#dead iverson

[ericgmclean]

Today marks the first day of this new blog's existence. I will try to post here fairly often. This will be the main place from here on out, along with my Twitter, where I share new noise and post-noise music that I create. This is where I will also share updates on projects I'm currently involved in, whether activist or otherwise. I'll also use this place to document my self-directed studies (religious, philosophical, occult, and more), and to talk about my self-improvement projects. Hobbies, favorite media, and current events will be discussed. And I'll be sharing some creative writing as well. I hope to keep this blog going for some time.

I'll end this introductory post with one of my favorite songs that I've made with my friend Dead Iverson. The song is called Antifascist.

[chaotext]

ERIC MCLEAN X DEAD IVERSON

ANTIFASCIST

https://on.soundcloud.com/WPdoK

[hunzzzzz]

Happy Father’s Day, daddy.

[bluebugjay]

I don't think we ever talked enough about how Keith grew up with no mum, his dad died when he was young and his non-bloodrelated brother went to space and was MIA and yet the garrison still just kicked him out??

they looked at him and were like yeah no this kid with no family, no friends, he'll do perfectly well on his own. just sent him packing in the desert equipped with nothing but a mullet, an excessive amount of rage and the ability to create explosives apparently??

[scattered-winter]

I think my favorite thing abt this rewrite so far is that I get to write everyone as they are at the very beginning (mentally unstable) and things only get worse from there <3

[themistakehasarrived]

I've no clue if I've ever shared what I think Katherine looks like before but I feel like as I'm busy studying, I could share some bits here!

The drawing I did is more so a younger Katherine, before all the loss and grief remade her as a quieter person. Do note that she used to be a fine battle-maidan before leaving her tribe to go to the mainland for her son to have a peaceful childhood.

In my head, Katherine Overland is a woman who has fought battles and stayed strong even through loss. She's a woman who loves sewing and cooking but loved duelling with fellow battle-maidens just as much. I like to think that loss made her quiet and that for a short time she had given up on practicing with her bow and arrow or knives but after seeing the mainland men treating her daughter and her with little respect, she set herself to work again.

Emily is not written in the fanfic much but she does find love with a noble man who respects her as a woman and one worthy of honour. The man isn't much spoken of but I feel like saying that he definitely saw Emily with the strength to easily carry logs home or heavy bags and fell fast with her intelligent mind. He's also very much afraid of Katherine because that woman absolutely threatened him when he asked her for Emily's hand.

I like to believe that it isn't the Overland family is just filled with emotionally aware, understanding and gentle people who could easily kill someone for hurting one of their own. So, be decent human beings.

Though, it is also their downfall as can be seen in the fanfic. Jack's father, Iverson, dies because he protects a travelling group from bandits. Being protectors without a team is difficult and it leaves Katherine to deal with a society that does not see her full capabilities. I'm not the best at history but my English teacher told us in class how in the elizabethian era a widowed woman could have her husband's properties, money, etc. and unless she re-marries, it belongs to her and then to her children. The only change is I gave them all rights to be their own legal guardian. I'm playing with dangerous history facts by not caring about actual ages it all happened.

(More so if it's a daughter than the daughter's husband and if a son than when the son is of age it goes to him.)

I have nothing more to add at this moment but just know, in the simplest way, that Katherine is a badass woman who made sure her daughter knew her worth and found a good husband instead of being married off to someone who wouldn't see her as a human being. Iverson is a good man but as happens with most good people, he's killed by the cruelty of the world. Emily is a lean built woman and I might be projecting my preferences and Jackson is coming into his own lean muscles as he continues working with the dragons, you just don't see it yet.

[kismetconstellations]

Because I'm still bitter... The first time I consciously verbalized that "I hate this show", came when, as I predicted, there was absolutely no acknowledgement of Shiro having no living family on Earth, come the Atlas's "launch date" at the start of Season Eight.

We get shots of each of the Paladins interacting with their families, including Allura as a part of Lance's family, which is a sweet touch.

Then, there's a passing shot of Shiro standing alone and isolated on the Atlas's bridge that he isn't even the focus of.

I had a feeling this would be the case when, ahead of the finale of the second season, the Paladins are cheerfully reflecting on their growth and the challenges that they've overcome preceding what they believe will be their final fight with Zarkon.

Shiro, however, is dead silent, back turned to the others, and, when we do see his expression, he's stone-faced and seemingly deep in contemplation. Something that no one acknowledges, or seems to be in any way concerned about, even with Shiro's history of thoughts that he loses himself in being distinctly unpleasant ones.

