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voltrontranscript · 3 years

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VLD S8E1: Launch Date

Season 8 Episode 1: Launch Date

Transcript by @dragonofyang

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

[Google Doc]

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

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

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

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

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

[Cut to the Garrison kitchens.]

Hunk: Alright, that’s all of it.

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

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

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

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

Lance: Yeah.

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

Lance: Mm, yup.

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

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

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

Lance: No, no. It’s not about that.

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

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

Hunk: You chickened out?

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

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

[Scene change to a large meeting hall.]

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

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

Shiro: Where are we with Earth’s defenses?

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

Shiro: Great. And Atlas preparations?

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

Shiro: Good. Any updates on the Altean pilot?

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

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

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

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

Lance: Hey, uh, Allura?

Allura: What is it, Lance?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Allura: Pidge, do you have a moment?

Pidge: Sure. What’s up?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Allura: What are you grounded for?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Allura: Thank you.

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

Sam: What is it?

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

[Scene change to Earth’s mall.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pidge and Rizavi: We’ll take it!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pidge: [normal voice] Ah! Ooh?

Pidge: [DOTU Pidge impression] What?

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

[Scene change to Lance in a residential hallway.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lance: Well, who’s that?

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

Lance: But, Allura already said… Ugh!

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

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

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

[Scene change back to the mall.]

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

Rizavi: I think we’ve done it.

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

Rizavi: Yep. Mission complete.

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

Rizavi: What? A year?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Allura: Thank you, Pidge.

[Scene change back to the med bay.]

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

Coran: I’ll see if I can find her.

[Scene change to Black Lion overlooking the sunset.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lance: You watching the sun set?

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

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

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

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

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

Lance: Wow. You look amazing.

Allura: Thank you. You look nice, too.

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

Allura: Imagine you in a Forlongian brill hat.

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

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

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

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

Allura: What did he do?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All: To family!

[Scene change to the med bay.]

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

Luca: So you can betray them yet again?

Romelle: What?

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

Romelle: No, it’s not like that!

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

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

Lance: This place used to be so beautiful.

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

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

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

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

Allura: You truly feel that way?

Lance: With all my heart.

Lance: I think he wants us to smile.

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

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

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

Allura: Or she’ll find us.

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

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

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

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

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

End.

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

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ganymedesclock · 4 years

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Hey, now that it's been over a year since Voltron ended, how do you feel about the way the Paladins dealt with Lotor? I saw another fan describe it as "he was viciously murdered and deemed a monster who didn't deserve redemption by the creators" which kind of sounds like an exaggeration of what actually happened? But I wanted to hear what you think. Most Lotor fans still seem to be very bitter about the whole thing.

Here is my opinion: I think that Lotor as a character throughout the many incarnations of Voltron tends to be a deeply tragic one. Basically every continuity shows him as lied to, manipulated, abused, attacked, and in some sense, there is a thread that Lotor’s obsession with Allura is a kind of desperately trying to be okay.

The other side of this is, in a lot of other Voltron continuities Lotor is subject to a lot of “cheap heat”- that is to say. he does stuff basically to prove that he is disgusting and despicable and that it is morally okay for the heroes to beat him up. I call it “cheap” in the sense that it is kind of like the character writing version of a jump scare- in the sense that it is basically impossible to not suck an uncomfortable breath through your teeth if you watch someone slap a defenseless hostage being kept as a slave, especially when all of said hostages are women. It is not “cheap” in the idea that misogynistic violence is a trivial problem- it’s “cheap” in that this horrible thing is being exploited to make a weak conclusion, “wow, that’s, like, bad and stuff.”

So there’s basically a fork problem with Lotor as a character ‘historically’: he himself is tragic, and he has often been depicted as someone who creates tragedy for others.

In VLD? I adored Lotor. He remains one of my favorite characters. Basically anybody I talked to at that time can attest. I have an indulgent fan AU with a dear friend of mine that’s basically Lotor surviving after s6 and being done with a lot of people’s shit but mostly his own.

To that end? I really really really wanted him to turn out okay. I wanted him to get closer to the Generals. I was holding on hope to the very end of the series they’d bring Narti back in some fashion. I was picking up the signs of ‘maybe, a second comet’ and was basically clutching the screen being like “YES YES YES GIVE US AN ANTI-VOLTRON TEAM, I’M READY FOR TERRIFYING ANTAGONISTS POWERED BY FRIENDSHIP!”

You can look back at a lot of my meta posts around the time and see that denial and stress. That man, I really did not want this to be happening. And I feel like... this is how we were supposed to feel.

I feel like VLD Lotor is actually an exploration of a problem that the previous series created in a much less satisfying manner.

In GoLion, who do you feel sorry for? Sincline, who has a glass broken on his face, is nearly thrown into several political marriages without his consent, has been lied to about the death of his mother and generally lives a life where the best he can hope for is being rewarded for being his father’s attack dog- and that affection dries up fast as soon as he gets opinions-

-or the women in his, y’know, literal slave harem? Which he at one point kills one with a sword?

Ignoring either of those factors is deeply uncomfortable, and that makes a very frustrating tangle. Other continuities do this as well.

VLD? basically with its explicit text, sets out to answer that question.

Who do you feel bad for? Lotor, who felt stuck in a losing game to a point of desperation that led him to make decisions he justified by just, whatever it takes to keep going, that ultimately left him callous towards other peoples’ lives?

Or the Colony Alteans, the generals, Allura- people who Lotor hurt pretty horribly with this attitude?

And the answer the show puts forth is “yes.”

We can want Lotor to have some peace and comfort in the end, and justice for the people who were hurt by him.

We don’t have to choose. We absolutely don’t have to throw Narti under the bus, to say, “man, Lotor, everything that happened to you was horrible.”

VLD is ultimately a stride forwards, I think in that sense. Is it a perfect stride? Is it as far as I would have hoped? No. There’s plenty of issues you can take with it- personally, not a fan that they put happy afterlife ghost Lotor with his parents, I wish the generals had had a larger role and that they’d stayed together as a team- but I think I can respect that VLD was angling for a bittersweet, hopeful conclusion.

TL;DR, I think Lotor deserved better, but, I think this isn’t because the writers didn’t treat him better, but, that they deliberately wrote him as a tragic antihero with a fatal flaw- that’s what makes his character downfall ultimately so gut-wrenching. Whether or not you like the story they told with Lotor, that’s ultimately a personal decision and will be influenced by a lot of factors. But I don’t think the writers did him dirty- I feel like they were building meaningfully off of what he’s been in previous stories.

And I’m undyingly grateful that they violently cut out literally all of him being a misogynistic creep. In the context of where Lotor’s been, I think that VLD as an installment is an overwhelmingly positive and sympathetic shift. I’m hopeful that if-and-whenever the next installment to the franchise rears its head, it takes that further to the happy ending I think a lot of us hoped for.

#Voltron Legendary Defender #VLD #Lotor #readmore #Anonymous

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somekindoftuber · 5 years

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vld youtuber AU (klance, part 3)

part one | part two

(I don’t think I clarified it in parts one and two but Lance and Pidge are roommates. Lance finished college two years ago)

After spending the weekend with Shiro and Keith, everything seems a little brighter.

Lance has an extra spring in his step that annoys the hell out of Pidge. He plays Overwatch with Keith at least twice a week, and they make a devastating team when they’re playing to win. Keith plays with a fiery, single-minded focus that would probably be scary if Lance wasn’t already crushing on him. So instead it’s just insanely attractive, the way Keith sounds when he’s barking out orders to the team. He’s a natural leader and Lance is stupidly eager to follow.

It’s time for Lance to make a trip home to Cuba to see his parents and he’s so excited, he only gets to go home every few months. It’s only for a week, but Pidge will take care of his cats. He mentions to Keith that he’ll be out of town and won’t be available to play for a bit.

Lance makes some vlogs while he’s home, and does them in Spanish because why not? He bets a lot of his followers don’t even realize he’s Cuban and this is his chance to show off his home. It takes a whole night to add the English subtitles because he doesn’t trust YouTube’s auto CC feature not to garble his words, but it’s worth it when he sees the outpouring of comments on the video, a lot of them in Spanish. He gets one from Shiro complimenting him left and right and it makes Lance blush and flail a little.

He spends every other minute with his family, teaching his nephew how to play the ukulele and cooking with his mom and he’s so happy to be home, he cries a little when it’s time to catch his flight back to the states.

He gets in an Overwatch game with Keith the night he gets back, and he tries not to be annoying but it’s hard not to gush about his trip over the mic. He’s halfway through telling Keith about some sea turtles he saw on the beach when he’s interrupted.

“I know, Lance. I saw the photos on twitter.”

Lance blinks. “Uh. You did?”

Keith seems unfazed and triggers his ultimate, taking out half the enemy team. “Yeah? I follow you.”

And oh my god, Keith follows him on twitter. Keith follows him on twitter. He’s suddenly freaking out that he might have tweeted about Keith?? But no, his account is public and he knows better. “Oh, uh.” Lance almost gets taken out by a Sombra. “Your account is set to private, so it didn’t tell me you were.”

“Oh.”

Lance is panicking a little because he wants to ask if he can follow Keith on twitter but is that too much? What if he keeps his account locked for a reason? What if that’s too forward? What they have is cool and he doesn’t want to fuck it up--

“You can follow me,” Keith says, quiet. “All I ever post is bikes and photos of Kosmo, though.”

Lance hopes the sound of his chair squeaking as he bounces in it doesn’t come through the mic. “I could always use more dogs on my timeline,” he says, trying his best to sound nonchalant. They play for another hour and then Keith yawns, saying he has to work early tomorrow. Lance bids him goodnight, then manages to wait until he’s brushed his teeth and gotten ready for bed before hitting the “follow” button on Keith’s twitter, @k_redlion. He then opens discord on his phone and goes to the chat with Hunk.

LanceyLance: HUNK HE SAID I COULD FOLLOW HIS LOCKED TWITTER LanceyLance: HUNK LanceyLance: SEND HELP

When Lance wakes up, all he’s gotten from Hunk is a few party popper emojis. He checks to see if Keith accepted his request and he totally did. Lance spends a half hour just scrolling through the mysterious secret twitter, and Keith wasn’t lying. It’s just photos of motorcycles in progress, his dog, occasionally Keith taking an adorable selfie with Kosmo. Sometimes a photo of a sunrise. He checks Keith’s profile and sees his birthday is in late October and Lance has to laugh. Of course he’s a Scorpio. Of course. Keith has less than 40 followers and Lance sort of feels blessed.

He manages to stop himself from liking a five month old tweet where Keith is smiling up at the camera with Kosmo out cold on his lap. Just barely.

July finally hits and it’s disgustingly hot, but it’s always Lance’s favorite month for several reasons:

More excuses to get ice cream,

More excuses to hit the beach,

It’s his birthday month,

It’s the month of Harborville Pride.

Pride comes first and Pidge is excited too, because the college town of Harborville might not have much to offer other than the university, but it definitely knows how to put on Pride. The city park becomes crammed with people for days, food trucks lining the streets with picnickers and grills and ultimate frisbee (which Lance is no slouch at). The marina becomes packed with boats. Most importantly, it means Hunk is coming into town for the weekend, so Lance will get to hang out with his two best friends like they used to - stay up late, watch movies, stuff themselves on junk food and Hunk’s homemade cookies.

The day of the parade (the first one, anyway) is a Saturday morning. Lance and Pidge wake up Hunk from where he’s camping on the sofa and they all get dressed, Lance in his blue, pink, and purple sleeveless shirt, Pidge in her black, white and purple hoodie, Hunk in his pink, yellow, and blue tee. Pockets stuffed with small cash bills for funnel cakes and hot dogs, they set off for the town center.

The parade is amazing this year and they have a blast. Lance convinces Pidge and Hunk to be in a selfie with him that he posts to twitter with the caption, “Having a blast at Harborville Pride!!” Lance then puts his phone away and doesn’t really check it for the rest of the day, having too much fun with Pidge and Hunk and all his other friends.

He’s exhausted when he comes home, collapsing into bed. He manages to open twitter and check it one last time before he passes out. His notifications blew up, of course, but one sticks out.

@k_redlion liked your photo

He kicks his feet a little. So it’s out there, Keith’s saw the colors he wore. Was it too forward? Did Lance unintentionally broadcast his crush on twitter? Maybe. Who knows how Keith would take that information. Lance passes out with his phone in his hand.

He’s in a queue for a game in Overwatch with Keith when it comes up again. Lance was casually talking about a band he saw at Pride.

“Sounds like fun,” Keith comments. “Pride sucks here. One tiny parade and then everyone just goes home.”

There’s a record scratch in Lance’s brain. Does that mean…?

“You should come here next year,” Lance says as evenly as he can. “Harborville knows how to party.”

He hears Keith huff a laugh. “Maybe.”

Lance sucks so bad after that, missing all his shots and dying more times than ever. He’s too distracted. Keith goes to Pride. What did that mean? It could mean so many things. He shouldn’t get his hopes up, he really, really shouldn’t.

“You okay?” Keith’s voice comes through his headphones. “You’re sort of sucking tonight.”

Lance feels a wave of hot embarrassment wash over him. “Ugh, yeah, sorry. Guess I’m just tired.”

He stops playing after that, saying goodnight to Keith and resisting the urge to scream at Hunk over discord about it.

Pidge is taking one of her high level classes over the summer so she can graduate in December, so she has little time to hang out with Lance. So he’s bored. A lot. Work at the cafe has slowed down, the only customers he gets are dying for cold brew coffee. He makes a lot of videos, records a lot of comedy Overwatch material, sings some covers of love songs for his channel. He goes to the beach a lot and posts selfies on twitter, making sure to showcase himself while also trying to remember that he has a few thousand followers and he should be careful what he posts. Lance starts playing some free games from Game Jolt for his channel and it gets a good response. His birthday is right around the corner, and though it’s on a Tuesday, Pidge promises to take the night off to celebrate with him. Hunk is going to make the drive in too.

He’s scrolling through twitter on a rainy night when Pidge kicked him out of the living room to spread out her study materials. There’s a photo of Keith smiling softly with Kosmo on his feed and Lance takes a minute to appreciate it, the warm lighting complimenting Keith’s ridiculously attractive cheekbones, Kosmo with his giant tongue hanging out as Keith hugs him. It’s adorable and Lance hits the like button immediately. He’s about to keep scrolling when something catches his eye. Lance sits up and taps the photo, using his fingers to zoom in.

There’s a rainbow bracelet on Keith’s wrist.

It’s almost hidden under Kosmo’s neck fluff but it is absolutely a rainbow, exactly the kind you’d get at Pride and Lance is about to hit the ceiling. It couldn’t be a coincidence. Could it? They’d talked about Pride like three days ago and Keith liked a photo of Lance in his bi shirt and holy shit. Was this a hint? Lance already liked the photo. He could take it back, but he didn’t want to?

Lance rolls around on his bed clutching his phone to his chest for the next ten minutes before opening discord to gush at Hunk yet again. Hunk, apparently, is getting fed up.

Hunk: omg just talk to him!! LanceyLance: i cANT Hunk: Lance you know I love you but this is painful to watch, just ask him out already. please. for me?

But Lance is scared. What if he’s reading too much into this? What if he’s only seeing a connection because he wants there to be one? It wouldn’t be the first time he’s made that blunder, cringing as he remembers Nyma and the huge falling out that resulted from Lance charging in head first. He couldn’t even repair their friendship after that.

He didn’t want to risk losing Keith, too.

July is winding down and it’s almost time for his favorite birthday tradition: an all-day charity livestream. This will be the third year he’s done them, and he’s expecting the response to be even better this year. It takes him a while to decide on a charity - he’s done a children’s hospital, first responders, local charities. Lance spends days trying to decide when it hits him. The next day, he makes the announcement tweet:

Lance! @LancyLance • 2m Hey guys!! Doing a birthday charity livestream on Saturday 7/25, 10am-10pm to benefit Disabled Veterans National Foundation! Will be playing Overwatch, Risk of Rain, Apex Legends and more!!

He goes about his day, feeling pleased. Later he checks twitter and sees that Shiro has retweeted his announcement with a comment, “Make sure to check out my buddy’s livestream next week! This charity means a lot to me.”

And wow does that make his day.

For the next week it’s business as usual. Work at the cafe (his latte art is getting better, but Lance keeps photos of that work sequestered on Instagram), recording videos, singing in Overwatch, playing games with Keith and Hunk. Lance can tell that Hunk is trying to push him to make a move on Keith, but he’s still reluctant. Keith hasn’t really indicated that he’s interested in Lance at all. Sure, they’re casual with each other, but there hasn’t been anything he could classify as “flirting.” Even though he’s opened up, Keith is still stoic as hell and Lance hasn’t figured out how to crack him.

It’s the Saturday of his livestream and Lance is loaded up with snacks, drinks, and everything he needs. He’s set up his room to have a fun backdrop and did his full skincare routine to make sure he looks good for the webcam, he even borrowed some fancy diffuser lights from a friend.

