#kerberos daily news

[thrashkink-coven]

Excellent ritual with Lord Lucifer this evening. It seems Lord Belial has found his way onto my altar. Stolas, Paimon and Kerberos were also eager to make appearances, I sense that I’ll be working more with them very soon. There aren’t enough words to explain how exciting it is to be entering another phase.

This isn’t much of a ritual report, but I did end up writing down a couple things from my trance with them.

“Throughput this ritual, I saw many things and confronted many demons, mainly my fear of stagnation. I ask myself where it comes from and remind myself that I’m okay.”

“I came upon a river in the shadowy dark, it reflected muted light. In this river was an old canoe of some kind, and a robbed figure, perhaps a skeleton, wearing many gold chains, rings, and jewels. In his boat were riches as well. I climbed in the boat and we ventured down the river into a cave, which resembled the female genitalia. Into the void we went, and soon all was black. We came upon a shore, which was lined with sand and I exited the boat and walked deeper into the darkness. When I looked back to the driver of the boat, I knew this was Paimon.”

“I returned to “the desert” (possibly Venus), and began that long, quiet walk deeper into the Void. When I struck the light of Godhood, which was like a match in my hands, around me ignited a bright circle of fire. The circle creates a sigil. Through the flames I could see Him vaguely, and 6s and 7s.”

“In the darkness I see a hole in the sand emanating pearlescent light. It seems far away, but massive like a crater in the earth. I want to jump inside, when I do, I see the King shielding himself in 6 brilliant wings. He outstretches his arm and beckons me closer. In his eyes I see the holy light of the hidden gnosis.”

“He wore ruby red shoes which glimmered like crystal, we shared rich chocolate cake, he kissed it off my lips and cheeks. He demands that I acquire a chalice for my altar, in which we can share drink together daily.”

“The imagery I saw during our discussion of my goals enabled me to formulate a plan to manifest these dreams. It required the aid of Prince Cerberus, keeper of keys, Lord Bune, of enterprises, Lord Paimon, who I saw as a robed figure rowing a boat in a black void, Lord Belial, of Earth, and my own cunning, swiftness, and devotion. Lord Stolas would be there to accompany Lord Cerberus. Lord Bune would aid Belial.”

We channeled this manifestation with the gracious aid of Prince Cerberus. Together we (with Lucifer) merged our purifying energy to charge the manifestation, erupt from my solar plexus to the centre of my third eye, pushing it into motion, so even now if begins to work. Lord Lucifer wraps over me in wisps of smoke erupting from the circle of fire. I see the eyes of the three headed black dog and a mighty weight blanket my body. Naber’s (Cerberus’) teeth and claws restrain me and we are sensually entertwined. My drops of blood are fire which fuel the object of my eye. Lucifer encourages and watches us work together, shining his light down until fire burns to plasma“

“Cerberus acted as the key into the realm of Lord Belial, who I am not familiar with. Lord Belial was very welcoming, extremely responsive, business like. I see a horned figure surrounded in flames, with wide grin, a satisfied demeanour.”

“A sigil was drawn on two leaves of basil and burned whilst channeling Lord Cerberus and Lord Belial”

I then did a tarot reading with Lords Hermes and Lucifer, and Lord Belial. Hermes acted only as an intermediary. Belial made it very clear that he was ready and determined to get started with the work, and I have no objections to this. He was sure to hammer home that the best time is now. He likes the way we work together and sees us having a “fruitful” relationship. He references fruit and trees many times, saying that he produces trees which bare fruit.”

“I leave this ritual feeling hopeful and determined, excited. I enter this new phase with perfect love and perfect trust. So Blessed Be.”

Immediately after the ritual I see it’s effects taking form. I run to grab a notebook to plan out my week, arrange some study material, and give my offerings to my Lords.

Thank you infinitely to the Light Bringer who is always bringing me closer to my goals even when things seem uncertain. I cherish every moment we spend together and will sing your praises forever more. Hail Lucifer! ✴️ Hail thyself! 🔱

[jmaartenw]

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[cerberusdailynews]

[TUCHANKA] Clans Still Recover from Eclipse

Via Nakmor Nuxe, Surloc Word Krogan across Tuchanka are still trying to make sense of their planet’s historic solar eclipse, nearly a month on from the event. During the three day occurrence, shamans from various clans are reported to have suddenly disappeared. None were available to offer guidance or comfort to others during the poorly understood phenomenon that some have dubbed Sorahk. Other strange events included accounts of the wildlife. Widely known for their savagery, many Tuchankan animals were found to be quite docile during the time of the eclipse, almost in a trance-like state. It has been reported that beastmasters could not get their prized, trained varren to hunt or fight. From the mightiest kakliosaur to the lowly pyjak, it seemed all were under some strange thrall. It was on the final day of the eclipse that things began to intensify, according to eyewitnesses. Visitors from various species shared similar accounts to native krogan, of speaking to figures that were not present. “I thought it was a planet wide prank,” says one tourist who wishes to be kept anonymous. “It was pretty dark, so we thought our hosts were speaking to each other. But they were saying weird things like...I dunno...feasting, and sacrifices. That’s when we decided to relocate somewhere safer.” Another witness shared her experience while visiting a district in Urdnot. “It didn't help that it was so dark for those three days. But by the third day there was this weird tension in the air. I thought I heard something too. A voice that was encouraging violence. It all felt really sinister.” After the eclipse passed many krogan have said they could not recall anything their guests have claimed occurred. Even with the return of the shamans there has still been no solid answers to anything that happened in those three mysterious days. Unfortunately, those who insisted that Sorakh was an ill omen have taken this as proof of the legitimacy of their warning, which has led to a surprising resurgence of old cults worshipping the Void. But even in the confusion, many are still willing to remain positive and fight against what are widely viewed as negative stereotypes. Said Urdnot Krux, “Despite what people have said about the events of the third day, the majority of our visitors have strongly voiced their enjoyment over this event. It has been awe-inspiring as well as frightening and mysterious -- but that is Tuchanka in a nutshell.” He goes on to say, “Having so many outsiders come to know our ways and unique cultures and bond over our differences is something we sorely needed.”

[turianhumanclient]

Armada of Adek

The Armada of Adek is an ancient part of batarian history, dating to an age predating Khar'shan's discovery of Prothean artifacts on the moon of Bira and thus their discovery of mass effect technology.

Known Facts

What historical records know of the armada indicate that it was a colony mission initiated by a coalition of prominent Khar'shan nation-states to the star system Untrel, which was already known to host planets. The armada's destination was the planet known today as Adek.

The armada was known to consist of five generation ships, each carrying 480 colonists and vast stores of space and land vehicles, along with supplies necessary to establish a land colony. In addition to living passengers, numerous samples of frozen genetic material were sent to safeguard against inheritable genetic diseases and inbreeding. The level of propulsion technology at the time meant that the journey was estimated to last over a century, meaning only distant descendants of the departed passengers would see its end.

Contact was lost with the armada several decades after their departure. Contemporary scientists blamed interstellar medium between Harsa and Untrel as the most probable cause for the loss of signal coherence.

The Aftermath

By the time batarians reverse-engineered mass effect technology and faster-than-light travel from Prothean ruins, Untrel was probed by new exploration missions. They found no evidence of the armada successfully reaching the system.

A discovery in the year 460 of GST calendar (2 in Earth calendar), several centuries after the armada's departure, offered few answers and raised more questions as to the mission's eventual fate. Inside an impact crater on planet Klos, Adek's inner neighbour, a sizeable metallic object was found. Scientific analysis and comparisons of historical records confirmed it to be a batarian-made alloy, dated to the century when the Armada of Adek was constructed.

The Myth

The Armada of Adek was popularized twice in the history of Khar'shan: in the immediate years following its departure lasting to a decade after loss of contact, and then in the fifth century, GST calendar, once the Klos fragment was discovered.

Direct speculation, fictional allusions and oblique referrals to the armada existed in popular culture and entertainment media during these periods. Where the facts ended, authors, scriptwriters and the public invented their own follow-ups.

Today, the Armada of Adek has been relegated to status of an obscure historical foot note and fodder of batarian sailors' ghost stories.

[justheretobreakthings]

Perchance to Dream

Written for @gentronlegendaryfriendships

Day Three: Telepathic Bond | Crying in Front of the Other

Written for @badthingshappenbingo

​Prompt: Sleep Deprivation

Word Count: 5,092 Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Characters: Keith & Lance Read on AO3 My house, my rules, my ko-fi

Story Summary:

In the stress-filled days following Shiro's disappearance, it becomes clear that Keith is in desperate need of a good night's sleep. Lance and the rest of the team are determined to find a way to make that happen.

It was understandable that Keith would be in a bad mood as of late. After all, now that Zarkon was out of commission, a lot of political matters across the galaxies were up in the air, and the paladins were constantly meeting with one planetary leader after another. They were still having to keep up with battles and missions, and although the Blade was lending its assistance wherever it could, it still felt like they were spread thin now that they were short one paladin, and battles were that much more difficult now that they couldn’t form Voltron.

And, of course, there was the matter of what Shiro’s absence meant for Keith.

The other paladins didn’t have a whole lot of detail about what Keith had gone through when Shiro had disappeared on the Kerberos mission, since Keith wasn’t exactly eager to share any details about his past with anyone, but there were some things he couldn’t hide, not when some of his teammates were witnesses to them. Like the fact that Keith had been expelled from the Garrison for disciplinary issues within a week of the news of Kerberos breaking, or the fact that he had been living in self-imposed isolation for a year afterward, with no sign of having had contact with any sort of family or friends or of any family or friends even existing, until Shiro had finally returned, whereupon he steadfastly took up the role of Shiro’s right-hand man while remaining stubbornly closed off to everyone else in the Castle of Lions.

So, some emotional regressing was probably inevitable, and the rest of the team had formed an unspoken agreement to let it slide when Keith was snappish with them, when he skipped group meals and bonding sessions, when he stormed out of meetings, when he’d take the Red Lion out on yet another fruitless search for any sign of Shiro without letting anyone else know he’d be gone.

It was understandable, sure, but that didn’t mean they weren’t allowed to be irritated by it. And Lance was accustomed to being irritated by Keith, so it wasn’t like this was anything new. Just more of the same.

And more of the same also meant more venting about his Keith-related frustrations to Pidge and Hunk, who were annoyingly not particularly receptive to hearing about it.

“Look,” Pidge told him during one of these rants, cutting him off right in the middle of a very impassioned tirade about Keith having rammed into his shoulder in the hallway earlier that day without even stopping to apologize, “I’d be annoyed too, but cut him some slack. He just lost his brother, again. He has the right to be in a bad mood.”

“A bad mood, sure,” Lance said. “But there’s a limit to mood badness we should be willing to tolerate. Not like he’s never been a grouch before, but now it’s at the point where it’s messing with public image and missions. And team morale.”

“Him shoulder-checking you in the hallway really screwed up your morale that badly?”

“There’s no fucking way he doesn’t know he owes me an apology,” Lance snapped. “He’s just intentionally being a dick.”

