#human blade of marmora

[mitskis-lost-son]

the paladins of voltron are off on a mission, invading a galra mothership. the blade of marmora is also infiltrated. for whatever reason, keith isn't present. no one pays too much mind to it: they think he's back at the castle, with coran and allura.

lance is kidnapped/kept hostage by a galra sentry... and rescued by a member of the blade of marmora, who he grows too fond of.

the mission is over. they're back at the castle. keith is slightly late in catching up to them, a bit sweaty and rushed.

lance won't stop whining about his new galra boyfriend, a member of the blade of marmora.

pidge asks for the guy's name. lance buffs up, full of affection and pride: his name is yorak.

shiro bluescreens on the spot. keith starts to really look like he'd rather be anywhere that isn't the bridge. pidge is seeing a lot of equations all of a sudden. (somewhere along the multiverse, slav is laughing his ass off.)

in which keith has full control of his galra form and can shift between the perfectly human, paladin of the red lion, keith kogane... and the prodigy soldier of the blade of marmora, yorak, son of krolia. who just so happens to be lance's new alien crush/boyfriend.

[domesantis]

Lotor and Keith: The Duo We Deserved

Disclaimer: it's been around 8 months since I've last watched voltron. details may be inaccurate

Sometimes I think we were robbed of what could've been an amazing friendship.

Keith's discovery of his Galran lineage and Lotor's of his Altean heritage, and their indirect parallel of upbringing, I hoped these two would form an amazing bond as they're the only people that could relate to each other in terms of ostracization due to their race. But that hope eventually dwindled down when I realized that the showrunners were definitely not planning that, and in fact, even makes Lotor a bad guy again.

At the very least, I had hoped for a heart-to-heart conversation about them being mixed race and flesh out that aspect of them more. Yet again, I was let down.

During Keith's entire life, he has been ostracized by his peers and constantly bullied for being different. It has been the fundamental characteristic of him— his preordained Galran traits— embedded into every crevice of his disposition and being unable to do anything about it. When he finds out about his Galran heritage, we finally conclude the reason, in profound realization, why he's never fit in much back in Earth. Ultimately, this would give clarity and closure to Keith about why he's the way he is, but what the showrunners overlooked is the inevitable, imminent consequence of an identity crisis.

He's too galra to be human (antisocial, rebellious, fierce and stubborn), but too human to be galra. (compassionate, warm, weaker and smaller in stature, humanly physical features)

This is his reality everyday.

I distinctly remember Sendak belittling Krolia because of her half-breed son, Keith. It went something along the lines of: "Is the Blade of Marmora so low on soldiers that they recruit a half-breed and his mommy in?" Which, most likely, amplified his identity crisis. Poor guy.

I feel as though the same case could be applied to Lotor.

Raised by only Galrans and raised to be one, his father, Zarkon, would also say that something was quite fundamentally different about him. Compared to a stereotypical, standard Galra, he seemed to be quite more compassionate and carefree as a child, showing great intellect and promise in other aspects yet lacking in the personality traits as a Galra and embracing more of his Altean characteristics.

Growing up, Lotor always believed in goodwill, altruism, and attempted to prove to Zarkon that he could successfully subjugate planets by sheer goodwill without repercussions. However, his father's constant abuse for millennia, and cruelly destroying said planet, would of course, send him to spirals and awaken his long repressed Galran characteristics: Tyrannous, vindictive, cruel and spiteful.

Both Keith and Lotor had been abandoned by their biological parents, one in a literal way, and the other, emotionally. Both of them had something just fundamentally, unutterably different about them that they couldn't quite explain, thus thwarting the standards of "what they should be".

If Keith and Lotor had formed a genuine, wholesome familial friendship to replace their absent/abusive parents, they could've established an actual safe space where they felt belonged and heard. The rest of the team may also provide an emotional connection towards them, however, nobody knows their pain more than each other. After all, they both went through similar experiences. Mixed race solidarity!

Also. I think it could've been a great way to represent mixed race people (I'm sorry. Is that how you call them? Is this offensive?). I'm not one myself, so I'm not sure, but this would've been so great to promote inclusivity and accurately represent their struggles in the actual world. This also could've been an amazing plot point for Lotor's character development and fleshing out his character more onto a much more profound and raw level. Instead, they threw it all down the drain by betraying VOLTRON then dying. Disappointed.

Also, I'll be diving deeper into Keith's identity crisis more in one of my next posts, and Lotor's tragic fate.

Get me out of this VOLTRON hellhole. The hyperfixation is too much.

[binart]

Space Ranger Partner's Adventures Chapter 1

(First) (Next)

-

A marriage proposal from a complete stranger in the middle of a top-secret alien spy base was, surprisingly, not the strangest thing to happen to Lance in the past 24 hours.

The strangest thing was probably that he was even here. He'd been proposed to a handful of times after his part in the war efforts largely ended; Adoring fans, of course. But in under a day he'd been flown from his family home in New Altea, introduced into the very secretive very select ranks of the Blades of Marmora, got his ass handed to him by some cat alien who was currently standing 10 feet away and therefore very likely his new teammate, and—possibly most surprising of all, realized he was going to have to ask his buddy keith out because apparently he'd gone off and gotten hot in the past three years.

"No, no. I told you no proposals." From beside him, the very same Keith Kogane—his ex-teammate turned leader—lurched forward and extracted Lance's hand from Torat, one of his new teammates. Though the alien stood well over a stocky 8 feet, he had dropped to one knee before asking Lance to spend the remainder of his apparently short life with him. His large hands had all but encompassed his own, but were shockingly gentle.

"Have I.. conducted myself improperly within the ritual..?" Torat questioned in a small voice, much to Keith's clear chagrin.

"You forgot a ring!" Kestin, another of Lance's new teammates—their pilot—helpfully supplied.

"Not supposed to do it in front of a crowd unless the other person says you can!" To the right of Kestin, Hedrox joined in. They'd met yesterday, and the blade seemed all too happy to join in on the fun.

"...Yh.." The lanky cat alien, En, stood stiffly next to Hedrox, slightly turned away from everyone. He'd been that way since he and Keith entered the room just moments before. "You cannot simply ask a h-hu-human being to join into such a pact! T-There are numerous prerequisites—to say nothing of the time needed to be spent with the other individual—before such a momentous proposal can be made!" They turned their head to look directly at Lance—Or so he assumed; All members save for himself and Keith wore masks covering their entire faces. Then they gave a human soldier salute. "Lieutenant, Sir!"

Lance had no idea how to respond to any of this. "Y-Yeah. Uh.. Uh. Yeah. Sorry." Man, he really hadn't been around anyone except for his family for a while. He felt rusty. He gave a weak salute in return, before a memory from the evening prior bubbled to the surface of his mind.

"I will do my utmost to familiarize myself with human naming and title customs-"

"It's fine, man."

Oh. Maybe that was related.

"Okay, guys, enough." Thankfully Keith cut in, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're not here to—propose to Lance, alright?!" He wiped a palm down his face as if to try and banish the redness creeping in. "We're here to see all the time and effort we've been putting into this project finally see some results."