The stream starts and he gets about 30 viewers in the first hour, which is a good start. By noon he’s up to 400 which is insane, and the donation counter keeps going up. He set his goal to a thousand, and it’s looking like he’ll reach it before dinner. Lance takes song requests from viewers and has more than one laughing fit. When he gets into an Overwatch game, he’s thrilled to see Keith there, and shoots him a quick text to make sure it’s cool for Lance to point him out.

Keith (2:18): yeah it’s cool

So Lance introduces Keith and his chat goes nuts. Apparently Keith is crazy popular and Lance can’t help but notice how many declarations of “omg Keith is so hot” are scrolling past. They play a few serious rounds where Keith dominates everyone, then Lance creates a custom server with no cool down time on abilities and zero gravity. He uses it as an opportunity to do more comedy songs. Lance takes a short break, and when he comes back, Keith has signed off. There’s a text on his phone from Keith reading “gotta work on some stuff.”

He’s in voice chat later when some girls come on with mics and they know his channel. They’re thrilled to be in a game with Lance.

“Lance! I love your videos!”

“Sing a song for me, Lance!”

“Lance, I love you! Marry me!”

He laughs at the last one, playing his guitar. It’s not the first time he’s gotten a mock marriage proposal in a game. “Sorry, ladies,” he answers, strumming on his guitar. “I’m afraid my heart is spoken for.” He’s talking about his massive crush on Keith, of course, but no one needs to know that.

There’s some “aww” and “boos” but they don’t actually sound hurt, so Lance keeps going. He switches to Apex Legends which he’s spectacularly bad at, but he still has fun. By seven that evening, they’ve met their goal of one thousand dollars, but Lance encourages people to keep donating.

He’s exhausted by the end of it, but at 9:50pm Lance does his exit speech, thanking everyone who donated, thanking his friends who played with him, and taking a second to thank Keith by name. He hopes Keith is still watching.

Lance falls into his bed and sends a quick text to Keith to thank him. He doesn’t get a response.

CONTINUED IN PART 4

#youtuber AU #klance #text

887 notes · View notes

blueplanettrash · 5 years

Text

Alternate Realities

This is a story for @abigailthemystic-vld who was the first to complete the puzzle based on my stories. They requested a story about the team going into some of the alternate realities in my stories! I hope you enjoy! 💙

Also, I’m just realizing that apparently line breaks aren’t available to use anymore so I’m gonna be using this little moon for line breaks. I hope most people can see it...

☽

Lance threw himself to the ground, rolling behind a log the steps thundered closer. He glanced up just as a giant wolf leapt over the log.

God, why couldn’t they have just left those Altean artifacts alone? It wasn’t his fault that they looked so cool. At least they can’t blame it all on him, Pidge and Hunk were the ones that handled them first, he was just you know…giving into peer pressure.

The ground shook as the beast landed in front of him, knocking him from his thoughts. Letting out a harsh breath as it stood tall. It stuck it’s nose in the area, sniffing loudly as it slowly turned toward him. Lance held his breath in fear as it came to face him. He froze, barely taking a breath as it stalked closer to him.

He turned away, unable to watch as the beast attacked him.

Instead, it grabbed the hood of his jacket and lifted him off the ground. He shrieked as it bolted, his feet just barely dragging the dirt beneath them. He couldn’t think through his terror, he didn’t know if it was bringing him back to his den or just trying to make his final minutes a living hell. He didn’t even realize that he was screaming until he ran out of air and started to hyperventilate. He couldn’t help but be grateful when he passed out and everything went dark.

☽

Meanwhile, his teammates were having slightly better luck. Instead of being transported outside in a weird forest they didn’t know, they fell right into their counterpart’s laps.

They leapt apart from each other in a panic, frantically yelling and pointing their weapons and each other before they got a good look at who they were facing.

“What did you do?” The other Shiro asked, somehow knowing that they did something they shouldn’t have done. Their Keith and Shiro looked back at Hunk and Pidge and they rightfully looked ashamed.

“Uh, we might have touched some stuff in the Castle when we probably shouldn’t have?” Pidge said sheepishly while Hunk nodded along.

“What do you mean? What did you touch?” Allura asked.

“You sent us to get training modules and there were these things. They kind of looked like gems, kind of like your tiara. We’re sorry, we didn’t mean to!” Hunk explained tearfully.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she replied after a moment. “Coran?”

“I’m afraid I can’t shed any light on the subject either,”

“Well whatever happened, it’s obvious that we’re in some sort of an alternate reality,” Shiro stated.

“It could be time travel,” Pidge piped up brightly.

“But we’d remember something like that happening,” the other Pidge pointed out. “Whether we go into the past or present, at least one version of us would remember it happening,”

“But if it’s an alternate reality, why doesn’t it look like anything is different?” Keith asked. He looked around for a second before letting out a sigh. “Except for the fact that Lance isn’t here,”

“Coran, you got eyes on him?” The other Shiro asked, turning towards the man.

“Give me a moment,” he said, turning around to type on the system. “Ahh yes, it appears that he just boarded the Castle again. Perhaps he can help us with our search for the other one,”

They didn’t have time to question why Lance was spending time away from the team before the doors to the bridge hissed open and a massive wolf trotted in, the unconscious form of their team in his jaws. He carefully laid the boy down and over to Shiro who draped a sheet over it. Within a few seconds, it looked to be changing. The team watched transfixed as the creature writhed under the blanket.

“What the hell is going on?”

Lance’s head popped out from under the blanket and he wrapped the material around his shoulders; his stare was focused on the team that came from the portal.

“And who are you?” He continued, stepping closer to them.

“Wha?” Pidge drawled out, staring at him in disbelief. Lance cocked his head, partly in worry but mostly confusion.

“What? Is there something on my face?” He asked, pausing in his steps to wipe at his cheeks. He waited for a reply but nothing was forthcoming. He turned instead to his own team. “Shiro?”

“Nope. I don’t know what up with them either,” he replied. He looked down at the unconscious Lance on the ground and grinning fondly. “Maybe we should take care of this first though,” he commented, kneeling down to pick him up. The rest of the team followed after him dutifully while the other was still frozen trying to understand what they’d just seen.

“Um… are you coming?” Hunk called from the door.

“Uh, yeah. Let’s go team,” Shiro said, shaking his head.

☽

They laid him on the bed and Coran got to work looking over his vitals. Thankfully, everything looked pretty normal and he concluded that it was the shock from warping that caused him to pass out. For now, they’d have to wait for him to regain consciousness.

They didn’t have to wait long before Lance gasped and shot up from the table. He folded over his knees and panted. He belatedly realized that someone was rubbing his back and telling him to breathe.

“Oh, Coran. W-what happened?” He asked, grasping his arm.

“We believe you fainted my boy. Whatever brought you here must have given you quite a fright,” he explained cheerfully, not pausing in his ministrations.

“Brought me here?” He trailed off in confusion before it all rushed back to him and he jolted. “No! What scared me was the giant fucking wolf that snatched me!” He cried out. “How did I even get here? I thought that thing was gonna tear me open!”

“Wait… you’re not…” he looked over, seeing Pidge. He must his head or something because was actually seeing two Pidges.

“How bad did I hit my head? Cuz, I’m seeing double,” he asked, looking back at Coran.

“You didn’t hit your head, there are two Pidges right now!” Coran happily explained. “Now back to the matter at hand, you don’t know that wolf?”

“What? No, I don’t know that wolf. Why would I know a wolf? How do you even know what a wolf is?” Lance spouted out, his thoughts blending together.

“We know because our Lance can transform into one,” Allura swiftly stepped in.

“Wha- your Lance?” Everything was becoming too much, he pressed his face into his hands. “Wait! He can transform into what!?”

“A wolf,” he turned to the side and saw his own face peering back at him. Everyone watched in apprehension as he processed. His team certainly still hadn’t recovered from the revelation.

“That is so… COOL!” He yelled with a wide grin.

“It is?”

“Are you kidding me!? That’s awesome!” He crowed, leaping off the bed. “Can you transform whenever you want? Or like, with the moon? Wait, are you a werewolf?” He asked, pushing into his double’s space.

“I can transform whenever I want but I forcibly transform whenever there's a full moon, so yeah I am a werewolf,” he said.

“Werewolves are real!” Yelled from behind him. “Wait does this mean that werewolves are real in our reality or is that the difference?”

“Or we could be in a reality that cryptids are real and Lance just isn’t a werewolf,” Keith theorized. “Are other cryptids real here?” He asked Lance, who couldn’t help but laugh at the serious expressions on their faces.

“Yeah, most of the ones that I’ve heard you talk about are real and I’ve met them,” he told them.

“Does that mean-” Keith started, his eyes lighting up.

“Yes, Mothman is real,” he interrupted with a smirk.

“I KNEW IT!” Keith screamed, jumping into the air. He spun around and jabbed a finger in Shiro’s chest. “SUCK IT SHIRO!”

“At least in this reality,” he continued, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

“Doesn’t matter, as long as he’s confirmed real somewhere,” he waved, still smirking victoriously at Shiro who was pouting and rubbing his chest.

“Anyway…” Allura drawled, pulling the attention to her. “There isn’t much we can do about it right now. We’ll have to look into the records and see if we have any information on these crystals that you told us about. For now, perhaps we could eat and relax for a little bit? I can imagine that your bodies must be going through quite a shock right now,”

“That would be great Princess, thank you,” Shiro said gratefully. They walked away from the infirmary and into the kitchen. The two Hunks immediately went into cooking mode and starting pulling stuff from the cupboards and fridge.

“At least our organizing habits stayed the same,” he commented. They danced around each other, expertly putting dishes together for their friends, barely having to talk to each other.

“Alright guys, soups on!” Hunk said, setting the plates on the table. Their stomachs grumbled in hungry and Lance reached out to serve himself a portion.

One moment, they were together making merry and having fun and the next they were gone in a flash of light.

☽

This time, it didn’t look like they warped near their counterparts. They were simply spat from whatever vortex they’ve been travelling through and rolling across marble flooring. It took a second for them to get their bearings and attempt to get up.

“Are we back yet?” Pidge asked, rubbing her head. Hunk cracked his eyes open and stared up at the stained glass ceiling, which was definitely not part of the Castle.

“Nope,” he sighed, closing his eyes again. The rest of them groaned in disappointment. It was cool at first to see where they would end up, but at this point, they just wanted to get home.

“Man, I really wanted some of that food. It smelled so good,” Lance whined.

“Um, are you okay?” A familiar voice asked them. Familiar but one that they hadn’t heard in quite a while. Pidge launched up.

“Matt?”

“Yeah…wait, what happened to your wings?” He asked, eyeing her up and down. “And your guy’s ears and tails?”

“Oh god, are we furries in this reality?” Lance breathed out with a wince. The rest of them gasped and looked to Matt with desperation.

“Please no,” Shiro said his eyes wide.

“Uhh, I mean, you guys are a little furry?” Matt answered in confusion. “Well me and Pidge have feathers but Lance, Keith, and Hunk are furry?”

“Wait about me?” Shiro asked, pointing to himself.

“Um, you’re human. You’re an exorcist,” he explained. “Wait, who are you guys?” He finally asked.

“We’re from a different reality. We were looking for training modules and ended up touching some magic gemstones or whatever and starting hopping realities,” Keith explained quickly.

“Wow, that’s crazy!” Matt exclaimed, his eyes shining in wonder.

“That didn’t take much convincing,” Pidge commented with a snort of amusement.

“We live in a world where people summon demons to fight for them, it’s not that hard to believe,” he said. “Except the part where there aren’t any familiars, I guess,” he hummed. He thought for a moment before he shook his head. “There aren’t familiars where you’re from right?”

“Not that I’ve heard of, in our reality a lot of people don’t even believe that demons exist,” Lance said, finally getting up from the floor.

“You don’t say. Anyway, I’m guessing that you want to meet yourselves?” Matt asked, looking down at his watch. “They went out on a mission earlier but they should be back soon,”

“Ooh, what kind of missions do we do?” Pidge asked curiously, walking beside her brother.

“This city is a hot spot for ghouls and it’s constantly under attack, whenever that happens you guys and your exorcists are sent out to take care of the threat,” Matt explained.

“Whoa! That’s so cool!” Lance cheered as Matt lead them into a high ceilinged room, filled with equipment.

“What is this place?” Lance asked, looking around the training room. It kind of reminded him of the training room from Kung Fu Panda. Did they have Kung Fu Panda here? Would that be degrading for familiars? Maybe they replaced the animals with familiars? That’d be pretty coo-

“They come here after missions to cool off before they head home. To make sure that they get all their energy out,” he explained. “You don’t want a hyped up familiar in a contained room if you can help it,”

“Can they be that reckless?” Shiro asked.

“I wouldn’t call it reckless. It’s like if you give too much sugar to a child, they don’t know what to do with all of their energy,”

They looked over when they heard the doors opening again and Hunk, Pidge, Keith, Lance, Shay, and Coran walked in. They looked exhausted, but as soon as they saw the other group, they were immediately on guard. The other Keith let out a chilling growl, stepping forward protectively in front of his team.

“Calm down Keith, it’s all good,” Matt said teasingly.

“Who are they?” Keith retorted, his ears perked straight up in alert.

“I’m getting tired of someone having to explain our situation. We’re from an alternate reality,” Lance groaned, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. At the sound of Lance’s voice, the fox seemed to calm slightly.

“I for one, am too tired to care about this right now,” The other Lance said, stepping away from his own group and walking over to stand in front of their Lance. “Aww, I’m missing all the things that stand out,” he pouted after a moment.

“Hey! I stand out plenty!” Lance declared, stomping his foot. The cat let out a happy laugh and took his hand.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you,” he said, inspecting Lance’s hand. “Wow, you don’t even have claws,”

“It’s fine and of course I don’t have claws! I’m human,” Lance said, letting himself be handled.

“That’s so weird, I couldn’t imagine myself without all this,” he said, gesturing to his marks and feline traits.

“Yeah, we just came from a reality where I was a werewolf. How’s that for weird?” He said with a snort.

“What! That’s crazy!” He said, his ears at attention.

“What’s crazy?” The fox Keith asked coming to join the two of them.

“What the fuck?” Lance choked out as the fox Keith wrapped an arm around his double’s waist. He thought that he’d hiss and smack it away but instead he leaned into his side with a purr. He heard a choke from beside him and glanced over at Keith. His eyes were wide and his mouth gaped open, he imagined that he didn’t look that much different.

Pidge on the other hand, wheezed loudly and kept glancing between the two pairs.

“HAHAHA HOLY SHIT!” She bent over, struggling to contain her mirth. Looking at the other members of his team, he saw that they were in a similar state and while they were containing it better than Pidge, even Shiro was struggling to keep face.

“Uh, is something wrong?” Shay asked, concern written on her face. At that, a new round of laughs erupted from their group. Meanwhile, Lance’s face kept getting redder and redder.

“Yes! What is going on with that?” He demanded, gesturing to the two familiars.

“Lance and Keith?” She asked in confusion.

“YES!” The two of them yelled, glaring at each other after.

“Um, they are married. Is that not the same for you two?” Their eyes widened in shock.

“WHAT!?” They yelled, again in sync. Apparently, the revelation of their relationship was enough to keep them from each other’s throats for the moment. Meanwhile, behind them, everyone lost all sense of composure and were laughing alongside Pidge.

“I think I’m gonna rupture something,” she rasped, clutching at her stomach.

“STOP! IT’S NOT FUNNY!” Lance roared, his face was alarming red at that point and Keith’s hair was covering his eyes.

“Shiro!” Lance shouted suddenly interrupting the moment. He jumped away from Keith’s hold and jumped onto the gym equipment, vaulting over the other side toward the exorcists that walked in. Apparently, the two of them were used to this and weren’t fazed in the least when Lance jumped at them. Shiro even caught him with a smile, still caught up in his conversation with Allura.

“Good job out there today Lance,” Shiro said happily as Lance curled his arms around his neck and nuzzled his cheek against the crown of Shiro’s head.

“Thanks, Shiro,” he beamed. The two of them walked over to the group, surprisingly unsurprised with the others being there.

“This is so fucking weird,” Lance whispered to himself. First, he was married to Keith, now he was all cuddly with Shiro. This was a culture shock if he’d ever felt one.

“We heard about your presence from the head priest,” Allura told the group. “He sent us with this,” she pulled the bag hanging over her shoulder off and opened it carefully.

“Hey! Those look like the gemstones from the Castle,” Hunk commented.

“He just said to handle them and they should take you back to where you belong,” Shiro said helpfully from what was basically a chokehold his familiar had on him.

“Oh thank god,” Lance said, eagerly sticking his hand into the bag. Unlike before, he felt a whirlwind pick him up before he was blinded by a bright flash of light and like nothing even happened they were back in the storage room, scattered through the room. They groaned in relief, relaxing onto the floor.

“Alright kids, what did we learn from this experience?” Shiro asked, his arms covering his face.

“Mothman is real,”

“Keith, no,”

“Keith, yes,”

269 notes · View notes

b-kitsune · 5 years

Text

Many ways to say I love you: Day Thirty.