“You always say that when it comes to Keith.”

“It’s always true.” He sighed. “Come on, help me out. When you get into a really bad mood about the situation with your brother and dad, you still pull yourself out of it after a while. What’s the difference there, huh? What do you do that Keith doesn’t?”

Pidge bristled. “I don’t get into ‘bad moods’, it’s perfectly justifiable to be pissed the fuck off when a tyrannical empire kidnaps your family and - ”

“Hang on, whoa, I wasn’t saying it wasn’t justifiable!” Lance said hastily. “I was just - ”

“So, what, does it mess with your fucking morale when I get grumpy about - ”

“I think what Lance is trying to say,” Hunk cut in, “Is that, when you’re feeling extra upset about the whole setting, the anger still settles. It’s just not sustainable to stay so angry for a longer period of time, you’d completely burn out and wind up basically breaking down. You’re mad about the whole thing, and rightly so, but you temper it enough that it doesn’t keep you from functioning and interfere with daily life, right? Meanwhile, Keith’s temper’s been flaring a lot longer than is healthy. It’s no good for him to not be coping.”

“Yeah,” Lance said with a nod. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I was gonna say.”

“Like hell it was,” Pidge muttered, but thankfully she let it go for now. “It’s not like I’m doing anything to work through the anger, really. Just, like you said, it burns out. Eventually I just gotta sleep it off, get some air, wait ‘til I can focus again.”

“Ah, okay, so Keith has to sleep it off,” Lance said. “I’m sure a nap will make everything all better again.”

“Hey, you asked how I deal, and I told you. Not my fucking problem if you don’t like the answer.”

“Well,” Hunk said slowly, “It… actually could help.”

Lance frowned over at him. “What do you mean?”

“It’s kind of a well-known fact that lack of sleep basically kills your mood, right? Just think of how cranky toddlers get after they miss a nap. I mean, I’m not trying to say Keith is a toddler or anything, or that this is a temper tantrum, nothing like that. But, well, he’s been really pushing himself trying to find Shiro, and he hasn’t really been recharging. He’s still up earlier than the rest of us, and a couple nights ago when I woke up halfway through the night and went to get a snack, he was up pacing the hallways.”

“Huh,” Pidge said. “Come to think of it, I’m usually the last one to bed, but I have heard Keith still moving around in his room a few times while I was heading to my room to sleep. And he’s been yawning a lot in diplomacy meetings. More than usual, I mean.”

“Oh!” Lance said. “And our last team training session, I was totally kicking his ass on reflex time against those drones! Normally he’s like, almost as fast as I am, but he was stumbling around like a drunk! Think that was because he was tired?”

“Lance, he normally has the fastest reflexes out of all of us,” said Hunk.

“No, no, we’re pretty much even. My reflexes just look slower to you guys because you’re more used to seeing them.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s how it works,” Pidge said, rolling her eyes. “But hey, the point stands. Bit of sleep would probably do him some good.”

“Well, if it means a possibility of a slightly less pouty Mullet stinking up the place? It’s gotta be worth a shot.”

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

The next time Lance encountered Keith in the hall, he didn’t wait around to get brushed off or bumped into. Instead he strode straight up into the path of Keith’s stomping boots, earning himself a level glare that he pointedly ignored.

“Hey,” Lance said, “Cancel any plans you’ve got for tonight. We’re doing a sleepover.”

“... What?” Keith said, blinking uncomprehendingly.

Lance wasn’t sure if Keith was just taken aback by his abruptness, or if he actually didn’t know what a sleepover was. Just in case, he explained. “You know, we all gather together, have some quality bonding time, get as comfortable as possible, then pass out and sleep through the rest of the night and, if we did it right, half of the next day too. We’re all meeting in the paladins’ lounge, at - at half past, uh… fuck it, Altean clocks are stupid. Once you start seeing someone heading that way in pajamas, it’s time.”

“No thanks,” Keith grunted.

He moved to step around Lance, and Lance held out a hand to block him. “Wait, you gotta hear me out first. We’re all gonna put on our paladin pajamas and lion slippers - that’s all mandatory, by the way, sleepovers are very strict about dress codes - and gather up all the pillows and blankets we can find, and we’re going to basically transform the lounge into a massive blanket fort. And Pidge is gonna bring her caterpillars along to join, and they’re basically the softest things in all of existence, and we’re gonna taste-test some of Hunk’s new dessert recipes he’s trying out, get nice and stuffed before we go to bed. Basically, this is gonna be the best night’s sleep any of us have had in years.”

“I’ll pass.”

“No, look, you can’t pass. It’s team bonding.”

Keith huffed. “We do plenty of team bonding in all our battles and meetings. And speaking of which, we’ve got more important things to be focusing on than blanket forts.”

“Well, yeah, but how are we going to be able to focus on those important things if we don’t take some time to relax in between? All work and no play makes Keith a dull paladin.”

“All… what are you talking about?”

Lance sighed. “Okay, look, I’ll level with you. The whole team’s been kind of, uh, concerned, lately. About your mood. And Hunk noticed you haven’t been getting much sleep lately, and frankly it’s making you even more of a grouch than usual - no offense, I mean - so we figured - ”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Keith growled. “Yeah, I’ve been in a bad mood. Do you wanna guess why, Lance? Can you think of anything that might have happened lately that may be worth getting a little bit upset over? What could I be concerned about, huh? What could I possibly have going on that’s more important than a goddamn sleepover?!”

“See, this is exactly what I’m talking about,” Lance said. “Maybe if you got a decent night’s sleep, you wouldn’t be yelling at me right now.”

“I’m not yelling!” Keith snapped. “And I definitely don’t need you to be monitoring my sleep schedule!” He stepped around Lance, and this time, Lance didn’t stop him. “Have all the sleepovers you want, but leave me out of them,” Keith muttered as he left.

Lance slumped as he watched him go. He had figured that it would take a bit of convincing to get Keith on board for a sleepover, but he hadn’t actually expected him to get angry over it.

God, he definitely needed a nap.

“Stupid, stubborn Mullet,” Lance grumbled under his breath, scuffing his shoes against the floor as started back to the lounge.

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

The sleepover may have been a no-go, but that didn’t mean they had to give up on Operation: Make Keith Actually Get Some Sleep quite yet, especially since, in the coming quintants, the dark bags under Keith’s eyes, the disheveled state of his hair and his clothes, and his irritability were all increasing before the very eyes of the rest of the team. If any of them had had any doubts over whether he was sleep-deprived, they were certainly dashed by now.

But since apparently Keith had some sort of issue with his teammates actively encouraging him to sleep, they agreed that they would have to try more subtle methods to get him past his insomnia, help him sleep without letting him realize they were doing it.

Lance initially proposed raiding the med bay for some sort of sleeping tonic and slipping it into his food, but that idea was shot down immediately by Pidge explaining that it would be too risky to use a medicinal sleep aid on someone when they didn’t know how it would react with his biology, and Hunk saying that drugging Keith without his knowledge and consent was just an extremely sleazy and messed up thing, and making it clear that he found it very disturbing that he even had to point that out to them.

But there were other things to try, discrete ways to try to make the Red Paladin a bit more susceptible to some solid sleep. Hunk planned out dinners over the next few nights that heavily featured poultry and whole grains, which he explained to Lance induced the production of some sort of sleep hormone - Lance honestly had sort of zoned out the moment Hunk started throwing science into the conversation. Pidge messed with the lighting in the living quarters to dim the lights in Keith’s room, just enough that he probably wouldn’t notice the difference, but would also have a slightly easier time falling asleep despite the light.

Even the Alteans got in on it, as it seemed the human paladins weren’t the only ones who had taken notice of Keith’s insomnia. Allura had them all do meditation shortly before the castle’s night cycle began, under the pretense of it being a training exercise for the paladin bond. Coran, who it turned out was an ardent advocate of aromatherapy, pumped some sort of faint fragrance into the air vents in the living quarters, which smelled a bit like lavender and vanilla, although with a certain tartness to the scent that was distinctly Altean.

And yet, even after all of that, they still weren’t seeing a change. It was frustrating, to say the least.

Lance decided to try his own hand at it a few quintants into their new subtle approach, figuring it couldn’t possibly hurt. He waited in his own room with the door kept open, until he saw Keith pass by in the hall and called him in.

“What?” Keith asked. The word came out sharp and tetchy, but lately that was how everything Keith said sounded, so Lance paid it no mind.

Instead, he simply held out his headphones. “Would you mind giving this a listen for me? I think something’s a little weird with the audio, like it’s scratchy or something, but it’s hard to tell. I wanna know if I’m just imagining it.”

“Wouldn’t Pidge be better with audio stuff?” Keith asked.

“With fixing it, yeah, but right now I just need someone to give a second opinion.” Lance bounced the headphones in his hand. “Come on, please?”

Keith let out a long, low breath, but he obliged, taking the headphones and sitting on the edge of Lance’s bed as he placed them over his ears. Lance gave him a thumbs-up and pressed play on his music player, watching Keith’s face carefully. This was a special mix he’d been using for the last couple of years, and the fact that he’d had his player in his backpack with him when they’d wound up in the Blue Lion was a godsend. A playlist of soft guitar songs and light Caribbean ballads with steady and melodic percussion beats, all interspersed with ocean sounds. It had lulled him to sleep every night since he’d been in the Castle of Lions.

The mix played for a few minutes before Keith moved one of the earphones aside and said, “I don’t hear anything weird.”

“You positive?” Lance said. “Listen real closely, all right? Close your eyes, it’ll help you concentrate.”

Keith did, and his eyes stayed closed for another few minutes before he shook his head. “It all sounds fine to me.”

“Well, that’s good,” Lance said. “Guess it was all in my head after all.” He accepted the headphones as Keith handed them back to him, then cleared his throat. “So, ah, did you like that music? You looked like you were enjoying it.”

“Sure,” Keith said with a shrug.

“Hey, that’s - that’s cool. Gives us something in common. You know, if you want, you can borrow my music player for a while.”

“That’s all right, you keep it.”

“No really, I think you’d like it. You could, like, give the whole mix a listen, let me know what you think. I bet you’ll enjoy it, I’m sort of known for having great taste in music.”

Keith narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing?”

“What do you mean?” Lance asked.

“Since when are you so eager to let me borrow your things?”

“Uh, since always? I’m generous.”

“Lance, last week I accidentally used your toothpaste instead of mine and you acted like I had stabbed you.”

Lance huffed. “Our bottles look completely different, how could you possibly have - ? You know what, not important. Just, I’m up for sharing now, okay? So come on, just take the music. You’ll like it.”

“Not until I figure out what you’re trying to - ”

“Jesus fucking Christ, I’m just trying to help you, Mullet! This is supposed to be relaxing! So could you quit being so goddamn stubborn for once in your life and just take the stupid headphones already?!”

A pause of silence stretched between them as Keith’s expression slowly fell to a dark scowl. “Oh my god. Is this seriously about that stupid sleep thing again?!”

