#and i’ve been finding it hard to draw the past week because i find it a chore to copy the style due to perfectionism

[horse-head-farms]

i’ve decided to change up my style a bit! expect a little inconsistency over the next few art posts

@hermitrarepairevent gay people for you

[flippedorbit]

god i wish i was somewhere else

[goblin-enjoyer]

Man I need to get a new mousepad soon.

[rosesareredrosa]

There's a Difference

Mattheo Riddle x fem reader

Summary: Mattheo thinks he is not worth it and thinks he will hurt y/n because of his past but y/n doesn't think so shes ready to take a risk

w/c: 924

You shouldn’t love me.

Mattheo’s voice was laced with a mix of defiance and resignation as he spoke the words that had been haunting him for weeks. The dim light from the torches cast flickering shadows across his face, accentuating the hard edges of his jaw and the turmoil in his dark eyes. He stood just a few feet away from you, his usual confidence faltering as he forced himself to look away.

You crossed your arms, refusing to let him slip away so easily. “Well, why not?”

He didn’t answer immediately, his gaze fixed somewhere over your shoulder as if he could find an escape route hidden in the stone walls of the Hogwarts corridor. The silence stretched, thick with the weight of everything unsaid, before he finally turned his attention back to you. There was a vulnerability in his eyes, one that he rarely let anyone see.

“I’m not worth it,” he admitted, his voice barely above a whisper. “All I’m going to end up doing is hurting you.”

You could hear the sincerity in his words, the fear that drove them. But you weren’t one to be easily scared off, especially not by Mattheo Riddle. The boy who was always so confident, so untouchable, now stood before you with all his walls down. You took a step closer, refusing to let him push you away.

“Is that a promise,” you challenged, “or are you just afraid?”

The question hung in the air between you, daring him to confront the truth he was trying so hard to deny. Mattheo’s jaw clenched, his fists tightening at his sides as he struggled with the emotions he usually kept locked away. No one had ever called him out like this before. He was used to people either fearing him or idolizing him, but you… you were different. You saw right through his carefully constructed facade, and that terrified him more than anything.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he finally confessed, his voice thick with emotion. “But that’s all I know how to do. It’s in my blood, Y/N. It’s who I am.”

You shook your head, refusing to accept that as the end of the conversation. “That’s not who you are, Mattheo. It’s who you think you have to be. There’s a difference.”

His eyes searched yours, looking for some sign that you understood the darkness he carried, that you knew what you were getting yourself into. “You don’t know what you’re saying. My father… the things I’ve seen… the things I’ve done…”

You took another step closer, until you were standing directly in front of him, your eyes locked onto his. “I know who you are, Mattheo. I see the way you fight against what you think you have to be. I see the good in you, even if you don’t.”

His breath hitched, the walls he had spent years building up around his heart beginning to crumble under the intensity of your gaze. For a moment, he let himself believe that maybe, just maybe, you were right. But then the fear crept back in, reminding him of all the reasons why he had to keep you at arm’s length.

“Y/N,” he started, his voice shaking, “I can’t let you get close. If something happened to you because of me…”

You reached up, gently cupping his face in your hands, forcing him to meet your gaze. “I’m not afraid of you, Mattheo. I’m not afraid of what could happen. What scares me is the thought of you shutting me out, of you letting your fear dictate your life.”

He closed his eyes, leaning into your touch as if drawing strength from your words. “You’re crazy,” he muttered, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

“Maybe,” you replied softly, your thumbs brushing over his cheekbones. “Or maybe I just see something worth fighting for.”

Mattheo’s eyes fluttered open, and in that moment, the battle within him finally reached its peak. He could keep fighting against his feelings, pushing you away until you had no choice but to give up on him, or he could take the risk and let himself be vulnerable, let himself love you the way he so desperately wanted to.

Before he could talk himself out of it, Mattheo closed the distance between you, capturing your lips in a kiss that was both tender and fierce, as if he was pouring all of his fear, his hope, his love into that single moment. You responded immediately, your hands sliding to the back of his neck, pulling him closer as if you could hold him together by sheer force of will.

When you finally broke apart, both of you were breathless, but the tension that had been hanging over you was gone, replaced by a sense of calm that neither of you had expected.

“I can’t promise I won’t hurt you,” Mattheo said quietly, his forehead resting against yours.

You smiled, your heart swelling with a fierce determination. “Then we’ll hurt each other. But we’ll also heal together.”

He let out a shaky breath, his arms wrapping around you, holding you close as if afraid you might disappear if he let go. “You’re too good for me,” he whispered.

“Maybe,” you teased, a smile playing on your lips. “But you’re stuck with me now.”

Mattheo chuckled, the sound rich and warm, and for the first time in a long while, he allowed himself to believe that maybe, just maybe, he was worth it after all.

[vampkittyxoxo]

Hello there!!!!

I am a big fan of your work and I was wondering if it would be possible for you to write romantic relationship hcs for draco? Any pronouns are welcomed and appreciated!

Of course, I do hope not to pressure you! Please do take your time! And of course, if you do not wish to do this request, that is perfectly alright!!! 😁

-🌮

(btw sorry if my request is incoherent😓)

Thank you all for your requests!! I’ve gotten many people asking for Draco!

And may I say thank you for all the compliments!! You are all so sweet!!

I wasn’t sure if the unlabeled requests wanted romantic or just general hcs so I wrote both.

This is also my third time writing this because tumblr keeps refreshing the app if I even change the app for a second, so sorry if this feels rushed!

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

Draco romantic/general headcanons

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

~ Obviously, his favorite genre is metal. That doesn’t mean he likes all metal though— he can’t stand sludge metal or glam metal. However, he loves power metal and alternative metal!

~ I’d assume he’s around 23-24 in age, given that he had to have had time to build up his audience and find his sound.

~ Draco would be a bit on the tall side, maybe around 6’3-6’5 (roughly 190-196 cm). He has a nice build that comes naturally from a fast metabolism.

~ Admittedly… He really wants to start drawing. However, Draco thinks he’s too old to start now, so he opts for doodling dragons and wyverns in his free time.

~ Draco has quite a special interest in dragons… and of course, the obligatory hyperfixation on Wings of Fire in middle school. I mean, it was bad. He was telling all his friends about it, made every class project somehow correlate to Wings of Fire, and even wrote... fanfiction.... granted it was terrible considering he was 12. (I am not speaking from past experience with warrior cats.... no....)

~ He has a pretty decently sized vocabulary. This is mostly from reading lots of poetry and literature to help him with lyrics, but he is also smarter than he looks.

~ Draco has always been bad at making friends despite being popular now. He doesn't know how to talk to people for the first time and isn't sure what's all socially acceptable and what isn't. In middle school, he had a small group of four people, himself included, but he was always the odd one out. Then, in high school, he went through three different friend groups of varying sizes. It was very hard for him to maintain friendships, meaning lots of lunch periods were spent alone.

~ He was a theatre kid. I stand by this. Before he got actually good at singing, he practiced by getting supporting roles in school plays during high school.

Romantic Headcanons

~ Yes, he's popular. No, he's never had a real partner. You're what he considers his first.

~ Draco is very, very nervous at the start. The first time he saw you, even if you were dressed lazily, he was awestruck. Given his past with friends, he was very hesitant to talk to you. But God, the way you smiled at him, he forgot all about his past and made conversation.

~ While in the talking/friend stage, he gushes about you through song lyrics he writes in his journal. He would never show you or even tell you about it, though. Maybe 40 years past marriage, on his death bed he would...

~ As friends, Draco tells you about his music (if you're already not a fan... if you are a fan, that's another bullet point). If you react positively, he feels so validated and falls for you even harder.

~ Had you already known he's decently popular, Draco worries that you're only talking to him because of that fame. He obsesses over this fear for a week before finally giving in and asking for assurance.

~ He waits forever to ask you out-- he really wants to make sure you're giving signs that you like him before he does anything. And when he does, he doesn't make it a huge deal. After he takes you home one night, while saying your goodbyes, he pauses to ask if you would be his partner. When you say yes, he has to contain every ounce of his excitement to not look weird or desperate.

~ At the beginning, he's very hesitant to make any big steps forward. You're his first real partner, after all. He starts small with hand-holding, then gradually works up to other forms of affection.

~ He loves touching you, though. Even hand-holding is enough to get him flustered and giggling. He cuddles with you when watching shows or movies, before you're about to go to bed, or any other time he can make an excuse to hold you (or be held by you...). He's mostly the big spoon-- he loves the feeling of protecting you, so to speak-- but he enjoys being held every once in a while.

~ His main love languages are physical touch and quality time. Considering he probably gets gifts all the time from fans, gifts don't mean anything super special to him as it would to most normal people. He does appreciate it when you praise him or reassure him that he's not a bad person/musical artist/etc.

~ Draco will take you on every tour he goes on-- if you want to come with him that is. If you decide to go, he'll show you around every town you stop in, spoil you with good food and small presents, and make sure your trip is just as fun as his. Obviously, you get right up to that barricade at his shows.

~ He would discuss this with you first, but if you were comfortable with it, he would totally bring you up to the stage so you could sing the backing vocals for a song. He would introduce you as his partner (sorry to the other fans in the crowd... sorry Edgar...) and he would make sure the crowd likes you.

~ If you decide to stay home, he's facetiming you every chance he gets. He would probably set his phone up somewhere on the stage so you can watch the show as well. He misses you lots and lots and lots whenever he's away.

~ Draco has definitely written a few songs about you. He just prays you two never break up, because some are his most popular songs...

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

This is all I can think of right now... if I ever come up with more I'll make a new post. Requests are open <3

[kywaslost]

Hello! How are you? I hope things are getting better for you, at least a little bit. Is it okay if I can get Aizawa with a student reader who holds their breath when they cry? It’s a habit that I’ve had since I was little and I have no idea why. You can choose whether it’s a scenario or headcannons, I don’t mind at all! Thank you so much! Remember to take care of yourself xoxo

Watery Breaths - Aizawa

A/N: Hi! I’m doing alright. I think I’ve pushed myself a bit too far the past few weeks and am now suffering the consequences, but that’s alright. I hope you’re doing well! Take care of yourself as well! And for the sake of this fic, UA had the dorms before Bakugou was kidnapped. Sorry this is so rushed, it’s been a rough day <3

It first happened when Aizawa was sent to the hospital after the USJ attack. Much like his other students, you stood by his bedside when he was well enough to have company. Several of his students were crying, mostly tears of joy, but none of them held their breath like he thought you were doing. He didn’t think much of it though

The next time it happened was when Bakugou was kidnapped. You were there to watch him be taken away from you, and you did nothing about it. Or, at least that’s what you were telling yourself. Except you didn’t start crying until Aizawa placed a hand on your shoulder to lead you back to safety. You immediately began to sob as he gently pulled you away from where you last saw your best friend.

