#please...tell me about the rituals......I wanna hear about the alien rituals....alien homes.....

[bumblingbabooshka]

I want to know what happened during every Vulcan's kahs-wan or tal'oth in detail. For every main Vulcan on Star Trek there should be an episode where we can see them surviving in the Vulcan wilderness. The manner in which they survive could tell us more about them as an individual and would probably be related to the A plot of whatever the episode is (probably another high pressure situation but it'd be interesting if it WASN'T life or death. Ex: T'Pol surviving in the desert juxtaposed with T'Pol and Archer in diplomacy talks) PLUS we could get a chance to see a lot of alien flora and fauna...imagine all the cool designs. I always picture Vulcan as a very hostile planet where everything's trying to kill you in contrast to the people themselves who strive for peace. Maybe originally the survival test was about teaching children how to be good warriors but what is it now? What does it mean to the Vulcan people? Why is it continued? Maybe we can see how each Vulcan's personal background (their country of origin, parents, personality, the landscape they hail from) influences how they were taught about the ritual and what precisely the ritual entails and of COURSE in the end we see how completing the ritual made them feel. Were they ashamed? Confused? Triumphant? Does that feeling echo into their current situation?

[3000isthenewinfinitynow]

The song Tony sings to Morgan every night

You're my Honeybunch, Sugarplum

Pumpy-umpy-umpkin,

You're my Sweetie Pie

You're my Cuppycake, Gumdrop

Snoogums-Boogums,

You're the Apple of my Eye

And I love you so

and I want you to know

That I'll always be right here

And I love to sing sweet songs to you

Because you are so dear

Tony thought the world looked a little different at night.

Calm,almost inviting... like he could just drawn all his sorrow there,calm down his brain for once.

He doesn't like staying at home when the moon is bleeding red.

Morgan loved the night too. Liked to peer through the window of her treehouse at the endless sky,at the reflection of the stars in the lake. The smell of lily heavy in the air.

She had the whole night ritual thing memorized since.... forever? From the beginning to the end.

First they will share their secrets of the day.

And one common aspect is those secrets can never be told to mom. Like that time daddy took her to their "secret treehouse" in the middle of the night cause it was full moon.

They successfully came back without getting caught by mom.

But then...she really, really wanted to have some juice pops before going to bed and that's how mommy caught them in red,no, juice- stained hands.

Today's secret was a big,big one though.

But daddy didn't reveal it till the very end.

After tucking her in to bed dad simply started singing "their song"

Morgan loved his singing voice.So,she didn't interrupted him.

"You're my Honeybunch, Sugarplum"

She didn't know if it was just her or if his voice really seemed catchier than other days.

"I love you so and I want you to know"

Or judging by how small his voice is

may be they should have icy juice pops in the middle of the night less often.

"That I'll always be right here"

Okay, change of plan. May be not in the midnight. Never in the midnight.Because he sounds like he's about to cry...And Morgan hates to see him cry.

And no body knows,not even daddy,that she has seen him cry more times than they both would like to admit.

He cries in his sleep. About someone hitting him in his chest.Hard. Sometimes he will clunth his chest painfully. Other days his stomach. Sometimes he dreams he is falling, like there's not enough air.

She knows he'll never admit. And she doesn't make him.She gently lays down with him.Hugs him as tight as she can.

He always reaches towards her by blind instincts.He knew her touch,the sound of her footfall. He even knew her breathing patterns.

Though she had no words, she murmured lovingly and he understood her gentle murmuring better than all speech.She would throw her arms round his neck; she would rub her cheek against her father's.

And it would always calm him down.

She thought may be she needs to do the same thing this time.

She hopes it will work.

"And I love to sing sweet songs to you"

She threw herself in his arms and finished the last line together.

"Because you are so,so dear"

He hugged her tight and didn't show any indication of letting go anytime soon.She was more than happy to oblige.

She doesn't know how long they stayed like that.Then daddy cupped her cheeks and kissed her forehead.

Which was another part of their night ritual. She almost forgot. Well, almost.

Then he surprised her and kissed her forehead. Again.

Okay,that was definitely special. But not abnormal. He tends to do that.

On those days, when she stays specially a good little girl.Every year on her birthdays.Everytime she achieves something new.

Or,when he has one of those bad days.

And sometimes just because...she thinks this kiss falls into none other than the "just because" category.

But then something astonishing happened.

He kissed.Again.

Whoa. That's crazy.

