deercountry | The Building Blocks and other assorted tales!

Okay... he wasn't expecting that. He shook his head.

"Close... but here's a hint. The Lions all have personalities. Black is actually the head and looks for natural leaders, people willing to put others before themselves. Red is..." Keith considered her for a moment, a nostalgic look on his face. "Well, she's the right arm of Voltron and very strong-willed, but protective. Blue is kind of the morale of the group. She's welcoming and forms the right leg. Yellow's been called the heart of Voltron, being a strong support for the team as the left leg. Green is curious, intelligent, and the shield arm... the left arm of Voltron.

"Shiro... from his point in time, is a pilot. All four of us here are. And, yes... Allura is one, too, but she started off flying the Castleship until after Shiro's point in time when she became a pilot for a Lion." Care to try again, Luz?

Edited 2022-02-26 09:01 (UTC)

Luz was a nerd, and unawares to her, she was using both her mech anime know how and math to try and figure this out. Sadly, it looked like she may have miscalculated.

"Ooh. I see. So now you want me to figure out who was who with hints! Ok. Lemme think."

She was lost in thought. "Ok, so you're giving the impression that Shiro WAS a pilot, but isn't now. That means without a doubt he was the Black Lion's pilot since he oozes leadership but isn't anymore. From what I saw of Pidge, and we only had little conversation, they were pretty smart and inquisitive. That's your Green pilot, so that's out. Allura is self-assured and smart from what I saw, and she COULD be the red lion, but there's still Lance to consider. Now, Blue, you said, is the morale of the group. I think that could be Lance, but I feel like when Allura joined, that'd be a better fit for her. That still leaves who the current Black pilot is, and who's Red. If Shiro isn't black...I'd have to say you, because I can't see Lance as the Black Lion. He's strong and he's protected me before, so I'd peg him as Red lion's pilot."

"Okay. So you've got it mostly." He smiled, definitely amused now. "So, you figured that Lance could be Blue's and Red's pilot, and that Allura could be Blue's, which is right. And that Shiro was Black's, and that I'm now Black at the point in time I'm from... which is also right." Though, Keith still was kind of surprised that anyone could actually guess he was the current Black Paladin. He still had trouble seeing himself as the leader type. "So, if Lance was Blue and Red... And Shiro and I were both Black... and Allura became Blue...?"

Anime mech knowledge was pretty decent, but she needed the added sentai color coding to make the original formation........ as the team tended to dress in their original colors...

Edited 2022-02-26 09:39 (UTC)

"Thanks! It takes some figuring out, and I have to guess who's who based on what I know about you guys. I only met some of you guys in limited ways, and Allura is the hardest since I've never met her once."

She didn't want to mention how she SAW Allura, since that would mean going into Lance's memories, and that would be something she was sure Lance would want to tell Keith himself.

"So that leaves Pidge at Green and Hunk at Yellow. I couldn't imagine him being any other color."

Keith nodded.

"Mm-hm. I wasn't always in Black, though." He considered something for a moment. "Have you see the Paladin armor that some of us sometimes wear? The colors are what color Lion we all started in. So Pidge and Hunk are the only ones that stuck with their Lions through the whole thing."

"I don't think I've gotten to see anyone in their armor yet!"

That she knew, anyway. How would she know if they had their armor on? She MIGHT have seen Lance in his, but that was in his memories, something that she was pretty sure she didn't specifically want to remember.

"So if you weren't Black, that means your color was...uh. Red?"

"Oh... well, I have mine here. Now that I found all the pieces that washed up on the beach." He made a face. "Took a few days.

"But, yeah. I was in Red when we started." Aaaaand that's why things were complicated in regards to the Lions that were in Trench vs which Paladins were in Trench. Yay for timelines. They'd figure it out eventually, Keith was sure, if it was ever needed (which it would be come Leviathan time, go figure), but they could do that when the time came.

"Sorry to hear it was in pieces. Usually, all the stuff we need is in those bags on the beach. Maybe it was too big and bulky to fit?"

