#also i love adashi the world needs more adashi

[mothmanavenue]

in this city’s barren cold i still remember the first fall of snow, and how it glistened as it fell, i remember it all too well

[f-117-nighthawk]

Playlist Update? From MY Brain? More Likely Than You Think

can't remember the last time I posted these all together but I just put a few new songs in. I've been playing Arknights bc STARSET songs keep being used in the trailers, and then I was listening to Transmissions while making dinner, and uhhhhh there's two new Transmissions songs on the playlists, plus whatever else the spotify links needed to update to my ever-changing apple versions.

This is just the main playlist, because this one is now 3h 40m, and the other three playlists are about an hour each. I’ll give them their own post tomorrow. Under the cut, because it's also Write Random Snippits and Include Important Lyrics time

Dark Matter

Surprise surprise, this one’s got probably the most work done on it. A lot of that is moving things around, a few deletions, and the additions.

DM now starts with Your World Will Fail, Dark Matter, and Eater of Worlds. Turn the Lights Out still kinda applies, but I stopped vibing with it starting everything, and wasn’t really sure where else it should go so it got dropped. It’s role is sort of picked up by a UtA song later? Anyway, the opening three are still very much about not only the birth of [REDACTED], but the birth of the universe itself. And that’s why it feels better to start out with YWWF. Because it is the start.

(Your world will fail my love/It’s far beyond repair/Your world will fail my love/It is already there)

(Bring me your soul/Bring me your hate/In my name you will create/Bring me your fear/Bring me your pain/You will destroy in my name)

(Can’t imagine the violence/The rage and the love in my madness/I am the eater of worlds and I’m looking for someone to feed me)

Remnants of Stars is a hook to Filaments at this point, but stays way up here because the thing it’s about connects back up to those three ^ and is something slowly realized by the Paladins throughout the series. There’s kinda three different points that they realize something new about this (at the moment, I Am the One, Cosmic Vertigo, and Centigrade).

(Shed all you know and make way for a galaxy of light/Answers found hidden inside the smallest stone/Bringing forth a new way of life/Open your heart to the sky)

Apocalypse 1992 hasn’t changed. Still about The Fall, still the turning point for the entire damn war. Still about poor Krolia. Still the Rogue One of DM. It happens between parts of Awakenings, detailing the rise of [REDACTED] and the final hours before the destruction of everything sentient species knew beforehand.

(Fly high through apocalypse skies/Fight for the world we must save/Like tears of a unicorn lost in the rain/Chaos will triumph this day)

Apex is the final moments of Apocalypse 1992 from the Red Lion’s perspective, and connects nicely (just as in the albums lol) to the next UtA songs. Which we’ll get to in a bit.

(Brother mountain/Now we sleep/For a thousand years/I will see you again/Something is coming/Coming for me)

You Keep What You Kill covers the slow degeneration of the Empire between The Fall and the Battle of Arus. The knowledge harshly taught by the Thuanial War is forgotten under the influence of Zarkon, Haggar, and [REDACTED]. Marzin and Galraasa quickly rise the ranks as the Empire’s left and right hands, like omens of destruction before them. The four are the ‘holy half-dead,’ the ones who shape the devouring of the universe before them.

(Defying dimensions/These ruthless creatures will steal your soul/Breaking away from the chains of mortality/They won’t be taken down/Bow now to the holy half dead/The master to death mongers calls)

The Glory and the Scum is partially here bc I missed having Delain, I’ll freely admit that. (Delain split up! Like six months ago! I’m still sad!) Here, it’s (most) of the reason why Krolia isn’t around until MGHM. Think Winter Soldier-ish. It’s also from Krolia’s perspective as she’s talking to Kolivan in a conversation I implied in Shatterpoint. Perhaps it shall see the light of day.

(Look at what we've done/Take a step back/Shake your head at what we have become/We're the glory and the scum)

The Seven Sisters is about Keith, mostly, and connected to Closure via its influence on Child From the Stars (Lost in the Dark) and also to Memories of a Girl I Haven’t Met. Also the thing about the Pleiades has kinda become A Thing associated with my two favorite halfbloods.

(I cast my hope upon The Pleiades/The Seven Sisters who would come for me/They’d fall to Earth to grant a child’s dream/But I’m still waiting)

Starlight is the Adashi song. Here, it’s the sad part, based around the time that the SFSS Genesis launches for Kerberos. It also is sort of about Shiro’s thoughts throughout the war as he watches ‘from distant skies’ (and influences String Theory kinda)

(At night the earth will rise/And I’ll think of you each time I watch from distant skies/Whenever stars go down and galaxies ignite/I’ll think of you each time they wash me in their light/And I’ll fall in love with you again)

Waking Dream and Abyss are Awakenings. They’re specifically the Red Lion waking up on Sendak’s ship to her new Paladin, but also sort of the rest of the Lions as they find new Paladins for the first time since The Fall (and, also, an accidental hook to the end of Filaments just by virtue of being on the same UtA album…)

(Centuries like flowing streams as years go rushing by/Waiting in the dark for afterlife)

(Open my eyes in a daze/How long has it been? Am I so out of place?/Warmth I can no longer feel/My mountain is gone, I’m surrounded by steel/The strangest of structures arises ahead/Seems to be held up by nothing/Where have I gone, do I dream?/How can the stars be all I can see?)

Who Will Save You Now is about the Paladins in First Contact. It’s the video messages they send to their families, the warning that Something Is Out Here that they need to prepare for. It’s a declaration of protection for Earth, but a recognition that the Paladins may not be able to do what they say.

(I will not take from you and you will not owe/I will protect you from the fire below/It’s not in my mind/It’s here at my side/Go tell the world that I’m still alive)

Then there’s The End of the Beginning. Which is, well, the eponymous fic. And don’t forget the String Theory connection! Fun fact: part of the last chapter leads directly into part of String Theory at the moment.

(Every night I die just a little/All this time, I’m caught in the middle/All your life, you fought with no winning/This is just the end of the beginning)

A Simple Plan is about anything but a simple plan. Lotor is making his secret bid for the construction of the Sinkline ships, but there’s one more thing he needs before it can come to fruition. Haggar has suspicions, and knows one thing that she needs to keep from both him and Voltron. Team Voltron is still struggling to fit into their new roles, especially with a Black Paladin who adamantly does not want to be Black Paladin, and is in desperate need of one thing to fix the last of the damage done during the Battle of the Sarnan Nebula.

(How long can we hold off ending?/How long can we pretend we’re ok?/No one goes on fighting it forever/I know I’m better this way)

Memories of a Girl I Haven’t Met. Such a short song for such an important fic. It skips all the way over Naxzela to the Mission to the Baaria Shipyards, the first major offensive that isn’t somehow connected to canon (even if only a very very small part of it is actually at the shipyards lol). This is also the song that solidified Keith’s very queer identity in Dark Matter. And more Pleiades stuff!

(In this lonely place, bathed in silence and thoughts of you/I can’t see your face but I’m trying to envision you/So are you really out there? Are you awake with memories/Of a boy you haven’t met yet who’s wished upon the Pleiades?)

There’s another fic in here that I’m still waiting for a song to catch my ear, but it’s pretty big so I’m putting it in here. For the moment, it’s called MGHM 2.0: Electric Paladinloo. Featuring the Whispers, Voltron, and a few mullets.

And then. Hoh boy. The beast of beats. TRIALS (reimagine), Dark On Me, String Theory, and I Am the One. We’ve got [REDACTED], we’ve got [spoiler], we’ve got the first major turning point in the entire war, and the first revelation of the true nature of [REDACTED]. Hence the honor of being the separation point of my two main DM folders. TRIALS is the first part, the horrifying realization. Dark On Me and String Theory itself are from Shiro’s perspective. I Am the One is… an image song? I guess? That’s all I’ll say on that. (I would like to note that the STARSET songs bar OWtT tend to be about the Shiroganes…)

(Hear me from the bottom/Forged in regret, I'm the silversmith/Doomsday, you we had it coming/Marching the streets with an iron fist/Obey no more in silence/The steel in our hearts will be monuments/Today, they'll hear the violence/We'll rise from the dark like Lazarus)

(You're the cause/The antidote/The sinking ship that I could not let go/You led my way, then disappeared/How could you just walk away and leave me here?/Light the night up, you're my dark star/And now you're falling away)

(You don’t believe in space/You don’t believe in light/You don’t believe that anything is well beyond your might/We walk across the sky and beneath the ocean floor/We’re never going anywhere we’ve never been before)

(I am the one/I am the architect to rule your fate)

House on Fire is the aftermath of String Theory, and a large vibe of We ARE Struggling Together! It’s about family, never letting go of something you care about, and the slow act of trusting.

(So I’ll just hold you like a hand grenade/You touch me like a razor blade/I wish there was some other way right now/Like a house on fire we’re up in flames/I’d burn here if that’s what it takes/To let you know I won’t let go of you)

Belgrade is The klance song! It is a) a bop b) always stuck in my head because it is That Good. The line in the chorus about ‘sweet songs of seduction’ is eternally funny to me bc a)they’re both ace and b)QPR’s don’t usually involve seduction. Belgrade also leads almost directly into…

(We pretend in the darkness/We pretend the night won’t steal our youth/Singing me the sweet songs of seduction/Let me be the fool, fool, fool/Who will live and die for you)

Here to Save You is about Sam. Mostly. It’s also about Pidge. And Zaivorge cannons.

(A slave for humankind/I made sure I would survive/To stay alive/Now it’s time to move on/When there’s nothing left to prove/I’m coming to get you)

Iron is the third Closure fic (the second is End of the Beginning, forgot to mention that. They’ve slowly moved away from actually being related to it in anything but name and general idea). It’s about Keith coming to terms with parts of himself, and learning how to use them to great effect. Also has a huge info dump about the Blade.

(You can’t live without the fire/It’s the heat that makes you strong/‘Cause you’re born to live/And fight it all the way/You can’t hide what lies inside you/It’s the only thing you know/You’re embracing that, never walk away)

The second major turning point in the war is Monarch, Birthright, and Firewall. I really recommend reading the whole lyrics for Monarch, because the entire thing is very much a Lotor song. I had a bit of trouble picking a lyric to use here. Monarch is here because Lotor is also the ‘singer’ of Birthright, and both songs are to a very specific high-level target of the Coalition. Firewall is a little different as it’s a Team Voltron song not a Lotor song, but happens because of the same thing the other two do. They’re all not exactly a direct result of Iron, but they wouldn’t happen how they do without it, and then [REDACTED] swings back into the fray and things learned in String Theory/the framing story for Through Apocalypse Skies hit in full force.

(I am not the person you remember from before/The one you patronized and stepped on, the one you hurt/And I have pulled the arrows, now my skin has become stone/No longer am I prisoner to your empty fucking words)

(The voices in my head have all begun to sing/(The voices in your head have all begun to sing)/And they sure as hell hope I am listening/(I sure as hell hope you are listening!))

(They come to your dreams with illusion/They come to bring shape to your mind/You know how to stop the intrusion/We all have to fight for our lives)

and then, The Day the Earth Collapsed

(How much time has been elapsed/Since the day the earth collapsed?)

Here Comes the Reign doesn’t come into full effect until several months after Birthright/Firewall, but starts with The Day the Earth Collapsed. It’s largely about Haggar and [REDACTED]

(You made something they can’t take away/Now bring the fire of the burning sun on everyone)

Supersonic is here… kinda as a placeholder? Things have shifted around since its original purpose, and frankly it’s here still as a framework for what I like to call The Meme Battle. It’s generally about the increase in Coalition support and general winning as they go after warlords in the aftermath of Feyiv, culminating in I Need a Hero which is, of course, The Meme Battle.

Yes, it’s the Shrek version. It’s the Meme Battle.

(Supersonic, polyphonic, this is our war/Mustering the armies, marching faster than before)

(I need a hero/I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night/He's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be fast/And he's gotta be fresh from the fight)

But Tonight We Dance isn’t exactly a klance song, but it’s here for them. On a diplomatic mission gone wrong, the Red and Blue Paladins of Voltron uncover a literally-buried government conspiracy, a rebel cell, and nearly die. A normal days work for the two of them. But they’ve really gotta stop having relationship milestones in the middle of a warzone.

Another reason it’s here is Tonight We Dance is a very aro song to me. “A language universal, but I speak not its tongue” hits hard. I felt like I needed a bit in here to remind listeners/readers that romance isn’t a language Keith speaks. And it becomes very explicit in this fic, just like Belgrade.

(Tomorrow we might wake in servitude and silence/I will give you everything if only you would have me/Tomorrow we will sweat and toil/Our hands will quiver, caked with soil/Tomorrow we'll give it one last chance/But tonight we dance/But tonight we dance!)

But Tonight We Dance is the last of the Closure fics, which is why it’s here. Closure in general is a lot of Keith’s character development and some of the struggles he goes through to accept his place in the universe and the fact that yes, he does have people that care about him. The last fic is me shining a brighter light on Closure’s chorus and taking a ‘last goodbye’ as never needing to say it again

(I am the child from the stars/That got lost in the dark/Between heaven and hell/I am forced to live on/I am the cause when you sin/I am the demon you skin/But there is no more tears to beautify/This is my last goodbye)

Then we step back into the universe-level action with Soulbound. Revelations from String Theory and Firewall swing back in with a vengeance on a joint Whispers-Voltron mission, leaving them reeling and Krolia questioning her very identity.

(Soulbound, endlessly forever/Locked between the darkness and the light/Don’t drown in the swarming, blackened rising/Hold on to humanity and fight)

About three months after that is My Darkest Hour and Faster Than Light. Haggar realizes something and goes searching for her fifth [spoiler], sending the Blade and the rest of the Coalition scrambling. These also lead directly, and I mean directly, into…

(When the sun comes crashing down/When the world is spinning round and round/I will face what must be my darkest hour)

(Once more we’re flying fast as light/Dark matter passing in the night/Pursued by a force we can’t outrun/As we hurtle towards a dying sun/We maneuver through the remnants of a moon/On the solar winds of supernovas/There is not a place to hide, the Matriarch is close behind/It’s plain to see she’s coming for us all)

Cosmic Vertigo and Other Worlds Than These. Together they are the second of two revelations in what, exactly, is [REDACTED]

(Banish me like burned down planets/Write my fate with sparkling lies/I am the universe; you're just one sky)

(Pull the wool out from your eyes/It won’t shade your frail belief/In the end we cannot hide/There are other worlds than these)

Godhunter is Team Voltron, well, hunting for gods, even as one of them disappears.

(She’s been watching for a century/With hatred, and with scorn/If you know the hunter’s coming/Then you hide or keep on running/'Cause she’s slain the gods before)

Trophy Hunter, Ember, and Redemption are the culmination of Godhunter. I’ve been thinking of them as akin to the suicide mission in Mass Effect 2, if that gives you an idea of what the hell they run into. Also I switched which specific Redemption is on the playlist, because I was listening to Red Handed Denial again and their Redemption was vibing way more than the Hammerfall one. They link up to Godhunter and Soulbound in subject matter, and lead directly into…

(You, you won’t escape me, I’ll rise from the deep/In this final moment, no words left to say/I can’t let you be when a life fades away/You, you won’t escape me ‘cause I’ll set you free)

(Dark matter falling from the sky/Dancing flames reflecting in your eyes as you watch them burn/Watching all your riches witches burn)

(Remember me not for the mess I’ve made/But who I could have been/Finally I’m going home)

World On Fire, This is a Call, The Reckoning, The Wind That Shapes the Land, and Louder Than Words. Switched the order up a bit so it makes more sense chronologically, because the message ‘sent by forces beyond salvation’ has to get there before the reckoning can begin.

