#anyway miss lance i love you <3 miss lance spare hand? <3

[tbcanary]

Dinah Lance, the Black Canary 🖤

[woltourney]

ROUND 3 / SIDE B / POLL 4

Naru (@blucifer08) v. Vastha Mhakaracca (@incense-and-iron / @wanderer-of-light)

Naru:

q. What is your WoL name and pronouns? a. Naru, she/her

q. What is your WoL's species? a. Xaela

q. What is your WoL's class? Or classes? a. Reaper

q. What data centre/server are you on, if you want people to find you? a. N/A

q. Tell us a bit about your WoL! a. Naru became a hero in search of a missing piece of herself! She never felt satisfied in her home of the Steppe. She was an orphan, and although she had an adopted family, she sought out more from beyond the Steppe. She enjoys helping, but I don't think she likes the word 'hero.' In her free time she paints environmental paintings, tries out her bartender friend's drink combinations, and sunbathing :)

q. Why should YOU win? (Answer IC!) a. "Ah… I'm not too sure. I suppose I'll win if fate chooses me. I'll accept failure, no matter how bitter… Though I don't see it as likely."

q. Anything else you wanna add? a. In my canon, she got fully turned into a sin eater and she uses light instead of void powers as a reaper :)

Vastha Mhakaracca:

q. What is your WoL name and pronouns? a. Vastha Mhakaracca [He/They]

q. What is your WoL's species? a. Miqote - Keeper of the Moon

q. What is your WoL's class? Or classes? a. Main classes: Dragoon, Dark Knight, Monk, Reaper, Dancer

q. What data centre/server are you on, if you want people to find you? a. N/A

q. Tell us a bit about your WoL! a. I'm a happy guy! Like to entertain my friends and put a smile on other people's faces. I ended up becoming a hero after following (partly) in my mother's footsteps-- she was a lancer and gave me her old lance when I wanted to leave home to adventure. It kind of broke ages ago… but I still have it! So she shouldn't be too mad about it. Hopefully, heh. Uh, anyway, I enjoy dancing and have tons of experience in managing and entertaining people since my family runs a small inn on the side of some nameless road. As for liking being a hero… it's complicated; as much as I really wish it wasn't that way. It use to be so easy and fun. Simple, even. There was still danger of course, but… I dunno. Fighting five giant ladybugs doesn't really match up in danger levels as the types of things I've been up too as of late [[<-- post EW content]]. Not to mention all the worst parts of having so much on your shoulders, things I really don't want to get into for such a fun event. B-But, don't take it as if I don't want to be a hero!! I can do it, so I want to do it. And it's not a 'If I don't do it, no one will', either. I think there are people who definitely could and would. People who have pulled way more weight through all this than I have. Even so, with all the pain and trouble I've been though, it's worth it at the end of the day. Knowing that I've helped so many people, that I have the power to keep the worst at bay, that I can make a change in the world and have that change try and be something good and positive and kind: that's what makes me like such a dangerous and oftentimes thankless job. Free time? Well, there's: dancing, cooking [[Culinarian is at level 90]], tending to my new island hangout, I've been doing LOTS of sightseeing-- Oh! I LOVE taking pictures and doing photography. Mostly of landscapes, they're just easier for me to work with than people; not to say I don't snap pictures of my friends now and again. What else… Oh! I've been taking up other crafting jobs as well since I have the spare time. It gives me something to keep my hands busy and lets me go out and collect more plants and rocks. I always liked going out to collect random stuff, but some of my older sisters, who I ended up bullied into hiring on as retainers so they could keep tabs on me away from home, got tired of me dumping popotos and iron ingots onto them to figure out how to sell en mass every week. I saw nothing wrong with it, but it really just must be me. Hmm… A lot more stuff about me is kind of personal. While I'm a rather open guy and like to chat, there's even some stuff I don't like talking about too casually or with strangers, sorry! Maybe we can be friends? I'm always open to new friends! Let's talk more sometime, okay?

q. Why should YOU win? (Answer IC!) a. Why should I win? Oh man, I just think it'd be neat! "Vastha Mhakaracca, winner of the…" uh, what was this called again? Oh, right! "winner of the WoLTourney 2023!" Could even put that on my little adventure card thingy just for fun.

q. Anything else you wanna add? a. Some other facts about Vastha he didn't get to cover himself: Transmasc [he/they] and gay (despite all the handsome bachelors in game, he hasn't fallen for more past a short lived crush or two.) He has 4 older sisters, making him the youngest in the family He use to be more meek and shy, which turned to 'all talk no bite', which turned out to now where he's more mellow and friendly but will not hesitate to throw hands if someone starts something He actually likes to do fetch quests because it lets him explore local areas to take more pictures Vastha comes off as a bit of a dunce and a ~stoopid widdle catboi~ to people because he likes to have fun and goof around like he use too (before all the horrors (tm) of being an adventurer). He notices, but doesn't comment on it. He'd rather people keep thinking it and underestimate him so he can prove them wrong through action. And with so much life experience now, he really doesn't care what others think of him anymore; he knows himself and that's all he can control in life. Despite being so giddy and friendly, the man does have some things he dislikes a normal degree, and other things (and people) he hates with the rage of a thousand suns-- which upon mention of will immediately switch his mood to more sour and serious. It's rare to stumble across such topics, thankfully.

[troofless]

FE7 Blazing Blade HHM thoughts

No save states except to reset to the start of the map, no arena abusing, boss abuse allowed in Lyn Mode otherwise everything else is free game. Thoughts:

Are you fucking kidding me? Hector is my favourite lord of all time now. Rash, loyal, keen at times, worries about his brother and figures it out yet hides it from his friends, a delinquent with a heart of gold... like hot damn please marry me sir

Bought a ton of lances and swords and boss abused at the gate in Lyn Mode for Florina, Sain and Nils. Lots of pain, but worth it, as I find out later.

And thus Super Soldier Sain was born... Wallace who huh of course that Knight Crest is gonna go on Sain

Sain also caps speed early lmao

Matthew wasn’t trained at all so I went into HHM first chapter thinking Oh Shit I Should Have Trained Matthew With The Boss fuckkkkk

Wolf Beil had 8 uses left when I was able to buy axes ffs why do we start out so poor huh

I love that Matthew is canonically Uther/Hector’s ninja

I also love Oswin. Who can double stuff early game. Takes 0 damage. Can use Javelins. 10/10 unit along with Marcus.

I need to see more of the relationship between Uther and Hector dammit

Hector threatening to kill everyone in his way: Good Good! You go bro. Slaughter anyone that stands in your way!

Ngl having Hector is such a refreshing take on the Main Lord’s Love And Compassion Let’s Spare Everyone thing. That being said, Eliwood being the one to rein Hector in is very nice. Wish Lyn had a better plot relevance tho lmao, she was relegated in the main story to just being Hector’s conversation friend and tracking down the Black Fang’s hideout

Hector being able to use 1-2 range weapons right from the start compared to Eliwood and Lyn is BASED

Ah yes Chapter 12 where we meet Eliwood, aka the chapter where we play chicken with the boss by hitting him until he retreats to the fort to heal while we camp the bottom layer

This is also the point where I start to miss Sain because Lowen is inferior and I don’t train Lowen cos I know Sain comes in later so *shrug*

THE MERLINUS CHAPTER CAN KISS MY ASS I HATE THAT CHAPTER SO MUCH

Imagine getting gangbanged while camping the middle island. Trying to shift Hector from the left to the top bridge to chokepoint because he’s one of the only reliable people who can tank hits, the other being Marcus who has to go to town to Visit and Oswin holding the bottom bridge.

Yeah fuck those Nomads. 

Dorcas is great and Bartre too cos Hand Axe but he gets fucking DOUBLED by everything in existence here I swear

Lowen is useless. Bitch keeps dying even though he’s a Cavalier

Also one of the few maps where archers are actually good to help plink the bitches

Lmao fuck Chapter 15 HHM too, killing the Nomad boss Sealen and getting the treasure is so hard, Lowen keeps dying and he doesn’t stop dying and-

Anyway again fuck Nomads

Hahahahaha Lyn chapter? Kinda hell trying to escort a underlevelled Lyn, Kent and Wil over to the left side of the map. Sain is strong but even he can’t save 3 people ffs. Anyway Florina and Sain are here so the chapter is a little easier.

I get Canas, who I train up because I like Canas and his monocle and I like Luna tome cheese. He doubles the fire dragon in the endgame too lmao. Luna!Athos who

The Canas chapter is fun yet not fun because - Killer Axe? Silver Bow? Really, game? (And yeah I kill everyone on the map for EXP I need it ok

Pirate ship map sucked ass and I kept restarting so Canas and Raven get good EXP without dying and Marcus not getting gangbanged by everyone on the map. Also managed to steal from the boss.

I prepped so much for Kishuna’s map, with Sain and Priscilla A support by this point and B support with Raven, and prepping Silver Lance trading with Marcus and Sain, but Kishuna went down quite easily...

19xx kinda bad cos bottom side hard to rush before the stupid Thief steals everything and gets away with it. Have I mentioned Sleep staves suck?

In Wallace map he died on turn 2 it’s not my fault I couldn’t reach him in time ok

I didn’t get Harken because the wiki lied to me. The condition I suspect is killing at most one promoted enemy unit, not one promoted enemy magic unit.

Man fuck Luna users, Bolting users, Purge users, Sleep users, Silence users, BERSERK USERS

Yeah Battle Before Dawn what’s your excuse for killing off Jaffar and Zephiel before I can even reach them huh fuck you fuck you fuck you

Sonia’s map is just cheesed by sending fliers as guerilla attackers while everyone else camps the starting island, then send in Canas at the end lmao. At this point Florina takes 0 damage from mages and Fiora takes 2 or so. I abandoned Heath from the start because his base speed stat is a liability to getting doubled I swear

What do you mean Berserk doesn’t exist in later games smh these newer gamers are missing out

Rain and Snow are still bullshit mechanics

Also Rescue dropping and Constitution are so cool, Pair-Up system in Awakening and Fates were just too broken, I see that now. IN THE OLDEN DAYS CARRYING SOMEONE HALVED YOUR SPEED NOT INCREASED IT-

Man Lloyd is so cool, I wish we could have him as a playable character

Cog of Destiny fuck you for having ten thousand Luna tome, Berserk, Sleep, Silence, Purge and Bolting users. This is also when Sain and Marcus fall off because their Res is mid

Hector finding out Uther is already dead and everyone was just hiding it from him.... HECTOR.... UTHER..... 🥺🥺🥺🥺

Marcus died in the Limstella chapter uhhhh.... sorry my friend but at least you live

Get close to the boss, Warp in with Canas who kills Limstella with a crit, ah shit Hector too far away to Warp and end the chapter, wait with Canas, who takes 0 damage from all the dark mages that spawned, Warp Hector in next turn and end the game

Hector being such a chad that he promotes in Chapter 29 when the endgame is Chapter 32 and yet remains viable and can double armored units, Edelgard couldn’t hope to compete with a fraction of his power

At level 20 Hector has capped speed and strength, truly incredible, meanwhile Lyn was level 10 and Eliwood was level 6 throughout the whole game (I early promoted Lyn) lmao

Warp strat-ting the last Kishuna chapter be like - Warp - Rescue so Raven doesn’t get gangbanged by the Berserkers - Warp in again with Killing Edge cheese 

Last boss be like Canas - Athos - Rescue drop so Dragon doesn’t target anyone else but Canas on enemy phase - buff a useless buff with Nils and end the game with Hector’s Armads (at a 70 hit too lmao)

Hector and Lyn A Support (damnnn the changes in the conversations they had during the story was good), Eliwood and Ninian A Support (again, changes in story convo and ending good)

Hector wanting to name his son Uther (knladfadf) and Mark asking what if its a girl, to which Hector replies NAH IT’LL BE A BOY

Anyway the early game MVPs goes out to Oswin, Marcus, Sain and Florina, then late game carries are is Priscilla, Raven, Canas, Florina and Fiora. Raven is the main boss killer and then Canas LUNAs the late game bosses while taking 0 damage to Light Brands, while Priscilla can dodgetank a good amount of staff and Warp strats later on with Canas. Florina takes 0 damage from Flux mages late game and Fiora is there to support, albeit a bit weaker but an earlier promotion solves this.

Raven truly is the Rutger in this game. Has supports with a OP female dodgetank Trobadour, is a cold tsundere... huh...

Priscilla gets A support with Sain this time (Sain is sadly low speed in endgame) and B support with Raven. Canas is sadly no good support until Pent (which I forgot he had) and Vaida (which only manages to get up to C). Florina and Fiora A support each other.

Special shoutout to Hawkeye and Pent for joining at amazing base stats that require no training at all. And to a lesser extent Isadora in her chapter is amazing, and Vaida.

Maps I struggled with a LOT: Merlinus map, Pirate ship map, Kishuna second map just sucked ass cos Kishuna moves around, also have I mentioned how much Sleep and Berserk Staves suck, and BATTLE BEFORE DAWN FUCK YOU

Funnily enough I had to restart the Pent chapter because Pent killed too many people....

Now that I’m done with the GBA fire emblem games, it’s time to move onto Tellius!

[irene-sadler]

Sir Reynard and the Red Knight

(aka 'The Tournament')

special notes:

the vibe i chose for this imaginary fair/holiday is a mashup of pieces from medieval christmas and new year's eve celebrations. ofc as I mentioned before most of those were Christianity-based, but some of them had a distintly pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon pagan flavor. now my source material here is from 1827, but the author makes sure to let us know which traditions (he thinks) are older than Christianity. the book (books actually, there's 3 of them total) itself is also kind of a fun read, it's sort of a combo of an almanac/calendar/reference guide/gossip column.

a n y w a y, so, specifically i want to mention (b/c i stole them for this story and i don't want to do that without letting ppl know these are or were real traditions that real people observed) serving a boars' head on christmas day (Essex, England, observed "from time immemorial"), the wassail bowl/toast (a new year custom very definitely from before Christianity and apparently present in various parts of Europe altho I don't have the specific expertise to explain why), and an interesting/weird/gruesome Christmas parade (Kent) which the book describes: "A party of young people procure the head of a dead horse, which is affixed to a pole about four feet in length, a string is tied to the lower jaw, a horse cloth is then attached to the whole, under which one of the party gets, and by frequently pulling the string keeps up a loud snapping noise." This is called a Hodening and whether or not ppl still do it I don't know but, uh, i hope so b/c awesome.

also theres only 1 chapter left if u stuck with it this whole time or, idk, it's 2024 and u read the whole thing at once thanks for bothering love u

----

9.

     “Yes, hello,” Gascon said, pretending not to notice Meve’s displeasure. “Good afternoon, ladies,” he added, as the Baroness and Giselle turned to look curiously down at where he stood in the shadows. The Baroness frowned and pursed her lips judiciously; Giselle considered him and glanced uncertainly at the older women.

    “Anyway,” he continued, an edge of urgency buried in his easy tone, “Do you have a minute to spare?”

    “No,” the Queen said stiffly, turning back toward the empty lists. “I’m busy; whatever it is will have to wait until later.”

    “Oh,” he replied, growing very faintly annoyed, “Because it’s about that thing you wanted last night; just thought you’d be interested t’ know I’ve done it.”

    She hesitated, ignoring the Baroness’s raised eyebrow and Giselle’s uncomfortable confusion, struggled momentarily between curiosity and base pettiness, and finally said, “Yes, fine; I have a few minutes, I suppose.”

    “Fifteen minutes,” the Baroness said, pointedly.

    “No time to waste, then,” said Gascon; he winked at Giselle, who took her cue from the Baroness and frowned disapprovingly back at him, and they hurried off.

    “So, what is it, then?” Meve asked bluntly, as they turned into the town’s streets at a rapid stroll. “I assume you’ve caught the saboteur, else you wouldn’t have bothered me.”

    “Well, I caught Gaheris; he may be the saboteur, or may not,” Gascon said, disregarding her tone. “Gaspar thinks he is, though, and he’s th’ only one who saw th’ intruder close up last night, so odds are good he’s your man.”

    “Really?” She abandoned her moodiness in favor of mild surprise, and then asked, “When did this happen?”

    “Oh, only about an hour ago. Less, even. Seemed like there was no real need for a public scene, so I just had him snatched off the street and, you know - stashed somewhere convenient,” Gascon explained, leading the way down an alley and into a butcher. The owner nodded and smiled to him as he passed through the door and headed toward the back, spotted the Queen, and instantly looked away at nothing in particular. Pug and Gaspar waited in the yard behind the shop, standing guard over a man with a bag on his head and a bandage around his left ankle. Gascon nodded at Pug and she yanked the bag away; Gaheris squinted in the light and surveyed his surroundings - two large, brightly interested pigs in a pen, his sinister pair of captors, and, finally, Meve and Gascon. He sighed.

    “Got ‘im in one piece, as you wanted,” Pug announced in her gruff voice; a dubious claim, as Gaheris had a black eye and a split lip, but Gascon nodded approvingly and jerked his thumb over his shoulder, toward the shop.

    “Wait inside for a bit,” he said; Pug and Gaspar departed, leaving their captive to his deserved fate.

    “Now, sir,” Meve said briskly to Gaheris; if she had any doubts about his culpability, she kept them firmly to herself. “Let’s not waste time with falsehoods or denials.”        

    “No,” he said, resignedly, “Doesn’t seem to be much point in trying.”

    “Quite. So, explain what it is you’ve been up to, then.”

    “Start with last night,” Gascon added, as the squire took a few too many seconds to think it over. “Hurry up.”

    “Ah, well. I was trying to get hold of a piece of equipment I knew was among Sir Odo’s things in the barn,” he said. “The girth from a saddle.”

    “Continue,” the Queen said, as he paused, clearly thinking the question answered.

    “Well, obviously I didn’t get it, since that - that thug sliced my ankle t’ the bone when I tried. Seems the girth held up, though, regardless, through today; probably because Sir Odo don’t take many hits, luckily for him.”

    “No, it’s because I found it last night and changed it out for a new one,” Gascon said, angrily. “You’re the one who cut it, are you?”

    Gaheris nodded.

    “I knew it,” the Duke muttered; Meve waved his self-congratulatory comment away, scowling.

    “When did you do it?”

    “Oh, a month ago, or more,” he said. “Just before the duel against Sir Holt.”

    “Why?”

    He blinked at the question and said, as if it was obvious, “Because Sir Holt told me to, in hopes he’d win.”

    “You did a bad job, then,” Gascon snapped; Gaheris looked mildly offended.

    “No,” he said. “No, I didn’t. The girth held, did it not? Sir Odo won - or, well he could have, if he’d wanted to.”

    He looked at his interrogators’ baffled stares, and then explained, patiently, “Look - I cut through the leather, left just enough to hold a strain for a good while, glued it so it’d look like nothing, and told Holt I’d done what he wanted. Simple. I just didn’t have the chance to get it back, after the fight; too many people hanging around who might’ve seen me. If I had done, nobody would have been the wiser.”

    Meve stared at him, torn between confusion and anger, opened her mouth, and closed it again as an echo of distant horns bounced off the buildings.

    “Damn,” she said. “I have to go. Gascon, find Sir Holt.”

    “What should I do with him?” he asked, as she turned to leave; she hesitated, considered her options, and came to a hasty decision.

    “Just keep tabs on him, don’t let him leave town, and - and we’ll sort this mess out, later.”

    “You’ll find him in the tavern, no doubt,” Gaheris said wearily to Gascon, as she quickly departed.

      She nearly ran back through the streets, but she was still late; she returned to the lists to find the Baroness had started the final round without her. However, she she was in time to see Nolda avoid an immediate defeat by the same method she had used on Sir Eres, but Reynard survived her trick, when his fellow knight hadn’t. She nodded in satisfaction at the display.

    “Your man is a quick study, as he’s always been,” said the Baroness, as if Meve had never been away. The next pass involved no deceptions from either side, nor any displays of brilliance; Nolda blocked an ordinary sort of attack on her shield, and never touched Sir Odo.

