#i just want you all to know this cat was named after keith from voltron

[byteofsoup]

Do you see my vision

[ssasides205]

Fic Project 3

alright, I know ppl engage with abo even less than they do normal content, but I promise you I'm very ace abt it. anyways...

The adoption au:

-abo bc I need the scent thing to be a thing for plot reasons

-aged up characters (late 20s)

-Leo gets kidnapped, and adopts two kids

-Shiro is like 6? Maybe less, Keith is like 3 or 4.

-Leo and Keith click instantly, bc Leo’s quintessence is similar to that of the Red Lion (this will come up later)

-Shiro takes a bit longer to warm up to him, but he does trust Leo from the moment they get out

-Leo and Nico have a weird sort of situationship, in that Leo was basically abandoned by his previous partner, and Nico understands and is willing to wait but wants to court him and sometimes that slips into their interactions.

-Nico’s incredible with the kids, Piper lives to tease Leo about it

-nobody questions Takashi being adopted, Keith however gets mistaken for Nico’s actual son so often that he believes it to be true for a while

-Nico totally teaches the kids Italian, Leo has mixed feelings about Spanish so he only passes down some words and translated expressions. He does, however, teach the boys Morse code.

-It’s actually Annabeth that figures out their roots, and helps Leo find out about their respective families. She also finds people to teach them Japanese/Korean, as well as Ancient Greek.

-the others all get involved in the rearing of the broganes, it really does take a village

-galra Keith exists fully, as in he can shapeshift and has been holding it unknowingly, but one of the apollo campers figures it out and poof, tinny fluffy purple baby

-Shiro is a demigod, actually, but I have not decided whom sired him just yet

-Leo totally makes Keith a galra-proof hippo stuffy, and then a demi-safe cat stuffy for Shiro

-the broganes are partly responsible for getting Leo out of his own head, and getting Valdangelo together

-Shiro and Keith both get offered to choose their legal names, even offered the option of having two. Keith opts for having two, so he’s Akira Kogane, but also Keith Di Angelo-Valdez

-mostly, this is just Keith and Shiro both getting to have a huge family that could kick your ass

-I love the Leo ends up working for NASA thing, so he becomes a very well-known aerospace engineer, when Keith meets the rest of the Voltron crew Pidge and Hunk know of Leo so they immediately note his surname

-Keith, to Red: you know, you feel kinda like my pops | Red, who’s been inside Keith’s head: *purrs loudly*

-Lance, at some point: How come Shiro didn’t get a second name? | Keith: he’s butthurt that everyone knows he’s adopted | Shiro: we can’t all look like our adoptive fathers Akira!

-Keith slips into Italian when he’s sleepy/drunk, Korean when he’s annoyed and wants to curse without getting in trouble, and Ancient Greek when he’s legitimately angry.

-Shiro uses Japanese the most when tired, Italian when angry, and exclusively speaks in Ancient Greek when he’s drunk.

-Hunk, someone who studied modern Greek: what dialect is that? | Keith, Leo’s son: Underworld drawl

-Pidge, a Leo fan: hey Keith did you get any language from your cooler dad | Keith:  .--- ..- ... - / - .... .. ... / --- -. . | Pidge: wicked

-there’s a real scary moment after they fight big baddie 1 (can’t remember) where Keith realizes the enemy looks just like him, this would lead to much angst as he decides to hide this from the team, - Shiro (he already knew)

-when the truth finally comes out Shiro is ready to throw hands, Lance calls Allura’s bullshit so fast he gives everyone else whiplash, and Pidge and Hunk prepare a list of questions. Coran tries to play mediator as best as he can, the poor man.

-yes abyss whale, no second time-skip, yes road trip back to earth, yes armor changes, maybe black paladin lance, definitely Klance

-Keith, to Krolia: are you sure you didn’t have other children | Krolia, who watched Keith’s childhood through whale shenanigans: I admit it’s a very striking resemblance.

-Shiro: it’s a little funny how similar Lance is to Leo | Keith: you shut your mouth

-when they get to earth there’s an awkward moment where Leo has to call the Alteans aside and explain the mist to them so they don’t look crazy for saying what they’ll see

-Pidge, after meeting the brogane’s parents: I’m seeing double | Keith: yeah, dad and I are pretty close looking | Pidge: and you have the exact same taste in men | Keith, turning purple: they’re not the same!

-Lance: honestly, I don’t see it, Mr Di Angelo is a refined goth, meanwhile Keith’s out here with a mullet | Keith: my hair just grows like this! | Leo, appearing: Can confirm, we tried giving him a haircut once and it just returned, pretty sure it’s the alien in him

-Allura, to Leo: remarkable, your quintessence is near identical to that of the red lion | Leo, after checking there’s no mortals around: probably the fire thing |Allura, intrigued: the fire thing? | Leo, after doublechecking: *lights hand on fire* | Allura: ✪ᗨ✪

-Krolia, who’s seen what Leo’s capable of and is understandably intimidated: Thank you for taking care of my son when I couldn’t | Leo, who’s now not all convinced his husband isn’t an alien: we’re talking about Keith, right?

[maplesyrupptarmigan]

Chapters: 3/3 Summary:

Pidge stared at Shiro, as if waiting for a message. "We're not leaving. Not until—"

The door swung open, hinges screeching. "She's right. You're staying here, all of you. Get some rest." Keith waved toward the couch, seemingly ignoring the fact that Shiro's six-foot-tall body barely fit on it.

Lance looked at Pidge, then glared at Keith. "Not until we get some answers, Mullet."

"You'll get answers in the morning. About everything, I promise."

- - -

yippee! it's over (for now). author's notes/infodump under

let's talk about krolia. in this continuity she not only found the blue lion, but also left a record of it for keith to find. she's connected to it in ways i am hesitant to mention here since 1) i don't know if i want to commit to them and 2) if i do end up getting there it would be a bit annoying to spoil it here. also, he doesn't know she's an alien

i always thought the fraunhofer line thing was a bit silly with it matching the rock formations yadayadayada. here the rock formation line thing is meant to be a signal (!) from the blue lion, but it's not the fraunhofer line thing they're tracking to pinpoint it. idk, i wrote this months ago and any amount of research i did into that has been effectively erased

fun fact: i originally wrote it so the galra warship was replaced by two smaller fighter ships, under the idea that a giant fucking alien warship in the sky (as well as a flying mechanical cat) would set off some alarms on Earth. i put the warship back in because i want those alarms to go off. the drone fighter is just so lance can have an "oh shit, did i just kill a dude" moment that i think should happen in most kids tv shows

up next is the (as mentioned before) hunk's interlude. after that, i'm not sure. i mean i have a roadmap but nothing after that is concrete. namely, i need to wrap up The Rise of Voltron (what a pilot episode) while also figuring out how to manage keith's and shiro's interludes. the former should be manageable with the next planned major story (akin to signals and messages, tentatively titled 'pilots'—also, messages was originally called pilots), but to include both keith and shiro as interludes (well, shiro's is more of an epilogue like the three-body problem is more of a prologue), i need a fourth major story, which i only have vague ideas about. doesn't really matter, since i'll probably never get to it (hence why this lengthy write-up exists at all)

thanks.

[dck-without-the-i]

voltron is resurgent on tik tok???

i’ve been on a klance kick as of recently anyways, so please enjoy this rec list…

klance

Cross My Path by: wittyy_name

black cat witch keith is everything to me. there is a smut scene in here and it does include keith with some feline features, so if that bothers you then this is not for you. or you can just skip the smut

EXPLICIT

“Lance owns a witch themed cat cafe that rescues black cats. Each one has a unique collar and color coded name to help tell them apart. He's not supposed to play favorites, but he's already adopted his favorite, Red, as his own. Cold and distant to everyone, Red is extremely affectionate to Lance. Needy. Clingy. Protective. But Lance doesn't mind. He makes Lance's home a little less lonely. He's a little weird, but aren't all cats? He loves his baby boy, and he's eternally grateful for the day that little black fluff ball crossed his path.

Lance doesn't think twice about Red's odd quirks. That is, until he wakes up with a naked stranger in his bed.

And hey! Turns out Red is actually a witch named Keith who's been cursed to be a cat for twenty years. A really hot witch who's still very affectionate towards Lance.”

Save a Lion, Ride a Cowboy by: Bang Bang Beef Keef

this is one of my favorite klance fics!! i can’t even remember how many times i have read this one. it is so good!

EXPLICIT

“Lance is sexually frustrated. Luckily Keith is here to help...

Excerpt:

“You’re suggesting…” Lance gulped at that lump again. “… I try being slutty right now?”

“If you want to feel satisfied,” said Keith, running that hand from his hair down to his neck. His jacket was slipping off both shoulders now. It’s not like Keith was showing any skin, but something about that jacket refusing to stay put, the mere suggestion that Keith’s clothes were removable… Lance was fairly certain his blood flow was no longer heading up towards his brain. He wasn’t going to think his way out of this one. Did he even want out of this one? He hadn’t agreed to be in this one.”

In the Closet by: speaks

EXPLICIT

“‘I gotta say,’ Lance droned, swishing his nearly empty glass, “I was a little bummed that you never texted me. Then I was kinda pissed when I first saw you again tonight. But after some major reflection and several drinks, I’ve decided to take your rejection as a challenge.”

“I lost it,” Keith blurted.

Lance paused, jaw hanging open slightly with its next half-formed word.

“I lost your number,” Keith emphasized. “Like, almost immediately, on the subway ride home that day.”

“O-oh.” Lance faltered, like his entire plan had hinged around Keith being resistant, and now he was lost for words. And Keith was just drunk enough to roll with that.”

I’m Burnin’ For You by: melancholymango

this fic is another one of my favorites! i also have read it numerous times

EXPLICIT

“Lance has been avoiding Keith like the plague for weeks now, even going so far as to fake sleep or duck around corners to avoid looking at him. He knows that Keith is getting concerned at this point, past the initial annoyance and headed straight into worry. He wants to tell Keith, really, but he loses his head the moment they're face-to-face every single time. Why did he have to develop feelings for his sorta-rival? How long could he avoid addressing it before it blew up in his face?

Until they were both confined to a hot, dark enclosed space for the unforeseeable future, apparently.”

[the-ferocious-kittyrose]

My complicated opinion on Keith Kogane

Keith Kogane is definitely one of the more popular characters in the VLD fandom. People love brooding emo bad boys.

My feelings on Keith are... complicated. I definitely don’t hate him. I have a lot of problems with the character but I don’t think I could ever bring myself to actually hate him. Mainly because I kinda relate to him. We both have problems controlling our emotions, interacting with people, and making friends.

And we both have trouble believing there are people who truly have our best interests at heart and won’t abandon us because we’re a burden.

What I do hate is the way his character was written and the way it negatively impacted the characters around him.

There are definitely a lot of factors that contributed to VLD ending up the way it did. But to me, Keith and the writers insistence on pushing him to the forefront was the poison that killed the show.

Ok, before we get into this whole rant I feel like I should talk about the things I do like about Keith.

I like the premise of Keith’s character. He’s half Galra and never really fit in on Earth. He didn’t act like the other “normal” kids so kids made fun of him and adults didn’t want to deal with him. So in order to protect himself from the pain of rejection he would put up a tough angry facade and push people away and reject them before they could reject him.

This is something that really resonates with me personally having grown up neurodivergent. It’s awful growing up in a world that isn’t made for people like you and not knowing how to interact with or connect with your peers. Especially when you don’t know why you’re like that.

You learn to avoid social interaction because it always ends up negative. You put up walls because you don’t feel like anybody understands you or what you’re going through.

I know the writers probably didn’t intend to code Keith as neurodivergent. They just wanted Keith to be a hothead with abandonment issues, but nonetheless, this interpretation means a lot to me.

I also really like his relationship with Shiro. Keith is so used to being left behind and abandoned that when he meets someone like Shiro who’s patient and genuinely cares it’s new and strange. He’s so ready for Shiro to abandon him, even telling Shiro to send him back to the home, but Shiro refuses to leave him and tells Keith ethat he’s never going to give up on him.

It’s also interesting to see how their relationship develops over time. It’s clear Keith trusts Shiro, but you can tell that that fear of abandonment is still there deep down. In S2, Keith tells Shiro that he’s like a brother to him, and then in season 6, he takes the extra step and tells Shiro that he IS his brother and that he loves him. And for someone like Keith, telling their friend they love them is a big scary thing.

And also it’s just great to see a platonic “I love you,” especially between two guys. Don’t be afraid to tell your bros you love them!!!

Now let’s talk about the stuff I didn’t like.

Keith doesn’t have much going for him in terms of personality. He’s just sorta brooding and serious all the time. He does make jokes occasionally but it’s rare. The writers were more focused on making him cool and badass rather than fun.

I always loved the idea of Keith as a cocky carefree asshole who doesn’t give a shit about rules/laws and is kinda rude/aggressive but has a heart of gold deep down and would do anything for the people he cares about. (Just like a cat.)

I would also make him more alien esc. In terms of design I like the idea of Keith having red eyes with narrow pupils and fangs. And also just small things like the way he walks and holds himself. He growls and bears his teeth when he’s angry, his hair puffs up when scared, he’s fast and agile, disappearing and reappearing without making much noise, small things.

Then you have his race and sexuality. I have no doubt in my mind that Keith was intended to be a straight white dude. A lot of people see him as gay and Asian but there’s no evidence for this in canon. Acxa was originally intended to be his love interest and his race was never mentioned in canon. His name isn’t even Kogane in canon. (And the race of the voice actor doesn’t equal the race of the character. If that was the case Shiro, Hunk, and Lance would be white.)

They should’ve totally made Keith Japanese like he was in the original. It would’ve been so easy! Just canonize Kogane as his last name and have the book say he’s half Japanese half Galra. They could’ve also done what they did with Shiro and keep his og GoLion name. Just have him be Akira Kogane. Definitely cooler than “Keith.”

And as for his sexuality, I definitely think they should’ve had Keith be gay. But well get to that Later...

I also don’t like how they handled the whole Krolia thing. Not only was it crazy rushed, but it completely goes against the shows theme of found family.

Keith’s arc should’ve been about overcoming his abandonment issues and learning to accept the paladins as family. But instead they just get rid of the abandonment issues by just giving him his mom back.

I know a lot of people love Krolia but I don’t feel like she should’ve been introduced in anything other than flashbacks. Because Keith’s mom isn’t really that important. The show is about found family and friendship, not blood relation.

You can definitely have Keith learn about his mom and his family, but I feel like giving him his mom back was too much.

Personally, I always headcanoned that Kolivan was Keith’s grandfather or just a close friend of Krolia’s, and when Keith showed up at the Blade’s base Kolivan recognized the blade as his Krolia’s. Keith could learn about his mom through Kolivan telling him about her, how she was a great person and warrior who died fighting to make the universe a safer place for her son.

Another thing I didn’t like was the whole Keith leaving the team for the Blades thing. I know why he did it, he felt like the team was gonna reject him, he wanted to be more useful, and wanted to learn about his family, but I feel like you could’ve touched on all that without having him abandon his team.

One of the biggest problems with the show is that they did a bad job at establishing the paladins as friends, they feel like coworkers more than anything, and I feel like Keith being absent for two seasons contributed to that.

And his absence is hardly addressed. The team forms Voltron perfectly without him and no one ever says they miss him. Keith doesn’t even seem like he missed them after being gone for two years.

And a lot of the weight was taken out of that Keith v Kuron fight by the fact that Keith and Kuron hardly interacted.

That whole thing amounted to four things, Keith meeting Krolia (which I don’t think should’ve happened), them finding the colony (which was a dumb plot I don’t think should’ve happened), Keith aging up two years (which was weird and unnecessary), and Keith meeting Kosmo (which is... complicated).

I don’t think this plot was necessary. Keith should’ve stayed with his team.

Then you have his relationship with Lance. I know people are very sensitive about this topic. People have very strong opinions about whether or not Keith and Lance were intended to be romantically coded.

Personally, I do like Klance but I don’t believe they were romantically coded. I think if you want them to get together some things would have to go differently.

For example, the bonding moment. In canon, Lance tells Keith, “we make a good team.” I don’t see this as referring to him and Keith. I think he was talking about the whole team. If you want it to be about the two of them, I feel like it should be Lance telling Keith something like, “ya know, you’re not so bad after all,” and then Keith smiles and responds, “you’re not so bad yourself.”

Another example could be the scene where Lance comes to Keith with his insecurities. (Whether it’s as a leader or a friend.) This scene was weird in canon, Lance comes to Keith for advice and Keith basically tells him to just stop thinking about it.

I would prefer if Lance brought up to Keith how he doesn’t feel like he’s good enough or that he doesn’t have, “a thing,” and Keith is completely dumbfounded like, “what are you even talking about?” He goes on about all the good shit about Lance. Talks about how Blue chose him, how he’s a great shot, how he’s good at dealing with people, meanwhile Lance is standing there in shock as Keith says all these nice things about him.

Over all you would just have to develop their relationship more. More meaningful interactions. And if you want the relationship to be romantic you would have to establish that early on. Establish that one or both has romantic feelings for the other in like S1/S2 because if you wait too long it’s gonna feel forced/out of no where.

And then... you have the Black Paladin arc... I’m gonna be real with y’all, this is the arc that killed the show for me, for a few reasons.

One, even ignoring the whole quintessence bond thing, it makes no sense for Keith to be the bp. He doesn’t fit the role. I adore Shiro but choosing Keith as his successor was a dumb move. I get that he saw potential in Keith but they’re are fighting a war, there’s no room for favoritism.

Shiro should’ve chosen Allura as his successor. Not only does she have actual leadership experience, but you would only have one paladin in a new Lion instead of three.

If a lifeguard breaks his leg and can’t work, he should choose an experienced swimmers to take his place, not his little bro that’s still in water wings in the hopes that it’ll teach him to swim.

Two, Keith being the bp doesn’t help his arc. Keith’s arc is about overcoming his abandonment issues and learning to be a team player, he doesn’t need to be the leader for that.

VLD should’ve been about the paladins growing into the best versions of themselves they could be. Their development shown by unlocking new abilities in their respective lions, new forms for their bayards, and new Voltron bayard power ups. They shouldn’t have to change lions and themselves.

Keith and Red have a strong bond and work great together. Keith and Red are both temperamental, unpredictable, and have issues with trust. Keith having to fight to get Red to trust and open up to him mirrors how others have to fight to earn Keith’s trust and get him to let down his walls.

It would’ve been interesting to see them grow together. Keith has no emotional connection with Black.

We never even get to see them bond. Keith just suddenly becomes the “perfect” bp/leader because he got over his mommy issues

Three, it’s a MASSIVE disservice to Shiro’s character. Shiro put all the work in earning his position as the bp, he literally fits fought Zarkon on the astral plane to earn her trust, yet Keith is the true bp? What?

It sucks. Sendak told Shiro that a monster like him could never be a paladin and the writers went and proved him right. Hell Shiro didn’t even get to kill Sendak, Keith got that too.

And don’t tell me, “but he got the Atlas!” REALLY!? A massive Deus ex machina that required absolutely no effort from him to acquire!? Filled with a bunch of rando background characters no one gives a shit about!? You’re totally right, that 100% makes up for it.

I could go on and on about how the treatment of Shiro in this show (and fandom) is blatantly ableist but that’s a rant for another time.

It sucks. I want to like Keith! He had the potential to be an amazing character but the writers just kept on trying to turn him into something he wasn’t and it ruined him for me.

They kept trying to turn Keith into the main character and ignored that ALL the paladins are the main characters. It’s an ensemble cast! You don’t have to have everything come back to one guy.

[klanceficatalogue]

Klance Fic Starter Pack

So back in June of 2018 I made a Klance Fic Starter Pack post but since it’s been a long while since then I decided it’s finally time for an update. So here we have it! - Karri

so why don’t we fall by aknightley (1/1 | 8,218 | Explicit)

Five times Lance used a pet name for Keith, and one time Keith used one for Lance.

Keith has no basis for having a relationship with someone, so he's trying to follow Lance's lead.

//nsfw

The Marks We Make by wittyy_name (12/12 | 255,302 | Mature)

Lance McClain constantly dreams of the day he'll finally meet his mysterious soulmate. They don't say much, if anything at all, but they leave him with gorgeous paintings temporarily tattooing his skin. It's not exactly the situation he hoped for, but when he feels the connection between them, he can't bring himself to resent them. As much as he wishes his soulmate would just talk to him, he's resigned himself to being patient. In the meantime, he has a loving family and good friends to help him get by.

Keith Kogane dreads the day he'll finally meet his obnoxious soulmate. He's just an art student who's struggling to find his place in the world. There's so much he hasn't been able to control in his life, and the thought of having a soulmate, just another thing in his life which he also has no control over yet can't do anything about, is a little terrifying. So he ignores the words that occasionally appear on his skin. He has other things to focus on: like being a new student at a big university where his childhood friend and step-brother go.

//nsfw

(shallura, hunk/shay)

Nightmares by Trashness (1/1 | 14,864 | Teen And Up)

Lance's nightmares are getting out of control. It's effecting his and the team's performance, but he's at a loss for how to fix this.

