#the way lance stepped into a role no one expected of him so quickly to get it through keiths thick skull

[callmelyc]

I'll just never get over how despite wanting to be the leader himself, Lance still helped Keith be a Leader and see he was capable of doing so after being stuck in his own grief.

And it's canon like?!?!?

They work so well together when it's time to be genuine I'm so ಥ⁠‿⁠���

It always makes me so sad when ppl erase or leave out that part of their journey. That Lance helped. Bc it's just so important to Keiths character.

It doesn't make Keith weaker or less capable that he needed it but he needed someone to get through to him/support him and Lance did just that without even being asked.

It showed their growth and maturity, it's so pivotal and not even from a shipper standpoint.

For Keith to be able to admit he messed up/was stressed?

HUGE

For Lance to listen? HUGE

"This is all my fault. I followed him right into this trap. Everyone warned me, but I didn't listen. I put the entire team in jeopardy."

"Yeah, you kinda did. But now we gotta fix it."

That "we" is so important bc it's not even referencing just them two but the whole team coming together bc Keith was acting too radical he missed they were all there for him if allowed to be. They may have looked towards Lance to approach Keith (though Lance didn't notice nor need it he did so voluntarily) but they followed Keith as a leader from the start.

They were all willing to follow him, they all trusted him.

Lances voice was just loud enough and persistent enough to get through to him bc lance knew without shiro someone needed to try. Lance was so insanely supportive and so insanely important to Keiths rise to true leadership.

Keith accepting the help, the role, as himself and not as a replacement for shiro bc of that is always so powerful. He finally realized he didn't have to stand on a pedestal to be a leader, he could use his team as his pillars just as they could use him as one too.

"You're right. Let's go."

He's no Shiro but that doesn't mean he can't be their leader too.

Screaming

Then later it's Keith reassuring Lance he's more than a replacement or a placeholder. They grow so much bc of that initial support being built up the trust they have in one another is immeasurable.

They understand eachothers positions more than anyone else could bc they're in similar shoes.

Two ppl taken from their lions to another.

Two ppl changing rank in ways they didn't want.

And that unyielding support for eachother is just so so satisfying. This is why I adore their bp Keith and red lance dynamic. Ok it's not as popular but it really shows how they grow as a unit and I wish they'd utilized that so much more.

[ichigopuddingmuslima]

Caught in the Middle- Chapter 3

Things are starting to pick up!

Links to her outfit is at the bottom

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2k

The next two months flew by quickly. Nyane was almost finished with her orientation period. She completed all the mandatory training and was familiar with the expectations of her role in Wayne Enterprises. This last month before she was fully in her position and Lance started his new one, she would be working alongside him planning a charity dinner for cancer hosted by Wayne Enterprises. The dinner was to be at an upscale venue in Downtown Gotham with a butterfly theme. The guest list had been decided and invitations sent out. 

“I got bad news, Nee”, Lance said, as he entered the room and sat down next to her. He ran a hand through his hair as he let out a deep sigh. They were in a private conference room sitting at a round table. Her tan, Tommy Hilfiger, platform sandals were kicked off under the table and her feet rested on the chair across from her. She was currently writing things down on her “to do” list. 

“Bad news? Let me guess… you spilled coffee on yourself?”, Nyane responded teasingly.

“I wish that was the issue. Long story short, we need a caterer. The venue isn’t able to cater the food anymore.”

Nyane put her notebook down on the table and turned to face Lance. “You’re joking.”

“I wish I was. I really do. They said that we can use whatever caterer we can find as long as they’re licensed.”

“Okay. Okay. We can handle this. First we need to talk to Dick and Bruce and ask for a budget. Do you want to do it or should I?” 

“You should talk to them. They have a soft spot for you, especially Dick.” Lance gave her a teasing smile.

Nyane playfully shoved him, “Oh shut up. That’s not true. Dick and I… have an understanding between us. That’s all.” She put her shoes on and stood up. 

“Is that what you call it? An ‘understanding’. I support whatever you and Dick have going on.”

“There’s nothing going on! I’ll be back soon. Hopefully with good news. Meanwhile you can start looking up caterers.” She left the room and made her way to Bruce’s office. Amber was at her desk a few feet away from his office typing away at her computer. 

“Hey, Amber. Is Bruce busy?” Nyane asked as she approached Amber’s desk.

“He’s in his office with Dick.” Amber replied as she glanced at her.

“How long have they been in there?”

“About an hour. I think they’ll be done soon but it’s hard to tell.”

“Thanks.”

“What do you need Bruce for? Perhaps I can help.”

“The caterer backed out just now.”

Amber sucked in her teeth sympathetically. “Good luck!” 

Nyane continued towards Bruce’s office. Taking a deep breath, she knocked gently, but firmly on the door. She waited a few moments but didn’t hear anything. She knocked again louder this time. A moment later, the door opened and she was met face to face with Dick. He looked down at her and smiled. His blue eyes met her brown ones. Her heart skipped a beat. There was a moment of silence as they held each other’s gaze before Dick spoke, 

“Hey, Nyane. Is everything okay?”

“Actually, no. I need to speak with you and Bruce.” 

“Come in.” Dick stepped aside and Nyane entered the office. Bruce was sitting on his couch and the coffee table was strewn with various papers. Upon seeing her, he rose to greet her. His eyes wandered up and down her body and her cheeks burned. She briefly met his gaze as she twirled a piece of her hair around her finger. 

“Nyane, to what do I owe this pleasure?” Bruce asked as he began to walk over to his refreshment station. 

“I have bad news.” Nyane blurted as she sat down on the couch. She played with the hem of her Zara leopard print, midi dress as she took a deep breath. Dick sat down next to her and his eyes followed the shape of her legs. She pretended not to notice as she willed her heart to stop beating so fast.  

Bruce began making a cup of tea. He turned his attention to her as the kettle heated up the water. “Oh? I'm sure whatever it is we can figure this out together.” 

“We don't have a caterer for the dinner this month. The venue backed out of catering.”

“We still have the venue?” Dick confirmed. 

“Yes. They just can't cater. We can't have a charity dinner without dinner!” Nyane exclaimed as she crossed her arms and tapped her foot. 

“There's no need to be upset.” Bruce responded gently. He sat down on the other side of Nyane and held out the cup of tea to her. “We'll find a new caterer.” Nyane took a breath and accepted the tea with a smile. Their fingers brushed together and Nyane pretended not to notice as her heart skipped a beat. She took a sip and sighed as she tasted the comforting flavor of mint tea. It was the perfect level of sweetness and warmth. 

“Yes, I know. It’s just so frustrating. Lance and I are working so hard on this event. We were almost ready to present the menu to you guys for final approval and now we have to start all over again. This is setting us behind so much!”, Nyane ranted as she tapped her foot again. 

“I understand it’s frustrating but I know you can handle it. What do you need from us?” Dick gently reassured her.

“Lance and I will talk to the venue and get the new invoice since they are no longer providing catering. How much of a budget can we get for a new caterer? Keep in mind that we’re a little less than thirty days out and we’re expecting about two hundred guests so whoever caters will probably charge a rush fee.”

“Don’t worry about the budget. Just get a new caterer.” Bruce stated and Dick nodded in agreement. 

“Are you sure, Mr. Wayne?” Nyane questioned as she looked between Dick and Bruce with a wide eyed expression.

“I’m sure.”

“Can you give a quick update on how everything else is going?” Dick asked.

“Sure. The final reminders for the RSVPs will go out this week as the deadline to RSVP is next Friday. Vicki Vale of the Gotham Times agreed to run a story on the event and will be attending as well as a few other reporters. I’ve asked the media to run their stories about the dinner after it happens to try and avoid Joker or Calender Man or whoever from ruining it and they all agreed. I’ve gotten a handful of people declining to attend but almost all of them have attached a donation with it. All of the keynote speakers have been finalized. Lance is working on the agenda for the event and that will be submitted soon for approval. This afternoon, Lance and I are going to be figuring out the catering situation. We’ll update you about that at the end of this week at our check in. I think that’s it for major updates… Oh! I almost forgot the mayor accepted the invitation and sent a nice donation along with it.” Nyane explained. 

“Besides the catering, everything seems to be under control.” Bruce replied. 

“Thankfully, yes. Well, I should get going. Thanks for taking the time to speak with me.” Nyane stood up. Bruce and Dick stood up as well. 

Dick took the cup from her hand. “Nyane, if you need anything, let me know.”

“Keep up the good work, Nyane.” Bruce said with a smile. Nyane blushed and exited the room. She leaned against the door and let out a sigh of relief.

That went well. Much better than I expected. 

As she made her way back to the conference room to update Lance, she passed by Amber at her desk. 

“How’d it go?” Amber said as Nyane approached her.

“Better than I expected. I thought they would be mad. Instead they were understanding and just told me to focus on finding a new caterer.”

“They’re so down bad for you.”

“No they’re not! We just have an… understanding.”

“Right. Right. An ‘understanding’... is that what you’re calling it?”

Nyane scoffed and gave Amber a middle finger as she walked away. Amber returned the hand gesture. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nyane and Lance decided to take a working lunch since finding a caterer was a high priority. While she had her conversation with Bruce and Dick, Lance had called around and found a few catering businesses that looked promising. They currently were seated inside Gotham Catering Co. waiting for the food to be served. It was a small building with about ten tables and sparsely decorated. Buddy Standler, the owner of the company, approached them. He was a tall, thin, balding man wearing jeans, a black t-shirt, and smelled of cheap cologne.

“The food is being plated as we speak. I’m sure you'll be quite satisfied with everything. I'm looking forward to working closely with Wayne Enterprises.” Buddy boasted. Lance subtly rolled his eyes and Nyane gave a polite smile to Buddy. 

Putting the cart before the horse I see. Let the food speak for itself! 

“Thank you for meeting us on such short notice," Nyane responded.

“How could I turn down a request from Wayne Enterprises? I would be an absolute fool!”, Buddy replied.

“We’re eager to try the food. You’ve talked it up quite a bit and I’m hungry. If we decide to go with you, are you sure you’re able to accommodate the event? It’s a fairly last minute request with an extensive menu and a large number of guests.”

“You have nothing to worry about. I assure you that we can fully accommodate you.”

“Glad to hear that. All that’s left is to try the food. We do have other options to consider before we make a final decision.”

“Yes, of course. I expect you’ll have to shop around but I assure you that the quality of my food is impeccable and that I’ll have the best price.”

A waiter carrying a tray of food approached them and placed the food on the table. 

“Enjoy!” Buddy stated as he walked away to let them eat. The plating was nothing special but she didn’t want to be hasty and judge a book by its cover. Nyane and Lance began to place food on their plates. She tried the potato salad first and was disappointed to see there were raisins in it. It was also dry and lacked flavor. The rest of the meal went downhill from there. The steak was under seasoned and extremely well done. The baked chicken was raw and the baked ziti was horrifically mushy. Nyane took two or three bites out of each item with the exception of the chicken. Lance and her locked eyes.

“We have other options.” Lance stated. Nyane nodded in agreement. 

“How was everything?” Buddy asked as he walked over to them. Nyane and Lance exchanged a look.

“Honestly, the food doesn't fit the tone of the event so we won’t be moving forward with you. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us today.” Nyane declined him tactfully as she stood up. Lance followed her lead and stood as well. 

“Well what type of food are you looking for? I can do whatever you want.” Buddy pleaded as Lance and Nyane headed towards the door. 

“The food lacks flavor and is dry. Not enough condiments or sauce. Most of the food was under or over cooked.” Lance critiqued as they left. Nyane felt bad for having to reject him but there was no way she could serve that to Gotham’s elite. 

“You could have been a little more graceful.” Nyane scolded Lance. He shrugged his shoulders as they entered his car.

Dress Shoes

Next chapter we meet the Arkham Knight!!!!

[areadboar]

Dimitri quickly adopted his false bravado persona, the one he used when commanding military types back home in Faerghus. Despite being the crowned prince and it being expected of him, Dimitri still wasn’t comfortable with the role he had to play. How could people put their lives in the hand of a failure such as himself, yet they still did. He couldn’t let them down. 

Dimitri listened carefully to the advice offered by Professor Kurthnaga. Glancing almost self consciously down at his lance, Dimitri agreed with Kurthnaga’s assessment. “That’s true. I’ve spent plenty of time practising. Though I recall when I first started my weapon lessons, the instructor trying to insist I focus on the blade as it is considered the weapon of true royalty.” He could laugh about it now but back then it had upset the sensitive prince as the instructor had thrust the sword into his hand, forcibly moving him through the moves. “Thankfully my father stepped in to correct him, pointing out the weapon associated with our crest being a lance.”

“That’s an interesting philosophy. I’ve never considered it that way. I always assumed that learning was a one way process. Mentor to student. “ Dimitri wondered what Kurthnaga hoped to learn from him. Knowing little about the Golden Deer professor, there was little to go on, especially as he thinks his interests lie in magic which Dimitri is terrible at. “Let’s hope this is an insightful learning experience for the both of us”

As a group of mice file back into the clearing, he turns his attention to them. There are about a dozen of them all clutching sharpened sticks, the ends shaped as vicious hooks. “Our students, Professor. Would you be so kind as to being class?”  

Of Mice and Men

areadboar:

Now he was meeting his teacher formally for the first time, Dimitri sensed a similar feeling of royalty about the man before him. It was in the way he held himself which the Faeghaus prince recognised from his own training as a child. That should prove useful had his teachings been similar to his own. Though Dimitri couldn’t recall negotiating with a mouse ever being on the syllabus. 

The Blue Lions leader listened closely as Professor Kurthnaga explained the situation relating to the mice and a rival gang. Clan warfare from the sound of it, now there was a topic Dimitri was familiar with. Even with little authority in this Kingdom, Dimitri wanted to help the creature and their fellow mice. It was part of a ruler’s duty to help those in need after all. He hoped the professor felt the same way. 

Looking into the furry face of the mouse before them, Dimitri cleared his throat before speaking. “Excuse me Sir mouse. You said you wished to learn to fight?” After receiving confirmation of this, he continued. “I have a passing skill with a lance and would be willing to share what knowledge I have on how to wield it. I’m sure we can fashion some from the resources we have here” Glancing at his professor for confirmation of this, the crowned prince begun to ponder how and what to teach them. “Why don’t you go and fetch those wanting to learn while we prepare here” He suggested to the mouse who swiftly scampered off. 

“Thank you for the offer of help Professor. I don’t know the first thing about teaching. Got any advice?”

Kurthnaga is already quite impressed at how Dimitri commands the small squadron of mice. Clearly, he will make a good ruler for his people once the time comes. At least, Kurthnaga thinks he would. He was still young and naive, not truly knowing what made a good king, but he could still see the good qualities needed to be beloved by your people. He hopes that he would be able to embody the same someday, when he returns to Goldoa to properly become their king.

"They already seem willing to trust what you say, so I believe that's a good start. And you have far more knowledge over a weapon than I do, I don't doubt that you'll do fine. Of course, I'll remain to help!" He laughs softly, emerald hair billowing around his face as a small breeze brushes past the courtyard. The crimson brand on his forehead seems to shimmer in the sunlight, clear proof of his heritage, though he knows that Dimitri will not know what such a thing means.

He smiles softly at the young prince as they wait for the mice to return with the materials to make some weapons. Faerghaus' prince is far taller than him, much more befitting of a future king. Though, Kurthnaga's size does not betray his strength. He is his father's son, strong and steadfast, even if he prefers much rather to not fight at all.

"I imagine that we will both be able to learn something from each other during this experience though, as well as teaching others. That is after all, why I chose to be a professor instead of a student. I find it far easier to learn new things while teaching others than I ever would being taught."

[andraaste]

I am not your enemy - Lance fanfiction part 2

I am currently writting chapter 10, but for now, here is chapter 2 translated into english ;)

(Link for Chapter 3 here)

Chapter 2 : Everything is your fault

I woke up in a room that I knew all too well, especially since the last few days. The infirmary was perfectly silent and only the lapping of the water flowing in the room accompanied me. Staring into space, I put an arm over my face when a sly pain in the blank made me wince. I realized then that my clothes had been changed and that I was wearing a top that was unknown to me. Lifting it up, I realized that a red stained bandage was covering my stomach. The reason for my presence here came back to me then.

Lance...

I had started bleeding, for no reason, in Lance's presence!

Since waking up, I felt like I was losing my mind. Memory problems, dizziness, bleeding and other strange phenomena were accumulating in me and no one was able to explain it. At the same time, no one before Leiftan and I except the Oracle had lived in the crystal.

But yes, Leiftan, how was he? The latter woke up shortly after me and strangely, I had hardly ever seen him since. The aengel had refused to join the Sparkling and since then he seemed to be doing his best to escape any presence. But one thing was certain, it was that I never saw him in the infirmary, the lucky kid.

Snippets of voice slowly reached me and I listened to try to figure out who it was.

- I don't understand what she has ...

- .... had a link? ...

I narrowed my eyes, trying to decipher the conversation I overheard.

- .... don't know ... bring her back ...

Hearing muffled footsteps moving in my direction, I hurriedly closed my eyelids, pretending to be still asleep.

When they reached me, a warm and comforting hand rested on my forehead. Eweleïn's, I was beginning to know it by heart.

- She is stable and her fever has subsided, we will bring her back to her room, she will be more calm to rest. I'm counting on you to watch her.

- Very good.

My stomach contracted at the sound of that voice.

- Are you telling me she started bleeding for no reason? Are you sure you didn't hurt her, even without doing it on purpose?

A silence heavy with innuendo spread between the two interlocutors.

- I understand it's strange, but that's what happened, Eweleïn.

- Alright ... in that case, I'll let you bring her back.

When the dragon's arms encircled my body again in minute detail, I unwillingly tensed in fear and apprehension. Before lifting me up, he gently lowered the shirt over my wound, and when his fingers touched my skin as gently as a caress, I felt an electric current flow through me. Lance lifted me up without difficulty and without really knowing why, I resolutely kept my eyes closed, squeezing my eyelids a little too tight.

Without a word, he carried me like a lifeless rag doll, weak and silent, to my new room. With each of her steps, I could feel her calm, deep breaths against my neck. Why was it that I didn't come forward, exactly? I felt like I was paralyzed. He finally opened the door to my room and stepped silently into it. The pole closed behind us, cutting us off from the outside world. He suddenly stopped and began to sigh for a long time.

Lance seemed marked by fatigue and worry, which piqued my curiosity. Cautiously, I opened one eye and watched it in the wake of my lashes. His jaws, covered with a growing beard, were contracted and his expression, she, expressed the same weariness as her sigh. When he started to move again, I pretended to sleep again as he gently laid me down on the mattress. While withdrawing his hands, he crouched down very close to me and despite my resolutely closed eyelids, I felt his sad gaze pierce me. But it was the intonation of his voice, like torture, that upset me the most.

- I'm sorry, Andraste.

My hands clenched against my stoneware on the bed sheet. Keeping my eyes firmly closed, I couldn't help but answer, even lower than him.

- Everything is your fault.

- I know...

The dragon didn't seem surprised to hear me answer him. How long had he known I was awake?

Timidly, I forced myself to open my eyes. I thus discovered a Lance perfectly different from the one I had seen in the market. His gaze filled with infinite sadness, he looked at me as if I was the only person in the world able to cure his ailments.

- You're not trying to justify yourself? I asked him, intrigued not to hear his answer immediately.

- My actions are unjustifiable, I just try to live with it and redeem myself with each passing day. But you ... I dreaded for years when you were finally going to wake up. I don't know how to react in your presence when, on the contrary, I know more than anyone how much you must hate me. I won't try to redeem myself from you because I know it's impossible.

His words grabbed me. The tone of his voice, so calm and composed, totally hypnotized me. But I could not nevertheless keep my questions about him.

- So what are you doing here ?

I was sincerely curious as to why it was precisely he who had taken care of bringing me back to my room.

- Eweleïn asked me to watch you.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise, which brought a slight smile of amusement to his marble face.

- Sorry ?

- As you have surely noticed, your state is very unstable since you woke up.

- But what do you mean, she asked you to watch me ?

- Since you obviously start to bleed yourself for no reason, Eweleïn and Huang Hua have decided that you have to be watched closely. Plus, it's not yet clear how things will turn out now that people know the Oracle Chosen One is awake. The news has surely spread outside of HQ already and your safety has become a priority.

At these words, I straightened up quickly.

- You mean we could try to take it out on me?

Lance's gaze fell on mine for the first time since the start of our exchange.

- Nothing will happen to you.

- Anyway, why is ...

- Most people admire you for what you have done, but human nature being what it is, many are wary of what they do not know. You have accomplished something incredible and totally new, but like all admiration, there is always an element of mistrust that lies dormant in the unknown.

- But anyway, it's insane, nobody can decently think that I can be dangerous !

The young man was silent for a moment, letting me digest the information he had just taught me.

- Obviously, this is a simple security measure, mainly as long as your condition remains uncertain. When you get better, we will focus on teaching you how to defend yourself.

- I already know how to defend myself !

His slightly haughty raised eyebrow made my hair bristle with anger.

- Do not be offended, but from what I saw earlier, you seem to have lost a lot of energy since your stay in the crystal.

Touched . I decided to swallow my pride for now, I was too tired to argue with him again.

- So what's the plan ? I inquired.

- This is where I come in. I know you don't trust me, but strange as it sounds, I am the best person to keep you safe and your training.

A cold sneer escaped me, stretching the smile that had started to mark the dragon's face a moment earlier.

- So you're telling me that you and I have become inseparable?

- I'm sorry to tell you.

At least he had the decency to sound as thrilled with the news as I was.

I was lost. Completely. How could the Guard have thought it was a good idea to cram the two of us together? It was just insane!

I pinched the bridge of my nose, irritated by all this flood of information.

- Besides the fact that I'm not a fragile little thing, something the Guard seems to totally ignore, no one else can take on this role? Lance, it's simply impossible! I can't accept it, and you know it as well as I do!

Still squatting, one of his forearms resting on his lap, he let himself fall back against the wall behind him.

- Andraste, I'm not trying to brag about my merits, but if there's one thing I'm good at, it's fighting. I am the most qualified here to protect you in times of need and to teach you the best way to defend yourself.

Anger began to take hold of me again. Was he really serious ?

- But anyway, do you realize what you're saying ?!

- It is indisputable.

- And foolish! You tried to kill me, you used me, you manipulated me. How do you want me to accept this wisely? You're still blowing hot and cold! You apologize and then you give me orders !

- I'm only obeying those of the Sparkling.

A frank laugh escaped me this time.

- Seriously, are you saying that ?

A flash of defiance crossed his icy gaze. An ambient electricity hovered between us.

- You have to believe that I am ready to listen wisely to the orders to protect you.

He then straightened up and looked at me from his full height.

- Times have changed, you'll have to get used to it, he added. Being the chosen one of the Oracle is not going to be easy to take on, believe me. People are going to expect a lot from you, whether you feel like you can or not. Hope you are ready for this too.

Surprised, I remained silent. What shocked me the most was not this overwhelming truth that Lance had just confessed to me.

It was that he was the only one who had done it.

And that turned everything upside down. Who could I sincerely trust here? Can our enemies one day become our allies ?

He walked to the door and put a hand on the doorknob, before adding:

- Rest now. I won't be far, if you need to.

Then he rushed down the hall.

(Chapter 3)

[leviiattacks]

Two Faced | Chapter Five

↳ levi ackerman, the very person who was about to kindly behead you by a surprising turn of events manages to become your loving husband? you would be elated if this was true love, but it's all thanks to a mysterious magic spell that your life is spared. for now at least.

pairing :: duke!levi x duchess!reader genre :: royal au, angst, fluff, slice of life etc word count :: 3k author note :: just got diagnosed with covid so i have a lot of spare time on my hands so ummm send in any requests you have into my ask box i’d love to try doing headcanons!! → next part is here!!

