#if I'm very lucky they'll fast-track me fast enough

[dragonatthedinnertable]

Thank fuck, I weighed myself yesterday and I'm under the first BMI threshold. So I can make a GP appointment & get back on the list.

[west-tokyo-incidents]

More cyber punk. But worse. In a good way. Dead dove, do not eat.

CWs; threats, kidnapping, mutilation, torture, grape without the g(mentioned, not explicit), gore, disembowelment, cannibalism

---

He's dizzy. Wow, that's not a normal sensation. He remembers getting hit over the head after a concert, getting into a fight. He remembers feeling a stab somewhere but...

He blinks his eyes open, head drifting to the side as the world spun. His systems blared warnings. He hummed and scanned through them. He was repairing just fine.

"Welcome back, metal head."

With a rolling groan he looked up... and saw a familiar face. He blinked a few times more.

"Didn't we tell you to fuck off?"

He moved to get up, but found his arms bound. He tested the binds and they held fast. They were insulated, his electricity didn't do shit. Huh. Dickshit did his research.

"Oh, I'm not through with your lot."

Rage groaned and rolled his eyes, "You won't get anything out of me and you know it. My systems are encrypted by Dunstan, you're wasting your time."

He started mulling over in his head how long it would take for the girls to find him. If he'd been dragged, the twins would track him down within a day, no matter where in the city they were--topside OR underground. By car, maybe a little longer. Three days tops.

"Oh, we're not going to try and hack you, don't worry your pretty head. We don't want info, we want the fucking money your people owe us. We've already sent our demands. They know we have you."

"...you told them who you were?" Rage blinked once... twice... and then began to laugh. Not a chuckle, either, a full body shaking cackle. His restrains rattled, "They'll be here any second to tear you and your people apart!! Do you know who you have?? You should have taken your lives and been grateful to have gotten that!!" He threw himself against the very length of the chains, teeth bared in a wicked snarl, "And lucky me, I'll get to watch. My masters will gut you like a fish. My boyfriend will hang your family from the rafters while you bleed out, so you can watch them suffocate. Every one of your men and women will be butchered and I'll be delighted to shit them out in a day or so."

The man just flared his nostrils with a snort, "And who are you to be so important for such a colorful and descriptive execution?" It's clear he doesn't believe Rage. He leans back from the mad robot, a certainty in his expression about the whole situation, "Surely you can't believe they'd care so much for some topside idol bot. How do you know they won't just abandon you?"

The expression on the man's face noticeably faltered.

"I belong to them. You don't just steal things from the girls. Even if I was just some topside idol bot, you stole me. And they don't take kindly to thieves. But I'm not just some bot." If that insane grin could have gotten wider, it would have, "I'm their tattoo artist."

"And I still have a piece to finish on one of them. See, if I were you? I'd go find a good gun and put it between your teeth right now. Or if you're too chicken shit for that, start praying they slip up and accidently kill you too fast."

The man steps away and Rage strains hard enough against the restraints that a loud creak slowly starts to build. "Don't run too far! I'd like to watch, remember?" His laugh echoes and follows the man out the door.

---

Fussa doesn't get her hands dirty. She lets the others do that. She does her work for the Incidents on paper and watches the spectacles from a far with a cigarette and a glass of wine. She's just too spoiled by luxuries to bury her hand elbow deep into guts to rip out a hard drive from a man's abdomen.

Usually.

But usually people also didn't steal her bodyguard, cash cow, and tattoo artist, either.

"It's good to see you let loose, 'taro." Kia cooed, "That should be what we need."

She has a little anger to vent, and the sticky blood soiling her dress shirt and the little thumps of a barely beating heart around her arm is just the thing. The blood that seeps into the carpet of her office is just a mild inconvenience.

Her hand found purchase on square metal. She gripped and pulled. Like veins, the wires attaching it protested. Stretched and held down. She set her foot on the man's throat and yanked, a ripping noise like wet velcro and the thing was free.

Fussa wiped off the flattest surface of the hard drive, smearing the blood away from an insignia and handed it up to Kia. She stayed where she was, staring at the man's face. He was still alive for now, unconscious. He'd bleed out in a few seconds.

There's a wet thud from across the room. Mizho. Vice stood guard, itching to kill someone himself, but letting them have their fun. He'd fetched the men for the girls to interrogate. Paresse was out doing... recon, in enemy territory. Something to keep him and the twins occupied.

"Tripwire's gonna be pissed." She stood up, head turned to watch Mizho, who had taken a seat.

"Yeah, but he'll still make a fuss about the mess."

