for the first several episodes of Season 1, we’re given enough information to pinpoint exact dates for when much of the first season takes place.

Arus’ environment is shown to be nearly indistinguishable from Earths’ so we can assume that days on Arus last for about the same amount of time as days on Earth.

Coran states indicates in S1E01 that the search for the lions took about 2 hours, immediately after which the paladins had their first battle with Sendak.

The beginning of S1E02 Some Assembly Required is confirmed to take place the following morning, as Allura refers to the battle against Sendak in S10E1 as “yesterday”. Coran then tells Pidge that the prisoners they rescued need to remain in the cryo pods to heal “until tomorrow,” putting the events of S1E03 Return of the Gladiator on Thursday, September 4th.

S1E04 Fall of the Castle of Lions takes place entirely at night, with the Arusian’s re-enactment of Voltron’s battle with the Myzax robeast and Coran’s comment about letting the Arusians see the inside of the castle indicating from context that this is still on Thursday the 4th. This puts the daytime events of S1E05 on Friday, September 5th.

S1E06 Taking Flight takes place on the 6th, as Allura states at the end of S1E05 that Lance should be fully healed from his injuries after a day in the cryo pods.

Shay’s Belmera was close enough that Hunk and Coran could fly there from Arus in a small shuttle pod, have dinner with Shay’s family, fix their shuttle pod, wander around in the tunnel looking for the crystal, get captured, get rescued by Shay, and then get back to Arus all in less than a day.

So even if they spent several hours talking to Rolo and Nyma in S1E06, they still would’ve reached the Balmera in S1E07 Return to Balmera the same day. 

Since S1E08 Rebirth ends with Hunk showing Shay her first sunrise after the Balmera is liberated, this brings the paladins to Sunday, September 7th.

The first volume of the tie in comics is stated to take place right after this, as the paladins are leaving the Balmera in Issue #1. The bulk of the action happens over the course of the following day, as Issue #1 states that the Paladins’ battle against the guardian monster took place the day after they left Allura at the Castle, and the sky on Krell shifts from morning to afternoon colors over the course of the Paladins’ time there, along with the fact that the sky outside the Fripping Bolgogian is in sunset colors in both Issue #1 and Issue #5.

Then S1E09 Crystal Venom indicates that very little time passes since then when the Paladins begin to download Sendak's memories. Coran indicates that Allura should still be resting after healing the Balmera, indicating that very little time has passed since the end of the previous episode. Given how much time they spent on Krell, it's likely that the Paladins needed time to rest when they returned to the Castle, indicating that S1E09 begins as early as the day after the comics. After a length montage of time passing while they wait for Sendak's memories to start downloading, Hunk mentions going to make himself breakfast, indicating that a whole night has passed while they watched Sendak.

This means that the destruction of Alfor's AI cannot occur any earlier than September 10th. So the first 9 episodes of Season 1 and the first volume of the comics all take place from September 1st to September 10th.

From here, the timeframes indicated become murkier, as while many events seem to take place very close together, the fact that the guidebooks put Keith as 18 by the end of Season 2 means that S2E12 Best Laid Plans cannot take place any earlier than October 23rd, 2414.

There are a few instances where we can estimate the time between certain episodes, however, we don’t have enough concrete information to confirm an exact time frame by Earth’s calendar for anything after the first volume of the comics.

However, the fact that the Voltron Coalition Handbook refers to the Lion Shuffle as “many quintants ago”, even if that’s an understatement, indicates that since the second handbook is written from the perspective of Fall 2415, we can assume that Season 3 took place in 2415 as well.

Meanwhile, context clues in S3E01 Changing of the Guard and the 2 subsequent episodes indicate that only a short time passes between the end of Season 2 and the beginning of Season 3.

S3E01 shows that the Paladins have been splitting off to pursue their own objectives during the timeskip between Seasons 2 and 3, with Hunk and Lance liberating planets with the Blade of Marmora while Pidge looks for clues to her brother’s whereabouts while Keith searches for Shiro. Acxa’s reports in S3E02 Red Paladin on where they’ve been spotted by the empire only indicate a handful of sightings, suggesting that it hasn’t been that long since the end of Season 2. This is supported by the fact that Lance and Hunk brought the leaders of the planets they had liberated since S2E13 to the Castle to talk about joining the Coalition, and only 5 planetary leaders were present for the meeting.

Furthermore, as S3E05 The Journey depicted with Shiro, a human can survive up to 7 days without food or water. So in addition to Keith’s grief over Shiro’s disappearance still being fresh, the fact that he’s still looking for Shiro among the wreckage from S2E13 suggests that the start of S3E01 is within that 7-day window.

On top of that, Throk indicates to his friend when they’re sitting in the arena that he’s been trying to speak to Zarkon for several days without success.

But on the other hand, enough time needs to pass that planets like Puig will have heard of Voltron’s defeat of Zarkon before the paladins arrive

All of these details indicate that the time between the end of S2E13 and the beginning of S3E01 wasn’t more than 2 or 3 weeks.

So if the end of Season 2 was still in 2414 and the first 3 episodes of Season 3 were in 2415, that means that the final battle of Season 2 took place in December 2414, and the opening arc of Season 3 took place in January 2415.

Meanwhile, S3E05 shows that Shiro travelled in a stolen Galra fighter for 7 days after Thayserix before Keith found him at the end of the episode. Even if there’s some time dilation involved, the fact that the Paladins are surprised Lotor was able to construct the first Sincline ship so quickly in S3E06 Tailing a Comet indicates that it hasn’t been that long since Lotor stole it in S3E04 Hole in the Sky, meaning that all of Season 3 took place in January.

S7E07 indicates that Sam’s debriefing happened a year after the Paladins left in Season 1, putting the meeting scene in September 2415. This would be consistent with Iverson’s introduction of the MFE pilots indicating that they’ve graduated from the Cadet Program.

The next time-skip jumps to 1 year after Sam’s debriefing, indicating that Matt contacted Earth in September 2416.

Matt tells his parents that Voltron hasn’t been seen in 6 months, putting the last 4 episodes of Season 6 in March of 2416.

He also mentions that the Coalition and Blade of Marmora memories are being hunted, and that their army had been “all but wiped out”, indicating that the Druids’ counterattack had clearly been going on for some time before Matt contacted his parents. However in S8E02, Macidus tells Haggar that “it has been phoebs since Emperor Lotor disappeared,” and that “the Blade of Marmora still challenges,” indicating that the purge of the Coalition and BoM had not yet begun as of two months after Voltron’s battle with Lotor, putting the beginning of the attacks on the Blade and Coalition somewhere between May and August of 2416.

Meanwhile, because of the 3-year time jump, this means that the Paladins began their voyage back to Earth in March 2419.

Near the beginning of S7E06, Shiro indicates that it’s only been a few weeks since he woke up in the clone body at the end of S6E07, and when Lance asks how long they’ve been out there, Romelle says “going on four movements” before he then asks how much longer it’ll take to reach Earth.

Coran’s comment in S1E02 about his Paladin lunch helping the team form Voltron “six times a movement” is said in the same manner that we’d say “seven days a week” in real life, suggesting that one movement is 6 quintants.

Which means that by the beginning of S7E06, the Paladins have spent more than 18 days flying back to Earth, but less than 24.

Meanwhile, the Paladins mention in S7E03 The Way Forward that, from their perspective, their battle with Lotor was “a few weeks” ago, indicating that at least two movements had passed since the end of S6E07 Defender of All Universes by the time they encounter Ezor and Zethrid’s pirate crew at the end of S7E02 The Road Home. However, it’s ambiguous whether all of those movements were spent on travelling or if it took the Paladins a few days to finish the preparations for their voyage before leaving the Dalterion belt.

And Pidge’s insistence in S7E06 that they still have one and a half Earth years of travel time left gives me the impression that we’re still in the same calendar month.

From all of this, we can conclude that the entire first half of Season 7 up until the Paladins fly out of that energy burst and reach Earth takes place within the month of March 2419.

Depending on how long the Paladins spent repairing the lions and preparing for the voyage between the end of S7E01 and the beginning of S7E02, this means that their landing on the Dalterion Belt and Shiro being merged with his clone had to have occurred somewhere between March 1st and March 8th, which would also apply to the timing of the Paladins’ battle with Lotor in S6E07.

With Sam’s debriefing being a month after he landed, and him being released from quarantine after about a week, he would’ve had to have landed and been released in August 2415 in order for September 2416 to still be “just over a year” after he started working to upgrade Earth’s defensive capabilities.

With the debriefing scene being “four years ago” from the beginning of S7E07, this would put the Paladins’ return to Earth in August 2419.

 The liberation of Earth appears to only take a couple of days at most, and according to Shiro in S8E01 Launch Date, rebuilding took “several months” before the Paladins were ready to return to space.

This puts the beginning of Season 8 in late 2419 or early 2420, and a line from Rizavi in S8E01 helps to narrow things down.

When Pidge sees the Killbot Phantasm game, Rizavi mentions that it came out just before Sendak invaded, and that because of that there hadn’t been enough time for any players to reach the final level. She then tells the shopkeeper that she waited 3 years to get to the end of the game.

Meanwhile, Macidus tells the Paladins in S7E05 The Ruins that he has been marooned on the planet they found him at for “the last two decaphoebs,” and that the Druids’ purge against the Blade of Marmora was them “carrying out her final orders.”

Since the Paladins would have encountered him in March 2419, this would put the fall of the Blade of Marmora and Kolivan’s capture in March 2417, 7-10 months after the beginning of the counterattack against the Coalition that Matt spoke of in S7E07.

S8E02 Shadows confirms that Sendak invaded Earth on Honerva’s orders in the hopes of drawing out Voltron. Given, the potential narrative symmetry, it’s likely that Sendak’s invasion of Earth took place around the same time.

Which would be consistent with how the MFE pilots are referred to by Admiral Sanda as cadets in S7E07 when they had already graduated from the cadet program the previous year because they, like Shiro appear to be in a post-graduate program to continue their education after high school:

At WonderCon 2016, showrunner Lauren Montgomery referred to Shiro as a “slightly older student.”

Meanwhile in S7E01 he appears to be assisting Iverson and other Garrison instructors with classes, but is not treated by other characters as if he’s a full-time teacher himself. 

During the briefing scene in S7E7, Commander Iverson gives Shiro’s rank as Lieutenant, reflecting the tradition of fictional military organizations in science fiction to utilize the ranking systems of real world militaries, particularly with naval ranks such as Commander and Admiral which are exclusively used for naval officers.

During his visit to Keith’s school and his time overseeing simulator drills with Keith’s class, Shiro’s uniform only has two stripes on the shoulders of his uniform, and he’s never addressed by any specific rank.

However in the scene where Sanda and Sam Holt are arguing about Shiro’s inclusion on the Kerberos mission, his uniform now has three stripes on the shoulder, which he has been consistently shown to have in Pidge’s flashback to the crew’s disappearance being announced in S1E05, which show photos of Shiro, Sam, and Matt that would’ve been taken specifically for the mission’s publicity. And when Sam is debriefed in S7E07, Iverson identifies Shiro as a Lieutenant.

In our world, it takes an average of 4 years after enlisting in the navy for a person to be promoted to lieutenant. However, if someone enlists before or while in college, promotion to Lieutenant can be achieved with the completion of a Master’s Degree.

Depending on the field, a Masters’ degree would require an additional four years after completing a Bachelor’s degree. However, some universities that specialize in specific subjects (like mine did) offer a Master’s program that only takes an additional 1-2 years after receiving a Bachelor’s degree to complete.

Since the Garrison’s cadet program is teaching what 21st century viewers would consider advanced college-level science to high school students, it’s plausible that the Garrison has an advanced program for graduates of the cadet program to continue taking classes. Which makes sense because the Garrison’s cadet program is clearly an example of a vocational school, which focuses education at the secondary (high-school) and/or post-secondary (college) level on teaching students the skills and knowledge required for a specific career path, as opposed to a more general education.

It explains why tie-in books indicate that Shiro and Matt graduated from the Garrison at the same time. While Matt was completing his regular education in the cadet program, Shiro was finishing up his advanced education track.

Because Shiro makes multiple comments that imply an in-depth knowledge of physics and astronomy: From knowing enough constellations to recognize in S1E01 that the Blue Lion’s wormhole has left them in unfamiliar space, to being able to calculate the approximate speed of the black lion’s fall at the start of S2E01 Across the Universe in his head despite the pain of a glowing magic wound in his side and the general exhaustion of the battle they’d just come out of.

