#so wolf sonic looks pretty rough...

[solfinite]

i have loz tp on the mind

[atangledfate]

Tangle wasn't sure what Wolf training was like in Flora though if he way Twee reacted to her joining a hunt. It was likely very harsh, because the world itself was very harsh. She had no idea what the world at large was like but she was also very curious about it. She wanted to just go and explore! See the world, go on that date with Vix! oh who was she kidding Vix probably forgot she existed already! But she could hope right? It also didn't shock her to learn Tween was busy as a bee! That girl had alot on her plat she could probably use a vacation...

" Heh, no clue about Dragons on Mobius... that's probably a Jewel Question or a Tails Question! as for Tween she seemed super busy when i was there. but it'd be nice to see her again... really the whole palace was super nice to me... considering how i arrived I was lucky for sure..."

She tilted her head at mention of that portal

" OH yea i remember, its how i got home! it was pretty cool, and looked like they could even peak into other worlds. Kit seemed nice! she reminds me of my friend Tails! bet those two could talk for days! "

Whisper seemed to get stiff at the mention of wolf training starting when they were cubs. She glanced away almost like it triggered something in her but she let it pass after a moment. The wolf's demeanor shifting quickly but did her best to not ruin Tangles good mood or, upset her new friend. Though perhaps Kalak and whisper had more in common then either was willing to admit. Tangle seemed to miss the entire shift as she jumped up and turned toward kalak excitedly!

" OH hey! i think i know where Surge's probably over on the Grand Prix Track! she's always saying its the only place she can cut loose and not get yelled at for it! "

She stopped cold at Kalak's mention of everyone being so nice and turned to her with a nervous laugh!

" Ahaha! you might want to curb your expectations concerning Surge--- She's about as welcoming as a salt in a fresh wound... She's pretty rough around the edges but after everything she went through i guess i get it... Kit's kind of the quiet type... but real smart like Kit and Tails! so uhh yea that's what yer up against! but honstly doubt she'll care either way..."

Tangle led Kalak across the base, and finally breaking outside of the base into the wild green hills beyond! Just outside the Base was a thrilling track set up by clean sweep and restoration for practice leading up to the grand prix itself! folks seemed to be riding some kind of hover boards, bikes and other vehicles that reached super sonic speeds! Tangle led Kalak through the open field toward the track and to one of the rails on the sidelines. She pointed out a green streak on the track as a single figure blew past the rest leaving a green trail of lighting in her wake! She nearly blew several people off the track before coming to screeching halt when she noticed Tangle! the backlash of wind gushing past both Tangle and Kalak as she came to an abrupt stop!

" ... eh? "

Electricity crackled off her body as she gave the Lemur a look and then Kalak more confused then anything else.

" I told Lanolin already--- ain't coming to those lame ass meetin's so she can kiss my ass! wait whose the tall ass sasquatch? what ever i got a run to finish... so make it snappy! "

"Wolf training is rather... brutal. I can't say you should ever try it, or even watch how wolf's train." Kalak had been open so far, though this subject was one she didn't seem willing to talk about. At least there was another topic to focus on. "Well, I know in Flora people suspect that dragons were the God's first attempt at creating a being, though they didn't get it quite right. Though couldn't bring themselves to wipe the creatures away." That was just everyone's guess.

"If Tween as time. She's been busy checking out different worlds while also dealing with her regular duties in Flora. There are certainly a lot of worlds that need to be checked out. I believe Lady Tala has someone doing the same, though only canine country has a portal. Queen Kit Darling is smart." Kalak then would follow Tangle out of the room, thankful for the help with the doors even if she still had to squeeze out.

Kalak didn't have to follow Tangle too long before spotting Whisper and got a quick conformation that she could join. "Wolf cubs start training very young. Most being thrown into the pit at the age of thirteen, though I won't go into detail." That's about all this wolf was willing to reveal about the rather brutal training wolf cubs are put through. She should focus on getting the last two members approval.

"So, I suppose I just have to ask Surge and Kitsunami if I may join the team. Hopefully their as nice as everyone else has been so far." Kalak has had only good experiences with the others so far. The wolf was honestly liking most thing about Mobius as it was pretty peaceful if you didn't count the war.