(World on fire with a smoking sun/Stops everything and everyone/Brace yourself for all will pay/Help is on the way)

(This is a call to action/This is a call to arms/All lives for one, together/There are no false alarms)

(I see your face, find peace of mind/Between the madness and the sadness and the fire burning/The end of war, the great divine/We’ll see the day of reckoning)

(Search within/Uncover the will to win/Turn against the tide that washes o'er/Find the strength to fall and rise again/Open up the gates, unleash the force/I am the wind that shapes the land/Old as time and twice as strong/Oceans arise at my command/I alone can carry on)

(We have the force to fight/We have the blinding light/A war is more than heard/Coming in louder than words)

[writingat-night]

tagged by my lovely mutual @tauremornalome in the first line game!

rules: list the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). see if there are any patterns. choose your favourite opening line.

tagging: @plotdesigner @shuttymcshutfuck and anyone else who wants to! (feel free to let me know if you want to be tagged next time i do one of these writing tag games — i honestly just don’t know which of you write)

okay. so the thing about my writing is that i never fucking finish it, and a lot of my wips are just a jumble of unconnected scenes. technically, i have more than 20 (unfinished) stories, but i’ll only be posting the ones that a) actually Have A First Line, and b) i hope to finish at some point in the distant future.

1. blue seas to mulberry fields (the untamed, nhs-centric, the only half decent fic i’ve ever published)

Jin Guangyao is dead.

He’s dead, run through by Lan Xichen’s sword, crushed under a hundred tonnes of rubble and debris. He is gone.

Nie Huaisang knows this. He does. But one man’s death is nothing compared to a lifetime. Compared to years of shouting for Meng Yao when he needed help. Compared to years of calling him San-ge. Compared to a decade of planning revenge.

2. theon greyjoy and the horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day(s) (working title) (game of thrones/asoiaf, theon-centric)

Theon doesn’t know when, exactly, his status in Winterfell changes from prisoner to ward.

The first time he is a prisoner is during the Siege of Pyke. He isn’t a prisoner of Winterfell, not yet. But a prisoner is a prisoner is a prisoner all the same, regardless of if he’s locked in a cell or trapped in his own home.

3. take a chance, remake the world (game of thrones/asoiaf, starks-centric)

Two years, four months, and seventeen days after his coronation, King Brandon Stark, Bran the Broken, first of his name, wakes with a purpose. His first true purpose in a long time. He must go today.

4. your place in the family of things (game of thrones/asoiaf, sansa and theon-centric)

Sansa has always prided herself on her composure. When she was a child, she had spent hours in front of the mirror perfecting her curtsy and her posture and her politest smile. She always says please and thank you and she knows her manners better than any of her siblings ever did. She does all her homework and raises her hand in class when she knows the answer (which is almost always) and earns A-stars in almost every test. She never loses her temper or complains about her workload. Her parents spent a lot of time and money to get her and her sister into this school. She knows that, and she’s grateful for it.

She’s certainly not the kind of girl who breaks down sobbing over her French notes. And yet.

5. untitled whisper of the heart au (the untamed, sangcheng and nie bros-centric)

Nie Huaisang would like to say, for the record, that he has the worst brother in the world.

Objectively, he is aware that worse people exist. Meng Yao, for one. Jin Guangshan definitely makes the cut. Jin Zixun– well, Huaisang hasn’t talked to him since the time he punched him in the face in junior middle school, but he’s sure he’s still an asshole. Maybe Jins just suck, like, as a rule. (Excluding Zixuan. Except, actually, he is kind of a dick. He’s working on it, though, so Huaisang will cut him some slack.)

But as a brother? Mingjue is the worst.

6. bastards anonymous (working title, obviously) (game of thrones/asoiaf, baratheon bastards-centric)

Gendry should have known that Secret Santa with Arya was a bad idea. It’s their first time including her in the present-giving, and they were very clear about the five pound limit. Not a one of them earns above minimum wage, except Arya. She doesn’t have a job, but her allowance is more than Gendry gets paid in a month.

7. the todorokis gtfo (working title) (bnha, todorokis and hawks-centric)

Fuyumi is not a good daughter.

She is not like Shouto. She is not the prodigy, the golden child, the future hero. She doesn’t have a quirk so strong it nearly burnt down the house when it first manifested, a quirk so perfectly balanced that even his appearance reflects it. She doesn’t have a destiny laid out in front of her, ready to be followed like a gold-paved road.

She isn’t a bad child, either, she hopes. Not like Natsuo. They might both be the middle children, in a way (although she’s technically tied for eldest with Touya, she is six minutes younger than him), both the failures, both invisible, but she’s content with that. Natsuo isn’t. She tries to balance out his anger at their father, to get him to just keep his head down and do as he’s told, but the more time he spends with Touya, the more rebellious he becomes.

But, then, she supposes it makes sense, given his circumstances. After all, Fuyumi might not have the unbeatable quirk their father dreamed of, but at least she has one.

8. show me where my armour ends (bnha, dabihawks, because i refuse to let go of this ship and i hate canon)

If there’s a better end to a day of hero work than a shower hot enough to turn his skin as bright red as his wings, Hawks hasn’t found it yet. Being a hero might be hard, but it’s damn worth it for the feeling of washing away grit and blood under scalding water, if for nothing else. After the day he’s had, he’s more than earned it.

9. untitled modern au (game of thrones/asoiaf, theon and the starks centric)

For all that his children seem to believe otherwise, Ned Stark is not an idiot. He has five kids, a sixth on the way, and he has learned something about being a parent in the past eight years.

He is not fooled when Robb comes down for dinner five minutes early, smiling brightly, and says, “Hi, Daddy! Do you want me to set the table?”

Robb had stopped calling him and Cat Mummy and Daddy at the start of the school year, because no-one calls their parents that anymore, Dad, come on, I’m in Primary Four now. He only uses it now when he wants something. And he never offers to set the table.

10. houses out of cardboard boxes (voltron (i know, i know, i’m sorry), adashi)

Adam isn’t nervous, per se. Adam Wadekar doesn’t do nervous. It’s just that this is his first time at a new school since he started teaching, so he may be a little out of practise

(Also, he’s back in California for the first time in years, after vowing to never return. But, whatever. Not the point.)

11. untitled character study (pjo, will solace-centric)

As a rule, Will is nonviolent. Between a staunchly pacifist mom, a complete lack of athletic ability, and a pathological urge to please people, he doesn’t think he could hurt another person if he tried.

But when you walk into your kitchen to see a man with goat legs and two teenagers holding swords, all common sense sort of goes out the window.

hmm. i feel like all of them have a similar.... vibe, but i can’t pin down a pattern, per se. i tend to open with a fact about a character and then some kind of contradiction, a lot of the time. i think my favourites are probably blue seas to mulberry fields, your place in the family of things, the todorokis gtfo, and the will solace one. (mainly blue seas, though. i will fucking finish that fic if it Kills Me)

[backupblogforjg]

The racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism and cruel tropes in Voltron

So, it’s the anniversary of the ending of Voltron. And I’m getting really, really tired of people saying that only shippers hated the ending. There were many issues with Voltron, and they were neither limited to shipping nor to S8.

So, I’ve decided to compile a list.

It gets LONG. Turns out there was a hell of a lot of racist, sexist, ableist and cruel tropes in VLD.

In fact, I had originally planned on writing a list of both the terrible tropes and the plot holes. But there just wasn’t enough room for both. The post is huge as it is, and with the plot holes, it would have been twice as long, so I had to focus on only one thing.

Salt, obviously. So, so, so much salt. I could turn a lake into a sea here. You’ve been warned.

RACISM:

1) The Alteans are genocide survivors. Out of all the Alteans, only the black Altean was used for a Reverse Racism story where she resents a teammate for belonging to the race that exterminated hers. The white Alteans are totally cool with him, and with his race in general, and only hate the bad people. But the black one had to be taught that hating people because of their race is wrong.

2) VLD Allura is also the only version of Allura who is black. In every other Voltron media (several different cartoons and comics), Allura is blond with blue eyes. All the white versions of the character get a happy ending, while only the black version ends up dying to save the world.

While "hero sacrifices their life to save the world" is not a bad trope in and of itself, it becomes bad when it kills off one of the extremely few black female characters in leading roles. You kill off a white male hero, there are 463278462387 more. You kill off the black female hero, you are kinda screwed. Making it worse, Allura had been portrayed as suffering from depression throughout the latest seasons, so that her death comes across less as heroic sacrifice and more as suicide.

3) The brown Cuban kid who dreamed of being a pilot, and never once in 78 episodes ever expressed anything but sheer love for an exciting life, in the final two minutes of the final episode ends up realizing that the place for him is a farm.

4) As told in interviews, Lotor was meant to be a bad example of mixed-race person, to contrast him with Keith as good example of mixed race person. Do I even have to point out how messed up this is?

5) Even before they became Space Nazis, back when they were still on the side of the angels, the Galra invaded and conquered planets. This is portrayed as totally cool when they happily name the prince after a "hero" who invaded and conquered a lot of worlds, and the peaceful Alteans think the guy is just as heroic as one of their greatest scientists. Apparently there is such a thing as ethically killing people to steal their land.

6) They whitewashed Keith, a character who is poc in every other iteration of Voltron.

I’m sure a lot of people are going to get angry here, claiming that I hate Keith. Let me assure you, I don’t. I love Keith, and I hate what was done to him. I hate that they took a traditionally poc character and went to frankly ridiculous lengths to erase that part of his character. Keith should be Asian, and it would be incredibly easy to make him so in VLD (seriously, all they’d have to do is update the freaking bios, an intern could do it right now in 5 minutes). But they refuse to do it.

A lot of people don’t realise that the surname “Kogane” in VLD is fanon.

I’m serious. Check his official bios page. Keith is not actually called Keith Kogane in VLD. Fans started calling him that in fanfiction, and it stuck, but it’s not canon.

In every other Voltron media, Keith is an Asian guy. But in VLD, they:

- went out of their way to always avoid giving him an Asian surname

- gave him a Texan father

- refused to confirm his race, even when every other character had a specific race. Again, check his official bios. All the other characters got a race, Keith gets “human.” It got so ridiculous it would be funny if it weren’t sad. It pretty much went like this:

Fans: Keith is half alien, but about his human half, what is his ethnicity? EPs: oh, we couldn't possibly say, because the story takes place in the future, and in the future, everybody is mixed up! So, Keith is HUMAN, we can't give him a specific race because there are no specific races in the future! Fans: ok. And what are the races of the other characters? EPs: Pidge is Italian, Lance is Cuban, Hunk is half-black half- Samoan, Shiro is Japanese. Fans: but Keith...? EPs: HUMAN! There is no such thing as race in the future!

Some people at least hoped that Keith's Texan father had Asian ancestry because he kinda looked like Shiro, who is Japanese. But the EPs confirmed that the resemblance was just a coincidence, they never meant for the dad to look Japanese.

At this point pretty much the only evidence that Keith is Asian is that he is voiced by an Asian person. But then, Josh Keaton is not Japanese, is he?

7) After whitewashing Keith, they claimed he is the best leader of Voltron, better than his poc predecessor, because he has Galra blood.

So, instead of bringing up any sort of legit reason to justify why Keith should be in charge (like his empathy or pilot skills), they go with "the half-white guy is also half space-nazi and that's why he should give the orders instead of the poc guy."

If you think I’m bashing Keith here, please ask yourself why you are getting angry at the person pointing out the whitewashing instead of getting angry at the whitewashing. Especially when, again, making VLD Keith canonically poc could be done anytime with zero cost and zero effort, and DW just doesn’t want to.

- Hunk, the half-black half-Samoan guy, was going to be killed and replaced as Paladin by a blue alien. The EPs were pissed when DW forbade them to, and complained in the interview about it.

SEXISM:

Every single woman who is ever put in charge ends up going insane, making terrible decisions that endanger her planet, or losing all of her authority.

Allura starts out as co-leader of Voltron and leader of the Coalition. Ends up as a foot soldier who takes orders from the new leader and his right-hand man, and is treated as a cadet by the Earth military.

HOMOPHOBIA:

1) Dreamworks, Netflix and the EPs very, very, very heavily promoted S7 as GLBT-friendly. The EPs gave whole interviews about the past relationship between Shiro and new character Adam, retweeted a ton of posts celebrating Shiro’s homosexuality, and enthusiastically sent tweets like "you are going to see more of Adam in S7! :D" from their personal accounts after they showed the episode that introduced him.

In S7:

- Shiro's homosexuality is so ambiguous that even the Brazilian voice actor didn't realize that he was supposed to be gay. Just by watching the show, without knowing the World Of God, you can’t tell he and the other guy were engaged.

- Adam gets about 30 seconds of screentime after that one episode they had already shown. Then he dies screaming in pain and terror in a fire.

A lot of people claimed that it was okay to kill Adam because Shiro was supposed to be our rep, not Adam, who was a brand new character we knew little about. And, out of context, that would be true. Adam was pretty much a NPC, why would his death matter?

But the problem here is the context:

- Shiro is closeted in S7, you need to read interviews to know he is gay. So, if only Shiro is meant to be the rep, they couldn’t even do that right.

- They very heavily marketed both Shiro and Adam as gay rep, and specifically talked at length about Adam in several interviews.

In THAT context, REGARDLESS of what you ship, killing off Adam revealed a complete willingness to manipulate the audience to the point of outright lying. Even if you hated Adam, even if Adashi is your NOTP, the clear evidence that the creators had absolutely no problem making empty promises was NOT a good sign.

2) The moment Shiro is revealed to be gay in interviews, he is practically quarantined from the Team.

3) Shiro is also given a Totally Not AIDS deadly disease.

Making it even worse, Shiro never actually gets cured in canon. We are told he is cured in interviews, but the show itself drops the topic entirely. Depending on where you lean in the Word Of God VS Death Of The Author debate, Shiro may be doomed to die.

4) A female villain is revealed to be a lesbian. 30 seconds later she gleefully tortures a little girl. Then she, too, dies in a fire.

(Fan outrage about pulling two Bury Your Gays in the Season that had been very heavily promoted as GLBT-friendly caused DW to retcon her death and bring her back in S8, but she was originally meant to die in the explosion)

5) Shiro ends up marrying a random character who doesn’t even get a name in the show.

ABLEISM:

1) Shiro's PTSD magically disappears offscreen. In interviews, the EPs claimed that he "got over it" between S6 and S7 because "he is a professional." Wow! Who knew being a professional magically cures mental illnesses!

2) Shiro is an amputee. The EPs admitted that they never put any thought into his status as disabled rep, they just wanted a character with a cool-looking arm. It literally didn't occur to them that making him lose his arm (TWICE! First up to the biceps, then up to the shoulder) meant anything. Also worth noting that Shiro’s new arm makes him look like the guy who tormented him.

3) Shiro is systematically robbed of his agency.

- He is the only Paladin who never gets to use his bayard.

- He loses his bond with Black for no given canon reason (and the reason they give in interviews makes no sense, they basically say that transferring his soul out of the Black Lion makes her stop loving him. But she still lets Zarkon fly her!).

I know that Keith is traditionally Black’s pilot in Voltron media (although that shouldn’t matter, because VLD made a lot of huge changes to the traditional status quo). But if they wanted Black Paladin Keith that badly, they could have given some non-insulting reason for it. For example, say “because Shiro has spent so much time within Black, their bond is now so strong that he will get absorbed again if he flies her again.” Or co-pilots in Black (if Pidge can co-pilot with Matt, why can’t Shiro co-pilot with Keith?).

- He is defeated not only by Sendak, but also by a bunch of random Alteans. He basically can’t win a fight anymore unless it’s played for laughs.

- His new robot Atlas is bigger than Voltron, but also much weaker, and can only buy a few minutes for Voltron to come save the day.

- Every single enemy he ever defeated comes back to be finished off by somebody else (even the friggin' Gladiator from S1 comes back in S8). In the epilogue, he retires in his twenties.

4) Narti, the disabled General, is fridged shortly after her introduction. For a while at least it seemed like her death had affected the remaining three Generals, but then it turns out that the "For Narti" line was a trick and they never actually planned on avenging her.

CRUEL TROPES:

1) They intentionally baited the fans by pushing the plot thread that Lotor would be redeemed. They named the episode where he defects "A New Defender," they kept saying in interviews that they come from Avatar and they are very familiar with Zuko *hint hint*, they showed his family as incredibly abusive and Lotor himself as desperate, they showed that Lotor was a victim of severe racism (he is mixed race, and as stated above, the Galra are Space Nazis and are pretty obsessed with blood purity).

Then, after revealing him to be a villain, they gave an interview where they practically dislocated their shoulders by patting themselves on the back as they gleefully bragged that "we made them think we would give them a Zuko, but we gave them an Azula!"

