#Signal snowboards

[pastryfication]

winter wonderland

pairing: kimi antonelli x leclerc!reader

note: i’m not really satisfied with this but it’s cosy and christmassy so we ball 🙂‍↕️

part one of my advent celebration

december had a way of coming creeping just at the right time. it brought a lightness to everything, spreading a nice warm feeling across everything as it rolled around with its christmas cheer and holiday cosiness.

to celebrate christmas that year, your family had rented out a cabin at your favourite ski resort, nestled in the heart of the french alps. it was a tradition you had kept up for a long time, but for the first time, the friend you brought wasn’t just a friend. he was someone much more special.

the small chalet style cabin your brother had arranged for your group was the perfect charming blend of rustic elegance and winter magic. it was made of dark wood with steep, snow-covered roofs adorned with twinkling fairy lights that cast a warm glow as the night settled in. snow piled neatly on the nearby balconies, where wreaths and red ribbons hung along the edges, adding festive touches to the scene.

you and kimi had gotten your own room—much to arthur’s dismay—and it was as magical as the rest of the house. until then, you had enjoyed your evenings together, cuddled in the warm, cozy bed, but as it was your boyfriend’s last night with you before he flew home to spend the holidays with his family, you had decided to go explore a small village located just outside the boarder of the resort.

you were walking along a small road close to the middle of the town. the square was alive with the cheerful hum of holiday spirit, and market stalls lined the cobblestone paths, selling everything from hand-knit scarves to spiced cider and roasted chestnuts. a large christmas tree stood proudly at the center, its branches decorated with delicate glass ornaments and shimmering tinsel, while the soft notes of a carol floated through the air from a street performer’s violin.

beyond the village, you could see the ski runs snake down the mountainside, illuminated by the golden light of the setting sun. skiers and snowboarders still dotted the slopes, gliding gracefully down the white mountainside. the peaks of the surrounding alps, capped with snow, rose majestically against the sky shifting from pale blue to the soft lavender of twilight.

it was getting late, and your mum had already sent a message to let you know that you had to be home soon, but everything about the moment was so absolutely perfect, and you didn’t want to break it just yet.

the snow crunched delicately under your boots as you took another step through the magic winter wonderland of the small village. the street performer had changed to a christmas love song, the soft tones creating the perfect backdrop to your walk.

despite the thick, fluffy gloves you both were wearing, kimi’s hand felt warm in yours. every so often, he’d squeeze it a little tighter, a silent signal that made you glance up. his eyes always met yours with that familiar, loving sparkle, sometimes followed by a quick kiss on the tip of your cold nose.

he adored the way you looked all bundled up in your thick coat, scarf and woollen hat with a frosty blush covering your cheeks. it made him all giddy on the inside and he couldn’t help but let his gaze linger as a goofy smile took over his face. it made your heart skip; it was rare to see him this relaxed, away from the newfound pressure of the track and cameras.

“i wish we could stay like this forever,” you whispered as you passed a stall selling handmade ornaments. kimi’s fingers squeezed yours again, and when you looked up, he had that smile—the one that made your heart flutter.

“me too,” he said, his voice low and earnest, before he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

you looked at him, puzzled. he turned to you fully and whispered your name, his breath visible in the cold air. “i love you.”

your smile widened, a new blush spreading across your cheeks—this time not from the chill. “i love you more.”

“not possible,” he immediately remarked back, not giving you a chance to protest. even if you hadn’t been able to see his face, you would still have been able to hear the smile in his voice.

you smiled right back up at him, but before you could respond, he leaned down and pressed his lips to yours. it was short and sweet, both of you smiling into the kiss, and when you pulled apart, giggles filled the air between you.

“we should probably head back,” you said, the reluctance clear in your voice as you glanced at the sky now deepening into night.

he sighed, nodding. “yeah. wouldn’t want to give your brothers another reason to dislike me.”

you pouted, your gloved hand coming up to caress his cheek. “they don’t hate you. they just have a hard time accepting the fact that i’ve grown up.”

he leaned into your touch, nodding his head with soft eyes. “yeah, yeah. whatever you say.”

✦ ✦ ✦

later, as found yourself at home in the cabin once again, with the glow from the windows of the chalets and lodges reflecting off the snow, casting a magical light over the landscape, you found yourself back at your favourite place in the world: your boyfriend’s arms.

the scent of pine trees and wood smoke came in from the slightly open window and mingled with the faint sweetness of hot chocolate coming from the kitchen, where your mum and charlotte were cooking up snacks for your movie night.

a small fire crackled in the stone fireplace, its warmth spreading throughout the room. your family were all gathered around, laughter and cheerful chatter filling the air. charles emerged from the hallway with a soft smile, leaning down to ruffle your hair before pressing a kiss to your temple before he moved on to alex, who sat on the couch with an amused grin, and they exchanged a friendly nudge and a few teasing words.

arthur was sprawled out in one of the armchairs, wrapped in a blanket with only his tousled hair visible. he shot you a playful glare when he caught sight of you and kimi on the loveseat, but it was softened by the small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

lorenzo was resting next to him, more up right and put together, but still relaxed in a way he only was around you. next to him, two empty spots were waiting for the rest of your close knit family.

leo was shuffling around on the floor, overwhelmed by the amount of cuddly people within his vicinity. his cute little snout poked at all of you as he surveyed the room, before he finally decided to join you and kimi by jumping into your lap.

you let out a small giggle and went to pet him. as the dog settled in between you, kimi’s arm tightened around you just a bit and you looked up at him with an adoring smile.

this, right here, felt absolutely perfect. this was your epitome of happiness. this was your wonderland. the most magical place in the world.

[loves0phelia]

Hi! Can I request a Zach Maclaren one shot? Him and reader are college friends. Zach invited them to go skiing with his family. But due to sudden invitation there's only one bed. Fluff (no smut pls)

One Bed

Summery: The request

Words: 1.5k

Warnings: grammar mistakes

A/N: Thank you xxx feel free to request whenever you want!

The chime of the bell above the door signals the entrance of a customer entering the coffee shop you worked at. Typically, your days were intense and you stayed alert to any new customer not to lose track but today it's slow and tranquil, so you don't feel the need to run immediately to the customer.

You're slowly cleaning the table to remove any crumbs left and the dirty cups of coffee, you thought you would leave the person to think about the order for a second but a pair of hands gripped your waist. 

“Boo!” A loud scream escaped your attacker's mouth in an attempt to startle you. Your heart leaped, and your body instinctively flinched.  You quickly pushed away and jumped, what felt like feet away.

"Zachary MacLaren, what the hell is wrong with you!" Your angry voice echoed off the walls of the shop as you yelled his full name. “Zachary?” He holds his stomach while bending over, laughing uncontrollably.

“I hate you, you know that?” A small smile tugged at the corner of your lips despite you desperately trying to show your anger.

“Hate me? I think you meant love” He smirked and playfully draped his arm around your shoulder. You giggled before pushing away from his embrace.

“What do you want to order, Zach?” You made your way around the counter where the register was.

“Nothing, I just wanted to make sure you were still coming to the ski trip” Gently, he placed his elbow on the counter and leaned down to press his chin against his hand while smiling up at you.

“Of course, I'm coming, I'm not gonna miss the opportunity to see you fall on your ass” After your sentence Zach fake gasped.

“I'll let you know that I'm an impeccable snowboarder. If someone falls it's gonna be you.” He starts to walk backward to the door of your workplace.

“We’ll see about that Zach”

“I'll come pick you up at your dorm room Friday after class alright?” You nodded before saying your goodbyes.

“Wipe that smile off your face, girl,” Your boss' voice cut through the air, and you felt the heat rise to your cheeks. You hadn't realized the effect Zach had on you. You couldn't wait to spend the week with him and his family. … Friday, during class you weren't paying attention. All you could think about was your excitement for the upcoming trip a few hours later.

When Zach came knocking on your dorm door as he had promised two days prior, you were already prepared. Your suitcase was filled with your essentials and you were ready to go. 

You both made your way to his house where the rest of his family was. He just needed to come get you and you would all be on your paths to the beautiful house next to the ski mountains.

He opened the door and you were met with chaos. His mom and dad were running around with last-minute tasks and his sister was looking for snacks in the pantry for the road. There was also a boy around Avery's age sitting on the kitchen island with a BattleToad backpack.

“Hey Malix, what are you doing here?” Zach asked him.

“He's coming with us! isn't that awesome? Mom said I could bring a friend this year since you always bring Y/N” His younger sister answered for the boy and your cheeks flushed at her innocent comment about you. You and Zach were indeed glued to the hip, always following each other wherever you went

“Since Avery is too young to sleep with a boy,” His mom interjected and his sister made a gagging sound, “I figured you and Y/n could share the second master bedroom while the kids take the separate rooms” The air in your lungs left your body as if you were hit by a train. You and Zach sharing a room?

“Oh yeah that's fine” He answered casually with not one hint of hesitation in his voice.

Throughout the entire ride to the chalet, you were pressed against him. His legs, much longer than yours, needed more space which made the both of you closer than ever. 

When you finally arrived at your destination you felt the air enter your lungs as if you hadn't taken a single breath since your departure.

You along with the rest of his family entered the house, It was still just as pretty as the preceding years. It was massive and spacious. But also rustic with a touch of modern. You would kill to own a place like this one in the future

"You coming?" Zach was already halfway up the circular stairs, his and your suitcase in hand. You nodded hastily and rushed to catch up with him.

He pushed open the two wooden doors revealing the bedroom you would both sleep in tonight and the rest of the week.

The room was spectacular, the queen-sized bed was filled with cozy pillows and soft blankets, and there was a fireplace in front of it as well as a TV, The big windows allowed the sun to shine brightly and make the room warmer. 

“Are you sure this isn't your parent's room?” you asked with your voice a little bit trembly, you felt nervous, happy, shy?

“Oh, I'm sure” His lips turned into a big grin and he unexpectedly dropped your bags and ran into the bed. He jumped and landed with a loud “Oof” before snuggling inside the blankets.

“This is so much better than the crappy single beds!” he laughed. “Come on!” He motioned you to copy his previous actions and you couldn't help yourself. You ran and landed beside him, making you both giggle.

“Zach let's go skiing!” Avery barged into the room and yelled excitedly.

“Now? We just got here” he sat up prompting himself on his elbows.

“Pleasee I really want to show the mountains to Malix” She begged her brother.

“Alright” he agreed and she screamed in victory rushing downstairs to announce the news to her friend.

“Do you want to come with us?” He asks as he stands up from the criminally comfy bed.

"Of course," you nodded. In a swift motion, he grabbed your hand, pulling you up from the bed. You stumbled, landing face to face, chest to chest with him. For a moment, you both locked eyes before quickly jumping apart.

"Sorry," he chuckled nervously. All you could do was tuck a strand of hair behind your ear and dismiss him with a shy smile.

After a long evening snowboarding, you all returned home to find a warm meal prepared by his parents. The dinner was lively, filled with discussion and laughter.

And later that night, you cozied up in bed, content and warm.

“Hey, I made us some hot cocoa” You accepted the mug he handed you with a “thank you”, and took a sip. The chocolate taste was heavenly on your tongue.

You and Zach chose a movie on Netflix and watched it until you were both tired. You turned off the lights, extinguished the fire, and lay down together. You were facing his back and as if he read your mind he turned to face you. Even in the dark, you could see him looking at you.

“I'm sorry about earlier, I didn't want to make you uncomfortable.” He said calmly which made you shake your head disapprovingly.

“You didn't make me uncomfortable, Zach just nervous…”

“I'm so sorry I didn't mean to, really I just wanted to help you get up. I should have been more soft instead of pulling you like that, It was dumb of me-” he rambled and you cut him off.

“Not nervous in a bad way” you sighed desperately.

“No?” he asked confused.

"I… I like you, and I like being close to you, but it makes me a little nervous," you admitted, your voice trembling. When you were met with silence embarrassment flooded over you like a wave. Quickly, you hid beneath the blankets, wishing you could disappear from the face of the earth.

“Hey” His hands searched for your face in the blankets but failed.”Come back” 

You slowly pulled the blanket away from your face, meeting his eyes once again. His warm hand gently rested on your cheek, offering a comforting touch.

“I thought you would never say it” Confusion filled you.

"Wait, what?" you asked, expecting an answer. Instead, his response was his lips pressing gently against yours.

As confused as you were, you kissed him back, which only made him press deeper. His hand slid to the back of your neck, taking your breath away.

His soft lips detached from yours and you took a small breath.

"I knew you liked me," he said, a cocky yet happy smile gracing his lips.

“What-!” His lips once again connected with yours to shush you.

“I like you too though” His smile grew against your lips and your heart grew in size. Turns out sharing a bed was the best thing that could happen to you and Zach.

[kafus]

ever since liko lost in her battle against chili back in HZ056 i've been pretty passionate about wanting liko to win her future battle against grusha, partially because i just love her and want to see her win after such a heart-wrenching defeat, but also because i thought it would be good character writing - she loses, but learns to be passionate about battling in the process, and then she can apply that to her next major fight and win as a result. that was my thought process.

as HZ063 drew closer however, i started feeling like that maybe isn't what would happen - the way episodes have panned out, she hasn't really had any major battle training since her loss against chili (her joining roy with "awesome training" does not count LOL), and that massive cetitan and the type disadvantage started to really loom over the whole thing. but i still wasn't sure and by the time HZ063 came out this weekend, i genuinely had no clue what to expect, i just hoped the character writing payoff would be good, win or lose.