The room quieted, and everyone stood tall, and tense. Hedrox, however, seemed excited.

"That we are, Commander!" There was a table with a digital surface separating Keith, himself, and Torat from the other three, and Hedrox slapped their palms down onto it. Immediately, several large rectangular screens coated in Galran projected into clear view. The room automatically darkened. "I'm very pleased to say I've been at the helm of this—which, er, Commander? Do we need an explanation for those who are new?" His voice held a pleasant watery lilt to it, and if it weren't for the horn protruding from their forehead Lance would have guessed they were a half-Galran half-merperson or something.

Keith crossed his arms and gave his throat a quiet clear. "I've only briefed him on the basics. Floor's yours."

"Excellent. Gather 'round, team. Here's what we're doing." With deft hands they tapped away at a console and began pulling up several images, as well as additional Galran text Lance struggled to quickly translate. He'd all but mastered Altean since he retired (thanks mostly to Allura teaching him, but sometimes he wondered if the marks she gave him when she thought she was going to die contributed to how effortlessly he learned), but he'd only just started learning Common Galran half a year ago. Frustratingly it was way more context based, and very, VERY heavy importance was placed on sound emphasis. There were also over three hundred individual characters to memorize, whose meaning could vastly differ depending on what other characters were next to it. He was actually pretty glad to have something else to fill his time now; A great excuse to avoid slamming his head against the language every day. He could make out.. Eta-17 pa-facilty..? Facility? Facility. He squinted. Why was that familiar?

"..For the last year, we've been surveying a Galran anti-coalition outpost at the edge of the Ornitier System, which we know is serving as a key point for filtering and channelling intel. I've been doing what I do best and systematically replacing tiny components of their communication terminals with the tech the green paladin and I co-designed.” There was something strangely human about the way he spoke, despite the mild alien accent.

“And now, we stand nearly ready for a seamless takeover.”

Hedrox held up two small devices. "These. Are my baby children. Months of hard work. Cleared—and might I add complimented—by the green paladin. When both are installed into the facility's internal security network and main processing core respectively, they're undetectable. We'll be able to spy on enemy intel with them none the wiser." The ground beneath them gave a weak lurch. Lance could feel the familiar pull of motion, even if he couldn’t confirm via a window; No one paid it any mind, so he assumed it was normal.

“So that's why we're here today. They're too complex for my little helpers to remotely install.” Tiny clicking erupted then spilled from Hedrox's hood; At least thirty floating mechanical looking creatures no bigger than sunflower seeds circled his head. “I've altered the security rounds the sentries take to facilitate an easy infiltration and installation, and as long as they haven't gone and scrambled their normal routes, this should be an easy in and out.” The blade then motioned towards Lance. “The commander had research and development outfit a sniper rifle with a scrambling code that will temporarily freeze any sentries it hits and reroute them in case there's any hiccups in the plan, or someone's about to get caught.” Among other things; the knife and pistol in their respective holsters reminded him of their weight.

“Their monitoring and sentry patrol systems ‘refresh’ once an hour—so, that’s our time limit—and we need to get in so I can upload a new set of instructions to a pre-existing program that will facilitate—That is, uh. It’s—It’s a virus? The green paladin called it a virus. Am I using the term correctly?”

Keith nodded, scratched the back of his head and turned to Lance. “Basically, we need to get in so Hedrox, En, and Torat can upload a virus that’ll make it so we can track down their headquarters eventually.”

From the other side of the table, En growled. “The malignant remnants of the accursed empire and their cowardly tactics..! Always on the run, attacking colonies before fleeing. They’re filth, and we will find them, and cut short their worthless excuses of lives..”

The room grew quiet, and stuffy. There was the whir of machinery and motion from all around. Keith cleared his throat.

“Right. So, the security network room and main processing core are in different locations, but the area where Hedrox and En need to work together will have more foot-traffic. You'll be giving them cover.”

Hedrox brought up additional panels, this time with a 3-D map of several alien-looking floors. He traced what Lance read as “entry-point” labelled in Galran all the way over to the right. “Here's where you'll be stationed with the Commander—route A. First, Kestin brings us in. The Commander and Lieutenant follow route A and get into position and provide cover fire as needed. Torat goes through route C, and En and I head to B. Easy!”

Lance smirked. “That's it? I take out sentries from afar while the hacker blades do their thing? Just like old times?” With a fond smile, Keith let out a puff of air from his nose.

“Just like old times. I’ll be there next to you since—uh, I was originally going to take your spot.”

Lance blinked at him. “Huh? I didn’t know you were good at—“

“I’m not. Just, making due with what we had. Things’ll go much more smoothly now that you’re here watching our backs, and I can focus on troubleshooting if anything comes up.” Keith’s complete faith in him left Lance light on his feet, and he hung his head and chuckled nervously.

“Cool, that doesn’t actually sound all that bad. ‘Think I can handle it.” Keith gave a surprisingly gentle nudge with his arm against Lance’s own.

“You got this, Lance.” He turned to the rest of their team. “ETA?” This time, Kestin spoke up.

“Approximately 20 minutes, sir.”

—

Pre-mission anxiety, long forgotten, made its unwelcomed return.

Lance sat pressed against the dark wall of an unsecured entry duct alongside Keith, Hedrox, and En; Though the tallest of them gave him a wide berth likely due to the events of the night prior.

Good. He might have acted the bigger person, but Lance very much did not like having his ass handed to him. He’d get a rematch from them at some point.

His stomach gave another uncomfortable lurch, and he pressed a palm to his abdomen to will the discomfort away. They had to wait for Torat’s initial sweep of the place before they could advance to their own spots; Surprisingly he seemed to be the stealthiest out of all of them despite his size.

“You alright?” Keith’s quiet voice filtered through the internal comms system in his suit. Though now masked, Keith tilted his head back to glance in his direction. He gave a weak thumbs up.

“Nerves. It’s been a while,” he quietly admitted. Three years of therapy had made it surprisingly easy to talk about his feelings, even if years ago he would have balked at the idea of showing weakness to Keith. But things were different now.

Keith reached a gloved hand over, and rested it on Lance’s forearm. Firm, but comforting, somehow. “Hey, you’ll be okay. I’m right here beside you the whole time, right?”

Things really were different now; Even his voice was doing things to him. “Y-Yeah. Yeah. Thanks—We got this.”

“In position.” Torat’s whisper of a voice interrupted the singing in his chest, and prickles of anxiety returned to gnawing deeper into his stomach. “Sentry patrol routes seem randomized.” Hedrox gave a light click of his tongue.

“..I knew they’d start doing it to all their bases eventually, but I was hoping we’d have more time before it got to the ones we compromised..” The blade brandished from his thigh pouch a strange, tiny black capsule that was barely the size of Lance’s thumb. “Guess there’s not enough leeway to sticky our fingers a bit, huh?” Lance furrowed his brows.

“Uh, what?” Keith made a dismissive gesture towards him.

