#oops! all galra au

[discordiansamba]

"Okay, show of hands. How many of us are half-human, half-Galra?"

A lot of hands go up, but surprisingly, not everyone's does. One version of himself, a Galra with red and purple markings wearing Blade armor just looks confused.

"Wait," he says, "-you guys are only half Galra?"

"See, I'm just completely human," one version of himself with gray eyes says, "-but I guess I was raised by Galra? So technically I'm still an alien."

"Wait," a puzzled version of himself wearing a more fantasy version of Blade armor tilts his head, "-what's an alien? I mean, I'm half Galra, but-"

"-actually yeah, same question," a version of himself with golden eyes wearing a cloak asks, "-what's an alien? also what's a Galra? I'm human also. By the way. Definitely human."

"That feels like a really obvious denial," another version of himself that's purple but is wearing more Altean style clothing says, "-also I'm half-Galra, half-Altean."

"I am also half-Galra, half-Altean," a version of himself that definitely looks a little too much like Lotor raises his hand.

"Half-human, Half-Altean," another version of himself wearing even fancier Altean clothing says.

"Full Altean," says another version of himself, "-it's a recent and complicated development. Don't ask."

"Y'all are aliens?" A version of himself that looks mostly human asks, arching a brow. "Huh. Guess that... might explain some stuff about me."

"You guys aren't Shifters?" A deeply confused version of himself asks. "Like? You can't change your shape? That's so weird."

"I can," one version of himself says, and demonstrates by turning themselves Galra in the blink of an eye, "-you mean y'all can't do this?"

"I wish I could do that," says an extremely tall, very Galra version of himself wearing Lotor's armor, "-but no."

"I'm... a lot of things," says a version of himself who does, in fact, look like a lot of things, "-but originally I was just half-human, half-Galra."

"...why do so many of you guys have aliens in your universe?" one version of himself asks, "-because I don't. I mean, I may be a genetically modified superhuman, but-"

"Actually being part-Galra would explain some stuff," a version of himself with visible Galra features says, "-I just thought the changes were because I'm infected with a zombie virus."

"Wait. What the fuck."

[hailqiqi]

Message Received and Misunderstood

Once a promising fighter pilot candidate with the best skin in the Garrison, Lance Serrano is now relegated to languishing in cargo training during the day and locking himself in the library at night, sacrificing his self-care for a pile of textbooks like the nerds he used to make fun of.

He doesn't even bother talking to the other late-night regulars -- the boy with the Rubik's Cube, the girl who chews her pens too loudly, or the Sadako-wannabe who's always the only other person in there at midnight.

Friends will only distract him, and he needs to study.

Rating: G

Chapter One: First Contact

4,622 words | Read on AO3

So here’s my contribution to the @planceminibang! Beta’d by the wonderful @sp4c3-0ddity and with art (Chapter 3!) from the fantastically-talented @artemisarya, here’s a little teenage sweetness that’s a bit different from my normal offerings.

Enjoy!

5TH JANUARY

 The rough calculations on the page had long since blurred together by the time his phone blinks for break time, and Lance slumps forward onto the table with a groan.

Twenty minutes. Another twenty minutes that he’s been at this stupid problem, and despite filling both sides of the page up with calculations, he’s still no closer to figuring out if a hafnium carbide vessel would survive the stress of a gravity assist off Saturn or not.

He lifts his head and glares at the paper. Two points were all that had stood between him and making fighter pilot; instead, he’s stuck in cargo training and desperately trying to pull up his grades at night because he needs an extra fifty to make it in off a retest. And despite the lack of sleep and him studying harder than he ever had in his life — even harder than he had for the entrance exams — it’s now half-way through the school year and he’s still staring down a failing grade.

All because of freaking materials science.

Maybe he should just give up. There’s no shame in being a cargo pilot, mijo, his mom had said. Cargo pilots make a steady wage — a good wage, enough to raise a family and have a lot left over. The job wasn’t as boring as it sounded, and there were still opportunities to leave the atmosphere (and while he’d been bottom of fighter, he was top of the cargo class so he’d definitely be given the space runs).

But cargo isn’t what he wants. Maybe he’s being immature, but he wants to swoop and soar and feel the world fall out from underneath him at mach speeds when he jiggles the stick. You can’t do a barrel roll in a cargo ship, even in space.

His phone flashes again and he leans back in his seat, hands over his eyes as he begins to recite the problem again.

“If the hafnium carbide heat shields are two inches thick and have a tensile strength of 14,000 psi at 2,000 degrees…”

It’s way too freaking late for this.

“And Saturn’s gravity is 10.44, and we’re travelling in a prograde direction during the assist and approach from…” This bit he can do. The miss distance, the outgoing velocity, the amount of fuel needed — he’d calculated it so many times now he can rattle the whole thing off by memory, but once he gets past the flight calculations he needs to check his notes to know what happens next. “And then…”

He glances at the paper, checks both sides, and groans again, one hand in his hair. “...And then some random amount of heat is generated and I guess the stupid shuttle explodes and everybody dies, ‘cause I’ll be a flying space cow if I know if it survives or not.”

A snort of laughter from behind makes him jump.

He whips around in his seat, heart in his throat because it’s eleven p.m., who the heck is in the library at this hour?, only to be met by a pair of laughing brown eyes half-hidden behind a curtain of equally brown hair.

Oh, yeah. Her. The only other person crazy enough to be in the library every night, even though he’s fairly sure she’s not studying for the resit since he doesn’t recognise her from any of his classes last year. In all the months they’ve shared a space they’ve barely exchanged a nod, but it looks like that’s about to change because she’s actually speaking to him.

“I’m sorry,” the girl is saying, mirth still flowing in her tone and not looking sorry in the slightest. “That was just really funny.”

Lance rolls his eyes. “I’m glad someone finds it funny.” He begins to turn away but then stops, desperation prodding him to use this opportunity. “You...wouldn’t happen to know the answer, would you?”

The girl looks surprised. “What’s the question? Whether or not the heat shields would survive the gravity assist?” Lance nods, and she blinks. “Well, yeah, of course they would.”

“Uh...Say what?”

“Yes, they’d survive. Zero material stress, actually,” she repeats steadily, her head tilted in confusion. 

“Oh… Thanks,” he manages, and she shrugs and turns back to her textbook.

Lance grabs his sheet of paper, fumbling it in his haste to turn it over and go over all the calculations again because she sounds so sure, like it’s an easy question when he’s been at it for almost a freaking hour now with no results.

What did he miss? He must have missed something. Something obvious? Where are his notes on Kepler’s laws?

With five minutes left on the study clock he gives in and turns back to the girl. The Library Sadako, he’d nicknamed her, since her hair is always covering her face and her pyjamas are as shapeless as a ghost’s robes. Plus she had a habit of appearing and disappearing from the library all but soundlessly. 

But right now she’s his last hope.

“So, uh… How do you prove it?”

She glances up at him, an irritated frown on her face at the interruption, and Lance realises there are bags under her eyes too. But her tone is neutral when she clarifies, “The material stress question?”

Lance nods, and she puts her pencil down and eyes him curiously. “You don’t need to prove it. Those are the specs for The Obol’s heat shields, and that flight path was the one for the return Saturn assist from the Kerberos mission last year. Remember?”

The ticking of the clock in the corner is suddenly much too loud, and all he can do is stare.

“You don’t need to prove it,” she repeats, exasperation creeping into her tone. “It’s already been proven. That’s one of the general knowledge questions.”

He spins back around, practically snarling in frustration as he digs through his papers to find the mock with the question on it.

When he finally finds it, it’s all he can do not to burn the damn thing. Stupid, stupid, stupid… She’s right, and there’s only two lines for an answer. Nowhere near enough space for the pages of vector diagrams and formulas covering his scrap paper.

And he’d wasted an hour on this. Stupid, stupid, stupid…

Maybe he should just go back to the farm. Veronica wouldn’t have been this dumb. Heck, Keith wouldn’t have been this dumb and the guy wasn’t exactly the brightest in the bunch. Still, Keith’s in fighter class while Lance is languishing in cargo, so if Keith’s stupid what does that make Lance?

Really stupid. Space-level stupid. The stupidest stupid to— 

The thud of books hitting the table next to him rips him from his thoughts, and he looks up in surprise to see the girl pulling out the chair next to him, a hesitant smile on her face.

“When I studied for the entrance tests, I always found it easier to focus at night when I had my brother with me, even if we didn’t talk,” she says, one hand on the back of her neck as she sits down. “So, uh, maybe some company will help?”

Without waiting for an answer, she arranges her books, flipping open a notebook and textbook with practiced ease and beginning work on what looks like a flight mechanics question. Lance watches her for a moment, unsure, then sighs and flips to the next question on the paper.

Maybe she’s right. He might as well give it a go, since his solo progress has been nothing to brag about.

It’s almost midnight, anyway.

 *****

10TH FEBRUARY

 As it turns out, Sadako’s name is Katie, and she’s studying for the same exam he is.

But not because she failed round one, like Lance. She’s two grades below him and looking to skip a year.

Lance can’t help but find it a little bit galling, especially when it’s 11 p.m. and she’s just finished walking him through a Critical Reasoning question for the third time like it’s nothing. The formulas — formulae — are all neatly laid out on the paper, but Lance still doesn’t get it.

“Why are you even here?!” he blurts out, his jaw aching from the frustration. Katie recoils, her mouth hanging open and hurt flashing across her face and — oh — he hadn’t meant for that to sound so harsh. 

Especially not when she’d put so much effort into helping him over the last month.

“I’m sorry,” he mutters, taking the pencil from her hand gently and putting it down before running his hand through his hair. “It’s just...none of this seems even a little bit hard for you. Why are you bothering to stay up like this?”

It’s something he’s wondered for a while. Katie’s been the only other person in the library until closing almost every night since fall so he’d always assumed they were in similar places, but now they were actually studying together…

“Oh,” she says, the tension leaving her posture again. Apology accepted, Lance guesses, but her eyes linger on his material science textbook instead of him, and her fingers fiddle with the ends of her long hair as she speaks. “Um, well, mat-sci really isn’t that hard for me. My dad’s...uh, my dad works for the Garrison as an engineer, and he does a lot of R&D and he always talks about his work at home, so…”

Katie taps the book, looking distinctly uncomfortable for some reason. Lance raises an eyebrow. “So if you haven’t been studying this, what have you been studying all this time?”

“Flight manuals,” Katie replies, finally meeting his gaze again, and Lance is relieved to see a spark in her eyes again. “I’ve only flown the droids a few times, and some of the older planes in basic, but the practical is a big part of the class exams and since there’s no way I’m going to get any actual practice, if I at least memorise all the flight manuals and mechanics and everything then I should have a shot.”

“Memorise the flight manuals?!”

“Yeah!” Lance stares at her as she chatters on enthusiastically, seemingly oblivious to how absurd that suggestion is in the first place. “A strong foundation in the theory can never be a replacement for practical experience, but it can be the difference between a weak pass and a fail. Of course I’ve been brushing up on stuff like this as well”—she pats the textbook twice—“because the closer I get to a hundred percent on the other subjects, the less a poor practical score will matter. I’ve tried to code my own simulations too” —you’ve tried to what?!—“but obviously I can’t replicate the physical aspects of the hardware with my laptop. I mean, I’d try a set-up of books and stuff just to get the motions down but then my roommate would probably complain even m—”

Lance bursts out laughing, cutting her ramble off abruptly, and Katie narrows her eyes at him.

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing.” Laughter still threatens to bubble over, but he pushes it down as he explains, “Just...that’s a lot!” His gaze falls to the notes from their study session and the pile of books spread across the desk, and he suddenly realises how he can pay her back a little. “Hey, my prac scores were pretty high, so I can help you out with that stuff if you want?”

A warm, genuine smile spreads across Katie’s face as she looks at him, and Lance realises with a start it’s the first time he’s seen it. It transforms her, turning her from a tired teenager in pyjamas into something his exhausted brain vaguely recognises as the sun.

“Really?!” Her tone is way too vibrant for this hour of night, and her hair swings back and forth as she bobs in her seat. “That would be the best! Thank you!”

Lance beams.

 *****

20TH FEBRUARY

 Hunk is rambling nervously about his last sim class as students bustle through the hallways when Lance’s phone finally buzzes with a reply.

Mid-terms are in two weeks. Of course I’m coming tonight. Usual time?

He shoots off a thumbs-up and turns back to tune into Hunk’s chatter.

