#[ even if she ends up as a sentient hunk of rock ]

[idolbound]

Meredith does in fact Judge, and she will in fact, Kinkshame while she's at it.

No she does not see it as hypocritical, because she is Righteous and Correct™ :')

[shipfishwrites]

Survey: P.E.R.N. Summary

So, to begin: Pern is an acronym now. Of course it is. What a dumb reveal.

And, to further begin: “this pernicious system” is in the first line of the story, and that really ought to be the name of this blog.

Briefly: A team of people have been sent by the government (?) to look at interesting solar systems to see if they are habitable or useful for commercial interests. The story focuses on the exploration of this one habitable planet with weird dead patches on it. The team finds the planet is pretty much fine. They discover some plants and animals. (This is exciting if you can recognize them already.) Then they leave.

The Characters

Castor: he/him, no field given except perhaps Captain. Shavva: she/her, biologist, “latent qualities as a nexialist,” doubling as a botanist. “Now the default leader of the understaffed team.” the viewpoint character? Ben Turnien: he/him, geologist with some chemist in him. Sevvie Asturias: ?, paleontologist-medic, deceased Flora Neveshan: ?, zoologist-botanist, deceased Terbo: ?, zoologist-chemist, deceased Beldona: ?, second pilot and archaeologist, deceased Mo Tan Liu: he/him, nexialist, “[will] investigate whatever remaining aspects of the planet they had time to consider.”

The Events

The short story/ramble begins with Castor being pissy. (Get used to it, it’s his only character trait.) He and Shavva are having a conversation about the approach their vessel is on to their target, the third planet of a system. Shavva mentions that they will be entering normal to the ecliptic (sci-fi speak for at a right angle to the plane the planets orbit in) so they will only get to investigate the one planet, not the “heavy-weight planets” (super-earths? neptunian icey boys? gas giants? unclear) or the Oort cloud.

~ foreshadowing ~

Castor uses the word “fardles.” This is a future word for “fucking hell.” The two of them bicker about having to “double up” on investigatory duties during a trip to the surface. Ben pipes in with punchy comment that leads Castor to almost-mention that four people have died on this mission already. Two died (Flora, Sevvie) just on the last planet visited; this planet was acronymed D.E., dead end. Terbo was killed a while back, on a planet with Intelligent Life Found. Beldona died on a world Good Only For Large, Diversified Interests. Four people have died on this tour while previously they had been through four other missions unharmed. The system they are entering is identified as Rukbat; this is fifth of seven scheduled stops.

Castor can’t go down to the surface because his leg is broken. He appoints himself the holder-down-of-the-fort, and he’ll analyze all the samples and stuff the rest of the team sends back. Liu jumps in at this time (he didn’t get a line earlier, before “the four remaining team members each vividly recalled” some people dying, which is sloppy), saying he’s going to send some probes to look at the planet he’s nicknamed Numero Tres. He adds that “Federated Sentient Planets” needs to be sent a report about the recent deaths, which Castor does huffily.

Shavva does offer to do it, but Castor wants to gripe while he does it.

The Oort cloud is mentioned again. I should add that, unlike Kuiper belts, Oort clouds completely envelop solar systems on all sides; the ship should have been able to analyze the section of the cloud they zipped through even if it was on the normal. 

Ben talks about a “space virus” theory of planetary death and/or Oort cloud existence. Two of the planets they had visited this mission had had life but was stripped: Ben acknowledges he has no idea about one, but the other he theorizes to have been sterilized by repeated asteroid impacts. Ben thinks the space virus thing is bunk; Castor teases him about a Hoyle Wickramansingh theory; Ben thinks it’s bunk; Liu says yeah but that one fits all the particulars -- “What we really need is one in the process of being stripped.”

~ foreshadowing ~

I’d like to note that these theories are never mentioned again, despite being the obvious answer to a mystery presented on the next page.

There is a bit of narration as we learn a touch more about the mission and the people. Their specialties are introduced, their organization is introduced, and there is a brief overview of what sort of life and geology they will be looking for. Shavva mourns that she joined the Exploration and Evaluation Corps for the cool discoveries but didn’t expect to see her friends die.

The specialties, by the way, are weird? Like Ben is supposedly, after a ten-day whirlwind tour, supposed to be able to tell the geologic history of the planet for the last million years, and possibly find evidence of mass extinctions. Uh..... what? Did AM not know that mass extinctions are hard to find? In fact we kind of discovered a new one like, last year? Also Shavva is supposedly going to be able to make decent guesses as to whether native pollinators will be able to handle human crops, and whether things are majorly toxic. That... is not how ecology or toxicology work.

Also, I’d like to make another note: the deaths mentioned frequently throughout the story don’t amount to anything. They add Zero meaning to the story; it would progress no differently with the team was originally composed of four members, not eight.

Anyway, the probe data comes back, and it’s all the Pern stuff -- .9 G gravity, oceans, land, vegetation. Some volcanoes in a “chain of islands extending from the southern hemisphere” (that’s a foreshadow) and... oops, some weird circles? The pictures the probe sends back show barren “groups of circular patches, like ripples overlapping each other”. Ben thinks it might be a fungus.

The narration says Castor blames himself for the deaths, earlier, and that’s why he’s mean. Boo-hoo.

We cut to Shavva landing the shuttle in a grassland that seems suspiciously like the Landing field. Shavva thinks the terrain and air and such are quite nice and unspoiled, and the team begins to take measurements. The find nothing amiss with the barren soil, and note that plants are beginning to re-take the earth. Shavva notes “Great wind systems on this planet,” as if she’s visited the whole thing and not just one field. The team begins to hop west, chasing the sun, taking samples and soil cores and venture a bit inland to take rock cores. The planet doesn’t seem to have much “easily accessible ore or mineral wealth.”

They overnight at a beautiful cove that seems suspiciously like the location of Cove Hold. They same some algae, remark upon exoskeleton-having marine life, and find a motile fungus (???). They spot larger creatures in the water, then build a fire to keep themselves warm, and also to attract bugs. Liu seems disturbed that they haven’t found any large land animals yet.

Ben says they saw fat flying creatures earlier, those count. Liu disagrees. He thinks the ecology is missing elements. (You’re right, Liu. I like you.)

The next day, they go on to the ice caps and take some cores, then they head off to the norther of the two continents. Liu is worried about not seeing large animals and Shavva avoids a “reptiloid” animal... which is 10 cm wide and 7m long. Um.... Anne? That’s more than 21 feet. That’s a Large Animal. Also Liu calls the birds “wherries” because he recalls the name of a kind of barge. There is an unclear number of species; “two identifiable types” are mentioned, but it’s unclear whether that’s two species or large wherry and then some small ones or one big and one small. They find bugs, “a thousand types”, and eggs. (Dragonet eggs.)

They go to a tar pit and find 50kya ruminant fossils. Also apparently the grass isn’t grass? It’s not silica-rich, so why would ruminants have evolved anyway. Confusing and bad. (Anyway, this 50kya number is important: it is when I estimate thread began falling.)

Also, they find a “diamond pipe” in a rift valley fault. Shavva takes a hunk of diamond the size of her fist. (What was that about no mineral wealth?? Apparently diamonds aren’t valuable anymore, the galactic economy uses different cool gems now. Probably a lowkey shout-out to the Crystal Singers series.)

Ben, Liu, and Shavva talk a little bit more about how pleasant Numero Tres is to work on; Liu isn’t fully convinced there isn’t a problem, but he grudgingly agrees that yeah, this planet at least has earned an initial P.E., Parallel Earth. The team goes north and stops on Ista island. They find a tiny horrible creature who is my baby now who has no mouth and at least two tentacles, who gets spined by a needlethorn. The team packs up the spent needlethorn for analysis.

That night, as they prepare to send the day’s samples to Castor, Liu finds some glow-fungus. It’s cute. He calls it “Some kind of luminous variety of mycelium” which is a really weird way to say “glowing fungus.” Then, interrupting Liu playing peekaboo with the glow-light, the team hears some peeping and they go see a fair of dragonets -- in all colors -- playing games in the forest. All of the characters are quick to call these creatures magnificent and beautiful and gorgeous. They agree the creatures are “marginally sentient”. Ben hopes they’ll find large, related organisms for Liu to squeal over.

~ foreshadowing ~

They go look at reef systems the next day. Then they go to the tropical eastern peninsula (Nerat) and look at more reefs, which are apparently growing so old that they have fossils going back 500 my. Whaaaaaaat the fuck. You mean the oceans haven’t moved? This one spot. Has just been growing the same coral. For half-a-billion years. AM what the fuck.

Ben notes that the rainforest isn’t “stale-mated” which he thinks reinforces his theory about a recent meteorite storm, but which is actually a fairly subtle note about threadfall. Also, dude, you’ve found no geological evidence of impacts. So.... space virus it has to be.

The narration switches abruptly to talking about the circles, letting you know What Was Just Discussed It Relevant, and it is noted that the circles aren’t descructive enough to be meteorite impacts. The circles occur everywhere except the ice caps and “one small band of the southern hemisphere” (why???).

They do some more coring and go over the central delta area of the northern continent, noting that the area of Crom and Telgar has lodes of various minerals like iron and bauxite -- but it’s not enough goods to interest a mining consortium. They even find impressive gold nuggets just laying out in a stream: Shavva takes one the size of the end of her thumb.

And then... The part I like the least about this story. Shavva finds a tree with some good-smelling bark. And then... you have to know where this is going...

She boils it and drinks it. 

I’m.

Hey, Anne? That’s not how anything works. First of all, Shavva is a fucking idiot for eating some tree skin from an alien planet. Like, a fruit? A fruit I could get, fruits have been evolved for animals to eat them (not Earth animals, but still) but bark is Not Edible. There are only a very few barks on Earth that are edible and none of them are foods  they are spices. Shavva what the fuck!! Also! It’s fucking obvious that you’d have to dry and cure the klahbark before you can consume it! Why would you want some bitter, sappy, wet bark boiled in a pot to drink! Fucking eww!

Also Liu’s inner narration says “he, too, found the odor stimulating to his salivary glands” which is a really weird way to say “it smelled tasty.” Ben tries the second draft, which is brewed like a coffee, and gives the standard Klah Description (coffee, chocolate, but a little spicy). I’d also like to note it took No Breeding to get the klahbark perfectly edible and delicious. I’m just really mad about this one particular thing because it is so egregious.

Aaaand then the story starts to wrap up; the three are happy to let Castor call the planet Parallel Earth, Resources Negligible, unless they discover something crazy in the soil analyses that we never heard back about. Castor goes ahead and puts that tiny little c next to the acronym, because it can be colonized.

“That is, if any colonial group wanted to settle on a pastoral planet, far off the established trade routes, and about as far from the center of the Federated Sentient headquarters as one could go in the known galaxy.”

~ foreshadowing ~

[ao3feed-voltronlegendarydefender]

Concerts? Another Paladin Duty

read it on the AO3 at Concerts? Another Paladin Duty

by Drag0nBairn

The war is over, or so everyone thinks. When retrieving the Blue Lion for Princess Allura, they happen to find a paladin. A boy band memeber from the same famous rock band Keith Kogane, Krolia's secret, no-longer lost son.

When they travel back to Arus after the runaway lion, they find that five of those six band members qualify as paladins. The other, a tech genius and capable leader in his own right.

And its just in time as well.

