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thisweekingundamwing · 7 years

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TWIGW March 18-24th

Happy Spring, amazing fandom!

Check out all the cool stuff we have for you this week below, and remember to show the creators some love!

Thanks for all you do!

-Mod CB

Fanfiction:

A Little Piece of Gundam Wing

The archive is being ported to AO3! Check it out!

Amberly with @yourbloodlikewine

In This Light

Duo spent the last semester working in his older brother's coffee shop. He's resigned himself to a boring spring when a stranger appears, shaking up his entire life. Eli left home last fall, choosing to spend the last six months living out of his van on his travels from the Midwest to the East Coast. By the time he arrives at Ink's, the novelty of traveling alone has started to wear off. Still, the last thing he's expecting is to meet someone who's going to change all that for him

Pairings: 2xOMC, 3xOMC, Solo x OMC,

Warnings: Rape/Noncon, Original Characters - Freeform, Alternate Universe, child abuse mention, Sexual Assault Mention, homophobic parents, Re-Written Characters, Drug Use, Violence, off screen murder, gratuitous author indulgence

@anaranesindanarie

The Shinigami and The Silencer

They say a person only needs three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for. I had all three, despite my rough start in life. I had a lover, a hobby that I loved, and I had a hope… hope that my lover would get better, that we would be together forever. But he didn’t. He died in a hospital bed, cold and alone as I watched through a window, my body covered in chains. I wasn’t even allowed to bury him as the prison sent his body off to be cremated. My heart broke that night and the next day, on the way to my execution, I killed five of my guards before the others opened fire. I was dead before I hit the floor, my blood staining it. Why was I being executed you ask? Let me tell you the story of The Shinigami and The Silencer.

Pairings: 2x3

Warnings: Major Character Death, death, angst

@claraxbarton

Singularity

Dr. Trowa Barton has a problem - he's this close to figuring out the secret to manufacturing a nanocarbon black pigment that could compete with Vantablack. But he's also hit a dead end, and he's tired and maybe a night of drinking beer and painting Beagles is exactly what he needs to get his research back on track.

Pairings: 2x3, 3x5, 2x3x5

Warnings: Art, Science, Chemistry, singularity - Freeform, AU, ex-lovers now friends, Threesome, Threesome - M/M/M, drunken sexy times, sober sexy times, weird art, i mean. maybe it's not weird. to each their own, nanocarbon black, paint pigments, what are these tags, Quatre is a good wingman

Silver Strand

Summary: The world had shifted, boundaries had been crossed, right and wrong had long ago been abandoned. A dark story of revenge, love, loss and drug smuggling. AU set in Coronado, California in the 1970s. Based on/Inspired by Joshuah Bearman’s “Coronado High”

Multiple pairings including but not limited to: 1x2, 2x5, 2x3, 2x3x5, 13x2, RxH, 9xS, 6x4

Warnings: Angst, drug use, Vietnam-era politics

@claraxbarton , @kangofu-cb

Bad Company

"The only hell and the only paradise are the ones we build ourselves." - Unknown Years after the wars, Preventers has decided to tackle one of the most powerful and oldest of all the Terran crime syndicates. Embedded dangerously deep in an undercover operation targeting the violent and bloodthirsty Sinaloa Cartel, Trowa Barton is pushed beyond even his flexible morals - and when his new "partner" arrives in the very unexpected and unwelcome form of Duo Maxwell, the one person he'd been trying to protect at all costs, both men must deal with the realization that preserving peace for humanity is turning into a bloodsport.What follows is race against time to uncover the evidence they need to bring Sinaloa, and its beautiful but deadly leaders, down - all while keeping each other alive in the process

Pairings: 2x3

Warnings: Post-Canon, Undercover Missions, Undercover as a Couple, Implied/Referenced Torture, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Human Trafficking, Gang Violence, Canon Typical Violence, Explicit Sexual Content, Moral Dilemmas

Foopy, kirallie

Knights of Avalon

Multi-series crossover fic

The Galaxy is a weird, wonderful and dangerous place. There is far more to history than anyone remembers.

Warnings: Very AU, Stargate pushed up to movie in '04, sentient weapons, many dates have been played with to fit

@kangofu-cb

If You Let Me

If Trowa could give the new residents one rule for surviving the ICU, it would be ‘Don’t Touch Anything. (Especially The Patients.)’. In reality, he’d actually give them a lot of rules, possibly with diagrams for clarity. But his main rule essentially covered the bases. When you worked in one of the largest ICUs, in the biggest medical center in the country, at a hospital known for taking on unstable patients for the most complex and risky surgeries that were performed no-where else, new residents were a menace. Until he meets Dr. Maxwell, the newest anesthesia resident.

Pairings: 2x3, background HxD

Warnings: Alternate Universe - Medical, Doctor/Patient, Nurses & Nursing, Fluff and Smut, this is literally my feel good thing guys ok, I mean I'm not saying there won't be any angst, but basically this is all WAFF, Explicit Sexual Content

@ladyjstruth-blog

Friend Zone

Duo and Hilde's wedding is fast approaching but after a heartwrenching breakup, how will Trowa and Quatre get through the weekend?

Pairings: 3x4, 2xH, 1xR

Warnings: Drama and Romance, Post-Canon

LadyLilyAnne, Melfice13

The Trials & Tribulations of a High Society Shinigami

Duo was a very caring woman, an open book so to speak, always there to help those that needed it with a smile on hand. The problem was she was surrounded by insane men who needed to be watched over like kids and her fellow women left her to it. Resigning herself to being the team mom Duo did her best, but she hadn't planned on Heero admitting he loved her. Things are weird now...

Pairings: 1x2, 3x4

Warnings: Fem Duo, oblivious characters, Developing Relationship, Obssessed Relena, Obssessed Zechs, The Pink Thing, Explosions, Non-Graphic Violence, Duo and Trieze Have a Weird Friendship, Non-Chronological, Related Drabbles, gratuitous cursing

LavenderKisses

Stay

Duo watches Heero leave his bed every time the phone rings. All he wishes is that, for once, he would stay.

Pairings: 1x2, 1xR

Warnings: Angst, Songfic

Lil_1337

2018 Comment Fic_Feburary

Drabbles and short fics written for the Live Journal community Comment Fics which can be found here: http://comment-fic.livejournal.com

Multiple fandoms/pairings, please see chapter specific warnings

Lthanz

Life is War

Multi-series crossover fic

Sequel to 'Life is Fringe'. Five years later, Max, Chloe, and Kevin have settled into their new lives. However, they soon find themselves caught up in a power-struggle between two powerful men competing to control the fate of the world. Loyalties will be tested but a greater threat looms in the darkness, ready to strike.

Characters: Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price, Kate Marsh/Original Character(s), Maxine "Max" Caulfield, Chloe Price (Life Is Strange), Kate Marsh, Olivia Dunham, Treize Khushrenada, Natasi Daala, Lucrezia Noin, Lady Une

Warnings: Science Fiction & Fantasy, War, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Original Character(s), Post-Canon, Crossover, Multiple Crossovers, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, pricefield

Luvsanime02

The Taste of Peaches

A @gwcocktailfriday submission

Relena's had a long day, and so she stops off somewhere for a drink or two.

Pairings: none

Warnings: AU- modern setting, introspection

Maldoror

The Source of All Things

Center, a planet where magic and technology blend. Or more accurately, fight tooth and nail. A planet of Sources, holes in our boring dimension letting through arcane power, chaos and pseudo-deities. In this hot-house of myths and very real dangers, Trowa and Quatre find a mysterious man at the end of a shamanic voyage. Portents suggest this Heero Yuy is crucial to Center’s survival. He’s important enough to have some interesting enemies after him, at any rate: a devious killer and thief called ‘Shinigami’, and a very irate Dragon. Beyond them looms an even greater threat. Indeed, the greatest of them all.

Pairings: 3x4, 2x5, eventual 1x2x5

Warnings: alternative universe, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Plot Twists, fairly graphic depiction of sex, Mild description of self-harm, Mathematical Magic, weird science, crones - Freeform, Magic and Technology brawling and eventually screwing, Eventual Threesome, Kinda, Insanity of arcane origin, The universe is a pile of marbles and other dubious allegories

Two Halves

The two kingdoms of Sanq and Lin were at war for years; a conflagration involving magic, armies and political murder. The conflict left both nations devastated and strewn with refugees. The king of Sanq finds his infant son, lost at birth, among the death and the ruin, a miracle he barely dared to hope for. But there isn't just one boy, there are two, clinging together like two halves of a whole that cannot be separated. Decades later, the truth behind that second child’s existence will put a hole in the world, or possibly save it.

Pairings: 1x2

Warnings: Fantasy AU, medieval setting with magic, starts with our heroes as children, Cousin Incest, sort of, eventually, being royalty this is in fact the norm and rather expected of them, Canon-Typical Violence

Merula31

Sleepless

It started that first night that I got him out of the hospital. I don't know where he found the time between raiding my gundam for parts and fixing his, but he did. He slipped into my room, managing not to wake me up until he got into bed with me.

Pairings: 1x2

Warnings: Yaoi, Lime, Implied Lemons, post war-ness, Angst, Sappy, POV Alternating, Spoilers, but if you haven't seen the series by now - what's wrong with you???, Original Character(s), Preventers (Gundam Wing), but no action, well - not THAT kind, Suicide Attempt, Misunderstandings

@miss-m-muses

The Cabin

Trowa’s debut novel became a best-seller and now he is failing at writing a follow up. In order to find peace and quiet to write, he rents a secluded cabin near a small town to find inspiration. Yet writing becomes hard when he keeps hearing howls from the woods in the middle of the night and even harder when he meets a charming diner owner named Duo…

Pairings: 2x3

Warnings: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Explicit Sexual Content

@noelleian

Open Book for @weiclown (Moreena)

One would think being skewered on a rapier was the worst part, but then Quatre was always full of surprises.

Pairings: 3x4, 1xR

Warnings: Humor, Canon Compliant, Takes Place Between the End of the Series and Odds and Evens, Trowa's POV, Injured!Quatre, Delirious!Quatre, Love Doctor!Duo, Iatrophonia - Fear of Doctors and Hospitals, At Least Sally Has Her Shite Together, Fluff, Friendship

@noirangetrois

The Story of Wrong

Duo recounts his experiences during the war in order to explain... well, why he was wrong.

Pairings: 1x2

Warnings: Angst, Drama, Tragedy, slight AU, Spoilers, very dark, Heero and Duo don't dieI, promise, Yaoi, slowburn, Mental Instability, Mental Health Issues, Mental Breakdown, If those are in any way an issue for you then go ahead and skip this, Eventual Smut, VERY eventual, this is mostly canon-compliant but I've changed a couple things here and there

@passingdestinies (MorbidBirdy)

Animus

A ghost of Heero's past takes possession of his life, relationships and his identity.

