#|| as an altean he can reproduce with any species | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

victorlimadelta · 4 years

Text

Pidge is actually trying to take this a tiny bit seriously. Last night, while she was working on moving her work station into the makeshift pharmaceutical laboratory she’s set up for herself over the last few months, she was putting together a presentation, like it’s a business pitch or a grant funding exercise. Still, it’s easier to illustrate her point when she has diagrams to go off of. The fancy little holograms from her PADD can even be manipulated in real-time in three-dimensional space, for added cool factor.

It also means she can keep her thoughts together as she goes through the theoretical aspects of this with @swordsedge Ulaz. Before she begins, she takes a shot glass, fills it with the Olkari root extract she’s come to love so much, and knocks it back like it’s so much liquor. That should keep her going for the next eight or so hours and stave off the fluorescent-inspired headache she’s guaranteed to get if she works down here too long. She offers some to the Galra in front of her, but he declines. Reasonable. He doesn’t know what it is, and she could have tampered with it, so she’s not offended.

They’d had a brief conversation last night, as well, about how to structure this upcoming week. Pidge had asked Ulaz what the Galra Empire would do for someone who had a genetic degenerative disease. The answer, unsurprisingly, was a mercy cull. For an empire driven by expansion at all costs, a disabled life is not one that can be afforded. Ulaz did show the correct amount of disgust as he explained, at least, which reassured Pidge that he was here for the right reasons, to do the right thing. What wasn’t so reassuring was that he hadn’t actually encountered this specific problem before, as a medical officer.

Tilting her PADD against her empty glass so the holograms can project onto the table, Pidge launches into her explanation. “so, you understand what we need to do here,” Pidge reminds Ulaz. “this is different from just keeping shiro in stasis and keeping disease from progressing. this is total genomic overhaul.” She flicks the first diagram out from her screen to the table, starts spinning it--a puffy little X shape made of squiggles. “what we’re working with is the x chromosome, a location on the short arm called p21.2-p21.1.” When she zooms in with her fingers, there's a noticeable length difference between the two top arms of the chromosome. “there’s a deletion here--not one of the worst, but not in a good place, either. this codes for dystrophin: the protein that builds human muscle. without it, the muscles we’re born with can’t be effectively re-built when they’re damaged. usually, you’d have a backup on the other matching pair in your chromosome set, so your body could just use the one that works and ignore the one that doesn’t, but shiro can’t do that, because he doesn’t have a second x chromosome, he has a y chromosome. which, don’t tell it i said this, but it’s pretty useless, aside from sry. poor little thing. smallest in the human genome.”

This is probably stuff Ulaz already knows. Based on what Pidge surmises about Galra, just from pure conjecture surrounding the fact of Keith’s existence, they also must have a similarly-based biology, with double-helix DNA, ACGT pairs, X/Y sex chromosomes, even the same number and arrangement of chromosomes. Otherwise, Galra wouldn’t be able to reproduce with humans, or proliferate so far with so many other alien races. Still, it helps to start from the common denominator and build up to more complex premises.

Pidge pinches her fingers together, then spreads them to zoom in on her DNA diagram--to the portion that’s missing. “there’s maintaining the dystrophin shiro still has, and there’s teaching his body how to make it for himself. two different things. he already had weakness in his legs, to be expected, but now you’re telling me he’s having trouble breathing. that means his diaphragm can’t repair itself. he’s too weak to work his own lungs. that’s... that’s advanced. the only way it could be worse is if it was in his heart, and we don't know that it's not. so, we can’t just plug this with pharmaceutical intervention. giving him the actual dystrophin protein isn’t, by itself, going to get him where he needs to go. he needs to do it for himself, and he needs to be able to rebuild what’s been lost on top of it. that means...”

Another diagram flicks next to the first. This one's the clip of what's missing. “i have to get this, here, but... everywhere. as far as you're telling me, this is something the galra weren’t even interested in devoting resources to. it’s something humans haven’t quite been able to achieve, even with crispr, our most advanced gene splicing engineering technology. altean alchemy isn’t suited to this, and i can’t see that they've ever attempted a genetic cure, just an amino acid replacement. the olkari seem to find it anathema to attempt it, even with their advanced biohacking abilities. but i’m--we’re not dealing with just one set of medicine. we’re not limited here. i can use all of this accumulated knowledge and make something bigger than the sum of its parts. i just need to run this by you, theoretically speaking, to see if it’s even possible in practice.”