It even explains why S7E01 has Shiro was helping with classes and Adam mentioning having a class to teach, because many high schools and colleges offer work-study programs to where students can work part-time jobs at the school in exchange for financial assistance, as well as to get hands on work experience in a particular field so that they can transition from school to working more easily. Which also explains why Sam and Adam both mention Shiro having gone on multiple space flights and missions by the time he’s selected for the Kerberos mission even though the timeline indicates he’d only be 20 by the time he was chosen for Kerberos.

And since my analysis of Garrison lore indicates that the grey/green uniform that Shiro wears when visiting Keith’s school is reserved for those whose work in administrative roles and other capacities in the day-to-day running of the Garrison, this would indicate that he graduated from the cadet program at least a year or two before, and received the new uniform as part of the work-study program when classes started up the following school year.

So, the MFE pilots continuing their education after completing the cadet program would explain why Sanda would still refer to them as cadets even if they’ve already graduated from the cadet program: because even if they’re not in the cadet program anymore, they’re still students.

The pattern we’ve established regarding the human characters’ birthdates and grade levels means that Shiro would’ve graduated from the regular cadet program in 2410 (meaning he would’ve enrolled in 2406) and finished his advanced studies in 2412, making the Garrisons’ post-graduation education options a 2-year program.

This means that the amount of time that Sendak’s invasion of Earth had to have been before May of 2417. So, a March 2417 invasion around the same time the Druids and the Blades wiped each other out fits within that window.

And if that is the case, then Rizavi’s “three years” comment would put S8E01 in March 2420.

From the perspective of the crew of the Atlas, the first half of the season takes place over the course of about 48 Earth days. S8E08 Clear Day appears to take place within a couple days after the end of S8E07 Day Forty-Seven, as Hunk introduced the Altean robeast Pilots to Allura and Coran near the end of the day, and the following episode opens with Tavo agreeing to speak with Allura due to Hunk’s efforts at reaching out to the Alteans with food.

However, the leader of planet Drazan indicates that thanks to time dilation, the Atlas’ internal clocks are about 24 days behind the rest of the universe by the beginning of S8E08, as Coran notes that according to their calendars, Clear Day shouldn’t be for another four movements.

Depending on when in March the Atlas left Earth, this put the Clear Day celebration somewhere between May 12th and June 10th, 2420.

Based on how quickly events move following the events of S8E08, this would put the final confrontation with Honerva somewhere between the middle of May and the middle of June, which would put the epilogue in May or June of 2421.

Given that the fact the timeframe of the show was determined based on a meta gag about the show’s production, my instinct leans towards the second half of Season 8 all taking place in May, as it would mean that the entire main plot of the show – which was contracted for 78 episodes (the hour-long pilot being 3 episodes stitched together) – took place over approximately 7 years and 8 months.

Part IV: Backstory Dates & Other Timeline Trivia

Now that we’ve hammered out the timeline for the main events of the story, we can start filling in dates for elements of the characters’ backstories and other areas of the timeline not covered by the previous sections.

The First Kral Zera:

In S5E04 Kral Zera, the Archivist states in 2415 that the Kral Zera has been burning for “over thirteen millennia,” putting the first Kral Zera and the official founding of the Galra Empire as a political entity sometime before 10,585 BCE. Since he said thirteen, rather than fourteen, we can logically assume that it couldn’t be any earlier than 13,999 years before 2415, which would be 11,584 BCE.

The Daibazaal Rift:

Kova appears to be fully grown when Zarkon first meets him in Honerva’s lab in S3E07 after the discovery of the Rift on Daibazaal. Using Earth cat development as a basis for comparison, this would indicate that Kova is at least 1 year old by this point, meaning the earliest that the Trans-reality comet could have crashed was 7613 B.C.E.

However, it cannot have happened any later than 2 years before Allura’s birth. When Honerva shows Alfor that their Quintessence experiment is running after he thanks her for the gift celebrating Allura’s birth, he notes that the experiment has been running for a full year by that point. But despite the experiment being positioned right next to her workstation, it was nowhere to be seen when she and Zarkon were having their first meeting before the timeskip.

Meanwhile, before the episode transitioned from Honerva and Zarkon’s first meeting to Alfor showing his daughter off to Zarkon, Coran’s narration refers to Alfor visiting often “as the years passed,” indicating that more than one year passes between the discovery of the rift and Allura’s birth.

This means that since the experiment would’ve begun in 6704 or 7605 B.C.E., the Rift cannot have been opened any later than 7605 or 7606 B.C.E.

The Difference Between 1 Year & 1 Deca-Phoeb:

When Shiro and Allura are detected during their infiltration of a Galra cruiser in S1E10 Collection and Extraction, the computer identifies Shiro as "Fugitive prisoner 117-9875."

The format of his prisoner ID number indicates the year on the empire's calendar that Shiro was captured, meaning that the Galran calendar lists Earth year 2414 as imperial year 9876.

Initially, I thought this meant that the references to Altea being destroyed "10,000 years ago" were a generalization and that it wasn't exactly 10,000 years.

However, Coran's insistence on correcting Hunk that the Castle of Lions is 10,600 years old in S1E01 indicates that it was indeed exactly 10,000 years between Altea's destruction and the return of the Blue Lion.

Which left me with a bit of a conundrum of how to reconcile the two timescales. Then I remembered that S1E06 established that Earth and intergalactic time measurements weren't exactly 1:1, with Pidge and Coran's comparison showing that ticks were slightly bigger than seconds.

So I decided to do the math and see if how 9876 decaphoebs would compare to 10,000 years. And dividing both numbers by 9876 gives me 1 Deca-Phoeb = 0.9876 Years.

Meaning that Shiro's prisoner ID and the references to Altea's destruction being 10,000 years ago are both correct.

Garrison History

Pidge mentions in the Season 8 episode Knights of Light: Part Two that the Garrison managed to map the human brain "about twenty years ago." Since this episode takes place in early 2420, this puts the date of this event approximately in the year 2400.

Shiro and Keith’s First Meeting:

Since the Galaxy Garrison’s cadet program is shown to be for high school students, and that Keith, Lance, and Hunk were meant to graduate in 2415, we can deduce that Shiro and Keith first met in the spring of 2411. Most high school enrollment is done in the spring, so it makes the most sense for the Garrison to send Shiro to local schools to convince students who will be freshmen at the start of the next school year to enroll, as opposed to trying to persuade kids to transfer in the middle of the year.

Based on the fact that Lance was in 9th grade as a 14-year-old, the Garrison likely starts classes in August, which is consistent with the fact that Keith’s map of his search for the Blue Lion places the Garrison near the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

Where, according to my own research and the experience of friends who live there, the school year typically begins in late July or early August and ends in May.

This would mean that Shiro just only a month or two past his 19th birthday when he and Keith first met, while Keith was around 14 and a half.

Pidge’s Grade Level:

Though we don’t know exactly when it happened, the fact that Pidge is still in 8th Grade when she turns 15 means that somewhere along the line she had to repeat a grade during middle or elementary school.

Details and Aftermath of the Kerberos Mission:

In S4E02, Matt mentions planning to use their family code to keep in touch with Pidge during his mission, so the fact that Pidge never mentions receiving any message with the code letting her know that they landed safely indicates that Matt, Sam, and Shiro were abducted shortly after arriving on Kerberos.

The news broadcast announcing their disappearance is dated five months after the launch, and earlier in the flashback, Sam mentions that he and Matt “will be eating freeze-dried peas for the next two months.”

Since their abduction happened in September 2413, this puts the mission’s launch in July of 2413. From a logistics standpoint, a summer launch makes sense for the Garrison so that they won’t have to worry about disrupting classes, or cadets sneaking around to watch the launch and getting hurt.

This would mean that the crew’s disappearance was announced in December 2413.

Pidge’s confrontation with Iverson during S1E05 indicates that she was not aware of the involvement of aliens prior to her enrolling at the Garrison, as she only mentions that the Garrison’s probes show no sign of a crash on Kerberos and doesn’t bring up the transmission from the Galra warship to Zarkon’s central command that S7E07 reveals the Garrison had managed to record.

The Paladin Handbook states that a rescue mission to Kerberos recovered the remaining equipment, so the fact that Pidge doesn’t mention finding reports from the rescue team on Iverson’s computer in S1E05 indicates that the rescue mission hadn’t left yet when the disappearance was made public.

Since S7E07 shows video footage of Shiro, Matt, and Sam on Kerberos getting cut off as the Galra cruiser approaches, the probes were presumably destroyed by the cruiser as it arrived on Kerberos, and the Garrison sent new probes to try and reestablish contact before making the crew’s disappearance public.

A further piece of evidence for the Garrison beginning classes in August is that Pidge’s comments in S1E01 indicate that she’s been listening to Galra radio chatter for several nights now and can recognize that the level of activity on the night of Shiro’s return to Earth is higher than normal. A month would give her a decent amount of data to work with to identify patterns of activity.

The VR Game and The Zel:

In the opening of that one VR game Voltron: VR Chronicles, Zarkon and Haggar discuss a technologically advanced species known as the Zel, whose population was decimated by the empire a millennia ago, but whose homeworld remains hidden from the empire.

The game features Shiro still piloting the black lion, and Haggar indicates in the first cutscene that they’re still able to track the Castle of Lions through Zarkon’s bond with the Black Lion, which puts the game before the events of S2E04 Greening the Cube. However, the paladins don’t give any indication that they’re aware that Zarkon can track them like that, meaning that it has to take place before Allura gets captured in S1E10 Collection and Extraction. 

Given the timeline established for the first 2/3 of Season 1, the only places the events of the VR game could fit is between volume 1 of the comics and the beginning of S1E09 Crystal Venom, or during the travel montage in S1E10. However, the lack of any mention of getting back to their journey to the coordinates of the hidden Quintessence refinery in S1E10 means it has to take place between S1E08 and S1E09, particularly since Lance notes the game’s robeast boss fight - a recolor of the same one that attacked the Balmera - is giving him deja vu.

In the VR game, Hunk also indicates that travelling via wormhole is still a relatively new experience for him, so it’s most likelt that this game still takes place sometime in September 2414 after the events of the comic.

All of which means that the empire’s battle with the Zel that Zarkon and Haggar talk about would have occurred somewhere in the year 1414.

Timeframe of Seasons 4 – 5:

S4E01 Code of Honor opens with Keith indicating that Lotor hasn’t been seen in months. Since their last encounter with Lotor’s forces was in early January 2415, and Keith says months – as in plural – the earliest the beginning of the episode could take place is some time in March 2415. However, based on the timeframe of Season 8’s Clear Day, it can’t be any later than the end of April.

S4E04 The Voltron Show! establishes that the planet Drazan has a 721-day year and only 1 of those days ever gets clear skies, with Team Voltron missing that year’s Clear day due to Coran’s miscalculations.

However, in S8E08, Drazan is celebrating another Clear Day and explicitly states that this is the first one after the one that Voltron missed in Season 4. Which means that a day on planet Drazan is longer than an Earth day or standard quintant.

We’ve already narrowed down that Season 8’s clear day took place somewhere between May 12th and May 24th 2420, so if we assume that the paladins missing the previous Clear Day happened within the same window of time in 2415, this would put the beginning of S4E04 sometime in May 2415.

(Which, incidentally, means that a year on Drazon would be equivalent to about 5 years on Earth, while a day on Drazan is approximately 60 hours or 2.5 Earth days).

Meanwhile, Coran indicates in S4E04 that Keith’s departure from the team has not spread very far yet, indicating that the episode begins a short time after the end of S4E01 since Keith no longer piloting the Black Lion is not common knowledge yet. This means that Keith leaving the team would have also taken place in May 2415.

S4E01 shows a montage of time passing while Keith works with the Blades, indicating that a notable amount of time passed between the beginning and the end of the episode. Furthermore, Allura’s comment about how Keith keeps saying he’s sorry for not being there, but his actions say otherwise indicate a consistent pattern of Keith being too busy on Blade Missions to perform his duties as the Black Paladin. This indicates that Keith was flaking on them for at least a couple weeks before the crisis where Shiro had to reconnect with the Black Lion.

Meanwhile, the fact that Coran states that Keith’s departure from the team at the start of the season is not common knowledge yet in S4E04 indicates that S4E04 actually takes place before S4E02. This is reinforced by the fact that Lotor’s urgency to access the Quintessence field in S4E05 Begin the Blitz indicates that very little time has passed since the end of S4E03 Black Site, which contrasts how S4E04 clearly took place over the course of several days, if not multiple weeks.

The timeframe for Sam’s return to Earth that I identified in the previous section puts all of Season 5 in August 2415, as events are indicated to happen fairly quickly:

S5E03 Postmortem clearly starts the morning after Zarkon is killed, and Lotor states that the Kral Zera will be held sometime in the next two days.

The hostage exchange in S5E02 Blood Duel likely only took a couple days at most of back-and-forth communication to negotiate the terms and details after the end of S5E01 The Prisoner.