"Oh, the Syndicate will get over it. Blacklight's crew has been a pain in both our sides. The 'High Father' has just been way more tolerant than us." Mizho rolled her shoulder in a shrug, the mocking tone on 'High Father' was thick. The leader of the Tripwire Syndicate was also a religious leader who controlled most of the east underground. Fussa scoffed softly.

"And then he'll shut up and we'll fight over the territory for a bit and go back to trading hits and drug lords." She shrugged.

Kia plugged the hard drive into a burner laptop. After a few malware skips and a quick backdoor to bypass the encryption... and all the information the man was hiding was bare to her.

---

Fussa wipes her knife on her pants, as if that did anything to clean it. It was a pretty blade. A decorative one she used as a letter opener, but it was graded for more than that. She'd have to have it professionally cleaned.

"Got a hit. They have a 'VIP' at the dock in their territory." She stood up, "And just before this 'VIP' arrived, there's an awfully convenient shipment of high grade metals that never left the dock."

Mizho looked over at Vice, a grin on her face.

"Fetch."

Paresse stares into the eyes of the little girl and the mother who clung to her.

A stoic, military-hard tone snaps put of him.

"Do you realize what your father has done?"

The little girl looks at her mom, who only whimpered and held her closer.

"I asked you a question. Do you realize what he's done?"

The little girl sniffles in fear and shakes her head. Paresse nods slowly. He'd expected that.

"He stole from someone stronger than him. We didn't want to do business with him. We told him no, and he stole from us. He stole my partner. He's trying to make us pay just because we told him no."

The mother's face twisted a little, and Paresse's head tilts. His jester-hat hair, heavy with blood, sways as his attention focuses on her. She recoils and he kneels down.

"You told him no, too, didn't you?"

Slowly, she meets his eyes, shining through his mask. She nods. He nods back, then looks to the girl, "I won't hurt you, either of you. But I want you to remember."

He points behind him with a long, hooked claw to a closed door. The twins sat, obediently, on either side of the door frame. In the other room, their guards were strung up like puppets with their own guts. Eyes gouged out. The girl hadn't seen, but she had heard.

"Remember that this is what happens to people who don't listen to 'no'. There is always someone who will back their 'no's with death."

He smiles and pokes a body, leaving it to swing as he exits the home and heads towards the shoreline.

He gets a ping. He pings back. He stands and turns away, stalking out of the room. with his wardogs at his sides.

---

Rage hums to himself, relaxed back as he waits. He's happy to not flail and frantically search for an escape. He's been stripped, soaked in salt water--multiple times,--guns have been pressed to the side of his head. A few have even been fired. He just grinned at his captor, who was pacing like a caged lion.

"Those bullets are pretty expensive. So's this." He rattles his restraints, "Where'd you get the money from? I thought you needed money."

"Shut up." The man glared at him.

"Or what, you'll rape me again? Please. That went over so well for you last time." He spit on the ground, "Speaking of, you might wanna redress me. Maybe they'll kill you before they realize what you've done. Or, you know, put one of those bullets to a real use instead? Put something between your ears, since there clearly isn't a brain in there."

There was a distant crash. Barking.

The man spun around.

"Oops." Rage purred, "It's not too late. I'd say you have about a hundred and... twelve seconds to shoot yourself before it's too late."

Screaming. Rage started to count down the seconds.

The man bolted from the room, and Rage laughed again. He wouldn't make it far. He closed his eyes and let out a shiver he'd been suppressing. His temple stung where he'd been shot, multiple times. It wasn't major damage, but something had cracked and it was giving him a wild migraine. Not to mention everything else.

He could feel the salt on his body crystalizing. He didn't particularly feel like thinking about everything else that had been done. In his head he continued the count down, waiting for the others.

"Fuck...! Rage!!" Vice called out and Rage looked up, obviously exhausted. He'd over estimated how long it would take them to find him. Good. Fury over took Vice's expression as Paresse burst past to free him. Vice took off in another direction, now free to kill and maim as he pleased until he found the bastard. He pressed his forehead into Paresse's chest.

"Hey, babe..."

---

Rage sat on the floor, between the girls, his queens, as they deliberated on what to do with the man. Back and forth, all sorts of things.

The family was out of the question, even though Rage had threatened them, Paresse's encounter with them had the girls veto the idea. Fair enough.

"...If I may?"

Rage looked up at them. Kia perked up and tilted her head, "Of course you may, pup, what's on your mind?"

"He doesn't need his limbs for more torture... and it's been a while since we got a good batch of meat...?"

Muffled whimpers and the thump of a shoulder ramming into the side of the glass box their new prisoner was in. He was stripped, put on private display for them.

"Dinner sounds good." Fussa agreed, as if they were merely discussing going out to eat, "A good meal might help you decide on what else to do, too."

