#polyglot keith

[soulreapin]

polyglot keith.

i dont think he necessarily learns languages fast but he does pick them up with ease once he learns the language rules and alphabet

he’s fluent in english, can listen and speak in spanish but not write in it, can speak french but nothing else, and is conversational in mandarin (could probably get by as a tourist?)

but when nights get too long in the castle of lions keith finds a space version of duolingo and teaches himself the top five alien languages that voltron interact with the most, so keith ends up fluent in altean, galran, olkarian, and a few others!

it comes in really handy as a blade being able to speak or at least find a common language with the people he’s rescuing

after the war keith teaches a langauge class at the garrison so space cadets have a basic understanding of the most common intergalactic langauges

plus i think along with allura they slowly begin to integrate altean back into new altea because the galra had almost like stolen their language and yeah it was weird having this human guy teach alteans altean but he like truly speaks it

[autisticlancemcclain]

fic rec friday 58

hello and welcome to fic rec friday! where, on friday, i rec five of my favourite fics.

The Value of a Moment by @a-fools-errand

When Lance’s previously obsolete skills in language suddenly become very useful, he finds himself wondering why aliens can’t account for the fact that humans, particularly him, need sleep and would prefer linear timelines. (Or: an Arrival AU because I love that movie)

yall OBSESSED does not begin to cover it. i have never read a fic where lance was so goddamn cool. and in like. the insanest of ways?? like of course lance is a polyglot but THIS....this is a whole new level. i havent even finished it fully yet but like god this thing is so fucking cool. if ur looking for a longfic stop looking

2. Rest Stop by @flaming-potato-arsonarson

Lance wasn't like the rest of the world. And he had never had a loving mother tell him it made him stronger for it. So he told himself, gathering up his courage and grit to face a world of winged humanity, when he, in fact, has no wings and turns into a mermaid instead. A world that wants him to die. So he'd keep this secret like a knife in his boot, a sharp weapon until he died on his own terms. Not because of who he was. Except, Team Voltron isn't so sure why Lance is all rough edges and sharp points about showing off his wings. Or acting like a member of the Flock in general. It's clear he cares for them, but he's never shown an intimate part of him. Until he has to.

oh god this has gotta be one of my CLASSIC fics. read it a few dozen times. i read it right when it came out, six ish years ago (goddamn), i can remember curling up in my old bunk bad and eating this up as the hours ticked by. i was HOOKED. my jaw was dropped my eyes were glued. could not get enough. if youre looking for mermaid lance with a twist....brother this is it

3. Looking for Rain by @thewriter2

Like most things, it starts with the little things: his smile, his confidence, his talent. Eventually, all these little things add up to one big thing that threatens to crash over them like a heavy rain. But, maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing. Maybe something beautiful would come from it. A 5+1 (really a 10+1) of Lance and Keith falling in love.

oh god guys..... @thewriter2 knows how to fucking haunt you. if a 10+1 (!!) isnt enough for you, i want you to know this line has been echoing in my head since i first read: "He looks at you like you’re a storm and he’s a desert desperate to drown." UM??? EXCUSE ME???? SIMILE OF ALL TIME ACTUALLY???? keith being so so visibly obviously in love with lance is my actual roman empire shit never leaves my mind

4. Astronauts by @thewriter2

When they entered the Blue Lion, Keith was Lance’s rival--the person Lance was working so hard to surpass. But slowly, Lance found himself thinking of Keith less as a rival and more as something close to a friend. So of course, Lance’s traitor of a heart decided that it would be Lance’s kind of friend that it would fall in love with.

tags to sell you: "keith is a dork but lance loves him anyway" (dorky keith my beloved), "hunk is an a+ friend" (yes he is), "lance is a lovesick fool" (yeah), and "allura is older sister goals" yes yes YES you get it. and like....while keith pov is my favourite to write by far, lances pov as he realises he is in love....that will always hold such a special special place in my heart

5. his own worth by frogsterz

In the middle of the conversation, Lance stops talking and no one notices. It’s not like he had been leading the conversation, for he hadn’t been, but somehow the fact that his lack of input or opinion isn’t noticed tightens the grip loneliness has on his heart. He looks down at his food, his face burning, his throat tightening up.

now usually anything but team as family isnt my deal. im not big on classic langst. but keith as a knight in shining armour.....what can i say i am weak willed. deeply. also " It’s what made it worse. I miss home and I miss being held and the rain, and I loved you. I thought you hated me." got me so bad got me WEAK like i have never recovered from that line and i doubt i ever will

that’s it for today!! i’ll see y’all back next friday for the next fic rec post!!!

