#allura’s death was hard enough

[motokeith]

actually I will never complain about being a klancer at the end of v.tron because imagine the ending from an al/urancer’s perspective

[1800rue]

Hey there!! Can I get a Keith Kogane x waterbending reader and their childhood friends with Allura?Anyways he kinda thinks their just there because they doesn’t fight them or have advice like Coran but one day they waterbends to save him and he thinks they are kinda cool

Keith Kogane X GN!Waterbending Reader

characters included: keith kogane

scenario: in an act of saving ones friend, reader was quick to protect their crush from sudden death.

warnings: shitty writing, unedited !

a/n: i'm not sure how to feel about this, i feel like the ending sucks and most of the characters are OOC :(

He met you the same way he met Coran and Allura. Pure accident. Lance caught Allura who fell out of the tube, and Keith caught you,

He noticed the marks on your and Allura's cheeks and when he touched you, your ocean blue markings glowed.

He wasn't sure if it was his fault, or it was just yourself who caused them to glow.

When Keith caught you, you were still asleep, but the sudden feeling of someones warm body made contact with your cold one. Your eyes fluttered open to be greeted with a jacket.

A red and white jacket.

Your arms were held by black gloved hands, and when you got a good view of your holder, purple eyes met yours and you suddenly screamed. Pushing him away and raising an arm into the air.

Keith groaned, hitting the floor with a thud, but soon froze and raised his head that follwed a water blade that was pointed at it throat.

"Who are you!" You demanded an answer. However the by didn't have enough time to answer as you shouted again,

"What are you doing in the castle?"

"Where is King Alfor?"

You asked, looking up and around the Castle walls.

"Where's....."

"Allura!"

Your smile formed on your lips, noticing your Altean friend stand by another boy you've never seen before.

Keith watched as you hugged the other Altean. For some reason he couldn't keep his eyes off you. Suddenly, another tube rose from the ground, and soon all eyes were on a man with orange hair, and a bushy orange mustache.

-

Ever since that day, Keith's curiousity for your waterbending abilites grew...and so did your love. However, you had no idea if Keith liked your back?

Does he even notice you?

Sure, there are times he's asking about your powers, but when you told him you don't fight, or have any interest in fighting, he's kinda been dying down on being curious. Almost learned all about you are your powers.

The others adored your powers, and loved it when you showed off to them what you can do. Keith would just stand by and watch, not complimentimng at all.

You don't blame him...you don't hold any purpose then being Allura's childhoodfriend. The other explained he's just like that, and he's not really a people person. However, you can't help but think your not good enough for him.

-

Timeskip to a Galra attack on a planet you've been visiting. To think this could have been a break from all the Galra attacks, but NO. Voltron has yet to be form, but the Lions were set free and ready to be piloted by their Paladins.

Of course, you were left in the castle with Shiro and Coran, for now Allura was now the Blue Paladin, Lance was the Red Paladin, and Keith was the leader of Voltron.

Nothing changed with you.

"KEITH!" You suddenly jumped hearing Lance's loud shout to his rival, "Come on, man! I had that!" You took a deep inhale to calm your nerves.

"They were coming at you at three different sides, you didn't have it!" Keith retorted.

You sighed, hearing both Keith and Lance argue.

"Out of all the times you guys fight, this is not the time!" Pidge shouted over coms, barely dodging a laser blasted from a Galra cruiser. "Hunk! Jet on your 6!"

It was chaos out there, and all you can do over here is watch while Shiro attempted to order everyone around. However, ever since Keith became the leader, he found it a bit hard.

You wanted to go out there and help, but Shiro kept you back, not knowing if you'll even make it a foot out there without a lion, or even a ship!

As the chaos around you roared, you looked at your hands. You kept thinking about things you could do to help your team, yet nothing seemed to light up.

In your train of thought, Keith's sudden scream caused you to look back up to his lion get hit with a laser beam and fall to the dirt. A dirt cloud covered the area of his lion.

"KEITH!" Everyone shouted over coms.

Your heart felt like it got stabbed seeing Keith's lion hit the ground na dnot emerge from the dust.

Come on, Keith. You whispered under your breath. Come on! You felt your stomach twist in turn from nervousness. No one around can help because there all pinned down from the Galra fighter jets.

You squeezed your hands, watching the screen in front of you. You felt your lips quiver, and thats when you snapped.

Coran noticed your sudden form, and looked over to you and was about to ask what's wrong, but he was too late when you suddenly darted out of the control room.

"Y/N!" Shiro shouted out in frustrastion.

Once your feet hit the dirt, you ran faster then you ever could below the battle. Destroyed Galra jets fell from the sky, causing you to use your waterbending abilites to push you forward toward Keith's lion. Meanwhile, the ones already on the ground? You just jumped over to ran around.

"Y/N, you are going to get yourself kil-" You shut your ear communicater off, your running only increased.

Upon reacing the Red lion, you touched its large leg as it started to stand up. However, it was really shaky, almost like it was about to fall again.

"Keith! Keith- can you hear me?" You turned your com on, and your heart relaxed when you heard his voice.

"Augh...augh..Y/N? Yeah, Yeah, I can hear you!"

You smiled softly, knowing he's aiive, but possibly ingured due to the movement of his lion.

Just as soon things seemed okay, and Keith can get back into battle, Pidge's voice rang though your com...and she didn't sound happy..more like..

"Y/N! KEITH! Move, NOW!"

Your eyes widedned as you felt the presence of something coming for you at a high speed. Not wanting Keith to get more hurt then he already is, you raised your hands up from your sides.

The water from the river around the planet rose quickly, and merged into one around you. A large ball of water was soon thrown toward the Galra jet that was flying low toward you, and with a spin of your heel the ball of water smashed against the ship.

The blast you threw was hard and heavy, the fighter jet flew backwards, hitting the dirt and exploding.

Heavy breaths left your mouth as you relaxed your arms back to your side, the area around you wet and cold.

"Y/N.." Keith called out for you. With a soft and tired smile you circle back around to face Keith's lion that stood over you. You looked at the creature in the eye and chuckled,

"Talk me after you formed Voltron...and after I take a nap..."

You sighed, your knees giving out. However, the Red Lion caught you in it's mouth and hovered over the trees, placing you down in a safer place in the trees around the river you used as a weapon.

"Thank you..."

[autisticlancemcclain]

Keith thinks he might actually sink into his bed, that’s how goddamn tired he is.

It’s just been — such a long day. Painfully long. Keith thought dragging his brother out of Black’s astral plane would make things less stressful, but nooooo. Of course not. That would be too easy. Of course Shiro decides he doesn’t want the Black Paladin title back, and that, actually, he’d like to retire. Of course Keith can in no way find it within himself to force his brother, who only ever wanted to explore, back into the crushing expectations of the leader of the universe’s strongest weapon.

So. It’s just — a lot.

There weren’t even any missions today. Honestly, Keith prefers mission days — they’re a one-and-done kind of deal. You fly into battle, you think you’re gonna die, you panic about your friends dying, usually no one dies, you either complete the mission or you don’t, you go home. Of course there’s the soul crushing terror and overuse of energy that comes at the price of actual genuine years off his life, but that’s so clearly a Future Keith problem. Once Keith parks Black into the hangar he can Stop Thinking About it, except of course for the horrifying and endless nightmares.

But all this planning shit is horrendous.

First of all, Keith is an action guy. An investigation guy too, sometimes, if there is conspiracy involved (and/or some fuckass has challenged him in any way no matter how minuscule), but what he is not is a tactician guy. A planning guy. That kind of shit is for people who have crippling anxiety and are plagued with constant thoughts about how everything can and will go wrong. That’s why it’s a job for Lance. And Allura. And Hunk. And Shiro.

But not Keith. Keith prefers to walk blindly into dangerous situations and deal with whatever is thrown at him after. Black Paladin Keith, however, motherfucker that he is, has to sit down in meetings for a thousand hours and listen to people argue and try not to wish death and curses upon a myriad of irritating Coalition leaders and allies.

Keith needs a goddamn nap.

Not even bothering to take off his boots, and ignoring the Lance-shaped voice in his head squawking about how disgusting that is, Keith stuffs his face into his pillow, reaching blindly for a blanket and yanking it up to his ears. He is going to Sleep, goddamnit. He is going to keep his comm where it is, stuffed under his mattress, and pass the hell out, to be woken only by some terrible and glorious act of God herself. The universe and all its associates can take an hour to kindly piss the hell off and leave Keith alone.

A knock sounds on his door.

Keith screams. Loudly.

“Keith?” calls a voice, muffled through the doorway, and of course it is the one person in the entire world who Keith has never and will never be able to say no to.

“Hnnnnnngh,” Keith responds. He actually tears up, a little.

The door slides open. Hunk pokes his head in, smile sweet and guilty and hopeful.

“I’m going to swallow engine oil,” Keith anguishes.

“Maybe don’t,” Hunk suggests lightly.

Keith groans again, shoving his head back into the pillow. Hunk patiently waits for Keith to get his shit together enough to lift his head again. Probably because he knows he’s more effective if he can manipulate Keith via facial expressions. Ugh. Keith should ask if he can return his friends. Get store credit, maybe. It’s not worth it.

Hunk smiles sunnily when Keith manages to pull away from his pillow, proving his point. Keith scowls extra hard at him.

“I am busy, Hunk.”

“I need parts,” he pleads, hands pressed together and under his chin. “Pretty pretty please.”

“You have a lion that you can pilot yourself!”

“I need the parts for the lion. Duh.”

Keith groans again. He should say no. He probably can say no. If it was urgent, Coran would be flying the castle for the parts. Hunk is coming to Keith because he knows damn well that Keith is a sucker with a saviour complex. Keith is not going to give in this time.

…Except he is so. Because he is a sucker with a fucking saviour complex.

Fuck.

“You’re bumped down to third favourite,” Keith grouches, rolling off the bed and allowing himself three seconds to sprawl on the floor.

“Yeah, right,” Hunk snorts.

Keith growls. Hunk, wisely, chooses against anymore teasing or commentary, deciding instead to quickly back away and head back down to his workshop.

“Okay thanks Keith bye! Love you bunches!”

Keith rolls his eyes, fighting off the smile that traitorously wants to fight it’s way across his lips, and reaches for his comm to get the details of Hunk’s errand.

“I am going to fucking bite him,” he says, carefully controlled, as he reads the message.

MISSION SHOULD YOU ACCEPT: get parts for hunk because you love him so

OBJECTIVE: obtain 174g of Noxalian black ore (pure as possible)

PEOPLE NECESSARY: two so you should take lance probably ;)

LOCATION: Noxalia-1242

DANGER LEVEL: like -2 but you’re so whipped for lance that it probably brings it up to like a 12 lol. loser

He’s red in the ears and it’s goddamn annoying, is what it is, because these are official mission documents, Hunk, which means they are technically public Coalition information once the mission has been completed. Public.

Hunk is the worst out of all of them for that. He actually had the highest record of diplomatic incidents caused, because he is actually physically incapable of keeping his comments to himself and this can, as one might anticipate, offend a large number of people.

But since he is a good fucking friend (the best, maybe) especially because his friends are class four menaces who do not deserve it in the slightest, Keith drags himself away from his bedroom and towards the materials room, where he knows Lance is.

He makes his frustration known.

Despite the fact that he was stomping like a petulant child and Lance has ears akin to the sonar receptors of a Navy submarine, Lance doesn’t react when he comes into the room, hunched as he is over a project of his.

Keith stops short. He grins wickedly, mood suddenly shifted.

Oh ho.

Oh ho ho.

Quieter, now, although he knows it doesn’t matter, Keith creeps towards the Red Paladin. He makes sure his footfalls are soundless and soft, just like he was taught by the Blades, and his body is directly behind Lance, in the blind spot of his peripheral vision. He focuses on the chair Lance is sitting on rather than his actual person so as to not envoy the feeling of being stared at. And quietly, quietly, he sneaks up behind him.