“Yes,” Lance said, rolling his eyes. “You know what, yes, it is. And honestly, we shouldn’t be having to go to this much trouble to get a grown-ass adult to actually take a nap, and this is getting really ridiculous - ”

“Wait a minute, ‘we’?”

“Well, it’s kind of really fucking obvious that you haven’t gotten half a dobosh of sleep in ages, but since apparently you’re too proud or something to admit you actually need help, the rest of us have had to intervene to keep you from just straight up dying of exhaustion.”

“For the love of - I don’t need anyone’s help to sleep!”

“Oh, like hell you don’t. Look at you, the bags under your eyes are so big I’d have to check them at the ticket counter. I don’t know why you’ve gone and decided that having trouble sleeping is something you’ve got to be ashamed or whatever’s going on in your head, but - ”

“I can sleep just fine! I don’t want to sleep!”

“What, because you’re being so damn productive in those extra waking hours you get when you don’t? You’re not exactly doing yourself any favors here.”

“It’s got nothing to do with that!”

“Well then what’s it got to - ”

“Do you know what happens every time I fall asleep?” Keith snarled. “You know what I see every single time?”

“Uh…” said Lance.

“I see Shiro.” Keith crossed his arms, his scowl deepening. “Every time I close my eyes to go to sleep, it’s Shiro. Sometimes I see him bleeding out in the hall of a Galra base. Sometimes I see that gladiator arena he told us about, and he’s in the middle of it, barely hanging in there. Sometimes he’s just floating out in the middle of space and he’s cold and he’s too far from anyone or anything to get help. And sometimes it’s just the Black Lion, getting shot to smithereens right in front of me in the middle of battle and I can’t do anything to stop. He’s hurt and he’s dying and I just do nothing.

“Because that’s what I did, didn’t I?” He choked out a dry laugh that was completely devoid of any humor. “He got taken, right under our noses, and we didn’t even know until we got back to the hangars. He could be dead, or being tortured; maybe the Galra have something in mind for him that’s so horrible we can’t even fathom it. And we could have prevented it, but we didn’t. And it’s all I can think about, and when I’m asleep, it’s all I can see.

“Hell, I got nightmares after the Kerberos thing too, imagined his shuttle crash-landing against that stupid moon and wound up with that playing over and over every night. But at least that time, it wasn’t like it was my fault. Not like I was there and could have done anything. Not like I’d ever seen Shiro hurt and scared before, so my stupid brain couldn’t use that for reference. This time, though?” He tapped his temple. “It’s all there. Just waiting to play out.”

He took a shaky breath. “If I stay awake as long as possible, though, just let my body pass out when it can’t handle being awake for one more second, I don’t dream. I guess I’m just, like, too exhausted for the subconscious to do anything but wait for me to wake up. So I can’t sleep until I absolutely have to, you know? Because if I don’t I end up - I have to see - ” He gritted his teeth and scrubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands.

“... Shit, dude,” Lance said, slowly lowering himself onto the bed next to Keith. “I, uh… I didn’t know.”

“You weren’t supposed to,” Keith grunted. He lowered his hands and Lance could see the glistening of tears there before he brought his knees up, wrapped his arms around them and buried his face in them. “God, you’re not supposed to see this.”

“Why not?” Lance asked softly. “Keith, if you’d told us what you were dealing with, we could’ve helped you out.”

“How?” Keith snapped. “You can’t control what I dream about, you can’t undo what happened to Shiro. I just - I have to deal with this.

“Keith, you don’t need to - ”

“Yeah, I do.” He sniffed, wiping at his eyes. “Okay? And this isn’t me being stubborn or anything, I’m just stating facts. This isn’t something that can be fixed, it’s just something I - something I have to figure out. Somehow.” He coughed. “So, please, Lance. Stop trying to help. Tell the others to stop trying to help.” With one last sniff and failed attempt to blink away the now cascading tears, he stood and turned away. “I’ve gotta go,” he mumbled. “Should really get to the training deck.”

“But - ”

“Don’t - don’t tell the others. About this. It’ll just… make them worry.” And before Lance could say anything in response, Keith was out the door.

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

It was several vargas later that Keith finally stopped training and came back to the living quarters, and by then the castle was well into its night cycle. Keith was drenched in sweat, trembling somewhat from exertion as he trudged his way back toward his room.

So, the sight of Lance standing in front of the door probably wasn’t a welcome one, and Lance was unsurprised by the glare he received as Keith approached, which deepened further as he spotted the music player in Lance’s hand.

“What the hell are you doing?” Keith asked.

Lance took a deep breath. “I, uh - I had a bit of an idea. I know you said you don’t want me to, like, get involved in - in this whole thing going on with you, but I gave this a lot of thought, I really did, and I think you should hear me out. I’ve got something you really need to try.”

“Lance,” Keith sighed. “We already went over this. I don’t need you to help me fall asleep. And besides, the music, the beach sounds? They just don’t work for me, okay? There’s no point in - ”

“No, okay, I know we went over all of that,” Lance interrupted. “But this is different, I swear.”

“Lance - ”

“Look, this is either going to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done for you, or a stroke of absolute genius. It’s like fifty-fifty and we won’t know which one it is until we try it. So, here.” He held up the headphones. “Just give it a shot.”

Keith frowned down at the headphones, but slowly, he obliged, taking them from Lance’s hand and positioning them onto his head. “All right,” he said, closing his eyes. “Ready.”

Lance nodded and pressed play, then watched Keith’s face. At first he remained stoic, then, gradually, his brow began to scrunch in confusion. Lance held his breath as he watched, and after about a minute Keith’s eyes opened to look warily at him. “What… what is this?” He moved the headphones down, and Lance could just hear the sound of the playing track: a voice, soft and tinny at this distance from the earpiece but still confident and sincere. “We’re entering a new era of human exploration of the unknown universe, and every one of you has the ability to become part of history.”

“That,” Lance said, “Is a speech that was made about five years ago at my middle school, and probably a couple hundred others. By a certain Galaxy Garrison lieutenant I admired very much.”

“Yeah.” Keith brought the headphones off his head completely to stare at in his hands. “Thought I, um, recognized it. How did - how did you even get a recording of it way out here?”

“I downloaded a video of it that was on Youtube, converted into an MP3. Listened to it while I worked on my Garrison application, because that stupid application process was frustrating as shit and I needed the motivation. Guess I just never deleted it.”

“...Oh.” Keith kept staring at the headphones for a while longer before slowly moving them back up onto his head and closing his eyes again. Lance watched as he stayed still, for long enough that Lance was starting to wonder if Keith had forgotten he was there, when Keith finally opened his eyes back up and pushed the headphones aside again. “It’s… nice,” he said softly. “Hearing him talk. I’d… forgotten… how nice that was.”

Lance gave him a small smile. “Yeah. That’s the idea. See, I got to thinking, about the stuff I was having you try listening to before, and how you didn’t find it relaxing the way you were supposed to, and I realized, like, the reason that that stuff calms me and helps me sleep, is because it’s for me, specifically. Like, the Timba music is stuff I’ve been listening to my whole life, that I’d play in my room at home all the time, and the ocean sounds, they make me think of swimming and going to the beach with my family and laying down on a surfboard to watch the sun and stuff. And, you know, stuff like that, it makes me feel at home, right? It feels peaceful, and familiar, and safe, and that’s all good for getting a good night’s sleep, and for keeping the bad stuff away.

“But for you, well, none of those sounds are really home to you, are they? The music genre’s kinda niche, and I figure you’re more into… I dunno, punk rock? Post-hardcore? Some genre where your mullet might be considered acceptable. And as for the ocean sounds, I mean, you lived in the middle of the desert and you don’t even swim.”

“I can swim,” Keith said.

“Eh, you don’t so much swim as just ‘not drown’, but whatever,” said Lance. “Point is, they weren’t the right sounds for you. So I asked myself, okay, what sort of things would make Keith feel at home? Duh, explosions. But then I realized explosion sound effects would probably be hard to sleep through, so I went searching through my MP3s and found this. And, like, it works doubly well because if you fall asleep with this playing and Shiro shows up in your dream, then your subconscious or whatever might connect the two. So instead of him, um, going missing or - or stuff like that, dream-Shiro will start giving a motivational speech instead. You know, how sometimes when you’re asleep and dreaming and you hear a sound in real life and your brain just sort of incorporates it into the dream? I mean, it’s just a theory, but it has to be worth a shot, right?”

“Lance, I dunno if - ”

“Yeah, I don’t really know for sure either. Might be a little out there. But, you know. I just thought maybe this could be, uh - this could work. Here, you can set it to play the track on a loop like this, see.” He held up the player to show him. “And the whole thing is about an hour long, so it’ll probably only make it through one loop, if even, before you fall asleep, so you don’t need to worry about it getting super repetitive and driving you crazy. Now, the real motivational stuff is only at the beginning and the end. The whole forty-five minutes or so in the middle is mostly just talking about the Garrison’s programs and how to apply and stuff like that, but that’s still probably better than nothing, right? You can dream about Shiro in teacher-mode or whatever.”

Keith bit his lip in thought, eyes darting between Lance and the headphones, before quietly saying, “... Yeah. Maybe.”

“Try it, at least. For the team’s sake, yeah? ‘Cause we’re all kinda worried about your health at this point, and - and I don’t care what you say, you really need a good night’s sleep.”

“...Okay.”

“Okay?”

Keith nodded, reaching and hand out to take the music player from Lance. “I’ll try it, at least.”

“Great!” Lance said, face brightening. “Let me know tomorrow how it goes, okay?”

“All right,” Keith said. “And, um - just - for the uh, for the - I just - it’s, um, it’s nice to know that you guys all - ”

“Yeah, you’re welcome, Mullet,” Lance said. “Now, go the fuck to sleep.”

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

For the first morning in a long time, Keith wasn’t the first paladin up and about. In fact, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge were all already halfway through their breakfasts when Keith finally showed up in the kitchen, blinking drowsily against the light. But it was a different drowsiness than usual. The sort of drowsiness that came from just having woken rather than from desperately needing to go to bed.

Wisely, none of them made any remarks about the change. They bid him good morning and asked if he’d like to join for breakfast, as casually as they would have on any given morning on the castle before Keith’s whole insomnia episode began, and he accepted, his focus entirely on the food in front of him.

Lance waited until Hunk and Pidge started their own conversation, distracted enough by each other not to pay the rest of the table any mind, before tapping the table near Keith’s plate and giving him a questioning thumbs-up. Keith nodded, and Lance smiled as what he had already suspected was confirmed: Shiro’s speech had worked.

Lance was a goddamn genius.

And in the following quintants, as Keith gradually grew less irritable and the bags beneath his eyes started to fade, it became easier to believe that maybe, the team could get through this. Keith could get through this.

He just needed his goddamn genius teammates to help out a bit sometimes. That’s all.

[massiveprincepirate]

Which Career Should I Choose — Hadoop Admin or Spark Developer?

