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multishipperlove · 4 years

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Critical Role (Web Series) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Caleb Widogast, Nott (Critical Role), Fjord (Critical Role), Beauregard Lionett, Caduceus Clay, Jester Lavorre, Yasha (Critical Role) Additional Tags: zemnian, Child games, family abduction, goblins mentioned, nothing explicit though, Original Character(s), more focused on Caleb and Nott and the oc Series: Part 4 of Zemnian Roots Summary:

The Mighty Nein find a little girl hiding in a closet in a ransacked home. Only problem is that she only speaks Zeminan, which means that Caleb has to find a way to entertain her while the others look for her family.

On days like these, Caleb really wished for their moorbounders to return. They had been on the road for hours, since the early morning, and the horses they had rented were just so much slower. It was still better than walking, especially in the heat, but it wasn't like the weather didn't affect the horses as well.

To make his day even worse, they were travelling on the outskirts of the Zemni Fields, had been for a while for their mission, and even though they were nowhere near the place where he grew up, it was putting him on edge. So far they had barely run into any other people though, and most of the few who did cross their path were travellers as well.

A voice from the front of their little troop brought him back to the moment, and not surprisingly, it was Jester who disturbed the weary silence they'd been riding in for the last half an hour or so. “Look Fjord, there's a farm ahead! Maybe they'll let us spend the night there, that would be a lot better than sleeping in the hut again.”

Fjord, who looked about as mentally present as Caleb had been, startled slightly, sending his horse involuntarily to the left. Getting back to his former position he looked ahead, finally noticing the old farmhouse as well. “Oh, yeah, sure. We could ask, at least.” Turning his head, he looked to everyone else in the group. “What do you guys think, should we stop for the night already?”

“Sure, why not,” Caduceus chimed in. “If not for the seven of us, at least the horses deserve a good night's rest.”

The rest of them mostly shrugged in answer or gave half hearted murmurs of agreement, which was apparently good enough for Jester. With some newfound vigor they all picked up their speed again, and the farm that had only been a little spot at the horizon so far quickly came closer.

When they finally reached it, Fjord was the first one off his horse. “Alright, I'm gonna ask if they got space for us and the horses, anyone wanna come?”

“Take Caleb with you, just in case they don't speak Common,” Beau told them, getting off as well before helping Jester (who didn't actually need help, but definitely seemed to appreciate it anyway).

“Good point,” Fjord agreed, stopping again to wait for Caleb now.

The wizard gave a soft sigh but nodded. “I, ah, alright. Sure. I guess I can come. But just so you know, it is improbable that the people here only speak Zemnian.”

“Still, can't hurt to have a local with me,” Fjord told him with a grin, and then lead the way to what looked to be the front door.

Only as they stepped closer did they realise that the door wasn't closed. It stood slightly ajar, not far enough for either of them to look inside yet though. Fjord frowned and looked back to Caleb, who placed a hand on his component pouch and gave a slight nod.

“Yeah, I thought it was a bit quiet,” Fjord muttered, taking another step closer and pushing the door open completely. “Hello?” he called out. “Anyone in here?”

When even waiting several seconds didn't reward them with a reply, they walked in. And the sight that greeted them wasn't pretty.

The door lead into a small hallway, but from their current position they could already see into the next two rooms, one a kitchen with a dining area, a big table that would easily seat more than the seven of them, and the other something more akin to a living room. Both rooms were completely ransacked.

Chairs were pushed over, every cabinet door opened, every shelf empty. The ground was littered with broken glass and porcelain, and what looked to be food stains everywhere.

They both started to move through the mess slowly, not sure if whoever had done this was still around. But really, they hadn't been quiet in their arrival. Caleb was pretty sure that, if anything wanted to attack them, it would have done so by now.

Fjord stopped by a red stain near the living room door, and it didn't take him long to confirm what Caleb had feared. “It's blood,” the half-orc told him. “It's not even completely dry yet... whatever happened, it happened recently.”

“We should get the others,” Caleb suggested. “Maybe we can find out more. And I don't think the attackers are still around, but still... safety in numbers, and all that.”

“You're not wrong,” Fjord agreed with a sigh. “Alright, let's go. I would like to help these people, if we still stand a chance.”

A few minutes later they had told the rest of the group what was going on, and were now split up throughout the house to look for anything useful. Beau and Nott hadn't been stoked about the idea of trying to help, arguing that they didn't even know if there was anyone left they could help, but they'd all known that their protest was token at best.

Caleb was looking for any magical means of destruction downstairs, when two screams suddenly rang from the room directly above him. One of them sounded suspiciously like Nott, and he immediately turned and ran up the stairs, hearing the others who had been downstairs with him right behind.

“Nott!” He pushed into the room first, seeing her frozen in front of a closet, both hands holding the door shut. “Nott, what's going on?” he asked, seeing how pale she suddenly looked and now also hearing the muffled screaming and crying that came from inside the closet.

“What's in there?” Beau asked, her voice already sounding slightly horrified as she stepped up behind Caleb. In the corner of his eye, he could see Yasha gripping her sword.

“A kid,” Nott finally answered, ears drooping and folding close to her head.

“A kid?! Then why the hell are you keeping her in there?” Fjord asked.

“Because she saw me and immediately started screaming! I don't think she's going to be very fond of this!” Nott hissed back, and gesturing to the entirety of her face as she did so. “Give me a moment.”

As the others watched, she took a second to cast alter self and turn herself into Veth. The crooked sharp teeth disappeared, along with the glowing yellow eyes and the green skin. In it's place once more stood a little halfling lady, features round and inviting and definitely a lot less threatening.

Once the disguise was complete, Nott carefully opened the closet door again. The crying didn't stop, and beside a mop of blonde hair they couldn't see anything yet with her standing in the way.