“—and then he broke the whole comms deck and Lance, what if he does that during our mid-terms? Keith already made Iverson angry — and I mean really angry —  and oh, if we get marked down on the pracs because of it then I’m really going to need to pull up my avionics and aero science scores if I want to stay in the top ten,” Hunk continues, breathless. “Oh man, I have no idea how I’m going to do that on top of all this other stuff we have to study! I don’t even want to leave the ground, why do I have to learn how to fly the stupid things?!”

Lance glances up from his phone, a smirk already on his lips. “Because you went to flight school, maybe?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me!” Hunk slumps back against the wall and groans. “Hands down the Biggest. Mistake. Of my life.”

Lance’s phone buzzes with a reply. He checks it quickly, excitement filling him when he sees the small thumbs up icon.

“Hey, if you’re worried about your exam scores, why don’t you study with us in the library sometimes?”

Hunk pauses, expression turning devious as he straightens up and turns to face him. “Us? You mean you and your study girlfriend?”

He waggles his eyebrows meaningfully, and Lance rolls his eyes, shoving his phone back into his pocket.

“Katie. And you know she’s not my girlfriend. She’s good to study with, though, and she said you should come.”

“Hm.” Hunk’s expression doesn’t change. If anything, his smirk grows more irritating. “Okay, I’m in. It’s about time I met the elusive Katie, anyway.”

 *****

10TH MARCH

 The first time Lance sees Katie in daylight is at a diner near campus the week after mid-terms.

“Why don’t you just ask your brother, Pidge?” Hunk asks accusatorially, wielding a fry at the girl across the table rolling her eyes at them. “Can’t he like, just log in and tell me my scores? Given that he’s a famous astronaut and all.”

Katie — Pidge, he has to remember to call her Pidge now because she freaking deserves it after all the lies she told him in the library — grabs the fry from Hunk’s grasp and pops it into her mouth, chewing it deliberately slowly before swallowing and replying with a frown, “You know it doesn’t work like that. And stop calling me Pidge.”

“Aw, but Pidge is such a good nickname. Cute Pidgey-Widgey Pigeon.” Hunk pops another fry into his mouth as Pidge’s expression darkens. 

(For someone who spends most of his time worrying, he’s a heck of a lot braver facing certain death than Lance would be.)

“Oh my God, can’t you just drop it?”

“Nope,” he replies, smirk still firmly in place. “It’s your punishment for keeping secrets. Isn’t that right, Lance?”

Lance glances from Hunk to Pidge, then decides that self-preservation is for losers after all.

“Totally.” He quirks an eyebrow, inwardly delighting at how her eyes narrow as they focus on him. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. You’re the one who was all ‘oh, I’m just good at this because my dad’s an engineer’ and totally forgot to mention that he wrote the freaking textbook.”

“Ugh!” Katie slumps forward, all but slamming her forehead on the table. “Look, I’m sorry if I didn’t tell you guys, but people hear the name ‘Holt’ and get weird, okay?”

The last bit comes out as a mumble, and Lance feels a stab of sympathy. The weight of having successful siblings is something he understands well; he can only imagine the pressure of coming from an entire line of Garrison royalty.

Then again… “We’ve been friends for months, Katie,” he points out. “It just sucks that we had to find out because your famous astronaut brother appeared in the library and started calling you ‘Pidge’.”

Katie raises her head, lips pursed in annoyance. “So what, you guys are going to stop using my real name as my penance or something?”

“Exactly,” Hunk says decisively. “Like, I wouldn’t have cared if you’d told us — hey, Matt was pretty cool, and it’s so freaking amazing that your dad is like one of my engineering heroes — but finding it out like that sucked. You should’ve trusted us enough to tell us.” He pauses, then goes for the kill. “I thought we were friends.”

Her face falls, and Lance is vaguely aware that they might have overdone it.

 *****

25TH MARCH

 The post-Matt interrogation at the diner starts something. Soon, Pidge is joining them for lunch in the canteen every day, and then breakfast, and then before Lance has really processed it their duo has become a trio and it feels weird to think of a time when Pidge wasn’t in their group.

Moments like now, though, remind him.

“Why would he make a fool of himself?”

“Because that,” Hunk answers with a flourish, gesturing at Jenny’s retreating back, “was—”

And Lance suddenly realises that he doesn’t want Pidge to know about this.

He quickly slaps a hand over Hunk’s mouth, ignoring his muffled indignation to smile awkwardly at Pidge. “Y’know what? It doesn’t matter. You don’t need t— armmf!”

Less than two seconds later he’s struggling to breathe, strong muscles wrapped firmly around his head and torso and the pungent smell of Hunk’s armpit filling his nostrils.

“That,” Hunk continues, barely affected by Lance’s struggles for freedom, “was Jenny Shayburn.”

“Who’s Jenny Shayburn?” Pidge asks, and Lance can just imagine her expression: one eyebrow raised with that look that says why must you be like this? as she watches their tussle.

Or, well, Lance would like to call it a tussle. Hunk probably just sees it as an inconvenience.

“Oh, just the love of Lance’s life and his obsession for the last two years. No big deal.” 

Lance slumps against Hunk’s chest and groans. Both Pidge and Hunk latch onto gossip with the ferocity of his brother’s old terrier.

“Oh,” she says, her tone flat. “Weird.”

Lance pushes away from Hunk, who releases him without a fight, but he can’t find any relief in his reprieve. Pidge’s fingers grip her cup tightly as she sips, her gaze fixed on the students entering and leaving the canteen, and Lance feels an odd weight settle in his stomach.

What’s he supposed to say to that? A part of him wants to protest that he hasn’t thought about Jenny in ages, but it feels like... What’s that Shakespeare quote? The one about the lady protesting?

That.

Hunk glances between them, a calculating expression on his face as he takes in the tension at the table, then waves at Pidge to get her attention. “So,” he begins, tone sly, “is there anyone you like? Any special boy in our little Pigeon’s life?”

Lance rolls his eyes and tries to look as disinterested as possible, even though a part of him is on tenterhooks waiting for the answer. It’s not a topic they’ve ever broached in their hangouts. 

“Sorry, no,” Pidge answers quickly, but she’s avoiding their gaze and the lie is obvious, and Lance suddenly wonders who it is and if he could take him in a fight.

Though it’s not like he cares.

“Aw, c’mon, you can tell us,” Hunk cajoles, nudging Lance far too hard in the chest with his elbow. “Bet you loverboy Lance here can give you some tips for catching his eye.”

“Uh, yeah! Sure!” He runs a hand through his bangs, feigning a confidence he’s not feeling. “Advice. I can totally help ya out.”

He grins and shoots her some fingerguns, adding a wink for good measure. There. That was natural.

The deadpan expression on her face doesn’t change (maybe he’s lost his touch?).

“Thanks, but no thanks,” she replies at length, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. “Look, it’s just a crush and he doesn’t like me back anyway. Can we change the topic now?”

For whatever reason, Hunk obliges, and the weird tension that had hung over the table dissipates fairly quickly as they move on to safer topics. The strange taste in Lance’s mouth lingers, though, and he’s not sure why.

 *****

3RD APRIL

 Everybody else in the diner is watching and chuckling and Pidge looks like she’s about to die, but really — she should know by now that they take that as encouragement.

“Haaapppy birthday dear Pigeon…” they bellow, Hunk adding an impressive vibrato on the low note. “Haaapppy birthday tooo—” Lance manages to take it up way-too-high there, grinning proudly when Pidge winces from behind her hands— “you!”

They finish with a poor attempt at harmonisation, bodies half-out of the booth with a flourish of jazz hands as the rest of the restaurant bursts into laughter, whoops and applause.

“Oh my God…” Pidge mutters, finally removing her hands from her face as the noise dies down. “Can I blow these stupid things out now?!”

Her tone is deadpan but her cheeks are a bright pink, but the sparkle in her eyes is what really gives her away. She’s pleased, she just thinks she’s too cool to show it.

(Or something. Sometimes Pidge really confuses him.)

After several unsuccessful attempts to blow them out, Pidge plucks the sparklers from her pile of pancakes and rapidly-melting ice cream and dunks them both in Lance’s water before he can stop her. Then she waves the dead sparklers in his direction with narrowed eyes and hisses, “I know the sparklers were your idea.”

“You wound me!!” Lance protests, his hand on his heart as he pretends to swoon. “You should know by now I only have your wellbeing at heart!”

“Nah, she’s not that dumb, buddy,” Hunk adds. Pidge snorts, turning into a full-blown laugh when Lance flops onto the table dramatically at Hunk’s betrayal, getting ice-cream in his hair in the process.

They dig into their pancakes with gusto, discussing their plans for when spring break starts the next day (Lance and Pidge are both heading home — Lance to Cuba to help with the calving and ploughing, Pidge to her family’s house just outside post — while Hunk is staying on at school for the fortnight) and debating the perfect topping combination and whether or not they’d be able to eat them when they finally made their way into space. It’s the most carefree meal Lance has had in a while — the perfect end to a busy term — and it’s enough to make him forget about the gift bag on the seat next to him.

But eventually the plates are cleared and the butterflies come back full-force when Hunk drops his gift on the table with a thud.

“Seriously?!” Pidge exclaims, beaming as she looks between them. “Guys, you didn’t need to!”

“Hey, this one’s just from me! Open it.” He pushes the box towards Pidge, winking surreptitiously at Lance as he adds, “Lance has his own present for you.”

Pidge tears into Hunk’s gift with gusto, her eyes lighting up as she removes what looks like a very small version of the throttle used in the fighter sims. Hunk starts rattling off its specs — he’d picked up an old one and basically reengineered the part with help from his whiz-kid pilot — and Pidge launches into a series of questions, almost all of which fly way over Lance’s head.

He tunes out of the conversation somewhere around the point where they start making plans for Hunk to visit her over the break to help install it, instead choosing to sit back and watch his friends interact. The hair in Katie’s ponytail is swinging all over the place as she does that excited bobbing thing she does, and he can’t help but think that it’s ridiculously cute.

A well-placed elbow rips Lance from his thoughts and he hurriedly grabs the bag and shoves it across the table, almost tipping it over in the process and wincing at how uncool he must look.

He quickly flashes a pose and follows it up with a wink and fingerguns (fingerguns can save any situation. Fact). “Mine’s the best, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Pidge drawls with a smile, but her brow furrows as she accepts the bag and looks inside. “Uh, did you forget your umbrella in here…?”

“Oh! No, no, that’s for you.” Hunk’s shoulders are shaking with laughter beside him, and Lance can feel his cheeks heating up. “Just like, you seem like a practical girl, and an umbrella’s a practical gift!”

The fingerguns come out again, and Pidge rolls her eyes with a laugh as she places the green-and-blue umbrella to the side (really he’d just picked it up so he wasn’t just giving her the other thing, but she didn’t need to know that). “Okay…”

The butterflies return in full force as she opens the bag again and pulls out the slim box, her expression shifting to one of surprise as she recognises it.

“Go on. Open it,” he says, answering the question in her eyes, and he can’t help his lips from pulling up into a smile when she does so and gasps.

“Lance…” She looks from him to the necklace in the box, eyes wide and lips parted, then shakes her head. “Lance, I can’t accept this! It must have cost you a fortune.”

But the way she’s looking at it — at him — lets him know that she really wants to, and that’s enough for the butterflies to finally settle into something warm and soft instead.

“Nah, it wasn’t that much.” Only his whole allowance for the month, but she didn’t need to know that, either. “I just saw it and thought it would suit you. And you only turn sixteen once, right?”

She flashes him a smile and looks back at the necklace, eyes soft as her fingertip traces over the intricate gold and green pendant. He’s telling the truth about thinking it would suit her — he saw it on a trip to the mall and immediately wanted to get it for Pidge, and that was before he’d known her birthday was coming up. 

Hunk is nudging him with his elbow, making weird noises that Lance knows translate to ‘See? See? I told you she’d like it’ and Lance feels an urge to laugh because he’d been so stupidly nervous about giving her his gift — even though it’s just a necklace! It’s not like it’s a ring or anything else with some weird hidden meaning.

“Could you help me put it on?”

He stares at Pidge, startled by the shy question. Her cheeks are a bright pink but she’s not looking away and he nods dumbly, rooted to the spot until Hunk all but shoves him out of the booth and towards Pidge’s side.

“I, uh… Sure.”