Erwin sees the confused look you have and now he too seems lost as he shifts his line of vision to Levi. At that moment your husband slams his heel and grinds it onto your foot. Squirming around in your seat dealing with the stinging pain you catch on that you can't let Erwin think you're clueless.

Quickly, the look of confusion washes away from your features and you return his smile. "I'm willing to do what I must."

You think you've ruined this entirely because Erwin's eyes dart suspiciously between you and your husband. However, Hange intervenes, the interference seems to be enough for him to shake off any skepticism he senses.

Two hands hold onto your frame and squeeze your shoulders. Hange is standing up and seems ecstatic."You two are just so evil." they cackle to themself and you play along laughing too. You are not giving Levi the opportunity to ram into your foot again. Hange who is practically a personified ray of Sunshine at all times does still seem a little down, you did pick up on it when you entered the room. Maybe it was just you overthinking, that's what you assure yourself with.

Then it settles in your bones. Evil? Blinking you turn to look at Levi hoping for some sort of indication about whatever is going on.

"She wouldn't listen to me at all, said she felt the need to step in and help the Empire in some way." His tone is monotonous, still not sparing you a glance and you want to kick him in the shins. He's usually much more affectionate and you're afraid Squad Leader Hange and Commander Erwin will figure out this is all a facade.

"It's a noble commitment to put yourself forward for such a risky position, I see why you and Lance Corporal Levi are a sound match." Erwin isn't smiling this time but his tone is content.

Mind now buzzing with ideas you want to fall face first into the carpeted floor of the office spread out like a starfish. You would prefer that instead of being left in the dark. Could they simply mention the name of whatever it is you've apparently offered to do?

Levi's clearly grimaces but then he moves to hold your hand rather boldly. Shaking him off isn't an available option because of his strong grip. "She wouldn't listen to me at all. If I had it my way she wouldn't step anywhere near enemy soil." He grumbles.

The fake concern he's trying to lace in his voice is having an effect on his two colleagues, they're eating it up and believe this act.

Enemy soil? Risky position? He has to be stealthily plotting your death because you see no other reason for why you would be sent off to venture anywhere near the enemy. You aren't even apart of their regime, or any regime for that matter, you're itching with nervousness and want to free your hand from his desperately.

The only emotion this man is good at feigning is straight boredom, he ignores the way your hand shakes and squirms, ignores how your palms are dampening with sweat, instead the way he holds onto you only strengthens. It's surprising that no one has said a word about the lack of chemistry between the two of you.

Suddenly Hange looks down at their pocket watch and hurriedly gets to their feet dragging Erwin up with them too. "Y/N, I have something to tell you later on, please do stop by HQ when you can, I expect that will be soon." They then tell Erwin that there's no time to loiter and that there are more important meetings to attend to.

Erwin leans into your ear and whispers. "He seems disturbed that you're putting yourself at risk. He means well." You wish that were the case but it isn't. Despite that the way Erwin tries to explain Levi's behavior is sweet.

Hange gives you a cute thumbs up but makes it a point that you need to speak later on, even as they're both walking out the door Hange keeps reminding you to meet up later on. The abnormal behavior between you and Levi may have been noticed but you know if that were the case Hange would have been more vocal about it.

"Combat classes start soon. We know this will all be difficult, building you up from scratch is hazardous but all in good time you will serve a key role in the liberation of Paradis."

Erwin's parting words are gracious.

And then both the Commander and Squad Leader leave, the room is empty but Levi doesn't even wait for the door to shut behind your two visitors.

He makes it a priority to throw your hand away from his, he's now methodically using his handkerchief to dust his fingers off. It's oddly ironic and enrages you because he's the one who grappled your hand into his grasp. What's the point when those same hands until recently looped around your waist in the middle of the night?

He thinks your hand is filthy, that you yourself are filthy and disgusting. At least that's what you think he thinks.

Crossing your arms over your chest you make your feelings known to Levi. You're frustrated beyond the way words can describe, it's not about how he refuses to touch you. Admittedly that does hurt you, makes your chest swell in remembrance of the old days but you really just want to know what he's put you up to without your permission.

Not speaking you wait for him to take the hint but he doesn't get it or he refuses to acknowledge your existence, something tells you it's the latter because all he cares about is sanitizing his hands.

He always had been a clean freak but when he was enchanted it didn't take much for him to touch you. Part of you wonders if it's the nature of the touch that he wants to exterminate or the fact it's your skin he's come in contact with which is bothering him.

"Care to explain?"

"Touching someone such as yourself romantically gives me the urge to retch." The confession is as acidic as the after taste one has after a late night of drinking, but he has no problem telling you the blunt truth.

"I see." You shortly reply, you weren't asking about that, your question was directed more towards the conversation which just took place with his colleagues but now knowing he doesn't want to touch you has an emptying effect on your chest.

A silent minute passes, maybe two minutes, you're not sure all you're doing is eyeing the carpet thinking about how you would like to be asphyxiated and brought to your end, you can't handle this for much longer.

"Sign these papers, we need your written consent." His voice shows no hints hints of Lev. Last night may have been the last time you had a chance to witness him.

A stack of documents is thrown in front of you and then you see it right at the top of the pile. A sheet filled with general information, eyes skim over the "Purpose of employment" section and you don't know what churns in your stomach. Is it Exasperation? Nerves? Grief? It can't be pinpointed, it could be a mix of all three.

"An Informant."

Rereading the title you hold the paper in disbelief between your palms. "You told your regiment that I would be willing to spy in on enemy kingdoms?"

His hands rub at his forehead, he's not perturbed at all. "Is it in your blood to be ungrateful?" Brutally cynical his tone is rocky.

He moves - not even towards you but for some reason you flinch stopping him in his tracks almost immediately. Narrow ice cold eyes trace your face carefully for any signs of manipulation or deception. Gulping anxiously you know you have to be careful with what you say or do. Getting too comfortable or casual around him is a risk you are not willing to take.

"I don't think you understand. I do not have the abilities nor the skill to do this. I would cause more issues." You cautiously move to grab his arm but before you get there he takes a wide step back. He's clearly defining that there's a boundary. You won't step into his territory not when you've already invaded a large portion of it for so long.

"I am no witch. I still don't understand what happened." You mutter hoping he believes you or at least tries to.

"Then die." Levi hisses. He fixes you with his poisonous stare. "Make it quick."

Curse yourself to a life with this man who every step of the way is hoping for your death - maybe he'll even push you towards it purposefully one day. The alternative choice available is to die by the hands of that same man right now.

Guilt and regret are what you feel, you can't look death in the eye proudly. Not right now. If you can't commit to the promise you made mother then there is truly no point in making your way to the afterlife.

Cowardice is not the cause of death you want to present her with.

With a heavy heart you sign the papers.

It's been a few days since then, you've received training from some of Levi's squad, at first the combat is nerve wracking but you get to a level where you feel comfortable in terms of defense.

Oluo is slow, you've picked up on the way his stance predicts every move he's about to make. You're thankful for that because it makes training easier, he's oblivious to just how easy it is to read his movements and you snigger at that. Today he's trying a new technique, it consists of attempting to dive in the direction of one of your shoulders and suddenly darting at the other. It catches you off guard for a second but it's simple to block him. Jumping back from another surprise attack you lunge forward as if you're aiming for his face. He lights up thinking this is his chance unbeknownst to him you've already seen the open opportunity you've been waiting for. You can change the wager in this brawl. Swiftly ducking you undercut him with one of your legs, his balance has been knocked and he stumbles teetering by a thread.

A solid kick to his stomach is all it takes for him to collapse to the ground grumbling in vexation.

Mikasa has been helping you with one on one combat and the extra hours of training behind the stables has clearly been of benefit.

Thinking back to your training sessions with Mikasa you frown, not because of the way she flipped you and shoved you into the dirt, no that part was quite exhilarating. It's Sasha. She's been on your mind. She has to be feeling left out, that's your fault you've kept her in the dark about joining the regime, how could you attend training with her? Your maid waiting on you whilst you were training? Impossible.

The last problem you wish to arise is everyone finding out you're Duchess Ackerman. No one has to know about that minor detail, in fact when you informed Hange and Erwin of your decision they strongly agreed it would be best to hide it.

"I think we should get you strapped into some gear. See how good you really are in the dexterity department." Oluo is spitefully mumbling under his breath red faced.

Offering him your hand he looks like he wants to smack it away, You don't have time for this, you were planning on dropping by and paying Hange their more than overdue visit after training hours were up.

ODM-gear doesn't look too hard, you're sure you can work out the mechanisms if given some time. Calculating and shifting time blocks in your head you can come to an end at Six, if and only if you're able to rush past ODM training.

"Okay, I admit you were tired today I could tell. I'll strap myself into some gear."

At this new new challenge Oluo willingly takes your hand and you heave him up.

He's got a cocky shit-eating grin sprawled across his face as he pats your back enthusiastically.

"Good luck, you're in for one hell of a ride."

Three dimensional ODM-gear, a contraption that is very different to a sword or dagger. Most soldiers find it difficult to master the balancing of all their body weight whilst simultaneously gliding through the air with the grapple hooks. This is why introductory lessons in balance, momentum and effective weight distribution are a must.

It's been instructed that you won't be using ODM-gear nearly as much as other members of the regiment, you're training to become a spy after all and ODM-gear is very obviously visible when a person is strapped into their uniform. Nevertheless it's still a requirement to be able to use it. It's a hurdle because it's not your forte by any means but you can't continue avoiding it.

When living as the Duchess you deemed it pivotal to only interact with a limited number of Levi's colleagues, those who worked at the estate couldn't be avoided such as Mikasa but apart from that Hange was the only outsider you spoke to (Before Erwin had come along). You don't know if you regret that decision because it's definitely why everyone is cackling as you thrash around, they have no idea he has a wife and if they do they show no inclination of knowing you are that woman.

Sniggers can be heard as you struggle to center your strength fully, your instructor bellows at you. "No, come on. STOP FLAILING AROUND!" Particles of his saliva fly in your face and that only feeds into your embarrassment. Paralyzed you don't know what to do, he tells you to not move around then the next minute barks at you to not give up, repeats that you have the agility level equivalent of a sick child.

You've been stuck in this upside down position for more time than you can imagine, at some point a large majority of the scouts including Oluo double down in laughter whenever you make a mistake - they berate you when you are trying your best.

Legs kicking out you're panicking and want to escape the harness you're in.

Oluo was right, nothing could prepare you for this.

Mikasa when she isn't busy assisting Levi is a part of the regime too, that's why she's grinding her teeth this morning when she walks into the training grounds and sees the whole scene play out right before her eyes.

She wants to desperately step in and stop this because you being forced into ODM training without having your core strength developed is unfair.

Then a yell is heard from the crowd "GO Y/N!! LISTEN TO ME ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS KEEP CALM!" Both you and Mikasa turn to see Sasha standing next to her.

Sasha? Mikasa knows very well how you forbade her to follow you today, you gave her the day off to visit her family.

"I thought Y/N warned yo-"

"I am dedicated in my service to the Lady, if she chooses to do this I will be by her side to support her. She does not have to feel embarrassed."

Members of the corps are eyeing her weirdly when she says "Lady" she doesn't know you're keeping your identity secret, that was the reason for giving her time away, you were afraid she'd slip up and expose you but simply hearing Sasha proudly announce her commitment for you in front of all these people knocks the wind right out of your chest. You've never felt this much importance before.

Sasha's motivation is all you need because by a miraculous turn of events you manage to steady your breathing pattern and find it within yourself to focus on your core. Wobbling shakily the transition is far from smooth but you flip yourself right side up, the muscles in your calf ache and throb with pain but you've done it.

Grinning from ear to ear at your two friends you feel light-headed with relief.

"Took her long enough." Levi sneers. He's made his way to the front of the crowd, you wonder when he got here. Beaming at him you think your presentation might be enough to discourage his usual response. You're incorrect.

"She's a shame to this squad, there is no need in motivating someone of her rank." Shallow breaths puffing out of you it comes to your attention that he's addressing Sasha.

She ignores what he has to say about you and stays silent, any normal person would have their head hanging down in shame but she looks into his eyes with a determination that takes your breath away.

He pays her no mind after that and turns back to where you're still struggling to keep steady. "Don't think you're hot shit." Your bottom teeth dig into your lip, and your throat suddenly clamps down on you restricting your breath. "She's no good at combat, no good at using her gear. Do you only excel at spreading lies, Cadet?" The way he's now completely indignant in the way he speaks stings. He doesn't even bother to sound normal in front of Mikasa or Sasha anymore, it makes you manually hollow your cheeks trying to keep your tears at bay.

Lies, you know what he's referencing. You want to grab him by the collar of his shirt and throw him to the muddy ground. That's what he deserves for prodding and poking at your vulnerabilities.

He doesn't understand the degree at which all these sudden changes are affecting you, in his eyes this is light work and shouldn't impact you at all, that's why when you feel a muscle contraction and reel backwards, rapidly falling back into that cursed upside down position. He scoffs, doesn't even move to check if you're okay.

Whispers circle around you and even some of the cadets who participated in ridiculing you step forward to take you out of your harness. However, Sasha and Mikasa get there first and shoot them with their intense glares, the both of them work on hoisting you out of your gear.

Levi takes one last look at you before he storms away convinced you're faking, what else would a runt like you do to escape the situation?

In his mind you lost your momentum and your ship capsized because of your own self sabotage.

Little does he know all that has truly lost momentum is the inner-workings of your heart and that is all thanks to him.

[silyabeeodess]

So... Last night, I read the Balan Wonderworld novel.  It’s... something.  It's not bad--I did enjoy it and it does have its moments--but there’s bits that don’t really seem to work as well as they could’ve and they can add up.  To avoid major spoilers, like last time, I’ll put my thoughts below the cut, so be warned:

Most of my concerns are issues with the individual characters, but I’ll start by talking about the book itself first.  Because there are so many people and themes in it to discuss, with the plot covering every stage and each of the residents’ backstories, you have to move through events quickly: We don’t really spend enough time with any of the characters to know them beyond some basic traits and what they need.  Fine for a game and with visuals, sure, but not so much for a story.  Things can feel like they’re moving a bit too fast, which I can excuse because of the large cast number; however, the writing only amplifies the problem and makes it feel like the book is being padded with wasted, repetitive dialogue that takes away from the story. I want you to imagine taking the 12 Days of Christmas and turning it into a novel--not with the things divided up into each individual day, but each chapter repeating all of the other days that came before it.  It’s stale, it’s droning, and you as a reader will just end up skipping through material after a while.  The book does this through the visions the characters share of Balan and Fighter/Emma, with Streetbeat/Leo and the residents each having them with slight differences in-between.  As you meet each individual resident, one by one, they repeat a lot of the same things over and over.  Not only that, but then you have to loop back through them and their stages a second time as Leo saves everyone.  It’s not quite as bad as my 12 Days of Christmas example, but it does get to the point where you’re ready to say, “I get it! Your lover gave you calling birds, hens, doves, and a partridge--please, just move on already!” There are such easy fixes to this issue too, like having characters already meeting in each other’s stages to cover them together, maybe summarizing the differences in their stages to set up Leo’s expectations before he sees how distorted they become later on since he’s going to have to visit each one anyway.  Instead, time is wasted that could’ve been spent on descriptions or building the characters in other ways.      

I think the one character that suffers the most because of this Fighter/Emma.  Because she’s placed in the story with the same mystery as Balan and viewed as a villain by the rest of the cast up until the end, she’s constantly being sidelined even though she’s a main character.  She’s used more-so as a plot device for Leo, running off to do her own thing when she’s no longer needed, and then gets no conclusion where all of the other characters do.  It’s like that meme where a person asks, “What about Emma?” and everyone just repeats the question dismissively as an answer. Again, I get it, we’re following Leo’s story here just as we would only be following one of them in the game, but it’s bad to keep dismissing her all while using her as a necessary key to saving everyone else.  I guess it’s implied at the end that the Wonderworld gang might seek her out too, as they did with each other, but she’s barely a footnote.  Balan and Lance suffer a little bit too, but do make enough satisfying reappearances that it’s not as much of an issue.  

I kind of want to avoid talking about the writing style further, as I can’t help but wonder how much might be more of something like a translation issue; however, I will say that if you plan on reading this with a young reader, be ready to explain some extensive vocabulary to them.  The style itself isn’t very flowery, the book isn’t a heavy text, but there are some words they won’t understand that can’t be deciphered by using the surrounding text.  Like I said, the book doesn’t have a strong focus on description: Moreover though, there’s not as many illustrations paced through the book as you would imagine based on the preview.  You end have having to rely on what you already know going off those first images at the start of the book introducing the characters or if you’ve played the game. It’s not a big thing, but I can see it being a small problem if you chose to read the novel alone.  I tend to lean toward styles with heavier description in both my reading and writing though, so that might be a bit of my personal bias as well.  Some of you may prefer it as it is.

Now getting on to the individual characters... Oh boy, is there some stuff to go through.  Let me start with the one I’m actually a little uncomfortable with, as her actions affect some of the other characters as well in major ways: The Clocktower Kid/Cass Milligan.  Throughout the story, we’re given clues that she has a big crush on Pensive Perriot/Attilio Caccini--who, as most of you likely already know--is in love with a woman who works with him at his theme park as a princess.  By the end of the book, it’s revealed that there’s a near decade-long gap between when the two stepped into Wonderworld and that Cass is the princess...  Thankfully, Attilio showed no interest in Cass as her child-self and this means that they’re actually close to the same age, but let’s unpack the assortment of other problems this brings up.  1.)�� This goes beyond a childhood crush with someone older that most people get over: The girl devoted a decade of her life to getting the princess role so she could be with the guy.  If it was a year or two between teenagers, that would be one thing: This borderlines obsession.  2.) She knows who Attilio is from the beginning and waits for him to confess his love to her before revealing her identity.  She says it’s because she didn’t want to risk messing up the timeline, but her own actions could’ve done exactly that had the princess role been meant for literally any other girl on the entire planet.  She didn’t know that she was meant to be the princess: All she knew was that she wanted to be with Attilio.  3.)  Either Attilio just kind of accepts all of this or, again, the pacing won’t give us some much-needed details, because the next thing we know we’re getting to their engagement and honeymoon months later.  Keep in mind: While she waits a decade for him, his confession takes place barely a few hours after he leaves Wonderworld.  I think the guy would need at least a little time to process everything.  4.)  While the book seems to stay close to the game’s canon from what I’ve seen, this particular relationship is handled even weirder in its cutscenes.  For one thing, it’s not revealed that Cass is the princess.  For another, despite this, we see her with Attilio anyway as her young, childhood self--granted, without any big hints to a romance between them. I’ll let you dissect what you will from that.

Let me get to The Checkered King/Cal Suresh next.  In the novel, a couple of the characters had their backstories tweaked.  These changes don’t interfere with what we see from the game’s cutscenes, but they do add more context to them that changes what particular issues the characters are suffering through.  In Cal’s case, his obsession with his champion title in chess led him to ignore his dying wife, adding an extreme sense of guilt and longing that wasn’t there when we believed this was just a matter of his pride and sense of identity alone.  Enter Cass, who reappears in her timeline before this death takes place, finds out who Cal is... and apparently does nothing to warn him. We can use her timeline excuse, but this is someone’s dying wife we’re talking about--she even sees him grieving over her in an illusion as they’re all leaving Wonderworld.  Even if no one could do anything for Mrs. Suresh, even if Cal didn’t listen to Cass and dismissed everything she had to say about wasting precious hours better spent with the people you love, I think an attempt at talking to him would at least be necessary.  No though, the book just ignores that while the two of them and Attilio eat snacks together.            

Cal isn’t the only one who had the added trauma of death: They did it to The Watcher/Sana Hudson too.  In her case, she was trying to protect some endangered birds that were killed--both directly and indirectly--by the construction workers in her area, leading her to despise humanity for its “greed and selfishness.”  Now, her situation/feelings is/are perfectly understandable, especially given how the construction workers in the story are portrayed.  What doesn’t really work is the context surrounding the issue and her actions involving the event. Now, I admit this first point is a bit weak as I can’t speak for the regulations across every country and we don’t know exactly where Sana is from, but a lot of places have heavy regulations and work with big organizations to protect endangered species.  Not to mention this is a bit of a heavy topic with much-needed context for a book like this to properly cover.  This fact isn’t even glossed over though and the workers have no problem cutting down the birds’ tree despite how this would likely cause massive legal trouble for them and be a major deterrent as a result.  As to the “greed and selfishness of man,” this doesn’t really work well considering that the workers are trying to build a residential area.  A cost to the environment?  Yes.  However, it was likely ordered for the benefit of the community.  We see this debated a little more evenly in the conclusion to Sana’s story; however, we’re also pretty much told “Yeah, humans are terrible and can never change. Pick birds over them,” beforehand.  Lastly, Sana’s own actions--or rather, lackthereof.  When the birds lose their tree, their eggs are destroyed and the parents stay behind out of their love for their deceased offspring rather than leave for winter later on, resulting in their deaths.  To try to prevent this, Sana begs the birds to leave... Let me repeat that: She begs the birds to leave.  The problem?  They’re birds.  They’re animals.  And, outside of the theatre, this is supposedly a world just like ours.  You can’t reason with a bird like a person.  She could’ve just as easily tried to capture the birds and brought them somewhere safer herself or called someone who would.  If that didn’t work, at least those actions would make a lot more sense for the hatred she feels towards other humans: Instead, this decision makes their deaths kinda her fault too for leaving them there despite knowing what would happen is she did. 

I don’t know how I feel about the added issues involving death.  Yes, there’s a lot surrounding that theme alone to cover, but part of Balan Wonderworld’s charm is confronting all these people with extremely diverse problems, some stemming from issues beyond their control and some their own, internal struggles. The inclusion of death might have made the consequences of events more traumatic, but I think to a detriment.  It doesn’t affect Sana as much, but Cal’s case is the worst, as his wife’s passing echoes the regret and mourning we already get from The Lady/Iben Bia’s story when it could’ve been it’s own, independent thing focusing on pride, identity, and a sense of fulfillment that we see more in his game counterpart.  I can’t help but feel that we miss out on a wider range of messages by emphasizing on the aspect of death so much.         

Lastly, let’s get to Balan and Lance.  Overall, I greatly enjoyed the twist at the end with the connection between their characters.  The problems I have with them, honestly, I debate whether or not are even problems at all as they do address real concerns that perfectly fit what individuals in their circumstances would go through.  First Lance, then Balan, they’ve spent a millennia helping others repair the imbalance in their hearts.  People come, people go, and they’re left behind, forever alone in that that theatre.  It would be crushing.  Lance already broke under the weight of that pain, which is why Balan exists--and now he’s likely doomed to continue the cycle as he suffers this same degree of loneliness.  My main issue is that there’s so much to cover about this that we’re barely given a teaspoon of.  The author couldn’t really give us much, as this book’s main focus was on Wonderworld’s inhabitants.  It feels though that there’s something being built-up that we might not ever get to see completed depending on how successful the franchise it, which is sad if that’s the case.  (Hey though: That’s where we fans usually step in, right?)          

Secondary to that is that there’s a level of hypocrisy to Balan, Lance, and how they engage with the inhabitants.  I kind of love it, but this is where I’m a little conflicted since Balan is supposed to be the one helping people fix their hearts.  Two general themes that carry over greatly among all of the inhabitants is the importance of love and friendship, how we rely on others to grow and save us from the worst of ourselves.  Balan, however, is required to stay detached from others no matter how much it hurts or what it will inevitably lead to, as everyone must leave Wonderworld eventually.  It’s a conflict of interest.  Ironically enough, it’s Lance’s decision to trap Leo in a stage and his overwhelming longing for true connections that allow the inhabitants to find and help each other.  It’s bad that Balan and Lance couldn’t take the lessons they gave others and apply it to themselves, because their situation is so extreme. 

