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thorin-is-a-cuddler · 3 years

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Beach Rules

A/N: Paladins at the beach? Sure! Platonic everyone. This is Keith and Shiro centric. And there’s loads of tickling and simping, yay :D

„Is that…“

„No, it can’t be!!“

„Oh, but, but… guys, it’s…“

„A beach!“ Shiro stepped out of the castle, joining Pidge, Lance and Hunk on the surface of this vacation worthy planet with a disbelieving expression.

Allura followed, taking her helmet off and actually giving one of her rare honest smiles. „Yes, a beach. This is the planet of Basoria. 10 000 years ago, this planet has already been one of my favorite places to be. It seems incredible that the Galra haven’t taken over it. But since there are no intelligent beings on here, they probably didn’t see the point. It’s a save place. Coran and I wanted to offer you this. A day off at the beach. With everything you’ve already done, paladins, I am happy if I can give you something back.“

The three younger paladins shrieked happily, shouting their thanks as they took off running for the shore, shoes flying and jackets landing in the sand. Shiro turned his head to look at Allura with a smile. „This is amazing, Allura. I think you couldn’t have made them happier.“

Allura tilted her head and put a hand on Shiro’s left arm. „I was hoping you would enjoy this as well, Shiro. You have been working harder than anyone of us. You deserve a day’s rest.“

Shiro opened his mouth in surprise, a little overwhelmed by so much attention and a little lost for words. Fortunately Keith chose excatly this moment to step out between them, a grumpy expression on his face. „A beach?“ He asked with a raised eyebrow, obviously sceptical about something that involved such a big amount of fun.

Allura narrowed her eyes at him in annoyance, having hoped for a rather different reaction. „Yes, Keith. A beach. A place for relaxation and happiness. I’m glad to see that it disgusts you so much.“

Allura went to take off her armor inside the castle, mumbling intelligibly under her breath. Keith merely sniffed and shrugged as the princess moved away, crossing his arms over his chest and looking outside with a wary expression. Three cheerful paladins were splashing around in turquoise water. They were still dressed in t-shirts and pants, but didn’t seem to care a bit about the additional soaked weight. Keith had never seen them this outgoingly happy.

He felt a weight on his shoulder and saw that Shiro had put his hand on it, an encouraging smile on his face. „Go on, Keith. Don’t worry so much. I bet it’s fun out there. Give it a try.“

Keith tilted his head slightly and looked away, a little crease appearing between his eyebrows. „Hmmm. I don’t know, Shiro.“

The warm dark eyes of the older paladin changed, giving room for worry. This guy managed to catch up to everything. „What is it?“

Keith huffed and shook his head slightly, fond of Shiro being so perceptive, yet at the same time wishing he weren’t. „It’s just… I don’t know. I- I’ve never… well, I’ve never been to a beach before. My father and I never went on vacations, you know.“

Keith shuffled around slightly, trying to act as indifferent as he could, while he was actually dying from insecurity inside. He sent a tentative side glance in Shiro’s direction and saw the realization in his expression. Keith smiled and shielded his eyes against the sun.

„I think it’ll come naturally to you, Keith.“ Shiro said softly, making Keith look at him again in surprise. „All we have to do is go out there and… do the next best thing.“

Keith blinked at him, pretty unsure about this much spontaneousness. „And what would that be?“

Shiro put his finger on his lips thoughtfully, making Keith start to consider that maybe Shiro had just as little clue what to do at a beach as he had. His features softened a little at that impression. Where Shiro knew pretty much everything about him, there was little Keith knew about Shiro in connection to his past. Shiro kept most things locked away behind so many doors that walking through all of them could take years. Keith had barely managed to walk through the half of them.

He sighed deeply and slid out of his jacket, leaving it in the castle. „Let’s start by making ourselves more… beach ready.“ Keith made an awkward motion towards his t-shirt and then bent over to take off his shoes and roll up the legs of his pants.

Shiro smiled at that and copied Keith’s actions, stripping to his sleeveless muscle shirt and rolling his pants up as well. For a second he was insecure about the bulgy skin where his right shoulder merged into the metal arm. But then a sudden feeling took over him and made him forget about any insecurities. Was that… giddiness he felt in his stomach?

There suddenly was so much energy inside of him that he had to get rid off. He looked at Keith staggering around on one leg as he tried to keep the material of his pants rolled up on the other leg. And a grin spread out on his face.

He suddenly knew exactly what he had to do.

„Keith..“

Keith looked up in time to manage a very surprised yell, before a very strong arm wrapped around his middle and lifted him off the floor. „SHIRO WHAT ARE YOU-“

„I know what we have to do!“

Keith clawed his fingers into Shiro’s foreram, holding on to him tensely as the pilot started running with Keith dangling from his side, shaking him quite thoroughly. Despite that Keith almost sighed in relief as fresh air ruffled his hair and blew under his shirt, giving him goosebumps and drying his sweat. It felt like flying through the desert with Shiro all over again. The memory of their races untied a knot in Keith’s chest and he suddenly had to let out a laugh as Shiro readjusted his grip on him, lifting him even higher than he’d been before.

„Don’t drop me!!!“

Shiro’s smirk was audible in his words as he raised his voice as well. „Oh, I will drop you in a bit!“

Keith tensed up again and looked to where Shiro was headed. Pidge, Hunk and Lance in the water had noticed their approach by now, curious happy smiles on their faces as they got closer at a dizzying speed. The realization hit Keith and he started struggling, almost causing Shiro to drop him himself.

„NO YOU WILL NOT! DON’T YOU DARE! SHIRO!“

But Shiro wasn’t bothered by Keith’s defiance in the slightest. His soft laughter mixed with Keith’s gasps and yelps and put a warm feeling in his shaking stomach.

Keith’s struggles grew stronger the closer they got to the water, forcing Shiro to swing Keith’s in front of his chest to be able to hold him there with both his arms.

Keith’s fists drummed against Shiro’s forearms, as the pilot reached the shore and took a few steps into the water. How Shiro managed to stay strong enough to hold him like that with all his laughter was a freaking mystery to the paladin of the red lion. „Enough with the violence,“ Shiro chuckled, „Time to cool your head!“

Keith’s knees were pulled up to his chest and he was eagerly trying to keep himself in that pulled up position by wrapping his hands around Shiro’s head behind him and holding on. „I DON’T THINK SO!!“

„Oh, but you will let go,“ Shiro growled, a playful tone to his voice that made Keith’s stomach drop.

„YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!!“

„Ah, Keith, you really bring this upon yourself,“ Shiro chuckled and kept his metal arm wrapped around Keith’s middle, the other suddenly dangerously unoccupied and close to his side and ribs and this was when it clicked, but too late.

„SHIRO WAIT-“ Keith shouted out in panic, trying to pull himself up higher to get away, but it was to no use. Shiro’s fingers were already squeezing his side and making their way up and hell on earth, it tickled so much, Keith had never thought anything could tickle this much.

Any plans for holding back his giggles were diminished immediately, as he broke out into hysterical squeals and deep uncontrollable laughter, twitching around like a fish as Shiro’s fingers were crawling up his side, over his ribs and right in the center of his exposed armpit. He really meant to keep his hands behind Shiro’s head, pulling at his hair to keep from being dropped. But forget that, he couldn’t take this without fighting back. It felt like Shiro was tickling him with twenty fingers at least where he was only using five and it wasn’t fair and it led to Keith’s unavoidable fate.

„SHHIHIIHRO NOHOOO PLEEEHEHEHEASE!!“

„I won’t stop until you let go!!“

„BUT THEN YOU’LL DROOHOHOP MEE!!“

„Beach rules, Keith. You are obligated to have fun!“

One last arch in Shiro’s arm, then Keith couldn’t stand it anymore and he tore his arms down, trying to push Shiro’s assaulting hand as far away from his ticklish torso as possible, when it was already time for a dive in the waves of Basoria.

Keith shrieked, when Shiro’s arms suddenly stopped holding him, honest to God shrieked - as if he’d needed any more embarrassment in front of the others. The cold water caught him quite gently though. There were no burns at the impact of the water, there was no water shooting up his nose. There was just a nice feeling of floating around and having his hair fly around his head.

He welcomed the feeling happily. But only for a few seconds. Then his wish for revenge grew too strong and he speedily made his way back up to the surface. He managed to find a stand on the sandy underground, the water up to his chest where it had been up to Shiro’s waist.

Shiro. With narrowed eyes and wet hair clinging to his forehead he saw Shiro quickly making his way deeper into the water, looking over his shoulder, laughing breathlessly.

„OH YEAH YOU BETTER RUN!! JUST YOU WAIT TIL I GET YOU BACK!“

Shiro almost slipped from laughter at Keith’s bubbly attempts oto swim after him, completely out of breath, but fueled with the desire to give him a taste of his own medicine.

In the meantime Pidge was busy climbing on top of Hunk’s shoulders in her soaked shirt, where she held on to Hunk’s hair with one hand, pointing at Shiro with the other and letting out a war cry that would have scared away Galrans. „FUGITIVE ON THE RUN! GO GET HIM! AID OUR TORTURED FRIEND!!!“

Keith almost sunk under the surface from his surprised laughter. He hadn’t expected the others to come to help him. They liked to watch Shiro tickle him into madness during sparring matches rather comfortably. But this. Maybe this was also part of the beach rules. Everyone against the strongest one. It seemed like a good rule to Keith.

Shiro on the other hand was barely able to bring much more distance between himself and the others as panicked laughter started to slow him down. Lance was gaining on him, as Hunk grabbed Pidge from his shoulders and used all his strength to throw her in Shiro’s direction, getting her closer to him as well.

Shiro thought it clever apparently to change tactics and stopped swimming in the one direction to make his way in the other one now.

Keith had to chuckle as he heard Shiro’s breathless gasps for air get closer. Alright, if this was a fun time at the beach he was sold. Now they only had to catch him.

„YOU GUYS, THIS ISN’T FAIR!!“ Shiro shouted, smiling widely as Pidge and Lance were getting awfully close.

„BEACH RULES!!“ Keith yelled as he too was getting closer to Shiro who was trying to make his way to the shore to be able to run away. He’d be way too fast for the other paladins if he managed to reach it. They couldn’t let him get away.

„Oh no, you will NOT!!“ Lance exclaimed passionately as Shiro was stumbling to his feet in the ankle high water. The plue paladin took a large dive and actually managed to pull Shiro down with a splash. The two of them rolled over in the warm part of the water, Shiro breathless from laughter already while Lance was yelling almost as loud as Pidge had before.

„You did it, Lance!“ Keith cheered as he too got to his feet in the low water, throwing himself on top of the other two. Shiro groaned with laughter at the additional weight and tried to push the two of them off of him.

„Now, just wait a second, just wait…“ Another weight took away Shiro’s breath as Hunk dropped down on top of Keith, slowly but successfully building a sandwich.

„We have him! Do we have him?“ Hunk spluttered and looked at his two friends underneath himself. Keith held up a thumb, despite the lack of air.

„We’ve got him! You guys are the best!!“

Pidge arrived with a wide smile on her face and was a bit reluctant to putting herself on top of the three boys as well. She didn’t have to anyway. Instead she dropped down next to Shiro’s face and grinned at him evilly.

„Ha, you didn’t see that coming, did you?“

Shiro glared at her, still out of breath, but he just couldn’t keep it up and a soft, playful expression was back on his face again in no time. „I guess Voltron’s bond must be really strong already. Just don’t lose your head in the process…“

All four of them groaned inexplicably loud at this bad pun and Pidge felt no sympathy for him in the slightest as she told the other three to give him hell just for that. Even though he was pretty doomed in his current position. He couldn’t move out from underneath the three boys and all of them put their hands to good use some place on his tall upper body. Hunk was pinching his sides, as Keith worked his hands under his arms and Lance immediately used his position for good access to Shiro’s ribs.

Pidge was blessed with the picture of Shiro throwing his head back in ticklish agony, his eyes squeezed shut and his mouth opened in the brightest smile, as beautiful laughter was shooting out of him.

He couldn’t fight off six hands with just two and Keith enjoyed strongly making him laugh this hard, especially with the aid of his friends. He could tell that Shiro was very fine with them having their fun like this and it warmed Keith’s heart that Shiro was so selfless and soft in every situation. He looked at Shiro throwing his head from side to side, shaking with incessant giggles and trying to arch his back against the overwhelming sensations and he just knew that Shiro would never stop doing whatever it took to make him happy and have fun despite the times they were living in.

He knew that there was no „Voltron losing their head“. Shiro’s love was the starting point of all bonding among the paladins. He was the heart of the group.

Keith certainly knew that. And the others would at the very latest agree now that Shiro’s determination had managed to connect all paladins in having fun together.

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kcwcommentary · 5 years

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VLD6x05 – “The Black Paladins”

6x05 – “The Black Paladins”

I guess we’re supposed to assume that Joaquim Dos Santos considered this a really important episode since he has the writing credit for it. This is it, the big reveal of the clone. This episode leaves me annoyed at Honerva, angry at Pidge, and hurt by knowing the full scope of the clone story and how it ends up being just a gimmick posing as poignancy.

Starting where last episode ended, Voltron is fighting Lotor’s ships. Allura must have really slammed Lotor hard when she threw him last episode because he’s still unconscious. I guess since this show was released whole-season on Netflix, most viewers go immediately from finishing the last episode and start watching this one, so they’re carrying over any energy from the previous ending. Since I have a day in between with this viewing, I’m not feeling much weight from this fight right up front. There is nothing in the narrative to reignite the tension. It’s just a space fight.

Coran communicates that he’s bringing the Castle Ship to the fight, but Keith tells him no, saying the Castle wouldn’t fare well against these ships. Voltron’s pinned against an asteroid by Lotor’s ships hitting it with a sustained blaster beam. Immediately negating telling Coran to keep the Castle Ship out of the fight, Keith then asks Coran to destroy the asteroid. I’m not sure I’ve seen the show’s writing demonstrate inconsistency that quickly before.