    “He’s testing the waters,” Meve said, slightly bored with her favorite’s typically cautious tactics. “How long have they been at it?”

    “You only missed one pass; the foreigner’s better at this than I expected.”

    “She’s tricky,” Giselle noted, appreciatively. “What’s the Count doing, there?”

    There was a short pause; Meve glanced downfield and answered, “Oh, he wants a different lance, I imagine.”

    The delay took a full half minute, due to some confusion on Ethan’s part; the Baroness mumbled a displeased remark about the squire’s ineptitude, and then the combat began again.

    “He wants to make up for Nolda’s left-handedness,” the Baroness explained, louder, “That’s what the long spear is for. Most people don’t learn to fight the way she does -”

    She broke off; Reynard’s change of weapon had answered, and he had dealt a strike that had nearly unseated his opponent; she managed to stay in the saddle by luck or skill and they lined up again.

    “He has her figured out; this’ll be th’ end of it,” said Meve. The Baroness nodded agreement. Giselle looked unconvinced, but, in the end, Reynard landed a direct attack to his opponent’s helm and Nolda crashed to earth at long last.

    “A devilishly difficult play,” the Baroness said, in the silence that followed. “Dangerous, too.”

    Reynard had turned to look behind himself, before his horse had even reached the end of the barricade; Nolda lay still on the ground for a few moments, and then, as her husband vaulted the fence and came running toward her, stirred and sat up. She waved an irritated hand at Bohault and Reynard, who had trotted back and dropped from his horse as soon as he was rid of his lance, but neither paid attention to her gestures or her repeated insistence that she was perfectly fine. The crowd’s general din returned, drowning out their conversation; Meve breathed a relieved sigh and reluctantly turned her thoughts back to Gaheris and Sir Holt, and then - she frowned slightly - Gascon’s mysterious absence during the day.

    “Pity you can’t make her a knight,” Giselle said, of Nolda, interrupting her consideration; Meve’s frown grew thoughtful.

    “A knight,” she repeated to herself, under her breath, watching the muddle on the field break up - Reynard back to his horse, Bohault and Nolda to hers - a vague connection, or suspicion, growing in the back of her mind. She turned abruptly to the Baroness, interrupted an ongoing reminisce on the handful of times she’d seen another knight employ a tactic similar to Reynard’s winning strike, and said, “Listen, Hilde - the black knight; do you know who he is?”

    The Baroness hesitated, slightly confused, and replied, choosing her words carefully, “I believe so, but - wasn’t that what you and the Duke spoke about?”

    “No,” the Queen said, disgruntled. “No, it wasn’t.”      

    “Ah,” she said, looking away toward the approaching victors, “Well, perhaps you should. Count Odo, congratulations on another victory; well fought, Nolda. My lord, you’ve won quite a fine horse, I believe, and you, madam, a sword. They’ll be bringing them along shortly.”

      Any personal urgency she felt to finally sort out her ongoing affairs was wasted; the prizes took very little time to hand out, but a number of unrelated problems were brought to her individual attention as soon as the victors rode away. She sent Giselle back to her tavern with genuine gratitude for her service, dealt out various solutions, and then at last she and the Baroness set off toward the castle. The streets of the city were packed, twilight was setting in, and there was no way to hurry their progress no matter how their guard tried. A wagon that had lost a wheel blocked the way, first, and then a succession of other disruptions: a traveling comedic play about a sorcerer and some maidens, some cows wandering loose in the street, a troupe of drunken minstrels playing festive tunes, a strange procession led by a solemn youth holding a freshly cut horse’s head mounted on a pole as a banner, a group of offended clerics in its wake, handcarts selling buns and ale, and, finally, on the bridge over the castle moat, an armored knight still on his charger, who would not be shifted by man or beast until Meve stepped out of the torchlit crowd and threatened to remove him herself.

    Then there was yet another feast, this time held in the hall and attended by more of the usual crowd - but, of course, with the horde of knights and sundry that had participated in the jousts, somewhat more of them than normal. There were the typical, expected customs - a boar’s head served, bowls of spiced ale passed around, a number of favors and pardons bestowed, gifts received (and given; Count Odo, for one, courteously gave the warhorse he’d won earlier in the day to Nolda, who accepted it in a fiercely embarrassed but otherwise gracious fashion) - and various other ancient rituals observed.

    “I would’ve asked if you thought giving her the horse was a good idea,” Reynard said privately to the Queen, during the Mayor’s inevitable remarks, “But I didn’t catch you in time. If I’m honest it’s less a gift and more a bribe, of a sort; Ethan’s left-handed, same as her, and I thought it might make it easier to convince her to teach him.”

    “There were some delays getting back,” she replied, also in an undertone, her eyes resolutely fixed on the speaker as he recited a hopeful list of future developments for the upcoming year. “This whole afternoon’s been nothing but delays, in fact.”

    “I’ll tell you about it later,” she added, quickly, as the speech ended, aimed a quick but pointed glance at the distant Gascon, who immediately slipped out a side door, and then dismissed the court in the exact words she’d recited for ten years, and, before her, her late husband, and his father, and their distant grandfathers, for all of remembered history.

      Finally getting rid of her guests took much longer than the traditional close to the winter solstice did. As a result, it was past midnight before she made the solitary climb up the stairs to her office, looking forward to finally having a quiet minute to think. However, Reynard and Gascon - and Gaheris - were within, despite the late hour; the squire stopped in the middle of a sentence and all three men automatically turned her way when she stepped through the door. She waved an impatient hand at him to continue and leaned against her own desk, hiding her weariness behind a cold stare. Gaheris returned to repeating his confession; Reynard listened in silence, his expression drifting subtly between offense and genuine confusion. At the end, he frowned and asked, “You - pretended to sabotage my equipment? Why? Why not do it properly, I mean?”

    The squire shrugged.

    “It’s - listen; before I go on, you should know Holt’s an ass, and a stubborn one at that. Yes, I see you’ve all noticed. Well, I couldn’t dissuade him when th’ idea came into his fool head, but I’d no wish t’ see him win a fight by such a trick, against such an obviously superior opponent. It’s not right, and, also, would be easily seen through. What I did seemed the simplest solution.”

    “You could have refused,” Reynard pointed out; Gaheris smiled pityingly at him and shook his head. His response drew an exasperated comment from Meve.

    “You could have done nothing at all, and told him otherwise.”

    He frowned, again mildly offended.

    “I’m no liar,” he said. “If I can find any other solution, I mean. They say a half-truth’s better than a lie, don’t they?”

     Reynard blinked, considered, and then shook his head. Gascon shrugged his shoulders, grudgingly.

    “You’re clearly a capable man,” Meve said. “Why do you serve someone you know isn’t?”

    Gaheris shook his head again, helplessly.

    “Holt’s always been like this,” he explained, “Ever since he was a boy. He’s a decent fighter, but he’s too competitive for his own good, and he’s still not learned t’ pick his battles. However, he is my little brother - well, half-brother; my mother married Sir Ulrich after my father died. He was a stonemason,” he explained, seeing the Queen raise a questioning eyebrow, a gleam of challenge in his dark eyes. “His name was Gors.”

    When she failed to react to his admission, he continued:

    “Anyway, she wanted me t’ look after Holt, best I can. He isn’t a bad person, really, he just -”

    He shrugged.

    “He can’t help how he is, when he’s in a mood, and when he isn’t he’s not the worst of men, or the worst of nobles, for that matter. He’s never struck a knight who’s yielded, for one, and he’s not one to steal or run villainous among th’ yeomen. And, he’s all the family I got left,” he finally finished. Meve nodded and said nothing for a long moment; she noticed that he couldn’t have been any older than herself, but he briefly appeared gray and worn down. She was, to her mild irritation, somewhat sympathetic to his troubles. Gascon glanced from her icy frown to Gaheris’s tired stare, curiously. Reynard watched her carefully.

    “Keep him under guard,” she said to Gascon. “I’m not sure what to do with him or his brother, just yet. Wait - leave him on the landing; the guards there will look after him for the moment. I’ve another matter to discuss, before you go.”

      “He’s the black knight,” she said to Reynard, as Gascon stepped back in without his captive. “Did you know?”

    “No, of course not,” the Count said, frowning slightly. “Although, in truth, th’ idea has crossed my mind, but I found it - unlikely.”

    Gascon hesitated, then shrugged, grinned broadly, and said, “You caught me at last, m’lady; how’d you figure it?”

    “The Baroness it was that discovered you, not me,” Meve said, crossing her arms stubbornly; she attempted to appear angry, but in the end managed only mild, slightly amused, annoyance. “Also, she appears to have found me out, as well, incidentally. In fact, there seems to be very little she doesn’t know.”

    “She’s uncommonly sharp, no doubt about it,” Gascon agreed, readily.

    “So,” she continued, “Is there anything at all to be gained by asking you what you were doing, today?”

    “Won’t tell you unless you first promise not t’ bite my head off,” he said promptly.

    “Yes, very well, as it’s the solstice, but don’t expect any more favors from me before the summer, at earliest. I mean it, Gascon.”

    Reynard sat down, shaking his head at them; Gascon nodded and said, “Fair’s fair. Well, then, it’s a short tale: I won that fight against Sir Holt, then I saw Gaheris come limping ‘round to scrape him up off the turf, and it all came together clear as mud, so I decided it was time t’ stop playing at knights for the day and do some real work.”

    “You could have appeared in the joust as yourself,” Reynard remarked, almost idly, “And not as -”

    “As me,” Meve interrupted, a hint of her previous ire returning.

    “Yes, well - the black knight’s more interesting than I am,” he explained, with a broad shrug. “People have heard of his prowess, or what have you; the dangerous reputation’s an advantage, of sorts.”

    “Yes, we’ve heard, in fact,” Meve said, coldly. “Slew a werewolf, did you?”

    “Sure did,” Gascon replied. “Or, I helped, anyhow. There was a witcher involved. Like Gaheris said: half a truth’s better than a lie, so I let the former take precedence.”

    “That’s not the saying, as you know perfectly well. It’s worse,” Reynard said, rolling his eyes. “Half a truth is worse than a lie.”

    Gascon shrugged at him, grinning slightly. Meve interrupted their tangent, impatiently.

    “And you killed a dragon, they say?”

    “Not I,” the Duke said, quickly, eyeing the Queen’s scowl. “Th’ only dragonslayer here is yourself - although, I did kill a pretty big snake in a roadside inn. The landlady was most impressed. So was some minstrel who happened t’ be around, it appears; he has, uh, embellished th’ incident, somewhat.”

    “Yes, that much is obvious,” Reynard noted, “But how’d he know it was the black knight who did the deed and not merely one Gascon Brossard?”

    At last, Gascon turned uncomfortably self-conscious and clammed up; Meve watched him squirm for a long moment and decided, after a glance at the amused gleam in Reynard’s eye, to not to press the issue further.

    “And you gave poor Sir Orlac a dunking,” she remarked, finally; Gascon looked relieved and seized on the change in subject.

    “Yes, that story’s true,” he admitted. “He’s not a bad fighter, at all, thought he don’t seem to enjoy it much. It took some convincing t’ even get him to go against me, actually, but it was worth the time, in th’ end, to get th’ extra practice.”

    “You have improved, somewhat,” Reynard observed, casually. He shot a quick look at Meve; she spotted it and broke off her intended response, frowning. Gascon either missed or ignored their exchange and said, brightly, “Why thank you, sir.”

    “Although,” the knight continued, “It remains to be seen if you can beat me just yet; Meve, of course, has already unhorsed you once, so no there’s burning question to be answered on that account.”

    “By a trick,” Gascon said, and then, as Reynard shrugged unconcernedly, added, “Look, I only really wanted t’ fight Sir Holt and beat him, again, to prove I could, like. I had no notion of much else.”

    “Yes, very likely,” Meve muttered, rolling her eyes; Reynard continued, despite her:

    “Not afraid to lose, are you?”

    “Of course not; it happens all the time,” Gascon said, mildly indignant.

    “Well, then, tomorrow, if you’ve no other plans, let’s see how good you’ve really become, shall we? Without your intimidating disguise, I mean.”

    “Well, all right,” the Duke said, doubtfully, clearly wary about what exactly he was agreeing to. “I suppose I’m not busy, but - “

    “Good. I’ll see you first thing in the morning, then,” Reynard said, a suggestion of finality in his voice; Gascon still looked uncertain, but nodded and then made a tactical retreat to “see to those other matters.”

    “What the devil are you at, Reynard?” Meve asked, the instant he was gone. He stood up, strode across the room with a self-satisfied smile, and wrapped his arms around her.

    “You’ve had a long day,” he said, “Let me worry about it.”

    “Ugh. Fine, then; do what you want,” she said, ingraciously, leaned her forehead against his chest, and continued with a muffled sigh, “What do you think I should do with Holt? I can’t very well banish him for trying to cheat in a duel, much as I’d like to - he is the sole legal heir to Sir Ulrich, who has been a relatively loyal supporter of the crown - nor can I demote him, since he isn’t one of my own knights.”

    “Just ban him from your tournaments, and the rest of the realm will follow,” he said, as if it was obvious, “It’s the worst thing that could happen to a young knight.”

    “You’d know better than I,” she remarked, unfolded her arms, slid them around his waist, and added, “What about Gaheris?”

    “I don’t know,” Reynard said, “He’s not so easy to deal with.”

    “The trouble is,” Meve said, darkly, “- the trouble is that, in his circumstances, he’s done nothing worse than you or I have in the past, which makes me feel something of a hypocrite if I consider having him arrested for treason - as I certainly could, given your indispensable position and high rank.”

    “Yes, a - a similar thought crossed my own mind, to be honest.”

    “Well, it’s true,” she said, raising her head and frowning up at him. “Isn’t it? Reginald -”

    “He wasn’t quite so bad as Holt.”

    “Because he was older, and the King, and no other reason. Well, and he had you around to clean up after his worst decisions. And, his sons - my sons - are the same, or worse, than Sir Holt. Or were, I mean. Anseis certainly is, in any case.”

    “Perhaps,” Reynard said, thoughtfully, “There’s no need to do anything to Gaheris, at all.”

    “As you’re th’ one he wronged, in th’ end I think what happens to him should really be your decision,” Meve said, shrugging.

    “Well, then, speaking from experience, the man’s trials in keeping control of his brother are worse than anything you might think up.”

    “Yes, I know what you mean. I’ve no wish to see him hang or rot in prison, but banishment would be no curse to him, and we’d have to contend with Holt still, regardless, but without a convenient manager. What a waste; were he noble-born, I’d have some use for a man of his talents, and I could more easily secure his future loyalty. A shame, to have Holt be th’ one who inherits old Ulrich’s lands and titles, and Gaheris remain a squire still.”

    “I agree,” Reynard said. “However, that problem only you can solve.”

    She looked into his eyes, thoughtfully, and nodded.

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt 137 prt 1

137

Standing on the beach, Lance watched the ocean waves lapping the shoreline. He’d gotten so big now. 20ish weeks and his toes were only visible under his stomach. His toes that were currently dug into the sand. He could only go out at night now, but he liked it better that way. The nightlife seemed so far away. Everyone seemed so far away. Keith was so far away. He’d given up. He’d given up and let Keith go... which meant he still shouldn’t be waiting for his boyfriend’s return. He’d heard from Rieva and Matt that Keith was back. He didn’t know if he cared or not. He was broken inside with a million prickly pieces choking his throat and lungs. Mami was gone. He’d tried calling Keith, crying and shaking so hard that his phone had crumbled in his hand before the call connected. He’d given up. So long out of contact, that had to mean Keith was no longer his. He’d tried to go to Rome, to wait for Keith there, but in his head he images of Keith being happy. Happy and relaxed. Joking around with everyone, accepted by James, who seemed his arch rival. The images so clear in his head that his boyfriend didn’t need him.

He didn’t know which way was up anymore. He’d run from Matt and Rieva. Locked himself in his hotel room and didn’t want to listen to anything they had to say. Keith had come back safely but he hadn’t come for him. He’d been so good. He’d waited. He’d come back and waited... when Coran wanted him to stay in Platt. What good was a Platt where Keith wasn’t? A Platt where Mami wasn’t waiting for him anymore. What good was he to anyone when he looked like this? His stomach had grown so much. No longer hidden under Keith’s shirts. Everything hurt so badly, but... he couldn’t... he didn’t know how to start again or return to where he was before. He wasn’t sure he even wanted to. Maybe it was better if Lance McClain disappeared from the world...

*

Matt and Rieva picked Keith up at the airport. Hugs all round, despite having only seen each other the previous week. The drive to Varadero felt heavy. Keith was in the back of the small rental car, and Matt and Rieva weren’t really talking outside of the general greetings. Whatever it was, Keith felt like they weren’t telling him so didn’t explode in the back of the hatchback. Their friends were supposed to be checking on Lance. Supporting Lance. Keith was confused when Matt pulled into a car park, thinking they were going to a hotel. Rieva’s voice was soft and pained

“Lance will be down there. He likes to go for walks at night along the shoreline. He ran away from us... we’ve talked to him a couple of times, but... he’s really hurting. He didn’t want to see us, but I... I’ve never seen him this bad. It’s not like when came back from Sendak. He feels as if he’s given up on you and lost his way. You should be prepared for that”

“Thanks... I need to thank you for keeping an eye on him”

“We didn’t do much. He did finally talk to us, but he... he’s different. Kind of distant. He’s gotten big too. He doesn’t go out during the day anymore, but he has been to church once, we followed him”

“I still feel better that you guys came here. Thanks for picking me up. I’ll let you guys know how it goes”

Matt added completely unnecessarily

“You better not break his heart”

“You know I love him more than anything. I want to be with him and I’m not about to let him push me away”

“Good. Now go get your man”

Beach sand filled Keith’s shoes, so he toed them off and left them. It was easier to run on the beach without them anyway. Rieva said head for the shoreline so he did. He didn’t expect it’d take him nearly ten minutes of running that had dropped to jogging to find his boyfriend. Lance was standing on the beach, both hands on his swollen belly. He really had gotten bigger. So much bigger than when he’d last seen Lance. 3 physical months had stolen that time away from them. He wasn’t supposed to take anything personal with him on a mission, but he’d taken the last ultrasound photos and the photo of Lance showing his tiny tummy. The photos so creased from all the times he’d pulled them out to remind himself why he was going through everything even with Sendak dead.

Slowly Lance turned his head towards him, a pained smile on his lips

“Hey, Keith”

That was the drive he needed, running the last few steps he crashed into his boyfriend. Lance was finally back in his arms. Sobs falling from him as he held him tightly. Lance taking a shuddering breath before his knees gave out. Both of them sinking onto the damp sand. Lance had waited. He really had waited. And Keith had been late. Nuzzling into his boyfriend, they both tried to talk at the same time. He’d been so scared Lance would run and he had so many things to say to him

“Lance... I... I missed you so much”

“I didn’t think you’d ever come...”

“I couldn’t contact you. I tried to let you know I was coming back but you never answered”

“I broke my phone... and... I don’t think you loved me anymore. I kept waiting for you! I waited and I waited!”

Both of them were ugly crying. Lance shaking so hard in Keith’s arms he felt like he’d shatter from the intensity. Pushing him away, Lance’s big blue eyes searched him, as Keith grabbed Lance by the arms so he couldn’t push him away again, his boyfriend’s whole feel swapping to the aura of anger

“Why didn’t you come sooner?! I waited! I waited and I waited until I finally accepted you didn’t want me anymore...”

Lance knew he was on a mission. He would have come the instant he could have had, had that instant been any sooner

“Lotor...”

“So you don’t need me anymore... you were happier there, weren’t you?”

Keith felt crushed

“I was in a mission! I didn’t know about anything happening. I got the first flight home that I could, then found out you weren’t there. Do you know how worried I was? Every single day I hated being away from you. I couldn’t call. I couldn’t come home. I had no idea where you were. I hate it! I just wanted to be home with you...”

