#tbf the only thing i didn’t do was study. by the standards of people who don’t know shit abt my circumstances. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nonbinarypoststhings · 4 years

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Hi, irrelevant, I know, but do you remember anything about the highschool period of your life? I swear this part is the most stressful part of all my life, first I figure out my sexuality, then I move away from all my friends, then my gender, and as if it's not enough, add to that school and standardised tests and all the typical drama of being a teen. Oh and also don't forget that you're somehow supposed to make choices that will affect the rest of your life.How does anyone even survive it?

I do remember my high school life, and as I have reconnected with one of my old classmates recently, I've even talked a bit about it with her.

(Warning for Homophobia, transphobia, Sexism, Racism. Only the homophobia is like explicit, but the others are mentioned. Feel free to tell me if there is more warnings I should have. Also, long post)

High school is a tough period of time for everyone. Everyone is struggling with who they are, and what they want in life.

And add in the layer of being Lgbtq+ it becomes more frustrating.

I have a hard time translating the school things from my country to others, but I believe I graduated what would be translated into high school only this year, but I will still talk about my old school which I graduated from three years ago.

My class back then was not the best place for anyone who is lgbtq+. Me and the classmate I mentioned earlier connected well back then, and still do now, but the rest of them..? Not so much (I will also exclude two more people from that rest, who also is my friends now).

We were a class of 22 or 23, and yes I believe that most of us probably were at least somewhat accepting of the lgbtq+ community, we still only had, from what I know, 2 people who actually is in the community. Neither of us accepted it at the time, even though we both were proudly supportive of the community.

The thing is, she struggled with internalized shit about her identity and that delayed the realization.

I was genderfluid, and same thing there. I denied my own gender because, my friend was nonbinary, I couldn't also be, right? So internlized shit that delayed the realization.

Neither of us came to term with it until after we had left that school.

But I have a clear memory of us both Hating our class, we were a class of mainly guys, and every single guy was white (tbf, we had 1 person who wasn't white in our class all together).

We all know what white cis straight men are famous for...

Being bigots.

I don't know if anything has changed these past years, I haven't talked to them. But back then,

At least half of them were openly sexist, homophobic, transphobic etc.

I have a clear memory, that still Disgusts me so much to this day, of a sex ed class where the teacher, bless her, tried to be inclusive and ask us what we thought about gay couples. (Not how it should be done, but it was atleast a try in the right direction) The guys, who always ran the show (the ones I hated more than I think I can explain), said (TW for Homophobia):

"Gay guys are disgusting. Lesbians are hot".

I was so mad, my skin was crawling with disgust, still is when I think about it. To everyone who only accept lesbians because they think it's hot, you are disgusting. Lesbians are real people and they are not there to please some man. It's not for you, it's between the lesbian and her girlfriend and you should Stay Out Of It!

It wasn't a great place to be out in, so maybe it wasn't weird for us to ignore our own identity, to not want to be lgbtq+ in that space, because if we had been out back then even just to ourselves we would've had to face these people every day and therefore face these kind of things knowing that they are talking about us like this. Even though they didn't know it, they were and it was disgusting and terrible.

(I am not saying repress your gender or sexuality until you are older, you don't have to do that at all. Just be safe, and know that if people are mean or ignorant, they are wrong. You are valid and loved and we all support you so much. Find support, and don't let bigots tear you down. You are Valid and you are who You are no matter what others tell you)

I wanted out of that class, from those people, ever since I was like 6-7 years old. I hoped when we switched school when we were 12-13 that I would end up without a bunch of them. I did still have that same class, which really I had expected even if I hoped differently.

At 16 I got a change to move across the country, I took it. Actually, I kinda fought for it, and I was lucky enough to get it.

Moving away from all my friends were scary even if I had made an active choice to do so. I was terrified that I would be lonely, and that everyone at this new school would be terrible and I had to move back home and face that shame of failure (obvs, it wouldn't be actual failure to get out of a toxic place if it has been that, but I saw it as such)

When I came to this new school, everything was super different from back home.

