Too many hobbies, not enough time

meanwhile, uraraka: 👁👄👁

(Below is a scrap from when I was still brainstorming. One thing I came up with was that Lance and Allura could have been the ones who were chosen, instead of Lotor. But I couldn’t really see why Lotor wouldn’t be chosen, mostly because I had no idea what exactly the criteria for being chosen even is. So Lotor stayed, in the end).

“You two were chosen,” Lotor says, eyeing Allura and Lance all calm and composed, all traces of anger from before erased from his features, “so it is you two who must go.”

A part of Lance is glad that it was him and Allura who were chosen, not Lotor and Allura. Lance honestly still doesn't trust Lotor, for reasons that he himself can't even explain yet. Call it intuition, if you will. And no, it's not just because he's jealous, although it may be part of it. Not that Lance will ever admit that he’s jealous to anyone, thank you very much. 

At least now he can keep an eye on Allura, and make sure she's safe. Well, she never needed much help from him in the first place, but the sentiment is still there. Lance is still leagues better than Lotor, anyway.

Lance sees Allura eyeing him from the corner of his eye. Lance can't pretend to know what she's thinking. He doesn't want to know, either. For so long, Allura had thought she and Coran had been the last Alteans alive. To have this might not be the case would be world-shattering. 

But a part of Lance can't help but wonder if Allura is also surprised that it was him who was part Altean. Not Pidge, the tech genius. Not Hunk, the genius in general. Not Shiro, the perfect leader. Him. Lance. The nobody. If anything, the annoying one. But this is his chance to rectify all of that. This is his chance to prove his place on the team, once and for all.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

(After Lance was revealed to have the Mark of the Chosen)

Lotor can feel his pulse speeding up in his ears. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He can’t stop the genuinely shocked expression that forms on his face. He quickly schools his features into something that resembles less like a loved one has just died right in front of him into something more tame. 

(Couldn’t find a proper way to include Lotor’s POV, so it was scrapped).

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

“Isn’t self-sacrifice supposed to be like, noble or something?” Lance asks.

“It's not necessarily a good thing,” Keith says quietly, and doesn't elaborate.

"Tell me about it," Lance says, laughing when Keith blinks in surprise. "Tried it before. It's not as fun as everyone says it is."

(Here, Keith and Lance were supposed to be talking about the concept of self-sacrifice. As a theme, it would have worked, but I couldn’t really find a good way to fit the scene itself in. Honestly, I kind of ended up ignoring Keith, and Shiro for that matter. It wasn’t intentional, it was just the way things worked out. Neither of them were really present throughout the conflict, so I guess I kind of ignored them. I did try to mention them at some points, though).

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

“Look at Allura,” Lotor said, brushing past the paladins’ concerns. As if on cue, Allura took off her helmet to reveal her cheek marks glowing white.

Maybe if they had been paying more attention, the paladins would have noticed that Lotor seemed unusually prepared for this situation. Maybe they would have questioned how Lotor knew that Allura’s marks were glowing even before she did.

But none of them noticed.

They did, however, notice that there was one more person who’s marks were also glowing. They noticed before Lotor did, at least. And then, Lotor glances over at the last person he ever thought would be of any importance.

Everyone is staring at him.

(A slightly alternate reveal of the mark)

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

"I'm coming too," Lance says, looking directly at Lotor. Lotor looks back at him with an unreadable expression. 

Then, Lotor breaks eye contact, looking away with feigned nonchalance. Lotor can feel his grip on control of the situation starting to slip away, but he grips it tighter. It's not as if the red paladin, of all people, will make a difference. Lotor and Allura will still gain entrance into Oriande. No matter what the red paladin thinks, he will not make a difference.

(Once again, I couldn’t find a solid way to integrate Lotor’s POV).

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

(This takes place when Lance is back on Earth. This is referring to Lance’s newly discovered Altean heritage. I never really ended up making it that far, though).

His family doesn't know how either. They may never know. They can guess, of course—

“You know, Uncle, I always thought you were a little suspicious. .  .”

“Oh, stuff it.”

—but that is the most they can do.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

“I thought—I thought you were joking.” Allura says, looking at him with wide, shocked, regretful eyes. “I thought you didn’t mean anything.”

Lance should attempt to try and salvage the situation, even though anyone at this point could see that it was too far gone. But he doesn’t. Something in him tells him that it’s time to stop pretending. 

“Yeah,” Lance says, “me too.”

(This is regarding Lance’s crush on Allura. I’m not sure they ever really addressed this regarding their relationship in the show, and it has bothered me, since that is how I’ve always seen their interactions: Lance flirts, he means it, but he also plays it off as a half-joke so he doesn’t feel too crushed when he gets the inevitable rejection. As a result, Allura has never taken Lance seriously at all. Plus, Lance has flirted with numerous people. However, in the end, I decided I didn’t really want to go this far about his crush. In the end, I decided to stick to very brief references to it. I wasn’t quite sure how to carry on their relationship from here, so I cut it).

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

But this has to be a mistake. If he were part Altean, he would know. His family background wasn't a mystery. It never had been. In fact, before this moment, he would have been quite sure that he would be able to trace his family roots right back to their origins. His family documented everything. But now? Now he couldn't be sure of anything.

“...I need to be alone,” Lance says after a moment of silence. Hunk eyes him carefully, but says nothing. No one does. They all understand how much of a shock this is for him. As he walks out, he finally notices Lotor. He had been silent the whole time. Lance had actually forgotten he existed. For some reason, Lotor is glaring at him.

What a jerk, Lance thinks, but is otherwise too mentally and emotionally exhausted to pursue that train of thought further. 

(I wrote this when I was still in the early stages of brain-storming, before I consulted the episode. After I watched the episode, I realized that the paladins were kind of short on time, so Lance couldn’t have his alone time. This is also based off of the idea where Lance and Allura were chosen, and not Lotor).