The mess left behind after Zarkon died is even more unstable then anyone thought, and they face new enemies like never before. Are they able to train new paladins in time, deal with upset Earth hostilities because a giant sentient ship kidnapped civilians and beloved celebrities for fighting in a war, and they all become strong enough as teams and allies in the face of an enemy they underestimated?

Can they judge who to trust in this roiling landscape?

Will the paladins see their family again?

Can the coalition get unitied for equal goals?

Can any of the rebellion actually deal with a set of cryptid-like pop stars?

Will Krolia's son forgive her?

Will Keith stop eating things with a butter knife?

Find out at our next concert!

Words: 2651, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M, M/M, Multi

Characters: Keith (Voltron), Keith's Family (Voltron), Keith's Father (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron), Hunk (Voltron), Lance (Voltron), Veronica (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt's Family, Matt Holt, Allura (Voltron), Coran (Voltron), Krolia (Voltron), Kolivan (Voltron), Antok (Voltron), Thace (Voltron), Ulaz (Voltron), The Blade of Marmora, Shay (Voltron), kosmo

Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron), Keith's Father/Krolia (Voltron), Antok/Kolivan (Voltron), Thace/Ulaz (Voltron), Matt Holt/N-7, Allura/Lance (Voltron), Colleen Holt/Sam Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt & Voltron Paladins, Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk & Keith (Voltron), Matt Holt & Keith, Lance & Shiro (Voltron), Matt Holt & Shiro, Shiro & Voltron Paladins, Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Hunk & Shiro (Voltron), Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Hunk & Shay (Voltron), Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Hunk & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Matt Holt & Keith & Shiro, Matt Holt & Hunk, Matt Holt & Pidge | Katie Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt & Pidge | Katie Holt's Family, Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Matt Holt & Lance, Allura & Shiro (Voltron), Allura & Keith (Voltron), Allura & Pidge | Katie Holt, Allura & Hunk (Voltron), Allura & Matt Holt, Keith & Krolia (Voltron), Keith & Keith's Father (Voltron), Keith & The Blade of Marmora, Keith & Kolivan (Voltron), Antok & Keith (Voltron), Keith & Thace (Voltron), Keith & Ulaz (Voltron), Keith & Regris (Voltron), Allura/Lotor (Voltron), Allura/Lance/Lotor (Voltron), Hunk/Romelle/Shay (Voltron), Hunk/Romelle (Voltron), Acxa/Veronica (Voltron), Ezor/Zethrid (Voltron), Romelle & The Blade of Marmora, Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Krolia & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Romelle & Shiro

Additional Tags: Evil Lotor (Voltron), I Don't Even Know, Not Canon Compliant, Alternate Universe - Boy Band, Alternate Universe, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt is a Mess, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Trans Pidge | Katie Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt is Savage, Matt Holt is a Good Sibling, Rebel Matt Holt, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Everyone Has Issues, Keith (Voltron) Has BPD, Keith (Voltron) Has Abandonment Issues, Keith (Voltron) Has Anxiety, Lance (Voltron) Has ADHD, Hunk (Voltron) Has Anxiety, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Samoan Hunk (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Has Anxiety, BAMF Allura (Voltron), Angst with a Happy Ending, Not Voltron: Legendary Defender Season/Series 08 Compliant, Fluff and Humor, Crack Treated Seriously, Families of Choice, Unconventional Families, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Homesick Lance (Voltron), Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Galra Keith (Voltron), Dads of Marmora (Voltron), Thace (Voltron) Lives, Ulaz (Voltron) Lives, ANTOK LIVES, Good Lotor (Voltron), Makes sense in context, You need to wait a while though, Everyone is Queer, They have a lgbt+ concert to showcase it, author is making a lot of art, be patient im slow, Oh Shiro has adhd too, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Nonbinary Character, trans author, Paladins are rock stars that somehow made it and are shomehow paladins now, the blue lion kidnapped them like canon, And matt, hes living that rebel life, with long hair, his mom cant make him cut it in space, Earth is UPSET aliens and a spaceship stole their civilians and rockstars, A ship kidnapped people of course they are confused, The Blades and Rebels are confused okay, If you are reading tags for what pidge you want they are genderfluid between fem and enby, so you get both pidge and katie and she and they, don't know your cup of tea, I might be using lyrics from irl songs because i cant song write, Be patient, Distressed Krolia, Confused Kolivan, Tired Kolivan, Protective Kolivan (Voltron), Supportive Krolia (Voltron), Parental Krolia (Voltron), Protective Krolia (Voltron), BAMF Krolia (Voltron), Krolia is trying she is proud though okay that is her son on stage, The gang is like i dont know what to do so ill keep being rockstars too, aliens just roll w it, it lets them get into Galran occupied areas too?, Let pidge say fuck Matt, Cryptid Keith, he gets it from his mom, Cryptid Pidge, Thats probably matt shiro and keiths fault, Holts adopted shiro

read it on the AO3 at Concerts? Another Paladin Duty

[ao3feed-keithshiro]

Concerts? Another Paladin Duty

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2Uf8Z1a

by Drag0nBairn

The war is over, or so everyone thinks. When retrieving the Blue Lion for Princess Allura, they happen to find a paladin. A boy band memeber from the same famous rock band Keith Kogane, Krolia's secret, no-longer lost son.

When they travel back to Arus after the runaway lion, they find that five of those six band members qualify as paladins. The other, a tech genius and capable leader in his own right.

And its just in time as well.

The mess left behind after Zarkon died is even more unstable then anyone thought, and they face new enemies like never before. Are they able to train new paladins in time, deal with upset Earth hostilities because a giant sentient ship kidnapped civilians and beloved celebrities for fighting in a war, and they all become strong enough as teams and allies in the face of an enemy they underestimated?

Can they judge who to trust in this roiling landscape?

Will the paladins see their family again?

Can the coalition get unitied for equal goals?

Can any of the rebellion actually deal with a set of cryptid-like pop stars?

Will Krolia's son forgive her?

Will Keith stop eating things with a butter knife?

Find out at our next concert!

Words: 2651, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M, M/M, Multi

Characters: Keith (Voltron), Keith's Family (Voltron), Keith's Father (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron), Hunk (Voltron), Lance (Voltron), Veronica (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt's Family, Matt Holt, Allura (Voltron), Coran (Voltron), Krolia (Voltron), Kolivan (Voltron), Antok (Voltron), Thace (Voltron), Ulaz (Voltron), The Blade of Marmora, Shay (Voltron), kosmo

Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron), Keith's Father/Krolia (Voltron), Antok/Kolivan (Voltron), Thace/Ulaz (Voltron), Matt Holt/N-7, Allura/Lance (Voltron), Colleen Holt/Sam Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt & Voltron Paladins, Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk & Keith (Voltron), Matt Holt & Keith, Lance & Shiro (Voltron), Matt Holt & Shiro, Shiro & Voltron Paladins, Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Hunk & Shiro (Voltron), Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Hunk & Shay (Voltron), Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Hunk & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Matt Holt & Keith & Shiro, Matt Holt & Hunk, Matt Holt & Pidge | Katie Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt & Pidge | Katie Holt's Family, Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Matt Holt & Lance, Allura & Shiro (Voltron), Allura & Keith (Voltron), Allura & Pidge | Katie Holt, Allura & Hunk (Voltron), Allura & Matt Holt, Keith & Krolia (Voltron), Keith & Keith's Father (Voltron), Keith & The Blade of Marmora, Keith & Kolivan (Voltron), Antok & Keith (Voltron), Keith & Thace (Voltron), Keith & Ulaz (Voltron), Keith & Regris (Voltron), Allura/Lotor (Voltron), Allura/Lance/Lotor (Voltron), Hunk/Romelle/Shay (Voltron), Hunk/Romelle (Voltron), Acxa/Veronica (Voltron), Ezor/Zethrid (Voltron), Romelle & The Blade of Marmora, Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Krolia & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Romelle & Shiro

Additional Tags: Evil Lotor (Voltron), I Don't Even Know, Not Canon Compliant, Alternate Universe - Boy Band, Alternate Universe, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt is a Mess, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Trans Pidge | Katie Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt is Savage, Matt Holt is a Good Sibling, Rebel Matt Holt, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Everyone Has Issues, Keith (Voltron) Has BPD, Keith (Voltron) Has Abandonment Issues, Keith (Voltron) Has Anxiety, Lance (Voltron) Has ADHD, Hunk (Voltron) Has Anxiety, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Samoan Hunk (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Has Anxiety, BAMF Allura (Voltron), Angst with a Happy Ending, Not Voltron: Legendary Defender Season/Series 08 Compliant, Fluff and Humor, Crack Treated Seriously, Families of Choice, Unconventional Families, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Homesick Lance (Voltron), Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Galra Keith (Voltron), Dads of Marmora (Voltron), Thace (Voltron) Lives, Ulaz (Voltron) Lives, ANTOK LIVES, Good Lotor (Voltron), Makes sense in context, You need to wait a while though, Everyone is Queer, They have a lgbt+ concert to showcase it, author is making a lot of art, be patient im slow, Oh Shiro has adhd too, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Nonbinary Character, trans author, Paladins are rock stars that somehow made it and are shomehow paladins now, the blue lion kidnapped them like canon, And matt, hes living that rebel life, with long hair, his mom cant make him cut it in space, Earth is UPSET aliens and a spaceship stole their civilians and rockstars, A ship kidnapped people of course they are confused, The Blades and Rebels are confused okay, If you are reading tags for what pidge you want they are genderfluid between fem and enby, so you get both pidge and katie and she and they, don't know your cup of tea, I might be using lyrics from irl songs because i cant song write, Be patient, Distressed Krolia, Confused Kolivan, Tired Kolivan, Protective Kolivan (Voltron), Supportive Krolia (Voltron), Parental Krolia (Voltron), Protective Krolia (Voltron), BAMF Krolia (Voltron), Krolia is trying she is proud though okay that is her son on stage, The gang is like i dont know what to do so ill keep being rockstars too, aliens just roll w it, it lets them get into Galran occupied areas too?, Let pidge say fuck Matt, Cryptid Keith, he gets it from his mom, Cryptid Pidge, Thats probably matt shiro and keiths fault, Holts adopted shiro

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2Uf8Z1a

[878-sparksofmagic]

whoa look guys,,, space dragon pfft. This is Unu-Verse,, she took me wAy too long to finish pfft.

They a god, responsible for expanding the universe and filling it with various land hunks and gas balls, which other gods use to make planets and stars and stuff with. They used to do other stuff too, until some of the other gods destroyed her glorious lizard birds on that specially cultivated planet called Earth. They got so mad afterwards that they ended up creating black holes, pulsar stars, super novas, and other various terrifying unavoidable instant death stuff, which just ended up wiping out moooore of his planets. So now they wander the ends of the universe, alone, and forgotten by even most other gods.  

-Pronouns switch based off whatever he wants, whenever they want.

-Larger then the biggest galaxy, smaller then the tiniest quark

-Will literally project into your mind to speak so… language isn’t an issue.

-Probably really sad, too bitter to talk to anyone.

-Time is a construct of “sentient” creatures.

-Low-key (very very high-key) hates herself

-Random space stuff accumulates around and inside his body.

-Tail spews out new hunks of space

-Forbidden Knowledge and unlimited creativity, yet almost always just creates more rocks

-Can be seen however she wishes.