Apparently sleeping next to a warm body helps.

call me, beep me (10/10 | 85,591 | General)

(00:31) Do you think she gave me the wrong number on purpose? (00:31) Or was it a genuine mistake? (00:32) Like maybe she writes funny and I misread it? (00:32) Some of the numbers do look a little dodgy... (00:33) Cause, you know, her threes could very easily be poorly formed eights? And maybe she writes her sevens like her ones? (00:45) What (00:46) The (00:46) Fuck??? (00:47) Oh good, you are awake!

where lance messages the wrong number and things kind of snowball from there

(shallura)

Shut Up and Dance With Me by wittyy_name (15/15 | 249,827 | Mature)

Lance and his friends have been regulars at the Altea Dance Studio for years. Not just for classes, but to hang out, practice, and spend time with good people who love dancing. Every year, they audition to be one of the few representing Altea at the regional dance competition. Lance always auditions solo, but this year he misses out on auditions and blows his chance to participate. And so does his self-proclaimed rival, Keith.

Luckily, Shiro comes up with a brilliant plan: convince Lance and Keith to audition as a duo.

With a little convincing, and a lot of effort, these two might just be able to pull it off and go to regionals... or they might crash and burn.

//nsfw

(shallura)

Hearts Don’t Break Around Here by klancekorner (13/13 | 135,555 | Mature)

Lance and Keith have been best friends since first grade. Lance’s brain is always on overdrive and Keith’s blunt, realistic ass can never keep up. They both come to realize that sometimes you can learn a lot about loving yourself by loving someone else.

//anxiety //insecurities //nsfw

i bet you look good on the dancefloor by xShieru (7/7 | 43,295 | Teen And Up)

"So like in 'Step Up'?" Allura shrugs. "Now that you put it like that - yes. I guess it's just like in 'Step Up'." The smile that she sends Shiro's way - followed by a shy wave, eugh - is sickening to say the least, and Lance still doesn't believe in dance camps.

-

Lance McClain's dancing career begins and ends with Keith.

Keith just wants to find out what Lance's deal is.

(shallura)

you never stood a chance by kagshina (1/1 | 12,221 | Teen And Up)

lance to hunk ♡ >i’m gonna fukin die hunk oh mygod i sent >keith a work out selfie that i wan supposed to fcukin send to you and you know what it said >”BET YOU WANNA LICK THESE NIPS” >HUNK I WILL NEVE BE ABLE TO FCE HIM AGAIN I WANT TO DI E

(Or, Keith is beautiful, Lance has a crush, and there's lots of shirtless selfies)

nothing’s quite as sweet by dimpleforyourthoughts (1/1 | 50,369 | Teen And Up)

Keith is a barista who hates his job. Lance works at the cat shelter across the street.

Sweet Quiznak by CheckeredCloth (4/4 | 6,819 | Teen And Up)

"You're really into him," Hunk mutters, and wow, Lance's face is on fire. Hunk is killing him.

"Look, read into how you like, Freud, just make sure that if I die Keith knows I totally would've mowed his ass like grass. That way, I can laugh hysterically at his emotionally-constipated expression from the afterlife."

Or: Lance is badly injured and has a few skeletons in his closet. Or maybe just the one.

//blood //injury

What a Healing Pod Can’t Repair by Remember_Me (12/12 | 55,777 | Teen And Up)

The compromised wormhole was ripping apart at the seams, sending everyone spiraling away in completely different directions. Lance could feel himself being pulled and bent in ways he was definitely not supposed to be. -- Stitching the team back together after everyone is separated is difficult, and for one Paladin rescue wouldn't be coming for a very long time.

//violence //blood

Bonding Time by magisterpavus (1/1 | 16,416 | Explicit)

“Shiro, I fucked up,” Keith blurted, wringing his hands.

Shiro paused mid-punch, shooting him a quizzical look. “What? What happened?”

“I think,” Keith whispered, “I think I accidentally roofied Lance. With my dick.”

//nsfw

Homesick at Space Camp by K0bot (15/15 | 74,280 | Teen And Up)

Lance realizes he's been an asshole to Keith, and on a diplomatic mission to a key planet for the Voltron alliance he... overcompensates.

//blood //injuries //panic attacks

we’ll make it, you and me by ghostcribs (1/1 | 6,421 | Teen And Up)

"Keith, if we make it out of this alive, I'm going to kiss you."

//injury

time out of mind by aknightley (2/2 | 27,849 | Teen And Up)

Keith and Lance wake up married. In the future.

He lays there a moment, processing the faint throbbing in his head, a strange bitter taste like lemons in his mouth. When he opens his eyes, the room spins wildly into a kaleidoscope of colors, so he closes them again, breathing in and out until he feels less like he might throw up. He suddenly registers a warm weight over his waist, and lifts his head to see a brown arm thrown over him. It looks startlingly familiar, but different, bigger than he remembers, more toned.

Keith turns all the way around and comes face to face with Lance sleepily blinking his own eyes open.

A Fish And A Bird by Methoxyethane (1/1 | 13,141 | Teen And Up)

Lance has a boyfriend. Lance does not realize he has a boyfriend. Keith, understandably, does not react well.

On Thin Ice by anonimina (11/11 | 205,795 | Mature)

This multi-chapter fic chronicles the lives of a hockey player named Keith who gets enlisted into figure skating lessons by his brother, Shiro, to "work on his footwork". There he meets a pompous - yet talented - figure skater named Lance and gets swept away by both the sport and the skater.

Or: the not-so-simple story of two people trying to navigate the complexities of living in an ever changing world and face the traumas they've buried far away from the sunlight.

//anxiety 

(shallura, hunk/shay)

bench press me by eggboi (1/1 | 1,683 | Teen And Up)

“The hell are you doing?” Keith grumbles out, body mid-push up. There’s a snicker behind him, too close to his ears, though Keith can’t really understand what would be so amusing about this. Then again, he’s not really sure why Lance is lying on him while he’s doing push ups either. Other than to be, of course, annoying.

“Nothing.” Lance finally says. Keith hears the grin in his voice, which only proves to irritate him a little more. ‘Nothing’ his ass. “Continue with what you’re doing, Mr. ‘I’m-Too-Good-For-Socialization’.”

(Lance, as always, tries to annoy Keith by making his exercise harder. It doesn’t work. At all.)

My Youth Is Yours by MilkTeaMiku (10/10 | 29,980 | General)

An unforseen blast in the middle of a battle de-ages Lance into a child for a week.

Keith does not understand babies.

[corvus--rex]

So, to start off with, these are a little rough. Mostly cleaned up for spelling/grammar, but there are things that are more like placeholder notes in exposition form that would be written out if I went back to it.

This one's working title is Quantum Fracture, is "in universe" non-canon compliant, and is set both near the end of s.2 after ep.9, and a few years post s.8. It's also only semi-abandoned. I like it and want to keep going with it, but I've hit a wall and just can't do anything with it right now. It has (sort-of) time travel and "Galra genetics are weird" resulting in Klance kids. It does also switch between times, but those sections have punctuation separators.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Lance, Pidge, keep watch on the area. Keith, Hunk, and I will go down to check it out,” Shiro said over the comms.

“Got it.”

“Copy that.”

Green and Blue split off from the V-formation, flying over the asteroid while Black, Red, and Yellow landed on its surface. Lance and Pidge kept a visual track on their friends while keeping their scanners active for anything in the area. Team Voltron had been on their way back to the Castle after liberating another planet from the Galra Empire when Pidge’s more finely-tuned scanners picked up on what looked like an abandoned Galra base embedded in an asteroid. Shiro made the call to check it out and let Allura and Coran know what was going on, keeping Lance and Pidge on watch. The Black Paladin took point, with Keith right behind him. Hunk brought up the rear, man-portable cannon ready for whatever might try to sneak up on them. The facility was powered down, a layer of dust on every surface.

“Looks like it really is abandoned,” Keith said, “I don’t think there’s anyone or anything left here.”

“Agreed, but I want to complete a sweep of the facility. Never know what might have been left behind,” Shiro replied.

They continued on, not making any real effort at stealth, but only made it about another 20 feet before a side door creaked and flew open, Keith finding himself blown out into space, despite Hunk’s effort to prevent it. Keith tried to use his jetpack to redirect himself and head back to the facility, but there was just enough gravity generated by the density of the asteroid field to pull him toward the nearest surface. He bounced off the next asteroid, damaging his jetpack in the process. It sent him away from the asteroid field and into open space.

This isn’t how this was supposed to go, Keith thought as he floated in the void, then realized just how much Lance was rubbing off on him. His back hit a second, smaller asteroid, and he bounced off into the nothingness. Come on, Red. Where are you?

He felt the shift in the vacuum an instant before the sensors in his armor picked it up. The short chirp announced the sensors’ findings, bringing it up on the HUD. The display’s minimal capabilities showed the slight variant, a faint ripple in the fabric of space.

“The fuck is that?” he asked the void of space.

He hadn’t expected an answer, and didn’t get one. What he did get was the familiar mental pressure of the red Lion, immediately followed by the equally familiar golden glow of the robotic cat’s eyes. Red swallowed the paladin’s free-floating body, and he rolled through the slowly pressurizing corridor before the artificial gravity activated. He had only just taken his seat in the cockpit when he heard Pidge shouting across the comms.

“Keith! Are you ok? There was a spatial-temporal fluctuation right next to you.”

“Yeah, I felt it, but I'm ok,” he answered, exhausted from the mission and subsequent launch into space.

Green came up alongside Red, guiding them back to the Castle, Blue right behind them. Once the three Paladins were back aboard the Castle of Lions, Pidge insisted that Keith go to the medical deck, just in case.

“Ok, fine, Pidge. But I'm fine. Really,” Keith protested while simultaneously giving in.

She didn’t trust him to really go, but she was also concerned with the anomaly she found, so didn’t question it when Lance volunteered to make sure Keith went.

“Keith, what were you thinking?” Lance asked when they were alone.

“I don’t know what happened. It wasn’t anything I did and Hunk and Shiro will figure it out. Pidge is more worried about the space-time ripple we encountered. But I'm fine. Really.”

Blue’s Paladin stopped in the middle of the empty corridor. “You scared me, cuervo. I saw you get ejected into empty space without Red or any of us nearby. Pidge said she was going after you, but still…it scared me.”

“I don’t think we should hide anymore. I think it’s time to let the team in on our secret.”

The pair had been dating secretly for a month at that point, intentionally keeping their relationship from the rest of the team. Keith didn’t think they would have been taken seriously to begin with, and Lance agreed. After a late-night talk, they both decided to give it time and let themselves settle into their budding relationship. But it was beginning to make them behave differently, especially on missions. They became focused on where the other was and it was causing mistakes. This last mistake could have been deadly, although Keith was right, he hadn’t done or not done anything that led to the deserted Galra base’s small side door opening and pulling the Red Paladin into the cold vacuum of space.

“Yeah, I think you might be right,” Lance admitted.

Keith took his boyfriend’s hand, linking their fingers together, and headed toward the medical deck. Coran met them there, no doubt having been called by Pidge. Keith was thoroughly checked over by way of the Castle’s scanners, and as far as they could tell, not a molecule was out of place. After finding out that Keith was at least partly Galra, Pidge and Hunk had thrown themselves into a reprograming project to the medical deck’s scanners, integrating human biological standards. They were surprised to find that the scanners were already programmed with Galra standards, and that was when Coran told the entire team about the original Paladins, Zarkon included.

Instead of the lounge or one of their bedrooms, Lance and Keith instead went to one of the Castle’s many observation balconies. Once they were alone, Keith let himself crumble, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend and holding on as tightly as he could. Lance gently returned the physical connection, understanding that the events of the morning had affected him more than he would let on in front of anyone else. He waited until he could feel the tension drain and knew that Keith was just sneaking middle of the day snuggling.

“You better now?” Lance asked.

Keith sighed softly against Lance’s neck. “Yeah, I think so. We should probably go see what Pidge found before anyone wonders where we went.”

“I don’t wanna,” he protested, holding on tighter.

Keith laughed and pulled away. “Well, if we stop keeping all this a secret, we won’t have to worry about where and when anymore.”

“Ugh. I guess.” Lance’s tone was overdramatic as usual, but his blue eyes sparkled with excitement at the idea of being open about his relationship.

Stepping backward out the door, Keith led the way toward the Lions’ hangars and Pidge’s lab. Halfway down the second to last corridor, Keith tripped over the smooth floor. He caught himself mid-stumble and stopped completely.

“Keith?” Lance asked, “Mi cuervo, you ok?”

_~*~_~*~_~*~_

“Keith! What the fuck was that?” Lance called over the comm.

“Dunno, but my speeder’s sensors caught it. Heading back now,” Keith answered from inside his modified speeder.

Modified, that was, by Pidge, who had retrofitted all of the Lions’ speeders to be able to fly in space. They were still fairly short-range, not capable of straying far from the Lions. It meant that Keith was still in visual range of Red when the Lion’s sensors spiked with the anomaly’s fluctuation.

Lance was waiting at the door to the cockpit when Keith came in. The tail of the raised French braid that normally ran halfway down his back was draped over his shoulder. Lance had insisted on braiding his husband’s hair that morning. Keith had groaned and asked why, seeing as it was just a simple recon mission. “Because you’re pretty, the twins are at school, we have time, and I felt like it,” was the list of reasons Lance rattled off as he made Keith sit. He didn’t mind it, but they usually saved more complex braids for diplomatic missions, not “drive down the street for space readings” missions.

Keith had had his second puberty while in the Quantum Abyss with Krolia, and it ended up being a good thing she was there. Alone, he would have assumed that the abdominal cramping, chills, fever, nausea, and full-body pain meant that he was dying. Krolia, however, recognized the symptoms of the shift in her son’s body to that of a Carrier and becoming physically capable of conceiving and carrying a baby. She told him that his half-human status may well have rendered him infertile, but they didn’t have the resources to look into it at the time, and the middle of a war wasn’t the time to worry about it. So it surprised both Keith and Lance when he found himself pregnant not long after the war ended, and they welcomed their twins Andra and Ori five and a half months later after a normal Galra-length pregnancy. The twins birth records had their names down as Andromeda Artemis and Orion Fenris Kogane-McClain, names that were called with increasing frequency now that the twins were five.

Keith sat himself in the pilot’s seat, pulling up the sensor readings from both Red and the speeder. They looked the same to both himself and Lance, but Pidge would be able to make better sense of them. But something about the anomaly was bothering Keith. It took a good minute of staring at the readings to realize that it was similar to how spacetime behaved near the core of the Quantum Abyss. And something about thatbothered him even more.

“You ok, cuervo?” Lance asked, leaning against the edge of the display panel.

“Yeah,” Keith sighed, “Just something about that anomaly reminds me of the Quantum Abyss. We’ll get it to Pidge and figure it out.”

The trip back to the new Castle was short, Red bypassing the reconfigured IGF-Atlas and heading directly for his hangar on the original Castle of Lions. After the end of the Galra War and the brief, but intense, war with Honerva, the Voltron Coalition needed a permanent – and mobile – base. The Atlas reshaped itself, wrapping around the Castle like the defensive walls of an ancient castle around its keep. Its completed size rivaled that of Galra Central Command, now the seat of the newly-formed Galra Collective.

Team Voltron’s power couple – beating out Shiro’s marriage to Adam – crossed the distance to Green’s hangar, where Pidge still maintained her personal lab. They found her buried in her multi-screen setup, one screen dedicated to the call she was on with her long-distance Olkari girlfriend Malyn, the others covered in technical readouts, diagrams, and blueprints.

“We’re back,” Keith announced when they walked in.

“Oh good. Anything weird happen out there?” Pidge said, taking Keith’s comm.

“The anomaly is behaving like the core of the Quantum Abyss.”

Pidge shoved the device into her computer a little harder than she intended. Except for her ongoing call, she wiped everything off the other screens, replacing what was on them with the readouts from both Red and the speeder. Her amber eyes flicked from screen to screen, already analyzing.

“I’m really sorry, Malyn. I have to call you later.”

“Of course. Is everything all right?” Malyn asked, concern laced in her voice.

“I’m not sure yet. We found a spatial-temporal anomaly, but it’s behaving differently from anything similar I’ve seen. Maybe…there was one…nah, that was different…”

Malyn laughed, she always found her girlfriend’s analytical mind adorable. “I’ll let you get to that. We’ll talk later.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry, Malyn. We’ll talk again later, promise,” Pidge apologized again, but Malyn waved her off, still laughing, and cut the call.

“So, you'll let us know when you’ve found something?” Lance prompted.

“What? Yeah. Right. This is weirder than anything I've ever seen like this…”

Lance and Keith shared a look, knowing that Pidge was fully invested in the data and that she wouldn’t leave her computer unless she was physically removed. Deciding on the tactical retreat, they left her to it, heading back to their apartment on the Castle.

The Atlas hadn’t been the only thing to be reconfigured. The Castle of Lions had undergone its own renovations, the old single rooms turned into apartment-like suites. Shiro and Adam maintained Garrison positions onboard the Atlas, but retired to the Castle at the end of every day. Lance and Keith settled into their apartment after their two month long honeymoon. Hunk was splitting his time between the Castle and Balmera, sharing his space with Shay when they were there. Pidge mostly used hers as an excuse for more tech and a separate workspace, but Malyn stayed there with her when she could get time away from rebuilding Olkarion under Ryner’s guidance. Coran had decided to keep his old room the way it was, and Allura felt that her own rooms didn’t need the upgrade. The rest of the rooms stayed the same for the new Altean crew running the ship at a proper capacity.

It wasn’t until they got back that Keith realized Pidge still had his comm. “Well, shit. I’ll be back,” he said, heading for the door.

Lance decided to follow him out into the corridor.

“Why?”

“Because,” Lance answered, “I have nothing better to do and I can watch you walk away all day.”

“What the fuck, Lance?” Keith groaned in mock frustration.

“No, that’s after we get your comm.”

Keith turned, intending to call Lance out on exposing him like that, but stumbled, relieved that Lance was close enough to catch him.

“You alright, cuervo?”

“Yeah, I'm fine. Just tripped,” he said, but stopped. Something was wrong. He could feel the braid hanging over his shoulder from when he stumbled, felt the strength in Lance’s arms. No, this was wrong. He looked up. There was a small scar he didn’t remember being there, and the blue Altean marks were definitely new. His own body felt foreign. It was shaped differently, taller and broader than it should be. His voice was different, a little deeper, a little huskier than it should be. “Lance?”

“Keith, love, are you really ok?”

“I…I don’t know.”

Lance helped him to stand, leading him back to their apartment. Once inside, he sat Keith on the couch. “What happened? Exactly,” he asked.

“What does – is this about the anomaly? I told you before that I'm fine. We had Coran check me out. There was nothing wrong. Where are we anyway?”

“We didn’t have Coran check you out. There’s an entire medical crew for that anyway. We’re home, on the Castle. What do you remember from this morning?” Lance’s entire tone was cautious. Something was very wrong with his husband, but he wanted to have at least some answers before bringing it up with anyone else.

“We were coming back from a mission and stopped to check out an abandoned Galra base in an asteroid field. One of the side doors opened and I got blown out. There was a ripple in space-time, and I got close to it in nothing but my armor before Red came to get me. But I'm fine. I told both you and Pidge that.”

Lance remembered that mission. Overall, it was unremarkable. The base didn’t have anything useful. But there hadn’t been any temporal fluctuations. Yes, Keith had ended up floating through the void, but nothing happened other than that. The only reason he remembered that mission in particular was because that was when they decided to tell the team that they were together. It had been ten years since that mission.

“Ok. I do remember that. But, that was ten years ago. That was when we decided to tell the team that we’d been dating for a month.”

Keith’s face flickered between shock, bewilderment, and terror. Ten years? There was no way that could be right. But the evidence was right there. His own body and voice were different. He could see and feel how long his hair had gotten. And then there was Lance. He was beautiful as ever, and it certainly seemed that they were still together, but he was different. The scar, the Altean marks – how and when the fuck did that happen, and why? – and there was the fact that he was broader, more muscled, not slender and willowy like he had been. He processed everything in real time, not saying a word in that time. It had apparently been longer than he thought, because Lance was looking up at him from where he’d tilted his head to the side.

“Keith? Mi cuervo? What is going on?”

“You…you still call me that? It really has been ten years?”

“This has to be related to that anomaly,” he muttered. “Yeah, it’s really been ten years. And, yeah, I do still call you that. A lot’s changed in ten years, but not that. Stay here. I need to show you something. It might help.” Lance stood, leaving the room for their bedroom, coming back in less than a minute. He extended his free hand, bringing Keith over to the table where they both sat. Lance placed a ring of smoothly twisted and woven silver metal and carved crystal that shifted between blood red, cobalt, and vibrant violet on the table between them. “Do you remember this?” he asked softly, “Do you remember when I gave you that?”

Keith stared at it like if he could untwist it mentally, he could remember what it was. But he couldn’t, because Lance had never given him anything like it. It was definitely something he could see Lance picking for him, but as far as Keith knew, he never had.

“No, I don’t,” he had to admit.

Lance sighed, a tinge of sadness to it. “Ok. Something happened with the temporal anomaly we found earlier and that Pidge is still analyzing. I know you’re really Keith, but I don’t think you're my Keith. What you said happened this morning happened ten years ago for me. We need to go check in with Pidge and see if she’s figured anything out yet.”