Furthermore, there’s a hypocrisy between Balan and Lance in their decision to wipe the inhabitants memories.  It’s revealed not to be a magical phenomena caused by the theatre itself once people leave it as many of us thought, but rather a conscious choice Balan makes--just like Lance.  However, while Lance does it to keep the inhabitants contently trapped inside their hearts, we’re not really given a reason for Balan’s actions. Memories, good and bad, are a vital piece of us: We reflect on them as we grow to maintain the lessons we learned in those moments that make us who we are.  We see the danger of lost memories not just with Lance, but with Balan as well as part of Sana’s conclusion alludes to a potential relapse.  It was her connection to the people she met in Wonderworld that allowed her to recognize one of them--Eis Glover--back home and keep her grounded in another, potentially shattering instant of her life. Similarly, Leo only managed to restore his imbalance because of his friendships with the other inhabitants--friendships he was destined to lose the moment he walked out of the theatre had Balan taken everyone’s memories.  This too, I feel, could’ve caused Leo to relapse.  If so, Balan’s choice to let them keep their memories of Wonderworld likely prevented them from needing to come back to the theatre--at least not as often as they may have needed to otherwise.  Let’s get to the question Lance brings up at the end: “Honestly, enough with the self-deception.  You normally take everyone’s memories when they leave, so why this time did you make an exception?” It could be that Balan simply didn’t want to be forgotten anymore.  It could also be that he loved them enough that he didn’t want them to suffer to the extent where they had to return to the theatre even if it meant there was a chance he wouldn’t see them again.  That idea would beg a second question though: Why did Balan erase the memories of every inhabitant who came before them?   (If it isn’t obvious by now, this scene was my favorite bit in the whole book.)    

I know this whole post seems to be mostly a series of complaints, but I did enjoy the book overall: I just have a tendency to look at every detail and, when things don’t work, they stay in my mind for a long while.  Like I said at the start, the novel isn’t a bad read, it just has some bad points.  If you’re already a fan of the game, you’ll probably enjoy it too.  If not, I’d recommend checking out some of the other content available--like the video previews/cutscenes introducing the characters--before stepping into this.   

[shirophantomvox]

Lotor's Nanny

Hello y’all! I am back yet again with another Voltron short fiction! I got this prompt from @vld-prompts and this one is great! Some dialogue in this are mixed quotes from the show. The prompt is: “Dayak comes to Galra HQ unexpectedly.” The link shows the reference I used in this story. Its somewhat the same, I changed some elements and dialogue. I mentioned the Code of Ethics because some companies do not allow in-dating. That means you cannot date one of your coworkers. This story has been on my mind for a while and it came out better than I expected! I hope you all like it. Be sure to follow me for more writing content!

Team Voltron slowly walked across the bridge of Galra HQ formerly known as Zarkon’s ship. Chills ran down their spines as they approached the now Emperor Lotor and his staff. Right above them were tapestries filled with light purple, white, and yellow; the same colors the paladins of old had. The expression on Lotor’s face was the complete opposite of his new comrades. The paladins had been through enough; their lives could end at this very moment and to think they blindly walked into Galra HQ? Thank God, Lotor didn’t have any tricks up his sleeve...or did he?

Lotor approached the Paladins with open arms aimed at Princess Allura; hoping she’d give him a hug and not leave him looking like a fool. Reluctantly, she embraced him softly, barely placing her arms fully around his back. That was good enough, for now. She backed up quite smoothly, lifted her head, and looked at the tapestries that hung above her head. They all gasped and at the beauty and detail of them. The yellow had thin lines of dark yellow as the outline. They glistened in the spotlights because of the white glitter that was in its place. Lotor smiled large, folded his arms, and lifted his head. This was his time to shine and he was ready to do so.

“The colors you see before you are the same ones that our fathers used while battling. These colors represent friendship, leadership, and an emphasis on an unbreakable bond. Although the unbreakable bond didn’t workout well the first time, I’m certain it will now.”

Lotor’s smile slowly faded as he glanced directly in between Allura and Shiro. “Lover Boy” Lance McClain came storming between the two, stood toe to toe with him, and pointed his lengthy index finger in his face.

“Lance, that’s rude! What are you doing?!” Allura’s tone wasn’t her usual sweet, calm reflection but instead more like an irritated mother. She had been used to Lance’s irrational fears but this was TOO FAR for her. She developed feelings for Lotor, she is one of the leaders of Voltron, and having him misbehave insulted her leadership skills.

“Don’t worry, princess. I just want to make sure he doesn’t have any tricks up his sleeve.”

Lotor arrogantly chuckled quietly to himself. Although Lance appeared to be the airhead surfer boy, he took his role as paladin and valued his team seriously. They had been ambushed several times by Zarkon, his father. They have every right to be paranoid even if Allura didn’t think so. One thing that irked the team was her sense of trustworthiness. She hated Lotor simply because he was truly a threat and was Zarkon’s son but once she found out he was half Altean, it appeared as if she did anything he said. She fell for him; hard and that isn’t always good.

“I assure you, I am not here to play games or have any “tricks up my sleeve”. Trust me, if I did, you would know about it already. I am more skilled than you. There’s no need to lie.”

“As much as I would love to believe you Lotor, the Galra aren’t the ones to ‘turn the other cheek’. They keep fighting and fighting until they die.” Hunk began to sweat a little as his nerves began to run amuck.

“Hunk has a point. Why all of a sudden are we teaming up with Zarkon’s son to fight against his own empire that your the head of? It doesn’t sound right.”

“If Pidge agrees with me, it must be a set up.” Lance turned around and allied himself with the rest of the team. They were not pleased at all. Could it be a possibility that they were being paranoid? Is it wrong that they haven’t given him a chance to prove himself? Lotor released an irritated sigh, closed his eyes, and opened them again.

“I assure you, I have nothing to hide.” He snapped his fingers and two robots came at his side quickly. “If you all don’t mind, we are going to HQ and we will have a chat about what our next steps are going to be.”

The centurions led the way to HQ. On the way there, it was quiet and awkward; the only ones that were talking were Allura and Lotor. He had a large binder open with pages and pages of scientific research that Honerva had been using to figure out information regarding the creatures from the rift. Both were so intrigued by the findings that they began to pick up speed next to the centurions, leaving the team a bit behind. Allura took hold of the binder to find something specifically related to Oriande relating to “life givers”. Lotor began to close the space between the two placing his arm around her waist and gently placing his hand around her thigh. Lance was about to blow his fuse! Pidge and Hunk reassured him that Allura has stated several times before that she is not interested in dating him. It would be unprofessional; Lotor and Allura were considered to be allies. If they dated they’d be violating the Code of Ethics...somewhere.

“If she wouldn’t be interested in dating him, why isn’t she throwing his arm off her?”

“Lance, I haven’t dated yet but I know something about girls.” She pushed her glasses closer to her face and pointed in the air. “Some girls just entertain the behavior in the moment so the guy doesn’t flip out. They also do it so the man’s ego won’t get hurt. Both reasons are stupid and unhealthy but that is why. I have no idea why a man’s ego is so easily destroyed just because a girl rejected his passes.”

“Good question. It makes the good guys look bad.” Hunk stuck his finger in the air and smiled. “I’ll always treat my woman like a queen!”

The team had finally reached HQ. Lotor suddenly became quiet and stood still. He squinted his eyes, frowned, and slowly moved away from them. Once he approached his subject, his eyes widened. There was a tall woman dressed in long black clothing, her head covered, with her back turned. She had two blue binders that said “memories” on the binding side and an old cloth blanket. The emperor face palmed himself quietly backing away instructing the team to leave HQ quickly without making a sound. As soon as the robots began to move, the woman turned around, gasped and yelled his name.

“Lotor!”

“Goodness gracious,” he replied quickly under his breath.

The woman came walking towards him with a smile of endearment. He could now see the front of the binders and nearly lost his mind. He blushed at the sight and glanced back at her. She laughed, assuring him that she was moving his belongings to another part of the ship.

“Oh, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“Embarrassed about what?”

Lotor changed his expression and turned around. Still blushing, he managed to smile.

“This is Dayak, my governess. She raised me when I was a child, trained me, and helped me become the man I am today.”

“Barely,” Lance blurted out. He snapped his head and smiled oddly at Lotor. Lance was able to put two and two together and realized what he was embarrassed about.

“Wait, wait, wait. She raised you from a child? As in your nanny?!”

“Governess!” The emperor face palmed again, not able to look in Allura’s direction.

Why would ANYONE want their old photos to be shown to anyone they liked?!

“Oh boy, you had a nanny! Oh my goodness, I didn’t have one!”

“That’s why you're lacking in so many areas. Can’t you tell?” He began to flex his arm, showing the implied muscles through his shirt.

“That’s all you’ve got? At least mine are real!”

“Mine are too! You look like you’ve been using steroids!”

“Steroids? How do you know what those are? You’re an alien.”

“Ok, Lance, that’s enough. Dayak was going to speak,” Shiro said, somehow not irritated. Given the chaotic life he has, this was nothing but pure entertainment.

“Thank you. True enough I am this young emperor’s governess and I did far more than nanny duties. Lotor underwent intense training at the age of 6 years old. Many doubted his abilities but I knew he had it in him.”

“Thank you, Dayak.”

“Lotor, don’t hate me for this. Dayak, what are in the books that you are holding?” Hunk was generally curious and had no ill intent in asking unlike Lance. Still, Lotor was pained to see what was in those books. His style would have definitely been cramped.

“I’ll show you if it’s ok with the emperor.”

Lotor sighed heavily and threw his hand in the air.

“Yes, it's ok.”

Everyone gathered around his governess as she opened one of the books. The font read “Memorable Moments” and God knows what was in them. The team released a number of “awws”, “wows”, and “oohs” . Dayak, the nanny--governess, smiled as she turned each page remembering how cute the emperor looked in his formal clothing and how hot she looked when she was younger. This stage in his life would have happened matter what; Honerva would have done the same thing.

“This picture was taken after Lotor learned the Galran alphabet, vowel sounds, and numbers.”

“Wow! Lotor used to take a stuffed animal to class?” Hunk laughed. “Ha!”

“I was afraid, ok? I was all by myself.”

“And no one is shaming you for it buddy! Well, maybe Lance, but we aren’t.”

“This picture was taken during PE class. He loved to play buckets. I thought he was going to pursue somewhat of an athletic career!”

“I have to admit, he gets his muscles from Zarkon.”

“Aw. Thank you Princess.”

“That’s not a compliment dude.”

The emperor realized that the old photos of him weren’t so bad after all. They were milestones; it showed how well he has progressed and how he will continue. These were his allies after all. It was important for them to see him during his softer moments to know that they could talk to him about anything.

[lgbtqiahistoricalromance]

Finishing Out Summer 2020 TBR List! - Updated 7/31

Starting back in March, I was adding novel after novel for purposes of reading during social distancing and Summer 2020. I’m hoping you all found some great reads, even if you haven’t been able to read them all. *Here is another batch to round out Summer 2020, and I’m thrilled by the selection that includes sapphic, trans MCs, and more eras and locations than any list to date.

Leather and Lace by Rebel Carter (Good Sky series #5) - May 20th - sapphic

Mary Sophia James came to Gold Sky, Montana to find a husband at the insistence of her overbearing mother. Striking out in spectacular fashion after setting her eye on Julian Baptiste, her options are dwindling, and time is running out. She needs to find a man to marry before her condition becomes…obvious. Her mother’s prejudices and sharp tongue aren’t helping matters and Mary, to her shame, hasn’t behaved much better. But all her plans are derailed when she spots the most beautiful person she’s ever seen across the town square. Alex Pierce is strong, intriguing, looks stunning in a pair of trousers…and a woman.

Gold Sky is accepting of all types of love, and that between women is no different. Still, Alex didn’t expect to be so floored by the sight of the firey haired, yet fragile looking young woman. Mary needs to be married and Alex has a solution. Because in Gold Sky, Montana there are many ways to be married…and not all of them include a man.

Leather and Lace is a 35k word novella set at the same time as the events of book 2, Hearth and Home. It includes a passionate and romantic f/f love in a town where diversity, and love, reign supreme.

Note : Leather and Lace has a bit of mail-order, arranged married, kind of secret baby with some foreced proximity sprinkled on top!

The Sugared Game by KJ Charles (The Will Darling Adventures #2) - August 26th

It’s been two months since Will Darling saw Kim Secretan, and he doesn’t expect to see him again. What do a rough and ready soldier-turned-bookseller and a disgraced, shady aristocrat have to do with each other anyway? But when Will encounters a face from the past in a disreputable nightclub, Kim turns up, as shifty, unreliable, and irresistible as ever. And before Will knows it, he’s been dragged back into Kim’s shadowy world of secrets, criminal conspiracies, and underhand dealings. This time, though, things are underhanded even by Kim standards. This time, the danger is too close to home. And if Will and Kim can’t find common ground against unseen enemies, they risk losing everything.

The Revolutionary and the Rogue by Blake Ferre - August 24th

Perrin deVesey knows pain. As a member of Crimson Rose, a secret club for men who love men, he’s taken the vow “to stand and shield.” Standing together during these perilous times is the only thing keeping their necks from the guillotine. Now their leader is using the club to rescue wrongly accused traitors. After losing a past lover to an unjust execution, the decision to support this treasonous cause is easy…until a devastatingly handsome Committee Officer complicates Perrin’s whole world. Officer Henri Chevalier hates aristocrats. But the man he finds while investigating Crimson Rose is more than just wealthy and fancily clothed. He’s a rogue that could take him to the heart of the uprising and stop it before it starts. His plan to get close to Perrin and steal his secrets backfires, though, when Henri finds himself falling for the damned aristo and his dangerous smile. His heart is even more conflicted as he learns the truth behind their cause…and the truth his own people have been hiding. Together they must make the choice—to stand and shield at any cost—and their love might be the deadliest weapon in all of France.

Healing Lance by MD Grimm (A Warrior’s Redemption #1)- July 28th

A baby’s laughter. A mind uncaged. Lance is known as Scourge, the warrior in the black armor, the dog of the warlord Ulfr Blackwolf. He was just a boy when Ulfr found him and molded him into the perfect weapon. He slaughters and pillages on command, merciless and numb, devoid of emotions. Then a baby girl laughs at him during a raid. And everything changes. When Gust, a talented healer, is out deer hunting and stumbles across a magnificent horse bearing a mortally wounded rider, he has no idea that his life is about to change forever. Gust applies all his skills to his patient, determined to save the rider’s life, and is rewarded when the man opens his eyes. As friendship, and more, bloom between warrior and healer, so does the danger over the horizon. Ulfr has not forgotten, and Lance must take his first steps on the long road to redemption.     

The rest of the series is either out this Summer or finishes in Sept!

Unhallowed: A Novel of Widdershins (Rath & Rune Book #1) by Jordan L Hawk - July 17th

Monsters. Murder. Librarians. Librarian Sebastian Rath is the only one who believes his friend Kelly O’Neil disappeared due to foul play. But without any clues or outside assistance, there’s nothing he can do to prove it. When bookbinder Vesper Rune is hired to fill the vacancy left by O’Neil, he receives an ominous letter warning him to leave. After he saves Sebastian from a pair of threatening men, the two decide to join forces and get to the truth about what happened to O’Neil. But Vesper is hiding secrets of his own, ones he doesn’t dare let anyone learn. Secrets that grow ever more dangerous as his desire for Sebastian deepens. Because Kelly O’Neil was murdered. And if Sebastian and Ves don’t act quickly enough, they’ll be the next to die.

My Heart’s in the Highlands by Amy Hoff - July 17th - sapphic - time travel

The year is 1888. Brilliant and beautiful, Lady Jane Crichton has fought the constraints of her Victorian Edinburgh upbringing to become one of the first women to attend university for medicine. Denied a degree because of her gender, she decides to marry a closeted gay man, providing him with political and social cover and herself with the time and money to pursue her scientific interests—one of which is a time machine. Jane’s machine works…but not exactly as she expected, and soon she has crash-landed in the 13th-century Scottish Highlands. There she is rescued by a wild, red-haired warrior woman, Ainslie nic Dòmhnaill, next in line to the chiefship of the great Clan Donald, the rulers of the Sea Kingdom of the Isles. Despite the constant threat of attacks from enemy clans, harsh winters and a touch of homesickness, Jane finds herself bewitched by this land, this time and this magnificent woman. The rough and warlike Ainslie also feels the magic and revels in a passion and love neither she nor Jane had ever imagined. But Jane is hiding a dangerous secret—one that threatens to tragically transform their Highland fairy tale.

Kinship and Kindness by Kara Jorgensen (A Paranormal Society Romance #1) - releases July 29th -trans MC

Bennett Reynard needs one thing: to speak to the Rougarou about starting a union for shifters in New York City before the delegation arrives. When his dirigible finally lands in Louisiana, he finds the Rougarou is gone and in his stead is his handsome son, Theo, who seems to care for everyone but himself. Hoping he can still petition the Rougarou, Bennett stays only to find he is growing dangerously close to Theo Bisclavret. Theo Bisclavret thought he had finally come to terms with never being able to take his father’s place as the Rougarou, but with his father stuck in England and a delegation of werewolves arriving in town, Theo’s quiet life is thrown into chaos as he and his sister take over his duties. Assuming his father’s place has salted old wounds, but when a stranger arrives offering to help, Theo knows he can’t say no, even if Mr. Reynard makes him long for things he had sworn off years ago. As rivals arrive to challenge Theo for power and destroy the life Bennett has built, they know they must face their greatest fears or risk losing all they have fought for. With secrets threatening to topple their worlds, can Theo and Bennett let down their walls before it’s too late?

More under the cut...!!!!

My Highland Laird: Sci-Regency Book #5 by JL Langley - releases August 10th

Bannon Thompson, talented artist and youngest son of the Duke of Eversleigh, is hastily shipped off after his latest indiscretion. After crashing on rural Skye, leaving him and his valet the sole survivors of a diplomatic mission, Bannon must navigate the complexities of a primitive clan society and take up a role he never wanted: helping a sexy Highlander ensure the safety of both their planets.

Laird Ciaran MacKay wants nothing more than to keep his clan safe from the off-world intruders who killed his father. Suspecting complicity among his own people, he has no choice but to trust outsiders from a spaceship crash—and he can’t seem to fight his attraction to the stubborn redhead. Drawn to the handsome laird, Bannon risks a bold affair. But there is more at stake than reputations as they find two lost Regelens and uncover the Intergalactic Navy’s plot.

Artful Deception by Jackson Marsh (The Clearwater Myseries Book #5)

“Deception. The lie that tells the truth."

A damaged painting tempts Lord Clearwater to a final battle with his arch-enemy, and it's not a summons he can ignore.

Archer must free his homicidal brother from incarceration and reinstate him to the title. He will be left humiliated and penniless, but free to live his life with Silas with no threat of exposure. The alternative is death.

Drawing inspiration from a work of art, Clearwater manipulates a series of illusions to stay one step ahead of the endgame. While James, Tom and Silas race to solve clues and reach Archer before the fatal deadline, the assassin, Dorjan, remains hot on his heels ready to kill.

The sixth book in The Clearwater Mysteries series brings back popular characters from previous adventures in a fast-paced, twisting mystery that can have only one of two possible endings.

Or perhaps one of three. After all, deception is the lie that tells the truth.

Ten or Fifteen Miles by BL Maxwell - May 27th

Tim Latham had only been riding for the Pony Express for a week before he has to show the new guy the trail. Being raised on a farm in the Sacramento area, the Pony Express gave him an opportunity to see more of the country beyond his family’s little plot of land. He loves everything about the job: the adventure, the scenery, and the speed. Racing the wind on the back of a horse was as close to perfect as he could imagine.

Jeremiah Rollins grew up in San Francisco under the shadow of his father's successful shipping business. But Jeremiah craves the adventure he reads about in the dime novels he can’t get enough of. On a whim, and despite his father’s disapproval, he signs up for the Pony Express and leaves his old life behind for the steep, rocky trails that cross the Sierra Nevada. Both men are excited to begin their journey on their first ride together to Nevada Territory. They set out, making their way from station to station, racing as fast as their horses can carry them, and their friendship grows every mile. They both wanted adventure, but they may end up getting more than they dreamed of. Every ten or fifteen miles brings new experiences, and new feelings that grow with each mile they pass. 

People Like Us by Ruby Moone (Winsford Green #2) - July 21st

Arthur Fitch clawed his way out of the violence and poverty of the slums of London to become a valet to the aristocracy. His ambition to secure a higher position led him to a disastrous appointment with a cold, brutal man, and when things come to a head, Arthur is forced to flee into a snowstorm to find safety. Joseph Wilkinson is the Winsford Green blacksmith. He has a good life, good friends, owns a thriving business, but at the end of the day when he goes home, loneliness consumes him. When he stumbles upon a small man determinedly trudging through the snowstorm, he invites him into his home to shelter. Arthur Fitch is older, smart-mouthed, and as prickly as hell. But, as Joe peels back the layers, he discovers a warm, funny, vulnerable man whose tastes in the bedchamber leave Joe gasping and desperate for more. Trouble is, having found the real Arthur Fitch, how can he convince him that life in a small town can be infinitely better than working for an Earl? That love really is possible for people like them? Particularly when Arthur’s past catches up with him in horrifying fashion.

Seaworthy bu KL Noone (Character Bleed Book #1) - August 1st - bisexual MC - contemporary, but with a lot of historical touches

An epic motion picture! A gay Napoleonic War love story! Ballrooms and battles at sea! Romantic happy endings on the silver screen! And a film that’ll change everything for its stars ... Jason Mirelli can’t play adrenaline-fueled action heroes forever. He’s getting older, plus the action star parts have grown a little thinner since he came out as bisexual. This role could finally let him be seen as a serious dramatic actor, and he needs it to go well -- for his career, and because he’s fallen in love with the story and the chance to tell it. The first problem? He’ll be playing a ship’s captain ... and he hasn’t exactly mentioned his fear of water. The second problem? His co-star: award-winning, overly talkative, annoyingly adorable -- and openly gay – box office idol Colby Kent. Colby’s always loved the novel this film’s based on, and he leapt at the chance to adapt it, now that he has the money and reputation to make it happen. But scars and secrets from his past make filming a love story difficult ... until Jason takes his hand and wakes up all his buried desires. Jason could be everything Colby’s ever wanted: generous and kind, a fantastic partner on set, not to mention those heroic muscles. But Colby just can’t take that chance ... or can he? As their characters fall in love and fight a war, Colby and Jason find themselves falling, too ... and facing the return of their own past demons. But together they just might win ... and write their own love story.

The Engineer (Magic & Steam Book #1) by CS Poe - May 28th

1881—Special Agent Gillian Hamilton is a magic caster with the Federal Bureau of Magic and Steam. He’s sent to Shallow Grave, Arizona, to arrest a madman engineer known as Tinkerer, who’s responsible for blowing up half of Baltimore. Gillian has handled some of the worst criminals in the Bureau’s history, so this assignment shouldn’t be a problem. But even he’s taken aback by a run-in with the country’s most infamous outlaw, Gunner the Deadly. Gunner is also stalking Shallow Grave in search of Tinkerer, who will stop at nothing to take control of the town’s silver mines. Neither Gillian nor Gunner are willing to let Tinkerer hurt more innocent people, so they agree to a very temporary partnership. If facing illegal magic, Gatling gun contraptions, and a wild engineer in America’s frontier wasn’t enough trouble for a city boy, Gillian must also come to terms with the reality that he’s rather fond of his partner. But even if they live through this adventure, Gillian fears there’s no chance for love between a special agent and outlaw. Based on the short story, “Gunner the Deadly.” Entirely revised, newly expanded, and Book One in the exciting new steampunk series, Magic & Steam.

