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voltrontranscript · 4 years ago

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VLD S8E1: Launch Date

Season 8 Episode 1: Launch Date

Transcript by @dragonofyang

Summary: It’s the final day on Earth before the protagonists launch back into space on the IGF-Atlas to face the Galra. Lance has a big question for Allura, and the Altean pilot Luca provides more questions than answers.

[Google Doc]

DOTU Pidge: Hold it, I’m getting all shook up!

Pidge: I don’t really sound like that, do I, Bae Bae?

[Cut to the medbay where Luca is surrounded by medics, as Allura observes through a window.]

Romelle: You know, back on the colony, Luca and I didn’t always get along. But despite that, I always respected Luca. She had an inner strength that many did not and a desire to be a part of something greater than herself.

Allura: If she was so desperate for something to believe in, it may have made her susceptible to being manipulated.

[Cut to the Garrison kitchens.]

Hunk: Alright, that’s all of it.

Hunk’s Mother: Here’s all our family recipes. And this is something special just for you.

Hunk: Banana cake! Mom, you’re the best!

Hunk’s Mother: Well, your father and I are just so proud of you, saving the universe and all. We love you.

Hunk: Launching tomorrow. The big day. It seems like it was forever ago when we piled into the Blue Lion and blasted out into space. Man, we had no idea what we were getting into!

Lance: Yeah.

Hunk: But, now it’s different. We’ve seen it all. We’re rugged veterans now, going back into battle one last time.

Lance: Mm, yup.

Hunk: Guess that makes us heroes or something? Like the type of heroes that would have their own TV show! Did you watch it, Lance? Ah, it’s so cool! It’s so cool. They got you spot-on, but Coran is like, he’s all super-serious and stuff. And Allura is a little… I don’t know, she’s different. Keith is friendly! He’s happy all the time. I mean, they got it so wrong. Plus, I think they’re hinting at some romance between him and Allura.

Lance: What?! Keith and Allura? No, it should be Lance and Allura!

Hunk: Ooh, a love triangle. I like where you’re taking this.

Lance: No, no. It’s not about that.

Hunk: Wait, that’s right. You said you were gonna ask Allura on a date. You asked her, didn’t you? Oh, and she said no. Oh. Oh, man. Here I am, rubbing your face in it.

Lance: She didn’t say no. I… Well, I never asked her.

Hunk: You chickened out?

Lance: I was going to ask her, but she’s been spending, like, every day in the med bay. Maybe… Maybe this just isn’t the right time.

Hunk: No, Lance. What? It’s the only time. After tomorrow, we’re back out in space fighting the Galra. There is no other time, literally. You’re asking her today, and that is final, young man.

[Scene change to a large meeting hall.]

Shiro: Everyone, welcome to our final briefing here on Earth. It’s been several months since we began to rebuild, and tomorrow we launch and continue our liberation efforts across all planets still under Galra rule. Commander Holt, what’s the latest from your team?

Sam: We’ve confirmed that there’s still no Galra activity within several galaxies of the Milky Way. It appears Earth was Sendak’s only target.

Shiro: Where are we with Earth’s defenses?

Keith: I finished my check-in with all the garrison facilities around the globe. All defenses are up and running. Earth has everything in place to keep itself safe.

Shiro: Great. And Atlas preparations?

Veronica: Repairs to the IGF-Atlas were completed early last week and it has since passed every test protocol we’ve put it through.

Shiro: Good. Any updates on the Altean pilot?

Allura: Still unresponsive, but she could wake any day now. Perhaps if we had a little more time, we could find out who sent her.

Keith: There’s no way to know when or if she’ll regain consciousness. We can’t wait any longer. We need to get back out there and end this war before the Galra can reorganize.

Shiro: Keith’s right. We’ll be in constant communication with Earth. When the Altean wakes up we’ll know. I have one more item to discuss. It’s our last night on Earth and we’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us. We may not be back home for years. So I’m ordering you: take some time for yourselves. Be with the ones you love. You’ve earned it.

[Scene change to the hallway outside the meeting room.]

Lance: Hey, uh, Allura?

Allura: What is it, Lance?

Lance: Oh, nothing much. Just, uh, checking in. So, how are things?

Allura: I’m sorry, but I really need to be getting back.

Lance: Oh, right, yeah. Okay. Um, w-well, I don’t want to keep you, so… Oh! Uh, actually, I was wondering if--maybe, if you want to, you could have dinner with me tonight? A-and my family? Dinner with me and my family? My mom’s cooking for our last night together. I… I just thought you could join us.

Allura: That sounds wonderful, but I can’t.

Romelle: Allura, I know you’re worried about Luca, but we’re worried about you. It’ll be good to get away for a night and clear your head.

Lance: Right, yeah, all that stuff she’s saying. Totally.

Allura: Perhaps dinner would be nice. I’d love to.

Lance: Really? Awesome! Dinner tonight. Us. Yes.

Hunk: Okay, Loverboy Lance. Now walk away before she changes her mind.

[Scene change to the green room on the IGF-Atlas.]

Allura: Pidge, do you have a moment?

Pidge: Sure. What’s up?

Allura: Well, you see, I, um… I have a--

Romelle: She has a date… with pointy chin! Where are proper courting vestments obtained on your planet?

Pidge: Wait. A date? With Lance? Weird.

Allura: I was hoping you might be able to accompany me as I choose my proper attire in accordance to Earth’s custom.

Colleen: Katie? Fashion? That’s a good one.

Pidge: Well, I heard the mall has reopened. I’ve been wanting to check it out, but I’m grounded.

Romelle: Grounded? Oh, I wasn’t aware humans could float.

Pidge: No, no. It just means I’m not allowed to leave my mom’s supervision. It’s a form of punishment.

Allura: What are you grounded for?

Colleen: She’s grounded because apparently my daughter thinks that running away from home and gallivanting off into space without her mother’s permission is an acceptable activity for a fifteen-year-old.

Pidge: Well, apparently, finding my brother and saving my father [voice distorting] from an intergalactic tyrant doesn’t get me a pass!

Colleen: [voice distorting] Not on your life, young lady.

Allura: Please, Colleen, I could really use her help.

Romelle: We will not let her leave the ground once.

Colleen: Alright. But only because I know how much Katie hates shopping for clothing.

Allura: Thank you.

[Scene change to the med bay where Luca is kept.]

Sam: What is it?

Doctor: She’s stabilized, but we need to be careful about how we proceed.

[Scene change to Earth’s mall.]

Rizavi: Okay, Operation “Find Allura a Date Outfit” is go. We’re gonna take it one store at a time ‘til we come out of this place successful. Let the hunt begin! I love shopping. Don’t you, Ina?

Ina: It’s a primal urge from when collecting and gathering was a means of survival.

Rizavi: It just calms me, like skydiving. Now, come on, I’m gonna shop this mall so hard.

Pidge: Killbot Phantasm 26: Revengifiance! This is out?

Rizavi: Oh my gosh! It came out a few days before the Galra invaded. No one was ever able to reach the end.

Vendor: That’s right. I have one of the few undamaged units left.

Pidge and Rizavi: We’ll take it!

Vendor: Okay. Great to meet such passionate KBP fans. What have you got to trade?

Pidge: Trade? I, uh… I don’t really have anything.

Vendor: I’m sorry, but no trade, no game.

Rizavi: Well, that’s some way to treat a Paladin of Voltron.

Vendor: Wait what? You mean, like, from the show?

Pidge: Show? Well, kind of. It was based off me.

Vendor: My kid loves that show. The game is yours if I could just get an autograph for my daughter.

Pidge: [DOTU Pidge impression] Sure thing! Anything for the kids!

Pidge: [normal voice] Ah! Ooh?

Pidge: [DOTU Pidge impression] What?

Pidge: [high-pitched] You got it, chief! Far out!

[Scene change to Lance in a residential hallway.]

Coran: Yes? Oh, Lance! To what do I owe this visit?

Lance: Hey, Coran. I wanted to ask you about Allura.

Coran: Sure. What is it? No one knows her better than I do. Except for maybe the mice. They do have a telepathic connection to her, which seems like cheating to me.

Lance: Right, yeah. Well, I’m going on a date with her tonight and--

Coran: What?! But you’re not even royalty! Or Altean! And you’re definitely not Altean royalty!

Lance: Whoa, Coran! Chill! I don’t think Allura even cares about stuff like that.

Coran: It’s not just about Allura. Did you even acquire permission from her primary guardian?

Lance: Well, who’s that?

Coran: Well, let’s see. Ah, me! Now, count to zingor, then knock.

Lance: But, Allura already said… Ugh!

Coran: Ah, Lance. Please, have a seat. Exactly what makes you think you’re qualified for such a prestigious position? For example, who are your references?

Lance: Position? References? What are you talking about?

Coran: You see, I’ll need at least two notarized certificates of commendation speaking of your greatness from reliable sources before I’ll even consider giving you my approval. And you must do something about that outfit. Altean courting vestments are essential. Seeing as we’re not on Altea, we’ll just have to make do.

[Scene change back to the mall.]

Rizavi: Oh, I’ve got a good feeling about this place. Allura, leave this to us. Ladies, divide and conquer!

Rizavi: I think we’ve done it.

Unilu Shopkeeper: Well, hello there. Is this everything?

Rizavi: Yep. Mission complete.

Unilu Shopkeeper: Let’s see, what have we got? A decorative tarp with casing, one foot container and its mirror match, and some miniature chain binding. That’ll be one phoeb of servitude from your small friend there.

Rizavi: What? A year?

Pidge: A month. I got this. [DOTU Pidge impression] How about you give us all this and I give you an autograph from a world-famous Paladin of Voltron?

Unilu Shopkeeper: No! Price just went up to three phoebs.

Allura: I could give you a royal decree of service from the Crown Princess of Alte… oh, right, I, um…

Romelle: I could bake you a decaphoeb’s worth of blomfruit pies. I just need blomfruits. You wouldn’t happen to sell any, would you?

Unilu Shopkeeper: Shipping will cost you ten phoebs of servitude alone.

Allura: Perhaps this was a bad idea. I don’t need the dress. Let’s just go.

Unilu Shopkeeper: Wait! I’ll give you a friendly deal. You can have this for Killbot Phantasm 26: Revengifiance.

Rizavi: No deal! What could you possibly need it for?

Unilu Shopkeeper: I’ve been looking to get my claws on that game for decaphoebs. I’m a huge KBP fan.

Rizavi: Mm-mm, sorry. No can do. I’ve waited three years to get to the end of this game.

Pidge: Fine, you can have it. We don’t have any time to play it, anyway.

Allura: Thank you, Pidge.

[Scene change back to the med bay.]

Sam: She’s stabilized, but she won’t speak to any of the doctors. I was hoping a familiar face might put her at ease. Maybe Romelle can help.

Coran: I’ll see if I can find her.

[Scene change to Black Lion overlooking the sunset.]

Lance: Man, you can be a real hard guy to find when you wanna be.

Keith: Hey, Lance. Whoa! What are you wearing?

Lance: Coran made it for me for my date with Allura.

Keith: A date with Allura? Wow! Well done, Lance.

Lance: Thanks, but it could be our last. I can’t keep all these Altean customs straight.

Keith: Listen, if she’s going out with you, it’s because she likes you. The annoying, stupid, Earth version of you.

Lance: You watching the sun set?

Keith: Yeah. Might be a while before we get to see it again.

Lance: Man, I’m really gonna miss this place.

Keith: That’s why we’ve gotta end this war. And we’re gonna do it with the Lance that’s the Paladin of the Red Lion. The Lance that’s always got my back. And the Lance who knows exactly who he is and what he’s got to offer.

[Scene change to Allura at Lance’s family home.]

Lance’s Mom: Come in, come in, my dear! Oh, you look wonderful! Doesn’t she look wonderful, Lance?

Lance: Wow. You look amazing.

Allura: Thank you. You look nice, too.

Lance: Well, it’s no Altean vestments, but...

Allura: Imagine you in a Forlongian brill hat.

Lance: Oh, Allura, this is my mom, and Pop-pop. You know Veronica. That’s Rachel, my brother Marco, other brother Luis, his wife Lisa, and their kids Silvio and Nadia.

[Scene change to the middle of dinner with Lance’s family.]

Marco: ...or the time when we were kids and Veronica mixed dirt with water and told Lance it was chocolate milk.

Veronica: Oh, yeah! I still can’t believe he fell for it.

Allura: What did he do?

Veronica: He told on me, of course. Then, Pop-pop gave him ice cream and I got none.

Marco: Yeah, Lance was always the baby of the family. It only took you coming to dinner to finally graduate him to the adult table.

Veronica: Speaking of dates, maybe you can put in a good word for me with that long-haired friend of yours, hm?

Lance: What, Keith?! No, no, no, no, no! No way. No.

Lance’s Mom: Lance never brings girls home. You must really mean something to him.

Allura: That’s strange. He always gave off the impression of being rather popular with women.

Lance’s Mom: Oh, he gets that from his father. It’s all talk, but if you can get past that, you’ll find a good boy with a big heart.

Veronica: A toast to family. Though we may be apart after tomorrow, we’ll always remain close at heart. Family is forever.

All: To family!

[Scene change to the med bay.]

Romelle: I’m so glad to see you’re alright, Luca. We can help. What happened to you? Where’s the colony?

Luca: So you can betray them yet again?

Romelle: What?

Luca: You abandoned us, Romelle. And for the Paladins of Voltron, the very ones who killed our savior, Lotor.

Romelle: No, it’s not like that!

Luca: You’ve sided with the great destroyers! She told us of their lies. She’s going to fix it all. She’ll reunite us with Lotor, with Altea. You don’t stand a chance against Honerva--

[Scene change to Lance and Allura walking along a park full of dead trees.]

Lance: This place used to be so beautiful.

Allura: It’s all my fault the Galra did this to your home.

Lance: No, it’s not your fault. Besides, meeting you is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Allura: When we were out there fighting against the Galra, I somehow felt like… like we were a family. Each of us was alone, but we were alone together. But now, here on Earth, I see that everyone already has a family and a home to return to once the war is over. Everyone except me. And for the first time, I feel uncertain about what my future holds. It’s silly, I used to think that the team relied on me. That I needed to be strong for everyone else. But now I see it was I that needed all of you. You are my strength.

Lance: Allura, you are not alone, and if I have anything to say about it, you’ll never be alone. I--I don’t care if this is only our first date. I… Allura, I love you. I have for a long time. I wanna be your family. Earth can be your home, or anywhere you wanna go. It doesn’t matter. I would follow you across the universe.

Allura: You truly feel that way?

Lance: With all my heart.

Lance: I think he wants us to smile.

[Scene change to the meeting room, this time only with Allura, Coran, Shiro, and Romelle.]

Allura: If Honerva sent that beast, then our mission must change.

Shiro: No, we have a plan and we need to stick to it. If Honerva’s really behind this, then I’m sure we’ll find her along the way.

Allura: Or she’ll find us.

[Scene transition to the outdoors, where the IGF-Atlas stands before a crowd of people.]

Sam: This will be perhaps the most defining moment in our history. The day humankind reaches beyond its home world to help the immense universe of which we inhabit such a small part.

Keith: In the blink of an eye, the world as we knew it became much larger than we’d ever thought possible. And now we rise up to join the fight alongside so many others different from us, but of like minds, to stand firm in the face of tyranny.

Allura: For all deserve to decide their own future as we have decided to spend ours ensuring the freedom of the universe.

Shiro: Each and every one of you has given something to this fight. Many have been lost, but not in vain because through their sacrifice, many more will live on. I make you this promise now. We will return triumphant.

End.

#vld #voltron #transcript #coran #allura #keith #hunk #lance #shiro #luca #pidge #romelle #sam holt #colleen holt #nadia rizavi #ina leifsdottir #veronica #marco

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dammitadolfnomorecake · 4 years ago

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Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt.9

Sipping his glass of wine, Lance sat at his dining table. Poor Hunk had been overwhelmed in making sure every detail of the meal was perfect for Shay. Pidge had driven Shay out to his house, she’d immediately started complaining that her security system was offline, and had left to fulfil her quest in getting it back up and running. Shay was in the living room with Hunk, Lance volunteering Hunk to give Shay the grand tour of his house. Lance was left with Shiro for company, his eyes trained on the man’s back as Shiro kept checking his chicken soup. With everyone there, it seemed pointless to go ahead and feed Keith separately. Shiro was making his brother socialise, probably to make sure he didn’t expire from being a baby. Lance had the feeling he’d missed something between Keith and Shiro, their bond deep, but Keith seemed off. Like he hadn’t expected Shiro to take mercy on his undead arse. Did it have something to do with Shiro’s nose? There was definitely a story there.

“Lance, I can feel your eyes on me”

“What happened to your face?”

Whoops. That slipped out, zero filter between his mouth and mind

“Is that something that interests you?”

“If I’m honest, I’m more curious than interested. I’m also curious as to why you’re acting the way you are”

“Patience yields focus. I learned that the hard way, and got this scar for using my heart instead of my head”

Lance sighed. Matters of the heart were always complicated

“Before you continue, I’ve got a confession. I’ve never been in love, let alone had a partner. I can’t offer any advice there, but I can listen”

Shiro glanced over his shoulder

“You’ve never...”

“Nope...”

Lance popped the “p”, Shiro was listening to him, so he may as well admit his lameness out loud

“... I never wanted to take the risk. Being what I am is a curse. I never fed from a human and I never slept with one either. I guess it’s stupid, but I always maybe hoped that one day I’d have that kind of love, but I refuse to risk ruining someone’s life like mine was. You know?”

“I do. This isn’t that kind of love. I had a friend who got himself in trouble. He met a girl and fell in love, she was a werewolf, and Matt wouldn’t leave her to her fate. He was the one who introduced me to this world. It’s funny, when I was about your age we came through Garrison. Me, Matt, and his father. Back then the mobile coverage was poor, we ended up out of contact for a week... Matt’s mother and his little sister really laid into us when we got back”

Any mother would. Who just went missing for a week, and why the heck hadn’t the father called through on a pay phone on the way? Talk about irresponsible

“Shiro, I’m sorry to say, I’m older than you. I’m not 18, and I’m not 26”

“Right. Sorry. I forget that. There’s a lot of things about you that remind me of Keith”

“You said Keith had been through something. Was it to do with your friend?”

“No... No, that one’s a little closer to home. I had a partner, and it didn’t end well”

“Oh”

Talk about being insensitive. Lance felt he should be apologising for whatever had happened to Shiro’s partner. Clearly it wasn’t something good.

“I left him for a hunt, he was killed while I was away. Keith didn’t take it well. He had a hard life, but don’t hold that against him”

“He seems a little high strung”

“You have no idea. He carries the weight of sins that weren’t his to carry”

“Them feels right there. Shiro, can I ask you something?”

“You haven’t already?”

Lance bit his lip, looking down at his hands. The question he wanted to ask seemed like too big of a favour. No. He’d ask Coran, but Coran was bound by as many rules and laws as Shiro was

“Never mind. It’s fine. Just... your friend, Matt... he was really lucky to meet you. Living on outside... it’s hard. I’m sure having a friend he could count on helped”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. She bit him, turned him, and left. The last thing I heard he was travelling to find himself and find a cure”

“And her?”

“He said she didn’t mean to turn him. She left him with her heart broken, breaking his as she went. I don’t know her well enough to pass judgement. Like a vampire’s bite turns a person, a single scratch from a werewolf can too”

Lance shook his head. A bite maybe, with saliva, a scratch not so much

“I’ve met werewolves. It’s all about the blood. Your friend would have had to ingest her blood... I think. I try to avoid werewolves. It’s not my business to say anything. Sorry, just forget that I mentioned it”

“You’re trying to understand”

“It’s been 36 years and I still don’t. We should start setting the table. The others will be back soon”

“Need help?”

Lance raised an eyebrow. Shiro seemed semi domesticated, he’d probably had a hundred fancy dinners back with the other Blades

“You know how to set a table?”

“I know how to imitate setting a table. I do get a bit confused with all the fancy knives and forks”

“That’s easy, you start from the outside in. I bet Keith’s all like “I only need one knife and one fork, let me eat like a Barbarian”

Shiro chuckled

“Pretty much. I don’t think he’d use cutlery if he could get away with it”

“Great. He’s a cave man with a mullet. Fantastic”

Keith was coaxed out his room by Shiro, sullenly sitting across the table from Lance on the opposing end. Shiro seated beside Pidge, with Hunk and Shay sitting on the opposite side. Dinners at his house were always loud events. Pidge had piled her plate high, armed with a just a fork like the heathen she was, she was all smiles. She’d really taken a liking to Shiro, maybe because she was talking the man’s ear off

“I never thought you’d be here again. It’s a good thing you left your camera here. Anywhere else and it probably would have grown legs and walked”

Shiro laughed as he grabbed himself a bread roll

“Hunk said the same. We’re lucky Lance is such an inviting host. Normally we’re too busy to sit down for dinner like this”

Stuffing her face with lettuce, Pidge nodded, the bond between her and Shiro already felt like two siblings reuniting.

Chewing quickly, Pidge was stabbing at her stuffed potato before she swallowed her lettuce. For someone who required oxygen, she seemed to forget that with the speed at which she ate

“Yep. Hunk’s got mad kitchen skills. Lance isn’t bad. Don’t tell my parents, but dinner here is much better than home”

“Speaking of your parents, what do they do?”

“Mum and dad are both professors in Platt. Mum insists on big family dinners, Italian background and all that. I don’t know why though, since my brother took off, it’s just the three of us at home for them”

Shiro nodded along as she spoke

“So you have a brother?”

“Yep. His names Matt. Matthew Holt if mum’s in a mood. Full names always mean trouble. He’s been backpacking through Europe. Apparently he’s too good to contact us now”

Shiro choked hard on the piece of bread he’d just popped in his mouth. Quickly washing it down with his beer, Lance observed the very obvious change in his demeanour

“Matthew Holt... hang on, are you Katie?”

It was Pidge’s turn to choke. No one but Pidge’s mother ever called her Katie

“How do you know that?”

“I know your brother. I’m Shiro. Takashi Shirogane”

Pidge’s eyes went so wide it was comical, gaping at the man sitting next to her

“You’re Shiro! Holy fucking shit! No way!”

Across the table, Hunk looked to Lance, then to Shiro, then to Pidge, then to Shiro again

“Care to share?”

“Shiro was Matt’s best friend. Do you remember that road trip I told you about? Where Matt and dad totally went missing, Shiro was there too! Holy shit, man! It’s been... what? 5 years?

For Lance the revelation made his stomach drop. Matt... Matt as in Pidge’s Matt, was a werewolf. A turned werewolf. A turned werewolf that was distancing himself from his family in the hopes of a cure...

“8, since I last saw you”

Pidge let out a whistle

“Holy shit. Does Matt know you’re here? Like, in town? Dude, they were like besties in high school. Shiro and Matt were always off chasing ghosts, they wouldn’t take me with them though”

“We never did find any proof”

Dirty rotten liar. Shiro never should have said he knew Matt. He should understand what it mean to have someone that wasn’t human in the family, someone naive enough to think there could be a possible cure out there. “Everything on the planet had been gifted by God. Everything on the planet had a cure waiting to be found. It was through God that all things were made possible”. His Mami had told him that, she didn’t have an answer as to if God still loved him. A naive child’s question. Pidge pushed her chest out, sitting a little prouder

“That’s because you didn’t have me. Seriously, have you heard from him? It’s like he’s dropped off the face of the planet. He said he was going to Rome, but that was weeks ago”

“I haven’t heard from him in a little while either. I never thought the little Katie I remember in dresses would be you”

“I never thought Matt’s best friend would be showing up with a scar across his face! Mum would flip her lid if she saw that”

“Would you believe it came from fighting a werewolf?”

Pidge laughed openly

“Only if you believe I’m a ghoul, come to feast on your flesh!”

“I’ll keep that in mind. So, now I know about Pidge, what about you, Hunk? How goes the world of a paranormal investigator?”

Hunk was too busy making “lovey“ eyes at Shay. Pidge happy to continue talking to Shiro

“Hunk’s my wingman. It’s awesome because his dad lets us use the welding gear at the garage. We don’t have the money to buy all the fancy equipment so we build what we can”

“Really? What out of?”

“Car scraps mostly...”

“You do know ghosts are repelled by iron...”

Pidge gaped at Shiro, Lance wished he’d stop feeding her curiosity in the subject

“That are? I read that was a myth”

“Yep. Iron. Have you done any road trips cryptid hunting?”

“Yep! Mothman was a must. We did that one the first year of college. Lance was the only one with his own car at the time. Took us days to get out there, then he got bogged. We did the whole Sasquatch thing too. Not to shoot it, because that’d totally be a dick move, but to take a look around. I keep trying to tell Lance he needs to open his mind and believe more. I mean, even the bible references spirits and tells us no to play with them. And God admits he’s not the only god out there... There’s so many myths and legends, they all have to come from somewhere. But there’s also soooooo much crap out there, and then there’s mistranslations, and people interpreting things their own way... I just wanna hunt ghosts”

“Oh, no. You went and set her off, Shiro”

Shay giggled, Pidge shooting her a dirty look

“You’re supposed to be on my side”

“I am. I’m just saying that there’s no way a whole other world could exist just beyond our fingertips. If there was, science would have proven it. They say all these psychic videos exist that prove people like that exist, but, like, where’s the videos? Why are they hushing it up if it’s the next stage of human evolution. I think it’s even harder these days. The lines have been blurred with cultural misappropriation, and dumb people only wanting to steal stuff because they’re greedy morons. Like, if you’re not Native American, you can’t sage a room, and you shouldn’t be making and labelling any old thing a dreamcatcher, you dig?”