-Humans=Almost Always Evil

-listen their really sad okay

@just1cuppa u wanted to know about space dragon friend? here he be pfft

[theskyrimlibrary]

A Dance in Fire, v4

A Dance in Fire Chapter 4 By Waughin Jarth

✲•······················▃🖋️······················•✲

Eighteen Bosmeri and one Cyrodilic former senior clerk for an Imperial building commission trudged through the jungle westward from the Xylo River to the ancient village of Vindisi. For Decumus Scotti, the jungle was hostile, unfamiliar ground. The enormous vermiculated trees filled the bright morning with darkness, and resembled nothing so much as grasping claws, bent on impeding their progress. Even the fronds of the low plants quivered with malevolent energy. What was worse, he was not alone in his anxiety. His fellow travelers, the natives who had survived the Khajit attacks on the villages of Grenos and Athay, wore faces of undisguised fear.

There was something sentient in the jungle, and not merely the mad but benevolent indigenous spirits. In his peripheral vision, Scotti could see the shadows of the Khajiiti following the refugees, leaping from tree to tree. When he turned to face them, the lithe forms vanished into the gloom as if they had never been there. But he knew he had seen them. And the Bosmeri saw them too, and quickened their pace.

After eighteen hours, bitten raw by insects, scratched by a thousand thorns, they emerged into a valley clearing. It was night, but a row of blazing torches greeted them, illuminating the leather-wrought tents and jumbled stones of the hamlet of Vindisi. At the end of the valley, the torches marked a sacred site, a gnarled bower of trees pressed closed together to form a temple. Wordlessly, the Bosmeri walked the torch arcade toward the trees. Scotti followed them. When they reached the solid mass of living wood with only one gaping portal, Scotti could see a dim blue light glowing within. A low sonorous moan from a hundred voices echoed within. The Bosmeri maiden he had been following held out her hand, stopping him.

“You do not understand, but no outsider, not even a friend may enter,” she said. “This is a holy place.”

Scotti nodded, and watched the refugees march into the temple, heads bowed. Their voices joined with the ones within. When the last wood elf had gone inside, Scotti turned his attention back to the village. There must be food to be had somewhere. A tendril of smoke and a faint whiff of roasting venison beyond the torchlight led him.

They were five Cyrodiils, two Bretons, and a Nord, the group gathered around a campfire of glowing white stones, pulling steaming strips of meat from the cadaver of a great stag. At Scotti’s approach, they rose up, all but the Nord who was distracted by his hunk of animal flesh.

“Good evening, sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering if I might have a little something to eat. I’m afraid I’m rather hungry, after walking all day with some refugees from Grenos and Athay.”

They bade him to sit down and eat, and introduced themselves.

“So the war’s back on, it seems,” said Scotti amiably.

“Best thing for these effete do-nothings,” replied the Nord in between bites. “I’ve never seen such a lazy culture. Now they’ve got the Khajiiti striking them on land, and the high elves at sea. If there’s any province that deserves a little distress, it’s damnable Valenwood.”

“I don’t see how they’re so offensive to you,” laughed one of the Bretons.

“They’re congenital thieves, even worse than the Khajiiti because they are so blessed meek in their aggression,” the Nord spat out a gob of fat which sizzled on the hot stones of the fire. “They spread their forests into territory that doesn’t belong to them, slowly infiltrating their neighbors, and they’re puzzled when Elsweyr shoves back at them. They’re all villains of the worst order.”

“What are you doing here?” asked Scotti.

“I’m a diplomat from the court of Jehenna,” muttered the Nord, returning to his food.

“What about you, what are you doing here?” asked one of the Cyrodiils.

“I work for Lord Atrius’s building commission in the Imperial City,” said Scotti. “One of my former colleagues suggested that I come down to Valenwood. He said the war was over, and I could contract a great deal of business for my firm rebuilding what was lost. One disaster after another, and I’ve lost all my money, I’m in the middle of a rekindling of war, and I cannot find my former colleague.”

“Your former colleague,” murmured another of the Cyrodiils, who had introduced himself as Reglius. “He wasn’t by any chance named Liodes Jurus, was he?”

“You know him?”

“He lured me down to Valenwood in nearly the exact same circumstances,” smiled Reglius, grimly. “I worked for your employer’s competitor, Lord Vanech’s men, where Liodes Jurus also formerly worked. He wrote to me, asking that I represent an Imperial building commission and contract some post-war construction. I had just been released from my employment, and I thought that if I brought some new business, I could have my job back. Jurus and I met in Athay, and he said he was going to arrange a very lucrative meeting with the Silvenar.”

Scotti was stunned: “Where is he now?”

“I’m no theologian, so I couldn’t say,” Reglius shrugged. “He’s dead. When the Khajiiti attacked Athay, they began by torching the harbor where Jurus was readying his boat. Or, I should say, my boat since it was purchased with the gold I brought. By the time we were even aware of what was happening enough to flee, everything by the water was ash. The Khajiiti may be animals, but they know how to arrange an attack.”

“I think they followed us through the jungle to Vindisi,” said Scotti nervously. “There was definitely a group of something jumping along the treetops.”

“Probably one of the monkey folk,” snorted the Nord. “Nothing to be concerned about.”

“When we first came to Vindisi and the Bosmeri all entered that tree, they were furious, whispering something about unleashing an ancient terror on their enemies,” the Breton shivered, remembering. “They’ve been there ever since, for over a day and a half now. If you want something to be afraid of, that’s the direction to look.”

The other Breton, who was a representative of the Daggerfall Mages Guild, was staring off into the darkness while his fellow provincial spoke. “Maybe. But there’s something in the jungle too, right on the edge of the village, looking in.”

“More refugees maybe?” asked Scotti, trying to keep the alarm out of his voice.

“Not unless they’re travelling through the trees now,” whispered the wizard. The Nord and one of the Cyrodiils grabbed a long tarp of wet leather and pulled it across the fire, instantly extinguishing it without so much as a sizzle. Now Scotti could see the intruders, their elliptical yellow eyes and long cruel blades catching the torchlight. He froze with fear, praying that he too was not so visible to them.

He felt something bump against his back, and gasped.

Reglius’s voice hissed from up above: “Be quiet for Mara’s sake and climb up here.”

Scotti grabbed hold of the knotted double-vine that hung down from a tall tree at the edge of the dead campfire. He scrambled up it as quickly as he could, holding his breath lest any grunt of exertion escape him. At the top of the vine, high above the village, was an abandoned nest from some great bird in a trident-shaped branch. As soon as Scotti had pulled himself into the soft, fragrant straw, Reglius pulled up the vine. No one else was there, and when Scotti looked down, he could see no one below. No one, that is except the Khajiiti, slowly moving toward the glow of the temple tree.

“Thank you,” whispered Scotti, deeply touched that a competitor had helped him. He turned away from the village, and saw that the tree’s upper branches brushed against the mossy rock walls that surrounded the valley below. “How are you at climbing?”

“You’re mad,” said Reglius under his breath. “We should stay here until they leave.”

“If they burn Vindisi like they did Athay and Grenos, we’ll be dead for sure as if we were on the ground,” Scotti began the slow careful climb up the tree, testing each branch. “Can you see what they’re doing?”

“I can’t really tell,” Reglius stared down into the gloom. “They’re at the front of the temple. I think they also have ... it looks like long ropes, trailing off behind them, off into the pass.”

Scotti crawled onto the strongest branch that pointed toward the wet, rocky face of the cliff. It was not a far jump at all. So close, in fact, that he could smell the moisture and feel the coolness of the stone. But it was a jump nevertheless, and in his history as a clerk, he had never before leapt from a tree a hundred feet off the ground to a sheer rock. He pictured in his mind’s eye the shadows that had pursued him through the jungle from the heights above. How their legs coiled to spring, how their arms snapped forward in an elegant fluid motion to grasp. He leapt.

His hands grappled for rock, but long thick cords of moss were more accessible. He held hard, but when he tried to plant his feet forward, they slipped up skyward. For a few seconds, he found himself upside down before he managed to pull himself into a more conventional position. There was a narrow outcropping jutting out of the cliff where he could stand and finally exhale.

“Reglius. Reglius. Reglius,” Scotti did not dare to call out. In a minute, there was a shaking of branches, and Lord Vanech’s man emerged. First his satchel, then his head, then the rest of him. Scotti started to whisper something, but Reglius shook his head violently and pointed downward. One of the Khajiiti was at the base of the tree, peering at the remains of the campfire.

Reglius awkwardly tried to balance himself on the branch, but as strong as it was it was exceedingly difficult with only one free hand. Scotti cupped his palms and then pointed at the satchel. It seemed to pain Reglius to let it out of his grasp, but he relented and tossed it to Scotti.

There was a small, almost invisible hole in the bag, and when Scotti caught it, a single gold coin dropped out. It rang as it bounced against the rock wall on the descent, a high soft sound that seemed like the loudest alarm Scotti had ever heard.

Then many things happened very quickly.

The Cathay-Raht at the base of the tree looked up and gave a loud wail. The other Khajiiti followed in chorus, as the cat below crouched down and then sprung up into the lower branches. Reglius saw it below him, climbing up with impossible dexterity, and panicked. Even before he jumped, Scotti could tell that he was going to fall. With a cry, Reglius the Clerk plunged to the ground, breaking his neck on impact.

A flash of white light erupted from every crevice of the temple, and the moan of the Bosmeri prayer changed into something terrible and otherworldly. The climbing Cathay-Raht stopped and stared.

“Keirgo,” it gasped. “The Wild Hunt.”

It was as if a crack in reality had opened wide. A flood of horrific beasts, tentacled toads, insects of armor and spine, gelatinous serpents, vaporous beings with the face of gods, all poured forth from the great hollow tree, blind with fury. They tore the Khajiiti in front of the temple to pieces. All the other cats fled for the jungle, but as they did so, they began pulling on the ropes they carried. In a few seconds time, the entire village of Vindisi was boiling with the lunatic apparitions of the Wild Hunt.

Over the babbling, barking, howling horde, Scotti heard the Cyrodiils in hiding cry out as they were devoured. The Nord too was found and eaten, and both Bretons. The wizard had turned himself invisible, but the swarm did not rely on their sight. The tree the Cathay-Raht was in began to sway and rock from the impossible violence beneath it. Scotti looked at the Khajiiti’s fear-struck eyes, and held out one of the cords of moss.

The cat’s face showed its pitiful gratitude as it leapt for the vine. It didn’t have time to entirely replace that expression when Scotti pulled back the cord, and watched it fall. The Hunt consumed it to the bone before it struck the ground.

Scotti’s own jump up to the next outcropping of rock was immeasurably more successful. From there, he pulled himself to the top of the cliff and was able to look down into the chaos that had been the village of Vindisi. The Hunt’s mass had grown and began to spill out through the pass out of the valley, pursuing the fleeing Khajiiti. It was then that the madness truly began.

In the moon’s light, from Scotti’s vantage, he could see where the Khajiiti had attached their ropes. With a thunderous boom, an avalanche of boulders poured over the pass. When the dust cleared, he saw that the valley had been sealed. The Wild Hunt had nowhere to turn but on itself.

Scotti turned his head, unable to bear to look at the cannibalistic orgy. The night jungle stood before him, a web of wood. He slung Reglius’s satchel over his shoulder, and entered.

✲•······················▃🖋️······················•✲

[starryeyed-char]

a drabble™

Prompt- Hey idk if you do request but if you do could you make some Lance fluff along the lines of where Lance finds a abandon infant on a mission and he sneaks it into the castle and basically raises it. I love your blog TYSM- anon

This took me way too long to write... I don’t even remember how long ago the request was sent? Sorry! I’ve figured out I’m much better at angst than fluff, except for when the fluff comes after angst. Fluff on its own? I’m not as good at that. This is pretty short, just a drabble really, so it won’t be on my AO3 (probably). And since it’s not a full one-shot,,, it doesn’t have a title. Oops. I’m not sure how I feel about it, so if you like it let me know I guess? I hope you like it, anon! Still, this was really fun to write!

