#deckcember

[assistant-honcho]

Deckcember starts tomorrow!

I’ll be posting pics of one or more decks every day this coming month! I just think my playing card collection is rad. Filter the #deckcember tag if you're not interested.

@kogitsune-inari you might be interested

[karutamata]

deckcember prompt #1: cycles

wheel of fortune for the myrmecology tarot deck i'm working on!

[dualitysdownfall]

Concept: The fiction writer’s Inktober

And I’m calling it.... Notevember!

Same concept, thirty one-word prompts, one for each day of the month. But instead of a drawing, you write a short story or even just a paragraph.

This idea was birthed from little more than me just waking up. I was just like “oh. guess i’m awake now. hey what if inktober was different and also one month later?”

If you like this idea, could you maybe try to spread the word while I try to come up with 30 prompts?

[mochabeesnuts]

Hey! So this is a late secret santa gift to @loverboy-lancemcclain. You can read it under the cut or on Ao3. I hope you had a wonderful holidays and enjoy! <3

Keith moved quietly as he followed his squad through the dark purple hallways of the large Galran base, making sure to keep an eye on the areas behind them as they moved through the building with as much stealth as possible.

To their luck they managed to reach the control room without running into too many guards.

After throwing in a flash bomb and catching the soldiers off guard, it only took a few moments to gain control of the room and seal the door shut.

Kolivan, Keith and a few other members removed their masks as they set to work. One member of the squad kept an eye on the door while Keith and another member worked on shutting down the security system and gaining a map of the minor base.

Kolivan watched over the group’s work as he discussed the plans for the alliance work that would need to be done once the mission was over to free the colony under the control of the Galra in the current base.

“It’s the 23rd so.. Hm. Tell them to expect another shipment by the end of the cycle.”

Keith blinked as he worked, raising his voice just loud enough for Kolivan to hear him without drawing the attention from any wandering soldiers.

“Wait, what day did you say it was?”

“The 23rd of the twelfth moon cycle. The month I believe you referred to as… Deckcember…?”

Keith’s fingers froze for a moment as his shoulders slumped as he barely mustered enough of a voice to correct the group leader,

“December.”

With a soft shake of the head, Keith’s fingers resumed their practiced movement as he worked his way through the base’s security system with the basic knowledge he had learned from Pidge, doing his best to ignore the thoughtful glances he could feel on his back from Kolivan every few minutes or so.

After a few more strained minutes of focused silence, Keith finally managed to shut down the main cameras in the Galra base.

Keith pulled his blade out of his sheath and reactivated his mask as he turned towards his team and nodded,

“Let’s go.”

---

Keith nearly collapsed from exhaustion and relief as he stepped back into the Marmora’s temporary base and removed his mask, grateful for the cold air that suddenly filled his lungs.

The mission was a success but just by the skin of their teeth. About halfway into the mission the cameras powered back on. Whether it was because the system itself reset itself or a passing by patrol noticed the shut down, he couldn’t say.

The one thing he could say though is that he was careless. And it could have cost them the mission.

Keith grit his teeth and stepped forward to find a place to train away his self-focused frustration but before he could, he heard a low voice clear their throat behind him.

He turned to see Kolivan with his arms crossed giving him a searching glance before lowering his arms and sighing.

He motioned with a quick tilt of his head for Keith to follow him before walking down one of the hallways that branched away from the main hall that was filled with the other busy Marmora agents, Keith silently on his heel.

As a door slid shut behind them, cutting off most of the noise, Kolivan glanced out one of the windows that gave view of the small rebel town they had set up in for operations in their current sector.

“You seem distracted. Something on your mind?”

Keith flinched internally at the break in the silence, but gave no more than a nonchalant shrug as they continued down the hall at a slow pace.

“Just tired is all. Nothing a quick nap and some training to resharpen my mind won’t solve.”

He glanced at Kolivan and cringed a bit. The man wasn’t looking his way but Keith could tell he wasn’t convinced.

“I’m fine… Really.”

Kolivan hummed as he stopped at a larger window, one that gave a bit of a view of the sky above the town.

