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efyra · 3 years

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🌷 OK SO i'm bee, a female who goes by she/her pronouns. i'm a hufflepuff but many people say i could be a ravenclaw, so idk what do you think? i'm a huge empath, and i like to think i'm very thoughtful, too. i think love letters should still be a thing and i would die to get them, i love children, and i really do believe in soulmates 🥺 i love journaling, reading and watching movies. oh, and i'm an infj, too! hope that helps, baby, ily!!!!

hi, my sweet bee 🥺 i hope you like this! 💕

✨ 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝟓𝟎𝟎 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ✨

you two would be such a perfect couple and i ship you with...

george weasley

Little Notes & Chocolate

The first time George Weasley saw you, he thought, "I'm going to marry this girl."

And there you were; sitting under a tree while reading a book he couldn't identify the title, you looked beautiful - as always -, your Hufflepuff robes perfectly delineated your figure. George couldn't help but admire the smallest details about you; he liked the way your eyes were widening while you read, immersed in the fantasy world of the story, he thought it was adorable the way you put the locks of your hair behind your ear, he was hypnotized when he saw you biting your lips - George imagined how it would be to kiss them.

Breathing deeply and filling himself with courage, he walked towards you. In a bold move, he sat beside you and leaned over you, trying to read what was written in the book, but, to his shock, George hadn't understood a word.

You jumped in your place, surprised to feel the presence of someone else beside you. "Hello?" raised an eyebrow towards the redhead, who seemed a little ashamed by his sudden approach. An involuntary smile appeared on your face when you saw the Gryffindor's beater freckled cheeks redden.

When George saw you smile, he felt a mix of emotions: confidence - you hadn't been scared after all -, amazement - Merlin, you were even more beautiful up close - and a bit of frighten - he had lost the ability to speak because you dazzled him. The redhead saw your confused look and cleared his throat, settling before saying:

"I was wondering what book this is" he pointed to the copy in your hand. George really didn't care about the book - he just wanted to meet you without looking like a fool. "I don't know the language" he admitted.

You laughed shyly - you'd be lying to yourself if you said the younger Weasley twin didn't interest you. "It's Dom Casmurro," you answered. "It's Brazilian literature," you explained when you saw George frown in confusion.

A surprise expression appeared on his face - he was fascinated by you. George wanted to spend more time in your company, so, without even thinking twice, he said:

"Can you read it to me?"

In every free period or time, you two would sit under that same tree. You would translate what was written in the book to the redhead, but it didn't take long for the story of Bentinho no longer to be the main subject between you.

You and George found out that you had many things in common. And without even realizing it, you became inseparable.

The redhead wouldn’t know how to explain it, but he knew that you were the one.

Maybe because of the stars and planets alignment in the night both of you were born, but you felt that your souls were connected.

George knew he was in love with you. He didn't deny it - he didn't want to deny. The redhead loved many things about you; the sound of your voice while reading to him, the way your eyes brightened up when you laughed, the gentle way you treated everybody.

You also noticed that you were in love with George, but you didn't know very well how to act on your feelings. Did you confess? Did you keep it to yourself?

Then, during a Charms class, George threw a little paper on your table.

"Let's meet in our tree today, little bee?", was what was written in the note. And being careful to not be caught by professor Flitwick, you wrote back: "Sure, George bear".

You really didn't expect an answer, but the little paper landed on your book again.

"You look pretty today. I like you in blue".

Since then you and George always exchanged notes.

On a trip to Hogsmeade, you two left Honeydukes carrying a bag of candy. In a far corner, you were savoring your Liquorice Wand when George asked a question that changed your relationship forever.

"Can I try some?" he asked, pointing to the candy that was in your mouth. You just nodded, holding Liquorice Wand towards the redhead, but, unexpectedly, George held your face with both hands, the contact of his cold palm with your warm cheek made a chill run down your spine, but you didn't have time to think about it, because the next thing he said was:

"Can I taste it?"

"Yes" you answered in a whisper.

The next second, George's soft lips connected with yours. And in a passionate kiss, you shared the sweet taste of Liquorice Wand.

You started dating.

You were his. He was yours.

When George left Hogwarts, he had begged Angelina, "Please, Angie. You won't have to pay anything in our shop for three years!". And she agreed to his request.

And the next day, you'll find a little note: "I may not be there right now, but I'm sure you look wonderful."

Not long after, you received a letter.

"My dear bee,

I miss hearing your voice reciting Camões to me. I don't understand anything, but you make it sound like the most beautiful poetry in the world.

I miss your kiss. I bought some Liquorice Wand as soon as I arrived, but they are not as tasty without your lips.

At least we'll soon be together. I'll be waiting for you.

With love and yours forever,

George"

And you didn't take long to answer it.

"My George bear,

I miss your smell of gunpowder and nutmeg. You left me your sweater, but it's not the same thing.

I miss your hug. It's my favorite place in this world.

Saudades.

I am going as fast as I can.

With love and yours forever,

Bee"

In the next letter George asked: "but what is 'saudades', little bee?" and you answered: “a word to say that I miss everything you represent for me - that I miss your love.”

You graduated.

The Second Witch War began.

You and George fought in the Battle of Hogwarts.

George almost lost his twin brother. You almost lost your friend.

Life is back to normal.

He left early to go to work at the store, but always left a little note glued to the bathroom mirror.

"Have a nice day. Don't forget that I love you."

"Let's go out to dinner tonight?"

"I bought you a present. I want you to wear it for me when I get back."

"You're the woman of my life."

"I love you, my little bee."

And when you felt anxious, George would cook you your favorite food, prepare you a relaxing bathtub, he would give you a massage and whisper in your ear how wonderful you are.

"You'll do fine, my love" he would give you a tender kiss on the collarbone while his hands were resting on each side of your arms. "You are incredible."

You once made brigadeiro for George.

"That's delicious!" the redhead exclaimed, he brought another spoonful of the sweet in his mouth.

"Did you really like it?" you smiled.

George looked at you and pulled you close with one arm. "Of course I did” he gave you a peck on the lips “but you know what?" he also smiled.

"What?" You asked curiously.

"I prefer honey."

#efyra’s 500 followers celebration #ship #george weasley x reader #george weasley #george weasley headcanon #george weasley x you #george weasley fic #george weasley imagine #harry potter #harry potter headcanon #500fcwefyra

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jackalgirl · 3 years

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Quick Note & Glossary - Foreigner

(not the band)

I'd like to explain a little bit* of stuff for friends who are not familiar with C.J. Cherryh's s-f series, the one that starts with "Foreigner", if you're all confused about who the hell this Machigi guy I've been posting about lately and what's going on here.

* I'm totally lying. It's a lot.

TL;DR: the series is amazing and I highly recommend it. I will explain why below the cut because <sigh> as always with me, it's long.

Most of the stories take place on the earth of the atevi.

The atevi (singular: ateva) are the indigenous inhabitants of a planet in a star system Somewhere Out There. Hundreds of years ago, a human colony ship on its way to establish a colony in a known place got lost when something unexpected happened during travel through folded space. Eventually**, it ended up in the system of the atevi sun.

** Important other things happen that play into the politics of what the humans do next, and also later, in the series.

The humans realize that the only inhabitable planet in the system is already inhabited. The people there have reached their equivalent of the Steam Age. There is much argument as to what to do about this.

Ultimately***, a group of humans ends up on the planet.