Today’s IT job market is revolving around Big data analytics, 60% of the highest paid jobs direct to Big data careers. However, the job market is ever changing in IT industry and organizations look for well-honed staffs. Hence, if you are looking for a career in Big data, you will be happy to know that Big data market is growing rapidly not only in IT sector but also in banking, marketing, and advertising sectors.

As per the statistics, there will be almost 50,000 vacancies related to Big data are currently available in different business sectors of India. Hadoop is a vast framework covering Hadoop administration and programming areas. It demands skills as Spark developer, Hadoop administration etc and opens up the horizon for a programmer and a non-programmer at the same time. Moreover, whether you are a fresher or experienced, you can step into Big data careers with proper training and certifications.

Which Big Data Career is Suitable for You?

We can answer this question from many angles.

Big data careers can be directed in two main streams –

Hadoop administration

Hadoop programmer

Hadoop administration is open to all in Big data careers. Whether you are a database administrator, non-programmer or a fresher you can explore this area. Moreover, if you are already in Big data careers and well acquainted with Hadoop ecosystem, Hadoop administration will add a feather in your cap. Whereas if you are not familiar with any programming languages like Java, Python, exploring Big data careers in Hadoop programming may be a little challenge for you. However, with proper training and practice, you can flourish Big data careers as a Spark developer easily. If you want to know more specifically what the job responsibilities of a Hadoop admin and a Hadoop programmer keep on reading the next sections. It is always easier to validate your position with the right information and data points.

What does a Hadoop Admin do?

With the increased adoption of Hadoop, there is a huge demand for Hadoop administrators to handle large Hadoop clusters in the organizations. A Hadoop admin performs a strong job role, he acts as the nuts and bolts of the business. A Hadoop admin is not only responsible to administrate manage Hadoop clusters but also manage other resources of the Hadoop ecosystem. His duties involve handling installation and maintenance of Hadoop clusters, performing an unaffected operation of Hadoop clusters, and manage overall performance.

Responsibilities of Hadoop Admin

Installation of Hadoop in Linux environment.

Deploying and maintaining a Hadoop cluster.

Ensuring a Hadoop cluster is up and running all the time

To decide the size of the Hadoop cluster based on the data to be stored in HDFS.

Creating or removing a new node in a cluster environment.

Configuring NameNode and its high availability

Implement and administer Hadoop infrastructure on an ongoing basis.

To deploy new and required hardware and software environments for Hadoop. In addition to that working on expanding existing environments.

Creating Hadoop users including Linux users for different Hadoop ecosystem components and testing the access. Moreover, as a Hadoop administrator, you need to set up Kerberos principals

Performance tuning in Hadoop clusters environment and also for Map Reduce.

Screening of Hadoop cluster performances

Monitoring connectivity and security in the cluster environment.

Managing and reviewing log files.

File system management.

Providing necessary support and maintenance for HDFS.

Performing necessary backup and recovery jobs in Hadoop

Coordinating with the other business teams like infrastructure, network, database, application, and intelligence to ensure high data quality and availability.

Resource management.

Installing operating system and Hadoop updates when required. Furthermore, collaborating with application team for such installations.

As a Hadoop admin working as Point of Contact for Vendor communications. 

Troubleshooting

Hence, keeping in mind the above points you must possess the following skills to achieve Big data careers as Hadoop admin.

Required Skills for Hadoop Administration

Hadoop runs on Linux. Hence, you should have excellent working knowledge of LINUX

Good experience in shell scripting

Good understanding of OS levels like process management, memory management, storage management and resource scheduling.

Good hold on configuration management.

Basic knowledge of networking.

Knowledge of automation tools related to installation.

Knowledge of cluster monitoring tools

Programming knowledge of core java is an added advantage but not mandatory.

Good knowledge of networking

Good understanding of Hadoop ecosystem and its components like Pig, Hive, Mahout, etc.

What does a Hadoop Developer do?

Hadoop’s programming part is handled through Map Reduce or Spark. However, Spark is going to replace Map Reduce in near future. Hence, if you want to be a Spark developer, your first and foremost job responsibility should be understanding data. Big data careers are all about handling with the big chunk of data. Hence if you want to stand out as a developer you should understand data and its pattern. Unless you are familiar with data it will be hard for you to get a meaningful insight out of those data chunk. Furthermore, you can foresee the possible results out of those scattered chunks of data.

In a nutshell, as a developer, you need to play with data, transform it programmatically, and decode it without destroying any information hidden in the data. In addition to that, it is all about programming knowledge. You will receive either unstructured or a structured data and after cleaning through various tools will need to process those in the desired format. However, this is not the only job that you have to do as a Spark developer. There are many other jobs to do on daily basis.

Responsibilities of Spark Developer

Loading data using ETL tools from different data platforms into Hadoop platform.

Deciding file format that could be effective for a task.

Understanding the data mapping i.e. Input-output transformations.

Cleaning data through streaming API or user-defined functions based on the business requirements.

Defining Job Flows in Hadoop.

Creating data pipelines to process real-time data. However, this may be streaming and unstructured data.

Scheduling Hadoop jobs.

Maintaining and managing log files.

Hand holding with Hive and HBase for schema operations.

Working on Hive tables to assign schemas.

Deploying HBase clusters managing them.

Working on pig and hive scripts to perform different joins on datasets

Applying different HDFS formats and structure like to speed up analytics. For example Avro, Parquet etc.

Building new Hadoop clusters

Maintaining the privacy and security of Hadoop clusters.

Fine tuning of Hadoop applications.

Troubleshooting and debugging any Hadoop ecosystem at runtime.

Installing, configuring and maintaining enterprise Hadoop environment if required

Required Skills for Spark Developer

From the above-mentioned job responsibilities, you must have gained some overview of required skills you must possess as a Hadoop developer. Let’s look into the list to get a comprehensive idea.

A clear understanding of each component of Hadoop ecosystem like HBase, Pig, Hive, Sqoop, Flume, Oozie, etc.

Knowledge of Java is essential for a Spark developer.

Basic knowledge of Linux and its commands

Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.

Hands on knowledge of scripting languages like Python or Perl.

Data modeling skills with OLTP and OLAP

Understanding of data and its pattern

Good hands-on experience of java scheduling concepts like concurrency and multi-threading programming.

Knowledge of data visualizations tools like Tableau.

Basic database knowledge of SQL queries and database structures.

Basic knowledge of some ETL tools like Informatica.

Salary Trend in the Market for Hadoop Developer and Administrator

The package does not vary much for different positions in Big Data. The average salary for a Hadoop admin is around $123,000 per year whereas for a Spark developer it could be $110,000. However, salary should not be the prime concern while choosing the Big Data careers. Because with experience it will increase automatically. Moreover, if you obtain a Hadoop certification it will give you an extensive knowledge along with a future scope in your Big data careers with an amazing salary.

Job Trend in the Market for Big data

This is an obvious fact that market demands for developers are more than the administrator in Big data careers. A developer can take over the job of a Hadoop administrator whereas an admin can’t play the role of a developer unless he has adequate programming knowledge. However, with the huge and complex production environment, now companies need dedicated Hadoop administrators.

Conclusion

If you are a programming savy then definitely Spark developer would be an easy transition and right fit for you. However, if you are a software administrator and want to continue to this role then go for Hadoop administration. Finally, the choice is solely up to you and your knack towards the Big Data careers you are looking for your future.

A good Training, Certifications in Big Data and 100% dedication can make anything possible. Remember one day you started from scratch!

Visit for more details — BEST BIGDATA HADOOP TRAINING IN PUNE AND MUMBAI

#Hadoop #BigData #BigDataAnalytics #developers #bigdatatraining #etlhive #Analytics #DataAnalytics #DataScience #DataScientist #DeepLearning #hive #Cloudera #Pig #SQOOP #Scala #Storm #python #programming #oops #development #training #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Pune #MachineLearning #pune #democlassess

[mythologyfolklore]

Ares and Athena through the years - Ch. 03

Chapter three: Absolutely ridiculous

.

Years had passed, a small window of time, when you were immortal.

Athena couldn't help but wonder, where the point was in immortality.

What was the point of living eternally, when nothing lasted forever? Why were immortal beings needed in a universe that, they all knew it, wouldn't be eternal?

Yet, she seemed to be the only one thinking and worrying about that.

Not that it was a surprise; Olympos had grown full and busy over time.

She had known, that her father couldn't keep it in his tunic, but this was getting absolutely ridiculous!

Not that she minded the new family members. They livened up their home and made it colourful.

Nearly all of the new gods were children of Zeus.

There were the twins of Leto, Artemis and her younger twin Apollon. They were still children, but everyone could see, that Zeus favoured them, almost as much as he favoured Athena (Hera on the other hand hated them).

He had already given them great responsibilities.

Artemis would become a goddess of the hunt and the wilderness, of maidens, childbirth, the light of the moon and the frost and dawn. Currently she was under the tutelage of silver-haired Selene, the Titaness of the moon herself.

She and Athena got along well, both being practical, virgin goddess, although Artemis was more cheerful than she was.

Apollon was to become the god of light, prophecy, oracles, shepherding, archery, music, poetry, plagues, medicine and young boys. Helios, the Titan of the sun, was his teacher and still drove the sun chariot across the sky.

Athena found him rather annoying, as he was selfish, kind of prissy and pretentious and the fact, that this attitude was just an act to hide his insecurities made it quite pathetic.

Hermes, son of Maia. He was new. He almost always had mischief on his mind, but he also was just as intelligent as Athena was (even though not as wise). His range of responsibilities was constantly expanding, as he couldn't sit still to save his life. Then, he also had that irresistible charm, that had everyone wrapped around his cheeky, thieving fingers.

Athena felt a certain fondness for him that was somewhere between sisterly and motherly (she wasn't quite sure).

And then there was … Aphrodite, the daughter of Ouranos … which technically would have made her a Titaness, if she had been Gaia's daughter, but she wasn't. Like Athena, she had been born an adult and with no mother, but that was where the similarities ended.

She was the goddess of beauty and physical love and acted accordingly. Athena loathed the older woman's flirty behaviour, how everyone was thirsting after her and playing with others' emotions seemed to be completely natural and okay to her.

She seemed to be especially interested in Ares and he was obviously heads over heels for her, but apparently was scared of actually giving into her advances. Athena couldn't help but be glad, that he wasn't naïve enough to take the bait. That woman was just too superficial and sooner or later would be repulsed by his twisted, volatile personality (just like everyone else).

But one thing Athena had to grant Aphrodite: she was experienced. If the love goddess was being serious about something, she could even be helpful.

Apollon had predicted the arrival of a few more gods and to be honest, Athena couldn't wait to meet them. Maybe she would get along with them like with all of her other siblings!

Well … almost all of her siblings.

There was one she didn't get along with at all.

Ares.

Ever since he had told her to leave as a young boy, their relationship had deteriorated.

Through all these years, the lanky boy she had first met had grown into a handsome young man with a tall, manly frame. He now wore his hair short on the right side of his head, while keeping it longer on the other and let it cover half his face.