Lance pulled his arms out of Keith’s hold, covering his face as he cried

“Everything was okay and then it went to shit... I thought you’d be happier not having me anymore... but I couldn’t go back there... I have no where to go any more”

Mami might have passed, but Lance still had a loving family waiting for him Garrison

“Idiot. Hunk and Pidge are waiting for us. Everyone’s waiting for us”

“They probably hate me”

“They definitely don’t hate you. They miss you. Everyone wants you to come home already”

“Why did you come here? Why did you come back to me? I’m nothing special”

Taking Lance’s face in his hands, Keith wiped at the tear trails running down his boyfriend’s cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. Lance really did seem so lost

“I came back because I can’t live without you. I hated it. I regretted leaving you before I even left. Every phone call, every message, I just wanted to reach through and hug you. I quit the Blades for good. Signed a new contract stating that I’m not to be restated with them. I never want to be without you this long again”

Lance’s bottom lip wobbled. He looked kind of cute with his fangs poking out. Leaning in, Keith kissed him. Lance hesitating at first, Keith persistent until his boyfriend finally returned the kiss and it turned into one of those “wow” kisses that they both couldn’t quite believe. Breaking the kiss, Keith nuzzled into Lance’s face

“I love you with all my heart, Lance McClain”

“I... missed you... I missed you so much”

“I’m here now. Are you okay? Are the twins okay?”

Lance sniffled loudly, trying to bring his breathing under control, Keith giving him a moment

“I... I had a bleed... it was terrifying... and Mami... Mami died... and I... don’t know what I’m doing anymore...”

“Okay. Okay, babe. It’s okay. I’m here... can you stand? It’s cold here...”

They were cold and they were wet. Lance was exhausted and Keith was scared, despite how he tried to soothe his lover

“It’s not that far back to the hotel...”

“You’ll have to show me the way. I have no idea where I am”

Lance nodded quickly

“Okay... okay...”

*

Keith couldn’t keep his eyes off Lance’s stomach. The singlet Lance wore under his jacket hugging his form tightly. Lance had been quite on the walk back, then excused himself to the bathroom when they’d gotten back. Keith listening at the door until he heard the shower running, then taking the change to snoop around.

Things were organised messes. A yellow bio waste container sat by a collection of syringes and glass medication bottles. Folded washing sat on the kitchen bench. Sandy shoes lived in various places across the area. Lance hadn’t been letting hotel staff in to clean. With two bedrooms coming off the main room, Keith opened the closest door to the bathroom first. Flicking the light on, his heart broke for his boyfriend. Miriam’s suitcase sat neatly on end of the bed. The room was Lance’s usual high level of clean, the case the only thing out of place. Carefully Keith closed the door, that room wasn’t a place for him to enter until Lance was ready for that.

The second room opened up onto a balcony. The door wide open, sand swept up and across the floor. Lance had piled the bed up. Keith seeing many of his clothes in there, which was good seeing he came with only the things that fitted in his backpack... which was in the hire car. He probably would have come with nothing if Pidge hadn’t reminded him that spare clothes were a thing. He might not have Lance’s sense of smell, but he could smell the depression and struggle in here. Lance had tried to be so strong. On the bedside table sat photos. The twins. Keith. Blue. Miriam. That was it. It hurt.

Closing the door behind him, Keith moved back to the kitchen. Lance coming out the bathroom already changed, towelling his hair off as he did. Keith’s eyes on his belly the whole time. He had so many questions. Like why had Lance had a bleed, and if he was really okay

“There’s lactose free milk in the fridge... I... kept buying it thinking of you”

Keith could honestly say that right now he didn’t want coffee at all

“Babe...”

“We should... you should... can you clear the sofa? I’ll make coffee. Just put whatever’s there on the coffee table”

“I...”

Lance looked away from him

“You keep staring at my stomach... I can you please clean the sofa. I know you want to talk but I can’t talk like this”

Keith had no choice. Lance turning lights on as he went about things. There were papers upon papers on the sofa. Keith trying not to look at them. Letters, documents, photos... he realised that most of it must have been to do with Mami. With the utmost of care he gathered everything, placing it all together on the coffee table, before using the glass decoration from the table to hold the pile down. Nervousness coursed through him. How was he not supposed to be captivated by Lance? How was he not supposed to be in awe over the amazing thing of the pregnancy still being viable. Their tiny macaroons not so tiny any more. They were more like cupcakes now.

Bringing over the mugs, Lance passed Keith his, before sitting down beside him. Nursing the mug, Keith tried to think of what to say...

“I’m sorry about Mami”

Lance tensed, then slowly relaxed again

“Thanks. I know it’s harder for you hearing it now”

“I’m never there when you need me...”

“I’m... not okay, but I think I’m going... I think being there made it better...”

“Can I ask...?”

“She was your Mami too. She bragged and bragged and bragged about you. Made me show everyone your photo. She passed away in her sleep. We were staying at my aunts for the night... and I... kind of felt it. I think maybe she did too. She passed peacefully, and she’d been so happy being here. It’s all I could have asked for really”

“Coran tried to call me back, but the Blades didn’t let him”

“I broke my phone. When it happened I tried to call you, but I was so upset it broke in my hands...”

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there”

“It... was hard. But I can’t stop thinking about how happy she was. How at peace she seemed to be seeing everyone again. They were really good to both of us. And the minister here... we had a service for her and I didn’t feel like I had the right to be in the church. He realised I was the little boy he’d seen when Mami used to bring us to church. We’d been a few times while we’d been here. I broke down and apologised to him, but he didn’t throw me out...”

“That’s good...”

“Yeah. Not like the rest of the family back in America. Luis tried to have me barred”

Fucking Luis. Lance had bent over backwards for Miriam. He loved her fiercely. Lance hadn’t done anything wrong bringing Miriam here, if anything he’d given her back her family ties and happiness in her last days

“I had the bleed on the day before the funeral. Coran wouldn’t leave my side. He said my body freaked out from the stress. I stayed there for a couple of days before coming back here...”

“You’ve gotten big while I’ve been away”

“Yeah. Coran said we could find the sex out, but I couldn’t even look at the scans without you. Mami was happy for us... she kept saying you’d be back soon and in for a surprise”

“I’m sorry. A lot of stuff happened. Lotor killed Zarkon. Honerva went crazy. She was taken out by the Blades. It was a goddamn mess”

Lance raised his head to look at him in clear shock

“That’s more than I thought”

“Yeah. The second we could pull out, I was out and back to Rome. That was a mess too. Shiro ended up with a broken arm. Curtis has twin horns now, but his feet don’t smell as bad. Honerva turned her magic on him... it was fucked up”

“And you?”

“I’m okay”

Busted ribs. New scars. Lance wasn’t going to be happy

“That’s good”

Silence fell between them. Keith didn’t like it

“Babe...”

Lance shook his head

“Sorry. I was thinking about Mami”

“I really wish I’d been here”

“I know. I... I waited here. I couldn’t be there. Not in Platt without her and without you. Coran tried to push me to stay, but I couldn’t. I wanted to wait here for you. Where she was”

Keith had to ask. Lance had said he’d given up. He’d been prepared to give up. Then he’d waited

“What does this mean for us?”

Lance took a sip of his drink, leaning back in the sofa as he did

“I don’t know”

“And if I said I love you?”

“I’d say I love you, too. I do. I missed you so much that every day felt like a lifetime away. But I’m not sure what to do now. I don’t know how to move forward when I was feeling like all I could do was run and leave it all behind”

Keith placed his drink on the coffee table, before taking Lance’s drink and doing the same. Turning to his boyfriend, he placed his right hand on Lance’s belly, and his left on his boyfriend’s cheek

“We don’t have to rush back. We don’t have to rush at all. I still love you. That hasn’t changed at all”

“But we were apart for so long”

“And we’ll need time to figure things out again. To me, you’re still the most amazing man I’ve met”

“Even when I look like this?”

Keith rubbed Lance’s swell. He was at least three times the size he had been when he’d last done this

“This... there’s nothing wrong with this. Or with them. Rome isn’t coming after you or them. Or me. Matt and Rieva pretty much told the council there’d be all kinds of trouble if they so much as thought of it. We did get in trouble for lying. Mum was ready to shoot some idiots”

“That doesn’t seem possible”

“Like I said, a lot of things happened”

Lance worried his bottom lip, getting ready as he did

“How do we fix us?”

Keith sighed softly

“By figuring things out. I’d like to see the twins. I want to hear about everything you’ve been through and what you’ve been doing. I didn’t even debrief with Coran. I told Pidge and Hunk I didn’t want to tell anyone about what had happened until I told you”

“Did you get my letter?”

“Yeah. But I didn’t read it. I wanted you to tell me all things you had to say for yourself”

“That sounds like you. It’s probably better you didn’t. I don’t think I’m ready to go back yet”

“Then we won’t. What do you want to do right now?”

“Sleep... I feel like I don’t have the right to ask you to hold me... you’re right here and I don’t know what to do”

“Let’s just go to bed then. I’m kind of beat. I took the first flight I could get on to get back to America, then had to wait for Coran to organise the flight here... I really want to hold you”

Lance was shy as he undressed. Keith coming up behind him, placing his hands on his boyfriend’s belly as he kissed his hair

“You don’t need to be ashamed”

“I’m scared you’ll hate what you see”

“I don’t and I won’t. You’re the single most beautiful man I’ve met”

“You sound like you’re drunk”

This was bad. All it took was holding Lance for his dick to be like “Hello!”

“Nah. I just really missed you”

Rubbing Lance’s stomach, his boyfriend moaned softly. Keith feeling a little emboldened, rutting lightly as he slipped his hand lower. Letting his drop back, Lance whined into his touch, arse pushing back against Keith’s shameless dick

“Babe...”

“Touch me... I can’t remember how you feel on my skin anymore”

Fucking hell. He was aiming for snuggles and tummy time

“Bed?”

Lance nodded, moaning as Keith’s hand brushed over his dick. It’d been months. His boyfriend must have been so starved of physical affection. It was a good thing Keith was never going to leave him alone that long again.

Laying Lance out on the bed, his boyfriend hid his face as Keith stripped to his underwear. His belly was so cute. Climbing between Lance’s legs, Keith ran his hands over his lover’s swell, pressing kisses to the bump as Lance tried to draw his legs together. Too cute... and probably too much. They could barely talk properly but falling into bed together, yeah, they were good at that. Nuzzling Lance’s belly, his boyfriend propped himself up on his elbows, looking Keith in the eye. Keith blushing slightly

“Are you... you don’t have to... you, know...”

Keith kissed Lance’s baby bump again

“I’m not forcing myself”

“But you were staring so much before”

“Because I was mesmerised. Our twins are alive and they’re in there and I... I couldn’t the prouder”

“I thought you’d be grossed out”

“I’m not. I’m very not grossed out...”

“It’s weird”

“I think it’s beautiful. I think you’re beautiful”

Lance blushed under Keith’s praise. Keith relieved that he could make Lance relax enough to let him see him

“I... don’t know what to do...”

“Layback and let me love you?”

Lance snorted

“I’ve never not loved you... I didn’t think you’d want me ever again”

“That’s because you think too much. Lay back down and let me take care of you”

“Can... I have a kiss?”

“You can have all the kisses you want”

Lance blushed harder, Keith moving up to cage his boyfriend beneath him. If Lance doubted he was hard for him, he wouldn’t be doubting now as he rutted against him. Lance’s body was amazing. Not as amazing as his heart and soul, but amazing in its own right. Kissing him filled him with a thrill. Lance responsive to his kisses, starting to move his own hips in search of friction. Keith was liable to come in his underwear if Lance kept this up. Jerking off wasn’t exactly top priority during a mission. He and Lance had jerked off to each other on camera, but this was far better.

Lavishing attention on Lance’s chest, his boyfriend whimpered at the touch. Small mounds forming barely there breasts, Lance hissing as Keith sucked his nipple, Keith tugging the hard bud with his teeth before letting it slide out from between them

“You okay?”

“It’s tender...”

“Should I stop?”

“No... no, it’s fine... Coran said they’d be sore for a bit”

“Let me know if it gets too much”

Lance nodded, Keith turning his attention to Lance’s neglected nipple, swirling his tongue around the small bud before nipping, Lance letting out a much nicer moan at the stimulation. His body was so honest. His scent pouring thickly. He’d missed Lance’s smell. Knowing he was with his boyfriend who felt as good as he did made him proud.

Working his way down, he kissed all the spots Lance squirmed at, leaving a trail down to this snail trail as he then sat back. Lance was already leaking pre-cum. The muscles in his thighs spasming as his legs quivered. He loved it. With no hesitation he sank his lips down over the crown of Lance’s dick, Lance spluttering something in Spanish. He’d missed the taste of Lance. He was hopeless and completely whipped by the man beneath him. Bobbing his head, Lance moaned, Keith closing his eyes as he breathed Lance’s natural scent

“K-Keith...”

Holding Lance’s legs apart, his boyfriend rocked into his mouth the best he could. Keith not surprised it took moments for Lance to come down the back of his throat, until he was filling his mouth and Keith had to pull off so he didn’t choke. Swallowing what he could, he milked the last few drops from Lance with his hand, his boyfriend’s belly quivered slightly as he panted. Lapping Lance clean, his boyfriend groaned at him. So fucking cute... as it was Keith’s thighs were firmly pressed together trying not come.

“Babe...?”

Lance was staring up at him, Keith smiling at him

“I missed you”

“I missed you, too... I want to touch you”

“In a minute... I want to remember this. Remember you. It wasn’t the same not being by your side. I can’t do it. I can’t. You’re like the most radical person ever”

Lance chuckled at him, hand coming up to wipe cum from the corner of Keith’s lips

“And you’re terrible at bedroom talk...”

“You say that, but I’m pretty sure I can make you speechless”

“With your stupidity?”

Keith arched an eyebrow

“I’m wounded”

“Then come down here and let me kiss you all better”

“Mmm... I think I can do that”

*

Lance was overstimulated. Keith’s fingers inside of him as his boyfriend kissed him. He’d been so prepared to be done, then Keith had come. He’d come for him. His boyfriend had come all the way to Cuba to be with him. Lance felt horrible for doubting him, but after so long... All of this felt like a dream. Rocking in Keith’s fingers, the kisses they shared had him wanting more. He was more than prepped enough, Coran said being horny was alright, but it was hard to be horny when the only person you’d ever let you touch you had left.

Whining for more, Keith smirked into his kisses. He’d barely been able to contain his racing heart as he’d showered. His body accepting his lover was back before his brain could could fathom Keith was real and really there

“Keith... Keith, please...”

He was so strung out on the way Keith rubbed his sweet spot without filling all those part only Keith filled. Nosing at his nose, his boyfriend was sending him cross eyed

“Feeling good?”

“It’s not enough... I want you”

[cakepopple]

For the prompt thing—how about a kissy klance? A rare moment of downtime for the busy boys. Thanks so much!!❤️💙

I'm like!! 90% sure!! This isn't quite how you wanted this fic to go ahaha... but it's soft and mostly smooching and I'm fairly satisfied with it :) also tbh... if you want good kush kiss fics, check out @nisekoi !! Nothing I write could ever live up to those tbh :P Anywho, here’s my best go at it!

Stay, Don’t be Busy (Klance Request - 2)

— (word count: 2247) —

Lance finishes his class at noon. He’s been teaching fighter pilot courses at the Garrison since the war ended, and while he loves it, he’s happy when his lunch break finally arrives. More so today than usual, since after his students have all filed out to the hallway and mumbled their tired goodbyes, there’s still someone leaning against the doorframe. There are enough stripes on his uniform to tell Lance he’s not a student. Not that he’d need the help anyway; he knows who’s standing there, even when he’s only seen him in his peripheral. His legs cross at his ankles, his elbow bends and presses against the door to hold it open, and his fist knots so he can hold it against his cheek in an exaggerated show of false nonchalance. The genuine and smooth lines at the ends of his smile show he’s not as indifferent as his body language would suggest, though.

“Hey,” he says, and Lance realizes he’s missed Keith’s voice than he’d previously thought. Hearing it now is like the first bite of a food you haven’t had in months, the one that brings all the flavors and cravings back so fast you get a chest ache. Lance had known Keith would be back from his Blade mission today, but part of him had thought the man wouldn’t come to visit. They’re not dating, as much as Lance wishes they are, so there was never any obligation for Keith to stop by. 

Every ounce of blood in his veins had been coursing with the hopes that Keith would come visit him anyway. 

And here he is. 

Keith’s got his Garrison uniform on, the one with the red sleeves and gold stripes, and Lance’s eyes snag on the way the colors broaden his shoulders. Or maybe it’s the way he’s standing, tall and confident, with that smug, little smile on his lips. But he looks so genuinely happy to see Lance, and that ties the whole image together. It’s something Lance will stare up at his ceiling thinking about until the next time Keith comes home. The next time Keith gives him something he can’t sleep over. Keith licks his lips, and the taunting image scrawled through Lance’s mind shifts. A shudder passes through Lance’s spine. He knows exactly what triggered it.

He nods at Keith, hands fumbling for the papers on his desk as a source of distraction. Quietly, he clears his throat, “Hey, Keith.” And there’s a smile in his voice, warm and fizzing, as he flashes a smitten look at his shuffling hands. Too stubborn, too apprehensive to let Keith know how profoundly giddy he is, but too pleased to keep a smile away. The pages click twice against the desk as he straightens them. Calculated. Nervous. “Didn’t think I’d see you during my lunch break today.” Lance flickers his eyes up and away from his work, and Keith’s grin in response is irrepressible. As if Lance just looking at him is enough to satisfy everything he’d ever wanted. Doesn’t he know how much Lance looks at him? It isn’t that special. But the way Keith smiles at him definitely is, and Lance feels his stomach roll in gratification, so he hides himself in his work again. His ears are hot.

Keith strolls in from the entrance and the door clicks back into place behind him. “Where else would I go?” He sounds so sincere. Lance smiles, the bunches of his cheeks burning from how wholly he feels the emotion behind his grin. His body sways, only slightly, with a drunken buzz of delight, and he presses a hand to his desk to keep himself steady. The papers he’d stacked so neatly only a second ago wrinkle under his hold, retaining the creases because of the sweat on his palms. God, was he always this blatantly skittish around Keith? The flush of his cheeks is so irredeemably nervous. He hears Keith flop onto the swivel chair behind him. His heart pools and bubbles in his stomach when Keith laughs at the way the seat skids back and squeaks. “You’re my favorite person to spend time with, Lance.” 

“Is that so?” Lance wheezes as he asks that, playing it off by laughing in short spurts after the fact. He turns around slowly, squatting on his desk where his papers aren’t. “Never would have guessed.” And he means it. Him? Keith’s favorite? He bites back the urge to sigh at the weight such an assurance takes off his shoulders. Pleasure burns at his nape; he lifts his hands there, as though to swat it back down. 

As he slides himself farther up his desk, so the crooks of his knees hook on the edge, he watches Keith make up for the distance. Hands close around the desk, one on either side of Lance’s thighs. “Absolutely.” Lance loses his voice at the certainty in Keith’s tone. The glint in Keith’s eyes turns wicked as he stands up and leans closer, shrinking the distance between them to something so small, Lance knows he’s not imagining Keith’s body heat swarming his own. “I heard something interesting from Pidge and Hunk when I came in this morning,” he says, bringing his hands closer to Lance’s legs, an inch away from touching. Lance dizzies at the thought, wonders what his hands feel like when they linger for more than a fleeting touch. 

“What did you hear?” Lance has to restart the sentence a few times, emotions too thick in his throat to allow words passage. Keith smiles something tender at the jolts in Lance’s voice. One of his hands releases the desk and instead, it drifts to Lance’s cheek. Though he puts infinite effort into an attempt, Lance can’t seem to keep his eyes open. He can’t see it when Keith swoops in to smother their lips together, but he feels it so perfectly, so completely, he swears the image is right there, on the backs of his eyelids. Surely on his ceiling tonight, too, as he’ll be kept up again. One of Lance’s hands grips to ground himself on the desk, while the other reaches for the hand Keith kept beside his thigh.