Pirate’s Promise (Pirate’s of Port Royal Book #1) by Jules Radcliffe - May 12th - the rest of the series is also out this Summer!

Press-ganged as a boy, Job Wright must learn how to live as a free man.

For years Job has been a captive, treated as a servant—and sometimes more—by a crooked merchant crew. Until the day his ship is attacked by pirates. English pirates, no less, and Brethren of the Coast, a brotherhood of free men who owe allegiance to no one but themselves. Job thinks he's been rescued at last, but he's badly mistaken. As an Englishman aboard a Spanish ship, the Brethren believe he's a traitor and an enemy. But just when pirate justice is about to be delivered, Garrett Dubh intervenes. He both saves Job's life and recruits him to the pirate ship Audacious.

Surrounded by a fearsome crew, Job finds protection under Garrett's wing. He's ready to do anything for the handsome pirate—things he'd never willingly do for another man. But Garrett ignores Job's shy overtures. He believes Job is too traumatised by his past. Too young to know what he wants. And nothing Job says will change his mind.

To show Garrett he can take care of himself, Job leaves the safety of the Audacious. He joins the most ruthless Brethren crew in the Caribbean, led by the enigmatic and cruel Rusé.

But in the French pirate haven of Tortuga, thoughtless actions can have fatal consequences, something Job is about to discover. And this time, Garrett isn't there to save him.

Chasing a Legacy by D. A Ravenscroft - May 2020

Against the tense political backdrop of the Second French Empire, siblings Camille and Marianne find themselves wrestling with personal demons both past and present. As Camille strives to keep family secrets buried and unveil a plot against them, Marianne becomes involved with the handsome Baron Auclair and his mysterious younger sister. Little do the siblings know that soon their very different lives will come crashing together…

-

The sequel to a sequel! In this follow up to the unofficial Les Mis sequel ‘Chasing a Ghost’, we follow Enjolras and Grantaire’s children, Camille and Marianne, through dangers untold and family strife. Set in 1866, towards the end of the Second Empire, this story has murder, mystery, romance, drama, comedy, and a pet lion. And yes, it’s very, very queer.

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/d-a-ravenscroft/chasing-a-legacy/paperback/product-y58wrq.html

Two Rogues Make a Right by Cat Sebastian (Seducing the Sedgwicks Book #3) - June 23rd

Will Sedgwick can’t believe that after months of searching for his oldest friend, Martin Easterbrook is found hiding in an attic like a gothic nightmare. Intent on nursing Martin back to health, Will kindly kidnaps him and takes him to the countryside to recover, well away from the world. Martin doesn’t much care where he is or even how he got there. He’s much more concerned that the man he’s loved his entire life is currently waiting on him hand and foot, feeding him soup and making him tea. Martin knows he’s a lost cause, one he doesn’t want Will to waste his life on. As a lifetime of love transforms into a tender passion both men always desired but neither expected, can they envision a life free from the restrictions of the past, a life with each other?

Best Laid Plaids by Ella Stainton (Kilty Pleasures #1)- August 31st

In 1920s Scotland, even ghosts wear plaid.

Welcome to a sexy, spooky new paranormal historical series from debut author Ella Stainton.

Scotland, 1928

Dr. Ainsley Graham is cultivating a reputation as an eccentric.

Two years ago, he catastrophically ended his academic career by publicly claiming to talk to ghosts. When Joachim Cockburn, a WWI veteran studying the power of delusional thinking, arrives at his door, Ainsley quickly catalogues him as yet another tiresome Englishman determined to mock his life’s work.

But Joachim is tenacious and openhearted, and Ainsley’s intrigued despite himself. He agrees to motor his handsome new friend around to Scotland’s most unmistakable hauntings. If he can convince Joachim, Ainsley might be able to win back his good name and then some. He knows he’s not crazy—he just needs someone else to know it, too.

Joachim is one thesis away from realizing his dream of becoming a psychology professor, and he’s not going to let anyone stop him, not even an enchanting ginger with a penchant for tartan and lewd jokes. But as the two travel across Scotland’s lovely—and definitely, definitely haunted—landscape, Joachim’s resolve starts to melt. And he’s beginning to think that an empty teaching post without the charming Dr. Graham would make a very poor consolation prize indeed…

The Gentleman’s Thief by Isobel Starling (Resurrectionist Book #2)

Tuesday 28th December 1897. Mr. Benedict Hannan, the owner of Hannan’s Auction House in Fitzrovia, London, receives an unexpected visitor at his Bloomsbury home. The man on his stoop sends Benedict’s heart into a flutter, and on inviting the mysterious stranger into his house, he is inviting mystery, adventure, and volcanic desire.

Sebastian Cavell—master thief, gives the impression he has sought out Benedict for the sake of business, but the kind of business Sebastian has in mind has nothing to do with making money!

Cavell has been tasked with finding the whereabouts of a missing German aristocrat. With Benedict’s society connections, Sebastian gains access to his Gentleman’s Club and to men whose behavior is not so gentlemanly!

Benedict is pulled into the circle of a dangerous secret society and he not only learns the truth about the mysterious Sebastian Cavell, but learns the truth about himself and all he truly desires.

The Curse of the Mummy’s Heart by Julia Talbot - June 30th

Something is rising in the desert sand, and between two adventurous men.

Famous 1920s Hollywood actor Douglas Fitzhugh and his brother Donnie are headed for Egypt on a classic monster movie quest. Their mysterious benefactor, a man they call Grant, has sent them to find a stranded archaeologist, and all they have to go on is a handwritten journal. That's just the kind of adventure Douglas loves, and he never passes up the chance to get away from his studio-driven life.

Charles Angeloff is also on his way to Egypt with a special object his father has asked him to return to the tomb he ripped it from. Charles is just out of university, and when he meets Douglas, he falls hard for Douglas' charm and his worldly ways.

As they travel, more men of adventure join them: a cowboy, a rich seminary student, and a librarian. When they're all together, it's like magic happens, and the men all realize they're on a mission to stop the horror that stirs beneath the desert sands, even as that creature sets its sights on Charles. Will Douglas and Charles lose each other just when they've found what they both think is the man they want to be with forever?

Starcrossed: A Paranormal Historical Romance (Magic in Manhattan #2) by Allie Therin - May 18th

When everything they’ve built is threatened, only their bond remains… 1925 New York Psychometric Rory Brodigan’s life hasn’t been the same since the day he met Arthur Kenzie. Arthur’s continued quest to contain supernatural relics that pose a threat to the world has captured Rory’s imagination—and his heart. But Arthur’s upper-class upbringing still leaves Rory worried that he’ll never measure up, especially when Arthur’s aristocratic ex arrives in New York. For Arthur, there’s only Rory. But keeping the man he’s fallen for safe is another matter altogether. When a group of ruthless paranormals throw the city into chaos, the two men’s strained relationship leaves Rory vulnerable to a monster from Arthur’s past. With dark forces determined to tear them apart, Rory and Arthur will have to draw on every last bit of magic up their sleeves. And in the end, it’s the connection they’ve formed without magic that will be tested like never before.

Another Chance For Love by Ellie Thomas - July 4th

Former British Army Lieutenant Adam Merryweather survived the Western Front of WWI and has slowly recovered from his injuries. But can he heal from a broken heart? Torn between family duty and personal happiness, he sacrificed his love for Alf and has never ceased to regret it in the two years since the war ended. Adam is slowly putting his empty life back together, working for the family firm in the city centre of Bristol and trying to stop his mother’s meddling to find him the perfect socially acceptable bride. When he happens to meet Alf out of the blue, Adam is determined to try again. But convincing Alf to give him another chance may be too much to hope for. Can a chance meeting bring them back together? Or has Adam lost another chance for love forever?    

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite - July 28th - sapphic

When Agatha Griffin finds a colony of bees in her warehouse, it’s the not-so-perfect ending to a not-so-perfect week. Busy trying to keep her printing business afloat amidst rising taxes and the suppression of radical printers like her son, the last thing the widow wants is to be the victim of a thousand bees. But when a beautiful beekeeper arrives to take care of the pests, Agatha may be in danger of being stung by something far more dangerous…

Penelope Flood exists between two worlds in her small seaside town, the society of rich landowners and the tradesfolk.  Soon, tensions boil over when the formerly exiled Queen arrives on England’s shores—and when Penelope’s long-absent husband returns to Melliton, she once again finds herself torn, between her burgeoning love for Agatha and her loyalty to the man who once gave her refuge.

As Penelope finally discovers her true place, Agatha must learn to accept the changing world in front of her. But will these longing hearts settle for a safe but stale existence or will they learn to fight for the future they most desire?

--

*If more come to my attention after this is posted, they will be added!!!

[avidbeader]

New Sheith Fic

Probably rated T, but we’ll see.

VLD post-S8, but Allura lives and the endcards are thrown on a trash heap where they belong

This is the fic thread I’ve been posting to Twitter for the last few days. Thought I’d share here as well. It’s between 1/3 and 1/2 done at this point. It will get to AO3 eventually once it’s finished and beta’ed.

I just got this idea of something that the Atlas might do in a given situation and ran with it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first couple of requests were reasonable. A real-time updated roster of the Atlas crew made sense for both organizational and security purposes. A record of the ship’s known offensive and defensive capabilities was necessary as the admirals and generals developed strategies for any potential threats, minimal though they might be after Voltron’s defeat of Honerva.

The order to have a Garrison official installed as their liaison made Shiro pause, but only for a moment. On the one hand, there were already several crew members on board who performed that role: Sam, Mitch, Veronica, himself. On the other hand, it was not unwarranted for the Garrison to have a point person for communication purposes so as not to add an extra burden to the duties of any one crew member. If Shiro had tried to keep up with every Garrison inquiry or notification on top of his own duties as captain, he probably would have gone to the Black Lion and begged to be taken back to the astral plane. This would take one thing off his plate without pushing more responsibility on any member of the command staff.

But when a General Stone reported to him, demanding both quarters in the same section as the senior bridge crew and an office next to Shiro’s ready room, his hackles rose instinctively. Atlas’ presence in the back of his head, usually a quiet and cheerful sensation, grew wary like a wild animal sensing a predator.

“Given that this was only communicated to us today, you’ll have to make do in guest quarters until we are able to make arrangements, General. I didn’t expect anyone to be appointed, much less arrive so soon.”

Which meant that someone in the Garrison hadn’t wanted to give them time to ask questions or protest the decision. And the fact that a general was assigned to a position that should have gone to a lieutenant at most was unsettling.

Stone growled at him. “This lack of preparedness is the kind of thing that I’m here for. As one of the Garrison’s most valuable assets, the Atlas must be primed and ready for action at any given time.”

It took Atlas a moment to identify what the general meant, but Shiro knew immediately when she understood. There was now an angry cat hissing and spitting in his mind and it was taking everything Shiro had to maintain a polite expression.

“It’s not a lack of preparedness when information is not provided in a timely manner,” he retorted. The general reared back slightly, taken aback that Shiro had not immediately accepted the criticism.

Shiro pressed a button on a small console in his desk for show, but Atlas had already found the ship’s senior steward and asked him through his datapad to report to Shiro’s ready room. Before the general could form a response, he continued. “I’m sure you remember this from your protocol training, General, but bear in mind that aboard a ship, the captain is the ranking officer. You are welcome to observe and advise, but you are not part of the chain of command.”

Stone’s eyes narrowed and he entered something on the datapad in his hand. It beeped and he frowned. “What’s the matter with the connectivity here? My message didn’t go through!”

The malicious giggle that only he could hear was answer enough for Shiro. “I expect your device will need to go through a security clearance. Mention it to—” Shiro paused as his door opened before the steward could signal his presence “—the steward. Lieutenant Rasal, this is General Stone. He’s been assigned to us by the Garrison and will need quarters and an office when you are able to arrange it. In the meantime, could you escort him to an available space in the guest accommodations?”

The lieutenant nodded, the flash of a dimple in his cheek the only sign that he understood what Shiro was not saying. As the officer in charge of organizing lodging, supplies, and maintenance aboard the ship, he knew better than most what the Atlas was capable of. If she cared to, she could have produced everything Stone was demanding within minutes. Shiro was honoring her choice not to, and Rasal followed his captain’s lead. He saluted and held out a guiding hand.

“If you’ll come with me, sir.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stone’s presence had an immediate and negative impact. He began by insisting on a full tour of the ship with Shiro. He complained constantly about the randomness of his datapad connection, too focused to pick up on the fact that Atlas was only letting neutral and positive reports get through. When Shiro convinced her that yes, she had to make him an office and a set of quarters, Atlas’ response was to make an office, not much bigger than a broom closet on the opposite side of the bridge from Shiro’s ready room, and a minimal set of quarters, as far away from Shiro as possible while still in the section for the command staff.

Stone’s next step was to observe, watching the normal routines of the crew. It made everyone nervous and more prone to mistakes. Even the oldest, most seasoned officers like Sam and Mitch were side-eying Stone when he was on the bridge. Shiro made time to circulate through the ship so he could reassure his crew that they had done nothing wrong. He noticed a sharp drop in the number of people hanging out in the common areas or lounges as any socializing shifted to rooms behind closed doors, out of Stone’s sight.

The Taujeerians made a formal request for the Atlas to map a nearby star system for potential relocation sites when their planet next went through its renewal cycle. Keith took advantage of the deep-space mission to run training drills with the lions and the MFEs, improving their teamwork and response times. Stone seemed especially interested in the paladins, having noticed how their quarters were all on the same hall as Shiro’s.

Shiro was in one of the conference rooms, talking with Baujal and his council, when Atlas nudged him, then sounded an alert on his datapad. He quickly excused himself and headed down to the Black Lion’s hangar.

He walked in on a shouting match between Stone, the paladins, and the MFE pilots. As he crossed to where they were gathered, he scanned their faces. Stone and Lance were nose-to-nose, yelling at one another, with Nadia backing up Lance. Keith, Allura, and James were clustered together. The others were watching closely, all in various stages of anger or irritation.

“...and I’ll see all of you court-martialed for this insubordination!”

“As their captain, I would appreciate knowing what your complaint is against Commander Griffin and his squad.” Shiro’s voice cut through the quarrel like a knife.

“These squads are refusing my direct order! I need to observe them in action and Kogane says he won’t permit me to board his ship!”

Shiro glanced at Keith, who cocked an eyebrow at him. He had held onto his temper and let Lance as his second lead the outburst against the general. Shiro’s pride in his best friend surged, knowing that just a few years ago Keith would have been the one shouting first.

“General, it is absolutely within Commander Kogane’s rights to refuse you access to the Black Lion. The Voltron team is not part of the Garrison—”

Stone interrupted him with a squawk of disbelief. “Since when?”

“Since always,” Allura interjected, her voice full of ice. “Voltron represents the Coalition and agreed to use the Atlas as one of our bases for ease of coordinating our efforts to build on the peace we have created. You may not simply demand access to any lion and expect to be obeyed without question.” Shiro noticed that Allura had used her shape-shifting abilities to make herself several inches taller than usual and she used that height advantage to glare down at the general.

“And as today’s drills are a joint exercise with the MFEs, you are not permitted to ride along with Commander Griffin. If he and Captain Shirogane give permission, you can observe the MFEs another time,” Keith added.

“I don’t need permission! I am—”

“Here to facilitate communication between the Atlas and the Garrison, or so I was told,” Shiro interrupted. “Unless there is a secondary agenda that has been kept from me, your remit doesn’t include breathing down the necks of my crew or our allies. You’ve been overstepping your role for days and it ends now.”

Stone drew himself to his full height, which meant he was eye level to Shiro’s collarbones, and snarled, “We’ll just see about this, Captain.”

His attempt at stalking out of the hangar was ruined when Black let out a menacing growl and Stone jumped in alarm.

Once he was gone, everyone began to relax. Shiro noticed that Keith’s stance was still rigid and went over to him, laying a soothing hand on one shoulder. “You okay?”

“We will be. Didn’t expect we’d have a battle before we even got in our ships.” Keith turned to Lance and Nadia. “Thank you both for stepping up.”

“No problem,” Nadia chirped. “He’s a puffed-up toad.”

“And now that he’s gone, we need to get back to work. These joint exercises will continue until further notice since we need to take advantage of our current situation.” Evil grins broke out as everyone understood what Keith was doing. “Do we need to go over today’s plan again?”

“Nah, we got this,” Pidge replied before throwing a glance Shiro’s way. “Thanks for coming, Captain.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took four days for Stone’s message to the Garrison to get through, and another two days of Shiro showing the general his message inbox as proof that he had no instructions to discipline any of the MFEs. Stone’s temper was running high, as he had received a reprimand of his own from the Coalition over his attempt to assert jurisdiction over an ally’s representatives. The fact that that message had been received within hours only added to Stone’s fury.

Once Shiro finally got the orders that he was to punish all four MFE pilots for their insubordination, he met them before their usual workout routine and instructed them to run twenty extra laps around the track in the Atlas’ enormous gym. The squad’s groans turned to glee when they turned around and saw that the length of the track had been shrunk to a fifth of its usual size.

That evening, Keith tapped on the door that connected his quarters to Shiro’s.

Shiro looked up from the reports he was reading and frowned. “You knocked. What’s wrong?”

“Got a message from Kolivan. They found a ship of former Galra soldiers turned mercenary, and they’ve been hired by one side on a planet dealing with a pair of feuding lords. He wants to stop the conflict now before it spreads.”

“Should I—”

“No.” Keith shook his head. “If the Blades go in with stealth and take out the mercs, that puts the two sides at stalemate again and the planetary government might finally contact the Coalition for help. Then we can officially come in to negotiate a settlement.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.” Shiro reached out a hand and Keith took it, letting Shiro draw him into a tight hug as usual. And as usual, Shiro resisted doing or saying anything more. “Be careful.”

“You, too. I don’t like leaving you with that Garrison watchdog.”

“He’s here as a liaison.”

“He’s here to find a reason to ground Atlas.”

Even as Shiro shook his head at Keith’s statement, he could feel Atlas’ alarm. “No, that would be just about the worst move the Garrison could make. The Coalition planets recognize two major factors right now that ended the Galra Empire: Voltron and the Atlas. Taking one away would make the Garrison the new intergalactic villain.”

“Not forever, but long enough to figure out how to put someone else in command of her. They need you and Coran and Sam—hell, probably Iverson and Veronica, too—off her bridge so they can have complete control of her, including all her battle capability.”

“I mean...we do need to figure that out, if for no other reason because I will have to retire someday, but there’s no rush.” Shiro struggled to keep his expression mild as he dealt with twin reactions. He ran his hands along Keith’s arms to allay the sudden tension there and

mentally tried to soothe Atlas, who was almost screeching in fury as she surrounded him possessively.

Ironically, the strength of her reaction made Shiro stop and wonder if maybe the Garrison didn’t have a point. After all, he couldn’t lead Atlas forever. He might have done the impossible once thanks to Black and Allura, but humans still had limited lifespans. But surely the Garrison brass, if they were considering the options already, would talk to him about possibilities?

“Just keep an eye on your six while I’m gone, okay?” Keith squeezed his shoulder.

“I will.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He swung the sword as wide as he could, trying to hit as many opponents as possible as he forced them back.The roar of the spectators droned like machinery, a persistent buzz in the back of his head as he tried to reduce the impossible odds. Who had decided to punish him this way, with a dozen opponents? Was this the match where he finally died?

He shifted tactics, the sword in his hand shrinking back into a dagger. He took advantage of his smaller stature and dove between the legs of the nearest adversary, using him as a temporary shield against the others and slicing one quick stroke through the thigh above the cuisse. He spared a lightning-quick thought to thank the universe for giving the majority of bipedal beings a femoral artery.

He continued to dodge, eluding their attacks and striking at any weak point he saw. Suddenly there was only one enemy between him and an open path to the door and he dealt a vicious cut across the throat as he made his bid to escape.

Something struck and wrapped around him from behind, dragging him to the floor. He had just enough time to press the communicator at his wrist and signal the others to leave before the cord electrified, ripping screams from him before he blacked out—

Shiro shot upright, gasping for breath and fighting the covers that were tangled around him. There were sounds, the ordinary hum of the dim nightlights, his datapad beeping an alert, a furious pounding coming from somewhere in the next room...and an engine’s roar.

The Atlas was moving at top speed.

Shiro freed himself from the bedclothes and staggered to his feet. He grabbed the datapad and looked at the message, a priority one from the night comms officer—Cullen, Cuddy, something that began with C—stating that the Atlas had changed course about fifteen minutes before and was at full throttle. The bridge crew was locked out of all of the controls.

Shiro reached across the room with his prosthesis and snatched his robe from its hanger before moving into the sitting area. Once there, he identified the pounding as someone knocking furiously on the door to his quarters. Voices were coming from the hallway and they all sounded angry.

He pressed the control and the door slid open. General Stone staggered when his obstacle vanished, wrenching himself back upright from the momentum.

“Shirogane! What’s the meaning of the course change? You weren’t scheduled to be done with the Taujeerians for another forty-eight hours!”

The paladins were behind him, shouting at him for waking them all up. Shiro looked back down at his datapad and noticed a second new message below the one from the bridge. He opened it and felt the blood drain from his face.

It was two brief sentences from Kolivan: Mission a trap. Keith has been taken.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What do you mean, you can’t stop the ship? It’s a SHIP! You’ve got two Holts right here that can supposedly hack anything that beeps! Break the security codes and set a new course for Earth!”

Shiro had been walking briskly down a hallway, Atlas subtly cutting the distance to the bridge, and trading messages with Kolivan to coordinate a rendezvous point with the remaining Blades on the mission team, Krolia, and a squad of Coalition fighters led by Matt. He stopped short, so abruptly that Hunk ran into him, and stared at the general.

“Earth? What makes you think we’d go to Earth at a time like this? We’re going to rescue Commander Kogane!”

“You said it yourself, Voltron isn’t part of the Garrison!” Stone flapped a hand at the other paladins who had been trailing them. “So let them go take care of the situation! We’ve got to fix this malfunction immediately and since the ship was built by the Garrison, that’s the best place to go to do the repairs!”

Shiro couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt such a wave of derision. The mental image of Atlas in robot form and rolling her eyes brought him to the edge of hysterical giggles. It was verging on too much for him to handle.

Allura must have seen something in his face. She grabbed Stone by the collar and yanked him back before he could crowd into Shiro and continue his tirade. “If you are going to be so ridiculously focused on procedure in a situation this urgent, then consider this the formal request from the Coalition to the Atlas for support in a rescue operation!”

Stone tried to twist out of her grip and she hoisted him up until his toes barely touched the deck. His face grew red as he snarled, “Captain, I am ordering you to dismiss this group except for Katie Holt and turn all your efforts to retaking control of your ship!”

Pidge’s expression grew dangerous. Shior shifted and put one hand on her shoulder, willing her to hold her temper.

“As I told you the day you arrived, General, you are not part of the chain of command here. Your role is to keep both us and the Garrison informed of what the other needs to share. And you have not performed that role faithfully.

“The Coalition has every right to call on the Atlas. It was built from plans given to us by the Alteans and is powered by the crystal that houses the remains of their flagship. They have just as much claim to it as the Garrison does. We will lead the operation to recover Commander Kogane and you can inform the Garrison of our status. After that, you have two choices; you can stay in your quarters or be escorted to the brig until this operation is concluded. Which will it be?”