It was the hairdo of an edgy emo teenager, but to Ares' defence, his hair concealed a nasty burn scar on the left of his face.

And he had finally got his patronages; he now was officially the god of the horrors of war, the bloodshed, violence and all the other brutal aspects.

And Ares fit perfectly into this new role, he loved his job!

He loved war for war's sake, was bloodthirsty and violent, something that disturbed gods and mortals alike. He had other, more agreeable patronages, but they were minor and drowned out by his appalling love for war.

His circle of friends found no approval among the gods either, as Eris and her children were still the deities he was closest to. On the other hand he was one of the few, who actually could talk to Hades. (Athena wasn't quite sure about all of the reasons, but Ares' fondness for Kerberos was certainly a part of it; Hades just favoured people, who got along with his three-headed dog.)

But even when Ares wasn't doing anything, most of the other gods were scared of him. He just provoked it. Everything about him was intimidating.

First off, the war god almost never smiled. Not genuinely, that is.

When he was on the job, he could grin and laugh like the maniac he was, but he never smiled.

Only three goddesses ever got to see a smile from him (even though it was rare): his sisters Eileithyia and Hebe.

Even now, with his defiled nature, his sisters still looked up to their big brother, even though Athena failed to solve the mystery of why. But Eileithyia helped their brother out of his armour and treated his wounds, when Apollon was busy (or unwilling) and Hebe drew his baths and filled his cups. Their faces brightened up, when they saw him, even if he was covered in blood.

And Ares adored his little sisters, his face and voice would soften around them, he smiled for them and them only.

Only once Athena had seen his smile and that was by accident; he had been spending time with Hebe and hadn't noticed Athena being there.

His smile had been beautiful, warm, gentle and fond and she had memorised it. After all, she had known, that she would never get to see it again.

Because Ares hated Athena.

He hated her with a burning passion, made it very clear and Athena knew why. To the other gods it looked like your average divine sibling rivalry, but it was so much more.

He hated her.

And she despised him.

She couldn't stand his defiled nature, his lack of wisdom or even common sense, his unnecessary violence. He was savage, unrefined, rude and noisy.

She hated how he called her “Smartarse”, “Miss Perfect”, “Goody-two-shoes” and other things.

But above all things, she hated when he called her “Daddy's Owl”.

It was a perversion of her father's pet name for his “Little Owl-Eye” and Ares' way of mocking her status as their father's favourite. Athena was closer to Zeus than anyone, safe Hera.

Not so Ares. He despised his father and the feeling was absolutely mutual.

Athena still wished she could fix that, but there was nothing she could do.

So she kept indulging her half-brother in their absolutely ridiculous sibling rivalry, defeating him in fights, arguing with him on a daily basis and besting him in a variety of things.

Unlike Ares, Athena excelled at almost everything.

She desired nothing less than perfection and “Miss Perfect” was a nickname she often heard from the others, but out of Ares' mouth, it wasn't a compliment.

She knew that their rivalry was absolutely ridiculous.

She knew that her half-brother Ares hated her.

But that was okay. Because she hated him too.

[ao3feed-klance]

Garrison Exploration

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/2Y4TrhK

by RADifer

Weird things have been happening on the Galaxy Garrison campus since the news of the death of the Kerberos Mission crew. Lance prefers to keep going with his daily life, but that weirdness seems to catch up to him. Professor Wright, Pidge, and the elusive Keith all seem to be in on it, and Lance just wants to have a normal day.

Excerpt:

Keith seemed content to stare. Lance for the life of him couldn't figure what this guy's deal was, but he let it slide, finding Keith's quick glares to his shoes every time Lance made eye contact somewhat… there was a word he was looking for but he couldn't quite place it. Endearing came to mind but that was too deep and mushy. Lance looked up a final time to see that wobbly frown on Keith's face as his eyes darted to his shoes once again. He was red in the face.

Cute.

Lance coughed out the thought. "So what's up with this place, mullet? Why do you come out here?"

Keith's attention returned to Lance. The confusion in his eyes simmered and that cool look took over his mien once again. He pursed his lips in thought before giving Lance a smirk that rivaled his confidence. Lance's heart stuttered in his chest.

"How about I show you?"

Words: 4364, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 3 of JuLance 2019

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron), Adam (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt

Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)

Additional Tags: JuLance Challenge 2019, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Galaxy Garrison, Pre-Canon, Just after Kerberos, Shady Pidge, Shady Keith, Male Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance thinks Pidge is a terrorist, He also thinks Keith might be one, Oblivious Lance (Voltron), rooftop makeouts

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/2Y4TrhK

[ao3feed-voltronlegendarydefender]

Garrison Exploration

read it on the AO3 at Garrison Exploration

by RADifer

Weird things have been happening on the Galaxy Garrison campus since the news of the death of the Kerberos Mission crew. Lance prefers to keep going with his daily life, but that weirdness seems to catch up to him. Professor Wright, Pidge, and the elusive Keith all seem to be in on it, and Lance just wants to have a normal day.

Excerpt:

Keith seemed content to stare. Lance for the life of him couldn't figure what this guy's deal was, but he let it slide, finding Keith's quick glares to his shoes every time Lance made eye contact somewhat… there was a word he was looking for but he couldn't quite place it. Endearing came to mind but that was too deep and mushy. Lance looked up a final time to see that wobbly frown on Keith's face as his eyes darted to his shoes once again. He was red in the face.

Cute.

Lance coughed out the thought. "So what's up with this place, mullet? Why do you come out here?"

Keith's attention returned to Lance. The confusion in his eyes simmered and that cool look took over his mien once again. He pursed his lips in thought before giving Lance a smirk that rivaled his confidence. Lance's heart stuttered in his chest.

"How about I show you?"

Words: 4364, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 3 of JuLance 2019

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron), Adam (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt

Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)

Additional Tags: JuLance Challenge 2019, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Galaxy Garrison, Pre-Canon, Just after Kerberos, Shady Pidge, Shady Keith, Male Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance thinks Pidge is a terrorist, He also thinks Keith might be one, Oblivious Lance (Voltron), rooftop makeouts

read it on the AO3 at Garrison Exploration

[poor-sickies]

Would you do "definitely just a cold" for Keith? Any pairing (or no pairing) is fine.

@witnessmysin

This one got a lot longer than I planned it. It also went in a much darker direction than what I was planning, but I’ll post it like this,

No explicit ships, but can be implied Sheith if you want it to!

I have a few fanarts that fit well here in case you want to check! (x, x and x)

As for my bingo card, only one slot empty, so send a prompt if you want!

@badthingshappenbingo​

recurring

word count. 4214 words

prompt: definitely just a cold

Read on AO3

It’s hard to tell if this is worse thanKerberos.

Shiro had vanished, with nothing in theblack lion to imply his death. No broken body, no blood, no hole he could havebeen sucked out through, not even signs of struggle. It was like Shiro hadgotten up and gone for a walk, even leaving the black bayard intact in itsslot, as if there was some kind of superior purpose.

If there was, Keith couldn’t find it.

Disappearing like this (and keeping inmind that they were all in space, and that many weird and seemingly impossiblythings were apparently possible, all due to Voltron and this castle and thevastness of mysterious things that happened in the universe), there is stillhope of Shiro being alive. Keith clings to it like a drowning sailor to alifeboat. Even when the waves are violent and unforgiving.

But if Shiro is really alive, that alsomeans he could be anywhere.

And the Universe is way too big of a placeto look thoroughly.

Nevertheless, Keith never skips a day ofgoing out with Black, scanning large areas, to look for him, for some clue, forsomething. He had started with the place Zarkon’s ship had been, and then movedto other nearby quadrants, before outright passing around Galra prisoner shipslooking for him. The team would free the imprisoned people, but Keith’s facefell every time Shiro wasn’t there.

Everything is all the more painful whenKeith remembers Shiro’s wish. It wasn’t anything new for Shiro to make jokesabout death, even if Keith (and pretty much everyone else around him) hated it.But Keith tried to forgive it, he tried. Shiro had a terminal disease, and peoplecope how they can. But something chilled Keith to the bone whenever Shiroimplied Keith would be next in line for the position of black paladin.

Why? Why was Shiro careful to the point oftrying to tie loose ends in case something happened to him? He seemed socertain sometimes, and it pissed Keith off to no end. How dare he?! AfterKerberos, after all the pain Keith had gone through…how could he just do itlike it was nothing? How can Shiro just tell that the universe has it out forhim?

Keith had known about Shiro’s diseaseafter listening behind closed doors. What was it that he had missed this time?

He hasn’t had a good night’s sleep sincethe battle with Zarkon.

Last time Shiro left him, after he punchedIverson and was dragged out of the Garrison grounds by two guards, he had beenon his own. To deal with the pain, heartbreak, and with himself. But hemanaged, between a few nights of drinking himself to sleep, going out to thedesert to look for something, anything he could do with himself (and even thenit had led him back to Shiro), he had managed it somehow. He can do withhimself, by himself.

But Keith has a team to lead now.

It’s the biggest pair of shoes he has hadto fill, ever. He lacks the competence, or empathy, or knowledge that takes tobe a good leader. He’s rash, impatient, insecure.

Even being sent off to space, fightingaliens and freeing people, that he could do. Shiro was there for him to fallback on.

But now, he feels like the fate of theuniverse has been given to him, a mere child, who is too broken to do anythingwith it. It’s too much. He can’t do this. It’s so painfully obvious howunlike Shiro he is. And that just makes his heart ache even worse.

Waking up like this is no longer uncommonfor Keith - head throbbing, eyes swollen, throat sore from crying, and thatheavy weight in his chest, that comes after realizing that no, this isn’t anightmare. That he really lost Shiro, again.

If Keith was back at the shack in thedesert, he would have rolled over in bed, laid under the covers and tried tosleep.

But he isn’t. He’s the leader of Voltron,and he has his team counting on him.

He takes a deep breath and gets up, bodyaching and feeling like lead, but no more than usual. The last few days havebeen brutal, and he has been waking up every day with sore muscles. It’s partof the job, and he has no choice but to embrace it.

Sometimes, when it gets too bad at night,he thinks of picking up a heating pack to soothe the soreness, but last nighthe didn’t, and he’s certainly paying the price now.

He drags himself through the hallways,dressed in his workout clothes. He’s not exactly sure why he’s forcing himselfto work out now, when he has one more hour to sleep before the others wake up,but it’s not like he can go back to sleep anyway. And training gets his mindoff things. Exhausting his body and mind is one of the very few ways todistract himself, and he’s not going to just stay in bed because he’s feelingworse than normal. Keith has never been one to give in. 

Forty minutes later, he’s drenched insweat and not feeling much better. He pants, hunched over, hands on his knees,trying to catch his breath. His head feels numb, hazy with something he can’tquite place, and breathing is harder than normal.

But he can already hear the food goomachine in the kitchen, meaning Hunk is up, and there’s no time left to rest.The day has started. 

The ship keeps travelling through thisgalaxy. Sometimes, Keith looks through the glass, at the bridge, and despiteknowing that he’s going at insane speeds, it all seems so slow, so distant.Planets pass through them, big and bright, and it all seems filtered in slowmotion.