My class was, to my standards, filled with so many different people with different cultures. All of them different from mine because I was from across the country, from a small town. And suddenly here I was in a gigantic city.

Anyway, this school taught me a lot, about everything. My class had openly Lgbtq+ people. My new friends were suddenly all queer or questioning, and I was in awe, because... It could be like this?

Also, everyone was super nice to me. Asking for my instagram on day 1 so we could be friends on there, showing me how to get back home in this new city when everything was so new to be, starting conversations and being just geniune good people. Like, huge shout out to those people.

I learned so much about oppression, and how to stand against it in this school, not because I myself was oppressed, I'm white and at the time I thought I was cishet.

No, I learned because our teachers wanted us to learn about all these things that I knew were real problems but I had only heard of in fiction, never in real life.

I got to a safe space, where racist teachers got fired asap. Where teachers were openly queer and my classmates could come out as trans to the class simply by stating their new name and pronouns. No questions asked. I got to a school where every introduction included name and pronouns. Where we were all shown that we can be who we are and that is okay. And where teachers apologized to students in a real and honest way when they did something wrong.

In this environment I got to figure out who I am. Yes it took two years, but I figured it out and felt safe enough to tell my new friends in weeks, because they accept everyone.

So, the question, how do you survive high school?

My answer is simply, you hold onto the belief that you will survive, and that things will get better. And you will get there.

You can try to find other lgbtq+ people in your school, I know some have groups you can join (mine didn't).

And with the tests, I guess I recommend you study, and remember that a bad grade isn't the end of the world. You are worth more than a grade.

I wish I could promise you that you could enter a school like mine, where everything certainly wasn't perfect (you never get rid of high school drama...), but it was still a very friendly space.

But I can promise you that you are not alone and things will be better. If it gets better in high school or if it gets better years later, I can't tell you. But it does get better. And you will survive.

Also, sorry for this extremely long answer, it was probably not what you're looking for. But I hope you find an answer in there eitherway.

Long story short, high school is a shitshow, but the show must go on.

Also, gender neutral bathrooms in schools should be standard (it has been in all schools I've gone to and no one is complaining here, not even the transphobes).

Also, the reason why I barely mention the girls in my old class, is simply because there were almost none and nothing any of them have said when I've been around has been relevant to this answer.

Tell me if you want things tagged or added to the warnings at top.

#genderfluidpoststhings #genderfluidpoststhings ask #Homophobia tw

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sage-nebula · 6 years

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#Just Paradigm Shift Interior Design

A thought that occurred to me as I went to sleep last night (/this morning) is that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they decorate their living space. The Castle of Lions comes pre-decorated, and since much of the castle is a common area, it can’t be personalized by one person too much. But bedrooms can be, and while everyone’s room starts off looking the same, I started thinking about how each of the Paradigm Shift revolutionaries would decorate their rooms over time. So without further ado, given a few decaphoebs time to accumulate things and do a bit of redecoration . . .

Lotor:

Swaps out the standard twin bed that was in the room with a king-sized bed at some point. I’m thinking four poster, wooden frame, one with shelving built into the headboard so he can have books there to read before bed. (He reads books on a tablet as well, but some texts haven’t been digitally archived yet, so he has to read them as they are.) Has a sheer canopy up top, perhaps, but it doesn’t dangle over the sides. The mattress isn’t anything particularly special, but the sheets and comforter are soft.

Also built into the headboard, behind a slideable wood panel that is very easy to miss, is a monitor synced to the camera just outside the door so he can discreetly see who has come to visit him whenever anyone has. You know. Just in case. (There are no enemies in the castle, he’s sure, but . . . just in case . . .)

The headboard is pushed up against the wall, but there is free space on either side, so being on the bed doesn’t equate to being backed into a corner.

A knife is kept under the mattress, in the middle, near the headboard. This makes it easily accessible (for him), but is not an easily guessed hiding spot for others.

