#like yeah i guess its technically still hurricane season but also

[rigginsstreet]

not florida having another hurricane like a month from our last one lmfao #globalwarming

[survivorfillory]

Lily’s Jury Question

Congrats to you both, but I’m not here for pleasantries. I’m here to get down to it. I’m currently undecided in my vote. I will take how you answer my questions very seriously.

Maynor- 1.  “I had overall good standing that i was given the CODE 4-0-6 for that advantage”

So you mean Colin and myself put in the work for you to get handed an idol, just so you could play that idol on dean and ensure Colin went home? You didn’t get an idol because of your “good standing”. You got an idol because myself and Colin trusted you. More of a statement but feel free to respond.

2. Just say I didn’t go out when I did and instead Nicole left. How would that have impacted the game? How long would I have lasted with you lying straight to my face?

3. Why did you take Jess to the end over Dani?

4. When you were deciding who would be at F2 with you, did you count how many votes you thought you would get at FTC? Did you expect to get mine with how you played the game?

5. You can respond to this if you choose but be careful. I guess I just thought we had more trust then what I’m realizing. I didn’t know you were essentially in a premade F3. I thought you were the kind of person who wanted to play hard and didn’t just rely on who they already knew. Good job getting control of dean and making it as far as you did. But saying that I was your second closest ally to Dani in my ROP didn’t leave me feeling good and def doesn’t earn my respect or vote.

Jess- 1. What move was most essential in your premerge game? Be specific. 2. What move was most essential in your merge game? Be specific. 3. I was shocked and disappointed that you decided to not participate in one of the final challenges in the game. I have a tough time voting for someone who doesn’t really compete to their best ability. How am I supposed to vote for you when less effort was put forth in challenges?

BONUS QUESTION CAUSE WHY NOT: This season had some of the most dramatic twists yet all the jurors were bored and most anticipated the ending as it occurred. What could you have done differently to make this season more exciting/unpredictable?

Thanks for taking the time to respond to all my questions and I’m interested to see who takes the win. Byeeeeee

Hey Lily! Let’s get down to business!

1. So pre-merge for myself was not a walk in a park at all. The most essential move I made has a couple of layers to it and is technically two essential moves so I hope you don’t mind!

So, in order to explain this move, I have to provide you with a little backstory. Keaton was someone who I mistakenly trusted with a little too much info early on. Because of that, I had to clean up the mess Keaton caused between myself, Nicole, and Dennis. In order to do this, I used the Julia vote to gain back trust or at least to appear less threatening with my “numbers”. Although, Julia was someone who I was working with at the time on BOTH of my tribes, I knew I had to sacrifice her in order to further myself in the game after Hurricane Kwaton struck for both Dennis/Nicole to at least entertain the thought of me not wanting to murder them for a round... I was one of two swing votes that round.

Speaking of Keaton, the second essential move to this all way laying down the ground work to Keaton’s demise. I know I can’t 100% claim this move on my own because I had no vote in the say. HOWEVER, I believe I got the ball rolling and provided the framework on getting out someone who wasn’t good for my game. I did so by using the One World twist to branch out to your tribe. I exposed Keaton’s plan to take out Dean to Dean, (That’s 1 number), I let both Dani and Maynor (2 and 3) know Keaton was not to be trusted, that he was throwing out info/challenges, and that he gave me the FAMOUS Kelley Wentworth answer... WHICH I told my tribe just for added measures so it'd leak into yours possibly.

2. I’ve never been much of a “Flashy” player so a lot of my essential moves occurred more subtly because I didn’t draw too much attention to myself.

However, the most PIVOTAL move I believe I made in the game was creating the “Narwhals” (yes that was the real name, yes I know it’s lame) alliance.  I initiated it, gathered everyone together, and I do believe it was my social game and my individual relationships to each member of it (Maynor, Dani, Dean) which was the glue that kept us together for as long as it did. This alliance allowed me to do so many different things in this game such as take out big targets while remaining one myself, play the middle, and have 3 people willing to take me to the end despite being a threat and in a “duo” (That's kind of a move on it's on..). Additionally, my threat level was something that was talked about throughout the season and seen in "Touchy Subjects" where I was labelled: “Who do you trust the most”, “who do you talk to the most”, and most IMPORTANTLY “Who would you like to win this game”.

3. I understand your disappointment, I was also incredibly disappointed in myself for not getting the challenge done. I tried my hardest and did the challenge for over 3 hours (yikes) and I knew at that point someone or everyone would have beaten me. Rather than spend any more time doing the challenge, I decided it’d be best to get right to work ensuring I wasn’t going to be targeted at tribal. I also believed I could potentially use this to my advantage to decrease my “competition threat” target that had been a focal point of the arguments prior to tribal the day before. However, there are no excuses for giving up and my decision to not complete the puzzle was not taken lightly and I’m still disappointed to this day about it. Additionally, I gave my all in every challenge in this game and I hope that was reflected in the 3 immunities I won, and the two I came close in.

BONUS QUESTION CAUSE WHY NOT:

For my own personal game, I wouldn’t have changed a thing (as boring as that sounds) because every move I personally made was essential to my success and my path to getting to the end.

However, IF I had to do something different to spice things up, I think I would have flipped my vote onto Dani. That way I wouldn’t have been seen in a “duo” anymore, and the power probably would have shifted because Dean would have also jumped ship and it would have been less predictable. It would have been a m-e-s-s but it'd at least be less predictable!