“Hey, hey there. It's okay, the, uh, the evil goblin is gone. Come on now, you're okay,” she told the child, in an attempt to calm her down. It didn't seem to work very well though, and Nott turned back to them with a bit of desperation on her face.

“I, uh, maybe one of you guys should go,” Fjord mumbled, giving the two humans of the party a pointed look. And while Caleb still hesitated, Beau nodded briefly and stepped forward, kneeling down beside Nott to be more on eye level with the child.

The appearance of a second person seemed to give her pause, at least, and Beau gave the kid her best version of a friendly smile. Which, surprisingly, was a lot friendlier than what she usually managed. “Hey. My friend is right, you know, you can come out now. You're safe. Don't you want to come out of that stupid closet?”

The girl just stared at her for a moment, with her lower lip still trembling. “Wo ist meine Mama?” she finally whispered, causing Beau to freeze this time. She had a vague idea of what the kid had just asked for, but that was definitely not Common what she had just heard.

“Caleb?” She looked over her shoulder, motioning for the wizard to come over. “Hey, Caleb, I think we need a translator after all.”

He frowned but didn't hesitate, quickly stepping closer to them, just as Nott got out of the way to let the two humans handle it. Along with Beau he kneeled down in front of the girl, taking in the terrified face and her torn clothing, the tussled hair. “Hey... kannst du mich verstehen?” he asked gently.

She nodded, slowly, as if she still didn't trust either of them. Which was very fair, Caleb wouldn't have expected her to trust them.

“Okay, das ist gut. Oder? Es ist viel besser wenn man sich verstehen kann,” Caleb continued, trying not to get into too much of a nervous ramble now that he felt solely responsible for somehow communicating with this child. “Bist du verletzt? Kannst du uns sagen was passiert ist, oder- oder vielleicht wie du heißt?”

“Mein Name ist Anna,” came the quiet reply.

“Und wie alt bist du?”

“Fünf.”

“Fünf? Das- ah, das ist ein gutes Alter. Willst du nicht rauskommen?” He offered her a hand, and after another moment of hesitation she took it and finally got up. She was still careful, and pressed closer to him immediately, holding on to his coat with a free hand.

Caleb cleared his throat and turned back to his companions, forcing a smile on his face. “Everyone, this is Anna, and she is five years old.”

“Has she told you what happened yet?” Fjord asked, and Caleb could feel the girl trying even harder to disappear into him.

“Ah, no. We didn't get that far yet.” He looked down to her, gently squeezing her hand once. “Das is Fjord. Ich weiß er sieht etwas... gefährlich aus. Aber er ist wirklich nett, versprochen.”

She nodded again but didn't move from her spot, watching them all with a wary eye. Caduceus spoke up next, and even though Anna jumped slightly at the deep voice, she seemed to find him less scary than Fjord. If the pressure she subjected Caleb's hand to was anything to go by.

“Maybe we should have this conversation somewhere else, bring her somewhere she feels more comfortable,” the firbolg suggested.

“What, like the rest of her house, which is equally in shambles?” Beau asked.

“Don't say it like that, you're only going to scare her,” Nott hissed, glaring at her friend now.

“It's not like she understands me in the first place.”

“We don't know that, she could understand more than we think, while just not being able to speak the language herself. For now, it's better to speak with some caution,” Caleb replied, getting involved again before the two could start arguing. “Maybe we just take her outside for now.”

The others agreed with that. So after making sure she would be okay with it, Caleb picked the girl up and carried her outside to where their horses were still waiting. He made sure that she could lean her head against his shoulder, trying to shield her from as much of the chaos as possible. Especially the blood.

Once outside, he put her back on her feet, but she still refused to let go of his coat for too long. “Kannst du uns jetzt sagen was passiert ist? Hast du irgendwas gesehen?” Caleb asked again, doing his best to ignore his friend's imploring looks. “Hast du dich selbst im Schrank versteckt?”

Only at the last question did she finally react and shake her head. “Nein. Mama hat uns gesagt wir sollen nach oben laufen, und Gregor hat dann gesagt ich soll in den Schrank gehen und ganz leise sein, bis sie wieder weg sind.”

“Wer ist 'sie'?”

“Die Goblins.”

That word made all of them perk up again, especially Nott. The difference in pronunciation was after all minimal enough that they still knew which creatures she was talking about.

Caleb nodded grimly. “Kannst du mir mehr erzählen? Egal was, alles könnte hilfreich sein.”

They talked for another minute or two, before he finally got up again and turned back to the group. “She says their family was attacked by goblins. They didn't see them coming, and by the time her mother realized what was happening, all she could do was try and send her children somewhere save. Looks like Anna is the only one who wasn't discovered.”

The others, having expected something like that, nodded slightly. Especially Nott seemed to be trying very hard to keep herself in check, and not show her anger around the little girl.

“How many people are we talking about?” Fjord asked, practical as always.

“Five. Her mother, her grandmother, and three older siblings,” Caleb told them. She hadn't mentioned a father, so he hadn't asked about one.

“That's a lot,” Fjord muttered, rubbing his chin for a moment. “Must have been a whole clan or something. We should be able to track that, right?” He looked around at the others, getting a few quick nods in response.

“If she could describe one of them, I could scry on them,” Jester offered. Her usually so bubbly nature had dimmed a bit under the circumstances, but she seemed all the more eager to help as she suggested that to Caleb, looking between him and Anna.

“I, uh, we can certainly try that,” Caleb agreed slowly. “I'm just afraid that the description of a five year old could be a bit vague. Maybe that should be more of a last resort?”