Dismissing the first diagram to focus on the second, she twists her two hands, pulls them apart, and it zooms in on the individual molecules making up the DNA helix: red adenine paired with green thymine, yellow cytosine paired with blue guanine, clumped in threes (that’s a slight liberty with the illustration, but it works for these purposes). “coran’s taught me how to use this lab to make pharmaceutical compounds i thought would be impossible with the materials we have. apparently all you have to do is ask these atoms and molecules nicely to create their bonds. so far i’ve been... moderately successful in using it.” That’s false modesty. Pidge has been able to synthesize a full medication line for Shiro by now, from advanced corticosteroids to muscle relaxers, from gene-targeted therapies to painkillers. “but, i mean, dna is just a bunch of molecules, when you get down to it. huge, snarled-together molecules, but molecules all the same. the backbone of the helix is the same. the a, c, g, t are the same. if i can teach the lab to make the individual components, it’s just an issue of putting the building blocks in the right order and making them stick together. that part, actually making the gene i need, that’s the part i have the most confidence in. i know i can do it. what i don’t know is how much time it’s going to take, or if i can accelerate it by redirecting non-essential ship power to this one resource. and i won’t know for sure until i get started on it. but, the good news is, i know what i need to make and how i need to make it. easy.” Relatively speaking, of course.

The next image Pidge pulls up is entirely new. “this--this part’s more complicated. this little device is crispr. technically it’s a repeating genome sequence that humans synthesized from a bacteria, but you can use it for genome modification. depending on what kind of rna you attach to it, you can use it to snip out genes entirely, or cut and paste from one mis-transposed location to another. notice i didn’t say insert. it needs to get the material from somewhere to insert it in the first place, and creating the right sequence out of nothing was always a little too difficult to stabilize in human trials. plus, there were ethical concerns with using it on stem cell lines. no such worries here. if i use altean alchemy to create the missing piece, and if i use the right rna to point it at xp21.2 through .1, it should plunk it right into place. and there’s no medico-ethical dilemma present for doing this with a full-grown person, like there would be if we were trying to fix it in a zygote. it doesn’t even generate the should-we argument. now, getting the rna to target the right location, and getting the delivery mechanism to be stable, and getting it to lock into place, that’ll be a little more difficult.”

What flashes into the set of images Pidge is using, this time, is a series of ones and zeroes. “that's where the olkari technology comes in. their tiaras use human brainwaves, sent as binary code, to modify messenger rna, to redirect plants on what genes they should be expressing at any given time. it unlocks a gene’s potential. this should be the key to not only targeting the right location for the gene insertion, but also in making sure that it’s getting used correctly to code for dystrophin. the question you’re probably about to ask is, how does this work with dna when dna isn’t written in binary? but it’s not about reading it, it’s about finding it. rna will read it for itself, pull the correct amino acids, and make dystrophin. cells are pretty smart that way.”

Dismissing all those prior symbols, Pidge finally pulls up a diagram of the human body. “so, congratulations. using a series of increasingly unstable chemical reactions pulling from the most advanced medicine, science, engineering, and coding from three different starfaring species, we created, spliced in, and activated exactly one copy of the dystrophin-coding gene, into one cell.” The hologram zooms in to some generic muscle strand of the forearm. “that cell could die before undergoing mitosis. even if it survives, that’s no guarantee that the new, fixed genome will propagate very far, even within the same physical location of the body.” A red flash, indicating failure.

“but, if i’m understanding your research correctly, there’s something you can do with filtered quintessence to not just make it stick around, but to get it to actually change the whole body genome. this is the part that i’m the most skeptical about,” just in case Ulaz couldn't tell from her tone. “i don’t know how quintessence works at the best of times. as far as i care, though, if it does what you say it will, then it can be literal space magic--as long as it works by a set of fixed principles. if you’re saying we can wash out the old genome and, i guess, dye the new one into place by steeping shiro in enough quintessence, it’s worth a try.”

Presentation over. Pidge collapses her diagrams, puts her PADD face-down on the table. When she catches Ulaz’s face, his expression is unreadable. Just like always, really. “so, after all that, i have two questions for you. one, does that sound like something we can, theoretically, even do? i don’t want to waste time or energy on research if it’s not going to pan out in real life. and even if it does, question number two, how much quintessence would it actually take to do something like that? are we talking on the level of a d-cell battery, car battery, aircraft engine, starship-class balmera crystal, the type of energy it would take to hold strand in stasis for eons--what do we need, and can we actually get it?”

#swordsedge #medical /#mortality /#illness /#disease /#long post /

7 notes · View notes

cabbagebender · 5 years

Text

Keith's Galra Traits Headcanons (Spoilers Through S8)

Please note, I am not a biologist, and I am kinda b.s.ing a lot of this, though I did cursory research. Please correct me if you know better and I'm talking nonsense.

