#( i know i was talking to someone & i compared him to a level 5 starter pokemon bc he basically is )

[erabundus]

scaramouche turning himself into electro for fun jumpscare shenanigans was 100% based on my brainrot theory that he would have an alt sprint and i'm too attached to let it go.

#𝟎𝟎𝟒 : 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥. ◟ hc .◝ #( is this a headcanon or me babbling?? yes. ) #( alt sprint used offensively but he literally moves at the speed of lightning itself. literally the *teleports behind you* meme JSKSKS ) #( it's a leftover hc from when i first started writing scara 8000 years ago ) #( you try to hit him and he literally dissolves into pure electro & you get zapped for your efforts. super annoying. ) #( he's still technically a catalyst user but more of the heizou-punching sort. hence why ren still likes to mix long & short range. ) #( i'd like to imagine one day ren figures out how to do it again once he gains better control over anemo bc right now he's still learning ) #( probably not for a very long time though (years) bc w/ his current skillset i imagine it would be very op ) #( one day i'll write a post elaborating on it & i've touched on it a few times but ren's current grasp over anemo is kind of?? bad ) #( i know i was talking to someone & i compared him to a level 5 starter pokemon bc he basically is ) #( his skill ceiling is just very high so it isn't immediately apparent ) #( but it becomes very obvious if you ask him to do something other than a) fly or b) kill ) #( he's so used to brute forcing it with electro & anemo doesn't really work like that )

[villains4hire]

Sheryl Goodspeed. (Final Space)

Sheryl is not shippable with most of the canon crew because of several factors. Mostly because of Gary's relationship to them and her, she's kind of the team murder, hot grandma mum that drives the minivan, it'd be kinda odd unless it was like an entirely different universe, no one knew each other, adults etc, but that's not the case and something I'm not interested in. As she would not be with Clarence for example, one of the few she could get together with, but wouldn't. You are free to pursue her outside of that though along with platonic things. And I am fine of course in separate verses of say shipping her with someone and then Ash, Fox, Clarence, Tribore with the same character, but not the same verse.

2. This character is Australian, I've know Australians and been in a friend group of over six years with mostly aussies in vc. Then one of my best friends of twelve years whom I speak frequently to has been helping me is Australian, but I've been mostly guessing things right and with their permission have copied their way of talking to Sheryl. I can assure you that while I might make mistakes with saying like biscuits instead of scones, I do try to use my slang and lingo correctly, along with refraining from what most aren't aware that's regional, or the fact I think it's correct in the assumption that 'sheila' is considered an outdated, but acceptable term for women since language always evolves etc. I'll do my best to not butcher her rep, but she may sound more typical to a certain region like my friend is, as I get there are differences, slang that varies everywhere in Australia. Then there will be jokes here and there, but nothing dehumanizing as I'm fine with soviet russia jokes while being slavic for example, so I kinda get it y'know and my friends and the people of Australia seem to have the same mindset, though I respect anyone that's from there to maybe have a problem with it? I doubt it. So also tag 's now this is a knife' if the term cunt or cunty bothers you as I won't overuse it though maybe make a few starters for it. Because hey, I wanna give actual good rep or at least try and Sheryl would def say it, just tell me beforehand if you don't wanna hear it.

3. I suggest reading my ->Final Space Disclaimer<- (Placeholder)

4. A lot of time passes between S2 Sheryl and S3 Sheryl of her and Gary becoming closer together, but more or less takes the same course.

5. I highly suggest reading her fanon backstory and her part in the ending, characterization drabble at the bottom. But I wouldn't consider it required to be compared to say Ash, Fox or maybe Clarence.

Continuation verse cybernetic arm reference.

Do I want them to die: Nah, mostly because of Gary for main timeline Sheryl, otherwise I probably would've killed her for her ending if she had remained unrepentant and Gary hated her. Bad timeline Sheryl is fine to die though. Will I have/get icons: I have around 220ish. Tag: priorities lost (Pre-Fanon Ending Verse), I am fine with her growing close to people outside of Gary before she does to him, but I will flavor she's made peace with Gary at this point if people wanna do silly stuff say with like my Ash or Fox and Sheryl with say a Gary etc for mostly wholesome fun | priorities found post fanon ending of Sheryl, her power set is the same but it's after the death of Invictus and more or less links with say my Fox, Ash, Clarence and Tribore's continuation, though as always: they don't have to be the focus. | 's this is a knife' as this character does say the word cunt or cunty. Blacklist that tag if it bothers you. | venture found is an au where Sheryl has a similar powerset still and is basically on levels of Brock Samson/the Archetype for the AU? This AU is mostly just for fun, stupid hero, villain stuff with a similar premise of Venture Bros but doesn't have to be that universe. Mostly just the idea. Age: 67 (She's stopped aging from her cybernetics and space Australian DNA) Sex: AMAB Gender: She's trans female no-op (It's the future, I don't have to explain jack). Is fine with she/him, being called mum or dad, both, variants of. Just not a combo like 'dom' or 'dommy'. Why both though? Eh, I thought it'd be cute if she could be both to Gary since he deserves both. That and other characters I have mayhaps depending on what they have with Gary. Race: Space Australian. Sexuality: A hole's a goal. (I joke, she just seduces people I guess) Personality traits: Gruff, not much of a talker unless it's a story or maybe someone she likes. Even then it's more than just a few words but still not much of a talker. Likes one-liners, sometimes cheesy ones. Bit of a flirt with some. Extremely loyal to a fault if you earn it. Manipulative. Opportunistic. Violent. Sadistic. Calm along with her anger most of the time, even in a fight to the death. Can experience surprise, but rarely is she ever afraid. Doesn't understand her own emotions that well. At times can enter denial, albeit not an obvious state. A bit of a loner. Doesn't like to stay in one place for long, a bit of a wanderer. Likes her hobbies when healthyish again, which include: likes fishing. Likes hiking. Likes hunting. Collects guns and weapons, especially 'knifes'. Likes camping. Survival cooking, Grilling, Bbqing. Likes old tech and ships and can be a bit of a secret nerd about it with knowledge alone, plays video games with Gary when made amends with him or other people she likes well enough. Tends to like action games or racing games. Likes a few pints here and there, can drink the pain away or just goes on dangerous missions if spiraling. Doesn't talk about her pain a lot, tends to endure things alone unless prompted. Can be worried or thoughtful to other people such as Ash canonically when it comes to well-being. She likes Space Maccas a lot. Mental traits: Has a form of ASPD and possibly depression. Thinks like a human, but has a very robotic way to analyze things due to her neural implants. Physical traits: A lot of scars on her body ranging from cuts, burns, bullet shots. Hands feel like leather, she can pick up sharp objects or fires without being effected much, granted it becomes only one of her hands in her post verse, it doesn't matter for the other so long as it's not like actual lava y'know. She's about the same height as Gary and Avocato which Avocato is said to be 6'5. She's pretty dense like him too considering her limbs might actually be thicker than his from what we've seen? So yeah, she's rather built too, albeit one for actual power so while she has definition, it's not that weird dehydrated body-builder look. Powers:

Lock picking - she can pick locks to even an eldritch horror's shackles. Why can she do this? I guess I explain it is that she uses specialized lockpick implants, or has lockpicks on her just in case.

Hacking - she's a stealth assassin and a spy in the endgame of her career. Kind of required.

Bombs - also kind of required but she's able to defuse bombs, plant them, subtly hide them, etc.

Pilot - is considered one of the best pilots in the universe in canon.

Ship engineer - well, she does know a lot about ships.

The world down undah - in the far off world down undah of far space? Is the near mystical world of Space Australia, where giant creatures roam, the inhabitants immigrants from Earth centuries ago when a great calamity happened in the region of Australia, they simply picked up Australia with their ships and left. This new environment they lived in gave them almost a super power in itself from overtime exposure, making them a formidable force in the universe... as few often wish to invade Space Australia, as even the areas in Space around it are inhabited by giant creatures, yet the people of Space Australia there flourish all too well.

Cybernetics - the cybernetics vary, but range from neural interfaces from targeting systems, reflexes, durability. Then for her post verse? Using one of her purple plasma knives deploys from her palm for the robotic right arm and some of her weapons listed below or tossed out of like a grenade. Has a slight healing factor, but couldn't regenerate her arm for instance.

Weapon Use - plasma guns ranging from overshoulder blasters, plasma blades, plasma pistols, machine guns. Grenades, sticky bombs and a few non-lethal things like tranq-darts All preferably silenced but interweave into her fighting style. She could certainly deflect bullets and plasma shots for a few, but not quite say a gatling gun or a machine gun. But maybe single to semi-auto.

Stealth Assassin - knows how to move undetected and tends to be her preferred method if going in guns a blazing is a stupid idea, even for a thrill.

Gadgets - things like grappling hooks, her jet boots, comms communicators, her fake back molar jacks to use for hacking, etc.

Planner - if she feels it's needed, otherwise she might just go in guns blazing. Can create month-long intricate plans, however

Knows the universe rather well and where to go - mostly from her experiences and contacts. Though she isn't the most connected other than to weapon producers and where to get illegal shit, her gear, then things like Space Maccas or other things from Earth.

Is able to track - She tracked down Todd pretty single-handedly, granted, acted a bit rash as she was trying to take him alive at first to torture for information. Though they ended up working together.

Motivations: To see tomorrow. To be with her family. To find thrills in her interests or excitement in life. Pursuing hobbies. To survive no matter the cost. Backstory:

To sum it up: her background is with her family, previously known as Sheryl Anderson, as a young hitman starting at the age of 15 in an Australian Mafia in Space Australia when her dad made her an ultimatum before she later becomes Agent Y, then eventually Prisoner Y when she was captured decades after murdering her old boss, though the organization is much bigger than that is why they're still after her. The only reason she wasn't executed right away was to have a prisoner transfer so they could execute her in public etc, but then freed herself when reuniting with Gary. Then her fanon ending is her going with Gary when killing Invictus to provide a way out for him after the deed is done and her own conclusion as a character with added characterization and her perspective with Gary.

You can read it below for her full backstory and conclusion, which I recommend! But I don't think is AS required say as my Ash and Fox reworks.

->Where Priorities Lie<-

#priorities lost #priorities found #s now this is a knife #venture found #long post

[mermaidsirennikita]

ARC Review: The Good Girl's Guide to Rakes by Eva Leigh

Out February 22, 2022.

4/5

Kieran Ransom and his brother, Finn, think that they're doing the right thing when they ruin their sister's wedding. Their best friend (and her fiance) is struck by a bout of self-loathing minutes from hitting the altar, and they'd rather she just avoided getting married compared to getting married to someone who doesn't feel worthy of her. Right! Right? Riiii--

The issue is that both families have now been plunged into scandal, and as punishment for their misdeeds, Kieran, Finn, and Dom have all been charged with finding respectable wives in short order by their parents. For Kieran, this is particularly tricky as he is a known lothario who is prone to hitting the orgies (while wearing eyeliner, which is, in a word, delightful).

Enter Dom's sister, the genteel and well-respected Celeste. A member of a rich family who comes from poverty, Celeste is set to marry a total bore, and would rather experience some kind of a life before she's bound in holy matrimony. So she offers Kieran a deal: he takes her to all those fun parties (perhaps an orgy or two) and she'll help him find a proper wife.

This set up seems to be pretty en vogue at the moment (I did read a similar premise in Megan Frampton's Gentleman Seeks A Bride) but I'm honestly not mad at it. Celeste is a super likable heroine--sweet but not a pushover, at home in high society but not without a bit of roughness about the edges. She's from a self-made family; she may be refined now, but she remembers sleeping on the floor and going hungry for nights on end.

And Kieran... does some quality pining. I think my favorite parts of the book were honestly when Kieran would be giving Celeste Longing Looks while his brother cursed in the background because it's really obvious that you fucked her when you're giving the The Long Looks (TM). He's also like, a delightfully emotional and borderline foppish hero. His Secret Talent (not the sexual one) was something I should have seen coming, but I was happy when it did come up. Like, I wont lie--am I somewhat more excited to read about the inevitable heroes of the next two books (snarky Finn and GIANT ANGSTY MAN WHO CAN'T TALK GOOD Dom)? Yes. I wouldn't necessarily say that Kieran is my perfect hero. But I don't need them to be perfect to enjoy them, and he was just... incredibly likable. And again, eyeliner goes a very long way.

There is one scene in this book that reminded me so much of the bit in Titanic where they go down to the third class party and get drunk and sweat and Feel Their Desire, and honestly? I'm all for it. Leigh does a good job of peppering in enough representation to remind us that like, not everyone in nineteenth century London was white and straight, and not everyone had an issue with that. I wouldn't mind if she made one of the featured players at those parties a hero in the future, but we'll see. He sounded hot, is all I'm saying.

Also--I both want to ding and endorse this book for sex. There should have been more of it, for my liking... But I don't know, maybe that's just me, because there honestly is a good amount in this one, and it's done super well. Love that Eva Leigh isn't afraid of saying "cunt". Love that Kieran is very, very good with them. Love that we have a heroine who just wants to get off.

It does read a bit like a series starter. There are some series starters where you can sense the author had an idea they loved for a book and then spun the series out sequels, and there are series where you can tell that the author had an idea for a series and then organized which stories came when on a practical level. For me, I did get the vibe that Leigh is looking forward to Finn and Dom's stories a little bit more than Kieran and Celeste's. But it's still great, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a fun, not-too-heavy, hot read. And she has me penciling in the other books on my calendar, so mission accomplished.

Thanks to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

#books #book recs #arcs #romance novel blogging

[dumplingfaye]

Here’s my top 30 strongest characters in Black clover

(I’m trying to be extremely fair but there is some biased so if there’s someone that doesn’t make that much sense why they’re highly ranked it’s because I’m biased one character in particular and I’m doing this because someone made a absolutely god awful top 15)

Charlotte Roselei .30

if you wonder why she’s ranked so low it’s because even though she fought Vanica and won that was when Vanica was weaker and once Vanica went 100% she creamed Charlotte plus her magic was only effective because it was cursed magic if she fought any of the other dark triad members she would have probably lost

Lumiere Silvamillion Clover/Licht .29/.28

if you’re wondering why they’re so low on the list it’s because they couldn’t defeat Zagred and contrary to some people’s beliefs Zagred is actually extremely weak at least compared to the other Devils

Zagred .27

he’s very powerful what can I say but he’s pretty low on the list because well he is smart however when it comes to fighting he’s very bland and does the exact same thing over and over

Luck Voltia/Leopoldo Vermillion/Charmy Pappitson/Mimosa Vermillion .26/.25/.24/.23

a basic summary they all have true magic and intern they all have ultimate magic (Luck has Elven magic as well which also gives him an extra boost) (Leopoldo is a Royal and trains a lot so he doesn’t gets left behind)” not that that helps”(Charmy is a hybrid of a human and a dwarf)and (Mimosa is a Royal as well as a recovery mage but that doesn’t mean that she can’t put up a good fight)

Nozel Silva/Fuegoleon Vermillion 22/.21

(Nozel to tell the truth i’m not actually sure how much powerful he’s gotten over the last six months but he’s probably going to play a big role soon so this is also kind of his biased) as for (Fuegoleon to tell the truth I kind of think he’s pretty weak but maybe he has spirit dive so that’s why he’s here if he doesn’t well he’s not even on the list in that case)

Zora Ideale .20

you’re probably wondering why he’s here This isn’t me being biased because I’m kind of indifference towards Zora but he’s here because his magic is quite interesting he can reflect someone’s attack and double its power and he possibly even has more tricks up his sleeve after all it has been six months

Magna Swing: .19

now you’re probably wondering why he’s so low on the list after all he beat Dante well that’s actually pretty simple it’s because to me this is actually kind of me being biased I don’t actually like Magna in fact I actually hate him but to me personally I think his trump card is for very pacific conditions for starters we know that Dante is extremely strong right when it comes to magic but when it comes to intellect or physical strength he has none so to me if Magna fights someone with either of those things or God for bid both I personally think he would lose but this could just be my bias talking

Gaja .18

he fought the wizard king to a stalemate and he was able to fight Devil Lolopechka to an even degree when he wasn’t even trying to hurt her but she was trying to hurt him (I could be wrong please don’t get mad at me keep in mind this is just my opinion)

Julius Novachrono(at prime) .17

Julius at his prime everyone stroke his power and even though Yami trained for six months he was still weaker than Julius he only became stronger after he surpassed his limits

Yami Sukehiro .16

(dimension slash/Equinox)(death thrust)(Black hole) etc.

Jack the Ripper .15

if I’m being honest I’m pretty sure if he fought Magna he would probably lose (because he has a weak body and doesn’t have that much intellect) but because his magic is so versatile that he can adapt to the magic attribute it’s against he possibly could do incredible things with it even though I kind a wish he would die I don’t like him either

Devil Lolopechka .14

To tell the truth I’m not exactly sure if she’s stronger than anyone who’s on the list but I assume she is at the very least I know she’s stronger than Charlotte but because she’s a devil she’s probably stronger than most of the other characters

Zenon Zogratis /Yuno Grinberryall .13/.12

if I’m being honest I don’t actually know who’s stronger because even though at the beginning of their fight (of course not in their first one) Yuno was indeed winning the fight but after Zenon went 100% it came to a stalemate so I’m not exactly sure who is stronger (one is a devil user) and the other (is a spirit user) so 50/50 ╰(0 ~ 0)╯

Dante Zogratis/Vanica Zogratis: .11/.10

I mean they’re both stupid and they’re both strong and I didn’t put them in the same boat as Zenon because when Vanica heard that “Yami was defeated by Zenon” she said that he might not be as strong as she hoped implying that she was stronger than Zenon plus Dante has the king of all devils so that’s why there here

Dorothy Unsworth .9

this might be my bias talking but because she has her own world (created by magic) she can conjure up anything she wants and of course she’s gotten stronger over the six months so that’s why she’s highly ranked

Mereoleona Vermillion .8

She’s fighting a demon God and even though her magic is being absorbed she can still fight so yeah

Noelle Silva/Acier Silva .7/.6

to me personally they don’t actually have that many differences when it comes to strengths because both of them defeated Vanica and sure Vanica was weaker when she fought Acier but (Acier had to protect both of her children plus she died because of Megicula’s interference) and Acier was able to leave a permanent mark on Vanica

Nacht Faust .5

(OKAY if I’m being honest this is extremely biased I really like him a lot) but Nacht was able to cream Asta and Liebe for two days straight and while they were being cured he wasn’t (I mean it’s possible he was but I didn’t see it and neither did you” except in Fanart”) and they were able to defeat Dante and fight on par with Yami when they were weaker and out of breath and not even working in conjunction with each other so yeah and when he fought Naamah and Lilith he was able to perform a spell that is on the same level as supreme devils and the only reason why they were able to break through it is because Naamah and Lilith burn/freeze everything even invincible concepts/constructs and they were the strongest Devils we’ve seen so far at that pint in time and even though they were playing with him at a stalemate they were still stronger than anything they faced before and he was able to keep them busy for a little while wow this one was long

Naamah and Lilith .4

I just said it before but they’re able to burn/freeze everything you need including invincible concept/constructs anyhow they’re basically extremely strong and they could cream everyone on the list except the people who are higher than them

Megicula .3

well he/she (I don’t want to assume genders and be wrong) basically trashes on everyone in mere instant

Asta & Liebe .2

Devil union is just that over powered I mean it’s able to take out transformations such as spirit dive possibly other devil unions and of course normal spells such as Valkyrie dress or princess healing flower robe as well spirit of hellfire etc. able to dispel mana-zone based rooms is able to cut through any type of magic even if it’s a physical being and the sword themselves already pack a punch by themselves so with extra power that’s just over powered

Lucifuge/Lucifero .1/.0

Who the fu*k did you think was going to be number one/number zero Seriously who they’re literally the main bad guys in this arc it is impossible to tell what they’re capable of but whatever it is we know that they can kill anyone they want in an instant without even trying this isn’t me overhyping them this is a factual thing they are practically the most overpowered creatures in Black clover we have yet to see them and frankly I don’t think we want to I mean both of them killed really kind people Lucifero killed Licita Lucifuge I mean technically he didn’t kill Morgan (Morgen died because he interfered with the Devil ritual) but they killed Nacht and Morgan parents and if we’re being honest their parents well they kind of did deserve death

#Black clover #Black clover Asta #Asta #Black clover Liebe #Black clover Nacht #Black clover Nacht Faust #Nacht Faust #Black clover Noelle #Noelle #Black clover Noelle Silva #Noelle Silva #Black clover Yuno #Yuno #Black clover Yuno Grinberryall #Yuno Grinberryall

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Top 10 favorite things about TFS?