“You're just too lazy to translate,” Beau joked, but immediately got serious again. “No, I actually think you're right. And I'm sure we can start somewhere else. Like Fjord said, must have been a lot of goblins if they managed to drag five people with them. There are bound to be tracks of some sort here somewhere.”

“We should leave soon then, before we lose what little sunlight is left,” Yasha spoke. She'd been quiet so far, but the look in her eyes gave Caleb chills. “Nott, you should be able to help with this the most.”

“I'm staying here.”

Everyone turned to Nott in surprise, and not few of them confused. “But... this is pretty much exactly what happened to your family, too. Don't you want, I don't know, revenge?” Beau asked.

“Well, first of all, it wouldn't really be revenge, because this is a different clan than the one who took me and my family,” Nott insisted. “And second, someone clearly needs to stay behind with the girl, we can't just leave her alone again. And that someone is going to be Caleb, because he's the only one who understands her. So I'm going to stay here to protect Caleb in case they come back.”

Fjord huffed softly. “Not that I don't appreciate your protective instinct, but don't you think Caleb can defend himself? If anything comes?”

Nott just shrugged. “Maybe, but maybe not with a child hanging on to him at all times. Two people are better than one, so I'm staying.

“I would appreciate the help, actually,” Caleb told them. “She's right, I'm more vulnerable when I'm alone with her.” While he wasn't lying, he was mostly agreeing so the others would stop pressuring her into going with them. No matter her motive, he could understand if she wasn't in the mood to take on a clan of goblins after what they had done to her.

“Perfect, at least we will know you are save then,” Caduceus said with a smile. “Let's go. Just as Yasha has said, we do not want to waste anymore daylight.”

A last check on their weaponry, and then the five of them were on their way, Nott and Caleb staying behind with Anna. Once the others were gone and out of sight, Nott turned to her wizard friend. “What now? We can't really stand around here until they come back.”

“No, no I suppose not,” Caleb sighed. “I do not want to take her inside either though, not with the way it looks in there.”

“Stay here then, I will clean up a bit and you try to distract her,” Nott offered. But Caleb looked between her and Anna, seemingly becoming more and more uncomfortable.

“Distract her how? Nott, I've never- I'm not good with kids!” he whispered, desperately. “What am I supposed to do with her?”

“Just, you know, kids stuff,” she replied amused. “You were able to convince the Bright Queen to listen to you, I'm sure you'll be fine with a kid.”

“I'm not so sure about this,” he muttered.

Nott rolled her eyes and motioned Anna to come closer, giving her a warm smile. The girl looked at Caleb first, but then stepped closer to her.

“Caleb, ask her if she knows any games. Or what she likes to play with her siblings,” Nott said, only glancing at her friend briefly before focusing on Anna again.

Caleb looked confused but cleared his throat, addressing Anna directly. “Ah, meine Freundin hier möchte wissen ob es irgendwas gibt, was du gerne mit deinen Geschwistern spielst? Was für Spiele kennst du?”

Anna seemed to get what was going on, and with a slight smile she answered, looking more at Caleb than at Nott though. “Kennst du Klatschspiele?”

“She asks if you know any clapping games,” he relayed back to Nott.

“Well, do you?” she shot back. “Because she was very clearly not talking to me. Have fun.” And with that she gave a brief wave to Anna and left the two alone, Caleb barely suppressing a groan as she disappeared into the house.

Anna was still looking at him expectantly, so he walked over to a bench with her, in front of what looked like a stable, and they settled down there. “Okay, Klatschspiele. Ah, es ist etwas her, dass ich das gemacht habe, das musst du mir nachsehen.”

She just smiled widely and already grabbed for his hands, manipulating them until they were in the right position. Caleb couldn't help but compare it to teaching someone somatic figures, even if the thought was ridiculous. But the motions to the game came back easily to him, after all he had spend quite some time himself as a child playing this. The words did, too, to the incredibly silly game.

Bei Müllers hat's gebrannt -brannt -brannt Da bin ich schnell gerannt -rannt -rannt

Anna moved slowly, still very clearly leading the game for Caleb's sake. It shouldn't have been difficult, at least not for someone who regularly went through complicated sets of somatic gestures to save either himself or his friends, but Caleb found himself stumbling more often than not.

Da kam ein Polizist -zist -zist Der schrieb mich auf die List List List

The game was repetitive, to say the least, every line requiring the same set of movements. First, Caleb clapped his own hands together, then his right one against Anna's, then his own again, then his left hand against Anna's left. And every line ended with both meeting in the middle three times.

Die Liste die fiel in Dreck Dreck Dreck Da war mein Name weg weg weg Da lief ich schnell nach Haus Haus Haus Zu meinem Onkel Klaus Klaus Klaus

And at this point Caleb would have thought the game to be over, since these were all the lyrics he remembered. But Anna continued, her widening grin hinting at a glee that Caleb didn't quite understand yet. Until her lines got more and more absurd.

Der Klaus der lag im Bett Bett Bett Mit seiner Frau Elisabeth Elisabeth die lachte Der Busenhalter krachte

The girl was outright giggling at this point, barely getting through the lines. Caleb was surprised she'd even managed to get the word Busenhalter over her lips.

Der Bauch der explodierte Ein Baby rausmarschierte Das Baby war ein Mädchen Und zeigte seine Zähnchen

They finally finished, and Caleb gave her an amused look. “Das ist nicht unbedingt die Version die ich als Kind gelernt habe. Wer hat dir das beigebracht, huh?”

“Gregor,” she told him quietly, before laying a finger over her lips. ��Aber nicht Mama sagen.”

He smiled back at her and zipped his mouth shut, sending her into another giggle fit. Just then, Nott came back outside, giving the two a fond look. “Seems like you were able to hold yourself after all.”

“Well, she sure knows some interesting words for a five year old,” Caleb joked. “But yes, I think we did okay. How's it looking inside?”