At least he had all of it now.

"That hasn't made things awkward now that you're here, has it? Wait. Wait a moment. Does that mean that Lance came here in another lion? You said that three of them were here."

"Oh, it was definitely too big to fit." Keith honestly wasn't surprised. But having it kind of just wash ashore in sections had been weird.

"It's a little awkward?" Keith sighed. "I don't know. He's always had Red here from what I can tell. And Hunk has Yellow. And Shiro has Black. I guess I didn't show up with a Lion here because the two I've bonded with were both here already."

"No kidding! I bet it would be annoying though. I'm sure you'd have preferred it in one piece."

Oh. OH. Now she got it.

"So...does that mean you won't get to pilot a Lion here?"

"It definitely would have been easier," Keith said quietly. And then he shrugged.

"I don't know. It depends on how things work out. Which Lion responds to me and which Paladin each Lion wants to be with." Yes, the Lions' opinions mattered.

"Maybe you can find even better armor here, who knows?"

Not her. Luz didn't exactly go around looking for armor, though it might be a good idea.

"Oh. So in a way, the Lions are sort of like our omens, where they function on their own and bond with you when they feel it's necessary?"

So only sort of like omens.

Keith shrugged a bit.

"I've already got two suits from home, now that I have all the parts." The undersuits, at least, had been folded up in the bag. It had just been the actual armored pieces that had shown up on the beach... along with a few other things between the bag itself, and the other items that slowly floated in over the course of that first week or so.

"I don't know much about the omens, but they're... Yeah. I guess. I mean, they're not always running around on their own. They still need a pilot or a bond with someone to function. The most I've seen them do on their own is respond to their Paladin when that person's in trouble and needs rescue. They'll come for you if you call to them."

"Oh, well. Good then! I didn't think it would be a good idea to walk around with an incomplete set!"

Luz nodded, realizing that there was still so much she didn't know about the Voltron pilots.

"I'm always curious about what makes beings like that. I get where our Omens are supposed to come from, since they're sort of extensions of ourselves. But the Lions are mechanical. How are they sentient?"

"I'm not exactly sure," Keith said with a shake of his head. "I think it has to do with them being infused with quintessence." He paused for a moment.

"Quintessence is like a life force. It's what makes the universe work, I guess... back home. And, well, some races are capable of manipulating it through alchemy." Back to scrubbing. "Allura's father was really good at doing that sort of thing, and apparently, when he created the Lions, he was able to infuse them with this life force, and the reaction of the quintessence with the material he used to build them gave them this ability to bond and sort of think for themselves in a way. I mean, at least, I think that's how it worked." He frowned a bit. "From what I got in regards to the story, anyway. I heard it all second hand, and a lot of it is stuff I don't fully understand." He shrugged.

"I didn't grow up with people being able to use quintessence like that, so it's something I was still learning about at the time I was told about how the Lions were made." Nevermind the fact that he was actually pretty decent at using it himself in regards to what he could do with his bayard and bonding with the Lions... and being able to sense large sources of it.

"Quintessence?"

Ok, it sounded cool, but also a little complicated. Luckily, Keith is following up with an explanation.

"That sounds plausible. Actually, it sounds like there might even be ways to do stuff like that here, though I couldn't begin to tell you how that works. My specialty isn't with alchemy so much as magic, and even then I'm still trying to learn a LOT."

Really, she'd gotten behind in reading since her corruption.

"Same, actually. But you somehow managed to hear a Lion calling you?"

"Sort of?" Keith only knew of one instance where a Lion actually called out to a Paladin and that was when Red called out to Lance after Keith had been accepted by the Black Lion. "It's more that you present yourself, really... You reach out to the Lion, and see if it responds to you." He considered the other part of that, though. "I don't know how similar using quintessence is to things here, but I'm sure there's probably something that could be close."

"There's a lot of different ways to perform magic around here, but considering what we're all made up of now, the easiest way to do it is to use blood. If you can find a way to just use your quintessence, that would probably be a better way to go about it."