Hope I answered your questions okay!

Lily-

1. I didnt say it right but yeah. Meant to say that i was able to make strong bonds with people which got me trust which helped with the code. Because if we didnt have that bond you guys wouldnt have given it to me. (The vote was for nicole to go when the idol was played. Not Colin.)

2. If you have said, i would have stuck with you and colin because I did want to play the game with you guys. Every word i said about us going to the end was true. It would have been hard to vote Dani and Jess out but would have because i meant it. But u cant say i was the only lying to you. You also lied to me by telling Dennis about the real clownies alliance without telling me. We both were playing our own games and we both had relationships with people in the game that we felt could help us. You cant get mad at me for trying to keep those connections in good standing cuz you were doing the same. Im not the only one who lied.

3. In the end of my thought process i felt me and Jess played similair games that the jury could go either way. Is it a risk yeah for sure. That was one part of my thought but also i spent the whole game with them that i decided to talk to both and Dani decided to sacrifice her game so Jess n I could be in f2. (She did it for other reasons but doesnt have to do with this game). I respect Dani a lot that I honared her wish. 

4. To be honest. No. I was just more genuinely happy that I made it to the end of the game for a theme that I really loved. This is only my 3rd time being here and I have learned that you should never expect to have anyone vote to win. Would I like to receive your vote? Yes 100% but it’s your vote and your decision which in the end I would ultimitly have to respect. 

5. I dont know if saying anything would help you believe me or not. It’s always going to come down if you believe what im saying and its just not something im just saying to get your vote. I trusted you a lot. The phrasing in rop wasnt how i felt. It was crazy how much I trusted you in the game. I know it sounds fake but im being truthful that i had equal trust to u colin dani n jess. I kept having the idol from them until I used it to save Dean. Indid that because i was also lyoal to you guys and it was our idol. Yeah its true that me Jess and Dani were working together. There was the idea of us being f3 in the beginning but it was just more of it would be really awesome if we could do it. The thing that made us solidify truly was when we felt Dennis and Nicole were coming for us 

5. I didnt mean to disrespect you in the rop if I did I truly didnt mean it. Im sorry of I did. Once again its your vote and Ill respect whichever way you vote.

6. For everyone to be in the same time zone. There were people who were from outside the us which affect the time they were on. The time zones also have an affect with activeness. People being busy with their real lifes and not being really allowed to be much on. Having more convo and people being in the main chat would have made the season more exciting.

[bingbong21]

Title: In the Eye of a Hurricane

Summary: There is quiet, for just a moment. And then, a yellow sky. 

A/N: This was supposed to be posted before season two aired. Oops. Legit only one spoiler, but it’s the one we all saw coming. If you squint you can see microscopic one-sided Sheith. 

Just like the last time the Galra had invaded the castle, everything happened too quickly for any of them to process. One moment they were floating through a peaceful star system known as Ardraxyl; the next, a massive wormhole shooting purple lightning engulfed them, dragging them into the middle of a Galra fleet juiced up on quintessence, led by Haggar herself. Being forcibly dragged through a wormhole left the castle defenseless, and they could only watch with mounting trepidation as the ships approached them.

It had been Allura who shouted the orders next; they were to scatter throughout the castle, turning on any defensive systems they came across. While this would separate them from each other, it also had the added benefit of forcing the troops to separate. If they had the fortune to come across each other, she added, they were to stick together no matter what. With that said, they broke, each one taking a separate hallway and running wherever their guts told them to go.

At first, Lance had to admit that it was going surprisingly well. Naturally, it had been both mentally and physically taxing to fend off waves after waves of Galra sentries by himself while worrying about how his fellow teammates fared; but, when he had run into Keith, things seemed to fall into place. Similar to the battle on Balmera, they annihilated anything that crossed their paths, steadily making progress together as opposed to the standstill Lance had been previously. When Hunk had come on over the coms saying that they had found Pidge and were finding similar success, Lance had actually let out a laugh and allowed a wide grin to grace his features; when he glanced Keith, he saw some of the tension had left the Red Paladin’s shoulders and a small smile of his own played at his lips.

Looking back, when Shiro had come on sounding pained and breathless, Lance should have immediately assumed the worst.

“Don’t tell me you’re winded after just that,” Lance teased, hefting his bayard to rest against his shoulder. “Thought you were in better shape Shiro.”

A laugh that easily could have been mistaken for a harsh cough was his only response to the jibe. Lance felt the uneasiness begin to spread in his body; its icy tendrils wrapping around his heart and dragging it into its stomach when Keith began to speak.

“Shiro, what’s going on? Are you alright?”

The poorly concealed worry in Keith’s voice was accentuated by Shiro’s heavy panting that echoed within their helmets. His grip on his bayard tightened to the point that it began to tremble as he shouted into the coms, as if he hoped the louder he was the more likely he was to receive a response.

“Shiro…are you there? Shiro? Shiro!”

“Keith…if I don’t make it out of here…I want you to lead Voltron.”

That was the last any of the Paladins heard from Shiro before the coms cut out, a deafening silence replacing the sounds of Shiro’s pained exertion.