“Better. Come on, maybe we can find something to eat, too.”

Caleb agreed, relying their plans to Anna as she slowly calmed down again. Instead of walking inside by herself though, she insisted on being carried again. Caleb obliged.

“You know, if we're still looking to kill some time,” Nott offered, “I could teach her a few clapping games in Common, too.”

“But she won't understand them?”

“The words aren't too hard, and you can always tell her what it means,” she replied with a shrug. “It would be fun, come on.”

“Hmm. Anna, willst du Klatschspiele in Common lernen?” Caleb asked, and when he got an enthusiastic nod, he finally agreed with it as well.

“Great, I'll teach her “A half-orc went to sea”, first,” Nott said with a grin.

“Are you... are you sure that's how it goes?”

“Absolutely. Oh, and by the way, I'm not gonna tell anyone that you're a big softy if you agree to play with Luc the next time we're in Nicodranas.”

“Hmm. Deal,” he told her, thinking that was a very small price to pay for something he wouldn't have minded too much in the first place. But in order to keep it a secret, the others would first need to return anyway. Hopefully, with the rest of Anna's family in tow.

#critical role #cr2 #mighty nein #caleb widogast #nott the brave #zemnian #critical role fanfiction #fanfic #writing #mine

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twitchesandstitches · 5 years

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There are several main AUs I do on this blog, and they are very broad in scope, encompassing a wide variety of potential settings and scenario set ups. They can encompass my OCs, redesigns, fandom stuff, and all that in a single package, and that includes ‘non-canon’ one shots that have no connection to the AU besides setting.

While it’s incredibly unlikely that, at this point, any of my followers didn’t already follow me on my previous writing blog, there is nonetheless a possibility that I might get some new people here eventually. And then, they’re likely gonna be real confused when I start talking about my AUs without context. And even if you do know all my ramblings about my AUs pretty well, it’s useful to have refreshers in case you forget stuff or want some info now and then. So real quick, I’m writing up some refreshers on my main AUs.

Firstly, Crossthicc AU. It is a massive crossover in the vein on Kingdom Hearts, or to be more specific, it is a kink-centric reworking of a more SFW fanfic I’m planning on doing eventually, with elements of this being reused in that. It takes place in a sprawling space opera type of sci fi with fantasy elements, and an epic adventure tone; mighty wars are decided by duels between champions, cities construct massive structures to harness the forces of magic or the psychic energy of living beings as a power source, giant mech suits and power armor exoskeletons are ubiquitous, and so forth.

BAsically, imagine a combination of Warhammer 40k, Eclipse Phase and a sci fi-themed version of Exalted, set against a multiverse cosmology based on Dungeons and Dragon’s Planescape. The technology levels, the general aesthetics and the overall feel flow from that, and then you Paragon the SHIT OUT OF IT. And that’s before the thicc-ness stuff comes in!

Taking place a great deal of time after a multiversal catastrophe that nearly spelled the end of existence itself and caused smaller reflections of such disaster across all the realms of existence, the AU proper focuses on a fleet of characters drawn from all across the fandoms I am personally familiar with or at least find interesting. This is an extremely small fleet, numbering from several hundred to a little under a thousand people depending on where in the timeline it takes place; their number of ships are undefined, but probably not very many, and are a mixture of the Quarian Migrant Fleet from Mass Effect and the Scum sub-culture of Eclipse Phase - which is likely also a thing in-universe. Their ships are mainly refurbished cargo barges, space buses and the occasional colony ship, mostly automated and run by summoned spirit friends to make up for their lack of numbers. This ships are all living machine-beings, vast AIs or networks of thinking machines, and can choose to transform into gigantic hyper curvy robot ladies in times of great need, but rarely do so.

The fleet came together from the survivors of many broken or damaged worlds, banding together for survival and growing closer, eventually stabilizing into a sort of weird family. Fiercely loyal to one another, coming to appreciate adventure and enjoying the relative stability, they have been journeying as cosmic nomads for several years now, having had many children together and growing in power, and over time they have noticed some things… off about the cosmos. There have been hints, in ruins and half-destroyed records dating back thousands of years, and they have come to the conclusion that the cataclysms that wrecked the multiverse was not random events but an active scheme.

And they are coming to the attention of whatever caused that disaster in the first place; they refer to this mysterious force as the conspiracy, but know little of who this conspiracy, their purpose or anything beside the horrors they have committed.

Over time, the fleet has become a strongly paragon-themed organization of heroes, champions of righteousness, seeking to be perfect heroes all the time… all while being extremely eccentric and quirky weirdos, as prone to flying off on rants about peanut butter when they were supposed to give a moving speech on heroism. In any conflict they will usually side towards which resolution does the least harm, and fighting tyrants is something of a hobby of theirs. That, and collecting incredibly pissed off conspiracies presumably unrelated to the Big One they are learning about.

The fleet - or specifically, their number one champion - is in possession of a powerful relic called the Eupeptic Gestat. It’s loosely based on the Keyblade, but is essentially a vore/hyper pregnancy themed artifact with powers based on Fullmetal Alchemist’s take on alchemy, with the ability to absorb almost anything and gain new powers based on what it absorbs, and allows the fleet to craft new powers from those, distilling them mostly into adorable Pokemon-like creatures that members of the crew can fuse with to gain their powers. By mixing and matching their abilities, the members of the crew can gain an enormous number of powers, as well as gain mutations to sculpt their bodies into whatever they please, though often with some unexpected frailties.

Note that this powers always involve some variety of physical mutation; get fire powers, your arms erupt into volcanic flame and your skin is living fire, your eyes burning like stars. These mutations are not subtle, they’re not pretty, and they’re usually pretty weird. Combining powers will get some very odd results, and likely induce additional frailties or limitations in exchange for greater potential.