Bold of you to assume I can narrow it down to just 10 things, but I’ll try my best. 

Here’s a list of things I LOVE about The Final Season of TWDG, starting from #10 and working my way down to #1.

10. Rosie is best girl and doesn’t die 

Listen, okay? If you give me a game with a doggo companion that I bond with only to have said doggo die for dramatic effect... you automatically lose 2 outta 5 stars on your rating. Case in point: Season 2.

However, tfs knew not to kill Rosie off for dramatic effect, knew it’d be cheap. Plus, Rosie is a sweetheart and I love that she helps Clementine come to terms with her past trauma with dogs and genuinely bonds with her. Rosie is best girl. 

9. Over the shoulder camera/controls 

They’re the best of the series, having come a LONG way since S1. Like, look... Don’t get me wrong. S1 isn’t unplayable or anything, far from it, but they’re not the greatest either. They’re pretty wonky at times, the fixed camera can get annoying when you’re moving around, and sometimes button presses don’t register. It’s definitely something I have to get used to whenever I go back and replay the entire series, and like I said, it’s not the worst controls in the world... but oh man, compared to TFS?

Have you ever played S1 and then jumped straight into TFS just to get a direct comparison of the two? Because I have and it’s jarring how much smoother, accurate, and overall better everything is in TFS.

Just... props, guys. Thank you for the over-the-shoulder, movable camera, thank you for the polished button prompts, and thank you for a run button that has Clementine go into a nice jog rather than a comical run or, eh... does nothing [lookin’ at you ANF... Javi slow].

It’s just so effortless to play. The most trouble I ever have is with doors but that’s a given- Doors make no goddamn sense in this series and I’ve given up trying to learn their secrets. Oh, and speaking of more improvements! 

The shooting mechanic in this game is leaps better than in S1. Y’all remember the Motor-Inn shootout? The one that was such a frustrating pain in the ass?? So much death and anger...

I still die sometimes when shooting the walkers with the bow, especially the ones that are on fire, but it’s nothing compared to the shooting mechanic in S1, so the biggest THANK YOU for that one. It’s actually enjoyable to shoot stuff this time around.

8. Collectibles 

You as Clementine get to pick up various collectibles to decorate her and AJ’s dorm with and it’s great. One of my favorite bits about this game is seeing Clementine wake up in this empty, lifeless room, and see it get brighter and brighter with every collectible you place throughout the game until you reach the final scene with AJ where the room is just FULL of life and personality. Like... it’s officially theirs. It’s such a good feeling! 

And the devs totally didn’t have to add the collectible system in, but I’m so thankful they did. I’m one of those people who gets every single collectible every single time I play. 

7. Ericson’s Boarding School for Troubled Youth

Y’know, I honestly can’t think of a better place for Clementine and AJ to end up than Ericson’s Boarding School for Troubled Youth. It’s awesome, I love it, what a great idea. I also love the sense of wonder when we step outside for the first time and see the inside of Ericson, as well as the others, walking around. Like even Clementine is taken back by it.

Because of course it makes sense for Clementine to end up in a school surrounded by people closer to her age rather than with a group of dumbass adults like in the past three games.

Here it feels like they’re all about on the same level. There’s no older person here belittling Clementine because “she’s just a child and doesn’t get it,” they’re just people, y’know? Hell, if anything, Clementine’s now the most experienced one!

The school’s great! I wouldn’t change a thing about TFS taking place here. The environments are beautiful and I love exploring the world. 

6. Marlon as an antagonistic character/final confrontation 

I have an entire Marlon character discussion/study so I won’t put too much time into this one, but I will say that I love Marlon’s part in tfs. I love him as a surprise antagonistic character, I love how chill he is in the beginning, I love the final confrontation at the end of ep1... I just really like Marlon, y’know?

Ray Chase gives a damn near perfect performance as Marlon, so much so that I wish he survived past ep1 just so that I could hear more of his acting. Marlon himself in an interesting look at a leader character hiding his shame and guilt while trying to maintain control over everyone [including himself] around him, only to be broken down when he’s found out. 

5. James 

I know people tend to be pretty split on James, but I personally really like his role in tfs. I love that they included a character who was apart of the Whisperers, and hell, if anything I’d like to know MORE about James’ past with them. 

I just find him and his whole “walkers are sort of people? kinda?” beliefs. Again, I know some people get annoyed with him because of his beliefs but I think he adds an interesting spin on the whole thing, y’know? Though I do love what a bitch he is if you don’t agree with him hahaha

James is a bitch and I love him, okay? I love his dumb walker mask, I love his dumb boyband hair, I love his whispery voice, and I love his backstory with the Whisperers and Charlie. I love this he’s trying so hard to be this pacifist that he ends up doing the literal thing he said he doesn’t want to do-- hurt people. Y’know... like attempting to kidnap AJ and threatening to break Clementine’s leg in the caves if he’s alive. 

Which, by the way, that whole cave scene is a thing. It’s wild and I love it but not for the reasons the devs probably wanted. Like... it’s a little hilarious? I know it’s not supposed to be! But I can’t take James seriously when he’s walkin’ around his hands on his hips all huffy and puffy, okay? It’s just wild. 

Anyway, I love James and wouldn’t get rid of him. Hell, I’m still waiting for my James with the Whisperers mini-series, Skybound. 

4. Ericson Crew

There isn’t a single character from Ericson that I don’t like, or that I’d get rid of, which is rare with these games. Thinking back to the previous games, there’s always at least one person I could do without or that I didn’t like. I adore all of them!

The Ericson crew just feels closer than previous groups. For starters, they’re way more likable than most in our previous groups. Even when there’s tension [and boy is there tension at points] you still get the sense that they don’t hate each other, unlike in our previous groups. They do in fact love each other as a family and will do what they can to protect one another.

Plus, they’re all interesting. They’re troubled youth and I love all of them! 

Aasim keeps a daily journal where he chronicles everything in hopes of learning from past mistakes to prevent future ones, he’s damn good with a bow, and he’s got a neat little soul patch on his chin.  

Ruby is the tiny yet fiery medic of the group who adamantly believes in manners yet used to chase teachers around with pitchforks. 

Brody is caught up in the twin mess with Marlon but she’s also shown to want an escape, a road trip where she and her friends can go see the beach, but she also suffers with anxiety and panic attacks and isn’t afraid to knock Marlon on his ass or swear at Clementine. 

Mitch is a grumpy, tall boy who looks after Willy like a brother, knows how to make bombs out of manure and propane, and used to fight his neighbors because they didn’t like his face. 

Omar is a sassy chef who has to have every ingredient just right otherwise he’s salty for a week and he can take a bullet to the leg like a champ. 

Willy’s a goober who can climb trees like you wouldn’t believe and he made a bomb of his own in Mitch’s honor that completely wrecked the delta’s ship. 

Tenn is a soft, naïve boy who draws and reads but isn’t afraid to stab a walker bitch if he has to. 

Violet was sent to the school after witnessing her grandmother’s dead, she used to date Minerva who is now “dead,” has abandonment issues,  tries to give off the appearance of a grumpy grump but like once she’s comfortable with you she’ll tell you her life story and do romantic shit like dancing and painting you a pin. 

Louis was sent to Ericson because he was a rich brat who broke up his parents marriage because they wouldn’t let him take singing lessons and has felt like garbage ever since, using humor to cope and push people away, and keeps the façade on until someone’s willing to see past it in which he’ll finally bare his soul to you, name a song he wrote after you, and do everything in his power to keep you and everyone else safe over himself. 

I just... Love ‘em all. 

3. Clementine and AJ’s dynamic 

To think that they almost killed AJ off, or kept him a minor character. That would’ve been a shame and an absolute waste because Clementine and AJ’s dynamic is super fucking good in tfs. 

It’s actually a little baffling that AJ’s as good as he is, from his writing to his voice acting, he’s just great. And his relationship with Clementine is definitely one of my favorites to come from this game. It’s not perfect, but I don’t want perfect. 

I love that AJ looks to Clem for guidance and I love the way our choices affect him, even when it’s a case of the bridge scene. Hate the bridge scene knowing that I gotta sacrifice a character I care about for another I love, but I can’t deny that I love how that choice is made. After everything, do you trust AJ or not? 

Plus, their conversations are so well done, their chemistry is through the roof, and I wouldn’t change it. 

Oh, and the barn scene? Gets me every time, even though I already know everything’s fine and gonna work out. Still gets me. 

2. Clementine is Bisexual

I’ve talked about this in the past, but lemme just say that I love the fact that Clementine is canonically bisexual. 

Doesn’t matter if you’re dating Louis, Violet, or no one, Clementine is still bisexual. The game confirms it through it’s text/subtext and Clementine’s actions that we don’t have control over, and the devs confirmed it. She ain’t straight, she ain’t a lesbian, she is bisexual. 

I can’t express how happy that makes me. Just... 💗💜💙

And with her being bisexual comes her two great love interests: Louis and Violet. They’re amazing, and such an improvement over the previous game’s attempt at love interests... ahem, y’know... Kate.

1. Louis as a character/his relationship with Clementine 

I mean... c’mon. Y’all knew what #1 was gonna be. Do I even need to explain? This entire blog is just me gushing about Louis/clouis. 

Look, Louis is my favorite non-playable character across the entire series. Hell, even when you factor in playable characters, he’s STILL my absolute favorite. Like, even outside of his relationship with Clementine, I find him to be such a compelling character by himself. 

Like I mentioned above, he came from a stupid rich family who gave him everything he ever wanted, but when his father wouldn’t let him take singing lessons, he literally worked for over a year to break up his parents marriage because “you get to be happy or you get to be rich, can’t be both.” 

He gets sent to Ericson where the apocalypse happens, he never gets to make up with his parents, and he ends up using jokes and piano as a coping mechanism to deal with everything, falls into a cycle of being unreliable and the butt of the joke, and lives one day at a time without much thought for the future. 

He puts on the happy jokester persona to push people away from knowing the real him and rarely shares much about himself. Hell, when Clementine does hunting and decides to take care of the walker with him, he actually does let down the wall for a minute to share his view on “this moment” before looking away like “Oof, shared too much-- HEY, GO CHECK ON AASIM :D I’LL BE OVER HERE :D FIXING THE TRAP :D and adjusting the wall ahem--” 

It’s so interesting because you’d think that he’d be more open about his past with Marlon or the twins or whatever [like Violet is] but no, he doesn’t tell you shit about his past until EPISODE 3 and you have to work to get that story. 

I just... I just love him. Could talk about and analyze his character for hours. And I love his relationship with Clementine. It’s just so good. The piano scene where they finally admit their feelings for one another?? That shit has my entire heart. Their entire relationship is my favorite. What else is there to say? 

#asks #twdg clementine #twdg aj #twdg louis #twdg violet #twdg aasim #twdg ruby #twdg brody #twdg marlon #twdg mitch #twdg willy #twdg james #twdg tenn #twdg omar #twdg minerva

[rkmeiqi]

—may 24th, 2020.

today is a very important day for me! ♡ and so, i come with an extremely long and semi-emotional post (for me, at least) that follows under the cut.

three years ago today, i was accepted into my first tumblr krp ever—rookies. ♡

it was a difficult decision moving to tumblr rp. for starters, i was a 16 year old who had never tried properly rping, and that too on a platform like tumblr. so everything was completely new to me. and, quite frankly, it was scary. and while i dabbled in fic writing, at some point i felt like it wasn't enough for me. i wanted to challenge myself and my writing. luckily, my sister convinced me to give rookies a shot, because it had been running for a while and she had heard good things about it. so, after about three weeks of convincing, we joined together: me with rkmeiqi, and my sister with meiqi's now-npc cousin, vivi.M/small>

the experience was quite overwhelming. in a good way, because everyone here has always been so welcoming, and i've noted that with every second muse i have brought in since i first joined. however, it was extremely overwhelming in a bad way too, because i was a teenager with bad anxiety and it was an unfamiliar environment and i didn't know anyone. everyone was older than me and i couldn't help thinking "no one wants to write with a kid like me."

because it was my first time in a tumblr krp, i was so self-conscious that i didn't even know what to do with rkmeiqi; i had to look at everyone else's old acceptances and blogs to see what was normal—what i should do—instead of deciding things for myself. i didn't know how to write for rp, or what a script was, or how to plot. i was a mess. you could see that much in my app (and i apologize to the mods for making you read that shit).

honestly speaking, if you look at my acceptance and compare it to the threads i write nowadays, the change and growth is glaringly obvious. it's a little embarrassing, to tell you the truth. scratch that—it's super embarrassing. but it's also kind of amazing to see the struggling newbie blossom into someone who can pump out a 5-paragraph reply in less than half an hour. sometimes i don't even recognize myself.

i wanted to drop rkmeiqi so many times, i even made polls on twitter to ask you guys if i could! surprisingly enough, it's my sister who yelled at convinced me to keep going no matter what, because i had already lasted a few months and if i dropped rkmeiqi, i would lose all that progress (the gall my sister has, forcing me to keep rkmeiqi when she had dropped her muse within the first few weeks!).

so i held on. i kept holding on, and then meiqi got signed by nova in december of 2017 and i was over the moon. but i also felt guilty, because i hadn't been in rookies for too long and i didn't put in half as much effort as some other people, but i was getting an offer too good to pass up.

i still feel guilty sometimes, because i've been extremely lucky with rkmeiqi—she got signed pretty early on, she got big opportunities like the sn project, and now she's a debuted idol with and*roma. all in the span of three years. it feels surreal, and it's also a little unnerving to think that i've actually done all this, and that i've been in one place for so long. this has never happened to me before!

along the way, i tried my hand at various second muses, since i love rookies so much, but i always failed with them. only recently have i picked up hangyulrk, but he's lasted longer than any other attempt. i love writing for him as much as i love writing for rkmeiqi, and i fully intend to keep him around for as long as i can. (please plot with him♡)

i guess what i'm trying to say (and failing at saying, because i'm too caught up in emotions and reminiscing and it's 3am as i draft this post) is that these past three years have been... pretty darn good. i can't think of any other way to put it. while stressful at first, i have really blossomed in my three years here. rookies has given me the chance to develop my writing to a level i never thought would be possible; rookies has given me an outlet and an escape from real life; rookies has introduced me to a lot of wonderful people.

while my muse (just rkmeiqi, because i haven't decided to torture hangyulrk just yet) has definitely grown and changed, it's not an exaggeration to say i've also grown and changed while here. it's only three years, but i've gone from a high schooler who struggled to get out of bed in the mornings, to an adult who has learned that the world isn't perfect but it can still be nice once in a while. i've learned a lot of things in the past three years, and i've overcome so many hurdles, and i couldn't be happier to be celebrating all this progress—both in my life and with my writing—with you guys.

i never thought it would happen. but i'm here, i'm grateful, and i hope i can continue to write with all of you for many more years to come.

to everyone at rookies, whether we talk daily or we’ve never even interacted, each and every one of you in this beautiful rp, thank you for making the past three years into something that is precious to me! ♡

love, sunny!!!

#ooc; #guys this was actually super long but i had to cut so much because im a chronic over-sharer T________T #for that reason its probably kinda choppy and doesnt make sense but i dont wanna edit it so whatever!!! #happy 3 year anniversary to me

[tiaragqueen]

Can I have 5 in manipulative yandere starter prompts for garou :>

Over A Barrel

✂ Pairing: Yandere! Garou x Reader

✂ Word Count: 1,3k

✂ Trigger Warning: Killing, stalking, mention of domestic violence, possessive behavior, yandere theme.

[Edited]

***

For those who want the sequel of At Variance, here it is.

5. “Don’t think of it as a ‘punishment’… it’s more of a lesson.”

Part 1

If you like my writing, please support me on ko-fi!

“Because to take away a man’s freedom of choice, even his freedom to make the wrong choice, is to manipulate him as though he were a puppet and not a person.”  ― Madeline L'Engle

It has been a few weeks ever since Garou’s little… tantrum. For those who have witnessedthe little spat, they might consider it as more than just a mere tantrum. Afterall, it was bordering on violence. And just a bit more, it could cross the domestic abuse territory.

Honestly, you couldn’t blame them for thinking that way.

Garou was never hesitant to throw hands when needed. Or inyour case, asserting his dominance.But it wasn’t so much of a tantrum, in your opinion. If he did mean to hurtyou, he could’ve done that easily and quickly. Your strength was nothing compared to his, and the splitcoffee table in your living room proved the largedifference between both powers.

And ever since that fateful day too, Garou had sort of‘stayed’ with you. Probably to keep an eye on you or something. As assured ashe could be, he still wouldn’t want you to suddenly change your mind despitethe subtle threat and leave him. Itwas almost funny how hard he tried tocover his paranoia with sneers and lies when you knew better.

Not only that, but you also noticed that he had begun tofill you in more regarding his recent battle. Normally, he would sulk aroundwhen the enemies were nothing like he’d expected or kept quiet to refrainhimself from accidentally lashing out to you. He might not exercise highself-control, but even he could be rather considerateof your feelings. Now, he had made it a point to brag about how they were too‘weak’ for him to handle regardless of his fluctuating level of satisfaction.

It didn’t take a genius to know that he was trying to implyhis power over you, or how he wasmore than capable of killing fellowhumans should you ever resort to a more ‘violent’ payback. It wasn’t like youcould do it, anyway. And he knew it,too. Yet, despite his annoying bragging, he also had a strange tendency toleave those heroes alive afterbeating relentlessly rather than dead like you’d expected to.

Not that you prayedfor it to happen, though. It was just something that you automatically assumedsince he seemed so… passionate whentalking about his ideals.

