#whyd i use liked in the past tense

[kinchounoarashi]

this is the first time i’ve logged on in weeks

[ajdrawshq]

Pokespe is like heres the bw arc! It is mostly faithful to the original games' stories with some added stuff that makes sense with context from previous volumes or because it fits the theme better! And after that theres the bw2 arc where Everything is fucked up in all definitions of the term. have fun

[blackfen]

Split

(inspired by both @cockybusiness and @sheithpocalypse)

-

To say he was getting frustrated was the understatement of the century.

Curled up on his side, staring at the wall, a white hot fire burning in his belly, the smoke traveling up to his lungs and heart, where it settled into the delicate membranes as a sharp, steady ache, Keith tried to make his eyes close, tried to force his body to take that one crucial step towards actually being able to sleep but every time he left himself be engulfed in darkness, Shiro’s baffled expression – one with a hint of agitation around the edges, not enough that someone unfamiliar with him would be able to see but for Keith, it was as clear as daylight – floated up from the dredges of his mind, and he found himself, once again, infuriated to the point that he felt sick.

Behind him, the comm suddenly lit up, emitting a soft squeak that made him flinch. He glanced over at the clock. Right on fucking time. Groaning, he rolled over onto his back to glance over at it. When he saw the familiar name float up onto the screen, he immediately rolled back over, staunchly determined to ignore it. A couple squeaks later, and the thing went quiet. He was thrown into silence again, the only sound being the blood rushing in his ear. What was this? No, seriously, what the fuck was this? Was Shiro messing with him? Was that what this was? Some kind of sick joke? Keith forced himself to take a deep breath. No, no, he knew that wasn’t the case. Shiro would never do something like that…

He was just tired. There’d been a lot of stuff going on, and with this…bizarreness thrown into the mix, he’d been knocked all out of sorts. Right now, he just needed to get some sleep so that tomorrow he would be well rested, and thus would have an easier time just putting all of this out of his thoughts. Tomorrow, he would forget about all the strange calls, he’d forgot about Shiro’s annoyance and exasperation at something that Keith knew was happening but couldn’t explain or understand – he’d forget about all of it.

The comm lit up again, the same familiar squeak. Once again, Keith rolled over, took one look at the screen, and rolled back. Not tonight. He’d answered it every night that this had happened for the past month but not tonight. Whatever joke this was, whoever was playing this cruel trick on him, he’d had enough. No more. The comm went silent. Keith let out a long, heavy breath. Just as he was about to inhale, it lit up again.

And again.

And again, and again, and again.

By the sixth time, red was burning around the corners of his vision. Every muscle in his body was so tense that he was shocked his spine didn’t snap in half. Hurling himself up off the bed, he stomped over to the comm, slammed his hand down onto the answer button and snarled, “What?!”

“There you are.” Shiro’s soft, smooth voice, full of gentle warmth and happiness floated up from the speaker. On screen, his face was clearly visible. The same face he’d seen earlier in the day, looking at him with increasing annoyance, carefully hidden behind a mask of surprise, peered at him through the screen. Only this time, the gaze looking at him was disarmingly sweet. A slight smile tugged at the corners of full lips. There was a comfortable, open, honest look to the Shiro on the screen.

“Shiro, this isn’t funny.” Keith said coldly.

Thick eyebrows rose in surprise. Shiro cocked his head, and asked, “What’s not funny?”

“This!” Keith exploded, jabbing a finger at the screen.

“Keith, I don’t understand. Tell me what’s wrong.” Shiro said soothingly, “Did something happen?”

Scrubbing one hand over his face, Keith snapped, “Why did you lie to me?”

“Lied to you? When?” Shiro responded, sounding confused.

“You said earlier that we haven’t spoken in months!”

“When did I say that?”

“Earlier! When I called you, and asked why you always called me so late, you said we haven’t talked in months! Why did you lie to me? Why did you say that we haven’t talked when you’ve clearly been contacting me?”

Shiro stared at him for a moment, thick brows knit together over a concerned gaze. Speaking slowly, he said, “Keith, this is the first time I’ve contacted you today.”

