#literally why can’t the let shiro have one fucking thing

[localfanbaselurker]

ADAM FUCKING DIED?????

[void-tiger]

please tell me more about the fic where Ke/th doesnt get to be a paladin again, i keep seeing shit like how the team abandoned/failed Ke/ith and should have apologized to him when it was literally the opposite (i am sorry but the team almost DIED because K/ith fucked off to run off with the Blades, werent for Kuron entering Black they would have actually died, i do not understand how anyone can see this and say the team was in the wrong/Ke1th was in the right, and still be considered a team player let alone a team leader is beyond me. Really really sorry about salt in your askbox)

No worries! (Although, disclaimer: I had to set aside my voltron fics for a bit ‘cause I can’t work on them without getting salty, and too much salt is bad for you. So they’re…curing, I guess. I’ll stop with the bad salt jokes now XD)

But short answer? Keith’s their comfort blorbo, and it’s incredibly easy to have that become “can do no wrong ever it MUST be EVERYONE else!” and…not recognize that kneejerk bias. Ask The Real Fandom Olds TM who’ve participated in fandom culture since the 80s and 90s and that’s a key issue with Current Fandom and especially younger fans (ie, probably our generation and younger.) Add in that a lot of us online trend (in my antidotal experience) towards having untreated anxiety or depressive symptoms and/or undiagnosed neurodivergent brain wiring that an individual might’ve not quite learned how to cope with yet (and many come with emotional regulation symptoms) in addition to…human brains really just Don’t stop developing until mid20s regardless of someone’s birth gender and brain development is particularly chaotic and…well.

That’s a recipe for a volatile fandom, and since the VLD Characters in particular were geared towards Teens or Teen Nostalgia? [Comfort Blorboing Intensifies.]

Now, in one fic series Idea, Keith DOES become the Red Paladin again, but he has to work for it. Really work for it. Like, the Team is still incredibly hurt that he left and never really apologized for ditching them before THAT Scene where Jiro is forced to step in s4. I think I have in my notes somewhere [coughs] prolly a random post or very buried DM to a friend that Red Lion finally outright takes Keith for a joy ride (much like Blue and Black did with Lance and Shiro) and literally has him bouncing around in zero g and gforces until Red’s really willing to accept him back as Paladin. (Also it makes me feel better.)

[tags: blackbox verse, rewrite the stars, blackbox, veeladee fixit. Note that some of the older posts especially I’ve probably discarded. But I do my best worldbuilding thinking aloud, and hey. It’s fanfic. Who gives af about spoilers? Not me.]

But, in Blackbox verse, I wanted Jiro to have his very own Lion…and the Sincline Meteor is right there. Plus, y’know. Fixing-fixing. Making as much work as I felt like since it was intended to be a series, anyway.

Buuut, that’s not the fic idea you asked about.

The one you asked about is actually a Redo of The Black Paladin’s episode following alteanroyals’ prompt of “what if Shiro’s the one who fights the clone, and the clone gets to just come home. Have his own name.” Because, c’mon. The visuals would’ve been incredible, and Josh Keaton and Studio Mir adores Shiro and Jiro even if the EPs and arguably NONE of the writers (even the better ones trying to patch job before bailing out) gave a shit about Jiro as his own character.

So. Back to Keith.

He actually tries flying Black Lion, same as the (egh) canonical episode…and…

WHOOPS. He gets lasers shot at him for his efforts (hA HA~)

Allura steps in, and has a battle of wills against Black Lion, then realizes that what has Black so torqued is Keith tried to dominate the Lion. (Imo? The only reason why Keith could fly with Black in s2-4 was because of the bond they both had with Shiro. “Help me help you.”) And well. Allura’s learned a thing or two: trying to dominate a Lion does NOT work. She learned that for herself with White Lion, she’s now realizing that’s why Black Lion accepted Shiro as it’s Paladin over Zarkon at all. So Allura changes tactics, senses Shiro’s Quintessence still inside Black Lion nearly two years after he vanished, and calls the others in. They do a reverse-balmera ceremony via their voltron bonds and pull Shiro back out—in his OWN body, tyvm.

And well. Remember how it’s technically a “Shiro vs CloneShiro” prompt? Yeah, they fight. (I’ll try not to have them totally wreck the place. All Shiros are Good Shiros.) And when Black Lion comes for them now that the Lion can get a clear shot? Red Lion also comes.

Because Keith isn’t the only character who holds the needed qualities for a Red Paladin. (Reactive instincts, laser focus, loyalty, but often emotionally volatile.) Jiro does too. And unlike Keith, Jiro stayed even when he “no longer” had a Lion to fly from his POV, and he struggled with the rest of the Team to adjust to Lions that no longer suited them in the wake of Shiro’s Absence. So Red chooses Jiro and flies to him. (Black would’ve saved Jiro, too, even though Jiro wasn’t Black’s true paladin. But seeing a Lion accept him, and further proof that he’s not just a poor copy but his own person and even a Paladin in his own right?)

[gemini fic, shiro vs jiro]

Basically, in starting writing and continuing to ruminate on ideas, I realized that Gemini works best as a single fic, so having Firm Consequences make more sense. Other tidying up?

-Allura and the Paladins take the Castle and immediately head out for the Altean Colony while Shiro (and Black Lion at Black’s literal insistence) go after Jiro. (And with Shiro here to lead and analyze + Convenient Recap/Alternate Explanation, Pidge is able to shut down the virus far earlier before it makes the Castle truly dead in the water.) Haggar never gets her claws into them.

-Keith formally leaves the Blades. He had a family, and he turned his back on them. Those relationships won’t be what they were before (ie, symbolic in losing his Red Paladinship), but this time he’s willing to put the work in to repair their trust in him. Meanwhile, the Blades never were going to help him find his mother intentionally no matter how many times he sacrificed his life for them, and his life and the lives of all the other Blades ultimately meant very little to Kolivan and the Blades as an organization. He surrenders the knife to Krolia, and walks away if Team Voltron will let him stay. It not, he can do better good with the Rebels. (Infiltration was Pidge’s thing, anyway. He’s the showy diversion maker.)

-Lotor returns to Orionde. But when he faces the Ancients and White Lion again, he stops attacking and running from his sins. He sacrifices his full life force, and the Drained Alteans revive fully restored. The tragedy his family caused and he ended up perpetuating ends with him. (That does leave…y’know. The Galran Empire without an Emperor. But hey. IF I finish this fic, that’s potential sequel material, baby!)

-

…anyway. Point is, Keith Antis put a bad taste in my mouth, but the point of “Keith loses Red” wasn’t to punish Keith (okay…maybe a little. But that was still mostly Black blasting lasers everywhere. For catharsis.) The point was, “There are consequence, and while some relationships can be repaired or make new ones with the same people after you’ve hurt them, others can’t. You lose them. It’s important to put in the work, but it’s also important to accept loss and endings, especially after you’ve fucked up.”

And well. I felt that Keith Losing Red, Jiro Gaining Red made things narratively tidy.

[black--sun]

Ichigo scoffs. Shiro doesn’t do menial labor, but Ichigo does. “You’re really dashing all my aspirations in life, you know that?” As if Ichigo ever once dreamed of doing what he does. Actually, he never had many dreams at all. Except finding his mom’s murderer. And he did that years ago. Shiro seems mentally occupied with whatever he’s doing though, so Ichigo decides to let him be.

He frowns, watching Shiro’s back get smaller as he moves down the hallway. “I better go now, then. It’ll be less time everything’s open.” He calls a little louder. “Just leave it on the counter, yeah?” All of his things are still in his pocket, so he doesn’t hesitate to let himself out, leaving his still warm coffee on the edge of the counter, and putting the door back even though Shiro’s probably fixing to go through it. Whatever. Can’t be helped.

He takes the stairs down, hesitates before heading out the front door and takes a different exit. He doesn’t know why he does it, he just remembers being told the cops watch Shiro off and on. So who knows who else might be watching him. And thinking of that has him realizing that Shiro was shorter with him than usual. Maybe that means something’s going on. He’s not sure if Shiro would tell him or not at this point. Doesn’t know where their trust level lies.

Ichigo sighs and dismisses the weird morning conversation in favor of making a mental list of what he needs. The door wasn’t that bad, probably has an aluminum core, but the hardware was twisted, especially the hinges. So whether he wants it or not, Shiro’s getting a new lock.

It doesn’t take him long to find what he needs, but instead of standard grade, he finds security fastenings and grabs an extra deadbolt. Shiro will probably roll his eyes, but he also might have new enemies soon. As if his co-workers aren’t bad enough. Ichigo grabs a welcome mat, just because he wants somewhere to leave Shiro’s keys since he should stay away from the warehouse for a few. But then he puts the plain one back in exchange for the most obnoxiously, cheerful one he can find, complete with smiling flowers. It seems like Shiro’s brand of sarcastic to fix a door and literally roll out a welcome mat for a repeat performance. One Ichigo hopes will leave whoever the fuck tries dead.

He takes his coffee and his phone and sits down on his coffee table, finally checking his phone while he drinks his coffee. He’s assuming no one has realized the guy that saw Ichigo isn’t showing up to whatever he’s supposed to be doing today yet, since he hasn’t missed any calls from numbers he needs to return. He opens a text, reads it, ignores it and opens another.

He looks up at Ichigo when he asks about a screwdriver and frowns. “It’s just a normal screwdriver, what’s so sad about it? I don’t do my own maintenance, I don’t do menial labor.” He gets back up to go fetch it though. His eyes cut to Ichigo again, before drifting away again, and he answers on his way down the hall. “Uh. No, probably not. I gotta show up at the warehouse like normal and pretend I don’t know what’s goin’ on.” Which is a convenient excuse not to stick around and watch Ichigo work. “It was wide open all yesterday. It’s probably fine.”

[autisticlancemcclain]

“Can’t we just give up already?” Pidge whined. “We’ve been hiking in this stupid jungle for a billion years. It’s hot. It’s humid. I’m hungry. We still haven’t found the stupid fucking cave, I don’t even think it’s real. Can’t we just take this one L? Just the one?”

Keith had to agree with her. Normally these adventure missions were right up his alley, but he was more equipped for desert heat — this humid shit was awful. He had no idea how Lance was prancing around like it didn’t affect him. I grew up in Cuba, the weather in the summer sometimes got so hot you literally weren’t allowed outside, this is nothing, bleh bleh bleh. Jerk.

Even Shiro was struggling to stay optimistic, which brought Keith an absurd amount of joy despite his own hatred of the situation. Yeah, it sucked, and it was hot, and he wanted to go lie in a freezer for the next four days, but Shiro had his crazy eyes. It was fantastic. Keith couldn’t wait for the someone to light his fuse juuuuust right. It might be a younger brother thing, but watching Shiro explode was funny literally every time (he watched the Shiro-Slav-Explosion footage before bed every night and laughed just as hard every time. He couldn’t wait to get back to Earth and tell Adam, so they could laugh at Shiro together).

Pidge kept whining about how hot and sweaty she was, eventually goading Hunk to join in, and it finally happened — Shiro cracked!

“Paladins,” he said sharply, smile manic and eyes twitching. Pidge and Hunk snapped their mouths shut immediately. “I know everyone is tired. And hot. But we made the Floroxits a promise, and they need that cave mineral. Allura has assured us it is worth our time. So. We are going to keep following the map, and drinking water, and you two are going to stop whining or so help me God I am going to lose it.”

Keith smirked to himself. Sounded like he had already started to lose it. Heh.

“Now. Hunk. You’ve been on nav, right? I feel like we’ve been walking in circles for a while. Where are we?”

Keith felt a ball of dread grow in his stomach as Hunk started wringing his hands together anxiously, like he did when he knew he had maybe fucked something up.

“Um. Well. I’m not great at nav, and the map looks way different from the actual jungle, so it wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate to possibly maybe insinuate that I. Am not entirely sure. Where exactly. We are.”

Shiro’s eyes twitched harder, but Keith couldn’t even properly enjoy it. They were lost?!

“You got us lost?!” Pidge shrieked. “Hunk! You goober! Why didn’t you say something?”

Hunk threw his hands up, defensive.

“I don’t know! I’m sorry! I kind of just gave Lance the map after a while ‘cause I couldn’t figure it out! I was hoping he’d maybe know —“

Keith turned behind him, about to give Lance as much shit as Pidge was giving Hunk (yes, he was well aware this wasn’t in any way Lance’s fault, but pissing off Lance was almost as fun as driving Shiro loony. Keith lived and breathed for their little rivalry and arguments, although he would rather eat a rabid squirrel than admit that to Lance under any circumstance), but did a double take when he didn’t see the Blue Paladin right behind him.

“Wha — where’s Lance?” Shiro demanded, looking at Keith. Keith threw his arms up, incredulous.

“Why the hell are you asking me? I’m not his babysitter! I don’t know! Why are you looking at me like I killed and buried him, or something?”

“Well if it was gonna be anyone…” Pidge muttered. Keith glared at her darkly.

“Who’s side are you even on?” he demanded. She shrugged, uncaring.

“My loyalty can be bought and sold like gasoline during an economic crisis. You have no god here.”

Keith rolls his eyes. “Whatever. I did not kill Lance, I have no idea where he is. But…” Keith but his lip, letting a bit of his anxiety show through. You won’t get him to admit it out loud, but he worries about Lance. That loveable dumbass somehow always finds himself at the business end of a sword or gun, no matter the situation, and it kind of stresses him out. Keith has no idea how it’s even possible, given that they are miles into the deepest part of a literal uninhabited jungle, but he wouldn’t be shocked to turn a corner and see Lance shit-talking one of Zarkon’s goons with a blaster pointed directly at his forehead.

“Y’know,” Keith muttered. “We should probably look for him, or whatever.”

Keith scowled further when he saw the smile envelop Hunk’s face. “Aw,” he cooed, “I knew you cared about Lance, buddy.”

“Actually, on second thought, he can die in this jungle. Why would I want him here anyway, he’s frustrating and loud and his face is so distracting and —“

“Wait, shut up for a second,” Pidge interrupted. She squinted at something just behind Keith. “As much as I would love to hear Keith admit how often he makes goo-goo eyes at our one and only Blue Paladin… are those Lance’s shoes?”

Keith turns to face what she’s squinting at, pointedly ignoring the goo-goo eyes comment (he does NOT, Lance is stupid and not at all pretty, okay, Pidge can shut the fuck up), and raises an eyebrow when he sees not only Lance’s dorky retro sneakers, but also his stupidly adorable shark socks and what looks to be a good portion of his armour.

To say everyone is flabbergasted is an understatement. Shiro, in particular, looks absolutely bewildered. “Why would he — Lance is the biggest germaphobe on the ship, why would he be walking barefoot around the — he’s gonna step on something —” A voice called out from way above them.

“I found the cave, guys! It’s about six kilometers to the east!”

Four heads shot upwards, eyes widening as they focused on a tiny waving blob, several dozen storeys high in a tree.

“Oh my God — Lance hold on! Don’t move” Shiro demanded, panicked. “You don’t have your jetpack! We’ll come get you, oh my God!”

Either Lance didn’t hear him, or decided to ignore him (Keith could guess which one was true for the contrary little fucker, albeit a little hysterically — Lance had to be at least 300 feet in the air, and Keith had seen him trip over his own two feet six times in the last four days. Sue him for worrying a little), because he took a running leap off a branch, launching himself in the air.

Keith is not the only one who screamed at the top of his lungs, and he’ll bet his lion on that. Pidge is a lying liar who lies and never agrees with Keith ever. Keith heard her scream too, Pidge is a gaslighter and a fraud.

But Lance was not plummeting to his death, thankfully. He angled his body, curving his fall, and then grabbed on to a nearby vine, using his own momentum to swing himself around the paladins, letting go at the peak of his arch. He flipped twice in the air, then landed in a graceful crouch in front of everyone, grinning at them.