“Ok,” Keith agreed, rising to follow Lance, “I shouldn’t know anything else. Not yet. But at least I know we’re still together.”

“We certainly are,” Lance agreed, taking Keith’s hand, “We’ll figure this out. That anomaly might have fucked with your memories somehow, but we’ll figure it out.”

_~*~_~*~_~*~_

“Yeah, fine.” Keith stood on his own, suddenly realizing that they shouldn’t have been a corridor and a half away from Green’s hangar, they should have been close to their apartment in a completely different part of the castle. Everything seemed ever so slightly bigger, except for himself and Lance. His braid was gone, and he was wearing clothes he hadn’t seen in years. And Lance looked so young. This was the thin, wiry boy he’d fallen in love with more than ten years before. The one without the Altean marks he’d gotten when Allura revived him after saving her from an energy blast. But he heard Lance call him by that familiar pet name. That alone left Keith with more questions.

“We need to see if Pidge’s gotten anywhere with that anomaly,” Lance said.

“Yeah,” Keith agreed. When had his voice gotten higher?

Keith stopped when they walked into Pidge’s lab. It wasn’t what he was expecting. This was the lab of a decade earlier. The one with the laptop she’d brought from Earth along with the equipment she had either repurposed or built from scratch. It startled him, and he froze in place.

“Keith, seriously, are you ok?”

“I…I don’t know anymore. Everything is wrong. Where is everyone else?”

“Hunk and Shiro are heading back from the abandoned base now. That door just malfunctioned after going so long without maintenance. And there was absolutely nothing important there,” Pidge answered, still focused on her computer screen. She realized part of what he said and turned around. “Wait, what do you mean ‘everything is wrong’?”

“You’re looking at a spatial-temporal anomaly, but it didn’t happen now. There shouldn’t have been one here. I…I think I might be from your future. Or, at least, sort of. I don’t look any different to you, do I?”

“No. You don’t. Get back to the part where you think you're from the future.”

“I don’t know how much I should tell you. I don’t know if it could upset the timeline. But I know when I am now.” He turned to Lance. “It’s been about a month now, right? And we had that talk?”

Lance nodded, trying to understand just what his boyfriend was saying about the future. “Yeah, and we did talk about it. Just a few minutes ago. But if you're from the future, I don’t know if talking about that now will help. It also doesn’t answer the question of if you’re Future Keith, what happened to Present Keith?”

“I don’t know. Best case, he switched places with me. He’ll be confused and probably a little scared, but I know he’s in good hands there. Fuck it feels weird talking about myself in the third person. Have you found out anything about the anomaly here?” he asked Pidge.

“Well, I think so, but I've never seen anything like this before.”

Keith came up behind her, looking over their temporal disruption. It was identical to the one he’d found in his time. He had no question now that he had switched bodies with his 18-year-old self. But at least there were a few things he didn’t need to worry about hiding. He knew he was at least partly Galra at this point. He wouldn’t meet Krolia for a little while, so he would have to keep that one to himself. But it also meant that he hadn’t been through the Quantum Abyss yet. There was no way he could tell them about that without explaining everything. He would have to be subtle with asking about the war.

“I have, but I can’t tell you anything specific. Like where, why, or how. And even knowing what it is, I don’t have your science brain, Pidgey. I have no idea how it works.”

Both Pidge and Lance were staring at him. Not because of what he said, but how he said it. He’d picked up a lot of linguistic quirks from Lance over the years, and no longer gave it any thought at all.

“You sound like Lance,” Pidge said finally.

“We’ve all spent a lot of time together over ten years,” Keith replied, avoiding the real question.

“Sure. What canyou tell me about this?”

Keith pulled Hunk’s usual seat over, sitting beside her. Lance perched on an empty spot of desk space, suddenly wanting to be closer to his boyfriend, or whatever he was at that point.

“It’s specific to a single point in space, but not this one. But that’s the problem. I can’t tell you anything about where it is or what it is because you haven’t gotten there yet. All I can say is that space and time work very differently there due to massive fluctuations in gravity, which is why this doesn’t make any sense.”

“Because there’s something there that affects the gravity in a way that it doesn’t where we found it.”

“Basically. It’s more like what affects gravity there doesn’t exist anywhere else, especially where this anomaly was found. It’s also far smaller here than it should be. Like the difference in scorch marks between Lance’s rifle and Hunk’s autocannon.”

“So, this anomaly is a precise shot, and where it should be is a huge mess,” Lance said.

“Pretty much,” Keith agreed, “But I really can’t tell you about it because there’s something vital to the war there and I don’t know how it would change things if you found out about it now. It wouldn’t be good. There are other players you don’t know about yet.”

Pidge continued typing away at her laptop, the 3D render of the anomaly rotating on the screen. Lance wanted to watch the progress, but he couldn’t focus on it. His attention was solely on Keith. Except for his earlier phrasing, he didn’t think Pidge had picked up on just how different he was. Body language, mannerisms, almost everything had changed in some way except for his physical appearance. And there was one thing Lance had noticed almost immediately after Keith started talking about the anomaly. He was pretty sure Keith wasn’t aware of it, but he had been running his left thumb across the ring finger of the same hand, like there was something missing. Lance thought about bringing it up, but decided not to, heavily suspecting Keith would just say that it was something else he couldn’t talk about.

~*~*~*~

Links to the rest of the series:

1 | 2 | 3* | 4 | 5* | 6* | 7 | 8 | 9* | 10 | 11 | 12* | 13 | 14 | 15* | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19*

[greenflamedwriter]

Galra Lance

Lance is a galra, and Ex-Mamourian (He was kicked out because he was suicidal and kept getting attention to try to make Zarkon afraid which was the opposite of what mamoura wanted so Lance is a rebel doing his own thing, bounty hunting stealing, raiding and above all about to steal a red Lion on the ship hailed under Sendak and he’s going to get a boatloud of it. Then a cocky kid in a red suit slashes in claiming it’s his lion. Lance wonders if any of this was even worth it?

1 Flash to mind meld plus suspicion lances memories of him in water with mermaids and pre-galran.

2 Flash to “surprise, not a galra.” Lance is exposed and returned and nervous.

3 His father is Blatyz the previous blue Paladin and his other father the Galra whom Blatyz married. (Wait how were you born?) Pidge asked and Lance grinned his tail flickering back like a cats (I was a test tube baby)

4 Keiths initiation Lance returns to the Mamoura.

5 they take down Zarkon then realise his son appears and find out it was hagger when plot twist the whole family were puppets a chaotic energy anti quintescence gains a form and almost possesed the galra but some (Maourans) Resisted and the galra were so soft, so easily corruptable they fight that thing with Fusiontron. They save Honerva and Lotor and they find a planet and make it habitable and release everyone from enslavment but some planets are merged some want the Galra gone and some need their galra to remain so Allura and Lotor try to fix things. Lance goes to his planet which is hidden and Allura gasps to see Alteans, Mermainians and Galra there in hiding in a warped hole.

On a spacecraft floating on the edge of an arus solar system, an abandoned Galra named Lance, was taking a pit stop.

His ship consisted of junk, the pilot hanger cluttered making even hoarders feel disgusted open drinks and snack bars littered here and there and Lance had to squeeze in just to get to the pilots chair, the craft only had one room and a bathroom that stopped working. And his room was the only place that was clean it had an assortment of guns, rifles, snipers, you name it, along with a discarded blade that has seen no use in years with a strange symbol on the hilt.

Lance had music blasting from his speakers some album he bought from an alien shop, the album was called ‘Queen.’ And so far Lance was a fan.

He was flickering through a data pad as many reports scrolled past with anflick of his finger. Galra operations, cargo shipments, military vessels, open channels with radio chatter that Lance ignored. He was looking for something easy.

The life of a thief had its perks, steal medical supplies and weapons and give them to a rebellion and make a profit. Usually he sold to both sides just to live more dangerously. A recommendation opened up and Lance smirked behind his mask with the three circles on the front.

A vessel captioned by Sendek was hovering outside Arus, sliding the panel right and lots of data began to download at lighting speed , appeared and Lance’s smirk grew.

It had some precious cargo on it, a Lion of Voltron to be exact.

Lance was having the time of his life knocking out guards ninja style was just so easy, he had the red lion in his sights.

“Well hello gorgeous, mind dropping down that barrier and getting out of here?”

Suddenly he heard a nose and hid behind a pillar in the shadows, just as more galra guardsran into the hanger.

Lance turned and frowned to see a boy in red and white armour (like thats not inconspicuous) and took them down, Lance grew more suspicious this kid fought like a galra. But he didn’t wear mamorian armour or any rebel armour that he knew. Could be a threat.

Until the kid went to the barrier “Alright open up.”

…it did nothing, the boy growled in frustration “Ugh-we don’t have time for this! It’s me keith! You’re I AM YOUR PALADIN!”

Lance couldn’t help it he laughed, more like busted a gut.

The kid whipped around activating a weapon, a sword.

“Stay back!” Lance shook his head “No, wait,” he was still chuckling holding up his hands “I’m not-”

Suddenly more guards made themselves known and the two found themselves with their hands full.

Lance wasted no time shooting the Galra, even took care of the kids blindspots, this jlb was bigger than he thought maybe if he helped the kid out they can split the money fifty fifty.

That was until.

“You’re not getting this lion!”

Keith slammed his hand against the panel, and opened up the interlock, the vacum

Shot the galra forward and Keith was barely gripping onto the panel.

Lance cursed then used his grappling hooks to latch onto a structure beam.

Suddenly Keith’s slipped and he was pulled into space.

Lance acted on instinct he unlatched grapplings and shot out of space after the teen. He easily grabbed him stopping them both from slinning.

“Let go!”

“Shut up, I’m trying to save your life.” Until the kid screamed Lance turned in time to see big metal jaws clamp shut around them.

Both screamed as they tumbled along the inner corridors, Lance was usually could at improvising- but this was going so far out of left field!

He had no clue what was even going on anymore.

Both were on their hands and knees panting from the sudden death experience, until Lance heard a high pitched sound and turned his head slowly.

Keith held his red sword against his face. Lance could only stare- oh well, stare in his mask and ex-Mamourian armour as much as he could.

“Who are you?” Keith growled. Lance knew he could knock the kid out and take the lion. But he’d have no idea if it’ll even respond to him, and Keith is a fighter and wouldn’t let this thing go, heck heleaped out of an airlock for this thing.

A crash outside saved his interrogation. “A rebel, against the Galra,” he rushed out (which was sorta true)

“Honestly I would tell you more but we don't have time!”

….It turns out Lance got involved in something much bigger than him.

This...this was Voltron.

His childhood stories, the one his dad told him about. The universe’s last hope before Alfor hid them away.

They returned!

Kinda, with one blue lion shot, it just sat there with it’s barrier up. Useless. Not doing a thing….sounded like his type of girl. Chilling alone while the whole universe wasn’t in chaos.

But even with four lions they were able to take down a fighter craft, one with Sendek attached as it crashed onto the planet before him. Colour Lance impressed.

Keith wasn’t too bad either during the battle. He was an excellent pilot and a fighter, but he had a very bad habit.

“Green is wide open,” Lance said with a sigh as he watched how obvious it was that the green Lion had three fighters on their ass.

“Help them out.” Dumbass, he left unsaid.

Keith seemed to hear it.

“I know-” keith instantly covered them and Lance saw fighter ships approach from the main craft. “Your right-” Keith barely managed to dodge.

“Will you quit back seat driving!?”

Lance almost stopped until he saw the black paladin was in distress “The Black lion-”

Keith was moving before he even finished. Keith was good, just had to see the bigger picture.

Once they defended Arus and went planet side, Lance had already made a decision, as he left the red lion trailing behind Keith he saw the others landed beside them.

A woman appeared out of the castle looking relieved, until her eyes clocked his and Lance almost ran back up the mouth of the lion.

“Who is he?”

Allura demanded once all the pilots had landed.

Lance brightened behind his mask, his lilac tail flicking back and forth as he descended the mouth of the lion and held his hand out.

“Oh hello, I’m Lance.” He over exagirated his movements the more big and dumb he looked the more trusting, Allura took his hand tentively.

“You can’t tell with the mask, but I’m winking.”

Allura pulled her hand away still suspicious. “Keith!”

Keith glanced at him curiously. “He was with the red lion,”

With no warning, Lance felt Allura grab his arm and twist him around onto his knees, Lance yelped.

“Ow, ow ow- that hurts lady- ow!” His hand was trembling and clenching as Allura dug her palm into his shoulder.

“What were your intentions with the red lion?”

“I was planning on stealing it,”

Allura looked very alarmed, until Lance gasped on. “But now? wouldn’t dream of it!” Allura growled “Why should we trust you?”

“My dad told me about Voltron,” Lance wheezed god this lady was tough.

Allura let him go surprised and Lance fell over with a yelp just barely catching himself, he turned and pointed at her with a scowl (That she didn’t see)

“Look I know what this looks like but I know that, this,” he gestured at the lions as he stood up ”This isn’t some collectors item, this is VOLTRON! The people’s hope, if anyone found out I-” Here he slapped a hand to his chest “-was responsible for sabotaging Voltron I’ll be doing the Galra a favour, Which is the opposite of what I want to do.”

Allura and the others who looked defensive, straightened once Lance said his piece.

“Is there anyone out there fighting Zarkon?” She asked, Lance placed a hands on his hips “Still? Jeez Lady where have you been? There is no more fighting, Its just surviving at this point.” He flapped his hand lazily “I already gave up on that freedom pipedream long ago, but yes other rebels are trying. Chances are if you make a dent in Zarkons oppressive system the rebels will come flocking.” And if the Mamoura catched wind of Voltron Lance wanted to be out of there ASAP.

He waved at them taking a step back “Good luck to you,” He patted the barrier of the blue lion and continued to walk away, hoping he could get enough of a signal to his ship to get him as far away from this planet.

Until the barrier collapsed with a swish.

He stopped walking as the others gasped. No.

Lance turned to see the others gape at the lion (Now free) then their gazes turned towards him.

Coran came to himself before the others. “It seems we have found our blue paladin.”

Lance looked around then back at them, wait they meant him?

Oh Gaia, no.

[eastofthemoon]

A Paladin in the Fire Nation

Chapter 1

Rating: PG

Series: Voltron Legendary Defender/Avatar the Last Airbender

Summary: After the fight with Zarkon, Shiro accidentally gets tossed into another reality where humans have the ability to bend the elements. His best shot at returning home is with someone called the Avatar, while he waits he might as well take on the job of being the Firelord's bodyguard. 

------------------------------------------------

Shiro groaned. Despite his body feeling sore, he forced himself to sit up as he held his head.

“I feel like I got hit by a truck,” he muttered.

Then he recalled. The fight with Zarkon. All of the paladins in Voltron.

And it suddenly dawned that he was not in the Black Lion. His eyes opened wide and panic struck when he saw his armour had been removed and he was in his black bodysuit.

His heart started to race.

Was I captured? No, no, not again!

Frantically, Shiro scrambled to his feet but his fear began to subside as he looked around. He was in a cell, but it was clear it wasn’t a Galra one.

In truth, it seemed like an old fashioned prison cell he had seen in museums on Earth. He frowned as he walked over to the bars and tapped one of them before he gripped it.

It looks like regular iron, Shiro thought.

If that was the case he could probably bend them easily with his cybernetic arm and escape, but it was probably better to wait until he knew exactly where he was.

Could the others be here too? Shiro thought. Did I end up on another planet?

“Hey, I hate to interrupt your deep thinking, but might be wise to look over here.”

Shiro jumped and looked to the right. He spotted a person that assumed to be his guard. The person seemed female, and although he didn’t recognize the red and black armour there was something else that stunned him.

He blinked as he pointed at her. “Are...are you human?”

The woman raised an eyebrow as she crossed her arms. “Yes, last time I checked.”

Shiro narrowed his eyes. “Are there other humans here?”

At this the woman leaned against the wall and folded her arms. “No, the rest of the palace is operated by moose lions.”

Shiro sighed. “Are you serious or are you joking?”

The woman dropped her arms. “Um..clearly joking?” She stepped forward. “Did you honestly think I was serious?”

“I’ve seen weirder,” Shiro admitted, not that he knew what a moose lion was.

With that said, was it possible he ended up on a planet that also somehow had humans? It seemed unlikely, but a few years ago Shiro also would have said that of giant robot lions.

The woman looked ready to say something else when footsteps approached. The woman stood straight and saluted.

An older man appeared, wearing similar armor to the woman.

“At ease, Ling,” the man said with his hands tucked behind his back. “I merely came to see if the intruder has woke up”

“Yes, sir,” she replied and pointed, “and he has, Sir.”

The man turned and his eyes instantly narrowed upon seeing Shiro.

“I am Admiral Jee,” he stated firmly while keeping his arms behind his back. “Who are you?”[1]

Shiro straightened his own posture. “I’m Takashi Shirogane.”

“We found you unconscious in the royal gardens,” Jee said as Ling was as still as a statue. “Gave the servants quite a fright. Mind telling me what you were doing there?”

“It was just me?” Shiro asked.

“Yes,” Jee said as he stepped closer, “unless you are saying there were supposed to be others with you?”

“No,” Shiro replied quickly.

Last thing he needed was further suspicion, but that did answer one vital question. The other paladins weren’t here as well. He was likely alone.

The man didn’t look convinced, but stepped back.

“In any case I was instructed to bring you to the Firelord once you’ve awoken for questioning.” He sharply turned to Ling. “Go fetch the handcuffs and some robes for him.”

“Yes, Sir,” Ling said as she marched off.

They were left in silence, but thankfully it didn’t last long as Ling returned with the items. Jee took the robes and passed them through the bars.

“I don’t know what kind of clothing you were wearing under your armour but I imagine this grants you some more dignity,” Jee said.

“Um, thanks,” Shiro said as he took it.

The robes were a bit shabby and not exactly high class, but they were still better than his prison uniform the Galra used. He tossed the uniform over his current clothes as Jee unlocked the cell while Ling held out the handcuffs.

Shiro flinched at the sight of them but ignored the stirrings of memories as he let Ling put the cuffs on. Shiro pulled at them slightly and felt relaxed. The cuffs, like the bars, were made out of regular metal. It wouldn’t take Shiro much effort to break free if he had to.

Jee stared at Shiro with narrow eyes. “Don’t try anything funny.”

“Don’t plan to,” Shiro said honestly as Ling escorted him out of the cell. They walked in silence out of the dungeon and into the hallway.

Neither said a word as they three of them walked, but a few more humans who walked by cast Shiro with a curious glance.

Their clothing style was odd. It was both familiar and yet unfamiliar. It was like Shiro was seeing real life pages from his grandfather’s history book, and yet it didn’t quite feel like he was on Earth.

Shiro was forced to stop pondering as they approached a large pair of doors.

“Wait, here,” Jee instructed as he opened and shut it quickly behind him.

Ling kept a tight grip on Shiro until the doors opened again and Jee gestured for them to enter. Ling shoved Shiro forward, and he obeyed.

There were only four other people in the room. Two were guards stationed at the door, and two others were sitting at the far end of the room. One was an older man with a beard, nex to him was a younger man sitting in the centre.

His eyes were glaring at Shiro like a cat waiting to swipe back if need be. Shiro had to assume he was this Firelord. However what really caught Shiro’s attention was the large burn that took up half of his face.

He can’t be much older than Keith, Shiro thought grimly. What kind of accident burned him that badly?

Shiro didn’t have time to ponder as he was forced to halt and kneel on his knees.

“I am Firelord Zuko,” the young man spoke tensely. “Who are you?”

Shiro swallowed as he straightened his posture.

“My name is Takashi Shirogane.”

“We found unconscious inside the royal palace,” Firelord Zuko continued as he leaned forward. “Who sent you?”

“No one sent me,” Shiro replied.

“Then why did you come here?”

“I didn’t mean to.”

Firelord Zuko raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t mean to?” He gave a huff. “You honestly expect to believe you got by my guards and just wandered into my palace by accident?!”

Shiro sweated. Yeah, he had to admit it did look bad.

“Tell me the truth,” the Firelord Lord demanded.

“I am telling the truth,” Shiro repeated.

“Do you think I'm foolish enough to fall for that?!” the Firelord cried looking ready to stand up.

“No I don’t,” Shiro replied.

“Then tell me why you are here!”

“I don’t know,” Shiro shot back, his words echoed in the room.

The Firelord’s eyes, but Shiro noted the older man looked at him with a tight frown.

Shiro took a deep breath to calm himself.  “Listen, this is a misunderstanding.”

“Is it now?” Firelord Zuko asked.

“Yes,” Shiro said as he straightened his posture. “I’m not an enemy, I'm a Paladin of Voltron. I’m sorry for my intrusion, but it was an accident. I mean your people no harm.”

Firelord Zuk blinked and seemed surprised by the answer. “And what exactly is a paladin?”

Shiro frowned. “What?”

“And where is Voltron?” Zuko continued. “It does not sound like a Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom town.”