The day goes uneventful. He takes a showerafter his workout, hoping the hot water will soothe his aching muscles, but itdoesn’t. If anything, it leaves him feeling heavier and more sluggish. Histhroat still hurts too, and he notices, because the feeling doesn’t usuallylinger for too long. Today, though, swallowing makes it sting and burn.

It’s before dinner, when he’s about to goon his daily lookout for Shiro, that his nose starts getting clogged. Hesniffles, trying to breathe through it, but it’s no use. He’s also strangelycold, the paladin armor not enough to block the cold air inside the lion, andhe runs his hands through his arms. He’s sweating under the black suit, but hestill feels cold.

It’s a fruitless trip, again. He skipsdinner, opting to flop onto his bed face first with the armor still on. Hefeels like sobbing, but stops himself. There’s no energy for that. His bedfeels like a rocking boat, swaying from side to side, and Keith closes hiseyes, giving in to the feeling.

He’s out in a matter of minutes.

Someone comes in eventually to turn offthe lights, and Keith knows this because they were on when he fell asleep.

The ache in his throat from earlier hasdeveloped into a burning sensation, through his neck all the way to the back ofhis mouth, and his nose his now completely clogged up.

The skin on his stomach and chest are dampwith sweat, and when he manages to sit up, the cold air hits him violently,making him shiver. The armor feels heavy and way too hard, so he slips out ofit, piece by piece, and peels the black under suit off of him. He quickly curlsup under the covers, sighing at the sudden and welcome warmth, and drifts offto sleep again.

Keith doesn’t know how long it is untilhe’s up again, but he wakes up and it’s too hot.

His hair clings to his forehead and neck,and his skin is sticky all around where the blankets touch it. He lets out agroan when the pounding in his head gets worse as he turns to the other side.He sniffles again. His nose wants to start dripping, and swallowing doesn’thelp either.

Well he’s definitely sick. Maybe not sick sick.Probably just a cold. He can do with a cold. It’s what he thinks, beforerolling over and realizing it’s already morning, and he doesn’t have an hour togo back to sleep.

The shower doesn’t make him feel worsethis time. He feels cleaner after washing away his sweat, even if he does socurled up in a ball on the shower floor. Standing up takes too much effort, andsitting like this, letting the hot water drip and run down his back feelspretty relaxing. The hot air helps with his nose too, and even his throat hurtsa little less.

But he knows he can’t spend half an hourin there, so he turns off the water suddenly, trying to make himself leave. Instead,he lets out a whine and curls up on himself further, trying to preserve someheat. He’s wet and shivering like a dog in the wind, and getting up feels likea herculean effort. Thankfully, his towel is right there, and provides at leastsome comfort.

Keith glances at himself in the mirrorbefore getting dressed.

He looks paler than usual, with darkcircles around his eyes. He has been getting skinnier, going by how his cheekslook sunk in. He needs to shave too, because he hasn’t in a while, and his facedoesn’t grow enough hair to pull off that kind of look yet. With two quickdrags of his razor through his chin and upper lip, his face is hairless again,but he doesn’t look much better. Better leave it to Lance to be the pretty one,at least today. It’s a lost battle for now.

The others notice it over breakfast. Anddespite how easy and tempting it would be to just say he’s fine, he insteadadmits he’s got a cold. Keith is aware of how he looks, and he definitelywouldn’t get away with saying he’s in perfect health.

“Maybe you should go rest a little,” Hunksuggests with a concerned frown, as he hands him his plate of breakfast goo,“we’re still trying to track Lotor down, so it’s not like there’s anything toourgent to do.”

Lance chuckles, “Only, like, saving theuniverse.”

“We can always train a little with thegladiator,” Allura points out, finished with her breakfast, “just because wedon’t know Lotor’s whereabouts, doesn’t mean we can slack off.”

“Of course not,” Hunk insists, “I was justsaying that if Keith’s not feeling so well, he probably shouldn’t be up andaround training instead of getting some rest.”

 “I could do with a little extranap,” Lance shrugs, before stretching his arms above his head, yawning, “alwaysnice to get some sleep.”

“No,” Keith cuts him out. “We’ll do thegladiator. We need to keep ourselves in top shape if we want to defeat Lotor.”

He stands up, and shoves his chairforward.

“I’ll be in the training room,” heannounces, turning his heels to leave, “hurry up and finish your breakfast.”

“He didn’t even touch his food…” Hunkfrowns, staring at Keith’s full plate.

Keith walks outside the dining hall, andonce he’s far enough, almost by the training room, he stops, one hand againstthe wall. He’s shivering, despite the isolating fabric of his jacket. Hebreathes through his mouth, panting, because no air can go through his cloggedup nose, which in turn irritates his throat. His head pounds, shooting up withpain every time he tries to move. He lets himself slide to the floor, slowly.

There’s no time to rest.

Shiro had properly gone through all thestressful work of being a leader, and he had been dealing with phantom painsand post traumatic stress. There’s no way Keith will allow himself to be putdown because of a glorified cold.  

He allows himself to catch his breath,before standing up, and walking to the training room. He’s able to drag himselfto the middle of the room, to wait for the others, when the sudden sound of theblaring alarms almost knocks him off his feet.

They’re being attacked.

Keith isn’t exactly sure if it’s a suddensurge of adrenaline or if he’s momentarily feeling better for some reason, butin less than five minutes, he’s dressed in his paladin armor at the bridge.

“It’s Lotor,” Pidge says, recognizing theship’s signature, “he’s just shooting randomly, but we have our particlebarrier up.”

 “He’s not shooting randomly,”Lance points out, “why would he? He’s taunting us, like last time. Wants tomake us come out.”

“I agree,” Hunk says, “but what do we do?Do we go in the Lions and fight? Do we just ignore him? Can we do that?”

Keith sighs. The lights are way toobright, and the rush of adrenaline from earlier was short lived. The dizzinesscome back full force, and he has to sit down.

He lowers himself onto one of the pilotchairs and puts his head in his hands.

“No,”he says, voice hoarse and slightly nasal, “we have to go after him. We’ve beenlooking for him for almost two weeks.”

“Our defenses aren’t at their best rightnow,” Coran points out, “we have the particle barrier, but I don’t know howmuch longer it will hold up…”

“But if we don’t get him now, who knowswhen we’ll find him again-“

“Well it seems it’s him who’spursuing us now,so-“

The voices warp and mix in Keith’s head,making his ears ring. It’s a lot, too much, there’s too much noise, too muchlight-

“Just…shut up and let me think!”

His teeth chatter, jaws clacking as hisbody shakes with shivers. There are beads of cold sweat forming on hisforehead, and his skin is pale and clammy.

“Keith!”

Hunk runs to his side, one hand supportinghis back. Keith closes his eyes. The others keep moving around him, but hecan’t quite focus on their voices. His body feels too close and too distant atthe same time, and he tries to focus on Hunk’s fingers running through hisback.

“Allura, wormhole out!”

“Can’t he go in a cryopod? He’s…”

“…afraid not, they’re only…”

“…get it…around the barrier….”

“Hey.”

Lance taps his knee twice, looking up athim.

“You with us now?”

Keith swallows, and slowly lets air outthrough his mouth. His throat is tickling, and he feels something slowlybuilding up deep in his chest.

“We could have g-“

He’s unable to finish his sentence beforehe’s hit by a violent coughing fit, that throws him forward, as his throatspasms, sending tears to his eyes. His cheeks and ears burn, and he’s certainthat they’re beet red, even if he can’t see them.

“Damnit Keith, why didn’t you tell us youwere this sick…”

He catches his breath, but slumps backwardagainst Hunk, exhausted.

“It’s not that bad,” he tries to say, buthis voice cracks like it did when he was thirteen, “just a cold-“

“Enough with this nonsense!” Allura shakesher head, and promptly hoists Keith over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

The sudden movement is too much on hishead and Keith lets out a whine. But that doesn’t faze Allura. She keepsstomping through the halls, carrying his weight like it was nothing, followedby the other paladins and Coran in a small procession.

Once in Keith’s room, she dumps him on thebed, as gently as she can.

It’s a little warmer here, but he stillshakes, and tries to make a grab for the blanket, weakly.

“He has a fever,” Pidge points out, touchingKeith’s forehead with the back of her hand.

“We don’t have meds for this,” Coran sayssadly, “the only thing we can do for now is let him rest.”

“Yeah, at least now he seems to agree,”Lance nods in Keith’s direction.

“We should probably get him out of hisarmor though,” Hunk suggests, “that can’t be comfortable.”

“I can do it,” Keith mumbles, voicemuffled against the pillow, and starts removing his wrist pieces. The otherstake off the leg armor, and then the chest plate, until he’s only in his blacksuit. Clumsily, he wraps himself in his blanket and buries his head in hispillow.

“Feel better,” they say, as they turn offthe lights to let him sleep.

“I brought you tea.”

Keith opens his eyes, slowly. It’s stilldark, but the door is open, and his eyes are adjusting to the lights from thehall.

Lance is there, holding a mug, sitting onthe edge of the mattress.

Keith rubs a hand over his eyes. It’s sohot. Thinking of hot tea makes him nauseous. He doesn’t want it.

Then he glances at the clock, and shootsawake.

With sluggish moves, he swings his legsout of the mattress and gets up.

“K-Keith! Where are you going?!”

Keith walks past him, slow but determined.

They would normally have dinner in anhour. How could he have slept through almost an entire day? It’s late, but nottoo late. He’s dead set on reaching the hangar. His legs move on muscle memory,because with the lights and walls swaying like they are, there’s no way Keithrecognizes where he is. But he needs to keep going.

Black sits in his usual spot, particlebarrier activated. Keith keeps going, teeth chattering as he shivers, eyes halflidded, the lights too bright for his head. Doesn’t matter. He stands in frontof the particle barrier, and it doesn’t come down.

“Let me in,” he says, determined, despitehis cracking voice, and knocks twice. The lion doesn’t budge, and neither doesthe barrier.

“Keith…” Lance trails off behind him,heart breaking at the realization.

“Come on! I gotta – we have to find Shiro!Come on!” He screams, and Lance winces at how his voice fails him. Keithdoesn’t seem bothered by it. “He was your pilot! Let me in! We have to findhim! Come on!”

Keith knocks more desperately, but thelion only turns his head to the side, effectively rejecting him. He sinks tohis knees with a thud, head in his hands.

“Comeon…”

Hunk and Pidge are standing by the door,appalled.

Keith had been angry, depressed, irritableand quiet before. They had all seen that. How could they miss something likethis? He had overworked himself to this state of sickness and despair, and theyhad let it happen.

Lance walks closer and places a hand onhis shoulder, and feels Keith shiver underneath it. From the way his voice hadcracked, he’s pretty certain Keith isn’t just cold. He kneels next to him, andwraps both arms around his shoulders.