When Keith straightens his spine and thus places distance between them once more, it becomes painfully clear the sort of thing he’d heard. “Pidge said she was tired of watching you ‘stare at’ and ‘pine’ over me. Hunk begged me to make the first move.” Twitching his nose, he pauses, and the hand along Lance’s cheeks trails downward to his neck. Keith looks concerned. “How long?” It’s fragile, the way his face seems to fold in the middle, where his eyebrows wrench together, as though trying to meet. A welt of sadness taints Lance’s throat.

“Do you mean how long I was going to wait to kiss you? Or how long I’ve already been waiting?” Lance’s fingers begin to slip away from where they’re nestled over Keith’s, but they’re stopped when Keith desperately draws them back, pinning the hand under his own. Shyly, Lance admits, “Either way, the answer is pretty close to forever.” A sour note wrenches from Keith’s throat.

Pressing closer, touch hot enough on Lance’s neck to scar, Keith weakly ponders, “Why?” 

“I’ve been busy, and you’ve been busy, out with the Blades—”

“You’re not busy right now,” Keith says, tone sharp with urgency, but countenance a heartstopping mild. His eyes are scalding, a swirling grey like thick, stifling smoke, and Lance is suffocating in them, how they lock onto him. Stern, gentle, intoxicating. Those eyes dip to Lance’s mouth. A tongue darts over Keith’s lips when he brings his eyes upward again. “I’m not busy with the blades, either. What’s stopping you now?” Lance feels Keith’s hand on his neck crawl around to his scalp. He lets it happen, leans into the cup of gentle touches. 

Lance whimpers, “But you will be busy. When you leave again in a few days.” After hearing that, Keith tugs Lance closer by his hair, so he can kiss him again. Longer, deeper, and this time, Lance kisses back. He doesn’t care that the discussion has been paused, doesn’t mind postponing it, if it means he gets to taste more of Keith’s lips, circling and pushing along his own. Keith’s leaving, he tells himself. It isn’t a good idea to indulge in something that’s doomed to crash and burn, he reminds himself. But, ultimately, he admits that it feels too right to ignore. Lance curls into Keith, so indescribably satisfied he feels he might fall down onto his desk. His back shudders at the thought, like it’s about to give out under the affectionate assault, as though to confirm such a thing would be fitting. He wraps his arms around Keith’s neck to hold himself together.

The hold Keith has on Lance’s scalp falls away. He’s at the bottom of Lance’s shirt, now, and searing fingers swipe a patch of skin on the small of Lance’s back. It makes Lance arch closer. Keith eagerly takes the invitation, sliding his whole hand up under Lance’s shirt, just to cradle his shoulder blades. All his actions, all his motions whisper, caress, sing, I’ve waited too long, over soft skin. The drag of his tongue along the roof of Lance’s mouth says the same. So do the scribbled circles that loop around to Lance’s stomach, because Lance finally leans his spine down against his desk. He’s taking Keith’s cheeks, his addictive lips, with him. Keith swirls the nails of that one hand over Lance’s middle, and his other hand hastily moves from the edge of the desk to the space beside Lance’s head, where his fingers curl into the wood. 

Meanwhile, Lance grapples Keith’s cheeks like he’ll fall right into oblivion without Keith and his lips holding him in the present. His fingers wind through, and undo, Keith’s ponytail, so the hair tie clicks against the classroom floor. He doesn’t spare a thought in its direction; he’s waited too long to have Keith pushing, prodding, brushing teeth against his lips. Waited too long to kiss and be kissed by someone he feels so strongly for. To kiss and be kissed by Keith. When Lance whines, low and pleading in his throat, Keith lifts from Lance like he’s out of breath. Like he’s been drowning in something, and Lance feels the same. He can’t pry his eyes open, his lungs heave, and he feels Keith’s pulse from where he’s holding him by his cheeks, telling him Keith’s as antsy, as excited, as he is.

As Lance’s eyes squint open, he sees Keith’s cheeks are flushed. And Keith looks self conscious. Worried. He pulls his lips apart, huffs a few airless breaths, and then he suggests, “What if I don’t leave again? What if I stay here, not busy, with you?” He thumbs Lance’s bottom lip, he watches himself do it, as if he’s about to dive back in. If he went for it, Lance would let him. Lance would let him do anything. There’s no one he trusts more. In fact, he indulges the selfish look in Keith’s eyes, lifting his torso up to Keith’s so they can kiss again. Keith sighs against him, and Lance can feel the relief as his tense shoulders relax. 

They kiss until Lance is too overwhelmed by the heat behind it to breathe, and he pats Keith’s cheek. Instantly, Keith unlatches from Lance. They lock eyes for a moment, before Keith tickles his nose against Lance’s jawline experimentally. When Lance opens the spot to him, humming, Keith pecks a couple kisses down his neck. Fingers clutching into fists, Lance knots them together at the wrists, behind Keith’s head. His mind is fuzzy, his words slur as he quietly questions what Keith had proposed. “You’d do that for me?”

Keith chuckles against his pulse. Every exposed patch of Lance’s skin smolders, every one of his brain cells is stolen to play the sound and the feeling on repeat. God. God. He could keep Keith there forever, ask him to say every little thought he has there, and Lance still wouldn’t tire of it. He’s certain. It feels too good. Too perfect. So much so, he almost wants to ask Keith to stop, before he’s too drunk to teach later. Worst of all is how he knows, if he were to ask Keith to keep kissing and whispering along his neck, the man wouldn’t hesitate to do it. He’d probably smile and rumble with laughter and—

“Would I? Oh, Lance,” he breathes, then he’s leaving a kiss that’s longer than the rest, one that lingers after he’s pulled away again. “As if there’s anything I wouldn’t do for you.”

“Then stay,” Lance says hastily. Now that Keith’s suggested it, Lance can’t get the thought out of his head. How badly he wants Keith to stay with him. To kiss him every day, to laugh with him, to visit him during his lunch breaks. His heart revs up at the thought, his eyes swell with tears. Lance begs, “Please stay. Go on a date with me, keep kissing me, do whatever you want. Just please do it here, on Earth. Stay.” His breath is shaking. Now he’s crying. “Please, Keith. Stay with me.”

One last time, Keith kisses him on his mouth. Sweet and brief. Lance’s whole body shivers.

“For you, Lance…” Their eyes meet again, and Lance notices Keith is crying, too. “Anything.”

[ohdearden]

IC PORTION; BASICS —

CHARACTER NAME/ALIAS: Mia Dearden / Speedy (the second)

FACECLAIM: Ester Exposito

AFFILIATIONS: Team Arrow, Teen Titans, the Nomads

AGE (physical age as well, if different): 23

SPECIES (human, metahuman, alien, etc): Human

IS YOUR CHARACTER’S IDENTITY SECRET OR PUBLIC? Secret

IF SECRET, OR YOUR CHARACTER IS A CIVILIAN, DO THEY HAVE A CIVILIAN OCCUPATION? Mia is new in town, and is currently focusing her efforts on aid work. She’s working hard at learning the language so that she can be of more assistance, and potentially work in town in the future.

IF YOUR CHARACTER LIVES IN THE FORTRESS, WHAT ARE THEIR DUTIES? Refugee outreach, and whatever else she might be decent at. She’s happy to help out, but can’t cook for shit.

DESCRIBE SIX TRAITS (3 positive, 3 negative) YOUR CHARACTER HAS AND HOW THESE AFFECT THEM: + Empathetic and caring: Mia, having been through as much as she has, has a strong push to help others. She has trouble turning people who need help away, and will often find herself reaching for a way to help them. She worked at the community center back home to help youth at a disadvantage (much as she had been herself), and found time to spare to volunteer time at the domestic violence shelter as well. + Bold: Mia is unafraid and outgoing, making her personality very loud and bold. She’s unafraid to speak her mind, and is often quite blunt and straight to the point. She speaks to people easily (though making friends is another matter) and is always one to make her presence known. Mia has never been one to slip through the cracks unless it was by personal choice. Mia is best described as an extrovert, and has trouble containing her feelings whether they’re positive or negative. + Determined: Mia more or less forced her way into being Speedy, which is a surefire show of her determination. Once she sets her mind on something, she will achieve it. Mia has no problems setting goals for herself and setting up steps to get to these goals (yet she struggled with school, ironic). It is hard to sway her away from an idea once she gets her mind set to it. - Stubborn: Hand in hand with determined goes stubborn. Once Mia has her opinion set on something, it’s hard to sway her opinion otherwise. She’s unfortunately very hard to persuade out of her opinions, and once she’s got her mind set on something it’s often set in stone. Even when she can feel herself losing, Mia struggles with letting things go. Hard-headed was the term her mother always used, along with the phrase stubborn as a donkey. - Angry and Confrontational: Considering everything Mia has gone through in her life, having a solid angry streak is something that had been more or less unavoidable. She has a temper that’s quick to ignite, and she often has trouble bringing herself down once it’s sparked. Mia has the type that can go from 0-100 very quickly, though not at all the other way around. Mia is the type that enjoys confrontation, and it’s something she thrives in. Arguments are her specialty, and not something she will back down from. She is certainly not the type to let things go, and would rather argue until she was blue in the face. She would much rather deal with things now rather than later (and cannot understand why people would rather just let things fester). - Defiant & Rebellious:The word ‘no’ is a trigger word for Mia. Being told she cannot do something makes Mia want to do it all the more, and she is even more likely to try once she’s been told she shouldn’t. Rebellion is something that runs deep, even if she (sometimes) tries to fight it. Sometimes with reasoning she’s able to understand the no, but it’s hard to swallow down the urge to do it anyway.

POWERS AND/OR ABILITIES: Mia excels in archery and acrobatics. The latter came in handy in her time on the streets, and the former is a well-honed and learned skill. Mia is quick and discreet, and able to slip through crowds with ease. Mia has become proficient in swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat as well. While she is capable of close-range fighting with mixed-martial-arts abilities, she prefers to keep her fighting from a distance when given the option. She’s also a damned good pick-pocket, but well, that’s neither here nor there.

WEAKNESSES: Her immune system is absolutely garbage, and she tends to take a bit longer to heal than she’d like. She tries to be careful to keep herself in proper health, and does her best to avoid injury. As best as a crime-fighting vigilante can, anyway.  Her inability to keep her damn mouth shut can definitely be considered a weakness as well.

WHAT DREW YOU TO THIS CHARACTER? Mia is a goddamn *rockstar.* She was absolutely groundbreaking for the comic book industry considering her positive status, and her persistence is something I admire. Mia has a fighting spirit and doesn’t really take no for an answer, which is something I absolutely love about her. She’s also not exactly popular in the rpc, and I adore her.

IC PORTION; DETAILS —

WHAT BROUGHT YOUR CHARACTER TO SOKOVIA? Honestly? A bleeding heart. Mia always felt too damn much, especially when it came to people in need. The events that transpired in Sokovia had made her nauseous. It didn’t take long for her to get wind of the Nomads, and Mia thought maybe she could be of use, someway or another. 

DID THEY SIGN THE ACCORDS? WHY OR WHY NOT? Absofreakinglutely not. The Green Arrow didn’t sign either, and that would be enough reason for Mia to be deterred in the first place. All in all, Mia did not agree with the Accords whatsoever. Vigilantes existed because the law was imperfect, because sometimes there needed to be a little extra oomph applied when things just couldn’t get done legally speaking. 

PROVIDE 3-5 HEADCANONS RELATED TO YOUR CHARACTER: Despite her hatred of traditional schooling, Mia is an avid reader and educated in her own way. She hated the structure of school, hated having to interact with others her own age, hated having to get up before noon (and well, she’s always had an authority problem)...but she actually likes learning. She spends a lot of her downtime reading whatever she can get her hands on. Mia also enjoys video games, and may or may not stream herself playing at times via twitch or youtube. It’s an easy way to veg out and socialize without really socializing. Mia loves boxing, and does it often. She’s found it’s a good channel for frustration as well as a good way to train. In her apartment back in Star City, she has a punching bag set up in her living room and found herself at the community center often. Mia has an adrenaline rush addiction that she struggles with daily. She left her motorcycle back home in Star City, and finds she misses the rush of riding (way too fast) more than she thought she would. She’s looking into having it shipped, or finding a local one to fix up. Semi-related, she does all the maintenance on her motorcycle herself, having taught herself with repair manuals and youtube tutorials. MIa smokes like a chimney, though is trying very hard to quit. She knows it’s not the best idea, considering her health, but she just can’t help herself. She’s tried everything - the gum, the patches, replacing the habit with something else. She’s quit several times, but has always picked it back up again. 

WANTED CHARACTER CONNECTIONS: TEAM ARROW! Roy Harper, Oliver Queen, Dinah Lance: These are Mia’s people. She might not necessarily always agree or get along with her adopted family, but Mia’s loyal to them to her very bones. She respects the Green Arrow and still affiliates herself with him, so I’m eager for interactions with a potential Oliver in the future. I’m also very eager for Arrow-lady interactions with Dinah! TEEN TITANS! Mia didn’t really have too-too much interaction with the Titans, but I’m excited for potential in Sokovia!

POTENTIAL CHARACTER ARCS: Give me Nomad things! Mia made the jump to help out in Sokovia more on a whim than anything. She’s very much a sidekick out of her element, but she wants to help. That being said, I could really see herself throwing herself into the local life? She would want to help on a smaller, more personal level. Help the kids with school, help rebuild someone’s house. She’s going to do her best to try to learn the language so she can potentially work in-town with the locals as well, maybe bartending. Maybe she can serve as kind of a liaison down the road?

CHARACTER BIO — (tw include: mentions of abuse, parental death, drug use/abuse, brief touchings on child exploitation/teen dating an older man/pedophilia, HIV)

Mia does not like to talk about her childhood. A quick overview would detail her father’s abuse of her mother, and her mother’s drug use. Her father used too, but drinking was more his style. Next would be her mother’s death when she was young. Her father’s abuse then turned to her instead, which she was forced to tolerate for several years. She was eleven when she ran away from home. Mia decided that she would sooner take her chances on the street than stay in that house any longer, and unfortunately, that was the fate she found. Living on the streets was still favorable to living at home, but it wasn’t without struggles. Mia was hungry more often than not, and often couldn’t sleep in the same place for more than a few nights in a row. A smaller-than-average homeless eleven-year-old certainly did bring in some sympathy donations, but it was never enough. The shelters in Star City were often full, and eleven was much too young to even consider a hotel or an apartment. She was twelve when she met Richard, who was over twice her age, and that was when things took a spin for the worse. She thought he loved her, he promised to take care of her, and she was too young and desperate (with very skewed feelings of what love was after all she’d lived through)  to realize this was just abuse of a different kind.She was with him for over a year - sometimes out on the streets again, sometimes holed up in a seedy motel and for a few months, a scuzzy apartment. Richard gave her a taste of the drugs that had taken her mother, and Mia suddenly understood why her mother had been so willing to do whatever it took just to get high. But before long Mia was wondering when she would escape this, when things would get better, and thought maybe it would be better to be on her own again. He wouldn’t let her, the abusive pattern she’d survived as a child returning. Dependent on him for shelter, food and drugs, Mia felt more trapped than she ever had. Until she was saved by the Green Arrow. Mia immediately had adoration for the man that saved her life, and she felt ever-indebted to him for helping to get her off the streets, clean herself up and piece together her life. While he was reluctant at first, Mia began to train with him. This gave her life a purpose that she’d never had before, and Mia found herself feeling better than she ever had. She learned she excelled at archery with a little bit of training, and the scrappy fighting skills she’d adopted on the streets became more defined as she learned hand-to-hand combat skills. When not training or in school (something she fought tooth and nail), Mia spent the majority of her free time volunteering and later working at the Star City Recreational Center, and later the domestic violence shelter in town. Mia fantasized of eventually becoming a sidekick to the Green Arrow, even though he squashed that idea from the start. She would persuade him some way, somehow. Mia had just started to feel stable for the first time in her life when things took a downward spiral. It had started with a fever and just general feelings of illness, though things progressively got worse. She finally dragged herself into the clinic in Star City, and would find that things were much worse than she ever could have thought. What she thought was the flu turned out to be HIV, a permanent reminder of the mistakes she’d made and her time on the streets. The doctor assured her that while serious, the diagnosis was not the death sentence it had once been. If Mia was responsible and took the prescribed medications and took precautions, then her prognosis was very promising. HIV wasn’t curable, but controllable. And well, Mia had already been pretty successful at taking control of her life. If anything, her diagnosis was even more of a push for her to become the sidekick she dreamed of being. It took persuasion, but Mia finally donned the title of Speedy (the second), the sidekick to the Green Arrow. She took care to extra-hone in on her long distance fighting skills in hopes to avoid close-contact fighting and end up in a potentially extra-hairy situation. With Oliver’s insistence, Mia joined up with the Teen Titans.T his was done reluctantly, and Mia did not stay with the Titans long. She did, however, feel comfortable enough with them to disclose her status, and occasionally returned to help them on missions. Her passion was with Team Arrow, and that was made even more clear when working with others. The events at Sokovia were devastating, and MIa struggled with her decision making process for quite some time. She’d always been interested in refugee work - as she’d gotten older she volunteered with the Red Cross as well as with various agencies around Star City. The innate instinct to help those in need was strong, and it was pulling her towards Sokovia. Speedy was helpful, sure, but Mia was fairly certain that her experiences as Mia Dearden might be more helpful when it came to the situation at hand. She knew what it felt like to have your world falling apart, and she was more than happy to help others put their pieces back together.

EXTRAS —

Myers-Briggs: ESTP Hogwarts House: Gryffindor Zodiac: Aries Sin: A tie between Wrath and Pride

[dreams-of-kalopsia]

Fictober Prompt 21

“Change is annoyingly difficult.”

Voltron fanfiction (Plance)

No warnings apply.

Read it on AO3.

____

Part 1 (Pidge): Timing

Part 2 (Lance): Intuition

Part 3 (Colleen): Grounded

Part 4 (Hunk): Change

Hunk senses something wrong the moment he lays eyes on his best friend. Lance is sitting alone at their usual table, elbow propped and sulking face resting heavily on his fist. His other hand pokes at his food with a spork.

“Stop that,” Hunk scolds as he takes the seat across, carefully placing his lasagna-laden tray on the table.

Lance stops. But only to give him a sullen glance.

He shakes his head in annoyance. That’s when he sees the half-finished tray of food beside his friend’s. Everything clicks in his mind.

Pidge was called away again.

“Who was it this time?” he asks without preamble.

Lance’s answer is a grumbled “MFE pilots.”

“Aww man, again?” Hunk groans. “We don’t see Pidge her first week of being grounded. She gets a little leeway, and Sam, Matt, and Slav drag her around with them for days. They finish whatever they were doing, and the MFE Division takes her away—with me, because apparently they’re big fans of Voltron’s tech team, but that’s beside the point—and now the MFE pilots want something from her again?” He throws his hands up. “What about us? We haven’t hung out for weeks!” He then points at Pidge’s tray. “Pidge didn’t even enjoy her food long enough to realize I made it, in celebration of our supposed hang out day!”

Another grumble. The weak reaction aggravates Hunk, and he crosses his arms.

“You didn’t notice either, did you.” A statement because his friend clearly hasn’t. “I’ll assume it’s due to Pidge bailing out on us and not my culinary skills.”

No response other than louder stabby noises and a sulkier Lance.

“Ugh. I miss her!” he gripes. “Don’t you?”

A flash of regret crosses Lance’s face.

It’s a stark contrast to the confused, embarrassed blushes he’s had for the past two months or so. Hunk can’t remember exactly when he began seeing the expression, but he’s pretty sure he hasn’t seen it on his friend until around three weeks ago. At first, he thought it was because Allura’s been spending most of her time with Romelle and Coran in the hospital wing, waiting for the Altean pilot of that Komar-robeast to regain consciousness. He didn’t even connect anything when news of scary Mrs. Holt grounding the Green Paladin of Voltron first reached their ears. But after repeatedly watching Lance make that expression at every mention of Pidge, Hunk is now sure that it’s a Pidge issue his best friend is having.

And he thinks he has enough facts to put together to figure out what’s been happening with his friends.

Fact number one: Pidge likes Lance. She told Hunk herself.