Kidge-a-palooza 2019 Prompt: Mist. Pairing: Kidge (VLD) Universe: Fantasy!AU. Status: Part 3/3

''Keith?'' He felt that someone was pulling his sleeve drawing his attention, meeting a worried look from Pidge. ''Are you okay?''

''Yeah... Why wouldn't it be?'' Asked uncomfortably while directing his attention to another place, some nymphs began to make a food competition in which Hunk seemed to be winning. She hummed incredulously to get his attention again.

''You've been looking at that plate for twenty minutes. Lance is betting that you could be like this all night.''

''Ohh.''

He placed the empty plate on a nearby table, returning to the same place he had been throughout the evening. Not that Keith didn't want to talk to others, the air from the balcony window felt good enough to move into the living room, where being surrounded by a sea of people wasn't exactly something that Keith felt precisely comfortable, his dark nature made the crowds seem overwhelming, so he didn't want to mix with each other despite the protests of his friends during the first hours in which he preferred to isolate himself for the moment.

From his place he could see Shiro and Matt laugh along with some close friends who were invited to celebrate their marriage, making a slight smile draw on his face. He liked to see Shiro happy after so long delaying his union with the person he loved, his work as an explorer made finding a suitable date a complete ordeal, until that night, where their souls would be united even after death.

That thought made Keith's interior stir uncomfortably, vaguely remembering what he visualized thanks to Allura's abilities.

Pidge was still by his side drinking from a transparent cup, silently keeping company, looking towards an unknown address in the room.

''If you feel uncomfortable, you can always go back to our home and rest, it's not like Shiro is bothered by it.'' She said after a few minutes in silence, Keith raised an eyebrow, curious.

''Is not that.''

''So?'' Pidge inquired, staring at him.

''What I saw in that cave... It's something worrisome.''

''I think you should stop thinking about that, Keith. It will end up obsessing you and it's not like you can avoid it.''

''So I hope it happens without doing anything?'' Keith responded frustrated, drawing the attention of more than one person around who moved away suspiciously when he saw a notoriously annoying dark elf. Pidge sighed heavily.

''It wasn't what I said.''

''So?''

''Keith looks around you, we're celebrating, we don't must to fight.'' The guilt ate his heart as fast as he heard her, causing the frustration inside to vanish completely. One of her hands landed on his chest, with some guilt in her expression. ''I know Allura is capable of showing you is scary; in part I feel guilty for taking you to her. But if you keep thinking about it, it won't prevent it from happening.''

''I know.''

He responded by taking her hand to bring it to his lips, kissing her knuckles with tenderness, Pidge smiled in response knowing that his concern was valid, she had also lost her mind when she met her prophecy years ago, before beginning her journey as a treasure hunter.

Traditional music began to emerge around the room while the lights dimmed to create an atmosphere as intimate as magical, small lights rose to enchant the atmosphere. In the center of the hall, Keith could see how Shiro and Matt began their first dance as a couple blessed by the union of the ancestors. They were simple and somewhat awkward steps the first few seconds since Shiro was not exactly a good dancer, but he tried his best until they both managed to reach a perfect pace.

Everyone was fascinated by the new union where both were the only ones dancing around as if they were the only people on earth, until Colleen and Samuel, Matt and Pidge's parents that Keith met during the week, joined in a welcome celebration by those present, and began to fill up with more couples who joined the couple's dance.

Even Hunk joined after a few minutes with Romelle, a girl as charismatic and energetic as Lance who joined their group as explorers a few months ago at the request of Allura.

The atmosphere was so joyful and lived with energy that Keith forgot for a moment about his worries until Pidge's hand felt over his. When he looked at her, Pidge bit her lip with longing for a quick look at the room where everyone enjoyed a good time.

Keith released a laugh between his teeth at the implicit question.

''I have two left feet.'' He declared as he let himself be pushed towards the center of the room, Pidge shrugged a little livelier while letting Keith take her waist with one of his hands, she rested hers on his shoulder.

''Look what a coincidence, I have two right feet.''

Both smiled as they took the position and began to imitate the simple dance that everyone in the room followed. To Keith's surprise, Pidge guided quite well on his steps, that even his lack of ability to keep up was not completely visible. It wasn't long until both were as synchronized as the rest of the couples, and despite being surrounded by so many people, Keith didn't feel uncomfortable at any time, his attention was directed to Pidge, who lowered the dim light looked wonderfully beautiful. Her eyes shone like the hottest fire through the mist of darkness, as did those freckles that subtly peeked over her skin. And that, at that moment, the reflection of the lights next to the makeup that her mother forced her to wear for the traditions, gave the illusion that it shone like the stars, and he would be delighted to count one by one throughout the night.

''Wow, it seems you don't do anything wrong.'' Pidge walked away to allow him to turn her around for a moment. Keith shrugged as if it wasn't the big deal.

''That's because I have a very skilled partner.''

''Yes, I think so too.''

Hearing her laughter was enough for Keith to feel that his heart was compressed with joy by having her in his arms that night.

Until again, the image of her being taken by the prince of the dark elves, returned to his mind painfully that he almost worried others as soon as they saw him take his head.

He growled loudly as the annoyance ceased, those images faded from his thoughts leaving his mind blank. When he looked up, Keith was being watched by his friends who asked if he needed anything or had hit his head by accident.

Allura, who previously saw her enjoy a dance with Lance a few minutes ago, was watching him worried. Something on her face made him think briefly that she also felt guilty for delivering a prophecy he didn't ask at any time.

He rose strongly, avoiding everyone's questions as he headed towards the exit asking for some space. Shiro immediately turned away from the others, saying that perhaps he just felt too tired, and if Keith needed something, he would go to them.

Pidge just watched him disappear a few steps without even calling him, she knew that when he needed to be alone, Keith was completely inflexible.

She just hoped he was fine.

...

He walked aimlessly for several minutes through the valley where a mist loomed in the dark until he decided to lie on the grass meditating on what happened. Not even the moon was visible over the sky, he was only with his thoughts and guilt for worrying his friends during such a special night. But Keith didn't want to deal with anyone at that time, he just wanted to be alone, with his thoughts, with regret at the idea that the person he loved most had the possibility of being handcuffed with the greatest jerk in the universe.

Keith didn't hate Lotor, but thanks to what Acxa spoke to him when they were during their explorations and the way he ended up taking advantage of others, he knew that he wasn't a completely honest person. The reason why Emperor Zarcon had stripped him of the village in the first place. Lotor was a manipulator, a man who loved the use of dialectics to others to take advantage of what he most craved, absolute power.

Just thinking that Pidge could suffer the misfortune of ending up with Lotor, perhaps it was because he could take her to that destination, and it was something that completely stirred his stomach. Because of his indecision about what he felt for her and the idea of thinking that perhaps he had more time to think about what many warned him since his relationship with her began.

Keith had to accept that an open and uncompromising relationship would eventually bore Pidge. She was a nymph, a supernatural being who united in body and soul to what she truly loved, and that project in all her forms in her life.

But he personally was scared.

That he ended up negatively, that she got bored of him, or that his love wouldn't last until the end of their days as it was supposed to be. Life had instilled in Keith that not everything turned out the way one planned, he lost his father from a very young age even when he had promised that they would be both for a long time. And when he met his mother, he learned that half of his inheritance belonged to a cursed race. What could guarantee that your relationship wouldn't end in misery just because he wasn't completely sure of his feelings?

He loved Pidge, but he didn't think she was able to love him forever, no one, really.

By surprise he felt a tongue lick the left side of his head, drooling him completely. There, he saw Kosmo extremely happy to find him, as if he had been separated for a long time, or perhaps he felt that his partner wasn't truly happy.

He stroked the contour of his ear as he saw that Pidge also approached him with a slight smile.

His heart was compressed with pain.

''Hey...'' He greeted her trying to look neutral. She sat beside him while Kosmo snuggled around them both.

''He always knows how to find you, even when we can't see you.''

''Yeah, he is a great buddy.'' Keith replied with a smile. Pidge laid her head on his shoulder with more force than necessary, showing her discomfort in a unique way. Keith didn't complain.

''Shiro wants to think you need to be alone for a moment, but I'm sure you're still thinking about that stupid prophecy.''

''Yeah...''

''If you want to talk, I can always listen to you. I got mine not fulfilled; you know?''

''You were about to be raped by an orc.'' Answered irritated, she just shrugged as if the fact didn't affect her.

''And you were there so that wouldn't happen. That was a tiny possibility.'' Pidge affirmed with a strong determination in her eyes. ''But I held on to it, I believed that someone would help me escape from that destiny. Do you know how difficult it was?''

''I know.''

Keith could give faith in it, so he didn't hesitate. It wasn't easy for either of them to trust others with such intensity, usually, even during missions, they tended to perform their tasks individually. So, he assumed that it was a true ordeal for her to imagine relying on someone else to not die as painfully as at the hands of the elves.

''Trust that you will know what to do so that this prophecy doesn't happen, even if that means depending on others.''

He looked at her for long seconds before nodding, still uncertain. He could see that the freckles that decorated her face didn't shine because of the lights in the room, but because of the natural magic around Pidge's veins, they were like stars, which guided him from the darkness that at that time tormented his thoughts. So he hugged her tightly before he realized, Pidge corresponded after leaving the initial shock.

''It would be much simpler if you weren't involved in that.'' Keith felt her hands cling more tightly around his back as if she could give him some relief.

''Okay Keith, Allura doesn't give the prophecies on a whim. She gives them to people who need to change their destiny. Change it, I'm sure you'll make it.''

''How are you so sure?'' Pidge took his face with both hands; the determination was engraved on her face.

''Because you are by far the most stubborn and proud boy I've ever met, you won't let something like that beat you, will you?''

Keith remained unchanging for a moment until he released a loud laugh that infected Pidge when she spread. He hugged her again, this time both of them lying on the lap of the cosmic wolf.

They stayed that way, for a long time, the dense fog that covered the sky began to slowly fade away to give way to hundreds of stars that shone brightly as if their future was promising. Keith felt it that way, with that sweet nymph by his side, he really felt he could do anything.

Even prevent Lotor from wafting her before him. But for that, there would still be in a very distant future.

#peith #kidge #kidgeapalooza #kidgeapalooza 2019 #keith kogane #keith (voltron)#pidge gunderson #pidge holt #katie holt #voltron #voltronship #fantasy au

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zharpzhooter · 5 years

Text

Things I Love About Season 8 (SPOILERS)

-Lance and Keith watching the sunset, Keith supporting Lance, we stan

-the girls all going shopping with Allura and having fun together

-Rizavis outfit!!!! Feels good feels organic

-Rizavi and Pidge bonding over KBP

-Pidge giving up her game for Allura how sweet

-the Allurance date was adorable and Lance being so loving and supportive?? I stan

-Lance’s family!!!

-Lance’s family teasing him during dinner

-Veronica tricking Lance into eating dirt is sibling culture

-Lance being just like his dad— I love

-Rachel stuck at the kids table (girl mood)

-RYAN KINKADE

-he’s such a lovable little film nerd I can’t convey how much I loved that episode it made me so happy

-I’m so glad we got to see him more

-Ryan loves baking asdjdjdkfl

-Hunk baking a traditional Altean dessert in an effort to connect with them

-Hunk is so thoughtful and sweet

-The carnival episode was really fun and silly and I’m glad we got some filler in between the battles!

-Shiro won an alien arm wrestling contest which makes him the ultimate older brother, his noogies can cave in your skull

-Pidge’s parents!! Colleen bargaining a family picture with Pidge

-seeing Pidge getting to act like a normal fifteen year old

-Just Lance and Allura being sweet and supportive of each other; them dating not super changing how they act

-The Paladins of old!!!

-the old Paladins telling everyone how proud they are of them

-Alfor and Allura reuniting

-Most of the Alteans ended up okay!

-Zethrid and Ezor are alive, gay, and good

-Veronica trying to bond with Acxa

-Have I mentioned Lance being there and supporting Allura???

-Allura is so brave I can’t believe

-sweet baby Lotor!!!

-knowing Lotor truly did have good intentions

-Just the villains/antagonists not being completely evil and having more facets to their characters

-Keith supporting Lance again and being sweet!! We may not have Klance but look at how much they’ve grown!!! They’re close friends who respect each other!!!

-Voltron: who are you

V/A hybrid: im you but thiccer

-The alternate reality where Honerva died

-Young Sendak

-Zarkon being a good dad!!!

-Altea and Daibazaal still standing!!

-Allura being rightfully angry at Zarkon and Honerva but still working with them

-I cannot imagine how painful that must have been Allura is so strong

-it was bittersweet yes but Alluras goodbyes were so heartfelt and I almost cried

-Allura and Honerva getting to be with their families again

-I know some of y’all wanted Altean Lance for some reason and while that didn’t happen you can’t deny he looks good with the markings!!

-how did we not notice the Altean markings in the leaks??

-also the leaks were real??

-except Shiro’s husband doesn’t have crazy hair thank god

-Lance talking to those kids about Allura

-he stays on Earth with his family where he’s happy and I’m happy for him

-he keeps the picture of him and Allura by his bed I’m ugly crying

-everyone getting together every year on the anniversary of Allura’s sacrifice and still being such great friends

-Keith and Lance being playful and friendly with each other

-Hunk being a diplomat and connecting people through food

-voltron not being needed anymore (a good thing!!)

-everyone looks amazing in the pictures they take with Alluras memorial ahsjdkdjsk

-I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting but you get the idea!!

I understand a lot of people are upset for various reasons and that’s completely valid!! I just really wanna focus on the positive and what made me happy this season. Through all the ups and downs this show has brought me so much joy and I’ve met so many wonderful people through it! I’m sad that it’s over and there’s no more content to look forward to but I’ll still be here drawing and reading fics and remembering my love for the show! Even if you don’t like how it ended up, I hope everyone was able to find some happiness in VLD and it’s characters the way I did!

Feel free to go to my asks or messages and tell me your favorite parts and we can scream together!

#voltron #s8 #season 8 #spoilers #vld #voltron legendary defender #me

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sicklylittlesnowflake · 6 years

Note

BLESSED OKAY! SO! After Shiro is brought back to life and everyone returns to earth, reuniting with their families, Lance continues to be wracked with guilt every time he looks at Shiro. He is beating himself up over the fact that he couldn’t help Shiro in the astral plane and if it wasn’t for Allura, it would’ve been too late. He struggles to look Keith and Shiro in the eye and the guilt starts to have negative effect on him, to the point where it makes him ill. Cue Keith taking care of him (1)

(Anon, great ass prompt?? I loved writing this! i havent written voltron in a while, so please forgive any rustiness but aaa!! I’m back in vld hell lol)

He’d dreamt of this moment for so long.

He dreamt about leaping into his mama’s arms as they reunited, cuddling with his hermanos and hermana and his tios and tias and his sobrinos and sobrinas and his abuelo and abuela. He dreams about the moment he feels while again. Lance fantasises about this moment and the absolute sunshine that would reign upon him as it happened. But when it does actually happen he feels so empty and broken and it feels so wrong.

He shouldn’t be celebrated. He’s no hero.

Lance has caused so much pain. When he walks into his living room he sees his abuela’s altar with his picture next to his papa’s. When he looks into his family’s eyes he knows that there’s something in them that has been broken and it can’t be fixed. It can be taped back together but the damage has been done. It can never be quite whole.

Lance did this to the family who worked to the bone, all scraping just enough cash to send him to the Garrison. He looks at his beloved mama who left her entire life behind for him, moving to America for the sake of her precious mijo. She looks much older, and her eyes are heavy.

Lance is at his breaking point.

His heart can’t take much more. In fact, he was surprised that it took as much as it did. Lance had definitely felt extreme lows before, there’s no denial in that, but this has to be the lowest he’s ever felt in a while. His first heartbreak, feeling incompetent, feeling left out and unwanted, feeling so so alone, especially with Keith gone for so long, a near death experience he hadn’t quite processed and most of all, a tremendous feeling of guilt that seems to plague his brain.

Every time he so much as moves he can feel the guilt rushing through him. He can’t pour himself a glass of water, because his hand is shaking so much. He feels a little bit sick every time he so much as glimpses over at Keith or Shiro.

He’s always known he wasn’t the brightest; and especially next to super geniuses like Pidge or Hunk. But he never thought he was this stupid, so stupid as to not even piece together what Shiro was trying to say to him. It was so painstakingly obvious when he thought about it, and it nearly cost his dear friend his life. And he hates himself for it.

In his dreams he sees a world where it was too late. He watches Shiro cease to move, he can hear Keith’s agonising screams as his leader is hauntingly still. Void of life. He can vividly see his friends’ tears and wails in grief for their friend. All because of him. And when he wakes his pillow is wet and the room is dark and it’s nowhere near time to get up, but he can’t fall back asleep, and all he can do is fall deeper and deeper into the swirling abyss of guilt he finds himself further and further entangled in.

He’s numb. He doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t eat. Lance had been most vocal about missing home, but now that it’s finally here he cannot feel a thing.

