#arc. time of shadow.

[highaver]

The others deserved to know. They did. If Ylfa thought herself a danger - even if Balfour did not wish to believe it to be true - then the others should at least be aware of such a thing. But she had asked him not to say a word, and she had been through enough, these past weeks. Things no child should have to see or have to do.

He didn't know what to do. There was nothing good here, nothing fair or simple to navigate. Any decision that any of them made would undoubtedly feel like the wrong one - or, worse, the only one they could have made and equally horrific. What could he tell Ylfa? To make it better. To spare her something.

He rubbed at his beard and sighed.

"You do not have to tell them, Ylfa," he said, finally. His tone was firm but not without affection, reassurance. "But you should. Perhaps just even Timothy. And if you allow me to tell the others, I will explain that you are no threat and they have nothing to fear. But we might all help you better, if we know."

balfour looks miserable, but isn't everybody? this is not how any of them wanted their lives to go, but they didn't get to choose their path. things just happened, and they reacted, and however much lightness they find and grab onto, it is because they've forced it into the shadow, seeking refuge for just a moment. they might all die tomorrow. they probably will. ylfa just doesn't want to be the one to kill them, not when she so desperately wants to protect everyone instead.

❝ i can most of the time. but i was so angry and...hurt. ❞ she lost control. ylfa's sure that somewhere in her head, the wolf would have something to say about it, but he's quiet right now, and she is alone. just one wolf, without the shadow of death trailing behind her. she sort of misses him. but the little girl takes a deep breath, and nods. ❝ what i said...please don't tell anyone. i mean, you can if you think you have to, but please don't. i didn't even mean to say it to you. and... ❞ she doesn't want everyone to look at her differently. she doesn't want to be considered a legitimate threat to her friends. ❝ it's the past. we're stuck here. ❞

it doesn't matter.

[sexygayvampire]

hey does anyone else ever think about archon!dorian and lose their minds

[somesharkguy111]

"He stared at the wall, facing away from the crowd as if intentionally inviting a knife in the back."

[mortellanarts]

You must absolutely hate me for what I did to you

[couch-house]

AITA? My (30M) brother (27M) beat my ass because he thought my dad was dead

INFO: Technically he's my brother's dad too, but I don't like him

[sparkles-rule-4eva]

"Can't Die with Regrets."

SONIC 3 SPOILERS!!!

Based on this post

AO3 version

“If neither of you have the guts to help me, then I’ll do it alone.”

Words that Sonic was regretting. Severely.

It had been nearly an hour since he’d last seen his brothers. In a fit of rage, and grief, and too many negative feelings for him to process, he’d all but stolen the Master Emerald and hunted down Shadow, fully intending to kill him.

Looking back at himself, the way he’d just lost control, he felt ashamed, but he could still remember why he’d done it in the first place. He still could feel the paralyzing fear that had gripped him when he’d found Tom unconscious, completely unresponsive. Fear that had quickly turned into an early kind of grief, reminding him all too much of a night long ago, when he’d found himself alone in an unfamiliar forest at night, crying over the loss of Longclaw.

His first parent.

Things had been fuzzy. He was scared. He was stressed. He was angry.

He had not waited ten painful years for his family, only to have it stripped away from him again. He didn’t know what he would do without them. Without his dad.

“What kind of hero abandons his friends to pursue revenge? Abandons his family?” Shadow’s chilling words still echoed in his mind. He hadn’t had an answer. All he’d been able to feel was rage, and grief, and a spiraling sense of being completely out of control.

And while the fury had subsided as he remembered Tom’s words to him recently, about not letting his pain from losing Longclaw change who he was, the grief had stayed. The fear had stayed. Even as he let go of Shadow, as they sat and talked about their experiences with loss, the pain continued to burn in his chest.

Sonic pushed it to the back of his mind as they both charged up on the Chaos Emeralds and went to stop the giant cannon about to destroy a chunk of Earth. Talking with Shadow had helped him a little, as he reminded them both about how they could deal with their grief and their pain. Finally befriending this edgy other hedgehog had done him well. Fighting alongside him was even its own brand of fun.

But it was hard to not think about his family.

How the last he’d seen his parents, his father was in some kind of coma and being taken into an ambulance. His mother was looking at him and his brothers… strangely, as she sat with her husband. With a blank expression, one that chilled him and stirred a different fear entirely in his stomach.

Like she wasn’t quite sure of them anymore.

And his brothers?