You sat on your knees, staring at the bloody carcass infront of you. From afar, it might look like you were mourning its death. Butyou knew better than taking pity on a being that almost killed you on the spot.It was just a way for you to prolong the thick silence since running wasn’t theoption anymore. Not when you had blown up your only chance of seeking help from the nearby heroes. He could easilydefeat them to the ground, yet you remained optimisticthat someone would come to save you someday.

“What are you doing here?”you hissed. “I thought you went to fight that A-class hero.”

“Oh, trust me I did.”His reverberant voice was calm. Toocalm for your liking. Too calm for someone that should be angry. “I think I should be the one who asked you that. What thefuck are you doing here? Didn’t yehear the announcement earlier? I’m pretty sure yer apartment isn’t sound-proof,unless ye chose to make yourself deafby blasting yer shitty music at full volume again.” 

Fiddling with your fingers, you feigned deafness over hisquestions. Garou heaved a weary sigh, clearly unimpressed with your sorryattempt of maintaining innocence.

“Aren’t ya going to thank me? I saved you, y'know? Without me, ye would’ve been long a goner.”

You gritted your teeth, refusing to give him the attentionhe secretly craved. Garou might notbe the most affectionate boyfriend to ever exist, but even he liked to be takencare of – or in your case, fuss over –once in a while. He was still a human,after all. He wasn’t a completemonster like he’d called himself. What was the point of dating if he rejectedthe idea of loving attention? “I was doing fine.I didn’t need your help.”

“Oh, is that so? ‘Cause ye looked so fucking scared back there. That monster almostturned ya into its damned fodder. I don’t know if ye could survive by justthrowing rocks on to that thing.” Histone took a lighter, mocking one. “Nowonder it laughed at ya. I thought it was quitecute too; how ye struggled around like that.”

Unable to contain the frustration and sadness anymore, youwhipped your head towards him. “Shut up!” you snapped. “Just… shut up, okay?! I know I’m not stronglike you. I know I’m weak. So stopmocking me!”

The howling of the wind followed your outburst. You breathedheavily, staring at his impassive face through your blurry gaze. The tears lefta hot track along your cheeks as you sniffled.

“If ye already know yer weak,” he began, voice soft yetdevoid of any emotion that might give you an insight into his true feelings. Was he angry? Was he sad?Nobody knew. “Then, why did ye insiston escaping?”

Your stomach dropped. Trembling, you averted your gaze fromhis piercing one and looked down. Well, what did you expect? That he would befooled by your pitiful attempt? Thathe would pretend to not see the obvious? That he would go away if you yelled at him? Garou was smart, you knew that much. But, again, optimism forced you to stay hopeful. That someday, someone – anyone – would come into your rescue,even though he had saved you earlier.

“I’m not fucking stupid,[Name].” He blinked emotionlessly, calmly, patiently.As though he was your father and you were his daughter who had made a mistakeand tried to cover it with poor excuses. “I knowwhy ye escaped. But honestly, with all these dangers lurking around, ya thinkye can fucking leave that easily? Ya think ye can live for more than an hourafter ye stepped a foot outside yer apartment?”

Garou jumped down from the ruins of a destroyed house andstood beside you. “I don’t know if yer just plain dumb or what, but you clearly can’t look after yer damn self if youalmost got killed five minutes afteryou escaped.”

You froze, eyes dilated. “You… How did you know? Did youstalk me?” You turned to look at him in the eye, trying to search for any hint that he might be joking. A slighttwitch on the corner of his lips, the laughter that bubbled in his throat, themirthful glint in those sharp irises. Anything.“Did you stalk me, Garou?”

Clicking his tongue, he rolled his eyes. “Why do you thinkyer still alive until now?”

The breath hitched in your throat once the truth dawned onyou. Not that it hadn’t, you just wanted indulge in denial a bit longer. Afterall, playing oblivious was easierthan facing reality.

“You don’t think ye can prance around without my knowledge,do ya?” he scoffed. “How fucking naïve.Thought ye were a bit smarter than that. I’m disappointed.”

“H-how long…?”

“Since I left the dojo, honey.”

The sarcastic pet name left a bitter sensation as you bityour tongue from retorting.

“Saw ya running like a fucking lunatic and met thatmotherfucker on the street. I wanted to see how long you could fare on yer own,but turns out, my hunch was damn correct.”He sighed like he was the one who was tired and not you who had struggled to survive and almost lost your fucking life in theprocess. “But ye know what? Don’tthink of it as a ‘punishment’… it’s more of a lesson.”

You remained immobile as he lifted you effortlessly andcarried you bridal style back to your apartment. It wasn’t like you could runaway, anyway. Not anymore.

“If ye escape again, I might let ‘em cripple you for life soye can’t run away from me anymore.” You winced when he tightened his griparound your injured body. “Yer stuck with me.Remember that.”

#yandere garou #yandere one punch man #yandere opm #yandere opm x reader #yandere garou x reader #yandere opm au #opm yandere imagine #opm yandere oneshot #opm yandere au #opm yandere #yandere opm oneshot #anon #request #yandere request #yandere hero hunter

[doberbutts]

can you talk about your experiences as a poc in the dog world? do you think you've been treated differently?

The sender of this ask messaged me privately to explain what they meant, which was a little different than how I took it, so I’ll answer both;

How I took the question:

In completely honesty, either because I’m already fairly choosey about the people I willingly spend my time around or because I’ve been fairly lucky... or both, existing as a PoC in the dog world hasn’t been overly hard for me on a surface level. Basically what that means is that I’ve yet to be denied a dog, access to training or an event, mentorships, whatever due to my race(s) as a factor. Additionally, in person, there’s very little outward aggression and surprisingly little microaggression happening within earshot or to my face. I’m not saying things are or are not said behind closed doors- I’ll never know. But when it comes to face-to-face interactions, since the crowd I run with is already fairly socially aware, racially charged problems have been relatively minimal. Once again, I’m very choosey on who I choose to interact with on a regular basis, so definitely do not take this as me saying doberman people or IGP people or service dog people or whatever are all living in liberal woke paradise because that is definitely the furthest thing from the truth. I just don’t interact with those people on purpose, and keep whatever I have to do with them fairly minimal.

However... online is very different. I remember at one point I had made a negative comment on a political thread, on a forum where most people (myself included) only show photos of their dogs, not themselves or any other identifying information. I was given a long spiel about them blacks and back in my day and we used to call em negros but now that’s offensive I guess in reply, to which I simply responded saying that I was black and perhaps if the user had known that they wouldn’t have responded that way. The user then switched gears, said something about my inability to handle a working dog (note: Creed had been home with me all of a single week and I had not once complained about anything to do with him) and hoping to see me fail so they could laugh in my face... and I found out later went so far as to email both my breeder and the owner of the sire to tell them to repo my dog because they’d clearly made a mistake placing him with me. This was very eye-opening for me because prior to that exchange, that user and I had known we were on different political sides but had been fairly cordial with each other regardless.

Most people who’ve been around this blog since the beginning will remember the time I was called a card-carrying member of the KKK because I had a slave, my service dog Creed. Many will remember various interactions where my race has been used against me in an argument that had nothing to do with race. And I delete almost all of the racially insensitive to outright inflammatory asks I get on a daily basis from trolls and known problem-starters. So I can’t say everything is golden in my experience, but I would say that the anonymous nature of the internet emboldens those who would otherwise keep their racism to themselves.

And, of course, the very fact that I have to navigate life in such a way that I have to carefully curate my experience or else risk someone spewing shit out of the wrong hole, but that is less a “dog world” thing and more a “life as a PoC” thing.

How they meant it: regarding the problem of high euthanasia rates in the south-eastern US and the phenomenon of PoC commonly being afraid of dogs, as well as possible socioeconomic issues

Being that I don’t live in the South and also refuse to for a wide myriad of reasons, Maryland was close enough and it was hell tyvm, I can only answer some of this issue.

First- the assumption that it’s mostly a socioeconomic issue is absolutely there. The south-eastern US is populated mostly by farmers and the descendants of the people who worked the land in the past. Loose, roaming dogs are a common thing there, as are dogs kept intact due to either lack of funds (also why heartworm and rabies continues to be a problem) or the lucrative ability to simply make more dogs for cheap instead of going out and buying one (also where the densest overpopulation and highest euthanasia happens in this country). Add on to that the fact that to many people, dogs are a tool for a job and not a living breathing animal that actually needs care or fall under this pervasive idea that they must live out all of their natural instincts including roaming freely, breeding indiscriminately, and hunting/killing whatever’s in their path, and you have a recipe for a lot of unwanted dogs and not a lot of places to put them.

Second- I wouldn’t say that PoC being afraid of dogs is necessarily tied to high euthanasia rates in the South. Many Southern PoC have dogs, of all shapes and sizes. Many Southern PoC also fall into that socioeconomic niche in the above paragraph. I would say high euth rates are more tied to a lack of funding (you can thank governments for that), a lack of willing adopters (which is cheaper- finding a litter of puppies on the side of the road and taking one home, or paying 50-400$ for a dog at a shelter), way too many dogs being taken in vs actual space to put them (and low cost clinics only solve the "funds for neuter” problem, not the "hey I can make 8 free dogs in only 2 months and maybe sell the ones I don’t want for some extra money” problem), and broad-brush breed restrictions (even in areas without BSL, if you’re poor you might not own your own property, which means you’re renting, which is harder to do with pit bulls and far easier to do with yorkies).

Then you add the non-dog-related problems these people face (of course exacerbated for PoC)- if they can’t feed themselves, if they can’t afford their own doctors, if they can’t afford housing, if their car breaks down... all of these things cost money, and if you’re operating on limited funds, you have to make a hard choice between yourself, your family, and your dog. The dog frequently loses. Note that the highest intake and euth rates happen in already very poor communities in the South, and the more wealthy the area, the less of a problem this is. This is not accidental. I have personally gone hungry to make sure the dogs are fed and vetted when I was at my poorest. Not everyone can make that choice. There’s this hope that if you give the dog up, the shelter will find someone who will take care of it better. Things don’t always work out that way.

Then you have your regular irresponsible dog owners- the people who’s dogs are untrained, aggressive, heartworm positive, on their 8th litter, constantly loose, etc. (obviously I have no problem with accidents, responsible management of aggressive and intact dogs, ethical breeding, etc) These people exist everywhere- proof of that is that I’m in New England, in a fairly wealthy area, and I still adopted a Chihuahua from someone who couldn’t afford/be bothered to feed, vet, or care for their animal. However, in my area, loose roaming dogs are very minimal. Even in our poorest nearby cities, the ACOs find maybe 5-10 dogs per week and most are adopted out the second their stray hold and health checks are up. Someone’s irresponsible with their animals and causes a problem that rescues need to clean up? There’s plenty of space for them. Compare that to an area that gets 50 loose dogs in per day and then try to add more dogs from these irresponsible owners. You run out of space, eventually. This is where the 3-day turnaround and dogs that get euthed the second they come in the door is most common, because they frankly don’t have enough room to spare.

I talk a little about the phenomenon of PoC (predominantly black PoC) being afraid of dogs here. Personally, I don’t think it’s connected, but I could be wrong.

#Anonymous #asks

[gruviafan-forever]

MY BEST FRIEND'S SISTER

PART-III

Soon after one date, Gray and Juvia hitted off quickly. Both of them were intrigued by one another's personality and individuality that they realized, they complemented each other so well.

As expected Juvia joined Gray's class and was under constant observation of her brother.

Because of which they had to maintain their relationship as a secret.

To the outside world, they were just a normal acquaintance but only they knew the bond between is that of lovers.

This secret relationship continued for 5 months on a guilty basis. Gray, at times felt guilty that he was dating his best friend's sister while Juvia felt bad that she was dating her brother's best friend without his knowledge.

But soon they would forget their guilt whenever they see and fall in each other's arms.

They convinced themselves that they were in love with an individual who happens to associated with a common man, Natsu.

Their love for one another grew stronger as the days passed by. But their friends and more importantly Natsu, found their behaviour suspicious.

Erza and Lucy did once confront Gray about this but he just brushed it off casually.

But Natsu never questioned him on this matter which showed he believed his friend and his sister.

So both Gray and Juvia decided the coming weekend, they would tell Natsu about their relationship and if he doesn't permit, they would convince him until he agrees and permit them.

As Gray heard his door bell sound, he came out from his room to attend it.

When he opened the door, he was taken by surprise as his girlfriend was standing right front of him with a bright smile which he really loved it.

"Wow, what a pleasant surprise? I didn't expect you here. Come in." He happily greeted her and moved aside so that she can enter his apartment.

As Juvia came in she realized her handsome boy was standing showing his bare chest.

This was the first time she saw him semi-naked and blushed hardly.

"Gray, cover your upper body." She said to him while closing her eyes.

Seeing her reaction, Gray smirked and closed the doors so that others don't interrupt their moment.

"Juvia, don't close your eyes. You should get used to this baby. Now open your eyes." Gray came close and cupped her cheeks.

Once Juvia opened her eyes, she met his smiling face. She was still embarrassed, "Juvia, do you like what you see?" He smirked.

Steams were literally coming out of her eyes, she playfully smacked his chest.

"Gray, stop teasing me. Of course, Juvia loves her boyfriend."

Juvia wrapped her arms around his torso whil Gray pulled her closer by snaking his arms around her waist.

"Even I love you, baby. So what brings you here?"

"Simply Juvia thought, she will pay her Gray a surprise visit to see his reaction."

"Well...well...I'm surprised indeed. So what's there in that bag which you are holding from that time?"

Gray now became curious and asked her as that bag was poking his back.

Juvia broke the hug and gave him the paper bag. "Go ahead. Hope Gray likes it."

When Gray opened the bag, he saw a black woollen muffler. He took it out, "Hey did you knit it on your own? It looks adorable and fashionable."

Juvia smiled and nodded her head, "It's for my Gray. Soon weather is going to get even more cold, so it's a small gift from Juvia. And thank you for the necklace which Gray gave her."

The other day, when Gray visited Juvia on the pretense of meeting Natsu but their mom directly saw through Gray's plan and teased him.

"Well Gray, I guess Natsu is not here. Go inside Juvia will be happy to see you. Don't go sprouting some excuses to me.

I know about you guys, Juvia never hides anything from me. Go ahead lover boy, hope you keep my little princess happy."

Juvia's mom teased him making him go red from top to bottom.

Once he entered the living room, Gray saw Juvia coming downstairs and ran upto him to give a bear hug which he responded back.

After spending some quality time he gave the necklace which he bought for her.

"Why did Gray do through the trouble of getting Juvia this necklace?" She examined the butterfly shaped pendant attached to the silver chain.

"Just to see your smile, baby. It's just the starters, you will see much more of such things. I'm going to spoil my girlfriend with many more things and love. I love you." Gray then wore the necklace around her neck.

Back to the present time, "So Juvia was already planning to give Gray something. She decided a muffler would be a better choice. So Juvia knitted one for you. Does Gray like it?" She asked in hesitation.

Gray wore the muffler around his neck and hugged her. "I love it, baby. Thank you for taking your time to make this gift wholeheartedly. I will wear it everyday from now."

Next day

Gray wore his girlfriend's gift proudly to school. When he entered the class, his friends greeted him and saw his muffler.

"Wow Gray, that's a nice muffler. You got there. Where did you buy one?" Jellal inquired him.

Gray smugly flaunted his muffler and sat on this desk. "It's a gift from my most important person."

"Most important person" They said in unison.

"Don't tell us you got a girlfriend behind our back, you idiot." Erza added.

Just then Natsu and Juvia enters the class, Lucy instantly greets them, followed by others. Natsu hugged and kissed her cheeks.

Juvia softly smiled at them as she went past Gray to sit behind him. She whispered slowly, "Good Morning, Gray" and brushed her hand against his left hand.

When Natsu's turned his attention towards others, he noticed the muffler on Gray's neck.

"It looks like the one which Juvia was knitting for a long time. But I can't come to conclusions without confirming this." Natsu thought to himself.

"Yo Ice-princess, when did you get this muffler?" He asked him making both Gray and Juvia to fidget internally.

"He got that from his most important person." Lucy told her boyfriend.

"Yeah, she's right. I just got that yesterday." Gray said without making an eye contact with his friend.

"Ohh that's okay." Natsu found it suspicious as Gray never backs off from the insult but for the past few months, he didn't call him flame-breath nor any tactless talks against him.

Erza also noticed this change in behavior so she directly asked him, "Gray, are you hiding something from us? You have being like a different person now as compared to few months back."

Gray waved his hands, "Nah!! What makes you say something like that? I am in my usual self, I guess."

Throughout the day, Gray never removed his muffler and wore it happily.

During the lunch break, one of the freshman year girl came upto him to confess her feeling.

But Gray sent her away saying he is committed which made the girl heartbroken.

After school, Gray met Juvia in their usual meeting place.

"Hi baby, what took you this long to come?" Gray stood up from the bench.

"Sorry Gray, it took few minutes to convince onii-chan that Juvia was going to Meredy-chan's place.

He didn't believe her but Lucy-san smacked and lectured him to give some privacy to Juvia." She sighed in relief.

"Don't worry, we will tell him and others about us tomorrow, for now, come let's enjoy this evening in peace."

Gray put his arm around Juvia's shoulder and led her to a nearby restaurant for their small date.

After strolling around the market square, doing some window shopping and playing some games at the arcade, they reached the cafe.

Juvia latched her arms around Gray's arm and entered the restaurant.

After finding an empty space, they made themselves comfortable and ordered their food.

When their food was served, they fed each other happily without realizing the audience were watching their cute interaction.

"Aww such a cute couple. My dear husband, learn something from that boy.."

A lady taunted her husband that's when both of them realized and blushed wildly.

After eating their food, Gray told her about his childhood stories how he and her brother were along with Erza who was till now bossing around them.

Juvia happily listened to her boyfriend's tales then suddenly Gray become clingy.

He caught hold of Juvia's hands softly squeezed them.

"What is Gray doing? It's making Juvia feel shy." She said with a blush.

Gray winked and gave her a flying kiss making her blush even harder.

"Juvia for how many months are we dating?"

"Juvia thinks for 5 months. Why? What happened, Gray?" Juvia asked in confusion.

Gray blushed, "Then can we level up our relationship? You know we still didn't share our first kiss. If you don't want, then we dont have to do it." He finally told her.

Juvia grew red and slowly nodded her head indicating her approval.

Suddenly someone voice interrupted their sweet moment,

"So for 5 months, you guys have been dating behind my back?"

Both Gray and Juvia looked up to meet the owner of the voice and their eyes widened in shock.

"NATSU.....LUCY..."

"ONII-CHAN.........LUCY-SAN...."

"Gray, we knew something was wrong!!" Lucy scoffed at them.

Natsu gave them an expression which they couldn't read what was going on his mind.

"So the muffler you are wearing was given by my sister right?" Natsu asked Gray.

"Yes"

"The silver chain which you are wearing was given by him, right Juvia?"

"Yes Onii-chan. Please..." Juvia pleaded him to not get angry.

"Hey Natsu, listen even before I knew Juvia who she was, I grew crush on. Seriously Man, I couldn't control my feelings for her and asked her out. I really love her, Natsu even she does the same." Gray said.

Natsu saw how Gray was still holding his sister's hand. Natsu turned his head to Juvia and told her to move in so that they sit and sort the issue.

