#Maybe make the demon Lance has Zarkon or something

[crookedlykawaiibunny]

I did another AU. Don’t think too hard on this okay? It was only meant to be a fun thought. Like don’t question what demon Lance has or if Allura has the same abilities as Lance. Cause I don’t know. Unless you have a really cool reason or idea then I’m all ears! 👀👂

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt 121

121

“Lance is pregnant?”

“Yep”

“And he’s carrying twins?”

“Yep”

“And you’re going to be a father?”

“Yep”

“And you’ve known for weeks now?”

“Nope. We only found out a few days it was twins”

“And you didn’t tell me sooner?”

“Yep?”

“Keith... This a big thing? I know you don’t trust or rely on me, but I want to be here for both you and Lance”

Dragged off by Krolia, Keith had a firm gaze on his hands. He’d been hopelessly nervous over today’s scan, anxious to see if the changes in Lance’s daily routine coupled with the fresh blood hadn’t hurt their babies in any way, and kind of feeling displaced over their friends wanting to be there for the scan. He didn’t think he could feel more anxious until Krolia suddenly appeared as Coran was preparing to start the ultrasound. He’d expected more yelling from his mother. More “How could you be so irresponsible?”, and more “There’s no way you can be with him or have the twins”. His mother sounded disappointed. He hadn’t meant for her to find out like this, but Lance had snapped and now they were here.

“Gracious. You must be so scared right now. Your father was awash with fear when he found out. He worried so much for you from the moment he knew you existed... This is why you hugged me wasn’t it? You were still working through how to tell me as you feared the worst”

His mother was leaning on the table with her left elbow, her right arm sitting against the table as if she wanted to reach out and take his hand

“How could I not? Lance is a vampire. If the Vatican found out, he’d be dead or dragged off to be experimented on”

Sure they were going to tell their friends, but having Krolia know... she was in a position where she really should be reporting this back to Blade Headquarters. He couldn’t quite place her tone, she sounded worried, but her being their for the scan had really thrown him for a loop. Mami held Lance’s hand for their six week scan, whereas Krolia stood further back... kind of like she was trying to give them a bit of privacy despite how impossible that’d been

“Oh, Keith. No. There’s no way I’d let that happened to him. Not when your happiness and his would be destroyed by people who know nothing”

Raising his head to meet his mother’s eyes, Krolia gave him perhaps the softest smile he’d ever seen her give. It felt... too easy. To accepting

“Why aren’t you mad? He’s a vampire”

Krolia finally drew back in her chair, crossing her arms lightly while making gestures with her left hand as if to wave off his worry

“He’s also a good man. He is kind and conscious of his condition. He poses no threat as he is. If anything he’s a little too human. I feel no threat from him. How are you both doing? I was so shocked when I found out I was carrying you. We don’t have the easiest life, but I wanted you so very badly”

And Keith so very badly wanted to know Lance was okay... but he couldn’t run from the things he’d been slowly working out, nor the things he wanted to tell his mother

“I... spent a long time hating you. I hated you for leaving me behind and I didn’t understand why you would if you loved me. Finding out Lance was pregnant, it’s like... like I finally get it. I’m scared for him... and I’m scared for our kids... We thought we were only having the one. We were adjusting to that thought, and now there’s two, and Lance hasn’t been very well... Coran has all these guesses but their just that, guesses. He can’t say anything for sure...”

Krolia nodded

“I had the most horrendous morning sickness all through my pregnancy with you. I remember you dad tried to be romantic and make dinner but the moment he opened the can of sardines I threw up on the sofa...”

That didn’t sound fun or pleasant

“Did... did you regret it? Keeping me?”

Krolia shook her head

“Not for a moment. The second I laid eyes on you, all I felt was so in love that I can’t even describe the feeling. Having you was my proudest moment of my life. Then reality set back in. The fear you wouldn’t be safe... I’d already made a bit of a name for myself by then, the days I spent with you and your father... They were truly the best. Leaving you never got any easier. I hurt you deeply and I’m never going to be able to undo that, but you are my precious son. Even if I have to make an enemy of the Vatican, I will do all I can to protect and help you and Lance”

Krolia lived and breathed her work. That she’d go that far shocked him. He seriously thought she’d be against this. Against him and Lance continuing with the pregnancy... Keith didn’t know what to say

“I don’t... how can you...”

“Because things aren’t as simple as they teach you as a Blade. Lance isn’t the first vampire I’ve met who wants to be as human as possible. I’ve lied in my reports to protect the very people we’re supposed to kill. I’ve been stung for it before, but at the end of the day, everyone is trying their hardest to make sense of things. Good and Evil aren’t cut down the middle in a straight line. As long as Lance lives the way he has been, I see no danger in continuing to let him live. Besides, you love him. A vampire wouldn’t have been my first choice for you, but your happiness is what matters. You said Lance hasn’t been well, is something wrong?”

Keith hoped their wasn’t. His boyfriend had been pretty cranky since they went back to Garrison. Keith hadn’t been all that happy either. He wanted to be the one to take care of Lance, but Lance always had someone else in the household fussing over him. It’d been hard to hold his temper as he was made to feel redundant

“He’s been really tired and emotional. And really angry today... Coran said anger could be a sign he’s not getting enough blood. He burns through everything so fast... and he throws up a lot”

“It sounds to me like this could be the best place for him right now”

The comment rubbed Keith the wrong way

“Are you trying to say because dad died I can’t take care of Lance?”

“No. I’m saying if something is wrong, Coran is the person Lance needs. He needs you too. This is a whirlwind time for both of you. You want to prioritise him, but he may need Coran’s guidance a little more given he’s dealt with so many supernatural beings. He seems to have a lot of experience and a rather level head”

Riiiiiiiight. He’ll remember that the next time Coran went off talking about his sexscapeds, or got too excited over him dating Lance

“Sometimes he’s a complete nutter”

“Faes are normally trickster demons. He must be very old and very wise to run this place the way he does. Lance trusts him. He’s probably a mess trying to work out his headspace. Have you talked?”

“A bit. He’s been so up and down that I’m worried about him”

“That’s natural”

“But to be this up and down... I don’t know how to help him... I hate it”

Lance seemed so down. So withdrawn. That morning he hadn’t even protested the others joining them for the scan. He’d barely said much of anything when Keith thought about it. He knew his boyfriend didn’t like fresh blood, but if that was the only thing then he kind of felt they’d maybe have talked about it. Krolia

“I’m envious of Lance. I see you with him. You’re not afraid to be open and honest with him. I can’t help but feel jealous of your closeness. You have a good partner, but you need to remember to keep talking. Your father copped more than one of my moods, we had a huge fight that lasted for a week once, because we both thought we were doing the right thing by not pressuring each into talking. What we needed was to talk. I’ve wanted to talk with you for so long... did you get my call? I didn’t know if you got the message I left for your birthday”

Keith shook his head. He hadn’t had a notification that he knew of. He only kept his phone close because Lance’s alarms were on it

“We had no service out there. I don’t know what I would have done, but I think I would have listened to your message if I’d seen it”

“Ah... I was worried I’d upset you. I know I should have knocked this morning, but with no word from you, I wanted to see you were okay. Especially as Pidge came back with a busted ankle”

Hold up. His mum was talking with Pidge? When did this happen? How did that happen?

“You saw her?”

“She came by yesterday with Colleen. I caught her trying to take a look at the briefing room again”

Keith groaned, Shiro biting down a snort. That was so very Pidge that it wasn’t funny, also very stupid on her behalf

“She does that. Lance spent years always going ahead and checking out the places she was interested in so she wouldn’t be hurt”

“Seeing him with them... it’s nice to know you’re friends have spirit with someone there to shelter them. He could be a major asset in the war ahead, yet knowing he’s pregnant, I can’t quash the feeling he should be placed in protective custody”

And Keith was back on guard again. Lance wouldn’t appreciate being made to feel useless, nor did he want to be away from his house. If Lance was put into custody then it was hugely likely that he wouldn’t be able to see his boyfriend until all this was over

“You mean you want to lock him away”

“I’d lock all of you away if I could. Things will only get harder. Lotor has offer his assistance with the pushing of Allura. Though he is useless until he delivers Sendak to us, the one thing he refuses to do”

Oh...

“I don’t want Lance around Lotor. Lotor isn’t good for him. Lance is sure Lotor knows he’s pregnant”

“I would be guarding that secret carefully. Sendak is no joke, nor is the intent in Honerva. Honerva is very smart. That’s why it is so hard to pin something on her and Zarkon. Even if we apprehended Sendak I don’t think we can proceed against Honerva without physical proof of her involvement”

This felt like the longest conversation they’d ever had. There were moments and pauses, yet Krolia wasn’t hiding behind her Blade position. She kind of felt... a bit how Mami made him feel. A little reassured and a lot hoping he was saying the right things. Shiro cleared his throat

“Yes, well, Lotor is another issue. We also have Curtis’s curse to think of too”

Keith felt bad for Curtis. His brother being dumb with his words about his boyfriend

“I wish we had some way to severe the demon from your soul. You were a valuable hunter, though I am relieved that you found a place here with Coran. Many think him too kind hearted given the amount of resources used to keep this place running. There are some in the Blade that think he should be stripped of this post. If anything we should be grateful to him”

Hold up. His mum was complimenting Coran now? Where was the Krolia who’d crush anyone deemed incompetent?!

“My curse is inconvenient. Compelled to the truth... for one mission going wrong. Having monitored Lance I feel his issues with his mental health are the main worry for the moment. If he cannot stabilise his emotions, I fear for him”

At least Curtis had waited this long to contribute to the conversation. Keith still felt Shiro could have said things better. If Curtis remained in Garrison and working remotely it would be safer as Lotor wouldn’t be able force him to confess anything... but Curtis wasn’t someone or something to keep locked away

“Lance trusts Curtis. He really likes you. You should be nicer to your boyfriend”

“I’m not trying to be awkward, yet we do need to consider what will come next. I imagine you’ll want to retire closer to the due date”

Keith hadn’t really thought about that far ahead. He and Lance both wanted the current situation to hurry up and draw to a close. He’d tried to research what he could on pregnancy, but all it did was make him worry more for Lance as he read about the things that could go wrong with his boyfriend and with their babies. Movies made being pregnant look easy... very few had things going wrong. He didn’t know why people had babies when it could kill them... Lance was already dead, but he had blood in his veins. He could haemorrhage. He could suffered a stroke or clot. The drama didn’t even end when the baby was popped out. Being a parent seemed crazy idea. He wanted things to go well. He and Lance deserved things going well. There were so many things to arrange before Lance gave birth on top of working. He didn’t know if he was ready to retire, but he did know he didn’t want to bring work back home with him.

“I think you’ve broken him. Sets save that talk for another day”

Curtis was kind of right. Did he want to retire and if he retired how many people would die because of it?

“Yes. Ooooh, have you Lance started picking names?”

Nope. Not even a name for when they thought they were only having one baby

“Careful, Krolia. Your grandma side is showing”

“Let me be happy for them. I assume Lance is going to find a place in Platt? If you’d like to buy a place, I would love to be able to contribute...”

Hang on...

“I think Lance would rather remain in Garrison. He owns his house”

Krolia agreed with Shiro

“He is at that age. Perhaps it’s time for me to see where my future grand-babies will call home?”

“Lance has a nice house. It has a warm feel to it, and he’s got a bit of land around it”

“I wonder if Miriam would like to make a day trip with me?”

Now his mother was pushing things. Sure, anyone with access to Lance’s file could get his address, but showing up unannounced or with very little notice left Lance jittery

“You can’t invite yourself over. That’s Lance’s safe space”

“Relax. I don’t mean right away, and not without asking him. When his pregnancy is more settled I thought it might nice. Are you two planning on having a baby shower?”

Could babies shower? Didn’t people use a baby bath? He nearly asked before remembering what a baby shower was

“I don’t think so. Lance is pretty uncomfortable about conceiving given all the changes he’s been going through since he drank my blood...”

“I think a baby shower would be a splendid idea. We can plan for closer to his due date. When’s he due?”

Curtis loved being social. He loved helping others, and he’d given up trying to give them sex toys. If they did have a baby shower Keith feared he’d be a nervous wreck and only cause more trouble for those organising it, which would be Hunk, Rieva, and Curtis...

“He’s due in the second week of June... provided he doesn’t have another major bleed or lose the twins... and provided his pregnancy progresses like a human pregnancy and his body doesn’t give out with all the energy going to the twins”

Shiro softly reassured him, his words didn’t feel very comforting ashis brother could foresee the future. Apparently Allura couldn’t have foreseen this either

“Keith, whatever happens, we’ll be here for you”

Keith huffed. He was hearing too much about him and not enough about Lance

“It’s Lance you should be here for”

“We’re here for the four of you. We’re going to get Sendak and close this case up. You’ll see”

Krolia hummed to herself before nodding like she was answering her own question

“You two will be on the same team for Halloween. Though I think Shiro will be scoping from a seperate point. Would you like me to see if I can rearrange things?”

God, yes. Halloween was a horrible time of the year. People only cared about wearing the sluttiest costumes the could find, then ending up drunk in the gutter. Now he had friends to worry about. Hopefully Pidge would still be in her moon boot so she didn’t get herself into trouble

“It’ll be fine. It’s only scoping, if we have to move in, we’ll converge before making the apprehension”

Tranq ’em, bag ’em, then bring’ em in for Coran to process unless the target needed to be dealt with on scene. Yay. He was tired as it was. He couldn’t nap when Lance napped because he’d get worked up about the possibility of Lance waking up disorientated, having a nightmare, or he couldn’t quite take his eyes off him because he was too cute when he slept. Mostly because Lance was cute and liked to nuzzle into him like a big cat.

Krolia smiled at him. She really had seemed to soften since coming to Platt. He’d softened since coming to Platt, even when it came to work he felt like a metric ton of weight had come off his shoulders

“I really am proud of you, Keith. And I will be there to help in any way I can. You deserve this happiness you’ve found with Lance”

No normal hunter would say this, but Krolia was hardly normal. He finally kind of felt like maybe he was reassured by her words

“Thanks, mum. Um... I should head back and check on Lance”

“Ditched for the boyfriend, I see how it is, too cool to hang out with your old mum”

Krolia faked a sniffle. Yeah. She was definitely a weirdo.

[musicanddancingthroughlife]

Shklance - Necromancer Pt2

Sorry about last week, guys, I totally got caught up with my husband’s family reunion, and then I meant to post on Monday, but I misread the requirements for two of my three term papers and got the page count off so they’re longer than I thought they would be and I’ve been freaking out about them all week. And I will continue to do that for this next week because f my life I guess. Just two more weeks of school (and then like half a week where I have just two finals), and then I’m done for summer break, so just know that I’m trying guys haha. But hey, if anyone wants some original stories, I’m editing those all week for class :P

So, I know that I post most of my series in parts, and someone has asked me about that, since my stories tend to time-skip a lot. I do apologize for that, my brain doesn’t like to give me the between to each stories, just little scenes from each, and since I actually write fanfic mostly so I can practice my writing, I don’t push too much for those between scenes. However, this is something I need to work on if I ever want to improve, so I’m working on a longer version of my demon au, if anyone wants to yell at me about that. Anyway, I’m still trying to explore the plot and world to this story, so I hope you guys enjoy this. EDIT: Here is part 1!!!!

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        “Come on, Lance, you have to admit that this is getting out hand!” Keith was yelling at him, but Lance knew better than to let it get to him. Oh, sure, it hurt, because it was definitely a reminder that Keith probably thought he was an idiot. Because let’s face it, he was an idiot. But Lance also knew that whatever anger Keith felt towards him, it was much stronger and directed towards Lotor, not him.

              The school’s only other necromancer had been making Lance’s life miserable ever since they started their classes. It was like it wasn’t enough that Lotor was better than Lance was at the magic itself, or that Professor Haggar definitely preferred Lotor to Lance, or that during all of their stupid dinners with Professor Zarkon (and really, how the hell did they always wind up having dinner with him, when Lance knew for a fact the other classes had dined with multiple teachers by this point) resulted in Lance being ignored on a good day, and verbally abused on a bad day. No, Lotor had resulted to using magics on Lance in the hallways and on the field. And Lance. Couldn’t. Catch. A Fucking. Break.

              Honestly, it was a wonder that Lance had lasted this long without anyone finding out.

              Well, anyone except for his stupidly observant roommates. And seriously? Fuck them.

              “Shut up, Keith, I get it, okay? We all know that I’m too weak and stupid to be able to defend myself against someone as talented and powerful as Lotor.”

              Keith snarled at Lance, lunging forward, but Shiro caught him by the back of his neck and kept him in place. Lance felt a brief surge of triumph and relief, even gratitude toward the older vampire, but then he turned his head to glare at Lance, too, and Lance realized that he was laying on the couch, only half dressed because the other two had insisted on “treating his wounds”, and he was exhausted. As a necromancer, Lance was able to suck up energy and use it as his own, but as is, he used up all of his own sucking up Lotor’s, and the entire endeavor had left him weak as a kitten.

              If Keith really wanted to attack him, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop them.

              “How long?”

              Lance squirmed, wincing as it tugged on the slashes and cuts littering his entire upper body. Yeah, no, he wasn’t going anywhere.

              “Lance,” Shiro said again, “how long?”

              Lance remained silent, valiantly trying to keep quiet. Keith snarled again. “Don’t you get it, you idiot? This isn’t okay! We need to tell someone, which means you have to tell someone something. Even… even if it’s not us. Please.” It was the way Keith’s voice faded by the end of his sentence, as if the idea that Lance wouldn’t trust them with something like this was a very real fear that he had. It made Lance look up at him, curious as to why his friend sounded so emotional.

              Fuck. Was he crying? Lance was pretty sure those were tears shining in Keith’s eyes, and fuck, he wasn’t at all prepared for this. Shiro, maybe. Lance, definitely. But Keith? Keith never cried, what the hell was he supposed to do with that???

              Run away, obviously.