S5E04 shows that Sam was making the final preparations to leave for Earth when Shiro and Lotor went to the Kral Zera, meaning that both Sam’s departure and the Paladins’ arrival at Central Command would’ve taken place a day or two later.

Pidge, Lance, and Hunk are shown spending most of a day goofing around on Central Command with their reprogrammed Sentry while Lotor and Allura are looking through Haggar’s lair.

After Allura finds the compass stone, they appear to head to Oriande if not that day then the following day, and when the castle loses power thanks to the White Lion, we’re told that the Castle only has another quintant of air left.

Assuming they spent a night recovering from oxygen deprivation like Shiro did in Season 3, then they would’ve returned to central command the following day. Right when they got back, Lotor had to receive a briefing on the state of the empire. A few hours later, he did his speech, following which Voltron went to help protect the Omega Shield

While it’s unclear exactly how many days passed between the end of S5E04 and Keith’s half of S5E05, Hunk indicates in S80E3 The Prisoner’s Dilemma that Keith and Krolia had already started their trip through the Quantum Abyss by the time the Paladins came to the aid of the Omega Shield.

So we can confirm that the entirety of Season 5 takes place in August 2415.

From there, we can narrow down a rough idea of when the rest of Season 4 takes place.

While it’s not stated exactly how much time passes between S4E06 A New Defender and S5E01, it’s implied to not be that long. In S5E01, Nyma thanks Pidge and Matt for helping with repairs on the Coalition’s fleet, saying the ships were “pretty banged up after the invasion.” This implicitly indicates that the attack on Naxzela and the rest of the Galra forces in that section of the universe was recent enough that repairs to the rebel ships that survived the battle were only just now being finished.

However, enough time needs to have passed that Lotor has been able to give them several locations for Galra bases to attack that were low-risk before he runs out of easy targets to give them.

So, it’s likely only been a couple of weeks at most since the end of Season 4. Since S4E02 and S4E03 happen only a day or two together, and S4E05 is implied to take place just a day or so after that, this puts the remainder of Season 4 sometime in late July, since Sam would’ve had to land on Earth in mid August in order for both his debriefing and Matt contacting Earth “just over a year” after said debriefing to be in September.

Which means that the third volume of the comics most likely also takes place in July, since the first issue of this arc depicts the Paladins attempting to drive a Galra fleet out of the Coalition’s new territory without letting them fly in the direction of the planets that were already liberated in S4E06 A New Defender, and the central conflict of the arc revolved around the paladins attempting to test if the information Lotor was providing them with was accurate.

Haggar Waking Up Zarkon

S3E07 ends with Haggar waking Zarkon up, yet we don’t see him up and around until S4E02, which takes place several months after the end of Season 3. Which raises the question of why Zarkon waited so long to get back into action? And why was Haggar pushing Lotor to be more active and visible in ruling the empire if Zarkon was awake to retake the throne?

On top of that, S4E03 opens with Haggar look at her old apperance as Honerva like it's the first time she's seeing her true face since the got her memories back:

Now, which sounds more logical? Haggar wakes Zarkon up in October 2414 and he spends the next eight months or so sitting on his ass doing nothing while his empire keeps crumbling under rebel uprising?

Or Lotor’s lack of involvement in the empire for months as seen in S4E01 Code of Honor making Haggar desperate enough to tap into Zarkon’s mind, at which point he immediately gets out of his bed and takes the throne back from Lotor in S4E03?

The latter would certainly be a logical sequence of events. And it would better explain why she’s suddenly looking at her old appearance as Honerva at the beginning of S4E03 if her recollection of her past was just yesterday than if she remembered months ago and is only now deciding to look at her old face.

Warlord Lahn Raiding Ranveig’s Base:

The Paladins visiting Drazan’s Clear Day festival appears to take place only a day or two after the end of S8E07. In that episode, the Altean robeast pilot the Atlas picks up is noted to be the 6th one they’ve brought aboard since leaving Oriande. Assuming they picked up one robeast pilot per day, this means that at least 6 days passed for the Atlas since the end of S8E06 Gensis.

Given that time dilation has only come up in the series when characters are travelling without using wormholes, we can probably assume that more than 6 days passed for the rest of the universe.

Since S8E08 appears to take place on Day 48 and is 24 quintants behind Planet Drazan thanks to time dilation, my best estimate would be that at least 12 days pass between the battle in Oriande and Clear Day.

Depending on when in May the Atlas visited Drazan for Clear Day, this would put the attack on Oriande somewhere between the end of April and the beginning of May.

S8E06 is indicated to take place only a day or so after the events of S8E05 The Grudge, which itself takes place only a short time after S8E04 Battle Scars, as the episode opens with the Paladins informing the Atlas of Olkarion’s fate.

Meanwhile S8E04 indicates it’s been only a few days for them since they left the Atlas at the end of S8E03, as Pidge notes that they’ve checked 11 star systems for signs of Robeasts in the last 3 days. Assuming that further time dilation occurred during S8E04 and S8E05, this would put the Atlas’ invasion of Warlord Lahn’s base on planet Ryker some time in April 2420.

When Lahn receives the transmission from the lost ship Klytax V-3, he mentions that he sent it and 14 other cruisers to scout Warlord Ranveig’s base from S5E05 for weapons six phoebs ago, which would be in October 2419.

Section V: The Complete Timeline

When you add everything together, the timeline of the VLD universe looks like this:

10,585-11,584 B.C.E.: The Galra Empire is formally established on the planet Feyiv with the coronation of Emperor Brodar in the first Kral Zera.

8186 B.C.E.: Coran’s grandfather builds the Castle of Lions. Coran accompanies him to a Balmera during the construction.

7614 B.C.E.: Kova is born

7606-7613 B.C.E.: A Trans-Reality Comet crash lands on the planet Daibazaal and a rift between realities is discovered at the crash site.

7604-7605 B.C.E.: 1 year before Allura’s birth, Honerva and Alfor initiate their first Quintessence experiment.

7603-7604 B.C.E.: Princess Allura is born, and Voltron makes its debut defending Daibazaal from the Rift Creatures.

7586 B.C.E.: Daibazzal and Altea are destroyed. Lotor is born

1414: The Galra Empire battles a technologically advanced species known as the Zel and decimates their population, but are unable to locate the Zelthronian homeworld.

2392, February 29: Takashi “Shiro” Shirogane is born

2394, May 25: Matt Holt is born

2396, January: Krolia crash lands on Earth

2396, October 23: Keith is born

2397, January 13: Hunk is born

2397, July 28: Lance is born

2398, April 03: Katie “Pidge” Holt is born

2400: Galaxy Garrison manages to map the human brain.

2406, August: Shiro begins taking classes at the Galaxy Garrison.

2408, August: Matt begins taking classes at the Galaxy Garrison.

2410, May: Shiro graduates from Galaxy Garrison’s cadet program

2410, August: Shiro continues his education at the Garrison

2411, March-May: Shiro visits Keith’s middle school as a recruiter for the Garrison sometime in the spring

2411, August: Keith, Lance, Hunk, James Griffin, Nadia Rizavi, Ryan Kinkade, and Ina Leifsdottir begin taking classes at the Galaxy Garrison

2412, May: Matt and Shiro graduate from their respective programs at the Galaxy Garrison.

2412, August: Shiro and Matt are selected to be part of the Garrison’s mission to Kerberos.

2413, July: The Garrison’s mission to Kerberos launches

2413, September: Sam Holt, Matt, and Shiro reach Kerberos and are captured by the Galra Empire.

2413, December: Galaxy Garrison publicly announces the disappearance of the Kerberos mission.

2414, April 28: Rebel forces battle the Galra Empire on the planet Marchanda, resulting in 127,098 rebel casualties while the planet is reduced to a barren wasteland. Matt uses this battle to fake his death and go into hiding in a hidden rebel listening post.

2414, May 11: A rescue mission from Galaxy Garrison arrives on Kerberos to retrieve the equipment left behind after the original mission’s disappearance.

2414, August: Katie Holt begins taking classes at the Galaxy Garrison under the name of Pidge Gunderson in order to find information about what happened to her father and brother.

2414, September 01: Shiro lands on Earth and is rescued from quarantine by Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge.

2414, September 02: Shiro, Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge find the Blue Lion and leave Earth.

2414, September 03: The Paladins train to figure out how to form Voltron outside of combat.

2414, September 04: The Paladins meet the Arusian natives and defeat the Myzax Robeast. Sendak attacks the Castle of Lions that night.

2414, September 05: Pidge and the paladins retake the Castle of Lions from Sendak while Hunk and Coran retrieve a new Balmeran crystal.

2414, September 06: The Castle of Lions takes off from Arus and liberates Shay’s Balmera later that day following an encounter with Rollo and Nyma en route.

2414, September 07: Hunk takes Shay to watch her first sunrise. After leaving the Balmera, Coran takes the Paladins to the Karthulian system for a training exercise.

2414, September 08: The Paladins travel to the planet Krell to retrieve a Yalexian Pearl to trade for Coran’s safety.

2414, September 09-30: Sometime in September, Team Voltron investigates a Zelthronian distress signal.

2414, December: The Paladins coordinate with the Blade of Marmora to attack Central Command, grievously wounding Zarkon in the process. Shiro disappears and Lotor is summoned from exile to lead the empire while his father recovers.

2415, January:

Keith becomes the new pilot of the Black Lion and leads the team in their first battles against Lotor on Puig and Thayersix.

The Paladins find an Altean exploration ship caught in a rift between realities and recover the trans-reality comet stored in its cargo hold after visiting the Altean Empire reality.

Shiro makes his way back to the team after awakening aboard a Galran research vessel.

In the process of searching for the trans-reality comet, the Paladins come upon Lotor’s generals attacking a Galran outpost in the Ulippa system to steal a fragment of their Teludav.

Coran tells the Paladins the story of Voltron's origins and Zarkon's descent into tyranny.

2415, March-April: Keith and Kolivan discover a new strain of Quintessence being shipped across the Galra empire through a network of secret supply routes.

2415, May:

Keith leaves the team in order to focus on his work with the Blade of Marmora.

Voltron misses performing their air show at the planet Drazan’s Clear Day celebration, leading Coran to ingest a brain worm to help him do a better job coming up with ideas for their propaganda shows.

2415, July:

Pidge finally tracks down Matt and brings him back to the Castle of Lions.

Haggar uses her magic to reawaken Zarkon, in the process regaining some of her memories of her life as Honerva.

Zarkon learns that Lotor is building ships from a trans-reality comet and declares his son a fugutive.

Voltron launches an attack on Naxzella and other key planets to seize control of 1/3 of the Galra Empire’s territory in a single strike.

The Paladins finish liberating planet Pintos Sentos.

Voltron dismantles the Galra shipbuilding facility known as SPRAWL using intel provided by Lotor.

2415, August:

Voltron rescues Sam, and Zarkon is killed by Lotor in the process.

Lotor becomes the new emperor of the Galra in the thirty-fourth Kral Zera.

Sam returns to Earth and is placed under quarantine at Galaxy Garrison’s main base in Arizona.

Keith extracts Krolia from Ranveig’s base and they enter the Quantum Abyss in search of the origins of the new mystery Quintessence.

Lotor, and Allura enter Oriande, where Allura passes the trials of the White Lion and gains further knowledge of Altean Alchemy.

Team Voltron assist Commander Bogh and Lieutenant Lahn when their planet is attacked by Sendak’s Fire of Purification.

Sam is released from quarantine and reunited with his wife Colleen.

2415, September: Sam is debriefed by Galaxy Garrison’s Joint Chiefs regarding his experiences in space.

2416, March 01-08: After spending at least 2 years in the Quantum Abyss, Keith and Krolia return to the Castle of Lions with Romelle. The Paladins battle Lotor and are forced to sacrifice the Castle of Lions to seal off the Quintessence Field and save their entire reality.

2416, May-August: The Druids and other factions of the Galra Empire begin a campaign of retaliation against the Blade of Marmora and the Voltron Coalition.

2416, September: Matt contacts his parents on Earth to inform them of Voltron’s disappearance and warn them of the rebellion’s losses.

2417, March:

The Blade of Marmora make their last stand against the Druids. Both factions suffer heavy casualties, and Kolivan is taken captive by Macidus.

Sendak invades Earth.

2419, March:

Allura merges Shiro with his clone and the Paladins gather Fonatonium to help recharge their lions.

The Paladins set off for Earth and are captured by Zethrid and Ezor’s pirate crew while investigating an abandoned Blade of Marmora outpost.

The Paladins encounter Macidus and rescue Kolivan. Krolia leaves with Kolivan to search for other surviving Blades.

The Paladins attempt to recharge their lions.

