#protecting lance online isn’t enough

[lil-shiro]

Protecting him with my life

[jalapenobee]

Klance goes Halloween costume/candy shopping

Three little demons

Pidge, being the lazy gremlin she is, stole one of Matt’s black cloaks and got a fake scythe from Party City down the street for her costume. She was the grim reaper.

Shiro just planned to wear brown and put a toy football, cut in half, on his nose with tape. He grasped his elbows with the opposite hands and let his arms hang, making an obnoxious “huh” sound whenever someone talked to him. He was a Minecraft villager.

Hunk, contrary to everyone’s assumptions, wasn’t going to be a chef. He pulled out a Santa beard from last year and dyed it black, twisting it so it wasn’t as puffy. He ordered a wizard costume online, and ta da, he was a wizard. On a quest, if I may add. To save his village.

Coran had scavenged for his space pirate disguise, which was now hanging on the back of his door for the 31st of October.

You can probably tell that these four already have their Halloween costumes ready. They do. But there were still three people who didn’t.

Keith, Lance, and Allura. Today, they’re going costume shopping at a sketchy market that Coran had given them directions to. He insisted it was totally safe.

We’ll see about that.

<r e c o r d i n g>

“Is this thing on? Yeah. Okay. Hello, everybody!”

“Lance, what are you doing? There’s nobody watching.”

“Yeah, but we’re gonna watch this later with everyone, so I might as well address the audience.” Lance’s fingers formed his signature finger gun pose, aimed directly at the one and only Keith.

A sigh came from behind the camera, and the view was flipped to the source of the noise. Allura. “Can we just get going? We only have two days before Halloween.”

Lance pouted but agreed. Time was running short, so they piled into Allura’s Lexus, camera pointed towards the floor, Keith snagging shotgun and shutting the passenger door before Lance could protest.

“Wha- Keith! You can’t do that, I was holding the camera!”

Keith rolled down the tinted window and flashed a smug smile. “I think I just did.”

“What if I sit in your lap?”

“We’re not that far, Lance.”

“Just sit in the backseat!”

“See? Look at what I gotta deal with. Especially with this mullet here.” Lance turned the camera’s view from a close up of his face towards Keith and jabbed a thumb in his direction.

“I can hear you, Lance.” They both rolled their eyes with Allura, who turned her key and started up the car as Lance climbed into the backseat.

“Let’s go, bitches.”

“I’m pretty sure Pidge taught her that word.”

<r e c o r d i n g p a u s e d>

<r e c o r d i n g>

“Okay, we’re here.”

The camera’s viewpoint shifted to an old-looking sign sporting the word “market” in red capital letters. Faded tents and stands stood in rows facing each other under it, selling various items, some more, ahem, suspicious than others.

“I don’t know why Coran thought we could find a Halloween costume at this place,” Keith muttered. “Let alone something that isn’t caked in dirt.”

Lance waggled his eyebrows at the camera. “Or blood.”

“Don’t- just don’t, Lance.” Allura’s annoyance was enough to get everyone to start walking down the rows of “shops”. It resembled an outdoor mall, really. Looking closer, the stores had their own special style and flair, and some were bigger than others. They weren’t all tiny shacks.

“Alright, and the search starts now. You guys wanna split up?”

Allura and Keith both shrugged and promptly turned around and walked away, leaving Lance.

<r e c o r d i n g p a u s e d>

Lance paused the recording on the camera and ran after Keith, catching up to him in an embarrassingly long amount of time. Even though he called his name and got Keith to stop.

“Wait, can I come with you? This place is kinda sketchy and… uh…”

“What?”

Lance dropped his voice to a timid whisper and cowered behind Keith. “I don’t wanna walk alone. Some of these guys look creepy.”

“So you want me to protect you?”

“Yup!”

“Long shot.” Keith rolled his eyes and continued to walk, scanning the front of the stores for one that looked like it sold costumes.

“Good thing I’m a sharpshooter, then. I’ll reach my target soon enough.”

“You already got your target, Lance.” Keith turned around and planted a small kiss on Lance’s cheek, who had started to walk with him.

<r e c o r d i n g>

“And we’re back! I’m here with my wonderful samurai boyfriend Keith, and- wait. Where’s Keith?”

Lance looked around, a confused expression on his face until he saw Keith waving him over from the entrance of one of the bigger stores.

“Ah, there he is. Let’s go find a costume!”

Lance rushed over to where Keith was standing, in the wide entrance of probably the only store that had good lighting and a clean floor.

“Can you not record me? It’s weird.”

“Sure, of course!”

Despite his sarcastic promise, Lance made it his mission to point the camera at Keith whenever he got the chance, proving to be a bad idea when the paladins watched the video later.

Keith led the two of them through the store, passing other customers and the occasional clerk until they got to a clothing section, displaying many varieties of eccentric garments (that felt way too sophisticated).

“There might be something good here…”

Lance rolled his eyes at Keith’s mumbling. “Damn right there is. We’re gonna find the best costumes.”

<r e c o r d i n g p a u s e d>

And with that, they began looking.

They split up again, Lance being left alone to be suspicious about everyone who crossed his path as he sorted through the racks of clothing, the camera forgotten and hanging at his neck by the strap. Nothing looked good enough, though. All of them were either too big or too small or just didn’t have enough flair.

The same thing was happening to Keith. He couldn’t find a good costume either, but at least he found Allura. They talked in hushed voices as they browsed through the short aisles.

“I can’t believe we actually came here.”

“Me neither. Coran can be kind of suspicious sometimes.”

Allura nodded in agreement and fingered a costume that stood out from the rest. It was a demon costume, but she didn’t really care. It had black wings and horns, and a dark red tail attached to the back of the black bootcut pants. A blood red halter top hung under a thin white mesh shawl that would’ve reached her elbows.

She grinned. “I think this is the one.”

“This isn’t like shopping for wedding rings, Allura.”

She rolled her eyes and bid a goodbye to Keith, walking off to find the checkout line. One demon.

<r e c o r d i n g>

“Now I am officially with Keith, and I think we’ve found our Halloween costumes! After someone spent ten minutes trying on one of them, only to decide it was too big.”

“It was too big. And these are girl’s costumes!”

“So? Who cares?”

Lance let the camera hang from the strap as he held up the two matching costumes to Keith.

Guess what they were.

I dare you.

They were *ahem* female demon costumes. And Lance had his heart set on wearing them. Two demons down, one to go.

Both had horns and tails similar to the ones on Allura’s costume, but the wings were smaller and bright red. And under a black crop top hung glittering black and red ruffled miniskirts that Keith didn’t want to wear.

Too bad for him.

“Cmon, please?” Lance draped the costumes over his right arm and lifted the camera, pointing it at Keith. “I really wanna match for Halloween. Don’t you think we’d look cute in skirts?”

“Don’t you think this is perfect blackmail material for Pidge?”

“It clearly never crossed your mind that I have better blackmail material than Pidge.”

Keith opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Lance did have a point… wait, no! He might’ve been right, but Keith is not wearing a skirt for Halloween.

Hold up. Unless…

“Alright, I’ll wear it, but on one condition.”

Lance felt a bright smile form on his face. “And that is?”

“Ditch your skincare routine for a week.”

“Deal! Wait, what? I can’t do that!”

“Nope, you already agreed! One week starts now!” Three little demons.

“Get back here!”

Whoops… there goes any chance of being pimple free on Halloween. But it’s worth it, Lance thought, if I get to see Keith in a dress.

<r e c o r d i n g p a u s e d>

1,494 words

Im sorry because this isn’t really Klance and it wasn’t very on topic, but I’m PROUD of this

I crunched it out in one and a half days now I feel powerful

There’s also an art piece I’m working on that connects to this, it’ll be out in a few days to a week

[murmursdraconic]

The Knowledge Post

PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE

Shay has performed well in League Tournaments and holds several championship titles across the regions of Kanto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and especially Johto, her home region.

In Johto her accomplishments in media gave her the nickname ‘Silent Slayer’. An internet search can pull her up online by anyone. She doesn’t like the name to be honest.

The Dracomet family name is well known in Johto for it’s Sanctuary work and Pokemon preservation and protection. They provide programs and education seminars across the region and internationally when they can.

Shay will refuse to battle people who aren’t on her level unless she has the appropriate team for it. There isn’t anything she hates more than giving someone an unfair fight.

She doesn’t really like people. Likes Pokemon way more. She has a very sensitive empathy for them.

The Sanctuary was on the news when Team Rocket tried to attack it, but the attempt was unsuccessful.

Her Charizard spends 99% of her time out of her ball, and is much taller than average Charizard.

SEMI-KNOWN KNOWLEDGE

Asharas is her Ace Pokemon that travels with her everywhere.

After an incident in Alola, her Haxorus, Havoc also travels with her everywhere too.

She goes out of her way to capture Pokemon to avoid them being exploited by criminal enterprises, including overly powerful and shiny Pokemon.

She is part of the Dragon’s Den Clan.

Shay has trained... probably too many Pokemon for her age but that’s all she’s done since she was little.

She’s a master bushcrafter and explores with little tools while adventuring. She doesn’t stay in cities often.

She’s technically a Team Skull member because her Galvantula got her caught up in that nonsense.

Shay was homeschooled and has no public school experience whatsoever.

Regularly she looks into exotic black market rumors and tries to rescue Pokemon from becoming victims of it. She has busted a few operations in Johto when she was younger.

PRIVATE KNOWLEDGE

Her father died protecting her home from a Team Rocket raid when she was twelve.

Shay is by definition, a Faller. She’s been to Ultra Space, had a brief stint with Ultra Necrozma before escaping with her life. A stray Giratina helped her out and she ended up capturing it so they could both escape. She leaves it at home and rarely ever uses it.

Lance @drgnbld​ is her unofficial official adopted Dad. She was adopted at some point.

All the scars on her body are from her own Pokemon she’s trained. Oddly enough all of them are well covered with her usual attire.

When Rocket was involved in Silph Co, two of Shay’s Pokemon were killed while getting in a bit too deep for her own good at the time. Their graves are at home.

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Rapunzel and the Great Tree Part 2

Continuing on with the midseason finale of season two.

Part 1 is here  https://rachelbethhines.tumblr.com/post/628826170657570816/tangled-salt-marathon-rapunzel-and-the-great

Summary: After Adira saves Rapunzel and the group from the hurt incarnation, Cassandra makes her suspicions of Adira known which causes a falling out between her and Rapunzel. Meanwhile Hector uses the dormant power of the tree to try and attack everyone. 

Cassandra’s Motivation Doesn’t Aline With Her Later Actions 

If you’re going to have a character do a complete 180 from her original goal, than you need a better reason than just mommy issues; or validation issues, or career problems, or just simply having a falling out, or jealousy, or a ghost girl whispering in your ear, or whatever the fuck they’re trying to do with Cassandra.  

Going from ‘protect’ to ‘murder’ is a huge moral alignment shift that needed clear and reasonable justification. Cassandra is never given that. Instead they just throw everything at the wall that they can think of in the hope that something sticks. 

Only it never does because her original story was re-written at the last minute.   

Well That Was Pointless

Max and Pascal wind up saving Eugene and Lance from the man eating plant. Which adds nothing to the story. It happens and is then never brought up again. It’s just an excuse to write Eugene out of the Cass and Raps conflict and not an extension of either his or Lance’s own narratives. 

That’s a problem, because Eugene should be a main character and Lance an important supporting side character. Instead Eugene is regulated to side character status while Lance is unimportant comic relief. Not only does this ignore that fact that Eugene was the protagonist of the movie same as Rapunzel, but it also ignores the basic writing rule of ‘don’t add in characters who don’t serve a purpose in the story’. 

Adira Just Saved All of Your Asses, Cass

Boy does Adira put up with a lot of bullshit in this show, and 90% of it comes from Cass being a little bitch. 

She has no biases for this argument. Adira hasn’t done anything to warrant this accusation. In fact she’s proven herself time and time again only for Cass to lash out like a spoilt teenager with an inferiority complex. 

And Cassandra is 23!!!    

The young adults on this show are constantly written like pre-teens while the only actual teenager is constantly forced to be the most mature person in the show. 

It’s mind boggling. 

Rapunzel is In the Right Here, But the Show Wants Us to Sympathize with Cass Instead?

Oh No! Raps raised her voice at Cassandra and made her feel bad, you guys. Feel sorry for the poor paranoid baby who who’s acting like a jealous brat for no reason. 

Bull Shit. 

Cassandra not only has nothing to back up her accusation but the narrative never goes on to prove her right either. Adria is on the up and up, and always had been according to Destinies Collide. For all the show’s efforts to make Cass seem reasonable by having Adira mysteriously pop in and out, it all falls flat once you know where everything is heading. 

Plus, even if she were magically right about Adira that wouldn’t excuse her bossing Rapunzel around and insulting her intelligence. Had she done that to me I’d be telling her something a lot harsher than just to knock it off. 

Oh, But I Thought You Said Flashbacks to Corona Would Be Too Confusing?

So one of the writers, Ricky, has gone on record stating that they did originally have plans to show flashbacks to Corona to show what was going on with Rapunzel’s parents, Varian, and the Saporians. He then said they dropped them because they feared that it would be too confusing for the audience. 

Yet we get this pointless scene thrown into the middle of the mid-season finale. 

And by the looks of it it’s before even Beginnings, or maybe after Beginnings, who knows; so it’s not just a change of scene, it’s also a change in time as well. A point in the timeline that’s not been firmly established enough. So it not only has less reasons to exist then a Varian flashback would, but it’s also potentially more confusing than what a simple single episode set in Corona would have been. 

I don’t know who to blame for this poor decision making, if it’s just Chris, Chris and Ben, or a shared blame with all of the writers, but while the buck does stop with Chris, much of what Ricky has said online doesn’t reflect very well on his writing skills. Cause that’s a huge and utter bullshit excuse. 

So What Does This Add, Exactly?

Cass gives Rapunzel this purse as a gift. A purse that’s not been shown to be all that important before and isn’t made significant again. Then Raps launches into this speech about how good a friend Cass is and how lost she’d be without her. 

I understand what the thought process for this was; it’s to show how far Raps and Cass have grown apart recently and what Cassandra herself liked about being friends with Rapunzel to being with, which was the validation boost of being useful and needed; but there’s a lot of problems with including it here. 

For starters, lack of validation isn’t enough to suddenly switch into ‘kill mode’ which is where all of this is eventually leading.  

Validation shouldn’t be the foundation of any long term relationship and so rather than proving how good of a friend they are to each other, you’ve only given futher reason for why they’re toxic together. 

You needed to be building them up all throughout season one before launching into this break up plot. This scene is too little too late because we’ve spent too many episodes tearing Raps and Cass down for this plot to have the effect that they wanted it to. 

Cassandra is just doing her job. She’s suppose to show Rapunzel around and help her with shit, that’s what a lady in waiting does. Cassandra’s friendship with Rapunzel shouldn’t be so tied to her career trajectory to begin with. Not only is it unhealthy but it then is used to victim-blame Rapunzel for all of Cassandra’s problems. Even though the only thing actually holding Cass back is herself, as proven in season three. 

Timeline Confirmed

So it is indeed six months since Secret of the Sun Drop, give or take a few days to organize stuff before the trip. Meaning we’re now a year out from Before Happily Ever After. I point this out now, in order to prove something later on. 

This Logically Should Have Been the End of the Argument, But the Writers are Dragging Things Out Needlessly 

You know what I hate more than a ‘lack of communication causes drama' trope? Characters taking the time to communicate and still missing the bloody point and not resolving anything. 

Technically, Rapunzel is still in the right. She is an autonomous person capable of making decisions for herself, and Cass does need to get over herself and treat Rapunzel as such and stop getting butt hurt over not being the one in charge. 

But then we have to ruin that message by throwing in this line. 

Like, yes you’re technically in charge here Raps, but making decisions shouldn’t mean walking all over someone's feelings either. Being a leader is just as much about listening as it is about taking charge and neither of these characters understand that yet. 

And they never will, cause the writing for them is shit. 

When I first saw season two I honestly believe that this would tie into Rapunzel’s previous conflicts regarding responsibility and hypocrisy. I thought they had an arc here about learning to balance assertiveness and personal boundaries, with genuine compassion and respect for others. Had they went through with that then this could have been something truly special, but they go and throw it all away come season three. Now its just heartbreak and frustrating to watch. 

Also Stupid ‘Sisters’ Plot Foreshadowing 

More on this later, but just know if you hate the idea of calling Raps and Cass sisters then blame Chris. 

This Song Underlines The Core Problem With Cassandra's Arc

There’s no stakes.

I’ve already discussed at length now about how Cassandra’s goals and motivations are inconsistent, and how her actions don’t line up. But the reason the writers are struggling so hard to find something that fits her, is because the story has grown past her. 

We’ve already seen characters who struggle with poverty, homelessness, neglect/abuse, and oppression. There are now tons of people in the story who are fighting just for survival, and they’re all regulated to either supporting roles, one off appearances, or are background characters. 

So with that in mind what is there to justify Cassandra getting focus over them? What is she struggling with here that deserves more screen time and attention than, Eugene, Varian, Lady Caine, or even Adira? 

Cassandra isn’t poor. She lives well off in the castle and has high ranking connections. She’s not even struggling with a job she hates anymore because we’ve already seen her promoted to the one she wanted by this point.  

Cassandra isn’t homeless, she once again lives in the castle and if she chooses to leave she has plenty of opportunities waiting for her, as evidenced by Goodbye and Goodwill and Beginnings. Plus she’s shown to be capable of supporting herself both in this season and the next.  

Cassandra isn’t oppressed. She can leave anytime she wants to. She can defy the king's orders in SotSD because she’s the princesses’s bestie. She doesn’t face jail or hanging just because she and Raps has a fight now and then. 

The only thing going for her is possibly neglect/abuse, but that’s not been introduced into the story yet and isn’t what she’s discussing here. It also contradicts what was previously established between her and Cap in season one when it does come into play. 

Validation Alone is Not Enough to Connect With Most of the Audience 

Even the stanchest of Cassandra supporter often has to heavily project onto her in order to connect with her. Which isn’t a bad thing in of itself. Everyone projects to some degree or other when exploring media, that’s part of being human. But the problem is that because she’s so thinly written you’re left with little else but projection. And so you’ll hear excuses like, well she’s fighting the class system, she’s an abuse survivor, or she deserves to lash out over not getting what she wants when she’s worked so hard for it. But none of those excuses are actually presented on screen. 

Cassandra doesn’t fight against the class system. If she did she would be fighting for everyone. She’d be singing about everyone’s problems not just her own. 

Cassandra’s past abuse is just slapped on at the last minute and then disregarded when convenient. It doesn’t actually factor into the decisions she makes later on.  

Also, you don’t deserve anything just because you ‘work hard’ nor because you just really, really want it. 

It’s that point that I really take issue with. 

On the surface Cassandra should be the most relatable person in the show. I mean what young adult or teen living in this post apocalyptic nightmare of a capitalist dystopia not ever felt disappointed over not getting the job they wanted or not being given enough positive validation while crushed underneath mounting unrealistic expectations. It’s the main reason why so many of her supporters are teenagers and LGBT+. 

But all of those worries stem from something deeper than just a lack of positive reinforcement. 

You know why I had to give up on my career as an animator?

It didn’t pay benefits. 

I had medical issues and needed health insurance, but since most animation is commissioned and/or contract based, particularly if you live/work on the east coast, then you’re not going to get that most of the time. And this is after spending the majority of my time in college homeless, living out of my car, crashing on friends and families couches. I did this for three fucking years because I didn’t want to wind up in a textile mill or a carpet factory like everyone I else knew growing up, and I was told my whole life that if I went to school and worked hard enough I could have a well paying job that I enjoyed and got me away from my abusive home life. 

People like me, we’re bitter over not getting the jobs we wanted or the support we needed, not because we believe we’re special and therefore deserve it or some such bullshit, but because our very lives are dependent upon it! We’re victims of a class system that lets you starve if you don't find work. Where you’ll be trapped in abusive situations cause you can’t afford a home on your own. Where simply being yourself can be dangerous as there are people who vocally want to deny us rights and even kill us. 

Cass is an entitled whiny brat in canon because she doesn’t have any of those underlying issues. She doesn’t face real discrimination, oppression, poverty, or the looming threat of death hanging over her. She’s just throwing a temper tantrum. 

Once Again Adira is Saving Your Butt Cass

Adira is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters in the marathon. I’m sorry I didn’t appreciate her more when I first watched the show. 

Also, I’m Sorry I Didn’t Recognize the Awesomeness That Is Hector Until Now Either.

Like this is a good conflict. They both have legitimate reasons for what they do. They’re both in the right here. That’s what makes them interesting. 

They’re both fighting for something. They’re home and the belief that they can fix things, vs the fate of the world and their loyalty to both the cause and their family. All on top of having their own relationship issues. 

Hector so should have been the main villain of season two, because he just has the most reason to be opposed to the mains’ goal. 

That’s more than whatever Cass and Raps are fighting about. The only thing at stake there is their friendship, which isn’t that big of deal when you compare it to the lives and safety of billions of people. 

Plus Hector’s just flat out entertaining. 

Why is Everybody Just Standing Around Doing Nothing Here?

Fucking do something you lugnuts!!!

You’re all capable fighters. You’ve all taken down much harder enemies than one lone guy and two bearcats. Why aren’t you helping Cass fight back? Or heck, if you wanted Cass to face Hector alone then have her be a distraction so that the others can escape. Anything but having them just stand there and be useless!

Yet Again I Have to Ask Why Should Cass Care? 

Or rather why should the audience care? 

Cass isn’t a lady in waiting just because some random jerk who's already taunting her and trying to kick her ass calls her such. Hector’s not from Corona and has no knowledge of Cassandra’s life beyond what he may have heard repeated by Adiria (who is also not from Corona) or what Cass herself said in her very metaphorical song.  Nor does either them have a say in how Cass’s career goes. 

If you want to push the narrative that Cass is still a lady-in-waiting and a maid, despite having earned Cap’s approval and being appointed by the king to guard Rapunzel, then you damn well need to establish that among the mains. 

Or you know, stop trying to go back on what you’ve set up in season one. 

So How Is This Suppose To Work?

So from the backstory that we get on both the Tree and Zhan Tiri herself, this shouldn’t happen. Like Zhan Tiri is currently trapped in another dimension and according to season three she has no possession powers herself. 

Now the tree itself is said to be sentient and that Zhan Tiri took control of it, but how? How is a tree sentient? Why is it sentient? How did Zhan Tiri bend it to her will? Why is it still under her control while she’s been trapped in another dimension for hundreds of years? Why and how does the spear keep it dormant? Why does the tree itself have possession powers when Zhan Tiri has none? Is there any connection between this Great Tree and the cursed tree that was suppose to free Zhan Tiri back in Painter’s Block? If so then why are these things never brought back into play during season three? 

Give me answers damn it! 

Now This is a Good Conflit, Shame It’s Never Resolved 

Both have valid reasons to do what they do. Both are neither right nor wrong. Both however wind up getting in the way of each other because neither will listen or trust the other. 

Rapunzel thinks that this will stop Hector, and she is right it does, but more importantly she chooses this route because it gives everyone else a chance to run away. The problem is that she can’t control it, but from her point of view that’ll only put her and Hector at risk if everyone else will just do as she says and leaves. 

Cassandra thinks the spear will stop it because it’s done so before, and that’s a logical assumption. It also means that Rapunzel herself won’t be in any danger, though the others might. Cass can’t free everyone at once like Rapunzel can. It’ll also be a threat to herself, and there’s the risk that tree will stop her before she can deal the final blow.  