*** I'm glossing over it, but it's important for Many Reasons.

At first, everything is great. The atevi (generally at least a head taller than your average human, with black skin and pointed ears, and golden eyes that, yes, pick up and amplify the light in low-light conditions and glow, like cats' eyes) and the humans appear to be getting along swimmingly. But it turns out that they are dangerously misreading each other, each assuming the other is wired like they are. They aren't. At their most fundamental levels, where it really counts, they are completely alien from one another, and while the humans have been handing over advanced technology to atevi under the mistaken impression that they are "friends", what they've actually been doing is destabilizing the atevi political and cultural landscape.

So the atevi go to war, during which they almost completely wipe the human settlement off the face of the earth.

Because those innate, wired-in, instinctive differences are so critically important, and because all of the languages of the atevi are really really really difficult (but the court language of the main political power in particular), an agreement is made between the atevi and humans: humans get their own enclave on a large island, and they'll stay there. There will be one, and only one, human who will be allowed by law to speak to the atevi (any atevi) in Ragi (the aforementioned language), and that is the paidhi -- the translator. This person will advise both the atevi and human governments and will be able (via veto power) to control the transfer of technology from humans to atevi in order to ensure that the rate is slow enough to allow atevi culture and politics to adapt to it while remaining stable.

The whole series is mostly from the point of view of Bren Cameron, who is the current paidhi, and deals with all of the things he has to deal with. I love him, because he is linguist and a diplomat, so when he gets into trouble, he armors and arms himself in words. He is not atevi, and that's what makes him useful to atevi -- he can see beyond their innate wiring and find angles and compromises that they might not have sussed out themselves (although, on the other hand, sometimes his own human wiring gets him into trouble too).

Some terms from Ragi (the lingua franca****, of the atevi)

**** Shut up, Max

aiji - ruler. Plural: aijiin. A gender-neutral term for the person in charge of an association (see below).

ateva - member of the sentient species of the world. Plural: atevi.

aishid - a close group of associates. Typically a lord will have four (4) bodyguards, who with the lord form the complete aishid unit of five (5).

ashidi'tat - association. An alliance of clans and/or sub-associations. On the world of the atevi, the most powerful association is the Western Ashidi'tat, led by Tabini-aiji. This is the atevi government that human government is bound, by law, to deal with (via the paidhi, see below). Machigi is the aiji of the Marid, an association of clans to the south, who for a great part of the series is responsible for a great deal of, shall we say inconvenience, for both Tabini and Bren (and everyone else).

paidhi - translator. Plural: paidhiin (although there's only supposed to be one. But as one would imagine, it does get complicated for Reasons as the series progresses). This is the human who, by law, is the single point of contact between human and atevi culture.

man'chi - attachment. Often defined as "loyalty", but that's a human word so it's not right, and it's much, much worse to try to define it as "friendship" (that sort of thing leads to wars). It is, in essence, a flocking instinct: an ateva's instinct to turn towards a leader. Most of the animal life on the world of the atevi experiences man'chi (it's not just the atevi). It is an instinct that all atevi have and feel it towards someone, with the exception of aijiin (who receive the man'chi of others, and it is that receiving of man'chi that binds them to duty) and unattached people who are the ateva equivalent of sociopaths. Because actual neural wiring is involved here, it is not at all a metaphor to say that aijiin are born, not made.

nadi - gender-neutral term of respect for non-nobles, a polite form of address. Plural: nadiin. Usually appended to the name (e.g., "Banichi-nadi").

nandi - gender-neutral term for a noble, an extremely polite form of address for the nobility. Plural: nandiin. Also usually appended to the name, but sometimes proceeds it (e.g., "Nand' Bren" or "Bren-nandi")

-ji - suffix of affection (e.g., "Banichi-ji").

A note on the Ragi language: atevi are hard-wired for math. This is part of what makes the language, especially the language used in court (which is absolutely necessary for diplomacy) so incredibly difficult. There are different pronouns and word-endings for different quantities of what's being talked about -- it's so rampant, in fact, that Bren discovers that he can do rapid mathematics in his head by simply thinking in Ragi. But as such, it is very, very, very rare for a human to ever become fluent, even after a lifetime of study. Bren Cameron is a truly extraordinary person in that he is.

Additionally, a deep deep feature of atevi culture (and this is mostly universal) is an understanding that, essentially, even numbers are unlucky and odd numbers are fortunate. An ateva will be very uncomfortable if presented with two options, for example -- they will be on edge, on a very deep psychological level, until a third option appears. The fact that human culture is often centered around duality is one of the many, many reasons why a paidhi is absolutely necessary.

#foreigner #c.j. cherryh #science-fiction #why you need to read these books #kelikiin in the wake #fanfic

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msdoctorwho · 6 years

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Fire Meet Gasoline, Ch. 9

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13461255/chapters/34141604

But it's a bad bet, certain death But I want what I want and I gotta get it When the fire dies, darkened skies Hot ash, dead match, only smoke is left -Sia

In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity. -Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”

As hurt, scared, and angry as she was, Bulma had a hard time blaming him for leaving. He’d only just started to let himself be comfortable with her, to settle into a new life, to figure out who he was away from a dead planet and a nightmare tyrant. How else could she expect him to act, blindsided with the overwhelming responsibility for another life, fearing a distraction that could rob him of the achievement on which he’d staked his entire significance?

While she obviously hadn’t gotten knocked up all by herself, they both knew if she hadn’t pursued him so relentlessly, they’d still just be sort-of-friends.

That was the worst bit -- she missed him, she missed the easy company of their fledgling friendship, and hated that it might be gone, forever. Sometimes she wished it could all go back to the way it had been before, too.

But there was no use dwelling on that -- she needed to move forward, and there was work to do.

With her child’s father in space, potentially never to return, the possibility of wishing back Nappa and Raditz had become a certainty for Bulma. She needed to know more about them. She wanted more for her child than a lost, dead, heritage.

And the feeling that they deserved the same second chance as Vegeta had been nagging at her ever since she’d spoken with him about it. Now, he wasn’t here to fight her on it.

Or give a fuck what she did with the rest of her life on Earth.

It was easy enough to collect the dragon balls again on her own. She took them to the middle of nowhere to avoid inconvenient questions from nosy friends.

She hadn't counted on stumbling into Gohan, who, from the look on his face, was also hoping to be alone and escape the notice of anyone he knew.

“Hey, Bulma,” he said, looking surprised and guilty.

“What’s up, kid?” Bulma asked, calculating whether or not to lie to him.

“Dad thinks I’m doing homework, and Mom thinks I’m training.” He paused. “I just needed a break.”

“You’ve got a lot of expectations on you, kid. It’s not really fair.” She ruffled his hair, embarrassing him with the childish gesture. “But if anyone can live up to them, it’s you.”

Hand to the back of his head, he looked bashful and changed the subject. “What are you doing out here, with the Dragon Balls? Can I help?”

She looked at him for a long time, and then looked away. “You’re not really a kid anymore, Gohan. What I want to do isn’t necessarily smart, and it isn’t safe, but it’s what I feel in my heart is right.”

She went on, looking out over the jagged cliffs of rust-colored rock, baking in the afternoon sun. “If I let you stay, I’d have to ask you not to tell your parents and I don’t want to put you in that position.”

He thought for a moment. “I think Dad would want me to help you even if it meant lying to him. And Mom...well, I’m going to be in trouble with her today either way,” he laughed uneasily.

Bulma nodded, and began to summon a dragon.

The majesty of Shen-lon never got old -- a vast creature that seemed to touch the sky, booming voice echoing in her ears. This time, she felt like he was eyeing her a bit in judgment.

She worded her wish carefully. “I wish for Nappa and Raditz to be alive again, but unable to harm me or anyone I care about.”

If she played her cards right they’d never uncover that failsafe.

In an instant, they towered over her, blinking and disoriented. Raditz recovered first. “I remember you, little human,” he hissed.

