#protective pidge

[icypantherwrites]

New Fic: A Star-Filled Sky

Summary: Space was supposed to be exciting. It was supposed to be looking up into the star-filled sky and wondering what else was out there, how far could they go? It was something to dream about, to have hope for.

And that dream…

For Shiro it had become a nightmare.

Or; set directly after Keith + Garrison Trio rescue Shiro from the Garrison and Keith and Pidge reflect on the Kerberos Mission and their brothers.

Story snippet:

Keith reached up and took it with a soft thanks and his stomach took that moment to let out an embarrassingly loud grumble and Keith could feel his cheeks and ears heating.

“Yeah, I was gonna ask if you were hungry,” Pidge said, “but I think that question’s been answered. Hunk’s going through your fridge—”

And at that Keith did turn around again because water bottles were one thing but that was his entire food budget for the week and no offense to Hunk but he looked like he enjoyed eating and Keith didn’t really have all that much to spare. Everything he bought was with the emergency money Shiro had given him and what little he could make doing odd jobs for some of the older residents who lived outside Garrison City and were happy for the help.

Something must have shown on his face because Pidge added, “There’s no use asking him to stop. He’s determined when he’s hungry and he stress cooks or bakes when he’s upset and, well, he’s more than a little stressed right now. Don’t worry though, we’ll take care of your supplies, okay?”

Keith gave a slow nod, pulse slowing down again.

“He’s a great cook,” Pidge said, a small smile on her face. “And you,” her eyes were searching but hesitant, “look like you could use a home cooked meal.”

Keith gave a small shrug, not sure what to say to that but unable to deny it.

“Have… have you been out here since you got kicked out?” Pidged asked, blunt and almost rude despite the careful delivery but Keith found a comfort in it. He liked straightforward people and he didn’t like useless small talk.

And considering today was the most he’d spoken to anyone in months and he’d already had to deal with Lance’s confusing comments and declarations, he really appreciated this approach.

Read it here

[blanceyblance]

Lance ended up being the closest thing the paladins had to a Team/Space Mom since he was usually being the one giving pep talks to the leader figures or being approached by them to talk. He was also usually very protective of other members of the team and took more of a caretaker role in later seasons. In this essay I will

[thecountoflondonfansite]

Thoughts on The Glass Scientists Volume 2 book release.

Spoilers for Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde Meet Dracula Under cut

If Rachel ever sees kid Hyde and Kid Jekyll, she is going to go into mama bear mode so quickly. I mean she was caring and protective over Edward because he looked like her brother Eli, but now. She is going to coo and fuss over kid Henry and Edward so much. A lot of mother henning from the woman. She will definitely lay the smack down on Dracula and his brides while defending and protecting the beans.

[discordiansamba]

fun fact! you've heard that silver and Balmeran crystals can burn Keith, but do you know what else can burn him? that's right! Marmoran blades!

Keith has such complex feelings about the knife his mother left for him. It's the only thing he has from her, and he can't touch it without it burning him. It could do worse to his dad, but he still held onto it like a cherished object. He always told him that his mother left it behind to protect them, but how can it do that if it only hurts them both?

(Was his mother an exorcist? It's not like he can ask around.)

And yet he keeps it, even after his father disappears. Sometimes it even does help keep him safe. He keeps its hilt tightly wrapped, both to hide the strange glowing stone, and so that he can safely hold it. It's why he starts wearing gloves. The knife can hurt him, but it's important. He doesn't want to let it go.

(Years later, he'll face down masked aliens wielding identical blades. They burn just as much.)

[bosspigeon]

the duality of Moss

[justaz]

pidge and lance rivalry after the lion switch of pidge being infuriated that she’s no longer the black paladins favorite and lance rubbing it in her face every chance he gets

[chibi-pix]

Papa Ulaz in protective mode? You can bet that he won’t let Katie out of his sight or anyone near. And you can bet, she probably got hurt or captured just hours prior.  Don’t worry, Katie, he’ll let go in a few hours when Thace finally decides to tell his husband to let you go. 

Anyway, I hope y’all enjoy this one.  Until next time.

[toestalucia]

write short things w me

[lime1991]

embarrassingly, reading moon knight fanfic gave me an oc idea

[icypantherwrites]

New Fanfic: Follow You Home

Summary: Voltron is heading home. Except, for Keith, the destination of Earth isn’t his home, not really. There’s no one waiting for him there. And, he tries to tell himself, that it’s not like the space family he'd made up here with Voltron would abandon him as they go seek out their own loved ones on Earth. But he’s so used to being left behind, forgotten, why should this time be any different? Fortunately, Pidge is right there to remind Keith just how much he belongs with all of them.