So what’s happening on a personal level is that Rapunzel thinks taking charge means that everyone needs to follow her say without question. Cassandra thinks Rapunzel should listen to her more, not because Rapunzel needs to listen better in general, but because she doesn’t feel Rapunzel is mature enough to make big decisions and that she herself should be in charge of the group. Both girls feel superior to the other and above other people as well, because they’re convinced they’re always right. 

Had this been the actual conflict that they went with in season three, had they actually had both characters held accountable for their actions and learn something, and hadn’t dragged innocent people into their bullshit with so much as a ‘by your leave’ or ‘I’m sorry’; then this might have been a decent story. Perhaps not as impactful as Varian’s, but still meaningful, thoughtful, and well, coherent. 

But that’s not what they did, and we’ll see no real resolution to this disagreement. 

So Why Is No One Affected By the Hurt Incantation This Time?

Eugene here was injured by the tree earlier, that’s why he’s past out, but everyone else remains unharmed by Rapunzel’s singing. Even though just last episode everyone around her were dying from it, and again in the season finale everyone dies from said incantation. But here and in Rapunzel’s Return, Rapunzel can use the incantation without harming anyone nearby so, how does that work? 

Some people have suggested that when Rapunzel focuses her hair on a target like the tree here or the amber later, that it doesn’t spread to other people, but that’s never stated on screen so it’s still a flaw. 

 Well This Goes Nowhere 

I think the writers just like throwing in shocking ‘twists’ and moments like this just for the sake of looking edgy and ‘deep’ but then they never actually follow through on the impact of such moments on the characters nor consider the more troubling implications of including them. 

I grew up on Gargoyles, Batman the Animated Series, the 90s X-Men Cartoon, and The Pirates of Dark Water. I’ve seen far more shocking and edgy stuff than this when I was six years old. In many ways the american animated tv landscape has regressed since the early 2000s when it comes to more mature cartoons, and no that’s not a complaint about modern cartoons being bad; some are good some are bad, just like its always been; but that culturally we’ve shied away more from darker moments like this and we’ve having to push for them all over again in media.   

But the difference between Tangled and those 90s cartoons I’ve mentioned is that Tangled’s darker moments are misplaced. It clashes horribly with the more comedic route that the series usually takes and as such they don’t get the focus that they need too. 

After season two is done, Cass’s hand will never be mentioned again. It does not tie into her later motivations at all nor influences her actions. Throughout the series she’ll be able to use it easily without consequence. We don't even get any on screen confirmation if it’s healed by grabbing the moonstone, by the sundrop incarnation in the finale, or if she just forever has a burnt arm. That’s how little importance it is to the story. 

This Also Goes Nowhere

Hector calls out this warning but it’s then never followed up on. Adira is proven not to be a liar at all and nobody in the group is actually doomed. Yes the wider world is put in jeopardy, but that’s Cass’s fault not Adira’s. 

The writers were too focused on making Adira the red herring for Cassandra that they forgot to make her an actual person, with wants, feelings, desires, goals, and a life beyond her mission. She’s never shown helping her family and barely interacts with them, she’s never given a reason for why she keeps disappearing, and the idea that she’s doing this to save her home is just supposition on my part because otherwise she has no reason. The series never gives us one. 

And ‘Destiny’ Is Not A Fucking Reason!!!

Oh, So Adira Will Help Hector But Not Quirin or Varian?

If Hector and Adira consider each other siblings because they’re both in the Brotherhood, than logically Adira would consider Quirin her brother as well, and Varian would be her nephew. 

She was around long enough to see the final battle in SotSD. That’s why she appears at the end of that episode, how she knows Rapunzel is the sundrop and has ‘seen her power’, and how she knows that the group has met both Quirin and Varian before now. 

She knows that Quirin is trapped in amber. She knows her nephew has been arrested by a kingdom with a poor track record of punishing orphaned teens and poor people with overly harsh sentences. So why didn't she do anything there? 

We find out during season three that the black rocks can cut through the amber, and its established that Adira’s sword can cut through the rocks, so clearly she didn’t even try to save Quirin has just given him up for dead. But there’s no reason why she couldn’t have broken Varian out of the prison and taken her with him. 

In fact Adira hiding Varian from the rest of the group during season two would have been an actual reason for her disappearance and an actual reason not to trust her. That would have upped the stakes and given Cass reasons for what she does. Plus more time for Varian’s redemption, more chances to call out Rapunzel and Fredric on their BS, and ties seasons one and two together better. 

Seriously leaving Varian out of season two was the dumbest decision in television. Putting Varian back in actually fixes everything in the show. 

The Real Reason for the Burnt Hand is a Costume Change for Cass

I don’t know if she even got merchandise for this costume.   

Conclusion 

Much like season one’s arc episodes, The Great Tree held a lot of promise that was then completely wasted by season three. It’s also one of the very few episodes in the season to have actual stakes and conflict so it easily jumps to the top of the pile. But what it sets up is then never resolved or expounded upon, making it a waste. 

Next up we’ll have the mid season recap. 

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid 192

192

    Holding Keith’s hand in public felt nice. Walking from the hotel to the restaurant, Lance found himself watching families of all types as they walked. He couldn’t help it. A smile coming to his lips as he watched kids nag their parents, or listened to them as they played. His hand sitting on his stomach while his mind substituted the kids for their twins, and the parents as Keith. Keith would be such a good dad. He absolutely knew that for certain. He’d worried when Keith had spent most of the night sleepless, the walk seeming to invigorate him as it wore away Keith’s energy. Keith needed his coffee pronto, lest a server cop his boyfriend’s uncaffeinated anger loaf rage.

  Leading Keith into the restaurant, it had a kind of rustic charm. Heavy oak logs made the walls, with all kinds of memorabilia stuck to the walls, including a giant stuffed fish with a plaque that red “Billy Bass”. It appealed to his tacky side in all the right ways. Sending Keith to find a seat, his boyfriend slouched off to throw himself into the only available booth. Lance giving a shake of his head affectionately. He really loved that cranky werewolf. Waddling over to the counter, he forced himself to remember to look and act like a girl. Keith didn’t know he was terrified of the same kind of comments made at the petting zoo being repeated. This trip had to go as well and as smoothly as it could. Picking up the menu, he knew instantly he wanted more than pancakes. Everything smelt vaguely appealing, and Keith would eat like there was no tomorrow.

  “What can I do you for, darling?”

Jumping at being unexpectedly talked to, the woman behind the counter cackled at him

“Sorry, love! I didn’t think you’d be lost in thought over a menu”

Lance flashed a smile, careful of his teeth. He kind of wished he’d worn a set of glasses. The more he stood in the restaurant, the more he heard and the bigger the world suddenly seemed to be

“Sorry, everything sounds so good I’m not sure where to begin”

The woman chuckled

“I remember those feelings. How many you got in there?”

“Two. I guess I do look pretty big”

“And carrying low, you’ll be in labour no time, love. Now. What do think?”

No. Nope. No labour for him. Not unless he was comfortably set up at VOLTRON... he’d hold his legs together for as long as possible if their twins dared to think of coming this soon

“I think I’m famished. Can I please order two sets of pancakes and two sets of the bacon breakfasts? Ooooh, and I’ll grab a fruit salad, two of the largest coffees you have, aaaand... I think I’ll have a green tea latte... and a fruit salad. Yeah, that’s all, thank you... oh! Do you guys have soy milk? I don’t want to gas my boyfriend”

  The woman behind the counter ogled him fo a moment, shaking her head and laughing again

“I don’t know where you’re going to fit all that... We have soy, almond, and regular. None of that skin stuff”

Lance blushed. He couldn’t help that he didn’t exactly know what he felt like, but food seemed like an amazing idea

“It’s for me and my partner. Soy will be fine, thanks”

The woman slapped his arm gently with the back of her hand

“I know that, love. Just an old woman teasing”

“You don’t look that old”

She looked about the age he should look... her name tag reading “Dae”, the white tag almost lost in the red of her bright red shirt

“That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day. Now, darling, cash or card?”

“Card please”

  The woman rang up there largish breakfast bill. Lance paying as he was trapped into small talk

“So, love. Are you here for our Easter markets? Or you one of those passing through?”

“Oh, my boyfriend and I are spending a few days here. We’re meeting up with some friends”

The woman printed him a receipt without him asking

“I’m sure you’ll find this quite boring compared with the cities around here, but we have own charm. Now, can I get a name for this order?”

He’d been prepared for that. He’d made kind of a mental story for himself. He and his photographer boyfriend were driving up, stopping in small towns as Keith built up a portfolio in the hopes of turning to selling prints online

“Lancella... my, uh, parents were hoping for a boy”

“I’m sure they love you at any rate. We can’t help our names. You go take a load off and I’ll bring your coffee over. Take my advice, love, take a look at the markets while you’re here. They really are something else”

“Awesome. We might just take your advice. Thank you”

    Siding, barely, into the booth opposite Keith, Keith was glaring at the menu in his hands. Tugging it free, his boyfriend huffed as Lance set the menu back into its holder

“Your coffee’s coming”

“Good”

Keith should have perked up at the thought of coffee. The scent was strong enough that Lance’s stomach was threatening to turn traitor right there at the booth

“Babe?”

“It’s nothing. You looked like you were having a good conversation, Lancella”

Lance rolled his eyes at the name

“I’m a simple man. The best lies have a kernel of truth in them”

“It pisses me off that you have to lie. You’re you. If people don’t like that, they can go play in traffic”

  There was his grumpy little anger loaf. He’d also realised something that was likely to make Keith grumpier

“You can’t just put them in traffic. You know, we’re going to be in trouble”

Keith sighed deeply

“What for now?”

“I’m starving... and all that food has to come back up. Plus, apparently I’m going to pop soon”

Scowling at him, Keith sat back and crossed his arms. His voice firm and joke free

“There’s no way you’re allowed to even think about giving birth in this crappy town. Don’t even think about going into labour”

Sometimes it was scary how in tune they were. He didn’t want to give birth here, yet he couldn’t hate this town

“I don’t know. This town isn’t that crappy. This is the town you were born in and you’re not crappy. Maybe crabby... but not crappy”

“You’re fucking hilarious”

Lance shot his boyfriend double finger guns

“I try. But seriously, I’m starving...”

  He’d also forgotten to do his shots before leaving the hotel room. Keith coming out with the bath mat around his waist had driven away the thought. His boyfriend hadn’t questioned why he’d packed heavier than usual. There was a whole suitcase of towels and bedding, waiting to be unpacked. His new plan was that after breakfast they’d unpack a little more, and he’d look up the directions to the cemetery where Keith’s dad was buried. The vampire knew his own pain from having now lost both his parents, yet that was nothing compared to Keith losing his dad at such a young age. Making the comparison seemed really shitty and like it lorded the fact Lance had had his parents for so long, that’s why he’d never say it out loud.

  Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the coffee and the latte. Keith sliding both mugs towards him as Lance thanked “Dae”. Wrapping his hands around his cold drink, there was kind of a happy peacefulness as Keith took his first sip of coffee. This was nice. Them having no real schedule. Not rushing around. Kind of on a date, but not at the same time...

“Stop staring”

Chuckling, Lance moved his hand up to take the straw between his fingers, stirring his latte as continued to stare

“What are you going to do if I don’t?”

Kicking him under the table, that was Keith’s great comeback

“Really, babe?”

“Fuck you. Fight me”

  It’d be soon long since he’d heard that one. The second they found out he was carrying, he had to behave himself and training went out the window

“I could beat you, but we both know you’d liked it”

Delivering the words slowly and purposely, Lance succeeded in making Keith choke on his coffee. Placing the mug down, his boyfriend coughed into his hand

“Fuuuuck...”

“Still want to fight me?”

“Keep this up and I’ll beat your arse so hard you won’t be able to walk for a month”

“Do you promise?”

On the back of choking on his coffee, Keith choked on air. His hand fanning his face as he shook his head

“You deserve to be punched in the dick for that”

“Nah. You love me too much for that”

“God. I fucked that one up”

  Lance knew Keith was teasing, yet he felt himself automatically tear up. Apparently he could dish it, but his ego was too much of a diva to take it. Dropping his gaze to his drink, he felt awful for how he’d reacted

“Babe?”

“It’s nothing”

“You know I love you, don’t you?”

“Yeah. Sorry. I guess my hormones are being silly. It’s ridiculous”

Keith wisely decided not to agree with him, changing the topic

“What did you order?”

Raising his head again, Lance shot him that fake smile that hadn’t come out in so long that he wasn’t sure he was doing it right

“Pancakes. Eggs, tomatoes, bacon, sausages, and fried onion. Coffee for you. Tea for me, and fruit salad”

“You think that’s enough?”

Now he was feeling self conscious over how much he wanted to scarf down his food

“I figured you’d eat what I didn’t...”

Keith playfully kicked him under the table again

“Great. Now I’m the garbage disposal unit”

  Shit. Why had his mood plummeted so much? Now it had, his ego was getting riled up. He was starting to feel vulnerable over being pregnant and into a strange place, where people he didn’t know could easily target him, or Keith. He couldn’t scent anyone like them in the place, yet he’d been so care free when they’d come in, he hadn’t thought to. The sudden shift to extreme vulnerability by his ego threw him off. They were a goddamn vampire. Had he been so inclined, he could easily take every single human on in the restaurant... Why was he suddenly so spineless? And why was his ego not propping his mood up with its usual douche attitude.

  “Babe, you’ve gone pale. And you’re shaking. What’s wrong?”

He was shaking? He hadn’t noticed...

“Sorry. My ego... just went funny...”

Keith stared at him in confusion

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know...”

He didn’t know. Was it not sure keith could protect them? No. Keith could and would go beyond them. Then why did it want him to run? All he wanted was a nice breakfast with Keith, so Keith wouldn’t be so stressed about what was to come...

  Leaning across the table, Keith’s confusion grew. Cocking his head, he drew back slowly

“You feel like... you’re pushing everything away. If there’s something wrong...”

“I don’t know what’s wrong. I’m sorry”

Trying to let his ego flare a little, the instinct to run grew with it. Lance quick to force it back down. Maybe he’d been too focused on being home of late? No one had made any kind of threat towards him

“If you’re not feeling well, we can go back to the room”

“That’s not it. All of a sudden I got a spike of fear and I’m not sure why”

  Keith pursed his lips, shook his head, then suddenly decided to move to sit next to Lance, a little too fast for Lance’s liking. Taking his hand in his, his boyfriend squeezed softly

“You don’t need to be scared”

Having Keith close should have calmed him, yet the spike of fear had spiked his anxiety over not knowing why he was kind of internally freaking out  

“I know. All I wanted was a nice breakfast”

“We can still have a nice breakfast...”

“I’m so sorry. I know you’re stressing badly. This has to be so much all at once”

The restaurant was loud, despite it being breakfast time. Too many people seemed way too awake

“The glasses help. Do you want them?”

  Yes. And ear plugs. Someone dropped something in the kitchen, Lance flinching at the sound as he shook his head

“No. No... it’s okay. I’ve been doing this longer than you have”

“Are you sure?”

“Babe, I’ll be okay. It’s just weird... I don’t smell anything... bad. Maybe I’ve spent too much time hermitting”

“Or maybe people just suck?”

“Careful, babe. Your grump’s showing”

Keith huffed with a pout

“I’m not being grumpy”

“Fine, your lack of people love is showing. I hope breakfast doesn’t take too long”

“You need to eat more. You’re all skin and bones”

Lance’s ego chose to take the wrong way. He ate. Keith knew he ate. He couldn’t bring Keith’s mood down any further

“I’m going to. Your babies are demanding it”

  Bring their hands to Lance’s stomach, Keith rested them there

“Already causing so much trouble. You two better give your dad a break”

“That’d be nice. I think the first thing they’re getting when they’re old enough is a trampoline”

“Why do I feel like you’re the one who’s going to be spending more time on it than them?”

“Because it’s nice to lay out under the stars?”

They hadn’t done that in so long... Maybe they’d get a chance while they were here?

“I wonder what sex would be like?”

And there Keith went stating the real reason he supported getting their kids a trampoline

“I’m not conceiving any future siblings on a trampoline”

Keith bumped his shoulder lightly

“There goes that idea...”

“I’m going to put you in a time out if you don’t get your mind out of the gutter”

“But without the gutter, my mind would be homeless”

  Without missing a beat, the werewolf had him groaning

“Who taught you that one? They need to be shot”

Keith grinned, Lance kind of envious that no matter how upset Keith was internally, he was keeping his ego well under control. He should be proud. No. He was proud. He just wished his would perk back up

“Pretty sure I learned that from you”

Great. He couldn’t exactly shoot himself... though he’d definitely shot himself in the foot in the metaphoric sense

“You don’t want to listen to me. I’m going crazy in my old age”

“You’re not even that old”

“Older than you”

  Keith put on that bad southern drawl that never failed to work on him

“And twice as pretty. A pretty little thing like you should be careful. A big bad wolf might just gobble you up”

“Nah, my boyfriend takes care of all the scary things out there”

“I could take him. They don’t call me the Mullet for nothin’”

Oh lord. That was terrible. That was terrible and Keith knew it was terrible

“Is it because you’re kinda fishy? A bit limp all dead eyed?”

“Why, miss. I’ve been told I’ve got the perdiest eyes around”

Lance let out a long groan of defeat. He didn’t feel safe, and as much as he didn’t want to feel amused, Keith’s stupidity was kind of turning his frown upside down

“Alright. No more. I get it”

“Do you feel any better?”

No...

“Yeah. I’m still staving, though”

“It won’t be too much longer... hopefully”

   *

Keith kept a careful eye on Lance once their breakfast finally arrived. Lance noticing, and responding by eating despite the lack of interest in the pancakes he’d wanted. It was hard to pretend to be happy. Everything felt too much for him, and having it all feel too much for Lance threw him.

  Holding it together, the walk back to the hotel was brisk. Lance tried to shake him off to go to the bathroom alone, but Keith wasn’t having it. As Lance “threw” himself down to vomit, he slipped behind him, tugging off the annoying wig so he could rest his chin on Lance’s shoulder. His boyfriend was shaking, his skin felt a little colder than its above barely warm natural state. Having played breakfast over in his mind, he still didn’t know why Lance had spooked, or why his ego had drawn in. The only thing he could think of was that that woman’s words brought up Lance’s fear of giving birth soon. No one had said anything to his precious mate. No one had barely looked their way. No. Everyone else was too busy fucking chewing like a herd of cows. The noise infuriating now he’d noticed.

  Staying with Lance until his stomach settled, his boyfriend wobbled on his feet as he stood. Keith had spent the time giving Lance belly rubs and trying smother him in his scent to calm him down. His own ego was rattled by their mates strange actions, making it almost mad at a situation where no one was to blame. Rinsing his mouth out, Lance stared at him in the mirror. He looked exhausted

“I’m sorry”

No. Lance had nothing to be sorry for

“Babe. Hey, it happens”

“I’m supposed to be the one in control here... and I freaked out for no real reason”

“It’s okay”

  Lance didn’t know he was semi echoing Keith’s earlier movement as he kicked the basin cabinet lightly

“No. No it’s not. You’re stressed. You’re in a new environment. You’re being forced to go out with me when I look like this. And I couldn’t even keep my shit together long enough to enjoy being out to breakfast with you. It’s fucking pathetic. I should be past all this shit”

“You’re overthinking things again”

Sighing deeply, Lance went to grab his toothbrush out the toilet bag, only to knock the contents out. Sensing the impending tears, he turned his boyfriend towards him, gathering him against him

“Babe. Hey. It’s okay. I’m not mad and you haven’t done anything wrong”

Lance shook his head again

“I’m sorry... God. I feel so fucking incompetent”

  Lance wasn’t incompetent. Keith ego saddened to hear their mate talk about himself like that. He wanted to make Lance smile again

“You’re not. Didn’t Dae say something about a fair?”

Again, Lance shook his head

“Sorry... I think I want to lay down for a bit... and I really need to pee. Can... can you get the blankets out the suitcase? They’re in the black one”

“And you’ll be okay?”

“I’m going to pee, then I’ll be out”

Kissing Lance’s hair, Keith found himself more anxious over Lance than the thought of seeing his father’s grave. Maybe Lance was more tired from the day before than he was letting on

“Alright. I’ll be waiting”

   When Lance came shuffling out the bathroom, he made straight for Keith. Keith having covered the top of the hotel bed with their three blankets, the bottom one acting as the sheet between them and the crappy bedding below. Lifting the corner back, his boyfriend climbed in beside him. Shoes and all. Lance had to be dead tired to not fight him over his shoes, which had kind of become part of Keith’s daily job. Laying himself against him, Lance rested his head on Keith’s chest, arm snaking around him. Somehow the feeling that came to mind was akin to missing that bottom step and terror flooring you for a moment as your stomach dropped. When Lance started crying, Keith could only let him cry it out. He’d gotten used to Lance having more emotions than he thought possible for a vampire. Lance’s motto seemed to be “sometimes you just need to cry it out”. Still. It sucked. They were so far from their friends. So far from home... and the hard bit was yet to come.

    *

Falling asleep Keith, Lance carefully pried himself off his boyfriend. He felt safer for being in the hotel room, and disoriented from how hard he’d seemed to nap. Creeping to the bathroom, then back into their room, Lance mentally sighed to himself over his emotions. He was being so dumb. Keith needed him... None of this... he couldn’t break down now. Taking his phone off the bedside table, the vampire crept back into the bathroom. He’d already talked to Keith, explaining that he didn’t get what was going on at all... Yet he wasn’t sure that Keith believed him. His people hating boyfriend had offered to take him to the markets on for Easter. That wasn’t Keith’s thing. That was Keith grasping at straws and trying to find a way to make him happy again.

  The call took a long time to answer, Krolia’s voice happy as Lance wondered if he was annoying her

“Hey, Lance! How are you?! Did you and Keith arrive safely, I swear that boy never thinks to let me know he’s okay”

They’d sent a message to group chat, and that was about it. With some small unpacking, they’d both been too tired for phone calls and any form of in-depth conversation

“Sorry, Krolia. Yeah, we got here okay. If this is a bad time, I can call back”

“No. Not at all. Is everything okay? I mean, I’m thrilled you called, but I’m confused as to why”

  That stung a little. He hadn’t spoken to Krolia all that much since Keith turned...

“I won’t keep you long. I have a question, and I think you’re about the only one who understands what it’s like to be pregnant”

He would have turned straight to Mami if she’d been alive. He felt like he really needed that maternal support right now. Hearing her voice would have driven home she was safe and she would have teased him for being hopeless

“Shoot away! Are my two grandbabies giving you grief already? I can have a stern talking to them, if they are”

   He wanted to reach through the phone and hug Krolia. Keith was absolutely amazing with him, yet he couldn’t fall pregnant. A small snort escaped without him meaning for it to

“They’re fine. Using my bladder as a trampoline and wriggling around in there. I... uh... I was wondering if when you were pregnant with Keith, if you ever felt... scared for no reason”

There was a pause. Lance grateful Krolia was taking the time to think about it

“Sometimes, yes. Especially in the line of work I do... Did something happen?”

So Krolia has only experienced fear when thinking of vampires and werewolves...