“RAH!” he shouts, seizing Lance’s shoulders and shaking them. Lance shrieks at the top of his lungs, jumping twelve cubic meters into the air, flailing wildly and sending his sketchbook flying at Keith’s face. Lance’s aim, as it always is, rings true, and the spine of the heavy book nails Keith directly on the bridge of his nose.

“Ow!” Keith yells, pain made worse by the heaving gasps of his laughter.

“¡Chingada madre de cráneo grueso!” Lance screams, hand pressed to his chest, and then, for Keith’s benefit, continues: “You mother fucker! You backwards, tumbleweed-guzzling, sand-eating, cow-fucking son of a minotaur! I’ll fucking get you! I’ll fucking — crush you to death! Come closer, Kogane, I swear to God I’ll wreck your shit —”

Breathless, weak, and wheezing, there’s nothing Keith can do to avoid Lance’s menacing advancing. He can’t even summon the strength to lift his arms to defend himself from Lance’s smacking. He just sits there, taking it, laughing harder every time he remembers just how fucking high Lance had jumped.

“You fucking — stop fucking laughing! Asshole!”

Lance’s expression is only growing more murderous. His mouth is pulled back in a snarl and he sure are shit isn’t pulling his punches. The only thing assuring Keith that he’s not genuinely about to die, curled on the floor, completely devoid of dignity, is the ever-present warmth in Lance’s brown eyes, even as they’re narrowed in fury.

“I — I’m sorry,” Keith wheezes, loosely wrapping his hands around Lance’s ankle as he kicks him. “Please. Oh my God. Stop. I cant breathe.”

“I hope you suffocate!” Lance shrieks.

“Lance, please,” Keith begs. With more strength than he knew he had, Keith heaves a giant, calming breath, shoving the image of Lance’s face as he’d practically flipped off the chair far into the recesses of his mind. Fuck. “I’m sorry. You were so focused. I couldn’t resist.”

Lance huffs. He kicks Keith one last time for prosperity before plopping on the floor next to him, scowl still affixed to his face, but lips twitching with a clear attempt to keep it there.

“I’m allowing your amusement because I laughed today when Senator Grmsx called you a toad. But watch your back.”

“Noted,” Keith says with amusement. He sighs, breath shuddering with the last of his laughter, and stretches out, sliding his feet under Lance’s thighs and resting the back of his skull on the floor. He stares at the ceiling until his vision gets unfocused and blurry, making the glowing blue streaks warp and swirl. He smiles slightly when he feels Lance’s arm hook around his bent knees.

“I got conned,” he laments, flipping his arms behind his head.

Lance hums. “Hunk?”

“Yep.”

“Capitalised on your intense need to do things for your friends to send you on errands?”

“Mhm.”

“Sucks to suck.”

Keith tucks his folded hands under his head and looks up at Lance, smiling in a mirror to Hunk, earlier, sweet and guilty and hopeful. “Well…”

Lance pulls away, waving his hands. “Nuh-uh. No way. You’re not dragging me into your shit, Superman. You want to help everyone around you like the tryhard golden retriever you are, that’s a you problem. I’m a bitch on purpose so I can be errand-free.”

“Please?” Keith tries, batting his eyelashes. The thirteen year old version of himself in his head is dying of embarrassment. (Good. He can suffer for a bit. He used to insist on sleeping on the floor because sleeping on a bed was ‘too mainstream’.)

Lance glares at him. Keith can actually physically see his resolve breaking. He’s very smug about it.

“Ugh,” Lance says.

“Thank you,” Keith says, smirking.

“Ugh,” Lance says again, much more pointed. “Where are we even going?”

Keith climbs to his feet, offering a hand to pull Lance up, too. He stretches and shifts his shoulders, leading them both out of the material room and down to the hangars.

“Noxalia-1242. Hunk needs some kind of ore.”

Lance gasps, dropping Keith’s hand. It is then that Keith realises that they were holding hands, and chokes on his own spit.

“Noxalia-1242? You sure?”

“Yes,” Keith rasps, still dying. Lance doesn’t notice, beaming so wide his eyes are nearly forced shut. He lets out this shout of excitement and wiggles, a little, like he can’t contain himself, and it’s so fucking cute that Keith somehow chokes again, which he didn’t think was possible. There’s a genuine concern that he may pass away.

“You should’ve led with that! Let’s go let’s go let’s go!”

He sprints the rest of the way to Black’s hangar, dragging Keith along. Keith tries desperately to get ahold of himself. It works about 27%, which is way more than he was expecting.

Lance is practically bouncing in glee the entire trip, scrambling out of his seatbelt and twirling around the cabin the second they breach the castle’s orbit. He’s actually humming to himself. Keith’s grinning so wide it hurts, and he doesn’t even know why they’re excited. Lance is just — infectious, as he always is; bright and all-encompassing and sparkling.

It’s a struggle and a half to land, and not just because Lance is being distracting. (Or, well, that Keith is distracted by him. It’s not really Lance’s fault. Keith was once distracted by Lance yawning, for reasons he’s too embarrassed to admit even to himself.) The surface of the planet is slate grey and thick with swirling, furious clouds, and it’s a testament to Black’s power that they manage to stay mostly steady, because Keith is a good pilot but he well and truly can’t see shit. The landing is rough.

“C’mon, c’mon!” Lance urges, out of his seatbelt faster than Keith can blink and rushing him to get out of his. “Let’s go!”

“I’m coming, Jesus,” Keith mumbles, finally releasing that damn buckle. He has to sprint to keep up with Lance, following him to the slowly opening hatch.

When they get to the open door, Keith is assaulted with a gust of frigid air and a spray of water. He curses, ducking to the side, hiking his collar over his head so he doesn’t get too soaked. He wishes he’d known to bring his armour.

“Fuck, it’s — pouring!”

Lance laughs, delighted, and before Keith can even think to stop him he sprints down the ramp, into the rain, soaked to the bone immediately.

“Lance! Lance — come back here! What are you doing?!”

But Lance only laughs again, and Keith can’t hear it because of a roar of thunder but he can see it in the giant grin on Lance’s face, open-mouthed, and the way he squeezes his eyes shut and tips his head back and opens his arms to the skies like he’s worried the rain isn’t soaking enough of him.

“You’re going to get pneumonia, you anaemic dumbass!” Keith shouts.

“Come join me!” Lance shouts back.

The worst part is that Keith doesn’t even think.

He stumbles down the ramp without even a second of hesitation, before he’d even realized he’d moved, cursing the whole time, shocked with the sudden onslaught of cold and windy and wet. There’s something about the way Lance said it, not come out here not it’s just rain, dorkus not come get wet!, but come join me. Like it’s not about the rain but about the rain with Lance.

The very iron in Keith’s blood is pulled to him like the world’s strongest magnet.

“If I wanted to get soaked for no reason I’d jump in the pool fully clothed,” Keith grumbles, but there’s a breathless quality to his voice that cannot he muffled.

For the first time since he sprinted out of Black like a madman, Lance tears his face away from the heavens, looking at Keith with eyes that seem impossibly dark with from the reflection of the clouds, almost black as the storm.

“You hate the rain?”

“Yes!” Keith says emphatically, but he hears his own voice like a distant echo, far away. Lance’s laughter is bright and feels louder than the thunder, like clinking gold bangles. Keith’s heart drops to his stomach and his eyes go wider than planets.

Lance turns, slowly, hands still spread wide, face easy and open and peaceful in a way Keith has never seen on him, turned back up the the pelting rain, every droplet doing something to him that makes him glow.

“How could anyone hate the rain?”

Suddenly, wholly, breathlessly, Keith doesn’t. His collar slides from his slackened fingers and flops back over his neck, soaked through. His hair plasters to his forehead and it’s wet and cold and water drips directly into his eyes but suddenly he is warmed from the very centre of himself, ricocheting outwards.

“It’s breathtaking,” Keith finally admits, and he is, this son of the skies, this boy of the rain. He is the most breathtaking thing Keith has ever seen in his life.

He swallows, tilts his head up to the sky, and smiles.

———

based on this post

[alohaasaloevera]

Keith Kogane is in love with Lance McClain. It is the cold, hard truth—nothing will ever change the fact that he is so impossibly gone for the winsome little sycophant.

He plans to tell the man today. It will be at a park—the very same one where they reunited after 2 years of complete radio silence on both ends.

Hunk and the others had helped him with planning. He will give Lance a pretty bouquet of flowers.

Keith, for once, is confident that nothing will go wrong.

—

“I love you, Lance.”

Lance is silent. Keith’s smile slowly falters as each second that Lance does not respond passes by.

Lance opens his mouth, almost timid.

“It wasn’t supposed to end up like this.”

Keith almost drops the perfect blend of flowers he had picked with Veronica only hours prior. “What do you mean?”

Everything except for Lance’s mouth seems frozen; something that in normal circumstances, would be a worrying matter. “I—I don’t love you, Keith. I never did.”

“But what about—”

“You could never replace her.”

The winding breeze blows petals away, and some of the older flora begins to wilt.

Keith runs away.

It takes two more years of silence until Lance would even spare a glance at his face. Only that by then, it is too late.

—

Keith Kogane spends his last moments alive on the battlefield. It’s almost like he was destined to die fighting; after all, hatred is the only thing that has been consistent throughout his life.

Even so, his thoughts happened to be a mixture of bittersweet yearning and reverence for the people who never gave up on him—if he had died when he was 16 and grieving over the loss of the only person he considered family at the time, he would’ve died thinking about how cruel the world was to him in his short life—Voltron had changed him, and for the greater good. That didn’t matter much when he was lightheaded and a second away from the cold embrace of death, but at least recognizing it made him feel a bit better.

When the pain from at least 5 gun wounds and one gnarly gash that cut deep into his right thigh started to kick in, Keith’s thoughts had drifted over to Lance.

He had thought about Allura and himself—how they were so akin to one another, yet Lance chose Allura over him every single time. How every single supposedly “tender” moment he shared with Lance was nothing compared to how Allura made him smile. That no matter how devoted Keith was to Lance, no matter how hard he tried in order to get Lance out of his depressive slumps, he would always thank Allura in the end.

He thought of all the aliens Lance had flirted with, how even when Keith gave everything he had to Lance, he would be ignored in favor of a one-night-stand.

Keith Kogane dies as not even a second choice, but instead an impossibility.

The world is still cruel.

—

When Lance McClain first hears about the death of Keith Kogane: a man who was practically famous for spitting in the grim reaper’s face more than a handful of times, he thinks of it as some kind of cruel joke.

He finds out that it is quite the opposite.

When he looks down at what remains of Keith’s body, he curses himself for ever thinking that the man wasn’t good enough.

Lance leans down so that he is level with his former teammate’s unmoving face; Keith still looks irresistibly fierce, even when he is no longer with a beating heart.

“I’m sorry, Samurai.”

The pet name is the beginning of many tactics Lance employs in order to prove that this whole thing is just a stupid joke. He knows that it is useless, that Keith will never come back, that he will never get to listen to that melodious symphony that is his laugh again, or how his eyes widen ever so slightly when he is flustered.

Keith is dead, and it is all his fault.

Something in him snaps.

—

Somewhere in the world, a once glamorous bouquet of flowers are left to rot and become one with the earth’s soil. When it eventually decomposes, it will turn into nutrients that are imperative to the growth of even more beautiful, as equally breathtaking flora.

This is the cycle of life.

Keith Kogane was always a rebel when he was with a pulse. It is no to no one’s surprise that exactly one year after his fateful death, he rises once more.

[luvendiary]

Fic Recommendations <3

some fics that i really like and if you haven't read the yet, you totally should! i will update this regularly! feel free to recommend anything so i can put it on here!

Percy Jackson

Percy

the witch and the fish: the illustrious son of the sea is spending the summer in the hamptons with his family and unbeknownst to him an old friend is his next door neighbor for this summer.

talk to me: in which (y/n) gets hurt and says a few incriminating things while in pain.

my boyfriend: in which percy is the coolest person in the world— right behind you, of course

[14:20]

Various

how they would hold your hands

attractive things they do

characters as romance tropes

How to Train Your Dragon

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III

dating hiccup would include

fluff alphabet

"what's all this blood?"

