#in my own defense the lance did Not actually come to a real point due to the fact it is a Prop

[humming-fly]

wanted to doodle more orbs and figured I'd adapt one of the fun sequences of events from my recent group cosplay, whereupon @nymphofnovels may or may not have become briefly (and accidentally!!) impaled on my prop weapon

[themoomoorn]

Random Thot #46,853

I had a health exam for my upcoming new job and put my two weeks in for my current one, so I’m rewarding my neurodivergent ass-brain with this.  Sit tight and enjoy.

46,853: I’m half-convinced that Edelgard is like the Soul Series’ Alexandra sisters and daughter when it comes to her combat ability - or rather, lack thereof.  Unlike Claude, Dimitri, and Byleth, who all explicitly received combat training as children, Edelgard likely did not.  The tools given to her are what likely allow for her to fight at all - heck, they may even do a bit of the fighting for her.  How else can a noodle-armed womanlet like her wear all that armor and heft that axe?  

(Also, how the eff does this dress make clanking armor sounds when she walks in the game despite this dress having like no armor whatsoever)

To begin with, we have in-game factoids of her stat caps being the second highest in the game (390 when combined, with Cyril only beating her by 5 points due to his Aptitude skill), and she even has a magic cap that’s not only on-par with other magically-inclined units (72), but it’s actually better than some of them (Dorothea and Linhardt, who are both dedicated mage types, have caps of 61 and 66, respectively, while Manuela, who tends to get placed in Faith Magic-aligned classes despite being a hybrid unit, has a piddling cap 48).  She even has a quirky but feasible spell list for both magic types (Fire/Bolganone/Luna Lambda/Hades Omega for Reason, and Heal/Nosferatu/Recover/Seraphim for Faith, which is one of her banes, mind you).  I imagine this is the work of the experiments that gave her her version of the Crest of Flames - after all, the 2020 DREAM interview noted that the Hresvelg children were given a more “refined” version of the experiments the Ordelias had.  The refinement isn’t just reflected in-game with caps and magic too; Edelgard is also more robust in terms of health, whereas Lysithea is prone to bouts of weakness and illness.  In-game, she has poor Luck and Strength, and the single lowest HP cap of all the playable units at 48.  And while this one is admittedly conjecture, Edelgard doesn’t hint that her lifespan was drastically cut, as she gets to live a long life in all of her endings.  Even in her Crest-heavy ending with Hanneman or her healthcare-related ending with Manuela don’t mention that she had one or both of her Crests taken out.  Lysithea, on the other hand, is extensively motivated by the fact that she doesn’t have many years left, and it’s only in two endings (Lorenz, Balthus) where she’s able to live fairly long without removing her Crests; The rest either have her dying young or being able to live long only after her Crests are taken out.

Now what of her combat abilities?  Let’s turn to the source of where this silly thot came from.

For the uninitiated, Sophitia Alexandra, a fighter who’s been in the Soul Franchise since its very first game, did not grow up as a dedicated combatant like the other fighters - she was an ordinary baker living in Athens during the late 16th Century when Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire.  When she was bathing in a lake one day, she received a message from Hephaestus himself in that she has a divine destiny to destroy the cursed blade Soul Edge, and he gifts her with a divinely crafted short sword and shield in order to fulfill her mission.  While she does gain training in Athenian combat styles, a lot of her power and capabilities are tied to her weapon set, which are named the Omega Sword and Elk Shield.  Her younger sister Cassandra would follow suit in SoulCalibur II, actually going out of her way to steal the same holy armaments Sophitia used in Soul Edge and SoulCalibur I before getting her own specially empowered set.

(Sophitia Alexandra)

And Pyrrha, Sophitia’s daughter in SoulCalibur V, takes it to new heights.  Per a data book, the timid, mistreated Pyrrha has absolutely no combat experience, not even in self-defense.  While Sophitia and Cassandra were able to train themselves into formidable soldiers outside of their divine weapons’ influences, this is not true for Pyrrha.  If it were not for the sword and shield Pyrrha wielded (which is the same exact set Sophitia wielded before her passing), her clumsy attacks and timid guard stances would amount to ineffectual, useless flailing.  

(Info about Pyrrha’s fighting style from the SCV data book)

Back to the Egg.  Now it’s made abundantly clear that while Dimitri’s Jean Valjean-levels of raw strength heavily stem from his Crest, he’s also from the land where, in lieu of milk and honey, there’s extreme sports jock training in heavy armor in the dead of night with boulders for weights and weapon mastery.  Dimitri loves to train, and it’s a big aspect of his character.  The tritagonist of his route is also one of his combat trainers, and he’s done that job for three generations’ worth of Faerghus royalty, with his ending hinting that he keeps doing it for one more.  I imagine that even without the Crest of Blaiddyd, Dimitri would still be extremely strong and formidable, he’d just have to actually exert himself a little when saving some poor soul from a runaway cart.

(Just in case the savior imagery wasn’t clear enough with Dimitri, he even did lift a cart the way eventual saint Jean Valjean did in the book/musical)

Claude is far more in favor of covert combat, and his own Crest is more defensive than offensive, but he’s no slouch either, having had a renowned war general serve as his combat instructor since childhood.  He’s from a kingdom that, much like Faerghus, values the way of the warrior and prides itself on the strength of its people.  His hidden talent, tying to wyvern mastery, is in friggin axes, and he’s also shown to be adept enough with a sword at various points.  Plus there’s the fact that he was abused and mistreated by his Almyran family, complete with his father plopping him on a horse and making the horse ride off with him backwards with no safety net as a form of punishment - Claude tells Hilda that there was a “trick” in how he survived that.  As any horse jockey can attest to, you need raw muscle in every part of your body in order to really ride one, and I imagine that’s doubly true for your local albino wyvern that’s decked out in Ottoman visual puns.  Plus learning how to be crafty and protecting oneself more covertly undoubtedly contributed to his combat abilities too.

(I mean you’d have to be shredded if you can pull off the Parthian shot on a fucking flying dragon.  61 Strength cap my ass.)

Byleth, as we know, grew up as a mercenary to the point of detriment.  There’s no need to go into extensive detail as to how Jeralt sacrificed almost everything else in exchange for contributing to Byleth’s combat abilities without being abusive and cruel, but even if you took away Byleth’s self-insert aspects, they’d likely bear a passing resemblance to Rei Ayanami in terms of behavior and attitude - An intended vessel/Avatar for a divine being from one end; Conditioned for little more than combat from another end.  Kind of a gloomy picture before she starts to express herself better and actually bond with other people meaningfully.  

(At least she’s cute as a button.  Kinda like Rei.)

But where does that leave Edelgard?  It’s a big question mark.  There’s no mention of her growing up with any kind of combat training, unlike the other three.  Heck, if tea time, Crimson Flower, and Heroes quotes are anything to go by, Edelgard grew up living a carefree lifestyle prior to the Insurrection.  She got to stuff her face with sweets and play with teddy bears and both dote and be doted on by her siblings.  Being child number 9 in her current generation, combat training and political studies likely weren’t major priorities for her, and since it’s speculated that Ionius favored her mother, she was likely lavished and spoiled by him.  After all, he expresses grief for her specifically when she inherits the throne from him, not the rest of her siblings.    

(Even the official merchandise notes how childish Edelgard is)

(This is all after she literally kickstarts her war, by the way).

While there’s varying degrees of elaborate flair that the Lords all wield their weapons with, Edelgard’s regular strikes with an axe feel far less rigid and more informal, and she’ll spin around her axe like it’s some kind of prop.  Her default battle stance isn’t even remotely protective and quite impractical; Dimitri’s stance with a lance is both of these things, while Claude’s arrow-twirling is a real-life exercise that’s done to keep the wrist flexible.  While she does refine her axe skills come Part II, she’ll still do things like throw her massive shield ten feet in the air for a critical hit.

(Seriously what even is this why is your hand out like that)

There’s even some proof of this: In her study request for axes and heavy armor, Edelgard will even acknowledge that the only reason she can likely keep up and wear heavy armor at all is because of her Crests.  And unlike Dimitri and Claude, who can get lesson plans for their respective Hidden Talents once they’re mastered (Horse riding for Dimitri, axes for Claude), Edelgard doesn’t get a lesson plan for Reason Magic, which is her Hidden Talent, so she likely didn’t get any kind of formal education surrounding magic either.  

(She has a similar quote in Heroes that’s even more explicit about this.)

The closest hint we get in Edelgard maybe having a hint of training as a child is in her Supports with Ferdinand, and even then, there’s no clear cut hint noting that his failures in beating her were combat-based.  She’s able to one-hit KO him in their B Support, but it’s locked to Part II and at this point she’s been both riding on the power highs of her Crests along with actually taking combat seriously.  She even says that their difference in skill level isn’t that great.

(Should’ve used Swift Strikes, Ferdie)

What’s more, in addition to all of those enhancements, she not only spends a lot of Part I in a custom set of armor that only archaic technology from the Agarthans can make, but they also made her a custom Relic that’s tailor-made to her specifications.  The other Relics as well as the Sacred Weapons, being over a thousand years old, still require their wielders to train in order to wield them properly, and in the case of the Relics, their potential cannot be fully tapped into unless the wielder’s Crest matches the Relic they’re wielding.  There’s also that particular safety issue, per what happens with Sylvain’s brother Miklan.  But this is not the case with Aymr, which is brand new, has a mismatched Crest that doesn’t negatively affect Edelgard, and requires the Agarthan tech-compatible Agarthium to fix, not the Umbral Steel that’s used to fix both the Heroes’ Relics and other Crest Stone weapons like the Vajra-Mushti.  The Aymr’s specific Combat Art even emulates the oft-broken Galeforce skill from Awakening and Fates.  It feels like that Aymr in particular is the Edelgard what Hephaestus’ swords and shields are to the Alexandra family.  

Now I don’t really think that an Edelgard who’d be stripped of her Crest of Flames, the Amyr, or her special Flame Emperor armor, would be as hapless as Pyrrha would be without her mother’s sword and shield.  I imagine she likely started to do some kind of formal combat training once the experiments were done with, not just to kickstart her dreams of imperial conquest, but also to protect herself anyway after everything that happened; She’s also the only Hresvelg heiress of her generation left.  There’s also her natural Minor Crest of Seiros to consider.  But if you stripped all that away from her, then her ability to fight probably would come off as useless flailing to the other three more experienced combatants.  

All those cakes and that lack of muscle would at least catch up to her, anyway.

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Rapunzeltopia

This episode, much like many other plot important episodes of the first two seasons, is decent on it its own, but becomes retroactively worse due to season three’s bad writing and behind the scenes bullshit. 

Summary:  Matthews reveals himself as another dark spirit and disciple of Zhan Tiri, and traps Eugene, Lance and the others in unbreakable vines similar to the Great Tree's evil magic. He has Rapunzel live the perfect life while he prepares to hand over the mystical powers of the Sundrop to his master. Fortunately, Rapunzel is able to make contact with her brown-haired dream self and attempts to convince her to let go. 

Timeline Alert

So what does almost a year ago mean? The Great Tree was six months out, and then in Mirror, Mirror, Lance said that they been fighting for three weeks since. So how long have then been stuck in this shell house? Because You’re Kidding Me was just the next day after Mirror, Mirror. Was Lance’s ‘three weeks’ comment meant to be after Brothers Hooks and Rapunzel: Day One and not Great Tree? Are we 7, 8, 9, or 10 months out from Secret of the Sundrop? Like be clear about your time frame guys if you’re going to use it as a plot point. 

I’m going to say we are 9 months along on this trip, just cause that sounds closer to ‘almost a year ago’ without keeping them all trapped in the shell house for months. So Great Tree is 6 months, Brother’s Hook and Rapunzel Day One is 7 months, Mirror, Mirror is going on 8 months, and at the end of this episode they’ll be heading into the 9 month period...I guess. Lets just say they were trapped there for a week or two. 

This Episode Only Highlights How Self Centered and Immature Rapunzel Still Is Rather Than Showcase How Much She’s Grown 

The point behind this episode is show how much Rapunzel has grown since season one, and how she is accepting of responsibility now, but it actually backfires because she’s not actually being challenged on her selfish desires but on her lack of agency. Which is the wrong lesson that she needs to be learning at this point in her development.

Rapunzel in her subconscious mind doesn’t wish for what’s best for other people but what’s best for herself. People she must interact with on the regular have to be superficially happy even if it completely warps their character. While people she doesn't care about, like Lady Caine, can just be simply banished and ignored regardless if they deserve such an end or not.  She doesn’t see people as people with individual thoughts and feelings, but as satellites to herself and her narrow worldview.  

 Also, ‘I believe everyone deserves a second chance’ my eye! Caine never gets even a first chance in Rapunzel’s own fantasy world. Because Rapunzel is a selfish hypocrite who’s ‘redemptions’ always comes with strings attached. 

Here Comes the Dumbest Plot Point In the Show

I’ll talk about this more when we get to season three, but this scene is the beginning of the end for any dignity the show once held. 

Also why would ‘I don’t trust anyone’ Cassandra follow a creepy voice calling her name through a doorway inside a magic house that’s tried to kill her twice now? 

If you gotta make you character act out of character in order to get your plot rolling than you haven’t a good plot. Think of something else. 

What’s the Point of Having Two Names? 

They did this both with Sugarbee and Matthews here and it makes zero sense. Why would they need to bother with fake names if the heroes wouldn’t even recognize their real names to begin with? Such revelations add nothing and fails to tell the audience anything new about the characters.  It’s also not consistent as it turns out Gothel was a disciple too and she only gets one name, so what gives? 

So How Does This All Work Again?

So Zhan Tiri needs ‘a clash of the sundrop and moonstone’ in order to be freed from her prison. Why? I don’t know, but holding Rapunzel prisoner for life actually undermines that plan, and it’s a plan that Zhan Tiri is currently setting up with Cassandra off screen during all of this. 

So does Tromus/Matthews just not know that Zhan Tiri is already ‘free’ and has her own plans?

Is Rapunzel’s power being drained what gives Zhan Tiri a foothold in the real world?

Or was Zhan Tiri released back in the Great Tree with the removal of the spear and that’s why she knows to go after Cass? 

What was up with the Great Tree and the sealed tree back in Painter’s Block? Did they have any impact on Zhan Tiri’s plans?  

Were any of the disciples actually useful at all? 

So What Do the Disciples Gain From All This?

Sugarbee, Matthews, and Gothel were all once real people who actually lived so what are their reasons for following Zhan Tiri? What do they gain from going through such complicated plans? Why continue to follow someone after you’ve been dead for centuries and are a ghost now, and were presumably trapped and or killed by Demantius for following her? Real people don’t just hold on to such fanatical devotion without reason. 

This Conflict Over Choices Does Not Work Without Varian

Going back to how this episode fails to develop Rapunzel; it wants to have Rapunzel take responsibility for difficult choices, but much like Painters Block, it completely ignores her biggest fuck up thereby undermining why she has trouble with owning up to hard choices.  

Rapunzel ruined a child’s life. She may not have meant to but she did, and thus far she has done nothing to make amends for it. She’s not even spared the poor boy a single thought beyond seeing him as the boogeyman in a nightmare once. 

You can’t have Rapunzel take responsibility for anything if you won’t hold her accountable for anything.  

Varian was meant to appear in this episode, and indeed he should have for the above reason. 

But of course Chris had to give us a bullshit excuse for why he cut the most plot important character from the series. 

I’ve already spoken about how Varian’s cameo in Happiness Is did nothing to actually further develop Rapunzel nor explore her guilt back in that review. In this episode, however, I want to discuss how hollow the comparisons to Gothel is and why there shouldn’t logically have been any competition between the two. 

Varian and Gothel provide two completely different conflicts and two completely different points of development for Rapunzel’s arc. Gothel is the instigator of her conflict with Rapunzel. Rapunzel, as the victim, has only one thing to learn, self esteem. She learned it back in the movie, she relearned it back in the season one, and here she’s re-contextualizing it for this episode’s mini-arc. 

Meanwhile Rapunzel is the instigator of her conflict with Varian. She’s the one with the power in their relationship and her choices matter. She doesn’t need to learn agency because she already has it. What she needs to learn is responsibility and she can’t do that without confronting Varian and what she did in some manner. So unlike with Gothel there only new ground to cover here rather than rehashing old conflicts. 

Chris Sonnenburg has things all backwards. Rapunzel’s agency/self-esteem issues and her need to take responsibility for her actions are not interchangeable conflicts. Addressing one does not automatically address the other, and of the two her conflict with responsibility holds more weight because it’s ongoing. We haven’t seen the resolvement there. It also affects more people than just herself so the stakes are higher there as well. And to top it all off, it fits with the themes of the episode better. 

Also, you very much could have had both characters because they both reflect different conflicts and serve different purposes in the narrative. Time management in television is a very big deal yes, but you have little grounds for defense when all you’ve shown is how poorly you’ve managed your time until now. 

In short, Chris is full of shit. 

No, It Wouldn’t

We’ve already established that there’s no need for Rapunzel to go on her quest in season two. The black rocks are inactive, there’s no ticking clock she has to beat, and her staying at home would have actually prevented the conflicts in season three. 

Unless dream Rapunzel is referring to Zhan Tiri being released, but even that is false because Zhan Tiri is already floating around a little blue ghost girl off screen right now. What Rapunzel choses or chooses not to do does not change that. 

Lack of external conflict undermines internal conflict.  

Just Cause You Make A Meta Joke About Your Heroes Being Dumb For No Reason, Does Not Make Them Any Less Stupid 

Jokingly admitting a fault in your writing doesn’t not excuse that fault. If you can’t have a plot without handing the idiot ball to your characters than you haven’t a good plot. Time to go back to drawing board. 

Season Three Will Go Back On This Episode’s Message and Prove the Villian Right

I’ve liget seen fans unironically praise the show for it’s message of ‘be content with what you have’. Not only is that a terrible lesson to teach children; it’s actually the exact opposite of what the show is trying to achieve.

“Be satisfied” is suppose to be the wrong motto. Rapunzel is suppose to be fighting against this message. In the episode itself it’s the villian who is saying such things in order to tempt her to stay put. 

So how could anyone look at the show as a whole and come away with idea that the one off villain was right along? 

Because season three does a complete 180 away from its original messages regarding agency and responsibility. All consequences disappear from the story and the mains are given convenient scapegoats to distract from their decisions. Characters actively regress and are rewarded by the narrative for either not doing anything or for victim blaming others for their actions. 

But most damaging of all is the fact that nearly everyone winds up back where they started out at, or aren’t given a proper ending at all. Tangled’s story is just one giant circle and that in of itself contradicts the idea of progress.  

Cassandra’s Hurt Hand Is Only Relevant When The Story Wants Rapunzel to Feel Guilty About Something  

Oh but we can just throw Cassandra’s burnt hand in here as a substitute Rapunzel’s guilt over Varian. Even though the two incidents should actually complement one another rather than compete for dominance. 

Tangled doesn’t trust its audience to remember things. It acts like if it’s off screen or not being focused upon than it’s not happening or isn’t relevant. This undermines any ongoing or overarching conflicts.  

Why should we care about Cassandra’s arm if she’s been shown as being fine with it for four episodes by now? Especially since it’ll never come up again after this point? And on the flip side of things, why should the audience not care about the 15 year old who has been sitting in a dungeon for almost a year now due to Rapunzel’s neglect?  

We’re not magpies who are quickly distracted by shiny new things. We are capable of retaining information and informing decisions based off of that. Especially if Chris was shooting for the teen audience as he claims he was. 

Oh But We Got Time For Godzilla-Pascal 

Can’t spare even half a minute for a Varian cameo that would be relevant, but we sure got time to waste on a pointless action sequence that does nothing to further the character in what is meant to be a character development episode. 

This Scene Is Out of Character 

That’s not how abuse works! 

The whole reason why Gothel was able to keep Rapunzel under her thumb for 18 years because Rapunzel always sought her approval. Never at any point, even when finally choosing to break away from her in the movie, did Rapunzel wish to harm the woman. That goes against who she is as a character and it’s not how abuse victims respond to abusers even after cutting things off with them. 

If anything, Rapunzel’s treatment of Frederic in Happiness Is is more in line with how a victim goes about mourning the loss of an abusive relationship. Victims grieve for what might have been. Victims mourn the loss of what good times they had with their abusers, because yes, abusers aren’t abusive 100% of the time 24/7. They can’t be or they risk losing their victim quicker.  

I initially was ok with flashbacks to Gothel on occasion because no victim ever makes a completely clean break from their abuser. Even ‘moving on’ isn’t some triumphant singular action when you stand tall while you knock your opponent down in a wish fulfilment fantasy.

No. ‘Moving on’ is slow. It’s understated. It’s routine. It’s about being able to do the dishes without getting triggered. It’s sitting at lunch with friends and being happy and calm without the fear of returning home hanging over your head. It’s not skipping out on work because your anxiety is through the roof over just meeting with your boss. It’s not devolving into a yelling match over something minor because you internalize your abusers behavior.  

Abuse victims don’t celebrate violence as strength. We celebrate being an unmovable mountain of clam fortitude. Being in control even as the world rages at us, because we’re self assured. 

The fact that this scene exists, while Happiness Is shows Rapunzel behaving the opposite way to the father who abused her the same as Gothel did, only proves that a man shouldn’t have been in charge of this show. Certainly not without a woman by his side giving equal input. 

Stop Using Destiny as a Shorthand for Everything!

Destiny isn’t a catch all word that can mean whatever you want it to. Words have definitions for a reason. Destiny isn’t a goal nor does it equate to agency and responsibility; kind of the opposite in fact. 

Well That Was Redundant

All we did was rehash Rapunzel’s season one arc in under half in hour. Nothing new was learned. It’s like writers don’t know how to resolve any conflict that isn’t a repeat of the first movie. Meanwhile actual unique conflicts are just sitting off to the side being ignored. All because the show’s creator doesn’t want to hold his precious self insert accountable for anything. 

Bye Bye Smart Cass, Hello Dumb Cass

So from this point onward the Cass we’ve known for nearly two seasons is gone. She’s just been replaced by the dumbest bitch on the planet. Because the writers don’t understand how manipulation and trauma actually works. Nor do they comprehend the importance of giving characters actual goals.  

Conclusion 

Season three is what retroactively spoils this episode. Cass’s dumb decision here, Zhan Tiri’s lack of a coherent plan, the uselessness of the disciples, and even the lack of Varian could have been glossed over had they writers given us a satisfying pay offs for any of the main conflicts. But they didn’t and so here we are. 

Also a small update, but after this review and starting next week, the Salt Marathon will go from bi weekly updates to only one a week. This is a combination of real life work getting in the way and the growing length of the reviews. This means we’ll hopefully be done come March, which would mark the show’s anniversary. I got some plans to celebrate if that works out. 

[sockablock]

When in sudden need of a place to stay, Caleb Widogast finds a room for rent at a price so low he can’t believe his luck. Ignoring the concerns of his friends, he moves in and quickly finds himself tangled up in the life of one Essek Thelyss, a reclusive scholar who may be even stranger than Caleb himself...

(start) - (previous) - (next)

Chapter 2: A Name to the Face

The sun lanced arcs across Caleb’s face as he set his phone down on the nightstand, and yawned.

He’d gotten used to sleeping in strange places during the last few years of his life, and there was a part of him that missed the coziness of his room back in his and Nott’s apartment. But the other part of him, namely the part comprised of bruises from too-narrow walls—relished in this chance to stretch out a little.

Eventually, he managed to sit up. The mattress did not dip sullenly with his weight, indicative of its newness and quality.

He glanced around. The door was closed, though Frumpkin was nowhere to be seen. Then again, mundane cats were already hard enough to confine; as a feline of the fey persuasion, Frumpkin went where Frumpkin pleased.

Caleb took his sweet time making the bed, adjusting the blinds, peering out the window over quiet streets, before eventually rifling through his cardboard boxes for something proper to wear. He also made a mental note to, at some point, ask Mr. Thelyss how the laundry worked.

Then he straightened his collar, took a deep breath, and wandered out into the kitchen.

—

Jester was nose-deep in a box of cinnamon rolls when Beauregard emerged from the shower. Peals of steam curled past the doorframe and dissipated out into the hallway.

“I thought those were supposed to last us the week,” Beau said when she noticed her roommate. “Didn’t we decide we wouldn’t go back to the bakery until Thursday?”

“Oh, but Beau,” icing shimmered in the corner of Jester’s mouth. “Beau, they’re just so tasty. I can’t resist.”

Beauregard pulled the towel off her head and gave her hair one last muss-up. Then she slung herself backwards into a chair and stole some frosting.

“Fair enough,” she licked a finger. “Just be sure to save something for Yasha when she gets back.”

“Back?” Jester’s cheerful demeanor vanished. “Oh, no, did she leave again? I thought she was done doing that!”

“Oh, no she didn’t run off, I think she just went to some errands, or something?” Beau scratched the side of her head. “She mentioned something about seeing a butcher.”

“Oh.” Jester relaxed. “Well that’s alright, then. Though we don’t really cook much.”

“Maybe she’s trying something new. It’s better than eating rats all the time, right?”

Jester gave this due consideration. “I think she only did that once. And then Fjord threw up, so she decided to stop.”

“Hm,” Beau shrugged. “I guess that’s nice of her. Oh, hey, speaking of stopping, what the hell is up with Caleb? Has he responded? With pictures and actual information?”

Jester groaned. “He’s being a real butt about it. He’s obviously there, but he isn’t sending us anything good.”

Beau raised a cinnamon roll. “The bastard.”  

— 

In the light of day, Mr. Thelyss’s kitchen gleamed with tidiness and disuse. In fact, it seemed like only the coffeemaker and microwave ever got any attention from their owner.

Caleb added another step to his mental moving day to-do-list: find the nearest grocery store and get some cereal. And coffee. And maybe a loaf of bread, if he was feeling extravagant.

He settled instead for pouring himself a glass of water and vowing that he would at least pick up lunch once he actually ventured outside. He slid into the kitchen, found a neutral-looking glass cup, and filled it up in the sink.

When he turned, he realized that something was different about the counter.

The little box of cheesecake was gone.

There was a note left, however. It read: Thank you very much, Mr. Widogast.