2419, August: The Paladins reach Earth and quickly liberate the planet from Sendak’s occupation.

2419, October: Warlord Lahn sends Klytax V-3 and 14 other cruisers to salvage weapons from one of Warlord Ranveig’s bases.

2420, March:

The Paladins enjoy their last day on Earth before returning to space.

The IGF Atlas launches from Earth to liberate planets that remain under Galra rule.

2420, April: The Atlas attacks Warlord Lahn’s base on the planet Ryker.

2420, May 12-31:

Voltron and the crew of the Atlas attend planet Drazan’s Clear Day festival.

The Paladins confront Honerva at the source of all realities.

2421, May: The lions fly away to parts unknown.

Note: This timeline will be updated whenever I uncover further information.

Sources:

[1] Creating Voltron: Legendary Defender; June 10, 2016. https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/creating-voltron-legendary-defender/

[2] Tweet by Joaquim Dos Santos; October 12, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20200723131054/https://twitter.com/JDS_247/status/1050905860728213506

[3] The Ending of 'Voltron' Season 7, Explained by the Showrunners; Eric Francisco; August 10, 2018. https://www.inverse.com/article/47977-voltron-legendary-defender-season-7-netflix-ending-explained-by-showrunners-interview  

[4] Joaquim Dos Santos & Lauren Montgomery Talk Voltron at Wondercon '17; When Nerds Attack; April 2, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZW1V2dYHgs

[5] High School in the United States - wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_school_in_the_United_States 

[6] K-12 Education in the United States - Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-12_education_in_the_United_States

[catnippackets]

I was gonna send you an ask like "huehuehueee I am dredging up your old klance art onto my cringe voltron sideblog" but omg you made new klance art! New catnippackets' klance art! For my eyeses to see!!! In 2023! Posted not that long after I sent that ask before.

I feel very influential all of a sudden.

I was idly thinking fondly of them very shortly before you sent that ask and I was like oh wow that's a weird coincidence! guess more than one person is remembering them fondly rn! and then after I replied I got another ask hinting that I should draw them again and I was like lol alright if I got two whole ppl messaging me about this maybe I will for old time's sake, I'm curious to see how they look now that I'm better at drawing. and I vastly underestimated how stoked ppl were gonna be kgjhfdk I was very flattered. I didn't know there was a whole renaissance happening but!!! here we are!!!

[sleepy-timaeus]

Up From the Skies, Aliens Exist! (Crossover Among Us AU)

I started putting together a crossover among us au with some of my fandoms because someone told me how they love among us fics and my ass went "omg i used to love among us, let me write something"

i think i mightve been itching for something platonic cause why am i so excited about the potential friendships? like, between those from different fandoms? i might have the slightly bit of someone catching a crush (and then either they or the person they like dies), but for the most part im here for introducing the faves to each other and have people die 😌

im gonna start watching old among us videos to get back in the headspace of the game, and i might even start playing it again myself so i get some new hands-on experience 😭 but i'll mostly be basing it on 2020-2021 among us (in it's height) cause idk all the changes that well

oh! and the fandoms im currently planning on cobbling together are: mcu spiderman trilogy, blue beetle (2023), voltron: legendary defender, and homestuck. basically anything i liked that was related to space even a lil bit (and most of these are a lotta bit!)

when the first chapter of this insanity is posted, i'll make another post here to say so. im so excited for all the murder and betrayal 🤧 i already know who's dying first... and im so sad (my ass had to spin-wheel it cause i did NOT wanna part with any of my pookies 💀 but thats like... the whole point. lotta people gonna die LMAO. but now that the first has been picked out, i feel more comfortable with all the other characters im gonna kill off 😇)

i think im gonna start talking about my fics here more often, might even post some of my stuff, old and new, here. or should i open a sideblog for that 🤔 idk if i wanna go through the trouble of that, so i might stick to posting it here. who knows!

[shsy7573]

Me listening to “Will They Won’t They” by Jeremy Shada:

Looks at song.

Looks at Klance.

Looks at song.

Looks at Klance

I’m not gonna do it. There’s nowhere for me to post it without me looking cringe, I’m not gonna do it. I can’t admit to being into Voltron in 2023 on anything where I know actually look. Even though I just got into it. I’m not gonna do it. I am NOT going to make an edit.

Someone could, though. And it would be so good. I can envision it.

Someone could.

Not me. But someone.

What’s the only social media platform I own that NOBODY knows I own where I can put this idea into the world?

Oh right! Tumblr

But seriously, someone could tho. Just sayin’. If you do, please GODS come back here and send me the link.

[worst-ships-poll]

competition info:

current bracket (will be updated as we go):

complete list of character names and their respective fandom under the readmore below.

submissions:

submit here: [google forms link]

submission rules: [tumblr post link]

SUBMISSIONS CLOSED!

poll info:

this poll is literally to cause tumblr drama because I’m bored. feel free to start discourse in tags or replies. I’m not a mod of my posts and I’m not monitoring my posts. do your thing.

reiterating this poll is for fun, and while I’ll try to keep it organized, I am not going out of my way to make a tumblr poll bracket I’m doing in my free time 100% bias-free or 100% optimized.

I reserve the right to add or remove ships to the initial bracket at my discretion, or to not answer all asks, or whatever else makes it more fun, short of actually changing results (I will let the people decide.) basically, if you have a problem with something about the way this competition is run, I don’t care.

I feel like this should go without saying but I do ascribe to the idea that some ships are inherently morally bad and deserve to be hated. I won’t post about all my opinions on the ships, but if a ship is predatory/offensive/has bigoted shippers I will join in calling it really bad, and I will not be accepting or starting anti/pro-shipper discourse here. it’s 2023, grow up and stop shipping incest.

polls will be posted in batches from their respective level on the bracket and will last a week before moving on to the next set. i.e. all of the first vs. polls will be posted at the same time until a week passes and they’re done, and then the winning ships will be noted and we’ll move on to the second level of the bracket and all of those polls will be up for a week, etc.

posts will be tagged via batches (”batch 1“, “batch 2″, etc), ships, and fandom.

I will be trying to seed it properly based on ship prestige, number of submissions, and common sense. if you have an issue with it after all of that, send a text form complaint to 1-800-YOUR-MOM to file necessary feedback.

full list of ships and characters with their fandoms and rankings:

(struck out listings are ships that have lost in the bracket so far)

1. Dean Winchester/Castiel from Supernatural

2. Kylo Ren/Rey from the Star Wars sequel trilogy

3. Ciel Phantomhive/Sebastian Michaelis from Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler

4. Midoriya Izuku/Katsuki Bakugo from My Hero Academia

5. Thor Odinson/Loki Laufeyson from Marvel/MCU

6. Keith Kogane/Lance McClain from Voltron Legendary Defender

7. Merlin/Arthur Pendragon from Merlin BBC

8. Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski from Teen Wolf

9. Jiang Cheng/Wei Wuxian from Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed

10. Pannacotta Fugo/Giorno Giovanna from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

11. Sam WInchester/Gabriel from Supernatural

12. Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter from you know what

13. Sam Winchester/Dean Winchester from Supernatural

14. Tony Stark/Steve Rogers from Marvel/MCU

15. Axel/Roxas from Kingdom Hearts

16. Edward Cullen/Bella Swan from Twilight

17. Onceler/Onceler from The Lorax

18. GeorgeNotFound/Dream from Minecraft Youtubers fandom

19. Rhaenyra Targaryen/Daemon Targaryen from House of the Dragon

20. Kaeya Alberich/Diluc Ragnvindr from Genshin Impact

21. Alina Starkov/The Darkling from Grishaverse/Shadow and Bone

22. Tony Stark/Stephen Strange from Marvel/MCU

23. Blackbeard/Stede Bonnet from Our Flag Means Death

24. Uchiha Sasuke/Haruno Sakura from Naruto

25. Dirk Strider/Jake English from Homestuck

26. Dabi/Hawks from My Hero Academia

27. Phoenix Wright/Miles Edgeworth from Ace Attorney

28. Catra/Adora from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

29. Sans/Toriel from Undertale

30. Jack Zimmermann/Eric “Bitty” Bittle from OMG Check, Please!

31. Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze from Star Wars: The Clone Wars

32. Kai/Lloyd Garmadon from Ninjago

rankings was done via a combination of counting the number of submissions and balancing fandom/ship popularity and/or exposure. ship names for the bracket image were found via websearching, I did my best to find accurate or relevant ship names for all of them when applicable.

[fandomsnfluff]

INTRO POST !

hello!! my name is noah (he/him preferred, they/them acceptable) and i’m a 23-year-old trans guy and a fanfic writer! after months of reluctance, despite stealthily making my way across other t-word related blogs on this platform using other accounts, i finally decided to officially join the t-word™ community on tumblr! i’m still in the closet with my close friends outside of this corner though honestly. (so please don’t interact if you know me/think you know me outside of this part of tumblr or talk about this with me elsewhere!! i would greatly appreciate it! <3)

i don’t really have much to say but this is just my own personal corner to explore my interest with tickling (which for some reason i’ve had a bit of a fixation with for about 10 years or so now) so if you’re interested please send me a dm or an ask just to talk or even send headcanon requests since they’re open!! if you’re 18 or older you’re also more than welcome to privately message me! i ask that you stick to sending me things via my askbox if you’re under 18, however, simply due to comfort on my end!

please remember to read my about page before interacting, and if you’re interested, please feel free to follow me, send me an ask and/or a dm! PRIMARILY NSFW BLOGS WILL BE BLOCKED. THIS IS A SFW BLOG AND MAINLY EXISTS TO PORTRAY TICKLING IN SFW CONTEXTS.

please click “keep reading” below to read my guidelines and see prompt lists i am currently accepting, as well as check out my masterlist and other important links!

headcanons: CLOSED. prompts: CLOSED.

please make sure to read my about page for byf/dni info before requesting! (and interacting too of course)

the fandoms i have written for are as follows: voltron, obey me, sk8 the infinity, a3!, b-project, and utapri. right now my hyperfixation is stranger things (despite posting little to no original content since falling back into this rabbit hole), and since i’m currently in the process of slowly phasing myself back into writing on this blog, please only send requests concerning this fandom! this list will also be updated as i join more fandoms and is subject to change.

when i write x reader things, i tend to refer to you as “mc” (for obey me) or “x character’s s/o/friend” (depending on the type of request) in fics/headcanons and will stick with they/them pronouns. i want all folks of all genders reading my stuff to feel like they’re there and that they’re included <3 that being said, i kindly request that you not ask me to write anything where the reader has a specified gender (ex. putting “with female s/o” at the end of your request). thank you!

i write headcanons, drabbles, scenarios, and “fics.” (i’m putting fics in quotations because i write these in full fic format but tend to have more of a drabble-like length.) when requesting, please specify which of these three formats you want me to use!

all triggers will be tagged using the following format: tw: (trigger name). please blacklist when needed using this format! if you need anything to be tagged, let me know!

do NOT send any requests concerning ANY form of bigotry or my triggers (listed in my about page linked above).

you are only allowed to send me ONE request within a span of 48 hours, including from other blogs that you run. if i suspect one person is sending me multiple requests under anonymous within this time period, i reserve the right to turn off anonymous asks.

you can ALWAYS drop into my askbox to chat and/or share some headcanons of your own! i’d love to hear them!!

i also want to reiterate that you’re more than welcome to send me a private message, but only if you’re 18 or older. if you’re under 18, i prefer that you stick to sending me messages via my askbox. it’s just a comfort thing for me on my end c:

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THESE GUIDELINES ARE ALWAYS SUBJECT TO CHANGE! and, most importantly, have fun, and i hope you enjoy the content here! <3

prompts & headcanons are currently CLOSED as of 6/28/2023.

fic prompts

tickle fic prompt list

30 more tickle prompts

underused adorable prompts

random tickle sentences/prompts

headcanon prompts

character dynamic headcanons meme

character tickling ask meme

character + body part meme

body part + tickle method game

events

200 followers game → event tag

links

MASTERLIST

about

tags

BUY ME A COFFEE!

last updated 1/30/2024.

[my-ace-life]

Interests Intro

I know I’m making a big assumption that anyone cares about what content I’m consuming, but when I hyperfixate on something, oh boy will I never shut up about it. So, to spare my friends and family from my extensive rants, I will be posting here about it. Feel free to not read any of this and get to the juicy stories on other parts of this blog, but to get a comprehensive view of my life as an asexual person, read ahead to see what content catches my interest!

Disclaimer: there will be a lot of discussions of old emo and pop punk bands in this section, and no I will not apologize for it.

