#and probably would have survived because of it

[0samue0]

The best example of this, in my opinion, is Supernatural.

For those who don't know: Supernatural was created by Eric Kripke and supposed to be five seasons long. He did get his five seasons but by then the show had become so popular that it was decided to give them a season 6 (which eventually went up to 15) - without Eric Kripke who had already told his story.

The last episode of season 5 was heartbreaking. It was one of the saddest things I had ever watched because it beautifully tied up all the love and tragedy and hope and fear of the previous seasons. They won. And paid an incredibly high price for their victory.

It way truly gut wrenching.

And I was okay with that. Because while one of the brothers ended up in hell, locked up with the prospect of an eternity of torture he did that for his brother and for us. To live. Not just survive, but live.

And thanks to the absolute fantastic storytelling, directing and acting of that episode, both the viewer and the surviving brother could make peace with it and try to live our life to the fullest.

Which was the point when the supposedly dead brother showed up on screen without any and all explanations. Never ever have I been angrier at a plot twist. Certainly not at one that saved a beloved character from a terrible fate.

What followed were 10 years of the brothers being the most codependent idiots we've ever seen on TV. Honestly, I'd say 8 of the 10 following seasons can be summoned up with: Brother A dies, Brother B does something stupid to bring him back, Brother A is pissed at Brother B and swears to never forgive him until Brother B dies and A does something stupid to bring him back. Accompanied by gay pining and much suffering for the angel.

Have you ever wished for your favorite character to die?

I have. Around season 9 I got fed up with Sam being angry at Dean and was waiting for Dean to finally bite it again so that Sam would turn normal again.

Now, that doesn't mean I didn't like season 6-15. I wouldn't have watched them if I didn't enjoy them. I've just always been salty about the wasted ending from season 5.

And then the show's finale came and oh boy was it bad. It was sad too. One of the brothers died again but got the other to promise not to bring him back. And for some reason he actually followed up on that promise.

The problem was that it felt pointless.

Prior to that we lost Castiel, the angel, to his supposedly final death, right after (as all of tumblr probably knows) he had told Dean that he loved him.

And that destroyed Dean. For one episode. All in all the plot ended with the brothers losing everyone they had cared for but each other. They had won but at this point you weren't celebrating the victory, you thought "Ok. What's next?"

The wildest part was, that none of that was in any shape or form important for the last episode. They were happy, enjoying life, eating pie, not working through their emotions at all and dying thanks to sheer carelessness. One of them. He goes to Heaven, everyone and their mothers are there, including the apparently not dead angel.

Do you think they talk to Cas? Or to the kid they had basically adopted? To their mother whom they'd dearly mourned or the father whose shadow they had finally outgrown? Nope.

I mean, thank God it was their actual Dad and not their sperm donor that greeted dead brother and explained all of the above but still. There was no closure. No tying up loose ends, not heartfelt reunion.

Just a drive in the car and a time lapse of the surviving brother's live until he died of old age and showed up in heaven the same age he had been when his brother had died.

The End.

So yeah, the difference between a good ending and a bad ending isn't the "happy". It's the heartfelt.

i hate when ppl act like the only reason to not like a "sad" ending is because you can't take it or whatever. personally as a tragedy enjoyer, i hate a poorly written ending. i hate an ending that is just kind of a bummer. i hate an ending that feels mean-spirited to the audience. i hate an ending that's redundant. i love a sad ending that is thematically consistent, poignant, and bespoke to the rest of its narrative.

[asha-mage]

BingLiuShen au where Shen Qingqiu's fevered heteronormativity poisoned brain decides that the best way to avoid dying for the crime of being a heterosexual male in a stallion novel is to pretend not to be heterosexual and thus not a threat to the protagonist's harem. He figures if he can hit that sweet spot where his (supposed! Not real at all!) sexuality is just a quirk of the beloved mentor then the narrative will have no choice but to keep him alive. Airplane might be a hack, but he's exactly the sort of hack who would put in a token gay character, then shunt them off to the background, only to be trotted out again when he's getting flack in the comments for sexist, homophobic, and/or generally shitty writing decisions.

And for Shen Yuan, whose stated life goal is to idle away the hours in luxury and occasionally bask in Binghe's protagonisty coolness (in a very heterosexual way of course!) that would be the perfect out. There's just one problem- how does he demonstrate his (definitely fake!) homosexuality without playing into homophobic tropes and getting himself killed for offending the genre's aggressively het sensibilities?

The answer? Pretend to be pinning away silently in unrequited love for another man. It's perfect! All he has to do is drop a few extremely subtle hints in Binghe's hearing implying having feelings he would never act on for say, Liu Qingge, and he'll be golden. After all, what person attracted to men (which he isn't!) wouldn't fall immediately in love with the Bai Zhan War God? It has the added benefit of proving what a good Token Gay he is by the fact that he saved Liu Qingge's life without any expectations or hopes and without ever even revealing his (supposed!) feelings.

Shen Qingqiu gets about a week of feeling like a genius after putting this plot into motion before Liu Qingge starts showing up at Qing Jing with small gifts and pastries and asking to spar, and well. In between melting down (because how on earth did he put it together from the grand total of three entirely ambiguous hints he dropped!) and trying to stay composed (because even the straightest guy- which he is!- would get flustered by having Liu Qingge smiling at him Like That) he figures the only rational thing to do is just Commit To the Bit, resign himself to one day becoming cultivation partners with Liu Qingge and retiring together into the background of future plot shenanigans. Their are clearly no other possible ways of dealing with this situation, and hey being with Liu Qingge of all people isn't bad. That's a fan favorite character and he's stupidly handsome and brave and kind! Shen Qingqiu could do a lot worse, especially in a world like PIDW. In fact given the alternatives, Shen Qingqiu's could probably consider himself incredibly lucky. Objectively that is. From a purely 'guy trying to survive this dumb novel' point of view. It would be an honor to have Liu Qingge's arms wrapped around him. If he where into men of course.

Meanwhile you have Luo Binghe in the background of every scene the two are in with a forced smile, internally speed running the '*fork in garbage disposal noises*' to 'I just want my Shizun to be happy! I swear!' to 'actually Liu-shishu is really nice I can see what Shizun sees in him' to 'oh no I think I want to be in the Middle Of Whatever That Is' arc.

(And of course, Binghe at the end of the day IS the protagonist, and after much trial and tribulation, is supposed to get exactly what he wants...)

And all the while you have Liu Qingge, utterly oblivious to the mental anguish and gymnastics of his shidi and shizi, who just keeps turning up at Qing Jing, because he really does like Shen Qingqiu and even if that first date was his sister's idea he's found he really does enjoy spending time with Shen Qingqiu, and also Shen Qingqiu's sticky first disciple who despite the crocodile tears is actually clearly pretty strong. He has no idea that Shen Qingqiu is silently picking out drapery for the future house while Luo Binghe tries to rationalize his out of control heartbeat as a completely normal side effect of the sparring match they just fought (Which he only keeps challenging Liu-shishu to make sure he's strong enough to protect Shizun! He swears!).

WIll the three of them ever figure it out and get their act together? Sure. Will they do it before the Conference/Abyss arc upends everything? Absolutely not.

[yayasvalveplay]

https://www.tumblr.com/yayasvalveplay/772324490186211328/the-miners-in-transformers-one-probably-arent?source=share

I can only think of whoever they encounter first on the surface whether that be Alpha Trion or the High Guard just laying into the rest of the group on how could they bring a carrying mech up here? Don't they know how dangerous it is?

The miners including the one who's sparked up: What. What are you talking about?

The hit of suprise parenthood to both D-16 and Orion when they were following the exact script of sire and carrier subconsciously: increased sex drive so sparkling has plenty of transfluid to grow big and strong, wanting to stick together even more than they already were, and Orion was even feeling queasy in the mornings.