Pairings: 1x3, 2xH

Warnings: Post-Canon, Psychological Torture, Blood and Violence, Explicit Sexual Content

PubLicEneMyNumBah1

Super Robot Wars GQ

Multi-series crossover

Long gone are the Ancient Ones and the will of Mankind triumphs, yet with catastrophes and wars that beset them, will their reign soon end?

Original Character(s), Mecha, Giant Robots, Gundams, Crossover, Multiple Crossovers, Action/Adventure, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Alien Invasion, War, Canon Rewrite, Space Battles, Cthulhu Mythos, Pseudoscience

QMC

Over Tea & Other Things

The first fan-fiction piece that I wrote back in 2010 on FF.net. I've edited it a little. "Tea" is the first of a series I decide to write about general moments and life rather than on any significant story line or plot point. They're all stand alone pieces so I'll keep them here as chapters rather than in separate posts. Comments are welcome. :)

@remsyk-blog

Souls for the Bayou for @maevemauvaise and written for @fandomtrumpshate

For Trowa Barton, exploring the bayou is the ultimate adventure. Drawn to its borders since before he could walk, he spent his childhood learning its paths and uncovering its secrets. But a chance encounter sets him on a path that spans across time, challenging everything he thought he knew, plunging him deeper into its mysteries than he ever thought possible.

Pairings: 2x3

Warnings: Supernatural - Freeform, Fae & Fairies, Fae Magic, Bayou, Cajun, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Mystery, Slow Burn, Technically Speaking, Young Love, Use of accents, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, I don't want to give it all away at once, Fandom Trumps Hate

Robot_Qwerty

Finding Home Again

Harry Potter crossover

Morgan lost any family he had left during the horrors of the Canadian Civil War, he lived on his own and carved out his own existence at eighteen years old. Adventure and magic only existed in fairy tales and daydreams, survival is all he knows anymore. The Civil War ends a little before the Eve Wars. So when the new laws after the Eve Wars come into place, his world was turned upside down and Canada's new government left little choice to the die-hard patriots. Finally escaping to the Sanq Kingdom wasn't the sanctuary he had hoped it would be. Add the former Gundam Pilots to the mix and he might just find his escape, or will he never find the freedom he craves?

Pairings: 4x5, 1x2, 3xOMC, Sx11xOFC

Warnings: Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Mental Health Issues

sylvieforaday

Neighbors

A/U - Meilan is learning, not everything happens the way you thought it would. Sometimes you fall for the perfect girl next door when she gets knocked off her pedestal.

Pairings: Meilan x Relena

Warnings: None

@the-indomitable-bhg, @passingdestinies (BHG and Morbidbirdy)

End of Line

The Grid, the legendary Tron System, has always intrigued Duo Maxwell. After years of dreaming and months of tireless work, he finally receives the final part he needs to unlock the door to the digital frontier. A blast of a digitizing laser later he finds himself in the world of his dreams. However, soon that dream becomes a nightmare as he comes to realize that his existence in this new world is both a danger to him and to the programs who reside there. With the help of Security Program Trowa and a mysteriously damaged and glitchy program named Heero, he embarks on a journey through The Grid to seek help from a mysterious entity known as the Gatekeeper. Will he be able to get out of the Tron System, or will the organizations who are hunting him manage to derez him first?

Pairings: 1x3, 3x4

Warnings: Slash, AU, Angst, Post-Tron: Legacy, Action/Adventure, implied sexual violence, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Complete

white_fox

Life Is A Highway

On an impulsive plan to travel from California to New York City to propose to his longtime girlfriend, Heero Yuy did not plan to pick up a hitchhiker in nowhere Texas. Faced with some setbacks and a growing attraction to his passenger, Heero goes through more challenges than he planned on facing.

Pairings: 1x2, 1xR

Warnings: light slash, Fluff, Road Trips, Dubious Morality

Snippets:

@lifeaftermeteor

LAM!verse - Duo and Trowa chatting

@ransomedbard

Snippet Saturday

Photo Edits/Manipulations

@gundamwing-ellesmith

What if Gundam Wing was real? - Chang Wufei’s office ft. Sally

What if Gundam Wing was real? - Une

What if Gundam Wing was real? - Sally’s table ft. Wufei

@kangofu-cb

Whose Line photo edit - “Gundam Wing, where everything’s made up and the ‘canon’ don’t matter.

Multiple Contributors

Come at me Yuy

Headcanons / Meta / Discussions:

@lifeaftermeteor

L1′s origins and history

@ransomedbard

GW and cars headcanon

Fanart:

@downwarddnaspiral

Relena ice skating

@duointherain

Duo

@hackedmotionart

Just Wild Beat

@huehanya

Gundam Wing re-watch comic

@lemontrash

Heero doodle

@noelleian

Human Sandrock

@noromax

Wufei

Calendar Events:

Cocktail Friday

https://gwcocktailfriday.tumblr.com/

A new prompt every Monday!

Submissions should be posted Fridays between 3 and 5pm EST, and tagged with @gwcocktailfriday

Interview with a Creator by @remsyk-blog @interview-with-a-creator

Remsyk has created an online interview for fandom creators to fill out and then she features one each week so that everyone in the fandom can learn a bit about each other.

If you haven’t filled out her interview, go! do! now!

This week’s featured creator is @cosmostar - check her interview out here!

Calling all GW COSPLAYERS by @ahsimwithsake

Metrowing—our gundam wing cosplay group that comes to metrocon (Tampa Florida) every year—will be hosting a panel at Metrocon 2018!

We’re looking for additional cosplayers to round out the cast for a Q&A panel on Friday 7/20 at 4 pm.

If you’re interested, please private message me here on tumblr. I can provide you with more information and set you up with a group Skype chat with the metrowing cosplayers.Help us celebrate 25 years of Gundam Wing!

Check post for more information.

NHK is running a poll for the 40th anniversary of Mobile Suit Gundam!

Voting is open here

You can vote for your favorite series (TV, OVA, and Movie only), mobile suit (pick 3), characters (pick 5), and songs (pick 2). Unfortunately the site is in Japanese but with the help of Google Translate, it’s easy enough to navigate. Let’s vote our GW boys to the top!

Gundam Wing Stream Rewatch by @the-indomitable-bhg and @amyole

Post found here - they are currently looking for interest/time suggestions/platform suggestions.

#TWIGW #this week in gundam wing #march 18th through 24th #3/18-3/24 #mod cb

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gwydionae · 7 years

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Keith, Leadership, & Why the Writers Took It from Him and Gave It to a Clone

(Because I am a huge fan of overanalyzing characters that occasionally gets bored and wants to get such thoughts out of my head, I present to you this ridiculously long essay. I will be shocked if anyone manages to make it to the end without their eyes glazing over. Also a thanks to @chickadeecrowns for unknowingly helping me gather my final thoughts - I was losing steam after, like, two weeks of research and writing until our discussion helped me refocus. Do not feel like you have to read this monstrosity just because I tagged you. XD

Disclaimer: This was written by someone who is not strongly attached to any ships, so if you are looking for evidence supporting anything in particular, knock yourself out, but any you find is completely unintentional. Have a nice day.)

The more I think about it, the more I find myself loving Keith's character arc in Voltron: Legendary Defender. Early on I'd been ignoring some really interesting little nuggets of information that would get expanded on through season 4, so every time I've gone back, I've caught something new, something that would really help put Keith's character and motivations into focus. Why does Shiro think he'd be a good leader? Why is he so reluctant to become one? How on earth could the writers removing Shiro and forcing Keith into leadership only to demote him to not even a Paladin only a few episodes later possibly push his growth forward? Well, what happens beyond season 4 is, of course, anyone's guess, but let's see if we can't dig up some clues as to what the future just might hold for Keith in terms of leadership.

- Why doesn't Keith see himself as a leader? -

To start with, let's look at how the missions with Keith as the leader go. As we all know, he had a bit of a rough beginning. In "Red Paladin" he was having trouble piloting Black, and when Pidge continued to ask what they should do to take down Lotor's ship, he didn't have much of a strategy. It went further downhill in "The Hunted" when he ignored his teammates' advice and ended up rushing them all into danger. While they do eventually manage to escape and form Voltron, it was Allura who brought them all together, not Keith, and the mission was technically a failure as Lotor escaped.

But if his refusal to listen to his teammates was a self-admitted mistake in "The Hunted", it seemed he overcompensated for that in "Hole in the Sky". Rather than stepping in as leader, he constantly allowed Allura to make ill-advised decisions throughout the episode, even after seeming to know that the Alteans from the alternate reality weren't to be trusted. The mission was, again, a failure as Lotor got the comet like he wanted. And the events of "Tailing a Comet" only make things worse. While we do finally get to see him leading a successful mission at the beginning - the only one we as an audience are shown - in the end Lotor again ends up one step ahead and flying off with the Sincline ship. At this point, Keith has yet to lead a successful mission in which Lotor is involved, and Shiro is back with the group.

Keith being adamant about Shiro taking back the Black Lion in "Code of Honor", therefore, shouldn't be much of a surprise. For now, though, let's look at the decisions he makes on his second mission with the Blade of Marmora that we are shown. While he is not the leader of this team, he still offers up his advice to Kolivan - stay and plant the tracker despite how fishy the whole situation is. Kolivan trusts him, and in the end Regris gets killed and the mission is - again - a failure. In fact, to further put salt in the wound, Kolivan had warned Keith previously about risking his life to save another and endangering himself. Keith wanted to drag Regris out before the bomb went off which would have gotten himself killed, but Kolivan stopped him, saving his life. Both decisions he tried to make on this one mission would have lead to disaster, and with as poorly as his choices as the leader of Voltron have panned out so far, this really ends up feeling like the straw that finally broke the camel's back. We don't see Keith take on a leadership role again until the very end of the season.

Alright, so Keith's stint as a leader wasn't exactly successful from a results standpoint, that's not too hard to see, but while that might explain why he didn't think he was a good leader by the time we hit the 4th season, why did he think he was so unsuited for it before that? Well, these aren't the only decisions he's made that could be deemed questionable, especially in retrospect. Back in "Fall of the Castle of Lions" we see Keith make his first mission-based decision since becoming a Paladin - check on the Arusians' village which they claim is being attacked. While in the moment this seemed important, it turned out to be a ruse which caused both Keith and Allura to be trapped outside the castle while Sendak took it over, and ultimately, as Lance would comment later, even "the mice did more than [him]". The choice itself wasn't wrong, but hindsight is always 20/20, and someone like Keith would likely look back on his uselessness during the situation and deem the decision to leave the castle defenses severely thinned a poor one.