So, Caleb thought to himself. This meant that his mystery landlord had come home at some point in the night. And…as his gaze drifted past the kitchen and over to the front door of the apartment…yes, there in the foyer was a pair of shoes and a fine, but thin, black cloak.

Caleb had never seen anything like it before. It seemed as if the pattern had been designed to almost be worn like some kind of long poncho. Its hem brushed just over the floor.

What kind of person would wear something like this? The amused thought of vampire briefly flickered through his mind, but he shook it off and chalked it up to spending too much time with Jester.

He glanced back at the note. Something in him also registered: charmingly polite.

He shook his head. Speaking of Jester, he still had a promise to fulfill…

— 

“Fjord, those are ugly.”

“What? I think they look nice—”

“Nice won’t cut it! I need something amazing! It’s been months since I’ve last seen Yeza. I have to really blow him away.”

“Look, what you see is what we’ve got. And anyway, what’s wrong with Delphiniums—”

Nott was standing on a small turquoise stool that some of the more vertically-challenged customers of the Blooming Grove required to reach the counter. Her finger was swaying dangerously underneath the nose of a long-time friend and even longer-time frenemy, Fjord, currently on register duty.

All around them, the sweet and mellow scent of dozens upon dozens of coastal flowers twirled and trilled and danced through the air. Large windows set into the pale green walls let in sunlight and a view of the gardens out back.

“They’re blue!” Nott screeched. “I don’t want blue, Yeza’s going to think I’m not happy to see him!”

“Everyone likes blue,” Fjord said defensively. “Just look at Jester. She’s practically got a fan club. Fine, fine,” he added, when her expression didn’t change, “I can do you some roses—”

“Roses are cliché.”

“They’re a goddamn symbol of love, Nott.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but I don’t just want a symbol of love, I want a symbol of…of passion. Of devotion. Of l—”

“Look, just wait a bit, and Caduceus will be back. He’s the one who actually knows the names of all these things,” Fjord sighed. “He’ll be able to tell you if those even are Delphiniums.”

There was a moment’s pause.

“How have you managed to keep this job, Fjord?”

“I don’t have to help you, you know.”

“Technically, I think you d—"

And then, their phones buzzed.

—

— 

Nott glanced back at Fjord.

“Do you think he doesn’t know?”

Fjord shrugged. “Let’s just see what he says.”

Nott groaned. “It’ll probably be hours until we find out.”

—

—

“He’s going to die tonight, then,” said Beau, kicking off her sneakers. The front door shut behind her with a click. “That’s, like, the first rule to committing a crime. Don’t let them see your face.”

“I think it’s kind of romantic,” Jester said. Now she was in the living room, sprawled across the couch. “It’s like…a forbidden meeting. Maybe he’ll never find out what Essie looks like. Isn’t that sad?”

“Essek,” Beau corrected, and set her keys aside. “And I don’t see what’s so sad about that.”

“Oh, but it is,” Jester lavished in her sigh. “The saddest and loneliest kind of thing. To never see who you’re living with? If you can’t even put a face to the name, you might as well be sharing your house with a ghost.”

Beau raised an eyebrow. “That’s…a little dramatic, but I see what you mean. Anyway, this is a point against the guy. In my books, that is. And I’m keeping track.”

“Oh? How many points does he have?”

Beau joined her on the couch and crossed her arms. “Not many. He’s mysterious, and weird. Those are negatives. Standoffish, if he didn’t even greet Caleb on the first day. And if he isn’t a criminal, and is actually renting out a place that cheap, he must be a total idiot. Or desperate.”

“For what?” Jester asked.

She shrugged. “Who knows? The company?”

— 

Essek was, as a matter of fact, quite desperate. Desperate for another five minutes of sleep.

It was now long after the Mighty Nein had given up on their interrogation, though he was not aware of this. Instead, what was most on his mind was the strange…the odd vibrating right next to his head.

Blindly, he reached out to slap his alarm. His hand connected, but the noise did not stop.

Then he realized that it was coming from the other side of the bed.

He shuffled around to take a peek.

An eye was staring back at him. Large and blue.

“What in the name of the L—”

The cat yawned, and its mouth stretched open to reveal rows of teeth.

Essek hesitated. He rubbed his face.

“How did…what is…”

And then the puzzle pieces slid into place.  

He racked his brain for the name.

“F…Fr…Frumpkin?” he guessed.

The cat yawned again. This time, it followed the gesture up with a mrpf, and unfurled its body. And stretched.

“Hm,” said Essek. “He did…warn me, but…I am not sure if I approve of you coming in here like this. Without announcement, especially.”

Frumpkin stared back up at him. He tilted his head and put on his most endearing expression.

“Well,” Essek relented in the onslaught of this, “at least you don’t seem to be the kind that sheds. Actually…”

He leaned in as close as he dared, a pair of icy eyes tracking his every movement.

“…actually, I’m not at all sure what kind of kitty you are. Your ears are…very long. And your markings are…”

And then Essek realized.

“A familiar?”

Frumpkin blinked at him.

— 

Caleb had found the grocery store on his second try, and had also made note of a bookstore and bus stop on the way there. Now, after a long day of scouting out the neighborhood, he was back in his bedroom again, sorting clothes. No use in holding off, after all, not even if it made him feel slightly strange to be putting all his things away in someone else’s bedroom.

He picked up a t-shirt and examined the back. STAFF, it read. He had no idea for what. The Broad Barn’s secondhand clothing pile was vague at best and hazardous at worst.

Another part of Caleb, the part not fully consumed by the current task at hand, registered the faintest sound outside. It was ruled out as being not important.

Caleb produced another shirt. This one had a picture of a cat on it, red beams of light shooting out from its eyes. This had been a New Dawn present from—surprising to everyone—Yasha.

It had thus far found a long and happy life as the top half of Caleb’s pajamas. He’d tried to wear it in public once, and been bullied mercilessly by Beauregard.

On the other side of the room, past the drawers and the bed, was a small folding table that had been set up by Essek, likely as a desk. It was the sort of low contraption that eliminated any possibility of chairs, but it made a lot of sense for apartment living and was sized well enough for sitting on the floor. It was miles above Caleb’s old arrangement, a piece of plywood on a milk crate.

Right now, this new desk was covered in reams upon reams of notebook paper. Contrary to expectation, however, this paper was not lined with the standard narrow rule of most academic stationary. Instead, a pattern of lines and circles extended out from the center of the page, covering every inch in an odd spiral. Dozens upon dozens of these sheets were strewn about now, with hasty pencil-markings splattered across the page.

A particularly keen-eyed individual might have noticed that some of the markings were crossed-out. Redoubled, re-arranged, re-placed, or removed.

A particularly keen-eyed individual with the right kind of background would have noticed immediately that many of these runes were transmutative.

Back on his side of the bed, Caleb was humming.

— 

When the cat—the familiar, likely a fey one, at that—did not decide to claw Essek’s eyes out, he gingerly picked it up under its forearms and carried it out of his bedroom.

He entered the living room, and saw that it was empty. The curtains were drawn open, however, and at this point the late-summer sun was just beginning to crest low over the horizon.

Essek raised an eyebrow at Frumpkin. “So. Where is your master, hm?”

Frumpkin meowed. It meant absolutely nothing to Essek, but he nodded anyway on principle.

“I understand that you are…well, from what I think I know about ordinary cats, you might like to wander around. But the same rules that apply to your wizard apply to you as well, okay?”

He walked Frumpkin into the living room and put him down on the couch.

“I would appreciate it if you did not enter my bedroom without invitation. The study as well, yes? Meow if you understand.”

Frumpkin stared at him. Frumpkin opened his mouth. Frumpkin closed it again.

It was a vague enough gesture that Essek could not tell if this was a response. He sighed.

“This is why I never bothered with getting one of you, you know. And I’m not even talking about the food bills. Er…do you eat?”

Frumpkin repeated the gesture. Essek repeated it back at the cat in a burst of childish impulse, then caught himself.

Gods, talking to Verin yesterday must have put him in an odd mood. And his brother had kept going on and on about life back in Rosohna, about how wonderful it is, Essek, how much Mother misses you, Essek, how I wish you’d visit, Essek—all that nostalgia couldn’t be good for the mind. Especially when unsolicited.

Still, this did not stop him from checking his messages in the kitchen while he waited for his morning—afternoon—evening—coffee to brew. In the background, Frumpkin rolled over on the sofa. Verin had mentioned something that he’d wanted to talk about, that he’d send over later…

Essek opened up their conversation. Then he scowled.

— 

A solitary figure stalked through the dimming streets of Nicodranas. She stretched, working out the knots in her back, upper arms, feeling the scabs on her knuckles and their sting.

She grinned, wide and toothy, in the sunset.

Unconventional, but it worked.

— 

Caleb had a perfect memory, and never forget anything. As such, the three core tenets of his tenancy in this apartment were virtually scored into his mind.

Be quiet. Be organized. And do the recycling.

Now he stood outside the apartment complex. The winding streets formed a gentle little plaza where the neighboring buildings all shared an open space, which included the public recycling cans.

There hadn’t actually been that much to take out, aside from an empty carton of ramen, a few cat food tins, and some assorted items that Mr. Thelyss must have left behind last night. Still, Caleb had wanted to prove how serious he was about following the Code of Conduct, and so had made the journey downstairs to be a responsible citizen.

The breeze wound around his ankles. Nearby, a few kids were running around with their mother, and a jogger moseyed past their street. It was a peaceful sight, underscored by the distant call of gulls and a setting sun.

Caleb had just nudged open the lid of the recycling bin when the shouting began.

Actually, it was less of a shouting and more of a heated argument, augmented by the harsh syllables of a language that Caleb did not recognize.

If he had, it would have sounded something like this:

“—impossible! I refuse. I did not give my permission—”

“Permission? Why would she need your permission—”

“Because it is my house! And this is my city—”

“Your city? Brother, you’ve only been there a few months—”

“It’s been a year and a half, Verin. A peaceful year and a half, mind.”

“Really? Well, I am certain it will remain that. And anyway, she’s not even going there for you.”

“Hah! I have a feeling that she is visiting Nicodranas expressly to do so. The gala is just an excuse for her to come here and poke into everything I’m doing—”

“Look, look, don’t shout at me. I am just the messenger. If you’re so upset, go and call Mother—”

Caleb swung the bag into the can. As he closed the lid, his curiosity got the better of him and he found himself surreptitiously scanning the perimeter with the universal creep of eavesdroppers everywhere.

Quickly, he found the source of the sound. There was a figure standing in front of his building, pacing back and forth underneath the awning, waving one hand around in frustration. The shadows prevented him from getting a better look, but the figure seemed lithe, and very annoyed.

Caleb would have to slip past him to get back inside.

Tactically, he pulled out his phone and pretended to be incredibly engrossed with its contents. Luckily, it seemed to work—and out of the corner of his eye he even noticed the figure hastily stepping aside.

Then, unluckily, the figure followed him.

Caleb didn’t dare look up. But he could feel the stranger’s presence trail him all the way into the elevator, then settle down next to him as the doors slid shut.

Caleb went to hit the number four. So did the stranger. Their fingers collided.

“Ah—"

“Scheisse, I am sor—”

And then he stopped.

Caleb Widogast was decidedly not a man of the world. He’d never left the continent of Wildemount, for instance, nor could he claim to have seen everything it had to offer. But he had fancied himself rather well-read, and believed that he perhaps had experienced more than the average person.

This was the first time in his life that he’d seen a dark elf.

He knew that they existed, of course, but in the way that he knew the names of far-off places, as distant trivia irrelevant to his life. He knew, for example, that they were native to Xhorhas, and that many of their societies lived underground. He knew that their closest civilization was ruled by a powerful queen. He also knew that in less-polite circles, some Empire elites still believed them to be backwater savages and monsters.

This one was wearing a green t-shirt. His hair was a messy sweep to one side.

“—ry.” He finished, as quickly as he could.

The dark elf shrugged. His eyes—a pale slate gray—took in Caleb’s appearance, then the number they’d both pressed.

“I do not recall ever seeing you,” the elf said. His voice was still a little strained, as if something from before—that argument, perhaps—was bothering him immensely.

“I, ah, I’m new,” Caleb said.

The elf raised an eyebrow. “I see.”

Then he turned back around to stare at the door. Caleb was more than happy not to engage. He just hoped he hadn’t stared long enough to offend a potential neighbor.

The elevator rose three floors. On the fourth one, it stopped.

He quickly ducked out, sandals pattering on the ground, and it was only once he’d gotten to the door of his apartment and started to punch in the code that he realized the elf was still behind him, still standing there, still annoyed, and so he turned—

— 

“Excuse me,” said Essek tetchily. “Why are you entering my home?”

The human blinked.

“Er…this is…where I live.”

“What? But—”

For the second time that day, Essek realized.

“Um,” said Caleb Widogast. “Would your last name...happen to be ‘Thelyss’?”

— — —

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[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!

[murasaki-murasame]

After two full months of waiting, enough for me to have 600 goddamn summons hoarded up, Gala Leif has finally been released, and even though I probably should have waited to get an idea of how good all the new units are, I decided to immediately summon on the gala anyway.

I’ll go over all of what I can remember from my summons under the cut, but TL;DR: I got every new banner unit and I still have 330 summons left >:3c

Before the gala summons, I also used the 5-star adventurer/dragon vouchers I got from the royal regimen endeavors, which got me a dupe Xander, a dupe Mikoto, two dupe Louises, a dupe P-Siren [now at 1UB], a dupe Freyja [now my second copy’s at 3UB], and I think the third dragon was maybe a Nidhogg or something but I don’t remember.

As for the gala itself, the new units I got were:

-Gala Leif [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

-Two copies of the Xuan Zang alt [one of them was from within my first ten single vouchers lol]

-Zhu Bajie [I got Leif after 220 summons and then I decided to keep going for this dude, who I thankfully got after just 50 more summons]

-Four copies of Tie Shan Gongzhu [Since I got so many copies of her I decided to use a few sunlight stones to get a MUB copy of her while having a 0UB one left over. I tend to run my two copies of Freyja at the same time pretty often in my wind team, so I figured it’d be worth having two copies of her. I still have eight sunlight stones left over anyway]

-Andromeda [I dunno if I’ll ever use her but it’s cool to get her]

And these are the dupes I got that I can remember:

-Lathna [I swear to god I’ve gotten a dupe Lathna from like every single gala since she came out]

-Grace [Guess who I got from the last dream summon lol]

-S-Celery

-S-Julietta [She’s quickly becoming one of my dreaded dupes to get, especially since I didn’t get Gala Elly when she came out]

-Gala Sarisse [I think I’ve somehow gotten like three copies of her in total at this point]

-Arctos [I have him MUB already so this is just gonna be a second copy now]

-Kagutsuchi [now at 1UB]

-OG Siren [now at 1UB]

-Epimetheus [now at 3UB]

-Garuda [now at 1UB]

-Shinobi [now my second copy’s at 3UB]

-Freyja [like I said with the other Freyja dupe I got, my second copy’s now at 3UB]

-Simurgh [now at 1UB]

-Nimis [now at 1UB]

-Nyarlathotep [now at 3UB]

That’s all I remember but there were probably a few more, lol.

Anyway, I haven’t had much time to use them yet, but I actually feel more excited about the new light units than Leif himself. I honestly can’t figure out what role Leif is meant to play in the wind meta. In spite of having a shield stance, his only real defense utility is a 60% defense buff that only applies to himself, and other than that he has lots of attacking skills that apparently do a lot of damage, unique attack combos that are basically the same as the chefs but he only needs a 6+ combo to activate it, and a whole bunch of entirely offensive abilities. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up being a top-tier wind DPS unit, but it feels like he’s intended to play a defensive role even though he doesn’t really have anything in his kit to support that. I think his big self-only defense buff has a good shot at letting him cheese part stuff like HMC’s waterfall, but that only applies to himself.

In general I dunno who he’d replace on my wind team for stuff like soloing eCiella. Unless I can get by without T-Hope’s team defense buffs, I might be able to get rid of Ranzal and just share his S1 for the dispel, but I dunno.

I really hope he doesn’t end up falling into obscurity due to not having enough in the way of unique utility to make him stand out, but he seems like he at least does way more damage than Gala Ranzal, so that’s nice, lol.

But aside from him, the new light units honestly all look extremely good. I think they’re definitely going to shake up the light meta a lot more than Leif will do for wind, but it’ll still be a while before shadow Agito comes out in the first place.

I only have a vague idea of what some of the damage mods are for all the new units, but I’m hearing that Xuan Zang’s S1 does a surprisingly high amount of damage, at least in it’s upgraded form. Her S2 AoE zone also looks way bigger than what other units with that type of skill get, so it’ll probably be a lot easier for her to reliably include all her teammates in it. Apparently her force strike also works more like a staff force-strike, so that’s neat. I think she might actually trump Peony in the DPS sim just due to raw damage mods, but she also provides a lot of defensive utility via her S1 strength debuff, and her S2 shadow res buff, so that might edge her out as well in a way that wouldn’t be reflected in something like the DPS sim. Also she can reduce the enemy’s paralysis resistance but I don’t know the numbers on that, or how much it’d really impact a paralysis team.

Zhu Bajie also seems even better in practice than I thought he’d be, lol. He plays a lot like the Monster Hunter units due to his unique force-strike which basically works in the exact same ways theirs do, and unlike how axe force strikes normally work, it works more like a lance force-strike. So he ends up not playing like an axe unit at all, which is interesting. And on top of all that stuff, he also has enmity scaling on his S1, and he can reduce his health with his S2 like Natalie can. I saw that his S1 gets up to a max of like 1900% damage mods, which is really good, even if you won’t really get that high in practice. His force-strike also has really high SP gain, enough to fill his S1 in two force-strikes [which takes like five or so seconds], so it feels like it’s gonna be really easy to spam, which makes the high damage mods even better. His force-strike also seems to have a 460% paralysis punisher damage mod added onto it when it’s fully charged, so that might make a real impact on his overall damage. He also gets Resilient Offense, which is a really good ability in general, but it might be hard to trigger it multiple times since his S2 makes it so you can’t heal him for 10 seconds. His S1 also inflicts stun, which might be good in certain situations but stun tends to be pretty unreliable. I think he’s going to pair extremely well with the Xuan Zang alt, since her strength debuffs and shadow res buffs will make it way easier for him to tank hits while at low health.

Sorta like how the Xuan Zang alt makes me feel way better about having skipped Peony, Zhu Bajie makes me feel better about having skipped all the Monster Hunster units [mainly Vanessa], lol. Vanessa still has her own unique defensive stuff going on, but I feel like Zhu Bajie plays extremely similarly to her in spite of being an axe unit, so that’s cool.

I’m a little salty that Sha Wujing is another light lance instead of a light healer, but honestly his kit looks really good, and he’ll probably see more use this way than if he was a healer, lol. His main appeal is basically that he has a defense debuff zone on his S2, which is really nice in general, though his two abilities are about buffing his damage, so maybe his S1 will let him do a lot of damage as well. The thing that’s really interesting to me, though, is that his S2 is a shared skill you can give to other characters, which I really didn’t see coming, since they’d actively avoided letting you skill share any other defense debuff zone skills. He might end up being a really useful skill share option for certain fights, especially stuff like speedrun comps where you want to stack as many strength buffs and defense debuffs as you can right away.

Also it’s extremely funny to me that since he’s a featured 4-star in a gala banner, he wound up having extremely high appearance rates [7% normally, and 40% on the final summon in a tenfold], which basically means that any amount of summoning on this gala is gonna lead to you getting like a million copies of this dude, lol. I think in the 270 summons I did, I got like 15-20 copies of him, with there being multiple instances of me getting like three copies of him in a single tenfold. It’s not a big deal or anything, and he seems to be a really good unit so it’s nice that he’s really easy to get, but it’s funny to me how much he’s been plaguing everyone’s summons.

Tie Shan Gongzhu also looks like she’s gonna be the go-to dragon for basically any light support unit, so that’s cool. She doesn’t have a heal skill, but we already have Cupid for that.

I don’t know all of their damage mods and SP costs and stuff yet, and it’ll be a little while before the DPS sim updates to include them, but I think they’re going to be top-tier light units. Hopefully they don’t get powercrept by the time shadow Agito comes out, lol. Either way this is exactly what the light element’s been desperately needing after like six months of Oops! All Limited!

Which is also why I’m really really happy that they decided to put these characters on rate-up along with Gala Leif, since it meant I was able to get them along with Leif, instead of having to skip their banner entirely to save for the next gala. I hope they make this a trend going forward. I think GBF does this a lot with their galas, so maybe they’re shifting to this model for galas now. This just seems like a net positive all around, and it means I feel like I’m missing out less by hoarding exclusively for gala banners.

Anyway this banner treated me extremely well, which is a huge relief after how bad my experience with the Gala Alex banner was. I was worried that the 600 summons i had saved up wouldn’t be enough to get Leif, but I managed to get at least one copy of everyone in less than 300 summons, so that’s great.

I guess now my short-term goal is to just skip all the non-limited banners between now and the next gala. So we’ll just see how that goes. I have a feeling we’ll get a rerun of the Daikokuten banner in the next month or two, which might really tempt me since I didn’t get Daikokuten or Nobunaga when they came out, but I don’t know if they interest me enough to chase after that, especially with monthly galas seeming to be a thing now.

[aro-aizawa]

anyways, since the idea won’t leave me alone here’s my pitch for a prince of the galra keith au where lotor doesn’t exist and canon is just a suggestion i guess. (under a cut part ways in bc uhhh it’s like 3.7k words. rip.)

for starters: krolia is human and zarkon’s his dad. a nightmare idea, i know bc uhhhh the same thing that occurs w thinking about how lotor exists is uhh “zarkon fucks?” yeah. yeah he does. which uhhhhh yeah. but bare w me here, bc he’s still an utter dick in this au and krolia is still a badass. 

in this au, krolia was married to mr shirogane and had shiro before leaving earth on a garrison solo mission to pluto. she collided with a stolen galra ship manned by a prisoner who was trying to flee the empire, though the galra ship wasn’t damaged her ship was completely destroyed but she managed to survive for the prisoner to bring her aboard. together they tried to escape the empire, but they got caught. the prisoner was executed and krolia was taken to the arena. 

(earth believes she crashed her ship in the rings of saturn, and honor her death. no solo manned missions to space anymore, and certainly not to places humans haven’t been before. it also delays plans to send more people up there, so the next manned mission isn’t until shiro’s mission to kerberos. mr shirogane dies a five years before that mission.)

there she fought viciously and won literally every single one of her fights with only a dagger she’d earned early on in her battles. even when they provided bigger weapons, she always came on top with just a knife which earned her high praise and approval. enough to gain zarkon’s attention. 

idk why but he forces her to marry him, and when shiro’s 9 years old and krolia’s been in space for 5 years, keith’s born. he doesn’t actually go by keith at this point though because i doubt zarkon would let krolia name him that. not quite sure on what he’d go by though i quite like kyix of discordiansamba’s burgundy. krolia wanted to name him keith, and so calls him that when they’re alone as a secret nickname. 

keith doesn’t look fully human. a la lotor style i guess, he looks human but has purple skin and yellow sclera. pointy zarkon-ish ears and fangs. he’s still tiny as fuck though and doesn’t grow, to which he’s furious about bc galra are big and he’s a shorty but no one mentions it to his face otherwise he’d stab them right where they stand. 

krolia tries her best to raise him w good morals and lessen zarkon’s influence on him but she doesn’t fully manage it. he’s willing to please zarkon even if he’s not cruel about it, and he does wish for the best for the empire but knowing that his father’s reigned for over ten thousand years, he knows he’s probably never going to sit on the throne himself. doesn’t prevent him from getting all the training a prince would need (including a lot of combat training). 

he’s never told much about earth because krolia finds it hard to talk about. she does tell him about humans as a species and teaches him the three earth languages she knows, korean (her native language), japanese (mr shirogane’s native language) and english. she especially doesn’t tell him about shiro, but she does say that she left a husband and her family behind on earth, that she misses them a lot. 

back on earth, shiro goes to kerberos when he’s 26 (two years older than canon) and they still get caught. most canonical events in the year time zone go almost exactly the same. shiro gets sent to the arena, matt and sam still get sent off to the camps before matt’s broken out by the resistance, katie goes undercover as pidge, and lance and hunk are just regular dudes, but lance is in fighter class straight off the bat. 