“It’s not a town,” Shiro began but then stopped himself. They had never heard of Voltron. Did that mean-

“Does the word ‘Galra’ mean anything to you?” Shiro quickly asked.

The Firelord’s eyes twitched. “You just said you were from Voltron? And now you’re saying you’re from ‘Galra’?! Which is it?”

Oh boy, Shiro thought. How do I explain this?

The older man sitting next to the Firelord cleared his throat. “Firelord Zuko, perhaps we should save this interrogation for later.”

The Firelord turned to the man and pointed to Shiro. “Why? We have him right here-”

“And you also have the meeting with the royal treasurer,” the man replied and pointed to Shiro. “You know how she does not like being late and I believe you will need more time to question Mister Shirogane.”

Firelord Zuko frowned and then sighed. “Very well,” he said and looked back at the guards. “Take him back to his cell for now.”

“Yes, my lord,” Jee said with a bow as Ling pulled Shiro up to his feet.

Shiro said nothing as he was escorted out of the room and stole one more glance at the Firelord.

Shiro didn’t know where he was, but he had a feeling it was going to be tricky to get back home.

1 Is this Lieutenant Jee from Zuko's crew during season 1? Yes. Do I think it would have been nice for his crew to reappear in the show at some point? Yes, I do. Did I decided to correct this by making him an Admiral and taking over Zhao's position. Yes, yes I did.

Notes: Normally I wait until I have the full story written, but I couldn't resist posting at least the beginning chapters I have. I can't promise a weekly schedule, but I will try to work and update it as much as I am able.A few notes. 1. This takes place right after season 2 of Voltron and partly during season 3, while on the Avatar side it takes place three years after season 3. 2. I am ignoring the Avatar comics simply because I really didn't care for how they turned out so don't expect any mention of them here. It's just based on the three seasons of the show. 3. Except for some background Sokka/Suki I'm not putting any ships in this. I got enough happening in this story, and I didn't want to be bog down by any romance. The canon ships just decided they were better off as friends for the time being.

[echodrops]

Home and a Half Pidge Headcanons

An ask I got yesterday reminded me that I never posted the HaaH headcanons for Pidge like I promised, so here they are! (I’ll answer the actual ask as soon as I can with some new material instead of headcanons I already had written... oops...)

Anyway, without further ado, some headcanons for Pidge related to my fic Home and a Half!

Pidge:

- Grew up in the picture of the nuclear family: mom, dad, two kids, dog, nice upper-middle-class house in a quiet neighborhood, dinner on the table at 7:30pm on the dot… Of all the paladins, Pidge had the most stable and “average” childhood… at least on paper.

 - In reality, there is not a single person in the Holt family who isn’t eccentric as fuck. Grandma Holt? May or may not still be an active intelligence agent for MI6. The dog? Woofs in Morse code. Auntie Ariana? Has actually seen the Jersey Devil. Colleen Holt? Has killed a man. If you ask Pidge, she’ll say that her upbringing was perfectly normal and she’ll genuinely mean it, but this is a consequence Pidge having no idea what “normal” even means.

 Rest under the read more to save your dash:

- Not actually a girly-girl when she was young. Although they’re eight years apart and thus unlikely to be mistaken for one another, very early on Pidge got frustrated by how similar she and Matt look, and she definitely did not want to wear his tacky hand-me-down clothes, so she pitched a royal fit and insisted on wearing dresses and hairbands so that her family would have to buy Pidge all her own things. (They probably would have bought them anyway if she’d just asked calmly, but Pidge was three at the time, and they were all very impressed by her grasp of cause and effect.)

 - Of course, when Matt disappeared on the ill-fated Kerberos trip, those tacky hand-me-downs ended up being some of the most important items in Pidge’s life. Even outside of infiltrating Garrison, wearing Matt’s old clothes was one of the few comforts Pidge would allow herself—when she cut her hair and put on his baggy shirts, for a second, looking in a mirror, she could almost convince herself he was still there—

 - Pidge has no intention of changing the way she dresses or styles her appearance until she’s reunited with Matt and her father. After that? Well, they may not be the coolest looking things ever, but Matt does have a point that baggy t-shirts are very comfy…

 - And okay, because I’m sure everyone expected this headcanon first: Pidge and gender is a surprisingly uncomplicated subject. Side note before I go further: I’m sure everyone has their own headcanons for this and none of what I say here should be taken as rejecting or invalidating any other fan’s views on Pidge. The only thing invalid in the Voltron fandom is canon. Anyway, I personally like to imagine that Pidge is very ambivalent on gender. There is so much else going on—the war, Sam and Matt being missing, freaking giant robot space cats—that sitting down and sorting out the question of “Do I identify as male, female, nonbinary, or anything else?” is just really, really low on Pidge’s to do list. Pidge thinks of Pidge as “Pidge” and even that’s rare because Pidge doesn’t sit around thinking about herself or what other people think of her.

 - In fact, what strangers think is, in general, extremely low on Pidge’s radar. Although she used to be more self-conscious due to bullying from both classmates and her teachers, the combination of her parents’ consistent support and Matt’s… extreme tactics (“I’m telling you Pigeon, nanobots in their lunches will solve all your problems.” “That’s illegal, Matt.” “Nothing is illegal until you get caught.”) Pidge (mostly) overcame the phase of being affected by other people’s opinions. Who cares what strangers think? Absolutely none of them will ever be even close to as smart and talented as her family anyway. (My IQ is three times yours, your argument about my gender is literally invalid.)

 - By the way, I’m using “her” simply because that’s what I’m used to seeing in the fandom and to keep the fic and headcanons consistent, but in the functional world of HaaH, Pidge answers to any pronouns and doesn’t have a preference for any set in particular over others. In fact, Pidge is used to going by different sets of pronouns coming from different people, and might be “he” to one person, “she” to another, and “they” to yet someone else. Pidge is just… Pidge.

 - Again, with the war and Voltron and missing family and literally everything else going on--and the fact Pidge is far more practical than all of the rest of her fellow Team Voltron members combined--she isn’t wasting time and energy doing something as troublesome as falling in love with an alien. (“Keith, can’t your melodrama wait until after we win the war?” “My drama waits for no man.” “Then please explain how you and Lance manage to engage in synchronized dumb-fuckery at least three times a week.”) Eventually, after life has settled down and Pidge has had some time to think about it, she’ll realize that the reason she somehow managed to avoid any romantic entanglements in space isn’t because she’s just much more mature than her teammates (although this might be true)—it’s that she’s just not really interested in romantic engagements with anybody, period. 

 - Pidge’s one true love is discovery; she feels far more passionate about knowledge and learning new things, encountering new puzzles, and grasping new concepts than she does about anything else. In between all her creations and codes and experiments and observations, it just doesn’t feel like there’s room—or that there needs to be room—for a romantic relationship with a real person.

 - Pidge will make room for friends though, if and when they insist on worming their ways into her life. She tends to be a fairly private person who has never really had a large friend group (back on Earth, before Garrison, there wasn’t anyone but Matt and her parents who really understood her, and she didn’t have much in common to discuss with children her own age), but once someone earns Pidge’s trust, she does open up and form close bonds and she will give her all to help and be there for her few, but close, friends.

 - Meeting Hunk at Garrison was a huge revelation. Up to that point in Pidge’s life she had never really met any young person outside her own family with a soaring genius-level IQ that was a match for her own. Although she and Hunk bicker frequently because their approaches to science are extremely different, she’s still over-the-moon to have someone who doesn’t stare at her like she’s talking gibberish whenever she goes off on one of her tangents.

 - If you ask Pidge, she will violently swear up and down that Lance never and in. no. way. reminds her of Matt, fills in for Matt in the lame-older-brother role, or helps her miss her brother just a little bit less. That did not happen, never had a chance of happening, what are you even talking about—

 - But if you ask about Shiro, she will be flat-out honest and admit she totally thinks of him as Space Dad. It’s not her fault. Shiro literally hero worships Sam Holt (still to this day!!) and may or may not have taken on more of his mentor’s mannerisms in order to fill the leadership role for Team Voltron. Sometimes Shiro will say or do something and Pidge will be absolutely dumb-struck because he got that from my dad is an actual thing she has to deal with.

- “Pidge” is actually a derivative of “Pigeon.” Everyone in the Holt family has a bird-based code name. Mr. Holt is Eagle Two.

 - People often get the impression that Pidge is scatterbrained because she can talk about ten different things at once and pounces on leaps in her own logic that other people just can’t follow, but her thoughts and speech are very organized. It’s not her fault you couldn’t understand her system of organization if you tried.

 - Put Pidge on the spot on a subject she doesn’t know, though, and watch the awkward jump right out. (“Oh, you meant the pop band Galileo, not the person. You know, that’s really an easy mistake to make. You can hardly blame me when you stop to consider all the similarities between modern chord progression and the trajectory of supermassive objects like—”)

 - And if it’s not awkward, it’s defensive. Pidge may be hyper-intelligent, but she’s still very, very young, and it’s hard not to get snappish when challenged by people whose opinions she really does care about. She has a far quicker temper than Matt (who is a “revenge is a dish best served cold” champion), a trait she shares with their mother. Colleen, in turn, blames it on her having been born in New Jersey. Pidge has flipped so many tables on the Castleship that Coran and Lance eventually went around and bolted them all down.

 - Do not even so much as hint that Sam and Matt Holt might be dead instead of just missing in space. Keith is still scared after his last attempt at reasoning with Pidge about her family’s fate.

 - Has a bad hoarding habit. Back on Earth she had her parents there to insist she clean her room at least once a week, but in space, things are getting a bit crazy. The Castleship closets and cabinets can hyper-condense their contents and she’s STILL running out of room for all the neat doodads and parts and scientific wonders she finds on their adventures across the galaxy. Is definitely in the “Look, there’s still a mostly clear path to the door; it’s fineee” category. It’s not like she finds it hard to let things go once she’s gotten attached to them or anything. Nope. Definitely not.

 - Pidge’s mess is absolutely of the “everything has a proper place” type though. Move anything with her name on it and you will feel her wrath.

- As the only one of the Earth paladins to have technology on her when they were unexpectedly swept off to war, everyone on the ship relies on Pidge’s laptop for their monthly dose of Earth nostalgia. Good thing for them Pidge and Matt’s pirating skills put Pirate Bay to shame, and she’s got basically every Earth movie from 1980 to the present. She even has every episode of the timeless classic F.R.I.E.N.D.S. (Keith hates that show with a burning passion that even he cannot explain.)

 - Speaking of technology Pidge had on Earth—every single person in the Holt family is (and has been for decades) aware of the existence of aliens. Pidge’s family tree has been involved in communications, radio wave technology, and interpreting space observations since those fields were first invented. When Earth first identified patterns of waves that obviously corresponded to alien communications going on outside Earth’s galaxy, Pidge’s great- great- grandfather was there. When world governments covered up the discovery, he was the loudest voice of dissent. Since then, the Holt family has been deeply involved in military and space operations across several countries, operating from within an oppressive system they fundamentally disagree with, using their positions of authority to monitor the Milky Way and beyond, keeping tabs on what the aliens might be saying—and what messages Earth might be inadvertently sending back.

 - Of course this is top secret work—secret even from the Garrison and government where the Holts were employed. Other kids learn how to play piano and soccer; Pidge and Matt learned how to hack virtually impenetrable military databases and hide their data behind uncrackable ciphers instead.

 - But the Kerberos Mission was supposed to be safe. They’d all monitored the chatter so closely—there hadn’t been anything hostile anywhere even near Earth’s galaxy, no sign at all of any technologically advanced race like the Galra in years and nothing about one little Earth mission that would disturb any other intergalactic travelers anyway… Why would they...

 - Pidge is surprisingly athletic for a self-professed nerd. With youthful energy to burn and a family to save, Pidge took to Allura and Coran’s intense Altean training like a duck to water, and while she’s not quite Shiro or Keith when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, she can definitely holds up better than Hunk or Lance.

 - Favorite color is actually yellow, and if Green wasn’t totally The Coolest™ lion, she’d be sort of salty about Hunk getting the Yellow Lion instead.

 - Absolutely capable of cursing up a blue storm, and hasn’t been friends with Hunk quite long enough yet to remember to censor herself around him all the time like Lance does with his “Holy crow!”s. She’s trying, dammit!

 - Big on pets. Gets attached to pet-shaped creatures (whether living or robotic) very easily. 110% kept the space caterpillars, who live happily free-roaming the piles of space junk in her bedroom. The space caterpillars and the space mice do not get along, however, as the space mice do not take well to having their status as the favored fuzzy team mascot squad threatened. In their micro-Cold War, which is occurring without any of the ship’s humanoid occupants being aware, the space caterpillars are currently winning.

 - The caterpillars’ names are Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton.

 - Remember that one post about Lance drawing angry brows on the space caterpillar and siccing it on Keith? I very much accept that as canon. Pidge was Not Happy™ when she found out what Lance had done and she is NOT letting anyone else near her caterpillars again any time soon. Is very, very careful not to let Niresh see the space caterpillars so that they don’t end up stolen right from under her nose.

 - Speaking of the kids, Pidge is super awkward with them and skedaddles at the first sign of tears. Next to Allura, there is probably not any member of the team worse suited to babysitting duty. That said, as someone who has lost members of her family in the war, Pidge is probably the member of the team who most directly understands Dulsara’s anger and the children’s loss. That doesn’t mean she’s really ready to let herself sympathize with the Galra though, at least not until she finds her own family first.

- Pulls all the most bullshit moves in Monsters and Mana. Whenever the team reminiscences on the truly legendary moments from their campaigns, somehow Pidge is the star in all of them.

And that’s all I’ve got for now!

[arinaco]

Role of the Dark Entity in the VLD series

Translated and edited by @ Nadezhda932

This short meta focuses on a very important element of the VLD series, completely overlooked as a result of the changes in S8. It never received any explanation, although it appeared in S3 for the first time. Namely - the Dark Entity (hereinafter - DE). I thought about its importance when I analyzed the scenes with Allura in Clear Day episode (S8Ep8) and came to interesting conclusions. But ... let's start in order. The first time DE appears in flashbacks, in the story of Coran (S3Ep7). When Alfor comes to visit his friend Honerva, she tells him that only one creature has responded to the signal she sent to the Rift. The creature was a small floating ball that Honerva placed in a flask. Alfor already then felt that it wouldn't end well, but the cycle of events, alas, was launched, and the alchemist king turned into a passive observer of the impending tragedy. At that time, we learned only one thing: that in the Rift between realities, where there's an endless stream of the purest quintessence, such dark creatures live. That is, for them the quintessence is a natural habitat and a natural source of nutrition, since there's simply nothing else there. And this is very (!) Important. Because you need to remember that in the ordinary world, the quintessence is only inside living beings: planets, flora and fauna. Moreover, the concentration of the quintessence inside living bodies is several times less than in the Rift. Just compare. We got to know what the raw quintessence looks like in the episode where paladins get to an imperial staging post (S1Ep12), and Keith tries to steal a vessel with a purple quintessence. The Red paladin is wounded in the arm and crashes into a flask of yellow - raw - quintessence. And having already escaped from the kind, sweet druid, he looks in amazement as, thanks to this yellow liquid, the wound on his hand heals right before his eyes (however, at that moment he was more alarmed by the purple tint of his own blood than by the very fact of healing).

The yellow flask is as tall as Keith, and the resulting violet one fits in the hand... 

Quintessence is the energy of life. The yellow quintessence is the energy that is present in an ordinary living organism in normal natural concentration (someone has more of it, someone has less of it, I don’t know what the process of its extraction is). It's weak, but completely harmless. It healed Keith without harming him.

One large flask of yellow quintessence produces a small flask of purified violet quintessence. And I think that even less is the more powerful blue. And in the Rift, the quintessence was in an absolutely pure - white - form, completely intolerable for normal living beings. Yes, the quintessence is the energy of life itself and can't kill (that is, according to the logic of the series, Lotor just couldn't die in the Rift), but this doesn't mean that its overdose will lead to good consequences. The purple quintessence made the warden at Beta Traz (S2Ep10) swell like a balloon; with the help of blue quintessence they created a real monster (S5Ep5); the pure stream burned Honerva and Zarkon's brains in just a couple of minutes, and melted Lotor like cheese in the microwave.

Nothing from our universe has been able to survive the passage through the Rift.

Because they deformed so much that they ceased to be themselves.

In some way it was lucky, because next to it was a delicious Altean alchemist. As we know, even an ordinary Altean produces quintessence more than other races, and a powerful alchemist turns into a walking battery. In addition, Zarkon visited his wife periodically and became an excellent addition to the main course.

As a result, when Alfor came to check on his friend, he was surprised to notice that she had lost interest in him and was overly enthusiastic about research. And even Zarkon, who was initially wary of research, now also supported it.

This is because the quintessence diet wasn't the only feature of the entity. Remember how it got to Honerva in the first place: the entity responded to the signal sent to the Rift, sent to search for intelligent races, which means that DE is in a sense a kind of intelligent creatures (which "predates time itself", S8Ep8). And due to the lack of material organs, most likely, the entities communicated with each other through telepathy. The entity possessed mental abilities and, seeing a stable source of power in Honerva, tried to keep her close to itself, and also influenced Zarkon so that he fully supported his wife's aspirations.

I thought we've discussed this. We must exercise caution. 

Alfor, belatedly realizing that it's not very smart to investigate an incomprehensible thing, tries to urge his friends to be careful. And it seems that at that particular moment he could have succeeded, because the DE's reaction to this statement was comparable to the reaction of an indignant cat - it immediately released the needles and hissed. And then, almost immediately, a whole wave of the entities poured out of the Rift. I think, it didn't like the new living space in the flask, and feeling a threat to life, the entity used its mental abilities and called for help.

Yes, if you think about it, then a fairly clear logical chain is built: Alfor showed aggression towards the entity - the entity was frightened - a whole wave of its relatives poured out of the Rift. They didn't just attack Daibazaal - they responded to the call for help. The entities clearly had a mutual mental connection, and maybe something like a collective intelligence. They even knew how to merge into a single organism that works no less harmoniously than Voltron.

As a result, literally a stone's throw from the capital, the planet was invaded by an army of dark creatures. Yes, Alfor and Honerva managed to stop the main stream, but who said they were able to trap all entities? Zarkon later stated that if urgent measures weren't taken, his people would be exterminated, which means that the entities had a chance to demonstrate their abilities. Perhaps only the security of the complex suffered, or maybe some of the creatures escaped from its borders, because there was a large lively city nearby. Having lost their natural source of food, the DE infiltrated the first victims, and the Galra died from exhaustion, since they didn't have a high level of quintessence like the Alteans. They literally turned into mummies in front of the doctors. The only thing that saved from the general pandemic was that it seemed that the entity couldn't leave the host itself and died with them, otherwise the DE would have jumped between the victims until they completely exterminated the Galra people (I'll explain a little later what led me to this idea). But not only the Galra were among the victims. Honerva said that Kova suffered from the influence of DE, and she had to treat him with quintessence. It was thanks to this that she discovered that the quintessence is the energy of life, capable of even giving immortality, and after such processing, Kova himself was able to survive even in outer space (S8Ep2). At that moment, Honerva believed that the entity simply hurt/badly affected her pet. No one could have imagined that DE isn't just an intelligent species, but capable of inhabiting living beings and even influencing their minds.

He revealed the truth to us.

Kova became unexpectedly aggressive towards Alfor in the absence of any clear reason.

And that was very bad, because Honerva herself became a victim of the parasite. She was an Altean and also an alchemist, and therefore at the beginning didn't even notice the "tenant". It ate hearty, almost without harming its feeder, even helped in some way - for example, it suggested to Honerva that the quintessence could save Kova from "illness", otherwise why would she even think of treating her beloved cat with a source of energy for ships and equipment? But. Just because an entity found a stable host doesn't mean that it was content with its position. The entity wanted to go home back to the Rift and began to influence its host to help in this. And therefore, after the death of the monster, despite all the troubles that it had caused, Honerva suddenly announced that she wanted to continue research. And Zarkon's behavior looks absurd at all: first, he demanded from Alfor to urgently use Voltron to save his people, and then almost immediately didn't care of Daibazaal's well-being and supported Honerva in her desire to continue working on the Rift.

My planet, my people ...

You would risk your entire planet, the entire solar system? For what? 

And all because the entity tried to take control of him too. It no longer just sat in a flask, as happened with its predecessor. It had a feeder in the form of a powerful alchemist, and it was able to draw energy from her in sufficient quantities to spread its influence. And although the influence on Zarkon was weaker than on Honerva, it was still present enough for the Galra emperor to blindly agree with his wife.

Unfortunately, Alfor never understood what was happening. He thought that the prospect of owning the quintessence had simply overshadowed Zarkon's eyes, he didn't notice how dramatically his friend had changed. And even after whole years, the alchemist king realized that something bad was happening only after visiting Daibazaal years later. Apparently, away from his wife, Zarkon behaved quite adequately, because he got rid of the influence of the essence. But next to her he became blind and deaf, repeating the words of his wife like a dummy. As a result, the paladins continued their heroism, and the entity continued to eat Honerva and influence Zarkon. And at first no one noticed the changes. After all, the Alteans in S8 also didn't notice that the entities were harming them. When Honerva informed Zarkon that she was expecting a baby, she looked gray-haired but still as young as when she first appeared on screen. The body of the great alchemist more or less coped with one parasite. But when the fetus grew and began to draw all the juices from the mother, Honerva's health deteriorated. And the mind too, because the entity, sensing the critical state of the host, began to worry and increased its pressure.