“Stop-!” Raising up one fist to bring it down hard onto the comm station, Keith stopped short just before impact. Sucking in a deep, shaky breath, swallowing hard against the bile rising in his throat, his stomach a whirling mass of just nausea, Keith set both hands down onto the cool surface of the comm surface, focusing every ounce of his attention on that sensation, of the cold bite of the metal against his skin. He could feel his heart beating. There was a rush of noise in his ears as blood thundered through his veins. He couldn’t remember the last time he was this enraged. It must’ve been years ago, when Voltron was still actually a thing.

“Keith-“ Shiro began to say, obvious concerned laced through his soft voice.

“Don’t.” He coughed out, “Just don’t.”

Sitting down heavily in the nearby chair, covering his face with his hands, he waited until he felt like he could actually breathe again before asking, “Why did you lie to me?”

“Keith, I’m telling the truth. I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is the first time we’ve spoken since yesterday.”

“I talked to you earlier!” Keith exclaimed hotly, “You told me that we-“

“Keith.” Shiro said, “Baby, listen, you need to-“

Whatever he said next was lost to a barrage of cacophonous confusion. ‘Baby’…Shiro had…Shiro had just called him…’baby’. Why…why had Shiro called him ‘baby’? Shiro didn’t call him ‘baby’, Shiro called him Keith, why had Shiro called him ‘baby’?

…who the fuck was he talking to?

The thought had crossed his mind that this might be a huge, elaborate prank or some kind of enemy somewhere trying to trick him but he’d never given a whole lot of credence to the thought…until now that is. Sitting straight up, his anger cooling in response to what might be new found information that could explain this bizarre situation, Keith asked, “Are you really Shiro?”

“As far as I know.” Shiro chuckled, but the smile was quick to fade when Keith didn’t smile back. “Keith, what’s-?”

“Why’d you call me ‘baby’?”

“What?”

“Just a few moments ago, why’d you call me ‘baby’?”

Looking thoroughly confused by that point, Shiro glanced off to the side, almost as though he didn’t understand the question then looked back, and said slowly, “Because you’re my boyfriend?”

“…..huh?”

“Keith, what’s going on? Are you okay? Listen, maybe you should come home-“

“What the fuck are you talking about? Shiro, you’re married! You’ve been married for six years now!”

And now there was concern added into the obvious confusion, “Keith, we’ve been together for two years. We haven’t even broached the topic of getting married yet. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d love to-“

“Not to me! To Curtis!”

“Who? Keith, baby, is your Mom there? Can you go get her?”

If he got out of that chair, he was going to fall flat on his face. His head wasn’t just whirling, it was caught up in a goddamn tornado. Gawking, not even sure what to think at that point – if this was someone trying to trick him, they were doing a sorry fucking job of it. Boyfriend? They hadn’t seen each other in person in six years! They’d barely spoken in those six years! Shiro was married, not to him but Curtis, a man Shiro had only met once, and it was one the first fucking day of his life. The question stood be answer again, even though he didn’t have any information that could fucking answer it: what was this?! Who was this? Why did he look exactly like Shiro, talk like Shiro but ultimately, obviously, wasn’t fucking Shiro?

“Keith-“

“Just, stop. I can’t-“ Keith pushed his fingers through his mussed hair. It had to be a trick but if it was a trick, why would they use such an obviously fake story? Who in their right mind would actually think he’d fall for this? It was stupid, beyond asinine! This couldn’t be Shiro!

“Baby, please, look at me.”

“Stop calling me that!” Keith shouted, his head shouting up. Tears slipped out of the corners of his eyes. The reaction from Shiro was immediate. Eyes widening in shock and alarm, he jumped up from his seat, one large hand resting on the corner of the screen, staring up with a look that clearly said that he wanted to be there with him, to be right beside him…but there was millions of light years between them.