(to earth, shiro crashes the ship and dies just like his mother did. which is......all kinds of sad to think about.)

except when shiro lands on earth, the garrison trio decide to break shiro out on their own. they then steal a jeep and head out into the desert, finding a nice guy who owns a shack (canon keith’s father but not in this au, who im gonna call mr fireman bc he doesn’t have a canon name). he’s been doing some investigating some funky stuff (the lion), and lets the kids crash at his place bc kids shouldn’t be wandering the desert w/o any supplies at night it’s dangerous. 

anyways, the shack conversation all goes almost exactly the same w mr fireman taking keith’s place. he goes with the kids, but he doesn’t get in the blue lion, she doesn’t let him in. mr fireman parts ways with the kids friendly-like, and the four of them head off to arus. 

things.....largely? stay the same? when it comes to stealing the red lion off the ship, they actually have to get the lions to drag it out of the cargo bay because they don’t have a pilot for it but as long as the lion is out of the empire’s hands, that’s all that matters although allura does try to pilot it when sendak’s ship is destroyed. due to having no pilot, they can’t retrieve black for shiro. so they only have three active lions, but three lions are still pretty powerful. 

from there i haven’t exactly worked out all the kinks but somehow they get in contact with rebels from their steady liberation of galra-controlled planets. they do small targets, taking out the weakest on the fringe of the empire and build up footholds while building the coalition. shiro fights with them on the ground, and using the castle with coran and allura when it’s not possible. sometimes he rides along with the other paladins. 

sometime before they go the galactic hub, and skipping over crystal venom entirely, they join forces with the rebels and the coalition to pull off a mission to kill zarkon. they’d received intelligence to suggest that he’s visiting a less secure ship, to oversee a project for a few days. instead of taking the lions and just blasting the ship to pieces, they decide to infiltrate and take him out stealth like to guarantee his death. 

only the information is faulty because it’s keith there instead of zarkon. 

when they learn that keith is zarkon’s son.......they kidnap him. 

their goal was to hold him hostage and/or interrogate him for weak spots in the empire, but somehow they end up thinking “hm maybe he can be redeemed bc his dad is literally an asshole and ehhh he can’t help who his parents are?” so they give him a chance....tentatively. 

keith, seeing this huge opportunity to sabotage his father’s greatest opponents and eventually steal the lions back for his father, takes this absolutely for granted and fakes his redemption. he basically pulls a lotor, and ends up helping them in certain areas but sabotaging them in others. he’s unable to report back to his father for spying purposes, but he does leave clues and/or hints to weaknesses somehow. all the while, the real reason for these things going wrong isn’t thought of. 

all the while, the paladins are trying to bond with keith. trying to get him to redeem himself, and they end up really liking him even though he’s still rather a loner, doesn’t pretend to be nice and trains like every day. he particularly gets along with shiro, the two of them forming a close bond that keith had not planned or counted on. 

allura is the only one who’s still suspicious of keith. she’s not....hostile. not really, she pretty much acts like she does in canon when keith’s heritage gets out. though they do have a few moments where they could maybe see eye to eye. she’s still apprehensive and unwilling to think that zarkon’s son could be anything but evil. 

this pays off when she investigates a major hit to the castle that renders it unfit for battle for a time and finds that keith was responsible for it. 

at this point, keith has been seriously reconsidering his allegiances. thinking that maybe the right thing to do really was to redeem himself and help out voltron and coalition. he’s not completely blind to the shitty things zarkon did, he’s well aware but he figures that maybe getting his father’s approval isn’t worth all the suffering of others nor something to desire. 

allura attacks keith and calls him out in front of everyone. providing evidence of literally all the times that keith’s fucked them all over. the team feel betrayed, keith is super guilty, and allura’s just pissed. keith doesn’t get a chance to explain before he’s thrown into a prison cell on the castle to wait until voltron can contact the coalition and decide what to do with him because it’s clear that zarkon hasn’t exactly been hurrying to find him. 

but then zarkon attacks the castle of lions with a massive fleet headed by haggar, a force that’s way too much for just three lions to take on while the castle’s defenses are still down. the whole team is in trouble and it pretty much starts to seem like zarkon’s gonna win and the paladins are gonna get killed. 

until the red lion reaches out for keith. 

so he breaks out of prison (that he could have done within minutes of being confined there), and heads to the hangar. he jumps in and uses the element of surprise to disable the fleet enough to make them need to retreat. 

the paladins are freaking out because uhhhh who the hell is the pilot of the lion? they do a little sound off like “allura that’s not you? coran? shiro?” but then keith uses the lion to communicate and basically says “sorry i broke out jail”. 

when they get back to the castle keith awkwardly does a heartfelt explanation of his plans and how the paladins actually did sort of make him want to redeem himself and realise just how much zarkon needs to get murked and stuff. he apologises for fucking them over and he even offers to go with whatever punishment they decide to dish out with no retaliation. 

the team go off and talk for a while. debating if they could really trust him anymore. allura is adamantly against it, pissed off that he’d already betrayed her trust after all zarkon did and the fact he piloted her father’s lion. lance joins her, upset he trusted him at all. pidge and hunk are apprehensive, pointing out that the lion must have seen the good in him to choose him. shiro believes in what keith’s saying and has faith in the kid to actually redeem himself. 

they tell him he can stay but the only reason he’s not dead and/or serving time in prison is bc he’s the red paladin. they make a lot of rules about what he’s allowed to do and not to do though, which keith doesn’t enjoy but he doesn’t complain about them. one of them is that he’s only allowed to fight the empire in the red lion and no on the ground stuff. 

now that the team have the red lion’s paladin they awaken the black lion and they form voltron for the first time. it’s badass, and the liberating of planets goes even faster than before. 

the paladins start to bond again even slower than before bc they need to rebuild that trust. it goes....pretty rockily considering the fact that keith is still pretty prickly in personality, and the others aren’t entirely convinced he’s actually changed sides. but shiro is essentially the only one that actually makes any headway in rebuilding the trust/relationship. 

one night he asks about keith’s mom. bc human far out in space? as far as the team knew there should have only been them and the holts, so he’s definitely curious. keith tells him about a pilot who’d been picked up in their solar system after their ship got destroyed and took them as prisoner. he tells shiro all about his mom and what she taught him of earth. 

but shiro. he starts to wonder who on earth this pilot was. because, uh, only very few pilots have gone missing in space and one of them is important to him. so he asks her name. keith replies krolia. shiro asks “as in...krolia kogane?” and keith’s like yeah. 

shiro mentally freaks out, doing mental acrobats all over the place but his thoughts mostly boiling down to a mixture of “HOLY SHIT MY MOM’S ALIVE” and “HOLY SHIT I HAVE A HALF-BROTHER WHO’S AN ALIEN PRINCE”. he manages not to let keith know he’s freaking out, and excuses himself. 

they end up doing a covert blood test and yup keith is shiro’s half brother. this earns him points in “okay yeah he’s capable of change if we warm up to him”, so the team start to treat him more favorably, not that keith is aware of this new revelation. so it’s common knowledge to the ship minus keith. shiro tries even harder to bond w his little brother, bc uhhh yeah he’s never had a little brother and he definitely likes keith so far even though he was a little evil for a while. 

keith at some point expresses to shiro why he’s fine with not telling zarkon that keith’s on the paladins’ side. that his mother would most likely be killed for turning him against zarkon due to the fact that paladins are humans, and that she’s still at central command completely unable to get away. like a glorified prisoner because, well, she is. 

shiro suggests to the team that they pull off a rescue mission to free krolia, not only for keith’s sake but for shiro’s sake too. plus the fact that she’d been a prisoner for twenty three years. which then kicks of the finale of season 1. (yes we’re still in season 1. it should have been way longer than it actually was.)

things go largely the same, except that in allura’s place it’s krolia. when keith charges at zarkon his identity is revealed to him. they manage to rescue krolia, keith fights zarkon and thace destroys the shield holding them in place. they don’t go through a corrupted wormhole though. 

then there’s a cute heartfelt reunion between keith and krolia. during which keith emotes more than he ever has in front of the paladins, who have pretty much all accepted that yep keith’s a good guy now considering he almost fought to the death with zarkon. 

but then shiro steps up and calls krolia mom which confuses the fuck out of keith, the only one who doesn’t know. krolia shakily says “Kashi?” and they tearfully hug, krolia completely caught off guard that her other son wasn’t on earth where she left him. keith is confusion until krolia explains, and keith asks if that means shiro is his brother. they say yes and they have a big old threeway hug, to which lasts for like an hour because its big family bonding time. everyone is happy for them.

you’d think, huh is this the end of the au? this is pretty long already.....nope!! we’re just getting started!!! (this thing is a monster......hence why im never going to even attempt to write it out lmao)

we go into season 2 where krolia starts to talk to the others about the rebel galra group that she helped and kind of joined called the blade of marmora. she tells them that there was a galra named thace who kept her in the loop about keith, and the goings on of voltron. she tells them that they would be a very good ally in the fight against zarkon. 

shiro then backs this story up with his memory of how ulaz helped him escape jail, and says that they should trust them. the team tentatively agree, but decide not to immediately go to them and focus more on building the coalition. krolia pulls keith aside and gives them a knife that they had given her to protect herself as zarkon prohibited her to carry weapons. its keith’s marmora blade that she was unable to activate because of her lack of galra blood, but they gave it to her to protect herself anyways. 

canon largely stays the same for a while. zarkon still does the tracking thing, except when allura and keith go out in a pod, krolia comes with them. they have a little thing where they make clear with each other where they stand and end up having a little fun despite the tense atmosphere until the castle is attacked by zarkon.

when the team meet up with the blades, keith demands why they didn’t help krolia themselves. they’d already proved with shiro that they could free prisoners if they wanted to, and demands to know why they didn’t risk it for krolia. he wants to know why they never took a bigger part in taking down the empire and why they never stepped forwards to work with voltron themselves instead of letting the team come to them. 

kolivan says that he only gets the answers, an alliance between them and gets to keep the blade if he joins as a member of their order and take the trials. keith accepts. the rest of the blades however, don’t like the idea that the son of zarkon was joining up and taking the trials. but when keith passes and pretty much immediately tries to kill memory zarkon on sight, he proves himself to them. the blades ally with the coalition and voltron. 

again, season 2 goes quite a lot like canon. except!!! in the finale they actually do end up killing zarkon along with haggar and shiro doesn’t go missing! hurray!!! 

but. that means with no prince lotor, and a dead zarkon instead of comatose zarkon, there’s no one to lead the empire. hence a kral zera is called. 

(here is where i mention i have vague memories of s3 onwards and haven’t seen past s4. so i don’t...actually know how most canon events from here on out go in explicit detail. its all pretty vague.)

the plan from there is for keith to attend and win. if he gets crowned the new emperor, he could officially announce the end of the war, and significantly reduce the amount of fighting the resistance would have to do to bring peace to the known universe. the coalition & blades don’t fully trust keith however, thinking that once keith is on the throne he’ll just betray them. 

keith understands and explains he doesn’t actually want the throne. he suggests that they just kill everyone on the planet when the kral zera is called, with no more candidates, the empire will be severely fractured and would still be easier to defeat than having a leader. in the end, they go with the idea of having keith become emperor, but the coalition there in case people fight back against his orders. 

keith wins, some back down and obey and some don’t. the coalition and voltron take down those that fight back, and from there it’s a lot of “keith orders galra to release planets and those that don’t, get liberated by the resistance”. its a lot of politics where keith frees all the prisoners of the empire, lets them get back to their home planets and finds sam returning him to pidge and matt. 

he sets up a colony in an empty solar system for the civilian galra to live governed by the blades, while he sees to it that those that were soldiers are put on trial and punished for their various crimes. 

again, still not entirely sure what happens in late canon, but i guess from there it does the whole...sendak takes earth thing? but it’s actually a pretty easy mission considering they have the might of the entire coalition (which is almost the entire universe at that point) and the blades and voltron. but after the defeat of sendak there pretty much isn’t any opposing galra resistance to keith’s reign? so from then on it’s just the paladins, allura, coran and krolia back on earth experiencing things. 

krolia busts into the garrison like “hey guess who’s not dead! also meet my alien son who’s king of an entire race of people, and my other son who’s leader of the universe’s most powerful weapon also with a sick glowing arm”. the garrison sweats under the pure power and skill the three of them exude. especially when krolia utterly annihilates all records on their simulators/actual ships. and then keith and shiro join in on it too and they end up giving them all the awards and accolades bc no one is going to top that ever. 

the paladins go to disneyland. keith is still technically emperor but considering the blades have been overseeing all galra activity anyways, he’s not really needed. so he just bums around earth for a while, getting to know the other half of his heritage that he never really got to. 

krolia meets mr fireman and they end up getting together bc krolia deserves good things and a desert hermit who helped get shiro back into space and eventually to her with is a good thing. they still live out in the shack tho bc mr fireman is committed to it at that point, bc he ended up living there through sendak’s invasion pretty well. 

and then uh i think that’s pretty much it. keith is a normal teenager, allura and coran get puzzled by human shit, lance reconnects w his family, hunk does too and cooks a bunch of food and pidge works w the garrison in making it less shitty while also just tagging along with whatever dumb things they decide to experience. 

end of au!!!!

[chancellormatt]

Voltron Rewrite Episode Eleven - The Coalition Strikes Back

Prince Lotor walks carefully, as if on eggshells, into the planning room of his father. Zarkon has his back to Lotor, staring at a display showing a holographic sequence of a teleduv opening, and lines of energy coursing out. A readout of numerical calculations are projected alongside.

   Lotor waits for his father to speak. Zarkon says nothing. Lotor’s hands clench and unclench, as he continues to wait. Zarkon just keeps staring at projection, watching the numbers change as the calculations continue.

   Finally, after what seems like an eternity, Zarkon speaks.

   “You failed.” The voice sounds neither angry nor surprised.

   “...yes.” Lotor says, forcing the word out.

   Neither says anything for several long moments.

   “...your mother took the teleduv to a secondary location for some preliminary tests. You will go to her.”

   “...for what purpose?”

   “To be out of the way.”

   Lotor flinches. “...and...my punishment?”

   Zarkon finally turns around to face Lotor.

   “There is nothing I think I can do, that is worse than the dishonor you have laid upon yourself. You know what a failure you are. Do I have to hammer in what is already clear to see?”

   Lotor’s eyes bore into the floor, tightening his fists so hard the knuckles go white.

“Leave me. Do not return until you have something of value to offer.”

With a jaw clenched so tight the words can barely be heard, Lotor says:

“...yes father.”

With that, he leaves.

***

    Pidge gazes intently at a display showing frequency readings. She sits inside a laboratory in the Garrison base, at a computer terminal. She types a few keys on the board and more frequencies appear, overlaying on top of the existing ones. Her expression grows harder.

   The door slides open, and Keith walks in.

   “Hey, Pidge. You wanted to show me something?”

   “Take a look.” She nods to the screen.

   Keith walks over, and looks down at the display.

   “So uh...you wanna tell me what I’m looking at right now?”

   She sighs. “When we first got back to Earth, I had them tune the astro spectrometers to look for quintessence, and other unique energy signatures.”

   “And lemme guess: You picked up some?”

   “You could say that. I’m getting some crazy readings all over the place. Been using my spare time trying to locate the epicenter, which I finally did. Check it out.”

   A map of celestial bodies appears on the display.

   “This,” she says, pointing to a highlighted spot, “is the source of these energy readouts. And this,” she points to another spot, “is the Quantum Abyss. Just a couple of lightyears away. I’m betting that’s not a coincidence.”

   “Me either.” Keith says, eyes narrowing. “It's got to be Zarkon.”

   “So...what do we do?”

   “For now, just keep an eye on things. Let me know if anything changes. I’m going to ask the Blades and the Warlords if they know, or can find anything about this.”

   “Roger that.” Pidge says, returning the display to the readouts. “Oh and Keith?”

   “Yeah?”

   “Whatever this is...it's big. These readings...I can’t even begin to describe how scary they are. Whatever Zarkon and the other Dark Paladins are planning...we have to do everything possible to stop it.”

   “We will.” Keith says confidently.

   “How can you be so sure? We sure got beaten last time.”

   “Because we’re the Paladins of Voltron. That’s why.”

   Pidge nods, seeming to accept this answer. With that Keith leaves her to her work.

***

   Lance walks inside an open hanger, towards Hunk, who’s back is to him. The big man is talking to a group of cadets that surround him. Lance smiles as he approaches, hearing his friend’s words.

   “-rookie mistake. I used to make it all the time. Those gyroscopic stabilizers can get a little wonky once you get past three G’s. Talk to your engineer about it, they should be able to adjust the compensators, to make that a little-”

   “There he is!” Lance calls out, for the whole hangar to hear. “The man, the myth, the legend: Hunk Garrett!”

   Hunk cringes, but the cadets seem all the more excited.

   “Don’t you think you’re exaggerating a little bit…?” Hunk says, as Lance walks up to throw an arm over his friend’s shoulders.

   “Not even a little! Ya know this guy always talks about how scared he is? Turns out he’s a real heroic one. Totally called it.”

   “Come on, I was the last one to even get in the fight.”

   “Yep. Real thematic entrance, too. I’m proud of you buddy.”

   The Cadets start to clamor, asking questions and swarming them. Hunk, however, cuts them off with a wave of his hand.

   “Alright, alright. Cool down guys. We aren’t going anywhere. You all on the other hand, are due for flight drills if I’m not mistaken? I’d get to your fighters before your drill sergeant starts to wonder what’s taking so long.”

   The cadets get a wave of panicked looks, and quickly disperse, calling out farewells as they run.

   “Amazing.” Lance says shaking his head. “Just hold one of your eyes shut and you really would just be the spitting image of Iverson.”

   “Oh stop it.” Hunk says shrugging off Lance. “I was just running their tests on the Yellow Lion, and after seeing Voltron firsthand they wanted to ask me stuff.”

   “Uh huh. So in other words, you’ve become their beloved hero-pilot.” Lance sighs exaggeratedly. “Man, how come no one ever notices how heroic I am?”

   “Well I’m sure before long they’ll all be singing the praises of ‘Lance the Sharpshooter.”

   “Guess we’ll just have to see…” Lance grumbles. A slight quirk of his lips indicates that he is not as downcast as he pretends.

   Hunk chuckles.

   “What’s so funny?”

   “Nothing. Just glad I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”

   Suddenly a wide grin grows on Lance’s face. “Not yet ya aren’t.”

   “What do you mean?”

   “Well buddy, I think it's time we both got some well deserved R&R. Whatcha say we sneak out of this place before another alien invasion or something happens, and go hit the town? Yaknow, for old time’s sake.”

   “That does sound like it could be fun.” Hunk admits.

   “Great! Now let’s just make sure Keith doesn’t-”

   Both of their communicators squak to life, with the sound of Keith’s voice.

   “All Paladins, gather in the usual meeting room. Follow up on the attack, and discussing where to move from here on. Attendance is non-negotiable.”

   They both sigh.

   “Well he’s sure got ordering people around down.” Lance says.

***

   The five Paladins of Voltron, Shiro, Coran, Matt and Sam Holt, Admiral Sanda, and all the other various leaders of both Coalition and Garrison sides sit in the large meeting room.

   Admiral Sand sighs long and hard, before standing up to speak.

   “The council has agreed to support the Coalition in their efforts to stop Zarkon and the Galra forces he controls-”

   Before she can continue the room erupts into a cheer. She gives an annoyed look, though a slight tug at the corner of her mouth seems to tell a different story.

   “-this means that we will supply the Coalition with all our resources.” She goes on once the cheers die down.“Most important of these, is our own military forces which, when necessary, will join the Coalition in deep space, and assist in the fighting.This includes the Atlas mecha, and all the currently battle-worth starfighters we possess. That is all.” Sanda sits back down.

   “Oh come on Sanda, it's okay to get excited!” Matt says with a smirk. “This means we can finally officially work together again! I know you’ve missed my sense of humor.”

   “With how much time you spent hanging around base, one could be convinced you never left.” Sanda sniffs. The comment however, is lacking it's usual bite. Though reserved, she does seem pleased.

   “Thank you, Sanda. Really.” Shiro says. “Delays aside, I know you fought hard for this. We all owe you for this.”

   “Pay me back by finishing this war quick. Oh and try not to bang up the Atlas any more than you already have. Speaking of, how are the repairs coming along?”

   “Just about finished, actually.” Sam Holt replies. “While the arm came off, the actual damage was relatively minimal. Plus Coran showed us how to implement some Altean technology that expedite the repair work. Should even make upgrades easier, too.”

   “Ah yes, modular construction.” Coran says, massaging his mustache.“Very helpful in building the Castle. Interestingly enough a version of the same tech was instrumental in Voltron’s-”

   “I’ll leave the details to the engineers.” Sanda cuts in. “As long as it's back to being battle ready. I don’t want us to be caught with our pants down, again.”

   Keith clears his throat. All eyes turn on him.

   “On the subject of battles...I think we should probably discuss what we’re doing next. Moving forward with the war, I mean.”

   “I’m all ears. You’re in command here now.” Sanda says simply.

   Keith looks taken aback by that, but recovers quickly.

   “Right. So, I’ve been thinking lately that we’ve been fighting a little too defensively. So far we’ve just waited for our opponents to show up first, then deal with the aftermath. But we’ll never win like that. I think it's time we attacked, and put them on the defensive.”

   “A good decision.” Sanda nods approvingly. “But my question would be, where? As far as I understood it, you were not aware of your...our, enemy’s precise whereabouts.”

   “That’s not...exactly true.” Keith says carefully. “We know that at the very least they’ve taken over the Altean Colony in the Quantum Abyss. The Blades have confirmed as much. They also verified that a lot of enemy galra activity is centering around there, so it's a safe bet that they’re using the colony, or a place very nearby as their headquarters.”

   “So we attack this ‘Quantum Abyss,’ then? Cut the head off the snake, as it were?” Sanda asks.

   “Tempting as that is, we don’t really have enough info to make that kind of attack, yet. We have no idea what kind of defenses they have, how they have their forces situated, or any of that. The Blades, unfortunately, haven’t been able to get close enough to get a read on the place.”

   “Do you have an alternative suggestion then?”

   Keith nods. “Over the past few days, Pidge has been monitoring some suspicious energy readings coming from an area not far from the Abyss. Just recently I was informed by the Blades that there is, in fact, a large compound there, with a significant amount of security guarding it. We think they might be testing some kind of new weapon.”

   “Whatever this thing is, it’s a big deal. I can tell that from the readings alone. We’ve got to figure out what they’re doing there, and stop it if we can.” Pidge explains.

   “I assume you have a plan?” Sanda asks.

   “So far, the idea is we launch a good portion of our forces to attack this thing. We’ll have a ton of ships, Atlas, and a few Lions, but not Voltron. The reason for this, is because the attack is just a distraction. While our forces are attacking outside, one of the Paladins is going to sneak in, hack their computer and take every scrap of data on what’s going on in there, then evac. Then we’ll pull out, before reinforcements can arrive.”

   “Wait a minute.” Lance cuts in. “Hack in? That means the one going in will be…”

   “Me.” Pidge says, as if it were obvious. “I’ve got the computer skills, plus Green already has cloaking abilities, so getting in should be easy. I’m going to be the one sneaking in.”

   “...alone?” Lance asks, looking confused.

   “Well yeah, that’s the idea. We don’t exactly want them to find out the real reason we’re there.”

   “Why don’t we send in some of those Marmoran Blade guys, too? They’re all space ninja-ey.”

   Pidge sighs. “The more people we send in the more likely it is we’ll get noticed. As good as the Blades are, adding more people will just make sneaking harder. Besides, they”

   “If...you say so.” Lance says, uncertainly.

   We can discuss the finer details later.”  Keith cuts in. “But, right now this seems to be the right move. We’ll deal a blow to our enemy, and gain some much needed intel, in one move. Any more questions?”

   There are none.

   “Alright, then. Let’s get ready for battle everyone.”

***

   Prince Lotor, inside the Dark Red Lion, flies towards a massive space station. It is built in a gigantic, flat, ring shape. At the center of the ring, is the teleduv, with six robeasts hovering over it.

   Lotor pulls into the station’s hangar bay, and lands his Lion. He steps outside, and is met by Raimon, standing there, in his usual maroon armor.

   “Raimon.” Lotor nods.

   The other man nods back, ever so slightly.

   “I suppose this is where Zarkon is sending all those he wishes to punish. Though, I should hope I never do something to earn as much ire from him as you.”

   Raimon does not reply.

   Lotor sighs. “Ever the quiet one, my friend. Very well, take me to my mother.”

   “Yes sir.”

***

   Lotor and Raimon step inside a room, where the far wall is one long viewport. The viewport is built into the inside of the station’s ring, giving it a clear view of the teleduv and the robeasts hovering over it. Honvera stands in front of the port, looking out, unmoving.

   “Mother.” Lotor greets.

   “Son.” She replies. “How did it go with your father?”

   “He didn’t throw anything at me, so I suppose that’s something. Just told me to get out of his way, and stay like that. Almost makes me more worried, that he didn’t do something worse.”

    Honvera pauses before replying. “...I see. Well that aside, your timing is impeccable. Come, we are about to start the next test.”

   Lotor walks over to stand next to his mother. “How goes your mad plan to open the quintessence field with the teleduv?”

   “So far the readings have been promising. By using the robeasts, and by extension, the altean pilots, we can more easily control the rate of quintessence draw.”

Violet lighting begins to crackle along the teleduv’s surface, then begins to arc out to connect with the robeasts.

   “...does it hurt the pilots?” Lotor asks after a moment.

   “Yes. I suppose it does.” Honvera says unconcerned. “I believe it only takes a few hours to recover, however. No one’s died yet, so it shouldn’t be a resource concern.”

   Lotor winces, but his mother doesn’t seem to notice. The crackling grows more intense. A glyph appears at the center of the teleduv.

   “...what is the purpose of today’s test?” He eventually asks.

   “I’m trying to solve a rather interesting conundrum.”

   “Interesting how?”

   “After the first few tests, the outputs suddenly changed. It appears as though there is some kind of block in the quintessence field. Like a large stone obstructing a stream. Quintessence still pours out, but not nearly as much as we should be getting.”

   “What could be causing that?”

   “My best hypothesis, is that there is something physical stuck in the quintessence field, and due to the nature of reality, it is trying to slip out every time we open the teleduv.”

   “Something physical…” Lotor muses. “...could they have tried to make another-”

   “Mistress! Something is coming through!” A voice crackles over comms.

   Honvera narrows her eyes. “Expand the portal, and run stabilization. I don’t want it-”

   There is an explosion of violet light, sending several of the robeasts flying. The violet lightning grows more erratic, striking out at the station itself, causing the whole facility to shudder.

“Shut it down!” Lotor calls out.

“It does not appear to be responding.” Honvera replies, fingers flying across a holographic keypad.

The crackling grows more intense. Lotor grabs his mother’s arm and makes as if to run for it.

Then, all at once, the energy crackles to nothing, an all is dark. Honvera tests the comms.

“Report.” She says.

   “Damage was minimal, mistress. Just a power surge from all the quintessence. We’ll have things back up and running soon.”

   “The pilots?” Lotor asks.

   “Two dead. Rest are in critical condition. Reeling them in now.” The operator replies.

   Lotor’s eye twitches at that.

   “Prioritize getting me a visual.” Honvera says. “I want to see what we just dragged into the physical universe.”

   After a few moments, lights from the station come on, illuminating the thing in the center of the teleduv.

   A mecha of dark armor, with a long segmented tail, hangs limply in space.

   “What…” Lotor says carefully. “...is that?”

***

   Lance runs through a crowd of Coalition and Garrison personnel. They are standing in a crowd around Keith and the other Paladins.

   “...the Atlas is going to be flanked by Garrison fighters. Now remember, as good as you guys think you are, you’re still at a technological disadvantage, so don’t take unnecessary risks…”

   “Sure cutting it close huh?” Hunk whispers.

   “Just psyching myself up, before the battle, as usual.”

   Hunk gives him an odd look.

   “What? Do you not do that?”