The crew itself is highly diverse, with humans forming a distinct minority in it. Name a species from a fandom somewhere, they are probably present. Orcs of all kinds, elves and more. Dragons shapeshifting into more mundane forms, robots of every single conceivable function and form happy to be part of a group that welcomes them as family. Transformers - mostly Autobots - are giant guardians to their smaller kin. Gems of many castes, and plenty of them permanent fusions with one another. Asari, krogan and Geth from Mass Effect form a major contingent, as do a wide variety of monster girls and boys.

Whatever they are, though, the women of this crew - and the men, to a lesser degree - will get bigger.

As they grow more powerful and benefit from the powers granted to them, the women of the crew invariably grow more hyper curvaceous. Their breasts swell to enormous sizes and absurd milkiness (and this milk often has its own properties, based on the heroine’s other abilities or personality traits), they tend to become rather more fit, their hips expand to couch-destroying sizes with butts to match. This curve growth never really stops, though the precise extremes are an entirely personal decision; the biggest girls are generally the most powerful as well. They tend to grow much, much larger over time, inevitably becoming giantesses dozens of feet tall when they power up, and this too has no real limit.

Additionally, they gain a number of abilities related to pregnancy and other traits should they allow the Gestat to imbue them with its powers. It’s devouring-based abilities grant almost anyone the ability to consume other things, metaphorically or otherwise. THis can be absorbing energy or specific forms of matter and empowering yourself with them, or very literal; the power to swallow things whole and digest virtually anything. This is universal among most of the crew. But it expands their fertility, allowing them to do things such as give birth by materializing them in a spirit bubble, summoning powerful entities by gestating them within their bodies, absorbing allies and healing those allies within their own fertile wombs and possibly imbuing them with their own powers.

Additionally, they have no limitations on how many children they can have at once, gestating dozens at once without issue, and eventually even spontaneously generating them by just being around other people; no sex required or needed. They also act as living crucibles or cauldrons, distilling powers imbued into them within their bodies and refining them into a more complete form that can be used for other purposes, with the mother’s own quirks in it. And with every child they give birth to or other application of their powers, they become more powerful, so that the crew is largely dominated by absolutely massive, impossibly curvaceous, motherly heroines.

Becoming a MILFy, ravenous giantess is thus part of the package. Men can and do benefit from these abilities as well, often as support to their much more powerful counterparts; dad bods and buff bara types, as well as extreme femboys, are VERY common.

Finally, the crew constantly experiments with self-modification, using blends of magical ability, scientific procedures, cybernetic augmentation and biological trickery to create a variety of what they call ‘mods’, which can alter their bodies in specific ways. Using traits harnessed from the many species of the galaxy, along with specific aspects of the powers they have built, members of the crew can have almost any appearance or alteration that pleases them; exoskeletons, enhanced muscle fibers, horns, claws, gills, fangs, completely new morphologies and robot-ization are all examples of this.

Monster girl/boy/non-binary transformations are included in this, of any sort. By combining traits from many different species, you can get all kinds of monstrous forms even without using additional powers. Usually this is done for an edge in combat, but some just like being monstery.

They can also do mods that give other people hyper fertility, all manner of biological transformations or otherwise enable kink transformations of any kind, often tied to a power of some sort. One way they fund themselves is by selling these mods at worlds they visit.

(This means, yup, there are dispensing machines that sell mega-buff energy drinks, chocolate milk that makes you a curvaceous MILF who LITERALLY lactates liquid chocolate, and sodas that turn you into a liquid monster person.)

It should be noted these mods are permanent, and there is no resetting to a default state; in order to change back, you have to undertake procedures to transform you into something like your original state.

Now that the fun transformation stuff is clarified, what does the fleet actually do? Mostly they bounce around from world to world, racing through the tides of the spirit world and relying on their magically powerful navigators to guide them to new galaxies in this faster than light travel, searching for a new world to call home or a means to create their own homeworld. They get involved in archaeological mysteries, wind up in the middle of fight with warlords and empires, and if they don’t have at least one epic space battle a week, it's been a really slow week.

Among other things, they have a rival in a crew of space pirates, and it's a mostly friendly rivalry, a blackrom on an organizational scale, and they compete for resources, treasure, ancient lore and the secrets to great wealth or fame. This pirate crew likely outnumbers them, though the crew’s abilities are a potent force multiplier.

Less friendly is a resurgent military from the distant past, led by a fearsome general of a long-defunct empire, who has reclaimed a powerful gauntlet and seen the situation the universe is in, and intends to bring it to endless war and conflict to force it to become stronger and break the cycles of stagnancy. To this end, he has gathered together a vast legion of like-minded warriors, bloodthirsty warmongers, soldiers enamored with war as a solution, and others of that nature. The fleet and this legion constantly but heads, and while they do sometimes work together, their goals are completely opposite. Eventually, tensions will come to a head.

The conspiracy, as stated above, is likely their biggest threat but none of them know much about this force besides that it does exist and is responsible, directly or otherwise, for the cataclysms that nearly ended reality as they know it. They have some apparent connection to the fiends of the realms of pure evil, a wide variety of strange and loathsome entities, and appear to be bankrolling a vast majority of destructive agencies across the multiverse. Why they are doing this is unknown, but they are a persistent thorn in the fleet’s side, presently too large to even notice the fleet as yet.

There are also a very wide variety of monsters and beasts the crew faces on an almost daily level. They range from kaiju-sized monsters that savagely attack everything in sight and seem to warp reality as a matter of just being there, to ethereal horrors that devour everything and constantly grow bigger until they can eat stars and swell up into spaceship-sized monsters that sail across space and devour planets, to destructive fiends that colease out of hatred and negative emotion to just make things worse on everyone. Most of these are the ‘take them out, guilt free’ kind of brutes just there for good action scenes, or acting as the minions of some other greater force.