Based on Canon:

Retractable fangs.

Remember that time in s6 when Keith randomly sprouted fangs while he was screaming in pain? I actually think those might be his normal teeth, except usually they’re buried far enough in his gums to simply appear, maybe notably sharp, but still human-looking. Most Galra have pretty prominent fangs already, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some kind of defense mechanism in response to extreme pain that makes them push out further. For a full Galra, this would probably turn the fangs into a formidable weapon; for Keith, it... probably just makes him better at eating steak.

Superhuman stamina.

Also, remember the Blade of Marmora Trials in Season 2? The Trials that pretty much consisted of Keith getting his ass kicked over and over again in increasingly outnumbered fights? And how he just... kept... going, even with an injured shoulder and no chance for rest or recuperation? Okay, yeah, sure, determination can do a lot, but earlier in the episode it's established that Keith and Shiro are down there for two quintents – roughly two days. Even if Keith isn't fighting the whole time, he's still fighting for like... at the very least, ten hours or so. And he messed up his shoulder in the first fight. Humans can do some crazy stuff in high stakes situations, but since he does have the option to stop fighting and doesn’t take it, I wouldn’t be surprised if his genetics are helping him out here.

(Note - this could come along with a reduced need for oxygen, since in s8 “The Grudge,” while all the full humans are collapsing from CO2 poisoning, Keith, Zethrid, and Acxa are doing just fine without their helmets -- though, this might not apply because the humans have had their helmets off for quite a bit longer when we see them)

Either A) no tear ducts, or B) no emotionally-linked tear process (neurologically).

While we've definitely seen Keith cry, we've never actually seen him shed tears. 7x1, “A Little Adventure,” (seen above) is a really good example. When Allura tells Keith that Shiro might not make it, Keith’s eyes start quivering, and his voice gets all choked up. The subtitles even say "[sobs]" – but his eyes remain totally dry. This show is very fond of making characters' eyes well up, so it isn't a matter of animation convention – of all the paladins, this dry-eyed crying is specifically a Keith thing. Since I can't remember ever seeing a Galran shed tears, I'm gonna go ahead and hypothesize that they just... can't (but if I'm forgetting something, please let me know).

Protective inner eyelid (translucent, yellow).

When I mentioned the 'no tear ducts' hc to my friend, he suggested that maybe Galra have a protective inner eyelid instead. My immediate thought was that maybe this was what gave their eyes the yellow tint. They could very well just have yellow scelera, but we know from 6x5 “Black Paladins” that Keith can blink his scelera from white to yellow to white again, and Zethrid's damaged eye in s7 is clouded over white instead of yellow – possibly suggesting the natural color of the eye beneath.

So if Keith has a physical inner eyelid, rather than some magical Galra-rage transformation that turns his eyes yellow, why don’t we see it before the fight with Shiro, and why do we never see it again?

Theory: The process of lowering the inner eyelid is manual, like winking, not automatic, like blinking. Most Galra learn how to do it as children, and find it effortlessly simple, but Keith grew up not even knowing the extra eyelid was there, much less how to use it. After spending time with other Galra (either the Blade, or his mother), he learned how, but he’s not very good at it. He can use it, sometimes, but he can’t quite keep it put the way other Galra do most of the time.

When Shiro punches his helmet off, they’re on a space station high up in the atmosphere; there’s dust and debris and all sorts of things flying about, and it makes sense that he would want to protect his eyes -- but the moment Shiro distracts him by calling out his aggression, he loses his focus, and his eyes blink back to their usual appearance.

(As an additional headcanon, the thickness of the third eyelid varies from Galran to Galran and can distort the appearance of the eyes, which is why some Galra, like Thace, appear to have no irises/pupils at all; some, like yellow-eyed Keith, appear to have narrower irises/pupils than in reality, and some, like Krolia, have similar irises/pupils to humans and Alteans)

Based on Science (Cross-Species Hybridization)

Can't have biological kids. Typically, offspring of two different species are not capable of reproducing, due to inheriting different numbers of chromosomes from each parent. There are some exceptions, but they tend to be in cases where the two parent species are very closely genetically related, and somehow I get the feeling that humans and Galra... aren't.

May or May Not Be Galra-Heritage / Species-Hybrid Related

No facial hair.