Various

dragon riders christmas gift headcanons: dragon riders open up their xmas gift from their s/o and it is a very detailed wood carving of them riding their dragon.

Criminal Minds

Aaron Hotchner

these will mostly be daughter!reader, bc i have a soft spot for hotch as a father.

if we had five more minutes...: (aaron hotchner x daughter!reader) hotch wishes he had five more minutes.

hotches daughter: morgan and reid bring you down to ask you some questions on a recent case, not knowing who your father is.

why: you mourn over the death of you adoptive mother.

they'd bring you back: you’re an unsub’s latest target, but your personality is way more than he bargained for. 

Spencer Reid

how to play the game

tear me apart: based on episode 23, season 7. where the reader gets caught in a bank heist

work song

roomate!spencer coming home after no one remembered his birthday

Voltron

Keith Kogane

i'm not going anywhere: you’ve been dating keith for about six months, but you’ve only recently met his group of friends. he’s worried that they each have more to offer you than he does, and his insecurities eat away at him until you calm him down.

imagine keith kogane breaking you out of a galra prison

dating keith kogane

bf keith hcs

lucky charm: teaching lance the ways of smooth flirting are very hard , and for keith , acting as your practice dummy is even harder.

allura´s sister: being the younger sibling to Allura meant no eyes were on you, that is until Keith met your gaze.

pain: even when fueled by pure fury and determination

lance´s sister: keith kogane finds himself being questioned by one mcclain to find himself answering to the other

keith with an artistic s/o

hc keith dating allura's younger sister

the five times he didn't

runaways: in which you and Keith are both runaways who end up meeting outside of a motel – neither of you have enough money for one room, so you end up taking a risk and putting your money together, buying one room between the two of you – despite being complete strangers.  

sunshine: Keith Kogane was insufferable. An absolute nightmare to be around. So why are you getting visions of him kissing you?

change of plans: now that Keith Kogane is a rockstar, it’s become very difficult to decipher whether someone likes him for him, or for his money. So, he’s decided to just stay as far away from love as possible. 

Various

reuniting when he returns to earth

paladins accidentally hurting reader

Harry Potter

Marauders Era

Remus Lupin

the girl with the books:  james and sirius notice that it’s not the books that keep remus in the library, and are determined to know whether you – the object of remus’s affection – return his feelings.

we'll never have sex: you’re used to boys wanting one thing and one thing only from you, causing you to be thrown off when Remus Lupin kisses you, just to kiss you. based off of “We’ll Never Have Sex” by Leith Ross.

heavy handed: your debut as the marauders’ new guitarist doesn’t exactly go to plan when remus gets handsy with you on stage.

bassist!remus x reader

remus giving a sweet little message before playing the song he wrote for you.

James Potter

we deserve this life: your beautifully regular life with your husband years after the war

james bodyguard au

Golden Trio Era

Harry Potter

imagine being wolfstar's daughter and having a jily type love story with harry

Fred Weasley

always little wolf: while y/n and Fred walk home in the snow, the simplest conversation makes Fred sure of one thing, he's going to marry that girl.

Theo Nott

the only heaven i'll be sent to (is when i'm alone with you): y/n and theo get dared to spend 7 minutes in heaven and interesting conversation ensues.

last kiss

theodore nott as your boyfriend

what's it like to be theodore nott's girlfriend

MCU

Peter Parker

celestial beings: there's a reason why peter parker can't keep his eyes off of you.

something to remember me by: reader and happy visit may's grave and peter is there. you don't remember him

daddy's got a gun: (tasm!peter x hotchner!reader) in which peter meets your dad - aaron hotchner.

just barely: (tasm!peter x reader) “okay, peter. are you afraid of spiders?”  “no.”  “then can you go get the one in my apartment?”

heated

Bucky Barnes

the bet: the agents at SHIELD have not taken well to Bucky’s pardon. When he’s injured on a mission under suspicious circumstances, you take matters into your own hands.

Narnia

Peter Pevensie

the golden witch: y/n returns to narnia with the pevensies and discovers something powerful about herself.

jealous confessions: war times are complicated and feelings tent to get overwhelming. when jealousy hits peter, he doesn't know what to do, you don't know what to make of it, and you two end up… "confessing".

an unexpected turn: your night took an unexpected turn when you follow after the high king during an important ball. you certainly didn’t think the stroll would lead to a fencing lesson.

Edmund Pevensie

taking care of you: edmund sneaks in to make sure his queen is alright.

set during the events of prince caspian

hearts are beating: reader discovers that she’s pregnant and tells their s/o, edmund

[maezerbrokenpaintbrush]

Does anyone else ever have these like completely heartbreaking moments where you break down absolutely sobbing when you- remember how Keith was an orphan and lived alone in the wilderness and really really struggled to connect with people and feel safe in general and fiercely fights to protect the people he cares about (decking iverson over shiro being badmouthed after Kerberos)… then Voltron happened and he was in forced proximity with a bunch of people where they had to connect and mind meld and eventually began to smile and open up and feel safe. And found a HOME. And a FAMILY. BUT shiro dies and he’s now in charge of everyone instead of being the right hand balance. He is the one who makes the hard calls now- instead of supporting the decision maker. He is forced to carry the weight of all of that and Lance is right there for him. As HIS right hand. In confidence. And communication. And in casual support and “friendship”. The fact that when Lance does his whole “one paladin too many” talk he just waltzes in means he knows Keith’s room and feels comfortable enough to just walk in casually. He doesn’t even look around to check it out… implying Lance has been there before and already knows exactly what’s in there (did you see how the curios f*Coker took everything in at Keith’s shack, or the caves, or even the fudging castle). THEN KURON SHOWS THE F*CK UP AND A BALANCE IS STRUCK WHERE KEITH IS CONTENT LEADING WITH “SHIRO” PLAYING BACKUP…… then the conversation mentioned above happens. And Keith goes “things will work themselves out” LIKE A DUMBASS and then just- dips. And he starts to run off to the Blade of Marmora- where it’s knowledge or death- kinda sorta hecka unwelcoming and he’s always going to be underestimated because he looks more human than Galran. He jumps into a military spy organization that doesn’t offer him the same safety, respect, love, or sense home let’s not even mention some other things. And Allura even says so- the blade doesn’t need him (but hasn’t he always felt like no one needed him- not shiro not the garrison not any of his foster families). But Voltron does need him. LANCE needs him dammit. And like- I can go into how horribly Lance is lost after Keith up leaves. BUT THIS IS ABOUT MY BOY KEITH AND HOW HE HAS ALWAYS HAD THE WORST CARDS DEALT TO HIM AND NOW- he just leaves the peace and love and home and family for a military system that values him at the amount and quality of information he can get but otherwise he is completely disposable just like he has always felt- AND STILL LEAVES BECAUSE LANCE FEELS LIKE HES THE PALADIN NO ONE NEEDS. And people still don’t think they are in love. Anyone just cut their own heart and put it on a platter salted with tears…?

Hahaha. Yeah. Me neither. *ugly cries in the back*

[fire-of-the-sun]

"You speak to me of weakness? You've become nothing more than one of the witch's monsters! Does she control you as well?" - Lotor to Zarkon, 5x02

This line says a lot. Lotor telling his father that he’s nothing more than a raving monster on someone else’s leash is deeply insulting. Not only does it further exemplify just how little Lotor thinks of Zarkon, it also speaks to his contempt for Haggar as well as acknowledges just how much power she has. Lotor hates Zarkon, but he hates his mother more and sees her as the bigger threat and therefore reserves more fear and caution towards her capabilities. 

This mentality also probably contributed to his prompt execution of Narti after realizing that she was a spy for his mother. Though it would have been hard to cut down a companion so easily, in that moment, he probably saw her more as a dehumanized puppet than a person and his fear of Haggar and the potential discovery of his plans outweighed his sentiments towards his general.

Lotor considers being someone’s puppet to be a weakness. A terrible fate for one who deeply desires freedom and agency such as himself, which is why he goes to such great lengths to avoid his parent’s authority. He desperately wants a sense of control over his life and would naturally fear being used by someone else, especially Haggar. 

And that’s exactly what becomes of Lotor. 

His worst nightmare became a reality as his body was used against his will as a vessel for further destruction he didn’t concede to and then readily disposed of. He was forced to become the obedient monster - a mindless weapon - of the one person he feared and hated most. I dearly hope he wasn’t conscious enough to realize that he was her prisoner but given how he was cognizant of Allura’s presence to some degree, I kind of doubt he even had that small mercy. For him, this would truly be a fate worse than death and one he did not deserve...

[seldomscilence16]

Whumptober Day 3:

"Like crying out in empty rooms, with no one there except the moon." 

Journal | solitary confinement | "make it stop."

Fandom: Voltron

Prompt used: All

Soooo this ones a little intense- at least to me as I write this. Its never specified but Lance is alone for awhile, so tread carefully just in case. I think I may do a continuation on one of the other days for this one so keep a look out if you like this one.

TW for self harm, and Torture

...

There was little light in the room. He'd tried to figure out where it was coming from, scratched at the lips in the walls until his nails were broken and bleeding. He'd decided they simply glowed. 

There was no window, and the door disapeared- no it blended in, it had to be there still it had to, it could just be gone that made no sense- after that first day. That first day when he'd woken up, confused and in pain, and had a strange alien come in and speak to him. He couldnt tell you everything they said, broken translator glitching every couple words or other sentence. But it was an experiment, and a punishment. 

Lance wanted to go home.

"Journal entry uh… whatever. The water and bread like stuff appeared when I passed out again, I dont remember falling asleep… It tastes weird, but they got angry when I didnt consume it before… the walls are still glowing… or maybe it is dark and Im going crazy… how many days has it been journal? Why… what did I… its not like your gonna answer anyway…" 

His head hits the wall with a solid thump, the sound better than when all he can hear is bodily functions, so he does it again. And again, until his ears ring and his head aches, and the noise has blended in too much to be different and he stops. His heart and head beat to the same toon, he holds his breath to stop hearing the inflation of his lungs only for the beating to get louder. Frustrated tears come to his eyes as he releases the breath in a shout, which turns into an angry yell as he turns and pounds his tender fists into the wall.

Its not the first time, there are smears of blood- old and new- from his many little moments. He thinks hes allowed such moments after all, locked up for who knows how long with no interaction. He cant even talk to Blue, the thin connection in his soul the only thing telling him shes okay. In the beginning, he equated his moments to Keith, when he went ham on the training gladiatiors. But now… staring at his ruined fists, and wall still intact besides the smears, he feels as pathetic as ever. 

He knows for a fact the rest of the team would have found a way out by now. Pidge's curiousity and spite always leads her to solutions of some kind. Hunk would have found out how this box worked and rebuilt it ten times over. Keith would have samuraied his way out of course, and Shiro would probably find this childs play. But really the main difference… is they arent him. Lance did something wrong. Lance was stupid and weak and easily caught. Lance hasnt been able to find a way out. Lance- is referring to himself in third person. Again. 

He deserves to be here. The team hasnt found him yet, blue is out of range, and Lance is being punished for something. He wouldnt want any of them in his situation anyway, theyre probably off saving the universe still, probably relieved hes gone. He… he hopes theyre getting enough sleep. That Pidge isnt stuck with her face in a screen, refusing to sleep. That Hunk isnt spreading himself thin, and bottling things up. That Allura is recharging her quintessence, and taking care of herself and not pushing too hard on her own mind and the teams. That Coran isnt lonely and doing everything by himself. That Shiro is remembering to laugh and relax and chill. That Keith isnt isolating himself and training to death and… 

He misses them.

Lance thought that… even if he never saw Earth again, never saw his parents again, thatd at least, the last thing he saw would be his friends- his space family- safe and alive. Not some creepy alien, or the four same walls, but the people he cares about. He knows… he knows he wasnt their first choice. That Blue deserves better, the team deserves better. But… he still loves them so much. He just wanted to know they were okay. 