              “Look, you guys have been awesome. Seriously. I mean, I could’ve totally taken care of this mess,” he gestured down his body, gesturing at the ugly mess of bruises and cuts and trying to ignore the way Keith’s tears had slowed and both of the vampires were now glaring at him, “but your help is definitely appreciated. But I have class, you guys have class, we all need some sleep. So let’s try and get on that, yeah?” He swung his legs of the edge of the couch, satisfied that he had found a viable reason to cut this awkward and uncomfortable talk short.

              Yet the instant he swung his body around on the couch – hissing at the pain that lit up at the movement – he found himself blocked by Shiro’s body. He’d stepped forward, trapping Lance on the couch, bracketing him in with his legs. He was so close that Lance was forced to lean back on his hands, just to avoid getting a faceful. Leaning back wasn’t much better, though, as he found himself almost immediately trapped there by Keith, who was leaning over the back of the couch, presumably to make sure Lance couldn’t scramble away from them.

              Like he could do anything of the sort with the way his body was aching. Seriously, fuck Lotor.

              “Lance.” At least Shiro was quieter than Keith. Even if the anger was still obvious. “You can’t keep doing this. We want to help you. Please let us help you.”

              Lance snorted, unable to help himself. “Like you guys could. Don’t you know what Haggar teaches us in those stupid classes of hers?” Shiro inched impossibly closer, even as Keith leaned down, placed his hands on Lance’s shoulders gingerly, but firmly enough that Lance was really started to feel surrounded by them.

              “There have only been rumors,” Shiro admitted, “but Lance, we don’t care. We just want to help you.”

              “Please,” Keith added.

              Lance looked at them, really looked at them. They were genuine, he knew, but would they still accept him after learning the truth? That Haggar had really been training himself and Lotor so they could overpower the other kinds of supernaturals, that she was determined to use them to create some kind of army so that they could take over the world (or something stupid like that, Lance honestly tried not to listen to her shit), that she had challenged both Lotor and Lance to use their new spells and abilities on their vampire roommates, and that’s how Lotor was so easily taken in by the rest of the vampires in the building while simultaneously turning them against Lance (and Shiro and Keith, but they tried not to show how much it bothered them. It didn’t work. Lance knew they were hurting)? Would they still want him around? Would they even still like him? Then again, this wasn’t working, either. So it was just a matter of time before they got sick of him and decided that he was too much work and not worth the effort.

              Well, in that case. Better sooner than later, right?

              “Some of the spells she teaches us are how to control the undead.”

              Keith blinked. “Like, zombies?”

              Lance gaped up at him. “Like vampires, you moron! She wants us both to use the spells she teaches us on our roommates – on you – in order to show how ‘committed’ we are to our education, and so she can decide if we’re ready to progress, and—”

              “You refused,” Shiro stated. “Shit, Lance, don’t tell me that some of this is from her?”

              Lance stared at him, completely confused. “How did you—”

              “Oh, come on, Lance,” Keith rolled his eyes, “obviously you haven’t done anything to us, and that’s actually not one of the worst rumors we’ve heard about Haggar, it’s not a far stretch to think she would stoop to actually abusing a student.”

              “And then Lotor would take this as confirmation that you were weak or something, and of course that would lead to more attacks.” Shiro sounded confident, as if this all made sense and was very logical. “So the only real question would be…”

              “How long?” Keith trapped Lance’s head in his hands, gently tilting him backwards on the couch, forcing Lance to look at him and nothing else. Thankfully, Shiro had stretched forward to support his back at this awkward arch, otherwise the new position would get very painful very fast. As is, it was just uncomfortable, great for encouraging him to answer quickly, if only to regain mobility. “Lance, how long have they been doing this to you?”

              Lance had to blink away tears at the concern and care he heard in Keith’s voice. Between Shiro’s body and Keith’s head, he couldn’t quite reach up to wipe the tears away, so they started to slowly slip down his cheeks.

              “I progressed a lot faster than Lotor did, at first, I promise.” Fuck, he was getting choked up. He heard Shiro make an encouraging noise.

              “Of course you did, you’re ten times smarter than that fucker.” Keith sounded vicious, and it made Lance chuckle, though it sounded entirely too watery to be believable.

              “It took Lotor all semester to get to that point, Haggar didn’t really teach it to him until a couple weeks ago.” A little over four months, since they were partway through the fifth now, and then they would have a month off before the next semester started. Now his tears were really coming. “I got there after two weeks.”

              There was a long silence. When he spoke, his voice sounded dangerous, and Lance was reminded again of Shiro’s own fierce protectiveness towards his friends.

              Towards Lance.

              “That witch has been doing this to you for 4 months?” he hissed viciously. Lance struggled to right himself, but Keith wouldn’t release him, and instead had taken to rubbing his forehead against Lance’s, even as his thumbs smoothed his tears away.

              “No, no!” he managed to sputter, panicked. “She just thought it was too difficult for me to really master! So she’s been teaching me other spells in the meantime, but once Lotor achieved that level and then started to use that same spell on his own roommates and then other vampires, too, she realized I’d just been stalling and told her I couldn’t do the spell.”

              Lance finally managed to get his hands where he needed to, and he pushed insistently at Keith’s head. He growled at the gesture, but eventually moved out of the way. Shiro moved, too, allowing Lance to push himself off the couch – ouch stupid ribs – and walk towards the hallway to his own bedroom. Today had been exhausting and all he wanted was the chance to have some time to himself.

              “Wait, why doesn’t Lotor just do the spell on us? If he’s done it to everyone else in the building?” Shiro wanted to know.

              “Seriously, you think I would let him do that to you? Nobody deserves that.” Lance’s tears were finally starting to stop, but he knew it was going to take him a while to relax. “Plus, so long as you two aren’t spelled, it’s obvious to Haggar that I’m still refusing to do as she asks.” He kept walking, until Keith interrupted him.

              “Lance, if you got there first, why have you been saying all semester that Lotor is better at magic than you are?”

              Lance paused on his way to his bedroom and sighed. Seriously, he was hurting and knew he was going to have to do all of this over again tomorrow, couldn’t they just let him sleep? But he gave in, turning his head just enough to show that he was answering them and said, “Because even from the start, he was willing to do whatever she asked. Did you really think that she would get her hands dirty hurting me, when he was perfectly happy to do it for her?”

              And with that, he headed to bed.

[ptw30]

Happy Birth-week! Maybe the prompt motorcycles/hovercycles like a race or a getaway scene? I’ll leave the pairing up to you and the setting. :) (Lol at first I thought you were asking for short stories for your birthday and I was like “sure!” XD)

Title: The Family Business

Pairing: Gen 

Summary: The Voltron Paladins - a team of thieves, smugglers, and outlaws - are hunted by cartels, the FBI, and Shiro's father. Yeah, life isn't easy, but the team has each other. And that's all that matters.

---

Shiro stepped on the clutch and shifted, sending his Dodge Charger—which he affectionally called the Black Lion—soaring through the almost empty streets of Daibazaal.

“You know this is your fault,” he said. A quick glance in the rearview mirror showed two black sedans chasing them. “You said we should take all the triggers.”

In the passenger seat, Allura typed furiously on her tablet. Dressed in a tight white and pink cold-shoulder top that cut just below her tighter-than-tight jeans, she looked more like a pop star than a high-profile thief. Her curly ponytail hit Shiro in the face when she shifted in her seat to look behind them.

“So then I am to assume you would have left the nuclear warhead triggers in the hands of not-quite-professional businessmen.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“No, you’re saying that you would have left them in the hands of nefarious criminals.”

“As opposed to non-nefarious criminals?”

Allura laughed. “Well, we aren’t exactly law-bidding citizens.”

The car wheels squealed when Shiro eased up on the accelerator, cut the wheel, and then tore down the nearest alleyway. The shadows of night wouldn’t conceal their taillights, and when the Black Lion rocketed onto the street, the sedans still clung to his bumper.

“I’m just saying that stealing a trunk-load of military grade explosives by having Lance and Keith start a fight in the middle of black-market weapons depot might not have been the best course of action.”

“Then what would have been the best course of action? Trying to steal the triggers after Zarkon used them to start World War III?”

“Of course not. I’m just saying—”

“And you know Keith and Lance weren’t acting. Lance actually did take Red for a ride the other day and put a scratch in her chassis.”

Shiro let out a heavy sigh. “Can’t you just let me live in ignorance?”

Allura laughed and leaned over to press a kiss to Shiro’s cheek. “At least they worked it out of their—Quiznak.” Allura’s tablet let out a warning beep. “Red Paladin, Blue Paladin, we’re going to need your special brand of street cleaning.”

As the Black Lion passed a main thoroughfare, two motorcycles roared to life—a red Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14R and a blue Yamaha YZF R1. The two racers wore protective jackets and helmets that matched their bikes, though the red racer’s jacket had black and yellow accents, while the blue racer’s uniform boasted red and yellow stripes. The motorcycles tore down the straightaway toward two more sedans that suddenly screeched to a halt in the middle of the street, blocking their path.

Shiro narrowed his eyes. “Does the Blue Lion have a red chassis now?”

“Yes! Keith defiled my baby!” Lance bemoaned across the team’s channel.

Keith huffed, and the Red Lion swerved to evade gunfire. “Stop whining and help me take these assholes out.”

“‘Stop whining.’” The Blue Lion hopped the sidewalk and used the streetlights as cover. “Well, if you hadn’t hurt my precious girl—”

“Your precious girl just got a new coat, something you hadn’t even bothered to—”

“Guys!” Shiro yelled, but Lance was already shifting gears. “Chill, Shiro. We’ve got this.”

Sure enough, Keith and Lance came to the middle of the street and wove between the car blockade. Two subsequent explosions sent the cars rocketing into the sky. The Black Lion poured it on then and zipped underneath the elevated cars, which eventually landed upon the chaser sedans.

“Good job, you two!” Shiro praised. “Now get to the rendezvous point ASAP and lock it down.”

“Yes, sir!” Keith’s crisp voice sounded over the connection, followed by Lance’s mocking tone once more. The twin motorcycles zoomed ahead and disappeared in the labyrinth of city streets.

Shiro could practically feel Allura’s penetrative stare give way to a self-assured smirk. “They make a good team.”

“As long as they don’t kill each other.”

“Oh, give them a bit more credit, Allura.” He waited a beat. “Keith would make it quick.”

“If Lance didn’t talk him to death first—and if that cartel doesn’t catch us.” Allura tapped on her tablet. “Green Lion, Yellow Lion, status report.”

Instead of a voice confirmation, a loud explosion echoed through the connection. Allura shot up in her seat. “Pidge! Hunk!”

A few loud hacks, followed by fits of coughing, and Pidge sucked in a deep breath. “I said not to denotate until we were a safe distance away!”

Shiro heaved a relieved sigh and heard Allura do the same.

“Oooh. I thought you said, ‘Let’s go for crème brulee,’” Hunk said between coughs.

Shiro could imagine Pidge throwing up her arms. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Hunk, Pidge, report,” Allura repeated, shaking her head. Shiro stepped on the gas for one final burst of speed, and the Black Lion entered the private airport.

“The facilities have been destroyed, Allura,” Hunk replied. “The rest is up to you and Shiro.”

So it was. Once Shiro spotted the Red and Blue Lions outside of a private hanger, he directed the Black Lion inside the massive area—devoid of any planes—and threw the car into park. Allura tossed him a nervous grin, which he returned, and they exited the car.

Only Keith and Lance occupied the hanger. No shelves, no airplane, no grease. Off to the side, a simple garage door lifted with eerie screeches that echoed through the empty space. Once it stopped, a rather tall man with slicked back hair, sunken eyes, and a thick chin entered the hanger between Lance and Keith. In a black suit with a purple tie, he looked like a wayward stockbroker, strides long, haughty, and loud. His eyes narrowed as he stopped before Shiro and Allura, arms spreading in a regal greeting.

“Ms. Altea. As always, a pleasure.”

“I assure you it most certainly is not,” Allura replied, manicured fingers clicking on her tablet.

Zarkon turned to Shiro without missing a beat. “Shiro, I appreciate you joining us.”

“We do agree there,” Allura snapped. “It is the only way you will survive, Zarkon.”

“Ironic, is it not? To think I am standing here with my former partner’s daughter who has taken my son as her own partner, despite knowing the history between our families.”

“Shiro isn’t a two-timing, egotistical psychopath like you,” Lance spat.

“But somehow he’s still entered the family business,” Zarkon retorted with an all-too-delighted grin.

Rather than replying, Shiro hit the car remote and popped the trunk. He lifted the back to reveal the triggers. “Here’s what you wanted from the Olkari Cartel, right?”

An amused, almost proud grin crossed his features. “I will need to inspect the merchandise.”

“Yeah, about that.” He slammed shut the trunk. “You’re not getting anywhere near these devices.”

Zarkon’s gaze was anything but tolerant. “We already agreed upon terms.”

“Yes, we did, but now I’m changing them. Ms. Altea, would you like to do the honors?”

“Thank you, Mr. Shirogane.” Allura stepped forward and handed her tablet to a suspicious-looking Zarkon. “That is a live feed from Langley, the ‘Other Matters’ subdivision, which you run.” She paused. “Ran. Our operatives Yellow Paladin and Green Paladin took care of your stronghold. Call it a retirement gift.”

“I thought we were calling it a ‘going away’ present,” Keith asked, arms crossed across his chest.

Lance giggled.

Keith rolled his eyes. “What?”

“You cannot get rid of me that easy,’” Zarkon growled. “No judge or jury in the world will convict me, not with my record. And no one will believe you—my son who became an international smuggler and his partner, the daughter of my former partner who died under investigation.”

“Yellow and Green transferred all your dark files to the Federal Bureau of Investigation before making the big kaboom,” Lance laughed. “Seriously, man? We have everything and we know everything.”

Zarkon’s thick fingers curled about the tablet. “You have to know this is futile. You can sell those triggers you stole to another foreign power. You can leave the country, hide in some remote island, and look over your shoulder for the rest of your life, but I will still find you. And I will end you.” He stared directly at Allura with demonic glee. “Just like I did your father.”

Allura didn’t even flinch. “Good luck doing that from a prison cell at Leavenworth.”

“FBI!” a booming voice echoed through the hanger. “On the ground now!”

A SWAT team stormed the front opening while a tall blond man came in from the back. He wore in a tight suit with a purple tie, dark slacks and a FBI jacket. Four female agents, all wearing similar garb to the lead agent, covered him from the entryway.

“I said on the floor, now!” the agent yelled at Zarkon.

Keith went down first, having gone through a similar situation before. Lance followed and muttered about this not being the greatest plan after all. Zarkon tried to rebuke the orders, but the familiar FBI agent—Lotor, Shiro noticed—wouldn’t have it.

Eventually, Zarkon met Shiro’s gaze once they were both handcuffed and lying face flat against the cold concrete.

“This isn’t over,” he threatened.

“Yes, it is,” Shiro insisted. “It was over the moment you decided your greed was more important than family.”

---

Shiro didn’t know how long he’d been waiting in the interrogation room, though he figured he would be the last one the FBI questioned. Pidge would be the first as the youngest, followed the soft-hearted Hunk, the smooth-talking Lance, the sharp-edged Keith, and then the regal Allura, if Lotor wasn’t intimidated. Then, and only then, would Lotor pay a visit to Shiro.

When he finally did, he wore a tired but true grin. “Special Agent Shirogane. I told you to get a team you could trust to have your back when I couldn’t be there. This was not what I had in mind.”

Shiro’s handcuffs jingled as he sat back in his seat. “You don’t like my choice of team members, Special Agent Sincline?”

Lotor sighed dramatically and dropped his tablet to the table, tapping the edge and bringing up five pictures. “An X Games Motor X gold medalist who was raised by smugglers and the silver medalist with whom he does not get along. At all. A red hat hacker who isn’t even old enough to graduate high school. A chef turned motocross mechanic. Oh, and the daughter of my father’s former CIA partner, whom he killed. That’s who you decided you could trust?”

Shiro tossed Lotor a teasing smile. “Jealous?”

“Of course,” Lotor replied, crossing his arms. “We’ve had each other’s backs since forever.”

“Since we were twelve.”

“Just because we weren’t together since diapers doesn’t change the fact that we grew up together. We went to Quantico together. And now I only get to see you for clandestine meetings and the occasional coffee.”

“But it’s good coffee.”

“You’re my brother, Shiro. I’m supposed to protect you.”

Shiro knocked his shoulder against Lotor’s knee. “And you do. You handle the bureau. I handle the criminals. If I didn’t trust you with everything, this couldn’t work.”

“Do you trust them with everything?” Lotor motioned toward the blackened two-way mirror. “Not one of them said anything. Just asked for water—or in one case, iced tea. Sweetened with lemon.”

“Lance…is high maintenance,” Shiro laughed, “but in the best way.”

Lotor huffed. “He asked for it to be sent to Pidge.”

“Of course, he did.”

“And Hunk asked me to make sure Lance was given appropriate bathroom breaks, and Keith asked if Lance was gagged and then asked if he could be.”

“Sounds about right.”

“Allura, however, asked me for pictures from our teenage years.”

Shiro blinked. “…I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

“But they all asked about you.” Lotor clasped Shiro on the shoulder, firm and supportive. Lotor truly was his foundation, unwavering and firm. “I’m glad for you, Shiro. You deserve to have a family again.”

Shiro undid his handcuffs with a trick Keith taught him and reached up to cover Lotor’s hand. “I miss you, too, brother.”

“Hm.” Lotor held him a second longer than necessary, almost as if refusing to let Shiro go, but he eventually relented. A serious countenance overtook his face, and Shiro sat up straighter in response. Back to business.

“I’ve spoken with the higher-ups,” Lotor explained. “I’ll be in contact when Father goes to trial. You and your team might need to come in to testify, but right now, I suggest you find some place to lie low. Maybe a Caribbean island. A nice seaside Mexican resort. Disneyland. Stay off the radar and away from anyone Father might have worked with. Be safe.”

Shiro blinked. “That’s it?”

“That’s it. Unless you’re ready to come in from the cold.” Before Shiro could debate that question, let alone respond, Lotor flipped a switch. The two-way mirror went from black to transparent, revealing Shiro’s team on the other side. While four of his team members sat around a small table—Hunk was teaching Keith to pay some card game while Allura braided the longer strands of Pidge’s hair—Lance held a hand-drawn sign, scribbled on a yellow notepad, against the mirror.