During their time traveling throughout the universe, Lance and the others had grown familiar with Keith’s battle rage. Any time after Voltron summoned its sword, or when they would return from being swarmed by Galra, each of them would breathe a sigh of relief that they wouldn’t grow painfully intimate with Keith’s fury. But now as he watched the tremor in Keith’s hands escalating up his arms, Lance wished there had been a drill on what to do when Keith loses control.

“Keith…” Lance asked, voice betraying how insecure he was in the next course of action. But the one thing he knew for certain was that they couldn’t stay there with Keith staring off into space, looking for all the universe like someone had ripped his consciousness out and left the empty husk behind. The lack of response was unnerving, but there wasn’t any time for such luxuries as being frozen in fear; with a deep breath, Lance walked towards Keith, reaching his hand out to grasp his shoulder.

“Come on man, we need to find everyone els-”

As soon as his fingertips brushed against Keith, it was as if a switch had been flipped inside the Red Paladin. One moment he was approaching his friend with the same trepidation he’d give a wounded wild animal. The next he found himself slammed into a wall, breathless and mind reeling as only the sounds of Keith’s pounding footsteps growing distant and the ferocity that had been directed towards him registered.

“Quiznak,” Lance groaned, pushing himself off the wall, “Guys, we got a problem.”

“What was your first clue Lance,” Pidge’s biting voice came through loud and clear; Lance fought the urge to roll his eyes as he ran after Keith.

“No, I mean in addition to the Shiro one; Keith just ran off.”

“What do you mean ran off,” Hunk asked frantically, “You two were together, right? How did you lose him?”

“I didn’t lose him,” Lance replied, the ache in his lungs from talking while running making itself well known, “I’m chasing him right now. I tried to get him to respond and he just, I don’t know, flipped!”

“Well stun him with your gun or something,” Pidge shot back, “We don’t have time for this!”

“Easy for you to say! You’re not trying to keep up with him!”

“What messed you up so bad that you can’t shoot straight down a hallway?”

“Nothing, just-God, why is he so fast?!” Lance groaned, desperately pushing himself to try and keep the distance between him and Keith to a minimum. But Keith’s berserker mode always gave him extra strength, making him soar beyond what really should have been his physical limits.  While that was usually a blessing battle, when you’re tasked with being the one to stop him from most likely killing himself, it certainly began to seem like a curse instead.

Lance stopped, raising his gun and taking aim; Pidge was right, even with Keith running this was his best chance at stopping him. He took a deep breath, sights focusing on Keith’s helmet; if he hit, the force should be enough to at least slow Keith down. He exhaled he squeezed the trigger; the bolt of light blue struck just above the edge of the helmet, and Keith went down with only a short cry. Lance shuddered, feeling disgusted as he ran over to Keith, kneeling beside him; he pressed two fingers to his neck, checking for a pulse with the fear that he had done more harm than good. He sighed, some of the fear abated by the harsh steady thrum beneath his fingertips.

“I got him guys; I’ll see you soon.”

Lance had been the one waiting for him when Keith emerged. Normally everyone would be there, watching the pod with bated breath; but with Shiro’s abduction, all hands were on deck to create a flawless plan to rescue Shiro without engaging Zarkon or Haggar.

The hiss of the pod opening snapped Lance out of his reverie, as Keith stumbled out, Lance was immediately by his side.

“Don’t worry buddy, I gotcha,” Lance muttered, sliding an arm around his waist for support. Keith growled in response, shoving Lance away and stalking towards his clothes folded in the corner, gait unsteady. Lance watched him, taken aback only for a moment before a mixture of anger and concern took over and had him sliding into step beside him.

“Dude, you need to take it easy,” Lance said, grasping his shoulder, “I thought I might’ve killed you!”

The glare Keith sent him over his shoulder had Lance retracting quickly. He felt as if he had been hit by Blue’s ice beam, breath caught in his throat. The amount of hatred and anger he saw directed right at him those eyes…Lance had to stop himself from making sure he hadn’t somehow turned into Zarkon since the last time he saw himself in the mirror.

“We don’t have time to take it easy,” Keith spat with more incredulous disgust than Lance had thought was humanly possible as he dressed. Before he could even think of a retort, Keith was out the door, no doubt headed to the control room. Lance stared at the door in stunned silence for a few ticks before his mind went in autopilot, directing his body to follow after him through the doors. He blinked as the shouting match in the control room jolted him back into active consciousness; he wasn’t quite sure how he got to the control room.

“We can’t go in there yet Keith; we don’t have a plan!”

“We went after Allura without a solid plan.”

“That was different,” Pidge gestured to the control room, “Without Allura the Castle wouldn’t have had any power; we would’ve died!”

“We almost died anyway just to get her!”

“Because we didn’t have a well-thought out plan,” Pidge shouted in exasperation, throwing her hands into the air, “We got lucky last time; if we go in there again like that, we’ll most likely end up dead if we’re lucky.”

“Pidge is right Keith,” Allura began, stepping in between the two paladins. Despite still being dressed for battle, she still displayed the diplomacy so famous among the universe. “Without the Black Lion’s pilot, we don’t have a definite leader to form Voltorn. We need to use the utmost care when-”

“I’ll pilot the Black Lion,” Keith interrupted, stance challenging Allura to contradict him. She blinked, clearly taken by surprise by his statement.

“You’ll…what?”