While I’m totally here for trans Keith hcs, if we strictly follow canon, we did see his parents naming him as a baby, so he’s probably dmab. Yet, after two years in the wilderness, from around ages 19-21, there isn’t a hint of stubble on his face -- which, like the dry crying, isn’t an animation convention, because Shiro and Sam both grew facial hair in “The Journey” and Sam’s time as a prisoner, respectively. Galra can grow beards - Warlod Ranveig has a spiky mutton chop situation going on -- but since Keith is a two-species hybrid, it’s possible he has some unusual chemical balances that mean he doesn’t present traits that both of his parent species do -- in this case, facial hair.

(I know not everyone can grow a full beard, but he has very dark hair and very light skin -- even the slightest bit of peach fuzz would leave a visual mark)

Psychic Powers. Keith is almost definitely at least a little psychic (I'll go into that more at some point, but short version – sensed the energy of a lion that wasn't his, often responds to things the moment before they happen, was able to pinpoint Macidus's next location by just closing his eyes and feeling for it), but I'm not sure if that's connected to his heritage in any way.

No Canon Basis (Just for Fun)

UV Vision. The Galra ships are so... dark. It's really not conducive to any kind of efficient work. They're also very purple. I think it'd be kinda neat if Galra can see further into the ultraviolet spectrum than humans can – so their ships look dark to us, but the Galra can see just fine. And it’s fun to imagine Keith growing up in the desert with UV vision although maybe not if he doesn’t know how to use his protective eyelid.

Birthmark. Listen, I would love to hc that Keith has some kind of purple vitiligo going on on his torso or legs, or maybe some kind of Galra-like three-toe situation going on, but thanks to the swimsuit episode in s2, we know this guy is human-looking pretty much all over. Still, I'm gonna claim the few square inches they didn't show and say that Keith has a purple birthmark on the side of his upper thigh. His Galra traits don’t all have to be entirely hidden -- Keith knew something was up when he went to the Blade of Marmora, he kept asking them to tell him “where I come from” -- so I like the idea of him having a trait that could, ostensibly, be explained away as a rare human mutation, but in the context of him having an alien knife, makes him start to wonder.

95 notes · View notes

avatarpabu97 · 5 years

Text

Imprint au

So was talking to @fireynovacat about an au a while back about an au where Honerva and Zarkon weren't completely corrupted by the rift creatures. An a side note I just copied and paste my plot points from my pm because I’m lazy. Also I'm planning to turn this into two stories of the au.

Imprint au A

An AU where Zarkon and Honerva are still corrupted. But Honerva still remembers who she is. The zombie couple still thinks Altea needs to be destroyed. They along with the rest of the galra think they are truly keeping the peace and everything they do is in the name of peace. But due to the overexposure of quintessence, they can't reproduce as much so all children are cherished a little more. There are those who still hold halfbreeds in contempt so for their own protection Zarkon sends them to his sons personal fleet.

The Zombie couple is not in their right minds so they believe the means justify the end. Zarkon still wants Voltron so he can still bring peace and fight off the rift creatures or any other extradimensional beings because according to her research something of mythical proportions is coming.

So when team Voltron are discussing how they are being tracked they are all correct. Honerva is tracking the altean energy, the black lion bond and Zarkon accidental imprinting a parental bond on Keith.

Honerva is cursing Alfor's welp for bringing a Galra child into this. Eventually, they'll learn of the other paladin ages but they don't care. The whole precious children thing only apply to the Galra's children and those who are loyal.

Meanwhile, Zarkon is oh shit I have another child, now I must rescue them and cure him of the Altean's brainwashing. Shit gets super awkward when the BOM get involved because they recognize that Keith is a young adult by his father's species standards but are clueless about the imprinting.

The Galra can smell the general age of other beings since most species are longer than humans. So with Keith having both Humans and Galra scent, they think he's a kit/cub/kitten. Because I can.

Zarkon incapacitated the Empress/High Priestess has to summon Lotor and his fleet. Honerva catches up Lotor up to speed about his new baby brother and his supposed brainwashing.

Lotor and his fleet of halfbreeds are secretively against the current system since many were either abused by their Galra Parent or have seen their non-galra family and people being subjected.

Honerva wants Lotor and his Generals to keep the imprinting a secret, so he can be brought home safely before a massive power struggle happens and accuse him of attempting to steal the throne.

I've already established that Honerva thinks Keith is just a brainwashed child or a misguided one. So when he gets captured she's confirmed this by Peaking in his mind and seeing some of his hardships and neglect he may have been through on earth. She might psychologically mess with him or guilt. So, he would be a full-time member of the blade at this point.

'Look how Shiro abandoned you for Kerberos' 'Look how they forgot a special moment with you' 'Look how the princess mistreated you' Look how the Yellow one and Blue one make fun of your appearance or heritage' 'They let the green go on Personal missions and don't get mad at her but when you do it its bad'

Most of this is Canon stuff that has never been addressed or nobody really apologized to Keith for certain things.