His fingers barely tremble as he removes the necklace from the proffered box, and then Pidge is leaning forward and flipping her ponytail out of the way and before he really knows what’s going on he’s fastened the clasp and is drawing away from the pale, freckled skin of her neck and back to his side of the booth (which suddenly feels so, so far away), fingertips burning as he takes his seat again.

“Thanks.” Pidge beams at him as she fiddles with the pendant displayed on her chest.

Lance nods dumbly, heart pounding. Her skin was so soft. Are all girls that soft?

He glances from Pidge’s smile to the pendant, finally breaking into a genuine smile himself as one thought crosses his mind. 

He was right. It does suit her.

[lesbianklance]

rewrite au where, sure keith is autistic, but its revealed pidge and hunk are as well, and we get good enough personality from galra to know his weird behavior isn't a galra thing. alsooo, rewrite where the story actually cares about its characters emotions and we see keith deal with his feelings of alienation hes dealt with sense he was young from being an autistic and traumitized, and bonding with fellow characters who are autistic or traumitized, and learning its not a galra thing - aroklance

FUCK YES

should have known that post would have attracted you and your spectacular rewrites😌

honesty blaming his autistic traits on him being galra was so fucking lazy of them but what did we expect huh?

have the boy get some actual support they have him being strong all the time and calm and collected we havent seen him break down and cry once

it might be the angst bitch in me but bro for fucks fucking sake the dude literally:

saw his dead father after a decade of going from orphanage to foster care to group homes. he saw him again the only stable family he ever had that he lost 10 years ago. he wasn't even phased. tbh i havent seen anyone talking about this??? and like??? the dude was allowed to be heartbroken it was a very emotional scene. i get that they wanted to focus on the galra shit but he literally saw his father that he lost which started a series of unfortunate events for him in a vision and then had to leave him behind. didnt even see him talk about it or cry over him

we didnt see how his galra lineage affected him, like at all. he just found out he was half galra and moved on. his entire life must have turned upside down s h o w t h a t

he left his new family and suddenly turned into a robot, living with a bunch of aliens he's never met that put the mission above people's lives

ALMOST FUCKING DIED FOR THE CAUSE but nope of course it never gets addressed, no one even tells him that he is important too and shouldn't do shit like that. ffs the team probably didnt even know about it. how did that affect keith??? he almost died and he just moved on??? he should have been at least in shock???

HE LITERALLY MET HIS MUM THAT ABANDONED HIM FOR 19 FUCKING YEARS AND NEVER YELLS AT HER. youre telling me keith the hothead of the team wouldnt yell or at least sass his mum? sounds fake. she just gives him some bs excuse they spend 2 years on a whale doing bonding or some shit and everything is cool. SHOW US KEITH DEALING WITH HIS TRAUMA THAT WOMAN LITERALLY CAUSED HIS ABANDONMENT ISSUES FFS

those 2 years on the whale must have been really fucking traumatic. they didnt have any food, any clothes, any privacy. he was stuck with the woman that left him, that is a stranger to him. no other human interraction for 2 entire years. leave me in that place for 2 years with my best friend since middle school that I've never faught with? we'd rip each other's heads off, much less my mum that left me. yet its shown as a good thing oh yay it fixed him

and then he's just a bad shiro clone for the rest of the show. just following orders doing whatever tf is good for the universe shown as being better than everyone

and theeen we get the confirmation yes the autistic coded character? the one that always thought there was something wrong with him? the one that always seeked out a family (and btw the whole point of the family trope they were supposed to do was to give him said family with the paladins but nah he left them to go to the BOM)? yeah he left the only family he found fucked off to space because apparently all those thoughts he had all his life were right. yeah kids? if you feel like something is wrong with you and you dont fit in? suck it up and leave. great message there voltron

i got off topic sorry svdkhsjsb

point is: SHOW HIM DEALING WITH HIS TRAUMA CAUSE LORD KNOWS HE'S GOT A LOT OF IT AND REALISING HIM NOT BEING NEUROTYPICAL DOESN'T MAKE HIM WEIRD OR WHATEVER A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE NEURODIVERGENT HAVE HIM BOND WITH PIDGE OVER IT UGHHHHH

anyway ive told you before you're the only one i trust with voltron you shall rewrite the show😌✌️

EDIT: i just realised how off topic i went... oops? i mean you covered it perfectly on the autistic coded thing. if they had done what you said he would have been such great rep but we all know how voltron is with that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[calligraphist-artemisia]

The Smallest Blade (Part iv)

Summary:  AU. Kolivan knew raising a half-Galra cub wouldn’t be an easy task, especially while running a super secretive organization dedicated to bringing down a corrupt empire. What he didn’t take in consideration was how much the boy would change his life.

Also posted on AO3 under the username Kishirokitsune

-----

iv.

Since meeting Katla, Keith's days were filled with fun and laughter. His heart felt light in a way that it hadn't since the last day he saw his dad and he latched onto that feeling, determined to keep it for himself.

He'd been a little wary of her at first. She looked different from the other Galra who Kolivan had introduced him to and he hadn't been expecting someone his own age. Her ears fanned out on either side of her head and were so fluffy-looking that he had to hold himself back from touching them. Coupled with her tufted tail and light purple hair, he often thought she resembled an oddly colored lion.

When she told him she was only half-Galra, like he was, he thought that was all the explanation he needed as to why she looked so different from Kolivan, who was the only other Galra whose appearance he had seen. (The others always wore those odd-looking masks to hide their identities. Keith hadn't worked up the courage to ask Kolivan why yet.)

Then he met Katla's mom.

She was tall and slender, with long pointed ears and antennae ringed with green sticking up through her lavender hair. Soft fuzz covered her exposed skin, though it wasn't fur like Katla had.

Keith's confusion only grew when he was introduced to Mattox and then to their dad.

Mattox, at least, bore a stronger resemblance to his mom, and shared her pointed ears and soft fuzz. Like his sister, his hair was a shade of light purple, though his was cut short. Their dad - (“Samvil,” he introduced himself.) - reminded him more of Kolivan; they shared the same coloring, but he was smaller and less intimidating. Samvil also had a tail, just like Katla.

Every Galra looked startlingly different. It was a massive change from Earth, where all humans looked mostly the same, but with varying skin and hair colors.

Keith looked down at his hands, which were a shade of blue-violet unseen in humans and was clearly a mark of his Galra heritage. It was a relief, in a way, to be in a place where the only reason he stood out was because of his age and not the way he looked.

Katla bounced on her toes as she skipped over to him, her tail swishing behind her in excitement. “Wanna see something cool?”

It wasn't the first time Keith had heard those words from her and it was certain to not be the last. “Didn't Shiro tell us to stay here until he got back?”

“Well, yeah, but he doesn't have to know,” Katla said with a shrug. “We'll go and come right back. Promise!”

Keith hesitated.

Kolivan was really disappointed the last time they snuck out and explored the air vents. He never yelled, which was nice, but there was an underlying tone that he recognized as disapproval.

Although, if they didn't get caught...

“Okay,” Keith agreed.

Katla trilled happily and grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the door. He gave her a boost up to the keypad and it only took her a minute to crack the newest code and open the door. She climbed down and they both scouted out the hallway before leaving the room.

“This way,” she whispered, turning left.

They padded down the hall, moving quickly and silently, with Katla leading the way to their mysterious destination. Keith began to worry when they made another turn and then Katla gestured for him to lift her up to another keypad, which took her another minute to figure out. Footsteps sounded from the hall ahead and they ducked inside the room before they could get spotted.

Katla pressed her ear to the door, listening intently until she was sure they were safe.

Keith waited until she withdrew with a relieved sigh and then asked: “Why are we here?”

“Oh!” Katla clapped her hands together, her golden eyes glittering with delight. “You're going to like this! I found it when I was playing flee-and-find with Matt the other day and knew that I had to show you!”

Keith was a little bewildered as he watched her walk over to another door, which she opened with a flourish to reveal a small room piled high with sheets and pillows. Looking around, he realized that they were in what appeared to be a laundry room of some kind. “I don't... I don't really understand.”

“It's supplies for a pillow fort,” Katla explained with all of the patience she could muster. “See? We've got plenty of pillows and blankets and there's string to hold it all up with!”

Keith had never built one himself, but he'd seen movies and TV shows where kids would make one with help from their parents. His dad tried his best to give him the childhood he deserved and on pleasant nights they would set up the old tent in the backyard and tell stories beneath the stars. He figured that was even better than a silly fort.

But as Katla began to gather as many pillows as her tiny arms could carry, Keith started to wonder if it wasn't so silly.

“Here, let me take some,” he offered.

Katla eagerly piled them into his arms instead and he struggled to see over them as she added several more. Once she picked a few blankets and one box of cords, she led him by the elbow to the door and continued to direct him back to their room.

There they encountered a new problem: how to get back inside.

“We'll have to set everything down,” Keith said, realizing what was wrong after standing still for longer than a few seconds.

“Yeah...”

They didn't need to. As soon as Keith moved to set the pillows down next to the wall, the door slid open to reveal Shiro standing inside with his arms crossed over his chest and a disapproving frown on his face.

“Oops,” Katla squeaked in alarm.

Shiro stared at them for a moment and then gestured for them to come inside. “If you wanted to make a pillow fort, you only had to ask,” he said, eyeing the supplies they had gathered.

“I wanted to show Keith the cool room I found,” Katla said.

“I see,” Shiro said, taking half of the pillows from Keith's arms. “Well, maybe you could show me and Mattox as well? I think we'll need more than this if we want to make a pillow fort worthy of the Blade of Marmora.”

Keith exchanged an excited look with Katla.

Some time later, once a massive fort stretched across the entirety of Shiro's room, Keith settled down snug and warm between Katla and Shiro and closed his eyes. He didn't think he had ever been happier.

A soft purr filled the space as Keith drifted off to sleep.

[chibi-pix]

A Chibified Update

Sorry, guys. I know I have chapters ready to go up for my fics, but I’ve been in such a funk. I’ve been trying to motivate myself to upload them. I’m doing my best, though, so hopefully any of my readers are able to be patient.  And I know I’ve been drawing, but even that I’ve been facing my funk.  Hopefully I’ll be out of it before too long. 

My brain is impossible to turn off with so many possible AU ideas and my brain hyperfixating on certain things. Hopefully I can get things in order for thinking and organized. 

On a sad note, I may be even more delayed with Wild Magic. I’m struggling to get my thoughts and notes in order for that one to get another chapter written. Oops.  On a happier note, I just have to motivate myself to write more Raising Paladins and Moments in the Dark chapters; Raising Paladin’s has a foreseeable ending (in note form at least) and MitD, well, it’s close to canon, so that shouldn’t be TOO difficult.  And A Meeting of Forces? It has other fics to go alongside it, too. Wow! And speaking of A Meeting of Forces, we know it involves the Vehicle Voltron team, too. Admittedly, I haven’t watched Vehicle Voltron (dubbing, I’m sorry) and only got halfway through DaiRugger before I got distracted with other things; I’ve been doing my best to research, though. But thinking of it, though I don’t know fully how things are going and who all shows up, a part of me is tempted to draw Hazar and Dorma (I think those were their VV names) looking like some of the other Galra we see in VLD. Who knows what will happen.

Anyway! Thanks for bearing with me. And I hope y’all are doing okay! 

Until next time!

[littlecofieart]

solution to reverse bodyguard au, the against-will problem? kind of? it’s still of an enslavement type thing but keith is actually /nice/ to his staff, maybe pays them?, and punishes anyone who is unrightfully cruel? at least that way there’s no bad stockholm-like base ???

I think a very similar book is written and its titled captive prince(never read it so I’m not sure, I don't plan to read it btw)? Also umm I have seen that “you’re a slave but I’m nice to you” since the beginning of time. XD That is why I would rather not go that way.

I can always, come up with some bullshit btw.

Keith is a Galra prince, and Lance is sent by the Alteans because Zarkon asked them for help to teach Keith social skills. ( so you get the I’ll make a Prince out of you cliché story)

Keith is a Galra Prince who seemingly is doing something nasty against the empire so he BLADE of MARMORA send their Spy Lance to be a servant & get close to the prince and find out what he is up to (alas the incognito cliché of omg you are so clumsy oh wait you can chop a fly in half mid air ) . (It’s actually Lotor who is doing all the evil shit, Keith is completely innocent he is just grumpy all the time because he has allergies or something)

Keith is a Galra prince who accidentally saves someone while he is travelling incognito and the man (Lance of course) promises to serve him until he pays the depth back (this could totally be a tribal au of Hunter tribe Galra and gatherer tribe Alteans) Keith is not happy cos Lance is fucking useless. ( until he isn’t because wow so that’s what a garden is okay.)