(Nevermind the fact that Azula herself was a 14-year-old child, not a monster, and that Aaron Ehasz himself confirmed that he always wanted her to be redeemed).

When fans who are survivors of child abuse told them that the bait-and-switch was really hurtful, they laughed it off, and claimed that Lotor was just beyond redemption. Then they proceeded to redeem Lotor's abusive parents, who were objectively much worse.

2) Shiro’s clone, who sincerely believed he was Shiro and always meant well, was dehumanised, demonised and discarded like his life meant nothing. His short existence was full of pain from literally the moment he first opened his eyes, as Haggar kept torturing him with migraines to manipulate him. In the end, she brutally violates him body and mind, and brainwashes him to force him to turn on the family he was so desperate to find in The Journey. He dies in incredibly questionable circumstances, without ever getting to learn that his family survived Haggar’s plans. He is victim-blamed for the things she forced him to do against his will with mind-control, and is never mourned because the only family he ever had writes him off as a “thing” and “evil.”

In fact, the horrific treatment of Kuron foreshadowed S8. The Medium article “It never stops at one - Why Voltron: Legendary Defender's tragic ending wasn't a surprise and why more DreamWorks' series will follow suit” explains how.

The tl;dr version is that, when a story posits that the circumstances of your birth determine the value of your life, so that good intentions and hard work mean nothing, and long-established bonds can be discarded with zero thought and care, and your very humanity can be revoked over something you have absolutely no control over, and the whole sociopathic disaster is celebrated as a happy ending... it really, really can’t end well. Not just for you, but for the entire cast.

[spop-vld-wtf]

Klance Fic Recs (pt. 3)

Another update because Klance and its writers fill my heart.

Laughter Lines

Rated Mature, Swearing, Non-descriptive NSFW

Single Parent/ Modern AU

Unfinished

Once a homeless teenager, Keith is now a young, successful businessman who owns the most popular new gym in the state. Lance is a surrogate, single dad to his young siblings, and is doing his best to make ends meet. Neither has the time or desire to fall in love. Doesn’t stop it from happening, unfortunately.

*

“Surprisingly, no one wants to go out with the 23 year old dude with three kids under four and no time or money to treat them to fancy dates.”

“I do.”

My Notes: Ok, so this is a really good fic. Keith’s social awkwardness was just really relatable, and the kids were just. Very kid-like? Yeah. In most fics, kids are just shoved in and they’re all perfect and stuff, but this fic got it right. Kids can be cute, but also have tantrums and pull your hair and shit. Also, them caring for each other, even though Keith messes up so much, was great.

Golden Opportunities

Rated General Audiences, Sexual Innuendos

Group Chat/Modern AU

20 Chapters (70,802 words)

Pidgeot: So you know how my brother’s girlfriend is loaded?

Pidgeot: well she’s taking Matt and their boyfriend to Europe for a few months. Matt asked if he could bring me and you guys so,,,,,,

Pidgeot: Do you wanna go to Europe with me, my brother, Shiro, Allura, and Shiro’s brother?

There are so many times in life when things don't live up to your expectations. This trip? So much better than expected. Sights will be seen, love will be found, friends will be made. And they'll have a little fun while they're at it. But really, what's a better way to meet your soulmate than being stuck with them while traveling the world?

My Notes: This is another group chat fic, and at times it can get kinda crack-y, but in this fic, the humor is done really well. The Klance plot was just perfect, and I think that the fake-dating thing is so something they would do. Also, Shiro, Matt, and Allura’s relationship was poly goals.

time out of mind

Rated Teen and Up Audiences, Swearing, Sexual Innuendos

Time Travel/Future Husband AU

2 Chapters (27,849 Words)

Keith and Lance wake up married. In the future.

He lays there a moment, processing the faint throbbing in his head, a strange bitter taste like lemons in his mouth. When he opens his eyes, the room spins wildly into a kaleidoscope of colors, so he closes them again, breathing in and out until he feels less like he might throw up. He suddenly registers a warm weight over his waist, and lifts his head to see a brown arm thrown over him. It looks startlingly familiar, but different, bigger than he remembers, more toned.

Keith turns all the way around and comes face to face with Lance sleepily blinking his own eyes open.

My Notes: Holy shit guys. I read this in 1 1/2 hours and it is just perfect. The writing style is brilliant, everyone is totally in character, and I fell on the floor laughing many times. The use of time travel was really interesting and the ending was everything. I really highly recommend this.

Video Killed The Radio Star

Rated Teen and Up Audiences, Swearing

Modern/Single Parent AU

11 Chapters (69468 words)

"Yeah I... I didn't know I had a sister," said Keith. "Until she died last month. And now I... now I'm, um, I-I'm like a single parent to my nieces."

He took a huge breath to steady himself, waaay to worked up to be on live radio.

"And I don't know what the hell I'm doing."

- In which Keith is the guy who suddenly finds himself a single-parent to his two nieces, and Lance is the charming radio host who might be the only voice of reason in this mess

My Notes: I couldn’t put my laptop down while reading this. The emotions were super raw and beautifully explained, the adashi was god tier, and Allura was just perfect (as usual). The oc’s (Judy and Yumi) were really fun, and Judy was really well layed out and three dimensional. There were parts that made me want to genuinly cry, but the pacing and comedic timing made sure that I was always laughing. And the epilogue was so fluffy and cheesy and heartfelt. I loved this fic, a lot.

Read All About It

Rated Teen and Up Audiences, Swearing

Highschool/Modern AU

Unfinished

Keith is Altea High’s star athlete. And Lance, a wily reporter for the school newspaper, is crushing hard. The only problem? They’ve never actually met before. So when Lance decides to broadcast his long-hidden feelings in an explicitly romantic exposé, he ends up accidentally sparking a school-wide epidemic. Suddenly the entire student body is in on the drama, but are words truly enough to win over the school’s enigmatic heartthrob? [High school AU. Klance.] 

My Notes: As I’m writing this, only up to chapter 5 is posted, but this fic is really good so far! The plot is really interesting and I love that Lance is ditzy, but still really intelligent. A lot of people skip over that part of his personality :/. I think withholding Keith’s backstory was a good decision and the talks between Keith and Lance are intriguing. One of my favorite parts of this fic is that a lot of people have made beautiful fanart that goes perfectly with the great story that Read All About It is.

Take Note

Rated Teen and Up Audiences

High school/Modern AU

1 Chapter (13,620 words)

Lance has two notes for two people.

He really should have labeled them.

My Notes: First things first, Allura is best girl. (I mean, she always is, but especially here.) She’s super fun and supportive and I love her! But, to on Lance. Oh my goodness. He is so dense and poor Keith’s gotta deal with it. RIP Keith. I really liked the ending, it was really pure and cute. 

(BTW, the author of this fic, VulpesVulpes713, is also on Tumblr and contributing a lot of great stuff to the fandom as @vulpes--vulpes. You should really check them out!)

hostage

Rated Teen and Up Audiences, mild violence

Cop Au (!!!!)

1 Chapter (3795 words)

“You’re such an ass.”

Lance stares at him, dumbfounded. “Huh?”

“You’re not allowed to say that unless I can say it back,” Keith snaps.

“What—” Lance blinks. Then he realizes just what Keith is talking about and he falters, letting out a long, slow breath. “Oh,” he says softly.

“Yeah,” Keith responds sharply, but his voice wavers and he huffs. “Oh.”

My Notes: I’ve been waiting for a cop au since Voltron began, and this is all I ever could’ve hoped for! Badass Lance + protective Keith is something I definitely need more of in my life, and I loved how Lance kept his snark and sass even in the tensest situations. This was wonderful (and I need more!).

( hostage’s author @thespacenico is also on Tumblr with a lot more beautiful writing. Go check her out!)

[jenanigans1207]

First of Forever [Klance]

Finally I can share with you all my Secret Santa gift for @lancesgalaxy! I was told Klance so I hope you enjoy this soft Klance with a side of Adashi! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

--x--x--x--x--x

Lance finished zipping his jacket up over his scarf and headed out the door, shutting it tightly to lock the warm air inside. It was snowing big beautiful flakes that didn't fall to the ground; instead they floated lightly on the breeze and danced delicately around him as he headed carefully down the driveway. This was his favorite type of snow, filling the air with that tangible feeling of magic that was associated with Christmas. He tucked his hands into his pockets, smiling as he saw his breath puff out in front of him. Just as he was reaching the end of the driveway, a car pulled to a stop in front of him.

Keith smiled at him from the driver's seat a moment before Lance heard the doors unlock. He ducked in quickly, sighing at the warm air in the car. Keith was smiling at him, his long hair under a red beanie that looked so good on him it was almost unfair. Lance, for the life of him, couldn't pull off hats. They just never looked good on him. Keith, on the other hand, looked great in every hat he had ever tried on, but beanies were Lance's favorite. There was something about the way they pushed his hair over his eyes, the way his hair stuck out of the sides and back, curling up against gravity, that made Lance weak at the knees. Not to mention how cozy Keith looked.

“Ready?” Keith asked, even though he was already putting the car in drive and letting off the break.

“Absolutely.” Lance replied, settling himself into the passenger seat.

Keith and Lance had been dating for a few years and, every year since they had gotten together, Keith had taken Lance to help pick out their gift for Shiro and Adam. Keith was terrible at gift selection when it came to anyone but Lance. For the absolute life of him, he could not pick out a gift. It wasn't even that his gifts were unsuccessful. It was that he'd go between so many options over and over again until he successfully talked himself out of all of them. Lance wasn't there so much to give Keith ideas as he was to force Keith to stick with one of his ideas. Typically whatever he first picked out was what Lance voted for because, no matter how much Keith questioned it, his gut was almost always right.

“Whatcha thinking this year?” Lance asked as they continued the drive. They were already halfway to the mall and suddenly he was burning up in his winter gear. Still, he knew he'd be freezing once he got out, so he refused to remove anything. That was another way he and Keith differed— Keith was almost never cold. While Lance was bundled up in a scarf, winter coat and gloves, Keith was in a beanie and casual hoodie with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. Somehow he lacked the ability to feel cold and Lance was indescribably jealous.

“Shiro said they need some kitchen stuff but that's boring.” Keith clicked on his turn signal, glancing over his shoulder as he did so. Lance watched the way his hair slid over his shoulder and back as he moved, marveling at how long it had gotten.

Seized by the sudden urge to touch it, he reached out and gently threaded his fingers into the silky strands. “Gifts don't have to be extravagant and exciting, you know. If they tell you something they specifically want, that's what you should get.”

“I know,” Keith replied with a sigh. “It's just— who gets excited over getting a whisk for Christmas?”

Lance laughed then, the sound coming easy to him. He looked at Keith fondly, shaking his head, noting the way his laughter brought a smile to Keith's face. “Okay, a compromise. Two things. A boring kitchen item and something a little cooler.”

“A lot cooler. Cool enough to come from me.” Keith replied with false sincerity as they pulled into the mall.

Unsurprisingly, the mall parking lot was backed up all the way to the main road. They had to sit in a line of traffic waiting to get in and then hunt aisle after aisle until they found a parking spot. Christmas was only a few days away and Lance had been nagging Keith for over a week to get his shopping complete for this very reason. Keith, in response, had been teasing him for over a week about how he was done shopping for Lance, how he had been for a long time and how certain he was that Lance was going to love it. As much as Lance refused to rise to the challenge, he couldn't help the curiosity that nagged at him, making him analyze everything Keith said for a clue.

Finally they managed to park and climbed out of the car. The cool air was a welcomed reprieve and Lance sucked in a deep breath as he waited for Keith to come around the car so they could head in. They had gotten a great parking spot as it was, right by the entrance, and Lance willingly ditched his gloves before they were even inside so he was able to thread his fingers through Keith's, leaning slightly into his shoulder.

Keith was warm to the touch, just like Lance knew he'd be. His hands were soft and just the right size to fit into Lance's, holding him tightly so they didn't get separated in the crowd. In contrast, Lance's hands were always cold. He was constantly pressing them to the small of Keith's back or the inside of his thigh, making Keith jump and shove him away suddenly. Lance hated his cold hands most of the time, but they made it even sweeter when he got to hold Keith's hand, to feel that connection between them; warm and comforting and right.

“Do we need to shop for anyone else?” Lance asked as they dodged a group of people.

“Nope,” Keith gave his hand a squeeze. “I sent my parents something already and I've had your gift wrapped in my room for nearly a month.”

“You know, you don't always have to brag.” Lance purposely bumped his shoulder. “I've also had your gift for awhile and you don't hear me bringing it up constantly.”

Keith shrugged. “It's not my fault you've never been good at bragging.”

Lance pulled his hand away suddenly and shoved a laughing Keith away. Keith stumbled a few steps before coming back, the way he always did, and reaching for Lance again. With a dramatic sigh, Lance allowed his cold hand to once again be enveloped in the warmth of Keith’s and they finally entered the mall. The inside was slightly less crowded than the outside, Lance realized with surprise, and they were able to weave expertly through the crowd and to the stores they needed.

As soon as they entered the first store, Lance was immediately drawn to the large array of scarves. He headed straight to them, letting Keith come at his own pace.

“How does this look?” Lance asked as he finished wrapping a blanket scarf around his neck, his own scarf already discarded at his feet. The new scarf was so big that it covered half of his face, leaving just his eyes exposed.

“It looks good. But, it would look better if—” Keith reached forward and tugged the scarf even higher so that it was covering the entirety of Lance's face. “There, that looks perfect.”

The scarf muffled Lance's indignant noise but it was still audible to Keith who burst out in laughter. Lance could feel Keith’s eyes on him as he unwound the scarf from around his neck, hanging it back up on the shelf next to him. Keith was smiling in a way that was so warm and fond, Lance couldn’t bring himself to be mad about the joke.

Finally, Keith moved his eyes from Lance to the shelf of scarves next to them. He never wore scarves— literally ever. Lance had never seen him with a scarf on— but that didn’t stop him from picking up a ridiculous pink and yellow striped one. “What about this one for me?”

Lance gasped dramatically, “Is it possible?” He said, clutching a hand over his heart. “You do know that colors other than red and black exist? I was starting to lose hope.”

With a sneer, Keith reached out and gently smacked Lance with the scarf before depositing it back on the shelf. “I hate you a lot.”

“Is that why you spend every day with me?” Lance replied sweetly, cozying up to Keith’s side.

With a sigh, Keith slid an arm around Lance’s waist. “That can change.”

“Is that a threat, Kogane? Because you can pick out this Christmas gift by yourself.”

“Fine,” Keith dragged Lance away from the scarves and further into the store. “I’ll break up with you after our Christmas shopping is done.”

“Such a romantic.” Lance laughed, shaking his head.

Keith paused in front of the kitchen ware, scanning it while absentmindedly answering, “You love me.”

“I do,” Lance said and it was true— he loved Keith more than anything else in the world. More than he ever thought he could love anyone. He loved Keith in a way that he couldn’t express in words and that was precisely why he was going to make this Christmas their most special one yet.

They lapsed into silence while Keith shuffled his way through the kitchen items, looking more perplexed than anything. Lance watched quietly for a little bit, enjoying the way Keith would pick up each utensil and inspect it before setting it back down. Keith was, actually, a pretty decent cook so he should feel at least somewhat in his element. But the look on his face suggested otherwise.

Without realizing it, Lance had zoned out slightly. He only brought his attention back when he heard a clatter and noticed Keith moving suddenly. Lance reached out automatically to steady Keith as he dug his way to the bottom of a bin next to them, gripping his hips and holding him steady until he finally reappeared holding a set of rainbow kitchen utensils.

“He’s going to love it,” Keith said, presenting it to Lance. It was true, it included everything he and Adam were missing in their kitchen plus some.

“He’s going to hate you for it,” Lance remarked, unable to stifle the smile that came when he glanced back at it again. Rainbow kitchen utensils for two newly married men. He could just see their faces now. It was going to be priceless.

“Hate us for it,” Keith amended. “We’re buying it.”