Imagine having to explain to someone who's 9 months pregnant and showing that their stomach isn't just doing that for funzies, there's a baby in there.

I imagine that Optimus got thrown into sub level 50 when he was 4 months pregnant. And he and the rest of the gang survived on the surface for about 5 months.

They learned the trains were carrying energon, thanks to theirs flipping over, crashing. (D-16 curling around Orion protectively) only giving them a single box, that the 3 (Orion tried, but D-16 snapped at him that he couldn't and that he was injured. He wasnt.) carried

They spent their time walking, trying to outrun the Quintizons and the elite guards. Along the way and night cycles Dee and Orion would end up fragging, quietly as the other slept. Dee getting a 'kink' of keeping his transfluid inside Orion, and Orion always obliged.

Keeping his modesty pannel closed once they were done, saying in the morning theyd drain it, but when it came time. Nothing came out, so they just kept doing it. And soon Orions belly was getting bigger, they had to slow down, taking constant breaks, or Dee just carrying him.

And they were doing so well until.

"Hey this one isn't going into stasis lock."

"What are you doing? What have you done with them!?"

"Wouh. Calm down. We arnt going to harm ya. We just need you lot unconscious. Can't have you finding our secret- your carrying."

" I'm what?"

And this is where they find the high guard. Seekers are immediately on Orion, checking him over, doting on him, getting him a soft place to sit next to Starscream (because really that's the only place this small bot won't get stepped on) who is just looking him over worriedly.

Getting everyone else activated Starscream starts railing on them on how they've been treating their carrier. Malurished(as they had to ration, and even as Orion took more because he was getting hungrier.) And starving. At least the Sires been keeping up with the transfluid donations, but still that gives them no excuse to take this carrier out of the safety of Iacon. They have been lucky, supper fragging lucky to have been found by them and not Sentinels gang.

And it's here they learn about how crappy Sentinel is. "That can't be true."

"Want to see for yourself little one." Cue Ravage spying on them, and the feed coming back to Soundwave who gives them all the feed back.(since this is still early, not even close to the story happening. There is no fear of miners getting overworked. Yet. But it's enough to have Dee raging and wanting to fight. He still gets his fight with Starscream, but it's not violent since no t-cog.

The others learn what it I'd meant to be a high guardsmen. As Orion is supper close to emergency, they don't want to leave the safety of the High guards, so they become scouts. They also learn what sex/safe sex and pregnancy is.

When emergency day comes. Orion has the help of high guard medics. The birthing is rough but soon, there is a little protoform, wailing, cold to the new world, and when placed on Orions chassis, he holds his baby close and just cries. He's been carried in his forge for 9 months making him suffer. And he decided to look exactly like his sire.

But it truely is a happy day for everyone,, mostly.

"Hey. We got a problem."

"What kind?"

"Airachnia kind, seen very close."

"Get these mechs to the emergancy base.

Where is that. Uhh supper close to where the primes were killed.

And hell wouldn't you know. Alpha Trion is still alive. And are those bots without their T-cogs. That will not do.

Starscream? Why are you crying? Oh yes, of course big old hug. Oh and Is that a sparkling. He hasn't seen them in. How long has he been in stasis?

Alpha Trion joins the party.

[stormsbourne]

There is a pervasive idea around the critical fandom that there were only two games: Joplin, which would have been the best game ever made and had everything we wanted and been an idol of perfection, and Morrison, which became Veilguard and is a no good very bad game that did the wrong things.

This is not only untrue to the development of this specific game, which we know an unusual amount about! It is also untrue to how game dev works in general.

There were about five iterations of da4 within its ten year dev cycle and the one we know now only really came into existence ~3 yrs ago, possibly less. People talk all the time about what a short dev cycle 18 months was for da2 back in 2011 but I think people fail to understand that 3 years(ish) is a similarly short cycle in 2024 where games all take longer to make due to things like ballooning graphics budgets and expectations to have big open worlds full of stuff to do. The fact that we got something so polished, foibles and all, after a 3 year development is frankly miraculous.

This is without touching on shit like people acting like the art book is full of "cut concepts" (not how concept art works, guys) or that the stuff in there was guaranteed to survive if only Joplin had been the final version (also untrue!)

We don't know what Joplin would have been and we cannot know and people seem to have decided that means that it would have been exactly the game they dreamed about, or inquisition 2 complete with gameplay elements like the war table (briefly mentioned in the art book but implied to have been cut quite early in development), or that the social issues being glossed over in places were because of the reboot of the game and not because ea/bioware execs are withering cowards who want to avoid anything "controversial."

If we had gotten Joplin it might have been great! It might also have actually been worse than what we did get, considering that the team had to basically fucking beg execs to not do a live service game. We can't know and fantasizing about the game we could have gotten is a real "what if the world was made of pudding" situation. What if it was the best game ever made? It's not like you can play it. All you're doing is refusing to let yourself enjoy what you do have in favor of your own imagination, which is fine, but it's not an objective criticism of the game. There's no facts or objectivity in "the version I want to pretend existed was probably better."

"But Dragon Age Joplin would've been the game we WANTED-"

Dragon Age Joplin doesn't exist. Didn't exist. Never would've existed. Dragon Age Joplin was an idea, it was a collection of what ifs and concept art. It wasn't a game. If it had become a game, it wouldn't have looked anything like the concepts we see in the art book (which are very cool and pretty!). The PRACTICALITIES hadn't been considered yet. The issues around writing, casting, sculpting, animating, all the very expensive and time-consuming realities of making a game. It was just ideas

If Joplin had been allowed to continue without any of EA's interference, would it have been a better game? Maybe! Part of me wants to say probably! But we CAN'T KNOW because the game DOESN'T EXIST and NEVER EXISTED

It wasn't snatched out of our hands. It was never there! It's easy to look at ideas and fill in the blanks yourself perfectly, but it wouldn't have BEEN perfect regardless. I can promise you that

Maybe it would've been better. It also could've been worse. We will never know because the game was never real

[cross-d-a]

Jod Na Nawood’s backstory is FASCINATING!! And makes SO much sense!!! Order 66 fucked up SO much in the galaxy, it’s so interesting (and tragic) to see what it’s done to the force sensitive children who were unable to be taken into the Temple. It truly supports how GOOD the Jedi Order is. How good the JEDI are. I can’t even fully comprehend everything the galaxy lost and suffered without them. And- Jod’s master. She didn’t have to take him in. He knew that. He knows she was desperate. But she took him in anyway and taught him what she could. We only get a very tiny glimpse of that backstory but it’s utterly gut-wrenching.

Imagine the survivor of a genocide. A Jedi on the run, desperate and hungry and grieving, running into a little kid just as lost as her and seeing that LIFE in him. Feeling the FORCE in him. What would that have done to her after feeling everyone she knew and loved ripped away from her. But here is this kid and he needs help and maybe she does, too. Maybe they can help each other. And so she folds him under her wing just as any Jedi would have done. She teaches him the ways of her people, knowing that their way of life lives on in her and that she is passing it on to a new generation. And that probably hurt. It probably hurt SO much. Because she can’t give him what she could have if the Order was still alive. And he’ll never understand what it means to be part of something so beautiful and long-lasting. But she does what she can, and they maybe never would have met if Order 66 didn’t happen. And it’s an awful thought, the worst kind of thought, but she can’t help but be relieved they found each other. Because she loves this lost little kid and maybe they’re broken together, but they’re more whole together, too. And maybe without Jod she could have run and hid forever. Maybe she couldn’t have, plenty Jedi were caught and murdered. But she knew the risk and she took it- and the way Jod talks about it (“they made me watch”) makes me think that he feels he’s responsible for her getting caught. And it makes me wonder how she felt when she was caught. Knowing she was one of the last of her kind, and that this kid was going to be alone again. Orphaned in a completely new, terrible way.