Stone stared at him, open-mouthed. Allura shook him, rattling his teeth with her strength. “You heard the captain. Which will it be? We have more important issues to deal with.”

“I am your superior officer and—”

Before Shiro could even bring up his datapad, much less start a message requesting assistance from security, a faint shimmer formed around Stone and Allura released her hold, skipping back nimbly. The general surged forward and bounced off the force field Atlas had brought up.

The paladins laughed as Stone began pounding his fists against the barrier. Allura smothered her giggles into her hand and looked at Shiro. “Shall we leave him here for the moment?”

Shiro was busy silently arguing with Atlas that, no, she could not open a portal in the floor and jettison the man into space. He gave one more psychic push, adding aloud, “Leave him here for now. We’ll take care of him later.”

They moved quickly to the bridge to find Sam and Coran with their heads together over one of the nav panels and the rest of the bridge crew huddled uneasily in the center. Sam brightened as he saw them enter. “Shiro! The Atlas has locked everyone out—”

Shiro stepped up to his position and laid both hands on the panels. He focused, trying to form a request to let the bridge crew access their stations in as clear and simple of terms as possible. He heard shouts of surprise in the background as the connection solidified and Atlas drew him in.

His hands were cuffed behind him. Two of the “mercenaries” dragged him from a pod into a hangar of a battleship, pausing in front of a Galra commander. The commander seized him by the throat and growled, “You’re almost certainly the right one, judging from your size, but let’s be sure. Drop your mask, Blade.”

He paused, just long enough to spark a reaction. The commander’s grip tightened. “Drop the mask or I tear it off. The druids want you alive, but they didn’t say that you had to be uninjured.”

He let the mask disappear and glared at his captor, who pulled his head up by his hair to study his face carefully.

“It’s him. Put him in a cell and double the guard on it.” The commander raised his wrist comm and opened a channel. “Set course for the Alvega system.”

The scene dissolved around Shiro, melding into the blue circuits that would surround him when the ship morphed into its robot form. Already he could sense Atlas changing course, plotting an intercept of the Galra battle cruiser.

We need to meet with the others. We need the Blades’ intel. We need Krolia and Kosmo. We need the backup from the Coalition.

You need him. Why do you waste time?

We need a plan. We need support. We can’t get him back safely if we just charge in.

Not fast enough.

The ship shuddered around him and Shiro grabbed the console to stay on his feet, his awareness of the bridge and its occupants returning. He rubbed at his temples with his left hand, trying to ground himself in reality once more.

“Shiro, how did you do that?” Coran shouted above the others’ reactions.

“Do what?”

“A wormhole...you took us through a wormhole, Shiro.” Allura spoke slowly, in shock.

The main viewscreen lit up, showing Kolivan and Krolia in two panels. Kolivan nodded, hiding any surprise he might be feeling. “Good, you’re early. Permission to dock our ships, captain?”

Shiro nodded, before remembering he had a voice. “Of course. Then we’ll get the Coalition ships and head for the Alvega system. That’s where they’re taking Keith.”

He closed his eyes and planted his hands on the control panel once more. Atlas, what are you doing?

You need him.

Yes, we need him. He’s the leader of Voltron. He’s a commander in the Blades.

YOU need him.

He...he’s my best friend.

More than need.

Image after image flooded past Shiro, showing him all the stages of his life that included Keith. The Garrison and Keith becoming his best friend there. The long nights as a prisoner, sustained by memories of Keith and the hope to escape and return to him. Reuniting, only to be dragged into the middle of an interstellar war and then killed. Brought back against impossible odds, with faint memories of what it had cost Keith to accomplish that.

He needs you. You need him.

Yes.

Then we get him back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be continued...

[loveafterthefact]

Love After the Fact Chapter 61: In the Company of Blades

In which Keith has friends, Lance gets to show off, and Shiro wants Adam to step on him

First  Previous  Next

“Anyway, that’s where we are right now. One thing at a time, and I will come up with a meal plan, just in case,” Thace says. They’re rushing through hallways to get to the training yards.

“Thanks.” Keith twists his hair into a large knot on the back of his head, keeping it in place with a pin. “And thanks for the pin.”

“No problem. I just hope you don’t get impaled through your skull.”

“Hasn’t happened yet. Miraculously. We are very late.” Which means probing questions from one Altean, and a probing stare from another. One, Keith can’t say no to -because he’s soft- and the other, Keith is too scared to lie to.

“Fortunately, it’s easy to blame your health. So long as we can keep Lance’s mouth shut.”

“Right...” Keith is about to explain, but Thace's exasperated groan tells him he doesn't have to.

The training grounds are divided into a series of yards, with walls erected for privacy and so no one takes up too much space. Some are large, some small, some flat, some full of obstacles and ground cover, climbing walls, chasms, even stands of trees. There are even places to practice elk-riding, a means of preserving the ancient history of the mounted warriors of old. The Marmora have more respect for tradition than one might think.

When Thace and Keith arrive, they’re beholden to quite the spectacle. Adam, wielding a polearm, squaring off with one of Kolivan’s two kits, Antok. Regris, his other kit, is standing next to his father. Both are grown, but were raised by the Blades, and remain quite close to their sire.

Regris apparently got the good end of the stick, because Antok is getting his ass kicked by the smaller Altean. Adam’s polearm is indeed double-ended, this one equipped with glaives, which he’s currently using to repel Antok. The Altean is also wearing gauntlets with small blades attached, good for slashing throats if an enemy gets too close. Keith imagines that they also discourage grappling.

It’s strange, but Keith has never once in his life thought of Adam as a warrior. He’s always the behind-the-scenes man, and battle tends to be so upfront and personal. Seems Keith was wrong, because Adam is good. He’s fast, too, keeping up with Antok’s limbs, which includes an incredibly mobile tail.

Shiro seems to be enjoying the view, watching the fierce-eyed Altean swing his polearm like it’s a toothpick. A very long, dangerous toothpick. “That’s literally the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Gross.” Keith shoves his brother away.

“I want him to impale me,” the larger Galra sighs.

“You’re a pervert.”

“I concur with Keith,” Thace murmurs.

“Yeah? Well neither of you gets an opinion because you were both late.”

“Health thing,” Keith murmurs. “Where’s Lance?”

“Three yards down, showing off his marksmanship skills. Are you okay? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing at all,” Keith murmurs. “I just had a few questions.”

“Ah.” Shiro shifts awkwardly. They’re still a bit uncomfortable, despite putting their disagreement behind them, and being otherwise normal with each other. “Listen.”

The fact that Shiro bothers to turn away from Adam’s totally-not-an-exhibition is a contributing factor as to why Keith actually does choose to listen to his brother’s opinion.

“I’m here for you. No matter what. Know that.”

Keith smiles. That sounds like his brother. “ I know. Thanks. I’ll let you know if I need you. Or Lance will let you know because I refuse to ask you for help.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Adam finally manages to disarm Antok, spinning his polearm and holding it behind his back.

“Well, Remind me never to push Adam over the edge. I’m gonna go see what Lance is up to.”

“You do that,” Shiro murmurs. “I’m gonna go find a deserted hallway and bring your attendant with me.”

“Have fun. Pervert.”

“I will, thanks.”

Rolling his eyes, Keith trots over to the other field, curious to see what Lance has got up to. Thace hurries right behind him, scanning the facility. “Where the fuck is my mate?”

“Who cares about your mate? Where’s- mine…”

As it turns out, Keith’s mate is firing arrows from the back of a galloping elk. And every shot is perfect. He’s also shirtless, which is really great, but kind of gross because he’s doing that weird ‘sweating’ thing that Alteans do, where they get all wet and slippery. Why can’t they just pant to cool off like a normal species?

But whatever. It’s still incredibly impressive. Especially since the targets, little floating spheres, are both moving and firing at him. And it’s nice to see Lance in his element. He’s got a borrowed bow in one hand, a couple arrows between the fingers of the other, another between his grinning teeth.

“Good to know your chosen mate isn’t entirely useless,” a gruff voice murmurs from behind. Kolivan’s followed them from the other field. “Wasn’t sure about him when Shirogane came back with a report on his swordsmanship. He’s actually an incredible shot.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty great.”

The only thing better is the way Lance’s face brightens when they make eye contact. He removes the arrow from his mouth. “Hey, beloved! See something you like?”

“Hm. Not sure. You should go around again so I can decide.” Keith’s smirk morphs into a grin. “I take it you're enjoying yourself?”

“I am kicking ass! This is so much fun! Can’t believe I’ve never tried this before! Also, this is Bruna, and I love her.”

Keith smiles as Lance hangs his bow from the elk’s saddle, stroking the doe’s soft, red fur. “You know she’s carnivorous, right?”

“All close friends have their points of contention, and admittedly her terrifying teeth are… one of those things, but she’s also loyal, and fast, and very sweet.”

Keith eyes the elk skeptically, gaze lingering on her four sharpened antlers crowning her head and the filed horns protruding from her face. “This sharp, vicious creature is your friend?”

“Bruna will be loved and adored by yours truly all the days of her life.”

“Okay. Good luck convincing your father to let you bring her home.”

“Oh, I don’t have to convince either of my parents of anything. I just have to convince you.”

Keith stares down the hopeful look in his ridiculous elk-loving husband’s face. He’s thoroughly unmoved by those large, pleading, blue-and-pink eyes. Completely unswayed… Except… “If you’re getting one, I should get one too. It will give us an excuse to spend time together without being buried in tablets.”

“See, this is why I love you.”

“I love you too. Now shoot some more arrows so I can watch.”

“Okay, should I put my shirt back on, or-”

“No, it’s fine.” A sly smile. “You can keep it off if you like.”

Lance quirks an eyebrow before lifting his bow again -Does he have to show off that he can ride with no hands?- and preparing to continue his practice.

“When you’re done flirting,” Kolivan mutters. “Your mother is waiting to kick your ass.”

“Yeah, okay.” Keith looks around. “Where did Thace go?”

“I dunno. Probably to stick his tongue in Ulaz’ mouth.” Kolivan sighs, leading him to yet another training room. “I’d been counting on you to be the only one of these idiots to keep it in their pants.”

“What about your sons?”

“Pfft. Found mates while you were gone. They’re always… visiting.”

“Gross… Well, I promise never to visit you.”

The Galra chuckle. Kolivan never really has a lot to say, but what he does have to say is either incredibly serious or mildly amusing. He’s an acquired taste. One that Keith has acquired in order to survive. Kolivan’s also his mother’s closest companion, so he insists on their getting along, despite what one might call ‘creative differences’ when it comes to leadership roles.

Essentially, Kolivan’s an unapologetic, amazingly blunt asshole and Keith tries his best to be more… constructive.

“It’s about time you showed up.”

“Hey, Mom. Sorry. I stopped by the med ward.”

“Okay.” She goes easily, drawing her sword. “But don’t expect me to go easy on you.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

That’s what Keith loves about his mother: the understanding. For only having known each other for two years, they share so much: a loss, a condition, a passion for the personal freedoms that their rulers restrict until they can barely breathe.

But Keith and his mother find a way. They dig their roots into unwelcoming ground. They learn to thrive. They draw breath.

And swords. Krolia has Keith panting in minutes, forcing him to the brink of his skills. He really is out of shape, but he’s missed this. He’s missed this challenge, this push, this direct, up-front, physical confrontation where no one is screaming, or complaining, and there’s no stack of work staring at him from behind another stack of work. Just him, trying his damndest to beat the crap out of someone who can actually match with him.

And, surprisingly, he’s doing well. His stamina and strength have taken a hit, but he’s picked up forms and techniques on Altea that give him an edge.

The Galra know how an Altean fights, but Keith knows how they think, why they make the choices they do. Their aim isn’t disarming or killing an enemy. A Galra's aim is to defeat the enemy, to beat them into submission until the ground beneath thier boots is painted red. An Altean’s aim is to make it past the enemy toward a larger goal, and do it as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Krolia isn’t his enemy. She’s just in the way. So, dodging a slash of Krolia’s sword, Keith slips past his mother, elbowing her in the kidney as he darts past. Krolia doesn’t flinch, even as she turns to stare at her son, but nobody can fully brush off a hit to the kidney, and she lowers her sword, panting her way through the pain since she has the option.

“What was that?” she asks.

“I applied a different philosophy. In a mission, you wouldn’t be my target, and I saw no reason to waste my time dispatching you.” Keith shrugs. “Why bother?”

“Because I could have gathered information on you-”

“You didn’t. In this scenario, you, an unnamed, random assailant, are not worth killing, and I have a different mission.”

“And what might that mission be?”

“I…” Keith pauses. “I hadn’t thought that far. I just wanted to show off.”

“Clearly.” Krolia looks her son up and down, amused. “I don’t understand, but you seem to think you’ve achieved something, so-”

“HA!!!”

“AHhhhhh!!!”

“-So what the fuck was that?” Krolia growls, adjusting her grip on her sword.

“I’m not sure, but that was Lance and Adam, so something’s probably being destroyed.” Keith sighs, heading back to Lance’s field. “Welcome to my life.”

Lance is indeed messing around with Adam, wielding a broadsword with an adequate amount of skill -a miracle, honestly, and one courtesy of Keith- while Adam comes at him with his polearm.

From behind the fighting idiots, Shiro grins at him, notching his head at Lance. Keith presses his lips together to hide his smile, ducking his head. He knows he’s doing a good job, but to have someone else say it means a lot.

“I thought you said he didn’t have any skills,” Krolia murmurs, watching the Alteans go back and forth.

“That’s what I thought.” Keith lifts his gaze back to his chosen mate, the glint in his eyes as he experiments with the sword in his hand, figuring out how to make it more effective against Adam’s chosen weapon. “But I was wrong. He just needed some more one-on-one coaching. He’s typically quite capable on his own, but always better when he’s working with others. He’s a people person.”

“That is one of the many, many reasons I don’t understand why you love that little creature,” Krolia murmurs.

“He’s a good buffer. He does all the talking, and I just stand there and look pretty.”

That’s not entirely true, less so as time goes on, but for some reason, Keith doesn’t want to share all that much about his life on Altea. It almost feels too personal, like he’s not ready to share his experiences with anyone yet.

“Hm, I’d think looking pretty would be his job,” Thace teases, clinging to Ulaz’ waist. Ulaz himself only nods, a more quiet kind of friendly than his mate, but friendly all the same. His fondness for Keith is indicated by a softened eyebrow, rather than a smile.

“No, but he does it exceptionally well.”

The corner of Ulaz’ mouth quirks. “Perhaps you can both come over to our place tomorrow and look pretty around our table. The kits want to see you, Mashan in particular. Besides, the hunting party returns tomorrow. A little lizard told me that they slew a pack of vakalt. Herdsmen are coming up, too. We can celebrate together, maybe put a few of them up at our den for the night. Get in a few good stories. Also, be forewarned, Lotor wants to speak to Lance outside the castle, so he may 'spontaneously decide to visit'.”

Keith nods. He watches Lance and Adam spar, glancing to his littermate across the yard. So far, his companions have been more than agreeable concerning the Galra way of life. Lance, at least, will enjoy the experience, and Adam will enjoy a chance to crawl all over Shiro. Maybe he’ll even be able to drag Pidge out of their closet. It’ll be nice.

“Sure. We’ll come.” Keith smiles. “Thanks for the invite.”

“Nonsense!” Thace claps him on the shoulder. “You’ll always be one of us, Keith, and you’re always welcome in our home. You, and that Altean of yours.”

“Thanks, guys. I really appreciate that.”

He does. He’s glad that he still has a place here, even if it’s no longer his only home.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Roman Sionis

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Birds of Prey is a fun, silly movie. So you’d expect a fun, silly villain for such a film, right? Well, we sort of get that… but this is an R-rated fun, silly movie, so the villain is going to cuss a lot and peel people’s faces off and be a raging psychopathic manchild. Roman Sionis, everybody!

Good old Roman Sionis, known to comic fans as Black Mask (he isn’t ever called that by anyone except Harley during his introduction, and he doesn’t even wear his mask until the end), is just an absolute raging lunatic. He gets mad at the drop of a hat, is creepily posessive of Dinah Lance, has a very close relationship with his murderous second-in-command Zsasz, and is just generally unpleasant to every single person who crosses his path.

But that’s par for the course for Roman Sionis, who is never really EVER portrayed as a charming, likable guy. The real question here is, is he an entertaining villain? Well he’s played by Ewan McGregor, what do YOU think?

Motivation/Goals: Roman is a relatively simple villain, but I think this works in his favor. You see, a big issue with Harley’s previous outing, Suicide Squad, is that the mission was way too high stakes despite the cast featuring a group of people who didn’t really have any powers beyond “fighting really good.” or “has weapon skills.” You’re telling me you’re gonna put Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and Captain Boomerang up against Enchantress and her army of ancient Aztec super-zombies? WHAT? Here, we have a street-level threat much more suited to Harley’s capabilities: Roman is just a very powerful gangster, and his goal in this movie is the simple “get this diamond that was stolen back to me so I can make fat stacks of cash.” That’s really all their needs to be here, a simple MacGuffin to drive along the plot to its various setpieces.

Performance: I love Ewan McGregor, so, really, he didn’t have to do much with the role of Roman Sionis to make him great. Still, this man went above and beyond despite having comparatively little screentime to Harley. Roman seems incapable of going a single sentence without cursing up a storm and is the epitome of a psychopathic manchild, tormenting people for the slightest of reasons. He forces a woman to strip and dance on one of his tables because she was laughing too loud when he was upset, and decides not to spare a girl’s life because she had a gross snot bubble on her face from sobbing while he had his crony Zsasz peel off her parents’ faces. As funny and hammy as he gets, the dude is a stone-cold ruthless bastard who has no line he won’t cross to get what he wants.

Final Fate: Cass hides a grenade on him and steals the ring, and then Harley kicks him off the pier while he panics. Before he even hits the water, BOOM! Never would I have expected to laugh out loud at the sight of Ewan McGregor being blown into bits, but this movie was just full of surprises.

Best Scene: I think that the honor has to go to his establishing character moment with Zsasz, as they cut off the faces of a family who crossed Roman, and then when Roman decides to spare the daughter, he notices snot on her face, says “Ew” like a petulant child, and has Zsasz cut her face off anyway. It’s a great way to establish that Roman is an awful human being no matter how you slice it, and firmly establishes that while, yes, he is a misogynist villain in a female-led blockbuster, his misogyny is just a tiny facet of how unabashedly terrible Roman is.

Final Thoughts & Score: So, this is gonna sound weird, but… Roman kinda reminded me of Justin Hammer. Hammer is a villain who I have greatly warmed to over time (mostly thanks to Nando V Movies on YouTube), to the point where I think he’s actually pretty funny but is held back from true greatness by the sloppy nature of Iron Man 2. The film was big, bloated, and didn’t know what to do with itself. And this film is KIND OF like that… but it knows what to do with Roman.

The movie has an undercurrent of female empowerment, so why not make the villain emblematic of things women have to overcome? Roman is creepy, misogynistic, and even a bit racist especially with his condescending actions towards Dinah. And he even throws a fit when she “betrays” him and decides to murder her. But the movie is smart so as to not make this hamfisted; the movie makes it entirely clear that even if you take away his misogynistic elements, Roman Sionis is just an utterly disgusting human being. Everything about him is just so hilariously vulgar and repulsive, but the way he’s performed helps lighten it and help keep him within the tone of the movie. He’s just dark enough and just hammy enough to work.

My big issues with Roman are mostly due to his utilization and the wasted potential, which is a problem that really hits a lot of stuff in Birds of Prey. He is great every time he’s onscreen, but his screentime is fairly limited, and then he dies at the end which robs him of any chance of coming back in the future as an antagonist. He actually functions great as a more grounded threat rather than some larger-than-life end of the world threat, but the fact he dies horribly – before even having his mask burned onto his face, even! - just kind of feels like a waste of a character. To be fair, Black Mask is not the best or most interesting Batman villain crime lord; we have the Penguin for that. But when you cast  someone like Ewan McGregor and he’s clearly having a blast, it’s hard not to feel at least slightly bitter when he gets hilariously gibbed at the end.

Still, I can’t let Justin Hammer’s sacrifice go in vain; he walked so Roman could run, and Roman ran so that perhaps someday Hammer could sprint. Roman gets a nice, fat 8/10, which he definitely earns with the heaping helpings of ham he brings to the table, though he is held back at least a little by the wasted potential of his character.

But hey, if you want to talk about wasted potential…

Psycho Analysis: Victor Zsasz

I really like Victor Zsasz in this film. I really do. The angle they went with, the implied homosexuality, the actor… it’s all good stuff that helps make a disturbing character like Zsasz easier to swallow. But he gets hit with wasted potential harder than even Roman does.

Motivation/Goals: He’s Roman’s right-hand man, so basically his motivation is to do whatever Roman wants him to do. However, there is a bit of an implied thing between his boss and him; Zsasz seems undeniably irritated with the attention he lavishes on Dinah, and is very hands-on and affectionate with his boss. A lot of his later actions in the film and his cruelty towards Dinah does seem to stem from some place of anger towards her for taking Roman’s attention away from him.

Performance: I have to say, Chris Messina does a stellar job at portraying Zsasz as creepy and obsessive, and certainly showcases the fanatical loyalty he has towards Roman, making him something of a dark mirror to Harley’s former relationship with the Joker. I also appreciate that, despite not going with Zsasz’s original psychotic serial killer angle, they still made him a bloodthirsty psycho with a sort of nihilistic edge to him. Frankly, this might be the best possible take on a live-action Zsasz without things getting intensely uncomfortable.

Final Fate: This is probably the worst element of Zsasz: his death. Right before the climax he gets shot out of the blue by Huntress and then Harley just repeatedly stabs him with the arrow. And I have to make it clear here – Zsasz barely got to do anything. He never really poses any sort of physical threats to the heroines, never gets into a fight, and is never mentioned again after his death despite being very close to Roman (to the point where the two may have been lovers).

Final Thoughts & Score: As far as henchmen go, Zsasz is pretty solid conceptually. He’s established early on as a psychopathic enforcer of Roman’s gang, he has an eerie air to him, and he has a lot of elements from the comics you rarely see on Zsasz in other media, such as being blonde. Messina does a fantastic job at making the character seem like a competent killer in the employ of Roman.

But the key word is “seem,” because Zsasz frankly never lives up to his hype. Despite being introduced peeling the faces off of a family, he is just never utilized to his fullest extent. He’s kind of just there in a lot of scenes, and while he isn’t unmemorable or anything he never really does anything that makes him into a worthwhile addition to the franchise. He’s honestly just a glorified mook with a few interesting gimmicks to help set him apart.

I’ve gotta give him a 6/10. While he’s definitely a step above average, he’s really not anything amazing, mostly because the movie refuses to allow him to reach his full potential. He doesn’t have any great quotes, his most memorable scene really serves more to establish Roman than anything, and he is dumped and quickly forgotten right before the climax. He would easily be a 7 or 8 if the story treated him with a little more weight or respect, but he just ends up underwhelming despite having so much going for him, and it’s frankly a bit depressing. It’s just a very sad state of affairs for the character, especially when he managed to be more intimidating in the Arkham games despite the fact that he posed even less of a physical threat than he does here.

Well, while we’re here, let’s go over THAT Zsasz briefly.