“If I'm wrapping it, I'm only putting your name on it.” Lance said, knowing he had the upper hand. Keith was great at a lot of things, but wrapping gifts was not one of them. The only gifts he wrapped himself were those for Lance and they always looked like they had gone through a paper shredder. Lance found it endearing, of course, and never minded his own gifts looking like that but he always insisted on wrapping their gifts for everyone else.

Keith was already sliding his fingers through Lance's again, heading towards the front of the store. “As if they won't know it's also from you. Shiro has a sense for that sort of thing. Such a dad.”

Lance stopped abruptly, turning to smile broadly at Keith. “You just gave me a great idea for his other gift.”

—

Shiro and Adam always decorated their house to the nines. Every window, every tree and bush, every inch of the roofline was covered in lights, illuminating the house so brightly that it could be seen from the very end of the street. The inside of their house was just as intricately decorated: garland hanging from the stairway and in all the doors, ornaments hanging from strings in the windows, figurines everywhere and two Christmas trees. Lance loved it. Keith loved it too, even if he always teased them about going overboard.

“Merry Christmas, guys!” Adam said as soon as he opened the door.

Lance was the first to step up and embrace him. “Merry Christmas! Thank you for having us over!”

Keith followed Lance through the door, pausing to give Adam an awkward half hug since his arms were full of gifts. Lance was carrying the bags which made it easier for him to throw his arms around Shiro, immediately gushing about their decorations. Shiro proudly pointed out all the new things they had added as he took some of the gifts from Keith and threw an arm around his shoulder.

Together they moved into the family room, depositing their gifts under the tree alongside the few that were already there. This was one of Keith's favorite traditions— spending Christmas evening with these three, exchanging gifts and then eating dinner, topping the night off with a movie and some homemade popcorn.

“Hey,” Lance was glancing between Shiro and Adam, an eyebrow raised. “Why are you both wearing hoodies indoors?”

It was a valid question, there was a fire roaring in the fireplace and the heat was on. Lance had already stripped his winter gear and the flush on his cheeks was a clear indicator that he still felt too hot.

Adam and Shiro glanced at each other, both clearly trying to stifle a smile. In lieu of an answer, Shiro bent down and snagged two boxes out from under the tree, handing one to each of his guests. The guys took it skeptically, tearing through the wrapping paper. Like with most things, they were perfectly in sync, both opening their boxes at the exact same moment to reveal the sweater inside. They had matching blue sweaters with reindeer dancing in the middle. Keith opened his mouth to say something, only to pause when he noticed both Shiro and Adam removing their hoodies to reveal that they, too, had the same sweater on.

“Did you…” Keith looked at each person in the room. “Did you get us matching family sweaters?”

“This is amazing.” Lance said, already setting his box down and reaching for the hem of his own red and white striped sweater.

Keith watched as Lance pulled his sweater over his head, revealing a thin strip of skin as his undershirt came untucked. Lance could feel Keith's gaze on him and it made his heart rate spike.

“Do you like them?” Shiro asked.

“We love them.” Lance answered as he settled the new sweater over his undershirt, tugging the collar until it felt exactly right.

With a sigh and a small smile, Keith discarded his own hoodie, tugging the blue sweater over his head and immediately pushing the sleeves up to his elbows. “Love it.” He confirmed.

Lance loved seeing Keith in blue. Even though he associated red with Keith, blue mixed with his dark hair really made his eyes jump out and they were undoubtedly Lance's favorite feature. Keith's eyes were both breathtakingly gorgeous and incredibly expressive and he could stare into them for hours without ever getting sick of it. Plus, after taking the time to learn Keith so well, Lance could tell exactly how he was feeling with just one quick glance at his eyes. It made him feel indescribably precious to have that insight into Keith.

“Eventually we'll have to take a group photo.” Shiro dropped down onto the couch, draping an arm across the back of it and making room for Adam to settle in next to him, which he did.” But until then, presents?”

The others agreed, Keith perching on an armchair and Lance settling himself onto the armrest, leaning into Keith's shoulder.

“We'll start,” Lance replied after a moment, extending a package towards their hosts. He glanced briefly at Keith to note the way he was biting the corner of his lip to keep a smile off his face.

Shiro offered the package to Adam who shook his head kindly, allowing Shiro to open it. Shiro took a moment to tear through the tape and then tore the paper off in one long strip, dropping it unceremoniously to the ground. He pulled at the tape holding the box shut, eventually giving up on his struggle and handing it over to Adam. Adam made quick work of it and flipped the box open, immediately bursting into laughter at the sight inside.

Lance glanced at Keith again to see him outright grinning and it made his heart soar.  “Do you like your gaytensils?” He asked as Shiro picked up the rainbow measuring cup.

“Gaytensils?” Keith glanced up at Lance.

“You don't like that?” Absently, Lance was running his fingers through the hair at the base of Keith's neck, occasionally grazing across the soft skin there and eliciting a shiver. “I've been waiting, like, three days to use that. I thought of it right after we bought them.”

“Terrible.” Keith shook his head fondly. “Take it back.”

Lance glanced up and met Adam's gaze. “Tough crowd this year.”

“Gaytensils,” Adam was practically wheezing, nearly doubled over into Shiro's lap, holding the whisk and spatula in one hand. “This is amazing.”

“See? Some people have good taste!” Lance nudged Keith playfully, only to get an eye roll in response.

It was another minute or so before Adam managed to compose himself, setting the box aside with the lid open so he could still glance at it occasionally and laugh.

“Okay, okay.” He took a deep breath, wiping at his eyes, “Next is for you, babe.”

Adam reached forward and grabbed a package out from under the tree, dropping it in Shiro's lap. Shiro lifted the package, turning it from side to side, listening for movement inside and feeling the weight of it. Unable to guess, he began to tear into the paper, looking perplexed. As soon as the wrapping paper was gone, his eyes lit up. He flipped the box around so the others could see while he leaned in to kiss Adam thank you. In his hands was a box set of Friends, autographed by the cast members. Lance laughed out loud.

“We're watching this tonight!” Shiro declared as he set it down on the ground at his feet. “There is nothing anybody can say to get out of it.”

“You know, suddenly I'm feeling terribly ill. I think we need to go home right now, immediately.” Keith pressed a hand to his stomach, leaning forward and pretending to be sick.

Shiro threw a pillow from the couch at him.

“Here, Lance, you open our gift. Since Keith clearly doesn't deserve it.” Shiro handed Lance a small envelope.

Keith vaulted the pillow back across the room at Shiro.

Laughing, Lance tore the envelope open and pulled out two gift certificates. The first was for dinner at their favorite fancy restaurant and the second was for a couples massage. Lance jumped up from his seat and darted across the room to envelop them both in a thank you hug. He loved having a reason to dress fancy and he absolutely loved seeing Keith in a suit. There were no words to describe the way Lance felt every time he saw Keith dressed up. He could never properly express how easily Keith took his breath away and sent his heart soaring high into the sky. Giving Lance a chance to see Keith dressed up again was a gift in and of itself, the rest was just a bonus.

Keith appeared next to Lance, leaning down to make it a four way hug and murmuring a thank you of his own. As they detangled themselves, Lance returned to his spot on the chair and Keith grabbed another gift. He plopped it down in Lance's lap as he dropped back into the chair and Lance immediately smiled at how it was wrapped. He wasted no time in tearing into it, not bothering to care about the paper at all since it was already mutilated. Inside was a soft white blanket.

“Unfold it,” Keith murmured quietly in his ear, reaching for one corner and helping flatten it out so Lance could see.

The inside of the blanket was covered in photos of them that Keith had gotten printed onto the blanket itself. Lance's hand immediately flew to cover his mouth as he inspected it, other hand tracing delicately over each picture. He could feel a lump forming in the back of his throat. As he looked at each photo, he was overcome with an incredible feeling of love. Here Keith was, giving him this gift with indisputable evidence of their love. Lance turned to him, gently grabbing the sides of his face and pulling him into a fierce kiss. He knew words would never be able to accurately express how much he loved this gift— how much he loved Keith— so he did his best to pour every ounce of emotion into the kiss so Keith would have even the tiniest chance of understanding how touched he was.

A moment into the kiss, Lance could feel Keith's hand splayed out across his back, pulling him even closer. His other hand settled on Lance's hip to hold him steady on the arm rest. Faintly Lance could hear Shiro grabbing the next gift and passing it to Adam, so he pulled away finally, planting one more soft kiss on Keith's lips before thanking him with as much fervor as possible, draping the blanket over both of their laps and smiling tenderly down at it.

Once Lance finally settled his attention back where it should be, he saw Adam with a gift in his lap. Adam tore the wrapping on the package gently, doing his best to peel back the tape and not rip any of the paper. When they had first started dating, it had driven Shiro nuts. Now, however, after countless years together, it was one of the silly things that made Adam the man Shiro loved. And now, no matter how ridiculous he still found it, he wouldn’t change it.

“Wow!” Adam said as he pulled back the wrapping paper to reveal the gift inside. “A polaroid camera! Babe, I love it!” He flipped the box over and scanned the back of it before leaning in to plant a kiss on Shiro.

“I know it’s not exactly the type of camera you wanted—” Shiro began.

Adam cut in quickly and emphatically, “I love it though! It’s perfect!”

“Oh? Perfect?” Shiro said with a wry smile, another, bigger box in his hands, “So you don’t want this one then?”

“Well, I didn’t say that.” Adam replied, gently setting down his now open polaroid camera box and reaching for the one in Shiro’s lap.

Lance leaned into Keith’s shoulder, trying his best to keep his heart under control. There were only a few presents left to give and he had yet to give Keith his gift. He hoped beyond hope that Keith would like it. As they watched Adam remove the paper at a painstakingly slow speed, Keith slipped his arm around Lance, pulling him closer and dropping his head gently onto Lance’s. Briefly Lance wondered how he’d ever survived a Christmas that wasn’t set exactly like this: surrounded by the man he loved and his found family. He loved his own family, of course, and they would go visit them in a few days, but for today, this was absolutely and unbelievably perfect.

“Takashi! You didn’t!” Adam threw the last of the paper to the ground, a huge smile breaking out over his face.

It seemed like yesterday, though it had probably been nearly two months ago, that Shiro had called Lance and Keith at the store, desperate for their input on which camera to get Adam. He’d loved photography all his life and always talked about getting into it, but never in much detail so Shiro hadn’t had much to go off of. So Keith and Lance had planted themselves in front of the computer, googling all the different types of cameras in front of Shiro and weighing the pros and cons with him over the phone until they had come to a unanimous decision. Then, Shiro had dropped it off at their house because Adam was notoriously nosey and undoubtedly would have found it and guessed what it was.

“Is it the right one?” The worry was clear in Shiro’s voice as he searched Adam’s expression.

“The right one? Takashi, this is the nicest camera on the market!”

“Does that mean you like it?” Lance laughed at Shiro’s question, turning to bury his head into Keith’s shoulder. Keith shushed him quietly, trying to stifle his own laughter.

Adam set the box down and stood up completely, turning to pull Shiro to his feet as well. “I love it.” Adam said a moment before pulling Shiro down into a sweet kiss. After they separated, Adam wrapped his arm around Shiro and hugged him tightly. “Thank you.”

While they held each other, Keith dug the last of their gifts to Shiro and Adam out from under the tree. The pile was dwindling and there were only three presents left— two of which they were about to give to the others. Lance’s eyes lingered on his gift to Keith and he knew it was coming up next. Finally Shiro and Adam sat down again and Keith handed their gift to Them. Adam busied himself with opening his camera, setting everything up and playing around with some practice shots as Shiro opened his.

Shiro laughed out loud when he opened his gift, a mug that said ‘Universe’s Best Dad’. “You have to stop pretending I’m your dad,” He laughed, practically doubling over. Adam took a picture of it, smiling at the screen on his camera.

“You have to stop acting like our dad and we will,” Keith replied, also laughing.

Adam reached for his box next, letting the camera hang by its strap around his neck. He made quicker work than usual of the wrapping paper but still attempted to tear it as little as possible. Both of them burst out into laughter when Adam pulled out a matching mug inscribed with ‘Married to the Universe's Best Dad’.

“You two are killing it this year,” Shiro remarked as he set the boxes down.

A moment passed and suddenly Lance stood up, insisting that he needed to go get a drink. Shiro met his gaze and they shared a long look before Lance turned on his heel and headed into the kitchen. He braced his hands on the sink, leaning forward and taking a few deep breaths. It was now or never.

He could hear them in the other room, could hear Shiro explaining that the next gift was for Keith, from Lance. His heart felt like it was about to burst out of his chest in anticipation as he heard Keith say, “I’ll wait for Lance to come back before I open it.”

“Go ahead,” Lance yelled over his shoulder, closing his eyes and trying not to faint. “I’ll be back in two seconds. You can start opening it now.”

As Lance could hear the tearing of the wrapping paper, he pushed off the counter and headed back into the room. He paused in the doorway, meeting Shiro’s gaze over Keith’s shoulder. Adam was sitting next to Shiro on the couch, camera up, taking endless photos of Keith as he unwrapped the gift. They were both smiling because they knew what was inside, they had practically celebrated when Lance told them what his gift was.

Finally, after what felt like the longest moments of Lance’s life, Keith finished pulling the wrapping paper off to reveal the small black box. He could feel his hands trembling as he stepped forward then, trying to remind himself to breathe, just breathe. In and out. Keith opened the box, revealing the simple, elegant silver ring inside.

Keith whipped around then, barely giving Lance time to sink to his knee. Their eyes met, Keith perched on the edge of one of the arm chairs and Lance on one knee before him. There was a mixture of emotions on Keith’s face— shock, wonder and most of all, love.

Lance took a deep breath and dove in. “Keith, I tried to write this speech a million times already but I could never do it. Because I can’t think of the right words to explain how much I love you. I don’t know how to express to you that you are the best and brightest thing in my life. There is absolutely nothing in my life, good or bad, that I don’t want you there for. There is nothing on this Earth that I don’t want to share with you. Okay, well, that’s not exactly true. You still can’t have any of my oreos.” Keith laughed, reaching out to grab Lance’s hand and squeezing it tightly as he continued. “But besides that, I want you there. For everything. Always. I want you, Keith, forever. So, will you marry me?”

And just like that, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Lance could feel the tears pooling in his own eyes as he tried to express his feelings and Keith was blinking away tears too. Behind him, Shiro had a hand pressed to his mouth, his own eyes watery. Lance couldn’t see Adam’s eyes from behind the camera but he could hear him sniffle so it was only fair to assume that he, too, was choked up.

“Yes,” Keith breathed suddenly, standing from his chair and basically tackling Lance. “Yes!”

They tumbled to the ground, laughing, and Keith pressed a kiss to Lance’s lips. Lance secured his arms around Keith as they hit the ground, relishing in the way Keith nuzzled his head into Lance’s shoulder, pressing gentle kisses against the skin of his neck. He could barely contain himself at the thought that he would get to live moments like this, with Keith, for the rest of his life.

After a moment, Keith pulled back, “Man, my gift is nowhere near as good.”

Lance laughed, brushing his fingers gently against Keith’s cheek. “Are you kidding? Your gift shows exactly why I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Plus, you said yes. There is no greater gift.”

“When did you get so soft?” Keith teased, but he made no move to pull away.

Lance rolled his eyes, replying sarcastically. “You’re right, this is totally unusual for me. I’m never soft. It’s like you’re marrying a stranger.”

“No,” Keith smiled so brilliantly it almost took Lance’s breath away. “I’m marrying the love of my life.”

Those words did take Lance's breath away as he stared up at Keith in wonder. He could hear Adam clicking away on his camera, could hear Shiro murmuring about how happy he was and how perfect they were together, but none of it fully reached him. All he could really hear was Keith's response, repeating over and over in his head. His words settled into Lance's chest, carving themselves into his heart so that he could never, not ever, forget this moment.

“I love you,” Lance breathed.

Keith had never looked more in love in his whole life, Lance thought. “I love you, too. Forever.”

At that moment, Shiro and Adam rushed over to them, hauling them off the ground and congratulating them. Hugs were being shared between everyone and Adam was snapping away on his camera. Finally, he insisted on a family photo, setting the camera up on a table across the room. They lined up, Lance on the end, then Keith, Shiro, and Adam finishing off the line. A light flashed on the camera, counting down. Everyone smiled and Keith held up his left hand, showing the ring.