Later in "Collection and Extraction" he runs off on his own - against his teammates' wishes - and winds up needing to be rescued. They end up losing Allura during this mission, and while Keith's extraction may not have played any part in that, it's also possible the Green Lion could have gotten to Shiro and Allura before she was captured had Pidge not have had to make a detour. Keith would go off to do his own thing against the wishes of his teammates twice more, once in "The Black Paladin" where he decides to go head to head with Zarkon himself, and again in "The Ark of Taujeer" where he feared his presence was putting the team in danger. Against Zarkon he nearly got himself killed and the Red Lion destroyed, and when proven wrong about his fears of Zarkon tracking him, his impatience to make up for his mistake pushed him to use the booster fuel on the pod which promptly exploded and left both him and Allura stranded and the rest of the team without Voltron. There were bright sides to both decisions - Keith did save the Black Lion from Zarkon in the former, and they were able to pinpoint how they were being tracked as a result of everything that happened in the latter - but both could easily have lead to disaster.

"The Black Paladin" was not the only time he put himself, and subsequently Voltron, at risk, either. The entirety of "The Blade of Marmora" is about Keith risking his life for personal knowledge, and in "Best Laid Plans" he volunteers to go on what Kolivan calls a "suicide mission". The latter, of course, gets sanctioned by Shiro, but the former is the exact opposite. While Shiro may not have stopped him from going through with the Trials of Marmora, it was clear he was against them, a "selfish" endeavor as the illusionary Shiro puts it. The results of "Best Laid Plans", however, are more comparable to what happened with the Arusians back in season 1. The Galra had already switched the codes in an attempt to lead Thace into a trap, so while Keith did make it to the central hub, he was unable to complete the mission. Thace was the one who rigged the room to blow and sacrificed himself while Keith had to hurry back to his Lion. His declaration of "Thace did it" diminishes his own hand in everything, same as Lance's comment did after defeating Sendak.

While a lot of these decisions didn't really end up being a detriment, and some, in fact, had quite positive results, it's easy to second guess all of them after the fact. Nearly all of these decisions were made based on his instinct, and as a leader, such instinctual decisions will now have direct effects on his team. It is no longer him offering to do something dangerous or risky by himself, it is him instructing others to do so as well. The additional responsibility can make such choices seem like bad ideas even if he did actually get some good results.

It is interesting to note how all of his decisions, both before and during his stint as leader, affect how Keith acts during the final two episodes of season 4. In "Begin the Blitz" we see him comfortably back in the role of a follower, a member of the Blades taking orders and doing his part to make sure the mission is a success until the cannon they've taken over ceases to be operational early on in "A New Defender". Once that happens, we can see he gets a bit antsy, asking Coran if anyone needs back up, getting suspicious of the stopped battlecruiser, and even sounding a bit panicky when he can't reach Voltron. He then jumps back into the leadership role - this time voluntarily - taking charge of the situation by leading the rebels against Haggar's ship.

That is, until his own ship is damaged. After that, his countenance changes and we can visually see his confidence wane. It's almost like that hit woke him up, reminding him of all of his previous failed and/or dangerous missions, and instead of leading others into a risky situation based on his instincts, he puts his own life on the line. For a moment, in the heat of battle, he was a true leader, but by the end he chose to sacrifice himself instead of potentially leading others to their deaths. Based on the examples from earlier in the series I listed above, it's not hard to guess why.

- How do Keith's relationships with the others affect his leadership? -

Keith, however, does not live in a void. While it is important to view his own personal decisions, it is even more important to understand how he reacts to others and why. I don't think anyone would argue the fact that Keith feels closest to Shiro - they have a shared, unknown history that has been hinted at in multiple episodes. All the way back in "The Rise of Voltron", Keith admits to feeling lost once he disappeared on Kerberos and in "Across the Universe" implies that his life would have been worse if Shiro hadn't been in it. We see him opening up to Shiro emotionally in "The Blade of Marmora" as well - while he's not actually talking to the real Shiro, Keith is willing to be frank with him about his connection to the knife and why it's so important to him, getting visibly upset when Shiro finally turns his back on him. And once Shiro is gone, we hear Keith admit that he was the one person that never gave up on him in "Changing of the Guard". Aside from that, we also see that Keith is willing to take his advice to heart; repeating "patience yields focus" at the beginning of season 2 when Shiro first recited it to him in the first episode of season 1 is a prime example.

Keith is likely able to open up to Shiro in such a way thanks to how much faith Shiro is constantly showing in him. In “Fall of the Castle of Lions”, when Keith makes the decision to help the Arusian village, Shiro allows him to go, trusting him to handle that situation while he stayed behind to watch the castle. In “Best Laid Plans” Shiro again trusts Keith with an important mission. When Keith volunteers to shut down the central hub, rather than trying to talk him out of it like Kolivan, he accepts Keith’s conviction and not only allows him to go but helps clear a path so he can get there. Even when Shiro clearly doesn’t like Keith wanting to go through the Trials of Marmora, he still trusts him, allowing him to do it rather than forcing him to back down. Shiro being so willing to trust Keith is what allows Keith to be so open with Shiro in return.

Keith does not share this sense of comfort with anyone else, however. He winds up living in the desert all by himself once he's booted from the Garrison, and while not unfriendly with his fellow Paladins once he meets them, he often keeps to himself, trying to hide things that are bothering him from the rest of the team. The first big example we have of this doesn't appear until season 2 when he conceals the fact that he has a knife with the Blade of Marmora symbol on it, even going so far as to try and secretly investigate it without anyone finding out in "Space Mall" and running off without explaining the real reason why in "The Ark of Taujeer". Even when Allura directly confronts him and it's just the two of them, he still doesn't actually share what is really bothering him, like the knife, where it came from, what it means, and if Zarkon is somehow tracking him through it. "The Belly of the Weblum" is another example of Keith avoiding a heavy conversation, keeping quiet and to himself before heading out on the mission with Hunk and then trying to drop the subject of his Galra heritage once Hunk brings it up.

What is interesting, though, is that once Shiro is gone, we see the others actively approaching Keith more, and not just because he's the leader. In "Changing of the Guard" we see a Keith who is ready to blow up at anyone at any moment, but by the end of the episode, we still see the rest of the team going to him, trying to talk to him. In the past, this was Shiro's "job". Keith still doesn't open up, but he does acknowledge their support by agreeing they have to move on. In "Red Paladin", while everyone supports the Black Lion's decision to make Keith the leader, Lance actually expands on that, giving him a little pep talk and not just a quick "congrats". Keith, however, still doesn't say anything. It's not until "The Hunted" when it's just the two of them lost on a strange planet that Keith finally breaks his silence, opening up and admitting to Lance that everything is his fault, that he should have listened to everyone else - and, again, Lance does his best to help. He doesn't sugar coat it, he agrees it's Keith's fault, but he also doesn't allow him to dwell on it. After interacting, literally living together for 27 episodes, this is the first time Keith allows himself to seek out and accept emotional support from anyone other than Shiro. This should be a big turning point.

But then Shiro comes back. This was his rock, his emotional support for a long time, but instead of returning to that role, Keith finds himself immediately at odds with Shiro. After the failed mission to get the comet back from Lotor in "Tailing a Comet" in which Shiro constantly overruled Keith's decisions, we see Shiro trying to talk to him about it. But this conversation is different from those previous. In the past, Keith would apologize and try to take Shiro's criticisms to heart, like in "The Ark of Taujeer" and "The Blade of Marmora", but this time he merely says that he thought he had it under control. When Shiro clearly does not agree, his words, instead, turn self-destructive: "I'm no good at this." And this time not even Shiro trying to tell him otherwise will convince him that it's not true. After all, Shiro's actions - not allowing Keith to lead as he sees fit - speak louder than his words.

By "Code of Honor", it is obvious that, in Keith's mind, he has lost all of his emotional support. He is openly talking back to Shiro, trying to voice his concerns about the new form of quintessence, and Shiro not only brushes him off but berates him for not instantly following his orders. The only glimpse of this sort of behavior we've had previously was during the tense mission to get the comet/ship from Lotor, otherwise always treating him with the utmost respect. This shift in their relationship is huge.

But it's not just Shiro. Everyone is giving him the cold shoulder, and Keith, in turn, has gone right back to bottling everything up. Even when Allura directly confronts him about it, he tries to cut off the conversation. When she continues anyway, he remains silent. The walls he used to let come down around Shiro on occasion, the walls that Lance, at least, had finally made a dent in, were back up and stronger than ever.

But what exactly lead to this, and why does it matter in terms of his leadership capabilities? That's simple - while the team may have attempted to support Keith emotionally, they never really trusted him as their leader. And for someone struggling in a position he was forced into, that lack of trust says a whole lot more than the occasional pep talk.

When they first decided to find a new pilot for the Black Lion in "Red Paladin", initially no one wanted Keith to be the leader. Sure, once he was given the job they went with it, offering polite congratulations, but after stuff like this:

Lance: Keith would be the worst leader of Voltron! Pidge: Yeah! We all have our thing! Keith's the loner...

Lance: I'm being completely serious when I say I do not want you to lead me anywhere!

Can you blame him for not seeming to believe their acceptance of him as leader? Not to mention the second guessing or completely shooting down all of his ideas when on a mission. In "The Hunted" this makes sense as Keith is genuinely acting reckless, though a less abrasive approach might have had a better chance at working than insults, sarcasm, and yelling. But in both "Hole in the Sky" and "Tailing a Comet", two of the three remaining missions in which we see him actively leading, they still don't actually let him lead. Taking advice from teammates is one thing, but they aren't giving advice; they are undermining his authority.

Now, the first thing to bring up about the situation in "Hole in the Sky" is that there's only one person ignoring Keith: Allura. And, to be fair, she has challenged Shiro in the past as well ("Collection and Extraction" and "Shiro's Escape"), but in the first case, Shiro simply agreed to let her go on the mission, and in the second, no matter how stubborn she - and everyone else - was, Shiro still had the final say. You could also cut her some slack in that this is the first time she's seen another Altean since waking up on Arus, and that obviously is going to be deeply meaningful to her. But it is still true that at least five times Keith voices his concerns over what is going on ("I think this might be a trap." "But you're taking away their free will!" "Maybe you should think about this, Allura." etc), and every time she ignores his advice. This shows a distinct lack of trust in Keith's leadership, choosing to trust strangers instead, and her talk with him at the end of the episode doesn't help. While it's likely that Allura was talking out of her own guilt for what happened, try to think of what she says from the perspective of a new, young leader that doesn't feel up to the task and has yet to be shown leading a successful mission:

Keith: Allura, you did the right thing. Couldn't let Hera get that ore. Allura: But now Lotor has it. Keith: You didn't know. Allura: That is the problem! We never know. And that is exactly why my father sent the Lions away so many years ago, to avoid this reality. I finally understand... Keith: We'll get it back. Allura: But if we don't? Lotor is always one step ahead of us. He has a plan for that ore, and if he succeeds, the Galra will finally have a weapon as powerful as Voltron.