Imprint au B

This one is not as well thought out.

Everything is the same as au a

But this takes place Pre-Kerberos

Galra scouts come to earth and kidnap little Keith, he’s about 4

The garrison and Keith’s dad witness this

Keith’s father becomes a member of the garrison and all space mission after that event has a secondary objective

place early waring sensors

the higher ups don't know about blue because papa kogane don't trust them

The scouts take Keith to druids for a health check before rehoming him

Zarkon hears about Keith from Honerva and imprints on him

Lotor now has a baby brother

He will eventually meet up with team Voltron after being a part of Lotor’s halfbreed fleet

https://ko-fi.com/avatarpabu97

#voltron legendary defender #imprint au #keith kogane #honerva #haggar #emperor zarkon #prince lotor #lotor's generals #imprint au a #imprint au b

3 notes · View notes

void-tiger · 5 years

Text

Headcanon:

Sven wears his hair as a mullet because it covers his old hoktril plug scars and other scars from where the Altean Empire installed other implants. Yes he’s Shiro-from-another-reality, but he’s also a force-grown clone. (Non-cogs would kinda have a hard time...erm...reproducing. So to get around sticky complications like inadvertant genocide yet still have a stable workforce? Genetically engineer the conquered species, and stick them in a Matrix until their minds fully develop enough/are thouroughly indoctrinated enough to adapt to the hoktril.)

AU Slav, however, isn’t a force-grown clone, and managed to escape captivity before the Evil Alteans could finish prepping him for a customized hoktril—Slav’s best asset to ANY orginization is his brain, so special measures were taken to preserve it. On his way out Slav tried to rescue other non-cogs and matrix-children, but only managed to free Sven. Slav then gave child-Sven his name and did his best to raise him.

Sven often has nightmares about the Matrix, or will wake up crying for his “parents”. Slav learned to lull Sven back to sleep by counting all the realities without hoktrils, or where Sven did grow up with a family (including a brother. “And in some realities, you have over 5,000.” “I want to visit those realities sometime.”), and their chances of success for the following days.

The “Guns of Gamora” are just Slav and Sven: Sven picked the name because he identified with Guardians of the Galaxy’s Gamora and her fight against the man who claimed to be her “father” (I’d like to think that the MCU/Marvel Comics exist in every reality, including fake ones like the Matrix). Sven also dubbed the Altean Empire’s “Matrix” as “The Matrix” because it’s eerily similar to the franchise of the same name that he watched while still inside it.

They know their chances with just the two of them unless they can finally free others are beyond being astronomically low. But they refuse to believe that this ISN’T the version of their reality where everything will somehow work out fine, anyway.

#vld sven #vld alternate slav #guns of gamora #veeladee fixit #headcanon

1 note · View note

ganymedesclock · 7 years

Note

I just the question about the Galra most likely laying eggs instead of live birth and my brain immediately jumped to Keith. We don't know exactly how Galra he is, but if his mom was full, then its possible that he could have hatched?

Also on the note of that last ask I sent, because my brain decided to add onto it AFTER I sent it; I don’t exactly think Galra could be reptilian. Keith is at least half-human and humans are mammals. His biology is too different from that of a reptile for him to have even survived infancy. Then again, if Galra shared characteristics from BOTH, then…

I mean in general I find half-human Keith a little improbable with the sense of: every alien population we’ve seen so far would appear to be self-contained. Considering environments like Space Mall, I feel like if we’re assuming all alien races can easily interbreed here- we’d see a lot more hybrids.

And I don’t personally buy the idea that the variance in galra is evidence that they’re mostly hybridized, especially because they all look very recognizable as the same species and they actively use biometric locks- if anything the fact that they use their genetics as a security measure would mean even if they could interbreed they’d want to be very secretive with their genetics. (Also, if galra are running around having kids with a bunch of other species, that would imply some very bad things considering the universe is under martial law by the galra- and I really don’t think the series would go there)

The other other side of this that bugs me is, I just. can’t buy Keith is half-human half-galra and just coincidentally came out of there with a completely human phenotype. Especially with the whole purple hand incident- I feel like the implication is, especially because we’ve seen that people in this setting can use magic to mask their appearance on not only a visual but a fully tactile manner- that the perfectly-human-looking Keith we’ve seen is not his true appearance.