There’s a large desk in the back corner of the room with a very comfortable chair. The desk is neatly organized, but the surface can barely be seen beneath the computer, books, (neatly stacked but sometimes spread out) papers, et cetera. Every drawer on the desk is locked and can only be opened with both his fingerprint, and a specifically traced pattern (different pattern for each drawer).

There’s a board on the wall next to the desk that has a collage of different things pinned to it. Some of them are inspirational quotes pertaining to war or revolution, and others are cryptic clues or puzzles to things he’s been working on in his spare time (e.g. the Oriande riddle). Others are just words or turns of phrase that came to him and he decided to write down and pin up. You know, whichever. To pretty much everyone else on the team it looks like a gigantic mess, but Lotor assures them all it makes perfect sense. (To him, at least.)

There’s also a grand bookshelf in the room that stretches floor to ceiling and takes up at least half of the wall. It does have many books on it, but it also has various gifts and other mementos he has received from those he cares about. For instance, a single pressed nimbusilde flower in a frame from Acxa, or the tall, glass display case on a plainly visible shelf, inside of which is a series of tiered platforms, each one covered with a soft material, on top of which rests a die. The dice, a full set, were custom-made from malernite, an ore which was historically ever found on Altea, and were specifically designed after the die pictured in texts describing a historically important game in which Princess Fayli shattered the dice with a single throw and, in the act, successfully defended her peoples’ lives from the tyranny of her brother, Prince Indric. It was a piece of Altean history that Lotor had discovered and, in his excitement over learning something new, had shared with Keith in a conversation that Lotor soon after forgot having (so much was going on), but Keith had evidently not only remembered, but had managed to track down the ore, take the page from the text that Lotor had learned this from to show a smith, and had the dice recreated, after which he gave them to Lotor as a gift the following holiday. Keith had thought Lotor would want to recreate the experiment (and it was tempting), but Lotor had acquired a display case and put them on the bookshelf instead. Keith was embarrassed. To this day, Lotor still doesn’t understand why he should be.

Speaking of display cases, there’s also a tall display case across from the bed full of ancient relics and other artifacts Lotor has discovered over time. He intends at some point to return them to the people from whom they were taken (i.e. Lotor didn’t take them from the people; he found them in ruins or in Empire storehouses and liberated them), but untll he can, he keeps them safe in a display case where they won’t be ravaged by the elements or destroyed by Empire soldiers. (Also, tbf, they are nice to look at and study. He’s careful with them, though.)

Quite a few decaphoebs down the road, Lotor finds a vrensyr egg. Vrensyrs were draconic creatures native to the planet Daibazaal, and believed to be extinct. However, this egg somehow survived---and when Lotor finds it, he not only keeps it, but he hatches it. The newly hatched vrensyr imprints on him immediately, and as a result becomes his new companion. He names the newly hatched creature Erebus.

Vrensyrs look somewhat similar to what an Earth wyvern looks like. They’re covered in scales, have small, claw like appendages on their wings, and razor sharp claws on their feet. When born, Erebus is small enough to ride on Lotor’s shoulder (and he does). Give him a few centuries, and he will be large enough to raze cities with little effort should he so choose. Erebus can breathe fire (he is being trained on when it is appropriate to do so), and he can change the color of his scales on a whim. His eyes, meanwhile, are always a very vivid purple.

When Erebus is hatched, a stone basin is acquired for him as his bed, since Vrensyrs like to sleep on stone (and a particular type of stone, at that). He also has multiple perches installed along the walls and ceiling of Lotor’s room for him to use whenever he chooses.

Lastly, after their relationship does become romantic and Keith starts spending more time in Lotor’s room, sometimes Keith’s jacket, or his boots, can be found tossed onto the floor. It happens.

Keith:

Keeps the standard twin bed, but does allow Acxa to talk him into a memory foam mattress cover. It’s real comfy.