[justaz]

lance grew up in a large family that is used to so much noise that a lot of the time, lance isn't heard. it's not that his family is ignoring him but things just get lost and for someone like lance who cannot Shut The Fuck Up it happens very often. then his friends grow used to his prattle and it just becomes like white noise for them. lance is so used to being ignored that when he realized keith was actually listening to him and comprehending his babble, he is just a puddle.

keith is silent as he listens to every word lance says while lance is like barely paying attention to what he says (adhd x autism ftw) and it happens in front of the rest of the team but whatever lance just said caught one of their attentions and they interrupt to ask him to repeat what he said and lance is just like "you think i know what was coming out of my mouth?" and keith repeats what lance said perfectly. lance stares at him and is Soft but all he can manage is a smile.

it gets so much worse, lance turns his prattle to keith instead of the room in general and is so excited that someone is actually listening that his speech grows faster and faster until he's barely speaking anything intelligible (bonus hc lance speaks many languages so when he gets excited its just a combination of various different languages. it starts with spanglish then he incorporates samoan and then portuguese and italian etc etc)

i love yapper!lance x listener!keith

[komohine]

thinking about james showing keith how to wear a keffiyeh

TRUE ‼️

a world where james wasn’t lied to his whole life and was in touch with his culture… what a wonderful world

James would try to learn though, but i thjnk he’d find it surprisingly difficult (despite being a polyglot and fully willing tk learn filipino culture and tagalog for keith), theres some sort of mental block about being able to do things for others but never able to do things for yourself

Maybe it’d be the other way around, where keith would show james, bcs someone needs to take care of him

[absintheanflare]

very funny to me how i didnt realize a language-based job is entirely an option for me. how the hell didnt i notice it

[larathia]

It’s been a few years now, so it’s probably safe to say this.

VLD discourse seems to love focusing on Shiro, Keith, and Lance, but this little essay is not about any of them. 

This essay is about Matt, and how y’all seem to have never realized just what a gold mine Matt’s canon is for every funny and weird thing you could possibly think up. Specifically, I want all the fandom to think hard about these canon facts:

1) Matt is maybe nineteen when the Kerberos mission goes south. He appears in all respects to be a pretty normal nineteen year old cis guy. Hormone-wise, I mean.

2) Given his overt flirtations with Allura, he’s at most bisexual. (Not gay, but maybe more than het.) He’s also clearly perfectly okay with coming on to other species, ‘cos there’s not a moment’s hesitation there. 

3) Matt was the Only Human In His Part Of The Universe from the time he got separated from the rest of the crew until Pidge found him. YEARS LATER. And even after she found him, he was still usually the Only Human in his part of the universe - it was just that now he also knew where some other humans were in relation to himself.

4) Matt is a Holt. That means he has a mind so wide open you could fit three football fields and a four-department-store mall in it, and he’s not afraid to experiment.

Please. Take a moment to put these four easily observable canon notes together in your brain. Go on. I’ll wait. Then go ahead and let Matt get up to every single “dude were you stoned?” “Not on purpose” bit of space shenanigans you can think of. I would love to see these fics:

* That time Matt got caught jacking off by some of the crew he was flying with, had to explain what exactly he was doing, came up with some really wild shit like ‘no really human males have to do this or we get sick’ or some such BS, and for the next four months had crew members offering to help him or telling him the ship’s clock had informed them that it had been more than x vargas since he’d last jacked off, he’d better go do that.

* That time Matt wound up in a space bar, couldn’t read ANY of the signs, picked a drink at random, and two days later had to be rescued by his crew and given a surgical abortion because some other species found him while he was blacked out and implanted eggs in his intestinal wall. Which, to his surprise, he both remembered and didn’t mind.

* That time a semi-gelatinous life form decided that Matt’s ejaculate was tasty and nutritious and therefore almost kidnapped him from the crew he was serving with. And his captain then had a Talk with him about Certain Species Protocols.

* That time after Pidge found him again and one of Matt’s crew innocently asked her while she was visiting if she would require help with her sex drive, and she spent an hour running down just where that question had come from.

* The bit where Pidge finds out that a lot of species’ reactions to Matt have been mirror images of his reactions to them - i.e. human is interestingly exotic and this looks fun, why not try something? And Pidge has to decide whether it’s better to blackmail her brother or just straight up tell their mother when the opportunity offers. Decisions, decisions. 

* The bit where Matt and his portion of the Resistance tag along with Voltron for a while and Pidge is stunned at how many alien languages Matt can now read, until one of his crew mentions that time with the ovipositor and the drinks menu and that Matt learned to be a polyglot out of self defense.

[keithhoward]

Cannot help my indulgent tendency to assign characters I like “polyglot” but at least in Keith’s case he is at least fluent in two in canon. What’s a few more??

[lesbianrobin]

What do you wanna see happening with Steve and Robin in season 4?

I just need them to be besties... You know how they seamlessly worked together in that epilogue scene in S3? The way Steve opened the door for Robin, the way they communicated via looks in front of Keith, the way that Robin knew exactly how to sell Steve so they could work together, the way that Steve just being himself made Robin beam, the way that they just operate like two halves of a whole unit? I need that to continue throughout the entirety of S4. 