[a-libra-writes]

How would modern ned stark react to his new wife being pregnant?

doin some cute Ned domestic stuff bc its my party and ill simp if i want to! (also im v weak for things like this)

So at this point, he's had several kiddos. You both were open to having one together and you figured he'd be happy for you and help you out. You did not expect Ned to be so happy, he's speechless. He'd want to hold you for a while and excitedly ask if you needed anything, how you're feeling, if it's time to make appointments...

I mean at this point, Rickon is in middle school. It's been a while, Ned can't remember all the symptoms and doctor appointments.

He really can't wait to tell the kids! But Ned will wait until you're ready, even if he's clearly buzzing with news (in his steady way). The young adults he works with figure something is up and buy him an adorable "congrats!" cake once he tells them.

Robb, Sansa and Jon are excited! They figured it would happen eventually. Bran is pretty indifferent until you're farther along... then he's not looking forward to getting stuck with babysitting. Arya isn't thrilled about a baby but she's glad you're happy - and she and Bran will be moved out by the time that kid is tearing the place up. Rickon is the one whose a little uneasy because he doesn't want to be "forgotten" or left out, so he'll need some extra reassurance.

Ned is the husband that drives to the store after work to get a supply of Tums and ginger tea well ahead of the morning sickness. He notices what foods you're avoiding and asks you what you can eat, so he can plan some meals. He's not a great cook but he wants to make sure you're getting what nutrition you can. He'll rush to Sonic ten minutes before they close to get you that specific smoothie covered in oreos and chocolate shavings that you're craving so bad you might die if you don't have it.

You probably thank him for being so doting and patient but it's no trouble to him! Ned's always like this when his loved one is pregnant. It's a very exciting time and he just loves you even more than before. You're going to be waited on pretty much the whole pregnancy, especially if you're having a rough time of it.

There's sooo many hand-me-downs still in pretty good condition from the other Stark kiddos - but obvs you can still go buy whatever your heart desires, because Ned is delighted by you being excited, too. If you're the type to already have names picked out and a nursery design in mind and a whole registry set up, that's great. He loves that enthusiasm. He'll listen to you decide between shades of white and different brands of baby cams and this hat or that hat??? It's cute. You're cute.

He'll help you plan and set up the nursery, too. Cat really liked that sort of thing; he doesn't have much of an eye for aesthetic but Ned will do his best. He could build some shelves or a little bookcase, for one. It'll make him feel all fuzzy and warm and young again, especially as you flit around the space, thinking about how you want it to look. If you're a more lowkey/minimalist person with planning, he's just fine with that too. Ned just doesn't want you to stress.

Sansa would send adorable little boutique clothes that you insist are too much but wooow they're so cute!!!! Plus a very soft stuffed animal. Jon sends practical things and recyclable diapers. Robb has no idea what babies like and can't remember what his siblings messed with so he just went into the kid's aisle and picked up anything with a dog or wolf on it. One of the things is actually a dog toy, another thing is a toy meant for elementary kids. It's the thought that counts.

Rickon is more stoked once he realizes he'll finally be the older sibling. He basks in this knowledge. He'll be so cool. The coolest big brother. Arya will wish she'll be as cool as him.

Since Ned's been through six kiddos at this point, he's not too worried about baby care. But if you're stressed about being a first time parent and caring for a little one, he's right there to comfort you and reassure you. You'll be great! He'll be right there with you! You both will have help! Ned doesn't want you to fret. He knows parenting isn't easy, he knows it's impossible to be perfect. But he'll support you the entire way.

[highway-in-the-sky]

With the first ark of the idw comic I wanna take a breather and go over it all. Give some more in depth thoughts, I will start to do the same at the end of issues for IDW as well as archie when it gets more actually serious, as well as talk about arks when they end.

The idw sonic comic starts on such a high note, This first ark feels exactly how a sonic story should, great characterization of the main crew, fun action set pieces and quick pacing. It doesn't get too bogged down or doesn't stay for too long. Right off the bat it nails the characterization of sonic and most of his crew which, to me at least, is the most important thing about this comic. I could watch sonic and friends to anything from the extreme to the mundane as long as they are written well. It was also very exciting to see neo metal sonic and metal overlord again. I loved the mr. tinker plot even if I wish we got to spend more time on it and all the original characters introduced slapped.

Rough and Tumble are you usual mooks, the duo that can take a punch but ultimately will get beaten in the end without too much issue. However they are such cool designs (especially a fan of rough's) and are played goofy enough that it's just fun when they show up. They also got that team rock intro and people make fun of them for it. It's a bit I will always love every time.