"Onii-chan, Juvia is sorry. She really loves Gray. She doesn't care whether he is your bestfriend but for me he is someone who makes Juvia feel safe besides you and mom.

Even Juvia had crush on him ever since she saw in on the road. And in these 5 months, Gray has been a pure gentleman." She began to cry.

Lucy who sat opposite to the siblings consoled her, "Hey Juvia, don't cry your brother know you both very well. He will agree to this."

" Why didn't you tell me that you both were dating for each other these many days?" Natsu asked in a sad tone.

"That's because you are an over-protective brother. I saw that day itself how you react when I found out you had a sister.

We were scared that you might not allow this to happen. Anyways, we were planning to disclose this matter to you tomorrow but you found out today itself.

See Natsu, this is the first time I have ever had such intimate relationships with any girl, you also know that.

I really love your sister, man. I promise to keep her happy and always smiling. Please trust me." Gray tried to assure his friend.

Lucy squeezed Natsu's hand, "Dear, you must see the love Gray has for and Juvia has for Gray. They both love each other dearly, just let them be like that. Don't put any restrictions on them or separate them."

Natsu after thinking for some time, he sighs heavily, "Seriously Ice-princess, Juvia has changed you a lot. You guys, could have told me this from the beginning itself instead of hiding and creating such drama.

Who said I won't permit you guys from loving each other? It's your personal opinion and moreover, my sister fell in love with someone whom I know in and out. Go ahead, continue your love story." Natsu grinned.

Both Juvia and Gray couldn't control their happiness and Juvia hugged her brother thanking him for being such broad minded person.

"Thanks Natsu for allowing me to date your sister. Seriously Man, from day one, we had a bit of guilt but now, we are free from that. Thank you, Natsu." Gray smiled genuinely.

"Well Ice-princess, you do have some rules and regulations to be followed. Basically, you should not touch, hug, kiss and do any inappropriate stuffs with her and...."

Before Natsu could finish, Lucy smacked his head and made him stop.

"I said don't interfere in their love story. Come let's all go home together or are you guys planning something?"

"Nah!! Anyways we were gonna leave. Come let's go." Gray and Juvia got up and followed the other couple to outside.

As they kept walking behind them, talking and whispering sweet talks in Juvia's ears making her blush and earning him some playful smacks on his arms.

For once Juvia decided to be bold, her question made Natsu stop on his track.

"Onii-chan, can I stay with Gray tonight?"

Her request made Gray blush leading him to his fantasy world, Natsu wore a scandalous look while Lucy giggled.

"See you pervert, you made my sister one too." Natsu comically yelled at his friend and stormed backward to get his sister's hand away from him.

"No, you are not going anywhere. Come home with me or else, you will be grounded." Natsu pulled Juvia's wrist.

Both Lucy and Gray were laughing seeing Natsu's expression.

"Hey bro, let her be. I promise, I won't cross the boundary line for now." Gray tried to assure him.

But Natsu was adamant and never let Juvia out of his hold. She pouted, "Fine, Juvia will come home. Now leave her."

Natsu trusted his sister's words and let go of her only to be see her hugging Gray's arm.

"Really Gray, if you make her cry. I will make you eat dirts. Got it." Natsu warned him.

"Don't worry, I will never make my baby cry. I intend to keep her smiling and happy. I love her very much to simply hurt her."

Gray has he placed his arm on her lower back pulling her towards him closer.

Both Natsu and Lucy smiled.

#gruvia #ft juvia #ft gray #gray fullbuster #gray #fairy tail juvia #juvia loxar #grayxjuvia

[definitely-gone]

The Gang’s favorite Pokemon generations(and other stuff)

I’m bored and I can’t sleep let’s go. Btw don’t expect more stuff like this, I’ve just had this on my mind.

Bruno:

Probably Gen 2. He loves the legendaries and finds them really cool and mysterious.

Bruno’s goal is usually to catch em all and he feels more fulfilled once he does that than he would if he beat the champion.

He also watched the anime. He still watches the movies. The nostalgia 😤😤😤😤

He knows type advantages like the back of his hand. If you’re like, “Hey Bruno, what’s weak against ice-“

“Fire, Water, Steel, And itself”

Abbacchio:

I’m feeling like he’s a Gen 5 guy. The story, and music is fuckin 👌👌👌😩😩😩 to him. He is quick to get on your ass if you insult gen 5.

For some reason Abbacchio has quite a bit of shiny Pokémon. He always says he forgot how he got them, which is kinda sus, but he literally cannot shiny hunt to save his life because it’s so boring to him. Maybe he’s just lucky???

Abbacchio b like

“I😤😤relate👌👌to N🙏🙏 so much👄👄. N is dePrEsS like me😔😔”

Giorno:

He👏🏽Loves👏🏽Gen👏🏽4👏🏽 don’t try to argue with me.

He talks to the characters that stand around in the game to get that extra spicy lore. He also is one of the few people that enjoys the contest feature(although he prefers Black and whites contests)

Don’t challenge him to a battle you’re gonna lose you’re absolutely gonna lose. He plays casually, yet he is so strategical???

GIORNO PLAYS POKÉMON BATTLE REVOLUTION CHANGE MY MIND, OH WAIT, YOU CANT!

Fugo:

Gen 3. If this boi ain’t a Hoenn boi, idk what tf he is. He DID watch the movies, he DID play the game, and he watched the anime. He likes all the characters(including Wally. Wally haters gtfo)

Fugo likes to read Pokédex entries and compare them to others from different games. Sometimes when he finds a good one, he’ll be like “Oi, Narancia, look at this Pokédex entry” or something like that.

He was so happy when ORAS came out. He loved the new after story and ESPECIALLY the Latios/Latias riding feature. He also really loves the music, and how it’s now orchestrated. He could listen to it forever.

Mista:

This one is hard, h m m m, I’ll say Gen 1. Mista is that one guy that’s always like “haha remember back when we had to use wires to trade Pokémon?” Mista’s probably likes Gen 1 more for the anime.

Mista has actually used a frying pan as a drying pan at one point. I don’t know when, but it happened(if you don’t get this I hate you sorry)

He knows the Poké Rap, but don’t bring it up. He will do the whole thing if you even talk about it so please don’t.

Mista b r e e d s Pokémon alot, and he’s competitive. He knows about EVs and IVs and all that bullshit that I don’t know about hhejjeej

Narancia:

If you don’t agree that he loves Gen 6, well ding dong, your opinion is wrong! Narancia roams around lumiose city on his skates and Cyllage City on his bike! He loves character customization in this game too!

Narancia is one of those players that only has attack moves. He also tends to use the same move over and over. His starter Pokémon is o o f sOOOOO op and the rest of his team are at a lower level.

If he sees a legendary bird he’s gonna be like “GUYS LOOK OH MY GOD ITS MOLTRES” and then someone else is gonna be like “oh my god this is the 7th time you’ve seen moltres today just freaking catch it”

He will not delete his save file

He will not delete his save file

His Pokémon are his friends, and he will not eVER fucking delete them. He’s tried explaining it before but they don’t really get it, and mISTa makes fun of him a lil for it

Narancia runs away during 90% wild battles I’m sorry

Trish:

She loves 7. Sun and Moon is literally her aesthetic. She appreciates the vibe and the colors, and she likes a refreshing change from the normal gym format.

Trish can connect with the main characters of sun and moon more than any of the other games, and she finds the story much more interesting.

Trish has a bunch of shiny Pokémon, but that’s because she actually breeds and shiny hunts. She doesn’t do it for battling purposes, but just because she likes having le sparkly Pokémon UwU

Trish loves feeding her Pokémon and petting them AaAAAAA

#jjba #jojo no kimyō na bōken #bruno bucciarati #narancia ghirga #trish una #guido mista #leone abbacchio #pannacotta fugo #giorno giovanna #pokemon #bucci gang #jojo's bizarre adventure #ill use my trusty frying pan as a drying pan

[noodlecupcakeswritings]

A Call to the Light - Chapter 5 (Kylo RenxOC)

Warnings: Flashbacks, Language, Fighting, Violence, Blood, Injury

Let me know if you would like to be added to the taglist. If you liked what you read please leave some kudos or maybe a reblog or comment. Consider hitting the follow button too for more content.

Chapter 5

Cora’s P.O.V

I stared up at the giant Wookie before me. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. Wookie’s had the strength to rip limbs from your sockets. Ben seemed to have no trouble around the Wookie however. Uncle Chewie he called him. Ben and I were tiny compared to him. Ben only came up to the Wookie’s knee, he was currently hugging it now. Chewie picked Ben up to embrace him properly. Ben then demanded a piggyback, which the Wookie happily gave.

I watched as Chewie ran around with Ben on his shoulders. I smiled to myself. He seemed harmless. I had just never met a Wookie before. Han and Leia stood beside me, watching their son and friend. They had their arms around each other and looked content. Leia turned to me and encouraged me to join Ben and Chewie. Reluctantly I walked over to them as they rolled around in the grass. I smiled kindly at Chewie before Ben dumped a handful of grass on my head.

I chased after him, ready to get him back from dumping grass on me yet again. Chewie got to his feet and joined the chase, soon overtaking Ben and I. He stopped Ben in his tracks and stopped him from going anywhere. I ripped out two handfuls of grass and threw them at Ben. Ben took off running again after wiping the grass blades from his hair. Chewie plucked a daisy from the grass and held it out to me. I hesitated before taking the small token from his giant furry hand. I thanked him and sat down in the grass.

I began plucking the daisies around me before going over to Chewie and putting them in his fur. He accepted the gesture, sitting still. Ben came back over and turned his nose up at the girly spectacle. I put the last daisy in and Chewie got to his feet taking my hand in his and Ben’s hand in the other. We walked back over to Han and Leia. I had a Wookie for a friend, how many people got to say that I wonder. Leia explained to Ben and I that Han and Chewie had to leave now, which made Ben kick up a fuss.

Chewie turned to me and got down on one knee, opening his arms for an embrace. I smiled and hugged him, nestling into his warm fur. I could see why Ben found it comfy to sleep on him. Chewie and Ben hugged before turning to Han. Han looked at Ben expecting an embrace but didn’t receive it without a little convincing on Leia’s part. They embraced awkwardly and it was short too, Han ruffled Ben’s hair which earned him a cold look. Han and Chewie left on the Falcon, the three of us standing to watch as it slowly got smaller and smaller until it was gone. Not for too long I hoped.

I left my room and leant against the wall opposite Chaise. I smiled kindly. I felt the need to work out, I needed to get in much better shape if I was going to beat Ben when it came to ‘training’. “Am I allowed into the training room?” I asked. “As long as you’re accompanied by someone. Sure.” “Would you accompany me?” “I don’t see why not.” Chaise led me to the training room, which was once again empty. I grabbed a mat, setting it down in a random spot. I removed the top half of my robes, just wearing a sports bra and the bottom half of my robes.

I began doing a set of twenty press ups before doing the same number of sit ups. I tied my hair back and headed over to the punch bag, beginning my assault. I looked over to find Chaise doing a series of stretches. She was pretty flexible. The door opened and in walked a tall, muscular blonde female. The female’s hair was short and there was a single scar on her cheek, trailing down to her neck. The woman greeted Chaise. Her voice was what made me realise who it was. Phasma.

I returned my attention to the punch bag, hoping she would leave me be. Unfortunately there was no such luck. I heard her footsteps approach me. Just ignore her and hopefully she’ll leave you be. I was not looking for any kind of confrontation. “And what do you need to train for Jedi? Planning on escaping by chance?” Phasma hissed. “Nothing wrong with taking care of my body.” “Is Ren aware of this?” “Probably not, but I’m sure he has no problem with it. As long as Chaise is with me I can leave my room. Might come pay you a visit sometime.”

Phasma’s eyes narrowed and she stopped the punch bag from swinging after my last punch. I sighed and turned to her, looking up a little. “Do you mind?” I asked, trying to keep calm. “Not at all.” “I’m not looking for a fight.” “Then you should have thought about that before getting yourself captured.” “I told you I’m not looking for a fight so I would appreciate it if you backed off.” Phasma only took a step closer, a smirk on her face. It’s like she wanted me to punch her and at this rate I would happily oblige.

“I thought Jedi were meant to be great fighters, not simply give themselves up to a Hutt,” Phasma continued to taunt, it was obvious she wanted to get a rise out of me. I shook my head and turned away from her. I guess working out was done for today. “And I thought Jedi weren’t ones to back down after all isn’t that what gets them killed,” she called after me. I stopped mid stride, my fists clenching. I couldn’t let her get away with saying that. I turned back to face the tall female, striding over to her until there was a small gap between us. “I know you just want a fight Phasma. I’m not going to sink to your level though,” I hissed. “You wouldn’t fight fair anyway.” “I don’t need a saber or the force to beat you.”

Phasma attempted to punch me but I dodged her attack, kicking her in the side. She grabbed me, spinning me round and putting me in a headlock. I growled as she began to cut off my air supply. I was not going to let her win this. I pushed back so both of us tumbled backwards, Phasma’s body taking the blow. Her grip loosened as she tried to break her fall a little, which gave me my chance to break free. I rolled to the side getting to my feet, landing another kick to Phasma’s side before she grabbed my foot and pulled me down.

Phasma had me under her in a few seconds, pinning me down with her strength. I could see now why this woman was in charge of the Stormtroopers. Chaise had run over now and was attempting to pull Phasma off me. Phasma delivered blow after blow to my face. My head was spinning, I was not going to win this. I wasn’t as strong as I thought. There was the crack of a saber which stopped Phasma’s assault on my face. She climbed off of me and stood her ground. She wasn’t the type of woman who backed down from anything as I had just learnt.

“That’s enough Captain. Are you foolish like Hux? Not being able to understand that she is my prisoner?” Came Ben’s voice, altered by the helmet. “Commander Ren she’s been asking for it since she stepped foot on Starkiller Base.” “She’s been asking for a lot of things, I’ve shown restraint I suggest you do the same.” Phasma apologised before leaving the room. Not before glancing at me with a smirk on her face of course. Chaise helped me to my feet and Ben sheathed his saber. He shook his head at me, a small tut coming from him. He ordered Chaise to take me to the infirmary to get me cleaned up. My face must be that bad. It certainly felt it.

Once in the infirmary Chaise sat me down on one of the examining beds where she began to clean my wounds. I could have done it myself, I don’t see why she was being so kind. She was only meant to make sure I didn’t get into trouble. “You shouldn’t have fought Phasma,” She said. “Oh I’ve learnt my lesson. At least she can’t say I cheated. I gave her a fair fight.” “And you got beaten half to death in the process.” I shrugged, “I’ve had worse. You think that’s bad you should see some of the Jedi training I had to go through.”

A hint of a smile played at the edges of her lips. She dabbed at my lip with a cotton ball. I could speed up the healing process myself but I guess it was nice to have someone care for me. “Your eyes? Was it a gene thing?” I asked. “I guess you could say that.” I raised an eyebrow, imploring her to continue. “I’m half human, half clone. One of General Hux’s experiments,” she explained. “Cloning is illegal.” “You think the first order care about that?” “I suppose not but still.” “It has its benefits. It’s not all that bad. I was the only one out of the group to survive the process so that’s a good thing.” “That’s why Hux doesn’t like you babysitting me huh?”

She smiled, “it’s one reason.” I cocked my head to the side, a knowing smirk on my face. Her eyes met mine, her smile growing. “I didn’t think he was the loving type,” I mentioned. “He has his rare moments.” I felt like I was at some kind of sleepover, giggling and talking about boys with a friend. If Chaise even considered me as a friend, probably not she was just kind hearted. The door opened and Ben entered the room, dismissing Chaise. He stood opposite me, I could tell he wasn’t happy with me. “What did you think you would achieve attacking Captain Phasma?” He asked. “For starters I didn’t make the first move, she did. Believe it if you want I don’t really care.” “And what next? Am I to expect a half beaten Hux?” “Don’t tempt me.”

He sighed, taking my chin between his fingers. I made a small sound at the contact. It wasn’t rough for once. It was tender, as if he cared. He turned my head to the side, examining my injuries. The contact broke and I glanced at my reflection in the mirror. She had done a number on me that was for sure. Split lip, bruised cheek and eye as well as a cut eyebrow. It would heal up in no time, it didn’t bother me. “Next time try to refrain from attacking my staff,” he spoke. “Only if they return the favour.”

Taglist: @my-world-of-imagines, @sarahlee8793, @cltex84

#star wars #star wars fic #star wars fanfiction #star wars fanfic #star wars feels #star wars fluff #star wars angst #star wars smut #the last jedi #the force awakens #kylo ren #kylo ren fic #kylo ren fanfic #kylo ren fanfiction #kylo ren smut #kylo ren feels #kylo ren fluff #kylo ren angst #ben solo #ben solo fic #ben solo fanfic #ben solo fanfiction #ben solo smut #ben solo feels #ben solo angst #ben solo fluff #adam driver

[coffin-of-eternal-darkness]

Thank you for over 3000 followers

I reached 3000 followers a while ago and even though I didn’t do anything for my other milestones, I thought I should make a post about this one (though I couldn’t think of anything special). After all, 3000 is most likely the highest I will get and it really is an amazing number, considering I’m not doing anything special XD Kinda fitting too. In NnT everything started 3000 years ago, and for my blog everything started 3000 followers ago XD I’m not sure how many people from the old days even follow me anymore, but, thank you all. It’s been some amazing years!

As for what I’ll do… Well, my friend @maybeishouldwait helped me with some question prompts, so it’ll sort of be like an interview? I hope at least some of you are interested. So, let’s start!

1. Let's start with an easy one: how did you discover NNT, and what drew you to it?

I’ve recently answered an ask with a similar question but here we go! It was a complete coincidence. I wasn’t necessarily searching for something. I randomly browsed a manga reading site, probably looking foe updates and the title somehow caught my attention so I clicked on it. I didn’t take it seriously at first, the first chapter really didn’t impress me at all, and I only continued because I thought it was funny. It’s no secret I fell in love with the series but it still baffled me how fast it went from “Lol, this is funny and stupid” to “BEIRHJ I LOVE THIS SO MUCH” in a matter of a only few chapters XD Everything was such a new experience to me. The characters weren’t the usual stereotypes, they were actually deep and interesting. The story took a while to become interesting, at first it was more about just… gathering these super powerful knights and it was so cool to see what kind of crazy character the next one would be. I also loved how I could never see anything coming. Even now that we know what kind of series this is, there are still plottwists like Hawk’s eyes being the portal to purgatory or Cath’s whole appearance that just… could not be predicted and I really love that surprise effect when something unbelievable happens. So I love the characters and the surprises but I also love the story, or rather how it’s told. For the first… 70 or so chapters to me it felt like with every chapter it just got even BETTER than before. I still had a few of those moments in the Commandment saga, just, scenes that blew me away and made me think “Wow, I wonder how much better this series can get”. I think it also was around chapter 70 that I created my blog. And more than anything I think I love the tragedies. It’s hearbreaking but heartwarming at the same time somehow. Not many of you probably know this but my first NnT OTP was actually Banlaine and I cried so much when I read their backstory. I loved how deeply in love they were to the point of sacrificing themselves for the other. Both had to deal with a large chunk of loneliness in their lives and for both of them the other was their salvation. Every time Ban was saying anything about Elaine in the main series I was both crying and cheering for him. By now everything is a tragedy and while I wish there were a few more lighthearted scenes for… personal salvation… I like that and crying about all those characters and CARING for their happiness really helped me get into this series I think.