Fact number two: She used Hunk’s cheesy, thoughtless pick-up line—a fact that will forever crack him up—on his best friend. Lance told him himself.

Fact number three: Lance also said that he’d tried asking Pidge about what she meant but ended up taking her to Varadero for sunset watching instead. How he managed to turn an impending serious talk into a day trip, Hunk will never know.

Fact number four: Pidge was grounded the day after and disappeared for a week.

Fact number five: She’s been spending less time with Hunk and Lance since her reappearance. Okay, no. For the benefit of the doubt, Hunk will allow that she’s become so busy she barely has time to hang out. That still implicates her because she doesn’t make time for them. She’s not the only busy Paladin on Earth, after all; if he and Lance can do it, she should’ve been able to do it, too. So the benefit of the doubt doesn’t work for her… well, benefit.

Sooo something happened in Varadero convincing Pidge that Lance rejected her, hence why she’s limiting her interactions with him without making it obvious that she is—which, contrary to what she believes, she’s being totally obvious about.

“I wasn’t rejected, Hunk. I just decided to give up on him,” Pidge said around a mouthful of peanut butter cookies he’d given as secret bribe, during one of their breaks from upgrading the MFE units last week.

Give up? On Lance? As if.

As if Hunk doesn’t catch the longing glances she’d send their friend when she thinks everyone’s too distracted to notice. As if she doesn’t stare after Lance with a regretful expression on her face the exact same way he sees Lance do.

Yeah.

He chomps grumpily on a heaping spork of lasagna.

As if.

Hunk hates that he’s the only one who notices stuff like this. He hates it. But what he hates more is his inability to leave ostensibly well enough alone once his gut tells him that something’s off. And what he hates most is his perceived, reluctant duty to be the voice of reason that points everything out to everyone else. Because that’s how he ends up standing right in the middle of things whether he likes it or not, how he unwittingly advertises himself as mediator when things turn out to be a full-blown conflict.

It’s exhausting sometimes. Getting to say ‘I told you so!’ loses its vindicating satisfaction when one gets to do it all the time. Still, bringing up an issue so the people involved can address and resolve it is an awkward task he’d willingly undertake if it means they’d all get along again.

But that’s the problem with the current thing he’s embroiled in. There’s no issue. No conflict, no falling-out, no friendship broken. Just Pidge dealing with rejection in the maturest manner Hunk has seen from her and Lance acting like he’s lost her even though she never left in the first place.

It’s like watching two people dance expertly around each other. Except one twirls in pirouettes of classical ballet, the other breaks it down with hip hop moves, and neither of them is aware of dancing at all. As a frustrated spectator on the sidelines, Hunk is honestly starting to worry that his motion sickness will return one of these days.

A resounding stabbing sound causes him to jerk his head up towards the source. He finds Lance staring out onto the hallway beyond the mess hall’s window, fingers frozen and tines of his spork impaling a slice of lasagna rather morbidly. Following his friend’s gaze leads Hunk’s eyes to Pidge, who’s talking animatedly with Nadia and James.

Oh boy. Great timing, Pidge.

She meets their gazes and sends them a genuine, apologetic look, but she doesn’t spare them a minute to give an actual apology. In three seconds, she’s walked past the windows, disappearing on them again. She makes it look so easy.

“Gotta admit, that one hurts a bit,” Hunk says with a wry smile. His best friend releases a miserable sigh at the same time. He turns back to Lance in surprise. “Chill, dude! It’s just one missed hang out day. No need to be that dejected.”

The stabby noises resume with increased force. He resumes eating his food.

“Look, you’re being dramatic. It’s not as bad as that time Eliza Moreno rejected you—no, no,” he corrects himself, “You didn’t really like her; you just liked flustering her. Okay, so not as bad as when Noelle Page dumped—”

“I dumped her.” Whoa, a response, albeit grumpy.

“Yeah?” Memories of that messy one-sided breakup resurface in his mind. “Yeah, right!” He slaps his forehead. “How could I forget! Remember how she waited crying outside our bunk room until you talked to her? Even our COs couldn’t take her away.”

Lance’s sulky frown deepens. “I don’t think anyone could forget.”

“So not as bad as when Mila Chen—”

“She was over me by the time I became fighter class.”

“Oh. What about when Sophie Carson—”

“Turned out to like Madison Boyer?”

“…That didn’t bother you? You were courting her for some time, right?”

“To help make Maddie jealous and confess to her.”

“Ooh. An ally, I see.” Hunk raises his cup to his friend, impressed by this inside info.

Lance just scoffs.

“Okay, wait. I’m sure about this: Jenny Shaybon. The only Jenny who ever mattered to you. You had a really good thing going on for over a year before she left the Garrison to chase her dreams.”

“We parted as friends.”

“You did?” Hunk pouts, then sighs. “So I guess it’s not as bad as when Allura and Lo—” Lance strikes the table with his palms.

“Why are you going through my romantic history, Hunk?” he demands, still miserable but now also fed up. “Just tell me what your point is.”

“My point is that you don’t have to feel as bad about a missed get-together as a failed relationship.”

Though Hunk’s tone is placating throughout his explanation, his best friend shoots him an affronted look. “First of all, my relationship with Allura hasn’t failed; it’s actually just about to start. Secondly, I don’t feel as bad about this as you think.”

“So stop looking like you do.” The words seem to strike Lance like a direct, physical hit, and Hunk has this acute feeling that he just said the wrong thing at the worst possible time.

But why?

Before Hunk can begin to figure out what he said wrong, Lance gathers his and Pidge’s trays and quietly stands up.

“Uhh, where are you going?”

“I’m heading back to my room. Sorry, Hunk. Let’s hang out another day.” Lance walks out of the mess hall without another word, head bowed and shoulders slumped.

“…Wow. Left behind twice today,” Hunk grouses once he’s alone. “Leave me a third time, why don’t you. I feel the love.” He chews angrily while preparing for another bite. “What was that for, anyway? I just pointed out what I see.”

Why’s Lance so touchy when it comes to Pidge? She may (pretend to) have given up on her feelings for him, but it’s not like she’ll ever give up on their friendship. Besides, it’s not like he knows about how she feels. Oblivious when it matters, that guy. And yet he acts all broody as if he’s the one who got—

A sudden idea skews Hunk’s perspective and with it his spork of lasagna. The chunk falls with a small splat on the table. The metallic clatter of spork hitting food tray follows soon after.

The way Lance acts whenever Pidge is mentioned…

It’s as if he’s the one who got rejected.

“Hoooly crow,” Hunk mutters to himself, palms finding their way to his temples. “What?!”

He knows not when the change in his friend happened, only that it did. He also knows that it complicates everything. It adds unannounced contraflow lanes to a one-way expressway. It flips the script on itself after getting flipped once already. It turns a straight line into a triangle.

And this change…

“…is annoyingly

difficult

.”

____

Thanks for reading! Names of Lance’s non-canon exes credited to @artemisarya. You’ve been a huge help! ^u^

[hungline]

the beginning of us (three)

pairing: yoonminseok, metamours yoonmin  genre: angst, smut, abo au, rated xxx  warnings: abo dynamics, explicit sexual content, trans male character, heat sex, penetrative sex    a/n: for @portscutie i love ya momma <3 words: 2085 

summary: Jimin thought that Hoseok was it for him, that he would only ever have him in his life, but then Yoongi goes into heat and shows Jimin that maybe he has always known there was something missing from their lives. Who could have guessed that it would be Yoongi though?

"Hyung, you remembered to take your heat suppressant this morning, right?"

Jimin watches the way Yoongi fans himself as he rolls his eyes, looking over the side of the couch to stare at Hoseok in the kitchen.

"I take my suppressants every morning, Hoseok. You know that won't stop my heat from coming," Yoongi replies, eyes darting towards where Jimin is sitting on the armchair and away again.

Hoseok pokes his head out of the kitchen and tsks at Yoongi, mouth turned down in a pout. "I know very well that suppressants don't stop it, they just keep you from getting pregnant, but we still need to talk about us spending your heat alone. You know that Jiminnie said he doesn't mind joining us."

Yoongi's eyes land on Jimin again and he does his best to act like he isn't fazed, a heavy feeling weighing down on his chest. Jimin keeps his gaze steady though and tries for a smile, hoping that it is enough to convince the pretty omega.

"I don't mind, hyung," Jimin murmurs, his face feeling warmer and warmer with each passing second that Yoongi only blinks back at him.

"Thank you for the offer," Yoongi says politely back, "but I wouldn't want to force you into anything just because of my heat. I can tell you're not really comfortable yet with all of this and it's understandable considering you were with Hoseok-ah first."

Jimin scrunches his brow together in thought and opens his mouth to say something in reply, to reassure Yoongi that he is comfortable, that he just doesn't know what to do half the time, but then Hoseok is walking into the living room with a tray of food that he sets down in front of Yoongi on top of the coffee table. The beta then hauls Jimin out of the armchair and pulls him towards the front door.

"We have to go, otherwise I'll be late," Hoseok rushes through his words as he slips his shoes on, grabbing his coat as Jimin wraps a scarf around his neck then puts on his own shoes. "We'll be back in time for dinner, hyung, and then we can talk about it more then, okay?"

"Sure," Yoongi doesn't waste a moment to answer. "Tell me about what happens today when you make it back. Be safe."

Hoseok smiles and rushes forward to kiss Yoongi sweetly, leaving Jimin to fidget in front of the door, but the moment is short-lived and Jimin is facing the door when Hoseok turns back towards him. He smiles and holds it open for his beta, smiling even wider when he catches his scent on Hoseok as he passes by to get through the door. Jimin looks over his shoulder and nods his head at Yoongi who is watching them leave.

Yoongi nods back and Jimin lets the door close behind him once they have both stepped out, rushing towards the car after a somewhat frantic Hoseok with a laugh caught in his throat and an unsteady heart in his chest.

    As soon as they have stepped into their apartment building, Jimin can smell it.

It's tangy and sweet and permeates the air. Hoseok can't smell it, but Jimin can and he is struggling to not run towards it.

He bites his lip and continues walking up the steps, holding the door to their floor open for Hoseok to step through first. Jimin feels like all the breath has been punched out of his lungs when he follows after the beta and realizes that the scent is coming from their apartment. He turns to Hoseok and stops when he realizes that Hoseok's scent has changed too.

He is angry and tense and when Jimin looks back towards the end of the hallway, he can see exactly why.

There is an alpha peeking through a crack between their door and the doorjamb. They are staring intently at their apartment number and without really meaning to, Jimin sends out his scent to mask the one from their apartment because if he's right, then Yoongi could be in trouble.

Yoongi is in heat.

Jimin pushes Hoseok to the door and watches the alpha when Hoseok enters their apartment, dropping everything by the door and calling out for Yoongi. The scent is now stronger, raising a reaction of out Jimin, but this is more important. Jimin keeps his eyes on the alpha, meeting his gaze without fear or any doubts.

Yoongi may not be his mate, but he is important to Hoseok and therefore important to Jimin as well and he would rather get his ass handed to him than have anything happen to Hoseok or Yoongi.

The alpha closes their door after a few more moments and Jimin steps backward into the apartment, alert and on edge as he closes their door and locks it. He even entertains the idea of barricading the door before he realizes that would be a tad too much and Hoseok would probably yell at him for moving their furniture around later.

Jimin relaxes then and picks up the things Hoseok dropped, ignoring the way his stomach curls with each passing moment now that there is nowhere to hide from the scent of Yoongi's heat. He can hear Hoseok in the nest room and he can hear the low rumble of Yoongi's voice sounding a lot more hoarse and deeper than usual. He ignores that too when Yoongi lets out a whine and arousal rises into the air, the scent of sweat joining it.

It's hard, but Jimin is not some mindless alpha either so he manages to put away what Hoseok dropped and takes off his shoes before he walks into the kitchen, thinking of what to make for dinner. The noises coming from the nest room only get louder while Jimin cooks and besides the smell of chicken, there is now desperation laced into the arousal and heat. Jimin doesn't know what that could mean, but he finishes cooking anyway and shifts uncomfortably in his seat as he tries to get the tent in his pants under control.

He decides to eat first and then bring a plate of food to Hoseok, thinking of watching something on Netflix or reading a book after he has taken a shower. Yoongi's heat is going to go on for some time so Jimin eats slowly, savoring the fruits of his labor until he hears a shout rise from the nest room and takes off like a bullet being shot from a gun without a second thought.

Jimin doesn't bother to knock on the door before he enters the nest room, the scents milling about in the rest of the apartment being the strongest in here. They attack his senses, overriding his system in less than a second. He takes a step forward, giving off all kinds of alpha pheromones before he realizes what he is doing and stops, schooling his expression once he looks towards the nest and sees Hoseok staring up at him.

"I heard a shout," Jimin says, clearing his throat when Hoseok only continues to stare up at him. "Um, I can leave since you two look fine."

They look more than fine actually. Hoseok is buried deep within Yoongi right now, both their faces flushed and sweaty. Yoongi is spread open and tense atop the blankets and pillows, his not-so-flat chest as red as his face with his breathing sounding difficult even to Jimin's ears. Jimin can clearly see the way Yoongi's hand moves in circles around his clit, but his eyes are on Jimin now too and the undeniable want in them makes Jimin swallow loudly in the audible silence that follows.

Jimin steps back and freezes when Yoongi cries out, his expression crumpled. Hoseok is moving again, not caring that Jimin is watching as he reaches out a hand to cup Yoongi's face, murmuring quiet assurances to him. When he tries to take another step back, Yoongi wails loud enough to leave Jimin's ears ringing and his heart hammering in his chest.

"Hyung?" Jimin tries, his voice breathless. "Is something wrong?"

Hoseok keeps his pace steady as he looks up to spare Jimin a short glance. "Yoongi's heat is out of control. My touch has barely any effect."

Jimin feels like ice has sprung into existence around his heart, a short and swift shot of pain lancing through him in that second. "Why didn't you call me earlier, hyung? Yoongi-hyung could have hurt himself!"

"Didn't—" Yoongi starts to say before he gasps when Hoseok pushes into him harder than before. "Didn't w-wanna force you."

Hoseok grimaces at his words but keeps moving, shooting a pleading look in Jimin's direction, eye flickering down to the obvious tent in Jimin's pants before staring back down at Yoongi. "Oh, hyungie. Jiminnie could never be forced into anything. Trust me."

Yoongi winces and grabs Hoseok's arms, pulling him closer. "You're my mate. Jimin isn't."

Jimin cannot deny that a pang of hurt flashed through him at Yoongi's words, but even if he did admit to it, it is not like he would know what to do with that information anyway. Hoseok smiles down at Yoongi and shakes his head, slowing his pace down when he stares up at Jimin once more.

"He could be though, hyung. Jimin wants to join anyway, can't you see how worked up you have him?" Hoseok says, his voice so soft that Jimin has to strain to hear it over the squelching of their bodies coming together again and again. "Jiminnie, do you wanna help hyung out?"

Jimin nods because it really is no question if he wants to. Of course, he does, but only if Yoongi will let him. Only if Yoongi wants him.

As if reading his thoughts, Hoseok leans down until his next question is whispered into Yoongi's face, causing the omega to shiver. "Don't you want Jiminnie to show you how good of an alpha he is? He can give you a lot more than I can, hyung."

A protest is already on the tip of his tongue, but Yoongi's voice is unwavering and strong, not giving Jimin the chance to reply first. "I want you."

Hoseok laughs and kisses him swiftly. "And you have me. But you and Jiminnie can have each other too. Let's all use this as an opportunity to see how we all fit together. Okay?"

Yoongi nods, his body still held tense against Hoseok's but when he meets Jimin's gaze, there is now consideration behind the want and that alone sets a fire ablaze through Jimin's veins. Jimin nods too as Hoseok stares at him, brow raised in question and he flushes the moment Hoseok smiles.

It has been years, but Jimin is still rendered speechless every time he sees it.

"Close the door, Jiminnie," Hoseok croons, one hand beckoning towards the youngest in the nest room as he moves his hips steadily again. "Come help me with hyungie."

Jimin's heart is in his throat and his hands are sweaty, but he doesn't have to be told twice as he shuts the door and strips down so he is just as naked as the two older men. He hesitates coming closer until Yoongi stretches and grabs his discarded clothes, throwing them into the nest they are lying in, adding Jimin's scent to mix it with the rest.

He can visibly see the way Yoongi's entire body relaxes once Jimin's clothes have settled atop the blankets and that alone gives Jimin the courage he needs to step into the nest and join his mate and his mate's mate for their first heat together.

Jimin doesn't know it yet, but this heat is only the first in a long line of many and when Yoongi grabs the back of his neck and pulls him down, Jimin goes easily.

Their lips meet in a gentle slide while Hoseok picks up his pace and jostles Yoongi with each push, leaving Jimin to smile at the ridiculousness of it all. He quiets the moment Yoongi grabs his hand and guides it to his chest, letting Jimin cup the fullness of his breast.

It is an important moment between the three of them and one that Jimin will not be forgetting anytime soon, but for now, he follows Yoongi's lead and kisses him again, his other hand reaching out blindly until Hoseok's fingers tangle with his and now they are all connected.

They are now one.

[afinepricklypear]

Compare and Contrast: K Project vs. Bungou Stray Dogs - Part 2

Read Part 1

Story

In general, K Project does a lot better job of maintaining a consistent and focused story, especially in Seasons 1 and 2 than BSD, with almost no filler content.  There aren’t nearly as many open plot threads or divergences from the main story, and everyone introduced has a very cohesive purpose to the plot. This may largely be due to the fact that K was originally envisioned as a complete story, with the movie Return of Kings and season 2’s Missing Kings and other added materials being, somewhat, after thoughts consequently ordered due to the popularity of the show. Season 2 does offer a very decisive end to the tale, with the destruction of the Dresden Slate, mysterious source of all supernatural power. On the other hand, BSD is an ongoing serialized manga with no set beginning or ending that we, as the audience, are aware.  BSD’s author, Asagiri Kafka, isn’t telling a self-contained story with a determined beginning, middle, and end, so often times characters and plot devices are introduced which may not have bearing on the current arc of the story, they hint at things to come. This might be frustrating for viewers that aren’t interested in long-term serialized works, which does have the tendency to fall victim to filler episodes in attempt to make a certain quota or make up for any lulls in the story.

That being said, BSD, thus far, does a lot better with world.

In K, the concepts of Clans and Kings, the Dresden Slate, and the Swords of Damocles are never fully fleshed out satisfactorily, to the point that aspects of it feel completely illogical, convoluted, and conveniently there merely to move the plot forward. Fantasy stories are generally under no obligation to provide explanations for where magic abilities come from, K makes an attempt with the Dresden Slate, but overreaches with an established protocol of Kings and Clans in regards to these powers with no explanation for where or why these rules manifested or why anyone feels obligated to follow them. For example, the Red King Mikoto is not shown to care too much for being a King, or even wanting obligations to his Clan, yet he maintains it and his Clansmen show loyalty to it, and there’s no explanation beyond “well that’s just the way the Dresden Slate works”.  That would be fine, if this wasn’t established as the expectation of anyone who is “awoken” as a King. In that same vein, a lot isn’t really clarified in terms of what really happens to Clansmen when their King dies (Clansmen are shown to still maintain powers granted from their former King but that’s just speculation from viewers, and doesn’t make sense if there powers stem from their Kings) and what is meant to happen when a new King takes their place (though we do see Clansmen turn on the new Blue King, in regards to Munakata taking over Jin Hibari’s role, or choosing to continue following the new Red King, as we see in HOMRA with Anne taking Mikoto’s place). Worse, these rules are just universally known in a world that isn’t supposed to know about these Clans and Kings, leaving no one to explain these rules to newly awakened Kings although these rules are shown to be universally known and accepted by them. More questions than answers are raised.