AND IT WAS!!! thank fucking god i love liko so much i need more really good liko episodes. i'm eating this up

first off: liko REALLY shows off what she learned from battling chili. honestly an absolute treat to watch. her level of increased confidence and focus honestly made me feel spoiled as a fan. never once did she take her eyes off the battle, she was not distracted by grusha being a hardass, and she's able to think through being pinned into a corner to turn the tides despite the odds stacked against her.

everything from the strategic switch to tebrim, to firing off magical leaf into huljukira's mouth, to grabbing tyltalis by the tail/feet... she's actually a really crafty and thoughtful battler when she sets her mind to it, which makes sense because her battle preferences are more to do with her mind than raw strength. even roy remarks "nice control" because she has notable precise control over her pokemon's actions. point is the payoff for her character development in her battle against chili was still present... despite her loss.

and man does this loss sting like a bitch after watching her perform so well... AND on top of that grusha is a complete asshole about it. like UGH it just hurts to watch. and frankly there's no excuse as someone in grusha's position to be treating students that way... but there is a reason. and the reason makes this episode super fucking interesting. i really like how it was handled, actually.

pretty much directly after a scene where grusha interrupts the trio having fun sledding with the arukujira, we're presented with grusha's backstory about why and how he quit snowboarding. the writing is essentially saying, here's grusha being a no-fun, shitty person, and here's why he's like that. (notably, the trio was doing something similar to snowboarding and had to dodge being injured themselves...)

what's important, though, is that we also find out that grusha didn't quit snowboarding because he was too seriously injured to ever do it again, just that it would be harder for him to achieve the same results he used to. he made a conscious, emotionally fueled decision to quit, because like the man says: he's harsh on everyone, himself included.

at this point, he is basically the opposite of liko, and to the general themes of most stories in pokemon. he is not an incredible pokemon trainer because of passion, in fact he only became a trainer after his snowboarding accident just so he'd have something to succeed at again. he is not an incredible pokemon trainer because of friends or adventure or any other reason than a desperation to reach the same artificial "success" heights that he did before his accident. not to say that he's inhuman - forgiving the arukujira that caused his injury, patting it on the head, and becoming its trainer, signals a sense of personal guilt over the situation, and the arukujira in question obviously likes him despite his behavior. but it's a very strong contrast to what liko learned in HZ056, with being connected with her pokemon through battle, and enjoying fighting tough opponents even though she could lose.

and it's important to note that even as far back as HZ056 itself, grusha was framed as a contrast to liko. he approaches her and his coldness (no pun intended) immediately slices into the atmosphere of the scene and liko's improved mood, and he implies that liko is weak for being happy after losing, because all he personally cares about is winning and being on top.

all of this is to say that grusha is in the wrong to fail liko, he's in the wrong to talk down to her the way that he does. and this is made clear by the writing! when liko loses and grows from it, grusha's there to say something negative about it. when liko is having fun with her pokemon and her friends, he sarcastically remarks that she must be "pretty confident" if she has time to "goof off." the man in the gym says that he could have kept snowboarding, but he quit, as opposed to liko who gets back up again. everyone thinks he's harsh and offputting.

and at the end when grusha fails her, even dot and roy are like, no, maybe he'll pass you or give you a second chance! because they (rightly) experienced those things and were able to grow from those experiences, so surely the same would be the case for liko? but no! and it's a shock to everyone!

the sound effect paired with liko's surprised face clearly indicates that this is supposed to shock the viewer just as much as it shocks liko and her friends.

and her friends are so surprised that they even try to argue with grusha about it!! it is unfair and wrong! and that's so fucking interesting!!! grusha is a flawed adult character, he's not part of the explorers but he's still treating liko wrongly as opposed to with the support that most of the adults in her life have given her, and he has a reason which makes him compelling, but not an excuse. for the type of show this is i am continually surprised by the complexity of some of the character writing, and this hits particularly well. liko's loss feels meaningful... and like setup for something.

to me, this episode seamlessly bridges off of liko's character development set in motion in HZ056, and also makes her character more clear through her contrast with grusha. i definitely don't think this is truly the end of this plot thread - whether or not liko actually gets to fight grusha again sometime in the future or something else, i definitely think liko will get to prove herself in some way, that pokemon battles aren't just about winning or losing and that grusha was indeed in the wrong. and i do hope she gets to fight grusha again or grusha gets to see her prove herself in the future, because it seems like the guy needs to learn to loosen up and have fun and be passionate, too.

i feel even more sure of this because amethio is in the upcoming episode (thank god, i missed him) and grusha parallels amethio in a lot of ways - they both work very hard to be stronger, but just because of a desperation to succeed, and they're both absolutely miserable and irritable as people because of it, though of course amethio's motivations for being this way are very different. i won't speculate too much about the next episode right now but i am hoping that this will be pointed out by the narrative in some way - an amethio episode coming right after this feels... intentional to say the least lol.

the intentional nature of horizons' character writing and its ability to follow through on things it sets up episodes ago never fails to impress me tbh. really good episode. i fucking love liko

[pamsimmer]

Hi! Hello! It's me, I wrote another legacy challenge!

Someone asked me to continue the dream odyssey one, but I had no inspiration to continue it, instead I had an idea with this one. You could use this as a continuation for that one, maybe.

🌈 RAINBOW LEGACY🌈

Every color has a meaning right? In this legacy challenge we’re going to have a 7 generations for each rainbow color.

graphic cards

Basic Rules:

Start as Young Adult

Cheats are allowed, but maybe it will be more fun to earn the money? Since some of the gens are money related.

Normal lifespan is recommended

Required packs: Snowy Scape, Parenthood, StrangerVille, Get To Work, City Living, Nifty Knitting, Cottage Living, Horse Ranch, Lovestruck

The color meaning I took from here: Canva

GEN 1: RED

“Red is considered to be a color of intense emotions, ranging from anger, sacrifice, danger, and heat, through to love, passion, and sexuality.”

You’re here to find love, more likely to destroy other’s people marriage and relationship in general. You’re here just for the chaos, but one day you get pregnant and you’re going to suffer the consequences of your actions.

Just 1 child

It’s preferred that you complete your aspiration first and then have the child or at least have the child when you become an adult

Your sim loves going to the karaoke

Traits: Self-Assured, Evil and Romantic

Aspiration: Villainous Valentine

Skills: Mischief, Romance (when lovestruck comes out), Singing

Career: Your choice

GEN 2: ORANGE

“Orange is a fresh, youthful, and creative color. It has the warmth of red and the optimism of yellow, and it communicates activity and energy and encourages socialization. Orange looks and feels fresh and healthy and can even stimulate appetite. And because it is very easy to see it is used to catch attention and signal safety.”

Despite of the parent you had, you choose to focus on the brightside of life. When you become a teen you’re going to runaway from home and live in Mt Komorebi. You’ll fall in love with sports and find the love of your life and be very different from your parent.

Your sim’s hobby is knitting or cross-stitch

Traits: Adventurous, Cringe and Loyal

Aspiration: Extreme Sports Enthusiast

Skill: Choose between rock climb / snowboarding / skiing (or do all of them), Knitting or Cross-Stitch

Career: Your choice

GEN 3: YELLOW

“The color of sunshine and sunflowers, yellow is optimistic, playful, and happy. It can also be associated with mental clarity and intellect.”

Your parents were amazing and you grew up in a loving home, but you hate the cold weather and you want to live where it’s mostly warm. You grew up and you find yourself loving arts and you want to become a famous painter, maybe even open your own art gallery.

Your sim’s hobby is photography

Traits: Ambitious, Clumsy, Cheerful

Aspiration: Painter Extraordinaire

Skill: Painting and photography

Career: Painter and maybe open an art gallery (with get to work you can open a retail store and sell your paintings)

GEN 4: GREEN

“Green has two paradoxical meanings—one being nature and the environment and the other being money. When it comes to nature, green represents renewal and growth. It is also associated with wealth, prestige, and greed.”

You watched your parent thrive through their career and that’s what you want for yourself. So you become too focused on your career and forget about your partners… yes, partners. Your partners are always getting sick of your workaholic soul and are always leaving you. But one of them leave you with a kid.

Have at least 3 different partners, you could have more

Only have one child

You like to take care of your personal garden to relax

Traits: Materialistic, Jealous and Loves Outdoors

Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy

Skill: Charisma or Programming and Gardening

Career: Business or Tech Guru (Start-up branch)

GEN 5: BLUE

“Blue is a color that has long been associated with royalty, art, military, business and nature, making it a color with a lot of applications.”

Your parent were always working and when your other parent left you felt more alone than ever. You decided you wanted to be very different from them. You’re going to focus on your family and you want a big one!

You don’t necessary have to have a partner here

You have to adopt at least one child (any life stage you prefer)

Have a full house of sims (good luck!)

Your sim’s hobby is Nectar making, it’s their scape from the full household

Traits: Perfectionist, Gloomy, Family-Oriented

Aspiration: Super Parent

Skill: Parenting and Nectar Making

Career: Your choice

GEN 6: INDIGO

“It is the color of devotion, wisdom, justice, and higher knowledge. Tied to intuition and what is not seen, it is also considered spiritual.”

You love your parent, but that house full of people stressed you out. Now you want to live your own life far from them, when you stumbled on a mystery in this weird town. After you solved the mystery you found your match and had a beautiful family of your own.

Move to StrangerVille as soon as you can

Only have a child after solving the mystery

Your sim’s hobby is gemology

Traits: Proper, Paranoid, Practice Makes It Perfect

Aspiration: StrangerVille Mystery

Skill: Logic and Gemology

Career: Your choice, but maybe the military career?

GEN 7: VIOLET

“Aside from the border, violet evokes the same feelings of intelligence and confidence that blue does. It is also associated with creativity and individuality.”

Your parent is a bit too paranoid, always telling you about a mystery they helped solving and now your mind is running with ideas! You want to be a writer but also you want to be a scientist. You’re so divided and you don’t know what to do. Maybe both?

Your sim’s hobby is fishing

If you want to choose the scientist career, you could gain writing skill and write a biography and publish it later.

Traits: Genius, Bookworm, Creative

Aspiration: Bestselling Author

Skill: Writing and Fishing

Career: Scientist or Writer

[nobylu]

We're 3 sessions into Lancer and it is wonderful.

What began in session 0 as an accidental scary origin story of being collectively stranded on an arid mountainous tomb world with little atmospheric UV protection only to be saved by a mysterious monolith got derailed by said monolith becoming a cute floating mascot that spits out 5 word prompts that lead to moderate income.

The train then got caught on geometry and clipped out of existence with the snowballing idea of "let's use our Jericho Deployable Shields as snow sleds" and the subsequent and logical follow-up "let's blow up a mountain to cause an avalanche to unbalance a giant snow monster and also ride that avalanche via Jericho-Brand Snowboard so we can pull off a group grapple before shooting the monster in the head."

We also realized a second into Session 1 that none of us made a character suitable to being The Face of the party.

Ash loves friendly fire too much and exudes the kind of spontaneous danger that a live bomb possesses, Brick is strikingly stoic, Jacques might be technically a bard but his only love is conspiracies and ghost signals, Hendrick is a waifu-obsessed basement dweller, Viv is too busy making sure nobody dies, and Diederik (my boy) is too busy planning his death thanks to his ability to feel joy being kneecapped by a traumatic head injury "fixed" by hitchhiking Balor nanites.

[yeehawbvby]

When the Moon Fell in Love With the Sun | Ch. 1

March x F!Farmer

Rating: Mature/Explicit (eventual smut)

Chapter Summary: The farmer hangs out at the forge on a rainy day!

Author's Note: I wasn't planning to post this until I completed the whole thing, but I got too excited after mapping out my plans for the rest of it LMAO.

The kind comments I got here and on ao3 about December after my last FoM fic boosted my confidence enough to write more about her. That took place before this one, so I recommend reading it if you haven't already!

I hope y'all enjoy this :3 x

Table of Contents + Work Summary

Check it out on ao3!

Next

December woke up with a gasp. 

Her pale skin was moist and clammy, and her white fringe clung to her forehead, having escaped the confines of the clips she often held it back with while she slept. She had a throbbing headache, too. Her dreams had been ruthless, and she spent the night tossing and turning restlessly as a result. 

It wasn’t uncommon for this to happen when she was nearing significant times of the year. For starters, it was the first day of spring — the first day of December’s second year in Mistria. It had also been roughly a year since she left Aldaria’s adventurer’s guild, which she’d joined three years prior. It was a bittersweet change from her snowboarding career, something she’d given up about two years ahead of that after an accident that she would swear up and down was due to a loss of passion and its resulting supposed carelessness.

No matter what horrors December had faced while slaying monsters and saving lives, it never compared to the trauma of landing a move with a loud and excruciating crunch in her hips and knees, a face full of snow, and ultimately darkness when another, louder crunch reverberated through her neck. 

She could’ve easily died that day. The fact that she made it out of her coma afterwards was a damn miracle.

It was a time she re-lived often in her slumber, like last night, and it was the predominant reason why she kept a slew of medications in the drawer of her nightstand. SSRIs. Benzos. Anti-inflammatories, both in over-the-counter and prescribed doses. Steroids for worse days, like today; her joints ached more than usual, and if rain hadn’t already been pitter-pattering against her windows, she would’ve known from her body’s signals that a storm was brewing.

That moment in her earlier 20s was also the reason December craved simplicity. Safety. Not a boring life, but one where she was able to feel impactful without risking everything on a daily basis. 

Her life in Mistria thus far had been perfect for that. But she couldn’t just wave a hand and magically erase what had already happened, so the frequent nightmares and chronic pains were something she’d just have to deal with.

Goose jumped up onto the bed and made a bee-line for December’s torso, purring contentedly while he rubbed his head against her chin once he was situated. Although the cuddles were welcome, it took only a few moments of her lips being tickled by black and white fur for her to abandon ship. She lifted the cat up and held him close, reassuring him that she’d continue snuggling once she readjusted. 

Her vision blurred and sparkled as she sat up. She leaned against the cool wallpaper beside her while she waited for it to pass, taking deep breaths in an attempt to speed up the process and giving Goose neck scratches to distract herself from it. 

She figured she could try to map out her day while this went on, too. She wouldn’t have to tend to her crops because of the rain, so that was nice. Wouldn’t have to worry about ringing the animals in and out of their homes either. On a worse day like this, not having to listen to the clanging of the large bell Hayden had trained them to respond to was more than welcome.

December couldn’t really afford to just sit around and relax, despite everything. There was still plenty to be done: errands to run, forage to gather, materials to acquire for Adeline’s projects, ores to mine and smelt and smith… she felt there was no good in putting her life on hold, even for a little bit. So after patting a few kisses to Goose’s forehead, December set him down on her pillow and went on with her usual morning routine. 

Her meds went down easy, her breakfast was quick and light, and she let the warm water of her shower soothe her weary body for longer than what was probably necessary. After making sure Goose was fed and watered, she did the same with her barn and coop animals, stopping to give each of them some love along the way. And after that, she decided that she’d spend the day at the forge. She was due for a pickaxe upgrade, and it couldn’t hurt to craft a new sword too if she had the time.

She always felt a little excited to go there. December was by no means a fan of smithing — the heat of the furnace made her skin crawl, and the loud clanging of hammers on steel made her wish she didn’t have ears — but she didn’t hate doing it in the rain or snow, and enjoyed spending time with March and Olric.

For the longest time, she didn’t entirely know what to make of Aldaria’s self-proclaimed greatest blacksmith. That didn’t stop her from developing feelings though. March seemed to never know how to treat her, and that didn’t bother her most of the time — if anything, she thought it was very endearing, and found enjoyment in riling him up — but it could get a bit confusing. 

She’d already known that he doesn’t dislike her anymore; and about half a year into her residency in Mistria, he’d stopped basically going after her on-sight. He’d begun to do kind things like teach her his smithing techniques when she struggled, buy her a drink if they ran into each other near Darcy’s stall on Saturdays, and he had tended to her wounds after a particularly rough day in the mines just a few months ago. She’d argue that the last experience softened him even more.

As she passed the inn and waved her hellos to the villagers scrambling to shelter from the weather, December wondered, why was March still so closed off? Why did he try so hard to push her away some days, even after she “proved herself” by being a significant part in restoring Mistria?

The farmer mused that maybe it was their names. Was he mad that there was another month-name in town? She smiled to herself while approaching the fountain, wondering how he’d feel if she tried to duel him about it.

She might as well. Maybe he’d feel like playing today. 

Unsurprisingly, the man in question was outside working hard as ever, keeping himself dry and his metal relatively hot with the large red canopy tent he and Olric often set up on days like this. He only noticed December approaching when she walked through a particularly deep puddle, creating a small splash beneath the weight of her combat boots. 

March directed his attention back to his work just about immediately. 

Foolish mistake. 

Claiming a spot on the opposite side of the anvil, December lifted her hands from her pockets, pointing finger-guns at him with both. The motion in his peripherals prompted March to look back up, and December noticed that he seemed to fight a laugh at the sight before him. 