   “I usually just pretend we aren’t actually fighting until the last minute. That way I don’t have time to think about how terrifying it really is.” Hunk shrugs.

“...Meanwhile our Galran allies will attack from another angle. Finally us Paladins in the Lions will attack from a third angle. This should convince them we really mean business. Meanwhile Pidge will be commencing her operation. ONce this begins, Lance and Hunk will board the ship as well, but in less covert fashion...”

“He means awesomely.” Lance whispers.

“I think he means make a bunch of noise.” Hunk corrects.

“This, hopefully, will keep them for looking for other intruders, by giving them a false lead. After that, it's just a matter of waiting for Pidge to get the data…”

Lance shoots a look over at Pidge, but she doesn’t seem to notice.

“...destroy as much as you can on the way out. And, I’ll say this again, but no unnecessary risks. The more people we lose today, the fewer we have to fight Zarkon tomorrow. That’s all. To your posts.”

The group disperses, to head for their respective ships. Lance however, instead of heading to his own Lion, walks over to Pidge.

“So, going in there all commando style, gonna steal the glory from the rest of us, eh?

“Glory’s got nothing to do with it. It's just the logical move.” Pidge shrugs.

“Riiight.” He smirks. “I think you just decided video games aren’t enough you gotta beat me at being a hero, right?”

“Oh sure, we’re all just trying to beat you Lance, but you’re just too hard to one up. Really we all feel inadequate with you around.” She rolls her eyes exaggeratedly.

Lance chuckles. “Glad someone recognizes me…” his expression suddenly get serious. “But uh...be careful.”

“Where’s this coming from?”

“It's just...these guys are dangerous. Really dangerous.” He glances down at his hand, as if expecting it to star shaking. “ I wouldn’t want…” He shakes his head, and his smile reappears “...I wouldn’t want to have to come rescue you. It’d be really embarrassing for you.”

Pidge snorts. “Yeah, sure.” She moves to enter her Lion, then hesitates. “I’ll...try to look out.”

Lance nods. “Good luck, then.”

Then, he turns around, and heads over to his own Lion. Pidge watches him go. After a moment she shakes her head, and steps inside the Green Lion.

***

   Prince Lotor watches, as the strange mecha is laid down inside a hanger on the station. Workers using laser-torches make vain attempts at opening the hull.

   “Where do you think it came from?” Lotor asks.

   “I do not know.” Raimon replies.

   “Best guess then.”

   “I have no guesses.”

   Lotor narrows his eyes at the other Paladin. “My father really did a number on you didn’t he?”

   Raimon remains silent. Lotor sighs.

   “Wherever it came from, hopefully what's left of the pilot or onboard computer will tell us more.”

   “What is that?” A voice suddenly says.

   Lotor and Raimon turn to see Sendak approaching.

   “Sendak.” Lotor smiles. “What brings you around here?”

   “Routine inspection of the contingent I left here. I heard something of note had been found but…” He gazes up at the mecha. “...this is something.”

   “It is, isn’t it.” Lotor muses. “I must say I like the color choice…”

   “Hold a tick.” Sendak says, as his communicator beings pinging. “This is Sendak, report.”

   “Sir! Enemy activity detected!”

   Lotor perks up, with interest.

“Numerous enemy ships on a course towards our location.” The office goes on.“It seems they are approaching the compound in force.  Lions have been spotted but no Voltron as of yet.

   Sednak furrows his brow. “ETA?”

   “Just under a varga.”

   “Understood. Launch defenses, and prepare for assault.”

   “I will be in my Lion. I suggest you do the same. Perhaps a good performance here could...improve your situation.” Sendak says carefully.

   Lotor hesitates. “...no. Don’t get in your Lion.

   Sendak quirks his head looking confused. “...forgive me, Prince Lotor, but you are not currently in command here.”

   “Fine. Take it as a suggestion, then. I don’t think we should go out. At least not yet. If we wait to show ourselves, we’ll get a better hand on what their goal here is. More than that, we’ll be able to upset their rhythm. They launched a surprise attack on this station. Seems only fitting we should return the favor.”

   Sendak stares at Lotor for several long moments, before finally nodding. “Your words are wise, Prince. Let us try this plan…”

***

   The forces of the Voltron Coalition open fire on the ring-shaped space station. Defense turrets and galra cruisers return fire. Swarms of fighters on both sides pour over the battlefield. Four of the Lions of Voltron tear through the battle. Energy-fire from all sides turns the whole scene into a lightshow.

Pidge ignores all this, engaging her Lion’s cloaking ability and disappearing from sight. She guides Green in a careful trajectory, weaving around and out of the way of all the other ships, friendly or enemy.

She makes it all the way to the station’s surface without incident, touching down on the dark metal.

“On the surface, gonna see about getting inside, now.” She reports.

“Roger that. Lance, Hunk, time to move.” Keith orders

“You got it!” Lance yells over the comms. “Gonna hit these guys so hard they crawl back to Zarkon and tell ‘em stories of ‘Lance, the Greatest Paladin that ever lived!’”

Pidge smiles and shakes her head.

The Red and Yellow Lions tear their way through the battlefield, aiming for a hangar bay that fighters are streaming out of.

Pidge picks her way long the surface of the station, still unnoticed. She comes upon a hatch built into the top of the station.

“Found the maintenance hatch.” She reports, inserting a wire from her wrist into a side-panel. “Just making sure they don’t notice me entering…” The hatch pops open. Pidge slips inside, and the hatch closes after, shrouding her in darkness. There is a hiss as the compartment fills with air. “...I’m in.”

***

   Lance and Hunk glide their Lions inside the hangar bay, mouth beams blasting all the way. Dozens of enemy fighters are destroyed, and galra sentries go flying.

   After a few more rounds of shooting, they both land.

   Lance dashes out of his Lion, rifle at the ready. “We just made our entrance. And with a lot of style, too.”

   “Good work, now go make some noise.” Keith says.

   Lance and Hunk share a look and nod. Hunk hefts his bayard cannon, and opens fire on a door at the end of the room. After a few shots, it crumples, and falls to the floor. They dash through, to find a squad of sentries running up to meet them.

   “Well buddy guess it’s just you and me against the world.” Lance says, taking aim.

   “More like against the universe.” Hunk corrects.

   “I guess so. Thinking about running away, yet?”

   Hunk blasts apart a pair of sentries before they can get shots off. “Not a chance.”

   “I thought so.” Lance smiles.

***

   Pidge sneaks down a long corridor. She stops just before an intersection of hallways. Across the gap, on the next wall over there is an access panel. She starts to move across, glancing around the corner, before jumping back into cover.

   A pair of sentries walk down a parallel hallway. She waits several moments before peeking around the corner again. Nothing. She runs across and plugs into the panel. She types on a holographic pad for several moments before a light turns green, and her wrist projects a virtual image of the station’s inner layout. She zooms in on one location.

   “Central servers. Got ya.” Pidge smirks, unplugging from the panel.

   She resumes her creeping down the hallway.

***

   Lotor watches the battle being waged outside. The Black and Blue Lions still tear their way through fighters and cruisers. On the other side, Atlas is wreaking havok on the station’s defenses. Yet another feed shows Hunk and Lance shooting their way through the inside of the station.

   “Tell my mother and Raimon to fly out and engage the Lions outside.” Lotor says. “I assume you should be able to handle those two making a mess inside?”

   “Do not insult me Lotor.” Sendak scoffs. “But even still, where will you be?”

   “I’m going to go confirm a hunch.” Lotor says, walking out of the command room. “If I’m wrong it's galran ale on me for you and all the men.”

   “Very well, sir.” Sendak says a slight smile touching his lips. “Happy hunting.”

   “And you.”

***

   Keith and Allura fly in a tight pair, keeping the fighters off each other, and blasting lines through the enemy fighters.

   “Two more on your six!” Keith warns.

   Allura fires the Blue Lion’s tail laser, taking out one. Keith finishes off the other.

   “Thanks!”

   “Don’t thank me just yet. We got trouble.”

   Sure enough, the Dark Blue and Green Lions fly out from the station, opening fire. Keith and Allura dive into evasive maneuvers, narrowly dodging the blasts.

   “Let me take the Blue one. We have unfinished business.” Allura says narrowing her eyes.

   “Careful.” He warns, letting out a blast that is aimed at the Green Lion, but is evaded. “These guys are no joke.”

   “I’m well aware.” Allura says, dodging a blast. She fires her sonic cannon, to stun the other Lion. She follows up with a mouth beam, but despite the previous blast, her opponent is still able to move enough to make the shot only grazing.

   The other Lion then replies, by firing with his own mouth blast, forcing Allura to dodge into his second shot from his tail.

   Allura shakes off the hit, and punches her Lion back into motion, facing off against the Dark Blue Lion.

***

   Pidge creeps up to a corner, around which is a short hallway, ending in a door guarded by two sentries. She notes these on her map. Biting her lip, she dismisses the map, and pulls out her bayard. She takes a deep breath, then dashes around the corner.

   The sentries notice immediately, raising their weapons to fire. Pidge is faster. She fires her bayard, it's blade taking the first in the chest. She reels in the line at the same time, dragging herself and the sentry towards each other. An energy shot from the other one flies over her head, narrowly missing. Pidge kicks off the first sentry, leaving it a broken mess on the floor, and freeing her bayard to stab at the second. It's weapon cleaves in two. The sentinel tries for a punch at Pidge’s head, but she slips under it and drives her bayard’s blade upwards. The sentinel’s head shears off, and it collapses.

   Pidge admires her handywork, giving a self satisfied smile. Hacking through the door takes only a moment, and she steps into the room beyond.

   Long columns, from floor to ceiling, with blinking lights fill the room. The central and thickest columb is the one Pidge moves for. She immediately sets to work on the terminal built into the side of it.

   “Guys, I’m in the server room now. Should only be a few minutes now.” She says, fingers typing quickly.

   “G-” there is the sound of an explosion over the comms. “Good work!” Keith manages to get out. “Just make it quick, these guys are putting up a fight!”

   “Will do.” Pidge pulls a drive out from inside her armor, and inserts it into the server. “Gonna copy everything I can down. Until then…” She opens one of the files on the terminal display. “...let’s see if we can’t take a peek as what you guys have been up to…”

   Pidge opens another file, scanning it before closing it and opening another. She does this for several minutes, before finding one file that is different. When she opens this one, her eyes immediately widen with shock. She nearly falls as she stumbles back from surprise.

   Sincline. Lying in a hanger, held in the very same station she stands inside.

   “I take it that you recognize that machine.” A voice says from behind.

   Pidge whirls around, throwing up her bayard.

   Standing barely two dozen feet away, is Prince Lotor.

   “When did you…?” Pidge says with confusion.

   “Oh, I was here from the start. Just, waiting for you to show up.” Lotor explains causally. “To be honest, my first thought was that you’d go after the power. But, that’d be too well guarded, with too man redundancies. After I thought about it for a moment, I knew that you’d have to actually be here for information.”

   Pidge’s eyes flicker to the drive, still slotted into the server.

   “Tell me little one. That mecha there, do you know where it’s from? I’m betting you do. If you tell me outright I promise to make sure my mother doesn’t torture you too badly. I might even let you live after that, though perhaps that would not be much of a mercy. My mother does do nasty work when it suits her-”

   Pidge dives, snatching the drive free and rolling across the floor. Lotor summons his bayard, cracking against the spot she just vacated. The energy whip slashes a glowing tear in the column, having missed Pidge by inches. Lotor cracks the whip again, and Pidge only barely dives behind another column in time.

   “Prepare to disengage!”She yells over the comms. “I was discovered, evacing with as much data as I could get!” Then, as an afterthought, she adds. “Keith, Allura, blow a hole in the hangar on the third quadrant, and see what’s inside. You’ll understand when you see.”

   “Roger that.” Keith replies.

   “Wait, discovered?” Lance asks. “You need help evacing?”

   “Negative! Evac with Hunk as planned!” Pidge is forced to dive again, as Lotor’s whip slices the column she was hiding behind in half.

She makes for the door, sprinting as fast as she can. Lotor’s whip slashes across the floor in front of her, cutting off her exit. She spins, bringing her bayard up and firing at Lotor. He smiles, shifting his bayard into it’s curved sword form, and knocks the green blade aside. Then he launches himself at Pidge, blade swinging. She tries to dodge, but the blade connects.

Pidge cries out as her helmet is knocked from her head, and she tumbles across the floor.  

   “What was that? Pidge? Pidge!” A suppressed voice says from her helmet lying several feet away.

Pidge looks up, fear in her eyes, as the towering Lotor approaches.

   “...you realize, of course, that I cannot let you leave with that data.” He explains, twirling his sword experimentally. “Not that I was ever going to let you leave anyway…”

***

   “Pidge? Pidge!” Lance repeats over the comms. “Pick up, quiznak it!”

No response. He shoots Hunk a worried look. He opens his mouth as if to speak, but is cut off when a door ahead of them is blown out of the wall. Sendak steps through, staring them down. Hunk and Lance raise their weapons, but no one yet fires yet.

    “At last,” Sendak says. “I get to test myself against the Paladins of this realm. It is one things to fight in Lions, or Voltron itself. But there’s nothing quite like beating a man with your hands.” Sendak clenches his large robot hand into a fist, as if for emphasis.

   “We should evac.” Hunk says.

   Lance nods slowly. His gaze shifts away from Sendak, past him, deeper into the station’s bowles. Hunk notices this. He takes a breath, and turns back to Sendak.

   “Go.”

   “What?” Lance asks with confusion.

   “I’ll keep this guy busy. Go find Pidge. Make sure she’s all right. And if she’s not, get her out of here in once piece.”

   Lance hesitates only a moment before nodding. “...okay.”

   Sendak laughs. “That assumes I will let you do such a thing.”

   “Go!” Hunk repeats,

   Lance does, dashing down the hall, towards the doorway Sendak blocks. Sendak throws out his fist, hurling the metal hand right for Lance. It is blasted off course by a shot from Hunk’s cannon. Hunk fires the next shot at Sendak himself. Sendak activates his bayard in shield mode, blocking Hunk’s blasts. Lance dashes past Sendak, not even giving the galra a second glance.

    Sendak turns to throw his arm at Lance’s back. His shot his thrown off balance when something slams into his shield, pushing him back. Sendak looks up to see Hunk, standing there with a large hammer having replaced his cannon.

   “I’m not going to let you stop my friend.” Hunk says, hefting the hammer.

   “Interesting…” Sendak says, pacing back and forth. “...and do you really think you’re strong enough? Can you can defeat me with what pitiful power you have? You’d be better off running. At least you’d live a little longer.”

   Hunk sighes. “You know, not so long ago, I might’ve taken you up on that. But here’s the thing: I realized that bad guys like you don’t just go away. Someone’s gotta step in your way. Someone’s got to stop you. And today, that’s me. No one else is gonna do it, so I’ll have to. To answer your question, I don’t know if I’m strong enough. Let’s find out.” Hunk raises the hammer to his shoulder.

   Sendak grins hungrily. “Yes...show me your strength…” He turns his bayard into an axe. The two Paladins of the Yellow Lions charge each other.

***

  Lance dashes for a group of galra guards. He shoots the first two sentinels down before they can even react. His third shot misses, but the following one lands, taking another sentinel in the head. The fourth and final guard’s shot glances off Lance’s energy shield, as he crashes into the guard. They tumble and Lance comes up on top. He shifts his bayard into a sword, and holds it to the guard’s neck.

  “Oh, a living one, not just a bot. Good.” Lance says, noticing the flesh of the guard’s mouth and chin from the gap in the helmet’s chin. He presses his sword against its throat, making the guard swallow in fear.

In a very cold voice Lance says: “Tell me where the server room is, and you’ll get to keep your head where it is.”

***    

   Keith and Allura spins their Lions around, avoiding fire from the enemy Lions, while letting out blasts of their own. They try disengaging from the fight, but the Dark Lions give them no opportunity to escape.

   “Dangit, we can’t shake these guys!” Keith calls out.

   “What about that part of the station Pidge told us to find?” Allura asks.

   Keith looks out at the enemy Lions, as if deciding what to do. He moves to intercept the Dark Blue Lion, which is gunning for Allura. The Dark Green Lion fires a crackling Violet shot from its mouth to stop Keith. He evades easily, but oddly the bolt of energy, once past him, loops back around to strike Keith’s Lion in the back.

  Meanwhile, Allura fires three quick shots in succession, all of which are deftly avoided by her enemy. The Dark Blue LIon blasts Allura, sending her flying back.

   The two Dark Lions are moving in, about to strike on their weakened foes. Before they get a chance, the Atlas flies in blasting both sending them tumbling backwards.

“Need a hand?” Shiro’s voice asks.

“Sure can!” Keith replies. “Just hold them as long as you can.”

“Roger that.” Shiro says raising both of the Atlas’ fists.

He flies up to meet the now charging Dark Lions, while Keith and Allura slip away, to further down the station.

***

   Pidge dodges out of the way of Prince Lotor’s latest attack. He chases after her, wicked sword in hand, an even wicked her smile on his face. It is all Pidge can do to avoid getting her head taken off. Her armor already features many scores, where the blade has grazed her. Panic is in her eyes.

   She keeps glancing back at the doorway, searching for a path to escape. She makes as if to duck around to the side of Lotor, then jumps back to dash around the other side.

   Lotor sees through this, and puts a kick into Pidge’s gut that throws her halfway across the room. He back slams into the side of a server column. Pidge seethes with pain. Despite this, she manages to push herself up, and takes aim with her bayard. She fires at the open doorway, the green tethered blade sailing for freedom.

   Lotor knocks the blade off course with his sword, then with his free hand grabs hold of the tether, and yanks hard. Pidge is dragged across the floor, sliding to a stop just in front of Lotor. He smiles down at her.    

   Pidge tries to scramble back up to her feet. Lotor slams a foot down into her chest, holding her there. The blow makes her cough and gasp for air.

   “Finally.” Lotor sighs. “You Paladins of this reality are so slippery. Just when we think we’ve got a hold on you, you manage to worm yourselves away. Pathetic.”

   While he is talking Pidge tries to drive the tip of her bayard into Lotor’s leg. Before she can he slams his other foot down onto her arm, pinning it.

   “Do you know how much trouble you lot have cause me?” He sneers. “How many of my atleans I sacrificed, by sending them on futile attacks? How much of my father’s ire I earned with the failure at your hands? It's worse that you aren’t even very competent. You;re just children, playing at an adult’s game. We should have finished you off when we had the chance.”

   “These...these children are gonna kick your ass!” Pidge glares up with defiance.

   “I don’t think so.” Lotor says, lifting his sword.

   He drives the blade down into Pidge’s shoulder. She screams. Blood starts to pool where the blade enters her suit. Pidge tries to squirm, but Lotor presses his foot down harder on her chest, making her gag. He leans down, so their faces are only about a foot away.

  “You shouldn’t have come here alone. Maybe then you’d have stood a chance. Probably not, though. But to your credit, at least the only screams you’ll hear, when my mother questions you, will be your own.”

   Pidge, with tears in her eyes, looks up with absolute terror at Lotor.

   Suddenly, there is the sound of an energy rifle being fired.

Lotor leaps back, pulling his sword free as he does. A bolt of blue energy blasts into the column, where Lotor’s head had been just a moment prior.

   “Don’t. You. Touch. HER!”

   Lance stands in the doorway, rifle held in his grip, fury in his eyes.

   “...Lance.” Pidge says with shock. She winces throwing a hand over the bloody wound on her shoulder. “L-Lance get out of here! He’ll kill you!”

Lotor smiles. “Your friend knows what she’s talking about. Go on then. Abandon her. Leave her to-”

Lance fires again, aiming for the Prince’s skull. Lotor blocks the shot with the edge of his sword. “...I was really hoping you’d do that.”

Lotor charges. Lance fires two more shots, both blocked by Lotor’s blade. Cursing, Lance lowers his rifle, and shifts it into a sword. Then, letting out a battle-cry, he meets Lotor’s charge.

Blades clash, throwing up sparks in their wake. Lance pushes the offense, throwing rage-fueled blow after rage-fueled blow. Lotor blocks, deflects and dodges each of the strikes. Lance continues to hammer down on Lotor, but the Prince moves like water, with none of the blows coming close to hitting.

“You really don’t know how to use that thing do you?” Lotor asks, amusement written on his face.

“Shut up!” Lance barks, swinging to take Lotor’s head off, but meeting only air.

Lotor deflect’s Lance’s next strike, an overextended thrust, and slams a fist into the boy’s ribs in reply. Lotor then steps forward, and lands a slice on Lance’s wrist. Lance retreats back, clutching his arm. He looks down to see his bracelet, the one Pidge made, in two broken pieces on the floor. He looks back up at Lotor, not masking the utter rage in his gaze, and raises his sword again,  

   “Lance stop!” Pidge cries out, struggling to sit up. “You can’t beat him! He’s been fighting with that sword longer than we’ve been alive!”

   “You think I don’t know that!?” He retorts. “But like hell I’m going to use that as an excuse to leave you!”

   Pidge can only stare, unable to muster a reply.

   Growling, Lance charges at Lotor again. This time, the Prince does no playing around. Every strike Lance throws Lotor counters with one of his own. Lance thrust forward. Lotor parries, and lands a hit on his Lance’s arm. Lance swings overhead. Lotor blocks, and slams a foot into Lance’s chest. Lance tries a wild trio of blows, Lotor deflects each of them, before slicing into Lance’s side. Lance steps back, wincing from the shallow, but painful wounds.

   Lotor pounces, unleashing an onslaught of sword strikes at Lance’s guard. Lance is barely able to defend, only partially blocking most of the strikes, and earning multiple scores along his armor, and some biting into the skin below. Lance is forced to retreat backwards, as Lotor’s flurry does not let up.

“Is this really all you can do!?” Lotor demands, sharp teeth revealed in a grin. “Is this all that this reality’s Paladins can offer!?”

   Lotor smashes Lance’s sword to the side, and drives his own blade into Lance’s leg. Lance cries out, stumbling back into a column. He brings his sword back up, in a weak guard. Lotor chuckles and shakes his head. The Prince raises his sword and motions for Lance to come forward.

   “Come on. Face your end like a man. I only need one of you.”

Narrowing his eyes Lance moves forward. He nearly stumbles, from the leg wound, as he strikes out.

“Pathetic.” Lotor knocks the blow aside.

Gritting his teeth, Lance strikes again.

“Weak.” Lotor uses a lazy backhand to fling Lance’s strike off course.

Yelling, Lance launches himself forward, for one more swing.

Lotor moves to sidestep the blow. “Honestly, you really are-”

Pidge fires her bayard along the floor, tether blocking Lotor’s feet.

Lotor stumbles, and for a moment his guard opens. Lance’s sword swings forward, slicing across one of Lotor’s eyes.

The Prince howls with back, stumbling back. He falls to his back, clutching his wounded eye, fury filling the other.

“Let’s go!” Pidge yells, running over to Lance. He stumbles, but she supports him as they dash for the exit.

Lotor lashes out, shifting his sword to a whip, but he just misses them, as they slip out the door.

“We’ve...gotta get out of here…” Lance says, wincing as he forced to run on his bad leg.

“This way!” Pidge say guiding them down a side hallway. She leads them to a large panel on the lower half of the wall. “Blast it.”

Lance complies, raising his bayard, shifting it to a rifle and firing. It blows apart the panel, showing a small vent beyond.

“Service tunnel. Short cut.” She explains in a tired voice. Lance nods weakly.

Clutching to each other, they leap down.

***

   Keith and Allura blow apart the blast door holding the hanger close. They guide their Lions inside.

   “Now what could be so important that...oh.” Keith says, seeing what lies in the hangar.

   “It...it can’t be…” Allura gasps.

   Sincline sits in the hangar. Galra workers scatter at the presence of the Lions, leaving the mecha behind.

   “Lotor. Our Lotor. They...they freed him. Why? How?” Allura asks.

   “Dunno, and at the moment, don’t care. Come on.” Keith flies his Lion up to Sincline.

   “What are you doing?"

   “Taking him with us. Friend or foe, we can’t let Zarkon use Lotor for whatever he’s got planned. Get the other arm.” Keith says, locking his Lion’s mouth around one of the mecha’s arms.

    Allura hesitates for a long moment, staring at the Dark metal of Lotor’s mecha. “...you’re right.” She finally says. “We can’t leave him.”

   She moves her Lion over to grab onto Sincline’s other arm, and together they haul the mecha out of the hangar.

***

   Lance and Pidge move down the hallway, each keeping the other from stumbling and falling.

   “...sorry about that bracelet you made for my hand. I broke it.” Lance laughs hollowly.

   “I don’t care about that idiot!” Pidge scolds. “You almost just got yourself killed! What’d you do that for!?”

   “You’re one to talk.” He scoffs. “And here I thought you said you’d be perfectly fine by yourself.”

   “I’m serious!” She elbows him in the ribs. Both of them wince. “Sorry.” She apologizes.

   “It's fine. What’s a little more pain, on top of the rest?”

   Pidge gets a sick look. “...I mean it, though. Why did do that. Come rescue me?”

   “Why wouldn’t I?”

   “That’s not an answer. We had the mission. I told you guys you should all get out.  But then, not only did you come after me, but you tried to fight Lotor! With a sword! How insane do you have to be to do that!?”

   “Oh come on, Pidge. As if I’d leave another Paladin behind.”

   “And that’s just it?” Pidge scoffs. “You’d be and idiot and try to save any one of us in that situation? It’d be the exact same, and you’d do the same dumb thing?”

   Lance seems to think about it. Pidge studies him as he ponders.

   “...no.” He says finally. “I mean, yeah I’d still try to save them if it were Hunk or Allura or Keith. That’s just the kind of guy I am. But, no, it wouldn’t be the same.”

   “Wh...what do you mean?”

   “I mean, that when I saw you sitting there, blood on your armor, Lotor standing over you, I lost it. I just...I couldn’t stand the idea that I’d lose you.”

   Pidge looks up, eyes widening.

He goes on:“In that moment, no one, not Lotor, not an army of galra soldiers, not even Zarkon himself wouldn’t have stopped me from trying to save you. You are the one person I can’t lose no matter what.”  He looks down at her, as if having realized something for the first time.

