ohmyarceus | JULY - AUGUST TEST DRIVE MEME

New Bark

He woke to the sound of a voice insisting that he was late. Groggy and at first not realizing that it was not Axca or Ezor chiding him as they usually did when he managed to fall asleep deeply enough to need waking, it took Lotor a few ticks to realize that he was in a room quite far from High Command, or Allura's Castleship.

Still, the voice was insistent, and Lotor found himself rising from the bed to open the door and take the pack the seemingly human woman gave to him. His movements were awkward and there was the odd sensation of being shorter tan he normally was, but he brushed it aside as unimportant for the moment. Upon exiting the building, he found the path rather easily. Before stepping onto it, however, he was stopped by a catlike creature announcing itself simply as "Purrloin!"

It resembled Kova quite a bit, and before he knew it he had knelt to extend a hand to the creature...and realized his hand was not the shade he was used to. His claws also seemed to have disappeared, though his fangs seemed unchanged. The forelock of hair that insisted on maintaining its position in front of his eyes was dark, nearly black...and as he dipped his head further, more dark hair surrounded his face.

Disconcerted, the hand not extended before him went to his ear, thankful to find that the point remained. The ear itself seemed smaller than it generally did, however.

"What manner of dream is this?" he asked softly, hand still extended to the catlike creature who promptly made a sound and used to it climb to his shoulder. "Coming with me then, are you?" he asked, smiling a little despite himself. "I confess that I do not know our destination."

Route 29

Lotor's entire life had been a series of long marches, but this one was quite the experience. Still, there were many others traveling the path and he observed them calmly, studying the mannerisms of those he passed.

Before terribly long, he stopped to offer the creature on his shoulder some sustenance as well as take some for himself, scoffing at the clothing he was adorned in as it was appropriate for the Super Nerd class, though he didn't know that as yet. The manual and other information were comforting, but he wanted to travel as much as he could before nightfall and reading them took time. He was also lacking any weaponry, so dalliance was not something he could afford.

Wildcard

I'm not as familiar with the setting as I should be, but will be researching more very soon. Any sort of topic or prompt is fine with me!

Allura doesn't recognize him--not at first.

She's standing across the street from him in an outfit of pastel pinks and blues, her gear in her hand and a bolt of fabric balanced against her shoulder. The door opening and closing draws her attention from the text she's typing, but only for a moment; there's something familiar about him, to be sure, but his dark hair and the very un-Galra shade of her skin means that the most she does at the moment is nod an acknowledgement before returning to her text.

Or she would, except his tapered ears earn him a second, more lingering glance, and then another look at the house behind him. A new arrival, then. The thought of approaching to greet him and answer any questions he must have crosses her mind. She certainly remembers how disoriented she'd been upon her arrival. Something in her gut holds her in place, however, as she takes in his familiar features.

Rather than offering to help as intended, Allura turns on her heel and starts to walk away at a brisk pace down the sidewalk.

He didn't notice her until her nod of acknowledgement, and while she looked...different here, he was able to recognize her immediately.

Still, he chose to wait for her to decide to come to him, if she was going to. Far be it from him to presume, after all, even in a ridiculous dream. They'd only just returned from Oriande and she'd demanded he sleep before he "woke" here, after all, and it made perfect sense that she'd be in the dream as well.

"..Princess?" he called after her as she turned to walk away from him, seeming almost upset. At what, he could not fathom, but in the way of dreams he supposed he would have to find out.

The sound of his voice froze her on the spot, like icy claws sinking into her chest. It was a voice she knew she could never forget as long as she lived. It felt like an impossible feat of willpower to turn and look at him, and seeing him again she wondered how she could have mistaken him for anyone else. If all of her worst mistakes could have been given a face, it would have been his.

"Lotor."

How could he be here? How was it possible? But, of course, it was just as possible as her being alive. Anger and guilt twisted in her gut, making her limbs quail. He didn't look enraged or maniacal as he had in his last moments, but that didn't mean anything. He'd been good at lying to her.

"You... you're here."

Being from the point in time he was, Lotor had no idea of the events that had transpired, but if he'd known her thoughts he'd have vehemently disagreed. He had never lied to her. Omitted, certainly. Misdirected, undoubtedly. But there had never been an outright lie. Even the Altean distress signal had been genuine, in its way.

Still, all he knew was that she was upset. Very much so, and it was painful to see after leaving her so happy and proud only dobashes before he'd woken here.

"Yes." It was quiet and more than a little confused. "As are you. I do apologize that this dream is so strange."