And I wonder, too, if looking after the kids reminded Jod of his old Jedi Master. And maybe he thought “I can’t get attached because then they’ll catch me too and I’ll die just like her.” And you know what, Jod? It did happen that way. You got caught because of those kids. But only because you forgot what it means to be a Jedi, which is to say that after your Master died you tore out that softness within you. Abandoned love for fear. Exchanged generosity for greed. And it’s true grief and trauma changes people. That a little kid alone in the galaxy does what they can to survive. But Jod isn’t a little kid anymore and it doesn’t excuse the choices you make. It’s a wretched world, one without a Jedi, and Jod suffered all the more for it.

And I wonder, too, what Jod thought when Wim paused in the elevator. When that little kid called out to him, despite everything Jod had done to him. Did Jod look at Wim and think: “Yeah, that’s what a Jedi would be” and then hate himself all the more for it? Well, who can tell. Jod is a fascinating character and I’m excited to see where the show next takes us.

[itsnesss]

Do you write for nam gyu?

𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 | nam-gyu (player 124) × fem!reader

summary | amid the chaos of squid game, Nam-gyu shows his softer side only to you, offering rare moments of comfort before the next deadly challenge

warnings | fluff, mentions of violence, survival themes

word count | 1.8 k

author's note | it would help me a lot if you liked, commented and reposted so that more people read what I write and don't forget to follow me, thanks ᡣ𐭩

The atmosphere in the room is tense, weighed down by distrustful glances and the echo of orders barked by emotionless guards. But you've learned to make yourself small, to find spaces where the air feels a little lighter, even if just for brief moments.

Tonight, the dimmest corner of the makeshift dormitory is your refuge. Your back rests against the cold wall as your thoughts drift between distant memories and the uncertainty of tomorrow’s game. You have no idea what new horrors they’ve prepared, but the constant threat of not waking up the next day keeps you on edge.

“Are you hiding again?”

Nam-gyu’s familiar voice cuts through your thoughts like a sharp blade, but there’s something in his tone that makes you smile despite it all. You turn your head to see him approaching, hands shoved into the pockets of his uniform, an expression that mixes boredom with curiosity.

“Aren’t you doing the same?” you reply.

“I don’t hide,” he says, letting his weight fall beside you. “I’m just taking a break from the circus of idiots in there.”

You let out a small laugh, though you know he’s not entirely joking. Nam-gyu has no problem making it clear how little he cares for the other players. His sarcastic, sometimes cruel attitude keeps almost everyone at a distance.

“Sometimes I think you enjoy being the villain,” you tease, half-joking, half-serious.

He glances at you out of the corner of his eye, a crooked smile tugging at his lips.

“Maybe. But you seem to be the only one who’s not afraid of me.”

“Maybe because I know you’re not as bad as you want people to believe,” you say confidently.

Nam-gyu doesn’t reply right away. The silence stretches between you, comfortable, almost soothing.

“Do you think tomorrow’s game will be worse than today’s?” you ask, your voice trembling slightly.

“Probably,” he admits bluntly. “They always find a way to tighten the noose.”

His words should scare you, but instead, there’s something oddly reassuring about his brutal honesty.

“Did you ever think you’d end up in a place like this?”

Nam-gyu lets out a bitter laugh.

“Suppose so. When you make enough wrong choices, you end up in places like this.”

The honesty in his words surprises you. It’s rare for him to show anything beyond his arrogant front.

“What about you?” he suddenly asks, his tone softer than usual. “How does a girl like you end up here?”

“Debts,” you reply bluntly. “Not too different from most people here, I guess.”

Nam-gyu nods, understanding without needing more details.

“Look, I’m not good at this whole ‘being nice’ thing,” he admits, “but if I’ve learned anything, it’s that surviving doesn’t have to be a solo game.”

You look at him, surprised by the unexpected confession.

“Is that your way of saying we’re a team?”

He lets out a dry laugh.

“Guess so. Just don’t expect me to be nice to the rest of those idiots...”

As days pass, Nam-gyu remains an asshole to nearly everyone — except you. While he snaps at or ignores the other players, he’s surprisingly tolerant, even protective, when it comes to you.

One afternoon, when another player tries to intimidate you, Nam-gyu steps in without a second thought.

“If you’ve got a problem with her, then you’ve got a problem with me,” he says, his voice low and dangerous.

The other man quickly backs off, making it clear no one wants to cross Nam-gyu.

When you return to your corner, Nam-gyu follows, his expression still hard.

“You didn’t have to do that,” you say softly.

“Yes, I did,” he responds without hesitation. “I won’t let anyone touch you.”

Time seems to freeze for a moment. You know his defiant attitude puts him at risk, but the way he stands by you, regardless of the consequences, fills you with something close to hope.

That night, the tension in the room eases a little. The players, exhausted by the constant struggle, finally drift into restless sleep. You and Nam-gyu sit together, your shoulders nearly touching.

“You know, when we get out of here,” you begin, “we should go dancing.”

He lets out a genuine laugh, something rare and precious in this grim place.

“Dancing? You and me?”

“Sure. You said you hate dancing, but I think you might surprise me.”

“Don’t expect miracles,” he says, but there’s a spark in his eyes you can’t ignore.

“And you? Do you imagine anything after all this?” you ask softly, lowering your voice as if afraid to break the fragile moment.

“Never thought I’d live long enough to imagine it,” Nam-gyu admits. “But... maybe with you, I can.”

His blunt sincerity makes your chest tighten. You know nothing is guaranteed, not even making it to sunrise, but in this dark corner, the two of you find a fleeting sanctuary.

And though the uncertainty of tomorrow’s game still looms, here, next to Nam-gyu, a small breath of relief feels possible.

[girl-lostconnection]

Just something I’m still toying with in my head. Will continue a little later probably

Punk!Ghost x Nerd!Reader

Warnings: violence, bullying, mention of abuse, pretty vague but still a tad heavy overall

Unsweetened lemonade

Ghost who is all spikes and cigarette smoke and dark circles under deep seated brown eyes. Always so gloomy, always alone, always biting the hand outstretched to him.

In his world outstretched hand means beating. In his world outstretched hand is one fucking omen and he prefers to stay away from it.

People can’t hurt you if they can’t touch you. If you won’t let him.

Ghost never does. He’ll be dead before he lets anyone up close. He’ll be dead before anyone touches him ever again (the voice in his head snarls, the voice in his head a wounded dog, the voice in his head a rabid animal — always fighting, always choking, always clawing uphill).

Ghost is all long limbs and sharp angles, growing too fast, eating too much in a house where it’s never enough for everyone to go around. Simon sucks it up because he’s the oldest, because he can go hungry, it’s no big deal — he’s used to it.

The hunger and void of loneliness sucks open an open pit inside of him and he pushes his face harder into the pillow, choking back weakness.

Tears are weakness. Craving love is weakness. Feeling alone and cold and hungry and wanting his mom to kiss him before bed is weakness.

Weak people don’t survive what he survives. He’s not weak, never weak.

Ghost frankly doesn’t understand you — with your nose always in a book, headphones always in your ears, eyes always a little too distant. He doesn’t understand the quiet resignation that he sees on your face when someone gives your hair a sharp tug or throws mean, disgusting things — words coming out like damn filth, his knuckles whiten and it’s not even aimed at him.

Ghost doesn’t understand why you don’t fight. You don’t understand why he always does.

Fighting never makes it better, fighting means prolonging suffering. Fighting means anger, means screaming, means angry hot tears and red face and pain-pain-pain because it’s not fair, it’s never fair and it shouldn’t be like that.

You force it all back down before it threatens to spill out of you, bubbling and acidic.

Ghost’s lips curl in something very akin to snarl and you glare back. He’s all long limbs and sharp angles and heavy boots and old creaking leather jacket that he wears through all winter. Even when it’s so cold his lips turn blue.