Lotor’s ships give Voltron enough space and time for Voltron to fly through the rocky debris from Daibazaal, where Keith orders Lance and Pidge to “get us some cover,” so they blast the asteroids. Somehow, the asteroids weren’t cover, but now blown-up asteroids are? They’re just randomly shooting rocks, so it’s not like the weapons fire itself is functioning as cover fire.

A purple, and thus evil because evil is color-coded in this show, wormhole appears. Allura says, “It has to be Haggar. She must have gained the ability, but how?” It actually doesn’t, for once, feel like a jump to a conclusion that Allura would think it’s Haggar. The delivery of this line sounds unintentionally funny though.

“But Shiro’s not Shiro anymore,” Hunk says. That’s really quick of Hunk to so fully dismiss a friend as gone. Keith counters that “something is wrong with him. The Galra or Lotor have to be behind it.”

Voltron, or at least the Black Lion’s wings, start sparking electricity. Keith says his thrusters aren’t working. Pidge replies, “Those beams torched our power core.” All this kind of feels spastic to me. The Lions/Voltron has/have been beaten so much and never really shown to be damageable. Repairs are never shown being made to the Lions. The near invulnerability the show’s given Voltron for so many seasons makes me have trouble with the idea that now they can take physical damage.

Lotor’s ships get through the wormhole, but Voltron isn’t going to make it. Keith orders Voltron to break up so that the process will propel him through the wormhole. It doesn’t logistically feel realistic, but there is an emotional reason for the narrative to have it happen. I don’t like that it makes it such that only Keith is pursuing Shiro now because it has this, maybe unintentional, way of making it feel like the other Paladins don’t care enough about Shiro to fight for him. I say maybe unintentional because I really do want to give the benefit of the doubt, but honestly, I don’t think they wrote the characters in this show to behave like they care about each other most of the time.

Keith pops out the other side of the wormhole to be faced with a bunch of Galra cruisers, which fire on him. Axca moves to attack Keith while Ezor and Zethrid help get Lotor and Shiro to Honerva. She specifically calls Haggar by the name Honerva. That’s a huge thing. For Haggar to now present herself as Honerva to Axca, Ezor, and Zethrid, but to not show how any of the three of them handle being told feels like something’s been left out. Being Honerva was a huge thing Haggar kept hidden for a long while, so why is she now open about it? I know she went to Oriande and came out of the pyramid and resumed her Honerva appearance there, but why are the Galra now okay with following her with her having revealed she’s full Altean? Don’t Axca, Ezor, and Zethrid think Honerva’s a huge hypocrite for not being even part Galra while having condemned Lotor, saying he wasn’t fit to rule the Empire because he was only half-Galra back in 5x04 “Kral Zera?” For that matter, since Axca, Ezor, and Zethrid themselves are only part-Galra, how were they not offended in that moment when Haggar said that to Lotor in that episode?

Keith and Axca fighting one-on-one here adds to the previous moments the show has hinted at something connecting these two characters together. The show eventually abandons further developing this plot, never producing any narrative resolution for the set-up. Since Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery said in that interview that they thought about killing Hunk and replacing him with Axca, I guess their deciding to not do that made them just give up on whatever these Keith-Axca moments were supposed to be setting up.

Lotor’s finally conscious. Shiro has him in handcuffs, which feels strange for him to be treated like a prisoner since this whole story from the end of the last episode until this scene has had a tonal quality of a rescue mission. Zethrid takes Lotor and tells Shiro, “We’ll take it from here.” Shiro just stands there, staring into the distance. Ezor follows after Zethrid, and we see Honerva looking through Shiro’s eyes.

She tells him, “You are to lead the Black Lion away from the fleet.” In a very flat voice, Shiro asks how, and Honerva says, “The Red Paladin’s connection to you runs deep, deeper than the others. He still believes there is good left inside you, which leaves him vulnerable to persuasion. You will exploit this weakness.” Okay, this episode was written by Joaquim Dos Santos, so one of the people who should most understand the story being told. Why then did he write Honerva to call Keith the “Red Paladin?” Keith hasn’t been the Red Paladin for a long time. He hasn’t flown any Lion since 4x01 “Code of Honor,” and he hasn’t flown the Red Lion since 3x02 “Red Paladin.” Of course, I think Keith should be and should always have been the Red Paladin, but the show hasn’t had him be that for a long time. So why was Honerva written to refer to him by that title? Is this a slip up showing that even Joaquim Dos Santos knows deep down that changing the Paladins around was totally forced?

Honerva does confirm for us that Keith does care more about Shiro than the other Paladins do. On one hand, it’s not expected since the two of them have a much longer and personal history than Shiro has with the others. But on the other hand, it does kind of feel like the show confirming how this clone plot makes it feel like the other Paladins just don’t care because the show didn’t bother to make them care.

“He still believes there is good left inside you.” This line infuriates me because it’s a manifestation of what the EPs, and the writers thought of the clone. One, for first time viewers who don’t yet know this is a clone, it’s really hurtful for this line to suggest that Shiro’s evil. Implicit in Honerva’s statement is that there is no good left inside him. But even knowing that this is a clone, it’s still hurtful. The idea that Honerva flipped a switch and all of the good was obliterated from within the clone is an insult to everyone who grew to love this character over the past several seasons. But this is the show justifying its desire to discard the clone as an “evil thing” without having to have any characters feel bad about dehumanizing him and treating him like trash. That the show has the characters so quickly willing to discard the clone is a manifestation of how the EPs and the writers only ever saw him as a “thing” themselves, never as a character. Despite that perspective from them though, they still inadvertently wrote him as a character because they were trying to build up this surprise twist. What was supposed to just be a cover to set up for the reveal ended up being mostly really good characterization. Despite their planned end goal for the clone, they never realized that viewers would get attached to him. Their shortsightedness is one of the aspects of this story that really bothers me.

Honerva is now back to using her monotone Honerva voice instead of the far easier to listen to Haggar voice. I clearly don’t like Haggar/Honerva much at all in this show. She was okay in seasons one and two, but not for the rest of the series. I would much rather have Haggar’s voice than Honerva’s. For the most part, the voice acting on this show is one of the good things about the show, even if the story was terrible and the dialog was bad or off, the actual sound of the voices were good. Who thought this monotone Honerva voice was a good choice?

Keith sees the Altean pod flying away from everything, and Keith assumes that it’s Shiro. It is, but there’s no reason for Keith to assume that instead of just some miscellaneous Galra sentry piloting it. The Galra all jump away while Keith follows after Shiro.

The other Paladins have gotten their Lions back into the Castle Ship. Hunk says the Lions are, “structurally speaking, at about 60%.” That should mean 40% of them were bashed up so much that they would look very visibly destroyed, but this statement ultimately means nothing since the Lions are never shown with any physical damage.

The Castle Ship’s systems shut down. Coran announces a risk that has never come up before, including when the Castle has had all its systems shut down before, that if the “teludav regulator” shuts down, the Castle and everything in the “neighboring system” will be destroyed. Since there are other instances where this would have come into play earlier in the series and it never did, that makes this totally contrived. I honestly don’t care about what’s going on with the rest of the Paladins and the Castle Ship right now.

Lotor, still handcuffed, is brought to Honerva. She takes her hood off, turns to him, and says, “Prince Lotor, my son.” The camera quickly pans to Axca, Ezor, and Zethrid, who all have shocked expressions. Why are any of them surprised? Axca earlier used Honerva’s name when telling Ezor and Zethrid to get Lotor to Honerva. It can’t be that they’re reacting to her calling Lotor her son because everyone in the Empire knows that Honerva was Lotor’s mother. This is just another inconsistency in the writing.

“Understand that the events that transformed me into the witch Haggar also shrouded any glimmer of maternal instinct I may have had for my one and only child,” Honerva says. If you’ve read my commentary for 3x07 “The Legend Begins,” then you can probably guess what I’m going to say here. Honerva had no motherly qualities pre-quintessence poisoning whatsoever. The show making this statement now is an absolute retcon of her character. Also, the whole use of the dual identity – Honerva versus Haggar – is an attempt by the show, the EPs, and the writers to avoid responsibility for having written Haggar as a brutal, dictatorial character now that they think they’re adding depth to her character. They weren’t willing to embrace this character as a single character and one who’s a villain, and the dual identity is how they’re trying to buy space for wanting to write the character differently than what they set the character up as in the first two seasons.

Lotor says, “Enough! My mother ceased to exist when Honerva drew her last breath. Do not believe for a moment that I would ever accept you as kin. You are an abomination. A twisted perversion of what was once so pure and beautiful.” I do not blame Lotor for rejecting her. Despite what some people say, someone who’s been abused does not have to accept and forgive their abuser. It is a bit bothersome that Lotor thinks Honerva was “pure and beautiful” since he never knew Honerva since she adopted the Haggar persona before she gave birth. We can assume that this is similar to his sharp reaction to Allura in 5x05 “Bloodlines” when Allura supposed that Haggar and Honerva were the same person. Lotor seemed to have constructed a fantasy about what his mother was like, and that might be how we should read this line here too.

Honerva glares at Lotor and orders, “Take him away.” The fact that she had him brought to her in handcuffs demonstrates that for all her posturing suggesting she wants to ask him to accept her, she still is treating him like a prisoner. She might want to pretend she’s trying to find some motherly capacity, but the circumstances of her having him brought to her prove that to be a lie.

Axca tries to shoot Honerva, but Honerva teleports away. Zethrid asks Axca, “Are you working with Lotor?” And Lotor replies, “I can explain everything.” Are they really trying to pretend that Axca has been a mole for Lotor the entire time? Ugh.

Lotor wants to grab his ships and “head to the Castle of Lions’ last known location.” Why it’s phrased that way, I don’t know, since that location was Daibazaal.

With the Black Lion’s wing still sparking, Keith has followed Shiro to an asteroid or moon near a planet. He follows Shiro’s footprints into a cave, eventually finding a Galra facility. Inside, Keith sees many stasis pods. He approaches one, touches it, light comes on inside, and it reveals a Shiro clone. Dozens and dozens of other pods light up, revealing more clones.

Here’s a huge problem I have with the clone plotline: What is the point of the clones? This facility, the personnel, time, and resources that went into running it and conducing the cloning program, those are all a significant investment. Why? If it had been just one clone made, it could be argued that Haggar’s plan was to use the clone to spy on the other Paladins. But she had a lot of clones made, so what was the point? What was her goal? Why did she do this? The show never answers this.

I think the reason the show never answers it is because they EPs and writers never thought to answer it. They were never writing the clone story to actually be an actual part of the show. It’s inclusion in the show is not intentional. They used the clone story to bring Shiro back into the show because they were told they couldn’t kill him off like they wanted to. As such, the clone story is nothing but a gimmick. They never thought to think through the implications.

This also makes me think of how in 1x13 “The Black Paladin,” Haggar tells Shiro, “You could have been our greatest weapon.” That line is never explained and resolved. So too is the clone program never explained, and its resolution is just to provide Shiro’s soul with a body.

Back on the Castle Ship, Pidge informs the others that she recognizes the computer code that has shut down the Castle. It’s the same as is in Shiro’s Galra arm prosthetic. I’ll say more about this in a bit, but it infuriates me.

“Wait, are you saying Shiro is responsible for this?” Allura asks, and Pidge says, “Yes.” This scene is written to elicit a shocked response, but because we’ve already had the revelation of the clones in this episode, it doesn’t shock us. The episode has already created a narrative distance between any sabotage the clone did prior to leaving with Lotor. Even if the other Paladins don’t yet know about the clones and thus think it was Shiro who sabotaged the Castle, we viewers don’t. That makes their being shocked have no real weight. Maybe it’s an issue of bad editing decisions, though I would think something like where different parts of scenes are situated should have long been decided during the storyboarding stage much earlier in the process of creating an episode.

Shiro attacks Keith. In the process, the show reveals Shiro’s arm to be able to generate an energy sword, which, unless I’m mistaken, has never happened before.

The teludav continues to be a problem. Pidge does something and everything’s fine.

She says she had copied the code from Shiro’s arm and used it to create a virus that “could terminate all its command prompts in case something like this ever happened.” This makes me severely dislike Pidge. She knew this malicious code existed in Shiro’s arm. She’s known it for some time. She recognized it for being malicious code enough that she used that code to create a virus to use as a countermeasure “in case something like this ever happened.” She knew all along that there was a potential security issue, and she never told anyone? She didn’t think everyone else should know this? She didn’t respect Shiro enough to let him know the danger he carried in his arm? This is not how friends behave. This is not how teammates behave.

I already have a lot of reasons to dislike Pidge. She’s shortsighted, prone to irrational thought in dire moments. She’s selfish. And now, she’s incompetent. She does not care about any of these people, least of all Shiro. And she never faces any consequences of her behavior. None of them should trust her after this. She should have to go through a huge story arc to regain their trust, to earn forgiveness. But she never does. If she had told them what she found, they could have worked to make sure this would never happen. Rather than construct a virus to serve as a countermeasure, they could have worked to keep this from ever happening.

But part of this is the fault of the show’s writing. The easiest thing would have been to just not have any of this part that takes place here on the Castle Ship in the show. But if this idea that Shiro’s arm contained malicious code, and Pidge knew about it and said nothing, then her saying nothing is contrived so that the show can preserve its desired plot twist. With Pidge having discovered the code, it was incumbent upon her to tell everyone, and that would mean that they would have found a way to keep it from happening, which could reasonably have led to them learning about Shiro being a clone who was capable of being controlled by Haggar.