He’s so angry. He doesn’t understand why he can’t just feel happy. Lance told himself he would finally feel happy when he got home; and why is it that he still feels so blue? Was there any hope for him? Maybe this was all there was for him.

Lance woke up on an air mattress on his bedroom floor, and momentarily he felt warmth. He feels the sunshine basking on his face coming through his window, and he looks up to see the glow in the dark stars plastered onto his ceiling. He saw his Star Wars and Star Trek posters still perfectly in tack. No one touched his room since his disappearance. And that’s when the warmth began to conduct away from him and he’s filled with that cold feeling again.

He got up slowly, looking if Keith was awake–finding his bed empty. As he had no family to reunite with on Earth, he decided to come with Lance–besides, he wanted to finally try out the Varadero beach Lance kept on raving about. Then Lance became aware of a pounding headache and the hot and cold tidal waves swashing up and down his bloodstream. He shivered violently, feeling absolutely miserable. He knew it was bound to happen sooner or later, considering the maximum two hours of sleep he was getting per night.

Lance forced himself up slowly, coughing harshly into the crook of his arm. He shuffled into his kitchen to find his Abuela hovering over Keith and continuously offering him more and more food, to which Keith was trying to politely refuse. It had been their fourth day now, and his Abuela had already fallen in love with Keith.

“Ay, mijo! You are so skinny! You need more food in you, no?” She insisted, a plateful of eggs in her hand.

“O-oh, no m'am, I’m really fine..Thank you so much though–”

“Abuela, él está lleno!” Lance chimed in, trying to rescue Keith, cringing at how raspy his voice was, as he sat himself down in the chair next to Keith.

Keith blinked at the croaky nature of his voice, and the two semitones his voice seemed to drop.

“Oh, fine!” His Abuela gave in, giggling a little as she leaned in to give Lance a quick kiss on the to of his head.

“Uh, Gracias,” Keith piped up as she began to walk away.

He raised an eyebrow, “..So..you’re not going to poke fun at my pronunciation?”

Lance jolted a little, having zoned out and looked at Keith, before a pang of guilt hit him and he couldn’t look at him, only being able to see the sorrowful Keith in his dreams, “U-uh, yeah, crappy accent, Keith–hh–wait, sorry..”

Lance turned away from Keith, cupping two hands around his face to four ticklish, soft yet harsh sneezes.

“Salud!” His mother called out as she placed bacon on her son’s plate, booping him on the nose as she did.

“Gracias,” Lance smiled half heartedly, missing his mother and abuela’s cooking dearly but feeling so sick he didn’t have an appetite.

Keith looked suspicious, but also concerned, “You alright, man?”

He nodded, trying to stay calm and avoid any worry over him, it’d just make him feel worse, “Yeah, yeah–my nose is just bothered by sleeping with you all night. Well uh, next to you–near you–in..in the same room as you.”

Keith rolled his eyes playfully, but looked away from Lance with a slight blush on his face, a silence falling between them as they continued to eat.

“Mijo, you’ve barely touched your food!” His mother exclaimed, “Is there something wrong with it?”

Lance shook his head, smiling weakly, “No, mama, of course not–I’m just taking it slow because I know I’ll eat too much too quickly!”

“We don’t want a repeat of Marco’s birthday dinner,” Veronica giggled as she passed by the kitchen, starting to get ready for their planned beach day.

His mother seemed to be happy with that, and left to get ready too, leaving just him and Keith. Lance could feel Keith trying to sneakily eye him up, and he could feel the anxiousness creep up, fearing that Keith was starting to resent him for not realising what he had nearly done to Shiro.

“You sure you’re okay, buddy? You look..kind of pale, you get much sleep?” Keith asked quietly.

“Yeah, I slept like a log!” He lied.

“Look..Lance, you haven’t been able to last two seconds without zoning out, look at me, please?” He asked gently.

Lance began to fiddle with his hands nervously, “Im fin–”

He burst into a sudden coughing fit, whipping away from him quickly and doubled over into his arm, the coughs hurting his chest. He began to feel a little lightheaded from the lack of oxygen entering his body.

Keith patted his back firmly, until the coughing eventually subsided. Lance had been so drained and exhausted by the fit he leaned against the kitchen chair, panting and trying to regain a steady tempo with his breath. Whilst Lance was weakened Keith placed a cool hand on his forehead, “Quiznack, Lance–you’re burning up! You need to head right to bed!”

“No!” Lance hissed–sharp as a knife, causing Keith to retreat just a little.

Lance looked at his hurt expression, and sighed, feeling his heart fill with self loathing and regret. “I’m..I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, Keith–I didn’t mean to..to yell at you like that. I just..”

He pressed his lips together to try and suppress any emotion. “We’ve only..got a week together and I can’t ruin this. I ruin everything and I promised Sara and Geronimo that I’d build a sandcastle with them and I cannot stand to hurt anyone anymore,” He said quietly, a stark contrast to the lively and bubbly Lance that Keith knew. This Lance was deflated. And tired.

Keith softened a little, feeling very torn. Lance did only have a week with his family. It was precious time. But he was genuinely so sick, and he was worried. “God dammit Lance..Fine. But if you get worse..we have to come home, okay?”

“I’ve gotta get dressed,” Lance said hurriedly, speaking with Keith only making him feel worse and worse. Keith’s concern was not warranted, he didn’t deserve to be cared for and worried over, after everything he had done.

“Wh–wait, Lance, I was gonna ask–” Keith tried uselessly, but he was gone.

“..what you meant by ‘I can’t hurt anyone anymore’”, Keith finished to himself, sighing, unable to hide the concern etched onto his face.

Lance had barely heard Keith walk into his bedroom, all dressed for the beach.

“You should take something, at least,” Keith suggested, completely taking Lance off guard and breaking his trance.

He jolted a little, “Huh? No–I’m fine.”

He twisted and angled his body away from Keith, three ticklish sneezes into his hands.

“Bless you–look, Lance, uh..”

Suddenly the door busted right open, revealing two excited and bubbly children.

“Lance!” They squealed with delight, bouncing up to him and giving him a tight hug.

“Hey you guys!” Lance beamed, a sudden shift from his more solemn, dull exterior just then, suddenly back to the bright and bubbly self he usually was. But Keith knew there was something not quite right. Something was missing. He wasn’t really whole.

Lance began to push them off him gently, stifling a cough against his sleeve, “C'mon, guys, we’re wasting precious sunlight! Let’s go!”

The two children took a hand each, skipping merrily out of the house, one of them grabbing for Keith’s hand.

Sara smiled brightly at him, “Are you Tio’s friend?”

Keith managed a small smile back, “Yeah, yeah I am.”

He wished he could be. He seemed to be drifting away.

Lance could feel the rippling of the ocean. He felt light. He felt graceful as he swam across, feeling the oceans warm embrsce against his fingertips. It hugged gently at his legs as he threaded, looking upon the vivid blue sky. He finally felt at peace, where he finally belonged at last. All he could hear was the sweet swirling of the water, and all he could see was the light sparkling on its beautiful blue entirety. For a second he felt whole.

He let himself relax, for the first time in weeks, floating upon the surface of the ocean and blue and letting his burdens fall away for a second. He felt nothing but tranquility.

And suddenly a sudden tickle at the back of his throat and he forced himself upright, the water splashing against his face as he doubled over into a forceful, violent coughing fit that seemed to stab knives into his chest every time he coughed.

He felt a pair of hands holding him steady, the one of the hands left him to rub up and down his back soothingly.

“Lance, are you okay? Maybe you should sit down..” Keith suggested softly, his eyes so kind that Lance wanted to cry.

He didn’t understand this. He didn’t understand how because of him Keith nearly lost one of the most important people in his life, and yet he still showed him so much kindness. He wondered that maybe this is some twisted joke life is playing on him, tugging at his heart strings and causing that deep hole of guilt to only widen more. Lance didn’t deserve this.

“I’m fine–” He sneezed twice. “I just..drank some sea water.”

“Lance! Come here please!” Geronimo called out, waving over to him, having built the foundations to their sandcastle.

“Coming!” Lance replied, giving Keith a small smile as he began to swim towards them, and began to help them build their sand castle.

As he sat next to them, he was overcome by another two ticklish, forceful sneezes he directed away from them and into his arm.

“Salud! Are you okay Lance?” Geronimo asked.

He managed a weak smile. “Yeah! Someone here just reeks!” He joked, reaching in to tickle his nephew.

Despite his feigned brightness, he felt absolutely miserable, on a physical sense and a mental sense. He was angry that he couldn’t just suck it up just for a little while, devote himself to his family and just have a good time. He had started to wonder if he ever could again, or if it was too late for him.

But he was given some sense of hope when his niece grabbed for his hand in the sweetest way imaginable, and he felt some warmth ignite within his heart and he knew maybe, just maybe, there was still hope for him.

Time had begun to pass and a fiery lustre began to cascade down onto Veradero beach. It was quiet, save for the sound of seagulls and the tides coming in and occasionally the sound of his family’s laughter.

As the day began to fade so did Lance’s energy, and while he could feel like his blood was boiling it was like his skin was covered by a layer of bitter ice. He watched the sunset, and the way its blazing hues rippled against the ocean. It was magnificent.

He could feel the warm rays of the sun soaking into his skin, and he felt at home again. He felt safe. Secure.

Then his mind took a turn and he wondered what Shiro felt like trapped in that astral plane. Perhaps he felt unsafe. Insecure. Trapped in this dark, dark place. Maybe it was cold. And bitter. And he was all alone.

A wave of anxiety and guilt crashed against his heart, causing him to tense up and claw at the material of his shorts. He bit his lip, his breath beginning to pick up as that blanket of guilt began to engulf him once again.

“Hey man,” Keith greeted as he sat down next to Lance. “Quiznack, that sunset is really something, huh?”

Lance looked up to see him, and his nose was so sensitive the slight shift in pressure caused his breath to hitch. He had been sitting with his knees up, so he buried his face into his knees and sneezed harshly four times, a very forceful and sickly sounding fit compared to his usual tickly, soft fits.

Keith frowned, “Bless you. That doesn’t sound too good, Lance.”

Lance glanced over at him, but he couldn’t bare to look at his kind, warm gaze. It made him feel like he was deceiving him.

Keith tensed a little, and sighed, looking away from Lance and into the sunset, “Alright. Just tell me, what did I do?”

Lance blinked, “What?”

He shifted to face him, “Tell me what I did, Lance. You can’t even look at me. You’ve been so odd around me lately. What’s going on? Look, if you’re mad, you’re mad–and I’m sorry. But I can’t fix things if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

“I’m not..I’m not mad. And..it’s not your duty to fix,” Lance murmured, feeling uncomfortable now he was on the verge of revealing the more vulnerable side to him.

“What do you mean? Of course it is. If there’s something that’s bothering you about me then I have to fix it.”

Lance bit his lip hard as tears began to well up in his eyes, beginning to cloud his vision, “I..It’s me. It’s all me. It’s all, stupid me who can do nothing but mess everything up. You can’t..can’t fix this.”

A few tears managed to spill from his eyes, which he aggressively wiped away with humiliation.

Keith was alarmed, “Wait..what? What are you even talking about, Lance?”

Lance didn’t even know what came over him, but the waters had been pushing the dam too long and it was about time it burst.

And it all came crashing through.

The tears couldn’t seem to stop falling down his cheeks, “Shiro. He tried telling me. Only I was too stupid to see. Pidge and Hunk are out here cracking and creating algorithms daily and i can’t even figure out a message that is point blank in front of me. We are meant to be saving lives and I nearly lost Shiro his because I was too stupid.”

“God, I don’t even know why I’m here half the time, in this seventh wheel that nobody asked for–I have nothing to offer and the only thing I have ever contributed to the team seems to be mistakes everyone has to go and clean up.”

“Every time I see you or Shiro I feel like my heart is being stabbed because every time I’m reminded by what I nearly did to you and him. And yet you’re still so so nice to me and you’re so soft and so gentle and every time I look at you I feel sick to the stomach because you don’t even realise what you’re looking at.”

Keith couldn’t do anything else but just stare at him for a good minute. There was so much just said and it needed a little while to process. Keith was in a state of disbelief, unable to comprehend how he had never known. How he had never even realised that this is how he felt. How someone like Lance could feel this way.

His brain was an absolute storm of clashing thoughts but eventually it calmed down, so he could finally collect himself, “I know what I’m looking at, Lance.”

Lance still couldn’t look at him.

“I’m looking at a guy who loves so deeply and cares so much for his team mates. I look at a guy who works so hard, goes the extra mile and achieves more than anyone ever expected from him. I see the heart of Voltron, who we certainly don’t deserve, but desperately need.”

He looked away with a slight flush on his cheeks, “I see a guy who I’ve grown to care about. Maybe a lot more than I thought my heart was capable of.”

Lance couldn’t really say much because he was still crying, and all he was capable of was pulling Keith close to him into this hug, burying himself into his warmth and clinging on to him to make himself feel safe.

“I’m cradling you in my arms,” Keith joked weakly, “You better not forget this time.”

“I never did,” Lance whispered softly.

Keith blinked, incredulous, both feeling kind of annoyed, but also moved at the same time.

But he couldn’t dwell on that feeling because he had just become aware of the intense heat his friend was radiating.

He pulled Lance away slightly, enough so that he could lay a hand on his forehead, “Quiznack! Lance, we need to get you home..”

Lance’s mother came plodding along the beach, towards them, “Are you boys alright?”

Keith shook his head, “Lance has a fever, I think–he hasn’t been feeling well all day and I think it’s just gotten so much worse.”

His mother’s eyes widened in alarm, placing a hand on her son’s cheek, worry etched on her face, “Ay, mijo, you’re so sick! You always do this..”

“I just..didn’t want to disappoint anyone again, mama,” Lance whispered softly, voice croaky and weak.

“Mi amor, you never did. There has never been a day where I have never been proud of you, now, let’s go home,” She reassured, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead as Keith guided Lance to his feet, beginning their journey home.

Keith tucked Lance into his covers (after much fighting over Lance taking the bed, there was no way Lance would let his guest take the floor, and there was no way that Keith would let his sick friend take the floor–and one of them was currently stringer and healthier than the other, and they won) he laid over a cool cloth over his head.

“That feel better?” He asked softly.

“Much,” Lance muttered.

Keith absentmindedly ran his hands through Lance’s soft, messy hair, making a map in his mind of all the features of his face, gazing at him with all his attention focused on him.

“Lance?”

“Mm?”

“You know there was nothing you could have done, right? That Shiro would not want you to make yourself this sick worrying and guilting over something that was not your fault?”

“It doesn’t make it not my fault, though.”

“But it wasn’t. You put this burden on yourself.”

Keith smiled softly, “Lance, you love the universe so much you would much rather blame yourself for its horrors. It’s what makes you a hero. But you can’t save everybody, Lance. It sucks. It does, but you can’t. You’ve got so much hope and you’ve got to hang on to that, because sometimes it’s all we really have, and we can’t lose that. You need to guide us through the dark.”

“You gotta look after yourself too, buddy.”

Lance smiled feverishly, “I feel a lot lighter.”

He fell asleep shortly after that. Keith did too eventually, a few hours later they woke to a harmonious melody. The lively and bright timbre of a traditional Cuban folk song.

Keith wrapped Lance up in a blanket and slowly walked him out to the family backyard where they joined in on the music. The night was alive with the sound of Marco’s maracas and Veronica’s guiro and Lance’s guitar. It finally felt like the moment he had fantasised about in his dreams. There was a milky twilight above them but Lance could feel the sunshine reigning upon them. And when he looked at Keith he didn’t feel sick, he felt so alive.

And for the first time in a few weeks he felt free.

#lance mcclain #keith kogane #langst #klance #klangst #vld lance #vld keith #voltron #whump #voltron s6 spoilers #voltron spoilers #sickfic #vld #voltron legendary defender #prompts #lance's family

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boggled-senseless · 5 years

Text

My VLD S8 thoughts (and thoughts on the overall show)

Alright, I just finished watching season 8 and before I say anything else, I just want to say I am very happy with the show and how everything ended.That said, I understand that obviously not everyone feels the same. Were there parts I loved? Absolutely. Were there parts I’d change? Of course. But was watching worth it? Yes.

Now, some thought under the cut (spoilers obviously):

On Season 8:

As always, the animation and storytelling was beautiful!

KEITH AND LANCE MEAN SO MUCH TO EACH OTHER

Oh my goodness I love Colleen Holt

“BEYBEY, NO”

Really liked the found footage episode. It was kind of dry/slow at parts but I think the idea was really cool!

Allurance

Also that whole date scene was B E A U T I F U L

I wish Keith and Shiro has more time together this season (especially because it was a focus of previous seasons) but I get that the producers only had so much time and space to fit things

The Paladins of Old!