Lance nodded at Shay. In an ever changing world, some things remained. Like stupid people were always going to be stupid

“It’s always the quiet types. They open their mouths and out comes something unexpected”

“I happen to like the way Shay thinks”

Hunk jumped to Shay’s defence like he thought Pidge was insulting her, not impressed and pleased with Shay’s answer

“Aw, I like the way you think too, babe”

Shay winked at Hunk, who went bright red

“T-Thanks”

“You’re welcome. Tell me more about the work you guys do. I’ve always kind of wanted to see it first hand. Do you use a ouija board?”

“Nope. Those things are dangerous we fuck. You can’t control what you reach, nor can you send them back safely. We like to go in and record. See, if a spirit reacts right away, it means they want you out of there like ASAP. Most spirits hide themselves, that’s why you don’t get good readings. I mean, like, if a stranger rocked up at your house, you’re gonna wanna hide from them, am I right?”

“I guess?”

Pidge beamed, before launching into further details about her thoughts on the paranormal world. Lance felt sick. His stomach somewhere near his toes. Shiro had burdened him with a secret he shouldn’t have known. Pidge loved Matt but Matt was no longer the man she loved. She was so eager to be part of that world, she’d let herself be bitten if she ever knew the truth. Matt was doing all he could to keep his family safe from by staying away. He knew those feelings too well, and the internal wounds of being turned felt like as fresh as they did that day. He could almost feel the fangs on his flesh, here the laughter as blood was drizzled into his mouth. Waves of pain so intense they crushed the pain of his sires beating the shit out of him for fun. He’d screamed and begged, cried for his Mami and Papi, only to be openly laughed at. His stomach heaved, vomit barely swallowed back down. Pidge’s voice seemed to echo around his aching head as if she was equiped with a microphone and a thousand speakers.

“Lance, buddy, you okay?”

Smile. He had to smile. This was Hunk and Shay’s night. They were finally going to start dating. Absolutely nothing could go wrong. He smiled at Hunk, picking his wine glass up in what he hoped was a casual move

“Sure, just a bit tired from this flu”

Lance hoped he was smiling enough. His complexion was most probably horrid. He should have slapped a layer on foundation on to give him a much healthier glow

“Are you sure? You’ve gone really white”

“Buddy, light of my life, brother from another mother, I swear you worry far too much about little old me. I’m okay. Honestly I started zoning out as Pidge got carried away with her theories again”

Beneath the table, Pidge kicked him in the ankle

“Rude, much? Shiro’s interested, aren’t you Shiro?”

Shiro scratched the back of his head

“Totally. But, you lost me when you switched to alien encounters”

Pidge wrinkled her face up in annoyance, the pout was strong as she crossed her arms

“You all suck. Except for you Shay”

Shay giggled

“I know, I’m awesomeness embodied”

“You’ve got that right”

Hunk clamped a hand over his face, blushing beet red. Shay giggled again, leaning in and kissing him on the cheek

“I can always count on you, Hunk. So, Lance, have you got any embarrassing stories about these two you can share?”

“Well, the first thing that comes to mind is when we went hunting Mothman...”

Pidge shot forward in her seat

“Don’t you dare!”

“It’s more cute than embarrassing...”

“Lance, I swear I’ll stab you in the eyeball if you keep going”

Shay threw her head back as she laughed. Lance locked eyes with Pidge

“See, Pidge was super excited. So excited that she...”

Pidge raised her knife, Lance holding his hands up in surrender

“I guess I better not finish that”

Pidge had been so excited that she’s gone running off, slipped in a puddle, fallen face first in the mud with her beloved video camera. She’d been so pumped for the trip she’d packed everything but clothes. They’d had to buy really lame gimmicky clothes from the closest service station which had swum on her small frame

“Good boy”

“Damn, Lance. She’s got you trained”

Lance nodded at Shay

“Our little gremlin here can be pretty intimidating when she wants to be”

“I’ll bet”

“You should see her when she hasn’t had her morning coffee”

“I can imagine the horror”

“I don’t think you can. It’s like Satan has risen from the depths of hell to possess her”

Shay kept laughing, Hunk was so smitten with her that Lance wanted to grab them both by the backs of their heads and make them kiss

“Oh no!”

Pidge blew a raspberry at him, not enjoying his teasing

“Merp!”

“Merp, yourself. You know you’re not the greatest person ever in the morning, but we all love you just the way you are”

“I hate you. Why do I hang out with you again?”

“Because you need someone who can drive and lug all your junk around”

Pidge sighed dramatically

“Dammit. Stupid fine print. You know, I can’t deny that”

“Yep. Guess you’re stuck with me”

“Until your uses run out”

Lance pouted, clutching at his chest

“I’m wounded. Years of devoted friendship and this is how you treat me”

“Gotta be mean and keep’em keen”

“Don’t think I won’t remember this. To very last breath I’ll remember how you wounded me”

Pidge snorted with laughter, he loved it when she finally cracked. It was worth all the teasing

“You’re suck a dork”

Lance shot her finger guns, not feeling the least bit better internally

“Takes one to know one”

#once bitten twice stupid #vld #vld au #mpreg mentions in further chapter #vampire Lance #dumarse keith

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nellie-elizabeth · 5 years ago

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Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Manhunter/Captain Kim (7x01/02)

This really should be split into two different reviews, but I am lazy so here we are. Let's dive in!

Cons:

The first episode this week featured a subplot where Amy thought she might be pregnant. I know it's just a one-off thing in terms of episode composition, but it bothered me that in the premiere of the season, Rosa and Amy's plot thread was them standing around and talking about pregnancy. They didn't really have much else to do, which was a bummer and a slightly weak opening for these two characters.

Terry had the least to do of any character, in both of these episodes. In the first, he's paranoid that other people are talking about him, and in the second, he's talking up his daughters to someone involved in a good school he wants to get them into, and then avoiding a caterer who he thinks is trying to poison him for putting him in prison years ago. Even this slightly more exciting plot thread didn't really provide much for him to do. This is just the start of the season; I'm sure he'll have plenty in the coming weeks... but I thought I'd point it out!

The first episode, "Manhunter," started with the news that there was an attempted assassination, but despite the supposedly high stakes, the whole thing devolves into a story about Holt and Jake finding a new balance after Holt's demotion. That's a lovely story to tell, but it kind of sucked the urgency out of the whole "assassination" thing.

Pros:

I absolutely loved the guest character Debbie, Holt's partner now that he's a beat cop for a year. She was so funny - I loved that she was totally content and indeed relieved to be given pointless tasks, and relegated to "cone duty." Her whole story kept unfolding as the episode went on, in absurd and funny moments. After spending time with this bubbly and slightly incompetent woman, who's obsessed with a pedometer app, she suddenly declares that the reason she became a cop was to find her twin sister's killer... and later randomly lets everyone know that it's her birthday. She was hilarious and kind of relatable too. I'll admit there have been times at work when I too would be okay with being given unimportant tasks instead of anything too urgent!

I also really liked the Jake and Holt dynamic in this first episode, as Jake of course respects and loves Holt, but at the same time, doesn't want him stealing his thunder on this case. It's awkward to suddenly be the "boss" of your former Captain, and I think they play with that tension very well. Especially the conclusion, wherein Holt is right about the case for the most part, but Jake and the others still have to come in and save the day. Holt then apologizes for disrespecting Jake's authority, while Jake acknowledges that it's going to be a little strange to get used to their new situation. That was a good balance, wherein both men were able to communicate openly!

Despite wishing Rosa and Amy had maybe a little bit more to do, I did enjoy the beginning of the "Jake and Amy start a family" story-line. A pregnancy scare leads Amy and Jake to contemplate whether it might be time to start trying for real, and they decide that it is. I liked this because it shows real growth for both characters. Amy, the meticulous planner, is willing to let her schedule fall by the wayside and start letting things happen as they may. And Jake, who has been afraid of being a father, doesn't have a relapse or freak out at the thought of Amy becoming pregnant. I love this adorable couple and want the best for them!

The second episode I found to be stronger than the first. A new captain has shown up, and Jake and Holt are both suspicious of Captain Kim. They think she must be working to bring them down from the inside. While the rest of the precinct is taken in by Kim's kindness and the effort she takes to get to know them, Holt and Jake refuse to be swayed. They hunt for clues at a party Kim throws at her house, and end up releasing her pet dog from a locked room, which causes chaos. Turns out, Kim did actually have good intentions. She wanted to be a captain at the Nine-Nine because Holt is her hero, overcoming so much to become captain. In the end, though, she realizes she'll always feel like an interloper, and decides to leave. Because of Jake and Holt's meddling, they've lost a great captain who was planning on stepping gracefully away at the end of the year to let Holt come back!

I was really glad there wasn't some twist with Kim, that she really was a good person who just wanted to get to know them and work with them. Of course, that wouldn't bring very much drama moving forward, so now we're going to have to see what comes next for the precinct!

While the first episode had Holt and Jake at odds, the second episode had them teaming up to investigate Kim, each having their own reasons for suspecting her. I love the two of them as scene partners; they work so well playing opposite each other, and also being allies. They rile each other up in the best ways. I think my favorite Holt moment was when he's seeking motivation for being drunk and destructive at the party, and lists a few possibilities - a fight with Kevin, something happening to Cheddar, and then lands on a scenario wherein he's been demoted and he feels rejected and abandoned by his chosen family... he and Jake agree that this last scenario seems like a good idea!

My favorite comedic exchange actually goes to Jake and Amy though, right towards the end. As Jake recounts his step-daddy issues, he recalls that the two separate men who dated and cheated on his mother had been limo drivers. The following exchange takes place:

Jake: "*gasp*! The problem is with limo drivers!"

Amy: "Babe, it's not."

Jake: "It's not?"

Amy: "No."

Jake: "Okay thanks, I love you."

It's just such a casual, familiar little routine. Jake gets a wild idea, Amy calmly rejects Jake's premise, and Jake, who trusts Amy's gut more than his own, thanks her for keeping him in check. Their dynamic is the best!

Boyle had funny subplots in both episodes. In the first, he decides to be Jake's sidekick on the case. While Jake is the "Manhunter," Boyle is the "Boyhunter." This obviously leads to hilarity, as he continually says things that sound oh so wrong. I just find it so charming how Boyle is okay with being the sidekick, and how he actually thrives in that role. He's the best.

The second episode hangs a lampshade on Boyle's "sidekick" status, however, having him gain confidence by wearing Rosa's leather jacket. He becomes a new "cooler" version of himself - Chuck Boyle. He has confidence with the ladies, struts around, and ends up calling Jake out on an unintentionally inappropriate comment, instead of the other way around. It's a fun switcharoo, and the resolution is lovely too. Boyle sacrifices his jacket to an insecure husband worried that his wife is going to leave him, and instantly his power is stripped from him, and he reverts to normal Charles. It's all silliness, but I really enjoyed it all the same. Boyle steps in to some more confident shoes, as it were, but he's not unhappy with the person he really is at the end of the day. (He does probably regret missing out on the chance to meet Sutton Foster, though... that made me laugh!)

There's more I could talk about here, but the first two episodes were pretty strong as they were! Some characters had less to do than others, especially Rosa and Terry. But I'm sure there will be chances further down the line for them to shine as well!

8/10

#review #brooklyn nine nine #brooklyn nine nine review #brooklyn 99 #brooklyn 99 review

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theclaravoyant · 5 years ago

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AN ~ This fic is called “Catharsis” not just on the characters’ behalves, but on mine. I am planning another more nuanced, narrative-integrated exploration of some of these themes but in the moment when I started writing this I kinda Went Off at biphobia. Kevin was the vessel for my protectiveness... and Julia Diaz unfortunately copped the unflattering role of Every I’m-Not-Homophobic-But person I’ve ever met. This is for you grandma :)))))

NOW ON AO3 (~2400wd)

Warnings: This fic has a happy/uplifting ending (*jake peralta voice* I CATHARTED) but it does deal with themes of homophobia and biphobia, including a reference to AIDS. If you would like to know more detail about the fic’s contents before diving in, message me and I’m happy to chat.

Prompt: 4. “I know you didn’t ask for this.”

Fandom: Brooklyn 99 - featuring Rosa Diaz, Kevin Cozner, Julia Diaz, Jake Peralta, with background Holt x Kevin and Rosa x Jocelyn.

Rated: T

Tags: Platonic Relationships, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Homophobia, Biphobia, AIDS reference.

Catharsis

“Rosa?”

She knew that voice. She ignored it.

“Rosa, mi niña…”

She glared at her report. Corrected a typo with an aggressive stab at the keyboard.

“Uh, excuse me, Detective Diaz?”

She gritted her teeth, and forced her lips into a wide twist on a hospitable smile. In an overly sweet tone that bristled for all to hear, she invited –

“Detective Peralta, can you assist Mrs Diaz please?”

“Uhh. Sure.”

Jake looked uncertainly between Rosa and her mother, but stepped forward. Rosa knew when she needed protecting and if this was one of those times then he would offer what he could. He couldn’t imagine what she was going through, after she and her mother had tried to talk about it again and had come to another explosive loggerhead. Still, he was not too sure of his place in all this. He wanted to give Julia a good scolding, but given that she was Rosa’s mother it probably wouldn’t be intimidating in the slightest by comparison. Plus, he had to remind himself, it was probably not his place. Rosa could scold her own mother. And now he was getting side-tracked.

“How can I help you, Mrs Diaz?”

Fortunately, the fact that Julia was still very keen on watching her daughter and apparently cared very little about Jake’s question, or presence at all, became side-tracked all on its own when the elevator doors opened and the newly-demoted Officer Holt arrived back from lunch with Kevin. It was not exactly a daily occurrence, but not irregular around these parts; still, the squad usually would have clamoured all over them for the day’s instalment of juicy wedding-planning gossip were it not for the never-before-seen Diaz family throwdown emanating a distracting amount of tension in the middle of the room.

At first the newcomers were unfazed, and Kevin opened the gate to the bull pen and gestured – with an arm full of flowers and a tiny but glowing smile - for Raymond to proceed him through. They would have happily continued in this distracted bliss, letting the team resolve whatever drama was going down, were it not for the fact that the lilies in Kevin’s arms and the slightest brush of his hand against Raymond’s arm as he passed made the two of them suddenly relevant to said drama.

It started small, just a little – Jake would have had to call it a wince, from Julia. She kind of, curled up her nose a bit, and Jake was reminded of the time he’d punched his former literary hero in the face.

Do not. Punch. Rosa’s. Mother, he commanded of himself, and of course he wasn’t going to, but after dinner and games night and the fight about Jocelyn and knowing the reason for no cop talk at parties and seeing how things like that sneer infected the lives of his friends, he couldn’t just stand there, and so it slipped out – his place or not -

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Julia baulked. “I just don’t think it’s appropriate for a workplace, that’s all.”

“What?” Jake frowned. Why did this keep surprising him?

“What?”

Rosa’s version was not so much confused, as cold. It was sharp – near ruthless. All the fear and pain and seething she had felt etched into her these past few months she spat into her words as she got up from her desk and stalked around it, closer to her mother.

“They’re coming back from a date,” she growled. “Kevin is Holt’s husband. They’ve been together for thirty years.”

Julia at least had the sense to look impressed by this, which quelled the biting fury and the stinging sense of rejection inside Rosa, if only a little. She shouldn’t need to shove wholesome couple after wholesome couple down her mother’s throat for her to get it, but at least it was something. At least it was something. She swallowed, and prayed that this would be over quickly. Of course, it wouldn’t. Not least because the next thing her mother said made her want to start digging a pit to the centre of the earth and never return.

“Well, that makes sense, dear. They were probably the only two left.”

“Ex-cuse me?” Holt interjected.

“Mom, oh my god,” Rosa protested, her stomach churning.

“IIIII don’t understand enough about what’s going on here to be standing where I’m standing,” Jake babbled, because he’d somehow ended up in an uncomfortably prominent position in a very tense, angry circle of Strong Feelings. He scurried out of the way, back behind some desks, and half expected Holt and Rosa to leap into the space he’d left and go after Julia like it was some kind of cage match.

But no.

It was Kevin.

Cool, calm, collected Kevin who was just starting to bristle around the edges and who had a sharpness to his glare, and to his tongue, that anyone in the room besides perhaps Holt would be hard pressed to say they’d ever seen in him before. Jake had. When they were being hunted by Sean Murphy, and Kevin had been trying and failing to protect his husband.

“Excuse me,” he said. “Mrs – Diaz, is it?”

She knew she was in for something, but nodded.

“I’m sure you understand that I don’t appreciate your making light of my relationship,” he continued. “Nor of a very serious disease that took several of Raymond’s and my friends away from us a very young age. Many younger, if I may point out, than Detective Diaz there.”

“I’m so sorry,” Julia apologised, and it could not be said that any part of that was faked. She just hadn’t thought of it quite like that. But the thought of her little girl succumbing to such a horrible disease only made her throat close up and her fears feel more prickly and urgent and intense. “I didn’t mean any offence. You can’t choose who you are.”

“Perhaps not,” Kevin rebutted, “but if I could, I like to believe that I would choose Raymond every time, and he me.”

Julia blinked. “You wouldn’t want to have a family?”

“Raymond is my family.”

“But… wouldn’t it be easier… I mean, if you liked both, wouldn’t being with a woman be easier?”

“Not always. For example, not all women would feel comfortable with the fact that I also enjoyed the company of men.”

There was a beat of eye contact between them, and Julia cleared her throat.

“…Well,” she said, somewhat quieter this time. “You wouldn’t have to tell anyone.”

Rosa wrapped her arms around herself, under the guise of crossed arms. The mask of irritation she had put up began to crack as she replayed the argument with her mother in her mind. It was Jocelyn that her mother couldn’t take seriously; it was always she’s a nice girl, but, like Rosa failed to grasped the concept of settling down. It was always nice, always compliments, so it was hard to explain how much it hurt. Few people in the room knew how that felt. Jake, at least, took note of the tears that were starting to burn her eyes, and shuffled a little closer to her. He was still a whole desk away but somehow she breathed a little easier at that.

Then Kevin met her eyes.

He had been about to turn back; to retreat from a conversation that was deeply uncomfortable and that might not be his place. He wanted nothing more in this moment than to shut himself in Raymond’s office – or even better, their home – and forget he’d ever poked this particular bear.

Then, across the circle, he’d seen her.

He’d seen Rosa, and her arms across her chest, the sheen of tears in her eyes as she tried to look neither away from, nor directly at the scene in front of her.

In her, he saw himself, in church, as a boy. He saw himself, in class, as a student, learning about Achilles and Patroclus and knowing he couldn’t say what he was thinking. He saw himself at his brother’s wedding, looking out at the crowd of people that had gathered to celebrate and wondering – knowing, at the time, or so it had felt – that such a crowd would never turn out for him.

And perhaps it was the fact that he and Raymond had just come back from booking the florist for a ceremony he’d once thought impossible, that sent a pain careering through Kevin’s chest like an arrow. It certainly did not help matters that they’d just started putting together the guest list and seating chart for the wedding, and his father was not on it. And worst of all, was the acute sense of bitterness that he remembered all too well, that had tainted his father’s last breath, when he had told Kevin that he loved him for the first, the last, and the only time since the day he’d come out.

He had tears in his eyes by the time he turned his attention back to Julia. She glanced between him, and over her shoulder at Rosa. There was something between these two, that much she understood. Could the gay thing really run that deep?

“Mrs Diaz,” Kevin said, and it was clearly taking a lot to keep his voice steady. Julia turned back to him, solemn and intrigued as he took a deep breath and spoke – not only on his own behalf, but on her daughter’s as well.

“I know you didn’t ask for this,” he said. “But your daughter is trying to share something with you that is very important to her. She is trying the best she can to share her life with you. It might be difficult to understand but please, please believe that the love you feel for your husband – that is the same love she is capable of feeling. Maybe for a woman. Maybe even for Jocelyn. That’s all she’s trying to tell you. And you should listen. And you should treasure her with all your heart. Because I know for a fact how it feels when that revelation comes too late.”

He let it land, and all of a sudden his knees felt weak beneath him. He marched past Raymond and out of the bull pen into the lift before the shock of what he’d just done could wear off enough to collapse him.

The others watched him go: most were baffled by his unusually vivid emotiveness, but Rosa for one was grateful. Jake hugged himself a little tighter; protectiveness over his friends warring with crappy-dad sympathy to make one super uncomfortable feelings-cocktail. Julia was a little hurt, a little stunned, a little intrigued. Holt, as per usual, took the unusual turn of events in his stride. He held up a wrist and explained:

“Kevin’s father gave me this watch the day he died. After twenty-two years of not tolerating my presence in his home, he apologised, and he wished us luck.” Luck. He snorted. “My father died when I was younger, before I met Kevin, but my mother has always loved and supported me - every part of me, and of the two of us – and believe me when I say I would not be where I am without that love and support. Do not underestimate your power.”

Julia nodded. Maybe, just maybe, it was starting to sink in.

“I know you love your daughter very much, Mrs Diaz,” Holt continued, a little more gently now – but only a little - “and she loves you. It would be a shame to let that go to waste. But I’m sure you know that. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m needed elsewhere.”

He gave Julia a pointed stare before exiting the bull pen to track down and comfort Kevin.

Julia took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. If nothing else, it was comforting to know that her daughter had a very protective group of friends and colleagues. And the passion with which they all spoke about each other. And the watch…

When Rosa had walked out on her, Julia had feared for just a second, that her daughter might never speak to her again. It had been one of the most frightening moments of her life, and though it had passed blissfully quickly at the time, she couldn’t help but reflect on it now. And on Holt’s words. And on the gaping wounds their arguments seemed to leave in her. She was only trying to love her daughter, to want what was best for her. But if she stayed on this path, this dark future of bitterness and grief, how could that possibly be better? Wouldn’t she prefer to see her daughter carry herself with pride, smile at the one she loved, open the door for them and carry the bouquet they’d presented her and brush arms with subtle love on their return from a lunch date?

Julia turned to face her daughter, to find her midway through wiping tears from her face.

“I love you, mi niña,” she whispered. “And if Jocelyn makes you happy – then I am happy for you. And I’m going to try harder to understand.”

“Okay,” Rosa said, her voice wobbling dangerously. She cleared her throat. “And yeah. Jocelyn does make me happy. I dunno about marrying her yet but. You know. We’ll see I guess.”

Short sentences. Still not quite crying. Nailing it.

Fortunately, that was part of her daughter that her mother did understand, or at least was used to. She did not push Rosa for more, simply picked up her handbag.

“I got a new extension to Trivial Pursuit,” she said. “Your father and I would love to play it this Friday if you’re available. Bring your friends, of course - or perhaps… Jocelyn?”

Sick and dizzy as she felt at the barrage of emotion, Rosa’s stomach flipped. She was lucky she was not a naturally smiley person, or she might just have given herself away because all of a sudden her heart was screaming IT’S ALL I EVER WANTED, which was of course, an exaggeration, but after months and months of the most awful tension of her life it was like falling away like a mudslide. Is this what relief felt like?

“I’ll think about it,” she said.

Julia nodded, and took her leave.

#fictober19 #rosa diaz #kevin cozner #brooklyn 99 #b99fic #holt x kevin #rosa x jocelyn #b99squad #clara's fic tag #homophobia #biphobia

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travllingbunny · 6 years ago

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The 100: 6x09 What You Take With You

How amazing was this episode? It is, so far, one of the two best episodes of the season (alongside 6x07) and probably in my top 10 favorite The 100 episodes of all time.

It benefited from its focus on just three storylines and a limited number of characters, which allowed it to properly focus on the characters and their psychological and emotional journeys.

The title seems to be a reference to the Dagobah cave scene in The Empire Strikes Back, or rather, the dialogue right before it:

Luke: There is something not right here. I feel cold, death.

Yoda: That place… is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In you must go.

Luke: What’s in there?

Yoda: Only what you take with you.

Luke ends up having a hallucination of fighting Darth Vader in the cave and killing him, only to take off his helmet and see his own face, in possibly the most famous movie scene of a character confronting their “Shadow” self.

So, when the episode titles for season 6 of The 100 were released, it wasn’t hard to guess that this episode would contain scenes of a character “facing their demons” in a fantasy sequence (and which character it would be, especially as we had seen glimpses of Octavia fighting the Blodreina version of herself in the trailer). As a fan of psychological character exploration through trippy fantasy sequences, I had high expectations from this episode regarding Octavia’s story – and they were completely fulfilled and maybe exceeded. I wasn’t expecting to see Charles Pike in Octavia’s hallucination soul-searching, and his appearance and how he was used was brilliant.

