[VLOG] Your Pallura, Allura: Ep. 1

[patchricide]

['Your Pallura, Allura'. A very basic title card of pink text on black, which starwipes into the actual video feed. It's an amateur opening, even for an online video.]

[It doesn't even show a clear video at first, as the focus blurs in and out as the lens tries to auto-adjust to the correct distance. But soon, there's the host in view, sitting with a small steaming mug. She's looking at the side, as if she's still thinking over what she wants to say.]

[Instead of the lines she prepared in advance, she starts with a small admission:]

This isn't quite the tone I had hoped for, when I set up this vlog...

[But a soft smile curls on her lips, quietly swallowing the bitterness of the situation. And she looks up to the camera with a warm expression, reassuring in its compassion.]

Still, it's time like these when we need to stand our strongest, and to offer our hands in support to the friends and allies in grave need of it. And with your help, that is what I hope we can all do today.

For those who I have yet to meet: I'm Allura, Paladin of the Blue Lion. And, perhaps more relevant, I am the daughter of a fallen kingdom. To see the homes of others suffer the same fate... [Her smile falters here, though not enough to break her composure] ... it is heartwrenching. I know so many of you know exactly how much, as we mourn together with the survivors and grant them refuge.

Right now, relief efforts are organizing across Camelot. All of them need volunteers and donations. Which is why...

[She takes a small, slow breath in to steady herself, bracing herself before committing to this.]

For the next 48 hours, I will be doing a livestream of... well, I actually don't know what I'll be streaming yet. Setting this up took most of the time, I hardly had time to write a script!

So, instead, I'll be accepting dares from anyone who donates to the relief efforts. My next two days will be decided by all of you: what I eat, what I wear, who I fight... as long as it shouldn't get me arrested, I will give just about anything a try!

And please, if you're organizing relief efforts that need support, get in touch and I'll spread the word any way I can! I'll even let you call in so we can discuss it during the stream.

[She takes a sip of the mug — which is coffee, by the way, for reasons that might now be obvious — and then returns to looking at the camera.] All right. Let's get this started!

Comments

video; un: stargazer

[leicesters]

I'm not one for superstition, but I'm starting to think Blue Lions are cursed... [Muttered under his breath, more to himself than to Allura.]

Well, anyway! I dare you to-- [give him a second to think of something] --stand in the middle of the main square in Camelot, pick a song you like, and sing it as loudly and horribly as possible!

[STREAMING]

[patchricide]

[Hope Claude doesn't mind the audio from his comment being heard on the stream itself. It's followed by Allura's response, live on the air:]

Wait, sorry — what was that about being cursed? I like to think she's done a perfectly good job fighting with me.

[She leans forward, looking a little below the camera.] In fact, she's doing remarkably well with holding the camera for me. Aren't you, Blue?

[The camera shifts a little to nod, as if it were strapped to the head of whoever is being addressed because I don't know why I didn't think of this before when I was writing up the main post, this is the best solution for how to take the livestream on the road.]

Let's see. A song that I like... unfortunately, even with the translation magic at work, most Altean folks would be a little hard for the many humans here to understand. [But then she brightens up.] Though I could always start with a little song to teach them our alphabet, couldn't I?

video; un: lilmonix3

[peninhand]

Hey there, it's been a while. [She beamed before continuing:] Are you sure about that? 48 hours is a long time and you don't want to let some of the people here decide what you'll do for the next two days, ahaha.

[STREAMING]

[patchricide]

[Even though it's not a dare, Allura helpfully replies directly on the stream itself. Conversations with viewers is great as filler.]

Well... yes. It's going to be difficult to reach the end of it. But hopefully, that will be just the sort of spectacle that will catch people's interest, and encourage them to donate what they can.

Besides, I'll be surprised if there's anything more difficult than the stunts I had to do to raise support for the Voltron Coalition.

[She has a lot of faith in people's good nature.]

[peninhand]

Well, it's a noble cause. And knowing what I know, I'm sure it'll be infinitely easier than whatever you did back in your homeworld, ahaha!

[ Better play along then. She rose a finger. ]

How about this: if you get a hundred more viewers within one minute, you'll have to write and then recite a poem!

[patchricide]

All right. Challenge accepted! Keep your eyes on the number below!

[And if not, she might do it anyway. Something simpler and shorter, just so people didn't get discouraged.]

There was something fun about putting on shows with the rest of the Voltron Paladins, though. At one point, we had these delightful costumes made up to look like the lions, and stood together like a giant robot!

Unfortunately, I wasn't cast as my own self... but I like to think I played Keith quite well!

[peninhand]

Playing a role can be quite hard. I think you should have gone for the Lion costume, it would have been fun.

[ Hmm... What's that? The number is suddenly going up super quickly? Gosh! It's nearly like another social media influencer sent a message to her audience and asked them to go watch this stream. Monika smiled deviously. ]

Ehehe, looks like you're gonna have to do that dare~!

[patchricide]

[... oh. Oh boy.] You might be right about that. How long will it have to be? Should I do it on the spot, you think?

[She has acting experience, but improv? That's a little more difficult!]

Anyway. We did use the lion costumes, but only for one special scene. After all, we couldn't call in the robots right from the start! That would have been practical, which I believe Coran said makes for poor drama.

[peninhand]

Maybe you can get that costume back for Halloween! That'd be cute, I think.