“That was awesome!” he exclaimed, straightening up and dusting off his flight suit. He walked over to his pile of stuff, and started pulling everything back on.

Everyone gaped at him. After several moments of stunned silence, Lance looked up from where he was tugging on his leg braces.

“What?” he asked, as if he had not just leapt from a tree as tall an average apartment building. With zero safety equipment. Informing no one of his plans or his apparent skill in said stunt.

Keith, predictably, recovered first. Any chance to start something with his rival. Go figure.

“What the shit was that?!” he demanded, shrill.

Lance raised a brow, either not seeing the issue or willfully ignoring it.

“Uh, me wrapping up this mission?”

“What part of jumping to your death was wrapping up the mission?” Pidge screeched, for once backing Keith up.

Lance rolled his eyes. “I didn’t ‘jump to my death’,” he argued around mocking air quotes. “I made sure the tree was sturdy and climbable. I checked for vines strong enough to swing on. I’ve done this before. It wasn’t a Keith decision. It was well thought out! And now I know where the cave is, so we can grab those minerals and bounce.”

Before Keith even had the chance to be offended over Lance substituting his name for ‘impulsive’, Shiro had already walked away, muttering something about ‘high blood pressure’ and ‘goddamned thick-headed children who don’t think a damn thing through’ or whatever it was old men grumbled about. Keith resolved to make fun of him for it later. Hunk spoke up next.

“Not to encourage you or anything,” said Lance’s number one enabler in an enabling tone, “But that was kind of dope. You looked like Spider-Man, and you got us out of this stupid jungle faster. So. Props, man.”

“Aw, thanks, dude!” said Lance, grinning, as he bumped Hunk’s outstretched fist. Pidge threw her hands up, incredulous.

“Unbelievable! He leaps from 300 feet in the air and you congratulate him. Say it was fucking cool. I hate boys.” She stormed off to join Shiro, but Keith didn’t miss the slight smile on her face. He knew that she knew that as reckless as it was, what Lance did was unfortunately cool as shit.

Keith scowled at Lance and at himself for thinking that Lance was in any way anything other than a dork, and punched him twice in the arm.

“Ow! Fuck! What is your problem, Keith? Why did you hit me twice?” he demanded, rubbing his shoulder. Keith sniffed.

“First one is for jumping to your death like a fucking crazy person. The second one is for not inviting me. Jackass.”

He stalked away, but couldn’t hide his grin at Lance’s answering laugh. He rolled his eyes at himself.

Whatever. At least his crush was cool. Shiro’s fiancé unironically went to bed at 8 p.m. and got up early to watch birds eat worms or whatever.

Keith wins this one.

[writers-worst-nightmare]

Kittens (Keith x reader)

Song you are singing

Warning(s): A TON OF CUSSING, reckless driving, got lazy at the end, Keith loosing one of his lives

THIS IS A REAL LIFE AU WHERE THERE IS NO SPACE OR ANYTHING AND THEY ARE ON EARTH

Fandom: Voltron

Word Count: 1,510

Pairing(s): Keith x reader

Genera: chaotic fluff

A/N: this is basically a Voltron version of “no braincells“ but I added a twist to make things more interesting

Request are always open!

Keith stared at the tiny kittens surrounding him, he froze in place and looked up to you as a plea of help witch was rudely declines when you started snickering before bursting out into laughter. Soon the whole crew joined in on laughing at Keith with a bunch of kittens. Pidge was snapping pictures and uploading it to their Instagram, Lance was recording a tiktok, Shiro was trying to get the cats off of Keith, Hunk was laughing, and you where adding more cats to the pile on his lap. “Y/N DON’T ENCOURAGE THEM!” Shiro scolded. You rolled your eyes before grabbing a small black and white kitten and placing it on Keith’s lap. The crew had decided to meet up after band practice and stay at your house. Little did they all know that you fostered animals, you had a couple of dogs and Birds but you mainly fostered cats cause they look so fucking cute.

“But it fuuunnnn!” You wine, only making Hunk laugh even harder until he was literally on the ground laughing so hard.

“They are kind of cute…” Keith muttered as he stared at the cats and back at you and then back at the cats.

“Why don’t Keith and I go to get some cat stuff at the mall, you three can make yourselves at home by the way!” You called as you dragged Keith into your car and hopped in the drivers side.

“Oh no…” Keith muttered as he stared wide eyed at you starting the car.

“What?”

”Please don’t tell me—“

”Oh, yeah I am driving!”

“LET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!”

You locked the car doors and started to drive on there highway. Keith relaxed a bit as he thought that you where going to be normal

Big mistake

As soon as you saw all the muscles sink into the car seat you smirked and pulled up a radio station. Since Keith hasn’t been with you in the car before (for a good reason since everyone that has let you drive a car was gotten sick) he didn’t know that you LOVES music. Probably even more then you loved anime (which was saying something).

The fuck? Hold on Bitches got beef but don't wanna fight me Quit all that barkin', ho, bite me Bitch Hold on

”What the fuck is this?” Keith asked as he started to lean forward before the song started and you higher Ed the volume all the way up

Bitch, you fat, need a tummy tuck (Yep) You dropping diss songs, man, bitch, get your money up (For sure, then)

”It is called ‘go best friend’ and it is awesome” You answered as you rolled down your window and started singing along to the beat of the song and speeding slightly.

If you 'bout it, then run it up Used to be cool with this bitch, but she mad that I'm coming up

Keith hesitated softly before pulling up the lyrics on his phone and starting to sing along slowly. Afraid of what would happen next. You turned right and got on the off-road. Keith stiffened as he has heard one to many times what happens when you go off road and onto the dirt paths that you have most likely made yourself.

You a thot, you gon' suck it up I got a white bitch in the club, wanna pump it up (Woo, woo)

You started speeding even faster the before and Keith was prepared for the worst. Looking for a pencil and a piece of paper before settling on a anime journal that you had and a pen

Fuck a speech, I'ma sum it up $hy on the track and you already know she gonna fuck it up (Ayy, yeah) Bitch need to worry 'bout a bag I'm rocking these shows, and that's why she mad (Aha)

”I am going to give Lance my fuck you energy, Shiro my Hot Topic shirts, Pidge my suicidal thought, Hunk my fuck boy energy, and y/n my outmost hatred.” Keith started to say as he wrote out his will.

“Oh come on I am not that bad of a driver!” You pouted, looking away from the road and staring at Keith. Keith widened his eyes and grabbed the steering wheel so he could drive.

After this diss, you goin' out sad Bitch, you not bougie, you don't got no class (Bitch) Turnt in the booth and I'm piped off that gas Spin on yo' block, then we hitting the dash (Shoot, shoot)

”The last time you said that Pidge ended up in a flicking tree!” Keith argued, holding back the urge to choke you out, you rolled your eyes and elbowed the emo boy out of the way to take control of driving

It's still love for you, though But, bitch, I'm 'bout to get on your ass (Haha)

You started screaming the lyrics and Keith’s heart seemed to be going backwards as he grabbed his phone and gripped it tightly in his hands before button the record button.

$hy gotta potty mouth You wanna talk shit? Bitch, let's talk 'bout your body count You stink, throw your body out Tryna hang wit' the kid, I'm the life of the party now (Yeah)

He stopped the video and sent it to the “why do we still exist?” Group chat that consist of the gang

-character development Sasuke sent a video-

Non-binary owl: WORK IT Y/N YEAAAH

Sapnap but better: oh no…

Panda dude from beastars: have you written your will yet?

-character development Sasuke sent a picture-

Character development Sasuke: already got it written out

Won’t shut up about how bisexual this man is: I GET FUCK YOU ENERGY?!

Sapnap but better: I GET FUCK BOY ENERGY

Non-binary owl: can we all collectively agree to play/sing WAP at Keith’s funeral

Your lil' sister look up to me (Yeah) Bitch, you can't rap and you really not touching me (No) Just like a virgin, lil' bitch, cannot fuck wit' me And I never been pussy, bitch, you know what's up with me (For sure, then)

Won’t shut up about how bisexual this man is: As long as I get to do the dance

Panda dude from beastars: NO ONE IS PLAYING WAP AT ANYONES FUNERAL

Panda dude from beastars: Look Keith you are going to be fine

Why this bitch wanna pop shit? We was just cool, now this bitch wanna act like a opp bitch (The fuck?)

“What happens if I go off the edge…?” You wonder out loud, Keith looks up at you with a panicked expression.

Oh, she mad she can't stop shit Said that my breath stink 'cause I'm spittin' that hot shit (Hot, hot)

“NO Y/N DON’T GO OFF THE EDGE! THIS IS NOT FUCKING MINECRAFT!!” Keith lectured as he tried to roll down the window but silently cried to himself as he realized that you had child’s lock on.

Quit all that barkin', lil' bitch, and come bite me Bitches got beef, but they don't wanna fight me (Wait, wait)

You ignored Keith and smiled up yourself as you almost ran over some ducks

Turnt to my music, but swear they don't like me You got my number, ho, FaceTime, Skype me These hoes wanna be me I'm on your radio, soon I'ma be on your TV John Cena, bitches can't see me (Nope) I'm goin' up, and it's hella fans wanna meet me (Hey, haha)

“WHY DID YOU ALMOST RUN OVER DUCKS?!” Keith screamed as he plastered himself against the window.

Bitches don't get me Bitch, why you hatin? You could've been goin up with me (For sure, then) Spear on the bitch like she Britney You could dissed any bitch, but instead, you gon' pick me (Okay, the fuck?)

You did a wide turn and Keith practically flew in the air, he got up off the floor and cursing the seatbelt for failing to protect him against your ruthless grasp.

Make a bitch wanna hit me (Ayy, ayy) Bitches be cap on my name, the shoe did not fit me (No, it didn't) Show these bitches no pity (Yeah) These bitches wanna be friends, admit it, you miss me (Go)

Keith peered over the dashboard thanks to him now being on the floor and distantly saw the mall “YESSS WE ARE ALMOST THERE!!!!” Keith exclaimed as he got exited ready to leave this hell hole that mortals calls a car

Wrap up the beat like a doobie I don't give a fuck 'bout opinions, you know I'ma do me (Hey, hold on) Bitch, you a gnat, you a groupie Told that lil' bitch it's some snacks, and we pulled up with Scoobies

you lowered the volume to one as you pulled up in the parking lot and slowed down the car before parking somewhere close to the mall. You didn’t even look bothered to the fact of your reckless driving while Keith was looking like a whole tumbleweed fell over and hit him in the rib cage.

[fandomsnfluff]

.....vld headcanons because why not

i just can’t help myself no judgies (i wrote minis on my other blog but ofc i wanted to expand on them over here lmaooooo)

shiro

he’s kind of AVERAGELY ticklish??? if you know what i mean by that??? like he’ll probably just try to squirm away if you poke at his sides and maaaaybe giggle a bit if you’re persistent?? like it’s not too bad for him??

however. HOWEVER. there are two (2) spots that he just. can’t handle having touched. and those are his underarms (underarm?) and feet. like seriously you are putting YOURSELF at risk if you go for these spots tbh. like again he can normally tough it out but he loses all touch with reality if you get either of these places

he makes this really hilariously high-pitched shriek, like he barely even laughs skjdhfsdfk. but when he does he sounds like he’s choking

he and adam had a TON of tickle fights back when they lived together at the garrison. like literally ANYTHING will turn into tickle battles because of shiro’s sneaky ass

like i said before he’d grab his boyfriend in a hug and just hold him and tickle him out of nowhere. adam is much more insanely ticklish than shiro so he’s likely to lose maaaaybe 9/10

lance

HE IS THE MOST TEASY AND TOUCHY PERSON YOU WILL EVER MEET IN YOUR LIFE I SHIT YOU NOT. he is much more of a ler but when he’s a lee?? he’s kind of dead tbh

like this kid loses ALL control when he gets tickled. seriously he just spazzes out all over the place and lets out this inhuman shriek. it doesn’t even matter where you tickle him he just can’t help it

he’s like a giant walking tickle spot tbh??? but his neck, sides, and feet are pretty sensitive tbh. again i don’t think his reactions are all that different if you target other places he’ll still sound like a dying cow KJSDHFKJSHDF

HE LITERALLY TICKLES KEITH ALL THE FUCKING TIME SKJDHFDSJKF. HE GIVES ZERO FUCKS ABOUT IF HE GETS PUNCHED IN THE FACE HE JUST WANTS TO SEE GRUMPY BOY LAUGHING 😭 

listen he and his siblings have tickle fights all the time and as the youngest HE IS CONSTANTLY THE TARGET PLS HELP HIM. but he doesn’t really express that he minds all that much??? he’s always just like “that was fucking torture” or something but waits to get the perpetrator back??? he is a very interesting individual

keith

okay i’ve been standing by this since day one but imo keefy is THE most ticklish paladin. by fucking far lmao

he??? genuinely has NO idea why???? he’s so fucking sensitive and he thinks it’s the weirdest thing ever??? but he’ll deny it to his grave even though absolutely NOBODY is taking his shit

he’s grumpy as hell if ANYBODY tries it. he might just punch them in the face. but if they actually DO manage to get him then he’s just. he’s done. he CANNOT handle it for SHIT.

like literally the INSTANT someone latches onto his sides he just lets out this inhuman SHRIEK and attempts to muffle it with whatever he can but TO NO AVAIL

he cannot hold his laughter back for shit. he just breaks into this really uncontrolled HOWLING laughter like he’s being tortured, it’s alarming but cute

everybody was completely shocked but actually kind of ecstatic as well from this??? the instant the bridge found out about his weakness they kind of all became monsters lmao

he’s ticklish as hell ABSOLUTELY everywhere, sides, underarms, neck, feet, you name it. but his feet are his absolute weakest point, he’ll just scream if you go for them. but he wears shoes everywhere, all the time, even when he’s sleeping, so it’s actually pretty difficult to get to them kjsdhfsd

hunk

HE IS. SO SOFT. listen hunk absolutely loves using tickling as a bonding tactic especially with keith. HE LEGITIMATELY HAS NO FEAR.

but like. also listen to this. he’s also kinda?? extremely weak?? probably weaker to lighter touches but don’t get me wrong heavy tickles make him laugh too

his sides and ribs would probably be really ticklish, he makes a lot of funny snorting noises when you get him here and he probably wheezes and coughs a lot too

he probably says “i can’t breathe!” like right away even though he can, he just doesn’t want to be tickled

he’s probably the most MERCILESS lers of the whole team tbh. he’s not a very fast runner if the person he’s targeting tries to run away but if he does manage to latch on to them?? THEY’D BETTER PREPARE THEMSELVES FOR THE TICKLING OF THE CENTURY. THIS MAN IS ABSOLUTELY MERCILESS LIKE HE’S MADE THE OTHER PALADINS SCREAM AT LEAST ONCE

pidge

i feel like?? her reactions definitely depend on her mood at a given time and day?? like if you’re sitting next to her and you poke her it just won’t work but surprising her will when she’s hyperfocused or in a good mood will

she’s not really a big fan of being tickled tbh. i mean if you get her in the right mood she’ll probably scream and attempt to punch or kick you (cuz she’s a kicker, watch out) and start shouting curses through her laughter

i mean that’s basically her reaction to tickling tbh, she kind of gets completely out of control from all of it and will lose all sense of reality tbh.

i think her torso just as a whole would be really sensitive?? like all the way from the underarms to the hips and also her stomach??

she roughhouses a lot with matt who knows exactly how to tickle his sister, and she’s probably hypersensitive to his touch so she just crumbles instantly when he gets her. but she definitely gets him back, and i do think matt is actually more ticklish than pidge in a very general sense

but yeah speaking of her getting matt back, she’s fucking RUTHLESS. you do not want to be at her hands. despite her small size she WILL manage to hold you down and she WILL find your weakest spot. you probably won’t win this one sorry

[willadisastercry]

Sleep deprived Keith annoying the crap out of the other paladins before crashing

Tw: depiction of sleep deprivation, insomnia, needles.