Keith fought the urge to shuffle a bit at the unanswered silence but kept still as he crossed his arms and watched the view as well. Only a moment or two passed before Kolivan spoke,

“You’ve been away from your team for a while now.”

Keith gave another shrug and kept his voice uncaring, doing what he could to keep his exhaustion out of his tone.

“Yeah a few months. Voltron is doing just fine without me though.”

No longer feigning interest in the view, Kolivan turned his head to look at Keith as he retorted, “I’m not referring to Voltron.”

Keith blinked in confusion before Kolivan just shook his head,

“Your team. Your friends. It’s been a long time.”

As Kolivan turned back towards the view Keith only grew more confused. Kolivan was always focused on the mission at hand and saving the universe from Zarkon. What exactly was the man getting at here?

“We received a report that Voltron was spotted a few planets away for an alliance meeting. The new ally civilization is going to need a shipment of medical supplies and food. I’m sending you. Leave in the morning, I expect you to return the day before we’re schedule to move bases.”

Keith’s already tired mind fought to wrap itself around the new order as Kolivan drew his attention to an incoming call on his earpiece.

As soon as Kolivan finished responded, Keith slowly questioned,

“But sir, if it’s the planet for the shipments discussed earlier then that’s… only a day’s travel each way. We’re scheduled to leave in a week.”

Kolivan chuckled and thumped his hand against Keith’s back just a bit too hard before heading back in the direction of the main hall and waving.

“I’d say stick around and make sure there aren’t any shortages or faults with the supplies then. Say hi to the blue one for me.”

Keith choked and whipped his head towards Kolivan but the door slid closed before he had the chance to ask him what he meant.

A groan slipped past his lips as he shook his head and turned to head down the hall and get some rest before he departed. All things considered, he knew damn well exactly what Kolivan meant.

Even if he didn’t necessarily want to admit it out loud.

---

Lance hummed happily as he ran down the hall carrying a large box he’d been ordered to grab from Pidge and Hunk’s usual workspace. He turned the corner and grinned as he entered through the open doorway to the area the team had turned into their living room.

“Hey guys, found it!”

Pidge shot him a thumbs up, not bothering to look away from the radio she was working on in her lap.

“Great, set it on the table and then help Shiro and Hunk. I’ll be over there as soon as I get this done..”

Lance nodded and set down the heavy box before passing by the smaller paladin and ruffling their hair, earning a small huff of fake annoyance before he left the room.

He heard the voices in the kitchen already as he made his wall down the hall,

“And you’re absolutely sure these are edible this time right?”

Lance walked in to see Coran and Hunk both looking down at a mixing bowl filled with what almost looked like cookie dough, save for the pastel purple color.

Coran stroked his chin as he nodded slowly, “Why yes, they should be given the color.”

He pulled out a spoon and scooped some of the dough out of the bowl and popped it into his mouth, both paladins eyes on him to watch for any signs of the batter being toxic or deadly in any way.

The man gave a more confident nod as he lowered the spoon and confirmed in a cheery voice,

“Yup! That seems right. We’ll just need to bake them at a nice and toasty eight hundred degrees and they’ll be quite edible and not the consistency of a rock this time. Promise.”

Hunk and Lance both shared a not so sure glance before shrugging and deciding to hope for the best.

As Hunk began to scoop out the batter and shape it into small balls on the cookie sheet, Lance sat down on one of the stools across the counter and propped his chin on his hand,

“Where’s Shiro at? Pidge said he was helping you with the baking this time.”

Hunk laughed as he placed down another ball of cookie dough into it’s tidy row,

“He went to go help Allura. She was determined to bring the tree in on her own but well, you know how he is.”

Lance laughed.

Yeah that sounded about right.

As he reached casually towards the cookie sheet Hunk had finished, hoping his best friend wouldn’t notice as he worked on the second he spoke,

“Found the lights and all the trinkets from the planets we visited that we turned into ornaments in your guys’s workshop. Once Shiro and Allura get back we can start setting up.”

Hunk smacked Lance’s hand away from the tray and smirked playfully at the offended sound followed by pouting on Lance’s end.

Already quite used to this, Hunk just shook his head as he pulled the tray out of Lance’s reach,

“Nope, none of that. If this recipe works out, we’ll finally have real cookies for the holidays. That means no cookie dough eating. These babies are getting baked.”

