#yes I'm big feelings about the alien robot books again | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

quietwingsinthesky · 9 months ago

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Pssst! I sent an ask about this a while back, and I'm not sure if you haven't gotten to it, or the ask got eaten. If you haven't gotten to it, I'm sorry for the repeat ask and I understand, take your time :) But in case it got eaten, I'm curious: what are your fave parts of the star wars franchise? Like, which movie, characters, ships, etc?

alsofjfkfk im not gonna lie, anon, i saw it and went ‘oh cool i’ll answer that in a minute’ and the second i closed my inbox, my lack of object permanence kicked in and i forgot it existed. and then i repeated that process. many, many times.

but i will not allow it to happen again. we’re answering this now, damnit.

okay, see, the thing about me is i am an extremely basic star wars bitch. i have seen all of the movies. i have not read any books or comics. my friend in high school made me watch 1 episode of the mandalorian, and i went ‘haha cool! baby yoda!’ and then never watched more of it. (the fact that i don’t have disney+ contributed to this, but really, if i had tried, i’m sure i could have made do. i did not try.) i tried very very hard at one point to get into the clone wars show, and i remember only that there was some sort of small jabba the hutt and yoda telling some clones that their lives were meaningful in the force or something, so i have no idea how far i made it but probably not very. i have played exactly one game, jedi: fallen order, which my playstation tells me i 100%, but for the life of me, i can’t remember a single thing about it other than ‘robot buddy cute’ and ‘fun 👍’, which either is my incredibly small brain showing off its inability to store information or really doesn’t bode well for the quality of whatever story was in there lmao.

BUT. i love the movies. i’m a stupid sucker for the joy and hope of the original trilogy. i think the prequels are so fun and people are mean to them for no reason, like yes, they’re a mess, but you know how sometimes you look at a product and go ‘oh this is so corporate and soulless that nothing about it is worth seeing with my eyeballs?’ the prequels are not that. people cared about making these movies, and i can always be charmed when i can tell that there was love there, even if it didn’t work as perfectly as it wanted to.

which is probably why i’m so fond of the force awakens despite it all, because watching it feels like everyone there cared so so much about the new potential star wars. i remember watching behind-the-scenes when it first came out and seeing them talk about how they mixed practical and cgi effects for a bunch of the aliens, and i fell in love with finn because his character was basically catnip for me. my traumatized cat who was abducted and brainwashed and raised a soldier and still his heart was too big to be destroyed by the first order. poe was fun for the little screentime he had, and rey was aloof and fierce and hurt underneath it all, and kylo ren had so much fucking potential as the villain and foil for rey & finn that it actually causes me physical pain knowing what happened next. and han was there! until he died! i was heartbroken about it! it was a well-executed death! leia was there, and i could never shake the tragedy that this war she’d fought so hard to win in her youth had never really ended, that now she had to fight it alone again when luke left and han ran away. luke was not there, but this was pre-the last jedi, so i could actually be excited about what he might do when he showed up! the force awakens is a good movie.

the last jedi is a very pretty movie. the rise of skywalker feels like what everyone thinks the prequels are like. i do not watch those movies. i just mentally replace them with the utterly fantastic fic have you heard by peradi and pretend that we did get a stormtrooper rebellion <3 (if you haven’t read it, you should.)

what else, what else. i am incredibly boring when it comes to favorite characters in each trilogy, it’s just The Main Guy. i already talked about finn, but. anakin and luke. my little dudes. anakin has everything ever wrong with him, and i do not blame him for going of the rails. i mean, he did kill a lot of children and help install space facism but have we considered that the jedi were mean to him. and also that palpatine’s been grooming him since he was nine. and also that there is actual literal slavery happening in star wars and the response of everyone around him was to go ‘oh well anakin, guess u gotta let go of the fact that your mother will never be free. and if you can’t, that’s your fault.’ sorry. nope. feeling emotional about how one of the first things baby anakin asks qui-gon when they meet is if qui-gon is here to free them all, because that’s what jedi are supposed to do, they’re supposed to be heroes, and qui-gon tells him they aren’t. and then he does free anakin, and he’s got a fucking lazer sword and magic powers so who the hell would have been able to stop him from at least bringing shmi too, but instead he just takes anakin away. insane choices. george lucas im at your doorstep explain yourself.

and anyone who says they don’t love luke skywalker is a liar. u don’t like luke? luke who wants to see so much more of the universe than his little farm? luke who wants to believe in the force so strongly, his only connection to his father and soon, to obi-wan? luke who blows up the death star because he feels the force so strongly? luke who is such a shining star of hope and goodness and loyalty that han freaking solo turned around and came back to save his ass? and all that just in one movie. luke is so powerfully good, you know? and it had to be that way, the movies just wouldn’t work without him at the core of it. i love him so so much.

ships. well obviously im a c3po/r2d2 stan. as we all know, tragic love story for the ages. im a believer that r2d2 is unmemorywipeable, that trash can is too stubborn to let anything he stores be deleted, so really, we’re looking at the world’s shortest and rudest rebel spy and his overly polite amnesiac husband. im joking but im not.

taking it more seriously, i’m very easily convinced to see main character trios as poly ships. number 1 proponent of padme/anakin/obi-wan over here, a fate sealed by many good fics that i’ve read confirming this. if i may suggest one of my favorites, Queen’s Gambit by bedlamsbard, truly a fantastic star wars au work and it has an incredible podfic by reena_jenkins that inspired me to begin podficcing in the first place. following that, i also love han/leia/luke, in whatever configuration that comes, if it’s just han getting two skywalkers on his arms or if it’s luke and leia also following up on their kiss in empire strikes back. (‘i knew all along’ my ass, girl, either you didn’t or you did and you went straight for the lips alsjfjlssjkf.) From Orbit by gh0strobin is a favorite of mine for them, as well as a bed of daysided gold by lotesse.

and finally, most obviously, i was onboard with finn/poe/rey from day one of the force awakens. the reylos never got me. i was too busy thinking about the main trio kissing. (and i was a ‘rey & ben solo are cousins at least or somethjng’ truther back during force awakens, which for once, meant i had zero interest in shipping them and far more interest in using their possible backstories to explore this fascinating dynamic they had vis a vis the legacy and/or lack of one they inherited, what they were owed as children of legends. and well. i mean, i was kind of right by the end but by god i wish i wasn’t!!!) (and terrible news, i’m realizing that the majority of my post-force awakens reading on ao3 happened before i was bookmarking fics, so i don’t even have recs!!! >:( i need to rectify this immediately. but know that there are many fantastic fics for that trio and you should go looking for them.)

okay, one last round of fic reccing and i’ll leave it be, but there’s some great ones I’d be remiss not to mention. Double Agent Vader is a brilliant Vader character exploration series and it will hurt you and make u love him so so much. The Fires is a Mustafar groundhog day loop that Hurts (and fun fact, was the second fic i ever podficced for myself :( but the files are long gone. still have my first ever podfic though.) And The Force Breathes Once Again is a short and interesting fic about the force being Weird And Fucked Up. And Intertwine is a Padme Lives AU that’s just lovely. so many brilliant fics in this fandom, i swear.

#ask #star wars #tw incest #<- for the discussion of luke/han/leia

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nesonkin · 3 years ago

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So, this is the second part to my embarassment of a post. I will be assuming you've read it before reading this one and if you didn't you should check it out first. With that out of the way, let's just continue.

Again, there's this big problem I'm facing when writing AI characters because I'm trying to stay grounded to what actually makes sense. And I'm afraid that because of that I'm either creating something that's been done (EDI) or simply making them autistic-coded (well, I suppose it's a reason why I relate to AI characters so much). Or worse I can make them straight up bland and boring. Which is something I don't want to do. So, if you feel like telling me my version of N-7's character is meh I get it. Perhaps, I can do something better for her if I'll ever write anything for this.