He had not parted with them on friendly terms. He’d been in the thick of his grief-induced anger still. He’d snapped at Tails for attempting to comfort him, and had nearly fought with Knuckles over his demands for the Master Emerald. Knuckles had refused to fight him, which in hindsight made him feel even worse.

He wanted to apologize to them. But he didn’t know where they were.

In the distance, the huge cannon thing was crackling with chaos energy, clearly about to fire. Shadow dealt with the last of the bots that they’d been fighting, then they were both making a beeline for the cannon.

It probably wouldn’t destroy the entire earth— it was a precision weapon— but it would still kill many innocent lives. At the moment, it was aimed directly for London.

As far as Sonic knew, his entire family was down there.

So the only plan he could come up with in the panic of the moment was to block the hit directly, using the combined chaos powers of both himself and Shadow.

It was a big risk for sure, but there was no way he was letting that blast hit the earth.

“Now this might hurt a little!” he yelled to Shadow, as they flew directly up in the line of fire.

The cannon unleashed its blast.

It hurt more than a little, as they both raised their arms to create an invisible shield of sorts, blocking the blast, protecting those far below.

“This was your plan?” Shadow demanded beside him, his voice strained as he squinted against the blinding light.

Sonic didn’t answer, grunting as he tried to conserve his quickly-draining energy. Desperate for any kind of hope, he hollered, “Would someone mind shutting down the giant death ray?!”

He figured it was just the Robotniks up there, and they were the ones who’d planned this whole thing, but somehow his plea was answered. Slowly but surely, the continuous blast started to tilt, gradually away from the earth.

However, it was quickly getting harder and harder to keep blocking it. The ray was hot and excruciating to the touch, only less so because he was in golden god mode, but even that energy was starting to… fade.

Sonic gritted his teeth, nearly whimpering as he struggled to keep on blocking it. Hundreds of people are at risk down there! he snapped at himself silently. Including your family. Keep at it!

The ray continued to turn, slowly.

The edges of his vision started going dark.

He shook his head slightly, glaring up at the ray. The ray glared back at him.

You HAVE to do it! You have to get back to them! You have to see if Dad will be okay. You have to check on Mom. You have to apologize to Knuckles and Tails. YOU HAVE TO!

SO KEEP AT IT!

“Can’t… hold… much… longer!” he gasped out, as if whoever was turning the ray could hear him. Shadow looked over at him for a split second, then immediately turned back forward, pushing even harder against the blast.

Sonic couldn’t risk looking down to see how far the ray had turned from the earth. All he could do was keep looking up, keep hoping against hope that they were going to save everyone— and make it out alive. Both of which he couldn’t afford not to do.

But it wasn’t looking likely.

He didn’t have any more energy he could just summon out of nowhere. And he was very quickly running out of time.

And even as he struggled against the ray, his heart began to sink.

He had too many regrets. Too many things he still needed to say. Too many things he still didn’t know.

Stupid cannon should’ve waited a bit longer, at least so he could’ve gotten a chance to do all that.

But, just like throughout this whole ordeal, he was absolutely powerless with such a thing.

It was too late.

The darkness at the edges of his vision spread, as his arms and body started going numb. And with a final yelp, he blacked out.

The last thing he registered was a hand on his shoulder, forcefully shoving him to the right. Then everything went blank.

---

Sonic had truly thought he was going to die.

If he’d fainted while still in the direct path of the death ray, he would’ve gotten incinerated.

But that hand that’d pushed him… had it gotten him out of the way? Shadow had saved him?

His consciousness slowly edged its way back in, stirred by the sound of coughing. As his senses recovered, he realized he was lying down, sprawled half on an earthy floor, halfway on top of someone else…

Vision and hearing foggy, he squeezed his eyes shut tighter for a moment before wearily blinking them open. “Sonic, look,” a young, familiar voice said quietly.

Slowly, shakily, Sonic pushed himself to his feet, still trying to register what was happening, where he was, what was going on. But as he looked up, the memories returned, and another wave of grief hit him hard.

There was a huge, nebular mass in the sky above them, clearly the result of some kind of massive explosion. Tails had gone on excited rants to him in past months about astronomy, and stars, and what happened when they exploded. How they left a beautiful nebula blanketing the space around them even after they were gone.

“Shadow and Robotnik,” Tails said quietly beside him, staring with a hollow look up at the remains in the sky. “They sacrificed themselves… to save everyone.”

…Oh.

Shadow was gone.

Sonic looked at the distant fire, swallowing. “You always have a choice,” he murmured, remembering how he’d told that to Shadow right before they’d gone in to stop the death ray.