“Pidge’s new tech. They’re tiny, but we use them to collect huge chunks of inorganic matter—usually servers or data storage. Not today, though. Come on, clock’s ticking.”

“Yes, Commander.” Featherlight and silent owed to their suits, the four advanced. En and Hedrox split off into the seemingly endless halls, while Lance trailed behind Keith. Weapons were a last resort, but if anything went wrong; Lance felt the pistol’s weight heavily on his right thigh, and his knife on the left. He’d dealt with sentries hundreds of times before now, and so despite how queasy he was starting to feel, the idea of potentially fighting some of them left his pulse surprisingly steady.

Keith took a sharp turn left to a dead-end, then motioned for Lance to use him to boost up to the small maintenance shaft in the corner. Right, the nest was up in there. Despite himself, Lance felt his cheeks flush and was grateful that they were hidden while he sat on Keith’s shoulders for the short time needed to remove the panel. He slid in with plenty of room to spare, and the other man soon followed.

After half a minute of near-silent upwards crawling, the shaft opened up into what would be Lance’s vantage point. There were seven large, curved window like panels punched out of the metallic dark purple walls, with a dimly shining object rested off to the side on a wall. He made his way over and picked up what was clearly a blade issued rifle, shockingly alike to the one he had practised with the day before. Adjusting to it wouldn’t be an issue, then, other than—

“This doesn’t shoot bullets, so—no kickback?” Lance turned to face Keith, who was now peering through the open panels into the massive facility below; From Lance’s precursory glance he saw walls upon walls of wires and oblong towers lit up in Galran code. The hood on Keith’s head bobbed in affirmation. From behind, he could see just how broad his shoulders had gotten..

“Got you in my sights, Hedrox.” Keith looked around. “Where’s En?” With that, Lance realized he should be doing what he was brought there to do and got into position. He raised the sights and took in the area below, scanning for the wayward blade.

“Eight o’clock, Commander.” He couldn’t hide the satisfaction in his voice, and Keith followed the point of his rifle until he spotted them emerge from a small maintenance shaft. Another pleased half-laugh.

“Good eye, Lieutenant.”

“‘S what I’m here for.”

“Uh, do you—“ Lance turned his sights toward Hedrox working to pull apart the base of one of the strange techno-towers while he spoke in a jovial watery tone. “We have a private line on our comms, Lieutenant, in case you and the Commander want to—Y’know what nevermind.“

“Focus.” Keith crossed his arms and looked away. “Torat, how’s that upload?”

”Forty percent, Commander.” His already quiet voice was a hush of a whisper. Then, “..Patrols have necessitated my heavy cloak function for five dobos—minutes and counting.”

Keith's masked view immediately shot to his wrist with a quiet hiss. Their regular cloaking built in to their exo-suits dampened sounds and turned the outer coating into something like a mirror, but the heavy cloaking function removed any and all methods of detection that the Galra were currently known to use, Keith had explained on the way there. But the power cost was enormous, and could only last fifteen minutes when drawing from the suit’s internal battery. Best used in short bursts, since completely depleting the suit’s power meant no oxygen, and no protection from the ravages of space if they had to be jettisoned out in an emergency.

“Hedrox, anything you can do to help speed it up from there?” Immediately tension shot through the air, and Lance listened with a growing sense of helplessness. “Lance, your left.”

A sentry getting too close to the others, quiznack! He held his breath, took aim, then fired. The rifle didn’t flinch, but the sentry’s head immediately bent at a strange angle, it twitched while standing upright, then turned around and began heading back in the direction it came. He got too caught up and Keith had to bail him out, he realized shamefully. He readied a quick apology on his tongue, but voices buzzed back into his mask.

“Working on it. Not great at multi-tasking though. En, gimmie a hand.” Hedrox’s normal ease had sharpened into something else. The cat-eared blade made their way to his side and took the panel passed to them before typing away nearly as quickly as their partner. “Couple yottabytes of code to implement Commander, this is gonna take some time on both ends.”

Quiznack. Another two sentries from either side. Inhale, hold. Position, fire. Position, fire. Another sentry turned the corner just as soon as the other two turned away. Exhale, inhale, position, fire.

“Torat, are the sentries letting up?”

”Forty-two percent. ..No, Commander.” Inhale, position, fire. Lance spared a quick glance at Keith, now clearly growing more tense. He returned his focus. Man, there were so many! Three more marched in a group to Hedrox and En’s flank, and there was only a narrow gap of space to get them as they approached. Exhale, inhale, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire. The sentries turned away, and so did Keith.

“We may have to call this.” Keith's tense body language betrayed the even way he spoke. Inhale, position, fire.

Lance could hear En’s breathing pick up as they typed furiously away beside Hedrox in between shots. There was a shocking number of sentries, and Lance couldn’t help but wonder if having less bases to work within meant the anti-coalition Galrans could stuff the ones they did still have full of them. “An entire Deca-Phoeb worth of operations, wiped away..?! Commander there must be another way.”

“No. Torat, abandon the upload when your suit gets down to two minutes. I’ll extract you.”

Inhale, position, fire. Silence.

“Torat.” An authority from Keith Lance hadn’t witnessed before emerged from his suit. “Is that understood?” Harsh. No room for further discussion.

“….Yes, Commander.”

In between breath after dizzying breath, the seconds and then minutes ticked by as everyone worked in frantic silence. He watched as Hedrox and En practically glued themselves to the small walls of the gutted tower, hands flying over keys faster than even Lance’s eyes could keep up with. Distantly in his ears, Torat updated the upload percent every sixty seconds as he, too, typed away. Sweat beaded then dripped down his neck as stiffness crept up it. His rifle smeared and shifted until it looked like his old bayard, and Lance ignored it and continue to fire.

Thirteen minutes in, it was clear to everyone there wouldn’t be enough time. Keith’s steadying presence had knelt next to Lance by that point, intently watching the battery of Torat’s suit drain and pause, then continue draining via a small screen on the underside of his wrist. He stood up, and shook his head.

“I’m calling it. Torat, abandon the upload, rendezvous at the extraction point.” A muted, miserable sound. En? Inhale, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire, exhale. No, Torat.

“We must succeed, you have worked too hard, Commander.”

“There’ll be other outposts. Now, soldier.” Again, silence. Inhale, position, fire, position, fire.

“..Failure here, for a life that may not even see il’E’s newest sun.. No, black paladin sir. For this I would gladly go without its warming rays.” Keith froze. Lance glanced at him, then back to his scope. Shit, shit, what was happening?! Inhale, position, fire, position, fire. “If ever you are able to retrieve my capsule from the vent below, have my family bury it under the spire by our sea.”

Before Lance could even register what was said, he was pulled. Keith vanished from his view and he felt a hand grip the back of his suit’s chest piece before being yanked very quickly from the room. It happened so quickly that he nearly fumbled and dropped the rifle, but managed to keep his hold. He was then hoisted up by—he realized now it was Keith—and manoeuvred until he was then sliding down the shaft he and Keith had crawled up before. “En, Hedrox, heavy cloaking, now. Keep your work out of sight. Abandon mission when I give the signal.” Steady, clipped.