Lance pouted for a bit longer, hoping to get some assistance from Coran, but once it was clear that the ginger haired man was not going to come to his rescue Lance gave up the act and just chuckled as he stood up.

“Alright alright, I’ll be patient. If it’s anything you made it’s always worth the wait buddy.”

Hunk shifted the tray to a single hand as he lifted his free hand to his chest and sniffled a bit,

“Aww bro!”

Lance laughed a bit before pushing his chair back in place and waving to the two,

“I’m gonna go see if they’ve got the tree set up yet. I’ll let Pidge know you guys will be there in a bit.”

As Coran began to give Hunk instructions on how not to melt his hands off in the process of super baking the alien like cookies, Lance chuckled and stepped back out into the hallway.

He started to walk back towards the living room, the start of another holiday tune already on his tongue, before a voice behind him froze him in his tracks.

“Lance.”

Lance blinked once before whipping around to see an all too familiar mullet as he came face to face with Keith, who was standing there looking like he felt entirely out of place and.. actually unsure of himself. If Lance had seen this months ago, way before he got to know Keith better he’d have probably laughed, not knowing what his rival was actually like beneath all the hot headedness and sharp sword skills.

But this was Lance and Keith now, and the only thing Lance felt now was relief, happiness, and perhaps a bit.. something more.

“Keith.”

His face broke out into a grin as he stepped forward. He saw Keith’s rigidness fall a bit at the sight before he closed the distance and wrapped his arms around him.

Keith laughed and wrapped his arms around Lance, returning the gesture and feeling himself melt at the contact.

“Merry Christmas.”

He expected Lance to let go of him and start talking a mile a minute about everything that Keith had missed but instead the blue paladin’s arms only tightened around him more.

The sensation was more comforting and securing than painful, so Keith didn’t protest at all as Lance pressed his face against the crook of Keith’s neck.

“I missed you, you idiot.”

Keith paused for a moment before tangling his fingers in Lance’s hair and replied without missing a beat,

“I missed you too Lance.”

Lance laughed weakly before teasing slightly,

“Your mullet hasn’t changed a bit.”

Keith twirled a lock of hair between his fingers as he hummed in reply,

“And your hair has gotten longer. You wouldn’t be trying to grow one out yourself would you?”

Lance’s grip on Keith loosened as he let out a mock offended gasp and pulled back enough to look at Keith’s face.

Keith almost stepped forward, sad to lose the warmth of Lance’s body against his own, but stopped himself, quick to notice the boy’s arms still wrapped around his waist lightly. Lance feigned offense as he retorted,

“You think so little of my fashion sense and dignity? How dare you?”

Keith chuckled as he lowered his hands and wrapped his arms loosely around Lance’s shoulders,

“I mean you know what they say, mimicry is the highest form of flattery.”

He grinned playfully as he tilted his head and added,

“Besides, lie all you want but you know you love it.”

Lance felt his cheeks heat up at the sight of Keith’s grin and the feeling of his arms wrapped around his shoulders. It had been so long since he had seen him. Since he heard his voice or felt the warmth of the fiery paladin.

His eyes flicked down to Keith’s lips and he saw Keith’s eyes widen as Lance leaned in slowly and murmured,

“Love it huh..?”

Keith’s mind went blank but he honestly found that that was more than fine with him as he let his eyes slip closed as Lance moved to close the distance between them,

“Lance I-”

“Ew ok that’s gross.”

Both boys broke apart from each other in a flash, their faces bright red as they whipped towards the source of their interruption.

Pidge stood a few feet away from them with their laptop tucked underneath their arm and a look torn between disgust and actual amusement on their face.

They set down their laptop carefully against the wall before running towards the two and pushing Lance out of the way, ignoring the squawk that came from him in reply.

Keith managed to catch them in his arms easily as they jumped towards him and clung to him like a koala,

“Welcome back! I missed you.”

Keith chuckled and hugged Pidge tightly before setting them down,

“Missed you too Pidge.”

Lance smiled warmly from the side before stepping towards the two and chiming in,

“As much as I’d like to get back at Pidge for pushing me to the side like a prop, we should tell the others you’re here!”