When he does speak, it's to somberly offer the definitive statement, "You realize, once we defeat Zarkon, the universe won't need Voltron, anymore." The kids naturally express wanting to see their families, again, once the burden of defending the universe has been lifted from their shoulders, even if it means, for Pidge and Keith, going out and finding them.

Shiro, though, voices no such desires. He dons the Fearless Leader/Black Paladin mask and encourages his underlings that they can't fail, and that's that. Cue them looking dramatically out over the horizon before the credits roll.

One could hem and haw and offer any number of supposed explanations for the unsettling absence of any lifegoals for Shiro outside of "defeat the bad guy and defend the universe", especially viewing this scene in hindsight.

"Shiro and his long-term partner split up before the Kerberos mission. Maybe it would be awkward for Shiro to see him, again, and Shiro doesn't want to discuss that with a group of teenagers, especially as their commanding officer."

"Maybe they intended for Shiro's family to show up later and simply didn't have the time to include them, or he has a strained and/or estranged relationship with his family and wasn't too concerned with going back to them."

"He's been declared legally dead, and the cartoon made to sell toys to kids didn't want to bog their child audience's brains down with the confangled nuisances of bureaucracy."

"Maybe Shiro had no personal desire to return to Earth, and would have assisted Pidge in looking for Matt and Sam had he lived."

And, any of these would be more interesting than what we were actually given, which is nothing, because the showrunners didn't know how to and weren't equipped to handle the sheer level of complex and compounded trauma they had afflicted Shiro with. It was easier to brush it all aside, as that shot of an out of focus Shiro so deftly displays. Especially once Shiro had been killed and effectively permanently replaced as the Black Paladin, then brought back to life and retired to "boring adult" status. They killed his partner off-screen, following the dissolution of the relationship, and briefly showed Shiro mourning the loss,

and I guess that was their "emotional pathos for Shiro" quota met for the rest of the show.

After that, he was gifted his own ship and the position of Captain/Admiral aboard it to sequester him off with Sam, Iverson, Veronica, Slav, a similarly unceremoniously demoted Coran, and the rest of the side characters, under the guise of him being promoted to a position of actual significance. And, as much as I love Shiro having his own ship, and the figure he cuts in that stylish and immensely flattering Admiral coat, it shouldn't have to be said that this is both a massive insult to his character after he had the most narrative significance and pathos of anyone during the first two seasons, and a cheap, cowardly tactic employed to avoid the reality that the writers have alluded to Shiro seeing himself as having no purpose if he isn't performing a heroic duty to others, and being passively suicidal when no such duty exists.

"Don't look too closely, everyone! Let's not linger too long on this!" Otherwise, you'll realize that Shiro, in fact, has no one to support him outside of people who already have families of their own. And, "The universe won't need Voltron, anymore", was really Shiro saying, "The universe won't need me, anymore."

And, damned if the brain trusts behind this show didn't try to prove how little they needed Shiro, only for their story to fall apart at the seams after killing him, and the quality to, fittingly, take a nosedive straight into the abyss once they committed to nerfing and sidelining him while having other characters pitifully attempt to retrace steps that he had already taken, stumbling over his distinct and unforgettable bootprints.

[electricsynthesis]

i think keith's antisocial tendencies are due to a combination of factors. firstly and most importantly, i think there is an inherent alienation to keith, one that is dual pronged: a) genetic, hereditary autism and b) being an alien. identifying where one ends and the other begins is a pointless endeavor because they both inform his strange behavior (in a "nature" way, as opposed to a "nurture" way)

but here is where the wires get even more crossed. because i think keith was raised by an uber paranoid hermit who chainsmokes all day. like. i think he used only 100~ year old analogue tech that couldnt be traced. they only ever went into town to buy food and keith wasnt allowed to talk to people. texas kogane would leave for days on end and leave keith alone and not tell him why or where he was going (he was going to go bitchfight with iverson).

my interpretation of daddy kogane (or, as we used to call him, texas kogane) is deeply specific and not particularly canon compliant. i think daddy kogane was a military man who, by chance one day, discovered an alien fascist insurrectionist crashlanded in the middle of fucking nowhere. i think he, through knowing her, came to know that the garrison a) knew about the blue lion and b) therefor knew about aliens and c) made and will continue to make pains to keep both of those things secret. so he did what any normal person would do, and defected from the garrison to live alone in the desert with his alien girlfriend.

then bam! he has a son. uh oh! after a complicated pregnancy that almost killed her his alien girlfriend abandoned him in the middle of the night to go continue to be an alien insurrectionist. now texas kogane is daddy kogane and he needs to make sure nobody nefarious finds out about his HALF ALIEN CHILD. this would be easier if his half alien child didnt resemble his mother in so many ways its kindof terrifying .