“I’ll pilot the Black Lion,” Keith reiterated, frustration at having to repeat himself clearly lacing his voice. “You all heard Shiro: he wanted me to lead Voltron.”

“Uh, he actually said that if he didn’t make it out, he wanted you to lead Voltron,” Hunk said, stepping forward a bit. As soon as Keith turned his glare on him however, Hunk cowered back to his original spot. “I mean, but yeah I guess since Shiro hasn’t escaped Haggar yet and isn’t physically here that fulfills his requirements, so I guess that means Keith is technically the leader.”

“Technicalities aside,” Allura said, drawing herself to her full height, “Shiro is not dead, so Keith will not be piloting the Black Lion.”

“So Shiro can pilot the Black Lion while its original paladin is out conquering the universe and able to have it reject Shiro, but when command has been given to me we suddenly care that the Black Paladin is still alive.”

“You know it’s more complicated than that,” Allura responded, “You are best suited to piloting the Red Lion; no one else here has your instincts or connections to it like you. The Black Lion requires a Paladin who is a natural born leader; a strategist who is able to analyze every situation and not let their emotions take control.”

“So then who do you suggest to lead Voltron?”

Allura flinched slightly at the sharp tone, though held Keith’s gaze. “Until the Black Lion states otherwise, I will be the temporary Black Lion pilot.”

Keith barked out a laugh at her response, a sound so harsh and cold that everyone felt the temperature in the room drop. “Piloting a lion isn’t the same as piloting a castle princess. There aren’t particle barriers or Voltron to save you when the chips are down. What makes you think you could even begin to be successful in battle?

“You seem to forget that I am also a trained warrior as well,” Allura growled out, fists clenched at her sides. Her control on her temper was visibly slipping, all attempts at diplomacy slowly crumbling apart. “With the Black Lion’s help I will be successful!”

“And what makes you think we’d follow you without question the same we’d follow Shiro?”

“What makes you think we’d follow some Galra half-breed like you,” Allura shouted, fist slamming down on a control panel. She immediately raised her hands to her mouth as she saw Keith’s eyes widen; the room seemed to echo with her statement.

“Keith…” She murmured, stepping forward as she reached out towards him, “Keith I’m…I didn’t-”

Her fingertips brushing his jacket was enough to snap him out of shock; he jerked away from her, immediately turning his back on her.

“Sure you didn’t,” Keith muttered, eyes downcast. He shoved his hands into his pockets, heading towards he door to the control room. He bumped shoulders with Lance, jostling him out of the paralysis that the entire scene had put him into. As the door closed behind him, Coran let out a large sigh as he surveyed the room.

“Well that could’ve gone a bit better.”

Lance yawned, bending backwards as he pressed his hands into the middle of his spine. They had come up with a few reasonable plans, a couple of far-fetched ones. The only thing stopping them from immediately implementing a course of action was the lack of input from the Red Paladin and, more importantly, his promise that he wouldn’t go off on his own in a repeat performance from Allura’s rescue mission. So it had been decided that Lance, the only one who wouldn’t cower and hadn’t extensively angered Keith that day, was to venture off into the Castle and bring him back to discuss options. Which was how Lance found himself standing outside the training room’s doors, flinching slightly as a dismembered gladiator was flung against the doors.

Guilt washed over him when he realized that he had unconsciously reached for where his bayard would have been. Despite this realization, Lance squared his shoulders, took a deep breath, and entered the training room.

As he surveyed the wreckage Lance’s first thought was that either the castle couldn’t have the gladiators disappear at the moment, or Keith had specifically told it to keep the defeated gladiators there. As a head rolled towards him, Lance wasn’t sure if he was comforted or disturbed by the fact that it was only gladiators being treated this way. It was comforting, he thought as a he spotted a few torn off limbs sparking pitifully in a pile, because it wasn’t anything living. However, it was also disturbing, he thought as he stared at a torso laying in a pool of oil, because of the realization that Keith was capable of causing this level of destruction.

The sound of swords clashing brought Lance’s attention to the object of his search. Standing in the center of the room, surrounded by three-no wait, now two considering that one was just decapitated-gladiators was Keith. Even from his distance Lance could see the sweat pouring down his face, causing the already form fitting black shirt to stick to every curve and crevice of his body. His movements were sloppy, though whether it was a sign of his blind rage or exhaustion Lance couldn’t tell. If this had been an actual training session, he was sure that Shiro and Allura would have critiques on Keith’s form. But, Lance thought as he watched Keith duck under both gladiators charging at him, knocking one off their feet and cutting the leg of the other, form didn’t matter much in the heat of battle; survival instincts did. Though as he watched Keith climb atop the gladiator he had knocked off balance and repeatedly stab his sword into its chest, he doubted survival instincts were what was driving Keith at the moment.

“I think it’s dead buddy,” Lance called out, strolling deeper into the room as casually as one can be amidst mechanical carnage. Keith’s head jerked upwards at his voice, chest heaving with deep gulps of air.

“What are you doing here,” He growled, eyes narrowing once they recognized Lance. “Shouldn’t you be working on plans with the new Black Paladin?”

Lance blinked, cocking his head to the side. “New Black Paladin?”

“Allura you idiot.”