Keith has trouble sleeping sometimes... but this is a new level for him. His teammates can’t remember the last time he looked well slept and neither can he. They also don’t remember him being this hyper or social with them, like literally ever.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Shiro so annoyed,” Lance whispered over a crouched Pidge as they peered around the corner into the control room.

Keith was hovering around Shiro as he typed away on the panel in front of him, working out the strategy for their next mission.

“Well, if you really think about it, the Galra are kind of like space Russia, they have a lot of real estate, the people are really tall, and—hey, wait why wouldn’t we infiltrate the loading dock first? That’s the most reliable route because the lions won’t be far, we can just cloak them ya know, like all stealth? and if we go in where...”

“I think his mouth is twitching, watch. There it is, it did it again!” Pidge pointed out, her eyes wide in amazement.

The older boy’s mouth was indeed twitching, the corner pulling up like he wanted to say something as well as drop someone, but he refrained from both.

“I think I would’ve punted Keith across the room by now... do you think Shiro meditates, he must meditate, ya know? He’s always so calm and reasonable, always telling us that we have to breathe and whatever, no one can possibly be that zen without—“

But before Lance could finish his analysis on Shiro’s freak ability to be so zen, the basis of his argument shattered with an explosion from their team leader.

“I can’t even hear myself think, Keith!” Shiro started, a vein very visibly pumping away on his forehead as his face took on a dark flush.

“I have been watching the same surveillance loop for five minutes now beccause I can’t focus with you rambling in my ear!”

The red paladin’s face fell, his antsy pacing halted and his hands tapping his side like he was anticipating something. He took a breath. He hadn’t realized he’d started trembling.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—fuck,” Keith said before turning away, “I’ll leave you alone.”

Lance and Pidge nearly toppled over with how aggressively they flung themselves away from where they had been perched while they eavesdropped. Mostly out of curiosity at how Shiro would handle a manic-ly energetic Keith.

They could hear Shiro cursing under his breath, then ushering an apology for being so harsh but Keith likely didn’t hear it as he hightailed it out of there. He moved so quickly he didn’t even notice the pair as they stood planted in the center of the hallway failing to feign even the slightest of nonchalance.

Shiro ducked his head out to find that Keith had already disappeared and became wildly flustered when he found the very guilty-looking pair instead.

“Uhuh,” he cleared his throat, “do you guys know what’s going on with Keith? I didn’t mean to be such a dick, but he’s like next level tweaking out and I have no idea why...”

“Uh, we’re not sure either,” Pidge replied, “but he’s been like this all morning.”

“Yeah, he made Coran snap and crack a crystal in half earlier...”

“Oooo and Allura stained her dress when he wouldn’t shut up about how human mice carry infection and probably shouldn’t be near food and then she like flung her coffee...”

“And poor Hunk was trying to entertain his ramblings about the how hard it is to attain cinnamon in space and that it should be rationed and ended up burning a whole batch of snickerdoodles...”

“He was bouncing off the walls, it was weird” Pidge resolved. “And Keith never has that much energy.”

“Yeah, he’s been rambling, that’s my thing! The kid hardly says more than five words in one sentence and now he can’t shut up,” Lance added, scratching his head.

“Okay,” Shiro looked like he was running over in his head a million possibilities of what could be wrong, “will you two go check on him for me... and let him know I didn’t mean to yell at him?”

“Of course.”

“We’ll let you know if we figure it out,” Lance promised before they started after their friend.

They checked the common room first as it was the next room on their way and found only a grumpy Hunk scraping the singed bits off of the plate of cookies in front of him.

“D’you see Keith?” Pidge asked, surveying the sight before her.

“No,” he gruffed sadly, taking a bite of one of the cookies and breaking it off with a loud snap.

“Okay, keep an eye out, we think something’s wrong...” Lance looked around, “I know where he might’ve gone but we have to grab something first, let’s go.”

They took off at an urgent trot, once again more out of curiosity than concern because this just didn’t occur. Keith is a guy of few words, so when he speaks it’s usually sarcasm, not a rapid flurry of silly questions that seem more like the goofy blue paladin than the tempered red. This was weird for him. And they just wanted to know why.

But their curiosity changed quickly into fear as soon as they entered the hallway of the training room because they could hear the intense whir of the simulator working. From down the hall.

“Shit Keith,” Lance said activating their bayards they stopped to pick up on the way.

“He’s got it on the highest setting—not even Shiro can handle that intensity solo,” Pidge noted as they raced for the door.

“This kid’s got a death wish,” Lance deadpanned as he wrenched the doors of the training room open, only to be immediately met with Keith’s strangled scream as his head snapped against the floor with a sickening crack, the sentry that threw him across the room quickly closing the distance between them.

Lance ran forward and knelt down, slowly lining up shots and taking down the new sentries as soon as they regenerated while Pidge made her way to the kill switch.

By the time she got to the lever and tugged it all the way down Keith was dangling from his twisted arm and throat, shuddering gasps the only noise he was able to make in protest.

Lance had just taken out the second sentry cornering Keith with a head shot when every robot assailant powered down at once, the one choking Keith releasing his grip on his throat first, his arm pulling at an awkward angle as he fell before it was released. The pale boy let out a shrill gush before clamping his lips together tightly and pulling his slumped form up with the help of the wall.

“What the fuck was that, mullet?!”

He refused to make eye contact with his worried friends as he went to storm out like before, but this time he moved slowly, gingerly.

“I needed a good workout... to clear my head,” was all he managed. They could tell he didn’t want to let on that he was in pain, but the way he grimaced when his arm swung as he walked as well as the obvious bump protruding from his shoulder where no bone should be told them otherwise.

“Oh, that’s a load! That was not a good workout, that was a good ass-whooping! And I’m not entirely sure there’s anything left in your head to clear after the way it smacked the—“

“You’re hurt,” Pidge blurted. “The sentry dislocated your shoulder, I’m staring at the head of your right humerus and I shouldn’t be able to do that...”

“Oh... huh,” was all the mind he seemed willing to pay to his injury, his eyes bleary and wider than usual as he continued to walk away from them, but they persisted.

“We’re taking you to get that checked out by Coran. Right now,” Lance ordered.

“I’m good,” he assured, shouldering the door with his other arm.

Lance reached the door handle first and pulled on it, keeping Keith from going anywhere and spurring a low groan when his bad shoulder was jolted.

“Lance...”

He looked so tired.

He closed his eyes and continued to lean heavily into the hulking door of the training room. Under the bright artificial lights his skin looked greyer than it usually did, every bone in his face sickly accentuated and sharpened, the staple bags underneath his eyes hanging heavier than ever.

“Keith, you’re hurt and something else is obviously wrong so NO, we’re not letting you storm off to go pout to maintain your stup—“

“Shut up—“

Keith’s vision tunneled, his eyes fixed in a clearly unfocused haze as he stared at nothing.

“What?” Lance questioned, very caught off guard by the sudden interjection.

“I s-said shut u-up,” he whispered as he sucked in a shuddering breath.

The shrillness of Lance’s chastisement made his head swim and he blinked away the haze that came with the sudden levity.

“Hey, take it easy...”

It seemed the more he tried to control the tremor in his voice the worse his entire body seemed to shake.

He was fading; he could feel it.

The exhaustion had given way to anxiety as the adrenaline dripped dry allowing him to fully feel the pain in his shoulder as it pulsed angrily.

It was like the tide was washing out, the tumultuous waves of the storm that settled itself in his chest receding just before the next wave surged, and then he could feel everything he’d been ignoring.

Every individual bone seemed to ache with weariness and the pressure behind his tired eyes was so immense that it made him unsteady.

“Woah, what’s going on man?”

The floor suddenly seemed to shift beneath him, like he was walking on one of those moving conveyer belts in the airport that made your feet feel weird once you were back on solid ground.

“I think you should sit down,” Pidge urged, tugging worriedly at the hem of his shirt.

As much as his pride wanted him to protest he couldn’t seem to muster enough energy to even disagree let alone have a shred of cofidence that he could possibly get himself back to his room on his own.

They seemed to understand by his silence that he wouldn’t push away their help now and then he could feel firm hands on his good shoulder and back, guiding his trembling frame down to the floor where he came to rest his head on the knee that wasn’t bouncing.

“Where you at, mullet?”

The tinier hand had never left the middle of his back and rubbed soothing circles on the tense muscles beneath it.

“Can you tell us what you feel like right now?” Pidge asked before moving a hand to steady his restless leg.

He took a strained breath.

“D-dizzy... c-cold maybe, I-I don’t know why I can’t stop s-shaking.”

“That’s okay, don’t worry about that.”

“Here, this’ll help,” Lance added as he draped his jacket over Keith’s back, careful to not have it touch his injury.

“How’s your shoulder? Is anything else hurting?”

Keith thought about it for a solid minute, finding it sort of difficult to organize his thoughts and give Pidge an answer.

“Hurts a lot. S-so does my head... I have a headache—maybe... maybe a migraine I d-don’t know.”

“Is that what was bothering you before? The lights are pretty bright in here so that’s probably not helping... why don’t we start heading to the infirmary, before it gets worse?”

He nodded slowly against his knee and lifted his head up, his eyes still pressed together tightly. He pried one open to test his head but the swirling nausea and general agony that followed was answer enough.

“You don’t have to keep them open if it hurts.”

He hummed in acknowledgment and steeled himself as they took up his good arm and pulled him to his feet then waited for him to give the go ahead before making their way.

It was almost worse when his eyes were closed. The pounding in his head had only increased while they guided him, each step rattling his brain around so painfully that it almost distracted him from the instense heat in his shoulder.

He didn’t know why his head hurt so bad and why it was making his eyes so sensitive. He knew he’d hid it, but not hard enough to warrant this. He was also really tired, practically jumping out of his skin every few moments when he let his head tip forward slightly as if to nod off, which was entirely strange and alarming seeing as he was so drowsy he almost fell asleep while still walking.

He hadn’t noticed when they made it to the infirmary, only realizing when he was being pushed to sit down on something and a light was being shone across his now opened eyes.

“No! Oh-ouch,” he inhaled sharply when the light retreated and he was left seeing a blurred strip of bright white across his field of vision.

“I apologize, my boy, it had to be done. No concussion though! We have dimmed the lights for your comfort, the aversion is most peculiar given your injuries... “

He proded Keith’s shoulder blade and the inflamed area around it, earning a hiss when he tested the dexterity of the limb.

“The scanner detects significant ligament damage that will need to be corrected in a pod after I er... set the joint in its proper place. It will hurt for only a tick and I have several nerve blockers and muscle relaxers I can inject in the area to make the process less painful. Does that sound manageable to—“

But Coran didn’t get to hear Keith’s answer, the way his face greened and he clamped a hand over mouth was telling enough. He bit back a sob as he lurched forward, not enough time or notice for anyone to prepare before Keith was dry heaving, but they didn’t really need to worry because nothing but saliva came up.

“Were you at all ill before this today? This is the first time you’ve been sick to your stomach... when was the last time you ate?”

Silence only followed for a dobash before all three launched into different themes of admonition, but they all had the same anger to them. He knew they meant well, that they were just worried, but the bite to their words made his eyes sting like hell and he was seriously worried he wouldn’t be able to keep the tears at bay before Shiro was there telling them to be quiet.

He turned his head away and tried to breathe normally, but his chest was working up and his head throbbed pitifully and the movement made the burning in his shoulder deepen to where he had to hold his breath to keep from aggravating it. But Shiro’s warm, human hand was pulling his face towards his own, his eyes taking in Keith’s form and coming to several conclusions at once, the tension everywhere, the darkness under his eyes, the tightness in his jaw, the way his hands shook entwined about themselves...

“Keith,” his voice was so low and warm, he felt his chest pang at the gentleness in it. He closed his eyes, he knew what was coming next and he was both relieved and terrified for it.

“When was the last time you got a solid night’s sleep?”

He waited, even though they both already knew the answer and then it was when his hand moved to cup the top of his head that he finally broke. He didn’t need to speak for Shiro to know the answer.

Too long. It had been entirely too long since Keith could remember going to bed and waking up refreshed, each night only more frustrating than the last as he laid his head on his pillow and closed his eyes, knowing full well it wouldn’t work. Nothing did.

This week had been too much though. Running on empty on far too many missions followed by a dozen insomnia-induced late night training sessions trying to tire himself out in order to snag only a few hours of rest.

He’d just kept excerting himself and not ever properly recharging, but not on purpose, he physically couldn’t.

That part wasn’t his fault, he couldn’t help that, but he could let people know he was struggling and he had purposefully not alerted Shiro.

“Shit, Keith,” Shiro murmured with Keith’s forehead on his chest as he held back the sound of his crying, “you have to tell me when it gets bad like this! It’s not safe for you to be fighting and training when you’re not properly rested, you know that...”

Coran resumed analyzing his shoulder.

“And now you’re hurt because I snapped at you—Keith, I’m so sorry, I should’ve realized...”

“D-dont,” he managed through stiff breaths as Coran worked his bad arm gently out of his shirt, “s’not your fault, never is.”

Shiro set his jaw and eyed Coran who looked at him sadly and nodded.

“This conversation is far from over, but we have to get that shoulder fixed right now.”

Coran asked Pidge to gather some supplies and Lance to help him brace Keith.

“You’ll feel a small pinch in your arm now.”

He did. The area felt cold with the liquid that was now under his skin and Coran rubbed it for a minute before moving near his collarbone.

“This one might burn, but you’ll find it entirely numb in a dobash.”

This one was quicker, less to inject, longer to rub in so it spread. It burned and itched, earning a groan before he felt less of Coran’s fingers and more of just pressure.

“Oh, that’s... better.”

“Good, I’m glad.”

He felt someone kneeling behind him holding just below his shoulder and around his chest. Someone else was in front of him holding his arm up with their hand on his other shoulder, Shiro’s hands on his shaking one.

“Now I trust you’re familiar with what is about to happen, do you want me to explain what I am doing or—“

“Don’t explain, just—“

The pain that exploded with the hollow pop that followed was even grosser than the sound itself. Keith’s vision whited for a second and he was immediately ashen and panting as his body worked through the shock of the correction, his ears rang and so he wasn’t sure if he had screamed or not but with the way his throat ached he’d assumed he had.

Exhaustion weighed on him like a sopping wet blanket, making it difficult to keep his head up let alone his entire upper body. He wasn’t sure how long he had been leaned against Shiro’s chest once he started coming back to himself and realized he was the only thing keeping him upright.

Something was compressing his shoulder, pulling in places he didn’t quite like as it was wrapped tightly around the still damaged joint, making its way around his chest and back several times. Shiro held him away for a moment while something fell around his neck that held his arm against his chest and had an attachment to secure it to his side.

He tried to open his eyes and see what was going on but they were so very heavy and he was in awe of how he wasn’t entirely asleep by now, almost thankful for the steady ache behind his eyes as it was forcing him to keep them closed.

“You still there, Keith?”

He hummed into Shiro’s shirt in response.

“Hey, so we’re going to forgo the pod to repair all the torn ligaments for a little while. Coran thinks it’s best that you catch up on your sleep without the being frozen part... we’ll see how you’re feeling tomorrow, does that sound alright to you?”

It sounded superb to him. Truly.

He wasn’t sure if it was the adrenaline crash or the general daze from sleep deprivation, but he was entirely checked out. Sufficiently out of it to care much about anything other than Coran’s lovely altean painkillers and the comfy pillow his head was now resting on.

Once he was laid down he felt himself slipping into unconsciousness almost immediately, the last thing he knew before he was consumed in bliss was the blanket that was being pulled up to his chest and Shiro calming words.

“Rest, buddy.”

And he finally did because now he actually could.

He wasn’t sure if it was the level of exhaustion he’d brought himself to or the threat of pain when he awoke, but whatever it was keeping him asleep he was grateful for it. Coran never even had to administer a sedative to keep him down during the night, just pain killers so he wouldn’t be woken up by his shoulder.