2. How has your blog changed since it started?

Well, apart from the fact that is has grown popular… I actually think I’ve burned out a but. I write a lot less text posts than before. I had an awful amount of (stupid) theories back in the old days and also an awful amount of free time somehow. Now I feel like I don’t think about theories that often anymore, let alone post them. Part of that is that I’m busy with work and other hobbies, but partly that’s because the series has gotten so long and it’s becoming harder and harder to remember details, especially from the newer chapters. I really want to reread the series but I never get around to do that anymore. I also think that back in the days I more or less posted just anything I found or thought was cool, while nowadays I’m always wondering what I could do. I still try to keep it up but it’s becoming harder and harder. Oh, there’s also a lot more follower interaction too!

3. What are some of your favorite blogs or sites for NNT stuff?

As for sites, I usually only check the official ones, like the official HP or the official Twitter account. As for blogs… I don’t really follow a lot of people since I look through the tag almost on a daily basis anyway. Of course there’s @spoilerkingjuliane, she’s a must follow XD I can also highly recommend @maybeishouldwait since she’s an awesome writer. I always enjoy @nostalgicbookworms gifs a lot and @sdsmangacaps is my go-to account for manga caps. There are a lot more blogs that I really like, there are tons of really good artists on Tumblr and Twitter but since I’m not actually following a lot of them and I fear I’ll forget a few I’d rather not mention them directly and hope they know I appreciate them. The most obvious Twitter account is yuka_sai0127 btw, but there are a lot of others.

4. What advice would you give to someone wanting to make their blog as successful as yours?

Tbh I have no idea how I even got so popular in the first place XD I started on a whim and thought I’d lose motivation immediately and nobody would follow me anyway. But before I knew it I had almost 100 followers in a matter of a few days. Maybe it was my obsession? I also quickly befriended the other popular NnT blogs, that probably helped too. I think it depends on what kind of blog you have, but I think the most important thing is frequent updates and high quality. I also think blogs should have a good balance between your own content and reblogs. There are blogs that live only through reblogs and that’s fine but I think it’s harder to be “interesting” when you don’t have your own content. Try to find something only you can do and do it. @spoilerkingjuliane for example is good at finding info and she is immensely popular because of that. I will forever be slightly jealous of her because I will never reach that level XD”

5. What's the best part of running your blog? What's something you wish was different?

The best part without a doubt is how much it involves me into the fandom. I’m more or less forced to see all kinds of fandom posts and while that’s sometimes stressing me out, I also see a lot of amazing content and being able to share those posts with so many people makes me really happy. Running this blog also helped me boost my own confidence. As I mentioned earlier at the beginning I thought nobody would be interested in my blog anyway and I’d give up right away. But I gained followers quickly and it showed me that yes, I might not be as boring as always I think I am. It showed me that I can do things if I just try. On the downside though, running a popular blog puts a lot of pressure on you, and I constantly feel like I have to do something, have to go through the tag, have to make SOME content somehow. And even when you’re stressed you can’t just take it out on people after all so the stress piles up. That’s probably my own responsibility and not the blog itself that is doing that, but I still wish I could take it more easy.

6. How did you learn Japanese? Did you find it difficult?

Well, it wasn’t easy at least. I started learning Japanese twice, once I gave up quickly because the book I used was a horrible starter and after that I learned the basic grammar and a few words through a magazine crash course. Learning specific words was easier than to learn all hiragana and katakana on their own and since I also knew the basic grammar it made it easier to learn and understand whole sentences. Still, I’m an extremely lazy human being and even though I’ve been learning Japanese for almost half of my life now I very rarely actively studied. Most of the time I would try (and fail) to read manga in Japanese and pick up new words and grammar here and there. But through switching between actually learning and trying to read manga I got better. Once I was at a certain level I bothered a ton of random japanese people too in order to befriend and speak japanese with them, which also helped. I think the most major step in my learning career was getting obsessed with Tales of Vesperia a few years ago tho. I was at a comparatively high Japanese level back then already but playing a game of THAT length completely in japanese was a challenge. I learned a stupid amount of new words and grammar and ways of talking through that game and it probably helped that it was just an amazing game that remains to be my favorite. I’ve also translated a few manga chapters back then that really got me practicing and I also worked at an Udon restaurant with (except for me) 100% japanese staff. And as is the case with all languages… Talking with real people is always the best practice. Then of course my year working in japan gave me the final boost. I still have a ton to learn and I’m nowhere near really GOOD but I like to think my japanese is pretty decent at least.

7. What do you see for the future of your blog?

It won’t be all too long anymore til the manga ends and when that happens there won’t be any theories or reviews to write anymore… There will still be an S3 and possible an S4 and maybe more anime projects. But it will be harder to update the blog with original content. Eventually it will most likely turn into a reblog only blog. But I hope I will have some more time and motivation to actually reread the manga, complete my NnT encyclopedia and update the blog with interesting stuff I find in between. I really want to keep this blog up for a few more years!

No matter how it will turn out though, I’m happy I came so far. I made a whole bunch of good friends during this time and had a lot of fun. To my friends and followers (silent or not): Thank you so much for your support!

#personal #follower celebration #kinda #man i really hope someone is actually interested in this #i feel kinda bad not doing something more flashy #like drawing a huge picture #or doing requests or whatever

[snakeandravenreviews-blog]

Letters to the Lost - 5 star review

Grief is a really strange thing. It’s something that we all feel at some point in our lives, but it’s something we all feel and express and deal with differently. While it’s something we all have in common, it’s also something that helps make us all different. Letters to the Lost is a book that addresses grief and how it impacts people differently, but also how it can bring people closer together. I haven’t actually cried over a book recently the way I did when reading this, and I think it’s because of how close this book hit me in some ways. Kemmerer did a good job at making the characters tangible on a level that gave them some kind of attachment to the reader even if you couldn’t fully relate to their situation; there was something about each character you could sympathize with and, sometimes, connect to. I had this book as one of my ~summer reads~ and it turned out to be a lot deeper and a lot more meaningful than I was anticipating, and for that I’m so glad. Because of the book’s depthness and association with grief and death, it might be triggering for some people so a TW for: death, drinking (talked about and mentioned but actual action not portrayed), panic attack (mild and not heavily detailed), physical abuse (mentioned but not detailed or described), mentions of suicide. This review will also contain spoilers.

So, for starters, I wasn’t expecting this out of this book. I wasn’t really anticipating the book to be bad per se, but I didn’t expect to have this kind of reaction or connection with it either. I saw some people have less than stellar opinions on it, and that sucks because I really think it’s a great book. Juliet and Declan’s relationship via notes and emails was carried out in such a better way than I anticipated. Kemmerer did a good job at allowing the reader to know who Cemetery Girl and The Dark were without making the characters be painfully oblivious for the sake of the plot. For Juliet and Declan, it felt as though who the person was mattered much less than the fact that it was a person at all.

The part that I connected with so much was the fact that Juliet’s mother was cheating on her dad and it really destroyed the pedestal she had placed her mother on for so long. Finding out that not only was her mother lying and cheating on her dad, but that she was also lying and, kind of, cheating on her as well gave Juliet a completely different person to reconcile with the woman she had built up in her mind. I think it also gave Juliet a new stage of grief to battle with in the future; not really losing her mother all over again, but in a way giving her the strength to move forward and live her own life without having to compare her actions to her mother’s in terms of “value” and “worth.” In the end, I felt as though her constant reverence for her mother seemed very much like an obligation she felt rather than her true feelings. I think she was envious and so in awe of her mother’s work and talents that she felt like she sort of had to hold her above anyone and anything else even when she was no longer there. Juliet even notes that she lied to her mother sometimes, said anything, just to get her attention and approval and to have some of the love and affection from her mother that she desperately craved (also something I connected with). I think that’s something that she and Declan also had in common that they never really focused on; they both had absent mothers/parents, but in different ways. Anytime there was any kind of maternal affection shown to Juliet or her friends, she felt this longing for it because she would never have that with her own mother and didn’t really have it when her mother was alive. In some ways, I was glad that Juliet’s mother really messed up because she gave her mother too much credit and held her too high when her mother didn’t really give her anything in return other than an unreachable standard to constantly compare her own attribute to.

Juliet’s dad, bless him, had me in tears. So much like my own dad; just sacrificing his own happiness so that his daughter would not be deprived of her own, and going about things sort of ignorantly but doing the best he could. I was so glad to see Juliet and her father grow closer because he was really the parent she was always wanting in mother, and always had right in front of her.

Declan’s life was a lot more complicated. I liked how Kemmerer gradually built up to the full reveal of just why Declan was doing community service and why he was in the situation he was in with his family and his reputation. He had an aggressiveness, an attitude that could be off-putting and confrontational and cause the reader to either remove any sympathy from him or wonder if he really deserved it, and that was something that was really subtle that Kemmerer did for his character. You sort of had to decide for yourself how you were going to view Declan before you were given the privilege of knowing his past. One of his most powerful statements was to Juliet when he pointed out how bigger, tougher looking guys who have a “bad rap” will get so much shit and people will either praise them or agree, while if a bigger person did the same to someone who was skinnier, smaller and an easier target then the bigger person is labeled a bully, but both actions are the same. Declan was that classic kid who was always written off by adults and kids alike simply because of some preconceived notion they had created based mostly off of rumors and so little on actual facts because they didn’t care enough to know the truth because it was easier to label him as trouble.

I felt so bad for Declan feeling left out by his family and treated so poorly by his stepfather. I think Kemmerer did a really wonderful job at their reconciliation and allowed for the two men to really understand each other and try to push towards a better, working relationship for the future. That was something really amazing. I was also in agreement with Frank when he was pointing out that Declan’s mother owed Declan an apology and not the other way around. And seeing Alan (Declan’s stepfather) voice his frustration at Abby’s (Declan’s mom) complete passiveness and unrealistic and ridiculous reliance on Declan as a child to drive and take care of his father and then to carry around this absurd grief for being the adult in a situation that turned out fatal was triumphant for my support for Declan. He held so much guilt that was unwarranted and misplaced, and he felt selfish because his sister’s death resulted from Declan being the only real adult in the situation and refusing to placate his father’s addiction, and for his mother to go so long without acknowledging her own part in that entire situation made me so angry. To ignore her son essentially and make him feel so bad for something he should never have even had to be apart of was infuriating.

Rev was a really amazing friend and character and his own struggles will be delved into in Kemmerer’s next book that I can’t wait to read. But in this story he was exactly what Declan needed in a person and his wisdom and unashamed beliefs were really refreshing. I can’t wait to learn more about him.

I can’t really put into succinct and precise words how important this book is to me and why it was such a powerful read, and I think that’s okay (partly because some things are personal). I think it’s a book that you have to feel individually because it’s so heavy with emotion and understanding that you might not get anything from it all, but you also might get everything. I think the romance being sort of an undercurrent but also relevant and aware was a really smart move by Kemmerer because it allowed for the growth of Juliet and Declan to happen without this pressing need or reminder that there was a love connection. It wasn’t so much an afterthought as it was a bonus to their story, and that was really well done. A true 5/5 star read for me.

#letters to the lost #brigid kemmerer #book review #books #bookstagram #book #bookish #booklove #booklover #bookreview #bookreviews #book reviews #bookreviewer #book reviewer #booklr #bookblog #bookblogger #book blog #book blogger #5 star review #5 star umrah packages #amazing #awesome book #bookworm

[hystericalcherries]

aeon (2/6)

Pairing: Keith/Lance Words: 11.5k Rating: M Warnings: mild violence, (minor) implicit sexual content, anxious thoughts Tags:  Post-Season/Series 07, quantum abyss, Flashbacks, Flashforwards, Prophetic Visions, Visions in dreams, Mind Control, Dimension Travel, Boys Being Boys, Falling In Love, Mutual Pining, Gay Keith (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron) when the going gets tough… the tough write fix-it fics, Allura (Voltron) Lives, because fuck you jds and lm 

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Summary:

Keith does not leave the quantum abyss untouched.

“Home can be anything, you know,” Lance says in lieu of a conversation starter.

Slivers of moonlight filter through the blinds above their heads, casting lines of truth across the sheets. Lance tilts his head forward and a band slides over his eyes, catching the ocean in them and drawing Keith into their rolling tides. And as distracted as he is, he doesn’t put up a fight when a hand clasps his own, reeling them heartward.

“Home is just something you can come back to.” His knuckles brush against the soft fabric of a nightshirt, the v-neckline falling loose to reveal a sharp collarbone, and Keith feels his breath hitching. “Something that keeps you grounded.”

READ IT ON AO3

The flashes grow more intense.

At first, they had been an inconvenience. A flash here and a flash there, arbitrary like flipping open a book to a random page. Aimless in its intent of stealing Keith’s time but an ambitious thief nonetheless, sifting through his cove of memories and hoping to strike gold amongst desert sand and bruised knuckles. Both passages of time, locked away in a tilting hourglass and behind porcelain skin, they are fleeting in thought and consequence.

That is, until they decide to stay.

Then it becomes a problem.

A problem he can’t fix because the scenes played out are narrated by some omniscient being, unreliable with its knack for embellishing the color of the sky and the clouds that ride the breeze, and wholly unwilling to take criticism. For somewhere between leaving the quantum abyss and stepping foot on Earth soil the universe had decided that Keith’s story was far from over and needed to be told. What had been weekly is now daily. Streams of them, disjointed and vague, bobbing in the shallow depth of his foremind. It takes over, dissolving reality in a current call to a life that couldn’t be his.

One minute he has his hand on the doorknob to Shiro’s apartment, twisting, and the next he is walking into a stranger’s home, steps faltering at the tinkle of wind chimes and the sight of Kosmo curled up on a plush armchair, fast asleep. Past the backdrop of the muted television is the sound of running water and soft humming, running lackadaisical fingertips over the threadbare rug under his feet and the bookcase bursting with scrapbooks and bent paperbacks. Gossamer drapes sway in a draft let through the open windows, refracting the sunlight through their soft lens. He squints, blinded, and—

A face shrouded in light, beaming with happiness. Welcome home, Keith.

—he’s standing in the middle of Shiro’s apartment, not knowing when or how long he’d been standing there.

The walls are pale and the furniture minimalist. It’s a bit too pristine for Keith’s taste, everything in a place and a place for everything. For someone like Shiro, who’s always needed to have everything beyond flawless to justify his own dream in the face of a chronic illness, the space is perfect, but Keith is cut from a different cloth. Worn and rough to the touch, he expects the world around him to reflect the same. Brief as it was, he misses the flash and nearly wishes it real.

“You okay?” Shiro is asking, turned completely in his seat at the kitchen island and staring at Keith, reading glasses slipping down his nose; they look suspiciously like Adam’s but Keith isn’t going to say anything about that. “You kinda spaced-out a bit there.”

“Uh, yeah,” he responds quickly, throat dry. He rubs at his eyes with the jut of his palm, willing the vision away for good. “I just”—a deep breath, even and slow—“forgot about… something. It’ll come to me eventually.”

“If you say so.” But the older man doesn’t look entirely sure, frowning that frown he does whenever Keith says something particularly dismal about his past. Thankfully, he seems to understand Keith well enough to know better than to delve deeper— yet. “Did you wanna get started on the security detail for the coalition conference? The Unilu are sending a party next week and want to know if Voltron will be there to escort them out of their solar system…”

Constantly standing at the cusp of something almost real, Keith waits to be pushed over the edge.

It gets tougher to keep things under wrap with the flashes manifesting whenever they like. Most of the time he can blame the lapse in concentration on fatigue or even mishearing, but Keith knows that people are starting to catch wind that something is— not wrong, per say, but that something is definitely going on. Keith is not known for his inability to focus, but, rather, his to inability to stop.

“People are getting suspicious,” Allura tells him the third night in a row he had snuck into her room on the Atlas. Scattered around her are countless scrolls, brittle to the touch and written in a language he can’t read. Her mice lay about; Chuchule hidden in the curl of white hair, Platt napping under the makeshift tent of a book and Plachu and Chulatt lounging on Keith’s knee. “You could be a little more tactful in how you go about things.”

Having already heard the complaint more than once, Keith simply rolls his eyes and focuses on the translator in his hands. It’s slow compared to the almost instant reaction time of those that had been on the castleship, but it’s progress nonetheless. “Yeah, well, it won’t matter once we figure out what’s going on with me. So if you could focus on reading and doing just that, that’d be great.”

Allura huffs up a storm but does what’s asked of her.

It’s a little easier having someone else know, Keith must admit. Makes him feel less like he’s drowning and more like he’s treading deep water. With Allura around and in the loop, Keith doesn’t have to pretend when a flash hits him, scrambling up a dumb excuse or making a hasty retreat. She merely sits next to him, hand on his arm and leaning in, and waits for it to pass. There is no pressure of secrecy when it is done, just a smile he haltingly returns and a murmur for them to get back to work; not that that stops him from keeping to himself anyway (though Allura has made her opinion on that blatantly clear), but the thought is still there.

As if sensing his want of confidentiality and purposefully scorning it, the device in his hand beeps, causing them both to jerk to attention. Match found, reads the screen and Keith nearly topples over a pile of dusty books in his haste to get the scroll he had been translating into the princess's hands, upsetting the mice. Allura is just as eager, ripping it from his grasp and shoving her nose into it, going cross-eyed as she reads its faded ink.

“What does it say?” he asks impatiently.

Allura doesn’t answer immediately, instead unrolling it further and frowning in her effort to make sense of the words bared in front of her. After a solid minute of reading her eyebrows rise up in surprise. “Wow,” she murmurs in wonder. “To think that all this knowledge was at my fingertips this entire time. How foolish of me not to delve into the archives sooner.”

“Well?”

“First off, we were right in thinking that there might be a connection to what’s happening to you and Oriande. The translator worked and this scroll details the supposed creation of the realm.” Her eyes start glittering, wide like full moons. “It’s a realm, did you know that? Not another dimension like we originally thought. There’s a difference: a dimension can exist in a limited amount of space, but realms exist in all of them. How fascinating.”

“I know this is all great and awesome for you, but can we focus here? What does it say about the abyss?” Allura doesn’t so much as twitch. “Allura. Hey— what does it say?”

Almost reluctantly, she looks up and away. But when they are finally level with each other once more her face takes on a specific expression, the one where she talks science and alchemy and diplomacy. Perceptive and fierce. It’s one of calculation.

Out of pure instinct, Keith leans away from it. “What is it?

“You haven’t come into contact with pure quintessence recently, have you?”

“Uh, no.”

“How about during your time in the abyss?”

“I don’t think so.”

“You don’t think so or you don’t know so.”

The way she beats around the bush causes a spark of annoyance to run through him. “I’m not sure if you know this, princess, but I lived on the back of a giant, space whale and you don’t just find vats of pure quintessence lying around. I’m sure if there was any, we would know about it.”