Plot-wise, I really want to see their experience with literally being kidnapped/tortured/drugged by foreign military operatives come into play somehow, as well as Robin’s apparently extensive random skills (polyglot, drama kid, band kid, soccer player... is there anything this girl can’t do?). They’re both so brave and smart and fun, and I want them to take an active role while also not directly endangering children the way that they did in S3. We all love the Scoops Troop, but let’s be honest, it was stupid (and OOC for Steve) for them to recruit a LITTLE GIRL to BREAK INTO A SECRET RUSSIAN FACILITY. Keep the chaotic energy! Just maybe let their lack of common sense and terrible decision-making only impact them, not innocent kids around them.

This answer is a mess lmao I just genuinely have no clue what to expect from S4, so I only have vague ideas of what I want to see. 

My dream is to see the ending of S3, in which Hawkins becomes known as a Weird Small Town and is talked about on news channels and among conspiracy circles, to carry into S4. Have paranormal investigators and conspiracy theorists and bored college kids flood Hawkins, and give Steve and Robin some mystery or plotline connected to these hoards of people suddenly prying into every nook and cranny of the town. Maybe they hear a rumor about active Russian spies, and while neither of them put much stock into it, they Need to investigate and be sure that it’s just a rumor, and maybe their investigation could lead them to some other unexpected shady activity! Who knows! The sky’s the limit!

Basically, I want their personalities and their partnership to shine, and while I want them to have some fun, I also don’t want them to be relegated entirely to comic relief (besides That Scene) the way they were in S3. Thanks for asking!

[ao3feedshklance]

The Empire

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

by leadernovaandthemacabre

Lance is a socialite and informant on the brink of terraforming Voltron’s new society. To that end, he wants to raise his perfect successor. His husband however is wary to start their new family, pussyfooting in his duty to find the right alpha to impregnate them. Tired of Keith’s hesitance, Lance buys an alpha himself.

To the horror of everyone involved however, he’s purchased the bloodthirsty, ruthless, indomitable Champion…

Words: 25279, Chapters: 2/5, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: M/M, Multi

Characters: Lance, Keith, Shiro, Sendak, Haxus, Jenka, Kolivan, Krolia - Character, antok, Thace, Hunk, Pidge, Matt, Sam, Allura, Alfor, melenor, Zarkon, Veronica, Rachel, Luis, Marco, Ilun, Vrek, Curtis, Adam, zethrid, ezor, Narti, Reyner, Lubos, Bandor, Romelle, Ladnok, Regris

Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron), Keith/Lance/Shiro (Voltron)

Additional Tags: Ancient World AU, Post-apocalyptic AU, Bodyguard AU, Sugar Daddy AU, Roman Empire influences, Mayan Empire influences, Caribbean Colony influences, Omegaverse, a/b/o dynamics, Sexism, Racism, Colourism, politicking, Slavery, omega are at the top of the hierarchy, alpha are at the bottom of the hierarchy, alpha are slaves, it takes all three sexes to procreate, Non-traditional A/B/O Dynamics, Polygamy, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Polygamy Negotiations, there is a LOT of talking, lactating males, Mpreg, Heats, ruts, anyone can give bonding marks, hard of hearing Keith, deaf keith, lance has ADHD, Polyglot Lance, Shiro has PTSD, comfort and angst, brief sexual harrassment, dub con, Explicit Consent, Language Barrier, Sign Language, First Time, Oviposition, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, strangers to friends-with-benefits to lovers, Emotional Manipulation, wherever Sendak is mentioned dub-con is featured, Assault, knives brought to gunfights, underground fighting rings, Age Difference, Platonic Kissing, no beta we die like men, clothes are not gendered, Semi-Public Sex, Falling In Love, Romance, Seduction, Additional Tags to Be Added

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

[fluentlanguage]

How to Maintain a Language While Starting a New One

You've climbed the hill of your first foreign language, maybe finding yourself at level A2 basecamp or even up on the plateau of endless conversations. Maybe you've even ascended further, building your language home and living near the peak for many years.

And now, you're beginning to think about learning the next language. Maybe you've got a trip coming up or you're simply feeling the curiosity.

It's time to learn a new language! The only question is:

How can you keep your other language fresh while starting on a new one?

Do you have to worry about forgetting everything you've learnt within weeks?

In my new podcast episode, I looked into this question in detail while answering a question from my listener Owen.

Click Play to listen to the podcast episode:

First of all, Would I Recommend Learning a Language While Maintaining Another?

It’s always a matter of taste, but my personal opinion is YES. It gets easier to learn your 2nd, 3rd, 4th language because you know yourself and you know languages.

In linguistics, this is called metalinguistic awareness. Your brain has become aware of structures and vocabulary, you already know some language, and you are able to transfer a little bit of that over to the next one.

In addition to this, you now have the psychological advantages of more positive self-talk, reduced self-doubt, increased self-efficacy.