so obviously he makes keith stay either inside or in the desert all the time, homeschools him, and tells him to never ever ever talk to strangers and/or leave his ears uncovered. If They Ask About Your Eye-Color, Punch Them. your mother isnt dead but shes gone and never coming back. She left you because she doesnt love you. Dont tell anyone where we live. Do not speak in public unless i tell you you can. put up a brick WALL between you and the rest of the world, okay keithy boy? other people are NOT trustworthy and they WILL hurt you.

baby keith: why will they hurt me

daddy kogane: dont worry about it

baby keith: will they hurt other people

daddy kogane: nope just you

and this was obviously really good for keiths young developing mind and socialization and certainly didnt give him lifelong paranoia and intimacy issues

[autisticlancemcclain]

Lance takes the long way there, now.

He doesn’t have to. Technically, the way their rooms are set up, he’s barely any farther from the hanger he needs to be in come battle time. From the very beginning, it was he and Keith in the left wing by Blue and Red’s hangars, Hunk and Pidge in the right by Yellow and Green, and Shiro by the royal ring with Black. Shortest distance to their lions, most prepared for battle. It would probably make sense, logistically, for some room switching to happen, or at least for Keith to take Shiro’s room, but that’s…it’s not happening.

Lance has had the castle fully mapped out since his first month in space. Pidge may have reigned queen in the vents, but it was Lance who carefully marked down every tile that when stepped on opened a stairwell, every divot in the walls that cracked open a pathway. It was Lance to walk the six hours from the highest point of the castle’s peak to the lowest pitch of its bowels and boiler rooms. It was Lance who walked the echoing servant’s passages, brushing dust from his jacket when he made it back to a regular hallway only to realise that there wasn’t any, in a castle sealed for ten thousand years, not even a cobweb. (It was Lance, too, to discover the bunker rooms and hidden staircases of the Garrison. He most certainly didn’t sneak out every other night by merit alone. And further still it was Lance to knock on the wall behind his childhood bed and realise it was hollow, and find the tiniest of little holes, right where the wallpaper met the floorboards, just barely wide enough for narrow fingers to poke through and tug. Lance has always been good at finding small, hidden places, at poking and prodding until secrets are revealed to him. Lance has always been ineffably nosy, he’s just quieter about it.)

To get to Red’s hangar, you have to pass Blue’s. That’s how the rooms are set up. Blue’s zipline reaches out first, and twenty-two steps later is Red’s. On the first day after Lance had crawled on his hands and knees to beg by the barrier between him and his Lion, on yet another mission called to them in the night, Lance had swung down into Blue’s hangar by habit, and when his feet hit the floor he choked, realising, and had barely managed to sprint back up the way before Allura questioned why the zipline wasn’t at the beginning. He’d ducked into Red’s reluctant embrace with lungs that wouldn’t fully inhale and a throat that was closing.

He knew better than to try the passages, easier as they would be.

He avoided passing Blue’s hangar entirely, now. He already felt her absence, the gaping hole of her abandonment, all the way in his room, in the bridge, in the dining hall, in space. He felt the sharpness of it awake and in sleep. He felt it when he lay under his bed, knees pressed to his chest, eyes blank and head empty. He felt it when he felt nothing else. He couldn’t escape the hollow pain of her rejection, but he most certainly couldn’t stand to walk down the same paths he used to run, beam pulling at the muscles in his cheeks, heart galloping in his chest, sparks lighting up his head. The emptiness of her and of himself lingered there, in her spaces, and Lance couldn’t face them.

He goes around.

———

Lance knows it’s stupid and torturous. But he makes his way to the training room anyway, in the dead of night, once he hears Keith’s breathing finally slow through the thin wall separating their beds. It must take him an hour just to creep out of his bed and down the hall, socked feet soundless on the cool polymer floors, breath caught in his lungs, paranoid that someone is going to pop out behind him and ask him what the hell he’s doing (as if anyone has paid him that much scrutiny and attention in his life, except maybe Iverson).

Half of his hesitance is trepidation, but he refuses to acknowledge it.

The knowledge that this is a bad idea rings in his head for the entirety of the walk, but he banishes it the second he walks through the training room doors, locking them behind him, walking brashly in and throwing open the cabinet in the farthest corner. He snatches a headset before he can talk himself out of it, forcing his hands steady as he sticks the electrodes on his temple and under his hair at the back of his neck, like Coran did all those months ago. It feels far more daunting without the brush of the advisor’s gloves on his skin to accompany them.