The whole season had me on the edge of my seat and trying not to yell or cry (in a good “too many emotions” way)

MARKS OF THE CHOSEN

Finishing off the entire show with Shiro’s kiss was the best thing to ever happen to me

On VLD as a Whole:

I’ve been reading some posts here (a mistake, really) and while I agree with some people in terms of “I wish there was” and “why couldn’t there be”, I’m overall very happy with the show. Do I miss when season 1 first came out and everyone was positive and it was just fun? Heck yeah. But part of the problem since then is people tend to get way too seriously invested in shows like these. Everything has flaws. Everyone has different likes/needs/interests. You will always find issues and “problematic” things in any show, movie, game, book, etc., but that doesn’t mean it’s automatically bad. It’s okay to be upset, but it’s also okay to enjoy things that aren’t perfect.

I am sad there wasn’t more LGBTQA+ representation and that it wasn’t more prominent, but we also don’t know what happens behind the scenes and every company, producer, director, and CEO has their own set of “rules” they make others follow. I am on the other hand very very happy they showed Shiro’s wedding and that, despite what some think, this character was actually introduced at least at the beginning of S8 (maybe part way through S7 but it’s been a while so I can’t remember.

Now, we’ve known from the get-go that romance was never going to be the focus of the show, and for that I am happy. I also like the way the handled what they did have. I know tonnes of people wanted K/L or K/S to be cannon (I would’ve enjoyed the former) but I’m actually really happy Keith didn’t end up in a relationship. He didn’t need romance and definitely wasn’t ready for it. In fact I don’t think he’s ready for romance even at the end of the show (maybe in the post-credits stuff but that’s beside the point). Keith needed family, and that’s what he found. Lance on the other hand was always about a relationship. This was something both he and the producers excplicitly said basically when the show started. Allurance, I thought, happened naturally. She didn’t suddenly go “oh Lance I love you” but instead figured it out along the way. She started to get a long with him really well as a friend, and then after the mice told her about his crush and post-Lotor she took the time to think. They got a long really well and also their S8 date was beautful

In terms of everyone’s character arcs, I think they were handled very well.

Hunk grew so much into his current leadership role. He started as an anxious introvert who got sick just looking at a spaceship to a culinary diplomat (didn’t think I’d ever used those words together but here we are). He is there to support others and make them happy and to care. While he didn’t have tonnes of time in the limelight during the earlier seasons, he got all the pushed he needed laster on (and lots of time!)

Keith’s whole arc was very obvious and very long. It was also very early in the show so a lot of us got kind of sick of him. He is exactly where he needs to be by the end. I’m glad he was put a bit on the back burner for this season because he was still always there, and he already discovered who he was. As a leader you need to support your team, and that’s exactly what he did.

Shiro has had a lot going on (also a lot of Shiros going on but that’s what it is) and while yes, it’s been hard for him not to be directly with the team and it’s been weird having him sort of on his own, he needed an easier job and some rest. Even between season 7 and season 8, you can tell he’s really fit for the position. In S7 he was antsy and always on edge because he wasn’t in the field, but this past season he has been in control and you can tell he is at peace, and people no loonger look up to him because he is cool and the best, they look to him because they trust him and know he trusts them as well.

Allura’s whole story is tragically beautful, and while I’m obviously sad (and nearly cried) at her sacrifice, she knew that’s what she would have to do without question. Her whole purpose, her whole drive is fighting for what’s right and striving for cooperation. Yes, it would have been nice for her to have a “happily ever after” because it’s what she deserved, but she would have been restless and in her last moments, she brought everyone together, made her father proud, and gave everyone hope.

Now, I definitely think Lance deserved better, but aside from loosing Alluran, I think he’s where he needs to be. He never wanted a complicated life and missed Earth and his family like nothing else, so having him stay at home to help at the farm and being the “tour guide” for Allura’s monument is prefect. Yes, Lance has and will always be my favourite so I’m definitely biased here, but I’ve also seen a tonne of people complaining about his arc or “lack thereof” except I actually think it was handled really well. Lance didn’t have a super obvious arc like the others but it instead spanned over the entire show. Obviously he had bigger moments which led him to where he is now, but part of his issue was a lack of patience. He needed to learn how to say things and how to act without impulse and how to share the spotlight. He is a support character. His growth came alongside the growth of the others, and so I think it’s extremely fitting that he didn’t have a specific arc, but instead matured over time. He really, truly earned his Marks of The Chosen.

#vld #voltron #vld s8 #voltron s8 #voltron legendary defender #thoughts on s8 #positive voltron

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kingofthewilderwest · 5 years

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Hey.. thanks for your long VLD S8 positivity post. Seriously. It's one of the only positive posts out there that share my feelings about the final season, and its helped me with accepting the end of Voltron. It honestly means a lot that you put it all out there because I feel like we all need to take a step back and stop thinking about ships this and writing that and fully appreciate the amazing reboot that we've been blessed with. Best of wishes to you and your love for this amazing show :)

Oh my goodness, thank you so much for hopping in with this message! It means a lot to me to wake up in the morning to an ask like this in my inbox. Sending best wishes to you as well, fellow VLD lover!

I’m really happy to bond with other VLD fans who enjoyed the season. I want to keep finding all the people out there who enjoyed it so we can talk about what we enjoyed together. While there’s lots of salt out there on my dash right now, I also know many friends, irl and url, who’ve liked the season. There are fans who share in this love of the full series; we are not alone; we can create a more positive and energetic climate for S8. I think that what we do is take things into our own volition rather than sitting in others’ salt! :D

We have the ability and the agency to write our own posts that are positive-focused. We can all sit down and write these positivity posts together!

You’re right - this is an amazing reboot that we have been blessed with. An absolutely amazing reboot.

The first thing I notice… is that people go into each new season with a specific preconception of what they want. If you become so attached to this prediction of yours, then you set yourself up for disappointment. The creators can’t read your mind and they aren’t your mind. The story will often go differently than what you expected. That’s simply the nature of being an audience member. But if you formulate in your mind that this prediction you made is “what you want,” then you’re going to be upset when what you artificially set your hopes and dreams upon doesn’t get fulfilled. It can take some training to teach yourself not to go into something with such preconceptions, but to take and enjoy what you do get… but I think that learning it makes you a lot happier with anything and everything you watch. If you go in with a simple desire to have fun and find positives (rather than expect perfection or specific end game ships or story elements), then you’re going in with an attitude that will be positively reaffirmed with the adventure you watch.

The second thing I notice… is that people can be quick to presume rather than waiting out the long end game. To give one example: S7 met with backlash because people called it queerbaiting and killing off the gays. Zethrid and Ezor were presumed to have died; I saw people lash out at killing the Galra space lesbians and Adam. But Zethrid and Ezor were going to end up happy and alive. People presumed rather than waiting for following seasons to explain what the story intended. Neither Zethrid nor Ezor nor (most importantly, really) Takashi Shirogane had died; Shiro is the queer representative role model and he’s the man who seems impossible to actually kill. The fact that he’s gay but doesn’t have a story focused in him finding a romance isn’t queerbaiting. The fact that Shiro and Keith are close but don’t end up together isn’t queerbaiting, either; there was nothing in their interactions that was specifically, explicitly romantic throughout the entire series (reminder: I’m queer and a Sheith shipper ^.^ ). Unfortunately, because lots of people presumed they knew what the story said rather than acknowledging that the story still had more to develop… they got angry over things that would be addressed and developed again in later seasons.

And you’re right that shipping is something that people can get caught up in and emotional about in particular. I’ve been watching lots of analyses blogs through the seasons (up to the premiering of S8) post discussions on what their predicted end game pairs were. They were all so confident they were right… and all these analyses were predicting different pairs. Plance, Klance, Kallura, Allurance, Sheith… I couldn’t help but sit there thinking that lots of these analysts were so gungho on their theories that they were setting themselves up for disappointment.

I’ve seen people adamantly, angrily post things like, “They didn’t make it canon, but I’m still shipping [X].” I think that’s a little bit of a skewed perspective of what shipping is. Shipping isn’t about trying to WILL it into canon. Shipping isn’t about accepting only canon relationships. Shipping is about enjoying two characters’ interactions and imagining it as romantic, regardless of whether or not it becomes canon in the story itself. Shipping is a recreational activity in fandom meant to celebrate how two (or more) characters bond or could conceivably bond. If a ship becomes canonical, that’s icing on the cake - a bonus, not an essential thing that the story “demands.” The writers have their own directions, and just because they write a different romantic pairing than what you enjoy imagining doesn’t mean that they’ve written a bad story. I don’t think we should ever be so caught up in our imaginations and ships that we get angry if the writers don’t align with what’s inside our heads. And there’s no WAY for writers to read our minds and write what’s inside our heads - and we all have different heads with different ships we like, to boot.

Canon romantic developments might not be the relationship you prefer, but I don’t think it’s healthy for anyone to get so caught up in believing their romance must be The One that they can’t enjoy a story when it doesn’t go their preconceived way.

As far as writing elements as a whole are considered… I could write an extremely lengthy constructively critical essay over areas in VLD I think could have been improved narratively. I could. I’m someone who adores narrative structure in story so it’s something I pick up on when I watch anything. S8 is a season that I think has a lot of imperfect writing points. I can see why some people are unhappy about certain things. But I can both acknowledge something as imperfect and not focus on those imperfections - both when I watch something, and after I’ve viewed it. It makes life more fun to focus on the things you liked rather than the things you didn’t.

I like your attitude - find the things to love. There may be things that disappoint us, or writing elements that aren’t anywhere near perfect, but that’s okay, and that doesn’t make a story horrible or worthless or awful or unenjoyable. We can go in to watching something to have fun rather than to expect perfection.

Of course it’s okay if we end up not liking something, and of course it’s okay to not like something because of bad narrative structures or something. It’s okay to not like something for ANY reason - we all have different tastes and that’s okay. No one should be forced to like something. We’re all different humans with different preferences. It also makes sense to call out certain things if writers really drop the ball on important things.

But I also think it’s good to internally acknowledge when something is legitimately *BAD* or offensive… versus when it’s simply not perfect or not your personal taste, and I’d say VLD falls into the latter whenever there’s a constructively critical element to be had. And again, it’s not a bad ability to be had of being able to recognize things that weren’t your cup of tea, but also look to the things they were!

I hope this doesn’t come off as pedantic or holier-than-thou or anything like that because that’s not what I’m thinking here! I hope the full complexity of my thoughts comes out rather than sounding like I’m condemning, because I’m really not meaning to. I’m just concerned when I see people going into a show with such an unyielding set of preconceived notions for how they want plot, romance, etc. to go… which sets themselves up for maybe avoidable disappointment and outrage. But anywayyyy. Let’s not focus on that. XD

If anyone has more fun VLD S8 things they want to share, toss me asks! Let’s get convos going about about all the awesome things of this season! I’m here to keep the convo going about all the bright things, and I’d rather talk about that! XD

#blabbing Haddock #vld #vld fandom #Voltron: Legendary Defender #Voltron Legendary Defender #non-dragons #Voltron #ask #ask me #awesome anonymous friend #Anonymous

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astrodances · 5 years

Text

Pidge & Rover (A 'Lilo & Stitch' Voltron AU)

FF.net link || AO3 link

Happy Holidays to Zoe (@zoedozy)! I’m your @pidgeholidayexchange2018 buddy! I had a whole lot of fun with this, especially because at first, I thought this was gonna be super hard bc I’m not that big on Disney movies. But one of the few that I truly love is Lilo & Stitch, and when I started fitting VLD characters into the movie, things started to click and then it took off on its own. So, thank you for a very fun challenge! :D I hope you enjoy!

(And this is something I pretty much never do on my fics here on Tumblr, but I have some more notes about the AU at the end of the fic (to avoid spoilers).)

Warnings: character deaths, mentions of experimentation on animals

Pairings: hints of Matt x Allura

"Matt, get out! I have to make a wish!" Pidge hits Matt repeatedly with her pillow to usher him out the door. She's never seen a meteor like this before, and she intends to take full advantage of it, no matter how illogical science may think it is to wish on them. "Can't you go any faster?"

But Matt's resistance and playful laughter are not helping.

"Matt, get out!" She throws her pillow at his back with all the force she can manage, and he finally crosses the threshold to her room. Room clear of older brothers, she slams the door shut and immediately runs over to her window. The cool Hawaiian breeze brushes her cheeks as she kneels and leans against the windowsill, arms folded over each other as she watches the green smoke rise from the meteor's impact site all the way into the starry black night.

Pidge would love nothing more than to go explore the meteorite, but Matt would never let her go out this late at night on her own, and she certainly doesn't want him to come along.

Besides, this wish is more important. A wish on a meteor like this surely has to come true.

So she sifts carefully through her wishes, her heart's desires. Her own rocket. No more bullies. Admission to the Garrison. Her parents alive and back home with her and Matt, and that they'd never left for that stupid trip four years ago.

She settles for something realistic.

"Just...please, I need a friend. Someone nice and who wants to be my friend. Someone who'll take away some of this loneliness. Please."

She sighs after a moment, knowing that her breath is probably better spent elsewhere.

Because of the sigh, though, she doesn't hear the soft click of her door shutting. Nor does she hear the distant roar coming from the meteor.

The next day, Matt surprises Pidge: they're going to the adoption shelter so she can pick out a new pet. At first she's confused, but as Matt gently guides her towards the kennel before talking with the adoption clerk again, her nerves calm. Some unknown part of her knows that this is it. She's going to walk out of here with a cat or dog to call her own. A new friend.

But when she walks through the kennel, Pidge finds it empty. Her shoulders droop with each passing cage and she thinks that maybe, just maybe, she's destined to be alone, until the skittering of claws catches her attention.

She whips around to see something she definitely wasn't expecting: a lion cub, she thinks, but with green-and-white fur, unnaturally yellow eyes, and its front left leg replaced by a silver-and-green prosthetic. She sits there, watching her, her tail gently sweeping the floor. A beautiful creature.

"Hi," Pidge squeaks with a small wave.

Definitely unprepared for it, she hears a hello in the back of her mind, which causes her to stumble back a few steps in shock. Did the cub just...talk to her in her mind?!

She tests her theory. "Um, I'm Pidge. Do you have a name?"

I am the one known as the Green Lion.

Pidge can't believe her...mind, or any of her senses for that matter, not even when the lion trots over to her and rubs up against her leg with a welcoming purr. But by the time she walks back out of the kennel, she's a believer. Even as Matt and the clerk recoil in shock at her choice of pet, and she finds out that only she can hear the lion, she knows: her wish was granted.

After the initial doubts wear off, the clerk asks for a name.

"Her name is...Rover," Pidge declares confidently.

"That's not a cat's name," the clerk begins, only to change gears when Matt quietly warns him. "...in Italy, but here it's a great name! Very unique!"

As Pidge watches her new cat stand alert on the shelter's front porch, she hears another thought. Rover? Is that my Earth name?

Pidge does a double take. "What? Earth name?"

Rover quickly looks away. Never mind.

After what Pidge can only describe as one of the most peculiar afternoons of her life, she finds herself staring across the table at Rover, who's perched on a seat of her own, at Matt's place of work: Galactic Luaus.

"No pets at the table, Pidge," Matt reminds her for the fifth time that night as he picks up her empty dinner plate. He takes stock of the way his little sister sighs and he wants to ask what's wrong, but he can't. Not while he's working. So instead he offers, "Want some cake?"

She merely shrugs and mumbles, "Sure," but he can see the way the corner of her mouth ticks up into a grin, and he smiles as he leaves for the kitchen.

Allura, one of his coworkers (and his crush, according to his journal), then walks by, fresh off the stage after another successful fire-dancing performance. Pidge perks up and waves her over. "Hey, Allura, check it out! I got a cat!"

It takes all of one look for things to turn from an innocent introduction into a spiteful standoff. In an instant, Rover is on all fours in a ready stance, growling at Allura, who looks like she's ready to bolt but doesn't want to make a scene. In the next, Rover is pouncing on Allura and pinning her to the ground, snarling in her face as nearby tourists stand up from their seats to get a better look at the scene.

Pidge goes to pull Rover off of Allura, but before she can walk two steps, her head's filled with not one, but two sets of thoughts. She tries to hear them through all the noise of the crowd.

Tell me where–––Lion is!

–––on your life, you–––

I will find––one way or–––. ––for's on his way.

I'm not go–––let him or––––itch take you–––

It's only when Matt rushes by her that Pidge can even comprehend that Rover was talking to Allura. An eerie feeling snakes down her spine. Why can Allura converse with Rover? And what in the world are they arguing about?

Matt's quick to pry Rover off of Allura, who's hair and outfit got ruffled in the skirmish. Rover simply hisses down at her, paws swiping violently at empty air as she wiggles to break free of Matt's grip. Lotor, their boss, strides into the half-circle now surrounding the three of them and glances between Allura and Matt.

"Is that your cat, Holt?" Lotor demands.

Matt stutters, willing himself not to look at Pidge before nodding affirmatively.

Lotor closes his eyes and sighs, closing the few steps between him and arm's reach of Rover. He's much quieter now. "Leave. I don't think this is going to work out."

As Lotor returns to help Allura up, Matt's gaze falls to the ground. He sets Rover down, then turns and walks slowly past Pidge, simply beckoning her to follow with a wave of his hand. She makes sure Rover's following her, and together, they leave.