He paused before smirking at Pidge and leaning his arm on top of their head,

“Besides I can always get back at the gremlin later.”

Pidge pushed his arm off their head and stuck their tongue out at him before jogging over to pick their laptop back up.

“I forgot my charger in my room so I’ll be there in a minute. Try to keep it PG will you? Wouldn’t want to traumatize Shiro before he even knew you were here.”

Keith felt his face burn up again as Pidge shot him an evil grin before heading past the two towards their room.

Lance just rolled his eyes and waved them off before turning back to Keith. He laughed at the sight of Keith’s flustered face before reaching down and wrapping his hand around Keith’s carefully.

“C'mon, we were just about to set up the tree. We’ve been teaching Allura and Coran about all the different holiday traditions and they’ve been most excited about this one all week. I can’t think of a better gift on the team’s first Christmas together than having the whole family here, don’t you?”

At the sound of family, Keith inhaled sharply.

That.. sounded amazing honestly.

Keith looked down at their hands and felt a bit more heat reach his cheeks as he dared to intertwine his fingers with Lance’s.

It was Lance’s turn to get flustered as he looked down and watched the action only to look up and see the most angelic smile on Keith’s face as he nodded,

“Yeah, that sounds perfect.”

Lance blushed before squeezing Keith’s hand and smiling,

“Then let’s go.”

[ilovemesomekillianjones]

Awww the last day of Sneedvember ☹️ What’s next @thesschesthair Is it Deckhand Hook Deckcember? Dark Hook Darkcember? Then LT. Jonesuary?

Sneedvember 30th

This is not the end…

[aiam-maianaise]

I love how theres like Mermay and Inktober and Huevember but what would the other months even be for art promptishness? Organst for august, gotta draw some ody parts... Or februfairy fro february?? Deckcember? Draw you some cards in december, well people do that anyway but like card decks of tarot and not just christmas or birthday cards in december. Aperil?? who knows.

[assistant-honcho]

Deckcember day 10: Theory11 Lord of the Rings

This is the Lord of the Rings deck by theory11. I got it for my birthday last year. You can get it here:

As usual with theory11, the tuck is incredible. Two colors of foil, both used really well, plus fancy designs on the back and sides and top and interior and really just everywhere. I really like just about everything from this deck. You can't really see it in these pics, but it's covered in metallic ink just all over the place. It comes with not only two rad jokers but two more really cool extra cards. The pips are all custom and universally great. Most if not all of the courts are beautiful. The Ace of Spades is incredible and the other aces are good too. The back isn't my favorite, but it works well. All in all, just an excellent deck, even if you're only a casual LotR fan.

[assistant-honcho]

Deckcember Day 9: Bicycle Extinct Parrots

These are the Bicycle Extinct Parrots. I got them here:

This is a cool deck that I've had for a long time. The designers made a normal parrot deck and an extinct one, the difference being the tuck, back, and courts. I liked the courts from the normal one but the back on this deck was SO so cool I just had to go for the extinct ones. I love how the numbers have art on them instead of just pips, but the number is still represented by how many parrots are on each card. It's not great for Speed or Nerts, but the cards are prettier for sure. I also like how the suits are each represented by parrots from a certain continent.

[assistant-honcho]

Deckcember Day 8: Bicycle Sketch

These are the Bicycle Sketch cards by Will Roya. I got them from Kickstarter as actually one of the first decks in my collection. You can get them here:

I'm a big fan of taking an existing recognizable concept and kinda genre-shifting it, and these cards do that for sure. The sketch vibe is rad and these cards are also quite good for playing games. I've played lots of solitaire and nerts with them.

[assistant-honcho]

Deckcember Day 2: PLAY DEAD V2

Going to satisfy @kogitsune-inari's curiosity early with the PLAY DEAD V2 deck. It's another favorite that I picked up on sale around Halloween. The best place to buy it is probably from Riffle Shuffle here:

The tuck on these is not my favorite but the face cards and aces are just really great. The 3D look is super cool and unique in my collection. They do have a V1 version with a different color scheme, but I liked these better and decided not to get both.

