In which Raphaella forces Jonny to let himself be comforted for once via a mild paralytic because he doesn't believe he deserves comfort enough to accept it on his own.

For the first time literally ever, I actually posted a fic I wrote! Since it's for the least popular fandom I've taken part in to date, I figured I'd add it to the relatively small pile for others to read if they so choose! A 'Holy shit! Two cakes!' Moment is what im hoping for but I am terrified. I've been writing fics for about 8 years now and finally have the courage to post one. Hope someone out there enjoys it.

So, yesterday (I think) I posted about some vague ideas I had for what might have happened if the Galra had found Blue pre-canon, right? So I just had an absolute brainwave last night, and now this is a full-fledged au.

A little while ago, I made this post about how bad the character motivations in Voltron were (long story short, only 1 of the 5 paladins’ motivations worked for the plot) and I’ve been contemplating ways the show writers could’ve fixed this (for Lance and Hunk in particular) for quite a while and yesterday’s post fixes goddamn everything.

So, the empire gets the Blue Lion. For plausibility’s sake, I’m going to stretch the date on this way back to ~200 years pre-canon, let’s say after World War 3 (yes World War 3 canonically happened at some point, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it line from Season 7), which could possibly be around the 2100s (no concrete dates are given, so I’m just going off what feels right). The Galra conquer Earth, have Blue for long enough that Haggar/the Druids figure out some way to measure a person’s quintessence for similarities with the Blue Lion, and this quintessence-testing process goes into effect across the universe as the Galra attempt to find a blue paladin.

Eventually, Lance is born, and when he’s 13-14 years old (my best guess for when the Garrison would start taking students, based on real-life military academies and the Season 7 Keith flashbacks) he enrolls in the Garrison, (A Galra-controlled military school in this au) and as part of his physical for entry, they take some of his quintessence, as has been standard policy for the last few decades. They run some tests on it, compare it to Blue’s, and it’s similar enough that he could be a paladin.

So, based on what Allura says in s1e1 about the Lions choosing their paladins based on personality + how Red makes Keith prove himself before choosing him, despite their assumedly compatible quintessence, it’s clear that the lions choose based on two factors: similar quintessence (which seems like the minimum requirement, they HAVE to have similar enough quintessence to make a bond possible) and personality (personal criteria, aka why they choose someone to be a paladin. If the criteria are initially met, but then the paladin changes, like with Zarkon, a Lion can revoke their bond in favor of a better suited paladin. This shit is fascinating, imma write a post on it at some point) but, all this to say that the Galra would probably take Lance to wherever they’re keeping Blue, probably in that giant Central Command ship.

Blue obviously chooses Lance as her paladin, so the Galra basically kidnap him and force him to like, fly Blue for them. Lance is a decent person, so he doesn’t want to, but since the Galra control Earth in this au, they use his family as leverage to force him to. So, for the ~3 years until canon, Lance is a paladin/prisoner of the Galra, so he gets experience as a paladin, actual information about the modern Empire, and a motivation to fight them!

On earth, things would proceed mostly as they do in canon. I’d imagine Keith would know about his Galra heritage and probably have spent some time with the Blade/his mom, but she probably would lose track of him after his dad dies, so he’d still end up with Shiro, as in canon.

Shiro would be a Galra soldier in this au, a talented graduate of the Garrison that maybe has some doubts about the Galra’s mission. He’s assigned to fly a research mission to Kerberos with some scientists (including Matt and Sam, but not just them) and while he’s there, the team comes across something they’re not supposed to, like an Altean ruin or something, idk, this part’s not completely ironed out. So the team disappears, Kerberos mission is scrapped and chalked up to pilot error, and Shiro is sent to the Gladiator pits where he learns the truth about the empire.

Pidge enlists in the Garrison late, as a communications cadet, in order to spy on the Galra and figure out what happened to their family. I’d imagine that they pretty quickly figure out just how bad the empire is after their family goes mission, so they’re a bit of an anti-imperial activist.

Hunk stays mostly the same because he’s already an excellent character that deserved so much better. He and Pidge are placed on the same team with like, James or someone as their pilot. Since James is a jerk, Hunk bonds with Pidge over their shared nerdiness, and when Pidge eventually tells him about how evil the Galra really are, he decides to work with Pidge to find their family and maybe to fight the empire.

When canon hits, the Blade has the same motivation as they do in the show-to get Blue out of the Galra’s hands. Ulaz finds Lance, and eventually convinces him to defect from the empire, promising that the Blade will get his family out of harm’s way. He stages Shiro’s escape as a cover for Lance’s defection, and implants the coordinates for the Blade’s base in Shiro’s hand, telling them to input those coordinates once they’re sure the Galra can’t track them. They both escape on the Blue Lion, but Lance doesn’t really trust these people he’s met, like, twice, so they decide to go back to earth to make sure that his family is actually safe.