He slept for a day and a half after that, everyone taking turns watching over him while he slept so Shiro didn’t bring upon himself a similar fate.

The next time he was conscious coming deep into the next night, nearly early morning. Shiro stirred in the chair he was posted up in when Keith groaned and tried to turn over but cried out instead.

“Crap, what—hey... you’re okay,” Shiro soothed as he held Keith’s searching hand away from the thick layer of bandages covering his shoulder.

“It hurts, Shiro! It h-hurts!”

“I know, Keith, I know it hurts.”

Shiro sounded sad, Keith didn’t want to make him sad.

“I’m sorry...”

“You don’t need to be sorry for anything, bud.”

“I was stupid, I shoulda t-told you—just didn’t want you to worry.”

“I’m always going to worry about you, Keith. All of us are going to worry until you stop giving us reasons to,” he laughed weakly as he ran his hand through Keith’s hair while his breathing returned to normal.

“And until then, we’ll be here to make sure you don’t get pulverized by the training simulators and aren’t walking around delirious from not having slept in a week, okay?”

“Aha, yeah... okay.”

He tried to doze off again, but the steady pulse of pain in his shoulder seemed to prevent it. After an hour of trying, Shiro called Coran in who agreed it was also time to go into a pod.

“You will feel as good as new in no time, number four.”

Keith nodded absently as he rested his head back against the cushion in the cryopod before its doors closed with a whoosh and then cold surrounded him, lulling him off into another much needed sleep.

[anartisticexpression]

Mystery Skulls -The Future

Alright, now that I’ve watched “Mystery Skulls Animated -The Future” and am now done screaming into a pillow because I never could have predicted THAT ending in a million years, let me get some initial thoughts down…

*Whenever I listen to “Enemy” I always think how perfectly this fits with not only Arthur and Lewis’s situation but Mystery and Shiromori’s as well so cue a pleased, “Oh!” from me that a snippet of “Enemy” made its way into the beginning of this video. Very nice!

*I’ve completely been expecting for two years that, as soon as doubt crept over Lewis’s skull, that the cave would disappear and Arthur would simply land back in the truck unharmed so that wasn’t a surprise. What WAS a surprise is that, I admit, I had fully convinced myself that the gunshot sound at the end of “Hellbent” was Lance shooting Shiromori so the reveal that it was Lewis all along that was the target really made me dramatically gasp!

*Gunshots obviously don’t affect a ghost… except for the one that went through Lewis’s chest aka his death wound which is one of those details that make you go, “Actually that DOES make a kind of sense. Ghosts WOULD be sensitive in the area that killed them.”

It also shows that Lewis isn’t entirely in control of his actions. Ghosts are beings of pure emotion and it doesn’t take much for him to go right back to irrational anger and rough up Lance which is… not cool, man. He’s going to be sorry later when he can think straight!

*The bit with the changing photograph… At this moment in time, my early thoughts are that with the first photo being only of Lewis and Vivi, it symbolises that Lewis has kept only Vivi in his heart.

Arthur is a green-eyed demon who Lewis must get Vivi away from before it is too late and Mystery is just a dog. He’s irrelevant.

However, when Arthur touches the locket, it reactivates another memory, one in which they were all a solid group and that they were happy. Lewis is clearly shocked to see this new image and when focus is also brought to Lewis’ eye(s) being visible in this photo (I’m going to set aside that they were visible in “Ghost” as well until the photo was redrawn for “Freaking Out” as I think this is pretty much a last minute idea in-between videos) it also serves to remind him of who he used to be. Eyes are a window to the soul after all and I think a small truth just broke through Lewis’ anger there enough to make him drop to his knees and weep black tears. Very effective especially when this is paired with the line, “I’m worried ‘bout the future… and fucking with the past.”

And then of course the truck blows up before they can dwell on this any longer! I love Arthur and Lewis’ dazed, “What just happened?” faces!

*Vivi takes the fact that her dog is actually a fox very well but then again she also has a ghost, a plant lady and her own ancestor connecting with her across the centuries to mentally process as well so that’s understandable.

She’s also a surprisingly effective badass (granted she is getting some help from Mushi) which was brilliantly displayed in the animation, the camera movement, the angles, the special effects… everything on screen! Not bad for someone who has spent most of this series either running from things or being unconscious! A certain Vine though, wouldn’t get out of my head -“Don’t fuck with me! I have the power of God AND anime on my side!!”

*Heh. Shiromori had a manicure in-between videos. ;)

*I really didn’t have any solid ideas as to how the Shiromori problem would be resolved but I still wasn’t expecting that! I actually shrieked out loud and I’m usually so quiet on first viewings! The horror and regret over both her and Mystery’s faces though (those are definitely, -“I didn’t want things to end like this”- tears in Shiro’s eyes) tell me that she doesn’t deserve this. She’s just a plant that let jealousy and a blood-addiction get out of control!

The only thing that gives me hope is that her heart wasn’t actually destroyed; it’s just flown off somewhere across the parking lot. She can still be regrown and start anew!

*The ending. The very definition of a, “Well, I didn’t see THAT one coming!” ending. I guess that confirms a thought that the Green Spirit can only really possess a heart that is in turmoil, one that has its guard down so to speak.

I presume it’s easy for it to grab onto “simple things” such as small animals and severed arms but when it comes to complicated living humans and magical creatures it has to wait for the right circumstances and Mystery’s heart breaking over Shiromori’s fate is just what it was looking for.

Of course there is still the question of why it is doing this. Yes, Mystery is the biggest threat so it’s taking him out of the equation but is its murderous target the whole of Mystery Skulls or just Lewis? The fact that Lewis is adopted and doesn’t know where he came from is really significant to me. It raises the possibility that the Green Spirit killed Lewis as part of a blood vendetta against his birth family that he is not even aware of. I’ll have to wait and see whether the Green Spirit and Lewis’ true backstory is even something that can be told in music video form but I really don’t think it’s causing all this death and chaos simply because it’s bored and doing this would be funny.

*I do notice that Mystery has two plasters on his heart which have to refer to his two missing tails that the Ancestor has to be responsible for. They both appear to grow back though, both as a reaction to Vivi and Shiromori getting really hurt and to the Green Spirit’s possession; it’s not only taking him over but restoring him back to his prime… just with some added decoration (love the collar changing from a ‘?’ to a ‘!?’).

I’m not sure what to think that Vivi’s shade of blue and Shiromori’s white comes pouring out of the plastered areas when they are injured nor of all the liquid seeping out of Mystery’s heart that matches several characters’ colour scheme…  and then his mouth turns green… Possibly it is just meant to represent all the different thoughts and feelings that Mystery is going through right now; all the emotions concerning everyone in his life and the mistakes he’s made with them that the Green Spirit is able to latch on to and corrupt from within.

Possibly when Mystery removed the Green Spirit in the first place, a piece of it remained inside him that the arm can connect with… because I don’t think a zombified arm literally crawled inside Mystery’s wounds and grabbed his heart at the end there!

*For most of the video, I was gasping, shrieking and letting off the occasional distressed whimper… but I really had to clap a hand over my mouth hard to stop myself from screaming with laughter at the end credit scene! Vivi and Arthur just spoke for us all, didn’t they…!?

*Final thoughts: I’ve been really hoping that the song “Magic” will be picked for the last part; it just sounds like a finale song, it speaks to me of happy endings and I have seen posts by Mystery Ben from a few years ago that he would really like to use “Magic” at some point in this story… but with this cliff-hanger, I’m having a hard time picturing the finale going cheerfully right into this peppy tune!

They could of course begin with a sample of a completely different darker song at first and then go into “Magic” but still! I’m not sure now… Wait… a few years ago, an artist named Yuramec posted an animatic of “Magic” on Youtube featuring their own character, Leopold being chased by a demonic spirit (that also has three eyes!) until the spirit is battered down with good magic and turns back into an innocent little ghost girl. Mystery Ben made a comment (Which must be on his Tumblr as I can’t find it on YouTube but I KNOW I’m not making this up!) saying that it was a funny coincidence that this video contains some ideas that he also wanted to implement for MSA but of course, he couldn’t say which ideas due to spoilers… Baring in mind as to what has happened to Mystery and his corruption, is this… is this what Ben was talking about…?

[halfhappyhooligan]

a voltron au? in 2020? it’s more likely than you think

look. LOOK. i know that voltron is stupid and we hate it but lets be honest: everything up until season 3 was pretty good and had lots of potential !!

today i was rewatching voltron and a thought struck me: what if, instead of shiro being cloned, he was chipped and turned to the side of the galra?

so here it is, i did not blink since i thought of this

(warning, i have not seen voltron in a while and this is just knowledge i have stored in my moss brain and stuff i know from rewatching the first season)

au where shiro goes evil bc of what happens @ end of season one instead of the clone thing bc 1) haggar rly could not have made thousands of shiros after bumping into team voltron like what twice? its hella improbable and 2) just… weird

so instead they insert a chip in him that helps them spy and control him just like kuron (the clone) did minus the unlikely storytelling

eventually after the convo with sendak when he was in the pod trying to temp shirp, he does have thoughts about helping zarkon

(“im already infiltrated with the arm, i could just speed up the process by leaving now. save the team the trouble of investing in a leader that’s doomed to fail from the strart.”)

shiro ends up leaving team voltron in season 2 after zarkon goes crazy w the black lion n stuff

^^ this adds to Keith’s reasoning of joining the Blade of Marmora (shiro is his main stability and one of the main reasons he even stuck around with team voltron, so with shiro gone and keith questioning his place as the leader and paladin of the black lion, he decides the BoM is just.. what’s best for him) 

obviously lance isn’t happy with this (“you just told me that i’m a valuable member, now you don’t think YOU are? what logic is that?”)

ofc keith goes anyways

lance becomes paladin of the black lion

allura takes on the red lion

who has blue lion? ...idk this isn’t that thought out (maybe matt after pidge finds her family) (which will happen earlier in the plot since we can forget about the miniplot of black no longer responding to shiro)

enter lotor only this time he has a sidekick and what omg its shiro wow

shiro has that bigger version of his arm that was once offered to him

he’s stronger and scary, but his eyes aren’t the same, he has the strength of a galra but lacks the passion 

in the fight between lotor and zarkon, (and after, of course lots of self doubt and questioning) shiro comes between them and convinces lotor NOT to kill zarkon

then zarkon kills lotor

everyones like oh shit bc surely someone who’s life was just spared wouldn’t kill the person who seems to have the most power

but he did. bc he’s zarkon. and he’s fckn crazy.

shiro doesn’t go back to team voltron bc its too much too easily

instead he takes the place of lotor in the group of gals 

he convinces them all to rebel against the galra

eventually they teach him all about quintessence and all the shit lotor had planned that they can’t do anymore

(lotor wasn’t harvesting alteans in this universe bc what the heck even was that subplot that had little to no relevance to the main storyline?

instead he was trying to find a way to technologically bring back alteans (kinda like how allure’s dad was originally preserved in s1)

i know nothing about How Stuff Works and i dont remember much about quintessence n shit but the basic idea is that when tying in some of a persons artifacts with technology stuff and some quintessence then boom. a weird route from astral projection land to the team is created and ppl can come back or smth idfk

but lotor was never able to get the comet so shiro decides he and the gals will get that comet and try to bring back as many alteans as they can

^ all this while infiltrating as many galra fleets as possible + saving planets under galra empire

they personally visit every planet that lotor was in charge of and release them from galra control

they are able to bring back an altean (its romelle) and she talks abt her friend who lives on the balmera and they go to the balmera and its revealed that it was shay’s great grandmother so romelle asks where shay is and shay’s family is like with team voltron of course

so

they take her

obviously team voltron, the BoM and the Rebels r very hesitant to make contact but they decide to try it out

keith refuses to meet, instead he’s on the team that stands guard

reunions !! 

romelle and shay hit it off and hunk makes a dinner much like roselle’s past (allura and coran also hang out and they all vibe)

lance talks to shiro abt everything to do with keith and shiro is like dude do u??? like him?

and lance is like what? no ofc not—oh shit.

and keith ✨overhears ✨

pidge matt and shiro catch up n shit

meanwhile keith is like Hey Lance Uhhhhhh What The Fuck

they end up being like hey since we’re all here and we hate zarkon what if we make a plan to end the galra’s reign Right Now

so they do

and y’all.. it’s hella baller plan

except something is going wrong and in the middle of an attack zarkon is able to get the upper hand 

due to haggar’s magic and lance’s mental and emotional instability, zarkon is able to get in his head

everyone is trying to talk him down but they’re all under a lot of pressure

allura is also conflicted bc she wanted to be black lion bc she wanted to rub it in to zarkon’s face that she was stronger than he and that she could beat him at his own game

but the negativity and instability feeds into zarkon’s power and makes him and haggar stronger as they pull in voltron to finally take over the team and regain their status as the most powerful alien race

hunk realizes this and is like okay can y’all stop being negative? its clearly affecting them in a good way and it makes us an easier target

and pidge is like im literally a child pls i don’t wanna die i just got my family back it can’t end like this

shiro realizes what’s going on and he goes to save them

he uses all his energy, pulling in the positive memories (everything: first learning about space, becoming a teacher, meeting adam, meeting keith, first making team voltron, his friends and family--all of it) to push back zarkon and haggar’s powers and battle once more in the astral realm 

in defeating zarkon, shiro loses his life

afterwards keith enters the ship in a hurry and is like where the fuck is shiro where’s my brother what did you do what happened

and team voltron is like hey man.. we are so so sorry

and keith cries because the last thing he ever said to shiro was mean

lance feels like its all his fault since he was supposed to be a good leader

they talk about separately while hunk pidge and allura discuss

krolia is like keith we, ur family, are here for u

and axca is there and shes like um?? hey?? sry for trying to kill u bro

and he’s like i absolutely do not wanna talk i just lost my closest friend

they talk about it later

axca tells keith abt shiro finishing lotor’s work and abt bringing people back and well.. 

they use the methods to help keith visit shiro in the astral realm

shiro is like oh uh hey i was just having a drink w adam we r happy

and keith is like shiro u fuckhead why would u sacrifice urself

shiro sighs bc cmon keith you KNOW why “remember what i always said? we can’t focus on what went wrong..”

“we’ve got to figure out how to make it right” keith finishes

keith breaks tf down crying and screams apologizing

“i love u shiro. ur a like a big brother to me.”

and shiro is like yeah i know and ilyt but hey. everyone’s safe and happy. im safe and happy. & you deserve to be too. you don’t need me anymore.

so the galra rule is over and everyone goes to their respected planets

romelle and the other alteans as well as some galra babes hang in earth

romelle and shay r in an apartment together and have a garden

allura realizes she may not have been the strongest leader for voltron, and  couldn’t stop zarkon on her own but that physical strength doesn’t define her as a whole

her heart is strong enough to care for everyone, so thats what she does

allura starts running an inn for alteans filled with painted sceneries like altea in case anyone ever needs a reminder of home

when lance reunites with his family its a real tearjerker

rachel finally gets her jacket back and veronica is like So.. Axca 👀

the McClain’s host a huge party for everyone and it’s filled with lots of hugs and loud music and even tho lance was way too tired, he danced all night

he wouldn’t trade his family for the world—genetic and chosen

when hunk reunites with his parents they don’t let him out the house for hours, he tells them all about his new best friend shay as well as hundreds of his favorites stories from space

they are so, so proud of him

hunk spends the next days playing minecraft and animal crossing with pidge, giving their brains a rest from being on hyperdrive for 3 yrs straight

when pidge gets home she finally gets grounded by her mom, only being allowed to leave the house to see her old teammates

(same for matt and her dad)

(her mother cries so hard when they opened the door to the home)

the holt family holds movie nights filled with popcorn, cuddles, and tears

keith moves in with the holt family, and finally accepts that he has a home as well as a family

he often goes on trips with the BoM but mostly just stays on earth

after a Team Voltron sleepover in the altea inn keith and lance decide to get an apartment together and live their lives in love and in peace

everyone gets together once a year in celebration of shiro and the sacrifice he made for them

they use the ship to visit Astral Shiro and once they even met adam

everyone laughs and catches up and just... live their lives

everyone is happy

pls ignore any and all errors lmao

again, just a thought !! maybe i’ll write a fic abt it idk for sure but yeah

feel free to add anything <3

[asteroiideae]

okay, so I don’t make these kinds of posts often because tbh I’m a little lazy and very tired like 24/7 lmao but I’ve been seeing a lot of Pride reading lists hit my dash (and they’re excellent, and I save them all!) buuuut reading books is still a roadblock I’m struggling to mentally overcome -- and audiobooks are great, but they take 84 years (sometimes literally???) to get through. so! I thought I’d share a (very tiny) list of the queer manga I’ve read this year that you might enjoy for Pride, with some descriptions/trigger warnings/thoughts to go with them. so here we go in no particular order other than where they sit on my bookshelf:

What Did You Eat Yesterday? by Fumi Yoshinaga

okay so I know I go on about this manga at literally every presented opportunity, but I honestly just can’t help myself??? as a thirty-something queer adult, I really love the quiet maturity of this relationship between Shiro and Kenji; especially when it’s highlighted by references to shenanigans of their youth, and the ways in which they are still growing as both individuals and a couple. I’ve only read the first six volumes but I’m OBSESSED.