Even when he’s shivering. Ghost still holds his head high, shoulders tense and square — always ready for a fight. Always ready to beat into the ground anyone who tries to beat him.

Never again, never again, never again

You stay silent, headphones already in your ears, but you still watch the broad space of his back. He’s lanky, he’s disproportionate and too big-too long-too much.

You wouldn’t call him pretty at all, his jawline too heavy and out, his eyes deep seated and harsh, his nose big — nose bridge crooked, sharp lines of his cheekbones look like you would cut yourself if you touched.

Ghost looks right back at you, but for some reason doesn’t snarl this time. Maybe he’s just tired, maybe it’s too cold to waist energy on someone like you but his lips are blue and he’s shivering and suddenly you can feel pulling your scarf off.

It’s a mad idea, it’s the worst thing your mind could come up with because everyone knows that Simon “Ghost” Riley is aggressive cunt with chip on his shoulder.

But you know all too well how it feels to stand outside — alone and cold, shivering because people that were supposed to protect you and warm you up — didn’t.

So you pull your scarf off and thrust it in his hands before practically running away, because everyone knows that Simon “Ghost” Riley is aggressive cunt with chip on his shoulder. And you don’t want to be caught in his fire.

You have it enough already as it is.

Simon watches you scramble away, scarf warm and soft in his hands and he wants to snarl again, wants to chase you, wants to ask what the fuck do you think you are doing. But you are already gone.

And he’s cold and he’s alone and he’s tired. Maybe that’s why he tentatively wraps warm fuzzy scarf around his neck and head, nose nuzzling in it immediately.

It feels so good he almost hates you in the moment.

It feels so good Simon feels like crying all over again.

[shafoxo]

"Arcane characters in a zombie apocalypse"

Headcannons and drabbles about the Arcane characters during a zombie apocalypse.

A/N: Decided to mix my love for zombie apocalypse scenarios with arcane :)

SFW!

___________________________________________

Jinx

Jinx would definitely be stocked up on fire power and ammunition, not because she planned on doing so of course, she simply just had them and whenever she ran out, best believe you'd find her making more.

The opposite could be said for drinking water and food. Growing up in the lanes, she was accustomed to not having enough to eat. However, seeing you hungry was something she couldn’t bear, so she would go out to scavenge for food.

You and Jinx worked together before the outbreak, and so she had no trouble trusting you with going out to scavenge for supplies knowing that you had her back.

Jinx would set traps and bombs outside her hideout to protect you. In the past, she didn't care about anyone, not even herself, but ever since the two of you grew closer, she has made it a priority to ensure both of your safety.

Jinx would also be very hesitant with taking in any new survivors seeing as how paranoid she could get.

One random day a little girl named Isha knocked on the door of the hideout, Jinx was hesistant at first but warmed up to the kid eventually.

With the little kid around, Jinx had become softer, and the three of you formed a small family together.

Vi

Vi was stuck in Stillwater when the outbreak happened and you were one of the enforcers in charge of looking after the place, You quickly set most of the prisoners free seeing as your fellow enforcers had fleed, leaving you and the prisoners to fend for themselves.

You freed Vi and she was grateful for it, in return, she had your back and helped you protect the younger inmates from the hoard of zombies.

You, Vi, and the other inmates had decided to secure Stillwater and turned the once-depressing prison into a safe heaven not just for the prisoners but for other survivors too.

she's also a huge faggot so she will survive because of the sheer lesbianism coursing through her veins. (written by: Kom4edacoded)

The two of you grew closer after the outbreak and formed a bond and a trusted ecah other so deepy that she only trusted you to ever accompany her during missions to bring more supplies to the prison.

Caitlyn Kiramman

You two were on the same patrol when the outbreak happened. You almost got bitten, but it's a good thing Caitlyn is an excellent shot and killed off the zombies that had cornered you just in time.

Caitlyn would most definitely be the most organized and well prepared out of all of them. Not just because she's rich and they probably have an underground panic room, but because she herself tend to overthink most things.

When you two are out scavenging, she would get up high and make sure she has you covered whilst you go scavenge for supplies.

She's definitely not trusting any survivors except you.

During cold nights, she'll have you wrap your arms around her just to comfort her and keep her warm. She tends to run cold.

Would definitely be able to turn almost anything into a five-star meal. You dont know how she does it, but maybe being rich has its perks.

Mel Medarda

Mel would have her own safe house alongside the other councilors.

You worked as her bodyguard during the outbreak, and so you wanted to stay with her for as long as you can

You would protect her with your life, and once during an evacuation, you were cornered by a hoard. That's when her arcane powers awakened and protected you and her.

You're all she had left... she wants to protect you too.

Don't underestimate her, she's a skilled fighter since she grew up in Noxus, and now that her arcane powers have awakened, she's unstoppable.

The two of you grew closer and closer each and every day... slowly melting her iced out heart and slowly bringing down her walls.

Maddie Nolan

You found Maddie Nolan after the outbreak. She was in her tattered enforcer's uniform and was surrounded by a hoard. Her magazine was empty, and she was fighting with nothing hut a hunting knife.

You sprung into action, helping the short red head.

She was grateful for your help and decided to follow wherever you would go, like a lost puppy

You were very hesitant at first seeing as you were a Zaunite, and she was from Piltover.

But that didn't matter to her... she was grateful you saved her life and so vowed to keep yours safe.

Eventually, you two grew close and would find yourselves buried in each other's warmth.

During a mission for supplies, you two found yourself surrounded and nowhere to go... Maddie sacrificed herself for you, saving your life... finally repaying her debt as she closed her eyes, a smile on her face.

Sevika

Sevika jumps into a seemingly empty apartment to escape the hoard of zombies below. Unknowingly, you had your silencer withdrawn and pointed it at her.

She raised both her hands up, one flesh and mechanical.

She explains that all she needed was a place to stay, and so you checked her for any bite marks before agreeing.

You two would bunker down in your apartment, and sevika would go out for supplies and come back with stuff for the two of you.

You two eventually grew close, but it did take a while... a longgg while since the two of you had trust issues.

Everyone you knew was either dead or undead... but that didn't matter now because you have her.

You two had each other... and kept each other safe.

Eventually, you two found other survivors... Isha and Jinx

The four of you would then bunker down in Jinx's hideout and eventually , you became a little family.

Maybe the outbreak wasn't so bad after all.

[baocean]

no rest for the wicked

chapter three - prison break

masterlist | next chapter

unknown: did you know your fucking dad was gonna call the cops on john b?

unknown: text sarah back and stop being a fucking bitch

you: i didn’t know ive been locked in my room for two days

you: and fuck you u have no idea what’s going on here and i can’t even leave so yes im mad at sarah for shutting me down

unknown: woah wait you got locked in?

you: my dad literally locked me in my room i can’t leave lol

unknown: um okay

unknown: give me thirty minutes

you: what?

you: do not come here jj

you: jj????

you knew jj was crazy, and had absolutely zero survival skills whatsoever, so you packed a backpack.

and even though you told jj not to come here, because both your dad and brother would probably kill him on the spot, he still was at your window frame forty five minutes later.

he’d done this plenty of times, you unwilling to let him into your house through any door, but he’d want it bad enough he’d be willing to climb up the drain pipe and into your window late at night.

you had to use hand signals to tell jj the window was locked from the outside, but he just smirked, pulling random things out from his pockets.

he worked the lock with a pick, and when you heard the click you threw the window open.

“i told you not to come.” you shunned jj in a shushed voice.

“wasn’t gonna let you be prisoner here.” jj shrugged.

“okay, well, let’s go.” you threw the backpack over your shoulder, when a knock on your door made you freeze in place.

“yn? how are you doing?” your dad’s voice called from outside.

you looked at jj, who had the same look of panic painting his features.

pushing him into your bathroom, you shoved the bag into his arms and shut the door, throwing yourself on your bed.

the door unlocked and opened, your dad peaking his head into the room.

