Masks

Coran

Coran watches them, quietly, from the edges and the corners. Or, not quietly, but subtly, in the loud sort of way that makes you amazingly invisible to young people at times. And that's good, it's okay – quiznak knows they need a fully-functional adult on this ship, so thank the stars he finally agreed to let Althor put him in cryo as well. He's honestly not sure how the rest of them would have handled themselves if he weren't here to keep an eye on things, especially since they're all apparently at that special age where they need an adult but at the same time don't actually want one. Stars know he remembers what it was like to be that age himself, running around in sleeveless shirts and playing his music too loudly...

...honestly, he's a little ashamed that he didn't think of telling Shiro about the mind healers in the Castle's system, earlier, when Coran himself had nipped down to see them the very evening after they'd first regathered the lions, and has been seeing them regularly ever since. It was how he found the copy Althor had left of himself for Allura, actually, and he- he won't pretend it hadn't hurt, seeing his king and friend again like that, that it hadn't hurt worse when that awful 'Crystal Venom' incident (as Pidge had termed it) had happened. It was heart-breaking to awaken to a universe where they had lost, as opposed to one where the cryo had turned out to be an unnecessary precaution, and he misses his friends and family, the whole crazy mess of them that had spanned all sorts of generations and species.

At the same time, though, Coran has always been an optimist and inquisitive by nature – he can't help but be excited at this chance to see a time period he should never have lived to experience, no matter how tragic the circumstances. And the new paladins... bless their hideous little ears, he can't help but love them. So backwards and primitive in many ways, with those odd masks he had thought pure superstition (at least until the first time Lance had put on his and created those undeniable results in the market place), and their complete lack of understanding about the universe as a whole... but at the same time completely willing to throw their lot in with the side that wasn't just losing but which had already lost, to help others and to learn, to band together in the face of overwhelming odds...

Not to mention the fact that, not only are none of them able to tell when he's making things up off the top of his head, none of them have attempted to try and call him on it for some reason. Even Allura having to abruptly excuse herself when he was waxing poetic on the nurturing instincts of Caratweils hadn't cued them onto the fact that he was feeding them a load of droben spores, and he really shouldn't keep doing it, but there's something so endearing about their confused little faces that he just can't stop himself from indulging occasionally.

Which is what brought them to the amazing evening that happened not too long after Matt had been found. The day prior hadn't been rough so much as it had been... wearisome, the sort of tedious grinding that wears on the soul far worse than even defeat in many ways and leaves a body feeling ineffective and helpless. Just the sort of day where everyone really needed good old Coran to swoop in with encouraging metaphors and anecdotes until they all felt better!

"-and then, out of nowhere, a pack of ravenous tolinades dropped down on us," he was saying with relish, gesturing with his spoon as he spoke, "Their cries echoing through the jungle like-"

"Wait, back up a minute," Matt interrupted, just as he was getting to the good bit, "Did you say tolinades?"

"Why yes, I did," Coran nodded, doing his best not to be vexed at his narrative flow being broken, "They came upon us, great slavering things, with eyes glowing like-"

He was interrupted again as Matt burst into laughter, "Holy crap, you- you just- guys, you know he's making this up, right?"

There was a moment of utter silence around the table, broken by a flat-toned, "What," from Shiro.

"He's making it up," Matt repeated, still chuckling, "Tolinades aren't real, they're this thing you use to scare kids or trick gullible new recruits!"

"...space snipes..." Lance's voice was quiet, almost awed, before the table exploded with a mixture of shock, amusement, and indignation, Pidge leading the noise, surprisingly enough, affronted that he's been giving her false data about things, Hunk following with a million questions about how much he's been making up. Keith looks a little disappointed, Shiro as though he's trying to be less amused than he actually is, and Lance is crowing over the joke. Allura has given up attempts at dignity, just this once, and is laughing so hard she's crying, arms wrapped around her stomach as she shakes with mirth.

It's not quite how Coran had intended to get there, but the soul-crushing atmosphere from earlier is gone as though it had never been. They'll be double-checking everything he says for awhile now, yes, but he's been mostly honest with them, so it shouldn't be too bad and, besides. His children are smiling again.

That's all he wants for now.

OoOoOoOoO

Coran is a character I really love, but who I have a hard time getting into the head of in regards to writing from his perspective, so this chapter was a hard one. I do see him as handling the situation he's awoken to better than Allura does, though, simply because I see him as being the member of the Castle Crew who is the most adept at practicing good self-care, so he's been talking to the Castle's AI therapists and working through things since day one. The result of this is that, while he's still upset and hurt by events, he's probably coping the best and most healthily out of everyone (Hunk gets a close second, though).

And it is one of my heartcanons that, while a lot of Coran's stories are the unvarnished truth, he also makes stuff up from time to time for fun, just to mess with the paladins.

Keith is disappointed because he was (secretly) hoping he'd get a chance to fight a tolinade one day.