And it’s not like these characters didn’t have multiple opportunities to further investigate what has been going on with Shiro. Pidge, for example, saw Shiro grab his head and cry out in pain in 6x01 “Omega Shield.” She never followed up on that. It’s not normal for someone to react in pain like Shiro did in that episode, but no one cared about him enough to try to figure out what was wrong. Lance knew something weird happened with Shiro in 5x03 “Postmortem,” and he only halfway followed up on that. Shiro then confided in Lance that he didn’t “feel like himself.” Lance never followed up on that. Friends don’t react like this, so I have to conclude that Keith is the only one to ever consider Shiro a friend.

Keith and Shiro continue to fight. The music is really good.

“That’s the Keith I remember,” the clone taunts Keith. Aside from being just generic villainous taunting, I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean. I can’t tell if Keith’s eyes turn a little cat-like for a moment, or if the animation is just odd. They’re fighting on a different level of the facility where there are more stasis pods. There must be hundreds of clones here.

I also wonder how much thought went into the visual design of this location. The facility looks totally open to space, and yet they are breathing air. That would require the facility to be surrounded by an invisible forcefield to hold the air in. Probably in the same way the show’s visual design gives us so many impossible planet shapes without any thought to what they’re designing, so too, this facility was designed for a visual effect without any thought about how this facility would actually function.

Keith says, “Shiro, I know you’re in there. You made a promise once. You told me you’d never give up on me.” This is some good voice acting for Keith.

Shiro responds, “And I should have abandoned you, just like your parents did. They saw that you were broken, worthless. I should have seen it too.” I guess this is supposed to come from the clone’s psychic programming warping whatever memories it has from Shiro of Keith confiding in him about feeling abandoned by his parents? I mean, I’m trying to apply logistics and realism to this dialog when I imagine that JDS only wrote it because he wanted the clone to say something hurtful to Keith, and since this is what Keith has wrestled with, that’s what he used.

“Neither of us are leaving,” Shiro says, and the facility starts to light up all over the place. Either Shiro’s arm has some wireless communication system built into it and he just triggered the facility, or that’s contrived timing. But what this glowing is supposed to mean, I don’t know, because the facility isn’t destroyed by some self-destruct, it’s destroyed by Shiro.

The prostetic starts glowing. Shiro starts screaming in pain and falls to his knees. The prosthetic starts blasting a beam of energy that slices into the facility. (Did Pidge miss, ignore, or keep to herself the ability for the arm to do this too?)

The music is really awesome again.

Keith maneuvers to avoid Shiro’s energy blasts and to make it to a stable part of the facility, ending up exhausted and on his back. Shiro eventually comes to stand over Keith. He swings his energy sword at Keith, who blocks it with his blade.

More good voice acting for Keith: “Shiro, please. You’re my brother. I love you.” It gets through, past the programming controlling the clone, just for a bit.

“Just let go, Keith. You don’t have to fight anymore.” I’m not sure what I make of this line. “By now, the team’s already gone. I saw to it myself.” This line sounds like cliché villain dialog.

Keith’s eyes turn yellow for a moment. I know Keith is half-Galra, but since when is he a shapeshifter?

Keith’s blade grows, and he chops off Shiro’s prosthetic. There’s something revealed here that I’m going to eventually write a separate post about during my commentaries next season.

Shiro falls to his knees. the facility starts to explode and break apart. The music is again amazing.

Shiro is unconscious, Keith barely holding onto him and barely holding onto his blade, which is wedged into the facility. Keith experiences some flashbacks, just silent shots that we’ll see more from in 7x01 “A Little Adventure.”

The structure of the facility breaks loose, and they plummet down toward the planet. Keith closes his eyes, seemingly resigned to dying.

There’s a flashback scene. We see Keith younger at the Galaxy Garrison, beat up. Keith thinks he should just be sent back to the orphanage he lived at prior to joining the Garrison. Shiro tells him, “Keith, you can do this. I will never give up on you. More importantly, you can’t give up on yourself.” Keith, falling down to the planet, opens his eyes, and the episode ends.

I’m not adverse to the premise of the clone plotline. As much as it angers me that Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery wanted to kill Shiro, and as much as they didn’t want to bring him back, I’m not bothered by the idea of doing so through a clone story. The problem is that the story is not told well. There is never an explanation for why so many clones were created. There is never any fallout for this plot. No one grieves for the clone, no one even recognizes the clone as being a person. They instantly mentally discard him, and that’s a direct manifestation of how the EPs and writers only ever see the clone as a gimmick, not as a character. Once Shiro’s soul is put in the clone’s body, without any of the characters wrestling with the idea of taking the body away from the soul of the clone (more manifestation of the plot resolving because the EPs and writers only saw the clone as a gimmick), Shiro himself never wrestles with the reality that he’s in another person’s body.

I love the music of this episode. The episode clearly wants to be viewed as deeply emotional, but I watch it now and feel like I’m having to add to the episode to produce my emotional reaction, not that the episode is fully drawing that reaction out of me.

#voltron legendary defender #voltron #vld #voltron criticism #vld criticism #voltron critical #vld critical #vld season 6 #vld 6x05 #commentary

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psiipresso-blog · 5 years

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> Psiioniic: See the Stars Again

> "Do you trust me?" The Helmsman whispered, slipping a slim ring made of gold and ruby red on his mate's ring finger, rubbing his knuckles. "Do you trust me," He repeats himself, lips pressed to his open palm, scars and all. "Just enough to let me take you there, where the two of us can see this through together?" And he notes the hesitance in his response. The way he opens his mouth only to close it momentarily told him what he needed to know, but then The Signless finds his voice;

"I trust you." He says.

> That was a month ago.

> Time passes at different intervals in space, stretching and folding and cutting itself in half. There is no pattern to this, just feelings and ripples that--if you were to pay attention--you notice here and there. There's no reason or rhyme, just feelings and thoughts and the flow of it all that guides the patrons of the Zone to where they need to be at that exact moment in time.

"All systems are now online, Helmsman." The vessel of The Paladin announces her preparation for their impending departure. The steady thrum of the engines gradually come to life, a soft chorus of The Paladin examining her programs to make sure that all of her systems were in order. The kinetic energy stored within the bowels of the ship reaching out to all fragments of The Paladin.

She readies herself to take flight once again, after all these months of being dormant, her sensory systems sparked in anticipation. She felt the gentle touch of her Captain graze her interior, re-familiarizing himself with all the parts of her that he's missed. He traverses his way down the long corridors, examines every block he’s left unattended for as long as he did, reprogramming every coded door and sealed away hallway before taking himself to the Bridge.

The Helmsman raises a clawed forefinger, then taps twice against the startup button of his optic controlled reader. It springs to life and bombards him with a wall of text and numbers, which he ignores in favor of an application icon that rests in the far bottom right corner. With a flick of his gaze, it opens, and he selects the one that draws his attention the most.

It’s easy enough to rework and run a control function into her systems. Now updated and secure, The Helmsman waits patiently in the Captain's chair for his soon to be arriving mate.

“Mituna?” The Helmsman, Mituna, turns his body to face the opening doors as Kankri stepped through. The Paladin made a bit of a noise, but other than that she remained quiet. “It’s good to see you too, Paladin.”

Mituna stretched in his seat, letting every knot in his back pop before standing. “Are you ready to depart, Kan?” He coos as playfully as he could muster. Before Kankri could answer, Mituna strides over to him in long steps, before pressing a kiss to his mate's cheek. Slipping a captains hat into his hands. “I think I know the answer to that, which, fair. But when we’re together-- what do we have to worry about?” Mituna is given a soft small from the other and he returns the gesture full-heartedly.

After a quick briefing on their plans, supplies, schedules and their designated routes until confident in their oncoming expedition, they finally part. Kankri, settling into the Captain's seat, as Mituna made his way to the Helmingblock.

“It is not as if they have forgotten about you,” The Paladin chimes from down the corridor. “They could be looking for you right now as we speak.” Her Helmsman shrugged his shoulders, hands deep in the pockets of his jacket. The lights were a lot brighter than he remembered them to be, or maybe he’s just that used to the incredibly dimmer sectors of the station. “You do understand the dangers of going back there, yes? Not only are you a wanted troll, but you will be occupying a planet where trolls of your age are not welcomed there. You would be breaking Imperial Law, someone might even notice us.” She paused. “You don’t have to go through with this, not even your red seems too keen on the idea.”

Her Helmsman tapped the newest string of numbers that made up the Helming blocks passcode system into a keypad. He steps through the now open doorway and, once closed, begins to strip himself of his jeans and jacket to reveal the base of the Helming Uniform he wore beneath it. “It’s complicated-- not really, but it’s complicated for you.” Mituna says, tossing his discarded garments outside before donning the rest of his uniform. “He’s been hurting for the longest here with this thing on his ass, downright paranoid even. I don’t like seeing him like that-- and I want to make sure he gets the best help that he can get, the best way that either of us know how.”

The Paladin stews in her answer, before tuning out to check on the troll waiting patiently in the Bridge.

The Helming block used to be a padded area, that is before the renovations were made accordingly and it had all been torn down in a wild explosion exhilaration and fury. Overhead the exposed wires and tubing dangle welcoming from the ceiling, its ends falling into a purposefully made crater in the middle of the flooring. He steps inside-- and carefully begins hooking himself to the Paladins main Core.

The tubes move on their own eventually, carefully prodding and poking at exposed flesh until locating the correct ports that were whittled into his body. They curl around him as they grasp their bearings, warm, wet wires excitingly burrow deeper into their source of power in order to connect to the spine. He can feel every little sensation, slowly but surely, starting from the inside of the Paladin; every hum of the machines warming up for the long haul. Then it’s the outside, the hangar-bay itself, from the light breeze to the roar of the engines nearby.

It’s almost too much.

Next, they worm their way into his wrists, his calves, the wires connecting themselves to the nerves. The skin bulging and stretching around them to make room for the intruding appendages. It’s a white hot pain at first when they latch onto the veins, that lasts for three minutes (at most) before the numbing sensation kicks in.

An announcement rings loudly within the ship. “Hello passengers of The Paladin, this is your Helmsman speaking!” He sings, tuning into the camera feed inside the Brigg, playfully moving a few appliances to get his point across. “Assuming that your Captain has remembered his basics, which I am sure that he has, you will notice that he has turned on the Fasten Seat Belt sign on your left in the Brigg. If you haven’t already done so, I advise you do it now because the last thing we need is head injuries.” The Paladin threatens to shut him off through a series of beeps. “Uh, right. We’ll be leaving the Station in the next three minutes, so please hold onto your seats as this will be a tight squeeze-- since some asshole thought it’d be nice to park OUTSIDE of his own zone.”

When The Helmsman disconnects from the speakers, the ship is then put into motion. Carefully, he navigates from the parking space he had acquired, setting off warning shocks to the vehicles already trying to squeeze their way past in order to take up parking. The Paladin shifts through the small traffic accumulating on the exit landing, waiting with a handful of other vessels to take their leave.

Hangar bay doors will be opening in 10, 9, 8…

The countdown starts and everyone revs their engines, some just to make sure their ships were warm enough for the shot through the exit. Others did it just to be intimidating. The Helmsman, trembling slightly, looks in awe as the suction of space starts up as the doors begin to rise.

… 6, 5, 4…

His pusher is still.

… 3, 2, BEEP!

The ships were off, The Paladin is one of them. Darting straight and true down their given path, trying to get as far away from the crowd as carefully and skillfully as possible when faced with such a tight squeeze. Soon they were able to ditch the main crowd, alone at last with the vast stars and the chill of space. The Paladin makes a sharp turn, taking up the route installed in her navigation systems, taking a course for the planet The Helmsman and his captain had left behind a long time ago,

Alternia.

#* (000.) &. Action Post (the now)#narrative.#long post #(( WE GOING ON A TRIP IN OUR FAVORITE ROCKET SHIP #ZOOMING THROOOOOOUGH THE SKIES #LITTLE EINSTEINS))#body horror //

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wlwhunk · 6 years

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anybody else fucked up by the fact that in s6, honerva/haggars plan revolved around team voltron blindly trusting shiro? her whole plan nearly worked perfectly, it was only two factors changed that screwed it up:

1) pidge having a backup plan, and 2) keith being willing to fight back against “shiro”

the castle was literally seconds from blowing the fuck up when pidge finally stopped it. she wouldn’t have been able to stop it as quickly as she did if she didn’t have that countermeasure against shiros arm in the first place, and that split second would have been all that was needed. pidge is a very cautious person, and we don’t see her truly open up to the team until later. but the first person she opened up to was shiro. yet, she still had the sense to be wary. my guess is seeing shiros arm activate and cause him so much pain in the first episode is what caused the alarm bells to ring. but when they reach the point they’re at in season 6, pidge trusts shiro completely, and the whole team seems to have swept concerns about the arm under the rug. pidge isn’t even able to muster up the nerve to fire at shiro at all. this is the version of pidge honerva knows from watching through shiro, not the one mistrusting enough to canonically keep all her teammates weaknesses on file.

secondly, im not sure whether or not honerva planned for shiro to die while confronting keith, but the whole fight wasn’t a part of the original plan. there was no way honerva would have expected keith to actually follow them through the wormhole. the original plan must have been for him to get blown up with the rest of the team on the castle, leaving her with shiro to do what she pleased, AKA take out the rest of the coalition. so that confrontation was made up on the spot, but her instructions to the clone were “the red paladins connection to you runs deep, deeper than the others. you will exploit that connection.” theres not a lot of room to read in between the lines there, shes literally telling him keith cares a fucking lot about you, use that to kill him because theres no way he’d try to defend himself. and she was right at first, during the first portion of the fight he’s playing mostly defense. but after a certain point, keith realizes hes gonna die if he doesn’t take this fight seriously and busts out some sick ass moves. even then he nearly lost. but it wasn’t until keith was willing to strike back- and in the end cut his fucking arm off- that he had a chance.

i don’t know where I’m going with this, its just something I cannot get out of my head that operation kuron was intended to infiltrate voltron by exploiting their love and it really almost worked, except for the two characters who had an explicitly difficult time connecting with the rest of the team, but had ultimately befriended and trusted shiro first.