"Not sure if there are any butchers who can get here in time for dinner." Mizho tapped her lip.

"I can chop him up." Vice hummed, "It won't be the prettiest cut of meat, but Paresse can make anything taste good. Only problem is keeping him alive."

Paresse is silent, standing protectively over the girls and Rage with arms crossed and an unwavering glare at the man in the glass.

"Eh, tourniquet as high up on the limbs as you can." Kia waved a hand dismissively, "Go for it."

The douji moved in, and the man pressed himself to the back of the box. Paresse finally moved to help drag him out as he screamed, out of the room. Fussa got up, too, mentioning something about wanting to cook, too.

Rage sighed softly and relaxed further as one of the girls pet his head. He closed his eyes and leaned into it, humming low. His hair was still damp, he hadn't bathed yet. Maybe he should while dinner is being made... Mizho praised him quietly. No, he'd just enjoy the pampering and the screams a while longer. They had quite the night ahead of them.

The bathhouse was open late anyways.

[dent-de-leon]

Okay so we have a possible 6-8 seasons, how many of the plot points do you think/hope they'll cover in season 3? I personally hope they cover more of Shiro and the pre-Kerberos era. He's my absolute favourite and honestly I'm afraid for him because it feels like he went through/will go through more than we know.

well i mean, those 13 episodes go by really fast you know? So I’m not sure how much team we’ll have really. Season 2 especially felt fast. Because season 1 it’s like, okay, here’s our intro. No real plan yet, so we’ll take it slow, figure out the teamwork thing, ect. 

Season 2 feels especially fast-paced since Zarkon’s tracking them and they’re constantly on the run; so they’re being chased from one place to the next. And then as soon as they solve that problem, they have all their objectives in order: go to the Marmora base, get allies. Good, done. Now go to different planets and get everything to build a giant teladuv. Great. Now let’s just go bring the fight right to Zarkon and finish this. Even everything with Keith being galra felt pretty rushed. 

So you know, I think a lot of will depend on actual pacing as well as the literal time limit. But, that being said:

We are going to see the team dealing with losing Shiro. That’s a definite. We’re going to see everyone take it pretty hard in their own way, but Keith especially will be struggling. I think it’ll remind him a lot of Kerberos and he’ll have to learn to open up more to the rest of his team and really throw himself into the whole paladin duty thing to keep himself focused  

I think prekerberos flashbacks are also extremely likely. Shiro disappeared–just like before–so it’s now or never. I mean, I can’t think of any other time where putting them in would make more sense, so

Keith leadership arc 

A character arc about Allura being a paladin and relearning her place on the team. Probably bonding with Lance more if she takes Blue

A similar character arc for Lance since he seems like he’ll be switching to Red. Will probably bond more with Keith as well 

More about Hunk and Pidge in general. They took kind of a backseat in season 2, so I imagine they’ll get more character focus now 

More info about how the BOM works. We know almost nothing about their order really, and I would like to see them really training Keith and look at him as one of their own

Keith and Shiro interacting through the astral plane

Shiro possibly going off on his own journey 

I think Haggar’s motivations will be more fleshed out, and I also feel like Lotor will get quite a bit of screen time and development 

Possibility that Lotor will find out Keith is also half-galra and take a more personal interest in him? Or just in general something with Keith finding out more about his galra heritage that’s intended to test his loyalty 

More of Matt, maybe even a reunion with Pidge if they’re lucky 

Pidge or Lance finally unlocking their lion’s bayard upgrade

Big daring rescue to save Shiro

AND IF THEY SUCCEED THEN HAPPY REUNION,,, (cue another “good to have to back” “good to be back” and a sheith hug if we’re lucky)

Possibility that Keith will have a big internal conflict over staying with the team or running off to save Shiro on his own (especially if he needs someone to pull him out of an alternate universe or something) 

That stuff about Keith “discovering new powers in season 3” distinctly says more druid like abilities/quintessence manipulation to me 

And I mean like,, even just that much seems like a lot so, we’ll have to see. Hopefully however much they decide to take on with season 3, it’s spaced out evenly enough that it doesn’t feel too rushed.

But I mean, I know seasons 1 and 2 were originally all season 1. Ideally, if they could go back to that format and have 26 episode long seasons instead, I think that’d be best. But I don’t see them suddenly changing over to that 

Also, I realize a lot of the stuff I listed was probably too keith focused but like,,, I can’t help myself honestly I’m just a very keith kind of guy. also he’ll be taking Black lion and he’s the one who’s gonna feel Shiro’s loss the most so like. I imagine he’ll go through a lot of character development still