As mentioned in Revolutionary, he has a collage of photos of him and his team taped up on the wall beside his bed, courtesy of Ezor. Specifically:

There was one of him and Acxa simultaneously drinking pechaya juice while using their other hands to try and block Ezor’s camera; there was another of Zethrid lifting him off the ground in a massive, full-body hug as he gasped out that he had ribs she was breaking; there was one of him and Narti having fallen asleep on the sofa together, Kova curled up on his chest; one of Ezor herself pouncing on his back so she could take an impromptu selfie with him; one of him and Lotor playing a game of Crowns & Claws, Keith’s brow furrowed in concentration as he studied the board before him, and Lotor smiling at him from across the table; and other snapshots of the rest of his teammates, from one the many selfies Ezor took of herself dancing with Narti, to one of Acxa after she had fixed new barrettes in her hair to keep her bangs out of her eyes, to one of Zethrid arm-wrestling Lotor.

After Ezor spreads the word that Keith hadn’t decorated his room practically at all, the others started getting in on it, too.

Courtesy of Acxa, he gets a potted ticarius in one corner of the room. A ticarius is a plant pretty similar to our Earth cacti (it even comes from a planet that has a pretty arid climate), except that it doesn’t require sunlight, is very dark purple in color, and the spines (which are rainbow-colored) are actually very sweet tasting, and it’s good for your teeth and gums if you suck on them. The spines grow back relatively quickly, and the plant doesn’t require very much maintenance. The ticarius is nearly tall enough to touch the ceiling, and Keith likes to use the spines like toothpicks whenever he’s working on something.

Courtesy of Zethrid, he got a small weight lifting kit that he only sporadically uses (but that she got specifically for him to use to bulk up so that he’d stop complaining about her breaking his ribs with her hugs). It’s up against the wall on the other side of the bed.

Courtesy of Narti, he got double-reinforced screws over the vent in his room so that Kova would stop sneaking in during the night and pouncing on his face. He also got a painting, painted by her, specifically, which he put up on the wall above the weight lifting set.

And courtesy of Lotor, he had a feature added to his room so that he can, whenever he wants, have a display of what the galaxy looks like around them on his ceiling. Keith has spent enough of his life locked away where he can’t see the sky, so this was really appreciated.

He has a wardrobe pressed into the corner opposite the bed. The wardrobe is fairly large, because it’s split neatly into two sections: casual wear, and armor. Keith generally doesn’t care much about what he wears, but he’ll be damned if he’s going to have to spend time looking for his armor when there’s a fight to get to, so he keeps his wardrobe very organized so that he doesn’t have to think, he can just reach in, grab it, and go.

Likewise, he has numerous storage bins in the compartment under his bed where other things are kept. There’s one for books, one for clothes that don’t need to go into the wardrobe, et cetera. Anything he’s not actively using is always packed up and put away. (Unless, of course, it’s been left on the floor of Lotor’s bedroom.)

Speaking of things being left in Lotor’s bedroom, Lotor doesn’t tend to leave things in Keith’s on purpose, but one day shortly after their relationship became more intimate, Ezor was in Keith’s room when they went there to retrieve his tablet, and she sat on his bed while talking on about something, and fell silent mid-sentence. This was odd for her, so Keith looked over with a frown, and found that Ezor was holding up several strands of long, white hair. She looked at him, her eyes wide. He looked back at her, his eyes widening as he realized what she had found and the conclusions she was reaching, a blush rising in his cheeks. “Ezor---” But she bounded up from the bed and bolted through the door, shouting, “Oh mY GODS, NARTI!! ZETHRID!! IT FINALLY HAPPENED!!” And Keith, swearing oaths and shouting her name, was left with no other options but to take off after her and attempt to take her down in a full body tackle. (This, incidentally, did not make things look any less interesting to the parties Ezor was determined to spread the gossip to.)