He’s grateful at least that the headset doesn’t make him click through his own memories, search for particular snapshots the way he might search for sad songs when he’s already upset. It’s the same premise regardless, and he knows the only thing he’s going to do is devastate himself, but at least he’ll be devastated. At least that will be something.

The first memory to play must be early space, the first few days of the Voltron mission. There’s no death in his eyes yet. They look bright and brown and sparkling, the way they do in family photos, matching his mother and brothers and sisters. He watches as he crows, whooping to no one as he pushes Blue’s throttles as fast as they will go, whipping himself around in barrel rolls. There is no audio, but he can feel the team’s yelling in his head, the shouts to stay on task, but he remembers the way he felt like he was floating, like Blue’s energy was billowing around him, carrying him throw the air. He remembers feeling like his belly had bottomed out, like he was doing exactly what he was made to do.

The memory loops, same thirty seconds on repeat again and again and again and again and again and again and again and he lets it and he doesn’t cry and he doesn’t feel pain or sadness or loneliness or anything but the same bottomed out feeling, only now he knows he’s not floating, he’s falling, and every time he hits the ground it gives out from under him and he gets lower and lower and lower.

———

He ends up in Blue’s hangar by necessity. He knows Allura’s head injury is worse than she is letting on, and he’s simply closer to her.

He doesn’t let himself think as he sprints to her. He doesn’t let himself take in his surroundings (the deep blue accents the faint smell of the ocean the pinned up drawings from kids he’s gotten over the weeks and months the blankets and pillows he kept in the corner for rough nights the gigantic bottle of nail polish he had Coran synthesize for him to paint Blue’s claws the the the the the), keeping his eyes firmly on Blue’s, telling himself he’s not looking at her but through her, to his friend, who is hurt, who needs his help. By the time he makes it to Allura, by the time he helps her out of her seat and down the ramp, Coran has already come rushing in with his armful of medical supplies, whisking her away to a pod. He hears the rest of the team talking at the other end of the zipline, waiting for them, and he wills himself to follow them, for his feet to move, for his legs to function, and they don’t, and his knees stay locked, and suddenly he is a butterfly pinned through the chest, stuck in a glass box.

One by one, starting from the outer lights and making their way to the centre of the hangar where he stands, the overhead lights flick off, plunging him into flickering darkness except for the faint blue emergency lights, and the glow of Blue’s particle barrier up between them, and the deep yellow of Blue’s headlights. His eyes begin to lose focus, with the lighting change, until he is not staring through the particular barrier but at it, at his own reflection, at the way it lines up perfectly with the Blue Lion.

His legs give out from under him.

He’s not sure he feels it when he hits the ground. He’s lucky he doesn’t hit his head, although that’s in part because he cannot tear his eyes away, as if they are tied on a string to the Blue Lion. He feels stuck, and his mouth feels glued.

“You left me,” he manages, voice smaller than it’s ever been. He doesn’t feel her prodding at his mind in response, not like he should, but unless it is wishful thinking there’s a sharpness in the air now, the stunning smell of regret and of pain.

He wants to sink into it. He wants to let it envelop him, wants to let himself feel it in full, but he can’t, he doesn’t know how to let it seep into his pores. He tried to strain his ears, his mind, anything, to hear her, hear her apologise or excuse herself or anything, even tell him straight that she is done with him.

He thinks of how his best friend has been pulling away from him for weeks, how he chased after the taxi that drove his sister to the airport when she left for school, how he used to leave a space for his father’s boots every single day by the door long after everyone else had given up, how he would duck away from the first of his mother’s kisses when she picked him up from preschool, sniffling. There is a toddler in his head, feet planted on the floor, hands clenched at his side, tears and snot screaming down his face, cheeks bright red in rage, screaming at the top of his lungs YOU LEFT ME! YOU LEFT ME BEHIND! YOU DON’T WANT ME ANYMORE! YOU LEFT ME AND I WILL NEVER EVER FORGIVE YOU! and the voice is loud and echoing and the only thing he can hear and he has heard it all his life and he has never learned how to block it out, how to make it go away, and it will never go away and never grow up.

“I hate you,” he chokes out, and the lie is bitter on its way out of his throat, and he doesn’t regret it at all.

He drags his legs upright and steady with his hands and flees.