Can we please have our Special Agent Shirogane back now?

Shiro thumbed toward the mirror. “Does he know I’m on the other side of this wall?”

Lotor’s eyes were narrowed; a look of confusion overtook his face. “How…did he get a marker and paper? That’s a monitored room. No one’s gone in there.”

Shiro simply shrugged. If his team was anything, it was resourceful.

Lotor crossed his arms and stared into the room, eyes resting upon the one person sitting on the right side of the table, talking to Hunk and Keith.

“Allura Altea. She’s…good to you?”

Shiro eyed Lotor. “Yeah. She’s my best friend. I trust her with my life.”

“But do you trust her with a picture of your teenage years?”

“I certainly can’t trust you.”

“That hurts, Brother.”

“You should have thought that before you showed Allura my awkward teenage years.”

Lotor rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic. It’s not like I showed her the pictures from comic con.”

---

“So…that’s it?” Hunk asked, watching as the black, non-descript FBI vans drove away. “We help to take down a dirty counterintelligence agent—”

“And blow up part of the CIA’s own headquarters,” Keith added.

“Only the bad part,” Pidge pointed out. “We left the rest still standing.”

“Yes, but that means we must lie low for a bit.” Allura walked toward a private jet on the tarmac. “Coran has been scouting new jobs for us and believes he’s found an interesting one. Shiro, how would you feel about visiting your childhood home, if you catch my drift?”

Shiro smiled. “Tokyo’s nice this time of year.”

“Smashing!” Coran greeted, lowering the stairs to the private plane. “Come along, Paladins! I’ve stocked the plane with all your favorite snacks along with the latest episodes of Riverdale and Legends of Tomorrow.”

Lance raced up the stairs. “Score! Dibs on the couch!”

“No!” Hunk whined. “You can’t call dibs until you’re on the stairs! Everyone knows that.”

Pidge raced after them while Keith turned to Shiro. “I’ll save you a seat and a pack of gummi bears.”

“Thanks, Keith.” Shiro stopped Allura at the end of the stairs, taking her hand in his. “Hey. If you ever need to talk about anything, I’m here. You know that.”

Allura’s eyes trembled as they stared into Shiro’s. Tightening her grip, she looked away. “Thank you, Shiro. I know this mission was not easy for you, either. It must have been difficult arresting your father.”

“Yeah, well. Lotor technically arrested him, and we’ve been preparing for this day for a long time.”

“As have I, but…we’re never really ready for it, are we?”

Shiro’s heart ached, especially when he remembered the look of disdain Zarkon sent him as Lotor led him to the FBI van. However, it was nothing compared to what Allura must have felt when she received the call about her father.

“No, I guess we aren’t.”

Allura hummed. “It won’t get better. I’m not sure there is a better, but Zarkon will finally stand trial for his crimes. For that, I am grateful.”

“Me, too.” Shiro held up his phone with a picture of Allura with braces and short hair. “I’m also grateful for my new wallpaper.”

“Takashi Shirogane!” Allura’s hand shot out toward his phone, but Shiro managed to duck and head up the stairs. “Get back here! You’re going to tell me who got you that picture.”

“I’ll never give up my source.”

She caught up with him just inside the plane and playfully knocked him against the wall. “Hunk, Pidge, or your brother? It was your brother, wasn’t it?”

“It was actually Coran. He showed it to me the first time we met, along with every other baby picture he has of you.”

“Of course, he did. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an uncle to kill – I mean, fill in with our latest job.”

Shiro smiled, knocking her on the shoulder, and then headed to take inventory. Pidge and Lance took up the long couch, already halfway through the snacks, while Hunk sat in a reclining chair just to right next to them, his lap full of delicious treats. Keith lounged upon a loveseat and left a spot open for Shiro, while the seat next to it remained empty for Allura. She’d join them in a few.

As they took the skies, Shiro wondered not for the first time why Zarkon and Honerva took him in and taught him right from wrong, just to pervert those morals themselves. But he dismissed the thought quickly as he threw an arm about Keith and pulled him close. While he would forever regret the cycle of events that brought him to the world of drag racing and smuggling, he would forever cherish the family he found there –

Shiro’s phone vibrated with a message from Lotor.

Forgive me.

The cockpit’s door swung open to reveal Allura, a bright smile upon her face, her cellphone in her hand. “You cosplayed at comic con!”

– most days.

The End

---

Thanks for the prompt and birthday wishes! 

[realtagwhywrites]

You Were Never Gone

@sianobis merry christmas!!! im your secret santa!!! @adashigiftexchange2019

i wrote the reunion fic that Adam and Shiro deserved :’) 

it’s on ao3 here and if you have an ao3 lmk so i can gift it to you!!

Shiro’s grip on Keith’s chair is firm and steady as the Lions moves closer to Earth, their descent begins slowly and steady towards the little orb of blue and green.

He hasn’t seen Adam in well over six years… a lot has to have changed in six years, he can still remember, as if it was yesterday their fight about the Kerberos mission, a pang fills his chest, he hopes that Adam is ready to forgive him, he can’t imagine what it would be like without him.

“You good?” Keith asks, eyebrows raised in a silent question.

“Just… nervous, to see Adam.” He clarifies.

“You know, I’m certain he’ll forgive you.” Keith says. “I still remember the way he looked at you, and he used to make you blueberry pancakes even though he was on a ‘strictly no sugar’ diet. If that ain’t love, then I don’t know what love is.”

Did he just…

“Keith, did you just quote Cupid’s Chokehold to me?” Shiro says in disbelief.

The little demon’s lips twitch into a grin, even as he can hear Lance screech behind them. “Lance has been growing on me.”

“I bet.” He says with a knowing grin, Keith blushes and turns away.

“Anyway, Adam will forgive you and I will leave you two alone for the whole night so you can have the apartment to yourself.”

“Oh I know what this is.” Shiro huffs a laugh. “You’re avoiding him.”

“I did leave without telling him.” Keith shifts, there’s something else that he isn’t telling him.

Shiro sighs, “What else.”

“What do you mean?” Keith feigns ignorance but Shiro knows.

“What did you do? What did you do that upset Adam?”

“Uhh, I might have gotten kicked out of the Garrison…” Keith mumbles and Shiro presses his hand to his eye, heaving out a sigh. “Look, you were gone, and Iverson was saying it was a pilot fault or whatever, but I knew there was no way you’d made a mistake.”

“It’s okay… I left for that damn mission, against everyone’s wishes… I just hope he can forgive me.” Shiro whispers.

Keith places a consoling hand on Shiro’s shoulder, something aged in his expression, “You two were disgustingly sweet together, if he can’t forgive you… then Lance and I will destroy him.”

“Keith, I know that’s supposed to be supportive but that is horrifying and I would certainly hope you wouldn’t, if Adam has moved on… then that’s in his own right.” Shiro says.

“Nah, I think Keith’s plan works best.” Lance adds with a wink.

“Yeah of course it is.” Pidge says. “We’ll make sure to put tuna in all of his curtain rods… melted cheese wiped underneath the bottom of his car seats… replacing all of his family photos with Nicholas Cage…”

They stare in silence… “Yeah, the prank war was hell.” Hunk agrees. “Never piss off Pidge.”

Shiro stores that horrifying information away for later use…

“We will not be doing any of that.” He resolutely ignores the groans and cries of ‘shame!’.

The frequency falls back into silence, a tad uneasy.  

“We’ll be within calling frequency in about a vagra.” Coran calls out through the intercoms.

A vagra passes quite slowly when there’s little to do in space, so all Shiro can do is pace nervously in the hull of the black lion and think and rethink new situations of how Adam will react to him being back on planet earth.

There’s so much Shiro has to tell him, and it feels like there’s so little time, Sam should have prepared the Earth’s defences by now, and Shiro can only hope that it will be enough, he’s sure that some-one will attempt to attack such a hapless planet.

So how exactly can he condense the 7 years into one conversation?

Hi honey, I was captured by the Galra, where I fought battles and became ‘the champion’, lost an arm, landed back on earth, learnt how to pilot a mystical lion that transforms into Voltron-

His head spins thinking about it, there’s so much that he has to tell Adam, but that’s only if he forgives him…

There’s a little worm in the back of his mind reminding him that maybe Adam’s moved on, maybe he’s found love again.

Shiro sighs, they should be in calling frequency soon.

The comms crackle into life again and Coran calls out, “We’re in calling frequency, Pidge, if you’ll do us the honours.”

“Dad, it’s Pidge, we’re back in the Earth’s solar system.”

Shiro feels his stomach twist into knots as the seconds tick by, what if something has-

“Katie! It’s so good to hear your voice!” Sam’s voice comes through, albeit crackling, but still there.

“We’re within range of earth, we’re going to touch down with the next day or so.” Pidge says, and Shiro can imagine that her eyes are glistening with emotion, much like his are, because they’re finally arriving home.

They’re finally coming home.

Something aches and pines in his chest, love blossoming, blooming and twisting beneath the imminent anxiety itching at his skin, he’s never considered himself a romantic per se, but he’s struck by how much he misses Adam.

It’s like some-one physically reached inside his chest and ripped out his heart, leaving nothing behind aside from a gaping chasm.

Comparatively to the last vagra, time seems to slip through his fingers, speeding up until earth is bearing down upon their arrival, the anxiety resonating through his chest flares up again, haggardly, he beats it down, if Adam has moved on, then he’s moved on.

The lions begin their descent through the atmosphere. “Alright, if you will all kindly land in the vicinity of the Garrison, we will send out a landing party for you.” Sam tells them through the radio. “I’ve explained the situation the best to my abilities, but they are certainly waiting for visual confirmation.”

“Alright, we’ll see you soon dad.” Pidge says, Shiro can imagine the tears swimming in their eyes from the way their voice chokes up.

The ground comes into focus with sharp clarity and Shiro can spy the group of garrison members surrounded by soldiers, all heavily armed.

Carefully, Keith eases Black onto the ground and opens the cockpit, “Alright, let’s do this.”

Shiro strides with courage and purpose that he isn’t sure he feels, every single garrison leader has gathered to witness the spectacle of the flying lions, “Commander Iverson.” Shiro says respectfully, saluting him.

There’s a gasp from the crowd and a surge of people rushes forward as one desperately pushes through the officers, “Shiro!”

He feels tears well up in his eyes because he would know that voice anywhere, a shock of brown hair bursts through and rushes him, pausing a moment in front of him to view the changes been made to Shiro before strong arms are encircling him tightly.

“I thought you were dead!” Shiro hugs Adam tightly back.

“No, I’ll tell you all about it I swear… Adam, I’m so sorry, I should’ve listened to you.” Shiro sobs out, distantly, he’s aware of Allura and Keith catching the commanders up to speed with their situation, of everyone staring.

Adam pulls back from the hug, touches still lingering, as if he’s afraid Shiro will disappear, quickly, his face drops as he looks at Shiro’s arm, or, lack there of.

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not.”

Shiro hesitates, “But it will be.”

Keith approaches the two, “Uh, hi Adam.”

“Keith.” Adam says cordially, eyes narrowing. “I heard you got kicked from the garrison.”

“I heard you were still a grumpy old man.” Keith replies, crossing his arms.

The two stand a ways apart before Adam grabs the gremlin and bearhugs him, “Alright space cowboy, thanks for looking after him.” He tussles his hair and despite Keith’s scowl, Shiro can see the notes of pleasure of the hug.

“I missed you too Adam.” Keith says, winding his arms around the pair before withdrawing, “Uh, anyway, we’re heading for the base for a proper debriefing, we’ll leave the lions here though.”

“I can’t believe this is real.” Adam murmurs, looking back to Shiro, eyes twinkling with unshed tears, he links their hands and squeezes tightly.

“I always hoped that I would find you again.” Shiro says. “I was so scared that something had happened, or that you had moved-”

“I found your ring.” Adam interrupts. “Uh- they called me and told me about the pilot fault, so I went to your apartment and I found it.”

“Oh.”

Adam shakes his head fondly, “You were always the romantic, and yes.”

“Really?”

“Of course, I love you. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“Probably something dumb.”

Adam laughs and the ball of anxiety that seemed to have settled in Shiro’s chest begins to melt away…

“Well, we have to have a spring wedding when this is all done.” Shiro smiles.

Adam’s face falls a little, “Yeah, I’ll stick with you until the end you dolt. Some-one’s gotta look after you.”

“And I’ll look out for you.” Shiro replies, squeezing Adam’s hand again.

Zarkon’s threat may be persistent, but with the two of them together again, Shiro thinks he might just make it through.

[wiredandrewired]

Was trying to actually work on something but my brain is stuck on loop.  So instead I’m gonna make a post of the Voltron stuff sitting unposted in my writing WIP folder to help me organize my thoughts.

I guess since I’m posting this, if you have anything you wanna say/ask about any of these feel free.  I respond well to outside interest.

1. Project ReVolt is without a doubt the project I’ve posted about the most here.  And talked about in random tags.  And tangents.  Originally it was just the name the project had in my internal brain filing cabinet but it’s kind of spread and stuck to where my wife and I just refer to it as that when we talk about it.

ReVolt is basically going to be a VLD series rewrite more along the lines of how my wife and I would have done it or at least liked to see it done.  In some places it will probably stick pretty damn close to the events of the series canon, but in others go completely off the deep end.  We’re each going to be doing one, so a lot of the headcanon and worldbuilding and such that we’ve worked out together in various other stories and RPs will be consistent between the two stories, but it will also give us a place to veer out and do things without the others’ input (as we’re not gonna let each other see our fics until they post, tee hee).  I’ve done a SHITPOT of rules and infrastructure work using actual alchemy tracts to try and make sense of the series’ largely Powers As The Plot Demands system,  and am pretty convinced I’m going to A)fall hard into my very common Esoterica Ranting Mode pitfall and B)enrage literally everyone who reads it with my character and plot choices.  Most conservative estimate says this will be six ‘books’ long as again, we’re doing literally the entire series.  Current status: at the ‘ridiculously large amount of notes and setting up actual arcs and outlines’ stage, and waiting for the wife to finish ‘Happier HOPEless’.

2. There Are No Monsters Here is a fic I really want to do but cannot seem to get off the ground, set to take place entirely in the ‘last universe’ from season 8--the one native-Honerva died in and crazed-death-god-Honerva picked out as her ideal and tried to wedge herself into.  I guess the basic idea was that, like the ‘main’ universe, it got rebuilt pretty much as it was prior to Nightmare Mom Ruining Everything, and I have it with no one fully remembering the events of season 8 that took place there, but characters really closely tied to those events having some itching feeling that something happened, and all the Altean alchemists agreeing that some kind of massive quantum Event certainly occurred even if they don’t know what.  

Mostly the story exists as  a place for me to have a canon-compliant AU that still lets me explore stuff like Altean history, the racial and cultural tensions of the Coalition, dink around with Oldadins that DON’T die in one fell swoop, a living Daibazaal and Altea, Lotor growing up with a decent-but-not-without-strains relationship with his dad, teen Allura and tiny Lotor being absolute shits to each other while also coming to terms as they grow up with who and what they MUST be both on a political and quantum scale, and generally prove that even a perfect universe isn’t, all in one place.  The title is entirely facetious, and anyone who’s read any of my alien culture headcanons for this series knows that.  Lol.  Current status: lots of bits and pieces, but no good beginning or connective tissue.   I have a lot of notes, some arc outlines, and a few scattered scenes and bits of dialogue from later in the story, but my god, I CANNOT get it off the ground.

3. Someone Must Get Hurt (But It Won’t Be Me) is supposed to be a pretty wholly Honerva-centric fic that starts...sometime in her youth?...and carries forward to an as-yet-undetermined point.  Probably her death.  I mean the first one.  I’m not sure.  Another chance to dig my fingers into Altean culture and Alchemy, this time leading up to All The Bad Shit That Happened, with the added bonus of being done from a focal point of a character I have a lot of really strong feelings about both positive and negative that’s resulted in me somehow being EVEN MORE wrapped up in her than I was before I added abject knee-jerk trauma hatred to the mix.  In no way meant to make Honerva more sympathetic, I think I just want to write her even more like my mother so I’ll feel EVEN BETTER about killing her?  Idk man my feelings about her are so complicated.  Also an excuse to write a shitpot of her and Zarkon because listen, I’m really glad they’re married because I ship them so fuckin hard.   Current Status: SO many notes.  SO much infrastructure.  Like three pages of an opening I’m almost definitely throwing away because I can’t decide where, when, or how to open but feel like this isn’t it.  One short but very telling scene of Honey and Zarkon from late in the story.  I’m obsessed with it but I can’t get anywhere. 

4. Currently Untitled Demon Hunter AU started because my wife talks to me about Happier HOPEless a LOT and I just got an itch in my bones to work on one myself.  In spite of the entire Demon Hunter AU thing getting started by a prompt on a Shance blog, neither Shiro nor Lance are set to appear for at least a chapter?  And I am not confident in my ability to not veer off into utter non-shipping anyway because man, am I bad at it.  Or like...just an entirely different ship for either or both of them.  Current Status: A lot of vague notes, a POWERFUL urge to structure the chapters and overall arc after Ripley’s Gates even though that limits my chapter count and means I will DEFINITELY have 20k+ word chapters, and about seven pages of the first chapter so I guess I’m committed now?

5. Currently Untitled Post Series Fic basically exists for me to vent my frustrations about two main things: The Universe is Fucking Huge And There Are Dangers Other Than Galra, and The Galra Empire Was Huge and Is Not Going To All Fall In Line Behind Voltron Coalition and Especially Behind Keith Who Just Arbitrarily Fucking Decided To Tell Them They Couldn't Pick A New Leader According To Their Own Traditions And Need To Do What They’re Told Now What The Fuck.  Also there was a lot of stuff in the series that got left hanging, and while ReVolt is an IN-series fix-it fic, I wanted something that patched up loose ends in a way that was satisfactory to me but also kind of canon-compliant.  Current Status: A lot of notes and screaming.  No one has seen my progress on this and they might never.