Not much later you had stopped making sounds, but AIzawa could feel how hard you tried not to cry. You had momentarily stopped breathing. He thought it was because of the intense scent of smoke surrounding the camp so he didn’t say anything until he got you and the remaining students back to UA where you’d be safe and sound.

You didn’t sleep that night. In fact, you didn’t even go to bed. When you returned to UA you settled into the corner of one of the couches, curling into a ball and burying your face into your knees as you began to cry again. You were left alone as your classmates dealt with this trauma in their own ways. Some went to wash away the day in an extremely long shower while others returned to their rooms to be alone.

You were still crying when Aizawa returned to the dorms late into the night. He was startled to still see you in the same place he had left you. Slowly, he lowered himself beside you as he pondered how to comfort you. That’s when he noticed your strained sobs again. It sounded almost as you were holding your breath.

“Y/N,” he said gently, placing a hand on your shoulder. “Take a deep breath. I’ll do it with you.” Aizawa inhaled deeply, encouraging you to do so as well. You nodded, drawing in a shaky breath and then exhaling it, breath quivering. But then you held your breath again.

Aizawa was unsure why you kept holding your breath. You couldn’t be embarrassed, he’s seen you aggressively burst into tears over the ending of a TV show you were finishing late one night in the common room. You weren’t afraid to cry in front of your homeroom teacher. So why are you sounding so strained now?

“Honey,” he cooed softly. “Keep breathing. Stop holding your breath.”

“I’m sorry,” you choked out as you took another shaky breath. “It’s a habit I’ve had ever since I was little. I always hold my breath when I cry.”

Aizawa smiled slightly as he ruffled your hair gently. “Well, stop it. You’re going to make yourself light headed.” He then proceeded to lead you through a few breathing exercises to calm you down. He made sure you were alright before escorting you up to your room to turn in for the night.

Now that he knows that you force yourself to stop breathing everytime you cry, Aizawa’s got more breathing exercises on hand to help you breath again. All you have to do is find him :)

[bullet-prooflove]

All About You: Dean Archer (Part 2)

Tagging: @kmc1989 @mandy426 @helsinkibaby @hufflepuffgirl

Sequel to All About You (NSFW)

Dean pulls out all the stops tonight. He brings home dinner from your favourite restaurant, he runs you a bath. He even turns off his cell phone and yours, because tonight, he doesn’t want any interruptions. He’s taking care of his wife come hell or highwater.

Dean lowers the lights in the bedroom, he’s old fashioned and prefers dimmer switches because he likes to set the mood, it helps to settle him after a long day. He’s clad in his bedtime clothes, a navy blue t-shirt and pyjama bottoms.

When you step out of the bathroom you’re wearing the peach silk robe he bought for you on your honeymoon. Your skin is flushed from the heat, you look happy, relaxed, content. It occurs to him that this is probably the first time you’ve done something for yourself over the past few days, you’re always taking care of everyone else. The families of the people you have on your table, your interns and him, you’re always taking care of him.

He's already warming the massage oil between his hands, he noticed you were a little stiff when you’d finished ruining him this morning. He knows you carry a lot of tension in your shoulders and your lower back.

“I promised you I’d look after you tonight.” He tells you before tilting his head towards the bed.

“Lucky me.” You say as you allow the robe to slip from your body.

“No.” He says with an appreciative look. “Lucky me.”

It’s been a while since he’s been able to admire you in your full glory. The last couple of weeks your love making has been hurried and rushed, he doesn’t mind a quickie every now and then but he misses the sensuality that comes with being with you completely.

You lie on your stomach and Dean straddles your hips, distributing his weight into his knees. He starts at your shoulders, the heel of his palm pressing against the knot underneath the curve of your shoulder. You moan at the sensation and that sound, Christ, he’s hard already.

His hands sweep lower, massaging, caressing, teasing until your making those sweet little noises, the ones he loves to hear.

“Turn over.” He murmurs as he shifts off you. He picks up the towel he set aside, using it to wipe his hands as you do as he requests.

He takes his time loving you, his lips brushing over your skin until your fingers thread through his hair and your hips arch against his mouth. You’re close, so close he can taste it, his tongue delves lower, thrusting inside you and you fall apart completely. He coaxes you through it with tender, gentle kisses that draw out your orgasm before he works his way back up your body.

“I missed that.” You murmur as his lips trail over the curve of your throat. “I’d almost forgotten how good you were with your mouth.”

“We can’t have that.” Dean tuts as his thumb chases over the line of your jaw. “I’ll just have to find a way to keep reminding you.”

“How about we focus on the other thing I’ve been missing?” You tease as your fingertips trail along the waistband of his pyjamas.

“Oh.” Dean smiles against your skin. “I think we can certainly focus on that.”

Love Dean? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[20thcentwriter]

Get him back [Michael Gavey x OC]

Chapter One- When Edith Met Michael

Word count- 1.2k

Cw- swearing

Vaguely proofread

A/n hello everyone, welcome to chapter one of my series. I don't consider myself a great writer but I hope you enjoy this series I have planned. I kinda have no clue what I'm doing really and any tips and tricks would be very helpful. All I know is that I'm excited to discover the relationship between Edith and Michael.

Also apologies for this chapter being kind of short. I just wanted to establish the breakup between Felix and Edith and have her meet Michael. It will get more interesting

“You’re breaking up with me?!?” Edith can’t believe what she’s hearing

… Well maybe she can a little bit but it doesn’t mean she thought this would really happen.

“Umm…Ed… yeah. You know we’re both going to uni in two weeks.”

“Felix Catton don’t you fucking bullshit me. you and I are both going to Oxford.”

”Okay umm…” Felix brings his hand to rub his chin. “ it’s just that this whole past year I’ve been so great and understanding about your boundaries regarding sex but I thought by now we’d have already done it though. I don't think it’s going to work.”

Through breathy laughter Edith can’t help containing her anger “Wait- So what you’re telling me is that you are done with me because I'm not ready to have sex and you’re horny ?!?!”

“That's pretty much the case, yeah.”

”You know what Felix Catton, I can't believe I thought you would ever be understanding.” Edith starts, heels turning to walk away so he couldn’t see the tears whining to spill. “You fucking suck and fuck you!!!!”

“What a fucking asshole,” Edith mutters under her breath peering out the window of her room. She shakes her head looking at a completely okay looking Felix Catton chatting and laughing with other popular rich kids who some Edith use to call “friends” .

The term “friends” would frankly be a loose term for Edith because they were more of people she hung out with because she was dating Felix, they weren’t true friends. she’s never exactly had a true friend.

Eddie knows he doesn’t deserve anymore of her feelings towards him but it’s hard. All she wants to do is scream and cry, telling Felix that he’s so pathetic.

Edith knows she can’t, all those other girls would come right after her, saying she’s jealous and desperate. how could he just break her heart and be completely okay? He’s most likely even moved on already.

Taking her eyes off from her ex, Edith flops onto her bed with a groan. All she wishes to do for the rest of the day is sit on her bed and read her book, draw in her sketchbook and maybe play her guitar. She’s aware though that she has to go to the dining hall tonight. Edith hasn’t been able to eat all day as she’s been moving in.

The idea of having to potentially sit near a perfectly fine Felix makes her want to gouge her eyes.

It's also her luck though that she’ll be stuck with some maths loser who forces you to answer sums, showing off how smart they are. If she were to compare the two she would take the maths loser but still not ideal.

Completely done with reality, Edith grabs her ipod, headphones and sketchbook off her nightstand and drowns out the world with music and drawing until she has to leave her room.

This is just great. I don't have to sit next to Felix but I also can’t find a seat in the first place. Edith can’t help but comment in her head, walking the dining hall in hopes of a spot to sit.

In a way she did luck out but she doesn’t know where to sit. That thankfully for Edith isn’t long lasting as she finds an open seat next to a boy with dirty blonde hair and glasses. Not thinking to whom she might have to converse with, she quickly walks over and sits down desperate to begin eating.

As she's eating, Edith can't help but feel uneasy and like someone to the right is staring into her soul through her ear. She looks up to the right and piercing blue eyes fill her vision. she whispers an awkward hi and smiles at the very strange boy and he in return moves his eyes down to her messenger bag.

Edith’s bag is decorated with little doodles that draws on it when she’s bored. The boy quickly turns his head away from muttering something under his breath that Edith didn’t pick up on but knew couldn’t have been nice.

What an ass.

The feeling of uneasy and bitterness doesn’t die the more she sits next to this guy. It was also not exactly possible to find a new seat either as the only other open seat was across from him and somehow for Edith that would be even worse. She feels bad for whoever would be sitting across from him

Like the universe reading her mind, another boy around her age with dark brown hair and glasses, who after struggling to find a place in the dining, eventually seats himself, somewhat reluctantly. right across from the strange boy.

The two boys stare at each other in silence for a few minutes, the brown-haired boy also clearly uneasy like Edith. it was the other boy who reach his hand out though to the brunet to introduce himself and Edith finally learned this strange boy’s name

”Hi I’m Michael Gavey”

The other boy accepts Michaels outreached hand and Edith learns his name is Oliver Quick. The boy begins to converse with one another. The last thing she got by fully eavesdropping was Michael asking Oliver if he was also a Norman no-mate too.

Not really interested, Edith turns her attention back to her half empty plate. the quicker she finishes the faster she can leave and not have to be in the presence of this Michael Gavey.

Even with half eavesdropping and half ignoring the two. Edith slightly laughs to herself as Michael tells Oliver even though he doesn’t like math, he is some math genius and to ask him a sum. Oliver clearly uncomfortable and telling Michael he’s fine and that he doesn’t need to ask him a sum

Edith though couldn’t expect was was to come out of a now agitated Michael.

“ WELL ASK ME A FUCKING SUM THEN!!!”

Jesus fucking christ Edith curses to herself while the whole dining hall quiets at the sudden intrusion of loudness. Among the same surprise, She is also intrigued and she smirks knowing something that would give her a little happiness asking Michael.

Before Oliver could clear the embarrassment he's feeling at Michael's sudden outburst, Edith interrupts. “What's 34+35?”