#ally.txt #ch: the unkillable gay #ch: half galra emo baby #ch: peanut butter but not peanuts #operation kuron #ch: hottest zombie witch in the universe #sorry for the long post but im not over this

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akaiikowrites · 6 years

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If you're still taking prompts, is there anything I can do to convince you to do more sheith daddy kink? It is so fucking hard to find it done well, and holy shit YOU DO IT SO WELL. Literally I will pay you money to make it happen again, open a ko-fi or a PayPal and I will be there with bells on if you do more daddy kink stuff.

Summary: Shiro needs rest. Keith will bully, bribe, or beg his way to victory.

Notes: also on ao3. daddy kink for you, lovely anon. both for actually donating to my ko-fi but also for suggesting a ko-fi in the first place, bless. also because i will never turn down a chance to write daddy kink for sheith. thank you again, nonnie! i hope this fulfills everything you were looking for. could be considered a sequel to this, but stands on it’s own. takes place somewhere between s2e3 and s2e7.

Tucked into an alcove, Keith shucks off his jacket, boots, and pants until he’s left in one of Shiro’s tee shirts—the one the dips low over his collarbone to show fading hickeys—and his boxer briefs. Ruffles his hands through his hair. Bites his lower lip until it feels puffy and achy. Looks around the hall before he darts across the way and into the map room.

As the door hisses shut behind him and the locking sequence engages, he lets his eyes run over the silhouette Shiro presents. Bent over one quadrant currently held by the Galra, lips set into a firm line, strong and sure against a map of stars. Enough to make Keith’s mouth dry and his palms sweaty.

Much as Keith likes playing long odds, this entire plan suddenly feels fundamentally flawed.

Shiro looks up. Even in the dim blue half-light of the room his eyes find Keith unerringly. “Keith?” Already he’s straightening, hand swiping away the quadrant he’d been examining. “What’s wrong?”

Crossing the space between them, he reminds himself of the last month of sleeping alone and watching Shiro drive himself to the breaking point. Keith’s not much of an actor but he doesn’t have to be. Not for this. Stopping inches away from Shiro, he tips his head back so their gazes meet. “D-daddy?” Keith hates how his voice cracks on the word. He swallows around a tongue that feels too thick.

But he loves watching the transition that happens. How Shiro focuses on him, intense and predatory, hands already reaching to draw him in closer. “What’s wrong, baby?” Hands settle on his hips and thumbs press into the jut of his hipbones just above the elastic of his boxer briefs.

It takes a few critical seconds to decide on a strategy. Part of him—a big part—wants to see if plain old sex will do the trick. But the other part reminds him that it didn’t work the last three times. The chips are down. Time to go all in.

Hooking his own fingers into Shiro’s belt, he pulls himself closer until there’s only a whisper of space between them. Lets himself focus on the way Shiro’s hands fit nearly all the way around his waist, equal parts protective and possessive, and shoves himself clear over the cliff in his mind with the hope that those hands will catch him. “Daddy, have I been bad?”

Shiro swallows. “What?”

“Have I been bad?” Keith’s voice sounds small. Not frightened, or petulant, but small. Biting his lower lip, he dares another look up at Shiro and it’s not intentional but the words come tripping out anyway. “You haven’t been paying attention to me.”

“No,” Shiro says, “No, baby, you haven’t…” Frustration colors the edges of his voice and he looks away. It’s almost enough to worry Keith until he feels Shiro’s Galra hand slide under his shirt to stroke down his spine in a soothing motion. The frustration, he understands, isn’t towards him. “It’s not you,” Shiro says finally. “I’ve just had a lot of work to do.”

Work. Keith resists the urge to wrinkle his nose. It’s not work. It’s punishment for not saving Ulaz. But that’s something to tackle at another time.

Behind Shiro, about a half a tic to the left, is a chair. One of the many scattered in the map room to allow for planning meetings or contemplation of the universe. Or seducing busy paladins.

Keith doesn’t give Shiro time to realize what he’s doing. Just shoves and tumbles with Shiro back into the chair. It creaks warning but holds beneath their combined weight. Landing positions are awkward but Keith adjusts quickly. Gets his long legs on either side of Shiro’s hips and links his hands behind Shiro’s neck. By the time he’s settled, Shiro’s blinking at him in narrow eyed bemusement and the hand at his back has settled on the dip of his spine in silent warning.

“But I’ve missed you, Daddy,” Keith says. Beneath him Shiro goes still. When Keith shifts, he feels Shiro’s half hard cock press into his thigh and resists the urge to grind. They’re not there yet. “Do you want to know how much?” Embarrassment curls hot in his gut. Already he can feel the flush starting to cover his cheeks and his chest in uneven, blotchy color. But for the first time in nearly a month, Shiro’s entirely focused on something other than his own self loathing, and that’s enough to keep Keith going. “Why don’t you move your hand down, Daddy?

Shiro’s catching on. Of course he is. Golden Son of the Garrison doesn’t miss much. Slowly, he drags metal fingers down from the dip of Keith’s spine to the cleft of his ass. Doesn’t bother to push the boxer briefs down, which somehow makes it worse when he presses a testing finger against Keith’s hole and growls low at the way it gives easily.

“You did this?” he asks. Keith shudders and nods as Shiro’s finger works in deeper. “Fingered yourself open for me?” The contrast of heat and cold, the way Shiro gets deeper than he could reach himself, the intensity of finally having Shiro focused on him again is undoing Keith faster than he can keep up with. “Answer me, baby.”

“Yes,” Keith says, dragging the word out over too many syllables. Shiro’s added another finger, pressing hard against Keith’s prostate in a way that’s making it hard to focus on anything but the toe curling flicker of pleasure that’s too much and not quite enough.

Warm, human fingers cup the back of Keith’s neck. He’d flinch, because he hadn’t realized Shiro’d moved his hand, but then Shiro presses his thumb just beneath Keith’s jaw in a way that forces him to tip his head back. They’re kissing, slow and deep and filthy, perfect counterpoint to the drugging feeling of Shiro’s fingers. When they pull apart there’s a thin string of spit connecting their lips and that’s enough to make Keith blush an entirely new shade of red.

“Tell me what you need,” Shiro says. Three fingers, now, and if they weren’t in such an awkward position he’d probably try for four. Shiro’s teeth bite blue-black bruises into Keith’s exposed neck even has his thumb forces Keith’s head back another precious few centimeters. Every so often his hips roll up, thrusting the heavy line of his arousal against Keith’s thigh. “Be good, baby, tell me what you need.”

Stars spin around them. The map room is still turned on. Somewhere in here, the quadrant that Shiro had found so important is still spinning along. Earlier Shiro was obsessed with proving himself to the universe. Now he’s just obsessed with Keith.

Victory thrills along Keith’s spine.

Rubbing one hand up along the shaved scruff of Shiro’s undercut, he says, “Need you, Daddy. Need you in me. Please.” That gets another growl, and metal fingers pressing hard enough against his prostate to have him seeing stars, and then he’s lifted clear off Shiro’s lap in a display of strength that has him moaning.

It’s a delirious handful of seconds. Shiro yanks down Keith’s boxer briefs so they catch around his thighs, undoes his own belt and zipper, pulls Keith’s back flush against his chest before lowering Keith down slow. “Guide me in,” he commands. Keith reaches down blindly and grasps the hot length of Shiro, lines it up, tries to breath through the stretch. By the time Shiro bottoms out Keith’s breathing out in harsh whines, stuffed full in a way he barely knows how to accommodate after a near celibacy for a month. The material of Shiro’s pants is rough beneath him, as anchoring as the hand Shiro’s used to ruck up his tee shirt and pressed over his heart in a blatantly possessive gesture.

“So good for me,” Shiro breathes. “My baby boy. God, so good for me.” The way he thrusts up into Keith holds none of his earlier urgency. It’s meant to take Keith apart by degrees.

“Daddy.” Keith’s voice won’t stop breaking and he can’t even bring himself to care anymore. He lets his head fall back on Shiro’s shoulder and reaches up to grip Shiro’s wrist. Maybe he could fight to chase his release. Make Shiro fuck him rough and deep. But he likes this, likes the slow build of pleasure curling in his gut, likes the way he feels like the literal center of Shiro’s universe.

Coming is less like a bang and more like a whimper. It’s rolling through him before he recognizes it and he’s literally whimpering an overstimulated chorus of, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” while Shiro chases his own release.

Heat chases through him, punctuated by Shiro’s drawn out moan, hips bucking to get him as deep in Keith as he can be. Sweat cools slow between their bodies. Around them, the stars spin on. “Fuck,” Shiro says. With feeling. Keith feels a laugh bubble up in his chest and he lolls his head just enough to press a kiss to the sharp line of Shiro’s jaw.

Eventually, they get up. Dress. Shut down the map room. Keith grabs his clothes from the alcove in the hall. For an entire minute they stumble down the hallways in the dark before Shiro swings Keith up into his arms. Keith doesn’t even protest too much. Mostly because he quickly falls into a half doze that he only wakes from at the hiss of a door opening.

Something soft gives way beneath him and he rolls instinctively. Pillows, blankets, all of them smelling like Shiro. They’re in the bedroom, then. Keith reaches blindly and catches Shiro’s human wrist. Cooing low in his throat, he murmurs, “Stay, Daddy.”

There’s a sigh. Heavy and half exasperated. But Shiro sounds all fond as he says, “I’m going to.” That’s good enough for Keith to release him.

In a doze, he listens to Shiro move around the room. The lights dim, eventually, and he feels the bed dip to accommodate Shiro’s greater weight. When an arm hooks around his waist he goes with it easily until he’s tucked halfway under Shiro like the world’s most lethargic teddy bear. “G’night,” Keith mutters.

Briefly, the arm around his waist tightens.“Thank you for tonight,” Shiro whispers, slow with pleasure and exhaustion, pressing a kiss to the curve of Keith’s neck. “You’re so good to me, baby.” Keith feels his lips curve up into a victorious smile. They drift into sleep like that. So tangled up that it’s hard to tell where one of them begins and the other one ends.

#sheith #okay but at least i didn't write it at work this time y'all #honestly i love daddy kink sheith more than almost anything #it's canon #you'll pry it from my cold dead fingers #bless you nonnie for feeding my literal dumpster fire #i love you so much #nonnie #kaii writes sheith

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dulceringo · 7 years

Text

Langst Mini Fic #10: Blank

Soulmate wasn’t necessarily meant that two people should be involved romantically. There were many forms of love, many shapes of bonds. There was the platonic one, the familial bond, or the everlasting friendship that none would ever be able to cut.

In their world, it didn’t matter which family you belong with or to whom you share your flesh and blood. The family tree most of the time did not meant that you share a deep connection with them. They have bar codes tattooed in their body the moment they came to life. A single touch from another would trigger the codes to change into names, it was the soulmate sign. It was completely normal for siblings not to get along that much, for them not to share the familial bond but find it to another person that was completely unrelated to them by blood.

Now, this did not mean that families do not share love to each other. They did, it was just not as deep as the soulmate bond though.

For all of this…Lance was the odd one.

He was a blank. No codes printed to any part of his body. No connection to anyone, neither romantic nor platonic.

Most people gave him pity, others scorned him and thought for all his smiles and kind gestures Lance was just a kid with a cold heart unable to love. But that last thought was a lie and those who were close with him knew this.

No one could make their Mother smile like little Lance. No one could make his brothers and sisters get along so well unless Lance was in the room. No one could make their Father laughed like there was not tomorrow like Lance. No one could make the little nieces and nephews running around to start behaving by promising all sorts of things like Lance.

So why Lance could not have what all humans have? Why he could not have that deep connection, that feeling that he could trust someone with all his heart and soul? Why he was not allowed to have a place he could truly call home?

As time passed, Lance learned to accept this fact on his life. But he prided himself to be able to support and relate to anyone physically and emotionally.

When Hunk and he met at the Garrison, Lance deluded himself that he was Hunk’s best friend. Everyone knew this was not true but hey, someone could dream and there was no rules forbidding anyone to be friends to someone that you do not share a bond with. So for all it was worth, they could pretend…

And then someone named Pidge Gunderson came to the picture. A simple handshake and the bar code tattooed on their right hand changed from a series of vertical lines to three varying sized gears. It was the time that Lance needed to stop his game.

He was not Hunk’s best friend in the first place, it was Pidge all this time. And no matter how the kid tried to distanced himself away from them Lance knew that Hunk would never give up to get closer to the person he shared a friendship bond. The soulmate mark never lies. Lance saw everything unfold before him when they were blasted in space.

Hunk and Pidge had the friendship bond. Shiro and Keith had the sibling bond.

Alteans had a different way in knowing their soulmate bonds, this was something that Coran explained to them when he got curios at the others tattoos. The royal adviser told them that Alteans, and reluctantly the Galra, shares eye contact to others and their hearts will give a beat different from they were used to. It was a magical experience according to Coran. It was just they already know if that person would be family or their significant other.

Coran and Allura shared the familial bond.

When Voltron was formed, when it was established that they were the Paladins that would defend the universe, they realized that all of them share that familial bond. All of them…

Except Lance…for he was a blank.

He learned to accept this fact.

But realizing that even outside of earth…that Lance had no one…maybe he really just have a cold dead heart all this time.

“Stop…stop throwing such words at me, Lance.” He knew that Keith was just tired of everything. Losing Shiro a second time was taking its toll to the Red Paladin of Voltron. From the way his eyes tried to suppress the impending water works to the way his frowns starts to be a permanent thing on his face, Lance knew that whatever would come out Keith’s mouth was something he must not take to heart. His friend was hurting. It was normal that harsh words would be thrown out.

“You do not understand anything!” Lance saw the way Keith curled his hands in an attempt to control his anger. He was not far too lost to start throwing punches then, Lance would consider this a plus. “You, of all people in this…this war ridden universe! You! Do not understand what it feels! What all of us feels right now! You are a blank!”