The other two, equally important storylines, were:

the continuation of the saga about the Bellamy/Clarke relationship through the story about the fight between Josephine and Clarke for control of Clarke’s body, and Bellamy’s attempts to save Clarke from real and certain death;

and the conclusion of the opposite storyline - about Abby crossing a lot of ethical lines to work with the Primes and use bodysnatching to resurrect Kane in another body. This was the final death of Marcus Kane, a tragic end of Kabby romance, but it also a fitting ending for Kane, with him asserting his own integrity and morality by choosing to die and refuse to be complicit in the practices of the Primes, but to instead start a fight against them. It will also probably be the turning point in Abby’s character arc. The resolution of this storyline has caused a lot of controversy and anger, which I don’t understand, since Kane’s decision was obvious and in-character, so much that I predicted it last week, because it was the only thing that made sense narratively and for Kane’s characterization.

More thoughts under the cut.

Octavia vs Blodreina

The fact we still don’t know what happened to Diyoza or to Octavia in the Anomaly makes me think that this is a plot that will carry over to season 7, after the bodysnatching business is wrapped up. And the more they postpone the resolution, the more hopeful I am for Diyoza to survive season 6.

Choosing the angry, violent red box instead of the calm green box is such an Octavia thing to do. But maybe it was the right thing in this case, as it let her face her demons head on and figure things out for herself.

The red butterflies scene was one of the many callbacks to season 1.

Pike’s role made sense because Octavia’s descent into darkness was not just prompted by the trauma of Lincoln’s death at Pike’s hands, but also because it started when she decided to murder Pike for revenge, making herself judge, jury and executioner. That was the first time she committed actual murder, as opposed to killing people in fight. She probably thought at the time, as a big portion of the fandom did, that Pike was a bad guy and had it coming. But one could now say the same thing about Octavia herself, and she is obviously aware of it. If Pike deserved to die, doesn’t she, too? Using the same standards, shouldn’t she be murdered for revenge by someone like James (the Wonkru guy from 6x02, who lost his mother in the gorge and blames Octavia fori t)? In fact, Octavia tried to get him to kill her, because, on some level, she thought she deserved death, too, even while she was pretending that she didn’t feel any guilt and trying to justify all her actions. Why should Bellamy ever forgive her for throwing him into the fighting pit to die? I can see many similarities between Octavia and Pike: both of them are fighters by nature, both were driven by the desire to save and protect people, both were angry and traumatized by what had been done to their people, and both were also prone to black-and-white thinking and harsh judgment of their enemies. As Octavia’s mind version of Pike pointed out, we are products of what we have done, and what has been done to us. Pike is an embodiment of both for Octavia. And Pike himself was a product of what the Ice Nation under Queen Nia had done to him – killing almost all of the people he grew up with, many right in front of him (including 15 children), which made him go into the woods to fight for months. Pike started pre-emptively seeing Grounders as enemies even when they were not, and eventually, as a Chancellor, started acting as a dictator and hunting for traitors in his camp. Octavia started by proclaiming everyone (or almost everyone – Echo didn’t count) her people, One people, but that eventually turned into tyranny and seeing enemies in everyone who disagreed or refused to do everything she asked of them. Pike condemned Lincoln to death and execute him for the same reasons Octavia as Blodreina condemned Bellamy, Indra and Gaia to the fighting pit: to maintain authority and show that rebellion is not allowed and will be punished by death. We may not have seen this put into words, but Octavia’s vision of Blodreina in Pike’s role, condemning/executing Pike the way he had Lincoln, showed her realization about herself. „Pike“ even reminded Octavia that he was trying to earn his redemption by doing good when she killed him. Of course, since Pike was really an enbodiment of a part of Octavia’s own mind, it is really something she has been thinking about and that she’s telling herself. It’s a level of self-reflection that I never expected to see from Octavia of the earlier seasons, and shows how much she’s grown.

So does she deserve redemption? As „Pike“ pointed out, it is not about deserving. You just need to make the decision to go and do good, and not be Blodreina anymore, shown by her symbolic killing of „Blodreina“. She is still to actually start her redemption arc, but getting into the right frame of mind and realizing she wants to change and do better was the necessary first step.

Kane’s goodbye

I’ve already written quite a bit about Abby’s emotional and ethical downfall and the tragic development of the Kabby relationship in seasons 5-6 here and I predicted that the storyline would end with Kane’s death by his own choice (and that Henry Ian Cusick would return to play Kane in a vision for his last scene), even though I didn’t guess when or how it would happen.

Unlike some other fans, I find this to be a very fitting ending for Marcus Kane. I don’t think of what he did as suicide, but as a sacrifice, or, more than anything, a refusal to legitimize and benefit from an evil practice that involves brainwashing people so they could be lambs easily led to slaughter, and then murdering them as lesser and disposable, so you could prolong your own life. He couldn’t fight against it, speak against it, while being in a stolen body himself. (There is a reason why Gabriel is ashamed to admit to his followers that he lives in a host body.) Everything about it was wrong to him, and went against everything he believes in. (Meeting Gavin’s widow and realizing that the Primes are lying to their people also played a role. As Gabriel confirmed in this episode, and as Kane 2.0 and the other Primes, no doubt, are aware, there is no trace of the host mind after the transfer – unless the transfer fails.)

Indra has finally been woken up! But is she staying on the ship now, and if so, when do we see her again? I’m glad she got to say goodbye to her friend before his death. I like the fact that Indra pointed out that both the Arkers and the Grouders had some disturbing practices of their own, but Kane gave the logical answer (something I was hoping someone would point out at any point) – the fact we did bad things in the past, doesn’t mean we should let evil things happen. That’s not how morality (or common sense) works.

The show loves angst, so of course, Kane’s death had to be exactly like Jake Griffin’s death (which we saw in the flashbacks in 1x03), and Abby had to witness it. But, as Raven pointed out, it is better for her if she gets to say goodbye. (Raven would know, since she never got to say goodbye to Finn or Shaw. Or Sinclair.) Kabby has been one of my favorite ships on the show – because it is one of the very few romantic relationships that was well developed, way before Kane and Abby got together. Their chemistry was obvious since season 1. And while Greyston Holt did a great job playing Kane 2.0, it only made sense that Henry Ian Cusick return to play Kane in that last scene, when Kane appeared to Abby the way she saw him in her mind-eye - which also made him feel like real Kane to the audience. The scene was truly beautiful and sad, with Abby’s heartbreak, and Indra and Raven reciting the Ark prayer (with Indra adding the Grounder “Your fight is over”). I don’t think that Kane would really do the same to bring Abby back – or that Abby would have done it if she had been in a healthier state of mind, but I can see why he told Abby that. While he disagreed with her decision and couldn’t accept it, he showed understanding, empathy and love to her, while urging her to let him go and continue her life.

All in all, considering the tricky actor availability situation due to Cusick’s role on another show, I think that the writing staff have found a good way to give Kane a proper sendoff, and make it meaningful and highly relevant to this season’s themes and main plot.

In a way, it’s more Abby’s tragedy than Kane’s – he made the decision that was the only right one, one of the most in-character things he’s ever done, but Abby is still lost and needs to let go off Kane, really recover from addiction, and find her own sense of morality again.

The Kane/Abby storyline and relationship this season is juxtaposed to the Josephine/Gabriel story – and the Clarke/Bellamy story. We have seen bodysnatching as something people (Gabriel, Russell and Simone with Josephine, Abby with Kane) resort to in order to resurrect someone they love. But while Josephine couldn’t be happier about it – because she’s selfish and, let’s say, morally challenged, Kane, with his deep sense of morality, could never accept that. We’ve also seen a storyline about Bellamy doing everything to save Clarke – but while all of those are motivated by love, the big difference between what Bellamy is doing and what Abby has done (and what Gabriel initially did when he resurrected Josephine, at the expense of 40+ of the people he had raised from embryos) is that Bellamy is fighting against an evil act, to right a wrong, as opposed to doing evil or enabling evil.

Bellarkephine

Bellarke has always been the central relationship on the show, but it’s never been as front and center as it is this season. In 6x07, Clarke gave up on living at the moment when Josephine managed to convince her that Bellamy had given up on her and moved on and that he and everyone are better off without her, and the last few been about Bellamy being willing to do everything to get Clarke back. The show is being really obvious about Bellamy’s and Clarke’s feelings for other other, even more so than it was in the previous seasons (and I happen to think it was already quite obvious). It’s not the first time that other characters have called out those two on their feelings for each other (from Lexa noticing in season 2 that Clarke cares for Bellamy and worries about him more than about her other people, to ALIE!Raven in season 3, taunting Bellamy over being more devoted to Clarke than his girlfriend Gina, to Octavia calling out Bellamy in season 5 and calling Clarke another traitor who he loves), but now it is an integral part of the main story, the way it was not before.

I’ll say one thing, though – while it is undeniable, seeing his behavior over the previous few episodes. that Bellamy cares for Clarke more than anyone else at this point, as Josephine points out (and that statement implies that he cares for her more than his girlfriend, Echo), I think one should be fair and acknowledge that Clarke is in danger of certain and definite death, after a definite and short period of time, while the others back in Sanctum are only in danger of potential death, so I don’t think it would be fair if they begrudged Bellamy going off to save Clarke.

This dynamic was weird, because Bellamy was simultaneously not fond of (to put it mildly) of Josephine, but was incredibly tender and caring with her body, because it was Clarke’s body, and Clarke is still in there somewhere. The way he gently wiped JoClarke’s black blood and put his own, so the Children of Gabriel wouldn’t know she was a Nightblood, reminds me of Bellamy cutting himself to fool the Ark guards, so they wouldn’t know the blood belonged to Octavia, when she would accidentally cut herself.

Josephine said that love was the reason why Sanctum would be destroyed – implying not just that her father put everything in danger for his love for her (by putting her in Clarke’s body), but also that Bellamy’s love for Clarke and his determination to save would be the cause of Sanctum’s destruction. It’s the 3rd time that the word “love” has been used on the show to describe Bellamy’s and Clarke’s feelings for each other: the first time was in season 2 when Clarke said she was being weak when she tried to keep Bellamy from going to Mount Weather, because love is weakness; the second time was in season 5, when Octavia called out Bellamy on pleading for the life of a traitor who you love; and this is the third time.

The moment when Bellamy looked at Clarkephine when he knew Clarke could hear him, and paused before saying “I won’t let you die”, was one of those moments where Bellamy or Clarke seem to want to say more, or are saying a lot more, through or instead of a statement like “Hurry” or “Don’t feel bad about leaving me here”. Those two have always had their own way of saying ILY.

Bellamy replying “Tell me about it” when Josephine called the “weird” relationship between him and Clarke “exhausting” has to be one of the best meta moments on the show.

(BTW, I don’t think Bellamy actually wanted to kill Clarke in 1x02 – the first moment he could have let her die, he saved her. But maybe she thought so, or maybe Josephine saw her memories and drew that conclusion. Also, the show Josie is misusing the word “genocide” and should look up the definition.)

But after a while, what was Josephine trying to taunt Bellamy, turned into Josephine being moved by Bellamy’s love for Clarke – not because she’s a compassionate person (she’s not), but because it reminds her of Gabriel’s love she had and lost. We got her explicit confirmation that she has really been in love with him, since they got to the planet (which may have been the first time they met). And while we know, from his reactions in 6x08, that he is still in love with her (but she may not know that), he has still been trying to kill her for the last 70 years – because she is a villain and is largely responsible for maintaining a terrible system of oppression and murder. This is the main difference between Gabriel/Josephine and Bellarke: Clarke is actually not a villain, she is a hero. Josephine is the villain that some of the characters and a part of the fandom imagines Clarke to be, because they are not paying attention to the actual story.

I love the fact that Clarke used the Morse code, for the second time, but now to both mock Josephine with “Boohoo” and try to make Bellamy laugh, while confirming that she was able to hear them both.

It’s really amazing just how Bellarke-heavy this episode was, even though Clarke and Bellamy weren’t able to directly interact most of the time – and haven’t been since 6x04. The one moment when they did get a chance to interact, for some 10 seconds, was when Clarke temporarily took control over her body because Josephine realized she sucked at defending herself and had to let Clarke do it. And it was amazing – the way Eliza changed her expression, voice and demeanor and the way she looked at Bellamy, the way Bellamy immediately knew she was Clarke, the chemistry that was suddenly there again in full force when it was Bellamy and Clarke interacting, rather than Bellamy and Josephine. Clarke is determined to never leave Bellamy again (as we saw in 5x13, when she was not willing to leave him behind even while they were seconds away from missiles hitting), but this time, he was right that literally staying there would have killed her, so she did the smart thing and sneaked him the keys – allowing him to save himself, while he let her go to save herself.

My judgement of the Children of Gabriel after 6x03 still stands: morally ambiguous group, the right goal, but too murder-happy.

Josephine may be a 200+ old narcissistic, evil Prime that I want to die, but her interactions with Clarke are really fun. It was great to see Clarke get the upper hand, at least for a while, and be in control again. And I loved the fact that Clarke rubbed it into Josephine’s face that she had stolen some skills from her – and calling her out on the irony of Josephine complaining about it, while living in Clarke’s stolen body.

I can’t wait to see Josephine and Gabriel reunited, and Octavia and Clarke and Bellamy reunited – but I’m also looking forward to more of the Clarke/Josephine fight for control in the mindspace.

Rating: 10/10

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metalotaku-da · 6 years ago

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MerMay SHANCE

Prompts stolen from @justshance. all pieces are up for grabs if anyone wants to take them further or rework them. @shancemermay

18. Celestial seas

The quantum abyss was as beautiful and daunting as they had theorized back on altea and then some. His expedition with the holt family and the koganes, as their pilot had been a once in a lifetime opportunity for shiro. One he did not regret taking despite the fact that when they returned altea will have passed just a single deca theeb and themselves 10. A decision he regretted even less with an unexpected discovery by their crew. One that both Matt, Keith, and pidge took great joy in teasing shiro about as he prepared for another space walk. Their ship following the course the space whale migration was following. Having joined them was a newly discovered sentient race of the only word they had to describe them was space mers. Similar yet not to the mer race found on water planet deep beneath the icy surface. But this race came in a multitude of blue, black, purple and red hues, and combinations there if, and some with white spots or patches even. Large wide side fins that worked like solar sails, providing heat and energy on top of movement for them in deep space. They claimed small particles of elements they came across but the solar energy Being their main source of energy. Shiro was jealous of the ability to just glide through space uninhibited by things like oxygen needs or radiation poisoning, or the vacuum of space. Unlike him as he double checked his jet pack and magnetic boots for charge and his suit for any holes since his last space walk. Finding all to be in order. Shiro made his way to the airlock. Where the happy face of one of the space mers named Lance was smiling and clinging to door. Waiting on shiro to hurry up and join him but also to get a taste of the gasses theat would jettison from the lock with him. The radio in his helmet crackled to life with Lance's voice carrying through perfectly.

“Hurry up shiro. Your taking to long. Come out come out and play with me.” Lance pouted face pressed tight to the window contorting his pout.

Shiro chuckled moving into the lock and waiting on the timer to open the outer door. “I'm sorry not all of us can survive in the vacuum of space. We alteans need a little prep time to leave the ship.”

“Pidge and Matt don't take as long as you and the angry cosmic wolf boy do.” Lance continued to pout.

Shiro frowned at that the click of out door opening and pulling him into space the air releasing clearing Lance away from the door his fins wide open to collect the gasses, before the dispersed to much. “Yes because they are horrible at following protocol. And don't check their gear over. Which was a movement ago you were carrying pidge back to the ship.”

“We just lost track of time.” Lance said not making eye contact and examining his fingers.

“Nice try. I watched the feed so did Colleen. She didn't check her battery before she left. She's lucky I refill all air supplies every night cycle.” shiro corrected his jet pack bringing him into Lance's orbit. “Don't start lying for her too. Colleen will pull your ear frills too.”

“I didn't know it was a lie when she told me.” Lance countered grabbing shiro by the hand. “and enough about the debris mite. I got plans for us. And you have caused enough of a delay.” Lance's pulled shiro close with them chest to chest bringing a blush to his ears and his purple markings to glow. “Hold on tight we are going my speed.” Shiro did just that. Wrapping his arms around Lance's to avoid his thin membranes under his arms. Lance spread all of his fins wide and they took off away from the alteans ship and further across the quantum abyss. Passing asteroids, gas clouds and strange light anomalies they hadn't fully assessed yet. A time vision affecting them along the way. One where shiro saw himself and Matt through the academy of the sciences and exploration, as young cadets running through the halls after pranking a teacher.

Lance smiled at him all teeth, eyes and edges crinkled in mischief. Not always a rule stickler huh?” He teased.

“I'm a stickler when it's a life or death risk.” Shiro said in a tone that meant business. “However I'm not above bending the rules if there is no harm.”

“Good.” Lance said with a nod. “Cause I'm taking you somewhere you're probably not supposed to go. But it's safe if you are with me. Pidge said none of you've seen a cosmic wolf leave their nest to strike out on their own.”

“No we haven't. They are furious beast who are very territorial, and their teleportation abilities make them even more dangerous and unpredictable.” Shiro said matter of factly his voice pitched slightly in concern.

“If you don't know them, than yeah. But it's ok cause I know these two. They are nice and won't bite. Promise.” Lance said smiling. “And we are here. Don't look red in the eye. And don't touch blue.”

“What!?” Shiro said sharply in panic as Lance set him down on an asteroid that was at his back so he couldn't see what was behind him.

“Hi red, hi blue. How's my favorite fluffier wuffiers doing?” Lance sing songed gliding past shiro. Shiro stiff as he passed. Taking a few deep breaths before turning to observe the mess he had been literally dragged too.

Shiro was shocked to find pressed tightly between two of the giant creatures. Both with their heads bent to be petted. “This is shiro. He's the altean I was telling you about.” Lance said as if he was talking to any sentient being. But their limited research being inconclusive of their level of understanding and sentientas. “Shiro this is red and blue.” And sure enough once of the creatures had a red tint to his dark fur and bioluminescent. The other blue hued. “Their pups are getting the push today.”

“Right.” Shiro said carefully lift a hand to wave making sure to not look the alpha male red in the eye. “Pleasure to meet you.” Blue disappeared in a flash and appeared directly in front of him. Shiro stood frozen holding his breath. Blue took a few sniffs before chuffing and pressing her head to his rubbing it against the helmet. Shiro's eyes wide in fear as he heard red growl loudly behind blue.

“He's not touching her. She touched him red.” Lance scolded. Blue licked his helmet for good measure before turning on her mate and nipping at his ear with her own growl. Red chuffed in response but turned away from shiro heading into a cave on the asteroid.

“Awe they like you too shiro.” Lance said cheerily pulling shiro along by his hand to follow after the pair.

“Blue might but I don't think red does. Maybe I should leave.” Shiro whispered back.

“Naw. If red didn't like you, he'd have ate your head off. He's just Moody and aloof, like Keith. All prickly on the outside, but you know deep down he's got a squishy heart full of affection.” Lance consoled.

Shiro laughed. “I didn't know you thought that about Keith. I actually thought you two hated each other.”

“Naw I don't hate Keith. He's just really easy to fire up. It's fun to tease him. He has two moods, angry or indifferent. So like to make him angry so he'll play with me.” Lance said with a smile. “But don't tell him that.”

“Your secret is safe with me.” Shiro said back with a smile. Their of group having made it to a bigger chamber of the cave came to a stop. One side had openings like windows at the head height of the wolves. Rolling along the floor was a bunch of adorable fluffy cosmic wolf puppies, just a few Thebes old covered in asteroid soot.

“Oh they are so adorable just before they teleport away from home.” Lance cooed tilting his torso and head down to be closer to the pups a few coming over to him to lick at his face and jump on his fins. “Nooooo, you'll lose your protected layer you rascals.” Lance shooed them off his body. Aren't they adorable?”

“They are.” Shiro answered with a smile. Blue raising her head proudly.

“Over here by the hole. So you can see.” Lance directed shiro to a spot to peer out the hole in the cave a clear view of the space whale migration. Several individuals with in view.

“This is a wonderful view Lance but why are we watching the whales? I thought we were watching the pups teleport.” Shiro asked turning to see red lift a pup and place it in the other opening.

“We are.” Lance said. As a flash of light replaced the pup and Lance pointed out the window. A small flash showing above one of the whales. To close. Shiro thought it's going to be pulled by the whales gravity. He lurched forward as the light became a burning streak as it fell through the whales atmosphere burning from the friction. “Oh my goddess.” Shiro said a hand clamped to his mouth.

“It's ok shiro. The soot in their fur protects them from burning up. It hardens and cracks when they hit the surface. And they pop out with shorter fur and then it grows with them as they hunt eat and grow.” He scrunched up his face in thought for a minute. “Like that egg you showed me.” Lance miminicked and egg opening with his hands. As they get stronger they can teleport farther and whale hop. When they find a mate they'll leave and find an asteroid to make babies.”

“That's really amazing Lance.” Shiro said with a smile. Less panicked when blue picked up a cub to place in view of the whales. Another flash of light and he had to admit the meteorite effect of their migration was beautiful. If he ignored the fact a living thing was inside it. Even if Lance assured him every time he winced that the pup was fine. This went on till the reached the last pup who was noticeably smaller than the others who had made their trip. He was a teal blue color of the altean ships in his bioluminescence. And he was sitting facing his parents licking their faces instead of making his trip. Ignoring their nudges.

“Hey buddy aren't you going to join your siblings.” Shiro cooed once it was obvious the parents were having no luck.

The pup looked at him before hunching down, after a moment it disappeared in a flash. Only to land on shiro's head startling him. He and Lance reached for it before it could fall from its failed perch. Back legs now resting on shiro's shoulder and front paws on his head.

“Well now,” Lance smiled at shiro eyes soft. “I guess he picked a new home. Kind of jealous of the little guy.”

“What?” Shiro asked eyes wide at Lance. He was caught off guard as blue appeared next to him licking the side of his helmet. And shiro would swear she looked smug, before she left the group and headed out of the cave. Red head-butted him next before leaving also.

“Sweet. They approve of you.” Lance cooed again. “Hope the others don't mind. We get to raise our own pupper together!” Lance squealed giving a delighted spin. The initial panic shiro felt at becoming a pet parent to a large and dangerous creature slowly fading way to his own excitement to match Lance's.

#shance #voltron #shancemermay #mermay #space mer #lance #shiro

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void-tiger · 5 years ago

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...screw it. I’ll *maybe* write an AU that’s from the point Takashi first crash lands back to Earth.

You know, one that has him having a twin and a preKerb friendgroup made up of Ryou, Lisa, Matt, Veronica, and Ginger (in my fanon she’s Hunk’s sister)? You know...Shiro actually having family and friends that then includes the Paladins? (Oh...and people actually at his launch other than Keith and the Holts. Well, the ones who weren’t currently deployed on their own missions at that time.)

Lots of rambling and thought-dumping as to how that might look plot-wise in a broader sense under the cut (along with other fixits)

Veronica’s seen ribbing her younger brother but also trying to cheer him and his assigned team back up before carrying on with her Garrison Job.

The Trio still sneaks out and runs into Keith causing not-well-thought-out shenanigans beyond a successful diversion.

The Trio+Keith run headlong into Ryou, Lisa, Veronica, and Ginger who had the exact same idea as their younger siblings/the idiot (former) cadet. They ARE Shiro’s friends, afterall. Only, they’re the “scientists” and stick Iverson and the REAL scientists with the sedatives instead of Shiro. (They also made more of an effort to keep an eye on Keith than Adam ever did. They’re also well-aware that Pidge is actually Katie and keep an eye on her, too, but decided not to push her about the shoddy disguise. They *might* be covering for her regarding Iverson&Co, though.)

(Also, the Shack belonged to Ryou and Shiro. But Keith’s staying there, too. Ryou’s not happy about Keith trying to bust Shiro out without him.)

After the initial confusion, the Actual Adults (barely!) TM take over and have everyone pile into their cars while they try to shake off the Garrison and eventually regroup back at the Shack. (Keith’s driving Shiro’s old bike back since he’s the one who took it out. Shiro’s placed in the back of Ryou’s car with the seats laid flat. Ryou’s back there trying to keep him restrained until they can do triage, with Lisa taking over as the driver. Everyone else is with Veronica and Ginger. Or, they all took a ScoobyDoo van from the start vs several cars.)

Shiro actually recognizes the entire Trio, but introduces himself, anyway. (He’s a pilot, not an engineer or analyst. And although Veronica and Ginger bragged about their baby brothers and Matt about his genius gremlin sister, and Ryou definitely bragged about Hunk’s progress, it just didn’t quite work out for him to meet the cadets personally, save maybe Pidge—PR, aviation instruction, and Kerberos prep kinda ate away at his time. He did keep an eye on Lance’s progress, but...any remnants of time kinda went to Adam before the breakup and mentoring Keith. (Ryou kinda just insisted on crashing in Shiro’s post-breakup issued room until the twins finally pooled their resources to buy the Shack.))

The hunt for the Blue Lion goes about the same, only the group’s larger. Blue still picks Lance, kidnaps everyone else like a box of kittens, and goes for a joyride before getting serious. (“YEP. That’s definitely your Lion, Lance,” Veronica snarks.) The same Paladins experience the Vision as before, with the others giving them strange looks when they all randomly zonked out in tandem for half a second.