That being said, here is a list, current to Nov 2023, of a bunch of stuff that I'm into:

Music - format: Artist {favorite album and/or “song”}

Fall Out Boy {Folie à Deux - “(Coffee’s For Closers)” and American Beauty/American Psycho - “The Kids Aren’t Alright” and Save Rock & Roll - “Miss Missing You”}

Sleep Token {Take Me Back To Eden - “Euclid” and “Chokehold”} Who gave them permission to include the lyric “So if your wings won’t find you heaven I will bring it down like an ancient bygone” in “Euclid” ??? Gives me goosebumps every time I listen

The Vaccines {“I Always Knew”}

Troye Sivan {There pretty much isn’t a song of his I don’t like, so I will just say that my favorite from his new album is “Still Got It” and I will always listen to “10/10” from In A Dream}

Wasia Project {“Remember When”}

I listen to a smattering of Kpop and Jpop bands: Official Hige Dandism, Gen Hoshino, Eve, The Oral Cigarettes, BTS, and Red Velvet

TV/Movies

Hell’s Kitchen (Maybe this makes me a bad person, but I love watching Gordon Ramsey yell at people at the end of a long day)

Heartstopper (because I am basic)

New Girl (a classic)

Red, White, & Royal Blue (also because I am basic)

Young Royals (because sometimes you need to witness a love story that will shake you to your very core)

DreamWorks’ Voltron: Legendary Defenders & She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (they are a set and no I will not be taking criticism on that)

Video Games

Five Nights at Freddy’s (I know way too much about the lore of this series. It's borderline a problem.)

Oxenfree (I haven’t played the second one yet but the first one has a very special place in my heart)

Pokémon (I’m a Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl stan but I understand that is probably an unpopular opinion. I just really love Luxray, okay?)

Books!

Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse: The original Shadow & Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows duology. The magic system is really unique and I love how Bardugo writes her characters.

Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

The Simon Snow Trilogy by Rainbow Rowell

Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz. This book (and the sequel) always destroys me emotionally, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley: The only adult science fiction book series I enjoy reading

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao: It’s like Pacific Rim combined with Chinese folk stories. It’s so cool.

[vld-has-messed-me-up]

patting you gently on the shoulder. sometimes someone reblogs an old vld post of mine and i remember being neck-deep in it at age 16. have fun and enjoy the clown music

I was also neck-deep in it at age 16.

I actually got into voltron as Therapy Content to get over being burned by a completely different show. I got into voltron (after seeing klance analysis on tumblr) thinking "well this time I definitely won't be queerbaited!". And I was so excited about it. There were two seasons already out and it seemed like I was going to get exactly the kind of content I want; animated, anime inspired, sci-fi fantasy, Found Family, some rivals to lovers, some wholesome interaction, interesting character arcs. And I followed the show for years, checking in whenever there was new content and casually keeping up with crew news while staying in my own little peaceful section of fandom.

The worst part is, through each new season, I never fully gave up hope on canon klance. It was only when the thing was fully ended that I realized the truth. (Which is exactly how it went with the previous thing, incidentally.)

Voltron really was the nail in the coffin of my trust in other creators.

[I was legitimately watching the new She-ra with the attitude of "it doesn't matter how many hints there are or who is making it, you cannot trust the creators not to queerbait you" like some jaded veteran.]

And for years I kinda thought that we queerbaited ourselves, that we had accidentally tricked each other into believing that we were going to get more than was ever hinted.

And now, after many years, I think I can safely say that we were actually queerbaited and the reason it seemed like we weren't is that that's how queerbaiting is supposed to work it's supposed to make you question if you really saw what you saw. Queerbaiting is a form of mass market gaslighting and for several years it was working on me.

But no, we did not imagine the tension and the teamwork and the Bonding Moments and the banter and the support and the potential. It was there, we saw it, we were right.

And sure, I may joke about being a clown but here's the thing: klance in 2023 is so relaxing. The show is over, time has passed, we've all grown, we already have all the canon character details and lore bits we are ever going to get, the choice adhere to canon or ignore canon or rewrite canon is entirely ours for the taking, the ship wars are over, the toxic forces have left, any mob mentality has faded away; it is so peaceful. Like sure, we will never get the potential back and we will never know exactly what happened in production "but at least the war is over" their space war and our shipping wars, it's all in the past now. I think this era of voltron fandom is where maybe we can all start to heal.

I'm actually intending to rewatch the show (a thing I was originally very against) because I want to really see it all in order and see how the flow actually was and see if I can assess what really might have been happening behind the scenes. I want to look at it in its entirety (with a mind that has grown and is much less desperately invested) and puzzle the whole thing out. This is my personal therapy for myself, to look back at it and evaluate it with much more neutral eyes. I am going to make notes and maybe a casual little conspiracy thought web to get my thoughts all sorted out. And then, then I am going to outline the story that I saw in the potential, the story that I think we deserved, perhaps even multiple variations of it depending on which attributes I keep.

And in this way I believe I will finally be able to think about voltron without feeling so unresolved about it. Because I don't like feeling this way about it, I don't like that I look back on these characters I loved and this show that I loved and feel so betrayed and furious.

I don't think I'll ever forgive the writers or the company fully, but I think I can forgive the story itself for being written that way, I think I can learn to love the art for what it gave me and fill in the gaps in my own mind. I think I can reclaim this thing for myself, the love that I had for this show, I think I can reconstruct it in my mind and make something that I can love without shame. I don't want to feel guilty for having liked voltron anymore. I want my love of this show to be mine again.

[ao3feedsheith]

Our Filthy Hands Can Wash One Another's

Our Filthy Hands Can Wash One Another's https://archiveofourown.org/works/50871301 by noghostzone Still shaken by Zarkon’s latest attack and Ulaz’s death, Voltron attends a small planet’s cultural festival, only for things to very quickly go awry. “Forgive me," the first alien continued. "This all must be very confusing, and I still haven’t introduced myself. My name is Taund, and I am the ruler of Amfadia. There’s no emergency here; we invited you to be guests at our Celebration of Unity." The Amfadus next to Keith clapped once, loud and sharp, causing the rest to perk up. The one holding the forearm guard of Shiro’s suit threw it aside. They all crouched down on all fours and raced to Keith, giving him a similar treatment, tugging at his hair and clothes. Words: 3994, Chapters: 1/4, Language: English Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con Categories: M/M Characters: Keith (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron), Original Alien Character(s), Allura (Voltron), Hunk (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance (Voltron) Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Season/Series 02, Getting Together, Poisoning, Accidentally High, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, eventually, Worried Shiro (Voltron), Protective Shiro (Voltron), Pining Shiro (Voltron), he's doing his best!, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Shiro Saves Keith (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Eventual Smut, smut in chapter four, Blow Jobs, Hand Jobs, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change via AO3 works tagged 'Keith/Shiro (Voltron)' https://archiveofourown.org October 15, 2023 at 11:00PM

[heonsecretarts]

08/09/2023

Hello again to y’all tumblrs and fellow users! It’s been a long time I didn’t post here!! since that pandemic hit– yeesh! Like I said from my last post, had to survive many errands in me so here I am! back! Today’s episode I think I’m just going to post a few last post for this tumblr for a while cause I got a big job out there….!

So far I’ll still be posting characters of Martial Arts and Fighting Styles here for the meantime cause I suddenly got an entity possessing me to post drawings somewhere….but luckily for me I got a friend who could help me cope up my health!

For those who missed my recent posts here check out my last current OC: ONIHABU | NARVHIST | MICHELLE

NExt of the fighters I have is: Haruka Oshima

Originally I made her as a wrestler whose attire is that of a ninja, and is based on most Japanese indie wrestlers. but as time passes by I left not touching their stories, something changed my mind,. As the story goes I was planning on killing the character by plot in homage of those real life wrestlers who died in the ring in real life as being Solenne Cassway's only childhood friend from Japan, but then I'm also missing a ninja stereotype if I were to include one so now the story changes!

She's now an actual ninja!

the reason why I was planning on killing her is also a nod homage to a Variable Geo character: Chiho Masuda.

-

Also I did a ninja character before right? well 1st and foremost the other guy is based off from Sandslash

and 2nd the other one is based from a Super Sentai Robot:

and btw....she's not entirely related to Haruka Tsuhirime, there will be no connections while the character does look liked her.

-

-I also made a Voltron attire for her but idk why....!

and here's a sketch showcasing that friendship with Solenne Cassaway, her friend MMA Fighter specializing on kicks,.

As much the new story goes, I think I have still plans for her for being old friends with Solenne but doing a retconned with this will require a large time for me to rewrite everything.

Well that's all guys I'll be adding more characters in the future!

Later!

[jackwillwrite]

AO3 meme

Tagged by @tiny-banana-time ! thanks so much !! :>

[Rules: Give us the links to your wonderful words with the most hits, most kudos, most comments, most bookmarks, most words, and least words. ]

Most Hits - stupid for you , with 19, 347 hits. that'd be a finished short-ish multichapter fic from a fandom i no longer write for, and i don't check the stats for the fics i've written for the fandom, so i'm ... very surprised at this (bungo stray dogs, 2021)

Most Kudos - Nine Blocks and To-Go Cups , with 2, 832 kudos. it was actually my very first posted fanfic (voltron, 2016)

Most Comments - Undisclosed Desires - 159 threads, my very first multichapter fic that i actually wrote live! (i no longer write multichapter ones live LMAO) i started it in 2018 and finished it in 2020. i attribute that to the repeat readers who commented every chapter; so glad to everyone that stuck around for it despite the very long hiatuses. it's the fic that i am most proud of i think actually so i'm glad it made it on here :> (dragon quest xi, 2018-2020)

Most Bookmarks - stupid for you again, with 561 bookmarks (bungo stray dogs, 2021)

Most Words - that'd be are you mine? , at 23, 608 words. it was my first attempt at a long fic (supposed to be around 80k), and was writing it live as well, started in 2022, but officially abandoned it by marking it as complete recently. this is the reason for my new policy on not writing multichapter ones live OTL. i felt bad abandoning it unfinished, but this is another fic from the fandom i no longer write for, due to mental reasons. maybe one day i'm okay to go back to it and finish it, but, yeah. i'm not one to write long fics in general, which is something i'm still making peace with, but :> yeah, for me, that's a lot of words! and in fact, the understanding comments i got about taking time to update/ abandoning really warmed my heart and made me feel cared for as a person more than creator <3 (bungo stray dogs, 2022-2022)

Least Words - equilibrium , my newest fic (!!) at 370 words. i'm thinking about making a series of fics like this one spanning across fandoms, essentially capturing things that i love about life in moments with my favorite characters, intentionally short. it's helping me rewire depressive thoughts and stuff. i'm not quite sure yet but, since i already have the next almost completely written, i'll mark it as a maybe. (call of duty modern warfare 2, 2023)

tagging: anyone who would like to do so!! i'm afraid i'm very anxious about tagging people (despite loving being tagged myself-) <3

[damagedintellect]

Klance pulled from the Vault

💌 Can’t Break These Cuffs: Chapter 1 💌  

Summary: Takes place during S1 E8, Keith tries to unchain Lance from the tree but somehow cuffs themselves together and are stuck like that for three days or at least that’s what Rolo “said” but there’s something about the way Pidge and Allura are exchanging glances that say otherwise.

Notes: Someone might have done this by now but I’m still going to do it. I’ve been writing this for over a year and it would be a shame if I never posted it. -2017

Look I wrote this in 2016 and never finished it and here I am in 2023 finding it in the very back of my google doc. I remember laughing so hard when I thought of this idea but I was always scared of the fandom so I never posted any of my klance wips. Back when I started this I planned for 3 chapters. I would have to rewatch all of Voltron to finish this but if enough people scream at me to, I might. Although after proof reading this holy shit has my writing style changed over the years. I promised to drag a wip out of the vault for 200 followers so I did my part 07

💌 Word count: 7,990 💌  You are here | Next Chapter =>

“Keith! My man, I thought you were actually going to leave me here.” Lance cheered still laying on the ground chained to the tree. He was smiling like an idiot as Keith sighed, crossing his arms. He didn’t even want to know how Lance managed to get himself chained up in the first place, but he always found it amusing to see Lance end up in situations due to his own stupidity. This would be the perfect time to mess with him, like draw on his face or something. Keith really didn’t know why he felt the impulse to do something to Lance so he shook the feeling off.

“I thought about just leaving you but unfortunately we need your sorry ass.” Keith knelt down to look at the cuffs. “OOoou~ just my ass or my-” Keith tuned Lance out so he could concentrate because he had no idea what he was doing and he was not about to tell Lance that. He fiddled with the cuff until he heard a click and it released one of Lance’s wrists, retracting the yellow energy beam around the tree. Keith was about to start on the other cuff when it latched onto his wrist instead.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me.” Keith tried clicking all the same buttons he did the last time but nothing was happening. He frowned, furiously clicking every button but still nothing happened.