“This is why I have trust issues,” Lance grumbled to himself, pushing vines out of his way with the end of his bayard.

According to Allura, the mission was supposed to be nothing more than routine scouting. A distress beacon had been detected, but her scans picked up no alien settlements, or organisms besides plants. But she'd insisted that they check anyway, so they'd all flown down in their lions and split up to search.

The princess had declared the planet 'entirely harmless,' much to Hunk's skepticism. Lance was beginning to realize that they should start listening to the yellow paladin's instincts.

Carnivorous plants seemed to be lurking around every corner. Vines tried to grab his feet, large venus fly-traps snapped as he walked past, and he guessed a decent amount of the vegetation was poisonous, since he could do nothing but cough after taking his helmet off for just ten seconds, even if his scanners picked up oxygen in the atmosphere.

And now his coms weren't working. His earpiece, which should've brought with it the voices of the rest of the team, now only seemed to be able to echo static. The constant white noise was becoming increasingly annoying, but Lance couldn't remove his helmet, and he didn't want to shut off his coms in case the connection returned.

All things considered, it was no wonder he didn't hear the loud, pitiful sobs right away. But when he did, Lance wasted no time in rushing towards the sound, nearly falling over an offending tree root as he did so. Annoying, but Lance counted his blessings that the tree wasn't sentient.

He pushed his way into a small clearing in the area, and his eyes immediately snagged on the moving bundle on the floor. Writhing inside a pile of blankets was... a baby?

It was about the same size as a human infant, but the similarities stopped there. Its skin was tinged a bright orange, with green eyes that were solid in color. Darker spots of orange that bordered on red were scattered across the child's nose and cheeks, and its ears were pointed.

Her ears were pointed, Lance realized, as the baby kicked the blanket away. He was there in a moment, family instincts kicking in as he lifted the baby into his arms, rewrapping the blanket around her. She blinked at him, cries stopping almost instantaneously, and made a completely unintelligible sound.

The sudden cut off of static and Allura's voice in his ear nearly made Lance drop the baby. “Paladins, return to your lions. It appears that whoever left the distress beacon must've left the planet ages ago. Did any of you find anything?”

Lance wasn't sure what made him do it. Maybe he didn't want to hear what he knew the others would tell him, that they couldn't keep a child on board the castle ship while fighting a war. But he couldn't just abandon her, not when she was still staring at him happily like that.

“No, I didn't find anything,” Lance told them, then shut off his coms. He stared down at the baby, and let loose a resigned sigh. “How am I going to pilot with you?”

Lance stared at the baby in his arms, sleeping contentedly back in his room.

“I really didn't think this through, did I?” he ran a hand through his hair. “Do we have any food for babies on this ship? And where am I going to get you clothes? Where will you sleep?! What'll I do when I have to go fly the blue lion, and form Voltron? Take you with me?” He collapsed backwards onto the bed, the infant now sleeping soundly on his chest.

Thankfully the team didn't have any pressing missions planned, just some rough training schedules. Lance was able to make do. Food goo turned out to be edible for the baby, and he found diapers in the infirmary. Unfortunately, he'd had to make some pretty weird excuses to Coran for that one, but Lance didn't mind. No clothes, but she didn't seem to want to wear anything besides her blanket or Lance's jacket, anyway. Lance had started calling her Rosie, somewhat after his little sister Rosa, who also had a passion for stealing Lance's clothes.

Hunk had even managed to create some sort of milk substitute, though he never told him what it was for. Another plus of being best friends with Hunk, he'd help you out with no questions asked, figuring you'd just explain it to him later.

The kid didn't even cry that much, not when in close proximity to Lance. Everything went surprisingly smoothly, at least for the first few days. Lance knew he was good at sneaking around from back at the Garrison, but it surprised him just how little the others paid attention to him on the ship during down time. If he was spending less time at meals with the others, no one seemed to notice.

It only stung a little, knowing that if Shiro or Keith tried to hide something like this, it wouldn't work in the slightest. They were too important.

Still, Lance couldn't complain, if it meant keeping Rosie on the ship.

Then came the crib.

Lance found it in an old Altean nursery room. The castle was a castle, after all, so it had plenty of normally functioning rooms. The crib was a little dusty, but Lance had fixed it up, tucked Rosie in under the blanket and his jacket once she was asleep, and then gone to bed himself.

He awoke hours later to crying and screaming from the crib, and he rushed forward to shush her, rocking the child back to sleep. It was only after she quieted down that Lance heard the loud pounding knocks on his door.

He opened it, albeit reluctantly, to reveal Keith in nothing but his signature shirt and boxer shorts, looking considerably panicked. “What the hell was that?”

“What was what?” Lance asked innocently, leaning against the doorframe to obscure the crib from view.

Keith raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “I heard screaming.”

“Oh, that was... me! I was having, um, a nightmare,” he twiddled his thumbs, refusing to meet Keith's eye.

Lance had no idea how he got away with it, later on. Keith was bad with social cues, and probably mistook Lance's awkwardness for embarrassment rather than lying.

Keith stared at Lance for a few moments, before turning and retreating back to his room next door. “Well, quiet down,” he grumbled. “And you scream like a little girl.”

It was one of Lance's first times in his lion after that mission to the abandoned planet when everything fell apart. Surprisingly enough, there were no problems during battle, as Lance had put Rosie down for a nap. The issue was when Allura ran a scan of the castle to check for possible trackers after they retreated, and instead found an extra life form on board the ship.

“There appears to be an intruder!” she declared over the coms. “Her signature isn't moving around, but I'll pull up a video feed of her location now!”

“Where is she?”

“Lance's room,” the princess answered.

“Wait, princess, don't-”

But the gasp from Allura was enough to tell him he was already too late. Luckily, she didn't decide to tell the others until after they'd returned to the castle, when the lions were safely in their hangars.

“Lance has a baby?!” Hunk asked, his voice reaching an impossible pitch. “And none of us noticed? How the quiznak have you been taking care of it for so long?”

“When did he have the time to manage that?” Pidge wondered aloud.

“It's not my baby!” Lance exclaimed, outraged. “I just... I found her, on that planet last week, with the distress signal? And I didn't want to just abandon her, but I knew you guys wouldn't want an infant on the castle so... I tried to keep it from you?” He looked up nervously to meet their eyes, and Shiro met his gaze, unamused.

“I don't know how you could ever have imagined this would last permanently,” Shiro muttered, before a small smile spread across his face. “But I'm impressed you hid it for this long. And you've taken pretty good care of her.”

“Did you really think we'd tell you to just leave her?” Keith asked, staring down at the baby that was now refusing to let go of his pinky finger.

Lance shrugged, glancing hopelessly at Allura. Her stern glare softened.

“We cannot keep a child on the castle, not when we are constantly fighting Zarkon,” she began. “But... until we find her a new home, you can care for her here, Lance. Now that all of us know, we should be able to keep her safe until we find a family.”

“We'll... we'll be able to visit though, right?” Lance asked, staring fondly down at the sleeping Rosie in his arms.

“Of course.”

[notbecauseofvictories]

psst! thoughts on Lyra Erso, especially what you think might've happened if she had somehow survived? does she get to meet Beru and Breha, do they form a little club of middle-aged women in the Rebellion?

The crystal was…interesting. 

Breha had wandered over to the cluttered table out of vague interest—amid the looming structures and finicky-looking equipment, the table was the only thing she trusted herself not to damage. It was a chaotic mess, tools and rock samples and notes scrawled on flimsi all scattered, stacked haphazardly. But Breha’s gaze had been drawn to the innocuous white crystal immediately. She couldn’t help picking it up, turning it over in her hand. Someone had drilled a hole through one end, and threaded a cord through it, as though it was meant to be worn as a pendant.

It felt oddly warm against her skin, like something living.

Breha thought of Leia inexplicably, and for a moment she panicked—but Leia was fine, stuck in yet another strategy meeting. She would be there in the mess for dinner, probably arguing with Captain Solo, or trying to bite back a grin as Luke teased Lieutenant Antilles. Leia was fine. She was—

Breha startled at the sound of a loud grunt, too-close behind her. When she whirled around there was a helmeted sentient sticking out of what had previously been a gaping hole in the ground. The faint sound of hammering, voices, could still be heard drifting up from depths unknown.

“Oh!” the human woman—at least, Breha was reasonably sure; it was hard to tell under the layer of grime—said. She hauled herself up and out of the hole, stumbled to her feet. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize anyone was here. Have you been waiting long?”

“Only a moment or so,” Breha demurred. Now that she could see all of her, the sentient was definitely a human woman, dressed in something that may have, at one time, been a Rebel uniform. (It was encrusted with entirely too much dirt to be called that anymore.) She had repurposed a blaster bandolier, and stuck it full of what looked like laserscopes and spectrographs. 

There was a pickax at her hip.

Breha cleared her throat, tried again. “I was told Lyra Erso—”

“You must be with Acquisitions! They said someone would be coming by for the wishlist.”

“It’s not a wishlist,” Breha said, but she couldn’t summon her usual fierceness, the accompanying lecture about the importance of resource planning. 

So this was Lyra Erso.

Your husband killed my husband, Breha thought dizzily. She’d forgotten how to breathe, what came after exhale.

“Yes, yes,” Lyra Erso said, waving a hand dismissively. She had come to stand beside Breha, and was sifting through the cluttered mess of the desk with purpose. “I swear on the Force, the Rebellion has become almost as bad as the Order was when it comes to paperwork…”

Breha blinked. “The Order?”

Lyra Erso froze, a sheaf of flimsi in her hand. Breha watched a complicated expression flicker across her face, and then slide away. “Oh. That’s—I mean the Jedi Order,” she finally said, stiltedly. “I was…a youngling. At the temple on Coruscant. In another life.”

Now that Breha was looking, she could see that the lines around Lyra Erso’s mouth, her eyes, were not cracks in the dirt—she had to be just older than Breha, and that was a strange thought, that Galen Erso’s widow was the same age as Bail Organa’s.

“AgriCorps?” Breha hazarded. She wasn’t sure if there was a politer way to say, so you never made it to padawan.

“Engineering division. Mining geology and geoengineering, mainly.” Lyra Erso straightened up, and looked Breha in the eye. “You?”

“I was not in the AgriCorps,” Breha retorted dryly. Lyra Erso pulled a face, and Breha found herself adding, “But I knew many Jedi.”

“Ah. From Coruscant, then?”

“Alderaan,” Breha said, and Lyra Erso jerked, stumbling a few steps back, away from Breha. All the blood had drained from her face, and Breha watched her throat work as she swallowed.

“Oh.”

“My husband was a senator on Coruscant for many years, though, and counted some of the High Councilors his friends.”

“I know,” Lyra said weakly. She looked as though she wasn’t breathing. “I—heard stories of Senator Organa. Though more from…My husband was a engineer. He worked on military contracts, so he—”

“I am aware,” Breha said, and she wasn’t able to keep the ice and fury out of her voice this time, not entirely. Lyra flinched.

“I should—get you that list,” she said quietly, and Breha stepped aside so she could continue searching through the mess of the table. Finally, she slid a piece of flimsi out from beneath a strange corckscrew-like tool and a hunk of black rock. Held it out to Breha.