6. Dog Runs And Death Dreams is a warmup file turned deeply self-indulgent series of scenes in which I choose to assume that Shiro’s rare neuromuscular disorder was left so ambiguous so I could plug the symptoms of mine into it.  It’s genuinely not any deeper than that.  The whole thing is set pre-Kerberos, and includes copious Shiro x Adam content because of it, but also not the kind that makes me feel good about writing because that means it includes the ‘slow fizzle’ that leads up to their breakup before the mission.  Ugh.  Working on it does make me feel better when I've been having symptoms, though, and I’ve been letting myself write it, unchastised, in a really loose rambly way that I usually deride myself for.  It’s just cathartic.  Current Status: no notes, no plan, just strain-writing between seizures, but somehow it feels like it has some kind of structure and just keeps growing?  Possibly too close to the bone for me to ever post.

7. Birth and Rebirth was born out of two things: the fact that Zarkon is shown to have two ENTIRELY DIFFERENT reactions to first being presented with his baby son in different flashbacks and different seasons, and the fact that in spite of the flashbacks we get at the end of the series, earlier on, the impression I got of Lotor and Zarkon’s relationship wasn’t of a young man who had never had affection from his father, but who had instead lost it.  Well, three things: I have a lot of underlying issues at work, at play, and at large when it comes to the Galra Imperial Family.  Also, anyone notice the monitor blips in the first baby Lotor flashbacks indicate a heart murmur?  Anyway, it was supposed to be a thoroughly self-indulgent and thoroughly self-hurtful examination of Lotor’s early life and the death by degrees of what was left of his father in the husk Rift Adventures left behind, but I got stuck on it a little way in.   Current Progress: ten pages, a lot of notes, and some wistfulness.  I keep hoping I’ll get inspired to pick it back up again.  Contemplating rewriting some of the beginning, maybe it’ll help?

Bonus entry that is not actually in any form of progress soever:

50/50 Voltron Trashfire Edition is spawned from the ‘50/50′ challenge on an old TF board I used to haunt.  It’s a fifty-prompt smut challenge using the list of ‘50 reasons to have sex’ from some tv show, and the idea is to write a different ship for every prompt (hence the name).  My wife is blazing through it and has several (like twelve?) up on her AO3, but I’ll be utterly blunt: I haven’t written fifty porn fics in my LIFE.  Over ALL my fandoms.  Current Status: Literally all I have done is assign a ship to each prompt, and I might actually have some prompts with just question marks beside them still.  I have one aborted start to one entry.  That’s it.  It’s not happening.  But the empty file is technically in the folder, SO.

[theevershipping]

Most Sensible Voltron End Game Ships:

Note: this doesn't mean I don't LIKE other ships, but logically, given that Voltron is a CHILDREN'S CARTOON, these ones make the most sense story-telling wise. Here's why.

Hunk/Romelle:

I start here because I think this will likely be the least controversial. They set up in the first ep of S7 that Romelle and Hunk clearly think alike. They also set up that even though Lance is attracted to Romelle initially, she soon actually annoys him. On the other hand Hunk finds Romelle's thought processes to be so like his own that he acts she's like his own personal God-send ("It's like, I think it, you say it!") Likewise, Romelle seems to rather enjoy her interactions with Hunk, and the way he supports her curiousity. For once Hunk gets to be the one "in the know", and Romelle likes and appreciates the way that he interacts with her.

I know there's a lot of talk about doing right by an LGBTQ+ rep character, but I think the "Nice guy who's really smart and awesome but happens to not be conventionally attractive" rep deserves to get an attractive girl who he really does genuinely like and connect with and who genuinely likes, connects with, and respects him.

Lance/Pidge:

Although we are all understandably wary of trusting anything the writers say at this point, they have pretty much said that they do have an end game for Lance and it's not Allura. While I'd personally love to see a Klance ending, it seems pretty clear that Lance and Keith are both being set up to be straight--Lance shows attraction to basically every conventionally attractive female, and Keith/Acxa is a thing (and a reasonable thing, which I will get to next). So..

Lance and Pidge: first off, Pidge constantly points out and makes fun of Lance's crush on Allura, and at times even seems annoyed by it. She definitely doesn't show any sign of caring about the romantic interests of any of the other characters. Although it's been subtle, as Pidge's priorities have clearly, and rightly, been elsewhere, there's been some hints from the beginning that she's certainly paying attention to Lance's love interests, and is maybe jealous and just covering it up by making fun of him--which is pretty age appropriate, and typical of girls with older brothers: She's more comfortable approaching him on guy level and expressing her annoyances (unconscious jealously) through teasing him and, in the process, attempting to dissuade him from said romantic pursuits.

The writer's stated that Lance would get what he NEEDS in a relationship, not what he WANTS. Pidge is not girly/feminine in an aesthetic sense (what Lance thinks he WANTS), but she's perfectly pretty--it's not like Lance wouldn't be attracted to her once he gets passed his old-school markers of attraction based purely on conventional outer symbols of femininity (I.e. If he saw Pidge a few years older and in a dress, he'd almost certainly have a different reaction to her). Pidge does have an abundance of qualities that Lance NEEDS in a partner.

Pidge and Lance balance and trust each other. They have from the very first episode of Voltron. If you think of the first episode as establishing our main and most relatable characters, we really enter the story through the trio of Lance, Pidge and Hunk. Keith and Shiro--who they are and how they're involved in what's happening--are mostly mysteries to us in the first ep. In the typical trio story set up you have the main male character, who represents ego, in story structure, and you have his two best friends, who represent his ID and Super-ego. Often the Super-Ego character is female, and the ID male. The function of the super-ego is to check, regulate and correct the impulses of the ego, which the ID often supports/supplies. The super-ego, basically, is the one who thinks things through, when the ego doesn't want to, and the ID can't. Pidge is the super-ego.

What Lance NEEDS is someone who he both implicitly trusts and who can be the things he isn't in such a way that it helps him to grow, while still having his partner see him as an equal and having respect for the qualities and strengths he has as an individual and that he contributes to the balance of the relationship.

Allurance shippers will say "Allura can be those things too!" But she can't, because she is not and never will be his equal. She is a 10,000 year old Princess from a race of people that are vastly more evolved than humans. She was raised to rule a planet and take on the burden of the universe. No matter how much she might LIKE Lance and trusts him as an ally and a friend, that quality of equality and challenge that actually attracts confident and capable women to men does not exist between Allura and Lance--which is why she was attracted to Lotor.

The contrast between how Allura reacts to Lotor and how she reacts to Lance is a great representation of what creates actual romantic attraction vs. friendship compatibility: Lotor is her equal in his own right and can challenge her to see and grow beyond her pre-conceived notions, while having enough similarities that he understands and fits into the world she comes from and will return to (that of Galatic leadership and responsibility). Allura and Lance do not have that kind of shared reality and the ability to build together as equals that comes with it.

Pidge and Lance, on the other hand, start from the same place--they're kids who were smart and capable and followed a dream, and who have taken on the unanticipated responsibilities and adventures that came as a consequence of following that dream. They constantly demonstrate that their gut instincts are aligned. They do not have fundemental differences in terms of values and unconscious life expectations, and those things matter when you're talking endgame, because endgame means when two people are grown ups and they have kids and grow old together--that real life stuff.

Allura and Lance might have a minor romantic arch, in fact I suspect they will, because they will need to in order for all both Allura and Lance to fully realize they're not compatible. This will also force Pidge to become conscious of her feelings for Lance. From there we can from there spring board into Pidge/Lance and back into...

Lotor/Allura:

So, I'm not at all surprised we didn't see Lotor or Haggar in Season 7. It would have been too easy. We needed the stakes to be much higher, and the only way to do that was to bring the Galra threat to Earth, which couldn't have happened with Lotor as Emporer, or even with Haggar in charge--she's a much bigger schemer than just blindly chasing those lions across the galaxy like all those dumb male Galra meatheads want to do. Also, it gives her time to realisticly retrieve Lotor, fix him physically, and in the process develop some sort of relationship that would lead to them trusting each other enough to come back (allegedly) on the same side in S8.

I don't want to speculate on the plot of S8, and I won't. But I think that plot stuff aside, Lotor has to come back for the sake of Allura's character development.

ALLURA IS A RACIST. She is not malicious (just like most racists aren't malicious). But she seriously discriminates against the Galra just for them being Galra. She has a reason, no one can deny that--Just like someone who gets beat up by a gang of white guys has a reason to be wary of groups of white men, and they might take the trauma of the experience to the degree that they unconsciously start to demonize white men as a group... The trauma creates predudice because the brain is looking for a way to protect you from the trauma that just occurred. So it notes visual markers associated with the trauma, and when it later sees those markers it gets triggered into a state of flight/fight in order to (ideally) prevent you from reexperiencing the trauma associated with those physical markers. It's an evolutionary imperative--it's why we all jump across the room when we see a spider. But this primal imperative does lead to discrimination against groups of people. In my example, being fearful of groups of white men after being the victim of a gang beating is understandable, but is still a PREJUDICE based on their physical likeness to individuals who committed terrible acts, when in reality those physical traits have nothing to do with the terrible act.

It seemed like Allura was making progress with her predudices because of her relationship with Lotor, but Lotor is half Altean. He had to prove to her several times that he was "civilized" and even more knowledgeable about aspects of Altea than her. She fell in love with the Altean part of him. The literal second that she was given reason (by an ALTEAN stranger) to believe that he'd done something terrible and “GALRAN”, she instantly jumped to betraying him without even listening to his side of the story. This act proves that she didn't ever actually consciously see and acknowledge her predjudice and the irrational assumptions it causes her to make, she just was able to temporarily over look the Galran in Lotor for the Altean. So, Allura still has some major self realization to do in this department.

Next, the rash actions of the Paladins destroyed what could have been peace in the universe. Lotor gave them the option pretty much up until the end to stop and think things through even after they betrayed and attacked him. But at the end of S6 it's pretty clear it's Allura calling the shots on whether or not the team listens to Lotor or fights him. And we all know what happens:

She lets her emotions win. She prioritizes her anger--at herself for trusting a Galra--and she completely fails to care about (and likely think through) the bigger picture. Rather than realizing that the new emperor of a civilization that has been systematically enslaving the Galaxy for 10,000 years is trying to give agency back to planets, to create peace, harmony and a universe that works together to fulfill the needs of the whole, she doesn't even listen to him, she just attacks. With Lotor gone, of course the empire will fall and divide to the various generals of power. If Team Voltron had stopped and thought for 5 seconds about that they maybe would have realized that leaving Lotor in that rift was the most selfish and childish thing they ever could have done, humanitarian principles aside even. How many more worlds besides Earth suffered and will suffer for ALLURA'S emotional reactions that stem most deeply from PREJUDICE?

To be clear:

ALLURA believed the word of an ALTEAN she did not know, over the HALF-GALRAN she had fallen in love with, all because she FEARED she was wrong to trust someone with GALRAN blood: "You're more like Zarkon than I could ever have imagined," she tells Lotor. NOT "You're more like Honerva (AN ALTEAN) who began this whole mess by experimenting on quintessence and what happened when one combines it with their own life force and then became so addicted to it that she went crazy and enabled terrible things to happen to innocent peoples and planets." Nope. Even though in all honesty that comparison would have been more accurate, it didn't occur to Allura to accuse Lotor of being corrupt like his ALTEAN mother. What she says to him is essentially, "You're corrupt (and thus more) like your GALRAN father."

So, in order for Allura to grow into someone who is actually mature and responsible enough to lead the Voltron Colition and bring peace to the Galaxy, she's going to have to see the serious error in her actions, and the root prejudice that actually lead to them. And Lotor will be the one to make her see it.

From the moment the Paladins take Lotor prisoner he points out that Allura is discriminating against him based on species and parentage. It's pretty clear that this is set up to be their arch--Both of them are deeply flawed and magnificently gifted individuals who were born and raised to rule worlds, if not whole galaxies. They both have let their personal fears and flaws get in the way of what they could achieve together. In Allura's case the fatal flaw is predudice. In Lotor's it is lack of trust. He should have told her about the Altean colonies, but, rationally feared that he couldn't trust her to hear him out--irony being, if he'd brought it up privately and volunteered the info she probably would have reacted differently. However, Lotor has never had anyone he's trusted or who has trusted him, so he doesn't know that is how trust works. 😢

These two are designed to point out each other's flaws, and help them to correct them (not to make up for them, but to truly help each other change as people by, essentially, calling each other on their shit.) When they do that--Allura facing her racism; Lotor facing his lack of knowing how to actually trust someone fully--then the fatal flaws that lead to the ending of S6 (and the subsequent inter-galactic crisis that the simultaneous betrayal of these two baby-rulers, has caused) will be obliterated, the fatal flaws cured. Allura and Lotor will then be capable of resuming creating the new era of peace they were attempting before, but this time they will succeed because they will have learned to have real transparency/trust, rather than letting their unconscious fears be reasons to mistrust each other when they need to trust each other the most.

Lotura is a ship that is about real equality combined with real consciousness of self and other in relationships. Neither will be able to mature as characters until they see the flaws in Self that their initial (immature) love brought out in each other; the completion of the circle is then conscious change from seeing these flaws, and then forgiving themselves and each other for them. Only then can they can move into a mature love, which will allow them to bring out the best in each other without being blind to the flaws in each other and themselves.

Real love is seeing and dealing with both the good and bad, not ignoring one in favor of the other (this always backfires, as Lotura's first arch demonstrates). And that is a super valuable relationship lesson, that, in a show for kids, is profound and important. Love is seeing and accepting all of your partner and working together to change the things that need to be changed--not getting mad at each other, refusing to listen to what your partner has to say, deflecting with things like "your just like your dad," and subsequent retaliations that take the couple further away from the real issue, like Lotor does when Allura finally hits his weak spot and his basic response is "oh yeah, well your dad sucked too!" And from there it's all just them both being so hurt that reason is lost. That is the state of immature love.

Lotor and Allura are the only two characters who are each other's equals. They are the only two who can call each other on their shit effectively and who can help the other to change and grow. Their arch is about learning how to do that consciously and maturely. How to trust instead of doubt. How to see through the limitations of ego fears (Allura's prejudice, Lotor's not knowing how to trust) and to consciously choose loyalty to each other and to a fully shared vision. Without doing so, neither of these characters can transform from being in their immature Prince/Princess state to being ready for the mature King/Queen state.

Okay, Next...

Keith/Acxa:

I keep seeing posts where people are saying that this came out of nowhere... frankly, you all need to go back and rewatch the series. Keith and Acxa first meet in season 2 inside the guts of a Weblum. Even though it's clear to them from the start that they're on opposite sides of a war (thank you space suits) they still work together to survive and don't abandon each other even when it might benefit them to do so--they demonstrate immediately that they have a similar honor code/value system.

Every time these two encounter each other, despite remaining on opposite sides, they always help each other in this way that shows they both are in wonder about it--they don't know why, but something, some sort of "I owe you" that can't ever seem to be repaid no matter how often they help each other, is just in affect between them. Obviously, this continues to mount in S7.

So, why can't they just be friends? Well maybe they can, but I don't think that's where this is going...

For one thing, Keith is clearly drawn to his Galran side. He wants to be with the Blades of Mamora more than Team Voltron for a long stretch of time. Then he meets his Galran mom. Keith never got along well with other humans, as is established all over S7. He does get along with all these Galrans.

Those of you who know psychology know, we pretty much always marry some variation of our parents. Keith has a Galran mom who he likes and loves a lot. Acxa fits his mommy archetype. And, she's a half-breed like him--she knows what it's like to not fully belong to any one people.

Plus, as stated and well established in canon, these two just can't help but constantly save each other. I think more than ANY ship possibility, this one is obvious, and would totally make end-game sense.

So...

Shiro/???:

On the one hand, I'd love to see everyone all happy and paired up living happily ever after, but think it completely fits all of Shiro's character development to end up alone.

S7 firmly establishes that as a person, Shiro's ambitions/dreams matter more to him than the emotional needs of his partner, Adam. That's okay, there's nothing wrong with that, but, as a personality trait, it's not going to make for a happy long term relationship. In relationships you need to be willing to sacrifice things for your partner--not everything, not all the time--but you don't have the right to make serious decisions that affect you both without giving weight to the other person's needs. Shiro makes it clear that Adam's feelings don't matter to his decision to go on the Kerberos mission. That's not good partnering.

Adam, on the other hand, demonstrates a much more partner-oriented approach. He knows this is Shiro's dream, and because he loves him, he put his own wants/fears aside to support Shiro going on his first mission. He doesn't want to stop Shiro from being happy, but, when he tells Shiro that if Shiro goes AGAIN, Adam won't be here when he gets back, he's realizing that he's got to let Shiro understand that he can't be the only one in their relationship caring about the other's feelings. Adam needs a partner who will give the relationship serious weight in serious life decisions. Shiro demonstrates through his actions that he does not value the relationship more than his ambitions.

Shiro is a great team leader, but that doesn't necessarily make him a good life partner.

So, if Shiro ends up realizing this about himself and choosing to not have a romantic partnership, there is a really valuable lesson and story line there:

In American culture there is a lot of pressure to pair up. We are taught from childhood that real happiness hinges upon being partnered--at the end of every Disney movie the princess and prince finally get to be together forever and this is how we know they will "live happily every after". But not everyone is suited to relationships--and that has nothing to do with sexuality.

Shiro is gay, but that doesn't make him intrinsically more suited to long-term relationships than being straight makes anyone suited to long term relationships.

The LGBTQ+ community seems to be offended that Shiro isn't being represented in a relationship, but honestly I think they're being done a great service--Shiro is being understood as human rather than as his sexuality. His sexuality doesn't make him who he is. Being honest with himself about whether or not long-term relationships are actually something he is built for, is important for everyone to think about, and it's maybe especially important for LGBTQ+ kids to have a role model who does think about this.