The attention of the boys are turned on to Edith as she smiles as Michael answers but then realizing what sum she asked, face turns to annoyance at the question, clearly knowing she is taking the mick out of him.

“Haha, very funny….” Michael’s voice trails waiting for a name

“Edith Pemberton and you said to ask a sum”

“Well Edith Pemberton i don't think I was talking to you Ms.” I'm wasting my money on an vapid arts degree”

“How fuck do you know what I'm learning.”

“Lucky guess based on how you're dressing and your… interestingly designed… bag.”

The gull this guy has to judge after literally yelling at someone to ask him a sum.

“Well Mr “I think math and science is better than the arts” you're wasting your money on a subject you don't really like so guess who's money is really wasted”

“Well at least I'll be making money post grad How about You? Oh wait Probably not.”

“Wow Michael Gavey you deserve a Nobel prize for solving the meaning of life!! Making money!!” sarcasm spilling from Edith’s mouth, not wanting to let this guy win.

Due to the bickering fight Edith and Michael were having, either of them failed to realized Oliver used it as a way to escape the situation

“God you're such a cunt Edith Pemberton.”

“Takes one to know one bitch.” a smirk reappearing on her face as she picks up her now almost empty plate and bag to leave a now bewildered Michael Gavey.

Taglist- @fan-goddess @iamavailablesstuff @callsignwidow

[bicayaya]

as of now, i’m on a semi-hiatus.

under the cut i’ll talk a little about this decision. it’ll probably be a long post and it’s basically a vent, so pls don’t feel pressured to read it.

maybe all i say here will sound confusing, specially because lately expressing myself in english is being very hard. but i’ll try to make some sense.

well, there’s two main reasons why i’m deciding to do this. first of all, ever since i went on a semi-hiatus during may/june, i feel that i’m unable to be 100% back on this account, like i lost my place here. i always felt anxious and nervous about interacting, but somehow it became even worse after being some time away from tumblr. this is no one’s fault (probably just my own), but i can’t help but feel disconnected from the rest of the fandom. which makes me sad, because there’s a lot of people here who i really like and who i miss interacting with more. but in the past few weeks, every time i thought of interacting, something kept blocking me, i felt like i had nothing to add to the conversation and that no one would even care about anything i could possibly say (again, i’m aware that this is mostly my anxiety talking and no one’s to blame for me feeling like this other than myself). this feeling of rejection made me even avoid opening the app some days, because seeing others interacting made me feel even worse about my current lack of social skills.

the second reason is the fact that creating is not bringing me any joy right now. again, a fact that makes me really sad, because i love drawing, i love my ocs and i still have a lot of ideas i would like to share. but the process of creating them isn’t being as fun as it was a few months ago. i had a conversation about this with my psychologist recently, and she made me realize that instead of using my free time doing something i was in the mood to or resting, i was forcing myself to do the things i thought i had to do. i still love art, and i don’t plan on giving up on it, but maybe i should try focusing and trying different hobbies for now. because lately all i felt while trying to create was frustration, and i don’t want to ruin something i love by associating it with bad feelings. and honestly, if i can’t create, i feel like there’s nothing for me to even post here.

these two reasons are also connected to the fact that i’m not on a good mental state right now. i won’t elaborate much, because these are personal matters that i don’t feel comfortable sharing here, but i’ve been feeling down and anxious most of the time. this makes me feel like an awful person, which makes me avoid talking with others because i fear being bad with them (and consequently makes me avoid any kind of interaction, like i said before), and not keeping touch makes me feel even worse and i just keep constantly finding myself in this cicle. my routine is not the healthiest right now either, which i think might be making everything worse.

i’m not happy making this decision, but i think it’s necessary because i’m not happy with how things are right now either. there’s still a lot i would like to share, specially involving my ocs, but i just can’t do anything right now.

even with all of this, i don’t want to lose contact with the friends i’ve made here. you’re all very precious to me and always showed me a lot of kindness and support. if anyone wants to reach out to me for any reason, i’ll still have my tumblr notifications turned on, so you can dm me or send me messages on discord (same username as here). the only posts i’ll be checking out are the ones i’m tagged, so if you want me to see something that you think i might like, feel free to tag me! i’m sure i’ll be happy to see it.

you can also still send asks for me or for my ocs (in this or in their blog). i don’t know if i’ll be able to answer them quickly, as i still have a few old unanswered asks, but i’ll try, specially if it’s something important.

and, something important: i still plan on doing the requests i received on my birthday event. i think it’s unfair to everyone who joined to ignore it and i want to keep my word. but i can’t promise when i’ll post them, because i’ll probably take longer than usual to finish any drawing.

i guess that’s all. please take care everyone, if you need me for anything (or just want to reach out) you know where to find me! hopefully this decision won’t last long.

my intro/masterpost

[sailtomarina]

Yes or no

They’d been dancing around one another for weeks.

The tension that had built up and nearly combusted in Potions working together as partners continued to bubble beneath the surface, threatening to spill over in their study sessions. Hermione supposed she had Madam Pince’s ever-watchful eye to thank—never in her wildest dreams would she ever risk her library privileges to distractions like Draco Malfoy.

Admittedly, he made for a lovely distraction.

She asked herself for the millionth time what had possessed her to invite him to study with her. Hermione could barely think every time he leaned over her shoulder to peer at her notes. She thought he’d be cold, what with his general paleness and the haughty manner in which he’d always carried himself. Instead, close proximity proved him warm in a way that made her want to lean in and soak him up skin to skin.

Would his hands be silky soft, or calloused from years gripping a broomstick? Would his hold on her be firm, or gentle?

He kept sitting next to her so he could shuffle his chair close as they shared texts and checked each other’s work. In the instance that she arrived after he had already settled in and she tried to sit across from him, there was always some excuse preventing her from taking a far seat. Either he’d have his legs kicked up, or his bags would be strewn across the chairs, or he’d get up to search for another text, only to return and settle in right next to her. Once in place, Hermione couldn’t find the willpower to put distance between them.

Before she knew it, being close to Draco was as natural as reaching for pumpkin juice at breakfast. They shared a natural harmony in and out of class that already rivaled the pace she’d taken to get to that point with anyone else.

Maybe if they’d lived in another reality without all the prejudice they could have become friends much sooner. Who knows how close they’d be by this point if that were the case?

The tip of her quill snapped after a particularly hard jab at her parchment, prompting her to curse loud enough to draw Pince’s glare.

“Sorry, sorry,” she muttered, nodding apologetically. With an annoyed sigh, she cast a reparo at her battered instrument.

“How many times have you repaired that by now?” Draco mused. He eyed the battered end in a way that had Hermione flushing in embarrassment. 

“Does it matter? I’ll fix it as many times as necessary.”

“Yours looks like it’s on its last legs.”

She paused to inspect the quill more closely, taking in the slightly crooked nib, the chewed up feather tip, and the worn-away color from where she gripped it.

“I suppose I should have a backup in case the spell finally gives up.”

“You could—” Draco paused to clear his throat before continuing, “I mean, I would be happy to accompany you to Hogsmeade this weekend.”

She must have stared at him in shock for just a beat too long, because pink bloomed in his cheeks as he squirmed in his chair in a distinctly un-Malfoy-like way.

“I just thought you’d like a replacement and I’ve been wanting to go for a while now and—”

“Are you asking me out on a date?” Hermione blurted out.

“I…I suppose that’s what some people might call it? It’s not like you have any obligation to indulge me, and actually there isn’t any rush, you absolutely don’t have to go if you don’t want to. I promise I won’t be offended if—” he continued to babble on, now Howler red.

“Draco.” 

His mouth clicked shut, wide grey eyes fixed on hers.

“Are you asking me out on a date—yes, or no?”

She watched him struggle to speak, mouth opening, then closing, throat bobbing as he swallowed and shut his eyes before opening them up again, determination setting in.

“Yes.”

One word never sounded so sweet, and Hermione wanted nothing more than to jump and squeal in all the ways she would have rolled her eyes at in the past.

Another tiny part of her, the one with a mean streak a mile wide, wanted to make him repeat himself.

“Then ask me officially.”

Their homework forgotten, the presence of all others in the library fading away to nothing, Hermione and Draco stared at one another in their own bubble, every breath heavy with intent.

“Hermione, would you go on a date with me to Hogsmeade this weekend?” he said slowly, enunciating each word carefully.

For the first time since they’d started working together in class and studying together in their free time, Hermione turned directly into his space. Both legs pivoted around to slot between his own as she held him steady in her warm gaze.

“I would love to.”

Watching his face transform was a memory Hermione never wanted to forget. What started as a somber plea flitted to hope as she faced him, almost immediately tilting up into unabashed joy that lit up his entire countenance.

The weekend couldn’t come fast enough.

WC 852

Cross-posted on Tumblr and AO3

Twitter prompt “yes or no” from DramionePrompts

This short is a bit of a successor from another Twitter prompt of mine, “Don’t tell me it’s over.”

[doodlecircuitredrawn]

Guys!!! I did it!

In like a little more than an hour. I literally JUST finished this!!

I’ve been cooking up this thing’s premise in my brain for WEEKS!!

Will I write for it? Yes.

Will it be now? Haha! Absolutely not!! I know when to limit myself! I’ve got like 3 whole ass fics to juggle around!! [:

Under the read more because this is very much spoilers! Also, since this is still a loose concept, whatever I write here is vulnerable to being retconned/rewritten! Be warned!

I finally learned how to draw Siff, lmfao. I forgot his cowlick on the Siff doodle page!

Introducing…

The Bell Berserker AU! After loops and loops of running around, not finding out anything… Siff essentially snaps, and in some way (haven’t ironed that out yet!) he manages to get a suitable neck piece for the bell pendant! Turns out that this pendant really WAS special!!

(Okay, this will very likely NOT be late ACT 4, now that I’ve written that. More like mid to late ACT 3 or early ACT 4, maybe?)

Due to the pendant’s extreme effects, Siff had to figure out how to Craft themselves a new weapon over tons of loops (it was super difficult, do you think this rogue knows how to do anything besides slice up enemies, detect traps, and pun?)

Now Siff has another problem… How will he adjust his Craft to accommodate this thing? He’s never used anything other than blades for fighting before!

Exposition over! Here’s his design (for now.)

Let me know if it’s hard to see, I’ll alpha lock the layer and recolor the linear- (cough) sketches!

Also, let know what y’all think, I was so impatient to get this out that I couldn’t move past the sketch stage and decided to make my cleaner sketch layer 100% opacity, lmao. (As if I didn’t practically turn it into lineart by cleaning it up more-)

I just had to get it out into the world, I guess!