“We we’re having breakfast and all of a sudden I got scared. There was nothing there to be scared of. No one else who wasn’t human... but... I feel like I was too care free lately. I didn’t guard my scent. I didn’t think about what would happen had someone caught it. I didn’t think about bringing Keith here and what if there was someone like us here... I didn’t think about it... and I feel... like me not thinking about it is the same as me thinking Keith... is... something less than he was”

  Starting to cry, he felt really very stupid for his tears. He treasured Keith. But he’d been running around trailing his scent after him without a thought of the impact. All he’d wanted was to get things done and settle his ego

“Lance, you love that idiot son of mine. I’m sure at the first hint of danger you would have reacted. Is Keith there with you?”

“He’s asleep... I’m sorry for calling... I would have turned to Mami, but...”

“No. No. I’m glad you called. I want to be there for the both of you. Yes, I was scared. But nothing like Keith’s father. The slightest thing and he wanted to rush me off to the emergency department. You’re under a lot of stress. Have you been...?”

Lance shook his head, then remember Krolia couldn’t see him shaking his head

“Not yet. I freaked out and Keith had to take care of me...”

“You’re nearing the end of the pregnancy. Fears happen. I know that all too well. Especially how the insomnia can play on your mind. You’ve both been through so much, and I heard from Curtis that you were looking forward to some alone time with Keith. My opinion is that you let Keith take care of you. He’s strong”

“He’s not that strong when it comes to his dad”

“No, but keeping it in will only make him worry more. He loves you. If anything were to happen to you... well, I feel sorry for whoever crosses you. I believe both of you would sense actual danger”

“How am I supposed to know the difference?!”

“You’ll know. Take these feeling of fear and ignore them. Push them aside. They’re useless. Focus on you and my grand babies. You should be safe there. Coran didn’t mention anything about anyone living there that you should be wary about”

Lance sniffled. Krolia hadn’t given him much of anything useful and it sucked... but she tried in her own way

“Thanks, Krolia. I’m going to go back to Keith now”

“No worries. Let me know how everything goes. You can call me. Anything you two need...”

“Yeah. I will. I... thanks for talking to me...”

“Anytime. I’m your mother too. You can come to me”

  Coming out the bathroom, Keith was awake, meaning he’d heard some, if not all, Lance’s side of the phone call. Stopping a few steps into the room, he expected Keith to be angry at him for admitting he hadn’t thought of his precious boyfriend’s safety. He hadn’t thought of anything much when it came to the more important things he should have been almost paranoid about

“Babe... come here”

Holding his arm out, Lance caved instantly as he moved to climb into bed with Keith, his emotions getting the better of him as he started crying again. Krolia wasn’t Mami. She didn’t give advice like Mami did. The vampire craving that maternal touch, that Krolia had only taken the point off of

“That’s it. I’m here... I’m here, let it all out”

“I’m sorry”

Keith gentle ran his fingers through Lance’s hair, hushing him softly

“Shhhh... I’ve got you. I’m okay and you’re okay. It’s okay”

“I miss Mami”

“I know you do, babe. I know. Let it out... let it all out”

  He was such a selfish boyfriend, yet Keith loved him anyway. He didn’t deserve the love he felt from Keith, but he did notice that together like this, the fear had mostly gone away. There really was no substitute for cuddles with Keith.

[tigerkirby215]

5e Illaoi, the Kraken Priestess build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Riot Games)

I’ll take “Champions Everyone Hates” for $300, Larry!

Jokes aside Illaoi was a beyond obvious build with all the Unearthed Arcana subclasses being shown off. With Tasha’s Cauldron on the horizon and recent news that Illaoi is actually getting another skin it only makes sense to make a build for her.

But this is also an opportunity to make something interesting. In particular I see a lot of people online saying that the only viable melee Warlock is Hexblade, and while the Hexblade subclass certainly makes creating a melee Warlock easier it isn’t the only path you can choose. So to prove that you can play other Warlocks with a big ball to slam people with here’s a more melee focused Warlock build!

GOALS

Sheeyutu Nagakabouros - So Illaoi needs tentacles. What? Lurker in the Deep Warlock? I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Broken bones teach better lessons - Illaoi is a buff lady and I want her to crush my head between her thighs... What? Uhhh STRENGTH BUILD TIME!

Many gods ask for worship; they are weak gods - Probably the only hard part about this build is going to be ripping people’s souls out of their body... Good thing I’m honestly probably not going to do that and simply reflavor some stuff.

RACE

League of Legends has its gods and monsters, but the majority of the characters are human. Variant Humans get to start with a little bit more than the average human, but let’s get the normal things out of the way first: increase your Strength and Charisma by 1 to break bones more easily and to find more people who want you to break their bones. You also get a proficiency in a skill of your choice such as Athletics to lug a giant Kraken god head statue around all day, and a language of your choice like Deep Speech to speak to your god through your statue.

But most importantly you get a free Feat, and unfortunately this is a case of me being forced to stick feats into this build for the sake of aesthetic. Illaoi doesn’t wear armor in-game but I could make the argument that her massive arm pauldrons and general outfit could be seen as Medium armor. So even though you could get Heavy Armor “proficiency” thanks to the Eldritch Armor Invocation from the Class Feature Variants UA I’m instead going to suggest taking the Moderately Armored Feat for Medium Armor proficiency and +1 to your Strength score. Feel free to take something like Great Weapon Master instead if you’re okay with actually wearing Heavy Armor at the cost of an invocation.

ABILITY SCORES

15; STRENGTH - Eat your heart out The Last of Us 2 haters. (BTW screw everyone who’s been harassing Laura Bailey on Twitter. I know this is old news but still.)

14; DEXTERITY - Something something Medium Armor, even if Heavy Armor is an option.

13; CHARISMA - Ultimately this is a requirement for the class we’ll have to be playing, but I’m sure there’s a reason this tentacle-lover keeps showing up to ruin my soloqueue games.

12; CONSTITUTION - Illaoi is a tank in-game and while I’d love this to be higher unfortunately we need other things more.

10; WISDOM - Illaoi has knowledge of the old gods which I’d personally consider to be more Wisdom based than Intelligence.

8; INTELLIGENCE - Signing yourself off to be the priestess of some deep sea Cthulhu monster isn’t something you do when you have a high GPA.

BACKGROUND

Fun fact: you can be a priest and not be a Cleric! The Acolyte background lets you grant your service to a god, even if that god isn’t commonly accepted. You gain some Religion proficiency as well as general Insight, as well as two languages of your choice like Abyssal and Primordial to speak to all the ancient beings of Bilgewater.

Your feature Shelter of the Faithful will be a... little odd for your DM to implement. There are few temples to Nagakabouros, but if you can find followers of the Bearded Lady they will provide shelter for you and your allies, and also support you (and you alone) as their Priestess. But regardless you will still be able to find your people in your hometown, and will be able to perform sermons for your god. Even if those sermons involve cracking skulls.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - WARLOCK 1

Did you enjoy seeing the word “Fighter” a lot in my Garen build? Well you’d better be ready to see a whole lot of “Warlock” in this one. As a Warlock you get two proficiencies from the Warlock skill list so learn about the History of Nagakabouros and also take Intimidation proficiency because I’m pretty fucking intimidated when an Illaoi comes into my lane if you know what I’m saying.

But unlike most classes Warlocks get to choose their subclass at level 1 and low-and-behold we’ll be going with the Lurker in the Deep Unearthed Arcana Patron which will soon be appearing in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. One may ask why I didn’t wait for that book to come out to which I reply “I need to make content.” Regardless you get Scion of the Deep at level 1 to communicate telepathically with (almost) any creature that has an innate swimming speed that’s within 120 feet of you. The creature can understand you regardless of your shared languages and can respond telepathically. Look all I’m saying is that you’ve gotta be able to talk with Nami somehow.

But of course what you’re really here for is Grasp of the Deep. As a bonus action you create a tentacle at a point you can see within 60 feet of you. The tentacle lasts for 1 minute or until you make another tentacle. When you create the tentacle, you can make a melee spell attack against a creature within 10 feet of it. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 cold or lightning damage (your choice when it takes the damage) and its speed is reduced by 10 feet until the start of your next turn. You can also move the tentacle up to 30 feet as a bonus action on your turn and repeat the attack with said bonus action. You can summon the tentacle a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier and regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Yes I did just copy-paste the description of the ability because it’s a lot of words to say something very simple: make tentacle in 60 feet, slam people with bonus action, move it up to 30 feet per round.

But unlike in League you get more than just tentacles at level 1! You also have access to Pact Magic! You can learn two cantrips from the Warlock list: Lightning Lure lets you pull your opponent’s not-quite-soul closer towards you, and Eldritch Blast is an Eldritch Blast that lets you Eldritch Blast; I’m not going to pretend you don’t know what this cantrip is.

You also get two spells from the Warlock list and now it’s time to just take any spell that has the name “Hadar” in it. Arms of Hadar lets you strike everyone near you with tentacles; isn’t it fun to get your ultimate at level 1? For some sort-of Soul Stealing action I’m actually going to recommend Witch Bolt: after hitting an enemy with the spell you can keep hitting them from a distance and they can’t do anything about it! Truthfully though there are a lot of really great spells for this build at first level and I’m sad I can’t list them all, so if you don’t like my spell picks try out:

Hellish Rebuke (Thornmail)

Hex

Protection from Evil and Good

Thunderwave (Subclass-specific spell, otherwise known as “better Arms of Hadar that aren’t tentacles so they’re actually worse)

Yeah level 1 is always overloaded.

LEVEL 2 - WARLOCK 2

Second level Warlocks get access to Eldritch Invocations to improve their abilities, and you know what we still need? A proper ability to rip out people’s souls. Shame we won’t get that, but Grasp of Hadar will pull them closer and Lance of Lethargy will slow them for trying to escape their Test of Spirit. These invocations do stack (IE there’s no rule saying you can’t apply both at once) so you can theoretically pull someone 10 feet closer to you and make them 10 feet slower, resulting in 20 total feet of distance you’re gaining on them.

You can also learn another spell at this level and while there are plenty of good ones I’m going to suggest some Thornmail, or rather Armor of Agathys. The spell doesn’t require Concentration, gives you some bulk, and makes enemies think twice about hitting you. And it scales well too!

LEVEL 3 - WARLOCK 3

So how about we get something big to bonk our enemies with? Hello Pact of the Blade! In short you make a weapon in your hands to fight with, and I’d argue that a Maul is probably the closest to a big two-handed bludgeoning weapon.

I should mention that technically you need the Improved Pact Weapon invocation to be able to cast spells while you have a weapon in two hands, but you can get around this by using a component pouch instead of a focus. (And Illaoi seems the type to cast with squid organs.)

Oh and you can learn second level spells now! Spells like Earthbind to make sure your foes don’t take to the sky to escape the wrath of the ocean.

LEVEL 4 - WARLOCK 4

4th level Warlocks get an Ability Score Improvement so it’s time to invest in your main stat: Strength! What was that? Charisma? No no silly Warlocks use Strength obviously, so put +2 into that.

You also learn another spell at this level, and another cantrip! For your cantrip Mage Hand will let you summon a little tentacle for you to grab smaller things at a distance. As for leveled spells Ray of Enfeeblement will let you pack Exhaust for your foes, reducing their attack damage. It’s a bit of a dirty trick but Nagakabouros doesn’t fight fair.

(Artwork by ERDJIE on DeviantArt)

LEVEL 5 - WARLOCK 5

5th level Warlocks get another Invocation so guess what we’re taking? Yup: Eldritch Smite, pretty much a given whenever I make a Pact of the Blade build. This will let you slam your foes so hard that they fall over! I’m also going to suggest you replace Lance of Lethargy with Thirsting Blade, as by this point Grasp of Hadar is already pulling them close enough thanks to two Eldritch Blasts per turn.

You can also learn another spell at this level and remember when I said we’d take any spell with the name “Hadar” in the title? Hunger of Hadar lets you make an area pitch black and summon a bunch of tentacles in that area. Basically Hadar is this world’s Nagakabouros. "Bearded Lady, Nagakabouros, names don't matter! Action does."

LEVEL 6 - WARLOCK 6

At 6th level your tentacles finally have some lifesteal! And by lifesteal I mean defensive properties. Guardian Grasp lets you use your reaction to make a tentacle shield an ally from a hit, reduce the damage they would’ve taken from an attack by half. The tentacle can shield any ally within 10 feet of it, and it disappears after defending them. Note that this works for spells too, so if someone’s having their soul ripped out of them you can use your abilities to pull it right back in!

Additionally your servitude to the Bearded Lady grants you a Fathomless Soul for the ability to breathe underwater, a swimming speed, and resistance to Cold damage.

And finally you can learn another spell like the Unearthed Arcana spell Spirit Shroud. This spell will let you slow enemies that are near you and also do extra damage.

LEVEL 7 - WARLOCK 7

7th level Warlocks get another Invocation but there’s nothing that particularly interests me. May as well get Devil’s Sight in case you’re playing against a Nocturne.

You can also learn another spell at this level and hey look more tentacles!  Evard’s Black Tentacles is a subclass-specific spell that makes tentacles that can hold people down!

LEVEL 8 - WARLOCK 8

8th level Warlocks get another Ability Score Improvement: increase your Strength by 1 and your Constitution by 1, as those are your two main stats as a Warlock. Definitely.

You can also add another spell to your list, and while there are plenty of great choices I’d opt to rid yourself of the unworthy with Banishment.

(Artwork by Diazex on DeviantArt)

LEVEL 9 - WARLOCK 9

9th level Warlocks get access to another Eldritch Invocation, but again none of these are that particularly interesting so I suppose you could grab Otherworldly Leap for the Jump spell at will?

But you get access to another spell and if you need guidance from Nagakabouros then Commune with Nature will let you gather information to aid you to spread your faith.

Now (or ideally sometime before) would also probably be a good time to replace a lot of your old spells, so depending on your DM here’s some spells you should probably swap out, and what they should be swapped to:

Arms of Hadar (RIP tentacles) with Vampiric Touch (3rd level) for some lifesteal. (Enervation at the 5th level is also a decent alternative that works at range.)

Witch Bolt with Dimension Door (4th level) for a Teleport back to lane.

Earthbind with Synaptic Static (5th level) for a Leap of Faith against your foes. (By that I mean it’s my build and I like this spell.)

Ray of Enfeeblement with Cone of Cold (5th level) for another powerful AoE spell in a teamfight.

LEVEL 10 - WARLOCK 10

At 10th level Lurker in the Deep Warlocks can feed their god’s Devouring Maw. As an action you can create a 10 foot radius sphere centered on a point you can see within 60 feet. Each creature in that area must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be restrained. And then: teeth... this feels like Pyke’s thing. Regardless any creature that starts its turn in the area takes 3d6 cold / lightning damage (your choice.)

Restrained creature can try to get out on their action, and at the start of your turn if anyone is in the area you gain temporary hit points equal to your Warlock level. You can use this ability once per short or long rest, so essentially consider it like an extra spell that’s exclusive to you and your faith.

Speaking of extra spells you don’t get another spell known but your tentacles do more damage now: 2d8 to be exact. You also get another cantrip: Minor Illusion will let you summon more small ghost tentacles, except these ones don’t do anything except for fool the enemy into thinking they’ll have a fun laning phase.

LEVEL 11 - WARLOCK 11

11th level Warlocks get their 6th level Mystic Arcanum, which is a spell you can only use once per Long Rest. Basically it’s a regular spell slot, unlike your Warlock slots which come back on a short rest. Unfortunately there really aren’t a lot of Mystic Arcanum options, and the ones at level 6 aren’t spectacular. Circle of Death is probably the best even if the lore is a little iffy.

You can also add another Pact Magic spell to your list: many say that a Dream is a window into one’s soul, so messing with people’s dreams only makes sense for you to test their souls. Oh and you get a third spell slot for your Pact Magic! Yay!

LEVEL 12 - WARLOCK 12

12th level Warlocks get an Ability Score Improvement but I’m going to instead suggest the Resilient feat for Constitution, increasing your CON to a 14 and giving you proficiency in CON saves. Constitution is one of your main stats as a Warlock after all!

You also get another Eldritch Invocation and now it’s finally time for an invocation we will keep! Lifedrinker will let you add your Charisma modifier as damage to your weapon attacks. I know it’s such a weird thing for Warlocks to have since they rarely use Charisma, but it’s still useful!

(Artwork by sharrm on DeviantArt)

LEVEL 13 - WARLOCK 13

At level 13 you get your 7th level Mystic Arcanum. To test weak souls Power Word Pain will see how much they can take before they reach their limit. If a target is at 100 HP or less they are affected by crippling pain. Their speed can be no higher than 10 feet, they have disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws (other than CON saves), and if the target tries to cast a spell, it must first succeed on a Constitution saving throw, or the casting fails and the spell is wasted.

A target suffering this pain can make a Constitution saving throw at the end of each of its turns. On a successful save, the pain ends. While this may seem weak this doesn’t require your concentration, and can set up for all your allies to break the nonbelievers.

You can also add another Pact Magic spell to your list like Elemental Bane. Here’s the trick: pick a damage type of your tentacles that your allies are also doing. This will make both them and your tentacles stronger!

LEVEL 14 - WARLOCK 14

14th level Lurker in the Deep Warlocks get their final ability, Unleash the Depths. As an action, you choose a point within 30 feet of you to summon a manifestation of Nagakabouros. You then have one of two options:

Transport. You and up to five willing creatures of your choice that you can see within 30 feet of the manifestation point are grasped by spectral tentacles and teleported to a point of your choice within 100 miles that you have visited within the past 24 hours.

Fury. You can direct a barrage of spectral tentacles to strike up to five creatures you can see within 30 feet of the manifestation point. Each target must make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, the creature takes 6d10 cold or lightning damage (your choice) and is knocked prone. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage and is not knocked prone. The tentacles then vanish.

You can only do this once per Long Rest, so you can essentially consider it another Mystic Arcanum of sorts.

LEVEL 15 - WARLOCK 15

15th level Warlocks get their 8th level Mystic Arcanum and to truly test one’s faith try Feeblemind. You choose a target to damage and force them to make an Intelligence save: if they fail their Intelligence and Charisma become 1 and they become unable to do most things that require thinking. (Detailed in the spell.) This spell lasts for thirty days unless healed by a specific spell, afterwards they can try to repeat the save.

But more importantly you get some more Invocations and sweet Bearded Lady we can finally get some good ones! Grab Witch Sight to know the truth behind one’s soul.

And you get one more Pact Magic spell like Sickening Radiance to exhaust the spirit... because it causes Exhaustion... the D&D status not the LoL Summoner Spell.

LEVEL 16 - WARLOCK 16

16th level means an Ability Score Improvement so it’s finally time to stop beating around the bush: get more Charisma so Lifedrinker is better. There really isn’t much other use for it.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 17 - WARLOCK 17

At 17th level you get your 9th level Mystic Arcanum; the strongest spell you can cast! When a soul is too weak to fight it must die: Power Word Kill will instantly kill a target with 100 health or less.

In addition you learn more Pact Magic: by this point your foes should truly Fear you (and the fact that I’m not allowed to take any spell that creates undead.) Yes most enemies by this point can resist fears, but on the bright side you finally have four spell slots for your other spells! (Or Smites.)

LEVEL 18 - WARLOCK 18

18th level Warlocks get their final Eldritch Invocation: Visions of Distant Realms will let you use the vision of the Bearded Lady to see across all of Runeterra... or at least as far as Arcane Eye lets you.

LEVEL 19 - WARLOCK 19

19th level Warlocks get our final Ability Score Improvement and yeah: Charisma for Lifedrinker... among other things.

And you get your final Pact Magic spell: take Hold Monster as the final option to keep an enemy down as you beat them into shape.

LEVEL 20 - WARLOCK 20

20th level Warlocks are Eldritch Masters. You can spend 1 minute praying to regain all your expended Pact Magic slots. Once you regain spell slots with this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.

...I mean yeah you could just spend an hour to Short Rest, but being able to get 4 more 5th level spell slots in just a minute could be useful! ...Maybe...

FINAL BUILD

PROS

They need wisdom; they don't need teeth - Even though you only have two attacks as a “casting” class you do plenty of damage thanks to Lifedrinker and your tentacles. (Assuming you’re using a Maul) you’re doing 4d6 + 10 bludgeoning, an extra 8 necrotic, and an extra 2d8 of Lightning or Cold damage with your Bonus Action. If you take the averages of those numbers you’re going to be doing about 44 damage per turn! Not to mention Eldritch Smites to truly break their spirits!

Blessed is motion - Your AC shouldn’t be terrible with Medium Armor, but the real strength is in Guardian Grasp. Being able to reduce the damage of an attack by half is universally useful. Above-average HP (thanks to a good CON mod) definitely helps too.

I am a teacher; Bilgewater will learn - Despite your weak mental stats you have a good amount of utility with proficiency in a number of skills and spells to gather information like Arcane Eye, Commune With Nature, and Dream. Not to mention Witch Sight which will see through any illusions or shapeshifting. This means you’re a fighter who can see through invisibility!

CONS

If I hate something, I destroy it - Illaoi is a big lady, and while her physical abilities may be strong her mental capabilities are a little lacking. Your Wisdom saves are fine enough thanks to Proficiency but your Intelligence and Dexterity saves are rather subpar, and as mentioned earlier your Ability Checks aren’t going to be great thanks to your low mental.

My god is not love; it is a kick in the pants - All the memeing I did in this build aside the focus on Strength over Charisma was probably not the brightest, especially considering that the hit chance of your tentacles is based on your Charisma. See if you can get Point Buy for this build instead to max out Strength and Charisma: Medium Armor was taken more for cosmetic than anything, and Heavy Armor would probably be a better choice. And of course feel free to take Charisma ASIs early if you think you need them.

Something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens - Truthfully while 9th level spells an extra invocations are nice this build would’ve probably benefited a lot more from some Fighter or Paladin levels to get a Fighting Style and subclass features. I built this build Warlock-exclusive partially for flavor and partially to show that melee Warlocks are possible outside of Hexblade, but 5 levels into Fighter or Paladin would get you Extra Attack (so you wouldn’t need Thirsting Blade) along with other class features. And starting as Fighter or Paladin would let you take armor proficiency too, so you wouldn’t need a feat for it! (You could grab something like Great Weapon Master instead!)

But here you have it: a level 20 Warlock build, a melee Warlock that isn’t Hexblade, a devout character with no Cleric levels, a Tasha’s build before Tasha’s comes out, and a powerful melee fighter with good use of their Bonus Action and plenty of utility through spellcasting. As long as you live life to its fullest and grab every combat by the reigns then Nagakabouros shall be pleased. Test the nonbelievers and strike at the heart of corruption! For it is her way... to get camped all game by the jungler... and still get double kills.

(Artwork by epimeral on DeviantArt)

[pi-cat000]

MSA: Winged Arthur AU (part 8)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7,  

Part 9: here

. 

Vivi POV 3

“What the?” There is a loud declaration of confusion from Lance. Vivi follows his line of sight to Arthur. Vivi assumes he has just spotted the wings.

“I know. I have no idea how they got there. He collapsed before he could say anything.”

Lance, attention moving between her, the ghost, and Artur, exhales long and hard. Then he angles the gun more towards the ground, ordering, “Keep an eye on that bastard. If it moves, give a yell.”

She nods, stepping forward, allowing Lance inch around her and crouch next to Arthur. He needs to do a bit of manoeuvring to avoid stepping on Arthur’s mess of feathers, but he manages it in his grumpy Lance fashion.