“Keith what the heck are you doing! I’d rather be chained to the tree.” Lance started flailing his arm around trying his own way of getting it off. It didn’t work of course but he had to try, all it managed to do was irritate Keith “Would you stop that! It’s not helping.” Lance stopped flailing for a moment instead opting to glare at Keith before he started biting at the restraint like a wild animal. Lance was just being dramatic not actually thinking it would work.

 “Seriously?” Keith grumbled trying to pry the idiot from the metal contraption as Lance only shot him another glare, “Yes, because I’m out of ideas and it was worth a try.” Lance stopped and looked away from Keith folding his arms dragging Keith’s along with him. Keith pulled his arm back and stood up, “Look I’m sure Rolo and Nyma can tell us how to get this unlocked. We just have to deal with this for the time being.” Lance rolled his eyes and grabbed his helmet while Keith activated his comm, “Hey guys, we’ve got a small problem.” Keith pulled Lance in the direction of Red as they heard Shiro respond, “What is it now?” Keith sat down as Lance was forced to cram himself in the small cockpit and watch him pilot Red back to the castle. “Well-“

“Keith cuffed us together and can’t fix it!” Lance yelled out in frustration.

Lance pouts, of all people it had to be Keith, with his stupid smug grin and his oddly calming aura and his pretty but poorly styled hair and his beautiful purple eyes, like seriously how is that even a thing and his - wait why was he thinking about this again? Oh yeah because Keith has this weird way of pushing his buttons without even trying. Lance sighed glancing back at Keith, yeah I’m screwed.

Meanwhile Pidge and Allura turned off their comm’s and laughed, “I say we keep them like that until they can get along.” Allura suggested as Pidge just held their side snickering at the thought of that. “Please, I don’t even think they could last one day.” 

Shiro didn’t know what to say, it would definitely help the two grow. “Keith does need to learn how to bond and trust Lance and Lance does need to get over his stupid hate rivalry, but wouldn’t that be too, what’s the word, malicious? At the same time it would be beneficial to the team as a whole.” Shiro broke from his thoughts pausing his inner monologue to finally address the issue.

“Oh my god I’m actually considering this as an option” Shiro was shocked with himself and how he wasn’t opposed to the idea. Allura smiles “Hunk what do you think?” Hunk shrugs “I mean it couldn’t hurt but I say the moment they try to actually kill each other we stop.” Allura nods “So then it’s settled no one tell them the cuffs can be removed and we just let it play out.”

 Pidge stopped laughing now that it was actually happening “What if we need to form Voltron?” Allura thought for a moment “If things get that bad then we’ll take them off but I’m sure we’ll be fine. I also believe we shouldn’t have to rely on Voltron to solve all our problems unless necessary.” Which was true. 

Red landed shortly after their conversation ended, all of them in agreement that this was for the best and if they wanted to bond as a team Keith and Lance had to suck it up for the time being. Keith and Lance made their way to the group, both clearly annoyed at the situation at hand. The group was quiet just staring at them. 

“So how do we get this off?” Keith was the first one to speak but everyone continued to exchange glances as Shiro cleared his throat “How do I put this lightly.” Pidge rolled their eyes “You don’t, it’s time locked.” Pidge inwardly groaned there was no way they were going to buy that, like seriously? Time locked? What kind of bullshit would be able to stop them from getting it off.

Lance and Keith looked at each other than at Rolo, who wasn’t too sure what was happening but was willing to play along anyways “I’m surprised you even managed to take one off for a few seconds.” 

Lance threw his hands in the air “You mean we’re stuck like this!” Pidge walked up to them “inspecting” the cuff “Nyma originally set it for 3 hours but to me it looks like now it’s set for 3 days.” 

Keith's eyes widened “Pidge can’t you just take it off?” Hunk lifted his hand to contribute. “Rolo said if you try to take them off they will start to tighten and even if you do manage to cut them they’ll…they’ll combust.” Hunk hoped he sounded confident enough for them to believe it. He felt bad he would have to lie to his friends but if it would get them to stop hating each other then it was worth it. Keith and Lance swallowed hard and looked at each other, they were literally stuck like this for the next three days.

With everyone back at the castle Lance and Keith were sitting on the steps as they talked about how to save the Balmara “And yes blasting.” Keith said using his free hand to gesture to Hunk who looked concerned “Are you sure you guys can do this I mean what if we need to form Voltron?” Lance and Keith looked at each other and shrugged “Maybe it would be better if we waited. The castle’s defenses are still damaged from Sendak.” Shiro suggested but they both stood up

“If-“

“We-“

They were surprised they spoke in unison. They exchanged glances and Lance motioned for Keith to continue since he probably would word it better. “If we wait any longer they’ll know we’re coming and have time to prepare.” Keith looked back at Lance “Yeah, I was going to say that too.” It was silent again, they didn’t need to look up to know that everyone was looking at them.

“Dammit why did we have to get stuck together” Keith thought to himself. Shiro sighed “We’re not going to make you guys do anything you can’t handle. If you feel like you both could handle piloting and fighting as one unit-“

Lance laughed “I know I can, I don’t know about Keith though.” Keith shrugged “Well then whose lion are we taking?” Shiro looked to Allura “I think that’s something you both need to decide.”

“Red”

“Blue”

Their heads shot up and they stared each other down “Red.” “Blue!” they pressed their foreheads together “We are taking Red. Red’s faster and I have better control while piloting.” Lance rolled his eyes; he didn't deny that.

“Yeah but Red is smaller than Blue, we both could barely fit the last time and I’m not about to sit in your lap.” Keith pulled back, Lance was right. He would hate to just sit and watch Lance have all the fun piloting but he would also hate to make Lance practically sit in his lap. Wait, did he sit in his lap on the way back to the castle? Keith couldn’t remember he was too busy thinking about a way to get out of the cuffs. He didn’t want to make things awkward between them, Lance already hated him for some reason and he didn’t want to make things worse. “Fine, we'll take blue.” But Keith had a bad feeling about all of this.

Keith’s feeling was right, it sucked. He felt useless just sitting there watching Lance pilot but he felt even more useless in close combat. His freehand was his less dominant hand but somehow they managed to get through it without getting injured or killing each other. He’d also hate to admit it but Lance wasn’t half bad under pressure. He was actually really good with planning ahead, who would have thought. Keith also noted that he was a really good shot. It could be because he never really observed him during training but there was something about the way he looked when he lined up a shot that made Keith feel, um feel, there’s a word for this feeling but Keith couldn’t quite think of the word. It made him feel like he, uh, didn’t dislike him? Keith couldn’t put his finger on it. Admiration was close but maybe too sentimental? He wasn’t sure, but whatever the case it didn’t matter at the minute.

With the mission over everyone had some downtime before dinner. Lance and Keith started walking in opposite directions when they felt the tug on their arms and they both groaned “I was going to the training deck, where were you going?” 

Lance didn’t turn to face Keith but Keith could see his whole body slump “I was going to take a shower but I forgot we were still a package deal.” He forced a laugh and Keith felt bad. Lance hated him and now he was forced to be around him more than usual. “Well it has been a long day” He could actually go for a shower. For some reason he was sweating more than usual. A shower between teammates wasn’t awkward right? Like Lance wasn’t going to kill him for suggesting they actually do it right, shower that is. Why was Keith so flustered right now? He mentally slapped himself for dwelling on this more than he should have.

“Okay, we could do that.” 

Lance was shocked to say the least. He wiped his head around a red tint graced his cheeks “How!” Keith was taken aback “What do you mean “How” we both just-“ Lance stopped him right there “No like how are we supposed to get our clothes off, we’ll blow up!”

Meanwhile somewhere else in the castle Pidge, Hunk, Allura, Shiro and Coran were having a secret meeting. “So do you think they actually bought the whole “If you tamper with it, it will explode” act?” Obviously it wouldn’t but Hunk just kind of blurted it out. He didn’t like the idea of lying to his friends so he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. He was still surprised that they went through a whole mission with little to no problems at the Balmara.

“Lance probably bought it, Keith might be skeptical but wouldn’t risk it.” Shiro said still in disbelief that this will work the way Allura assures him. He knew Keith had a thin patience not to mention they both had the inability to back down from a challenge. Yeah they are going to kill each other. 

“So we are really going to let them stay like that. What if they really needed to be separated for some reason?” The group heard footsteps down the hall before Keith and Lance burst through the door and in unison say “We need to get these things off, now!” Allura crossed her arms leaning back, she rolled her eyes and thought “Oh what is it now”

“We can’t get out of our uniforms if our hands are stuck together!” Lance very animatedly flailed about making Keith almost lose his balance. Everyone exchanged glances then looked to Pidge nervously “Ugh Fine, I’ll try but I’m not a miracle worker.” Pidge pretended to look at the cuffs and tamper with it. Rolo had already explained how it works, faking it wasn’t that hard. That was until she clicked something and it short circuited for a moment causing a small puff of smoke to seep out of the cuffs. Lance and Keith both jumped ever so slightly and Pidge wiped the sweat off of her forehead “I may have just added a day, but I think I got it to unlock for 5 minutes every two hours.” 

Lance hugged Pidge “Ooh you nerdy genius you!” He let her go and she fixed her glasses “Yeah yeah, it’s set to happen on the hour, but they will reattach after 5 minutes no matter how far apart you are. Don’t ask why because I don’t know.” They seemed to buy it and Lance asked “What time is it now?” Coran looked at the console “2 before the hour” The two nodded to each other before running off.

“Run faster or we won’t make it!”

“You’re the one lagging behind Mullet!”

As soon as they were out of earshot Pidge fell to the floor laughing “Oh my god they are both idiots! I can’t believe that worked. I can’t believe they bought it!” She grabbed her stomach because it started to hurt “Until we need to form Voltron I suggest we leave them to work it out themselves.” Allura concluded. Shiro just hoped she was right, maybe he would check on them later. With the meeting over and everyone seemingly on the same page, they left to do whatever it is they do in their free time.

Lance and Keith were still running down the hall “Whose room are we going too?” Lance said as they took a hard right. “Yours, it’s closer.” Lance sighed in relief he would be able to use his face scrubs to help him relax and distract him from the fact that he was going to shower with Keith. He wondered if Ke-

He was broken from his thoughts when he ended up running face first into his door. The cuffs were detached and Lance didn’t notice that Keith stopped running to wait for the door to open. “You okay?” Keith asked, he was inside the room already peeling himself out of the suite. Lance rubbed his nose “Yeah I’m fine.” He stood up glancing at Keith’s bare chest “Better now” he mumbled under his breath. His face was red from hitting the door but he could feel the blush rushing to his cheeks. Keith wasn’t built like Shiro, his muscles were lean and Lance thought that was just as sexy, shit why did he care. He should be getting out of the suit.

In the meantime, Keith was already starting the shower. He could not believe he was doing this. He was about to shower with Lance. What the hell did he do in his past life to deserve this? Was it because they weren’t on good terms since they had a fight the other day and the world has a sick sense of humor. Actually no, when were they not fighting or should he even call it fighting. Keith sighed at least the shower was big enough for two.

Lance put out clothes for him and Keith but it looks like they’re going to have to share a towel. Great sharing, probably the one thing about home he didn’t miss. Lance started daydreaming about home when he felt a strong tug on his wrist making him stumble over the armor on the floor. He was pulled into the shower face to face with Keith

“Oh, uh” They both looked down at the cuffs “I guess it’s been five minutes.” Lance coughed out trying to fight the urge to look Keith up and down. He wasn’t gay or anything but why waste the opportunity while it’s here. Lance tried to assure himself of this reasoning. That’s when Keith moved out of the way so that Lance got hit by water making him jump.

“What the hell! Why is the water so cold!” Lance forced himself to push through it to change the temperature. “Cold showers are better for your body, it helps with your metabolism. I don't see what the problem is?” Keith just shrugged running a hand through his wet hair 

“You’re supposed to start off with hot water to open your pores! Do you know nothing of skin care?” Keith just rolled his eyes as Lance splashed him with the now really hot water “Jesus Christ that burns!” Keith tried to cover his face but Lance splashed him again and grabbed it “Aren’t you supposed to be like the spirit of fire or something? Anyways do you ever wash your face, all I see is filth. Your pores are calling out to me to save them from this life.” Lance was only inches away from Keith, his eyes analyzing every nook of the barely shorter paladin's face.

“That’s the lion and I’m pretty sure if you poured hot water on anyone’s face they would react the same way.” Keith finally pushed Lance away attempting to grab the space soap but Lance swatted at his hand “What is it now Lance?” Keith said flatly as Lance smeared his face wash all over Keith before doing it to himself.