But I do think connections are a better way to define a character so let's get on with it. I've talked about Mary Ann and N-7, and briefly mentioned Ozar taking care of her in Mary Ann's stead. I see N-7 working with Ozar as sort of a secretary. They'd have a mentor-mentee relationship where Ozar's experience helps N-7 form her own values and understanding of the world. And in turn Ozar could revaluate some of his life choices according to feedback N-7 would give to him. Obviously, this shouldn't be exclusive to these characters only, but given the context of them having a deeper bond I thought I'd mention it. And I see this bond as important because in my headcanon lore N-7 would be mostly isolated from others (until S4) just working and rarely making an effort to try and define herself outside of being helpful. To Te-Osh she will be the part of her old friend. Te-Osh was there to oversee the progress during N-7's development and was just as proud of the result as Mary Ann was. They didn't up growing as close as N-7 and Ozar would but they still respected each other. Te-Osh trusted N-7 enough to let her train Matt in her stead while she had an injury. So, you could say Te-Osh and Ozar were the few proper connections N-7 had prior to joining Olia's cew. As before that no one really made any effort to try and relate to her on a personal level. Mostly due to isolation and the way she holds herself. And because she's a robot, yes.

So, it's really good when she puts herself out there and gets more involved with other rebel officers. From what we've seen, which isn't a lot or anything to begin with, Olia and N-7's relationship is that of mutual respect and I imagine Olia just trusts N-7 wholeheartedly to do her best job. Olia likes to figure people out no matter what they're made of. She's a good judge of character. This gets challenged by N-7's usual upbringing but they make it work. It may get to a point where their beliefs clash but it's alright. Olia has a large collection of books from her homeworld that N-7 reads in her spare time. Sometimes Olia has to step in to clarify that what the books depict may not always be the accurate portrayal of how something works in real life. Like, when it comes to romance books. Especially when it comes to romance books.

And now we finally get to Matt. Because this whole thing has always been Matt-centric in my head. Kinda like SW Rebels is Ezra-centric. Oh, god, why do I have to justify this being Matt-centric. Anyway.

Matt is kind of a mess. A panicked, lost, traumatized and withdrawn kind of mess. He gets abducted by aliens (which in other circumstances would be quite exciting), gets separated from his father, almost has to fight the beastman (which we know would get him killed) before Shiro injures him and fights in his stead, then gets sent to another prisoner ship for workers. He's isolated from the only people he knew. And even they can be as good as dead for all Matt knows. That's a lot to handle for someone his age and experience. Then he gains a new cellmate. The only person who seems to understand what he's saying. It's his first real bond with someone in what feels like an eternity. It's what makes their friendship special to him. Gus gave Matt support and hope that he can make it through. And save his dad, and potentially Shiro, given the latter's not dead. And this hope is paid off by the appearance of the rebel squad that later comes to their rescue.

Matt is rescued by the rebel fighters and taken under Te-Osh's wing until he is able to stand his own ground. His injury is generally taken care of and Matt can begin to receive his combat training. Soon enough he is able to participate in some of the ground missions like raids and scouting. It's not without occasional mishaps but nothing fatal.

I imagine because of his help to Gus while on the prisoner ship he got the attention of the rebel officers who would invite him to join their forces. And while hesitantly Matt decides to take the offer. Because he understands they're his only way to find dad and Shiro and go back home. He sees it as an opportunity. So, that's his priority at the time. It's only after spending time with the rebels and learning more about the Galra and what they've been doing to everyone his priorities begin to shift from his needs to the greater picture. And then a bigger mishap happens. And Matt allows himself to be seen without a mask while also pissing someone off so bad they put a bounty on his head. Tbh I haven't exactly thought out the way it happens. Only that it was mostly because of Matt's carelessness or trusting nature. I will have to think about that some more. So, for him it's only logical he is to be transferred to a remote location hidden from everyone and contributing to the cause by listening in on the Galra radio chatter. There begins another period of isolation for him.

Until his location is compromised by Pidge. Damn, bro, it's like the Paladins can't do anything without compromising Coalition bases. But, yeah, Matt takes care of the equipment and leaves with Pidge. As for his time in isolation I can't say anything interesting happens. Matt collects the data and reflects on his life. It's not a very great time for him. Isolation can do a number on one's mental health. Especially if it wasn't that great in the first place. Tbf there are barely any signs of this when Pidge finds him in canon. But canon who? It's at this point when Matt finally gets to meet people he was separated from for Bob knows how long. And in addition to that he also gets to learn that Shiro did survive the arena and is doing well (even though that wasn't the real Shiro but okay). Only thing left to do is find their dad. Except now Matt knows not to put his wishes before the mission/the needs of others. That's why he wouldn't come back to Earth given the opportunity.

But I went ahead of myself. Prior to Lotor joining the party Matt has to regroup with his former rebel squad. He joins Olia's crew and reunites with some of the familiar faces. Except for Te-Osh. Who is dead. But I'm not going to get into that here. He also gets to meet some of the new people like Meloi (the alien rebel with long ponytail looking ears? or whatever it is? the name is original), Slav, and the trouble trio - Nyma, Rolo and Beezer. They're Spare Pirates and they haven't fully joined the Coalition but they're willing to lend their help in the upcoming attack if it means getting back at the Galra and because extra credits are extra credits.

This is also that time period when the Paladins were making fools of themselves during the Voltron show. It gets the attention, sure. But I can't help but think of how tone deaf it all seemed to the rebel fighters. Who at the time were busy doing the dirty work.

The cooperation between the rebels and the BoM is another thing I should think more about. So far it's unclear how involved they are with each other. And I wonder if they ever crossed each other's path before Voltron. It's important because it's very unclear what Matt and Keith's relationship is like in the show. They clearly care about one another but have they had interactions off-screen? Joint missions or something? Unclear. I like to imagine that they did.

And Matt continues to learn as much as he can about the alien tech while living out his Mass Effect dreams. Which becomes even easier when Lotor joins the party. Because his knowledge has been a great help for the Coalition. That is until he becomes the Emperor and Shiro decides it would be a great idea to sync the Galra map with the one from the Castle of Lions. Which in hindsight was a pretty bad idea (I mean, yeah, that was the clone Shiro, but no one objected either). I can't even begin to imagine the Coalition's reaction to learning that all of their secret bases were now revealed to the Galra Empire. It's especially fucked up for the Blades for how much they relied on secrecy. Damn, they didn't deserve this crap. It still bothers me how no one talks about that.

So, the disappearance of Voltron. Another event that left a huge impact on the state of the Coalition. It still pains me that they decided to pull the time-space-skip to force the plot to take place on Earth. I mean, you know how the beginning of S6 had this whole thing going on about the Galra Civil War and how Lotor needed the Quintessence field to stop it. And then they just... dropped it. Like they never even wanted to deal with that and skipped right to the end. It's just sad because to me it seemed like a very interesting plot point. We were given some basic info on the Civil War and how it affected the Coalition. For one many rebel fighters have been wiped out. How that happened is a whole other story that I would have to think about some more later. But, damn, that's 3 whole years that they just skipped and it's the most interesting time period too, because we know so little about it. I mean it surely boosted Matt's character development as evidenced by the second glow up. He must have been devastated to learn that his little sister disappeared along with the rest of the Voltron - their symbol of hope.