While Lance checks on Arthur, she once again makes eye contact with the ghost. Now hovering closer to the entrance, near a beat-up semi-trailer – where had that come from? –  the ghost is anxiously clenching and unclenching its fists. Purple eyes are tracking their movements with a disturbing intensity. Creepy. Doubly so now ‘Lewis’ looks like a flaming skeleton again. She glares and receives that pitiful expression. Thankfully, with both her and Lance there, the ghost has decided to keep its distance. Vivi would rather it go away and return to its middle-of-nowhere-mansion, but it appears she’ll have to settle for whatever this was.

“He’s okay, I think, apart from the wings anyway. Too dark out here to see much besides feathers. I want to move him inside ta get a better look.” Lance leans back, muttering under his breath, “Also, it’s gotten mighty cold all of a sudden.”

Vivi nods again, relieved to have confirmation on Arthur’s wellbeing. She’s not really feeling the cold but going inside seems like a good a course of action as any.

“What happened to that tree creature?” She asks while Lance goes about trying to pick Arthur up.

“Gone, ran off into the desert with the giant fox.”

“That’s good…I think?” Vivi can’t help the twinge of worry for her fake dog who had been bleeding heavily last she’d seen. Mystery, who had been injured protecting her. Secret or no secret, she feels responsible.

“I got in a few good shots on the tree before they went outta range.” Lance continues to speak, before narrowing his eyes at ghost-Lewis, “What’s that things deal?”

“It’s a wraith,” She states, ignoring the way ‘Lewis’ wilts, flinching back, “They’re dangerous. It’s probably best we keep an eye on it.” Sure, ghost-Lewis seems relatively fine now but she knows that calm is a facade hiding a whole lot of angry fire.

“Right.” Lance doesn’t question her, focusing instead on carrying Arthur which looks difficult due to how the wings flop about. Vivi wants to help but doesn’t like the idea of taking her attention off the ghost for any length of time. Luckily, after a little fussing and several swear words, Lance manages to sling Arthur over his back, so it looks like he’s wearing a very feathery coat. He shuffles his way to the front door. The trip takes an unreasonably long time, considering the door is only a few feet away. Vivi tracks their progress, on edge and anxious.  

There is some difficulty fitting Arthur through the screen door, forcing Vivi to turn and help arrange the wings in a way that will allow them past the frame. Once done, she about-faces to find the ghost has drifted closer, appearing hopeful now neither her or Lance are acting outwardly aggressive.

“No,” She says, brandishing her bat again. “You stay out here.”

“What,” The ghost, stunned, freezes in place, staring like she’s grown an extra head. Vivi steps forward, blocking the entrance.

“You’re not welcome inside this home,” She reiterates. “Uncle Lance. Tell ‘Lewis’ he’s not welcome inside.”

Lance, now just through the doorway, stumbles almost dropping Arthur, giving an abrupt, “Huh?”

“First rule of supernatural anything. They have to be invited into homes.”

“Not what…” Lance shakes his head, “What do yeh mean by ‘Lewis.’”

Okay, so Lance knows who Lewis is…Perfect. That doesn’t change anything aside from confirming her theory that she had known this ghost at some point. She waves pointedly, giving Lance as serious an expression as she can manage.

Lance’s gaze snaps to the ghost in befuddlement.  “Hold up. Yeh not tellin me that that, right there, is Lewis?”

“That’s what he said his name was. Right before he tried to burn me and Arthur,” She states.

“I would never hurt you…I swear. It’s just…Arthur…he’s done something. I don’t know...there’s a lot I… you… don’t know. If you would just let me explain,” The ghost pleads again, genuinely remorseful. Talk about your mood swings. Another point in favour of her wraith hypothesis.

“Is that before or after you burn us both to a crisp.” Vivi snaps back.

Lance side-eyes her seriously. Then he examines the ghost, expression hardening.

“Hurt my nephew and yeh ain’t welcome here. Simple as that,” He grunts and turns, heaving Arthur with him.

“No! You can’t. I’m telling the truth!” The ghost reaches out, fire guttering and flickering to his more human form. He sounds desperate. With one shaking arm, he grasps towards her, “Please.”

Vivi glowers and deliberately slams the door in the, now human, face.  For a second, she doesn’t move, waiting to see if ‘Lewis’ is going force his way in. There is only a loud cry of frustration, more sad and mournful than angry. Back against the door, Vivi exhales hard. Why does her chest hurt like it’s full of breaking glass? She runs a hand along her collar bone trying to massage the ache away. It’s useless, the pain isn’t physical. An inhale, and she pushes herself off the door. 

When she enters the combined living-dining space, Lance has already dragged Arthur to the couch and is in process of wrestling him into a comfortable position. He’s doing his best to work around the copious number of feathers but is struggling to find success. Vivi rushes forward to help, glad for the distraction. They end up lying Arthur down on his stomach so the wings are draped over the couch’s backrest and spill onto the carpeted floor.

“That true? The stuff about welcoming in supernatural creatures?” Lance grunts, while he checks Arthur’s pulse and breathing, running a hand over Arthur’s head and the rest of his limbs, searching for breaks or other injuries.

“I don’t know,” She sighs, straightening, “There’s a lot of lore spanning multiple mythologies, and it crops up a lot in older superstitions. It's more of an educated guess.”

A thoughtful hum.

“Suppose it’s better than nothin. Those myths happen ta mention anything like this?” Lance is now repositioning the wings to look more natural while muttering, “Don’t know nothin about birds. Do these look like they’re sittin right?”

“No myths that I can think of off the top of my head. I mean there are a few where people turn into birds. Not that I think that Arthur is turning into a bird,” Vivi hastens to clarify when Lance gives her an expression of acute alarm. She shuffles nearer, pointing at Arthur, “I think those are flight feathers. They’re definitely not supposed to be bent like that.”

They spent a few seconds straightening the plumages in soft silence.  

“There are a bunch of mythical humanoid creatures that have wings and such. I don’t know…maybe you’re related?" Vivi breaks the quiet and is met with a blank expression. “Do you have any relatives who mysteriously vanished for a few years then rocked up pregnant or with an unknown baby? Was anyone adopted into the family? Like, did someone find a child abandoned on the steps to your house and decided to keep it? Any sudden changes in a family member’s personality like they’d been mysteriously replaced?”

“What are yeh on about?”

“The most common reason why humans’ manifest supernatural traits is usually bloodline related. Someone somewhere had a fling with something not quite human,” Vivi elaborates to which Lance frowns, obviously thinking.

“There’s nothin like that that I can think of. But, don’t get along with the bastards, so who the hell knows.”

“Oh, that’s a shame. I guess I can jump online and look into it.” She looks back to Arthur. “Maybe later...”

Carefully, she reaches out from where she is crouched to smooth out a few more feathers which are twisted at odd-looking angles.  They feel real, growing from between Arthur’s shoulder blades and extending into smaller downier feathers a little along his back. His shirt has ripped from where the appendages had grown in. No sign of that golden light from earlier.

“Who’s Lewis.” She asks, the question coming suddenly. The response is particular. A huff of air followed by tired and drawn eyes. Lance appears almost haunted.

“Humph. Ain’t that a question and a half,” He stands, glancing towards the broken windows. From this angle, they can just make out the back end of the semi-trailer but said ghost is out of view.

“I know him, right? This Lewis person?” Vivi prods.

“Yeah. Yeh know him.”

Lance turns, calculating, “Suppose I could tell yeh more, seeing as ya seem to be retainin the name ‘Lewis’ well enough.”

“Wh...?”

“But not before I get a drink and yeh see to any of ya own injuries. Arthur’s fine enough, but yeh look dead on ya feet."

What did Lance mean by ‘retaining the name?’ Was this linked to her memory gaps? Probably.

“I’m fine. I mean, I wasn’t fine. I got stabbed here,” She rubs her shoulder, “but, Arthur kind of took care of it.”

Lance peers at her shoulder. There’s a lot of dried blood but no sign of the injury it came from.

“Arthur? He did what now?”

“Healing magic. It’s what knocked him out. He just, I don’t know, healed everything. I actually feel great, like I’m on some crazy energy drink. Ah… Sorry.”

Lance snorts, rubbing his eyes, “Don’t apologise. That boy wouldn’t know self-preservation if it hit him over the head. If you’re sure ya ain’t injured any, then how about yeh keep an eye on the kid while I get us something to drink. Then I’ll tell yeh what I know of Lewis.”

Vivi relaxes a little and nods.

“What can I get yeh?” Lance pauses in the doorway.

“Uh…Tea I guess? Herbal if you have it.”

Lance disappears and she hears things being moved around in the kitchen. Vivi settles down into a more comfortable position on the ground next to Arthur, continuing to smooth the feathers. So, she was right, ghost-Lewis fit somewhere into the swiss-cheese that was her memory of the last several years.

.

Note: Okay, so do people want to read a ‘Lance explains Lewis to Vivi’ conversation (if so, then whose POV do you want it in). Or do people want me to skip to Arthur waking up. I’m leaning more towards skipping atm but if there’s interest I’ll probably write that scene first.

Part 9: here

[morrak]

When I said I wanted to work on the cast iron pan my dad bequeathed to me, I may have overlooked exactly how bad a state it was in. Not a one-day project — pure linseed/flax oil isn’t common or cheap, so procurement was an issue, and I had to do my homework about its interactions and properties.

I’ve tried to keep my rambling interspersed with pictures, but it really doesn’t photograph well. Qualifications made, emotional visors down, reading lances couched, and into the breach we go.

While I was shopping around, I left the thing in a tub of 1:1 water:white vinegar (4.5% acetic acid, so just strong enough to tickle the rust). After a few hours I still didn’t have any linseed oil, but the red dust wasn’t too hard to cajole off with some 000 steel wool and a sponge. As soon as I was done scrubbing, I doused it with baking soda to neutralize the acid, then rinsed it off, dried over a flame, and used the only pan oil I had handy (an ancient mix of palm, sunflower seed, and coconut, which ew) to keep any more rust from forming. Head hung in shame, I just ordered some of the good shit online.

At that point, it looked like this. Pretty fucking gnarly, though admittedly useable. I asked my dad how old this thing even is, to which he conceded it’s older than him. ‘Probably [his] dad’s mom’s’, which means it could easily have seen a century’s worth of use. That makes sense, given the quality and affect of the casting; it’s got that early 20th century casting look. Gate lines, rough seams, chossy sides, the works. Love it.

So yeah, that seasoning’s probably underlaid by the Depression bacon my grandfather got big on. Pigs would’ve been on something closer to a wild East Texas diet, which means higher α-linolenic acid and lower nitrate content, which means I wasn’t inclined to care overmuch. Enough speculatory digression.

Whatever it is, taking it off would mean some really intense chemical stripping, which would mean spending even more money and time than I’d already committed. Not a chance; that stuff’s ugly, but it’s clean and it’s staying on.

(As a consolation while I waited for the raw linseed oil, I used some of my trusty boiled stock to give my chopping bowl a deep treatment and sharpened up the ulu. They made short work of pounds and pounds of kale and chard and spinach and onion recently, so it seemed right to treat them to a little spa day afterward. I’m a real slut for dark walnut, in any case.)

Lots of people talk about seasoning as adding flavor to food. It damn well better not; ‘seasoning’ is just a hard layer of polymerized, nonflammable lipids and carbohydrates on the metal’s surface. Some oils polymerize easier and more completely than others. Linseed is a drying oil, which means it polymerizes exceptionally well. This is largely because it’s extremely high (~57% by mass) in α-linolenic acid (ALA), which loves to form a smooth, glossy polymer.

Boiled linseed oil has additives and some pre-work done on it to make it polymerize at room temperature, but it’s decidedly not safe for prolonged heating next to food. That polymerizarion does happen in the edible raw oil, but only very slowly. The goal here is to heat thin layers of oil up well above their smoke point (a mere 225 °F/107 °C) to force the ALA and its friends to chain up while everything else is burned off, all ideally in the presence of as little oxygen as possible.

This is after 3 cycles — 10 hours of waiting. Every layer was slathered on, wiped off until extremely thin, shoved in the oven at 550 °F/287 °C for an hour, then left to cool for ~two hours. The first one was done while it was piping hot to encourage the formation of magnetite (black rust, Fe3O4) for extra protection.

At this point the coating is starting to get lustrous but not shiny, and there’s no more bare iron color. It’s not perfectly smooth like it would be if I’d stripped it all down, but eh. I’m a student, not a chef. Back off, part-of-self-I’m-pretending-is-audience.

6 cycles; 20 hours. Ugly as sin, yes, but thin like a short one, more than twice as glossy, and harder than a coffin nail. It’ll suffice until I inevitably get disgusted with myself and strip it all off with naval jelly five years down the road.

Two asides. First, the citronella that balked at the hard frost got pruned and is peeping back out again. Second, the bike repair has involved a whole lot less grease packing and a whole lot more waiting than expected. It’s been de-rusted and checked over, but I had to order new tires and tubes as well as pay too much for rim tape and some new pedals (not yet installed) so I can ride it in my leather boots like a proper dandy. Should be rideable tomorrow and finished by Tuesday, unless I’ve overlooked something.

[dragonairlairgiveaways]

Thoughts on Let’s Go

So as someone who has beat the main game of Let’s Go Eevee (like I’ve said before I’ve played through Kanto so many times now. I can do it pretty much blindfolded.) I have thoughts both good and bad on it. There will be SPOILERS here so I advise you to scroll past if you’re new to Kanto especially but also if you’ve played through the region before but not here yet because there are some new things/changed details. ANYWAY: 

PROS

I really love how expressive both your Partner Pokemon and following Pokemon are. Interacting with them is such a delight and makes me even more attached to my Pokemon.

Kanto is beautiful. Whilst I wish they’d kept more of the Savannah/grassland feel it had in past generations (because it made Kanto unique vs temperate Johto it shares its landmass with), the region feels so full, vibrant and alive.

I really love the gym re-designs, even if some are only subtle. I also love seeing the Gym Leaders and E4 with defined personalities. I was ESPECIALLY happy to be able to see Sabrina’s telekinesis in action thanks to the graphics we have now. 

Pokemon distribution across Kanto is so much better than in past games and makes forming a balanced, structured team so much less of a nightmare. Same goes for the altered movesets. 

Pokemon Tower. Oh God, the cutscene was so short, sweet and subtle but made me cry. It gave us the emotional attachment the older Kanto games missed out on. 

I really appreciated the changes to important locations game-lore wise that made them more fitting. Pokemon Mansion for example made me super uncomfortable thanks to the additions of the cloning/testing equipment in the basement and the confirmation from Jessie & James that sweet old Mr Fuji is the same Dr Fuji that created Mewtwo. 

It gets its own section because Cerulean Cave is BREATHTAKING design-wise and a lifesaver with the valuable respawning items hidden in the crystal dust on the floor. 

I love the rival. He is an absolute sweetheart and I just want to hold and protect him. 

Player! Character! Is! Expressive! No more thousand-yard stare in cutscenes. 

Can Ultra Balls be this cheap in the regular games please? 

Leaf/Green finally, canonically exists other than when chosen as the player in FRLG and my heart is filled with joy by this y’all don’t even know. 

NPC Pokemon with nicknames show up with that nickname when spoken to, not with their species name and idk it’s such a small thing but makes me happy. 

I really love how self-aware this game is in terms of how Pokemon plots go by talking about the E4 and people asking/speculating that they’ll come deal with the threat. Y’know given how in past games they’ve largely been suspiciously absent and left everything to a child.

The cutscenes in general are pleasant to look at/watch and don’t run in forever and are less frequent. They hit a good balance here I think. 

Speaking of which, the ones that play before taking on the Legendary Birds/Mewtwo are INTENSE.

Pokemon Box in your bag is super convenient, I just wish it wasn’t just one big, huge box so I could organise better. 

Getting to dress up my Partner Pokemon is precious. 

Riding on Pokemon is great and there are some rideable choices that were a nice surprise. 

The replacements for HMs are so silly and I love them. 

I’m a shiny hunter so I think the new shiny hunting method is super fun and relatively easy depending on the Pokemon you’re hunting. Streaks are easy enough to build and avoid breaking and seeing the Pokemon with its shiny colouration in the overworld adds the little bit more of excitement to me. 

Cinnabar finally has an obvious volcano on the map even if you can’t actually access it in game. (it’s not like you haven’t let us roam around active volcanoes before, Game Freak.)

I really like the torches in Victory Road? Lmao it’s such a minor thing but it makes it feel more... idk.. magnificent, I guess? Like it’s a manmade cavern. The final test. It feels more like it now with those and the changes to the puzzles. 

Thank you for the random NPCs that will heal your Pokemon when you’re far from a city/town. 

The spy NPC was great. I love her. 

Rare spawns are a neat little mechanic. Area unknown in the Pokedex? LOL GUESS AGAIN. 

Cons: 

The big one: Only Kanto Pokemon. It’s a huge sticking point for me because it’s quite limiting and just... a tad annoying. I get this game was an experiment and with its success will likely come more Let’s Go side games but... it was still disappointing. Even if they couldn’t add all Pokemon from later gens, they could’ve at least added the prevolutions/evolutions of Kanto Pokemon that came later to give the region an expanded Pokedex and just added more diversity to the game. Lance having a Seadra really brought that point home for me when it literally has a DRAGON TYPE evolution he could’ve used. 

Whilst the capture mechanic is fine I miss wild battles. If you need to grind especially it’s annoying because you have to burn through Pokeballs to get EXP. It would be nice to just be able to faint wild Pokemon. 

The rideable flying Pokemon. I’d hoped for something more like the Soaring mechanic from ORAS but nope. You also have to go into the party menu to return the Pokemon to its ball to be able to move between gate/map areas. It would have been so much better if you could just press one of the buttons to do that so you didn’t have to go about constantly opening/closing menus.

Super sad Trainer Customisation is so limited. I’m pleased they kept the option for skintone choice but I wish we could at least change the eye/hair colour of the player character. What outfits we get to mix/match are cute I just wish there was more. 

The lack of Abilities pains me. They added depth to the game both in and out of battle and I sorely missed them. (Hello yes, why is your Pokemon not getting paralysed after coming into contact with my Raichu? Oh right, Static isn’t a thing here.) 

Getting Meltan itself isn’t hard even if you just briefly download Pokemon Go to get it. Getting Melmetal however? Good luck if you just play casually or not at all really with how the crate feature works. 

I like that the Go Park exists but I’m sad it replaced the Safari Zone and that it doesn’t work in a similar fashion to Pal Park. Wasting Pokeballs on Pokemon I have already wasted them on to catch one already is kind of annoying. 

You can’t ride the Legendary Birds and that is just straight up NONSENSE to me. 

I wish we could play with/feed our other Pokemon, not just our partner. Pokemon Amie/Refresh is one of my favourite mechanics in the main games so I’m sad it’s limited to only our starter here. 

Not specific to Let’s Go but given a huge part of Pokemon has always been playing with friends, having to pay for an online subscription to access trading/battling really rubs me the wrong way and I still think it’s a bad move on Nintendo’s part as a whole. When Gen VIII comes along and if Pokemon Bank gets ported to the Switch (or a similar thing) am I going to have to pay for both? That kind of sucks for kids who play if their parents aren’t willing to pay for it or for people who can’t afford it in general. 

Big Mad that outside of completing all the research in Go (Again, not something everyone can do, I have severe anxiety/agoraphobia and therefore cannot leave my house much.) the only way to get Mew is to pay the ridiculous price for the Pokeball Plus. An event Pokemon that has always been given out for free shouldn’t be behind a massive paywall. 

Grinding to be able to take on all the Master Trainers is hellish to be honest. And not a good feature in lieu of an actual post-game. 

RIP Sevii Islands, it would've been nice to at least visit the first three (since they only have Kanto Pokemon living on them in FRLG). But no. 

So overall... I liked it more than I thought I would. There are things in the game I really, really loved and hope to see more of (PLEASE let following Pokemon return in the main series, I’m begging you Game Freak). But I still have my hang-ups and things that I think removing/keeping out took away from the Pokemon experience as a whole. 

As side games I’d like to see more of them with hopefully some improvements. But I definitely have a preference for main game, regular mechanics as a whole. The games definitely won’t be for everyone and YES, they are incredibly easy even for a Pokemon game - which was the point - so for some people that might be a problem/make them boring given the lack of challenge but I’d still recommend giving them a go if you’re a die-hard fan of the franchise. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

[miss-rosie]

-The Klance Post-

-Disclaimer: this post is in no way intending to hate on any other ships, especially Allurance. It is simply me talking about my opinions on who will be the endgame couple. Everyone is free to ship whatever they want, I am not in any way saying that my ship is the only good one.-

So, this is it I guess. In a few hours, the final season of Voltron will drop and finally we will find out whether Klance will become canon or not. It’s been a crazy ride with this show, but honestly I couldn’t be more grateful. I have so many happy memories from this show and I’ve learned from and related so much to the characters, as well as met my best friend and so many wonderful people through the fandom. As you may know, Klance is kind of my life and I am very optimistic that they will become canon in the next few hours. However, even if they don’t, this ship has made me smile, and laugh, and cry, and I will never stop loving it regardless. 

I’ve been working on this post for almost 2 months now, and finally, a few hours before the last season drops, I’m finally posting it. This is basically just all the evidence I’ve compiled that makes me believe so strongly that Klance will be the canon endgame. I basically restored my own faith in Klance while writing this. So if you’re looking for some hope in these last moments, just keep reading... 

________________________________________________________________

Ok guys, to start off, I want to talk about this live stream done by Jeremy Shada. (the voice of Lance)

In the live stream, a fan asks Jeremy if he can elaborate on Lance’s endgame. Obviously, he can’t tell them the answer, or say too much at all, because that would spoil the ending of the show, but what he does say gives some solid evidence for why the endgame will be Klance. Allow me to break it down for you. 

The main thing I want to focus on is when he says that some people will think "oh this thing came out of nowhere!"

I think it's safe to say that most of the people who watch this show, but aren't really in the online fandom, would naturally assume that Allurance is the endgame. If you think about it, Lance has been flirting with Allura since the first episode, and they had that scene in season 7 where they blushed at each other which obviously would be seen as very romantically coded to anyone with eyes. Therefore, to most casual viewers, there wouldn’t really even be a question as to who the endgame couple will be, as Lance has only ever actually admitted out loud to liking Allura. So my point here is that Allurance isn’t really the a ship that would seem “out of nowhere” to most of the viewers. Even people who don’t ship Allurance, including myself, can see that so far the only explicitly proven romantic scenes have been with them. However, Jeremy clearly states that the romance endgame in the show will seem to come out of nowhere to some people. Well, of the only two endgames that seem to really be options at this point, Klance or Allurance, which one do you think would probably seem to come as a surprise to most casual viewers? The one where the boy has been pining after the girl since the first episode, and has spoken many times throughout the show about his crush on her. Or the rivals who couldn’t even speak to each other for the first season or two without getting into an argument? Yeah, that’s what I thought. 

I think we can all agree that most casual viewers would think Klance totally came out of nowhere, not Allurance. Since these people had never even considered the two of them could ever develop a strong loving relationship, they will likely have not realized that over the course of the show, Lance and Keith have in fact had the most developed relationship of all the characters. They go from rivals, to colleagues, to friends, to something so much more. They have gone through so much together and have grown and matured so much both individually, and in their relationship, that if those viewers had payed attention to the two of them and how the way they interact and view each other throughout the show continued to change and develop, they really wouldn’t be surprised at all to see them end up in a relationship. 

Another thing important thing Jeremy says in the live stream that is that "the creators put little things throughout the series in ways to kind of make it as a whole make sense.” 