“Yes, sir.” Keith was sliding behind him now even though he couldn’t hear or see him; The heavy press of his palm against his side to keep him steady nearly burned. He felt pressure lift his hand and press down on his palm—oh, right, the button to cloak himself. Then, in through his mask,

“Get your pistol ready, set it to stun, follow me.”

They shot out from the end of the maintenance crawl and Lance tore after the back of Keith’s head.

“The upload will proceed as planned. It’s been an honor, sir.”

Keith did not respond, only sprinted and twisted down the endless hallways as they dodged around sentry after sentry. Lance had strapped the rifle to his back and readied his small pistol as commanded, even though he didn’t understand. Were they going to extract Torat? He tapped the side and slid a piece into place to ensure it was set to stun. He trusted Keith, he knew what he was doing, and he could—he wanted to help in whatever way he needed him to.

The sound was different, somehow, but Keith’s voice once again came into his ears, panting with exertion. “He’ll have to uncloak for at least half a second for the capsule to recognize and capture him. When you see him, I want you to shoot him in the forehead where his eye is, Lance.”

The capsule? The one for.. inorganic matter? If organic matter like a person was compressed into it—wouldn’t that definitely kill them? Through the adrenaline, it distantly clicked what Torat was intending to do, but he couldn’t waste time thinking about it. “O-Okay.” Lance hooked his arm against a corner and pulled, narrowly missing a towering sentry as he caught up to Keith. Half a second to make a shot when he was practically wheezing though; Hesitation crawled up his spine. “How far—until we—get to him?”

“End of the hall, dead left.” Keith showed no signs of slowing, and Lance through the haze of it all wondered if he was cut out for any of this, and what would happen when he failed. If he failed. He was going to mess this up. He was going to get Keith killed somehow, wasn’t he?

Their feet silently pounding against the neon lit floor came to the end of the hallway. As they did so, Lance took in the most even breath he could muster, prayed his pulse wouldn’t throw off his aim, whipped his pistol up to the left, and aimed. Keith jammed his palm against their open com channel and flashed back into view.

“Torat, look at me—That’s an order!” The blade in question materialized suddenly in front of them, holding the same thumb-sized black capsule in front of his chest. Time slowed. In that millisecond of a moment, Lance realized he didn’t have a clear shot of Torat’s third eye. The capsule glowed a clear enough target, easy to shoot out of his hands, and his thumb was still hovering over the button on the top. Time moved another inch, and the hulking blade twitched, then could not help but turn his head towards his commanding officer.

“Forgiv—”

Lance took the shot.

—

Debrief was quiet.

No one spoke except for Keith. Lance, foolishly, felt like he was eight years old again and in trouble, for some reason. A memory of something his therapist said to him once drifted into his mind as Keith grumbled out a report. Lance couldn’t even remember the exact wording, but it was something to focus on while he ignored the ache in his entire body, and his pounding headache, at least. What was it, again..?

Hyper aware of mental states of those around him.. Discomfort around emotions regardless of where it was directed..? He couldn’t really remember. While he was reflecting, he decided to explore the room they always met in back in New Altea; Two o’clock sharp every Friday, warm room facing the sun, post-modern in decoration and very comfortable. Photos of her family on the desk, two dogs. Always enough tissues when he went there because he couldn’t cry around his family who would worry, but he could cry around a stranger who didn’t matter.

A stranger he would outlive, since she was fully human.

Torat swayed next to him, but soon righted himself.

“Understood. You have completed your mission, if nothing else.” Kolivan’s ever serious visage stared down at them from a bizarrely massive screen. Did it need to be that big? If he had nose hairs Lance would have been able to see them. “Dismissed.”

They were supposed to meet in the rec room after showering and, if needed, a trip to the med bay; A Keith mandate since his team was supposed to set an example that it was normal and good to relax after a mission, but.. was that still okay to do?

Lance probably had some of the best aim in the universe, if he was being honest, but with that aim he had just shot one of his teammates in the head not even an hour ago! The suits obviously had eye protection, but Torat dropped like a rock back in the facility, and they only managed an evac without being seen thanks to Keith’s ridiculous half-galra strength. While he dragged the unconscious Torat, Lance covered them with the rifle, and somehow En and Hedrox finished up on their end without being seen.

They did everything they set out to do, but it really felt like they failed.

The silence was broken with a soft clearing off Hedrox’s throat. “Wellll, I’m beets. Time for a shower, then uhm. Whoever feels like it meet up at the usual spot..?”

En pointedly kept his sharp gaze toward Torat, who did not look up from the ground. Sneering displeasure was evident on his now unmasked face, but he eventually turned to face his horned companion. “…The correct term is being ‘beat’ as in ‘beaten, and exhausted.’” The taller blade pressed his palm to his other set of fingers and stretched his wrists as he began to walk away. “But yes, I shall await you in the showers.” Hedrox jumped comically before slapping En’s arm.

“Don’t say it like that, shh!”

Lance blinked as he watched the two aliens saunter away, with Kestin soon to follow after giving Torat a sympathetic look. How was it Hedrox seemed like the most human out of all of them? Lance felt awkward, and guilty, and didn’t know what to do with himself.

He looked over at Keith, who ripped his furious gaze from Torat and regarded Lance with an unreadable expression. His eyebrows furrowed, and he looked like he wanted to say something; He only shook his head, turned, and marched off, leaving only Lance and Torat remaining in the room. Lance peered up at the blade and saw he couldn’t entirely hide his trembling.

“..Hey man, is your eye.. Did I—hurt it?” He wanted to apologize, even though he knew he’d done the right thing. Keith must have realized the only way to keep Torat from.. killing himself was to knock him unconscious, and he needed Lance’s arm to make sure the job got done correctly. Lance wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but there was still guilt shining through. Above all else, he really didn’t like hurting people.

Torat gave a nearly imperceptible twitch, then brought his large palm over his masked eye. “Bruised, but unruptured. I will be fine, Lieutenant, thank you. Please excuse me.” Quietly, the larger blade nearly tiptoed away through the opposite door of Keith.

Lance wanted to go after him, even if he wasn’t sure what to do or say.

There’d been times back in the castle of lions where he used to catch his teammates sulking alone, or when Silvio was upset and would hide in his garden, and he always went after them to at least make sure they didn’t feel alone. He could only crack stupid jokes, and maybe he annoyed them more than he helped, but it still felt like something he needed to do.

A shower, first, Lance decided. Then, he’d track down Torat and—at least make sure he went to the med bay or something. After that, if there was time, rec room with the others.

He wanted to spend much more time scrubbing the sweat and grime off of his aching body in his shower, but tingling urgency didn’t allow a long stay. Lance popped into his most comfortable hoodie and grey sweatpants, slipped on his sneakers, then began his search.

First, he went to the obvious location, Torat’s room. No one was in, so he went to the med bay next (after signing a few autographs from some fans on the way) and once again did not find his teammate. It was at that point Lance realized that despite how the mission turned out, Torat might have just gone to the rec room. Maybe Keith was trying to foster a more tight-knit team unit thing, but before all that, and even now, Lance was pretty sure death in the Blades was a very common occurrence.