“how are you feeling?” he asked again.

you looked at him with something close to hatred. “how do you think i feel?”

“i can’t let you out until you calm down. i don’t want you doing anything stupid.”

“anything stupid? or just telling the truth?” you scoffed.

“i have taught you better than this. do you even understand what would happen if that truth got out? i am doing this for you, yn. for our family. it is better john b goes down for this.”

“are you serious? you’re going to let an innocent kid get the death penalty?” you raised your voice.

“you know about that?” your dad sighed.

“it’s all over the fucking news, dad. i can’t believe you. over money.”

he just shook his head, sighing. “are you hungry?”

you shook your head, pulling your hoodie over your head and lying down on your side.

you heard the door close, then lock. you got up to listen for his footsteps walk away, then launched towards the bathroom door.

when you opened the door, jj had your backpack on his back, leaning against your bathroom counter, looking at the ground.

“sorry.” you mumbled, grabbing his arm and dragging him towards the window.

“i uh, i didn’t know you-” jj started to talk, but you turned your head and shook it.

“don’t. i don’t want to talk about it.” you shot at him, he just nodded his head once, pursing his lips.

jj climbed through the window behind you. in the process, tripping on one of the shingles and almost falling off the roof.

“be careful, my god.” you rolled your eyes, then realized jj pretty much put his life on the line to save you.

“thanks, by the way.” you mumbled, earning a thin lined smile in return.

once you slowly but surely, and very quietly, scaled down the drainpipe and into the bushes, you checked around to make sure there was no one outside.

the twinkie was parked down the street, the both of you booking it to the van.

slamming the doors shut, jj turned on the van and slammed on the gas, laughing from adrenaline.

you looked at him, giggling along with him. “that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever done for me.”

“you don’t think the six times in one night wasn’t nicer than breaking you out of your house?” jj mumbled, not daring to look your way.

“that’s not nice, that’s expected.” you looked out the window, crossing your arms.

“ohhhh, expected,” jj laughed, then cleared his throat, “so, uh, where do you want me to take you?”

you tried to think of somewhere to go, but really, you weren’t sure. you couldn’t ask your friends, they’d hadn’t spoken to you in a week and a half. you were sure your grandparents house was the first place your dad would check once he realized i was gone.

there was maybe one place your dad wouldn’t be able to find you, but it was a long shot. you told jj an address, his head whipping to you.

“sam morgan’s house? i live right now the road from him.” jj asked, you sighed, then nodded.

he spoke again, realizing exactly how you knew sam morgan. “no, don’t tell me.”

you had a habit of having secret relationships with pogues. you just shrugged, earning a scoff from jj. “i’m not special at all then, huh?”

“ha, no.” you let out a breathy laugh.

“are you still…” jj trailed off, turning onto the road that connected figure eight to the cut.

“no.” you didn’t say anything else. you and sam had broken up on good terms, him telling you if you ever needed anything to let him know. well, you needed something.

when jj pulled into sam’s driveway, he put the van into park and stared out the window.

“thanks for coming to get me, seriously.” you mumbled, grabbing your backpack and opening the door.

you almost expected jj to say something, but when you looked at him, he didn’t look back.

his mood would switch quickly like that. he was mad at you, obviously. but he’d also never let you sit in an unsafe house like a sitting duck. he was mad at himself too, because technically he had an empty house you could camp out in, he just couldn’t bring himself to tell you that.

you closed the door to the van, alerting sam enough to come outside and see who was outside his home. he saw you, softened a little. his eyes shifted to jj, who was watching how the two of you would interact with each other.

“hi, sam.” you muttered, looking up at him.

“hey, you okay?” sam walked down his steps, meeting you halfway.

you just shook your head no, not having the energy to explain the shit going on right now.

sam let you fall into him, wrapping you into a hug as you stood there, tired.

at the sight of you and sam, safe at least, jj backed the van up, speeding off.

sam, who was at least a little aware of the events happening within your family from rumors and news reports, didn’t ask many questions once he invited you in. you were grateful for that.

you threw your backpack on his bed, sam offering you something to eat, then standing by in case you needed him.

you told him you couldn’t tell him what was going on, just explained you couldn’t be at home, had no where else to go.

you’d turned off your location right after you’d left home. but just in case, you’d turn off your phone, right after you texted sarah.

you: i went to sam morgan’s

you: can we talk tonight?

sarah: you left???

sarah: yes we can of course

you: okay meet me at 8? at the boneyard?

you: i’m turning my phone off just in case

sarah: okay i’ll see you tonight be safe love you

a/n - reader can’t be happy btw not for another sixteen chapters at least

taglist - @ethanthequeefqueen @rafegetinmybed @str4wb3rrym1lkl0v3r @cassiewritessalot @lilygrxcem @arabellamaybank @sabrina-carpenter-stan-account @ineedtherapy1 @doesnt-care @imrkos @freyawhitexxx1 @always-reading @bee-43

[dustisus]

I'm just going to post this idea for a fic on here because it doesn't want to be written:

A couple of years after Jeremy has graduated, he's playing for a team on the other side of the country of California and it's not going great. The distance means he's lost some contacts from the Trojans, and phone calls and texts with his friends are not enough. All of this, added to the fact that he's struggling to connect with any of his new teammates, means he's not playing his best and it's been mentioned he might get cut from the team after the coming season if he doesn't improve.

He comes back from the off-season to what he thinks may be his last season of pro Exy to see that Andrew Minyard, newly graduated, is one of the new recruits. Jeremy instantly gets stressed to see him (but we don't know why yet). Andrew gets on the wrong foot with the team right away, and he and Jeremy become the team's outcasts. Jeremy avoids Andrew until he can't anymore, when something comes to a head and they are forced into a confrontation.

The problem is this: Jeremy Knox is not real, and Andrew Minyard knows it. He was there to see Jeremy Knox being created, in a juvenile detention center in California, when Andrew was 14-ish and Jeremy 15-ish. Andrew knew Jeremy by a different name then, but he recognizes him.

Jeremy had been admitted for a few weeks when Andrew is admitted. Jeremy is tight-lipped about whatever had put him there, and tense, and ready to butt heads with Andrew when they are roomed next to each other. They are forced into a confrontation this time too, probably about Jeremy making noise when Andrew wants to sleep. The noise is from the bouncing of an Exy ball on his wall. He only stops when Andrew agrees to join him on the small court in the juvie's courtyard.

That's how Andrew learns to play Exy; standing in goal when Jeremy shoots ball after ball at him, until they are disrupted from someone calling for Jeremy to step away for a second and talk to someone who's there to see him. When he comes back, the strength and furrowed brow that's normally visible when he's playing is gone.

The story comes out: Whatever act that had put Jeremy in juvie had been bad enough to get rid of him. He has two choices: to continue being Jeremy, or to become Jeremy Knox. His family has the money and contacts to get rid of all traces of who he had been, and officially, the story would be that whoever he had been had died. Jeremy Knox would be his surviving brother.

Andrew doesn't say so, but he's disappointed when Jeremy assumes his new name and identity and leaves. Not long after, Luther Hemmick comes to speak to him.

All these years later, Andrew calls him by his real name and Jeremy snaps. That's not who he is anymore. But Andrew has seen Jeremy's weak shots and soulless plays, and tells him that if he wants to continue playing Exy, that's who he needs to be.

And then there's the problem of where the plot goes from there. I haven't figured it out for the weeks that I have been thinking of this premise and I can't write Jeremy nor Andrew well so it will probably never be posted as a fic (at least by me). Oh well. This idea is still my baby though so don't be mean to it.