Status: Ongoing (17 volumes; 15 translated) Summary: Shiro and Kenji are an established adult couple with separate careers and interests, whose relationship is depicted over the meals cooked for them by Shiro. This doesn’t have an overarching plot, which might be off-putting for some readers; each chapter can be compared to a fanfic one-shot, usually containing it’s own tiny storyline or theme. It’s literally just domestic moments and meals shared between these men. Warnings: While I didn’t personally have a problem with this, younger readers might find some of the dated terms offensive. If you’ve spent any time with older queer folks (older as in 45-50+) this won’t be anything you aren’t used to, but if your experience of queer folx skews younger or online, you might get taken by surprise. There’s also some internalized homophobia; and by some I mean quite a bit. Shiro’s personal arc (at least in the first six volumes) heavily revolves around how much he closets himself and tries desperately to pass as “normal” in Japanese business culture.

Boys Run The Riot by Keito Gaku

holy shit holy shit holy SHIT. this story is so good??? so VERY good??? I was a little cautious, and a little bit uninterested in a story about teens (only because I’m in my thirties and crave more adult representation,) but I was VERY WRONG to be. Boys Run The Riot is beautifully drawn, beautifully written, and probably my favorite work on this list. the mangaka is also trans so the inherent understanding and nuance of our protagonist’s experience is really lovely. Also featuring a fantastic brotp between a trans boy and his new himbo bestie; no seriously if you want a story about a trans boy getting to have good broships with other boys his own age I CANNOT stress this enough. Volume two is releasing next month; I have it preordered. I’m laying on my floor wishing for time to hurry the fuck up. I need more of this smol angry trans boy and his big soft himbo bff. PLS. Status: Ongoing (4 volumes published; 2 translated) Summary: Ryo Watari is a second year high school student who is trans and struggling to feel comfortable with his very rigidly structured life at school, at home, and among his friends (to whom he is not out.) By chance he meets Jin Sato, a cis boy who also feels outcast (often judged for his appearance without any deeper thought.) When Ryo comes out to Jin in a state of frustration, Jin accepts who Ryo is and makes an offer -- why not start a fashion line that subverts all the expectations that have been put on them both; why not express themselves even when they’ve been told they shouldn’t. Warnings: Ryo is struggling with gender dysphoria, and it is written by someone who has probably experienced it, so it might be a little real for any trans folks who deal with that. Also, while neither the narrative nor Jin misgender Ryo (at least, not once he expresses to Jin that he is a man), Ryo is not out to anyone else and so he frequently is misgendered at school and we see how badly that impacts him and the way he views himself and processes his emotions. Ryo spends a lot of time being angry and trying to swallow it down, and that can be very raw to witness at times. There is also a depiction of unsafe binding (though the mangaka has an immediate note about binding safety, and goes further in-depth at the back of the manga.)

Our Dining Table by Mita Ori

okay, so I was a bit on the fence about whether or not I wanted to include this as a rec, but I decided that it might actually been what someone wants or needs, so here it is! while I really enjoyed this concept, and I’m always a sucker for found family stories (let me tell you I’m queer without telling you I’m queer, much?) it feels like this story is a bit rushed at times, and the romantic relationship between our protagonists is very blink and you’ll miss it. I don’t even want to call it subtle so much as it is just not remotely the focus of the story so it’s a little startling when it happens. but! if you’re looking for a story about adults processing grief and trauma together, and learning how to care for another person (and as a result, learning how to care for themselves,) this is a nice read that isn’t too heavy!  Status: Complete (one volume) Summary: Yutaka is a salaryman whose past experiences prevent him from reaching out to others, even through something so simple as sharing a meal. Despite this is REALLY loves to cook, and wishes he had a reason to do it more often. Then he meets Minoru, and his muuuuuch younger brother Tane (it’s like a 17 year age gap between the brothers?) and finds himself teaching them how to cook, and overcoming his fear of eating in front of others. Warnings: Good news, there’s no overt homophobia in this story! Bad news, the other trauma makes up for it! We have a lot of trauma surrounding parental death, childhood bullying, and adoption; in addition to an actual fear of eating in front of others.

Our Dreams at Dusk / Shimanami Tasogare by Yuhki Kamatani

this is the first manga series I collected, and I’m still very pleased about that. the art is ABSOLUTELY stunning? the use of visual imagery and surreal analogies to explain queerness is fucking on POINT. I cried so hard during a couple of these volumes I developed a migraine. I only have one piece of critique on the whole thing (addressed in the warnings,) and I intend to do another re-read when I’m ready for the catharsis of sobbing into my pillow again. Like Boys Run The Riot, Our Dreams at Dusk is drawn and written by a member of the queer community (a non-binary mangaka, this time,) and as a result it hits pretty fucking close to home in a lot of ways. while I really love this series it’s super not for the faint of heart, you WILL come out of this reading experience with some things to unpack. Status: Completed (4 volumes; 4 translated) Summary: We mostly follow Tasuku Kaname, as he is outted at school by a classmate as being homosexual, and his initial despair and subsequent journey of acceptance. In this process, Tasuku finds himself at a drop-in center, which seems to primarily function as a safe space for queer people; we meet several lesbians, an elderly gay man, a trans character, and a young character who isn’t ready for any kind of label because they are still ??? about themselves and their identity. Each of these “secondary” characters is given room to breathe and to work through difficulties of their own while Tasuku watches and learns that even though life is hard sometimes, there’s beauty to be found in one’s own strength. Warnings: hoooo boy; well there’s all kinds of homophobia and transphobia; a character is outted against their will (multiple times), there’s some really insidious transphobia covered by “concern”, there’s internalized homophobia everywhere, and a very complicated asexual character whose presentation left me (as an ace) with super mixed feelings and a lot of frustration (though I wouldn’t call it bad necessarily; just wanted to put that out there for my fellow asexual folks.) If you have read (or go on to read!) any of these, please let me know! I’d love to chat about the stories, and hear your thoughts on them -- because we’re a broad/diverse community and our own experiences shape us differently and give us different insights. <3 ANYWAY, for those of you who read this monstrous self-indulgent post, thank you! Feel free to add any queer manga you’ve been reading below - I’m always on the hunt for more recs!

[danieyells]

Events(or even gachas I guess) I'd love to see:

The Seven Lucky Gods in one event(or even just the ones we have so far. . .the fact that Daikoku knows and associated with Benten and Ebisu at one point in their existence is completely worthy of acknowledging imo like pls. They're such different people. I wanna see them interact. Daikoku calls a temporary truce or spends the whole time trying to kill/subdue MC(who, as usual, is either uncomfortable, angry(which may or may not come in the form of flirtatious threats in a fight for dominance), or takes it so in stride even Daikoku couldn't keep up. . .he's never really met someone who wanted him to step on them before. . .oh and you want to lick his shoes? What a well behaved brat you are. . . .) and Benten just "could you knock it off with your creepy domeneering foot fetish until we get back to Tokyo please omg you're always like this." I don't know what they'd do together because I don't know them as well yet but just the fact that they have such different characters so far makes me want to see them all together.

Oops All Angels/Oops All Demons/The Sliding Scale Of Eden, which would be an angel/demon/Eden & Gehenna centric thing ofc. By which I mean GIVE US MORE MISSIONARIES I WANNA SEE THE MISSIONARIES-- I mean yeah biblical narrative and christian mythology is pretty well known but I like seeing how everyone feels about things and each other--like that Sitri saw Seth and thought he was Bael and when he realized he wasn't Bael he kinda started shittalking Bael kdbshdidj and how Lucifuge and Bathym both worked with Shaytan but Bathym was I guess closer because Lucifuge is afraid of fire--and where does Mephistopheles come in there? And I feel like we don't really know the angels' feelings towards one another and haven't seen them interact--Gabriel calls Azazel a snake(which is true, literally,) but she was also talking about wanting to touch the tails of Therians so I'm sure what she meant was "he let me touch his tail and did not hide the Consiquences of Touching A Therian's Sensitive Tail and I somehow didn't expect that and was Understandably Very Uncomfortable" so I don't know if that means she doesn't like him or if she was just being pouty over deciding she really shouldn't ask to touch his tail. At the same time I knoe this is probably VERY far off. Because MC already has the Ring of Solomon and we've had the 72 Pillars of Solomon mentioned and the demons' positions in the heirchy and [CHAPTER 11 SPOILERS:] MC is gonna have to reach/summon the Exception Solomon[/CHAPTER 11 SPOILERS] so. That's probably too close to Story Content for us to get too much of an event out of it yet. Plus there's Michael and I'm sure he'd be kicking and screaming as he's dragged through shenanigans in an event under the current circumstances, but could we really do an angel event without him now that he's there?

Literally anything with Bora Bora. And Babel. And. Just. Not that I dislike or am truly mad about it, but didn't the game introduce a world that's no longer in the Game and no longer connected to Tokyo before expanding on several of the worlds we already have? Babel only has Marduk, even. Ofc idk much about the mytholigies of Polynesia(you'd think I'd remember more, I read about them a bit back when Pokemon SuMo came out) or Babylon or Mesopotamia to say there's so much more to add but. There's never just one legend and one character and one story in a mythology. And Polynesian mythology is different in every area too isn't it? Even gods that they have in Hawaii are a bit different for the Maori, for example, I'm pretty sure--if only in name. There's so much that could be explored. I understand leaning on what's closest to you--hence why we have so many characters from mythology in Japan and nearby countries--but I'd also like to see others developed more lol

We've had an event centered around ogres/oni, an angel/demon event would probably have too many spoilers in it for the time being, we had the little bull-cebtric sort of mini New Years event, but I'd love to see more species-related ones like that too. Other 'characters with X in common' events could be fun too--dragons/lizards and the dragonkillers, for example. One Big Pile Of Kitties which is just feline Therians and friends all together. Maybe in Namjatown in Ikebukuro--which means Nomad gets dragged in as he kicks and screams that he is NOT a tiger!!! and Snow and Macan are like yeah sure we know but also this is Ikebukuro and Claude is paying you, to which Nomad just goes FUCK but I need the money so I'll deal. Maybe a mini extension of Year of the Guardian Dog where Agyo, since he insists he's a lion, wants to know more about how lions live in Tokyo, so MC once again runs around with him to introduce him to any lions they know(somehow this includes Oz shh don't ask questions) and Agyo's like "so many lions are big strong guardian lions too. . .I've gotta step up my game!" lol (Claude: oh so you have a guardian lion too? Shall we make them fight? Agyo: NO NO PLEASE NO NO THANK YOU I WOULD LITERALLY DIE?????)

Exiles' Lovers Valentine's Event where characters who were the lovers of/in love with/loved by the Exiles within MC squabble over them or something silly like that. Alternatively, put everyone who's expressed the strongest attractions to MC in one event. MC has to protect Shiro from them because he's probably the weakest link there--

Our World Is Gone So Let's Meet Up In Tokyo - Old Ones event(maybe there'd be a second one for other worlds that get destroyed like Yggdrasil. LET GARMR MEET HIS FRIENDS AGAIN.) Maybe a New Years event, but I'd love to see all the Old Ones we have so far in one place, assuming there isn't an in-game explanation that they can't be. Tsathoggua is convinced out on the basis of food more than out of a desire to see any of them(MAYBE to game with Tindalos and Azathoth in person. Canct play the classics online!). Snow and Claude tentatively let Cthugha out of his cell for a while(the event is implied to have had caused several repeats due to Cthugha explosions.) I haven't read Nightglows yet so idk where Nodens is at atm but he'd be there because I say so. Dagon obviously goes(he's probably the most social of the bunch aside from Nyarl--and Father Dagon is curious about his family too!). Shiro tentatively lends his body to Yog-Sothoth because "it's important to be with your family now and then if you have them!!!" much to Yog-Sothoth's eyerolling, and MC goes because either it was insisted on that they belonged there("You know I'm not. . .whoever you think I am, right? Okay. . . . .") or to make sure Shiro's body doesn't collapse under the strain or get involved in some sort of nonsense(he doesn't expect Yog-Sothoth to do anything crazy, he's been pretty unenthusiastic about everything so far, but you never know with these guys.) They keep calling MC this name they can't hear for some reason which isn't any better than when everyone calls them names they can hear really--in fact it feels a lot worse, like, Please Stop Saying Whatever You're Saying I've Started Taking Psychic Damage worse. MC makes a lot of comments about the sheer quantity of tentacles in the gathering my god(s) they are everywhere they've seen enough hentai and been around Dagon enough to know where this is going--

In the same vein, if we ever get more El Dorado characters, Xolotl wants to go to the Annual El Dorado Meetup or something similar but he's scared and brings Quetza--I mean MC with him as moral support. Understandably they get caught up in everyone going "omg gods", especially after Tezcatlipoca tackles MC to the ground at Mach 7 from 20 miles away when he heard they'd come along and accompanies them the rest of the event, assuming he doesn't pick them up and carry them away from Xolotl, who has to muster up the courage to follow after and get MC back since he brought them here to begin with. Only to find MC pacified Tezcatlipoca somehow and they ran into Itzamna and they're painting their feelings or something. Maybe the event also features a sacrificing and MC is like UH NO WE CAN'T HAVE YOU COMITTING MURDER IN TOKYO JUST BECAUSE IT'S OKAY BACK HOME PLEASE STOP lmao

. . .just silly thoughts. I've definitely had more ideas, but they're not coming to me rn.

[delaneytveit]

Langst Headcanon?? in this economy?? its more likely than you think

alright, so I've been scouring the langst tag for like weeks bc its the only thing that brings me entertainment. Like literally, I dream about this stuff now. my brain only runs on langst now. like serotonin who? dopamine who? don’t know them. I only know langst. so here’s a little head canon I thought of recently that I sent my roommate. 

So this takes place before the whole Shiro/ Kuron thing so Shiro is still in the picture. 

part 1/ part 2

Lance, my baby boy, is feeling left out bc Shiro and Keith are always training together. Hunk and Pidge are always working on projects, and Allura and Coran are always working on diplomatic stuff. Lance closes in on himself and basically shuts down, but he also knows that if things start sliding, Allura and Shiro and Keith will just yell at him. So he trains with the team, takes part in compulsory team bonding and the like. But he doesn’t hang out with the team. He doesn’t eat with the, he doesn’t have movie nights with them, he doesn’t bother them anymore. 

At first no one really notices. They notice that the castle is quiet, and that they aren’t having to put up with as many distractions as before, but they never really put 2 and 2 together. 