Edited 2020-07-07 11:02 (UTC)

Suffice to say their opinions would differ on that point, when the omission had been the fact that she wasn't the last of her people.

"Dream? It isn't a dream, Lotor. This is another reality." Another opportunity for things to get wildly out of hand, though she's not sure it's possible for them to end as badly as they did the first time.

From the hood of the jacket she's wearing, a sleepy Pachirisu emerges, draping itself over Allura's shoulder and chitters questioningly. Allura sighs.

"What is the last thing you remember? From before?"

"Ah. A strange reality, then."

But he wasn't terribly bothered. If this was a dream, it made no real difference, and if it was truly another reality it seemed pleasant enough for the moment. Her presence undoubtedly helped his opinion, but he didn't have time to consider before smiling at the small creature. "Hello," he told it softly. Allura's mice had become quite familiar to him and while this was obviously no mouse, he was not surprised that it liked her.

"You insisted that I sleep only dobashes ago. Possibly a varga? We had only just returned from Oriande, and were both quite tired, though I believe you did it more so I might have time to process my defeat."

"Oriande."

Allura's eyes went wide, thinking back to that fateful expedition and all that had transpired in Oriande--and how much was yet to come for him. It made her feel sick thinking of the fate that awaited him... both of them, really. The fact that he was there now didn't change anything. They would both still meet their ends eventually.

There were so many things she wanted to say that none of them managed to find their way to her lips. Unbidden, tears welled in her eyes, and she turned away again to prevent him from seeing them.

Her reaction was so far from expected that it caught him very off guard, and all he could do for a tick or two was stare at her back, the distress radiating from her in waves hitting his heart as though she'd launched a physical blow.

He took a step toward her before abruptly stopping himself, not wanting to exacerbate the situation further.

"It is obvious that my presence here is causing you a great deal of distress, Princess. I do not wish to be the cause of any further suffering, and shall not bother you again in this reality unless you should choose to seek me out."

He wanted to ask what was wrong, what had happened, what he'd done as it was so obvious that her pain was connected to him, but the priority was her comfort, not his curiosity.

Listening to his voice, Allura had to wonder how he could always manage to be so smooth. It was as infuriating as it was heartbreaking, but she'd exposed herself too much. Wiping at her eyes briefly, she turned to face him again, but this time she seemed more collected--not nervous or afraid, not weeping. It was an effort, but she was steady.

"I'm going to ask you a question, Lotor, and if... if you ever cared for me, even the slightest bit, I hope you'll answer me honestly." She knew she didn't look intimidating, with her bolt of fabric and her cute pokemon and her pastel clothes, but there was an edge in her voice that she hoped would communicate just how serious she was being in the moment.

"If someone you claimed to care about was suffering under the belief that they'd lost everything--that they were the last of their species--would you allow them to carry on in this belief if you knew otherwise? Or would you tell them?"

Intimidating, no, but she didn't need to. The very way she phrased the question let him know that she had learned of the colonies, and not from his own mouth. That she was so upset spoke to a grave misunderstanding, but as he did not know the situation at all, he could not speak to it as yet.

"I would not tell you as to do so would be to give knowledge of them to the witch, and with the information that they exist she would destroy them all. Do you think that I did not wish to tell you every tick? I could not risk their discovery. I still cannot."

It was said quietly and with his eyes on the ground, unable to look at her.

"It was never meant as some manner of trickery, but we both know that you tend to react emotionally and the last thing I could risk was you demanding the location to go immediately. She monitors everything, Allura. She has done so all my life. She would follow us there and from that...she would have a source of power great enough to do anything she might like. It was never meant to hurt you."

Fists clenched at her side, Allura could feel her nails digging into the skin of her palms hard enough to sting, her entire body going tense at his response. From her shoulder, Trigel reached up to pat her cheek with a soft "Pachi?" of concern.

She laughed suddenly, but it was a bitter sound.

"To think this is how I seem to you--like a child who can't be expected to act rationally when the lives of thousands of people are at stake. Thousands of my people, believed lost forever! I trusted you, Lotor! I believed you! But... you didn't trust me, and now you lay this excuse at my feet only because I already know the truth. Yet, if it was too dangerous to even disclose to me the fact that the colonies existed lest Honerva discover them, then why did we go to Oriande? Did it not occur to you that she might find that place as well if she was monitoring you so closely? That she might gain access to it and use the alchemic secrets of our ancestors to unleash unprecedented destruction on the universe?"

