#oh also: I know NOTHING about starfield other than what i googled and wikipediaed in the process of writing this

[ofkasterborous]

"Can you stop running away from everything?!" (What if I pass you a freshly minted Starfield!Richie? (aka a space-based Richie))

"Ahhhhh," no, "probably not, no. Has this always been like this?" This man was familiar with the layout of this ship, wasn't he? Had to be. He looked... shipmany.

"This door, why is it locked?" Something like a perception filter, too, or a.... he didn't know, but it had taken him three walks of this corridor to realise the rooms that made it up just weren't big enough to take up the actual length of the corridor. Three walks to notice an entire room somehow seemed to be missing, and then another good look to find the door.

Weird. Not the sort of tech you'd expect on any sort of ship for another hundred-odd years, especially human. Especially anything anywhere near humans, human curiosity sort of just... persevered, perception filters weren't really even on the inventive radar 'til the Doctor himself at accidentally suggested it to UNIT in 2463 (sorry) (it'd been a good suggestion at the time) (going to confiscate his ship, they could at least put her somewhere not blindingly obvious for the aliens coming to raid UNIT, looking for her).

He turned, still squatting (the sonic hadn't done anything to unlock it, either, and that was weird, too), to peer up at the man he had met only very briefly aboard this ship, when being "briefed" on what would happen to him, as a discovered stowaway.

'Stowaway'. Loved a good stow-away. Nuisance traveler, borrowed a ship, they weren't even far off, on the face of it, just sort of. Completely wrong. (The thing the Doctor'd wandered - 'run' - off from had, for the record, been an intensely boring conversation about whether they could drop him off at the next interstellar planetary pitstop; he had not known this man had watched him leave, and he did not really care, either.)

... He read something in the man's face, and returned to the door, sonic buzzing this time not in an attempt to get in but simply to read it, the sort of tech they were using. Way beyond its years. "This sort of technology's not even... this galaxy. Not even this neighbourhood." Apparently, 'neighbourhoods', to him, were larger than galaxies. "Not in twenty-three-hundred-something."

[hailqiqi]

2, 5, 9, 12, and 16 (muahaha) for Skirting Katabasis!!

Thank you for the ask!!!! :D

I’ve put this to the side to work on Snippets for now but man this ask made me go through it again and remember how much this fic is my baby.

And uh... it got long.

2. Where did the title come from?

Ooooh this is like the only fic where I can ramble about the title!

So, Kerberos is the dog that guarded the underworld in Greek Mythology.  I had to come up with a name for the ship that Shiro flew, so I did some research - most of the underworld-related words were taken, but Obol was still available for the ship (and pretty meaningful since it was the money they would put on the eyes of the dead to pay the ferryman for the crossing).

I wanted to continue the theme for the title, so I started googling about for related terms in literature and came across Katabasis:

Katabasis or catabasis (Ancient Greek: κατάβασις, from κατὰ "down" and βαίνω "go") is a descent of some type, such as moving downhill, the sinking of the winds or sun, a military retreat, a trip to the underworld, or a trip from the interior of a country down to the coast. The term has multiple related meanings in poetry, rhetoric, and modern psychology.

(Thanks wikipedia)

It is also used to mean ‘disaster’ as in ‘oh no! That’s a disaster!’ in some Slavic languages, and I tend to think that the overall feel of the word fits in nicely with the themes and character development in the fic (since Pidge is basically skirting disaster for the whole fic), and also loops back to the Kerberos mission.  Hence.. Skirting Katabasis.

Also, the story was meant to be focus on Keith & Pidge Space Shenanigans and for some reason I like the idea of them whizzing through space and skirting around black holes.

5. What do you like best about this fic?

The platonic relationships in it, more specifically: the bits I didn’t plan.

Listen, this fic was meticulously planned.  It started out with about 2,600 words of outline.   All the Keith/Pidge interactions were very nicely planned out, and the plance ones.

But like…then I started writing it.  And there was a paladin bond (not planned). And Keith and Pidge found the personal effects (not planned). And then Naxzela made its way in and all of those group hugs (not planned). And then Lance was chatting to Keith on Pidge’s tablet (not planned). And Matt and Sam were talking to Pidge in the hangar (not planned). And Shiro was trying to sort out the Lance & Pidge problems (not planned).

And these are by far my favourite parts of this fic.   These scenes have become the heart and soul of it.  All of the stuff I had planned out that I’ve looked forward to writing for months and months?  Yeah yeah heaps of fun but this stuff is the fic.

9. Favourite line(s) of dialogue?

So this fic is driven more by Pidge’s internal monologue, and I had to have a good look to find something.

Honourable Mention:

“Sure, but there apparently wasn’t any things to end up in any way anyway,”

Said by a hurt and angry Lance to Shiro.  Listen, I’m a language nerd. I like this line because it’s clumsy and the kind of shit that people come out with when we speak a second language and our mind is racing wayyyy ahead of our heads, even when we’re fluent as fuck in the language already.

For my actual favourite line, I couldn’t pick just one.  It’s Sam’s whole speech at the end of Chapter 4.

Sam sat up straight, his arms spread wide, indicating the front of the ship. “I remember sitting here and staring out of the windscreen at the stars, thinking ‘Look at us. We were never meant to be out here, but look how far we’ve come.’”

His words fell heavily in the quiet.

“It was pretty incredible,” Matt added, his voice soft, his gaze fixed on the hangar wall where the windscreen should have been. “We lived in this thing for months, but every time I looked out the windows and saw that starfield I had to pinch myself. Every time.”

Sam ran his palms over the consoles around him fondly. “I know the distance between Earth and Kerberos is probably just a drop in the ocean to you, Katie, and the technology on The Obol is nothing compared to the Lions, or Voltron, or even anything we’ve seen from the other planets we’ve visited, but…”

He looked up at Pidge, a soft smile on his face. “The Obol took humanity the furthest we’re ever going to get on our own steam. She deserved better than to rot in in pieces, like scrapyard junk.

“When you finish her, make sure Shiro flies her home.”

12. Imagery that is important to the fic, either while composing or in the fic itself?

Honestly, whenever I think about this fic I imagine Keith piloting himself and Pidge around the edge of a black hole kinda how Lotor does that sun thingie in Season 4?  So I think that.  The ship, the danger, the thrill of excitement, and the stars.

16. If you used a beta, what did you agree or disagree on?

Ahahahahahaha.

You like commas way more than I do, but I think in general we see eye to eye? You definitely call me on it when I can do better with a paragraph or a scene and I love and adore you for it cause sometimes I need that push to get me working to my best (and honestly, I seriously think you can’t improve unless someone tells you when you’re doing something wrong. Constructive criticism is worth its weight in goddam gold).

The only thing that I remember:

Echoes of terror, panic, confusion and relief all raced through her head, flashes of coloured boots on metal floors — yellow blue black pink, purple lights and shivering muscles, pain and wonder and pure determination. Apology — from Green, Green was always the clearest — and sorrow at not being able to do more.

And you commented ‘I’m not quite sure what the comma situation is here’ and my immediate reaction was well duh that’s the whole damn point of this bit. But that’s neither a disagreement nor an agreement.

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