Her eyes go big like the saucer and she shoots those big brown eyes to another identical pair.

As soon as their eyes met it was as though she could guess his anguish of spirit from his quiet look of sadness. Coming closer to him, she rubbed her cheeks softly against his arms, and in dumb, puzzled fashion tried to comfort him.

Finally couldn't being able to hold it anymore she cupped his face in the same way he does whenever she wakes up from a nightmare,then looked straight into his eyes and said,"what's the big secret daddy? what's wrong?"

He looked shocked at the surreal amount of maturity in her voice and for the first time in his life,tony stark was...speechless.

"Uhh, what are you talking about, little miss?You are with me,see?what can be wrong?"

But if anything,it just bluntly declared to her that something was indeed very wrong.

"Daddy,what is it? I promise I won't tell mom."

He looked at her as a stricken doe looks in the hunter's face, whispering in silent agony,"umm,bussiness trip... there's this business trip daddy needs to attend..."

"But I thought that boring stuff was for mommy..."

"Well,you know what, Morgan? For someone so little you really captured the meaning of life..."

"Just send mommy to do it, she is bored anyway...yesterday I found her glaring at a cat,she claimed she was practicing 'the eyebrows' "

"God,I feel bad for those employees..."

"How did you do it,dad?"

"Huh, don't ask me.Nightmare,pure nightmare...Sit stotic all day.Look professional. All mannerism.No you can't touch that. That is mehegony. Make any shenanigans,and poof...you are dead....how about you just let me live and i don't know may be climb a tree or build a tree house and all that..."

Morgan chuckled and Tony willed himself to capture that sound deep,deep inside his memory.

"Give yourself some credit,dad.I wish to be as genius as you"

"Twelve percent?"

"Geez,no,aim higher"

"Okay,on a scale of 1 to 3000 because three thousand is the new infinity now how much credit should I give myself?"

"How about three thousand square?"

"For so long, I thought that's going to be my life.And now I think, ��Oh, my God, me and the missus will be here until the grandkids attend our funerals. We’ll always be here. We’ll never move from here. Crazy."

And that's when the reality of what Tony just said sinks into him.

It's true. He doesn't wanna move.He doesn't wanna...live. After all of these...he...he... just...

He doesn't want to think about tomorrow.

For a moment, just for a moment,he let his emotions run wild because...

just because it feels so good.

Too good to be real.

He wants to live in this moment.

For and ever.

He just blurted out his wildest dreams even though it was about to get ruined.

Just like everything else in his life.

All his life he has been thriving for a place,a place where he can go,a place where he belongs,a place where he is...loved.

And now that he finally has it...no,he can't think like that.Not now.

He takes one look at his daughter,

who was trying to suppress a smile as soon as it emerges but the hopes were sipping through her eyes.

And he...he wanted to feel it.

One more time.

"So you are not going then?we,ahh, --we can finish the Lego set tomorrow. And pizza, movie nights...And mom,she can practice her glare on them,those are for moms,my dad is--"

"A mechanic?or better yet the dishwasher-man? But I have to tell you,for the record, these dishwashing stuffs are really underrated, Morgan,where are you--"

Tony watched as she went to the closet sprinting leaving him to anticipate what crazy idea came to her head this time, God,she really was a lively thing,handful sometimes,and,boy,did he love her?

"Ironman," Morgan,or should he say ironman,emerged from the closet,with the mask and repulsor gloves ,"my dad is ironman,earth's best defender, the strongest avenger...", she said moving her hands anematically.

She pointed one of her gloves at him and giggled ,"Boom!"

Tony pretended to drop dead.

She tiptoed near him, touched his face,her hands were bare now,the repulsor gloves were abandoned on the floor.

"Dad?" less than a whisper,so small.

Tony decided to play a little hard. Didn't move, didn't budge.

And everything went quite for a while,Tony wondered what she was up to this time.

Next thing he knew it was raining down on him.Little raindrops fell down on his face.But was it raindrop though?

Cause last he checked it was summer and even if it rained he was inside his house.

Little did he know there was a little cloud hanging in his house. Yes, his sunshine has turned into a cloud. All because he was an idiot.

"Hey,shh,hey,hey,hey, I thought we were playing?"

A nod. Too engrossed in crying to manage a reply.

"I'm so sorry. Did I scare you?"

Affirmative."itw'sl'k---"

"Okay,breathe,take a breath,kiddo..."

"It was like---"

He didn't push her to say anything.