Allura paused a moment to let the gravity of her words sink in before taking a step back. She was furious, but her face was deathly calm.

"What's done is done, Lotor. We parted ways deca-phoebs ago, and I can't go back."

(no subject)

waitatick - 2020-07-09 07:22 (UTC) - Expand

The pokemon on Route 29 are too underleveled to be much of a challenge for most of Keith's pokemon, but there's still a good amount of training that can be done regardless. As Lotor walks on the path, he'll come across A Greninja throwing water shuriken into the trees while Keith jumps from branch to brach to dodge the attacks. Even in a place like this, it's important to stay sharp and keep up a regimen of discipline and combat training. You never know what can happen.

Keith has seen a few people come and go , though this particular individual catches his attention for some reason he can't quite place.

"Buddy, stop," he calls out to his Greninja who complies with a serious nod. Keith crouches on his branch, then swings down to the ground. It's the hair style and the ears that keep his attention drawn, but surely there might be another explanation?

Lotor had noticed the activity, of course, and was unsurprised when the Blade swung down from his tree only to observe him carefully.

Lotor gave him a nod in greeting, but had no true idea what to say. Of course he recognized the movements of the Blade-Paladin who had saved him at the Kral Zera, but to bring it up seemed inappropriate here. Instead, he gestured toward the creature - Pokemon? - the young man seemed to be in control of.

"I have not had the chance to read the given information thoroughly as yet, but had assumed these creatures were all cutesy. This one seems more skilled."

The stranger speaks and Keith's shoulders tense. It's been years since he heard that voice, but it's difficult to forget the voice of the person responsible for much of his friends' suffering.

"Lotor."

It's neither a question nor a greeting. However changed he may have become physically, Keith is certain of who he's speaking to. Perhaps the tone wouldn't be too surprising -- it wasn't as though the two had spoken much, even if they had been allies once. Not that that had ended disastrously or anything. He brushes aside the polite inquiry, not interested in chit chat.

"When did you get here and what's the last thing you remember?"

Sensing the hostility, the Greninja comes to stand by Keith's side.

Edited 2020-07-08 00:07 (UTC)

"I'm not sure why such information is of such vast importance to everyone in this particular dream, but as I told Allura before setting off on this path, the last thing I remember is the Princess insisting I sleep after our return from Oriande. For which you were not present."

Not that he could blame him; obviously his duties as a Blade had called him away.

"I awoke, such as can be done in one's own dream, perhaps a varga or two ago."

He didn't mention the hostility, though he felt it entirely unnecessary.

Whatever Lotor is trying to insinuate by pointing out his absence, it's effective at making Keith bristle. With the way things had unravelled, how could he not wonder how events could have been different had he chosen to stay with the paladins? Is it possible that he could have picked up on the strange behavior of Shiro's clone? At the very least, during his short time as leader before the clone had taken over, it seemed he was the only one adamant about pursuing Lotor.

But those are all hypotheticals that are neither here nor there. What's happened has happened and there isn't any going back to undo the damage that Lotor and his deranged family have caused. What does matter right now is how Lotor is going to conduct himself in Johto.

"Yeah. I was away. Trying to source the origin of an unusual strain of quintessence."

He'll leave it there for now, waiting for a reaction.

He saw that bristling and shook his head, frustrated with his own reaction to the situation. "My apologies. I did not mean to imply that your absence is in any way detrimental. Your duties with the Blade of Marmora obviously come first. I am simply disoriented here and am getting the distinct feeling that I am being monitored very closely, and that tends to make me more surly than usual."

At the mention of quintessence, Lotor merely sighed. "Did you manage to source it? It would likely be effective in taking down the witch."

It's funny how so few words can answer so many questions. Even here, then, Lotor had every intention of keeping up his lies. That's all the information Keith needed out of him. He'd given Lotor one chance to be honest of his own volition without prompting, without pressure, and perhaps even that singular chance was too much offered in the first place considering the countless innocent Alteans who'd been led to the slaughterhouse for Lotor's ambitions.

"I take it you don't feel that scrutiny is warranted?" Keith starts, keeping his tone as even as he can manage. "Fow long are you going to feign ignorance?"

"Obviously scrutiny is warranted. This alliance is young and fragile and given the history of my interactions with Voltron it would make no sense to simply accept me and my intentions. However, I am confident that under this scrutiny my intentions and goals will be found to be genuine."