Approaching the hallway connecting to the rec room, a loud slam sent Lance a foot into the air. A sharp cough came from just around the corner before he heard a growl that undoubtedly belonged to Keith. Was he in trouble?!

“—That was the whole reason I even formed this unit in the first place!” Keith hissed, and there was another grunting cough. Lance sidled up against the wall and tried to figure out if he was needed.

“Your work is—ghh—more important than my life, Commander..!” That was Torat’s strained voice. There was some shuffling, and Lance could at least piece together that they were having an argument.

“You don’t get to call me that. My work, is showing the rest of the blades that we can do our job without throwing away our lives for the sake of—knowledge. Understand?! No matter the mission, you keep yourself alive.”

Quiet pulsing buzzing from the blue-tinted lights above hung in the air. “..I-I.. If—this is what you wish, Commander.. I shall.. try.”

A dull thud, then footsteps. “No, you’re off the team. I’m not risking keeping someone on who’s fine with killing themselves if it means the mission succeeds.”

Torat gasped. “Commander, please..! Allow me to stay—I shall make up for my transgressions, this I swear..!”

Should he leave?! Lance felt like he shouldn’t be hearing any of this.

Boots scuffing on the waxy floor. Keith turned back towards him? “Make up for it by staying alive on a different team.” His clipped footsteps faded in the opposite direction. Lance needed to leave, right now. His throat was feeling hot, and it was getting too hard to focus.

He couldn’t help Torat at this point, that was becoming obvious to him.

The muffled sounds of the rec room and even quieter alien cries faded from Lance’s fuzzy mind as he stumbled back into his room and hid under his desk.

Breathe. Deep breaths. In through the nose. Count to—how long? He couldn’t remember. Okay, okay. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t focus. Try to breathe.

Keith flashed into his vision, an impossible view of him in the cockpit of a tiny cruiser as Lance watched him try and fly into the barrier at Naxzela. His death in exchange for the mission succeeding. They never talked about it.

Allura in the Blue lion, about to be killed; A split second decision to trade his life so Voltron could go on with its heart intact.

Keith was a hypocrite.

No! People could change their minds. It had been years since he pulled that stunt. People could change. Lance mushed his soggy face into his palms and shuddered.

Stupidly, all he could think about was how terrifying it was for Keith to be so close when he shot Torat with the stun round. With Keith’s armor, even if he had somehow accidentally missed and hit him, he couldn’t have killed him. There was no way. But his dreams were always so vivid and he was always accidentally killing Keith. To be there next to him in that situation felt—surreal.

Lance managed to get his breathing under control. It took a few minutes, but eventually he calmed, and shuffled over to the bathroom to wash his face.

He thought for a second about going and meeting up with the rest of the team, but shut that thought down almost immediately. Instead, he slipped into his pyjamas and slid into bed.

The empty ceiling greeted him without his familiar stars.

And Lance thought back to Torat, holding the small capsule in front of his chest, ready to ensure the blades could eventually track down and eliminate the remainder of the empire with his tiny sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.

And Lance realized he didn't disagree with Torat's decision.

-

😳👉👈

DID U LIKE....

[zivarts]

Major announcement!

I'm here to announce officially that I'll be making a klance comic! It is called #TFIOS aka The Fault In Our Stars you can find it over here and on instagram on this account! @_ziv4rts

This comic will take awhile because im thinking of the scenarios and such, but I'll be uploading the first chapter as soon as possible. Here is the summary!

Summary:

A guy named Keith Kogane went on a mission on Earth that was given by the blades of marmora, keith was raised by his galra mom and knows nothing about human nature. During his mission on earth he met a guy named Lance McClain, and immediately fell inlove. What will the ending be? Will they have a happy ever after or will they not? How will it turn out? Will they achieve their dreams?

Coming out in December 5 2024

Includes: gore, bl, gay, voltron, angst, R18+ scenes, violence, action, adventure.

Recommended: 16+

Msg me if u want book 2 after reading book 1, I might soon sell the physical book next year or so, but so far I'll be online, the physical book will still be a comic book but with smt special in it.

[jiveyuncle]

your roleith pieces give me so much lifeeeeee ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ plz share any headcanons u have of them ps have a good day 🤩

!?!? You have no idea how delighted this ask made me, anon 😭💕 thank you sm!! I obsess over them in my notes and have so much planned for drawing. I’m actually about halfway through coloring a little mini comic interaction I have sketched out between Rolo and Krolia where she’s basically like, “High key, I’ll kill you if you betray him, again.” Lol

Sneaks!!

As far as headcanons, hmm. I’m bad at detailing, but I have general concepts and moments laid out in my brain:

When the Blade of Marmora teams up with the rebels on one of Keith’s earliest missions, Keith is not happy to see a certain someone working with the rebels. Doesn’t trust him at allll. He’s not outwardly hateful or anything, but his stress goes through the roof whenever intel is shared with Rolo or when Rolo is expected to watch Keith’s team’s backs.

Trust is slow to build. It takes Rolo ignoring an order from the Blade to go back for a civilian before Keith finally starts to believe Rolo might actually be alright. (It reminds him of something his old Voltron teammates would do.)

They race each other in crafts. Things are more even when Keith flies base models instead of his old lion, but he’s still the better pilot. He enjoys having someone challenge him.

Rolo 100% falls first. He’s not subtle at all, but he also doesn’t announce it or anything. Rolo’s team is so painfully aware of his feelings and tease him endlessly. Nyma will drop remarks (to Rolo’s annoyance) right in front of Keith about it, and it will still go right over Keith’s head. Matt is the last to figure it out and he about short circuits when he finally puts it together.

Despite the height difference, Keith kicks Rolo’s ass in hand-to-hand combat training.

Rolo’s bandages cover scars from his time under Galra captivity. The skin is particularly sensitive and fragile in those areas, and they’re prone to reactive flair ups of pain and swelling when messed with. Keith gets a look at these scars for the first time after a particularly rough battle where they wind up stranded and have to wait for backup to pick them up.

Lance is initially outraged to find out Keith is buddy-buddy with Rolo and Nyma (“You know, the people who sold us out to Zarkon and chained me to a tree ‘Rolo and Nyma!?’”), but he and Nyma actually eventually click and become decent pals. They have a bet going about how long it will take Keith to realize Rolo’s crush.

Krolia meets Rolo post- Space Whale and basically threatens Rolo with murder if he ever betrays her son, again. She doesn’t trust Rolo, but she trusts Keith’s judgement so she doesn’t meddle beyond that initial greeting. He earns her respect at a later time when a mission fails because he does something to ensure Keith’s safety over the mission’s success.

Rolo’s race can breathe in a wider range of atmospheres. There’s a pretty big scare when Keith’s mask gets shattered in a battle on the ground, rendering him unable to breathe, and Rolo has to drag him back to the ship while under heavy fire. Rolo essentially spells out his feelings after.