You'll spend less time wondering if you have what it takes because you already know. This is a huge advantage.

Read more about these skills in my blog article about what gets easier after learning 10 languages

Next, it's time to consider how to get the most out of studying both languages.

What Can You Do When Words Pop Into Your Brain in the Wrong Language?

I’ve found that the more languages you want to keep active at the same time before they become so ingrained that speaking is just automatic, the more interference you experience.

Language interference happens whenever you learn new languages, even when you are adding your first ever foreign language. It happens to adults and children, and is a natural part of the process.

For a good insight into this, check out An Introduction to Foreign Language Learning and Teaching (Learning about Language) by Keith Johnson.

You can get

phonological interference (essentially an accent),

grammatical interference (word order, pronouns, tense, mood..), * . lexical interference (usually when you borrow words and put them into the 2nd language, like Denglisch or Engrish or English).

Then there’s ‘unintentional code switching’ which is the interference you experience when saying a word in the wrong language. Usually code switching is considered intentional but unintentional occurrences have been studied too.

We lose speaking fluency more readily especially when there wasn’t much speaking before, so you may find that a language is easy to re-learn on Duolingo but almost impossible to speak.

Focus on the skills you want to maintain

When you’re thinking about adding languages and maintaining older ones, it’s important to think not just about the level, but about what you actively want to DO with the language.

Rather than thinking “I want to maintain my French at level B1”, consider what you need the language for and what you want to be able to do at the drop of a hat. So the question is not just keeping it fresh, but HOW you keep it fresh.

Consider listening, speaking, reading and writing, and where you see yourself functioning. As discussed in my podcast about re-learning a language you've forgotten (click here to listen), you will still have literacy and structural understanding, but vocab seems to go more quickly.

Consider your goals in the new language

Are you dabbling, enjoying following your curiosity? This is common for a lot of polyglots.

Or are you considering a language with a serious purpose of functioning in the country?

Your goals in the new language affect how much time you are spending with it, and time really matters here!

So before diving into a project of learning 4 languages at the same time, consider whether you want to go deep and acquire any of them to a very high level, or you are happy veering to the other side of the road now and then.

Conclusions:

You can’t just forget a language, but in order to keep it fresh you need to engage in maintenance activities and accept a learning curve when you immerse again

Learning more languages, even at the same time, is awesome

But don’t expect miracles, consider your goals and limitations

Interference is normal

I would love to hear your stories of learning several languages at once. Leave a comment here, and subscribe to the Fluent Show for more language learning tips.

[autisticlancemcclain]

“Hey, Lance.” A taunting laugh, smirk audible in his voice. “I got your lion back.”

He’s so smug he’s dripping with it, truly. If satisfaction was a person he would be the one and only Keith Gyeong, prodigy pilot extraordinaire.

He did, however, go out of his way to get Lance’s lion back for him. So.

“Thank you, Keith,” Lance says, injecting as much sincerity into his voice as he can muster. He’s well aware he’s still at a disadvantage here, and he knows Keith is his best shot for help (he would literally rather die than ask Shiro, Pidge would take twelve thousand photos and hoard them over his head for eternity, Hunk has a told-you-so problem, and he doesn’t know the Alteans well enough to take that particular L in front of them). “Now can you come and unchain me?”

Lance is expecting teasing. Duh. That’s the point of this whole rivalry spiel. He is not, however, expecting to be abandoned.

“What’s that? Uh, you’re cutting out, I can’t — I can’t hear you —”

Oh, Lance is going to kill him.

“Come on! I thought we bonded!”

Nothing. Not even static over the comms, which tells Lance that Keith has yet to fucking cut the connection, and is, in fact, being a horrible smug jerk.

A horrible smug jerk that is Lance’s only saving grace, unfortunately.

Man, fuck. Why is Lance expected to be friends with this jerk again?

“Keith?”

Still nothing.

“Buddy?”

Fuck, not even a muffled snigger.

“…My man?”

Is it desperate? Yes. Was the bonding dig also desperate? Yep. Is Lance digging himself into a deeper hole by the minute? Quite probably.

He does that regularly, though. He’ll get out eventually.

Hopefully.

Lance continues to nag a silent Keith through the comms, and then switches to cussing him out, in as many languages as he can (which is a lot. He doubts Keith has ever been called a fart-snorting garbage-guzzler in Gaelic, heh. Ass). He’s hoping to incense Keith enough to get him to fire back and prove that he’s been listening all along, but not too much that he turns around and refuses to help. It’s a delicate balance. Lance is usually very good at it. (Nothing on Earth is funnier than making your older siblings absolutely raging mad and then watching them continue to help you with whatever you ask for. It is, truly, an art form.)

But since Lance was forsaken by the gods the very second he was shot into space, Keith remains absolutely soundless.

And honestly? How dare he.