Story snippet:

Keith could feel it.

Everything was going to change.

And as much as he tried to deny it, as much as he told himself he was jumping to conclusions…

He could already feel them starting to pull away and maybe… maybe it was better to be the first one to leave. Just like he had before. Leave them before they could leave him as everyone always did—

“What are you doing?”

Keith barely refrained from jumping and even worse letting out any sort of shout of complete and utter both surprise and terror and settling on a sort of gasping noise and whirling around as he hadn’t even heard Pidge approaching let alone seen her despite the fact she had done nothing to camouflage herself and Pidge’s smirk as she realized she’d startled him said it all.

But within the second it was sliding away to be replaced with a narrowed set of eyes and Pidge repeated her question, less amused sounding than before. “What are you doing?”

“Um,” Keith resisted the urge to shift on his feet, “I was filling the canteens.”

“Yeah, which you should have put over there,” Pidge jerked her head in the direction of the Lions. “But you’re here,” she gestured at the treeline outside the campfire’s light and not entirely on trail from the stream he’d been at, “and honestly looking like a bit serial killer stalking your next victim.”

“I do not,” Keith muttered, crossing his arms defensively and looking away.

Pidge sidled up to him and gave him a gentle for her nudge with her shoulder. “What’s going on?” she asked quietly, all joking gone.

Read it here

[swagging-back-to]

whump idea thats super messy and trash

cw ableism and canon typical sadness.

the usual seventh wheel asshole team behavior

something happens and everyone but lance is severely injured or altered in some way

pidge has vocal atrophy, hunk has Hyperesthesia making it impossible for him to touch other people or smell and taste things with too much flavor. Shiro is like normal but x10000. Keith develops seizures, muscle tremors, and hallucinations. coran has severe amnesia and hostile delusions, similar to dementia. Allura displays symptoms of conduct disorder.

hunk and pidge are the only ones who can act somewhat normal, keith is sane most of the time.

obviously being the only able bodied and able minded person on the ship, lance has to be resident nurse to 4 traumatized humans and 2 extremely overpowered toddlers. at first he can handle it, his abuelo had dementia, and he practically raised all his nieces and nephews. But of course, after time, the edges start to fray.

it started with hunk, Lance letting it slip more than once that he wishes he could taste hunks cooking and feel his strong arms wrapped in a tight hug.

it progressed to pidge, with Lance snapping during a particularly slow evening for the teen to "just say something, anything! i dont care if you say how much you hate me, or how stupid i am, or how im the weakest link and cant do anything to help anyone---just please say something." all pidge could do was stare in shock at the outburst until an eternity had passed and Lance stormed from the lab with bloodshot eyes.

Next, it was Shiro. It had been during a collective outburst by both Allura and Coran, with both of them screaming and wailing and throwing their (entirely too strong) fists at Lance's face. The violence caused Shiro to start wheezing to the point he turned blue, digging his fingers into his throat like he was being strangled. It was anything but brag worthy, but Lance was unable to do anything but hiss "Shiro i cant deal with your bullshit right now! Get the fuck out of here instead of strangling yourself" by the time he had managed to get Allura and Coran calmed down he was too busy sewing his split eyebrow to realize what had slipped from his mouth.

Unsurprisingly, Allura was the next target. She had been acting particularly defiant all day, purposely sabotaging all the preparations Lance had made in order for everyone to get what they needed (food, sleep, showers, meds, physical therapy, training, etc.) It wasnt until she had purposely started spraying purfume in Hunk's quarters did he truly rip into her, slamming her wrist against the wall halfway through her dumping an entire bottle on hunks bed to the point it left a bruise for a month. There were too many harsh words and insults to be remembered by either of them, but allura couldnt ignore the way her wrist clicked everytime she rolled it now.

Coran's berating didnt come until much later during the peak of a galran ambush. The ginger was completely unable to help, standing around mindlessly while Lance ran from the bridge to the controls. Halfway through inputting coordinates for an impromtu wormhole, Coran suddenly went back to a specific point in time and recognized nothing else besides *random alien using control hub, ship alarms blaring* and went on the offense. Lance had to dislocate one of corans shoulders in order to get him to stop long enough to create a wormhole--with another severe concussion.