“Ah,” Lance nodded, crouching down net to the fallen body of the gladiator Keith currently straddled. He noticed how Keith’s body had gotten impossibly tense as he got closer, similar to a wounded wild animal boxed into a corner. He’d have to be careful, otherwise he knew he’d get more than just bitten and scratched if he screwed up. “Well, we’ve come up with a few ideas, some more plausible than others.”

“Then why haven’t we suited up and left yet,” Keith snapped, violently yanking his sword out of the gladiator. Splashes of oil smeared across his face at the movement, too eerily similar to how blood would splatter.

This was the part Lance knew would be the hardest. “Well, we want to smooth out a few wrinkles….”

“Such as?”

Time to take the plunge. “Such as making sure you actually stick to the plan.”

Lance wasn’t sure what he was expecting after that; being punched in the face was certainly a thought, followed closely by the morbid thought that he’d be run through by his bayard. But what he never imagined was the look of shock, betrayal, and absolute hurt that he saw in Keith’s wide eyed gaze. As soon as he identified every emotion though Keith’s eyes had narrowed to slits filled with a guarded anger.

“You think I’ll screw this up?”

“We just want to make sure it goes off without a hitch,” Lance responded, “After last time, ya know with the whole ‘soloing Zarkon’ thing, we just want-”

“What? For me to just ignore any better opportunities?”

“Well, yeah,” Lance conceded, shrugging his shoulders. “Last time you almost got yourself killed!”

“And I’d die if it meant getting Shiro back!”

It was as if the words were a sack of ricks that Lance had to brace for the impact of. As he stared in stunned silence, Keith continued on with his line of thought.

“Back then I was willing to die to save the universe. I only wanted to live because I didn’t want him to hurt Red, didn’t want him to move on from me to anyone else! If him striking me down meant someone else could’ve taken his head off, then I would’ve gladly just sat there and waited.”

“Keith…” Lance noticed how tears gathered in the corners of his eyes, yet he still continued on.

“And now, faced with the thought of losing him,” Keith muttered, voice cracking with emotion, “I’d rather die to save him than live without him.”

In one tick, the two of them were staring at each other with wide eyes swimming with various emotions. In the next Keith found himself being pulled into Lance’s tight embrace. He began struggling, thrashing in Lance’s arms furiously; yet Lance’s grip was like a vice, refusing to let him go.

“You…” Lance choked out; Keith was suddenly aware of a warm sensation on the top of his head, “You incredible, absolute jerk. Y-You don’t get to say stuff like that, acting like some big damn hero.”

Keith felt the telltale burning and stinging of tears preparing to fall. “This isn’t about heroics idiot,” Keith sniffled, “I can’t live without him. N-Not again.”

Lance bit out a bitter laugh through his tears. “I know, I know,” He mumbled, fingers playing with the ends of Keith’s hair. “But you can’t just throw your life away anymore Keith. We’re a team, a family. If you died, I…quiznak, Keith, I don’t know, I’d probably follow close behind like I always seem to do.”

That confession, of someone else wanting to follow him into the unknown, was what caused the floodgates inside Keith to open. He clutched at the front of Lance’s shirt, helpless to stop the tears from falling down his face. He was vaguely aware of Lance rubbing small circles on the small of his back, and of the soothing nonsensical gibberish he was speaking; he couldn’t tell if it was English or Spanish, only that when paired with his heart beat it had a calming effect on his frayed nerves. Slowly the river of tears became a trickle, and sobs were merely shadows of their former selves. When finally, the grief had been washed away to a familiar apathy only found after disasters, Keith allowed himself to push away from Lance’s chest in order to look up at him.

Even with his dark skin tone, Lance’s face still held a splotchy look that could only be achieved by crying. His eyes were so strikingly blue against the red of his sclera that Keith couldn’t help but wonder if they had always been that way. Lance’s lips quirked upwards in a small smile, chest rumbling with a small laugh that could easily have been mistaken for clearing his voice.

“You look like something the lion dragged in,” Lance commented, pushing strands of black hair that were stuck to ruddy cheeks behind ears. Keith rolled his eyes; leave it to Lance to ruin a perfectly good moment.

“Not like you look any better,” He shot back, lips lifted into a small smirk; a sign that his comment contained none of the venom from earlier. Still Lance acted as if it hurt, hand flying to his forehead.

“You wound me,” He sighed, eyelashes fluttering, “And here I thought that we were having a bonding moment.”

Keith snort, the dramatics only adding fuel to his instigator side. “We had one already; you just keep denying it.”

“Clearly we are at an impasse of wits,” Lance conceded, “The only way this can be resolved is if we present our cases to the non-partisan judges in the control room.”

At the mention of the others Keith froze, the icy feeling of fear spreading through his veins. He had said such cruel things to Allura, had acted so harshly…how could he face them after that?

Lance noticed the fear and tension returning to Keith’s body. “Hey,” He muttered, drawing Keith’s attention back to him, “I’ve seen people forgive each other for having said things much harsher than what happened back there. I promise you that if you just apologize, everything will be forgiven and we can focus on getting Shiro back.”

“And if they don’t?”

“Then they’re going to have to deal with me, your personal guard dog.” Lance said proudly, jerking his thumb at himself. “No one’s allowed to make you feel like quiznak unless it’s me.”

“Pretty sure you’re still using that wrong.”

“Probably,” Lance shrugged, pushing himself up into a standing position and offering a hand to Keith. “Now come on, there’s some really cool strategies that I think you’ll like.”