They eventually end up in Arus’s solar system. (The adults are very, very glad that they didn’t ever have time for pets. (And in this version, Ginger isn’t already a mother, and the Adults are all about 23-26, give or take.) Then internally freaking out about kidnapping a bunch of kids by accident, and kicking themselves about not having any sort of letters ready for everyone’s family. That...could’ve been thought out better (and moves to the top of their priority list. Galaxies away or not, mean purple aliens kinda implies they’ll be gone for awhile. With...a bunch of kids.)

They wake up Allura, but Ryou’s the one to catch her. Veronica twists Lance’s ear before he ever opens her mouth. (“Yeah yeah I know. She’s gorgeous. But not the time.”) (RIP, Lance’s ears...they’re not safe in any reality.) Allura and Coran pull up their starcharts...and discover the same, awful news. The adults herd everybody out to give the Alteans some space to grieve in private.

Allura starts to describe the Lions, but the group interrupts her. (“Uh...we kinda saw a big giant robot in our heads?” “Yeah, and it was freaky watching them all look like zombies for half a second, so hard pass.”) The rest of it goes on as usual, only Lance gets whacked for self-postulating, and Blue actually gets a description this time.

The soon-to-be Paladins split up to look for their Lions, with Keith still at the Castle. Ryou and Ginger set to work helping Coran get the Castle operational again, while Lisa and Veronica take on the task of helping Allura sift through 10,000 years of data backlogged.

Obviously certain events like Sendak capturing the Castle and Crystal Venom would play out somewhat differently. For one, neither Ryou or Lisa would leave Shiro alone. And at least one of them would probably stand with Coran about the ethics about all of it, even if they reluctantly agree that it’s the best option they have.

As far as Shiro’s disappearance, they catch on a LOT sooner that Black’s damaged and actually curling protectively around Shiro. (You know. Like Toothless and Hiccup. Just sayin’.) (As well as an explanation as to why Shiro ended up stored within BlackLion during the fight to protect him, while the other Paladins were not by their own Lions.)

Jiro still shows up thinking he’s Shiro, but has the others gently inform him that no, no he’s not. (Shiro may or may not be already out of BlackLion and recovering.) Jiro consents to having extensive tests done. They find all of Haggar’s implants (and discover that Shiro actually got stuck with a few of his own that Black separated from him when they extracted him out...now that they know what they’re looking at. Oh, and the Blacktashi Bond’s still well and good, but Shiro does have more trauma to work through. At best Shiro’s unconscious the entire time he was stored as energy particle. At worst? Sensory deprivation and FullBody Amputation. Nothing about Shiro being suspended in the Void could’ve been pleasant, even though Black was well-intentioned.) Once free from her control, Jiro’s more determined than ever to take her and the Galra empire down. (As well as freeing the other clones. The others share that sentiment, but especially the Shirogane Twin, who decide to accept Jiro as their “triplet from another mother”.)

Jiro still longs to be a Paladin, though. Allura and Lisa gradually over time begin to share that same longing. Eventually they feel a sort of phantom bond that mimics the one Jiro has with Black not just with the OG Lions, but also an even stronger one they can’t quite pinpoint. They eventually learn that they’re being Called by the second meteor.

Lotor’s still a rival right about the same time. However, by the time he tricks the Paladins into going after the meteor for him, the Castle’s a better match for his ship vs him getting away. (Because, you know. The OG Paladins are still with their Lions. And although Allura went with them to explore the distress call, Coran had Jiro&Co to help him man the Castle.) They fight to a standstill, then eventually call a ceasefire. They’re better about uncovering WHY Lotor wants the meteor/quintessence. Also the surviving Alteans are members of his crew, albeit still disguised to protect them from the Empire. They evacuate the colony vs sticking around. Lotor wants the quintessence first to end balmera mining and komar stripping, but also to have a second attempt at making the colony work.

Allura and Coran are shocked to learn that they’re not the last of their race, but eventually Lotor agrees to carefully continue checking Honerva’s research with Team Voltron&Co before deciding what to do with the comet, and if Lotor’s idea for “unlimited quintessence” is even possible...which eventually leads them to Orionde. (*drops better explanation about that pocket dimension HERE*) Also, the other Paladins probably make it through with both Allura and Lotor in-tow once they stop fighting the Lion and instead evade or request permission to enter (hey, it’d be a nice callback to A Bond Cannot Be Forced), but only Allura and Lotor make it all the way to the end.

When Allura and Lotor rejoin the Paladins and the rest of their crews, Lotor agrees to abandon his attempts to reopen the Quintessence Rift on the remains of Daibazaal--at best Haggar could then seize it and do unspeakable damage. At worst, all of Reality folds in on itself and collapses. There are no shortcuts.

Team Voltron press to know why the Galra covet so much quintessence in the first place:if it’s just to power their technology, then surely it’s past time to discover other means of energy. Lotor reluctantly reveals that the Galra are essentially extinct: what started as a way to extend their lifespans gradually mutated them overtime into no longer being genetically compatible with other members of their own race. They either continue taking the quintessence, or die off. Team Voltron then questions if Lotor and his Generals have that same problem--turns out, yes and no. The Galra are somehow still able to reproduce with other races (which he, Keith, and the generals are the proof of), but there are often complications with those pregnancies. In addition, Lotor and his generals spent enough of their early lives eating quintessence-enriched foods to have developed that same addiction they’re still struggling to ween themselves off of, if it’s even possible at all.

Jiro then casually waves as proof that the Galra have successful cloning...so why not just genetically engineer the next generation to NOT have quintessence dependencies and whatever other genetic mutations that are dooming the Galra. Lotor stares at the clone dumbfounded--he hadn’t even considered that. (Aka, sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes to find plausible solutions to problems.) (*cue Save the Galra subplot mixed in around Typical Campy and Main Plot Adventures*)

The meteor is also used to create three new Lions, who immediately Bond with Allura, Jiro, and Lisa.

(For continuity’s sake? Let’s just say Lotor was never declared Emperor Pro-Tem, but always remained exiled/an outlaw.)

(*campy episodes*)

Pidge and Shiro finally find Matt. However, Matt now needs a brace for the leg Shiro injured while posing as “preChampion” to be able to support him. Shiro’s extremely guilt-ridden over it, but Matt assures him that ultimately it did save his life, and instead of having him transferred to a mining penal colony, he actually got transferred as a researcher after fixing the transport. After that, he bid his time for a chance to escape...which he eventually did when his scheme serendipitously coincided with a rebel attack. Unfortunately, Sam didn’t survive, Matt learned post-escape. The stress killed him well before his transport ever took him to a penal colony.

Voltron’s allies continue to grow. However, Zarkon finally recovers right about the time the Blades discover a quintessence supply chain of a new kind of quintessence...which eventually leads to the discovery of SEVERAL cloning fascilities where BlackPaladin Grade Quintessence is being harvested from hundreds of thousands of Shirogane Clones. Takashi, Ryou, and Jiro are all understandably outraged and physically sick at the revelation. Jiro also questions if his quintessence mimicking Shiro’s is the only reason why the BlackLion saved him at all [despite knowing where/having back her Paladin.] Shiro and Ryou try to reassure Jiro that that can’t be the reason/that he has his own value/etc, but Jiro’s unable to quite believe them.

The clones are finally freed (*cue tense battle here*), and like Jiro, many of them are pissed and choose to join the Rebels’ Ranks in various fields as both payback and a genuine desire to help and explore.

(*cue MORE SciFi Camp and Diplomacy etc*)

Eventually there’s another showdown with Zarkon, Haggar, and Company, spanning either into one massive battle or several smaller ones happening at once. Zarkon’s more powerful than ever thanks to the stolen Shirogane Quintessence Haggar used to revive him (that he continued to nom on up until the clones were rescued, although he still had his stockpile to ration)...but his attempts to seize the BlackLion/bust apart Voltron that way fail spectacularly. The Bond cannot be forced, and blacktashi healed eachother.

Zarkon then summons his anti-voltron made from finally successful robeasts with living pilots. (it’s...a work in progress. as in, how does Sendak fit in, or prolly instead Sendak’s Clone, etc etc. But ultimately some of the previous antagonists return, after they got much more backstory etc in Campy TM stuff) (*cue mech battle*)

Allura finally has her match against Haggar and wins.

(Lotor&Co have their own role, but idk what)

At last...Zarkon and Haggar are defeated, with the bulk of their forces either killed, in custody, or on the run.

Lotor fights his way to the top of the Kral Zera to light his flame. However, his rule and insistence on change isn’t popular with the bulk of the remaining empire after 10,000 years under Zarkon. The remnants of Zarkon’s forces also try to cause trouble. There’s also tension with Voltron and the former Rebel Coalition as the universe attempts to rebuild their societies after being subjugated for so long.

The surviving Alteans also long for their own planet and begin to rebuild their culture now that the Galran threat is finally gone, but they’re still vulnerable.

(Earth’s solar system also may or may not have been destroyed near the end of the 10,000 year war, with the surviving humans mainly being the former Galaxy Garrison, so they’re looking for their own planet/system, too.)

(*cue MORE Save the Galra...and The Galra Have Entered The Planet Race!*)

So, you know. Basically an adaptation of Vehicle Voltron as a “post game”.

Aaand, yet more smatterings of SciFi Camp as they rebuild/are Really Really finally at peace, and they finally just get to explore and experience the sort of Paladinship their predecessors did before Zarkon dragged everyone into the 10,000 year war. Because exploration/campy vld stories are always fun.

#long post #read more #vld au #take it back to the start #fixit fic #plot bunny corral #I wanna know what shiro having his own friendgroup would look like...and them being just as dorky and stubborn as he is alright?#except them actually being on earth when Shiro crashes (oh and actually being at his launch? or some of them?)#(vs...them being already deployed in space. which is my excuse for VeeLaDeeFixit)#then of course taking the same elements and past voltron elements and hopefully making a better fusion. or at least less grimdark

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voltron-s7-8-rewrite · 6 years ago

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The Last Stand, Part 1

This is part of my Voltron Season 7 & 8 re-write. If you are interested start HERE

(Just as a warning, this is not beta’d)

The Last Stand, Part 1

Not wasting a minute more, the Paladins push forward, heading for Earth.

Pidge attempts to contact her father, and after a moment hears his voice come through, however she quickly realizes it's a pre-recorded message. The Paladins listen, horrified, as the message reveals that the Galra have invaded Earth, enslaving most of humanity. The Garrison has held on for as long as they can, but the time has come for them to make their final stand.

Four years earlier:

One week after having returned to Earth, Samuel Holt awakens in a secure room. Admiral Sanda of the Galaxy Garrison enters and greets him.

Sam asks if he's free to leave yet, and Sanda says that all the tests have come back, and that he has been cleared of any possible problems. Frustrated by the quarantine, Sam snaps that he could have told her that.

Hearing his tone, Sanda reminds him that he knew he would be receiving tests when he returned from Kurboros, spending years in alien environments made them even more vital; the Garrison is not willing to risk the lives of others by not following protocol. Her point defuses Sam and he relents, understanding the reasoning.

He tells her he has vital information that he needs to share. Sanda says that the Garrison Leadership want to hear all he has to say, and they can now schedule a debriefing for him. Sam says that while she does that, he needs to see his wife, Colleen.

His request granted, for the first time in years, the husband and wife reunite. Colleen asks what happened, explaining that she thought he was dead. Sam tells her that he, Matt, and Shiro were abducted by a hostel alien race when on the Kerberos mission.

Colleen asks if Matt is with him, but Sam lets her know that he is still in space with Pidge. He explains to both her and Sanda that he was given a transmitter that will allow them to contact Pidge and Matt. Sanda says before they can contact anyone, the Garrison needs to hear his story, and that any messages sent will have to be done carefully and cautiously for Earth’s safety.

Colleen is upset at that, wanting to talk to her children now, but Sam understands and agrees to give his debriefing.

With the Garrison leadership gathered together, Sam begins explaining everything that happened from when the Kerberos crew was first captured, up to his recent return home. The Leadership has a hard time accepting everything, but Sam shows them all the proof and information they need to finally believe.

As they discuss how to handle this, Sam says that Earth needs to begin building their defenses, as war is coming. He then says he believes they should reveal the existence of the Galra and their war on the universe to the world. Sanda and the Leadership immediately dismiss that idea, as that could cause a global panic, inciting an unfathomable amount of damage to people and society in general.

Sam argues that the Galra will come to Earth, and the world needs to prepare. However, Sanda says that they don’t have enough information on the current state of the war, nor have had any time to take in what little information he just shared to justify the potential mass panic, destruction, and loss of life that could ensue from jumping the gun.

Sam says that if he can contact his children and the Paladins, he could start getting the answers they need. Sanda agrees to that, and Sam attempts to send out a call using the transmitter. However, neither Pidge nor Matt answers.

Sanda says they will have someone continuously monitoring and sending out messages in order to make contact, but in the meantime, they will hold off on revealing anything to the world.

Sam says even so, they need to star other preparations, and Iverson says that they already have.

The Garrison Leaders take Sam and Colleen to the development hangers. Iverson explains how they have been working for over a year on reverse engineering the Galran ship Shiro brought to Earth, and have now begun studying the Altean ship Sam brought. He tells him that while they have been able to power up parts of the ships, they have been unable to make either fly. Sam says it might have something to do with the crystals that power the ship, and says he will help them look into it.

Sanda continue son, explaining how they have created simulators based on the controls of these ships in order to figure out how to integrate the tech into their own. They have also begun to train pilots on how to fly them.

Sam is then introduced to four of the best recently graduated Garrison cadets, Ina Leifsdottir, James Griffin, Nadia Rizavi, and Ryan Kinkade. Out of all that have been training, these four have been able to adapt and learn how to operate the systems the best.

Sam is glad to hear this, but says they need to get them out of the simulators, and flying the real thing. Rizavi says that the ships aren't able to fly, but Sam says they won't be flying the ships he and Shiro brought, leaving the young officers confused.

Sam further explains to the Leadership all the things the Galra forced him to build, and later what he learned from the Olkari on integrating technologies. He says they can use this information, as well as the Altean schematics given to him by Allura and Coran to build all that they need.

Following his instructions, the Garrison begins working on upgrading the base's defenses and weapons, while designing and building fighter aircraft.

As soon as the new ships are built, Griffin, Rizavi, Leifsdottir, and Kinkade begin testing the newly dubbed “Mecha-Flex-Exo Ares fighters," or “MFE’s" for short. While there is a bit of a learning curve, the four adapt well to the Alien-Earth tech. Amongst them, Griffin quickly stands out as the one to lead the group.

As that happens, the Garrison also begin working on a warship/mobile command center that they hope will be enough to defend the Earth until help arrives.

After a year of research, discovery, and creation, the Garrison has a much better grip on the technological advances that were brought to them.

The four young officers stand as a shining examples of how well humans will be able to adapt to all the new technology, as they have completely adapted to their fighters, confident in their understanding of the ships and are eager to learn more. Sam and Iverson watch on in pride as the four work together, adapting to each other’s movements and following Griffin's lead. As they talk about how far things have come so quickly, Sam is called for by the communications officer.

Arriving to the Communications Room, Sam finds Sanda and Colleen are already there. Colleen says that Matt has finally responded, and Sam rushes to talk to his son. He asks Matt if he's alright, as they've been unable to contact him and Voltron. Matt reveals that no one has seen, or heard from Voltron or Lotor in six months.

Sam asks what happened, and Matt says they don't know for sure. There were rumors that Voltron and Lotor fought, but nothing was confirmed. However, since their disappearance, the Empire that was being built under Lotor’s rule fractured and there is no longer one single leader for the Galra. Different Galran Warlords have been conquering as much as they can, while also hunting down and destroying anyone apart of, or connected to the Voltron coalition, Rebels, and Blade of Marmora.

Matt begs them to stop sending out messages, as they are going to end up attracting the wrong attention to Earth. He says the Rebels will do all they can to send some aid as soon as possible, but they have their hands tied at the moment.

Matt has to end the conversation, but before he does he warns them to do whatever they can to prepare for war, because the Galra will come.

With this information, Sam and Colleen once again speak to Sanda and the Leadership about informing the world what’s going on. The Holts argue that this is not something that just their country alone can decide; the entire Earth needs to be involved.

Sanda believes the Holts are allowing their emotions overrule logic. With Sam having shared the Paladin’s stories, she knows that they’ve willingly put their personal feelings aside for the good of the universe; she feels Sam and Colleen have been putting their own desire of getting in the fight in order to be with their children above everything else, and they aren’t taking into consideration the impact this could have on the world if people don’t unite.

Sam says it’s true that they want to be with their children more than anything, but they do honestly believe that the only way Earth has a chance, is if humanity works together. He points out that for 10,000 years there have been small resistances fighting the Galra; from the Blade, to the Rebels, and other groups. However, it wasn’t until the Paladins came and united these forces that any real difference was made.

He says he believes the Garrison can follow in the Paladin’s footsteps and help the people of Earth come together as one force to fight back against whatever might come against them.

Sanda and the Leadership consider his words and say that while they can’t overstep the authority of other countries and tell the entire world, they will start informing the leadership of the other countries. That way each nation can speak to their people in their own way, ensuring the safety of their citizens without mass hysteria hurting the innocent.

Sam, Colleen, and Sanda shake on it, and the Garrison begins spreading what they know with the other nations. Each country begins sharing with their citizens, and while there is panic at first, Sam and Colleen make a video telling the Paladin’s stories that is shown to the world. Hearing about the Paladins, what they’ve been through, and how they have been out there fighting for Humanity and the universe, begins bringing the world together.

The Paladins fought for Earth all this time, now Earth will fight for them.

As Earth unites and the Garrison's final defenses are brought online, Sendak’s forces, The Fire of Purification, arrive and begin their invasion.

Notes:

Hopefully this and the next story will come off alright. I kind of struggled through them, cause even through they're important to the overall story, they're hard ones to really be engaged in.

So, I’m not expecting to change people’s minds on Sanda’s character, because she was terribly written in the show. I’m just hoping I can make her a bit more tolerable. I honestly hate what the Creators did with the her character. I get what they were going for, making her being the big, bad, Government bureaucrat whose only purpose is there to serve as a non-threatening antagonist for our heroes, but I am just so sick of seeing this type of unoriginal, clichéd character. Because aside from lazy and boring, it’s just insulting.

I’ve known a number of military types in my life, and while none were as high of a rank as she was implied to be, they were all great and upstanding people who wanted to do good for this world and protect the innocent. I know bad people exist, and bad people in high places definitely exist, but they are not the majority.

I think it would have been far more refreshing and interesting to see Sanda depicted in a more balanced light. You could still have her and Sam argue over how to go about things, but make any conflict stem from having to approach situations from a different point of view due to their positions and responsibilities. Not because she’s a brain dead, traitorous, moron who thinks handing everything over to the bloodthirsty conqueror will work out in their favor….but I digress.

Really, when watching this episode, I was agreeing with a lot of Sanda’s arguments. She’s framed in a way that pushes the audience to be against her and on the Holts side, but really, some of her points and concerns were right.

Truthfully, I found Sam and Colleen's actions to be wrong. They came off as if their motivation was really about wanting to be with their kids, Earth be damned. The way they overstepped everyone and selfishly revealed everything to the world was so, so stupid. It’s only because the story wanted them to be right that nothing horrible, like mass hysteria, riots, a collapse of society, or deaths, came from their actions.

And actually, giving them flaws when it comes to their feelings for their kids isn’t a bad idea, as that could have been used as character development, but of course that didn’t happen. The Holts did whatever they wanted and nothing bad came from it, so clearly they were in the right. Because that’s how life works.

For the whole 'Earth immediately coming together after hearing about an imminent alien invasion' element of the episode, I get the creators have implied there’s some sort of Star Trek-esk utopian future, where world is already a united force. But from what little we were shown of humanity, I didn’t get that feeling at all. So, having everything perfectly come together seemed to only happen to push the story along quickly, and not have any fallout from Sam and Colleen's actions.

My thought is, rather than having Humanity already be perfectly united, have this be the catalyst for that to happen. Have the Paladin’s selflessness and devotion to their world, and the universe inspire the people of Earth to do better and come together as one force.

Thanks for reading, have a great day!

#james griffin #ina leifsdottir #nadia rizavi #ryan kincade #voltron #MyVoltronSeasonSummary #mywritings

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huntertales · 6 years ago

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Part One: I Think I’m Losing My Mind. (A Little Slice of Kevin S08E07)

Episode Summary: Castiel mysteriously returns from Purgatory with no memory of how he escaped, leaving the Winchesters and the reader stumped. The four of them work together in rescuing Kevin Tran from Crowley after he and the rest of the prophets that are able to read the Word of God are kidnapped. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader Warning: Mentions of vomiting. Word Count: 5,150.

Previous Part | Supernatural Rewrite Masterlist

For the first time since being reunited back together as a family, things seemed to be looking up. The brothers didn’t mention once about the argument they’d been sharing over the past several weeks. No mention of Benny, no muttered remark about what Sam decided to do with his year free from you and Dean. All of you kept your head down and focused on what was the most important thing to you right now, finding Kevin Tran and his mother before he could get himself into serious trouble. You knew the trail was still cold as the first day you started. But you’d be damned if you were going to let that kid outsmart you and stay on the run all from what a demon said.

You and the boys had been staying at Rufus’ cabin over the past few days while keeping an eye on Kevin’s nervously quiet activity and the headlines if anything caught your attention. You were laying low during this slow period. Sam was at the cabin doing some daily search when you and Dean decided to swing into town for a food run when you noticed you were getting low. A quick trip ended with you standing in the snack section for a good ten minutes, just trying to decide what you wanted. It was down to two appetizing looking bags, however you decided to just stick with the usual favorite Dean was a little peeved at all the time you wasted, you smiled as you passed by, promising you'd share on the drive back .

You had every intention of keeping to your word and sharing the bag with Dean that was far too much for one person to consume in one sitting. But you made it all of five seconds in line before you opened up the bag, just to eat one or two...However any sort of self control you thought you had seemed to disappear when you got the first taste. Your stomach growled, loud enough for you to hear, urging you to keep going. It was as if you didn't have two hearty bowls of cereal this morning and a few cups of coffee on top of it to settle you over.

Since wrapping up the hunt with Garth you noticed you were always hungry, more than you had ever been before in your life. You didn't have an insatiable hunger that made you want a twelve course meal, instead you found yourself nibbling on an extra snack or mindlessly looking for something to eat after having a meal just an hour later. Dean joked that you might have gotten a tapeworm because all of the extra eating you were doing wasn’t showing. However the hunger wasn’t the only thing that was off. You had this suddenly strong sense of smell that made most things you didn’t even notice unbearable, sometimes to the point where you felt nauseous.

When you were in line waiting to check out with Dean and quietly putting your hand into the snack bag, you caught a whiff of those questionable looking hot dogs. The smell of the prepared food that looked like it had been sitting out all morning along with the woman's perfume that stood in front of you made you almost lose your appetite. You complained about it on the way out of the store, thinking Dean had gotten a whiff of the deadly combination as well. He looked at you with a funny expression, because he couldn’t smell anything. He made a remark that you were losing your mind, you rolled your eyes.

You didn’t put much thought into it and soon enough you were back in the passenger seat of the Impala with Dean to your left. You promised Dean you’d share the bag with him after he grew annoyed with the tedious amount of time you spent on it. However you found yourself not keeping true to your word as your hand so long in the bag Dean couldn’t sneak a bite, the other was holding your cell phone when you gotten a text from Josh. It wasn’t a lead on Kevin, but he spotted a news article that was a bit weird. You put your hand out of the bag and wiped the crumbs on your jeans to continue writing your text to Josh about sending the article over to Sam for him to look over. You didn’t notice that while you did so, Dean took his opportunity.

Dean was about to sneak his hand inside the bag and sneak a few pieces of the junk food for him to enjoy on the drive back to Rufus’ cabin. The sign singling six miles back to the sight passed by him. As he looked around the road to see if he could spot any wildlife in the miles of woods surrounding the both of you, Dean caught sight of something. More like someone. In the times he’d drove down the way to Rufus’ cabin he had never seen any living soul walking on the side of the road. Looked like someone was enjoying the afternoon and what nature had to offer. Dean was about to point out the person as the both of you got close. But when he got a better look, he found himself turning his head to stare out the passenger side window.

It wasn’t some tree hugging hippie, it was someone the both of you knew. Filthy, the hospital clothes and trench coat he wore were since the first night he met him was covered in blood and dirt from where he came from. Dean didn’t think twice about it when he slammed his foot on the brakes. It had to be him. Who he saw was Castiel, the angel he swore he left behind. in purgatory. The one who chose to stay there after everything. And now he was back. He had to be.

You were about ready to hit the send button on your phone when you felt the Impala suddenly stop to a jerking holt. You managed to get a good grip on the bag and your phone before they went flying, neither which would make you happy. You turned your head up the road to see what had made Dean decide to slam on the break. You furrowed your brow slightly when you cautiously looked around at the road, and then to the forest. There was no other soul around except for yours and Dean’s. No woodland creature, no random stranger appearing out of the middle of nowhere. To Dean, there was someone here. Someone he thought he would never see again.

Dean switched the gears into reverse as he hit the gas again and drove back to a few feet from where the both of you came from until he was parked next to the bear carved out of wood that told you the cabin would be coming up in the next half dozen miles. You followed his gaze, thinking you might have accidentally missed something, distracting you as Dean slipped himself out of the car. When you turned your head back to look at the man, he was already standing outside with the car door wide open and he was already out of the car, trying to find something that wasn't there. You got out of the car yourself and went to see if you might have accidentally missed something. But all you saw was the miles of forest in front of you.