[assistant-honcho]

Deckcember Day 1: Nebulas

These are the Nebula deck from emilysleights52. They were originally from a Kickstarter, but I picked mine up from her website here:

The Nebula deck is one of my favorites. The fan is beautiful and all the courts are great. It also came with some really nice stickers. Honestly when I saw the pictures of this deck I immediately knew I wanted it.

[assistant-honcho]

Deckcember day 5: Normie Bicycle Decks

These are the Bicycle Aviary and Dragon decks. I put them together because they're the coolest bicycles that I've seen a non-collector own and use-- in the Aviary's case, it was my cousin and the Dragons were a classmate. Pick them up here:

These decks are both pretty cool. They're great deals at only $5 for a quality air cushion finish and fully custom faces. The faces on both are super super cool. I like the Aviary a bit better-- the style on the faces is super cool, the jokers are great, and the extra card is pretty awesome. I got the Aviary early into my collection from PlayingCardDecks.com on sale, and picked up the Dragons from a game store in Boston.

[assistant-honcho]

Deckcember Day 4: Golden Spike

These are the Bicycle Golden Spike cards! I bought them earlier this year. You can get them here:

I mentioned I'm from Utah yesterday, and that comes through especially today. The Transcontinental Railroad was finished in 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah. That's where the Eastern and Western tracks met. Anyway, I don't use these cards much, but they're cool for sure. I especially like the Ace of Spades and Queen of Diamonds. The Jack of Clubs is funny to me, too, because that's Brigham Young, (notorious shitbag mormon leader) who I never expected to see on a deck.

[assistant-honcho]

These are the Bicycle Stargazer standard and Sunspot editions. I got them from PlayingCardDecks.com, but I can't find the Sunspots there anymore, so you can pick 'em up here:

These are cool decks, if a bit generic/mass-produced. The glow effect is cool and I like the backs. I'm not a fan of dark cards, and they're kind of impossible for any games where the pip colors matter, but they're cool decks.

[assistant-honcho]

These are the Aquatic Kingdoms Helike cards from Relentless Venture. I got them from Kickstarter, and you can get them here:

I really like this deck. The tuck is awesome with the red foil(although I wish it had the deck's name on the front) and it even has a cool unique back. The aces are all awesome, many of the courts are cool, the jokers are some of my favorite, and the numbers even all have the aces' designs on them. Excellent deck.

[assistant-honcho]

Deckcember Day 3: National Park decks

For Deckcember day 3 I'm featuring four different decks: Illustrated National Parks; Peaks, Plateus, and Canyons of the Colorado Plateau, Peaks, Plateus, and Canyons of the Grand Circle, and Yosemite. I bought them all in national park gift shops. You can buy the Illustrated National Parks here

, and I honestly wouldn't recommend buying any of the others unless you're in a gift shop that carries them, as they all cost twice as much online.

The Illustrated National Parks are certainly my favorite of the four, although I dislike the tuck box and am not the biggest fan of the backs. The tuck just seems too busy and the backs are uninspired. The fronts of the cards, though, are gorgeous, and feature that really cool NPS poster art style.

The next deck was a little more disappointing. It has the same art style, but the tuck is even worse(just a collage of the card faces), the backs are the same as the tuck, and, worst of all, there are only 13 posters across the cards. However, instead of putting one on each face and keeping the numbers generic, like a normal designer, the people behind this one decided that each value would get one picture. So all the kings have the same poster, all the aces have the same poster, all the fours have the same poster. Nightmare. And I'd never play any games with any of them.

After that is a deck with a very similar name. It's got photos from different places around Southern Utah and the Grand Canyon. (I'm from Utah, by the way). The design of the tuck and the backs is pretty cheesy, and I don't like just printing photos on cards. The photos themselves are pretty, though. Funny enough, this is easily the deck I have played the most games with. I have another copy of it that got water damaged while I was camping, so I now take it everywhere as a travel deck that I can risk damaging. Most days I play a game or two of Solitare with it.

Last is the Yosemite deck, which I actually hadn't opened until today. It's very similar to the Grand Circle one; just photos and indices. It was only $5, but I regret buying it still because it's just fairly underwhelming.