Keith had been given most of lance's patience, able to provide Lance with some normalcy half of the time and keep him sane...until the hallucinations started up. Keith's own frustration over not being able to help, not being able to train, not being able to exert himself even a little bit before he ended up on the floor convulsing, how he couldnt keep his hands steady enough to hold his blade did not help matters at all. He started snapping at Lance everytime he awoke to Lance's hovering and concerned questions. Eventually Lance stopped waiting around for the seizures to stop--he had 5 other people depending on him. Eventually, he stopped trying to break Keith from his delusions, leaving him to be stuck in them for days or weeks. it wasnt until Keith hallucinated him as Zarkon did Lance have a problem with it again, snapping about how Keith was more like Zarkon than he, a full human, ever could be. How Keith was a bloodthirsty alien, and if he couldnt pull himself together and stop being "fucking delusional" then he might as well die, "that's your people's motto, isnt it? at least then i wont have another problem to clean up."

what lance failed to remember over time was that the team wasnt mentally gone, they werent deaf or blind, they didnt just forget. They had moments of lucidity, some more than others, and watched his spiraling descent into raged insanity.

[callmelyc]

Lance is just so good and so many forget it. He looks out for ppl constantly both in the show and in comics so here's a Lance appreciation post.

Him protecting pidge

Him protecting Coran who is a stranger

Him standing up for ppl

Him being there for Keith even through his reckless leader phase

And ofc him just breaking the seriousness up with silly

[bosspigeon]

i know there's not rly a way to replicate it in game (sans mods ig) but i rly wanna make my durge look a bit like a hobgoblin

[mothmanavenue]

More Voltron: Psychopomp! Pidge Holt, probably the most indispensable member of Voltron. Sure, they’re all foundational and fundamental, but really from the start they’d all be screwed without her technology knowledge. She’s a scrappy, mean wildcard of a fighter. Given her being the youngest, Voltron tend to be over protective of her, but she’s honestly worse than them.

[rubymoon-snape]

How did I miss this the first time around?! Anyway, run Keith! Mama Krolia is after you!

Not pictured: Ryner trying too hard to not laugh

One of my many ideas is that Keith (little Galra) and Pidge meet at a young age when the Blade of Marmora decide to ally themselves with the Olkari due to those guys being rather tech savvy. With an idea like this, I like to think of ���Pidge” more so being an alien nickname meaning “small” or thereabouts.

[autisticlancemcclain]

The ship was shaking like a kid holding a goldfish bag.

It was not, in case you were wondering, a good time. 

Keith grit his teeth, planting his boots on the ground and half-walking half-climbing over to Allura, who was paler than Keith had ever seen her. The grip she had on her podium was tight enough to drain the blood completely from her knuckles. Despite his own fear, Keith’s heart softened for her. 

“How is it looking?” he asked, shouting over the noise of a thousand asteroids and a million laser strikes. All while their lions sat, drained of quintessence, locked in their hangars

One goddamn thing after another. Jesus. 

“It is looking bad,” Allura shouted, not taking her eyes off the space in front of her. “I can’t – Coran, I can’t hold it on my own!”

Coran looked back at her grimly. He had probably the most success keeping upright – seriously, was it posture or did he have a steel rod anchored to his back at all times – but even he was struggling against the whipping and shuddering of the massive castleship, attention focused on the controls. Trying to keep the shield up as well as possible, trying to get their own defenses running. Trying, as always, to keep the castle going, even when the odds were a million to nothing. 

“You can,” he encouraged. The effect was less encouraging when a massive asteroid hit the side of the bridge point-blank, throwing him right off the controls and splat into the walls. Despite Lance and Allura’s cries of alarm, he made a startlingly dignified crawl back to the deck controls.

Hell of a man, that advisor. 

He continued once he was steady, sweat beading on his brow but gaze soft and assuring. He waited for Allura to meet his eyes, then nodded, once. “Focus, girl. Hands on the spheres. Mind cool on the exhale. However we need to get out of this – you can guide us. Make your decision. Your team is behind you.”

“Yeah!” Pidge cheered, lifting her fist in emphasis from where Shiro held her steady, eyes trained on her computer screen. Blaring red lines of code Keith could not pretend to read flashing rapid speed in front of her, and she typed back at it just as fast, keeping their crackling systems at bay. “You got this!”

Allura breathed out. The tense line of her shoulders softened, just slightly, despite the ongoing chaos. She lifted her hands and rested them, gently, on the podium spheres as Coran instructed. They glowed. 

“We retreat,” she decided, nodding to herself. “We’re already low on quintessence, standing to fight will drain us dangerously. We must get to safety if we are to survive with our home intact.” She bit her lip, eyes opening. “But, uh, full disclosure, I have enough strength in me to open a wormhole and that is About It. I will be out of commission the moment it closes.”

Hunk shrugged. “We’ll catch you, then.”

“Try not to wormhole us into a black hole,” Shiro suggested, smiling slightly. “We’ll manage anything else, Princess.”