Nappa’s eyes narrowed in recognition.

She didn’t cower, budge, or lose eye contact. “Aren’t you at all curious about why you’re no longer dead?”

At this they looked uncertain. Suddenly coming back to life was a lot to handle, even for them.

“Vegeta asked me to find the Dragon Balls and bring you back,” she lied.

Nappa snorted. “Prince Vegeta doesn’t ask anyone to do anything.”

She had to smile at that. “True enough, but fortunately for him I agreed with the idea.”

“Why, little earthling, would you ever do that?” Nappa’s soft growl was much more intimidating than Raditz’s brash, insulting tone, as he stepped closer.

“Stay away from her!” Gohan warned, his forward motion cut short by Bulma’s quick gesture to stay put.

“Nephew!” Raditz’ surprise was evident, but there was nothing warm in it. “Come to greet your uncle?”

He cracked his knuckles, and even Bulma could feel the auras flaring to life around her. The Gohan who had cowered from these aliens was long gone, replaced by a young man eager for a fight. She’d bet her airship that Piccolo was monitoring them from somewhere, as well.

Bulma needed control of the situation now.

“Stop this at once!” she commanded, in their own language. “Power down, and show more control than a green cadet.” Translated more accurately as, “Stop jerking off instead of thinking.” Her tone was haughty, arrogant, and scathing.

The two Saiyans, all three of them actually, gaped at her open-mouthed. She imagined they could not have been more surprised than if Vegeta himself had unzipped her skin like a suit and stepped out to reprimand them. Their collective gathered power fizzled out in shock.

“A lot has changed while you’ve been gone, assholes.” she said, ignoring them to brush non-existent lint away from her clothing, an arrogant display of confidence.

“Clearly,” Nappa replied, gruff, and suspicious, regarding her like a talking cockroach.

“The short version is: Gohan is with me because Kakarot recognized Vegeta as his Prince, became a Super Saiyan, and killed Frieza to avenge your planet.” Mostly killed, she amended, in her head.

Gohan couldn’t follow the conversation, but he heard his name, and his father’s, and Frieza’s. The Saiyans seemed to be listening attentively, so he let himself relax.

Bulma continued, “Vegeta is on a training mission to ascend, as we’ve been warned about a new threat to Earth.”

“And why would Prince Vegeta give a shit about a threat to this pathetic ball of mud?” Raditz challenged.

“Is there a reason needed to fight, Saiyan, beyond glory, blood and victory?” she replied coolly. It was a very Vegeta, very Saiyan answer. The implied Saiyan subtext was a bit more like “Is that not enough to get it up for you?”

“...the brass balls on this bitch,” muttered Raditz, cowed enough to do it under his breath.

“What is Prince Vegeta to you, woman?” Unlike Vegeta, when Nappa used this form of address, it was distant but respectful. His eyes were curious.

For the first time her composure flickered. “I’m his...” she paused, searching for a Saiyan label that commanded more respect than “baby mama,” and coming up wanting.

“I’m his earthling paramour,” she finally ground out, her eyes daring them to comment. It implied higher status than “whore” or “concubine”, but not by much.

Nappa’s head was spinning. She spoke like a soldier, with the rude, direct structure of the barracks, none of the bullshit equivocation of the aristocracy. Her flawless accent, though, and her tone -- that belonged to a queen. The clear ring of command belonged to a general.

She sounded like Vegeta.

She sounded like Vegeta, with a cultivated fondness for creative vulgarity and a habit of using and discarding feminine pronouns like she could only be bothered to use them when she felt like it.

She was a fascinating and infuriating creature, and he could see all too well what Vegeta’s interest in her might have been.

Raditz only laughed though, almost to the point of tears. “As if! The Prince never eats local cuisine!” Literally: “never fucks cannon fodder.”

She grew more and more still, the longer he went on, and Nappa felt he had seen warmer light reflected off of glaciers, compared to the icy glint of her gaze.

“Put your useless, lowborn brain to work, you unwashed troglodyte, and use your enhanced senses to figure it out.” She opened her arms, daring him to do it.

Raditz approached her with caution, though it was clear by now her only weapon was her tongue. He lifted her hair, curiously, and then dropped to his knees to investigate her scent, his nose practically in her crotch. Her face flamed, but she didn’t move.

His expression was suddenly a lot less smug. “It’s faint, but she does smell like him.” He stared at her with a lot more curiosity now, which inexplicably made her feel shy. She ignored it.

Nappa rolled his eyes and stepped up to her, looking for more important tells. She watched him, warily, but allowed him to pull her sweater off her shoulder, exposing her neck.

Raditz gave a low whistle. “Well, someone’s been biting --” Literally: “Looks like he bit off more than he could--”

Nappa cut him off with a wave of his hand. If she’d had any idea what a mark like that meant, she wouldn’t have introduced herself as only his lover. Nappa had long ago given up trying to figure out how his Prince’s mind worked, but this was a next-level mess.

And…

His hand drifted lower, respectfully, hovering over her lower belly, searching. He dropped to his knees without thinking, automatically, and punched Raditz in the calf.

“Kneel, idiot, she is mother to the next heir of Vegetasei,” he said only. He wasn’t a kind man, but it seemed cruel even to him to add the rest when it was obviously unknown to her.

And the claimed mate of your Prince.

Which is how Bulma found herself with two loyal if somewhat feral Saiyan subjects, however much she tried to convince them otherwise.

Her parents were used to her “taking in strays” at this point. Her mother was delighted to host “friends of Vegeta” and her dad greeted them warmly with only a little grumbling about moving up the R&D on his food replication tech with two more Saiyans to feed.

She convinced them without too much trouble not to blast her parents or anyone else into oblivion for neglecting to use Vegeta’s title, telling them that since he’d been living on Earth he had stopped using it.

Raditz was insufferably pleased that the first legendary to arise in millennia was from his own direct bloodline. He was desperate to find out more, convinced that he himself should be able to do it, too. At her insistence he agreed to wait to visit Goku until she could break the news herself, but he wouldn’t wait long.

That was going to be a fun conversation with Chichi.

Turns out, the two of them were indeed better conversationalists than Vegeta when it came to Saiyan culture, though the comparison wasn’t entirely fair. Nappa reminded her that all of Vegeta’s knowledge came from what he’d learned as a young child, or from a book, or his elders. He’d experienced none of Vegetasei’s culture or society as an adult himself.

She was ashamed of not having figured that out herself, as it should have been obvious.

“If he was insufferable, that was my doing,” Nappa told her, one night when they were sitting alone over coffee, the first and only Saiyan to take to the bitter Earth beverage. “He was a boy, tormented by a monster, told he was a Prince. Fortifying his pride and his power was all I could do for him.”

“He would hate that you’re telling me this,” Bulma said.

“Which one of us is going to tell him?” Nappa asked.

She sighed. “Either of us, if he asked.”

He grunted, pleased with the loyalty in her answer, however difficult it might make life for them both.

If he ever comes back, Bulma thought.

He couldn’t stop thinking about her, however hard he tried.

He trained to utter exhaustion, in the most extreme conditions he could produce, and still she haunted him.

Unexpectedly, there was a monitor in the ship connected to a camera in her lab, an old feed that had never been disconnected. There was a fearful symmetry in the way he watched her now, the same way she had observed him in the beginning.

She didn’t spend much time at her desk, but he would catch her, now and then, eating instant noodles, drawing schematics, engine grease smeared on her cheek, in her hair. Sometimes he saw the remnant of tears, or dark circles from lack of sleep, but in general she looked like she was doing well, doing better than him.