Keith stared at his hand for only a tick before firmly grasping it into his own. He felt a smile find its way onto his face as Lance hoisted him up off the ground. Together they headed towards the exit, the backs of their hands gently brushing against each other as they walked. When they reached the doorway though, Keith stopped; Lance paused a few steps ahead, head cocked to the side.

“What’s up man?”

“I…” Keith grasped the side of his arm, eyes glancing downwards towards the floor.” …Thanks Lance.”

Lance blinked as a small smile graced his face. “No pro-”

“I mean it,” Keith interrupted, stepping forward. He paused, resuming his staring contest with one of the many decapitated robotic heads littering the floor. “No one’s really just…listened before. Aside from Shiro.”

“And I mean it when I say no problem.” Lance replied, grabbing Keith’s hand again. “It’s not just you anymore, or just you and Shiro anymore; you’ve got a whole team you can rely on. And, if for whatever reason, you feel like you can’t talk to them, you can always come to me. No jokes, no teasing, just good ‘ole fashioned honesty. Okay?”

Keith nodded, feeling warmth spread through his chest at Lance’s words. “Yeah…okay.”

“Great,” Lance began, tugging Keith along down the hallway. “Now lemme tell you about this wicked plan Pidge came up with…”

Keith listened to Lance’s dramatic recreation of one of Pidge’s plans as they walked down the hallway to the control room. And even though Shiro wasn’t there with him at the moment, with his hand still wrapped within Lance’s the universe seemed a little bit brighter than before.

[mymarrishheart]

Welp since I’m being forced to take a break from studying I guess now would be the perfect time to continue writing fic. I think yall are really gonna like the stuff I’ve been working on. I’m gonna save this ship or die trying.

The royal AU is going to to my longest fic, maybe (including the multichaptered ones). 1192 words and it’s not even half finished yet.

Cross My Heart could potentially be great if I could just quit it with the unintentional cliches. The first chapter is TECHNICALLY finished (750 words) but I just want it to be a little longer. However... since I haven’t found a way to expand on it yet I’ll prob just make that the intro and start all over with a new chapter 1. I mean... yeah, the way I wrote it would absolutely make more sense as an intro... yup, thats what im gonna do.

The college au ficspired by my real life college experiences/observations...trust me, with my tv show worthy, drama filled, almost hallmark-like life THIS is definitely going to turn out amazing. Still havent figured out if it’s going to be a collection of oneshots or if it’s gonna be a multi chapter fic that i somehow figure out a way to bridge together, but...yeahhhh. Also!!! It’s still unnamed and that REALLY bothers me. Also I have no idea whether to set it at a school I’m familiar with (one that I’ve actually been to so it feels more comfortable to write) or if I should pick somewhere else and attempt to make it up as I go along. So that’s prob gonna take me even longer to finish the first part to the series.

College AU in which Allison, Derek, Lydia, and Jordan are all suitemates. And Derek recruits Allison to help him set Lydia up with his best friend since childhood. Will absolutely have lots of platonic darrish and I’m restraining from hinting at romantic dallison like I didn’t even know I shipped it until I started writing this fic and it accidentally made its way into my work. (SPOILER ALERT: It was going to be flirty dallison realizing they liked each other more than they thought while trying to make marrish realize their fate together. But I don’t even know. I want it to be totally marrish but wow that dallison was really great.)

I was working on that hurricane marrish fic where Lydia was away at college and Jordan decided to visit her so she didn’t have to be alone during the storm. Because they may have only been best friends but he was secretly in love with her and though he knew nothing would happen, he’d much rather know she was safe and had someone by her side because when has a hurricane ever been fun tbh. Also Lydia LOVES greeting Jordan with “deputy” 

Old Flames & New Loves, which I’m considering renaming. Jordan mistaking his old high school sweetheart and his childhood best friend for being in a relationship and he gets jealous but he also wants Lydia to be happy even if it IS with his best friend so he’s all conflicted. Happy on the outside, putting on the performance of a lifetime YET internally screaming bc wtf does derek think he’s doing with the one girl jordan had ever loved in his life but also he knows he has no right to say anything since he and lydia broke up 10 years prior *cries*

Lydia, who doesn’t believe in love, meeting her son’s friend’s father and instantly being intrigued by the handsome stranger and slowly realizing it wouldn’t be so bad to fall in love again if it’s with the right person.

I was also writing an au/headcanon before season 5 ended about the hellhound and the beast being cousins. The hellhound and the beast were close as kids until the hellhound had to keep cleaning up the beast’s messes and season 5 was all about the hellhound being tired of picking up the beast’s slack and decided to put an end to this once and for all but Lydia was tired of all the bickering between the two because they were supposed to be family so she made it a point to make the two reconcile all while ending the beast’s temper tantrum. Buuuut I’m not so sure I want to continue since s5 ended so long ago. Would you guys want this??