By saying this, Jeremy continues to support the point I was making earlier, that if one were to simply pay attention to how the creators have developed Lance and Keith’s relationship in small ways from the very beginning, the endgame would easily make sense as a whole.  

There is so much foreshadowing, so many parallels, so many unnecessarily soft looks towards each other, to possibly ignore that Keith and Lance are written as a pair. Just as Hunk and Pidge are portrayed as the tech genius pals and Shiro and Allura as the strong selfless leaders, Lance and Keith are constantly portrayed as a set, although the exact definition of their relationship continues to change. If you were to watch the show over again and count every time Lance and Keith are standing right beside each other, that alone would be enough to prove that the two are clearly set up to have some sort of significant relationship, whatever that relationship may be. 

I could go on, but there just isn’t enough room in this post to have a picture of every time these two are together, and I think you get the point. 

Now enough about the livestream. There’s a lot more evidence still to get into. 

In a panel for the show, Josh Keaton (voice of Shiro) encouraged fans asking about the endgame relationship to be patient (true to character as always) as the endgame is set up as a slow-burn. 

Although Lance has flirted with Allura since episode one, Allurance is in no way a slow-burn relationship. A relationship requires effort from both sides. Their relationship has in no way developed at all until the end of season 6, when Allura finally begins to acknowledge Lance’s presence, although only viewing him as a friend, as she was in love with Lotor at the time. So, while Lance has been putting in the effort from the beginning, Allura has never once shown anything but annoyance or at best indifference towards his advances until after she is betrayed by Lotor in the second to last season. Then she suddenly develops a crush on him in the span of half a season. 

On the other hand, Klance is the perfect example of what a slow-burn relationship looks like. These two boys start out with a lot of tension, caused by Lance’s one-sided rivalry with Keith (one that he created out of jealousy that Keith was always “better than him” instead of actual hatred towards him). It takes them time, but slowly they begin to argue less and work together better as they spend more and more time together. After Shiro disappears and Keith is forced to take his place as the leader, Lance finally matures about their relationship and lets go of the “rivalry” he created with Keith as he steps up to become his right-hand man. It’s after the pressure to maintain this image of hating Keith is finally gone, and Lance allows himself to become openly friends with Keith, that the two quickly become very close. Lance becomes Keith’s support as he struggles to lead the team and deal with the loss of Shiro. Throughout the show, their relationship turns from barely-able-to-say-a-word-to-each-other-without-causing-an-argument to a solid relationship built off of mutual trust and genuine care for the other.

Of the two options, it is clear which one fits Josh’s description better. Klance is a slowburn, Allurance is not. Those are just the facts. 

Now I would like to get into more detail about some of the many parallels the creators put into the show that prove Klance will be the endgame couple. 

First off, there’s the scene where Krolia and Texas found the blue lion together which very similarly resembles the scene when Keith and Lance found her. 

Although the entire team was there when they found Blue, Keith and Lance are the only two that step up in front of her, just like Krolia and Texas did. (Yes, we are calling Keith’s dad Texas in this post, fight me)

There’s also the scene where Keith’s angry expression while Lance was injured perfectly mirrored Krolia’s when Texas was injured. 

In both cases, Keith and Krolia’s love interest was severely injured and they can do nothing but wait while they recover. They both stare to the side and brood with their arms crossed, as their way of dealing with the genuine concern they’re feeling.

^^

(he’s not wrong)

Then there’s the parallel where the creators lowkey made the scene when Texas meets Krolia almost identical to the scene where Keith meets Lance.

In both scenes, there is an explosion in which Krolia and Keith make their entrances, followed by their love interests Texas and Lance discovering them. 

Assuming that this parallel was not just some crazy accidental coincidence, what could possibly be the reason to mirror Lance and Keith’s meeting with Texas and Krolia’s if Lance and Keith were not eventually going to end up in a relationship just like the other couple? Solid math, I know. 

Then we have the parallel when Keith finds out that Krolia left earth so that he would be safe, just like Keith left the team so that Lance could keep his spot in the red lion. 

While Keith doesn’t explicitly say his reason for leaving the team, it’s clear that Lance questioning his place on the team is what made him decide to step aside. Both him and Krolia make a selfless decision to leave the one they love, in order to protect them. 

Then we have my personal favorite... this perfectly identical parallel between Keith/Lance and Allura/Lotor.

Both scenes start off with Lance and Allura having a special moment together, only to be interrupted by their respective love interests and then proceed to direct all their attention to that person. Allura’s face when Lotor calls her is exactly the same as Lance’s when Keith calls.  

Basically, throughout the show, there are many parallels comparing Lance and Keith to characters like Krolia/Texas and Allura/Lotor, both of whom are in (or previously were in) confirmed romantic relationships. 

In an interview, when asked about the significance of parallels in the show, (specifically the one where Texas/Krolia and Keith/Lance find the blue lion in similar ways) Jeremy Shada confirmed that those parallels are very much intentional. 

Here are some clips from his answer to the question. (The answer was very long so I only included the parts that have to do with the parallels and their importance. However none of these clips are taken out of context or edited to seem to mean different then the original answer. These are Jeremy’s exact words.) You can find the entire unedited answer here: 

“Anytime you can have parallels I think, as a viewer, um, there’s just that kind of… uh, unspoken kind of symbolism behind the scenes when it, when you know, there’s a parallel with an earlier scene too and it kind of has that emotional resonance and weight to it. ”

“And so I think those are always intentional. I don’t think, usually I don’t think those are coincidental because especially, if you’re writing something and you write it and you have seasons that are airing when they’re you know, farther through the show, um, you’re kind of going back and going, ‘oh yeah! we did that!’ ”

“And so I don’t think those are usually unintentional, I think those are usually pretty, um, pretty intentional when the team puts those in there.”

Basically, the creators continuously parallel Keith and Lance’s interactions with those of other couples, proving that in the future, the pair will likely become a couple too. 

Still not convinced? Don’t worry, I’m not nearly done yet.

In order to further continue, we first need to talk a little about Keith’s character arc. 

Each of the main character’s in Voltron have an individual arc. Keith’s is all about allowing himself to open up to people and get rid of his fear of loving people and being loved. 

Growing up, Keith was a kid who’s mom left him as a baby, and who’s dad died when he was fairly young. His tragic past had a serious effect on how he handles relationships when he’s older. Keith starts out in the beginning of the show as the “loner”. He is afraid of growing close to people and allowing them to see him vulnerable for fear that they’ll end up leaving, just like his mom did. So to avoid getting even more hurt, he keeps himself closed up, hidden behind so many walls, so that people won’t get close to him. He keeps his feelings locked inside instead of opening up and risking being rejected. 

Now, over the course of the show, Keith has grown and matured so much, and has really overcome this constant need to appear indifferent to people who care about him. An instrumental part of his arc is when he finally finds his mom, and spends those two years on the space whale with her. All that time, seeing each other’s memories, finally understanding why she left him, growing closer together, forming a bond. It’s in those two years that Keith finally realizes that it’s ok to let people love him and to love them back. 

Keith’s arc is about him finding 4 different kinds of love.

The first kind of love, is brotherly love. 

Shiro is the only person who Keith is visibly close to before going to space. He took Keith in when he was a just a problem child to everyone else, jumping from one foster home to the next, and never stopped encouraging him to make something of himself. Despite Shiro never once giving up on him his entire childhood, Keith still hesitates to express how much he cares about him because of his built in fear of rejection. 

In the episode in season 2, where Shiro and Keith meet with the Blade of Marmora for the first time, Keith tells Shiro that he’s like a brother to him. Here, he already loves Shiro, but he’s hesitant to show too much of his emotions for fear that, even after everything Shiro has done to prove that he truly cares about Keith, he might still not feel the same way. 

Compare that scene, to the one where Keith finally says “I love you” for the first time. This is after he’s come to peace with his mom, and with himself, and learned how to let people into his life. The hesitation is gone. Shiro is no longer like a brother to him. He is his brother. 

In this scene we really see how much Keith has grown in the show, as he finally lets himself be vulnerable and say how he feels now that he’s dealt with the trauma caused by his mother leaving. 

Which brings us to the next kind of love Keith will find in the show, motherly love. 

After his entire life of questioning who his mother was and why she left him, Keith finally understands that she did it to protect him and can begin to heal from all the hurt it caused him. In their two years together in the quantum abyss, Keith develops a strong bond with his mom and comes out much more confident because he knows now that she loves him, and he’s finally allowing himself to love her back. 

The third kind of love Keith will find, is the love of a friend. 

Since the beginning of the show, Keith always closed himself off from the rest of the paladins. He would usually stand in the corner when they were having fun together and stay to himself. He never felt like he could fit in and he was always afraid of getting to close to them, again, because he had this huge fear of being rejected. In season 7, when the paladins are lost in space without their lions, they all start to talk very honestly about their feelings and can’t seem to hold back anything they’re thinking, even if it’s hurtful. (almost like they’re drunk, in a way) When Hunk tries to keep him from leaving, Keith snaps and once again falls back into his habit of distancing himself from the people who care about him. When he’s not in a right state of mind, Keith’s insecurity about whether or not the paladins are his friends comes out. 

However, later in the season, when Hunk is struggling with not knowing where his family is, Keith is the one to step up to comfort him, something he never would have had the confidence to do before, because he has learned that Hunk and the rest of the paladins really do care for him as their friend, not just their fellow soldier or leader. 

Finally, Keith realizes that it’s better to let people in, and he is finally able to be a real friend to Hunk and experience the love of friendship. 

Now the final kind of love Keith will experience is the only one that hasn’t had it’s conclusion yet. That is romantic love. Obviously, the only person this could happen with is Lance as Keith has never shown any interest in anyone else. Everything that’s happened to Keith up until this point in his personal journey has been building up to this. Finally allowing himself to be in love with Lance will be the final piece of Keith’s character arc. 

The creators have confirmed that when the same facial expression is used more than once for a certain character, it's because they were intentionally making a connection between the scenes and the emotions that character is feeling. When Keith is talking to someone he deeply cares about, he makes a certain face. He makes it with each of the three people I talked about in regard to his character arc, and also one other time. That time is when he is talking to Lance.

Keith’s talking to Shiro (his brother): 

Keith talking to Krolia (his mother):

Keith talking to Hunk (his friend):

Then there’s Keith talking to Lance (his love interest): 

Still need more proof? Say no more, I got you. 

There is one episode in season 7 that is just packed full of Klance content: The Feud. This also so happens to be an episode which the creators say has a ton of foreshadowing. Everything in this episode just screams KICK. 

Seriously, we can’t even get past the title of the game show without some serious evidence. 

Let’s take a look at the logo for Garfle Warfle Snick. 

Obviously, it’s not written in English, but that is the least important detail. What is worthy of noting is that this logo is an exact copy of the logo for the 1970′s show, The Dating Game, a game show in which couples had to choose their date based off questions they were asked. Take a look. 

Identical right? Although the letters for Garfle Warfle Snick are not written in Engish, the symbols appear to be written in the same font. Then, we also have the way the words fit together, which is perfectly identical. Not to mention, the little flower shapes which were basically copy/pasted from The Dating Game’s logo. 

Now it is important to realize that in animation, every detail is intentional, as it has to be drawn into the scene by the animators. These two logos are so similar, that there is no possible way the creators didn’t purposely make the logo for Garfle Warfle Snick so similar to the logo of The Dating Game. Therefore, there must have been a deliberate reason for the similarity. 

So, remember how I said in The Dating Game couples would have to choose someone to be their date? Yeah, well if we look back to The Feud, who were the only two of the paladins to choose each other to get to leave Garfle Warfle Snick? That’s right. Keith and Lance. 

Now it honestly was a bit of a surprise when Lance chose Keith to leave out of all the paladins. Given his past with making advances towards Allura in order to gain her affection, this would have been the perfect opportunity for Lance to prove to just how serious he was about liking her by giving her his vote. But he didn’t choose Allura. He chose Keith. What does that tell you about how important Keith is to Lance?

Really though, there’s honestly no need to even speculate about Lance’s intentions when he made his choice. His soft, love-sick, face says it all. 

That fucking eyebrow crinkle. That is the face of a man in love. 

Also.. Lance calls Keith “the future”. Despite being just downright romantic as fuck, this is also a nod to this scene from way back in season 2. 

Look at that. Lance started out the show looking for his future Mrs. Blue Lion in any single cute girl he could find in space. Now, 5 seasons later, he finally realizes that Keith has been his future the entire time. 

It’s called, character development. 

And this is not even the first time we’ve seen Lance with that same exact love-sick look while talking about Keith. He makes the same face when gushing about how cool Keith is to Laika.  

Now, while Lance’s reason for choosing Keith has us all in our feels, Keith’s response when he was asked by Bob why he chose Lance was not so romantic, and has a lot of people upset, calling Keith an asshole for being so rude to Lance.

Ok, so I know Keith’s response sounded very rude, but if you think about it for a second, his logic really doesn’t make any sense. Keith knows how important team Voltron is to the universe. If only one of them can get out to continue the mission, Keith knows the weight that decision holds. I find it hard to believe that he would really waste his vote for the sole purpose of getting rid of someone annoying so he could spend the rest of eternity in peace.

Keith spent two years on the space whale in the Quantum Abyss seeing probably hundreds of visions of the past and future. It’s possible that in one of those visions Keith saw Allura and Lance during one of their bonding moments and assumed that she finally started to reciprocate his feelings and that they were together. Seeing Lance choose someone else probably hurt him a lot and because Keith’s instinct when he’s hurt by someone is to retract into himself instead of talking to them about it to keep himself from being hurt anymore, he pushes Lance away. This would explain why, after all the time that Keith had been gone from the team, despite him and Lance having become friends before he left, he totally blew Lance off when he got back. He’s doing what he’s always done. He’s “pushing people away before they reject him”. Instead of allowing himself to keep having the feelings he has for Lance, he completely closes himself up to try and keep his heart from getting broken. He tries to push Lance away and act like he doesn’t care.

What he says about not wanting to spend an eternity with Lance is completely fake. Keith is just pretending he doesn’t have feelings for him because that would leave him vulnerable to be rejected.

Remember, Keith doesn’t get emotional when he’s hurting, his first instinct is to get angry and immediately put up all his walls. Take a look at his body language. He has his arms tightly crossed and he looks very angry. It reminds me a lot of when he went to talk to Hunk.

He’s trying to help Hunk but he’s afraid of opening up too much and possibly getting rejected.  

Keith uses this body language when he is holding himself back from showing his emotions. He doesn’t actually hate Lance, he’s just trying to act like he doesn’t care as much as he does.

He can’t even bring himself to make eye contact with Lance, probably because he knows his facade would crumble the second he did. His anger is directed more towards Bob for putting him in this situation in the first place.

In the end, we can’t take what Keith said to mean that he doesn’t love Lance anymore. He’s just trying to cope with the fact that Lance and Allura are supposedly together in the only way he knows how.

*Also side note, can we all take a moment to appreciate Pidge’s face when this is all going down. Poor thing is so goddamn confused.

Has nothing to do with Klance, but I just love this precious child so much...

Anyway, back to the point... Amazingly, there is still more Klance evidence The Feud has to offer.

When Bob tells Lance that his team is starting to lose faith in him, his excuse for why he is failing at the game is that he’s “just not real good with names”.

While that is an understandable excuse, it brings up a question from way back in season 1. Lets go back to the scene where Keith breaks in to save Shiro in the first episode. Remember how Lance was the first one to immediately recognize Keith, without even being able to see his face?

He instantly knows who he is just by looking at his hair. For someone who’s “not good with names”, that’s pretty unusual I would say. As we know that Lance is not the type to remember the names of people who do not hold some sort of significance to him, Keith must have been pretty important to Lance, seeing as he was able to identify Keith from only his mullet, at such a distance.

(Not saying that young garrison Lance would spend entire classes staring at Keith’s hair from behind, attempting to convince himself that his gay crush was in fact just very intense feelings of hate, but that’s exactly what I’m saying.)

Also, notice how Pidge seems to have no idea who Keith is.

However, as soon as Lance says the name, Hunk immediately reacts, probably because in his time at the Garrison, he’s been on the receiving end of many angry rants about the guy’s “stupid mullet” from a very jealous and flustered Lance.

With this information, I think it’s reasonable to to believe that Lance’s obsession with Keith (whether or not he understood his feelings at the time) began way back before the show even started when the two were still at the garrison together.

Now... another thing I want to mention is the famous “You are deserving of respect” picture drawn by producer, Lauren Montgomery. 

Now yes, this poster could really not mean anything and could have just been a sweet message where the paladins were chosen at random to hold up their signs. However, notice how both Hunk and Keith, and Pidge and Allura have had small arcs dedicated to the topic of the signs they are holding. 

In season 1, Allura talks to Pidge about her gender, and how she was pretending to be a boy. 

In season 2, Hunk talks to Keith about him being galra. 

Both those two pairs had the words on their signs translate into real plots in the show. 

Seeing that signs for "gender" and "race" turned out to have a direct connection to the canon storyline, with the people holding them, it's only logical that Shiro and Lance will have their own miniature arc based of the "lgbt" sign. We already know that Shiro is gay, as well as being Lance’s “hero. Therefore, it's very possible that lance will go to him for advice on his feelings for Keith, and Shiro will help him as he has experienced the same thing. 

Another thing I want to touch on is the “relationship” between Keith and Acxa. For those who are concerned about Acxa becoming a romantic interest for Keith, allow me to ease your mind. 

While it is white possible that the reason Zethrid and Ezor continuously tease Acxa about liking Keith is that Acxa may actually have feelings for Keith, is is also very likely that Zethrid and Ezor were simply messing with her to throw her off and distract her from the battle. However, regardless of Acxa’s feelings for Keith, I can assure you, Keith does not have feelings for her. 

Keith is very gay. This boy has never shown any romantic interest in any women in the entire show. 

Just look at his reaction to just the idea of being in a relationship with a woman. 

The poor guy just wants to fight like normal people without having to be shipped with the girl he’s trying to save out of common decency. 

Then there’s the scene where Keith catches Allura sneaking into the pod, and she falls into his arms. Allura immediately gets flustered and blushes uncomfortably. However, Keith doesn’t even flinch and seems totally indifferent to the fact that he’s carrying the princess in his arms. 

*Quick reminder that the last time he carried someone in his arms (Lance) he made it a very big deal. 

But to the point, Keith’s reaction to catching the princess in his arms is not the reaction a guy who likes girls would have. 

Not to mention the time he low-key checked out the hot alien dude who’s crashed ship they were fixing. 

Have I made my point? This boy is not straight. 

If that’s not enough evidence, Bex Taylor-Claus (voice of Pidge) themself confirmed in a livestream that Keith and Acxa are not going to be a couple, refering to them as “kindred spirits”. 

So fear not, Keith is still very gay and is most certainly not in love with Acxa. 

This scene is most likely just Acxa either wanting to thank Keith for saving her life (like a decent person, or alien I guess) or possibly she is related to him or Krolia in some way, and that will be touched on in season 8. Either way it has been confirmed that Kacxa will not be a thing, so there’s no need to stress about it.

Now, there’s one more thing I want to talk about before wrapping this up, and that is the infamous “stay safe out there” scene that basically confirmed Allurance...right?

Lmao you really underestimated me if you thought I wouldn’t find a way to bring Klance into the most Allurance themed scene in the entire show. 

Notice Lance's reaction when Veronica mentions the princess liking him. He doesn't get excited or cocky about it like he normally would have at hearing that kind of news. In fact, he actually denies that Allura even has feelings for him, saying that she just cares about everyone. That really doesn't seem like the reaction Lance would have to finding out Allura likes him earlier in the show. Last time someone told lance Allura liked him back, he had a very different reaction.

If we already know that Lance is never shy when it comes to the princess, why is his reaction to different in season 7? He constantly acted like the princess liked him even when she clearly didn't. Why would he act like she doesn’t when she clearly does if there wasn't something inside him that changed? Maybe he's not so certain about his feelings for Allura anymore huh? 

This is just reminding you not to lose hope just because of this one scene. One scene against an entire show of built up evidence, is not the end of the world, or in this case, the end of Klance.

My prediction is that in season 8, Allura will be very open about liking Lance, and he will try to go with it at first, but as we started to see in that scene, there will be something off for him and he will realize that he has moved on and loves Keith.

Now, it’s about 3 hours until the final season drops, and I have to post this now or never. Just remember, Klance has a serious chance guys, but even if it doesn’t become canon, everyone be kind and remember that it’s ok to not have everything go just how we wanted it to go. There’s no need to hate on Allurance if it becomes canon. Klance will always live on in our art, our writing, the friendships we’ve made because of them, and in our hearts. (I know, cheesy as fuck, but Voltron is almost over and I’m emotional) 

It’s been an honor flying with you all. And one last time...

KICK 

[no-error]

Looking for more klance?

Remember read author tags!

Have fun reading~

                                                    Magic

Magic Me Some Love

When Shiro's arm gets cut off while he is trying to protect Keith, Keith doesn't see any way to save his life but to break into the Galra's castle and steal some of their magical medicine. But nothing goes as planned and when he exits the castle empty handed he is cursed to look like a Galra until he accepts his "halfbreed" status. He is convinced that he has condemned Shiro to death - and then he learns of a magician that might be able to help just in time.

Meanwhile Lance didn't expect a Galra to turn up at his door, demanding him to save his half dead (human?!) friend. And he certainly didn't expect to fall in love with him either.

143,711 words   AO3

Where Light and Dark Meet

(The Fallen Series not completed  1 works)

The Fallen One arises:A captive star yearning for the heavens from which it was stolen... So begins the Prophecy of the Fallen Star, which speaks of the one who will save the kingdom from Haggar’s curse. Lance, Keith, and their friends are summoned to get in touch with Allura, the deposed princess of Altea, who is widely believed to be the Fallen Star from the prophecy.But things aren't going to be quite so simple. Lance was cursed to become a cat at night; Keith spends his days as a crow. They both have a role to play in the coming battle, and they're going to have to learn to trust each other--but how can they when they only ever meet in the fleeting moments at twilight when they both are human?

34,168 words   AO3

                                               Ghosts etc

Forget Me Not           (Myosotis series not completed 23,144 works 4)

There Keith was, surrounded by all his friends, a picture of total contentment. At least, he would be, if something weren't missing.

Keith agrees to test a spell for his brother's best friend and discovers a vaguely familiar boy who no one can remember. What follows is a series of magical shenanigans that will either be tragic or entertaining as hell.

16,084 words   AO3

Over My Dead Body!

"Hey, Keith? Are you done yet?" Lance asks from behind the door. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, I'm done changing."

Out of curiosity, Keith looks over his shoulder of how Lance will enter his room. He eyes the door.

"Aaaaannnddd, you're in your boxers." Lance says.

Silence.

Sonovabish went through the door!

38,038 words   AO3

How To Date A Werewolf In 5 Simple Steps

How To Date A Werewolf In 5 Simple Steps by Keith Kogane

Step 0: Don't do it.

31,373 words   AO3

Just a Little Death          (no romance here)

AKA: The Incubus AU Where There Isn't Actually Any Smut In which Lance is half incubus, hiding it, and possibly spending most of his time low-key panicking that someone's going to find out.

At least Hunk is a good bro that's helping him keep his secret.

217,634 words AO3

                                              Soulmates

Unfamiliar Constellations

Soulmates. That was the reason his mother always told him for the random markings that would show up on his skin. It was an old legend, but not unheard of. Most people just didn’t have a soulmate.

Lance had found out about his soulmate early. They both enjoyed drawing on their skin. Whoever was on the other end of the pen was an artist, but Lance enjoyed adding his own shitty drawings to the artwork on his arm.