The curve of her belly appeared overnight as if from nowhere, and he watched it increase with growing dread. No matter what he had said to her or himself, he kept thinking desperately that she was alone, unprotected, it was his duty to be close, to make sure both she and the child were safe. The way he had never been safe.

He was not the kind of man who should have offspring. He knew nothing of fatherhood other than the distant man who’d made a feckless bargain to save himself by giving his son over for certain abuse.

He should not be a father, he had never wanted to be. But it was happening whether he’d willed it or not, and suddenly the terror that he’d never ascend wasn’t only about himself anymore. The androids were coming -- had already come, the boy had said, and Earth had been crushed beneath them.

He had to ascend, he had to, and for once Kakarot wasn’t in his thoughts at all.

In his nightmares of failure, he didn’t dream of his own death anymore.

Only hers.

#vegebul fanfiction #vegebul #vegeta #vegeta x bulma #bulma

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thedoctorvie · 6 years

Text

Another questionnaire

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk?

Pffft, more milk of course. What kind of uncivilized barbarian uses more cereal than milk?

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day?

Depends on the coldness of air. Sometimes, if the winter mood is right.

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books?

Toilet paper; other, smaller books.

4: how do you take your coffee/tea?

Coffee: Milk and a bit sugar. Tea: Nothing besides tea.

5: are you self-conscious of your smile?

Don't know. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

6: do you keep plants?

Yes, artificial ones. Those never fail me.

7: do you name your plants?

Nope. I'm not THAT crazy... yet...

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings?

I don't have enough mastery over any artistic medium to adequately express anything inside me.

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself?

Yep.

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach?

Left/right side alternating, most of the time.

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends?

Wait, what? Which friends?

12: what’s your favorite planet?

Venus. 460 degrees celsius, sulfuric acid rain, active volcanism, a hundred times higher atmospheric pressure than earth... exactly my kind of planet.

13: what’s something that made you smile today?

The astonishing and heartwarming reactions to an important facebook post of mine.

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like?

Since my girlfriend is my best friend and we live in a (somewhat) old flat in a big city... not very different than now ;)

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is!

One from google: Neptune radiates more heat than it gets from the sun. One from me: Alcohol has been found in some galactic nebulae.

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish?

Penne carbonara.

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair?

Something appropriately futuristic. Don't know what the cyberfashion of our future looks like.

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up.

Again, which friends? But i once didn't remember the appropriate name of a wire whisk and called it something very funny (which, unfortunately, can't be translated to english)

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it?

Nope.

20: what’s your favorite eye color? Green.

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces.

My bags from the medical university of vienna.

22: are you a morning person?

Ahahahahahahaha, no.

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations?

Coding, reading, playing computer games.

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets?

No, and i guess there never will be.

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into?

Broken into? I'm not that type of criminal ;)

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit?

Currently cheap brown synthetic leather boots from a discount store.

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor?

Apple.

28: sunrise or sunset?

Sunset.

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing?

My girlfriend, when her brain just quits and does something very irrational.

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared?

Oh yes.

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks.

I like socks, but not white ones. I like my socks systematically ordered. Socks are life to me, since they guard my feet from unwelcome encounters with... *shudder*... nature.

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends.

Why all those "friends"-questions? Seriously, i can't think of any interesting story with above parameters.

33: what’s your fave pastry?

I am no big fan of pastry. Maybe buns?

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it?

It is a very old teddy bear. His name is teddy bear. It looks a bit like Mr. Beans' teddy.

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often?

Whats a stationary pen? I mostly write with boring black stabilos.

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now?

Good question. Kai Tracid?

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean?

Both.

38: tell us about your pet peeves!

I could write a book about it. But one of the most important is when people hurt other people.

39: what color do you wear the most?

Pitch black like my heart.

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you?

I don't own much jewelry except of my engagement ring. You can imagine its story and meaning.

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving?

The one i am currently reading, roughly translated: "Manual of chip cards"

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it!

No, i don't.

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with?

My girlfriend, while smoking in the courtyard of our residential building.

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything?

That was... well... the last time... lets say... ehm... wait...

45: do you trust your instincts a lot?

Depends on the situation.

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of.

Unfortunately, i can't translate it into english, but i will give it in german: "Haben Sie Milch?" - "Ja, fettarme." - "Das sehe ich, aber haben Sie auch Milch?"

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe?

Insects.

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today?

It was being abducted by aliens (seriously!). I don't know what my biggest fear today is.

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought?

I didn't buy any CDs or records in the last few years. The last one i bought a long time ago was some album from The Vision Bleak.

50: what’s an odd thing you collect?

Books.

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them?

I usually don't have strong connections between persons and music, but one of the strongest is between a friend of mine and Ashbury Heights - Spiders.

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far?

I... don't know. I don't remember any in particular.

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them?

Rocky horror picture show: Yes, i liked it and its crazyness. Pulp fiction: Yes, its ok, but very overrated.

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face?

My girlfriend.

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point?

Er... don't know, argue it?

56: what are some things you find endearing in people?

Intelligence, kindness, individualism, openness, tolerance, very broad interests, insatiable curiosity

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics?

It made me feel bored (sorry!). I didn't dramatically reenact anything.

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why?

The what and who? What the heck are you talking (writing?) about?

59: what’s your favorite myth?

The one of diarrhea god of some tropical island (i am NOT kidding, it really is a myth! It is from some book about world mythology)

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves?

I never read any good poetry.

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received?

The stupidest i ever received where non-fitting (but expensive) clothes. The stupidest i've ever given? No idea.

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind?

Nope, through my veins runs coca cola.

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be?

Well, it's kind of a mess, but i try to organize them.

64: what color is the sky where you are right now?

Black (because it is night)

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with?

Yeah, but i don't know if i get along with her as good as back then.

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like?

Wild and untamed.

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel?

Like i am in the right place where i can feel good (strange, i know).

68: what’s winter like where you live?

Chaotic. Sometimes warm, sometimes cold, often in-between.

69: what are your favorite board games?

Monopoly, chess.

70: have you ever used a ouija board?

No.

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea?

Black tea.

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it?

No, i just forget it.

73: what are some of your worst habits?

Good question... smoking?

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns.

A red-headed, smart, wild cat.

75: tell us about your pets!

You think cats are strange and crazy? You don't know mine.

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t?

God, yes... too much.

77: pink or yellow lemonade?

Yellow.

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub?

FANclub! I LOVE em!!!

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you?

Being there for me.

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why?

Greyish, my girlfriend made me a portal bedroom for my birthday. Wait, can i revise question 79?

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of.

Re-emission of electromagnetic field waves, outside the thermal spectrum of usual chemical reactions.

82: are/were you good in school?

No, i didn't want to be.

83: what’s some of your favorite album art?

I liked the one on Monolith - Subsystem, don't know why.

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones?

Yes, an aesculapian staff.

85: do you read comics? what are your faves?

Yes, i especially like star wars comics.

86: do you like concept albums? which ones?

What the fuck is a concept album?

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives?

Good question. All Star Wars-movies. 2001 - a space odyssey.

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy?

3D-generated arts (see for example https://blendpolis.de/forum/kunst/galerie)

89: are you close to your parents?

Yes, kinda. But i am more adult then they are.

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities.

Well i like Berlin very much. People there seem to be much more open and uncomplicated than in vienna.

91: where do you plan on traveling this year?

I don't know, i don't plan anything at the moment.

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch?

Drown it in ALL the cheese!!

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most?

Long, open and flowing.

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday?

A fellow student of mine.

95: what are your plans for this weekend?

Preparing the silvester party at our home.

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot?

I have activated automatic updates.

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house?