The moment those words escaped Keith’s mouth Lance knew that the other immediately understood what he said from the way his eyes widened in shock to the way his mouth hanged open in disbelief. Lance knew that Keith did not meant it, it was just emotions talking right not. It was enough for Lance. Those words did not hurt him anymore for it was the truth.

Lie

“Lance…I…”

“It’s alright, man!” Lance shoved his hands on the pocket of his jacket. He plastered an assuring smile to calm down everyone in the room that started to be filled by a stifling awkwardness, “We all miss Shiro, Keith. You are not the only one that is hurting right now. You said it yourself. Hunk, Pidge, Coran, and Allura are worried about Shiro too. We are a team. Just because we are looking for a new pilot doesn’t mean we are giving up on our leader.”

No one missed the way Lance deliberately erased himself from the picture.

When he was a little child his Mother used to remind him about something from the very day that Lance could understand what it meant for being a blank.

“The heart will always yearn for a home. Just because you do not have a mark does not mean that there are no people out there waiting for you. Just wait my little ocean, my sweet, sweet star. The day will come where you will find your home.”

At first he thought it was just words to make him feel good. To erase the bitterness he was feeling whenever he saw the bar codes adorning the body of his siblings and nieces and nephews. It never crossed his mind that those words carry a whole truth.

It was a brief moment, a short encounter during their fighting against Lotor’s soldiers. But there and then…Lance knew that he found what he was looking for all this time.

The way those female Galra stopped for a moment, their eyes widening in recognition, the way they started to try to make distance between Lance and the rest of the Paladins, and the way they tried not to hurt the newly Red Paladin of team Voltron…Lance knew…he now knew…where he belonged.

The female Galra that appeared to have a ‘head tail’ (or as how Lance dubbed it in his head), grabbed him by the arm and started running away from the rest of the team. Of course the others chased after them because in a grand scheme of things, Lance was still a Paladin of Voltron up to this very moment.

But the heart will always yearn for its home.

Lotor was surprised at the extra baggage his generals brought back to him. At first he thought that they brought a prisoner with them, a way to hinder Voltron from following them. When he voiced such thoughts it was the first time that the women around him openly growled, growled, at him and started to form a protective circle around the Paladin they brought with them.

He merely scoffed at the blatant display of disrespect against the Prince of Galra Empire. Nevertheless, he still walked forward until he was in front of the Paladin.

“Removed your helmet. I want to see the face of the person whom my soldiers brought to me.”

And then he met a pair of blue eyes that he never thought would make his heart beat unlike before. So that was why….

Lotor smiled at the Paladin and ruffled his hair.

“Welcome aboard, little brother.”

Who knew Lance had a bit of Altean genes in his body and that he shared a familial bond with Lotor and the rest of his generals?

You know...I will really appreciate to know your thoughts about my writings. I need to know if I should continue writing the ideas in my head, if there are people out there who wants to read my stories...cause honestly...not knowing what people thinks about my works just make me sad.

So, which among my fics you want to be updated:

Playmates

Langst Mini Fics

The Alternates

or one of these prompts given to me a very long time ago:

A) Lance overdosing. Accidentally or otherwise. Maybe he just can't sleep so he takes a few more than usual

B) Sniper Lance... but this time as a prompt?

C) Lance doesn't feel an emotion and everything he shows is just an act. Like when he sees someone sad he thinks "I should comfort them, right?" or something like that.

D) Lance over hears the team talking bad about someone and him having insecurity thinks it's about him and leaves before he could hear they were talking about Lotor. As days go by lance starts freaking out over every mistake he makes and one day he just breaks down and the team comforts him. (when did I received this request prompt?)

E) lance has this god like ability that kills any living thing by touching with his bare hands. He didn't know that he could do this and always thought it was just bad luck (the deeper he loved the faster the death was) until he touched his first love. After that whenever someone says jokingly 'die' he gets really pissed and angry. Because of this he tries to stay happy all the time and cherishes all lives. And when one of the paladins almost touched his bare hand he cried

F) Lance shutting himself out to the team and they are trying to help him but he doesn't want to be helped because it makes him believe that he's weak if he's helped

G) What if they are trapped in illusions where they must insult the other paladins to escape it (but not real paladins, they insult imaginary ones). So everyone picks one thing and says it to the fake paladin like a bad cook, horrible social skills, etc.. but Lance refuses because he knows what it's like for family to hurt him and he doesn't want to hurt his space family.

H) I would like to see some blue lion angst in which Lance actually rejects Blue. Since the bond cannot be forced, Blue can't do anything but wait. Idk, I'm just throwing out ideas. Lance might want to go home or it could relate to the Garla~

I) just wondering if you could do a Blind!Lance thing-a-majig?

J) Lotor challenge Voltron to a gauntlet where he pits the Paladins against his strongest warriors until Lance challenges him to a game of wit, personally. Lance bests Lotor and Shiro has to drag him out after the entire army descends upon them...

Send me an ask which one you want to be updated and majority vote will win.

Langst Mini Fics

Previous / Next

#langst #vld lance #voltron lance #langst mini fic #vld Keith #vld lotor #vld #voltron legendary defender #gdesertsandspeaking

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flippytwine · 7 years

Photo

@lancenetwork ‘s Lance’s BDay Week - Day 3: Love/Comfort

How long has it been since the last time Lance relaxed?

“QUIZNAK!”

A loud groan echoed from one of the castle bathrooms, bouncing off the walls and alerting the entire castle of Lance’s cries of shame. Hunk, who was passing by at the time with a bowl of food goo, heard Lance screaming and dropped his food in alarm. “Lance? You okay?” Hunk said, pressing his ear against the door.

“ONLY THAT I’VE TRANSFORMED INTO ANOTHER PERSON!” Lance slammed the door open, knocking poor Hunk on the floor. Hunk, recovering from the attack, looked up to see Lance covering his face with his arms. Getting back up on his feet, Hunk, accustomed to weird alien diseases that affected the paladins, tried to comfort Lance, “Hey, hey, Lance. I’m sure it’s just an alien disease or something. Allura probably can fix-”

“THAT’S NOT THE PROBLEM,” Lance cried dramatically, putting the back of one of his hands on his forehead and leaning back slightly, as if he was about to faint, “LOOK AT THIS.”

Lance removed the arm that was covering his face, and he really was another person.

His eyes had massive eye bags, a result of the countless nights he volunteered to stay up and watch over the team in case any residents from the area decided to, uh, stop by. His skin was visibly dry, and his lips were so chapped that Hunk could probably see Keith’s house in the desert surface of Lance’s lips. The dark blue of Lance’s eyes even seemed to lose life from the tolls of fighting for so long. He no longer looked like Aphrodite’s Cuban child, but more like a clone of Shiro.

Hunk accidentally let out a small gasp, which he quickly covered up with his hand, “Dude, when was the last time you used your care supplies?”

“I ran out of my skin care supplies around a year ago. My chapstick supply ran out a couple months later,” Lance sighed, tracing over his skin.

“Dude, you should’ve told us before you became human wreck. I mean, we could’ve stopped by Earth, since we have more free time now ever since Zarkon’s empire died down.” Hunk assumed a thinking position for a moment before snapping his fingers. “You know, we are in the Lavinian Galaxy division of the alliance, and this part is KNOWN for it’s hot springs and relaxing atmosphere. I’ll ask Allura to wormhole you to one of the planets for a bit of a rest day, just hold on for a tick.”

And with that, Hunk rushed off.

—

Around one varga later, Lance felt the castle ship start a wormhole sequence into where Lance presumed was one of the planets in the division.

A couple ticks after, Allura activated the intercom and made an announcement. “Lance, please report to your lion for takeoff. Shiro and Keith will be with you as well.”

Running over to the hangar, he greeted Blue with a smile, before his lion granted him entrance to the main console. “Alright, Blue, let’s get our claws pampered!”

WIth that, Blue sped out of the hangar, with the Red and Black lion following close behind. “Alright, team, the structure of this planet is relatively stable, but the heat from the hot springs can turn your lion into a moving oven, so don’t fly too close to the ground,” Shiro ordered, putting his lion into a nosedive and entering the atmosphere of a planet seemingly covered in wisp and water.

Lance followed along with Keith, entering the atmosphere with a loud bang, breaking through clouds so dense, Lance thought that he would crash to the ground if it was like this on the surface, too.

The clouds eventually parted, and gave way to what looked like an endless ocean with still waves, but turned out to be a field of plants and flowers made of water, covering smooth hills and mountains. Occasionally, parts of the ground would cave in and make way for a concentrated blast of steam to erupt from the ground. The scene reminded Lance of when he met the Olkari in the forest, even the species that lived here kinda looked like Olkari.

Tearing his eyes away from the blue surface of the planet, Lance activated his boosters to catch up to Shiro and Keith, who had flew ahead of him.

After a few ticks, a circle of mountains emerged from the horizon, and waiting at the outskirts was a large crowd of Yuins, one of the species that inhabited the planet. The different markings on each of the Yuians glowed slightly, creating a dome of blue light around the group. The crowd was also dressed in traditional Yuin formal clothing, which consisted of toga-like designs, all colored light blue.

The three paladins parked their lions in front of the crowd, and exited their lions hearing the cheer of the Yuins.

“Welcome, paladins of Voltron!” The head of the Yuians, Terin, welcomed the paladins with open arms. Well, with 3 pairs of open arms and a pair of dragonfly wings. “What brings you here today?”

“We’re here for a bit of relaxation,” Keith said, putting his arms on his hips and smiling.

“Of course, of course! We will start the preparations immediately!” Terin smiled, showing off the rows of teeth, apex predator style, behind his dark blue mouth. Despite being a relatively peaceful species, they loved to sharpen their teeth with knives once in a while. “It’ll take a while for everything to get ready. So, in the meantime, my assistant will show you to our largest hot spring on the top of the main mountain.” Terin then waved over to one of the Yuians, who was a greener shade of blue than the majority of the crowd.

He bowed graciously, his dragonfly wings lifting up in respect. The assistant stepped forward, “It is an honor to meet you, Paladins of Voltron. I am Lelan, and it is a pleasure to be the one to show you to our most sacred spring. If you will, please enter your vessels, and I will be waiting for you in the sky.”

They did as said, entering their lions and meeting Lelan a few hundred kilometers from the ground. Lelan made the follow-me gesture, then turned around and started flying to the highest mountain.

“These Yuians are so courteous, it’s almost kinda suspicious,” Keith said over the communicator, moving his lion forward to follow Lelan.

Shiro smiled, “Don’t worry, Keith. The Yuians are known for their overwhelming kindness. But I can assure you that they won’t hurt us.”

They finally reached the top of the mountain after a dobosh or so, and met eyes with a steaming blue lake, surrounded with plants and what looked like green fireflies in the day. “It’s beautiful,” Lance whispered.

They landed on a pad of mountain rock next to the spring, the pungent smell of the plants seeping through the vents in the lion. Lelan was waiting for them near one of the purple trees that surrounded the spring.

Actually, there were two springs connected by a small river. One of them was bigger than the other one, but the smaller spring was famous for being extremely relaxing. Shiro offered the smaller one to Lance, since this was originally for him, and left him to lounge with Keith in the bigger spring.

Lance changed into his bathing suit, wrapping a towel that Lelan provided for him around his neck and slowly dipped into the warm water.

The moment that he settled in the water, a wave of relief washed over him, like a crushing weight slowly dissipated from his chest. Lance then swam over to a deeper part of the spring where he was able to float in silence.

For the first time in months, he paid attention to the small things around him. He unclenched his teeth, feeling the tension is his mouth disappear. He paid attention to his breathing, letting his lungs fill with air and then slowly letting it out. He looked up into the deep blue sky and thought of home, before all of it happened.

Lance watched as petals from some of the flowers fall into the water and melt into it like ice. It reminded him of when he used to swim in the rain when he was little. Of course, he got sick, but he always said that he would do it again.

Reminiscing helped Lance’s muscles relax. The ever-present tension that annoyed Lance for months was gone, and all that was left was a soreness that he hadn’t noticed before.

He felt the waves move his body up at down, as if they were massaging his back. The warmth of the water was a stark contrast to the cold air touched his stomach. Lance closed his eyes and focused on the temperature differences on each of the halves of his body.

It felt like an eternity floating in the water before cool air on his stomach was soon interrupted with a couple drops of water that fell out of nowhere. Rain. Lance opened his eyes again, to see the sky turn a dark blue, with purple galaxies providing light to the planet. The droplets of glowing, colorful water continued to fall on his face and stomach, to which Lance got out of his floating position and made contact with the spring floor. He looked up into the sky and let the rain slowly fall on his forehead like snow. The glow of the galaxies reflected on the water and turned the entire spring into a galaxy, glowing purple and blue on Lance’s skin.

A rustle in one of the bushes caught Lance’s attention, turning over to see Lelan holding a giant leaf that acted as an umbrella. “Would you like to fly back to the village now, paladin? The other two have already left and went back to the village.”

Lance looked up to the sky, the raindrops creating tiny splashes in the water, and said, “I’m fine. I wanna stay a bit longer.”

#lancebdayweek #voltron #vld #lance mcclain #vld lance #voltron lance #fanart #fanfiction

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heero-yuy · 7 years

Note

You don't think that Keith's hope was to see Shiro? I mean that's what Kolivan says, that he desperately wants to see him.

Oh nononono

Like, obviously you can interpret things in many ways, there’s alot of layers to everything. But that trial Keith goes through wasn’t really about Shiro or not too related to Shiro until the end. It was something between Keith and himself.

And I think if you choose to see that Keith’s hope is just to see Shiro when he’s hurt, you might be missing on a way more significant thing that happens in their relationship in that episode.

Like I’m sure he would always like to see Shiro come to his rescue when he’s in real trouble haha, but that’s not what that was about at that point.