———

pt 2

[transmutationisms]

logan engineering tom as ceo from beyond the grave so that his real grandkid stays in succession....god there's so much to think about here in terms of the family structure (thinking about logan reading iverson the storybook in s3, about logan drinking fertility smoothies....the show called succession was about succession all along!!) I'm so curious for your thoughts!!!!!!

it does work for logan's interests in a certain way, yeah! at the end of the day, i don't think logan ever would have been capable of actually naming a successor, because even though he tried to use his kids as proxies for himself, no one was ever going to be able to measure up. like, what he really wanted was his own immortality; his kids were always going to flop in his eyes, simply by virtue of not being his own literal body. but at the same time, one of the things he specifically punished kendall for was not producing what he considered to be a legitimate heir—a judgment that arose from a combination of logan's misogyny, racism, ableism, and obsession with consanguinity. so it put the board in a position where kendall was not an obvious choice, and matsson perceived tom as a useful puppet.

for logan's posthumous interests, this is a win in the sense that his biological grandkid will now have skin in the game. it's also a loss in the sense that matsson is most likely going to dismantle a lot of the company for scrap. so, the biological legacy survives in some sense; the financial one is pretty much dead. the company has also been represented by, and representative of, logan's physical body: from the beginning of the show, both appeared as these aging relics from a bygone era, controlling the political/corporate arena as well as the roy family; both were ailing, etc. this is also partly why the siblings were ultimately so determined to keep the company, especially roman, who saw matsson's takeover effort as his essentially desecrating logan's body/legacy.

anyway, to return to fertility and offspring, yeah this was always the mechanism by which logan tried to ensure his own survival past his impending death. he wanted a successor who was his biological offspring, who could produce offspring of their own and consolidate an empire around a bloodline. in this way he perceived that he would still be living on through the others (hence also his possessiveness over his children, including their sexual behaviours). but he never accepted iverson and sophie as filling this role for the aforementioned reasons, and even in the one scene where we see him really trying to be grandfatherly with iverson, he disdains him for reading a book he perceives as juvenile, asking kerry for something "with some action" (suggesting logan sees iverson's implied autism as a defect of his masculinity as well).

ultimately the empire logan wanted to create attains a very hollow victory, though of course the individual players are all still wealthy and materially cosseted. kendall's infertility is not the cause for logan's persistent disdain of him, but it sort of symbolises and sums up the way in which kendall could never live up to his father's standards for a male heir, no matter how much he shaped his life and sense of self around logan's demands. connor and roman will presumably never have kids, and shiv's kid won't have much of an empire left to inherit, plus logan would have strenuously preferred the line of succession going through one of his sons. his kids have always been trapped in the family (except connor, who was locked out of it), yet they've still ultimately failed to consolidate the sort of blood-bound empire logan always wanted.

[chaotext]

DEAD IVERSON X ERIC MCLEAN- POST PEASANT REBELLION

NOISE RAP

RELEASE IMMINENT

[lilflowerpot]

Heyyy I hope your doing well and I hope your resting and not wasting all your free time answering these! Don't forget to drink alot of water and sleep at least 6 hours night. I just wanted to know your thoughts on how Lotor would react to being at the garrison. Meeting his last bullies, classmates, least favourite teachers and so on. How would he respond to both them and Keith. Would he show him off more or something like that? Again rest plenty and only answer when you feel like it.

@stinkyexhaust: So if Lotor were to find out about how much of a prick James was to Keith, how do you think he would react? I mean I don't hate James in fact I think he honestly could have had way more screentime to showcase more of his personality and backstory, especially in regards to Keith.

-

Honey if I only got six hours a night I would be the living dead, but this is very sweet of you nonetheless ♡

I've been asked something of a similar vein once before, as well as the Garrison's reaction to Keith's relationship with Lotor, and I'll repeat now what I said then: it's an important thread of the keitor dynamic (to me at least) that Keith & Lotor strengthen one another by allowing for personal growth beyond simply fighting on their partner’s behalf. So while Lotor mightn't be fond of certain figures from Keith's past—particularly given the little he learnt in chapter 24 about Iverson's handling of the Kerberos fallout—he knows and respects that Keith is more than capable of fighting his own battles, and wouldn't want to interfere with that (something something, galra sense of honour, you get it).

...All that being said, would our favourite prince be practically chomping at the bit to let it be known that he is the man who gets to stand beside Keith Kogane, Blade of Marmora, Paladin of Voltron, and Love of his Life? Yes. yes he would.

With regard to James specifically, it is my personal reading of his relationship with Keith that it was a very poorly handled mutual crush, and yet it was this very antagonism between them that pinged the galra part of Keith's brain in all the right ways. The altercation canon showed us in s7ep01 (which, despite LB being canon-divergent post s4, does in fact remain canon within my narrative bc I actually thought every insight we were given into James & Keith's past was impeccable) wherein James insulted Keith's parents, was a classic case of projection on his part; James strikes me as a privileged kid whose family expected nothing less than perfection—for him to be the best of the best at everything at all times—so I think that effortlessly-exceptional Keith getting the group into trouble simply because he was bored led to an exceedingly cruel comment,,, but I don't believe James actually knew Keith was an orphan when he said what he said.