#/#//#///#////#/////#my AUs #AU refs #crossthicc AU #long post

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flutterbyhime · 6 years

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So, like everyone, I’ve got some thoughts on Voltron Season 7. Spoilers inbound so... skip this if you still haven’t watched it. Which you should, because despite at least half the fandom acting like it’s the end of the world, season seven is actually pretty goddamn engaging. Like “oh, I’m just gonna watch the first three or so episodes and call it a night. I’ll watch the rest tomorrow.” followed by “It’s nearly three in the morning and I have finished Voltron season seven.” engaging

Okay. So I just want to give everyone a quick warning apart from spoilers, that I am not super used to writing reactions/reviews. Usually I just mule it over in my head, talk it out with some friends, and then that’s about it. BUT~~ since I’m the only one in group of friends that loves Voltron and I would like them to watch it at some point without certain story beats spoiled, I figured I would write out my thoughts this time. You know, try and put my thoughts, praises, and criticisms in a concise and constructive piece. And while I realize that some of the things I’m going to say are probably gonna invite some interesting...responses on my post or inbox, my first few browses of the Voltron tag haven’t actually shown constructive/concise criticisms outside of how the writers handled Shiro’s relationship with Adam (something that I’ll go into detail later. The actual relationship and what I think the text is, feeding on my first Voltron season 7 post, that is. The whole backlash to the writing I do in the next paragraph).

Which, speaking of how the writers handled Shiro and Adam’s relationship! First things first, I just want to say that I can see and understand why a lot of people are upset. Voltron has grown to mean a lot of things to the fandom, and with the news that Shiro is a gay man serving in the military with a long term relationship that was leading to marriage before Kerberous Mission was really exciting. It was fantastic to get a beloved character to be confirmed to be apart of the LGBT+ community. It still is in my book. The fact that Shiro has been through a lot of shit and still has hope and love to give to his newly found family already made him an amazing character. And with his confirmed sexuality, it’s like extra decorative and delicious strawberries on an already amazing proverbial cake. It brings that much more depth and interest in a character that could have very easily been a one note character. And for me, the confirmation announcement and the announcement that we would see parts of Shiro’s life pre-Kerberous was exciting. Of the core cast, the person we know the least about in terms of home life was Shiro. With everyone else, we either knew or learned some aspect of how their lives were before this grand space adventure happened. But we never really knew with Shiro beyond he took in Keith at some point and that he was a prisoner of a ten thousand year old war for about a year. So the glimpse of how he met Keith, came to took him in, and how his relationships were before leaving for Kerberous was a welcome story addition (also greatly needed from a character stand point in my opinion. Shiro was starting to get a touch...mythical). So with what we saw of Shiro and Adam was a fight about Shiro wanting to do the Kerberous Mission, followed later by Adam passing in a first wave offensive and later with Shiro realizing that Adam died, yeah... I see why a lot of people are upset. And if you are upset, I completely understand. You have every right to be upset. But here’s the thing. Sending hate or being nasty to the writers and the cast isn’t going to help. What will help is giving actual feedback to Dreamworks and the writers. Whatever passion you feel for the show will come through, but an off the hip reaction doesn’t give someone a lot to go off of. Being calm and concise does though. Again, you can be disappointed and upset, but you can voice it in a way that doesn’t come off as an attack (which is what a lot of initial criticism read to me). Joaquim Dos Santos, an executive producer of Voltron, wrote a wonderful open letter to the fandom addressing all this that you should read. A lot of it puts a number of things into clearer light.(https://twitter.com/JDS_247/status/1029181981572050945) And I don’t want to get tin-foil-hat on you guys, but something tells me that the writers and producers had to fight to get ANY LGTB+ representation in, let alone confirm it. Which is sad, but Voltron is still a kids show. And I wouldn’t be surprised that some stuffy, out of touch white guys in suits said that you can’t do the gay thing because children can’t be corrupted or some similar bullshit. So be mad, be upset, be loud. But be loud at Dreamswork. Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if the writers and producers were showing all this backlash to the suits and going “YOU HAVE TO LET US GIVE THEM THE GAY FOR SEASON EIGHT. LOOK AT HOW MUCH THE AUDIENCE IS DEMANDING IT! THESE ARE THE PEOPLE BUYING THE MERCHANDISE FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!” Because I sure as fuck would.

And with that out of the way, let’s move on to some positive things!

This season was actually well-written. Were there mis-steps? Yes, but again (and getting a litte tin-foil-hatty here), I feel like certain elements were probably more studio driven than writer driven (looking at you Axca and your weird stares at Keith!). But overall this season was excellently written. The stakes were kept high, there was tension throughout, and the comic-relief episode was a wonderful play on fan headcannons (making Keith a terrible artists is something I’m still laughing about). And yeah, the last few episodes can be a little too similar thanks to all the action scenes, but at least the stakes were upped at each turn. And also, what better way to introduce the new big-bad than right after defeating Sendak?! It subverts the exception of a huge celebration with showing our heros that they may not have the chomps to fight against this new threat (which, let’s be real, it’s most likely Lotor and/or Haggar. If it’s not either of them, I will be thoroughly surprised).

One of my favorite things from season seven though is that is explores what happens after a major political leader of an empire is killed. It would have been so easy just to have another galra take the reigns of the Zarkon’s empire, but the writers went with the harder option of a bloody fallout. They showed a world/universe where people have formed their own factions and fighting for power, along with the mess that that creates. You honestly don’t see that a lot in fiction, let alone fiction aimed for younger audiences.