ISTJ or INTJ, gemini, slytherin.

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it?

A loooooong time ago, and yes, i enjoyed it.

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them.

Schalldruck - Turntable Junky (The Crow Remix) ASP - Krabat Weird Al Yankovic - White & Nerdy Zeromancer - Doctor Online Robert Palmer - Bad Case Of Loving You Eluviete - Omnos Crazy Town - Butterfly Faun - Tanz mit mir

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elf-kid2 · 7 years

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Megamind Soulmate AU

When you write something on your arms, the marks appear on the arms of your soulmate as well. This is known: the soul-bond does not begin at birth; it is only possible with both souls have reached a certain level of maturity. No one knows what triggers the bond; it is not restrained by distance, by language, by contact... but everyone knows that a soulmate is true love, however improbable it may seem.

Some people develop the mark as young as 14; others begin to find their Soulmate’s marks on their skin when they’re in their 20′s; some never get a mark at all. In some countries, people bare their arms openly, to better show their art and facilitate the finding of the soulmate (who will of course match). In most of the northwest hemisphere, especially the United States, baring one’s arms in public is considered extremely taboo, even obscene: a cultural norm born of cold weather, left over from outdated arranged-marriage traditions, and puritanism.

Megamind never wrote or drew anything on his arms. There was no point: if he had ever had a soulmate (which wasn’t guaranteed) they had no doubt perished young, lost to the black hole with the rest of his homeworld.

He was never more surprised than the day he discovered a line of colors (black, white, pink, red, yellow, purple, orange, green and, when he looked closer, a shade of blue close to that of his own skin) on his left arm while getting dressed one morning. His first thought was that it must be a bruise- except that he hadn’t hit himself, it didn’t hurt, and the tidy, circular segments of colour didn’t actually look like a bruise at all. His second thought was that he must have spattered himself with paint, except that he had been in the Lair, wearing long sleeves and gloves, and he hadn’t been anywhere near the paint in three days. His third thought was that he needed a plan.

Roxanne Ritchi was not obsessed with finding her soulmate. She didn’t worry, as some did, about ‘missing her chance’ or She did not decorate her arms with new doodles every day the way some of her friends from middle and high-school claimed to, nor did she spend an excess amount of time or thought looking for a new mark and trying to determine if this or that dot was a freckle or a drop of ink-- but that’s not to say she wasn’t interested.

Every year on her birthday, Roxanne would take out a box of special colored ink-pens (given to her by an aunt for her 15th birthday as a right-of-passage type thing) and draw a multicolored pattern on her arm. She is careful to make bright, clear lines and use a variety of colours-- both light and dark-- because she’s heard too many stories of people missing their chance because they used a shade of ink to close to the color of their Soulmate’s skin, causing the marks to go unnoticed.

The day after her 22nd birthday, Roxanne woke up to find that her right arm was covered in black ink. (Was her soulmate left-handed?). Near the wrist was a pattern of tiny, unfamiliar symbols arranged in a spiral. Below that, a set of Chinese characters. Then a message in arabic. Then a question in German, then French, then Spanish. Finally, close to her shoulder, she could read the message: How did you survive?

She found translations for all of the marks except the ones closest to her wrist: How did you survive?

It took three weeks of communicating at cross-purposes before Megamind figured out that his Soulmate (who was, as it turned out, english-speaking) was in fact native to planet Earth. He felt... The realization... It felt like losing his people all over again. It hurt. He’d known, of course, that even if she (they had confirmed each others pronouns within two days of establishing communication) was also interested in starting a family, one couple was not enough to rebuild a population, even with cloning technology. He also knew that it was probably-- safer-- for both of them this way; the world was not kind so a solitary blue alien, and he could very clearly imagine what people would do if they saw more. An alien was an oddity; Aliens were an invasion or an infestation to be destroyed with extreme prejudice for the good of all humankind. He and Minion had been stockpiling weapons and improving security at the Evil Lair since the soul-bond had appeared, for just that reason. Part of him, some small, cursed part of him, was actually, secretly, a little bit relieved.

Roxanne wondered, sometimes, about his first love. Reading between the lines, Roxanne could tell that he’d initially thought that she, his Soulmate, was a certain childhood sweetheart or previous girlfriend who hadn’t been heard from since died in some sort of accident or natural disaster years ago. It was fairly common in this day and age for people to date before they made contact with their soulmate, and really it would be silly to be jealous of a girl who had died, but. But. Roxanne wondered if she would measure up to her Soulmate’s first love, the girl he had lost. She wondered if they would still have been soulmates if the other girl hadn’t died, or if she would have ended up alone. But there was nothing to be jealous about.

Mostly, it hurt. He was alone on this planet, he and Minion were completely alone hear, and when they died all that was left of his planet, all that was left of his parents’ legacy, would die with them. He had known that for years, but having hope, having a chance and then feeling it ripped away once more in the cruel hands of fate made the facts all the harder to bear. Furthermore, Megamind had somehow become Bonded to a human. She would expecting someone of her own species, probably hoping for someone tall and square-jawed, with good hair and lots of money. What if they met, and she couldn’t stand to look at him? What if she was horrified, or angry, or disappointed, or scared when-- if they met in person?

Roxanne had asked, a few times, about meeting in person, but each time he wrote a note saying that, for now, it was impossible. She understood, really, she did. Based on their first communication, where he had asked How did you survive? in so many languages, she suspected that he was from another country (most US citizens were not bilingual), and though he wrote in English fluently enough, perhaps he was less comfortable with the spoken language? In any case, if he lived in another country, it could take a lot of time and money before he was able to visit her, or before she was able to visit him. She understood.

Roxanne gave him her phone number instead.

When she gave him her phone number during one of their "evening chats” (sessions in which they would lock themselves in their rooms and exchange notes, sharing jokes, doodles, poetry, and little incidents from the day with the sort of ink that could be easily washed away to make room for more notes), he wasn’t sure what to do. She had a Metro City area code. Megamind hadn’t expected that. He knew he’d mislead her, allowing her to believe that he lived overseas in some far-away country, but he hadn’t actually expected to find out that they lived in the same city.

He wondered who she was

Two days after she’d written her own phone number on her arm (two days of worry and nervousness, because what if really he didn’t like the sound of her voice, what if she said something wrong when he called, what if he never called at all, what if he didn’t ever want to see her, what if...), Roxanne got a text message from an unlisted number: “My Queen, shall we continue our correspondence?” She blushed, smiling in delight: this was how her Soulmate liked to ‘greet’ her in their evening chats. Now they could send messages anytime... and now that she had his number, she could call him.

“Ollo?” She’d called when he was in the middle of building a weaponized tunneling vehicle (the name was also in the works). Somehow, he hadn’t expected her to call

“It’s me. I mean, this is Roxanne Ritchi, I mean... can you spare a minute to talk with your Queen?” she’d called during her lunch break, on an impulse, and she hadn’t planned on telling him her name, hadn’t planned on what to say at all, hadn’t thought that maybe there was a time difference and he was at work or asleep or something, but... she’d wanted to know what his voice sounded like.

“I always have time for you,” he said, making his voice low and smooth. “So, my only Soulmate, did you say you’re name was Roxanne?” He already knew her name of course; he’d tracked her down almost as soon as he had her number. But being able to talk to her, being able to say her beautiful, luscious name outloud, to her...

“Roxanne Ritchi,” she said. Gah, she loved his voice; she should have called him ages ago. “I’m an investigative reporter with the KMCP8 Newstation. What’s your name? What do you do for a living?” It was hard to believe they’d been bonded for months, yet she still didn’t know his name.