The next morning, Pidge awakes to the sound of a knock at the front door and Rover nowhere to be found. In a scramble, she grabs her glasses off of her nightstand and scurries down the stairs, pausing before she comes into view of the front door. She hears whispering and can feel the tension radiating from her cat. She's about to peek around the corner, when she hears her in her mind.

Stop.

Pidge wants to question why, even though she can't. So she stays still and listens.

"-I can't keep covering for you with Iverson, Matt. I'm sorry."

"Look, just tell him I'm in between jobs right now, okay? I'll find a new one by the end of the week, by the end of today if I can help it."

"And when are you going to study in that time?"

"I've been studying. I got this, Shiro, okay? I promise."

A sigh. "You better ace that exam. Otherwise, I don't think I'll be able to stop Iverson this time. And you have 'til the end of the week for the job." Another sigh. "I know things are tough, but you can do this, Matt. You have greatness within."

The door closes after a few seconds, and by then, Pidge is already back up the stairs in her room.

That afternoon, Pidge and Rover join Matt in his search for a new job. Or rather, he searches while they hang out nearby, observing the scene.

While Matt tries his hand at a coffee shop, Pidge and Rover sit inconspicuously at a table, far away from other patrons. Pidge sips triumphantly at her coffee; it was the only way Matt could get her to stop teasing him about his crush on Allura.

As she revels in the warmth of the drink, she hears Rover ask, Who is Shiro?

Pidge sighs. "Shiro's...an old family friend, and Matt's commanding officer at the Garrison."

Rover squints her eyes, making them catch a ray of sunshine. Her tail twitches defensively. Your brother is with the government?

"Not quite yet. He's in prep school right now." Pidge's expression drops. "He's...been having a hard time with it lately. Pretty much ever since our parents died, he's been on thin ice there. I guess, between earning money to pay for his tuition, and taking care of me, it doesn't leave him a lot of time to actually focus on school..."

They both fall silent, but Pidge shakes it off. She knows her brother's doing the best he can. It's not his fault he got stuck having to raise his little sister. She decides to shift the attention.

"Can I ask you a question?" she asks Rover, and when the cat nods, she continues. "What's your deal with Allura?"

Rover tilts her head innocently. Whatever do you mean?

"You know what I mean." Pidge's voice drops to a whisper as she leans in, making sure others can't hear her. "Why did you attack her? And why could I hear her thoughts as well as yours?"

A few ticks pass by before Rover replies, ignoring her questions altogether. Did you hear anything specific?

Before Pidge can call her out on it, Matt calls for them.

Ah, we should go, Rover thinks a little too quickly. She leaps off of her chair towards the older Holt sibling. Looks like he did not get the job. We should comfort him.

But Pidge doesn't move. The conversation begins swirling around in her head as she tries to combine it with everything else that's happened. Rover was suspicious of Shiro and Matt's involvement with the Garrison. She flat-out attacked Allura. They seemed to know each other, and they definitely shared common knowledge about...what? Another lion? And some guy that was "on his way?" And they could both talk to each other through their thoughts.

Pidge's eyes grow wide. The meteor.

She knew from the beginning that her cat, her lion, was different, from her appearance to her telepathic abilities, but Pidge must've been too focused on the fact that she has a friend now. But now, things are starting to fall into place.

Are Allura and Rover...aliens?

Pidge wakes up late the next morning. Yesterday had drained her, Matt even more so. They had walked and backtracked all over town with no luck in finding Matt a job, and Pidge had been on high alert ever since her realization. She hadn't said anything to Rover or her brother about it, but she watched carefully and stayed up well into the night, trying to make sense of it all.

A small part of her loves this: another alien conspiracy to try and solve, just like she's done so many times in the past. But the part of her that knows that this one is real, that she's right in the middle of it all, is frightened. It feels like she has no one to turn to, that everyone she's close to is a part of it, even Matt and Shiro. They might not be aware of anything going on with it, but they're with the Garrison. She can't just tell them and actually drag them into this.

Worst of all, it feels like she's going to lose what she thought was a friend specially sent for her.

With a groan, Pidge rolls over and reaches for her glasses first, then her phone on her nightstand. She has a text from Matt, telling her that he went into town with Allura to look into a "very promising job lead." She texts him back "good luck," and almost adds a warning to be careful, but decides better of it.

As she gets up from bed, she notices that Rover is, once again, nowhere to be found. Anywhere in the house, it seems, a quick check downstairs and outside tells her.

Pidge's shoulders slump. She knew it was too good to be true.

As she starts to get out Matt's secret stash of coffee, the consideration of putting out "missing pet" flyers enters her mind.

The next thought that enters her mind is not hers, and is accompanied by the sound of shattering glass.

Watch out!

Pidge immediately wheels about, sending coffee grounds flying everywhere, and backs into the counter. Matt's gonna kill her for that.

But any and all thoughts of coffee leave her mind as chaos enters the room. She watches in stunned disbelief as a fully-grown black lioness sprints through the kitchen, pursued shortly by Rover and two pointy-eared men, one with white hair and a beard, the other with orange hair and a mustache.

Well, that explained some things.

Pidge quickly follows the scene into the living room, where it has escalated even further. The lions are thrashing about in a literal catfight, and the two men––aliens––look like they're trying to capture the black one without getting scratched.

And oh god, the thoughts. Pidge can't make sense of any of them, just that she can hear all four yelling in her head in addition to the actual yelling and growling echoing off the living room walls.

She can't do anything but stand there, spellbound by the fight and worried for Rover as her living room's torn to shreds. Her cat seems to be holding her own though, enough to at least keep things in a deadlock. It isn't until the white-haired alien pulls out what looks like a blaster and aims it at the lions that Pidge actually moves.

"ROVER!"

Pidge knocks herself into the alien's arm, causing the blaster to shoot a searing hole through the ceiling. A split-second of silence follows: the alien glares at Pidge, and she looks to Rover, who looks betrayed either by the alien or Pidge herself, she can't tell.

When the black lion takes the opportunity granted by everyone's hesitation to slip free and crash through the front window, the two aliens move first, but Pidge grabs onto the white-haired one's wrist. He practically snarls back at her, then yells to his companion, "Coran, don't lose her!" The orange-haired alien, Coran, yells back some sort of affirmation as he takes off through the front door. With an exaggerated yank of his wrist, the white-haired one breaks free from Pidge's grip and follows him.

"Hey!" Pidge huffs after him, but it's no use.

As the dust settles, she's surprised to see Rover still standing there.

The only thing she can think to ask is, "Mind finally explaining what's going on?" She doesn't mean for it to come out so angry, but she doesn't miss the wince that crosses Rover's features as she looks away.

The Black Lion and I, we are...experiments. Weapons. From outer space. Rover carefully glances back up at her, and relays, I never meant to drag you into this. I am sorry.

Pidge eyes Rover's prosthetic leg, and her heart falls. That someone would do that to anyone, let alone an innocent animal, and just use them like that is beyond her. It makes her wish that she'd been completely wrong about this conspiracy theory of hers. She wills herself to breathe, and asks, "So...Allura is...?"

An alien as well. Her father sent her here to protect the Black Lion, but...things have changed since then. I was sent to find them both, and when I–

The sound of wood breaking above them makes them both jump and Pidge screams as a giant net covers them both and turns everything dark. There's a flail of limbs and paws jumbled together with yelling and growling as she finally latches onto Rover's neck, she thinks. They're being carried by someone who's obviously very strong and has deafening footsteps.

Despite these correct assumptions, though, Pidge is still very surprised when she's shaken out into a glass tube and meets her kidnapper face-to-horrifyingly-giant-purple-fluffy-face. No matter how much she tries to back away in her confined space, she can't escape the sight of him. "Giant" seems too small a word to describe his size once she actually sees how tall he is.

Sendak, Rover thinks, causing Pidge to look over at her. She's in a defensive stance, snarling at him.

Sendak laughs and taps the glass, which has been latched onto some sort of vehicle. When he speaks, Pidge has to cover her ears, his voice is so loud. "Alfor may not be able to capture the Black Lion," he begins. "But with your help, I will."

He laughs again when Rover tries to bust through the glass and walks out of view. A few seconds later, they're driving...up? No, they're flying. Pidge gulps. If their captor is the one flying, then this must be a spaceship. That thought alone is enough to cause a swell of panic in her chest, which only rises when Rover tells her, I will return, and then vanishes from view.

Pidge's mouth is agape. Here she is in a situation that's so unbelievable she can't even begin to explain it, let alone understand it, and the only thought she has to comfort her is I will return.

What else can she do but trust it?

It's not even an hour that passes by the time Rover rescues her, yet things have changed so much.

For one thing, Rover's now working with the Black Lion.

While Rover rescues Pidge from the glass tube (there are several frantic thoughts of do NOT look down), the Black Lion fights Sendak in the cockpit, and wins. She tosses him deep into the Pacific Ocean, and destroys his ship.

When the two lions leap from the burning wreckage, with Pidge's arms wrapped around Rover's neck, she screws her eyes shut. The next time that she opens them, she's hanging onto the wing of Alfor and Coran's spaceship. Matt and Allura are cheering alongside the two men inside.

They are also on our side now, Rover explains at Pidge's confused look.

As the ship crash-lands into the shore, some sense of calm finally winds its way into Pidge. There'll be time for full explanations later, but for now, everyone's safe and on the same page, and the bad guy's gone.

Or so she thinks.

When they all step out onto the sand, the first thing she hears is, "Guards, capture them!"

Pidge quickly blinks back the sunlight to see that everyone but her and Matt are being held by robotic sentries. The one who gave the order is standing about twenty feet away: a tall, lanky blue alien woman, wearing a purple hooded cloak.

"Haggar," Allura spits out, fighting against the sentry who's holding her. "What are you doing here?"

Haggar's voice is deep and chilling when she talks. "I knew your father would betray his oath, and so I've come to retrieve the Black Lion, and the Green Lion, myself."

"You're deranged if you think I'm going to let that happen," Alfor answers. "I'm not going to be your prisoner anymore."

"And what makes you think that's the case?"

Alfor smirks. "Because I've got five lions, and you've got none."

Before Haggar can react, Rover and the Black Lion teleport from the grip of their sentries closer to her, and are joined by three other lion cubs – a red one, a blue one, and a yellow one, each with a different prosthetic leg.

Haggar whirls around and holds up what looks like a black ball of plasma to Pidge, with the intent to use it against the lions. Just as she's about to aim it at Rover, however, the Black Lion shoots her in the back with a laser from her mouth, and the other lions join in on the action until nothing remains of the witch.

At the same time that this happens, Shiro ambushes the group with a clear shot to the side of a sentry's head, which spurs Allura, Coran, and Alfor to fight back against the ones holding them as he knocks all of them out.

Matt smiles at his friend, while Pidge can hardly believe her eyes.

"How did you even know...?" she asks Shiro as he approaches the group.

He smiles, twirling a blaster in his hand and winking at her. "Matt called me. Said I should come check out your new cat?"

Yeah, she missed a lot in Sendak's ship.

As introductions are made and damage control begins, Pidge searches through the growing crowd to find her cat, her hero. When a soft meow reaches her ears, she twirls around to find Rover standing proudly.

Looking for me?

Pidge laughs and runs forward, wrapping her arms around Rover's neck as she falls to her knees. She plants a soft kiss into her fur, then says, "I'm so glad you're alright."

Rover nuzzles her shoulder. As am I with you.

They sit down and curl up together and watch everyone move around them. The sun's low in the sky now. It makes everything golden, including Rover's eyes.

"Does this mean you're going back into space now?" Pidge asks. She's afraid of the answer, but she has to know.

I do not think so. That earns a look of surprise. I am sure Allura and the Black Lion can vouch for me, and that the other lions will agree, but I want to stay right here by your side.

Pidge can only smile gratefully as she leans back against Rover and they watch the beginning of the sunset together.

Wish well spent.

Official ‘Pidge & Rover’ AU notes:

Character parallels are in parentheses where applicable. This is based only on the first movie, but feel free to continue it with the other movies/tv series in your head if you wish!

In essence, the main premise strays away from a Pidge & Rover-centric story, and instead is more like the Green Lion is a catalyst for Pidge uncovering the conspiracy/mystery around Allura!

I headcanon Pidge (Lilo) in this AU to be about the age she is in that last flashback of "Reunion" - aka she's about to start middle school, so give or take 12. Which works as a nice middle ground between her VLD canon age (15-16) and my headcanon for Lilo's age (7-8).

Matt (Nani), on the other hand, is probably a little older than her in this than he is in VLD. I have him in his early-mid 20s.

This probably doesn't line up with anything in real life, but for the AU, I have the Garrison having a "prep school" in Hawaii, which I guess is basically everything through college, if we're going by Matt's age? Main point is, is that there's some sort of tuition he has to pay, which is hard to do when he can't find/hold a steady, well-paying job, has to provide for his little sister, and has to still find the time to study and actually succeed at the Garrison.

Sam and Colleen (Lilo's parents) died when Pidge was about 8, during some trip for the Garrison (maybe even into space, if you wanna be bold). Sam was a high-ranking officer there, and he had a close friendship with Shiro (Cobra Bubbles), just like in canon. Because of it, Shiro kept a close eye on Matt at the Garrison after Sam's death, and basically kept Iverson from kicking him out due to poor grades.

Pidge and Matt are on a lot better terms than Lilo and Nani as far as sibling/guardian relationships go (between this and the Garrison thing, there's no social worker plot line in the AU). They grew closer to each other after their parents' deaths, though since Matt is so busy, Pidge often finds herself alone. But instead of stirring up trouble (accidentally or not) like Lilo, Pidge just keeps to herself mostly. She doesn't have anyone like Mertle to even pretend is a friend.

She does have bullies to deal with though, and Matt does indeed cheer her up by bringing her cake. ;P

Instead of photography, Pidge's main interest in this is thinking up conspiracy theories - and boy does she get one in this, eh?

Rover (Stitch) isn't destructive like Stitch. I played around with the idea of Haggar adding a bit of programming for her to be violent should someone stand in the way of her finding the Black Lion, which I guess does come through, but it's not as pronounced as I had it at first. Her main function is to scout out the Black Lion's location.

Rover's definitely more similar to a cat that Stitch is to a dog. I thought about having her be like Stitch, just more cat-like than dog-like, but the image wasn't settling right in my head.

Rover's essentially an alien cyborg lion cub (as are the other lions). They're experiments created by Alfor (Jumba), an Altean scientist in this AU.

Rover does not use contractions.

The Galra took over the Alteans however long ago, and so before they could get to him, Alfor sent his daughter, Allura (David), and his first (and at the time only) lion, the Black Lion, far away to protect them. They ended up on Earth, and Allura hid the lion and blended in with the population.

There's no Zarkon in this, but Haggar basically has his goal in mind of finding the Black Lion.

Haggar (the Grand Councilwoman) had heard of Alfor's first lion, and so when he became her prisoner, she forced him to make more lions and use them to find the Black Lion. She herself did more experiments on them (that's where they got their prosthetic legs, and why the Black Lion doesn't have any prosthetics).

After ordering him to send out the lions to find the Black Lion, Haggar offered Alfor a deal: once he got a signal that Allura/the Black Lion had been found, he would go capture the Black Lion in exchange for his freedom. While he didn't want to put Allura in harm's way, being a prisoner had made him desperate. (Later, he has a change of heart not because he's fired (like in the movie), but because he realizes that he has allies in Allura, Coran, Matt, Pidge, and the lions.)

Coran (Pleakley) is Alfor's assistant and another Altean prisoner. Alfor forces Haggar to include him in the freedom deal and let him come along because, if anything, he'll need his help in capturing the lion and because he loves him.

Sendak (Captain Gantu) is basically the same all-around, both as Gantu and in his VLD role as Haggar's puppet. XD

Both Haggar and Sendak are evil through and through in this AU. In my mind as I wrote this, they didn't have any chance of redemption, and that's why they died. (They weren't in charge/part of some Galactic Federation out there; it's still the Galra.) In other words, an adoption certificate definitely wouldn't have stopped Haggar.

Some other little things:

Allura and Matt like to surf together, Pidge not so much.

Lotor is the equivalent of the luau manager. ;P

YOU CAN BET YOUR QUIZNAK THAT THIS DIALOGUE HAPPENED (it was just too short a scene to include):

Pidge: "Did you lose your job because of Rover and me?"

Matt: "Nah, the manager's a space vampire, and he wanted me to join his legion of the undead."

If there's anything I didn't cover but you'd like my take on, please don't be afraid to drop me a message! :D

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chibi-pix · 3 years

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Ah! It’s been a few weeks but now I’m back home with faster internet and able to watch Voltron: Defender of the Universe! I’ll admit, I was tempted to bear with my grandpa’s middle-of-nowhere internet to try and watch an episode here and there, but I didn’t. Other things came up. But now I’m home and enjoying it! And I’m going to be honest, time and distance truly do make the heart grow fonder. No, not about Lotor, the only good thing about him is his hair. I’m talking about Bandor’s voice. The anthropomorphic kazoo’s voice doesn’t bother me as much.