[kabutoden]

more yapping under cut but:

tl;dr: i think karkat would deeply respect steven as someone who brought peace, freedom and equality to his own people while also being a social outcast, even though he'd be SUPER mean and rude to steven on the face of it. steven would empathize deeply with karkat's existence outside of societal systems and the shared intense legacy of their ancestors they both have to uphold: but this would also set off his insecurity and frustration really badly. he'd convince himself he needs to fix karkat by making him outwardly 'nice' and would fail, because karkat copes by lashing out at himself and others.

frustrated and insecure about not fixing everything, i think steven would believe that karkat is someone who refuses to become a better person. karkat hates himself so he wouldn't deny that, even though its not true. furthermore, steven might extrapolate this to be the reason karkat may fail to 'save' trolls and resent that. having grown up with insane pressures and responsibility, steven fails to see that karkat deserved to get to be a normal kid too. steven survived and improved HIS world, why shouldn't karkat?

full essay. karkat is known in fanon to be the 'friendship troll,' and hes particularly good at socializing for trolls. hes a descendant of a stigmatized icon that was murdered brutally, and hes heavily dismissive towards the reverence people have for the sacrifice his ancestor made. that sacrifice left him with a heated hatred and rage for the injustice and cruelty of society, and complete exclusion from said system to the point his own existence breaks it fundamentally. his generational trauma gives him a hair-trigger anger response and extremely hostile and demeaning language to put anyone at arms length. despite this, trolls can tell that karkat's aggression is meaningless because he never follows through on threats and works himself past exhaustion and keeps the full group in mind, even people he doesn't like. dude refers to FIVE PEOPLE as his best friends.

to be friends with karkat is to ignore half the things he says because he's so jumped up on defensive hostility all. the. time. people fire back jokingly, dont take him seriously, think hes funny as hell, or just ignore him. at 13, karkats language is for keeping him safe in a very dangerous place, its supposed to make him appear as a dangerous and cruel person he is not. now, i think karkat views what really are coping mechanisms: his rage and mean vocab: as a permanent and intrinsic failure. this only depresses him further as he doesn't have the tools to understand why he's so angry and defensive.

steven on the other hand really cares about what people say and listens to them carefully. he's kind and deeply empathetic, and i think he'd recognize that karkats from a bad situation. they'd both be unsettled by how their places in the world overlap: steven and karkat are both heirs of complicated legacies and symbols of connection between their respective alien species and the human race. even more, they both resent the weight of their responsibility, as they struggle to bear it as best they can.

i think karkat would see steven's success as a peacebroker and like that. he wants that for his own people, he wants to BE that, but the icon he represents doesn't have such an easy claim to authority. karkat would see stevens response to his duty and think its admirable, and appreciate how steven helps his family. of course he wouldnt tell any of this to steven, and would probably be super mean to him.

steven deeply believes in his ability to heal and fix people and NEEDS the validation of doing so. he's vulnerable to insecurity and frustration when people don't need him or he fails to help them. he'd see karkat as someone in a situation uncomfortably close to his own. additionally, steven listens to people very carefully and takes them seriously. i think karkat's barbs and verbal attacks would really hurt him, especially when he respects karkat.

steven would see progress as karkat being acting more outwardly 'nice' when thats neither what karkat or alternia needs. karkat's truth and anger at cruelty and its results are motivating to make change as every troll suffers from the caste system. furthermore, i dont think karkat can change how gruff he is: its kept him alive for sweeps.

frustrated and insecure about not fixing everything, i think steven would believe that karkat is someone who refuses to become a better person. karkat hates himself so he wouldn't deny that, even though its not true. steven might cut off karkat as someone he feels empathy for and instead just feel... cold. furthermore, steven might extrapolate this to be the reason karkat may fail to 'save' trolls and resent that. having grown up with insane pressures and responsibility, steven would fail to see karkat also deserved to get to be a normal kid too. steven survived and fixed HIS world, why shouldn't karkat?

i think stevens idea of what makes someone a better person doesn't cooperate with who karkat is. tbf, karkat's behavior would be terrible for cable television as he's not really an example of good behavior kids should emulate, but the a result of a bad system. karkat is fundementally not tv-pg. hes incongruous with the messaging of steven universe as a show.

what you guys dont realize is karkat and steven universe would get along really well actually. sucks im sorry. its a fact. karkat would really like that guy. however, steven would fucking hate him

[manicpixiedreamedwins]

I’ve tried to word and reword this post at least a dozen times. I’m not sure I’ll ever quite capture what Charles means to me in one attempt, but here goes:

That scene on the side of the agency where Charles is asking Edwin what would happen if death caught them was probably the moment I decided I loved him- same hat, I thought. I have racing thoughts and fears of being separated from my loved ones too. 

Same hat.

I didn’t realize what an understatement that was. 

We made it to the Devlin house episode. As Charles talked about his favorite tape being destroyed and struggled through reading the Devlin daughter’s journal, I realized his home life wasn’t as idyllic as he’d wanted us to think. He’d been walking on eggshells- I could relate to that. Sometimes I wonder if he was afraid to tell Edwin because he thought he would love him less. (Sometimes I worry in the back of my mind if I tell anyone, things I did years ago to survive would make them love me less).

My heart went out to him.

Right after that, he must have wondered if he was losing Edwin to Monty. A tiny, tiny piece of me that grew up as no-one’s-best-friend, just-the-afterthought, understood him. I wondered if it would be worse to lose a best friend, actually, than to never have one. I am okay now. But there’s a part of you that is forever worried that you did something wrong.

And next episode his fears are heightened. We see why- he’s never thought he was enough. His home life was brutal. He had friends, but they are what killed him. Nothing he ever did was “enough”, and now he’s sure he’s losing his best friend even though he did everything he could to protect him. 

There’s something about having an abusive parent that makes it hard to scrub the feeling of “never enough” off of you. It’s no one’s fault but theirs, but all I wanted to do was hold him after that. I see why Edwin tried to reach out. 

Charles has never thought he was enough, no matter how many friends or trophies he had. Of course he went into episode five thinking he was a bad person, even though he isn’t (and I’m so glad Edwin told him, with words, he was not a bad person).

Of course he ended episode six worrying he was about to lose his best friend to a boy that just tried to kill them in the woods— or a shape shifter who trapped them in a town across the sea. 

He does lose Edwin- but not to a boy. To Hell.

So Charles braves letting the night nurse look in his mind again. This moment stood out to me as a viewer- we already saw he died because he prevented a hate crime. He tells Edwin he stepped in and stopped the attack because he’s half Indian (I could go on about how much him being biracial meant to me, but I won’t here). He says he is not that different than the boy being beaten. People are right that Edwin has a strong sense of justice- but so too does Charles. Perhaps that’s why they got on so well right away.

So he rescues Edwin from Hell after persuading The Night Nurse. And as he’s rescuing Edwin from Hell, Edwin finally, finally gets to tell Charles what he wanted to say earlier. 

Sometimes people erroneously think Edwin came out to Charles here. That wasn’t quite what happened- the larger arc people often erase in this story is that Edwin Payne confessed that he loved Charles Rowland. How couldn’t you love Charles Rowland, after all of that? 

And Charles meet him as much as he could. He does love Edwin- he just needs time to figure the rest out. But they have literally forever. And honestly, they seemed like they were off to a pretty good start once they weren’t running from a giant spider made of babydoll heads. 

So, Charles, thank you for making me feel seen. Your smile is pretty convincing. I hope you have fun growing the agency with Edwin, and I hope the afterlife is kind while you figure things out together.

[solsilverpine]

since skelly crews final is about to come out I would like to drop my obscure theory as to who I think Jod might be based on mostly vibes, and a few character traits.