Keith had found something, but there were so many possibilities that Lotor simply shook his head. "Feign? I fear you are mistaken; my ignorance in this case is genuine. All you have given me is "an unusual strain of quintessence." Do you not think that in ten thousand decaphoebes I have not sought it anywhere I could? I do not believe any such effort warrants such hostility."

Romelle had only left New Bark shortly before Lotor had. However, her human-level stamina wasn't quite as enduring as her Altean self was used to, and she found herself resting along the way, snacking on some these poffins the strange woman in the house had given her. She was sharing them with a pink raccoon bear creature that called itself, "Stufful", and watching passersby that were moving along the route as well. Unlike most other trainers that might be just leisurely spending time on a route like this, she was actually not challenging people to battles every time they made eye contact.

For her, recognizing Lotor on sight would be more of a case of "that person there looks kind of like him" than outright realizing who he was. After all, she'd spent a lot of time in the presence of a massive statue of him, and that was colorless, so the change in his complexion and hair color wouldn't really fully disguise him from her. But the odds of him being here were still a bit slim in her mind, so she just watched him warily instead.

For Lotor, recognizing Romelle as herself might not necessarily be instant for him as how much he knew about all the individual Alteans in the colonies was, for Romelle's part, still a bit of conjecture, but recognizing her as an Altean? That would be simple. She'd been lucky in that her physical appearance, as it was so close to human already, hadn't changed at all. She still had her facial markings and tapered ears.

His recognition of the her Altean markings was immediate, of course, and while he could not be at all certain of her identity she did look remarkably like the sister of the boy who'd died so tragically in the stolen shuttle he'd crashed. Lotor had been quite impressed that Bandor had been able to sneak out in the shuttle to begin with, and his loss had been a blow, mostly because he was so young. He had a lot of promise and while his body had reacted terribly to the quintessence donations, the scientists at the second colony had been working on a way to save him as well as the others in the pods. But it had been too late, and while Lotor couldn't blame the boy for having the wrong idea and escaping, he was sad that it had happened in the way it had.

Still, he could not confirm that this girl happened to be Bandor's sister, as she, like him, had changed. He also hadn't known her nearly as well as he had those on the second colony, but...well. There was no sense in dwelling on it, and he was caught off guard with the Purrloin on his shoulder jumped to the ground to approach her.

"I am sorry, I'm not yet very familiar with him. Come, Purrloin, let's not bother people, you've sustenance here."

Edited 2020-07-11 22:49 (UTC)

The approaching kitty creature drew Romelle's attention for the moment, and she did offer it a small smile. Stufful was quite happy to go over and greet it, even if he felt a little confused about why Romelle wasn't offering a challenge to the new trainer that was coming towards them. That was the way, right? Oh well... time to say hello, at least.

However, as familiar as he looked, it was the voice that put it over the edge and Romelle's eyes widened. She knew that voice. There was no one else it could be, and she stood quickly.

"Stufful, come." Well, now that was just even more confusing.

"I don't know how it is that you're here, but I suggest you stay away from me."

Zero was confounded by his location, appearance, and more. His robotic body had been replaced with that of a human, and his chips, weapons, CDs, tanks, and even the Z-Phone were missing. The people he had talked to had called this place "New Bark Town", a name unfamiliar to him. Earlier, after inspecting the bag he was given, he found a strange red and white ball with a button on its side. When he opened it, a strange creature emerged. It seemed to be some sort of red and blue robot, with legs that resembled treads, and strangely flat surfaces. It followed him as he traveled, and he paid it little mind, as long as it wasn't attacking him.

As he was about to leave the town to search for answers, he saw a man near the path out, next to some sort of creature. Oddly, the man's ears seemed to end in a point. Perhaps this person had some of the answers he seeked. He began to approach the man, sliding moreso than walking, and once he was nearby, asked, "Pardon me, but do you know where this place is?"

Lotor turned at the approach, noticing the awkward way his company advanced. Perhaps another new arrival, then?

"Unfortunately I do not, I have only just arrived and am attempting to gather information."

He'd have offered to let Zero come along with him, but... prince and manners outside of courtly ones weren't really friends.

JULY - AUGUST TEST DRIVE MEME

Lotor | Voltron: Legendary Defender

New Bark

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

I keep changing tenses wtf @ myself

You're grand! And I'm so sorry for putting you through this, Allura

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

route 29

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

This makes me so sad

drawn like a moth to the flame... Route 29

this is going to be a disaster RIP depurpled eggplant

a beautiful disaster

New Bark

I'm so sorry, thought for sure I'd already replied! Feel free to ignore