One of the dangers of being LGBTQ+ is that people unconsciously reduce you to being a label--and you are so so much more than that label. Your sexuality is just one facet of Self, just like being straight is just one facet of Self for straight people. The pressure to be in a relationship as "proof" of your "identity" is very real for young LGBTQ+ kids, and the fear of leaving a relationship once you find one is far more intense because you fear your options are limited and you might not find someone else of your sexuality/who accepts your sexual-identity. So, LGBTQ+ kids are more vulnerable to staying in relationships that they've outgrown as a result of semi-conscious societal pressure to both pair up and to "prove" their "identity", and to fear that they might not ever find another relationship.

Shiro being the rep for the LBGTQ+ community teaches kids that you can be any sexuality/sexual-identity, and it doesn't change anything else about you--it doesn't change that you're smart and skilled and capable of being a space pilot, it doesn't change that it's perfectly possible and okay for a relationship (or even long term relationships in general) to not be right for you, it doesn't change your ability to be a good team leader... it doesn't change or mean anything else about you any more than a straight person being straight does. It's a facet of Self, to be weighed against many many other facets of Self.

...All that said, if they do somehow make it canon that Adam miraculously survived and he and Shiro are end game, that could be a great character development arch too, as long as it involves Shiro acknowledging that if he's going to resume being in a relationship with Adam he has to make decisions WITH Adam, and respect that Adam's emotions and needs matter equally to his own. If Shiro isn't willing to chose the truly rational emotional well-being of his partner (I mean Adam was reasonably scared that Shiro would die in space) over his own ambitions, he's not compatible with Adam. And that's okay too.

And, lastly:

Zethrid/Ezor:

Here's another rep for the LGBTQ+ community. In contrast to Shiro's story line, which may end up with him consciously deciding that committed relationships aren't as important to him as other parts of life and is happy being alone, we are now being introduced to a relationship in which two women who have worked together for a long time are discovering happiness through exploring their romantic connection. From what we've seen in S7, it looks like Zethrid and Ezor are experiencing a deeper trust and intimacy as a result of their new relationship.

I think it's great for two characters who are largely portrayed as villains/secondary shades-of-gray characters to demonstrate to people how relationships can change your priorities. Zethrid and Ezor seem to have made each other the first priority, rather than the ever-convoluted mission. They're still in the middle of this war, but now they care most about looking out for each other, rather than prioritizing the Galra Empire or Lotor. They are finding meaning in what they've fought for through their love for each other. I think they will be taken on an arch that is the opposite of Shiro's, in which they increasingly discover that their relationship and love for each other matters more to them than the military ambitions that may have once fueled them as individuals. ❤️

In conclusion:

While I think this is clear, in case it isn't, I am not bashing on ANY ship in this post, I'm just explaining why I think these ships are the logical end game ships for good story telling.

If you are so inclined, I'd love to hear your thoughts presented in a respectful and legible manner. ❤️

Thanks for reading, I know it's a long one. 😅

[sol1056]

character arcs as questions, followup

I’m going to quote only some of the responses (and break a few up to separate out the topics), since a lot of them overlap. 

a note about Yuuri on Ice 

truth and lies character arcs

the difference in the midpoint

learning lessons: Yuri, Hunk, Lance

the need for agency

Behind the cut. 

a note about Yuuri on Ice

@jeannettegray @cristak and the anon who sent me the two-parter about Yuuri all had various observations: Yuuri didn’t need the gold, his story isn’t over yet, his anxiety was secondary to his romance. For a more thorough meta on Yuuri’s arc, I’ll send you to @caramelcheese​​. Her meta goes deep, and maps pretty close to how I see that story. 

I used YoI as an example because structurally, Yuuri’s story is not a change arc. He’s not all that much different at the end from who he was at the start; he began as one of the top six in the world, and ended there (unreliable narrator issues aside). As someone raised in a loving and supportive family, he's new to romance but love itself is not a wholly unfamiliar experience. 

You can debate the exact nature of his question, if you like. Structurally, his story still isn’t a change arc, and that was my point. 

truth and lies in character arcs

another anon:

...you gotta think of your characters stories from a want vs. need perspective as well. Maybe. Our character wants to win something, but importantly, needs to learn something and the external validation/reward is less important than self-validation/growth...

If you’re writing a change arc, then yes. That type centers on the conflict between the lie the character believes (influencing what they want), and the truth they must learn (what they need to do or be).

That lie is really just a coping mechanism. It’s something they learned would keep them safe, and it did --- until the instigating event pushes them into new world. Now, what once helped becomes their greatest harm. 

The longer they cling to those lies, the greater the narrative punishes them (the try/fail cycle). Their dark night of the soul is when they must let go of their lies and face their truth. Doing so will change them, often radically, as they become their authentic selves. 

But that’s not the only kind of arc you can write. 

I’ve talked about the different kinds of character arcs before. I didn’t go that much into flat arcs, but I did call out two: 

In a maturity arc, external factors force the character to overcome doubts or disadvantages, which in turn are the key to victory. Wonder Woman being temporarily overwhelmed at the magnitude of the fight she’s taken on is a midpoint of a flat arc. She fights her demons, reaffirms her truth, and gets back in the fight.

In an alteration arc, the character has a change of perspective. A corporate successful attorney sees the damage they helped cause, and their midpoint is a re-evaluation. The second half of their story, they’ll fight using the same tools, but now in a different direction. Other than that shift in their view, they’re still mostly the same.

Any arc can be posed as a question, of course. A maturity arc is just the easiest, because it really is a yes/no question: can the character do X? With their truth already in hand, the try/fail cycle doesn’t punish the character for clinging to a lie. It punishes the character for refusing to let go of that truth. 

Yoon-Hee has to get through the civil exams undiscovered, survive dorm life among boys, and evade a professor who knew her father. Yuuri has to run a gauntlet of competitions to re-establish himself, effectively starting from scratch all over again. Shiro is tortured, tormented, forcibly ejected from his lion, brutally wounded, and loses potential allies too soon; even his own lion seems to be working against him.  

None of these three ever really question whether their goal is good; instead, they doubt their ability or worthiness to achieve the goal. They ask: how much longer can I keep this up? What if I’m not up to this? Can I really do this? 

Kim Weiland describes it as: “In short, they have a Doubt—and it keeps them seeking throughout the story, even as the undeniable power of their conviction in the Truth transforms other characters around them.”

The character holds their truth in defiance of the world’s lies, and in the end, the character doesn’t change all that much. Instead, they change the world. 

Unless, of course, the answer is no.

the difference in the midpoint

If the dark night is resolved with the realization they’ve been going about this all wrong-headed and need to try something new, it’s a change arc. If the dark night pivots on self-doubt over whether they’re able or enough, it’s a flat arc.

If Yoon-Hee had hit the midpoint and realized she’d been believing a lie that said education is the only measure of worth, and then threw herself into finding a husband, that’d signal a change arc. When she picks herself up, determined to work harder towards her goal, that confirms she’s got a flat arc.

If we say Yuuri’s midpoint is his breakdown in the parking garage, a change arc would dictate he must realize he’s been believing a lie. That doesn’t happen; his midpoint revolves around believing in his own ability, and his need for Victor to be there when Yuuri falters. It’s a high-stakes and intense moment, not a brooding midpoint like Captain America often gets. But it’s still a clear flat-arc style of midpoint.

Shiro’s midpoint is more complex than the other two examples, as he arguably goes through it twice. One dark night begins at the end of S1 and continues to the middle of S2; the other covers S3 to the end of S6. In at least the first case, Shiro’s choice is to double down, fight Zarkon, and end up bonded stronger with Black. In S2, Shiro regains his certainty, confident that his answer will be yes, as long as he stays true to himself. 

learning lessons: Yuri, Hunk, Lance

from another anon:

let’s say ... the main character is very self-centered but needs to learn to become part of a team ... what’s more satisfying, getting the gold medal in the end or getting a strong team/friends and seeing that external rewards don’t matter as much as personal/interpersonal ones?

Any arc can create a satisfying story, so long as the arc is brought to its natural conclusion. It really depends on the character, and what kind of story the writer wants that character to experience. 

In YoI, the younger Yuri has a classic change arc. He believes a lie in which a gold medal would validate his self-worth. The best instigating events are ones that appear to satisfy the lie so thoroughly that the character simply cannot refuse, but at the same time, sets the character on a path towards that midpoint realization. 

A chance to use Victor’s routine is exactly that, wrapped up in one gold-medal package. But like every good instigating event, there’s a stinger in the tale: the routine assigned requires Yuri be true to himself --- expressing selfless agape --- rather than cling to the persona he desperately wishes were true. In that, Yuri’s arc is also a failure: he doesn’t change. He clings to the lie he believes, and the story hands him a gold for the effort. 

on the previous question-arc post, @speakswords commented:

Lance and Hunk have questions, they've just been abandoned by the storyline. Hunk’s was something like 'can he step up to plate to do a job that must be done even if he doesn't want to?' Lance's was something like 'can he prove his worth.' ... Lance's question has answered with a resounding no, despite the narrative setting up and providing all the necessary pieces to give Lance's arc a yes answer. 

Hmm. I think what muddies those examples is that fear (Hunk) and insecurity (Lance) can also be expressions of self-doubt. After pondering it, I can’t actually tell. If either ever got a clear outline for their development, that outline got tossed or watered down. I won’t say bad writing so much as... well, an ensemble’s tough to write well. Sometimes characters get handed shortcuts instead of actual arcs. 

What I’m thinking happened to their arcs is they got switched mid-stream from a change arc to a flat arc. That would take as many words to explain as I’ve already written, so if you want me to keep going on that, send an ask. I’ll put it on the list and tackle it as its own post. 

the need for agency

on my post about Shiro’s arc, @gundamgirl17 commented:

While I disagree that withholding agency for Shiro is inherently wrong ... [I want] him to grow and complete his arc and have a happy ending as much as the next person, I don't see anything inherently wrong with the writers making him a tragic character instead.

I respectfully disagree in the strongest possible terms: withholding agency is absolutely wrong by every storytelling measure. 

Chuck Wendig (as usual) puts it best: 

Character agency is, to me, a demonstration of the character’s ability to make decisions and affect the story. This character has motivations all her own. She is active more than she is reactive. She pushes on the plot more than the plot pushes on her. Even better, the plot exists as a direct result of the character’s actions.

A story that negates a character's choice, or blocks the character from acting on that choice, is a bad story. I don’t mean bad/good in the sense of message or morals. I mean bad writing, plain and simple.

We never saw the crucial decision points onscreen: when and why did Keith accept his role after so long being reluctant? When and why did Shiro stop being a paladin? When and why did Allura decide she returns Lance’s feelings? When and why did Lance set aside his easy-going perspective and turn so grim? The one time we saw a character grapple with anything --- when Hunk decided to rescue his family --- the story never let him follow through. If he had anything to do with his family’s rescue, we never saw it.  

I am totally sympathetic with those fans who seek the silver lining, who say Shiro’s pride in Atlas is a sign he’s moved on, has a new place, and will do well there. But I never saw him choose that. 

Shiro’s arc began as a question. At the end of S2, the story answered, and said no. Shiro had fought and struggled and tried, and in the end, he paid for his convictions with his life.  

Whatever he’d learned in the time since, the story didn’t let him act upon it. Whatever he might’ve seen as his options, the story didn’t give him a chance to consider or decide. Whatever he might’ve felt in regret or hope, the story refused to show. The story required he fill a specific space, the plot required that he be happy about it, and the writing hollowed him out to make it so. 

The most common complaint I’ve gotten post-S7 --- beyond representation, plot logic, or shipping --- has been about S7′s lack of heart. Some of S7′s lingering hurt comes from a sense of those broken arcs, and the way that brokenness turns every win into a loss from another angle.

What broke those arcs, though, was the story reducing the characters to puppets, pushed around by the story. It turned a complicated narrative into a recitation of events, play-acted by empty characters. I have my theories on what sent everything in this direction, but I’ll leave that for another post. 

[deliciouslyswaggytrashcan]

Hestiant to request this so feel free to ignore if ya want. My fiancé is being sent overseas for awhile and I’m not going to get to see him for a long time. This happens a lot with him and before every trip, we sit in a hammock and play a guitar. Could you write a scenario with Shiro and his female S/O doing the same thing? Maybe like he hears his S/O playing the song “ikanaide” (pretend they wrote it) idk I leave it to you. Thank you and have a nice week

Wow I am so late getting to this request. I’m so sorry hun. My sister’s fiancé is currently deployed overseas so I can only imagine how painful that must be. Stay strong hun! Here you go.

Tomorrow was going to be perhaps team Voltron’s biggest battle yet and also perhaps the most deadly. The list of things that could go wrong seemed endless to the team but every mission had it’s risk but this one certainly had more than any other. But they were paladins after all, they knew that one day this big battle with Zarkon was coming. It was inevitable. But everyone just didn’t think the day of battle would come so quickly. It was like they had barely anytime to breathe and take in the fact. Which made the whole ordeal even harder…

If the team was scared, they sure as hell did a get job at hiding it as the team briefed the plan for tomorrow with Shiro and Allura making slight adjustments to ensure everything would hopefully go off without a hitch. But not a word reached her ears. Her job was plain and simple: stay behind in the castle to help Allura and Coran. The paladins were the ones who would be doing the fighting in this mission while the rest were just spectators to their battle. The fear traveled into her veins but never made it to her facial muscles or skin. Her complexion remained pale and Shiro, his eyes as steady as if he were shopping for shoes. Not a single sign of fear in his voice or actions as he spoke. She let out an understated sigh and turned to leave, showing she wasn’t afraid to turn her back from the fight. But in reality, she was terrified. So much could go wrong and the team just seemed to accept those facts. They were practically being told there could be a likely chance they could die and not a single person batted their eyes. They were so ready and prepared for this. When Kolivan bluntly mentioned this fact, Shiro didn’t even flinched and just seeing that made her want to scream and yell. But she remained silent, trying to listen to rest of the briefing but that thought set her on edge, memories of the months they shared and grew together not just as a couple but also as very close friends long before they were a couple. Their trust for one another running so deep that it was unbreakable. So why in this moment did it feel like a betrayal to her? Why was that emotion overbearing her thoughts and her thoughts? It became to much as she politely excused herself from the room, making sure that once the doors shut no one would see her sprint away from that room. It felt like a death chamber for them and executioner was on it’s way while they made peace with their thoughts and inner demons while she ran from hers. She ran and ran until she found herself drawn to observation deck of the ship which gave the best view of the stars in the universe. Lance surely must’ve been their earlier in the day as the guitar he ask to borrow from her and his hammock had been left there in the middle of the room. Just the two things she needed in that moment.

The sweet refrain of the acoustic guitar spoke a musical language to her soul. The strumming sound had a hypnotic soothing quality that she craved. To loose herself to the melody of the guitar was her way to escape the world and the problems it holds in them. Taking a single breath and releasing it, she began to play something unfamiliar, making up what her soul so desperately wanted to express. Those feelings she kept reserved and silent. The notes flowing into her brain as she sat starring out at the unfamiliar stars. 

“I couldn’t help but to tell you I’d be alrightWhen, to be true, it was tearing me apart insideBut it didn’t matter since you’re walking away so swiftly in front of meAnd your figure is the only thing I see” She sang softly, without a care left in the world in that moment.

“Plane has arrived, now is the timeYou’re going away againAs I try to run, it seems like the ground is slipping from underneath me

I shouldn’t cry, I shouldn’t cryBut I can’t seem to hold it in Oh, please don’t leave me” The Black Paladin stood in the doorway of the observation deck, listening to her lyrics carefully as her voice began to crack after certain notes in her painfully beautifully song. Each word was meant for him but not meant for him to hear which made it even more painfully to hear. He cautiously began approaching her, carefully to not stop her from playing.

“Your silhouette is fading away too quickly for me to bearJust as the wind, you blow by againAnd suddenly you’re not there”

“I’ll always be here, Y/N. Now and forever.” He spoke softly but his words were masked by her playing. She had entered her on lonely word of pain as tears began falling down her face, her voice continuing to crack but she still played. 

“I shouldn’t cry, I shouldn’t cryBut I can’t seem to hold it inOh, please don’t leave me“ The way she pleaded in her lyrics shattered his heart. That intense fear of possibly losing someone who you deeply love is something no one wants to every have to think about yet he hadn’t meant to put her through that severe pain. In that moment, he wanted nothing more than to destroy all those painful thoughts but he had to let her finish. Her song was something he needed to hear because no matter how painful it was, he just had to ensure that tomorrow he would come home to her.

“When the fun is over it’ll always seem to end the sameThough I know it’s coming, I can never seem to stop the painIn this very moment, you look even more amazing and I can’t avoid your gazeOnce again, I can see nothing but your face

Time’s ticking by, no matter how I tryI’m struggling to keep upNight’s taken hold as I’m walking homeI wonder if I’ll be okay alone

Lights on the street glow at my feetMy shadow is all I’ve got To keep me company” All her tears could not be held back and even Shiro felt like he was on the verge of tears. He know she hadn’t meant to make him feel so guilty and he knew that this song wasn’t meant to be heard. Never had he felt so much love and yet so much pain before in the same moment. Love wasn’t supposed to hurt. Even her heart ached at her own words that she sang. She didn’t want to be left alone…

“Your silhouette is fading away too quickly for me to bearJust as the dark, it tears me apartMy surroundings blur once again

I shouldn’t cry, I shouldn’t cryBut I can’t seem to hold it inOh, please don’t leave me” Her lips began tremble as her hands shaking as she held the guitar in her hands. No words were really left to say. All she had to say were her pleads to the universe to not rip away the person she loved the most.

“I shouldn’t cry, I shouldn’t cryBut I can’t seem to hold it inOh, please don’t leave me” She almost screamed the final lyrics as the sound of the guitar crashing to the floor echoed through the room. Climbing into hammock, pulling her into him, she was afraid to hold onto him, fearing he would quickly disappear yet past habits did the exact opposite. 

When she cried there was a rawness to it, like the pain was still an open wound. She would clasp onto something for support, anything, a table or the back of a chair, and then her whole body would shake. The sobs were stifled at first as she attempted to hide her grief, then overcome by the wave of his emotions she would break down entirely, all his defenses washed away in those salty tears. When she at last turned his face to Shiro, she was a picture of grief, loss, devastation. It was the face of one who had suffered before and didn’t know if she could do it again. Then, just when he thought the breakthrough would come and she would trust him with her vulnerability, the shutters would come down, her emotion walled off behind a mask of coping. She would just wear it until everything was right again, she didn’t know another way. It was just another habit as to not let anyone worry about her. 