“Dean?” You mumbled the man’s name quietly as you turned your head to look at him again. He didn’t hear you for a moment as he kept staring out into the distance. A bad feeling began to sit in the pit of your stomach when you noticed the haunted look on his face. “Are you okay?”

“What?” He was broken out of his thoughts when he heard your voice speak his name for the second time in a row, louder when he didn’t respond to your concerning question. Dean finally looked away from the spot where he swore he saw a stranger that was a friend the both of you lost and back to you. He didn’t know what was going on for a second, but he realized what he had did when he saw your worried expression. It seemed that you didn’t see what he did. Dean cleared his throat and tried to compose himself. “I’m fine. I...I thought I just saw something.”

You raised your brow slightly, hoping he would elaborate on his vague answer. But he didn't say anything. He just slid himself back into the car, a few moments later you did the same when you took another glance around the wilderness to see it was just as empty as it was the first time you tried to see the person Dean did. When the both of you were inside, Dean put the car back into drive and pressed his foot on the gas, sending the Impala forward and back on the journey to the cabin. You sent the message off to Josh as Dean turned the music back on to block out the conversation he thought you were going to try to have with him. Instead you continued on with the silence. You stretched out your arm that held the bag to Dean. He took one hand off the wheel and took a few for himself. Neither one of you said anything on the back way to the cabin.

+ + +

Soon enough you were back to where you and the boys had been staying at since things had been slow. You were working on your way of opening up the car door when you felt the feeling hit you like a ton of a bricks—it started in your stomach, that churning feeling you knew too well from being sick and a few too many hangovers. You quickly jumped out of the car like a bat out of hell before you could get the leather seats covered. You ran fast as you could, the feeling slowly cripping to your throat as you felt your skin break out into a cold sweat.

The front door to the cabin swung open as you passed Sam who was sitting at the table with his laptop open and looking over the news article Josh had sent him fifteen minutes ago. Sam was about to say hello to you, but he didn’t even get the chance to look away from his screen before he saw you running for dear life to the bathroom. He furrowed his brow slightly when he heard the door slam shut, a few seconds later a string of very uncomfortable noises echoed through the cabin, making him grimace as his stomach began to feel uneasy when he realized what you were doing. You were in the bathroom on your knees with your face in the toilet, vomiting up the contents of the last meal you ate and the snack you had on the way back.

You felt the feeling pass when you got everything out of your stomach and straight into the toilet. Without looking, you managed to flush the content down and move yourself so you were sitting on the floor of the bathroom with your back pressed against the wall. You wiped your mouth with the back of your hand as you inhaled a deep breath from what just unfolded without warning. One minute you were perfectly fine, and the next minute you were puking your guts out. You felt a little better, but the queasy feeling still lingered with the aftertaste of bile still in your mouth.

“Y/N?” You heard someone knock softly a few times on the door, making you realize it was Sam. You heard his muffled voice of concern from behind the wood after he saw you running for your life. You slowly leaned forward and pushed yourself back up to your feet. The door opened a moment later to see the man himself with his hand ready to knock again. He gave you a concerned look as he leaned over slightly to see what unfolded. "You okay? Sounded like you were..."

"Yeah. I'm fine." You reassured the younger Winchester as you gave him a small smile. You managed to slide past him and head to the kitchen counter where Dean was as well, putting away the six pack of beer into the fridge and grabbing one for himself. He offered you one, but the thought of drinking a beer made your stomach crunch again. You shook your head and grabbed a clean glass and ran it over the tap to wash the taste out of your mouth and spitting into the sink. "So, Josh texted me earlier. Said he had something for us.”

"Yeah. This kid went missing from a preschool." Sam said. He took his place back at his laptop and brought up the news article he was reading over just a few minutes before you arrived. Dean shrugged off his jacket and tossed it somewhere in the cabin, mumbling about how that sucked, not sure what the big deal was. "And at the same time he vanished, a surprise tornado hits, lasted maybe twenty seconds, then, uh...shazam! Back to perfect weather."

"Hmm." Dean mumbled, sounding interested. "And they pooh-pooh climate change."

"Well other similar wackiness has happened over the past few weeks in other places—uh, tulsa, a bus driver vanishes and a river gets overrun with frogs." Sam told you a few other cases that sounded like your kind of thing. Strange disappearances and supernatural aftermath. You were intrigued to learn what this was all about. "New Mexico—a mailman disappears, the earth splits open."

"All right. So," You walked over to the table and loomed over Sam's shoulder as you examined the laptop screen to see what Josh had come up with. You had to admit this kind of stuff wasn't just strange coincidences on their own, you had a suspect of who could be blamed for this. "You thinking demons?"

"Yeah, possibly, but...I mean, this stuff was major. These folks have nothing in common—no religious affiliations, different hometowns, all ages." Sam said. There was no connection, no sort of reason why demons would snatch them up from what you could see. But there was always a reason they were causing trouble. "Why would demons want them?"

“Why do demons want anything?” Dean asked, posing a question you’d never get the answer to.

You wondered if this was something the boys would have been interested enough to look into, Sam seemed on board with the idea as Dean thought to himself that it would be a good thing to keep himself busy. When demons were involved most of the time it lead directly to their boss, the king himself. Which meant that perhaps there was a chance all of you could have a talk with the son of a bitch and get that tablet back. And when you got it back into your possession, maybe there was a small chance you could find Kevin. Maybe you were jumping ahead of yourself, but that kid was out there, and you were going to find him. Along with the others who vanished without a trace.

+ + +

A few days later you and the boys were in the town Aaron Weber vanished without a trace, the first step in figuring out what happened was talking to the last person who was with the kid. You arrived at the household of Elizabeth Hager early into the evening dressed in your usual formal FBI outfits so you wouldn’t give her the wrong impression of what you were doing here. Sam knocked on the front door, and just a few moments later you saw a figure pop out from the corner from the window looking into the house.

You guessed it was Mrs. Hager from the nervous expression on her face from the unexpected visitors at this late hour. You and the boys pulled out your fake badges and lifted them up to the window to show her that you were here on police "business." You gave her a friendly smile to give her some reassurance. The woman slowly approached the door and unlocked the deadbolt to open, but you noticed the chain was still in tact when the door was only opened a crack to reveal only a sliver of her.

“Mrs. Hager? Agents Roth, Malloy and Weaver.” You introduced yourself to the woman as you slipped your badge into your pocket for safekeeping until the next time you’d need it. “We want to speak to you about Aaron Webber’s abduction.”

“Like I told the police,” Mrs. Hager repeated the statement she gave last week. “One minute I was taking Aaron to get cleaned up, and the next minute...I woke up in a park three blocks away.”

“And you have no memory of what happened?” Sam questioned the woman.

“No.” She admitted, shaking her head. “He was just gone.”

“Can you think any reason why somebody would want to harm him?” Dean asked her, giving the same kind of routine questions the police had when they interviewed her. “Um, any enemies?”

"Enemies? He's five." Mrs. Hager said. Her face scrunched up slightly from his rather odd sounding question. Dean gave her a small smile, you forced yourself not to roll your eyes. A better way to phrase the question to make this sound like a formal interview was to ask if the parents had any enemies that would want to harm their child. But before you could, her attention moved over to Sam, who had pulled out his cell phone and began to quietly murmur something she couldn't quite understand. "Excuse me?"

"It's, uh, code for your own safety so that you can't reveal anything under enhanced interrogation." Dean came up with possibly the flimsiest lie he could think of as his brother quietly whispered the exorcism spell underneath his breath, wondering if she would react. Before Mrs. Hager could try and ask any questions of her own, Dean quickly spoke again. "Now, when you woke up on the floor, were there any signs of a struggle?”

“No.” She said.

“Smell like sulfur?” You asked her, already having a feeling you knew her answer. Mrs. Hager's expression dropped as she stared at you, a bit startled from how you could have known that. You gave her a half smile and shrugged your shoulders nonchalantly. "Lucky guess. Thank you for your time."

Mrs. Hager stepped back into her home and shut the door behind her as the three of you made your way down her porch steps and headed to the Impala parked right besides the sidewalk. It was pretty clear the woman you spoke to was human, but you would bet ten bucks a demon decided to take a spin in her body to get what they wanted, which was a five year old. What they wanted with a child and all those people was still unknown, but you were betting it was for a bad reason. It always was. And you needed to find them before one of them got hurt, if they already weren’t. Or worst case scenario—dead.

+ + +

Once you got back to the motel a short after speaking to Mrs. Hager and doing a bit more research, you decided at a normal hour you were going to bed. You felt exhausted for whatever reason and complained about a headache that seemed to come out nowhere. So you occupied your side of the bed, drifting off to sleep by the sound of the storm outside and the occasional typing sounds Dean was making on the laptop. He couldn’t sleep, so he distracted himself by trying to figure out the reason why these people went missing in the first place and if there were any more victims to add to the list.

Dean sat up in bed with the laptop making a decent amount of light in the dark room. Every so often he looked away from the screen to see if the light was bothering you. But you remained still at his side, your sleeping face up in bed made a small smile spread across his lips, making him think to himself about how adorable you looked before turning his attention back to the research to continue on. He skimmed the news article about the missing kid to see if there was something that might have been helpful.

Another rumble of thunder echoed from outside as a flash of lightning lit up the sky and the motel. He turned his head slightly to the window to see how the progression of the storm was coming along. However he found himself glued to the window at the sight of a shadowy figure standing in front of the window. Dean felt his heartbeat suddenly spike up at who he saw. It was a familiar face he saw just a few days ago. It had to be him.

Dean shut the laptop and threw it to the end of the bed and got himself out of bed, forgetting about your sleeping body next to him. He wandered over to the window and stood there for a moment. Another rumble of thunder echoed from outside as the lightning cast a shadow over the window, but the only face staring back at Dean was his own. Cas there one minute, but gone the next. Dean slowly moved his gaze away from the window and down to the floor, wondering if he was starting to lose his damn mind.

“Dean?” The man was broken broken out of his thoughts when he heard your groggy voice from across the room. You had been woken up from the thunder, but you were half awake at the realization Dean was missing. You pushed yourself up into a sitting position, one hand was propping you up as you used the other to rub the sleep from your eyes. "What's going on?" You managed to get yourself somewhat alert as you blinked, your eyes adjusting to the darkness to see that Dean was standing next to the window. "Hey, are you okay?"

Dean didn't respond for a moment as he stood next to the window, his back still to you. You pushed the covers off your body and pushed yourself to your feet and began to slowly walk over to him. "I don't know." Dean admitted. You could hear the caution in his voice as his eyes jumped back and forth across the motel parking lot. "I just saw something."

"Uh, you saw what?" You asked him, hoping he might elaborate more on that answer. You expected him to respond with him saying that it was nothing. Being a hunter made you paranoid about every little thing that there was something lurking out in the shadows. But Dean didn't think there was an enemy outside, but an old friend. You began walking faster to the window when you heard Dean say a name that made you suddenly alert. "Cas? Where?"

"Right there." Dean said, pointing a finger to the window right next to the both of you. You furrowed your brow slightly when you saw there was nobody there.But you realized right away that it was just an illusion, a trick his mind was playing on him. You let out a quiet sigh when you realized this wasn't the first time that it happened to him. "And—And earlier, on the road. I feel like I'm seeing him."

“Dean…” You spoke his name softly as you stepped forward to him so you were standing next to him. You looked outside one more time, hoping that he was right and there might have been a chance you could spot an angel. But there was nobody there. “That’s not possible. I mean, you said it yourself. You made it out and he didn’t, right?”

"I tried so damn hard to get the both of us the hell out of there." Dean mumbled underneath his breath. You let out a sigh from the way he was thinking, you knew he was beating himself up at what unfolded down there. It was something you wanted so hard to understand, but you couldn't. You reached out to place it on his shoulder in attempt to be supportive, but he walked away, making you drop your arm back down to your side. "You know, I could have pulled him out. I just don't understand why he didn't try harder."

"Dean," You spoke the name's name in a more serious tone when he finally turned around so he was now facing you again. You caught the glimpse of the guilt he was showing. You walked over to him and placed your hand on his arm, squeezing it softly to making him look at you. You gave him a sympathetic expression from the way he was beating himself up. "You did everything you could."

He didn’t look at you right away, but when he finally did, you could see the feelings he had been bottling up since returning back. All the guilt, anger...so many things you wanted to know. But it’d be like pulling teeth to get him to tell you what happened. So you stuck with the situation right now, trying to make him feel better. “Yeah, but why do I feel like crap?”

“Survivor’s guilt?” You presumed what was causing him to make him feel like this. Dean nodded his head as quietly hummed something underneath his breath. You tilted your head to the side when he looked away from you again. “Look, I don't know what happened...or what you're feeling right now. But this is gonna keep messing with you. You got to come to terms with this."

Dean knew that it was easier said than done. You squeezed his arm one more time before heading off to the bathroom to make a quick stop there to relieve yourself before going back to bed. As Dean got himself ready for a few hours of sleep, you shut the door behind you and headed for the toilet. But you only made it a few steps before you suddenly felt the feeling come back. You quickly grabbed ahold of the counter and leaned over the sink, presuming you were going to be sick again like you had been before going on this hunt.

You inhaled a deep breath as you got ready to hurl up the dinner you had hours ago, but the feeling only lasted a moment before disappearing quick as it came. You slowly pushed yourself up to a standing position as you looked at yourself in the mirror, wondering what was going on, and what you eat to have made you feel like this. But you didn't put too much worry into it. You probably just got the stomach bug, it’d pass in a few days. You finished up in the bathroom and a minute later you were crawling into bed with Dean again, falling back into a dreamless sleep.

+ + +

The next morning you woke up feeling perfectly fine, the nausea you had late into the night passed. You were now sitting at the table with your laptop open and an empty coffee cup at your side. You decided to go poking around the internet to see if there might have been any more people vanishing out of thin air. You were surprised to see something that fit exactly into the weird criteria you were looking for, just not in a place you were expecting. It seemed that demons were going international now to snatch people out of thin air.

“Hey, so it’s not just Americans who are vanishing. This guy, Luigi Ponzi disappeared walking between two subway cars in Rome.” You told the older Winchester who was in the bathroom right across from where you were sitting, the sink running. You turned your gaze away from the laptop screen to see what he was doing. And stealing a glance at his bottom half when he was bending over. You cleared your throat and turned your attention back to the article you were talking about. "And right above ground, there was a freak hailstorm."

"So, we going to Rome?” Dean asked, liking the idea of taking a trip overseas to work to pretend and work on the case and sightsee at the same time. “Wouldn't be too shabby."

"If only." You said, smiling to yourself at the thought of being able to enjoy the sights of a place like Rome. The history, the foreign place, the romantic time the both of you would have. And having no clue what people were saying. You pushed yourself up to your feet and headed to the small kitchen area to treat yourself with another cup of coffee. As you poured yourself a cup, you inhaled a deep breath, however instantly regretted it from the smell you took in. Your nose wrinkled slightly as you grabbed the cup and turned around. “God. What is that—”

You were about to ask Dean where that smell came from--it was hard to describe. And it hit you all at once. Sweat, dirt, blood...You picked it up all at once. You wondered if you were losing your mind like him from the strange things your body was doing to you, or there was a smell from outside that was creeping into the motel. But as you turned around and made a step to your laptop, you stopped dead in your tracks.

You were face to face with someone that almost appeared like a stranger to you. Part of you was ready to throw the hot coffee into the person’s face, until you looked past the grimy and sweaty appearance. The long hair you weren’t used to and the full beard. It was the familiar pair of blue eyes and trench coat you recognized. You felt your mouth fall open as the cup slipped from your grip, making a loud shattering noise that made Dean quickly look over his shoulder to see what was going on. But it seemed he was taken back himself. Because the person standing in front of you wasn't a stranger, but someone he'd seen a few times. Alive and in the flesh.

You tightly furrowed your brow as you whispered a name you thought you'd never be able to say again to his face. "Cas?"

“Hello, Y/N.” You heard his voice, the same gravely tone you heard two years ago, in the hospital room where you wanted him to change your life. Both of you left wondering at the end of it all if you were going to see each other again. But here he was, and there was you, knowing exactly who he was and him back from purgatory.

[Next Part]

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amillionsmiles · 7 years ago

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heyyyyyy “you were trying to reach for a box of cereal and a whole shelf’s-worth of cereal boxes fell on you here let me help” for plance????? perhaps?????? i feel like pidge would definitely be buying cereal at like 2 in the morning from walmart though

i dont;;; even know where the ending to this came from but here, upfront, are my sincerest apologies

“Here’s some cash,” Matt said.

“Just run into the store and buy me a box of cereal,” Matt said.

I hate my stupid brother and his stupid fixation with Kellogg’s Krave, Pidge thinks, flat on her ass at 11 PM in the cereal aisle of Walmart. The fluorescent lighting hums down upon her mockingly. A box of Fruity Pebbles crunches under her hand when she shifts to press the bruise forming on her rear end. Conveniently, this is also the moment that a fellow late-night shopper decides to appear, only to get an eye-full of Pidge scowling and kneading her right butt cheek, surrounded by a pile of Captain Crunch, Cheerios, Lucky Charms and the like.

The stranger whistles. He’s tall, with short brown hair and a sharp chin, a smirk tugging up the corners of his mouth as he approaches. Pidge half-considers burrowing deeper into her mound of cereal boxes but decides against it, meeting his gaze head-on.

“How’s it going down there?” he asks, offering a hand.

Ignoring it, Pidge stands up on her own, accidentally sending a box of Apple Jacks skittering across the floor. The boy stops it with his foot, scooping it off the ground and setting it back on the shelf. Unfazed by her silence, he continues, “I’m Lance, by the way.”

“I’m Katie,” Pidge finally relents, because she has a feeling that Lance isn’t going to leave.

Lance grins. “Oh, good. Otherwise I was going to have to keep referring to you as Wipeout on Aisle Six in my head.”

“Ha, ha,” Pidge says, snatching up a box of Fruit Loops and shoving it back on the shelf.

“Seriously, though, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Pidge says, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose and looking at him. “Why are you here, anyways?”

“I heard the sound of a damsel in distress.” His stomach growls. “…Also, I may have been hunting for a midnight snack.”

Pidge gestures to the mess around them. “Be my guest.”

“How’d you end up taking out a whole shelf?”

“Blame it on whoever decided to put the Kellogg’s Krave on the very top,” Pidge says, suddenly incensed. “I mean, how does that make any sense? Obviously you put the old people cereals like Oatmeal Crisp and Raisin Bran on top, and then you leave the stuff like Cocoa Puffs and Krave near the bottom or, at least, the middle, where it’s within arm’s reach.”

Lance gasps, clutching a box of Raisin Bran to his chest. “I happen to like Raisin Bran, thank you very much.”

“That’s not the point!”

“I feel like this is a very important issue, though. Frosted Flakes or Cinnamon Toast Crunch?” he asks, holding one in either hand.

“Cinnamon Toast Crunch,” Pidge answers, before she can think better of it. “Wait, why are we even having this conversation?”

“Just trying to see if we’re compatible.” Lance winks—actually winks—at her, before turning around to resume his restocking of the shelf. Pidge short-circuits, a little, or at least that’s what she’s using as her excuse for the involuntary arm spasm that occurs. Lance yelps as the box hits him, clutching his shoulder and whirling around.

“Did you just throw a box of Corn Pops at me?”

“You were hitting on me,” Pidge defends. How did she even end up here, debating cereal with random guys in Wal-Mart? God, next time she’s just going to build Matt a robot to do his dirty work.

“Yeah, well, for the record, I usually don’t get that violent a reaction,” Lance mutters, rubbing his arm.

“So this is the usual for you,” Pidge says. “Flirting with strangers in the middle of Walmart. Real classy.”

Lance looks at her for a long moment before he bends to pick up another cereal box. “No, Katie,” he finally says, walking over to place it in her hands. “You’re special. K.”

Pidge looks down and, lo and behold, a box of Special K glares up at her, giant red letter overtaking her vision. Briefly, she entertains the thought of leaving Lance bleeding in the middle of the cereal aisle. It wouldn’t be that hard, she reasons. She could totally hack into the surveillance cameras and erase all the evidence.

However, she, Katie Holt, has been raised on stronger stuff. You don’t sit through a family dinner with Matt and her dad without learning how to give as good as you get.

So, instead, Pidge musters up her sweetest smile, staring Lance straight in the eyes.

“I hate you,” she says, pushing a box of Fiber One against his chest, “with every fiber of my being.”

It’s a beautiful start.

#me @ me: why are you like this #pidgance #plance #flirtyrobot #voltron #pidge #lance #otp: teenage dream meme team #my writing #fanfiction #ff: voltron #anonymous

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maychorian · 7 years ago

Text

Weekly Voltron Fic Recs #40

No, it hasn’t been a week since the last one. I need to shorten the turn-around time because there are going to be WAY too many entries on these lists. Expect the next one in a few days.

Rules: You can find past weekly rec lists here, and non-list recs in my general fic rec tag. Also follow @maychorianrecs for individually tagged posts, the easier to search and reblog. This is stuff I like, and I have a huge bias toward Lance, hurt/comfort, and general fluff, in that order. Gen unless otherwise noted. Please comment on the fics if you read and enjoy them!

Culture Shock by avidbeader Words: 2,217 Author’s Summary: The team is hunting up supplies for Coran on a new planet. Keith and Pidge run up against some erroneous assumptions from the locals. My Comments: Talk about repressive societies. That’s not a planet you want to hang out on for any length of time. Love protective teammates though, as well as Pidge going firecracker-mad.

Like a Rolling Stone by Emerald_Ashes Words: 2,380 Author’s Summary: Lance had distanced himself from the blue lion since they switched pilots around. But he was still drawn to her, and finds himself wandering down to her hangar one sleepless night. My Comments: Season Three spoilers. Aw, poor Lance. I’m so glad Allura talked to him and she was able to reassure him a bit.

A Very Bland Slumber Party by genericfanatic Words: 3,252 Author’s Summary: Lance and Hunk have a surprise for everyone they want to show off. Another ‘thank you’ fic for getting 500 FOLLOWERS on my side-blog, 'blandvoltronheadcanons’ My Comments: Super adorable team bonding fic with only a hint of angst. Everyone gets to relax and have a nice time with each other.

Altea Zoo by Jenniwrites, Your_Friendly_Neighborhood_Pigeon Words: 10,763 Author’s Summary: Five semi-normal days at Altea Zoo My Comments: I’m not sure how realistic this is for how a zoo would actually work, but this is a fun, fluffy fic about the paladins in an AU where they get to hang out with animals and help each other with much more ordinary, everyday problems instead of trying to save the universe. The art is fantastic, too.

Back From the Wars by yet_intrepid Words: 1,019 Author’s Summary: Somebody is carrying him. Shiro doesn’t like it. It isn’t normal. My Comments: Oh gosh, poor Shiro. What an awful time to have a dissociative flashback. I mean, there’s never really a good time, but this one is particularly bad. Good thing he has Hunk there to ground him.

Of Gripping Nightmares and Lingering Dark by twilighteve Words: 5,265 Author’s Summary: They might have gotten Lance back, but weeks of corruption have left its mark. Wound of the body was easy to recover from; the cryopod could heal anything given enough time. Wound of the mind, wound of the soul… it was harder, much harder, to heal. Direct continuation to Of Broken Bonds and Corrupted Sou My Comments: Part of a series in which Lance gets ice powers, then is kidnapped by Haggar, who tries to corrupt him into serving the Galra Empire. This a very, very good aftermath fic, with just a ton of cuddling and hurt/comfort and supportive teammates. Poor Lance is taking quite a while to recover from him ordeal, but his friends are not giving up on him. I love it so much.

Saving Grace by JamtheDingus Words: 3,160 Author’s Summary: Shiro narrowed his eyes as he began to connect the dots. Hunk avoided his gaze, and Keith crossed his arms and met Shiro’s look head-on.“What did you two do?” “Nothing!” Hunk spoke up too quickly, all too readily admitting his guilt. — The one where Hunk and Keith steal an egg, kick some ass, and totally get away with it, too. My Comments: Absolutely adorable fantasy/mmo AU with Hunk and Keith teaming up to be awesome. I haven’t read the other fics in the series, but this stands fine alone. I really enjoyed it.

a hollow nest to dream in by lacking, Quadriviuum Words: 14,425 Author’s Summary:Shiro blinks and sees a black sun reflected on dark water, his own fingers wrapped tightly around his lion’s controls. Constellations spin overhead and a view screen flickers in front of his eyes, the images blending together like a poorly exposed photograph. There’s a sharp pull deep within his chest, a hook slipping in between two ribs that catches when it tries to lift free. Shiro becomes unfixed in space and time after vanishing from the Black Lion, slipping between alternate versions of his life. The paladins try to bring him back, but their interference could be causing more harm than good. My Comments: What an AMAZING fic. I love all the worlds Shiro visits on his unwilling journey through time and space. So many poignant moments, and wonderful characterization of everyone involved. This fic is beautiful, unsettling at times, but the conclusion is magnificent.