For a moment, they just stand there staring at each other.  Then, they both blush and avert their gazes. Pidge gaze flickers back to Lance, studying him one more time. She sighs.

“...dang you Matt.”

“Huh?” Lance asks.

“Nothing.” Pidge shakes her head. “I just...know something, now.”

***

   Several minutes later, Lance and Pidge shamble past the scene of Hunk and Sendak’s fight. The two combatants slam powerful blows against each other, both looking beaten and weary. Despite this, Sendak is smiling.

   “So you do have power! And here I thought there were no worth adversaries in this reality!”

   “Well...sorry to cut things short then…” Hunk backs away to his retreating friends.

   “It's not over yet!” Sendak sneers. He pulls back his fist to strike, and throws it towards Hunk, and the other retreating Paladins.

   Hunk stands directly in front of it, and shifts his bayard into a shield. The fist bounces off. Sendak doesn’t even look mad, as Hunk slams the door shut and destroys the panel

   “What happened to you guys!?” Hunk asks as the run.

   “Lotor.” Pidge winces. “He was waiting.”

   “I…” Lance cringes as he steps too hard with his bad leg. “...had to come in and save the say, as usual.”

   Hunk eyes them warily but doesn’t question them further. He runs inside Yellow, while Lance and Pidge stumble into Red.

   “Drop me off at Green.” Pidge says.

   “Can you fly like you are?” He asks, nodding to her shoulder.

   “I’ll...be fine.” She says, covering the wound.

   Reluctantly, Lance nods, and pulls the Blue Lion out of the hangar bay. He dodges the odd fighter as he brings Lion around the station, to where Pidge directs.

   Pidge hits a button on her wrist and the Green Lion appears. She moves to leave the Blue Lion, then stops. Then, she spins around and hugs Lance from the back of his chair.

“...thank you, Lance. For saving me.” She whispers.

   Lance blushes and lets out a strangled cough. “You uh...you saved me too. So, really I think we’re even.”

   “I...guess so.”

   Then, before either of the can say anything more, Pidge pulls back, and turns to leave.  She jumps out of one Lion, and into the other.

   Back inside her own Lion, Pidge immediately winces as she tries to move the throttle with her bad arm. “Gonna be a fun ride home…” She opens her other hand, and allows a slight smile. She still holds the drive.

   “Keith...I got it. Mission was a success.”

   Then, gritting her teeth, she pushes the Lion into motion.

   She rejoins the rest of the now retreating Coalition forces. There is still some exchanging of fire, but the Coalition breaks away, and one by one, jump out of sight.

***

    Prince Lotor watches them go. His right eye now shut, with a deep cut running through it. Sendak, Raimon and Honvera are also in the room, watching the display.

   “Zarkon will not be pleased.” Sendak notes.

   Honerva’s eye twitches ever so slightly at this comment.

   “No...he wont.” Lotor turns around, facing the others. “Which is why I won’t be here when he arrives.”

   “Running, Prince?” Sendak asks. “That is...unlike you.”

   “Not running.” Lotor shakes is head. “But I’m not going back to him empty handed, either.”

   “What then?” Honvera asks.

   “I think...I’ll have to go after them myself.” Lotor says, as if coming to a decision. “We know where they are now, and I think I’ve begun to understand how they think. It’ll take a subtler touch. I don’t think I’ll manage it alone. They seem to work well together...” He rubs his new scar, absently. “...Raimon?”

   “...yes?” The armored man replies.

   “Will you come with me?”

   The man does not reply.

   “Sendak is occupied with the armies. My mother is occupied elsewhere. It's just you and me. The two ones Zarkon hasn’t deemed fit more much else.”

   Still, Raimon remains silent.

“Oh come on. I know you’ve got your dedication to Zarkon, but he hasn’t give you orders yet. If he hasn’t given you orders you can’t defy him, right?”

   Raimon gives the barest of nods.

   “Then come with me. The two of us, we can show Zarkon why he needs us, what we bring to the table. We might even deliver the critical blow to our enemy in the process. What do you say, old friend?”

   Raimon seems to hesitate, as if torn. After a long pause he finally says in a quiet voice: “...I will join you.”

   “Good.” Lotor says, narrowing his good eye. “Let’s go hunting.”

[iamchikara]

Results for Chikarasaurus Rex under the cut. As with yesterday’s results, only point gains will be recorded. Point totals will not be touched, as they are still in flux due to the Regency Furniture results fiasco. A full update to the point standings covering all three shows, as well as any others that happen in the interval (next one is in October so I really hope this isn’t dragged out for a month) will be done once those results are released.

Match #1: Singles Contest John Francis of Coronado vs. Jakob Hammermeier w/Der Wildebeest John Francis is starting to morph into this weird mish-mash of previous American-hero types, as he used the big boot and legdrop, several of John Cena’s moves, the Angle Slam, and the ankle lock. I’m not sure how to feel about that. Anyways, the ankle lock made Jakob submit. WINNER: John Francis of Coronado (1 point) Match #2: Tag Contest, Campeonatos de Parejas Defense #1 Travis Huckabee and Tony Deppen vs. Lucas Calhoun and Stray Kat First fall went to F.I.S.T. with a small package on Calhoun after a corner kick doubleteam...and then the second fall went to them as well, as Deppen hit a double stomp on Kat while Huckabee had her in the stretch muffler. For how long we had to wait for this first defense, F.I.S.T. taking it in two straight is a bit of a disappointment for me, though at the same time it also conveys the renewed dominance that F.I.S.T. has displayed lately. WINNERS: Travis Huckabee and Tony Deppen Match #3: Singles Contest Missile Assault Man vs. Kobald MAM got the win by submitting Kobald with the Sharpshooter, then was attacked by Hallowicked and Frightmare. Lucas Calhoun and Stray Kat came to MAM’s aid, with Calhoun telling MAM that he couldn’t fight the world alone before they shook hands. Trio #15? WINNER: Missile Assault Man (1 point) Match #4: Singles Contest Fire Ant vs. Cajun Crawdad Crawdad spent the entire match trying to blind Fire, but got put away with a brainbuster after Fire got sick of that. WINNER: Fire Ant (1 point) Match #5: Singles Contest BLANK vs. Penelope Ford This is prob’ly Ford’s last CHIKARA match, as she’s full time with AEW starting next month. Accordingly, BLANK ended his obsession with the Color Wheel. Post-match, he called out Still Life for King of Trios. Considering that we haven’t actually gotten much of a reason for the breakup of the Nouveau Aesthetic beyond BLANK’s obsession with Ford and Still Life having other things to do, it’s weird that we get to this point right now and not, say, at the Season finale or something. WINNER: BLANK (1 point) Match #6: Singles Contest, Grand Championship Defense #1 (as undisputed champion) Dasher Hatfield vs. Mick Moretti Lot of interesting notes described to me from commentary. Technically, this is Dasher’s eighth defense, though first as undisputed champion. Moretti’s facepaint resembled that of one of the Baseball Furies from The Warriors, with suggestions that he was using it to get under Dasher’s skin. Most harshly, Sidney Bakabella claimed that Dasher asked for the match to go on early so he could go home and be with his kids...even though Boomer’s match was on later. See? Toxic! Described as a hot back and forth match, and Dasher successfully retained. WINNER: Dasher Hatfield INTERMI...no, not quite, pre-taped interview from Ophidian hyping up Matt Makowski. Someone possibly jumped the gun with that, but considering how disruptive the Crucible’s been lately, it fit right in with their modus operandi. Then INTERMISSION. It’s time for the Crucible’s presence on this show, as the ropes are down and Ophidian brings out his entire cadre including their referee. Match #7: Crucible Exhibition #1 Matt Makowski vs... Thief Ant is out to answer the challenge, but is shut down fairly quickly and made to tap out with a cross armbreaker. WINNER: Matt Makowski (1 point...I guess? If our esteemed Director of Fun is legitimatizing this whole thing...) Match #8: Crucible Exhibition #2 Evan Matthew Demorest vs... Still Life answers this one, to a huge reaction from the crowd. Unfortunately for Still Life, they didn’t fare any better than Thief, and the match was stopped after they were knocked out with the Demoralizer (a variant of the Last Ride powerbomb). WINNER: Evan Matthew Demorest (1 point...I guess? It’s being treated as a legit part of the show...) Ophidian issues a third open challenge on the behalf of Tunku Amir... Match #9: Crucible Exhibition #3 Tunku Amir vs... ...which is answered by a voice in the crowd screaming “I WILL!” and Jawbreaker Josue/Joey, accompanied by Xavier Faraday and Josh Wells, appears. Joey scored what looks to be the first actual victory against the Crucible cadre, forcing Amir to submit, then racing out of the building with Wells and Faraday, leaving Ophidian to fume and berate Amir before leading his followers out. WINNER: Jawbreaker Josue/Joey (1 point...I guess? Didn’t go Ophidian’s way...) INTERMISSION AGAIN Mike Quackenbush is out to address the crowd. As he apparently suffered an injury at Earning The Lucha Libre Merit Badge, he’s withdrawing from his match on here, and has handpicked Hallowicked as Joey Janela’s opponent. Match #10: Singles Contest Hallowicked vs. Joey Janela In what’s prob’ly Janela’s last CHIKARA match as well (same situation as Ford), he scored the victory with a top rope elbow drop. I don’t get why that happened, but it did. Hopefully some kind of deal can be worked out with AEW, so that he can at least come back and not sit in the inactive part of the standings. WINNER: Joey Janela (1 point) Match #11: Trios Contest The Crucible (Lance Steel, The Whisper, and Devantes) vs. the Creatures of the Deep (Oceanea, Merlok, and Hermit Crab) Bouncing back from their utter humiliation earlier in the show, the Crucible returned to form here, as Devantes pinned Merlok after a TKO. Post-match, the Queen of the Deep was not happy in the slightest with her charges, berating and hitting the big fish in her fury, then told her subjects that they’d regret it if they kept losing. Oceanea, I love ya but they’ve been losing all along and you haven’t done a thing about it, what makes you think they’re going to take that threat seriously? WINNERS: The Crucible Match #12: Singles Contest Princess Kimberlee vs. Solo Darling Kim returned to CHIKARA in strong fashion, defeating Solo with the Alligator Clutch after a Ganso Bomb. Post-match, she shook Solo’s hand, then addressed everything that has been going on. (Below is the transcription, provided by Freakin’ Awesome Network forum lildude8218) "This is just Kimber Lee here for a minute. I need to get real with you guys. Everybody has a past. Every single person here. And in Pittsburgh mine hit me smack in the face. It's something I've ran from for SO LONG and so far even to the point where I gave up my crown to keep this hidden from you. I was a different person in the past, everything you heard it wasn't wrong. I did use Lance Steel as a stepping stool to get where I am. But here's the thing: in life we all do things we regret but it's what you do afterwards that defines who you are. And I am a different person now. So this crown jewel is going to do whatever it takes to make things right." Ophidian interrupts her. "I know how you can make peace with your past. You call yourself the Princess. The Crown Jewel. But you have no kingdom. You have no purpose. The way to make peace with Lance Steel and the Whisper is by becoming a resource of the Crucible." He tells the Whisper to get in the ring and pay his respect. He tells Kim to do the same. She does. "Your new purpose is to lead me and my team to victory at King of Trios. Leave!" So yes, the deep, dark secret that Princess Kimberlee has been harboring for years, the one that she left CHIKARA to protect, the one that she let herself be first blackmailed over and now outright conscripted, is that she was a jerk to Knight Eye 4 The Pirate Guy years ago. This is something that everyone paying attention to Wrestling is Fun! at the time already knew, that anyone not in the know could easily look up, and that I’ve never seen anything even remotely resembling an outcry over. The past is past. People change. We all know that. Dwelling on regrets and holding onto things long past their relevance isn’t healthy. Why Kim let herself be bothered by something like that this far into the future from it is...concerning. Perhaps she’s weaker-willed than we all thought. Who knows? WINNER: Princess Kimberlee (1 point) Match #13: Singles Contest Volgar w/Professor Hugo Nicodemus vs. Boomer Hatfield Boomer tried his best to fight back from the underdog position, even nearly surprising Volgar with a bulldog off the top, but Volgar scored the victory in the end. WINNER: Volgar (1 point) Match #14: Tag Contest Xyberhawx 2000 (Danjerhawk and Razerhawk) vs. Cornelius Crummels and Sonny DeFarge Danjer scored the win for his team with an O’Connor Roll pin on Crummels. Man, those legitimate businessmen can’t catch a break lately, can they? WINNERS: Xyberhawx 2000 (1 point) Match #15: MAIN EVENT, Singles Contest, JKI Finals Green Ant vs. Ophidian Green Ant attempted some psychological warfare by coming out with an Ophidian mask on over his own, but Ophidian wasn’t having any of it and bumrushed him (and even rolled out of the CHIKARA Special) before tapping him out. Post-match, the Crucible paid their respects to end the show. WINNER: Ophidian (1 point...JKI is one point per round adding up to the three)

[no-i-didnt-notice-im-short]

Heyy,, I don’t know if you’re taking writing prompts at all so if you’re not just discard this? I couldn’t help but wonder how the team would’ve reacted if Red hadn’t gotten to Lance in time in s7? Like how when Adam’s team was fighting and when they died their lines went red on screen, like that for Lance? Maybe some Shklance or Klance because I’m weak? Love your writing though!!!!

I am so sorry this took so long. Also, i chose Sklance cz i am weak too.

Hope you like this ❤ Ao3

Lance’s reunion with his family was so pure to the pointthat Shiro was afraid of his own envy. He secretly hoped for Adam’s presence,though they were not together anymore, to welcome him back to his home planetinstead of it being Iverson. Keith was standing next to him smiling fondly atthe Cuban boy. Sadness plagued his eyes if you knew where to look but wasultimately completely drowned with fondness towards their boyfriend.

Lance had spoken for hours on end about his family and howmuch he missed them. The other two males having come from a much smallerfamilies and could do nothing to relate but gladly offered an ear to theirthird partner. Looking at him now, how much his family cried over their lostmember and how much emotion was displayed infront of them, they were thankingthe heavens for every second Lance was able to avoid death.

The Sendak incident, the Sven incident, the… Omega Shieldincident.

There had been way too many times where it seemed like Lancewas cursed to get hurt, which made their anxiety over their lover’s possibledemise weigh over them, keeping them up at night. They’ve talked about it, whenLance would have his headphones on and loud to calm his thoughts and soothe himto sleep when not even Shiro and Keith can help, on what they would do or howthey would react. How the universe was intent on throwing hardships at Lanceevery step of the way.

They could never fully imagine.

Not even during the omega shield incident, neither of themwere really there. They found out long after it happened and were alwayssoothed by Lance that he was fine and that it didn’t have any lasting effect onhim. Of course, the two black paladins still insisted he took things slowerthan usual and not jump into things head on. Keith’s two years of maturitytrumping Lance’s argument that hot-headedness was Keith’s thing.

After Hunk settled in his given room, Pidge left with herfamily and the Alteans were given their own double suite. Shiro asked commanderabout his old quarters considering he used to be a high ranking pilot.

“The one you shared with Captain Adam.” Iverson looked atShiro with unreadable eyes. He thought he saw sadness but dismissed it as atrick of lighting.

“Yeah… I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t mind if I crashed withhim for a while. It was my apartment too.”

The older male looked at the other two males in the roombefore training his gaze back at Shiro.

“You might want to sit down for this.”

Keith and Lance each stood next to a shoulder showing theirfull support to their partner no matter what. After Iverson delivered the news,Shiro stared at his hands for a few seconds before droplets of salty tearsfell, staining his pants. He didn’t realize he was crying until his upper kneearea was completely soaked. Lance sat down next to Shiro and held him into hischest as sobs rattled his entire body.

Despair and hopeless shocked hissystem. He knew this was a military base and death was inevitable as someonewho signed up for this. But he never thought it would be so soon for hisex-lover. It brought back his small pinches of fear towards his current lovers,so he reached for Keith and brought him down to their level and held him close.He wanted to be surrounded by as much of them as possible. He needed to feeltheir heartbeats against him, even if faint. He will do whatever he can to keepthem safe.

After deciding to split up for the 6 bases, the Voltron teamand MFE pilots and Shiro stood to say their final thoughts to each other.

“Everyone keep your coms ready and open.” Shiro urged theyounger pilots. “I want to be able to hear everything and have the ability totalk to you no matter what, okay?”

A series of affirmatives rounded from everyone.

“So here is the full plan, again.” Shiro spent the next tenminutes revising the details to make sure things will go as smoothly aspossible. He couldn’t afford mistakes. These were the lives of his friends andlovers, not just his colleagues.

“Lastly, Lance.” Grey eyes met striking blue. “You andVeronica will go the one closest to here. She will drive you while you try toconnect with Red.”

“Do I have to go with Veronica?” Lance said, his voiceetching with concern and worry. Shiro understood what he must be going through.Lance had told them of his worries about his sister being a part of this, eventhough she was a Garrison officer long before he left Earth in the first place.

“Calm down, Lancelot!” She said smiling at her youngerbrother. Their dynamic was always so light-hearted but never lacked the seriousundertone. They both had mad respect for the other’s abilities in theirspecific forts.

“You can’t blame me for worrying.” Lance said defensively.

“I don’t. It’s sweet, but misplaced. We’ll be fine. Besides,according to my calculations, the other bases have a much higher chance ofbeing attacked due to the higher concentration of Galra camps surrounding them.So, this is going to be easy-peasy.”

Shiro stepped forward and put his hand of Lance’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry. I believe in you.”

Worry lines smoothed on his tanned face as he broke into agrin. Lance had shared with him what the clone had done and said to him. Hisself-esteem was shot to the ground and he was in a bad mental place. RealizingShiro was dead the whole time also gave him abandonment issues as he didn’tunderstand why Keith had left him for the Blade – which he later said was dueto his extremely poor hold on his emotions and believed that way he was helpingLance after their talk - and Shiro retuned with a colder, meaner attitude withno real explanation. He was extremely lonely and left with his thoughts. Itdidn’t end well.

It took the whole ride back to Earth to ease his mind andtry to fix what was broken between them. It worked for the most part.

They separated into their designated jets and car and tookoff.

Lance and Veronica were bickering about an old prank theyplayed a long time ago, James and Keith were adding jabs to see which one ofthe Cubans could actually be right and Pidge and Hunk were laughing ateverything as they knew what actually happened in that event, especially Hunkas he was there. Allura kept asking for clarifications on certain phrases thesiblings were using and were causing all this laughter; She wanted to take partas much as possible.

Shiro smiled fondly at their images on his screen. They werethe ones from back in the Garrison days, except for Allura who took a fastimage before the mission to add her to the database. Keith’s scar-less face andLance’s younger, softer features next to their frequencies was sendingbutterflies down his stomach as if he was fifteen again.

He missed this primal, innocentfeeling too much sometimes.

He signalled the Paladins when it was time for them to reachout for their lions. Keith and Allura gave their confirmations at the sametime, followed by Hunk and Pidge a few minutes later.

“Lance. Status?”

“Red’s not responding to me.”

Shiro’s wide eyes stared at the screen.

“What do you mean, he’s not responding? Are youconcentrating?”

“I am!”

“Well, keep trying!”

He ran to Coran’s screen to make sure of the surroundings oftheir car. He was so dependent that the Lions will respond to the Paladins thathe didn’t plan for back up in case they don’t respond.

The blinking light of an incoming ship was damning.

“Veronica, you have incoming. 6 o’clock.”

He heard her confirmation before he moved to Iverson demandingto know the fastest squad he could send in their direction.

A pained grunt filled his ears and then dual screamed beforecomplete silence. Everyone aboard the Atlas stared in horror at the screenshowing the images. Shiro couldn’t tear his eyes from Lance’s.

“Lance. Lance, come in.”

He could faintly hear the other’s panic induced worriedyells on the coms, but the blood pounding in his ears was getting too much. Hisbrain filtered only Keith’s voice.

“Shiro did his coms cut?”

It took him a minute before he found his voice again.

“No, he is still online.”

“Will I be able to make it in time?!”

Shiro didn’t comprehend what Keith had said before Iversonwas yelling at him to not change his location.

“We have to strike the bases at the same time, anyways. If Lancecan’t strike his, then what’s the point of this?” Keith yelled back.

“Keith. Stay where you are. We have to believe Lance isokay.” Shiro said calmly struggling to hide the internal panic from his voice.

A familiar groan draws his attention.

“Lance!”

“Yeah… I’m here.”

Shiro released a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Shiro, Veronica’s hurt.” Lance’s voice was too small tocome out of the loud Cuban.

“Check on her first.”

Soldiers around Shiro looked at him. He knew asking asolider to check on his teammate before asking for a full status report waswrong. But he also knew Lance. If he asked him to put anything before hisfamily, and having to follow the order since Shiro is his superior, Lance wouldnever forgive him.

“She’s… She’s breathing.”

“That’s good. Now, give me a status report.”

“The car is in compete ruins, we are approximately 6.3 milesaway from destination, Veronica… she’s bleeding from her forehead and breathingshallowly.”

“And you?”

“Me?” it seemed to take him a while to answer. “I have atwisted-

Lance didn’t get to finish his sentence before he yelpedloudly as he was caught by surprise by whatever was around him.

“Coran?”

“There is not a thing on our radars.”

“Lance talk to me.”

“Galra… Ship.” Lance said between pained pants. A thunderous,roaring hit way too close to Lance.

“Lance try to get out of there!!”

“I am on my way.” Keith’s voice came out of nowhere. Wherethe hell was Red? He wanted to tell Keith to stay where he was for the mission,but couldn’t.  He wanted him to reachLance and make sure their partner was okay, even if he was here… helpless.Again.

Another mechanical noise made it way, Lance was close totheir ruined car and was trying to start it despite his previous report. Aresounding metal on metal clunk goes on for some time before deafening silence.

“Lance…” Shiro’s voice was unsure and small.

“Baby…” His eye widened at the raw emotion in his voice.“Veronica is under… the bent hood of the car… she is probably concussed so gether medical attention straight away, okay?”

A tear makes its way down. Lance can’t give up. He can’t…

“I am sorry I couldn’t do more… I am sorry I didn’t finishthis mission, it was so so simple.” Shiro’s hands were shaking distractingly.His vision was starting to blur. Lance’s helplessness mirrored Shiro’s toomuch. Lance was not allowed to feel this helpless. He was powerful and loud andtoo big of a soul to be reduced to… this.

“LANCE! I AM ON THE WAY, PLEASE, BABY DON’T DO ANYTHING”

The background noise was getting progressively louder thanKeith’s shouts. The Galra ship was getting closer. The ex-black paladin heardthe charging sound of Lance’s blaster and knew he was preparing.

An ear splitting blast hit close to Lance causing a staticin his coms. He barely heard Lance groan before another hit his proximityagain. and again. Fire was raining on Lance and he couldn’t even get a visualon the situation.

He couldn’t decide whether that was good or bad.

A shocked gasp came from their communications before anothershrill and then silence. Awful, deafening, ear splitting silence. Everyoneseemed to be holding their breaths. Eyes stared at the screen, at the changedcolour infront of them.

Red.

Where Lance’s bright and colourful image was, a red aura wasupon it. Shiro was not oblivious or stupid; he knew what it meant. But never…in the past years would he have ever thought that he would lose Lance afterreaching Earth. It seemed like a cruel joke the universe was playing on him.

The fast moving blinking dot indicating Black stopped on thescreen.

“Please don’t… he can’t…”

And it might have been the broken sound in Keith’s voicethat released him from his shocked state; he was on the ground, on his knees,seconds later. His hands pulling at his hair as his physically felt himselflose part of his heart. The cracks of his mind were expanding, oozing away hissanity.

They were too late.

No amount of late night talks could have ever prepared himand Keith for the real thing.

I haven’t written a prompt in a while. Sorry if it was shit, blame it on the fact that i am a bit rusty.

Have y’all seen that S8 trailer?!

[velkynkarma]

Oooh for the ask meme how about all for Routine Maintenance??

All? Right, then. *cracks knuckles* Routine Maintenance it is! There’s a lot of questions, so most answers will be under the cut. Got a question about a fic? Ask!

1. What inspired this fic?I had just gotten into the Voltron fandom the month before and spent most of that time greedily digging through the archive for anything gen (there wasn’t a lot of it). I found some good gems, but the one thing I really wanted to see and hadn’t was a story about Shiro dealing with his prosthetic arm. There were plenty that covered the “mind control” style story-line, or dug into the angsty flashbacks of how he got it in the first place, but none of them went into ongoing day-to-day life of just...having an alien prosthetic forcibly attached to you. You know what they say--if it doesn’t exist, make it yourself! So that’s what I did.

2. Where did the title come from?It came specifically from Hunk’s part of the story (which was first), all about literally maintaining Shiro’s arm and teaching him routines for it. It’s also a phrase. And it seemed to fit!3. What part was most difficult?Probably any emotional moment in the fic (most notably in chapter 6). I can do medical research, I can write action, but bringing in feelings is just hard.4. What are you most proud of?A lot of little things, really. I like the painterly descriptions of Lance’s chapter. I like how I managed to convey phantom pains in Pidge’s chapter. That entire last chapter was just a behemoth to organize but I think it came out really well. 5. What do you like best about this fic?I like the overall concept. Even as far back as S1 we knew Shiro was a character with a disability, who lives with it but doesn’t let it stop him, but nobody ever really explored it. I’ve had people thank me since writing it because they had something to relate to, and I’m glad I was able to do the theme justice.