Tangle is great, it's nice to have a solely action oriented female character who can party alongside sonic. Sure amy is there but amy has more responsibility as well as has a lot of baggage through her history in the franchise, plus you have to worry about romance shenanigans which is kinda exhausting with those two (I have been jerked around with this ship for so fucking long with the will they won't they, just say they if they will or won't already). Tangle is just here to fucking party and I'm super here for it.

Whisper needs a hug, While we are missing most the pieces currently (I'll get into more with the tangle and whisper mini series), she is already a super fun character. She's super cool and I love her design a lot, I can't say much though without talking about the mini series

and Starline my favorite, It's just fun to see a character who's diehard loyal to eggman but not blindly so. While we haven't seen much yet so I won't get too into it, I love how even when starline goes under eggman's nose it's not to double cross or backstab but to hopefully bring him along with him. Sure in litteral outcome this does end up similarly to backstabbing but the context makes it so much more interesting then just "I'm going to stab the main villain in the back."

However it's not all sunshine and rainbows I do have some complaints, Namely with you guessed it Shadow, and trust me I'll have more to complain about as this goes on but for where we currently are I'll say this, he's not totally terrible, his first appearance is actually pretty enjoyable, sonic and his moral conflict feels very in character even if shadows stubbornness to the extreme it's shown feels ooc. However his lack of willingness to actually work with anyone and listen to plans is just so frustrating and contradicts how he acts in other games, like heroes and 06 (I know 06 isn't canon but god damn shadow's characterization is on point and I think looking at it for reference is fine). Now I know that this isn't entirely the writers fault, this is obvious when you look at Even Stanley and compare her writing of shadow in her personal sonic fan comic to the idw comic and it becomes obvious. I've also heard good things about shadows writing on Ians Archie run so it stands for him as well. A lot of the problems can be laid at segas feet as they want him to be this standoffish lone wolf kinda edgy rivil to sonic who cares for nothing but a good fight and that's just not really shadow. It ignores that shadow has made connections with team dark and has this strong mutual respect with sonic. It just makes me dread seeing my favorite character instead of excited. I will say while mandates are the major point of blame here I will say some of this can be layed at the Ian Flynns feet as he's not perfect. This becomes clear as Evan Stanley's writing of shadow is much much better (even if still restrained in this confine of the mandates) Shadow in the Chao race ark is much better than the battle for angle island ark and def metal virus. I'm getting ahead of myself but what I will say is this is my biggest complaint so far with the writing. So far Ian Flynn has done a great job aside from this and it doesn't prevent me from enjoying the comic

also so far all the artist do an amazing job the art in this comic is exilant!

[silverisbestboy]

Sonic Boom x Reader

Requested by @blackace1993: Conversation was accidentally deleted but from what I remeber of it, they wanted hc for the Sonic Boom characters who has a partner who frequently gets into trouble and/or captured by Eggman. They didn't specify which character they wanted so I just did all of them minus Tails. Hope you enjoy!

Sonic:

There's no denying it

Sonic was smitten

The moment you set foot on the island Sonic was taken aback by you

To him, you were drop dead gorgeous with a great personality so I guess you could say it was love at first sight for him

This boy is a fool for you

It's actually quite funny watching him zip across the island at the slightest remark that you need something

"Man, you what? I'm feeling kind of hungry"

"Say no more!" He'll say as he zooms away and reappears seconds later with a chili dog in hand

"Uhhhh"

But, unfortunately for you, being in any sort of relationship with Sonic is not wothout complication

Eggman sees you as a new oppurtunity to best Sonic and ends up taking you hostage on a regular basis

The first time it happens, Sonic all but destroys Eggman's fortress looking for you

But after it continuously happening, it starts getting kinda old

"Greeting Sonic! I see you've come to rescue your little girlfriend"

"Yeah, yeah. Can we just we just get to the part where I clobber you?"