A huge difference with a timeline of several months.

Remember what Lotor said about his mother's logs. According to him, at the very end, the recordings were made... as if by another person. Feverish, insane and disorderly. Fear and paranoia appeared in them.

She's frantic, paranoid, erratic, her reason and intellect have gone.

But what could Honerva be afraid of? Where did she get paranoia? She was expecting a child and was happy with the thought that she would give the empire her son, knowledge and a bright future. And all because it wasn't her emotions. The entity sensed that its host was dying and panicked. DE was afraid for its life and was afraid that it would be revealed when the host became very bad. It panicked and at times even subdued the body, trying to write something itself.

Therefore, when Alfor received disturbing news about Daibazal's condition and decided to visit a friend, he saw Honerva aged and... not quite in an adequate condition. Not realizing that Zarkon and his wife were under the influence of the DE, the alchemist king quarreled with them and left, slamming the door, although he was probably the only one who could help them in this situation.

After the conversation, Honerva faints as her condition reaches a critical point.

Remember what Honerva said when Zarkon desperately asked how to help her? She said she needed quintessence. Because the entity sensed that the host wasn't doing well and broadcast signals for help. Honerva asked to open the Rift not because of a clouding of her mind, but because DE really wanted to return home and save its life.

Quintessence is life.

For Honerva and DE - literally.

If we collect all the scraps of her phrases together, then we get this:

"We must... we must have it...we must have it... get back, get back, get back... quin... quintessence... quintessence is life... into the R... into the Rift. We must... we must have Voltron. Voltron! Voltron! This is the only way"

And it can be understood approximately like this:

"We must return to quintessence in the Rift. The quintessence is life. We need Voltron, only this can help"

And... who are "we"? Zarkon, of course, thought to himself, but who said that Honerva was talking about him?

If Alfor knew what was happening, if he tried to help Honerva, he might have saved both the mother and the child, as Allura saved Tavo (S8Ep8). In our situation, events developed in a sad direction: Zarkon deceived his friends in a desperate attempt to save his wife. And look: when Zarkon climbed out of the Lion with Honerva in his arms, they were immediately surrounded by entities. Because they were waiting to take one of their kind home. They didn't attack the paladins first, they were just going to take Honerva. 

But one way or another, the DE's plan fell through. It remained inside Honerva, while Zarkon returned from the Rift with a burnt-out brain and a parasite inside. Actually, then even Lotor got the DE. The doctor noted that the child had the same strange energy background as the parents, and expressed concern that it wouldn't be possible to save the empress. Now there were already two entities and a child sitting inside - no wonder Honerva was getting worse and worse. And the poor nurse Haggar died simply because even the charge received from the Rift wasn't enough to survive Honerva. No alchemical gift was enough to cope with such a burden.

She only seems to become aware when we administer her Quintessence. 

From this it's possible to draw conclusions about how the “illness” proceeded in other people, and it's weighty to assume that the entity couldn't leave the host of its own accord, dying with them. Otherwise, the DE would have left Honerva as soon as she began to fade.

Honerva only survived because Zarkon took care of a constant supply of the quintessence for his wife. Now he himself turned into a feeder and needed nourishment from the outside, since he was neither an Altean, nor an alchemist. The entity inside him, like all its relatives who fell into this world, wanted to return home, and therefore gradually a manic desire developed in Zarkon not only to get more quintessence, but also to return Voltron, as the only weapon capable of opening the Rift again. That's why he considered the creation of Alfor so special and necessary, despite the fact that the empire itself perfectly coped with the spread of its influence in the universe.

Moreover, in this situation, it's worthwhile to clearly distinguish between the change in character of Zarkon and his mania. Since the change in character was due to irradiation with pure concentrated quintessence, and mania appeared due to the presence of a parasite.

How the entity influenced Lotor remains questionable. The statement that it's DE who made him extract energy from the Alteans can be dismissed at once: first, as a prince of the Galra, he could receive the quintessence in the official way in any quantity and even take a bath of quintessence every day; secondly, even before birth he was irradiated with pure energy, which not only endowed him with immortality, but also awakened the sleeping gift of the alchemist. That is, Lotor didn't need personal consumption of the quintessence. On the other hand, his quest to end his mother's research may seem a little intrusive... but only slightly when compared to Honerva's obsessive research. Lotor was cold-blooded and non-fanatic about development, believing that research could solve the empire's energy issue. Therefore, the most stable theory is that, having settled in an unborn child, the entity simply fell asleep and slept peacefully for ten thousand years, signing with the energy of its immortal host.

But let's get back to Honerva, as her postpartum changes affected the future of the entire universe. Having given birth to a son, Honerva got rid of two parasites at once and, thanks to the influx of quintessence, gradually returned to normal. She didn't remember her past, but at some point she managed to realize that "a guest worker" was sitting in her body. Perhaps this knowledge came to her during a crisis, when the entity tried to contact everyone and asked for help. Being a great alchemist, Honerva no longer just put up with the intruder and obey it, but, on the contrary, set her own rules. From a parasite, the entity turned into a subordinate symbiont and shared its abilities with Honerva. It was from DE that Haggar received the gift of influencing other people's minds and drawing energy from living beings, which led to the creation of the Komar. Before her, none of the alchemists possessed such talents, and only Allura showed similar skills after a Clear Day episode. Haggar ceased to be just a feeder, she began to purposefully use the entity for her own purposes, and it had only to obey. As you can see, Haggar supported Zarkon in everything, but at the same time she was inclined to destroy Voltron rather than use it, and this is a consequence of the fact that the DE lost its control over her, turning into a humble servant.

One of the questions I asked myself while watching the show was who the druids of Haggar were and why they worship her so much. The druids had similar abilities, and I couldn't help thinking that Haggar was conducting experiments on the Alteans and turning them into her minions. But in the light of these considerations, everything turns out to be much simpler: Haggar gave dark entities to her subordinates/laboratory assistants and taught them to use them. For them, it became a revelation and a special gift, and therefore they treated their high priestess with such respect, and the needs of the essence were easily satisfied with the quintessence available to them.

And by the way, the real Lotor couldn't know about all this, since he was born much later than the events on Daibazaal. Lotor was aware that Haggar was able to read other people's minds and therefore became a real paranoid, but had no idea about the nature of this ability.

Entities like this gave Haggar the ability to conquer the worlds...

Lotor just couldn't know about it either.

What does Lotor's degree of falsity have to do with it? And here we need to move on to the events of Clear Day episode and the scenes with Allura, which made me think about the importance of the DE for the plot. And yes, on Clear Day we meet a different prince than the one who accompanied us throughout most of the series. Remember the moment Tavo was saved. Sam put the entity in a flask, and the first thing the entity tried to do was to take control of Allura. But the fact that Sam interrupted the process doesn't mean that DE stopped there. It's hungry, it lost her host - well, how can you resist a walking battery right in front of your nose?

And all of Allura's dreams, all visions didn't just appear out of thin air. DE really wanted a new host for itself, it aimed at Allura and wasn't going to stop. And note an interesting point: the longer Allura was near the entity, the closer she was to it, the larger the DE became. How small it was after being removed from the Tavo, and how huge it became by the end of the episode. First, the DE dug at the very top of her consciousness, and saw regret for her motherland and mother, because Allura just turned off the hologram with her parents before going to bed. Then it dug a little more and saw Lance. And then it dug in the very depths, saw Lotor and realized that yes - it would work. 

Look at this frame and remember the frame with Honerva that I inserted above.

They (who edited S8) tried to show us that the terrible ghost of Lotor inclines Allura to something bad, but in reality Lotor didn't send anyone or anything. Lotor doesn't know alchemy and doesn't know how to control entities. How does he even know what kind of creatures they are? After all, he's a very proud man and will never beg anyone for himself. Why would he come and ask for help a woman who actually betrayed him and left him to die? The entity just wanted to eat and get a new host. And this whole performance with visions had one specific goal - to get Allura to free the parasite. And in order to achieve what it wanted, the DE showed Allura what she wanted to see. With these scenes, we were actually shown to whom at a given moment Allura had the greatest trust and affection, whom she wanted to see, and therefore they tried to either cut out or alter the scenes, because they clearly showed that memories of her mother became the main hook for Allura, and most importantly - Lotor. ...however, they didn't succeed. The scenes still look like Allura chased Lance away and indulges in  erotic dreams of Lotor... 

And laughing Lotor at the very end of the episode is the joy of the very DE that it achieved its goal. And it said to Allura "Follow me!" because in some way it decided to fulfill the desire of the new host. Want to chat with Lotor? I'll deal with it - in the end, my relative is sitting in him, and we have a mental connection with each other. And it was the understanding that such a connection between entities exists that allowed Allura to then penetrate into Honerva's mind. But first, Allura had to figure out that yes - there was a connection. And she could only figure out, only realizing that it was thanks to the presence of the DE inside that she was able to connect with Lotor. Does it look logical? It is logical. And I can easily imagine the beginning of their conversation, when Lotor is surprised at the appearance of Allura in his mind/dream, and she exclaims in amazement that he himself called her. A situation will arise that requires a retelling of the events that have taken place, which will make Lotor understand that now Allura is ready to listen to him and is capable of a reasonable dialogue. 

On the other hand, Alfor's worries becomes more justified. He was frightened not just by the self-will of his daughter, who decided to play with an unknown force. Before his eyes the example of his own best friend, who suffered from a parasite, arose, and after all, Honerva was an experienced and powerful alchemist. He was afraid that Allura would also become a victim of the entity, and therefore began to persuade his daughter to abandon the dangerous idea. Yes, Alfor was prone to hyper-custody, but he wasn't as bad a father as they tried to show us in S8.

But at what cost?

And after all that has been described, only one question remains: how did the history of the DE come to an end - but alas, it's no longer possible to find out, since the end of this storyline was simply cut off. Perhaps the entities managed to somehow come to an agreement with Allura, and she helped them return home, because in the end this is exactly what they wanted most.

Personally, I'm simply glad that, despite the flair of alchemy aka magic, Voltron turned out to be much closer to science fiction than to a space opera, and the events have a more weighty explanation than just a magical plot twist that arose at the behest of the screenwriter. A parasite from another reality, a higher mind as the last stage in the evolution of an intelligent being - these are quite classic elements of this genre, very elegantly blended into the outline of the series.

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt 94

94

Lance had fled. The cow crapped in his living room and that was that. He’d made it very clear Matt and Rieva were to scrub the floor clean or they wouldn’t be joining them all for dinner. Pidge and Hunk had a few things to finish up as it was, provided they’d get over the hilarity of Matt and Rieva gifting him a stolen cow. Naturally Hunk didn’t find the cow theft itself funny, only the absurdity and randomness of their now being a cow in the house... which was kind of funny, because no normal person would “relocate” a cow.

The rest of his presents had been marginally better. Rieva proved to be an okay gift giver if you didn’t think about the cow. She’d gifted him non-relocated plants, herbs for his garden and cat grass for Blue. Clearly her idea and not Matt’s who’d given him a “voucher” to join them in bed if his heats got too much. He’s tried to throw it out, but Matt rescued it for “safe keeping because you never knew”. Hunk normally gifted him garlic knots and cookies, a standard and tasty gift, that didn’t happen this year now that Hunk knew he was a vampire. His poor ray of sunshine gifting him a voucher to a department store in Platt, seeming guilty over not knowing what to give him. Lance didn’t mind. It was a practical gift, and lately Rieva and Matt had been wearing off on him. His bed turning into a mound of blankets and cushions, Rieva teasing him about nesting. He didn’t know what nesting was, only that he felt safe in his mounded up bed and seeing it was his house, he could do as he pleased. Pidge declared herself the best gift giver ever. He loved his gremlin, but could only groan at her present. She’d brought him a “vampire hunting kit” online. She was so proud of herself, thinking it hilarious. Lance did not. Trust pop culture to get a hunting kit wrong. There was some major eye rolling at the polished wooden stake in the box... God only knew what was in the enclosed vials that came with the kit, probably dye and water... though the crucifixes were pretty, so that was nice.

Lance didn’t think about the next predicament of what to do now that’d arrived in Platt so early. Dinner wouldn’t be until 6:30pm, so he’d head over to the nursing home around 5pm to spend some quality time with his Mami. It was a little after 11am now, meaning he couldn’t head to VOLTRON given they’d all be getting ready for the mission and he’d be underfoot. That didn’t stop him from parking in front of the bookshop out of habit. With three spare hours, he wanted to see Keith so badly it hurt. Pulling out his phone, he nearly screamed when someone tapped on his window, Krolia all smiles as if she hadn’t taken 10 years off his undead life.

Rolling the window down, Lance wasn’t sure what to say to her. All plans to get her and Keith on the same page hadn’t eventuated. His boyfriend struggling so hard with figuring out how to feel about his mother. It sucked. Lance wanted to take all that pain away, but the only one who could do that was Krolia herself

“Keith hasn’t come in yet, if you’re looking for him”

No. His boyfriend was probably still at his apartment but Lance didn’t want to park up out the front and make a scene

“I was going to give him a call... see if he wanted to get lunch or something before the mission”

“So he told you? Oh... that’s right, it’s your birthday today... Why don’t I take you to lunch, my treat”

Ummm... what?

“You don’t have to go out of your way...”

Lunch with Krolia didn’t seem safe... He didn’t want to step on Keith’s toes, or meet with Krolia behind his back

“Nonsense. It’s no trouble at all”

“I should let Keith know...”

“He’s the reason I thought we should talk. I don’t want to make things complicated between you... but he won’t listen to me. I just want to know how my son is doing”

Lance knew he was fucked. His fierce love for his Mami, and his family, made it impossible to say no. If he was estranged from his Mami, he could picture her asking his friends about him

“You know I can’t say no to that”

Krolia did. Her smile hadn’t wavered at all

“Excellent. I’ll let you choose the place, you know this city better than I do”

Please lord don’t let him be murdered for this... by Keith or Krolia... maybe Krolia... yeah, he’d rather be murdered than cause a misunderstanding between him and Keith. Fuck. His Mami always told him to be polite... and his Mami had hit it off with Krolia...

“Jump in. I think I know a place”

Lance was still quietly hoping for murder as he and Krolia sat inside the dimly lit pub. It was the same place they’d come as a group after the others had learned his secret. The pub itself wasn’t that poorly lit, but he’d tried to pick somewhere kind of unnoticeable from the door. Sitting on one side of the booth, Krolia slid herself in on the other side, picking up the menu

“You look tense. Don’t worry about Keith”

He was pretty sure worrying about Keith was now a default setting, right up there with over thinking

“How can I not? I feel wrong meeting with you when he’s still trying work out his feelings”

“You care about him a lot, don’t you?”

Lance supposed it wasn’t as obvious to Krolia... in fact, she probably thought it was weird

“Very much. That’s why... I don’t want to get between the two of you”

“Keith has made it clear that he doesn’t want to know me”

What kind of crap was that?! Keith was dying to connect with Krolia

“That’s not true”

“Let’s go ahead and order. Do you... eat?”

“I can and I do”

“Excellent. Now, what’s deep fried and covered in grease?”

Lance ordered a salad, with a nonexistent appetite, it was something he could pick at. Krolia ordering a steak burger so raw the meat reminded him of his new cow... that wasn’t his cow and he was in no way attached to. Her plate loaded with fries, and her drink of choice a chocolate milkshake. Not what he expected

“Do you want a fry? You’re staring”

He didn’t mean to stare. No one told him that his birthday was going to take this unexpected turn

“I’m fine, thanks...”

“Then loosen up. You might be a stiff but don’t tell me you have a stiff sense of humour?”

“My sense of humour is fine. I’m just not sure what I’m doing here”

“I want to get to know the man my son’s dating”

“If you want me to break up with Keith, that’s his choice to make”

Krolia dipped a fry in her milkshake, sending drops flying as she shook it

“Whoa. Hold up. Okay. No. Keith is well and truly able to make his own choices... I’m making a mess of this”

He couldn’t talk to Krolia like she was a regular person. The Blades were all weird. He needed to remember Keith’s initial social weirdness and work around it

“No... no. I’m being cranky. I feel like I’m breaking Keith’s trust and it’s not a great a feeling. Your son... he’s amazing. He really is. He’s so smart and funny. He’s complicated and awkward, but he’s so... You’re missing out. He wants to know you, but he’s scared of being alone. He gets scared when he feels out of control and lashes out. Thinking that it’s better to push everyone away before they get to see how much he’s hurting. He gets lonely really easily. And he’s so sweet. Even if our first date was a bit weird, he’s always trying his best”

Lance gushed. Word vomit came easy when he thought of all the ways that made his boyfriend made him happy. Keith wasn’t a perfect human, he had many flaws, like his failure to work without coffee, but Lance wasn’t perfect either. That was the thing about love though. They both knew they weren’t perfect but together they were muddling through it, while working on themselves as they did

“Do you want to see something?”

Lance had no idea where that question was going

“Okay?”

Pulling out her wallet, Krolia passed it over. Lance taking the silent hint to open it. Finding a well worn piece of paper in the back, his fingers shook as he pulled his out. A happy family staring back at him. Krolia, so in love with her partner, a mother’s smile on her lips at Keith, bundled in his father’s arms

“We don’t keep a lot of personal items being Blade members. The newer generation does, but we’re all prepared to die. Every mission I’ve been on, that photos waited for me to come home to. Giving them up broke my heart. It took everything I had not to go back. I really thought Keith would have a better life if I wasn’t there”

“Have you shown him this?”

“No. He wouldn’t listen if I tried”

“Then you need to keep trying”

“Maybe...”

Whatever Krolia was thinking was wrong

“My family isn’t happy. I know what it’s like to have distance and it fucking sucks. Keith... he always feels like no one sees him as anyone other than your son or Shiro’s little brother. He wants... he wants to be accepted how he is and who he is. Krolia, he’s such a good man. He really is. I always kept a distance. I never ever thought something like me could have the love of someone as amazing as him. He wants to know about you. About his dad. What you like. How you became a Blade member. He wants to be closer to you. I shouldn’t be saying any of this because I don’t want to be in the middle of it, but I will always, always be on his side. I can’t forgive you if you hurt him. I can’t. I can’t even cope with him liking me because he’s just... he’s just Keith and he’s amazing how he is”

“I don’t know how to tell him. He was so cute as a child. He had this purple hippopotamus that he’d carry everywhere. His father couldn’t send me updates on him, but... He was the sweetest little thing. He loved that hippo so much. He loved riding on his dads shoulders... he... he was so cheeky, so happy... he’d probably hate the memory if he knew that hippo came from me. You know, his dad named him. I wanted to call him Yorak, but he wouldn’t have it. And I wouldn’t have Keith any other way”

Keith wouldn’t hate the memory. Any memory Krolia could share with him was a memory Keith had lost along the way. Krolia really did love Keith

“I know it’s old and cliche, but if you can’t find the words write them down. And this photo, this photo would bring him so much comfort. He doesn’t talk about it, but I know he’s lost most of the memories of his dad”

Krolia went silent for a bit. Lance had really meddled too much. He’d said more than he wanted to, and this meeting really was hurting his heart because he felt so guilty that Keith didn’t know about it

“Maybe”

Her reply didn’t give him much

“Can I call Keith? I really don’t feel comfortable”

“Yeah. I only really wanted a chance to meet you alone to see what you thought of Keith and if you were serious with dating him. He’s precious to me. Leaving him has broken me like nothing else ever has. Anything else is a bonus. I’m glad my son has someone who sees him... even if you’re old enough to be his father”

“Don’t remind me. I have no idea what he sees in me”

He was dead. Old. Grumpy and didn’t like crowds... he didn’t have much to offer

“I think I have some idea”

Shiro answered Keith’s phone, explaining that Keith was busy. Quickly Lance unloaded on him that he was at lunch with Krolia and wanted Keith to know so there wouldn’t be a misunderstanding. Shiro sounded surprised, then understandably nervous about telling Keith.

Half an hour passed before Curtis, Shiro, and Keith arrived at the pub. Keith ready to explode into a fit of rage

“What the hell?!? What do you think you’re doing?!”

Lance flinched. Yep. This was why he was scared of...

“I’m sorry...”

Huffily, Keith crossed his arms. Lance unable to look at him. He’d known this was wrong. He felt physically sick...

“I wasn’t talking to you. I know this had to be mum’s idea”

Krolia defending him had Lance sliding down in his chair

“Don’t be mad at him. The whole time he was here he wanted to call you”

“Maybe he should have done that to begin with, or maybe you shouldn’t have kidnapped my fucking boyfriend”

“Babe...”