And then it dawns on Hunk that he really hasn’t heard Lance singing lately, or his jokes, or his laughs, or anything. Not even a complaint. He sees him at training but then, his best friend disappears. He’s worried. 

He tells Coran as such and Coran confides that he also noticed a change in the Blue paladin, and his concerns over the boy’s health. but neither one of them really knows what to do. 

At training the next day, Lance is kicking ass. Like the boy made most if not all of his shots. He’s taking bots out left and right, until he isn’t. One bot got too close, and then another, and then another. He was watching everyone’s back but no one was watching his. Allura calls the training session, and boy is she pissed. Because Lance should be able to do his job properly. All he has to do is shoot, why can’t he do something as simple as that? 

She tells him as much, yells it in fact. Along with some comments about how if he can’t get it right then he needs more training and to stop playing around with what were it is he does in his free time. She doesn’t know that he puts in more hours on the training deck than Keith. She doesn’t know that he takes a 3 hour nap, he can’t seem to sleep longer than that anymore, before spending all night on the training deck. 

He doesn’t tell her. He doesn’t say anything. He just sits there, and keeps his mouth shut because that’s what she wants. She doesn’t want to hear him defend himself. She doesn’t want to hear excuses, she just wants to hear him promisee to be better. So he does. 

That night Coran comes to his room, tells him he has a surprise for him. Lance is real confused but he goes with it because its Coran, his crazy Altean space uncle. Coran leads him down to the far side of the castle and up a few floors. They land on basically an abandoned area of the castle. They stop in front of a door and Coran hands him a key card. 

Confused, Lance lets himself into the room and switches on the light. Its a shooting range. Coran informs him that it used to be one of the multiple banquet halls of the castle, but he converted it because he knew lance wanted to practice more but that he had to wait until late at night to get the deck to himself. 

He tells him that he knows that Allura kept forcing him to do close combat even though his weapon isn’t fit for it. He spends the next few dobashes explaining to Lance how to run the range and leads him over to a room off to the side. Its a walk in locker with a glass wall that looks out onto the range. Its filled with different space firearms. Where they came from? Lance will never know. but there’s a lot of them, and they’re pretty fucking cool. He makes a mental note of what ones he wants to try out first. 

Lance finally has his own place. 

Over a few days, he becomes excelled at both his Bayard and the other firearms. He jokes to himself that he’s now the Deadshot of the Paladins. Would any of them see him that way? Probably not. But at least he never missed a shot.  

[autisticlancemcclain]

Baby, You’re My Stability

Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance & Voltron Team (Voltron), Fluff and Humour, 4k Words

Summary: 

Five times Lance eats shit, and one time he manages to stay upright.

---

Lance was a walking dichotomy.

He could walk silently through the halls of a military institution, deftly avoiding every camera and well-placed guard. He moved with elegance and with the grace of — well, a dancer. If he didn’t want to be heard, you didn’t hear him.

He also tripped over nothing on a regular basis and walked into almost every wall. It was astounding.

It was also a constant source of stress for Team Voltron, albeit a lowkey one. Someone was always keeping a half-eye out for Lance’s next tumble, either to prevent it or help him out afterwards. It wasn’t even something planned or discussed, although the seamless way it was handled was well and truly amusing.

—

Shiro knew they lost Lance’s attention as soon as Coran said the word ‘sea-life’.

His dark eyes had widened with excitement the way they only do when someone stumbled right into mentioning a hobby or special interest of his — Shiro knew the only reason they weren’t hearing an adorably passionate infodump about every known creature to swim the oceans of Earth (or any planet, really) was because Lance was using every iota of self-control he possessed to try and let others focus on the briefing. It was honestly very admirable, especially when Shiro could visibly see Lance’s excitement — no word of exaggeration, the boy was shaking with glee.

Shiro allowed himself a small smile, then turned his full attention back to Coran and Allura so he didn’t miss anything.

A few vargas later, they were walking across the intricate bridge system over the planet’s canals. It was certainly one of the nicer planets they’ve visited — especially since the last planet was a snowy desert wasteland that no one but Coran (and Lance, the eternal optimist) could enjoy. Their meetings were finished, the alliance was secure, and Team Voltron was indulging in the planet’s hospitality and touring the city. Shiro wasn’t paying huge amounts of attention to the guide, and was instead watching as his team enjoyed this period of rest, taking in the lovely view (later, Shiro would thank his lucky stars that he was being so vigilant, because he knows damn well Lance would have been swimming with the fishes had he looked away — literally).

Shiro hears Lance’s gasp of elation before he registers anything else, and as he turns to see what has the boy so excited he sees the blur that was once the Blue Paladin as he rushes to the edge of the bridge. Shiro panics, surging forward, and just barely manages to grip the back of the Cuban’s hoodie before he goes head first into the canals that are absolutely teeming with — Shiro goes a little green — actual flesh-eating alien sharks.

Lance barely glances back, chirping a quick “Thanks, Shiro!” and flashing a smile before he’s leaning as far as he can to see the sharks better. As if the only thing preventing him from plummeting to a gruesome, bloody death is not Shiro’s metal arm clamped to the fabric of his jacket.

Shiro takes a deep, calming breath and reminds himself he hasn’t seen Lance this excited in weeks, and decides to let it go.

Let his annoyance go, that is. He’ll be gripping onto Lance until both feet are planted safely back into the castle where he can’t go careening over the side of a fucking bridge.

—

Hunk knows his best friend. He has known Lance since the date he popped out of the womb — their mothers are friends, and Lance and Hunk have been inseparable since they took their first breaths. So Hunk is no stranger to Lance’s particular brand of clumsiness — he is, in fact, more than accustomed to it.

It’s why he walks on the outside of the sidewalk (when he and Lance were six, they went to the store to grab popsicles. Lance tripped over the curb and narrowly missed getting his head squished by a speeding car. Lance got up and kept right in walking, but Hunk threw up and has never let Lance walk on the road-side since). It’s why he tries to walk on the side closest to the wall when turning a corner or go through a doorway (when they were 13, Lance turned too early, and hit his arm on the corner so hard he broke the skin and got a massive bruise that he was too embarrassed to tell anyone about, and Hunk nearly fainted when he saw the blood seeping through his shirt). And it’s why, like right now, he’s half-listening to Lance’s story and half watching where his arms are flailing.

Lance is a wonderful storyteller. He’s animated, he’s fun, and he’s excellent at stretching the truth just enough that the story is more entertaining without feeling made-up.

He is also very big on gesturing. So Hunk is doing what he always does: being the best Lance-to-world buffer anyone could ask for.

“— and you should have seen the size of it! It was huge, Lordie —” Hunk deftly moves Lance’s water glass out of the way as he spreads his arms as wide as they go, and moves it back into place when his arms retreat.

“— I was like: ‘are you serious, dude, that’s bonkers —” Here, Hunk scoops up Lance’s utensils as his hands hit the table in his incredulousness, saving them from going flying off the table.

“It didn’t effect me, of course, I could stay cool —” Hunk puts his hand firmly on the back of Lance’s chair as he leans backward in a cocky caricature of his own attitude. He gently pushes the chair back upright, Lance oblivious the whole time.

Hunk glances at the rest of the team to see them snickering, and judging from their knowing grins, they’re half amused by the story and half amused by Hunk’s gentle and practiced maneuvering of his best friend.

Hunk smiles. Being Lance’s friend is a full time job, and he wouldn’t have it any other way — despite the layer of stress that comes from protecting the fool from the world in general.

—

In more than one way, Lance reminds Pidge deeply of her brother.

Sometimes, it’s painful. Sometimes she’ll be working too long and Lance will literally kick her door open, hollering about needing attention, and the words “fuck off, Matt —” will be halfway out of her mouth before she catches herself. That pain will stick with her for days. Sometimes Lance will wink at someone, and use the same flirty tone that never once worked for Matt, and she’ll be rolling her eyes and thinking about telling Mom how stupid Matt is being before her breath stutters and she remembers where she is.

But other times, when she’s frustrated and bitchy and no one is willing to handle her anger long enough to come near her, Lance will stroll into her workshop, sit by her feet and wait until she’s taken a breath and is willing to admit she needs a break. Or he’ll be about to go do something fun and remember Pidge, and immediately rope her into one of his many schemes. These times, she feels the same feeling spread through her chest — the feeling of having a dorky older brother who looks out for her and does everything he can to make her laugh and smile. These reminders aren’t so painful; in fact, they’re usually pretty wonderful. 

The best way Lance reminds her of Matt, though, is his clumsiness.

Seriously. If those two were the only two people in a room the size of a small country, they’d find a way to bump right into each other, probably causing at least four injuries. It’s Newton’s lesser known fifth law of physics, she’s sure.

And she’s not Hunk, or Shiro — if she sees Lance about to fall flat on his face, or walk into a wall, and she knows he’s not going to die or anything, she’s not preventing it. She’s grabbing her camera so she can laugh at it now and then rewatch the footage to laugh at again later.

Now, for example, Lance is walking down the hallway while reading something on his holopad. There are no obstacles in this hallway. There are no doorways, no corners for a while. His shoes are even tied. There is no discernible indication that Lance is going to do anything but walk down this hallway with no incident.

But Pidge’s spidey senses are tingling. She knows in her heart that Lance is about to fall flat on his face, and she has no interest in hiding her glee, schadenfreude accusations be damned.

She slowly and quietly pulls out her camera, wincing as the ‘record’ button makes a small beeping noise, but luckily Lance is too distracted to notice the sound. She holds her breath, not wanting to alert Lance to her presense or shake the camera, and waits.

A few seconds later, it happens: Lance trips over air (seriously, over air — she watched his foot get caught on something that literally wasn’t there. How is that even possible? Is the castle genuinely haunted? Is Lance being stalked by a ghost who puts ghost rocks in front of him for him to trip on? She may never know) and goes tumbling down. He lands, as she predicted, flat on his face, and he doesn’t even yell or yelp or scream — he just lays there for a moment, nose to the ground, and sighs tiredly.

Pidge can no longer hold in her laughter, and doubles over with the force of her giggles. He just — he just stayed! On the ground! Accepting his fate!

Lance scrambles into a sitting position, scowling when he sees her camera. “I said to stop recording me when I trip!” he demands.

Pidge takes a deep breath, desperately shoving the image of Lance hitting the floor out of her mind so she can calm down for a second. She sticks out her tongue. “You’re not the boss of me. I can record your loser moments if I want, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Lance’s eyes narrow dangerously, and she realizes her mistake.

Matt could never back down from a challenge, either.

“Try me,” he says, and jumps to his feet, lunging towards her.

She wrenches herself upright and takes off, shrieking as Lance chases her, yelling about nasty little goblin children who enjoy other’s pain. Pidge is pushing herself as hard as she can go, knowing she can only avoid Lance and his stupidly long legs for so long. She books it down the hallway, sliding around the corner at top speeds. She checks behind her, gauging how close Lance has gotten, only to witness him slam into the wall at full speed, having misjudged the width of his turn.

“Ow! Quiznak,” Lance curses, and Pidge loses her mind. She collapses on the ground, laughing so hard she goes silent. She can barely breathe. Her face is bright red, tears are streaming down her face. She only just registers Lance scowling at her, yanking her camera from hands too weak to hold it and deleting the video of him tripping earlier. The memory only serves to make her laugh harder.

Lance shakes his head, huffing, but the corners of his mouth are twitching upwards. “I hope you choke,” he says snootily, and stalks off to go lick his wounds in peace.

It takes Pidge twenty minutes to calm down. She gets the footage from the Castle’s cameras and sends it to Keith, who laughs just as hard as she did.

—

Allura would love to tease Lance about his clumsiness just as much as the others.

Really, she would.

But what’s that human expression? About the — about the pans? And the... cauldrons, maybe?

Oh! Pots! Pots and kettles.

Anyways. Allura would love to tease Lance about his clumsiness, but that would be the pot calling the kettle black. She is, unfortunately, just as much of a klutz as he is. The memory of her walking right into the doorway as she entered her first solo diplomatic meeting room with haunt her until she dies. It keeps her up at night more than Voltron stress, honestly. It’s a contender for the worst thing that has ever happened to her, just under losing her entire family and the genocide of her people.

Well. Maybe it’s not that high. But she’s a fan of gallows humour, and she has the right to it, so she’ll do what she likes.

In the beginning of her journey with the paladins, she didn’t trip any less, per se, but none of them were nearly comfortable enough to tease her about it, so she could trip in relative peace. Now, though, Shiro fees no shame in a shake of the head and a light chuckle at her misfortune, and Pidge will genuinely point and laugh like she is five years old.

It’s maddening.

She’ll admit, however, that it is nice to have someone to take half the burden of her humiliation. Also, if Lance trips on something, she will be extra careful (not that it does much) around that area, so she can stay upright.

But mostly, her and Lance trip over the same goddamn thing, sometimes one right after the other, and then just look at each other and sigh.

Take yesterday, for example. The team was out on a scouting mission, looking for a certain plant that powered something or other in the Castle (look, Allura is a busy person. She does her best to know what’s going on and have the basics for everything, but she is a mortal person and therefore limited. She can’t know everything about the Castle — she has other things to worry about!). There was a point where the path in the forest they were following thinned so dramatically that everyone had to walk in a single-file line, one foot directly after the other. If they needed to stand, they’d have to stand sideways, because there was no room otherwise. Shiro was leading, and she was taking up the rear, and Keith, Hunk, Pidge, and then Lance in between them: their usual formation. As they entered through what looked to be a passageway of vine (“Dope! Fairy door!” exclaimed Lance), Shiro had warned everyone to watch their footwork. Allura had immediately turned all of her attention to the ground, focusing intensely on watching where she was fucking going. She idly noticed Lance doing so as well.

Lance tripped, obviously. Watched himself get caught on a vine and go sprawling on the floor.

The embarrassing part of the story is that Allura watched Lance trip, noticed what he tripped on, stepped ever so carefully, and still tripped on the same fucking vine. Went down just as fast as he did. She landed on top of him, actually. Both of them groaned (although Allura noted that Lance was probably a little more hurt than she was, as she had a softer landing, since she literally tripped right after she did what the fresh fuck was her problem —), attracting the attention of the rest of the team — who, of fucking course, did not have any issues — prompting various exasperated sighs and snickers.

“Did Allura trip, or did you, Lance?” Hunk asked. Allura and Lance sat up, exchanging a look. Allura tilted her head to the side. ‘Is it worse or better if one of us takes the fall?’ she seemed to ask. Lance scrunched up his face. ‘I’m sure as shit not taking this humiliation alone.’

Allura rolled her eyes, but complied anyway, committing to enduring the endless badgering from her (technically, okay, let her have this one) subordinates.

Whatever. At least Lance was getting teased too.

“Lance tripped, then I did,” she explained begrudgingly, offering Lance a hand up.

“I’m assuming you also watched Lance trip first,” Pidge guessed, giggling.

Lance and Allura sighed in tandem.

This was going to be a long mission.

—

At this point, Coran figured it would be best to assemble a little care package for Lance to have in the MedBay. Maybe a blanket or stuffie of his, some snacks. A candle or two, if Coran hadn’t forbidden Lance from having them after he burnt himself for the fourth (4th) time and tried to hide it.

Okay, so no candles. But Coran still feels like he should have something, because Lance spends so much time there! He’s seriously in there every other day, for bumps and bruises and burns alike.

And concussions. Can’t forget about the concussions.

These frequent visits aren’t even accounting for all the times Lance gets seriously injured on missions — the boy has a self-sacrificing streak a mile wide that Coran would love to train out of him —

“Hey, Coran,” comes a sheepish voice. The voice is accompanied by a head peeking around the door.  

Coran laughs a little. “If you dream of a snarksedovel…”

Lance’s brow furrows. “I don’t know what that means, but I’m going to assume it means I’m good to come get treated,” he says, walking in.