Ok quick season 2 Keith character analysis:

(or like way more in depth than this one haha, because I love what happens there and can’t shut up about it.)

Keith’s fear is that he will let his feelings (or like the things he wants) be in the way of the greater good.

We’ve seen that with Keith throughout season one and in season two. He always strives to think of the bigger picture and believes individual sacrifices are necessary in this war.

We dunno why he’s like that yet, but he really has something against selfish people that think only of themselves and end up hurting many others.

Then he discovers his Galra connection in episode 3.

And then he is seen looking at his knife alot, the only connection he has to his past and his real identity and family, knowing that this might be what allows Zarkon to track them and puts them in constant danger.

And Keith realizes he can’t throw it away.

Then in episode 4, we see them face Lubos, the Olkari king. And Shiro says this to him:

Notice Keith’s face there..

Then Keith says “You’re no king!” And then does this to everyone’s shock:

Lance says: “Whoa Keith that came out of nowhere!” but if you pay attention, seems like Keith is kinda taking out his issues on Lubos there.. He knows he is doing something very selfish by keeping that knife and putting his teammates in danger.

Then comes the line about how “everything is related” . Which seems to me like Keith is just looking for excuses to keep the knife and convince himself it’s not so bad if he’s Galra, everything is connected, there’s no evil in the world. Like sure, that’s a nice and deep look on life, but that’s not what Keith is about haha, I dun think he managed to fool himself.

Then in episode 5 Zarkon finds them again. They are exhausted from this constant running and when they get a break Shiro tells them to go rest.

Keith can’t sleep. (neither of them can…)

Then they keep playing hide and seek with Zarkon for awhile and Zarkon almost takes control of the black lion again.

This is getting serious. Keith thinks he is putting in danger not just his team, but the universe aswell. And he feels guilty.

In episode 6, Allura blames herself, and Keith is like “Wait, maybe it’s me” and everyone like “Keith wtf?” but Keith doesn’t tell them about the knife. He says something about “How Zarkon imprinted on him during their fight”

They decide it doesn’t matter how he’s tracking them and come up with some plan to attack the Galra and Shiro tells them to go rest.

Keith doesn’t leave with the others. He stays. Seems like Keith wanted to share his secret with Shiro but chickened out.

And I don’t think it was because he thought Shiro might have judged him for being Galra or something, but because Keith was scared Shiro will ask him to do the right thing and give up the knife.

In Keith’s mind, giving up the knife is the right thing to do for the sake of the universe. But he can’t find the strength to do that.

That night he has the nightmare

And with all his fears about it all, he realizes he still can’t let go, so he decides to leave.

He’s in his paladin uniform and has a big bag with his belongings. He wasn’t checking if Zarkon was tracking him, he was probably thinking “I will go to find the blade of marmora and find out who I am, and then decide if it’s all worth it.”

(Maybe even he’s going in the red paladin armor to keep his place on the Voltron team or maybe some sort of reassurance for himself..)

Allura fucks up his plans… But they both leave. This really puts the team in alot of danger.

Then he has a pretty harsh conversation with Allura about the Galra and “How quickly they turn”. And Allura says “I will never count on them for help!”

Making Keith realize again that he will most likely will have to choose between reuniting with his family and being a paladin of Voltron.

And even after they realize they are both really needed on the Voltron team, Keith can’t give up the knife so he can just go back.

Only after Coran tells them Zarkon is not tracking them through them they go back. Then Shiro takes the blame for Zarkon tracking them on himself and his weak connection with black, so he works on their bond. Keith looks for answers to his past in the mall.

By the time they go to the Blade of Marmora base. Keith is pretty much going crazy and I think he really doubts himself if he even belongs on the Voltron team, since he found himself doing something very selfish that he thought was putting them all in danger and he still couldn’t give it up. I think he also blames it on his possible Galra heritage.

Keith is probably thinking “What if I can’t trust myslef? What if Allura was right? What if my Galra blood will make me turn on my team like Allura said, because fuck, that is exactly what I did.”

Keith is kinda struggling with the question of “Am I really a good person? Am I going to hurt people?”

And his fear is that he will find out that he is not a good person, and his hope is to prove himself that he’s not selfish, that he does put the greater good above his own desires.

And this what his trial was about.

Shiro was there as a symbol of Voltron and what’s right and good for the universe, and to stay with Shiro he had to sacrifice the things he so badly desires (not necessary bad things, just things he really wanted all his life).

His dad was there as a symbol of Keith’s “selfish” desires or like his biggest wish. And to stay with his dad, he had to sacrifice the good of the universe.

Keith can’t decide between the two. He chooses his knife first, then he chooses Voltron.

In the end I think he found it in his heart that he cares about the good of the universe more, but it was a painful decision. When Keith walks out that door i think he is broken and empty. He lost the thing he wanted most in world. And he still doesn’t have his resolution, he’s still very confused. That’s why the blade doesn’t activate yet.

And the decision is still not complete in heart, he still keeps demanding to know “What does this knife means??” after that.

And that’s where Shiro comes in, running to his rescue, and protecting him and his right to keep the knife.

In that one action Shiro shows : Faith in Keith and faith in the Galra not being all bad. And says “What’s important to you is important to me and I’m with you no matter what.”

Shiro shows Keith unconditional love and support.

Something that apparently, Keith did not really expect.

And I think Shiro is able to understand what Keith needs so bad, because he also needs that for himself. Shiro has been struggling with the same questions, the same uncertainty about his dark past, the same doubts of “Am I really a good person? Am I worthy of piloting the black lion? Do I have a dark side that will make me hurt other people one day?” and I think the trust and faith Keith showed in him all this time, might have been a big part of what’s kept him going.

Shiro is not the perfect leader they all see him as, Shiro fucks up pretty badly, and Keith was the only one of the team that saw his imperfections and his struggles. And he still kept believing in him and his leadership. It’s not something Shiro really says to Keith, but I think he got alot of strength from Keith’s faith in him.

And seeing what Shiro does for him at the end of episode 8, I think Keith just goes “Wow, ok… What more can I possibly want? I have everything I need right here.” and the knife and his Galra family just lose it’s meaning in the light of what Shiro just did for him.

(Which you might think is a good thing, but unfortunately I think Shiro just became the most important thing in the world to Keith. ( which wasn’t the case before episode 8, Keith’s family was as equally important until then.) and there’s like no way in hell that’s not gonna be used against him at some point. Keith’s trials are not over.)

And you can go waaaay deeper into this, and go into Keith’s abandonment issues, his past… not gonna do that now, but Shiro sticking by his side like that was a very meaningful moment to Keith.

And I don’t think he was hoping for it, because seems like he just really didn’t expect it, the thought of someone sticking up for him like that just didn’t cross his mind.

Season 1 and season 2 are actually one season split into two parts. You have to think of them as like one story arc.

And if you pay close attention to the parallels in both parts, you’ll see that one of the biggest focuses in it is the love Keith’s and Shiro’s have for eachother. And it doesn’t matter what kind of love it is (platonic/romantic/familiar ) or what direction it might take in the future.

It’s love. This is a love story.

We have Shiro doubting himself in the first part, Keith doubting himself in the second. And after episode 8, they are together and ready to fight with the darkness that might exist within them, believing and supporting eachother and find comfort and strength in one another.

Although Shiro went MIA very fast haha, so we’ll see what will happen with that.

This is just my take on this ofcourse, I’m sure there can be other interpretations, but I think that what happens there was more significant than Keith just hoping to see Shiro come to his rescue when he’s in trouble.

#voltron #keith #shiro #sheith #blade of marmora #vlds2 #voltron season 2 spoilers #replies #Anonymous #thoughts and stuff

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isassifras · 7 years

Text

i’ll just leave this here

“Heads down, everyone! Hold on to something!” A booming, howling voice called over the castle-wide intercom. “Heads down, hold on! We’re getting everything under control!”

Lance flipped off the intercom and whipped his head back, “Keith!” He called to the boy who was working beside him. “What’s still working?” There were so many red lights flashing on the dashboard - so many lights.

“Uh…” The dark haired pilot’s mind was racing at over a thousand miles an hour. His hands were flying over the controls on autopilot and he suddenly couldn’t remember what anything was called.

“Please, mullet-for-brains, just tell me our landing gear is working!”

“What good would that do?!” He demanded, turning to the lanky boy next to him, Lance’s brown hair mussed and standing up in all the wrong spots. He must have run his hands through it too much. “We’re in the middle of nowhere and our ship is a giant castle - even if I knew where the landing gear for a castle was, or how to work it, why would it help in the middle of space!?”

“Ugh! Point taken, I get it, I get it! Shut it, mullet!” Lance uselessly pulled what served as the brake for their monster of a ship. “Is anything working?” He hollered, tugging at his hair for the hundredth time.

“Pidge!” Keith called, trying to speak to the small pilot in the next room. “How’s rewiring the dashboard going?” Please, please let that be good at least.

“I-I don’t know!!” Their voice called over the blaring alarms. “I don’t know what anything does! I mean- I’ve hacked the security panels and stuff, but those have real code! This is all...well, alien tech! I don’t have a manual for this, I don’t have anything!”

“So, wait...you can’t fix this?” Lance asked, his mind coming to a grinding halt. But Pidge could fix anything.

“I...I don’t know, Lance!!” They screeched, frustration audible in their voice. “Maybe...with some time, I could...oh, I don’t know! But we don’t have enough time!”

“Lance!” Keith suddenly called, his mind finally catching up to his hands. When the Blue Paladin’s ocean-like eyes were finally focused on his, he nodded to the dash where Lance was standing. “Remember that Garrison simulation that we can where we had to pull up the cargo ship with a damaged left wing and no brake fuel? The goal wasn’t to land, it was to steady out. If we do that, we can come to a natural stop!”

The blue pilot just stared for a few seconds which instantly made Keith regret what he’s just said. He...thought he was right. Wasn’t he? And then Lance broke into an enormous grin. “Keith! You sweet genius! I guess your greasy mullet is good for something after all! Let’s rock the quiznak out of this stop!”

Keith just blinked at that. He didn’t know what his hair had to do with anything and Lance still hadn’t grasped what context quiznak was appropriate for, but he supposed that was just part of who he was. Shaking that off, he faced the controls and flipped several of the switches, preparing to steer the ship manually.

“On three!” He flipped on the intercom again. “Brace, brace! We’re pulling up! Heads down, hold on, brace! In three, two...one!” And then he jerked the wheel up while Lance focused on maintaining control of the ship itself, forcing the engines to push against their current momentum. The entire ship rocked violently back and forth, the floor vibrating under the stress of it all. For just a moment, Keith thought the entire thing might just break apart underneath them.

And then, in one shuddering, shaky motion, the ship leveled out and both pilots were flung forward slightly. Lance let out a sort of surprised grunt and Keith felt his shin hit the bottom of the dash with a painful zap. He hissed and clenched his teeth to keep from crying out. Lance immediately grabbed the brake again and glanced over at his copilot whose eyes were scrunched shut.

He pulled the brake and the ship gave one more creaking shriek as its pace steadily slowed. Keith stepped back from the dash and just looked at it, his chest filling with a deep kind of relieved pride that momentarily distracted from the pain shooting up his leg. He looked at the broken display and out into the starless expanse before them.

“Aha...haha!! Hahaha! We did it! We lived! Whoo!!” Lance was laughing, draped over the control panel, shaking slightly, breath coming in gasps. While he was more quiet, Keith’s limbs were also vibrating and he was aware of the drastic movement of his chest as he sucked in air. His veins burned, adrenaline still racing through them. They’d lived. By some incredible miracle.

“Lance! Keith!” A much deeper voice boomed as Shiro rounded the corner, his dark eyes wide and a sheen of sweat on his hairline giving away what he’d been doing in the maintenance room with the burning engines. “Are you both alright?!” He received two nods and then visibly slumped against the wall with relief.

Allura wasn’t far behind him, peeking in and taking inventory of everyone before laying a hand on Shiro’s arm and asking him something too quiet to hear. He gave her a nod and she turned back to the two pilots in the room. “I’m glad you two are safe. Where is Pidge?”

“Here,” their voice called as they rounded the corner, glasses perched on their nose, their expression an awful mix of anger and disappointment. “I couldn’t fix it.”

“Oh, Pidge,” Allura said softly, moving to where they stood and wrapping her arms around them. “It’s alright. We’re all alright.”

“Where’s Hunk?” Lance asked when he’d finally calmed down more, rising to his full height, annoyingly about an inch taller than Keith.

“He’s still in the engine room. It didn’t sustain as much damage as the control room did, but the heat is rising rather quickly. He’s nearly finished and he sent me ahead to make sure everyone else was alright,” Shiro explained quickly, getting several nods. He turned back to the mass of messy blonde hair that sat atop Pidge’s head and looked at them seriously. “What kind of damage are we looking at?”

“Well…” They scratched behind their head and grit their teeth together. “I’m not entirely sure on the extent of it. The display is shot, so none of my readouts worked. I think we lost connection to one or two of the engines, the cooling system is down, some of the water and power has also been lost. Some of the ship will be in lockdown. But the worst of it is how few systems actually respond to the main controls. It was a lot of damage.”

“What do you need?” Allura asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her pointed ear in concern. “We can try to navigate with what we have to the nearest planet and they’ll hopefully give you what you need to fix it.

A beat of silence filled the room before two voices went off at the same time. “Hey, guys- sorry it took me so long to-” and “I don’t need anything. I’m-I...can’t fix it.”

Hunk stood frozen in the doorway as Pidge bore holes into the floor with their eyes, their mouth twisted in painful frustration and pent up fury. “I can’t fix it.” They repeated, “I’m worthless...a terrible mechanic...I can’t even get the fucking display back up...I don’t-I...can’t understand it!” They looked up, a sheen over their eyes before they pushed out of the door and past Hunk.