Another eye sparkle, as if she’d been waiting for Keith to say as much. “Speaking of ‘we,’ how does your mother fair with the visions? Are they more taxing with her age? Do they happen just as often as your own? It’s possible that the visions are connected through you both, through familial relation. Maybe we could ask and compare experiences between the two.”

Keith twitches. “Ah, no, she doesn’t get them anymore. They stopped a few days after we arrived on the castleship.” He looks away, wincing against the guilt that ravages his insides when he recalls her relief when telling him of the news. She had been so happy and Keith hadn’t wanted to ruin it, so much so that the lie had rolled off his tongue without a moment’s thought. “She actually doesn’t know that I still get them. I haven’t… well, I haven’t told her.”

Her brows turns downward. “Keith.”

Keith shakes off the chide, clearing his throat. “It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t need to know, not when we finally have this.” He gestures to the scroll still held loosely in her hands. “You said there’s a connection, right? And that it’s got something to do with quintessence, I’m guessing.”

Allura looks as if she wants to talk more about Keith and his choices in life, but doesn’t know how to continue without upsetting Keith himself. Eventually, she sighs and nods, laying out the scroll between them and placing her ever-compliant mice at the corners as paperweights of sorts. They squeak up at them, watching Allura’s perfectly manicured finger trace a line. “It says here that realms are tied directly to the quintessence that makes up the world. It is the beginning of what was and what is and what shall be. The quantum abyss is a precursor to even that. From it or another like it, Oriande was made and from that, our universe. Just as I was tied to Oriande, it seems you are tied to the abyss.”

“But… why me?”

She tilts her head in thought. “Only selected Alteans can enter Oriande, a criteria held by what the Life Givers hold true. But the abyss is older and run by more… archaic principles. You are the first galra-human hybrid in existence, something never before seen in this universe or that of another, so perhaps it is your physiology. Maybe the fact is making you susceptible to the flashes in a way full-breeds and other species are not. Kinship in the form of novelty. It would explain why you are so sensitive to quintessence too.”

He nods. “Back when— before all this and Voltron was even a thing— I was able to find Blue. At first, it was just a feeling, but then it turned into some kind of obsession. I always thought I was going crazy, you know, chasing after some obscure cave drawings, but then we actually found her and…”

“It became real.”

“Yeah.”

She must notice something in his tone, because she leans into him and smiles. “It’s a good thing you trusted your instincts. Without it, we might have never met and the universe would be a much different place.”

“Yeah,” he says again. “You’re right. I’d rather deal with this than never meet any of you.”

Allura brings her hand to her heart, mimicked by the mice, all obviously touched at his words, and Keith flushes in embarrassment. He’s gotten better at conveying his feelings since being launched into space, but the action of voicing them still causes his stomach to flip erratically. It’s ridiculous, he knows, because they’ve had enough group hugs and heartfelt reunions to sufficiently define themselves as the makeshift family he’s always wanted, but the abandonment of his past has a way of following him into the prospect of his future and it’s a battle he’s raging even today.

“So,” he says louder than necessary, “let’s get back to… this.”

Allura clears her throat. “Yes, well, if we are to assume that you are still linked to the quantum abyss despite leaving its bounds and that link is quintessence based then it would stand to reason that quintessence might be the solution.”

“I don’t follow.”

Her hand cups his own. “I want to induce a vision.”

It’s not what he was expecting and he says as much. “You want to— the flashes aren’t something I can control, Allura. They just happen.”

“You forget that I study alchemy and, though my knowledge is nowhere near complete, I am one of the leading experts on quintessence in this universe. If there is anyone who can guide you through a vision, it is me. I am a Chosen of Oriande.” Seeing his reluctance, she takes on a quieter tone, almost pleading. “Keith, let me try, please. This is all I can think of and I want to help. Something obviously went wrong when you and your mother breached the quantum abyss, and these visions could be attempts to realign what has been broken. If guided we could delve what they mean to fix and bring an end to this madness all the quicker.”

It’s the eagerness that does him in. Selfless in intent and utterly devoted to do the right thing, Allura is at the ready to prove herself in any way possible. Willing to give everything and more, guileless, she offers an upturned palm, putting the choice in his hands.

Hesitantly, he takes it. “Fine, but if anything goes south, you pull back immediately.”

“On my honor,” she promises.

When her other hand settles on top of their clasped ones he does his best not to jerk away, spying the faint glow that emanates from the princess just as a low hum vibrates the air around them. Reminiscent of how his friend’s eyes blazed with power when she had cradled a husk of a man and brought life to it, he doesn't dare look up, fearful of what the act might induce— days, weeks, all of it lost in the possibility of a single moment. So he lowers his gaze to his knees, outlining the definite wrinkles that pull at the fabric of his pants and letting Allura take the lead, riding the wave as she dives into the caverns of his psyche.

There is no fight against the intrusion, Keith allowing her to tread deeper as he floats upon its deceivingly shallow surface. She dips a finger into the water that fills his mind, studying the ripples it makes with avid interest. A breeze of energy passes and he breathes deeply with it, eyes fluttering closed as something bubbles deep inside him.

At first it is a tentative thing, a mere whisper floating along the outskirts of thought. But then Allura pushes and it reacts, creeping ever closer; a shudder and it crystallizes into something real, a reflection of self. The apparition, colored red like a dying sunset, stares him down, face blank and hand spread over the transparent barrier that lies between them. Voiceless words channel through the connection and Keith, still aware of the projection of Allura at his back, goes to echo the gesture. Fingertips touch and—

—a flash, blinding light that rolls down the inverted buttes of his irises and tightens the coils of every muscle. Pupils dilate, widening until they are a chasmic gateway to the soul.

He falls and it is a timeless motion.

Like Icarus to the sun, he aims too high and burns upon exposure. Once gliding on vitreous wings, they shatter and break, condemning him to fall eternally. Images fly past him, telling of scenes already passed and yet to come. They are solar flares, arching high above the scope of his vision, assembling into a life that lies far beyond his ability.

Hands that are not his own stretch farther than he can reach. Stained a divine pink, they spread wide and seize at the images, pulling them inward. A pulse of quintessences and then his axis is tilting. For there is no up and down, no left and right, no back and forth. Simply a directionless force, reticent and resolute. Transcendental impressions, waiting to be acted upon. Ever waiting. Waiting for creation, for aspiration, for vitalization, for—

—a field of flowers, white tablecloth and champagne glasses, an altar christened with tuxedos and vows—

—the heat of a fire raging, plumes of smoke rising from the ashes of a stranger’s home, clouds over the tombstone of a father buried—

—the roar of a lion—

—the weightlessness of falling, golden eyes in the shadows, a sword cutting through the air, the slumped form of a body in armor—

—a warm hand clasped in his own, golden ring glinting in the morning sun—

—absolution.

He resurfaces, gasping.

The world snaps back into place. Gone is the rush of predetermined destiny, leaving only the barren truth of now. He is back within the thrumming walls of the Atlas, surrounded by dusty tomes and military grade furniture, time resuming its reign and taxing him heavily as he regains control over his own breathing.

“We,” he pants, sweat already cooling at his neck, “are never doing that again.”

Allura is no better. She has her hands curled on the back of her thighs, leaning forward as if she can’t even support the weight of her own thoughts. The mice chitter worryingly, pawing at her ankles and wrists, only quieting when her altean marks flicker with residual magic and then die out. “Agreed.”

Phantom hands intertwined with his just as lips ghost over the corner of his mouth and Keith jolts to attention, muscles spasming as he catches the tail ends of the flash fading into the air. Head still aching and heart running a mile a minute, Keith forces himself to his feet.

The movement causes Allura to stir. “Where are you going?”

“Bed,” he says quickly. He feels ready to crawl out of his skin. “It’s late and I’m tired.”

She pushes herself to her knees. “But we haven’t yet determined the purpose behind what we saw together. If we are to believe that these are preeminent visions, then some of those images were your future. We may be able to use them to our advantage.”

The thought of delving deeper into what just transpired is nauseating. Some of the images had been nondescript enough for them to ignore, while others were in excruciating detail. There’s no way either of them had missed the significance behind some of the scenes, like the altar or wedding bands, and he dreads the questions that’s going to be asked of him

“There isn’t much to talk about. It didn’t give us anything to stop it or the war with, so.” He shrugs, hoping she’ll drop it.

Of course, it isn’t that easy. Allura thrives off knowledge and Keith is a treasure chest of hastily kept secrets just waiting to be plundered.

“I wouldn’t say that we didn’t gain nothing from it…” Her eyelids lower with her brows, giving him a side-eye that’s reminiscent of Hunk when he spies fresh gossip, only worsening when the mice begin to reenact some romantic shtick on the floor. Her voice is coy and has the impression of a cat that’s just got the cream. “Some of those visions were… quite telling. You have a bright future ahead of you, wouldn’t you say?”

Heat rushes to his face.

“Come now. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. This war won’t last forever and when it ends we’ll be free to live out our lives, finding the happiness we so rightfully deserve. If that means finding another to live it with, then I hope we are all as lucky as you.”

Keith’s stomach flips. Mouth suddenly dry, he tries to think of something to say but can’t; trapped in the confines of his throat, they stay.

Love had always been a fickle thing for Keith, an almost affair that leads to heartbreak and broken promises. It’s something he can’t control. It rears its head in the most unlikely of places; in deep space, in between bubbling laughter and gunfire, a something settling behind his breastbone, refusing to disappear even as the years pass. It takes many forms, sliding along the cradle of his mother’s arms or curving with the brotherly hair ruffle Shiro bestows, easy to swallow because they are things he has always yearned.

But what the flashes depict… it is a love that runs deeper. A cluster of stars tied with a cosmic ring of infatuation, born in an instant and lasting an eternity.

His shoulders hunch and his fists clench, contorting in the equivalent of a full body grimace. “Yeah, well, it’s just… whatever.”

Allura frowns. “Are you not pleased with what you saw?”

And how does he even begin to explain? Explain the concern, the trepidation, because nothing is set in stone and letting himself hope is one step away from being let down.

For the flashes hadn’t really been a choice, not in this fold of time. In them he is stuck between yesterday and tomorrow, walking into a fate that might be deprived from him; he’s seen so much, flashes that blind him to what can be and what really is, painting him gray with longing. It’s years, months, week, days, seconds down the line, a tropical illusion amidst a desert of truth, blurry and just beyond reach. Tantalizing but deadly, because what he wants isn’t what he gets. And that’s the thing that hurts the most, the uncertainty.

Not that Allura would understand, he realizes. Love had never been in short supply for the princess, lavished onto her by a father, mother and kingdom. And he doesn’t blame her for that— would never compare the love she deserves to the love he lacks—but it still leaves him crippled.

So he takes a breath and clears his face of all emotion. “It’s late. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

He ignores her shocked face as he leaves, feeling the pinch in his temple and twist in his gut. Bitterness is an all-encompassing thing, but he runs from it all the same.

“Dad?” an eight-year old Keith asks on a summer night long past. “Why did mom leave us?”

Crickets chirp among the blooming cacti, loud in the stillness of the desert. Dust coats his boots and clothes from their hike into the canyon that day, rough against his skin but warm against the cold air that whistles over the dry grass. Faintly, from inside the shack, he could hear the low hum of the refrigerator. The moon, yellow and waxing crescent, hovers low over the distant horizon, highlighting the rugged features of his father’s face and throwing his nicked eyebrow in direct relief.

An ashen gaze is pulled from the heavens back to earth.

“Your mother,” his father starts with that smile he always gets when speaking about the woman he loved, soft and sad and wistful, “left to protect us— to protect you. She couldn’t stay, not if it meant putting us in harm’s way, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t with us now. She’s up there, somewhere far beyond, looking at the stars and thinking of us just like we’re thinking of her. And it might be tomorrow or next week or even next year, but she’ll be with us again. Some day.”

It’s the same answer he always gives and just like all the times before, Keith doesn’t believe it.

Keith fools himself into thinking that the world wouldn’t catch up to him. Thinks himself so far ahead and with time to let the dust settle that when things do come crashing down it’s like a hammer to glass. A shatter so abrupt that it cracks him wide open.

It starts with a thinly veiled interrogation from Shiro on the Friday following his talk with Allura, stuff packed with good intentions and gentle probes. A you okay there, champ? here and a how about we go out for lunch today and talk? there, slipping past the bitten lip of concern. And when he ultimately declines, it shifts to blatant coddling. Helpful hands and calm words, aiming to guide and resolve, but only succeeding in bringing the thoughts inside his head to a steady boil. Enough so that Keith not-so-subtly excuses himself from the apartment and heads to the training facilities on the Atlas.

It’s early and his class doesn’t start until another ten minutes and, as a result, he doesn’t see any of his students when he swipes his keycard to enter. Which is fine with Keith, because he’d rather not have to force out some half-baked nicety between people he barely knows. However, the thought is torn in two when he realizes that he recognizes a face doing drills with a kendo stick at one of the mats.

“Lance?” he calls out without thinking, loud with surprise, drawing the attention of said boy along with the few bodies that are already stationed at the machines.

Quickly and ignoring the stares that follow him, he makes his way to his teammate. The mat sinks slightly when he steps on it, putting him at the same level with the boy when he straightens from the fighting stance he had been practicing. He looks to have been there a while, sleeveless shirt sticking to his sides and stretching the width of his chest as he takes deep breaths, face flushed from exertion.

The blue paladin doesn’t appear at all surprised to see him, leaning onto the stick as he pushes his hair back. There are earbuds hanging from his collar, playing some muted pop song that he doesn’t recognize. “Hey, buddy, fancy seeing you here.”

But Keith doesn’t register the banter-in-motion. “What’re you doing here?” he asks, abrupt and rude.

The teasing smile on Lance’s face dims slowly and it’s a painful thing to watch, more so when he realizes belatedly it was his doing. “Training,” the boy explains, scratching his neck and taking a quick sweep of the area before returning to him. “I, uh, missed my evening session yesterday and didn’t want to fall behind, so here I am.”

“I didn’t know you trained.” Rude again. Why can’t he stop?

A flash of annoyance. “Well, I do.”

Keith backpedals momentarily. Tries to remind himself that Lance hasn’t done anything to deserve to bear the brunt of his frustrations. “Yeah, of course, I… sorry.”

Lance purses his lips, passing quick judgement. Eventually, he shrugs and loosens the slope of his shoulders. “It’s all cool. I don’t exactly make a point to live here like you do. Hear you took up a class teaching dudes how to karate chop bad guys. How’s that going for ya?”

“It’s going.”

That brings a smile back to the other boy’s face and Keith feels the cool water of relief run through his body when he lets out a small laugh. Not everything is entirely hopeless, it seems. “Sounds riveting. I might just stick around and watch.”

There’s an unspoken challenge that Keith can’t quite decipher, but before he can even ask there’s the familiar swish of the door to the training room opening, a gaggle of his students filing through, dressed in sweats and activewear. Hunk is with them, shouldering his own pack and chatting amiably with two girls, one dark-haired with glasses and the other blonde and freckled. Rizavi and Leifsdottir, if Keith remembers their names correctly.

Keith takes a step, then stops.

Seeing his hesitation, Lance punches him lightly in the shoulder. “Go on. I’ll still be here when you’re done.”

So Keith goes, passing by Hunk on his way and sharing a wave.

Back into the routine of things he acknowledges his students, waits for them to line up, guides them through some basic stretches, and finally starts demonstrating their first move. It’s one he learned during his time with the Blades, efficient when needing to get out of a sticky situation. Duck, lunge and roll. Simple and easy to be coupled with other maneuvers, best in close quarter situations.

Pairs are made and Keith walks among them, stepping in and adjusting stances whenever he sees the need, but watching for the most part. His students take his offered advice seriously, fine-tuning their movements accordingly and only ever needing one or two demonstrations until they get it right. It’s impressive and entirely reflective of what he’s read from their files, all picked from the cream of the crop with the scores to prove it.

However, it’s not twenty-five minutes into the class, just as Kinkade executes a perfect lunge, rolling out of Leifsdottir’s surprisingly aggressive assault, that Keith gets distracted.

Amidst the flurry of fists and grunts, he spies Lance and Hunk. There’s nothing exceptionally ostentatious about the pair that rightly explains the way his gaze is caught so suddenly; they follow the basic pattern for a spar, circling and engaging at appropriate intervals, unassuming in how they exchange blows and playful words. Nothing to justify why he ignores his students and instead focuses on how Hunk’s burly left arm swings in an arc so wide that Lance has to duck out of the way or be gifted a black eye, the lanky boy slipping back into range with his fists at the ready in a decent boxing stance. Nothing but his own prying eyes to blame, ensnared onto the the sharp angle of shoulder blades as Lance twists into a kick that catches the bigger boy straight into the gut.

He chalks it up to his own restlessness. It’s been a while since he’s allowed himself to do anything outside the Garrison’s work-out regimen, too busy with restoration of Earth and his classes, and his body longs for the familiarity of close combat. To hold a sword in his hand once more, to feel that extension of self, pointed and dangerous and in control. In the throes of gunfire, a soldier, first and foremost, falling back on instinct alone.

Idly, he wonders if Lance would say yes to a spare if he asked.

“—tch out!”

Pain erupts in the back of his head, sudden and sharp. A noise between a grunt and a yelp erupt from his mouth, skewed as he attempts to twist himself and face the attack, only to trip over his own treacherous feet; the weight of it strikes him down, jaw smashing to the floor, unforgiving.

There’s a flurry of activity around him, voice rising in shock. Distantly, he feels more than one set of hands make to touch him, gripping his biceps and shoulders, and haul him onto his back. White spots dance in his vision, floating just above the harsh lights of the room and the fuzzy outlines of the people that crowd him, flickering in and out of existence as he tries to get a hold of his bearings.

A few seconds of dazed existence and he can actively decipher the muffled noise into words.

“Hey, is he gonna be alright?”

“Wow, Curtis. I can’t believe you just drop kicked a paladin of Voltron.”

“That looked like it hurt.”

“I didn’t mean to, I swear! It was an accident! I didn’t see him and— and who just stands in the middle of a sparring zone? Plus, Jason did the move way too fast and I couldn’t stop my spin in time!”

Another voice, lowered in an effort to soothe. “Hey, hey, hey. It’s okay. I’m sure you didn’t meant it— no one’s blaming you, okay? Breathe. Just give him some space, yeah?” A little louder. “All of you, back up and give him some space. Back to your drills. Hunk, could you…?”

They must follow the order because things go quieter. Quiet enough for Keith to focus on his breathing and the throb that pulses at the back of his neck, wincing when he feels a faint touch to the tender area. He groans deep in his throat and shifts uncomfortably on his tail bone, forcing his eyes to open and squint past the pain until the world sharpens into clarity.  

Front and center is Lance, brows furrowed in worry. “You okay, man?”

He offers a hand and Keith takes it, sitting up. The immediate rush of blood to his head makes him dizzy and he sways just a bit, fingers tightening around Lance’s even as his other hand rises to prod at his temple.

“What happened?” he asks.

“I didn’t actually see it but apparently you took a mean one to the head. Caught you when you weren’t looking— just a good ol’ heel to the face. Judging from the size of Curtis’ feet, I’m betting it’ll bruise.” Lance looks to him, frowning. “You need an ice pack? I can run and get one. Or I can take you to the infirmary myself. I know I joke about your mullet, but not even bad helmet hair can stop a concussion.”