“Let me know if you can’t decipher the handwriting.”

“Thank you,” Breha said, and turned to go—

“Organa.”

Breha turned, drawing herself up, but Lyra was only just standing there with her hand outstretched. “My crystal, please.”

Breha blinked, and Lyra pointed at her hand. Breha uncurled her fist—she’d forgotten, and the white crystal was still in her palm. It was strangely cool now, and her hand was clammy around it.

“Is it valuable?” Breha asked, stepping forward to drop the crystal into Lyra’s open palm.

“Only to me,” Lyra said, curling her fingers around it so tightly that her hand trembled, just slightly. “It was my daughter’s.”

There was a particular tone of voice they all knew too well these days; it spoke only in past tense. “I’m sorry for your loss,” Breha offered, but it sounded weak even to her.

“Yes, well,” Lyra said. She smiled bitterly. “The sacrifice of Rogue One will be remembered by the Rebellion for as long it as endures, isn’t that right? I think your daughter said that, at the memorial.”

Breha remembered, with a suddenly awful pang. Jyn Erso, Leia had read aloud, but Breha had been numb, Breha had been sobbing bailbailbail with every beat of her heart and howling for Alderaan from her very spirit and she hadn’t thought—

“I should go,” Breha said, feeling suddenly very clumsy, and young, in a way she hadn’t been for decades. “I’m—needed elsewhere.”

“Of course,” Lyra Erso said, and despite her grubby uniform and the bulky tools, there was a fearsomeness to her, this old woman with her grief. “I wouldn’t want to keep you from your duties.” 

Breha could feel Lyra Erso’s eyes on her as she climbed into the speeder, and left the mining camp in her exhaust.

.

.

“What in the nine hells did you say to Lyra?” Beru asked, the moment she had set down her mess-tray. 

Breha glanced up from her datapad, idly marking her place in the Intel report and then banishing the file. “I don’t think I know any Lyras.”

“Erso. The geologist.”

That had been days ago, now. “How do you know Lyra Erso?” Breha asked, raising an eyebrow at Beru, who huffed softly.

“I’ve spent my whole life building, maintaining, and repairing water vaporators,” Beru said, stirring the fortified vita-gel into her stew. (Breha wrinkled her nose, she couldn’t help it; she was perpetually amazed by how much Beru and her nephew seemed to enjoy dehydrated food.) “It turns out mine drainage tech isn’t that different, so I consulted on her project.”

“Well, I didn’t say anything to Erso,” Breha said. “I was there for Acquisitions. I got her requested list, and left. I was perfectly polite.”

Beru hummed noncommittally. “Fine, but were you polite, or were you—queen-polite?”

Breha blinked. “What’s ‘queen-polite’?”

“Oh, you know,” Beru said, gesturing unhelpfully with her spoon. “That way you get whenever Draven speaks over you, or Han teases Leia too much. Polite, but with a lot of cold underneath.”

There were times Breha missed being a queen. People showed proper respect when you were queen.“I do not do that.”

“You’re doing it right now.”

“I am not.”

“Leia does it too. Gets it from you, I imagine.”

Breha wasn’t sure whether to take that as a compliment or not, and so settled for looking icily at Beru. Beru sighed. “You know that—even if Galen Erso hadn’t built a means of destroying the Death Star, you can’t hold his wife accountable for his actions.”

Breha felt her face go hot, and she resisted the urge to defend herself. (There was nothing to defend. There wasn’t.) “I’m not going to discuss this.”

“You’d like her, you know,” Beru said after a moment, and smiled sunnily when Breha glared. “Lyra, I mean. And you would. She’s very…No one is going to convince her to be anything but what she is.”

“What she is is at least partly complicit in building the Death Star,” Breha scoffed. Her datapad buzzed, and she glanced down—just another message from the Director of Logistics, reminding her they had a meeting. “We’re all too old to learn new tricks these days.”

When she looked up again, Beru’s face had fallen, and she was picking at the stew with a faint scowl. Breha swallowed. “I didn’t mean…”

“It seems to me,” Beru said quietly, “it wasn’t long ago you were a queen and I was a farmer’s wife. Now you buy bombs, and I drain underground rivers. I think—all we do these days is learn new tricks.”

.

.

Breha was not sulking, because sulking was something badly-behaved children did. She hadn’t sulked since she was a spotty adolescent, and every whim of her mother’s was cause for angst; she had no intention of taking the habit up again after forty-odd years.

…though Breha had also spent the last forty-odd years as the unquestioned Queen of Alderaan, whose will was the law of a world, which might have helped.

“Just—deliver the equipment, please,” the Director of Logistics said with a sigh, rubbing the spot between his eyes. “It’s already been loaded onto the speeder, all you have to do is bring it to the camp.”

So: sulking.

When Breha arrived at the camp, the sun was low, and the orange light of it only sometimes broke the tree cover. Yavin was strange in the dusk—Alderaan had always been bright and clear, cool, and the dark fell quickly. None of this dreamy haze, the sky streaked with chemical color.

The miners were gathered around an open fire, doing nothing much that she could make out. They rose to their feet as Breha brought the speeder down, switched off the engines. 

If Lyra Erso was among them, Breha couldn’t pick her out from the other dark shapes around the fire.

“Acquisitions! I brought your—machine,” she announced, waving at the heavy durasteel thing that had weighted down the back of the speeder. “But I’ll need help unloading it. It is probably best to do before it gets fully dark…”

Breha would say this of the Rebellion—it attracted the sort of people who were already in motion by the time you finished asking for help. Before Breha could put more than a few thoughts together, she found herself with her shoulder pressed to the heavy durasteel frame as someone shouted cheerfully, “Lift, you sons of banthas!”

In front of Breha was Lyra Erso, though the shape of her was barely discernible in the half-light. It was such a surprise that Breha nearly startled away, dropped the machine—though the heft of it was the only thing weighting her down just then.

Breha wondered if Lyra Erso was wearing the crystal around her neck right now. It was too dark to make out out anything but vague shapes.

By the time they finished moving the machine, Breha was sweating and ready to lie down there in the grass if it meant her arms would stop aching. It was disheartening to feel so suddenly elderly and infirm, when all the miners were laughing, ambling back towards the fire and talking among themselves. They were all very young, strong and alive and laughing.

(Breha tried to imagine what it would be like, to look for your daughter among them, and not find her, keep not finding her. She exhaled.)

At last, there was just Breha and Lyra, standing there in he dark grass.

“I spoke to Beru,” Breha said, in absence of anything else to say.

“Oh,” Lyra said, and even in the dim light from the fire, Breha could see her eyes dart to her. “Did you?”

“She says I’d like you.”

“Hm. She told me the same thing,” Lyra said.

“Meddlesome old biddy,” Breha muttered, and Lyra laughed. It was so unexpected that Breha stared. 

“I didn’t—I mean, aren’t we all these days?” Lyra asked, grinning. “Better a meddlesome old biddy than anything else.”

Breha craned her neck, to look up at the machine—it had grown dark enough that she could just pick out the shape of it against the dark tree cover, the few stars. Breha had persuaded the transpo to part with it on the condition that the Rebellion make it look like his ship had been sacked by pirates. 

Breha had been the Queen of Alderaan, Jewel of the Core, and now she helped two-bit transpo agents commit insurance fraud.

“Beru says that all we’ve done since coming to the Rebellion is new tricks,” Breha said, turning to look at Lyra. In the flickering firelight, she was pale enough to pass for a ghost, a dead woman—and that was appropriate, wasn’t it? Wife to a dead man, mother to a martyr. Two old women standing in the dark, who ought to have been dead before now.

“I suppose you had better learn, then,” Lyra said.

[ganymedesclock]

I got a reply on this post that said maybe it was more “realistic” to make the characters weaker and likelier to break and I will have to say, no, I don’t think that’s realistic at all.

Thing is, it’s explicitly confirmed that these people have the same psychological profiles as the Lions themselves. In Shiro’s case, he has the same psychological profile as Zarkon.

Hunk points out they could absolutely give up the Blue Lion to the galra and surrender. Someone who couldn’t handle pressure, someone who was weak-willed, would in that situation. Wouldn’t even suggest it and then back down the way Hunk did.

These people got into this situation because of uncommon levels of determination. You can’t explain how a weak-willed character got in this situation because we see that these are people that survive in adversity. They were doing that before they even got here.

Pidge? Not many people at fourteen years old could change their appearance in a way that was clearly uncomfortable to them, go undercover, and infiltrate an organization that also happens to be a demanding space exploration program whose average student is three years older than them. Pidge did all of that, and was not a rattling mess of nerves at the end of it all. Pidge stated that she would never give up until she found her family and meant it, big time.

Lance and Hunk were in that same program. In Hunk’s case, personally trying to overcome motion sickness and anxiety- in Lance’s, Iverson personally picked at a major insecurity of Lance’s and he personally set out, and got into, the more demanding fighter class.

Keith was told to box his stuff and get out of the garrison, faced pretty clear homelessness, went into the middle of the desert and not only survived but quite likely built, or aggressively retooled, the house he was living in.

Shiro was in space jail for a year, forced into the gladiator pits, tortured, and had his bodily autonomy repeatedly violated. 

Allura and Coran lived through warfare and the revelation that literally everything they knew and had besides each other, one ship, and the mice were completely destroyed. In Coran’s case he had to know it was happening before he fell asleep. In Allura’s, she had to find that out.

My point is... If these people were the kind of people to break, they would have already. They wouldn’t have made it into that position where they found the Lions in the first place.

There’s nothing “realistic” about utterly ignoring the established heroic qualities of these characters just so you can make them hit rock bottom for cheap because you want to write a story that demands one of the team is somehow broken fast enough that the rest of the team tearing the empire apart to get them back (as is their established prerogative) that there’s no coming back.

If you only have maybe a week tops for the empire to try and emotionally destroy Lance, for example- accept that it’s not going to happen. The team is coming for him. Considering the way the Lions respond to their paladins’ distress, the empire would have to play keepaway with a sentient and very angry alien warship capable of ripping through their ships with little effort. That’s not enough time for them to do meaningful work trying to deconstruct Lance and that also ignores that Lance is an active player, is going to be working to break out, undermine them, exploiting every slip in vigilance and the empire is not a well-oiled machine. It’s held together by indoctrination and fear. And as I mentioned- Sendak’s raid on the castle shows us that even if he’s only able to point his eyes in the same direction for a few seconds at a time, there really isn’t a point Lance stops fighting back unless he is actively unconscious.

The only way I could see the empire keeping Lance for an extended period of time is if he were either heavily sedated or frozen somehow- to the point of not really being able to think clearly or respond, in which case they can’t exactly torture him or pick him apart psychologically, but it might prevent the idea of Blue crashing headfirst through the wall because she’s here to collect her boy, if we assume the Lions rely on their link to the paladin to find them- if Lance is sufficiently muddled, Blue’s sense of him might be likewise, but on the other hand, we’ve seen a lot of sensing others’ presences that would just seem to rely on “are they alive and within my range” and Red demonstrates the Lions don’t seem to have a fixed range when it comes to their paladin.

(So that just leaves a very angry team Voltron, with a ship that can leap through wormholes to cross the universe rapidly, an ex-gladiator, a couple of geniuses, a princess whose budding magical power is stronger than Haggar’s, her advisor who could probably snap somebody’s neck if pressed, and quite possibly a fledgling druid. Oh, and aforementioned five alien warships, one of whom is going to be VERY personally invested in this situation. And *Tony Stark voice* The empire just pissed off all of them.)