Keith is actually NOT a Galra prince but Lance and Keith’s incognito mission went shit and now they have to keep up the illusion of Keith is a prince and Lance is the servant if they want to keep their heads. Oops. Where is Allura to pull them out of this mess???

and so on... and so on...

[eledritch]

So reading all of you amazing works as well as following the content of other lovely Sheith shippers has inspired to finally write some fan fiction and contribute too! It’s been literal years since I’ve written anything though, and of course the story that got me really excited is going to have to be a multi chapter monster. As the master of long and complex fanfics, any advice for beginners?

Good!! I believe in you.

Sure, why the heck not :’) been awhile since I made a big writing tips post and I feel like I have some new things to offer since the last one. I don’t know if your fic is gonna be an AU or canon-compliant, but since my specialty is long and complex multichapter AUs, this is mainly gonna be about that.

First, you can check out my ‘writing tips’ tag for my own tips and tips from others on tumblr: http://saltyshiro.tumblr.com/tagged/writing-tips

The most important advice I can give to you as a writer is to READ. I don’t read nearly as much as I used to, but I still try to when I can. Reading was what gave me the inspiration and knowledge I needed for worldbuilding, which is a vital part of not just AUs, but any long and complex fic. You need to be confident about writing the world you’ve stuck your characters in. You have to know that world better than anyone.

More often than not, books aimed at children actually have better worldbuilding than books for adults. There are exceptions to this (a lot of sci-fi, like Dune & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, for example, as well as dystopian fiction like The Handmaid’s Tale), but some of my favorite worlds remain those from children’s books. They include:

The Ever After in the May Bird & the Ever After series

The absurdist and time-period defiant world where anything goes (as long as it’s unfortunate) of A Series of Unfortunate Events

The Other World in Coraline & London Below Gaiman’s adult fantasy novel Neverwhere

The world populated by various small animals like mice, rats, and squirrels in Redwall by Brian Jacques

The medieval kingdoms of Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

The eerie surrealist circus world of The Palace of Laughter by Jon Berkeley

I’m also currently working my way through the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson, which is some INCREDIBLE worldbuilding in a high fantasy setting.

So what do all of these have in common? Well, contrary to popular belief, I don’t think you have to go Full Tolkien and write a brand new language as well as six thousand maps for your world. Nope. None of that is required. All that is required is that you LOVE the world you created. Love the heck out of it. Even if it’s a shitty world. Doesn’t matter. It’s YOUR shitty world. 

The more you love this world of yours, the more you’re gonna want to write about it, and the more reluctant you will be to let yourself drop the project. The pitfall many fanfic writers (and writers in general) fall into when writing long works is that they get burnt out and tired of their own story. You can’t get tired of your story if you keep adding to the world and finding new things to love and explore within it.

Worldbuilding reflects onto your characters, too - people are in many ways a product of their surroundings, after all. If your world is shitty, then your characters might end up a little shitty, too. But - and here’s the clever thing about this - because you love your world so much, and because your characters are an integral part of that world (they should be, if they’re your protagonist/villain/etc), you end up loving your characters, too. It feels like a betrayal if you stop writing their stories, and the world you’ve created should at this point feel almost like a real place, albeit within your head and your imagination. And when that happens, writing about your world and characters doesn’t feel like a chore or an obligation anymore. It feels like an adventure.

That being said, human brains have limits and it shouldn’t ALL exist in your head. You gotta take notes, do some doodles and simple maps if you’re into that, and also use resources made specifically to organize worldbuilding. I tend to just use good ol’ fashioned pencil and paper, but I’ve heard this tool is pretty good for digital organization:

https://www.notebook.ai/

Additionally, don’t be afraid to uh....“borrow” from other worlds that have been made before. The sooner you understand that everyone kinda steals (respectfully) from everyone (i.e. the lion king is hamlet; romeo and juliet is heavily inspired by the greek myth of pyramus and thisbe), the better off you’re gonna be in worldbuilding. You can, and unavoidably will, use worlds you’ve read about and/or experienced in the past in your own worldbuilding. It becomes a patchwork of your own, and once you have a base for your world, it becomes increasingly easy to add onto it and expand with more original ideas.

It can also be helpful to do a ton of research. Say you want your world to somewhat resemble Victorian England. How are you gonna know what that was like? Watch movies set in Victorian England to understand the aesthetic and speech. Watch documentaries to get a more factual basis. Read books set in Victorian England for the language and the societal ideas. Go on a Wikipedia or Google deep dive - almost always, you will end up in a much more interesting place than you expected. Listening to music can also be super helpful to get into a particular tone you want to see in your world, or can help you find the tone if you’re not sure what you want yet. I have playlists for most of my stories.

And, finally, understand that there’s always room for growth. I know my worldbuilding can be better than it is, so with every new story, I strive to make a more vibrant, vivid, lovable world than before. And guess what? Usually, not only does it work, but I also enjoy myself while writing more.

The key to long and complex fics is genuinely enjoying what you’re writing. You may be able to bullshit and slog your way through a shorter fic, but not a 200k monster. Another important key - know where your story is going to end up. 

You need a goal to work towards. Maybe it’s a scene you’ve been wanting to write since you came up with the story. It doesn’t have to be the ending, but it helps if it is. You should know the ending by at least the middle of the story. I’m pretty sure I’ve written stories where that wasn’t the case and I was just flying by the seat of my pants, seeing where my world and characters took me next...which is a valid way to approach writing, but riskier, and ultimately rather frustrating when writing fics since you can’t exactly go back and insert foreshadowing for the ending you didn’t know was coming, lol.

I find late-night brainstorms best for figuring out how I want to end stories. I’ll open up a word doc, think for a good while, and then just start typing. Type it out stream of consciousness style. It doesn’t need to be a good explanation of the events, it just has to be an explanation. (This is also helpful in long stories for writing down reoccuring elements you don’t want to forget, such as slang, societal titles, a promise a character made to another than they really need to bring up again sometime...)

For example, here is my stream of consciousness brain-spew for my fic Seal It With A Kiss (this did not all end up happening quite like this, but here it is, warning for nsfw mentions lmao):

Witch Classes: Apprentice, novice, journeyman, master/magus, archmagus

The Wastes – western desert wasteland, Keith is from Blackwater, three days’ ride from the Citadel. It’s bordered by the River Acheron to the west, on the other side of which are the lands where Keith’s father lived with his first wife. The ocean is to the north, with the island of Cobao directly south of the Citadel.

The Citadel – centrally located, perched among Asphodel Peaks, near the lowland Oscuran Woods. Capital, Altea City, is three days’ ride to the east. Shiro’s grandparents live to the south on the shores of Lake Lucanus, a major fishing outpost bordered by the Dalterion Swamplands to the south.

THE VOID: mysterious dimension (or entity?) accidentally opened by witches eons ago (oops), which created Hell and unleashed demons/monsters/old gods (Voidborn). It is made up of what witches call infernal magic – a powerful and supposedly corrupted/corrupting form of quintessence. The Void is largely unknown and inaccessible to humans. Few return, and those who do are always changed by it.

HELL: Thought to be a reflection of the Void on a more physical/less abstract plane. Hell is made up of many pocket realms, including Daibazaal (one of the largest, ruled by the Galra), and Stratonikeia (ruled by Hecate). It is populated by Voidborn, who carve out sections of it for themselves in warlord-esque fashion.

Neither Hell nor the Void are inherently “evil,” though most witches consider them so, and they are dangerous. While the most well-established Voidborn rule with law and order, many other parts are lawless chaos centered around power struggles, and all Voidborn are morally gray to an extent.

VOIDBORN: Despite their vast differences, all Voidborn derive power from human souls & quintessence. Often generalized as demons, Voidborn are secular beings with no “holy” counterpart (i.e. angels), however, they come in many forms:

SPECTERS: generally the weakest Voidborn, they lack corporeal form and often “haunt” areas with histories of death, grief, and bloodshed, frightening humans and feeding off of their fear.

MONSTERS: a large and varied group of Voidborn, not as intelligent nor powerful as demons. They are the mostly likely to directly attack/kill/eat humans and are often hunted, with trophies of their heads displayed outside remote villages to ward off other monsters.

OLD GODS: a more rare group which often overlaps with greater demons; old gods can be benevolent if appeased (i.e. through ritual sacrifice, favors, offerings, worship, etc). They define territories for themselves and over time can become deified by local peoples, since old gods have been known to protect their lands and the people within them in exchange for worship.

LESSER DEMONS: more intelligent than monsters but less powerful than greater demons and old gods, they often rely on contracts and trickery to get their way. They are known to be petty, cruel, and ugly.

GREATER DEMONS: highly intelligent and powerful, they are dangerous beings who chiefly use contracts, torture, manipulation, and possession to take power from souls, which they crave more than any other Voidborn.

*Haggar has been cloaking Keith from Krolia so she cannot find her son since Keith went to the Citadel*

Shiro was captured by Haggar, who experimented on him (gave him the arm, which is powered by infernal energy/Void quintessence and began to corrupt his soul/erode it) and used him as a gladiator, until she managed to capture and slay Kurobasanir, whose quintessence she combined with the remnants of Shiro’s soul. His soulless, empty body was left to fight in the arena as a kind of robotic killing machine, while Shiro’s self became entangled with Kurobasanir. Because Kurobasanir was dead but Shiro was alive and so determined to stay alive, Shiro’s soul (primed with the Void energy which allowed him to stand up against Kuro) took control, though he gained Kurobasanir’s memories, abilities, and personality, while losing/forgetting his own. However as time passes with Keith, Shiro’s subconscious (ironically the only part of him which is still conscious/knows who he is) begins to break through, making him more ‘human’ as he starts to remember who he is/have doubts that he is really Kurobasanir.

He is unable to shift into any other human but Shiro, falls in love with Keith (demons are supposedly incapable of love), experiences sudden surges of emotion/nostalgia and feels protective towards Shiro’s family/horse/possessions/etc, is mostly unaffected by spells that should exorcise or defeat demons, and acts differently than the original Kurobasanir according to the late incubus’s friends. Because Kurobasanir was a sadist, but Shiro is not, so when he fucks Keith in front of the other demons, they know something’s up because he’s not hurting Keith at all.

What he doesn’t remember/know, though, is that this whole thing is a trap set by Haggar in order to lure Keith, who is a cambion (half demon, half human) to her so she can experiment on him in her quest to gain immortality so she can stay with Zarkon forever without surrendering her soul/turn her own soul into a demon’s essence. Because cambion, once mature, are effectively immortal and have a soul, while still retaining dormant Void magic within them which allows for their immortality and more demonic qualities. They are also extremely rare, and Haggar only knows of Keith because Hekate (Krolia) was her mentor and mentioned him.

So when Keith and Shiro go to find Shiro at the Samhain Tourney, Keith sees Shiro’s soulless body fighting and goes to break him out of his cell in the intermission; Shiro, not recognizing him/caring about him/trained to kill on sight tries to kill him, Keith is horrified and unable to bring himself to hurt Shiro, so he is saved by Kurobasanir, who realizes the situation fully once he comes face to face with the body that was once his, realizing his (Shiro’s) soul has been transferred into the incubus’s.

Before he can tell Keith this, though, Keith is captured by Haggar (who he recognizes as Honerva) and the two are separated. Keith cries alone in his cell, thinking Shiro is gone for good and also thinking Kurobasanir betrayed him and/or will be killed or tortured, leaving him utterly alone again. Lots of time passes and Keith realizes Haggar is trying to break the bond between him and Kurobasanir, because they’re both trapped and the contract must be sealed via sex. So Keith is in agony (and very very horny) because he can’t touch Shiro, and the contract is on the verge of breaking (and causing a great deal of pain and harm to both of them, since it was broken against their will) when Hekate/Krolia shows up, kicks BUTT, and bc she’s Mom of the Year, rescues Keith and brings him to Shiro while explaining on the way what happened. She also mentions that Keith’s father left because he was fulfilling the contract Hekate had with him, which was that because he was infertile she would bear him a “human” son (Keith), who would be blessed by her and live a happy/prosperous life, but in exchange Keith’s dad would only get sixteen years with his son, and then Hecate would take his soul.

As it turns out, though, Hekate/Krolia grew pretty darn fond of Keith’s dad (he’s a human teddy bear hedge mage unfazed by demons, what’s not to love), so he’s just chilling in Hell with her and had planned to come back and tell Keith the whole story, but when he returned Keith had gone off to the Citadel & Haggar was hiding Keith from Hecate.