“What are you doing?”

Her natural voice, although slightly raspy, was light and gentle. She did her best to lower it an octave and put on a drawl anyway for the bit, “This town ain’t big enough for the both of us.” She failed horribly. 

March chewed his bottom lip for a short moment. He was really struggling not to giggle. It made her feel proud. 

“What?”

“Put ‘em up.”

“I’m not—“

December squinted and made a few pew sounds as she flicked her wrists. 

To her absolute delight, March played along.

His brows raised while he observed her movements, patiently standing his ground as if he wasn’t being brutally wounded. Once she settled, he lifted his chin and his hammer with a sly grin, locked his nearly-black eyes onto December’s icy blue ones, and raised the weapon over his head, swinging it in her general direction.

As she clutched her metaphorical pearls and began to feign taking a hit, December took note of how his intense look had made her heart race. Maybe she was falling harder than she thought.

She swiftly pushed that idea back and moved onto wishing that things could always be this way: March messing around with her too, no (well, some) questions asked, rather than trying so hard to be all stone-cold and macho in the wake of her goofiness. She liked it when he allowed her to know she was his friend, rather than having to assume. She’d cherish the feeling while she had it for now.

“You monster.” 

After the exclamation, December straightened herself out and made her way to the stone wall behind her assailant. Over the past year, the corner connecting the wall and the water basin had become the designated spot for her stuff to reside while she smithed. 

“Get better aim,” March quipped, dipping his metal… blob, in its current state, back into the fire for a moment before going back to shaping it. 

After gathering the ores she’d be smelting, December removed her jacket and draped it atop her backpack to protect it from potentially being flooded. It sucked that it would just be in the way if it were under the canopy with them, but while she could leave it inside the shop, she preferred having her things in sight. 

Once she placed her ores down near the furnace, she closed in on March, asking, “How’s this then?” while lifting a single finger-gun to his temple. 

She made the same noises as earlier to mimic gunshots before he could properly react.

Reluctantly, March smiled, swatting her hand away. She couldn’t help but smile herself — she loved breaking his facade more than most things.

After a glimpse at her curled lips and dimpled cheeks, a sight he enjoyed far more than he wanted to let on, he rolled his eyes. “Don’t you have some dirt to shovel?”

Tying her hair into a high ponytail and putting on some protective gear, December responded, “Unfortunately for you, I was planning to hang out here all day.”

March groaned. “Just don’t get in my way.”

“Only if you don’t get in mine.”

The door to the smithy opened. It was probably Olric on his way over.

“Do I ever?” 

December ignored March’s question in favor of greeting his brother with a smile and wave before getting started.

“Hey, it’s December! Nice!”

“She’s not here to help, you know,” March told him. 

“So what?”

“Ugh.”

December turned away from her task to blow a raspberry at March. Another eye roll was all he gave back before locking into his craft again.

Olric stretched his arms across his chest and behind his back while he made his way towards the farmer. “Jo and Hemlock are having everyone at the inn again tonight. Are you coming?”

She shrugged, feeding her silver into the crusher to be broken down. “Depends how much work I get done here.” 

“Come on,” he grinned, “it’ll be fun!”

“Are you trying to make me give up on this?”

Olric jested, two gloved thumbs up, “I suppose I’d never turn down a sale!” 

“I would,” December mumbled. “Shit’s expensive.”

March grumped, “Go complain to a smith in the capital and let me know how it goes.”

“I never said it shouldn’t be expensive. You guys are crazy good at this.” Prepping the coals now that her ores were ready for smelting, December reasoned, “I just prefer to make my own things.”

Olric beamed and patted her on the shoulder. “Very resourceful of you!” The gentle giant didn’t know his own strength, though, and jostled her more than intended. 

To save herself, December batted him away with the too-long fingertips of her borrowed gloves, prompting him to finally go and help March out with their copious amounts of nails. It was almost comical how many of those orders they fulfilled on a daily basis.

March sighed, pausing for a moment while Olric took his place opposite to him. The redhead made sure to nod his head to the side, prompting his brother to scoot further down with him to make room for December to work. 

“You know,” he added, “for someone who’s always telling me to take more breaks, you’re pretty bad at it yourself.”

“‘Do as I say, not as I do,’ or whatever.”

“Oh yeah? And what if I ban you from using the forge?” he smirked. 

As if it were the most logical answer possible, December stated, “We fight to the death.” 

“Again?” 

March couldn’t see it, but December smiled at the nod he made to their earlier “battle.” 

“A lover’s quarrel..?” Olric wondered. It was barely audible, but loud enough for the two to hear and jump into defense-mode.

“Huh?” December turned to look back at him, wide-eyed and red-cheeked — a rare sight, given how little she usually expressed with her face beyond her mouth — while March told him to fuck off, his own complexion now beet-red and his eyes still plastered on the metal. The older brother snickered, not responding to either of them.

Carefully pouring her molten silver into the multi-ingot mold beside her, December groaned. “If I agree to go, will you stop bugging me about it?” she asked lightheartedly.

“I could be persuaded.” 

She huffed out a laugh, shaking her head. March, unfortunately, couldn’t pass up the chance to see her smile again, so he paused his work and watched as she moved to dip her cast in the water nearby before quickly stopping her in the act. 

He called out a stern “Hey.” Once he got her attention, he shook his head, silently telling her to stop. December froze in place, her stare swimming with curiosity. 

March nodded to the cubby of equipment nestled into the side of the shop and next to the furnace, before instructing her to do the following: grab a pan and a hand towel from it, wet and ring out the towel, then place the towel in the pan and the mold on top of that. 

He felt his heart swell with pride as she nodded along, following his instructions. Her only question in the process was why she needed to do this, March’s answer being that it would prevent water damage to the metal.

He’s had a few apprentices here and there that thought they were too high and mighty to do something as simple as follow his directions. But she trusted his judgment completely, even now that she was an incredible smith herself. Something about that made him feel… well, something. 

He heard Olric laugh out of his nose and finally turned his attention away from the girl to glare, his cheeks pink again. His brother had been watching the whole interaction and was visibly excited by how smitten March was.

Removing the quickly-cooled ingots from their molds and dipping one into the fire, December finally decided, “I guess I could use a drink...”

“It’s on March!” Olric volunteered his brother, his wide grin sparkling with mischief. 

He’d be damned if he didn’t at least try to nudge March to make the move he’d secretly wanted to for so long.

Little did he know it only made March more reluctant. The blacksmith didn’t like being told what to do, nor did he like when people would beat around the bush. He’d gladly suffer for the sake of his own stubborn nature.

March scoffed, “Why would I do that?”

December joined the brothers, ready to begin shaping her silver. As she reached March’s side — not too closely, lest she whack him in the face with her hammer or be burnt by his own materials — she gave a featherlight kick to his calf. 

“You tell me,” she teased, “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Whatever.”

“So you’re in?” 

“Yeah,” December nodded at Olric, “I’ll go.”

[phoenixculpa]

nitrous

a quote to have as if perspect-

ive could speak a peach dream

en Alps to snowboard vantage

may be straw to release hope

off heavy build, launch a proj-

ectile in seconds controlled

by lack, what if what—limi-

tation is defiant throes, break-

ing cognizance (perpetu-

al), don’t press that damned

button, if one’s breath could

determine moral compass,

a soap box would be dove

song for sensitive skin or

warm companionship through-

out mundane enclaves or

endorphins miss signals

beyond outside fathom-

ing to wishfully plead

remembrance or

relief should be

life’s continuance

[pandorasword]

Chaeri as the 8th and youngest member of BTS.

Chaeri's masterlist

❒ Requested ✓

❒ members: Hoseok; Jimin

❒ genre: Fluff

❒ words: 2.3k+

❒ summary: In which Dior's fashion show becomes just an excuse to forget about the hiatus

❒ notes: I really don't know how to give genres to my writings, PLEASE give me some lessons about it lol + I didn't proofread it so be nice

❒ warnings: Mentions of a broken ankle; mentions of the hiatus (💔); mentions of enlisting

「 The Holy Trinity at the Dior fashion show: Jimin, J-hope, Chaeri 」

January 2023

Paris.

For years she'd had mixed feelings about that city. Paris had raised her, sheltered her in its beautiful streets, taught her the language described as 'the most beautiful in the world', and introduced her to people she would never forget. Yet, that same city had taken away something equally important from her.

Returning there, on no occasion, was never a choice made for pleasure or melancholy, but always for work. The more she kept away from it the better it was for her mental health. And in any case, every time she had been there since that far-off 2013 she always had the members of her group beside her. "This time would be no different" She had told herself that throughout the flight from Korea to France, faced alone with the staff members. There she would meet Jimin and Hobi. Thanks to them, she would feel more relaxed.

Too bad they had not left together. The hiatus had begun and everyone was busy with their own projects as soloists.

Well, for her everything had actually stopped at the beginning of the year, when a snowboarding accident had forced her into an ankle brace and numerous sleepless nights because of the hurt. In fact, that was the first event she had attended since BTS began their break.

She would not be as glorious as she would have liked, with her leg still bandaged, but she was not going to back down.

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

Walking in on crutches at the entrance of such an elegant and important event as the Dior fashion show bothered her a bit, but it was even more bothersome when she had to spend a few minutes posing for the cameras without them.

Standing unsupported still created twinges in her ankle that, if she hadn't studied for years how to hide the discomfort from her face, everyone would have noticed

"Chaeri, tu es la plus belle" "Chaeri, regarde ça. Souriez-moi" "Bienvenue chez toi, Cheriè"

Although all the photographers were praising her, she couldn't wait to get herself out of that situation. The pain was growing by the second.

As she turned her face to signal to some of the staff that she had enough and wanted her crutches back, she felt first two warm hands rest on her hips and then her arm carried over the shoulders of the person who had arrived at her side.

Her eyes almost started to tear up when she saw who it was: Hobi

Her Hobi, always there to support her. He literally did that time.

"Is it better?" His contagious smile made her feel instantly well. She leaned against him as best she could, not straining her injured leg.

"It is now" She gave him a soft kiss on the cheek which the paparazzi captured instantly

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

Hobi helped her the whole time, gave her the opportunity to lean on him whenever she needed it, he even offered to carry her all the way inside the event but she quickly declined "I'd become the main event if you carry me as a bride inside."

"Sweetie, you already are the main event. Have you looked around?"

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

As they approached the end of the carpet, always with Hobi as her support and help to walk without making a fool of herself, Chaeri's face lit up the moment she saw Jimin, not far ahead, sitting among the crowd of other celebrities. His face was continually lighted up by overly close paparazzi who kept asking him to pose for them, and he, not at all bothered by it, smiled and did as he was asked. An angel. He was sitting rather uncomfortably, though, as he tried with one arm to cover as much space as possible at his side to keep room for the two who were about to get close to him.

The girl slipped out of Hobi's hold, now only a few steps away from Jimin, and quickly covered those few steps that separated them "Hey! Take it easy" J-hope stood behind her, entertained yet worried at the same time about his "little sister's" ankle. She nearly launched herself at Jimin for a hug. Not very stylish, however, she definitely couldn't care less at that moment. She was not used to being away from her members, so seeing them again caused her emotions that she was unwilling to hold back. J-hope laughed and shook his head. "You two are like a couple of kids” he teased, but his heart was warmed by the sight of his two friends reuniting “The kids you raised” “True”

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

The lights on the celebrities attending the event were dimmed, almost completely off. The runway on which the models walked in the season's most exclusive and fashionable clothes was lit up, instead. The music so loud you could barely hear what the person next to you was saying.

The three of them sitting in the front row looked at the endless array of accessories, coats, and branded shoes.

As exclusive an event as it might have been, an honor to be invited to, Chaeri couldn't deny that she was bored to death.

She wasn't the type of girl to enjoy being still and silent for so long, especially when she had cameras pointed at her and had to ponder all her movements.

As if Jimin could read her mind, he leaned over just enough to have his lips attached to her ear “How's your ankle feeling? Any better? I didn't have a chance to ask you before.” By the time the three members of BTS had reunited, the paparazzi had gone wild and demanded a series of pictures that ended only at the beginning of the show.

“It's still a little sore. But I'm looking forward to getting back to my normal routine soon, if I don't die of boredom first tonight”

Jimin was quick to cover his mouth with one hand to suppress a laugh, "Oh come on, you're not enjoying this?"

“It's all too stuffy and too formal. About fifty models must have gone by already, they are so fast that I can't even look at them properly”

“This is how fashion shows work, Chaeri-ya”

“If I ever manage to host such an event for my brand, it will be very different from this one”

“I would really like to be your main model”

“Fine, you’re hired. Now, please entertain me”

“I’ll whisper some funny commentary in your ear to make it more interesting.”

And so they went on, whispering all the while to each other's ears.

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

After the Dior fashion show Chaeri, J-hope and Jimin emerged from the building to the sound of paparazzi and fans shouting their names. They smiled and waved, thanking the crowd for the support before ducking into a waiting car. 

Per their requests, bodyguards had agreed to carry the group in the same car. They would have dinner together and then each would be driven back to different hotels to continue with the activities scheduled by the company.

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

As they entered the restaurant, the hostess stared at them, clearly taken aback by their glamorous attire. Chaeri had directed the driver to take them to that quaint little restaurant that served simple yet delicious French cuisine.

Not the typical restaurant Bangtans were used to eat at by then. 

It was rather tight, very rustic and informal. So informal that they, in their fancy clothes, looked like a clunky note in a perfect score.

"Bonsoir, nous aimerions une table pour 3 personnes, s'il vous plaît"

They were seated at a cozy table in the corner of the restaurant and handed menus. The young waitress's eyes were out of their sockets, clearly having recognized them, she was so nervous that she spent as little time as possible next to their table in order to not appear to be oppressive

Chaeri, a French food expert, took it upon herself to order for everyone. She asked for a bottle of wine and two large plates of coq au vin and beef bourguignon.

"Trust me, you guys are going to love it"

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

The dishes had been served (and also emptied). They had eaten as if they had been at home, stealing each other's food, pouring wine informally, laughing without having to restrain themselves.

"I saw you guys laughing the whole time and thought 'There, if Namjoon was here he would surely give you a glare to make you stop'."

The diner was almost closing, and the three of them did not seem to feel like getting up. The only noises at the moment were the laughter of Hoseok, comfortably seated with one arm along the back of Chaeri's chair, and the sound of dishes being washed from the restaurant's far (but not that far) away kitchen.

"I got chills thinking back to Namjoon Hyung's angry look. He never spared us that," Jimin finished his glass of wine, his eyes shining remembering.

The girl tilted her head slightly, with a mischievous smile. Then, with an amused air, she said in a somewhat teasing tone of voice "Speak for yourself, I have always behaved well on stage and at events." her eyebrows rose in a playful way as her lips curved into a smile that seemed to mean 'come on, I don't believe it either'

The two guys glanced at each other before bursting out laughing

"You were always the one who behaved the worst!"

"You always led me down the wrong path, Chaeri-ya."

"Jin-hyung was the only one who could make you behave somehow."

A punch in the stomach. This is what Chaeri felt every time Jin's name was mentioned since he had had to move away from them to do mandatory military service for Korea.