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ll come back to you. I will search the entire universe to find you again, Y/N. We’re going to win tomorrow.” His voice was almost a whisper. He swore to never hurt her and he wasn’t going to break that promise to her ever. 

“P-please promise you’ll come back, alive.” She pleaded to him but that wasn’t something he could exactly promise her, even as much as he wanted to.

“You know I can’t ensure that, baby. But I will do everything in my power to make it back to you. That’s what I can promise to you.” The room fell silent as he continued to just hold her close. This wasn’t how either one of them wanted to spend the night before the battle tomorrow. Reaching to pick up the guitar, he placed it back in her hands. “Let’s not think about that possibility. Play me something, Y/N. You play it so beautifully.” He said, still holding onto her waist as she began to strum a different song on the guitar. It really couldn’t be described as a song, just notes thrown together but he didn’t care. He just listened to her play, kissing her cheek over and over again, whispering the deep love he held for her.

Lyrics credit to Lizz Robinett. Highly recommend her guitar cover of this song. This didn’t really turn out the way I wanted it to and it’s pretty bad. So sorry but thanks again for the request. ~Admin Mae

[redemptiionss]

Let me go over what I learned happened in s8.... this is just what I’ve learned from other people’s posts. Let me know I’ve gotten things wrong (and any further clarification would be appreciated, if you’ve seen s8)

Lotor’s corpse was shown onscreen shortly after flashbacks proving that he was a good person who grew up abused & brainwashed by his parents. His corpse was then used as a puppet by Haggar, his mother and abuser. Allura finally says that Lotor had good intentions after two seasons of not once showing regret or second thoughts on what they’ve done to him. Haggar tells her that Lotor was truly happy when he was with her. No remorse is shown, apparently nobody cares that they’ve murdered him. The fact that they created a power vacuum within the Galra Empire and caused the deaths of thousands of people all because they didn’t think twice before attacking & abandoning Lotor (aka the one who GENUINELY wanted to help bring peace & also the one who was literally the SOLUTION) to die in the rift, is never addressed or questioned. The Colony story that was the Plot in s6 was never addressed. I’m wondering what were the writers’ intention with Lotor?! It’s like they can’t make up their minds. They had people-- including those who he once most trusted-- slander and demonize him. Then they humanized him and showed us that he was a Good person who was abused and traumatized by his parents & tried not to be like them. Then they showed us a grotesque imagery of his corpse. Then they went all like, yup he was a Good Person all along who was “misguided” & he could have had a Redemption Arc, but whoops, he’s dead. His death was meaningless. It was without reason or purpose. All I’m seeing from this is a terrible message surrounding abuse victims. They ditched a story of hope, a redemption/vindication arc for a meaningless tragedy. Congrats. I can’t forgive them for what they did. I can’t.

Line from s6, from Lotor’s confrontation with Haggar, who’s kidnapped him and tries to get him to stay with her, but is rejected by Lotor. Lotor says this to her: “The end is near, witch. I know you can sense it. If you beg for your life now, maybe I will take pity on you when the time comes.”  This was CLEAR foreshadowing. But in the end? Lotor’s rotting corpse being used as a puppet. Then in the end, him immediately forgiving his parents & happily reconciling with them in the afterlife. What. The. Flippin. Heck. What was the POINT of that whole confrontation then? More importantly, what was the point of the whole colony plot?! It was the Plot of s6!! It was what led them to abandon & murder Lotor, which then led to a power vacuum in the Galra Empire & death of thousands!! & led to what happened in s7 & s8!!! The entire situation surrounding the colony plot was clearly Fishy as Hell, implied that there was a misunderstanding going on, that Lotor was likely going to get vindicated/redeemed, and also that Haggar had her nasty fingers in the PIe. But literally nothing came out of it. WHAT. WAS. THE. POINT. Clearly something happened behind the scenes between s6 & s8.

Somehow Zarkon comes back via Haggar & quintessence, but he’s Good guy Zarkon (aka pre-corrupted)? I’m not sure how this happened, but okay. I mean, if anyone could give me the full rundown on how things led up to this. He got a redemption arc. Hagerva got a redemption arc too.

I don’t have a problem with redemption arcs. I love them. I hate the whole Tumblr™ “you have to earn redemption” thing. Redemption isn’t something that is earned. Anyone can be redeemed-- even the worst person possible. However, in stories it HAS to be told well. It’s got to be meaningful. And frankly the main reason why I have a problem with them getting redemption arcs is because Lotor never got one while his parents did. He never got a redemption or a vindication arc. Zarkon and Haggar was allowed to have a voice, while Lotor was not. This just comes across as them somehow being More Deserving of a redemption arc than Lotor, which is honestly just bullshit.

Zarkon & Honerva apparently weren’t corrupted anymore when they got redeemed, so that.. makes everything they did over 10,000 years okay I guess? Since it technically wasn’t them? But like, they still did that. They got corrupted by the bad quintessence by their own direct actions, and then proceeded to commit genocide, enslave and conquer thousands of planets and people, and abuse their son. None of that has changed. I never thought that they’d get redeemed mainly because I didn’t think there would be any way it would be written well & that it wouldn’t have been able to be fit into the story’s plot well.

While Corrupted!Bad Guy Zarkon told Shiro that he was Too Weak and Unworthy to be the Paladin for the Black Lion, Good Guy Zarkon told Keith that he was a good leader & a good Black Paladin because of his Galra Lineage. Like.. uh, what? RACISM MUCH? I guess Keith didn’t say anything. What happened to him being the #1 Black Paladin!Shiro stan? Oh wait, he stopped back in like S3 or something.

This makes me think of that one Nightmare post I read months ago. It was basically “What if Shiro is not the Black Paladin because the Black Lion is racist against non-Galra?” [It cited that when Shiro was the Black Paladin, he had a Galra arm. & now that he doesn’t have a Galra arm, he is no longer the Black Paladin.] I thought it was utterly ridiculous and that it was the stupidest thing ever. But I guess being Galra is indeed what makes you great for the Black Lion after all. Oof. Wtf.

Apparently Shiro also barely had a meaningful interaction with... pretty much anyone, least of all Keith, who’s supposed to be like his little brother. This has been happening for a while even before s8. (I honestly hate that Shiro was reduced to just being mere plot device for Keith’s development and arcs. Don’t think I’ve forgotten how JDS & LM called him boring, wanted to kill him off permanently, but then was forced to bring him back, and how they pretty much got around that loophole by killing him off at least twice and finally pushing him into the background. Oh and they didn’t even give him a family either lol. WTF.)

Lance says his “I’m good at winning prizes” line at Allura. Wtf. It seems that the context is Allura asking Lance to get something for her, but I saw the screenshot and.. G R O S S. They KNEW what they were fucking doing, especially with THAT expression. *shudders* I like Lance, I really do. But I hate him for Allura. He became smitten with Allura the minute he saw him, and pretty much called dibs on her. Spent a majority of his time hitting on her while she reacted in distaste & discomfort, continually rejecting him or brushing him off. Showed jealousy and entitlement when Allura exhibited interest in other guys or when other guys seemed interested in Allura. [Lance, you do not own Allura. You’re not even with her, she’s not interested in you. BACK. OFF.] Even made fun of Allura’s Altean culture and heritage, and never once showed any signs of interest in learning about it. And I’m not even going to go over all the ways how they are not compatible with each other at all. A//urance literally plays into the trope that if the Nice Guy is persistent enough, he will get the Girl. The Girl is his Prize. Again, they KNEW what they were doing with that line. So that coupled with the imagery from S3-ish of Lance’s fantasy-- in which he is revered and praised by all, standing at the very top holding a big flag saying “Winner” with a dream starry-eyed Allura at his feet. Ugh, BARF.

A//urance happens. Apparently neither of them are very happy??? [and honestly it just confuses me why it even happened because there is such a stark difference between how Lotura & A//urance was written-- but I guess Lotura was just a stepping stone for the less well-written & clearly-forced ship after all? Tf.]

There’s some stuff about Hagerva breaking into alternate realities because she can’t cope with the fact that her son is dead, so she’s trying to enter her alternate families’s lives.

There’s some stuff about Altea & Daizabaal being brought back. I.. don’t know. I’ve seen some people say that if those could be brought back, then why couldn’t Lotor & the others be brought back too?

Allura kisses Lance twice. Tells him that she’ll always love him. (lmaoooo what? okay sure) She transfers her Altean Marks onto Lance. (What. the. HECK?! THAT MAKES NO SENSE.) She then.... sacrifices herself? To save her Reality? To save all of existence? From what I’m hearing from other people, there was no real good reason for her to sacrifice herself. She then steps into the afterlife with her father, her mother, Zarkon, Honerva, and Lotor. There’s a legit outline of her [who is clearly defined], with Lotor at her back [who is not as defined], in the stars.

I cannot believe they killed off their main female protagonist & a princess. You don’t just.. do that in children’s media. I don’t know of any children’s media in which a princess dies. I thought she was untouchable. Not to mention there was absolutely no pay off for Allura at all aside from her being dead and in the afterlife reuniting with her family. She’s had to sacrifice everything every season-- her planet & her family was destroyed, then she lost her castle, her rank, her crown, her clothes, her people. I thought there was going to be an ultimate pay off for her in end, but no she even had to lose her own life. Really?! This doesn’t speak of Hope to me.

Lance spends the rest of his life with Allura’s Altean marks tattooed on his face. He’s a farmer, growing Altean flowers (???) and it’s implied that he never gets over her. I... just can’t. The bitter irony. In giving Lance what he wanted, the writers took everything from him. Much of his character, aside from growing in his role as a Paladin, bonding with others, and dreaming of being a pilot, also revolved around Getting Allura. He was never allowed to grow out of that. Now they’ve effectively erased his identity-- he no longer has an identity separate from Allura. That isn’t.... what his arc should’ve been. Also does the marks mean he’s Altean now or what?? You can’t just change races like that. Tf. If he has an Altean lifespan now, that means that he’s going to watch everyone he loves die. His infatuation for Allura has become his curse. And while it’s been implied that he’s worked on a farm before [look, it’s canon that he knows how to milk a cow. that’s enough of an implication.], that was never his dream. He wanted to be a pilot.. and now he’s just a farmer forever pining over Allura and growing flowers in her memory, or something. They destroyed Lance’s character.

Apparently Allura didn’t just transfer her Altean Marks to Lance, but also gave him Leadership over the Alteans. WHAT. THE. FUCK? So Lance didn’t just Get Allura & then is cursed by Allura’s selfish act, but he also gets Allura’s ROLE. They seriously had Allura sacrifice HER own leadership & give it to a boy who has NEVER once shown interest in HER culture, & has even mocked it more than once. THE. AUDACITY.

“Lance will get what he needs, not what he wants.” That implies that he was Not going to end up with Allura, seeing as she is what he clearly wants. So.. what is it then? Unless him being a lonely pining farmer for all of eternity was what he needed? Either they straight up lied or like I said before, something happened behind the scenes.

Keith apparently is leading Lotor’s Generals & the Galra now or something..?? WHAT? Why TF would the Galra listen to him? And I guess he gave a speech that was essentially Lotor’s speech in S5. EXCUSE. ME.?! Also apparently Keith now has magical powers and is a diplomat dedicated to spreading good will in the universe..?? So basically he was given Shiro’s position, and then Lotor & Allura’s ROLES. Ha ha ha.

There was a line from a crack-foreshadowing episode in s7, in which Lance says Keith “is the future”-- and a lot of people came up with the Emperor!Keith theory. I quickly concluded that it was total bullshit because it made ZERO sense within canon. It still makes no sense, but then again not much makes sense in s8 apparently.

Apparently Nothing is Really Solved. The Galra still need Quintessence to survive. The Quintessence Rift is closed, so there’s nowhere for them to get their quintessence. Lotor, the only person who had the solution, wanted peace, & intended on leading an Alliance between the Paladins & the Galra, is dead. Allura, who could’ve allied with Lotor to help the cause of leading the universe & Galra into an new era of peace, is dead. But Apparently there’s Peace now. Okie dokie.

I... don’t really know anything about Katie & Hunk. What happened to them?

 I can’t think of anything else right now. All I can say is that s8 sounds vile.

[ganymedesclock]

What are your thoughts about the writers admitting in an interview that Shiro was meant to be a conduit for Keith to take on the Black Lion. Even though they said/joked about never getting rid of him do worry hat they'll find some sort of loophole (like a clone) or technicality (turning evil against his will "counts" as becoming unworthy) to get Shiro out of Black just so they can get what they want? It's almost like writing Shiro has become a chore for them.

I think that isn’t what they meant at all!

My takeaway from that interview is the thing they were discussing was very early in the development of VLD. That is to say, not “before the paint was dry on season 1″- this was when VLD as a project was still doing the project equivalent of crawling around chewing on furniture. Nowhere near the actual casting and scripting and such.

Because what they’re talking about is how the character of Shiro- or rather Sven- was treated in every prior continuity of Voltron.

Because in most prior continuities? Sven is not a hero. Sven is the Obi-Wan Kenobi to Keith’s Luke Skywalker. He’s a mentor and he’s a mentor who does as mentors do very early on. He’s the original pilot of the blue lion who leaves the team, becomes forgotten, goes out in one noble sacrifice to save Lance.

Sven is treated more as a secondary supporting character rather than one of the Core Five.

So when I saw that interview, my two cents was the writers were talking about how very, very early on, they made that decision to break Shiro away from the mold of Sven as the idealized, shallow mentor figure who doesn’t really have his own opinions and depth because he’s not really here for the long run. He’s there to prop up Keith.

And VLD broke from that hard from the very beginning of season 1. I think this was one of their early scrapped ideas like post-apocalyptic Earth (being taken from GoLion).

Because the work they’ve done now, narratively... Keith really can’t fill Shiro’s shoes meaningfully plot wise.

If they were planning that, any of the various times Shiro and Shiro alone succeeded at something, they would have had Keith there, at least part of it if not pushing beyond and succeeding where Shiro failed.

But having the strongest bond with his Lion right out of the gate, defeating Zarkon in the astral plane, awakening Black’s power and retrieving their bayard- these are things Shiro did alone. And what’s been happening since, with Kuron, is further legitimizing Shiro, not discrediting him.

We now have compelling evidence that Black’s rejection of Shiro in s3e6 was actually not a failing of Shiro’s virtues or his connection, but foul play by Haggar’s power, because as of s5e3, months later, Shiro is shown to have a suspiciously shaky connection with Black and panics, calling to Lance for help about it.

In s5, as it becomes clear something has gone wrong with Shiro, the narrative is very much advancing in a direction that Lance is working with Shiro, talking to him, connecting with him, and Shiro of his own accord is opening up to Lance and giving him important information- telling us that Shiro is lining up to be a very active player in his own rescue here.

In s3 and s4, they had many opportunities to frame Keith coming to the Black Lion as rising to his rightful destiny, as finding somewhere he belongs, connecting in a way he never expected to. After all, in every prior continuity, this is rightfully his Lion. The expectation of nostalgia would be to frame it like a glorious homecoming- the Black Paladin arrives where he’s destined to be.

Instead it’s emphasized that Keith is miserable. That this doesn’t fit. That this is wrong, uncomfortable, practically hurts. That he makes bad decisions, that this pressure is killing him, that he’s unhappy and stressed here and his moments of triumph are when he plays back to those aforementioned Red Paladin virtues of instinct, loyalty, superb flying skills.

Instead we keep that exact same opening video that we’ve seen the entire time that shows Shiro in Black, Keith in Red, Lance in Blue. Instead they keep their armor colors the same, when this show overwhelmingly uses color to signal allegiance and ownership- and it’s the red armor lying unoccupied, waiting for Keith to come back to the castle.

It’s not that Keith doesn’t have a heroic destiny. But it’s very clear his heroic destiny is not with the Black Lion. Black is not home for him, it’s not the core of who he is. VLD Keith was built from the ground up as a fire person, just like Lance was built from the ground up as water, just as Shiro was built for the sky.

They were designed and tailored to their initial starting roles that are repeatedly, repeatedly hammered home as where they really belong, what’s really home to them. Lance telling Blue that he wanted to stay by her side forever. Allura so clearly struggling to get into Blue’s mindset because it’s unlike her. Lance’s partnership with Red being a direct mirror of how at the beginning of the show he had inherited Keith’s position in the fighter class and was actively shown to be unhappy and seeking something else to fill the void.

I’ve written so many metas about the Lion Swap, and gotten so many notes and replies of “wow, I can’t believe the writers threw away all of this good setup about how Lance belongs with Blue!” and not seeming to think that... maybe that’s the point? Maybe that’s why there’s multiple big obvious flags going “ah, yes, this is Lance, who is blue, this is Lance who when he unlocks a new bayard form the red bayard glows with blue light because the essential character and essence of Lance is blue, we are definitely suggesting something about Lance and the blue lion”?

Because frankly...

If the writers’ intention is to set Keith up as black paladin and get rid of Shiro? They’ve already personally ruined their chances. If anything, they have yet to do something narratively that I think really actually feels like an expression of intent in that regard. Which, again, makes me really sure- especially if they’re talking about the concept openly in interviews- that this was something they scrapped ages ago that has no bearing on present and future canon in VLD.

Keith is a great character who has the power and will to stand on his own, which is why it makes really no sense for the writers to make Shiro do every single piece of hard work related to helping Black break away from Zarkon- when that narrative is significant to him, a former prisoner, and not to Keith whose demons are much more about loneliness and isolation- and then for Keith to passively inherit the spoils.

Because so far Keith’s done nothing to earn that crown. He’s been a little busy advancing his own character arc, that might cross paths with the Black Lion, but sure as hell doesn’t entwine with them.

[sailormew4]

Mind Trap Chapter 7: Enojado

This is last chapter before the two parter! Sorry if its bad!