“No. I know you would have agreed because you’re too nice. I’ve been stressing all morning and now you’re having lunch with her”

Lance didn’t mean to turn on the waterworks. Keith was lashing out and every comment felt like a hit to the gut. All he’d really wanted was a nice simple day with Keith on his birthday

“Keith, I think that’s enough”

Placing his hand on Keith’s shoulder, Shiro seemed to know how Lance felt. He knew that Lance didn’t want to be here and how much it hurt to feel like he was betraying Keith

“I’m sorry... I know. I know. I didn’t want to be in the middle of you and your mum. I know I fucked up”

Sliding out the booth, Lance blindly pulled all the bills out his wallet, leaving them on the table before slipping past Keith. This was another bad birthday in a long line

“Lance”

Keith called his name softly, Lance looking at his boyfriend through a fresh wave of tears

“I’m sorry... I’m so sorry I hurt you”

Once again he was fleeing... with absolutely no place to go other than to his Mami because he’d really done it this time.

*

Keith knew he was acting out. He knew and the words still came out. What was his mother thinking taking Lance to lunch like this?!

“This is the part where you’re supposed to go after him. He only met with me because I wanted to talk about you, and get to know him better”

“You had no right”

Yeah. Keith knew this. Lance couldn’t say no because he had a stupidly big heart. That’s what made him such an idiot crumpet. His boyfriend was trying to let them work this out for himself but Keith couldn’t.

Pushing her empty plate towards Lance’s barely poked at salad, Krolia twisted to face him properly

“What am I supposed to do when you keep shutting me out? I want to be in your life. I want to learn about you from you. I thought maybe we could have a nice lunch and talk. That’s all. That man seriously loves you. He said repeatedly he didn’t want to meddle and you should have heard how he talked about you. You need to go after him and apologise”

Like his mother would be the first one he’d listen too about relationship advice. He already knew he had to apologise. He didn’t need her telling him

“What would you know?”

“Because I know how devastating it is to miss your opportunity!”

Keith didn’t know what to say to that. Shiro’s hand was digging into his shoulder now. They all had regrets. Things said and left unsaid... He shouldn’t have blown up at Lance. He knew he shouldn’t have. Triply so on his boyfriend’s birthday

“I don’t know where he could have gone”

“He was parked in front of VOLTRON when I ran into him”

Keith shook his head at his mother

“Lance knows we have a mission today and wouldn’t want to be in the way”

“Where else would he go?”

“I talked to Pidge before and he wouldn’t be going back to Platt. Rieva and Matt stole a cow and Lance wasn’t happy at all over it”

So his boyfriend was already having a bad birthday before Keith made it worse

“Perhaps he went to Miriam? If he knew he couldn’t see Allura or Coran at the moment?”

Curtis was a genius. Lance had to be headed to see his Mami

“Shiro, I need your keys”

“I don���t know if I should let you drive...”

“Give me your keys or your collectables get tossed”

Shiro’s eyes went wide as he pulled away

“You wouldn’t. Not my limited collectables...”

Fuck the stupid things. He had to apologise for being a douche canoe

“I would for Lance. I need to... I need to see him”

Shiro pulled his keys out, passing them over

“Don’t forget you need to be at VOLTRON at one”

“I’ll be there”

As Shiro passed his keys over, his mother cheered him on

“Go get your man!”

*

Keith felt awkward about visiting the nursing home without Lance beside him. The staff kind of recognising that he’d been there, so all it took was a quick explanation before he was signed in and shown through to the garden area where Lance was cuddles up with his mother. This felt like a terrible idea on his behalf. Lance probably never wanted to talk to him again. He was so fucking good at ruining things. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Keith slowly walked over to the pair. Miriam holding Lance as Lance cried softly against her shoulder. Shit. What if Miriam hated him for making Lance cry? He hated him for making his boyfriend cry.

“Mijo, you have a visitor”

Miriam offered him something that wasn’t a smile, nor was it a frown. All Keith could describe it as was a “mum look”. Yeah. He’d fucked up, and she knew that he knew, and he knew she knew and now he was expected to do something about it

“Babe...”

Lance clung to his mother. Miriam sighing at him

“Mijo, you can’t ignore Keith”

“He wants to break up because I hurt him”

Miriam glanced at him around Lance

“That’s the clearest he’s been since he showed up. Would you like to explain what happened?”

Keith sighed. He really wanted to sit on the other side of Lance and cuddle him until he calmed down

“My psychotic mother kidnapped him for lunch and he was too nice to say no”

“Lunch sounds like a lovely idea”

Was Miriam messing with him, or did she think he and Krolia were suddenly going to besties

“It would be if it wasn’t my mother’s attempt at meddling”

Miriam smile fondly, moving her hand to pat the spot behind Lance

“It’s a mother’s job to meddle within reason...”

That was Miriam meddling. Sitting on the edge of the bench, Keith’s stomach was a pit of nerves as he rested his forehead against Lance’s shoulder, hand moving to rest just past Lance’s elbow

“I deserved to be punched in the dick”

Lance sniffled loudly, hiccuping as he wrestled his tears under control

“I don’t want to be in the middle. I want you two to work it out together. I know it was wrong... but she wanted to know if you’re okay... and I got to see a photo of your dad... she really fucking loves you and I don’t want to pressure you... and I don’t want you to keep fighting. I want you to be happy. Stupid Matt and Stupid Rieva stole a cow. Pidge dressed as a vampire. Hunk didn’t give me food because he thinks I don’t like eating normal food. You’ve got a mission. Our whole night was changed. And you were so mad at me”

That was a lot of “ands”. Lance didn’t seem to be having a good day at all, or everything he’d been trying to laugh off he couldn’t cope with now Keith had messed up. He was mad. Mad. Scared. Confused. Hurt. Betrayed. And a dozen different words that made his heart race at the sight of them together at the pub

“I was... am... I just don’t see why you’d go out to lunch with her, or why you didn’t tell me sooner. You can’t let her bully you”

Smooth. Real. Fucking. Smooth. Maybe he could go on his mission and just not return? Perhaps the ground would swallow him whole so stopped being such a dick?

Lance placed his hand over Keith’s, still talking at mami’s chest rather than Keith

“But she’s your mum. I... I want to know more about you and her. I’m 19 years older than you. I’m not cool, or hip, or rad, or whatever the word is these days... I know you hate having to talk everything out... and I know you both are awkward as hell... but you’re hurting and I hate it”

“That’s not your pain, babe”

“It is because it’s yours. I want to be the one you lean on, not the one you feel you have to keep secrets from. I know it’s hard for you, and I felt so rotten that I couldn’t tell you before we talked”

“I’m the one who overreacted. I know you’ve got a good heart and I shouldn’t have snapped. It really hurt seeing you able to talk with her”

“I could barely say anything right. Please don’t be mad. I told her if she can’t find the right words to say to write them down. It doesn’t make up for her leaving, and what she says isn’t my business. I’m not trying to force you to talk her. You’ve got to move at your own pace and be ready when you do”

Keith knew that. He knew Lance respected him enough to handle this on his own and that his boyfriend only wanted what was best for him. It was a little early, but he really wanted some time with Lance before the mission

“Mami, do you mind if I borrow Lance?”

“Heaven’s no. You two make up properly or neither of you get dessert tonight. I must say I’m looking forward to dinner”

“I hope you don’t mind. When I organised it, it was supposed to be just the three of us”

“Lance isn’t very good at handling his birthday... or his friends. Don’t worry about me, as long as you two work this out”

“We will. I’m sorry I upset him”

“Couples fight. Making up is the fun bit”

Lance snorted wetly, Keith didn’t know what kind of face to make when Mami was hinting at sex so openly

“Mami!”

“Go have a good time with your boyfriend. I’m very proud of you, Mijo. Happy birthday, my precious little boy”

“Mami, I’m 45”

“And you’ll always be my precious little boy. Go on. I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time with Keith”

Lance seemed lost as they walked back to where they’d parked, Keith finding a spot across from Lance. Almost shyly he asked

“What do you want to do?”

His boyfriend was too cute

“I’ve got the hotel key... I know it’s early, but I’ve still got time before the mission. It’s your birthday, and I really want to spend some time with you”

“You haven’t even said it”

“That’s because I’m waiting until we’re at the hotel. You want to lead and I’ll follow? You’re probably better at finding this place again...”

A smile finally crept across Lance’s lips

“You do have a habit of getting lost”

“Directionally misplaced. Get your phone out and I’ll send you the address”

“Sounds good... babe... I really am sorry”

Keith couldn’t not hold his boyfriend. Wrapping his arms around Lance, he melted into the hold

“I’m sorry too. There’s no excuse for how I acted”

“I get it... I’ll see you soon?”

“Yeah, babe”

[voltrontranscript]

VForce E2: Defenders of Arus

Episode 2: Defenders of Arus

Transcript by @dragonofyang

Summary: Cadets Vince and Daniel begin their training on Arus, where they meet another cadet named Larmina. Meanwhile, Keith evades capture by Wade’s troops with the help of Hunk and Pidge. On Doom, Commander Kala and Maahox revive King Lotor and prepare an assault on Arus.

[Google Doc]

Drule Captain: Commander Kala, we’ve reached safe distance barrier from the Haggarium quasar.

Kala: Proceed with the sample acquisition. You have failed me, captain. Maahox, your attempts to harness the power of the Haggarium quasar seem futile and have cost a good portion of the fleet.

Maahox: Yes, yes.

Kala: I told you that if it didn’t work this time I would destroy you. Your irritating smile suggests you doubt my conviction to follow through.

Maahox: No, Commander Kala, quite the contrary. It is my faith in your conviction to squash the life from me that has me beaming. For you see, it seems our captain hasn’t failed us after all. In fact, I believe he’s become part of the solution.

[Transition to opening sequence, with an electric guitar playing under the following lyrics.]

Woo!

One, two, three four!

Voltron’s here, kicking down your door!

Five, six, get with it.

We blaze ‘em with the sword and they can’t get away.

Seven, eight.

We’re bringing down the hurt so we’re here to stay.

Nine, ten, we here to win.

Voltron’s here, let the games begin!

Oh! (Let’s Voltron!)

Oh! (Let’s Voltron!)

Oh! (Let’s Voltron!)

Form up, let’s go!

All night! Let’s go!

Alright, we gonna rock (rock!) and roll (roll!)

Now to rock (rock!) and roll (roll!)

Oh!

[Transition to the Castle of Lions on Arus.]

Allura: ...and we’ll conclude our tour in the castle control room where all of the Voltron missions are planned.

Daniel: Are these the doors to the lions? Can we see them?

Allura: All in good time. However, right now you’ll be going through this door to your top-secret classroom.

Daniel: Wow, our top secret classroom. Looks a lot like a classroom.

Allura: It’s equipped with just enough to suit its educating purposes.

Vince: So, there’s a third desk?

Larmina: Oh, yay. Classmates.

Vince: Well, she seems nice.

Daniel: Yeah, real nice.

Allura: Ahem. Vince, Daniel, I’d like you to meet my niece, Larmina.

Lance: Well played, knuckleheads.

Allura: As you all know, the Voltron force is made up of five separate lions that are strong individually, but are much more powerful when they come together to form the mighty Voltron. Unity is our core. These are your voltcomms. Over time you will learn all of their practical applications, but it is more than a mere tactical device. It is your link to the lions, and more importantly to each other. As I activate each of you with the power of a lion, you’re becoming part of a team. Part of the Voltron legacy. I welcome you and turn you over to Lance who has the great responsibility of teaching you how to carry this honor.

Lance: Thank you. Well, now that we’re all part of the Voltron elite, let’s begin our first class with a pop quiz.

Vince: Huh?

Larmina: Come on.

Daniel: I thought this school was about piloting the Voltron lions!

Lance: There’s a lot more to being part of the Voltron force than piloting the lions. We’re gonna test your hand-to-hand combat skills to see what we’re working with. Who wants to go first? Which of you gentlemen would like to fight the lady?

[Scene change to Keith flying Black Lion.]

Pidge: Keith, I’ve been running some diagnostics. Whatever Wade did to your lion at his secret research facility really screwed it up. The weapons systems are completely down. The power’s almost drained.

Keith: Tell me something I don’t know.

Pidge: You need to get back to Arus to recharge, but you’ll never make it flying at combat levels.

Keith: Well, it’s a good thing I’m not.

Pidge: Yeah, about that…

[Scene change to the training deck in the Castle of Lions.]

Vince: You hit her.

Daniel: I’m not gonna hit a girl.

Vince: I don’t wanna--ah!

Larmina: I’ll take you both on.

Daniel: Woah.

Lance: You ladies haven’t been in a lot of fights, have you?

Vince: No.

[Scene change back to Keith in Black Lion.]

Keith: Of course Wade installed a tracking device. Can you disable the signal before they reach me?

Pidge: No, I can’t seem to pinpoint the beacon’s location in the lion. They’re going to catch up to you.

Keith: When?

[Scene change to Wade in his office.]

General: Sir, our fractals have the target in sight and are about to engage.

Wade: Command the pilots to prove their worth and recover that lion in as many pieces as necessary. You’ve already lost it once, general. Have you located the former Voltron Force members now under my employment? I’d like to question them personally.

General: No, sir. They all seem to be AWOL.

[Cut to Pidge at a large computer in the Den.]

Pidge: Don’t worry, Keith. Hunk and I have been working on a contingency plan. We just need a bit more time.

Computer: Attention. The following individuals are to report to Security.

Pidge: Uh, I’ll get right back to you.

Keith: Right back to me? Are you kidding?

Pidge: Oh, you might want to take evasive action about now.

[Cut to Keith in Black Lion.]

Keith: What? Oh, boy.

[Cut to Pidge and Hunk in a tow-ship.]

Pidge: Download Den intelligence report.

Hunk: Downloading to tow-ship.

Pidge: Wha--? Haggar? Keith? It’s worse than we thought.

[Scene change to Planet Doom.]

Maahox: Welcome back, King Lotor.

[Scene change back to the cadets on the training deck.]

Vince: Man…

Larmina: Anytime you’re ready to start. 

Vince: Yeah!

Larmina: Cheap playground trick? That’s all you got?

Daniel: Hey, who’s the one on their butt?

Larmina: You, in about two seconds.

Lance: Alright, let’s just review your test results, shall we?

Daniel: Wait, you graded that?

Lance: No, your voltcomms did. You guys have no idea how cool these things are. Pretty soon, you’ll just think something and the voltcomm will automatically do it.

Daniel: It can read our minds?

Vince: Psh. No, dude. It must read our body’s signals. Minor muscle movements, adrenaline levels, blood pressure, and associate those with specific voltcomm functions. Probably some form of biometrics.

Lance: I was just gonna say it’s magic. It picks up on your natural talents and abilities, then adapts to strengthen them. In this case, I wanted to see what weapon it picked for each of you based on your fighting abilities. Larmina, hit this button.

Vince: Nice… stick?

Larmina: I like my stick.

Lance: Uh-huh. And how about you boys?

Daniel: What do I do with these? Reow. Whoa!

Lance: Okay, we’ll have to work on that one. Let’s see what the ol’ voltcomm has in store for you, Vince.

Vince: What is happening?

Lance: Uh, Pidge’ll look at that, too.

Larmina: Must’ve been impressed with your combat skills.

Lance: Ah-ah, I wouldn’t talk too much smack before your second period class, which is definitely more Vince’s dojo.

Daniel: More simulators, huh?

Vince: Oh! This is much more than a simulator. It’s a lion simulator.

[Scene change to Keith in Black Lion.]

Keith: Pidge, you gotta warn the others, but I’m gonna need some sort of distraction here. Without weapons, all I can do is outrun these guys. And I can’t do that for long.

Pidge: I know. I’m working on something. Here, it looks like there’s an asteroid field nearby. You can try and lose them in there.

Keith: Little game of cat and mouse.

[Scene change to Castle Doom.]

Lotor: I feel… a strange sensation running through my veins.

Maahox: That’s only natural, having just been raised from the grave with the power of Haggarium.

Lotor: Haggarium. As in the witch, Haggar?

Maahox: The very essence of Haggar, my lord.

Lotor: Yes! I feel the dark energy. How ironic. Haggar’s power giving me life. You call me your lord, yet I know neither of you.

Maahox: Forgive me, this is Commander Kala from the planet Darkor. What she lacks in personality she makes up for in tactical brilliance and bloodlust.

Lotor: Charming. And you?

Maahox: I am Maahox, master of experimental occult sciences and exile from Calum. These titles are related.

Lotor: Well, exile and commander, I imagine you feel I am indebted to you for bringing me back into existence. I also assume that means you want something from me.

Maahox: We can all benefit from each other. I’ll go into the details once you’ve adjusted to reanimation. For now, just know that a common hatred has brought us together.

Lotor: Voltron…

[Scene change to the cadets in the simulators.]

Vince: This is amazing!

Larmina: Woah!

Daniel: It feels like the real deal, but there’s really only one way to tell. Awesome!

Larmina: Well, I hate this techy stuff. I’d much rather be beating you up in real li--

Vince: My dojo.

[Cut to Lance and Allura watching the simulation on the bridge.]

Lance: I really like these goons, but I don’t get why you wanted me to bring them here now.

Allura: Wiser forces than myself have set this in motion.

Pidge: Allura! Lance! You guys there?

Allura: Pidge! Is everything okay?

Pidge: No. You better see this. And this.

Allura: We need to step up the curriculum.

[Scene change to Castle Doom.]

Lotor: The Voltron force. They nearly succeeded in destroying me! Now they must pay.

Maahox: All part of Kala’s brilliant plan already set in motion. Please, my lord, today is your re-birthday. You should sit back and enjoy our present to you. A neatly-packaged gift on its way to Arus.

[Cut to Keith in Black Lion.]

Keith: Lance taught them well. Luckily, I’m a better pilot than Lance.

Pidge: We need to disable Wade’s tracking device or you’ll never lose them. If I use their signal feed to hone in… Yeah! Got it! I found the beacon location.

Keith: It’s not like I can crawl down there at the moment, Pidge. It’s time for this cat to chase the mice.

[Scene change to the bridge of the Castle of Lions.]

Allura: We believe a dark evil is rising. We also believe each of you are going to be part of the force that defeats this evil.

Daniel: Why us?

Allura: Because you have been chosen to-- It’s a robeast coffin!

Lance: Already? It can’t be. We need to take out the lions and investigate.

Daniel: Cool!

Lance: No. Not cool. You guys stay here. Are you cool with this? Activating the lions breaks strict Galaxy Alliance sanctions. Arus will face consequences.

Allura: We have no choice.

[Scene change to Keith in Black Lion.]

Keith: Come to me. Closer… Closer… 

Pidge: Keith! The beacon signal’s gone. How’d you knock it out?

Keith: I didn’t. He did.

[Scene change to Wade in his office.]

General: Sir, they’ve lost the Black Lion.

Wade: Incompetent fools.

General: And there’s more. We’ve just received confirmation that the red and blue lions have been activated on Arus.

Wade: What? How? The keys, fakes! I am through with human error.

[Scene change to Keith in Black Lion.]

Keith: I better get back to Arus while I still can. Pidge, send me the--Pidge! I’ve lost power.

Pidge: Keith! Keith, do you copy? We’re almost there! Keith?

Allura: Pidge, our security detected a robeast coffin landing on Arus. Lance and I are going to investigate.

Pidge: Alright, we’ve got Keith in our sight. We’ll be there as soon as we can.

[Cut to Arus.]

Allura: That may not be soon enough.

Lance: I think I imagined a more romantic reunion with the lions. I take it back. I think the two of us just shared a beautiful moment.

Allura: No offense, but I wish the whole team were here to share it with us.

[Cut to the cadets on the bridge.]

Daniel: We can’t just sit here!

Vince: What can we do? No way, Daniel. Maybe the others are almost here.

[Scene change to the tow-ship.]

Keith: Not a lick of power in him, is there?

Vince: Pidge! What’s your ETA?

Pidge: Doing the best we can!

Vince: Well, hurry. Lance and Allura really need your help.

Keith: Um, who was that?

[Cut to Blue and Red Lions on Arus.]

Lance: Looks like we’re going to have to engage him as a twosome. You ready?

Allura: Cover me.

Lance: Allura! No!

Allura: Lance! Lance, are you okay? Lance!

[Cut to the cadets on the bridge.]

Daniel: That’s it! We gotta do something. Woohoo! Time to go fast. Aw yeah!

[Cut back to Red and Blue Lions facing the robeast.]

Allura: Hunk?

Daniel: Uh, not exactly. Eat laser! Whoops. Uh, how about now?

Allura: Daniel!

Daniel: I know, I know. Sorry! I don’t know the weapons, but I can still fly.

Lance: Daniel, what are you--

Allura: Lance, are you okay?

Lance: I think my arm is broken, but I still got some fight in me. At least there’s three of us now.

[Cut to the tow-ship and Black Lion.]

Keith: Guys, I gotta get down there. Is there any way to speed this up?

Pidge: Only if we get some power to the lion to help propel it. But we don’t have a source capable of…

[Cut to Arus.]

Allura: If we keep working together, we can keep this beast on its heels.

Lance: Yeah, but does anyone have any ideas how to get it off its heels?

Daniel: Don’t look at me for strategy, unless you want cheap playground tricks.

Lance: You’re a genius, Danny-boy. Allura, maintain your position. Daniel, let’s play.

Daniel: Yeah! Knocked you down on your ro-butt!

Lance: Nice, but not the time to gloat. Pin it!

Allura: We need to pin that other arm. We need another lion.