Portrayed in the games by Danny Jacobs (who you may know as Sacha Baron Cohen's stand in on The Penguins of Madagascar. Yes, Zsasz and King Julien had the same voice actor.), Zsasz is never really a major antagonist and is, in all honesty, a pretty weak fighter; you can always take him down in one punch. The thing with Zsasz in the games, though, is that it’s always tricky to get to him, because he usually has hostages of some kind. In Arkham Asylum, he appears twice, and you need to use stealth to take him out before he kills his hostages. In City, he gets a much longer sidequest where he requires you to pick up ringing telephones and then glide to another one across the city within a time limit. Once you’ve listened to all of his messages, Batman finds out where his lair is, sneaks through it, and whoops his ass.

I certainly can’t say he’s the best villain in either game he appears in, but he’s definitely scary. His messages and game over screens are really freaky and unnerving, and the Riddler even requires you to find some of Zsasz’s work as parts of riddles… and by “work” I am of course referring to corpses posed in life-like positions. There’s also the horrifying little tidbit that in City, Zsasz actually does kill one of his hostages and there’s nothing that can be done about it; if you switch to detective mode in his lair, you can see a corpse at the bottom of the water in the room.

I think how creepy and intense he is really helps make him stand out among the more colorful characters in those games like Joker, Clayface, and Riddler, so I think giving him a nice 8/10 for his appearances is well-earned. I feel like Birds of Prey could have learned a few lessons from this portrayal; if they wanted to make him more creepy than physically intimidating, that could have worked well and it would have made his anti-climactic defeat a bit more plausible. Instead, they kind of tried this middle ground where he’s creepy enough and intimidating enough physically that it just feels like a letdown when he’s offed.

Oh yeah, did you know he appeared in Batman Begins? He had a brief cameo and didn’t do anything significant and looked like this:

Pretty sure he’d get a low score if he wasn’t just a quick little reference.

[blissfulalchemist]

You Should Listen to This

I’ve had this for like ever sitting away in my drive and I have very little on Lance. so this is something from main canon of Cat and Chance’s stories. This happens after Wingman in A Chance for Faith. So please enjoy.

Lance put the tape into the machine hitting play. The cogs spun round and round while static played. Lance’s face fell as the silence continued, the phone it was in had gotten hit with a few bullets earlier and he had hoped that the tape still worked. Normally it wouldn’t matter, John always asked that they be deleted but this one was different. John had to hear this one, he needed to hear it. 

Lance was ready to hit stop when he heard a sigh play on it, “John,” Lance recognized Catlina’s soft and warm voice. “John it’s...well it’s me again,” she took a deep breath, Lance could imagine how she would look up when getting her thoughts together, “I wish you would answer me please. I miss you, my John.” Lance felt his heart fall as he heard her holding back tears pleading with him, “I know my other messages were, well, desperate, but I need to talk to you. I,” there was a pause and Lance could hear her sniffle, she had started crying, “well there isn’t a right way to say this but,” her voice was shaking. She was building her courage, “John I’m pregnant.” Lance heard the small bit of excitement she held in her voice. Lance knew she had wanted nothing more than to have a family, live a life with the person that she loved and chose above all else. 

It was this part of the message that had made Lance worry about the functional state of the tape. Despite his recent shortcomings John had a right to know. “The doctors thought that it was stress from the ordeal I went through, but nope. And don’t worry all of us have lied about what happened. Not like anyone would believe us anyway,” Catlina rambled, “John we have a second chance. I just...I need to talk to you. Just...John just call me back please.” She was pleading before she took a big breath letting it out slowly, “No matter what’s happened between us or what you’ve done since I’ve last seen you, know that I still love you. I will always love you, my John.” 

The static played again once Cat’s term of endearment for John was said. Lance rewound the tape before he pushed the eject button taking the tape out, “You should know better than anyone that he’s stubborn. Hopefully he listens to this one.” Lance had grumbled to himself as he walked upstairs to John’s office. 

Lance’s steps echoed through the house that was in need of repairs now, thanks to him. Lance let Chance go, all part of the plan in the take down of Eden’s Gate. It was time for them to be brought down and Lance had taken on more of a role in helping the residents of Hope County ever since they tried to arrest Joseph Seed. They finally found their symbol to rally behind, though Lance wouldn’t have picked an immature twenty five year old. Poor kid’s gotten in way over his head. Hopefully he won’t break, Lance mused shaking the thoughts out of his head. 

As Lance approached the door to the office he heard the sounds of things being thrown about and John’s muffled cursing. Lance stood outside the door taking a minute to wonder if he was making the right call in coming to John now. Lance knocked three times. This was too important to be put off for later. Lance didn’t get a response and knocked harder three more times. This time it went silent on the other side and the door flew open. 

John stood there, his hair a mess falling into his darkened eyes, nostrils flared, and posture that of a beast rather than a man. John’s wardrobe reflected the state of his mind as it was uncharacteristically ruffled, his shirt sleeves loosely rolled to his elbows exposing his tattoos, untucked and with a few buttons out of place. The scene behind John was nothing short of a mess. Lance had thrown some papers about and the bullet holes were scattered around the room when he last left it. Now though, John’s desk and floor were strewn with paperwork, drawers pulled from their place and tossed about, books littering the floor and desk all opened one way or another. This was more than the tornado of wrath he was known for, John was looking for something.

“What do you want!” John demanded in a hiss, Lance saw how his knuckles were white as he gripped the door. 

“I have the report of the damage to the house,” Lance took a step forward seeing John take a step back, “You said you wanted it as soon as we got it done.”

John moved out of the way of the door letting Lance through, “What damage did the Deputy do this time?” John asked annoyed as he moved to lean against his desk crossing his arms and ankles.

Lance cleared his throat giving a small nod,“Most of the damage was to the exterior of the property but nothing that can’t be fixed in the next twenty four hours and one dead.” Lance stood at attention the entire time the tape in his hand behind his back.

“Thank you. I expect you’re going to take care of everything for the one we lost,” John’s face didn’t change as he spoke, his eyes flitted around the room. “Is that everything?”

“No.” Lance made a show of looking around the room, “Sir, did you lose something?”

John shot Lance a glare, “That’s none of your business. Now what else was so important that you felt the need to interrupt me?”

Lance held up the tape, “She-.”

“Delete it.” John’s words came out quickly and harshly. 

“You should hear this one first,” Lance pressed, taking a small step towards John.

John looked away pointedly, “I said delete it,” his words ice.

“You have to at least call her!” Lance yelled, “You owe her that much!” John still looked away from him, but Lance could see the hints of tears in the Baptist’s blue eyes. “You weren’t the only one that lost her when you forced her away,” Lance’s voice turned softer. Cat had started to feel like a daughter to Lance, it was painful, just as much as when Lance lost his own daughter Sage. Lance might as well had taken a bullet to the chest once he came back to the ranch to find little Catlina gone, almost all traces of her existence purged. John shut himself off from the world after that and Lance felt pity for him, until he knew the truth. That it was John’s plan, it was John that got her on that plane and left her to be taken far away from Hope County. “It was to save her,” was the only explanation that John gave.

Lance walked closer with the tape grabbing the phone on the desk putting it in. Lance pushed play letting the static fill the room. Lance could see John was lost in his head, it was the only reason Lance was even able to get the tape in the player. The exhale of her breath started to play, “John? John it’s...well it’s me again.”

Her voice filled the room and the message wasn’t played any further as John quickly moved to eject the tape. “I said. DELETE IT!” John broke the tape in half tossing it to the side. John placed his hands on the table looking down at the papers, his arms were shaking close to collapsing. The face John wore was angry and wrathful but his blue eyes told another story. Lance remembered seeing the look in John’s eyes for weeks after he put the one good thing in his life on a plane out of here five months ago. Lance wanted to pat his shoulder or tell him something of comfort but it would fall on deaf ears and Lance wasn’t one to be that friendly to any of the Seeds. “He took it,” John whispered sadly, closing his eyes, swallowing before he spoke again, “That damn Deputy took it.”

Lance looked to John confused, “What did he take?” The boy was just looking for the keys to the Rye’s plane when Lance walked in on the poor kid. 

“The ring,” John’s tattooed hands balled into fists as he hit the table, “Her ring! He took her ring!” John threw the glass paperweight on the desk at the wall he faced, it shattered as it made a dent in the golden wood, “He stole it from me!” The anger and rage was back in full force, “The one thing! The one thing I had left of her!” John flipped his desk over, “The only thing I will ever have left of her and he STOLE IT!” John fell to his knees looking at his hands. John was already a vase that had been repaired over and over, the cracks becoming what drew people to it, but this act against him...it’s what finally made that vase irreparable.

Lance saw tears fall silently down John’s face, it was hard not to feel bad for him seeing his vulnerability in moments like these. “John,” Lance said softly, “you really should have heard her message.”

John’s back stiffened at the mere mention of her, “Get out,” he said quietly. 

“I heard the whole thing. I can-,” Lance offered.

“Get out,” John said more forcefully. 

“John you need to know,” John stood quickly turning to Lance, his hands fists at his sides.

“I said get out!” John pushed Lance to the door.

“John she’s-”

“I said get out!” John pushed Lance again. John wasn’t a strong man but he was using all he had, “That’s an order!” There was no point in fighting him on this, if John was this determined to get Lance out of there, he wasn’t going to listen to anything Lance had to say. 

Lance moved to the door, “Look John you’re going-” Lance tried once more.

“Leave!” With one more shove Lance stepped out of the room. John slammed the door hard, shaking the house.

Lance sighed staring at the door, “You’re going to be a father,” he whispered. Lance turned from the door shaking his head sadly, Would it have really mattered to him? John didn’t leave with her when he had the chance. Why would this knowledge change his mind? 

Lance was tempted to call her himself and tell her John missed her too, how he loved her, and how much he fell apart after she was gone. Lance was sure she would be on her way back here. It wouldn’t matter though, she wouldn’t be allowed to come back anyway, John would never have it and things here got...messy. Lance just had to hope that this would all end soon. John was a lot of things, but with her...John was someone likeable, softer, more human. Lance was far from liking John but even he had to admit that John at least deserved to know who his kid was, especially if it was with her. 

Lance knew there was no better feeling than being a father, especially for someone like John feeling they were undeserving of love and care. Catlina was so close to showing John who he could be beyond his rage and pain, it was just too bad that she started to let nothing but her rage and pain take over who she was. Knowing what he knew Lance had to take the time to call Sage. She still wasn’t taking his calls but Lance had to keep trying, that’s just what a parent did, try. 

Lance went to the guest room on the opposite side of the house, it was the only room with a phone and a door that could lock. Lance knew he wouldn’t be bothered or heard as he locked the room up sitting on the rock hard mattress. Lance picked up the phone dialing his daughter’s number. It rang a total of three times before it went to her voicemail, “This is Sage please leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible,” Lance smiled hearing his daughter’s cheery voice. Lance missed her, last time they talked on good terms she was getting ready to visit him with her long term boyfriend and she said she had exciting news to share with him.

Lance was sure it was the two of them finally getting married, a day Lance looked forward to since he first laid eyes on her. “Hey Sage. It’s dad, again.” It had been almost three years since he last spoke to her, he wondered if she got married, and if she did who walked her down the aisle. “Look things here...well they’re changing and for the better. They tried to arrest Joseph Seed about a month ago, it didn’t go as planned but,” Lance sighed, he didn’t want to give her too much hope, “People here are fighting against them. I am too.” Maybe Lance just didn’t want to give himself too much hope, “It’s still not safe for you to come here or even call me but...well if this goes bad I just want you to know that I miss you and..,” Lance looked up blinking back the tears in his eyes, “I love you. I love you sweetie. Always have and I always will. You’re the one that keeps me fighting in life. I hope you’ve been happy.” Lance hung up the phone after that taking a moment to right himself before going back out to help the members with repairs to the property. 

The next morning, John was back to his old self as he gave every one under his command one single order.

“Find the Deputy and bring him to me by any, and I mean, any means necessary. He will atone and give back what he’s taken.”

[impartofthesolution]

Too Much Progress Proves Dangerous

           Mounds of data and a few late nights were in the future of Julia’s team.  All of it was promising.  Their research had been paying off, and the results were coming in almost faster than her lab techs could record them.  Gone were the days when she turned a blind eye to the techs goofing off in their bullpen because there wasn’t enough work to do.  In her mind, they should have picked up a few grad classes and made something of their lives, but that was their business, not hers.            Her business was about to take off.  Sure, her funders would be over the moon with her latest results, but this was finally something she could take and market to the world.  She could improve the world and the lives of everyone in it.            “Dr. Dargento?  I’m sorry to interrupt, but I thought you’d like to have the latest report,” a young post doc with her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail entered Julia’s office.            “I was just about to take a walk through the lab myself. Why don’t you tell me about it on our way,” Julia replied.  Years ago, she had been a bright-eyed and bushytailed post doc like Annie.  This was her first role as principal investigator, and it had almost gone in the toilet.  She kept everyone’s hopes up the research would bear fruit, but that’s because she hadn’t revealed the darkening financial landscape that came with disappointed funders.  Strange how that stress was so quickly swapped for the stress of handling a project almost too big for her.  Almost.            “What’s this report about?” Julia asked as she put on her white lab coast and grabbed her safety glasses and some gloves.            “We were doing some analysis of the replicating capabilities of the verdant strain and, well, your earlier hypotheses were correct.”            “So you were able to identify a comprehensive integrated backbone?”            “Well, yes,” they entered the airlock into the lab. “You won’t believe it until you see it under the microscope.  But we were able to pinpoint a distinct concentric double helical superstructure that imparts a rigidity we weren’t expecting.  It seems this strength enables the strain to grow eight times faster than any other backbone.”            “How is this possible?” Julia reached her hand out for the report.  “I don’t remember designing any helix plasmids.”  She paged through the notes, revealing the detailed instructions of how the samples were prepared.  “You used the cross-linked plasmid?”            “Yes, Dr. Dargento.  Turns out the recombination ends up polarizing the cross-links, and they form a sort of matrix.”  She paused, talking a breath before telling her boss they’re pursuing a path not part of the approved testing procedures.  “It seems the backbones isn’t magnetized, but it’s attuned to living matter as if there were a magnetic attraction.  We’ve set up an experiment in pod 5.  It is our goal to see if we can direct the path of rapid growth towards a set location.  We put some bacteria in an agar plate six inches from a sample of the verdant strain in pod 5a and two feet from the sample in pod 5b.            “Hmmm,” Julia hummed, thoughtfully.  It showed good initiative, and it was a logical experiment.  She herself had surmised a positive feedback loop would be necessary to achieve meaningful results.  “Have Lance add a few more petri dishes of bacteria to pod 5a, at six inch intervals, the last one at two feet from the sample.  Have him record them both.  I’ll want to see it.”  She didn’t give back Annie’s report.  Annie acknowledged the instructions and turned away, calling one of the techs over.            Julia turned to find some techs waiting for her by the microscopes.  This was going to be good; she had some excited hope growing in her heart. Whether the techs wished to torment her or were just daft, she wasn’t sure.  The microscopes were loaded with slides of the crimson strain on which they had also been experimenting.  The slides told the story of complete catastrophic decay.  The first few slides were of a growing cell structure, but after growing to be about 1000 cells long, it crumbled everywhere at once.  It seemed all the cells experienced simultaneous apoptosis.  She sighed; this wasn’t nothing new.            “Mike, where are the verdant slides?  Those are the ones I want to see.”            “Here they are, Dr. Dargento,” a tech handed Julia a tray of slides.  Julia started focusing the microscope when she heard a loud crash and an alarm go off. She stood up and walked towards the commotion with an intense expression on her face.  Gone was her optimism; now, her leadership was needed.            “Someone tell me what the heck just happened,” she demanded at the backs of a semi-circle of people facing the testing pods. Everyone turned to face her, with expressions ranging from startled to abashed.            “There was a containment breach in pod 5a, so I flipped the killswitch,” the tech named Lance spoke up.            “What’s all the commotion?” Annie said, walking around a corner.  She took in the broken glass and Lance standing in front of it with a scowl.  “I checked on something for 2 minutes, and what did you do?” her grew pink from the embarrassment of having this happen in front of her boss.  Julia turned to face her.            “Dr. Zheng, did Lance follow the preparatory protocol I instructed?” Julia ignored Lance’s frantic arm movements.  Annie tuned him out, too.  This was her responsibility, and his mistake would be hers.            “He did, Dr. Dargento.  Everything was as you instructed.”            Julia walked over to the broken pod 5a and considered the remains.  Even though Lance stood next to her, she turned back to Annie, “And how far from the glass did he place the final petri dish?”            Annie thought about it for a few seconds, and her face darkened.  “Pod 5a is smaller than 5b.  We put the sample in the middle, which, after two feet, only left us with an inch or two from the glass.”            “How far was Lance standing from the glass, Dr. Zheng?” Julia continued to ask Annie. Whether it was disdain for lab techs or disapproval for Annie’s behavior, no one could tell.  It was likely both.  Annie broke eye contact with Julia to stare at her booties, unable to answer the question because she didn’t know.  “Was it at least recorded?”            Lance, hoping to redeem himself spoke up.  “Yes, Dr. Dargento.  He turned to pick up a tablet on a tray near pod 5b and held it out for Julia to see.            “What’s the sound?” Julia asked.  Sure enough, there was a rapid tapping sound seemingly coming from Lance.  Everyone looked around.  It wasn’t until they heard the sound of glass starting to crack that Julia spoke up again. “Lance, step away from the pod.” He obeyed her immediately, turning to look at what was behind him.            As he moved away, Julia watched a green vine that was pushed against the crack in the glass fall to the bottom of the pod and stay there, motionless.  The glass was an inch thick; bamboo would have had a hard time breaking through over days.  This vine took seconds.  Troubled, Julia spoke, “Analyze the data we have.  All experimentation will stop until I find a way to remedy the unbound proliferation gene.”  It would not be safe until then. Back to Table of Contents (x)

[calligraphist-artemisia]

Quid Pro Quo

Summary: While everyone's healing after their first fight against Haggar's super powered Mech, Coran brings up the perfect way for them to relax and pass the time: a fun game of Monsters & Mana! While Shiro argues the value of (once again) playing a paladin, Keith goes for a more unexpected role.

Also posted on Archive of our Own - under the username Kishirokitsune

-

Quid Pro Quo

Quid pro quo - a favor or advantage granted or expected in return for something.

The aftermath of their battle against the Komar Mech found the paladins of Voltron in a rough state. While the lions protected them from harm to the best of their ability, there were still injuries and each of them had spent two long weeks confined to their beds in the med-bay so they would have proper time to heal from their ordeal. And even after that, they were released under the condition that they take it easy for another week.

After being active for so long, it was hard for any of them to patiently sit around and do nothing, especially when there was so much that needed done.

It was Coran who came up with a solution to their boredom.

He rounded up everyone and giddily took them down to the common room, where he had commandeered a round table for their use. There was a hand-drawn, gridded map spread across the surface, a handful of dice, and a set of five familiar figures.

“You save the game pieces?” Lance asked, sounding delighted. He swooped in and picked up the model of Pike, cradling it in his hands.

Allura smiled as she stepped up next to him, reaching for Valayun. “This is brilliant, Coran! But are you sure you have time for this? You and Shiro are perfectly able to go out and help with reconstruction.”

“Sam said that if he sees me working for the next twenty-four hours he's going to tie me down and make sure I get some rest,” Shiro said. “This sounds like the better choice.”

Pidge snorted in amusement, but didn't comment on it. She looked delighted to hold her figure of Meklavar once again.

Only Hunk looked a little concern, though it was quickly revealed that it wasn't over the game itself. “But Keith didn't play with us last time and he doesn't have a model.”

Coran twirled his mustache, a twinkle in his blue eyes. “Don't you worry about that, my young friend! I found a machine here that prints models in 3D and have already made new ones for our adventure today. They will all be revealed when the time is right. Now sit! And we shall resume our journey through the magical realm of Aurita!”

It didn't take them too long to get settled in around the table. Coran chose a spot at the top of the map, with Keith and Shiro to his left and right. Pidge was on the other side of Keith, followed by Hunk, then Lance, and finally Allura, bringing the circle back to Shiro. Each of them picked up a game pad and found their character, reviewing theirs stats and refreshing their memory of how the game worked.

“Before we begin, does anyone want to create a new character?” Coran asked, looking pointedly at Shiro.

Shiro crossed his arms over his chest. “I'm happy playing as Gyro. I don't see what I'd want to change characters.”

The other paladins ��� minus Keith – groaned in exasperation.

Coran hummed as he booted up his game pad. “I thought you might want a backup in case anything...unfortunate should happen?”

There was a moment of silence in which Keith looked up from his game pad to raise an eyebrow. When no one chose to elaborate on that, he went back to creating his own character, wondering what he'd gotten himself into.

“Coran, is something going to happen to Gyro?” Shiro asked.

“Only the dice know,” Coran replied mysteriously.

Shiro sighed as he selected the character creation screen. “I don't understand what you have against me playing as a paladin. I like being a paladin.”

“Can we make a rule that he can't make another one?” Lance asked.

“Now, now, far be it for me to stymie Shiro's creativity. If he wants to rewrite his backstory so that there is a third brother, then that's up to him,” Coran said. “Let's see... we've had Shiro and Gyro. What shall be the third brother's name? Hiro?”

“I hate all of you except for Keith,” Shiro said, prodding at his screen.

Coran gave them all a few more minutes while he searched for the storyline he wanted to use. It was bound to be a fun one, especially after his talk with Keith the day before. He had been sure that the others would be interested in another quest, but Keith hadn't been part of the original game and he wanted to include the current Black Paladin in their fun.

As it turned out, Keith had an interesting idea, and Coran had the perfect plot to go along with it.

He glanced up, smiling softly as he watched Allura lean over to Lance to ask him about something. Hunk appeared to be mumbling spells under his breath and then checking his game pad to make sure he got them right. Keith had his pad turned so Pidge couldn't sneak a peak at what he was doing, no matter how hard she tried.

It warmed Coran's heart to see them all having fun after everything they had been through.

He cleared his throat to get their attention and begin the game. “Tales of your miraculous defeat of the mighty and powerful wizard known as Dakin have spread far and wide across Aurita. Townspeople rejoice wherever you go and you no longer want for food and drink. Today we begin in the wilds of the Mysterious Forest, on a quest for a king of a distant land. It appears his daughter, Princess Mora, has been kidnapped and it is up to you all to save her!”

“A princess?” Lance's eyes lit up.

Hunk groaned. “Oh no... Coran, does it have to be a princess?”

“Yeah, can't we rescue a handsome prince instead? It doesn't always have to be a damsel in distress,” Pidge complained.

“But rescuing a princess is a staple of all classic stories! C'mon, guys, don't take this from me!” Lance begged.

Allura rolled her eyes.

Coran looked at them peevishly for interrupting his storytelling. “Are you going to let me continue, or would you like to run this campaign on your own?”

No one spoke again.

“As I was saying...”

-

If not for the haunting sounds of wildlife, the Mysterious Forest would be a beautiful place to explore. Trees towered overhead, their branches reaching out to cast shade over the ground, while still allowing in enough light for the underbrush to thrive. A single main path, comprised of dirt compacted under heavy travel, wound through the forest.

A sheer mountainside rose to the right of the path. It looked as though the rock had been carved away some time ago, though by what, no one knew.

Valayun led the way down the path, her bow knocked in preparation for trouble. She had heard tales of bandits and thieves who lurked within the woods and knew it was best to be ready to anything. Her blue eyes wearily scanned the underbrush, watching out for any movement.

Behind her was Pike and Block, who quietly talked to pass the time. Pike was particularly excited about their current quest to find a kidnapped princess, and was disappointed that no one else seemed to share his enthusiasm.

Meklavar traveled behind them, her ax at the ready. Her stonesense screamed that something wasn't right, and she was easily the jumpiest of the party.