Keith sniffles, hands still pushing thebarrier, but eventually buries his face on Lance’s shoulder. Lance’s shirt getswet in a matter of minutes. Keith is slumped forward, without any strength tomove by himself, still shaking and crying quietly. Lance rubs his back in softcircles, and that’s the only thing that seems to be working.

“Black is right,” Lance says after awhile, Keith with his face still hidden in his shirt, “you’re not in any shapeto go out.”

“Exactly,” Hunk adds, coming closer too,“you need to go back to bed and rest.”

Keith shakes his head. “I need to-“

He breaks into a coughing fit, immediatelybacking away from Lance to cough into his own elbow. The crackling deep in hischest can be heard from where Hunk is standing, and it sounds anything butpleasant.

“I – I gotta look for him. Please-“

“I’ll go.”

It’s Pidge, walking closer.

“I’ll look for him, Keith. I’ll look forhim while you rest,” she declares, determined.

Keith takes a while until he looks upagain, but nods, defeated.

He lets himself be picked up by Hunk, andcarried to his bed. Everything is confusing and hazy, but he feels somethingcold in his forehead, and it soothes the headache a little. Blankets are tuckedaround his hips and shoulders, and the warmth consumes him.

He lets go.

The fever goes down, to everyone’s relief.

Keith tries not to show his disappointmentwhen pidge comes back an hour later, on her own. He still thanks her with a sadsmile.

Hunk makes him more tea, from an Alteanplant recommended by Coran, and everyone makes rounds to his room to bring himmore. Eventually, someone helps him into his pajamas, and brings out the sweatsoaked black suit to the laundry.

He’s feverish in the middle of the night,again, but not disoriented. Thankfully Pidge had remembered of bringing himtissues earlier, because all the sneezing and coughing take way too much energyfrom him for him to go out to the bathroom to get toilet paper.

The coughing fits are relentless, and notthat the mucus has effectively settled in his chest, it’s a lot worse. Histhroat, on the other hand, is past the stage of burning, and into the stage ofhurting like hell.

He doesn’t get more than four hours ofsleep, and when he wakes up again, his abdomen hurts from the strain ofcoughing for so long, and he desperately needs something to drink to soothe histhroat.

It’s not like he’s gonna be able to getmore sleep soon, so he gets up with a quick grunt, and dresses his red paladinrobe. Lance had found it for him, in his own closet, and Keith has to admit,it’s comfortable and warm, and at least until the next bout of fever hits, he’sglad to have it.

There’s tea in a thermic container on thekitchen table, so he pours a mug to himself and puts it back again. He dragshimself through the lounge, mug in his hands, and takes a seat on the ring ofcouches.

He adjusts a blanket around him, and warmsup his hands on the mug. It’s still too hot to drink, probably, so he waits alittle and puts it down.

He closes his eyes and tries to massagehis neck with his fingers, before breaking into another coughing fit.

His throat hurts so bad.

Touching around his neck, his fingers feelslight bumps where his lymph nodes are. The swelling explain why it feels soterrible, but massaging them doesn’t seem to help, unfortunately.

After a while, he drinks from the mug oftea, with careful, small sips, and tries to bite back a frustrated groan. Thetea is supposed to help, and it does, to keep him warm, but it hurts so badwhen it goes down his throat.

“Feeling any better?”

Lance asks from behind him, his tonegentle but slightly teasing. Keith sighs.

“Not really,” he tries to say, but onlypart of it is audible, his voice cracking and hoarse, not much better thanyesterday.

“It’s what you get for trying to pretendyou’re not sick for almost two days, big leader,” Lance chuckles, turningaround the sofa and taking a seat.

Keith rolls his eyes and takes anothersip. His whole throat feels like it has been burned with a torch, and the onlyreason he keeps drinking his tea is to keep hydrated and feel warm.

“It wasn’t that bad.”

Lance laughs.

“No, we only had to carry you to bedtwice, one of those when you were practically delirious…”

Keith sighs. He would argue, but he’s infar too much pain to do so. And even if he wanted to, it’s not like Lance iswrong.

If Shiro had been here… well, Keith wouldhave gotten the longest lecture about taking care of himself.

His chest aches, and it’s not just fromcoughing. What he wouldn’t give to get one lecture from Shiro right now.

Lance must notice something, because heinches closer and puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, come on now, no need to be likethat,” he says, “one time I broke my ankle riding a kart and my brother had todrag me out of there kicking and screaming because I wanted to go anotherround…well, it was too cold, and I wasn’t feeling my foot, but when I realizedlater that…”

Keith leans back and lets Lance go on withhis story. He’s missing half of it, but he’s not being too loud, and havingcompany feels so much nicer than being on his own.

“…so yeah,” Lance finishes, “no shame init. We’ll carry you anytime you need.”

Keith chuckles. “Thanks, Lance.”

Lance picks up another blanket from thestack, and lays it folded across his lap, patting it twice. “You wanna try andget some more sleep? It’s still early.”

And, yes, maybe his fever is hittingagain, but Keith still lays his head on Lance’s lap and lets himself be takencare of. Lance’s stories lull him to sleep, and he feels comfortable. Safe.

[keiths-conspiracy-theories]

The ones left behind

Just headcanons about Shiro’s younger sibling and family in the aftermath of his disappearance.

Shiro is a natural born leader: patient, charismatic, and unfailingly team-oriented

But even before he became an accomplished Garrison pilot, leader of Voltron, and the paladin of the Black Lion, he was simply your big brother

Growing up with Shiro meant:

Piggyback rides on demand, even when you two got older

Endless hair ruffling, even though you hated it

Halfheartedly counting reps for Shiro as he worked out in front of the tv while you binge-watched your shows

Sneaking snacks from the cupboard before dinner and laughing/screeching as your angry mother chased you two around the house

Your childhood with your big brother was one you wouldn’t trade for the world

When he is gone, everything reminds you of him

When you go to sleep, you have dreams about the days you two spent under the scorching sun, sitting side by side on the porch and competing to see who could spit watermelon seeds the farthest across the front yard

When you pass by the refrigerator, an old drawing of a spaceship that your brother had proudly stuck to the fridge years and years ago stares back at you

His old bedroom sits across from yours

It used to hurt every time you had to pass it on your way to your own room

But the more you had to do it, the less it hurt until one day, the room across from yours was just another room

You remember the day Shiro received his acceptance letter from the Galaxy Garrison in the mail

No one was as proud of him as you were

That day, your family ate a celebratory dinner at your brother’s favourite restaurant

You both were allowed to order whatever you wanted, even the forbidden oreo milkshakes your mother always banned you two from having

That night, Shiro kept you awake all night as he laid on the carpet of your bedroom floor, chattering on and on and on about his dreams and the Galaxy Garrison in adrenaline-filled excitement

Your mother found you two in the morning, you passed out in bed and Shiro passed out on your floor

You were happy for him

Still, the few years after he started school at the Garrison were lonely ones

When you hugged him with wet eyes on the front porch the day he moved out, he laughed at your tears and promised to call daily

He did, for a little bit

By the sixth month, they began to dwindle

By the ninth month, your phone no longer rang

It was painful but you understood and you accepted it and you moved on

Eventually, you heard about your big brother and his accomplishments on the newspaper

You read about him whenever you passed by an article about him on the web

One unexpected night as you were preparing for your high school exams, your phone rang

You saw his name flash across the screen of your phone

Your heart jumped

When you picked up, he was speaking so loudly you could hardly hear him

He’d been chosen for the Kerberos mission

Your heart grew heavy

On the day of the launch, every single news outlet and broadcasting station was buzzing with excitement

You found yourself stuck in front of the blaring television but you couldn’t hear anything

You were still in the same spot even long after the broadcast had ended

A few tears slipped from your eyes and you weren’t quite sure why

It felt like you were losing your brother for the second time

You wiped them away and spent the next few days trying not to look up at the night sky

A couple months later, your family received a call from the Garrison

The Kerberos crew was dead. Shiro was dead

You thought to yourself that it couldn’t be true but every tv channel you switched to kept reporting the same damn thing

Your father drinks himself under the table

Your mother cleans his old bedroom

You can’t feel anything

A year after his disappearance, the Garrison requests that his family come to collect his belongings

Your mother and father can’t bring themselves to go, so you go

It’s a long train trip and several bus rides to the Garrison

His room there is unfamiliar to you

You’ve never seen it before

But in the corner of his bed is a familiar stuffed kitten

It’s gray and tattered from years of fun

You have an identical one sitting on your bed at home

They were Christmas presents from your aunt and uncle years and years and years ago

It’s dumb and unimportant so you stamp down your feelings, but it hurts a little bit to see that it’s been left behind

You suppose it would have been silly anyway - to have a stuffed kitten floating around a bunch of tech equipment in a giant spacecraft

Another part of you is glad he didn’t take it with him or there would be little else to remind you of him now that he’s gone

You place the stuffed kitten last into the box, atop his books and sweaters and picture frames

You head home alone

A few months later, when you finally move out for college, you take it with you

Your new place is cozy

It doesn’t have a spaceship drawing on the fridge

and the room across from yours really is just another room now

Your new roommate hands you an unfamiliar piece of fruit from their home country and pulls you to the city to celebrate your first day of independence

When you look up at the night sky after a fun-filled day, it doesn’t hurt quite so much anymore

[jmaartenw]

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[cerberusdailynews]

[Military] Clan Juntak Clears Pathway To Alliance Citizenship By Armed Service

By Adamma Ijeoma, Alliance News Network A citizenship application from an independent krogan clan seeking membership in the Systems Alliance has been approved, and has opened new doors for other non-humans seeking to become part of the SA. The Council of Advisors has chosen to relax the Systems Alliance Foreign Legion application criteria from its previous humans-only stance, allowing other species to earn citizenship through armed service. A planetary citizenship application from the Krogan Juntak Clan was validated by the Council of Advisors following investigations by Commander Kiera Jarvis. His military police task force was charged with investigating the clan’s activities, particularly whether any past history of theirs would endanger the Clause 90 citizenship application or imperil the Systems Alliance with inherited hostilities. The clan’s request has been deemed lawful under clause 90, meaning that the barren world of Ashtek will become an Alliance colony. Clause 90 is the provision under the Charter that allows planets to voluntarily opt to join the Systems Alliance if they were not founded under it. Previously, the clause was used by the once-independent colony of Maitland to join the Alliance pre-Reaper War. This deal creates a pathway for other non-humans to apply for service in the Legion as an entry point to Alliance citizenship. Considering this precedent, the Council of Advisors have opened up the enlistment process to non-humans in general. Considering the combatant status of many Juntak clan members, the council, with the help of Joint Operations Command, found what they proclaim to be ‘a fitting answer to avoid taking away people’s livelihoods’. The former mercenaries will have the opportunity to convert into a military formation, under Alliance command, as part of the Foreign Legion. Originally under the command of the Earth nation of France, the Foreign Legion was relinquished to Alliance control in 2148. This historic Colonial corps helped alongside other Earth militaries in the formation of the first SAMC and SAN units. Carrying on the tradition of its predecessor, Legionnaires who fulfil a contract of five years service will be made eligible for Alliance citizenship. However, enlistment into the Marine Corps and Navy will remain restricted to Alliance citizens. The council voted in Juntak’s favour on the condition that the clan disband the mercenary group Juntak Claws, considering allegations of ties to criminal elements in the Attican Traverse and Terminus Systems. Prosecutions of any of its members are judged “unlikely”. The surprise decision sparked outrage from key political figures, as the former Terra Firma member and Solarist representative Paula Benson denounced “a dangerous move, undermining the process of Alliance citizenship. We don’t need alien mercenaries!” A JOC spokesman has, however, assured that this gateway to citizenship will remain limited, as it will be regulated by recruitment quotas and very demanding selection criteria. He reiterated that “contrary to some urban myths, thorough background checks will be completed on all applicants”. Major General Kawroski, in charge of the Division, wasn’t available for comment. The SAFL PR services place him as “overseeing joint exercises between Legion regiments and Turian Hierarchy military elements.”