The mood between them changed all of a sudden. The girl smiled wistfully, she missed her Jin so much. "Yeah, the only one."

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

As they walked out of the restaurant, still wearing their fancy Dior outfits, a group of fans was waiting for them outside the restaurant.

The bodyguards had been quick to place bars and keep everyone sorted and respectful.

They had waited all that time outside in the cold to see and talk to them. Chaeri, nor Jimin and Hobi, would have looked ahead without stopping to spend some time with armys.

Chaeri greeted everyone, and limped over to the group of fans behind the barriers closest to her "Hi guys, ain't you cold?" She turned to the staff members "Can someone please bring a hot drink to all of them?" She faced the fans again "How many of you are here, sweethearts?"

Armys were touched and happy to have their beloved idol within a few feet of them, they flooded her with questions, trying to keep each other respectful, just as Chaeri had specifically asked.

"What did you guys have for dinner?"

"We had coq au vin and beef bourguignon. It tasted amazing!"

Fans started asking for recommendations on where to eat in Paris. The girl was more than happy to oblige, and she spent the next few minutes chatting with the fans, telling them about her favorite restaurants in the city.

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

Hobi helped her into the car that would take her back to the hotel. He took special care not to let her put too much strain on her sore foot, held her hand, and made sure she was comfortable before stepping back. The two boys standing on the sidewalk watched her as she sat in the comfortable seats of their company's extremely expensive car

"I'm not ready to say goodbye." "Neither are we, Chaeri-ya" "We promise we will visit you soon, very soon"

"Today felt like -- like we never announced our hiatus"

Hoseok bent just enough to stick his head inside the vehicle, took her hand and gently kissed it "It will end sooner than you think. The best is yet to come."

"Do you really think so?"

Jimin also made room to make himself visible to the girl.

"Yes, the best is yet to come."

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

They watched as the car drove off, the girl waved to them through the rolled-down window, and then disappeared down the streets of Paris, the city she loved and hated.

Without looking away from the spot where until a second earlier the car was, Jimin cleared his throat before saying, "You didn't tell her, hyung."

"It wasn't the time nor the place."

"You can't keep it from her much longer"

"I will, -soon. I'll tell her that I'm next to leave for military service."

"We all will, gradually"

"I hope she will take good care of herself when we are gone"

[vasa-boattours]

HWS Switzerland headcanons

Multilingual by default. Also speaks the language of his business partners fluently.

Speaks extra thick Schwyzerdütsch with Gilbert, Ludwig, and Roderich just because he can. Gradually elevates difficulty levels to Berndütsch if they seem to slowly understand the previous levels of Schwytzerdütsch

A lot of Norse countries get credit for surviving harsh winters but he's equally tough. Surviving in a mountainy region with drastic winters is tough work.

Survivalist to the max. MacGuyver's himself through any rural environment.

Good with animals, especially more "difficult to handle" farm animals, like goats, cows, and donkeys. Trains his shepheard dogs perfectly. Doesn't like horses though. Not sturdy enough and too much maintenance. Adores his wildlife, especially vultures.

Usually he doesn't like talking more personally to people but will hold an entire lecture on vultures and their significance in the ecosystem when prompted.

Also trains avalanche-rescue dogs.

Crafty in many departments: Can make his own food (from wheat to bread, milking to tasty aged cheese, etc.), expert forager, knits comfiest socks, hats, and sweaters, excellent first aid skills, expert woodworker, understands the physics of technology in extreme weather conditions, knows how to handle animals (wild or domestic), can fix almost any machinery. For some reason believes that qualifies him to cut his own bangs.

A bit intense when organizing. He's always organized about every event: Winter, business, travel trips, party planning. But he gets irritated if others are lax in this department when they're trying to organize the same thing.

Likes the finer things in life. Everything he surrounds himself with is of good quality whereas not boisterous. It's all very tasteful.

Likes to eat well.

Still drives over the border to shop at the grocery stores of his neighbor countries because the prices are much lower. Still complains about the cheese quality though.

Can be surprisingly charming at first meetings. Treats people with reserved politeness, makes small, light hearted jokes. But he's extremely difficult to get close to on a personal level.

Even spontaneous meeting just to chat are already too familiar to him.

Not uninterested in others but enjoys being mostly by himself.

Actually can be very funny. It's mostly dry humor yet he has an unmatched timing. When he doesn't laugh at anyone else's jokes it's not for not getting them but because he purposefully wants to signal that he doesn't want to dignify that comment with a laugh.

Deadpan comments are politely formulated yet ice-cold.

Quiet interested in culture. Loves to go to art exhibits, museums, or watch movies. Even enjoys experimental stuff. Yet, if he doesn't like something he will tear it verbally to shreds for having wasted his time.

Uses many food metaphors without him noticing.

In modern days he has fun creating hip-hop-tracks. Nobody but him likes that.

Although he enjoys the refinery of urban environments, when he gets overwhelmed he retreats into the mountains to do craftswork, tend animals, and generally avoid human contact.

Terrific at any sport related to winter and mountains. Has to ski well by necessity although his first attempts at snowboarding were hilariously clumsy. Equally passionate about hockey and figure skating.

Hiking and mountain climbing are his summer time passions. Very convinced by his climbing skills, so he died on several occassions doing freestyle climbing. Stubbornly doesn't accept his failure though.

Many of his early deaths include death by avalanche, guessing what herb is edible or not, freezing to death, and getting in a wresting match with a billy goat once.

Interested in science as so far as it serves to better human living conditions in natural environments, or how to do things more practically. Loves riding the train to watch the panorama although not keen on Ludwig nerding out about trains.

If he had to choose, his favourite neighbour might be Francois (don't tell him that though).

Of course he's a pretentious schmuck about his chocolatier skills. Belgium and him have a silent rivalry about who's chocolate gets more praise.

Never leaves the house without a Swiss army knife.

[mariacallous]

In his continued quest to become either the president of the United States or else a very interesting footnote to someone else’s reelection, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has enlisted a number of celebrities and influencers. On Tuesday, he expanded those ranks, confirming to The New York Times that he is “considering” NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura for his vice presidential pick; Politico reported that he’ has also “approached” Senator Rand Paul, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and motivational speaker Tony Robbins.

But it was Rodgers and Ventura who drew the most attention from the press, and it’s their roles in the information ecosystem who most signal what Kennedy is doing. Outside of their careers in the NFL and WWE, Rodgers and Ventura are known for, respectively, promoting anti-vaccine views in conversations with sports podcasters and Joe Rogan, and promoting politically contrarian, occasionally conspiratorial views on cable TV and Substack. By publicizing his interest in them, Kennedy is making overtures to a very specific potential voter: the highly online and politically disaffected young man.

Kennedy, an environmental activist turned anti-vaccine superstar, is already running an extremely online campaign; as WIRED noted recently, the candidate is omnipresent on Instagram, podcasts, and Substack and has used influencers as proxies who will deliver his message to his niche bases. Over the past few months, Kennedy has been seen hanging out with snowboarder Travis Rice, naming a young and persistently bleached-blonde TikToker and aspiring musician named Link Lauren as a “senior adviser” on his campaign, and appearing at a Bitcoin conference.

Online is a comfortable environment for Kennedy, a dyed-in-the-wool conspiracy theorist who has promoted anti-vaccine views since 2005. Beyond his many and virulent anti-vaccine campaigns, he’s been especially willing to engage in conspiracy theories that are likely to go viral, most notably suggesting that the CIA may have assassinated his uncle, John F. Kennedy, and promoted long-debunked and extremely dangerous junk science about AIDS not being caused by HIV. He has also tried awkwardly to engage with the conspiracy theories about dead pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, on whose private plane he rode at least twice. In December he said that Epstein’s flight logs should be released, and tweeted, “I’m not hiding anything, but they are!”

His efforts to appeal to both a conspiratorial base and a more mainstream voting bloc have been occasionally clumsy, but persistent—and by shoring up his base among young men, who will be increasingly important this election year, he appears to be figuring out how to bridge that gap. One enormous help was, of course, his own appearance on Rogan’s podcast, where the two engaged in three hours of long-winded conspiracy theories about vaccines, 5G technology, and ivermectin, among Kennedy’s other greatest-hits talking points.

Kennedy’s interest in speaking to very online, purportedly “anti-establishment” spaces also means, necessarily, that the people he’s speaking to have a demonstrable overlap with the so-called manosphere, the broad group of bloggers, podcasters, influencers, and grievance-peddlers speaking to young men. Choosing to align himself with figures like Aaron Rodgers—a mainstream football star who has promoted increasingly fringe beliefs, and declared himself to be very brave for doing so—is an excellent way to appeal to the Venn diagram of young men and the conspiracy-curious, says Derek Beres. “It completely makes sense for what he’s doing.”

Beres is an author, speaker, and podcaster who’s one of the cohosts of Conspirituality, which looks at the overlap between New Age and far-right movements. In that role, Beres has observed Kennedy at close range for years and says, “One of the things that I don’t think is talked about enough but is really smart on RFK’s part is he’s been mobilizing fringe communities since he announced his presidential run.”

Neither Rodgers nor Ventura are what you would call politically serious choices; Rodgers has never held elected office, while Ventura hasn’t in 20 years. Neither man speaks to a base that Kennedy hasn’t already hit; in that role, Paul and Gabbard would make more political sense.

Instead, Kennedy is front-loading two men who the young male voter might find in a late-night TikTok or Instagram scroll and who are known for their own fondness for indulging in conspiracy theories and misinformation. Rodgers is best known lately for making misleading claims about being "immunized for Covid,” later revealing that he was taking fake homeopathic “vaccines,” and for appearing to suggest that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel might appear on a list of Jeffrey Epstein’s associates, for which Kimmel instantly threatened to sue him. He has also become a repeat guest on Rogan’s podcast; in his most recent appearance in February, he nodded along as Rogan claimed that Covid was created in a lab. On Wednesday, it was also reported by CNN that he’d shared Sandy Hook conspiracy theories privately, including in 2013, to Pamela Brown, one of the journalists bylined on the story.

For his part, after Ventura was governor, he had a show called Conspiracy Theory on the outlet TruTV. Clips from the show still occasionally go viral, especially ones purporting to show that the pandemic was “planned.” He then had a show on Russian state-backed news outlet RT America, which focused on purported American hypocrisy wherever he could find it. In a slightly awkward fit for Kennedy, Ventura also decried people who refused to wear masks early in the pandemic. (Kennedy spent a lot of time incorrectly but predictably claiming that mask-wearing was useless and in fact harmful.) Now, Ventura has a Substack with his son, where he delivers political commentary and wrestling stories, a move he claims he made after RT America unceremoniously dumped him for decrying the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

And most importantly, both Ventura and Rodgers—as outsize and slightly eccentric sports figures—are heroes largely to young men.

Kennedy, Beres says, “is playing culture war politics,” where someone like Aaron Rodgers would make sense; it’s part of his appeal, Beres says, to the mostly male-dominated online body-optimization space. In addition to doing shirtless pushups (in jeans, for some reason), Kennedy has also made numerous appearances with Aubrey Marcus, a fitness influencer and motivational speaker who has been one of his most enthusiastic proxies. The two men are appearing together this weekend at the grandiosely named American Wellness Summit, a Kennedy campaign event just outside Austin, Texas, where the cheapest tickets are a $1,500 campaign donation.

“We’re in a cultural space where you have Donald Trump, who in the past said that exercise depletes your body,” Beres explains. “Then you have a big conversation around Biden’s age, which the right has been pushing and which has been effective in terms of their propaganda. And then you have RFK, who works out at Gold’s Gym and has been spotted there hanging out with Andrew Huberman,” an astonishingly popular neuroscience podcaster. “The optics alone are going to appeal to a young male crowd.”

For his part, Donald Trump has made his own bid for the young male vote’s affections, showing up at Sneaker Con to hawk $400 Trump-branded shoes, signaling his support for Bitcoin, getting (somewhat) into football, and showing up at a UFC match, where he mainly made headlines for appearing to ignore his own grandson. Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, meanwhile, recently got a coveted endorsement from a coalition of 15 Gen Z and millennial voting groups. But as an MSNBC opinion column noted last month, opinion polls seem to show Kennedy with a slim lead among voters 18–34. And as Gallup noted in January, Biden’s favorability ratings among young and non-white adults has fallen since he became president, while Kennedy has “majority-level favorable rating” across all major gender, race, and age groups. Gallup’s Lydia Saad noted that Kennedy could “appeal to that segment of voters who are resistant to Biden but are also not sold on Trump.”

Kennedy has enjoyed, however, some base of support among women for quite some time. The anti-vaccine movement is powered in large part at the grassroots level by mothers who wrongly believe that their choice to vaccinate their children led to them having conditions like autism; women can often be seen crying, cheering, and frankly swooning when Kennedy speaks in front of those audiences. One of his other prominent campaign proxies is an enormously popular celebrity and lifestyle blogger named Jessica Reed Kraus, better known by her online handle Houseinhabit, who is stumping somewhat equally for Kennedy and Trump. (Kraus, too, went viral for involving herself in two high-profile trials, once claiming that Johnny Depp had confided in her during his defamation trial against Amber Heard, as well as“covering” human trafficker and Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal trial in a fairly sympathetic way.)

Despite that preexisting base of support, Kennedy has done very little to speak further to women, especially young women. After speaking at a recent libertarian forum, he declined to tell The Washington Post whether he would protect abortion access and said initially that he hadn’t read a controversial Alabama IVF ruling. (He later said he had reviewed it and “wholeheartedly” rejected the ruling.) He has said he would support a 15-week abortion ban and later said he wouldn’t, and he has called abortion “a tragedy.” Amidst all this waffling over a core issue affecting young women, he found time to meet with an anti-child-support advocate who presents it as a “war on men,” which was then released as part of a Blacks for Kennedy promotional video. (In his attempt to court Black voters, Kennedy did speak with a panel of women in Atlanta. Politico reported that the meeting was coordinated by Angela Stanton King, a former Blacks for Trump proxy who was pardoned by the former president in 2020 for a previous felony conviction.)

In a way, Beres says, Kennedy is campaigning more as an influencer than as a politician, displaying his lifestyle and his connections in a way that would also appeal to an isolated, online male crowd looking for models of how—and who—to be: “He nails an image,” Beres says, “that a lot of people don’t understand they need a lot of money and connections to acquire.” In the end, promoting a controversial athlete and an ex-governor turned blogger as vice-presidential picks may not signal a coherent political vision. But it does show an enormous hunger to engage with online spaces where the young and disaffected men gather, and wait to be shown the way.

[sphericalmerigoldterrain]

about section

i know this is being sent into a big void of nothing, transistor signals, ether, whatever, but. can we pretend i am real and you are real, and this is a conversation. that's the only way i can write. let's shake hands, sit, have coffee.

it is nice to meet you, i hope.