On earth, things go bad, because the Blue Lion is 1. Extremely noticeable and distinctive 2. Widely known as the most powerful ship in the Galra arsenal and 3. Was just involved in a major prison breakout. Yikes. Shiro and Lance are ambushed by Galra soldiers the instant they hit ground, resulting in a very big, public battle.

Keith, who is not a weird desert hermit, as Blue is no longer calling out to him and keeping him in the middle of nowhere, sees it on, like, the news or smth, immediately recognizes Shiro, and, just like in canon, rushes in to rescue him. Pidge and Hunk, back at the Garrison, realize that that’s Shiro, who disappeared with Pidge’s family a year ago. They rush out to find him, and all of the paladins meet up in Cuba, right in time for another big battle where they learn how to work together. They manage to defeat the Galra, but more reinforcements are coming, so they decide to get the hell out of dodge and get to the Blade headquarters.

Unfortunately, the Galra send a giant fleet after them, resulting in a huge, destructive battle, and Blue is forced to flee through a wormhole, sending them to, surprise surprise, Arus. Cue the rest of the series, but with paladins who have actual motivation to form Voltron and fight the Galra, characters who have worked together before, and someone who knows how to fly the Lions.

I do have another version of this au, which I think is way more interesting, both plotwise and characterwise, but it would dramatically upend the status quo of the story, change pretty much everything about the power scaling and overall stakes of the series, so I’m not sure about it. I’ll outline it briefly here.

Basically, the Galra Empire has to have some pretty great propaganda, right? I mean, they’re an incredibly oppressive, authoritarian empire that has had absolute control over the universe for 10,000 years, there’s no way that happened without excellent propaganda. So, what if Lance, who is 13 years old and signs up to be a Galra soldier at the Garrison in this au, is actually convinced by the Galra that he’s doing something good by serving the Galra? Idk how Shiro would get out of the gladiator rings here-maybe the Blade instigates a prisoner revolt, and Ulaz recognizes Shiro as the guy who’s most likely to survive, and gives him the coordinates bc of that-but he gets back to earth, finds Keith, Pidge, Hunk, and maybe even Adam, and they get to the blade headquarters, find the Red Lion, and get to Arus from there. This would make Lance a kind of villain for the first few seasons, and make the paladins unable to form Voltron, which I think would be fascinating, but would kinda necessitate an entire rewrite. This is where the ‘No Blue AU’ name came from, since the other one does have Blue in it. Maybe I’ll call that one ‘Yes Blue AU’.

PR1 Appreciation Month 2023, Week 4: What If…?

So I tried angst, which I don’t write a lot. Feedback would be much appreciated on this one, as I never feel content with angst works, so anything positive or negative you have to say about it I’d love to hear!

do u all maybe perhaps possibly have game recommendations 🤨🧐

Karlach won't let her friends burn. They'll return the favour.

the thing about the main cast of moonlight chicken is that while the show is nominally centered around jim you could also make six different shows focused on each of the characters (so the hypothetical jim show would be even more about jim and a bit less about, for example, li ming) and they would all be great and interesting. i've just been thinking that if i had been given just one additional episode of mlc i would love to see a fuller picture of alan and wen's relationship and how wen fell out of love and then i thought i would watch a show told entirely through wen's perspective and with more of his background and then of course i thought i would even more gladly watch the alan show with both his backstory and the continuation of his storyline past the end of the original show (the alangaipa spinoff we deserve) and then i thought we saw even less of gaipa, in a way, so that would also deserve more spotlight, and finally there's so much to know about heart from the keyboard in his room to him learning sign language (we have to assume all by himself?) and to him finding community among deaf/hard of hearing people of pattaya and then of course to his university adventures in rochester. and as for li ming well one just has to check the tag to see that like half the audience either would rather watch the li ming show or treats the original as the li ming show.

so mlc could really be any of these shows but instead it's kind of like a little bit of everything with the focus on jim but not as much as if it were mainly a jim show. the trade-off is that you actually get so many wonderful characters and stories coming together in one show and isn't that great

Maybe it's just because of where I live, but the whole "Satine didn't like that her people were a bunch of warmongering imperialist assholes and told them to knock it off and implemented gun control and made the Jedi Torture Boxes illegal so that her people could rebuild and move on from their violent history of civil wars that reduced their planet into a nearly uninhabitable wasteland in favor of focusing on more productive things like art and education and this is literally cultural genocide and she's erasing history and she should've been a villain blah blah blah" take has always been so weird to me. Like I have absolutely seen people say things like that in real life all the time and about 90% of them have confederate flags on the back of their pickup trucks so. Yeah.