It is at this point I am also struggling with what I want to write down in this point and what I want to omit for the sake of any of my future works. But to keep it brief it's a very bad time period for the Coalition. They're forced to adapt to changes brought by Lotor and Voltron which is extremely difficult when they also have to navigate Galra's Civil War and avoid being hunted. Some rebel officers ended up joining Galra warlords to escape their fate in exchange for the information on the Coalition. Rebel forces have been divided which made them easier targets for space pirates. And at this point Matt and the gang are just trying to stay alive and lay low. Matt's skills at keeping himself hidden come in handy. They also are constantly on the move, making sure they leave no trails. With how unstable the state of the galaxy is there's really no telling what will happen the very next minute. And then they're also struggling for resources all the time. Now more than ever. There is a need to regroup and rebuild the alliances which becomes nearly impossible when the Galra's craft is simply superior to anything the rebel fighters have. It almost feels like they have to start from the ground up. Fortunately, some of the rebel officers managed to stay low for as long as they could thanks to being stationed on various listening outposts. You know, like Wakala and Remdax. It's really helpful to have all these "sleeper agents'' when it's time to assemble. So, it takes 3 years for the state of the galaxy to stabilize a little. And for the rebels to regroup. Galra beating the hell out of each other meaning there's less warlords potentially coming after their asses. And the Fire of Purification basically built their own Empire. Rebel fighters take every opportunity they can get from this nonsense and rebuild their support system. They take it step by step and help who they can.

When the Fire of Purification moves to Earth it's an opportunity because that leaves the biggest enemy out of the picture (to be completely honest with you I cannot find anything that suggests the possible time of when they attacked Earth. I am probably missing something but all I can find is that it happened during the time-skip. No sign of when exactly that is except maybe for the confirmed "not earlier than 6 months after Voltron disappeared". This obscutiry gives me anxiety because I feel like it was mentioned somewhere and I'm just too stupid to find it.). Okay, so obviously those are not good news for Matt especially when they receive Sam's transmission. Thankfully, soon comes Krolia who is there to tell the rebels about everything that happened. And later they arrive on Earth. That's basically it for the general history of events.

I know I haven't exactly discovered America with this post but writing it has been both fun and exhausting. I'm glad I got to put my thoughts out there and I hope others will enjoy it as well. For the rest of the post I'll just write some of the headcanons... like I was supposed to from the beginning... instead of writing some stupid essay. Well, anyway.

Matt is good with kids, so Olia's pups love him. They call him Uncle Matt.

Olia has this no nonsense attitude. Slav finds it especially intimidating because of her fangs.

Speaking of Slav, my man has been a great addition to the coalition thanks to his brains. Matt enjoys spending time with him. There's a lot of interesting theories Slav talks about that Matt is intrigued by.

Rolo didn't die. He found the few remaining members of his species including some very old friends and stayed with them to help. He still has ways to contact his rebel friends, so it's all good.

Nyma became a proper rebel officer. For the most part because she had nowhere else to go and the coalition needed every help they could get. And she does care for Matt and the gang too. Her charisma proves to be helpful when the situation calls for it. I also like to think she's got some medical training as well. And that area she grew up in specialized in medicine. Weed too.

Beezer is hard to headcanon because I have to also make sure I'm not treating him as an astromech from Star Wars. He was likely stolen from the Space Mall as we've seen a similar looking model at Vrepit Sal's cafeteria. Both Rolo and Nyma understand what Beezer's saying perfectly and they use it to their advantage quite often. Matt would learn the droid language soon too.

Being Space Pirates Rolo, Nyma and Beezer would often get bored with nothing to do. So they have Beezer broadcast the closest TV channel they can connect to. They become quite knowledgeable in the lore of that one Bii-Boh-Bi sitcom. And they've watched so many trash shows like this they have to restrain themselves from making a reference in random situations. It makes them insufferable when they decide to tease someone. Like Matt.

N-7 accidentally jumpscares people. She also uses a longsword as her weapon of choice.

Olia rarely fights, she's more of a pilot, but when she does she usually just uses a pistol.

At this point it's getting a little tiring, so I'll just end it there. Maybe I'll write some more for the gang. Just not now.

#vld #voltron #rebel fighters #freedom fighters #voltron coalition #matt holt #n-7 #ozar voltron #olia voltron #te-osh voltron #nyma voltron #rolo voltron #beezer voltron #slav voltron #i am so empty #longpost

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mldrgrl · 7 years ago

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"How many different lives would we be leading if we made different choices" Fox Mulder. A wonderful prompt for a wonderful fic, don't you think? Please? Please? (Yes, I watched All things again today and that's why I'm bothering you and all the others amazing fic writers on this site: you are too good to be left unbothered).

Okay, Anon, I’ll play.

Some Other Meby: mldrgrlRated: PG

There’s a Fox Mulder whose sister wasn’t taken from him by aliens. Instead, she died in a drowning accident at their summer home when she was four. His parents separated by the time he was in sixth grade and he lived with his father outside of DC because his mother was too full of grief to care for her remaining child.

Fox didn’t know very much about his father’s job when he was younger, just that his old man worked for the government, but there came a time, just after high school, that his father brought him to a gathering of men who asked him if he’d like to join their cause for the greater good. He worked with the syndicate for twelve years, growing more and more disillusioned with their intent, but feeling helpless to extract himself.

This Fox Mulder met Dana Scully inside the FBI office of Section Chief Blevins when she was being debriefed on an assignment that took her to the woods of Bellefleur, Oregon. His job was to take the little metal implant she’d collected as evidence and make it disappear. He could tell by the way she delivered her report that she had integrity, but he knew that before he even met her. His other assignment was surveilling her, and he’d spent over a month watching her at work, watching her at home, watching her at brunch with her mother, watching her type her reports and emails and reading them later.

Dana Scully seemed like someone who could help. He wrote her an anonymous letter in the dim blue light of his fishtank, his heart beating quickly the whole time. He told her he had information regarding a shadow government and a conspiracy to conceal the existence of extraterrestrials and an imminent invasion. He signed it Deep Throat and slipped it into her morning newspaper delivery. He instructed her to tape a letter X in her window if she wanted more information. That night, she did.

He had to work stealthily, knowing that if the syndicate were to discover the leak, he’d be executed before they even asked questions, but so would she, for the information he gave her. He tried to keep his distance, but someone found out. He didn’t know that Scully’s partner, Alex Krycek, was a double agent.

Fox Mulder’s body was found in an alley not far from his apartment, the supposed victim of a mugging gone bad. The only clue was a half-smoked Morley cigarette in the pool of blood beside his head. No fingerprints or DNA could be lifted.

Two days later, Special Agent Dana Scully went missing. She was last seen at Skyland Mountain.

*****

There’s a Fox Mulder whose sister has been a constant pain in the ass to him since she was born. She’s always pestered him, followed him night and day, stuck her nose in his business, got him into trouble, and yet, he couldn’t imagine life without her. Especially since their parents had been killed by a drunk driver when he was only ten and she was only six. All they had was each other.

Fox and Sam were sent to live with their grandparents in Virginia. A guidance counselor at Fox’s junior high school made a big impression on him when he helped him through the grief of losing his parents. From that time on, he decided he wanted to be a psychologist, and that he wanted to work with kids.

He meets Dana Scully at Sam’s wedding. The petite redhead is a friend from Berkeley studying medicine. Actually, she’s no longer at Berkeley, she’s working on her transfer to Georgetown for the Spring semester, where he’s just graduated. His sister drags her over to where Fox is taking advantage of the open bar. She demands he tell Dana Scully everything there is to know about her new school and even exchanges phone numbers for them.

Sam leaves Fox with her friend and turns to wink at her brother behind Dana’s back. They are both cognizant of the fact that they’ve just been set up and the initial moments are a little awkward. By the time Dana finishes explaining the plan for her senior thesis to Fox, something she’s tentatively calling Einstein’s Twin Paradox: A New Interpretation, he thinks he might be in love.

He waits until she finishes med school and he has a thriving practice to ask her to marry him. Sam takes credit for it for the rest of their lives, sure to tell their children and their grandchildren, that if it weren’t for her, they wouldn’t be here.

*****

There’s a Fox Mulder whose sister was taken from him when she was eight and he was twelve. He can remember being questioned a lot about her kidnapping. He can remember policemen showing his mother little plastic bags with fabric hearts pinned to little tags inside and asking if the fabrics looked familiar. And then one day Samantha is found, but she never speaks again and no one knows what happened to her.