6. What do you like least about this fic?That it’s still the one I’m known for the most. Routine Maintenance was my first foray into the fandom and was written almost 2 years ago now. I’ve learned a lot since about both the characters and about writing, and on a reread there are parts of it that feel weak. I have much stronger fics that have much better defined themes since, but Routine Maintenance is still usually they one I’m known for.7. What’s a reference you’ve made that no one has picked up on yet?Honestly, I don’t think there are any, if we’re talking non-Voltron media references. I tend to avoid things like calling out movies, books, comics, etc when writing fanfiction, since it can sometimes alienate viewers who haven’t engaged with that other material. 8. What’s a bit that sums up your take on a character?From the last chapter of Routine Maintenance:

He’s never been more proud of any of them. And he’s not going to let them down, not now. As frayed and on edge and exhausted and in pain as he is for all the same reasons, they’re looking to him now more than ever for stability and support. Their entire world has just been violently smashed into the ground and thrown upside down like the shipwreck that had taken them there, and Shiro is just about the only thing they have left to cling to so they can try and stay standing. He’ll hold on for their sakes until they’ve regained their own footing. He owes them that much. So he stands guard over them, in a very literal sense. What’s left of his right arm his throbbing, his ribs protest, his head hurts, and his whole body aches with soreness and fatigue, but he refuses to sit, not even when Hunk begs him to take a break. He stands guard over his fallen crew members, ever vigilant, keeping an eye on the odd colored trees and the Galra wreckage. If an enemy comes he is their only real line of defense, and he does not intend to let anything hurt his crew further than they’ve already been hurt. Most important of all, no matter how scared he is for all of them, he maintains his outwardly calm and controlled appearance. He talks as normally as possible to Hunk and Lance, repeatedly reassuring them every time they start to look more nervous or afraid. He checks on Keith and Pidge regularly, and despite his growing concerns when neither wakes, and when Keith grows steadily paler, he keeps his expression neutral. And inwardly, the entire time, he begs, please let them live. Please let them all make it out of here okay. Please don’t let me lose one of them again.

Honestly, I feel this sums up Shiro in a nutshell, even now several seasons later. Shiro’s exactly the type to hold himself together and project outward confidence and control no matter how badly he’s falling apart inside. Most of the actual fic is about him getting caught in this and the others helping him, but when they need that support, he’s going to give it. 9. Favorite line(s) of dialogue? Two years later I’m still stupidly pleased with the pun I slipped into the middle of a dramatic situation in the last chapter:

Lance shudders at the words, and his hand tightens on Shiro’s. “But if…if it isn’t—I can’t—I can’t be a paladin without—I can’t even go home like this—““Shhh. Lance, calm down. Listen, even if it does come to that, and I’m not saying it has, it’s going to be okay. There’s no way in hell any of us would leave the leg of Voltron without a leg to stand on, okay?”Lance’s lips actually twitch slightly at the wordplay that he might have enjoyed more in any other circumstance. Shiro suspects it’s a shock-fueled, scared smile more than anything else. “R…right.”

Honestly it’s always the first line I think of, even if I know there’s more serious conversations and good dialogue elsewhere in the fic. I still just think of Shiro making a dumb joke to calm Lance down about the horrible thought that he may have just lost a leg.10. Favorite line(s) of prose?Lance wins out on this one too. My favorite descriptions happen in chapter 2:

But the bitter end’s getting closer. It’s already dark and difficult to see, and his eyes are still stinging in the mineral-crusted water, but he can tell his vision is starting to get blurrier and grayer around the edges. His body tries to force him to breathe again, and he chokes slightly with the effort of not. His right arm is starting to throb at the port from the tugging strain the prosthetic puts on the connection point of his flesh. Spots start to dance in front of his vision, bright streaks that seem to bob through the gloom as they get steadily bigger before his eyes…No, he realizes after a moment. It’s getting harder to think, harder to focus, due to the lack of air, but he comes to the baffling realization that those spots aren’t actually spots at all. It’s not his vision failing due to a lack of oxygen; there’s really something moving through the water, coming towards him from above, trailing teal streaks through the gloom. At first his thoughts conjure hazy visions of phosphorescent fish he’s seen in documentaries and aquariums, and it takes his weakening mind a precious long time to remember he’s not on Earth anymore, and he doesn’t remember seeing any wildlife like that so far. It takes him even longer to make out the white patches through the murky darkness of the ocean, dulled to a more grayish color in the near lightless water, but after a moment he’s able to make the connection—teal light strips and white patches. Paladin armor. It takes him longer to make out the color, because the blue melds so well into the ocean. Lance is only a few feet away before Shiro recognizes him, largely in part due to the way the helmet’s mask lights up his face just slightly in the darkness. 

I honestly just loved the entire description of Lance just appearing out of the gloom of the dark water and Shiro taking a while to realize what he’s seeing because he’s so close to passing out. This entire scene had a very painterly feel in my head and I loved trying to transition that to prose. 11. Where there any points where you were trying to do something specific with sound, vocabulary, or rhythm? I’m basically always doing this--that’s my writing style. I did have fun with vocab/rhythm in Pidge’s chapter, though, specifically with the phantom pains. Shiro describes trying to clench and unclench his hand a lot, but I deliberately kept from making it clear it’s due to phantom pains at first. I wanted to make it confusing on purpose, since by all accounts it’s confusing in real life, so I didn’t want to draw a distinct line between Shiro recognizing his metal hand was different than the phantom hand that’s all in his head. The reader should end up understanding what’s really happening at the same time that Pidge does as a result, even though the story is from Shiro’s PoV. The same thing later too, when trying to describe the sensation of fixing the problem.12. Imagery that is important to the fic, either while composing or in the fic itself? Again, imagery is always big for my writing style, and there’s too much in the fic to go into the details. How about we talk imagery themes instead? Several readers have noticed that Shiro rescues everyone in chapter 6 in the same order they help him in chapters 1-5. What less people notice is how each of the ways they help Shiro are also reflected in counter-point in the way he saves them:

Hunk helps him with a non-functional arm that was full of sand and grit while Shiro can barely move it. Shiro later frees Hunk with an arm that is still able to function despite having been impaled, while Hunk himself can’t move.

Lance reaches out to Shiro in an unreachable location and the first way Shiro recognizes him is by the lights on his armor. Shiro later finds Lance by the same lights, and reaches him in an unreachable location in turn. The arm that dragged him down is now the only thing that can lift up the weights now dragging Lance down.

Pidge helps Shiro with his phantom pains, by providing a solution that’s so simple and so close, and yet so far away. Later on, Shiro has the same problem rescuing her: she’s just out of reach, and just beyond his range of senses to be able to tell if she’s alive or not. He even tries to use a different arm (in this case, directing Lance’s) to solve the problem, to no avail.

Pidge actually has a second subtler one too: during her chapter Shiro recognizes he can’t actually feel or register his Galra arm as ‘his’ and tends to think of it as an object. At the time, it’s disappointing. During the very start of chapter 6, Shiro’s Galra arm is impaled, but he finds it doesn’t really bother him (or hurt him), since it’s just an object, it’s not really his.

Shiro tries to warm both himself and Keith with his Galra arm and warns Keith not to touch it as it will burn him badly, although this doesn’t work. Keith has to help keep him from freezing to death. Shiro later rescues him by using that exact thing he warned Keith about to save him, and it’s an exact parallel from freezing to burning.

13. How many drafts did the work go through?It’s hard to say. I don’t really have separate drafts in the traditional sense. I reworked the outline at least 1-2 times because that’s standard for me, and I probably spent a week editing the final results. But for the most part nothing too much changed. 14. Where you listening to anything while writing the fic? If so, what?Hah, I was listening to the Voltron soundtrack, actually. On repeat. 15. What were you most worried about during the composition? If I was handling disabilities right, and if chapter 6 in particular was a little too bloody for the fandom. With the former, I did plenty of research of course. But since I’m not an amputee nor do I have PTSD, there was always that little voice in the back of my head muttering, “You better hope you’re doing this right.” With the latter....it’s always hard to tell when going into new fandoms how well they’ll handle extreme injuries or wounds. Some fandoms eat it up, and in others it will get your fic basically ignored. I wasn’t really sure where Voltron fell, and chapter 6 does get pretty brutal, between Lance and Pidge being crushed, Lance’s compound fractures, and Keith needing to be cauterized. Keith’s scene in particular I wrote and re-wrote half a dozen times and I was extremely picky about the vocabulary used, because it was a very tricky line to write it in such a way that I was conveying Keith was suffering, but that Shiro wasn’t torturing him and wasn’t happy with the situation either. That meant adding some more emotional comfort aspects, which I am bad at. The whole thing was just a difficult mess and I basically wasn’t sure about it right up until the point I actually got comments talking about those scenes specifically. 16. If you used a beta, what did you agree or disagree on?I don’t use a beta, so nothing!17. Did anything surprise you during the writing?It got a lot longer than I initially planned on. Especially that last chapter. This really shouldn’t have come as a surprise though.18. Were there any alternate versions of this fic?Not really alternate, but Parasite Knight was a scrapped concept for the +1 part of the 5+1 idea (originally, with the whole team helping Shiro). But it didn’t seem to fit the theme of the 5+1, since the +1 tends to turn the theme on its head, so I went with the current version and recycled the idea of a soul-eating arm for another fic. Turns out that was a good idea since Parasite Knight turned into a beast of a fic in its own right lol. I did also shuffle a few characters around from their original plans. Before I’d decided a chapter about sinking due to Shiro’s heavy arm was going to be a thing, Lance was actually slated to be the one helping Shiro with frostbite (since his Lion has the whole water/ice connection). But Lance fit better for a drowning theme, and Keith ended up taking over the frostbite theme instead. That never actually started to get written, though.19. Were any parts written under the influence?I don’t drink or do any kind of drugs, so nope. 20. What did you learn from writing this fic?No real writing technicalities. I was able to verify I was handling disabilities well, based on readers’ feedback (something I’m always cautious about if I don’t have any background in the disability in question--I like to treat these situations as respectfully as possible, but sometimes it’s just hard to know if you really are without any scope of understanding). Honestly what I learned the most was that there was a niche in this fandom that I was actually welcome in. Many times I’ll write 1-2 fics in a fandom and that scratches the personal itch. But there’s never really any response from the fandom itself, so I move on to the next interesting thing. But Routine Maintenance had such overwhelming feedback, in a couple cases from some big names in the gen corner of the fandom, that it was encouraging enough to actually make me stick around. And in sticking around, THAT’S where I really learned more technical writing skills. So I guess RM didn’t teach me anything specifically, but it made sure I stuck around enough to learn things anyway. PHEW! That’s a lot of questions! Got a question about a fic? Ask!

[dragimal]

thoughts on Voltron s7

this is prolly old hat by now, but I still wanna throw my two cents to the wind. this is gonna get very rambly, and I’m gonna derail A LOT to air out other grievances I have w/ the show/fandom. a rant like this has been a long time coming-- the reception to s7 only pushed me to write this now. so beware, I guess. also I’m not rly tryin to Start Shit, so I’m slottin’ this under the cut

I think I should start at the beginning: I didn’t like Voltron for the first 3 seasons.

it was perfectly passable, but not.... exactly the kinda thrilling saga Tumblr made it out to be. all the hype put me under the impression that VLD was a deeply emotional/character-driven story much like ATLA-- I was sorely disappointed to find this wasn’t the case. instead, I found a typical space-mecha plot populated by pretty tropey characters-- certainly not bad, but not all that emotionally gripping either 

I actually grew p bitter over Voltron’s particular brand of popularity-- mainly the comparisons to ATLA, as if VLD was anywhere as deep and clever. I wasn’t mad that it was popular so much as it seemed popular for the wrong reasons

now I’m not saying that enjoying VLD is “childish” or whatever, I’m just saying that comparing VLD to ATLA is p damn insulting, imo. ATLA has a level of depth in plot, worldbuilding, themes, character arcs/interactions, etc. that’s incredibly impressive-- esp for a kid’s show. u just don’t get that depth from VLD-- and honestly, that’s just fine! I know I’m singing ATLA’s praises to the heavens here, but I’m also kinda sick of Tumblr trying to compare every damn thing to ATLA, as if every piece of media HAS to be another ATLA to be worthy of praise (like the whole “Zuko redemption arc” thing has been taken wayyyyy too far when critiquing villains...)

ATLA and VLD aren’t trying to accomplish the same things, so it’s kinda shitty to place those kinda expectations on the creators of VLD when they’re trying to do their own thing? like, I don’t expect Osomatsu-san-- a very stupid show I deeply adore-- to be the next FMA just b/c both shows have a focus on brotherly bonds; they’re clearly two separate things that I can enjoy for different reasons

anyways, to cut that ramble short, VLD just wasn’t my thing when I first started it. I’m not big on mechas, and I typically prefer pointed storylines over ‘adventure-of-the-week’ setups. not that VLD doesn’t have some underlying plot for the first couple seasons, but it takes a while to get past random villain fights and/or adventures every ep and condense it into a continuous plot thread. some ppl like that kinda thing, I just don’t. the reason I continued to watch it-- despite my misgivings-- is b/c I like watching things with friends. my bf has always liked VLD and wanted me to see it, so I enjoyed watching it with our audience of two

I’m glad this setup forced me to continue watching, or else I would have never reached the turning point-- episode 33 (s3): “The Legend Begins”

this was the point at which my feelings switched from “eh” to “oh... OH. OH SHIT.” I’d finally started to get INVESTED. I finally began to develop real attachments to the characters! I was finally eager to learn what happened next; finally perched at the edge of my seat in anticipation! VLD had finally found its footing and solidified its unique voice, and I couldn’t have been more proud!

yet, what did I hear from the fandom as this narrative transition began?

“the show has gone downhill, and it’s only getting worse!″, "[x] characters aren’t developing anymore” and/or “the showrunners HATE [x] character!”, etc. etc.

though I suppose it’s a bit simplistic to say the fandom as a whole thought this way; in reality, just a vocal subset of the fandom thought-- and continues to think-- this way

yes, patient reader, this is one of those conversations. because we really can’t have a proper fandom discussion anymore w/o getting into those topics, can we? god, if only

so I’ll stop beating around the bush: antis fucking hate the new seasons, mainly because:

1) a lot of antis love Lance for some reason? antis don’t like the fact that Lance isn’t, like, the entire damn focus of the show (calls for “black paladin Lance” galore....), so they don’t like the fact that other main characters play significant roles in the show. this has devolved into unfounded critique of Lance’s character development in the last few seasons, when in reality Lance has gotten SIGNIFICANT development from s4 onward (just like most every other character..). he’s gotten more confidant in his abilities and is less defensive of his character, he’s more cooperative w/ his teammates, and he’s learned to (usually) recognize when a situation requires a serious approach rather than nonchalance. like, as someone who doesn’t much like Lance, I think it says something that my feelings have advanced from, “jesus I can’t stand this guy, can he shut up for one goddamn second,” to, “nice, Lance is mostly bearable and sometimes charming, now.” this point bleeds into the next point--

2) a lot of antis LOVE klance-- or the ship Keith/Lance, for any random readers that don’t know the Voltron fandom. klantis-- as these particular antis have been dubbed-- hate ANY semblance of connection either of these characters have w/ other characters, b/c it threatens klance. Keith and Lance both canonically have strong connections to other specific characters (Keith to Shiro, and Lance to Allura), so these ships are the most threatening to klance

now, all stans/shippers have fans that are a bit too defensive, sure. I’m not saying that sheiths (Shiro/Keith shippers) or any other stans/shippers in VLD aren’t ever at fault. but antis always ALWAYS bring an insidious dimension to fandom wank in the form of-- for lack of a better term-- “social justice posturing”

I’m not claiming that discussions abt representation and sj issues in fandom aren’t important, but antis always take these sensitive issues and simply use them as ammo in what are typically giant ship wars. there’s no nuance, no room for different interpretations-- only black/white divisions of what is “valid”/”canon”/”acceptable”, which are then strategically warped in favor of what the antis of that particular fandom favor (which, in the case of VLD, is Lance/klance)

of course, not ALL VLD antis are specifically out to discredit just one ship, as evidenced by the proliferation anti-shaladins (those against shippers of Shiro w/ ANY of the paladins). BUT this is exactly where anti tactics are utilized in full-force, and where this petty ship war further devolves:

antis fucking HATE Shiro.

Shiro poses the biggest threat to klance (at least in terms of fandom, b/c Allura canonically poses a much bigger threat tbh), thus antis have steadily built a “case” against Shiro not only as a bad partner to Keith, but as a bad character in general. the more “reasonable” antis claim things like, “Shiro’s too mentally ‘broken’ to be with anyone!” “Shiro’s too old to be with anyone, he’s practically a grandpa!” and, “Shiro’s too much of a parental/guardian figure to consider any paladins as potential partners,” while more extreme antis have claimed that Shiro literally IS a pedophile, or straight-up dangerous due to his mental hang-ups

there is clearly a lot wrong here both canon-wise (Shiro has shown 0% confirmable attraction to any character in canon; everyone’s actual ages are vague at best, thus there are no exact age gaps to measure, etc.) and in terms of plain ethics (callin a guy w/ ptsd “too broken” fuckin WHAT). but this is what antis have devolved to-- dismissing Shiro’s mutual connections to his fellow paladins at best, then accusing him of straight-up horrific shit at worst. all in the name of protecting a ship. boy howdy.

(*SIDENOTE* I hypothesize that Allura doesn’t get nearly the same level of hate b/c mlm ships are favored in fandom, thus there are more sheith shippers than allurance (Allura/Lance) shippers to oppose klance. she may also be protected by Tumblr’s over-the-top glamorizing of any and every female character, but that’s a rlyyyy weird discussion that’s hard to quickly/accurately dissect, so I’ll just leave that particular hypothesis to the side..)

anyways, patient reader, let us return this tangent back to the original point: the general criticisms directed at s4 and onward. how do antis relate to this?

well, it’s real fuckin convenient that ppl suddenly started recognizing VLD’s writing/plot/etc. flaws when the show wasn’t catering quite AS much to Lance, or Lance/Keith interactions. real fuckin convenient ppl suddenly started criticizing Shiro as a character when said character’s relationship w/ Keith began to gain more focus and development. real fuckin convenient that ppl are finally recognizing that VLD isn’t as great as ATLA, when the last few seasons have gotten PRETTY DAMN CLOSE to ATLA’s level of emotional depth

so I’m bitter abt Voltron again. but rather than being bitter abt VLD being popular for the wrong reasons, I’m bitter that VLD’s flaws are finally being recognized for the wrong fucking reasons

and this is where it gets real fucking dangerous, b/c antis are dangerously persuasive to the general fandom public

since antis use sj language as ammunition for petty-ass shit, they can easily gain the attention of... god, I hate that I have to unironically use this term, but Tumblr “normies”. I literally have no better, simple term to describe somebody on Tumblr who hasn’t watched VLD (or simply hasn’t engaged in the fandom in a significant way), so please just roll w/ me here, for my own sanity. so Tumblr normies-- as those on Tumblr are prone to-- are vigilant in keeping up w/ sj issues across the board. this is good! it’s good to be aware of and critical of the content we consume..... until it’s. not.

I’m not the first to say that Tumblr has a very warped, very dangerous approach to sj activism. much like full-on antis, there is so much black/white thinking, lack of nuance, swift and unforgiving retribution for even slightly differing opinions, etc etc. it’s why so many ppl on Tumblr even ARE antis, b/c it’s rly just the fandom-offshoot of this mentality

but even beyond the most extreme “activists” of tumblr, anti’s sj language is dangerously appealing to even the chill normies-- nobody WANTS to support dangerous relationships or bad representation, after all! so they latch onto that rhetoric too, b/c when normies see antis' (usually unfounded) criticisms thrown around, they don’t know the show/fandom well enough to be able to verify those criticisms. and like, I get the appeal of it-- I’ve def made similar mistakes w/ unfamiliar fandoms as well, b/c I want to support a cause that seems just. it’s p natural to want to align w/ what we perceive as a just cause, esp when convinced by a persuasive speaker

thus, antis have gained a significant following of normies due to the simple fact that Tumblr normies DO care abt sj issues, but they DON’T care enough to research the show themselves to see what’s what

so, let me quickly recap the stage I’ve set for you here:

1) the fandom in general has given Voltron more credit than is due, and has subsequently placed ridiculous expectations on it. this has given Tumblr normies a false impression of VLD and its standards

2) antis are SUPREMELY protective of klance (and Lance in general), and have thrown around WILD accusations at any ships that threaten it, leading to--

3) antis throwing Shiro under the bus time and fucking time again.

4) by abusing sj language/tactics, antis appeal to Tumblr normies’ sense of duty, thus gain their approval in ganging up on whatever antis deem unjust in VLD-- whether it’s actually valid or not

so fuckin forgive me for being a bit skeptical when I heard rumors of “bury your gays” in Voltron from antis/normies, when these same ppl are actively throwing around accusations of pedophilia in the name of goddamn shipping

but I’ll fully admit, I passed judgement on this criticism a bit too quick, considering I hadn’t even seen the new season yet. it’s never good to blindly accept opinions purely on the basis that they bolster ur own assumptions, and I’m not immune to that charming trap (tho thankfully I’m not typically a vocal member fandom, so I was mostly just nodding along w/ my fellow shieths asdfg)

so finally, dear reader, we reach the actual point of this post: after seeing s7 for myself, what even ARE my opinions on it?

well. the handling of Adam and his relationship to Shiro............... wasn’t great. it was pretty fuckin terrible, actually. despite all I’ve said against antis, I agree w/ their general view that Adam’s relationship w/ Shiro (and his subsequent death) was shoddy, underdeveloped, and disrespectful to some degree. I’m personally not sure it’s worth the title of “bury your gays” for several different reasons, but I wouldn’t fault someone for calling it that, b/c there are definitely several other reasons that reinforce that trope. it’s worth discussing, and definitely worth voicing criticisms towards, esp in terms of Dreamworks’ “lgbt rep” advertising before s7′s release (which was absolutely scummy, there’s just no other word for it)

so if I agree w/ antis’ basal complaints in this instance, then why the hell am I even talking abt this? why am I putting so much effort into dissecting the fandom, only to essentially reach the same conclusion as those I fundamentally disagree with?

well, I suppose it’s all abt the framing.

I’m not gonna link the post b/c, again, I Don’t Wanna Start Shit, but most of y’all have prolly seen that one post that breaks down the history of the “bury your gays” trope, and how it was possibly utilized in VLD. it’s a p good argument in that respect-- I think it hits the main points of how/why Adam and his relationship w/ Shiro was just plain Bad

and to the untrained “normie” eye, that’s all it is. however, there is a cryptic framing present that reinforces anti talking points, which only someone involved in the fandom would recognize. 

(*SIDENOTE* I don’t mean to pick on SPECIFICALLY this post, I just think it’s a nice rundown of a few of the main rhetorical tactics used by antis. it’s certainly not a unique post in the fandom, but merely a good example of this brand of posts)

for one, this post forces an emotional distance between Shiro and the paladins. this post INSISTS that Shiro can ONLY be interpreted as a guardian character that can’t relate to the other paladins in any significant way due to age gaps and traumatic experience. THUS, according to antis, Adam was the only person that Shiro could have intimately discussed his problems w/ b/c they’re the same age and have a history. Adam's death removed this potential confidante, thus leaving Shiro to sort out his issues alone

while I agree that it would have been nice to see Shiro chat w/ a new character he has a history with (esp considering we rly haven’t gotten much backstory on Shiro yet), so much of this argument is simply false

I’ve already mentioned the bullshit that is the vague age gaps, but even if we were to take them into account, there ARE characters who are assumedly at or over Shiro’s age: Coran and Allura. and yeah, Coran is prolly not the best choice in terms of real emotional connection, but Allura? she could prolly fuckin relate. Shiro’s had his body and autonomy violently violated by the Galra, to the point that his original body is now destroyed; Allura has had her culture and people violently violated by the Galra, to the point the her original planet/culture is now destroyed. Shiro is/was a leader to the paladins, and takes their collective failures to heart as his personal failures to his team; Allura is a literal princess to her people, and takes their downfall as a personal reflection of her lack of ability to protect them. their situations obviously shouldn’t be 1:1 conflated, but to say they have no points of relation here is fuckin insulting

but since age gaps like this mean JACK SHIT when it comes simply developing emotional connections and mutual respect, we don’t even need to go so far as to match ages! this is evidenced by actual intimate interactions Shiro has had with the paladins!

the first one that comes to mind even involves antis’ favorite-- Lance! episode 45 (s5): “The White Lion” involved a moment where Shiro approached Lance on his own and opened up abt his mental health, saying he, “didn’t feel like himself.” now it could be argued that this was Shiro’s clone-- not Actual Shiro-- approaching Lance for help. tho I firmly believe that are still true parts of Shiro present in his clone, even if he’s not fully there. the clone is still protective of his team (before his mind is COMPLETELY hijacked, of course), and I believe any connections/loyalty/trust Shiro has towards the paladins is still true for the clone (even if this can, once again, be forcibly overridden). this moment is Shiro-- the part of Actual Shiro that’s present in his clone-- approaching a fellow teammate for help. of course, Lance doesn’t know exactly what to do in this situation, but he at least stays w/ Shiro for support

and then of course there are all the great moments Shiro has w/ Keith that antis want to forget abt. moments where Keith has laid down his health and safety for Shiro, moments where Keith has barred his soul to Shiro, moments where Keith has done everything in his power to reach out to a hurt and struggling Shiro.  moments where Keith has made it ABUNDANTLY fucking clear that he’s here to the bitter end, that he’ll NEVER give up on Shiro. it literally doesn’t fucking matter if u interpret these scenes as platonic or romantic, b/c the fact of the matter is that Shiro and Keith care DEEPLY abt each other in some shape or form. disregarding that is forcibly ignorant. also, we've now confirmed that Keith and Shiro do have a HISTORY back at the Garrison together before all this Voltron nonsense started (even if it isn’t necessarily a romantic history), so Keith also has that leg up

the subtle framing of Shiro as STRICTLY a “guardian” character is also a classic anti tactic, as it implies a sort of pseudo-pedophilic undertone to any Shiro/paladin ships, which is just.... gross and dishonest. yes, he’s canonically a leader to the paladins, and oftentimes takes on a guardian-type role, but once again, he also canonically opens up to other paladins on a mutually respectful/intimate level. there’s nothing in canon that would strictly suggest he’s ONLY a guardian figure-- “space dad” is a fandom interpretation in the same way that framing him as Keith’s lover is a fandom interpretation. neither is more or less 'canon', and it's petty to suggest otherwise

another weird point in that post is the insistence that Shiro is a “tragic gay character”, which is just..... not fucking true, first of all. he’s definitely suffered the most out of any main character, I agree, but he’s GETTING THROUGH IT. he’s been pulled through it by the paladins, and he’s learning to use his own strength to pull through as well. he’s so incredibly fuckin strong and it’s a fuckin shame that ppl don’t see how inspirational he is to those that may be struggling emotionally. plus, he's never suffered BECAUSE he's gay, nor has he ever had a damn HINT of queer-coding until Adam was shoehorned in (which is its own separate problem w/ the show, but it's not a "tragic gay" problem)

but beyond all that is an even more subtle insistence that Shiro has always been a beloved character to ALL in the fandom. antis’ underlying implication that, “hey normies, Shiro-- our beloved Space Dad-- has been given the shit end of the stick, and u should be mad abt it too!” 

as if antis haven’t spent the last several years shitting on Shiro at every turn, saying he’s got “scrambled egg brains” b/c of his ptsd, and other horrific shit. the fact that they can turn around to “defend Shiro’s honor” now that he’s *confirmed queer* (and, initially, confirmed less of a threat to klance due to Adam) and STILL be taken seriously is goddamn terrifying 

like I am literally seeing posts like this-- IN 20FUCKIN18-- that normies are taking at face value and reinforcing:

to any normies reading this: SHIRO AND KEITH AREN'T FUCKING RELATED!! racist antis insist that they have to be related b/c they're both Asian and the second half of their last names (Shirogane and Kogane, respectively) are similar. I'm literally so baffled over how this tactic is ever taken seriously, but who fuckin knows I guess. and if antis are trying to make a case for adoptive siblings, Keith canonically met Shiro by at LEAST his early/mid teens-- LONGGGG past the developmental age of youth where he might latch onto another person as a strictly non-romanceable relative, so. No. fandom is free to interpret Keith and Shiro’s relationship as brotherly, but to say that that is the STRICT and true 'canon' interpretation of their relationship is, once again, fuckin petty and dishonest

just. how fuckin DARE antis act like they give a SINGLE goddamn shit abt Shiro’s emotional needs and trauma after pullin this shit. how fuckin DARE antis misuse real sj issues to appeal to the lowest common denominator in normies, looking for fodder to fuel the flames of hate

so, if I may be so bold as to utilize one of antis' many battlecrys: this discussion does not exist in a vacuum. Adam's shoehorned relationship w/ Shiro is shitty and worth criticism, absolutely. but brushing aside the fandom history driving the resulting uproar-- as if ship wars aren't HUGELY influencing this backlash-- is SUPREMELY fuckin ignorant

antis latched onto Adam HARD when he was first announced, despite all the signs he'd be a side character at best, that he was stated clearly to be Shiro's ex, and having no context for his personality. Adam was antis' newest shield to their ship-- somebody to take Shiro's romantic potential away from Keith, thus leaving Keith open to Lance. Adam's death eliminated that shield, leaving antis reeling-- they couldn't just jump right back into hating Shiro after having showered his newly-christened gay ass w/ praise for all of the Tumblr normies to see. so, their anger was tactically redirected towards Adam's development

there is nothing shocking abt any of this tbh. all antis is the same, and they're all bitter assholes that are completely willing to abuse real sj issues for their own goals. plain and simple.