Naturally, Keith (and we as the viewers with full knowledge of his backstory) assumes James intended to end that taunt with "before they died / abandoned you" but I'm not convinced. James could have just as easily been about to say "before they shipped you off to the military / halfway across the state / out of sight and mind" which I think is exactly what happened to him, leaving him understandably hurt, bitter, and desperate to prove himself. So yes, James—as a volatile teenager with abandonment issues, and oh look, who does that remind you of—fucked up, and payed the price of Keith's fist in his face; ultimately though, I think of Keith as having long since moved past it, and if he doesn't hold a grudge against Griffin, then why would Lotor? Particularly when, by galra standards, that specific instance was been resolved through rite of combat, and the rest of their relationship was, to an Imperial eye, just normal teenage brawling ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[melsany]

in this rewatch of voltron i have discovered that there is no fucking way shiro was out at the garrison or at any point during the course of the show:

1) his significant other was either a, not informed of his return even though he worked on site, or b, unable to because no one knew in the first place. (let’s be honest if adam had known he would’ve been with keith from the get go)

2) shiro does not send a video message home with sam holt in s4. mentions no family or homesickness at all.

3) he never speaks about adam. for 4 seasons we believe adam had no ties to anyone and only find out abt adam via a flashback. keith does know but only because the parental roles the 2 filled for him. and he doesn’t talk abt it either.

4) during the ride home he doesn’t talk abt adam

5) when they land he doesn’t ask for adam. he salutes iverson and then introduces allura romelle and coran.

6) his “big emo scene” abt finding out adam is dead only consists of him touching the memorial and saying “adam. im so sorry.” iverson offers no real comfort as one would if they knew the intimacy they shared so i can only conclude that

7) iverson and the entire garrison thought that they were ROOMMATES. COLLEAGUES. GOOD PALS.

8) he doesn’t talk to anyone abt his grieving.

9) we don’t see him meet curtis or develop any sort of relationship with him while they’re on the atlas for presumably months to years.

10) they get married waayyyy after everything is over which gives shiro time to come out off screen.

NOBODY FUCKING KNEW

[pidges-lost-robot]

Desperately wishing there'd been some sort of through line in Voltron of every now and then checking back in with Earth to see what the families of the teams are doing

Adam has slowly started realising Iverson and the others know more than they're saying and as someone who was close with Shiro and Keith is interrogated about their whereabouts and whether Keith in particular was getting "paranoid" and feeling like he can't do much more than try to protect them both from Earth

Colleen who's daughter has been missing a while and has been searching non-stop finding out when the images are released that her daughter was at the Garrison and has now "disappeared" just like her husband and son after insisting to her for months shortly before leaving that something was wrong and that her husband and son weren't dead, that the Garrison were hiding things. She goes out of her way to get as much info as she can before seeking out the families of the other missing kids

Hunk and Lance's families were very close already and are supporting each other, with both families insisting that the Garrison need to give them more to go on then just "an accidental disappearance" Veronica already is at at the Garrison and tries to ask more and is shut down at every opportunity, even transferred just to limit her proximity to where her brother was.

That just throughout the show, we check back on their journey to find their family, mirroring the sorts of the solo journeys Keith and Pidge went on prior to their disapperances

All leading up to the team sending someone to Earth to set up communications, in my mind, Shiro because Allura briefly takes over as Black Paladin and Shiro and Pidges dad travel back to Earth together, nearly crash landing again but bumping into some Garrison students, some of Lance's and Hunks family members and leading up to the families of the Voltron Yeam stepping in to protect Shiro and Sam from the Garrison, who move in to cover up their reappearance and any information about the potential imminent danger. Adam steps in, able to fall back into the divorced but amicably dynamic Shiro and him had managed to foster just before Kerberos, Colleen and Veronica stepping up too

With the start of all of this being first season ending after the finale with a scene where the families are informed and all season long we've seen Lance Hunk and Pidge trying to set up his phone to be able to send them a message letting their families know they're okay. As his family reacts we zoom in on Lance's moms phone and see his message finally come through and then credits!