Luz was pretty sure he could guess why.

"So have the lions made it clear who they want to pilot them now, or are you guys just...swapping?"

"I don't know that I have that much control over it," Keith admitted. "I'm not like a druid or anything. Some people just have better access to it, I think." Keith honestly had no idea what made someone have a stronger connection than others outside of natural ability. Allura had been able to learn a lot of control with her connection, but Coran didn't have the same level of control. So, it might not even be just an Altean thing, either, though Alteans were known to have the strongest connections among their people.

"Ah... we haven't really talked about it, yet," he said. "I'm okay with swapping as needed, and I have a feeling Shiro and Lance would be, too... but, I don't want to just assume I can take the Black or Red Lions without talking to them first." After all, those Lions had shown up with those Paladins. Keith didn't want to mess with anyone's connections.

"I'll admit, I don't know anything about druids other than them being magical people in the past in my world. What I know here is that you have access to magic, the blood that we were all apparently given here and the ones that exist in our worlds. It's not clear how they would exist here other than this place giving you the ability to use what you were able to do back there. But to make it blossom, I think you just need to research, find a teacher, work at it."

She wasn't sure exactly how that worked with the quintessence stuff, but maybe that was something that needed to be investigated?

"I don't think you'd just take them. More that if a bad situation came up, there'd be at least some of you guys able to use your lion if you needed to. At least then, no one's connection is severed and if any of you choose to help out in a specific situation, you can!"

And here, Luz is back to trying to get the tag out, to no avail.

"Yeah... I don't exactly know much about them, either," Keith said quietly. "I know they could manipulate quintessence, but they were a pretty secretive and mysterious bunch that mostly answered to the high priestess of that emperor I was telling you about." He shrugged, though, at the bit about the Lions.

"Maybe? I mean, you're right. We're not just going to go grab each other's Lions. It doesn't work that way." Keith frowned at the paint he was working on, too. "It would be more of just a thing to make sure we're all on the same page as to who's doing what. We don't have all five of them anyway, so we don't really need to worry about forming Voltron. We can't without all five."

He sat back for a moment, looking at the wall.

"What the heck kind of paint did you're alternate self use, anyway? Maybe we should just... paint over it?"

"Oh. So there's no way for someone who's an outsider to learn that? That sounds familiar."

In other words, there was always a way to learn, but it made it way harder when they kept that information to themselves.

"No, I wouldn't think so. They're not just things you ride around in that don't have any agency. You could kinda say that you both help each other to achieve your goals. Just like when I say that Omens are extensions of yourself, it doesn't mean it's just YOU. They're a part of you that has its own wants. It's a shame you can't form Voltron though."

Well. Having Voltron around might at least make her feel a little less scared about the messed up things in the water.

"No idea! I've never spray painted! I just do regular panting, with easels and stuff!"

"Well... I'm guessing probably not?" Keith shrugged. "It's um... yeah. I don't fully get it. There might be, but I might just not know it."

He made a face and then shook his head.

"I should really learn more about the Omens in general." It would be easier for him to make a better comparison to them. But he frowned a little, staring at the wall for a moment.

"I don't know. I've never had to clean it off before." Spray painting wasn't something he normally did, even as a delinquent.

"There are archives here, you might find some information you need perusing through there, honestly. Being in a place between worlds, you'll be surprised at what you can find out."

Sometimes you could learn new magic, which was always scary and exciting!

"You have your own, right? I'm sure you'll learn everything you need through them, and any of your fellow pilots will give you the info you need."

She sighed. "Me neither. They don't exactly give you a course on tagging in school."

"Even from other worlds?" Interesting... He'd have to look into that. While he didn't learn the best from reading, it would be worth at least giving it a try.

"Well, yeah. I was told everyone has their own. I just haven't... tried." He shrugged a little sheepishly. "I guess I could." But then he chuckled at the last comment.

"I imagine not." It didn't seem like a normal topic for any school, even an art school. Encouraging defacing other people's property was usually a crime.

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