Muttering to himself, Lance tries to shift into a slightly more comfortable position. Eventually he manages to get his knees under him, chest to the floor, and curves his back to take the pressure off his wrists, which isn’t amazing but is better than before. It’s certainly not easy to do — this handcuff shit is hard. Lance always thought it would be way more fun.

“Well, damn, Sanchez. You sure you even want me to help you? You’re lookin’ pretty comfortable all stretched out.”

Lance yelps loudly, startling at Keith’s drawl. When the hell did he get here? Why didn’t Lance see him arrive in Red?

“Did you seriously use Pidge’s cloaking just to sneak up on me?” he demands.

Keith steps into Lance’s field of vision, smirking up a goddamn storm. He crouches right beside the pole Lance is chained to, reaching out a hand (dodging Lance’s attempt to bite his fingers off) and tilting up his chin.

“‘Course,” he admits, easy as pie. Then his smirk gets wider. “Think I was gonna pass up a chance to see ya all tied up and testy, pretty boy?”

Pretty boy.

Oh, no. Oh no, no, no.

“Fuck,” Lance says, aghast. “Fuck, fuck!”

The sudden expletives startles Keith, a little, and the smug expression drops from his face.

“What? What’s wrong?”

Lance face contorts in panic. “You’re hot! You’re not supposed to be hot! Fuck!”

This is Lance’s own goddamn fault, really, but he would like to take a brief moment to blame both higher powers and the internet at large for making him this way.

The thing is that Lance likes to bug people. He likes to push people’s buttons and run off before they can push his back. Usually, anyway, people don’t want to push his back; they just want to throw shit at him or roll their eyes and walk away.

But Keith?

Of course not. Heaven forbid Keith act like every other human being on the planet — er, well, alien in the universe. No, Keith has absolutely no trouble snapping right back to whatever Lance throws at him. Keith actually plays his game.

And fuck, does Lance love it.

That’s a huge problem. Massive. Lance doesn’t know what to do with someone who indulges him! That’s not the point! The point is for people to get annoyed and for Lance to win by default! He’s not supposed to be the one getting flustered!

“…What,” Keith says flatly. He blinks rapidly at Lance, confusion written all over his face.

There’s a splash of red spreading across his nose.

“Oh, fuck you!” Lance explodes — or, well, as much as he can while he’s still chained to a fucking pole. “Of course you have to be a fuckin’ — smug jackass! And of course you look good doing it! And of fucking course you’re a goddamn country boy!”

And the hole Lance has dug himself gets deeper.

Lance astounds himself, really. He should arrange to have his mouth glued shut.

“This is the worst! It’s one thing if you’re just some guy, but nooooo! Of course you have fucking — crooked incisors and a Southern drawl! Oh, you are the worst, you know that, Gyeong?”

“This is going in a rapidly different direction than I pictured,” Keith manages.

“Oh, picture me tied up and at your mercy a lot, do you?” Lance snaps back.

It’s a reflex, really. Lance says shit like that all the time, because he’s his own target audience. It never does anything but make people roll their eyes at him, and occasionally land him in detention. Hell, he barely even registered that he said it.

But, fascinatingly, the tiny smudge of red over Keith’s nose explodes into a raging blush, from the roots of his hair down his neck.

“There’s no possible way you know that,” Keith says hotly.

Lance’s jaw drops. “No way that I — I didn’t! I wasn’t — bitch, I was joking!”

Keith scowls, flush getting deeper. “Well, what about the shit you said before? You said I’m hot!”

“Yeah, because you fucking are! I’m not — I don’t daydream about you, at least! I don’t have a — a fucking thing for you, though?”

As he says it, Lance knows he’s lying. All of a sudden every single one of Hunk’s raised eyebrows whenever Lance ranted about Keith start to make a lot of sense.

“Bullshit!” Keith argues. “You always stare at me during training, and you pick random fights with me all the time, and yet you sit next to me all the time for no reason! You’re fuckin’ obsessed with me!”

“I —” Lance stops, jaw clicking shut. It is occurring to him, just now, that straight, non-crush-having people don’t generally obsess over one-sided rivalries for five years, and then do everything they can to make that rivalry a reality.

So. An oversight, perhaps.

“There’s a possibility,” Lance concedes, “that my subconscious, without my permission, has perhaps harboured some strange type of feelings for you.”

“Told you,” Keith says faintly. He looks just as lost as Lance does, though, so it significantly lowers the effect.

Lance is gagged. He is, for once in his life, at a complete loss for what to say. What does this even — who comes up with this kind of shit? Who does this? Lance is his own worst enemy, truly. Sorry, Zarkon, but take a seat.

“Lance, dude?” Hunk’s voice, faint and tinny from Lance’s discarded helmet, makes them both jump. “Do you still need rescuing?”

“Fuck, sorry,” Keith mutters, finally springing into action and deactivating the stupid cuffs. Lance scrambles back the second he’s free, rubbing his wrists and avoiding eye contact with Keith while also constantly sneaking glances aren’t him that aren’t at all sneaky because Keith catches him every time.