It gets to the point where Sonic starts teaching you how to defend yourself so you can hold your own against Eggman

Not that he doesn't mind rescuing, it's just he can't always be there to protect

With the amount of times they've had to save you, the team are already very familiar with you and consider you apart of their friend group

But as you get better is self-defence, Sonic officially announces you as part of the team and you start joining them on missions

While Sonic does tend to stick to your side more than his other teammates during battle, he's glad to have you fighting alongside them

After all, he's happy to spend as much time with you as possible, even if that means having to bash Eggman's robots to do so

Knuckles:

You're not a bad person

So what if you have anger issues

So what if you get into fights from time to time

So what if you've been in trouble with the cops before

Doesn't mean you're a bad person, it just means you've.... got some issues

One day you're not in the best mood and have already had a pretty shitty day, and you're just a ticking time bomb waiting to explode

So it's no wonder that when a big guy bumps into you and causes you to drop the tray of food you're holding, you go off on him

Unfortunately for you, this guy is huge, a tall red echidna with bulking arms that looks like he could punch you into next week

But you're not one to back down from a fight, you've beaten up guys twice your size before and you're not afraid to do it again

"Woah, hey, sorry about that, didn't see you there."

What, is he dense?! Who does this guy think he is barrelling into anyone he pleases just because he's big? You bet he was just gonna walk off without even helping you. Well, you'd show him!

Without warning, you lunged at the echidna with the intent of knocking him over the same way he almost did to you

But you underestimated his initial strength and reflexes and he caught you midair with your legs kicking and your hands clawing for his face

"Woah, dude chill! I said I was sorry!"

He just kinda holds you up in air at arms length with you kicking and screaming until you eventually tire yourself out

The echidna stares at you cautiously

"Are you good now?"

After a moment, you reluctantly nod, and he gently sets you back on your feet

He then carefully leans down without takong his eyes off you and grabs your burger which is still wrapped in foil and reaches it out to you

"How about we start over? I'm Knuckles."

You thought after that encounter, that was the last you'd see of him

But one day, you've gotten yourself into another fight, and to say you're losing would be an understatement

It's once again, a guy twice your size and he's absolutely beating the crap out of you

But by some miracle, Knuckles happens to be walking by and immediately notices you

He steps in to save you, and the guy you're fighting knows about Knuckles being part of Sonic's team and doesn't even bother attempting to fight him

Knuckles takes your half conscious body to Tails's work shop where they fix you up

After that, Knuckles refuses to leave you alone

Even if you try to leave, he always ends finding you to make sure you don't get into more trouble

He helps you find outlets for your anger by sparring and working out with him

You grow a soft spot for Knuckles that you'd never thought you'd have for anyone

He's your big goofball that somehow always manages to calm you down and get you out of whatever trouble your in

Though it's beyond you why anyone would want to put up with you, eespecially a lovable ray of sunshine like Knuckles, you're so grateful that you have someone like himin your life to keep you in check

A/N: Might make more hcs for that because I absolutely love the idea of big, strong goofball Knuckles having a little ball of pure rage as a partner.

Amy Rose:

Some would say you're a pacifist

Some would say you care too much

Some would say you're too nice

But you like to think that you're just trying to do good in the world

You're definitely the type of person that hates conflict and wants everyone to get along, and you're more often than not a bit of a pushover

You like to give people benefit of the doubt and prefer to see the good in people, although sometimes, this affects you negatively

A kindly looking (or at least in your opinion) wolf with a showman's top hat and a certain glint his eyes one day stops you in your tracks and asks you ever so politely if you would kindly lend him some money to help feed his family

Of course, you're quick to help, but little do you know that this is none other than T.W. Barker himself, and he's been watching you carefully for some time

He notices the way you jump at the oppurtunity to help someone in need, and he being a con man at heart, decides to take advantage of that

But before you can lend the man all the money you have in your pocket, a certain pink hedgehog decides to interfere

"Hey, you leave her alone Barker! Go find your own ATM machine!"

Amy Rose herself stands not far behind you, hammer in hand and ready for trouble

"N-now, now, let's not be too hasty. I was simply accepting a generous donation from this unsuspecting-- I mean self-less young lady."

"Yeah right. Beat it before I hammer you into next Tuesday, punk!"

You're in utter shock as the seeming wolf in sheep's clothing (pun intended) makes his escape

"Gotta look out for scumbags. Seems this village is getting more and more of them everyday. Anyways, I'm Amy, what's your name?"