So,,, enjoy! [;

[ashwithane]

happy 5th anniversary, fire emblem three houses!

i didn’t have time to do anything super elaborate, but i’m glad i could at least make some simple drawings of how i looked when the game released vs how i look now. i tried to give them a similar vibe to the in-game portraits haha

rant below about my feelings right now because there’s a Lot to say! content warning for mental illness and childhood trauma 🫠🤙

as you can see in the drawings, i’ve come a long way in the past five years. when three houses first released, i was a deeply insecure high schooler who never dared to speak up or express themself. i struggled with self worth issues and had long since begun developing ocd symptoms as a result of the fear i had that there was something wrong with me, something i couldn’t possibly know or change but that everyone would see if i made a single wrong move.

throughout high school, and my adolescence as a whole, i had a hard time connecting with people. but when i played three houses, i connected with the story, the characters, the ability to replay it again and again and always try something new, change characters’ classes and find new paired endings and discover the little details i hadn’t noticed before. i was playing three houses the weekend after covid lockdown was announced, and i remember talking to one of my friends about this cool game i’d just started my second playthrough of. we laughed and talked about the game, figuring that lockdown would only last a few weeks, and then things would be back to normal.

lockdown was difficult for me, as it was for most people. but at the same time, not going to school in person meant i could afford to let my guard down. i could afford to unmask, and discover who i was when i didn’t spend every moment in fear of what others would think. and so when lockdown ended, i started college still timid, but somewhat more familiar with who i was inside.

and then, one day, a thought hit me out of nowhere.

“am i trans???”

and thus began the journey of self-discovery that was my first summer after college. i started using the name ashe, started using any pronouns and later switched to just they/them. i also finally got up the courage to tell my parents i wanted to get tested for autism, and came back with that diagnosis to explain almost everything i hadn’t had the words to understand before.

recently, my mental health has gotten worse. i got diagnosed with anxiety at the same time i got my autism diagnosis, but nobody told me i have ocd as well until earlier this year. things took a nosedive for me over this past school year—i stopped taking risks, barely left my college campus, barely allowed myself to put effort into social connections out of fear that i’d be forcing people to put up with me. but through therapy and medication, i’ve been working through those feelings, and the fears my brain internalized as a result of the way i grew up: feeling like something was wrong with me, but not knowing what. today, i feel pretty good! i’ve been having more and more good days, so i’m overall optimistic about what my future holds.

to bring this back on topic, fire emblem: three houses has gotten me through countless tough times, and has been immensely helpful in figuring out who i am. so in honor of the anniversary, i’d like to give a special thank you to the characters who have been the most important to me over the past five years.

ashe: i’ll start with the obvious. ashe is the character i stole my name from, so of course he will always hold a special place in my heart. in addition to that though, ashe’s earnest personality and commitment to doing the right thing is immensely inspiring to me. he proves that it’s possible to make mistakes and grow from them, that your life isn’t over after one misstep. ashe has taught me to never give up on doing the right thing, and being the best version of myself i can be.

felix: this list would not be complete without the scrunkly of all time! obviously i find felix to be a very compelling character and fun to write, but his significance to me goes beyond being a writing muse. i’ve often thought that i wish i’d had a friend like felix when i was younger, and even now—someone who would drag me into situations i found stressful and encourage me (in his own rude way) to have confidence in myself. someone who would have stood up for me against the people who treated me like i was lesser. felix inspires me to fight for what i want, his shield symbolizing the ability to make your own choices for what and who you defend. he reminds me that there’s no glory in being a martyr, and so i shouldn’t make my well being a second priority. i love you felix and i’m sorry i put you through the horrors regularly (but not sorry enough to stop).

marianne: it’s probably concerning to say i see a lot of myself in marianne. her journey is incredibly inspiring to me, especially now as i see that the past five years have taken me along a similar path to hers. marianne starts out thinking she’s too different from everyone else to deserve a life like theirs, and condemns herself to crushing loneliness all to avoid the possibility of her hurting the people she loves. and yet she learns to live for herself, realizes that her mere existence doesn’t cause any harm, and learns to embrace her right to enjoy life. i hope to have the same strength she does, so that one day i can reach that point as well.

linhardt: no joke, i realized i was neurodivergent because of linhardt. so many of his lines and support conversations made me go “ha, he’s so autistic/adhd coded!” i made these comments repeatedly, but i also kept noticing all the little ways in which i related to him. linhardt was one of many autistic people who made me go “huh, i do that too! what do you mean that’s not normal???” his character also serves as a reminder that it’s okay to take a break once and a while, and that looking after myself doesn’t mean i don’t care about others.

if there’s one thing left to say, it’s thank you. thank you to ashe, felix, marianne, linhardt, mercedes, sylvain, ignatz, hapi, yuri, hell—my oc rowan, all the characters i’ve connected with and loved so deeply over the past five years. thank you fire emblem three houses, not for being the only reason i am where i am today, but being a major part of it nonetheless. and if anyone’s still reading, thank you for making it this far, and happy timeskip! 🎉

[gintrinsic-writing]

The brown paper bag was small and nondescript. It crinkled in Legend’s fist. 

“So?” Sky asked quietly. “What did the doctor say?”

“It’s not bad,” Legend answered with a shrug. He sounded calm despite the tension in his shoulders. Sky was immediately on edge. 

“Meaning?”

“I’m deficient in vitamin B.”

“And?”

“That’s it,” Legend assured him. “Everything else checked out.”

“Everything? Because Hyrule said—”

“I know what he said, I was there,” Legend muttered dryly. “It’s hard to forget words like ‘degenerative neuropathy’ when you’re falling asleep.”

Sky winced. “Sorry.”

Legend waved his apology aside. “Don’t be. The doctor mentioned similar possibilities, but no, it’s just a vitamin issue.”

It sounded almost too good to be true. “And that can cause…?”

“The tingling, numbness and tiredness?” Legend snorted. “Apparently.”

Sky slouched forward in relief. “Thank Hylia.” They’d been so worried the past few weeks. Legend already dealt with chronic pain issues, but lately he’d been having sensory problems even when sitting, standing, or holding a weapon. Sky had been the one to suggest that they stop in a city to find someone trained in modern medicine when potions hadn’t improved anything. “I take it there’s a medication?” he asked, nodding to the brown paper bag.

Some of the tension returned to Legend’s shoulders. “Yeah.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Legend.”

“Sky.” Legend mimicked his tone. 

“What’s the issue? Does it taste bad?”

Legend turned the bag over and dumped its contents on one of the inn’s beds. Sky spotted several small vials and syringes. “It’s a monthly injection, since my gut apparently isn’t absorbing vitamins properly.”

“Oh. Is that… bad?”

“Of course not,” Legend said quickly. “It’ll take two seconds. It’s more of a minor inconvenience than anything else.”

Sky pursed his lips. “Do you want me to give you the first one?”

This time, Legend blushed. “No. It’s just a needle. I’ve had much worse.”

“I know.”

“I know you know,” Legend griped, still blushing. He suddenly reached over to fill one of the syringes. The liquid was a pleasant cherry red. When he lifted one side of his tunic to expose his hip, Sky glanced away to be polite. Seconds passed, and Sky waited… 

And waited.

Legend abruptly giggled, and Sky glanced up just in time to see him slap his free hand over his mouth. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine! Don’t look!” Legend blurted. 

Sky immediately glanced away again. “Are you sure…?”

“I’m,” Legend stopped to giggle once more. “F-fine!” He cleared his throat, though his voice remained just shy of laughter. “I’m fine. It’s just a needle. I’m. fine.”

“You’re fine,” Sky repeated pleasantly. 

“It’s just a needle.”

“Right, you said that.”

Legend laughed. “In my leg.”

“Yes...”

“This is my leg.”

“Goddess, Legend, are you sure you don’t want me to do it?” Sky asked, finally looking over.

Legend’s cheeks were flushed pink, and his expression kept ping-ponging between a frown and a nervous grin. The needle hovered just millimeters over his skin. “No! I’m doing it!” 

Sky raised his hands slowly. “Okay, how about—Don’t do it blind!”

“Too late!” Legend exclaimed, staring at an ugly portrait on the wall as he jabbed the needle into his hip. He sighed in relief as soon as it was done, then calmly glanced down as he finished sliding the hub against his skin. After drawing back on the syringe to make sure he wasn’t in a vessel, he injected himself and withdrew the needle. “Din’s fiery balls,” he grumbled. “That sucked.”

Sky felt like he had whiplash. “She doesn't—You—”

“Glad that’s done with,” Legend said as if he hadn't made the entire experience as dramatic as possible. He capped the used needle and set it aside. “Where are the others? Is there a plan for dinner yet?”

Sky shook his head at him. “Why did you look away?”

“That was my leg.”

“Yes,” Sky groaned, “so you said.”

“I just can’t watch it go in. Gives me the heebs,” Legend told him seriously. “Once the needle’s broken through the skin, I’m good.”

“Just… let one of us inject you next month.”

“That sounds worse.”

“But then you don’t have to watch,” Sky pointed out. 

“Yeah, true…”

“You’re not going to let us, are you?”

“No chance in hell,” Legend confirmed with a nod. 