“So,” Keith says eventually.

Nope. Lance isn’t having this stupid conversation.

Lance throws a random rock at him.

“Hey!” Keith picks it back up and whips it at Lance immediately, only his aim isn’t as good as Lance’s, and also Lance is already diving to grab more rocks, so he misses. Lance starts pelting Keith with the armful of space rocks he’s gathered, each of them no bigger than an ice cube, all of them pinging harmlessly off Keith’s armour.

“Lance — will you — fucking cut that out!”

He lunges forward, shoving Lance to the ground and pinning Lance’s hands above his head. Lance bucks and squirms, trying several of the new maneuvers Shiro taught them to throw Keith off, but unfortunately Keith had also been present at the training in which they learned these manoeuvres and is therefore unaffected.

“I’ll let you up if you stop throwing shit at me.”

“No.”

“Guess you’re stuck, then.”

Lance tries for several more minutes to escape, but Keith remains firmly where he is, pinning Lance down. Lance is eventually forced to stop unless a new problem wants to pop its way up and make things more embarrassing and horrible.

Lance huffs. “Let me up. I promise not to throw more rocks at you.”

Keith squints suspiciously at him. “Are you lying to me?”

“Yes.”

“Well then — no, obviously?”

“C’mon, Keith.”

Lance does what he always does when he’s backed into a corner — he pulls out the brown doe eyes. He furrows his eyebrows, widening his eyes as big as he can and pouting.

“For fuck’s — oh, fine.”

Keith rolls off Lance, grumbling the whole time.

Lance blinks.

That — that worked? All he had to do was ask, barely, bat his eyelashes a little, and Keith just — listened to him?

“Oh my God, we are down bad for each other,” Lance breathes.

Keith looks ready to argue, but then stops himself, sighing.

“Yeah.”

“What are we going to — fuck, what are we going to do?”

Because Lance is not new to crushes. He’s had more of them than he can physically count. But never in his life has he wanted to judo flip someone as badly as he wanted to make out with them. That’s a new development.

“I dunno,” Keith says helplessly. He’s kind of — curled in on himself, face still red, as if he curls into a tight enough ball he can escape the situation. “You’re the plan guy! When you’re not being a dumbass, that is.”

Ignoring the jab, Lance takes a moment to ponder that. He is kind of the plan guy, isn’t he? It’s him who came up with all the Garrison escape plans he dragged Hunk into. It’s him who came up with the elevator shaft idea. Hell, he can quite possibly trace every one of his major life moments to a point where he said ‘hey, I wonder how I can make this work for me.’

Plan guy. Plan guy. He can be the plan guy. That’s all anything is, right? Making decisions and working out how to get there. He’s good at that.

But what decision does he want with Keith? What does he want with Keith, period?

“Step one,” Lance decides, “is that we should make out.”

Keith looks at him in surprise. “That’s step one?”

Lance nods firmly. “Yep. If we make out now, we can figure out all the weird tension shit. Maybe we don’t actually like each other. Maybe we’re just, like, bored.”

Keith looks doubtful, but he makes his way closer anyway.

“I guess so.”

“Yep.”

“So I just — kiss you?”

“Well, we don’t have all day, Mullet.”

Truly, Lance’s heart is pounding. He has no fucking clue how he’s managing to sound even remotely normal. He feels like he might implode.

Hesitantly, Keith reaches for Lance’s face, resting a palm on his cheek. His hand is warm, even through the gloves of their suits. Hot, really; nearly burning. He rests it there for a moment, absentmindedly — or maybe intentionally — rubbing his thumb across Lance’s cheekbone as his eyes trace nervously over Lance’s lips. He leans in close slowly, like he’s got all the time in the world, eyes fluttering shut as his lips get closer and closer to Lance’s. He gets close enough that Lance can see the startling length of his eyelashes, the tiny mole at the corner of his mouth, the chapped skin of his lips.

Lance doesn’t even know how to categorize the sound that comes out of his mouth when their lips finally touch. It’s — breathy; stuttering. Like all the air escapes out of his lungs the second his skin touches Keith’s.

Keith tilts his head a little, sliding their noses together, his free hand coming to rest at Lance’s hip. Lance’s hands move without his permission, sliding up the chest plate of Keith’s armour and over his shoulders, resting finally in his hair, fingers tangling around the thick black strands. He pulls on them slightly, and Keith gets the hint, opening his mouth and pushing closer.

Lance’s heartbeat slows from its jackrabbit pace. He stops focusing on anything except the warmth of Keith’s skin on his, the rhythm of their mouths moving together, the occasional sighs Keith makes at the back of his throat. He forgets where he is, what he’s doing; hell, he forgets his own damn name. The only thing he cares about is pressing closer to Keith, keeping them melded together.

“Well. Obviously you didn’t need saving.”