[uniquecellest]

More Adashi AU

- Adam talks to Shiro while Shiro pilots the Atlas, Adam says some words that feel like a goodbye and Shiro calls out to him. He thinks Adam is dead (Adam was able to evacuate his plane before it crashed with the Galra)

- Upon hearing that the Galra are coming, Shiro and Adam argue over Adam being involved

- Once the quartet of Matt, Adam, Shiro, and Keith are reunited Matt and Keith hound Shiro like annoying brothers for leaving Adam and Keith behind

- Adam saying the words "we're going to get you to the medbay and once you're all healed up we're going to have a sparring match where I throw you around like a rag doll" / "don't ever worry me like that again. I don't know if I can ever take a loss like that again"

-Adam infiltrates Galra forces and travels with them in space. Shiro can't believe what he sees when he thinks Adam is willingly working with Galra

-with Kerberos being considered a bust bc of "pilot error" The Garrison wants to send others into space to retrieve the Kerberos crew. Voltron crew finds Adam's ship just floating in space with no life force seeming to be inside. They investigate to find Adam on the floor and alone. Turns out there's barely enough oxygen for even a new born let alone a grown adult (bonus if Adam's ship was hit with quintessence); Shiro refuses to leaves Adam's side while he's in the healing pod

-Adam somehow being used to help power the Galras main ship that attacked earth like some Alteans were

-They never confessed their feelings so when Shiro is determined to go on Kerberos Adam just sits with his feelings and waits; both thinking they've missed their chance with the other (cue Matt, Keith and Pidge trying to get them together when they reunite)

-Soulmate/soul marks AU where Shiro and Adam do not meet until Shiro comes back from space

- (shout to Chibi-pix for this one) Adam is like a brother figure to Pidge which results in Keith and Pidge being siblings causing Iverson to lose his mind bc Keith and Pidge are Matt and Shiro 2.0s (Lord help him when an Adam 2.0 enters the picture); Adam and Shiro are blissfully aware of their siblings antics but act like they aren't

-Kuron goes to Earth and kidnaps Adam

-Shiro is forced to choose between Keith and Adam

- They start off as a one-sided rivalry until an incident forces them together and they start to get to know each other

-more patient Adam and reckless Shiro

-Adam joins the Blade of Marmora where he runs into Keith (Adam still thinks Shiro is dead) Adam is with him in the two years in the Abyss and reunites with Shiro when Keith returns to the Paladins

-Eros!Adam and Psyche!Shiro

-Teen Titans AU where Shiro is Cyborg and Adam is Bumblebee (points for Kuron being Brother Blood)

-Camp Half-Blood demigod Shiro and Camp Jupiter Half-Blood Adam

-Adam and Matt get buried alive and Shiro is a reck trying to find them (Adam) so they don't die

-Baker/Cook Adam and Shiro who can't boil water without setting it on fire

-Adam and Shiro swap roles (neither are dead though)

-Shiro and Adam meeting once when they were kids but not meeting again until they are older. Both remember but Adam acts like he doesn't recall it at all

-Both are cadets and one has a significant other while the other is pining hard (s/a with the significant other doesn't last long, significant other also happens to be mutuals with Adam and Shiro)

-Shiro trains and gets a bad bruise on his neck that everyone thinks is a hickey until Adam returns from a trip (cue Keith defending Shiro but the other Paladins and co think maybe Shiro cheated)

-Shiro confesses to Adam one night but acts like he doesn't remember it then he and Adam spiral in their feelings

[storyofmychoices]

Close Talking

[Trystan Thorne x Lilah Rose Masterlist]

Pairing: Trystan Thorne (M!MC) x Lilah Rose (F!MC) Book: Crimes of Passion I , Chapter 6 Word Count: ~1,500 Rating/Warning: General (mentions of death/murder)

Prompt: @choicesbookclub ; @choicesjuly2023challenge sleepless night ; @choicesprompts Rewrite: Psych (tv series) [Scene]

Synopsis: Lilah is at the office, typing up her report on the Iverson Ball, when Trystan stops by to check on her.

The lamp on her desk cast a warm glow amidst the dark shadows enveloping the office. Lilah's attention was consumed by her report detailing the events that unfolded at the Iverson Ball. Frustration coursed through her veins as she recalled the moments before the simple intel-gathering mission turned into a complicated murder and arson scene. 

The room tags haunted her thoughts. There had been something—a flicker of suspicion—as she read the label before entering what they thought was the Rockefeller Room, but she brushed it aside, ignoring her gut instinct. Now, the weight of regret settled heavily upon her shoulders, trapping her with her guilt. If she had paused instead of moving forward as if she had all the answers, Bethany might still be alive. 

A knock echoed through the quiet office, but Lilah was too distracted to notice. Trystan let himself in and made his way to her.

It wasn't until she caught sight of him casually leaning against her desk that she snapped out of the fog. Her tired eyes met his. "Trystan?"

"Detective. Still burning the midnight oil?" he quipped, a mischievous smile played on his lips.