In the photo, Adam and Shiro were smiling at the camera while Keith, with his hand up, was smiling softly at Lance who was grinning back at him. It was the perfect photo and Adam promised to send them a copy before the night was over.

The rest of the night was a blur or food and Friends— both real and the show— and the only thing Lance really remembered was catching Keith glancing down at his ring frequently, smiling as if he couldn't believe his luck. And, as Lance fell asleep pressed against Keith and warm under the blanket Keith had gotten him— the perfect representation of their love— he couldn't help but think that this was the first Christmas of forever and he couldn't wait for everything their future had in store.

[madefate-a]

i was going to log off & relax for the rest of the night but apparently !! it’s been exactly one ( 1 ) year since a/dashi was announced & i just have to ,, rant a little bc like. this is never ever ever ever to disparage or look down on the other things i write but this pairing is so damn important to me. shiro has been important to me in a way characters never really have been before -- whatever you want to call it, my ID character or comfort character, but from literally day one i imprinted on him & saw so much of myself in him & he’s been a source of joy, catharsis, and some of my best and most earnest & beautiful creativity, my best writing. was a projection of myself, a role model, a foothold when things got difficult & i needed an example to follow to pull myself up & achieve the things i set out to achieve. 

& then !! right smack dab in the middle of sitting in a job i hated & feeling hopeless about my prospects for getting my life on track and falling into a really bad spiral -- suddenly !! the announcement comes !! that this character not only shares my ambitiousness and my flaws, but also my sexual identity. i kid you not, it was that announcement at SDCC last year, that glimpse at his life with adam, that allowed me to come out more fully to myself at twenty six, to own my identity and feel comfortable and confident and safe in ways i’d never felt my entire life. i remember the feeling of sitting at my desk at my office job scrolling through my phone and seeing the announcement -- how i felt like i’d swallowed sunshine, how i could hardly believe it, how i started crying right then and there. and yeah! it was traumatizing to watch what he went through in seasons 7 & 8, so much so that it was a topic during my therapy sessions. but goddamn -- i got to create this beautiful ship & world with a good friend & now, a year later, retain only the good things. i got to keep the memories of building something beautiful and special that i can still reread and cry over, and none of the bullshit or the heartbreak. i got to experience that, the power of friendship and collaboration, the power a story can hold, & honestly ?? no matter how things went down, i get to keep everything i created with this character & pairing, and everything i achieved in the last year thanks to the safety & comfort he gave me in spades. 

anyway !! i’m sunburnt & tipsy on a LOT of wine & i’m full body sobbing so tl;dr i love takashi shirogane & adashi with my entire heart & soul & wouldn’t be who i am with my creative endeavors with this character & this pairing. 

[slashtakemylife]

Vld thingie extra

I love art on the lions being actual lions so I thought up of an au of this and it’s really my excuse to have big furry lions being actual cats and exasperating their paladins

It’s set up on Altea because I want to be free to move some mythology so yeah that means they all altean

The lore is that the vld Lions are mythical beings that are sort of like muses, in which they visit certain people and help them in their endeavors by inspiring them in a certain way unique to them, they are ethereal and can’t be seen unless they want to

So Lance is exploring with Hunk when they find this Blue Lion asleep, it’s actually frozen/hybernating and has it’s protective shield but Lance knows the stories so he wonders why the lion is in physical shape

Lance is able to waken the Blue Lion and it’s eyes shine and Lance feels the bond, he is now it’s paladin, aka the lions has chosen him t help him in a way and will stay with him until it’s complete

He sees Blue needs help finding the rest of they lions since they are also incorrectly in a physical form and not in their ethereal one

I’m doing a time skip because eventually they find the lions and they too have chosen a paladin but please keep in mind these are real fluffy actual lions, their fur is the color they are (Blue, Red etc.) they all don’t have manes except Black but also they are mythical beings so no genitalia so none have a real gender just based on their features

Shiro knows they are also incredibly powerful so they can’t fall on wrong hands, so he goes to a trusted friend, Allura, as the heir to the throne, she lives in a manor away from the palace were she manages it and also receives her alchemy lessons, there is few staff that is selected by her

So Shiro comes barging in with the supposedly destroyed in the last Altean-Galra war by her father Alfor, super powerful Lions and is like, ejem, can we stay?

It’s worth noting all the gang has to stay because their lions don’t leave their side so they have giant cats following them aroung and yes they are soft big kitties that like to cuddle their paladins and demand to be petted and play with

Allura tells them that the lions jump from person to person and the person they are currently helping out it’s called their paladin, like I said they are ethereal and unseen to those but their paladins so they are just like ghosts floating around, they are not supposed to be physical

Coran tells them that in the last war, Emperor Zarkon searched for the then current paladins of voltron and his witch Haggar made the lions into physical beings so that Zarkon could control them and bind them to just one person and also make use of their combative power (something they have but don’t use since they just go around inspiring people)

So now the gang has these big kitties they have to take to Oriande, hoping the witch doesn’t see them and change them back to their original forms

Basically I just want big giant playful kitties that are really super powerful and part of the Altean pantheon, being bothersome to their reluctant paladins but they all want to help them get back to their OG shape and in the journey they, without realizing, are also being helped by them, even if they have to scratch bellies and get licked by scratchy tongues a lot of times XD

So I pictured scenes like Green stealing and wearing Pidge’s glasses and running in circles but the blurryness and movement helps Pide out

Since I’m an adashi slut I thought on exes Shiro and Adam, were Shiro was so focused on studying he didn’t enjoy life, or gave time to it, thus after just a year Adam dumped his ass since he was the only one putting some work, unfortunately for Shiro, Adam is part of Allura’s trusted staff so he is around and it doesn’t help at all that Black looooves him and is constantly being Shiro and Adam’s winglion until they finally kiss and make up

I haven’t fully planned out how these mythical lions would work but here’s my thoughts so far

The green lion often visits researchers of any field and inspires their curiosity and helps them make break throughs as well as to make them see the beauty of their research and the beauty of how it connects them to the world, Curiosity (Pidge likes knowledge and is curious but like with the olkari episode she finds more meaning to her research and a goal, like to unite people through technology and also a bit respect/ appreciation/ gratitude in her research as in the elements that make it and what it will become, smth smth like that)

The Yellow lions helps ppl not be indifferent to others or be paralyzed by fear and thus not want to trouble themselves to help others, it’s Kindness (with Hunk, Yellow helps him embrace the fact that Hunk loves helping people and guides him towards it, to get out of his fears and be confident in his skills and therefore help others)

Blue is similar to Yellow, it helps people more likely to look and understand other’s POVs, so it’s Empathy (By understanding others, Lance can also understand himself and reach out for help with his own insecurities and create like a two way helping hand)

Red is Courage, it inspires a fiery noble rage to fight for any personal cause or just any cause (with Keith is finding his path and pull through his rough edges, give him the courage to open up to others and be brave but also not so reckless, although Red can also learn from its own words because Red can also be a little reckless)

Black is Leadership and Responsibility, Black usually visits natural born leader and helps them reach their potential or take steps towards it (Shiro was so absorbed on his studying he wasn’t seeing others and as a born leader Black knew his real calling was to look out and guide people so he helps him come out of his shell and see life, first of course via getting back together with Adam because he was the first one Shiro opened up to and he lost him because of his sole fixation to his work but Black shows him he can have his dream job and also a beautiful relationship because Black knows they are just destined to be together and Black won’t let Shiro get between them and second by just the mission, Shiro learns to be a leader with the vld squad)

[diceerickson]

STOP CALLING THE LEAKIRA AU A REBOOT

Time to sink my feet into quicksand. :')

To anyone who calls captainlumin's AU a reboot needs to stop addressing it as that. Why? Because it's not a reboot at all it's an AU.

What's an AU? Alternate universe. That means that it's just headcanons and characters in an alternate universe doing things. Such as there is an AU of Klance being college students on earth or them being mermaids. It's just fictional fun stuff. AUs are fan-based, free, and fun. You know what they also are?

Not canon, not a reboot.

If you didn't catch that when I said free and fan-based, you are totally missing the point. Maybe this is why you're making their AU toxic. Let me break this down for you.

This person and another creator are merely people who are making just that: an AU. They are still in high school even.

Stop calling it what it isn't. When you call it a reboot everyone freaks out and they attack this poor person. I wanted to ask them about their AU just out of curiosity and their last asks said they refuse to answer any other asks.

Why?

People are attacking them because their fans are calling it a reboot. They're making rumors about them going to buy VLD, but what you don't understand is they still in high school. They don't even want to buy it. Just go on their page and they say just that. Yet even in the notes you guys are still calling it a reboot.

Stop.

You're causing this person mental harm and you might just get them in trouble. This person is merely making a fictional, non-profit project. That means it's just fanart. That means that they aren't doing anything wrong.

But you toxic fans are! You are taking this way too seriously. It's driving people, like me, away. I honestly thought this AU was a reboot because of the rumors and I was disgusted. I thought it was made out of spite and it was very controversial UNTIL the Creator said something. It's very sad that they had to address it and still have to clarify themselves because you guys can't use proper wording.

I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but no one is getting this through. Just go to their page, they are under so much stress it's making me sad. They might even shut it down. They might say, "to hell with this," and there you go. Is that really what you guys want?

And for those are using it as spite need to calm themselves or leave. And I'm not talking just about the AU, but VLD fandom in general. You are making everything toxic. No one can ever go into this fandom feeling happy at all. It's been that way since after the second season of Voltron. I've had artist leave this fandom because of the toxicity of this fandom. It's making me wonder where I stand in life being in this fandom.

I understand your disappointment in season 7 because you Klance to happen and Shadam/Adashi to be more on screen or to see them kiss or something. What you guys don't realize is that we did get some Klance build up on season 7 and Adashi is canon, just not shown. I understand you want representation that shows kissing, but they can't do that. They can only go so far with their project and it's aimed at an audience of different ages. Legend of Korra didn't even have a kiss scene because they didn't get permission to. It was on Nickelodeon, a kid and teen channel. However, it did show in the comics. Why? Because I don't think the comics were targeted at a young audience. Besides, what 8 year old reads comics? Kids that age barely like reading. My point is, you guys might think it's unfair because you want the whole world to know Shiro is gay without looking at the interviews. As an LGBTQ+ person, that's pretty natural to hope for, but in the world we live in it's not going to happen because of how the audience is targeted. You guys don't understand how a project runs, you guys are being so ungrateful and you look so entitled when you're not. That might sound mean and I'm sorry, but that's just how some of these fans are. They feel as if Voltron owes them. Voltron promised LGBTQ+ representation and we got him. It's not their fault they can't make it as explicit as they want to. If you're mad about it get mad at the world, that's where it started.

My point is, using this innocent and creative AU as a way to flip the bird on VLD is disrespectful, toxic, childish, unwanted, and uncalled for. You are ruining the fun of everything by using this to be rude. This AU was meant to be fun, it was meant to be like just any other AU and you guys are blowing it out of proportion. You're giving this poor person hate with your toxic love. I don't know if it's because you guys are young or what, but this isn't healthy. If you are that invested into a fictional relationship, then you need serious help.

If you think I'm being mean, I'm not trying to be. I'm actually very concerned about the mental state you guys are in. Never in my life have I ever experienced something like this being in any fandom. We kind of just dealt with what happened and didn't try to do anything. You guys are going crazy over nothing. At the end of the day, Voltron does not affect you. Whatever happened to the show does not affect how you live. You still live the same life as you did before.

Stop making fun projects toxic.

Stop saying this is a reboot, because it's not. It's an AU and if you say it's a reboot then you're contributing to the toxicity of the fandom and you're sending indirect hate to captainlumin. How? You make people think that captainlumin is being toxic as well, when really it's just the people who can't understand the difference between an AU and a reboot.

And stop using this AU out of spite.

Those are the three things you need to do right now if you are the problem. If you are offended by this then you probably are the problem.

[sweetspacebaby]

Adashicember 2018

Day: 1 - Reunion [masterpost will be made after all days are finished]

Summary:  These are my contributions to Adashicember 2018!!! Tags and rating will be updated as I finish the prompts. I hope you enjoy the adventures of Space Dad and Earth Dad!!

AO3 // FANFIC

Chapter Summary:  This one was doozy to do. I kept trying so hard to find something different from the generic reunion idea of a soldier returning home. And I also had trouble with trying not to redo my first Adashi ficlet that I did when we first got the news about Adam. Anyway here's a fun little thing about Adam just quitting his day and his ray of sunshine fiance making it better!

It had just been one of those days for Adam.

It started with him forgetting to charge his phone the night before and woke up late for work. His homeroom was a complete mess once he got to his class with half the kids skipping out since he showed up late. During the rush to get to work, he had left behind his laptop and was unable to work off his lesson plan for the day which turned into a massive disaster with Adam eventually caving and relying on old Bill Nye YouTube videos to teach for him. And if his day couldn’t get any worse, after the lunch period he was surprised with an official from the school board coming by to sit and evaluate his class and his lesson plan – no YouTube videos for that class period.

By the end of the day, Adam was exhausted. He had been metaphorically kicked and punched so much that he was surprised to even make to out to his car in the parking lot after he finished grading half the test that were supposed to be graded the day before. His one saving grace for the day was that he was now able to drive home, maybe order a pizza so he wouldn’t have to cook and sit in some much-needed peace and quiet.

Whoever said being an adult was hard lied. Being a teacher was much harder.

Adam took a few moments to myself to just sit and gather himself after pulling into his driveway. His house was a modest fixer-upper that him and his fiancé worked on together on weekends. Or at least used to. It was now all on Adam till Shiro got back from his time in Japan and Lord knew how much longer that was going to take.

Adam knew that being an Air Force fiancé was going to be hard – he was an Air Force boyfriend during Shiro’s training and first tour – but now it was much harder with a full time teaching position and having to take care of his future little brother-in-law while Shiro was away. And it definitely didn’t help his single parent lifestyle that that said future little brother-in-law had a bad habit of bringing in strays almost every week. Without Shiro around to magically talk Keith into taking the animals he found to a no-kill shelter to be adopted, they somehow had ended up with a new cat named Red and puppy named Kosmo this month. Was Shiro happy about the news? No, not at all. Pets and renovations don’t work well. But at least Keith is as stubborn as Shiro is and was determined to prove that he can take care of the new family members and keep them away whenever Adam was working on the house.

But at least tonight Adam will get a break from the chaotic zoo that is his home. Keith was spending the night with a friend and took the puppy with him so that he could socialize it with other people and places. So tonight, it was just going to be Adam, the SYFY channel, a large pizza with all the toppings he could think of, a couple of beers, some badly written AP science papers, and Red cuddling next to him on the couch.

A nice and quiet night after a very stressful, agonizing day with no more surprises.

Did Keith leave these out here?

Ok maybe one surprise in the form of a pair of Shiro’s uniform boots. Keith would usually wear them whenever he took the puppy out and was too lazy to find his own shoes, but he would usually leave inside next to the backdoor, not on the front porch.

“I don’t have the energy to question this,” Adam said to himself as he rubbed his tired eyes under his glasses.

He bent down and picked up the boots to bring them inside. As he unlocked the front door he could hear Red’s bell collar jingling toward the door and once Adam took the keys out of the knob queued the series of meowing and scratching at the door. After opening the door Adam traded the boots for the attention starved orange tabby and dropped off his bags in the living room behind the couch.

“It’s just me and you tonight Red. No being chased around by Kosmo and all the cat treats you can have.” Adam wasn’t really talking to anyone in particular since he knew that the cat couldn’t understand him, but he felt that something needed to be said within the silence.

After scanning his surroundings, making sure everything was in its place like every homeowner when in the middle of moving things around would do, Adam realized that the lights were on even though he never turned them on. He instantly assumed that Keith turned them on when he stopped by after school to get Kosmo and just forgot to turn them off when he left.

Or so he thought after hearing the microwave turn on.