I think he's Jaybo Hood, this kid from the clone wars episode mystery of a thousand moons.

now, at first I was just like "haha their names are kind of similar," but our first introduction to this kid is him having reprogramed a bunch of droids to be his servants, which would align with how Jod treats droids. not to mention his affinity for droids could be a sign of early force sensitivity, much like Anakin in episode I.

secondly, there was his line in episode 4 where he says the air taste like ashy dust and reminds him of his home planet. Jaybo's planet Iego as we saw it in the clone wars was surrounded by a lazer web that destroyed anything trying to leave which would certainly leave a strong impression of ashy dust. As a bonus note, Iego is part of the ash worlds sector. Coincidence? I mean probably, but it is fun to think about.

As a third point, there are similarities that can be drawn between Iego's moon web and the barrier. Star wars is a fan of it's narrative repetition. I think putting him in a position where he's trapped on a planet by a planet wide security system would fall into the "it's like poetry, it rhymes" category.

Now onto things mentioned in interviews.

Jude Law has spoken a few times about how Jod didn't really have a childhood; it was snatched away from him and all he sees when he looks at the kids are small adults. He doesn't understand why they can't just survive, why they're so inexperienced. He has no real concept of innocence.

That would align with a kid like Jaybo who has had to take what he can to get in a pretty rough situation. Not to mention his introduction is sending his reprogrammed battle droid out to the jedi with the message "The venerable Jaybo Hood requests an audience" (venerable beings someone accorded a great deal of respect especially because of age wisdom or character) despite the fact he's a ten year old kid.

Jude Law also speaks several times about drawing inspiration from Han Salo for Jod.

if you look at the behind the scenes notes on wikipidia it says Jaybo Hood was described by Dave Filoni as "a cross between a young Anakin and a young Han Solo."

None of this is really enough for a full theory, I just think its fun to think about. Jod could be someone from legends, someone entirely original, a jedis kid, or somehow a Palpatine clone (given the prevalence of project necromancer in recent media.) Really I just hope they give us some kind of payoff to explain some of their writing decisions.

[writing-zelda-brainrots]

yandere chain with return by death reader It would be something... interesting

Like at that point there's no way that they don't know how insane the Links are. Probably saw them kill someone more than once.

You'd think that RbD could help them come up with and execute an escape plan, but that's harder than you'd think. They keep a much closer eye on you (because your mental health is not the greatest even without their own brand of insanity affecting you) and have taken away anything that could result in you getting hurt. Even giving you a knife to cut vegetables is a 'maybe' at best.

Also I think that Fierce would absolutely tell Time about Return by Death. And that would reduce your chances of getting away from very slim to nonexistant. Say goodbye to your freedom at that point.

Depending on how mentally worn out/broken that RbD![Name] is, I would be willing to bet that they decide to give up on this whole adventure and settle down somewhere in Hyrule for the rest of their days (something that the Chain is more than happy with). Basically I'm thinking of the Sloth IF story. But much like the Sloth IF, once RbD![Name] dies of old age, they are sent back to their last save point, aka right before they admited to the others that they're giving up and running away, making them lose everything they built over the years.

I think what makes things more interesting is if in the yanverse, it was Dink who pulled [Name] into Hyrule and gave them Return by Death. In any other version, I think it would either be Satella or Hylia who did it (because if Dink wanted to get rid of the heroes, why would he give them the key to defeating him). But in yanverse, I feel like he'd be so obssesed with making sure that [Name] survives that he could manipulate them into thinking that it was "for your own good" and that he knows better.

[sairenharia]

Of Hedgehogs, Chaos, and the Warrior's Heart

So here is the thing.

We don't know why Longclaw wanted to hide Sonic.

Sonic 3 spoilers ahead.

So upon rewatching the movies and Knuckles miniseries before movie three, this thought has been niggling my brain. Why was Longclaw hiding Sonic. We know Longclaw wanted to hide Sonic for his power, and the first real thought is his superspeed.

Except, when you think about it, superspeed is rather hard to use against a person's will and one of the harder people to contain. Freedom of movement is necessary for full usage, and if you have a speedster with freedom of movement, they can do a lot of things to escape. And really, what do you use it for? Super soldier, maybe, but it gets into that containment thing. Have in a hamster ball forever? Sure, but how do you keep him running and keep him optimal?

When it comes down to it, being used for his speed doesn't warrant Longclaw's actions.

Longclaw wanted an apprentice for the Master Emerald and selected Sonic for being superpowered? Well, possible, but that would mean Longclaw was doing EXACTLY what she was warning Sonic to watch out for. More over, its a pretty terrible thing for Longclaw to DO. If protecting the Master Emerald required isolation, that is a terrible thing to do to a child, especially a child as extroverted and friendly as Sonic is. So no, I don't think Longclaw's hiding away of Sonic had anything to do with the Master Emerald. I think she had ANOTHER reason and since she was already raising and isolating this kid anyway, might as well have him as the guardian after her. The Master Emerald duty was one of convenience, not intent.

So Sonic isn't wanted for his superspeed or his relation to the Master Emerald.

So obviously, I'm getting at his unlimited power source quills and EMP abilities. Or at least what they indicate.

Because let's be real, those abilities are weird. Those are not base Sonic abilities. Whatever is going on is something different from usual canon.

Now, a seemingly infinite power source like the quills able to grant things superspeed is definitely a hell of a thing people would want.

Then there's the sticking point.

Because Knuckles has the same thing going on. Why didn't Knuckles need to be isolated?

Especially as the Prequill comic implies Sonic is a known entity to a certain degree. His speed is well known despite his being a child at the time. Longclaw is known. Tails knows a fair bit about their relationship and what Sonic could do as a child. Sonic, himself, was a KNOWN entity as a toddler.

Which is weird because he wasn't doing heroics then as far as we know.

What is the difference between Knuckles and Sonic. And it was driving me up the wall because Longclaw is hiding Sonic for some reason, and Knuckles was allowed to run free, and the power ups isn't a Mobian thing in general, because Tails has yet to be a sparky sparky LED eyeballs with fur that grants superpowers.

And then we saw Amy Rose.

And the Metal Sonics.

And a lot of things started clicking into place, including a lot of weird things that have cropped up along the way.

The Metal Sonics teleported in as an army. Now generally Metal Sonic is made by Robotnik, but he didn't really have time to do that. More over, why is Amy here in time to deal with them at all. If Robotnik survived the Eclipse Cannon exploding (and let's be hones,t he almost definitely did), Tom is still injured. We max a few months after the Eclipse Cannon and Robotnik probably needs to recover himself.

So I don't believe he's the one who made Metal Sonic in this universe.

So the question is who.

And why.

First weird thing: The Scavengers. Here is the weird thing about the Scavengers. They dress as birds. They're not bird people and it seems the Owls may have made the same path as the Echidnas.

The scavengers, and the Metal Sonics are working in the same vein. Because its known that Sonic was raised by an Owl. Dressing as birds could be a ploy to put Sonic into a false sense of security, lower his guard for them to get the jump. The same for designing the Metal Sonics that way. They want to put Sonic into a false of security.

But that is a lot of work for a Hedgehog that they may or may not know is still alive. Its been years and he was on his own as a literal child.

Weird thing number two. Tails calls Sonic a legend. Why? Because by that point, literally the only thing of note that we know of Sonic that he's done is hide away most of his life and fight ONE guy with a moderately sized robot and stopped some petty crime. Now at first this could just be Tails seeing someone weird being cool getting some hero worship, but we see in the Prequill that Longclaw's home is considered a sacred site.

And we see Tails is cracking chaos energy. Sonic was confused for a place destroyed by chaos energy.

Weird thing number three. Knuckles and Tails say Sonic and Shadow look alike, which is weird when they would be around more mobians and aliens in general. Sonic looking at another Hedgehog and thinking 'they look like me' tracks because Sonic doesn't remember seeing another Hedgehog. If you see a pack of wolves, you're gonna think they all look the same until you're around the pack enough to tell the difference. Knuckles and Tails should be able to tell the difference, while the Hedgehogs are new to seeing any pack.