⠀⠀⠀⠄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠄⠂⠄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠔⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠂⠀⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠐⠂⠠⡀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⣠⣶⣾⣾⣿⡿⣷⡀⢐⠀⠀⠁⠀⠀⡰⠃⣀⣀⣀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠢⠀⠀ ⢸⣿⢻⣿⣿⣿⣷⣹⡗⢨⠀⠀⠀⡆⠠⠀⣾⢛⣿⣿⣿⣶⣦⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠀ ⠀⢿⣿⣿⡻⣿⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠀⢀⡧⠆⢠⡏⣾⣿⣿⡏⠉⣿⣿⣿⣦⣄⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠈⢿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠃⠀⡘⠀⢀⠔⠀⡄⠀⣷⣿⣿⣿⣷⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣄⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠙⢩⠀⢀⣤⠊⠔⠚⠀⠀⠀⠘⡀⠈⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣹⣿⣿⣿⢟⡵⠣⠂ ⠀⠀⠀⠠⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠂⢄⠈⠙⠻⠿⣿⡿⠿⡻⠝⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠒⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠡⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠉⠛⠛⠒⠒⠦⡄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠄⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠀⠀⠀󠁰

name: joan pronouns: she/her age: 22, pisces studying: physics

the purpose of a visit? : blog my little life & meet people

i dabble in music production, writting, fashion design, snowboarding :D

languages: english, german(learning), spanish(learning), korean (learning), croatian.

[mr-water-downer]

Slut strands are a common term used in the snow sport community. I'm a female snowboarder and a lot of girls, Including myself, pull the front strands of out hair out to signal that we're women because it's hard to tell gender when literally everything is covered. I think it's kinda offensive but it is what it is

definitely a weird term to use lol thank you tho for clarifying

[autobot2001]

Trip to The Mountain

@mediwhumpmay: head injury @themerrywhumpofmay: lake, frostbite

What was supposed to be a fun snowboarding trip turns into a disaster as s whumpee and their friends get caught in a snowstorm.  They all end up separated. Of course, whumpee's phone is dead. However, they question if there's a phone signal up on the mountain. They know they're not leaving a trail of footprints thanks to the storm and that they need to keep walking, hoping they're going in the right direction.  

The whumpee questions how long they've been walking as the storm passes. Hoping to find shelter or their friends soon.  They're getting tired but know they need to keep moving.  Worried they were going the wrong way as they only see woods around them.

Three of whumpee's friends finally fund each other and search for whumpee. They find a path of footprints that turn into a path of plowed snow. The friends follow the path to a frozen lake, except for one spot. They're horrified to see whumpee floating in the water. Without talking to each other, one calls 922 while the other two look to see if they can get whumpee out of the water.

The two successfully get whumpee out of the freezing water but worry it's too late. Hating they can't begin warning whumpee. They can't do anything but wait for help to arrive.

The time between getting whumpee out of the water and being able to see them dragged on to whumpee's friends. They knew whumpee was in a bad state but were hoping for good news. "They need a miracle to survive," the doctor tells them, "severe hypothermia, frostbite, and a head injury." The friends now have their answer about how whumpee ended up in the lake. "The only good news is the frostbite wasn't severe enough that we had to amputate fingers or toes," the doctor adds, "I know it's nothing considering the state of whumpee. Please take care of yourselves while visiting them. I've seen people neglect themselves while visiting critically ill loved ones or friends." The doctor leaves the room, leaving whumpee's friends alone. Wondering if they should say goodbye now or pray for a miracle. Trying not to think about how serious whumpee's head injury is. Knowing it's pointless to know while whumpee could die overnight.  Due to all the machines, they can't sit by the bed.

Three hours pass, whumpee's friends are woken up by the dreaded long beep on the monitor. They know to leave the room. Watching medical personal rush into the room. Once again, they wait, feeling like time is dragging on.

"I'm sorry, we did everything we could." Whumpee's friends feel like they're dreaming. Even as they look at whumpee's dead body. The doctor wasn't expecting one of the friends to slap themselves, thinking they're dreaming and need to wake up. "Stop, y-you're not dreaming," one of the other friends says and hugs the distraught friend. They both cry.  Hating how the trip to the mountain turned out.

[local-void-creature-izzy]

ReWrite AU; SA2 Basis: Hero Story Mode

>>> 13:27- Above the capital city.

There's always two sides of a story, where do our heroes fit in all this? Well, it starts with a G.U.N. Helicopter flying over the city.

A solider was communicating from it. "Sigma-Alpha heading due south over the city."

The pilot of the helicopter ensuring that they were in fact on route, when the communications tower sent a signal up. "This is control tower. We have you on radar. Report cargo status of captured hedgehog aboard, over!"

"That's a 10-4. Cargo secured and-" Suddenly, a loud commotion could be heard from behind the pilot, he gasped when he turned his head to look. "-What the?!"

The Communications Tower couldn't make out what the pilot was saying, asking the pilot to clarify what was going on. "The hedgehog's gone, she's taken out everyone aboard and-" Again, the pilot cut off again.

This was sending the communications tower into a panic. "What's wrong! Come in, over!" The communications tower tried once again to get through to the pilot.

They could make out the pilot's shock, faint orders to grab the Hedgehog in question, followed by a loud bang and lots of wind cutting in.

It was none other than Amy "Rascal" Rose, classified hero of the world, so what in the world was she doing being escorted on a G.U.N. Helicopter? Honestly, it wasn't the time to ponder that as she snapped off a giant piece of metal from the helicopter, before jumping off it. "Talk about low budget flights, no food or movies? You soldiers really know how to treat a lady, See ya!"

With that said, she jumped towards the city, landing with a rough bumpy start as she started to essentially snowboard through the city streets to escape G.U.N.

As she twisted and turned through the city, a big G.U.N. Truck on her tail, she could hear over the P.A. System "Attention all units. Suspect seen heading south. Block all major roads and capture the suspect."

"Great now I'm a suspect?" She said out loud to herself, truck still chasing behind her. But she easily outsmarted the soldiers and turned a corner to a tunnel that the truck had no way of fitting through. Sure enough, the truck crashed at the entrance, allowing her to escape. "Piece of cake!" She exclaimed, hopping off the metal piece and making a run for it through the tunnel.

The whole situation was very strange to her, why was G.U.N. treating her like some big time criminal? "Whatever is going on, I need to find Tails and Knuckles." She said to herself, she was going to need some backup if she was going to figure this out, and to make sure G.U.N. wouldn't try going after her friends next.

Eventually she reached the other side of the city, it was nighttime now, and despite making it this far, G.U.N. was still on her tail. Sending a giant mechanism labeled "Big Foot"

"When a Lady says no, she means no. Looks like I'll have to beat some sense into you!" Amy summoned her giant Piko Piko Hammer, and began to fight the robot mechanism.

Clearly G.U.N. didn't account for reaction time on that robot, because it was slow. By the time it would land or attempt to charge up, Amy had gotten some good swings in. Until finally, she jumped up and smashed the top of it like a game of whack a mole, completely demolishing the robot.

"Hah…hah..Not so tough now are you-" Amy's ears twitched, she heard rustling behind her. She jumped away from the direction it came from and was prepared to fight.

But whatever it was, sped on right by her, making her ears ring. "Ow! Who or what on earth was that? It..kinda looked like a hedgehog-"

Amy didn't get much time to ponder, as once the dust debris settled and when her ears stopped ringing, she was surrounded by multiple G.U.N. Soldiers. "Don't move! Stay where you are! Keep your hands up in the air."

"Urgh- Crap, not this again." Amy dreaded, putting her hands up in surrender.

>>> 11:08 Cave in "Green Hill"

Earlier in the day, Miles "Tails" Prower was in the middle of investigating some strange readings he picked up.

He had been in the area, conducting some research for a project he was working on, when his radar picked up a huge spike in energy not that far away from him. Hopping into his plane, the Tornado, he dropped what he was doing to go investigate the source of the energy spike. "If it's Eggman, then we're in trouble." He said to himself.

The readings had lead him to a cave near the edge of Green Hill, the cave looked like it was man made, with how smoothed out the walls were, there was no way this cave was natural occurring. "How long has this been here?" Tails asked to no one in particular, venturing deeper into the cave.

Eventually the cave was morphing from somewhat natural, to a metal and technological structure. Tails wondered who had made this cave, the technology was dated but still clearly in tact for whatever its purpose was.

When he reached the center of the cave, there was a bunch of wiring along the floor, leading up to a cryogenic chamber capsule, in front of it was a computer monitor, big red flashing words of "Warning" appearing on the monitor.

Tails descended from the Tornado, making his way to the monitor, as he began to tap away at the keyboard attached to it. "Clearly whoever designed this, didn't want whatever this is to be found. But it's no match for me, with its dated system." Tails exclaimed, as within a matter of minutes, he got into the system and deactivated its protocols.

Doing so, caused the chamber capsule to unfreeze its capture. Seeing this, Tails approached the capsule as it descended from a vertical position to a horizontal one. The front popped open, as a mist of ice bursted out. Tails couldn't see inside really with all the ice fog, until a purple gloved hand reached out to pull its owner up.

When the mysterious figure sat up, it revealed a cobalt blue hedgehog, with white streaks around his eyes and forehead that extended down to his quills. The same white was wrapped around his left arm and leg, in a descending swirl, while the right side of his limbs mimicked water almost. He had white markings around his mouth, and when he opened his eyes, Tails was greeted by vibrant emerald green eyes.

"Who are you?" The hedgehog asked, a somewhat deep yet eerily calm voice coming out of the mysterious hedgehog.

"I'm Tails, who are you? How did you get in there?" Tails asked back, helping the other out of the capsule. When the Hedgehog was out, and standing, Tails saw the other was very much taller than him.

"…Sonic. As for why I was in there- wait where am I? This isn't the ARK? Where's-? Kid what year is it?"

The ARK? That space colony was shut down 50 years ago. Just how long was Sonic in there? "It's 2001, why do you ask?" Before Tails could further question Sonic, the Hedgehog was gone faster than he could blink.

"I see the name is very fitting." Tails said, coughing up from the dust cloud Sonic had created when he took off. "If Sonic is from the ARK…what's he doing in Green Hill of all places?"

Tails didn't get much time to ponder the what if's and questions going on in his head, as the radio on the Tornado came alive, with a broadcast of how Amy had been arrested as the prime suspect in a ongoing investigation of a missing chaos emerald. "How did she get herself arrested?!?!"

>>> Back in the City

It was nighttime when Sonic entered the city, it was overwhelming, after being so long on the ARK, seeing just what was down here on the planet he, Shadow, and Maria had admired from a distance.

He raced through the city, buildings after buildings that seemed endless, until he stopped in front of one with a tv playing. It was broadcasting the news. "We interrupt this broadcast for an important newsflash. There has been a break-in at the federal-reserve bank today. Mysteriously, the only thing that was stolen was the Chaos Emerald." The news reporter explained. "According to eyewitnesses at the scene, the suspect has yet to be identified beyond the fact it is a hedgehog. With no signs of the world renowned hero, Amy "Rascal" Rose on the scene, fear and worry grasps at the citizens hearts and minds. The suspect was seen fleeing the scene, destroying the reserve's guard robots in his path. Stay tuned for more details."

When the camera cut to where they had their suspect "cornered", Sonic gasped. "Oh Chaos…Is it really..?" He couldn't believe his eyes, it felt like a trick, because on the screen was Shadow. It brought back memories from the ARK.

"Shadow, my boy come here for a second." A blurred image of a man spoke. "This is Project Sonic. My friend made him to be your equal. He will always be by your side, so can you promise me you'll be by his?"

The surrounding scientists were on edge, they all had feared there would be hostility between the two, that Shadow might attack Sonic feeling threatened by his existence, that he would see Sonic as inferior to himself.

But it was as Professor Gerald Robotnik had predicted. Shadow approached the other first, and held out his hand. "If you are my equal, then I swear on my life I will protect you."

That was Sonic's first interaction with Shadow back then. The interactions had only grown from there, from awkward acquaintances, to friends, to lovers. Oh how they fell in love, and enjoyed their time on the ARK. Playing with Maria, the Professor treating them like family, it was happy times.

Until G.U.N. Happened. Sonic remembers getting separated from the others. His own creator dragging him away in a different direction, he wanted to go with Shadow, with Maria, but his creator wasn't listening. Just shoved him into a capsule and then nothingness.

It seems G.U.N. was still at it, as those were the vehicles surrounding Shadow. "Tch- They have some nerve." Sonic muttered, as he took off in what he felt was the right direction.

He twisted and turned through the city, until he came upon some G.U.N. vehicles blocking his way. And they were heavily armed as they turned their attention to Sonic with hostility. "FREEZE! HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!!" Yelled a soldier.

Sonic merely stared at the soldiers and heavy vehicles surrounding the exit. Doing a count of how many they're were. "Only about 20 of you? That's kinda sad don't you think?" He mocked.

"SILENCE! SURRENDER NOW!" The Soldier yelled again.

Sonic chuckled, before he took off at high speeds. The soldiers barely had time to blink as their heavy armor and weapons where destroyed or completely disassembled within a millisecond as Sonic returned to where he stood, fake yawning.

The soldier stared in horror at the being in front of him. "WHAT ARE YOU?!"

Again Sonic chuckled, the white markings on his cheeks beginning to slightly glow. "I'm Project Sonic, and you have the key to what I want. So tell me, where is Project Shadow?" Sonic asked with a sickly sweet smile, but the soldiers weren't budging. "No answer? Alright then, honestly though your resistance is PATHETIC!!!" Suddenly, Sonic's voice increased in intensity, a shockwave of energy ringing through the surrounding area as the soldiers all screamed from how badly the screech's intensity was. The glass in the surrounding buildings shattered, as the vibration crushed any remaining equipment they had before crushing the soldiers under its intensity.

The exit went from being heavily guarded to nothing, as Sonic simply cleared his throat. "I tried to be nice, now we do this the hard way." With that Sonic was off, he didn't have time to waste, he had to know if what he saw on that news broadcast was true.

Yet clearly G.U.N. had no intention of letting him through that easily, the pathway to the Bridge was completely cluttered by their machinery and vehicles. Sure, his screech could easily take care of them, but Sonic hasn't been conscious that long, so he only got four screeches in before they had him cornered.

Sonic was dizzy, his vision was slightly blurry due to using his screech while not fully conscious, the white markings on his cheek that mimic the symbol used for volume was beginning to lose the glow, if he kept it up he'll surely overdo it, which will be indicated by the two markings each side becoming three markings.

Honestly he was prepared to push his limits when suddenly-- "CHAOS CONTROL!!" --a familiar voice, a powerful surge of chaos energy shook through the ground, causing an earthquake…no it shattered the ground beneath the soldiers and they all fell into the depths, a painful descent as the Chaos Energy sent pure electrocutions throughout them and their machinery.

A horrifying display of power, yet one Sonic knew all too well. When the cloud of debris settled, Sonic coughing and swatting away some the flew towards him, when he looked up, he gasped, eyes going wide, because standing in front of him…

Was Shadow, panting from such use of his strength, but it was Shadow. He was okay, he had made it off the ARK. Sonic didn't think twice about hugging the other from behind. "I'm not dreaming right? It's really you..?" Sonic asked.

He felt the other turn around and hug him back, those hands running through his quills again, holding him tight, the scent of lavender flooding his senses, the warmth that radiated from Shadow's body, his body practically melted into Shadow's hold. "I thought I lost you…" Shadow whispered into Sonic's ear.

"I thought the same." Sonic responded. "Waking up all alone in that cave. Shadow, what's going on?" Sonic asked.