First kiss follows Keith making a close call piloting maneuver during a mission that saves his team. Rolo outright grabs him by the hood and fusses him out over the risky behavior, before Keith ends up closing the last of the distance.

Rolo’s race needs less sleep than humans. Once they’re finally together it basically becomes a battle for Keith to either choose to go to sleep together or wake up together. Keith chooses to do both anyway sometimes.

Both work in humanitarian aid efforts after the war.

I think that hits the highlights. Hope this satiates! And hopefully I'll finish the next Roleith piece sooner than later lol

[goth1c-pinki3-pi3]

Okay so to the two people who said they would listen/read my ideas, this is for you two before i go to sleep and expand on a later date.

•So for galra keith I would definitely think that he had a lot more galra traits then the show gave him.

• For example his nails were typically stronger and grew in a curved shape

• For another example, his hair was naturally a dark/deep purple but his first foster family after his dads death dyed it black thinking keith had dyed it young to the purple color

• Speaking of purple, i would also think that his eyes were a deep dull purple/plum color

• moving to the scene where Krolia suggests the name Yorak, i personally think that Keiths dad would have included that in his name after she left earth

• so Keiths full name is "Keith Yorak Kogane"

•In terms of galra, he'd probably be seen as a late bloomer to the blade of marmora because he hasn't grown in his ears or tail, not knowing that his tail was surgically removed by one of his foster familys (theres a very rare chance of a human being born with a tail, and I think the tail wouldn't have grown much because the human body has evolved to not need a tail and half his biology was against the tail)

Now onto the good stuff, ergo the trans stuff

• i'd say he's transmasc who's known since he was a young boy, but that could also be me projecting, who knows

• my big thing was what about periods? because i know that everyones is different, i'd say his started at 15 give or take a few years, but before he ended up leaving earth

• With his period, because Galra most likely dont have anything quite as similar (based on cats, i suppose. With cats all their internal bleeding is reabsorbed), his periods would probably be very light as half his body (might/) will absorb the blood and the other half will shed it out.

• I'd say for the same reason he uses cloth pads, simply for the reuse ability and his light flow would have made it easy to clean

• i also head cannon that him growing out a mullet is the result of him shaving his hair at some point, and regaining enough confidence to grow his hair out while knowing that he could easily cut his hair if he felt dysphoric

• with the chest situation, it can go two ways. with the episode when keith and lance are going to the pool, Keith is shirtless, so that is a point to small-chested keith

• but we could also just, ignore that and pretend that he was in a compression shirt that was meant for trans people to swim in. because if there was shorts with them then im sure there was something for compression (ignoring how the alteans could shapeshift)

•One of my biggest head cannon when it comes to trans!keith, is that only Shiro knows, and that if they're ever overheard talking about it (like shiro lecturing keith about working out in a binder or something), everyone just completely misunderstands the conversation

Keith: Shiro it's fine (Shiro just said he can't work out safely in his binder)

Shiro: No it's not keith, you can't keep doing this. You know why. We're in space, you can't avoid the consequences anymore than you could on earth. (Shiro is talking about Keiths ribs, and how if Keith breaks a rib or something akin to that, then there is nothing in space that can help him as opposed to earth where at the very least he could have fixed his ribs)

Lance or Coran overhearing and thinking that it's just about keiths little pick pocketing habit (another head cannon): Huh, i didn't know Keiths been a pick pocketer when he was on earth.

Anyways, thats all i can come up with right this second, if i feel like i'm able to i'll expand on a couple of my head cannons / thoughts

[klance-headcanons-official]

Any galra!Keith x (normal/paladin) Lance headcannons ??

I v e b e e n w a i t i n g f o r t h i s m o m e n t

Okay, so basically, here's how it went down.

Lance, Pidge, Hunk and Shiro had all gone to space and found Allura, however this time, they found the blue lion with the alien signal tracking thing that Pidge was using in the beginning of episode one. They went to Arus, met Allura and set off to save the universe.

Allura becomes the initial red paladin in this one, following her father's footsteps.

During one of the Paladins' raids on a Galra base, Lance finds Keith in a cell.

In this AU, Keith went with his mom to space and joined BOM when he turned 14, though of course he's still mostly human, besides from furry ears, purple skin and yellow eyes (and of course fangs but we don't need to get into that).

Anyways, Lance frees him and leads him back to the blue lion. As soon as everyone sees him, they immediately start saying things like, "Lance, why did you bring a Galran with you!?" "Why would you lead them straight to Voltron" "The Galra killed my entire species!" all that fun junk, and Lance looks them dead in the eyes, and with his whole heart goes, "Because when I found him, he looked more human than anyone I've ever met."

Of course, Lance meant the way Keith had looked at him. He saw pure humanity in his eyes, he just knew Keith was good, he'd never been more sure of anything in his life. "He was alone, in a cell. The Galra don't do that to their allies."

anyways, time passes, Keith becomes the Red Paladin, and they all grow and learn to trust each other n stuff, you know the basics.

But, Keith and Lance grow especially close, seeing as Lance had been the one who saved him, the one that had defended him and stuck by him through everything despite him being Galran.

One day, they got caught in a crossfire between a Galra fleet and a planet involved in the coalition, and Lance gets hit. Though, Lance, being Lance, doesn't say anything and just keeps fighting. When the battle concludes, the Paladins go back to the Castle of Lions.

As soon as he thinks he's alone, Lance collapses and removes his armor. Because of how careless he'd been during the fight, the initially small wound had torn and become much larger, meaning that Lance was losing quite a bit of blood. If he had to guess, he'd lost about a fourth of a liter. It wasn't enough to make him dizzy, but it hurt like hell.

As we all know, I enjoy making them suffer a little, so naturally, Keith finds him on the floor by his bedroom door, and his gaze falls on the gaping slash on Lance's side. He immediately drops down and starts scolding Lance.

"Why didn't you say you were hurt!? When did this happen?! How much blood have you lost?!" He presses his hands over the wound in hopes of stopping the bleeding, he knows it isn't bad enough to be fatal, but simply the sight of Lances blood on his hands sends him spiraling with panic. It's an image that will be forever burned into his memory.

Lance can't find the words he needs to say, all that escapes him his a small, quiet "I'm sorry".

Keith picks Lance up and takes him to his room, where he lays him down and gets the first aid kit from his bathroom.

He stops the bleeding and patches the wound. It was something he'd had to learn early on when he joined the Blade of Marmora. He helps Lance sit up and then plops down beside him.

"I could have handled it on my own, you know.. I'm not helpless.."

"First of all, you were bleeding out on the floor! If you really had it handled, i think you would have already had yourself patched up! And second, being helped doesn't make you helpless, it makes you human-"

"What would you know about being human?"

There's a long moment of quiet between them. Keith is the first to speak again.

"You're right.. I don't know the first thing about being human.. But I do know you. And I know that you're strong, and brave, and you'll do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of those around you. But I also know that sometimes you can't do things by yourself, and that's fine, Lance. There's nothing wrong with needing help..."