"One of m-mm...you,ahh,"she stuttered over her words, growing frustrated, finally growled," my nightmares, it's like new York,w'rmhole,y..'ou,...,'nd ,and that man telling to shu...tttt, shut it,the portal" a hiccup, "and then...youuuu,you fell,eyes closed...I..."

Tony didn't want to hear anymore.He too had nightmares about it,still raw as ever,still real,but Morgan?she shouldn't...why would she have nightmares? she's just a little girl,his little girl,she should dream about nice things... unicorns and rainbows and all that...

And,and may be about candies too...

not that he ever knew what childhood dreams feel like,never experienced them firsthand,cause his childhood was...yeah,less than ideal,but why would anything like that touch her ever?

"Okay,fetch up,who was it?Who told you?"

"Miss Amenda...our history teacher"

He didn't need to hear anymore. Of course,it was part of history. Of course, Morgan is shown live footages, it's was a pretty big deal,alien invasion and all...

He was going to ask why she never told him anything about it but she spoke first.

"Daddy?"

"Yes,dear?"

"Please don't ... go?"

And he knew she was not just talking about the ,uhh, which he decided to call "Bussiness trip" ; but it was beyond that...

"Sure," a fake smile. A pair of teary eyes.

When we express our thought in words, the medium is not found easily. There must be a process of translation, which is often inexact, and then we fall into error.

But brown eyes need no translating; the mind itself throws a shadow upon them. In them thought opens or shuts, shines forth or goes out in darkness, hangs steadfast like the setting moon or like the swift and restless lightning illumines all quarters of the sky.

And in that moment, Morgan knew he's leaving. But his eyes screamed that he didn't want to,she could feel it in her bones.They why?For a genius,she was an idiot.

"Ahh, Morgan... actually,I ...truth is..."

"Is that why the bland looking grandpa came?to take you away with them?The one who looks like a bird just flew away with his sandwich?"

"Yeah,yeah,if you ever feel dumb,not that you ever will,you are the brightest girl,most genius girl I know..."

"Daddy's girl..."

"Ah,yes, let me finish it...in case you ever feel blue just remember that crap-tain american-a once tried to choke a robot"

That made Morgan go pikachu and Tony misinterpreted that as wonder.

Morgan came closer to him. If that was even possible. She came near his ear,her voice barely a whispered,"Is that cap...is he," a pause, "the one?....Is he the one? who hurt you?with that sheild?"

And for the second time in that night, Anthony Edward Stark's throat was full of cotton.

After several attempts he gave up trying to talk and just focused on breathing. Yeah, breathe, that's important, that's priority,but...

"Morgu-u-u-na, H- o-w?" It seemed like he was learning those three words for the first time in his life,"You might want to stop doing that. I am just a man with heart condition and all. And I didn't know until now that I was raising a little Sherlock Holmes all along"

Morgan looks instantly taken aback, like she wanna take back her words..."Did I make you sad,,, I am sorry... I'm..."

"No, look, no...you didn't...if anything you, Morgan? look at me,yeah, look at me,"

He pointed his fingers at her and said those next words one by one, "YOU.DID.NOT.MAKE.ME.SAD....ok?OKAY?

But daddy needs to know, Morgan? How did you know?"

[satsumalover]

listen, you know these two aren’t gonna propose in any conventional way

lance: 'yo keith, let's get married' keith, reading a book: 'sure' allura: 'earthlings have such weird courting rituals'

lance, playing video games with pidge: 'and i can't wait to marry him bc i love him so much- like everything about him- and i want to spend the rest of our lives together' 

pidge: 'you and keith are together. dating, fucking, whatever! i thought i was done with this pining shit when you guys made out on the bridge!'

keith, training: 'everything he does is so perfect, like how can one person be so beautiful inside and out-' 

shiro, on the ground with a gladiator strangling him: 'keith please'

"marry me" sort of becomes their "i love you"

the paladins +coran are gathered on the bridge and klance are bickering:

keith: 'WANNA GET MARRIED YOU ABSOLUTE DICKSAC?' 

lance: 'YOU BEST YOUR FUCKING ASS I DO, MULLET HEAD' 

keith: 'GOOD' 

lance: 'GOOD' 

hunk: 'what the everloving fuck'

lance, sitting on keith's lap and getting all up in his face during breakfast: 'i'm gonna marry you so hard you'll hear church bells for weeks' 

keith: 'we're in space lance, there are no churches' 

lance, tucking his face into keith's shoulder: 'what do you know, mullet'

mid battle, with keith and lance are weaving around each other with experience: 

lance: 'hey keithy!' 