A stinging sensation disrupts the static ache hes fallen into, his motions drag like paper through water and he looks down at his arms. His nails, brittle and broken and cracked, have still managed to drag angry red lines across his arms. Blood and that watery fluid have bubbled to the surface in some areas, and he feels a detached sort of dissapointment. His nose whistles.

The not bread and the ucky water have appeared again. Hes on his side, he doesnt remember falling asleep, from how tired he feels, hes not even sure he can call it that. He knows they get mad when he ignores the susstenance, but he can only stare at it blankly. What was the point anyway? If he was just gonna keep waking up here, he didnt want to anymore. 

He thinks he counts for moment, to determine how long it takes them to get mad, but when he tunes back in to his own brain hes simply repeated the same line of lyrics over and over. He cant recall the song, or any other lyrics, and all its really doing is annoying him, but he cant find the energy to yell at his brain to stop. 

'One. I can count to one. Two. I can count to two. Three. I can count to three. Four. I cant count no more. I can only count to four, I can only count to four, I can only count fooouuuurrrr-'

The room brightens and Lance tenses as a noise fills the room. But the noise was always there, a ringing in his ears, but it grows louder and higher until everything is screaming. He hold his hands over his ears, finds a warm wetness with undertones of crusty, his mouth is open his throat feels shredded, hes curled up as much as his ribs will allow- they poke out, he can see where theyre wrong, they warp as the noise increases. His heart pounds wildly in his chest, tears streak his face, he cant see anything, theres red in his blurred vision before it whites out completely, a warmth below his nose. Shivers wrack his tense body as the cold he'd been trying to ignore sets in bone deep.

"P'ease…m…m-make it… st…stop…" 

He doesnt know when he went limp, eyes open but seeing nothing, the ringing is everywhere, the feeling of liquid drying on his skin makes him itch, but he cant even twitch. 

"M'ke it st…stop. Make eh stop… make it stop." A sob from deep in his chest, voice hoarse, everything hurts. "Make it stop please." 

He couldnt even tell you if he'd actually spoken, or if wordless noise escaped a ruined throat. The pounding of his heart, the ringing of his ears, nothing seemed to exist past that. 

Warmth on his cheek, he must be crying again… 

Pressure on his back, his shoulder thanks him for rolling over, he cant recall doing it.

Something touches his neck. 

He flinches violently, surprising himself and whoevers touching him. He throws his arms up, his back now against the stupidly familiar walls.

"Make it stop! I dont want to anymore! Just kill me already, Make it stopmakeitstopmaKEITSTOP!!"

Something rumbles in his mind, loud enough to block all the stupid noises, filled instead with crashing waves and warm sand, foreign yet familair. 

"Lance." He flinches, he can only half hear what was said, head in a fishbowl of water and one ear clogged, but it was definetly his name… 

"Leandro, please look at me hermano." 

Tears bubble in his eyes as he realizes what this is.

Hes lost it completely.

Hes halucinating now. Maybe it really is finally the end-

"Lance please." It sounds so broken, she should never sound like that-

He looks up. 

The door. It did exist, lying in sparking pieces as it is. Shiro is in the doorway, face drawn in concern, galra arm still smoking from whatever he used it for. Behind him Keith is glaring down his sword at something Lance cant see. Infront of him however, curled up in the too small room, knees an inch from his own, back bowed so his head wont hit the ceiling, arm brushing the smaller one next to him. Two sets of warm eyes, wet with tears and dark with bags, look at him with mournful sadness and yet, tentative hope, relief. 

The tears spill over, his lips wobble as he sobs,

"Make it stop please. I cant handle it if youre not really here. Please." 

"We're here buddy. Hermano, we're here. Give me your hand Lance, I promise we're real." Hunks voice wavers with emotion, Lance knows he's seconds from breaking down. 

"We're late, but we're here Lance. Please." Pidges voice is small, hand held out beside Hunks, both tremble. 

Lance is going to regret it. He is. He's gonna regret it. 

His hands- cold, achey, maybe broken, filthy- meet the warm calloused palms of his friends. He slumps forward like his string have been cut, but the two dutifully catch him. Warmth. Not from blood or tears, but from real people. Lances eyes slipped closed, feeling safe for a moment, if he wakes up alone… at least he got to see their faces one last time…

>>next

[scattered-winter]

rwby au but after things have gone entirely To Shit </3

The sky was gloomy and overcast, perfectly matching their mood as they marched onward over the uneven dirt path. The destroyed village they'd just passed through weighed heavily on everyone's minds; the rank stench of death and decay still hung in Keith's nostrils—the smell of Grimm.

He couldn't stop thinking about the huntsman they'd found there. Keith had barely been able to see the color of his armor through the blood and spattered Grimm gore; the huntsman’s team had been nowhere to be found. But it wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened to them; the amount of bodies scattering the small village, the amount of destruction…whatever had happened there had claimed the lives of an entire team of huntsmen.

Needless to say, nobody had spoken much since then.

Behind Keith, Shiro tossed and turned on the makeshift stretcher they’d laid him out on, eyes squeezed shut and one arm wrapped around his stomach. Black smoke rose from between the bandages, and Keith tightened his grip on the handles and turned back to face the road ahead.

Hunk was carrying the other end of the stretcher, walking side by side with Lance; Allura was walking beside Keith, eyes flicking over the rocky terrain lining the road and hand on the hilt of her weapon. Lance was keeping a similar watch behind her; with Shiro completely out of commission, and Keith and Hunk with their hands full carrying him, they were more vulnerable than Keith liked. Especially since the Grimm that had destroyed the town were probably still out there somewhere.

Not for the first time, Keith wondered if they’d all been fools for embarking on such a pointless, impossible mission. They’d been fools for believing they could have made the long, dangerous journey to Haven. Keith was exhausted, they all were—tired of heartache, tired of fear, tired of seeing nothing but death and Grimm. And Shiro…

He was only getting worse, cheeks flushed red with fever and breath coming short and fast. If Keith listened, he could hear Shiro mutter things under his breath, voice cracking with exhaustion and fever and pain.

“Matt…Matt—” Shiro cut off with a small groan, brows tugging together in pain. “He—he’s not coming back, Matt.” His voice cracked, and Shiro fell silent again save for his labored, ragged breathing.

Keith glanced at Allura. She was looking at him, silver brows drawn together and expression pensive. She was thinking the same thing—Shiro wouldn’t make it to Haven. His condition was only getting worse, and they were nowhere near equipped enough to treat his injuries.

But Keith just gripped the handles tighter and kept walking.

He couldn’t lose Shiro, too.

“Keith.” Hunk’s voice was quiet, subdued in a way that Keith had only heard from the boy in the last few months. Like the light had been sucked out of him, as surely as it had been from the rest of them.

Keith stopped, looked up. The road split into a fork; a weathered wooden sign sat at where the paths split, labeling the roads in either direction.

Keith and Hunk carefully set Shiro down; he groaned with the movement, but didn’t seem to have the strength to move anymore.

Trying to ignore the knot of fear and worry that sat in his gut like a rock, Keith stepped closer to the sign to read.

The path to the right led through the mountains looming beside them, and the left led to a town. The town name was crossed out, but Keith could just make out the word Varadero.

“Which way do we need to…” Lance trailed off as his gaze dropped to the sign. He fell very, very still.

Keith brushed his fingers over the name on the sign. “We should go to the town. They might have a doctor there.”

Lance’s jaw set. “That village was destroyed a long time ago.”

Hunk sighed, looking grimly at Shiro. “Well, there’s no way he’ll make it through the mountains.”

“Besides,” Allura said quietly, glancing between Keith, Lance, and Hunk, “there may be some medicine or supplies we can find in the village, even if it has been destroyed. If there was a doctor’s clinic, the medicine might still be there.”

Lance just tightened his arms around himself, and Keith knew he wouldn’t back down. “There’s nothing for us there.” His voice was hard as steel, but Keith could see his fingers trembling where they clenched around his biceps.

The rock of fear, of worry, only grew heavier in Keith’s gut. “Then we’ll split up.”

Hunk shook his head at once, reaching out to clasp Allura’s hand and wrap an arm around Lance’s shoulder. “No. No. We have to stick together. We keep each other safe.”

“We don’t have time for safe!” Keith couldn’t hide the desperation in his voice. He flung a hand toward Shiro. “He’s not going to make it to Haven. Honestly, I—I don’t think he’s going to make it another day.”

His voice cracked, but Keith pressed on, breath shaking in and out as he tried to control the churning emotions in his gut. “If some of us take Shiro to the town, we can find medicine, or try to signal for help. We’re close enough to Haven that they might see a smoke signal, or something.”

It was beyond desperate, and they all knew it. But they all also knew that there wasn’t anything better.

“Lance and I can take the mountain pass,” Allura said, clasping Lance’s hand with one of her own. “We can move faster than you two with Shiro; we can try to find help. At—at the very least, we’ll get a better view of the terrain from up there.”

Lance gave Allura a grateful look and squeezed her hand. “Yeah. We can see if there’s a town with people nearby, and try to head there to bring people back to help.”

Hunk looked ready to cry, but he exhaled shakily. “Okay. Keith and I will head to Varadero, then.” He wrapped his arms around Lance in a crushing hug, and Lance returned the embrace just as strongly.

Keith could feel tears threatening to form, but he accepted Allura’s hug. Her hair tickled his nose, but he didn’t care; he just held her tighter.

They separated as Lance pulled away from Hunk, and then Allura was stepping forward to hug Hunk and Lance was in front of Keith.

Lance moved first, pulling Keith into a hug and tucking his head into the space between Keith’s shoulder and neck. Keith wrapped his arms around Lance, shakily exhaling into Lance’s shoulder.

They reluctantly split apart, Lance’s hands lingering on Keith’s waist just a fraction longer than necessary before pulling back.

“Just…take care of each other, okay?” Keith’s voice was dry, threatening to crack again.

“We will,” Lance promised quietly, resting a hand on Allura’s shoulder and squeezing. “Be careful.”

Keith nodded to him, and Lance and Allura turned to run up the mountain trail. He watched them go, silver and pink and blue flickering between the rocks like afterimages until they rounded the bend and disappeared.

Hunk rested a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Come on.”

They picked the stretcher up again; Shiro barely reacted save for a hitch in his breathing, and Keith swallowed down a sob and started walking.

And with every step, the feeling that they had made a terrible mistake only grew more and more. If the slight hesitance to Hunk’s steps was any indication, he could feel it, too.

But they didn’t have a choice but to press forward and hope.

[ravendruid]

For the vaxleth sentence prompt: Please make the pain go away.

Send me a sentence and I'll write a Vaxleth drabble. This is the last drabble that I'll be doing for this prompt until the mood strikes me again. <3 Thank you everyone who sent me a prompt. I appreciate it ^_^

Please make the pain go away.

Keyleth was surrounded by fire and pain. Although not engulfed in flames, her body burned badly. Her skin was clammy, and sweat dripped down her neck and onto her back, the thick droplets trailing a path along her spine. She could distinguish the shapes of humanoid creatures between the flames, bodies lying on the ground, or those that were still up, almost crumbling over themselves. Panic filled her as she focused her gaze on them and recognized the faces of her friends and family. Pike, Scanlan, Grog, Vex, Percy, Korrin, her mom, Allura, Kima, and Gilmore. Keyleth searched frantically. Someone was missing, someone she both anxiously needed and deaded to find: Vax. The hot was getting worse – how is that even possible? – and Keyleth’s legs started to falter as they burned. Her body was too heavy for them, and she needed to find her way out. But Vax… He was probably fine. He was probably safe. Maybe he found the way out. Keyleth kicked and screamed and tried to run from the flames, but she arrived at a dead end. A wave of disappointment and failure washed over Keyleth as she faced death.