[turianhumanclient]

Marauder

The Marauder Program is a clandestine program of the Systems Alliance, similar to its Corsairs. A Marauder is a person operating as a private military contractor for protection and advancement of the interests of the Systems Alliance with its approval and covert support.

Inception of the Marauder Program

The program came about when the 351th Alliance Frontier Brigade was left cut off in the Attican Traverse immediately after cessation of the Reaper War. Pitted against neighbours harbouring hostility for Council space and the Systems Alliance, the frontier regiment lowered its colours and reformed themselves into an unaffiliated private military contractor. The Turian Hierarchy 606th Celeritia Brigade, faced with the same odds, joined them to form Gatta PMC.

However, the Alliance brigade stayed in touch with their superiors via QEC to inform them of the situation. Alliance military command opted to create the Marauder Program to address the problem faced by the frontier brigade. This way the newly-formed Gatta PMC could still serve Alliance interests while retaining a nominally independent appearance. However, terms for the Gatta contractors stipulate that they must decline any offers that would place them into conflict with the Systems Alliance or its allies. Breach of this term would dissolve their Marauder status and brand them as deserters instead. The Hierarchy has already branded the turian founding component of Gatta so.

Current Status

As of present, founding Systems Alliance members of the Gatta PMC are only active Marauder operatives.

[meadowmines]

the other WIP

[so before the Majestic Black Paladin In Snow fic happens, this has to happen. If you’ve read “Black_Lion_Ambience_10hours.flac” you know Shiro got better. But at this point in the timeline, he doesn’t know that yet.]

Shiro didn't know the details, but he knew this much: something horrible had happened to him in the reality Adam came from.

Adam still didn’t want to talk about it. Even now, when he was starting to settle into his new life in this reality, any time the subject came up he shut down the conversation in a way that made it clear that he didn’t want to discuss it, didn’t even want to think about it. Shiro tried to press the issue once. Only once. Turned out that issue was close to the top of a list of things that sent Adam into full-on panic attacks, and Shiro still felt horrible about it. And that, he supposed, was part of the reason he didn’t want to tell Adam about his condition--whatever there might be to tell him about it.

Adam had lived through absolute hell in his reality, and this was the thing he still had the hardest time talking about.

But Shiro had gotten bits and pieces here and there. Enough to cobble together an idea of what had happened to him.

He knew that he was originally supposed to fly the Kerberos mission.

He knew they’d gotten married two months before the mission, because they wanted to make it official in case something went wrong.

He knew something went wrong before the mission--wrong enough that Adam ended up flying it instead.

And then there was the way Adam reacted to certain things. Like the time Adam walked into his office one day to bring him some lunch and noticed that bottle of over-the-counter painkillers on his desk. Like the way Adam liked to listen to his heartbeat when they cuddled on one couch or another, because it sounded so much stronger on this side. Like the way Adam just sort of blanked out for a minute the other day when Shiro tried to pick up a freshly microwaved breakfast-meat-on-a-biscuit thing with his bare flesh-and-blood hand a little sooner than he should have and dropped it on the floor.

Yeah, that was enough for Shiro to get a vague idea of what happened to him. And it broke his heart to think he might have to tell Adam that it was going to happen on this side too someday.

So he didn’t.

There is absolutely no way this brilliant strategy could backfire on you, he told himself on a daily basis, his own internal voice dripping with sarcasm.

And then it finally did backfire.

[adi-paws]

Hello! This is my entry for Day 1 of the Kolivance AU Event, I decided on a Role Swap AU. I usually just draw, but I decided I’d like to explain a bit the ideas I had behind this entry, which is a redraw of one of my favourite scenes in Voltron! 

(Honestly I was so nervous that I kinda forgot the episode lol) 

Hope you enjoy! @kolivance

Lancir is the son of a rebel galra who gave her life opposing Zarkon’s tirany. Her dream of a peaceful galran empire inspired him to unite with fellow rebels and create a base of operations against the galra. Thus the Blade of Marmora has been born with Lancir as its leader. Due to unforseen betrayals and failed missions, Lancir had no choice but to hide the Blade from the Universe. He had to take many risks and he mourned the loss of many of his subordinates, but he couldn’t give up. So Lancir locked his heart away, he hid his kindness and his joy, he became the stoic leader of the Blades, he forced a strict training regimen and he adopted new codes that would hopefully benefit the organization. All in hopes of helping his men survive to see another day and maybe, one day, getting rid of Zarkon for good.

Kolivan was a teacher at Galaxy Garrison, strict, but fair. He enjoyed guiding the new generations and often got really close to his students because he was willing to listen to them, a thing rarely seen at the Garrison. One night he found 2 students (Hunk and Pidge) on the roof of the centre past curfew. He questioned them, but before he could do something about their insubordonation, the alarm started. With no other choice, Kolivan ended up asisting the two cadets and the new addition, Keith (a former student), in saving Shiro, who has been missing after the failure of the Kerberos mission. With so many questions unanswered, the confusion grew when Keith showed them his researsh and eventually the place where they found the Blue Lion. Imagine his surprise when Kolivan realized he was the one the lion chose as her pilot. Both honoured and terrified, the (now former) teacher flew them to what they’ll later learn is a castle on planet Arus, the place where their weird space adventure begins.

Time skip, after they’ve met the Blades. Here goes nothing! 

“Don’t forget about the Blade of Marmora!”, said Kolivan as he smiled at the aliens.

Lancir stared at him blankly, but on the inside he was intrigued. This human, so much smaller than him, completely ignored their galran status and just straight up credited them for the rescue. This wouldn’t be the first time the snow haired earthling sided with them or showed them compassion. It confused Lancir. He wasn’t used to anyone looking past their galra heritage. He was almost suspecting foul play, but the Blue Paladin seemed too good natured for such things. The Blade leader decided he’ll have to ask about this curious attitude at a later time, now they had more serious matters to attend to.

It was one night that Lancir finally had the chance to solve his inner musings. Him and a few Blade members were spending a few days in the Castle of Lions for some planning and mixed training, so they had free roam of the castle when they  weren’t working. After a strenuous training session, Lancir was still too wired to rest, so he searched for the kitchen to get something to drink. His mind wouldn’t relax, all he could think about were the war and their most recent losses, Thace, Ulaz and Antok. Even tho he treated the matter with abandon when Keith and Shiro entered their headquarters, the rebel leader has been hit hard by their loss. They were actually really close comrades, Lancir would even dare to call them friends if he wasn’t so afraid of what that term implied. He blamed himself for their early demise, and recently, the only thing that kept him focused was the happy nature of the Blue Paladin. From what he’s heard, he used to be a teacher, so now he’s able to show his real personality more without the serious title weighting him down. In all honesty, his soul was as pure as his hair colour.  He’s tried time and time again to find evil in this man, but other than a bit of a short temper, he found nothing. Literally nothing. There’s no way Lancir can blame any hidden plans, so he’s back to square one.

Lost in thought, he was surprised to find he already arrived at the kitchen. His surprise grew when he noticed Kolivan inside, sipping what looked like a weird white liquid. What did he call it? Milk, from what he remembers. What a strange beverage…

“Oh, Lancir!”

Kolivan’s voice interupted his train of thought and brought him back to reality. He entered the kitchen and nodded towards the paladin, then sat next to him. He studied him a bit, noting dark bags under his eyes and the red rimmed eyes. Unable to stop himself, Lancir asked, “Have you cried?”

Jumping at the sudden question, Kolivan looked up into Lancir’s inquisitive eyes and slowly nodded, then he panics and speaks frantically.

“It’s nothing serious though, I promise! J-Just stress, it’s been catching up to me lately. I can’t sleep and I’m tired and we have so much to do. We fight on a daily basis! I have a hard time mantaining this pace..I’m sorry for saying all these, you have greater responsabilities than me, so your stress must be greater. I have no right to complain to you…”

Yet again, the paladin surprises Lancir. Upset as he is, his first concern is not upseting the Blade leader. It’s been so long since anyone cared for him like this..it’s hard to answer to such soft words when all you do every day is use the blade. Regardless of his uneasiness, Lancir decided..maybe it’s time he gives something back. With this in mind, he moves his hand towards Kolivan and gently ruffles his hair, shocking the young human.

“You should look after yourself too , young paladin. I have seen how you do not rest until everyone else does, you put the well being of your fellow men first of all, and while that is honorable, it is not right to neglect yourself.” , said Lancir as he looked Kolivan in the eyes.

Caught by surprise, the paladin turns red and turns his gaze towards his lap.

“Y-You noticed..?” , asked Kolivan embarrased. Lancir’s features softened as he regarded the suddenly shy earthling.

“It was hard not to. Your efforts deserve praise, boy, but do not forget yourself.” After this, Lancir allowed a little smile to show on his face. “I must thank you.” , he said.

“Me? For what?” , asked Kolivan baffled. As far as he remembered, he didn’t do anything for the galran leader that he’d need to be thanked for.

“You were the only one to completely disregard our galran heritage when the Blade met the paladins, and you have showed us kindness time and time again. I must also apologize for my..withdrawn nature, but I am not one to trust easily. I must say that you have proved yourself worthy more than once..Kolivan.” , said with surprising honesty the Blade leader

Completely shocked, the paladin finds himself smiling. How can he not? This sudden admission just made him so happy!

“No need to apologize, I get it! You’re the leader, you have to be cautious about who you trust and all that, I understand. Thank you for your trust, Lance. I’ll treasure it!” , says Kolivan smiling brightly at the galra.

Completely unprepared for the new name, Lancir’s eyes widened as he stared at the human, who suddenly realized what he said.

“A-Ah, I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize!” , exclaimed Kolivan blushing. “I don’t know what got into me I-I just thought it sounded nice and it’s way easier for me to pronounce than your name since it’s human, b-but I don’t mean that your name is bad, I actually really like it! I-I just..I mean..”

Unable to stop himself, the newly named Blade leader chuckled, interrupting Kolivan’s panicked rambling.

“Kolivan.”

“Y-Yes..?”

Lancir trully smiled for the first time in decapheobs.

“Lance is quite alright.”