I don't rly have a proper ending for this. I'll just say that I like s7 a helluva lot, and Adam’s shitty development doesn’t rly phase me? not everyone feels that way, which is valid, I just don’t particularly give a shit abt Adam. I have hope for s8-- esp in terms of potential development for Shiro. since Shiro got such heavy focus in s6, it makes sense that he was pushed to the sidelines a bit this season to leave room for the other characters (Keith, Lance, Commander Holt + Earth stuff in general, etc.) to develop and shine. I've heard rumors that Adam did in fact have more development that was cut, which I'm honestly willing to believe b/c the development we got felt cut short, rather than simply planned that sparsely in the first place. my hope is that s8 will return some focus to Shiro, and possibly slot in some of these cut scenes to bolster a better backstory to their relationship? pure speculation tho, and it doesn't rly excuse Adam's treatment in s7, but it's worth considering

before I completely end off here, I just want to go on one last FINAL tangent: I'm so damn disappointed that everyone is sleeping on kexa (Keith/Acxa)??? if anything it poses MUCH more canon threat to BOTH klance and sheith purely b/c it's 'safely hetero' and b/c the show itself has hinted at potential feelings there (“She’s always been sweet on that one with the flippity hair,” and “Oh look Acxa, it’s your favorite paladin~���). like I haven't seen antis OR sheiths even mention this, it's baffling. the fact that it'll prolly be canon is bittersweet for me: bitter b/c DAMN I love sheith, and sweet b/c damn.... I'm rly diggin kexa....

so the moral of this post is: blease appreciate Keith's beautiful goth gf, she deserves love

thank u and goodbye

[innocentfighter]

Rise Chap 1

Very much a draft of an original story, I mentioned it a couple of days ago. So this is the current first chapter. Read at your pleasure, and if you have feedback please feel free to share it.

Oddly enough, my last coherent thought before being struck by the violently pink Cadillac was that this was a pretty ironic death. I could see the headlines now LARPer Taken Out by Modern Technology. Which, in my defense, it was a professional hobby, I won an international competition. The car hit me and I found that I didn't particularly care that they would mislabel my epithet.

It hurt for a second. I felt the impact and the feeling of flight and then I was tumbling down the hill. Consciousness clung onto me like spider silk, and I knew my arms were flopping wildly as I fell but I couldn't feel it. Dying actually sucked, go figure.

Awareness came back to me when I landed the winter-chilled pond. I tried to move my arms to struggle to the surface but I couldn't. The leather jacket I had worn trapped the water and kept dragging me down.

Down.

Down.

I don't remember what happened exactly. Black was dancing on the edge of my vision and I knew I was breathing in water but I couldn't do anything to stop it. It stopped being a downward movement and I was going up... or it was getting brighter.

Don't go into the light, Artie!

Suddenly, I was looking at the moon and seeing more stars than I could ever hope to count. It was bright enough that there wouldn’t be a need for lanterns. How could humans ever take something like this away?

The breath left my lungs, absolutely stunning.

This was the afterlife.

“I saw it over there!”

Ghosts? Awesome.

“The Lake? Could The Lady want something?”

“Perhaps a new quest,” the voice grew in intensity, “oh, gods.”

“Are you alright, Merlin?”

Merlin? I couldn’t move my head to see the speakers, they were likely in the clearing now. A feeling stirred in my chest, my heart felt as though it was being squeezed. Might be the trauma.

“By the gods! It cannot be!” Merlin spoke softly.

They leaned over me, tawny-brown hair flipped out at every angle and gray eyes that shone brighter than the moon filled my vision. It was a familiar face as if I’d passed them on the street or known them in childhood.

Merlin turned around, “Lance! It’s Arthur!”

“Impossible!”

I agreed with Lance. There shouldn’t be visions after death. Death was final.

My vision blurred for a few seconds, enough time for the second speaker to walk into its field. Even in my limited view, I could tell Lance was big, larger than most of the guys I fought with on a daily basis. He was easily over six feet tall. He leaned over me and I couldn’t stop myself from staring at him. His eyes reminded me of deer in two ways: the soft wariness and their color, a dark brown that matched his skin.

“Well I’ll be damned,” he breathed, “it is him. How?”

There was a pause as Merlin flitted around me like a bird, not touching and deeply unsettled before they spoke, “do not ask, accept it for the blessing that it is.”

Lance inclined his head, “He is injured. Let us treat his wounds and then we will learn his story.”

I wanted to protest. Moving a person with a (possible) spinal injury was a no-no, but my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth and I couldn’t get any words out. There was no telling what could happen if I let them take me to their base, although I doubted it mattered in the long run. This injury would eventually kill me without enough medical interference.

Merlin finally stilled on my right side. They crouched down and placed their hands on my chest and muttered some foreign tongue. Lance moved so that his hands were under me, one on my back and the other under my knees.

How humiliating, I groaned.

The pair seemed to have taken it as a sound of pain. Merlin halted their chanting and Lance looked down concerned.

“Why is he in pain? I see no gashes or punctures?”

“A blunt weapon perhaps or he could have fallen. I wonder where his armor and Excalibur are?” Lance replied.

Part of me prayed that this was, in fact, some trauma-induced coma dream that was using things that I knew well, Medieval Europe and combat as a guide back to myself. This was just keeping my brain active while they relieved the pressure in my head. How could anyone mistake me, Artie Penn, as Arthur Pendragon?

Their conversation had apparently continued without my knowing it because when Merlin spoke again, I couldn’t follow how the previous conversation had lead to the current question.

“Why would he spend his time doing something like that instead of coming back to us?”

“Why did Arthur do anything he did?” Lance’s face was unreadable and also fuzzy.

Somehow I knew that he was hurt, his eyes shimmered ever so briefly. It made my heart twinge and I shuddered. If this was some dream, I had to stop the realism from drawing me in and preventing me from returning to my life. Although, if I died here I would probably die in the real world.

For the first time, Lance seemed to remember that I was there. He looked down at me and there was a minute quirk of his lips, “rest my King.”

And I did.

Between the journey from the lake shore to wherever it was their base was I had flashes of lucidity. One moment we were traipsing through the trees and then we were on open plains. Merlin and Lance were talking, the words distorted and sounded as if they were spoken through the water. I struggled weakly against the rising heat of my body and fell back into unconsciousness.

The world stopped bouncing and various strips of plate stopped jabbing my side. I took the time to try and reorient myself, certain that we wouldn’t be moving again for some time. It was low light and I had to assume that we were inside due to a lack of stars. Certainly, it was an upgrade to sand, but not knowing where I was had me concerned. Strange people thinking I was King Arthur had me concerned.

This was all very concerning.

When I was finally lucid, I could feel the sweat that had soaked into the pillow and sunlight was streaming through an open window. The scent of wildflowers filled the room and I went to turn my head a twinge of pain shot down my spine, it didn’t move. My lungs seized. There was a moment where I was on the outside of my body looking in, my immobile body.

Merlin had come in during my moments of panic and had started to speak, “I’m glad to see that the fever has finally broken, sire.”

I sighed, my throat was still too dry to even begin to speak.

“With the fever gone you’re probably feeling better,” Merlin said.

That was a point of contention, I didn’t feel like I was going to sweat myself to death but I couldn’t move anything. On the other hand, I didn’t feel anything. Instead of inviting Merlin to talk more I moved my gaze to stare at the stone ceiling. It was dark gray and cracking in some places. A spider vanished back into one of the crevices.

“Sire?” Merlin stood at the foot of the bed.

I glanced at them and noticed for the first time that they were small. The clothes they wore were overlarge and only seemed to highlight their petite structure. Now that it was mostly light, I could see the barest hints of gray streaking their hair. They wore a blue sash, which stood out against the varying shades of brown, that had a bottle hanging off of it.

“I’ll be starting the healing on your injuries,” they grimaced, “it could be uncomfortable. Your back seems badly damaged.”

My eyes shut to ward off a headache. Merlin seemed to be the ruler of understatements.

“The sleeping draught is nearly finished.”

I knew medieval medicine, what there was to know. This would do more harm than good, but I didn’t see an alternative other than dying. I doubted this would be a typical leech treatment if this was Merlin, at least the storied magically inclined Merlin I read in old books. Why is this dream so vivid? Are all coma dreams like this?

Merlin moved back over to the desk and held up a small bottle filled with a red-brown mixture. They uncorked it and moved back to my side.

“I’m going to lift you up sire. I apologize if this causes you any pain.”

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t. The weird thing was it felt like it should, I was only lifted up a few inches and my lips parted on their own. The bottle rested on my lips before Merlin tilted enough that the draught could drain into my mouth. I swallowed it. I can’t say that I’ve had worst tasting things, this tasted like a mix of protein powder and rotten eggs. Vomit rose in my throat but I fought it back down. I’d feel bad if I covered Merlin in sick, they were only trying to help.

The bottle emptied and I was relieved that there wouldn’t be any more of that. Merlin grinned softly, their eyes crinkled in the corner and they looked ten years younger. There was no longer a cracking ceiling behind them but an endless blue sky, their hair was longer.

           “Arthur! Merlin! There you are,” Someone called in the distance.

           I blinked my eyes several times, the beautiful day fading away into gray to the gentle eyes of Merlin. That had been odd.

           “I’ll come back soon when the draught has taken effect.”

           Merlin laid me back down and spent a few moments cleaning up their work area before they left the room. The door closed and it became stifling, it was as if all of the fresh air had left with them. There was a strange energy surrounding them, I could only guess that it had something to do with their supposed magic.

With nothing else to do, I looked back up at the ceiling and watched as the spider came crawling back out of its crevice. It began to spin a web, I watched it complete it about halfway before I felt the effects of the sleeping draught.

My dreams were weird(er), but when I  awoke the dreams slipped through my consciousness like sand. Voices in my room kept me from opening my eyes. I was too wary to expose myself like that, and learning the situation never hurt anyone. Charging into battle with your arms above your head always got you stabbed in the stomach.

“Lance, Merlin will be in shortly. Rest,” a woman spoke barely above a whisper.

Lance sighed, “I cannot. Not now Gwen.”

 The was rustling and thin fingers were threading their way through my hair. I assumed it was Gwen, the hand was small and the touch was light.

“I understand, but you should not run yourself into the ground. We do not know anything that happened to him.”

There was the sound of shifting cloth and footsteps. It seemed like Lance was pacing.

“Do you understand?” Lance didn’t sound harsh, but the words were.

“Gwen, he’s been missing for almost a decade, and now he shows up as if he hasn’t aged a day...”

“Your prayers have suddenly been answered,” she finished for him.

“Yes.”

The bed creaked and Gwen ghosted her fingers down my face,

“To have our King back. It's incredible.”

“Do you mean having Arthur back is incredible?”

Lance made a weird sound, like a pained grunt. Gwen’s laugh sounded like wind chimes.

“Come now, I’ve known you too long. The way you look at him gives you away.”

“There’s nothing to give away.”

My eyes fluttered open at Lance’s tone. His voice was rough.

Gwen slowly retracted her hand. A smile formed on her face that was as bright as the sun. I observed her for a moment, noting the dark black curls that haloed her face, she was as pretty as the stories claimed if this was Guinevere

“Welcome home, Your Majesty.”

Lance stopped his pacing only to change his course to stand next to me. His eyes were wide and there was a tenseness to his shoulders. I weakly managed a smile, it felt awkward but I felt like I had to comfort these two.

“How do you feel?”

“Better,” the raspiness in my voice may have belied that statement.

“That’s good!” Gwen clapped her hands.

Lance’s shoulders loosened. I glanced between them if they were the destined lovers the stories said then their posture gave no indication. Gwen was tilted towards Lance, but he had his arms crossed and faced me directly.

Out of curiosity, I twitched a finger and I felt it move. That was more than promising. Whatever Merlin was doing was working and I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Gwen’s smile lessened and she tilted her head. Lance had moved so that he was leaning against the wall.

“Don’t, not right now. Let him heal,” his hand tightened on his sleeve.

Gwen looked between us for a second, “we should know. What if it happens again?”

“Merlin will be in soon.”

Slowly she raised herself up, giving my hand a squeeze that I didn’t react to. The movement was so fluid I had barely recognized that she had in fact moved. Her face fell completely and she bit her lip. I could tell she cared deeply for Arthur Pendragon.

As Lance opened the door Merlin had reached for it.

“Your Majesty,” Merlin bowed deeply.

“He’s awake,” Lance tossed his head towards me.

Gwen nodded, “and he spoke. It was only one word.”

Merlin’s eyebrow raised as they focused on me, their eyes sparkled like lightning and the phrase lightning-quick mind made so much more sense now. It was as if the other two didn’t exist. I had Merlin looking me over, moving their lips as if they were making mental notes.

“Sire?”

I winced, unable to keep it off my face this time. There wasn’t going to be an easy way to tell them that I wasn’t who they were all hoping me to be.

“If you’re feeling pain then your injuries are healing,” Merlin said cheerfully.

The door closed and I was left alone with Merlin. There was no way that I could keep my immobility a secret but I didn’t know who all knew what.

“My back?” I croaked.

A look of surprise passed Merlin’s face before it turned serious, “I believe it can be restored, though I suspect you’ll have issues with it for the rest of your life.”

It was too much to hope for a full cure, I sighed.

“I’m doing my best, Sire.”

For I moment I debated on closing my eyes and feigning sleep, but I was too awake to even do that. At least this would be a welcomed break in what had become monotony. But where to start?

“I’m sure you are.” Not my best attempt.

Merlin looked a little put out, but perked back up, “if you tell me what caused it then maybe there could be a chance that I can heal it better?”

It was a subtle prod for information. I would’ve done the same thing, the curiosity killing me until I blurted out a question.

“I was knocked down a hill by a metallic something.”

“One of Morgana’s?”

“I don’t know,”

Oh great. Morgana was involved in this disaster of a dream world as well. What’s next telling me that I must lead the army to overthrow her?

“She’s been getting bold in her attacks. It's been a decade since the Battle of Camlann, her claim to the throne is getting more legitimate,” Merlin glanced out of the window wary.

           For a moment I could feel the words bubbling in my throat that would tell them that I’m not King Arthur.

“You’re here now. We have a chance to turn this around and save Camelot!”

Merlin’s grin split their face.

The argument died in my throat. I had to tell them, it was the right thing to do. If they put their hope in me their battle would be lost. That was a fact. Still, they looked as though they needed hope, the cracking ceiling and threadbare blankets told me that much.

It’s a dream Artie, none of this matters.

“I can’t lead you.”

“What do you mean you can’t lead us?” Merlin’s voice cracked, “for years you were the one everyone looked to for guidance when Morgana seized the throne everyone rallied behind you! Now suddenly you can’t?”

I sighed, wishing I had enough movement to run a hand through my hair, get up and pace. Do something.

“Merlin, it’s been almost ten years. The people won’t believe in me. I’m injured. I can’t move.”

“Your Majesty, Arthur, your Return was the only thing that kept us fighting this war,” Merlin pursed their lips.

Well. That wasn’t the weight of the world, not at all. One of my classes taught me that sometimes people only need a symbol, but I couldn’t be that. Not ever. King Arthur was King Arthur, there’s no one else like him.

“Lance has been leading all this time,” I didn’t know for sure but it sounded good.

“Yes. He’s a good general, but the most important thing was missing.”

This conversation wasn't going the way I wanted it to. At this rate, I would agree to get on a horse and lead everyone to the palace to take down Morgana right now.

Stop this. Don’t get sucked into this dream world.

So instead I turned my head to regroup. Merlin sensed that the conversation was over and set about doing other tasks.

“I’ll begin the healing incantation now,” Merlin said, “I'm sorry I can't use the draught again. It would lose effectiveness.”

I nodded. Next to me, Merlin started chanting and warmth filled my body for a split second then searing pain raced up my back. It almost felt like I could feel the nerves knit themselves together. I had regained enough movement that I gripped at the mattress below me (straw came out) in order to stop myself from convulsing. Needing something else to focus on I turned my gaze to Merlin.

Their eyes glowed a bronze color and the floor around them turned into some arcane circle. I decided to observe that, the power it expended was incredible. It was about two feet in diameter, with a diamond inscribed in the center and within the diamond was a single symbol that looked like a curly 5 pointed W. The far end of the W looked like it was burning out and moving through the symbol.

Watching it for a few seconds I saw that it was like the fuse of a firework. Burning up the magical energy, and when it was burned out I assumed it meant the healing was done. I couldn’t be sure. The legends never went into detail about Merlin’s magic.

By the time Merlin had finished the sun had faded into dusk and I was breathing hard. My back screamed in pain and my chest was heaving. Merlin didn’t look any better, doubled over by the side of the bed coughing.

“A-Are you alright?”

Merlin jumped up quickly. “I am fine, Your Majesty! Nothing to trouble yourself about. How do you feel?”

“Like...” I paused trying to find a better analogy than hit by a truck, “I was just raked across hot coals.”

“I am sorry. Healing is painful, it speeds up the natural process, and you know the saying it gets worse before it gets better,” Merlin bowed.

Having people bow to me and actually meaning it was a very strange feeling and I vowed never to bow at my friends again. Merlin shifted from side to side and once again I was reminded of a bird.

“I’ll send someone up with something to eat?”

My stomach growled loudly and I grinned sheepishly. I hadn’t realized how hungry I had been. A thought struck me, “how long?”

“About seven nights.” Merlin shrugged.

Seven? How in the hell? They took my silence as a dismissal. Meanwhile, I was left to think about the life that I wasn’t currently living. All my parents would know of me is that I had been hit by a car and was now in a coma. My mother would be heartbroken, and my father would more than likely start a charity for families of victims of car crashes. That’s how they worked.

How was I ever going to wake up from this dream? Would there be clues?

A new person entered the room. He was big as well, taller than me but shorter and less broad than Lance. He had short blonde hair that just barely curled at the edges. Green eyes sparkled mischievously. I raised an eyebrow.

“So it's the truth! You are alive!”

The newcomer moved to set the food on the table and say something else when fast footsteps could be heard coming down the hall.

“Damn,” he breathed, “nothing gets passed that advisor of yours.”

“Gwaine! What do you think you’re doing?” Merlin skidded to a stop in front of the door.

I couldn’t stop the snicker that escaped my lips. Merlin looked disheveled,  already messy hair was even more so and their robes hung at odd places. Their mouth was open and finger raised to lecture, Gwaine looked mildly terrified. Quickly he set the food down, bowed and bolted out of the room. There was a second paused and then I was left alone.

“Gwaine! Get back here!”

Were they really the legendary heroes?

I looked at the food left on the table it was a steaming bowl of something. Several minutes later Merlin reappeared breathing heavy.

“Sorry about that, you know how Gwaine is.”

I didn’t, but instead, I made a half-hearted gesture towards the bowl. Merlin nodded and brought it over to me. It didn’t smell good and it didn’t look good, it looked like paper mache. The spoon got stuck in it briefly before it came out. My stomach twisted and I thought about rejecting it saying I wasn’t hungry. But it growled treacherously and Merlin did me the favor of not saying anything.

Being fed as a grown male was mildly uncomfortable but there was no way I’d be able to feed myself. We didn’t say anything, and I choked down the paste. It said a lot about the state of things, I doubt they would’ve given their King something like this unless it was all they had. It was also uncommon to use utensils, but I was grateful hand-feeding would make this unbearable.

Only the barest amount was left in the bowl. Merlin looked pleased that I had eaten that much.

“Would you like to rest? Lance would like to come in,” Merlin said.

I thought about it. Lance was nothing more than a stranger to me, but it would be nice to have the company, “sure.”

Lance stepped into the rooms a few minutes later. He had dressed down into just a cotton shirt and pants. He stood hesitantly at the side before stepping up and pulling the chair beside my bed. I watched him unsure of what to say. Sir Lancelot and King Arthur were good friends, and he would notice that I wasn’t him. But I was tired of just laying in this room all day.

“I heard Gwaine stopped by,” Lance spoke.

“Yes.”

“The rumors that you’re back spread quickly. Gwaine was the first to get wind of the story, the other knights will surely want to see you,” Lance crossed his arms, “Gwen is going to ward them off, but it won’t last long. Though many of them are not present.”

I laughed. The image of seeing Gwen, as lithe as she was stopping knights at least as big as Gwaine was amusing.

“Merlin says that you’re healing well. The best guess is that you’ll be up and about within the next couple of days.”

That would be nice. Merlin hadn’t said anything to me about how they thought that I was healing beyond that I was. The conversation paused and I observed Lance, he was doing the same to me after all. His shoulders had gone back to being stiff and he was rubbing his hands together. He pressed his lips together tightly. The conversation was going into dangerous territory I knew.

‘Camelot has sorely missed you, Your Majesty.”

I swallowed, “has it?”

The look Lance gave me stopped me from talking.

“You are not the same, Sire,” Lance shifted,  “whatever happened in the years you were gone has changed you. I can only hope that it wasn’t for the worst.”

He still looked like he was going to talk so I held my tongue. Not sure what I was going to say. Keeping myself quiet was harder than I imagined.

“We needed this. You to come back, the war is nearly won, and it's not in our favor. With you, we can turn the tide.”

Something welled up inside of me at Lance’s distant look, I spoke before I could even fully comprehend that I was, “I can’t remember anything.”

Shit.

Lance didn’t miss a beat, “have you told Merlin?”

“No.” The worse thing about this is I knew why I said it. These people were suffering and they needed something to give them that fighting chance back. I could do something about it.

I need to get back to my actual life.

“Do you want me to,” He made a gesture over his shoulder.

I had thrown him off balance if the wide-eyed look was anything to go by.

“I feel like I need someone else here when I say it,”

He nodded and stepped out of the room. I could hear his footsteps disappearing down the hall. The silence was a blessing for once as I descended into panic. For once staying quiet would’ve been in my favor, but no I had to go and say something. What were they even going to do about my apparent missing memories? And why did everything feel so real?

[stillthewordgirl]

LOT/CC fic: Chances Are (epilogue)

What if Leonard had been stuck in the 1950s with Sara, Ray, and Kendra in season 1? And how the hell did they survive, anyway? 

And here we are. This is really bittersweet. "Chances Are" is the longest piece of writing, fictional or nonfictional, I've ever produced. I tried my hand at OCs for the first time in ages. And I had a ball.

Thanks, as always, to @larielromeniel LarielRomeniel for the beta. And to all of those who've been encouraging me since I started writing fic again a little more than two years ago.

Can also be read here at AO3 and here at FF.net.

It’s not the first time they’ve been waiting in Hunter’s office for a dressing down as the man paces in front of them. It’s not the first time Leonard’s sat there, legs stretched out before him, pretending to be disinterested. It’s not the first time Sara’s curled up in the chair next to him, fiddling with a knife.

But it’s the first time Hunter’s looked quite so…so troubled, somewhat to Leonard’s unease. There’s more going on here than they know, that’s obvious. And not knowing…it bothers him.

Sara, sensing that unease too, glances at him, then reaches out to wrap her hand around his where it rests on the arm of the chair. And although being back on the Waverider has made some of his walls start to come back up—at least the ones pertaining to keeping his cool in front of others—he accepts the contact and the backup displayed therein, squeezing her hand and maintaining the contact even as Hunter notices.

And the captain does notice, focusing on their joined hands and running a hand through his hair in one of his habitual gestures of consternation before shaking his head and sighing. Leonard doesn’t think most of his agitation is due to their relationship, but the man doesn’t seem all that pleased by it, either.