There are many names in history, but none of them ours by xhiro Words: 2,108 Author’s Summary: It’s hard to sleep with the feeling of blood on your hands. And Shiro has to be cursed to have had not one, but two Holts in his life. At least she seems to have just as much trouble sleeping. My Comments: A quiet, fraught moment. These two both have so much pain to bear, and a lot of it is wound up in each other.

Legendary Defenders by ravyn_sinclair Words: 2,479 Author’s Summary: It was huge, multi-colored to the point of being a psychodelic catastrophy, with simply the biggest neck hole he’d never thought he’d ever see, and a part of him wondered how Lance was even wearing it, as bunched together and hanging off of him as the piece of fabric was. “This is the greatest thing that Voltron needs, Hunk,” Lance said, a trill of excitement hiding in the barely stifled giggles of his voice as he got closer.Hunk sighed, lips tugging up unwillingly. “Oh really, that’s…that’s nice, I guess, though I don’t see how – Lance, what are you doing.” – In which Lance finds the largest, ugliest shirt and the Team Forms Voltron. My Comments: This might be the cutest, funniest thing I have ever read. I came very close to laughing aloud at work.

thunder breaks when i open my mouth by arkhmknights for darlingneverland Words: 4,193 Author’s Summary: “Were you ever frightened like this?” Allura whispered.Shiro didn’t respond, and for a moment Allura feared he’d vanished (to miss a voice in her own head—perhaps she truly was going insane). Then he whispered back: All the time. (Or: Allura, stranded and hurt on a strange planet, with only the voice of her missing friend for company. Not exactly how she planned to begin her career as a paladin.) My Comments: Interesting take on Allura as the black paladin, struggling to get along in a difficult situation. It’s a good thing Shiro is there, kind of.

The Fluffy Secret by Eastofthemoon Words: 16,868 Author’s Summary: Keith has a deep, dark secret…he’s a big softie when it comes to animals. When Hunk, Lance and Pidge discover he’s been rescuing animals and bringing them on the ship, there’s only one thing they can do! Help him take care of the animals in secret without letting Shiro, Allura or Coran finding out. My Comments: The CUTEST fic. I loved every single moment. Everyone’s reactions to Keith keeping pets was so adorable and in-character. They all really kind of desperately need therapy animals, which is kind of what this becomes, too. Lots of cute, sweet, fluffy moments.

You and the sea, talking by Veto_power_over_clocks Words: 4,435 Author’s Summary: The proper way of bonding with your lion. (“Take that, Keith!” “Lance, be nice.”) My Comments: Really beautiful bonding fic between Lance and Blue. I love Blue’s voice in this as the two of them get to know each other and Lance begins to accept her support.

Tunnel to the Sky by ImpendingExodus Words: 37,872 Author’s Summary: The Castle is in disrepair, the Galra are invading, and the Paladins only wanted to go on a day trip to the space mall. Oh well, not everyone gets what they want. Time to turn space pirate. My Comments: This is one of the fics that just grabs you and won’t let go. Once the plot gets going, it does NOT stop, with all of its twists and turns and reversals. Great suspense and tension, and the characters were all very well-written, with some touches of angst from Pidge missing her family, Lance’s insecurity, and Shiro’s PTSD.

First Space and the Right Place by Dayadhvam Words: 11,223 Author’s Summary: Shay had asked him, with the sunrise before them: “Have you ever had this feeling, to know that something so wondrous might become so common?” Yes, yes, yes. Or perhaps it was the other way around, the common becoming wondrous—when Hunk had moved from place to place in search of a new home, and learned to be more than a stranger in a strange land. My Comments: I really, really enjoyed this. Very beautiful and poignant exploration of who Hunk is and where he come and what he wants to be. Lyrical and gorgeous.

The Guardian Of Sky by ajkal2 Words: 1,394 Author’s Summary: His bedsheets when he was 6 had been decorated with rockets and stars, little astronauts floating among them. Three seconds to go.—a drabble about astronauts and cosmic lions My Comments: Really cool little fic, very descriptive and interesting, of a moment with Shiro in space.

Crushing Deep by Child_of_the_Fae Words: 4,841 Author’s Summary: During a battle on an oceanic planet, Lance is lost to the deep, and when he comes back he isn’t quite the same anymore My Comments: Very surreal plot, really grabs hold of you. I could really feel what Lance was going through, and the end was very emotional with everyone trying to get Lance back from where he’d gone.

hound by story_monger Words: 47,561 Author’s Summary: Keith has a lot of practice being alone; you might almost say he’s good at it. When he finds himself seriously injured and stranded on an unknown planet, he knows he’s not alone there. And here’s the worst part: even after rescue and after things return to normal, Keith gets the distinct sense that whatever was on that planet has followed him. He doesn’t have proof. But he knows it’s there. He knows it’s not going to stop until it gets what it wants. My Comments: What an absolutely FABULOUS fic. It’s so tightly written, so suspenseful and so engaging. I read this entire thing in one long stretch and I don’t regret a single moment. The story just grabbed me up in its fist and dragged me along. Every time I open up a huge story like this and start reading, I think, “Okay, fic. Seduce me.” And this one TOTALLY did. Can’t recommend it highly enough. There are some very unsettling and scary moments, as well as ones of great beauty, and some tip-top supportiveness and comforting. Wonderful, wonderful fic. Pay attention to the title and the way the meaning of it changes, too.

Previously Recced Fics That Updated:

Ten Days (44665 words) familiar (93596 words) Takashi Shirogane Takes the World (7701 words) Burning (20750 words) Coran's Guide to the Care and Keeping of Earthling Humans (30986 words) Bromances in Space (27212 words) Fusion Confusion (15752 words) As Color Fades Away (100533 words) Water and Blood (21648 words) The Machinations of Perception (41039 words) The Incredibly Improbable [But True] Intergalactic Adventures of Matthew J. Holt, Rebel at Large (6025 words)

Fics with spoilers for Season Three under the cut.

Over and Overture by BossToaster (ChaoticReactions) Words: 14,531 Author’s Summary: Since Shiro returned, something has been… off about him. But he deals with it, just like he’s dealt with everything else. Until the problems begin to build. My Comments: Season Three spoilers. This is everything I wanted in a post Season Three fic. Everyone is extremely well-characterized, and it just makes so much SENSE. I felt so much for poor not-Shiro, and the ending was extremely satisfying.

Allowed to Be by isabeau25 Words: 1,303 Author’s Summary: *SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3* He’s not Shiro, and they all know it. He is someone though, and he gets a say in that. My Comments: Spoilers for Season Three. Very sweet fic with Lance doing everything he can to support the new person on their team, even though he’s not Shiro.

Iterations by Azzandra Words: 3,968 Author’s Summary: To the question of when exactly Lotor was born, the answer this fic provides is: several times, actually. My Comments: Season Three spoilers. Such a fascinating concept, incredibly well-written. Haggar and Zarkon are undoubtedly evil, but the only creature they have even flashes of caring for is this son, who keeps being born and again and again. Ten thousand years is a long time.

Parallel Support by Arisprite Words: 1,811 Author’s Summary: Lance didn’t expect Keith to be knocking at his door, but he’d do his best to return the favor. But, this might be bigger than the two of them. My Comments: Season Three spoilers. I love the way Keith and Lance have gone to support each other during the new season, and this continues it, with Keith going to Lance to consult about the strangeness he’s observing in Shiro. I hope canon continues to develop their relationship like this.

#voltron legendary defender #fic rec #weekly voltron fic recs #vldgen

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metalotaku-da · 6 years ago

Text

Ryan and Lance week 5 mermaid au

i’ll probably do more of this later on ao3. but the first part is already 12 pages.

“Everybody up! We got to move now! Up! Up! Get your gear.” James yells tearing down the narrow hallway below deck. Slamming on the doors to the rooms to wake people as he passes. A few people falling from their bunks to the floor.

Ryan is up on his feet in no time pulling on his clothing quickly. Once his pants and shoes are on, he grabs a shirt off the wall and his camera bag from his cubby and heads into the Hall. Nadia is seconds behind him hoping on one foot at time to get her shoes on. “What the hell is going on. We just hit the hay a few hours ago.”

“3 hours and 38 minutes ago.” Ina says calmly leaving her shared room with Nadia.

“Ok yeah, well close enough. It's the middle of the night. What the hell is the emergency?” She huffed falling a few places behind Kinkade to give him the arm room he needs to get his shirt on. Even if he doesn't button it.

“Don't know we just need to be prepared.” Ryan answers pulling his camera bags strap over his head to secure it before digging out his waterproof video camera just as they get to the stairs to get on deck.

Once Ina is on deck with her own bag on and waterproof tablet in hand she takes a cursory glance at the sky and down to the horizon. “We have changed course and have increased speed since retiring for the night.” The three ignored the other crew members stumbling up behind them to head for the bridge.

“Why? I thought we were going to follow the current with the migrating shoals till we spotted a pod?” Nadia asked as Ryan continued to lead the way now filming as he went. His camera's auto balancer working perfectly as he ascended the stairs nearly two at a time with his long legs.

“About time you lot got here, hurry up and gather up cadets.” Iverson yelled as soon as the door opened. Already packed around the high-tech holo-gps table was captain Iverson, Sam and Coleen Holt their son Matt as well, first mate Adam west, navigator Veronica McClain, and their marine biology specialist Slav. The one who stood out the most to Ryan was their ships medic Coran also being at the meeting. That was never good. Before their trip could complete the trip to the table James comes bursting in behind.

“Everybody is up and getting to stations sir. All hands should be on deck shortly.” James Sames with a halfhearted salute to the captain who has a soft spot for his old military protocol.

“What is going on? Are we sinking or something?” Nadia asked annoyed at having been woken up so abruptly.

“There is an emergency, but not our own.” Colleen said gently before Iverson could snap at her impatient.

“We got a call from a nearby coast guard vessel.” Iverson said looking around the table. “They intercepted a poaching vessel.” He paused. “In the middle of a hunt.” The room exploded with questions.

“Everyone quiet and wait. See if your questions are answered after he gets out the pertinent information.” Adam shouted over the group till the ceased.

“The coast guard was unable to engage the ship in time to prevent them from harming one of their targets. The good news is they seemed to be after live specimens. The bad news is, they were targeting mers.” Iverson gave a second for that to sink in. As that was exactly the target of their ship, but for research and study in the wild. James had been brought in specifically to collect video for a documentary for added awareness and generate funding for their ongoing research to the public. “And from what the coast guard described of the pod. And their doubt of their own observations. The pod that was attacked is believed to be subject group ap27v, Voltron.”

There was a clatter as Matt dropped his tablet. “Voltron? Poachers found and cornered our legendries?”

There was a groan from Veronica. “they aren't Pokemon Matt.”

“You right I could log on to pogo out here and catch something. They are rarer than Pokemon. They are like finding the lochness monster. We've only had the first-hand privilege to witness them 4 times in 4 years. And the handful of sightings by other vessels is shoddy at best. We can't even get close enough to tag any members.”

“To a seedy bunch of poachers, they probably didn't notice or care about how odd the pod was. They saw a small easy target of variety. Good easy money.” Ryan spoke up his mouth pulled slightly in anger. “It's just about a quick buck.”

Ina carefully placed a calming hand to Ryan's back. Knowing how much her friend hated poachers. Specifically, mer poachers.

“Yes, and we are going to take this opportunity to tag one of the pod.” Iverson said once Ryan was done. “After we have contained and corralled them. We have permission from the government to seize and relocate members of the pod as we deem necessary, though if that does not pan out.”

“What? Why? How?” Nadia asked in confusion. They hardly ever took in living specimens and the mers in particular we're highly protected under international treaties and the U.N.

“The pod's alpha male was severely injured by the poachers. The pod managed to free him, when the coast guard arrived. But there was a lot of blood. They don't know what other injuries we're incurred by the pod. But the male orca breed was observed to be missing an arm from the elbow along with other lacerations. He was also not swimming well on his own the pod was keeping him at the surface and pulling him along as they swam.” Colleen gave the run down from her notes on her tablet.

“We also want all hands-on deck not just because we are cornering injured mer to sedate for medical treatment. Possibly multiple. If it's not treatable on site, we will have to move pod back to the coast for rehabilitation. The unique make up and study of this pod has allowed is this opportunity. Even if our goal should be immediate release. If anyone mer won't survive their injuries above a 90 percent.” Iverson looked to Ina to make sure she made notes on her tablet. Which she was. As that call would most likely fall to her and Slav. “We are to collect them all, till they can be rehabbed and reintroduced.” he gave out a long sigh and then gestured to James to finish for him. Having been the one he first called when the transmission came over. And had caught the tail end and most unbelievable part of the report.

“The other reason is…” James looked around the table at everyone with the most serious of looks he could. “They had advanced weapons.”

“Well of course they did James. They are poachers of mer. Sure they have top of the line instruments of torture.” Nadia sassed at him.

“Yeah seriously.” Matt answered.

“No, the pod did.” James stated back. His tone and eyes showing the seriousness of the information and that he was not joking.

“Like they stole from the poachers?” Coran asked with a twirl of his mustache. Though his tone was curious his face gave way to his worry.

“A wet gun isn't going to fire.” Veronica pointed out.

“No.” James said again rubbing his eyes in exasperation. “Their own they made. The descriptions were vague. But...” He looked around the table at the shocked and agape faces of the team. “The pod got members of it on board the ship to free their member. They were witnessed dragging him over the side and engaging the crew of the ship with primitive projectile weapons. Including firing on the coast guard ship when they tried to corral the pod to hold for us.”

Ryan nearly dropped his camera at that information. Matt dropped his tablet a second time. “That's not possible.” Sam said in his shock. “mer have only ever been observed with basic tools, a coral club, or a sharp shell used for cutting a sharped bone spear. Maybe a shark’s tooth imbedded in a wood handle for the most complicated. You’re talking about…”

“This odd mix matched shouldn't be natural in the wild pod is…” Matt said. “Evolving. If not experimenting and inventing. Like…”

“Humans.” Ryan said in pure shock. This was new. This was ground breaking. This pod alone was unique and ground breaking based on no two subspecies was the Same. It was a mixed pod. and had funded this crew for many years now when they were first spotted. If they could get proof of this, show just how much more human these creatures were. They would not only stun and enlighten the scientific community but maybe even get more funding for protection for these creatures. Or communication. Ryan and Ina's own side project and theory. In attempts to learn their complex languages. “This is..”

“Amazing.”

“Exciting.”

“Ground breaking.”

“Dangerous is what it is. All you little nerds get the stars out of your eyes and buckle down.” Iverson said annoyed. “They attacked the coast guard, who was trying to help and only contain.”

“We will be engaging in a closer and more direct nature. If the reports on the weapons is true. They could use them on us, not understanding we are trying to help.” Adam tried to sober up the group of scientists. “So, we need to proceed with caution. We are headed just ahead of their last know location on the direction they were seen headed. It’s dark, and we have a lot of unknown variables. We have 7 different species of mer to prepare to Capture, subdue, and asceses. And they are already stressed, and in the middle of their fight or flight instinct, and possibly we now have the added danger of distant weapons. We need all hands-on deck sharp and alert. This isn’t going to be easy.” Adam relayed for the group.

“I’m not having anyone die on my watch. The rich bill payers don’t tend to like that. And it looks bad on my record.” Iverson had to get in the last word a wry smile on his face. “So get some coffee and get to your stations. We should be in the strike zone in an hour so long as they didn’t change directions. You are dismissed.”

James grabbed his team on the way out. “Kinkade, can you set anything up for night filming with Ina? I know it’s last minute.”

“It is, I have one camera we can…” Ryan started.

“I’ll have the program ready for it within the hour limit.” Ina answered.

“I’ll switch it to a mount with an auto leveler on the front of one of the go ships.” Ryan finished.

James jerked at that. “I don’t know if i want you on a go boat. That’s, that’s a risky spot if the information is true.”

“Uh griffin, this is like the kind of discovery that makes names. Gets you in a college textbook, maybe even a high school one.” Nadia quipped back. “If you don’t think Kinkade is going to make sure his camera is on the first ship to intercept the pod. You are delusional.”

“She’s right.” Ryan said with a smirk.

“I don’t like it. But if you are going to do it. I want you dressed in full gear. Your thick wet suit, the white one so we can see you if you go over.” James said with a sigh. “Ina, I want…”

“I’ll collect live feed from all camera’s Ryan sets up, and catalog as much data as I can from the feeds before bringing the mers into the slings. That way Slav has adequate data for tranquilizers based on preliminary data to lower risk.”

“Yeah that.” James said with a pout. “I’ll let you to get on what you need to do. “Nadia, coffees, for everyone. We meet back on deck once Ryan and Ina have all the gear they need. And we set up whatever they need help with. We are kind of useless till the mers on in the slings. Then we move fast. If… and only if we really feel they need greater medical care, will we transfer then to the tank. If that happens this trip is over, we head back immediately to the aquatic reserve facility.”

***************

“Alright we are close to the estimated area the mers should be in. keeps yours eyes peeled, and the sonar drones have been dropped along with two ariel drones with heat signature detection. Once they have been spotted, we will deploy the net boats to secure then and lead them back towards our main ship for tranquilizing and medical assessment. No sling leaves the water unless Slav or Ina gives the go.” Iverson said as he stood in his old military position in front of the crew on deck. “We need to look alive people and keep alert, we don’t know what to expect, this is anything but a routine bag and tag. Watch each other’s backs. The safety of this crew comes first.” Iverson then gave the floor to James.

“The pod we are looking for is the Voltron pod. It consists of a large alpha male orca whale type mer who was the one reported with the most severe injury. He is also the largest. He’s estimated at 30ft long. He’s been named Shiro. The female alpha is an 27Ft long oarfish type. She is the second largest in the group. Named Allura. Next in size we have a female coelacanth, the largest one ever recorded, and it’s just an educated guess based on photos at 15ft. She is the slowest and cataloged as shay. Then we have on second most dangerous after the orca. A bull male elephant seal he is 12ft long, and huge. One of the largest we’ve seen. We believe him to be Over 7,000 lbs. and if he feels like it, he can get around on our ship if we aren’t careful called Hunk. Third dangerous is a crossbreed. Mako, and bull shark mer cross breed. He’s 10ft long. Male. he’s got the speed of a Mako and the most aggressive in the pod. He’s also been recorded with a large black coral knife in every sighting. So, keep an eye out. He’s going to be the hardest to predict. The shark mers are usually solitary or pair. And this one is not. And is normally protective of his pod. Attacking ships that get to close. With the recent attack and alpha male injured he’s going to be worse he’s been named Keith. The smallest female is an octopus type. So, another who will be able to get around on deck easily. She’s also pretty young based on her size. She’s 9ft long if she’s streamlined. She has reach and can be kind of aggressive too. Matt stupidly named her Pidgeot, we call her Pidge. Lastly is a young male, who appears to be a lancetfish type, or at least a crossbreed of one. We just don’t know what with, or if he is a new species. He has a frill with barbs that can extend down his back. He will be the easiest to spot Out here in the dark, he has bioluminescent spots and stripes that flash. He’s just longer than the shark, 11ft and originally named lance. He’s also sometimes seen with a spear. Our goal is to collect them quickly with the least amount of stress. It’s going to be tough. But I know we can do this. These mers are counting on us.”

Matt took over next. “Alright I’m calling out teams for the net runners. I want you sitting pretty and waiting for the drop. Ryan will be joining one of the lead boats with his camera, so he’s just an extra body.” Matt then began calling out the four groups.

*******************

More ships, more humans. Why couldn’t they just leave them alone. The pod had had to slow down. When their leader Shiro had lost consciousness. Pidge had done her best to stop the bleeding from his stump of an arm, tying a band of seaweed around it. But while they had been resting trying to catch their breathes and gills at the surface the next boat of humans had shown. Larger even still than the first two. Then it had broken up into many. 4 smaller, louder boats had come towards them. They had tried to flee. They couldn’t dive with Shiro like this. He’d drown. But they weren’t fast enough pulling his large mass along with them. The humans in their unnaturally quick boats had gotten ahead of them. Encircling their family with a net. It dropped to deep for them to go under even if Shiro could dive and he couldn’t. Keith was becoming more agitated if that was even possible. Slashing at the net with his knife, his claws his teeth even. It wouldn’t break though. And with each passing wave the bigger ship drew closer to them. Allura drew her long body up protectively around Shiro at the sight. Shay holding his head. Pidge i tried tugging on the top of the net to push it down so maybe we could swim over it. We were having very little luck. Then in his frustration Keith slashed one of the hard jellyfish at the top of the net with his knife. It shrank in size and that part of the net dropped lower in the water. Pidge puffed up at the sight of it excitedly. And I flashed my tail. I waved Hunk over placing his hand to my throat I made the vibrations that went with my lights and the words with my hands, so Hunk would know what we wanted. Pidge making the Same gestures a few more with her tentacles pulling at the net Too. Hunk dove down just enough to build some speed then cleared the surface enough to land on the top of the net with his body. I took my last arrow from it’s hold and flashed at Keith. The two us began to slash the jellies on either side of Hunk to get the net to lower more. Pidge darted quickly to shay and Allura to help them guide Shiro out the deepest part above Hunk. I flashed another pattern to Keith, so he knew to go help them. Then i joined Hunk in swimming down holding the net.

********************

“Are you seeing this?” Matt said excitedly to James as they watched the feed from the boats laying and tying off nets while their ship pulled them in.

“Yeah I am. And as cool as it is, to see their tools and problem-solving abilities in person. They are going to get out and we are going to need a new plan to catch them.” James complained. “Can we real the nets in any faster?”

“A little.” Nadia “But we can pull it.” She snapped her fingers. “See if Iverson or Adam can reverse direction. Put tension on the net make it narrower.”

“On it.” Sam said with a smile calling up to the bridge.

They watched the net jerk on the video feed just a few seconds to late, most the mers getting clear outside the net, the seal getting the net pulled out from under him like a rug falling to the outside of it. But under him was an unbroken buoy. Once his weight was removed it added to the lift of the net. Leaving only one mer the lancet trapped inside. His weight to light. Flinging out of the water and a few feet back from the net seemly stunned for a minute before he dived under. The shark disappearing from the surface along with the octopus and seal.

“So, we got one at least. Even if his pod flees I don’t think they’ll go far, do you?” Nadia asked.

“We don’t know how they will behave. Oar and lancet leave week and injured behind. Sharks eat them. So, we don’t know what they will do. This pod already defies all we know about mers. Anything could happen.” Ina said looking at an underwater feed of the scene.

*********

I swam up to the net and watched sadly as Keith once again frantically attacked it with everything he had Hunk pulling on it and pidge trying to analyze it. I have them a sad smile and at them to go. I was trapped. Shiro was injured. They needed to flee before the human’s big ship was to close. Keith shook his head and tail violently in the water eyes sad and terrified. It’s ok I signed him. Along with escape. Later. Shiro. safe. I reached my hands through the net Hunk and pidge each taking one. Hunk let out a mournful wail into the water. Pidge signing, they will come back. For me. Not leaving. Back. soon. Keith reached threw the net to grab my head and pull it forward pressing the bridge of his nose to the top of my head, so I could feel the small pulses. Back. safe. Not leaving. Not alone. I flashed my lights back. Love. family. Safe. ok. Go. go. Go. I fight. We pulled away from each other and the net. I watched my pod swim away. To safety to freedom. Then turned to face the big human ship. I had lost my arrow. Only had the bow left draped across my chest. But I still had my teeth, my claws and my barbs. I would fight. To give my pod time at least to get away.

********

“Ryan did you see….” Ina asked after having witnessed the underwater scene thanks to the lights of the ship coming closer to the net and mers.

“Yeah I did.” He said his own small feed on this tablet of all the camera’s. His words tinged with sadness.

“But they still left him.” Nadia said sadly.

“I… I didn’t think they were going to after that.” Colleen said a hand cupped over her mouth. The small group on deck watching as the sad lone mer began to frantically move about the shrinking space shoving at the enclosing net. Bright lights on his body flashing randomly. Suddenly shining like a light bright with its paper pulled back to just some twinkling lights. Or pulsating down his body. Intermittently when a boat would get to close he’d flare his spines and flash his teeth. His world slowly shrinking.

“Saddle up team. We still have a job to do. I know it’s hard. Ina assessment.” James sadly got them on tract.

“Subject named lance, untagged, estimated length 11ft long male lancet. Coloring brown, blue white. Gill breather self-pumping. Estimated weight 225-250 pounds Warm blooded. Scale density estimate 6mils back. 2-3 stomach area. Appears to have several fresh lacerations, and a piece of harpoon embedded in his back just under his dorsal ridge between his shoulders. From his movements I believe it to be embedded in the skins connective tissue. I don’t believe it’s in his spine. Due to agitation level, he needs to be tranquilized through the softer underbelly before slinged. Or he could break off spines in it with his thrashing. Or dig the harpoon in deeper putting his spine at risk.”

“Good call.” James patted her on the back. “you’ve got the assessment Slav. Start working on some tranquilizers for him. We’ll hit him once the net is tight enough to control his movements more.”

“on it. right away.” Slav called to him with a thumbs up. Loading the cartridges from his station near the platform.

“Ryan can you get back to the ship? I’d like to get more shots from the platform when we bring him up. If that’s alright.” Matt asked. “his lights and the display look controlled a little bit. And maybe we can get a better identification on his subspecies.”