I still have to finish that fake relationship fic I was writing (to forge & to hold) about Jordan trying to trick his rich, overbearing mother into thinking that he and Lydia are dating. But not only does she not like Lydia (I WAS THINKING ABOUT MONSTER IN LAW WHEN I WROTE THAT PART, OKAY?? lol), but she also doesn’t believe their charade. Because Jordan, who has been in love with his roommate/best friend from the beginning keeps being weird about the whole situation lol especially bc his mother and “gf” just cant seem to get along like ever

Hide & Seek still has to continue as well! Lydia (the Nev) and Jordan (the Max) as the hosts of Catfish. Lydia not wanting to fall in love again because she doesn’t want to hurt as much as she did the last time, so refuses to get attached. Jordan not wanting to fall in love with his best friend, of all people. The entire catfish crew, the client, and all of tumblr shipping marrish anyway lol. Also platonic dydia and darrish bromance. Derek is happy. Draeden is real, yet they’re only being hinted at, so we can focus on marrish without another ship getting clustered into the main plot

The Boy Next Door only needs one or two more chapters. Lydia moves into her new neighborhood and is immediately intrigued by Jordan, the man living next door, and his young daughter. Originally was a Secret Santa gift, but I turned it into what I hoped would only be 4 chapters but is looking closer to about 6 or 7

I want to turn this into fic too. I already know how I want to write it, I just dont want those feels so... lol prob not

[yahoo-puck-daddy-blog]

What We Learned: The Wild are going to be expensive, but will they be good?

The Wild have a large range of outcomes for 2018-19. (Photo by Jason Halstead /Getty Images)

Off the top of your head, where do you see the Minnesota Wild finishing in the Central this season?

They’re only technically in the same league as the division’s twin titans of Nashville and Winnipeg, which seem destined to finish 1-2  (you pick the order).

Of course, the Wild finished in that third spot last year; a distant third, mind you, with a 13-point gap between Winnipeg and themselves. And that came with some serious ups and downs; they were one of the worst possession teams in the league last year, and really only got to where they were because of an a PDO that was ninth-highest in the league.

And to be fair, they had a number of key players miss a pretty good amount of time. Jared Spurgeon only played 61 games. Zach Parise just 47. Nino Niederreiter checked in at only 63. Those are all very useful players and if they’re missing a quarter or close to half of a season, your on-ice results are going to suffer, especially if they miss a bunch of games at the same time.

But at the same time, Eric Staal scored 42 goals and 76 points. Jason Zucker cleared 30 in both goals and assists. Mikael Granlund had 67 points. Ryan Suter and Matt Dumba both hit 50 points from the blue line. Devan Dubnyk was once again top-notch at .918 in 60 appearances.

The problem for the Wild, then, is that the rest of the division seems to be improving, and it was pretty tightly packed around the middle of the Central to begin with. Nine points separated Minnesota from sixth-place Dallas, with Colorado and St. Louis between them. I would argue that all those teams improved this offseason, and Chicago should be (much) better if Corey Crawford is fully healthy, even if they’re not the Chicago of old.

Note that many of the Wild players I just listed as having enjoyed great seasons are, for the most part, outside their prime production years. Staal and Suter will turn 34 during next season. Spurgeon will turn 29. Dubnyk just turned 32. Other teams have aging producers as well, obviously, but these were some pretty outsized years from past-their-primes players, so it’ll be interesting to see what they can actually put together in 2018-19.

The real problem with the Wild, though, is the playoff format. The gap between Nashville/Winnipeg and the rest of that division is so significant in terms of on-paper quality (you can never guess when injury or quirky underperformance will rear their heads) that you’re better off finishing in the wild card spot in the division and taking your chances with the winner of the Pacific than finishing third and getting as brutally crumpled as the Wild did in the first round last year.

And with the new contract Matt Dumba signed over the weekend — five years with a $6 million AAV, the value of which I’ll get to in a minute here — this team is about $5.6 million south of the cap limit, and still have to re-sign Zucker, who has 111 points over the last two seasons. That scoring total ties him for 63rd in the league in that time, just ahead of Jordan Eberle and Sean Couturier, for instance, and likely means he’s going to be looking for a fat paycheck. That probably pushed Minnesota up around the absolute top of the league in terms of cap obligations.

(Also worth noting: There are few Bruce Boudreau stans in the hockey media bigger than me, but my man only has so much to work with, y’know?)

So this is a cap-limit team with a first-round-limit ceiling in the playoffs unless things go very heavily their way. This is, I guess, why the team brought in a new front office crew this summer; there’s a recognition that they’ve built a rather expensive team that probably reached its peak in terms of reasonable competition within the division, let alone the Western Conference or league writ large. And with so many of their top players (such as they are) on the wrong side of 30, one wonders how much longer this approach is going to be kept up.

Simply put, seventy-nine-point-something million dollars a year to get bounced in the early rounds of the playoffs again isn’t and shouldn’t be viewed as a tenable situation, but as I wrote repeatedly like four or five years, simply paying a lot of money to players who are above-average but certainly not stars in the league doesn’t make them worth their contracts. The Parise and Suter contracts don’t expire for seven more seasons and it’s a hell of a lot of money to spend on two guys whose impact on the ice is going to diminish.

The good news is there aren’t too many long-term commitments otherwise — Dumba and Niedereitter, both of whom are under 26, are the only other guys signed for more than the next three seasons — and the team does have some promising, youngish players to supplement the old guard. That Dumba contract is probably a little too much in terms of AAV, but he has 35 goals over the last three seasons and you gotta pay for guys like that, I guess.