[ And onto the more interesting topic of her upcoming performance: ]

Your choice! You don't have to be perfect. Poetry is about expressing one's feelings. You should focus on that, I think.

[patchricide]

Oh, Halloween! That's the holiday coming up with the scary things, isn't it? I could probably see about making it again! But I'm not sure that I would consider it all that scary...

Then again, it is a lion, so maybe...? [Getting attacked by a lion is pretty scary, right?]

What sort of feelings should I draw on, though? If I just use my feelings at the moment, it might turn out somewhat... sad. ... not my feelings about lions, of course, but about the recent tragedies. Regardless, perhaps I should write about my feelings on something else? That seems like it would help keep the stream fun, doesn't it?

video - un: keith

[tempredmental]

[Keith had reservations with giving others that much power over his actions. Call it a bad experience with having a good friend under someone else's control.......]

Are you sure you want to be doing this?

[STREAMING]

[patchricide]

If I wasn't, I would not have gone through all the trouble to set it up. It should be enough of a spectacle to draw a lot of viewers in quickly!

Besides, all it takes is a bit of courage, and I think I have more than enough for something like this.

Re: [STREAMING]

[tempredmental]

Oh, well... yeah. I mean, that sort of thing usually is.

I'm not doubting your courage. I just... [Small sigh.] I just worry about other people's intentions. Be careful, okay?

[patchricide]

Oh, don't worry. I know my limits. And if anyone is too insistent, I can always ban people from the feed.

... at least, I believe I figured out how to do that. [Let's hope she doesn't need to use it, since it all looks good so far!]

It should be fine, so long as I haven't crossed any technomancers without knowing.

[tempredmental]

[Keith nodded a little.]

A that means these aren't magically bonding or anything, right? Like, if someone dares you, you don't have to do it.

[He had his reasons for being worried like this... proof of that being the scar on his face.]

[patchricide]

Of course not. I might be parading myself around like a Nalghaddian Frolicker, [she says as if he would have any idea what that particular space creature is,] but I'm not so foolish as to endanger myself. Some things are a little more important than entertainment, even for charity.

Honestly, I'm not sure how I would even set up something like that, even if it wasn't a terrible idea.

[tempredmental]

[Keith had no idea what a Nalghaddian Frolicker even was, and he probably couldn't even properly say it back the first few times he might try, but he got the idea well enough thanks to context. He was used to things like that from Allura and Coran by now.

Instead, he just nodded, looking relieved.]

Okay. I trust your judgement. [Admitting that he trusted anyone's anything was a big deal for him, really.] I guess I was just... overreacting a little.

[Trauma can do that, Keith. It was okay to be worried after the whole mind-controlled-Shiro-clone fiasco.]

[patchricide]

That's quite all right. It's much like we were discussing before, isn't it? That each of us is looking out for each other.

... in fact, I can only imagine how it would go if someone on the stream didn't use their better judgment.

[Is it wrong that she sounds amused? Because it would be a show all its own.]

[Anyway. How to engage him with the stream? Urging him to make a dare seems like a bad idea, so maybe she should just discuss the matter at hand:]

By the way, Keith, have you gotten involved with any of the relief efforts yet?

voice // un: swordandshield

[icastsword]

[Griffin's been here for about a two months, now, but he's still weary about using the video function. It's tough to shake a lifetime of caution in the span of several weeks, even if none of the face-to-face interactions with the people here have been bad. He's gone with voice over text for this communication, because Allura is streaming, and he knows how streams work.]

Two days? Are you planning to sleep during that time, or...?

[STREAMING]

[patchricide]

[It actually doesn't make too much of a difference. The visual parts of the video responses only get shared with Allura — though yes, his voice is going to be heard by other viewers. Hopefully he's not quite so shy about that!]

That depends on how many late-night viewers there are, actually. If it's still encouraging people to donate, then... well, it wouldn't be the first time I pulled an all-nighter or two. Just the first time it was for the entertainment of others.

[STREAMING]

[icastsword]

[No one has ever had a negative reaction to his voice (to his knowledge), so he's not shy about that.]

That makes sense! So are you going to be doing the dares as they're made? And is there any kind of dare you're hoping someone will make?

[patchricide]

Well, I hope I do get some dares on what to eat. There's quite a lot of Earth cuisine I still have yet to try, and I haven't made any plans in advance for my meals.

And really, the only problem I've had with any of it is learning where some of the foods come from.

[icastsword]

Oh! Awesome, I might be able to help with that! How do you feel about hot food? Like, flavor-hot, not temperature-hot.

And, um, what do you mean by learning where some foods "come from?"

[patchricide]

I once had a live demonstration of how humans collect milk, and... quite frankly, I still have trouble stomaching it now.

[And that's a shame, because she still has dear memories of how incredibly delicious milkshakes are. How is she supposed to reconcile these feelings?]

But I digress. Do you mean spicy cuisine? I've only tried a little, but it seemed fine...? [It was also very weak, barely qualifying as spicy.]

[icastsword]

Oh, huh. [He has to think about that for a few moments.] I can kind of get that.

I do mean spicy cuisine! I'm not on the same level as my mom, but I can make some pretty good curry!

...But if you're not into milk, I'll have to leave the cream out, and I'm not sure how that'll affect the sauce...maybe I can do jambalaya instead...

[He trails off with a thoughtful hum as he begins going through his mental list of recipes he knows by heart]