Adam let Red jump out of his hands, her running instantly toward the kitchen in the back of the main level of the home. He quickly went into slight defense mode. Even though they’ve had Red for such a short period of time, Adam and Keith had learned that she is very picky with the people that come around her – going as far as scratching one of Keith’s friends when he tried to bet her – so if she was happily going to the kitchen to inspect the noise, whoever was in there was not a threat to her. But Adam was still skeptical. The front door was locked, but was the back door? Did he relock the windows after working on them? Did Keith forget something and come back?

“Keith,” Adam yelled out.

He grabbed his school keys out of his pocket and laced one key between each of his fingers. He knew how to defend himself, but having the keys added an extra punch – pun intended.

“I thought you were staying over at Lance’s tonight?”

No response except for the sound of the microwave being used.

“Did something happen? I hope Kosmo didn’t do anything to make you two fight and cancel.”

Adam walked up to the threshold to the kitchen and heard the microwave finish its job and whoever was in there open it up and put a bowl on the counter.

Adam took a deep breath, tightened his grip on his keys and stepped into the kitchen. He hesitantly looked around the top cabinets in the kitchen and all the tension in his should dropped.

Standing in the middle of the kitchen, tending to a bowl of Easy Mac and bobbing his head along to his music was Shiro, completely oblivious to the fact that he wasn’t alone in the house anymore or that his fiancé was about to jump and attack him. Within how long he was home, Shiro had made himself comfortable by trading in his uniform for a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants and his contacts for glasses. His earbuds were clear signs that he was able to do something productive before he got hungry and Adam got home, which meant that Keith knew he was home and didn’t say anything to Adam. He made a small note to get back at the little preteen for that and giving him a small panic attack.

But Keith was not who Adam was frustrated with right now.

“TAKASHI!!”

Adam yelled at the top of his lungs and threw his keys at the big oblivious love of his life, the only thing that was known to bring Shiro out of his ear-deafening world.

Shiro jumped when the keys hit his shoulder and looked at what hit him and then at who threw them, ripping his earbuds out right away.

“Oh! Hey babe! Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in. I did some work in our bathroom and forgot I had these in.”

Shiro gave the most innocent, apologetic look but that wasn’t going to save him.

“Shut up,” Adam yelled again. “You scared the hell out of me!”

“Did Keith not tell you I was home?”

“No!” Then the important question popped in Adam’s head. “Why didn’t you?”

“Well,” Shiro drug out, seeming embarrassed to answer the question. “My phone kind of broke while I was away.”

“What do you mean by kind of?”

“Kind of like, I dropped it in the ocean.”

There it went. There went Adam’s last strand of composer. He quietly walked out of the kitchen and into the living room, heading straight for the couch to lie down and cover up his defeat under a blanket. Usually in situations like this, he would be overjoyed and throwing himself at Shiro and peppering his face with kisses, but today was just too much and he was done functioning.

“Babe?”

Shiro walked into the living room with his bowl of Easy Mac and put it down on the coffee table before sitting on the couch to check on his fiancé.

“Sorry about not calling you. I just got swamped and never had time to FaceTime you when you were awake. But the good news is that I’m going to get a new phone tomorrow completely free and I luckily backed it up to my laptop the night before losing it so thankfully I’m not going to lose anything.”

Adam was silent, the day was too much. The stress and surprises were too much. He just wanted to be a hermit and stay under his blanket.

Shiro reached over and pulled part of the blanket down to show Adam’s eyes. They were tired. Like really tired. He took Adam’s glasses off for him and put them on the coffee table.

“Are you going to change out of your work clothes?”

“No.” Adam pulled the blanket back over his head. “I quit for the day.”

Shiro sat there and took in what he said, knowing instantly that Adam had a very bad day. He knew that ordering Adam his own pizza with his favorite toppings, put out a six pack, and keep the TV on the SYFY channel would usually help him feel better. But that would take hours to work.

“Ok,” Shiro signed as he stared at his hands as he thought about his words. “Do you want me to change you out of your work clothes?”

Adam had always said that he loved Shiro’s dorky side whenever he tried to be funny and witty, so maybe that would work?

And it did in a way. Adam pulled the blanket down a bit from his face and looked up at Shiro, his eyes narrow to look both skeptical and because he couldn’t see without his glasses. He couldn’t hold his seriousness for long though. He snorted out a laugh through his nose before chuckling.

“I missed you,” Adam said softly as he pushed the blanket off his face and smiled.

Shiro leaned down and touched his forehead to Adam’s.

“I missed you too.”

[ahumanintraining]

i met you when i was 18 Adam had thought that getting over Shiro would be the hardest thing he'd ever done. But that was before death took away any semblance of doubt.   — adashi. [ao3 link]

Once, Adam believed time was money — that every second needed to be spent doing something, being productive, getting ahead in life — but now, he knows time is anything but something that can be bought with all the riches of the worlds.

Time couldn’t be earned. Time couldn’t be deserved. Time couldn’t even be begged for, prayed for, traded or exchanged for — all the happiness of life, all the worth of the universe would not equal a second, or even a split moment extra with Shiro.

He learns this through the flickering headline on the television screen. It reads in all caps, the letters scrolling across the bottom of the screen under a neatly dressed broadcaster, who says those same words and some extra details in a solemn and serious face — in exactly the same tone as all the other news items of that morning.

Kerberos. Mission failure. All crew members. Inconclusive. Most likely dead.

Time is inflexible. Time is relentless. Time is unforgiving.

Adam knows this now.

And he knows that just as much as he cannot bargain for more time with Shiro, he can neither plead for less time missing him.

He really doesn’t need it.

Therapy, that is.

But eventually, other colleagues notice that he hasn’t taken a day off from work, that he is still operating like nothing ever happened. His friends are worried about his flat answers and his furrowed eyebrows, the growing shadows under his dry eyes and the extra few drinks he swallows down in the evenings.

Everything’s fine. Really.

He’s managing just fine. He makes it to work on time, and not one of his students has failed their mid-year evaluations.

But eventually, one way or another, they all try to convince him to do something about his grief, probably talking amongst themselves and delegating each other to “accidentally” run into him in the elevator or drop by his apartment unannounced with some extra portions of food or inviting him over on the weekends to hang out — all the while giving their own spiel about how hard it is or how they can’t imagine what he’s going through.

And eventually, Adam gives in.

“Fine. I’ll go to therapy session.”

Iverson gives him a soft smile, reaching his hand out to rest on Adam’s left shoulder. “I think that would be best,” he says. “I’ve lost people before too. I know it’s hard.” A pause. “And for you, especially, since you were… together, to say the least.”

“Right,” Adam replies. He’s not sure what else to say. “I’m sure therapy will help somehow.”

It doesn’t, and Adam knows it the moment he sits down.

He’s sitting in a circle of six or seven people, one of them the supposed therapist. Everyone seems to have been here before, because they all look at him for a little too long when he enters the room.

He looks around too. He doesn’t know a single soul in here, and honestly, thank god that’s the case.

He introduces himself, and the therapist gives him a warm smile.

“Welcome,” she says.

And then they go around the room introducing themselves. There’s someone that lost their husband to cancer, someone that lost both of their kids in a car accident, someone that lost their grandmother to multiple medical comorbidities.

At some point, it’s his turn.

“Who are you thinking about?” she asks.

He furrows his eyebrows. “What do you mean? I’m not thinking about anyone.”

“What are you thinking about then?”

Adam hides a frown. He re-crosses his ankles and leans back into the chair, which creaks against his weight. The chair is one of those ones that were ubiquitous in public schools in the early 2000s — those shitty plastic chairs with metal legs, uncomfortable no matter what position.

He takes a short inhale and then holds the breath in his chest for a second, thinking.

“I’m not thinking about anything,” he finally says. “Just… I don’t know what I’m doing here. I don’t think this is helping me.”

“What makes you think that?”

What the fuck kind of question is that?

He snaps his head up, meeting the therapist’s eyes dead on. He chews on his words before he replies.

“I don’t know.” The words come stiff from his mouth. “I’m not feeling any better.”

“That’s okay. You can leave if you like. You don’t have to stay if you don’t think it’s helping you.”

He shakes his head. “No, this is supposed to help, isn’t it?” He looks for affirmation around the room, but everyone else’s eyes are blank. “This is therapy. It’s supposed to work.”

The therapist nods patiently — but her calming air only pisses Adam off. “It works for many people, but many people also do quite well without it,” she says. She gives him a small smile, folding her hands neatly together on her lap. “You can stay for as long as you like. If you don’t want to participate today, you don’t have to.”

“Well then, what would I be doing here?” he retorts, his hands splaying in frustration.

“Everyone grieves differently,” she tells him. Her zen is infuriating, even if he knows that she’s just trying to do her job. “That’s the advantage of doing this as part of a group. You see that right in front of you.”

He hates this. He hates everything about this.

“This is bullshit. I thought this grief therapy shit was supposed to make it easier. I want to fucking move on already. I want to be fucking done with this.”

“Therapy can make things easier, but therapy doesn’t change the grieving process. Everyone grieves differently, and therapy is supposed to help you develop strategies and techniques to make the grieving process easier.”

Adam shifts in his seat, crossing and uncrossing his arms again. “Whatever,” he says. “I don’t know why I’m here. Everyone told me to come so I did. That’s it. And now I know for sure I don’t want to be here.”

“If you’d like to leave, you can leave,” the therapist repeats. “I’m not going to make you stay if you don’t want to.”

This time, he does.

There’s some Spanish saying that goes something like how only a nail can drive another nail out, and Adam guesses the adage is supposed to apply to relationships.

One day when he’s desperate, he tests that wisdom.

He signs himself onto a dating app, bullshits his way through the stupid profile questions, puts up a generic picture of himself and then swipes through a selection of names and faces. He doesn’t really give too much thought into it. He just needs someone — anyone — to forget. He doesn’t need this person to replace the empty hole in his heart, much less occupy it for the future — he just needs to cut the aching in his chest and the bitter taste on his tongue.

The very next evening he has a date. His date suggests a place he’s never been to before, and honestly thank god, because the last thing Adam wants to do is go to a place haunted by memories he’s been struggling to let go.

His date is nice, friendly, and has a good sense of humor. Adam knows this, but he isn’t in the mood to laugh or play along. His date is empathetic and understanding, and when Adam mentions that he’s going through a rough patch in life, his date immediately forgives him for not being completely present. His date is soft and gentle and even asks for permission to kiss him. Adam allows a tight embrace and leans in to meet lips, and for a moment, he thinks that this will be the moment he gets over Shiro —

But then he looks deep into the dark brown eyes staring back at him, and they don’t look at all like Shiro’s eyes.

Of course they don’t. They’re not Shiro’s eyes.

“Sorry,” he mutters through his lips, backing away.

“What?”

“I… I can’t,” he breathes. “I’m sorry.”

Alone on his way home, he deletes the app from his phone on his way home.

Shiro was supposed to die anyway, Adam reminds himself.

Shiro wasn’t always going to be forever.

Shiro never told him exactly how much time he had left — however much his doctor predicted for him to have — but Adam always knew that it was probably less than five years.

Shiro would have told him otherwise — or at least so Adam thinks.

And Shiro would have also said yes when Adam got down on one knee, instead of looking at him with wide forlorn eyes and an unsaid no on his lips.

It’d make it harder for you, he had said. I don’t want you to be alone. I want you to find someone else. I want you to be happy.

“Fucking idiot,” Adam mutters, to no one in particular. “You can’t make all the decisions.”

He looks up from staring at the floor. What time is it? He doesn’t bother checking his watch. His eyes scan his living room, the amber sunset light casting a forlorn yellow tinge and long shadows over everything. Dirty dishes and carry-out containers stacked on the coffee table, some crumbs of many somethings sprinkled over the carpet, unwashed clothes draping over every other surface, stacks of paper tossed on whatever free space is left.

Completely a mess.

Very unlike him.

Damn Shiro, Adam thinks. He’s changed him. He made him love when he hadn’t even been looking for anyone, and now that he’s gone, he’s made him someone he doesn’t want to be — an emotional mess.

Shiro’s also made him come back to the group therapy — something he didn’t plan on doing or intend to do when he woke up that morning.

“It’s good to see you,” the therapist says as he walks in.

He makes eye contact with her, but otherwise says nothing as he mechanically walks over to the back end of the room to unfold himself a metal chair. As he brings his seat to the circle, people move their chairs over to fit him in, the worn-out rubber bottoms of their chairs squeaking against the gym floor.

“We were just getting started. Why don’t you start off the introductions? Do you mind?”

Adam presses his lips closed.

“It’s Adam, right?”

He unclenches his jaw. “Yes.”

“Who are you thinking about, Adam?”

“I don’t want to talk about him. I just want to get over it.”

The therapist smiles gently at him. Always that gentle and soft smile. Seeing the length of her patience tired him.

“You will,” she assures him. “With time.”

He rolls his eyes, scoffing to himself. “I thought you said this was supposed to help you find techniques to manage grief,” he replies. He pauses because a hard ball suddenly forms tight in his throat. He drops his head down. “…And that’s what I want to do. And I don’t want to talk.”

He doesn’t see it, but he can sense that the therapist is nodding. “If you don’t want to talk today, that’s perfectly fine with me, and that’s perfectly fine with all of us, right?”

Adam doesn’t lift his head but his eyes carefully scan over the group around him.

Everyone nods.

Don’t expect me to be here when you get back.

I’ve got a class to teach.

How could he have let those be the last words he said to him?

He hates that he ever said them. He hates that he ever thought of thinking to say them. He hates that he ever even thought of them in the first place.

He was being selfish, he realizes now. He was being greedy.

Adam can’t help the doubt that creeps into his head.

Maybe if he had said better words, Shiro would have stayed. Maybe if he had thought just a little longer, Shiro would still be with him.

Maybe if he had been more understanding, more patient, more compassionate… Maybe if he had been better, Shiro would be in his arms now. Alive.

Those words were his desperation come alive, his denial that things were bound to end. Those words were the very last thing Adam thought he could do — the very last thing he could do for just an extra moment, an extra few seconds with him.

It’s now he realizes he would have done anything for Shiro to stay.

Even break up with him.

He doesn’t really remember where he put the rings.

Or at least that’s what he tells himself.

He knows they’re in his bedroom closet on the top shelf, just above his two black suit jackets, on top of the extra and ever-unused guest bedsheets and towels, inside of a large blue-topped plastic storage container under other empty product boxes and manufacturer papers that he never had the heart to throw away — specifically under the packaging of his headphones and sunrise alarm clock. They’re each in a black velvet-lined mahogany ring box, engraved to match. Sterling silver, with the inscriptions of their names on the inside.

They’re silver. Silver like Shirogane.

Just like they had discussed. Just like they had planned.

Everything was exactly as he had wanted.

The only thing out of foresight was his answer. Shiro didn’t even see the rings before saying no to them.

Adam knew Shiro long enough to know that he could not control any of Shiro’s choices — and maybe Adam should have known then that maybe that was a sign that they were never meant to be forever.

“Who are you thinking about?”

Who is he thinking about? Who else is he thinking about?

“Takashi—” and his voice collapses.

Takashi. The name rolls off his tongue so easily — as if he’s said it in a good morning every day, as if he’s said it between long kisses late at night, as if he’s said it casually between conversations with friends, as if he’s said it over a phone call back to his family — instead of slapping photo frames face down, deleting old texts and emails, putting everything that ever reminds him of anything into the trash or a storage box he locks away from himself, and waking up every morning with tired, dry, and edematous eyes he could barely see out of —

“You’re thinking about Takashi,” the therapist repeats back to him, cutting his thoughts.

His voice croaks. “Yes.”

“Can you tell us about Takashi?”

Adam lifts his gaze off the floor. He meets the therapist’s eyes first. He looks to the person to the right, then the next person, and then the person after. Their eyes are all the same — kind, attentive, caring, supportive, unjudging.

His silence prompts another question from the therapist.

“When did you meet Takashi?”

Adam blinks, opening and closing his mouth once or twice before forcing the words off his chest.

“I met him at the Garrison.”

[selfiealien-moved]

Together This Time

Read It On AO3

Tagging: @soccialcreature you said you wanted me to tag you when I finally wrote in this universe WELL THE DAY IS HERE

Words: 1,542

Summary: With every decision made a parallel universe is made. A world that is completely different just because of one single decision.

This time everything changes, when instead of just mentoring Keith, Shiro takes him in and fosters him.