Only 12 defensemen in the salary cap era besides Dumba have cleared 50 points in a season before the age of 24, so what are you gonna do? The term is fine, for sure, but Dumba doesn’t really move the needle in terms of underlying numbers; he’s still improving given his age, but paying a lot for that particular player seems more optimistic than rational. Because of those 13 defensemen, only eight repeated their 50-performances at least once before turning 28.

Nice to have young players who can make an impact, certainly, but the Wild fall into that classic trap of having a number of goodish, cheapish young guys and goodish, expensive old guys and very little in between, which doesn’t allow for a continuity of quality over years.

And with this team in particular, what even is that quality, really? Can you really afford to run out the clock with all these early-to-mid-20s and mid-30s players over the next three years if this is where you’re gonna get?

While anyone can get on a hot run and make a deep playoff push, the Wild don’t really have a realistic chance to do that unless they land outside their own division for the playoffs. Which is theoretically possible, but in actual practice you shouldn’t want to hope you finish seventh or eighth in the West to get a viable path to the Conference Final, where you’re likely to get clubbed anyway.

So the Wild, again, seem to be at a crossroads with the direction of their franchise, but none of their paths forward seem particularly favorable.

What We Learned

Anaheim Ducks: They’re officially bringing back, well, a version of the original Mighty Ducks jersey, which should just be their actual jersey anyway. This one kinda stinks but what are you gonna do?

Arizona Coyotes: God if the Coyotes are worth $500 million, what’s Vegas worth now, a year after paying that same amount of money to be a team?

Boston Bruins: The cool thing about if the Bruins got Artemi Panarin? He would be the second-best left wing on the team.

Buffalo Sabres: Casey Mittelstadt looks like he could soon be a difference-maker at the NHL level, which is probably a little ahead of schedule to be honest.

Calgary Flames: The Flames love putting useful young depth players on waivers for no reason, but at least they didn’t lose Brett Kulak for nothing like they did Paul Byron.

Carolina Hurricanes: I would not recommend making a 19-year-old rookie your No. 1 center, no.

Chicago: Jonathan Toews wants a big bounce-back season for himself and his team. I want a million dollars. Nice to want things.

Colorado Avalanche: The Avs are probably going to avoid arbitration with Patrik Nemeth and that’s the only guy they need to re-sign at this point.

Columbus Blue Jackets: *Craig Finn voice* Don’t let Oliver Bjorkstrand explode!!!!

Dallas Stars: You can say what you want about the Stars but there really aren’t that many bad contracts on the books.

Detroit Red Wings: Wow the Red Wings might actually play talented kids instead of mediocre 29-year-olds in important situations. Signs and wonders.

Edmonton Oilers: Put Joe Gambardella in the NHL. Yes. Do it. Think about where he went to college and don’t be a coward!!!

Florida Panthers: Vinnie Viola is selling his mansion in New Jersey and I’m buying it.

Los Angeles Kings: A great mid-July pastime is to look at NHL signings and guess what percentage of them are AHL-quality goons. Here’s one now.

Minnesota Wild: The Wild have a new AHL head coach and it seems like when you’re hiring guys out of the Penguins coaching system you’re making a good decision.

Montreal Canadiens: This is brutal.

Nashville Predators: Yes. Thanks for asking.

New Jersey Devils: Only roster eight defensemen if you’re gonna play seven every night. Which, by the way, you should do that.

New York Islanders: Frankly, gang, I don’t know that they have much of a choice in the whole “should we tank?” discussion.

New York Rangers: When the richest and biggest-name teams in the league are openly saying they’re “rebuilding” that should be a good indication that it’s a perfectly okay thing for every team to do when needed.

Ottawa Senators: This is going really great.

Philadelphia Flyers: Man, that Forsberg-to-Nashville trade effectively got the Flyers Scottie Upshall, Ryan Parent, Scott Hartnell, and Kimmo Timonen plus a third-round pick? Good lord!

Pittsburgh Penguins: Okay, sure, Derek Grant. That’s someone.

San Jose Sharks: Chris Tierney? That’s even more someone.

St. Louis Blues: This is a take where I go, “Ahhhh, maybe?” Which kinda defeats the purpose of the take.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Really feels like everyone in Tampa is just sitting around going, “Well jeez hey when’s this Karlsson thing happening? Soon? Soon. Gotta be soon.”

Toronto Maple Leafs: Andreas Johnsson‘s one of those guys where it’s like, “Yeah he’s probably a real player.” He went point-a-game in his second AHL season and 1.5 a game in the playoffs. Granted, that’s on a stacked team, but he’s 23 and a guy who can score like that is probably a good bottom-six option at an absolute minimum.

Vancouver Canucks: I would not want to be in the business of extending Alex Edler, despite his long-term status with the org.

Vegas Golden Knights: It’s really too bad the Golden Knights didn’t have to change their name. That would have been so funny.

Washington Capitals: Yeah, no.

Winnipeg Jets: I’m gonna write more about Trouba this week but: yikes.

Gold Star Award

Maybe this makes me a kook in hockey circles but every NHL team should have as many jerseys as they want. Who cares as long as they’re cool or weird or whatever? I don’t like the Ducks’ new “classic-inspired” thirds but at least they’re trying something. More throwbacks would be a good thing.

Minus of the Weekend

This is some kinda take.

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week

User “Kshahdoo” loves this time of year.

STL gets Panarin (but only with extention) Toronto gets Parayko Columbus gets Nylander

Signoff

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Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)