“I-” how was he supposed to answer? “Roxanne, I--” How was he supposed to tell Roxanne Ritchi, the smart, witty, beautiful reporter, the woman who had twice discovered his Evil Scheme early and had to be taken hostage, who he’d seen flirting with his most hated rival following both those occasions-- how was he supposed to tell her that her one and only Soulmate was a (skinny, blue, big-headed, short, freakish) notoriously unsuccessful Super Villain?

“I’m really not that interesting,” he whispered. “And Roxanne, my love, I’d much rather talk about you.”

“Come on, don’t tease,” she giggled. “I told you mine, so you tell me yours. What’s your name?” He’d drawn this out as long as possible. He could try to delay again, make it last a little bit longer, but sooner or later she would get sick of waiting; sooner or later she would figure it out.

“My name is Megamind,” he said, his voice holding more confidence than he felt. “Incredibly Handsome Criminal Genius and Master of All Villainy. Roxanne will you-- do you still--- wont you be my Queen?”

“Is this a joke?” Roxanne demanded. “It isn’t funny!” “It’s no joke,” her soul mate Megamind the voice on the other end of the phone replied. “...If you don’t believe me, you can look at your left wrist.”

“I will!” she grabbed her purse and stormed to the privacy of a stall in the Lady’s Room to role up her sleeves. (She was angry, but she wasn’t about to get undressed in public.) There on her arm, in the same handwriting her soulmate always had, was the message. My name is Megamind.

They met in person for the first time that very evening. It went infinitely better than Megamind thought it would.

It went about as well as could be expected.

He wondered if she wished that he were human. She wondered if he wished she were blue. He wanted to know what she thought of his career. She wanted to know why he chose it. He wanted to give her nice things. She wanted to give him a home. He hoped that she would get along with Minion. (Soulmate or not, he wasn’t sure what he’d do if she couldn’t.) She delighted in the thought of how her family would react if when she took him home for Thanksgiving. He offered to conquer the world so that she could truly be Queen. She offered to help him rework his PR until he didn’t have to fight the world.

They kissed for the first time that night.

It was... wonderful.

The debate continued on if Megamind should give up Villainy, or if Roxanne should become his ‘Partner in Crime’.

In the end, both were happy with the decision.

They were married three months later-- after what Megamind described as a torturously long engagement. Roxanne’s family felt that it was scandalously short-- but since they were hoping the groom would die in a lab accident before the wedding, they don’t get to vote.

Roxanne and Megamind Ritchi went on to do great things together. (One of their greatest achievements was successfully creating-- and doing an unusually successful job at maintaining-- a happy family.)

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leonawriter · 7 years

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Last night I read a Voltron reincarnation AU - basically, they had vague memories of having been in this situation, flown these lions, before. There was a lot of hinting toward DotU compliant ships, too.

I went in thinking ‘hey, this could be really interesting if done well’, and I came out thinking ‘I would have done it differently’.

[cut for length]

The main thing I was unsure of was... well, not the shipping at all (which was only in hints, so that could even have been expanded upon) but the feeling like their ‘past’ selves were pushing them into becoming or wanting to fit into those past roles again, which made them having different roles feel awkward and stilted, sometimes creating tension in the team where in either canon, there isn't any.

There was not enough distinction between the past and present. Or, at times, too much distinction, enough that things were confusing for them.

In a purely self-indulgent version, I’d write it that perhaps DotU happened in an alternate universe - perhaps something like a Beta reality - meaning that we aren’t left wondering when, exactly, this previous set of Voltron pilots flew the lions, if the lions in VLD were only created during Alfor’s reign (as shown in S2 ep Space Mall).

Not to mention, in VLD? Zarkon has been reigning for ten thousand years, during none of which have there been any other Voltron pilots. No alternate Allura. And also in VLD, Earth has only just started developing space travel to the edge of our solar system. It’s unlikely we had space travel over ten thousand years ago, let’s be real here.

So. With that, we’ve got a starting place.

Going with the idea that if they are reincarnations then they’re the result of, essentially, a doomed timeline - possibly one where they failed somehow like in one of the comics, but with more widespread repercussions.

Next thing is understanding that the DotU characters and the VLD characters are different people. Sometimes, they might seem very similar! They’re supposed to. The VLD ones are based on the original DotU/GoLion/VF versions. But they are not the same. This is important, because although in the previous series Lance might have flown Red straight from the beginning and Keith was always the leader, here they are not best suited for those roles at the beginning, they’re kids, and if they are going to end up in different Lions (like in S3) then it’s because they’ve grown as people, and they’re better suited to those roles at that time.

Memories and deja vu would still happen, but... not in a way that would have Lance longing for Red, or Keith thinking up plans in way as though he’s the leader!

Lance is clearly happy and best suited to Blue, and yes, I can see him having moments of jealousy over Red, but it’s more the kind of thing where he’s seeing Keith as getting the most attention again, picked out for the ‘best’ things - ‘hey, I can fly a speedy Lion! I can rely on my instincts and prove myself! I can do this too!’, with a mix in of feeling like he’d done this before.

And as for Keith... I’m sorry, but I really can’t imagine him strategising competently in the first couple of seasons. I just can’t. We even see what happens when he tries (no, Keith, don’t rush the guards, we need to not hurt the Balmera). Maybe, though, he might look back on things they’ve done, and once the mission is over, be able to see what went wrong, and how he’d do it better next time, and sometimes have a sense of frustration that his mind isn't working like it somehow should, he should be able to do this, to think like this, why can’t he.

Shiro, I can see not having too many issues, though mainly because his memories/echoes from Sven are so similar to his own issues of dying/nearly dying/being imprisoned.

Pidge, I think, would probably try and ignore it all? She’s a scientific mind, down to earth and all, not one to put stock in the idea of reincarnation. Although, I do think she’d maybe have some gender issues here more than in VLD canon, where she really is some form of genderqueer due to DotU Pidge being male - but I think her preferred pronouns would still be female. And because I think it may even have been as early as DotU that introduced the idea that Pidge was from another planet (confirmed, by the wiki! Although in DotU Pidge wasn’t born on Balto, and I don’t know if it’s confirmed whether or not he was in Force), Pidge ends up going to Keith in the aftermath of him finding out he’s actually part Galra, to have some time bonding over being a different species, or remembering you were once - such as how Katie got teased and encouraged by her family for talking about Balto when she was little and it was all awesome.

Hunk might even have his echoes of having been a hotheaded ‘let’s rush straight in’ kind of guy make his anxieties even worse, being like, ‘er, guys, I have a funny feeling if I just rushed into that something bad would happen. Let’s not.’

Allura - now her, I can see taking all of her memories and listening to them. She’s attuned to the Lions and the castle, too. I could see her looking back at the castle on Arus and seeing the DotU castle, and hearing/seeing the word ‘Arus’ and thinking ‘I feel like this is safe/home’, and being sad to leave. I can see her becoming more at ease when she hears the new Paladins’ names, because those names feel familiar. I can see her feeling uneasy about Zarkon when she’s growing up, because he’s in her nightmares, but she doesn’t understand why - because he’s also her father’s good friend. She’d also feel a sort of kinship with Blue, which might be part of why she doesn’t just continue after Lance cuts in on her explanations, but she’s so involved in making sure she’s in control of everything that up until it’s needed, the idea of flying Blue is just a flight of fancy.

And... Coran? Coran I can see having feelings of wanting to keep holding onto everyone as long as possible, not wanting his princess to go into dangerous situations but, at the same time, understanding better than previous versions that you can’t stop her if that’s what she’s got her mind set on.

The bit I’d call this ‘self-indulgent’ for, though, is my ideas on shipping.