Lance’s eyes fly open and he shoves Keith backwards with a yelp.

“Hunk! What — where the fuck did you come from?!”

“Yellow is not a quiet machine,” Hunk says drily. “Like, seriously. The fact that you are just now reacting to my presence speaks wonders. I know you’ve liked Keith for a while now, dude, but there’s no way he’s that good of a kisser.”

“Oh my God,” Keith says faintly, and Lance can’t help but agree.

Goddamn. First he’s kissing Keith, now he’s agreeing with him. What’s next? They gonna co-lead Voltron together, or something?

“Let’s just go,” Lance squeaks, scrambling to his feet and desperately avoiding eye contact. He follows a very amused-looking Hunk back to his lion, enduring his painful amount of teasing with a bright red face and a truly herculean amount of self-control, if he’s being honest. The teasing from the rest of the team is almost worse, their ‘Loverboy Lance’ jokes briefly making him panic that everyone knows about the fact that he and fucking Keith Gyeong just made out, somehow, before he remembers that oh yeah, dumbass, you were just tied to a pole for flirting with the a scam artist.

Yeesh. How time fuckin’ flies.

The only consolation to the staggering amount of humiliation is that Keith keeps glancing at Lance, going red, and looking away. So obviously Lance isn’t the only one so affected, which is a relief.

Once everyone has finally gotten their fill of making fun of Lance, Shiro dismisses them, and Lance makes a beeline to his room. He rushes through his skincare routine as quickly as he can, refusing to let himself think about a single thing the entire time.

It doesn’t work. Every single time he catches sight of his own reflection, he’s reminded that his face just spent inordinate amounts of time pressed against Keith’s not even an hour ago. Keith is all he can think about.

Plan. Plan. What’s the plan? Is there a plan?

It is not a surprise when he hears a knock at his door.

“So,” Keith says when Lance opens it, rocking back in his heels. “What’s — uh, what’s step two?”

Lance smiles, allowing himself to feel the giddiness that’s bubbling up his throat, the parts of him that are yelling ‘Keith! Keith Gyeong! He sought me out! He wants to go further! With me!’

“Let’s figure that out together,” Lance says, pulling Keith into the room and shutting the door. “I’m thinking this is going to be more of a two-man operation.”

[lovingunderratedcharacters]

rules: we’re snooping on your playlist. put your entire 🎶 library on shuffle and list the first ten songs, then choose ten victims. 

So I was tagged by @lauren-celeste

1. Mirros - Justin Timberlake

2. Fuck You - CeeLo Green

3. Barracuda - Heart

4. Tell That Devil - Jill Andrews

5. Coming Home - Keith Urban, Julia Michaels

6. Ain't No Rest for The Wicked - Cage the Elephant

7. I Feel Like Dancin' - All Time Low

8. Hallelujah (Sing) - Jennifer Hudson, Tori Kelly

9. Daddy Lessons - Beyonce, Dixie Chicks

10. Upside Down - Jack Johnson

Yeah my taste in music is honestly all over the place. This playlist showed that pretty well.

I'm tagging:

@g-luztrash @its-a-polyglot @whatwouldidowithoutgeorgeluz @fan-girl-shit @appreciatetheunderappreciated @fandomscenariosforyou @imagine-bandofbrothers @whisperroses @maiden-of-gondor @magicmalicemadness

[ao3feed-safeklance]

Need Someone to Hold Me

read it on the AO3 at http://bit.ly/2FCyF3l

by thenakednymph

Lance misses touch but luckily for him Keith is willing to help. ~ Technical companion piece to Toaster. We’re going to say this happens in that same universe.

Words: 2286, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)

Additional Tags: This is like the Lance version of Touch, reasons, Lonely Lance (Voltron), Homesick Lance (Voltron), Keith speaks Spanish, very badly, but he tries okay, Polyglot Lance, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Korean Keith (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Couch Cuddles, Sleepy Cuddles, Cuddles, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Comfort, flangst, klance

read it on the AO3 at http://bit.ly/2FCyF3l

[ao3feed-voltronlegendarydefender]

Need Someone to Hold Me

read it on the AO3 at Need Someone to Hold Me

by thenakednymph

Lance misses touch but luckily for him Keith is willing to help. ~ Technical companion piece to Toaster. We’re going to say this happens in that same universe.

Words: 2286, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)

Additional Tags: This is like the Lance version of Touch, reasons, Lonely Lance (Voltron), Homesick Lance (Voltron), Keith speaks Spanish, very badly, but he tries okay, Polyglot Lance, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Korean Keith (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Couch Cuddles, Sleepy Cuddles, Cuddles, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Comfort, flangst, klance

read it on the AO3 at Need Someone to Hold Me

[siliconwebx]

How WordPress Has Changed People’s Lives

It’s Friday and we could probably all use a little more positivity in our lives, especially on social media. Morten Rand-Hendriksen recently asked his followers on Twitter how WordPress has changed their lives. Here are a couple of the responses that stood out to me.