Vince: Did somebody say “another lion”?

[Cut to the tow-ship and Black Lion.]

Pidge: Alright, that should hopefully transfer all the lion power from your voltcomm into--it worked! Great! Now, wait, you don’t have enough power to hear me because your voltcomm is dead. Punch it, Hunk!

[Cut back to Arus.]

Allura: Come on, guys, concentrate! You’re a team. You can do it!

Vince: Here. You control the jaws while I take the legs.

Larmina: Like this?

Vince: Yeah!

[Cut to Black Lion.]

Keith: Come on, we’re almost in Arus’ gravitational pull! You can do it!

Pidge: It’s dead again. We need to try something else.

Hunk: Try it my way, with some muscle.

Pidge: What are you--

Hunk: Keith! Get ready to do your hero thing!

[Cut back to Arus’ surface.]

Lance: I can’t get a shot without losing my grip. Come on, guys, concentrate!

Daniel: We’re losing him!

Vince: Okay, I think we got it!

Allura: We need our whole team. Where’s--

Lance: What was that?

Keith: Come on! Hold!

Allura: Keith!

Lance: It’s good to see ya, old pal. You’re still rocking the mullet? Man, you have been underground for a long time.

Allura: Yeah, we’ll have to do something about that. Where are Pidge and Hunk?

Pidge: Did we get ‘em?

Allura: Pidge! You’re okay! Yes, yes, we did.

Pidge: Great. Now you wanna come get us?

[Scene change to the Voltron force and cadets standing in the bridge.]

Hunk: Hey, nice haircut. About time.

Lance: You did real good today, Dan-man, even though you lost your head.

Daniel: At least I didn’t lose my arm.

Lance: Ha. Come on. Hey, Keith. I wanna introduce you to my new hero.

[Cut to Castle Doom.]

Lotor: What was that?

Kala: King Lotor, that robeast defeat was part of my plan. It was a relic from your days: a minor challenge to bring Voltron back into the open. We have something much more powerful in store.

Maahox: What you and your predecessors failed to realize is that some of the best raw material for robeasts isn’t found in your battle arena, but in nature herself.

Kala: Eons of evolution perfecting efficient, savage predators.

Maahox: Yes, but the problem with these creatures is that they lack the brain capacity for reason. For strategy. Which is why we need to give this to our next generation of Haggarium-powered robeasts. My own evolution.

Kala: This wasn’t part of my plan! What--what did--ah!

Maahox: No, but it was part of mine. Don’t fight it, dear commander. I promise you’ll love what I’ve done with you.

Lotor: Yes, and so will the Voltron force.

End.

[dumbepiphany]

26 Klance Fanfiction Recommendations

There is a heck of a lot of good Klance fanfiction out there. And while some may be easy to find because of how popular they are, there are many others that are buried in the depths of ao3 that I feel like more people should be reading!!

A lot of these are quite popular fics that you probably would have heard of already, but I hope there’s something in here that’s new, and that you’ll enjoy reading!

All are recommended for Teen And Up Audiences, so please be mindful!

1. Hearts Don’t Break Around Here

By Klancekorner on AO3

Description: Lance and Keith have been best friends since first grade. Lance’s brain is always on overdrive and Keith’s blunt, realistic ass can never keep up. They both come to realize that sometimes you can learn a lot about loving yourself by loving someone else.

Words: 135,555 | Chapters: 13/13 | Warnings: creator chose not to use

My note: This is my absolute favourite Klance fic. Childhood friends to lovers- what more could one ask for?

2. Squad Up

By astralscrivener on AO3

Description: In which the team is in high school, and Lance makes a group chat (ft. college graduates Shiro, Matt, and Allura). (A generic bandwagon chatfic because why are these so fun to write????)

Words: 327,144 | Chapters: 140/140 | Warnings: none

My note: The chatfic format is super fun to read. A lot of fluff!!

3. A Midsummer Night’s Meme

By astralscrivener on AO3

Description: Same group chat, new shenanigans. Or, the team's final summer before Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Shay begin college, as Pidge navigates the waters of young love, Keith and Shiro deal with family issues, Lance has a trip to Cuba, and more. Sequel to Squad Up.

Words: 79,457 | Chapters: 27/27 | Warnings: none

My note: If you read Squad Up, you must read the sequel! The storyline is really cool and the boys are Soft:)

4. Ignorance is Bliss

By YouAreInAComaWakeUp (Nikanaiko) on AO3

Description: As it turns out, learning that your house is haunted makes the ghosts a lot more aggressive. Who knew? Ah, well. At least one of them is hot. And he's the less-evil one, too, so that's always a plus.

Words: 172,675 | Chapters: 30/30 | Warnings: graphic depictions of violence

My note: Oh God this fic. C’mon, it’s Ghost Keith and Human Lance... and they bond... need I say more?

5.   Shut Up and Dance With Me

By wittyy_name on AO3

Description: Lance and his friends have been regulars at the Altea Dance Studio for years. Not just for classes, but to hang out, practice, and spend time with good people who love dancing. Every year, they audition to be one of the few representing Altea at the regional dance competition. Lance always auditions solo, but this year he misses out on auditions and blows his chance to participate. And so does his self-proclaimed rival, Keith. Luckily, Shiro comes up with a brilliant plan: convince Lance and Keith to audition as a duo.With a little convincing, and a lot of effort, these two might just be able to pull it off and go to regionals... or they might crash and burn.

Words: 249,827 | Chapters: 15/15 | Warnings: none

My note: One of the first fics I read. Super sweet and fluffy, great storyline, complete with art by wolfpainters! Tbh any dance AU fic is a good fic

6. Chivalry is Dead

By Sheksper on AO3

Description: Prince Lance was an adventurer. That was all there was to it. So, when he's suddenly assigned a new knight to follow him around, all Lance can think is that his freedom is being taken away, and it's all because of the red-clad, mullet boy named Keith, who is honestly just trying not to lose his job on the first day.

Words: 61,071 | Chapters: 17/17 | Warnings: graphic depictions of violence

My note: Prince Lance and Knight Keith is a concept to die for and it’s written so so well in this story!!

7. Nothing’s Quite As Sweet

By dimpleforyourthoughts on AO3

Description: Keith is a barista who hates his job. Lance works at the cat shelter across the street.

Words: 50,369 | Chapters: 1/1 | Warnings: none

*You need to have an account to be able to see this fic!*

My note: A traditional must-read cafe/cat shelter fic! It’s got coffee and cats... the Softness levels are through the roof

8. The Fallen and the Wandering

By creeshtar on AO3

Description: Keith was born into a world of ice and darkness, with no sun to rise or stars to shine. In spite of humanity’s best efforts, the world is meeting a slow, but certain doom, which can only be stopped if the sun is found and replaced in the sky. Keith, meanwhile, is content to collect stars and eventually replace them in the sky, alongside a new partner that he can’t seem to help but gravitate towards--until a mysterious person with inhuman power goes on a warpath to find the sun for herself. Keith and his partner are unwittingly thrown into the race to find the sun first, only for Keith to discover, to his dismay, that it may be closer than he could’ve ever wanted.

Words: 106,108 | Chapters: 12/12 | Warnings: creator chose not to use

My note: The writing and the AU concept is gorgeous and intriguing, props to the author for the world-building and the gratuitous fluff and angst!!

9. Love Interest

By iwriteshipsnotsailthem on AO3

Description: Lance is getting his big American debut on a new T.V series called Voltron. He's excited and nervous about how amazingly talented and famous his cast members are. But most importantly Lance is anticipating meeting his character -Leandro's- love interest in the show. Who happens to played by the be mega famous, mega hot Keith Kogane. But due to a misunderstanding during their first encounter, Lance now thinks Keith is the biggest jerk alive. Keith now has to try and fix it, for the sake of the show, and also for the sake of their on screen romance, which may start venture off screen as well.

Words: 195,400 | Chapters: 50/50 | Warnings: creator chose not to use

My note: If you love Klance and you love Leakira, then get ready for... Klance as actors portraying Leakira!!

10. (Unofficially) VLD- Season 9

By hoelko on AO3

Description: The Universe has been saved. The war is over. Voltron is no longer needed. But that's the thing about the Universe. It's always getting bigger.

Words: 225,777 | Chapters: 15/15 | Warnings: none

My note: This fic was everything the fandom deserved but never got. Hoelko is our God. Worship this fic.

11. ‘Til We Meet the Dawn

By angstinspace on AO3

Description: Keith is a mage and Lance is a knight, and they've been best friends since childhood. For years, Keith has known that Lance carries a dark secret: that if he doesn't kiss his true love before he turns twenty, he'll die. Now only three days remain before Lance's twentieth birthday, and Keith and Lance are sent on a dangerous quest to rescue Romelle––who Lance believes will be the one to break his curse. But what he doesn't know is that Keith is already hopelessly in love with him.

Words: 75,242 | Chapters: 1/1 | Warnings: none

My note: Magic! Fantasy! Knights! Curses! True love! Angst! Fluff! All that good jazz rolled into one glorious fic!!

12. Follow My Lead

By Klancekorner on AO3

Description: Becoming “hook-up buddies” with Lance Sanchez was just supposed to be a small, insignificant fraction of Keith’s life. But of course, things don’t work out that way at all. aka a Friends w/ Benefits AU that nobody asked for where Lance wears sleeveless hoodies, plays basketball in abandoned parking lots, and follows his dreams, and Keith comes from a high class, reputable family who never let him have any dreams of his own. They go home with each other and don't expect it to matter until it totally does.

Words: 117,792 | Chapters: 14/14 | Warnings: NSFW

My note: Everyone needs a little bit of no-strings-attached-turns-into-catching-feelings in their life! Just be careful with the nsfw!

13. Something Just Like This

By Klancekorner on AO3

Description: Keith reluctantly becomes the counselor for the Red Cabin at Camp Voltron, a summer camp in the middle of buttfuck nowhere that his older brother Shiro has worked at for years. Already unhappy with the current position that he is in, Keith prepares himself for a boring, sweaty, miserable summer; and his frustration only grows when he meets the counselor for the Blue Cabin- an insufferable asshole with a horrible sense of humor, a devilish smirk, an inexplicable animosity towards the Red Cabin, and a smile that literally looks like the sun. Needless to say Keith is really, really unprepared for the next three months.

Words: 58,800 | Chapters: 12/12 | Warnings: NSFW

My note: A Very Soft Fic. A truly Soft Soft Fic. It has little kids in it,, it’s adorable and fluffy,, makes you squeal into your pillow,, please read!

14. The Marks We Make

By wittyy_name on AO3

Description: Lance McClain constantly dreams of the day he'll finally meet his mysterious soulmate. They don't say much, if anything at all, but they leave him with gorgeous paintings temporarily tattooing his skin. It's not exactly the situation he hoped for, but when he feels the connection between them, he can't bring himself to resent them. As much as he wishes his soulmate would just talk to him, he's resigned himself to being patient. In the meantime, he has a loving family and good friends to help him get by. Keith Kogane dreads the day he'll finally meet his obnoxious soulmate. He's just an art student who's struggling to find his place in the world. There's so much he hasn't been able to control in his life, and the thought of having a soulmate, just another thing in his life which he also has no control over yet can't do anything about, is a little terrifying. So he ignores the words that occasionally appear on his skin. He has other things to focus on: like being a new student at a big university where his childhood friend and step-brother go.

Words: 255,302 | Chapters: 12/12 | Warnings: none

My note: The soulmate AU that everyone needed. Complete with art by wolfpainters!

15. Lucky in Rivalry

By iwriteshipsnotsailthem on AO3

Description: After moving back to his hometown after ten years, Keith is being shoved back into the life of an unexpected individual who was his so called 'rival' from music school. How is Keith supposed to explain to Lance that he hasn't sung for a crowd in all those years after his disappearance? Lance is the town's favourite gig at Voltron Cafe. He's lively and has the voice that makes girls go weak. He's also one half of the cutest couple in school. Him and Lotor are what everyone wants in a relationship, but behind closed doors it's a bit of a different story. How much more can Lance take before he cracks?

Words: 134,484 | Chapters: 45/45 | Warnings: creator chose not to use

My note: True love, music and singing, high school drama, this fic has the whole lot! Give it a go, you won’t regret!!

16. Drummer Boy

By Klancekorner on AO3

Description: Lance is 100%, without a doubt, straight. He has the perfect girlfriend and has never wanted anything more. But suddenly his world is being turned upside down by the boy playing the drums at his local bar--a boy who happens to be very good looking, very gay, and very very interested in Lance. aka: Good-Boy Lance has a crisis when he meets Keith because he's so damn attractive, and Keith is a little ho that is way too promiscuous and open about his sexuality. The become friends. Confusion and sexual tension ensue.

Words: 50,188 | Chapters: 11/11 | Warnings: graphic depictions of violence, rape/non-con

My note: This one is a great read, but it’s a pretty sexy fic. Read the warnings and stay safe, avoid it if it isn’t your cup of tea!

17. On Thin Ice

By anonimina on AO3

Description: This multi-chapter fic chronicles the lives of a hockey player named Keith who gets enlisted into figure skating lessons by his brother, Shiro, to "work on his footwork". There he meets a pompous - yet talented - figure skater named Lance and gets swept away by both the sport and the skater. Or: the not-so-simple story of two people trying to navigate the complexities of living in an ever changing world and face the traumas they've buried far away from the sunlight.

Words: 205,795 | Chapters: 11/11 | Warnings: none

My note: Figure skating and hockey playing! This fic is emotional and fluffy and very very adorable! Just a warning- it’s unfinished, so the last chapter is basically a summary and dot points of what the planned ending was!

18. Life After Death

By taylortot on AO3

Description: Fear clambers into his mouth and tastes bitter on his tongue. “Who are you?” It takes him a moment to register the sound of his own voice. She stares at him. Blinks. “Lance, please, this isn’t time for one of your jokes--” He furrows his eyebrows and struggles to sit up, to stop leaning into the cradle of her arms. “I’m not--I’m not...joking.” * After sacrificing himself to save Allura, Lance wakes up in a strange new world where the only thing he knows is a deep connection to a boy he doesn't remember.

Words: 90,074 | Chapters: 13/14 | Warnings: none

My note: The Feels. The Feels are strong with this one. Memory loss always hits super hard, be prepared for angst (but also comfort and fluff!)

19. Homesick at Space Camp

By Kobot on AO3

Description: Lance realizes he's been an asshole to Keith, and on a diplomatic mission to a key planet for the Voltron alliance he... overcompensates.

Words: 74,280 | Chapters: 15/15 | Warnings: graphic depictions of violence

My note: Fake marriage AU! FA K E M a R Ri A G E AU!!! Need I say more?

20. I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor

By xShieru on AO3

Description: "So like in 'Step Up'?" Allura shrugs. "Now that you put it like that - yes. I guess it's just like in 'Step Up'." The smile that she sends Shiro's way - followed by a shy wave, eugh - is sickening to say the least, and Lance still doesn't believe in dance camps. Lance McClain's dancing career begins and ends with Keith. Keith just wants to find out what Lance's deal is.

Words: 43,295 | Chapters: 7/7 | Warnings: none

My note: A steamy, fluffy dancing AU fic! I read this ages ago so I can’t really remember what happened but it was GOOD!!

21. Watercast

By fishwrites on AO3

Description: Shiro has been a Galra prisoner for over a year; with his flight feathers clipped and unable to fly. Desperate to escape, he jumps overboard while being transported to the capitol on a Galran ship. Lance is a merman who saves him from drowning. Keith thinks Shiro is about to become mermaid dinner. Hunk just wants Lance to stop going to the surface all the time, dammit! (AU where Avians (winged folk), Galra, humans and merfolk cohabit earth. Shiro and Keith are avian soldiers, Lance is the youngest son of a Queen, Hunk is also a merman and Pidge is still looking for her family. They get caught up in a war.)

Words: 205,901 | Chapters: 15/16 | Warnings: graphic depictions of violence

My note: Avian Keith and Merman Lance is the forbidden love story that everyone needs in their life tbh. It’s been on hiatus for a while so idk about the final chapter, but it’s definitely worth a read!

22. Call Me, Beep Me

By orphan_account on AO3

Description: Where lance messages the wrong number and things kind of snowball from there.

Words: 85,591 | Chapters: 10/10 | Warnings: none

My note: Arguably the most popular Klance fanfic (after Dirty Laundry of course)! You’ve probably heard of it, but if not, do read!! Wrong number fics are a godsend

23. Calling Me to Come Back

By aknightley on AO3

Description: Keith is a witch who owns a shop where he breaks curses on both magical items and people under spells. Love spells, family curses passed down generations, cursed heirlooms lurking the attic -- he can handle them all. But one day a boy named Lance walks into his shop, and his curse is darker and more difficult to break than anything Keith has ever seen before: the curse is draining his magic, and without his magic, Lance will die.

Words: 50,464 | Chapters: 1/1 | Warnings: none

My note: Will Witch Keith break Lance’s curse, or will Lance die!?!?!? And will they fall in love along the way???!?! Read on to find out:D

24. Say My Name (And Every Colour Illuminates)

By parchmints on AO3

Description: Lance never thought he had a soulmate, but when he finds himself dreaming about a boy on Varadero Beach and in a southwestern desert, he learns they have an incredibly rare soul link–-one that allows them to form an unusually strong bond before they meet, but also exposes their greatest vulnerabilities to each other.

Words: 27,833 | Chapters: 1/1 | Warnings: none

My note: Really well-written, relatively short but so so sweet! Another soulmate AU (honestly one of my favourite AUs) except this time it’s dreamscape:)

25. Video Killed the Radio Star

By europa_report on AO3

Description: In which Keith is the guy who suddenly finds himself a single-parent to his two nieces, and Lance is the charming radio host who might be his only voice of reason in this mess.

Words: 69,468 | Chapters: 11/11 | Warnings: none

My note: This is so cute, I almost cried. Any fic with kl interacting with little children is an instant KO for my heart:’)

26. Smile for the Stars

By maIikcutie on AO3

Description: Though he's been dealt many bad cards, Lance isn't sure he can handle this one: winding up stranded, a million lightyears away from home, with only Keith to keep him company. The universe is cruel.

Words: 72,921 | Chapters: 9/9 | Warnings: major character death

My note: Please don’t read unless you are prepared for a MAJOR character death! If you’re up for it, prepare a box of tissues, and good luck, my friend!

And that’s all for my list! Hope you found something to your liking, happy reading folks!

[legendary-defender-of-fandoms]

Would folks be open to a Vehicle Voltron spin-off of Legendary Defender?

I know Voltron left a lot of people disappointed at best and an unholy degree of pissed off at worst, and there’s nothing wrong with any reaction in between. The Voltron writing team dropped the ball with a lot of subjects (LGBT rep, Allura’s death, Lotor’s ultimate fate, Honerva’s “redemption,” etc.), and fans have every right to be angry, or hurt, or whatever.

But . . . . I’ve been thinking about Voltron a lot lately, and a Vehicle Voltron spin-off could be used to give us closure & redeem the franchise. Not the writers, or De Santos & Montgomery, but the characters & the core story deserve a second chance.

I’ll admit, I don’t know much about Vehicle Voltron (except it was an English redub of a Japanaese anime that had absolutely nothing to do with Voltron’s source anime, King of Beasts GoLion). But from what little I’ve gleaned, it could be a decent setup for a Star Trek/Justice League Unlimited sort of sci-fi action ensemble show, with different episodes focusing on separate teams until everyone has to meet up for big battles/finales.

There’s supposed to be about 15 vehicles of all sorts (planes, cars, helicopters, etc,) that make up Vehicle Voltron, broken down into 3 teams (Earth, Water, and Sky/Air). Each group of 5 vehicles makes their own mini-Vehicle Voltron, and when all 3 teams are together they make the big Vehicle Voltron. Perhaps the MFE pilots add one more to their ranks & form the Jet Vehicle Voltron that forms the head of Big Vehicle Voltron.

And with an expanded cast & different teams, the chances for proper representation would increase exponentially! Pilots & Paladins of every skin color, orientation, gender identification/presentation, body type, age, and neurodivergency. Not to mention all the crossovers born of the interpersonal relationships. Perhaps the left arm pilot of Earth Vehicle Voltron has a significant other who forms the head of Water Vehicle Voltron, or the legs of MFE Vehicle Voltron are Twins, and so forth.

Then there’s the appearances by characters from the OG Legendary Defenders. The Season 8 epilogue confirmed that Pidge & the rest of the Holt family spearheaded the Vehicle Voltron project, but they won’t be the only returning cast members.

Veronica probably transferred over from the Galaxy Garrison, either as a Pilot or a communications officer coordinating the deployment of all the Vehicle Voltron teams. And with Veronica onboard, we may see her girlfriend/partner/close friend Axca, who would rope in Ezor & Zethrid as the other members of her Blade of Marmorra relief team.

Perhaps Vehicle Voltron would give Curtis a chance to shine as the tactical advisor for one of the Teams, or an instructor at the Voltron Academy, and we’d get to know him as a character rather than a background Red Shirt hastily converted into a half-assed bit of LGBT rep. And with Curtis we could see Shiro, either as a guest advisor to teach the Teams about the importance of teamwork or just as a supportive husband. The important things here would be to establish Curtis’ personality & show his relationship with Shiro (who’s the better cook, what kind of stuff do they disagree over, how do they cheer each other up, do either of them want kids, etc.).