“My shower, my rules now scrub.” Keith rolled his eyes and did what he was told. He still couldn’t believe he got himself stuck to Lance and they successfully completed a mission stuck like this. This was real life and now they were showering together, this was thing that was actually happening. Keith continued rubbing the face wash in his face when Lance doused him with ice cold water.

“Oh so now you use cold water.” Keith grumbled he was not ready for the temperature change. He kind of liked the hot water, it was relaxing. “Yeah, we got the filth out of your pores now we close your pores to prevent filth from getting back in.” Lance said it so casually Keith was questioning who this guy was and what did he do to Lance. To Keith, Lance knowing something was a foreign concept all he ever saw the blue paladin do was flirt with most anything with legs 

“Why do you know this?” Keith thought out loud by accident.

Lance continued his face wash routine “I grew up with three sisters, don’t you have any siblings?”

“I-um, outside of Shiro, actually does Shiro even count, we're technically not blood related but he’s the closest thing I have to a sibling I guess.” Keith looks at Lance who was clearly lost “I’m an orphan.”

“Oh” was all Lance said. He didn’t know that, but somehow everything makes sense. Seriously this explained a lot about Keith. He was alone. This is why he’s so socially awkward. He never had a family to argue with, he never had to care for anyone other than himself especially when Shiro went missing. He never got the opportunity to be close to someone. Lance kind of feels bad. His family was everything to him and he couldn’t imagine a life without them.

... a life without them .

With Lance deep in thought neither of them spoke for the rest of the shower. Lance gave Keith the towel and started to get changed “I set some clothes out for you unless you want to head over to your room to get changed.” Keith thought about it for a moment and looked at the cuffs. “We still can’t put shirts on so there’s no point, I’ll just wear this.”

Lance grinned to himself the pajama pants. They were a little big on him and he was only an inch and a half taller than Keith so the hems were dragging on the floor but what he was really grinning at was the lion slippers. Man did he love those things because they can make anyone look cute.

While Lance was too busy standing there smiling like an idiot he didn’t notice Keith was staring at him too “Why are you looking at me like that?” Lance looked up “What, oh it’s nothing let's go get dinner.”

As they made their way to the dining room, it was pretty clear that everyone was staring at them and Keith was amazed that Lance didn’t make any comments about it. This was Lance we were talking about he always had something to say. It was weird having him be quite. Keith looked at everyone else. Something felt off to him, maybe it was because he was not used to everyone staring at him? He couldn’t put his finger on it and just ate his food goo with no trouble at all already adjusted to using his off hand.

He started hearing muffled snickering followed by faint laughter causing him to look up. Allura and Pidge were trying not to laugh because Lance was having a hard time using his less dominant hand. Lance continued trying although clearly frustrated with himself for being unable to handle a simple task, it made Keith smile. It was adorable and made Keith feel warm inside, wait did he just think that Lance was cute. Lance threw his spork down and started yelling at Pidge to stop laughing, he had some food goo on his cheek and Keith had half a mind to wipe it off for him. Half a mind, the other half was arguing with himself over such stupid thoughts but he did want to see Lance flustered more. Teasing Lance was everyone else's pastime. He should try it. He grabbed the spork and shoveled the food goo in Lance’s mouth forcefully.

“Some of us want to eat in peace.” 

Red tinted Lance’s cheeks as he pulled the spork out of his mouth. “Well some of us are having problems! Why aren’t you having issues with this? Isn’t that your non-dominant hand!” Lance flailed about trying to draw as much attention away from the blush on his cheeks as he could.  

Keith shrugged, “I don’t know, I guess I got used to it, it’s not that hard.” Lance’s eyes narrowed “Got used to it!” He opened his mouth to continue his rant but Keith shoved another spoonful causing the other to choke slightly. “Stop doing that!” Lance glared at Keith who tried to not to laugh at his pain. He made no attempt to hide his grin though.

“Stop complaining. It can’t be helped, so shut up and take your food goo.” Keith held another spoonful in front of his face while Lance just turned his head to the side “No, we are not doing this!” Allura and Pidge were having a field day finding it hard to contain their laughter. Shiro already left and Hunk was getting seconds paying no mind to what was going on.

“Lance come on, I just want to be done with this too but I can’t leave until you eat.”

Lance could not believe this was happening. Keith was feeding him. Keith, who never paid any mind to him at the Garrison, was currently willing to feed him. What kind of sick twisted dream was he having and why was he not waking up. Actually this whole day kind of seems like a sick twisted dream and Lance was torn, he wanted to wake up but a part of him hoped this was real. He kind of liked the attention and sure Lance had wanted Keith’s attention but not like this, or did he. His head is starting to hurt between trying to use his off hand, yelling at the girls and sneaking glances at Keith’s abs when he wasn’t looking. He couldn’t think straight.

Keith could not believe he was doing this, and he was what’s the word, enjoying it? He had no idea why he was enjoying it but he was. This was stupid but it made Keith smile. By now the girls had lost interest and everyone had left and it was just them.

Lance finally gave in. “Fine, feed me but never speak of this again.” Keith snickered “What about tomorrow? We’re stuck like this for what, 3-4 days?” Lance groaned “Don’t remind me.” This time Lance ate the spoonful “God this is embarrassing.” He mumbled more to himself as Keith shook his head “No, what’s embarrassing is accidentally chaining yourself up to someone you’re trying to free.” 

Lance grins and looks away “Not even, what’s embarrassing is getting yourself chained to a tree.” Keith laughs

“Yeah, you got me beat there.”

Lance stood up triumphantly “I finally beat you at something!”

“Are you really sure you should be proud of that?”

“Absolutely not but it’s the one thing I got.” Lance chuckled at their stupid game. 

Keith rolled his eyes “I’m cuffed to an idiot.” Lance playfully smiled “And it’s all your fault.”

Keith frowned standing up to clear away the plates “So now what?” Lance asked not really sure if he would even get an answer. He was right, he didn’t get an answer. Keith just started walking, dragging him along. Keith probably wanted to get a shirt Lance looked down. He forgot he didn’t have a shirt either. He was surprised he wasn’t cold, he wondered if Keith was cold. He looked at Keith’s bare skin, it looked really soft. A click echoed through the halls as they reached Lance’s door. Keith kept walking probably to go to his room.

Lance sighed, what was he thinking? All day he’s been thinking about his little rivalry attitude he had with Keith. Was it really a rivalry he felt towards Keith? Lance walked into his room and put his shirt on. It’s not that he hated Keith, far from it but he couldn’t explain it. He just assumed that since he craved his attention it was because he felt like he wanted to one up Keith but now he didn’t think that was the case. Was it ever the case? He laid down on his bed as he thought about it. He abruptly sat up when it finally dawned on him.

“OH SHIT!” Lance sprung to his feet pacing about his room. He was running his hands through his hair muttering something incoherent in Spanish.

“ No, no esto no puede ser. Esto no puede estar bien yo no, ¿verdad? Mierda cuando hizo este comienzo!” [No, no this can't be. This can't be right I don't, do I? Shit when did this start!]

Lance stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed Shiro in the doorway.

“How long have you been there?” he pinched the bridge of his nose as Shiro walked into the room to sit on his bed.

“Long enough to know that you are not okay.” Shiro softly patted the space beside him hoping Lance would sit down and talk about it.

Meanwhile Keith walked past his room for the third time, lost in thought. He cursed under his breath and finally walked into his room. He needed to put a shirt on before the cuffs locked again. He was still thinking about why he offered to feed Lance, was it really to shut him up? No, he got a kick out of seeing Lance flustered. What? No, no he didn’t! Keith threw his shirt on and grabbed his pillow. Once again his mind drifted to Lance. He shoved the pillow into his face shouting a string of fucks into it. He didn’t know why these thoughts were popping up. For the most part Keith could shrug these thoughts off because these feelings were just a hindrance to him but right now it was all he could think about.

“UGH STUPID LANCE AND YOUR STUPID FUCKING FACE!” Keith looked up from the pillow hoping it wasn’t as loud as he thought it was. He looked at his blanket contemplating whether or not he should take it with him. He did get cold at night even with the blanket but tonight he would be sleeping with Lance and he wasn’t sure what the protocol was when sleeping with another human being. Should he take it? He groaned, why was this situation so frustrating? He frowned and was about to go back to Lance’s room when Shiro appeared in the doorway.

“I went to check on you in Lance’s room but you weren’t there. Are you okay? It sounded like you were screaming.”

“Shiro, I’m perfectly fine. Why wouldn’t I be fine.” in the back of his head he was screaming about how he was not fine but he couldn’t let Shiro know that. He knows that would only make him worry and that was stress that he did not need. “Are you sure? You know you can confide in me for anything. Even something Lance related.” Keith crossed his arms “And just what is that supposed to mean. Why would it be Lance related?”

“All I’m saying is that you two are stuck together for 3 days there’s bound to be something bothering you and it’s likely to deal with Lance.” Shiro put a hand on Keith’s shoulder “I’m just tired Shiro. It’s been a long day and-” Keith felt the tug on his wrist and suddenly he was being dragged down the hall by the cuff until he crashed into Lance.

Lance grabbed at his head while Keith followed suit “Wow, Pidge was not kidding about reattaching no matter where we are.” Lance realized he was on top of Keith and stumbled to his feet avoiding eye contact.

Shiro was a few feet away still outside of Keith’s door. He smiled at the awkward scene in front of him and decided he should leave them be. “I’m sure they’ll figure it out eventually.” He thought and walked to the training deck. At least now he didn’t have to worry about them killing each other.

They walked in silence back to Lance’s room. Neither of them wanted to be the first to say something but as they stood at the front of the bed. They kind of just looked at each other wordlessly.

“You didn’t bring your blanket?” Lance raised an eyebrow. He didn’t care one way or the other; he was just trying to start a conversation to get rid of this awkwardness. Keith threw his pillow down and grumbled “I didn’t exactly have time to grab it being pulled out of my room so suddenly.” In the back of his mind he thought “I knew I was supposed to bring it too! Damnit!”

“Well I mean it’s fine we can go back if you want.” Honestly Lance wanted him to say no because he didn’t want to run into anyone else.

 “Nah, I’m too tired. Let’s just sleep.” He nodded and they turned off the lights and went to bed.

Okay maybe it wasn’t that easy. Keith was lying on his back with his free hand behind his head while Lance was lying on his side facing Keith. Keith had his eyes closed and Lance tried really hard to keep his eyes closed. He really did but he couldn’t help it. This is part of the reason why he slept with an eye mask on. He’s always had a hard time falling asleep even when he was a kid. Lance was one of those people who stayed up thinking it happened as long as his eyes were open. It didn’t help that he didn’t have his music to drown out the thoughts either. He looks back at Keith, he looked so peaceful. Was he already asleep? Lance slowly raised his free hand to wave it in front of Keith’s face. No reaction.

“Lucky bastard.” Lance thought to himself as he looked at the cuffs. They were the weirdest piece of tech ever. You know what it’s space of course there was going to be advanced tech but these things were absolute bullshit. He tried to close his eyes again but his thoughts were flooded with the smiling faces he left behind on earth. His mom, father, his sisters and heck even his brothers, annoying as they were, he missed them. He missed home. He looked up at the ceiling. Lance could feel tears starting to well up in his eyes.

“Get it together Lance, you’ll wake up Keith.” He was pulled from his thoughts when he remembered “Oh yeah” He looked back at the sleeping form next to him and then passed him. His eye mask and headphones were on the nightstand. Lance could probably lean over Keith ever so slightly. His attention was once again on Keith.

 “Hey Keith” said softly and paused waiting for an answer. “Are you asleep?” He took the silence as a yes and took a deep breath. He was going to do it. Lance slowly shifted, repeating “Please don’t wake up.” To himself as he leaned over Keith’s unconscious body. He was almost about to grab the objects in sight when Keith shifted underneath him. Keith’s free arm found its way around Lance’s waist pulling him flush against the other. Lance was so close he could almost touch them if Keith would just let him go he’d be home free. Lance tried to push Keith away but that caused Keith to roll over nuzzling his face in the crook of Lance’s neck.

“K-Keith!” He squeaked having trouble breathing. Keith was a lot heavier than he looked. Lance was starting to panic. Keith was way too close and Lance’s neck was very sensitive. He bit his lip as Keith muttered something against his neck, still clearly asleep. The vibrations gave Lance chills. 

“P-Please, K-Keith you need to get on your side of the bed.” He said it kind of loud while still trying to push him away but it didn’t work. Lance was stuck and Keith seemed to be a heavy sleeper. Lance soon calmed down realizing Keith was not going to wake up. He was stuck in his arms but at least they were warm and comforting. Lance needed a hug anyways and as long as Keith wasn’t awake for it he could indulge in it as long as he wanted.

