Chapter Text
Voltron: Legendary Defender has been broke 2nd year college student Leandro Sanchez's favorite animated T.V. show since, like, forever. He had originally heard about the show from his sister Mari, after a particularly long time fighting over the remote, to see who got to choose the show or movie. However held the remote held the power to put whatever they wanted on. The adults would cave in to the kids, but Leandro was always stubborn and refused to give in to his younger siblings and cousins.
And, to his justification, he was gonna win today's pick. If it hadn't been for Mari kicking him right in the groin and stealing the remote at the last second with her grubby hands. He felt the pain recoil throughout his entire body as he registered the shock throughout his whole body. Yeah, he wasn't going to recover any time soon. His baby sister's cruel methods had rendered him a shell of a man as he groaned in pain on the family rug.
Mari on the other hand was busy washing in the glory of her victory. And with malicious energy only a pre-teen held, she pumped her fists in the air triumphantly, and flipped through Netflix before landing on what he had dreaded the most. Ever since Voltron came out on Netflix, she had been obsessed with that show ever since she laid eyes on it. She had been begging him to watch it with her. They used to be closer when they were younger, but now that he was a teenager, the gap between the two of them became clearer. He just wasn't interested in spending time with his sister, especially since all she wanted to do was watch cartoons and play with toys. And Leandro felt like he grew out stuff like that.
“Cmon bro, it's so good! You won’t regret watching it, I swear!” Mari pleaded with him, running out of her room wearing My Little Pony pajamas, voice gravely and coarse. Leandro didn't know how she had managed to get sick in the summertime. But then again his mother had warned her to not sleep with her hair wet and she had stubbornly refused.
Besides, he was already annoyed from the long day. It was the first day of his sophomore year of high school and while he already had shrugged off the freshman awkwardness, it was still a headache to get used to. From the obnoxious classmates to the butt-load of work he already had to get through, he felt like watching Voltron with his sister was the least of his worries. But, just before he was about to doze off to sleep in his very comfortable bed, he was eye-to-eye with a puppy-eyed Mari.
He blinked his bleary eyes and sighed, “No Mari. I already told you I’m not gonna watch it! I’m not into animated shows, you know this! Why won’t you bother Vero, she’s into that sort of stuff," he turned around and tried to ignore her. If he was firm enough, she'd give up and go bother his older sister instead. Vero owed him anyway, last time she had snuck out to a party while he was stuck babysitting his little sister.
But his plan was fruitless because Mari was even more stubborn than he was. She groaned in exasperation and didn’t budge, “I tried! But she’s all like, ‘I’m not into space-related stuff,' so could you please just watch it with me Lean? Pretty please with a cherry on top?”
He groaned and shook his head, trying to let sleep take him away from his sister's stubborn attitude, “Nah, sorry sis, but it's gonna be a no from me. Can’t convince me otherwise, and I’m tired so I’m gonna sleep. So out!” He pointed to the door, and Vero groaned before marching off out of his room, leaving him with his oh so comfortable bed.
He dozed off, and after a few hours, he woke up with a knock to his door and a voice, “Leandro, wake up. Mami made ropa vieja and fried plantains. It's movie night today, remember? Or did you forget, knucklehead.”
He groaned before lifting himself off of the bed and drowsily opened his door, and was met with Vero, his older sister, looking at him with a stern look on her face, “You look like shit. You didn’t get any work done, did you?” He groaned before rubbing his eyes, yawning in the process, “Look, I’ll do it tomorrow, I don’t feel like doing it today. Plus, it’s not all due until tomorrow, and I get in late so I have time. Don’t worry.”
Vero seemed unconvinced but, ultimately, gave in, “Whatever, just don’t procrastinate. High school is important bro, and I don’t want to see Mami worrying and being all over the place because of you, again.”
He winced, but just nodded, "Yeah, sure. Tell her I'll be down soon."
And alhough she was unconvinced, she left his room and walked down the stairs to the kitchen.
He had been bullied during his middle school years and started to spiral into really bad depression. Some days he didn't even leave the bed and almost got a urinary infection over the summer as a result. It didn't help when he started to go through puberty and started developing really severe acne which pretty much shot his self-esteem. When he entered high school he struggled to make friends and even more so with the weight of the expectations and work that piled on every single day. He nearly failed because of it. The only reason he passed was because the school pitied him and allowed him to make up the credits he missed during summer. His mother tried to help him, but there was only so much she could've done. The only reason he tried to get it together was because he had seen his mother break down in front of the principal begging her to pass him. He never wanted to see his mother like that again.
So, nevertheless, he headed towards the kitchen, plastered on a grin, and walked towards his mom, “Mami, necesitas ayuda con la mesa?”
She was at the stove, turning the bananas carefully, humming some tune he had heard at his family's parties. His mom looked up towards him, before brightening up and handing him plates and silverware, “Si, gracias mijo.”
He nodded before heading down to the living room, placing the plates and tableware down, to each respective spot on the table, making sure to place it nicely, it was the least he could do for his mother.
They all sat down on the table and talked about the simple and trivial things in life like Leandro’s supposed girlfriend, Alex. Who was in reality just a school project partner, he had brought a total number of 2 times. But it was enough times for the rest of his family to tease him about her, which was annoying, but he was used to it. They talked about how the rest of their siblings were doing at school, about his father’s new job opportunity, his siblings' school related stories, and his uncle Luis’ wedding-which was 4 weeks from now.