(Which of course raises All Kind Of Questions because the only person we’ve seen create those illusions is Haggar using druid magic- but we’ve been led to believe Keith’s mom was a Marmoran and a swordsman, not a magic user, and someone would’ve had to have interacted with Keith to either cast that on him somehow, or teach him how to do it at a young enough age that he forgot he was even doing anything)

I mean, trying to assume the galra and humans are reproductively compatible is pretty unlikely because like… it frankly doesn’t matter if they’re mammals. A vast majority of mammals can’t reproduce unless they’re on very similar branches of the family tree and galra and humans, by originating on completely different planets, can’t be close enough for that even if they were both mammals. Even if we’re generous and figure the galra are monotreme-like mammals with some vague reptilian traits (or they’re just pure mammals, and the presence of scales on some specimens is just fused hair, making them pangolin cats rather than lizard cats) galra and humans really shouldn’t be able to reproduce any more than a chimpanzee and a hyena should be able to do it and make valid offspring. Like we’re skipping straight over “Keith as his parentage is proposed is probably sterile” and landing firmly at “Keith as his parentage is proposed is a significant enough biological improbability that I’m calling genetic realism on a show about magic robot space lions”

(Also am I the only one who finds it a titch suspicious that the words “half-galra” have not left anyone’s mouth at all in canon? Hunk asks if it was Keith’s mom or dad that was the alien, implying that, but Keith dodges the question even though it would seem to be clear-cut ‘it was mom’ by the flashback, and any reference to Keith and his heritage have consisted overwhelmingly of just “he’s galra” or “the galra blood flows in your veins” without ever specifying how much or what else)

And I mean sure, “But Clockie,” you might be saying, “what about Lotor, don’t you think he’s half-Altean?” which my rebuttal is: I’m pretty sure the Alteans are the only alien species in this setting who could do it with anybody and have viable offspring. Because the Alteans are able to change their bodies on a fundamental genetic level. Allura’s able to fool biometric locks supposed to only admit galra. The level they’re able to restructure their biology on would mean they could probably have kids with any species.

The Galra don’t have that.

#voltron legendary defender #vld #Keith #ask to tag /#long post /#mulletmcfiteme

69 notes · View notes

ruffsficstuffplace · 7 years

Text

Space Laser Puppy

For Anonymous.

“You brought home a puppy...?” Coran asked.

“Puppy” wasn't exactly the term Coran he use to describe the extra-terrestrial being Pidge had successfully convinced the others to let on board. He would have much preferred “slavering hell beast from the abyss,” but it seemed everyone else was referring to it as a “puppy” so that's what he was going to have to call it.

“Yes, yes we did, and her name is Zwei,” Allura replied.

Coran's eyes widened. “Quiznak! It's a female?!”

“Relax, Coran; to Pidge's best knowledge, they are only able to reproduce sexually. We can even figure out how to neuter her, if it'll help allay your fears.”

Coran huffed. “That is not my most immediate concern, though the idea of more of these 'dogs' running around the ship, and a mother with territorial and protective instincts over her pups is certainly terrifying!

“How big is this creature going to get? Where are we going to keep it? What are we going to feed it?”

His eyes widened. “Oh no, who's going to clean it up when it--”

Allura held her hand up, Coran stopped. “No larger than six feet and 300 pounds, at the most; Hunk and Pidge have already created a suitable habitat for it in the latter's room; they have also discovered it can eat and survive on most anything; and Pidge has already created drones to do that, until she is properly trained.

“Honestly, Coran, just because the decision was made on impulse doesn't mean we didn't slow down long enough to work out all the details—Pidge did an excellent job at that, I assure you.”

Coran frowned. “So was it her idea to bring this… puppy with us, then? Give you a gigantic, lifetime responsibility for a present? I swear, some of these romantic customs humans are so fond of baffle me!”

“No, and it was actually my idea.” Allura blushed, and looked away. “… I told Pidge I would very much love to have her, and promised her certain… benefits… if she would help me convince the others to bring her aboard.”

Coran stared at her. “Your majesty, please pardon my questioning of your decisions, but what do you even see in that… puppy?!”

“Haven't you seen her?!” Allura squealed as she balled her fists in front of her chest. “She's so adorable!”

Coran remembered the slavering hell beast from the abyss that had stepped out of the Green Lion alongside Pidge, and found that he really couldn't call her “cute” by any stretch of the word.

“Want to go visit her? I think it will do you well to see just how harmless she is.”

Coran sighed. “Oh, alright. Where is… she right now, anyway?”

“In the training room, being walked,” Allura replied. “You're worrying over nothing, Coran: how dangerous can a juvenile be?”

Pew! Pew! Pew!

The Alteans stood in the observation deck of the training room, watching in a mix of amusement (Allura) and abject horror (Coran) as Zwei blasted holes in the gladiator bots who were desperately trying to get close enough to attack her.