He can remember feeling quite helpless and frustrated trying to get Samantha to talk to him. He tried a lot, offering to play her favorite games with her if she would tell him where she’d been, but there was something weird about Samantha now. She seemed to lack emotion. Sometimes Fox looked at her and thought she might be a robot.

His parents grow weary of the responsibility of a mute, unaffected daughter, and Samantha is institutionalized by the time she’s fourteen. Fox has just started college abroad, having won a scholarship to study at Oxford. His first year there, he dates a soulless girl named Phoebe Green, very quickly determining she must be a sociopath. He changes his major from Psychology to English Lit just to get away from her.

One of his required courses is a Myths, Legends, and Folktales class. It’s his favorite class. He changes his major again to Cultural Studies, fascinated by how many cultures have myths for the same phenomena and he grew determined to find a link between them. He writes his first book, Around the World with Bigfoot, when he’s still in graduate school.

He returns to Massachusetts to settle in Boston and research and write. When his father dies, he realizes it’s been at least twelve years since he’s seen his sister. His mom is too emotionally fragile to deal with Samantha, so Fox goes to the hospital where she lives to give her the news in person.

Samantha’s doctor is young, too young to be a doctor, Fox thinks. She looks even younger than Samantha. Despite her youthful appearance and small stature, Dana Waterston proves to be a wonderful doctor. He’s grateful for her presence as he awkwardly tries to navigate a one-sided conversation with his stoic sister. There’s just something about her. He starts visiting his sister frequently, and regularly after that.

He isn’t aware that Dr. Waterston is married until she turns him down for coffee one day. She doesn’t wear a wedding ring, so it wasn’t obvious to him. He still comes to see his sister though, because he can’t fight the urge just to stop cold turkey. A few weeks later, Dr. Waterston surprises him by asking him out for coffee.

She tells him her husband is cheating on her and he’s astounded that anyone would even dream of being unfaithful to her. She also admits that he’d left his wife for her when she’d been his med student, and that he can believe. He doesn’t know the first Mrs. Waterston, but he can’t imagine anyone more perfect than Dr. Dana….call her Scully now, as she’ll be returning to her maiden name when her divorce is final.

A few weeks later, Dr. Scully confesses to him that she read his book - the one about the Loch Ness Monster and other sea creatures. Does he really believe in those things? Her father is a retired sea captain and no, he’s never seen a mermaid or a selkie. That she knows of, he tells her. I believe in science, she says. Facts. The answers are there, you just need to know where to look.

He likes to argue with her about science and myth, getting her to raise that skeptical brow of hers the more incredulous the tales he spun. Do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrials? What do you know about The Philadelphia Experiment? Don’t you know the difference between a wendigo and a werewolf? It’s classic vampirism, Dr. Scully.

Soon, Dr. Scully’s residency in Boston ends and she is transferred to a hospital in San Jose. Fox Mulder follows her. He can write anywhere and he’s been thinking about writing a book about the chupacabra anyway. He heard through one of his newsgroups there’d been a sighting in Fresno and it’s not that far.

He follows her to Atlanta, where he researches a few haunted bridges. He follows her to Phoenix, where he befriends a fascinating Native American man named Albert Hosteen and learns about Navajo codetalkers. And he follows her to Tallahassee where he falls down a hole chasing what he insists are relatives of the Mothmen of West Virginia. Dana has to stitch his head and set his shoulder after that little trip to the forest.

After Florida, she tells him that he doesn’t need to follow her anymore. Just come with her.

*****

There’s a Fox Mulder who lived a normal, boring childhood in Chilmark with nothing very interesting to tell. His family spent summers on Martha’s Vineyard where he was a lifeguard during high school. He had a girlfriend named Amy who everyone thought he would marry, even he thought he would marry her, but it turns out, Amy was the only one that didn’t think they were perfect for each other. She ended their relationship the first year Fox went away for school.

His girlfriend dumping him was just about the worst thing that had ever happened to Fox. He decided to take a few years off to find himself. That’s what he told his parents and they thought he was wasting his potential. His mother told him that there were other fish in the sea. His father even offered to set him up with a prostitute, an offer he found both amazing, coming from his stuffy father, and disturbing.

He doesn’t really know what led him towards the path of law enforcement, but he found himself drawn to the idea of being an FBI agent. He only needed a high school education to apply, and high school had been a breeze for him. He passed all the entrance exams, psychological, and physical tests with flying colors. All those years running on the beach helped him get in shape, though it wasn’t obvious to look at him.

He met Dana Scully in the academy and he was nervous to talk to her. She looked like she might be harboring a crush on one of their instructors, Jack Willis, the way she hung on every word he said. The guy didn’t seem that impressive, so he wasn’t sure what she saw in him.

She beats the pants off of everyone at the shooting range and when he later asks her how she got to be such a great shot, she shrugs and tells him she has two brothers. It takes him awhile to ask her out, and she flat out turns him down. She calls him Mulder, as the instructors tend to do, so he calls her Scully.

He doesn’t really make any friends at the academy and spends a lot of time alone, running. He runs laps on a track at a local high school outside Quantico and he’s surprised one day when she joins him. She doesn’t say anything at first, and neither does he. He can tell she struggles to keep pace with him, but he doesn’t slow down because he’s pretty sure she’d be insulted.

Gradually, he learns a little more about her. She has a sister, as well as the two brothers. Her father was Navy. Her older brother is Navy. She was in med school until she was recruited, and she’s not sure if her parents have forgiven her yet. They so wanted her to be a doctor, but she felt like she could make a difference at the FBI.

As they near the end of their training, he wonders if he’ll ever see her again. His focus was on behavioral studies and hers was on forensics. He was headed to an office in the main branch in DC and she was headed to the labs at Quantico. At graduation, she introduced him to her sister, Melissa, the only member of her family to show up for the event. Melissa stared at him as though she could see right through him and it made him uncomfortable. He told her he’d keep in touch and he meant it. He was determined to find any excuse to see her again.

He only had to make excuses a handful of times before she told him she had decided to take him up on his offer for dinner from nearly six months ago. They moved in together after only a few short months of dating, but never married. Scully became the head of forensics at Quantico by the age of thirty-five. The youngest department head they’d ever had, and the first female. Mulder rose to Assistant Director heading the Violent Crimes Unit, but didn’t really like telling people what to do. He stayed in the position for a few years before taking a teaching position at Quantico. He likes it much better there and it’s so much easier to sneak in some time with Scully while they’re in the same building.

*****

There’s a Fox Mulder who was taken from his living room when he was twelve years old as his sister stood helpless and in shock. She ran next door to where her parents were having dinner and screamed that a white light made her brother disappear. He was never heard from again and his disappearance was classified as unsolved.

*****

There’s a Fox Mulder who spent a good portion of his teen years and early 20’s believing that his sister had vanished one night from home while his parents were out and he was asleep. Only after experiencing disturbing nightmares and a few sessions of regression hypnosis did he come to understand the truth of what had happened: his sister had been abducted by aliens.

Of course, his friends and colleagues thought he was crazy. His fiancee, Diana, left him. His superiors, once quick to refer to him as the golden boy of the FBI, seemed determined to make his life hell after he began requesting access to unsolved cases commonly referred to as X-Files.

Dana Scully is assigned to him on March 6, 1992. They begin with a handshake. Eight years later, Mulder lays in bed, with Scully’s naked body next to his, her head on his chest, and wonders if she’s right about all the paths that led them to this moment. If there is such a thing as fate or if he could be leading a different life right now. All things considered, he’s pretty happy with the one he has right now.