This time Adam is there for Keith when Shiro is not. And this time he is there when he rescues Shiro. This time he’s there through every crazy space adventure.

Everything changes.

Or: The Multiple One Shot Rewrite No One Asked For But You’re Getting Anyway

This time, Adam tags along when the team finds the blue lion. Shiro and Adam talk.

A/N: So! This is a one shot set in my new universe. I’m doing my own fix it of sorts with the series. It won’t be a full story, because I frankly can’t put that on my plate right now but! I am going to write one shots, which will essentially be peaks into the story. Some will be centered on different relationships, platonic and romantic, and some will be more plot based. 

This one is Adashi centered, as Adashi is going to become a large part of the series and I needed to establish their place in the story first. If you have any questions about this au feel free to ask! Also sorry for any mistakes, I don’t have a beta and I wrote this when I was quite tired lol 

Anyways without further ado here is my first one shot in this universe Together This Time!

It’s not so much that Shiro doesn’t want Adam to come with them- quite the opposite really, seeing as he hasn’t seen Adam in years, or however long he was gone after the Kerberos mission (keeping track of time while in a prison cell is trickier than one might think) and he has missed Adam every single day since he left. 

The thing is, aliens are after him. Crazy as it seems, there are bloodthirsty aliens after him who aren’t too thrilled their champion (wait where did that word come from?) got away. And the last thing he wants is for Adam to get wrapped up in this.

Though really, he already was the minute he tagged along on Keith’s ridiculous yet somehow effective rescue mission. And there is the issue of Keith sensing some sort of energy, and Shiro already knows there is no way Adam will let well enough alone when Keith is involved. Because he would and is doing the exact same.

“Look, I’m going with you ok?” Adam tells him when Shiro pulls him aside. “We have no idea what these energy signatures are. If these aliens want it, it’s going to be dangerous.” His face softens for a moment, and Shiro can feel himself melt. “You’re alive, against all hope you’re here. I’m not letting you die now. Not when I can do something. You’re not leaving me behind again.”

And well, Adam always did know exactly what to say to get to him. “Adam.” He whispers, and they both know he’s won even if he tries to argue. “I- you know that’s not fair. Kerberos was-”

“-is ancient history.” Adam cuts off. “Look we can talk about this later, right now those kids- Keith needs us. You can complain all you want but I am coming with you.”

And just like that the argument is over and Adam breaks off from their whisper-shout-match to talk to Keith.

They’ve gotten closer since he’s been gone, Shiro notices. Keith and Adam had gotten along fine before, but they seemed actually close now. Which actually raises more questions like, why is their foster kid in a shack in the middle of nowhere rather than back home with Adam? What happened while he was gone?

They’re out the door before he can ask, and he doesn’t get the chance to ask before they’re in some sort of alien lion shooting off to who knows where. Because that’s Shiro’s life now apparently. Just one roller coaster after another.

When Lance asks if they should enter the portal, Shiro looks to Adam first. As if understanding his unsaid question, Adam brushes his hand against Shiro’s and nods. And next thing they all know they’re going through a portal and Shiro wonders what deity he pissed off to fling him into this situation.

It isn’t until much later, after a run in with a space princess, some space mice and a royal adviser, some revelation about a great destiny about lions and voltron and a space battle, that they actually get to talk.

Adam comes to Shiro’s room after everything has died down, because they need to talk damn it and Shiro isn’t getting out of this one.

“So I guess this is the part where we actually act like mature adults and speak to each other.” Adam speaks first because of course he does. He always was better at this... feelings thing than he was.

“I guess so. Where do we start?”

“I don’t know, pick a subject.” Adam rolls his eyes fondly.

Shiro sighs. “I guess I should start with saying I’m sorry. You were right. Kerberos was...definitely a bad idea.”

“It being a bad idea is not why I didn’t want you to go, you know that. At least I hope you do.”

“It isn’t?”

He laughed incredulously. “No you idiot! I didn’t want you to go because I wanted to spend what little time you had left with you, not the body bag they were inevitably going to be carrying back!” Adam’s voice rose slightly and Shiro cringed. He had really messed up hadn’t he?

“I didn’t- I didn’t want you to see me die.” Shiro admitted weakly.

“What?” Adam said his voice nearly a whisper. He had clearly not expected that answer.

This time it was Shiro’s turn to raise his voice. “I was already deteriorating enough. I didn’t want you to have to see me when it got worse. I didn’t want your last memory of me to be me withering away in front of you!” 

“And I didn’t want my last memory of you to be your back out the door but I guess we don’t exactly get what we want do we?”

“I guess not.” Shiro replied childishly, crossing his arms and flopping gracelessly onto his bed.

Adam took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes, Shiro remembers that look. The first time he ever saw it was when they were still teenagers and he somehow managed to get Shiro out of two weeks of detention. 

For a prank that Adam had helped him with thank you very much so he had no right to be looking at him that way when he was equally as wrong but also that was legendary work thank you Adam.

It was the look he got when he was exasperated with you, but not angry enough to walk away. He missed that look.

“I missed you.” Shiro says before he can think.

Adam looks up and slowly puts his glasses back on with a sigh. “I missed you too, Ta- Shiro but-”

And good god that sounds absolutely wrong. 

“Takashi.”

“What?”

“It’s always been Takashi for you.” And he can’t quite get out the ‘please never change that’ or the ‘it feels so wrong to hear Shiro from you now, so please don’t’ or the ‘please still love me’ but he hopes Adam can hear what he doesn’t say.

He thinks he just might, because Adam replies with the first genuine smile Shiro has seen from him since he was rescued. It’s not particularly wide or bright, but its there.

“Alright. Takashi.” He says as though trying the name on again, and the smile widens ever so slightly. And this time Adam can’t think of what to say so he just says. “I think I still love you.” There is no ‘i think’ about it, but he can at least retain a small bit of pride this way.

“I thought you weren’t going to wait for me.” It comes out a little choked and it is absolutely because it is dusty in here and not at all because he’s trying not to cry.

“I wasn’t, but I guess I was wrong. Didn’t help too much that you know, died. And I had a kid to watch over.”

There was a lot to unpack in that sentence, but Shiro started with more neutral territory. Keith. “What happened after I- you know. Was pronounced dead? Why wasn’t Keith back at our- your place?”

Adam’s face scrunched up in frustration for a moment. “He’s as bull-headed as you that’s why. He ran off when the news broke. I found him at the shack, he said it was where his dad raised him. Rather than force him to come home and potentially ruin any chance of keeping in contact with him, I let him. I checked on him whenever I could, I brought him the basics, ya know food, water, clothes.”

Shiro really did not feel like arguing, so he ignored the obvious flaws in that plan. “You guys seemed closer.”

“We are. We had a lot of time to talk over the past couple years. Mostly talked about you though admittedly.”

Shiro chuckled. “Should I be worried?”

“Oh definitely.” This time they both chuckled.

They sobered quickly, and there was silence. But not the uncomfortable overbearing type of silence. It was the kind of silence between two people who didn’t know where to move next.

Literally and figuratively.

Shiro hesitantly reached out to take Adam’s hand. “Is this ok?”

“Yes.” Adam replied, inching closer to Shiro. “Can I hug you?”

“Yes.” Shiro breathed and immediately was wrapped in Adam’s arms. They held each other close, melting against one another.

“This doesn’t mean things are fixed yet, Takashi.” Adam whispered.

“Yet?” Shiro echoed, hope slipping into his voice against his will.

“We still have a lot to talk about but... I think I’d like to try again. If you want to that is.”

Shiro felt as though his heart had stopped, he had hoped and dreamed Adam would be there when he returned, and yet here he was. And everything felt right.

“I mean if you don’t want to it’s ok. It’s been a long time, we’ve both changed-” Adam began pulling away, taking Shiro’s silence the wrong way.

Shiro panicked as Adam pulled away and tugged him back into his embrace. “I’d like that too. I never stopped loving you, Adam.”

Adam breathed out a sigh of relief and chuckled. “That’s good to hear.”

Shiro chuckled as well. “Yeah, it is.” He sobered for a moment. “Whatever comes next, we’ll handle it. Together this time.”

Adam nodded. “Together this time.”

[f-117-nighthawk]

Playlist Update Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

Part 2! Here lies Endless War, Dystopian Fiction, and Filaments. EW hasn’t changed much, DF has a bit and it's all INFECTED's fault, and Filaments has more than three songs finally. My explanations for these aren't quite as fleshed out (partially bc there's less in my head to flesh out with and partially because these aren't nearly as set in playdough as the main playlist. more like set in syrup)

Part One

In chronological order:

Endless War

Dark Matter is here because it always is, twining through everything else.

(Don’t stop, don’t think, don’t look back/You’re a bolt of lightning in the sky now/Don’t stop, don’t think, don’t look back/I’ve pulled you in, nowhere to hide now)

I Am the One links into Eater of Worlds as sort of the aftermath, sort of during Apocalypse 1992. Our Fifth General has her realization about [REDACTED] far, far before Team Voltron does because she’s there in the thick of it during Through Apocalypse Skies.

(I am the one/I hold the dreams from fallen heroes)

(We are gods, we are monsters/We create to devour/Not for love but for power/What’s a life worth in the end?)

(From the caves beneath Dundee/Ancient hermit arrives/A messenger to the war in the stars/Korviliath is nigh!)

The Truth Beneath the Rose is from the perspective of our last (and first) Blade in the aftermath of Through Apocalypse Skies, as she realizes just what she helped create. Also… kinda connects to a song in the main playlist, but not very obviously.

(Blinded to see the cruelty of the beast/It is the darker side of me/The veil of my dreams deceived that I have seen/Forgive me for what I have been, forgive me my sins!)

Raise Your Banner is The Fifth General’s newfound resolve as she starts collecting allies against Zarkon’s empire.

(Wake up/I’m defying you, seeing right through you, once I believed in you/Wake up/Feel what’s coming deep within we all know)

Obey is a bit of a weird one. It’s in the same vein as You Keep What You Kill in the main playlist, but it’s more specifically about the creation of the first Druids and how Haggar uses them against the Fifth General and her team.

(Obey, we're gonna show you how to behave/Obey, it's nicer when you can't see the chains)

Silver Moonlight is cracks forming in The Fifth General’s new set of alliances and her desperate and occasionally rash attempts to get them to believe in her goal. Not just the main one to take down the empire, but the one that will allow them to do that.

(I’m impatient, but it’s colors that I need/Too many shades of grey, I cannot breathe/The dreams I have ain’t tainted, I need you to believe/The only way to make them real, oh)

Endless War is the title track, connected to Holy Ground and I’d Rather Burn as a specific event but also sort of encompassing the Fifth General’s motivations throughout the series. She’s “hunting a miracle” that is also those colors from Silver Moonlight, and then the end of Endless War kicks in with Holy Ground, and the Fifth General’s final stand in I’d Rather Burn.

('Cause you’re fighting an endless war/Hunting a miracle/And when you reach out for the stars/They just cut you down/…/Is it worth dying for?/Or are you blinded by, blinded by it all?)

(You got inside my head, I want you out/'Cause I’ve been betrayed on holy ground)

(Won’t let you take my soul away/I’d rather go to the stake/I’d rather burn)

Empty Eyes is [long spoiler beep]. (and yes! I found it on Spotify finally!)

(I don’t know where I’m going/In search for answers/I don’t know who I’m fighting/I stand with empty eyes/You’re like a ghost within me/Who’s draining my life/It’s like my soul is see-through/Right through my empty eyes)

Dystopian Fiction

Dark Matter is on here because title track, but also it does end up with effects. Especially by the end… and of course, the Thing that is Wrong With Earth.

(Don’t stop, don’t think/Move up, don’t blink now/On your knees pray for rain/Don’t breathe when you take your aim)

The Human Condition is the Éskhayklos manifesto. A warning of the end times. The condemnation of the parasites. The reveal of the only cure. The final extinction cycle. Also their new image song, as Cross the Line got moved.

(We have the cure for the disease/Locked down inside us/When all is dead, then we will see/We are the virus)

INFECTED is the Éskhayklos’s slow, well, infection of the Sol Federation, and their descent into full-blown terrorism. (And yes, I know the actual lyrics have ‘he’. Shhhhhh. It’s a STARSET song, it’s about a Shirogane, even if it’s sort of from Cascade’s POV)

(Here's a challenge for all mankind/The preacher man is warning of the end times/The weatherman agrees but she don't know/So she's got to go now)

Who Will Save You Now here is about Sam, and the aftermath of Here to Save You, in addition to its referenced role in the main playlist.

(Alone with this vision/Alone and blind/Go tell the world I’m still alive)

Codebreaker is Adam’s song! But here it’s also in conjunction with Cross the Line as the final Éskhayklos mission before...

(Codebreaker can’t you find/Can you read between the lines of code?/Tell me all that you know/How far down the hole does it all go)

(Cross the line, redefine, break away unbent, unafraid/Together we stand in the dark/Seeking the light and what is right, together we cross the line/Our journey will come to an end and then our human cause will be/Justified)

The Day the Earth Collapsed

(How much time has been elapsed/Since the day the earth collapsed?)

Dystopian Fiction is the title track for this part. With the events of The Day the Earth Collapsed, the Garrison and our heroes on Earth are at their lowest point. It really is a piece of dystopian fiction, between [spoiler] and [spoiler]. They’re fighting for something that, at that point, must seem like ‘superstition.’ And also: “Nobody can shoot me down, not just yet” is about Adam bc Fuck Canon. Even if he does, technically, get shot down.

(I’m a dead man/In the wasteland/I’m a soldier fighting for superstition/Under searchlights/In the long nights/We’ve been written like dystopian fiction)

World on Fire and The Reckoning are the two of their subset that make it over here because they’re the two that happen before the result of This is a Call can come to fruition, and are more focused on our Earth heroes anyway.

(Sent by forces beyond salvation/There can be not one sensation)

(We’re all alone, walking in twilight/The night has been long and so many have fallen/Feel no remorse, light will be breaking/Our freedom is worth it all)

Filaments

Filaments is still in flux but does have way more solid than it did. Like, you know, most of an ending. I just don’t really know how they get from A to B yet.

Dark Matter is here because, well. A) Title track, B) yes, it still has effects. It’s the overarching theme, after all. Filaments sort of has a subtitle itself, which is ‘The Undoing,’ after the other part of the lyric that the subtitle of the main playlist comes from. It’s about undoing a past mistake (that wasn’t obviously a mistake until much later) and reconciling the events of Your World Will Fail.

(I am the keeper/I am the secret/I am the answer/I am the end)

Filaments is the title track of this part. It’s… a little hard to explain without giving away the entire plot but it’s about the connections between different parts of the universe, and some fall-out of Cosmic Vertigo and Louder Than Words.

(These glowing filaments/Conducting this enchanting/Sarcophagus that’s holding us)

Starlight is, again, Adashi song, and this time the happy part

(Don’t leave me lost here forever/I need your starlight and pull me through/Bring me back to you)

Carry Me Home is its eponymous fic.

(Carry me home to the morning light/carry me home before you wave me goodbye/Oh, carry me home…)

And then we get to the new part. Know that stuff in Carry Me Home about “The record skip that only [Keith and Krolia] can remember”? Yeah, Prognosis is a huge step to figuring that out.

(How long is the body beholden?/How long 'til we run out of road?/Deep down in the black of the ocean/Fading from the glow)

The timey-wimey ball gets tossed around more in Blackstar. Partially due to [REDACTED] and a certain terrorist’s reemergence, but also due to Prognosis-related stuff

(They'll let you try/To reverse everything/Don't waste your time/Sing Hallelujah 'cause you can't change anything)

Eon straight-up plays Calvinball with the timey-wimey ball and gets the Paladins stuck in a groundhog-day situation, and the only way out? Isn’t good.

(If time's a song, I won't wait for its reprise/I am done wishing farewells and goodbyes)

The Art of War and Centigrade are the beginning of the end. The Art of War is Cascade finally showing his true colors, and the Sol Federation not having a good time. Centigrade is the other side of it, Team Voltron having a realization of just what they’re going to need to do.