I doubt what she said was meant to be taken this way, but her words can easily be misconstrued as a distrust in Keith's leadership, an open declaration that she thinks he isn't up to the job of stopping Lotor as he has been the one in charge since Lotor first appeared and they’ve come up empty handed. I'd be surprised if he didn't take them that way considering her brushing off his advice ever since getting the distress call, on top of his own misgivings about being a leader.

"Tailing a Comet", however, is different, because it not only showcases the lack of trust the other Paladins have in him, it specifically highlights how much more trust they have in Shiro as their leader. We know from the first two seasons that they completely trust Shiro; I don't think I have to list evidence to prove that. But this episode pits Keith and Shiro against each other, and there is a very clear winner.

Every member of the team shoots down one of Keith's ideas in favor of what Shiro wants at least once on just this single mission. Keith wants to check the ship for Lotor, but Shiro says to go back to the Lions to form Voltron; Allura agrees with Shiro. Then Keith wants to stay behind and keep looking while sending the rest of them back, which, again, Shiro disagrees with; this time Lance, Hunk, and Pidge all side with Shiro. When fighting the ship made from the comet, Keith wants to destroy it first and then the teludav while Shiro says there's no time for that; Allura is again the one who backs Shiro's plan. At the end of the mission, we know at least both Keith and Pidge wanted to go after the ship made from the comet, but Shiro stops them, telling them to come back so they can figure out what is going on. We don't actually see who agrees with Shiro, but it's obvious they don't all get on board with Keith and Pidge's idea as they ultimately do abandon the pursuit of the ship.

The only decisions Keith makes that do not get questioned are 1.) him telling the team to leave Lotor's generals and get to the Lions - which, might I remind you, was Shiro's plan to begin with - and 2.) Keith's plan to destroy the teludav, which no one could question as he didn't tell anyone what he was planning to do. And, to be fair to Lance, he is shown going directly to Keith for his advice as a leader twice in this one episode (once before the mission to talk about the "extra" Paladin and once during the mission where he specifically says, "Keith, what should we do?" only to have Shiro cut in with an answer); the only time he openly agrees with Shiro is when Keith wants to split from the team, a decision everyone disagrees with. But the amount of trust shown for Shiro's leadership is still far greater than what is shown for Keith's, and this is all just from one mission.

By "Code of Honor" it is clear that Keith has no control whatsoever, despite still being the pilot of the Black Lion, and the biggest indication of this is not in any actual mission but rather the unknown status of Lotor and how Shiro treats it. In "The Hunted", "Tailing a Comet", and "The Legend Begins", Keith makes it very obvious that Lotor is his number one priority. He states this directly several times, ending season 3 by saying, "No matter what, we have to stop [Lotor]." But it is obvious by the beginning of season 4, months later, that this has not been Voltron's priority. They are escorting cargo ships and putting on shows while the Blades are the ones actively trying to investigate the Galra and Lotor. In fact, when the Blades contact them about an important, covert mission involving a Galra ship far off the normal supply routes - one that Shiro apparently deemed important enough to be willing to send Voltron out on, might I add - Lance gets upset at Keith ditching a show for it, Shiro allows him to go but also tells him to hurry back and then looks unhappy when he doesn't make it to Reiphod, and Allura, while acknowledging the Blades' work as important, still lectures him on choosing it over the show-of-arms despite knowing exactly where his priorities have been all along - hunting down and stopping Lotor.

Between Keith losing his emotional rock in Shiro, the support that he was just beginning to open up to from the other Paladins disappearing upon Shiro's return, and the obvious way they trust Shiro to make important decisions over him, Keith's bond with his teammates reaches an all time low. He feels more disconnected from them than ever, and while it may be easy to think that his distancing himself from them is the cause, this is something we are shown that he is struggling with before he joins the Blades. The people that are supposed to be on his team back Shiro. How can one lead when they don't have the trust or support of their teammates?

- Why would Shiro think that Keith would be a good leader? -

With everything presented so far, it seems pretty obvious that Keith isn’t wrong in thinking the Black Lion made a mistake in choosing him to lead Voltron, doesn’t it? But Shiro said several times (“Across the Universe”, “The Blade of Marmora”) that he wanted Keith to be his successor, so he must have seen something in him that supported that. While it’s possible that some of this belief stems from a time before the Kerberos mission, there is actually a fair amount of evidence in the show already that proves that Shiro isn’t simply playing favorites.

The earliest sign comes all the way back near the beginning of season 1 in “Return of the Gladiator”. It’s not a very long scene, and if you zone out for a moment you could miss it, but once Keith, Hunk, and Lance are all in their Lions and on their way to help Shiro and Pidge, Keith is the one to speak up, directing the other two with Lions to "lay down some cover fire so [Shiro and Pidge] can get out of there". It doesn’t feel like a big thing, but it is important to note that he voluntarily steps up and neither Hunk nor Lance question it; they instantly follow his lead.

And this isn’t the only time this happens. It occurs again in “Blackout” after Shiro and the Black Lion are incapacitated. Keith is the one to rally everyone else into protecting Shiro and preventing Zarkon from getting the Black Lion. At this point he is well aware that Shiro wants him to succeed him if necessary, but the audience doesn’t know whether or not Keith is thinking about this when he takes over. But whether he is or not, he still does it, and the four of them do in fact manage to hold off Zarkon long enough for Shiro to return and steal the black bayard.

The third time I have already touched on. In “A New Defender”, when he finds he is unable to contact Shiro and the rest of Team Voltron, he takes matters into his own hands. He takes a ship and manages to convince Matt and the rebel fighters to follow him to Haggar’s battlecruiser. They barely know each other, but he is still able to quickly gain their trust, allowing him to lead them into what they have to know is going to be a tough battle. Not just anyone could pull this off. Keith’s conviction and confidence are all it takes to convince others to follow him.

But that doesn’t just apply to the rebels. 26 episodes previous Keith showed this same conviction and confidence to another: the Black Lion. We know full well that not just anyone can pilot any Lion, and this goes for Paladins as well. But in “Across the Universe” when Shiro was being attacked by creatures and Keith was without his own Red Lion, he didn’t even hesitate to walk up to the Black Lion instead.

“I know I’m not Shiro, but he’s in trouble. We need to help him.”

This was not a command or a request. Keith simply stated the facts, never doubting that the Black Lion would allow him in the pilot chair in order to save Shiro. This is the confidence we see lacking from his actual time as the leader, and clearly it’s not because he lacks it altogether, but we’ll cover why it might be missing a little later.

Aside from these instances, there are at least two other times in the first two seasons where Keith is with another team member while Shiro is not around. The first is in “Return to the Balmera”; he and Lance are sent off together as part of the mission, needing to stop the Galra fighters from leaving their hanger and then head further into the Balmera. Despite the fact that these two aren’t exactly getting along super well at this point, when Keith tries to rush in and Lance stops him, revealing his plan to shut the doors, rather than protesting, Keith admits that Lance is right and follows his lead. This is proof that Keith is willing to listen to his teammates’ suggestions and take them to heart.

A similar thing happens in “The Belly of the Weblum”. Keith understands that he needs to follow Hunk’s instructions if they are going to have any chance of getting the scaultrite, and he is constantly looking to him for advice. Alternatively, Hunk isn’t always good at staying on task, and while Keith may have rushed them a bit, he does manage to keep Hunk focused on the mission even when he starts to freak out, even going so far as to tell a joke to calm him down. And by the end, Keith openly acknowledges how important Hunk was to the mission, making sure to tell him so. Hunk may have been more helpful, but Keith was definitely in command during this episode.

Now, I bring those two points up, but they clash quite a bit with what we see in “The Hunted”. I feel like the reason for this is because in both of those cases Keith had nothing to prove while once he actually becomes leader he feels like he has to take charge. This is the first mission that he initiates, and backing down would make him seem unsure of himself. However, by the end of it we do see him turning a corner. He admits to Lance that he was wrong and then works to fix it, praising Allura for reuniting them all and then rallying everyone into forming Voltron. This is where he starts to learn that he has to balance his desires as a leader with the will of his teammates, not simply rule them with an iron fist because he’s in charge.

And, finally, we do see him as the leader of a successful mission of his own. The first few minutes of “Tailing a Comet” go smoothly, with everyone working together as a unit, and once it’s over he makes sure to praise Pidge for completing their objective. It took him a bit to fine tune it, but we do see solid evidence that Keith is able to trust his teammates, listen to their advice, act accordingly, and even give them positive reinforcement when it’s all over. Having this connection with his fellow Paladins is essential to not only forming Voltron but just simply being a great leader in general.

On top of all of this, there is one other sign we get that indicates that, if nothing else, Keith’s heart is in the right place. In “The Blade of Marmora” we see Keith constantly going after what he wants, choosing to seek knowledge rather than genuinely try to form an alliance with the Blades. But at the very end of his trial, what he wants is finally right there waiting for him, his illusionary dad holding out the knife and telling him to wait for his mom who will tell him everything. Except there’s a large Galra attack literally right outside his window. Keith does stall for a bit, trying to get the answer now rather than waiting, but in the end, he turns to leave. Keith leaves his absent father who he hasn’t seen in years, who has all the answers he’s been searching for, and returns to the Red Lion because while he was putting his own self at risk, it was ok, but now? Staying would have meant more deaths at the hands of the Galra, and he wasn’t going to selfishly stand around when he could do something about it. In the end, Keith chooses to risk his life to save people, even at the cost of what he most desires. He chooses to fight for the sake of others, and that most certainly is a quality the leader of Voltron should possess.

- What does all of this mean for Keith's future? -

So now we know that Keith does have the potential to be a good leader, but for various reasons he wasn't quite able to pull out the fullness of that potential while piloting the Black Lion. Why is that? If you look at all the evidence brought up earlier, it all centers around one key concept: trust. Keith does not trust himself and the others don't trust him. The times he has had success rallying people around him is when he has no time to doubt himself and shows the confidence and trust in others needed to inspire them to follow. So why is he only like this sometimes? What is holding him back? There are honestly probably a lot of things that contribute to his overall trust issues, but there is one person specifically during seasons 3 and 4, the ones he was meant to take charge, that held him back, even if it wasn't always intentional.

Shiro.