keith, stabbing a drone in the face: 'kinda busy at the moment babe' 

lance: 'wanna get hitched on the back of kaltenecker and ride red into the sunset?' 

keith: 'yeah ok'

all the paladins are tied up in some wanna-be-villain's basement while coran tries to teleport them out: 

lance: 'dude wanna tie the knot?' 

keith, who is gagged bc he tried to bite off the ropes: [thumbs up] 

shiro: 'guys'

once, keith asked lance to marry him while they were dancing in a diplomatic ball and there was a planetwide catastrophe bc the aliens though he was challenging lance to a duel to the death but allura made up a voltron emergency and got them out

they say it as much as they possibly can, to everyone's exasperation and amusement, but when it comes to the act itself, they're both so so scared

but, before an ultimate battle, not the last but surely the biggest, they clasp hands and touch foreheads in the lion hangar 

keith whispers 'marry me?' and lance, with tears in his eyes, says 'i'd follow you to the ends of the universe and beyond'. 

he doesn't say yes because they have no idea if they'll make it out alive, but keith promises 'i'll live for you, i swear it'

everyone almost dies several times and at one point there were so many explosions and so much smoke that they thought the red lion wasn't gonna make it out, but then keith's voice bursts through the comms, and lance was sobbing so hard but still didn't miss the crackly "will you marry me?"

and when they all land in the hangar, keith barely gets out of red before he's tackled by a crying blue paladin. but he's crying too, and they're pressing kisses everywhere their mouths can reach while holding on so tight it hurts

as soon as it can, the castleship lands on a planet, and coran, who is a certified officiator on every system east of Daizabaal, uses traditional earth vows. 

pidge throws spore balls at the guests while hunk sobs into shiro's arm. 

lance says 'si, quiero' and keith can barely choke out his 'i do' between sniffles. 

allura uses her altean alchemy to tell them their souls have already joined in every way except by name

it's small and private and they're still stuck in a war a million miles from home, but it's a long time coming and so worth it

i made this so long ago hnbghnbgh it’s all inaccurate now, but pls,,, take them

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

The real reason Pidge learned Altean is... 

Pidge learns Altean because the Castle's systems are written in it. She learns Altean because she can't stand much more of Coran's crazy nonsense words, which she's sure he's deliberately inflicting on them by now. She learns Altean because its a freaking alien language and the drive to absorb new things is coded into her DNA.

She also learns Altean for just this one moment.

For the way Allura's eyes widen. For the flash of excitement that lights up her face. For her response, sounds and syllables flowing just a bit smoother than Pidge's ever will, and the almost breathless way she says them.

“I didn’t realize you would be fluent so quickly!”

Allura has to remind herself not to speak to quickly or let the words blur together, but it was hard to restrain herself with delight bubbling up in her chest, pushing the words out faster.

“How have you found the time to study Altean? I assumed you would only focus on the written form, since the Castle has very few spoken commands and the universal translator takes care of the language barrier between us. How does it compare to your Earth languages? Did you have trouble with it? You could have asked me for help, you know, I would have been happy to give you pointers.”

She had to pause to draw breath.

Pidge took the moment to break in, looking a little overwhelmed by the flood of Altean but still very pleased with herself.

“Okay hold on, let me see if I heard all that right.”

Clasping her hands behind her back Pidge bowed her head and frowned thoughtfully.

“Written, spoken... Ohhh.” Comprehension dawned as she puzzled the pieces together. “Well I thought speaking Altean and getting to practice it with you and Coran would help keep the written part sharp too. It’s not too different from some Earth languages, though the pronunciation a bit tricky sometimes. I’m still working on that, obviously.”

“You sound quite good to me.” Allura marveled. “There’s a faint accent of course, but its actually rather-”

Fascinating, charming, intriguing, strange in how it made Allura’s skin prickle and her mouth go a bit dry.

“-pleasant.” She said, hoping Pidge wouldn’t notice her slight stumble.

“But why did you keep this a secret until now? It can’t have been easy learning it alone and from the Castle language program, I remember it as being rather unforgiving.”

To that Pidge only shrugged, eyes falling to the floor as she scratched as the back of her neck.

“I wanted it to be a surprise I guess.” She muttered. “A good one, I mean. For a change.”

Allura beamed at her.