(Also incidentally, Narti already knew because she’s a telepath, so the moment she spent more than three ticks in Keith’s and Lotor’s presence after they kissed for the first time, she knew their relationship changed and was quite happy for them. However, she also has tact and manners, and so she kept quiet and didn’t share this news with anyone, because she figured they’d tell everyone in their own time. Ezor is quite miffed with Narti when she learns that Narti knew the whole time and said nothing to her, of all people, about it. Like, she’s not surprised that Acxa didn’t say anything to her even though Acxa knew about it as well because both Keith and Lotor told her separately, because of course Acxa wouldn’t tell her, but Narti?? Narti, how could you??? Betrayal of the highest order, tbqh. Anyway, this is off-topic.)

Quite a few decaphoebs down the road, Keith finds and befriends a teleporting, wolf-like creature. She was an orphan, left wandering and trying to fend for herself after her pack was killed, and after forming a bond with her, Keith decided to take her in. He named her Nyx, and once she comes along with him, she gets her own large, round, plush bed in his room . . . that she usually ignores in favor of sleeping on his bed, cuddled up with him instead, regardless of whether that leaves him squished into the corner or just barely hanging onto the edge of the bed or not. Okay, Nyx.

Everything is covered in her dander from that point forward.

Though Keith’s not really a fan of most of the “Earth culture” things Ezor tries to “teach” him with (namely, anime), he is a fan of the CD player she bought to “teach” him about Earth’s music, and over time has built up a respectable collection of CDs, which he keeps in a case next to the player (which is itself pretty big and on a table he put in his room specifically to hold it). He also has a smaller, portable CD player, as well as a large pair of headphones, that he likes to listen to and relax with when not in his room.

Later on down the road, Zethrid discovers that humans on Earth invented something called an MP3 player, and she gets it for Keith as a gift. After they figure out that he can put all of his CDs on it and then some, he tells her that she’s allowed to give him one (1) rib-crushing hug at any time of her choosing. She grins and chooses right that second.

He still keeps a knife under his pillow, and his bayard just under his bed. He also eventually has several swords that he acquires from around the galaxy that he thought looked nice up on display stands on his walls, also above his bed. Make no mistake, however: They’re there because he thought they looked cool, but he keeps them sharp and in good condition. He can, and will, use them if necessary.

Acxa:

As could be surmised, Acxa really likes plants, and flowers specifically, because her grandmother used to keep a tiny plot of flowers, and would teach Acxa their names and meaning when Acxa was a little girl. Obviously that time has long since passed, but Acxa has collected books on flower meanings from around the galaxy and tries to tend to whatever plants and flowers she can. (She does, in another room of the castle, have a little garden going.) In her room she has a vase of antiriums (which don’t require any sunlight), and she also has a very tall vase in one corner with celestaries in it (which do require sunlight, but she has a special light fixed into the wall above the vase to simulate sunlight during the day, when she’s not in her room and it wouldn’t bother her). A small amount of flowers, maybe, but important ones. The antiriums, which naturally grow on a planet that can’t sustain any other life for long, symbolize life even in the most damning conditions, and survival through the harshest of hardships. They represent living when literally everything in the universe says “give up.” The celestaries, on the other hand, are kept partly because they’re pretty, with their large, vibrant red petals, but also because they symbolize remembrance for the departed, and the belief that those that die can still live on and watch over those still living. Acxa keeps them mostly in remembrance of her grandmother, but also her parents and brothers.

The nimbusilde is an extremely rare flower native to the planet Stradozyx. It only blooms where lightning has struck the ground twice. Acxa found one, pressed it, and gave it to Lotor as a gift because it reminded her of him.

The ticarius isn’t a particularly rare plant on its home planet of Haridel, but what gives the ticarius its meaning is that it not only survives in extremely harsh conditions, but that it also has the nutritional properties mentioned before---that it sustains not only itself through adversity, but also others, despite what is perhaps an intimidating appearance due to its prickly spines. (In fact, those spines are a good thing; that ferocity, that tough quality . . . that’s good.) This reminded Acxa of Keith, hence why she gifted him one when she learned via Ezor that he needed room decorations. (Also, she cares about him, so the nutritional value is good, too.)