(I can remember all the days of violence/I can remember all the days they fought for rights/When men united all by fear and interest/I mustered them with hopeful promises I've broken)

(What did you hope to find adrift and lost in time?/Is this the end ready to begin?/It's time to escape the fate of destruction, excavating within until salvation/No longer pretend the future's a lie from a past you cannot hide)

The Future is Now and A Theater of Dimensions are. Well. You’ll see. It’s a little hard to pick a lyric from AToD, I'll say that much.

(They said there was no way/But they forgot the black hole in the sky/Yesterday is nothing/I have half a life to rewrite)

(I’ve seen our freedom in the mist of time/The old signs I’ll follow and the day of relief will be yours and mine)

And then there’s Afterlife. Fitting to end on a UtA song, after everything, especially since The Immortal has repeatedly throughout DM been a metaphor for Voltron. Also fitting that it’s this one, considering the parallels between the end of The Immortal’s story and Filaments

(But with such power, think how you could rule/Hold to your promise to watch over those in despair/Why would you choose to serve when you could be master of all?/Be true to your honour and fight for a world that is fair!/Out of shadow, out of darkness, welcome to the light/As the day shines boldly over night/Follow me to finally be who you are inside/Open wide, embrace the afterlife)

[spinji]

Reignite (Shadam/Adashi oneshot)

Read on AO3

Word Count: 1300

Rating: GA

It was over in an instant.

The loud blasts from the intense dogfight were drowned out by a continuous ring in Adam’s ear. The lingering fear of the cannon fire on a collision course with his fighter was all he felt. He panted heavily but felt no air go into his lungs. He was panicked but his heart did not pulse with the adrenaline it had moments ago.

Adam stared on at the obliterated, burning scrap metal that was once was some the Galaxy Garrison’s finest equipment. Looking at it now, he had been a fool to think he would have actually survived. Whatever cosmic force had bound him to stay in this world had been generous enough to let him walk away from the gruesome scene, even if the blood of his mangled corpse still stained the ship. His feet carried no tracks as he wandered into the expanse of the desert, galra warships still floating menacingly above him. Earth was doomed and he was now forced to watch.

Days past with little to say about them. Adam discovered quickly that his senses were extremely dull. Even the loudest sounds were muffled and quiet sounds like animal calls were nearly impossible to hear. Although, he could still hear his own voice with perfect clarity. His eyesight was also perfect, so perfect that it took longer than he would like to admit to realize he no longer wore his glasses. He tried for some time to focus his energy in order to interact with the living world but he could never get the hang of it, assuming it was even possible.

Months past and soon enough he found himself back on familiar Garrison grounds. As he expected, nothing he did tripped any alarms, no one paid him a glance, and he passed through the particle barrier without realizing it had even been there. He heard talk of Voltron as he approached the main building, cars filled with supplies passing through him without setting a single hair on his head out of place. Even if he wanted to know the context of what they were saying it was near impossible to hear anyway.

He paid no mind until another car passed, he saw inside for only a brief moment but what he felt was something he hadn’t since the moment he died, a presence.

All he remembered seeing was a tuft of white but his legs moved without a second thought as he sprinted after the car. It stopped outside one of the hangars, Commanders Holt and Iverson waiting near it. A flow of unfamiliar people lept from the car, greeting what he could only assume were family members who were waiting nearby. That was when it happened. The clearest sound he heard in months that made Adam jump out of his hypothetical skin.

“Adam? Is that you?”

Adam turned on his heel and was met face to face with someone he had only wished he had been able to forget about. The white tuft of hair he saw earlier was the first thing to catch Adam’s eyes before they drifted down farther. A scarred nose. A chiseled jawline that held a smile he had only seen in photos the last few years. Kind eyes that had always been locked onto Adam, whether it had been appropriate at the time or not.

Adam felt something catch in his throat, despite that being physically impossible as he stared on the specter of his former lover, only managing one word through his trembling lips. “Takashi…”

The figure only offered a melancholic smile before stepping closer, his movements slow and hesitant. “At least I’m not alone here…”

Adam finally found the air to speak although it was still very shaky. “H-how are you here? What...what happened to you up there?” A call from Iverson addressing the group of strangers drew their attention. Another Shiro stepped into view, his entire head of hair a snowy white whereas the Shiro beside him only had a tiny white fringe. They both adorned the same nose scar and missing arm, although this Shiro’s prosthetic also appeared to be missing.

The phantom Shiro set a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “It’s...a long story...:”

Adam jumped at the touch, he could feel him, his hand was solid on his shoulder and his numb frame actually felt alive for a moment. Adam turned on his heel and embraced Shiro, feeling a warmth as he laid his head on his shoulder. There was no heartbeat but he felt real. He could grip at his clothes and dig his fingers into the skin of his back while Shiro’s hair tickled his cheek as the man rested his head on his shoulder.

“I don’t care...I just can’t believe you’re here…” Adam sighed as Shiro pulled back for a moment so he could nuzzle his head against Adam’s.

“I’m so happy to see you...but...it’s terrible that you’re here…” Shiro gave him a solemn smile as he pulled away from the hug entirely. “You really died?”

Adam sighed and nodded “Yeah...shot down when Sendak first attacked…”

Shiro frowned and shot a glare up at the looming battle cruisers just barely visible in the upper atmosphere. “And just when I thought they couldn’t take anything else from me…”

Adam cupped his cheek and drew his attention back down to him. “You can tell me all about what happened in a minute but...I need to get this off my chest. I...I’m so sorry, Takashi. Somehow I knew I wouldn’t see you again after Kerberos and I wasted what time we had left. I should’ve supported your decision…”

Shiro sighed and embraced him again. “It’s not your fault...You just wanted me to stay and I was too selfish. I love you so much, Adam…” Even if neither of them could technically cry, Adam still felt his eyes water as his head sunk into Shiro’s chest.

Neither of them were curious enough to follow the paladins around over the next few days. They occasionally saw them pass as they wandered the Garrison, savoring each others company, but they didn’t pay them any mind. They had no obligation to and, at least for now, nothing was more important than rebuilding their neglected relationship.

Shiro told him everything; about Voltron, Project Kuron, and how he died to let the other Shiro, the real Shiro, live on. He worried about how Adam would feel being stuck with a copy but those concerns were scattered to the wind as Adam sat in his lap, arms and legs winding around his torso as they watched the stars that hung over the building. The world around them faded into obscurity as all its relevance to them ceased to exist. They had each other and they were finally at peace.

-----------

“Is that Shiro?” Lance pointed up in the direction of one of the buildings.

“Where?” Keith cocked an eyebrow as he followed Lance’s finger, there was no one in sight up there. Lance looked back at Keith and shot him a glare.

“On the roof dude, he’s right in front of y-” Lance let out a confused whine of sorts as he turned back to see an empty rooftop.

“Lance, maybe you should go to bed. You seem a little out of it.” Hunk offered, having seen nothing as well.

“No, I swear I saw him up there. It looked like he was with someone…”

“Dude, Shiro’s on the other side of the compound right now with the Atlas.” Keith pointed out.

“Alright, Lance has clearly lost it. I think it’s time to call it night.” Pidge stated, nudging Lance back inside as he continued to squirm and protest that he wasn’t crazy.

[sweater--child]

The Voltron Thing

I don't often talk about Voltron. I think I only have the one post on it, and really the post more addresses the archetypal look for the moody character in basically everything (I'm talking about Nico di Angelo and Keith looking incredibly similar). I do watch Voltron, and for the most part enjoy it. I don't post about it because, to be completely honest, the majority of the fandom is very toxic and just kind of terrifying. If you want to disagree, I want to remind you that I was once told to kill myself for saying Keith was my favorite character (I've got a thing for broken boys with daddy issues, bite me) and have been repeatedly verbally abused for saying that I thought Pidge's gender was up for interpretation. I also once had a girl rant and scream at me (about how klance was superior after I mentioned that for the most part I'm a multishipper) until I literally had an anxiety attack. And of course, these are just some of the things I have personally experienced. That's not including the many shipping wars (which I've seen have included accusations of pedophilia, death threats, homophobic/transphobic remarks and accusations, etc.), the verbal abuse of actors and writers, the verbal abuse of other fans, death threats towards fandom creators and towards the original creators, and blackmail. Fucking blackmail. My point is I don't normally touch the Voltron fandom or go any where near it. BUT after watching the newest season and after repeated messages with /demands/ (not asking or requesting- but demanding) and several threats (like seriously? What the actual fuck guys, calm down its a cartoon), I will talk about some of the issues I have with the newest season.

Also- this thing is weird and rambly because I'm not gonna put more effort into this. I made this purely because it was demanded and to address some issues, not with the show but with everything going on around the show.

Spoilers, you've been warned.

We're gonna start with the thing that has broken flipping tumblr, Adam. To be honest, I stay away from most of the side content and promotional material and prefer to let the show speak for itself. However, the adashi/shadam ship blew up everywhere (seriously, I couldn't go on Instagram for weeks without seeing it) and I finally tracked down the information because I was major league confused on where nerdy boy appeared from. Adam's death wasn't what I was expecting, but it happened? Would I have loved to see him alive and have a happy Shiro for once? Yes. Am I going to attack the creators and accuse them of homophobia? No. To be honest: I'm holding my judgment on Adam and Shiro until after Season 8 (and yes, I do plan to watch season 8) BECAUSE we don't know what they have planned. Knowing the creators and the style of Voltron, I do think we will be getting more of Shiro and Adam's backstory and more of their relationship pre-Kerberos. I think the major thing I was disappointed by was the lack of confirmation from the show itself on the nature of Shiro and Adam's relationship, but again, I'm waiting for season 8 to make my conclusion on the adashi situation.

The thing that bothered me: the randomly thrown in hetero ships. Has there been teasing for klance? Yes, but to be honest, I never actually expected them to confirm it. I don't expect klance to become canon. And I'm okay with that, I'm a mature adult and I can enjoy my ships without them being canon. No need to blackmail people or harass them. No need to send pointed tweets or nasty emails. (Am I salty? Yes.) (And honestly, I'm more interested in Keith and Lance's individual chracter developments than their love lives.) Hell, I don't even care if they date other people. What bothered me was the thrown in ships. This is a thing a lot of shows do that I have complained about time and again. They kinda go 'oh shit, need love interest. Hey this persons single! They'll be perfect!' And then throw then together in the most awkward way. Acxa got the redemption she fucking deserved! And then they threw her and Keith together. Allura has been ignoring Lances flirty nature all this time, but oh no the show is ending soon and Lotors gone. I'm not gonna flip out though (it's a cartoon, not the end of the world). However, I will summarize my thoughts in this: If a show decides to disregard a hinted at queer couple in favor of 2 hetero couples, at least let them make sense and have actual tension. BUT I say this knowing that there is 1 more season and this relationships have not been fully confirmed. Do I think klance will be canon? Probably not. But I hope for a more open ended solution, without confirmed relationship in which the viewer what they believed happened.

Now this is where people are going to call me out and retaliate saying that I don't care about media representation- in which you would be wrong. I'm not going to sit and defend myself about this, because you probably don't know me and I owe you nothing. I would love for more queer representation- I would love for more queer couples. Yes, Adam died, but I don't think it was meant to be anything more than a tool for Shiro's growth and it falls in line with Shiro's story line. I do not believe it was meant to in any way be a message about lgbt couples or individuals. Adam was just meant to be a casualty of war to make the show more impactful.

Do I think there has been queer baiting? Yes and no. Klance has been hinted at and talked about and there was a lot of hype about Adam. Being fair- a lot of these came from the fandom? Shiro's given a boyfriend we know nothing about and the fandom blows up and dies. Every time Keith are seen together on screen or in promotional material people screech about Klance. Shiro is shown in promotional material with Adam because leaving Adam behind only to return and find him fucking dead is huge to his development- it's promotional material meant to draw you in so you wnat to know more. Keith and Lance are shown a lot. Well: 1. Most recognizable characters, 2. Have had major character development and have at times been the main driving plot of the show, 3. To someone who has some how been unaware of the Voltron disaster over the last couple years, showing them the shows 2 pretty boys is gonna draw them in. I don't think it has been purposeful 'queer baiting'.

And, if we're going to talk about the representation issues, let's talk about how the fandom represents themselves. Cause you know if I wasn't part of the queer community and didn't know a whole lot about the community and only saw queer kids harassing adults on social media, blackmailing companies, and sending threatening emails over a gay couple, I wouldn't be thinking too highly of the queer community. And then that puts creators in a bad position because if they give in? Theyre just catering to these people. If they don't? They're homophobic and enforcing heteronormativity. Like wtf did you expect? I constantly wonder what this show could have been if the creators weren't having to deal with such a toxic fandom. When you do these things you are representing yourself, your age group, the fandom, and the queer community. You are a representation worse than this show could ever be.

Which leads me to my biggest complaint: the fandom. Obviously, ive already touched on this (a lot), but my god, is it bad. I go on Twitter and see tweets to Lauren, and thw actors. I see people with pictures of long, threatening emails. I see kids, and yes I'm saying kids because everytime I look its someone between the ages of 13 and 16, making scathing remarks and accusing people of being homophobic. Not even talking about the crap that's happened in previous years and seasons, this fandom disgusts me. I woke up this morning to fucking messages with demands that I talk about this. I know and follow so many creators who refuse to create for the Voltron fandom because it's so endlessly toxic. I don't know if you think you're cool or powerful or whatever for accusing and threatening but you're not. You just look stupid for throwing a fit over a cartoon originally aimed at kids. Also like saying youre not gonna watch the last season because you didnt get the ending you wanted? Really?

I had more to say but I'm done. This whole post has put me in a bad mood but I'm going to leave with this: if you really cared about lgbt representation or lgbt rights, you wouldn't be complaining about a cartoon to a bunch of people just doing their jobs. You're just upset the show didn't go how you wanted, get over it. I'm sick of seeing people attacked for nothing. Y'all are toxic and need to learn some manners.

[madefate-a]

if hc, give us more info about the adashi household pets please? :")))

zoë is Dog Mom. she’s their oldest pet, but was already older when they rescued her first. she’s s u p e r smart but also super chill, and the perfect temperament for ptsd service. she’s deep, chocolate brown with white on her nose & soulful eyes!! whenever one of them is on the couch alone she’ll put her head on their lap and just sit like that for hours. initially shiro trains her to help him at the suggestion of like ,, everyone, but she started using her reality-training for adam too by licking his hand or putting her head in his lap when he has a panic attack. she’s VERY well trained but she WILL stare morosely at anyone eating food around her until they giver her a piece. 

cupcake is literally the happiest dog that has ever lived ever. he’s 90% fluff and 90% smiles and 20% dumbass which makes him 200% amazing. he was standoffish and shy for the first few weeks that he came home, but it really took him no time to Fall In Love w/ the adashi family. he tries to act like a guard dog any time anyone comes over but he’s useless at it; the second anyone feeds him a treat he Loves Them Too. any time either shiro or adam come home he IMMEDIATELY follows them around for an hour i can’t believe you’d abandon me like this, let me love you. his favorite thing in the whole world is a t t e n t i o n so sometimes they’ll find him places that he knows they’ll be eventually -- under the covers in the bed, on the couch, sitting by the door. love me. 

earth cat still doesn’t have a name :c she’s queen of the house. she also needed time to warm up to living there but once she did, she decided that She Owns This Place And These Humans. her favorite place to be is on adam’s shoulder, which is perfect because he can use that to his advantage by turning around to give someone a look in perfect unison with the cat. don’t talk to me or my human ever again / don’t talk to me or my cat ever again. refuses to eat anything but the fanciest wet food. if one of the guys is napping alone and has a nightmare, she WILL curl up on their chest and start purring. 

space cat also doesn’t have a name :c they’re more playful, but also weirdly knowing ?? shiro & adam still can’t figure out if they actually know what’s being said to them, or if everything is just a weird coincidence. they’ve very vocal!! they mew and purr and will butt their head against someone’s hand until they pet them. they are MESMERIZED by laser pointer light. ( earth cat could not be assed to play with the laser at all. ) they also Glow™ in the dark because they have these little glowy starry patterns on their tail and paws, but that’s okay because having a little light in the room at night is actually really nice. steals the dogs’ treats at every opportunity. 

// send me HCs & accepting & @largehearts