The two-headed quadruped gleefully pranced away from them, four tongues lolling out of her glowing mouths as she zoomed past half the training room in a few seconds. She spun around, skidding on the floor for a moment, before she shut her mouths, blue energy glowing from the gaps between her teeth.

She turned her heads to the gladiator bots, and opened them.

Pew! Pew! Pew!

A new round of lasers shot out of her mouth, nailing the bots with lethal accuracy despite the distance, heads exploding, or androids looking in surprise at the brand new holes in their chests, before they dropped dead.

Well to the side of the carnage and hidden behind a barrier, with spare parts and salvaged tech strewn all around them, Hunk and Pidge cheered.

“Woo!” Hunk cried. “Go Zwei!”

“Good girl!” Pidge shouted.

Zwei turned her heads to them, panting happily. Then, she reared her back and howled with delight, twin beams shooting out of her mouth and searing the ceiling.

“Woah!” Hunk cried as he fell back.

“Bad girl! Bad girl! Stop!” Pidge cried as she ran out of the field and to Zwei.

Zwei stopped firing, then looked at Pidge in a mixture of curiosity and worry; Coran supposed having two separate faces for each expression helped.

Pidge held out her hand. “Sit!”

Zwei sat.

“Eyes on me,” Pidge said, pointing two fingers at her, before pointing one back at herself.

Zwei looked at her.

Hunk sent a new gladiator bot out.

“See that bot?” Pidge asked, pointing at it.

Zwei's heads nodded.

“Shoot it.”

Pew!

The bot's head exploded, and its body fell down soon after.

“Good girl!” Pidge said, pulling a solidified cube of green goop out of her pocket and tossing it to Zwei.

One of her tongues snatched it out of the air, and threw it into her waiting mouth.

“See the ceiling?” Pidge pointed upwards, at the new burns in the training room.

Zwei turned her heads up.

“Don't shoot.”

Zwei kept her mouths closed.

“Good girl!” Pidge gave her another treat, and patted her on of her heads, too.

Zwei panted happily, energy still radiating from her lips.

Coran was finally able to wrench his eyes from the scene below him, and to Allura. “Why did no one tell me she could shoot lasers…?”

Allura shrugged. “This is just as new to me as it is to you!”

Coran frantically put one of the observation deck's headsets on. “PALADINS!” he yelled. “WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME YOUR NEW DOG COULD SHOOT LASERS!?”

Hunk, Pidge, and Zwei winced, their helmets taking a second too long to lower Coran's voice.

“We didn't know until she was on-board, either!” Pidge replied.

Allura put on her own headset. “How did this happen?” she asked.

“We were trying to build new toys for Zwei here out of some spare parts!” Hunk explained. “We made her a robot-version of one of those critters that were running around her planet for her to chase, but it turns out it's part of her species' natural diet, so she ate it after she caught it.

“Like, in just two bites, including the battery.”

“I guess there's something in her species' digestive system and genetic make-up that allows them to adapt helpful traits from whatever they eat,” Pidge added. “It explains why the armoured parts of her looked so much like the rocks on her planet, at least!”

“Well what else happens if she eats more tech?!” Coran yelled.

“We don't know!” Pidge said. “We're actually about to start experimenting to find out.”

“Oh, wait for me!” Allura said before before she took off her headset.

Coran reached out and stopped her. “Your majesty! I beg you, please, reconsider! It's dangerous down there with… Zwei in it!”

The two stopped as they noticed movement coming from the piles of scrap and spare tech near Hunk. Allura's mice triumphantly broke through the surface with a new gadget, a broken down a shockwave mining tool—or as it more commonly called, a “Dirt Blaster.”

Allura turned back to Coran and smiled. “The mice seem to think it's safe enough for them to be there, what does that say about me?”

Coran sighed. “Please suit up, your majesty, if for nothing else than my sanity...”

Allura patted him on the shoulder. “I will, Coran, I will.”

As she went to do that, Pidge and Hunk fed Zwei the dirt blaster and quickly got back behind the barrier. They waited a minute for her digestive system to do its work, the glow in her mouths quickly disappearing.

“Do you feel any different, girl?” Pidge asked.

“WOOF!”

She and Hunk staggered back as a cone of sound blasted the barrier, the plates shimmering as it struggled to absorb and disperse the energy.

“Well...” Pidge said as she slowly stepped forward, “I guess that answers that question. Wonder how powerful it is?”

Hunk dug out a non-functioning camera drone, basically a round metal ball without a scope. “Let's find out!” he said, tossing it up and down in his hand.

Zwei began to pant in excitement.