The infirmary is the last place Keith wants to end up. The risk of being found out and having his flashes the focus of scrutiny is too high and Keith would rather suffer possible head trauma than deal with that. Not to mention the unbearable mothering Shiro would dote onto him once he realized his worry was justified, accumulative tenfold by his own mother once she heard of the news herself.

“Yeah, no, I just zoned out for a second— totally my fault. Just need to walk it off.”

“Are you sure?”

Slightly disoriented and a bit bruised, but nothing a good rest couldn’t fix. He’s seen worse, been through worse, and can take care of his own. “Yeah, it’s okay.”

“I don’t know, you’ve been lookin’ a bit scruffy the past few days. Me and Hunk were just talking about how maybe something bad is rolling through the base, like the space flu or yalmor pox— I’m not sure the second one actually exists but Coran didn’t technically say no when we asked, so…” He shrugs, like it’s water down his back.

“I’m fine, really.”

“I really wouldn’t mind going with you. We can catch up while we get you checked up.”

He’s not sure what exactly, but something about that has his hackles rising in defense. Maybe it’s the fact that Lance is so obviously pushing something he doesn’t want. It’s insignificant and well-meaning, but Keith has been living in a constant state of anxiety for the past couple of weeks, strained under the pressure of the flashes and keeping them locked away, and the words eat away at his fortitude. He can’t even pinpoint the reason this moment is the breaking factor— can’t even explain the fuddled mess of thoughts prior to the embarrassing kick in the head or why the pressure of Lance’s hand in his feels too much. Doesn’t know why and hates it.

“I’m fine, Lance.” he snaps prematurely, biting his tongue by accident and tasting copper. Lets the taste fuel him, push him past what he knows to be right. “Why are you asking? Did Shiro put you up to this? Is this why you’re really here? God, I already told him—”

“Woah, woah, woah. Hold up.” Lance looks taken aback, palms outward in a gesture of surrender. “Shiro didn’t say anything to me. This is me asking all on my own, okay? No need to bite my head off.”

Keith breathes hard, looks away, and attempts to get up. He can feel Lance watching him, struggling to get his feet underneath him, eyes narrowed as he makes no move to aid his clumsy limbs; it’s a look that sticks, seeping into his pores. Tension, high and thick, fills the space between them, but Keith, for once, doesn’t rise to the bait. Lance, unfortunately, has never been one to let things go.

“Why would Shiro need to talk to me about you anyways? Is there something I should know?”

“No.” Finally, he makes it to his feet, knees popping in protest. The ache in his head is worse when standing, but he ignores it. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

Lance rises too and pushes forward in a way that is solely them, challenge-like, close enough that Keith can see the speckles of brown in his eyes and feel his breath when he speaks. “Does it have something to do with how you and Allura are hanging out every night?”

His chest pinches tightly and it’s an oddly familiar feeling.

It furrows his eyes and thins his lips. Hard like stone he becomes. “Let me rephrase that. It’s nothing that concerns you.”

A pause.

Then, “Ah, okay. I see.”

It doesn’t immediately process that he’s said something wrong. It’s not until the other boy makes a face, scrunched up and twisted like he’s just sucked a lemon, that he’s even aware that something could go so wrong. But it could and it does. For there's definitely something wrong about the quiet chuckle that comes out of Lance's mouth, too much like the gurgling end of a drowning man.

Lance rocks onto his heels and shakes his head in this genuinely uncomfortable manner. Usually, the close proximity of the blue paladin wouldn't phase him, as used to it as he is by their constant squabbling, but something about the other’s face— the hard angle of his eyebrows maybe, or even the pressed line of his mouth— puts him off kilter. It's enough to have his mind stutter to a confusing stop.

“I don't know why I thought…” The boy looks up at the ceiling, closing his eyes and somehow making Keith feel like there’s miles between them. A deep breath, “Fine.” Then he straightens and smiles something self-deprecating, gaze sharp enough to cut glass, walking past him so abruptly that their shoulders knock together. “Look alive, Team Leader. Your class is waiting for your orders.”

Keith stumbles, turning with the move so as to watch Lance head toward his gear and pack everything away. Watches him mutter something to Hunk and the other gym goers, hiking his bag over his shoulder and head straight to the door. Watches Hunks casts one, last worried glance over at him before following his best friend, door sliding shut with a quiet swish.

Watches him leave.

Hidden under a blanket of shooting stars, he lets himself fall— in body, in mind, and in love. Arms of the sea cradle him, lifting him above the surf when the dark depth threatens to drown. Glistening, ever bright, it leans in close and presses a secret into his skin.

You can have your place, a starlit ocean whispers, but first you must want it.

It’s Hunk who finally corners him the next day, appearing just after Keith returns from an afternoon jog around the base with Kosmo, exhausted as he leans against the wall for support and unable to escape. For he is a wanted man, running from the many and the few, desperate to succumb to his own self-inflicted wounds. Lips cracked and throat parched, he swallows the sticky saliva that coats his mouth with increasing discomfort, watching his friend walk toward him from under the curtain of sweaty bangs.

Kosmo has no qualms about the company, wagging his tail when he gets a ruffle of the ears and a piece of jerky from the the boy’s stash of snacks. It’s betrayal in the most truest sense.

“Hi,” Hunk says, taking a seat on the ground next to him.

Keith gives him a small nod, using his towel to wipe away the sweat clinging to his heated skin. “Hey.”

“You have a nice run?”

“Yeah, it was good.”

“That’s good.”

It’s quiet between them. Keith bent over his folded knees, still catching his breath, and Hunk just sitting, staring straight forward. There is no pressure in the silence, the yellow paladin’s easygoing nature lulling any and all tension just with his mere presence. Though, like all things in Keith’s life, it's only a matter of time before it breaks.

“I talked to Lance.”

And there it is.

It may be selfish, but Keith doesn't want to have this conversation. Doesn't want to be here, in this moment, in this position. Doesn't want to play this game of telephone with his teammates. Doesn’t want to be the reason this problem exists.

“How… how is he?”

“He’s a bit upset. Wouldn’t really tell me all of it and got really quiet when I pushed, but I think he’s more frustrated that it took such an ugly turn than anything else. Probably wasn’t expecting you to be so… you.” Something about it doesn't sit well. Hunk shouldn't be the one saying this— it should be coming directly from the source, from someone else, from Lance. “He did promised to behave, so that’s something.”

Internal dissent parts his lips. “He doesn’t have to… It’s not his fault, not really. I’ve just got— a lot going on, okay?”

“Figured as much. Still would’ve been helpful to know though.”

He lets out a frustrated huff. “It’s my stuff and I don’t want to…”

Hunk hums.

“Plus, you know how he can be.”

Another pause and it’s nice, to have someone there that just gets it. Keith has never been one for words, has never excelled in stringing thought into something more concise. Not like Shiro or Hunk or Lance. And the world doesn’t care for boys like that, like Keith, who would bite the hand that feeds him.

“Look…” Hunk starts and Keith feels it like a kick in the gut. “Lance is one of my best friends. He’s the reason I went to the Garrison in the first place— begged me for weeks to register with him, saying that I was too smart to waste it by staying on the islands. Always been like that, in case you were wondering. Loud, pushy and full of opinions.” He chuckles, the sound peeters off into a tired sigh. “I’m only saying this because I know sometimes he can be… a lot, especially with the rocky start you two had. But he’s a good guy, I promise. He’s just— sometimes he’s got these ideas of himself and everybody else that don’t really represent reality, and it makes him… sensitive to things.”

“Are you saying Lance is sensitive to me?”

Hunk gives a pointed side-eye. “Lance has always cared what you think of him.”

Keith frowns and shifts so that his ankles cross, wrapping his arms around his shins and wiggling his toes until Kosmo growls softly at him. He had known that people had envied his intuitive skill in piloting, no one being discreet about the words they said to his face and behind his back, and maybe he had distanced himself because of it. But it hadn’t matter, not when he had Shiro. Not when he could count on his friend-turned-brother to have his back, to listen when he talked, and to inspire him when the rest of the world let him down. To think that someone out there— and Lance of all people— had been admiring him in that same light, looking at his retreating figure and wishing for just a single glance back.

“You’re a hard guy to read, Keith, and an even harder guy to impress.”

He winces. “I don’t mean to come across that way. You guys have nothing to prove to me.”

“Lance doesn’t see it that way. You guys have always had this— thing, and well, old habits are hard to break, I guess.” He shrugs and Keith sways with the force of the motion. “We’ve spent a lot of time together up in space. Got to really know one another. But I think sometimes we forget that we aren’t all the same and experience everything differently.”

Keith thinks of Allura and his flashes. How something so anxiety-inducing for him had been celebrated.

“I’m not asking you to share your life story or for you to apologize, cause I know that you didn’t ask for that made-up rivalry or whatever it is you’re going though right now, and it’s not your fault that Lance feels like this. It sucks that you’re in the cross-fire and I would change it if I could, but this is just something he has to figure out himself and until then— if you could just lay low for awhile.” He must see his responding grimace because his tone gets a bit frantic, evidently distressed at the thought of distressing Keith. “I don’t mean it like that, I promise. Just— like, you know, not do anything in retaliation. Even if he starts it.”

He remembers Lance in the beginning, unreasonable and needlessly challenging, and dreads returning to it.

“Yeah,” he still says. “I’ll keep out of it.”

Hunk sighs in relief. “Thanks, Keith. You’re a good friend.”

Keith gets a pat on the back and then the yellow paladin is leaving, back to his family and Shay and the rest of the resistance. Kosmo whines a little, obviously missing the company he’s gotten so used to during their long travel back to Earth, but settles down when he pets his flank. In a move that forces Keith’s knees apart, the large wolf settles his head in his lap, ears alert and eyes focused on his face.

“I thought things would be easier when we returned,” he tells the wolf quietly, knowing the animal doesn’t have the answers to his problems. “But things are all mixed up now. I kinda wish we had stayed in space— everything was so much more simpler.”

Kosmos licks the pad of his thumb.

“Thanks buddy.” Keith smiles, fond when a bushy tail thumps against the floor. “Lance probably just needs some space. I’m sure this will blow over soon.”

It doesn’t blow over soon like everyone says, not even within the next few days. It gets worse, slowly and deliberately, enough so that he starts resorting to desperate measures. First and foremost, avoiding Lance.

It's not the most mature thing he's done and there is no denying the nauseating shame that comes to a boil in his stomach, but Keith doesn't know what else to do. Usually, if there had been a problem between him and another student back before Voltron, Keith would force it into the light and hash it out right then and there. But this is different, feels different, because Lance isn’t just some vague face roaming the halls anymore; he can’t just swing a fist and call the score settled, not if he wants to retain what they’ve made together. Friendship with Lance— with the entire team, really— is something he cherishes and has grown accustomed to, leaving him reeling without its easy grace and sincere intentions.

No more secret smiles or casual arms draped over his shoulder. No more thoughtful water bottles found by his practice gear or dumb challenges over who can finish the warm-up sprints first. No more playful banter or dumb puns.

Instead, he gets to watch as Lance stands to leave a room he just entered or purse his lips in a frown when he can’t, folding his arms and looking anywhere but at him. There are no heated arguments, no snippy comebacks, or even quips at his expense. Lance doesn’t speak to him at all and it’s that much worse, Keith decides. The silence is a pike between them, glaringly obvious to their friends and anyone who remotely knows the two of them, killing conversations and moods dead in their presence.

It’s nothing like Hunk said it would be and he can see the other boy sending the blue paladin concern looks throughout the days, always ignored and always brushed off when confronted. This puts Keith even more on edge and he falters in his next move, wanting to take action and wanting to keep the peace. Because if even Hunk doesn’t know what to do, then what hope does Keith have?

So Keith does the one thing he knows how. He ignores it, pushing forward and past with a single-minded focus, training in the hours not spent sleeping or teaching his class. He pretends that Lance isn’t there, forcing his eyes to glaze over his stooped form and to keep away when the silence starts to become too suffocating.

It’s unhealthy, he knows, but it’s familiar.

Strangely, while Lance makes himself scarce, it’s Axca who takes his place.

The half-galra, now working alongside the MFE pilots, seems to have worked her way around the Garrison Galaxy base. He sees her around constantly. Roaming the hallways of the Atlas, lingering outside the tech labs, sitting alone in the canteen, unloading fresh shipments of scaultrite at the landing docks. She’s everywhere, always aware and looking up to meet his questioning gaze with a twitch of the lips and sharp nod.

She starts joining Keith in his workout sessions, quiet as she greets him and focuses on the weights she lifts. There is no exchange of words, just the muted thuds of metal meeting polyester and their huffs of breath— and it helps, surprisingly enough. It helps to have someone there. He never says why he’s there so often and she never asks; no burning judgement or well-intended advice, just two people existing within proximity. It’s the understanding of two outcasts, bonded through blood shed, allies lost, and debts repaid.

Eventually, they start sparring together and it’s a breath of fresh air. Axca is a challenging adversary, quick and rational as she parries his blade and aims a short jab at his left side that’ll definite bruise. It reminds him of his time with the Blade, learning to use the weapon of his birthright and parrying the strikes of his fellow Marmorites when they practiced. It didn’t leave a lot of room to talk, but it did leave him stronger.

People come to watch them, sometimes. Peering through windows and beyond door frames, individuals of every kind of life and species watch them. The gazes of many tack onto their forms, ever curious of them and the Galra empire they supposedly represent. Keith ignores it to the best of his ability. Axca, for her part, appears to not notice their accumulating audience, focused solely on the fight at hand, sliding through the forms with ease and deadly precision acclimated with experience. She matches Keith’s every swing, expects every lunge, and parries every strike.

Shiro stops by whenever he’s not busy, watching with thinly veiled pride and offering constructive criticism on how to better their form. Pidge and Hunk visit too but only so that the former can sass them from the sidelines, ignoring the scandalized looks received when she cups her hands against her mouth and makes an obnoxious farting noise whenever Keith takes a hard tumble. Romelle likes to come with his mother, cheering when Keith gets in a particularly impressive hit. Only once does Allura show up, giving a beatific smile to those present before wiping the floor of both Keith and Axca in a record breaking minute and forty-two seconds.

It would almost be as if nothing was wrong if not for the blatant absence of a certain blue paladin.

And it isn’t as if Lance is indisposed. He’ll see the boy walking with Matt and his new alien girlfriend or the princess somewhere, obviously on break from his duties, matching their strides like he used to do with Keith.

It always brings forth a particular memory. The universe’s last chance drifting, five nobodies linked together by the arms of necessity, crusted with frost and one hysterical outburst away from splintering. Overcome by thoughts once locked away, slipping to the forefront with an edge that promises fracture, they are exiled, launched out of the mouth of a deity. Desperate, afraid and wishing to be swallowed whole.

Like cosmic dust, they float aimlessly in a sea of stars. Insignificant and dwarfed by the extensive scope of space, they are paladins without a righteous cause. Run through by their own failures, self-inflicted and refusing to heal, hoping that no one sees that they are less than what they are; but the damage is done and they pounce on one another, exploiting weakness in the name of preservation.

Maybe you should have stayed away, and it’s sharp canines digging into the vulnerable flesh of his jugular. A snarl, vibrating with malice intent, and he is left in pieces. Broken.

It hurts like nothing has hurt before, but he takes the pain and makes it his. Braces himself for a fight, brandishing sword and teeth just to survive. A thousand moons light the sky and he howls to every one, bristling under their pretense of companionship, knowing he does not belong.

For he is a wolf in a lion’s den, desperate and alone.

And when he’s pushed himself past his limits and is a moment from collapsing, can no longer stand the sight of the empty space beside him, he retreats to the stillness of solitude. Shoulders hunched and muscles aching, he makes his way to the Black Lion; the large cat lets him in easily, silent and solemn in the wake of leadership.

It’s a week into his self-isolation, things change.

The Garrison officials are gearing up for some big symposium, puffing out their chests and marching down the hallways with self-crowned importance oozing from every salute. It causes a rippling effect across the base, because suddenly more and more coalition ships are descending into the stratosphere by the day, bringing with them convoys of resistance fighters and the idea that soon their way of life will be no more; it seems everyone everywhere has things to do and no time to do it. It’s hectic and loud and everything Keith hates.

Hates it so much that he retreats to the library on the Atlas. Pristine as most new things are, the grand room is filled wall to wall with journals and tomes and star maps from planets all across the universe. Shelves run perpendicular to the main entrance, broken only by the holo-database that sits in the room’s center, organized and tended to by small drones. Humans and aliens walk through the scaled-down labyrinth, chatting quietly to themselves and the crisp pages they turn, nearly overshadowed by the low hum of the AI librarian cataloging new arrivals.

Settled in a tight-spaced alcove on the second floor, Keith finds himself curled on one of the many spherical chairs with a holoscreen held loosely in his grasp. It pings with the notification of newly received messages, but they go ignored as he stares listlessly at the open email, text glaring in the lamp light.

Mandatory team meeting, the screen reads. It’s time to end this war for good.

The quiet of the library is in direct contrast to the loud buzz in his ears. Only the books are privy to how his thumb runs anxiously over the side of his knuckle, the only indicator of the turmoil that churns inside. Though Keith was never one to let his things like feelings of doubt stop him from doing what he wanted, the storm inside his chest does put a damper on his resolve, binding his muscles in transparent chains that left him paralyzed at the very thought of seeing the face of the person he’d been actively avoiding for days. Forced through shared responsibility, this meeting would bring the two together in close proximity and Keith doesn’t know if the world would survive such a collision.

It’s then that a voice, distinctively feminine, breaks through his internalized frenzy.

“Can you believe how things turned out?” the bodiless being says from just beyond the nearest shelf. Close enough that it has Keith looking up sharply, turning off his holoscreen like he’s got something to hide, and leaning slightly out of his seat to get a look at the person who’s disturbed his bubble of privacy. “It’s wild, isn’t?”

“So wild,” another voice agrees, accompanied by a bob of blonde hair through the spines of Puig encyclopedias. “I wonder how it happened.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, what do you think set them apart?” Another flash of hair, cinched in a high ponytail and a bright red bow. “Those cadets. Why do you think it was them that got launched into space and not some actual pilots.”

“Professor Shirogane was with them too, you know.”

“Yeah, but you know what I mean. Plus, he was already MIA when it happened. Which, totally sketch, by the way.”

It takes a long moment for Keith to connect the dots and realize that the strangers are talking about him— him and his team. There’s some irony to it, he thinks, that the Paladins of Voltron, legendary defenders of the universe and wielders of the most powerful weapon seen in this world and the next, can be reduced to something so juvenile as hearsay. Brows furrowing at such a distracting thought, he shifts so that he’s facing away from the pair, ears perked despite the voice in his head advising against it.

A third person is talking now, a boy. “Didn’t you have fighter class with them, before? What were they like?”

There’s the shuffle of books being taken off the shelf, opened, flipped through and returned. ”Well, Kogane didn’t talk much, though he got caught in a few fights. But that was before he started his private lessons with Professor Shirogane.” A huff of thinly veiled glee, slightly muffled like it was being pressed against the back of a hand. “No one knows what they did, but that didn’t stop people from guessing.”

