Red and Blue make Purple

Misdialed

kyoshu-koi

What makes a good story? Plot? Characters? Humor? Maybe some midnight call from a guy screaming about cryptids? How about all of the above, and then some. @sasaina-ai ’s Misdialed is an astounding combination of nail-biting circumstances and feels that break your heart strings in two

Thanks to a quick misdialed call, a long-winded rant about bigfoot, and some resident snark, Lance and Keith somehow end up as 21st-century ‘pen pals,’ calling each other pretty much daily just for the sake of talking. Their relationship grows, even if they don’t know it.

And when interactions outside of technology start becoming more and more frequent, you can’t help but want to scream at them, because you’re a reader and you know what’s going on, even if they don’t, and they’re being stupid fucks and not getting together.

But it’s not just the characters (or the Tequila Rose) that make this fic amazing.

Rhys completely immerses you in their world. From every interaction to every exchange of dialogue to every tiny detail in Lance’s thoughts and Keith’s realizations, Rhys manages to grab the reader and yank them under into a sea of raging feelings in a single chapter alone.

They build a great background on their characters, sure – Lance’s problems with being one of the only Latino, non-heterosexual boys in his fraternity, him dealing with scholarships and being swim team captain, plus Keith’s overall anxiety and his troubles with interacting with people - but the thing is, misdialed isn’t fully reliant on its characters to drive the plot.

Now, don’t get me wrong, characters should always influence the plot, but it’s not obvious with this fic; it doesn’t feel like things are moving at the pace they really are.

It’s like reading a book and realizing you’re halfway through without feeling like everything was rushed, you don’t realize you’re at the climax or the height of any point in the plotline because it just flows so naturally that you don’t realize how much things are progressing until they happen.

There are surprises that shock you in Misdialed, but none of them feel ‘surprising’ in a way that you weren’t jostled out of the stupor Rhys’ writing puts you in. You don’t realize a chapter is over until you’re reading their notes or staring at the kudos button.

It makes the wait for the next chapter all the more grueling and all the more, exciting because you can’t wait for to find out what they’ll do next.

But let’s not forget Rhys’ artwork. They make their own pieces for their chapters, most of which are amazing and swoon-worthy on their own, but when they’re paired with Misdialed and all its amazingness then they are turned up a notch, way past ten out of ten.

Their art builds onto their story, gives you more visuals than their writing does, if possible. It doesn’t seem likely, but the addition of art enhances Misdialed so much it’s not even funny.

Take the picture in chapter one, for example. I can physically feel Lance’s sass rolling off him in waves as soon as I looked at Rhys’ art, and now I can’t help but feel like Lance’s sass is enhanced way more than it could have ever been every time I read their fic, just because of that one work of art.

Misdialed is amazing and deserves to be read by anyone and everyone. It’s heartwarming and funny, it has drama, but the drama works, and you can’t help but want to root for Keith and Lance, not as characters in Voltron, but as separate people who just happened to get a crush on the voice over the phone.

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Misdialed