As I mentioned before, Shiro was Keith's emotional rock, someone he deeply respected and looked up to. It is so important that he had a figure like this in his life. But the problem comes in when Shiro disappears at the end of season 2. There is no body, no sign of an actual death, no closure. Keith is left unable to accept that Shiro is gone because there is no evidence that he won't someday return. Rather than being handed a team when he is ready to take the reins, Keith is thrust into the leadership role unwillingly, having to follow in the direct footsteps of someone he trusted more than anyone else, someone who had just lead the team in a battle to defeat Zarkon himself. Keith is at a loss as to how to handle this as he doesn't want to mourn Shiro as he may not actually be dead, he doesn't want to take Shiro's team as he might someday come back, and on top of that he doesn't think he has a chance of being a successful leader if even this person he deeply respected didn't come back from battle. Keith could not keep Shiro, the person he cared about the most, safe, so how can he look after an entire team?

This is why the trust issues crop up from the get go. Shiro's support is what buoyed Keith's confidence, and now that rug has been pulled out from under him. He has never had a very strong, personal connection with his team members previous to this, and if you combine that with his own doubts in himself, it leads to a downward spiral. And worse, he doesn't seem to understand how to build that connection with anyone else.

Luckily, Keith has Lance on his team, and as it's been pointed out, Lance specifically offers his support on a number of occasions. It takes Keith a while to warm up to the idea, but he does actually start to be more open around him, and this in turn starts to build his confidence back up. Not a lot, as evidenced in his inability to take charge in "Hole in the Sky" despite his misgivings, but enough that he does forcefully assert his opinions in "Tailing a Comet", even if to no avail.

But this is the point in his development that most seems to confuse people. After showing that trust slowly starting to build, why would the writers take it away again by reintroducing Shiro? Isn't this just a huge step backwards? What sort of rebound could they give him that isn't a rehash of what just happened in season 3 or putting him right back where he was in seasons 1 and 2? What was the point? There is at least one possibility that would not only tread new ground but would also directly confront the biggest obstacle keeping Keith from growing.

We the audience knows there is something wrong with Shiro - the clone theory, I feel, having the most evidence in its favor. Keith, however, does not. Not yet, anyway. But imagine for a moment the sort of things that would go through Keith's mind if he found out. He says he believed that Shiro was the rightful leader of Voltron, but that's not what his actions say in "Tailing a Comet". If Keith really felt that following Shiro's orders was the best course of action, he would have done so without hesitation. But he is so used to trusting Shiro that after weeks, months of being overruled, it's easy for him to think that it's because he must be wrong and Shiro must be right. But if Shiro is a clone planted among them by the Galra, that turns everything on its head. If Shiro's actions, which conflicted with Keith's, were made to further the Galra Empire, then Keith wasn't wrong after all. It wasn't that he was being a bad leader and making poor decisions, it was that he was so blinded by his trust in Shiro that he just assumed he was.

This is exactly the sort of thing that would galvanize Keith, remind him that the real Shiro listened to him, the real Shiro left Voltron in his care, the real Shiro trusted him. This fake had caused him to doubt himself, but if there's anything that could convince Keith to return willingly to a position of authority, it's standing up and leading the other Paladins against the person defiling Shiro's memory.

But it's not just about regaining the confidence in himself. The rest of the Paladins would also be reevaluating how they acted, realizing that Keith's instincts hadn't been wrong, and they too had simply been swept up in following Shiro simply because he was Shiro. I have my own theories as to who would suspect this Shiro was a fake first (Lance)/last (Allura)/etc, but the evidence supporting them are a bit thin to say the least; luckily, that's not really important. What is important is that unless Keith is the last to convert because he's stubbornly refusing to accept this Shiro as a fake and admit the real Shiro never came back (which would mean I evaluated him all wrong and he has far less confidence than I give him credit for), the others would very likely turn back to him, rallying around him to take down the impostor. This alone would help to rebuild their trust in each other, but obviously there would have to be more to it than just that.

Keith would have gone through losing his emotional support, slowly gaining a new group to lean on only to lose it to a Galra plant, detaching himself from anyone who cares about him as an individual, to suddenly gaining it all back and then some. You can't tell me that Keith wouldn't look back on his time of relative isolation with the Blades after that and feel blessed to have Team Voltron back in his life, likely comparing it to his time in the desert before they all found the Blue Lion and became Paladins. We don't know much from that time, but it's obvious he was happier with Voltron. And I feel his strengthened confidence combined with the joy from simply being back with everyone would make Keith a stronger, more open person, finally confiding in the team like they had tried to do for him when the Black Lion first chose him.

So why did the writers force Keith into leadership, take it away, and give it to a clone? In order for him to get a clear understanding of what trust really is, become "someone whose men will follow without hesitation", and discover exactly why Shiro was so willing to put his faith in a hot-headed fighter pilot.

(If you somehow made it this far, feel free to let me know of any mistakes - whether I missed conflicting evidence or just had grammar issues - and/or even add your own thoughts. Not everything I thought to put in made it into the final cut, and there were SO many tangents I was tempted to go off on that ultimately would have veered a bit too far off the main topic. Anyway. I’m sorry. XD)

#voltron #voltron legendary defender #keith kogane #keith voltron #keith vld #what am i doing with my life #gwydo's musings #man do i love to ramble #i am proud to say that my reasons for starting this were petty #but by the end i feel like i managed to keep it focused and not add my typical sarcasm XD #i feel like i ended up with 'impassioned' rather than 'irritated' LOL #which is good because there's no good reason to get irritated #...i'm just very protective of my fav fictional characters and keith worked his way up the list pretty quick XD #gwy writes a literal essay

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sylvester-troubledyouth-rp · 5 years

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Welcome B! You have been accepted as Cooper Anderson and have 24 hours to create and send in your blog! I really liked seeing Cooper’s development over the course of being in the school. It’s nice to see someone who’s been with the school a while and how they’ve changed!

Please make an account in 24 hours and send it into the main. Turn on ask and submit boxes and have a link back to the main. Making sure to follow everyone in the follow list and check out which tags to follow in the nav!

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Name/Alias: B

Age: I actually had to think about this one, 22.

Timezone: GMT

Activity level: Solid 7/10

Triggers: removed.

_______________

“Is that COOPER JAMES ANDERSON? I heard they’re currently at Sylvester’s Boarding School as a STUDENT. Apparently, they can be really ARROGANT but I also heard they can be CHARMING. Don’t you think they look just like BRENDON URIE? “

Desired Character: Cooper Anderson.

Face Claim: Ya Boi, Brendon Urie

Age: 18 years old.

Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts.

Classes: Mathematics, English, Core Science, Physical Education. Options: History, Music, Drama, Home Economics, Social Studies.

Clubs: Soccer, Track, Boxing, Band.

Ships: Cooper/Chemistry.

Anti-Ships: Cooper/Forced.

Character Bio:

After a few years of trying for a baby and no luck, the arrival of Cooper Anderson was a pleasant surprise to his parents. He was born in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts with nothing but wide spaces and fresh air to run around in. He was followed by twin brothers, Tony and Blaine who gave the boy some company throughout his years growing up in the Anderson household.

School was never easy for the eldest. At the age of eight after numerous detentions, the threat of exclusion and his teachers hanging their heads in frustration and what to do with him, his family were left sat in the head teacher’s office. It would come as a suggestion to get him checked over at the doctors, resulting in his family learning of their son’s ADHD and anxiety disorder.

His mother had originally tried him on medication but after four years, at the age of twelve, he flushed the rest of his pills down the toilet and refused to take them again, claiming they made him feel like a robot. At the age of twelve, whilst hanging out in the local park with some friends, he was introduced to weed and quickly came to learn of the positive effects it had on him. After a long conversation with his mother and permission from the doctor, he’s now legally listed with a black card to smoke in aid of his health. The alternative of smoking marijuana isn’t something his mother is thrilled about but she chooses to let it slide if it’s for medicinal purposes.

His relationship with his brothers is fairly good. He is closer with Tony Anderson as the two are relatively similar in tastes and ideals. It was Cooper who introduced Tony to weed (something he uses himself to help control his anxiety) at the age of thirteen, three years after Cooper began smoking himself. His opinion on his brother’s fondness of harder drugs isn’t one he shares very much, deciding to keep his own opinion to himself, though he only wishes his brother stays safe.

His relationship with his parents have always been two sides to the same coin. His mother is his everything, Cooper adores Pamela more than life itself and it’s clear she has a softer spot for her children than her husband. As he got older, Cooper began to notice his father’s attitude change towards his eldest child. Life became more geared to what his father wanted from him and less about what Cooper actually wanted to do for himself. The lack of interest in becoming a miniature version of his father only lead to disappointment and disapproval from his father.

Cooper went through a bit of a rebellious phase when he hit his teenage years. Hormones, man. The constant pressure from his father began to get to the boy so he started looking for little escapes within things. The smoking soon became mixed with sneaking out of the house at all hours, alcohol and a peeked interest in girls. Although he was more than polite and charming towards his mother, his relationship with his father quickly became rough leading to an incident between the two.

After that, all respect was lost for the older man and Cooper deliberately started acting up. Notably amongst the attitude and defiance, the lawyer and head of the family, Richard Anderson, didn’t take too kindly to have ‘Dad’ switched out with ‘Dick’ every time he spoke to his eldest. The two would often fight in the house at any chance. Richard always pulling the boy to pieces and never recognizing any of his achievements; he’d labelled his eldest as trouble and could never see past it whether Cooper was trying to be or not. In the end the boy gave up trying to make his father see him in any other light and kept to himself, doing what made him happy and only that.

He was sent to the school at the age of 13. Trying once more to push the kid into the family business, Richard had agreed to take him for a work placement scheme the school were doing. It was after the boy had showed him up at court, Cooper’s father had finally had enough, packed the boy’s cases in the middle of the night before dragging him out to the car. He barely had chance to say goodbye to his mother before the thirteen-year-old was left sobbing at the airport terminal. The only instructions he had was that someone would meet him when he landed in Ohio.

A new state, a new town and a new school was frightening to the thirteen-year-old. Arriving there he kept to himself, barely left his room and insisted on doing nothing until he spoke to his mother. Pamela made a personal visit two weeks into his stay there and after a long discussion, tears and reconciliation, he finally agreed to staying there. Therapy was something the boy was strongly against upon starting, he spent the first few months in silence to whatever he was asked to attend a session, though over the years Miss Pillsbury began to break down the many wall Cooper had put up. Now, in his final year of school he enjoys their weekly chats and is rather open with her. The only thing he refuses to discuss is the incident that happened with his father.

The ADHD is managed with keeping himself busy. It’s something Miss Pillsbury suggested after spotting his love for sports. Cooper’s heavily invested in his arts and sports, paying little attention to his academic subjects even though he’s proven he’s capable of achieving in them.

Cooper used to be part of Drama and Dance clubs for most of his time at school but after a heated argument with the teacher who ran it, he was removed from both clubs. He still continues to take Drama as a class, though, there is a tense relationship between he and the teacher.