Not to mention any of these guards assigned to guard Lance in this scenario are probably going to be pretty squirrelly because they’ve all heard how the last time the empire arrested someone from the team, Zarkon’s command center got trashed up and Voltron got away scott free. Sure, that didn’t seem too impressive to Zarkon and Haggar, but for the foot soldiers who would potentially have been in those ships Coran and the team mulched on their way in and out, they would not want to be on the receiving end of that raid.

And since then, the team’s picked up another genius who can build things that generate time-space pockets in reality, and a rebel galra organization that’s terrifyingly trained and has in the past successfully infiltrated galra command pretty dang near the highest levels. To say nothing of the Balmera, and Olkarion, meaning that they have some resources and manpower for all these brilliant minds to throw around. 

People have also insinuated the empire would be able to work faster than Shiro’s missing year because they would focus on the paladins more directly- as if everything about the way Haggar describes Shiro as her personal opus doesn’t say, exactly, that he was pretty solidly under their direct focus for most of his missing year. And on his literal last day in captivity he was still full of fire.

So I guess TL;DR guys- don’t act like the angst is somehow the “real” way the show would go if it wasn’t a fluffy baby narrative for babies- especially because the show has gone there, and showed it wasn’t enough to destroy the team.

If you’re gonna write Lance in captivity- great, but keep in mind he’s going to be a lot more Poe Dameron than he is a weeping inconsolable mess. 

[ace-pidge]

Are we talking sheithunk ideas, cause I have one I've been throwing around... so, Hunk is a historian of sorts who works with a collection of ancient texts on myths and legends of the made up country I'm having him live in (is this modern fantasy? Yes, yes it is). Lance is an old friend of his that works in an alchemist's shop. SO here's where the story really starts: allura, a magician's apprentice, accidentally awakens an ancient evil *cough*the galra*cough* and so now she has to 1/?

figure out a way to put them /back/ in the sealed magical artifact they came out of (maybe a sword or something…) she ends up enlisting Hunk’s help, since he’s so knowledgeable about the specific legend surrounding the galra and the artifact. Pidge works in the computer science department at the same uni as Hunk and helps them track down the artifact that is supposedly the only thing that can defeat the galra. So, Hunk, Allura, Pidge, and Lance (who tags along partly bc he was curious 2/?

partly bc he’s good with healing spell work, which could come in handy) go looking for the artifact and find the rock where it’s supposedly hidden inside. Allura and Hunk perform the ritual to get it out, but out comes two guys instead! Shiro and Keith are these magically created beings (idk who created them…. an ancient magician maybe? Ha, maybe Merlin) that we’re made to fight the galra, but so much magic and life was put into them that they’re actually sentient and real ppl 3/?

So anyways, shiro and keith actually have this pretty epic romance going on that Hunk knows about through studying ancient texts (he just thought they were long dead magicians). Keith and Shiro like spending time with Hunk bc he’s the only one that really seems to /get/ them in this new and technologically advanced world (Magic and tech work together now). But they soon come to really like hunk and enjoy spending time with him, even teaching him some non-magic fighting techniques 4/?

since hunk is non-magic and cause ether worry about his safety when they fight the galra. BACK TO PLOT: so, turns out that while Shiro and Keith are the only ones that can defeat the galra, they don’t know /how to/. That’s why they sealed the galra (which, btw, are like demons, didn’t mention that…) instead. But eventually, largely thanks to Hunk, though it was a team effort, they figure out how to defeat the galra, which involves draining Shiro and Keith of the magic that’s made them 5/?

immortal. So they defeat the galra and now they’re mortal (though still powerful magic users). Everyone sorta goes back to their lives, with promises to keep in touch, and Keith and Shiro decide to try and learn about this new world that they’re living in. They invite Hunk, but he declines, claiming he needs to get back to his historian work, but in reality his harboring a massive crush on both of them and doesn’t want to get in the way of what he thinks will turn into a romantic getaway 6/?

Keith and Shiro accept it and go, but come back not even 3 weeks later with news about a new outbreak of demons. Allura, Pidge, and Lance show up not long after, all of them jumping at the chance to work together again, missing their friends/family. So, the adventure continues… shiro and Keith eventually figure out that Hunk has as big of a crush on them as they do on him and /eventually/ they all do something about it. But yeah, that’s my demon fighting modern fantasy sheithunk au 7/7

TEDDY I LOVE IT I love modern fantasy so much omg yesss

[sarah--writes-blog]

Aftermath

Alright friends, it’s headcanon time again! This time going right for the feels.

This will go in the “Headcanon” category. If you want to take this idea and expand upon it, please do! Tag me so I can see what you create! And HERE are my other headcanons!

When all's said and done, Zarkon is defeated and the universe is saved, the paladins would return home.

And there are questions. ESPECIALLY from the World Space Government (which I'm sure there must be?). We see in Episode 1 that humans haven't discovered alien life yet, and they just brought back two sentient, very intelligent, human-like creatures with super advanced technology. Not to mention a successful human-galra hybrid (seemingly) without huge biological problems.

(And aliens have a concept of a mall? And what on Earth is ‘Quintessence’? It’s a castle and a ship?)

So there is a long period of time before Team Voltron is actually free to do what they want. And once they're free, the questions start to come from within the group.

What's going to happen with Coran and Allura? Where are they going to go? If anywhere? There's no Altea to return to. Is Allura still considered the princess if she only rules over one person, who's her caretaker? What if the universe needs Voltron again? 

What about Keith's relationship with the Blade of Marmora? Would he go back to be a part of them? Would he pursue his mother?

Now that the Holts are back, will they complete the Kerberos Mission? Would Shiro dare go back there, considering what a traumatic experience that was? Would Pidge join them?

Could Lance and Hunk go back to the Garrison to actually get pilot's licenses? Even though they're pro lion pilots? Where does being a paladin rank in the military?  What about their families? How would they explain any of this?

No one really wants to think about any of that. So in the meantime, the paladins decide they should show the Alteans Earth, both in terms of natural wonders and the culture of humans. They take turns deciding where to go and make a long road trip out of it.

Shiro vouches for the simple. Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, Mt. Fuji, something nature-based that wouldn't overwhelm the Alteans with a culture shock. Allura completely falls in love with mountains - Everest, The Rockies, any and all of them.

Lance is the opposite. He wants to take them to London, New York, Moscow, Tokyo, Sydney, all the big capitals of the world. After all, learning through immersion is the most effective, right?

Coran is a bit too enthusiastic for the New Yorkers. But the paladins are happy he isn't overwhelmed. Allura, on the other hand, doesn't like how taxis will almost run her over, even though she's "in the human CROSSWALK SHIRO WHAT DOES HE THINK HE'S DOING I'M WALKING HERE!"

She ends up fitting in more than anyone expected.

Pidge wants to expose them to some of the concentrated culture and history. She takes them to the Smithsonian (which they spend DAYS exploring, stopping at each exhibit and reading the paragraphs about each object).

She also takes them to the scientific sides of Earth. The Monterey Bay Aquarium, the San Diego Zoo, Tier 1 Universities with labs, NASA Headquarters, you name it.

Hunk suggests something a bit different. While culture is good and all, he thinks they should definitely have more fun. The largest waterpark in the world. Disneyland. The fastest rollercoaster that's actually legal.

They try their best. And Coran and Allura hold up well. But they don't understand the seeming obsession with an animated mouse, and rollercoasters aren't really Coran’s thing. And nothing compares to piloting the Lions in zero-G.

By the time it's Keith's turn to suggest locations, the Alteans are wiped. Happy and educated, but exhausted nonetheless. No one has any idea what Keith might be thinking about sending them to.

"How about we just visit our hometowns? We can stay a few days in each, relax, introduce families, and let them absorb everything."

Coran and Allura are 100% down with this.

It goes well until they get to Keith's hometown. A small city in the heart of Texas, past large expanses of cattle ranches  ("ALLURA LOOK AT ALL THE KALTENECKERS!")

Keith finds his old home, and no one else is there. He sheepishly apologizes for the mess because he hasn't been there for years. It's quiet, and there's not much to do, but that's exactly what the Alteans need.

They go to take a nap and recover, leaving the humans alone for an hour or so.

Hunk breaks the silence with a wobbling voice, "I don't want them to go..."

Pidge had tears dripping down her cheeks, but she doesn't say anything.

Lance and Keith are just barely holding it together. Lance's bottom lip is wobbling. Keith won't look at anyone or say anything, but tears are gathering up. Everyone put the ideas out of their minds so they wouldn't have to face these realities.

Shiro promises he'll talk to them about it - he seems the most composed about the situation. He doesn't know what he'll say, but he still promises to talk.

When the Alteans come back from the nap, everyone is a mess. But they look upset too? What's going on?

Allura is the first to speak, but she uses force to get her words through, "Coran and I were talking...and we've realized we can't go back. Well, we always knew, but it recently came to life again that...we have no planet to return to." 

She straightens her spine and puts on a touch face, "And for all we know, there could be another threat in the universe that Voltron needs to address! And that doesn't work very well if Voltron is scattered across the galaxies!"

Coran takes a much more gentle and direct approach, "Putting Voltron aside, we've grown quite fond of you humans and your Earth culture. You have become a family to the Princess and myself. And the fact of the matter is...we have nowhere to go. Perhaps it is overstepping our boundaries as guests on your planet, but...could we stay-"

Before Coran can finish, the paladins have gathered them up in a large hug, sobbing with relief.

They park the castleship and all the Lions in an undisclosed location to keep the lions safe. It quickly becomes more of a home than a ship. 

Each paladins' room gets decorated with new paint and posters. They get a large tank for an aquarium, fill the shelves with books, stock the kitchen with real food, get some carpets for those metal floors.

They patch in a direct line with NASA and the ISS to do their part in research and protecting Earth. The Altean tech boosts earth's space race, and connections with other intelligent species are established.

As the years go by, the lions are regularly taken out for exercise and to go anywhere in the local universe. Blue often visits the Garrison with Lance, both as a bragging piece and to help with training. She loves when the students explore her and marvel at how easy Lance can pilot her.

Green serves as a research facility for missions off of Earth. She helps finish up the Kerberos mission with the Holts, and is a huge help when transporting rocks and materials from foreign bodies. She also helps with rainforest restoration, if being nothing but a figurehead (because a giant metal lion might have some troubles landing in the rainforest without doing any damage).

Yellow stays on Earth most of the time. He very good at helping with natural disasters. Hurricane going to hit the east coast? Everyone get in the big metal lion and evacuate, we’ll be able to make enough trips fast enough to get everyone out in time. What are we going to do about all these buildings collapsing from the earthquake? Have the big metal lion stabilize infrastructure. Do we need a really big hole really fast? I bet that big metal lion can dig.

Red is much more on the outer-space level. He’ll redirect asteroids out of Earth’s path, and transport people long distances for negotiations. When there’s nothing to be done, he’ll stay with the Black Lion and relax.

Finally, the Black Lion stays with the castleship most of the time. Just like Shiro, they’re done with all this saving the universe. They’ve both served their time, been captured, had Zarkon inside them - they’re done. They retire. But they’re always ready to form Voltron, just in case.

Ultimately, the Lions and the paladins continue to be useful on Earth, zooming around the planet and helping in their various ways.

But the castleship remains parked for the rest of its life.