So Keith and Shiro reunite and they’re so desperate for each other that they basically end up fucking while escaping (Keith is VERY EMBARRASSED but Krolia is like boi I am the mistress of dark magic, I don’t care, get that demon dick, proud of u son. Plus Shiro does his best to hide Things), cue a very wild scene in which both Keith and Shiro are kicking ass while fucking, since Shiro has regained his powers and Keith is Restored By The Power of Shiro’s Dick. Amen. Hallelujah.

Thankfully they finish up by the time they find the Holts, who were being forced to do alchemy stuff in Haggar’s lab. Haggar’s druids attack them, but Keith, who has read up on Honerva’s magic/theories, and Krolia, who mentored Honerva and is now pissed at her bc she tried to use Krolia’s son for her experiments, defeat the druids and are about to destroy Haggar’s research. Then Haggar bursts in, and in a desperate attempt to save her life’s work tells Keith that she can separate Shiro’s soul from Kurobasanir if he spares her/her work. Shiro is actually the one who hesitates, since he thinks Keith deserves much better than him and should have him fully human, as he appeared in their future together. But Keith has made up his mind – he loves Shiro in any and every form, and he’s done with Haggar’s shit. Furious at the thought of what she did to Shiro and planned to do to him, Keith’s magic creates a massive explosion which destroys the lab as Krolia uses one of Haggar’s traveling crystals to take them all away from Daibazaal.

Krolia takes them to her realm of Stratonikeia, a much more chill part of Hell. Because it’s Samhain and everyone is partying, Hecate’s palace is hectic and full of drunk demons and debauchery bc demons just wanna have fun, okay? Krolia makes sure the Holts are given safe accomodations so they can rest up and receive treatment before returning home. Meanwhile, Keith and Shiro are very shaken and Keith is weak from using so much magic to destroy Haggar and her lab. He and Shiro manage to escape the party and get to a balcony or something, where Shiro tearfully apologizes for everything, saying he understands if Keith wants to break ties after their contract is over, and that he wishes it didn’t have to end like this. Keith is quiet, then tells him that nothing is ending, pointing out that apparently he’s also immortal, and that technically Shiro gets his immortal soul in return for completing the contract. Shiro misunderstands, panicking and assuring Keith he will not take his soul and will leave him alone, but Keith cups his face and says he wants Shiro to have him forever, because he loves him, and never stopped loving him. Disbelieving but hopeful, Shiro embraces him gently, and when they kiss Keith begins to show his demonic characteristics (little horns, glowing eyes, tail, reddish scales).

Epilogue – Keith and Shiro get married. In Hell. It’s beautiful. They also have the most romantic, tender, kinky demon/cambion sex ever. They’re in love and together forever :’))

*

I hope that helps, dear!! Best of luck in your writing endeavors. 

[klanced]

how is kevin doing? is he okay? i miss him

I was going to give you some meme-y headcanons but then I realized that Kevin could actually like. Single-handedly fix the plot of Voltron. So time to actually get down and flesh my boy’s backstory out? Lol. So this is less headcanons, and more pre-story plot.

I’ll be retconning some things about Kevin, now that we know more about Keith’s canon family.

(Explanation as to who the fuck Kevin is, as well as his tag)

Kevin is Keith’s older alien half-brother. He’s about… 8-10 years older. He and Keith haven’t seen each other in uh… a while. But they’re still close. Once they get all the yelling out of the way.

Keith and Kevin’s mom (who I will now refer to as ‘Ma Kogane’ because I think it’s funny) is a member of the BoM who volunteered to take a ten year long undercover mission. In reality, she was pregnant with Kevin, and wanted a place to hide.

As a side-note, I headcanon the BoM as kind of relying on legacies to keep going, since members die at an alarmingly fast rate and it takes too long to fully vet someone + train them to adopt the ‘victory or death’ mentality.

So essentially, all BoM are encouraged to have kids, and those kids are pretty much immediately inducted into the ranks of the Blades the moment they’re born.

Ma Kogane is one of those legacy kids, and while she’s proud of her work as an agent of Marmora, she doesn’t want that life for her kid(s). So when she finds out she’s pregnant with Kevin, she decides to run without actually running away. Kolivan, who is either in charge already or at least second-in-command, knows what she’s doing but lets her hide because they’re bros (Listen… Kolivan as Keith’s blood-uncle or as his family friend-uncle or as his godfather is. So funny.)

It helps that they both know she’ll be coming back after those ten years are up. Once a Blade, always a Blade. Loyalty or death.

Ma Kogane is either half-Galra, half-(insert Alien race that can shapeshift), or she has some sort of cloaking device that allows her to look human. She shows up on Earth in her first trimester pretty much miserable, wracked with guilt because she’s essentially betraying her family/cult by hiding her child away, and she’s also betraying her child because she knows she’ll have to abandon them one day. She’s also entirely alone, and has no idea how to actually be a mother since her own parents died when she was fairly young herself (The BoM have a high turnover rate for agents lol)

AS AN ASIDE I love the idea of Ma Kogane essentially space-googling ‘average human on earth’ and then disguising herself as a 28yo Han Chinese woman. That’s really funny to me hgsjkdghsd.

ANYWAY Ma Kogane lands in America because of Course, and finds a Certain Shack In The Desert.

Since her mission is to ostensibly monitor and report the technological capacities of the human race, etc, it makes sense for her to be in reasonably close proximity to the Garrison. U feel. She doesn’t like it though, she’s found what the humans call ‘Netflix’ and has watched their borderline-hilarious-if-it-wasn’t-abusive-and-cruel movies about aliens, and she hates the idea of putting her child potentially at risk. But the Blades aren’t supposed to know she’s fighting for two, and so she goes. 

Ma Kogane occasionally heads into a nearby town to procure supplies + gossip (she calls it information but. it’s gossip lol) from the local folks… One of whom happens to be TEXAS KOGANE (Keith and Kevin’s dad :>)

Texas Kogane is a mechanic or smth, and Ma Kogane is honestly impressed by his ability to repair engines… Especially engines that are alien in origin.

Ma Kogane 100% flirts by having Texas Kogane fix her hoverbike’s engine. One, it’s practical. Two, Texas Kogane is proving his worth/value as a potential lover by demonstrating his technical skills. Three, she gets to impress him with a sick-ass hovercycle. Four, he gets to impress her.

Yeah he’s 100% aware of what she’s doing and he’s into it.

Also, yes, that means the hoverbike we saw Keith riding in the first episode belonged to his mom, and his parents worked on it together :’)

Anyway, insert a Lifetime movie here, everyone in this tiny ass town becomes overly invested in the bumbling romance brewing between these two. God, it’s like Luke and Lorelai from Gilmore Girls. Keith’s parents are Luke and Lorelai from Gilmore Girls. I love this au.

Speed forward a few months later, Kevin’s due date is approaching and Ma Kogane obviously can’t go to a hospital for the birth. So she’s gonna pop a squat in her shack, but she’ll need help since she isn’t 100% equipped to deliver a baby by herself. And she trusts Texas Kogane well-enough (she death drops to avoid the ‘l’ word), he’s even bought her baby clothes (bless his heart; Kevin will shred through those clothes in a month), so she drops the alien bomb.

After Texas Kogane recovers from his Holy Fucking Shit moment, he’s surprisingly cool with things and is there when Kevin is born. Ma Kogane gives him the honor of naming her son, and he panics and blurts out ‘Kevin’, which unfortunately sticks.

Texas Kogane eventually convinces Ma Kogane that maybe a shack in the middle of the desert isn’t the greatest place to raise a baby, so they put a cloaking device on Kevin to make him look like a normal human baby and go into town to raise him together.

They insist they’re just friends. Everyone looks at them, looks at baby Kevin who is sitting in a stroller Ma Kogane bought in clothes Texas Kogane’s mom made, and raises an eyebrow.

Kevin’s first word is ‘dada’ and Texas Kogane drops dead. (Just kidding! That happens later.)

It takes them like four or five years to ‘officially’ start dating. They’re Keith’s parents. Of Course it takes them that long to pull their heads out of their asses.

Ma Kogane told Texas Kogane all about the Blades and how she has to go back in a few years in order to protect them all from Zarkon a few days after Kevin was born. Texas Kogane wasn’t happy about it, but he eventually accepted her decision and continued to love and support her whenever she started getting torn up about it. They don’t tell Kevin about any of it, though. And they don’t tell Keith either (though that’s mainly because neither of them ever gets the chance).

Ma Kogane’s time limit on Earth is a big factor in why it took them forever to actually get together. No one wants to know there’s an end date on your life together.

Both end up regretting the time they lost in the end.

Keith is 100% an accident. To be fair, they had no idea Galra and humans were genetically compatible so. Oops?

He comes out looking entirely human and his parents breathe a sigh of relief. Kevin wants to know why his baby brother looks so ugly. 

They get to be a happy family for about a year or two before Ma Kogane has to go back to the Blades. She knows if she doesn’t report in at her specified time she’ll be hunted, and now she has two children to hide from the Blades. She can’t risk running. So she goes.

Kevin complains that he’s too old to cuddle with his parents - he’s ten, that’s practically an adult!! - but Ma Kogane insists and they all climb into bed together. She spends the entire night awake with her husband (though they never actually got around to marrying) watching over their two sleeping kids. She’s gone by morning.

Keith is too young to really understand everything, but Kevin isn’t and he’s furious. 

By the time Kevin shows up in the show he’s in his twenties and a little bit more even-tempered, but right now he’s ten and his mom is gone (he refuses to say the ‘a’ word) and his dad won’t stop lying and Keith won’t stop crying and no one is doing anything.

At his lowest moment, Kevin blames Keith for their mom leaving. They don’t talk about it. Kevin doesn’t want to know if Keith knows.

His relationship with Texas Kogane is… pretty strained after that. Kevin runs away when he’s fifteen, determined to find his mom. He’ll find her, drag her back home, and they can be a happy family again, just like he remembers.

Texas Kogane dies when he’s seventeen. Kevin isn’t there. Keith is.

[daemominus]

I gotta have my Voltron AU sorted out just for the principle.

Like I’m thinking Vergil and Dante were separated on Earth when the Galra found out their dad (Sparda) had more or less gone AWOL. Like Dante and Eva hid before they could’ve been discovered, so the Galra hauled Sparda away and as a form of punishment they might’ve taken itty bitty Vergil too to have him indoctrinated to eventually serve them. And Sparda might’ve been charged with desertion and treason, serious violations basically, and he very well may have been executed if it not for his brother (Galra Mundus yes) who’d recommended he pay for his injustices by personally training his half-human son as per the unforgiving, harsh Galra code. To bring up Vergil as a loyal Galra soldier, basically, which Sparda felt deeply against. So while that was going on, Mundus was a whole dick, and later on he does turn on Sparda in the worst possible way, and all to climb the ladder in the chain of command. Sparda and Mundus are actually high-ranking officers beneath Zarkon, but Sparda has his rank diminished (or even stripped completely) because of what he’d done. Fleeing to Earth, hiding from the empire, mating with a human, etc. So Vergil wound up paying for his father’s misdeeds, and as he grew up he knew this whole Galra lifestyle was fucked up. Sparda could never stop feeling regret and he frequently apologized to him, but in order to stay alive he had to be hard and impartial toward his boy. Which might be seen as a cowardly and selfish thing to do, but Vergil was hardy in his own way. He pulled through, let’s put it that way. He’d done well enough to reach adulthood, become a hardened, disciplined, and driven young man, and fucking leave. :U Of course his escape is a bad thing for himself and his dad, and he has to roam the universe avoiding capture because he knows damned well what’ll happen to him if the Galra get their hands on him again. Meanwhile daddy’s probably sent to death by his own brother smh (though wouldn’t it be more painful if, later on, he and Vergil fought to the death because they’d meet as enemies? fuck). Not sure how or when exactly he finds the Black Lion, but he does and they’re a team forever. :U Momma lion and her cub.

Oh I forgot to mention Dante. I wanna say he gets into the Galaxy Garrison but would he really??? Scrappy little kid trips his way into the Voltron team situation, more like. Gotta leave mom alone without saying goodbye too oops. But don’t worry he’s a cool paladin of Voltron out protecting the universe, it’s good. 

[discordiansamba]

was rotating the beta concept for cosmic dust while making dinner and somehow I rotated it too hard and came up with a concept that I basically like to call. oops! all Galra!