Mainstream school, although difficult mostly, is something he misses. His music teacher Mrs H was someone who founded his love and passion for instruments. As a child, his mother had taught him piano and he’d had the freedom to explore his interests. Though she was the first person to take those interests and turn them into something useful and productive. He still continues writing music in his own time, his favourite club is band where he’ll tinker with any of the instruments available.

Overall, Cooper is a model example of recovery at the school. He can be a bit of a trouble maker at times, though it’s usually light pranks and reflects his playful personality. His teachers are proud of his success over the past five years, in becoming a fine, young man and plan on giving him that last push towards finishing with high grades and a bright career prospect. It was a push from Mr Schuester for taking up a career in music that has caught his attention and although he’s sceptical, Cooper is more than somewhat on-board with the idea and wishes to pursue it.

Admittedly, Cooper is more than fearful about leaving the security the school has provided for all these years. Why would he want to leave a place where he feels like he’s on top of the world?

#glee rp #glee roleplay #glee multiples rp #glee twins rp #sbs:accepted

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rvinsounds · 7 years

Text

– shall we dance? in which seungyeon has to give advice. alternatively titled ‘four idiots who somehow all got the girl’

a/n: this is almost 5k words i don’t fucking know okay kill me now. also i’m sorry bc this was supposed to be Serious Shit and Cute but somehow halfway through it started to become crack and idk hdbfdsbhfjfd i hope y’all like it anyway lmfoaoa

The announcement for the annual Yule Ball had just gone up on all the bulletin boards in all the houses on the first of December. Which, of course, started a loud commotion among the entirety of the student body, everyone buzzing over who would ask who (mostly between the male populace) and who would be asked by who (among the female students). The professors could barely get the students to focus without interrupting big proposal ideas and endless gossiping. On top of all the homework they were receiving before Christmas, all the students in the fourth year and up were busy coming up with ways to ask out their desired partners.

Though, there was one student that was not concerned in the slightest. Chanuk was entirely unconcerned about the whole process of asking the person he was going with to the ball. Of course, he hadn’t actually asked yet, but it was only a matter of time.

“Hey, who are you going with to the ball?” Seungyeon asks him during study hall, nudging him gently with a smile. The Ravenclaw was usually more studious during study hall, but had seemed to succumb to the way the rest of the student body was reacting, unable to really focus on the History of Magic paper he had open in front of him.

“Arazely,” the Slytherin replies with ease, not even looking up from his Transfigurations paper, eyebrows furrowed together as he writes down the theory behind the Switching Spell they had learnt in class earlier that week. He flips through The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4 to his required information, squinting at it. “Seungyeonie, what does – why are you looking at me like that?”

“You already asked her? The announcement went up yesterday!” The younger boy’s expression is one of complete awe, having been talking to their other friends and had experienced all of them freaking out about the respective girls they wanted to go with.

“Oh. That’s right …” Chanuk’s eyebrows furrow even more before he shakes silver bangs out of his face, straightening up and glancing around to look for his alleged date to the Yule Ball. He stands, clambering over the bench he was sitting on and he pats Seungyeon on the shoulder before heading down the row to where the Hufflepuff girl was seated. She jumps a bit at the rough tap to her shoulder, glancing up and around only to see a glowering Slytherin boy standing behind her.

“Chanuk? What do you want?” Her voice is soft, and even surprised to see him there. The people around her are whispering too, her friends curious and very obviously trying to eavesdrop on the coming up conversation. No one seems to be expecting what comes next though.

“We’re going to the ball together,” he says, patting her gently on the shoulder before he stalks back to where he had been sitting with Seungyeon, plopping back down next to him again and turning his attention back to his paper.

The Ravenclaw’s expression is one of awe again.

There’s a tap on his shoulder a moment later, Chanuk glowering at the person for a moment for daring to interrupt his paper again only for his expression to soften a moment later when he realizes who it is.

“Okay, we’re going to the ball together,” Arazely confirms with a smile, cheeks slightly pink before she also hurries back to her spot.

“I can’t wait to tell the other hyungs that you beat them all to asking out their dates!” Seungyeon exclaims, grinning widely after he’s had a moment to process what had just happened. “They’re gonna be pissed.”

–

Word goes around in their friendship circle that Chanuk had inadvertently asked his date to the Yule Ball already, and as Seungyeon predicted, the older students are pissed. Euncheol, for one, has been working on asking Nadine out for years and she had never said yes to him. Even after all the things he had tried, he had never once succeeded. Since the announcement for the ball, he’s been concocting many a plan in the safety of one of the more isolated corners of the library.

He’s surrounded by scrunched up balls of parchment, ink scribbles on each of them when Seungyeon finds him in the library.

“Is this another one of your master plans to ask Nadine nuna to the Yule Ball?” he asks the Gryffindor, picking up one of the paper balls on the floor and unraveling it, squinting at the handwriting. He makes out ‘giant squid’, ‘house-elves’ and 'confetti’ before the sheet is snatched out of his hands and crumpled up once again.

“I’m going to figure this out if it’s the last thing I do,” Euncheol promises, before shooing him away. “I need peace and quiet for my master plan – come back later.”

And Seungyeon is promptly kicked out of that corner of the library.

Not having anything else better to do – he had conveniently finished his homework during study hall and considering he wasn’t an OWL student yet, he was free to do whatever he wanted with his spare time – he tagged along to the Slytherin Quidditch practice, wanting to watch. Despite being a member of the Ravenclaw team, his relationship with the Slytherin Quidditch Captain meant that he was trusted not to say anything.

And honestly, he wouldn’t be able to reveal much anyway – though he treasured his relationship with Saebom enough that the Slytherin knew he didn’t have to worry about Seungyeon giving away team secrets to a rival house.

He’s seated in the bleachers as he half-watches the team practice, reading up on the next lesson in his copy of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection for his Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson tomorrow morning when he’s joined by someone sitting down next to him. Glancing up to see whose presence he had just been graced by, he smiles brightly when he recognizes who it is.

“Nuna, hello,” he greets the older Ravenclaw, waving a little bit as he bookmarks the page he was on. He can always catch up on his readings a little bit later. “Are you waiting for Jess nuna? She’s not done yet … Saebom hyung keeps making them redo their formations. She’s taunting him, I think …” He glances up at the players on their brooms, an amused smile on his lips.

He knows for a fact – actually, probably everyone in the entire school knows for a fact – that the Slytherin captain most definitely had the hots for the Slytherin seeker. And vice versa. Everyone seemed to know about it … besides the two themselves. It was amazingly obvious, even from this far away that the two were flirting once again in the air.

“Are you going to the ball, Seungyeonie?” Megan asks fondly, brushing his hair out of his eyes before frowning a little bit. “You need a haircut soon,” she murmurs, thumbing at the blond strands before she confirms that she is, indeed, waiting for the lavender-haired seeker to finish with the Quidditch practice.

The younger Ravenclaw shrugs in response to both things she had said. “I was going to tag along with Eddy hyung since he’s too lazy to ask someone to go. I don’t have anyone I want to ask so I’m just … going to chill.”

Megan laughs before she ruffles his hair, fixing it the moment right after.They both jump at the shrill shriek of a whistle, Saebom finally signalling for the practice to end. The two Ravenclaws watch with matching expressions of amusement as they watch him get bowled over once he’s close enough to the ground by Jessica, a grin on her face as she straightens up. Even from where they’re sitting, across the entire field almost, they can hear her exclaiming; “Sorry! Forgot to brake,” as she waves at the two of them, mischief written clearly across her face as Saebom lays there on the pitch, dramatically playing dead. “Suck it up you big baby.”

“I’m going to go make sure she doesn’t accidentally kill him,” Megan sighs, patting Seungyeon on the shoulder before getting up to leave and he grins to himself, too amused by the antics of the Slytherins. He watches the older girl head across the Quidditch Pitch before he packs up his stuff. Might as well head to dinner now, and hopefully find the rest of his friends – before he would have to check to make sure Saebom hadn’t ended up in the hospital wing.

He waves back at his friends, who had all stopped what they were doing to wave at him excitedly in hopes he would notice, before heading off and ticking one point off of his mental to-do list.

There was no way Saebom was dying if he was waving at him like that.

–

Usually he prefers to study with Chanuk, since they’re in the same year and share a lot of classes, but he was somehow roped into studying with the head boy and he’s unsure, really, of how this had happened. They were three years apart and the Hufflepuff was doing his NEWTs now – or he should be.

“Hyung?” Seungyeon inquires, glancing at the older male who’s writing furiously in a notebook instead of on parchment paper, copying something down from a textbook.

Sinhwa glances up from his notes, a genuine look of surprise on his face and immediately closes his notebook, and Seungyeon recognizes The Look and quickly backtracks. “It’s nothing important! Really, don’t – you’re doing your Ultimate Dad Thing right now, you know.”

That stops the older male in his tracks of trying to literally drill a hole into the younger’s brain, looking rightfully sheepish as he leans back with a soft laugh. “Oops, sorry.”

The Head Boy settles back in his chair, reopening his notebook and dipping his quill into the inkwell before he glances at the Ravenclaw expectantly, his quill poised to write. “I’m doing my work now, kiddo, please tell me what you were going to say before I accidentally went into Dad Mode.” Seungyeon can’t help but laugh at that, throwing his head back slightly and he has to stifle his laughter by covering his mouth with both hands in case Madame Pince heard him and kicked him out of the library for being too loud. It takes him a few moments to really contain himself before he calms down enough to think about what he had been about to say.

“I was wondering if you had asked Megan nuna to the ball yet,” he murmurs after a moment, knowing that it had been a few weeks already and out of their entire friend group, only Chanuk had really secured a date. He had assumed that Sinhwa and Megan would be going together – they had been dating for almost a year now, if he remembered correctly, so it wasn’t like they would be going with anyone else besides their significant other.

He just didn’t have faith in his most oblivious hyung – for good reason – to have asked his girlfriend to the ball. He was five hundred percent sure that Sinhwa would’ve just assumed that they would be going together. Which was fine and dandy, of course, but he also knew Megan pretty well that he was also five hundred percent sure that she, while not expecting it, would very much enjoy an invitation all the same. Even if she had also assumed that they would be going together.

“Was … Am I supposed to?” Sinhwa looks very surprised, as Seungyeon had fully expected him to if he were honest, and even a bit caught off guard. “She’s already – should I ask her then?”

“Hyung … would I be asking you this if that wasn’t what I was implying the whole time?” The younger points out, shaking his head and pretending to facepalm, sighing audibly before he glances around.