“The light shines, even though the star is gone,” was what Shadow had said, as they’d sat and reminisced on the moon’s surface.

They’d saved Earth, and everyone on it, but Shadow had given everything to make the right choice in the end. He’d become his own fallen star, like Maria, and he would shine on even now that he was gone.

Sonic’s chest ached. For all the drama and violence and pain of the last few days, he would never forget Shadow. The words they had shared stuck with him. Shadow had not deserved to die. He’d become a hero when it had mattered the most.

And so had Robotnik, apparently.

Sonic swallowed again, then turned to face his brothers, a sudden dread pooling in his heart. In what he’d thought were his final moments up there, he’d been desperate to live so he could apologize, and he’d pictured himself dramatically rushing back, shouting out the “I’M SO SORRY”s, hugging everyone left and right, rushing to do everything he thought he couldn’t. But now that he was faced with the real opportunity, and the reality of what had happened, he… was scared.

Scared that he’d gone too far. That they wouldn’t trust him again after he’d betrayed their oath.

Especially as he realized that Knuckles and Tails must’ve saved him after he fell. Even after what he’d said to them. It was the only explanation for how he’d woken up piled with them both in the middle of a corn field, relatively unharmed for having apparently fallen all the way from space.

“Guys, I’m really sorry for running off like that,” he said softly, avoiding the two pairs of eyes locked on him. His heart pounded uncomfortably in his chest. “I shouldn’t have left you behind.”

He dared to meet Knuckles’s eyes. The echidna stared back at him, his eyes hard.

“The truth is,” he went on, shifting his gaze again, “you’re the best teammates a hedgehog could ever ask for.” He glanced at Tails, the words spilling out now, and he was struck with a sudden gratefulness that he was here, getting to say all this, when he’d truly thought he’d missed the chance. “And the best friends,” he quickly added. “…Can you ever forgive me?”

Sonic held his breath. Silence reigned. His heart skipped a few beats.

Knuckles continued to stare.

Then the echidna slowly raised a fist towards him. “Team Sonic?” he asked quietly.

Sonic stared at his brother’s extended fist for a moment, almost weak as relief rushed through him. In a rush of emotion, he smiled like a sap and lurched forwards to hug Knuckles close, grasping to pull in Tails as well. “How about, just ‘team’,” he replied softly, resting his head against the echidna’s chest and wrapping his arms around both him and Tails.

His teammates. His friends. His best friends.

His brothers.

----------------------

there will be a second chapter soon btw

[pigeonclaw]

I've been pretty busy with art fight and life in general lately so I haven't been drawing Warriors but I do have a collection of doodles I never did anything with, so here they are!

[yennas-stuff]

Me to Elain when ppl say we still know nothing about her and that she's a blank slate

[notshadowfaerie]

So if the ancients are back in time, wheres our favorite bug? (Elder Faerie)

bug pt. 19

[omarwolaeth]

"Hey, hey; didn't I do good?"

I'm very out of practice drawing things in general,,,

[calbee-add1ct]

i love drawing my babygirl in situations :3

[darkfluffydragon]

Shadow Milk's Corruption

In the AU (NAME STILL PENDING-), Shadow Milk Cookie doesn't get a physical form until later on. Until then, he occasionally possesses Pure Vanilla Cookie to have access to more of his original power and his abilities. However, due to them sharing the same souljam, there were some unintended side effects that neither were aware of.

The longer Shadow Milk Cookie remains in the same body as Pure Vanilla Cookie, the more their souls and minds blur together. It's a slow and subtle process since Shadow Milk Cookie wouldn't possess Pure Vanilla that often anyway. He can't torment someone if they're stuck in his mind. Pure Vanilla would find himself slowly gaining some of Shadow Milk Cookie's mannerisms, but he would see it as the effects of his controlled state. Shadow Milk Cookie would calm down a bit, in a way. Less erratic and manic, but still as eccentric as ever. He wouldn't notice these changes either, too busy with his new freedom from his suffocating prison. It would be why he decided to take over the faerie kingdom instead of burning it all to the ground. Occasionally, he'd act more like his past self.

The other four beasts would notice this change later when they're freed, pointing out that he's "gone soft". Some would blame it on Pure Vanilla, and wonder why Shadow Milk hasn't just taken the souljam yet.