Like... the VLD characters aren’t just blank slates? You can’t just say that they’re always going to end up with the same people, even in a reincarnation AU. Some of them might even have dated before they find themselves with Voltron, and liked their partners, and split up for reasons entirely separate from ‘I have this feeling in my head that I’m not supposed to be with you and I’m waiting for That Special One In My Dreams’. And they might meet the one they were in love with in a past/other life and just... that’s not who they are now.

Sometimes reincarnation shipping works, and sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes it just takes a lot of good writing to make it work. Simple as that.

My own personal take would be that... every so often, Keith gets certain feelings whenever he looks at Allura, and it’s, well, weird? Because it’s really more like he’s seeing someone else, not the Allura he knows. And when the moment is gone, so are the feelings, and it leaves him disoriented.

Allura even gets something similar, where she’ll sometimes look at Keith and expect him to say or do something other than what he ends up saying or doing, and again - she might have moments where it feels like there’s a crush going on, but then the moment will pass, or she’ll actually look at him, and she’ll go, that’s not the same person. Again, confusion.

I can see after a while, Keith actually asks to have a word with her, after they’ve all agreed that something is going on, and asks if she’s getting this as well. He awkwardly apologises, but explains that he’s, uh, it’s not going to happen. There’s a reason it’s particularly weird on his end. Maybe this other Keith and Allura were involved, but... this Keith? He’s kinda not into girls like that.

He ends up red in the face from having to say this in such a way for such a reason, but even though Allura stares at him for a few moments, she starts to laugh, and then they’re laughing together, because - let’s be honest, the situation is ridiculous.

After that, they end up as good friends, accepting that although their relationship isn’t the same as before, there’s clearly still some sort of understanding there.

Partially because of this, Keith is the one Pidge goes to with her gender issues after Keith accidentally admits his ‘other’ self was in a relationship with Allura to the team (and a jealous Lance, possibly in a similar situation to Arc of the Taujeer in S2). They’ve both got memories or echoes of being some sort of identity that they’re not that isn’t just down to where they were born.

(Lance picked up English far faster than any of his family expected him to, for someone with an often short attention span and some kind of learning disability. Same with Shiro, whose first language is Japanese, where he picked up English quite well, but also ends up translating Swedish in his head whenever he’s not paying any attention.)

#vld stuff #technically implied klance but I mean #I kinda see Keith as gay regardless if he ended up with Lance or not #sooooo #there is that #and this is just how I'D do it #not how I think everyone should

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avidbeader · 7 years

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Presenting More of the Sheith soulmates AU

Voltron fanfic. Probably rated T when it’s done. Definitely Shiro x Keith. Situational pronouns for Pidge/Katie. Feedback is always welcome.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Parts of this fought me and fought me hard. I expect I will do some major revising when I go through it again for AO3/FF-Net. Please tell me what works for you and what needs some tweaking!

<><><><><><><><><><><><>

They were calling him “Champion”.

This made Haggar’s position both easier and harder. Easier because it was normal for the Druids to take successful gladiators and test out enhancements that could be applied to Galra in leadership positions. Harder because now Prisoner 117-9875 was becoming famous since his defeat of Myzax. He was a regular in the main arena and winning every match. Taking him out of rotation for extended periods would attract attention, and she did not want Zarkon to take notice of this alien until she understood the nature of his strange quintessence.

Her lord’s obsession with extending and strengthening his life force was second only to that of locating the pieces of Voltron. The drive to harvest more quintessence in greater amounts, to refine and distill it in greater strengths, was the heaviest burden on her and the Komar. If Zarkon knew of this alien’s ability to host two powerful quintessences at once, he would insist on immediate answers instead of allowing careful study.

She had to rely on a few of her most trusted druids to watch Champion’s matches and report the occasions when his quintessence flared in that meld that never completely left him. They had achieved similar results by pulling him out briefly and subjecting him to their own quintessence-borne attacks.

She could observe it. She could make it react. But Haggar was no closer to understanding how this situation existed. It defied every fact collected through millennia of studying the energies of the universe. And Zarkon had finally realized that there was a new gladiator that had earned a name from the crowds that packed the arenas and wanted to see him in action.

Then her luck changed.

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Today’s fight had one basic problem. His opponent was twice his size, which was the norm, but reasonably agile, which was unusual. Shiro’s main advantage was his familiarity with the layout of the arena and its obstacles—they had not been moved for days. He ran, jumped, tumbled and flipped to avoid the alien’s massive clawed fists, pinpricking with strike-and-run attacks whenever possible. The alien had over a dozen cuts from Shiro’s sword, all bleeding, but not quickly enough to be a drain on its strength.

And not quickly enough to be a merciful killing.

Shiro dodged yet again, and when the alien overextended in trying to catch him, he took a chance. He ran and threw himself to the ground, sliding between the opponent’s legs and swinging the sword. The crowd roared in appreciation for his signature move and he gave a mental eyeroll. How could this society be so impressed that Shiro understood basic anatomy and looked to hamstring his opponents as soon as possible?

He successfully severed one tendon and the alien howled in pain. That was a major shift in his favor, as the alien could no longer move with speed. He backed out of range of the long arms.

“Will you yield?” Shiro always tried to convince his opponent to stop at this stage.

The alien howled again and said…something.

Great. Another translator failure. It didn’t happen often, but once in a while there was an alien whose brain structure was too different for the Galra translation process to work. These fights more often ended with Shiro having to kill the opponent simply because he could not communicate that surrender was an option.

The alien made a sudden move at him, pushing its weight from its uninjured leg. Shiro dodged in between a couple of the stone slabs to avoid its claws then drove his sword out from his defensible position as his opponent lost its balance in landing on the injured leg. He felt the blade catch slightly on ribs as it threaded them and found the alien’s heart.

Shiro inhaled sharply and pulled away, barely hearing the roar of the crowd over the blood rushing in his ears. As he watched, the alien staggered and clutched at one of the stone slabs, toppling it and starting a domino effect.

With Shiro still in between two of them.

He pushed to the opposite side, trying to sprint through so the slabs would be between him and the alien in case its death throes were more dangerous than Shiro had assumed. He was nearly clear—

And then he was pulled to the ground, pain exploding along his right arm.

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Keith skimmed over his path along the cliffs in the early-morning sun, driving back to the caves for another day of exploration. Every time he found a new cave and mapped it, he wondered yet again at the imaginations of the people who left the carvings. The styles varied, the stories varied, but he had already found two commonalities: a mystical blue lion and a date coming up in several months that claimed an arrival. As he wandered the caves, his skin tingled with the strength of the strange energy, calling him in a constant rumbling undertone: find me find me find me.

His corkboard in the cabin was now littered with pictures and maps, sticky notes and string connecting wherever there was a link. He was already making plans in his head for what he might need on Arrival Night. He needed to purchase the best binocs he could afford in order to watch the skies. He needed to travel as lightly as possible to make maximum use of the hoverbike’s speed, but he had to plan for any possibility. He needed to explore the abandoned town more for weapons or other useful things. He needed—

From out of nowhere, excruciating pain shot up his right arm. His hand lost the grip on his hoverbike as he screamed in agony. The bike veered sharply from the path and suddenly he was airborne as he went over the edge of the cliff.

Keith fought to clear his head: divide, compartmentalize, worry about Shiro AFTER you survive this!

He battled the pain, trying to curl his unresponsive fingers around the handlebar again, and focused on the ground that was coming up way too fast. He had to time this perfectly if it was going to work…

In his head the unknown energy thundered through like a roar, drowning out the pain just enough for him to concentrate.

Pop the antigrav to create bounce. Kick in the accelerator to send momentum forward instead of up. Keep control of the steering as the hovercells recalibrated for the return of the ground underneath.