“sure.” Ryan said. His boat already heading back to the main ship as the others helped guide the mer closer as the net closed in.

The slings were dropped down just before the mer was corralled above it. a mere 10ft ring. Not even enough room for it lay flat at the surface without touching the back of the ship and the net behind him. His thrashing becoming worse. They didn’t have a clear shot though for the tranquilizer. And then the creature started ramming the net. Getting a few spines stuck on the netting. Tearing a few of his fins. As the sight of the pooling blood building in the water, Ryan had had enough of the mer’s fear in his viewer. He grabbed a rope off the deck floor and tied it to this belt. Then set down his hand-held camera. Only his small go pro still clipped to the front of wet suit.

“Kinkade what are doing?” James asked once he saw Ryan set down his camera. Then he saw the rope a second of shocked panic before he rushed his friend. “don’t do something stupid Kinkade!” however Ryan jumped into the net with the panicked thrasher mer before James could get to him. He grabbed the rope to tie off to the deck though to keep him with in reach. “Ryan! You idiot!”

“what is he doing?!” Nadia screamed running up to James to try and help him pull Ryan back towards the ship. Ryan popped up at the surface directly in front of the mer it had turned at the splash.

The creature charging him as Ryan held his arms to brace himself. The mer grabbed his arm unable to get any moment built to throw him. Ryan bit his lower lip hard to hold in his own yell of pain as the mer clamped down hard on his forearm. Its sharp teeth piercing threw the thick wet suit and into his flesh. Claws cutting deep into the suit to shred it. but the thick fabric giving his arm some protection. His pain almost drowning out his friends shouts of fear and worry from the ship. But Ryan could feel the mer’s full body tremble threw his arm clamped tight in the creature’s mouth. Like it was to afraid to let go. But didn’t have the energy left to tear his arm from him. Barely had the strength to flail it’s tail about. It is catching and pulling on the too close net. Ryan carefully and slowly brought his free hand up to the side of the mer’s head and neck the back of his hand brushing the area up and down. Just like he had recorded the sea lion mers in California do to their young. Fingers and nails curled away from the mer’s face and sensitive eyes. The mer flinched at the touch but opened his eyes to look up in shock at Ryan. Mouth still clamped tight. Then Ryan opened his mouth and began to chuff, moan and warble the tune he had heard and memorized from watching the recordings over and over again with Ina to catalog. To his and everyone on the ship’s amazement the mer froze at first and just watched. After a few seconds with the growing silence of the people around them, the only sound from the machines. the mer released the hold on his arm with his teeth. Ryan didn’t stop his ministrations or the sounds he was making, keeping his eyes locked with the mer.

“what the hell is he doing?” James whispered to Nadia hoping she had a clue. She shrugged in response.

Ina however answered. “it’s a call sound sea lion mers in California use to calm their young. Along with the hand motion. It was used by 87% of the observation group. With very small variables in the sounds. It also included the hand motion and touch.” She kept her voice low.

“he’s not a seal type mer.” James grit out. “why would he take a risk like that? How does he know it’s even working? That it’s not just confused at the dumb human touching him and is going to snap any minute.”

“there is a seal in their pod though.” Matt whispered back joining the group by the rope to quickly tug him back should the mer snap out of his trance. James just rolled his eyes.

“can anyone get a shot with the tranquilizer?” they heard Adam ask as he joined them down on the deck. Iverson must have sent him down after seeing the shit show it was turning into.

“no! god no!” Nadia growled out. “trying to get him killed. It takes a minute to work. In that time, he could rip Ryan apart.”

The group watched as the mer brought it’s face closer to Ryan’s before clicking its teeth hard enough for the sound to echo around. Its mouth shaking and teeth rattling. The lights on it’s tail starting to pulsate is a slow soft pattern lighting the waters. Its brows started to scrunch up mouth pausing when Ryan kept up his tune. The mer jerked it’s head up sharply lowering its self in the water before grabbing Ryan’s hand that was on his neck and pressing it in the Same position to the exposed column of his neck with the back of his hand. The mer’s grip nearly bruising on his hand despite it being much slimmer and smaller than his own. The action so fast it freaked out Ryan’s friends jerking on the rope pulling the two a little closer to the ship positioning them over the submerged sling before they realized it wasn’t attacking Kinkade. The mer then repeated the light pulse pattern and the clacking of its teeth.

“I’m sorry.” Ryan whispered careful not to move to much and startle the mer. “I don’t understand.” He kept his eyes locked with the mers. Though he could feel the vibrations threw the hand pressed to the mers throat. The mer stopped again before it looked even more frustrated. It dropped both of hands and surged forward. To grab his head. Pressing the bridge of his nose to the mer’s forehead. However, that didn’t seem to sway the crew on the ship.

“no!” James had shouted at first pulling on the rope again at the initial surge with his team. Once he realized the mer wasn’t trying to rip Ryan’s head off, the group relaxed a bit again. “oh my god. I’m going to kill you when you are back on this deck Kinkade!”

Ryan ignored his friends to carefully place the back of his curled hand to the mer’s face and neck again. Making the calming seal song again. The pressure on his nose growing a bit as the flashing became faster and once again a bit frantic. Claws of the creature digging in ever so slightly to his scalp before backing away. The mer was trembling again.

“Ryan, Ryan you need to get out of there. It’s not working anymore. It’s going to attack.” James said to his friend bracing himself on the lip of the deck to pull as soon as he needed too.

“he won’t. some one get me a fish. Slav put the tranquilizer in the fish.” Ryan paused in his tune to instruct the others. He poured as much calm certainty into it as he could into his words. Though he was fairly certain the mer wouldn’t. it was just frustrated and scared. Slav stumbled on the deck in his bid to do as asked. The pulsating stopped the water going dark for a few seconds before it started again at something more reminiscent as a throb if Ryan had to put a word to it. the mer took one hand off his head releasing some the pressure on his nose to press the hand once again to the mer’s neck. As it tried to make clicks and sounds it wasn’t capable of producing. Ryan stayed still in the water and repeated the seal song again while they waited for the fish.

The human was singing Hunk’s song. It knew seal. It knew at least some seal. But he couldn’t make the Same sounds. He tried, he tried so hard to get the human to understand. The human who didn’t attack him even when he had lashed out with the last of energy to bite him. The human who was telling him it’s ok. You are safe little one. He didn’t understand. The humans never talked to them. They made loud indescribable noises. Angry ugly faces at them. Some smiled and waved their arms. But none ever spoke to them in one of their languages. Till this human. This human who couldn’t understand him. As he begged for help. Begged to be freed. The other humans around them had their eyes locked to him, but they didn’t attack. Unsure if it was because they worried of harming their own or that he would attack the strange human if they did. None of it Matter. This human spoke like Hunk. Hunk who was so mournful at having to leave him behind. But Shiro and the pod needed Hunk. They’d come back for him once it was safe. Just like they had for Shiro. This human was trying to make him feel safe. Even if he was anything but. He’d hold onto the that for as long as he could. Till these humans cut him to pieces or jabbed him with their barbs that made their kind sleep. That’s all that was left to do was wait. And hold onto this what little bit of peace this human was offering him. Letting him pretend it was Hunk singing to him and consoling him.

My eyes catch movement behind the human. We’ve drifted closer to the big human ship. The human bumping into the ridge that sits in the water. Another human was leaning over to hand the seal human a fish and make some noises at him. The seal human took the fish with the hand I had injured. I could see and smell the blood flowing from it. mingling with the water and my own. All my injuries from the previous humans starting to burn and ache the more tired I got. It felt like torture. The seal human slowly moved the fish between us to just in front of my mouth. He stopped speaking while pressing the fish to my lips.

When the merman locked eyes with him again pulling away enough to look at the fish and sniff it before locking eyes with Ryan again. Ryan smiled at the mer sniffing the fish exaggerated the noises a bit of it. and pressed his lips around it like he was eating it before pushes it back at the mer till the mer took to understanding the gesture of him wanting the terrified thing to eat the fish. The mer closed his mouth around it and Ryan pulled back that hand once more. Giving the mer some space as it moved away a bit to hold the fish and bite of cHunks chewing and swallowing it much slower than Ryan expected. Once the mer had finished eating Ryan once again continued to caress the mer’s cheek and sing to him till he slowly drifted off in his arms. The tension of the team around him dissipating with each in the creature had sagged till, he could hear the collective sighs.

“Jesus Christ. Raise the sling. Please somebody.” James said with a head falling back sigh. “on three we hoist this idiot back on deck.” He said to Nadia and Matt who waited for his countdown to pull Kinkade back on the deck. Once he was within reach of the rail Ryan grabbed it with his good hand to help pull himself up.

Adam was there drag him over and start cutting away the shredded wet suit around his arm. Coran coming up behind with his medical kit ready. “do I need to tell you how much trouble you’re in now or should I wait?” Adam asked.

“wait.” Ryan answered with a snort.

“yes at least until I finish treating this wound. Though it’s not nearly as bad as it could’ve been. You are one lucky duck there Kinkade.” Coran said getting to work cleaning the wounds for bandaging.

“I call dibs on strangling him first.” James said. “that was immensely stupid.

“it worked.” Ryan answered.

“it did. That video will help with proving our theory on communication skills and intelligence of mers.” Ina said looking at Ryan’s go pro.

“yes, because your theories are worth dying for.” James spat back. “whatever. Get cleaned up and below deck Kinkade. You’re off this deck till Iverson or I say otherwise.” Then he stormed off.

“give him a few hours. He’ll calm down.” Nadia said with a smile and a shrug. “you scared the shit out of him. He was worried you were going to die. And he’d have to watch.”

“probably would’ve blamed himself too. Since it’s his operation.” Matt said.

“yeah. I owe him an apology coffee.” Ryan answered. But he wasn’t looking at any of his friends. He was watching the mer being taken out of the ocean and moved with the crane to the holding tank. His mouth fell into a heavy frown.

“the mer tired himself out. Even if we treated his injuries and released him now. His pod is to faraway. He’d be stranded alone, and likely wouldn’t make it unless his pod found him. It is better to contain him, treat him and allow him time to rest.” Ina informed him.

“yeah, plus what good is it to release him to catch him again. We need to get the rest of pod for treatment too. Specially the orca.” Nadia said. “they kept one of the drones on the pod as it left.” She informed him at the look of confusion.

“he’s not trapped.” Ryan said with a breath of relief.

“no. he’ll be ok.” Matt said with a pat to his arm.

“and so, will you lad. Now that you are all treated. Better listen to the deck master’s orders. Chop chop below.” Coran teased helping Ryan to his feet with Matt. Matt grabbed the camera Ryan had dropped and took it with him to walk Ryan back down to his room.

#ryan and lance week #voltron #mermaids #mermen #Lance #ryan #kinkade #mermaid au #kinkance

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antemortem-rp-blog · 5 years ago

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REBEKAH MIKAELSON twenty-one / a thousand ☾ original vampire claire holt

I am haunted by humans.

BUT AT MY BACK I ALWAYS HEAR

Rebekah, although tormented by Mikael as well, had a happy childhood. She had to be tough, but never as tough as the boys. It allowed her some ease from Mikael’s wrath. What she would never know, was how much she reminded Mikael of her departed sister, Freya. She spent many hours with her mother, and because of Kol’s talent for witchcraft, with her slightly older brother. While she never felt any brotherly love from Finn, Elijah and Niklaus were always willing to indulge Rebekah. She thought she would never have to worry so long as they were by her side. She was content with life, maybe because it was all she’d ever known or maybe because she truly loved her family.

Aside from their parents and perhaps Niklaus, Rebekah took Henrik’s death very hard. He was a sweet creature in their eyes and now he had been snatched away so carelessly from their lives. However, she hardly had the time to mourn before she herself died. It would take her years to realize how much she truly lost that night. She helped her mother select the rings that they would be forced to wear for eternity. She was the last of the family to feed but hadn’t nearly the same struggles as Niklaus would. The family betrayals didn’t cease. Their father had killed them, cursed them, even more so Niklaus, then killed their mother and disappeared. Rebekah was scared. Her older brothers were her only security and she promised to never leave them.

But Rebekah was a hopeful spirit, soft still in comparison to the armour she would wear later. She followed her family thoughtlessly. By the time Finn and Kol had gone, Rebekah had started to waver a little in her devotion. She’d had aspirations of marriage and family was a human. With her vampire life, she’d come to think of them as impossible. But one man changed her mind. It was the 12th century. Italy bustled and thrived. A handsome stranger, tender lips brushing soft knuckles. It was the thing of her dreams. She’d scarcely let herself dream of such folly until him. She fell for him, swiftly and heavily. Her brothers’ approval should have been worrisome to her, but she was too busy being smitten.

She thought they were meant to be together until they died. He revealed his deepest secrets to her. Vampires were real and he hunted them. She didn’t mind, she told him. But more importantly, he knew of a cure for vampirism. Rebekah was sure that once he learned the truth about her, he would find her this cure and they would be together. They could have a family and live out their days together. They were engaged to be wed and she, and her family, all gathered in his home before the ceremony. But she would never become his bride. In the night, he and his brethren attacked the original family. Silver daggers dipped in white oak ash. They’d learned the truth themselves and found a way to imprison them. But alas, Niklaus’ nature saved them. Although it did not save Rebekah from his wrath. She would see then his true nature, that not even she was invulnerable to his anger.

She did her best to stay on Niklaus’ good side from then on. Hundreds of years passed. They would stay somewhere, then flee to escape Mikael’s incoming torment. It never mattered. She never had anything that was hers. Nothing to cling to. But then she met Stefan Salvatore and Valeria Costillo. She had a friend. For the first time in her life, she had a shot at a normal life. They were both vampires. They understood her. When Klaus wanted to flee again, Rebekah wanted to stay in Chicago. But this only brought on the wrath she’d been careful to avoid. He daggered her and kept her that way until his most recent brush with Mikael in Chance Falls. Rebekah has been asleep nearly a century and she is furious. She wants her own life. It’s time she started thinking of herself for once.

TIME’S WINGED CHARIOT HURRYING NEAR

Elijah, Kol & Klaus Mikaelson → SIBLINGS

She loves her brothers dearly. Each one brings a different relationship. Kol, her elder by only a few years. He’s always been close to her, almost like a twin. They played together much just the two of them as children. There will always be a unique bond between the two of them. She knows she is his favourite. Elijah is like a second father to her. Wise, calm. He kept her from making many mistakes when they were human and continues to do so now. If it weren’t for his level head, Rebekah’s impulsive heart would have gotten her into far worse scenarios. And Niklaus, her dearest half-brother. She loves him so much, for he suffered more than she ever did at Mikael’s hand. While she vowed to always be by his side, she has grown to realize that he has only become more paranoid and possessive with time.

Valeria Costillo → FRIEND

Her first real and true friend. Rebekah has had many acquaintances throughout her lifetime but none who were so close to her as Valeria. They bonded almost instantly. She bore her soul easily and with no hesitation. She was able to teach her the tricks she had learned. She even had gotten her a daylight ring but was daggered by Klaus before she could give it to her. Rebekah had had much planned for the two of them before she was locked away. She only hopes her friend can forgive her for disappearing.

Gideon Longfield → PROTECTIVE

She isn’t sure what it is about the man, but she wants him separate from her family. She’s met him when going to get a drink at the boathouse. He’s sweet to her, but not so much that she can push him around. At his core, he seems too kind to be subjected to the war her family will inevitably wage on the town. She hopes to convince him to leave before that happens but will be sad to see him go. He could do so much more than die in this backwoods town.

Melissa Glasser → WITCH

Every vampire knows you can’t compel a witch, but you can still bend them to your will. For now, Rebekah has been nothing but a friend to Melissa. She knows that having a witch on her side is important, especially to keep her father at bay. However, she also is slowly beginning to learn everything that makes Melissa tick. If it comes to down the witch or family, she’ll ruin her friendship with Melissa to get her to use her powers. Nothing is thicker than blood.

#tvd rp #to rp #tw rp #supernatural rp #literate rp #rebekah #open #of #vampire #tvd #c: melissa #c: gideon #c: valeria #c: elijah #c: kol #c: klaus

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rangergirl3 · 8 years ago

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40 Questions — Meme for Fic Writers

Saw this cool list of questions going around and thought I’d try to answer a few of ‘em. :-)

1) Describe your comfort zone - a typical you fic.

Oh, definitely hurt/comfort, both of the physical and emotional variety. Someone protects someone they care about, the protector gets injured in one way or another, and then the team comes together to help take care of them.

It’s a simple formula, but I love it dearly. :-)

That being said, I’m not really comfortable with putting characters into certain kinds of bad situations, but that’s more due to my personal knee-jerk reactions to some ...uh...’mature real-life situations’. I like to keep my fics intense and interesting, but you really won’t find anything too dark in my fics. There can be a fair amount of blood and violence, though.

2) Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

Not really...? I mean, I mostly just stick with character interactions and the good old gen formula, because it’s what I love to see with most characters in shows I watch.

3) Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole?

I can’t bear to write anything where innocents don’t get out of danger. I prefer the villains to get their asses emphatically handed to them.

4) How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

Some assorted ideas, mostly still located in my ‘Lost Paladins’ series. That series really burns a hole in my brain most days. It’s fun. :-) One of the ideas I’ve had is the reunion between Shiro and Matt and Sam Holt. I’m looking forward to getting that down at some point.

5) Share one of your strengths.

I’m fiercely loyal to those I love, and I am also very empathetic.

6) Share one of your weaknesses.

I have been known to be a little bit overprotective...okay...actually more than a little. :-) I really have to struggle sometimes to rein back what I’ve taken to calling my ‘Red Lion instincts’ and let the people I love fight their own battles. :) However, I’m always ready on the sidelines to encourage them like the Genii in Aladdin. “Jafar, Jafar, he’s our man, but if he can’t do it, GREAT!”

7) Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Oh, man, it’s hard to choose, but this moment from ‘Misadventures in Babysitting’ was one I’m pretty proud of. (Here’s a link to the full story: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8472229/chapters/19412305)

Keith stopped when he saw a ventilation shaft in the tunnel ahead of him.

He still couldn't hear anyone behind them, but he had no time to waste.

He had to hide Beyris, he had to hide her now.

Keith quickly removed the grate from the ventilation tunnel and lifted Beyris inside.

"Here - Beyris - you can hide in here - "

As he lifted her up into the ventilation shaft, Beyris looked up into his face, and suddenly she looked - scared. Her lower lip started to tremble, and Keith felt as if he would have preferred a kick to the face.

"Keith - why - why are your teeth sharp?"

"Uh - I - I - "

Even as he spoke, Keith heard faint noises echoing in the tunnels far behind him. He made a decision then, and he hoped it was the right one.

"Beyris, I'm your friend. I'm Lance's friend. And - I - I have to go fight those guys now."

Beyris still seemed scared, but she nodded. "O-o-kay- but - but what should I do?"

Keith pointed at the comms unit in her hand, even as he pushed her farther down the tunnel, so she'd be out of sight.

"Hold onto that. Your uncle's coming to find you - just - don't let anyone hear you, or see you. You have to stay hidden, all right?"

He had a sudden inspiration, something that might help her. He shrugged out of his jacket and covered her with it, like it was a blanket.

"Listen, this will help you stay hidden - uh - just - pretend you're playing hide and go seek. I'm going to lead them away from you, so you just stay quiet, okay?"

She pulled the jacket over her, and Keith saw that it seemed to help, at least a little. Her clawed fingers were still shaking, but not as hard.

"It's soft," she said. "I - I like it."

Keith lifted the grate back up, but just before he put it back into place, he grinned at her and winked, like Lance would have. "Don't tell anyone, okay? They have to think I'm tough."

She smiled then, tremulously, but it was genuine. "Okay."

Keith heard the noises getting louder. He didn't want to leave her, but he had no choice.

He finished securing the grate firmly back into place. Now even he couldn't see where she was hiding. The darkness of the ventilation shaft would keep Beyris hidden until Rayzor or the other Paladins came for her.

"Wait for your uncle," he said. Without waiting for an answer, he turned and sprinted down the corridor, away from where she hid, down into the maze of tunnels where the enemy was looking for him.

He couldn't avoid Jenick or his men forever.

But he could make sure they didn't find Beyris.

I’m proud of this segment because it marks a turning point in the next few stories. I can’t say too much without giving things away, but yeah...this scene was definitely a turning point. Also, one of my favorite characters got to be protective. *Cue me loving it. :-)*

8) Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

*rubs hands together gleefully* Oh, this one’s easy to pick. Spoiler alert: This is a pretty pivotal moment in the story ‘Family Is More Than Blood’- the link is here http://archiveofourown.org/works/8472328?view_full_work=true, so skip over this one if you haven’t read that story yet. ;-)

The Black Paladin's eyes were hard, and his voice was quiet.

"If I chose to," Shiro said, "I could crush your throat and leave you here to die. Or, I could throw you against the wall, and let you live with a broken spine."

Jenick tried to get free then, but Shiro shook him, just once, and Jenick froze again, his breaths coming faster and faster in rising panic.

"Listen, Jenick," Shiro said. "I want you. to listen. to. me."

Jenick nodded, almost frantically, and Shiro continued speaking in that same flat, even tone.

"I could kill you in any number of ways. Hell, it's taking every ounce of self-control I have not to snap your neck or crush your skull, right here, right now."

Shiro drew in a breath then, and his fingers tightened on the front of Jenick's shirt as he let the breath out again, and he shook Jenick again, just once, but hard enough to make Jenick's teeth rattle in his head.

"But - despite all that - I'm going to let you live. Do you know why I'm going to let you live, Jenick?"

Jenick shook his head.

"I am going to let you live because I refuse to be like you. I refuse to let my rage control me. And that - that and that alone - is why I'll even consider allowing you to leave this room breathing."

Shiro's eyes were still flat and hard, and he brought Jenick closer, so they were nose to nose. "Do I make myself clear, Jenick?"

Jenick nodded, still speechless with fear, and Shiro growled at him then. His voice was hard, almost guttural, and it was terrifying to hear up close.

"I want to hear you say it."

I LOVE this particular bit of dialogue for so many reasons. I love it because when a good man goes to war, you really don’t want to be on the wrong side of the fight. The emotions in this moment just felt so real the whole time I was writing them. I could just see everything happening inside my head, and it was glorious.

9) Which fic has been the hardest to write?

Honestly, I’d say the hardest one for me to write was ‘Scavenger Hunt.’ I knew what I /wanted/ to have happen, but I had to get all the characters into place for it /to/ happen. ‘Broken Paladins’ basically wrote itself, but dang, ‘Scavenger Hunt’ took me a bit because I wanted to make sure I did the set up right.

10) Which fic has been the easiest to write?

Even though it took me the longest, it was definitely ‘Family is More Than Blood’. That fic went through so many edits and rephrasings, but I was really proud of how it turned out.

11) Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?

Sort of both, I guess. I’ve always loved books and stories, but writing as much as I did as quickly as I did really came as a surprise. :-) Maybe I’ll finally finish an original story and get it published or something.

12) Is there an episode above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?

Oh, geez, I honestly can’t pick just one episode for VLD. They’re all so integral. But if I had to pick just one...maybe...the Blade of Marmora, or Eye of the Storm. The pacing to those and the beautiful animation are just jaw-droopingly inspiring and creative.

13) What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Write what you love, and be proud of your accomplishments. Also, don’t be afraid to grow, even if that means you spend hours on something and then you have to change it. That work you did was not wasted.

14) What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

It has to be perfect, or it’s not worthwhile. *rolls eyes and lights that piece of horrible advice on fire* Yeah, that’s not how it works, guys.

15) If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?

Oh, man, I’d have to say ‘Family is More than Blood/Echoes from the Past’. The two go hand-in-hand, and I keep re-reading those most of all if I just want to remind myself of how my writing style has developed over time. :-)

16) If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?

Well, I mean, I like romance, but I really enjoy gen or family/friendship fics...but if we’re talking romantic pairings...I like Shiro/Allura enough where I could make it work. :-)

17) Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

With very few exceptions, I have to get the story down in order, or risk never finishing it. Sometimes I’ll just creatively write moments or angsts down, but if I’m really settling down to the task, I have to open up another new document and work on it sequentially. I’ll reference or bring in what I’ve already written, but I have to work on the story itself from start to finish.

18) Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?

I have a notebook where ideas or lines get jotted down, and I’ll reference it pretty heavily if I’m brainstorming. I also reference the VLD character sheets online if I’m double-checking physical descriptions or history or stuff like that, just to keep it as linear as possible.

19) Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?

My muse likes to just wander around my mindscape, and she’s a very strange person who likes coffee and doughnuts and is basically an anime character. She’s usually going on about how some song or show or movie or book has the /perfect/ quote for the situation at hand, and I really have to work on making sure she doesn’t freak out the neighbors when I go to get the mail. :-)

20) Describe your perfect writing conditions.

A rainy day, a full mug of coffee and a bar of chocolate at my side, and my writing playlist cued up and ready to go (so a good Internet connection as well). I rely heavily on music like ‘Sunder’ from Most Epic Music Ever on youtube and other things like that to get into and stay focused during my writing moods.