“This sounds bad, and I don’t been to stereotype or anything, but it’s a girl thing. Also, I know Mei nuna and she would definitely like for you to ask her. So you should do it. Now. Or, soon,” he says, an air of finality in his voice. Despite being the youngest of their group of friends, his words are often taken the most seriously out of everyone’s because … well, because he was the youngest. Also, probably because he was the shyest one and tended to not go out of his way to get noticed, and therefore was the one who noticed more things than everyone else.

He didn’t like to admit it, but being the baby of their friendship group did most definitely have its perks.

“Anyways hyung, I think you should ask her to the ball,” he says, turning his own attention back to his notes as he reads them over quietly, glancing up once just to make sure he could see the gears turning in the older’s head.

Merlin, he really hoped he wouldn’t have to intervene with everyone to get them to finally ask their specific persons to the Yule Ball. Matchmaker Seungyeon Kim did not have a nice ring to it. Really. It didn’t.

–

“Do you think Euncheol hyung will finally stop trying to come up with extravagant plans and ask Nadine nuna to the ball before Sinhwa hyung realizes that he still hasn’t asked Megan nuna to the ball?”

“I think Saebom hyung will forget to ask Jess nuna to the ball until the last minute.”

“But he’s been meaning to ask her since you asked Ara to the ball! I don’t think he’ll be the last one. I think Euncheol hyung will psyche himself out.”

“5 Sickles that Euncheol hyung will be next, Sinhwa hyung after and Saebom hyung will be last.”

“Okay, deal.”

–

There’s only a week and a half left before Christmas Day, and more importantly, the day of the Yule Ball and Euncheol is starting to panic. Seungyeon had found him in the library again, once more surrounded by crumpled up plans of asking Nadine to the Yule Ball, and not one good one in sight.

He was starting to become desperate.

The Ravenclaw had convinced him to literally just YOLO it – whatever that meant. He liked to think he kept up with Muggle slang enough that he could understand what Jessica and Seungyeon liked to yell at each other, and what Sinhwa would reference after a summer of being at home, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what 'Just you only live once it’ could possibly mean.

He had taken it to mean just go for it, and the Gryffindor honestly hoped that that was what Seungyeon had meant.

If not, he was probably going to embarrass himself. Not that that was something of a surprise to him anymore, since he tended to do that on his own just fine.

But, with Seungeon’s encouragement, he was finally planning to march straight up to his housemate and just ask her outright. To hell with all of his fancy plans, honestly. Hopefully, she would take it straight and not reject him with one of her stupid excuses of not 'dating Gryffindors because they were dumb’ since, that was technically a diss upon herself.

He was getting sidetracked.

Pacing quietly outside of the classroom he knew the sixth year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were in for Transfiguration, he waits with a single rose in his hand. Of course, he had had to have something even if it wasn’t part of any of his great schemes. Operation Ask Nadine to the Yule Ball On The First Try had to be a success – so a rose it was.

(Also part of Seungyeon’s suggestions.)

When she finally steps out of the classroom, he rushes up to her before she realizes what’s happening. He’s prepared for rejection, honestly speaking, and his mind is whirring with things he can say to either play it off as a joke or to retort with to her usual excuse for saying no.

“Nadine,” he calls out, grabbing her hand and whirling her around before she can get her bearings together, smiling at her. Man, he’s been pining after her for years – fingers crossed, fingers crossed! “Go to the ball with me,” Euncheol murmurs, presenting her with the rose and he ducks his head slightly, different words on the tip of his tongue.

She’s quiet for a moment, and his heart leaps to his throat. The tension is too real, and the older Gryffindor feels like an eternity has passed before she finally opens her mouth to speak. His heart is pounding in his ears and he’s most definitely sure he had heard wrong when his brain processes her answer.

“… okay.”

“Fine! I didn’t want to go with you anyway! It was a –” he pauses, having blurted out his automated response without having really listened to what she had said. “Wait – sorry, I expected you to say no.”

There’s a smile on her face, one that will probably stay etched in his brain forever as the one that can always take his breath away, before she punches him hard in the arm and takes the rose from him.

“This doesn’t mean I’m taking back what I said about Gryffindors though,” she mutters at him, holding the rose carefully in her arms before she smiles again. “See you later?”

And all he can do is nod dumbly as the sixth year hurries off to her next class.

“Yes!”

–

“What’s Euncheol screaming about now?” Saebom asks, sidling up next to the younger and slinging an arm around his shoulders, both of them watching in amusement as their Gryffindor fistpumps his way around the hallway, randomly high-fiving people that they’re sure he doesn’t actually know. “I mean, he’s usually screaming. But this is a bit excessive, even for him.”

“Hey hyung,” Seungyeon glances up at the Slytherin, smiling in greeting before he turns his attention back to their overly happy friend. “Nadine nuna said yes to going to the ball with him, that’s what.”

There’s dead silence in answer to that statement and the Ravenclaw knows exactly what that entails, nudging the older male with his shoulder before turning to face him yet.

“Still haven’t figured out how to ask Jess nuna to the ball yet, hey?”

Saebom blanches slightly, shaking his head a moment after. “She’s not going with anyone yet, right?” He asks, his expression concerned and Seungyeon really wants to say yes just to see him sweat but he decides to take mercy on his friend, shaking his head in answer instead.

“I really think she’s waiting for you to ask her,” he points out, sighing and as much as he likes the older boy, he can’t help but think he might be incredibly dense sometimes. “She’s asked me a few times if you’re going with someone, too.”

The Slytherin seems to be lost in thought, fingers combing through his bangs in what Seungyeon is sure is a nervous habit, though Saebom does it all the damn time so he’s honestly not too sure if he’s just obsessed with how his hair looks. “Please ask her soon – I think Nadine nuna is planning to castrate you if you don’t.”

–

Honestly, Sinhwa had been fully planning on acting on Seungyeon’s words after he had heard them but between studying for his NEWTs, doing homework, spending time with his girlfriend and his Head Boy duties, it’s completely slipped his mind that he should’ve asked her to the ball properly. Especially during the time that he spends with her – he would much rather allow himself to enjoy her presence rather than have to worry about something like asking her to the ball.

But, a voice that sounds suspiciously like Seungyeon’s in the back of his head likes to remind him, she would be happy that you asked her even if she’s not expecting it.

He decides, in the end, when it startles him that there’s only a week left before Christmas, that he has to just hunker down and do it. It really shouldn’t be that hard – but why is he suddenly so nervous? They’re literally just meeting to have lunch together before they have to go off to their respective classes afterwards but his palms are feeling clammy and he has to rub them against his robes. It’s not like he thinks she’ll be mad at him, or God forbid, say no to his invite but his heart is thudding in his chest anyway.

It reminds him of when he had asked her out.

Now is not the time to think about that! The Head Boy scolds himself, smoothing down his shirt and he sighs softly to himself before he straightens his spine and heads into the Great Hall, glancing immediately at the Ravenclaw table to search the length of it for his girlfriend. She’s not hard for him to find, and he makes his way over immediately, plopping himself down next to her with a soft greeting.

They eat lunch quietly, just enjoying each other’s company in the few calm moments they could steal everyday before their hectic lives caught up with them again. This is the usual for them, and whereas some of their friends might call this boring, both of them just enjoyed it too much to really care about what other people said.

But, today, today is going to be a bit different.

Before they split, Sinhwa takes his girlfriend’s hand gently and presses his lips to the back of her hand, smiling up at her and his eyes crinkle into her favorite expression.

“Will you do me the honour of accompanying me to the Yule Ball this coming Christmas?” he asks, his voice soft so that no one would really hear what the content of this conversation was, though it probably wasn’t too hard to guess. Being the Head Boy, and a rather popular one due to his genuine kindness that he showed to everyone and anyone, meant that there was a fair share of rumours floating about. Whether true or untrue, it didn’t matter, but he knew for a fact that there were a handful drifting about of his not having asked Megan to the ball yet.

The Ravenclaw’s expression is one of surprise for a moment before it dissolves into one of immeasurable fondness as she grasps his hand more tightly in her own, their promise rings to each other clinking together ever so gently.

“Of course,” she replies, in a voice that’s even softer, gentler than he thinks he deserves with how overdue this question is. “It would be an honour to be your date to the Yule Ball.”

He smiles, and he thinks he understands what Seungyeon means now. It might’ve been easy to assume that they were to be going to the ball together, but it’s much nicer now that’s he’s confirmed it.

–

“Have you asked her yet?”

“No.”

“And why in the name of Merlin’s underpants have you not?”

“Did you just use Merlin’s underpants in a question –”

“Yes? That’s not important though?”

“I mean, it kind of is –”

“It’s less than a week until the fucking Yule Ball, Oh Saebom you dweeb, if you don’t ask her soon, Merlin help me I will castrate you if it’s the last thing I do!”

–

“I still can’t believe you were the first person out of everyone to ask,” Seungyeon sighs, having been watching all of his friends slowly gain their dates as Chanuk just stared blankly at his textbook.

“And I also can’t believe Saebom hyung is the last! This doesn’t make sense,” he shakes his head, glancing down at his paper that he’s writing for his Charms class. The professors have been increasing their workload in order to prepare their year for their OWLs – which is totally unfair, considering Christmas is just around the corner.

Chanuk glances up from where he’s chewing on the end of his quill, expression blank as always and he just shrugs.

“Saebom hyung is useless, have you not figured that out already?”

–

After much hounding from a certain tiny Gryffindor girl, he’s finally got his bearings in check to finally, finally gather up the courage to ask a certain prickly housemate of his to the Yule Ball.

Of course, the Yule Ball being the next day had absolutely nothing to do with it. He would deny that much until the grave – no, Saebom would take that secret with him to beyond the damn grave. Nadine would never let him live this down.

It wasn’t like he was nervous or anything.

Except he was. More than he had ever been before.

He had no idea why this was so nerve-wracking for him. He had fought with the Giant Squid, for Merlin’s sake, and he was fully planning on leading his Quidditch team to victory. He had dealt with so many things scarier than this, yet he couldn’t stop fiddling with his hair as he waited for a lavender-haired girl to enter the Slytherin common room.

Though, when Jessica finally steps through the entrance of the common room, he’s lost his train of thought. Especially since she plops down next to him immediately upon seeing him, and things like that always get him to forget what he was planning beforehand. They had become closer as of late, probably because he was no longer the target of her and Nadine’s pranks that he was being included in them more. And all the long Quidditch practices had required them to spend more time alone than with their friends, so it was inevitable that their friendship would flourish under these circumstances.

“What color dress are you wearing to the Yule Ball?” Saebom ends up asking her absentmindedly as a lull comes into their conversation, nudging her gently where she’s sat on the couch, legs slung over his.

Her expression is a curious one, albeit a bit of a confused one as she glances up from her copy of Magical Drafts and Potions where she’s rereading the uses and properties of the moonstone. They had been in a deep discussion on Potions just before this, and he realizes a bit belatedly that it’s a bit of a random jump in conversation topics.