Glancing at the clock, "It's almost 4 am." She shook her head, not amused.

"Yes, but, 'burning the 4 am oil' doesn't have the same ring to it." He nudged her playfully, trying to lift her mood.

"Trystan, stop," she grumbled. "What are you even doing here? I thought I sent you home."

"I couldn't sleep," he admitted, his tone softening. 

"There's late-night diners for that."

"They don't have you," he admitted. His unexpected vulnerability caught her attention.

"You think you're being cute, but I can confirm, you're not." She attempted to divert her attention back to her report. But the words blurred as her focus wavered.

Trystan slid a cup of coffee closer to her. "I thought you might need this."

"Thanks," she replied, offering a grateful smile as she took a sip. She let the soothing comfort of caffeine warm through her veins.

"Now," Trystan began, pulling a chair beside her and swiveling her's towards him. "Do you want to talk about what's bothering you?"

The weight of her guilt crashed back down on her. Lilah buried her face in her hands. "It's my fault."

"What is?" Trystan inquired, his gaze filled with genuine concern.

"Bethany. She's dead because of me."

Trystan shook his head gently. "Unless you've mastered the art of astral projection and can be yourself while also masquerading as a masked serial killer, I'll have to disagree with you."

"That's not... You don't get it," Lilah retorted, frustration lacing her words as her voice rose. "I messed up. I noticed the scratches on the room's sign before we went in. If I had taken a minute, a few seconds even, to consider why that might be, I might have noticed the scratches didn't match the frame, and maybe I could have saved Bethany, and this whole thing would be over. I made a mistake."

"You're a great detective. You'll get him next time. Mistakes don't define you."

"Tell that to Bethany and to the next woman that dies because I didn't stop and process every clue." 

"We all make mistakes. Trust me."

"Well, maybe I'm not as comfortable with my mistakes as you." Her fingers were to her lips, but it was too late. The words had left her mouth. "Trystan— I—" The look in his eyes hurt more than she could ever imagine. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I'm just tired and clearly caffeine-deprived." She took another sip of the warm beverage beside her. "It looks like I'm making a lot of mistakes tonight." Her head hung low as she attempted to turn away.

He placed a reassuring hand over hers. The warmth of his touch pulled her back in. 

"I'm sorry," she mouthed again.

"I know." His thumb brushed gently over hers. "And for what it's worth, you weren't alone tonight. I missed it too." 

"I'm the detective, though. You're just the... arm candy," she replied, a hint of a smile tugging at her lips.

"So you find me attractive? I knew it," Trystan teased.

Lilah shook her head, almost allowing herself to smile. "I should get back to work."

"I'll leave you to it," Trystan said, preparing to leave. But instead of getting out of his chair, he placed his hands on the armrests of her chair, leaning closer. "You did enough. Don't beat yourself up."

It might have been her exhaustion, but despite her brain telling her to move back, she didn't. "Trystan, what are you doing?" Her eyes flickered up at him.

His nose brushed against hers, their breaths tangling in the charged air between them. "Nothing." His eyes locked onto hers, refusing to look away.

"Really? Because if you're doing what it looks like you're doing, it's going to be one of those things we were just talking about."

"What's that?"

"A mistake." Lilah's voice grew softer, her eyes never leaving his.

Trystan's lips curled into a smile, his voice lowering. "I agree, but that's clearly not what we're doing."

"Okay, really? What do you say that we're doing?"

His upper lip pressed gently against hers, their eyes still locked together, their unspoken desires pulling them closer. His words intermingled with their shared breaths, "I call it very close talking."

"Ahh, I see," Lilah whispered, her breath catching in her throat, unable to escape the allure of his pull. "Do you have anything else to say?"

Trystan's lips lingered for a moment. Their gentle proximity teased a would-be kiss, a tantalizing look of what could be. "I think I'm good for now," he murmured, savoring the moment, etching her into his memory.

Reluctantly, he pulled back, leaving the heat of their connection to linger in the air. 

"Well, goodnight," Lilah offered, a hidden smile gracing her lips.

"Goodnight, detective," Trystan smirked, his eyes glinting with promise for more. He sauntered out of the office and back into the night.

With newfound determination, Lilah found the strength to refocus on her report. She wouldn't let her mistake define her. As she immersed herself in her work, a spark of hope lit within her. She would learn from tonight, and next time, they'd be ready.

sdfjldskjf I can't even express how much I love Shawn and Juliet's close talking scene. It's forever one of my favorites and I couldn't think of a better rewrite for my Lilah and Trystan!

I hope you enjoyed this little mash-up! 💛💛💛💛