She has several albums full of pressed flowers from all over the galaxy, the names and meanings written out beside them. They’re on a bookshelf in her room, directly across from the bed.

She upgraded her bed to a full sized bed, with a memory foam mattress, a super soft quilt, and three large pillows. She never had a proper bed before the castle and so, as soon as she could, she took the opportunity to upgrade and get the softest things she could. She loves sleep.

On her nightstand, next to the vase of antiriums, she has a small music box that Narti gave to her as a holiday gift. The tune is a lullaby Acxa’s grandmother used to sing to her. Narti heard Acxa humming it, and had it recreated in a little music box. Acxa plays it on nights when she has trouble falling asleep.

Next to the bookshelf she has a dresser, and on top of the dresser is a jewelry box filled with earrings, rings, and a couple bracelets, because sue her, she likes sparkly jewelry, even if she doesn’t often wear it because it’s a liability in battle. She also has numerous hair barrettes, including a pair that Keith got her after she first discovered that, due to things that happened on Revender, her hair won’t grow out anymore. She was depressed about it, and he bought her the hair clips as a way to try to cheer her up (to show that, hey, short hair can be nice, too). To be honest, the barrettes he chose are kind of . . . not to her taste, but he picked them out in earnest and was genuinely trying to make her feel better, and so they’re honestly her favorite barrettes even if she rarely actually wears them.

There’s a rack resembling a coat rack on the wall next to her bed. It holds her bayard and holsters for her other guns. The door at the base of her nightstand also opens to reveal polish and other tools necessary for weapons upkeep.

Ezor:

Ezor’s room is full of “I saw this once and had to have it For Reasons” things.

Giant tapestries of all types of colors are strung up across the ceiling like canopies, hanging at various lengths. They obscure the lights and are just sheer enough so that a multitude of colors is thrown around her room whenever the lights are on. The tapestries remind her of the market where she spent the eight years of her life after losing her miralean mother, but before meeting Keith and the others.

Her bed has tons of stuffed animal plushes on it. Most are at the foot of the bed, but a couple of Ezor’s favorites are up near the front. (Her bed, mind you, is just the standard twin.)

It’s not uncommon to find a small critter of some kind crawling around the room. These critters are not always brought there on purpose by Ezor herself. Sometimes they are, but most of the time they’re not, and after the fourth time Kova ate one Ezor had decided was going to be a pet, she stopped letting herself get attached.

Her actual pet ends up being Kaltenecker the cow (not that she knows Kaltenecker is a “cow”) after she and Narti got her “for free” at the Earth store when Ezor was there buying stuff to “teach Keith about his heritage.” Kaltenecker puzzled everyone in the castle, including Keith himself, and ended up gathering a crowd of the primary team and all three Auxiliary Teams as everyone tried to figure out what she was. At one point she spontaneously mooed and startled everyone to the point where most reached for weapons just in case that was a sound of aggression and she decided to attack. (She didn’t attack, but she was glad the crowd backed off a little.)

Ezor’s favorite thing about having Kaltenecker for a pet is that this is one pet that Kova cannot eat. (Not, however, for lack of trying on Kova’s part.)

Keith never asked Ezor to “teach him about his heritage” and Ezor never even asked if he wanted to learn. She just decided that, once they knew that part of his heritage was human from Earth, obviously they had to teach him, so she went to the Earth store in the mall to buy materials. These materials consisted mostly of anime, which Ezor is 99.9% positive are realistic depictions of life on Earth and are also quality Earth cinema and art. However, she has also purchased numerous Earth musical records, toys (such as Super Soakers) and other things as part of his “education.”

Speaking of, her bookshelf is full of anime DVDs and box sets (the actual DVD player was something she also purchased at the Earth store since the castle did not come with one), as well as other assorted Earth things (she loves Earth waaaaay more than Keith ever will, particularly since he honestly . . . doesn’t . . . really care much about it at all).