"I'll explain later back on the ARK. It's not safe here." Shadow answered, as the two stood up, grabbing Sonic's hand and leading him to the ARK, away from all this mess in the city.

>>> Central Control Room: ARK, an hour before Eggman's arrival.

"So this Ivo Robotnik, is he truly related to Professor Gerald?" Sonic asked Shadow, the two were back on the ARK. Shadow had given Sonic a run down of what happened on his end, from Maria saving him at the cost of her life, to being awoken 50 years later by Eggman.

Honestly it hurt to hear that G.U.N. was truly that cruel and could not spare Maria, she was innocent in all this and they had no mercy for her. Sonic had nothing but fond memories of Maria, she was like a sister.

"He is, not only did he know exactly how to access the ARK and its password, but I did my research. The Professor was his grandfather." Shadow explained. "He clearly knew about Project Shadow but not what form I took when he had freed me. Mistaken me for some friend of a enemy of his I presume."

"What about me?" Sonic followed up, back on the ARK all those years ago, they kept Sonic's files pretty close to Shadow's. Two halves of a whole after all, so it was only natural that if Dr. Robotnik found out about Shadow, that he discovered Project Sonic.

Shadow gently cupped Sonic's cheek, the other leaning into his touch. "He didn't show any signs he knew of your existence. When I returned here, I immediately checked all files that remained, the ones locked behind the password. All and any files pertaining to you were gone." Shadow elaborated, Sonic couldn't believe they were wiped clean like that. Was it his creator's doing? "But this is good. The less who know the better."

"What does that mean exactly?" Sonic questioned, an eyebrow raised in Shadow's direction.

"G.U.N. shutdown the ARK because of us, our existence. But only my files remain, you're safer this way. I can protect you better this way." Shadow answered, Sonic went from skeptical to touched. Gently, he kissed the other.

"I can handle myself, but it's sweet how you're thinking about me and my safety." Sonic admitted. "I'll be your little secret the world will never expect, you're equal made just for you."

Shadow kissed Sonic's forehead. "We were made of each other, equals but unique. If we go down then we go down together, isn't that what we always said?"

The two didn't get to dwell long on the shared sentiment, as the entrance to the central control room opened, letting in a confused Eggman who demanded answers from Shadow.

>>> 11:56 Prison Island: Nearby airspace

"There's no mistake about it, this must be the island. It's a secret military base that is reinforced and super strong! It's called Prison Island. I heard the news about it on satellite TV. I still can't believe that Amy would destroy the military buildings or rob the bank! Wait for me, OK Amy! I'm on my way!" Tails exclaimed as he made his way down to the island.

Looking down below, he could see Eggman was already out and about on the island.

"What? Eggman is here? He must have heard about Amy getting arrested, I need to get to her first before he does! Tornado, Transform!" He yelled, the blue propeller plane transforming the closer got to the ground, before morphing into a vehicle that could walk around the area while staying on the offensive.

Tails quickly made his way through one of the side entrances, using the scanner that was hooked up to the tornado to track down just where Amy was, it looked like they had her somewhere secure. "Looks like I'll need a key card before I can get her out." Tails said, suddenly the alarms were going off in the building and multiple machines came bursting out from all sides.

That must have been Eggman's doing, but Tails wouldn't give up here, he bulldozed his way through the army of machinery and weaponry that G.U.N. kept sending his way, and luckily one had the key card he was looking for.

After a few more machinery popping up, he had finally made it to the cell Amy was being kept in. The sound of the tornado caused her ears to perk and she turned to face where it was coming from. "Tails?" She questioned.

"Keep your voice down Amy, I'm here to recuse you." Tails explained, hopping out and down from the Tornado to have easier access to the lock on the cell.

"How did find out I was here?" Amy asked, as Tails pulled out the keycard, sliding it through the locking mechanism, the internal mechanism of the lock rotating the cell door open.

"You were all over the news, how could I not find out? Hop on, Eggman is here so he must be up to no good!" Tails said, jumping back onto the tornado, Amy doing the same, hopping onto one of the wings and holding onto it.

"I wouldn't have been caught if that blue hedgehog didn't distract me in the city!" Amy exclaimed, recalling how he sped by her and the next moment she was surrounded by G.U.N.

"Blue hedgehog…? You mean Sonic?" Tails asked.

"You know him, Tails?" Amy questioned back.

"Not know him per say, but I did meet him, it's a long story. You don't think he's here with Eggman do you?" Tails pondered.

"I hope not, but with Eggman, anything is possible, let's go!"

>>> Back on the airspace

Unfortunately, when the two spilt up on the airspace to try to find Eggman, Amy saw that this "Sonic" was indeed with Eggman, as the two were discussing something before Eggman was trying to make a run for it.

Well Amy wasn't about to let that slide, as she threw her hammer towards him from behind, the only reason it didn't hit him was because Sonic reacted much quicker and kicked it away mid air.

"I knew you were behind this, Eggman!" She exclaimed, summoning her hammer back and got into a defensive position. "What are you doing here on a military base?!" She demanded, clearly he was up to no good as usual, but never to this extent.

"I'm the one who should be asking that question! Never mind that, I have more important matters to attend to, she's all yours Sonic, don't let me down." Eggman said, taking off in the opposite direction of the two.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?!" Amy yelled, as she tried to give chase after Eggman, but was stopped by Sonic cutting in front of her. "What the- he's so fast…" Amy whispered in awe at the blue hedgehog's speed.

"That hammer of yours in no joke, used some seriously heavy materials for it. I hope you can put up a good fight." Sonic said, before taking off at his high speeds, attacking Amy from every side.

Amy was quick with her reactions, while she had trouble keeping her eyes on the blue blur, she could sense when he stopped to attack and she could then block him with her hammer. "How are you so fast?!" She questioned, still blocking his onslaught of attacks.

"Sonic is my name, which should be self explanatory of why I'm so fast. Enough talk." Sonic bluntly stated, before continuing to attack Amy. He was purposely trying to keep her from being able to properly dodge or attack.

It was sooner than later that he kicked her hammer out of her hands, and had his hand at her throat, prepared to stab through if she tried anything funny. "You're very impressive, only one other can block my speed attacks." He praised.

"Why?" Amy asked, panting from the constant attacks. "Why are you working with Eggman of all people? Don't you know he's the bad guy? And why don't you kill me?"

The question made Sonic hesitate, a barely visible startle came out of him, but Amy saw the way his eyes shook. "My orders were to keep you at bay, not kill you." Sonic answered, it was as simple as that.

But that didn't answer Amy's other question. The more she looked at Sonic, the more she could tell, feel, that he wasn't a bad guy. Sure he was rough around the edges, but she could sense a kind heart underneath that rough exterior. Those emerald green eyes held many secrets in them, but she could read his soul, he was conflicted more than anything else. "You don't look like a bad guy, so why are you helping one?" She asked again.

This caused Sonic to push his hand closer to her throat, his eyes widening as rage bubbled up within him. "I'm not helping HIM. Don't compare me to the likes of him." Sonic spat, clearly she hit a nerve there. But if he isn't helping Eggman like he claims then who?

Amy likes to think she was gifted with a sixth sense, that allows her to read and understand others, even they are technically her enemies. " --deep breath-- Why don't you help me stop him? You really look like you have a kind heart, so why not team up and defeat Eggman together?" She asked, slowly offering her hand to the other, a gentle smile on her face.

Sonic clearly didn't expect this. He dropped his hand from where he had it pointed at her neck, her kindness reminded him of someone familiar…her smile, it was like Maria's.

"I see why you're the hero of this world, your compassion is boundless." He said, Amy taken aback by the statement.

"I just believe everyone deserves a second chance if they are willing to try." She responded, watching as Sonic stared down at her hand, slowly reaching towards it.

"It's been years since I felt this level of compassion from someone like you." For a moment, it looked like Sonic considering the offer, taking her hand, but he smacked it away. Surprising the other. "I'm sorry, but you may not show my equal the same compassion. I will not fall victim to your tricks and deceptions."

Sonic jumped back, and was prepared to attack, when a vehicle suddenly landed between them. It was the twin tailed fox Eggman had mentioned, Tails.

"Boy, am I glad to see you! You're timing couldn't be more perfect Tails!" Amy exclaimed, relief that Tails showed up in the knick of time.

Sonic had a better look at Tails now compared to back in that cave where he was barely conscious. The fox wore a technical visor on his left eye, along with a dark blue jacket, he could also make out a mechanical right arm. "You're the one that was impatient and couldn't wait for my map to load in." Tails said sarcastically. Amy letting out a nervous laugh, as she shrugged in response to Tails. "Leave him to me Amy, you go after Eggman!"

"Roger that Tails." Amy took off after that, grabbing her hammer and leaving the mysterious hedgehog to Tails.

"You must be a friend of hers, I presume?" Sonic questioned.

"You would be correct, Sonic. Just like you have no intentions of letting harm come to this mysterious equal, I have no intentions of letting anyone hurt Amy!" Tails yelled.

Sonic sensed a fight coming, he could see in the fox's eyes that he saw Amy as a big sister figure, he knew the timer must be cutting it close, so instead of a fight, he returned to a more relaxed demeanor.

This confused Tails. "Are you not going to fight?" He asked the other.

"I respect your determination, you remind me of how someone used to be in the past. Our fight would be pointless, besides…" Sonic stretched his limbs, warming up to make a run for it. "Multiple bombs have been planted on this island, I'd say you have about 15 minutes to get yourself and her off the island before you go with it." And with that, Sonic took off, leaving a confused Tails behind.

But Tails didn't get to ponder what just happened, he had to find Amy quickly before this island went poof!

>>> In the White Jungle

"Shoot, where did Eggman go?" Amy questioned, as she ran through the jungle in pursuit of Eggman, but he must have gotten away because he was no where in sight.

As she continued running, she came upon a clearing and she could make out a figure in the trees, when she got closer she saw it wasn't Sonic but a different hedgehog.

This one was black with red stripes, they almost looked like scales, and his tail was long like a snake, spikes running along and down it. Just looking at him, it was clear he wasn't fully a hedgehog nor someone to mess with. Yet, could this have been who Sonic was talking about? "Are you Sonic's friend? The one he called his equal?" She asked, but was on the defensive, prepared to attack. Unlike Sonic, who seemed conflicted in his attacks, this one looked fully ready to kill without hesitation.

"You dare speak of him? Hah! You think you're worthy enough to speak of him?" Shadow spoke.

"Wow you're very egotistical for a fake hedgehog!" Amy retorted.

"Faker? I think you're the fake hedgehog around here." Shadow said, a smirk on his face.

"Well then, why don't you come down here and say it to my face!" Amy yelled.

Shadow jumped down to the ground. "If you insist." With that said, the two began to duke it out.

Shadow had to give it to Amy, she was a very skilled fighter. That hammer of hers was extremely heavy to the average person, but she wielded it like it was nothing, as she swung it with skill and grace at Shadow.

But Shadow was quicker, dodging each swing like nothing. He didn't have time for this, so with a swift kick, he knocked the hammer out of Amy's hands, before spin dashing towards her when she was distracted.

Amy was caught between a rock and hard place, the two hedgehogs panting from their fight. Suddenly, Shadow's radio starts to beep. It was the doctor again. "Shadow?! What are you doing?! Get back here right now before the island blows up with you on it!"

"I'm sorry- Blows up?!" Amy exclaimed in shock. Shadow looked at her, but then jumps back and runs off.

"I gotta find Tails and get out of here!" Amy exclaimed, making a run for it as well. Luckily Tails was not that far away from her, as she jumped onto the Tornado and told Tails to get them off island.

They had just barely managed to avoid getting blown up with the island.

>>> 17:30: In an mountainous region

While all this was going on, Knuckles had been in a race for the pieces to the Master Emerald, he had to hurry up and find them before that bat girl did.

His search for the missing pieces brought him to this mountain region, that the best way he could describe the atmosphere, it felt like it was haunted. "This place sure feels haunted... There's no time to lose! I have to hurry and find that Master Emerald!" Knuckles said, beginning to search around the creepy mountain region.

He is certain that, Rouge was it? Needed a radar of sorts to track down the emerald pieces, but that wasn't the case for the echidna. Because he was a descendant of Tikal, he had a direct connection to the Master Emerald, thus he just needed to explore around.

The stronger the feeling of energy felt within him, the closer he was to a piece of the Master Emerald. There were a few hiccups here and there, Eggman's tech running amok, and actual ghosts popping up from nowhere and trying to make things harder for Knuckles, but that didn't stop him.

Soon he collected three more pieces of the Master Emerald, feeling more relieved that the collection of pieces was growing. He was prepared to leave this haunted mountain top, when he felt another energy surge, coming from within the mine that was on the next mountain. "Guess I'm not through with this place yet." He said, gliding over the the entrance of the mines, and began to make his descent.

>>> 20:21 Mountainous region: Mine

Upon entering the innermost section of the mines, Knuckles saw multiple problems and set backs. "Hmm, I didn't expect the inside of the mines to be like this! This is going to be tougher than I thought!" He sighed, as since the mine was abandoned, it was a mess, some areas were completely flooded, and of course those damn ghosts were down here too.

He had his work cut out for him, but he wasn't about to call it quits now, the Master Emerald was at stake here.

>>> 9:03 In the capital city

Amy and Tails were currently hiding in a alleyway of the city, the whole place was crawling with cops and G.U.N. soldiers, making it near impossible for the two to get through the city.

This was beginning to annoy Amy. "Sheesh! This place is crawling with a lot of police around when you don't need them! Tails, anything yet? Why is Eggman after the chaos emeralds again?" She asked the fox who was typing away at the computer module in the Tornado that was now in walking mode.

"For some reason, I'm not getting a signal from the six remaining Chaos Emeralds... Maybe Eggman took the Emeralds into outer space." Tails answered.

"Outer Space? What could he want that's all the way up there?" Amy pondered, trying to figure out what was going through Eggman's head, she tried doing a tarot reading but the situation was too messy within it self for Amy to properly understand anything.

Suddenly, a manhole in front of them began moving about, before flying open. Amy had her hammer at the ready, until a familiar head of red fur popped up. "Hey guys, long time no see! I must have got lost in the mines! Looking for the Master Emerald pieces was tougher than I thought it would be. Where are we anyway?" Knuckles said, a smile on his face.

"Knuckles!" Amy happily exclaimed, putting her hammer away and quickly began to pull the echidna up from the manhole.

"Hey, where are you going?" He asked Amy.

"Move aside Knuckles! It's an emergency!" Amy responded.

It was truth, after all Eggman had the whole planet on a timer with that example he made of the moon. The computer module on the Tornado went off. "I managed to find the transcripts between Eggman and the President in the government computer. I'm following the President's limo right now! If we can get into the limo, we can trace the call to find Eggman!" Tails explained.

Amy nodded in response back. "We got no time to waste, let's go guys!"

Unbeknownst to the three, they were being eavesdropped on, by Sonic. Part of his artificial creation perks, was heightened senses, more specifically his hearing. He had been hiding out across the street from the three, but could hear them perfectly as if he was standing next to them. "They are determined to stop Robotnik." Sonic muttered to himself as he watched the three split up to catch up with that limo.