Oh well. Like that’s going to change anything.

Finally, Hunter stops, turning to face them and leaning on his desk. He looks at Sara—who lifts an eyebrow at him—then at Leonard, who smirks. And then he sighs again, closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead, as if he has a headache. He probably does.

“I must admit, when I realized how much time had passed,” he says, “or rather, how much time was particularly unstable, between the day we…left…and the day we were able to return, I was worried. Worried about how Savage might have tracked you down. Worried that the Time Masters might have done so. But I thought, Miss Lance—” He looks at her, then switches his gaze to Leonard. “—and Mr. Snart are there. They’re survivors. They’ll go to ground. They’ll stay safe and keep the others safe.”

“We did.” Sara’s looking rather mutinous at the suggestion otherwise. “Safe and sane, or at least as sane as you left us…”

“…and you have well and truly caused so much change, so much potential change, to the timeline that I cannot believe the Time Masters didn’t find you first, find you and eliminate you with extreme prejudice.” The former Time Master has actually raised his voice and they both bristle at him, Sara’s hands tensing on Len’s and on the arms of the chair. “Even Gideon cannot pinpoint quite yet all the ways your actions have changed things at this point. You might have even changed your own lives, or the lives of the others. If…”

But Leonard’s had enough. It’s one thing to let Rip lambast him, but he’ll be damned if he’ll let the man light into Sara.

“We survived,” he drawls, forcing back the snarl he wants to let out, trying to keep his tone as cool and insouciant as he can. It annoys Hunter more than anger would. “No thanks to you, Time Master. Hell, if I hadn’t asked Gideon, we wouldn’t have even known about time drift.”

Hunter’s eyes narrow, but he also rather obviously tries to make himself calm down, running a hand through his hair again. “It’s not something you should have avoided!” he grits out, finally. “In many ways, it’s a means of protection, for you and for the timeline. A way time has of…of smoothing out the rough edges of something that’s not where it’s supposed to be…”

“Maybe we didn’t want to lose our rough edges.” Sara sounds pissed. “Maybe they make us who we are.”

Hunter’s glare gentles as it transfers to her. “Sara…”

“No, Rip.” She shakes her head, taking a deep breath, tightening her fingers on Len’s again. “I wasn’t meant to survive in a time and place like that. If I had either started to feel time drift taking over—especially if I hadn’t even known what it was—or if I hadn’t found a way to keep the…the core of who I am intact, I would have gone back to the League.” She glances at Leonard. “I almost did anyway.”

He’d suspected she was thinking something of the sort. Len keeps his gaze on hers, nonjudgmental and calm, and after a moment, she smiles at him.

“And we would have come for you.” Rip’s trying to sound reasonable and measured, but Sara just shakes her head at him.

“And how many people would I have killed in the meantime?” she says quietly. “What if I’d had the time drift set in there? I…”

But Hunter’s thrown up his hands, exasperation apparently taking over. “So, instead, we have Dr. Palmer teaching physics principles no one in this time should even suspect yet. You, Miss Lance, leading a mini revolution in feminism in Orange City.” Then he points at Leonard. “And you, Mr. Snart, the one I thought would be the most practical of all, playing 1958 Robin Hood and introducing advanced tech ideas to any number of individuals.” He lets out a noise that mingles a sigh and a groan, collapsing into his desk chair. “Miss Saunders may have changed the fewest things…”

“And she’s the one who came closest to losing herself due to sheer boredom…”

“But now the best…the only real…weapon we have against Savage is more than seven months pregnant!” His voice breaks into a bewildered sort of squawk, and the former Time Master just stares off into space for a moment before reaching into his desk and extracting a bottle of something that looks potently alcoholic.

“Where are Kendra and Ray anyway?” Sara asks after a moment, almost gently.

Rip shakes his head, pouring a drink. “In the medbay, getting Miss Saunders a thorough checkup.” He hesitates, then shrugs, taking a long drink. “She seems well. Just…well…”

Neither of them wants to finish that sentence and set Hunter off again. After a moment, Sara rubs her hands together, smirking, and takes a stab at something that will get them out of Rip’s office.

“Yeah, well, I want one of Gideon’s magic shots again,” she says lightly, winking at Leonard. “So…”

Hunter snorts but keeps staring into his drink as if it holds all the secrets of time. “I can’t figure out how the Time Masters didn’t find you all,” he murmurs. “You messed up so much…”

Leonard is getting just a bit tired of this. “Pretty sure we changed things for the better,” he drawls, starting to get to his feet.

But Hunter is having none of that.

“Are you sure? Are you really sure, Mr. Snart?” he asks, also standing, a hard note in his voice. “Because changing even small things in time, it causes…ripples. And those ripples grow as they spread.” He points at them. “You save one life, two lives, those people save or change other lives, have children, maybe those children also have an effect…”

Sara’s eyes are narrowed again. “Are you saying we should have just...what, watched…”

Hunter sits down his drink with a sigh. “I’ve only gotten the chance to look at the very basic level of what you—the two of you--changed, but do you know how many lives Miss Hayes and Miss Schuyler went on to touch?” he asks quietly. “To save? Or I should say now, the Mses. Hayes-Schuyler.”

Sara actually squeaks, putting a hand over her mouth, looking toward Len with sparkling eyes. “They got married? They’re still alive…”

“They were one of the first couples to marry in 2011, when New York…this isn’t what we’re talking about.” Rip struggles to regain control of the conversation, but Leonard’s picked up on something else.

“You said ‘save two lives,’” he says. “They…”

The words trail off. Hunter stares at him a moment, then nods, picking up his drink again.

“They were going to die,” he says, his voice emotionless, staring into the amber depths again. “There, in 1958, at that house, the night you met them, Mr. Snart. Mr. Travers was going to get into the house, then lose his temper and hit his wife so hard she fell and hit her head on the table. Then he would have grabbed Miss Schuyler to try to stop her screaming.” He takes a sip. “Shook her so hard, he broke her neck.”

He shakes his head. “He would have run off, eventually been arrested for it. But that night, Ms. Smith would have come downstairs to find them, then taken her children and run off into the night so that she wouldn’t be implicated in it. She wasn’t prepared. It…wouldn’t have gone well.”

His voice drifts off as he stares at the viewscreen in his office, as if remembering what it’s showed him. Sara can’t help herself.

“But the girls?” she asks urgently. “They’re OK? Now?”

Rip eyes her, taking another drink. “Oh, yes. And that’s another thing. Do you have any idea how many lives someone in a medical profession can change? I don’t know what you did, but instead of fading into obscurity as Ann Smith, young Anne May went on to not only save lives, but to teach others to do so. That’s not a ripple, it’s a bloody tidal wave.” He sighs as Sara grins, turning to Leonard. “And her sister! Her two daughters…a trauma surgeon in Star City and a defense attorney in National. And that’s not even addressing how many lives an author can affect, and that’s what the young Jacobi became…”

Leonard can’t help it. He barks out a laugh, a noise that’s both relieved and satisfied, grinning as he thinks of the tears in Dorothea’s eyes when he’d given her that nest egg. Sara actually has tears in her eyes now, smiling at him, and he nearly reaches for her right there in front of Hunter, to tell her…

“Yes, I know like it sounds that this is all well and good, but we don’t know yet what the fallout could be!” Hunter snaps. “What if a life one of them saves goes on to, to drive a car that hits Mr. Jackson’s mother before he can be born? Or what if…”

Leonard rounds on him, though, anger surging again. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have left us behind for so damned long,” he snaps back.

Hunter’s eyes are cold and furious. “And whose fault is that, Mr. Snart?” he asks in a clipped tone.

It’s a figurative bucket of cold water, in part because Leonard realizes that he still has no idea. Neither Raymond and Kendra had known back in Nickel City, and they’d barely gotten to greet Stein and Jax before Hunter had summoned them into his office.

“What do you mean?” he asks slowly as Sara steps to his side. “Fault? What happened?”

“No one told you why Gideon went offline? Or…” Hunter stares at them. “Oh, bloody hell. I should have known. You’d have been in the brig if they had.”

“In the brig?” Sara asks, a note of anger in her own tone. “He…”

“No, as a prisoner, but….” Hunter takes a deep breath, shaking his head. “Bloody hell,” he repeats. Then he reaches out for the booze on his desk and two more glasses, wordlessly pouring both and handing one to Sara, one to Leonard, who takes it in suddenly nerveless fingers.

He’s not sure how he suspects some of what’s coming. But he does. He knows.  

Hunter nods at his expression, then turns toward the viewscreen.

“Gideon,” he says, “show Mr. Snart and Miss Lance what happened on the ship, after…after it took off back in Harmony Falls.”

Next, “19 Gabriel Drive,” a one-shot, will show Sara and Leonard visiting friends in Orange City in 2016.

And the tentatively titled multichapter “Somewhere on Your Road Tonight” will pick up the story of post-“Chances Are” Sara and Leonard (and Kendra, Ray, Mick and the others) on the Waverider.

[some-cookie-crumbz]

Pick Me Up, Sweetheart

Title: Pick Me Up, Sweetheart Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Pairing: Keidge Summary: Request for Pidge and Keith swapping lame pick-up lines while making fun of Lance late into the night. Standard Disclaimer: If you read and enjoy this, please give it a like/ reblog so I know if I should write more. AN: Wanted to post this sooner but due to personal stuff I got a little held up. I’ll be trying to do better about posting here more regularly; for now, enjoy some requests I was able to fill.

They were surprised no one had caught on to them yet, what with how often the situation occurred.

Keith and Pidge tended to gravitate towards being nocturnal to a degree none of the other Paladins could hold a candle to. For Pidge, it was that she’d gotten quite adept at running on five hours of sleep or less so that she could get as much work done as possible. When she’d been on Earth it had been from trying to uncover the secrets of the Garrison and hack their networks, while now it was more in regards to repairing the Lions or helping to develop new technology that could be implemented in combat against the Galra. For Keith, it was much more that he had to stay busy until he was so tired he would crash immediately, else he’d be plagued with nightmares reminding him of all his losses and failures. Long ago he would train and further hone his skills or settle in with a long book, but after he and Pidge bumped into one another in the kitchen one night, he had started joining her in the hanger.

And admittedly, he was grateful for it. Of all the other people on the ship, Pidge was surprisingly the easiest to talk to; next to Shiro, for the most part. She started teaching him some small, basic repairs he could do to Red during an emergency situation to assure they’d be able to at least stay safe long enough to send a distress flare or protect themselves against any immediate threats. In exchange, he helped walk Pidge through some defensive moves that could help her better incapacitate an assailant that had a lot of bulk and height on her. Spending a good chunk of his childhood dealing with much bigger bullies had given him experience that could be a lethal edge to more than just himself, he figured. Most of the time, though, they just ended up swapping stories and making jokes.

Usually their jokes were at the expense of other people. And - like so many times in the past - this time it happened to be Lance.

“I can’t believe you missed it! It was one of the worst instances of secondhand embarrassment I’ve ever gotten from his terrible attempts at flirting!” Pidge cackled, shifting her seat sideways to face Keith better.

He grinned and leaned one elbow against her desk, then rested his chin in that hand and raised an eyebrow at her. “Oh really? He’s really sunken that low?”

“You don’t understand, Keith. It was, like, leagues worse than his usual sad attempts. I don’t know where he even came up with this one!” She insisted.

“Well don’t keep me in suspense; what was this oh-so-terrifically awful pick-up line this time?”

She grinned wider, brown eyes flashing alive excitedly. She sat upright in her seat and shook out her hands, letting out a small breath and shaking her head. He had learned from the past that, when recounting stories, Pidge often liked to get into character. She leaned a bit closer to him with what was probably supposed to be a flirtatious smirk but came off more as her typical smug one. “Oh, baby, is there a magnet in here? Because I am attracted to you,” Pidge said, even tossing in a wink at the end.

One snort escaped Keith before he was doubled over, holding his stomach as he laughed outright. Pidge started out with small giggles but soon dissolved into heartier laughter as well. Lance had honestly said that? Especially considering that the planet they’d just been on involved insect-esque beings that actually used some kind of magnetic system to make their homes and technology, and suddenly there was just an extra level of ridiculous tacked on. “Wow… He planned that one out real well, didn’t he?” He said as he settled back in.

Pidge hummed in agreement, slumping against the back of her chair with a satisfied grin. “I do have to say this one probably takes the cake,” She agreed.

Keith smirked and leaned against her desk again, a thought coming to him. “Oh, I somehow doubt that. This is Lance we’re talking about; his flirting game can hit much further down than that,” He said.

Pidge quirked an eyebrow, intrigued by his comment. “Oh really? How so?”

Keith cleared his throat before reaching up with one hand and sweeping his bangs back and out of his face. He then curled the other around his chin and flashed her a look that was a dead-ringing for the one Lance wore while trying to charm others. “Are you from space? Because that booty is out. Of. This. World,” He said, even adding the same ridiculous airy tone to his voice that Lance did.

Pidge laughed so hard she nearly toppled backwards in her seat, saved by Keith catching one of the arm rests and one of the legs before she could go completely overboard with it. He started cracking up as well, flopping back in his own seat much like Pidge once she was upright again. She wiped at her eyes to rid herself of some stray tears and gently waved one hand. “Oh, wait! Wait! I’ve got one that I could totally see him using!” She said excitedly. She pointed at him with a finger gun and winked. “Am I the piece that finishes your puzzle?”

Keith let out a sharp bark of laughter of his own before managing to get out, “Are you a magician? Because when I look at you, everyone else disappears.”

“Is your Daddy a drug dealer? Cause, baby, you’re dope!”

“Was that an earthquake or did you just rock my world?”

“I used to be able to recite the entire alphabet but now I can’t get past U and I!”

“My love for you is like dividing by zero; it’s undefined!”

“Were you a Boy Scout? Cause you’ve tied my heart in a knot!”

“I’m no photographer, but I can picture us together!”

“Stop, drop, and roll, sweetheart; you’re on fire!”

They continued on like that for a while, trying their best to maintain their composure but losing it completely. Pidge ended up splayed out across her work table and Keith actually toppled out of his own chair, which only resulted in them both laughing even harder. She sat up and let out a long, drawn-out sigh of satisfaction. “Oh man, that was fun, but now I hunger. I’ll be right back with some snacks and drinks; make sure not to pass out on me while I’m gone,” She said with a grin. Once, in the past, Keith had fallen asleep when she’d stepped away for a bit, which had been a mistake. She took a marker to his face and doodled all over him; after all, being close didn’t mean he was free from her pranks and tricks.

“How am I supposed to hold on? I’ve already fallen for you,” Keith said while leaning one elbow against the table and looking at her.

Pidge sat up straight and snickered slightly at him. “Oh, you are smooth, Sir. Maybe Lance should take lessons from you,” She teased, elbowing him playfully before she stood from her seat.

“Yeah, maybe,” Keith answered but there was none of the previous mirth to his tone. She watched him for another moment – wounded that, for the first time in several months, he’d thrown his walls back up – before she huffed a bit and headed for the door. He didn’t say anything else to her as left, but she didn’t expect him to. Once before she’d accidentally touched on the subject of the mother he didn’t know and he’d snapped shut like a clam protecting a pearl.

Once she got into the hallway and the doors slid shut behind her, she let herself slump back against the wall. She scuffed the toe of one sneaker against the tiled flooring of the castle. “Why am I so bad at this?” She mumbled, kicking herself for apparently setting him off. Then again, she shouldn’t be surprised; he probably didn’t want his jokes being compared to Lance’s authentic attempts at flirting.

In the hanger, Keith groaned and slumped against Pidge’s desk, fingers musing through his hair to try and calm him back down. “Why did I think that was going to work? Of course it just came off like me using a stupid line!” He snapped quietly to himself.

[magiesheartlove]

Kallura Dating AU Fanfic Ideas

Okay, so this is an idea for a Kallura AU I've had for quite some time, but I was hesitant to share it because;

1) It's kind of corny and far fetched and really just wishful thinking and such, but I still had a lot of fun thinking about it.

2) I was worried it would be found by some angry Klance shippers. Not gonna lie, those guys scare me!!

Anyway, I finally decided to take the plunge and share it with my fellow Kallura shippers. These are mainly just notes and ideas for this AU. Not sure if I will ever write this in the future, but it's still a fun idea to play around with.

As for any Klance shippers out there….please don't hurt me, I mean no disrespect.

Back to this, the idea came to me one day while I was just scrolling through the Kallura tags and thought to myself this random idea; "how would it have been like if Keith and Allura were already a couple since the start of the series?"

Now, of course I knew that was impossible since how could they have met before that time when Keith was still stuck on earth and Allura was frozen alive millions of galaxies away, right? Well, then I remembered the fact that Allura is connected to the lions as stated by Coran in the first episode….and Keith was able to sense the energy of the Blue Lion back on earth. We still have no explanation as to how Keith was able to do that, I really hope they do eventually address it in the show, but what if, somehow, Keith managed to connect to Allura when he sensed the energy of the Blue Lion?

Here is where it gets all Young Adult Fantasy Novel-ish, so please humor me here.

IDEAS!!!

*While in stasis, Allura's Altean quintessence, or magic whichever you call it, created some kind of Astral Mind Plane while she was asleep. So, in this AU she was aware she was asleep but not for how long and wether or not her father was alive. Think of it like the computer AI of her father where she is surrounded by juniperberries and can manifest anything she wishes, except living breathing people or animals, which makes her feel very lonely and only the imaginary animals can keep her company.

*Back on earth, while Keith is still a student at the Garrison, her often travels to the desert to have some alone time, or see his old shack. He senses something about this place, but is unsure what. Every night when he goes to sleep he's reminded of that energy he felt in that area, even if it was faint, and one night finds himself mentally transported into Allura's Astral Plane.

*At first, Keith assumes he's dreaming and spots Allura, but before he can ask her where he is, she surprises him by flipping and throwing him to the ground, having grabbed his Marmora Blade (still wrapped up) and points it at Keith's neck, demanding to know who he is. (Talk about a first impression) 

*Upon realizing he felt actual pain, Keith realizes he's not dreaming and Allura introduces herself, explaining what the world is, merely a manifestation of her own mind, which somehow Keith managed to enter somehow.

*At first, the two get off to a rough start, not entirely sure if to trust one another and the two ask various questions about the other. After a while, they two conclude neither is a threat, and Allura theorizes maybe Keith is her ticket to waking up and defeating Zarkon.

*The next morning when he wakes up, Keith notices that he still feels the same soar on his back from when Allura knocked him down, concluding once again that everything was real.

*Life goes as normal for Keith during the day at the Garrison, and at night he keeps visiting Allura in the Astral Plane, where she shows him her memories of Altea and culture and about Voltron, as well as her hoping Altea is still there, as is her father who may also be frozen and asleep, and hopes she will wake up and see her people again. Keith and Allura bond over having lost their families and feeling alone, and how they feel more comfortable in the outdoors. Keith finds an immediate liking to the exotic and rare flowers of Altea, as well as the forests Allura says she used to sneak into when she was young because she wanted to see the neon butterflies at midnight, despite her father's forbiddance.

*This trend continues on for as long as Keith had spent at the Garrison. Every visit brought the two closer and they learned something new about the other. For the first time, Allura doesn't feel alone in who knows how long, since even she herself is unaware of how long she had been asleep, since time there seems to sit still for her. Keith finally finds someone he feels comfortable enough to open up to, aside from Shiro, and discovers that he's much happier during the day, something Shiro takes notice of. Though, not bouncing happy, just smiling more and a bit more easy-going than before.

*Shiro one day asks Keith what has caused his sudden shift in demeanor. Keith tells Shiro she met someone online, a girl from England named Allura, and that they've been video chatting for seven months now. Shiro asks Keith if maybe she could come and visit, but Keith lies and says her "parents" won't let her, due to being overly protective. If Keith told Shiro he had been seeing an alien princess in some kind of mystical dream-like realm Shiro would be inspecting what Keith's been putting in his drinks.

*Allura does tell Keith about Voltron and about how she's not sure where the lions are, or wether or not Zarkon has them hostage. Keith, after so much time, wholeheartedly decides he wants to help Allura, though he questions how he can if they're so far apart. More determined than ever, Keith vows he will find a way to reach Allura, no matter what it takes. This is when they finally share their first kiss.

*During this time, Keith tries to figure out a way to find Allura by doing more research on space travel, and even sneaking into the Garrison library for more information, nearly getting caught in the process, leading to the professors believing he has a "disciplinary" issue, as well as arriving to classes late.

*Shiro one day confronts Keith about this and states that he needs to get his priorities straight. Keith, of course, only agrees without revealing anything about Allura.

*Shortly after, Shiro and the Holts head off for the Kerberos mission and when Shiro is presumed dead, Keith morns the loss while Allura comforts him.

*Afterwards, due to more problems at the Garrison, Keith is eventually kicked out of the Garrison (or dropped out, whichever), and spends all his time back in his old Shack. That is where he starts to sense the energy, stronger than before, and finally finds the cave with the Blue Lion symbols. Once he tells Allura, she is overjoyed, because this means if Keith finds the Blue Lion he can finally reach her and together they can maybe find the other lions in the process.

*Of course, Keith's search is proved in vain since he still can't find where the lion is, never the less, Allura still offers him words of encouragement and comfort and the two share fun stories and play like little kids in the juniperberry fields to ease the stress. Other times, they would just sit by a tree close to one another and kissing. Each one more passionate than the last.

*A year later, when Shiro finally returns, Keith explains to them what he found, yet still doesn't inform them about Allura, since he's still not sure how they will take this information, and if he reveals he knows about Voltron then they might suspect him of something.

*The first episode goes as it did, only with a huge twist for the rest of the paladins. When Allura wakes up, she does pin Lance to the ground when he tries to flirt with her, and when she sees Keith, the two are frozen in place, overwhelmed with a sense of shock and happiness. The two embrace and share a loving kiss, which shocks, and confuses, everyone else. It's here where Keith finally reveals the truth and apologizes for not having said anything until now. For the remainder of the episode, Keith and Allura are often side by side, and near the end after they formed Voltron, Lance is expecting Allura to hug him, only to be disappointed when she instead runs up to Keith.

*The rest of the series happens as in cannon, but with Keith and Allura behaving more like a couple. Even during the hilarious food fight scene in episode 2, Keith managed to catch on to what Allura was planning when she flung the green alien food at Pidge, reminding him of the times they would play certain games while in the Astral Plane, and by the end the two go off to have a dinner for two. Without throwing stuff this time.

*In "Crystal Venom", before Keith gave Allura his jacket, which she wears all episode over her pink nightgown, and at the end after Allura had to say goodbye to her father Keith sits beside her the entire time, holding her hand, while she's still wearing his jacket.

A/N: Allurea wearing Keith's jacket gives me life!

*In the second to last episode, when Allura and Shiro infiltrated the Galra ship, she and Keith share a moment and Allura, while in her Galra form, lifts Keith up and kisses him, and Keith doesn't mind at all.

*After Allura is captured, a desperate Keith realizes he may still be able to telepathically communicate with Allura just as they did when he was back on Earth. He is able to commune with her in the same filed as before and Keith promises to rescue her, but Allura begs he and the paladins don't hand the lions to Zarkon. Hesitant, Keith still promises he'll find a way to break her out, but does stay true to her word, and the two share a kiss. Never the less, the paladins still go ahead and face Zakon's defenses with Voltron, and Keith obviously doesn't protest. (which, the last part surprisingly happened in cannon too.)

*As for the Keith!Galra subplot, while in this AU Allura is well aware of Keith's dagger, but just like him is unaware that it's Galra origins. When both believe they are the reason Zarkon keeps finding them, naturally the two run off to see if that is the case, and during this time they have the usual cannon conversation, only added with Allura taking notice that something is bothering Keith, but he's unsure if to tell her what he suspects about his heritage. After the pod blows up (and that iconic Space Dance scene happens!) Keith finally admits to Allura about the dagger and was worried what she would think of him, for he's now more confused than ever about who he is. Even if they are not entirely convinced Keith is Galra or connected to them by his own free will, Allura states she knows Keith and knows he would never betray her or the team.

*During the Space Mall episode, Keith does manage to find an antique shop where he finds a locket with a flower styled like a junperberry. Lucky for him, the owner finds the treasure "worthless" and tosses it out, only for Keith to quickly grab it before he suspected anything.

*After it's stated conclusively that Keith is in fact half Galra, Allura still doesn't hate him, but is left in shock to uncover that the man she loves is part of the race that destroyed her people. She doesn't resent him or shut him out, but she does behave a bit distant not out of hatred, but out of confusion and fear of losing him. After Keith and Hunk return from the Weblurm she realizes on her own she never should have been afraid to begin with, and that Galra or not, he is still her Keith. Then, this scene happens….

Allura: "Hunk, thank you for getting the scoltrite."

Hunk: "No problem. You know, Keith was there too. Isn't there something you'd like to--" *(Hunk is completely cut off when Allura runs up to Keith and surprises him with a kiss on the lips)* "Oh… nevermind."

*Before Keith goes on the suicide mission, Allura once again speaks with Keith about the whole thing, mainly because she doesn't want him to leave without saying how she feels. She apologizes for even suggesting the idea of Keith ever betraying her because of her own hatred and trauma the Galra had caused her.

Allura: "I'm so sorry I hurt you. You've proven time and time again it's not what's in your blood, it's who you are that counts. And who you are…is the man I love."

*Keith is taken off guard because this was the first time either one of them had said "I love you." Guess what his answer is…. ;)

Keith: "Allura…I love you too."

*Aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnndddddddd……….Cue the Kiss!! And Keith handing Allura the locket he found.

*Of course, when Allura is presumably dead, Keith not only screams her name, but also lets out a heartbroken yell, almost like a roar, and cries literal tears and slams his fists onto the dashboard. Once it's revealed Allura is still alive, he smiles and the two share a tight loving embrace once they are reunited right before rushing towards the Black Lion and find Shiro missing.

To be continued in season 3….

Wow, this turned out longer than I expected, but since I'm not entirely sure if I will have the time (or, at least as much time as I hope) to work on this, at least I get to share the ideas with my fellow Kallura shippers. If anyone wishes to "adopt" this story, just send me a message.

Thank you Kallura shippers, I love you guys!