[hailsatanacab]

Hiiiiii

I’m so curious about wip 1

Also I have like over a hundred wips and I can’t believe you did this to me 😭😭 /j

hey, you're welcome 😚🫴💕 i can't wait to see all your 100+ wips!

ooh I've had number 1 (a lot can change in a month) percolating for a while now and I've never been sure how far I want to go with it. I have pretty much all of it mapped out and it has the most bittersweet ending that I can't wait to write 😇✨ - anyway, have a wee little snippet :)

———

A month.

That's how long Danny Fenton had made his home with the Waynes before finding out his adoptive family's secret. The cave beneath the manor. Their hidden lives as vigilantes.

It was... a surprise, to say the least. One that he hadn't quite welcomed.

It threw him off, of course it did. This was meant to be his chance at living a normal life, a chance to leave behind his own heroics buried in the ruins of Amity, and then he had to go ahead and shack up with the birds and the bats, of all people! He just can't catch a break!

But... Well, after several tearful conversations and reassurances that no, he categorically did not have to join the team (thank the Ancients, because there's no way Danny's telling them about Phantom, not yet), things were starting to look pretty alright. The dust was finally settling and it felt like he was beginning to find his feet again.

That was last week.

This week, Bruce Wayne is dead and the family is falling apart.

[purpleflower19072]

Been doing some "research" for a fic I am writing and I realized something. There are a few endings in Shadow The Hedgehog where he ups and decides to conquer all.

So what if King Shadow from the Archie comics is just one of Shadow's bad endings. Sonic's disappearance is just one of the factors for Shadow's conquering of Mobius bad ending.

Shadow was also a villain in most of the comics in the 2000s. Like seriously why was Shadow working for Eggman THAT long.

[eclipsed-writing]

7:58 am Watergirl: beach day pack your stuff

Fireboy: why

Watergirl: normal people like the beach Watergirl: its relaxing

Frosty: I would not classify any of us as “normal.”

Dangerbuff: who cares let’s go

Fireboy: :(

Bluebell: too bad Kai Bluebell: outvoted

Watergirl: oh and leave your weapons Watergirl: no fighting just relax

Green_Dragon: But they can just stay on the Bounty

Watergirl: n o p e

Fireboy: so…smth is gonna happn then right?

Green_Dragon: Yeah I kinda want to bring something…

(Lloyd shifts uncomfortably, not quite on board with the idea of traveling without protection—especially with his powers acting weirdly ever since the Oni. Zippy notices his change of mood and trills at him, pressing her head to his hand. Lloyd smiles and scratches her fur, earning a contented purr from the feline.)

Dangerbuff: nothing is going to happen Dangerbuff: I’ll make sure of it

Fireboy: same hree Fireboy: im not swimming so i can guard

Green_Dragon loved a message

Bluebell: are we bringing snacks or

Frosty: There are some ice cream packets in the freezer. Frosty: I will pack them into a cooler.

Green_Dragon: Yay

Watergirl: great Watergirl: meet me in 15 on the bounty

8:42 am They arrive at the beach Nya selected. It is a small cove, secluded from other people and protected from the wind. Fluffy white clouds dot the sky and the sun shines bright and warm. On one side of the cove, larger waves roll up onto the sand. The Bounty touches down near the middle.

The team sets up a small snack station near the ship, in the shade of a beach umbrella. The cooler of snacks, kept cold with Zane’s elemental ice, sits at the base of the umbrella. Multicolored bags and towels are scattered around the site, though only Kai’s beach towel is unfolded.

Lloyd immediately makes a grab for an ice cream. Nya smacks his hand away with a glare in his direction. Lloyd huffs in annoyance but retreats, following Jay and Zane towards the ocean water.

“Kai, don’t let anyone eat until after they’re done swimming,” Nya tells her brother as he lounges back on his towel.

Without opening his eyes, Kai gives her a little salute. “You got it, sis.”

Nya rolls her eyes but runs after the others.

Cole emerges from the Bounty with a surfboard and heads off to the larger waves.

It’s not long until shrieks ring across the secluded cove as a water fight breaks out. Kai is not jealous but simply watches from the dry beach, cheering on whoever appears to have the upper hand.

Usually it’s Nya, no doubt enhancing her water splashes with her powers, usually targeting Lloyd and Jay with the larger attacks and not so hard at Zane.

Hearing the commotion, Cole runs over to join in.

Laughter rings out across the cove.

Soon tired out, the team gathers in the shade of the umbrella and snacks on cold treats.

Kai decides that this is a part of the beach he doesn’t mind.

(FIRST / PREV / NEXT)