Weird thing number four. Knuckles says its impossible. That's a weird word to describe meeting another Hedgehog. They knew they were going to see an alien. Why not another Hedgehog? What about Hedgehogs makes it such a surprise?

Why does Longclaw need to hide Sonic?

Because Hedgehogs are hunted down.

The Scavengers dress as birds because there is a long history of Owls trying to protect Hedgehogs.

The Metal Sonics are Metal Hedgehogs, with a paint job because they're aware of Sonic's existence, so they made it more specific.

Amy is dressed like a survivor type because she is being hunted down too and she has to keep herself covered up and she's on Earth to protect some fellow Hedgehogs.

Why is Knuckles different from Sonic (and Shadow)?

The Echidnas may not be so different and that's why their numbers were decimated since not ALL of them should be hunting down the Master Emerald. A lot of Echidna's might have died in pursuit of power, but they may be close enough to Hedgehogs that they get tracked down for either use or destruction.

But they're not as scary as Hedgehogs.

Because Hedgehogs can access Chaos Energy with ease and Echidnas have to work at it.

We know in the Knuckles Miniseries that Knuckles knows he's had chaos energy all his life, but he wasn't able to access it. Not without training and hard work and a warrior's heart.

Sonic and Shadow, we know, never had a day of training in their lives before they were going nuclear.

Echidnas are a crafted blade.

Hedgehogs are a lake of gasoline.

Longclaw needed to hide Sonic because he was a Hedgehog and someone wanted Hedgehogs either to use or destroy. Hedgehogs in the wild are rare enough that his natural abilities were taken stock of.

Sonic is a legend because, by being a Hedgehog, he is destined to be something powerful. He was weird. He was unique. He was amazing. And he choose to help people with these abilities and that's why Tails considered him a legend.

(There is also a possibility there is just straight up a prophecy and Tails hasn't quite caught on how much Longclaw did NOT tell Sonic things. A bit of a 'this is a normal fact to Knuckles and Tails so it doesn't enter their minds Sonic DOESN'T know it' but that is very speculative without a lot of evidence to go off of.)

Circling back to the idea of the Warrior's Heart and the importance of the Hedgehogs we see.

Here is the thing, Sonic the Hedgehog has established that the power of friendship/family/love is, in fact, a thing that happens. We see Sonic go from on the floor to fighting Robotnik with the Wachowski's and town reaching out. We see the Chaos Emeralds react in face of a familial love. We see Knuckles go from the ground and drained to raring to go for his home. We see Sonic get the upper hand on Shadow when his love for Tom is provoked, and we see Shadow use his love for Maria to move the Eclipse Cannon.

And throughout the series we see a human do an act of superhuman ability without any aid of technology or magic gems a grand total of once.

Wade Whipple.

In Flames of Disaster, he does a standing jump inside of the cage, through the roof, several feet above it, and land without getting seriously hurt. While we may not know the exact material of the roof and it looks like cardboard, the standing jump is not a realistic human feat, let alone for Wade Whipple.

But he was selected to be the inheritor of the Echidna's way. Sure, his selection may have also been about getting Knuckles to live his life, but I think his selection was two pronged. One part was to help Knuckles learn to live his life, but another was Wade had a potential.

Chaos Energy.

How much, who knows, but it was enough that when Wade figured out how to connect to the Warrior's Heart, he was able to access that power he had to jump through the roof.

And Wade's journey is about trying to be good enough for his dad. The daddy issues were real. He wants to prove he's a warrior, prove he's good enough, to be able to reach his dad again. That was his motivation for his way of the warrior.

Connection is key for chaos energy.

Which makes it funny because the used of a lot of it have largely been those who experienced great loneliness.

Which can also go a long way to explain why the quills retain their power. Because the quills are weird. The quills being pulled off should mean they're dead tissue so while retaining some energy for a while isn't such a hard thing to believe, we know they can last one to fifty years with no problem. And that is base Hedgehogs. That points to an active connection with the quills. Which also goes along with Sonic's quills lighting up when he gets worked up.

Which goes into the Elephant in the room.

What's the deal with Shadow?

He wasn't created by GUN or Gerald. He may have been a natural born Hedgehog for all we know. But here is where we get into theories.

Because the other known factor for Shadow's creation is Black Arms.

And why I think Hedgehogs are hunted down.

And why Longclaw focused so hard on Sonic's heart and to not let himself be used.

And why GUN got real lucky Maria existed in the first place.

My firs thought is Black Arms like to target Hedgehogs for infection. Usage. Hedgehogs are so intune with Chaos Energy, they're prime candidates to convert into their hivemind and Shadow was the first experiment into that. Make him the hybrid.

Which may be the case.

A friend mine proposed another theory that feels more secure in what we've seen.

Hedgehogs ARE Black Arms.

Chaos reacts to connections. It doesn't have to be a positive, it just has to strong. The want to protect family, the home, tradition, is just as strong as grief, vengeance, and loneliness. Connection is the key.

Much like a hivemind.

And it would explain why the quills are active so long. To tap into chaos is to tap into a hivemind and then every part of someone becomes part of the entity. The quills don't lose charge because they continue to LIVE, even if they don't have THOUGHTS.

Its also why the quills so READILY give out their powers to others. Knuckles grants strength. Sonic grants speed. Shadow just grants pure, unfiltered power.

Its also why Sonic and Knuckles are able to absorb their power back from stolen quills or energy drains.

Maybe its why Shadow survived the Eclipse Cannon, its his power, he just needed to be able to absorb it again.

They're calling back the power from a hivemind.

It may be why Knuckles can see ghosts of his ancestors, because they have accepted this lowkey hivemind when they embrace chaos.

Other creatures need to work to achieve this state. To connect to Chaos, to have all of their body alive with chaos, and potentially connect to other in Chaos.

Hedgehogs are scary because they don't need to work for it.

Sonic didn't want to knock out the power in several states and a sattelite. He just wanted so desperately to connect to anyone, his powers reacted and called out anyone who was interested in him.

Shadow, despite his introverted nature and treatment from the scientists, connected hard with Maria and she became the light in his life. A light that caused madness in its absence until he formed an empathetic connection that let him see it could still exist.

And then there's Amy Rose, known advocate for all things love and friendship.

Hedgehogs have two ways they can go.

They can become the Black Arms, who are going to be scary, dangerous beings in the galaxy, enough to warrant scavengers to disguise as birds to put them at ease whether or not they're looking for them specifically. To warrant a robot army.

Black Arms who lean hard into the hivemind, the connection to others, to lead them to take and take and take for the betterment of themselves.

Or, what the Owls have discovered, if they can get to Hedgehogs early enough, they can teach them to love and care in a less destructive way. Perhaps something they learned in their long standing feud with the Echidnas, who have tapped into the power, but remained more sane than Black Arms. Their hearts can be good and pure. They don't need to let others use them for their powers. They can be an individual and remain free, even if their quills are in the hivemind.

Teach Hedgehogs to be good people who can do great things, as long as they are allowed to make decisions for themselves. Instead of being used by the larger group.

Shadow may be a hybrid. He may have been just someone who converted early into the state of Black Arms, but crashing into Earth cut him off.

But either way, whatever is going on with Hedgehogs, I'm pretty sure they are indeed an endangered species.

[rey-jake-therapist]

By the way we never talk about the fact that Galadriel claimed arriving in Eregion that she and Halbrand rode five days WITHOUT REST while Halbrand was wounded after being hit by an Orc arrow. I mean, lucky for Halbrand that he was in fact an immortal dark sorcerer because if he had been human, this travel would have probably killed him before they made it to Eregion.

gif by @ceeyoutea

Also, that's horse's abuse. Five days without rest, and they were not even magic Elvish horses. They were put on a ship, then rode into war, survived an eruption, and then this? They're lucky if they didn't get trauma...

Nah, with all due respect to Galadriel, I think she lied.