He wondered why they were so determined. Why they still had hope of stopping any of this, was that what made them heroes of this planet? He wondered why Robotnik was almost like a villain in this world, when he thinks back to the Professor, to Maria, he wonders how in the world was Ivo Robotnik related to them.

It was a lot of questions running through his head. "Maybe a run will clear my head." Sonic said to himself, before taking off. He started in the city, and raced through until he reached a coast line, completely opposite of where the city sat.

The calm waves, the sounds of nature, the blue sky, the smell of the ocean. These were things Maria had dreamed of seeing. "This is what you wanted to see, Maria…so why are we destroying it?" It was a question Sonic had on his mind the longest, but refused to ask, he clutched his right fist above where his heart was, as he gritted his teeth.

"I don't know what happened in your final moments. I know it was you who saved Shadow, but it cost you your life. I don't know what happened to the Professor, to my creator, I don't know which side is in the right and who is in the wrong…" The blue hedgehog vented to the open ocean, looking out onto the horizon, as the wind blew through his quills, his eyes becoming more disinterested.

"No…whether who's right or wrong isn't my problem. As long as I have Shadow, then that's all that matters." And Sonic was gone once again.

>>> In the President's limo driving through the city

"Mr. President, reports show that since the incident, three hours ago, the country is in turmoil. Our financial communities are impacted and our satellite communications are down. An emergency meeting has been called. Mr. President, this is a national crisis." The secretary on board the limo spoke.

The president in question remained unfazed, as he kept his attention on the monitor in front of him. "Spare me the details. Exactly what is it you want? Dr. Eggman?" He questioned.

Maniacal laughter could be heard from the video monitor. "Hahahaha! Well, let's just get down to business then, shall we Mr. President? I won't bore you with all the details since I know you are a very busy man. Mr. President, my demands are quite simple. Surrender to the Eggman Empire and make no attempts to resist! Otherwise…" The Doctor trailed off in suspense.

"Otherwise?" The President further questioned.

"Otherwise your country will cease to exist! You have 24 hours to give me your answer!" Eggman exclaimed.

"Like that's going to happen!" Spoke an familiar voice, the two in the limo were looking around before Amy rose jumped in from the moon roof of the limo, Tails right behind her, making his way to the monitor.

"You- YOU TWO JUST DON'T KNOW WHEN TO QU-" Eggman got cut off my Tails disconnecting the line.

"Eggman Empire, he's still on about that???" Amy questioned.

"What the heck is going on here?" The President demanded an answer, before realizing just what Tails did with the monitor. "Oh, no... What did you do?!"

"Don't worry, Mr. President, everything is under control. Just leave it to us! Got it Tails?" Amy said. Tails turned to face them with a disk drive in his hand, he looked pretty confident about it too.

"I got it! He's transmitting from the space colony ARK!" Tails exclaimed.

"OK! Let's move it!" Amy then took off from the way she came in, Tails following after and leaving a confused secretary and president behind.

The president wanted answers but it would have to wait, as they were now getting a call from their agent they sent out.

>>> 13:04 Desert area

The gang now stood in front of a pyramid. Amy was confused as to why they were here. "Are you sure that's where he is?" She asked.

Knuckles nodded in response, pointing in the direction of the pyramid's side. "I saw Eggman go inside the pyramid and more importantly, I saw that bat girl go inside with him as well. You saw those two hedgehogs as well, right?"

Amy began stretching her limbs. "We should be able to get into outer space from there! I don't know what's this space colony is all about but I'll find and destroy that cannon... and then kick their imperial butts!" She exclaimed, Knuckles joining in, and Tails saying he would go find the way into the pyramid.

And with that, the team was off.

>>> ARK: Abandoned room

Amongst the many rooms aboard the ARK, there was one in the farthest corner on the north side, it was empty and barren, minus a few nicknacks here and there.

It was where Sonic liked to come and hide away at, where he would avoid his creator, along with all the other scientists aboard the ARK at the time, no one knew this was his hiding spot except for one.

As Sonic stood in front of the window, looking down at the blue marble like planet, lost in his thoughts, the door opened. "I had a feeling this is where you were." A voice all too familiar, as the door shut behind him, warm arms wrapping themselves around Sonic's waist, as the one in question buried his face into Sonic's neck. "What's on your mind, Mi Amor?" Shadow asked.

"I went down there again, to the coastline. Pictures did it no justice, the view, the scent, the feeling of the wind, truly breathtaking…" Sonic admitted, still keeping his eyes glued on the planet that was about to be destroyed in a few more hours.

He remembers the promise he made to Maria, the promise of experiencing all that planet had to offer considering Sonic genetics originated from it, a clear opposite of the promise Shadow made. And having experience some of the beauty its nature could offer, he questioned if this truly was the right thing to do.

It hurt his heart because, this planet is the reason why Maria never got to experience its beauty in the first place. How if it had its way, they would get rid of Shadow as well. Sonic lost a lot that day as well, he lost a family, he couldn't bear to think what he would do if he lost his lover as well.

The thoughts running through Sonic's mind must have been obvious on his face, as he jumped slightly when he felt a kiss on the backside of his neck, that was visible under his inhibitor. "I see it in your eyes, you're conflicted." Shadow began, placing more kisses around the side of Sonic's neck. "I do this, because of the promise I made to Maria, to you, but all you need to do is say the word, and this all stops now." Shadow said, no hidden messages in his words like that Robotnik.

Just plain and simple, if Sonic said to stop all this, then this would stop. Sonic turned around in Shadow's arms, now face to face with the other, as emerald green met blood orange eyes. Sonic's hand reaching up to cup Shadow's cheek, the other leaning into his touch while maintaining eye contact.

It would have been easy to say yes, to say for this to stop, for him and Shadow find some corner on that planet where no one could find them. But it wasn't that easy, now knowing that Rouge was a double agent for G.U.N. he knew that even if they did stop, they would still come after Shadow.

Again, Sonic's thoughts and emotions must have been obvious, as Shadow reached up and wiped a tear away that had fallen down Sonic's cheek. "Even if we stop now, it doesn't change the fact that G.U.N. is after you, and whether you want to admit it or not, after me as well. They have already taken so much from us…" Sonic had subconsciously looked away while talking, but Shadow simply pulled his head in closer. "I couldn't bear it if they took you away from me too…"

"They won't get the chance, the image of their machines surrounding you still haunts my mind. If they wish to become my enemy then so be it, I'll rip their planet's very core out with my bare hands, I'll gladly suffer the worst pain imaginable before I let them get anywhere near you." Shadow confessed, his eyes holding nothing but seriousness and his heart that beat for Sonic.

Call it cruel irony, that one thing the other didn't want, is the thing they would go through before they let the other get hurt. Sonic remembers the words that were told to him on the daily back then."You were made to be Project Shadow's failsafe. Project Shadow is the solution, the ultimate goal." Yet, Sonic believes what the Professor told him is more true.

"You are his equal, his other half. Which means he is yours. Such a bond is not a one way street, Sonic. It goes both ways, and that, is something more powerful than you can ever imagine."

Sonic believes he's finally starting to understand what the Professor meant all those years ago, as he felt overwhelmed with Shadow's love, yet despite the overwhelming feeling, it wasn't enough. "How much time do we have before those two get back?" He suddenly asked the other.

"We have an hour or two at best, that Amy and her friends will probably have them busy for a while." Shadow responded, not needing any more indication of where Sonic was going with this. Sure enough-

"Then kiss me already."

Shadow didn't need to be told twice, pulling Sonic in close, closing what little distance was between them, and kissed him. A passion and desired filled kiss, as he leaned in more, as Sonic fell back onto the bed behind him. Shadow pinning the other down beneath him, devouring the soft moans that came from Sonic, his hand finding its way into Sonic's while the other hand made its way lower, much lower.

They both knew they didn't have a lot of time, but for at least an hour or so, Shadow could shower his beloved in all his love and undivided attention as Sonic deserved.

>>> Back at the Pyramid

It wasn't easy clearing through the base Eggman had set up, twists and turns, traps at every turn, and not to mention there were ghosts here too.

It was nauseating trying to navigate through the confusing mess, but eventually the three came upon a locked door. "Looks like we're heading toward the center of the base." Said Tails, getting a stronger signal of sorts the closer they got to the door to explain it.

"That egghead sure loves mechanical things doesn't he? I bet he has one or two spaceships lying around somewhere." Spoke Amy, who was trying to plan out how they would reach Eggman on the ARK.

"Well we won't get much farther at this rate, the door is locked. We need a key to get in there." Tails explained, who had tried to see if he could hack into the system but it was no use, it needed a key.

"No problem, we can find it, right Knuckles?" Amy patted Knuckles on the back.

"What? Why do I have to find the key?" Responded a confused Knuckles, how did he get roped into a search party.

"We're counting on you Knuckles! The world's greatest treasure hunter!" Amy praised the other, who simply sighed before going to search for the key.

The three once again split up to get the searching down faster, Knuckles doesn't know if it was luck or a coincidence that the key was in the area he had been searching, but he wasn't about to complain. This was one step closer to the Master Emerald.

As he grabbed the key and was about to turn back, he heard ominous laughter behind him. "What the- who's there?" He turned around once more and saw a giant ghost, way bigger than the ones they had stumbled upon.

"A ghost? You must be the boss then. Outta my way, I don't have time for this!" Knuckles exclaimed, jumping into battle. While the ghost had its size, and fire breathing apparently, it wasn't smart enough to keep up with what Knuckles was up to, has the echidna was purposely avoiding it and opening up all the skylights that were in the pyramid. Eventually causing the ghost to fade back away.

"Guess ghost hunting is now in my job description." Knuckles said, catching his breath from that game of chase, before returning back to Amy and Tails.

Their searches came up empty handed, but seeing Knuckles with the key in hand made them ecstatic. "Way to go Knuckles!" Amy cheered.

"Let's get going now." Tails spoke.

"You little thieves! Did you really think you could get out of here alive?" That voice-

All three turned around to see the locked entrance way open up, to reveal Eggman in his egg mobile, waving at them with a smug expression. Amy pulled out her hammer, gesturing to Eggman to come at her. "Want another butt kicking from me, Eggman?" Amy said, a smile of her own.

"Amy wait-" Tails began.

"You two go on ahead, I'll catch up." Amy told them, the two nodded before taking off.

"This time, I'll take your lives as well as the Chaos Emerald! I call on you to destroy these pests. Come out my servant!" Eggman exclaimed, as the ground began to shake.

The ground shook as Eggman summoned a giant Egg Golem, as it ascended from the center of the pyramid's ground.

"Gotta hand it to you Eggman, but that's just a giant piece of rock ready for my hammer!" Amy yelled, as it looks down at her. The Egg Golem easily towers over the room.

"Now go… and squash that thorn of a hedgehog, Amy!" Eggman commanded his golem. Watching as the battle commenced. This was it, this is where he gets his final victory against Amy and her pesky friends.

But Amy was smart, as she easily dodged the golems attacks, climbing up it from its blind spots, before she jumped at the Egg Golem's Head, smashing her hammer on top of its head, eventually destroying the device that was on top of it. "Ha! Home run!" She proclaimed victoriously, as the device began to self destruct.

The Egg Golem swivels its head around several time,. Amy taking her leave to catch up with her friends, leaving Eggman to deal with the fallout of his failed attempt.

While Eggman was dealing with the now freed Golem. The pyramid's top opens up, revealing a large rocket. An automatic voice could heard once the rocket was in place. "Green light for launch! Primary engine ignition on! Beginning lift-off countdown!" In the distance, Amy could be seen running onto the rocket. " 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Shuttle lift-off!"

And just like that, the rocket took off for its destination. The ARK, with three unexpected guests aboard it.

"That must be the Space Colony ARK." Tails pointed out. The other two in awe at the space facility, but didn't get to dwell long on it as they were struck by an stray asteroid along the way. The impact caused the ship to shake, throwing the three off balance for a second.

"Is everyone alright?" Tails asked, once the rocket had stabilized. Both Amy and Knuckles were fine, but the sound of metal unlatching could be heard in the distance. "We should be landing soon." Tails reassured.

"Crap the hatch doors are open! The Master Emerald pieces!" Knuckles exclaimed when he saw the shards falling out of the rocket.

"Just a few more minutes Knuckles, we're almost there." Amy tried to reassure the other.

"A few more minutes?! No, let me out, I need to go collect those pieces!" Knuckles yelled back, pushing his way forward and was trying to take command of the rocket, his panicked state caused the rocket to start spinning wildly out of control.

"Knuckles stop it before we crash! No, don't touch that lever!" Amy screamed, as now they had completely lost control of the rocket thanks to Knuckles.

>>> Inside Space Colony ARK: Cannon countdown: 2 hours 11 minutes

Luckily, Tails was able to get the rocket to land without a hitch. Him and Amy were currently hiding in a spot within the ARK, Knuckles completely disappeared on them to go find the Master Emerald pieces that went flying out of the rocket.

"I know that emerald is important to him, but seriously, who does that knucklehead think he is, trying to take control of the rocket like that." Amy spoke, kinda annoyed by the slight hiccup in their sneaky approach. "This place looks completely deserted Tails, ah-ah-ACHOO! Ugh, dusty too."

"This place was shut down about 50 years ago because of a terrible accident. The first Bernoulli spherical space colony called, ARK. When it was operational, it was the most advanced research center of it's kind, but looking at it now.." Tails had begun to explain, but just by looking at the state it was in now, it was clear just how far this advanced center had fallen.

"Now it's like an abandoned ark…this is what Sonic and Shadow call home?" Amy asked, knowing the answer she wants, she wasn't getting any time soon. "There's not much time left before Eggman fires that weapon again... We've got to hurry! Let's find the cannon and destroy it!"

"Hold on Amy." Tails said, before Amy could take off running in whatever direction she felt was correct. He typed away at his computer in the Tornado, pulling up various diagrams and blueprints. "Someone designed that weapon to be impenetrable from outside attacks. Its defense system are super strong so we have to find a way to destroy it from the inside!"

With that being said, Tails pulled out a Chaos Emerald from the Tornado, this confused Amy, when did Tails get a Chaos emerald? "You had a Chaos Emerald this whole time?" She asked.

Tails chuckled. "It looks like one doesn't it? But in fact, it's a fake one that I created after researching the real Emerald! It has the same wavelength and properties but is less powerful than the real one. It's designed to reverse the energy field inside the Chaos Emeralds and blow up! It looks so real, even a machine can't tell the difference! I'll find the power supply and destroy it! Amy, you find the control room, okay?" Tails handed her the fake emerald, as she pocketed it away shortly after.

"So that's your plan, let's do it!" She exclaimed, as the two split off to take care of their respective tasks, completely unaware of who was listening in on their conversation.

Coming out from his hiding spot behind the wall, Sonic couldn't help but he impressed by Tails' capabilities. "A fake chaos emerald….well we can't have that now can we? Hope you don't mind if I spill the beans early." Sonic spoke to the air, before taking off towards the central control room, where he knew Eggman was waiting.

As Sonic walked towards the central control room, he paused, giving it some thought. If he let them install the fake chaos emerald, then the cannon won't function correctly, and if that happens then maybe, just maybe he and Shadow can leave this place and roam the planet…

"I'll give them more time before I rat them out, see if they follow through with their plan." Sonic said to himself, walking in the opposite direction of the central control room.