25,199 words   AO3

Soulmate Line

Lance moves from a small town where everyone's soulmate lines branch outwards. He never expected his matchmaking abilities to work, especially with there being 7.5 billion people in the world, but moving to university has increased the chances of success more than he anticipated. With Pidge and Hunk's help, he starts a business pairing naïve college students together if their lines connect, and by the time Shiro's cousin, Keith, comes to tour the campus, he already has a reputation.

So how can Lance explain who Keith's soulmate is when their lines connect, and yet they're total strangers to one another?

23,523 words   AO3

You're Not a Bad Soulmate

Keith puts a tentative hand to his jaw. Moron that guy might have been but weak he was not.

“Fair enough… Um…” He isn’t sure how to ask, or even if he should, but it’s very important to him that this incident be quickly forgotten so he takes a breath and goes for it.

“Please don’t tell Lance about this,” he can’t even be bothered by how sheepish he sounds.

“I mean sure but I won’t have to,” Hunk points to his own jaw. “He’s gonna find out anyway, Bro.”

22,869 words   AO3

                                                    Altean

Of Backups And Outcasts

Lance, a young prince second in line for the Altean throne, sets out to prove himself. He wants to kill an injured dragon that attacked one of their villages and escaped the knights that were sent after it. Much to his surprise, the dragon turns out to be a lot more human than anticipated - and thus begins a friendship that, despite having to be kept secret, changes his life for the better.

It's the story of how a backup and an outcast fall in love.

27,784 words   AO3

No time for caution

When you're a Galra prisoner, the question is not whether or not you will survive, but how long.

"I have a business proposition for you." Lance ignored Keith's snort.

"I want out, you want out. I can't operate any ships without having Galra genes, you can't get into any ships while trapped here. Let's help each other."

10,004 words    AO3

                                                   Heroes

So Cold It Burned

Lance is the Blue Lion, the hero of the city of Altea, and his main goal is to protect Keith - and the city, but mostly Keith - from his archenemy, Blaze.

"Come at me, cat boy, let's play with fire."

31,098 words   AO3

Behind the Mask

(Behind the Mask Series not completed 19,330 words 2 works)

Keith is one of the smartest kids at his school, but he's never really been remotely noticed by anyone. Lance, however, is one of the most popular guys at this same school. Nobody can take their eyes away from him, including Keith, who's had a crush on Lance since the day he met him.

What he doesn't know is that Lance has a crush on the city hero, Spiderman. After a chance encounter ends unexpectedly, the masked hero fears for his secrecy... and his feelings for the mysteriously adorable boy he saved.

18,547 words   AO3

                                                    Space

Blind Affection

After Lance gets injured in battle he finds himself without his eyesight, a situation he never would've expected himself to get into. Half expecting to get kicked off the team, Lance is determined to train harder and keep the fact that he's upset about his loss of eyesight from his teammates. No harm ever comes from bottling everything up, right?

25,888 words   AO3

No way out.

Alarms started to blare through the castle. "Princess! Are you alright?" Shiro rushed in.

"..Guys?" Keith looked around the room. "Where's Lance?"

26,879 words   AO3

A Kiss is a Kiss (But it's never like this)

“How does this keep happening to us, every time.” Lance grumbled.

“You’d think they’d stop sending us on away missions,” he agreed. Honestly, between the poisonous plants of their last planet, and Lance’s tendency to always end up on the business end of every blaster or pointy ended stick, Allura was just being inefficient at this point.

Or, five times Keith kissed Lance but the situation was less than ideal, and one time Lance finally kissed him back.

25,285 words   AO3

Space used to be the biggest thing, then I found your heart.

'Okay, calm down. It was just Lance. Just Lance. Lance Mcclain, the blue paladin… the sharpshooter… the loverboy. Just Lance. Nothing else. He didn’t have to be anything else.

Except for the fact that Keith Kogane was hopelessly head over heels in love with him. And Keith being the stoic, brooding, moody, emo that he was; his solution to the problem was to try and ignore Lance. Not shut him out completely because they still needed to form Voltron and all, but not go out of his way to talk to him, for fear of revealing everything.

25,780 words   AO3

i could be the one

After he is hit with a spell, Lance has visions of Keith's heart's desires and he's left incredibly confused when he finds himself appearing in all of them.

Keith shifts a little in front of Lance, protective; Lance grips his arm, tugging him back. “What do you need me to do?” Keith asks.

“Not you,” The one in blue dismisses Keith, their head turns to Lance. “We have decided to focus our efforts on the blue paladin - who wears his heart on his sleeve, and yet hides so much.”

19,857 words   AO3

in stasis

The story starts like this: with a story where you think you know the end, until it turns out you don’t, until it turns out you didn’t have a clue.

In which for three months of Lance McClain's life, he lives as an AI, waiting for his prosthetics to come online. It goes about as well as expected.

26,951 words   AO3

                                                   Modern

Accidental Love

(11:35) Hey, so I was thinking...if you hit me with a motorcycle, that means you're like, at least over sixteen.

(11:36) What the fuck?

Or Lance and Keith meet under accidental circumstances.

30,919 words   AO3

The Customer is Always (a) Right (asshole)

Keith has been working at this huge department store for three years now. He's not particularly good at it. In fact he's awful. He knows he is, and the customers seem to have no problem telling him this. He needs help.

Maybe this new guy who seems to have a natural talent for customer service will be able to give him some tips.

20,276 words   AO3

Shades of Purple

Lance McClain finds his safe haven and comfort online under the username blu97 on a messenger website called UniverseChat. There he meets a person under the username 1redrebel. Smart, charming, and having an amazing sense of humour, they pull Lance in immediately.

But what he doesn't know is that the intriguing person behind the handle is someone that he could never imagine being with in a million years; Keith Kogane. An arrogant, impulsive, hot head at his school, who he doesn't exactly like.

32,504 words   AO3

Keith's Type

“How would anyone notice what anyone else’s type is in the middle of all this?!” Matt demanded, laughing. “What’s Keith’s type?” Lance blurted out like an idiot.

“It’s… obvious,” Pidge said.

“He gets all flustered over shitty puns and most physical comedy. And have you seen the way he stares at Hunk when he’s going on about the mechanics of something? Like how the lions work? I’ve literally seen him blushing when Hunk goes into explanation mode.”

“So, you think he has a crush on Hunk?” Lance squawked.

“No. You bonehead,” Pidge laughed.

“I’m saying any dad-joke-telling, klutzoid with good grades has probably got a pretty good shot at Keith.”

24,050 words   AO3

Of booty shorts and Injuries

Keith is sure that he’s having a heart attack. Or that he hurt his brain when he fell earlier. Because it’s simply not possible that the boy who’s sitting next to him is not a hallucination. How could someone so gorgeous just sit in an emergency room at night?"Keith and Lance unexpectantly meet at the emergency room in the middle of the night.

23,862 words   AO3

The Bet

Something about the casual way Lance spoke to him, with easy grins and direct words that made Keith feel comfortable, but at the same time put him on edge.

Like he wasn’t supposed to be feeling this ok around someone, not him. Keith, who barely had friends until college, shouldn’t have someone who could coax him into such a sense of security that he found himself agreeing to do things he’d never thought he’d do.

35,847 words   AO3

at least i've got you in my head

Sleepovers always killed Keith, mostly because being in the same bed as Lance broke his heart every single time. But who was he to say no to his best friend? He'd do whatever he could to be this close to Lance.

He was hopelessly in love with a boy he could never be with. No matter how much he pined and wanted, Keith and Lance would never be together.But Keith didn't care too much, because he'd suffer a million broken hearts just to have the opportunity to be Lance's best friends for as long as the two of them were breathing.

It was painful, one of the worst pains he'd ever experienced, but he'd do it for him. Lance meant that much to him.He was just so damn in love.It broke his heart.

26,243 words   AO3

The Mark of a Lion

Lance has finally saved up enough money to get the tattoo he's been dreaming of for ages, but there is one slight problem. He has no idea where to go for it. So he decides to put his faith in his childhood and current best friend Hunk who recommends him to his neighbor, a great tattoo artist. However, Hunk failed to mention two very important details before Lance went down to the shop: a) he is extremely attractive and completely Lance's type and b) he's a total prick.

The bakery door burst open as Lance marched in with a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance marring his normally carefree face. He stomped over to the counter, glad that for once the sweet shop was relatively empty because he had a few strong words to say to the man behind the counter.

“Hunk, what the hell?! How could you let me go in blind like that? I thought that you of all people, my padawan, would know to give a guy a fucking warning!” “Lance, be quiet! And what are you talking about? Did you not like his designs or something?” Lance snorted. “His designs! No, they were gorgeous and guess what? SO, IS HE! You didn’t tell me he was hot!”

20,842 words   AO3

Mail me your Heart (you already got it)

Lance has a hopeless crush on someone who doesn't notice him and goes to his internet friend—Red—for support. Meanwhile, Keith thinks he has no chance with his online friend—Blue—because Blue likes somebody else.

Things are complicated until they’re not, and they find what they're looking for in each other.

20,657 words   AO3

Hold Me Now (Warm My Heart)

“You’re sticking me with a newbie!?” Lance squawks. “Shiro, my guy, you must be joking. A newbie is going to triple my work tonight. I’ll be running around like crazy while trying to teach some slack-jaw to count by fives. I swear, if you…”

“I’ll try not to slow you down too much.”

Keith is a loner who’s had trouble keeping a job for longer than a couple of months. Lance is an exuberant flirt who gets on his last nerve in his latest workplace….and then, not so much.

16978 words   AO3

darling just hold on

Hunk warned him from the start that something was off about this guy. Lance, of course, didn't listen. Not until he ran into the boy whose pictures he had been sent.

Or

It isn't the first time Keith has had to deal with someone using his profile pictures to catfish someone. It is the first time he falls for the catfish-ee, though.

15,862 words   AO3

[phaltu]

Your fake dating au makes me live but the idea of an abo offshoot makes me ASCEND. P sure I'd cry tears of joy if you wrote your idea of Shiro taking care of a keyed up Keith after a video but tbh any and all of the them would be fantastic. YOU are fantastic. Thank you for this gift to us and the universe as a whole

Okay I got enough prods about this that I had to write it. I just had to. thank you anon for such kind words and also thanks to everyone for tolerating me thru this all LMAO i love all of you. s/o to @akaiikowrites for the q& a idea.

( couple’s blog tag )

(if you don’t want to catch up on couples blog au - Keith & Shiro are best friends pretending to be a couple, and run a couple blog online where they start setting stretch goals that are exceedingly ludicrous, because they offer to shoot videos on return. Clue all the platonic, pining sex on camera. This part takes place after Keith comes back from a date, trying to see if he can get Shiro out of his system. He can’t.)

a/b/o, nsfw, general disregard for the idea of refractory periods

If you guys have been together for so long, where’s your mating mark? Does that mean the omega’s free ;)?

Keith’s eyes widen at the question. He can feel Shiro stiffen beside him as well, and there’s the same acidic spike in his scent that had been there when he had come home from his date.

As part of one of their incentives, Keith and Shiro had offered to do a live Q&A session. Their friends all know about their venture now, so they’re not too worried about hiding it. It brings everyone great entertainment, despite the fact that they’re forbidden to bring it up around Keith or Shiro. Keith and Shiro feel a little more comfortable sharing their faces and their voices; they’re still not giving out their real names. But they feel like they owe their viewers that much; for the past month they’ve been able to pay rent and buy groceries and pay phone bills without screaming together into the abyss.

The Q&A started out fine; people want to know where they met, how long they’ve been dating, who’s the loudest snorer. The answers to that are simple; at the beginning of Keith’s undergrad, they officially got together two years ago, and Shiro. It got a little raunchy, but they anticipated it and tried not to get too red as they gamely gave answers.

This question, however, they were not expecting. Retrospectively, it should be the most obvious one out of all of them but they’re still fumbling around with this whole amateur pornography thing.

Keith has a faint idea of who Lattunkrox94 actually is, and he is going to kill Lance, Matt and Hunk upon first sight. The chatroom goes off in a frenzy, wondering yeah, why doesn’t Keith have a mating mark? If Shiro hasn’t claimed him, does this mean Keith’s available?

Their silence makes it worse.

It’s when the messages start getting real raunchy that Shiro places a protective hand over Keith’s neck, covering where a mark should be.

“We don’t have one because we don’t see the need,” Shiro grunts. “It’s just a stupid mark.”

A stupid mark that Keith’s dreamt of getting his skin broken by, one that he’s thought about every time they’ve had sex so far. Half of Keith’s fantasies involve Shiro leaving an imprint of his teeth in the crook of his neck, so that everyone knows that they belong to each other.

The chat goes crazy, and Keith has to close his eyes and pinch his nose. He might be overreacting, but he feels like they’ve just poked a huge hole in their story and everyone’s going to see through their façade and stop being their patrons and then Keith’s going to have to go back to doing more night shifts at the security desk at the shittiest residence on campus.

Suddenly, Keith gets an idea. It’s not brilliant. He should probably turn off the mic and consult with Shiro beforehand.

“We were planning it as a surprise,” He blurts out. “If we exceeded our stretch goal by a certain amount, Shiro would mark me in the next video.”

Shiro goes stone-still beside him and– the strangest mix of terror and lust rolls off of Shiro, the second so strong Keith almost chokes. He’s probably sparked some sort of alpha instinct in Shiro, or whatever they call the primal need to claim an omega. If they do it on camera, it’ll be in front of an audience, and Keith has to stop his toes from curling at the thought of how possessive Shiro will be about that.

Suddenly, there’s a rush of people demanding to know how much the goal needs to be exceeded by. Before Keith can do anything, Shiro throws in a number that makes Keith’s eyes widen a little. It’s exactly half their amount of their stretch goal, and too high to be met in the next couple of days.

The trepidation in Shiro’s scent eases, and Keith tries not to read into it. After all, he was the idiot who suggested it. Shiro’s probably glad they don’t have to do anything rash.

Except that they keep forgetting that their subscribers are feverish and strangely hive-minded when it comes to reaching goals.

Shiro’s not made any troubles to hide what he actually thinks about this entire thing. He’s still not happy with Keith for suggesting Shiro marks him on camera, but also gets a funny look in his face when Keith suggests that he gets one of his friends to bite him, and they pretend it’s Shiro’s.

“This isn’t right,” Shiro insists, and Keith crosses his arms over his chest from where he’s sitting on the sofa. “We shouldn’t be doing this for money.”

“It’s just a stupid mark,” Keith echoes Shiro’s sentiment from a few days ago. “If you do it light enough, it’ll only last for a little bit.”

Shiro stares at his hands in his lap, and clenches his fists. Some sort of annoyance spikes within Keith because he doesn’t see it as a big deal; Shiro and Keith have bent each other over enough surfaces by now, all in the name of two best friends making money for rent. A fake mating mark may be a big deal, but they fuck on camera while pretending to be madly in love. He voices as much to Shiro, who looks hurt for a brief moment before shifting his expression into something more stony.

“Fine,” He says, voice tight. “I’ll mark you. But you can’t blame me if you end up regretting it.��

“I won’t,” Keith says. “Try not to look too annoyed when you do it.”

Keith gets that it’s his fault they’re doing this, but there are about a thousand different emotions running through Keith’s brain right now, and he wants to be irrational for a bit. He’s been flopped out on his bed for the past hour, leaving Shiro in the living room to stew for a bit.

Keith has his heat coming up, and he’s staying home for it this time, because he’s too enveloped in Shiro’s scent to have a sane stay at a hotel or in one of the special campus dorm rooms. He’s slowly been stealing some of Shiro’s clothes for his own room, but he refuses to call it a nest.

They haven’t discussed what exactly they’re going to do, but Keith had shrugged and said they’d make more videos, and then pulled his hair out about saying that out loud later that night.

The initial goal stated Shiro would lay Keith out during his heat; in reality, they’re doing it a day before, while it’s still building and weak, so that Keith won’t lose too much of himself into it. But Keith thinks he can do a pretty good job in acting like  his main objective in life is to get Shiro to claim him, to knot him and mate him– especially now that Shiro’s going to mark him as well.

If he wants to, that is. Because Shiro’s been adamant about not wanting to mark him, not letting anyone mark him in his stead and pretending its him, not using makeup, and not rescinding the stretch goal. Keith doesn’t know what Shiro wants. Only what he doesn’t. It’s confusing, and riles Keith up enough that when he hears a knock on a door, he barks out a sharp “What?”

“I brought you food,” Shiro’s voice comes from the other side of the door, and Keith can pick up the faint smell of cheese pizza. He rolls onto his back and stares at his ceiling.

“Yeah,” He grunts out after a satisfactory pause. “Come in.”

Shiro carefully opens the door, and he’s got a box of pizza in one hand and two opened beers in the other.

“I bring offerings,” Shiro says as he makes his way to Keith’s bed. Keith barely shifts his legs to make room, but Shiro plops down anyways. “To say sorry.”

Keith hates that he immediately gravitates towards Shiro, despite being annoyed with him. It’s probably because of the food.

“For what?” He asks,  finally sitting up and reaching for the box. He takes a slice, takes a giant bite of it, and levels Shiro with the most expectant look he can muster.

“I’m not disgusted by the idea of marking you,” Shiro says, then bites his lip like he didn’t mean to spill it out all at once. “I didn’t mean for it to come across that way.”

Keith gives a non-committal shrug; he knows his internal clock has around three minutes left before he stops being mad at Shiro, but he’s not going to rush an apology.

“If it’s what you want for sure,” Shiro says, passing a bottle to Keith. “Then I can do it for you.”

“I don’t mind if it’s you,” Keith replies, taking a sip of his beer. “You know that stuff doesn’t mean much to me.”

A partial lie; marks don’t mean a lot to Keith, but a mark from Shiro will mean everything to him.

“Yeah,” Shiro scratches the back of his head, and he doesn’t quite meet Keith’s eyes. “I just– I wanted to make sure that it was good for you, and not something you were doing out of obligation.”

And that’s when it clicks for Keith that yeah, while he’s the omega getting marked, Shiro’s probably going to feel some type of way about claiming him, especially when they’re just friends. It was Keith too that had initiated this, had blurted it out on the live stream, and he can’t forget this amongst all his angst over Shiro being hesitant to mark him.

“Only if it’s okay for you,” Keith says. “I know I was the one who said something stupid, and I’m sorry for that.”

“Eh,” It’s Shiro’s turn to shrug. “I get it. Heat of the moment.”

Keith can see the moment an oncoming shitty joke lights up Shiro’s brain and shoves Shiro by the shoulder before he can say it. Shiro gives a good natured laugh in return, and Keith makes a face at him. They sit in silence for a few minutes, vacuuming in a couple of slices before Keith speaks again.

“I trust you,” Keith says finally, nudging Shiro. This time Shiro meets his eyes, and there’s something softer, more comfortable in his look. “That’s why I said it so fast. At the end of the day I trust you, but if you don’t want to do it, it’s fine. We’ll think of a way out.”

“You’re my best friend,” Shiro says, wrapping arm around Keith. “I’ll do anything for you.”

It’s not a confession. Keith knows this. But it really feels like one.

Keith’s heats are normal. They don’t get that bad, not as much as they used to when he first got them. And they’re regular, almost like clockwork. He has it down to a T.

Yet somehow, it feels like his heat has come early, crashing against him like an unexpected wave. It’s probably something to do with the fact that he woke up this morning thinking about today being the day he was going to get marked by Shiro. Probably something to do with Shiro having his head buried in between Keith’s legs, swallowing him down as Keith twists fingers in his hair and tugs.

They normally set out a specific play-by-play for their videos before they shoot, so that they don’t fumble around and show their actual inexperience with each other.  This time, they’ve been so caught up in figuring out when Shiro will actually mark Keith, that they’ve decided to just swing the rest. It means that Shiro’s taking Keith to bed like he would a real lover, and it’s slowly breaking apart Keith’s world.

They’re half on the bed, Keith’s legs dangling off the edge of the mattress while Shiro has his knees planted on the ground. Keith’s wet and keening like he’s never been before; his entire body’s screaming for Shiro to fill him, to knot him, to break skin and prove to everyone that Keith belongs to him.

He’s going to get claimed, so, so publicly, and the thought of that makes the fire curled around Keith’s gut brighten. Shiro follows soft suction at the tip by hooking his fingers and searching within Keith till Keith’s arching into Shiro’s mouth without any control. Shiro lets him slide in, and Keith’s pretty sure that this is how he’s going to die.

He almost cries out Shiro’s name when he’s swallows him all the way in. Shiro hums around him and works on opening him up more, and Keith’s trying his best to keep himself steady. Shiro pulls off with a pop and Keith twitches a little at the loss.

“Good?” Shiro asks, and Keith can barely meet his eyes as he nods. “Want some more?”

He’s looking up at Keith, eyes bright and cheeks flushed, and Keith’s trying to find a way to articulate that he thinks his heat might have been triggered, might be breaking through him at this very moment, without having the camera pick it up.  He can feel the fire through till the tip of his toes, and knows he’s growing redder at a steady pace.

Shiro takes a sharp inhale, and that’s all it takes for his expression to change.

“You’re…” He trails off, and Keith lifts a trembling finger to Shiro’s lips.

“Yeah,” He replies, and he can hear the pathetic tint to his own voice. He’s not proud of it, but before he can dwell on it, Shiro’s pushing upwards.

He kisses Keith with a ferocity that catches him by surprise, and he can taste Shiro’s hunger through it. Shiro presses Keith flat against the mattress, and plants a foot on the ground. He nudges Keith’s legs apart with his other thigh, and Keith immediately rolls down on it, moaning openly into Shiro’s mouth.

Briefly, he thinks about the date he went on earlier in the week. The person had been a kind beta from one of his Trig classes. They paid for the date, had carried a good enough concentration, had been extremely sweet to Keith, and Keith sent them off with a kiss on the cheek and a hesitant “I’m not sure if I’m ready”. They had been a good sport about it, just like they had taken Keith’s “My roommate’s an alpha” as a good enough explanation for why he probably reeked of Shiro.

Keith’s glad that he didn’t have to articulate that he’s not been able to ever match the amount of desire he’s felt for Shiro. He’s glad that he’s never had to articulate how he sensed jealousy in Shiro when he had told Shiro about the date, and how that scent had stayed with him as he wrapped a hand around himself later that night and muffled himself against the pillow.

That sends another sharp spike of lust through Keith, and there’s no denying that his heat’s come on early. It feels like his brain’s getting consumed by Shiro, who’s kissing him like he’s ready to devour him.

“Shit,” Shiro murmurs when he breaks them apart and Keith tries to chase him. Keith claws at his back and pulls him closer. Shiro presses his nose against Keith’s neck, and Keith feels the skim of teeth against skin. “You’re not kidding.”

You have no idea, Keith thinks.

But by the way Shiro looks at him, steadily growing darker and more commanding, Keith thinks he might.

Keith’s been with other alphas before. He’s been marked once before, but it faded out with the relationship.

He knows that none of those experiences surpass Shiro. He knows nothing that can happen will ever top Shiro, who’s got Keith’s legs hooked over his arms, nearly bending him in half as he fucks into him at a possessive and punishing pace.

Keith can’t recognize the own sounds spilling out of his mouth, but he can’t recognize much of anything through the fuzz surrounding his brain. He’s honed in on the heat radiating off Shiro, of Shiro in him, big and demanding as he pins Keith down and takes him.