[wygolvillage]

a new year's resolution

well, as of 2024 i’ve decided i will no longer be posting on tumblr... this shouldnt be the hugest surprise since ive been pretty critical of staff, the over-monetization of the website, the site culture, and the user experience for the past year and gradually reducing my time spent scrolling the ol’ dashboard- ive even mentioned my intent to eventually leave; well, that eventually is now! gradually ive found myself analyzing the effect that using tumblr for 7+ years has had on me, and the effects of social media in general.

ive never had to write a goodbye letter like this before. while ive joined and left several online platforms over the years, its always been a gradual fade in interest rather than a conscious decision to stop. never have i used a platform as long as ive used tumblr, over 1/3 of my life. ive grown up with tumblr, for better or worse. how do you write a goodbye for that? i guess ill have to try my best. because as important as tumblr was for me, ive recognized the way its hurt me too.

finding other avenues of online self-expression particularly has made me think a lot about this. when i edit my website i feel accomplished, happy, and content, feeling i have put something of myself out into the world, my seed to grow and garden to tend. when i scroll through tumblr i feel as if my brain is mostly idle, and when i do emotionally respond its often out of anger or annoyance, because anger = engagement and social media sites like tumblr WANT engagement. particularly because i have OCD ive found myself upset by certain aspects of tumblr discourse culture, as well- it is basically the Scrupulosity Website and much of the way i react to and interact with media has been colored by my years spent absorbing the viewpoints of said Scrupulosity Website! i even used to look up discourse topics on tumblr just to anger myself on purpose, which is a dangerous road to go down, to build up Enemies and Factions in your mind- this is how discourse culture works. the culture of tumblr teaches you to see the world in black and white, and to feel like youre always in danger of compromising your moral purity or being attacked by the morally impure. If You Don’t Reblog This You Are A Bad Person. even as someone who nowadays tries to stay away from discourse entirely, its still there in the back of my mind, because the way we interact on this website is colored by this. when im online i dont actually want to be angry all the time! in fact i like putting my effort towards more positive stuff. but additionally: tumblr made me unhappy but it also made me an addict

and yeah social media addiction sounds like a silly boomer thing to complain about but one thing i noticed when i started trying to curb my time spent on tumblr was that opening the site was damn near compulsive. we all know those “open tumblr, close tumblr, open tumblr again immediately after” memes but that did describe my behavior pretty accurately. the draw and allure of social media feeds is powerful, if i accidentally click the youtubes short tab ill find myself a half hour later scrolling through random shit i don't care about and asking well how the hell did i get here? i dont even like that stuff! tumblr is no different no matter how much the site tries to coast on the reputation of being the last social media that's a “remnant of the old web” and “has no algorithm”. i like my chronological dash but it is equally as addicting to scroll through the thousands of people ive followed over the years, as it is to scroll through the algorithmic feeds of youtube shorts, because that's just social media!

and kicking addiction is pretty damn hard. before 2023, i made two separate attempts at reducing my tumblr usage and both fell through within a week due to that addiction. for reference this current bought of thoughts about reducing my tumblr usage and making my online/irl balance more healthy, around the start of 2023 when i began working on my website and its taken me an entire year to wean myself off of the hellsite, bit by bit. theres a point where it stopped being a conscious act, and even as i was carefully whittling down how often i use tumblr with extensions like leechblock i still had that compulsion go off multiple times every day, its a really strange feeling. but now that ive found so many more ways to express myself online, i just feel more whole now... i guess what im saying is that when i post on tumblr my first instinct is to complain or wallow about something, when i post on my own handmade blog on my website i always want to talk about things that excite me or make me happy! and its been such a tangible change in the way i think and act and im certain its because of the way social media and tumblr have their own “societal expectations” and structure that is built to feed on this negativity loop.

and a lot of the biggest shifts happened when i began immersing myself in the ideals of the web revival, while creating my own website. finding things that genuinely interested me and niches i want to occupy made me so much happier. i know we make a lot of jokes about having mutuals we never talk to that mean the world to us and i do think that is indicative of something. like, when i post on a forum full of strangers i am engaging with more “face to face” (or the digital equivalent) communication than i do with years-long mutuals. how genuine are these connections, this dashboard, the enjoyment i got from that meme post ill forget in 10 minutes? (not to say that i don’t genuinely care abt my followers and mutuals. ykwim?) i can still get all the things i enjoy out of tumblr in a more curated form via rss feeds; ive been so much more proud of what i post and create and code on my website. what am i here for? i gradually realized that i am losing absolutely nothing when i “miss out” or block tumblr on my phone or what have you.

since starting working on my neocities site ive felt so much creative drive. ive created whole interactive essays and worlds and games and writings and so many things i could never host on social media. my website is a place of my very own, and ive been learning the value of focusing on what i put out into the net compared to what i take from it. its made me feel so much more fulfilled when i spend time online.

and let's not forget about staff. i have broader issues with how automattic in particular has gone about running the site. the ads only took up more and more of the dashboard, and every month it felt like there was some new paid feature doomed to never take off. all while the user experience gradually degraded. using the site without browser extensions to fix the ui and block the ads and tumblr live and all the other shit they threw all over the place makes it look like its ridden with viruses, and i think the fact that its become so normalized to feel like we have to stay in spaces that become increasingly hostile to us, even while the internet is so vast, is really strange (i mean, i also thought that way at first). but Anyway. so much time and effort was spent on features no one liked or wanted in some desperate attempt to get a little extra money, while staff members get in public fights with users who complain about getting monetization shoved down their throat. its so openly pathetic. the merch store had mostly mediocre designs and the digital tumblrmart is absolutely full of useless digital goods with free alternatives. considering this is a userbase that gladly donates to other sites donation drives for hosting costs (i.e. ao3, wikipedia, internet archive), i am shocked that staff never considered the obvious answer of a fucking donation drive once a year or so! the ceo telling people with concerns about the ads being unsafe for epilepsy to “just pay the ad free subscription” is one of the most disgusting things ive ever heard from someone officially representing such a platform. do not be fooled by the reputation tumblr has cultivated: all that it cares about is making money from you. tumblr is “in danger” because it can't turn a profit- because a profit is all they care about!

so why stay here when im happier elsewhere, apart from the addictive compulsion? that's what ive been thinking through for nearly a year, realizing that i have no reason to, and that weaning myself off of the addiction is in my best interest. i can create and blog and have fun online and connect with others and follow other peoples work all without the need for tumblr anymore! and i think id be all the healthier for it.

over the past year ive truly fallen in love with the internet again and ive loved putting myself out there, unrestrained in ways i havent felt since i was very young. but nonetheless ive learned a lot on tumblr, ive had some of the worst and best experiences of my online life, and i dont doubt that i would be a much different person if i had never been a tumblr user for as long as i was. but i had to break out of this shell eventually.

i keep going over this wondering how i can express every feeling in my head, how i can word everything just a little better, how i can make the perfect goodbye. but i think this will have to suffice.

you can still keep up with me online here:

-explore my website: i keep it consistently updated and im always adding new things and writing new posts on my blog! you can even speak to me directly on the site! if you sign my guestbook or use my chatbox ill try to respond :) if theres anything on this list you do id like it to be this one! i worked hard on it! you can even send me chat messages on my homepage! just keep in mind it may not display everything right on most mobile browsers, but it should be mostly navigable...

you can also subscribe to my rss feed. if you don't know what rss is, it allows you to use a feed reader to keep up with updates from sites all over the internet! my rss feed will notify you whenever ive made a new post on my blog or made an interesting edit on my site id like you to take a peek at :0 convenient, right?

you can also email me at wygolvillage@gmail.com to message me directly. if you prefer im also “wygolvillage” on discord

thank you and happy new years :) thanks for seeing me off as i sail to a new sunrise <3

[theriu]

River Reads Midnight Sun

Chapter 3: Risk

In which Ed struggles with his Plot-driven feelings and Bella is almost squashed like a bug.

<-Chapter 2

(NOTE: So it occurs to me that I’ve not been clear about how hard Edward has been working to do the right thing these past couple chapters. While he has his faults, Edward and his vampire family have sworn off eating or killing humans, and he very much does NOT want to kill and eat Bella, morally speaking. He’s struggling against unusually strong vampiric urges her smell is setting off in his system, and the question of whether he should run away from his Found Family and avoid Bella for her safety, uproot his whole family from their current home if they choose to go with him, or face and overcome this trial, the face of whom the Plot has unfairly branded onto his brain. Also, Alice and Carlisle have been very supportive yet sensible, and I love them unironically.

Okay, got that off my chest! Now we can get back to mocking the teenage angst!)

So the opening scene of this chapter is genuinely nice, in my opinion. Edward and Dad Carlisle go hunting together (deer, because this family only drinks animal blood), and we get a little review of Carlisle’s concern and understanding a week ago when Ed had to leave (including how he let Ed take his car). Carlisle seems a genuinely good person (and a doctor) who fully supports Ed doing whatever is necessary to stay sane and keep from taking a life, even encouraging him to leave if that’s what it takes (despite how much they would miss him). He checks with Edward that coming back isn’t just about Ed’s pride. He’s even openly willing to go with Ed and start over somewhere else if it will spare a needless death while letting their family stay together. +100 Dad Points, Carlisle gets an award for top tier dadding.

Of course, Ed can’t quite put into words for Carlisle WHY he is now so determined to stay, other than it not being pride anymore. This is probably because it is difficult for a protagonist to describe the irresistible pull of The Plot on his affections and sensibilities. The scene changes as they go gallivanting into the woods, and Ed, now fat and unhappy on deer blood, chills by an icy river and spends more time pondering why he cares so much about this girl and why he is risking her life by staying.

I find it hilarious that HE keeps noting how his feelings make no sense. Why does he care about this girl? What about her draws him to her? Why is he unable to think about anything but her? GREAT QUESTIONS, ED! IF ONLY THE ANSWER WASN’T “YOU’RE IN A PARANORMAL ROMANCE”! The poor boy doesn't know what powers he is truly struggling against, even as he considers such self-aware drivers as his “obsessive curiosity” and “unsatisfied appetite.” However, he DOES decide he is going to follow Carlisle’s advice and leave after one more day, because he DOES want to be responsible and selfless! A fruitless determination, no doubt, but let’s give the guy some credit: That was a valiant effort to resist the unstoppable hands of plot-fate.

When he goes back to the house, he chats with Alice, who once again foresees him planning to leave. She doesn’t want him to, and NOT for romantic reasons but out of genuine sister/friend love. They have a moment of mental movie time watching her highly scattered visions about him, wherein she predicts his life is at a crossroads. He makes a joke about her sounding like a carnival fortuneteller, which is actually a good jab, well done Ed. He and Alice go get ready for school, with her still openly sad that he might leave again and making sure he knows she will miss him if he has to go. ALICE AND CARLISLE ARE REALLY NICE OKAY, HUZZAH FOR LIKEABLE CHARACTERS

Off they go to school! During which drive we learn Rosalie and Emmett are sickeningly in love, which…did NOT seem apparent in the first two chapters. Seriously, they've barely interacted onscreen so far, and Ed only mentioned that Alice and Jasper are a thing, so these two staring adoringly into each others’ eyes felt a bit outta left field. Turns out the other six vamps in this family are paired off in sweet adorable couples and Ed is the self-proclaimed grumpy old man, which amuses me greatly. Of course, Singleness Is Bad, so naturally Ed will find his soulmate, even if The Plot has to ram feelings of attraction for her down his cerebral cortex!

As the others head into school, Ed and Alice hang out by their car to watch Bella drive into the parking lot. Bella is obviously very nervous about snow-driving, which Ed realizes must mean she is Serious and Responsible. Ed finds her worry and Bambi-like clumsiness on the ice endearing, and notes when her snow tire seems to make her emotional. (???) 