“Baby, baby, look at me, what’s wrong? Tell me what’s-“

Suddenly, Shiro’s voice stopped. The transmission was still ongoing but he went still, his expression suddenly slack, eyes completely blank. Letting out a sharp, hard breath, Keith leaned forward, his thoughts racing – was he finally going to see who was behind all this? Was the master mind behind this cruel, unfair prank going to be revealed, giving him a glimpse of whose face he was going to crush underneath the heel of his boot? -  then Shiro seemed to jerk back to life. Giving his head a hard shake, he pinched the bridge of his nose, blinked rapidly several times then slowly looked up.

“Keith?” He said groggily, “What are you? What’s going on?”

“Why’d you call me?” Keith asked softly.

“Call you? Keith, are you still on that? I told you, I haven’t called you.”

“You called me just now.” Keith snapped, suddenly angry all over again. “That’s why we’re talking. Shiro-“

“Keith,” Shiro sighed with obvious irritation, “I don’t have time for this. Curtis and I have a lot of stuff we need to get done tomorrow. I don’t know what’s going on but I’m telling you the truth: I have not called you.”

“Then why are we talking?”

“I don’t know, Keith.” Shiro replied tersely, then seemed to realize how harshly he was speaking. Sighing heavily, his shoulders slumping, Shiro brushed a hand through his short hair, and for the first time, Keith noticed how exhausted he looked, “I’ll talk to you later, Keith. Good night.”

With that, Shiro disconnected the transmission, leaving Keith staring at a blank screen. Sitting back in his chair, angry, confused and exhausted himself, the realization that this wasn’t a prank or a trick crept up from somewhere deep inside his mind. For one, the logistics of it just didn’t work. Two, he couldn’t fathom any reason to do this, other than to cause him torment and this was a little excessive, even for a lot of the enemies he’d made along the way. Three…well, instinct, something he learned to trust a long time ago. Anger, sadness and confusion had caused him to jump to a knee jerk assumption, one that was meant to hurriedly explain something incomprehensible. Now that the source of all those emotions had been removed, leaving him with a smoldering fire deep within the pits of his belly, he couldn’t think…semi clearly.

And it was obvious. That was Shiro…both of them. One was married to Curtis, and didn’t remember calling him during the middle of the night to talk like they’d use to before…before Allura sacrificed herself. The other…Keith’s heart twisted in agony…boyfriend, the other thought they were boyfriends and he was the one who called him. Two Shiros…existing in the same body. It felt like a huge jump to just assume that was the case but…what other explanation was there? None, as far as he could see. He’d even saw the switch, right in front of his very eyes! Shiro probably didn’t even realize it – that’s why he didn’t know he’d been making calls to him in the middle of the night.

“Two Shiros.” Keith mumbled, slowly standing up, the world tilting dangerously. Stumbling back over to his bed, he dropped down heavily, rolled back over onto his side, and curled up into a tight ball. This…this was information he never wanted. There was a Shiro who he used to be close to, who he watched get further and further and further away as their lives became radically different. There was a Shiro he watched walk down the aisle, into the arms of a man who wasn’t him. There was a Shiro who he could barely just talk to anymore – the awkwardness between them was so immense that, at times, he felt as though he was talking to a total stranger. That alone had almost been too much for him to bear, driving him to put even more distance between them so he wouldn’t have to deal with the agony of being an acquaintance after he had once laid bare everything, only to have it forgotten and left to fall into the white abyss of an unknown planet but now…

There was a Shiro who loved him, who called him ‘baby’, who said he was his boyfriend, and they’d been together for years. Yet, there was no relief, no sweetness, no joy to be found in that because this Shiro, an amalgamation of the real one, was hidden deep within the subconscious of a man he loved so much that the night he got married, Keith had spent the night bent over a toilet, vomiting up wave after wave of stomach acid until his throat bled. That…was beyond cruel. It didn’t matter who that Shiro was, what caused such a dramatic split between the two personalities or why this Shiro was in love with him while the other had married someone else, none of it mattered. All that mattered, in that one single solitary moment, was that for the second time, Keith had been given a glimpse of what it felt like to be loved by that man, only to have it ripped away, leaving him gasping for breath, halfway wishing he had never met him in the first place.