It is one of her life goals to name a child Sasuke, because he’s her favorite character from her favorite anime (which she is also convinced is the absolute height of Earth art and cinema and thinks it’s beyond baffling that none of the team recognizes what a cultural, planetary treasure they have in the castle simply by virtue of her finding and buying the box sets, honestly).

It’s difficult to see her floor because of all the clutter. Most of the clutter comes from her laundry, which is spread everywhere, but also she has random assorted things all over (various weapons that she doesn’t even use; weird, creepy statues or trinkets, and that sort of thing). Roughly 80% of the things in Ezor’s room are things she stole simply because she could and she wanted to. The remaining 20% is either Earth store stuff (she respects that store enough to spend her money there) or stuff that Keith or Acxa caught her stealing, and then made her go back and pay for, because “it’s not the Empire that suffers when you do this, it’s the employees who are punished for your shoplifting.” Ezor always grumbles that this is why they’re known as the Fun Police.

Ezor is a prolific writer (of RPF that she posts on a GalaxyNet website known as Repository of Our Own), and as such she always has her tablet right by her bed, since she does her best writing (in her opinion) when curled up for the night. She also has a folder under her bed of printed out, positive reviews she has received on her fics, so she can have quick access them whenever she’s feeling down. (The folder is very thick, because she’s a---nay, the BNF for her particular RPF OTP, which she actually started shipping and writing for as a joke and also spite, but then got invested . . . it’s a long story.)

Zethrid:

Also upgraded her bed to a king-sized bed, because you know why? Because she deserves it, that’s why. No noticeable frame, though; it does have one, but no headboard or anything like that. Looks like a giant mattress when you walk in the door. She loves it.

All of her walls are covered in maps of whatever galaxy they’re currently in, with notes all over the maps marking out points of interest. Some things are notes from her days as a bounty hunter, others are more relevant to the mission at hand. Either way, she’s constantly updating the maps.

Has two large whiteboards, over which she has covered schematics for upgrades or tweaks she plans on making to either the Yellow Lion, the Sincline ships, or some new smaller ship she’s working on in her spare time. They’re in the back of the room, but they’re not pressed up against the maps on the walls.

She also has a large trophy cabinet, inside of which are some legitimate trophies or awards she’s won from various, spontaneously entered contests around the galaxy, and some of which are tokens or souvenirs she picked up at various places around the galaxy that are important to her. (For instance, she can’t really go back to the WcGoofy’s that Olliges owns, but she did swing by there once and took the drive-thru sign to keep as a memento. That’s in the trophy case.)

She also has a pretty large vanity table with a big mirror. The vanity table has various perfumes, but also a lot of make-up, because she doesn’t just kill in battle (if she does)---she serves killer looks, too. Her lips aren’t naturally green, that’s just her favorite shade of lipstick this phoeb. Those yellow splashes near her eyes? Eyeshadow. (She also, for the record, has a kit with luxury soaps and bathbombs that she uses whenever she gets time for a longer bath that she keeps on the vanity table so that none of the Auxiliary Team members (or Ezor) get bright ideas about sticky fingering them.) She lived a rugged life for a long time, so now that she has the opportunity to pamper herself some, she takes it.

On that note, armor aside, her favorite clothing item that she owns is a very plush bathrobe. On the very rare occasion they all get a day mostly off, she likes to take a long, luxurious bath, and then just relax in her robe. It’s amazing.

Related, but for her birthday everyone chipped in and got her a day at a spa planet. It was the best birthday she ever had.

Narti:

Narti swapped out the traditional twin bed for two alternatives.