“It’s like a burgundy – my dad sent it to me last week,” she answers him, flipping the page of her textbook and smoothing it down before she raises an eyebrow at him. “Why?”

He just shrugs, playing with a loose thread he had found on her ripped jeans. “I mean, we have to match – do you think I could charm my tie to be the same color?”

There’s a pause as he continues to play with the thread, twisting it in his fingers, and he doesn’t realize that she hasn’t actually answered him before she speaks again, her tone entirely confused as she nudges him with her foot. He notices now that she’s closed her book, setting it aside and he realizes that this means Real Serious Conversation immediately.

“Since when were we going to go to the ball together?”

This question catches him off guard entirely and his jaw drops slightly before he quickly runs their past conversation through his mind. It’s completely silent where they’re sitting, the expression on the younger Slytherin’s face adorably confused, before he realizes where he had went wrong and his eyes widen.

“… Oh hell, I forgot to ask you first,” Saebom whispers, reaching up to facepalm extremely hard before he changes expressions so fast, no one could have caught when he had gone from exasperated to serious.

“Will you be my date to the Yule Ball, Miss Nguyen?” he asks, extending his hand to her with a somber expression on his face – only to promptly yelp as she kicks him hard, flailing and his expression is now bewildered, laughter on the verge of appearing.

“Fuck you so hard in the ass for asking me so goddamn late, you fucking asshole,” Jessica huffs, arms crossed over her chest, her Potions book having fallen to the floor with a thud when she had kicked him earlier.

“What if I had said yes to someone else, you jerk –”

“But you didn’t –”

The older Slytherin watches her with wide eyes as he listens to all the muffled profanities she’s mumbling under her breath, catching bits and pieces like “– should say no, this asshole –” and “– I can’t fucking believe –” and “literally on the goddamn night before –” before he has to intervene, purposely pouting at her, going the cute route because he knew that was her weakness when it came to him.

“Is that a no?”

Silence.

“I’ll charm your tie for you, asshole.”

–

“Pay up.”

Seungyeon decides – as he watches everyone dance with their dates at the Yule Ball, well, Sinhwa and Megan are swaying on the dance floor, completely absorbed in each other’s presences, Arazely is sitting next to Chanuk as they drink punch together to cool off after they had jammed out too hard to the last song, Nadine and Euncheol are doing some weird intimate sort of dancing that he doesn’t want to pay too much attention to, and Jessica is chasing Saebom around the Great Hall for some comment on her height – that he’s never going to have a bet with Chanuk ever again.

#otp:when the clock strikes twelve you will be mine #otp:even the sunlight dims in the presence of you #otp:heaven must exist because how else could you?#otp:black coffee never tasted so sweet #event:yule ball #!feat:kim seungyeon #!drabble #!wc:4887

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spoonie-living · 7 years

Photo

Review: PillDrill Medication Management System

Editor Diane on deck! Frustrated with your med management setup? We’ve got a neat, nicely integrated system for you here.

First, a quick overview:

Category: medication management, caretaker aids

Good for: organization, habit-keeping, record-keeping, reminders, institutional use

Design: 4/5 ★★★★☆

Functionality: 4.5/5 ★★★★½

Bang for your Buck: 5/5 ★★★★★

Overall: 4/5 ★★★★☆

This product is best for fairly specific needs and could use additional development to really live up to its potential, but I still really enjoyed using it and would heartily recommend it to the right user. I would recommend the pill strips on their own, too.

Read on to find out if this is your own personal holy grail!

Disclosure: I have been given this product as part of a product review through the Chronic Illness Bloggers network. Although the product was a gift, all opinions in this review remain my own and I was in no way influenced by the company.

So. There’s a lot to discuss here.

As a starter, let me introduce my partner Ash! They are agender and use the singular they/them pronoun. We’re polyamorous, and I live with them and our other partner Steve.

Ash is a lot sicker and less mobile than I am, so I and the able-bodied Steve tag-team on helping them out. I got the PillDrill specifically for Ash, so I’m reviewing from the perspective of someone supporting a partner, and also based on the feedback they’ve given me.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s dig in!

What is it?

PillDrill is a system meant to fully address medication management. It has a small “mission control” hub, 1, 2, 3, or more pill strips, scan tags you can put on your individual medication bottles, and a cute little mood cube you can use to quickly log how you’re feeling at any time.

The concept here is to use the hub to scan medications as you take them. The pill strip pods are scannable, and you can attach lettered tags to individual bottles with straps or adhesive. The hub can accept a scan of these or the mood cube, and can prompt you to make certain scans with beeps and flashes.

Tying all of this together is a little app that you and a caretaker, friend, or family member can download to keep track of everything. Since you won’t always be right in front of your hub, you can also log a dosage from the app by medication name, pill strip, or letter. The app will send you scheduled reminders if you like, and send an alert to someone if you are a specified number of hours late in taking them.

The app keeps track of when you log any medication, which is helpful if you need to space your dosages carefully. It keeps your history so you can easily look back and see your adherence to your schedule, or how often you’re using rescue medications.

What we liked

This system is feature-rich and pretty while still being modular and flexible. Don’t want reminders? Just log your meds when you take them! Don’t want to bring others in on your medication management? Don’t need to! Not really into scanning or the hub? Just buy the pill strips!

Ash and I did a lot of trial and error with the system, figuring out what did and didn’t work for them. In the end, they found that they like having the hub around by their nest on the couch, but mostly log doses on their phone. They don’t care about me or Steve being looped in on what they take, but I did find their mood notifications really handy and used their medication history/”med cabinet” in the app to make sure I filled their meds up correctly each week. They found medication reminders a bit too stressful (the hub beeps and flashes and their phone lights up), so we turned those off really quickly.

The pill strips are absolute keepers. They’re nice and easy for Ash to open despite painful joints, and—fitting in with the modular approach—each day’s pod pops out for easy carrying. Very handy. The pods are surprisingly spacious, too! Ash was worried their enormous host of dinner medications wouldn’t fit, but they (just barely) do.

Ash's pill strips are in the places they are mostly likely to take a certain dosage, so Steve and I find the individual pods extremely helpful when Ash asks us to fetch their meds from another floor of the house; there’s no worry of us moving an entire pill case to the wrong spot and forgetting to put it back. When they go out for a meal, they bring their pod along with ease (although this does mean there’s a weekly “where-did-you-leave-that-one-pod” moment).

As you may have gathered, I just love the pill strips as a concept, and think they really stand out on their own as an individual product. Do read on to the next section for some of my concerns, though.

The mood cube, too, is a really great addition to the system. The hub is a bit like a clock radio, so you could keep it by your bed or wherever you nest up during the day, and just scan the cube whenever you notice it. Ash doesn’t let on about how bad they’re feeling—mostly by habit, but also because they don’t emote unless they feel socially obligated to. The mood cube was so great, because I could get passive updates over the course of the day without bothering them with “how do you feel on a scale of 1-10″ or any other such silliness.

While we didn’t end up using the other features, I absolutely see how they could be useful for the right person! I love that the PillDrill seems to have been designed with different experiences in mind.

What we didn’t like

I actually have a pretty long laundry list of things we didn’t like in the PillDrill. They aren’t dealbreakers, but they do somewhat detract from the product as a whole.

The pill strips make me a bit uneasy for travel. I definitely would recommend them to someone who is mainly taking their meds at home, but a trade-off of easy-opening pods is that the closures aren’t very strong; if your pods were being jostled in your purse every day, you’d probably have a few spills. Ash was hesitant to try carrying them because of this, but the shortness of the trips they generally take with the pods seems to minimize the risk.

The strips also have nice magnetic straps you can pull over them to keep them in place when you travel, but I’m still not convinced they wouldn’t pop open in your luggage under the right circumstances.

Note: If you’re looking for a good on-to-go pill case, I highly recommend looking into the Sabi Folio, which I love and have been using for the last 2 years. Here’s a review I wrote a while back for Ethos Disability, if you’d like to learn more.

I also noticed that some pods stay in the strips better than others. They’re supposed to pop into the strip pretty securely, but we have a couple days that can’t quite stay in, which bugs me just from an aesthetic perspective. This is a production issue and could probably be fixed in future versions.

I think the app is where this product needs the most work.

There were a bunch of little things that bothered us, so I’ll just throw them in a little list:

There’s no way to assign doses to pill strips. This means that if you log a day’s pod, you’re not logging exactly what you took that day. This is a real miss, since folks will probably want to keep track of when they start and stop certain medications. The alternative is to log each medication one at a time, which is ridiculous when you take so many medications.

You can’t name pill strips. They just go by Strip 1, Strip 2, and so on. Kind of rough when you have a bunch of them.

Notification overload. When you take a bunch of meds all at once, you get this cascade of reminders. You can fix this by setting up a pill strip instead of individual meds, but the above two items make that a little less viable. A short-term fix would be to group those reminder notifications.

No mood-only notifications. I don’t care when Ash takes their meds—that’s their business—but I do want to know how they’re feeling. Unfortunately, I can only get these with “meds taken” notifications, so I experience a notification overload on my end, too.

Better mood gradation needed. Ash’s health has been ranging from “bad” to “awful” lately, and they’ve expressed a real desire for better gradation in that area; the data we’re collecting here isn’t so useful. I know cubes are useful and cute, but maybe PillDrill can take a cue from the dice used for tabletop RPGs.

No time stamp editing. Right now, you can’t edit the timestamps, meaning that if you forget to log your meds and try to do it later, it won��t show an accurate time. Ash takes a number of meds that restrict when they can eat before and after, so it’s pretty important that they keep track of when they were taken. They’ve been foggy enough that they might be able to remember they took something 15 minutes ago, but will forget that a few minutes after and not know when it’s safe to eat yet. This could be a big barrier for folks who use rescue meds they need to space out by a certain number of hours.

No way to export medication lists. This is pretty self-explanatory—it would be great to be able to share the contents of your “med cabinet” in the app with a doctor. As it is now, you’ll either need to take screenshots or keep a separate list. This makes the “comprehensive solution” feel a bit less comprehensive.

Symptom tracking would be pretty cool. We’re both hoping to see this in a later release of the app, as it’s the obvious next step.

Who will benefit from this system

Overall, it seems like this system was designed primarily for foggy stay-at-home folks with or without caretaker(s). It also seems like it would be great in an institutional setting, given the at-a-glance medication adherence features and ability for a caretaker to add multiple patients to their app.

Anyone with a bunch of different medication times will love the reminders, and folks who generally take their doses at home will love the pill strips to death.

Otherwise, it’s all about what you’re into!

Want one of your own?

Look no further! Head over to the PillDrill site to pick up the whole system, or just the beautiful pill strips.

Enjoy, y’all! ❤

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