It had been a surprise. Watching Pidge walk into the rest area and hearing the Castle give one of it’s rare verbal announcements- Local deactivation of universal translator now in effect- had shocked Allura enough that she hadn’t understood what was happening until Pidge took a deep breath and started chatting to her with feigned casualness.

Chated to her in Altean, form perfect and words lilting exotically as they left her tongue.

It had been a good surprise. The kind that made Allura’s eyes string and lifted a weight from her chest that she had grown so used to she’d forgotten it was there until it was gone.

“Then you succeeded perfectly.”

She told Pidge warmly and was rewarded by a pink flush that quickly spread across the Paladin’s face as she grinned shyly up at Allura.

-

It's worth nearly getting mauled by the language program to see Allura like this.

And it's important, Pidge knows, that Allura can now use Altean words to describe everything that Altea used to be.

It's also important that she has someone to talk with other than Coran.

Someone who doesn't know so many things but wants to hear about them all, someone who gives her an excuse to brush the gathering dust off her memories and remember stuff she'd been at the edge of forgetting.

-

“The lemzakram?”

“Yeah.” Pidge nodded, fingers a blur as she did a little light work while three of the Castle mice watched curiously from her shoulders and the top of her head.

“I found a mention of it in the archives, but the descriptive entry didn’t make much sense.” She frowned and glanced over at Allura. “Something about the mid-summer festival and... the first light of the stars? A heart bleeding ashes?”

Sighing Pidge rubbed at the bridge of her nose.

“What am I missing? Is this a language or a cultural thing?”

“Both, I suppose.”

Scrunching her brows together Allura pushed some food good around her plate and offered it the waiting Platt, wracking her brain for the answer she knew was hiding there.

“The Lemzakram is a ritual with it’s roots in the unification of Altea. To properly explain it, and the style used to describe it, I would first need to give you some background in it’s original meaning.”

A soft snap sounded through the kitchen as Pidge closed her laptop and shoved it aside.

“Do you mind telling me? It’s been bugging me all day.”

“I’ll do my best.” Allura promised.

“Just let me think for a moment, I haven’t really thought about any of this since I was ten. Hmm....”

-

Just like its important that the person listening understood.

Someone who won't get board when Allura talks about the smallest details for hours on end, because they know what's like to miss something or someone and to savor every little piece you have left.

-

"- never really appealed to me, though." Allura admitted wryly.

"The older sections had much better places to hide in, and as a child I made good use of them by ambushing Coran whenever he came to fetch me for lessons. One time I even set up a little trap that-"

A soft chime broke in, announcing the completion of a scan on the Castle's systems.

Allura blinked and looked around in surprise, suddenly realizing it had been nearly a varga since Pidge had come to the bridge with a simple question about the set up of Altean cities.

Feeling a bit embarrassed she turned back to Pidge, smiling dimming as she apologized.

"I'm sorry, I wandered off again- what exactly was it you wanted to know?"

Pidge just grinned at her.

"No idea." She said cheerfully, her Altean still accented in a way that Allura knew she will never get tired of listening to. "Go on about the Castle gardens and playing in them as a kid, I wanna hear about you pranking Coran."

Allura laughed. "But that's not at all what you asked me about!"

"Yeah." Pidge agreed as she scooted closer on the dais, leaning in eagerly. "But this is way better anyway."

"Well..."

Allura glanced at the display showing the results of the Castle scan.

It was nothing pressingly important, just a routine check to make sure everything is running smoothly, and it's so rare these days to have a moment free to chat with anyone- let along Pidge, who always has something to de-bug or reprogram- and Allura decided that getting to sit here with her a little while longer was more than worth a little bit of catch up work later.

So she gave in. "If you're sure."

"Please, Allura." Pidge's eyes turned pleading behind her glasses. "The suspense is killing me."

How could she say no to a face like that? Allura felt her smile return full force as she went about picking up her thread of thought.

"Very well then. Now, where was I?"

"The trap?"

"The trap, yes." Allura tried and failed to suppress another giggle.

"Poor Coran, it took nearly ten spicolian movements for his mustache to fully recover, and it was such a state even father couldn’t keep a straight face while he was scolding me..."

-

Ironically Pidge does a lot less talking after she learns to speak Altean than before she did.

She doesn't mind at all.

The truth is, this is the real reason she learned it in the first place.

To hear the things that needed to be heard, to give Allura a reason to say them. To help keep alive little pieces of Allura's home and former life.

And.

To see the princess smile in a way she's never seen from her before.