She laughed slightly, thankfully, but within seconds called out for everyone to brace themselves. Keith did as she heeded, or he tried to – but the castle got hit as he tried to crawl back to his seat, sprawling him on the floor. He glanced over at Allura, panicked, but her eyes were already glowing, and the space in front of them was already starting to warp. He swallowed roughly, squeezing his eyes shut. The floor was shaking too badly for him to get his bearings. He couldn’t get his feet under him, couldn’t stand, couldn’t dream to crawl to his seat. He stilled, resigning himself – he didn’t know exactly what would happen if he wasn't strapped down and protected during a wormhole jump, but it couldn’t be good. He had to hope for the best.

“God,” sighed a voice to his left, “you’d die without me, Dropout.”

A hand clenched the back of his jacket and yanked, pulling him tumbling onto another body. Quick as lightning a seatbelt was stretched over him, clicking into place just as the space in front of the castle finally warped, bright blue, and the entire bridge lit up so bright Keith was blind with it. 

When the light finally died down, Keith was half-convinced nothing had changed. The castle stopped shaking, but instead it was plummeting, hard and fast, controls dead and energy gone, towards the surface of a planet. 

“Someone catch Allura!” Coran shouted, and on queue the princess’ eyes rolled up in her head and she slumped forward. Luckily, Hunk had been more prepared than the rest of them, seatbelt already off and arms extended to catch her. He carried her back to her seat, buckling her in carefully, and strapping himself in next to her. Wise move – trying to crawl back to his own seat, fighting against the G-forces, would be near impossible.

There was a click, and then a shove, and then Keith got to feel those G-forces firsthand.

“What the hell!” he demanded, barely managing to catch himself on the arm of the blue paladin’s seat. “I coulda brained myself!”

Lance shrugged, playing for innocent, but a smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth. Keith could’ve strangled him. “What? Thought I’d let you get back to your own chair. You're welcome for saving you, by the way.”

“Some saving, jerk! We're still falling!”

“Yeah. Personally, I would find somewhere to buckle up.”

“You’re so annoying,” Keith growled, and it was by spite alone that he managed to stomp back to his own seat and buckle himself in. He was bright red, anger making him hot – Lance always made him like this, so furious he could barely blink. One day they’d be making progress, working together like a dream, wiping the floor together, and the next it was like a switch was flipped. Like Lance was reminding himself that he and Keith could never get along. It was ridiculous, and Keith couldn’t for the life of him understand it. Was he so bad?

“Incoming!” Pidge shouted, shaking Keith back to himself. Her screen was now linked up with Coran’s, the only two things on in the entire castle – electronics seemed to come alive when Pidge touched them – and diagrams of the castle systems were blaring red, flashing with symbols Keith didn’t know, but recognised as bad. “The nav and power systems are down! It’s not safe to get anyone back there to force them back on manually, but I think I can get steering up in a sec. Shiro, I need your arm for power. Hunk, keep on Allura, make sure she’s upright when we crash, we don’t want a spinal injury. Lance, Keith, I’m turning steering over to you guys. Don’t fuck it up.”

Despite their bickering, both of them nodded. Neither of them particularly wanted to be turned into paladin pancake anytime soon, so they could collaborate for one thing. 

Seconds after Pidge spoke, a screen flickered to life in front of Keith. Stats blinked back up, glitching rapidly as they translated themselves into words and symbols Keith could understand. The hologram shifted and expanded to its usual 3D model, joystick in the middle, thrusters and controls to his left, a screen with Lance’s comm line to his right. In his little screen, Lance met his eyes, eyebrows raised in question. Keith nodded. Together, they wrapped their hands around the joysticks, breathed out, and let their minds fuse.

As always, it was a freaky feeling. Imagine the weird, shuddery feeling you get when you say the same thing as someone at the same time, voices layering, tone mixing, for a moment your own voice and the voice of a stranger synching into one. The weird, deja-vu-but-not of it, the uncanny valley feel of recognising your own voice but…different. 

Then multiply that freakiness by a hundred, and you still won’t quite get it. 

On some levels Keith was aware that he was his own person. He knew his name, knew his hands, knew his history – or well, some of it. Nothing about himself had changed. 

But at the same time, he was also Lance Esposita-McClain. He knew his name, knew his hands, knew his history, more of it than he could ever get from shared stories or mind melds. There’s no telling the way your sister’s arm feels hooked around your neck for the sixth noogie in as many minutes. There’s no explaining the way your breathing only gets calm with your feet in the saltwater. There’s no describing the curve of your mother’s smile. Nothing Keith was seeking out – no memories he would even know to look for – but they were there, simmering, triggered by a smell or the crook of his finger in a particular way. Memories stored in the body and the soul and the senses, not in the brain, shared when two consciousnesses become one. 