Keyleth’s eyes snapped open, and she sat upright, panting hard. Her body was drenched in sweat, and her nightgown stuck to her boiling skin. Across the room, she saw an opened window and, just outside, the flickering lights of Whitestone on a wintery night. The smell of burned wood and herbs filled her nostrils, and she looked around her room for the source. Keyleth was alone, and the room was dark, but she could still see silhouettes of objects thanks to her fey ancestry. The embers on the bottom of the fireplace and the half-empty cup of tea on a side table by the window seat told her it hadn’t been long since someone had been in the room with her. She knew it had to be Vax, from the discarded armor on the floor, by the door, and the boots at the end of the bed. Her heart filled with hope. He’s fine. 

Pain shot through her body, and Keyleth doubled over herself in agony, screaming as tears started coming down of their own volition. There was a loud noise from the heavy wooden door hitting the stone wall and naked feet running in her direction. 

“Keyleth!” Vax screamed. There was a touch, and then it was gone with a hiss. “Fuck, you’re burning.” 

“Vax,” Keyleth’s voice trembled as she turned to look at him. The pain worsened, and her throat constricted. “Please, make the pain go away.” She cried.

—

Vax was no healer. Sure, he had some healing magic, but he was not Pike, and Vax didn’t know what to do. All he knew was that his girlfriend was in pain, and her body was burning. Panic filled him, and tears prickled in his eyes. Please, please. Help me. Please, help me save her. Please. Vax closed his eyes, hovering his hands above Keyleth, who cried loudly on the bed, and he focused on the Raven Queen, on the powers she gave him. She didn’t have to answer him. Their relationship was complicated enough as it was, and She did not have to give Vax anything. She did not have to help him any more than she did. Yet, Vax felt her ethereal presence around him, and a disembodied voice echoed words he could not understand.

“Please,” He begged out loud this time, as Keyleth’s cries turned into screams. 

Magic surged through Vax’s body, from his toes to the tips of his hair and fingertips. It wasn’t the cold dark feeling he felt whenever he did her bidding and helped the souls traverse the planes, no. This magic was dark but, at the same time, warm. Vax placed his hands on Keyleth’s back, and he felt the heat burn him, although, this time, it spread through his body. Sweat dripped down his neck and back, and when he thought he couldn’t take it any longer, a wave of unmeasurable pain shot through him. For a moment, he screamed as loud as Keyleth, and then, just as fast, it disappeared, and he was left panting hard in unison with her.

“Fuck,” Vax doubled on himself, his hands sliding to hold onto the edge of the bed. His hair was stuck to his face, and his clothes were damp.

“Vax?” Keyleth’s voice was weak, but when Vax looked at her, she smiled.

Vax lay next to her on the bed and pulled her over to lie on his chest. They were both drenched in sweat, but it didn’t matter. She was fine.

“Thank you,” Keyleth whispered as Vax rubbed a hand up and down her back.

“I have no idea what that was,” he said, kissing her forehead, “but I hate it.”

“I’m exhausted. Will you stay?”

Vax chuckled at the question. They had been sleeping together every night for months, yet every night Keyleth asked him the same question, and he always gave her the same answer, “Of course, Kiki. I will stay forever and a day.”

[essayofthoughts]

And this thought became an entirely different host of questions so they get their own ask vjvjvjvjvj

Delilah definitely still has at least one clone, if not two, stashed somewhere. Does this ever come in handy (ex - someone tried to kill her, oop Sylas just has to haul her naked from a pot brb)? Does she ever trust VM enough to reveal its location - or, hell, carve a cube out of anyone willing to grow a clone for them over the year off? It's a practical contingency, after all, and VM definitely have the resources to fund the spell. I'm not sure anyone would take her up on the offer (Percy would in theory see the use in it, but? Cutting up a cube of flesh to give to *Delilah*? Probably a hard no, way to close to too many triggers).

I will say, a clone would neatly avoid dusted!Vax needing to agree to the RQ's offer... though that also makes me wonder what the Raven Queen's thoughts are on her Champion working with an (ex?) necromancer and ex vampire. Could she put pressure on Vax to eliminate them, resulting in some juicy tension? Or turn on him entirely if he goes for a clone. (Clone could also be appealing to him to lessen the lifespan angst with Keyleth, if he can get second chances like that. Just saying, it would be an offer with some temptation)

I think Delilah keeps her clone as a contingency plan. I don't think she tells anyone, except, perhaps, maybe, Allura, after they've figured out exactly where they stand. Sylas obviously knows where it is already.

I think there are attempts made on their lives by some of the Whitestone populace and Percy is very annoyed that he has to tell people "Look, I know you want them dead, I want them dead, but right now we're using them to prevent us all from dying to dragons, so you can't just yet." I don't think any of these attempts actually does more than cause surface damage, and certainly none succeed. (Attempts made by Vecna perhaps might, but he has a derailed ascension plan to fix and perhaps has other priorities.)

I don't think she offers to Clone any of VM. I think she figures out pretty early on that it wouldn't be taken well, regardless of how useful it was - Percy would be the most likely to agree on pure pragmatism and he hates their guts + wouldn't trust them even if he could throw them sixteen miles, so... yeah, not likely. That said, I think she might try to convince Allura that she should be allowed to make a clone for Sylas, probably under the arguments that 1. She would have made him one when she made one for herself if he hadn't been undead 2. They're putting in so much work, aren't they being good? 3. Look, there's all these attempts on their lives, and they can't make amends if they're dead, isn't it in their best interests to let her and Sylas resurrect like that so they can keep on making amends?

The success of these arguments is debateable.

With regards to Vax... I don't think a Clone would actually violate the RQs principles? Near all resurrection magic is, per D&D classifications "necromancy" (... I remain narked at that usage, because necromancy is from nekros manteia, literally meaning to divine (as in the future) from death/the dead and does not mean "raising the dead") but we're explicitly told that of the various resurrection spells it's only the 9th level True Resurrection that's considered a violation of the Raven Queen, presumably because it doesn't require a body, doesn't care if the person is/was undead, and basically auto-succeeds completely, restoring all health, any fixing any injuries? As Mercer does it, all others have some degree of challenge and chance of failure, and there's the RAW limitation of restored health and the minus effects of rolls. True Rez just goes HAH and walks on.

So, I think Clone is probably... maybe not fine with the RQ, but given a bit more of a pass? It does only work on the living, it does have costs to it - it doesn't violate death much more than most resurrection spells and doesn't fuck with undeath. The soul can choose not to live and not use the clone. And, of course, a clone must be made in advance - as you say, a contingency! - which means you have to put that outlay aside ahead of time, rather than paying the price and taking the risk after the death has occurred. I think overuse of Clone might nark the RQ, but occasional, one-off or contingency-only use of the spell? I think she'd be relatively okay with it.

Regarding the RQ's opinion on Sylas and Delilah... I think she's probably a bit narked at them getting to live, but also isn't going to fight Sarenrae - a from-the-start goddess, and another Prime Deity - over having chosen to take them on as projects. I think she reserves the right to kill them if they backslide, but I think she's also pragmatic enough to want to make use of their intel regarding Vecna - knowing ahead of time that a demigod of undeath is seeking true ascension... that's something she'd want to know about! I think it puts them... if not in her good graces, at least in her grudging "Fine, I won't kill them now" book.

Besides, I think a recurring thing in Critical Role and Mercer's work is that... people can change. This is both a good and bad thing - but if we do not acknowledge people improving themselves, if we forever judge them only for their past and not what they do in the present and the future... we condemn someone who can yet do good. It's a significant part of Percy, Grog and even one can argue Scanlan's stories, that they can be redeemed from and grow from past mistakes.

I... I don't know. I feel like given that aspect of Critical Role, Mercer's general choices and the arcs for a number of characters, that redemption is possible and a worthwhile thing to hope for, that it's never worthless to try to improve, I think the RQ would probably rather people be redeemed for mistakes than have the only option be death. She's the goddess of death - she gets them all eventually. But to get them once they've grown? To have them make amends for the wrongs they've done? To have them fix the threads of fate they broke?

I think that could mean something to her.

[autisticlancemcclain]

“You want us to what.”

Lance doesn’t give a flying fuck how angry he sounds. Potential diplomatic crises be damned. Hell, he wants to cause a crisis. Wants to raise some hell.

The dignitary sniffs derisively. “The beast is a dangerous pest, Blue Paladin.”

“Not the blue paladin,” Lance growls, because he isn’t, “and I am not murdering an animal in cold blood just because you can’t deal with it properly.”

“Lance,” Allura hisses, but he has no problem ignoring her.

“Can’t deal with it properly — do you hear your paladin!” the dignitary sputters, waving an angry hand in Lance’s direction.

Shiro closes his eyes, taking a deep breath, before plastering on a tight smile and visibly trying to salvage the situation. Now, usually, Lance would hate to cause Shiro any stress at all, and would do whatever he could to reduce that stress.

This time, Lance is going to dig his heels in. He is not going to let a living being be needlessly exterminated. Lance isn’t anti-animal death, or anything — he has no problem with others eating meat, or using animal products. He thinks using animals as gifts and not letting any part of them go to waste is very wise, and he has a lot of respect for people who manage to do so successfully. Sport hunters, on the other hand, or people who kill without good reason? Therein lies his problem, and he’s beyond happy to make a big stink of it.

“Could you describe the beast?” Shiro asks.

“Happily,” the dignitary grumps. “I’m eager to describe its horror to you, Oh Great Leader of Voltron.”

Shiro visibly tries very hard not to roll his eyes. Lance refuses to take any joy in the reaction, even though he would usually laugh.

“The beast is as large as half our royal castle. Its teeth are larger than our tallest soldier, and sharper than a luxite blade. Its fur is rough and coarse, enough to sand the paint clean off the walls it brushes by. Its roar shakes the very foundations of our city. It walks on four legs but stands on two, right before it rears up to smash our buildings to dust. It is a menace, a pest, and a danger besides!”

“So you have a grizzly bear problem,” Lance snaps. “Close your garbage cans at night and quit complaining.”

“Lance, please,” Hunk mutters, but Lance will not back down. Not when a life is at stake.

“Has it actually…hurt anyone?” Keith asks.

Lance shoots a grateful look at Keith.

At least someone is on his side.

“Yes!” the dignitary cries.

Keith shoots a look back at Lance — a well, I tried if Lance has ever seen one — but that is not good enough. Lance glares at him.

Traitor.

“Explain,” Lance demands.

The dignitary frowns, looking down his nose at Lance and shaking their head. “I’m not talking to you.”

“Would you mind explaining,” Pidge deadpans, barely refraining from rolling her eyes.

Lance knows Pidge well enough to know that she’s not on his side, exactly — she threw a bolt at him when he started insulting the dignitary initially — but there’s nothing that pisses her off more than someone talking down to her family. Even if she doesn’t agree with said family. She’s loyal, like that.

“Fine, since you asked so nicely,” the dignitary says, cutting a look to Lance, who makes a very crude gesture with his hands in response and ignores the four (4) tired sighs from assorted teammates and co around him.

“The beast easily and ruthlessly took down several of our soldiers as soon as they opened fire on it. And it further still injured many of our knights when we sent them to its cave! It is a mindless, killing machine, and must be exterminated immediately.”

Lance throws his hands up in exasperation. “No shit it’s defending itself! What do you expect it to do, stand there while you shoot at it?”

“If it didn’t want to be shot it shouldn’t have ventured into the city in the first place!”

“It’s an animal! How the hell is it supposed to understand city limits and boundaries?”

“That’s not my problem,” the dignitary says coldly. “It has posed a threat to our people, and so it must die. And if Voltron wishes for our signature in the Coalition, you will come to our aid, or else you can count yourself down one planet’s alliance.”

Allura stiffens. “You would really risk your people’s protection over a difference in opinion?”

“Your blue paladin —”

“I am not the blue paladin, you brainless amoeba —”

“Your blue paladin,” the dignitary repeats, pointedly and icily, “has insulted us greatly. The situation is no longer up for debate. If you wish to sign an alliance, the paladin must handle the problem himself. That is our final stipulation.”

With that, the dignitary ends the call, cutting off Shiro’s pleas for him to wait.

All eyes turn to Lance.

“I am not killing an innocent animal,” Lance snaps. “Forget it.”

