Masks

Reframing

Set after Understanding and before Success.

Note: I haven't watched ANY Voltron since season 2, haven't read about the updates much, haven't read a lot of fic... basically, hi, it's me, the March 2017 Voltron fandom! I'm in the future! Wow! ;)

The whole situation actually starts with an impressive amount of panic, because Matt comes skidding into the middle of a strategy meeting out of nowhere and crashes into the table, expression wild, then bolts over to Shiro without answering any of the questions everyone's now flooding him with. "Shiro! Shiro Shiro Shiro!"

"Yes?" the paladin in question asks, as unsure and worried as any of them by this sudden and worrisome intrusion.

"Shiro- Shiro, I just realized," Matt says, gripping his friend's shoulder and staring at him intently through his goggles, "Your hand is a lightsaber now!!!"

There is a moment of utter silence while everyone gapes, and Allura is just opening her mouth to be rather cross (because, getting along with him better or not, she still does not appreciate their liaison with other rebel forces disrupting meetings over random nonsense), when-

"...quiznak, you're right."

And now everyone is staring at Shiro, who is examining his right hand like he's never seen it before. Momentarily he activates it, examines the way it moves, then deactivates it again before delivering a shocked grin to Matt.

"That's actually kind of cool."

"I know, right?!" Matt beams at him, and after that the meeting is just a write-off, because none of the paladins can focus on anything beyond arguing over the proper sound effects for these weapons and whether or not Pidge or Hunk could potentially use data from Shiro's hand to build real lightsabers (the answer is no, and Hunk gets a very sharp, green-clad elbow to the gut when he begins to voice a disagreement, after which he assures them all that it is scientifically impossible).

The end result of all this is a paradigm shift that occurs practically overnight that mostly involves asking Shiro to 'use the Force' in any situation that requires his prosthetic, and also a temporary ban over making lightsaber noises when a cold war breaks out over what, exactly, the correct sound effect is (because, while it's great to see Lance and Keith siding with each other over something, Shiro had not wanted that something to involve them siding against Pidge and Hunk – especially not after the third booby trap).

OoOoOoOoO

I'm not saying this would make everything okay in regards to Shiro and his prosthetic, but sometimes reframing situations can make them a lot easier to adapt to or tolerate. Also, I don't see nearly enough stuff comparing Shiro's hand to a lightsaber, in fact I don't think I've ever seen ANYTHING doing so, and that's just tragic, because I completely want to see the paladins (and Matt) making a bunch of stupid Star Wars jokes and puns at each other. Also Star Trek puns/jokes. Maybe even Star Gate. I've never even watched that one, but the sci-fi Star trio must be respected!

There were several ideas I had for chapters for this that I didn't finish last year - this is one of them. If we're all lucky, maybe I'll get a few more up!