“Hey, wait! Pidge!” He called after them, trying to grab their thin, gangly arm only for it to slip out of his grasp. He turned to go after them when Shiro put a hand on his arm to stop him.

“Wait, Hunk. Let them go. There’s nothing we can go right now. Give them a little time and they’ll take a second look.”

“They can’t...just give up.” Hunk looked to the rest of the group. “Pidge is like, a genius, right? I do my best with Coran, but I’m clueless when it comes to damage like this...if anyone can fix the ship, they can...right?”

“Y-yeah…” Lance said before clearing his throat and puffing his chest out. “Yeah! Of course! It was just really stressful with the whole, crashing into infinite space and falling for eternity thing looming over them. Now that we’re safe, they can focus-”

“I’m afraid that’s not entirely correct, Lance my boy.” Coran then appeared in the doorway, the gash on his forehead still fresh after hitting the counter when they’d first lost altitude. “Altean technology is incredibly advanced,” he said softly. “Understanding it takes years, even when you have all the right materials. And we’ve lost a great many of the manuals. Without knowing how the ship functions normally, repairing it in this state would be near impossible, even for Pidge.”

“But that’s- what the hell are we supposed to do then?” Keith asked no one in particular as they all stayed silent for a beat.

“Say...Coran, how far are we from the Sobeau Galaxy?” Allura spoke up softly, a hand to her chin.

The ginger man immediately perked up, “You don’t think...they couldn’t possibly still work out of there…”

“It’s been a long time...but they’d been there for thousands of years even before we first contacted them.” Allura’s eyes lit up for a moment and her face cracked into a large grin. “They have to still be there!”

“Don’t mean to ruin the good mood you go goin’ there, sweet cheeks,” Lance spoke up, waving a hand to get Allura’s attention. “But who is this ‘they’ you’re talking about?”

“The space mechanics!” She said, ignoring the blatant attitude from the Cuban boy.

Keith and Lance exchanged a glance - a rare occurrence unless the glance also included a glare - and shrugged.

“A space mechanic is a specialized type of mechanic that focuses on alien technologies. They don’t know much about typical operations systems or the technology within the planets, but they have ships of their own and they fly around fixing ships in flight or satellites in orbit.” Coran informed them. “They’re fascinating, really, and-”

“Wait, so they’ll be able to fix the ship?” Hunk interrupted, his brows pulled together.

“Hopefully...if they’re still there.” Allura said, the initial joy at the idea dying away with one other thought. “How are the communication systems? Pidge didn’t mention them in their damage report.”

“Uh…” Keith moved over to the panel and flipped a few of the switches before screwing up his face. “It looks like they’re functional, but we’ll have to work without a display-”

“I can hook up a secondary display.” Pidge’s voice sounded again, surprising everyone.

“Pidge!” Hunk called, glad to see the young pilot return, although their expression was still sour. They held a small screen and a bunch of wires. “Uh...did you...hear…”

“We’re hiring another mechanic. Yeah.” They mumbled, sitting in front of the console and opening it up to attach their wires. “A better mechanic,” they added much quieter.

“Not a better mechanic!” Hunk yelled out, joined by Shiro yelling Pidge’s name and Allura and Lance also offering a protest that was too garbled to make out.

“Alright, alright,” Pidge mumbled, their lips quirking up. “I get it. Not a better mechanic, just one that has actually read the manuals.” The others in the room exchanged a few glances before shrugging and accepting that as an answer. “There…” Pidge said as the small screen in their hands flickered to life.

There were a few glitches and bars running across the screen so the small mechanic twisted around a few of the wires, tongue sticking out of their mouth in concentration, and then just resorted to smacking the screen once. It eventually evened out and a familiar, albeit much smaller, display appeared.

“Nice work, Pidge!” Lance sang happily, taking the screen and propping it up on the still black and cracked console screen. He then began fiddling with a few of the communication controls and flipped on the intercom before turning to Allura and Coran. “Alrighty, so where am I trying to reach?”

“See if you can’t reach the Hostess Satellite in the Sobeau Galaxy. They can relay you to someone who knows Altean technology. Hopefully,” Allura bit her lip and fiddled with the hem of her dress. This had to work.

Lance started to scan the nearby channels, flipping on long range mode and fiddling with the dials. His lips pursed and his eyes narrowed the longer he worked and he started leaning closer and closer to the screen, as if that would help the channel he was looking for show up. “Urgh, move over and let me see,” Keith eventually snapped, pushing at the darker skinned boy’s shoulder.

“No way, mullet, I almost got this.” Lance muttered absentmindedly, still fiddling with the same dial.

“‘Almost…’ What?” Keith blinked a few times, his lip curling up. “What do you mean by that? You can’t ‘almost get’ finding a channel in a list of a few hundred. You probably just missed it already, let me take a look-”

“Keith,” Shiro’s voice interrupted, causing the dark haired boy to turn and look at him, eyes cast low to the ground in a sudden sense of guilt he knew didn’t make any sense but couldn’t help regardless. “I see you have a leg injury there. Why don’t you go with Allura to the healing pods and get that fixed up?” He gestured toward Keith’s shin which he now noticed was bleeding through his jeans.

With one more glare to Lance and Shiro respectively, the Red Paladin huffed and walked off slightly slower than he would have preferred having to, his leg not willing to support all of his weight. Allura followed after him, a grateful glance in the Black Paladin’s direction.

It took Lance much longer than he’d be willing to admit to find the damn channel. He even needed Pidge’s help to expand the range slightly before he finally saw the listing come up. Shiro then left to go bring back Keith and Allura and Lance fired up the communications systems.

“Hello and thank you for contacting the Hostess Satellite!” A robotic voice chirped over the surround sound. “This is the hub for all space mechanics and engineers, each available on commission for all your repair and upgrading needs! Can I connect you with someone in particular or perhaps you need an expert in a kind of technology?” The overly happy and artificial tone was both exceedingly annoying and a welcome reprieve from the afternoon that everyone had had that Lance just sighed and pulled the mic closer to him.

“Uh...yeah. We need someone who knows a thing or two about...Altean tech. They don’t gotta be an expert or anything, but-”

“Yes, mechanic 47 should be able to help with that. Would you like a direct contact link?” Lance blinked at that for a few seconds. Was it really that easy? It must work on some sort of keyword system, the term “Altean” leading to a specific list of mechanics, or the best of the bunch perhaps? Was there really only one mechanic in space that knew how to work Altean technology?”

“Uh, yeah. That’d be great,” he said slowly, aware of Keith and Allura coming back with Shiro behind him. There were a few beeps and then a long string of silence until some static feedback came over the loudspeakers before a voice finally sounded.

“Hello, hello there! You’ve reached the single greatest space mechanic this universe has ever seen! What can I do ya for?” A female voice poured from the speakers, low and rich with a small drawl and an obvious smile in her tone. Though it was low, there was no denying the distinct femininity that laced every word.

“You practice that a lot, sweetie?” Lance found himself saying, already liking this chick’s attitude.

“Every night in front of the mirror just for you, cowboy,” the voice was saying again with a short laugh.

And then Keith was rolling his eyes and wishing he were anywhere but in this room. He doesn’t need another Lance on the ship, that’s for fucking sure. Unfortunately for him, Hunk was barely holding back a grin and even Pidge was smirking a little as they listened to Lance trip over his feet to flirt with this mechanic.

“Can we just get on with this?” He growled before he could stop himself and the voice speaking cut off abruptly before resuming much snappier than before.

“Of course, sir. Time for chat can be reserved for when we manage to rescue you from the mud you’re currently stuck in.” Whatever it is she said goes right over Keith’s head and he was left blinking with confusion that quickly gave way to irritation and anger as his team struggled to halt their laughter and even Shiro was hiding a grin behind his hand. “What kind of trouble are you having?”

Pidge took that one, “Well, a lot really. We ended up in a pretty tight situation earlier and our shields went. We took a lot of damage to the controls and some to the maintenance and engine rooms. As far as I can tell, the damage is pretty extensive. A lot of systems are down, unresponsive, or in automatic lockdown.”

“A lot meaning which ones?” The girl suddenly seemed a lot more serious and a faint scribbling of a pen could be heard in the background.

“Well, my readouts didn’t tell me that considering the display systems are down, but from what I could gather, some engine systems are down, the cooling and water systems, the west wing of the ship is utterly unresponsive, and anything beyond the control unit and basic generators are unresponsive.”

There was a beat of silence followed by a wolf whistle and a low chuckle, “Wow, sounds like you did a number to her! That’s a lot of work and it’ll be pretty expensive-”

“Money is no object!” Allura said softly, already hearing the hesitation at the thought of fixing so much of their ship. “Please, it’s really important to us that this ship get repaired.”

“Like I said, ma’am, it’s going to be expensive, and not the I’m-doubting-you-can-pay-this sort of expensive, but more like you’d-be-better-off-buying-a-new-ship sort of expensive. If you want, I can hook you up with-”

“No! It has to be this ship!” The silver haired beauty clapped a hand over her mouth in shock at such a loud outburst.

“What the lady means to say, is that this ship has more value than just monetary. If it can be repaired, it doesn’t matter if it costs more than a new vessel.”

There was another pause before some tapping and humming could be heard and then the voice sounded again. “Alright. If you’re attached, I’ll oblige. What kind of tech am I looking at? I’m guessing a bit older, considering that’s my specialty and you’ve got some sentimental value in it. So, what is it? Goglian? Vxri?”

“It’s Altean, actually.” Allura spoke softly, thoughts of her father running through her head. When he first showed her the castle, when he taught her to fly it. There was no way she was giving it up.

She was snapped out of it when she realized the voice was pausing longer than before. There wasn’t even static this time, just silence. She looked at Lance, who was looking at the panel that said they were still connected. He looked back and shrugged.

“Wait, really?” Her voice had grown much smaller, but seemed closer to the mic than before, a sense of awe and disbelief in her tone.

“Uh, yes. It’s one of the warships that survived thousands of years ago.” Coran supplied, twirling his mustache between his fingers.

“No way…” The tone had grown breathy and faint, like someone had just told her she’d live forever and she was trying to process it. And then there was a loud bang like her hands being slammed on something. “You’re not fucking with me right?” She asked much louder, sounding absolutely blissful for some reason.

“No, miss, it is indeed an Altean vessel-”

“Holy fuck! I put Altean on my list for the fun of it! I never thought I’d actually get to- that there would be...oh my God, yes!” She laughed a few times, still sounding like she didn’t quite believe what was happening.

“Then...you’ll know how to fix it?”

“Fix it? Hot damn, I’m gonna do more than fix it, dude. You’re coming away from this with a hell of a ship, I promise. Altean tech is my shit! Like, if I’m allowed to have a specialty in dead alien tech, Altean would beat even Vxri by miles - it’s like, my jam!” Typing could be heard as she back from the mic and started working on something. “Do you have coordinates for me?”

“Well, considering how our navigations system is part of what got shot,” Pidge was the first to recover, looking down at the mess of wires in their lap. “We don’t have much for you.”

“Can you give me a vague guess of how many parsecs you traveled from when it was last functioning?

“Uh...maybe a half of one?” Pidge asked, racking their brain from the long Garrison lectures to remember that a parsec was around 3 lightyears...right?

“Oh, that makes this easier then. Alright, so I’m going to need you to retrieve your last recorded coordinates for me.”

“I...don’t know how…” Pidge scrunched their face up and felt their nails dig into their palms.

“That’s alright, I wouldn’t really expect you to. Even experienced Altean pilots wouldn’t know how, and they would have grown up with the technology. Just follow my instructions.” She then began to rattle off various things for Pidge to mess with, accommodating her instructions with every problem they encountered from the state of the ship. And then, suddenly, six two digit numbers were blinking on the makeshift screen. Their last coordinates.

They rattled them off and listened to the voice on the other end cheer as she entered them. “Alright, I’m off! I’ll search you out and try to locate you with this information and make a direct connection when I’ve found you so I can dock. Sound good?”

Lance muttered something in response and then signed off, casting looks in everyone’s direction. “I dunno, I like her,” he said, a smirk finding its way onto her face.

“Of course you like her, she totally flirted back even though you were eating gravel trying to match her pace.” Pidge huffed, earning a look of pure outrage from the Cuban boy.

“Um, rude? I thought you were supposed to be my friend, Pidge!”

“I don’t know, Lance, she did seem to be pretty out of your league…”

Lance gasped and turned around dramatically, “Hunk…” He hissed out, “you too buddy?”

“You know I love you man, but she seems both funny and smart.”

“What, and I’m not both of them too?”

“Nah, I don’t think you’re either, actually,” Keith finally jumped in, but instead of a dramatic turn, all he got was a harsh glare and a pouting lower lip from the brown-haired boy.

“You shut your mullet, mullet. Just because you’re not smart enough yourself to see my charms doesn’t mean they’re not there.”

Keith’s lip quirked up and he crossed his arms over his chest, “Not smart enough, eh? I thought I was a ‘sweet genius’ earlier, or did I mishear your words?”

Lance reeled back a bit and his cheeks lit up, “H-hey!” He stuttered out, “That was a moment of weakness! We were ready to die and I figured I’d let you off of the hook with one compliment between us before you perished unceremoniously. It’s not applicable-”

“Uh, hey, Keith?” Hunk jumped in, ready for Keith and Lance to be done arguing already. They’d been at it all morning and it was the last thing he needed after the afternoon he’d had. Keith’s eyes moved from Lance’s, their dark bluish-gray seeming more gray than blue in his current gloom. “I’ve been meaning to ask...why is your leg still like that? I thought you went to heal it?” Hunk pointed to Keith’s pant leg which was now rolled up to show a small gash surrounded by a large, dark bruise.

“Uh, yeah...healing pods don’t work. You can’t even open them,” he mumbled just loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Just great,” Pidge murmured mostly to themself. “Another thing to add to...uh...wait, did we ever get that mechanic’s name?”