Lance’s mind was hyperspecific. It complemented Keith’s well, with all his flitting, quick detail-oriented observance. As Keith jumped from angle to angle, noticing the planet’s curve, the pull of its gravity, the heat of its atmosphere, Lance zeroed in on an island, one of the only ones big enough for them to land. While Keith kept their craft in control, steering along the air currents, Lance kept them directed, single-minded focus on a stretch of rocky beach – not exactly a soft landing, but not a lot of living things for them to destroy when they crash. (Keith would’ve chosen to land in the meadow. Crushing frogs and bugs or whatever is never something on his top priority list of things to avoid. But he didn’t argue when Lance nudged them towards what is about to be a very bumpy landing.)

“Brace yourself!” he shouted, not daring to look away to make sure his friends were buckled. Trusting that they were, he held his position, letting them plummet, coming closer and closer to splatting on the planet’s surface before finally yanking on the joystick as hard as he could. He felt Lance’s strength twist and tangle with his own, and together the two of them levelled the castle almost parallel with the ground, letting them glide on their own velocity until they slowed down enough to let the bottom of the craft brush against the rocky outcrop. 

It was the most turbulent landing Keith has ever felt, except maybe that time he and Lance crashed blindfolded into a sand dune, and every bump on the ground gave him whiplash. When the castle finally hit the ground for good, dragging them a gauge in the ground for several miles as friction finally slowed it to a stop, the leftover inertia yanked Keith forward so roughly the buckles of his seatbelt made something crack in his ribcage. When the castle finally stopped he got slammed back into his chair so hard he was almost surprised he didn’t fall right through the impenetrable material. 

It took a minute for everything to hit. His connection with Lance had been severed the second they hit the ground, too focused on being, y’know, crashed to keep holding on. After the shock of being tossed around like dice in a cup wore off, which did not take long, Keith’s body made it very clear that yeah, no, armour actually only does so much, and crash landing is one of those things that’s just bound to hurt. His skull pounded. At least one of his ribs was most definitely cracked. His wristed and knuckles ached from the strain of holding up the entire weight of the castle as he’d steered it. He was alive, obviously, but – Jesus. Being alive sucked.

“Sound off,” croaked Shiro from somewhere left of him.

“Ugh,” groaned Pidge. “Screw you, Keith, I hate it when you drive.”

“Next time I’ll be sure to let us crash,” Keith responded flatly.

“Um, you did, bozo, I asked you to land us –”

“The castle was dead! What did you expect me to –”

“Allura and I are both fine,” Hunk interrupted. Amusement lined his voice. “She’s still out, but she’s breathing fine, and I didn’t let her hit anything on impact. She should still get checked out, though.”

“Roger that,” Coran agreed. “Ease your worries, Number Two, you did well. I will have her in the MedBay as soon as our systems are up and running again.”

“Oh, whew, that’s a relief, because I didn’t want to say anything but she kinda jammed her elbow into my sternum by accident and I’m not blaming her or anything since she’s unconscious but I think my spleen may be a little dead, not a huge deal I’m sure but –”

“Everyone quiet!” barked Shiro. “That’s six accounted for! Who’s missing?”

Immediately, heart pounding, Keith whipped to his right. His stomach dropped. The Blue Lion Command Chair was empty – seatbelt torn somewhere on the shoulder, cracked helmet overturned carelessly on the seat. The crisp blue and white lines were marred by a small splash of red. Panic clawed its way up Keith’s throat, and he was out of his seat before he could register unbuckling his own straps, looking frantically around the bridge. 

“He’s here somewhere,” Pidge fretted, “he couldn’t’ve just disappeared –” 

Coran had a gloved hand clenched in his hair. “The windows and walls should be almost impenetrable, there is no way the crash broke them enough to let someone in –”

“What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck –”

“Guys,” a soft voice interrupted, and Keith could’ve collapsed with relief. The castle has been flipped sideways during the fall, floor suddenly now 90 degrees, and standing at the side of the control board, now the very high top, was Lance. For whatever reason he had climbed it while they bickered, and now stood very still, gloved hand pressed to the glass of the windshield. Blood trickled from his temple, tracing a line down the side of his face, disappearing in the neckline of his armour. “We got company.”

Shifting gears – Keith was about to tear him a new one, when Shiro says sound off you sound off – but froze when he looked out the window, following Lance’s gaze.

Marching towards them, in numbers Keith couldn’t pretend to count, was an army.

— — —

part two