Anyway! I’ve been a busy creature! Episodes 39 through 45 have been watched! In the next day or two, depending on my evening art binges, I may have the first part of Voltron finished! Then it’ll be on to Vehicle Voltron and then the third season with Merla since that’s the order on the site I’m watching at. Keep in mind, I do miss some details since I’m drawing while watching/listening to this show in the corner of my screen. So! Without further delay, let’s get to this!

Episode 39. Ah, an episode with a comet! It may not be a trans reality comet, but it’s still a comment. I snorted at Lance’s comment of “If we wanted to play it safe, we would have stayed home.” Dude, the comet was going towards Arus. You wouldn’t have been safe. Oh well. Now it was kinda expected but clever of the baddies discussing the “attack plan” and tricking Romelle into telling Voltron. At first I thought they were being just dumb and talking in front of her, then Lotor smirked. Very clever, guys. “With friends like you, Voltron doesn’t need enemies.” Ouch. Poor Romelle. When paying attention to the gravity, my mind went to VLD when they dealt with planet Naxzela. It seemed interesting to me. I enjoyed Bandor going to try and help Voltron. I felt sorry though. He seemed so pained to fire upon Voltron and the comment in the attempt to help them! Bandor! Be strong, baby! My mind went to thinking of the song “All the Mad Men” (or something like that) by David Bowie when the others were making their comments about their peace with near death. Just thought that was interesting to say. “Come and try it, strange one.” Really, Lotor? That’s your best insult?

Episode 40! Bandor: “There will never be another force like Voltron.” Um... what about Vehicle Voltron? Or do you not know of them Bandor? It’s okay. You do care for the lion force team members. And so much he wants to save them. Even risking robot mutiny. Do your best, baby! You’ve got this! And everyone having these deep realizations at the end of the universe. Personally I would have liked a restaurant at the end of the universe. Lorot: “Do you know how many princesses would love to be my bride?” Um, probably zero, honey. You’re toxis and your only good quality is that hair of yours. And sending Romelle down a pit of skulls. Me personally? I’d hate being dropped, but those skulls? I’d have stolen a few to decorate my room. Skulls are cool.

Episode 41. Oh look, Sven, totally not his brother captured from Earth before it was destroyed since Earth is fine and dandy in this series, is alive! And found Romelle! Sorry you went a bit crazy buddy, but it’ll be fine. You just need a hug and a cookie. Or Romelle could help. That works, too. Sven: “We have to move quickly and quietly. Like cats.” Um... didn’t a cat have to do with you getting hurt in the first place and you no longer got to be blue paladin? I feel like that was it. I mean, it was Haggar’s doing in the end, but didn’t it start with chasing a cat? Anyway! At the end when the Pollux siblings were reunited, it made me super happy! That’s what I’ve been waiting for!

Episode 42. Sand people! Now the tags from @breadstickcat left on a reblog of a palakitty art makes more sense! And those buggers are so cute! I want one! Or many! They’re so precious! And they stack! I’m gonna cry! I was so amused at how tall Pidge felt before they stacked. It just made me grin. It also makes me wanna draw palakitty Pidge, Chip, and Shorty stacking to make themselves taller. I also feel like the Baltoans of my palakitty au would be taller than the sand people. But not by much. I wonder if I should incorperate the sand people in other AUs for my VLD stuff. That’d be amusing. I just want these precious babies to be happy. Those cute sand people. And Sandy! Allura giving him the bracelet. I was ready to cry when he was taken and converted. Thank the ancients that this series doesn’t let people die. This may be my favourite episode thus far.

Episode 43. I really don’t have much to say about this episode. Though Lotor’s line of “I’ve punished many kids on many planets”, my mind went to I think episode 34. Flashbacks, my dudes.

Episode 44. The title “Voltron vs. Voltron caught my interest. And it was kinda clever seeing the fake Voltron arriving before the real one to trick and catch the people off guard. And I like how perceptive the kid was in noticing something was off. Good job kid! And doing his best to dig in the sand to warn Voltron. You’re doing good, sweetie! You’ve got this! “All these people are lying stunned.” Um, are you trying to convince yourselves or the audience? I looked up to see Pidge’s face when things weren’t going well and they were getting shocked. It was hilarious and I did snort with laughter.

And finally, episode 45. Sven: “I think they’re trying to decide which one is the ugliest.” You just like calling things ugly, don’cha buddy? It was amusing to see Sven be a master of disguise to get his job done. Makes me kinda wish we had that reference with Shiro in VLD. Though we did get VLD Allura donning the soldier uniform to sneak in with Shiro in a crate, so I guess that’s good, too. Anyway! Sven! Not only is he a master of disguise, he can also bitchslap a guy! Good job, honey! And then planting the bomb on the ship, definitely gave me Sven vibes from VLD when the others saw the other reality. I enjoy that. What I didn’t enjoy was looking up to see what looked like a spider robeast. Why? Why does there have to be a spider? I hate spiders. Eeeeee! Anyway! Sven returning to Romelle and ticking her off. “So much for a hero’s welcome.” Well buddy, maybe if you approached her with more sincerity instead of joking, she’d have welcomed you better. You’ll learn. Maybe. Hopefully. Hmm...

Anyway! That concludes my night of watching Voltron: Defender of the Universe! I feel glad to resume this show. And! Another doodle inspired from watching. It was only a matter of time until I ended up drawing this.

Anyway! I hope y’all enjoyed this! Until next time.

#voltron defender of the universe #Voltron DotU #chibi writes #chibi doodles #chibi watches #vld Slav #the sand people!#they're too cute and perfect!#i want them to be happy #and i want them in general #more than the skulls #i now understand breadstickcat's tags on my last palakitty doodle

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sol1056 · 6 years

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six anons: wtf were they thinking

Another round-up! I seem to have poked the hornet’s nest when it comes to the EPs --- though in some ways I was just building on the same clues that prompted such awesome meta from @janestrider and @ptw30 --- and now I have a box filling up with asks, all over again.

Behind the cut: newbie writers, EP arrogance, earlier versions of S7, writerly randomness, EPs aren’t writers, and over-confidence. Welp.

Let’s get this started.

Your words about being fascinated by this trainwreck is me 100%, I'm a newbie writer & I wouldn't dream of being this arrogant and think I can handle writing something like VLD by myself, like, premise and character arcs and characterization and consistency etc. are in my mind at all times and I still would have messed things up, but minor things like that don't even matter to the EPs apparently! VLD Is a giant What Not To Do list. How did they miss the 50 signs saying Danger: Cliff Up Ahead

and a second in the same vein:

Calling the EPs newbie writers is highly inaccurate methinks, newbie writers upon getting the reins ... sit down and write the rest of the story from scratch, trying to make it make sense and not completely ruin the premise and the character arcs. Regardless of success, they WRITE the rest, they don’t assemble random story points others wrote & copy paste things around. EPs aren’t writers.

Well, there’s newbie and there’s newbie-who-doesn’t-realize-it.

Consider someone who’s ridden the train, every day, for the past ten or so years, always sitting in the first car near the conductor. They’ve been on the train when it’s broken down, when it’s late, when it’s early, when it has to plow through snow. Then someone offers them a supervisory position -- not as a driver, just a supervisor -- and they figure, hey, I’ve watched this enough, I can drive, too. Plus, the EPs had the power to force the real drivers to step aside, which just makes the entire situation even worse.

In other words, they missed the signs because they didn’t even realize such signs exist. Those things you don’t learn (or even see) when you’re only watching from the outside.

You, and everyone else replying, are classifying yourself more as the person who’s gotten a job on the train, and you kinda know trains, and you know they can break down, but driving it? Whole ‘nother ball of wax.

Hold onto that humility. It’ll serve you well as a writer. Even once you reach the point you can confidently handle a complicated storyline, you still want to retain that humility, because it’s one-half of keeping empathy for your readers.

The irony is, they were so arrogant in their belief they could do better than actual storytellers w/ years of experience (also presumably execs who checked up on them) that they not only loudly (and unprofessionally) complained about specific parts, but also broadcasted that they changed the story, and gave many clues as to where and above all why.

You have no idea how many times in the past two years my jaw has dropped in complete shock when yet another EP quote has gone by on my dash. I cannot fathom making public that I disagreed with my bosses --- let alone using an interview to re-litigate a case I’d already lost. Well, I could, but only if I didn’t expect to have a job much longer. And that bit about doing “damage control” as a result of exec demands? Jeepers crow, dude.

(there have been points where all I can say is, ‘wtf do these people have on their bosses to get away with this!?’ photograph negatives for blackmail? sleeping with an exec? I mean, srsly.)

On a more serious note, I’m constantly reminded of the old adage about innkeepers: you want to appear as a swan, gliding peaceful and serene, and never let the guests see that you’re paddling as fast as fuck under the surface. These EPs need a major come-to-jesus about that, because they’ve gone out of their way to splash loudly on a regular basis.

Then again, I don’t think either EP has much (if any) experience with interviews where they’re the main attraction. They seem ignorant of the fact that an interviewer is not your friend; there’s an agenda, and that agenda is to get clicks: something controversial, surprising, that’ll bring the eyeballs. The good interviewers can and will manipulate for their agenda. This is why PR people are usually present (if off-screen), because they’ll know the warning signs and call a halt, set certain questions (or answers) as off-limits.

Most of the EPs’ interviews, there’s been no sign of PR. Hell, the EPs have admitted in interviews they couldn’t remember what had happened in the season they’re being interviewed about! (wtf srsly wtf) If we got more than we should’ve, that’s also on the EPs for not realizing they were getting played.

And while I’m at it: an interview is not where you tell the story. Explain what did happen? Sure, though that’s a tacit acknowledgement that the story failed, if it requires your explanation after the fact. But to tell things that are vital to the story but don’t actually happen in the story? No. Just no.

did we really get an interview where the EPs confirmed there was an original script with Shiro as the Black Paladin? If that's the case then HOLY CRAP. Talk about a missed opportunity.

Yep, I saw the quote but didn’t chase down the source. I think it was one of the interviews shortly after S7 aired. You’d need to ask someone who still reads all those interviews, since I don’t. I only see what goes past on my dash.

Well, missed opportunity but also... we all know (or should know) that the first idea is never what makes it to page or screen. And once the story’s done and the dust has settled, then you can do a track commentary about how the story changed between idea and execution.

While the story’s in progress? Nope, nope, nope. You smile and say it’s all going according to plan, it’s an awesome season, you hope everyone enjoys it, everyone went the extra mile, etc. You say nothing about the disasters, the late-night sessions, the last-minute changes. If you can’t be a swan, be a cat: yep, we totally meant to do that.

To say what JDS did? I still cannot fathom why anyone would ever say that. There is no fandom on this planet that wouldn’t have some percentage enraged by news they’d been denied the story they’d expected. Hinting at discarded paths will always, always, disappoint someone --- and quite often, a lot more someones than you realize.

Really, the only reason I can see is sheer contempt. For the audience, for the story, for anyone who’d worked on that previous version. It’s gloating. It’s saying, a lot of people worked on it, but we decided to throw away everything they’d done, and redo it as we wanted.

Yes, I know that happens. It’s part of the process. But you don’t freaking boast about it, and you don’t plant in everyone’s head that there was something else out there. Especially when that something else was exactly what they’d been waiting for.

It’s an asshole move, no two ways around it.

@janestrider's post and yours about the VLD writers and EPs reminded me of a phrase JDS said in one interview after S6 about Cosmo ... "well, I wanted to give Keith a wolf, so I did". ... he doesn't seem to consider the consequences of his actions? That's also how he decided to write the Black Paladins episode ... "I wanted to make it a Winter Soldier type of thing, so I did". It feels like something a very unexperienced professional would do.

There’s no rule against throwing something into a story that you think is cool. I mean, easily 90% of any story out there revolves around something the author thinks is just freaking cool. Considering the hours we’re going to spend writing, revising, writing again, revising again, discussing, thinking, living, breathing, eating, dreaming about the story? It’d better be something we find cool.

But that said... there’s a difference between making sure the story fires you up, and treating the story like a tossed salad. I’ve seen multiple pull-quotes from LM that affirm their approach was to chase the rule-of-cool. And... that’s not quite so okay, really.

The Black Paladins episode is probably the best example, and ironic that it’s the only one JDS wrote, ‘cause it’s textbook failure. If you cannot hold the entire story in your head, then you will be blind as to how tossing in this idea or that -- no matter how cool -- may halt, muddy, or even undermine the story’s forward movement. When you can’t even pace a story properly, throwing in extra cool is just going to make the whole thing even more rickety.

I did a long walk-through on that episode to outline how I’d translate it into a written story, and I’d planned to do a follow-up talking about the emotional aspect. The problem is... once I had a chance to think about the episodes after, there is no emotional context to that fight. Sure, it got a huge budget and attention, and it’s hyped like a big deal.

But there’s no there, there.

None of it matters. Keith went through all that for someone who wasn’t even his friend, someone who dies (or whatever) right after and is treated like an empty shell. And the one who rescued him wasn’t even the person he’d fought, but the person he’d thought he was fighting for and with -- who was dead, the whole time. The two episodes that follow basically gut the entire premise --- and all the emotion --- of that fight scene, and render it null.

And that’s where the rule-of-cool smashes up against the need to hold the shape of the story in your head. You need to see the big picture of how each scene supports the story’s theme. JDS hasn’t the chops to see how what he’d created was promptly undone by what came next.

Oh, I’m aware there are lots of fans who loved that episode and he sure basked in the accolades, but I can’t ignore that in the end, it means nothing. No one pointed out this will impact another thing downstream, or this later thing undermines what came before, or this breaks a continuous motif, or contradicts a theme. Anything.

Or maybe someone did, and JDS told them that as the EP, he got the final say. Frankly, from the way he talks in interviews, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if that’s how it went down.

@lysanatt commented on a post:

This to some degree even explains the over-confidence of EPs that avoiding the BYGs trope did not apply to them because, sure, they could do it better, landing them in the exact trap of doing a classic double BYG.

Call it what it is. It’s not over-confidence. It’s arrogance.

It’s complacency in over-estimating social capital as to what an audience might forgive or overlook. It’s an assumption that job titles or IMDB entries or the nice things people had said on twitter could be protection from being held accountable. It’s certainty that a rigid and uncreative vision of the story can and should override all other concerns, including the larger playing field in which this story is only one of millions.

It’s a lack of concern for real-world damage. A lack of care for the craft. A lack of understanding that there even is a craft and it’s not learned overnight. A lack of willingness to stop and think about what the story is saying, what it means, what it’s trying to do.

It’s an inflexible certainty, engendered and enabled by the near-constant attentive interviews and adoring reviews. It’s an inability to hold onto (or listen to) any reality-checks when it comes to hype. It’s falling so hard into enjoying the ego-strokes of constant interview and congratulatory reviewers and forgetting no one is doing anything out of altruistic reasons. Including them.

In the end, it’s a complete failure of empathy. It’s near-constant trolling of execs and the audience at large, a broken record of obvious contempt. It’s an amoral and frankly callous disregard for the characters, the story, the messages, the themes.

It’s never seeing the characters as people, and never seeing the audience as people, either. Stories matter because we, as human beings, care about other human beings, real or fictional --- a care the EPs have made clear they cannot, or will not, afford anyone but themselves.

#vld #voltron #writing #storytelling #come for the sugar stay for the salt

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georg-prime · 5 years

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I’m gonna try to say what I need about s8 and Voltron as a whole.

I’m glad about a bunch of stuff, really. They were many things I enjoyed and am happy about.

I liked that episode with Rizavi and Kinkade. I liked the action, the animation is amazing - Studio Mir sure did and incredible work - the soundtrack is awesome.

I'm so glad that I was wrong about Ezrid, not only both Ezor and Zethrid survived but they’re together, and still friend with Acxa and evryone now.

I’m very happy for Shiro even if I don’t understand him and his choices. DW are cowards obviously, because they are, that’s the only reason I can see about this. It’s apparently too inacceptable for an action male lead (Keith) to be in a same sex relationship, I see. But the fact that Shiro exists, survived, and has his strange happy ending, AND has an on screen kiss with his now husband, Shiro the hero of the kids, that IS huge, and I give them that.

Voltron IS a diverse show. I won’t agree with anyone saying otherwise. There are MANY non-white characters, several mains, there are multiple LGBT characters, people with disabilities, generality awesome female characters, including the fascinating last antagonist and non-traditionally attractive one like Shay. So I am gratefull and happy about many things, and will continue to support the show in some way. There isn’t anything like VLD in cartoon not even the Avatar shows did this much.

But unfortunately like Atla and AtLoK, VLD is just a step in the right direction. It’s still had things that are not okay, so I’m gonna hope that they learn from their own words:

Because Allura deserved better.

I can’t even me mad right now. I’m more like flaggerbasted. How anyone in their right mind thought one second that this was okay??? In what reality would this be considered a good ending by a whole bunch of people? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised since we’re in the reality where you guys have that thing sitting in your White House.