Keith sighs. “Lance —”

“No.” Lance clenches his fists, glaring at his team, chin raised and shoulders set. Beside him, Mr. Snuggles spreads his fangs and hisses. The mice — currently resting on his head — scramble to their feet, presumably also tensing up. Ivy — a venomous vine he picked up on a planet a few missions back — winds up his arms. “I am not just being ridiculous. You heard that idiot. They’re provoking it. It’s not doing anything wrong.”

“Lance —” Keith tries again, but Lance is not willing to hear it.

“I will not take an innocent life to buy an alliance. And if you do, I swear to God, I will never forgive you.”

With that he stomps out of the bridge, ignoring the dozens of calls of his name and pleas to “wait a goddamn second, Lance, c’mon.”

Lance stomps all the way to his room, muttering about stupid careless dignitaries and team members who won’t listen to him and how everyone is going to make him grey early and he is not Shiro, lord above, so he can’t pull that garbage off. Ugh.

He slams his door behind him and flops on the bed, and is marginally surprised to find his tears stinging his eyes.

“This is a stupid reason to cry,” he announces to no one, voice muffled in his pillow. “Why must I cry about stupid things. Why can’t I cry about regular things. This is dumb.”

There’s a clicking sound accompanying a gentle bump to the leg hanging off his bed. He drags his head off the pillow, sniffling, to see Mr. Snuggles sitting to the side of his bed, fangs clicking. The mice sit on his head, as they are wont to do (which, understandably considering the natural predator of mice, used to scare the shit out of Allura. But Mr. Snuggles has never been anything but gentle with them, even when they roughhouse on his back or play tag under his leg and accidentally trip him. He seems to be quite protective of them, actually. It’s very sweet. Lance thinks it might be a microhylid frog-giant tarantula situation, even though Mr. Snuggles can’t lay eggs, and it amuses him greatly). Ivy uncoils from his bed frame, wrapping a vine around his ankle and tugging carefully. Blue and Red both loudly mother him in the back of his mind.

It’s nice.

Lance sighs, wiping his tears and sitting up against his headboard.

“This sucks,” he says to his assortment of companions, all who seem to agree with him. Mr. Snuggles and the mice crawl up the leg of the bed to sit in front of him, and Ivy makes her way around his shoulders.

None of them can talk to him, obviously — how fucking cool would that be, though — but each one of them is an excellent listener (even the mice, who like to gossip, but Lance preemptively forgives them).

“It’s just —” Lance huffs, frustrated. “I get that the planet is probably tired of being lightly terrorized by a giant beast, sure, but is murder really the answer? Plus, have they even tried talking to it? Maybe it’s very reasonable! I’m sure I —”

Lance shoots up, startling poor Ivy, but holy shit.

Holy shit!

“That’s it!” he shouts, grin nearly splitting his face in two. He leans over, just barely managing to grab his holopad, and starts sketching out the plans.

“Now if I just — and it shouldn’t be too hard — I’ve done more in less time — hell yeah!”

He’s startled out of his fervour by urgent squeaks, and when he looks up, he sees the mice waving to get his attention.

“Yes?”

At his acknowledgement, they scurry into formation, laying together to make a question mark with their little bodies.

Lance snorts. He may not be able to speak their language, but they have no problems making themselves clear.

“I can’t tell you,” he scolds, “you’re going to snitch to Allura.”

They mice squeak sadly, but Lance knows better. Last time he gave in to them, Allura knew within the minute.

“I’ll be back soon, okay? Don’t wait up for me. Platt, Chulatt, Plachu, Chuchule — there’s some of that fancy grain you like in the cupboard. Mr. Snuggles — here.” He opens up space youtube, quickly opening up a horror movie reaction compilation for the fear demon. “That’ll keep you fed for a bit.” He props the holopad up on his pillow, scrambling to his feet and heading to the door. On the way out, he pulls the string on his special blue sun lamp — “That’s for you, Ivy!” — and then he’s out the door, plans in hand, to find Coran.

Luckily for Lance, he runs straight into him.

“Lance, dear, I was just coming to look for you,” Coran says, right outside his door.

Lance grins. “I can see that.”

Coran narrows his eyes. “You’re… remarkably chipper, Number Four.”

“Mhm.”

He holds up a hand for Coran to pause. He strains his ears, and smirks as he just barely picks up on the sound of near-silent footsteps behind a closed door. He makes pointed eye contact with the advisor, then inclines his head at Keith’s door.

Coran gets the point.

“Well, if you’re really feeling so much better,” Coran says loudly — too loudly, but Lance doesn’t have much in the subtlety department either, so he can’t complain — “would you mind helping me recalibrate the fabricator?”

“Absolutely,” Lance says, dragging the advisor by the hand in the opposite direction of the fabricator.

“Will you speak plainly, now?” Coran asks, once they’ve put some distance between them and Keith’s eavesdropping ass. (That is, however, probably an unfair reaction. Keith was likely listening in to try and find a way to help, in his own awkward way. If Lance wasn’t currently feeling just a smidge betrayed, he would feel touched.)

“Okay, so. I have a Plan.” Lance puts emphasis on the word so Coran knows it’s Capitalized, because this isn’t just a regular plan. This is a rescue mission. It’s espionage. A heist, even.

“Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes!”

Coran sighs, dragging a hand down his face.

“Lance,” he says warningly, but Lance won’t hear it.

“C’mon, Coran! You trust me, right?”

“That is a manipulative question —”

“You trust me! You said so yourself!”

“Fine, child. Yes, I trust you.”

Lance claps his hands together. “Excellent! So. I refuse to be a murderer, as you may have heard.”

“That would have been very hard for me to miss,” Coran says drily.

Lance gracefully ignores the comment. “And since I will also go apeshit if anyone else becomes a murderer, I have come up with a plan!”

“Lance. Number Four. My dear. Time is not our current luxury. Please share your plan.”

“Right. Okay.” Lance rocks back on his heels, shooting Coran a guileless smile. “How well do you think you can imitate my mannerisms?”

———

part two

[entrepy]

tl;dr:  Shiro’s family are people he would not only die for, but people he has unwavering belief in and has given a part of who they are, to create who he is, and likewise, they contain a part of who he is, within them.    

Shiro is second generation American. I headcanon Voltron to be set roughly around 100 - 150 years into the future. Shiro’s parents were drawn out to America to join the rest of their extended family who also made the move throughout the years, though leaving behind Shiro’s grandparents on his father’s side. Shiro’s mother was pregnant with Shiro’s older sister, Toshiko, during their move. Shiro was born 3 years later, in Sacremento, where they’d settled down. ( I also imagine migration is a lot less of a hassle in this time ~ but I’ll make a post of how I imagine the VLD post-modern world would differ to our current reality later. )

The four of them were extremely close. Shiro grew up loved and supported and getting up to mischief with his big sister. Shiro was extremely close to his mother when he was young. His father was a little strict and slow to understand some Western constructs, but was overall open-minded if he could see that it was what was best for his children. Shiro could confide in his sister literally anything under the sun. This bond only began to fracture when Shiro was diagnosed with MND*1 at age 16, during his first year at GG.  

VLD doesn’t mention Shiro’s family at all. Not at the Kerberos launch, not in his visualisation during lion bonding, and not when the group return to Earth. These facts are what has prompted the headcanon that Shiro’s parents and sister are no longer alive.

~I haven’t hashed out the circumstances around this too much but here’s a brief timeline of the events -       He loses his mother at age 6 due to terminal illness -       He loses his father at age 20 due to a hit and run -       His sister is caught in the Galra cross-fire, leaving behind her husband and two year old son*2.

Shiro is no stranger to loss, starting with the fading memories of his mother. Life keeps taking and taking from him. Every moment of success or happiness, seems only to be rewarded with pain and more suffering. And this cycle continues for him as we are introduced to him in VLD i.e. reaching the edge of the solar system - only to be captured by the Galra, finally escaping and returning to Earth – only to be launched back into space and having to fight in an intergalactic war, finding a semblance of peace with new friends and new purpose – only to die, is brought back to life – only to live with the debilitating guilt and dysphoria of living in another’s body. And so on.

A year or so after his father’s death is when I headcanon that Adam proposed to Shiro. The accident was a reminder of how unguaranteed life really is, and they already felt like they didn’t have enough time with the imminent worsening of Shiro’s illness. Adam was Shiro’s family. Adam made Shiro happy. At this point, Shiro had begun to notice the pattern of happiness and loss, and a part of him was expecting to lose Adam. (This may or may not have played a minor part in Shiro’s decision to go on the mission. Just a minor part, but significant enough to mention, all the same).

Shiro always had a close friend in Keith. There was something in him that called out to Shiro, and his gut instinct turned out to be right. The fact that they both understood loss beyond their years must’ve helped the understanding they had with each other, though they never spoke about it beyond the conversation we saw in VLD about Keith’s father. Keith is Shiro’s family. While in space, this bond only strengthens as they face the hardships of war and hard decisions together. Keith becomes an irreplaceable part of Shiro’s life. 

Pidge, Hunk, Lance, Allura, and Coran are an unlikely group of people that are thrown into Shiro’s life path but find a place nestled in the twists and curves of it. Without a common cause to fight for, they may never have even met, let alone become a united front, an understanding forming between them that can come only from shared experience, impenetrable. But life isn’t about what doesn’t happen, or what could’ve happened; it’s about what does happen and it’s outside of your control. There’s a closeness he feels with them that can’t be manufactured by any other means apart from trusting someone with his life, and having them trust him of the same.

He feels a special closeness with Allura. She, too, has suffered and lost, in greater quantities than even Shiro can fathom. She, too, has had leadership placed upon her, based sheerly on the fact that there is no one else to carry the burden. Sometimes they butted heads, but they always believed in each other, and more importantly, they believed and wished wholeheartedly for the same future. Their bond strengthened when Shiro’s soul passed through Allura to enter his new body – something that also allowed him to receive Allura’s Altean crystal as the energy source for his cybernetic arm, and perhaps even pilot the Atlas as a mecha-tron. Allura was    is Shiro’s family. 

In summary, Shiro’s family are people he would not only die for, but people he has unwavering belief in and has given a part of who they are, to create who he is, and likewise, they contain a part of who he is, within them.    

*1 Please see Shiro’s illness headcanon - to be linked. *2 I didn’t want to stray too far from canon, but I’m also holding onto the headcanon of Shiro having a sister. So in my canon, he asks Commander Iverson about Toshiko when the crew return to Earth who informs him of her fate ~ he doesn’t find out about his nephew until later. In any non-canon AUs, Toshiko is alive.

[jalapenobee]

I have been working on this for two months and the ending still sucks TvT

Having a protective parent is the worst. Sure, they just want to keep you safe and all, but some things can be handled by the child themselves. Like the house when the “responsible adults” are gone for the day. No mom, Romelle does not need a babysitter while you are gone. Yes mom, she is perfectly responsible, and oh- not to mention- eighteen and a half. She absolutely does not need a babysitter at this age.

But of course, Romelle’s mother has fallen under the spell that all teens are reckless and sneak off to parties to drink and have sex and whatnot whenever there’s no supervision. Her trust would not be earned until the age of twenty two, a million years away. For now, constant supervision was the only option as long as Romelle didn’t have her own house. That’s why there’s a babysitter website bookmarked on her phone.

Romelle’s eyes narrowed and locked on the babysitter for the second time. From her perch on the top of the stair railing, she could see that the babysitter looked to be about her age, with an insane amount of curly, white-ish blue-ish hair. How did she even keep it under control? And what was that thing on her forehead? Romelle frowned; she was too far away to see.

As quietly as she could, she hopped off the banister and sprinted to her room, swiping her spyglass (no, not a telescope) off of her nightstand. Now she could see better, with the spyglass and the somehow subtracted four feet of distance. The thing looked like a necklace, but it wasn’t on her neck. Of course. So a… forehead-lace? She’ll have to ask. Or look it up. That’s probably easier.

Interrupted by the call of her name, Romelle lowered the spyglass and realized her mother was almost out the door, beckoning her down to meet the “caretaker” who was completely unnecessary and unneeded. Spyglass safely hidden in an oversized sweater pocket, Romelle adjusted her hair and slid down the banister, catching her mother’s wave as the front door was closed.