And let’s talk about episode five for a hot minute. It’s been a long time since I was legit terrified from a children’s show. Like since Avatar: The Last Air Bender (that blood bending episode still gives me chills). The set-up and pacing is so perfect. Starting light before slowly turning tragic, which only leads to the sheer-terror of not only the situation, but of how brutal and cruel the universe has gotten in Voltron’s absence. With so little, it makes the viewer question of what’s happened to other allies of Voltron. And considering it follows the game show episode, it’s the hard left turn I personally wasn’t expecting. But I’m not going to lie, it’s probably my favorite episode of the season. Also, I legit started tearing up when Keith called Krolia “Mom” and they hugged. While I wish there was more mother-son moments in general when in comes to Keith and Krolia, I think that moment alone showed how much Keith has grown. He may still have some abandonment issues, but it’s clear that the trust he has in his family is helping him overcome that. That he trusts Krolia to come back and that he trusts his team/new family to be there for him. And I’m hoping we get that explored some more in season eight. (#MoreActualSpaceMomPlease)

There’s also the fact that they made the four years of Sam Holt’s time back on Earth engaging to watch. While I think we all knew that they were going to explain what Sam, the Garrison, and Earth in general was doing before Voltron arrived, I was worried how they would handle this. This is exposition that’s very easy to make clunky and a slog to get through. I was worried even when the first shot was “Four Years Earlier...”. Even with two episodes dedicated to some very important exposition, this is stuff that I think any writer can tell you is tricky to pull off. Yes, Sam is Pidge and Matt’s father, and we get the bonus of Lance’s sister Veronica (#BestBigSister #MoreVeronicaAndLanceSeasonEight), people who we’re emotionally invested in because members of the core cast are, but this is still focus away from characters we’ve gotten to know and love for six seasons. These two episodes had to not only re-familiarize us with character we met briefly in season five, but had to reintroduce us to characters we’ve really only seen in episode one with brief cameos in various flashbacks, introduce us to both new characters and the command structure of the Garrison. And that’s a lot to do in less than a total of forty minutes. So the fact that it’s engaging and does not only that, but also clearly gives and raises the stakes for the rest of the season without ham-fisting it is impressive. We knew that Voltron was going to have to save Earth thanks to the trailer, but we didn’t know how dire the situation was going to be when we returned to Earth. Even though these were the episodes that Adam died, I still found myself emotionally invested. If anything, its inspired me to write AU fanfiction where I take all the ‘humans are space orcs and Earth is a death planet’ ideas and put them in there, having Sendak and the Galra lowkey realize that the Lions of Voltron probably chose the most-level-headed humans to the be the paladins because fuck man, earthlings be terrifying and maybe we should leave??? (I’m serious about this bit. I’ve been going through all my saved screen-shot pins of them on pinterest and making note of which ones I want to use)

I like how we get to see more of the relationships between all of Team Voltron and the core casts’s family. I like that we got to see more of Hunk’s story and how Lance’s relationship with his siblings is very much the same as Keith and Shiro’s in terms of the emotional bonds (seriously, the paralles between Lance and Keith when their siblings (or if you’re a Sheith shipper, loved ones) are in danger is great. The Klance shipper in me is on the floor in tears crying about how these two boys will sacrifice themselves if it meant that their loved ones would live. Thanks for emotionally wrecking me on that Voltron writers). I love that we got to see Colleen Holt reunite with her husband and straight up go “FIGHT ME” and win when Garrison command tells her she can’t stay because protocol, along with her being active in her own way. When she and Sam broadcast to their entire planet that an alien invasion is imminent, she doesn’t shy away from being the one to drop this bombshell. From the text, it appears that she fought long and hard trying to figure out what happened to her family long before Sam came back, I love that about her. She just wants to know her family is safe, or at least get some potential closure if their not, and she never backed down from that fight. So it’s great to see that reunion. And, quick aside, it’s clear from the visual text that she and Sam have a beautifully healthy relationship despite their years apart and they emotionally support one another. And I hope that we see more of that in the next season. And I’ve got high hopes for season eight for so many more reasons!

So now I guess I should address the one relationship that I said I would talk about at the start of all this. Shiro and Adam.

Okay, so some of you may have already read my thoughts on an earlier post how how I didn’t believe we were going to get a tearful and heartfelt reunion between the two. (here’s the link if you want to read it in full: http://kirika-hime.tumblr.com/post/176794551537/okay-before-season-7-of-voltron-is-up-ive-got-a It’s long, so sorry about that, but I’m going to be referencing it a bit here) And even with what little was given to us or even what could have been given to us, I can’t fully get behind Adam.

Yes, we pretty much just got a fight, but hear me out for a moment. First things first, that fight, when you’re paying attention to it, actually sounds like a fight between two adults who care for each other and have been gone over the topic ad nauseam. Adam sounds tired. Shiro sounds tired and frustrated. The topic of Shiro going on the Kerberous Mission when his health is probably beginning to decline is clearly something that has truly strained their relationship. The acting and the animation show that with so little. And here’s the thing with that, it makes me asks a lot of big questions. If Shiro had stayed and they had gotten married, would that strain still be there? Would Shiro potentially resent Adam for convincing him not to go on the mission? If he does, does that strain begin to grow into a rift? What if their relationship was already showing some cracks in the foundation and they didn’t realize it? What if the fight and their split actually healthy for the two of them? Would Sam and Matt still have gone the Kerberous Mission? And if they did, would Matt still even be alive? Would Sam find a way to escape? What about Pidge? Colleen? What happens to them? If Pidge is still demanding for answers, does Shiro demand for them as well? Does their relationship change? Does Pidge and Keith’s relationship change? Does Shiro get kicked out of the Garrison instead of Keith? Does Pidge still disguise herself And what about Voltron? Would the Blue Lion have been found at all? Or would Zarkon have found the others, including the Black Lion? Because if that’s what could happen, what does that mean for Allura and Coran? What does that mean for Earth? For Lotor and the Alteans he deceiving and manipulating? What about Romelle? What would have happened to her if Keith and Krolia never found her?