Ed is working himself up to possibly go talk to her, which would be unwise and bad probably, when suddenly Alice has a VISION OF DOOM!!! In SECONDS, a van will come careening into the parking lot, and Bella will be CRUSHED LIKE A BUG!!! Woe!!! Calamity!!! Convenient!!! (Seriously, what are the odds someone would have a life-ending car accident in THIS school parking lot with ACTUAL vampire students watching, and of course the target is one vampire’s new obsession? I don’t care what the OC shows have taught us, fatal car accidents on school grounds are NOT common enough for this.)

So Ed ROCKETS into action, SWOOPING her out of the way in the nick of time! But oh no, the van is bouncing back towards them again! He’s risking exposure already, but dangit, this homicidal vehicle shall not take the girl! Edward grabs it and is slammed back, leaving a nice imprint of his shoulders on another car for his trouble. And NOW he’s stuck holding the van up because if he lets go, Bella will probably lose her legs under the tires.

Ed is so done with everything by this point, resulting in my favorite line of the book so far:

“Oh, for the love of all that was holy, would the catastrophes never end?!”

(Dangit, Ed, why can’t you always be this relatable)

Fortunately, between supermanning the van and Bella into safer positions and panicking over Bella having bonked her head on the ice, he’s able to resist his homicidal cravings, even when he tucks her neatly against him. Now he notices she is alert and seems mostly okay aside from the head bonk. To his consternation, however, she immediately asks how the heck he got over here so fast. Ed lies like a professional and badly wants to get her to Carlisle, who has ACTUAL medical experience as opposed to Ed’s “theoretical medical study” (so that answers the question of how useful Ed’s two medical degrees are). 

Despite them lying under two vehicles on ice (and Bella complaining that it’s cold when he won’t let her try and crawl out because she could have a neck injury, which YES THAT IS A REASONABLE CONCERN BELLA), Bella chooses this time to call Ed’s bluff. She is DARN CERTAIN he was OVER THERE and NOT right next to her, and Ed is NOT convincing her otherwise. He finally gets her to shush by promising to explain it later, all the while plotting to use her possible head injury to gaslight the heck out of her and everybody else into believing he was definitely standing right beside her and didn’t practically teleport.

People finally get the van away from the trapped duo, and Ed knows the registered nurse who pops up. He discloses Bella’s head injury to said nurse, and Bella acts BETRAYED, reminding Ed that she likes to suffer in silence, to which I say BELLA, POSSIBLE CONCUSSIONS ARE NOT THE KIND OF SUFFERING YOU DO IN SILENCE!!! The girl needs her head checked in MULTIPLE ways!

As Bella is humiliated over enduring standard medical care after an accident, Ed uses his foot to rearrange the reverse sculpture of his shoulders in the other car. Then Bella’s dad, the chief of police, shows up, justifiably freaked out, and Ed realizes how accurate it was when Alice said killing his only daughter would kill him. (AWW!!!) Ooo, ALSO, Ed notices Charlie Swan’s thoughts are a little hard to read! Not as much as Bella’s, but it seems this cerebral lead lining against mind radar is genetic? And here he thought Charlie was slow in the head! (Ed gets +2 points for noting that HE (Ed) was the slow one for assuming that and never noticing he actually just couldn’t hear Charlie’s thoughts clearly.)

Anyhoo, they get to the hospital, and Ed keeps a mental eye on Bella via the paramedics while he finds Carlisle. He’s ashamed he might have revealed their secret, but Carlisle is just proud of him for doing the right thing and saving the girl’s life. THEY HUG! Carlisle is the BEST, guys!!! 

After a chuckle about the irony that Ed ended up protecting the girl he was afraid he’d hurt (and Ed quietly angsting about how likely he still is to hurt her), Carlisle goes to check on Bella. Ed fidgets and watches Hospital Brainwaves TV for a while, so despite the agonizing wait, he has plenty of entertainment. Tyler, the van driver, is hurt bad and feels horrible that he almost smashed Bella, and won’t stop apologizing. To Ed’s relief, Bella is sticking to the story Edward gave about his standing right next to her, even though Tyler also didn’t see him. Ed hears Bella say his name for the first time, via Tyler’s thought-ears (???), and wishes he could hear it with his own ears! He also notices Tyler thinking about asking Bella on a date to make up for the near-death experience, and that is somehow so VERY dumb and also feels accurate to how some high school guys might think, so I can’t really argue with it. Ed, naturally, continues to struggle with the realization that his understanding of his own emotions is nowhere near as comprehensive as he’s believed for the past century.

Ed and Carlisle soon have a brief chat over Bella’s X-rays; she’s fine, although Carlisle notes how many healed fractures her skull has and jokes about how often her mom dropped her as a baby. (No, the jokes are too easy, I mustn't. He’s already claimed the best one anyway.) Ed goes on ahead to smooth things over with Bella, who is impatiently pretending to sleep in hopes Tyler will stop apologizing. She also manages to be pouty that Ed didn’t also have to endure the humiliation of a stretcher, be impatient about being asked about her head again, and deny to Carlisle that her head bump feels tender. Ed, who isn't at ALL influenced by his inexplicable sense of attraction to this girl, determines that because she doesn't like to show weakness, she is Brave. I might argue that she is showing more signs of being a self-focused pity-partyer who thinks she knows better than medical professionals and has low tolerance for petty annoyances, but who am I to disagree with the male protagonist?

Bella is released to go home with her dad, which she…doesn’t want to do? Is it going home or being with her dad that bothers her? Between being annoyed at Tyler for his understandable (if repetitive) remorse, being annoyed Edward didn’t have to be fussed over by hospital staff like she did, and apparently not wanting to hang out with her clearly concerned father, she isn’t doing the best job of earning that Selfless tag Ed gave her last chapter. She’s also highly embarrassed that, as Carlisle puts it, “most of the school seems to be in the waiting room.” Ed, on the other hand, is pleased he guessed her reaction correctly. (He’s also envious that Carlisle can touch her like a normal person and not be tempted to eat her like Ed is, but he doesn’t make it awkward. Apparently different vampires don't find the same human hyperdelicious, which is definitely a positive.)

Naturally, Bella is determined to talk about what REALLY happened before she goes home. Ed, once again gripped by the struggle of not eating her, agrees to talk it out in private. It’s time for Vampire Gaslighting! He’s determined to be mean and a jerk and make her disbelieve her own senses (despite aching for her to trust him), and then he will disappear from her life forever. It starts out pretty well, with him being cold enough that she drops her tough girl act. However, she’s still pretty dang determined and reveals just how much SUPER WEIRD STUFF she DEFINITELY NOTICED, like him leaving dents in multiple vehicles but being fine as sunshine!

Ed’s getting a bit nervous at this point and doubles down on the dismissive act, but then she startles him by saying she’s not going to tell anyone. Regaining his footing, he wants to know why it matters, then. She says she doesn't like lying, so she’d rather know the reason why she’s lying for him. I’m given brief The Princess Bride vibes as Ed essentially tells her “get used to disappointment.” 

They scowl at each other for a bit, until finally she, once again more annoyed than self-preserving, wonders why he even bothered to save her. To which he gives what he feels is his first honest reply of this conversation: "I don't know." With that, he ends the discussion by walking off dramatically, as one does.

AND SCENE!

I'd say this chapter was more interesting than the last two! Carlisle is a gem, I am ALWAYS down for a positive and supportive dad character and I will fight for this compassionate good-humored doctorpire. The exposition was SLIGHTLY less focused on Ed’s INNER TURMOIL thanks to the action scene, but don’t worry, there was still plenty of inner turmoil. Bella continues to act contrary to the definitions Ed labels her with, although I can kinda respect her refusing to be gaslighted and standing firm on what she knew she’d seen. Despite Ed’s numerous declarations that today would certainly be the last day he sees her, however, I do not hold out much hope for his success.

As we leave this chapter, here’s my recreation of the “small list” Edward is reportedly keeping of Bella’s character traits! I sure can’t wait to see what else gets added in the coming days!

Ed’s Questionable Bella Vocab List:

Advanced (See Also: Intelligent For A Human)

Selfless (See Also: Martyr)

Fascinating (See Also: Interesting, Not Like Other Humans)

Discerning (See Also: Intuitive, Perceptive)

Amusing

Serious

Responsible

Brave

Chapter 4-> (Coming Soon)

[solalunar-eclipse]

Sonic Boom - S3E20

Chapter title: Unknown From M.E. (Part Two)

Summary: Now that the team has found this strange "Master Crystal", there are a lot of questions that need answering. Unfortunately, they'll only have so much time to figure it out, because they've been followed to the island by somebody else…

AO3 Link

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[This time, the episode starts with the intro sequence! Once again, the individual character introductions and team shot all stay the same.]

[After that, a series of red, glitchy squares appear, growing rapidly in number until they fill the screen alongside a static-filled droning noise.]

[Everything cuts out.]

[After a few moments of silence, the title of this week’s episode appears on the screen. Then, the episode begins.]

“Chaos,” Shadow swore. “It’s the Master Crystal!”

Everybody else immediately whirled around to stare at him. “The what?!”

Shadow’s eyes were wider than any of them had ever seen before. “The Master Crystal. An incredible force, existing to balance and control the eight Chaos Crystals. With it, someone could potentially neutralize their power, at least temporarily. It was presumed to have been lost for centuries, even back…in the past.”

“But that doesn’t explain why it’s sitting here, inside the island where Knuckles apparently grew up.” Amy put her hands on her hips, clearly demanding an explanation. 

“I don’t have an answer to that.” Shadow folded his arms. “Like I just said, even the Ancients knew nothing about where this crystal might have been.”

Tails stared up at the android, eyes bright in an otherwise serious face. “Is this entire place—like the whole chamber—is all of that the Master Crystal?”

“I believe so, yes.” Shadow looked around the cavern once again, still mildly stunned himself at the sight of one of the few mysteries that had managed to stump even the most honed of Ancient minds. “But I am by no means an expert. Knuckles, do you know anything about this?”

The echidna shook his head, his shoulders sagging. “I never even knew my parents. I didn’t have anyone to explain this to me—I mean, I didn’t know this was here until just now!”

Sticks tapped Knuckles on the arm with their boomerang, drawing his attention. “Well, every ancient civilization has some kinda clues about what they were like, right? We just gotta look around and find ‘em!”