In BSD, people being born with or manifesting abilities is shown to just be a facet of this world. It’s just one of the physical laws, much like how the sky is blue, grass is green, some people can conjure demons that kill you. This is just the world they live in, and in that sense, the people in this world are the ones that determine the rules that govern these abilities without expectation. This treats us to various different ideas and philosophies for how ability users should apply their abilities or how the users themselves should be managed. The government attempts to regulate ability users, through licensure for organizations that wish to operate as ability user specific. This provided a cool storyline where we see Port Mafia obtain its license to operate as an ability user organization during the Dark Era, through nefarious plotting on leader, Mori’s part, which also highlighted that the Port Mafia is a criminal organization because prior to obtaining this license they were operating without one. We also see the Armed Detective Agency undergo a plot to take their license away, and since they are the morally upright group, in their minds, losing their license means they will cease to exist. This places explanation firmly on the goals of their given society, something that is relatable and understandable for readers, and shifts it away from the realm of unexplainable and increasingly convoluted magic.

On the flipside of that, however, K does a much better job of balancing powers. Which brings me Nakahara Chuuya.

I’ll throw this disclaimer in here, Chuuya is my favorite character. I fell in love at first sight. Unfortunately, he gets little to no screen time, I could count on one hand his number of appearances throughout the first two seasons. He gets three episodes at the start of Season 3 that explores his history with Dazai, and I feel I’m in no way biased (**cough, cough** 100% biased) saying these are the best three episodes of the season. Then we see him maybe in two more episodes until he gets trapped in a book for the rest of the season, leaving me screaming furiously at the screen. Manga chapters that go beyond where the anime left off are not filling me with much hope for more Chuuya in Season 4. Seriously, I don’t recommend loving this character, you’ll only get your heart broken.

The problem with Chuuya that becomes rampant throughout BSD in other characters, is that he’s a side character for a rival organization and he is super OP. Since the creator seems adamantly against making him a more main character (either as antagonist or protagonist…hell, majority of his appearances have been to literally save the day for the heroes), not to mention the lack of anyone in our heroes’ corner that could reasonably take him on (even Dazai is outmatched despite his nullifying ability, because Chuuya also happens to be Port Mafia’s best martial artist) the only recourse is to leave him conveniently absent from majority of the story. Which, okay, this can mostly be explained away that he’s an Executive in Port Mafia and probably has a lot to deal with in terms of making sure their operations continue to move smoothly, but it leads to ludicrous scenarios such as the end of the Guild Arc when a whale sized airship is being dropped on Yokohama by the Guild. We’re told this ship will wipe out a large portion of the city. At this point, the Detective Agency and Port Mafia are on semi-good terms in order to stand against their common enemy, the Guild. You would think, large object being dropped on the city, Port Mafia has a powerful gravity manipulator on staff...one phone call to Dr. Mori, “Hey...do you mind sending Chuuya to take care of that whale bomb....or are you just cool with the city being flattened?” All Chuuya needs to do is parachute down, once he touches the ship, he could tear the whole thing apart and fling its pieces to every side of the ocean. They call it a day in thirty seconds, tops, back home for dinner. Yet, for some odd reason, the course of action that the Armed Detective Agency decides on is to send rookie agent tiger boy to infiltrate the ship and fight his way to a possible transponder they can use to reverse the ship’s course, despite having little experience, and no specialized abilities for the task, let’s not get started on the ridiculousness of that transponder anyways. This decision is based largely on the fact he once was held prisoner on the ship and so…should know his way around? I get that they supposedly don’t want to owe Port Mafia, but this kind of seemed like an odd time to play loose and fast with the city’s safety. The point is, Chuuya is powerful, which makes his lack of presence during crucial moments pretty heavy handed.

That being said, however, this OP situation, is a problem throughout with other characters as well. There’s no balance of powers, and characters are shown to do things that don’t fall within the realm of their abilities, may never have previously been display or given proper explanation prior to introduction, and sometimes comes across as just thrown in last minute as a plot device. A few examples, able to transform into a tiger also, somehow allows Atsushi to heal at a rapid level and regrow limbs. Forget about the implications that he’s got some “special” light attached to his ability, as well. In a recent chapter of the manga, we see a newly introduced character, one of the Hunting Dogs, slap a bullet out of the air and stop a large projectile with her bare hands. Her ability, however, is age manipulation so there’s no given reason why she should’ve been able to do those things. While it is mentioned that the Hunting Dogs are also genetically engineered, she did this to save another Hunting Dog who is duly is surprised by her actions and expresses that he could not have done the same. I’m baffled. This is to say nothing of the multiple time characters without regenerative or durable abilities are stabbed, blown up, and impaled, only to walk it off like it’s nothing. The Agency healer, Yosano, has an ability called Thou Shalt Not Die, she can heal someone but only when they’re on the brink of death, so her ability is essentially that trope in action films where the bomb is always disarmed with one second to spare. Let’s not even talk about the new revelation that Dazai can control his heart beats to the point he can use it for passing secret code. It becomes plot armor so thick that it entirely erases the stakes for our characters. They’re all treated as practically immortal, able to overcome anything thrown at them, I’m not even worried anymore when a character takes a lance through the heart, I know he’s walking it off in the next scene.

K is a lot more balanced with its abilities. None of the characters, outside of the Kings, feel so overpowered that they are impossible to stop and they’re not shown to be capable of things outside of their given abilities or established, and might I say reasonable, skillsets.  Even the Kings have their peers in the other Kings. Sure, Clansmen can dodge bullets, but if they’re hit by one it hurts and, notably in the case of Totsuka, it can kill. No one is getting impaled multiple times then walking it off. Mikoto is run through with a blade once, and as it should be, he dies. Not only does this maintain the stakes for our characters – they are at the end of the day mortal, and they can get hurt, they can be beaten, they can die – it also gives us a more complicated, and darker story with characters that we can relate to on an emotional level.

Read Part 3

[beanarie]

past & pending 3, chapter 2

Welcome to the McGraw-Hamilton Bed and Breakfast, where no one ever calls ahead for reservations. the rest of the series (post-finale, everyone’s in love) is here, the previous chapter, where--spoiler alert!--thomas and flint just learned that madi has a girlfriend, is here

~

“We thought her distress was over you,” Thomas confides.

Silver’s smile is bitter and, frankly, more than slightly annoying. “Oh, it’s never about me.”

Thomas frowns at the trees. He loses all patience in the face of self pity. Despite not being well acquainted with Madi, he knows James is of the belief that she loves Silver, or, rather, that she did at one time. The rest, as they have well established, was his own fault.

“Allow me an uncomfortable question?”

A heavy silence follows. “Go on,” Silver says.

“Is there anything tying you to her, save penance, and, of course, the dogged hope of eventual absolution and a return to how things were?” Silver’s wide eyes are a response. They are not, however, an answer. “I ask in all sincerity. Confirmation that you are not consumed with flagellating yourself every time you leave here would be appreciated, especially given the ready alternative.”

Someone should lance this boil, incontrovertibly disabuse Silver of the notion that existing as someone’s sun, moon, and stars is the only way to be happy. The awareness of his own position prevents Thomas from making the attempt. He would offer the corpses James created in his name if he could. Being an ignoble villain himself, Silver would appreciate them more.

The house now in sight, Seydou takes off at a run, little Felix at his heels. Thomas runs a thumb across  the patchy stubble on Silver’s jaw. “I miss the beard,” he says longingly, trying to impart the fondness that threatens to overtake him with tone and context rather than explicit words. “Refrain from shaving for the rest of your stay, hm? Consider it payment for the room and board.”

Thomas takes a step forward, but Silver’s fingers wrap around his upper arm, keeping him from taking another. He noses the back of Thomas’s neck and breathes in deeply. Well. Fuck subtle. Before Silver can disengage, Thomas spins on his heel. Silver’s mouth lets out a quiet huff of surprise before Thomas claims it for his own.

“The boys?” Thomas whispers urgently.

Silver’s wild eyes stray from his for mere seconds. “Inside.”

"Understand,” Thomas says, pressing a kiss to Silver’s throat. Yes, unsurprisingly, the man could do with a wash. That’s fine. “It is not that I lack the ability to control myself. I merely see no point in doing so."

The eyes he raises his head to see ask a very clear question. Why? “You know, I used to hear stories on the plantation. We weren’t permitted news of the outside world but I-“

“You had your ways”

“I did.” He tugs the hem of Silver’s shirt free of his trousers. Silver does the same to his. “I knew of Captain Flint, scourge of the new world, years before I knew it was my James they spoke of.”

“It wasn’t wholly outside the realm of plausibility. James, James can be terrifying. Did you know he took me to a hanging on our first outing together?”

“But what of Long John Silver, the only man he was said to fear?” “Many an hour I whiled away forming an image of you in my mind.”

Despite how far they’ve gone already, Silver’s expression is shuttered, like he doesn’t dare to accept what is on offer. “You talk too much.”

“And most days you spend too much time in the brambles of this mind to provide any semblance of worthwhile conversation. Will that be changing? We are all reasonably certain at this point James will not draw and quarter you for your transgressions.”

“That... was never a concern.”

He pulls a few of the hairs in the path from Silver’s stomach to his groin, causing a yelp Thomas will remember for quite a few nights to come. “Do not lie to me, John Silver. I’ve a keen mind and I have suffered. I could plot retribution the likes of which you could never conceive.”

He uses his thumb to breach the waistband of Silver’s trousers and press into the muscle underneath the sharp jut of hipbone. The body under his hands shivers. "Were it not for the myriad complications present at the moment, I would have you, right here, just like this. What say you to that?"

A slight laugh, a thin sliver of a cheeky grin.  "What complications?"

“Villain.” Thomas smiles against Silver’s lips and swallows whatever response he would have gotten. This, at least, they can do without consulting a committee.

~

The bedroom door swings open at the same time as Thomas pokes his head in to say, "Oh, excellent. You're here. Come, villain. We have our quorum. We'll get our resolution and everyone will be much happier for it."

James nearly drops the shirt he's holding at the sound of that word coming out of Thomas's mouth, but then Silver hobbles in close behind, grumbling good-naturedly. "Is that to be my name now?"

Unruffled, Thomas smiles like he owns a secret. "Tell me it bothers you and I'll stop forever."

A very pointed silence reigns for a long moment. James ignores them until the spare clothes to donate to their guests are in a neatly folded stack. "You had some sort of agenda," he prompts.

"Surely you can guess," Thomas says.

James turns to address them. "Of course I could. But Silver is changing color and I'd to see how much closer to red he can get."

Thomas laughs and sits on the bed, jostling the stack of clothing but not tipping it over. Silver screws up his face in a futile effort to change his current complexion. "Fuck you both."

"There it is." Thomas winds an arm around James's waist. "Would you prefer a statement with fewer words?"

Allowing Thomas to get closer does not mean James agrees. "You've both had too much time in the sun and not enough water. His wife is a guest in our home."

"Not my wife." Silver looks down at his foot. "That- that was only ever an idea. A hope. And now we are... friends. Maybe, if I'm being generous. Anyway, she gave me her explicit blessing."

James looks at Thomas, who looks back at him, equally silently.

Silver sighs, drumming his fingers on his crutch. "You may have noticed she has taken up with a woman."

"So taking this step." James gestures to take in the three of them. "Now, under these conditions, would be your retribution?"

"What? No. We spoke candidly on what occurred during my months-long absence from her."

"You confessed everything?" James asks. So far Thomas has kept his opinions to himself. It will be interesting to see how long he is content to observe before deciding James and Silver cannot work this out between the two of them.

"She wanted to know what purpose I served here for so long," Silver says, meaning no, he did not inform her about his illness. "How you were able to allow me to linger after all that I had done, to you both. And I..." He lifts his chin, resolute. "I told her I love you."

Abandoning Thomas and the stack of clothes on the bed, James approaches a noticeably unmoving Silver. He leans in, gaze fixed on Silver's mouth. "Is that what you told her?" he says. He lays a hand on Silver's neck, his thumb sweeping over the point of his pulse.

Silver hums, flush still high on his cheeks. "It's the truth." He slumps forward slightly into James's touch. This happens every time. Touch Silver with even a hint of affection and he goes pliant and greedy like one of his barn cats.

James grins as he traces the underside of Silver's bottom lip. "That explains why you wanted to stay, not why we let you."

"Feel free to elaborate," Silver says. "I've already gotten Thomas's side of things."

From the other side of the room, Thomas laughs in a way that people who aren't James don't get to hear.

Good thing the chores are done for the morning and no one inside this room is responsible for preparing the next meal. All they have to do for the next few hours is work up an appetite.

~

The entertainment at midday consists of the younger boys bragging about their contributions to the repast.

"I'm just proud you didn't push each other into the water," Obi says. "I fully expected at least one of you to return soaking wet."

Madi, seated as far from Esther as their circumstances allow, lets her gaze flick toward each of the white men in a knowing matter. Being who she is, she's quite subtle, but James sees. She says, however, nothing, apparently content to help Khanyi pick out the stray bones left in her fish.

Possibly he is being paranoid.

~ Old remembered terrors force Flint out of a sound sleep, heart hammering, thundering, and eyes completely incapable of recognizing his surroundings. It’s too dark, it’s too dark. There are enemies about and he can’t remember who was assigned lookout.

“James,” says a voice that doesn't belong.

“Love."

"It’s all right."

"You're home safe."

"Everything is fine.”

A melody sinks into the bits of silence. Humming. Flint latches on, his breath coming easier, and he lays his head back down.

His traitorous mind refuses to rest, linking the tune to something he used to hear on piano. He thinks of Miranda, walking off to leave him in bed struggling with his ghosts, until the strains of her playing from another room remind him where he is. He thinks of her dry fingertips against his cheek as he would finally drift off to proper sleep. That tiny pull of a smile on one side of her face that signaled the end of an argument. The quizzical rosebud of her mouth when she read something she found deeply fascinating.

No one is touching him, but James can feel body heat creeping in on all sides and he can’t handle it. Reality is both too much and not enough. “Shut up,” he says, rubbing at his eyes, willing his mind to stop reeling. “Both of you.”

Silver rolls onto his side as though he's been out this whole time. James runs a hand lightly down Silver's back, and rises from the bed.

So many people between these walls. She should be here, too. She deserves to be here.

He can feel at least one pair of eyes following his progress, so he says, "We need firewood. And well water."

"Let him go be productive," Thomas orders Silver, just loud enough for his voice to carry. "I fucking abhor chopping firewood."

[catnippackets]

I’ve been typing and retyping this over and over again for the past few days mostly just for fun bc I like organizing things but a few ppl on twitter wanted to see it, so. Here’s my reasoning for who Lance’s endgame romance is with! I tried to make it as short as possible to hold ppl’s attention while still hitting the key points but it’s still kinda long oops. It’s pretty much just eliminating characters one by one until we’re left with the only possible option which I’m sure everybody knows before even looking under the cut but that’s just because it makes too much sense to be a mystery at this point lol

Also this probably goes without saying but this DOES contain spoilers for season 6 so if you haven’t watched it yet, proceed with caution.

Alright. Leggo.

Ok first off, there are 3 things we know for sure:

Lance is the only one with a confirmed endgame romance

Said romance is slowburn

He’s going to get what he needs rather than what he wants

Because we know it’s slowburn, aka SLOW and subtle and long to build up to, it has to be someone on the team since they’re the only reoccurring characters that he would have any time to build any kind of relationship with.

Shiro, Coran, and Pidge are automatically out cuz they’re not in the same age group which leaves Hunk, Allura, and Keith

Hunk has been in a “relationship” w Shay since season 1 and it’s been mentioned SO often by the writers/VAs, so it’s not him. Which leaves Allura or Keith as the only possible endgames for Lance. This makes sense, seeing as how they actually share quite a lot of similarities.

So let’s look at the Three Big Points for why it can’t possibly be Allura.

Allura/Lance is not slowburn. The literal first words Lance said to Allura were flirting words and his crush on her was always a big part of his character. The crew consistently drills in the fact that he has a crush on her at every given opportunity. This doesn’t fit with what a slowburn romance is. Slowburn means subtlety, and Allura/Lance is NOT subtle. It’s far too obvious.

Allura has never once shown interest in him and every time he flirts with her she’s dismissive, rolling her eyes, even once saying she felt ill. In season 6, the mice straight up told her that Lance liked her and when she found out her face fell and she said “oh…he said that…?” That is not the reaction of someone who’s happy about this news. This point isn’t saying “they won’t be endgame because she didn’t like him at first”, but rather stressing the fact that Allura has had 6 seasons to reciprocate Lance’s feelings and she hasn’t ONCE shown any hint of interest. An interesting scene to note is in episode one of season 6, where Lance takes a hit for her and literally dies for a second before Allura brings him back to life with her magic. They share a moment where they smile very tenderly at each other, and then later on it cuts to a split-screen view of them in their lions, where it shows Allura with an easy, casual smile on her face, and Lance blushing and hugging himself with a very dreamy look on his face. If they were going to be the endgame, THIS would have been the point where Allura would start to realize her feelings for him, but the writers made sure to show that while Lance was replaying the moment over and over again in his head and hugging himself thinking about it, Allura immediately put her game face back on and continued with her life. There is no doubt that she loves him as a friend, but she isn’t into him romantically. If they were to have them get together it would be a stale “boy flirts w girl even tho she doesn’t like him, girl eventually falls in love w him anyway” romance and the writers aren’t THAT shitty.

Allura is a princess of an alien world and a whole race of alien people. Her father and mother are both long dead, and she is the last surviving member of the royal family who could take the throne. In season 6, we find out that Allura & Coran are NOT the last surviving Alteans; there is a whole colony of Alteans out there without a leader, who need a queen. When the war is over Allura is going to step up and become the queen, and spend the rest of her life working to rebuild her planet and culture and help her people grow and survive. Lance, on the other hand, is obviously going to want to go back to earth when the war is all over; he’s shown on multiple occasions to be homesick to the point of crying about it (in fact he’s the ONLY paladin from earth who actually seems to miss it at all), and he misses his family SO much. No matter how much he loves Allura, he won’t choose her over his family, and Allura is definitely not going to give up on the last surviving members of her race to settle down on earth with Lance.

So in conclusion, it’s not Allura, which leaves Keith as the only available option which I know you saw coming but here are the high points anyway because there is literally TOO much evidence to bring up when it comes to klance:

Keith was introduced to us through Lance’s eyes in a very dramatic, significant way

Keith and Lance’s meeting parallel Keith’s parents meeting

they are SO alike and so equal with no kind of power imbalance between them at all

Lance & Keith’s rivalry has been continuously stressed by the crew and the VAs for ages; in fact, it’s arguably the relationship in the show that’s talked about the most

the flashbacks that showed Krolia and Keith’s father falling in love and settling down showed us that Krolia wanted to stay on earth, until she was forced to leave so she could protect her family. she and Keith found each other again, and when the war is over, there is no doubt in my mind that she and him will want to settle down together on earth to be a family again

every time there is a scene in the astral plane there are two very obvious stars that stick out in the background, that are different from the others; one of them is blue, and one of them is red. they don’t blend in naturally with the rest of the environment. they immediately stand out. there’s no reason for them to be there in the first place unless it were foreshadowing something very subtley

there was a scene in season 1 where they HELD HANDS AND SMILED SOFTLY AT EACH OTHER UNDER SOFT PURPLE LIGHTING, that same moment was brought up again in the next episode, and one of the writers has confirmed that Lance did in fact remember it, but that he wasn’t emotionally ready to acknowledge it yet. If you took out that moment, the entire show would have continued on like nothing had ever happened so WHAT WAS THE POINT OF PUTTING IN SUCH A BLATANTLY ROMANTIC SCENE AND THEN SAYING LANCE WASN’T EMOTIONALLY READY TO DEAL WITH IT if it’s not going to lead anywhere?

(the point is that klance is cannon king)

And if you want more proof and have a few hours to spare then you’re gonna wanna read my buddy Keith’s post which goes into much more intimate detail about why Keith is Lance’s love interest. It’s 50k words of nothing but the facts!

THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT

[slashtakemylife]

Voltron x ATLA x LOK fusion

A prompt or idea of sorts of the Voltron characters that follows a bit on the ATLA and LOK storylines with little changes, I also added a bit of Voltron’s lore into it

It’s a bit long and I in fact cover 3 arcs from beggining to finish but there are some blank spots which is why it won’t be made into a full fic but I hope you enjoy the ride

Allura, an airbender and the Avatar finds herself in the last and most prominent of the Air Temples being decimated by the Fire Nation, in order to protect her from the Fire Lord’s rage, her father, knocks her out and send her with Coran and her bison away, they catch a storm and when they go down the water she freezes them

- time skip of only a few years - (10?)

Keith, is a firebender from Republic City looking for his missing brother Shiro, his last clue sent him to the South Pole were a stranded Fire Nation boat may have more information on his wereabouts, he sees a south pole-ner? looking at his reflexion on an ice, he tries to bypass him but Lance, a waterbender from the South Tribe spots him, he then wants to capture Keith, who he thinks is a Fire Nation soldier, to impress the ladies and fellas at home however Keith gets the upper hand and easily defeats him, leaving him on the floor covered in snow, Lance in a tantrum brings forth a giant ice that has Allura and Coran along with their bison, named something that I would love if it sounds similar to the Castle of Lions (Cas? just straigth out Castle?)

Allura doesn’t trust Keith because he is fire nation, Keith doesn’t give af and leaves them to reach that ship and they separate, Allura goes with Lance, however Lotor, the exiled prince shows up, Allura can easily beat Lotor but he sends his soldiers to attack the village.

After Keith finds what he needed in the ship, he knows Lotor is attacking them due to the smoke of his ship so he goes to help, that is how he gains Allura’s trust, Keith tells them he is looking for Shiro, he is an important metalbender that has helped keep Republic City safe, however he was sent to Ba Sing Se to help protect it with a few of their squad, they succeed but he ends up captured, there are rumors on him being alive but no one can do anything, thus Keith leaving, he knows he is close

Allura, Coran, Lance and Keith go save Shiro from an ice prision, (long haired Shiro), he has no arm but when he finds metal he uses his bending to create one, while his metal arm works as a natural hand, he still needs some adjustment time to get used and learn how to bend with just one arm, he tells them their most important task is to protect and train the Avatar, Republic City is the most advanced, heavily protected city and is filled with masters that would gladly teach the avatar, btw Allura can’t reach the pasts Avatars and her Avatar state is either weaken or she just can’t reach it, they think it’s a spiritual thing, remember this detail ;)

And then this is the reason this is just like a prompt because basically the next part is just Lotor giving chase and shenanigams happen, in the middle they find Hunk, an earthbender who’s village has been taken by the FN and took his father, they liberate them all and he joins them in their quest, they go to an air temple were a group of non benders has taken over the temple, they were seeking refuge from the fire nation and found the temple, they are tech junkies, once the FN took notice there was someone in the temple they attacked, their inventions helped protect them but with little resources they knew a second wave would decimate them, Sam agreed to be taken away so long as the temple was spared, his son was also taken away as guarantee, Katie Holt just knows his father and brother mysteriously disappeared, leaving Colleen in charge, she escapes as goes by the name of Pidge to avoid being discovered and joins the team

So they reach Republic City (I have to say it’s mostly Adashi but there is story, bare with me please) were Shiro (obviously) reunites with his husband Adam and gives them a place to stay in their home, he wants to announce Allura as the Avatar and begin her training, Adam tells him not to, apparently there is a new issue

Sendak, the equalist, they say he can take bending away and has been kidnapping benders and striping them of their bending to create a benderless world, the kidnappers are expert at close combat that use chi blocking and electricity to kidnap them, this makes Shiro nervous, so they wait out

Next day finds Adam not going to work, Shiro asks if it’s okay given the situation and Adam says he is just a worried husband caring for his recently appeared husband

The truth is the next, Adam is the highest ranking non-bender in the police force, they obviously prefer benders and of course there is the police force of only metal benders, Shiro is a high rank officer (even Chief maybe?) before he was deployed to aid Ba Sing Se from an incoming attack, Adam had a hard time proving himself as a non bender in the police force, the way he reached the top was with his amazing fighting skills and chi blocking, he uses the later to handle benders, so many people in the police force were wary of him, everything Adam fought for, all the time he took to convince the benders he was equal to them, died in 5 seconds when this radical dude showed up (ADASHI TIME! Can I interest you with in-training yet prodigy metal bender Shiro crushing hard on also in-training Adam as he decimates his 5th bender opponent with his bare non-bending hands?)

While they had yet to investigate him fully, he feels uncomfortable since everyone is suspicious of him, some think he is their true leader. So Adam is using Shiro as an excuse to ask for an early vacations to take care of him and also, Adam does want to take care of Shiro, come on! He hasn’t seen Shiro since his deployment nearly four years ago and after he was announced as missing in action, his little brother who lives with them, just dissapears as well so yeah, Adam is not letting his boys out of his watch Ever Again

Again there’s a reason this is a prompt or I don’t know but smth smth happens, Allura is discovered to be the Avatar, they find Sam, he knows part of Honerva’s plan I’ll cover in a few, smth smth, time skip XD then Adam is having an interview done, since he is the highest rank non-bender they want an interview regarding the recent equalizer events, in reality they just give an introduction on who Adam is, the interviewer does the “what you think” question and goes to commercial

There in the radio booth is Sendak and he wants Adam to support the movement since he is one of the most prominent non-benders there is, transmission comes back and instead of a pro-equalists speech, Adam makes a pro-benders one (even mentioning how the love of his life it’s a bender for extra tears)

So anyway, Shiro realizes it’s a trap and he desperately tries to reach Adam but unfortunately Adam gets kidnapped because he refused to bow down to the equalists

In reality, Sendak takes them to Haggar, she is in Republic City because it has the biggest concentration of benders and the most powerful as well as diversity, so the bending is just her taking out their spirit energy/quintessence, leaving them benderless, she trained Sendak to be a blood bender in order to temporarily chi block their bending and make them faint enough for her to act

They go to save Adam but in there, Shiro finds Adam, he is brainwashed and tells him he should allow Haggar to take his bending away so they could have a happy benderless life, away from the battlefield like Adam always wanted, Shiro is one of the strongest benders there is so they do use Adam as bait for him, he has no choice but to shock Adam unconscious, still he losses his bending before Allura can get there, Haggar with so much spiritual/quintessence energy from taking the benders and now one of the strongest, Shiro, goes against Team Avatar until only Allura is left and she also sees she can energy bend even if it’s a little so she is able to defeat her but she escapes, she restores Shiro’s bending as well, btw Lotor also reached Republic city and gets a redemption ark, he changes like Zuko in Ba Sing Se and goes to Team Avatar to reveal that Haggar wants to release Vatu and make Zarkon a dark Avatar

The third ark is they discover the story behind it all, so here it is:

We go back to the paladins of old, GoodZarkon is the Avatar, great friends with the previous Paladins of Voltron, a group of representatives of each nation that helps the avatar with it’s affairs, they had the issue of Vatu being released, you know the 10,000 y/o, it was with them that happened so they make plans to imprison him again

However GoodZarkon’s wife, Honerva believes she can put an end to this cycle because every 10k years each avatar has to deal with him, you just need one avatar to fail for everything to be over, she has been studying spiritual leaves and vines from the spirit world and finds their energy source, which she names quintessence, we all have it, in fact that is what allows benders to bend but spirits can use quintessence at will for so much more, she actually wants to release Vatu and make something with him, not imprison him

Vatu could have tricker her into thinking this would put and end to the squabble, of course they all disagree but shit happens and Honerva is badly injured, maybe a spirit passes through her and she get’s weird? Vatu tells GoodZarkon that with the combined power of him and Raava inside him, they can heal Honerva, so he releases him and tries to contain both entities inside, but only works for them to fight inside GoodZarkon, Vatu just wants to have his cycle like Raava and have her be locked away, the paladins come over and manage to separate both entities out of GoodZarkon, they imprison Vatu and release Raava for her to look for an Avatar, since it was Alfor the one who physically releases her to the world, unbestknown to him, it makes Raava latch onto his energy signature and thus falls into a days old Allura

Leaving GoodZarkon “dead” and out of the cycle but actually he and Honerva both survive as Zarkon and Haggar, since Zarkon had Vatu inside him and Honerva is now kind of spirit crazy Haggar, few years later they kidnapp the current Fire Lord and go to the spirit world were they find the face swapping spirit and they exchange the face to that of the current Fire Lord into Zarkon so he becomes Fire Lord

Zarkon slowly begins his quest of conquering the world but really he is looking for the Avatar because he wants to be the Avatar again, he wants to drag Raava out of Allura and into him again or, release Vatu and take him instead, Haggar is in charge on finding where he is and how to release him, the old paladins sealed the entrance

There was peace in between the old Paladins fight with Zarkon and his supposed ‘death’ were Allura grew but one day the Fire Nation went crazy (they face swap, it’s Zarkon now) and started to want to conquer the world, they were able to keep him contained but they struggle and Zarkon is incredibly powerful due to having previously had both entities inside his body, he retains his core element bending which is fire, and lays waste on the air nation, the paladins join once again to defeat him but without the avatar they can’t do a thing, Alfor knows Allura (now grown up) is the avatar but he considers she’s still to young, Allura wants to fight, wants to fulfill her destiny but one day Zarkon finally lays waste on the final air temple, Alfor sends her and Coran away

Back to the present, The Paladins knew the Fire Lord was previous Avatar Zarkon but said nothing to no one, they just said he died while saving the world from Vatu, that is the reason Allura can’t reach the previous Avatar since the link is broken since Zarkon is not really dead but he’s no longer the Avatar? She finally strips away any connection and finally can connect to previous Avatar and reach the Avatar state at it’s full potential

Big fight, they win, end

[sparklebitch]

Langst prompt ideas: 1) fucking dealing with a sudden kidney infection or apendixitus and is just trying to grit and bear the pain until theyre done training cause he doesnt wanna be A Burden 2) blue trying to help him out ona Bad Brain Day cause why the hell not

“Send me langst prompts!” 

Thank you for sending these! I really hope you like them

1) Trigger warnings: Sickness, Vomiting

He had noticed it a few hours ago. There was a strangepain in his abdomen. He was in the middle of a training simulation with the team,so he tried to ignore it. It would go away eventually.

But the pain didn’t go away. Instead, it got worse andworse as the day wore on. He was sweating more than usual. It was practicallypouring off of him by dinner time. Hunk shot Lance a nervous glance after theyhad all showered and were waiting for dinner.

“You feelin’ okay buddy?” he asked. Lance was stillsweating. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.

“Mm-hmm” he mumbled. The pain in his stomach feltwhite-hot and he felt like he exhausted. He didn’t bother telling anyone thisbecause tomorrow they were scheduled to go to a planet to find more people tojoin their resistance against the Galran empire. He had to be there to get themto join. They were a major group and would be an incredible asset to Voltron.

Lance barely picked at his food at dinner. He didn’tfeel hungry. But Shiro chastised him for not eating, saying that he needed tokeep his strength up, so Lance tried his best to shovel it all down. It didn’t staydown for long. He had hardly made it back to his room before he was hunchedover in the bathroom throwing his dinner back up.

He stayed like that most of the night, throwing up untilthere was nothing left but bile. His stomach hurt so much that his body wasracked with sobs. He cried because he was in pain. He cried because he wasalone. He couldn’t tell anyone. They couldn’t know he was weak.

He woke up the next morning with his face pressedagainst the cold bathroom floor. His entire body was covered in sweat, but hecouldn’t stop shivering. He pulled himself up and dragged his tired body intothe shower. When he felt some resemblance to a living being he pulled on cleanclothes and took a deep breath. He was okay. He was going to be okay. He had tobe okay for the team. For Voltron.

The recruitment was going surprisingly well. Lance hadpulled himself together enough to fly around in Red all morning as they showedthe inhabitants of the planet what Voltron could do. He even managed to standup next to everyone and force a half-hearted smile as Coran gave his speech,asking them to join the resistance against the Galra.

The pain was still there, the dull ache in his stomach.He hadn’t eaten since breakfast the day before, and his skin felt clammy. The longerhe stood there the harder it was to keep himself upright. Coran’s speech seemedto be going on longer than normal. Lance groaned under his breath as he was hitwith another wave of nausea. Pidge eyed him.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“Nothing” Lance hissed. He was hunched over, bothhands on his stomach. Suddenly the aching in his gut tripled in intensity,sending Lance to the ground. He gasped in pain and heard whispers from thecrowd as he gripped his stomach in pain. He gritted his teeth and tried toremain as still as possible, until he couldn’t hold it in anymore. The pain wasso unbearable that he felt detached from his body. He heard a scream aseverything started to fade away. For a moment everything was blurry, and thepain stopped. Then as his head snapped back into his body and he realized hewas the one screaming. He wasn’t outside anymore. He was in something. One ofthe lions. He tried to crawl onto his knees, but the pain hit him again fullforce and he doubled over, vomiting on the ground in front of him.

“Hang on, Lance! We’re almost there” A voice called tohim from across the room. He tried to get up again, and then there was a pair ofhands on him pinning him down. He screamed and tried to break away. He quicklygave up, crumpling in on himself, clutching his stomach. The pain seemed unbearable.He’d never felt anything like this. What was happening to him? Was he dying? Ohgod, he was going to die. All because he didn’t want to be a burden. This washis last thought before everything faded to black.

There was still a pain in his stomach when he awoke.But this was a different pain. A bearable pain. He groaned and groggily triedto push himself up.

“What… happened?” he mumbled. Someone rushed to hisside, telling him to relax and lay back. He complied.

“Your appendix burst, Lance” Shiro said, pressing ahand to Lance’s forehead. “Your temperature seems to be down. That’s a goodsign”

“My appendix? So… I wasn’t dying?” Shiro laughed in surprise.

“Dying? No, you weren’t dying. But, Lance, how long wereyou in pain? This could’ve been really serious. You should’ve told me” Lanceshifted uncomfortably. He hated disappointing Shiro. That’s why he hadn’t toldanyone in the first place. He didn’t want Shiro to be disappointed in him.

“I’m sorry. I thought I could handle it”

“Tell us next time you feel bad, okay?” he said, squeezingLance’s hand. Lance’s eyes filled with grateful tears.

“I promise”

2) Some days it was hard to get out of bed. Some days it feltimpossible. On the impossible days, Lance felt helpless. You can’t just take aday off from saving the universe. There were things to be done every day,hardly a spare moment to take a breath. Days like those were okay, once he gotup, because he was constantly busy from the moment he would drag his body outof bed to the moment his head hit the pillow late at night. But the occasion daysoff they got were much worse. There was nothing to distract him from histhoughts. From the crushing weight that constantly hovered over his chest,waiting for the moment he paused so it could drop on him, stealing his breathe.

On days like these, Lance felt alone. He felt isolatedfrom everyone else. No one really understood what he was going through. None ofthem felt the same way. He didn’t want to bother them anyway, they would only makefun of him or accuse him of making a joke out of people who were really inpain. No, he had to keep it to himself. But he had to talk to someone, or hewas going to go crazy.

So, he turned to the only person who ever trulyunderstood him.

Blue.

He stood in front of her, unsure. Things between themhadn’t been the best since he started piloting Red. Lance was still a little hurtthat she wouldn’t let him in anymore, but he understood. Allura was her paladinnow. It was nothing personal. At least he hoped it wasn’t.

“Blue?” he said hesitantly. She was standingmotionlessly in the hangar. He approached her slowly. “Blue, I know we haven’ttalked in a while, but I was hoping you could listen to me for a minute. I don’tknow who else to talk to” he stopped when he was a few feet away from her. He cranedhis neck and looked up, waiting for her to answer in some way. She didn’t move.Lance’s shoulders slumped, and he sucked in his bottom lip. “Right, yeah thiswas stupid. I’m sorry, I don’t deserve to talk to you anyway” he turned andstarted to walk away. Suddenly, Blue pushed her paw out, catching on the back ofLance’s shirt, pulling his back. He stumbled and landed on top of her foot. Hisheart swelled. “Are you sure?” she hummed in response. Lance smiled gratefully.“Thank you”

He crawled onto her paw and let it all out. He toldher everything. How tired he was with everything. How he felt like he couldn’ttell anyone that he was feeling this way, that everything felt so hard. He toldher about the stupid fight he had with Shiro, and the passing comment thatAllura had made that hurt him more than he let on. He told her about thatnagging feeling deep in his mind that he wasn’t meant to be here, that he wasn’tgood enough to make any sort of a difference. Blue never responded with words,but her hums and purrs encouraged Lance to simply let everything out. Ithelped.

Lance had no idea how long he’d spent talking, but heknew it had to have been a while. But now he was done. He was out of words, andhe definitely felt better. “Thanks, Blue” he said. “This really helped” hissmiled faded as he sat there. There was one last thing that bothered him. “Inever meant to hurt you, Blue. You know that, right?” he asked quietly. Blueresponded by lowering her head and nudged her nose against Lance. He smiled inrelief. “Good” Lance laid down on her paw and began stroking it absently. “Imissed this. Us. I miss being able to talk to you. You’re the only one whounderstands me” Blue laid her head down next to her paw and breathed out. Lancetook that to mean she missed it too. “I love you, Blue” She purred contently.

[justanotherwriter243]

Complicated (Prt9) - Barry Allen x Reader

A/N: i thought the gif was funny sorry not sorry. Feel free to message me if you have a question, if u would like to know more about the story, or if u just wanna talk lmao. 

Summary: Barry and reader reflect on the day they met.

Disclaimer: I've watched Arrow now and yiiiikes, I apologize for everything I wrote before I watched it. If you notice any huge mistakes or gaps, please, message me and let me know. Constructive criticism is encouraged !