>>> Inside Space Colony ARK: Cannon countdown: 45 minutes

The ARK was quite a maze to navigate through, but eventually Amy reached the central control room. She looked around the room in awe of the technology that went into it, before seeing the slots where each chaos emerald was supposed to go in place. "I found it Tails, I just have to put this emerald into the slot?" She asked into her comms around her wrist.

"Yes, just put in place and the rest will-" Tails had started to explain but suddenly got cut off.

"What? Tails you're cutting out, what happened?" Amy asked.

"Ahem! If you want you're little fox friend to be okay then meet me in the research facility, now!" Eggman's voice suddenly cut through the feed.

"Don't listen to him Amy-" Tails tried to warn her but Eggman interfered with the transmission once more.

"Argh, Damn it Eggman, now you've done it!" Amy frustratedly said, pocketing the fake emerald and heading towards Tails location, like hell was she going to let Eggman hurt her little brother.

>>> Outside Space Colony ARK: Cannon countdown: 1 hour 26 minutes

Meanwhile, outside of the ARK, Knuckles had been gathering the pieces of the Master Emerald that had fallen overboard, he not only managed to re collect the pieces that fell overboard, but also found three more scattered around the meteor field that surrounded the ARK.

He was doing a count, but realized he was still short a couple pieces. "Shit, that Bat Girl must have the remaining pieces." Knuckles dreaded, and as if one cue to his predicament.

"Long time no see treasure hunter. Did you find MY Emeralds?" Speak of the devil, there she was, on top of the center tower that was on the meteor field. Knuckles was not happy to see her, flying up to match her level.

"That's a good one! YOUR Emerald. Talking to you is a waste of time!" Knuckles retorted, pointing his fist towards Rouge, he didn't care who she was, he would fight to protect and restore the Master Emerald.

It seemed the feeling was mutual, as Rouge retaliated first with a swift kick that Knuckles managed to block, seemed they were going to do this the hard way.

The two fought on that central tower, Rouge trying to fly around Knuckles in circles to catch him off guard, but she must have had the remaining emerald pieces, Knuckles could sense its energy, and he could block each one of her attacks.

She was tough, and quick thinker, as Knuckles only got a few hits in before both came to a standstill not much later from when the fight started. Both were panting to catch their breath. "Stop fooling around, and give me back MY Emeralds!" They both yelled at the same time, taken aback by the sudden synchronization.

"What are you blabbing about? You call yourself a hunter? Attacking a lady... Shame on you!" Rouge scolded the other, making Knuckles even more confused.

"What kind of lady goes around stealing gems anyway?" He questioned, still not understanding why she so desperately wanted the master emerald of all gems.

"Those belong to me!" Rouge had started again, secretly planning to get the jump on Knuckles mid scolding, but miscalculated her footing, causing her to trip and fall off the tower and to the lava pit that was below the central tower. "Aahhh!" She screamed.

She started to get closer, closing her eyes expecting this was the end, but it didn't come. She opened her eyes in confusion, looked up and saw Knuckles had grabbed onto her hand, hanging off the ledge himself. "What in the world?"

Knuckles pulled himself up to the beam, then Rouge, helping her get her footing back. When she was back on the solid beam, the two made eye contact for a brief few seconds before quickly separating. "Keep your hands to yourself! Don't touch me!" Rouge scolded again.

"Is that how you say thanks to someone who just saved your life?" Knuckles retorted with a bit of sarcasm.

"Saving my life, don't think I owe you one! You just wanted to to hold my hand didn't you? That's why you saved me! You're such a creep!" Rouge responded back.

Knuckles really didn't get this girl. "This isn't a joke, you know! Think what you want bat girl, I was saving the Master Emerald." He tried to reason with her once more. Rouge sighed, seemingly getting tired of this whole situation.

"No matter what you say, it sounds crazy!" She said, but dropped the remaining pieces that Knuckles needed before him. Knuckles was taken aback by this sudden behavior change. "Fine, then just take them. They stink like echidnas do."

Well that was rather rude, Knuckles liked to think he smelled wonderfully of grapes and other fruits. But he did feel better gathering the remaining pieces knowing it was no longer a race to gather them all. "If that's what you thought, you should have given me them in the first place!" He said, putting the pieces together in their rightful spots, a green glow began to appear from the pieces before a white flash engulfed it, when it faded away, the Master Emerald was back to its original form.

Knuckles felt so relieved seeing the gem once again, he looked over to Rouge who was pretending to not pay him any attention but was also clearly looking at him. "What?" She asked.

"I'm sorry...if I hurt you." The echidna whispered, taking the Master Emerald and running off, before Rouge could say or do anything else, also extremely thankful for his red fur, it could hide the blush that appeared one his face when he apologized to Rouge.

>>> ARK: Lower Levels.

Once Knuckles was away from Rouge, he took this moment to catch his breath. "Now I just need go help Amy, then I get the Master Emerald back to Angel Island." He spoke, double checking the Master Emerald was fully restored and wasn't going to self implode in anyway.

"So, this is the Master Emerald?" A new voice spoke, causing Knuckles to quickly turn into a defensive posture.

"Who's there?!" He called out, feeling a gust of wind go by, next thing he knew, there was a blue hedgehog exclaiming the Master Emerald next to him. "How did you- Who are you?" Knuckles questioned.

"You can call me Sonic." The hedgehog responded, leaning in closer to the Master Emerald, his eyes were a similar green to the emerald itself. He reached out to touch the emerald.

"Don't touch it." Knuckles demanded, prepared to fight the other, but saw the emerald react to Sonic, and not in a negative way. "The Master Emerald has never responded to an outsider like that before, what are you?"

The energy Sonic felt within the Master Emerald was calming, it was a similar energy to what was used to make him. "Nothing mortal, I can tell you that much. I'll keep it brief, you're going to have a drop in, in about 3, 2, 1-"

As if on cue to Sonic, Amy suddenly appeared from out of nowhere, falling to the ground, and would have hit the ground if Knuckles didn't catch her. "Amy! Are you okay? What happened?" He questioned.

"Woah, I wasn't sure if I could pull that one off. Somehow, I managed to use the Chaos Control." Amy tiredly answered, as Sonic walked over to the two.

"Chaos Control?" Knuckles questioned.

"That would be partly my fault, I was the one to tell Eggman about the fake chaos emerald. Didn't think you could use chaos control like Shadow though, that's impressive." Sonic partially praised.

Knuckles helped Amy get her bearings before she shook away the dizziness. She looked at Sonic with confusion. "Just who's side are you on? One minute you're helping Eggman, the next you're doing something to help us, I don't get you Sonic." She said.

"I was never on Eggman's side." Sonic answered, leaving Amy even more confused.

"Then who are you helping?" She further asked.

"Wait Amy, I think its this Shadow you told me about on the way here. Is that who you're helping?" Knuckles asked this time.

"Correct. Its like I said from the beginning to you, Rose. I was never helping Eggman, I have been helping Shadow." Sonic confirmed.

"Even if you know what Shadow is doing, is wrong?" She continued, seeing Sonic hesitant for a moment. "What's stopping you from stopping him?"

Sonic crossed his arms, taking a deep breath, realizing this wasn't the time to be holding out on secrets if he wants his reality to continue. "The truth is, I know he hasn't fully remembered what happened 50 years ago. My hopes were he would remember before things got this far, but it seems that might not be the case…"

"You really care about him, don't you?" Amy asked, feeling sympathy towards Sonic. She could see the look in his eyes, as he talked about Shadow. He truly loved Shadow, and just wants this to be over with, but not at the cost of either his or Shadow's life.

"More than anything else, Rose." Sonic answered.

Amy clutched her fist in determination. "Then it's up to us to end this! Leave it to me Sonic! I'll go knock some sense into him, then when this is all over we can all go out for strawberry shortcake!" She gave the other a peace sign with her iconic smile.

Sonic couldn't help but chuckle. "Despite everything, you still want to give me and Shadow a second chance?"

"Like I said to you, everyone deserves a second chance if they are willingly to try! Lets end this here and now!" With that said, she ran off towards the inner workings of the ARK.

"She always that enthusiastic?" Sonic asked Knuckles.

"When her friends are on the line? Yes." Knuckles responded.

Friends huh? Sonic could get used to that, it had a nice ring to it.

>>> Outside Space Colony ARK: Cannon countdown: 5 minutes 44 seconds

Amy was currently standing in a corridor that leads out of the ARK, she had a plan in mind, after she dealt with Shadow, she'll take the fake emerald and launch it into place before the cannon could go off.

She was determined until she heard footsteps approaching, she turned around and saw it was Shadow. "You never cease to surprise me pink hedgehog. I thought that the capsule you were in exploded in space." He said.

Amy chuckled. "What can I say, I'm a stubborn one." Picking up her running speed, and Shadow did the same. She took out the fake emerald from her pocket, showing it to Shadow. "I actually got the idea from you, so technically you saved me."

"It was a Chaos Emerald, wasn't it? But, there's no way you could have activated the Chaos Control using an Emerald that's fake.

So, there's more to you than meets the eye. What are you anyway?" He asked her.

"Just a girl that loves adventuring with her friends, Amy Rose! And don't you forget it!" She happily proclaimed.

"I see. But you know, I can't let you live. Your adventuring days are coming to an end." He gave as one final warning.

"We'll see about that, I promised your boyfriend that we get cake once this is all over, so I'll go easy on you!" Amy offered in response.And with that, the two began to fight once more.

>>> ARK: Abandoned lab: Cannon countdown: 1 minute 33 seconds

Tails stood in front of the window of the room where Eggman launched Amy into space, and after defeating the Doctor in battle. "Amy, I did it!" Tails said, pleased yet still upset, when suddenly his walkie-talkie came alive. "Huh?"

"Awesome job, Tails!" Amy praised from her end of the comms.

"Amy!" Tails happily exclaimed, relieved she was okay.

"Look outside!" Amy said, Tails doing so to see the Eclipse Cannon being destroyed. Shadow proved to be a stubborn obstacle, but Amy had made it in the knick of time, letting the fake chaos emerald do its thing before Eggman could activate the cannon once more. Amy looked towards the window she could see Tails from, hanging off the destroyed cannon, and gave him a thumbs up.

They did it! They won!

Or…did they really?

-End Hero Chapter-

[zealoptics]

Chasing Winter Adventures in the Great White North: A Vanlife Tale Beyond the Clichés

By Alex Arseneault

When we hear about Vanlife most people see the classic cliché of someone laying on his bed rear doors open with a view on the ocean, right? For me, it’s anything but that.

My name is Alex Arseneault, I live in Quebec City (Qc), Canada and I consider myself as a ‘’weekender adventurer’’. Experienced Kitesurfer / mountain biker / Snowboarder, I try to make the most of what my region has to offer while still have a normal job. The best tool I have found to make all those outdoors sports so much easy to handle is a Van. I often say to people that our van is our ‘’Mobile Chalet’’ ; it allow us to chase the best (Or worst) conditions, bring all the gear, be home everywhere and be selective on the destination.

This winter I wanted to go explore further and experience what the alpine backcountry skiing has to offer in our region and because life is better when you are in good company, I wanted to do this trip with my girlfriend & our dog. Meet Cynthia & Gustav! The spot on the radar: The Chic-chocs mountains in Gaspesie. We prepared ourselves with an AST1 Course early in the season and analysis of the approach & terrain of each mountain in the Gaspesie National Park. Thank to the APP Ski Haute-Gaspésie that give so much information’s and you can also use it in GPS mode to find the official skintrails & descent hallway.

There we go. It’s early February, it recently dumped 25 to 40 cm in the mountains, the conditions are at their best. We checked the Avalanches & Weather Forecast, loaded the Van of food, water, gear and hit the road for a 6-hour road trip. The route become quite scenic when we left the Trans-Canadian highway and reach the route 132 along the Saint-Lawrence River. This road is famous during the summer but let’s say it can be quite hazardous during winter. We get excited when we reach the small village of Saint-Anne-des-Monts, which is the entrance of the Gaspesie National Park. The view is insane while we drive on the sinuous road between the mountains. At this point, we have no more signal. No cellphones, no internet, nada. Just us, our small house on wheels and the white mountains.

We spent two days at a mountain called Mount Lyall. Well parked at the entrance of the skin track, we made our basecamp in the parking thanks to SEPAQ that allows autonomous Camper to stay in the parking for 25$/day. A dry toilet Cabin is at our disposal if required. We had amazing conditions, beautiful weather and even manage to bring Gustav with us for a descent in the treeline. What a nice experience, we felt so grateful to be out there together and enjoy winter at his best. Let’s be honest, winter in the east can somehow be challenging. Trip like this, certainly reconciles us with those ‘’Quebec winters’’. Oh... and speaking of ''challenging'' did I mention that it announces extreme cold during our journey? Well, Environment Canada has issued extreme cold warnings that covers most of the province with wind chills expected to be between -38 and -42 degrees Celcius. Not worried, we build our van for it, but we knew we were not going to go snowboarding in the backcountry in that temperature, let’s say that it would not be safe or even fun.

So, before this major polar vortex hit us, we spend another day in a mountain called Hog’s back. Same basecamp setup, different terrain. We did two laps on this mountain, but the conditions were a bit more challenging when we reach the Alpine terrain. A crust of ice covered the entire alpine territory which made the terrain unstable and difficult to cross. We then decided to stay in the treeline limit and managed to find some powder again. The highlight of the day was the encounter with a Caribou, a first for us! We were extremely lucky since this species is endangered. What a beautiful creature!

The next stop of our trip is a small village called Murdochville. This old mining town reborn from its ashes and has become the hub for backcountry skiing and snowmobiling in East Canada. We wanted to see this place, somehow sticked in the 80’s by its architecture and see what it has to offer. We parked the Van at the Chic-Chac resort wich has a ‘’Vanlife’’ space and offers access to showers and more... After a well-deserved shower, we spoiled ourselves with dinner at the Chic-Chac headquarter. This place is famous for parties and hosting events!

The next day we walked the town and finally went for a lap on Mont Porphyre. Being located just outside the northern limit of Murdochville, this mountain allows residents and town visitors to ski directly from town. As the day progresses, temperature drop every hour and strong Northwest wind is picking up. We checked the forecast and there were no chances of doing any outdoors activities for the next two days in this ridiculously cold weather. We ended up driving in a polar vortex blizzard for 6 hours at 25 mph but managed to reach my friend’s house and spend the coldest night still comfortably installed in our van. Let’s just say that the webasto heater has run like never before.

We spend the cold weather playing card games and drink hot chocolate next to the fireplace at my friend’s house.

I conclude on this quote: ‘’Winter forms our character and brings out our best.’’ Better enjoy it? #Exploremore

[vavuska]

Totally confirm: a bus driver assaulted me because I *dared* to suggest him using turn signal, if he wanted have right of way at stop signs.

Then, when I was in high school, a bus driver abandoned me and my friend on the roadside, because we were only two and he randomly decided to go out of service.

In middle school I had both two amazing bus drivers (one of them was also a part-time snowboard instructor to me and my friends) and... well, a known child abuser.

bus drivers are never neutral they are either heaven sent or deeply evil to their core