Prev Chap: https://sailormew4.tumblr.com/post/166105270086/mind-trap-chapter-6-agradecido-guys-and-gals

Next Chap: https://sailormew4.tumblr.com/post/166159162861/mind-trap-chapter-8-amor-part-1-whos-ready-for

Chapter Summary: Sometimes you need to fuel the flame to finish something

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rowboat crashes into land as they look similar to the last two it was covered with inner demons. Keith looks to see the inner demons took forms of rats as they hiss angrily at them. They continue walking as they see a black house. Keith looks confused as he asks, "Hunk, do you recognize this place?"

Hunk turns on the light as he looks at it to answers, "Hmm odd. It's looks like Lance's Abeula's house, or at least I think so he never really talks about her."

"Abeula?" asks Allura confused at the term.

Hunk sees this as he clarifies, "Grandmother."

Keith walks in the inner demon sludge as he opens the door. It opens as sludge pours out from the house as they see broken glass shards and ripped up pictures.

They trudge through the sludge. Hunk points to the stairs as they walk. Keith looks around the home as he squints to see any hints, so far the sludge is making it hard but the house is pretty beat up as there is holes in the roof as they avoid sludge dripping down.

Hunk requests, "Check the doors. The emotion might be in one of them."

They do so which causes Keith to be nervous at whatever inner demon might be with it. They each mention about being negative as Keith stares at the door in front of him. He turns the knob as the Paladins are right behind him. When the door fell open they faced something that would surely haunt them.

This emotion has his arms and legs are being held by sludge like a puppet though the most describing was the clawed black figure choking his neck as it hisses at them as it talks, "Look, they're here to mock you again. Punish them. Let it out. Actually let me help you. Cause your weak!"

Suddenly, the emotion is moving as the demon smiles with a razor blade teeth. It swings at them limply as Allura summons her whip as she tries to catch the shadow. The demon smirks as it voices changes from that jumble to sounding like Allura, "The Galra show no mercy. Let it out. Kill them all, do it for Voltron."

"Lance! Don't listen! That wasn't me!" cries Allura as the demon uses her distress to knock her into sludge covering her.

The voice goes back to jumbled mess as it caresses the emotion's cheek as it says, "Ssh, my little monster. Don't worry about the Galra you'll end up just like them anyway... like Zarkon... like Lotor. How many did you hurt already?"

"Get away my buddy you... quiznak!" yells Hunk as he blasts it with the cannon.

The voice changes to Hunk as it taunts, "Don't you remember that time you ejected me out Blue? Felt good didn't it? Getting me out of the way."

The emotion sways with the sludge as Pidge yells, "Don't listen! You're great!"

"A hypocrite aren't you?" asks the demon it's normal voice till it changes to sound like Pidge. "Nice job, Tailor! Since when were you a sharpshooter?! You're just the goofball!"

Pidge freezes as she immediately regrets those words. With that the demon throws Pidge into Hunk as they slip in the sludge.

Shiro tries to outright attack the demon but it dodges as it says in Shiro's voice, "Lance be more like Keith! Be serious! Lance don't get distracted!"

While the demon is distracted his sense of protectiveness as he forms his sword and throws at the knot of the sludge holding the emotion Keith catches him as he's murmuring to himself.

The demon laughs as it changes his voice to sound like Keith, "You're the worst pilot ever! Why would I care about you!"

Keith growls as he argues annoyed, "Yeah, now he's right hand and my self control! So shut up!"

Then for once the demon staggers as its voice is more distorted but still sounds like Keith, "You're so stupid! The amount of information brain can't even fill an paper airplane halfway!"

Keith holds tighter as he defends angrily, "Lance comes up with ingenious ideas sometimes! At least he thinks things through!"

The demon hisses in pain as the sludge around the room is going to it instead of around the house. That's when they Paladins all realized how to beat the demon. Defend Lance.

The demon hisses as it begins to say insult after insult in different voices. "You're so idiotic! How much people are you going to hurt with that stupidity?!"

"He wouldn't hurt anybody unless it was for good reason!"

"You deserves to let everything out! Kill! Be like Lotor!"

"You're nothing like Lotor! You don't hurt innocent people!"

"How much times did you want hurt someone?! You're killer deep down."

"News flash: Everybody can. I'm probably more likely to do that than Lance!"

"Well you-"

"Are a great Paladin. No one can replace you. You have something a lot of people don't have. You give people a chance to better themselves."

"Nobody-"

"Is like you Lance, everyone has lost their temper. Not you. You keep a cool head."

The demon hisses as it flies into a nearby closet running away from them. The emotion blinks as he looks around before he pushes Keith away as he yells annoyed, "What are you doing in my head!"

Keith shocked at his tone yells, "Saving you from inner demons apparently! What's your deal?!"

"I'm Lance's Anger and Hatred... mostly Anger," answers Anger with an annoyed look.

"Wait? You're both? How does that work?" asks Pidge curiously.

"He doesn't have a lot of either so I ended up being both... doesn't matter either way I only come out when we fight enemies," says Anger annoyed as he pushes them into a closet. "Look, I like being alone so.... Get. Out. You only got one more Emotion left. Have fun."

"Wait! Is it that?! That's all your giving us?" asks Keith as he believes he found his least favorite emotion.

"You got it Mullet. I'm a repressed emotion I don't have a lot to share anyway," says Anger as he shuts the closet door.

The Paladins stared annoyed muttering about being rude as til they see ooze in the clothes as they already prepare their Bayards ready to fight as memories played on clothes.

Hunk easily ignores the memories as he knows that Lance controls his impulses a lot more than most people think.

Pidge is purposefully ignoring them as she senses frustration whenever a memory her mocks Lance as she realizes maybe she should tone it back a bit.

Allura and Shiro look at the memories with curiosity than concern as the memories with them the main feeling is frustration of not working hard enough.

Keith now wonders how much Lance supresses him anger. All the memories he sees if him mostly being frustrated or annoyed at him though none of it was true hatred or anger... It makes him smile looks Lance really doesn't hate him as much as he says it.

[skaylanphear]

What are you favorite Voltron ships?

Hmmmm, well this is a hard question. I love a lot of ships in Voltron, so… Well, I’ll divide this answer into two sections. The ships I would like to see in canon and the ships I am just generally fond of, lol. 

Ships I’d be happy to see in canon (but I wouldn’t honestly be broken up if they didn’t happen. I don’t watch this show for the ships). These are mostly based on my own headcanons and are probably ships that most people don’t even think of, except for the first one. 

Klance: I think everyone who follows me knows I love Klance, lol. Especially in the advent of season 3. They work so well together and they’re growing so much in tandem. I think they could have really natural romantic development that starts from a place of deep friendship and trust. From rivals to partners to friends to best friends to lovers. I love it. I can’t get enough of them to be honest. They learn so much from each other and work so well as a team.  

Pigtor (or Lotidge, I just learned): Yes. You read that right. I don’t even think this ship has a name? I may have just coined it, hahaha (I’m probably the only person that ships it)! But if it has a name, feel free to tell me. In any case, it’s Pidge and Lotor. “But Skay… what the fuck?” Just HEAR ME OUT, OKAY?! I already think that at some point Lotor is going to switch sides. It’ll be difficult, but I do hope he’ll come over to team Voltron, maybe as a result of something traumatic or learning the truth about his parents addiction, etc, etc. And no, I don’t ship them at the ages they are now–Pidge is 15, c’mon. And Lotor is clearly older. BUT in the future, I have a headcanon that as Lotor tries to rebuild the war-ravaged Galra kingdom, which has fallen apart as a result of no longer being an empire, Pidge is around being the green lion and generally doing genius things. She’s inventing things, working on nature/quintessence research, being awesome. Anyway, she and Lotor see each other once in a while and somehow maybe end up working together. Lotor has always had a deep respect for her intelligence and passion for what she’s doing, and as he watches her, he begins to fall for her. Pidge reminds me a lot of Honerva and I kind of like the idea of their story mirroring hers and Zarkon’s. But unlike Zarkon, Lotor has more self-awareness and sees when Pidge might be getting a little out of control. He loves her passion, but with any resource in the universe at her disposal, she begins to get lost in her work. Lotor could encourage her, but when he sees that she’s dabbling in the dangerous parts of quintessence work, he pulls her back. His own parents were destroyed by such things and he won’t allow that path to be repeated. Pidge and Lotor have formed a pretty close friendship at this point and she sees his point, realizing her own errors. It’s probably a very dramatic part in their story, but yeah. From there things maybe develop more romantically. And then Pidge becomes Queen of the Galra and she and Lotor kind of become everything Zarkon and Honerva could have been, leading their people and doing great things with their research, but knowing from Zarkon and Honerva when something is going too far. This is a huge development for Pidge because, as she is in the show now, I’m sure she’s of the opinion that learning anything and everything is what’s right, similar to how Honerva felt. But I think that, through Lotor, she’d realize that while knowledge is powerful and should be exposed for all, there are also some things that are, perhaps, best left unknown. I also headcanon that Lotor is the only one that calls her Katherine (because I want that to be her full first name) because he thinks it’s a beautiful name. When they were younger, it annoyed the crap out of Pidge, but as they got older, she didn’t mind. Honestly, I love this ship so much. YOU CAN’T STOP ME! PIGTOR FOREVER!  

Hallura: I read a fic where Hunk and Allura were together and I was like, “huh, that’s interesting…” And from there the ship just got better and better for me. And now that they’re both legs, I’m like “okay, so let’s have some Hunk and Allura development where Hunk is like ‘and this is how you do this move.’” And I just kinda want them to become friends because I think Hunk will become more calm and levelheaded as he gets older, and that he’ll be a good, steady presence for Allura as she continues her diplomatic stuff. Like, she’ll get back from a meeting and Hunk will just be there, ready to comfort her and de-stress her and I just really love them, OKAY?! Like, Allura being upset about her people and her planet and Hunk is just there beside her, saying nothing but being there and just… letting her grieve. I also think his sense of humor would be really good for her. I need Hunk and Allura development so bad…

Shiro/Romelle: Romelle doesn’t actually exist in the show yet, but I’m hoping that when the rebels get introduced, she’ll, like, be their leader or something. She’s from planet Pollux in the original Voltron, and I think was Allura’s cousin? Anyway, maybe the Polluxians are related to the Alteans, or maybe she is altean and is descended down from the lines of what few Alteans weren’t on Altea when it was destroyed. I don’t know. I just want her to be a badass rebel that saves Shiro and they fall in love. Maybe she’s a lot like Allura, but has a more battle-worn maturity about her, and maybe she and Shiro bond over that. 

Sibling/Platonic!Sheith: I love sibling relationships, probably because I have a lot of siblings, lol. I love the idea of Keith and Shiro being half-brothers (which would make Shiro and Acxa half-siblings too, if she and Keith are twins, which I hope they are). I just… love the idea of them being brothers so much. And Keith finding his family, and having parts of that family on top of his Voltron family. I NEED IT! 

Those are the ship I like best when related to what canon we have at the moment. But I also like all these ships to. 

Shallura: They’re both so mature and have their own demons, I think they’d be really beautiful together and balance each other out. They’d be the support the other needs in hard times and I think it’s just a really… bitter-sweetly beautiful ship. They’d become each other’s strength. 

Hunk/Acxa: I basically like Hunk and Acxa together for the same reasons I like Hunk and Allura together, lol. I also think that Acxa probably has a lot of the same displacement issues that Keith does (if they are brother and sister, which I like to think they are), and that Hunk would be a really steady presence for her to come back to.

Shance: I love a good “you’re my idol and I might be falling in love with you, but you’re so amazing I’m too scared to say anything” trope, lol. 

Allura/Acxa: I dunno I just really like them. 

Allurance: I like the idea of Lance having liked Allura, but then he kind of grows out it. But then Allura develops feelings for him, but doesn’t feel it’s appropriate to act on them. So it’s this long, drawn out back and forth that gets resolved when they’re older and fall in love again, this time at the same time.  

Um… I think that’s all the ship that kind inspire me creatively? With the exception of a few, I like most Voltron ships, but I think these are the ones I like the best from a creative, personal standpoint, lol. 

EDIT: I forgot the most important one!

Sven and Slav XD

[maychorian]

Weekly Voltron Fic Recs #47

I am probably going to do two of these this week to catch up on all my recs before the new season drops, so hold onto your hats. I’ve been reading a lot of fics, just haven’t been posting them because I’m lazy and easily distracted.

Rules: You can find past weekly rec lists here, and non-list recs in my general fic rec tag. Also follow @maychorianrecs for individually tagged posts, the easier to search and reblog. This is stuff I like, and I have a huge bias toward Lance, hurt/comfort, and general fluff, in that order. Gen unless otherwise noted. Please comment on the fics if you read and enjoy them!

Shadows of Stars by squirenonny Words: 11,030 (1/42) Author’s Summary: The paladins have dealt a major blow to Zarkon’s empire. Reunited with their families and stronger than ever, they’re ready to launch a counter-offensive. But to do so, they need more allies. Allies like the fabled New Altea and their spy ring, the Accords. But Zarkon isn’t about to sit idly by as his enemies gather their strength. He means to put an end to the Voltron Coalition once and for all–and this war is about to get personal.[Season 3 of Voltron: Duality] [Updates Mondays] My Comments: DUALITY IS BACK! I’m so excited, ahh, one chapter in and still amazing, of course, not that I expected anything else. I’ve been reccing this fic since we were only a quarter of the way into the first volume, and the AU has expanded immensely since then. I will keep reccing it until squirenonny quits writing it, so hopefully never. It’s so good, so amazing. Obviously you should start at the beginning, and I don’t want to spoil anything with a detailed review here, but just… Take my words for it. You will not regret the investment of time to devour this masterpiece. There are lots of romantic relationships, but the focus is on the team as a whole and the war, which is incredibly well thought-out and executed. Everything is good.

Equinox by vacant houses (the_lost_robot) Words: 4,862 Author’s Summary: There’s an entire universe inside the Black Lion. There’s a ghost in the Black Lion’s cockpit. OR: the path back home is never straightforward. My Comments: Fascinating and heartbreaking exploration of the concept of Shiro as the “white paladin.” A beautiful read.

One Step Closer by wilyasha Words: 8,142 Author’s Summary: Her father is more rigid, more cruel, and she cannot stomach the thought of him destroying Altea. My Comments: I’m usually not much for fics centered on an OC, and this one is about Zarkon’s never-mentioned-in-canon daughter, which is usually a sign of shenanigans. But this is good. Really good. Reading it is a great experience, though painful and heartbreaking set as it is right before the destruction of Altea. Give it a shot.

Someday by akaashikeijis Words: 1,223 Author’s Summary: Shiro is tired and they know. My Comments: I love fics where everyone just surrounds a hurting character and does everything they can to make it better. It’s good for Shiro to get a turn.

The Poster by GlowwormiK Words: 5,199 Author’s Summary: The story of how Varkon, a policeman, managed to meet the Emperor and receivd the poster we saw in his office.Inspired by this awesome art: http://aminoapps.com/page/voltron-legendary-defenders/7445245/varkon-dream-come-true . Written for https://platonicvldmonth.tumblr.com/, but i cannot wait to post it right now. My Comments: As much as I love and will never tire of the familiar fanfic tropes of some character I love being hurt and then comforted, there’s something I love even more about fanfiction, and that’s when a story can make me feel something NEW, something I never expected. Especially for a character who is basically a one-off joke in-universe. I mean, did you ever expect to read a Varkon-centric fic? Did you ever expect to read about a Voltron Galra mall cop saving the day and meeting his hero and just being the sweetest, humblest, most genuinely GOOD guy you’ve ever met in fiction? Well, here’s your chance. Read this fic. It will make you feel things. It made me feel so much, and I am truly grateful for the experience. Just a great, wonderful thing that you will find nowhere else. Unique and memorable.

At Rest (Five Miles Behind the Front) by Mytay Words: 19,258 Author’s Summary: Shiro is no longer the Black Paladin. He is no longer the commander of Team Voltron. He is a soldier without a purpose and a leader without a legion at his back.Lance is a seventh wheel. He is not fit to be a leader, and perhaps not even fit to be a Paladin. Or, in which two Paladins of Voltron learn their true worth, and finally, there is well-earned rest. My Comments: This has everything I love, ahh, I love it, instant favorite. Shiro angst, Lance angst, both of them trying to sacrifice themselves for the other and then trying to convince each other that they’re worthwhile and important. Not to be that person, but it kind of reminds me of my own fic, Boom Crash the Sound of My Ship, except in a post-Season Three context where it feels amazingly in-canon and in-character. I’m so glad it’s so long, too. Utterly satisfying read. I’ll be enjoying it again, probably more than once.

Full Capacity by spitfire00 Words: 863 Author’s Summary: The healing pods are full. The paladins are bloody and bruised. Shiro helps ease their aches and pains. My Comments: Just so cute, gah, Shiro is the best. Everyone needs a Shiro in their lives.

the shuffle of crabs by againstmygreeleaf Words: 12,253 Author’s Summary: Dinner is loud in all but volume. Shiro and Keith don’t show. Allura keeps trying to help by saying sentimental things that don’t help at all. It grinds on Lance’s nerves but he’s too drained to tune her out. He just lets her words unintentionally pelt his battered heart like stones, and watches the subtle way her hands shake as she spoons up her goo instead of trying to eat his own. Pidge eats hers, but it’s all automatic. She starts crying midway through the meal and doesn’t seem to notice. My Comments: I don’t write major character death. I rarely read it. Awhile ago someone asked me how I would write it, if I did, and I described exactly this scenario. Hunk dies at the beginning of the fic, and the rest of it is about the others learning to navigate their grief and finding some means of continuing on even in the face of this utter devastation. I’m glad this has already been written, by an author I trust absolutely, so I don’t have to do it. It’s gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. But yeah, Hunk dies, and it’s brutal and unfair and hits like a rocket to the midsection. Don’t read if you can’t handle that. I almost couldn’t.

Scent by Red_Dead Words: 1,400 Author’s Summary: Lance has taken something from Allura and she’s not to happy about it. My Comments: Aw, poor Allura. Lance really didn’t mean to hurt her like that. I love that it ends with bonding.