Pidge turned her around to her side, Hunk threw the ball in front of her.

“Bark, girl!”

“WOOF!”

The ball rocketed off, before it quickly lost momentum and bounced harmlessly on the floor.

Pidge hummed as she made notes. “Incredibly powerful sonic blasts, but force disperses widely and quickly, making it ineffective at long range. Hunk, could you get that ball back?”

“Already on it!” Hunk said as he ran off to fetch the ball. He came back, threw it back to Pidge when he close enough.

Zwei intercepted it. “WOOF!”

The ball came rocketing back to Hunk.

Hunk yelped and raised up his shield.

The ball ricocheted off the barrier, and back to Zwei.

Pidge watched with interest as she intercepted it again, angling her heads towards Hunk.

“WOOF!”

Now that he knew it was coming, Hunk angled his shield to send the ball ricocheting to Zwei. “Heh! It's like we're playing catch!” he said after it bounced off. “Sonic-Bark Catch!”

“WOOF!”

Hunk smiled and angled his shield away from Zwei, to give her some challenge this time.

At the same time, Allura entered the training room.

Zwei turned her heads to her, and began to pant in excitement. As the forgotten ball bounced and rolled on the floor, she ran towards Allura, tongues hanging out of her mouth, her expression excited as could be.

Allura smiled at her as she held out her arms in greeting. “Hello again, Zwei~!”

Pidge's eyes widened. “Wait, Allura, Zwei--!”

Too late.

Zwei barked.

“WOOF!”

Allura's smile disappeared.

Thoom.

Allura braced herself just before went flying, skidding across the floor for several seconds until she finally came to a stop.

“Your highness!” “Princess!” “Allura!”

Zwei yelped and sat down mid-stride, paws skidding on the ground until she stopped. She whimpered and looked at Allura in worry as Pidge and Hunk rushed over to help her back up.

“I'm fine! I'm fine!” Allura said as she got back up by herself. “This armour was made to withstand much worse things!”

“You sure you're alright?” Hunk asked as he and Pidge came to her.

“Definitely!” Allura replied. She looked at Zwei, frowning with her heads drooping. “If anyone needs comforting and care, it's Zwei...”

She smiled as she began to slowly walk to her.

Zwei whined and began to step back.

“It's okay!” she called out. “I'm fine and I'm not mad, Zwei! I know you didn't mean to hurt me.”

Zwei stopped, tilted her heads to the side in confusion.

The mice scampered over to Pidge, dug into her pockets and delivered several treat cubes to Allura. She thanked them, then held them out for Zwei.

“Here: as proof that I'm not mad.”

Zwei carefully padded over, her six pairs of eyes looking up at her for permission.

“Go on!” Allura chirped. “Take them.”

Zwei began to slowly, carefully pick up the cubes, opening her jaws out only as much as her it would take for tongues to slither out and pick up the cubes.

“I know it was just an accident, Zwei,” Allura hummed as she petted one of her heads with her free hand. “You're still a puppy with plenty to learn, mistakes are going to happen.”

Zwei swallowed the last cube, and started panting happily.

“Feeling better now?” Allura asked.

Zwei was about to bark.

Allura braced herself.

Then, Zwei shut her mouths, and began to nod.

All of them relaxed.

Allura let out a sigh of relief. “She learns fast!” she said as Pidge and Hunk came over.

Hunk laughed. “Yeah, she does! Probably gets it from her Dad-Mom Pidge over here,” he said, thumbing to her.

Pidge scowled. “She's my pet, not my kid, Hunk, knock it off! And why am I the dad-mom?”

Allura chuckled. “Well we are taking care of her now, aren't we? And really, Pidge, it's quite obvious that you're the more paternal figure between us two.”

“Building all sorts of cool tech for her with her uncle, teaching her how to shoot friggin' laser beams out of her mouth, religiously recording everything she does—yep, totally the dad-mom in this pair,” Hunk said, nodding.

Pidge sighed, and smiled. “Fine… so, Allura, want to play catch with our 'daughter?'”

Allura chuckled. “I'd love to~”

From the observation deck, Coran watched the trio began to play catch with Zwei, laughing and smiling as she and Allura ran across the training room, seeing who could knock the ball the farthest away and still send it back to the other.

He sighed as he pulled off his headset, and left the observation. He supposed the newest member of the Team Voltron did make Allura happy, and Pidge was more than capable of training her so she wouldn't end up accidentally destroying vast swathes of the ship.

He still wasn't going to clean up after her if she made a mess, though.

#pallura #voltron legendary defender #fanfic #allura and pidge get a puppy

1 note · View note