the rarepair pipeline really is just (wants to see two characters interact) (the only people who make content of those two interacting are the shippers) (doesn't mind them having a romantic relationship and thus is converted into the rarepair)

i was really focused and did actual work for one hour from 10am-11am and then made one phone call and lost all focus for 5 hours

Speak Now was my favorite era for music videos and I love that the ICSY music video felt like something that would’ve come from Speak Now

wip files game

WAS TAGGED BY: @moondoggiestyle

RULES: post the names of the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! tag as many people as you have WIPs.

luca/johnny vampire fic

mason/connor a/b/o

dead dove *********

rutger/frankie

tagging @bigdogenergy @frostbeees @itspadjune uhhhhhh idk who else hasn't played yet?

op you write stories????

SURE DO! :D

Mostly original fiction - I have a big ol' story universe going for my original stuff (which I've been working on since,,, 2015 good lord) - and then occasionally I'll knock out a fanfic whenever a piece of media grabs me by the brain stem especially hard.

I won't go on for ages about it here, because (outside of a special occasion or a specific request to elaborate) I don't wanna go on about stuff NOT relating to reaction images on the reaction images blog, but I've got a wikia and a discord and an AO3 that I can link to people if they're interested :)

it is wild how narco-alchemy, cilomancy, mechanomancy are not in any offical 3rd ed stuff like come on. nacro-alchemy in particular would do sooo good with an update to better reflect the changes in public perception of drugs and what not

9-1-1: LONE STAR SEASON 4 PREMIERES TONIGHT :DDDD!!!

Png of Crust

We don't talk enough about how absolutely devastating and romantic and hot the idea is that Astarion would know the scent of your blood anywhere.

How quickly he would notice when you've even the slightest of nics? When, no matter how focused on anything else he might be at the time, he always comes to check it out?

You'll be peeling a piece of apple with your pocket knife when it slips in your grip. The sharp edge of the blade slices a shallow cut into the meat of your thumb, and you inhale sharply through your nose even though it barely hurts at all. Instinct has you sucking your injured digit into your mouth with a soft curse– the sweet juice of the fruit you were snacking on quickly overpowered by the metallic twang of blood.

You nearly jump out of your skin when he appears over you not a moment later. He makes some offhand comment about how careless you are. Takes hold of your injured hand and tuts like he intends to tease, but he isn't fooling anyone.

He stands so close, jaw ticking as he clenches his teeth, a tension in his shoulders that tells you he's doing everything in his power to keep composure. Your blood calls to him like a moth to a flame, and as funny as you find it in the moment, you don't have the heart to tease him for it. It's actually kind of endearing.

He'd only get quicker in noticing as time passes.

Especially after you've been traveling together for a few years, and he's come to know your scent better than his own. Which only makes sense considering how often he's got his nose pressed to some part of you. (He thinks you smell good.)

At this point, when you get injured in battle, he often catches the fragrance before you've even processed that you've been hit.

He'd suck in a sharp breath through his teeth– a hiss so loud that it catches your attention just enough for you to spare him a glance as you fight.

It's all you need to see just how blown his pupils are from where you're standing, mostly because his gaze is laser locked onto you to second you search for him. His movements turn faster. Deadlier, as he scans the field before you. Determined. Hungry. Angry. He's searching for the sorry wretch that dared to get the best of you– that dared spill even a drop of his beloved's precious blood upon the soil.

You've already taken them down, of course. Poor sap might have gotten a good dig in at your shoulder, but ultimately didn't stand a chance once he properly pissed you off.

Astarion's eyes go heavy.

Half-lidded in that special way of his and only darkening further as he appraises you. You can practically feel it as he follows the line of your throat, zeroes in on your pulse point for a moment, before settling to watch the warm crimson that's beginning to soak into the sleeve of your tunic.

You see a bit of concern in those eyes, but then he sees your smile and– A flash of hot, honeyed desire catches you by surprise.

You suddenly can't tell if it's just the blood loss making you woozy or if he's about to make you swoon like a maiden from an old romance novel. You try (and fail) to keep a straight face when he sinks his dagger into his final opponent's neck without so much as a glance their way.

There's a splash of red against pale white skin, and a lifeless body dropping to the grass by his feet. Your heart stutters in your chest, and he all but moans in response to the sound of it. A mere four paces and he's on you– hands and teeth and tongue exploring every inch of your exposed skin, ripping open parts of your armor to gain better access, like you're not stood in a field of gore and ruin and freshly spilled blood.

You cling to him like a lifeline.

Before he drags you away to camp– to a warm tent and a soft bedroll where he can have his way with you for as long as you and your mortal body will allow him– he has you down a potion of healing or two.

And it's a good thing one of you has a Lesser Restoration spell handy somehow, cause you're most definitely gonna need it.