Sonic grinned, beginning to jog in place. “Sounds like a plan to me! Let’s see what this cave is hiding!”

The rest of the team gave each other a single nod in agreement, before spreading out to hunt for any potential clues. Once they actually started looking, it became clear that the cavern was a little more complex than they’d originally thought. There were various niches in the walls, some appearing more naturally formed than others. In addition to that, Tails soon discovered that the most massive stalactite of all pointed directly down to the center of the floor, which seemed…oddly intentional for a crystal. (Then again, this was no ordinary crystal.)

Before long, the others were all called away from their searches by Knuckles, who had begun exploring many of the niches in the walls. Once they’d all made it to the opening, located about a third of the way up the wall, they found a medium-sized room, large enough to fit about double their team comfortably. Nine spaces were worn away into the floor. 

“These look like how the sand does when I’ve been sitting in it for a while.” Sonic mused aloud. “You guys think these are like, some sorta seats or something?”

“This could be a council’s meeting room, perhaps.” Amy studied them a little more closely, before her attention was drawn to the faceted walls of the space. “I think there might be some scratches on the walls, but it’s hard to make out with the way they’re glowing. Does anyone else see those?”

Tails squinted at the wall, running his hand along it lightly. “I can kind of see them, and I can definitely feel them. I could probably get my Miles Electric to give the wall a scan and then project the marks so we can see them more clearly!”

He motioned for everyone else to stand back, before hovering in the center of the room and slowly rotating his device as it scanned every inch of the walls. Once he had finished, his scanner beeped—and then proceeded to map out the markings in blue holographic light all around them.

They weren’t just scratches at all. They were pictures. Precise, geometrical lines marked out a series of images that were near-invisible to the eyes and almost impossible to understand via touch alone. 

First came a picture of various different species living together in apparent harmony, in an area that resembled a massive yet technologically advanced garden. Shadow spoke up about this one, his voice quieter than normal, as though he would disturb the creator of these images were he to speak too loudly. “That looks like an Ancient garden that I learned about once. It was the first time that the early Ancient civilization had managed to create technology that worked with nature instead of against it…but as with many first attempts, it turned out to be a failure, and its ruins were left as a monument to the mistakes made. I never got to see it, of course, but there were photographs.”

The next image showed the garden growing larger…and larger…and larger, eventually close to covering an entire continent. And the leader of it all—the one with a shovel in one hand and a set of wires in the other—was an echidna.

In the third image, certain plants, the most beautiful and ornate, were being kept in the garden, while simpler wildflowers were being thrown out to the point where they risked vanishing altogether. Similar things were happening to the animals, now that some species were no longer necessary to maintain equilibrium in the ecosystem.

Then, two echidnas were depicted arguing. One was defending the unwanted plants and animals, while the other one stood in support of the garden. But suddenly, both of the echidnas fell, and were instead replaced by—

—something else.

It was growing out of the perfectly organized, perfectly ordered garden itself, but it wasn’t a plant or an animal. It was depicted as a simple square, which expanded and turned everything around it into more squares. A group of echidnas appeared, banding together to destroy their once-perfect garden and release the previously unwanted species back into the ecosystem. The echidnas built a massive device that sucked the square into the Master Crystal, but not before the square absorbed many of their own. 

After that, the echidnas left the Ancient society and came to the island that the six heroes stood upon now, where their numbers slowly diminished as time went on. They watched over the Master Crystal despite this, which was depicted as containing the square. 

And that was where the images ended.

“But…what does that all mean?” Tails asked, staring at the images his device showed.

Shadow rubbed at his face, sighing quietly. “In summation, the Ancients pushed too far. They tried to create a perfect world that suited their needs…but in doing so, they began to erase too much of the natural balance in favor of an artificial one. Chaos energy thrives on that natural balance, and it began to dissipate as the Ancients continued their terraforming. Some argued that the project was too dangerous and needed to stop, while others thought that the lack of Chaos energy was a small price to pay for a perfect world. But as Chaos faded…

“…something else clearly rose up to take its place.

“The echidna who had designed the garden was part of a tribe that had only recently attempted to join Ancient civilization. That tribe helped contribute to a great deal of advancements, but especially this garden—likely why most left together to guard against the evil. They must have banded together to stop the force released by their previous leader’s meddling, sealing it inside the Master Crystal at great cost to themselves. Then, they retreated from Ancient society and went to go watch over the Crystal in order to ensure that this power would never be unleashed upon the world again.”

Silence hung over the room for a long moment. 

“Man, it sounds way too stuffy when you say things like ‘in summation’. Never do that again.” 

Shadow’s gaze snapped over to Sonic so fast his face blurred. “Why in the name of all eight Chaos Crystals is that what you took away from this?!”

Knuckles grinned. “I appreciated it, the mood needed some lightening after all that.”

The android walked over to the nearest wall, leaning forward and pressing his forehead against it. “Just when I think I understand all of you…”

“Really, Knuckles, are you sure you’re okay?” Amy asked. “This seems like a lot to learn all at once.”

Knuckles shifted in place awkwardly, his eyes trained on the floor. “I mean, it’s a really sad story, and I’d always hoped I’d find other echidnas somewhere, but…at least now I know, y’know? It helps to know that my parents probably didn’t mean to leave me alone—even if the alternative is that apparently I’m part of an endangered species, I guess.”

Tails hid a small smile behind his hand. “Wait, does this mean that your house counts as a protected habitat now?”

“You have to get a certification for that kind of thing, Tails.” Amy facepalmed, but couldn’t quite manage to stifle her own amusement.

“Bold of you to assume I can’t forge a certification for a friend!” the engineer shot back.

“For-ger-y! Forgery! Forgery! Forgery!!” Sonic began to chant, Sticks joining in as well.

“Chaos, please have mercy and obliterate the pitiful dregs of my conscious mind.” Shadow pleaded, smirking despite his attempt at maintaining a serious tone.

At that, everybody laughed at least a little, and though none of them noticed, the Master Crystal seemed to glow just a little bit brighter in response.

Unfortunately, they were all interrupted when Knuckles abruptly began clutching at his head, grimacing slightly. “Knux? What’s wrong?” Sonic asked, dashing to his friend’s side.

“The Master Crystal’s freaking out—I think somebody else is on the island!” Knuckles gasped.

As soon as he’d finished speaking, one of the crystalline facets on the wall flickered briefly…before displaying an image of Eggman landing on the island. He appeared to have created some form of jet plane attachment to his Eggmobile (similar to the car he used in the village races), from which he released at least a hundred badniks, if not more. 

The entire team turned to their echidna friend. “This is your home.” Sticks said, her eyes flashing with determination. “What do you want to do?”

Knuckles grinned and held up his fists. “We’re gonna smash his robots, and then we’re gonna get him off my island!”

All six of them yelled in agreement, before racing out of the chamber and back the way they’d come, following Knuckles’s lead just like last time. They burst out of the side of the mountain as it shut behind them, ready for battle in poses that honestly looked awesome in slow motion.

Tails grabbed his older brother’s hands, swinging him around and around into a top-speed spindash that tore through a good five badniks all on its own. Sonic uncurled, landing low to the ground in a fighting stance, and yelled, “Hey Egg-breath! You haven’t even conquered Seaside Island yet, whatcha doing all the way out here?”

“Ohoho, I could ask the same of you, Sonic!” the doctor declared. “Is there something interesting on this island that I should know about?”

The blue hedgehog swiped under his nose, smiling smugly. “Psh, and here I thought you were a genius. Is your brain too smooth to figure it out on your own?”

Tails abruptly burst out laughing at that—so hard he almost fell out of the air, as a matter of fact. 

“Enough of this ridiculousness!” Eggman barked. “Robots, attaaaaaack!”

All six heroes charged into the fray, doing an excellent job of smashing badniks, as per usual. Sticks and Sonic had some fun passing the badger’s boomerang back and forth, while Shadow used his Chaos attacks to help Tails cover the rest of the team in the air. Amy’s hammer strikes left deep indents in the earth when she missed and piles of scrap when she didn’t, while Knuckles blew through entire groups of badniks with all the force of a freight train.

As a matter of fact, while Amy and Knuckles were usually at about the same power level when it came to heavy-hitting strikes, this time Knuckles was visibly dealing much more damage than the hammer-wielding hedgehog.  It quickly escalated to the point where his punches were practically emitting explosions as he plowed through robot after robot. He felt perfectly in tune with the very island itself, its power surging through him in a way he had never noticed as a child, because back then, he’d never known a life without it.

When he first realized this, he simply beamed and redoubled his efforts, but then, as he jumped up to deliver a particularly devastating drop punch—

—a massive green shockwave exploded out around him, leaving an entire crater in its wake.

When the dust settled, Knuckles brushed his hands off proudly…only to hesitate when he saw the particular smile that Dr. Eggman was wearing.

“Oh.” he muttered. And for a moment, he could have sworn that he almost felt the Master Crystal have the exact same reaction.

“So there is something special on this island! I knew it!” the doctor cried, his smile so wide it practically stretched past his mustache. “Badniks, search the area!”

The team quickly set about smashing all of the robots they possibly could with a newly frantic energy, shouting to each other as they fought to keep any from traveling out of sight. Despite their best efforts, however, a group of Motobugs broke away from the rest, tearing towards the forest at top speed.

“Sonic!” Tails yelled, kicking a Buzz Bomber in the side and pointing frantically. “They’re getting away!” 

“Ames, cover for me!” Sonic called, already dashing off into the undergrowth in pursuit.

Unfortunately for the team, however, the hole Sonic left in their defenses was just enough for one little badnik to escape their notice.

Double unfortunately, this particular badnik was a Burrobot.

Triple unfortunately, the Burrobot immediately set about digging into the ground on the side of the battlefield closest to the mountain.

Once it had fully drilled into the dirt, its hole no longer registered as a threat to the team, and so they simply fought around it. Even while Eggman panicked as his badnik supply began to run low (and screamed in an astonishingly high pitch when Sonic returned and roundhouse kicked the remnants of his Motobug force directly at him), it searched for the direction where the bewilderingly powerful energy source might be coming from, and dug towards it until it finally hit solid rock.

Then, it transmitted all of this information back to the Eggmobile.

By this point, Eggman had already been seriously considering just cutting his losses, fleeing back to his Jet Attachment (he was never letting Orbot name things again), and rattling off his usual “I’ll get you next time!” spiel. However, even as he began to inch warily away from the six heroes, he noticed that he’d received an information packet from a single stray Burrobot. 