And think of all the other cameos we could see - Hunk & his culinary crew partnering with one of the Vehicle Voltron teams to oversee peace talks between unfriendly nations, Keith & his Blade of Marmorra team running into another Vehicle Voltron team as both try to evacuate an unstable planet, Veronica visiting her little brother Lance on the family farm & seeing how he’s doing after Season 8, etc.

Then there’s the stories. I have a few basic plots figured out, but there are tons of possibilities:

Welcome to the New Legendary Defenders - this would be the three-part premiere, as we’re introduced to the Vehicle Voltron teams, mission statements, and cast while following one of the new recruits (possibly Chip, or maybe a new character).

New Olcarion - ever wonder what happened to everyone on Olcarion since Season 8 forgot to tell us? This episode has you covered! Perhaps they built their own planet & it’s having some technical difficulties, or they think they found a new planet they could colonize but the planet has sentient life that went hidden until a bunch of off-worlders started stomping around like they owned the place.

Shadows of the Empire - there’s probably still a few Galra who aren’t ready to let go of Zarkon’s era of conquest or Haggar’s era of devastation, and they might pop up every once in a while to cause trouble. Sendack’s dead, but maybe that wormy General from the Taujeerian episode would make his long-awaited return as he tries to establish his own Galra Empire. Or maybe a forgotten cache of Galra sentret droids either never got deactivated or were recently reactivated & are still carrying out their prime directives (I.e. conquer everything in the name of the Galra Empire).

Balmera Pains - a colony of Balmerans reach out to Vehicle Voltron for help. Their Balmera is under distress, and no one is entirely certain how or why. The team shows up to help with evacuations, and they discover the Balmera isn’t dying - it’s pregnant. Everyone’s excited, since a new Balmera hasn’t been born in millennia, but there’s still the issue of tremors & other seismic activity putting the Balmerans at risk.

Lion Goddess - this would be an overarching story in the first season, possibly extending into a second season. It would start with the original Paladins getting dreams/visions/flashbacks of the Lions. Pidge & Shiro would be in Vehicle Voltron more than the others, so they’re the ones who we would see exhibiting symptoms first. Pidge might be dreaming about Green before her alarm goes off at the start of her day, or Shiro might hear some whisper over his shoulder & find nothing there, that sort of thing. The two would probably talk about these flashes & dreams with each other, chalking it up to old memories or PTSD (or one of them might try to pull a Steven Universe & keep their trauma bundled up until they explode into a Kaiju of guilt & self-loathing). This could even be something Shiro & Curtis regularly discuss, as Curtis wants to support Shiro through whatever’s going on. But as the other Paladins make their cameos, we may see them showing symptoms as well (Keith May be restless or irritable, Lance May be distracted or lethargic, Hunk might flinch if folks start talking about lions, space anomalies, or Quintessence, etc.). But eventually everyone will get together & realize they’re being Called by Voltron. Or Allura? Or the Universe in general. This revelation may coincide with reports of distant planets sighting giant flying robotic cats in their area, scaring off folks who come too close to their territory. Then it’ll be time to get the Gang back together to find the Lions & see why they’ve reappeared after so long & what’s going on. Through some complicated shenanigans, it’ll be revealed that the Lions have gathered the life force of Allura & need the Paladins to help with channeling her energies into regenerating her. Not sure if Lotor would be regenerated during this process as well - while his body kind of melted into the Sincline robot, his consciousness/soul/whatever could still be trapped within the space between dimensions, or his energies became entangled with Allura’s as they both drifted in the ether & by bringing back one, they bring back the other. Bottom line, yay, Allura’s back! And after a few episodes in a coma (regeneration is exhausting), she’s up & about and ready for some closure. She & Lance can try to pick things up where they left off & realize they still care about each other, but just don’t work as a romantic couple. She & Coran can get an emotional reunion to make up for Coran being snubbed in the Season 8 finale. Maybe Allura’s QuintessenceBending will have grown exponentially, and now she spreads new life wherever she goes, or maybe channeling all of Honerva’s stolen Quintessence into jumpstarting the Multiverse has left her completely drained of her gifts. If Lotor’s back as well, the two will have a lot to discuss after their shared time in the ether.

Anyway, those were my thoughts on a Vehicle Voltron spin-off. Am I the only one?

[ifanfictionella]

I have a crush on the cute guitarist in you’re band (1)

Fandom: Voltron legendary defender                                                                       Ship:Romelle x Allura                                                                                               Words:3451 

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<p>After their third round of starbucks latte trips and second round of trailing around the bookstores of the mall all three friends found themselves in pidges dormroom studying. Shay had sprawled herself across the single bed along with a few open books, the rock nerd was the only one who didn’t actually live in this room. </p>

<p>The room was romelle and pidges. </p>

<p>Said short nerd was sitting at her desk with one headphone in looking at what looked like some sciency stuff. She had cursed at her laptop so many times that romelle had started to question if pidge actually like her so called ‘baby’</p>

<p>That left romelle, she wasn’t technically studying.</p>

<p>There was nothing to study.</p>

<p>Romelle was an art student so often when her friends were doing school work she would be using that free time to get her book, and often her clothes, covered in paint. </p>

<p>She often opted to have the floor rather than using her bed to do artwork, even when she was sketching she just couldn’t risk anything rubbing off onto her covers. In the background romelle had let her soft music playlist play which pared with the low hum of pidges laptop, the occasional chudder made all three of them jump.</p>

<p>The setting sun of the night seemed to paired nicely with the fairy lights romelle had insisted that they put up, it was the perfect type of evening to be studying to. The library was often too crowded and the lights were too bright meaning studying was rather hard, the coffee shops were too busy and people would often stop to talk to them which would be highly distracting. </p>

<p>Romelle and Shay both jumped when pidge groaned and closed her note book, closed her laptop and put the pen down. “Ya know girls, it is a friday night and we could actually be doing something fun” </p>

<p>“What do you suggest?” Shay asked, raising her eyebrow whilst looking up from her books for one of the first times that evening. “And would we need to change clothing?”</p>

<p>“Well I mean keith's band is taking part in one of those indie concerts” she said sitting sideways on her chair playing with a strewn pen, she glanced at it from a side angle before looking at the two of them “I did promise him we would maybe swing by to watch and support” </p>

<p>Romelle turned to look at Shay, romelle shrugged at her which left the decision up to Shay. It had been a while since romelle had gone out to something at night, much less something on a friday night </p>

<p>Wow such an exciting college student</p>

<p>“Would it be ok if Hunk tagged along?” shay said raising her eyebrow, pidge shrugged before nodding at her </p>

<p>After that interaction Shay had left to get changed in her own dorm room. </p>

<p>“You ok with her bringing Hunk?” romelle asked as she went through her wardrobe looking at all of her tops really not having a clue what she wanted to wear. </p>

<p>“Yeah sure” pidge replied, sounding like she was biting her tongue “Just bring my ex boyfriend along to a concert where my current boyfriend is playing , that won’t be awkward” there was a huge amount of sarcasm behind that statement. That earnt a slight chuckle from romelle as she picked out a band shirt she had picked up from a local thrift shop</p>

<p>“Keith and hunk seem pretty chill though” she replied pressing it up against her body before reaching for a pair of jeans that she thought would look cute. </p>

<p>“You wouldn’t get it, you don’t feel the awkwardness when we go on double dates” pidge replied as she slid one of keiths jackets on her body. Romelle had put her jeans and shirt on by now and turned to look at pidge. She had decided to not change her earrings or the scarf headband she had been wearing all day, her curled hair would do fine.</p>

<p> Romelle shrugged at her “Me and you’re brother talk like we’re still best friends” she said picking up the hoodie that had been laid on the floor under her bed for a week now, she sniffed it and decided it still smelt ok enough to wear out </p>

<p>“That’s different, he came out as gay” she said, kind of dead pan whilst looking down at her phone “We all knew, admit it” </p>

<p>She had to sigh and simply nod in response, besides shiro was good to him. She was just happy to have him in her life as a best friend. There was a knock at the door which made both girls turn towards the door</p>

<p>“It’s open” Pidge called before going back to texting someone, presumably keith </p>

<p>“Lance decided to tag too '' Shay said with a slight groan, He winked at romelle earning an eye roll from her. It meant nothing flirty, lance was highly taken and romelle would never go for him anyway.</p>

<p>“Wanting to boo mullet and cheer for lotor?” romelle asked, folding her arms and raising her eyebrow at him with a slight smirk. </p>

<p>“I will stomp on your foot If i hear any cat calls coming from you” Pidge said, looking up having the same smirk on her face that romelle had. This earned an eye roll from lance before he put his hands in the air </p>

<p>“While me and you’re boo will never see eye to eye,I want to support the band” he said lowering his hands and putting them in his pockets “Besides my cousin just joined the band, you notice her straight away” </p>

<p>Romelle looked up at the mention of a new member, the two other members had never really brought up the fact that they were gaining a new member. </p>

<p>"shouldn't we get going then?" Shay said, jumping into the conversation whilst holding hunks hand.</p>

<p>He seemed out of it today </p>

<p>"yeah yeah, let's get going" pidge said trying to push them out the door, romelle simply rolled her eyes smiling taking her key from the hook and locking the door behind them. </p>

<p>---- </p>

<p>They took a short cut she was not aware of and they ended up at the main park of the town, the gazebo had been set up with a backstage area and band equipment. </p>

<p>Most of the bands romelle had not heard of, she really only knew about midnight dragons, Keith's band. </p>

<p>"here seems like a good spot” pidge said</p>

<p>“It only took the gremlin pushing past most of the taller people to find it” lance whispered to romelle which made her laugh slightly, shay simply rolled her eyes at pidge before going to stand with hunk and sip from her iced latte. The other three stood a tad bit away from the couple, pidge was texting someone while lance went scouting around for some sort of drinks bit</p>

<p>“Hows veronica?” Romelle asked looking up at the cuban boy which made him stop and turn to look at her again. He shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged slightly at her </p>

<p>“Well we have kinda be talking though she is still ignoring me because of lotor” he sighed and looked down at the floor, he kicked at a rock that was near his feet before looking back up “It’s whatever you know, older siblings are protective to an annoying extent”</p>

<p>“I would assume Bandor would say the same about me” she said before shrugging herself “You and Lotor still up for meeting up for coffee on sunday” </p>

<p>“Oh duh, we both love our catch up sessions' ' he said forming a smile on his face scratching at the back of the neck, Romelle noticed a large ish dark mark on his neck which made her smirk slightly before shaking her head.</p>

<p>“Highlight of my week”<br /> The sound of some announcer coming on made the two turn towards the stage area, romelle couldn’t quite hear the man talking, mainly because she was admiring his british accent and orange mustache. What she did understand was when he announced that pidge had dragged them to a battle of the bands, romelle turned to pidge and gave her a slight glare. </p>

<p>It was some band named pastel galaxies up first, their music really was not romelles vibe and she found herself reaching for her phone throughout a few of their songs. </p>

<p>Known on her luck, Keith's band was going to be the last act to perform. </p>

<p>Thankfully she was wrong </p>

<p>Midnight dragons came out straight after, the familiar faces of Keith and lotor caught her eye. Keith had dropped his guitar and was rocking his new piercings, no matter what he wore he seemed to wear it well. Lotor as always was borrowing some aspects of keiths wardrobe but the eyeliner was all his as was the hairstyle. </p>

<p>“Mullets looking emo as ever” Lance said with his arms folded, romelle elbowed him in the arm and laughed slightly </p>

<p>“You will eventually give it up that you had a crush on him in highschool” she asked raising her eyebrow slightly</p>

<p>Lance may have said something but Romelle wasn’t paying attention, her eyes were immediately drawn to the new girl. She was absolutely beautiful. </p>

<p>She had the prettiest eyes and her skin was tanned and the bleached blonde, almost silver , hair fell around her head perfectly. Her long pastel  t-shirt tucked into her skinny black jeans just drew romelles attention to her amazing figure</p>

<p>Holy shit</p>

<p>“Yo! Romelle” Lance called making her jump and turn to look at him “You’re pretty red, see something you like?” He was smirking at that point with his arms folded </p>

<p>“Bite me mclain” </p>

<p>She ignored him for the rest of the band's set, she couldn’t place any of the songs that were played that night. She was just so entranced by watching the guitarist play and laugh and just enjoy life while performing. Her hair seemed to fall out of the high ponytail while she was jumping to the final song. </p>

<p>And with that their bit was over, the girl looked down directly at her group and gave a smile before looking at the crowd. </p>

<p>Romelles face completely flushed after that.</p>

<p>“Thank you for coming out, enjoy the rest of the show” Lotor said beating keith to the microphone, all three of them bowed before going back stage </p>

<p>“That my guy” lance said before doing some sort of wolf whistle, pidge came up to the two of them after that. Shay and hunk had left a few songs ago- something about all the coffee not agreeing with shay. </p>

<p>“We should go see them” she suggested already tugging on lances hoodie in the direction of the backstage area “Besides I want to finally meet the new girl”</p>

<p>“I don’t need much convincing to see my boy” Lance said allowing himself to be dragged in the direction. Romelle  just rolled her eyes at lance before walking ahead. </p>

<p>She had to push past a few people and certainly lost pidge way behind her, she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going and bumped into someone who practically towered over. She looked up at the butch woman and was practically falling over herself trying to appilogise </p>

<p>“Watch where you’re going next time” </p>

<p>Wow she had a rough deep voice</p>

<p>“zathrid, It’s not her fault” Another voice said jumping in, it belonged to a rather cute looking girl, she had pink hair and big hoop earrings in “Sorry about her, we’ve both had a rough week with college, it’s our final year” the girl held her hand out </p>

<p>“I’ve got that to come, I’m only a first year,” Romelle replied, taking the girl's hand before walking away from the two- she had wanted to introduce herself but she also really wanted to get out of that situation.</p>

<p>She breathed a sigh of relief when she got to the edge of the crowd, she looked up and could see Keith and Lotor having a smoke break which got her to smile. She turned back and could see pidge had climbed on top of lances shoulders, the two were already making their way through the crowd. </p>

<p>When they got to her pidge jumped down and walked over to keith and lotor, romelle and lance watched as she snuggled into keith's side. The three of them talked for about a minute before she motioned towards romelle and lance, romelle gave an awkward wave at the two while lance winked at lotor. </p>

<p>“Oh come on are you two afraid of a bit of smoke” Keith called before taking a drag from his cigarette. </p>

<p>“My body is a temple kogane” lance called back as the two walked forward towards them “The only bad exception I let in is your hot drummer” he then looked over at lotor and slipped his hand into his pocket. </p>

<p>“Yieks” pidge responded with a slight smirk directed at lance “So who’s your guitarist?”</p>

<p>“Weirdly,” Lotor started discarding his cigarette into a water bucket “That would be an ex of mine, before I came out we were just experimenting” </p>

<p>“So what you’re saying is, I turned you gay” A new british voice said, the girl from before walked out from the stage area with a guitar case held on her back. She folded her arms and smirked at lotor </p>

<p>“More like I relised that, we’re both just too gay to be straight”</p>

<p>So she's into girls?</p>

<p>Shit why is her heart going so fast </p>

<p>“You took most of the gay, lets not forget that”</p>

<p>“Allura, this is pidge” keith said motioning the girl under his arm “That's lance” he said pointing at lance before he turned to look at romelle “And she’s romelle”</p>

<p>“The token single” lotor added which made romelle roll her eyes </p>

<p>“I’m just too good for anyone at our college” she responded before laughing slightly “But seriously, I don’t meet enough people”</p>

<p>“I dropped out of college, i much prefer the working life” allura said rolling her shoulders backwards “What do you study?”</p>

<p>“Can’t you tell, she’s an art student” Lance said motioning to what she was wearing making romelle roll her eyes again </p>

<p>“That’s a stereotype lance”</p>

<p>“Aww cute,I drew from time to time- just when i'm having a bad day really” Allura said rubbing her arm before getting an idea “Come with me for a sec,I’ll show you my sketch journal”</p>

<p>So she's one of those girls? </p>

<p>“Uh sure” Romelle replied following the girl, romelle quickly caught up to her- there wasn’t any security at events like this due to the bands not being huge or mainstream enough to have people trying to harass them. The female dressing room wasn’t in use at the moment so there wasn’t any issue of bumping into people. Allura reached into her bag and pulled out a leather bound book along with her phone. </p>

<p>“Sorry if they are kind of bad, i'm just a hobbyist” she said, passing the book to romelle. She looked at the book and felt it underneath her fingers for a second or two before opening it. </p>

<p>While it wasn’t the sort of stuff she was used to seeing in sketchbooks but the composition of the pages were amazing. She assumed the journal was more like a feelings book rather than some sort of art book</p>

<p>“Those are really cool, I love the way you have all of the pages layed out, that’s something I have been struggling with for a while so I think how you’ve done it is pretty cool” she said closing the book and passing it back to allura “I’d love to talk to you more about your journaling”</p>

<p>Allura looked at her for a second or two before processing what she had said and nodding, she got out a post it note from what looked like a diary and gave it to her. Romelle looked at the neon pink piece of paper with the cutesy handwriting. </p>

<p>Romelle quickly put the number in her phone and saved the contact </p>

<p>---------------------------------------------------</p>

<p>“So what did you and allura talk about?” Lance asked, smirking at her as they walked back to the college site, he was holding a disposable cup of coffee that Lotor had bought him before he and Keith had gone back to their shared apartment. </p>

<p>“Just art” she shrugged</p>

<p>“Is that code for something”</p>

<p>“No we just talked about art, wheres pidge anyway”</p>

<p>“Spending the night with keith” </p>

<p>Romelle nodded “Wanna sleep over then?” </p>

<p>“As long as I can do you’re makeup again”</p>

<p>They both got out their student ID to scan at the door and then walked to the dorm building. Romelle got her keys out and opened the door, turned the lights on and put her bag down. Her coffee had gone cold by now so she took it to the sink and tipped it out, she quickly got herself into something she could sleep in before lance got to her room. </p>

<p>“Sharp shooter has arrived” He said opening her door, he was quite clearly wearing one of lotors shirts with a pair of shorts underneath<br /> “Make up is in the same place as always, I’m making hot cocoa”</p>

<p>“You know the way to my heart ro ro” he laughed sitting down on pidges bed and leaning back into her fort of pillows for a second or two before getting up and going to her cupboard. She didn’t have too big of a collection of makeup, she mainly only wore the basics everyday and only wore eye shadow when they went out for a proper night out. </p>

<p>Lance still knew way too much about makeup to make her look good.</p>

<p>Romelle brought the cup to him and put it on the nightstand, she kept hers in her hand so she could lightly sip at it while lance was taking breaks with make up. She got her laptop set up and found movie on netflix that they could just leave in the background</p>

<p>After having been watched so many times lance could recite the lines but it was the perfect background movie.</p>

<p>“You are doing one of the worst jobs hiding that hickey by the way” romelle said as lance started getting out her make up and putting it in the order he was going to use it in</p>

<p>“What hickey” He asked playing dumb opening up her primer and putting it on the cotton pad “I have no idea what you are talking about”</p>

<p>“It’s a huge purple mark on your neck, no matter how much concealer you put on it, I can see it” She said with a slight smirk, she didn’t want to move her face too much. Lance had complained to her before that if she moved her face when doing makeup it would crease and stuff. </p>

<p>“Fine we had a hot make-out session” he sighed focusing more on the makeup than her for a second “One thing led to another and … well you know the rest”</p>

<p>Romelle simply giggled at him “As long as you had fun, I guess”  she shrugged </p>

<p>“What about you and that allura girl, I saw the way you looked at her”</p>

<p>“I mean I just got her number, we just met I don’t think anything is going to happen straight away”</p>

<p>“Wow her number already, player”</p>

<p>“Oh hush hush.’” </p>

<p>“Im serious, that’s really good for you”</p>

<p>“Wow thanks”</p>

<p>When he had finally done her make-up they watched the end of the movie,took a few pictures with the make up and then lance dropped off the sleep. Romelle smiled at him and put the blanket over him before going to take the make-up off her face. </p>

<p>Once It was all off she walked back into the main room bit and checked her phone </p>

<p>Allura ❤️<br /> Hey It’s the girl from the concert, keith gave me the number, this is romelle right </p>

<p>Romelle looked down at her phone and smiled slightly, as if that girl had actually sought out her and her contact details- It’s probably just so they can talk about art but still that brought a slight smile to her </p>

<p>Hey! Yeah it’s romelle, how you doing after the concert you killed it BTW</p>

<p>She wasn’t expecting a quick response so she shut her laptop down and put her earphones in to listen to some music. She brushed her teeth, got a glass of water and got into bed </p>

<p>Allura ❤️<br /> Awwwwwwwww!!!! Thanks, I was kinda nervous TBH, I just moved to the area and keith herd me playing</p>

<p>Oh He’s my neighbour LOL that’s how we met</p>

<p>Romelle smiled preparing herself to probably stay up most of the night talking to this girl- probably not a bad thing</p>