"So hears what I'm envisioning," says Marinette to the group in the Castle's Lounge, "When the Castle lands on Sandiea we all fly out of the Castle with our lions and land, with the Black Lion standing in front of the Castle, Red and Blue on the right and Yellow and Green on the left of the Castle. Then we time when we go out and walk out of our lions at the same time and walk closer together and then suddenly stop and like pose or something."
Lance nods, seems cool. And it would make their entrance so much more awesome than the entrance they did at a certain planet's Hospital. That show was bad. Coran mainly planned that one with Marinette kind of helping.
Though he did get to take pictures with some fans of his so it wasn't all bad.
"And you're telling us this an hour before we arrive?" Shiro asks.
"Hey, it took a lot of time thinking about this." Coran replies, crossing his arms.
"Besides Shiro, what Marinette suggested is cool, right Hunk?''
Hunk nods in agreement. Lance smiles, yes. So he wasn't the only one who thought it was cool.
Shiro huffs, but lets it slide.
"Also Shiro planning something of this scale where there are multiple shows and locations we need to think about takes time. I should know as I have directed something similar to this at home. And the Sandeians really just want us for their annual Clear Day Festival. So making a cool entrance is really all we needed. Right Coran?"
Coran nods, confirming Marinette's statement.
A festival huh? It could be like an Earth one! How cool would that be? To get a little taste of Earth, even if it's from a different planet. But it might make them homesick because it will remind them of Earth when they go.
But it still should be fun.
An Hour Later on Sandiea:
Lance walks out of his lion, pleased that Marinette's idea went well, considering they had no practice doing this particular entrance before with their lions. He sees the Sandieans awaiting them. They have snail eyes, but have fur and an elongated nose and what seems to be floppy looking dog or rabbit ears. They also have arms at their sides that look like bear arms/paws. Kinda looking like a mole, dog/rabbit, bear, snail human hybrid looking thing.
Though he isn't all that surprised as the Valmierans are dragon human looking hybrids. And Lance has just gotten used to seeing weird alien species that he never thought would have existed.
"Ah, Voltron, it is a pleasure to meet you." Says the brown furred one, who is also the biggest and sounds male. Marinette walks up to meet him, "Please the pleasure is all mine, and my fellow paladins."
The brown furred Sandeia looks small compared to Marinette and looks about Pidge's height.
"Indeed. My name is Mayor Dringneir and these Sandeains behind me are Listia, and Grogo."
Lance looks at the Sandieans beside the mayor. The one called Listia has grey fur and looks almost exactly like Dringneir, except looking a little more nimble. Like she could run for hours. The one called Grogo has red fur, like a brick, and again seems to look more nimble compared to the mayor and it looked like both Listia and Grogo have muscles rippling with strength.
Marinette replies with, "I am Marinette, pilot of the Black Lion and Leader of Voltron, next to me is Lance, pilot of the Red Lion, and Pidge pilot of the Green Lion. Next to Pidge is Hunk the pilot of the Yellow Lion and right next to Lance is Allura pilot of the Blue Lion."
Lance waves when Marinette says his name, making sure the Sandieans know who he is. Though his red paladin armour should do the trick without him waving.
The mayor, Dringneir nods.
"Well enjoy the Clear Day Festival festivities, we especially stepped up our game when we knew you would come. There are plenty of booths where you can win some souvenirs and some rides and of course the arm wrestling way you can get to my people."
Dringneir then turns around and walks away, leaving team Voltron behind.
"Well that was interesting," Pidge notes out loud.
Lance nods, "Yeah. Guess we're just supposed to bring hope by running around and participating in activities."
"It isn't that bad, I remember the military of Altea often coming to events and interacting with the other Alteans so that the people knew the military would protect them. Even if they had fun while trying to convey that message."
"Earth has that too, though mainly for cartoon heroes, or a band that people were really into, like comic-con and concerts."
"It does make people have fun and brightens up their spirits so it is the same thing really." Pidge replies to Hunk's comment, pushing her glasses up a little.
Marinette smiles, "Well then, let's go have some fun."
So they all walk towards the Festival in the not so far distance. The lights of the festival illuminated against the darkness of the night sky, making a bright yellow aura around where the festival was taking place. Lance is surprised at the flatness of the land.
No hills, or mountains seemed to be around the area, meaning this whole festival is unprotected if any monsters attack, whatever those monsters may be. It seems suspicious that the Sandieans did not want Voltron to protect them in case things went wrong, but instead encouraged us to have fun.
Not that Lance minded, just that he is a little wary of being at a festival with so many Sandieans in one area, considering that it would be prime bait for a monster to show up.
"Lance you coming?" Marinette asks him and Lance realises he's stopped walking.
Running to her he says, "Sorry, just thinking about how unprotected we'll be while at this festival. Since there seems to be no cover anywhere."
"I noticed that too, however since the Sandieans aren't that worried I decided not to be worried as well. Because in case something happens we'll have our lions to help us out."
He nods in agreement, still though, the lingering suspicion of something being likely to attack doesn't fade.
When they enter the festival, Lance sees tons of Sandieans and other alien creatures running around or being at a booth. Definitely reminds me of Earth. Definitely, Lance thinks as he examines all the booths. Some have weird plushies and other assortments hanging around like prizes with some odd looking activities. Some look close to Earth's while others look bizarre.