[ao3feed-galrakeith]

Concerts? Another Paladin Duty

read it on the AO3 at Concerts? Another Paladin Duty

by Drag0nBairn

The war is over, or so everyone thinks. When retrieving the Blue Lion for Princess Allura, they happen to find a paladin. A boy band memeber from the same famous rock band Keith Kogane, Krolia's secret, no-longer lost son.

When they travel back to Arus after the runaway lion, they find that five of those six band members qualify as paladins. The other, a tech genius and capable leader in his own right.

And its just in time as well.

The mess left behind after Zarkon died is even more unstable then anyone thought, and they face new enemies like never before. Are they able to train new paladins in time, deal with upset Earth hostilities because a giant sentient ship kidnapped civilians and beloved celebrities for fighting in a war, and they all become strong enough as teams and allies in the face of an enemy they underestimated?

Can they judge who to trust in this roiling landscape?

Will the paladins see their family again?

Can the coalition get unitied for equal goals?

Can any of the rebellion actually deal with a set of cryptid-like pop stars?

Will Krolia's son forgive her?

Will Keith stop eating things with a butter knife?

Find out at our next concert!

Words: 2651, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M, M/M, Multi

Characters: Keith (Voltron), Keith's Family (Voltron), Keith's Father (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron), Hunk (Voltron), Lance (Voltron), Veronica (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt's Family, Matt Holt, Allura (Voltron), Coran (Voltron), Krolia (Voltron), Kolivan (Voltron), Antok (Voltron), Thace (Voltron), Ulaz (Voltron), The Blade of Marmora, Shay (Voltron), kosmo

Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron), Keith's Father/Krolia (Voltron), Antok/Kolivan (Voltron), Thace/Ulaz (Voltron), Matt Holt/N-7, Allura/Lance (Voltron), Colleen Holt/Sam Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt & Voltron Paladins, Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk & Keith (Voltron), Matt Holt & Keith, Lance & Shiro (Voltron), Matt Holt & Shiro, Shiro & Voltron Paladins, Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Hunk & Shiro (Voltron), Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Hunk & Shay (Voltron), Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Hunk & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Matt Holt & Keith & Shiro, Matt Holt & Hunk, Matt Holt & Pidge | Katie Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt & Pidge | Katie Holt's Family, Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Matt Holt & Lance, Allura & Shiro (Voltron), Allura & Keith (Voltron), Allura & Pidge | Katie Holt, Allura & Hunk (Voltron), Allura & Matt Holt, Keith & Krolia (Voltron), Keith & Keith's Father (Voltron), Keith & The Blade of Marmora, Keith & Kolivan (Voltron), Antok & Keith (Voltron), Keith & Thace (Voltron), Keith & Ulaz (Voltron), Keith & Regris (Voltron), Allura/Lotor (Voltron), Allura/Lance/Lotor (Voltron), Hunk/Romelle/Shay (Voltron), Hunk/Romelle (Voltron), Acxa/Veronica (Voltron), Ezor/Zethrid (Voltron), Romelle & The Blade of Marmora, Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Krolia & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Romelle & Shiro

Additional Tags: Evil Lotor (Voltron), I Don't Even Know, Not Canon Compliant, Alternate Universe - Boy Band, Alternate Universe, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt is a Mess, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Trans Pidge | Katie Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt is Savage, Matt Holt is a Good Sibling, Rebel Matt Holt, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Everyone Has Issues, Keith (Voltron) Has BPD, Keith (Voltron) Has Abandonment Issues, Keith (Voltron) Has Anxiety, Lance (Voltron) Has ADHD, Hunk (Voltron) Has Anxiety, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Samoan Hunk (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Has Anxiety, BAMF Allura (Voltron), Angst with a Happy Ending, Not Voltron: Legendary Defender Season/Series 08 Compliant, Fluff and Humor, Crack Treated Seriously, Families of Choice, Unconventional Families, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Homesick Lance (Voltron), Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Galra Keith (Voltron), Dads of Marmora (Voltron), Thace (Voltron) Lives, Ulaz (Voltron) Lives, ANTOK LIVES, Good Lotor (Voltron), Makes sense in context, You need to wait a while though, Everyone is Queer, They have a lgbt+ concert to showcase it, author is making a lot of art, be patient im slow, Oh Shiro has adhd too, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Nonbinary Character, trans author, Paladins are rock stars that somehow made it and are shomehow paladins now, the blue lion kidnapped them like canon, And matt, hes living that rebel life, with long hair, his mom cant make him cut it in space, Earth is UPSET aliens and a spaceship stole their civilians and rockstars, A ship kidnapped people of course they are confused, The Blades and Rebels are confused okay, If you are reading tags for what pidge you want they are genderfluid between fem and enby, so you get both pidge and katie and she and they, don't know your cup of tea, I might be using lyrics from irl songs because i cant song write, Be patient, Distressed Krolia, Confused Kolivan, Tired Kolivan, Protective Kolivan (Voltron), Supportive Krolia (Voltron), Parental Krolia (Voltron), Protective Krolia (Voltron), BAMF Krolia (Voltron), Krolia is trying she is proud though okay that is her son on stage, The gang is like i dont know what to do so ill keep being rockstars too, aliens just roll w it, it lets them get into Galran occupied areas too?, Let pidge say fuck Matt, Cryptid Keith, he gets it from his mom, Cryptid Pidge, Thats probably matt shiro and keiths fault, Holts adopted shiro

read it on the AO3 at Concerts? Another Paladin Duty

[ao3feed--sheith]

Concerts? Another Paladin Duty

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2Uf8Z1a

by Drag0nBairn

The war is over, or so everyone thinks. When retrieving the Blue Lion for Princess Allura, they happen to find a paladin. A boy band memeber from the same famous rock band Keith Kogane, Krolia's secret, no-longer lost son.

When they travel back to Arus after the runaway lion, they find that five of those six band members qualify as paladins. The other, a tech genius and capable leader in his own right.

And its just in time as well.

The mess left behind after Zarkon died is even more unstable then anyone thought, and they face new enemies like never before. Are they able to train new paladins in time, deal with upset Earth hostilities because a giant sentient ship kidnapped civilians and beloved celebrities for fighting in a war, and they all become strong enough as teams and allies in the face of an enemy they underestimated?

Can they judge who to trust in this roiling landscape?

Will the paladins see their family again?

Can the coalition get unitied for equal goals?

Can any of the rebellion actually deal with a set of cryptid-like pop stars?

Will Krolia's son forgive her?

Will Keith stop eating things with a butter knife?

Find out at our next concert!

Words: 2651, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M, M/M, Multi

Characters: Keith (Voltron), Keith's Family (Voltron), Keith's Father (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron), Hunk (Voltron), Lance (Voltron), Veronica (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt's Family, Matt Holt, Allura (Voltron), Coran (Voltron), Krolia (Voltron), Kolivan (Voltron), Antok (Voltron), Thace (Voltron), Ulaz (Voltron), The Blade of Marmora, Shay (Voltron), kosmo

Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron), Keith's Father/Krolia (Voltron), Antok/Kolivan (Voltron), Thace/Ulaz (Voltron), Matt Holt/N-7, Allura/Lance (Voltron), Colleen Holt/Sam Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt & Voltron Paladins, Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk & Keith (Voltron), Matt Holt & Keith, Lance & Shiro (Voltron), Matt Holt & Shiro, Shiro & Voltron Paladins, Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Hunk & Shiro (Voltron), Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Hunk & Shay (Voltron), Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Hunk & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Matt Holt & Keith & Shiro, Matt Holt & Hunk, Matt Holt & Pidge | Katie Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt & Pidge | Katie Holt's Family, Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Matt Holt & Lance, Allura & Shiro (Voltron), Allura & Keith (Voltron), Allura & Pidge | Katie Holt, Allura & Hunk (Voltron), Allura & Matt Holt, Keith & Krolia (Voltron), Keith & Keith's Father (Voltron), Keith & The Blade of Marmora, Keith & Kolivan (Voltron), Antok & Keith (Voltron), Keith & Thace (Voltron), Keith & Ulaz (Voltron), Keith & Regris (Voltron), Allura/Lotor (Voltron), Allura/Lance/Lotor (Voltron), Hunk/Romelle/Shay (Voltron), Hunk/Romelle (Voltron), Acxa/Veronica (Voltron), Ezor/Zethrid (Voltron), Romelle & The Blade of Marmora, Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Krolia & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Romelle & Shiro

Additional Tags: Evil Lotor (Voltron), I Don't Even Know, Not Canon Compliant, Alternate Universe - Boy Band, Alternate Universe, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt is a Mess, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Trans Pidge | Katie Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt is Savage, Matt Holt is a Good Sibling, Rebel Matt Holt, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Everyone Has Issues, Keith (Voltron) Has BPD, Keith (Voltron) Has Abandonment Issues, Keith (Voltron) Has Anxiety, Lance (Voltron) Has ADHD, Hunk (Voltron) Has Anxiety, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Samoan Hunk (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Has Anxiety, BAMF Allura (Voltron), Angst with a Happy Ending, Not Voltron: Legendary Defender Season/Series 08 Compliant, Fluff and Humor, Crack Treated Seriously, Families of Choice, Unconventional Families, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Homesick Lance (Voltron), Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Galra Keith (Voltron), Dads of Marmora (Voltron), Thace (Voltron) Lives, Ulaz (Voltron) Lives, ANTOK LIVES, Good Lotor (Voltron), Makes sense in context, You need to wait a while though, Everyone is Queer, They have a lgbt+ concert to showcase it, author is making a lot of art, be patient im slow, Oh Shiro has adhd too, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Nonbinary Character, trans author, Paladins are rock stars that somehow made it and are shomehow paladins now, the blue lion kidnapped them like canon, And matt, hes living that rebel life, with long hair, his mom cant make him cut it in space, Earth is UPSET aliens and a spaceship stole their civilians and rockstars, A ship kidnapped people of course they are confused, The Blades and Rebels are confused okay, If you are reading tags for what pidge you want they are genderfluid between fem and enby, so you get both pidge and katie and she and they, don't know your cup of tea, I might be using lyrics from irl songs because i cant song write, Be patient, Distressed Krolia, Confused Kolivan, Tired Kolivan, Protective Kolivan (Voltron), Supportive Krolia (Voltron), Parental Krolia (Voltron), Protective Krolia (Voltron), BAMF Krolia (Voltron), Krolia is trying she is proud though okay that is her son on stage, The gang is like i dont know what to do so ill keep being rockstars too, aliens just roll w it, it lets them get into Galran occupied areas too?, Let pidge say fuck Matt, Cryptid Keith, he gets it from his mom, Cryptid Pidge, Thats probably matt shiro and keiths fault, Holts adopted shiro

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2Uf8Z1a

[aniseandspearmint]

I started writing this a couple months back, and ta-da! I finally finished it!

Here, have some OC!Clone feels inspired by Kintsugi/Kintsukuroi 

Memories in Gold (AO3 link)

___

Bleach’s flesh hand shakes as he holds the joint on his bionic arm in place, keeping the damn thing from falling off as he moves through the crowd. The hood of his worn brown cloak keeps his face in shadow and his shock of close cropped white streaked hair covered.

The freshly sealed incision on his head aches and he's going to be one giant bruise tomorrow from the impact of his hasty escape through the window of the little back alley surgery. It had only been from the second floor, but he’d landed in a pile of scrap below and he’d hit some hunk of mech junk and slammed his left side good. So much trouble for such a horrible, life stealing, murdering, monstrous little thing.