The babysitter, who was an embarrassing, say, four inches taller than Romelle, cocked her head to one side. A British voice asked, “How did you do that?” and Romelle found herself folding her arms and frowning.

“You just balance yourself and slide. It’s not that hard.”

The babysitter gave a small nod and a (pretty) smile. “So, Romelle, right?”

A shaky nod came from the shorter girl. “And who are you?”

“Allura.” Allura held out her hand for a shake, which Romelle took and prayed that her hands weren’t sweating.

She pointed to the living room, then the kitchen. “The remote to the tv is on the couch. There’s food in the fridge, just take what you want. I’ll come down when I’m hungry.”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

What the fuck was that?

Romelle groaned and buried her face in her pillow, considering jumping out the window to her (hopefully) death. What was she thinking? Sliding down the banister? Did she want to come off as edgy? Well no, but that’s what she ended up doing anyway, of fucking course. She couldn’t believe she even went as far as to get nervous. Her head lifted from the pillow and she turned to face her ceiling, covered in blue and green paint splotches from the previous year. Her and her brother had meant to paint in shapes, but neither of them were good with paint. But who cares, there’s paint on the ceiling and that’s good enough.

…her brother. Maybe college got lonely. Romelle got up and wrote down on a sticky note “call Bandor” as her door squeaked open and Allura poked her head in.

“Hey, I heated up pizza if you want any.”

Romelle opened the door. “I said I’d come down when I’m hungry.”

Allura shrugged. “You’re not the boss of me. I’m not taking orders from a kid.”

“I’m eighteen.”

The dark skinned girl’s eyes widened. “Wait, seriously? You’re eighteen?” Again, Romelle nodded and Allura stifled a laugh.

“An eighteen year old needing a babysitter. Wowwww.”

Romelle shoved her hands in her pockets. “Shut up. And for the record, I don’t need a babysitter. It’s my mom’s idea.”

“Well then. It’s a good thing there’s no record here.”

“Can you just go?”

“Maybe.” Allura looked behind Romelle to her desk, piled with wires and small metal parts she didn’t know even existed. On the wall was a small rack with various tools on it, and a heavy looking book hung open on the edge of the desk. “What’s going on over there?”

“I’m building something.” Romelle stepped back to let Allura in. “A radio.”

Romelle heard a “whoa” when Allura stepped in her room, squinting at all the small gears in her half-finished radio behind the pile of materials. Food forgotten, she peered at the radio from different angles while Romelle shut the book and slid it in a small bookshelf. “This is so cool.”

Two blinks, a raised eyebrow, and a small voice. “Really?”

“Yeah!”

“That is so cool.” Allura had moved on from the radio junk and onto a bulletin board with various… things hanging on it. She pointed to a picture, one of Romelle holding an ice cream cone with Bandor behind her, about to pour a water bottle on her head. In the background, a pale kid with pitch-black hair was laughing and recording the scene. Under it was a sticky note, with the words “chaos, rbk”. “What’s that?”

Romelle came over to see. “Oh, that’s us. That emo-ass kid in the background with the camera is my cousin, Keith. And that’s me in the front. And the kid with the water bottle is my brother, Bandor.”

Allura nodded and squinted at the photo. “That Keith kid looks really familiar.”

“...Okay?”

“Sorry, that was random.” Allura shook her head and turned to face Romelle, now sitting on her bed. “How long have you been building radios and stuff?”

She gestured to a corner where various objects were sitting on the floor or set in a shelf, all of which Romelle made by hand. The latter stood up. “Since I was twelve. Do the math, ‘Lura.”

“So that’s six years.”

“Mhm.” Romelle started for the door. “I’m getting whatever pizza you heated up. If you want any, hurry up or else I’ll eat it.”

Allura followed Romelle out the door and to the kitchen. She got her own slice of pizza, making sure to take the obviously bigger piece with a smug smile directed at Romelle. After receiving a “fuck you”, she sat down on one of the stools set around the island. “So why’d you call me ‘Lura earlier?”

Romelle’s face went blank aside from two small blinks, momentarily hiding her shining eyes. “I did… what?”

“You. Called me ‘Lura’. You told me to do the math, and then you called me Lura. Why?”

Another moment of silence passed until Romelle registered her action. “Ohhhh. Ha, sorry. It’s just a thing I do, with people. I give them nicknames, I don’t know why. Sorry, it just came out.”

“Mhm.”

“This is still cold.” Romelle got up with the slice of pizza in her hand. And went to put it back in the toaster oven. She set the dial to ten minutes (way too long, but who cares? She’ll take it out before then, no problem) and sat back down with Allura. “I thought you said you heated this up.”

“I did, it just got cold.”

Romelle rolled her eyes and clinked her nails against the tabletop. She glanced at Allura, staring back at Romelle, and gave a what-are-you-looking-at-me-for look. In return, Allura gave a well-I-can-look-at-you-whenever-I-want look right back. And this continued for an… um… ten minutes. Enough time to burn the pizza, that of which both of them had forgotten about. Only after the burnt crust smell wafted to them did they realize, and by then it was too late.

Romelle ran to the toaster oven, waving her hand to rid the smoke as she opened the door. “Ugh.”

“I thought you were responsible. And, y’know, didn’t need a babysitter.”

“I don’t!” Romelle dumped the burnt pizza in the trash.

“You can’t even heat up pizza for ten minutes.”

The blonde sighed and rolled her eyes. “Alright alright, now shut up.”

[belphegor1982]

hehehe I am rubbing my lil hands together gleefully and i am here to ask after "Underture" and/or the Ghosts AU, because I'd love to see how you've expanded on it since I last heard about it!

Then you shall have both!

I haven't got much further into the Ghosts AU, except to figure out how the titular ghosts died - some got murdered, some died by accident, some from natural (if way too early) causes - and also which ones retain some kind of power/impact on the living world, to some respect (ie. everyone but Grog and the twins).

Also, I figured a "modern day" era would be 1496 Post Divergence in this universe. The VM timeline happens around 812PD; Greyskull Keep was built for them around that time, and I had Grog haunt the place before that. So if I do manage to make something out of it, here's the dates of everyone's death/arrival at the keep:

787 PD: Grog (-709)

1097 PD: Pike (-399)

1176 PD: Scanlan (-320)

1288 PD: Vex & Vax (-208)

1343 PD: Tiberius (-153)

1383 PD: Keyleth (-113)

1415 PD: Percy (-81)

1496 PD: Allura & Kima move into the keep

Also, I'm keeping their races, lifespan and all, and toying with the idea that some races have gone... not extinct, but rarer by the time the 1400s roll on. We'll see!

As for Underture, it's strictly The Legend of Vox Machina, set pre-canon, when everyone has realised they work well together but before the most hard-headed realise that they actually care about the other chucklefucks. (they do. They absolutely do but some of them are too used to rely on themselves/their twin to see that yet 💜)

So the premise is Vax and Scanlan falling into a deep mine shaft and trying to make their way back to the surface; meanwhile (/three days earlier - each "Vax and Scanlan" chapter is followed by a "how we got there" chapter), Vox Machina is hired to send a message to a miner/look into his disappearance. Shenanigans ensue! (hopefully :D) It's too early for ships, but there are hints to Perc'ahlia, Vaxleth and (of course) Pikelan ^^

Here's a little exchange from the second Vax and Scanlan chapter! Since in the stream Vex's and Vax's original character sheets mention "low-light vision (carry over from Pathfinder)" while both Scanlan and Pike get the whole 60 feet of Darkvision, I had Vax have trouble seeing in complete darkness. Which leads to this:

“So you really can’t see for shit?”

“Yes I can,” retorted Vax. “Just not clearly. Everything further than a yard starts to blur together and I can’t really see where I’m stepping. But I can keep up.”

“Sure you can. That’s why you keep hanging back, to look at the scenery.”

“Maybe I do! Someone’s got to check what the walls are made of to see how close we are to the exit!”

“Oh yeah? In that case, how many fingers?”

“Three,” Vax snapped back, flipping the double bird in answer to Scanlan’s own raised middle finger. Damn. Either the el—the half-elf did see better in the dark than Scanlan gave him credit for or he was starting to know him too well.

Scanlan let his hand fall and rolled his eyes.

“Look, you don’t need to get your panties in a knot. I can see better than you at the moment, so the way I see it there’s only one way you won’t fall behind and get lost.” He walked back to Vax and thrust out his hand with a grin large enough to be obvious even in the dark. “Wanna hold hands?”

Vax stared down at him for three full seconds. Scanlan didn’t lower his hand, but his smile fell.

“Oh gods, you’re not one of those people, are you?”

Vax didn’t go as rigid and dangerous as he’d had at the elf thing, but it was close.

“What kind of people?”

“You know, the morons who think that holding hands with a dude is somehow gonna knock points off their manly man card. Or manly half-elf, as it were.”

Something flashed over Vax’s face too quickly for Scanlan to interpret and he let out a strangled laugh.

“I have held hands with a man before, Scanlan.”

“Oh, good.”

“Many not as many times as you must have, but my manly half-elf card has seen some good use in its time.”

Scanlan grinned at the insinuation. “All right.”

In practice, the mechanics of efficient half-elf/gnome hand-holding took some time to figure out, due to Vax’s hand being approximately a third larger than Scanlan’s. In the end, Scanlan wrapped his whole hand around the three last fingers of Vax’s, and off they went, Vax making an effort to walk in Scanlan’s footsteps and Scanlan purposely slowing down his pace.

Once they had set a good rhythm Scanlan looked up at Vax.

“Just to be clear, you’re saying you’re into guys, right?”

Vax snorted.

“I’m a lot less picky than that. It’s pretty much fifty-fifty for me. Opposite gender and all the rest. I just don’t like to make it as obvious as you.”

Opposite gender I had figured, thought Scanlan, the way you fumble like a schoolboy when Keyleth has her special beaming Oh hey, Vax smile on.

But – in a very wise move, he thought – he made no such comment out loud. “Hey, when you want it you gotta flaunt it.”

“Not sure that’s how the saying goes.”

“You know what I mean. How’s the other person supposed to guess you’re into them if you don’t show it?” Scanlan paused. “Did people give you a hard time about it growing up or something?”

He felt Vax’s fingers twitch slightly. Boy, the guy needed to learn how not to display his emotions on his freaking sleeve like that. It was liable to get him fleeced at cards, for one thing.

“Well… not exactly? It’s like… Vex and I being half-elves was bad enough that it overshadowed everything else. Compared to that, I didn’t come across that many people who gave a damn about who I took to bed.”

“…But?”

“But there were a few, yeah.”

Scanlan shook his head.

“Man, that’s so weird. Imagine caring what’s in people’s pants. Or giving other people shit about things like that.”

“I know,” said Vax forcefully with – if Scanlan was starting to know him at all – a scathing eye roll. “I mean, hot is hot, right?”

“Exactly. People have weird hang-ups, man.”

“They sure do.”

And maybe smiling like a couple of idiots did nothing in the long run to help them find their way back to sunlight, but it didn’t exactly not help, either.

_

My boys 🥰 They'll get there eventually ^^

The "elf thing" is Scanlan mistakenly (innocently) referring to Vax earlier as an elf and Vax correcting him immediately in a way that makes it obvious even to Scanlan that it's Important. Hence the quick self-correction. I'm 15k words into the story and I really really hope I can finish it! 🤞

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

**Cultivating Love**51**

Opening his eyes Keith found himself slumped on the battlefield still. Beneath him lay Lance, his hand restored and holding the child to his chest. Blinking open his bright blue eyes, tears rolled down Lance’s face

“That idiot…”

“So he has…”

“Been reborn. His soul and form were scattered yet the heavens deemed him worthy. We must rise against our feelings. It is Baekho’s blessing we carry”

Keith would have called Baekho a myth had he not just laid eyes upon the mythical beast. Drawing his legs up, the blanket covering the child slid down. The child seemed to be sleeping innocently

“So… this is him?”