The US screwed Allura over twice now, and of course worse now that she was a woman of color. You’d think that creators would be more conscious of the effects that this kind of crap has on kids especially creators who should be very against the current politic direction of their country... And seriously:

Japan 1981-82, Beast King GoLion. The main characters are all Japanese except Fala, but she’s a pretty cool female character who gets an episode especially dedicated on her grow, rulers of many words/factions officially decide to make her the Leader of their Coalition. She also trains physically and mentally and then get to not only fly the Black Lion, she gets to form Voltron and be the one to say the attacks and vainquish the ennemi that day.

USA 1984. All are white except the male lead who’s half Japanese. But now Allura is depicted as a coward, running away and weak. She still gets to pilot the Black Lion at least, and is the head of Voltron, but Keith is the one of leads the combat somehow.

USA 2018. There are now two female characters, and only one of the main 6 is clearly White (Keith is debatable). But Allura not only never gets to even just pilot the Black Lion, she has to sacrifice herself? For some reason? Honerva redeeming herself at least a little and sacrificing herself for maybe the sake of the people she cared about in all those realities could have been enough. Allura loosing all her powers helping her perhaps should be the minimum, she’d stil get to be happy and to be a leader. But she doesn’t even get that, after all the suffering, hardship and loss she went through the man-pain was a more important story to tell?

What’s your problem America????! Not only it’s impossible for you people to even imagine that a girl could be a leader, if she’s a Brown girl she can’t even have a happy ending?

I see you DreamWorks, I’ve already decided after that season that I was done with How to train your Dragon and how disgustingly racist and sexist it all became, since the second movie actually. I won’t forget.

So I still think that VLD is worth watching as an adult, but this bitterness won’t go anywhere, I won’t forgive either, anyone who worked on that show, you guys simply fucked up Allura and her fans, it’s just wrong.

#Allura #Princess Allura #VLD Allura #Voltron #vld season 8 #voltron legendary defender #we could have had it all #never this line had been so accurate to me #This show had so many great things #and has a SciFi and giant robots fan I dig the epic shit #But the ending was wrong on so many levels #Allura deserved better #I'm gonna post a few other stuff and then go play MtaP and try not to thing about this too much

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eravici · 6 years

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VLD // One More Night

Title: Chapter 9 - Just A Word Series: Voltron: Legendary Defender Pairing: Keith x Pidge | Katie Holt Rating: Mature A/N: (8 You can thank our lovely @narycanary for beta’ing this for me. (Of course, thank you for being my beta!) Summary: Pidge was given a promise.

AO3 || FF.net

Pidge, with Keith, watched as the shadow retreated from view. She waited with bated breath for them to come back, but there was nothing but silence that waited for them. Along with the intruder, it sounded like even Allura had left the house when there nothing else to be heard. Just to be safe, they waited another few minutes before she even dared to speak.

"I think he's gone," she croaked in a strangled whisper.

While Keith didn't respond, she followed his lead out of the closet when he pushed the doors open. After the coast was clear, he offered a hand. Taking it, he tugged her to her feet and she fumbled. Her legs felt like jelly; relieved she had someone be there with her when she had a close call with something (or someone) so dangerous and that it had passed. The feeling only grew since she knew that Keith had been safe despite his search for her through the house.

She wrapped her arms around his torso when it felt as though her relief with the situation had taken away her ability to walk.

"Thanks, Keith," she murmured against his skin, her face pressed against his chest.

She didn't know she was shaking until Keith's voice was a quiet whisper. "Pidge? Pidge, hey." He tugged her arms from around him to hold them in his hands. "Hey, he's gone so we're…" His voice trailed off and he frowned, "... Pidge?"

"They could've got you."

The moment the words came out, she realized how true it was… how terrifying it was. Her heart ached at the idea of Keith getting hurt because of her. He had ventured through the house looking for her, without knowing where the intruders were and when they could've attacked Keith. The very thought sent cold chills through her; a fear that something could have happened and yet, the rational side of her believed he could've handled himself just well enough until she stopped being a chicken or when the others came back.

His hands squeezed hers and her gaze shot up to his blue-grey ones that were warm with an emotion that she couldn't stop the strange but delightful feeling of warmth spreading from her chest.

"But he didn't," he said, his voice sounding softer than she had ever heard him before. A hand came to her cheek that she felt the back of his fingers caress it. She sighed, leaning slightly into his touch that his hand stilled.

"I know you could've probably handled yourself if you were to, you know, engage the person that was here, but…" She bit her lower lip. "Our friends were on the beach and it's only me here and I was hiding in a stupid closet." The feeling of sudden frustration welled up inside her. The chilling trepidation of being watched, of her place of stay being invaded when she should've prepared herself to fight, and being uselessly hiding in a closet when she could've not made Keith or anyone else worry about what was happening.

"So if something happened to you, I wouldn't have found out until I finally came out of the closet or…" she trailed off, her eyes dropping to her hands that were enveloped in Keith's.

She felt exposed and was being forced to be rubbed raw of emotions that came from the danger that was slowly leaving her system. But she needed to talk about this, to let Keith know how important he was to her.

There was a moment that passed between them before he finally spoke.

"Pidge."

His voice was low and firm that she almost winced. When she didn't look up, she felt his hand move from her cheek to her chin, angling her head up to face him.

"Hey, you were scared; that's okay," he said. But he gave a small reassuring smile. "Knowing you, I think you would've figured something out. You're resourceful and a force to be reckoned with that I almost feel sorry for anyone who gets in your way."

She gave a nod, thinking to how just moments before Keith had entered the bedroom that she was gonna venture out to make her way to her friends. She nodded again, her eyes looking directly into Keith's with a smile.

"Yeah, I would've." Pidge paused, her smile fading when she realized his belief in her. Her heart was in her throat, feeling comforted by how much faith he had that she would've been great on her own. She blinked back what she could feel was tears. "Thanks."

There was a flicker of hesitation in his eyes and he dropped his hand from her chin. Still, the small smile remained. "Anytime, Pidge." And then he dropped his hand from hers altogether. He looked away, clearing his throat. "Well, we should go see everyone—I'm sure they're wondering where we are." Moving away, she reacted before she realized what she was doing.

Maybe...

She grabbed his wrist again and he stopped. Turning his head to face her, his brow rose in the silent inquiry before it shifted into subtle concern. His lips parted and before she could change her mind, she moved and she wrapped her arms around his neck. "No, really Keith, thanks," she whispered into his neck. "It… it means a lot."

He was quiet for a moment before his own arms wrapped themselves around her and his own face buried in her damp hair. He gave her a squeeze, feeling as though he needed the hug more than she might've. (But that would be hopeful thinking.) After a brief silence, he murmured, "No problem," and gave her another squeeze that she sighed.

He was warm and seemed to fit perfectly in her arms. He smelled like the ocean and his own unique scent that she found herself taking breaths. It was perhaps after a few minutes like that before she grew slowly aware of how much of skin she was touching.

Keith was bare-chested.

And she was only wearing a frigging towel that somehow—magically, she might add—stayed around her for the entire duration of the near confrontation. Though she was wearing her bikini underneath the towel, still, it almost felt like she was as good as naked.

The familiar prickling of embarrassment flared at her cheeks that it spread to her neck and shoulders. She bit her lower lip when she could feel him nuzzle against her neck, unable to stop the shiver that elicited a sigh. He stiffened.

She was hesitant, unsure if she should move or if she should speak up. Instead, she felt him shift and her cheeks burned hotly when she found herself staring right into Keith's eyes. He rested his forehead against hers and images of that night flashed through her mind of him doing the exact same thing.

Hope and affection fluttered in her chest and she wondered what he was going to do.

"Pidge… I…" he began, his voice low while he looked earnestly, almost pleadingly, for an answer to a question that was held on the tip of his tongue. And then he closed his eyes as if trying to focus when he took a ragged breath.

She waited for him to ask whatever it was he wanted to say. She hoped he couldn't feel her heart hammering hard in her chest or how warm she was becoming at their proximity. She hated to admit it, but she loved being enveloped in his arms: they were protective, warm, and strong. It made her stomach do strange flips and almost girlishly giddy that created goosebumps along her arms and neck. When she would look back on this, she'd only ever admitted to Keith that it was only he that made her feel so phenomenally out of herself.

The intimate moment was electrifying and Pidge placed a hand on his cheek, watching him when his eyes fluttered open and in turn, her own heart skipping when that intense gaze of his was focused on her.

She gave him a small smirk, unable to help the teasing tone in her voice that was in an effort to lighten the mood, "I'm not going anywhere since—you know—you're holding me, prisoner." She wished she could stop the rapid beating of her heart that was now pulsing in her ears and chest.

Keith seemed impassive before his gaze became lidded. His grip on her tightened and she fought the squeak that would make her sound too girlish and flushed. She wasn't sure if she regretted the words she had said when the next words that came from him did somersaults in her stomach.

"I don't plan on letting you go then."

Fuck. That backfired and it just made her suddenly very turned on.

It didn't help that his serious tone did things to her heart that she didn't want to hope. Did he mean that? Did he truly mean that? But, she had already accepted that they would remain as friends. After all, he might simply be saying that in the moment and didn't mean it like she was assuming. After all, he made it clear that night.

So, it wasn't possible, right?

But her bruised heart wanted it to be. Oh, she wanted it. The little feminine traits she had always kept hidden seemed to make itself known when she was with Keith and she wondered where the hell did her fire go. It was still there, yes, but it burned differently when she was with him. It burned lower, more intense, and the fire was all-consuming.

And then Pidge stilled. He moved closer to her, his breath ghosting over her lips that she angled herself to receive it. She could taste his breath on hers and…

"Pidge! Keith! You guys here?"

This time, it was Shiro's voice that filtered up the stairs and she turned her head to face the doorway in panic and surprise. Even more when Keith pressed his lips to her neck, teeth grazing her skin that she couldn't help the delightful shiver that crawled in her spine. Her eyes flicked back to him when her hand shot to her neck and Keith smirked.

"Pidge! You in the room?" It sounded like Allura.

He set her down.

"Keith, what are you doing?" she whispered incredulously.

"Making a promise," he said and the smirk was gone. There was a spark of determination and resolution in his eyes that left her puzzled. What did that mean? But it softened and that same small smile appeared again, the backs of his fingers brushing her cheek. "It's a promise, Pidge."

"Promise? What promise are you making?" she asked quietly.

His mouth opened before he closed it, thinking against whatever it was he had been about to say with the shake of his head. Instead, he went with, "Allura will be here in a second… I'll talk to you later, okay?"

Pidge nodded, unsure of what had transpired to give Keith that look in his eyes or the kiss that he had pressed to her neck. She watched him hurry out of the room and several seconds later, she heard the surprised voice of Allura greeting him in the hall. With her distracted, she sighed and walked over to the bed and dropped herself down.

Closing her eyes, she felt the residual warmth of Keith's embrace comfort her that she just laid there. A promise? She wanted to press for the sake of clarity by what he could mean by that, but he seemed intent on not telling her.

With another sigh, she wondered what was going through his head to make him have such a face. Normally, she would be able to read him clear as day to know what was exactly going through his mind, but today, she had absolutely no idea.

The door clicked shut and a few moments later, there were two knocks that interrupted her thoughts and upon opening her eyes, she found Allura crouched by the bed facing her. She rested her arms on the bed with her chin on her forearms and gave an easy smile with the slightest tilt of her head. "You okay there, Pidge?"

She closed her eyes again. "Yeah, just… trying to focus my thoughts."

Her fair brow lifted in skepticism.

"Lance asked me on the car ride over if I liked Keith," Pidge stated plainly.

Allura's brows knitted together. "Oh."

"I told him I don't know how I felt and I'd appreciate it if he didn't get himself involved."

"And yet, he has, hasn't he." Allura sighed. "I figured as much since Lance had been delaying us from coming back into the house. Keith was gone a long time by the time we realized."

Oh, Pidge was going to kill Lance now. She straightened herself up as Allura sat on the bed with her and crossed her legs. Adding that as a mental note, she continued, "Alright, I'm going to drop two bombs on you."

Allura squinted. "Oh? What sort of 'bombs' are you speaking of? Have you told Keith yet?"

Pidge shook her head slowly. "No, not yet, but… " How does one tell their best friend one exhilarating and exciting thing that happened with her stupid crush and the fact that something could have very well killed her in the same last hour? "Okay, you want good stuff or bad first?"

The fair-haired female lifted a brow in skepticism. "Well, out with the good first. I expect this to be good if you're so worked up over it."

"Well, something happened and it led to Keith basically in very close proximity to me for a duration of time. And then, we hugged each other and… he said he was making a promise. I'm not sure about what but he said he was making a promise."

Allura sat dumbfounded, blinking. "Excuse me? You… hugged each other? That's good—Oh, I see." She smirked. "You liked hugging him, didn't you?"

Her face could not get any redder. "Allura!" And she promptly threw a pillow into the other's face.

She giggled. "Well, I find it quite adorable that you are essentially dying over a hug—"

"It wasn't just a hug though because he… uhh… let's just say after that was when he made a promise."

"And what's this promise that he speaks of?" She raised a brow and damn, that smirk was still on her face. Part of her was too elated and hopeful to really care or think anything of the smug smirk, but she knew that it was without any real intent of further teasing beyond this moment.

Her question gave pause and she frowned. "I don't know, Allura, that's the problem. He said he was making one and I don't think it was him saying it to me, but rather to himself."

Allura smiled, seemingly thoughtful before she turned to her friend. "Well, I'm sure whatever it is, Keith will keep whatever the promise he made. Whether it's to himself or perhaps even to you." She moved to her bed and sat down next to her. Wrapping her arms around Pidge's shoulders, she grinned. "I'm so happy for you, Pidge, you finally managed to snag Keith, the wonder boy."

"Allura!" Pidge screeched, unable to fight the reddening of her cheeks and neck. She grabbed the other pillow and slammed it into her face. Unfortunately, her best friend was only laughing.

"Alright, alright, wonderful news aside—as much as I would love to continue gossiping about this—what's the bad news you spoke of? I'm quite… nervous to hear it." Allura grabbed the pillow and began to fluff it in her hands before setting it back next to Pidge.

"Well, remember how I told you I was going to come back here and sleep some more—which I did—well, I wound up waking up feeling like I was being watched." She gave an involuntary shudder.

Allura frowned, her eyes narrowing and her lips pressed into a thin line. There was something about that expression that their jovial mood became instantly somber. After all, this was her home and, just like Pidge, felt as though it had been violated.

"And?" she prompted.

"And… well, I went up to wash some of the sweat off of me and when I came out, I heard someone enter the house. At first, I thought it was you or one of the guys, but it wasn't because when I poked my head out of the room to see who it was that had come back, I didn't hear anyone. And then, like an idiot, I hid in the closet."

Pidge paused, letting Allura absorb this information. She was pulling that professional face of hers that meant business when she asked, "What else happened? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine like I said—I mean, as you can see—" Pidge gestured to herself, "I'm good. But I saw Keith come into the room and I dragged him in with me into the closet—"

Pidge watched with amusement when Allura's eyebrows shot up into her hairline. "Oh."

"And we watched the dude come in and leave when they heard you calling for our names downstairs."

Allura crossed her arms, looking deep in thought as she recalled just a bit ago. "I came in looking for you and found your phone on the table. Keith's towel was on the chair so I assumed you were both in the house… talking since you didn't answer."

Pidge dropped her gaze to her crossed ankles. How nice of her. It'd explain why Allura didn't press on into the house. But…

"Kind of… we were hiding in the closet and waited until the coast was clear. When we finally came out of the closet, we just stood there, talking about some stuff." She could feel the color returning to her cheeks. Damn. She had hoped she'd be more serious about this but found her body remembering the situation better than she wanted to.

Now it was Allura's turn to look amused. "Oh ho? From a dire situation to a good one, I hope?" Pidge could see that Allura was trying her best to remain humored by the story, but her mind was stuck on the fact that someone had entered their home unannounced. Allura didn't take too kindly to intruders in her home.

"Well, kind of," Pidge admitted. "But anyway, in retrospect of the given situation, I think that guy breaking in is more important than whatever…" she made a vague gesture with her hands, "... things that happened with Keith and me can wait until later. You need to go talk with Coran, right?"

Allura nodded, holding a hand to her chin. "Sorry Pidge, but yes, I do. I need to make sure the security of our home isn't… compromised. It's strange… we've never had anyone 'break in' before since everyone tends to keep to themselves here."

Pidge gave a weak shrug. "Sorry, Allura, I wish I could help but I didn't see the guy."

"It's quite alright, but, if you'll excuse me." Allura departed afterward with an impassive expression and Pidge sighed, running a hand down her face. The severity of the situation was hitting her but she hoped it was just some stupid teenager who thought breaking and entering was fun. But, she would have no idea until Allura's investigation was finished.

#kidge #kidgemas #keidge #pidge gunderson #keith kogane #katie holt #Voltron: one more night #*writtenbyme

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