Keith throws his head back to let out a steady stream of pleased noises, and Shiro takes the bared neck as an invitation to bite it. He’s not marking Keith yet, but he’s sucking soft bruises, counterpoint to the way he moves in Keith. Shiro moans against the skin and the vibration of it makes Keith shake. It makes him feel satisfied that his alpha’s pleased, that his alpha’s pleased because of him.

“Shi-ah,” Keith manages to catch himself just in time, an impressive feat given that he’s not sure if he’s capable of saying anything but Shiro’s name.

“Baby,” Shiro pants into Keith’s neck. “Does it feel good?”

“Yeah,” Keith manages to choke out. “Yeah, god, please, please–”

Shiro doesn’t ask what Keith’s begging for; he just presses forward, bending Keith even more, sending stars shooting through his vision. It makes Keith loud, and makes him come so, so close. He wants to reach down and pull himself off, but he wants Shiro to do it more.

“I’m almost-” Keith starts, cutting off at a particularly hard thrust. “I’m gonna–”

Shiro quiets him with a bruising kiss, and it takes the barest touch for Keith to come, for him to spill over Shiro’s hand and for him to muffle Shiro’s name into his mouth.

He thinks that’s the end, that Shiro’s going to ride him through it and finish off himself, but his body thinks different. He’s still half hard, and Shiro shows no sign of letting up. Keith’s feels a familiar sensitivity creeping in, but it’s dull and muted, like his body’s begging to let Shiro keep taking him.

Shiro gives another hard thrust, ducking his head to look in between them.

“I still have to mark you,” Shiro says, voice rough and restrained. Keith’s glad he’s not the only one feeling completely wrecked.

“Do it now,” Keith says, but Shiro shakes his head. Before he can process it, worry shoots through him. It probably makes itself really known, because Shiro drops down to leave soothing kisses against Keith’s jawline.

“I want to make sure they see,” Shiro says, sliding his arms out from under Keith’s legs. “Make sure they know.”

What Shiro wants to do is to hold him up in his lap, using a hand around Keith’s throat to pin his back flush against Shiro’s torso. Another arm encircles Keith’s waist, holding him steady. There’s not much support for Shiro, so he uses his strength to thrust up into Keith. 

Keith’s entire body’s shaking, and he can’t parse whether it’s the heat or if this is just how he’s destined to be around Shiro. Rationally, it’s the heat, but the spark Keith’s been nurturing for Shiro has bloomed into an all encompassing flame. Shiro squeezes the hand around Keith’s throat. It makes him dizzy in the best way, and he lets out a loud whine.

“No one else can have you,” Shiro whispers into Keith’s ear. “No one else can touch you like this.”

Keith tries to nod as much as he can, and Shiro rewards him by shifting his hand off his neck so that he can tug at Keith. The suddenly flow of air and friction against his skin has Keith’s eyes rolling back, but he knows he can’t come again till Shiro marks him.

“Am I yours?” He manages to gasp out, and he can feel Shiro give a pleased rumble behind him.

“You’re mine,” Shiro’s voice has dropped low and liquid, washing over Keith. “And I’m yours. No one else and no one else’s.”

Keith has no idea how Shiro’s managed to remain this coherent; he thinks it might be one of those alpha things, but hearing those words makes him squirm. Keith’s losing his senses rapidly, and he’s starting to feel reckless.

“Shiro,” It comes out of Keith before he can stop it, broken and husky. It doesn’t stop Shiro—and Keith starts to feel teeth on his neck again, positioned right where they need to be to mark him. There’s slight pressure, and Keith digs his nails into the arm that’s choking him. Shiro removes it and uses it to pull Keith closer to himself and grind into him, and Keith can feel the beginnings of a swell.

“I’m here,” Shiro’s voice reverberates to Keith’s core. “I’m here. Tell me what you want babe, tell me that you want it.”

Keith can’t hep it— it’s too much. All he can feel is Shiro, all he can smell is Shiro, all he can hear is Shiro’s voice, all that’s surrounding him right now is Shiro Shiro Shiro.

“You,” It’s the neediest Keith has ever sounded in his life, and he can’t bring himself to care. “I need you Shiro, you, only you, it’s only ever been you, I love you, Shiro, Shiro–”

Shiro bites down hard just as they both tip over the edge, and something within Keith surges at the fact that finally, finally Shiro’s claimed him, and makes him temporarily forget the confession he’s just blurted out.

When Shiro’s knot comes down and he slips out, and Keith’s officially come down from the high of his first wave of heat, Keith wants to bury himself under his own bed and die of mortification. He’s not sure how he’s going to gather the courage or the energy to go turn the cameras off.

Shiro rumbles behind him as Keith voices as much, and rolls them over so that Keith’s half on Shiro’s torso.

“You did well,” Shiro says, and it sounds so much like the voice he had when he was playing ball in their first year of university, that Keith snorts.

“Thanks pal,” He says dryly, and Shiro chuckles. “I’m glad you find this funny.”

Shiro rolls his eyes smiles at him and runs a hand through Keith’s hair. Keith’s eyes close at the touch and he leans into it, enjoying the soft pressure against his scalp. It relaxes him further, even though he’s already feeling boneless from their efforts earlier on. The mark on his neck pulses a little, and Keith’s eyes shoot open.

“Woah,” Shiro says, shifting a hand to Keith’s shoulder. He can probably sense Keith’s panic; it wouldn’t be too hard, because Keith’s dousing in it.

“I said— when you marked me,” Keith stutters, and Shiro raises an eyebrow at him. “I said—”

“I heard,” Shiro replies, moving his hand again, and Keith feels himself get shifted further up Shiro till he’s nose to nose with him.

His expression is indescernible to Keith, but Keith doesn’t get a chance to dwell on it. Shiro pulls him down for a soft, chaste press of the lips. It’s easy, a lot easier than Keith expected, especially when Shiro kisses the corner of his mouth, then the tip of his nose.

“You too,” Shiro says gently. “I love you too.”

Relief melts through Keith. Any half-hearted explanation about how heat makes people say crazy things is immediately forgotten as he slumps against Shiro’s chest and presses a kiss against Shiro’s throat.

“Let me take care of you,” Shiro says, sliding a finger under Keith’s chin and tipping it up so that they’re looking at each other. “Let me be good to you.”

“You already are,” Keith says, but lets himself get drawn in again.

[the-vampire-artist]

Anxiety

Klangst week 3: Fear/Anger

@klangst-week

Keith's world spun around him. Everything felt like it was closing in and crushing him, preventing him from breathing. Keith gripped his hair tightly and backed up. He didn't even realize he'd heard one of his triggers until the panic attack started up. And now it was happening and he couldn't stop it.

At least, not alone.

Lance looked over to see Keith backing up and gripping his hair. Lance's face grew concerned instantly; Keith never grips his hair like that, and he never backs up like he was either. Lance placed a hand on Keith's shoulder.

"Keith, babe, are you okay?" Lance asked gently. They had been talking to the rest of the team and the topic of a cruise for their spring break had come up when Keith started breathing heavily. Keith looked at Lance with those eyes and Lance instantly knew what was happening.

"Oh shit... Guys, shut up!" Lance seethed through his teeth, his gaze never leaving Keith's. Keith's eyes were full of tears and absolute terror and they were looking around everywhere, trying to focus on something. Lance's hand wavered cautiously in front of Keith's face.

"Keith, touch?" Lance asked. He knew the drill; ask if touch is okay first because sometimes it isn't with Keith. If he says yes, hold his hands and rub them while Lance calms him down. If no, then just remove the hands from the process and try asking again at a later time. Keith, however, didn't show or say either answer. Instead, he started falling backwards.

"Shit- okay, it's okay. Easy, babe." Lance's voice wavered, trying to hide his fear as he steadily eased Keith to the ground. Lance didn't need Keith worrying about Lances panic on top of his own panic attack.

“What’s going on?” Allura asked. Lance turned to Shiro, his eyes pleading for him to help get everyone out of the room. Shiro understood.

“Let’s give Keith some space, guys. Lance has this under control.” Shiro stated in his Dad voice. Everyone made their way out, leaving Shiro, Lance, and Keith in the room, Lance gently keeping Keith upright. Keith buried his face into Lance’s chest, still panicking and crying from the attack. Lance looked sadly down at him before looking to Shiro.

“You got this covered?” Shiro asked quickly. Lance nodded.

“I’ve helped him before. I’ve got this.” Lance said, giving a nod to Shiro as a sign for him to please leave the room. He understood and shut the door quietly. Keith’s cries became silent and Lance looked down concerned. Keith’s jaw was locked in a fearful grimace, his lips open in a frown, showing his teeth slightly. Keith’s hair was a mess from him gripping it, and his eyes were wide with terror, tears spilling down from them. Keith’s hands were now busy with his arms, and Lance could see traces of blood on Keith’s hands and hair. Lances eyes widened as he quickly grabbed Keith’s hands, forgetting that Keith had made it unclear if he was okay with touch, but Lance wasn’t as worried about that as he was worried that Keith might hurt himself if Lance didn’t give some restraint. Keith’s eyes looked at Lance in pure terror, and although Lance hated it, he knew he had to keep Keith’s hands away from him. For now, at least. Lance placed Keith’s hands under one of his own and used his free hand to guide Keith’s gaze to him.

“Keith, babe, I need you to look at me. Can you do that?” Keith’s eyes started looking away and Keith’s head tilted downwards. Lance lifted his chin and moved his own head so Lances gaze met Keith’s.

“Hey, no. Don’t do that. I need you to focus on me. Okay? Focus on my voice. My eyes. My words. Nothing else. Okay? Can you do that?” Lance asked quietly. Keith looked at him before nodding. Lance sighed in relief.

“Okay, good. Now, just like before. I want you to count to ten for me. Okay?” Lance asked. Keith looked Lance up and down shakily before his eyes widened and he slammed his hands over his ears and buried his face into his knees. Lance was thrown off guard for a second but it only lasted a few seconds before he was back in action.

“Hey, Hey. Easy. What’s wrong?” Lance asked him. Keith’s breathing picked up and he started coughing.

“Keith, hey, breathe. I don’t want you choking.” Lance said, worry evident in his voice. Keith looked up at Lance timidly. Lance smiled back at him.

“Can I touch you?” He asked. Keith nodded and Lance sighed. Keith seemed to be getting calmer. Lance brought Keith onto his lap and Keith wrapped his arms around Lance’s chest, hugging him back. Lance rubbed Keith’s back calmingly as he rocked the two of them back and forth, letting Keith cry into his shoulder. Lance’s heart broke as he heard Keith’s broken sobs; he wished he could just protect Keith from every negative thing that had filled Keith’s life.

After a while, Keith calmed down enough so he could talk. He pushed away from Lance and Lance looked at Keith with a better view. Keith’s eyes were red and bloodshot from him crying, and tear tracks ran down his face and stained his and Lance’s shirts. Keith was pale and still a shaking, sniffling mess, his hair bunched up in certain spots and cuts still on his arms. Lance wiped some of the remaining tears from Keith’s face with his hand and Keith’s hand held Lance’s in place. Lance smiled gently and Keith returned it.

“You wanna talk about it?” Lance asked. Keith shook his head.

“N-not right now...” he whispered. Lance smiled.

“Okay, that’s fine. Whenever you’re ready.” Lance said, bringing Keith back into a hug. Keith eventually wound up falling asleep on Lance’s shoulder from sheer exhaustion. Lance smiled at him and pecked the top of his head. Keith shifted and buried his face into Lance’s chest, his lips slightly parted and a soft snore was coming from him. Lance chuckled quietly and soon, he was nodding off to sleep as well. He could ask Keith what triggered the attack later.

——————————————————

Real quick thing before I wrap this fic up. I just wanted to quickly say that This is based purely off of my own experiences with anxiety and panic attacks. Anxiety isn’t the same for everyone, and people react differently to different kinds of help. For example, when I wrote that Keith wasn’t always okay with touch, that’s an entirely true fact. Always ask someone who is having a panic attack if touch is okay. If they don’t answer, then be cautious about touching them.

Anxiety comes in many different forms and can affect different people in different ways. Some people only face it when they have a test or a big project due, some have it from past experiences (PTSD), and others are faced with it on a daily basis from no specific cause. If you or someone you know is facing anxiety and panic attacks, try talking to a psychologist or seek professional help. If you or they aren’t comfortable with that, then try to do everything in your power to help them through it, whether it be making a list of things that calm you/Them down or going online to see the best ways to help. Like I said, Anxiety’s different for Everyone, so try a few different methods to see what calms them down.

Thank you and I hope you have a nice day!❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

[italicwatches]

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online - Episode 05

I am full of food and have set some aside for a friend. It’s a bit late, but let’s do this. It’s Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, episode 05! Here we GO!

-We begin with the other team, prepping for their big final hunt and getting all excited about it…Also, incredibly hard to translate language puns.

-Meanwhile, M is having a real bad day. Like, really bad. Possibly his worst. And…Well, M insists that if he dies in the game, he’ll die for real.

-First, question. I’m not saying he’s lying yet, but what fucking idiot would thus enter into a PvP Battle Royale? If you’re trapped in the game, you keep your fucking ass in the starter town(hai, Kazuma desu) and farm low-level PvE mobs for enough credits to get by!

-Second, well I just found my screen cap and we’re only a minute in.

-Because LLENN calls bullshit, this isn’t SAO. …Now tell her what was on that letter, you dumb idiot. He hands it over without resistance, and it’s from Pito, of course, telling him…That if he survives an entire hour, she’ll be super impressed. But if he dies a cowardly death, or after the hour mark, she’ll totally kill him for real. …Dude, you can’t let Pito get into your fuckin’ head like that.

-BULLSHIT YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT WOMAN IS CAPABLE OF

-Opening!

-Sidenote, what the fuck was his plan if shooting LLENN in the head had worked? Take on the entire enemy team himself? She’s not a political enemy, you can’t trade her corpse for fucking safe haven.

-And we’re back. So, whatever the actual situation is, M is fully convinced that PIto will legit murder him in legit reality if he loses. Do you have any idea how obsessed she IS with the original SAO?! With the idea of death games, and of putting your life on the line?!

-And LLENN puts out the question I just wanted to know. And his plan? Kill her. Become team leader. Resign, which wouldn’t count at suicide by the strictest definition of Pito’s terms, and would kick him out right away so he could make a run for it.

-…You’re a fuckin’ idiot and you took her way too lightly, man. So here’s the actual factual plan. She’s gonna go shoot the other team full of red pixel dots. You’re gonna go hide somewhere. If she dies, you can bail out or whatever. Peace.

-And then she’s off, barely stopping long enough to retrieve her cool hat before she’s off like a rocket and putting together a battle plan…What’s her best tools? Simple, the core thing she’s been pouring XP into since day one. At least in terms of this Squad Jam, she’s the fastest woman alive! Run, LLENN, run!

-Meanwhile, M is trying to convince himself he wasn’t in the wrong here…And then with one last war cry, LLENN’s out of comm range.

-She’s moving at full force, sprinting over a dockside…And finds herself having just jumped into the enemy team! Behind cover, return fire! It’s a vicious high-speed duel with their forward scout, as she desperately tries to find LLENN…But gets out-played, taking vicious shots! LLENN gets glanced in the shoulder, but reloads far faster when the mags run dry, and blasts the gun right out of the other woman’s hands!

-She starts calling for reinforcements and goes for her sidearm…But it’s far too late, as she gets bisected with gunfire! The rest of her team arrives just in time to watch her collapse, and for LLENN to fucking book it behind some rocks when they pour it on! The heavy gunners are going full force…

-And the sniper tries to pin her down, but the wildly desperate LLENN somehow outruns them all, even as she tries to ignore that little bit of her lizard hindbrain that doesn’t realize this is just a game and FUCK FUCK FUCK THIS IS PRETTY LEGITIMATELY SCARY FOR HER

-Episode 05! “Leave the Last Battle to Me”

-While the other team make a point of taking their fallen comrade’s gear…They’re gonna get vengeance for you, and claim that gold, friend. Don’t you worry.

-Back with LLENN, she takes stock. Down to 70% HP. Only six mags left, and two plasma grenades, and a knife. Not a good set of odds. She’s running into the lion’s den here…

-But she remembers what Pito taught her. Never fire randomly or in desperation. If you can’t say with certainty where you’re aiming and why, then all you’re doing is giving away your location and fear to the enemy. Center, focus. Always act with intent.

-And LLENN starts to put her focus together. She can do this. She will do this. Deep breath, get moving. They’re gonna get eyes on her…

-And then two shots ring out. One in her back. One rips through her mag carrier. She stumbles, staggers, takes another shot as she falls down there side of the cliff, barely pulling through with about 30% of her HP left…The leader starts pushing the rest of her team to herd her in…

-As LLENN realizes she fell for a fucking trap. They used their Bullet Lines to draw her in! But she can still move. She can still run. Everything hurts, but if she can get from cover to cover…

-She’s got multiple sharpshooters on her…And when they pin her down, the big guns come out! LLENN is stuck, pinned, and desperate…

-When she gets a plan. She throws a grenade just over the rock, starts counting…And the instant it goes off, she sprints, letting the ball of plasma catch their fire and block her escape! MOVE! FUCKING MOVE!

-The other team…Well, she’s earning their respect. Pulling shit like this solo? Little rabbit’s good.

-While LLENN manages to get out of the line of fire, and the pain’s starting to wear off. She can focus, and think…But that leaves her needing to think of a plan. Right now, she’s got a real problem. Her victories come from being up close and personal…

-That’s right, LLENN-chan! Wait, who’s…

-…LLENN.

-LLENN, sweetie.

-You need to log out.

-You’re hallucinating.

-Because I refuse to believe your gun is actually talking.

-Anyways, P-chan tells her to go forward, to use her speed to get in and god dammit why does P-chan have anime eyes. No you cannot meet senpai!

-At least LLENN has the smarts to realize she must be losing her mind.

-But eventually, the enemy team is hunting her down, and she’s chilling on a rock. Looking for her? They shoot…And she just fuckin’ dives away from it, before racing in! DAKKADAKKA, big gunner down! The sniper’s caught in too close, unable to get a solid shot in,, and instead gets lost to a plasma grenade!

-LLENN eats a glancing blow, ends up spiraling down with about 25%, and caught under two Bullet Lines with her gun out of reach…

-When a shot lances through the air, hitting a grenade on the other gunner’s belt! She’s lost in fire, and it’s down to the leader in the thick…

-While the last two members of the team, watching from afar, get eyed by sniper fire! M, is, back in the game! They’re on the run, but LLENN’s got this…

-As she races in against the leader!

-And eats a roundhouse kick to her tiny, vulnerable stomach that sends her into the far wall. Soooo that’s not great.

-Yeah, that hurts real bad. The leader pins her down hard, and puts round after round into her chest…But it doesn’t work?! HOW?! WHY WON’T YOU DIE?!

-She put the scanner in her breast pocket. The scanner is indestructible.

-It’s the frying pan of GGO.

-And that gives LLENN enough time to whip her head away from the next shot, for the leader’s mag to run dry! LLENN flings a P90 mag at her, forcing her to step back, giving our tiny pink devil enough space to just magdump!

-The leader ferociously grabs that P90, trying to rip it out of her hands, to snap it in half…You’re good, little one. Good enough to piss her off. What’s your name? LLENN. Yours? Eva. Everyone just calls her Boss.

-You ran dry, didn’t you.

-So did you.

-And then the other gunner arrives, the last one still armed! JUST FIRE, you fool! One of them has to survive, that’s all!

-But she hesitates. For a singular moment too long. Her machine-gun gets shot apart, and in a final play, she throws the boss her sidearm magazine!

-Eva whips her pistol up, catches it perfectly…And LLENN finds it to her head. But P-chan will protect her! Shot after shot echoes across the desert landscape…

-And when it’s over…LLENN still stands, with P-chan filled full of damage…It shatters in her hands, and, uh, guys?

-Guys?

-P-chan was her power limiter.

-So this is bad.

-Very bad. With a furious roar, she dives in with her knife, tearing Eva’s thighs open! Back and forth, cross cut that puts her on the ground, and then a vicious strike to the chest! LLENN eats a punch before she can land it, loses all but her last 1% of HP…

-But the knife went up. And she catches it with her free hand, diving it CLEAR THROUGH EVA’S NECK! Crimson neon sprays from the wound, she hits the ground in a heap…

-And LLENN almost eats a sniper round to the head from the last surviving member. But M draws her out by standing firm, and the two snipers cross counter with bullets. The enemy sniper drops…And then so does M.

-But then the fireworks go up! TEAM LM IS THE WINNER OF THIS FIRST SQUAD JAM!

-LLENN arrives to find M’s…Got his pack on backwards and it took the shot. You ridiculous man you scared her half to death. But that, is, the, game!

-This first ever Squad Jam lasted just shy of an hour and a half, and they fired 49,810 shots! Jesus. I wonder how many of those were out of P-chan.

-Credits!

-Aftercredits! The real world. When a tiny adorable schoolgirl comes up to Karen, because they noticed she got her hair cut short and it turns out this whole group always admire Karen when they see her walking by, thinking she’s so elegant and graceful like a model and this is the moment when we’re supposed to realize that this is Eva’s squad. Like, you see it, right?

-But, yeah. It’s an interesting thing, conflicting height complexes…But Karen managed to push herself forward. It might sound silly, but…The sheer wild desperation of a VR game, of fighting for her life again and again, was what locked it in for her. She realized she could endure.

-And indeed, one of them calls the head girl, Saki, Boss, and Karen doesn’t quite put it together yet, but she ends up making some adorable younger friends. …Gahhhh, it’s impossible.

-And then Saki comes up to shake her hand. For defeating the Boss, I now bestow upon you the rank of Big Boss. You’re a hell of a player, LLENN. She’s gonna totally kick your ass next time though, little rabbit. Bring it on, you amazon.

WHAT A FUCKING FIGHT THAT WAS, am I right? God damn! Constantly on the edge of the seat, taking LLENN down to her final most desperate tools! Oh that was delicious.

I cannot wait to see where things go from here. We’ll see next time, in episode….Well looks like 5.5, of SAO Alt: GGO! Wait for it!

[morimementa]

I Rewrote my Overwatch Fanfic, What Even

You’re Somebody’s Hero (though you may not want to be)

Summary: On his way to foil a Deadlock scheme, McCree runs into trouble and receives help from an unlikely source. Is it a good thing that a maniac with an explosives fetish idolizes him? Probably not.

Content warnings: Language, injury.

Characters: Junkrat, Roadhog, McCree, Deadlock (mentioned).

Featuring: No beta-reader! Junkrat as a McCree fanboy! The princess carry (I am ALL ABOUT the princess carry), and Not Enough Booze to Deal with This!

Note: I thought this up one night when I was trying to go to bed, spent the better part of a day writing it, edited it, put it online, decided it sucked, redid it several times, and then posted it again. Personally, I blame the fact that I watched this comic dub compilation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WneYr-VAVhY&t=60s

I went through all the canon info on these guys that I could find, but there’s precious little of it, so I wasn’t left with much in the way of characterization to work with. Apologies if I get anything wrong. It’s not really shipping, so if High Boom isn’t your thing, you can still enjoy it.

Back in the days that almost no one was old enough to remember, Route 66 had been the go to path for anyone on a road trip. Nowadays, it had such a bad reputation that all 2,451 miles of it was given a wide berth by civilized society. Rather than enticing people to see America, it was a hotbed for smugglers, criminals, and those looking for trouble. Jesse McCree tended to fall into the last category more often than not. Despite this, he wanted to believe that he wasn’t quite as lawless as he’d been the last time he traveled that road. Years could change a man, even it wasn’t entirely for the better.