(well, except for Allura and Coran)

Keith is half-Altean, half-Galra and grew up on Altea as Allura's childhood friend. His mother Krolia worked as an ambassador to Altea, and ultimately sided with King Alfor over Zarkon. Keith was sealed away in a cryopod alongside Allura and Coran, while Krolia left before Altea's destruction to ensure that a rebellion against Zarkon would remain among his people and founded the Blade of Marmora.

They wake up on their own and have to figure out where to go from here. They know Keith has the potential to fly the red lion, but they'll need to find the rest of the lions and the rest of the paladins if they're going to have any hope of defeating Zarkon. They concentrate on finding the lions first, since perhaps they can use them to find their paladins.

Pidge is a low-ranking Galra working at a work camp for prisoners. She's not fond of the Empire, half because she's a runt and they treat her poorly- ignoring her talents and forcing her to work a terrible job that no one else wants instead. But half because she's used her talents at hacking to see things the Galra Empire doesn't want it's citizenry to see, and she's horrified. She strikes up a small friendship with a human prisoner named Matt, and when rebels come raid the prison, she helps bust him out.

He in turn asks if she wants to come with him- a chance which she seizes. She becomes a rebel, working alongside Matt who gradually becomes like a big brother to her.

(Matt holding up Pidge under the arms: hey mom. hey dad. I adopted a little sister while I was in space. hope you don't mind.)

Hunk is a low ranking Galra foot soldier stationed on a Balmera, but the lifestyle of a Galra soldier has never sat well with him. He's inherently kind, something which the Empire has tried and failed to stamp out. He sneaks extra rations to the Balmerans, doing what little he can for them, even though it's not much.

(Also there's a cute Balmeran girl named Shay he kind of has a crush on? He wishes he could do so much more for her, though...)

Lance is a member of the Blade of Marmora... in training. He has years to go before he can actually have a shot at the trials, even though he's got a burning urge to go out there right now and do something. Understandably, when he meets the literal son of their founder and he turns out to be a hotshot pilot who was personally trained by the Krolia, he feels the brewing of a rivalry.

(Keith still does not notice. Some things never change.)

Shiro was raised to be one of the Galra Empire's elite. He was promoted to Lieutenant at a young age, and served Zarkon loyally- until he was sent was sent on a mission to help locate the four remaining lions. He crash-landed on Earth and lost his memories, but was found by Adam. Without his memories, he became a kinder, gentler person- and falls in love with Adam in the process.

When a second scouting party arrives two years later, he's forced to confront his past- and vows to do better. To be better. He reveals himself to the Galaxy Garrison and works with them to strengthen their defenses. The true purpose of the Kerberos mission was to set up deep space sensors that would alert them of any incoming ships into the system... they were successfully installed, but what a bitter irony it was that they were too late for the Kerberos crew.

[vrepitsorrynotsorry]

A Shotory Baking Show AU

Title: Ready, Set, Bake! Theme: AU Rating: G Pairing: This one runs toward the Shotor shippy, but it’s certainly not porn. Warnings/Spoilers: Not really any spoilers... Kind of a Great British Baking Show in space AU. A/N: I binged what was on Netflix and it spawned this idea. I regret nothing. Also, the first inklings of this were spawned during @blackpaladinweek, so credit to the AU prompt as well. Also also, I just realized while editing that Allura is never mentioned. Oops! Maybe she’s one of the judges?

“Welcome back to the Great Intergalactic Baking Show grand finale on the picturesque planet Arus. It’s lovely weather for the picnic gala, isn’t it, Lance?”

“You’ve got that right, Coran! Soon all the original contestants, family, and friends will gather here for what’s going to be some fantastic food, but before that, let’s head inside the tent for the first of our final three bakes!”

***

Shiro hadn’t even really wanted to enter the competition. Keith had entered on his behalf. He wasn’t too humble to admit that his baking was pretty good, but he just wasn’t all that competitive anymore.

He’d taken it up as a hobby after an injury in service to Galaxy Garrison had lost him an arm and earned him an early retirement. Fortunately, the intergalactic community offered excellent options for cybernetic prosthetics.

He’d even toyed with the idea of opening a small bakery, but he just wasn’t sure his offerings were good enough to bring in sufficient funds for the venture to be worthwhile. Keith had said this was the perfect opportunity to prove to himself that his baking was up to snuff and that judging from previous seasons of the show, the competition wasn’t as cutthroat as most other shows tended to be.

He was still shocked he’d made it to the finals, but apparently his grasp of the basics was impressive. What he lacked in showy designs and fanciful flavor combinations was made up for in technique and consistency.

***

“Our first finalist, Shiro, has been a contender throughout the whole competition, eh, Coran?”

“Indeed! In fact, I think his steadiness and calm has been of great help to some of the other bakers along the way.”

“Next up is Hunk, a fan favorite and super awesome dude. His bakes have never failed to please”

“A natural talent for sure!”

“And Lotor. He’s, uh... He’s Lotor.”

“Unique indeed!”

***

Shiro was pretty sure Hunk was going to win. That kid had everything. His presentations were beautiful, his flavors--even when he went for something off the wall--were always amazing, and he had an uncanny ability to make fantastic things in the technical challenges even when there were hardly any instructions.

Besides being an amazing cook, Hunk was also a genuinely nice guy. He could be a little overly cautious and occasionally cynical, but he was kind to all the other competitors, even on the very rare occasion that he had an off day. The judges seemed to love him as much as everyone else.

***

Matt, an old roommate and current good friend of Shiro’s, and his little sister Katie “call me Pidge” worked on the technical crew for the show. All the finalists got to watch the family interview segments the night before the final as a sort of private celebration and a chance to see the clips without having to wait for the show to air, but Matt stopped by Shiro’s apartment a few days before.

“Hey, uh, remember how we all thought that maybe Lotor asked the show not to go talk to his parents because they were really busy?”

“Yeah?”

“It turns out he had this huge falling out with them. Pidge and I edited the footage as best we could, but it’s...not great.”

Shiro frowned. “Well, that’s depressing, but why are you telling me this?”

“Partly because it’s really bothering me and Pidge said she’d stab me if she had to listen to me talk about it anymore, and partly because Lotor seemed to get along with you okay. He’s gonna be blindsided by the video because I think he honestly thought the show just wouldn’t do a clip for him, even though he’s in the finale.”

Shiro sighed. “We’re not exactly close, Matt. I only see him when we’re filming, just like everybody else. I don’t have any way to contact him.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

***

It wasn’t like Lotor was overtly rude to any of the other competitors or anything, he was just coolly aloof. He was terse to the camera when he was asked questions about his baking, and he didn’t like to make small talk with the other contestants.

The nicest of the others brushed it off as shyness or awkwardness, though some thought it was arrogance. Lotor’s family was fairly well-known, after all. Galra Inc. was probably the universe’s largest private security firm and arms supplier.

Given the general stereotype in the media of fiercely competitive and frequently violent Galra, many people were surprised Lotor was allowed to participate at all. There had been gambling odds on how long it would take for the pressure to make Lotor crack and have an explosive outburst.

At first, Shiro wasn’t sure what to make of the man other than the fact that his creativity level was insane. Sometimes his designs were overly ambitious and his flavor combinations were questionable, but he was fearless about attempting all of it.

Then the “tripping incident” happened. To be fair, and the camera footage totally corroborated it, Nyma didn’t actually trip Shay, she just didn’t warn her about the step stool Shay couldn’t see over the tray of cupcakes she was carrying. Everyone in the vicinity, including Nyma, to her credit, rushed to see if she was all right, except Lotor, who somehow managed to catch the tray and the majority of the cupcakes. If he hadn’t, she wouldn’t have had all the components she needed for her showstopper. Maybe he hadn’t verbally expressed concern, but he clearly had at least some sense of fairness and competitive respect, which was better than nothing.

The week after “Trip Gate”, both Shiro and Lotor found themselves incorporating potatoes into a savory component, and their peeling techniques were almost identical.

“Got assigned a lot of kitchen duty?” Shiro inquired.

Lotor grunted an assent. “I had an unfortunate tendency to challenge authority. You?”

“I actually volunteered mostly,” Shiro admitted. “I found it relaxing.”

The cameramen were currently at the other end of the tent watching Lance and Coran quiz Hunk about his signature dish, and Lotor seemed to be in an uncharacteristically playful mood. “Shall we make it a challenge to see who can finish peeling first?”

“What’s the prize?” he asked Lotor with a small grin.

“Respect?” Lotor offered with a shrug.

Shiro pretended to take offense. “You mean I don’t have that already?” Lotor snorted but managed to maintain a straight face. “How about, if I win, you have to smile--on camera.”

Lotor looked mildly alarmed at the suggestion before he managed to compose himself once again. “Fair enough, I suppose. If I win, you have to say something nice about yourself on camera.”

“Touché.” Shiro had a tendency to be a bit self-disparaging. He thought he’d been doing a fairly good job of reining that in during the competition, but apparently he was wrong.

Shiro won their peeling competition by a narrow margin, so Lotor obligingly greeted Lance, Coran, and the camera crew with a dazzling smile. They were momentarily speechless, but they recovered quickly.

Shiro was a bit taken aback himself. He wasn’t afraid to admit that Lotor was an attractive man, but smiling seemed to take it up another notch. Alas, as soon as the camera turned to Shiro, Lotor slipped back into the impassive mask he usually presented to everyone, and Shiro realized it was the only time he had ever seen Lotor express more than a smirk.

However, he seemed to have found a bit of the infamous competitiveness of his people. It wasn’t overly aggressive but rather surprisingly almost friendly. It became a habit for them to set themselves side challenges, and Shiro was certain he wouldn’t have enjoyed his time on the show half as much without the lighthearted rivalry. Lotor never said as much, but Shiro hoped their interactions were meaningful to him as well.

***

The night of the viewing party arrived, and Lotor was late. Shiro was beginning to wonder whether the other man even planned to attend when Lotor stormed in the door speaking angrily into a communicator.

“For the last time,” Lotor snarled to whoever was on the other end of the exchange, “I’m not dropping out of the competition. You’re being ridiculous. My competing obviously hasn’t affected your business at all because you didn’t even know I was actually doing it until they came to interview you.” He paused, and Shiro could just barely make out a low voice telling Lotor something. After a few moments he let out an entirely humorless bark of laughter.

“You can’t fire me; I resigned the day I first told you about the competition. You never listen to me, do you? Didn’t you notice my office has been empty for weeks? Also, those muffin baskets everybody misses aren’t bought from some place only I know about--I used to bake them myself. Good luck replacing both my engineering and design skills and the snacks all your clients enjoyed so much.”

Lotor cut off the connection and stomped across the room to the employees preparing the clips for viewing. He was still bristling with anger, and one of the hapless show workers hid behind a data pad, as though that would do them any good. Lotor took a deep breath, and his cornered audience winced in anticipation of shouting.

“I imagine my father’s interview has been heavily edited?” Lotor’s voice was quiet and calm when he did speak, and dangerously so when coupled with his stormy expression. The man with the data pad shield nodded. “Do you still have the uncut footage?” Another furtive nod. “I think my father would really prefer that you air his complete interview. We wouldn’t want anybody to get the wrong idea about him being proud of me, now would we?” A rapid shake of the head. “Excellent.” With that, Lotor swept back outside.

Shiro stood shocked, staring after him.

“Wow.” Shiro started at the voice directly behind him and turned to find Hunk standing there. “Here I was afraid to watch my own clip because I’m sure my family told embarrassing stories about me. Think he’s okay?”

“I wouldn’t be.” Shiro debated what to do for a few moments. “Hey, Hunk, think you could stall the viewing for a bit? I’m going to go after him.”

“Good luck!”

***

Lotor hadn’t gone very far, fortunately. Shiro found him leaning against a large rock and staring up at the stars.

“I shouldn’t have lost my temper like that.” Lotor broke the silence without even looking at Shiro.

“While that was the most emotional I’ve ever seen you, you seemed pretty contained to me.”

“I should apologize to that crew member,” Lotor remarked casually. “It wasn’t even his fault and I think I almost gave him a heart attack.”

“Let’s head back in there, then,” Shiro suggested. “We can watch Hunk be embarrassed by a family that loves him to extremes, my brother be forced to speak full sentences to a stranger with a camera, make heckling comments over whatever your father had to say, and you can apologize. Maybe you can bake that guy one of your famous muffin baskets.” Shiro couldn’t help a tiny bit of teasing.