"I'm sorry" he says, turning to look Keith in the eyes, "I shouldn't have said that. If anything, you're more human than any of us. I don't know how, or why, but you are. And I think-"

There's another silence, Lance debates whether or not now is the right time to be saying any of this, but this is Lance we're talking about. He's the king of bad timing.

"You think what?"

Lance takes his hands, his heart is about ready to break his ribs with how hard it's pounding. "I think... I think that's why I love you!"

They stare at each other for what seems like an eternity, Keith's eyes move back and forth between their hands and Lance. Neither knows what to say.

Eventually, Lance tries to let go, taking the silence as a rejection, but Keith then grips tighter and pulls him into a hug.

"I love you, too, idiot..."

"Wait seriously? Like, you aren't messing with me, right?"

"Yes seriously! And if you ever pull a stunt like this again, I'm gonna kill you myself, got it?"

...

"Yeah, I got it"

They sit there with each other for probably an hour before Pidge bursts through the door and shouts, "AHA! I KNEW IT!!" They turn their head and yell into the hallway, "HUNK, YOU OWE ME FIFTY BUCKS!!!"

I have so many more but i think this post is long enough as is, so i'll stop here for now. If you want more of these please please please ask, i love getting requests so much.

[willowtreebee]

Comic strips aren’t really my thing..

But Mermay is an exception.

Idea came to me from a pigeon wearing glasses and carrying a jar of peanut butter. /j

Alt text:

Keith is peeking out of the water at Lance.

Keith: (Thinking) Stupid human..

Lance is talking to someone.

Keith winds back his arm, holding the blade of Marmora knife.

Keith: (Thinking) Making me feel all these things…

Keith throws the blade into the wall near Lance’s head. Lance looks at him.

Keith blushes and goes back into the water.

Keith: Shit! It saw me

[discordiansamba]

imagine. You're Kolivan. One of your best agents went on a mission years ago to infiltrate Zarkon's effort to find the rest of the lions, and never reported back. You assume that she's dead. Tragic, but it happens in your line of work.

Only it turns out she's not dead. She returns to base two years later- only she has an alien child in tow. She tells you that after being stranded on a planet called 'Earth', she fell in love with one of the people living there- a widowed father with a child from his previous marriage. He helped her locate the blue lion, and she grew close to both father and son.

The father, tragically, died preventing a second wave of Galra scouts from finding the blue lion. He made her vow to raise his son in his stead. So now here she is, with an alien child she is honorbound to raise. You can't possibly say no to that.

You really, really want to say no to that.

Years later, that same child turns out to be the red paladin. You feel yourself getting a headache.

That's the plot of the 'fully human Keith is raised by the Blade of Marmora anyways' AU.

[burgendee69]

Dads of Marmora

I love the idea of the trope but jesus christ sometimes they just degrade him to a child. The blades would respect that he's a fully grown adult in human terms regardless of galran and there are so many better ways of showing familial connection than having them call keith "kit" all the time.

[chibi-pix]

I needed to draw human Regris again. Even when not acting like a ninja, his shaggy hair still covers and he wears a mask. It’s his everyday look. Perfect.  Also, Katie’s scuffs/bruising and broken glasses, it takes place after this prior piece. She probably met up with Regris after that moment and he ended up walking her home. Good lad. 

Anyway, I hope y’all enjoy this one.  Until next time!

Edit.  I forgot the slight blush to Regris. My starting had him blushing. So, it’s fixed. He finds Katie adorable.

[kismetconstellations]

@sockdooe I refuse to believe this person was talking about the Original Real Seasons One, Two, the tail end of Six, Seven, and Eight Shiro. Even when he's been reduced to "Side-Character Shiro-Bot", thanks to the writers not wanting to have to do anything with him, anymore, there's no way a reasonable human being could sincerely watch this series in good faith and conclude that Takashi Shirogane is "mean" and "selfish".

The man literally died trying to liberate a universe full of people he hadn't even met from tyranny and oppression. Even "Kuron", hard-edged and angry as he could be, wanted to defend the universe, and took doing so very seriously up to the moment his brain was hijacked to force him to fulfill his true purpose.

And, a Keith fan, of all people, arguing that point is absolutely ludicrous.

Keith, who Shiro never gave up on because he knew what Keith was capable of, even after Keith stole his car and racked up disciplinary infractions at the Garrison.

Keith, who Shiro was willing to wholly discard an alliance with the Blade of Marmora over. Not once, but three times.

He had to be physically restrained to prevent him rushing to Keith's aid.

And, still, the first chance he got, he forcibly freed himself and raced to Keith.

He was even willing to use his Galra hand on a member of the Blades- after being the one who was adamant on seeking them out, in the first place- to protect Keith.

Keith, who Shiro accepted and embraced without hesitation, even after learning that Keith shared the blood of the race that abducted, imprisoned, tortured, and experimented on him for a year.

Keith, who was highlighted extensively in Shiro's backstory as the person most important to Shiro, and one of the only people in Shiro's life who refused to write him off due to his illness.

The sole "justification" I've seen a Keith fan offer up for disliking Shiro is that Shiro stood by and said nothing while "Warlord Lohn" insulted Keith to his face. But, Allura and Hunk were also there and likewise did nothing to defend Keith.

Of course, this "justification" was accompanied by a generally hateful tirade against Shiro couched in such "lovely" homophobic language as labeling a near entirely celibate gay man in his late twenties a "washed up old whore", and accusing him of "impaling himself on the closest dick".

[ditzydisaster13]

By the Best of the Lightning Strike

”By the Best of the Lightning Strike” is a Voltron Fantasy Au I’ve been working on. It’s been more mental preparation than anything I’ve written down as of late. But I’m planning plenty of art for it.

The characters are primarily Elven knights and warriors. Galra and Altean are all species of their own. With separate kingdoms and soldiers. Other “aliens”-> which are recognized as more mythological creatures and species themselves, belong as stand alone creatures or those under the rule, either willing or not, of Galra vs Altean-Voltron. Voltron is what they call their knights. Their best fighters are:

Lancelot (Lance) Ladron. His last name might mean thief. But only of hearts and frowns. A flirtatious soldier with glassy ocean eyes and a pure and unadulterated love for the stars and the sea alike. He has great power. Of water and rain, storm and wind. With his sickness comes weariness. He is physically strong. But Mentally does not allow himself the peace and smiles other see in him. He is wounded by the war. The war that leaves him half blind. And the war of the raging and roaring water and hurricanes that crash in his head. He is wonderful with a Sword. A bow and Arrow strikes through the most powerful currents. But his intentions to the world happen to be his strongest weapons. He is wise beyond his jokes. And a Master of craft. His magic is purely dispensable to him. And wonderful to others. He is among the last humans (aside his family, half elven and half human. He is mostly human) in Altea. But he won’t let the Purple trolls of Galran territory graze his pride.