Warnings: suggestive themes, cursing

Word count: 3540

----

I groaned as I woke to a light in front of my face. Wincing, I put a pillow over my face. “Please don’t tell me it’s been another year” I said with my face still under the pillow, “because, no offense, but I have better things to do” I hear someone snicker and grab the pillow from my face. “Boo,” I whined, putting an arm over my eyes. “You’re not dead—you won’t die, it’s been 9 months, you were pregnant, and you just have birth” I hear Barry sarcastically say. I took my arm away from my face and narrowed my eyes at him. He was sitting in a chair next to me, he looked exhausted. He raised his eyebrows at me and gave a closed, crooked smile with a small shrug. “Shut up,” I laughed, “next thing you’re gonna tell me is I time traveled to the future” “You never know—“ Barry started but I cut him off by slamming the pillow he took from me in his face. “Ha-ha,” I mocked, sitting up, “What really happened?” “Oh! That’s right,” Barry’s face lit up as he reached underneath him and picked up a couple bags that had the words Big Belly Burger splattered over them. He placed them down on the medical tables near me. “Shhhhhh,” I closed my eyes, putting a finger up to my mouth, “my head hurts,” Barry became a lot quieter, but showed no signs of slowing down. “So, because you’re now officially a speedster, you burn through food, water, and energy super quickly—“ “Also clothes, you owe me a new blazer. I looked bomb in the work suit I was wearing, thank you very much,” “—Yes, and clothes, too, but don’t worry Cisco’s got that all figured out for you,” he gave me a shy smile, “You did look pretty good in the outfit though, you literally pull off anything. . . . “—Anyway, because you burn through food, medicine—and basically anything you consume—so quickly, you have to regain that all back, and fast. “Personally, I have consume about 10,000 calories a day, but considering your size and how fast you burn through everything, it’ll be different for you,” Barry explained and I nodded. “That explains why I’m always so hungry,” I said to myself. “And don’t forget—water is your friend!” Barry smiled as he reached down once again and got a pack of water bottles, he placed those on the table, too. “Caitlin suggests you eat at least 17,000 calories a day, at most 25,000” Barry told me as he reached into one of the Big Belly Burger bags and pulled out food, taking some for himself and giving me the rest. “Woah, dude,” I grinned at it, “This is my favorite thing from Big Belly Burger—I can't believe you remembered!” I gave Barry a skeptical look and he just smiled, shrugging and looking down. “I mean, I don’t think I’d ever forget anything from out first date,” he blushed. My smile faltered and I felt myself getting embarrassed as well. “We agreed that wasn’t a date,” I groaned, “not after what happened afterwards,” “I thought it was pretty cute,” Barry shrugged and smiled. I reached up and scratched the back of my neck. I let out a nervous laugh, remembering the night. “I don’t think I could ever forget the day we first met” I grimaced. *** “Ollie!” I ran up to Oliver, who was just now arriving to the crime scene, “I know we just got broken into, but honestly I’m glad it was us because I think I know what they took” I rambled as Oliver, Felicity, and Dig walked through the door. “So, you know how I’m a literal genius?” I continued, “I do a lot of research in my spare time—“ Oliver raised an eyebrow at me. “More specifically, on our family,” I narrowed my eyes and lowered my voice, “most of my research has been on the Queen’s Gambit and its sinking. Did you know that . . . “ My voice wavered on as I spoke. It was obvious none of them were really listening, but I couldn’t care less. “ . . . and what we do with all the technology laying around. We actually have—“ Oliver stopped me by gently grabbing my shoulders and turning me towards him. “(Y/n), you’re my sibling and I love you, but please slow down and start from the beginning will you?” I glared at him, but begrudgingly nodded my head. I grabbed Oliver’s hand and started dragging him to a broken door. “Woah—okay,” Oliver stopped as he crouched down to look at the door. “This door is made of expanded reinforced titanium,” I told them, “Which is crazy strong, yet is on the floor literally bleeding out, but there’s no sign explosives. How does someone break through expanded reinforced titanium without explosives?” I raised an eyebrow at him and he gave me a look. “Maybe a crane?” Felicity suggested. “Or a forklift” said Dig. “Or anything else capable of slamming through a metal door” Oliver responded. I ignored everyone, “Which got me thinking, who’d go through this much trouble and for what?” “So I did some more investigating, which led me to the industrial centrifuge,” I walked over to the base of where the centrifuge should’ve been, dragging along the trio, “An industrial centrifuge is—“ “I know what a centrifuge is,” Oliver glared at me again. “Okay,” I raised my hands up in defense, “Well, there’s three sets of broken bolts where our theif must’ve just ripped it out. And—again—how does someone do that? And why?” “And then,” I continued, walking around the base, “I found these,” I pointed to a set of footprints, “One person did all of this, guys. I mean, no offense, Ollie, but what kind of friends did you drag home with you from that island?” I whispered in a hushed tone to Oliver. Oliver’s face fell as he thought of the possibilities. Felicity and John exchanged a look. “Look, just keep this in the DL, okay?” I told all of them, “I don’t have enough evidence to conduct a real investigation on the one dude theory,” I held my hands out as if I were weighing an object in each hand, moving them up and down. “But, you know, I thought this would be good intel to let the hood in on,” I pointedly looked at Oliver. He just sighed and looked back at the door on the floor. Just then, detective lance walked over. The three eagerly looked at him, presumingly waiting for what everyone else thought of the situation. “I’m guessing there were 3 of them—maybe 4, given how quick they got in and out of here. They were fast” he told them. “Any idea what these guys were so hot to break in here for?” Lance turned to Oliver, “Didn’t happen to leave a spare earthquake machine lying around did you?” Oliver just looked at Lance. “Sorry” Lance looked away from him and onto me. “Queen?” He narrowed his eyes, “You always seem to have a theory of your own on cases. What is it now?” I opened my mouth to speak, “—You think maybe a group of Hulks came here and stole some precious prototypes of yours?” He mocked me. “Ha-ha” I answered sarcastically. “This is what we were able to pull off the, uh, security cameras,” said a guy suddenly behind us. I moved over so I’d have a clear view of what happened, shoving Oliver on my way. He just looked at Felicity and she shrugged back at him. We watched as one man appeared on screen and the camera gave out. I scoffed and gave out a grumbled response. “It’s the only guy we got in video, the rest of the crew must have come in after” the man told us. “Actually it was only one guy,” a voice said behind us. I turned quickly, trying to figure out where it came from. For the first time in forever I wasn’t the crazy detective on a case who had come up with a strange explanation for everything. Even though I was always right, everyone was hesitant to believe my theories. “I—Sorry, I’m late,” said a guy walking up to us. As he stepped into the light, I got a better look at him. It felt as if my breath had been taken away, my heart leaping into my throat. It felt stupid to say, but I couldn’t help myself. The man was lean and tall. Dark brown hair and piercing green eyes. He was dark and mysterious. “Actually, my train was late—well, the second one. The first one I did miss,” he stumbled over himself, “but that was my cab driver’s fault. I’ve got this great traffic app and—,” he let out a breath as he realized he was rambling. “He thought he was right. I’m here now though—so . . . “ He was clumsy and anxious. And he was perfect. I stupidly looked away as we made eye contact. I saw Oliver frown in the corner of my eye. I cleared my throat as detective Lance spoke to him. “Great, who the hell are you?” He asked him. “And do your parents know that you’re here?” Oliver said. I let out a short sigh as I looked at Oliver, nervously playing with my hands. “I’m Barry Allen,” he said surprised, “I’m from the Central City Police Department,” he took out his badge and we all gave it a quick inspection, “I’m with the crime scene investigation unit” Oh, my god—he’s really cute. “We’re working on a case with some similar unexplained elements in Central City,” He explained, “So, when the report of your robbery came in over the wire, my captain,” his voice faltered, “sent me up here” He smiled to cover the fact his voice wavered just a second ago, and it worked. He looked around with the dumb smile and I swallowed before quickly smiling back. He finally noticed me and his smile twitched before growing wider. He blushed and looked away. I stared stupidly down at the floor. I cleared my throat and looked up at the rest of everyone. Felicity was smirking and John was raising his eyebrows at Barry. I noticed Barry and Oliver make eye contact. Barry tried smiling at him, but Ollie only glared back which resulted in Barry’s smile going away. “And you think one guy ripped through this door like it was tin foil?” He looked back and forth between Barry and I. I couldn’t believe we actually had the same theory. “One very strong guy, yeah,” he responded. I looked at Oliver and gave him an ‘I told you so’ look. He just rolled his eyes at me. However, Barry took that as a sign of annoyance and quickly gave his evidence. “Uh—it takes about 1,250 foot pounds of torque to break someone’s neck,” Barry took out a tablet displaying the dead guard’s body. I frowned as I looked at the picture. Why had I not seen the body? Why had no one given me information on the dead guard? “You see the marks on the guard’s neck? The bruising pattern suggests the killer used only one hand,” he looked up at Oliver, “I’m guessing you don’t know how hard it is to break someone’s neck” I was still stuck on the picture. My mind whirling as I conducted more evidence and a case on my theory. “Hm?” Oliver raised his eyebrows, “No, no idea” “Uh, we’re gonna need a list of the entire inventory here to figure out what was stolen,” a voice cut in. “Oh, I know what was stolen,” I answered back. “(Y/n),” Ollie warned me. “I-I think I do, too,” Barry told everyone. Detective Lance’s stare on us became more cautious now. “A centrifuge,” I repeated myself in annoyance. “An industrial centrifuge,” Barry and I spoke at the same time. I looked at him in shock. Either we’re both going crazy or we might actually be right. “Probably the Cord Enterprises 2BX 900,” Barry told everyone as he started pointing it all out, “Maybe the six series. Both have a three column base,” he pointed to where I had previously pointed, “Here, you can see the three sets of broken bolts where the thief just ripped it out of the ground,” Barry mimed the action. “And what exactly is a centrifuge?” Lance asked and Barry tilted his head in defeat. “It separates liquids,” I stepped in, “The centripetal acceleration causes denser substances to separate out along the radial direction,” I explained, my hands flailing. “And lighter objects move to the top,” Barry continued and I looked up at him. “What did you say your name was again?” Felicity asked suddenly. “Barry. Allen,” he looked beyond terrified. “Felicity. Smoak,” Felicity gave him an overprotective look, eyes flickering between me and him. Oliver glared at him, too. Letting him know not to mess with either of us. I stepped on his foot as Barry looked away. ‘What the hell?’ I mouthed and he just looked away. “You can see the cracks heading towards the door,” we all looked over to the footsteps I had pointed out before, too, “Footsteps. One guy” he nodded. The rest of the group exchanged a look and I did a celebration dance in my head. “I was right—suck it” I whispered to all of them. Oliver kneeled down to look at the base further. I saw Barry staring and when he realized I knew he was staring he blushed again and looked away. “A-Anyway, it’s just a theory,” he went on, “One backed by a lot of evidence” “There has to be another explanation,” Lance pressed and I sighed. Always trying to knock me off my feet. “Yeah, I’m sure you’re right,” Barry shrugged in defeat, but I looked at him in desperation. Felicity and Lance walked off. Leaving Oliver to stare at the bolts again. I kneeled down next to him. “So, one of your buddies do this?” I asked, annoyed. Dig got down, too. Oliver grumbled something under his breath and I sighed. “So, who do you think did it?” A voice suddenly asked. I looked up and saw Barry standing over us all. I gave a panicked look to Dig and Oliver. John shrugged and Oliver glared at me. I looked back at Barry and stood up. “Um—I—well—I-I think it may have been an enemy of, uh, the family,” I stuttered and silently cursed myself. Barry’s eyebrows went up, his mouth hanging, “Um, do you think one guy did it, though?” “Oh! Um,” I trailed off, tilting my head. “Well—It’s just that, earlier, when I mentioned the footsteps you just had a look of victory on your face,” Barry smiled. “My foster dad gets it every time he solves a case, ya know? Like he knows he’s gonna put whoever wronged the world in the right place. He says I have a similar look on my face when doing anything that involves science,” he rolled his eyes playfully, “but I don’t think so,” The ends of my mouth twitched up. He noticed his rambling and the tips of his ears started turning pink. He coughed. “—I just noticed that you had the same look,” he shrugged looking down. “You ever consider becoming a detective, Allen?” I smiled. “Oh, I could never,” he says immediately, “I’m more of a lab kind of guy” I nodded solemnly. I thought for a moment, gathering my thoughts. He snorted and I held back a smile. An awkward cough brought me back to the world around me. This one coming from my brother, behind me. I looked back and glared at Oliver and John. Oliver gave me a glare back, eyes flickering behind Barry and I. I rolled my eyes and turned to Barry, starting to walk away speaking, expecting him to follow. Sure enough, he stumbled behind. “Actually, I had a theory only one person did it,” I spoke up, eagerly trying to get away from the guys, “What kind of detective would I be if I didn’t see the footprints,” I laughed awkwardly. “If you already knew it was one person why didn’t you say anything?” I grimaced, “Right, um, I mean, it’s just that . . . “ I scratched the back of my neck, “I didn’t have enough evidence. It’s not really likely one person could do all of this. . . . “Well, there was the bolts and the missing centrifuge, but one person doing it all doesn’t really come to thought. “But we saw the—the um—security footage so,” I lied, “yeah,” I cleared my throat. When I saw we were a good distance from everyone, I stopped walking. I turned quickly to look at Barry, but we bumped into each other. He quickly grabbed my elbows to steady me and my hands came up to his chest. ‘sorry’s stumbled out of both of our mouths.

I examined his face up close. He was even cuter than I thought. I realized how close we were and felt myself become nervous. We looked into each other’s eyes, like we were in a cheesy romance novel.

“You ever consider becoming a CSI?” Barry asked curiously.

I licked my lips, “I don’t think it’s really my style. I like to be out here with all the action,”

I couldn’t maintain eye contact, and looked down, nervously. I cleared my throat and backed up, out of his arms.

“Do you want to get coffee sometime?” Barry blurted out, eyes examining me.

“Uh—“ I was surprised.

“It doesn’t have to be coffee!” Barry blurted again, “we could get,” he stopped as he thought for a moment, “t-tea, or, um, smoothies or something,”

“No—yeah-y-yeah—definitely!” I smiled widely.

“—I mean, we don’t even have to get drinks, we could get lunch, or dinner, or just, um,” Barry rambled again, “we could just discuss the case,” he shrugged, “sometime,”

He seemed to be staring anywhere but me.

“I’m free right now,” The words stumbled out of my mouth before I had a chance to stop them.

Barry looked back to me in surprise. We once again stared at each other for what felt like minutes. In reality, it was probably a few seconds.

“Okay,” he smiled, “um—coffee?”

“Sure,” I laughed softly.

“I have to warn you, I don’t know any good places around here,” Barry brought up.

“Oh,” I thought, “I think I may know somewhere we can go,”

I grabbed his arm and took a step towards the exit, but stopped myself when I realized what I was doing.

“I’m,” I looked at him, “(Y/n), by the way. (Y/n) Que—“

“(Y/n) Queen, I know,” he blurted and I frowned.

“You know?”

“No, I mean—I-I’ve seen you in the news,” he scratched the back of his neck.

The news. The news wasn’t very nice.

“Oh,” I tried to hide my disappointment.

“No!” Barry explained himself, “I mean—yes. I have seen you in the news, your family’s kind of famous and—“ he stopped when I interrupted him.

“It’s okay, I get it. I mean with my brother and the family company—“

“I’ve read your papers online!” Barry blurted out again.

“ . . . My—?” I looked at him, confused.

“It’s just—you used to write these research papers on your blog you had in college and I’ve read some of your work. You had this particular one on the physics behind Star Wars which was crazy because as a student going into forensic science I almost switched my majors because of the paper.

“I mean, after I’d read everything on the blog I stared following your career and I was surprised to see you went into law enforcement, but glad because—like I mentioned earlier—my foster Dad is a detective and to think you two were doing the same thing was crazy. I mean, what are the chances that my foster dad and you are in the same career?"

He spoke like being detectives were award-wining Oscar celebrities.

“Then I realized how big of a deal you are in Starling City, but regardless of your family you still managed to make a name for yourself. I just—“ He stopped himself as he realized how creepy he was starting to sound. “I’m a fan of your work,” he swallowed. I was bewildered, “You’ve read my papers?” I laughed, “Oh my, god, that was so long ago. Now I’m embarrassed,” I wiped my face with my hand. “You’re embarrassed?” Barry raised his eyebrows at me, “I just admitted I stalked you,” “And the Star Wars paper? Really? The blog was a stupid excuse to be nerdy and have fun with my work,” I realized I wasn’t listening to Barry. “Oh, I’m sorry, did you say something?” I blinked at him. “U-Uh, Big Belly Burger then coffee?” His face was full of hope. Jesus Christ, marry me please? “Yes! Right! I’m sorry, I just can’t believe people even read the things I posted on there,” I laughed and we started walking towards the door again. “I mean, how could I not have? Your work not only as a detective but as a scientist is great,” I snorted as we reached the exit. “Please, I don’t come close to—“ “Queen!” I groaned internally as I faced Lance. “Yeah?” “Where do you think you’re going? We’ve got a case to work,” “I’m working it,” I motioned to Barry and I heard him let out a strangled cough. “Yeah, well you’re gonna have to work it here or the precinct. None of that giggly running off stuff,” he mocked me. I scoffed but nodded letting him know I’d stay. “Rain check?” I asked Barry hopefully. “Yeah, definitely,” ***

[flaming-potato-arson]

Rest Stop Part 3

The nest always felt so empty without Lance. 

Keith knew his wings flickered with the thought. The soft nest of blankets hidden in the corner of the common room was well rounded with seven out of eight of the team cuddled up inside, but without Lance, it felt like there was a desolate spot, a blank filled with grey longing and melancholy. Keith frowned. He wanted Lance to fill that space.  

The others did too. Pidge sat in Shiro's lap, and Allura leaned against Coran like always, but this time everyone stared at the empty spot next to Keith. The spot Lance would fill.  It was normal, expected even, the cuddle a teammate or family member before they went off to do something dangerous by themselves, like Pidge was going to, but Lance still hadn't come. Did he still feel unsafe with the team, distrustful and unsure, lacking trust in them to show his wings? He never let them out either. It wasn't healthy, for Lance or for their relationships. Keith was so surprised when it hadn't hindered them forming Voltron. Was it like the first time on repeat for Lance, all about survival and having to or die?  

Lance hadn't come, even after Keith had caught him in the nest after he skipped a preening session. He always skipped, or was pulled away, or was sleeping. Keith was hoping he had reassured the other, at least enough for him to come and have his wings cleaned and cuddle a little. Apparently, he hadn't. There was no way they weren't filthy. Was Lance, who loved skincare and being clean, deliberately leaving his wings dirty so he wouldn't have to show the team, show Keith? Was he really that suspicious and uncomfortable, did he have so little faith in them, even Hunk?  Keith wasn't sure to be hurt or concerned. 

Deep down, he knew. He was both. 

"Lance, c'mon! we're going to fly with Pidge before she leaves!" 

He sighs at Hunk's call. Just how long until they know? 

He pokes his head in the doorway.  

"I want to, but Blue needs some re-wiring. I promised her I'd do it this morning."

"You could ask Hunk to do it afterwards." Shiro kept deliberate eye contact. "Blue probably wouldn't mind an engineer like Hunk fixing her up so you could fly."

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind either. Space ships were going to be my career anyway. It's no trouble, Lance." Hunk appealed. His arms were crossed reassuringly, and there was a cocktail of emotions on his face. Lance didn't miss the fleeting glances out the open hangar doors.

"I would, but..." Lance trailed off, eyes sliding away.

Blue's commanding roar echoed from her hanger.

Thank you.

"The lion has spoken." He finished, slipping into the hallway, away from the team, away from Shiro's disappointed-dad frown, Hunk's sigh and sad eyes, Pidge's frustrated huff and scuffling feet, from Keith's melancholy stare and lonely apathy.

I'm sorry.

Holy hell.

Slicing through a sentry, Keith kicked it down to finish it, letting the others coming at him trample it. The rescue mission hadn't gone as smoothly as hoped - they had had to clear the hallways and send the prisoners into escape pods through the PA system, instead of straight to the castle when the work camp surprised them with a small fleet of jets crowding around the castle. The prisoners had been ejected around the planet, some floating in the water and others on islands. It had been Lance's idea, and it made something warm like pride tickle Keith's chest. It was safe, it was sturdy, it was clever. Better than anything else they had come up with.

Now, they had to finish off the connected hangers filled with Galra robots and soliders.

A bright blue laser, a streak through the mundane purple ones, cut past Keith, knocking a solider to the ground. He kept hacking and slashing, sword pulling through cold metal bodies, but a small smile was hidden in his helmet at Lance covering him. The fluidity of them working together always brought Keith home from the battle, from the war he was fighting, from the war he wasn't fighting alone. From the sharp knives and purple fur and screaming aliens.

Lance never left him alone.

Keith sends three hunks of metal crashing to the floor, wings arched high. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see a sentry lining a shot at his wings. He can see the hand pulling the trigger squeeze. He can see Lance jump over him.

He can see Lance get hit and fall to the floor hard enough to bounce, clutching his arm.

He can see the blood spilling on the floor, not purple blood, not purple, red, red, crimson, scarlet, red, paladin-

The half dozen robots in front of him are done away with a few swift movements, he's screaming at Shiro and Coran through the coms, and he doesn't recognize what they're saying other than "bring him to medical". Lance is staring in shock at his arm, and then Keith is picking him up. The others materialized from thin air and create an opening that Keith dashes through, and if there's anything following him, he's lost it in seconds. Lance is still in shock, but his good arm is gripping Keith. His wings knock the shit out of a sentry when they turn the corner, then the castle is in front of them, and he's running up the ramp, giving Lance to Coran. He spares a moment to stare at Coran rushing Lance down the hallway, the bright red trail behind them worrying him.

Don't leave me, Lance.

He spins on his heel, and heads back into battle.

Coran doesn't waste time inputting the code for the pod to put Lance in the medical suit when he walks in. The pod rises from the floors, cool steam escaping into the room, and he sets the half-conscious paladin inside. Blood loss out in space without human donors is dangerous, Coran had figured that much day one, so he sets the pod to do a full scan and heal as fast as he can.

"Sleep well, Lance." He nods, locking the pod closed on the boy he sees as a son. Wistfully, he stares at Lance's sleeping face, before placing a hand on the glass. With a sigh, he pushes off and strides out into the corridor, heading back to help the princess destroy the Galra who hurt his grandchild.