He nodded along and joked along with the rest of the family, making sure to enjoy his mother’s delicious fried bananas, and the way the crispiness and the sweet flavor melted into his mouth. The rest of his family settled down around the couch, and did rock-paper-scissors to determine who would get to choose the remote. And eventually, it settled down to him and his sister Mari, but of course, even after he was about to win fair and square and was about to turn on a space documentary (much to the boredom of everyone else in the family), his sister tackled him and grabbed for the remote.
They wrestled for a while, much to the amusement of the rest of the family, who were not bothered enough to do anything about it (mostly because this was already a regular occurrence so there was no need to intervene, and those who did intervene, would wind up getting tackled and thrown into the scuffle themselves).
But eventually, that kick to the groin was enough for Leandro to go down and yelp in pain, gripping his poor, poor family jewels. Mari didn't seem to care, and instead celebrated and said, “I got the remote!”
He groaned and turned to his mom(still on the floor), “Mami! She cheated! That's not fair!”
His mom simply shrugged and a bemused smile fell on her lips, “She got the remote, so she gets to decide.” He groaned and she flipped her way through the multiple t.v. shows on Netflix before she finally clicked on what she was looking for, Voltron: Legendary Defender.
And that was the start to an even bigger obsession than Mari would ever have. As soon, as the first episode was over, Lean was way too fucking invested in the stupid show, than he would of liked to admit. They were introduced to the characters, and straight off the bat, knew who his favorite was, Keith Kogane, the stereotypical kick-ass lone wolf.
He found himself in awe of his abilities, muscles-ahem-and was oddly endeared by his terrible social skills. On the other hand he grew tired of Lance, Keith's foil. He was loud-mouthed and annoying. He endlessly hounded Keith about stupid and unnecessary things driven by his own ego and insecurity. It pissed him off. I mean, he got why he was jealous of him but still, it annoyed him. Every time Lance Mcclain went on screen, he wanted to punch that snarky little shit, for disrespecting his boy!
And by the time he finished the first season with his sister Vero still on the couch, he was fixated more than ever. And also became a huge Keith stan. A Keith fanboy if you will.
And that was just the start of his obsession.
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Voltron outgrew his sisters, who eventually became tired of the show after the 4th season, claiming, and I quote, “it's not as good as the earlier seasons”, much to the disagreement of Leandro.
And soon, it followed him throughout high school and into college. And after some less than happy things happened, it had been his rock, sort of. And yes, admittedly, it sounded ridiculous to the normal casual viewer....because how could a show become your sole emotional support system?
He doesn’t know why, but it really helped him.
And it continued even after high school, and yet here he was, in his college’s dorm room, watching the final season of Voltron, after 4 years! His favorite show would finally end! He was equal parts excited and equal parts sad. For one, his favorite thing would finally come to a close, but, he would finally get to see the end of his favorite show as well. It was bittersweet.
He clicked on season 8 and watched.
And watched.
And he watched, episode after episode.
And finally, he clicked on the last one!
He prepared himself by huddling himself in a blanket and plugging in his computer, he got a cup of coffee ready, and clicked play.
And well...it went, not so well.
In the last episode, he had to watch, in horror, as his favorite character Keith, was killed off by a secret Galra attack, his body rolled on the floor and he slowly bled to death. All of the paladins (except Lance, he was killed off in an earlier episode) came to earth finally, but before they could even pass the threshold towards earth, they were attacked, and it had killed Keith.
He instantly slammed his keyboard in frustration, “SERIOUSLY! THAT'S THE END! Stupid show! Stupid fucking writers! Are you fucking kidding me! Fuck this!”
He slammed his keyboard a few more times, yelling as he did so, but in his anger, he failed to notice the spilt coffee making its way to the faulty wire on his charger. Sparks and smoke went up, and it momentarily distracted him enough to accidentally touch it, and well.
He lost consciousness.
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Lance woke up to an unfamiliar surrounding, he was met with the sight of white walls, he looked down, and noticed the I.V. in his arm, damn he must have really done it this time. He rubbed his head, and was immediately interrupted with the sight of a futuristic screen.
He looked at it for a bit before reading the following words: Click to activate!
He hesitated for a bit, because this looked like a weird tech thingy, and he didn’t want to set an alarm, but the temptation to click the button outweighed his fear of getting in trouble. (And plus, since when did hospitals have futuristic shit like this? He must of been living under a big ass rock to not find out about this? Damn, he's more isolated that he thought he was. )
Well whatever, he moved his hands over the strange button and after a few minutes, he begrudgingly clicked it.
Click!
SYSTEM ACTIVATED: Welcome player 01! We welcome you to our new interactive user experience!
What? What did that google-translate sounding voice just say?
YOU HAVE ACTIVATED OUR INTERFACE WITH THE FOLLOWING: “SERIOUSLY! THAT'S THE END! Stupid show! Stupid f****ng writers! Are you f****ng kidding me! F***k this!”
We apologize for the inconvenience and unfulfilling ending, and we hope to provide a heightened experience for our fans! :)
Okay...this was getting creepy, what did it mean by that?
Hello! Lance Mcclain! You have been linked to our new user experience!
Damn, its almost, like it can read my thoughts? And also that's not my name?
It is. It’s your new name, and yes, I can read your thoughts.
You have been selected to play the following character: Lance Mcclain
Age: 19
Height: 5'9
Future Paladin of Voltron! We hope you come to enjoy this new exciting experience! Thank you for choosing our services!
Wait...what?
WHAT?
WHAATT?!?!?!?!?!