Lance blinked and then thought back. “Uh, no? The robot lady said she was number 47, or something, but I don’t think that’s her name.”

“Great, so we didn’t even remember to ask what her name was. Good job everybody, good day.” The brunette mumbled under their breath as they started to pack things up. “I’m going back to my room. Send out an intercom thing when she gets here. If she gets here. I’ll meet you guys by the loading dock.”

They watched Pidge walk out in silence until Hunk finally spoke up, “They’re...taking this pretty hard, huh…”

“That’s going to happen when you hire someone else to do your job because you can’t,” Keith huffed with a glare at the monitor before he felt eyes on him and turned back to the team. “Uh...sorry, that was harsh. I just meant that I know how they feel.”

“All that aside, if Pidge can’t fix the ship on their own, why can’t Coran help?” Hunk asked, catching the ginger man’s attention. “You’re always giving us ways to help repair the ship and stuff, so why can’t you teach Pidge?”

“Ah, I am indeed an Altean mechanic, Hunk my boy, but I work rather closely with maintenance, not damage. I’m quite skilled with the outer layers of the ship and the intricacy of all the technology it offers, but when it comes to the actual systems, I’m afraid I’d be just as lost as your friend.”

Hunk’s expression fell and Lance moved over and pat his shoulder once, offering a big, bright smile. “Hey, buddy, it’ll be okay! Maybe we can ask good ol’ 47 if she’d like to teach Pidge a thing or two!”

“You moron, why would she do that?” Keith asked, arms still crossed. “If she teaches Pidge, we won’t have any reason to hire her again. This castle is big, there’d be a lot to fix. You don’t just go around giving away potential jobs for mechanics that weren’t given the same opportunities.”

“Is it that hard for you to believe there’s a person good enough in the world to just want to teach someone enthusiastic something they can’t do?” Lance fired back, glaring at Keith in his stupid red jacket with his stupid 80’s hair. His mamá always taught him to think the best of people for as long as possible. He didn’t always do as good of a job as he should, but he liked this girl by the sound of her voice alone and that had to be a good sign, right? So what was keeping him from having good expectations?

“You don’t know this girl, Lance. She’s a mechanic that preys on ships too stranded to go for help elsewhere. You don’t even know her name.”

“What would her name tell me, oh omnipresent emo god? I mean, really, could you be more pessimistic?”

Keith narrowed his eyes. “Do you mean ‘omniscient’?”

“Ugh, shut up! It’s a long word!” Keith rolled his eyes and Lance only glared harder. “And her name wouldn’t justify your pessimism anyway! The name ‘Keith Kogane’ doesn’t scream asshole, you do that all by yourself!”

“Whatever,” the Red Paladin murmured, breaking eye contact. “You’re an idiot. I’m done with this argument. And to answer your question, yes. I can be more pessimistic if I try.” He left the room then, not really intending to even go to the loading dock when Lance announced the mechanic’s arrival. He didn’t want to really meet her. It would just be another person to leave behind.

Once he was gone, Lance huffed and turned back to the dashboard. “Ugh, I hate that guy,” he looked down, unsure of what else to add. He had to think of more insults that weren’t just about his hair.

“You gotta give him a chance, Lance,” Shiro tried to tell him, only serving to add to the fire that was Lance’s mood.

“Yeah, I know. You’ve said. He’s had a hard life, he’s still adjusting, all that stuff...and I get that. I do. But that shouldn’t give him the right to judge people and attack without reason.”

“But Lance, don’t you-” Hunk spoke before Lance moved and glared with his full force, although Hunk was pretty immune by then.

“I can be pretty hypocritical when it comes to his stupid mullet and his stupid face, I know, I know. He just makes me so angry when he goes off on other people like that. I was raised to do the exact opposite. And I genuinely like this girl. I don’t want him...being all gloomy and emo-like around her.”

“He’ll adjust to her just like he’s starting to adjust to all of us. Just give him time, Lance.”

“Yeah, yeah…” The Cuban boy mumbled as he pulled up one of the chairs that had gotten knocked around and set it up. “I’m going to stay here and wait for her. You guys go do what you can for the ship.”

Hunk and Shiro exchanged glances before shrugging and the room slowly emptied of people. Lance flopped over on the dash and let his eyes flutter closed. He needed a moment. They’d seriously almost died. And as scary as that was, his heart had calmed down already.

The first time he’d flown Blue, when he’d crashed into walls and dropped unimaginable heights, slashed at warships and flown through a wormhole, he’d been shaking for hours later. Now he’d been in such similar situations for a while and...he was over them so easily. It was a comfort to know he was growing a thicker skin, but he couldn’t help but feel like it was wrong to brush off potentially lethal situations so easily.

He must have been thinking for a lot longer than he’d meant to because when he blinked back into reality, there was a blinking incoming communication from a known channel. Quickly, he hit the two necessary switches and pulled the mic forward.

“Yes, this is Voltron Castle, home of the magnificent, valiant, and deviously handsome Lance McClain. Can you read me?”

“It’s a castle!!” He heard a familiar voice crackle through the speakers, much higher pitched than before and obviously extremely excited. “Viscaho! It really is a castle! Oh, I can hear you crystal clear, sir Lance McClain, the bold and beautiful! Am I clear to dock on this incredible ship? Hot damn, I don’t even know where to start…”

If he wasn’t smiling before, Lance certainly was now. Yeah, he could get used to this girl real easy. And he liked that she apparently says “Hot damn”. Who still says that? Was she from the 60s or something? “Yeah, I, uh...think the loading bay is still responding.” He fiddled with a few controls and glanced between the dash and Pidge’s makeshift screen until he got it. “Huzzah! I am victorious once again! Come on in, pretty lady!”

He heard the mechanic chuckle on her end and she said something else in a language he didn’t recognize and then signed off. Lance flipped on the intercom and relayed her location and imminent arrival and then stood to head toward the loading bay.

Keith looked up with a glare at the speaker in his room. He sighed and sat up, his shoulders rolled forward as he slouched. He supposed it was only right to go meet this girl, even if he wasn’t particularly ecstatic about her arrival. If anyone had the right to not go, it was Pidge, but even they said they were going. He didn’t want to be an asshole about the whole thing. So he got up and started shuffling his way down the looping corridors, albeit at a much slower pace than any of the others.

There was a ship about halfway through by the time Lance made it there, and Coran was yelling various instructions on how to pull the rest of the way in. The first thing he noticed was almost instant. Her ship was fucking mindblowing.

The exterior was so sleek, a silvery metal that glinted with all kinds of reflections and shone from the lights in the castle like a disco ball. There were so many panels and shapes engraved in the metal, but they all came together seamlessly to create such a smooth surface. And on the side was painted a bold, proud “47” in a sort of translucent white that seemed to glow.

The main body of the ship was ovular and quite large and there were two arc off of the sides that looked like horns and there was a large circle encompassing the back end that stood vertically, unlike the rest of the ship. There were blades within the circle that were slowly coming to a stop and must provide a large amount of power to the craft, even if Lance couldn’t explain how it worked, considering there was no air in space.

Although Lance might have noticed it first, Hunk, who followed him in shortly after, was the first to vocalize his awe. “Holy...your ship is awesome!” His round face was lit up with a huge smile and his eyes sparked as he moved closer, hands just barely hovering above the shiny, reflective surface. “Look! I can see myself in it!”

A low chuckle responded to that and one of the panels at the front of the ship lifted away, breaking from the rest of the surface so cleanly it was impressive. As it lifted, it revealed a mop of messy, stark white hair. And then a face followed from underneath.

A girl, looking fairly young, leaned out over the side, arms crossed and leaning on the edge of what seemed to be the cockpit of her craft. “Ain’t she pretty?” She asked, looking right at Hunk. Unsurprisingly, there was no immediate response. Hunk stood with his jaw slack and eyes trained on the appearance of the mechanic they’d talked to earlier.

She was small, just like she’d first appeared, maybe even smaller than Pidge, and her hair was the same color as Shiro‘s bangs, but it was chopped messily at her chin and there were several, teeny tiny braids that came down to her shoulders. Maybe five or six of ‘em.

She hopped down from her ship and landed with a thump and a huge smile, sticking out one hand. She probably was smaller than Pidge, looking like she was drowning in a pair of oversized overalls dotted with oil and smudges, her hands encompassed in thick, enormous leather gloves. Even her boots were huge, which meant she either just wore huge ass clothes, or her feet were really big in proportion to the rest of her.

The most surprising thing about her appearance, though, was the color of her eyes. Red. Like, an intense, candy sort of red. The red you always try to accomplish in baked goods only to end up with a really dark pink. The red of a Coca Cola sign, freshly printed and unmarred by the elements. The vivid red of freshly spilled blood, or the red of an everburning, scorching sun star.

They weren’t...scary so much as they were startling. They shone with a kind of soft friendliness, as did her general aura, but you certainly couldn’t call such a striking color “soft”, it was too abrasive for that.

Hesitantly, Hunk took her much smaller hand in his and gave to two shakes before letting it go. She beamed back at him even though he only offered a careful, small grin. She turned a bit and met Coran’s eyes, instantly stepping toward him.

“Ah! Thank you for helping me on my way in, I always appreciate a little extra hospitality and consideration.” She shook his hand too and offered that same, radiant grin. “You’d be surprised by the attitude of some aliens in this-wait! Are you…” Her eyes narrowed before they widened, their sickly sweet hue becoming even brighter. “You’re Altean, aren’t you?”

“That I am, my girl, that I am! Name’s Coran, Royal Advisor to the sole heir of Altea!” He stood straight and adjusted the lapel of his shirt as if that made him seem prouder.

The mechanic seemed delighted, clapping her hands together and grinning. “That’s incredible! The last documented instance of a living, breathing Altean was, was-”

“Ten thousand years ago, yes.” A female voice answered her from behind, causing the white haired girl to turn and meet the kind eyes of Allura who was smiling at her warmly. “But we’re glad to be here to meet you, and to see someone so passionate about our society still.” She approached and held her hand out this time, pleased to see the young woman take it confidently. “I am Allura, Princess of Altea, welcome to the Castle of the Lions.”

The mechanic beamed and nodded to her, obviously barely containing her excitement. “It’s an honor,” she said softly, tucking one of her braids behind her ear. “My name is Essence Fairchild, mechanic 47 of the Sobeau Galaxy. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Lance blinked at that. Essence Fairchild? The hell kinda name was that? But...it was kinda cool. Almost like a fairy tale sort of name. It suited her rather ethereal appearance alright. He leaned back against the wall as slickly as he could and tossed his hair. “Fairchild, eh? Well, you and I know each other already, pretty lady, but have you met my man here?” He gestured casually toward Hunk, who offered an apologetic smile to Essence that Lance couldn’t see from his angle.

“Ah, Lance McCain, I’m guessing?” She asked with a smirk and a shake of her head. “I haven’t had the pleasure,” she said, gesturing back to Hunk who gave a bashful smile.

“I’m, uh, call me Hunk.” He said nervously, scratching behind his head. She nodded to that and then cast her gaze past Allura to the two people that had entered late and stayed by the doorway.

A third person appeared between them and pushed them forward, earning two yelps of surprise. “Ignore the attitudes of these two, they’re actually pretty great people.” The one who spoke was obviously older than most of the teens in the room, although not by much. He looked toward her and smiled. “I’m Takashi Shirogane, but you can call me Shiro, everyone here does.

“Don’t be too intimidated by this guy,” he put a hand on Keith’s head and the red pilot looked away, arms crossed gloomily over his chest. “He’s Keith Kogane. He’ll be a little standoffish at first, but he’ll get over it.”

“Shiro!” He snapped, ducking out from under the man’s hand and making his way to lean against the far wall, ears burning.

Shiro just laughed at that and gestured to the other pilot beside him. “And this here is Pidge Gunderson. They’re our ship’s resident techie and currently moping mechanic.”

Something seemed to click in Essence’s eyes and her posture softened. “Ah, you must be the one I spoke to to find your coordinates.” She walked a little closer, her eyes meeting Pidge’s. “I know it sucks to ask for help sometimes, but I can tell you that from what I gathered, you have a pretty advanced knowledge of this equipment without a smidgen of training. That’s pretty impressive, especially with an Altean system.”

“That’s why I said!” Coran exclaimed, his accent coming out even thicker in his excitement. Pidge looked up hesitantly and huffed, feeling their ears burn at the compliment.

“You want to come with me? I’m going to do a quick systems check and discover everything we’re going to need to repair and then start on a supplies list, timeline, and deduce the price from that. I can teach you a few things along the way, as much as I can about a system as complex as this.”

Pidge immediately looked up and Lance made eye contact with Keith across the room. They all stared in silence for a moment before a sly smirk crept its way onto Lance’s face, Keith found a shocked expression moving toward the white haired mechanic and Pidge’s face lit up with a smile. “You mean it?” They asked, excitement running through their body like fire.

“‘Course I mean it! I might even have a few manuals left I could give you if you want them.” She said with another smile, reaching back into the cockpit to pull a large bag out.

“Wait, why would you do that?” Keith asked without thinking, pushing off of the wall and walking into her line of sight.

Essence held the bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Offer them my books?” She clarified with a tilt of her head, Pidge’s smile at the use of their pronoun not going unnoticed.

“And teach them stuff. I mean, isn’t that-”

“Bad for business?” Essence finished, adding a shrug. “I suppose you could say it is, but there’s one thing that space explorers will never run out of need for, and that’s a capable, knowledgeable mechanic. So if I spread what I know around to others I think have the potential to be just as capable and intelligent, it’s not really that big of a deal. Besides, the Altean system is so unique and unrivaled, that teaching one enthusiastic mechanic its controls won’t really impact me at all.”

She turned back around and gestured for Pidge to follow her as she brushed past a blinking, speechless Keith. Glancing over her shoulder, she offered him a small but genuine smile to which he returned with a glare.

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