[ yeah lance isn't answering that knock on the door for anything. he's got a lavish set of quarters all for his own but it smells wrong, somehow, as if that's just one more way his altered body is capable of upsetting him now. he's picked up every object in the room and put it back down for no reason, he'd paced the confines dozens of times until he's memorized the exact number of steps it takes him to cross the room from wall to wall, he's tried to meditate and contact blue, who has got to be somewhere on the ship, and when that failed he'd restlessly found himself stripping the bed of all its soft, expensive furnishings, pushing them into a messy pile at the foot of the bed like a child building a pillow fort.
he doesn't know why. the guards that look in on him every now and then and bring him his meals hadn't stopped him or seemed surprised, which horrifies him into thinking that maybe it's a galra thing he's doing.
they hadn't stolen his armor, either. in fact he'd been gifted a custom set of galra armor by the emperor, all black and purple and scarlet. it's arranged on a stand next to his paladin armor, which has been polished and restored.
they're not worried about him putting on either set of armor and trying to escape. they're not worried about locking the doors here, or chaining him, or drugging his food to keep him asleep, or anything that he might've expected. they're not worried about anything he might try, apparently, and that simple thought is more demoralizing than any heavy restraints they could have slapped on him. he's even got servants of his own, or would if he ever pressed the button on the console to summon them. nobody else has come into his room uninvited, although he's 100% sure he can't actually lock anyone out.
he doesn't feel like a prisoner. he feels like a traitor, huddling in soft robes that have been tailored to his exact measurements and living in a room that literally changed colors for him when it noticed his preferences and hesitantly eating tiny bites of delicious food. zarkon had even given him access to an adjoining set of rooms that looked like something out of a fantasy: pools of hot and cold water in a faux-realistic environment, rocks and ferns and shit, trickling waterfalls, shallow pools with realistic waves, rooms that are dark and quiet with alien stars stretched above on the ceiling, as if the swimmer was out in the middle of the ocean alone with the night sky, and one chamber that completely mimics the look of a tropical beach, the walls projected with some kind of moving hologram to make it look as though he's staring into the endless distance across an ocean.
he stays in that room most of the time, digging his toes into the sand. it might even be real sand. the ground under the water feels like real ocean floor, pebbled and soft. there are sun warmed rocks to sit on and fallen palm fronds to lay on, if he wishes. they smell like palm fronds should, although they don't ever decompose. there are real fish under the turquoise wavelets, and there is nothing in the distance but empty blue sky. a fake sun rises and sets across the walls. sometimes there are drifting clouds. it's a huge room, a decadent waste of space, but he's walked the edges of it and put his hands on the places where the floor meets the walls and the illusion ends.
he knows without asking that it was built for him because he is the blue paladin, and because zarkon knows what he wants. the beach room could've been an earth beach (or a lavish terrarium to keep a wild animal in, he thinks darkly), and the saltwater is exactly the right level of salinity. he doesn't know how zarkon knows. he doesn't want to ask. would zarkon take him home if he agreed to give up blue? would zarkon spare earth if lance betrayed the team and helped him capture them? if he could sever shiro's bond with the black lion so easily, could he just make them all not paladins anymore, and let them go?
a tiny holographic console appears just above the sand next to him when matt knocks on the door to the main room, chiming an alert to let him know. lance doesn't even glance at it, just mutters the galra word granting permission to enter and wrapping his arms tighter around his knees, staring out at the false horizon. he'd stay in the ocean room all the time if he didn't have to leave for food and basic hygiene. zarkon and haggar don't knock when they come for him, so it's probably a guard, or someone he doesn't want to see, and they should know by now where to find him. ]
IT'S BEAUTIFUL
he doesn't know why. the guards that look in on him every now and then and bring him his meals hadn't stopped him or seemed surprised, which horrifies him into thinking that maybe it's a galra thing he's doing.
they hadn't stolen his armor, either. in fact he'd been gifted a custom set of galra armor by the emperor, all black and purple and scarlet. it's arranged on a stand next to his paladin armor, which has been polished and restored.
they're not worried about him putting on either set of armor and trying to escape. they're not worried about locking the doors here, or chaining him, or drugging his food to keep him asleep, or anything that he might've expected. they're not worried about anything he might try, apparently, and that simple thought is more demoralizing than any heavy restraints they could have slapped on him. he's even got servants of his own, or would if he ever pressed the button on the console to summon them. nobody else has come into his room uninvited, although he's 100% sure he can't actually lock anyone out.
he doesn't feel like a prisoner. he feels like a traitor, huddling in soft robes that have been tailored to his exact measurements and living in a room that literally changed colors for him when it noticed his preferences and hesitantly eating tiny bites of delicious food. zarkon had even given him access to an adjoining set of rooms that looked like something out of a fantasy: pools of hot and cold water in a faux-realistic environment, rocks and ferns and shit, trickling waterfalls, shallow pools with realistic waves, rooms that are dark and quiet with alien stars stretched above on the ceiling, as if the swimmer was out in the middle of the ocean alone with the night sky, and one chamber that completely mimics the look of a tropical beach, the walls projected with some kind of moving hologram to make it look as though he's staring into the endless distance across an ocean.
he stays in that room most of the time, digging his toes into the sand. it might even be real sand. the ground under the water feels like real ocean floor, pebbled and soft. there are sun warmed rocks to sit on and fallen palm fronds to lay on, if he wishes. they smell like palm fronds should, although they don't ever decompose. there are real fish under the turquoise wavelets, and there is nothing in the distance but empty blue sky. a fake sun rises and sets across the walls. sometimes there are drifting clouds. it's a huge room, a decadent waste of space, but he's walked the edges of it and put his hands on the places where the floor meets the walls and the illusion ends.
he knows without asking that it was built for him because he is the blue paladin, and because zarkon knows what he wants. the beach room could've been an earth beach (or a lavish terrarium to keep a wild animal in, he thinks darkly), and the saltwater is exactly the right level of salinity. he doesn't know how zarkon knows. he doesn't want to ask. would zarkon take him home if he agreed to give up blue? would zarkon spare earth if lance betrayed the team and helped him capture them? if he could sever shiro's bond with the black lion so easily, could he just make them all not paladins anymore, and let them go?
a tiny holographic console appears just above the sand next to him when matt knocks on the door to the main room, chiming an alert to let him know. lance doesn't even glance at it, just mutters the galra word granting permission to enter and wrapping his arms tighter around his knees, staring out at the false horizon. he'd stay in the ocean room all the time if he didn't have to leave for food and basic hygiene. zarkon and haggar don't knock when they come for him, so it's probably a guard, or someone he doesn't want to see, and they should know by now where to find him. ]