The first alternative is best called a scoop bed, which is what she slept on for most of her life, back when she still lived with her mother. Narti is half-galra, half-espiridan, and the espiridan people sleep in little nooks (or “scoops”) that are built into the walls of their home. They essentially look like ice cream scoops that are built into the walls, with the wall carved out to provide an overhang to partially block the bed from view. They’re cushioned, and are naturally insulated so they’re quite warm and cozy. Obviously that’s not really possible to do in the castle ship, but everyone pitched in with trying to find a replacement, and while it’s not exact, they managed to find (and then modify) a bed so that it’s almost like a little scoop, and it’s placed up against the back wall.

Until they had the scoop, Narti had a beam that was hung from the ceiling. She would hang from the beam by her tail and sleep that way, kind of like an Earth bat. (She put the mattress from her bed under the beam in case she accidentally let go while sleeping.) Sometimes she still sleeps from the beam, if she’s having trouble with her scoop for whatever reason.

Kova has a cat tree in the room that is honestly ridiculous. It started in one corner, but now rings the room, with varying levels, little hidey-holes, and easy ways into the vents no matter how much Narti tries to stop him. This tree started as one Lotor bought him that Kova refused to use because Lotor bought it, was expanded on in a really haphazard way by everyone else, and now is something Kova loves because he can’t remember which part specifically came from Lotor. (It’s a small victory, but Lotor will take it.)

Narti has three easels in her room that she uses for her paintings. Each one is in a different corner, because each corner carries a different energy (according to her, but no one questions her on it).

There is cat hair goddamn everywhere. Even in Narti’s scoop bed, however much she tries to get the dander out of the bed.

She and Keith like to put puzzles together in their spare time, and the first one they ever completed was a 10,000 piece puzzle of the Alloran system. Because it was their first one, Narti framed it, and has it hanging in her room above her scoop, so she can see it (through Kova’s eyes, naturally) first thing whenever she enters her bedroom.

On the other side of the framed puzzle is a framed picture of pressed lyrdenia flowers that Acxa gave her. Lyrdenia flowers are actually singing flowers that will sing if you stroke their petals. Acxa gave them to Narti in a vase once, because while Narti is blind and mute, she is not deaf, and can appreciate singing flowers. However, Kova knocked that vase onto the floor. He then did it with the second and third vases, and so Acxa gave Narti the flowers pressed in a frame. Kind of ruins the singing, but it’s the thought that counts.

Her wardrobe is filled with various different hoods and cloaks of different styles and colors, because Ezor said she needed to branch out. This includes several in various shades of green to match her armor, as well as one with the Uchiha flag on it that Ezor thinks would be super cool if Narti wore, but Narti will not because no matter how much she adores Ezor, she just will not go out in public with that. (However, she has told Ezor this is because she doesn’t wish to get it dirty or torn, and this soothed Ezor’s feelings quite quickly.)

Narti keeps her stuff picked up, but Kova does not. He has no shortage of toys spread across the floor, along with pieces of kibble, and sometimes feathers or patches of fur from whatever little creature he has terrorized this movement.

#series: paradigm shift #at the end of it all the only ones without pets are Acxa and Zethrid #well - neither of them probably want pets anyway #but even so maybe they'll get some at some point #anyway there could probably be more details added but this is enough for now. at least i think it is #idk i had the idea and wanted to jot down some notes and ideas #also yeah I suppose that's how Ezor and Zethrid find out lol #sorry Keith but it's not their fault your boyfriend sheds so much lololol #also none of Ezor's fans know that it's HER - like they're not aware that a PALADIN OF VOLTRON is writing the fic they like so much #she strives to keep her fan life separate from her real life #makes things easier that way #anyway i really want to write those Revender fics at some point #so many important things happened there #just got to . . . clear my schedule . . .#but honestly there are things i had to leave OUT of this (as far as Keith goes) because they're Spoilers for the future #so this will be updated at some point #anyway #(oh and of course i gave Lotor a dragon. why WOULDN'T i give Lotor a dragon?)#(if the show won't do it i will)#(that's always been the motto and it holds true now)#(i wanted Lotor to have a dragon and so Lotor has a dragon)#(boom. done. and now we can move on with the world a little more at peace)#(a n y w a y. here's this.)

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