The End

#i wrote this #Anonymous #xf fanfic #some sadness #some happiness #other lives

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bosstoaster · 8 years ago

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Oh oh, for 10 Years On, please write a fic exploring how Sam felt when he and Matt were rescued and he found out what happened between the seperation & rescue, and how he feels when Shiro shows back up 10 years later and Sam finally sees the damage the Arena did and none of it has healed even though he and Matt have had a decade to move on from their big shared alien abduction trauma? :D (PS I'm loving & kudosing all your AO3 stuff and thought you'd like to know that re: hair, mused =/= mussed.)

(Aghhh I know, I’m the worst at that mistake and I never ever catch it. One of these days I’ll remember. But thank you so much!! And thank you for the delicious prompt.)

For those who missed it, a sequel to this fic

It had been nearly three years since Sam Holt had seen his wife and daughter.

There was no way for him to know that for sure, of course. There were the nearly exactly six months it had taken to get to Kerberos, but after that it had been the Galra ships and then the mining planet, and he knew those day cycles didn’t match up perfectly, or even very well, to Earth’s. Then they’d been tapped by the Rebellion and spirited away to yet another planet. By then, Sam and Matt were both well used to the mining planet’s day cycle, and so now it was impossible to tell how it would have felt against Earth.

Still, it had been about 853 cycles since they’d been captured, and 184 on the Daedalus.

Nearly three years, give or take.

Nearly three years since Sam had left home, buoyed on the excitement of discovering something new and exciting about the creation of their very solar system, of the universe itself. Accompanied by his son and Takashi, he’d gone with the kernel of hope of learning about how life was created and supported in the universe. One step closer to his life’s work, to First Contact.

At this point, it didn’t even feel ironic anymore. It felt like they’d been asking for it.

Three years of struggle and heartbreak, of losing Matt and then Takashi, losing his freedom, slowly losing hope. Of holding onto his son as tight as he could, lest he be taken away yet again. A year of being a different kind of prisoner, the kept technicians for a rebellion Sam supported in theory but not in brutal action. Of thinking ‘today is at least not worse than yesterday’, and that being enough.

But something had changed, not too long ago.

(Read More Below)

Whispers of something ancient enough to be thought fiction. Then stories of freed worlds, of fighting back, of a weapon powerful enough to stop the Galra reign.

Then Zarkon fell.

The Galra empire shattered but held together by the frames of it. Where had once been a cold, unyielding wall was shattered and cracked like a spiderweb. They tried to maintain it, tried to hide the fragile shape, tried to still call it impossible to take down. But loyalty built on a single figure couldn’t be maintained when they were dead (sleeping? Disappeared? Run away? Each rumor was different). Now the empire wouldn’t last. It didn’t have the integrity. But the sharp shards were more dangerous than the wall had been.

Which was how now they found their planet under Galra attack, not for the rebellion housed on it, but for sheer expansionism by a power hungry commander.

It was also how they first met Voltron.

The lions (four of them: blue, green, yellow, red. Were the rumors wrong? Where was the bipedal figure and the sword?) swooped, lit by the glow of a wormhole, followed by the ancient castle. One Galra commander’s fleet wasn’t nearly a match for the lions. They flashed with fire, with lazers, changed form and struck.

It was baffling to watch. Where was that all coming from? Why lions? In stories it made sense, somehow, like in folklore. But in reality it was bizarre.

Once the fleet was destroyed, the lions turned and headed down to the surface. From the stories, Sam could guess that they were looking for whoever had sent the distress signal.

Reaching back, Matt grabbed onto Sam’s hand and ran, at a clip Sam had to struggle with his cane to keep up. But he didn’t complain or try to get Matt to stop. He wanted to see too.

They arrived to see figures already stepping out of the lion’s mouths (baffling) and stepping over to the growing crowd, both inhabitants of the local town and members of the rebellion, mixed and mingling until it was impossible to tell them apart.

When the red one pulled off his helmet, he was human.

Sam froze, leaning heavily on his cane. How did- how could there be- Was it just an alien that looked human? Who could be here from Earth, piloting Voltron?

Too many questions raced through Sam’s mind, sticking him on the question of how and not who?

Matt didn’t have that problem.

Before the red fighter (red paladin, Sam remembered that, they were paladins of Voltron) could even open his mouth to speak, Matt stepped forward. “Shiro’s duckling?”

Takashi’s-

That was Keith Kogane.

That was Keith Kogane, Takashi’s favored cadet. The talented problem child that had been the subject of so many of Iverson’s rants that Sam had considered investing in earplugs. He was older, stood straighter, and his hair curled down to his chin now, but it was recognizably him.

Starting, Keith turned to stare at Matt, his eyes going wide. “Oh. Oh! Pidge?” He called, turning to look at the green paladin.

They stood utterly frozen from a moment, then yanked off their helmet too, nearly throwing it aside.

It was Katie. Shorter hair, older than when he’d left, but it was Katie.

With a cry, she ran forward and nearly tackled Matt in a hug, sending them both sprawling into the dirt. “You’re- you’re here? I was looking but you were kidnapped and I found where you were but not where you’d gone but you’re here. I can’t believe I found you! Where’s-” She picked her head up, eyes wet, and looked around until her eyes found Sam. Then the tears spilled as she shoved herself up, and darted toward Sam too. He met her as close to halfway as he could, not nearly as fast as her but just as enthusiastic.

It had been three years since Sam Holt had seen his wife.

But today he had his children.

***

That was how Sam and Matt first encountered Voltron.

Later, when they were aboard the Castle of Lions and Katie started to sob, they found out about Takashi. At the news, Matt gave his sister another hug, then disappeared into the room he’d been assigned. He didn’t come out again for hours.

Sam held onto his daughter for hours through tears of his own.

***

It was strange, to mourn someone’s death, then realize they’d had another life after.

Takashi haunted the castle.

There were little reminders that someone else had once lived here, but was gone now. A pair of quarters at the front of the hallway, nearest to the control room, remained unused. A black bayard hovered, untouched, in the paladin storage room. The extra, empty chair in the center of the control room was avoided studiously. There were a pair of tech pads no one used, loaded up with reports and translated books.

“Why do you have these just sitting around?” Matt had asked once, picking one off the shelf and turning it on. “Are they broken? I can probably fix them up.”

In a flash, Keith stormed over and snatched it away. He turned it off and put it back, then got between them and Matt until he stepped back. “Shiro was in the middle of something,” Keith hold him, in a tone that sounded like improperly hardened steel. Brittle and sharp. “When we get him back, I don’t want him to lose his place.”

“Right,” Matt replied carefully, taking another unsure step away. Once upon a time he would have needled that, would have reached around Keith and told him that when Takashi got back he’d just find his place again, the big baby. Sam wasn’t sure if it was learned respect or learned wariness.

It was still sad to see.

More than the castle, Takashi haunted the people and the lions.

The Black Lion was regarded with a gravitas and wariness the rest didn’t get. The paladins were casual about their own, no longer seeming to understand when Matt and Sam found the whole thing strange.

“I guess it is weird,” Hunk admitted once, nose crinkled. He glanced back toward the Yellow Lion’s hangar, like he felt odd just admitting it. “But we’ve been doing it a long time now, and it just makes sense.” He gave them a sheepish smile, no doubt aware of how unhelpful that sounded.

Matt tapped his fingers against the table, brows up. “That clears that up. Thanks bunches.”

“Sorry,” Hunk returned, shrugging, but there was mischief to his expression. “Maybe you can try and chat with one? I don’t know if they’re not supposed to talk to anyone who isn’t their paladin, but you might be kinda close, so you can give it a shot.”

Brows up, Matt snorted. “Oookay. Sure, why not, I’ll talk to the giant psychic robot lions. No big deal. Black is closest, right?”

Hunk stood. “No!” Then he froze, aware he’d half shouted the words. “Well, I mean, yes, technically. But the Black Lion is… that one’s the hardest. Since Shiro.” His shoulders slumped and his eyes locked onto the table, a weight dropping onto Hunk’s shoulders. “Black listens to Keith mostly, and Allura sometimes, but it’s not as well. Neither of them really…” He swallowed hard, deeply uncomfortable. “Maybe try Green?”