As a beginner web designer, who was struggling to find a job/work, WordPress opened the door to web development and enabled me to offer clients control over their websites. That was nearly 10 years ago and I’ve been building with WP ever since.

Keith Devon

I graduated in 2008 right into the thick of the recession. No jobs, nothing – the only way I could put food on the table and pay rent was to build WordPress sites for people. This led to my entire career in UX design, and my life would be very very different without WordPress.

Scott Sullivan

Here’s one you won’t expect. I was in an agency job I hated. I had an interview with Automattic and failed. Devastated, it forced me to look at what I really wanted. I now have my own consultancy.

Chris Taylor

I’d been working in the social field for more than 30 years. In 2015 I had to change and decided to work in the digital world. I casually met the Turin Meetup community and joined them. Then I started to contribute to the Polyglots team. Now, I’m one of the Italian GTE

Laurasacco

I’d been working for a hosting company and noticed how many of our users were enjoying it. Decided to go to WordCamp in 2008. The software was great, but the community was what really drew me in. I’ve been using WordPress in my career ever since then.

Ms. Velda

Made a WP website for a friend, then another, then someone who paid me… Today is 6 years and 120 clients later.

Sara Dunn

#WCSEA and specifically @adspedia reminded me that WordPress is about the inspiring people I meet at so many occasions. Beautiful minds & souls who inspired me to build a new and better life 2 years ago. It’s way more than software and individual ego.

Carole Olinger

I started by own consultancy doing WordPress for nonprofits straight out of college. Somehow, I’m still here and still loving it almost a decade later. Meetups and WordCamps (#wcsea!) were so crucial to my learning, developing as a speaker, and networking.

Mark Root-Wiley

I started working with #WordPress in 2012 after my business was sold out from under me by a ‘partner’. I ended up losing everything. Developing WordPress sites contributed to getting my Family out of debt, back on our feet. @Mor10 you’ve been an inspiration along the way…

Damian Saunders

There’s always a lot happening in the WordPress ecosystem and every once in awhile, it’s nice to step back to see how this software, which is used by millions of people across the world, is impacting lives.

I highly encourage you to read the thread in its entirety.  If you’d like to read similar, more in-depth content, check out HeroPress. HeroPress publishes inspirational essays from members of the community once a month.

😉SiliconWebX | 🌐WPTavern

[voltron-imagine]

Hello! I was wondering if you could do the paladins that their s/o can speak other languages. For example, I can speak french, so whenever I get frustrated, I slip a "merde!" or two out of habit.

A/N: of course anon! Sorry we haven’t been too active we’re working on getting to requests. Languages sure are the coolest thing! (so envious of polyglots) Anyways I kept the language unspecific to keep it relatable (also I barely know any other languages outside of English). I also took some liberties with the languages in-universe seeing as all the the aliens speak English :,D

Shiro

He finds the fact you can speak multiple languages so cool

He found a new appreciation after being held captive by the Galra

So many of the other prisoners would revert to their native languages, talking anxiously to each other

It really reminded him of how alone he felt

So he’s even more doubly happy to be with you (even if he can’t understand much, at least he knows it’s from home)

Whenever you accidentally slip in words from other languages you always get a bit embarrassed (but Shiro finds it adorable)

Hunk

He loves it

He likes quizzing you on foreign foods and trying to get you to guess their origin (“Hunk I’ve told you already I don’t speak that. It’s from space!”)

A hobby of yours is you getting the most obscure words and getting him to try pronounce them

Hilarity ensues

It’s all a bit silly and he always acts so goofy (but at least he’s your goof)

Pidge

Linguists is honestly one of their favorite things

Other than computer coding they don’t know many other languages and they find it so cool you know multiple

“Like you use that to actually talk to other human beings? It’s so fascinating to think how all over the Earth, humans developed different syllables into all these different words and grammar patterns to have complicated meanings and— ”

Summary: it’s hella cool

The two of you also bond over learning little tidbits from other languages from the galaxy (trying to decipher Altean was equally painful and exhilarating)

Keith

Even if he’s not one to openly lavish upon compliments, he can’t help but give a smile whenever you can use your languages to help out

“You were pretty amazing back there [name]”

When no one else is looking, he asks you for study tips

The side of him that never quite left behind kiddy spy games finds being bilingual pretty darn cool (and useful)

He mostly uses it as an excuse to have you to himself though

“I saw Lance looking at you— remember, you’re mine. Also how do I pronounce this again?”

Lance

Takes every opportunity to remind you how amazing you are

Specifically learns phrases from other languages you know just to try recreate english pick up lines

It usually goes terribly wrong

“Hey— you’re a dumpster, may I lift you?” if you’re trash how about I pick you up

Whenever he’s feeling down he loves listening to you just talk about whatever in English or any other language

“It just reminds me of home. You’re home. Love you [name].”