Well. Limping in, would be more accurate.

Coran raises a brow, and Lance ducks his head shyly. “I, uh, would have fixed it myself, but you’re already in here. Oh, shit, but maybe you’re busy! It’s okay, Coran, I can do it —”

“Lance, my boy,” Coran interrupts, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I am never too busy to help you when you need it. Please do not hesitate to ask me, even if I seem preoccupied. You — all of you, really — are my first and only priority. I never want you to suffer for longer than you have to.”

Lance shoots him a wobbly smile, his brave façade dropping.

“I tripped over something, and I know it’s stupid and I should be more careful, but I think I might have broken something. My ankle hurts really badly.”

Coran is careful to keep his frustration to himself, lest Lance get the wrong idea. He’s not upset that Lance has come to him for help. He’s upset that Lance lets himself hurt until he can’t hurt any longer, and even then tries to fix it quietly before daring to inconvenience anyone else, despite what his bravado may lead people to think. Coran knows that had he not been in the MedBay by coincidence, Lance would have attempted to set his own broken bone (something Coran knows Lance is capable of doing, although he also knows that it is a painful and frustrating process to be done independently), or suffered in silence until someone noticed and forced him to get help.

He plasters a smile on his face, forcing himself to sound lighthearted and enthusiastic. “That’s no trouble at all, Number Four! Hop up on this table, I’ll go grab your holopad and the bone stitcher.”

Coran would usually treat a broken bone with a pod, as it was faster and more thorough, but he knew of Lance’s… distaste for the pods, after being trapped in one at the beginning of their adventure, and if he could avoid any further distress for the Blue Paladin then he would.

He also knows that Lance cannot sit still and do nothing for the three-odd hours it would take to heal his bones, so the holopad is a necessity. That, or he could pause his chores for the day and keep the lad company.

He pauses, thinking of the last time he and Lance had sat down together and had a good chat. It had been far too long. He grabs the bone-stitcher, leaving the holopad alone.

Whether or not Lance was here with him by fate or coincidence doesn’t matter — he is not going to squander this opportunity.

—

Lance’s clumsiness is not something that most people would consider to be an advantage.

Keith is not most people.

He doesn’t even like it for Pidge reasons — although he won’t deny that he laughs at every video Pidge sends him — but rather for embarrassingly gay reasons.

Yeah, yeah, he has a crush on Lance. Old news. Look, he’s cute, he’s funny (although you won’t get that out of Keith is you fucking waterboard him, no sir), and he’s a real sweetheart.

Lance has also completely fallen for Keith. Several times over.

Keith has no idea why it happens, only that it happens frequently — a good three quarters of the time Lance trips over something, he tumbles straight into Keith’s waiting arms. It seriously has to happen at least twice a day; they’re walking in the same direction, Lance trips over nothing, Keith catches him (he’s not going to let the boy fall, he’s not a monster — nor is he immune to big brown doe eyes and fluttering eyelashes, sue him) in the universe’s corniest dip. Either that, or Lance is walking towards him, he trips over nothing, and crashes right into Keith’s chest, which is equally as nice.

Now, Keith isn’t oblivious. He knows a sign from the universe when he sees one. He also notices Lance blushes just as hard as he does when he lands in Keith’s arms again, even if the two of them should surely be used to it by now.

He’s brought this up to Shiro, who has only given him garbage advice like “you should tell him how you feel, Keith!”

Right. As if Shiro didn’t avoid Adam for three weeks because Adam said he liked him and then see him in a bathroom by coincidence and blurt that they should maybe gay kiss or something.

Yeah. Keith’s gonna go ahead and ignore any and all advice from his loser big brother (how anyone thinks Shiro is cool is absolutely beyond him. Shiro can recite Mean Girls from memory and isn’t even a little bit ashamed of that fact).

Allura, thankfully, has much better advice — she suggested that Keith should gently and lovingly bully Lance every time Keith catches him. This way, he can a) keep up their rivalry, although it’s barely a rivalry anymore and mostly just homoerotic tension, b) have the suave upper hand in the situation, and c) see just how red Lance can go.

As they both get up to head to their rooms after dinner, Keith steels himself — he’s been practicing his line for three days now, and he knows he looks cool in the mirror. The mice said so. Also, he can almost say it without blushing (the tips of his ears might give him away, but they’ll be hidden my his hair. He will be the sexy shoujo love interest. He will.

As they exit the dining room, Keith watches Lance out of the corner of his eye, waiting for him to trip as he turns the corner to fast, like he always does. And 3… 2… 1…

On cue, Lance stumbles, and Keith grabs his arm to steady him. Lance shoots a quick and embarrassed “thanks” his way, straightening up like usual.

Unlike usual, Keith’s hand makes its way down Lance’s arm until he’s interlocking their fingers. Lance freezes.

Keith stops too, raising an eyebrow. He tugs Lance’s hand forward. “What’re you stopping for?”

Lance is rooted to the spot, staring intensely at their joined hands. A flush has started to spread across his cheekbones. Keith fights down a smirk.

Lance clears his throat. “Uh, Keith,” he starts, “what’re you doing?”

Keith feigns innocence. “What are you talking about?”

Lance’s flush deepens as he gestures wordlessly to their hands.

“Oh, that,” Keith says, letting himself smirk just a little. As a treat. “You’re always falling, man. I figured I’d make sure you’re steady this time.” With that, he pulls Lance gently along in the direction of their rooms. Lance stumbles forward, trying to keep up. Keith huffs out a laugh. Lance scowls, but the red covering his face makes it hard to believe he’s genuinely angry.

That, and his hand has tightened around Keith’s.

“Whatever,” he says. He holds Keith’s hand all the way until Keith stops in front of Lance’s door, letting go as he wishes him goodnight.

He doesn’t trip once.

[crystalelemental]

And now, ranking the Fates characters by how good they are as parents.  I’ll just be ranking the canon parent, since generic supports annihilated cohesive characterization by making all the parent dialogues identical.

Also, I do need to address this.  Every parent in Fates is garbage.  They throw their kids into an interdimensional time portal and essentially don’t raise them at all.  So comparing them like this is basically comparing turds by how rank they are.  It doesn’t matter that some aren’t as awful as others, you’re still not gonna find one that smells good, you know?

Corrin - Honestly, she’s got a strong Camilla-esque vibe to her protectiveness toward Kana.  I like it.  Also Kana knows when Corrin is coming to visit, and seems to imply that this is a routine thing, making Corrin one of the few known parents who actually makes a point to visit her kit.  A-rank.

Azura - Once again, your decision to be cryptic for no reason causes nothing but problems for everyone involved, and your son, who you didn’t raise on your own, had his entire village annihilated by foes that went after him to get to you, but you never warned him or them about anything?  D-rank.

Jakob - While hyper-critical, he’s not entirely off the mark, in terms of what Dwyer needs to be doing.  He’s not a bad kid though, so it does come across as more harsh than he really needs to be to make a point, since Dwyer is ultimately self-sufficient and capable.  C-rank.

Silas - Actually a pretty good dad.  He’s one of the few that just actively admires his child coming out of their deeprealm to help others, is fully supportive of them staying with the group, and is supportive of Sophie in general. It is Silas, so he’s a little generic with his praises, but it’s still a better parenting approach than most of them. A-rank.

Kaze - And here to completely outdo Silas is Kaze.  Again, Midori seems to know when he’s coming, meaning like Corrin, his appearance is a routine thing in her life.  Not perfectly routine though, which creates a bit of conflict between the two, in which Kaze is able to express that he always did his best to be there for her, but kept her here to be safe.  Willing to admit mistakes, accepting of her decisions, clear care for his child despite the poor general decision of leaving your children unattended in deeprealms, but is willing to actually be a parent and reprimand them for their poor decisions, while still being compassionate in his approach.  S-rank.  Kaze’s a good dad.

Ryoma - Honestly, I love that Shiro actually calls him out about not raising him at all.  Also the unnecessary secrecy about who he is and not letting Shiro know his status, and then being irritated when Shiro grows up without any direction in life.  Honestly I’m coming around on Shiro, who has so far been right on the money about how shit a father Ryoma is.  D-rank.

Takumi - Honestly Takumi’s pretty solid?  The support has him being a bit of a dick because he’s jealous of his own kid’s ability, but in the paralogue proper he’s honestly a pretty solid dad?  Like he shows up unannounced so we know he’s taking time to actually meet with his kid, and is fairly protective of him.  He does give in to letting Kiragi come along for dumber reasons, but on the whole he’s solid.  A-rank.

Saizo - He’s kind of a dick?  This is very much how Saizo is, but his entire thing is like...the honor of the family name to the point he doesn’t seem to have any connection to his kid, just his bloodline.  He does eventually let his kid be himself, but only in that, when he demonstrates “his own brand of honor,” Saizo gives him that freedom, but by basically disowning him as next in the Saizo line.  Which is I guess what the kid wanted, but still, it’s kind that “Grant your freedom, but you’re not my son” type feel.  D-rank.

Kaden - He’s alright?  He doesn’t do much, but he at least makes plenty of time to go visit his daughter just for the sake of visiting.  Still, he’s so bad at raising his child that she doesn’t know what dead means, and thinks poachers are there to play.  So present, but perhaps too permissive and uninvolved in actually raising her.  C-rank.

Hinata - Apparently just fucking forgot to make time for his kid.  He’s loving in his own way, but clearly not putting his child as a top priority in a lot of cases.  Not the worst, but certainly not good.  C-rank.

Azama - F-rank.  I don’t really need to explain this, do I?  Fuck Azama.  Even Saizo realizes how much of a callous fuckhead he is toward his own kid.  SAIZO!  Also you somehow gave your daughter a separate world from yours, in the attempt to give her a life of peace, which she achieves and is happier without you, so you storm in only when she’s in active danger, then insist on dragging her out of this peaceful realm into the world of constant war...just because?  Fuck Azama.  F-rank forever.

Subaki - He’s a decent dad.  It does kind of imply that he’s been away for a while, so questionable how much time he’s actually spending with her.  And while he’s generally doting and kind toward his daughter, there is that weird ending bit where he gets nervous about her outperforming him.  I’ll give it a B-rank overall.

Hayato - Honestly, he’s wishy-washy.  Either you fully support your daughter’s mad science or you don’t.  You can’t half-ass this, acknowledging she loves the dark arts and permitting her to mess around with it, and then step in and insist it’s off limits when it turns out the dark arts also have some potentially evil consequences.  Stepping in when he does to take things away feels more like backpedaling on a decision he already made to let her do as she pleases, which was probably too permissive as it stands.  C-rank, which is honestly pretty good for a teen parent compared to some of these other shitheads.

Xander - Finally on the Nohrians.  Xander actually like...talks to his kid.  Siegbert knows what his role is, and even if Xander can’t visit as often as he’d like in person, he keeps in contact through missives.  Now, there is the issue of his stance being “You have to learn to shoulder some burdens alone,” and thinking his son refusing to contact him about these fucking swamp demons was commendable.  So he’s definitely not perfect on this front.  But he does acknowledge that this is the burden of a leader having to make such choices, is accepting and understanding of his son’s autonomy and decisions while still being firm about keeping him safe from war and sending him back should he prove himself unready.  A-rank overall, I think.

Leo - Okay listen.  While I do recognize that Leo comes around and starts trying to be a better father, and I recognize the importance of growth and improvement. But the fact that Leo has spent most of his son’s life avoiding him because he disapproves of his interest in feminine fashion is just inexcusable.  The time to step up as a parent and learn this shit was a long-ass time ago, man.  You’ve basically been out of your child’s life this entire time, shown up only to angrily disapprove of how he lives his life, and now want to walk back in and expect that trying to change means he should give you that chance?  Why?  There’s no reason for Forrest to be the one who has to acknowledge you’re changing and growing as a person.  If nothing else, at least Forrest completely tells him off, and when Leo makes his attempt at reconciliation, his first thought is that he’s excited to get to know Elise.  Get fucked, Leo.  At least you go to save your kid, and don’t seem to express that you’re willing to let him die.  But you did stall on going, so like...fuck you.  F-tier.

Benny - And now for the exact opposite.  Benny’s an absolute sweetheart, and it’s no surprise he’s the same with his son.  He seems to care greatly for his son, is proud of his actions, and while protective, is willing to support his son’s decision to become stronger and learn to defend others with courage, while also teaching him that he’s not as fearless as he seems.  Honestly, maybe it’s just the feeling coming off of Leo, but S-rank.  We don’t really know how often he visits Ignatius, but I’d like to believe it’s often.

Keaton - Nothing too exciting, nothing too bad.  An easy, uninteresting B-rank.

Arthur - Apparently he’s never visited.  And openly stated that because he thought his son was safe here, his job was done.  This is the most intense version of just literally not being there for your child at all.  Still, at least he gives a shit, so D-rank, but a low D.

Odin - I think he’s solid.  Honestly there’s nothing outstanding here, but I really like Odin as a person, so A-rank.

Laslow - Okay, so in the intro to her chapter, Laslow mentions that Soleil has a band for town watch, and that she should be in her Deeprealm but goes where she pleases.  Which implies he knows she’s in his world already.  So he’s already letting her do as she pleases.  He’s openly aware she’s bi (let’s be real, here) and is fully supportive (LEO).  He taught her some great mechanisms for coping with difficulties in her life, and helps her realize it’s okay to not be positive when it feels forced.  And when confronted with the reality that Soleil is way better than him at flirting with the ladies, instead of being an insecure prick about it, he’s like “Hell yeah, that’s my girl!”  S-rank, easy.

Niles - I hate Niles, but as far as parenting goes, he’s not the worst.  It’s not clear if he’s been to visit her much (sounds like a no), but he at least has clear care for her.  He does try to emphasize to her what kind of life he’s had and that he doesn’t want her to have to live like that too, so I do appreciate that angle for him.  B-rank.

And that’s everyone.  There are some decent parents in all this.   The only real failures are Leo and Azama.  I think Azama’s a bit worse based on not showing any inclination to change or any particular care about his child, while Leo at least learns something and grows from it.  Though Leo’s issues are such a problem for me.  I think Laslow’s the best, though Kaze and Benny were also really great.

Shame about the Baby Realm thing, though.  That whole idea was just so stupid...

[corvus--rex]

So this one is my first ever fully dance au, and is also in the sleeping category. The first chapter is split into two parts and starts Keith-centered and then Lance will come in a little later. It's also another Omegaverse, this time with Omega Keith & Alpha Lance. As usual, skip it if it's not your thing :)

~*~*~*~

Keith Kae kept his joints loose, movements fluid, even when the tempo increased and became sharper, he was still liquid. Those movements had been committed to memory, and he let the beat of the song carry him. No matter what he was doing professionally, EDM of all flavors would always remain a favorite. He had turned the volume up, losing himself in the music. It was his practice room in any case. His mother owned Marmora Dance Studio and he had his own dedicated room, soundproofed to allow him to work in peace.

That peace was cut short when the music suddenly cut out.

“Got a call,” Shiro said. Keith’s half-brother, not that they ever cared about that specific designation. They were brothers, no halves about it.

“From who?” Keith asked, stopping where he was, meeting his brother’s eyes in the wall-spanning mirror without turning around.

“Altea.”

Keith spun around and stormed up, turning the music back on. “I'm not doing that fucking modeling bullshit. I’m a dancer, not a fucking model.”

Shiro turned the music off. “That’s not exactly why they called. One of their marketing people looked up your channel. They liked it. Altea wants you for an ad campaign as a dancer. They also said that even though it’s a little unusual, they want you to take the lead on choreography as well.”

Keith was sensing a “but”. He waited, staring at Shiro until his brother cracked.

“But there are a couple things,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

There it was.

“What things?” Keith asked, bracing himself.

“They said that it would be you and one other dancer.”

Ok. That he could deal with. It certainly wouldn’t be his first time working with someone else. But he knew that wasn’t everything. He waited again.