Pausing, Matt started to draw himself up, but Sam grabbed onto his arm. “We’ll leave the Black Lion alone,” he reassured Hunk. “For now. I’d like to do some more readings on it soon, though. To see.”

That made Hunk look up, and he nodded. “Probably a good idea. We’ve done some, but we still don’t really… we don’t know.”

No one knew what had happened to Takashi. A year and a half from his disappearance, there wasn’t so much as a trace. Just many questions.

Matt tried speaking to each of the four lions, probably out of boredom rather than interest. Sam went along to keep an eye on him without attempting for himself. Sam didn’t talk as much, these days. He prefered to watch first.

“Nothing,” Matt reported flatly. “Like talking to my laptop back home.”

Brows rising, Sam eyed him. “Then you should have no problem keeping up a dialogue. You had no problem chatting at your computers. Usually things your mother and I didn’t appreciate hearing.”

Matt rolled his eyes, but he was smiling as they walked back to the main section of the castle. The path they took crossed in front of the Black Lion’s hangar, and Matt paused. “One more.”

“Matthew.”

“I’m not going to try,” Matt replied. “If I can’t get the others to work for me, then calm, regal leadership sure isn’t going to be the combo breaker. I just want to see.” He pushed through the door, and Sam sighed at the ceiling. And to think a few months ago he’d been upset at Matt learning tact.

Inside, the Black Lion was still, standing in place like all the others. The eyes were dark, but this felt different. Felt emptier.

It was psychological. The Black Lion was just as capable of acting as the rest. It only felt dead because Takashi was gone.

This hangar had become a memorial.

Rather than move to the Lion, Matt walked along the walls, investigating the tools and equipment lined up on it. Everything was in a proper place, some cords looped haphazardly like the person who put them away- like Takashi had been too tired to do it properly, but had at least felt obligated to make an attempt.

On the far side of the wall there was a desk with a console. Matt walked over to it, paging through the printouts with curious ease. When Sam stepped over, it looked like blowouts of parts of the lion, with messy scrawl in English along the sides. On the corner of the desk were no less than four empty cups. From the lack of residue inside, they had probably held water.

Matt picked one up, letting out a snort. “Oh, yeah, this was Shiro. He used to leave his water bottles everywhere during training, do you remember?

Lips curling up, Sam nodded. “Oh yes.” Takashi had gotten the dangers of dehydration drummed into his head at some point, so he near always had a bottle of water on hand. But he never seemed to remember them after, so he inevitably collected a small army of them before he finally remembered to recycle them.

Sam had gotten him a refillable water bottle as a joke just before they left, and Takashi had brought it on the trip with him, pointedly drinking from it constantly.

Sam wondered where it had ended up. He thought Takashi would probably prefer his things stay useful rather than small, mournful shrines.

But these actions weren’t for Takashi, not really. They were for the ones he’d left behind.

Collecting the glasses, Matt sighed dramatically. “I guess I’ll clean up after the six year old.” He grinned, but then the smile fell. “Well. Seven now.”

Oh.

Reaching out, Sam put his hand between Matt’s shoulders, gently leading him and his armful of glasses to the door.

On the way out, Sam glanced back one last time. The lion hadn’t moved at all, still dark and still.

Maybe the Black Lion wasn’t dead, but it was certainly haunted.

***

Slowly, inevitably, time wore at their edges. The hole that Takashi left was an instability, one that couldn’t remain forever. Day by day, the members of the crew were pushed together in new ways, making up for the loss in each other, filling up those needed niches.

For Allura, that was taking command in the smaller ways that Takashi had once supported.

For Keith, it was learning to speak up and encourage, rather than stay on the sidelines.

For Katie, it was melding and participating with the group more, volunteering to start activities and keep them together.

For Hunk, it was learning to speak up more, to be the first voice to say what was needed, to suggest the right thing over the easy one.

For Lance, it was putting aside grudges and pride, working as a unit rather than creating competition.

For Coran, it was a comforting hand and a quiet presence, not necessarily words or actions. Just being there when needed.

For Matt, it was stubborn drive, it was loud teasing, it was refusing to allow Takashi’s memory to be purely sacred. It was sharing stories of mistakes and failures, not being silenced or glared into submission, and talking about recovering from those problems rather than ignoring them.

And for Sam…

For Sam is was being a listening ear. It was an open door and calm patience. It was offering his experiences and years as a way to help others rather than letting it fester.

“I don’t know what to do,” Keith admitted to him once. “I don’t know the words like Shiro did.”

“You don’t need to,” Sam replied. “Use your words instead. Or don’t. But you can’t live by being a copy of Takashi, Keith. It won’t work here anyway. You can’t be what he was, but you don’t need to be. You need to be you.”

Keith frowned. “I want someone to be Shiro. I don’t want him to be-” He didn’t finish, but he didn’t need to. He didn’t want Takashi to be really gone.

“No one is,” Sam replied softly. “No one can be but Takashi. Trying will only hurt you and the team.”

It wasn’t a satisfying answer.

It wasn’t a satisfying situation.

But time moved on, inevitable and unrelenting. They adapted, and the hole slowly closed and mended.

The scars remained.

***

It had been approaching six years since Sam Holt had last spent a day with his wife.

He never wanted to go another day without her.

They had both aged, lines to their faces that weren’t there before. Colleen had greyed and not bothered to dye it, hair paler along the temples and scattered through her hair. At least Sam had gone white early. He joked that Matt was personally responsible for each one, but the truth was it was just a family trait.

Ironically, it was one that Takashi had mirrored rather than either of his biological children.

The thought hurt less than it used to. Time had sanded down those edges too.

Speaking of.

Sam pressed a kiss to Colleen’s temple, reluctantly pulling his arm away from around her waist. “I need to make a call,” he told her. “One last thing for today.”

Tilting her head up, Colleen frowned but nodded. “Alright. Who else do we need to call?” They’d already spoken to family and friends, had dealt with their awe and confusion.

Sam smiled, because Colleen still said ‘we’.

“I have one last responsibility,” he replied, pulling out a scribbled phone number from his pocket. “I don’t think it’ll take very long. I want to see if they’ll meet me in person.”

Colleen’s brow furrowed, but she nodded. When Sam took his phone and went outside to the porch, she followed, standing a few feet away and leaning against the doorframe.

Taking a deep breath, Sam steeled himself and called the number.

“Hello, this is Shoma Yamamoto,” A voice answered, quick and distracted, lightly accented. There was clacking in the background like they were typing while they spoke, and the tone was subtly impatient. It sounded like answering the phone was a bother.

Sam swallowed hard. “Hello, Mr. Yamamoto, this is Commander Samuel Holt. This was listed as the most current emergency contact for your nephew, Lt. Shirogane.”

There was quiet as the typing stopped. “Ah.” There was pure silence for a moment that Sam didn’t dare break yet. “I see.”

Nothing more.

“I tried to contact you earlier this week, but I was unable to reach you,” Sam explained, in case that was the problem. They’d been on Earth for several days now, and the news was already reporting about aliens and the return of missing Galaxy Garrison cadets. He might have figured out that he should have been contacted.

“I am not always available,” Yamamoto answered carefully. “Is there a change with Takashi, then?”

No, Sam was wrong. Yamamoto had no way of knowing. He probably thought this was another administrative call about Takashi’s affairs. Looking into it, Sam knew he hadn’t listed anyone else on his records.

It was surreal, to hear someone else call him ‘Takashi.’

“Currently, his status is being changed to missing in action instead of dead. He survived the Kerberos mission, but has since gone missing. I’m sorry to tell you that.”

Silence again. “He… I see.” The quiet was thoughtful, processing. “What does this mean, exactly?”