Bringing up the rear was Gyro, who looked around with a sense of wide-eyed wonder at the beauty of the wilderness around them. He was particularly taken with the brightly colored flora and the pleasant smells they emitted. He felt like nothing could possibly go wrong. After all, the weather was pleasant and their quest had only just begun!

What could possibly go wrong?

-

“Shiro, roll for perception,” Coran instructed.

Shiro frowned. “I thought I already did that.”

“You did. Now I need you to roll a second time,” Coran said.

Everyone leaned forward to watch Shiro roll the die, eager to see what it would stop on. There was a collective groan when it tipped over one final time to end on “two”.

“Tough luck, Shiro,” Keith said sympathetically.

Coran's delight was obvious to everyone and he toned down his cackle to a snicker, hiding his face behind his game pad. “Suddenly, there is a loud crashing sound from the cliffside! Something has knocked into the precariously perched boulders up at the top, jarring them loose. They fall, picking up speed as they go, and while they make a great deal of noise, Gyro is too busy admiring the flowers to pay attention. Will anyone warn our poor paladin of the danger he faces?”

“How do you not hear a landslide?” Pidge asked with a shake of her head. “Nevermind. I'm the closest to him, so I shout out to try and warn him.”

“Shiro, another roll, if you will?”

Shiro sighed and rolled again, not at all surprised to see another roll number. Even the dice gods were working against him. “Am I dead?”

“Oh, I'm afraid so. You hear Meklavar's warning, but aren't able to move in time and are crushed by a landslide,” Coran rattles off as though commenting on the weather.

Shiro gave the Altean a petulant look as he sent over the data for his new character without being asked.

Keith watched the exchange with a furrowed brow. “Should I make a second character now, or...”

“You don't need to. Shiro just has really bad luck,” Pidge reassured him.

Coran took a moment to scan through the new data before jumping back in. “Our heroes take a few hours to mourn their fallen friend and construct a small monument in his honor.”

-

The loss of Gyro the Paladin dampened even Pike's spirits. The four heroes continued on their way, searching for the entrance to the caves where it was rumored that Princess Mora was being held.

“Does anyone else think it's weird that we haven't seen any bandits yet? You'd think they would at least have traps laid for us,” Meklavar said.

“Are you trying to jinx us?” Pike demanded. His eyes scanned the foliage critically, as though he expected something to immediately jump out and attack them.

Valayun uneasily slowed, closing the distance between her and Pike by a few paces. “Maybe we've gone the wrong way?”

“Can't be. This is the only path,” Block said. “Unless they didn't take the path?”

Meklavar shook her head. “No, you're right. They must have taken the path, especially since they have a captive with them. We would be able to see if they went another way, wouldn't we? There would be broken branches and stuff.”

They looked to Valayun in the hope that she had some skill in tracking, but she was just as confused as the rest of them.

The four of them stopped walking as a debate broke out over whether they should keep going or if it was best to go back and look for tracks. Pike and Valayun were for staying on the path, while Block and Meklavar wanted to go back.

And that was when things went from bad, to worse.

A howl pierced the air just before a massive wolf sprang out of the underbrush, taking all of them off guard. It used its advantage to pin Meklavar to the ground and opened its mouth to reveal a row of sharp, white teeth.

Meklavar closed her eyes, praying that someone would save her, or else that death would be swift and painless.

-

Pidge laughed as Kosmo licked across her cheek before he lowered his paws and padded over to the do the same to Keith.

“It's nice to see you too,” Keith said with a chuckle. He patted the cosmic wolf on the head, and once Kosmo was satisfied with the attention he received, he crawled under the table to take a nap near his favorite people.

“A new encounter has begun and it's time to figure out attacking order! Everyone, go ahead and roll your dice,” Coran instructed. “And just for fun... Shiro and Keith, the two of you can roll as well.”

Shiro trepidatiously reached for his die.

-

The sparkling light of Block's magic formed a barrier between Meklavar and certain death, which gave Valayun the opportunity to lay into the beast with her arrows. It reared back, releasing Meklavar from its grasp, and that was when Pike rushed in to pull her to safety.

“Are you alright?” Block shouted as he began charging up his next spell.

“I'm okay!” Meklavar quickly called back. She took a moment to reorient herself and then unhooked her ax so she could jump into the fight.

Arrows flew and spells were slung. A gleaming ax swung against the side of the beast. Pike's sharp blades danced as he flitted about.

None of it appeared to do more than anger the wolf.

“Should we run?” Block asked.

“Do you really think we can outrun that?” Pike asked in disbelief.

Block ducked behind a tree for a little extra cover. “Maybe if Valayun summons one of her magical steeds and I enchant my staff to fly, we might stand a chance at getting away.”

“And what would that solve?” Meklavar demanded. “We run and leave the princess with those bandits? Even if we get away, we still need to come back this way and there's no guarantee that this creature will be gone.”

“Meklavar is right. We have to deal with this now,” Valayun agreed.

Pike loudly shrieked as he barely dodged a swipe from one massive paw. His voice went high as he asked: “Does anyone have a plan for that?!”

Meklavar thought for a moment. “Maybe if we all attack it at once and hit it from different angles. That might confuse it enough that it won't know who to go after.”

“It's worth a try,” Valayun said. She selected a summoning arrow and fired it into the air. A moment later, a flying horse swooped down and allowed Valayun onto their back. She took to the skies to distract the beast, giving her allies enough time to get into place.

And then their assault began anew.

The beast snarled in rage. Just as they had hoped, it didn't know who to go after first. It turned to look at each of them, but each time it tried to attack, someone would hit it from another angle.

A horn trumpeted.

From within the forest, a man with dark hair came riding in on a magnificent black steed. He lifted his sword high and joined the battle.

The beast didn't last long after that, and as it lay dying on the forest floor, the adventurers approached the newcomer. One-by-one, they introduced themselves, until all that was left was for the stranger to speak his name.

“I am but a simple ranger, traveling with my fearless companion,” he said, fondly patting his horse's neck. “My name is Paladin.”

-

In that moment, anyone in or near the common room was treated to the sound of the Paladins of Voltron losing their minds over a single sentence, while Shiro sat back and looked very pleased with himself. Coran was laughing so hard that he was crying.

Once Coran calmed enough that he could speak clearly, he wiped away his tears and coaxed them back into playing their game.

With the addition of Shiro's ranger, they discovered that they had missed a second path and it was only thanks to his tracking skill that they were able to find it. The new path was a shortcut, leading directly to the caves, while the main path would have eventually branched out, with one trail leading up to the top of the mountain and the other leading out of the forest. Coran was the only one disappointed that they no longer needed to fight their way down through the mountain.

They charged ahead into the caves with their spirits renewed, and Lance happily showed off that Pike held torches in his inventory, after buying them during his and Shiro's mini-session with Coran.

“So is Keith actually playing, or is he just here to watch?” Lance asked as he rolled to dismantle a trap that Hunk nearly triggered.

“I've been playing!” Keith protested. “You've seen me roll!”

“Oh yeah? Then where's your character?” Lance challenged with the air of someone who knew they had already won.

Coran stepped in before things could escalate to shouting. “Keith and I discussed his role before we began, and I have sent him messages to determine where he currently is and what he's doing. Be patient; he'll join you soon.”

“I didn't know these things could send messages,” Pidge said, looking at her game pad with renewed interest.

“My bandmates and I always used them to enrich our experience with the game. Not only can it be used to send messages between the Lore Master and one of the players, players can also send group messages. Depending on the race you've picked, you can choose to send messages in that language, and it will only translate for anyone who has knowledge of that language,” Coran said. “Though it's more like gibberish than an actual language. Now, where were we? Ah, yes...”

-

The team of eager adventurers continued on their way, dismantling traps and using their wide range of skills to avoid trouble. They only got lost once and that was when they encountered a small party of bandits, who kept dropping their weapons and were incompetent in general.

Pike pilfered anything useful before they moved on.

“This is way less interesting than Dakin's lair,” Meklavar said, sounding disappointed. “Where's all of the treasure? The interesting weaponry?”

“Well that's why they kidnapped the princess, isn't it? They're holding her for ransom so that then they'll have treasures,” Block suggested.

“I don't know why you keep saying things like that when you know it's just going to bring us more trouble.” Pike directed his words to Meklavar, who ignored him. “Besides, just because you haven't found anything, doesn't mean there's nothing here.” He grinned and jingled his coin purse in front of her face.

Paladin frowned at the blatant theivery that was being flaunted in front of him. There was no point in saying anything. Pike had only laughed the first time he scolded him for it.

“Meklavar, can you read anything with your stonesense?” Valayun asked.

Meklavar placed her hand on the wall and frowned. “There is... something. I can feel it more strongly now. I think there's another dwarf here!”

“That's good, right?” Valayun asked.

Meklavar shrugged. “Not if they're one of the bandits. Then we might be in trouble, since they'll be able to tell we're coming.”

“I don't like this,” Block said nervously.

“All we can do is keep moving forward. If we stop to worry about what could be, we'll be here all day,” Paladin said. He took the lead down the hall, not waiting for anyone to respond, and the others hurried to fall in line behind him.

They all kept their weapons drawn. There was every chance that they were walking deeper into an ambush and none of them wanted to be caught unaware.

Every now and then, Meklavar reached out to touch the stone walls, trying to get a feel for what was going on. Just before a turn, she hissed out “wait!”

Paladin brought up his sword in time to block a strike from another blade. The clang of steel-on-steel rang out in the tunnel, impossibly loud. Paladin grit his teeth and bore down, refusing to let the assailant take an inch.

“Who are you? What are you doing in this place?” demanded the stranger.

“We're here to beat you and rescue the princess!” Pike exclaimed from the back of their line.

The stranger frowned. “They kidnapped someone else as well?”

Paladin let up a little, puzzled by that statement. “What do you mean 'someone else'? We only know about Princess Mora.”

There was something very strange going on, but no one could feel that more than Meklavar. Her stonesense sang, but not in a way that indicated danger. “Paladin, I don't think he's one of the bandits.”

The stranger rolled his eyes. “Do I look like a bandit to you?”

Behind Meklavar, the others made sounds of protest - “Of course he does!” - but Paladin evidently agreed with Meklavar and slowly lowered his sword. He kept it at the ready, just in case.

Valayun refused to lower her arrow and kept it trained on the stranger. “Who are you? How do we know you're someone we can trust?”

“Because I believe I'm the one you were sent to rescue,” he told them. “My name is Mizerik, son of Princess Mora.”

-

“Nope.” Lance shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. “No way.”

Pidge appeared utterly delighted by the twist. She turned to Keith with a grin and raised her hand, palm facing him. He looked puzzle for a moment and then held up his hand the same way.

“High five?” Pidge asked.

Understanding dawned on Keith's face and he gently clapped his hand to hers. “What are we doing this for?”

“Because we're dwarf pals! This is going to be so much fun!” Pidge said. She picked up her gamepad and began to intently type something.

“You two planned this?” Allura asked, looking to Coran.

He beamed at her. “Keith had the idea after I explained a bit about how the game works. It's all part of an even bigger story I have in mind. I figured that since you all could use something to do, I could do a bigger campaign than the last time. This is only the beginning!”

“I think we'll be able to find time for that,” Shiro said, sounding amused.

“Still worried that my dad might make good on his threat?” Pidge asked.

“You think he won't?”

Pidge wasn't going to argue with him on that.

Coran let them talk for a moment while he took a drink of water. They'd been going for a while and could probably wrap things up soon, or at least take a break before heading into the next part of the campaign.

He scrolled through his chosen story and decided that he'd wait to see what they wanted to do about the remaining bandits first. There wasn't any treasure to find, but the odds were that they would press on until they found something interesting, and he had a misleading side-plot involving a mysterious key if they really wanted to go that route. He almost hoped Keith would convince them that it was unnecessary, but the thought of getting to send them on a wild floklop chase was highly amusing.

It was all dependent on whether or not they took Keith's deal. There was something his character was after, and in exchange for helping him, he would grant a favor.

What was it the humans said again?

Quid pro quo?

[pangtasias-atelier]

Master Turned Pet

So this C/u Alt/er idea just came out of nowhere and I really wanted to act upon it before my motivation went away. So here’s a 3k fic that doesn’t necessarily pertain the most to wg but it also was nice not having that be the main thing.

This was meant to be kinda dark but all these ideas I have all vanish once I try to type them and then I get grossed out anjdsifn. So the only really dark thing is physical harm/abuse though it’s not graphic since I can’t handle blood lol

While I do like copying F/G/O’s style by having the master not really speak, it kinda became meh as this went on to the wg portion but still enjoyed it lol

Talking about F/G/O with a friend who doesn’t know about this blog, and the homophobia of Da/vid’s Valentine scene being different for male masters, so maybe expect that in the next week or 2? Even though I’m pretty sure like none of you play F/G/O 

I wish C/u Al/ter got a rate up, but he never does.... At least En/ki/du came to my Ch/al/dea

________________

"What?" Eyes narrowed, Cu nearly recoils from his master's body leaning against his arm. A pathetic, useless 'thank you' barely uttered before his master's tired breaths sound out, Cu lets him rest against him, his master's bloodied bandages slightly maring his own clothes.

A small, wacky singularity cleared before it could grow into anything concerning, his master had been dragged into it. His master too kind, a tired smile on his face as he steps into each consuming battle asked of him, bit by bit of himself getting consumed, Cu was at least willing to ensure to stay by his side. No other servant wishing to undergo such idiotic nonsense for a singularity, Cu grumbled and complained, but followed nonetheless. His master's reassurances that he could indeed stay, Cu ignored them under the pretense of getting to fight and kill. 

And he enjoyed just that. Before any more childish activity could drag on, he had murdered all other servants. His master's wishes to at least reason with the others despite the nonsense ignored, the singularity was proving a breeze with brute force. Until he had reached the true culprit. No one to aid him, he had been foolish, caught off guard. Nearly killed himself, his master had to use a command spell to heal him.

His last command spell. The other two already wasted on sentimentality, his master not wishing for him to disappear in other singularities despite several other servants by his side.

Lifting his master into his arms, the task easy when he doesn't resist, too exhausted to nutter anything past an annoyed groan, Cu stares at his face. Face reaching its serene state as it always does once a singularity reaches its end, Cu stares at the way his master smiles at him, his eyes closing. His master's breathing slowly calms down. The sight enjoyable, all of his master's expressions delightful in some way, he can't help but wish to see his face strain, his master's worried face as he yells in concern for his servants always a sight to laugh at. His pathetic whimpers whenever blood gets drawn, the humans in each singularity so incredibly delicate against servants and threats to humanity. The way his face strains with exhaustion at the end of each day, more burdening work seemingly piling up each day despite his prior commending work. The shy, embarrassed way his master blushes, his laughter attempting to pass it off. His tears that seem to occur at random outbursts, everything too much.

Each expression so wonderful to him, he can't wish but to see more. The blood of a warrior pulsing through his veins, he can't help but yearn for less savory tactics, even fighting and killing appearing boring with his master beside him.

Cu stares at the way his sweat seems to line his face, his hair stuck to his forehead. Brushing a bit away, his master even leans into the embrace. Perhaps he's overstepping his role as a weapon, but perhaps it's worth it. 

It's worth it when his master is an absolute idiot. 

The singularity near its collapse, his master had just obtained the holy grail. Clenching it in his hand, fingers wrapped tightly around it, Cu smiles as his master whimpers. Ignoring his lance, the weapon dropped the floor, he wraps his own fingers around the holy Grail stealing it out of his hands. 

Voices coming from the communicator, that shield servant who he still hasn't bothered learning her name concerned over his master, Cu ignores her, instead leaning over his master. Some more pathetic whimpering coming out of him as he struggles in Cu's grip, Cu holds him down, the effort minimal. 

"Guess I was a fool for counting on one of these. But now," Seizing it in his hands, he laughs, his whole body reveling in the motion. His current desires being known, the singularity remains. Chaldea losing contact, their obnoxious concerns die out. Cu basks in the near silence, the pleasant strained breaths from his exhausted master sounding divine to his ears. No sense in being gentle, he lugs him over his shoulder, his master letting out an 'oof' as his stomach meets Cu's rough shoulder.

"I'm sure you'll grow to love our time together, master" Hands pushing against him, Cu ignores them, simply making his way to the enemy's castle, the entire area empty with all of them now dead. 

Calmly making his way, Cu not willing to visibly show his enjoyment at his plan coming to fruition, he runs his tongue over his teeth, the sharp instruments nearly drawing blood. His master's pathetic struggles ceasing, he ignores it. A couple of minutes passing by, the looming castle draws nearer. The fauna unchanging, passing by tree after tree, the entire place is repetitive, no real distinctive locations. 

The peace ends up disturbed, his master letting out a large sigh. Legs and arms thrashing about, his bandages slowly come undone. The act unable to harm him, Cu laughs at him, the sight pleasurable. Hauling his master further, Cu's smile dwindles as the thrashing lowers in intensity but continues. Some blood seeping onto his shoulder, Cu stops in his tracks.

Lifting his master up and placing him on his feet, Cu stares at him. His master barely able to even stand on his own two feet, he stumbles. 

"Away from me," Cu glumly thinks,his hand tightening over his spear. Placing both hands on his master's shoulders, keeping him in place, Cu stares at him. Then at the blood seeping through his bandages. Some pleas and questions escaping his master's hoarse throat, Cu's hands land on his master's cheek. Grinning down at him, his hands roam over his master, both traveling down. His master refusing the entire time, Cu's right hand rests at his torso; his left hand places itself between his collarbone. Left hand traveling up, Cu expectantly watches his master's face.

And then he squeezes, his fingers easily wrapping around his throat. 

The weight insignificant, he lifts his master in the air, his master's feet dangling and kicking in the air. His master's hands wrap around his arm. Nails digging into him, he clenches tighter. Small chokes escaping as he attempts to breath, Cu brings his master closer. 

"Don't make me have to hurt you," Lapping up the few tears that come out, dehydration taking a hold of his master as well, Cu eases his grip. 

An inch given, his master attempts to take a foot, kicking Cu square in the stomach. 

A human unable to harm a servant, Cu laughs at the attempt, his master's attempts at living so wonderful.

"I've missed this side of you," Enough air allowed, Cu tightens his grip once more. Oh to just squeeze even a bit tighter, to see his even more pleaful eyes, probably begging him and telling him where went all of his humanity. But that would just forfeit his master's life, and why waste all the time they have together to just end it so abruptly? So instead, he shoves him against a tree, some crack sounding from somewhere. 

The tree unharmed, then that means he probably broke something of his master's. Cu shrugs, his master is still alive; that's better than what Medb would have done. She'd have killed anyone by now. 

"I miss America; back when you'd struggled so much just to even run away from me," Cu whispers in his ear. "And I would have killed you, but even that damn mage knew you were going to be nothing but another body on my lance," Dropping him, his master raggedly falling to the floor, Cu crouches down. Coughing as he attempts to breath, his master keeps his head down. Hands reaching towards the bandages, he rewraps them, the trickle of blood stopping. "You can't even fight, you're not a warrior, yet you always rushed in to help. And I wanted nothing more to see you gutted," Silently drawing his spear, Cu places the tip on his master's stomach. No more words offered, he stares at his master, his face downturned. Struggling to even lift his head, dirtied sweat mats his pale face. Barely able to breath, to even hold consciousness, he still stares back at Cu. Despite his bravado, Cu can still see the fear. Everyone's fear of their death arriving. Always too soon, always wondering why me. Cupping his master's chin, Cu lightly applies some pressure. A whimper belying his bravery, Cu smiles as he tosses his lance.

"Good," His master like a cockroach, so damn resilient and ever struggling, that struggling led to him saving humanity. And that struggling would let him live again, not that he was actually in danger.

Making sure that the bandages are properly tightened, the activity foreign yet not unwelcome, Cu grabs his master's wrist. 

"Now walk," Letting go, he laughs as his master's feet crumble underneath him, a face full of dirt meeting his face. Reaching down and yanking him up by the wrist, Cu drags him behind him, his master heavily breathing to even stand, let alone walk. 

Occasionally tugging at him to hurry up, Cu kicks at the door to open it, the door easily giving way. 

Perhaps having his fill for the day, Cu lifts him up. Thoughts of acting like Medb quickly thrown out of his head, Cu stares down at his master. If he is, then so be it, at least it's with one human, and he'll make sure to just break them enough to where it's fun. 

Exhaustion tearing away at his master, it outweighs the pain, falling asleep in Cu's arms. Heading towards the King's Chambers, Cu places his master at the bed. Double checking his bandages, he readjusts them again. 

A grumble escaping his master's stomach, hunger gnawing at him from the tiring day, Cu tsks. Heading off, his tail drags on the floor. 

The place bathed in silence, the sound of his slow, heavy footsteps fill the area. Trudging along, he makes short time to his destination, a village. 

Everyone wary of him before, his master barely enough to placate them all, the sight of a bloody Cu alone is enough to cause most of them to vacate the premises, doors to homes slammed shut. 

Stalls and carts left unattended, he simply swipes at them, grabbing it and lugging it.

Those brave enough to remain outside do so, staring at him even. He ignores it, all pathetic civilians, the bloodshed would be nothing more than a quick activity. One with little enjoyment derived from it. He'll get plenty of enjoyment once Chaldea begins to make their move, masters from different areas possibly coming to repair this singularity. Or perhaps the counter force will act again. Not like it matters, he'll kill all of them, grail or no Grail in hand. He had nearly done so back in America, no master to aid him, calling Medb anything more than a nuisance would be too kind for her he feels. And with his master perfect for supplying mana, he has nothing to fear. 

No one bothering to stop him, all too busy cowering, Cu makes it back to the castle with zero issues. The human body so damn frail, Cu grumbles as he brings the food to the kitchen. Rushing through it, the meat close to raw on the inside and burnt on the outside, he shrugs as he continues cooking some more. No seasoning offered besides grabbing what's there at random, Cu calls it. Frowning from the effort of cooking it, the chore unlike him anymore, he carries it up. 

His master still asleep, shallow breaths struggling past him as his chest barely rises into the air, Cu wastes no time. Another crunch sounding as he lifts him up and slams his back against the headboard, the technique wakes him up perfectly. A coughing fit ensuing, his master clutches his stomach with his other hand. Body aching, he rests against the headboard, any stability appreciated. 

"Eat," Standing to the side, arms crossed against his chest, Cu glares at his master. Cautious, his master picks at the nearly charred food. Hesitation taking hold of his body, Cu takes a hold of his head. 

"You will do as I say," Yanking his hair, Cu grabs the food with his bare hands. Shoving it into his master's mouth, he holds his hand over his mouth, the food slowly getting chewed. "I can't have you dying on me yet," Cu teases, another handful getting shoved straight to his master's mouth. 

Only allotting just enough time for his master to swallow the last bit, Cu always shoves in another piece, the pained muffled struggles reaching his ears, the sounds egging him on. His master trying to move his face away, Cu tugs harder. His master's breathing labored, Cu licks his lips; the pain nothing compared to just beating him senseless, seeing the discomfort and heavy breaths is a different joy. A much appreciated joy. 

His master's hands pushing at him, he twists them. So close to just snapping them off, the desire burning in his heart, he resists. Point crossed, his master remains motionless, Cu resuming.

Each next handful is met with more resistance than the last, his master slowly chewing. Hands moving to rub his stuffed stomach, Cu moves them out of the way, not wishing for any relief. 

The food eventually crammed down his master's gullet, his face is strained as he shakily rubs his stomach. Juices rest on his lips, the trickles dribbling down. Cu pokes at the small distended bump for a stomach. Adding a touch of pressure, he glances at his master's whimper, eyes shut tight. Dragging him into his lap, Cu holds him tight in his embrace, both sitting at the edge of the bed. 