“Fine,” Lotor agreed with an exaggerated disgruntled huff. “Ancients, I hope nobody pities me. I hate that.”

“I’m sure they wouldn’t dare.”

The clip viewing was actually fairly amusing. Hunk turned beet red several times, and his mother called him no less than twelve different pet names in Samoan. (“Ooh, what’s that one mean?” “C’mon, guys... Can’t you just let it go?” “Hang on a tick, I’m looking it up right now.”) Even though they managed to get Keith to talk for a while, Shiro’s clip still contained unfortunate stretches of silence. (“Believe it or not, these are edited down from the original awkward silences.” “They’re only awkward for the interviewer. It looks like a comfortable silence for you and Keith.”) Zarkon’s interview was actually shorter than Shiro expected. He ranted for a few moments about Lotor’s participation in the competition being “a black spot in the history of the company” and a shamefully passive pastime. (“He’s obviously never kneaded bread dough.” “I know, right?”) Then he kicked the camera man out of his office. The remainder of the time was just the poor guy attempting to get absolutely anyone else in the building to talk about Lotor, including his mother, Honerva, who was so caught up in her work she actually had to be reminded that they were trying to get her to talk about her own son.

Afterward, there were refreshments, which rather shockingly did not include any baked goods. When Lotor made a joke about that being “a black mark” on the show, Shiro was pretty sure he was going to be fine.

He introduced Lotor to Matt.

“Having now seen that,” Lotor wondered, “what exactly was the edited version?”

“Honestly?” Matt scratched the back of his head and shrugged. “We had some footage of the outside of the building and just kind of made up a voiceover about the basics of the company and how your dad is the boss. It was practically a commercial.”

“Did you ever say that I worked there?” Matt shook his head. “You should air that version then. They’ll have no reason to take offense. I get to walk away from this show after tomorrow, but I imagine you all would like to keep your jobs.”

***

Right before the start of the first of their final three bakes, Shiro approached Lotor, who was setting up for what looked like his usual all-out performance. He had something he’d been wanting to ask Lotor, but he thought he’d better work up to it.

“So, who do you think will--”

“Hunk. Obviously.”

“You seem to be putting in a lot of effort if you’re so sure of that,” Shiro remarked.

“Yes, well, I’m not sure I know how to do anything but my best.”

“I can relate.” Shiro had agonized over his own signature dish planning even though his chances of winning were quite slim in his opinion.

“Did you...need something?” Lotor’s question reminded Shiro that he’d just been standing there, thinking and staring.

“You said last night that you quit your job with Galra Inc?”

Lotor frowned. “Yes. I have money saved up to last me a while, and I also told you I hate pity.”

“That’s not what this is,” Shiro insisted. This was not going very well. “How would you like to be my partner in opening up a new bakery?”

Lotor blinked. “What?”

“I’ve been thinking about doing it for years, but I never thought I could turn a profit. I mean, my baking is good, but it’s also pretty basic. I don’t really have anything to draw in customers. Well, now I have some notoriety from the show, but how long will that last? You’re really creative, and I thought we might be able to work well together. You know, if you want to try it.”

Lotor blinked some more in the wake of that verbal barrage. He started to open his mouth to reply, but Shiro was ordered to his own station to begin the show. After that, Shiro was too busy baking to beat himself up about it much.

Hunk won, and Shiro was genuinely happy for him. He’d earned it.

Lotor cautiously approached Shiro as Hunk was being mobbed by his very happy and proud family.

“I think you’d be a good partner,” he blurted. “Business partner, I mean. The bakery? We could do that.”

“Yeah?”

Lotor extended a hand and they shook on it. Shiro may not have been the big winner of the day, but he still counted the experience as a win.

[ear]

hey can u rec some good klance fics !

dddiijfjovojrf this has been in my asks for so long im sowwy :’3c BUT HERE WE GO I GOTCHU

berceuse by winterandlittlebrunettesUHG FUCK this was …… so soft , im so down for lance falling in love w keith all over again …………….. wow

vampires werewolves and monsters, oh my! by ashmesI LOVE MONSTER AUS !!!!!!! THIS IS SO GOOD ALREADY !!!

love bug by mellodramaticlawlietevery lovebug fic ……………. is a good one …… im probs gonna rec like three more dkfjbnrkbjgnjkef THIS WAS CUTE

keith the amnesiac by jilliancaresKEITH LOSES HIS MEMORY …… ND HE’S LIKE … SUPER CLINGY .. idk this was rlly cute mdudes……..

you’re sweeter than marshmallows by kagaminatsukiFEKEJVENKVFJKJSDCNKVF THIS WAS SO SWEET AND SOFT AND I LOVE IT HHHHNHN

bitten by the same bug by punjediANOTHER LOVE BUG FIC …. THIS WAS SUPER CUTE 10/10 WOULD RECOMMEND

jagged fins by aaronaliveTHIS IS MY FAVOURITE FIC RIGHT NOW !!!!!!! I LVOE MERMAIDS SM !!! KEITH IS A SHARK ND LANCE FALLS IN LOVE OOPS !!!!!! YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH !!!!

lonely in love by warmybonesTHIS FIC …………. like …….. this fic was so soft and fucking sensual like i felt like i was about to fuckign fall in love this was rlly sweet nd i legit teared up a bit

4 times lance played with keiths hair (+1 time keith played with lances) by kickfoxingTHE TITLE SAYS IT ALL …… SUPER SWEET

all tar and glass by brookethenerdlance is captured by the galra and he’s ,, missing a leg fuck dude this fic is sad but also rlly sweet ? idk i rlly like this one hhhnhnhng

i want you to stay by petallosoWOW BRO … GIVIN ME A LIL HEARTBREAK BRO? A LITTLE BREAKY BREAK??THIS FIC ISNT SAD IM JUST KJFVKNVJKDF AAAAA

love bite(s) by archetypeofadesposaANOTHER LOVE BUG FIC DDLKDNLHNJFKJDJKRF FUCK??????????? FUCK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

morning to night by arialsalthe life of college boyfriends keith nd lance …….. wrow :’‘))))

uwu those r all the new ones i have rn !!! :3c my ao3 is @ boys so yall can check out the rest of my bookmarks !!

[velkynkarma]

End-Of-Year Fic Meme

Better late than never, right? @butteredonions​ tagged me a while ago, but I wanted to wait for Failsafe to be done since it was technically written in 2017 haha. Let’s do this!

Last Year’s In Which I Was Also Very Late

STATS:

List of Fics Posted: All Voltron, all planetonicplatonic. All my 2017 work should now be on AO3.

Silence is Golden ~ Shiro-centric, ensemble, 10291 words (Exchange fic for @bosstoaster​ )

Your Princess Is In Another Castle ~ Allura-centric, 7228 words (for @platonicvldweek​ ) Pillar in the Dark ~ Hunk & Keith focus, 12930 words (for @platonicvldweek​ )

In My Sights ~ Lance-centric, 7099 words (for @platonicvldweek​ )

What’s in a Name ~ Lance & Keith focus, 7485 words (for @platonicvldweek​ )

Phantasmagoria ~ Pidge-centric, Pidge & Shiro focus, 11960 words (for @platonicvldweek​ )

One Hundred Percent Probability ~ Shiro & Slav focus, 14044 words (for @platonicvldweek​ ) Altar of Storms ~ Ensemble fic, How to Train Your Dragon AU, 35292 words (for @platonicvldweek​ ) Knights of Lion ~ Ensemble fic, Shingeki no Kyojin AU, 24027 (for @platonicvldweek​ ) Advanced Maintenance ~ Shiro-centric, follow-up pieces to Routine Maintenance, 4863 words Prince of Memory ~ Shiro-centric, 20169 words A Thousand Burning Eyes ~ Zarkon-centric, 55900 words (for @voltrongenminibang​ ) When the Cat’s Away ~ Keith-centric, Keith & Space Mice focus, 22758 words (for @voltronbang​ ) The Packrat ~ Coran-centric, Coran & Space Mice focus, 11519 (exchange with @maychorian​ ) Mirror Image ~ Shiro-centric, Kuron(”Ryou”)-centric, 32415 words (for @platonicvldweek​ ) Whisper in the Dark ~ Keith-centric, 21326 words (for @platonicvldweek​ ) Cotton Guardian ~ Lance & Hunk focus, 8749 words (for @platonicvldweek​ ) Road Trip to End Times ~ (ch4 only), Ensemble, 7783 words (for @platonicvldweek​ ) Seven Vargas ~ Shiro-centric, 18006 words (for @butteredonions​ ) Little Crystals ~ Assorted prompts & characters, 19627 words Failsafe ~ Shiro & Kuron(”Ryou”) focus, 49930 words

Total number: 21 (counting Little Crystals’ assorted prompts as 1) Total word count: 403,401 words

Ship/character breakdown: Ship breakdown: No ships! All gen :) Character breakdown (all counts based on -centric or focus for a character, with or without the inclusion of other chars) 8 Shiro-centric or Shiro-focus 4 Keith-centric or Keith-focus 4 ensemble fics (team focus) 3 Lance-centric or Lance-focus 2 Kuron(”Ryou”) centric or Kuron(”Ryou”) focus 2 Hunk-focus 2 Space-mice focus 1 Pidge-centric 1 Allura-centric 1 Coran-centric 1 Zarkon-centric 1 Slav-centric Not counting assorted prompts in Advanced Maintenance & Little Crystals

Characters that had the main focus: Unsurprisingly, Shiro was the main focus, but I do like that I tackled all the major characters at least 1 time. Breakdown questions beneath the cut!

Specifics:

Best/worst title? aka Bane of VelkynKarma Best title: Prince of Memory. It has a specific meaning in the fic, and also has a more meta meaning, but I always liked that the meaning was never really clear until the very end of the fic. Worst title: Little Crystals. It’s...okay, I guess, and I’m not so torn up over it since it’s just a prompt depository, but it doesn’t feel very creative even so.

Best/worst first line? Best: Mirror Image     The Kerberos mission is an unmitigated success. I always liked this start, just because even in the middle of telling the reader something was successful, they’re already questioning. Kerberos doesn’t go well, and we all know that. Why’s it a success?

Worst: What’s in a Name     “Here is the data you requested, Princess Allura. Though I am not sure it will help your cause any.” Not really a terrible opening per se, but boring in comparison. The reader might keep going to see who’s speaking (usually the case with opening with dialogue) but it’s not super engaging in and of itself.

Best/worst last line? Best: A Thousand Burning Eyes A thousand burning eyes staring at him out of a deep void, patient and hungry and waiting. I deliberately planned for this last line while writing this fic. I just loved the idea of, after the reader seeing all the awful things Zarkon had done in response to this threat, leaving it hanging with Shiro seeing the same thing. It leaves so many questions. Will he walk the same path? Will he make the same mistakes?

Worst: Whisper in the Dark     In the meantime he’ll do whatever he can, and somehow that feels like exactly enough. It’s not a terrible ending in and of itself, but after all the action and horror of the entire fic, it felt a little flat by comparison. I don’t generally dislike my endings, but I was in a bit of a rush to finish this before platonicVLDWeek dropped, and it probably could have been smoother.

General questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted? Way more than anticipated. I don’t think I’ve ever written this much for any other fandom, ever.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year? I don’t do ships, and the only fandom this year has been VLD. Genre? Hmm...I’ve forayed into some fluffier, comedic, or lighter sick-fics, mostly due to prompt challenges and exchanges with @bosstoaster​ and @maychorian​, so thanks for that guys. What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest. Aw geez. I love all my fics, but if I haaaad to pick? Either Prince of Memory or Mirror Image. I reaaaally love playing with the concept of memory in unusual ways. Actually on that note, Failsafe was fun to play with in that regard, too.

Okay, NOW your most popular story. Technically that’s Parasite Knight according to my 2017 stats on AO3. However, I count Parasite Knight towards 2016 since that’s when it was written. That means Pillar in the Dark is the most popular of 2017.

Story most underappreciated by the universe? Probably A Thousand Burning Eyes, but this is hardly surprising. It’s Zarkon-centric, sooo low popularity to begin with. Not only that, but it released prior to S3 and the introduction of Zarkon x Haggar as an official pairing, meaning he was even less popular and developed at the time.