“It means… it terms of his affairs, not much,” Sam admitted. “But it means he survived. It means he could still be alive. And it means he lived on to do amazing things. Your nephew was a hero. He saved billions of lives. I was hoping to speak with you in person about it.”

“My wife and I are travelling for business,” Yamamoto answered. “We will be back late next week, if you have time then.”

It wasn’t exactly enthusiastic.

Sam shouldn’t judge. He had no idea what this man or his wife’s lives were like. Or maybe he should try and speak to Mrs Yamamoto instead, who might have a very different reaction. It didn’t change as much for them, since they still had no idea.

Except Shiro’s fierce, stubborn independence made sense in the face of someone who was too busy to come home to talk about their nephew’s possible death.

“I’ll let you know when I can meet,” Sam replied, voice flat. “I need to check. I’ll leave a message.”

The typing started back up. “Thank you, that would be appreciated. Was there anything else?”

Yes. There was so much else. There was everything on the tip of Sam’s tongue, the worlds Shiro had saved and the wounds he’d overcome. The fights he’d won, the one he’d lost, the lives he’d changed.

“That’s all,” Sam replied, and with a quick goodbye, he hung up the phone.

Then he threw as hard as he could into the yard.

Colleen stepped over, her hand resting on his shoulder. “Sam?”

“He deserved better. We all did, but Takashi deserved more.”

A year of survival, and another year of fighting impossible battles and winning.

All for a pilot error. All to be MIA.

What bullshit.

***

The sting got better. Sam’s knee got worse. Colleen joined them in the castle. They gained scars, survived battles, made friends. Matt started to get the first hint of wrinkles, laugh lines that only appeared when his eyes crinkled with a joke or a grin.

They lost some battles. Lance nearly lost his eye. They learned to be more careful, learned to fight smarter, learned to adapt and change, traded out lions when required.

They won more than they lost.

The sting never went away, but time moved on.

The ghost still lived in the castle, but it didn’t feel so haunted.

***

Until the ghost came back to life.

***

“Hello, Takashi,” Sam greeted softly, standing in the doorway.

Takashi started, then scrambled to his feet, shoulders set. “Hello, Sir.”

Sir?

At first, Sam thought he was trying to come over to greet him. Then he realized that Takashi was standing to greet a commanding officer.

Because last time he’d seen Sam, he’d been his commander. It hadn’t even been two years for him.

Oh, this was going to be a long day.

“Oh my god,” Lance murmured, clearly realizing the same thing. “For Sam? That’s so weird.”

Takashi paused, then frowned at him. “What’s weird?”

“You’re being all good little soldier boy for him,” Lance replied easily, pushing back onto the back two legs of his chair. “For Sam. It’s wild.”

Glancing between them both, Takashi frowned like growing storm clouds. “Why wouldn’t I? Commander Holt is-”

He didn’t finish, because Sam strode over and pulled him into a hug.

“It’s strange because I’m not their commander, and I’ve never asked them to treat me as such,” Sam told him. “Not out of disrespect. I’m a member of their crew, same as anyone else.”

Takashi paused, then returned the hug with surprising strength. “I suppose. But you’re-” he didn’t finish, but he looked up at Sam. There was sheer admiration in his gaze that took Sam’s breath away.

He’d known, intellectually, that Takashi looked up to him as a commander. And Sam had heard from his daughter that he’d absorbed and repeated some of the things Sam had told him, especially about letting go of nerves and being great.

But in the decade since Sam had last seen Takashi, that knowledge had faded and aged.

It was a start to see it in person.

“I’m just Sam, these days. It’s much more relaxing.” Sam rested his hand on Takashi’s shoulder and squeezed. “That goes for you too.”

Judging from Takashi’s expression, Sam may as well have flicked him on the nose. “I can try,” he replied carefully, stepping back. Then his eyes flickered down to the cane. “Oh! Please, sit down.”

Sam was alright, but it was amusing to let Takashi fuss, so he settled down on the side of the bed and tilted his head at Lance. “Did you plan on staying?”

“No, but now I kind of want to. This is amazing.” It could have sounded sarcastic, but Lance looked honest as he watched the pair of them. “But yeah, I’ll go get this whole party all organized. You two have a good chat.” Lance smirked as he stood up. “We’re a call away if you need us.”

With that he slipped out, closing the door behind him, and leaving Sam and Takashi alone. There was a moment of silence as the sheer enormity of ten years stretched before him. Takashi, even aged by the scars and white hair, looked so young compared to Matt.

“I don’t know where to begin,” Takashi admitted. “What happened to you? I wasn’t even sure Matt found you after-” he cut off, wincing.

Sam’s brows rose. “After you saved his life?”

Takashi gave a small nod, like he was agreeing with the timeframe but not the phrasing.

“Before I say anything else, thank you,” Sam continued. “From the bottom of my heart. I can never thank you enough for what you did for Matt.” Takashi nodded, but his head angled down toward the bed instead of Sam, like he was resisting the urge to hide behind his bangs. “And now you should never do it again. These people lost you once already, Takashi. Matt and I lost you twice. Please do it again.”

Head snapping up, Takashi stared. “I can’t promise that.”

Sam inclined his head. “Try. We’ll work on it.” When Takashi didn’t seem to have a response to that but to gape, Sam smiled. “That can be later. For now, should I start from the beginning?”

“Please.”

So he did.

It was a highlights reel, full of rescues and reuniting, easy stories to clear the air. It felt like the most Sam had spoken in one go for a long time.

He was in the middle of the story where Keith’s shirt got stuck on the tooth of his lion’s hatch while it stood back up when there was a knock on the door. Katie stuck her head in, offering a smile in greeting. Sam glanced up at her. “Did you need something?”

“Yeah, for you to stop hoarding Shiro.” Katie stepped into the room, leaving it open behind you. “There’s a line, you know.”

Takashi tilted his head. “Huh. Should I give up and just go see everyone at once?”

That only made Katie snort. “Hell no, we’d mob you, it’d be awful.”

He nodded thoughtfully, then glanced at Sam again. “Thank you for speaking to me for so long.”

“Not a problem at all, Takashi. I’m happy to talk with you more later, when things have settled more. You know I love my stories.”

Takashi nodded again, then smiled at Pidge. “Hey. You found them. You saved them.”

Katie stilled, then her expression softened. “Yeah. I did.” She closed her eyes hard. “I wish you had been there.” The words came out strangled, the result of a very old wound.

“Pidge,” Takashi murmured. He reached out and tugged on her, and she pressed against him, face buried in his shoulder. “I’m so sorry. I should have been there with you. But I’m so proud of you.”

While Katie didn’t cry - or, at least, Sam didn’t hear sobs - she did hold on tightly, gripping the back of Takashi’s shirt. “We missed you so much.”

“I know,” Takashi replied softly, expression pained but calm. He seemed to sit up straighter while Katie held on. It made sense. This was probably closer to what he used to. “I’m here now.”

When Takashi glanced over at Sam, he offered a thin smile and a nod.

It only took Sam a moment to realize what he meant. That Takashi understood now. That the pain here was worth protecting against, even if that meant Takashi had to care more for his own health and safety.

There were scars. There would always be scars, the same way they couldn’t take away the one on Takashi’s face.

But the sting faded. The wounds healed. Time marched on.

Sam couldn’t promise it would be easier from here on out. But he could promise he’d do everything to try.

Today, that was enough.

Today there was one less ghost.

#Ten Years On #Voltron #Sam Holt #Sam I Am #BT Writes #Come Back (as pure as gold)#Anonymous

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themadcapmathematician · 8 years ago

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all i know abt transformers is the shia movie and the fact that darren criss plays one in the cartoons i think? should i get into transformers is what i'm asking

Oh god this is my favorite question. I’m not sure how to answer it but its my fave. Pull up a chair. I hope you’ve got some time on your hands.