21) How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

It depends on how well the fic or chapter flowed during the writing process. Usually I’ll write through the entire fic and then re-read it from start to finish at least three times, spending more time on different ‘parts’ and trying to make sure I 1) got the flow of the words right, without repeating anything 2) didn’t make any huge grammar mistakes and 3) make sure the picture in my head plays out in the words. Okay, actually, I take it back. I probably re-read the fic at least 9 times before I post it.

22) Choose a passage from one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style.

EEEeehhhh, ouch, my pride, lol. :) Well, let’s see...uh....oh, well, sure, why not. Here’s a redone version of first segment of the first story, ‘Lost Paladins’. (Yes, yes, I know, it wasn’t a very imaginative series name, but hey. Cut me a break. I had no idea I’d break the Deathly Hallows word count at the time, and I literally could not think of anything else to call it.)

The Paladins were lost. The sight of the Lions, so small and fragile against the dark void of the corrupted wormhole, was burned into Allura’s mind, along with the screams of the Paladins as they tried, without success, to keep from being flung away, out of their bays and into the unforgiving cold of space.

It was her fault. They’d come to save her.

Fighting back a sudden overwhelming urge to cry, Allura tried to regain some small measure of self-control as she slammed a sequence of numbers into the castle's command board. This was no time for tears. She had to regain control of the Castle of Lions before they fell into a star.

The corrupted wormhole flashed out of existence above them as her frantic attempts to regain control of the starship succeeded, leaving the castle and the two lone souls on it floating in the deep, cold silence of space. Distant stars gleamed above and below them.

23) If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

This one’s actually pretty hard to answer. I might revise the first fic (Lost Paladins), but that’s mostly because my style’s changed. I’m still happy with it as a story, but I definitely would make some different choices now than I did then. Still, I don’t see a full re-write happening anytime soon. :-)

24) Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?

Nope. :-)

25) and 26) What do you look for in a beta? Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?

I actually do not use a beta, and I am not a beta myself. I actually didn’t know what they were when I first started - um - actually - this may sound a bit stupid, but what exactly is a beta? :-) :-) Someone who reads over your stuff and gives you feedback before you publish it, right?

27) How do you feel about collaborations?

They sound pretty cool! But since I don't even know what a beta actually is yet (please don’t hate me, I’m honestly just brand new to all this stuff) I’m not entirely certain how they work. :-)

28) Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

Maychorian, Bosstoaster, and VelkynKarma. They have a fantastic grasp of characters, and I could go on for days about how incredible the moments they write are to read.

29) If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

Hm. I honestly don’t know. I can’t really think of any I would have ideas for. :-)

30) Do you accept prompts?

At this time, not really - it’s more due to my personal writing style than anything else. I always love to hear back from readers, though. Sometimes I can get ideas from what they enjoyed. :-)

31) Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?

I try to stick to canon whenever possible, except for when I just really want to have fun or think that something non-canon could make a situation more dramatic or has the possibility to add more tension to the situation. I mean, honestly, back in S1 I liked the Galra Keith idea because of what the team could accomplish with that being a sort of focus for events...hence the Lost Paladins series. :-)

32) How do you feel about smut?

I don’t really read it. It’s just not my thing.

33). How do you feel about crack?

Um...I feel about it the same way as smut...? I think? I do love humorous mis-adventures, but I’m not really sure if that’s the same thing as crack.

34) What are your thoughts on non-con and dub-con?

Um...I’m not actually sure what the question is asking...sorry. N/A

35) Would you ever kill off a canon character?

If it’s Haggar, YES. But seriously, no. Well...maybe, if it was Haggar. No one else, though. I just couldn’t.

36) Which is your favorite site to post fic?

Definitely Archive Of Our Own. I got started on fanfiction.net but it’s insanely difficult to keep a series in order on that site.

37) Talk about your current wips.

Oh, you mean works in progress! I think. :-)

Nothing is really in ‘progress’ right now, I just have some ideas on the back burner. I’m a bit emotionally exhausted from S2, but I am dabbling in some future moments or bonus scenes that should be fun. :-)

38) Talk about a review that made your day.

PrincessMnMz. Just, really, all of her reviews.

4_angsty_zukos also saying that Haggar needed to be punched in the mouth made me spit-take my coffee out of satisfaction, too. :D

Maychorian actually reading and commenting made me cry with happiness, because her Boom Crash series was just...aaaahhhh, she’s got so much good stuff. Knowing /that author/ read some of /my stuff/ was like getting a Vulcan sign from Spock. :-) Totally made my year.

And really, anyone who’s ever commented. It’s just so incredible to know people like what I write and that they wanted to tell me how they felt. :-)

39) Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

I really haven’t gotten any rude reviews yet...but if I do, I’ll probably just reply as politely as I can and then just ignore them. I love replying to reviewers, though. :-)

40) Write an alternative ending to...Many Happy Returns.

Okay, sure, why not. :-)

Coran activated his personal comms as he hurried towards the castle’s main flight deck.

“Okay,” he heard Shiro say over the comms as they all headed towards their Lion’s bays. “Sound off once you’re ready to fly -”

“Red Leader, standing by.”

“Gold Leader, standing by.”

“Blue Leader, standing by.”

Pidge’s voice cut in then, not really annoyed, but slightly frustrated all the same at her code name.

“Argh - I mean - I liked Green Leader - but - OH! OH! Guys - I can be Rogue One!”

There was a brief pause, but Shiro sounded genuinely amused and impressed when he answered.

“You know what - that actually works. Let’s do that.”

Now that he was on the bridge with Allura, Coran could see the visual screens with the Paladins, and he saw the Green Paladin grin as she got into her pilot’s chair.

“Rogue One, standing by!” she said, beaming, and Coran saw Shiro laugh to himself as he sounded off.

“General Iroh, standing by.”

The code names over the comms as they went into battle had been the team’s idea - but Coran thought that it was entirely possible that they had just really, really wanted to get in a few more Star Wars references. Well, that and that other show.

Over the comms, he could still hear the Paladins whooping with excitement as their Lions left their bays.

“YEAH!”

“WHOOO!”

“LET’S GO!”

“IIIIIIII AAAAAAAMMMMMMM GGGGGGGGRRRRRROOOOOOOOTTTTT!!!!!!

“Okay, team - FORM VOLTRON!”

As the Defender of the Universe took shape, Coran smiled and looked back over towards Allura. The Princess was scanning the nearby star systems for any incoming Galra ships, and Rayzor was at the navigation console, making sure their flight pattern could adjust for any unexpected obstacles.

It wasn’t going to be easy, freeing prisoners and fighting the Galra Empire.

But Coran thought they were off to a very good -

Then Lance blurted out,

“Wait - Katie - YOUR FAMILY’S ON THE SHIP?!”

Coran heard the sheer joy in Pidge’s voice as she answered.

“Oh, yeah, didn’t I say?”

There was an explosion of noise over the comms.

“NOYOUDIDN’T-”

“HOLYSHITTHAT’SAMAZING-”

“THE SECOND WE GET TO THE PLANET WE GOTTA SAY HI-”

“...your...f-family...?”

Coran realized that last one had been Shiro. He sounded as if he was having a hard time articulating the words.

Pidge’s voice sounded over the comms, and she sounded truly abashed, and almost concerned.

“Oh, God - yeah - Shiro - yeah - both of them - they’re fine - they can’t wait to see you -”

“...uh...”

Coran heard the way Pidge continued to talk, as if she were completely intent on making sure Shiro knew exactly how sorry she was for not saying something earlier. It hadn’t been her fault, of course, but still, it was clear she wanted Shiro to know everything was all just fine.

“Matt made a joke - something about Zack Fair - and Dad still wants to know more about Voltron - but oh, yeah, Shiro, they’re fine - they can’t wait to see you - ”

Coran looked over at Rayzor, who looked confused.

“Is...that...some sort of code?” he asked, and Coran shrugged.

“I’m not sure,” he confessed. “Sometimes I don’t have a clue what these humans are saying.”

There was a snort of half-stifled laughter from over the comms, and Coran looked up to see Hunk bring up his comms screen.

“I got one word for you, Coran,” he said. “Wiblum. What the heck is that, anyway?”

Coran twirled his mustache. “I’ll tell you all about it later.”

He heard Keith mutter something about crazy words and mustaches, but Coran smiled to himself all the same.

Paladins.

And that’s all the questions!! Whew! :-) Well, I hope you enjoyed my little Q&A there. :-)

#writing #questions #fun

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dazzledbybooks · 5 years ago

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Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Red Queen, this is the first novel in a sweeping YA fantasy-romance duet about a deadly assassin, his mysterious apprentice, and the country they are sworn to protect from #1 NYT bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz. Caledon Holt is the Kingdom of Renovia's deadliest weapon. No one alive can best him in brawn or brains, which is why he's the Guild's most dangerous member and the Queen's one and only assassin. He's also bound to the Queen by an impossible vow--to find the missing Deian Scrolls, the fount of all magical history and knowledge, stolen years ago by a nefarious sect called the Aphrasians. Shadow has been training all her life to follow in the footsteps of her mother and aunts--to become skilled enough to join the ranks of the Guild. Though magic has been forbidden since the Aphrasian uprising, Shadow has been learning to control her powers in secret, hoping that one day she'll become an assassin as feared and revered as Caledon Holt. When a surprise attack brings Shadow and Cal together, they're forced to team up as assassin and apprentice to hunt down a new sinister threat to Renovia. But as Cal and Shadow grow closer, they'll uncover a shocking web of lies and secrets that may destroy everything they hold dear. With war on the horizon and true love at risk, they'll stop at nothing to protect each other and their kingdom in this stunning first novel in the Queen's Secret series. The Queen's Assassin (Queen's Secret #1) by Melissa de la Cruz Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons Release Date: February 4th 2020 Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy Book Links: Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39334176-the-queen-s-assassin Amazon: https://amzn.to/2WQpCSR B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-queens-assassin-melissa-de-la-cruz/1131493132 iTunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-queens-assassin/id1463329191 Bookdepository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Queens-Assassin-Melissa-de-La-Cruz/9780525515913?ref=grid-view&qid=1573047342544&sr=1-2 Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-queen-s-assassin-5 Google books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Melissa_de_la_Cruz_The_Queen_s_Assassin?id=mNqXDwAAQBAJ Excerpt: Chapter OneShadowSomething or someone is following me. I’ve been wandering the woods forquite a while, but now it feels as if something—or someone—is watching. Ithought it was one of my aunts at first—it was odd they didn’t chase after methis time. Maybe they didn’t expect me to go very far. But it’s not them.I stop and pull my hood back to listen to the forest around me. There is onlythe wind whistling through the branches and the sound of my own breathing.Whoever is following me is very good at hiding. But I am not afraid.Slivers of light penetrate the dense foliage in spots, shining streaks onto theblanket of decaying leaves and mud under my boots. As I slice through thickvines and clamber over rotting logs, speckled thrushes take flight from theforest floor before disappearing overhead. I pause to listen to them sing toone another, chirping elegant messages back and forth, a beautiful songcarrying warnings, no doubt, about the stranger stomping through theirhome.Being out here helps me clear my head. I feel more peaceful here among thewild creatures, closer to my true self. After this morning’s argument at home,it’s precisely what I need—some peace. Some space. Time to myself.My aunts taught me that sometimes when the world is too much, when lifestarts to feel overwhelming, we must strip away what’s unnecessary, seekout the quiet, and listen to the dirt and trees. “All the answers you seek arethere, but only if you are willing to hear them,” Aunt Moriah always says.That’s all I’m doing, I tell myself. Following their advice. Perhaps that’s whythey allowed me to run off into the woods. Except they’re probably hopingI’ll find their answers here, not my own. That I’ll finally come to my senses.Anger bubbles up inside me. All I have ever wanted is to follow in theirfootsteps and join the ranks of the Hearthstone Guild. It’s the one thing I’vewanted more than anything. We don’t just sell honey in the market. They’vepractically been training me for the Guild all my life—how can they deny me? Ikick the nearest tree as hard as I can, slamming the sole of my boot into its solid trunk. That doesn’t make me feel much better, though, and I freeze,wondering if whatever or whoever is following me has heard.I know it is a dangerous path, but what nobler task is there than to continuethe Guild’s quest? To recover the Deian Scrolls and exact revenge upon ourenemies. They can’t expect me to sit by and watch as others take on thechallenge.All the women I look up to—Ma, my aunt Moriah, and Moriah’s wife, my auntMesha—belong to the Guild; they are trained combatants and wise women.They are devotees of Deia, the One Mother, source of everything in the worldof Avantine, from the clouds overhead to the dirt underfoot. Deia worship wascommon once but not anymore, and those who keep to its beliefs have theGuild to thank for preserving the old ways. Otherwise that knowledge wouldhave disappeared long ago when the Aphrasians confiscated it from thepeople. The other kingdoms no longer keep to the old ways, even as theyconspire to learn our magic.As wise women they know how to tap into the world around us, to harness theenergy that people have long forgotten but other creatures have not. Mymother and aunts taught me how to access the deepest levels of my instincts,the way that animals do, to sense danger and smell fear. To become deeply intune with the universal language of nature that exists just below the surface ofhuman perception, the parts we have been conditioned not to hear anymore.While I call them my aunts, they are not truly related to me, even if AuntMoriah and my mother grew up as close as sisters. I was fostered here becausemy mother’s work at the palace is so important that it leaves little time forraising a child.A gray squirrel runs across my path and halfway up a nearby tree. It stops andlooks at me quizzically. “It’s all right,” I say. “I’m not going to hurt you.” It waitsuntil I start moving again and scampers the rest of the way up the trunk.The last time I saw my mother, I told her of my plans to join the Guild. Ithought she’d be proud of me. But she’d stiffened and paused before saying,“There are other ways to serve the crown.”Naturally, I’d have preferred her to be with me, every day, like other mothers, but I’ve never lacked for love or affection. My aunts had been there for everybedtime tale and scraped knee, and Ma served as a glamorous and heroicfigure for a young woman to look up to. She would swoop into my life, almostalways under the cover of darkness, cloaked and carrying gifts, like the lovelypair of brocade satin dance slippers I’ll never forget. They were as ill-suited forrural life as a pair of shoes could possibly be, and I treasured them for it. “Thebest cobbler in Argonia’s capital made these,” she told me. I marveled at that,how far they’d traveled before landing on my feet.Yes, I liked the presents well enough. But what made me even happier werethe times she stayed long enough to tell me stories. She would sit on the edgeof my bed, tuck my worn quilt snugly around me, and tell me tales of Avantine,of the old kingdom.Our people are fighters, she’d say. Always were. I took that to mean I would beone too.I think about these stories as I whack my way through the brush. Why wouldmy mother tell me tales of heroism, adventure, bravery, and sacrifice, unless Iwas to train with the Guild as well? As a child, I was taught all the basics—survival and tracking skills, and then as I grew, I began combat training andarchery.I do know more of the old ways than most, and I’m grateful for that, but it isn’tenough. I want to know as much as they do, or even more. I need to belong tothe Guild.Now I fear I never will have that chance.“Ouch!” I flinch and pull my hand back from the leaves surrounding me.There’s a thin sliver of blood seeping out of my skin. I was so lost in mythoughts that I accidentally cut my hand while hacking through shrubbery. Thewoods are unfamiliar here, wilder and denser. I’ve never gone out this far. Thepath ahead is so overgrown it’s hard to believe there was ever anyone herebefore me, let alone a procession of messengers and traders and visitorstraveling between Renovia and the other kingdoms of Avantine. But that wasbefore. Any remnants of its prior purpose are disappearing quickly. Even myblade, crafted from Argonian steel—another present from Ma—struggles tosever some of the more stubborn branches that have reclaimed the road for the wilderness.I try to quiet my mind and concentrate on my surroundings. Am I lost? Issomething following me? “What do I do now?” I say out loud. Then Iremember Aunt Mesha’s advice: Be willing to hear.I breathe, focus. Re-center. Should I turn back? The answer is so strong, it’spractically a physical shove: No. Continue. I suppose I’ll push through, then.Maybe I’ll discover a forgotten treasure along this path.Woodland creatures watch me, silently, from afar. They’re perched in branchesand nestled safely in burrows. Sometimes I catch a whiff of newborn fur, ofmilk; I smell the fear of anxious mothers protecting litters; I feel theirheartbeats, their quickened breaths when I pass. I do my best to calm them byclosing my eyes and sending them benevolent energy. Just passing through.I’m no threat to you.After about an hour of bushwhacking, I realize that I don’t know where I amanymore. The trees look different, older. I hear the trickling of water. Unlikebefore, there are signs that something, or rather someone, was here not longbefore me. Cracked sticks have been stepped on—by whom or what, I’m notsure—and branches are too neatly chopped to have been broken naturally. Iwant to investigate, see if I can feel how long ago they were cut. Maybe days;maybe weeks. Difficult to tell.I stop to examine the trampled foliage just as I feel an abrupt change in the air.There it is again. Whoever or whatever it is smells foul, rotten. I shudder. I keepgoing, hoping to shake it off my trail.I walk deeper into the forest and pause under a canopy of trees. A breeze blowsagainst a large form in the branches overhead. I sense the weight of its bulk,making the air above me feel heavier, oppressive. It pads quietly. A hugepredator. Not human. It’s been biding its time. But now it’s tense, ready tostrike.The tree becomes very still. And everything around does the same. I glance tomy right and see a spider hanging in the air, frozen, just like I am.Leaves rustle, like the fanning pages of a book. Snarling heat of its body gettingcloser, closer, inch by inch. I can smell its hot breath. Feel its mass as it beginsto bear down on me from above. Closer, closer, until at last it launches itselffrom its hiding place. I feel its energy, aimed straight at me. Intending to kill, todevour.But I am ready.Just as it attacks, I kick ferociously at its chest, sending it flying. It slams to theground, knocked out cold. A flock of starlings erupts from their nest in thetreetops, chirping furiously.My would-be killer is a sleek black scimitar-toothed jaguar. The rest of thewildlife stills, shocked into silence, at my besting the king of the forest.I roll back to standing, then hear something else, like shifting or scratching, inthe distance. As careful as I’ve been, I’ve managed to cause a commotion andalert every creature in the forest of my presence.I crouch behind a wide tree. After waiting a breath or two, I don’t sense anyother unusual movement nearby. Perhaps I was wrong about the noise. Orsimply heard a falling branch or a startled animal running for cover.There’s no reason to remain where I am, and I’m not going back now, in casethe jaguar wakes, so I get up and make my way forward again. It looks likethere’s a clearing ahead.My stomach lurches. After everything—the argument and my big show ofdefiance—I am gripped with the unexpected desire to return home. I don’tknow if the cat’s attack has rattled me—it shouldn’t have; I’ve been in similarsituations before—but a deep foreboding comes over me.Yet just as strongly, I feel the need to keep going, beyond the edge of theforest, as if something is pulling me forward. I move faster, fumbling a bit oversome debris.Finally, I step through the soft leafy ground around a few ancient trees, theirbark slick with moss, and push aside a branch filled with tiny light green leaves.When I emerge from the woods, I discover I was wrong. It’s not just a clearing; I’ve stumbled upon the golden ruins of an old building. A fortress. The tightfeeling in my chest intensifies. I should turn back. There’s danger here. Or atleast there was danger here—it appears to be long abandoned.The building’s intimidating skeletal remains soar toward the clouds, but it’smarred by black soot; it’s been scorched by a fire—or maybe more than one.Most of the windows are cracked or else missing completely. Rosebushes areovergrown with burly thistle weeds, and clumps of dead brown shrubbery dotthe property. Vines climb up one side of the structure and crawl into the emptywindows.Above the frame of one of those windows, I spot a weathered crest, barelyvisible against the stone. I step closer. There are two initials overlapping eachother in an intricate design: BA. In an instant I know exactly where I am.Baer Abbey.I inhale sharply. How did I walk so far? How long have I been gone?This place is forbidden. Dangerous. Yet I was drawn here. Is this a sign, themessage I was searching for? And if so, what is it trying to tell me?Despite the danger, I’ve always wanted to see the abbey, home of the fearedand powerful Aphrasians. I try picturing it as it was long ago, glistening in theblinding midday heat, humming with activity, the steady bustle of cloaked menand women going about their daily routines. I imagine one of them meditatingunderneath the massive oak to the west; another reading on the carvedlimestone bench in the now-decrepit gardens.I walk around the exterior, looking for the place where King Esban charged intobattle with his soldiers.I hear something shift again. It’s coming from inside the abbey walls. As if aheavy object is being pushed or dragged—opening a door? Hoisting somethingwith a pulley? I approach the building and melt into its shadow, like the petname my mother gave me.But who could be here? A generation of looters has already stripped anythingof value, though the lure of undiscovered treasure might still entice adventurous types. And drifters. Or maybe there’s a hunter, or a hermit who’smade his home close to this desolate place.In the distance, the river water slaps against the rocky shore, and I can hearthe rustling of leaves and the trilling of birds. All is as it should be, and yet.Something nags at me, like a faraway ringing in my ear. Someone or somethingis still following me, and it’s not the jaguar. It smells of death and rot.I move forward anyway, deciding to run the rest of the way along the wall toan entryway, its door long gone. I just want to peek inside—I may never havethis chance again.I slide around the corner of the wall and enter the abbey’s interior. Most of theroof is demolished, so there’s plenty of light, even this close to dusk. Tinyspecks of dust float in the air. There’s a veneer of grime on every surface, andwet mud in shaded spots. I step forward, leaving footprints behind me. I glanceat the rest of the floor—no other prints. Nobody has been here recently, atleast not since the last rain.I move as lightly as possible. Then I hear something different. I stop, stepbackward. There it is again. I step forward—solid. Back—yes, an echo. Like awell. There’s something hollow below. Storage? A crypt?I should turn back. Nothing good can come from being here, and I know it. Theabbey is Aphrasian territory, no matter how long ago they vacated. And yet.There’s no reason to believe anyone is here, and who knows what I might findif I just dig a bit. Perhaps a treasure was hidden here. Maybe even the DeianScrolls.I step on a large square tile, made of heavy charcoal slate, which is stubbornlyembedded in the ground. I clear the dirt around it as much as I can and get myfingertips under its lip. With effort, I heave the tile up enough to hoist it over tothe side. Centipedes scurry away into the black hole below. I use the heel ofmy boot to shove the stone the rest of the way, revealing a wooden ladderunderneath.I press on it carefully, testing its strength, then make my way down. At the lastrung I jump down and turn to find a long narrow passageway lined with emptysconces. It smells of mildew, dank and damp. I follow the tunnel, my footsteps echoing around me.I hear water lapping gently against stone up ahead. Could there be anunderground stream? The passage continues on, dark and quiet aside from theoccasional drip of water from the ceiling.At the end of the corridor a curved doorway opens into a large cavern. As Isuspected, an underground river flows by. A small hole in the ceiling allowslight in, revealing sharp stalactites that hang down everywhere, glittering withthe river’s reflection. The room is aglow in yellows and oranges and reds, and itfeels like standing in the middle of fire. This space was definitely not made byhuman hands; instead, the tunnel, the abbey, was built up around it. There’s aloading dock installed for small boats, though none are there anymore.Then I see something that makes my heart catch. I gasp.The Aphrasians have been missing for eighteen years and yet there’s a freshapple core tossed aside near the doorway.That’s when I hear men’s voices approaching from the corridor behind me.Excerpted from The Queen's Assassin by Melissa de la Cruz. Copyright © 2020by Melissa de la Cruz. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may bereproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Original Link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/567301/the-queens-assassin-by-melissa-de-la-cruz/ About the Author: Melissa de la Cruz is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of many critically acclaimed and award-winning novels for teens including The Au Pairs series, the Blue Bloods series, the Ashleys series, the Angels on Sunset Boulevard series and the semi-autobiographical novel Fresh off the Boat. Her books for adults include the novel Cat’s Meow, the anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys and the tongue-in-chic handbooks How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less and The Fashionista Files: Adventures in Four-inch heels and Faux-Pas. She has worked as a fashion and beauty editor and has written for many publications including The New York Times, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Allure, The San Francisco Chronicle, McSweeney’s, Teen Vogue, CosmoGirl! and Seventeen. She has also appeared as an expert on fashion, trends and fame for CNN, E! and FoxNews. Melissa grew up in Manila and moved to San Francisco with her family, where she graduated high school salutatorian from The Convent of the Sacred Heart. She majored in art history and English at Columbia University (and minored in nightclubs and shopping!). She now divides her time between New York and Los Angeles, where she lives in the Hollywood Hills with her husband and daughter. Author Links: Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21911.Melissa_de_la_Cruz Website: https://melissa-delacruz.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelissadelaCruz Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorMelissadelaCruz/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authormelissadelacruz/ Tumblr: https://authormelissadelacruz.tumblr.com/ Tour Schedule: February 4th The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club - Welcome Post February 5th The Book Bratz - Review + Playlist + Favourite Quotes Sometimes Leelynn Reads - Review + Playlist + Dream Cast Ya It’s Lit - Review + Dream Cast + Favourite Quotes Fanna Wants The World To Read - Review Shelf-Rated - Review + Favourite Quotes February 6th NovelKnight - Guest Post Booked J - Review + Playlist + Favourite Quotes Whispers & Wonder - Review Foals, Fiction & Filigree - Review + Favourite Quotes Beware Of The Reader - Review February 7th Wishful Endings - Interview L.M. 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