Popular opinion was that he should be rotting in a cell somewhere, and he’d long since accepted that. Just because the world thought you were up to no good didn’t mean you had to be. Maybe his methods of making his way to the no man’s land running along either side of the road weren’t entirely legal, but he had good intentions. He’d gotten word a few weeks ago that the Deadlock gang was trying to make a comeback. Scuttlebutt around the criminal underworld was that they were convening along the route somewhere in Kansas. That was bad news for anyone in their way. They were up to something, and damned if he didn’t feel obligated to at least try and stop them.

He’d hitched a ride atop a ritzy train (and the events of that trip were a story for another time), but it’d only gotten him so far. He’d kept going on foot, intermittently getting lifts from weather beaten vehicles with dubious alibis as to why they were there. He’d known he was close when he started seeing buildings older than he was. He was making his way through a dilapidated town when things got complicated.

They were new recruits, too young to have heard of him and too green to put up much of a fight. But what they lacked in skill, they made up for in home turf advantage. They’d been stationed in the ghost town to keep an eye out for anyone trying to interfere. He wasn’t sure how long they’d been there before he scared them off, but it was long enough to wire the crumbling buildings with C-4.

He was relatively lucky. The switch had only set off one of the charges and it’d been set up so sloppily that it’d only taken out half the building. Too bad he was in it at the time. He’d only had a second to jump clear of the falling ceiling. As the dust settled, he knew the gang members were gone. No matter. They weren’t what he was after. McCree dusted off his Sarape and started to get his bearings.

Glancing around, he assessed the damage. His right ankle was hurting; he’d landed on it funny during the dive. He wasn’t complaining, though. It was better than being buried. The room itself was scattered with chunks of plaster, his view partially obscured by an exceptionally large chunk. What was left of the place hinted that the building had been a bar at some point. There were overturned or broken tables and an assortment of smashed bottles scattered across the floor. You were more likely to get tetanus than a hangover. Too bad. He wouldn’t have minded a drink. He frowned, placing a hand to his bare head.

If he’d lost his hat, Texas itself wouldn’t be big enough to hide those bastards.

Their lives were spared another day as he spotted his Stetson a few feet from where he was sitting. Right, time to keep moving. The explosion would have attracted attention, which was one thing he didn’t want. Checking to make sure Peacekeeper was still in its holster, he got to his feet, ignoring the throbbing in his ankle. That was a mistake. As soon as he put weight on it, hurt lanced through his leg, buckling it beneath him. He hit the ground, catching himself only inches from the rotten hardwood. He swallowed the forthcoming cry of pain and spat out a curse instead. Well, wasn’t this just perfect?

Propping himself against the wall, McCree considered his options. Injured prey didn’t last very long around here, and unless Mercy was somehow within shouting distance, it wasn’t looking good. He was just at the point where using a chunk of support beam as a crutch sounded like a good idea when he heard it. The roar of a bike engine rapidly approaching. Dammit, were the Deadlock groupies back already?

Peacekeeper flashed in the sunlight as he drew it. He still had enough ammo to deal with one bike load of interlopers. Maybe if he was really lucky, he’d get a new ride out of the deal. As the engine cut off, he held his breath. There were two people, judging by the footsteps, and they were getting closer.

“Bloody Amateurs! Is that what they call an explosion?! There wasn’t even a shockwave!”

Australians.

Shit.

“Well, whatever. If there’s a stash of those party poppers around here, I can still make something decent.”

McCree crouched in a defensive position, mindful of his bad ankle. They were practically on the front step…

“Come on ya big lug! Let’s see what they left!”

With a bang, the door fell off its rusted hinges and crashed to the floor. The culprit was a scrawny man, missing a shirt and most of his hair. He was followed closely by one of the most enormous people McCree had even seen. More surprising was the gas mask that covered his face. Obscured by a large chunk of ceiling, McCree watched them suspiciously. The first man’s head swiveled around the room, apparently fixated on his supply search. As he looked to the far wall, he snorted derisively.

“Look at this mess! Who rigged this?! I crossed better wires when I was in nappies!”

Taken aback, McCree took his attention from the giant long enough to notice his friend in more detail. Now that he was really looking, he could see the man’s height, obvious despite his slouch. There was a tire strapped to his back and his hair was very slightly on fire. He realized immediately who they were.

He’d caught a glimpse of their mugshots on a screen a while back. The news report had said their aliases were Junkrat and Roadhog, two runaways from the Outback who were on a worldwide crime spree. They’d broken into every place from the tower of London to a Japanese arcade. No one was quite sure what the end goal was, but by all accounts, they weren’t easily subdued. And now they were standing only a few feet from him. It would probably take more bullets than he had to take down the both of them. They’d only be preoccupied for so long.

The bigger one-Roadhog- was more interested in the rest of the room than the C-4. McCree’s heart sank as he realized the giant had noticed his fallen hat. He placed a hand on Junkrat’s head, turning it so he faced McCree’s hiding spot and pointed a thick finger directly at it. Junkrat sighed and hobbled over. He was just about to make a break for it, ankle be damned, when Junkrat leapt over the rubble and landed in front of him, blocking his way out.

They stared at each other for a very long second. McCree’s grip on his gun tightened. He tensed as Junkrat’s eyes went wide, waiting for him to lunge for his jugular.

“JESSE MCFREAKING MCCREE!”

When wanted criminals yelled his name, it was usually filled with malice and laced with the promise of retribution. This reminded him more of those girls who used to get weak-kneed over Jack. Junkrat’s dirt covered face lit up like a Christmas tree. He knelt down, face only inches from McCree.

“Hooley Dooley, it’s actually YOU! All the blokes back home talked about how you were the baddest guy stateside! Is it true you used to be in Blackwatch? Holy shit, your arm’s like mine! Can I-?”

Junkrat’s ramble was cut off as he found himself nose to barrel with Peacekeeper. Seeing this, Roadhog lumbered over, moving the obstruction like it was a pile of pillows. He loomed over them warningly. McCree looked past Junkrat’s blond spikes to shoot him a return glare. Junkrat, however, smiled, raising his hands in surrender.

“Ok, ok, not a touchy-feely guy. I get it.” He sat back on his haunches, affording the cowboy some personal space. He only lowered his gun an inch. Roadhog was still giving off an aura of protectiveness. Junkrat was oblivious to the tension, bouncing in place as he took in McCree.

“What’re you doing out here, anyway?” He asked. “Getting the old gang back together? Planning the heist of the century?! BLOWING UP SOME SUITS?!”

McCree watched his gesticulations grow wilder with every question. Did this guy ever stay still? Well, he wasn’t about to let him in on his plans. The whole world would know them by noon. When his silence didn’t dissuade Junkrat’s expectant stare, he decided to go the vague route.

“I’m crashing a party.”

Junkrat snorted. “Sounds boring. You want to hang out with us instead? We’re going to see what they’re hiding in Area 51!”

“Why?”

“Just curious. My money’s on aliens, but ‘Hog’s sure they’re making some sort of super-omnic.”

McCree took in the canisters of explosives draped over Junkrat’s shoulders and Roadhog’s heavily detailed bike/pig tattoo.

“I think y’all are going to have a hard time getting past security.”

Junkrat waved a hand dismissively. “Ah, we know how to be inconspicuous.”

He was pretty sure he heard Roadhog snort.

“Sooo,” Junkrat drawled, leaning forward. “If you don’t want to come to Roswell, how ‘bout we just drop you off at your party? We’ve got a pretty sweet ride, so we can give a lift, right mate?”

Junkrat looked up at Roadhog.

McCree looked up at Roadhog.

Roadhog nodded.

McCree wondered how hard it would be to hop all the way to Kansas. Junkrat must have seen the doubt on his face, because he redoubled his efforts.

“Aw, come on, when you see the bike you’ll change your mind! It’s a classic!” He grabbed McCree’s wrists and yanked him up. As soon as his foot met the floor, McCree gasped sharply, latching on to the taller male to keep himself upright. Junkrat braced the cowboy against his side, enthusiasm replaced with concern.

“You alright? Got a snake in your boot?”

“He’s hurt.” Roadhog rumbled.

“I’m fine.”

Junkrat was unconvinced. He slung McCree’s arm over his shoulders and helped him over to the sturdiest looking table. McCree found himself plunked down on top of it, leg stretched out straight. Junkrat patted his shoulder.

“No worries, we’ll get ya fixed up! I’ve practically got a Ph.D. in DIY doctoring!”

He wasn’t reassured. But Junkrat was already easing off his boot and sock. He ran his organic fingers down the cowboy’s ankle with surprising gentleness. His unruly eyebrows furrowed as his saw the swelling and he shot a glance at Roadhog. Roadhog didn’t move, at least as far as McCree could see, but an understanding still appeared to pass between the two.

“Yeah, good call.” Junkrat said before turning back to McCree.

“Good news, it’s just a helluva sprain! Used’ta get them all the time when I had both my legs! Nothing that’ll keep someone like you down for very long. I’ll get it wrapped up good as new!”

Junkrat reached into the pocket of his cargo shorts and pulled out a roll of surprisingly clean bandages. He worked quickly and precisely. McCree was almost surprised someone so chaotic could be that exact. Probably, he realized with an unpleasant lurch, because he wouldn’t have survived long otherwise.

True to Junkrat’s word, the bandages did the trick. But the time he was done, the ache was already starting to subside, making it easy to slip his shoe back on. He readily accepted the hip flask offered, but upon sniffing the contents, he had to hide a grimace. Was there coffee mixed in with the whiskey? Lowering the flask, he looked back to the Junkers.

“Much obliged.” He said, genuinely thankful. The smile he got in return could have powered an amusement park.

“Anytime! So, doesn’t this mean you’ll tag along with us? We don’t have crutches, but Roadie gives great piggyback rides!” He looked up at his friend hopefully.

Roadhog looked at McCree.

Roadhog looked at Junkrat.

Roadhog nodded.

McCree considered everything, and took a long swig from the flask.

“Sure.” He said, once the urge to gag had passed. “Only as far as Kansas, though.”

Junkrat pumped both fists in the air.

“Yes!” He exclaimed, leaping to his feet and heading for the door. “Let’s load up on boomsticks and hit the road!”

McCree found himself alone with Roadhog. They had a staring contest for a few seconds, before Roadhog held out a peace offering.

“Thanks.” McCree put his Stetson back on and swung one leg off the table. Before he could move the other one, he was lifted up and cradled in a pair of very large arms. To his embarrassment, he realized the Junker intended to carry him bridal style. Hopefully his ankle healed up soon. This wasn’t exactly going to strike fear into the hearts of Deadlock. Upon seeing the look on his face, Roadhog shrugged.

“Already got a passenger.” McCree leaned over Roadhog’s shoulder to see an oversized pachimari plush strapped to his back by netting.

He emptied the flask in one gulp.

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt.16

Keith was sitting on the front steps when Lance pulled into his driveway. Their meeting for a moment, before Pidge was leaning past him

“Get in, loser! We’re going out!”

Rubbing his ear, Lance didn’t appreciate Pidge’s loud voice abusing his eardrum

“I’m fine right here!”

“Don’t be like that. We’re going ghost hunting, get in the back!”

“Lance was going to drop me in town...”

“Why? Everything’s shut now apart from the bars. Stop being antisocial and come look for ghosts with us!”

That was how Keith ended up in the boot of Lance’s bronco. Lance could feel the tension from the driver’s seat, Pidge having climbed over into the back so she and Hunk could talk with Keith, who’d barely gotten two words in thanks to the pair of them trying their best to make him feel involved. Lance had seen it on Keith’s face when he’d pulled up. Keith looking up at him like he’d kicked him to the curb without good reason. If he stopped to think about it, Keith would fill that hole in the group that his eventual leaving with bring. Plus, Keith would be there to help Matt reconnect with his family whenever that eventually happened... A whole lot of roads seemed to be leading back to Keith, and Lance couldn’t put up stop signs fast enough.

Swinging by Pidge’s so she could collect her beloved camera, Lance stared up at the visitors centre before them. He’d had enough trouble last time they were here, and though there wouldn’t be any drunks this time, he was sure his friends would find a way to make trouble all over again

“‘Sup, Losers?! This is the Garrison Trio, coming at ya with a new video. Today we’re talking another look at arguably Garrison’s most haunted address! Yep, that’s right, your favourite visitors centre, and mine, it’s the old Garrison Hospital!”

Stuck in a silent “staring but not staring” battle with Keith watching Lance out the corner of his eye, he’d missed Pidge passing her camera off to Hunk so she could film her introduction

“Tonight we have our usual favourites, Me, Hunk, and Lance, but we also have a guest tagging along to see the work we do! Pan to Keith”

Hunk moved the camera, Keith not even noticing he’d been recorded. Lance had the feeling Keith wasn’t supposed to be being recorded. Anyone who saw his face online wouldn’t be able to forget him

“Yep! Our little trio has become a foursome! The awesome foursome. Now, if you click the link below this video you’ll be able to read up on the chilling history and the role the hospital played during world war three! Let’s just say, a lot of people died in a lot of not so lovely ways. Let’s head in!”

As Pidge took the camera from Hunk, Lance took her by the arm

“You can’t film Keith”

“What?”

“You can’t film him. It’s something to do with Shiro’s work. He works on things for the government, for like big bad multimillion dollar corporations that are up to dodgy things. I totally blanked on it, but Shiro will get in trouble”

Pidge raised an eyebrow

“I didn’t know you and Shiro were that tight”

“I was taking selfies and he caught me”

The lies hurt, but Keith’s face getting out their in there videos could bring trouble on all of them, not just Keith... Any vampires with a grudge would see their faces with his and they already knew where to come...

“Oh shit...”

Lance nodded, hoping his facial features portrayed the right emotions. Hunk was the one stole the role of genius from under Pidge’s nose

“I think you’ve got a dusk mask in the glove box from that colour run we didn’t end up doing... he could wear that?”

“Perfect. You two go ahead and I’ll get it. Don’t bring it up though, he’s super socially stunted”

Pidge fluttered her eyelashes

“Is someone getting protective of their “not boyfriend, boyfriend?””

“No, but you’ll have to get protective of that camera if you don’t stop bringing that up”

Pidge’s look turned to betrayal, then acceptance

“Fiiiiine. Do what you have to do. Hunk and I will go ahead. Come on, Hunk”

Rifling through his glovebox, Lance found the branded face mask. The colour run had two components to it, first you did a 5km walk/run, then in some weird kind of sales seasonal thing, there was a kind of sideshow at the end with live music, games, and seeing it was around Halloween, a corn maze and a haunted house. They’d paid, skipped the run, covertly let themselves into the corn maze, beaten that, then hit up the haunted house. Pidge deciding they all needed souvenirs, the mask being one of them... not that it was overly spooky. It was a simple black face mask with splatters of neon paint across the front, a few “teeth” on the right side and the fun run logo underneath. It was actually kind of “Keith”. Not that he was going there.

Keith had hung back as Pidge and Hunk unlocked the visitor centre and dealt with security. Forced to do the talking thing, Lance held the mask out to Keith who eyed it

“What’s that?”

“Pidge films these things”

“And?”

“And she puts them online. I didn’t think you’d want your face out there. If anyone saw the videos then you’d have your cover blown in further missions, making it harder for you to help the people who need help. I told Pidge that Shiro did covert work for the government so you needed to keep a low profile. I’m not sure she got it, but with Matt and Shiro being tight I think she was willing to let it slide. It hasn’t been worn, and it should cover most of your face. You can use my jacket too if you want, just keep the hood up”

Keith took the mask, staring down at as he tilted his neck. Lance automatically finding his eyes trying to find where he’d bitten the man. He’d never bitten anyone before so he didn’t know the trick of healing a bite to nothing. His own marks from turning were still there for the most part. Keith’s neck was smooth, Lance unable to see any blemishes. God! What was he doing...?! Nope... Fucking Keith

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because you got dragged along by my friends deciding they’re also your friends”

“I thought you said I was a useless hunter”

“No. I said you had anger issues, like right now you’re getting angry at me. Do you want my jacket or not?”

“No. This’ll be fine. She really believes, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah. That’s probably why Matt has kept his distance. She wants to be part of this world, and I’m not about to let that happen”

“So you sabotage her?”

“No. Most of what humans collect isn’t real or it’s reflections. I come along not only to show I support her and Hunk, but so nothing happens to either of them. There’s death in that place and I don’t want something bad to happen. I also don’t plan on telling her about Matt, you, or Shiro. It’s not fun lying, but it does keep them safe. If she ever finds out the truth, I know she’s going to be angry, and I’m prepared for that. You better come along, both my friends seem pretty keen on you, meaning if you hurt them, I will hunt you down myself”

“I’m not going to harm a human”

“Good. Keep it that way”

Pidge was already explaining various exhibits in the visitor centre when Lance and Keith slipped through the front door. A shudder rolled up Lance’s spine, earning him a jab in the side from Keith. What was Keith getting annoyed about? People shuddered all the time for no good reason

“What?”

“You shuddered”

“It happens”

“Don’t fob me off like that. There’s something here, isn’t there? Where is it?”

“Oh great, so vampires and werewolves aren’t enough for you now? You want to hunt ghosts to?”

What was Keith going to do? Stab it? The mental image of Keith stabbing a ghost was too funny, a snort of laughter escaping

“Look... if there’s something...”

“Relax. Yeah, there’s death here but I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to acknowledge it’s presence”

“But you can see it?”

Lance shook his head. That’s what he had his trust glasses for

“Nope”

“You’re lying to me”

“I’m not lying. And keep your voice down, do you really want Pidge and Hunk to know about us?

Keith shot him an unimpressed look. Lance could have worded that better

“This isn’t over”

It could be, if Keith dropped the subject and kicked away like a bottle cap under the fridge that you couldn’t be bothered picking up, so it laid there undiscovered for another 6 months, when it and another dozen finally popped up to remind you how lazy you were about cleaning

“Oh, goody”

“Lance, come over here, you’re better at this side of things”

Lance rolled his eyes at Pidge. She was doing a bang up job making the visitors centre sound like the must visit spot as it was. Walking over to her, he eyed the shackles in the display case with disgust. He couldn’t really justify the shackling of mine broken soldiers, though some had to be chained down to prevent them from taking their own lives. He’d gone through a stage like that, not that anyone other than Coran knew. He’d had a mental breakdown with the stress of final exams the first time around. He knew too many answers and didn’t want to score a perfect score, that would have made him stand out too much. He aimed for above average on all his tests and exams, but sometimes he slipped up and got too perfect a score that drew everyone’s attention to him when all he wanted to do was blend in. He’d been beaten by a bunch of jealous classmates for his trouble, then broken down, taking himself to Coran who helped piece him back together again. Yeah, Coran would always be his go to guy

“Shackles...”

Letting the narrative of fear roll of his tongue, he talked about the deteriorated mental condition of the soldiers and how things worked when it came to getting them help and the legal issues faced by their families. Lance was kind of sure no one wanted to sit through this, because he was pretty sure he was the only one who nerded out over the law these days. Keith had moved to stand behind Hunk, who was filming, his arms were crossed, feet shoulder width apart, with an amused look on his face that Lance felt like punching.

“And thank you for that Lance, somehow you made all the legal stuff seem that much more boring than last time. Alrighty then, why don’t we go see if we can find us a ghost?”

Hunk was already skittering, letting out a squeak as Pidge motioned for him to follow her, leaving Lance to fall into step beside Keith. Great. He couldn’t just leave Keith in town once everything was over. Not with Hunk and Pidge on a mission to make the man their friend

“Are you usually like that?”

Lance had no idea what Keith meant. Sure, he might get a little technical, but it wouldn’t be the first time, nor the last

“Like what?”

“All technical? Doesn’t it turn viewers away? I mean, I don’t think they needed to know about the bylaws of Garrison”

“Oh, shut up. We don’t get many views as it is”

“You’ll get even less if you spend the whole time ranting”

“I wasn’t ranting, I was explaining. A soldiers mentality doesn’t end on the battlefield. Most of them never wanted to die. Most of them never wanted to wrapped up in war to begin with. They fought for us and for what they believed in, and as a whole, we failed them. If we don’t educated people on the past then there’s not much hope for the future”

“You, like, really believe in this, don’t you?”

“I believe in the belief people hold. If that’s what you mean?”

“I mean this legal thing... isn’t there anything else you’d rather be doing?”

“Like ripping families apart so I can feast on their children?”

Keith groaned at him, Lance internally smirking. Yeah, he remembered and wasn’t going to forget any time soon

“In my defence, your lot are mostly scum”

“And what about me? You listened in this morning”

“I... don’t want to talk about that”

“Why? Does it make me all that much harder to kill knowing I actually care about my clients?”

“As you rob them in fees”

Keith’s comment rubbed him the wrong way, Lance spitting in an angry whisper

“Yep. I’m so horrible that I charged a family a whole $50 for hours of my time. You on the other hand, if I charged at douche prices, would be paying me something like $10,000 for taking up so much of my damn time. I know I’m a monster, you can lay off with the damn mocking”

Starting to jog to catch up with Hunk and Pidge, Lance wanted to go home to bed. His arm was aching, as was his ankle. He hadn’t had the chance to drink since jumping out the window and his lack of routine was really getting to him. Catching up to him again, Keith decided he still wanted to talk

“Why law?”

“Why law, what?”

“You could have been anything”

“I could have, but I don’t think you’d understand”

“Try me”

“Well, I don’t want kids out there to suffer. I don’t want to see them caught up in fights that should stay between parents. I want to stand up for them. Yeah, go ahead and laugh. I’m lame and I know it”

“So your own childhood trauma pushed you down this path. What would you have done if you’d never made it into law?”

Lance didn’t miss the way his words had thrown been back at him. Shrugging it off, he wasn’t letting Keith under his skin

“I could have been a dancer. I did entertain the idea of being a hairdresser, but a vampire with scissors means risking a cut and an accidental turning. I like my job. Can’t say I don’t like the idea of yours, but it wouldn’t be my first choice of career choice”

“Will you two shut up? You’re scaring the ghosts away”

Lance’s eyes accidentally met Keith’s, both of them snorting and looking away from each other. If only they were, then they could all head home early

“Sorry, Pidge. Keith was telling me how scared he was”

“I did not!”

“Shhhh... didn’t you hear Pidge? Your big mouth is scaring the ghosts away”

“Mine? You won’t shut up”

“Both of you shut up, or you’re being sent outside to wait”

Hunk raised his hand

“Uh, can I go wait outside?”

“You’re the camera man, grow a back bone!”

Hunk gave Pidge a mock salute at her snap, which she flipped him off over. Lance made the motion of zipping of his mouth and throwing away the key. Keith gave a shrug. Apparently he didn’t hold a healthy fear of Pidge... well, that wouldn’t remain for long.

No. Keith barely lasted half an hour before he incurred Pidge’s wrath. Like a misbehaving school child, Keith was sent to sit at the top of the stairs, all because he accidentally tripped over the lip of the door frame. Pidge was sure she’d seen some kind of ghostly orb, sent fleeing by Keith’s stupidity. Making the mistake of snorting over Keith being taken down a peg, Lance was sent to sit beside Keith... both of them not looking at each other, to avoid bursting into laughter because being in a time out was ridiculous. There wasn’t anything there. The orb was a reflection of light from the camera, and that’s all that’d been to it. When Hunk moved, the reflected light disappeared, Keith didn’t deserve being yelled at... but fuck it hadn’t been funny.