“No way,” the first girl gasps, scandalous.

“My roommate says that she would see them go on rides outside of Garrison grounds— wouldn’t return until after hours sometimes”

“They are pretty close…” someone else Keith can’t see murmurs. “But wasn’t Professor Shirogane getting married to Professor West? Full offense to Kogane, but I wouldn’t even hesitate dropping him for a taste of Professor West, or even Shirogane for that matter. Have you guys seen the size of his arms?”

A low rumble of agreement follows the declaration and Keith makes a face in disgust. It was hard to see the two men in such a light since he had been thirteen at the time and had been privy to their shamelessly domestic habits. There was no going back once he’s seen Shiro nearly burn down the kitchen trying to make premade lasagna and Adam’s arm blindly grasping outside the bathroom door for toilet paper he himself had forgotten to replenish.

“Okay, okay, so Kogane is just emo and a charity case. But what about the rest? I hear McClain was a cargo pilot, and he still got chosen as a Paladin. Garrett too, only a mechanic. If I was some sentient space robot, I’d at least pick a batch of decent pilots and not some wannabes.”

“You’re just salty it wasn’t you. Plus, Garrett is the sweetest guy out there. Same with McClain. Cute too.”

A bark of laughter. “Now who’s projecting?”

There’s the sound of a hand meeting skin and someone’s half-hearted squawk. “You know that’s not what I meant. He’s way too annoying and high maintenance for me. Don’t you see him always in the other paladins’ business? No thank you.”

Vwoop. The librarian materializes next to the group, outside of the shelves and directly in Keith’s line of sight, causing everyone to jump in sight and at least one book to be knocked over. “If you’re going to be disruptive,” the pixelated voice tells them, humanoid in shape and colored a neon blue, “then I’m going to have to ask you to leave the premises.”

The group, scolded, leaves with not another word, the watchful eye of the AI following them before it too flickers out of existence and Keith is left alone once more.

He sits there for a long time. Long enough that his legs start cramping badly and the occupants of the room start to thin, going quiet and solemn like the only way inked pages can. It leaves room for thought, chaotic and introspective, fixated on the idea of life and what it means to share it. To stand at the edge of an infinitely large gorge, look to the other side, and actually cross it.

There are no bridges in space, nor is there a concept of time and what it means to lose it, and Keith is suddenly hit with understanding of what's been taken away from him.

A hand on his shoulder startles a gasp out of him. He looks up through his bangs and meets the gaze of the blue paladin, steady and clear like a lake. They stand in the shadow of the Black Lion, waiting to crown a leader.

It’s the start of something new.

A transition from Lance and Keith, neck and neck to Lance and Keith, back to back. A partnership of equals, pushing to the pull and rising to the fall. Where one falters, the other is there to take the slack. It’s the sound of a pistol charging a mere second before a soldier’s blade can meet its mark. It’s the sight of Red’s hull in the middle of a rolling maneuver, shredding through the fighter jets tailing him with one swipe of a massive paw. It’s the hands tugging at his forearm, accompanying exasperated words for him to put down the holoscreen and join the team for movie night. It’s the solemn I respect the Black Lion’s choice, loyalty given wholly and irrevocably.

It’s them.

It’s purely by chance that he runs into Lance later that day, seated at an antique piano pushed to the corner of an empty room in the Garrison’s north building. He’s not in his armor or usual get-up and it throws Keith off, blinking in muted surprise at the sight of a short-sleeved hoodie and dark jeans when the boy turns to face the door he had just barged through. Dark navy meets gray obsidian, painting a thunderstorm on the canvas of the moment.

Keith stands awkwardly in the doorway. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Lance responds out of reflex, tone polite even with the tension that vibrates between them. “What’re you doing here?”

There’s no backlash at his presence so Keith takes a chance and finishes walking into the room until he is standing right at the piano’s bulky edge. A quick glance around reveals the room’s roots as a recreation center, complete with a three piece couch, television set, and foosball table; it’s unfamiliar like most things that are vaguely related to community are, unfrequented in his past because of their breeding grounds for possible social interaction. It’s almost uncomfortable to be there, out of place as he feels, especially so when seeing how natural the blue paladin looks framed by the domesticity of the late afternoon sun. So uncomfortable that he fixes his gaze resolutely on Lance’s hands, slender fingers still poised atop of the keys and at the ready to continue what Keith had rudely interrupted.

“I didn’t know you could play the piano.”

Keith must have done that thing were he goes too long without blinking again because Lance squirms a little in his seat, retracting his hands and hiding them in his lap. “Oh, uh, yeah. My mom’s a big fan of Einaudi and, well, you know how it goes. First it’s one piece for her birthday and then another for mother’s day and then boom, you’re stuck in lessons every Saturday afternoon while everyone else kicks it at the beach.”

Inhibited curiosity stirs within him, rolling with the image of a young boy whose feet don’t even touch the floor, practicing his scales just to see his mother smile. It brings forth a longing that Keith hardly ever feels nowadays, one where it is his own juvenile self that bashfully holds out a newly-drawn picture of his family to his mother, happy and not torn away from him by war. A cycle ensues, one where curiosity turns to longing to jealousy to acceptance and back again, endless like the thrum of a piano string.

Lance opens his mouth, as if to say something to fill the space between them, but suddenly thinks better of it and presses his lips tightly together.

“What?” he asks, because he has to know.

“Nothing. You just look ready to deck me. The staring is… it’s just— kinda intense.”

“Oh.” Keith shifts from one leg to another, grimacing, and looks away. “I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s fine.”

A short silence follows his words and it's a weird one. It isn't uncomfortable per se, just… loaded, like someone crammed the world’s entire supply of pillows in between them and was surprised that they couldn't breathe. Keith isn’t sure if he’s supposed to speak up, to fill the blank page of this chapter with the ink of words, so he watches Lance’s leg start bouncing in rapid fire instead, knee making a soft thud whenever it bumps into the underside of the key bed.

Lance clears his throat. “Do you… want to sit down?”

“Uh, that’d be— yeah.”

He sits on the corner of the bench offered to him, careful to keep space between them. Uncertainty seeps through his skin, coloring him with its vacillations, and it’s frustrating because touch is one of the many things that Lance excels in. A nudge to his calf, an impromptu hug, a brush of their shoulders as they walk. Effortless, like few things are.

“You can…” He makes an aborted gesture at the keys. “… if you want.”

Eyelashes flutter and Keith watches their shadows billow over the slope his cheeks, combating the highlights that the sun cast through the open window. A balance of two worlds, night and day, coming together to form wondrous twilight. He thinks of being seven-years old and trying to outrun the setting sun, one leap away from skipping today and landing in tomorrow. It’s a finish line he had never crossed.

Slow, like the sun and stars and moon will wait forever, Lance places his hands back on the board. Weightless, they hang there, letting gravity bead together a string of notes. It’s soft, the song he plays, and Keith listens as it grow into something bigger; profound as the universe’s birth had been, a cacophony of collisions and violent chance, it is its death that will be remembered, a lull into a oblivion so sweet that it’ll have the cosmos sighing.

As if compelled by some higher power, his gaze drifts back down to the boy’s hands. They’re nice hands. Long fingers with wide knuckles, the jut of his thumb straight and his nails cut even. Tendons rise under smooth skin, a parallel to what must be happening under the piano’s lid, and it’s enthralling to watch. There are no music sheets anywhere in sight and Keith marvels at the idea that these fingers are moving on memory alone; from nothing— something, a paradox that only a soldier’s hand, molded to the grip of a pistol and a single squeeze of the trigger away from snuffing out a light, can know.

Lance hums as he plays.

“I’m sorry.”

The apology pushes past his lips and takes with them a great weight from his shoulders, silencing the music. He knows that he can’t stand much more of this but is more than willing to bend in order to end it. He misses Lance. Misses what they had, stupid rivalry and all, and is willing to set the world on fire for a chance to get it back. All he needs is a chance, just a single chance to make it right. He wants to make it right.

“Lance,” he says, swallowing hard. “I miss us.”

Truth makes the words heavy, filled with everything Keith can’t say but means. It’s one of the sincerest he’s ever been, second only to Shiro, you’re like a brother to me and I love you, Mom, and he thinks there’s going to more to it. More begging and more heartfelt turns of phrase, milked for all that it’s worth. But none of that happens and he’s left with Lance, solemn-eyed and soft, just nodding once and saying, “Me too.”

And for once, he thinks, that’s enough.

That night, a flash hits him while he sleeps.

Long fingers trace the grooves nestled between treasured ivory and reflective black, teasing at a melody that skims the mind. A single note sings, the precipitate of a feeling long in its coming, harmonizing with the delicate pitter-patter of the rain that knocks on the window pane. It’s peaceful, cool in the absence of worry and responsibility.

“Any requests?”

Movement, languid and infinite. The sweep of hair as he lowers his head, lips parting, breathing a burning declaration into the skin of another as his hands explore; the body in his lap shivers as he bears down with venereal intent, inhaling and exhaling in time with the world. A gasp and nails dig deliciously into the meat of his thighs.

“I… I don’t think I can play that on the piano.”

“I can help,” he murmurs.

The music that comes after is like nothing he’s ever heard.

#voltron #dreamworks #voltron: legendary defender #vld #vld lance #vld keith #voltron keith #voltron lance #lance mcclain #keith kogane #klance #laith #leakira #written post s 8 #fix it #fanfiction #vld fanfic #aeon #writing #chomp chomp goes the raptor

[1shirt2shirtredshirtdeadshirt]

TOS Tag Game

OK for starters YAAASSS, feel free to tag me in these every time because I too want to talk endlessly about Star Trek TOS and am always excited to feed the fandom beast.

@burning--amber tagged me in this greatness -- I apologize for the delay but you know, I did have to find a publisher who would sign off on this fucking NOVEL. Because that is actually what I wrote in response. I am so sorry. 😂 When I say I’m here to talk Trek I MEAN I am HERE. To get up to the podium and PREACH THE GOSPEL. I encourage anyone following me who’s thirsty to talk TOS to jump aboard, tag me and give us the T! I want to hear from y’all! 

1. Which is the most defining moment for Spock and Jim as couple, in your opinion? One which left you most shaken?

Wow, yes. Ohhhh no. Let’s talk about this. (Who let me out of my cage?) There are so many strong moments in TOS, my GOD. Amok Time is the most infamous and blatant, you can’t really skate over that big guy because -- because -- YOU KNOW WHY. IT’S AMOK TIME. This is the elephant in the room which will stomp you to death if you ignore it. I can’t let myself write a paper with a works cited list on Amok Time right now, I just can’t. That episode -- I mean -- it was literally getting sucker punched in the junk with a slash fandom awakening. Kirk sacrificing command? His career? Risking his life?! Spock becoming completely void, utterly gutted, and a husk of a destroyed existence in the aftermath of what he believed to have actually done to Jim? I don’t know how it’s possible for anyone to watch that episode and not get steamrolled into a human pancake at how real and obvious the Spirk relationship became right then and there. IN THE 60′S! Yup just bros though, just bro things. 

I did let myself practically write a paper on how huge Devil in the Dark was for Kirk and Spock -- you get to see two individuals who each have a valid point, who both believe fiercely in their own standpoint, and who ultimately end up adopting one another’s views. It’s a beautiful demonstration of what they mean to each other as equals and as individuals -- how in sync they are and what a significant mutual respect they share. 

Throughout the series you’re hearing and witnessing Kirk’s rather open way of expressing affection for Spock. Plato’s Stepchildren is one of those rare opportunities where we get to see the depth of Spock’s feelings for Kirk via his own words and actions. And it is intense enough to make up for how difficult it can be sometimes to get a clear window into Spock’s perspective. It was all out there for anyone to see after Spock witnesses Kirk getting mistreated and nearly being made to inflict harm to Jim. You really get an understanding of just how powerful Vulcan emotion can be in that moment, and holy God, does he have strong feelings about Jim. 

But if we’re talking all-encompassing canon then for me the most defining moment for Spock and Kirk as a couple throughout the entire series has to be Spock’s epiphany in sickbay after making contact with V’Ger. We know something happened that catalyzed a rift and separation between Kirk and Spock, and this is the moment their whole relationship comes full circle. The look on his face as he’s lying there shaking his head and saying “Jim . . . I should have known.” Jim’s blatant desperation as he clasps Spock’s shoulders and begs: “Spock. What should you have known?” And Spock reaches for him. My heart drops through me every time he takes Jim by the hand, locking their grip as he stares him dead in the eyes and says: “This. Simple Feeling . . . is beyond V’Ger’s comprehension.” And Jim is overcome, bursting, and he wraps his other hand over their already entwined hands and just nods. Spock nods wordlessly back. That was acceptance. It was acknowledgement. It was forgiveness. It was walking through mental, physical and emotional hell with AND without someone and coming out on the other side again to find each other once more. It was fucking love. 

As for the one that left me the most shaken . . . it’s unquestionably the end of Wrath of Khan. From the moment that Jim looks over at that empty chair and you feel a shadow of that dread and realization, Jim pushing a member of his crew out of the way and the entire run down, having to take three men to hold him back from trying to go in there with Spock with tears in his eyes . . . I mean, when we love somebody -- truly, genuinely love somebody -- we might throw around the idea or firmly feel -- believe -- say -- that if given a choice, you’d die for that person. But in living that moment, Spock actually did exactly that out of love. He knew what had to be done and he decided to sacrifice himself for his own family -- for the whole crew of the Enterprise. But there was a reason that the sole person kneeling down in front of him weeping, reaching for him and seeking out his hand, hearing his last words, and sharing his last moments was Jim. It’s so powerful, so utterly heart shattering, such a raw and sad depiction of love, and it turns me into a hot human mess every time I see it. THE FRONT. OF THE SHIRT. IS SOAKED WITH MY TEARS. EVERY TIME.  Ahem. So uh, that just happened. There’s Chapter 1. I mean question 1. I swear to God I am not going to write chapter books for each one of these. *Wipes forehead nervously*

2. Which alien race deserved more? What do you think could have been improved upon?

Two episodes really stand out for me as outstanding in the quality of the story; I find Balance of Terror and The Enterprise Incident captivating.They sort of ghost around that decadent and dark history that Vulcans and Romulans share -- they let you see a bit of it, but there is a lot of mystery surrounding it. They pique your interest in wanting to get a better look at those cultures to understand them. Oh trust, I was beyond curious. I was frothing. I know that other Star Trek series have offered us more in terms of the Romulan backstory and history, but I really had a thirst to know more during TOS and I would latch onto whatever crumb they would toss out. Honestly, I would watch an entire series based entirely on ancient Vulcans and Romulans. I mean it, I am thirsty as hell. 

3. What is the most disappointing thing about TOS for you?

In all honesty? The fact that it got cancelled after three seasons!!! We were robbed. F u c k i n g   p i l f e r e d   b u t t   n a k e d. I’m sure there was so much ground to cover with the show that they never got a chance to bring into fruition and that frustrates me. If we’re talking some aspect within the show, those occasional moments with women that were so blatantly objectifying -- the ones that kind of jarringly reminded you that this was still made in the 60′s. I acknowledge the time it was made, but it still stings to see that sometimes if I am being entirely honest.

4. Who gets the Mr/Miss.Congeniality award if you were the judge?

I would have to say Uhura. She doesn’t get the kind of screen time that Kirk, Spock and Bones do, but I find the moments that she has with other characters to be very telling. How they react to her and treat her reveals a lot about how valuable and meaningful her presence is aboard the Enterprise. They all have such an immense love and respect for her. You just don’t really see confrontations with Uhura and other crew members -- it’s so rare compared to other members of the crew. She seems to be that person who brings brightness and light and joy to people who may be feeling very out of sorts, low on morale, or lonely in space. I also love that she canonically sings for the members of the crew to lift their spirits and help them unwind. There’s something so pure and warm about her character while also showcasing strength and professionalism in the same vein. 

5. Which section of Enterprise are you most curious to see which was never filmed?

The room, turbolift, or jeffries tube that Kirk and Spock would drag each other off to so they could make out, because we all know that it happened. (I digress. Truth be told, it was less about seeing a section of the Enterprise and more about getting a little more intimacy with the crew. I wish there had been more time for moments like seeing them getting ready before work, interacting with their rooms, showing us little glimpses of who they are and where they come from. So I guess having access to more on a personal level with the individuals -- the crew is the section of the Enterprise that I am most curious to see which was not filmed intimately enough to whet my curiosity about them.)

I have two questions.

1. What was the defining episode that you watched that made you go: Yup. I am 100% on board for this. WHERE ARE THE REST. I AM SOLD. THE CHEQUE IS CASHED, I HAVE MADE THE PURCHASE, GIVE ME THE STAR TREK.

Second . . . 

2. What. The fuck. Happened in the story between Season 3 and The Motion Picture. I legitimately live on a steady diet of fan theories about this and I’m starved to death. I don’t care if that dead horse has been beaten to glue, I can’t not talk about it. I love hearing what people have to say about that time period. Seriously. What happened between Jim and Spock. 

I WANT ANSWERS! I WANT THE TRUTH!

(You know that nobody could possibly know that and you also know that Gene Roddenberry passed away in 1991.)

*Grabs collar shakily* ASK HIM ANYWAY. 

ಠ▃ಠ . . . 

(¬▂¬) . . . 

I really should stop here. 

(No obligation, just love and admire your blogs! I’m curious what y’all have to say if you haven’t been tagged yet! <3: 

@queenofgol @ashayamspirk @thisisnotahetship @startrektrashface @demonicvulcan @pansexualspirk @homosexualspock @cptkirksnipples )

#spirk #octrekmeta #tag game #star trek #tos #meta #long ass fucking post #do I make any other kind of post? #no #@burning--amber #kirk #spock

[margaretrodriguez-blog]

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Compare no deposit car insurance with money expert. If you need a ride for one day and no car ever ever want it, then I just purchased a new car with no driver involved. Does this mean you should not get car insurance with cash value. So let’s say I got my policy and it is a 24th month and I need a $500,000 policy that I already paid, what if I get the same policy, does this mean I still need to get a car insurance with cash value? This is the question you should always remember when you are on the road, or any other kind of car insurance can work if you are planning on not having to drive for more than a month. A vehicle can have an accident without insurance, no matter the accident, but you need to be aware of the law when you get in an accident because you know that insurance can be a big liability when it comes to a wreck, even if no one is injured (the vehicle was inoperable) and the car had all.

What to Look For When Shopping for Low-Cost Car Insurance

What to Look For When Shopping for Low-Cost Car Insurance: Some situations may require obtaining auto insurance in bulk, where rates can vary widely based on driver history and the location. To determine premium costs that will be unique to you, consider your vehicle’s age, make and model, and where you live. To help you narrow down the auto insurance options that are a good fit for you, we’ve broken down cost by income, , and gender. These rates will help you make an educated decision when choosing the best coverage and policy for your needs. To find out the cheapest rates, please read our full guide . When looking to purchase car insurance, most drivers choose from five major insurers. We found that state insurance companies could offer rates as low as an average of $982 each year between the state and national average, while the national average was $1,852. Although your driving record is not the only determining factor in determining your auto insurance rates, it’s vital that you search for your coverage regularly..