He tapped on the notification, blowing the data up to full size—and rapidly regained his grin once more. 

“It would seem that you have failed to destroy all of my badniks!” he declared, before letting out a laugh that was more than worthy of the description ‘evil’. “So…how about I drill into this mountain and see what I find inside, hm?”

He immediately threw his hovercraft into full reverse, leaving the team yelling after him as he rushed back to his Jet Attachment. By the time Sonic and Shadow had recovered from their surprise and reached him, he had already morphed the attachment into a drill-car that he had, though he would never confess as much, gotten the idea for after playing a certain Tomatopotamus game. 

Just as the two hedgehogs tore towards him, curling up into twin buzzsaws of metal-shredding power, Eggman stomped on the accelerator and blasted forwards into the mountain. He cackled with delight as rock flew all around him, forcing Sonic and Shadow backwards lest they get injured by the debris. 

It was only then that the rest of the team appeared, letting out gasps of horror at the sight before them. Shadow snarled, attempting to throw a Chaos Spear after the doctor—but the energy infusing the island was much higher compared to what he was used to, and so the spear was rather more powerful than intended.

This would ordinarily be a good thing, but in this particular case, it just blew away more of the mountain in addition to the back plating of Eggman’s drill…which sadly did nothing to deter the front from pushing further into the rock.

“If we can’t stop him digging, we at least gotta protect the Master Crystal!” Knuckles cried, his voice audibly straining under the stress.

Shadow set his jaw, folding his arms so tightly it almost looked like he was hugging himself. “I can try to harness the energy from the Crystal to teleport all of us back inside it. That should ensure we can keep him from stealing any of its power.”

“Shads, that’s…that’s not gonna, like, hurt you or anything, right?” Sonic asked, for once more comfortable expressing his emotions than he was letting things slide.

“Does that really matter right now?” he shot back, raising one brow.

The resounding “YES!” from the team left him reeling backwards with its force, his expression showing just how visibly struck he was by their care.

“Very well. I’ll rest once we get there, but right now can we focus on stopping Eggman instead of my health?” Shadow held out his arms impatiently, urging the others to grab on.

“For now. Later, we’re having a talk.” Amy hissed, grabbing onto his forearm in a distinctly threatening way.

Once the rest of the team was in physical contact with him, Shadow closed his eyes, focused—

—and then they were in the cavern. 

They were just in time, too, since the sound of the drill was already making its way into the heart of the Master Crystal. The team braced themselves for battle, preparing to destroy Eggman’s machinery the second it burst into the chamber.

Suddenly, the crystal cracked. Despite the drill’s relatively small size, the entire room shuddered violently, and Knuckles grunted with the exertion of feeling the distress of an ancient power.

And then, a lot of things happened very quickly one after the other.

Eggman burst through the crystal wall, shouting in triumph as he did so…

…only to yell in sudden terror as five of the six heroes slammed into his drill, warping the metal spiral and destroying several pieces of critical technology…

…and an ear-splitting, unholy howl echoed throughout the inside of the Master.

Slowly, everyone’s heads turned to face the newly created hole in the crystal. Around its jagged edges, oozing like oil into ocean water, dripped a steady stream of buzzing, glitching red squares.

As it pooled on the floor, forming into neat and perfectly edged shapes, Shadow hauled himself to his feet—only to freeze. “That’s…that’s the thing the echidnas sealed away! It’s reawakening now that the Master Crystal is damaged!”

“So how do we fix it?!” Sonic yelped.

Sticks looked up at Knuckles hesitantly. “You’re connected to this big ol’ crystal. You think you can heal it up if we get all those busted pieces over to where they oughta be?”

Knuckles nodded frantically. “Yeah, I can, but we gotta get that stuff back inside it first! I can’t put it back in there and heal the hole all at once, it’s taking energy already just to keep this place together!” At that, Sticks leapt into action, gathering up the shards and bringing them back to the gaping wound in the green gem.

“Shadow, this stuff is the opposite of Chaos energy, right?” Tails yelled over his shoulder, and received a sharp nod in response. “Maybe we just gotta use a lot of Chaos to push it back into the Master Crystal!”

“But Shadow’s already blown out his powers getting us down here!” Sonic gestured wildly over to the aforementioned android, who was still relying heavily on the crystal walls to maintain his upright position.

Amy stepped up to the hero’s side, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Aren’t you always talking about how you can match Shadow in everything, Sonic?”

“Yeah…?” the blue hedgehog replied, squinting at her suspiciously.

“Well, with a little guidance, I’m sure you could channel the energy on the island yourself!” Amy smiled at him encouragingly, even as his eyes widened in shock. He whirled to look at Shadow, who shot him a sly smile and stumbled closer, leaning on Sonic’s other side.

“I’ll show you how. You have incredible abilities, Sonic—your speed and resilience already suggest that you have a connection to Chaos.” he said, and blue ears perked up in response.

“Okay…okay! Let’s do this!” Sonic bounced on his toes, shaking himself out before grinning confidently. “And uh…maybe make it snappy? That stuff’s comin’ close…” he muttered, eyeing the red substance uncomfortably.

“Look down at the crystal beneath your feet. You can feel the power flowing through it, yes?” Shadow said, nudging Sonic’s feet apart into a slightly more stable stance.

“Yeah…”

“Now, open yourself, and feel the power flow into you as you do so.”

Sonic felt tense for a moment as he tried to ‘open up’, hesitantly waiting to see what would happen. When nothing occurred at first, he tried to shake off the nerves by taking a deep breath—

—and that was when he felt the Chaos, flowing up through the soles of his shoes and into the very center of his body. 

He could distantly hear Shadow saying something, but he wasn’t sure what. All he could feel was the wild, free, untamed energy sparking in every single inch of his body.

And then he felt it.

It was cold, and sluggish, and everything it touched became more of it. It was, in essence, the exact opposite of him. He didn’t have to think, he just knew that this was wrong. This should not be here.

He could feel a cage already in existence, right there in front of him, but it was so slippery that it took a great deal out of him just to try and stuff it back in. It was only halfway inside by the time he found himself faltering, struggling to keep the thing from dripping back into existence. It may not have been as energetic as him, but it was persistent. So persistent, in fact, that he wasn’t sure if he could stop it…

“Sonic, you’re doing it! You’re actually doing it!”

“Sonic, you’re amazing! You’re doing great!”

“You got this, Sonic! I believe in you!”

“Don’t give up now, Sonic! You’re so close!”

“Come on, Sonic! Let’s finish this together!”

He yelled, gritting his teeth and clawing his fingers into the thing as he stomped into it with his own power, grinding it back into the crystal it had come from. He held it there, forcing it to stay as its own prison was rebuilt around it, piece by piece.

…his eyes opened.

For a moment, he saw a reflection on the newly healed crystal’s surface. Next to him was Knuckles, glowing with spirals of green light similar to the ones they’d seen on the drawings of the echidna clan and on the houses outside. 

And Sonic himself—his quills flared upwards, his fur stained in gold as though he’d been dipped in molten light. His bandages had come partly unraveled, and floated around him in some kind of invisible breeze. Speaking of floating, his toes just barely brushed the floor, his body suspended by the power flowing through it.

At first, he and Knuckles stared at each other as the Chaos energy dissipated, receding back into the Crystal along with the thing they’d just defeated.

“Knux, that was amazing!” he yelled, launching himself across the space between them in order to shake his friend around excitedly. “You just did a superhero move, man!”

“Hey, what about you?” the echidna shot back, beaming with delight. “You were flying! That was so cool!”

Seconds later, the two of them were very nearly tackled by their friends, all dragging each other into a massive group hug. 

“You both did it! Oh, I knew you could!” Amy cried, squeezing Knuckles and Sonic as tightly as she could.

Tails beamed up at the two of them. “That was SO COOL!”

“I can’t believe you crazy people actually managed to pull that off.” Sticks shook their head fondly, grinning as everyone else snickered at them calling anyone else crazy.

Meanwhile, Shadow hesitated for a moment before (in an extremely rare move) joining the group hug of his own volition. He didn’t say anything, but honestly, it wasn’t necessary. Everyone knew what he meant anyway.

After one more moment of basking in the relief of heading off a genuine disaster, Tails was the first to pull back, hovering over everyone else’s heads so he could be seen properly. “So, Eggman, you’re not gonna try messing around with this again, right?”

The rest of the team turned to face him warily, but there was no need for them to worry. “No! No no no, I deal in robots, not weird…godlike things!” the doctor exclaimed, shaking his head and waving his arms frantically. “Toying with forces I obviously can’t control would be just idiotic!”

[Cue barely-noticeable pause for interdimensional irony to hit.]

“And we can keep this between us, we don't need to tell anyone on Seaside Island about it, right?” Knuckles added.

The chorus of extremely vehement agreements that followed made him relax, even if only slightly.

“Welp! I’m ready to head home, how about you guys?” Sonic asked, lacing his hands together behind his head as he strolled towards the exit. 

Sticks was the first one to notice Knuckles’s hesitation. “You okay?” they asked him plainly.

“I don’t know…my ancestors made this place their responsibility, and I don’t want that thing getting back out. So I feel like it’s my responsibility, too. But also…Seaside Island feels more like home to me…because you’re all there.” Knuckles explained, scuffing one foot against the ground as he struggled to meet the others’ eyes.

“Knux…” Sonic reached out towards his friend, his expression lined with concern.

Before he could say anything more, though, Tails interrupted. “Hey, that’s not an unsolvable problem! I can set up some sort of transportation mechanism to let you come check in here without having to move out! And in the meantime, I’ll fly you over here as often as you want!”

“Wait, really?!” Knuckles gasped, his eyes practically sparkling.

“Sure thing! You can even help me design the blueprints for the transport, if you want.” the engineer offered.

“Ohmygosh, can we start talking about it right now?” At last, Knuckles began following his friends towards the exit, beaming with excitement all the while.

[Closeup on Knuckles’s hand as it brushes briefly against the wall of the Master Crystal’s cavern. Fade to outside, where Knuckles, silhouetted against the forest in the background, looks over his shoulder at the abandoned village where he grew up, before the camera focuses on one of the pieces of knotted rope swaying in the breeze in the foreground.

Another silhouette, this time of the team all climbing onto the plane at sunset, then taking off and beginning their flight back to Seaside Island. The final shot is of the six of them talking happily amongst each other, all clearly outlined against the golden light of the setting sun, flying over the pink-and-orange tinted ocean.

Roll credits.]