Story that could have been better? Between the use of Keith and Lance (but wanting to avoid Klance backlash) and sort of skirting around my actual views regarding the Blade of Marmora, What’s in a Name came off as overly cautious and a little weak. I think I was too afraid of stepping on toes or starting a fight somewhere. There are some prompts I’d taken for various prompt events that I wasn’t really happy with, specifically this one with Ulaz. I’d never done prompt challenges before so I was really trying hard to fill anything that came my way. Unfortunately the requester wanted Uliro, and I’m not comfortable with ships, nor am I particularly comfortable with Ulaz as a character (I personally don’t interpret him as a character capable of being on even friendly terms with Team Voltron). The result was me attempting to parrot other character interpretations I’d seen of him, but it fell painfully flat, and the either of the characters could have been swapped out with another without really changing anything. I learned my lesson from that, though: in the future I’ve learned to reject prompts or character requests that I’m not on board with.

Sexiest story? I don’t do sexy D: So...none I guess Saddest story? Probably Prince of Memory, which apparently made a number of people cry at work/in class. Oops. Sorry about that. Although Failsafe could probably give it a run for its money now. Most fun? Altar of Storms because DRAGONS! I watched Dragons episodes and movies so many times and had a ball imagining the fight scenes. Story with single sweetest moment? I don’t really have any sugar-sweet moments, but I have a hell of a lot of bittersweet ones. Prince of Memory and Failsafe are the biggest source of these, although Cotton Guardian has got some sweet moments that turn creepy-cute later too. If I had to pick an excerpt for personal fave though? This scene from Failsafe, which was literally the entire reason the fic was written. (Not lying. Thought of this scene at work and went, ‘well shit, I need a fic to go with this’):

He’s moving before he even realizes it, lurching from where he’s sitting on the edge of the bed to reach for Ryou. Ryou flinches when he feels Shiro move, but then Shiro has both arms around him, drawing him in close to hold him instead. The hug is fiercely protective, encompassing every instinct Shiro has to shield and defend, but even so he’s mindful of his strength. He has to be gentle, so gentle, because Ryou is so breakable now. He supports Ryou with his Galra arm with the utmost care around his back and side, and his real hand rests against the back of Ryou’s skull, pressing his head gently against Shiro’s shoulder. This close, he can feel every protruding rib of Ryou’s and every jutting angle on his too-thin frame, even through the blankets he’s still wrapped in. It’s heartbreaking, and yet at the same time makes Shiro want to curl even closer around him to shield him from anything in the universe that would dare take away his second chance. “No,” Shiro says, fierce and soothing all at once. “No. God, no. Ryou, listen, we would never do that, okay? You're not just some experiment to us. Never to us. Never to me. Okay? We will never do that to you, ever. Ever. “And I’m so sorry that we ever did anything to make you believe that,” Shiro adds. He’s so sorry, more than he can ever express. He should have known better. He should have fucking known. “That’s our fault. That’s my fault. But you’re safe here. That will never happen.” Ryou is completely still in Shiro’s arms. Even his breathing hitches as his harsh pants quiet down. For one frightening moment, Shiro is so afraid that Ryou still doesn’t understand; that his mind is still trapped in some terrible reality where he expects to be discarded over something he never had any control over. But after a moment, he starts trembling again, and his whole body loses tension. He goes completely limp, until Shiro is the only thing holding him up. His head turns weakly, pressing into Shiro’s shoulder just a little more, and after a moment Shiro can feel his one remaining hand struggle weakly out of the blankets until his fingers can curl around the edge of Shiro’s vest. “ ‘m sorry,” he mutters weakly into Shiro’s shoulder. “Don’t be,” Shiro insists. “It’s not your fault. You have nothing to be sorry for. No matter what happens, you are always safe here.” The words seem to break something free in Ryou’s head. A long, slow shiver wracks his entire body, and his shoulders begin to shake as he buries his face in Shiro’s vest. Relieved, exhausted, and sick, he cries quietly into Shiro’s shoulder over his own stay of execution. 

Hardest story to write? A Thousand Burning Eyes, just because so much technical work went into it. I basically had to re-watch the entire first 2 seasons while writing it to get everything from Zarkon’s point of view, and plan the timing exactly. Not to mention explain how his entire empire happened as a result of trying to save the universe. There was a lot of research and watching the same scenes over and over. It took forever.

Easiest/most fun story to write? I was not expecting Silence is Golden to be as easy to write as it was, or to develop into something quite as silly as it did. (Keith, I swear...) Once I had the plot it basically wrote itself in a day.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters? I did a lot of writing with Keith this year, which helped I think in the long run. I was...not happy with the S2 revelations for his character, not gonna lie, and to this day I’m still not really with the whole ‘Keith is Galra’ plot point. But playing around with it in unusual ways (specifically with the Darkness Calls series) helped to figure him out a little better and let me at least come to terms with it.

Most overdue story? Shiro’s story in Mirror Image is a concept I’d been sitting on since almost right after S2 dropped, but I didn’t release it until around Halloween, and only after 2 more seasons and the introduction of the clone!Shiro theory. The real most overdue story still isn’t out yet

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? Boy did I ever! I’d never done prompts before, which was an exercise in writing things outside my comfort zone (and also, in learning when it was okay to say ‘no’ to going outside the comfort zone, too). I participated in @platonicvldweek week multiple times, submitted work for 2 bangs, and even helped moderate one. And I did a few more prompt exchanges, too. It’s been a wild year for risk-taking with writes.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

Tackle some of those characters that only had 1 centric piece Build some series more. It’s fun, turns out! Participate in more events if I can swing it Inspire people to art moar Maybe sketch more stuff to go with my art (that’s not totally writing but who cares)

Happy New Year a month into the new year

[bosstoaster]

do you have any good shiro fic recommendations?

I’ve been sitting on a couple of these, but yeah.  Let’s do this.

a hollow nest to dream in @lightshesaid and Quadriviuum (I don’t know if they have a tumblr oops)From the Voltron Gen Big Bang, this has been open for me to comment on for days now and I’m a bad person who hasn’t, so get a rec instead.  This is a gorgeous, amazing fic.  Taking place after Shiro’s disappearance from the Black Lion, this cycles through universes and time and space in a way that’s stunning to read.  Gorgeous.  Read it now.

All the World Will Be Your Enemy@bosstoaster (lol self rec)

There will be a couple of these, indulge me.  Shiro escapes early and ends up captured with the GG.  This leads to him becoming a Space Pirate.  No, really.  This is my current baby so I’m going to show it off whenever possible.  I loved a look into Shiro’s head if he got just one extra push.

Prince of Memory@velkynkarma

Shiro begins to get different memories from his captivities.  Ones that are painful, yes, but lead him on a different journey.  One to bring home the Last Words of his fellow captives.  Poignant, beautiful, touching.  Picking a favorite fic from Velkyn would be tough, but this is a serious contender. 

All Too Familiar@oldmythos

Shiro can’t sleep.  There are many reasons he can’t sleep, but there are also many people looking to help him out.  Adorable, heartwarming, with a couple of dashes of angst like a good hot sauce.  A++ stuff.

Ten Years On Series@bosstoaster

Okay the last of the self recs, I’m sorry about this.  Shiro wakes up after the events of season 2 and finds himself ten years in the future, where everyone had to learn to get on without him.  Number three in the series is Teeth Ready for Sinking, which is the deepest examination of the situation and the highlight of the whole thing, in my ever so humble (lol) opinion.

From the Inside@queenvallkyrie

Uliro.  Voltron is hit with an attack by Haggar that leaves everyone feeling vulnerable and violated.  Shiro is there for the others, and then Ulaz is there for him. Short but gorgeous.  Valkyrie is amazing in general and does a lot of Shiro focus, so keep an eye out on her others stuff.  Especially if you like Uliro.

Parasite Knight@velkynkarma

Just how does Shiro’s arm work?  How did he get it? What does it run off of?  What happens when that runs out? Warning for this being a dark one, but it’s so, so, so good.  To say much more would be to ruin it, but this fic is amazing and it delves so deep into the very core of Shiro’s being and his relationship with the crew and I just love it.

what the living won’t let go@mumblefox

For the Voltron Gen Mini Bang, Shiro ends up as something like a ghost after the events of season 2.  He goes on a personal journey, seeing the team afterwards, and then goes through something bigger.  Galaxy big.  Universe big.  Time big.  The imagery and breathtaking scale in a relatively short read is reason enough to rec this forever.  Try it for yourself.

Nobody Learns@sassafrassrex

Another great Shiro-centric writer (tho some fics I’ll remind you to mind the warnings).  This one is Matt POV but Shiro is probably tied for the most important character.  It goes through Matt and Shiro’s time at the Garrison, up through the Kerberos mission.  Sass and I have a lot of agreements on Shiro’s personality, especially pre-capture/Voltron, so if you like my stuff you’ll like hers.

Something Strange@ashinan

Andy does a lot of lovely Shiro shipping stuff.  If you dig Sheith or Uliro you should definitely check it out.  But my fav of her Shiro-focused stuff is this little gen piece.  Shiro can see ghosts.  No one else in the team of cryptid/ghost-hunters can.  This is not usually a problem, but sometimes it is.  A little big of horror, but mostly campy and fun like a good campfire story.  

Unafraid@butteredonions

Yeah, we knew we were getting to Miss Onions eventually.  So I’m really biased.  Super biased.  Crazy biased.  This fic was for me, lol.  But it’s SUPER cute and my favorite of Onion’s AUs (and that is a hefty title lol).  Hufflepuff!Shiro preps for his seventh year, only to find Hogwarts is prepping for the Triwizard Tournament.  Featuring everyone in fantastic roles with amazing parallels.  So good.  Please read.  Please love it.  Please help me convince Onions there needs to be more of it.

The Throne in the Hall@butteredonions

The crown jewel of Shiro-centric fics.  100 percent.  This fic is a battle between Shiro and a Galra Commander.  It’s nearly 13k of some of the best action I’ve ever read in any medium ever.  It’s an engaging character study, showcasing the depths of Shiro’s skills and perseverance.  It’s gorgeous imagery and breathtaking writing.  It is the best Shiro-centric fic on AO3.  Period.  I love every fic on this list, but it still holds that place in my heart.

Smile Wide@sassafrassrex

Shiro learns to survive in the world of gladiators.  Brutal, vicious, fantastic.  This is the only non-compete fic on this list, and it makes it because I think it stand on it’s own anyway.  Give it a shot.

Chasing Rabbits, Chasing Hope@hufflepirate

Pacific Rim AU.  Voltron is an experimental five-pilot Jaeger.  It has it’s own, unique challenges and issues.  Shiro struggles under the pressure, and Coran offers advice, his ear, and tea.

Special shout out to @demenior who writes great Uliro, Shiro getting wrecked, and some of the darkest Shiro-centric fics in the business.  I don’t feel super comfortable linking someone straight to Little Monster, which would be my pick here, but here’s her AO3.

There are so, so many more good Shiro fics I’ve read and lost.  I’m terrible at keeping track.  Always feel free to add on!  But here’s a starting point.

[chibi-pix]

I meant to finish this a couple (or longer) weeks back. Oops.  Anyway, after adoring an AU (which I’ve mentally been calling Raising Paladins AU) where Pidge is pretty much raised by Haxus (and Sendak), I figured they’d have started from the moment she ended up in the custody of the Galra... at an extremely young age, probably not yet able to crawl. Well, in the end, I doodled them and Sendak holding itty bitty baby Pidge (probably a few months old?) in the palm of his hand. She’s. So. TINY!

But you know, Sendak probably doesn’t say anything about liking the kid; when asked, he’d probably deny it or simply remind the others that he was given the important task of raising the paladin to serve the empire. 

In reality?

Look at that! I bet he’s really a softy (probably for only Pidge, because let’s face it, she’s adorable) and adores Pidge, especially when she gets all happy about how soft his fur is. 

[maychorianrecs]

King of Wishful Thinking by BossToaster (ChaoticReactions)

King of Wishful Thinking by BossToaster (ChaoticReactions) Words: 7,126 Author’s Summary: From Tumblr: Send me an AU and I'll give you 5 Headcanons 1) The Galra attack Earth after the Pals leave in the Blue Lion 2) Pidge conspires to get Shiro a dog, and he ends up opening up a version of the Old Dogs Senior Sanctuary. Oops.  3) Scooby Doo AU (yes really) 4) Shiro's relationship with his wings (Wing AU) My Comments: Each of these concepts fully deserves a full-fledged, 50k novel-length opus, but these small glimpses into the different worlds provided are immensely worth reading on their own, intriguing and heartwarming and horrifying by turns. My favorite is probably the Old Dogs Sanctuary AU, but they are all good.