“Fuck it, I give up.” He stopped trying to push the other away and gave into the embrace wrapping his free arm around Keith. “It’s been a long day, I’m tired and if you try to kill me tomorrow it’s all your fault.” At least Keith wasn’t conscious because Lance would probably be freaking out more than he already was internally. All of that aside it was the best night of sleep he’s ever had.

By morning Keith slowly opened his eyes to wake up although he didn’t want to. He was so warm and comfortable. Opening his eyes was a bad idea so he immediately closed them.

“Please be a dream”

He opened his eyes again, nope it wasn’t a dream. He was in fact cuddling with Lance. Keith wanted to stay like this but what if Lance woke up. Things would be awkward, well more than they already were. He carefully detangled their limbs and looked Lance over, he slept with a soft smile on his lips. God did he want to kiss him. What? No, bad Keith, stop it! It’s too early to have these kinds of thoughts. Keith slowly leaned down but stopped.

Lance started to stir, about to wake up. On impulse Keith laid back in the position he remembered falling asleep in pretending he was still sleeping. Lance opened his eyes, rubbing them before he registered his surroundings. He shot up and choked out a frantic

“What-wait-how-but…I thought!” Lance growled to himself frustrated. Was last night all in his head, did he dream it?  No he didn’t even fall asleep until after the fact. He flopped back down making a disgruntled sigh as he hit the pillow, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure about anything anymore. “Was this even real life”

“Do you have to be so loud in the morning?”

Lance jolted back up “Oh so THAT, you heard!” referring to last night when he halfheartedly tried to wake the other up. Keith stretched, yawning “What are you talking about?” Lance groaned

“Never mind”

Day 2 seemed to be just as uneventful as the first. Thankfully they didn’t go on any missions but Coran had put together some stupid training simulators for them to run through. The simulators themselves were pretty cool; it was just the fact that Lance and Keith had to do it together as one unit that pissed them off. They probably would have done fine alone. They just couldn’t agree on anything. Each of them believed their plan was way better than the others.

 Everyone else had completed the first simulator with ease while Lance and Keith had to run it again for the third time. Shiro observed them closely on their first run and it was apparent that they were treating it as a competition to see who could take out the most enemies, not even focusing on the objective. Not to mention that neither of them were listening to the other. Shiro got an idea and turned to Coran, they were both in the control room overseeing yet another failed simulation.

“Coran, do you mind if I try something?” Coran motioned for him to step up to the control panel. 

“By all means, I’m sure you will be able to motivate them.” Shiro looked and sighed, they were fighting again over whose fault it was that the simulation ended. Shiro was surprised, they seemed to be doing well last night but for some reason this morning they had been at each other’s throats more than usual. Shiro only wondered what happened. Where did all this tension come from? Maybe chaining them up together was a bad idea. Shiro fiddled with the simulator, setting it up slightly different than it had been for everyone else, he only hoped that this would work.

“You guys are going to run the simulation one more time but this is how it’s going to go.” Shiro started off, hearing the two complain but he ignored it. “One of you will run through it blind with the other to be your eyes. You will have to depend on each other and listen to one another.”

Lance and Keith looked up to the control room both not too thrilled to run it again. “You can’t be serious, Shiro, please tell me you’re kidding.” Keith did not want to rely on Lance especially when his life could possibly be at stake. Even more so because Lance was the one who died in the last simulation. 

“We couldn’t even do it with our eyes open and you expect us to run it blind.” Lance was sure this was going to crash and burn.

“Keith, you will be blind first, so listen to Lance and Lance, Keith will only know what’s happening based on what you tell him so be specific. I’ll switch it halfway through but remember your partner’s well being is your top priority.” Shiro turned off the comm and started the simulation. Pidge and Hunk joined him in the control room “Do you think this will work?” Pidge questioned as Shiro rubbed his face “I sure hope so.”

The simulator was a simple game of capture the flag but on one of the Galra ships. First you had to figure out where the flag was, get it without being captured or heavily injured and take it to the rendezvous point. Simple enough right? When Pidge and Hunk ran through their sessions they were able to hack a few of the centuries to get access to one of the control rooms and found it that way. They had it easy. Not to mention that they both knew something about technology. Keith thought he did and well, you see where that got him. Tied to Lance. The first run they did Keith and Lance rushed nearly every room hoping to find it off of sheer dumb luck. It wasn’t the best idea but they almost immediately set off alarms and drew too much attention to themselves. They really had no choice but they were arguing about whose fault it was and why they couldn’t find it. Then Keith attacked everything in sight, much to Lance’s dismay, being that he had a range weapon and Keith needed to be up close and personal. Lance didn’t like how they bum rushed every sector just for them to be nowhere near the flag.

Back in the current simulation Keith’s visor went black, Lance was now his eyes. They were crouched behind a crate and Lance was peeking around the corner looking down the hall. “Lance what’s going on.” Lance put his hand over Keith’s mouth as a pair of Galra soldiers walked by. Lance leaned into Keith’s ear, or where his ear would be if he wasn’t wearing his helmet “Keep quiet and follow my lead. We’re going to tail these two guys.” Keith could barely hear him but he understood more or less what they were going to do “How am I supposed to follow your lead if I can’t see what you’re doing.”

 Lance looked at their cuffed hands and got an idea “Here.” He held Keith’s hand “One squeeze means right, two means left. Stay low and try to keep up, we're losing them.” Lance checked if the coast was clear and then pulled Keith down the hallway.

At first Keith thought it was really weird not being able to see anything but now he found it even weirder. Lance was holding his hand and he couldn’t even see what kind of expression he was making with his face. He couldn’t even make sure that it was in fact Lance that was holding his hand. Keith was frustrated because he secretly really wanted to hold the idiot's hand but he couldn’t think of how to go about it. This was partially the reason he was being reckless, attacking everything earlier. That way he could justify holding his hand with the excuse that the cuff was hurting his wrist when he fought, but he couldn’t bring himself to actually do it and that really frustrated him. Now here they are holding hands and Keith couldn’t even enjoy it because he wanted to be the one to initiate it. Lance squeezed his hand and Keith’s heart jumped, okay maybe he could enjoy it a little.

Lance was glad Keith couldn’t see, he was smiling because he was a genius. Ever since last night’s unexpected cuddle session, real or not, he thought about what holding Keith’s hand would feel like. It’s weird how something so small like holding hands could feel really pleasant. They turned the corner and Lance could see the two walk into a room. Lance slowed down making sure no one was around as they crept outside the door. Keith just stayed quiet seeing as there was not much he could do. All he could do was listen.

“Are you guarding the flag today?”

“Nah, it’s being transported to sector 7. I’m supposed to head to sector 4 after this file runs.”

Lance looked back down the hallway, the coast was clear. He pulled Keith along to try and figure out where the heck sector 7 was. They ran down the hallway to the left 

“We need to find sector 7 and I have no idea where that is.” Lance said as they turned another corner waiting for some centuries to pass by so they could make a clean getaway. “But I think we’re getting close because there are more guards, you should get your bayard out.” Lance kneeled down to peek around the corner as Keith materialized his bayard “You better have a good plan because we sure as hell can’t rush in this time.” 

Lance got his weapon out too “No idea, I’ll just try to make sure we’re at a distance. Get ready to run, I have to let go of your hand.” To aim his blaster, he needed both his hands. They haven’t drawn any attention to themselves so far but it looks like they can’t avoid it forever. The halls were getting busier and there were less areas to hide. It seemed like they were in sector 7 or at least he hoped so. “We’re going in, there's a small group ahead but I think I can take’em out before they get to us.”

 Lance ran in shooting, he hit several before his visor turned black “Shit!” He slowed down only to have Keith speed up sword at the ready “Lance two at three o’clock!” Keith was happy he was able to see now especially since combat was definitely his bread as butter. Lance shot blindly hoping he hit them he couldn’t tell. He heard metal hit the floor and was jerked forwards by his arm “Good now, run we got company!”

Hunk and Pidge were surprised it seemed to be going well. With how Lance was able to get the intel and Keith being able to give callouts while fighting they made a pretty good team and the best part was they weren’t arguing. Shiro smiled and he was pretty pleased with how things are going now that they were playing to their strengths. They were able to obtain the flag but they’ve accumulated quite the army after them.

“Just keep shooting behind you! We’re almost home free!” Keith yelled before his vision went black again “Dammit Shiro!” They both kept running and Lance grabbed Keith’s hand again. There was a at least 10 centuries blocking the way and they were aiming at them but not shooting. Lance didn’t want to fight his way through the barricade instead he smiled to himself. This reminded him of that one time in middle school when he played baseball, he knew exactly what to do “Run faster and get ready to dive and slide!” Keith grinned and picked up the pace waiting for the cue

 “Now!”

 This was probably the greatest thing that Lance had ever witnessed. He took a moment to committee this to memory as his eyes played everything in slow motion. It was like Galra bowling and they just got a strike straight into the rendezvous point. The simulation ended and Lance stood up double fisting the air.

“PLEASE TELL ME YOU GUYS SAW THAT!” He started jumping about completely forgetting that they were still holding hands. He paused, relaxing his arms down and he looked at their hands taking a moment to register. “Oh, uh” Lance reluctantly and very awkwardly let go of Keith’s hand painfully slow. With his free hand he scratched the back of his neck and looked away. “S-sorry, I uh- yeah.”

Shiro and the others walked up to them shortly after “See what happens when you listen to each other? Now why couldn’t you guys do that on the first run.” Shiro smiled and his plan actually worked. The handcuffs were actually bringing them together.

[triscribeaucollection]

Drumroll Please

I have recently come to the decision to share more of my fan fiction on Tumblr, hence this shiny new sideblog to collect all assorted snippets, first chapters, new ideas, so on and so forth. First order of business will be laying out all the fandoms I post for over on my AO3, and putting together a Masterlist with links to each “what if” series. My other blogs here include @triscribe for Shenanigans, @birdsandbatsofgotham for all the DC art/writings I stumble across, and @storiesfromthescribe where I only talk about my original projects.

Featured tags here will henceforth include:

-westeros (my catch-all tag for the various GoT and HotD stories that have begun circling my mind as of summer 2024. Some inspired by other fics, some entirely of my own creation, but there are so many little twists and turns and trails not taken that could’ve sent canon in wildly new directions) The Pack Thrives

-pjo (new as of 2024, I finally watched the new series and guys. GUYS. I love it so much. And I love even more that it’s inspired me to write more in a week than the past two months) The Trade AU

-star wars (originals, prequels, sometimes sequels, plus a wide swath of cartoon show characters and occasionally a reference to the live action ones too) Main Series: What-If AUs and Vod’e An and Visions

-marvel (I am first and foremost a Spidey fan, so he’s usually the one getting tossed into shenanigans with a healthy dose of GotG on the side) Avengers Nonsense Starring Spider-Man and Guardians Shenanigans

-dc (listen. LISTEN. I haven’t touched any comic to have come out in the last decade, but I would never have become a fandom person if not for the Bats, so I will make new AUs based off of their familial nonsense until the day I die) Canon? What Canon? Batfam Stories  and YJ AU Assortment

-hogwarts (for all things Harry Potter, because She Who Shall Not Be Named created a great sandbox that I still love to grab and run with, usually down a road called Total Disregard of the Author) Main Series: Alternate Living Arrangements

-transformers (I’ve got knowledge from half a dozen different continuities and I am not afraid to assemble my favorite pieces into a whole new amalgamation of adventure) (catch-all series to be determined) Cliff and the Kid

-alta (I can remember blowing off a friend’s slumber party to watch The Boy in The Iceberg when it premiered, okay? My fan fic ideas for this show are not a recent development, but actually writing the dang things down and posting them is new and comes in fits and spurts) Avatar AUs

-bnha (My Hero Academia was a bit of an accidental fandom, honestly, but for a year or so it was just about the only thing I wrote for, and there’s a heap of fic on my AO3 account to reflect that) Wild Cards and Something Strange Hit Me and my Doubles AU

-misc (the catch-all, the extraneous, the fandoms I really only dabble with, hence adding an extra tag to keep them all bunched together for quicker identification) Featuring: Back Again (Merlin) and Smallest, Smartest, Youngest (Voltron) and Got to Be Joking (Ranger’s Apprentice)

-originals (which won’t appear here all that often, but since I *do* have a few pieces of my own worldbuilding creations available to read...) Scribe Sampler and The Understudy Project

Alrighty, last couple of links to other websites: Tri on Instagram, where I occasionally post my art of various fandom and canon characters Ko-fi, where one could commission a speedier update to one of my fan fiction stories they particularly love or purchase a signed copy of my self-published novel And as of March 2023, I’ve also got a brand new Patreon account, where the first pieces of big WIPs go up, and you can read the first chapter of my book Wolfen’s Rage for free.

Now then. Who’s ready to read?