Keith Keiden (name basically means Warrior from the wood of the battlefield.) Is a Grunt. A type of Fae that remain on the shorter side, with tempers that can be difficult to control. They are family people. And do not take being abandoned well. They are brisk and good fighters. Who fight with force and trickery. They are sneaky and prideful in not only their skills but their keen. Keith is also half Galra. Which results in some slight discrimination and anger when he reveals his bloodline. However, as well as a Voltron Soldier and Knight to Altea, his loyalties are split to the Blade of marmora. Garland and half Galran species who in turn want nothing to do with their kingdom or ancestry that fight independently, in small groups, and occasionally on the side of the Alteans. They often prefer Solitude. But Love is in fact their greatest weapons. A master of sword and blade, Keith is also a Dramonk. A name derived from the ancient and rare people of the dragons, meaning fire wielder. Flume of red and pink burst and burn from his hands. Dousing into rolling smoke. His anger gets the best of him. But a certain “thief” knows all too many way to douse the flames.

Dove Holt (Pidge/Katie. -> Holt actually means forest.) Despite Her [She/They pronouns for Pidge] less that forestric life, one home in the woods, a second in the workshop her father uses to study space, they are a lovely person. Dove, typically known as Pidge, is a Grunt. A distant Altean/Elven great grandmother somewhere in her blood. Dove, or Pidge, has the ability to connect with thee earth. He love and excitement for the future of space travel and technology is evident in her slick and mobile style of dressing. Despite her ladylike voice, they are sarcastic and witty. Athletic and feisty. Their connection to nature is in the soil. The vines that grow from her arms and allow her to launch herself great distances.

[pidges-lost-robot]

If they had spread out finding the lions, I have a proposal, of the lions and their element being relevant to the planet they find the lion on and to each paladin and the inhabitants values.

Lance's lion, is on Earth arguably one of the planets we saw the most water on, but when it was a initially discovered and hidden by Krolia, she notes it'd been found on that Mermaid planet and that episode shows evidence of the galra having been there, and of the lions previous presence there. Also seeing that sort of Sci fi generalisation of human (and now cause of having the lions original hiding place be their planet) the mermaids of being social, connected, maybe a little obnoxious but adaptable

Then Hunks lion, we find on the Balmera, and him deciding to prioritise helping the Balmerans ends up being one of the ways that the Yellow lion decides it wants him as its paladin. The balmera and balmerans benefitting from mutalism being something that is also key yo Hunk as a character

We take the episode greening the cube, we rejig it, and that's the episode we have Pidge discover and pilot the Green Lion. Having the Olkarions be the ones that thousands of years ago helped the green lion build up a plant tech maze around itself and them valuing both the blending of tech and nature, but also specifically curiosity

We then have the hint of Keith being Galra when we have them infiltrate the Galra ship to get to the Red Lion because we establish that each place and inhabitant we find the lions around says and reflects something about the valued each lion wants from a pilot. This is also where we establish the existence of the Blade of Marmora, make their values the thing that the red lion stuck around for and recognise Keith when he impulsively before he even thinks to check they're definitely on his side, intuites that helping them is the right thing to do, and does the whole reckless, launching the droids into space, his lion saves him.

And then obviously the Black Lion reflecting the values of the mostly long gone Alteans, and rallying the others to help unlock the key to freeing the black lion, Shiro having been involved someway or another in encouraging and rallying the others to find their lion.

(Also I think the idea of the red lion reflecting ideal or valued traits of galra and the black reflecting alteans could be interesting characterisation got Zarkon and Alfor later down the line with Alfor being in the red lion and zarkon in the Black lion if this was how it'd gone)

[oliveden]

thinking about the blade of marmora in the general keith au. they're having. a time.

kolivan knows of lotor and his generals, but the specifics elude him. he can trace back acxa and zethrid - but ezor's history is vague, and narti's and keith's are nonexistent. keith's starts only from when he entered the army, and narti's starts only from when she entered lotor's service.

it frustrates him immensely, but it's impossible to send an operative into the prince's forces. he's legendarily tight-lipped about his plans, speaking of them solely to his generals, and kolivan knows that will never be an option for the blade.

and then voltron returns. four-fifths of voltron, true, but it's still four-fifths more than they had for thousands of decaphoebs, and kolivan is not so much a fool that he cannot see the hope that they inspire.

ulaz says they should offer aid. he declines, but regardless, the black paladin arrives to speak with them.

it takes several phoebs for their communications to turn into anything resembling an alliance, but it eventually does, and the coordination of their two groups results in far higher success.

the paladins are human, from a planet named earth. kolivan knows that krolia spent several deca-phoebs on that planet, successfully locating the blue lion, and yet it still feels like there's something missing.

(deep undercover in ranveig's territory, krolia still believes that her son is safe on earth.)

[lilflowerpot]

If a galran (such as Krolia) disappeared, and then later returned to the galra empire (not the blade of marmora, the empire) with a hybrid child (such as keith) how would people react and what would happen to them?

In my original post concerning Krolia taking him with her, I did indeed say that she'd make a beeline for the BoM, but I also touched upon the general reaction of the Empire as a whole:

In Imperial circles, the ramifications of bearing a hybrid kitling can range quite dramatically from being side-eyed at one’s choice in bedfellow, to disgust and outrage at having sullied the gene-pool… though this extreme is reserved for the Empire’s strict traditionalists, many of whom still perpetuate racist attitudes within galra circles, so you see why they’d be so upset by a hybrid. As I’ve said before, harming a galra child (even if said child is a hybrid) is distinctly ingalran and goes against their principles, as all children are culturally precious; sequestering a hybrid child away so as to conceal their family’s shame, however, would not be out of the question.

For argument's sake, let's say Krolia's backstory unfolds as it did in canon, except Tex dies, so she takes Keith back with her and for whatever reason is maybe intercepted by an Imperial vessel before she gets to the Blade. In this scenario, there's no hiding that she has an obviously ingalran child with her, and so of course she has to claim him as her own thus revealing that he's a hybrid. As stated above, harming a galra child (hybrid or no) is out of the question, and Krolia certainly wouldn't be the first Imperial soldier to have produced hybrid offspring, so more than likely Keith's existence would be formerly recorded and he would become an official citizen of the Empire; accommodations would be made and Krolia would likely be transferred to a military position at one of the quieter nursery colonies (which would be of little use to the Blade, but a wonderful place to raise a child) and though it's not impossible that Keith would still experience a certain degree of othering from his peers for being so overtly ingalran—especially those from more "traditional" bloodlines—I'm inclined to believe that he'd actually have been happier among the galra than he was among humans, due to his instinctual behaviours aligning far more closely with this side of his parentage.

Ultimately, Keith would grow up as the galra do, with a vast extended family of peers and parental figures alike, he would have discovered his love of flying early on, and despite his dubiuos bloodline the Imperial military wouldn't want to waste talent like that so he'd have been encouraged to serve his Emperor as best he could. When the red lion is discovered, and the best of the best are being submitted as potential paladins, Keith naturally would want to throw his hat into the ring and maybe it's a trial, maybe there's resistance from the higher-ups because if their finest were unable to claim the mighty crimson beast then what could a half-breed possibly offer, but,,, maybe, just maybe, he gets his chance.

And maybe, this time, the red paladin of voltron wears the Emperor's colours.