The Sleeping Habits of Humans (Far From Home) by hulklinging Words: 1,618 Author’s Summary: Pidge doesn’t sleep much. Neither does anyone else, really. No, Lance, annoying her to death will not make her more rested. My Comments: I love Lance figuring out why Pidge can’t sleep and gently bullying her into resting. He’s so smart and kind.

The Rain is Gone by isabeau25 Words: 5,066 Author’s Summary: Keith has a bad night, but it ends well. My Comments: Another part of a super lovely and relaxing platonic coffee shop AU. Poor Keith is having a rough life, and you can really feel Shiro’s grief and frustration for him. But he’s in a good place now, with cats and sunlight and people who care. It’s a great read.

The Packrat by VelkynKarma for maychorian Words: 11,519 Author’s Summary: While the paladins of Voltron fight a war that spans galaxies, Coran has a more personal war going on right under their noses in the Castle of Lions. My Comments: Even if this wasn’t a gift for me based on my prompt, I would still rec it. I was grinning the whole way through this fic and laughed aloud several times. Coran is so good and he deserves more fics where he’s the protagonist, and he and Lance teaming up was delightful. Fun, fun stuff.

Empty by Bandity Words: 21,248 Author’s Summary: The sequel to A Lonely Mind. You should read that first. Inner strength waxes and wanes. Lance finds himself facing his inner demons again when he begins having issues with his antidepressants. My Comments: Everything Bandity writes is amazing, and this one is no exception. This one is just about life, how it doesn’t stop no matter how much we want it to, and sometimes things don’t easier, they don’t go away. Everyone struggles, everyone needs to be accepted and loved. There are good days and bad days, hopefully more than good than bad, but all we have is each other. It’s great.

give out to give in by tyrellis Words: 20,198 Author’s Summary: So typical. So fucking typical, that Lance is the youngest and worst of his siblings, and then the kids come along and he isn’t even the cutest anymore, and he only made fighter pilot because perfect fucking Keith dropped out and even when he piloted a lion he didn’t have a thing like the others, and now he can’t even have Blue. Maybe he was the one to suggest it, but he was barrelling towards this point all along; rock fucking bottom. When it becomes clear that Allura is a better pilot than him, Lance steps down as the Blue Paladin. It is, after all, the obvious decision. Lance is, and has always been, the afterthought. But who needs an afterthought? My Comments: Langst done right. Warning for attempted suicide. Lance’s depression and downward spiral feel realistic and understandable, and the emotional scenes are absolutely perfect. Klance at the end, and even that didn’t put me off. It was cute without being overpowering, and the romance wasn’t used as something to “fix” Lance, but a natural outgrowth of their development together.

All Sorted Out by genericfanatic Words: 3,135  Author’s Summary: Lance is so excited for his first day of Hogwarts, and looks forward to getting sorted into one of the four houses! His sorting doesn’t go quite as planned, however. My Comments: Absolutely adorable Harry Potter AU in which the hat stalls forever in sorting Lance, because he has qualities that would make him do well in any of the houses. Later, naturally, he worries that he doesn’t really belong anywhere, but his friends help him see differently. 

Conversation in Blue by FroldGapp Words: 1,414 Author’s Summary: Lance talks to Shiro about his ‘Keith problem’. My Comments: I love that Lance actually takes steps to understand why he and Keith sometimes rub each other the wrong way. Going to Shiro for insight is exactly the right move. Keith and Lance could be such good friends, but their backgrounds and methods of communication make it difficult, sometimes. Lance is a sweetheart for trying.

Tambourine Man by oldmythologies for SassafrassRex (Serbajean) Words: 1,166 Author’s Summary: “They knew his path well. They winked in front of him as a guide as Shiro swallowed his yawn, feet dragging. He was tired; he knew he was tired. Going to bed wouldn’t fix it; he didn’t sleep there either. There he was alone, without even the lights to keep him company. In bed, he had to close his eyes, to trap himself between his ears. It wasn’t a fun place to be. Better to make sure everyone else slept well than to waste time being afraid of the dark.” A commission for sassafrassrex <3 My Comments: Really sweet comfort fic with Shiro and Black.

Don’t Let Me Be Gone by Cocopops1995 Words: 1,402 Author’s Summary: Lance comforts Keith after watching Keith’s paladin vlog. My Comments: Really sweet. Angsty, hurty fics that end with cuddling are my favorite.

Keep Them Galra Rollin (Rawhide) by Demenior for Serbajean Words: 1,377 Author’s Summary: Sendak, Shiro, ‘n Ulaz have crashed on a jungle-y Death World, and they’ve got till sundown to speed-run their way to a safe pickup location to rendezvous with a ship. They’re all grown men who are working together to take down the Galra empire (some more willingly than others), which means they’re over the whole ‘yeah i tortured and killed you that one time’ thing. Totally over it. It’s all in the past. Hint: it’s not [a birthday gift for Sassafrassrex] My Comments: The possibilities of this setup are fun to contemplate. A little on the dark side, but nothing wrong with that.

Steady Footing by SilverMoon53 Words: 3,735 Author’s Summary: Pidge is good at many things. Coding, robotics, and sneaking into enemy bases to steal information, are all quite high on that list. People, however, are not one of the things she’s good at. Or Keith has a panic attack while on a mission. Pidge has an… interesting way of making sure he gets out alive. My Comments: Very angsty exploration of Pidge and Keith and their trauma. I’m glad they eventually shared with each other.

A Bland Night Across Space And Time by genericfanatic Words: 4,156 Author’s Summary: Across the universe, people have a night in. A reward fic for getting 1,000 followers for my blog Bland Voltron Headcanons My Comments: Bit of a dizzying trip across time and space, but fun to read.

Not Just Another Mall Trip by Eastofthemoon Words: 1,519 Author’s Summary: Lance, Hunk and Pidge see many different kinds of aliens at the space mall, but when they catch a spy they discover something they never expected to see there. My Comments: Really fun little canon-divergence AU with a very different way to bring the gang together. Everyone is adorable.

Previously Recced Fics That Updated:

Water and Blood (30658 words) As Color Fades Away (171897 words) The Ones Who Were Left Behind (58391 words) In Sickness and Health (19550 words)  - complete Ten Days (71938 words) Truce (186702 words) The Field of Blood (26588 words) Words Fail (27376 words) - complete Gate Keeper (100127 words) I'm not the Lance You think I am (67010 words)

[fullyrealisedlegend]

Klance Angel/Demon AU

Have I mentioned this AU before?? I don’t think so. I honestly started writing it, but never got far. I do have so many ideas though so I thought I’d share them! It’s basically an urban fantasy, romeo-and-juliet-esque, action romance.

Characters:

Lance - Angel. ~1500 years old. He/him (it was turning into a tumblr bio i’m sorry). He’s a high ranking captain or commander of a part of the Angel’s military. Probably leads a smallish, specialised faction.Expert with anything ranged (he prefers the bow&arrow but can use guns etc as well if needed), though he’s not too shabby with a sword either. Wings are a pale blue ombre (nearly white at the top, to a borderline royal blue at the tips, though not quite as neatly coloured)

Keith - Demon. ~2000 yrs old. Incredibly good with a blade and hand-to-hand fighting. Definitely helped by general demon morphology. Is actually a demon prince, but he loathes it and tends to keep it hidden.

Hunk - Angel

Pidge - Angel (probably)

Shiro - ....Demon? I’m honestly not sure what to do with him. Maybe I’ll keep him an Angel or even a fallen angel? Like, he lives on the mortal plane....

Allura & Coran - Torn between them being Angels or another being altogether (Elder Gods thing)

Zarkon - Demon King

Lotor - A Demon Prince (Keith’s brother? half brother? is Keith adopted? who knows!)

Basically all the Galra are demons, okay?

Yes, including the Blades of Marmora but I hadn’t gotten that far - they’re probably Keith’s little rebel group or spy network or something

The Garrison are basically the Angel military - Iverson runs the border patrols that Lance has trouble slipping past when he goes to meet Keith

I was going to go into detail about Angel and Demon morphology, history & cultures, but honestly, if you want to know, ask me. I might have to make those separate posts cuz... well... this is going to get long.....

Notes:

Keith and Lance met on the mortal plane, possibly in a bar, and it didn’t quite click what the other was at first so they didn’t think much of it (they’re both drunk and have glamours on, ok? plus their avoiding their respective responsibilities)

Somehow they get tangled in each others lives and fall in love (I dunno I have ideas but nothing solid yet)

manage to keep their dating on the down low for about 100 years - they meet up every week or so in a pub or bar on the mortal plane - somewhere along the line they’ve managed to acquire a decent apartment/penthouse that they go back to for a night or two

Their meetings can never be long but they’ve learnt to deal and they make it work

Literally nobody knows about their relationship (or maybe Shiro knows...)

They know each other so well by this point - they trust each other completely and nothing can shake that faith

Lance doesn’t really get along with his superiors.... Angels are supposed to follow rules are live by strict laws, and Lance feels caged

I say urban fantasy, but like, humans don’t really know they exist - all Others (fae, angels, demons, nymphs, mermaids, etc etc etc, all use glamours from a very young age, esp if they live in the mortal realm)

Plot: (I’ll keep this short)

Lance has to cross over into the demon world to save some children that were kidnapped (like, Fawn children or something, or water nymph kids... i dunno. Their mum runs his fave cafe, ok? like I said, urban fantasy)

The rescue doesn’t quite go to plan - the kids get away but Lance gets a badly damaged wing in the scuffle and can’t run away, so he hides in an old shack

Keith was in the area and called in to help track this angel - He manages to find Lance first and promptly freaks out because they’re going to kill you moron! why are you here? holy fuck i can’t lose you

Lance comes up with a plan (revealing that he knew Keith was a prince but understood why he hid it) - Keith is going to take him prisoner, as an angel ‘pet’ until they can figure out how to get out of this safely

Keith is panicking because he can’t promise that he can keep Lance safe and keep up appearances (if he can’t, the both die), and Lance is putting his life completely in his hands

Lance also wants Keith to be the one to remove his wing (the sign of a captive angel) because he doesn’t want some other random demon to do it - Keith is very distressed because he doesn’t want to hurt Lance!

Anyway, so Lance becomes Keith’s angel pet/slave in the demon palace

They’re trying to figure out a way to escape

Meanwhile, Lance’s friends are planning a rescue

Chaos ensues.

I have so many more ideas for this, but that’s the general gist of it. Eventually it would lead to demon rebellion/civil war. Maybe an angel rebellion. I dunno. I’m also not sure where Allura and Coran fit in; they’re probably under threat from the Demon King or something. Or maybe Allura is the rightful Queen to the demon crown? Who knooowwsss... I certainly don’t. My main focus here was klance.

[diviinedogs]

do you have a klance fic rec?

I did a fic rec a while back over here! but here’s some more fics :oc

I know younger fans follow me so everything in this list like the last one is gonna have no sm/.ut or too much expl/.icit content

THIS IS...... A LOT AND I’M FORGETTING A TON OF FICS I’M CURRENTLY READING because I just read them when they update I don’t have them in bookmarks on my phone but I really should.... I think these are enough for now though, I actually left a bunch of fics out of this one because it was getting too long

if you guys want I could probably make a page of fic recs? let me know :oc

and of course there’s klance-net’s fic library (I help out with it sometimes c:)

nothing’s quite as sweet

Keith is a barista who hates his job. Lance works at the cat shelter across the street. 

this is like....... one of my fave Klance fics of all time tbh along with A Fish and A Bird+it’s sequel, Crossroads, and the next two fics

Homesick at Space Camp

Lance realizes he's been an asshole to Keith, and on a diplomatic mission to a key planet for the Voltron alliance he... overcompensates. 

the characterizaTION IS THIS FIC IS....... SO GOOD....... and it includes the rest of the team too despite the focus on Lance and Keith and I don’t really see that in other fics tbh

Of Escorts and Espionage

Lance preened. Escort? That sounded kind of sexy and badass. “Why, of course, Princess,” he said, standing up to offer his hand at Allura. “I would escort you to the most Galra-infested reaches of the galaxy if you asked.”

Allura’s arm rose but the hand she placed in Lance’s palm was not hers.

It was Keith’s.

there’s some smut here but I think you could easily skip over it

Handbook of Demonology

This psychic—Lance the Lucid, according to the posters, and Keith wasn’t even going to comment on that—was a charlatan, plain and simple, and Keith kind of wanted to punch him. Sure, Lance knew how to put on a show, but Keith doubted there was anything more to the act than charm and dramatic flair.

Pidge sighed, catching Keith’s eyes. “At this point, they’re pretty much our only hope.”

--

While searching for the truth behind their families' disappearance, Keith and Pidge hire a pair of amateur witches to help summon the demon Zarkon. They accidentally summon Allura instead.

Ignorance is Bliss

As it turns out, learning that your house is haunted makes the ghosts a lot more aggressive. Who knew?

Ah, well. At least one of them is hot. And he's the less-evil one, too, so that's always a plus.

Foreign Scenes

Lance has been dreaming of travelling since the first time he heard stories from his family as a child. Now, having finally the time and money to do it, he goes on a trip to Europe to see some of the most culturally rich cities on the continent. Except he keeps bumping into the same guy over and over again, in random cities, doing stupid shit, and ultimately dragging Lance into his trouble, too.

Basically an AU in which Lance and Keith become impromptu travel buddies and get into trouble.

Would You Want Me (If I Want You)

“Well, maybe you just need to relax,” Lance said with a hum, running a hand through his hair as he grinned down at Keith, his back towards the roof. “So just… lean back and enjoy the weightlessness. It’s…. Nice, right?” Lance didn’t know why he was feeling so sheepish all of the sudden, his lips a thin line. Maybe it was the way Keith looked at him from behind his hair, or the fingers clutching the fabric of his shirt, or the slim legs intertwined with his, or the way the lighting seemed to bounce off of Keith’s skin like he was made of glass.

Whatever it was, it made Lance want to do something stupid.

Or; Keith discovering Lance enjoys messing with Altean technology a bit more than he should leads to Keith finally acting on how he feels.

After talking it out, of course.

can you tell me

Keith works in his brother's coffee shop for the summer, expecting a boring break before college. Lance changes all of that.

The boy is still in the front of the group, but he doesn't take off his glasses so Keith can't tell what he's really looking at -- either the menu or Keith. Keith feels a flash of annoyance but smothers it and pins his smile in place.

anything by this author is greAT so yeah :oc

all we have to do

Keith gets hurt during a mission, and Lance is not sure how to handle that.

Lance wakes up on the floor outside of the medical bay, jerking wildly, body a mess of aches and twinges.

Make Me Your Home

“Oh my god, Keeeith,” Lance wheezed. “Keith you’re the best drunk space cadet I’ve ever seen.”

“Space cadet,” Keith mumbled. He repeated the words again although his eyes had zeroed in on Lance’s hands and Lance offered no resistance when Keith picked one of them up and pulled it possessively towards his lap. He began to gently trace over Lance’s fingers, sending shivers up Lance’s arm and down his spine. “You have looong fingers,” Keith murmured after a few moments.

Keith’s face perked up then, as if he’d just had a brilliant idea, and Lance could almost not wait to hear what new obscure thought had entered Keith’s pretty head. He was prepared to laugh, and instead found himself shivering again as Keith leaned far into his personal bubble, lips practically touching Lance’s ear when he spoke next.

“I bet you could reach all kinds of things, Lance.”

some ns/f.w but it’s minor

Medical Duty

Blue is the color of loyalty, so somehow that translates to Lance being the team medic. Except his only first aid skills come from putting bandaids on his younger siblings, and Keith seems to be physically incapable of not getting punched by every new alien they meet.

The Arch Project

When Lance McClain gets promoted to a top secret research project he is delighted to learn that the old conspiracy theories about something crashing in the desert of New Mexico were not entirely wrong. No one is entirely sure what it is that crashed, but it appears to be a man. A very pretty man who hasn't woken up since the crash. Lance is determined to be the first person on the project in a century to finally crack the case of just what this unconscious being is. Human, alien, or something else entirely? But there are forces out there determined to uncover the truth, and steal it if they must. The Voltron Group, a well known hacker group in the research world will apparently stop at nothing to find out what Galra Associated Corperation is hiding. And sooner or later, Lance will have to choose where his loyalties lie.

this fic just started but tbh I’m really excited for it it sounds cool and I don’t think I’ve seen another fic/AU like it :oc

Shadow of the Past / Ghost of the Future

When Lance is thrown through time, he finds himself one year in the future, in place of the Lance that should be here.

He finds his team to be remarkably familiar, yet distinctly different. They have more scars, a better grip on the whole saving the universe thing, and over a year’s worth of teamwork to bind them together. But the weirdest part? Keith seems to be a lot more touchy with him. Not that he’s complaining… much.

The team must try and work out how to reverse the two Lance’s places and restore them to their original timelines. But despite the fact that they’re still his friends, Lance can’t help but feel a little out of place among a team that’s been through so much with a Lance that just isn’t him. And it doesn’t help that the team is on edge around him, refusing to tell him anything for fear of influencing and changing the past. Things get even more complicated when they have to rely on the team in the past to complete the switch, leaving Lance to little more than sit, wait, and attempt to fill in his future self’s shoes.

//

When Lance is thrown through time, his future self from one year ahead is transported to the past in his place.

This Lance is faster, stronger, and markedly more mature. Not only that, but he's distinctly more intuitive about his teammates and A LOT more touchy with Keith.

The team must try and work out how to reverse the two Lance's places and restore them to their original timelines. Things only get more complicated when the Future Lance can't seem to remember where he was when the switch happened, and he refuses to reveal anything about his own time for fear of influencing the team's decisions.

the other fics by the authors are great too :oc

Your Songs Remind Me Of Swimming

A small cove sheltered by rocks opens Lance's eyes to something he had never seen before. He was never much for believing in the supernatural, but maybe all those sea shanties were true.

I love........ siren/mermaid Keith so much just look at my url a/sdkf;jk

lungs

After a near drowning experience as a child in which he doesn't remember how he survived, Lance avoids the ocean he once loved. He doesn't realize that's where his savior lives.

Or: a slice-of-life story about a boy and his mermaid.

another mermaid Keith!