Officially, the kriffing mind control chips in each and every surviving clones' brain didn’t exist, so a brother that wanted the damn thing out couldn’t go to just any medcenter and get it taken out. Good way to end up right back in the empire’s loving hands, that.

The clinic (hah, kriffing joke of a name for that two room rathole) had been recommended to him by some of the locals as a place where the doc actually did have some training and hardly ever killed any of her patients. That part at least had been true.

The doc had turned out to be a thickly built, very dark skinned Zabrak woman with white circular tattoos and a decidedly gruff demeanor. She reminded him so strongly of his own company medic he could almost imagine it was Talkback snapping at him to ‘hurry up and get on the damn table, I don’t have all day’. It still hurt like a gut punch to think of him.

She'd brusquely asked him various questions about his reaction to drugs and taken a drop of blood to run through a small hand held scanner. After skimming the screen, she'd pulled a vial of clear yellow fluid from a drawer, and waved it at him.

"I'm going to give you a dose of this. It'll numb the nerves around where I need to cut, but you'll be awake and it'll wear off within the hour." She'd said. Then she had taken a needle, dipped the barest tip into the substance and lightly pricked the skin near his temple. After a moment she sharply poked the spot. It had been the weirdest damn thing, knowing the poke had happened but not feeling it at all.

The doc had nodded decisively, told him to hold still if he didn't want a lobotomy, and sliced in. The coppery tang of blood had filled his nose and he'd had to force himself not to twitch at the scent. A few tense minutes later, she had pulled the chip out, tossing it in a pan on the table where it hit with a small wet sound. He hadn't looked at it then, and had no idea what she'd done with it. Didn't care, either.

Half way through her brusquely delivered lecture on caring for the healing incision, a grubby looking human child (girl, boy, who knew under the dirt) burst through the door shouting about the local guard heading this way with half a dozen stormtroopers in tow.

The doc had cursed virulently, spun around to the rickety little table, and wrote something on a loose scrap of plas. Then she’d shoved it and a little jar of herbal antiseptic cream at him and told him to go out the back way, and go north. He’d grabbed his bag and cloak and headed for the far door, but shouts outside had had him slamming it shut just as fast.

A quick look around told him the only way out was gonna be up and maybe out that window he’d seen when he’d done a quick look around before he’d gone in. Amazingly enough, it had worked. He’d been able to dodge both groups, but damn he hurt now. And he didn’t know what he was going to do about his arm.

The little scrawled note had been an address and an imperiously underlined, GO HERE NEXT.

What the hells he figured. He doubted it was a trap. The little doctor seemed to have a pretty nasty dislike of the empire if her cursing was any indication. So, after circling around the blocks surrounding the clinic, he headed north.

_____________

He has to grin a little when he sees the place the note had led him to. Maybe the Force is looking out for him.

‘AIDA’S REPAIR SHOP’ hangs over the door in neatly painted gold aurebesh with a passable sketch of an astromech under it.

The place is in a slightly more respectable area than the clinic had been. No drug addled sentients passed out in the gutters, no dealers and whores on the corners, and no trash carelessly left in the street, but there was still a slightly dingy quality to the place, as if it wasn’t very high on the list for municipal funding.

The shop had large display windows with heavy rolling shutters slid down over them and the ‘OPEN’ sign in the center of the door was dark, not lit. He kicks at the door anyway, in lieu of knocking, as his one good hand is still clutched on his prosthetic to keep it from coming apart completely.

After a moment his ears catch a slight sound from within and a little whirr above him makes him look up. He blinks up at the camera now pointed down at him and gives it a strained smile and nod.

“ ‘Lo there. Doc Deiiri sent me.”

There is a beat of silence then a speaker crackles to life near the camera. “Wait while I verify.” The voice is female and low, but that’s all Bleach can be sure about. He huffs, and leans against the wall next to the door.

It’s another couple of minutes before there is another sound from the speaker. “Please back away from the from the door.”

He does so and there are multiple clicks and the sound of what can only be a heavy bar being slid back. The door opens inward to a brightly lit interior, a small female humanoid backlit against the light. The figure surveys him for a moment, then steps aside and beckons him in.

Once in, without the light making it impossible to tell features, he sees that the person he’s been directed to (the Aida from the sign, he guesses) is a very short human of indeterminate origin. Her hair is dark brown and shorn nearly as short as his own, and her tannish skin is dotted thickly with spots over every bit he can see. Her dark brown eyes regard him with a kind of calm curiosity. She makes a shooing motion and he shuffles out of the way so she can shut the door.

And hells, that’s a lot of locks; six along the side and and one at each corner. And he had indeed heard a bar. It was a solid durasteel plank as thick as his wrist and as wide as his leg. His eyes dart around the door and note the extra deep setting and very sturdy looking hinges. If he had to guess, it would take a barrage or two of artillery fire to break it down.

After she has adequately bolted the door shut the woman turns those calm, curious eyes back to him. "I'm Aida Marshon. Deiiri says the local imps are looking for you and you need a place to hide out for a couple days."

He grimaces. "Empire hates to let go of it's clones. Dunno why they bother, 's not like we're more than canon fodder anymore."

She smirks a little, crossing her arms and looking up at him. "Might be something to do with how many of you end up defecting once you get those damn murder chips out of your heads."

"Maybe. I'm Bleach. Nice to meet you, Aida."

But Aida isn't really paying attention to what he's saying now. Her eyes have traveled down from his face and are now trained on the arm he's holding together.

She makes a small sound that somehow incompasses, 'Ouch, damn, and how the hell did you manage that' all in one. She peers at it for a moment then reaches out and pulls him gently toward the far wall, where a long, low slung table sits along it. A boxy offline astromech sits on one side, it's innards spilling out in a way that almost seems gruesome. Aida tugs Bleach over to the other end, which is strewn with tools and bits and bobs, but no gutted droids.

"Deiiri only said you needed hiding for a few days, not fixing."

"No, no, I won't turn down the use of some tools, but I can't afford to have it fixed right now. I need to buy passage off this rock soon." He protests.

Aida just shoots him an unimpressed look and presses him onto a low stool and carefully lays his broken arm on the table, prying his fingers away so she can get a good look.

She immediately frowns deeply, and pulls over another light, this one wrapped around a large magnifying glass on a bendable arm.

He knows what she sees. Beyond the very damaged joint, there are a slew of patch jobs on the outer casing, and inside where she can't see it's the same.

Aida traces her fingers along one particularly long crack he'd roughly bonded back together. "Anyone else would tell you that you need to replace this. It's pretty much wrecked."

Bleach opens his mouth, ready to protest, but she continues. "But I fix things, Bleach. When someone brings me something that has been patched and spliced and jury rigged a thousand times, I know that it's something treasured, something they don't want to lose."

Surprised, he closes his mouth. Then, hesitantly, "It's all I have left of them. I- she requisitioned the parts special, just for me. And Easy and Spyglass worked on it all the time I was in medical, just so I could start on physical therapy right away."

She nods. Aida doesn't ask who 'she' is, and she doesn't press for more details.

"I'll fix it for you." She holds up a hand to forestall any argument. "No money. This is a lovely piece of work under all the broken bits, and I'll be happy to do it in exchange for a little heavy lifting around the shop for the next few days, deal?"

He hesitates, then nods and they clasp on it.

____________________________

Aida gives him a temporary arm. It's a much newer model than his old one, and the difference is startling and hard to get used to at first. It moves so much faster than Bleach had become used to with his old arm. He hadn't realized how much he'd had to compensate for the lag of worn servos and gears. Even still, he can't wait to have his old one back.

While he waits for his arm and while he's stuck hiding in the small residence above the shop, he does busywork. The first day he'd lifted and moved everything too heavy for the small woman to her satisfaction. The next day, with nothing else to do, he'd tidied up her rather messy residence. She'd given him a bemused look when he'd asked if that was okay, but gave her permission. Sadly, that only occupied him for a day.

Then he'd gotten a good look at Aida's filing system and wanted to pull out his hair. Another hastily granted permission and he spent the next two days sorting plas receipts and invoices and client files. Because so much of what she did was under the table, and so many of her 'clients' didn't trust data filing, most of it was hardcopy. Ironic for people who wanted droids fixed, but people were strange.

"But what if someone goes through your files?" He'd asked, exasperated, as they shared an early meal of incredibly sweet kaff and spiced pastries.

Aida had shrugged. "It's not happened yet. And I don't actually keep any files for the clients I might get arrested over. "

Bleach grumbled about the sheer inefficiency, but went back to alphabetizing.

It took Aida five days to fix his arm. She had made no secret of her work on the joint and the interior circuitry and wiring, but she had spent the last day locked in her workshop, not allowing him to get even a glimpse of what she was doing to the outer casing.

He's breath caught in his throat when she presented repaired prosthetic to him.

"First I had to remove all of the solder and glue from your patches. Then I had to smooth the rough edges." She traces a finger along where the most obvious break had been, down the vambrace. " I know the colors have meaning for you, so I only buffed the scratches out and sanded down the edges of the paint so it won't chip off anymore."

The colors are more vivid than they have been in years, the white no longer a dingy shade, and the red like fresh blood, not the brown it had grown to resemble. Along each mended crack and break the colors fade to the bronzy copper of the alloy beneath, and each bit of damage has been filled with a vibrant gold alloy he's not familiar with.

"I'm good at what I do, Bleach." Aida says with no modesty. "This will stand up to any damage like it was new, I promise. And with the new bits I replaced the worn out things with, you'll have your old speed and range of motion back."

The arm moves smoothly and silently for the first time in what seems like forever as he flexes and twists it. "Why the alloy in the breaks? I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. Why not fill them in with a matching color?"

Aida bites her lip and flutters a hand along one of the seams of gold, this one across the knuckles. "An old tradition from my mother's home world. She was from Alderaan, and there when something precious breaks it is carefully reassembled and the cracks filled with gold, or silver, or platinum. It's done to show that though something was shattered and then repaired, it is still beautiful and treasured. Still of use. It seemed appropriate." She explains. Then hesitantly asks, "Do you like it?"

Running his flesh hand along the length of his arm Bleach thinks of Knight Lasho. Her sharp teeth gleaming as she grins, the light of her yellow saber throwing a glowing tint over her blue black skin and trailing head tails. He thinks of her glee when she and his brothers presented him with the new and freshly painted arm and, for the first time since he watched her die under a hail of blaster fire (their blaster fire, his blaster fire), he does not flinch from the memory of her.

He smiles at the little mechanic and nods. "I like it very much."

Aida grins right back.

_______________

Two days later he's laying in a cramped smuggler's hole on the saddest excuse for a ship he's ever seen.

He'd balked when he'd first seen the thing, but Aida had assured him that she'd been the Swiftlet's planetside mechanic for three years, and the ship was solid, and that captain Mykken is trustworthy. The ship starts to wake as the captain and his firstmate initiate the warm up sequence, thrumming to life with nary a hitch in the engines, which is reassuring.

Running an absent palm over his arm, he thinks back to the surprisingly strong hug Aida had given him and her wry crooked grin as she tossed, "Don't be a stranger if you're ever on Kaarma again, Bleach," back at him as she slipped through the hangar doors and out into the Kaarma City pre-dawn, morning mist shrouding her completely before she was five steps away.

Tipping his head back he grins as the ship jolts and judders it's way off the planet and into hyperspace and towards Nar Shadda. And then, who knew? Maybe he would find his way back to Kaarma someday.