"Hey Lance, want to win a few prizes as souvenirs for our time in space?" Marinette asks, bringing Lance's attention to her and not the booths.
He shrugs, "Sure why not. It would be fun to have some proof, other than Voltron, Allura and Coran, that aliens exist."
Marinette giggles and Lance giggles as well, not quite understanding what caused Mari to giggle at what he said.
Then she grins, "Sounds like fun, may the best person win the most prizes!"
"You're on!" Lance says, accepting Mari's challenge. It would be fun to compete against her and loosen up a bit. Battling Galra all the time kind of makes you super tense since you never know exactly what is going to happen.
Their first booth appears to be a ring tossing game. And not much is different about it, except the rings seem to be made out of a hard clay and the wooden poles weren't wooden but also a hard like clay substance, or metal.
The Sandiean running the booth had two parts of her near her eye into what he assumed were pigtails. Her fur is red, but a little lighter than what Grogo has. Her eyes are light brown like sand.
She smiles at them, "Welcome. You must be Voltron. It is an honour to meet you both. Since you are new and just visiting for Clear Day I'll explain the setup of the booths. Most booths have activities where anyone can participate, but there are other booths, like a photo one and…"
"Sorry to cut off your speech, but we're just interested in winning some prizes to take home with us. And we have a little competition." Mari interrupts the Sandiean, mischief sparkling in her eyes.
Lance smiles, having not seen this side of Mari, the mischievous and competitive side, since most of their interactions have been team bonding and fighting the Galra with their lions.
Not that her other traits are bad or anything, it's just a nice change of pace from always seeing, serious, focused, Leader Mari who is always focussing on the task at hand, or making outfits so they can fight the Galra with style and look better at their Planetary meetings.
The Sandiean claps her hands, startling Lance from his thoughts.
"Great! I'm glad you have a plan figured out, as to do everything at the Festival will take more time than Clear Day has to offer. So to get prizes it's simple. All you gotta do is go to a booth that has prizes hung around and do their activity. If you get a good score you get to claim one prize. So it's easy peasy!"
"Now this activity is fun. You've got to toss the clay rings onto the clay poles. And if you get three or more, you get to choose a prize!" The enthusiastic Sandiean explains to them.
She each gives them about ten clay rings each and he gestures to Mari to start first. So their fun little competition begins.
Shiro(Clone)'s POV
Shiro sighs, looking around for his teammates. He saw them leaving towards the Festival and decided to check it out. So far all he could see is booths and lots of Sandieans running around.
He wishes Coran came with him, but the Altean advisor said he needed to start planning for the next Voltron Tour stop. Still having Coran around would make him a little less anxious searching for his teammates alone.
But you're here now, so deal with it.
The Festival with a pang reminded him of the ones Earth held, which were usually called Carnivals or Theme Parks. Since Festivals usually were more about Parade Floats then getting prizes and going on rides.
He misses Adam and Keith as well. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to come here after all, if it's just going to bring memories that are painful to remember right now.
The scary thing? Is that he doesn't really feel like the memories he has before waking up and being on that Galra escape pod are his. Like he's being an imposter. Which doesn't make sense…
"Hey you."
Shiro looks to his left, but doesn't see anyone, except for all the other Sandieans whose attention doesn't seem to be on him, the night sky and the festival lights.
"Down here." gruffs the voice.
He looks down and sees a Sandiean standing next to him. Sort of a scruffy looking one, since his grey fur seems to be sticking out all over the place. He sighs, he doesn't really have time for this, but asks anyway, "What do you want?"
"Straight to the point. I like that. I was just admiring your metal arm. You know I am holding a portestic arm wrestling contest, and since you seem to be one of the creatures that the Voltron paladins are, I bet it will make the crowd go wild with energy. So what do you say?"
It was tempting to indulge in a little fun. But he's here not to get wound up in that stuff. More like to be a babysitter to the paladins to make sure they don't enjoy themselves too much, since Clear Day only stays for so long.
"Thanks but no thanks."
The scruffy Sandiean huffs, but does not press any further which relieves away from him, Shiro scans the crowd and sighs. Where could they all be? Really? He was only maybe like five-ten minutes behind them, yet they are already covered by the thickness of the Sandiean crowds.
It doesn't help that he's feeling a little anxious(for no reason) about having fun. It was his idea for this Voltron tour, but something was off. His mind was all in spreading hope to the universe, but his feelings however were mixed for some reason. Like he should not be doing this, but at the same time doing it.
Which makes his head hurt.
Having the wind blow a cold freeze for some fresh air would be nice, but it doesn't seem like the Sandiea is blowing wind at this moment. So humid, dry night air is the best he can hope for.
Looking upward he gazes at the stars, and seeing the different constellations a pang of sadness again envelopes his heart. Again missing Adam and Keith as well as Commander Holt and all the other people he knew back on Earth and wishing he could have their support right now.
Though he'll have to make due, relying on his teammates to have his back and their support. Not easy since he feels like a stranger to them, which is why he wants to see if that feeling will happen with the other people he knows.
Suddenly he sees Allura coming up to him and grabbing his arm.
"What are you doing standing around for, Shiro? We've got a whole Festival to explore so come on!"