He barely hung on as the bike swerved and barreled forward several dozen yards, but managed to bring it to a stop. He unclenched his hands from the handlebars and brought his hands to his face, scrubbing at the tears he found there. His entire body was shuddering from the twin floods of his own adrenaline and Shiro’s anguish. His right hand still felt pulverized and he tried his best to send back his support, to let Shiro know he was there, with him, no matter what.

He looked back to the top of the cliff and swallowed hard at how close he had come to being killed. His mind immediately went over what he had done with the bike, replaying it against the possibility of practicing the move in safer circumstances in case he needed it to get away in the future.

But that was for later. Right now he had to take shelter in one of the lion caves and concentrate on Shiro.

The now-familiar purr rumbled in his essence, stronger than ever.

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Handlers came in and lifted the slab off his arm. Shiro kept his eyes closed—he didn’t want to see whatever might be left of it. He tried to distance himself from the pain but his focus was shaken when he realized Keith had come very close to crashing a vehicle. It was the Garrison all over again, where Keith’s injury had made him crash a sim. Except this time Keith had come too close to dying.

They shoved him onto a stretcher, tossing the useless hand across his body.

This was worse than seeing it. He could feel the wrongness, the places where shattered bones shifted and the spreading wet warmth of his blood. It rolled on its own as they turned a corner and Shiro fought down the bile rising in his throat.

Then a voice, a woman’s, hissed, “In here! Quickly, he’s losing blood! Get it ready!”

Hands shifted Shiro’s body to a stationary table and straps came down across him. He opened his eyes and recoiled at seeing several of the hooded things hovering over him, sending purple lightning dancing over him.

The voice came again. “The prosthetic is ready. It hasn’t been tested thoroughly, but the Champion can handle that for us.” One of the hooded figures, white hair spilling down like a waterfall from where her face should be, leaned over. Shiro felt a hand stroke his face and jerked away.

“Yes, this will be a most interesting experiment. Stabilize him, take the limb, and install the replacement.”

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After the arm, Keith’s focus shifted. He still searched the caves every few days, but now he had a different plan. He had to try and get to Shiro, which meant finding a way to leave the planet.

The Garrison was a non-starter. Even if they were the type of institution that gave second chances, the Garrison had tried to break his bond with Shiro. He would not risk approaching them.

But the Garrison was Earth’s primary facility for training people for space missions. The few smaller institutes didn’t have the Garrison’s resources—the one in Mumbai was the only one to have a team make it past the moon to Mars so far.

And even the Garrison had only just dared to try Kerberos last year, with Shiro’s mission. Humanity would take decades, possibly centuries, to leave its own solar system.

But something was coming. All the carved stories on the cave walls pointed to something arriving from deep space in just a few months. If he could find them, he might be able to convince them to take him when they left again.

He just had to find them before anyone official did.

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Two days. It was two days until the Arrival.

Keith had everything he could possibly think of ready. His excursions into the abandoned town closest to the cabin, his original destination when he had run from the Garrison, had yielded excellent results. He found enough parts to bring the hoverbike into top condition. He didn’t find much in the way of guns or other weapons, but the remaining inventory in a hardware store had enough ingredients to rig some homemade explosives in case he needed a distraction. He was going on the assumption that whatever was coming could land anywhere in a hundred-mile radius around the caves, which meant that the Garrison could easily track it.

He was restlessly polishing his knife, the strange symbol on the hilt unwrapped for the moment, when he felt a spike of fear from Shiro slam into him. He laid the knife aside and closed his eyes, concentrating on the bond and ready to flood it with all the support he could muster.

And for the first time, he was awake and could see what Shiro saw.

The Galra scientist took down the two guards without warning, then did something to his metal arm. He gave a name—Ulaz—and claimed that something called the Blade of Marmora was on his side. He released Shiro from the cuffs holding him down and told him he had to return to Earth and find a blue lion.

Shiro was almost there when he collided with a transport cart and alerted a pair of sentries. He ran and opened the pod that was waiting, tossing one sentry away from him. But the drug in his system was slowing his reactions and the second sentry grabbed him from behind. He had failed, he wasn’t going to get away—

And the explosion knocked him into the pod, cracking the sentry in half as the doors closed and the pod launched.

Keith jerked into awareness as Shiro slid into unconsciousness. The bond was rising within him, almost singing in anticipation. Of all the scenarios he had imagined when he devised his desperate plan, not once had he come close to the truth of who was arriving.

Shiro was on his way home.

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Pidge Gunderson had earned a reputation around the Garrison. Every single time someone mentioned the Kerberos failure in his hearing, he argued. He claimed that there was no evidence at all to support the claim that Captain Shirogane had crashed. He questioned the disappearance of Shirogane’s soulmate, who would have been able to prove the pilot’s survival. He lambasted the Garrison’s budget-driven decision against having a rescue team in place on Mars. These arguments and the rumors they produced had caused him to be pulled aside by a few of the teachers and only the threat of being sent to Commander Iverson would make him shut up.

It was another strange thing about this strange student. People had noticed that he never mentioned his family, never got letters or care packages or phone calls. He was almost always alone unless doing a team exercise, retreating to his room, the library, or sitting alone at meals.

Pidge Gunderson continued to be a poor fit with his team. McClain and Garrett were already fast friends and they tried, each in his own way, to include their third. He ignored them outside of training. He continued to slip away at night and scan the heavens for communications, listening desperately for any hint of a familiar name or reference. But the only thing among the chatter that kept cropping up was “Voltron”. Judging from the varying tones of voice, these aliens were searching for it and getting more and more desperate.

And then it was the first day of sim training under Iverson’s direction. Pidge ground his teeth as they proceeded to run the Kerberos rescue scenario, wondering why such training had not been happening before the mission was launched. And then he failed to hide his frustrations with his teammates, snarking as Lance bragged about his piloting skills just before crashing spectacularly. Hunk had a weak stomach for the motion of the sim, eventually puking in the gear box. And once they emerged, Iverson was there to berate them for their miserable showing.

Later on, sitting under the stars, Pidge would admit to himself that Lance had done him a favor, silencing him as he began to rant at Iverson about Kerberos. Staying under Iverson’s radar was a priority—the commander was a bully and went for the easy solution too often, but he wasn’t stupid.

And then the chatter in his headphones picked up exponentially. He focused, trying to tease more meaning out of the rapid gibberish that sounded almost panicky over the Voltron. Was it something they were searching for? Had they found it or lost it?

“You come up here to rock out?”

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Deep in a cavern, the river flowing sweetly in front of her, she waited as she had waited for millennia. There had been a few times while she waited when the call surfaced from a distance, on some other area of this planet from her resting place, from the nearest neighboring stars. None had ever come close enough to feel her presence in return.

Until this little, divided one felt her and began seeking her.

She was amused and puzzled by this one. His quintessence was indeed the stuff of paladins, but not for her. This one was more likely to fit her sister of Fire. Or of Sky. But her sisters were far away and she was here. She reached out to the little one, offering a thin trickle of comfort and companionship, and was surprised when he responded in kind.

It was a fascinating thing, how his quintessence was so firmly entwined with another’s that they would never stand apart and alone again. This joining of two into one was something she had never seen before arriving on this planet; it was unique to this species as far as she could tell.

The little one’s other half approached. She observed as their bond, already strengthened many times over by the immense distance, swelled in power as the distance closed. She understood that this was a new thing.

She wondered if they would be able to survive the power of the bond. If she could help them survive it.

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Part 8

#voltron #voltron legendary defender #sheith #fanfic: voltron #voltron fanfic #quintessential bond by avidbeader

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