“Yes. He has been reborn again. You must draw Black. Once the battle is done White will pass to your hands until he comes of age”

“But who will rear him?”

Lance gave a small laugh, Keith mildly insulted by what he considered a rather good question

“We will. This is the burden Shiro spoke of. And why he shall be by our side. He will not wake until the danger passes. His purity and innocence will be endless, no danger will befall upon him, not until his eyes open the first time. But now is not the time. Baekho’s will must be done”

That was fine and all, yet even if his heart had chosen Lance, he didn’t want Lance to feel obligated, awkwardly his words came tumbling out with no control

“So I guess that means we’re stuck with each other?”

Lance giggled softly

“To me it would be an honour. Yet now is not the time or the place, and not in front of Shiro. The other’s await us”

Taking Lance by the hand, Keith led him to the others. White weighed heavily on his hip, and the babe seemed to weigh heavily in Lance’s hold. He’d thought they’d must have been gone for hours, then thought it must have an instant. Whatever it was, it’d been long enough for their friends to regather together with the elders of the realm. Keith found it hard to look upon their friends. He did not want to admit that Shiro had not said his final goodbyes to them all. Krolia instead saved him from his words, hugging both of them before stepping back and looking to the child against Lance

“He is gone”

“Reborn within this sleeping child”

Keith didn’t know how to feel about Shiro’s rebirth. His second life had seen him born in the conventional method where as no birth had come forth this time. His mate was gone. Replaced with a child… and he didn’t know how to begin to process it. No more would he taste Shiro’s lips or feel his passion… And somehow now he must be the father to the man who was both his lover and his brother in arms. Hunk posing the same question he had asked

“Is that Shiro?”

Lance nodded, then explained

“He gave his soul to White to protect the realm. I was pulled in by Red to see him again, this child given to me by Baekho upon my arrival within the space between realms. That was were waited for Keith’s arrival. It seems that when Shiro passed the first time, he was close to the mountain that Baekho was sleeping upon. Since his death he was been watched by the gods of the heavens and his deeds rewarded with this new life. Until he comes of age he will not remember us, but we will remember him. His wish is for Keith and I to be with him as he ages and grows”

Pidge let out a small sob, turning to Allura for comfort

“That idiot. He’s such an idiot”

Allura stroked her hair

“He knew what he was doing. He would wish us not to cry”

“I don’t care what he wishes. I didn’t even get to hit him. How could he leave us?”

That’s what Keith wanted to know too. Everything was still such a mess and now Shiro was no help at all. He’d never see what the realm did next or hold his head high in pride. Clenching his hands into fists, he turned from his friends. Lance placing his hand on Keith’s shoulder

“I will tell you more once this has passed. Baekho has bestowed us his blessings. The power to stop Lotor and Honerva lies in our hearts. Baekho thanks you for your service to the realm, but the war is not over. Allura, I ask of you to hold this child. He will not wake until the danger here passes. Nor can he be harmed. Still, please protect him in my stead”

Allura took Shiro from Lance, Keith able to see from the corner of his eye

“I shall. What of you and Keith?”

Lance dodged the real meaning of her question

“We have a few tricks up our sleeves. You may say that the heavens have given us a hand”

Lance waved his new hand in front of their friends as Keith pinched the bridge of his nose. Patience may yield focus, yet it also yielded not murdering Lance for his atrocities against good humour. None of them laughed, Lance huffing at the lot of them

“Seriously. That was gold. You don’t appreciate me. No. First thing is first, we shall stop what Zarkon was bringing into the realm. Then Honerva and Lotor should show their faces… unless they’ve already fled. Hunk, you and Pidge will get on this side of the portal. Keith and I shall take the other. When we are in place we shall summon down Baekho to crush the barrier”

“Is that even possible? The elders could not stop it”

True to form, Hunk sounded worried. Keith was sure the elders didn’t appreciate having their failure waved in front of them

“It is because Baekho said it is. White will form the anchor of the spell. The blade has taken on the celestial divinity of a god for this task alone. When you feel the energy, let it in then focus on the spell. Krolia, stay with Allura. Very shortly your time will come so you must be prepared”

“Understood. I will be ready”

Lastly Lance tugged on Keith’s shoulder until Keith raised his gaze to him

“No one will die. We will end this for our mate and our child”

Keith wanted to slap Lance off, simply too hurt by Shiro, but he couldn’t. Not when Lance was hurting as much as him

“I understand. For Shiro”

“For Shiro and his wish for the future”

*

Taking their places around the demon portal, Lance raised White high. He had no idea if this would work, yet he hadn’t been ready to argue with a tiger who could have eaten him in one bite without a second thought. His heart grieved heavily for Shiro, yet Shiro had given his life to pave the way ahead. With both hands he drove the blade into the ground, taking the energy from the sword to direct it how his mind instructed. He knew he didn’t know the spell and that he would most probably forget it once he finished. Drawing out the matrix of his mind, he extended it, passing it out to Keith whose energy slowly accepted it in.

From the two of them the matrix spread, Lance moving around the edge of the portal until it reached Pidge, and then Hunk. Retracing his steps, he took his point to the east with Hunk to the west, the others aligned with the other directions, and stepping back until the square was large enough to cover the portal. Setting his point in place, Lance then drew through the air another spell he did not know. He could see why the elders didn’t tell them anything important, not clueing everyone in seemed to be a key trait of those that came above the masters. As it was the spell shouldn’t have taken, not with the size and power of the portal.

Finishing the spell silence filled the air. No breeze or breath to be heard. For a moment Lance thought he’d gotten it horribly wrong, then came howling winds and a huge displacement of energy. Lance felt as if he’d been pulled forward from his body and pushed back in, in less than a blink of the eye. At the same time he felt as if his heart was now connected and one with his friends. Just there. Barely a thought. Somewhere in the back of his brain he knew he felt them there. He felt love. He even Allura who stood not in formation.

Landing lightly upon the spell just cast stood Baekho. The tiger letting out a roar that would have shaken the heavens, Lance’s ear popping painfully under the cry, leaving him falling to his knees. As the tiger roar the world above shook until the spell above broke, purple shards raining down on them like drops of rain.

Everything and nothing happened. Everyone and everything connected then not. The night breeze flooded into the terrace, real rain starting to drip, falling with chunks of metal and earth from what had been coming through. Leaping down from its position, Baekho padded softly across the mess to Krolia, the tiger bowing its head before her. Too far away he did not hear the exchange though knew in his heart that Baekho would be taking her back to the demon world shortly.

Looking across to Keith, Lance sympathised for him so much. Shiro had gone. Shiro had been reborn. The demon portal still remained. And the fight was not over. The rain falling upon them would wash away the corruption, but deep down, Lance wasn’t sure he’d never know what it was to be free of weight of their actions ever again. Still, his feet started moving. Until he was running to Keith. He’d only meant to watch, yet what good was watching when Keith was so hurt?

As he drew close to Keith, Keith threw up his hand. Fire condensed into an orb, ready to be shot straight at him. His gaze not leaving the portal before and his voice cold

“Where will she go?”

“Baekho will take her back to the demon realm safely”

“You knew this would happen”

“I knew and I didn’t at the same time. I…”

“Don’t. Shiro died for us and you can’t even give me a clear answer. I’m so confused I cannot tell up from down or friend from foe”

“Keith…”

“Not now. Get out of my sight until I can think again”

Lance didn’t want to do that

“You know I cannot. Keith…”

Keith didn’t hesitate to launch at blast towards him, intentionally missing Lance by millimetres

“He’s gone, Lance. He swore to get through all of this by our side and he lied. Now she is soon gone too”

“Krolia will return…”

“How do you know?! How do you know she will return?! Are you a vision seer now?! Can you cross the realms and tell us of what you see? Shiro is gone and you accept his rebirth! I don’t accept it! He didn’t need to die this way for this damn realm! I’m so angry I’m barely holding it in… so stay away”

A slap to the face would have hurt less than Keith’s words that seemed to slice through Lance’s heart. The pain absolutely awful, but Keith was not being fair. Not that he could be fair or rational either with Shiro having left. He too didn’t want Shiro to be gone. To have left them behind. In the space between realms he’d felt it all so easy to exist. As if even the most shocking of news would not break him. Almost as if… as if he’d been protect from his own heart by his ex-mate. He probably had been. Shiro would have worried for them both in his dying breath. Turning on his heel Keith walked away.

Beyond the ruined gatehouse came cries and Lance wiped his eyes. Those shut outside Zarkon’s barrier could now enter. Any other portals open could be closed now, including the one within the sanctum. Coming up to him, Lance sank into Hunk’s hold as his best friend wrapped his arms around him. Burying his face against Hunk’s shoulder, Lance’s body started shaking as the first hiccup of a sob slipped free. He never wanted Shiro to leave the way he had and it was utterly unfair and beyond cruel. Hunk held him. Letting his own tears fall against Lance’s shoulder.

Quietly Pidge asked

“What do we do now? The portal remains open and that tiger didn’t close it”

“Gods and mythological beasts are not supposed to interceded. It is only that Baekho too a liking to Shiro on a whim that we had help”

“Is that what I felt? When the barrier formed? I felt I could feel you four”

Hunk broke his hug, hands coming down to hold Lance’s arms by the wrist

“I felt it too. As if though in seperate bodies we joined as one. Was that Baekho?”

Lance sniffled. He really wished people would stop asking him questions about things he didn’t actually know a thing about. He’d spoken with Baekho using no words

“I think it so. I think I felt Shiro too… all of us coming together as one shared the blessing. I actually don’t know for sure. I don’t remember the spells or the feeling… it… none of it other than losing him feels real”

Pidge then asking

“Will White pass to your hands?”

“It is Shiro’s wish for it to pass to Keith. The blade will not move until he draws it”

With the imminent danger passing, Krolia and Allura walked over to join them. Baekho nudging Allura closer to him when the princess stopped just short. Again, Lance seemed to know what the beast wanted as he took little Shiro from her. The tiger dipping its head once the child was in his hold, then vanishing from their sight in a great series of bounds up into the heavens. Feeling a wriggle against him, Lance dipped the cover enough to see Shiro’s eyes wide and alert. Lance didn’t know if that was good or bad seeing it left one implication

“Honerva and Lotor have left this realm. They have fled before Baekho”

Krolia nodded, her eyes not on them. Lance knew exactly whom she sought

“He walked off. I think you can catch him if you go after him”

Krolia seemed to blush at Lance point out Keith was not there. The woman starting

“I…”

“Have done enough until the time comes. Spend your moments with your son. The fight now lies within the demon realm”

“I had the feeling. Baekho seemed pretty interested in Shiro”

“And with you. All Shiro was and has been was witnessed. I need to take him inside out the rain”

As Lance tried to take his leave, he heard a familiar voice yell out

“Pidge!”

All of them turned. Matt rushing towards his little sister who rushed right back. The pair hugging tightly, Matt immediately dissolving into lecturing her while at the same time alternating between pushing her away to check her condition and hugging her tightly. Shay was not far behind him, neither was Coran. Hunk and Allura both rushing to their important people, leaving Lance with Krolia

“Shall I…?”

“Go find Keith. I’m no comfort to him until he cools his head and he’s distressed that you will leave”

“And you?”

“I have little Shiro. To me he’s who I must tend to first”

Krolia paused, she seemed to be mentally talking to herself, ending the conversation with the tiniest of nods, before straightening her back and looking to him. Extending her hand, Lance took it, the pair shaking hands then falling into Krolia holding his hand

“I admit when I am wrong. I was wrong to treat you how I did”

“I understand”

“It doesn’t matter if you do or not. This is my apology”

“I was too close to Zarkon, I understand. From here on out I hope we can be good friends”

“Me too, Lance. I’ll try speak to Keith…”

“No. He’s mourning the loss of his mate too. Let him feel his pain and hold him close. Your son is the best man I know”

“I am rather proud. Thank you”

“And you. Without your conviction they may have never come. Now… Now I must get little Shiro inside before he catches his death and passes into his forth life”