Both hands on his master's stomach, Cu pushes down on it. His master nearly hurling, he brings his hands to his mouth, swallowing the bile that threatens to spill.

"So precious," Cu lets out, lifting his master's hands and pressing down on his stomach again. The sight no longer obscured, he smiles at the scene, his master always so close to losing the contents of his meal.

Finding a different way to enjoy his master's expressions, the wheels in Cu's brain begin to turn. 

His master falling asleep soon after, his gurgling stomach nothing compared to his exhaustion, Cu places him back down on the bed. Chaldean uniform snug on his master, Cu tears the shirt. Pale skin rising with each breath, Cu rubs it, the soft yet taut skin pleasant.

His master squirming under the touch, sleep still taking him captive, Cu removes his hand. 

Warriors going to flock to him eventually, he might as well enjoy this as much as he can. Not like his master can stop him anymore. 

Standing up, he hesitates by the door. Glancing back, he smiles at his master's frown, a nightmare seemingly taking place. 

Already preparing his master's next meal, Cu swiftly grabs all the ingredients. The process as hurried as earlier, he quickly begins cooking again, eager to stuff him.

And stuff him he does. 

The counter force taking a while to respond, Cu focuses his efforts on his master. No way to fight back, the task is easy. A little bruising here and there to control him, limbs bent dangerously close to ways they should never bend, that's all he needs, the tactic keeping his master under control. Food always plentiful, Cu always forces it down his mouth. Mouth crammed with food, Cu snickers at the way his master struggles to even speak or complain. Stomach continuously taut, simple jabs nearly does him in, his master's eyes shut. 

Cu disregards any notion of ending or quitting, the fun granted to him far too pleasurable. Overfed like cattle, his master nothing more than such a thing, Cu pokes and tugs at each new curve that adorns his master as the weight sticks to his frame. Stomach gaining a small sliver, the insignificant weight barely noticeable before it grows even further with constant stuffings. A round potbelly great for shaking after a binge, his master nauseous. Barely developed love handles, both budding armrests a violet hue from Cu's incessant pinches. Moobs that are nothing more than markers signifying the beginning of something much greater. Chunky arms with hanging flab, the areas much more enjoyable to yank and pull to shut his master up. Widened thighs cushioned from adipose. 

The effects on his master's body memorizing, he had no choice but to see it through. With all the time in the world, he was happy to see it through.

The world's counter force inevitably summoning some servants to stop him, the task was simple. Masterless servants stood no task against him. the fun only truly began once Chaldea managed to send in his master's own servants. 

Despite being outnumbered and outwitted numerous times, they were still outmatched, all falling by his hands. 

Another batch just slain, Cu smiles as he rushes back to his room. The grueling fight only invigorated him, his body screaming for more fighting, for more blood. The singularity, containing only himself, his master, and frightened civilians, punishing his master would have to suffice. Another servant caught in the act of aiding his master's, Cu throws his spear. Abdomen gutted through, the spear lodges them in the wall, unable to act as they fade away. 

His master staring at his defeated servant, Cu cups his chin. Some resistant met, Cu glares before using his other hand. Both now needed, his master's attention snaps to him as he feels both hands on his neck. 

"Good," Lesson learned, Cu goes easy, his hands wringing his master's neck for only a few seconds this time. His master coughing, Cu becomes entranced with the way his fat shakes from it. His master ballooning perfectly, Cu made sure to make him massive. 

A gut sagging onto his thighs and the bed, the fleshy mound is the perfect punching bag. Love handles overflowing, they droop down as well, the piles of blubber merging with his master's multiple rolls. Breasts plentiful, they rest upon the mountain that is his stomach. Arms and thighs nearly unused at this point, Cu forbidding it, the appendages are swaddled with fat, the large cylindrical limbs containing no definition like they used to. 

His master forced to sit on his legs the past hour, his crushing weight making it hard to do so, Cu urges him up. Fat shifting as the bed groans, Cu stands aside. His master struggles, breaks needed to regain energy. Arms quivering as they push against the bed, his master's whimpers delight his ears. 

Sitting at the edge of the bed, his master rests his hands on his stomach, breathing loudly for air. Feet touching the ground, he remains seated.

"Stand up," Cu commands. Unobeyed, Cu grabs his master and stands him up himself. 

Legs asleep, his master crumples to the floor. Fat squished against the tiling, he pushes himself. A boot stops his attempt. 

Head kicked back down to the floor, Cu rests his foot on his master's head. The sensation not foreign, the mental crunch of a skull cracking underneath his weight nearly brings him to do the same to his master. Removing his boot, his master doesn't move. 

"This is a warm up, pet," Circling his master, Cu keeps his head high. "Soon, it'll be reality where you can't walk," Sitting on the bed, Cu grins. "Now get up," 

His master attempting just that, Cu laughs as his master's asleep legs fail him once more. Brought back down to the floor again and again, Cu simply watches. 

"I'm waiting," Cu not a patient man, the warning sends his master in a frenzy. Each trial of standing up failing, he instead crawls, Cu's wrath worrying. Closer to Cu, he reaches for the bed, leverage to stand up. A hand on his head stops him. 

Cu's eyes wide open, he readjusts them, both squinting at his master. "I like your idea, pet," A collar materializing, Cu wraps it around his master's neck. Standing up, he yanks it, his master falling to the floor. 

"I'll enjoy this while you can still move," Collar constantly yanked, Cu leads his master to the kitchen. "I'll make sure my pet never goes hungry," Cu growls, smirking as his master struggles to keep up, already tired. The image of him stuck on the floor, stomach so massive that his arms and legs can no longer touch the tiles spurs him on; no rest for the wicked.

[tetrakys]

Falling - part 6 (Finale)

Lance/Guardienne route following the events of episode 26.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

The first time I’d been on a boat with Lance I had no idea he was even there, hiding below deck for the whole duration of the trip to the Jade coast.

The second time he’d kidnapped me, knife at my throat, just to be able to escape HQ and get to Memoria.

Both times I hadn’t been a willing participant in that forced partnership.

This time though… it was completely my choice.

I rested my arms on the railing of the boat, looking at the lights in the distance, getting further away the longer we sailed.

Had I really left the guard for good? It sounded almost crazy to me. Those were my friends, people that I loved, and I was abandoning them to join their sworn enemy.

They were planning to sacrifice me though… the thought should’ve put things into perspective, truth was that part of me understood them, desperate times called for desperate measures.

But I wanted to live and, more importantly, I wanted my friends to live.

Friends… the word didn’t sound right in my mind.

Valkyon was a friend, no doubt about that, but I had to admit we’d always walked a thin line between friendship and something more. When we’d been possessed by the spirits of Yeu and Tihn and kissed, I’d seriously wondered about my feelings for him.

But then… there was Leiftan. He was the person I went to when I needed to talk, he was always there for me, so sweet and understanding, I fell head over heels for him. As much as he’d lied and hurt me there was no way I would let anyone kill him.

Time heels all wounds they say, and maybe it was true, but I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to feel again a love so pure and unconditional.

And then there was him.

I turned around to look at the third element of my equation.

Lance was at the wheel, guiding the boat with mastery. I looked at the rigid posture of his body in the dark armour, his severe gaze pointed towards the horizon while he took us away from HQ as quickly as possible. He hadn’t said a word to me since our escape, and in that moment I would’ve done anything to get into that head of his.

But the fact was… I’d been there. I’d seen his thoughts and as messy and complicated as they were one thing was clear: he felt something for me. What? I had no idea, but it was deep.

Also, it didn’t escape me the fact that the spell that was supposed to let me access the mind of whoever I desired the most had showed me his.

Yeah, friendship indeed.

Whatever we had was raw, messy, deep and… inevitable. I was done fighting this, I was done pretending.

So I stayed there, leaning against the railing, looking at him while he took us away. He didn’t look in my direction one single time, as if he were trying to avoid my gaze.

I would’ve been embarrassed if roles were reversed and he’d been the one accessing my memories and most intimate thoughts, but Lance didn’t do embarrassment. He wasn’t that kind of man. There was something else.

Sooner than I thought we stopped and I realised we were still in El… we’d simply circumnavigated the peninsula where HQ was built.

“Jump” he suddenly said, the first words he’d spoken to me in hours were an order… typical.

“What do you mean ‘jump’?” I asked crossing my arms, I wasn’t going to move one inch. “Aren’t we a little to close to the guard, here?”

“It means,” he replied tiredly, as if grasping for patience, “that the boat is damaged and we can’t go any further than this, we’re going to spend the night in the cave.”

“The cave?” I asked confused. “You mean the Immersed Cave? The one that is, you know, immersed?”

“Hence why I said jump, we need to swim to get there.”

“If you think that I’m going to…”

The words died in my mouth as soon as, with an annoyed grunt, he grabbed me by the waist and dropped me off the boat in the freezing night water.

The asshole!

I kicked my feet to raise to surface and find him already swimming towards the cave.

“Move your pretty ass, little aengel, we don’t have the whole night” he said from above his shoulder.

Cursing him in my mind, I followed him to the dark entrance in front of us.

I had been right, the cave was indeed submerged, but only partially. After a ten-minute swim we reached the shore or what was its dark, rocky version under the cave.

“It’s too dark,” I said once we reached the ground and I managed to feel my way to a mostly dry area.

“Well, why don’t you take care of it, instead of whining?” he replied, charming as ever. “You’re an aengel, light is kinda your thing.”

He was… actually right. Damn, I hated it. I concentrated on that spark I’d been feeling inside me since the moment my powers had awaken and pushed it to surface. Two seconds later I was covered in a pure, white light.

“Nice, he commented unimpressed from some point in front of me, “but I don’t think you want to spend the night as a human torch.”

“I don’t know what to do, it’s not like I had someone teaching me these past few weeks.” Well, I had one in theory, the only other aengel who could help me navigate my new powers, but he’d been locked in the prison and I’d been too angry to ask him for anything.

“You need to project the power towards the outside,” he replied, strangely patient. “I know your instincts tell you to keep it close, that it’s part of you, but exactly because it’s in you, you won’t lose it. Try it, picture it in your head and do it.”

I did it as he suggested, I closed my eyes and imagined a ball of light hovering us, strong and warm.

After a minute I opened them again and saw a decent sized ball of low intensity hovering our heads, a little too high than what I’d planned, still… it was a start.

The dim light was enough to give an idea of the area. I could tell the cave was huge, most of it was immersed but there were little areas, here and there, like the one we were on that were over the level of water.

I was sitting against one side of the rocky wall, Lance was sitting against the opposite one, but the place was so small that if I stretched out my legs I could easily touch his.

Without a word he started removing his armour.

“W-what are you doing?” I asked suddenly nervous.

He looked at me raising an eyebrow.

“I’m not going to spend the whole night wearing drenched clothes, and since you’re not able to produce anything warmer that that pitiful ball over there, I guess we need to undress.”

“W-wait… let me try again.”

I tried several times, I didn’t manage to produce anything warmer than a couple of matches. I was tired, after our escape from HQ we hadn’t stopped one moment, also I’d never learned any of that, what I did was purely by instinct. I needed a full night sleep, a good meal and a teacher.

With a sardonic smirk he resumed undressing and, trying with all my strength to keep my cool, I started doing the same.

“I bet this is the moment where you wished you’d escaped with the fire dragon, not the ice one.”

I looked at him unimpressed.

“There are many aspects that make me prefer the fire dragon.”

That shut him up. But what was I doing? I’d decided I wasn’t going to antagonise him anymore. That I was going to stay true to my feelings.

“But, right now, I’m exactly with whom I want to be.”

He looked at me seemingly annoyed, but I could tell he was surprised, I was starting to learn all his fake expression and telltale signs.

“And why would that be? You spend five minutes in my head and think you understand me now? Girl, you’re so out of your depths.”

“Am I?” We were both done to our underwear, without removing my gaze from his I lowered my bra straps, all his attention focusing on my movements.

“You’ve spent so much time alone in this angry Ashkore persona of yours that you don’t even have the guts to admit what you really feel and what you really want.”

I removed everything that was still on and stood there completely naked in front of him.

I thought he would come out with another snarky remark, another excuse of some kind but, taking one step, he grabbed me by the hips and with one swift movement I found myself with my back on the ground and him on top of me.

“You know…” he said with a heated look, “I’m done playing nice.”

“W-what? That was you… being nice?”

“Extremely nice, yes.”

“All the times you’ve manhandled me and snapped at me… you were being nice?” I asked sceptical.

“Foreplay,” he replied with his trademark smirk, while his hands moved to my waist and started raising up and up towards my chest.

“Even when you tried to kill me, more than once I might add?”

“You’re still alive, aren’t you?” he paused and, looking into my eyes, the most earnest and sincere I’d ever seen him, “You said it yourself… I can’t. I just can’t.”

My breath caught in my throat at his shaky words.

“Believe me, I tried,” he continued. “You know, you saw it. Killing you would’ve been the best way to ensure the success of all my plans, but it’s been a while since I realised that the end of the world is not worth the end of you.”

I raised my hand to cup his face, for the first time I’d known him, the ice in his eyes seemed to melt a little as he looked into mine. “If you can’t beat them, join them?” I said smiling, “I’m here with you, and I’m not going anywhere.”

He almost seemed relieved, but something else was there, something he was not telling me. But Lance was a complicated man, I couldn’t expect him to completely open up to me in one night after he had locked himself away for so many years. I raised my head and put my lips on his.

I kissed him slowly, tentatively, and when I was confident he wasn’t going reject me, I tangled my fingers into his hair and pushed him towards me, his weight pressing me into the rocky pavement of the cave.

He must have felt my discomfort because, with one movement, he grabbed me by the waist and changed our position, so that now I was sitting on top of him, straddling him.

This was so completely out of character for him, putting himself in a position of vulnerability, giving me power to do whatever I wanted to him.

I rested my hands on his abs and drew the lines of his muscles with my fingertips, in the dim light I’d created I could barely see his marks and scars, but I touched them all, with my hands, then with my lips and finally with my tongue.

I could feel him getting harder against my belly, and I was so ready for him. Without another moment of hesitation, I reached in his boxer briefs and took him in my hand.

He was huge and perfect, I couldn’t wait to feel him inside me. I looked into his blue, deep eyes and, where I usually could find only cold anger, now I saw heat, desire and something else. He stared into mine, and I was sure he could see the same. I’d never wanted anything as much as I wanted him in that moment. Without breaking our gazes apart, I lowered myself onto him.

Gosh… I was so full. As wet as I was, I had to take a second to adjust to his size inside me. Then, he rested his hands on my hips, and helped me guiding my movements.

That night, many things happened in that cave.

Our movements, in perfect synchrony, bringing us to the peak of pleasure.

His lips on my neck, my shoulders, my chest… sending shivers down my spine and goosebumps on my skin.

My hands in his hair, on his arms, grabbing for dear life as our movements got more and more frantic.

It was sex, it was passion, it was desperate and raw, but it was also deep and meaningful, and while none of us wanted to label it out of fear and leftover arrogance, I knew exactly what it was.

It was love.

 ————

Hours later, we were hiding in the middle of El’s forest, waiting for the right moment to sneak inside HQ undisturbed.

That morning, at dawn, once we were both resting trying to catch our breath, he told me that if we wanted to stop the Guard for good, we had to get to the Crystal and perform a ritual, one that would froze it in its current state and prevent any new sacrifice.

We had argued a little about what consequences this would’ve had on Eldarya, I didn’t want to sacrifice anyone but also wasn’t on board with his plan of destroying the world. Once he’d assured me that the ritual would nether worsen nor improve the land’s current situation (that was getting pretty bad by the minute anyway), I accepted.

His men were going to attack HQ from one side, granting us the perfect diversion to sneak into the Crystal room.

Indeed it went easier than expected. Among the commotion, no one noticed us. I knew he had plenty of experience getting in and out of HQ as he wished, so it wasn’t really a surprise.

He’d even been able to remove Miiko’s seals and put stronger ones once we were in.

The Crystal looked even worse now than when I’d seen him last only a few days ago. I felt slightly guilty for what we were about to do, but I knew that we currently had no other options.

I helped Lance set everything up, I didn’t know how this ritual worked and we hadn’t had time to properly discuss this morning.

“Take this,” he said passing me what looked like a water bottle with a small pouch.

“What do I have to do with this?”

“You’re going to need it later, you’ll see,” he replied almost cryptically. He looked very busy though, so I didn’t ask for extra information.

At some point I saw something I wasn’t expecting.

“Ugh… is that… a piece of bone?” I asked a little disgusted.

He didn’t reply and just took out other objects.

“Wait… I know what these are…”

Dragon Tears, Dragon Scales, Dragon Heart… I’d studied so much about the subject that I sure confident I was right.

“You… this is not a ritual… you’re opening a portal!”

Laying one last object on the improvised altar he had created, he burned a parchment that probably contained words I would never find out, and a big ominous-looking black hole opened at my back.

“I’m sorry little aengel, this was the first and last time I lied to you,” he said with his smirk that didn’t look at all like his usual one, he tried, but he looked sad and almost dejected.

“Lance! What are you doing?” I asked frantic, grabbing his arm.

“This world is doomed, there’s nothing you can do to save it, unless you want to sacrifice yourself in the process, and I won’t allow it. Go back to your world, your life is there, with the humans.”

He paused, then cupped my face and added, almost pleadingly.

“Live. Please.”

I wanted to protest, wanted to make him understand that it wasn’t his choice to make, that I wasn’t going to save myself and leave them all in trouble. I could see he had enough ingredients for one trip, he wasn’t going to come with me, and I knew he would never leave his brother to die here alone.

But before I could say anything, he kissed me. He kissed me with all he’d got, like he hadn’t done the previous night when we’d spent hours in each other’s arms, when he was still trying to put some distance between us, and now I knew the reason why. He’d been planning this for a while, all those times he’d sneaked into HQ stealing stuff, he was preparing for this.

Save me and damn the world at the same time.

We kissed with fervour and passion, there was everything in that kiss, anger, desire, hurt, longing and devotion.

When he finally broke his lips away from mine, I heard him whisper.

“I love you, Erika.”

Grabbing me by the arms, he pushed me into the portal.

The last thing I saw of Eldarya were his eyes, his beautiful, striking, icy eyes.

“Lance!” I cried out.

Then darkness, darkness and nothing else.

And I kept falling.

 ———

Epilogue

“This is your only option,” I said after what felt hours of pointless discussion, but it couldn’t have been that long, there wasn’t enough time, the world was about to end.

Miiko looked at me with hatred in her eyes, the whole guard did, they wanted to kill me, maybe, probably, but they knew deep down I was right and there was nothing else that could be done.

“If we do this,” she said, “it’d be like a second Blue Sacrifice.”

“Similar, but not the same,” I replied annoyed by their stupidity. “No genocide this time, no senseless selective suicide, the price this time will be paid by everyone.”

I looked into their eyes, “this is going to take away from you everything you took away from her.”

 .

“Erika… Erika!” I felt someone call my name and woke up to find Candy shaking my shoulder.

“Geez… you slept the whole hour, luckily Miss Paltry didn’t see you, otherwise you’d have been in trouble.”

Ah, right… the personal development class.

It always took me a few moments to remember where I was when I had one of these dreams, which looked more real than reality itself, because I was back in Eldarya, looking at the world with his eyes, experiencing his thoughts.

But, alas, those were only dreams, Eldarya had been destroyed and everyone was dead.

When I woke up, a few months ago, in the forest on Earth close to the mushroom circle where this story had begun, I was desperate. I’d tried so hard to go back to my world and, now that I was there, I wanted to go back to Eldarya.

I couldn’t accept the fact that I was the only one who’d survived.

I couldn’t accept my friends were all dead.

I couldn’t accept he was dead.

A part of me hated him for what he’d done, for taking the choice away from me.

Another loved him even more.

This was definitely the case when I realised that the water bottle he’d given me contained Lethe water, and a formula that reversed engineered the memory potion that had took everything away from me.

I was back into my world, back to my family, back to my life.

But I wasn’t the same person who’d stepped foot in that mushroom circle.

I tried to move on with my life, I really did. I went back to school for my last year of college, made new friends, went out, but everything felt off, as if I was living half a life.

And that spark… it was still there. I still felt it in me, but didn’t have the guts to call it to surface, as if it’d be too painful to access that part of me that I was supposed to forget.

But how could I? I kept having those strange dreams and, as absurd as it sounded, I kept seeing people from Eldarya everywhere I went.

Once I was sure I’d seen Kero in the library, there was a boy who looked exactly like him minus the horn. I even ran to him and hugged him, the poor guy was so distressed he fled the library.

Another time I thought Karuto was serving me at the cafeteria, he was wearing a protective mask though so I wasn’t completely positive. When I asked the man his name, he just mumbled something annoyed and left.

And these were only two examples, one time I thought I saw Miiko in the crowd of a concert, and another time, at the gym, there was a guy who looked incredibly like a human version of Jamon.

I was becoming completely crazy. I even thought about going to therapy, but what could I say? I’m back from a magic parallel world and I can’t readjust to life on Earth?

Yeah, sure.

Candy and I left the class idly chatting about thesis ad plans for the weekend. She was nice, I’d met her at the first personal development class I’d attended, but we didn’t have any other classes together, she was in the History of Art program. Still, we’d become good friends in the past few months.

“Ugh…” she said pointing towards a wall. “You know I love art, but this is too much.”

There was a huge mural freshly painted in the corridor. It wasn’t the first time this month, apparently there was someone sneaking into Anteros at night, painting these things on the wall, I could tell they were trying to denounce something, but the message wasn’t quite clear to me, strangely familiar but unclear. Still, the university had tried anything to capture this guy, but they’d never made any progress.

Candy left to meet her friends Rosa and Alexy, she asked me if I wanted to join but I wasn’t in the mood this time, I went to the library and spent a few hours trying to study.

I must have fallen asleep again on my books, because when I woke up, it was the middle of the night and the library was deserted.

I grabbed my stuff and quickly made my way towards the dorms. Before I could get into the building though, a strange noise caught my attention.

I turned the corner to find an unexpected sight. A guy, a tall guy dressed in black with a bandanna on his face and a hood covering his head, was painting a huge mural at the back of the dorms building.

It was… familiar. The painting was abstract, but its colours… I could see they were blue and white… and it reminded me so much about Eldarya and the Crystal… I had to look at it closer.

When I stepped towards it, the guy turned around and grabbed me by the arm, pushing me to the wall.

“Who the hell are you, and what do you want?” his hostile voice said.

But that voice… sounded too familiar. I looked up into his eyes, the only thing visible of his face and I almost felt like crying. Icy blue eyes… looking at me with a cold, aggressive stare I knew only too well.

“Lance…” I whispered.

Those eyes rounded in shock. “How do you know my n…”

And then I understood.

Those dreams hadn’t been dreams at all, they were his memories, somehow I was still connected to him.

He’d found a way to save everyone, Eldarya was gone but everyone was here on Earth, and the sacrifice for that were their… memories, their memories of each other and their life.

This is going to take away from you everything you took away from her.

Before I could say anything else, we heard a guard coming our way and Lance ran, disappearing from my sight.

I ran too, towards the dorms, my mind and heart in turmoil, but it felt like I was finally breathing again.

Maybe this was what the Oracle had meant, saving Eldarya had nothing to do with the place but everything to do with its people, I was the only one with her memories intact, maybe my purpose was to awake them all and help them find themselves again. Help the faeries live in the world they’d originally escaped.

Prove that faeries and humans could coexist.

It wasn’t going to be easy, but I could do it. I could save them all.

I could save him.

I smiled, finally relieved, he was here, with me, in my world.

And I was going to get him back.

THE END.

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Thanks to the anons who inspired this story with their prompts, you’re amazing! ;)