And I know a lot of these questions probably seem dumb and fanficcy to a lot of people, but I think they’re legit questions fans should ask. A lot of this story hinges on Shiro, Sam, and Matt going on the Kerberous Mission when you boil it down. So it’s important to explore how certain characters made certain decisions. I don’t doubt that Shiro went on the Kerberous Mission to fulfill his dream one last time. He had no way of knowing that he was going to be abducted. But I’m positive that he wanted to be out in space one last time. I don’t think it was about breaking records, like Adam seemed to suggest. I think it was one man trying to get as much joy and fulfillment out of his life before he was fully confined by his illness. Shiro didn’t want to have any regrets when that time came. And possibly, he wanted to show Keith that even when the deck is stacked against him, he could still do amazing things. And it’s also selfish. Which is great because it gives Shiro a character flaw! And we can see how it shapes him when rewatching previous seasons. The guilt he feels from how he left things with Adam, of how he left Keith behind, probably drove a lot of his decisions and choices during his time as a prisoner and as the Black Paladin. Adam may have said that he wouldn’t be waiting for Shiro when he returned, but that still doesn’t mean Shiro wants him, anyone, to experience the horrors of war. Not when he potentially keep that from happening. As a Paladin, he can potentially redeem a lot of his perceived mistakes. That’s what makes Shiro interesting! (It’s also what makes him so difficult to write)

Adam is in his right to not want to put up with Shiro’s selfishness. But I still hold from one argument from my previous post, that Adam gave up on Keith.

Now a lot of this is on assumptions and personal interpretation of the text (both actual words and visually) that’s been given to us, but I stand by that Adam gave up on a kid who needed him. No matter how you view Shiro and Keith’s relationship, Keith’s important to Shiro. He saw a lot of potential in a lonely child who, more than anything, needed someone to care about him beyond questioning if he was going to get into trouble or not. And as Shiro got closer to Keith, he saw a child who needed a family. A person who he could turn to when things started getting rough, for someone to be in his corner. Keith at a young age was difficult to get along with, the first episode of this season showed us that. He’s closed off, kids his age don’t really want to take the time to understand him, and it seems that most adults aren’t willing to invest in the time to tease and pull out his strengths or see the kid that feels deeply for his loved ones. Keith has a lot of emotional baggage, and combine it with whatever possible galra childhood tendencies he might have that no one could have known about, you have a really tough job on your hands. And that’s what makes Keith and Shiro’s relationship so powerful. That Shiro was able to see the potential in him. Not just to be a great pilot, but to be a great and loving person. Shiro never gave up on him.

But Adam did. Not once during episode seven or eight do we see Adam inquire after Shiro or Keith. Something that would have been so easy to include, and it never happened. Adam no doubt was the first person Shiro talked to when it came to Keith (followed most likely by Sam, because, hey. Sam’s got two kids, he’s gotta know a thing or two about parenting overly-talented children, right?). He probably tried to get feedback, ideas, even confirmation on how he was interacting and raising Keith. And considering how close Keith and Shiro are, Adam definitely met and interacted with Keith. Adam may not have fully agreed with Shiro pseudo-adopting Keith, but he saw how close the two were. He knew that Shiro was trying to give Keith the tools to succeed in life and get him out of a system that clearly did not care for him. And that could have been part of the reason why Adam loved Shiro. Like I said in my first post, I fully believe that Shiro asked Adam to look after Keith while he was gone. I still believe that Keith acted similarly to Pidge in trying to get answers after Kerberous went belly-up. And I still fully believe that when Keith was kicked out of the Garrison and left homeless. And I still fully believe that Adam did nothing to help. Nothing that was given to us indicates that Adam tried to reach out and support Keith when Shiro disappeared.

In fact, I’m more angry at Adam now than before season seven was released. He understandably ended things with Shiro. He was tired of watching the man he loved putting his personal goals/desires before his health and couldn’t watch anymore. He told Shiro that he wouldn’t be waiting for him anymore. And I get that. That sucks. Watching a person you love potentially destroying themselves hurts. The more you care about them, the more it hurts. But Adam, whether he meant it or not, included Keith in that. He cut Keith out of his life too. I don’t have any doubt that Keith tried to get Adam to help him in finding answers. Keith probably had his fair share of fights with Adam, trying to appeal to him that Shiro was too of a pilot for there to be an error, illness or not. That they have a right to know what happened to a person they love. And Adam shut him out. He abandoned Keith. Whether it was to deal with his own emotional pain over Shiro’s disappearance or that he never cared for Keith in a similar way that Shiro did, I don’t know. But his response was to abandon a child he knew had no one. We get no indication that Adam opened up his home for Keith, or that he tried to find out where Keith went when he left for the desert. And that’s what makes me angry. Is that Adam, whether he felt equipped to deal with Keith’s problems or not, abandoned a child who needed support more than ever. He didn’t have to care about Keith like a brother or a son, but he could have saw someone who was hurting as much as he was. Adam could have tried to talk to Keith and give him support. They could have potentially healed together over the loss of Shiro. But Adam let a young teenager, a child, feel abandoned once more and homeless on top of that.

I can’t forgive him for that. Nothing in the text, via words or visually, indicates that Adam tried to help or be there for Keith. And I really wanted to like Adam, but what I’ve got to work with says otherwise. Who knows, maybe season eight will prove me wrong. But until then, I just can’t.

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