The short answer: yes. You should at least give it a try. Transformers is a 30+ year old muti-media franchise that gets rebooted almost every 3 years so it basically has something interesting to offer almost any fan. If you end up not liking it that’s cool but there’s a lot to try before you decide.

The long answer is: yes you should and here’s why and here’s a rough idea of all the options you have to sample. I’m about to go on a long rant anon so you can check it out now or later or whatever but I’m just warning you ahead of time.

The basic Transformers plot (which I’m sure you know but I’m gonna go more in depth in a minute) is that a race of giant robot aliens who can turn into vehicles and other things have been engaged in a civil war that has lasted millions of years. This is the basic plot that all tf franchises spawn from although some explore slightly different subject matters. If that doesn’t appeal to you I mean there /might/ be a few other things you might find worth sticking around for because there’s just so fucking much of it, but you’re welcome to turn back now because that’s the basic things tf has to offer: giant robot aliens, cars and planes, fighting, some drama. Those are what tf is best at, with some variation.

It has a very active and long lived fan base and each section of the fan base is interested in different stuff with some crossover. There are people who literally only care about collecting the toys, people who wont try any other series except g1, people who only like the comics, etc. Etc. You’ll probably find people who like what you do pretty readily. If you like the toys there are toy forums and blogs. If you like the cartoons there are forums and blogs made for that too. If you like the comics, same. There’s a pretty active following of the comics and cartoon series on Tumblr alone; I would try searching the #maccadam tag since most tf activity has been moved there since the bay movies came out. Id also use the tf wiki liberally because it has pm all the information you’ll need to know about the fandom and the canon lore. There’s also plenty of fan fiction on Ao3 and ff.net if you’re into that and pm anyplace that hosts fan art has tf fan art.

Now there are several series, including comics, cartoons, the Michael bay films, the cartoon movie, spin off books, and video games. I’m gonna go over my personal favorites because I like and know them best but there are more than these if you’re interested in digging deeper.

(More under the cut)

G1: there are a lot of forms of what fans refer to as Generation 1 or G1 but if you live in the US its likely they’re talking about the very first cartoon series.

Summary: the autobots and the decepticons stripped their planet of resources and went looking for a new planet to continue surviving on. They both crashlanded on earth where they lay dormant for millions of years until conveniently awakened somewhere during the 1980s, where they continue their war all over again

Why you should try it: listen its cheesy as hell and full of nonsense plotlines and animation errors but not only is it good fun but at least watching an episode or two might give you a decent grasp on what spawned this enormous franchise in the first place.

G1 movie: this movie was a game changer. Its technically right in the middle of the g1 cartoon but it works as a standalone film too. while it has many trappings of the cartoon its better animated and has a more consistent and dramatic story.

Summary: Optimus Prime and Megatron fight, OP dies (yes he fucking DIES for the very first time. thousands of 10 year olds bawl their eyes out), Megatron gets mortally wounded, and the Matrix of Leadership (aka an autobot holy item/macguffin [this is the proto-cube btw]) has to choose a new leader.

Why you should try it: decent animation, classics lines, tons of 80s rock music, and it establishes a lot of tf conventions that would be carried over to all series that come after it.

Beast Wars: haha the 90s couldn’t be left out of the transformers fun, now could it? This was one of the first all-cg cartoon series in history and while its not much to look at nowadays, it was a big step in the 90s.

Summary: the series doesn’t center on Optimus Prime and Megatron but their decendants. The war is long over but some factions are starting to clash once again. Several members of these factions do the whole “crash land on earth while fighting” thing except they wake up during times before humans and instead of taking vehicle modes, they take animal forms, thus the name.

Why you should give it a try: it establishes the idea of Sparks for the first time, it has historical significance in the cgi realm, and it has a decent storyline with interesting characters. If you can muscle through the 90s-computer-animation look it might be the show for you!

Transformers: Animated: I dont think its a secret that this is one of my favorite tf series of all times. It was the first cartoon series I ever watched of tf and it also features my favorite toy line.

Summary: Optimus Prime is much less a war hero and more of a ..janitor really. He flunked out of the academy and spends his time repairing space bridges. One time during repairs though, they stumble across the Cube and just their luck, Megatron and some nearby cons are looking for it. They portal away to earth where they, you guessed it, crashland, until they’re awoken sometime in the future and go on adventures in futuristic Detroit.

Why you should give it a try: I like tfa’s art style and story and characterisation best tbh; Optimus is younger and more unsure of himself but also more earnest, with more visible baggage. The rest of his team feel like a ragtag band of misfits (which I have a weakness for no lie lmfao) who are still trying to find their place in this conflict and the future ahead of them. Sari is also one of the more beloved human companions and the show’s take on classics characters feels fresh and interesting, and the interpretation of the autobots and decepticons themselves is surprisingly nuanced.

Transformers: Prime: remember that 90s animation? Kiss that shit good bye my friend. This cgi is some beautiful shit. More than a few fans wish tfp is the art direction the movies had taken, storyline aside.

Summary: the autobots are already on earth, staking it out and fighting a more subdued sort of conflict with the cons. One day they get some human kids involved and stumble across some conspiracy shit and it all spirals out of control from there.

Why you should give it a try: great animation and atmosphere, gorgeous character designs, a solid interpretation go the characters, and it offers a more serious take on the story over all.

Rescue Bots: I’ve noticed this show doesn’t make the list a lot which is a shame? It has a much younger audience than any of then other series but its still quality and one of my fave tf series.

Summary: the ship of four non-combatants who were left in stasis before the war detect a transmission telling autobots to go to earth, so it…goes to earth. There they wake up on some island and are told they’ve gotta start building a repatoire with the native species…but they can’t reveal that they’re sentient aliens yet.

Why you should give it a try: ok ok, most of the series are made for 7-12 year olds with the teen and adult fans sort of in mind, this show…is a show made for pre-K kids, no joke. Its a lot less…murder-y, and this is especially saying something because it came out at the same time TFP did and in fact is supposed to take place in the same universe!

BUT, but it has a consistently well-written story and characterization, it addresses stuff I never thought it would, and its a nice break from the ridiculously high stakes of the other series. Honestly Rescue Bots is great and I wish more people talked about it because its a series totally worth watching, certainly as much as any of the others.

More Than Meets the Eye comics: there are a lot of comic series but so far this is my favorite one lol

Summary: the war is over, Optimus is done with everyone’s shit and splits the matrix in half, giving one to rodimus and they other to bumblebee. And what does roddy do with his newfound matrix half? Decide he’s going on a quest of course! And who better to go with than literally every unqualified misfit the autobot and neutral factions have to offer?

Why you should give it a try: ridiculous shenanigans, horror, drama, intrigue, strong characterisation, and a killer aesthetic. Damn it may not always give me what I want but its got a lot of exactly what I’m always looking for.

There are some video games (Fall of Cybertron, War For Cybertron, Transformers: Devastation), other comic series (Robots in Disguise, G1/UK comics), and the Robots in Disguise cartoon, however I don’t have a decent enough grasp on them to describe them super well I just know they’re pretty good and have had people recommend them to me. You’re welcome to try those as well of course.

Also if you’re into toy collecting or want to get into it there’s a lot of materials you can read and such but my personal advice is pretty simple:

1) go to walmart, target, a store that sells collectibles, a convention, or a garage sale

2) buy a cheap toy that you like. Don’t spend over like $20

3) decide if that was a fun experience or not and if you like having this toy or not

If you liked it enough to keep buying, then congrats, toy collecting might be right for you! Do your research, Don’t blow too much money too quickly, take it easy, have fun.

But yeah sorry this is really long but I do hope you consider giving transformers a try since I know I love it a lot and it really has a lot to offer. I hope this wasn’t like…a crazy response. That a crazy person might give. And that I didn’t scare you away or anything XS

the key is to try some stuff and have fun and if its not your thing that’s cool too! Have a chill night anon

#transformers #maccadam #anon #madcap rants #madcap replies #tf #info

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