“And technically there’s a modeling clause in the contract. But it’s not what you're thinking.” Shiro deflated. He knew that Keith had negative interest in modeling, but he also knew what Altea wanted. “They sent over a copy of the contract and a more in-depth description of what the ad campaign would be like, and I looked through it. Their campaign involves a professional model for print ads, but they want you and this other dancer for video spots – tv, internet… Look, I know how you feel about modeling, but this would be good for your career. They don’t want you to model in the traditional sense. They want you to model through dance. You and this other dancer. Just – take a look. Please?”

Keith sighed. He still didn’t like it, but he couldn’t ever really say no to Shiro. He left the music off and walked out of his practice room for the front office. He immediately spotted the contract sitting neatly in the open folder, but that wasn’t what he was interested in. What he wanted was the outline for the ad campaign that was spread out across the reception desk. Without sitting, Keith picked up the scattered sheets, putting them back in order before turning back to his brother.

“I’ll look at it. But I am not promising anything.”

Shiro accepted the answer, letting Keith pass him.

Keith left with the folder, heading toward the private bathroom connected to his mother Krolia’s office. He tossed the folder on her desk on the way through, retrieving his backpack from the corner, trying to ignore the fact that Krolia was in the room. He wasn’t subtle about his irritation, however, and she looked up when the aqua file folder hit the desktop.

“Ah,” she said, far too cheerful for Keith’s current mood, “I see Takashi got through to you finally.”

He grunted before answering. “I said I’d look at it. I am not promising either one of you anything.”

Krolia pushed back from her desk, leaning back in her seat. “I know you’re not interested in the modeling aspect, but that’s not what this is. You’d be performing to a global audience through this ad campaign. You. Out of all the dancers they could have chosen to lead this, they want you.”

“Yeah, I know that,” Keith sighed, “But I feel like they're just trying for the same thing and just changing tactics to get what they want. I don’t want to accept and then have them spring something on me that I don’t want. I’ll – I’ll look at it. But if they want anything I've already said no to, I'm not doing it.”

“That’s all I ask. Dance has been your entire life for twenty years. You���ve made a decent life of it, but this may well be what you need to really get out there. Just think about it, ok?”

He crossed the room, stopping in the doorway. “Yeah. I’ll look over the outline. I’ll think about it.”

“He won’t come back. He can’t, if that’s what you’re afraid of. You’re safe. We made sure of it.” Krolia’s tone was soft. Her attempts at reassurance didn’t go unnoticed.

“I know that,” Keith said, turning around, “But it doesn’t mean I won’t worry about it. If I do this, the video will be all over the world. Altea’s a global company. When I toured with that pop princess last year the focus wasn’t on me, and the only reason I even went was as a last-minute replacement because one of her regular dancers got in that accident.”

“And you made some friends there. My point is that he can’t come after you. I know this ad campaign means that you’ll be center stage, but I really feel like this is the push you need. If you decide to take the contract, they’ll need to know about him anyway, and I can guarantee they’ll have extra security because of it. It’s Altea, it’s not like they can’t afford it,” she said, her last sentiment added with a huff of laughter.

“I just wish they didn’t have to,” he mumbled, turning back to leave.

Keith startled at his mother’s touch, not hearing her come up behind him.

~`~`~`~

Still need to connect these two parts, but still the same chapter

~,~,~,~

95 Vox sounded like it would be some upscale, overpriced place, but instead, it was one of, if not the best, places he’d ever found. Ok, found was a stretch. He’d been introduced to it through a friend from high school who used to dance until an injury cut that short. But now Hunk helped run the place with his girlfriend Shay and her family. While they focused on the bakery side of the business, they also made damn good coffee. And that was what Keith needed right then. Especially if he was going to read through this – whatever it was – that Shiro had talked him into looking at.

The coffee shop was light and airy, with pale-stained wood furniture and fixtures, dark wood floors, and clean lines. Shay was working on a drink at the espresso bar, and she lit up when she saw Keith walk in. She handed the drink off to her waiting customer before greeting Keith more fully.

“Hey, how’s it going? Rough day?” she asked gently. Shay had always been good at reading people and knew that Keith was not in a particularly good mood.

“You could say that. I don’t know if Hunk’s told you anything about what’s going on,” he answered, fatigue and resignation in his voice.

Confusion pinched Shay’s face for a second before realization lifted her features. “This is about the Altea thing, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. They haven’t stopped. But now they're changing tactics and I let Shiro talk me into looking it over. So now I'm here. I refuse to touch this uncaffeinated.”

~`~`~`~

Second part. This is where Lance comes in

~,~,~,~

“I cannot believe you did this. That you even managed to do it. How? How did you pull this off?” Allura was incredulous, staring at her little brother from across the island in their parents’ kitchen.

“One,” Lance answered, shit-eating smirk firmly in place, “Professional stage name. Sticking ‘Lance Altea’ on my audition tape would have been noticed immediately. But literally no one’s heard of ‘Leandro Serrano’. Although using Mom’s maiden name was a little risky. But anyway, two, I am that good, and you know it. And three, I never showed my face. Not completely, not enough to recognize me.”

Allura put her coffee cup down, looking her brother over critically. “Well, it worked. The director for the campaign loved it and wants “Leandro” as the second dancer. What I want to know is what the fuck are you going to tell our parents?”

“I want this, Lura. I need it. I need to prove that I'm not just a useless heir to a fashion empire. You got into modeling and designing like Mom did, but everyone’s always just dismissed me. Dance was never good enough for them. Especially what I do. Not like they would have approved of ballet even if that’s what I did. But it doesn’t matter. I’m doing this.

[vixenpen]

Caged Hearts

(Hawks x Miku)

(((Chap 2 Cat&Mouse)))

((Pt. 1)) ((Pt. 3))

The loud smattering of applause finally made Hawks look up from his second serving of roasted chicken dinner, and he nearly choked when he saw the winged goddess herself gliding through the crowd in a silver gown.

Oh my god, oh my god, what is she doing here? What the—Shit! I need to get an autograph.

Thanks to his dizzying train of thought, it took him longer than necessary to register that the lady of the hour was actually gliding towards their table. In fact, it didn’t register until Mirko and Lady hopped to their feet to pull Syren into one of those squealing group hugs girls did.

“I’m so glad you guys could make it!” Syren exclaimed.

“You kiddin?” Mirko pulled back with a grin, "we wouldn’t have missed it for the world! You were amazing, girl.”

“Thank you.” She beamed

“Seriously, you were incredible,” Lady added.

“Oh, hey, we have some friends we want you to meet.” Mirko gestured to their table.

“This is Kamihara Shinya, aka Edgeshot.”

“Nice to meet you,” Syren smiled.

“Likewise,” Edge gave a curt bow of his head, “your show was a delight.”

“And this is—“

“Oh my god, you’re Hawks!” Her eyes widened.

He could only gawk in response.

It wasn’t until Mirko cleared her throat pointedly that Hawks finally dropped the fork, which had been half way through its journey to his mouth, to reply.

“Heh, yeah, th-That’s me.” He gave her—what he hoped—was a charming smile.

“It’s so great to finally meet you!” Syren said, beaming brighter than he had seen her beam all night.

It should have eased his nerves some that she seemed to be a fan of his. It didn’t.

“Same here.” He replied.

“Well,” Mirko clapped. “I’m going to go to the little lady’s room!”

“Great idea,” Lady hooked her arm through Mirko’s. “I’ll come with.”

“You kids have fun!” Mirko winked. Hawks could have sworn that was directed at him.

“I actually think I saw someone I know earlier,” Edgeshot spoke up next. “I’m going to go say hello. Ms. Syren, why don’t you have a seat?” He gestured to his spot beside Hawks as he stood.

“Sure.”

With that, Hawks’ last buffer was gone.

Those slick assholes.

He didn’t know if he wanted to kill the lot of them when they got back or thank them.

Syren slid into the booth next to him, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him. Her ivory wings brushed against his own.

The singer’s excitement was literally palpable. His feathers were picking up the enthusiastic fluttering of her heart.

Alright, Keigo, play it cool.

“It’s so great to finally meet you, Syren gushed, "I’m such a huge fan."

“Well, that makes two us, Angel.”

Syren blushed. Hawks felt her heart rev which eased his nerves.

Wow, she really is a fan of mine. Alright. This is good. This I can handle.

After all, fans were easy. All he had to do was turn on some of that old Hawks Charm™️, and he would be back in control of his frazzled nerves.

“I have to say, beautiful, I loved your show.”

“Really?“

“Really. I gotta say, I’m surprised you didn’t end with The View from Up Here.”

If it were possible, Syren’s grin grew even wider.

“Oh, you really are a fan! I decided to debut Take Off on a whim. My managers were like: ‘you can’t do that; the audience won’t recognize the song merp merp merp!’ but I told them: ‘this is a meaningful artistic choice! It’ll resonate more with the audience.’ You know, it’s easy to talk about the view from the top once you’re already there, but the scariest part for most people is taking that first step, 'The Take Off,' so to speak so—oh I’m sorry, I’m talking to much aren’t I?”

Hawks snapped his gaping mouth shut and shook his head.

“N-no, not at all.”

I love your view on your craft. Also, your voice is so textured and expressive it almost feels like a constant massage. I could literally listen to you talk for hours and never get tired.

He was definitely keeping that little anecdote to himself.

“I can’t speak for everyone else, but it definitely resonated with me.”

a soft grateful smile danced on her face. “Thank you,” She placed her hand on his arm and gave it a squeeze. “That means Everything coming from you.”

The gesture, friendly as it was, lit a fire under his skin. So much for getting his nerves under control.

Luckily, Syren quickly moved on. Her lavender eyes landed on one of Hawks’ most prized possession, his gold Rolex.

“Oooh!” She trilled. Her wings fluttering excitedly.

God she’s adorable.

“You like this, sweet heart?” Hawks chuckled, holding up his forearm to give her a better view of the jewelry.

She hummed in agreement, reverently stroking the band.

Hawks unhooked the watch, and motioned for Syren’s arm. Even fastening the watch as tight as he could, it still slid

Down her delicate wrist, making her giggle. He smiled.

“It’s so pretty.”

“Heh, it is nice, huh?” He replied, fastening it back on his arm.

A thoughtful smile crossed Hawks face as he stared at the pearl face and reminisced.

“it was the first indulgent purchase I made after becoming a hero. Pretty shallow I know, but hey, when you risk your life every second of everyday, you deserve a little indulgence I say.”

He’d meant to play that as a joke, but he almost couldn’t help the bite in his tone.

“Hawks,” Syren said gently.

His golden eyes met hers.

“I know we just met, but I have a proposal-“

“Woah, already?” He interrupted with a chuckle. “That’s pretty sudden, Angel, can’t a guy get dinner first?”

A flush lit up Syren’s brown cheeks as she giggled.

“Not like that, silly. I was going to ask if you’d come to my birthday party next weekend? I know we just met, but I would really love it if you came.”

“A personal invitation from the birthday girl, herself?” He brought a hand to his chin and rolled his eyes to the ceiling thoughtfully. “Now what kind of guy would I be if I refused an offer like that?”

“An asshole,” she replied.

Hawks let out a bark of surprised laughter at her frankness.

“Well that does it, huh? I can’t have my favorite singer thinking I’m an asshole. Alright, Miss. Syren, I’ll be there.”

She bounced giving a giddy little clap. “Yay!”

Hawks smiled, relaxing in her effervescent presence.

“So,” he inched closer to her, feeling suddenly emboldened. “What does the birthday girl want?”

“Oh no, Hawks, you don’t have to buy me anything,” she waved her hands, dismissively. “just you coming will be enough.”

“Syren, I promise you, babe, it’s no problem.” He threw an arm over the back of her chair.”

A blush colored her cheeks. He smirked. He was still nervous, but the more flustered she got, the more at ease he felt. Not to mention the thrumming of her pulse was sending a sweet little vibration through his wings.

“Hawks, you really don’t have to-“

“Angel,” he drawled in a low, warning tone, “if you know my reputation, you know I’m very persistent in getting what I want.” His golden eyes ran over her body, suggestively. “So, you may not wanna play cat and mouse games with me, beautiful. Unless you like getting caught.”

He didn’t even need his quirk to pick up on Syren’s flustered energy. It was written all over her adorable, blushing face.

“W-well, I, um, I love jewelry, sparkly things, anything to do with music, and backless dresses like this one.” Her voice cracked as she stammered out her reply.

Her nervous energy excited Hawks. He found himself wanting more. Wanting to see just how far he could push her.

“Oh?” his eyes ran over her once more. “Let me see.”

Syren turned away from him. The silver gown she wore dipped dangerously low in the back, showing off a well-toned physique. Her ivory wings flexed, as if to showcase the muscles that kept them working. But what drew Hawks’ was the thin, sparkling silver chain that fell just above her ass holding the slinky little dress in place.

He almost couldn’t help himself as he hooked his fingers beneath the chain and allowed them to travel up the length of her spine. He marveled at the way her wings fluttered as she shivered under his touch. When he reached the juncture between where they protruded from her back a pretty coo escaped her.

Holy fuck.

His voice took on a low, suggestive tone as he asked: “Like this, baby?”

Syren turned to face him, whipping her curtain of silky white hair over her shoulder, and hitting him in the face.

“Just like that, daddy.” She purred.

Hawks choked.

He choked on literal air.

Hawks: 0

Syren: 1,00,000,000

Damn...was not expecting that. Alright, bud, you can bounce back. Smooth and witty, kid.

“Thank you.”

Syren laughed.

Hawks: -1

Syren: 1,00,000,001

“Hey kids, we’re back!” Mirko’s booming voice announced as she and Lady slid back into the booth arm in arm.

Saved by the bunny.

“Hope you two didn’t have too much fun while we were away.” Lady winked, smirking at them.

Hawks aimed a pointed look at her messy hair before glancing at Mirko’s smeared lipstick.

“Not as much fun as you two had, I’m sure.” He shot his friends a smirk of his own.

Lady blushed; Mirko just chuckled.

“Say, you guys didn’t tell me you knew my number one hero!” Syren piped up, placing a hand on Hawks knee.

His heart skipped a beat, both at the title and her touch.

“To be fair, we also didn’t tell him we knew his number one celebrity crush either.” Mirko replied.

Whelp, guess I’ll just die of embarrassment now. Good bye cruel world.

Before he could commence with dying, however, Syren nudged him.

“Your celebrity crush?” She quirked a brow playfully, but he could see the hopeful gleam in those crystal eyes of hers too.

“Guilty as charged, Angel.” He grinned back at her.

The pair held each other’s stare for a beat until Mirko coughed something that sounded a lot like: “She’s single!”

I swear I’m gonna skin this rabbit.

“So, since you two got acquainted, I take it Shiro told you about her birthday party coming up?” Lady asked, leaning forward on her elbows.

“She did, and I agreed to come.” He replied, coolly.

“I can’t wait for you to come!” Her bubbly tone didn’t match the suggestive glint in her eyes or the way she licked her lips slowly as she glanced at his.

Was everyone at this table conspiring to kill him slowly or what?

Mirko smacked her his arm.

"Hey, you better not be coming to the birthday girl's party empty-handed either, Hawks!"

He smacked her back. "C'mon Cotton Tail, what do you take me for? Of course, I've got something special in mind for the lady."

"Oooh!" Syren bounced again. "What is it."

He turned to her, playfully wagging a finger in her face.

"Nuh uh, Angel, it's a surprise. You'll find out soon enough. Promise."

“OK Hawks," she smiled back. Her voice rolled down his spine pleasantly. He had a sudden urge to hear her say his real name the way she said 'Hawks.'

She laid a hand on his thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze as she leaned forward. His golden-brown eyes dipped straight to the abundance of cleavage spilling out of her low-cut gown.

"Now that you know what I like, I can’t wait for you to give it to me.”

Hawks: -3

Miku: 1,000,000,003