Since then, Amy keeps a close eye on you to make sure you don't become prey to anymore scam artists

Now Amy will never admit she has anger issues, but she does get... irritated from time to time

On more than one occasion, you're there to help her calm down and have a sleepover planned or a spa day for when things get particularly rough for her

Whenever she needs help choosing which paint to redo her wall with, or which dress she should wear to a party, she calls you up, because no matter what you're interests are or how inconvenient the timing might seem, you're ready to help a friend, even with mundane things

Amy has you become a part of the Sonic family, and while you never do join them in battles, you help keep the peace between the team whenever there's an argument

And Amy always makes sure your overly caring attitude isn't being taken advantage of

No matter the time or the place, Amy knows she can always count on you, and you know she's always got your back

Sticks:

Well this is quite the predicament you've gotten yourself into

A lot of people would descibe you as clumsy, but you knew you just bad luck

And to prove just that, here you were dangling upside from a rope trap after deciding to take a liesure stroll through the forest

What are we, nomads? Who sets out traps in the middle of the woods anymore?!

After about 20 minutes, the blood is rushing to your head and you're starting to feel faint

But just as you think that your bad luck will finally be the end of you, figure bursts from the bushes with a fierce battle cry

It's a badger girl with a boomerang clutched in her paw, ready for a fight

But after a moment she realizes just who's gotten caught up in her trap

"Hey, what's the big idea?! Why're you in my snare?"

"Why am I in your snare? Why did you put out a snare you loon?!"

After about 5 minutes of arguing, Sticks reluctantly cuts you down, begrudgingly explaining that she set out a trap for any woodland monsters

You run into her again on another walk, crossing a small stream before tripping on one of the stepping stones and almost falling in before a furry arm wraps around your waist

"You outta be more careful out here. The wilderness is no place to be a klutz."

"Hey, I'm not a klutz. I just have bad luck is all."

And what more to gain the attention of a superstitious badger than the possibility of supernatural forces at play

"You could've been hexed by a witch. Or worse, there could be a vengeful spirit after you! We gotta get you an exorcist!"

"I'm fine, I'm just unlucky. Always have been always will be."

"We should still burn some sage in your home just to be sure."

You let Sticks do what she wants with you, after all, her superstitious perspective is a nice change from everyone just thinking your clumsy

You think her attempts to "cleanse" you are endearing, she tries something new everyday, and you end up learning a thing or two about survival and the corruptedness of politics from her

Weeks later, her attempts slowly dwindle down, and she just comes to accept she's just gonna have to keep an extra close eye on you, especially when she sets out booby traps

The time y'all have spent together, although it was somewhat motivated by Sticks not wanting to get whatever curse you exposed her to, lead to y'all having a close bond

Everyone has their quirks, she's paranoid and you're clumsy, but you two always manage to work things out

And that's the beauty of a relationship

A/N: Sorry I haven't been that active lately, so take this as an apology. Four hcs for the price of one!

[getallemeralds]

more in the series of drawing my OCs with non-canon super forms, here’s Double! i haven’t actually decided if he can go super or not, so this might still be on the table, but i cant really think of a situation where he’d end up using the chaos emeralds that way so im labeling it non-canon for now.

i decided to give every super form a unique and fun name so it’s not just Super [Name] (although Super Sonic stays the same), so uh... i guess this’d be Boosted Double? because of his Double Boost ability. which i swear wasn’t even an intentional pun, because i was calling him Double even before Forces came out and i decided to make him my custom hero. ^^;

i wasn’t really sure how to make him look visibly powered up besides glowy effects, so i had some fun experimenting with it. his ponytail’s longer and he has different markings, although the outfit is just something he gets after Forces that i pretty much never draw him in.

when it came to colours i got a bit stuck, though. for Sik i went the Super Sonic route of inverting his fur colour (under the shading he’s actually very orange), but it didn’t really look great for Double... but i didnt want to make him just yellow, either. i ended up giving him the rough palette of Custom the Wolf / promotional custom hero as a shoutout to him taking the role (and also shoes), but also because red actually looks pretty good on him! and the glowy blue aura bits are because of the Double Boost animation.

wow, that’s a lotta words!

[cutegirlmayra]

Ember Commission Receipt

@marydragneell​ commission for another continuation of Ember the Immortal Wolf series - The Fire’s Scourge.

Time: After hearing what was desired for the chapter, I began researching and plotting points together. Then I wrote about 44 pages for the overall story. It has been through one round of Author edits before the rough draft was presented to the customer.

Review:  OMG I FUCKING LOVE IT,  I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, I LOOOOOOOOOVE IT AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH. Ember is the right amount of badass and sassy, but at the same time just perfect with the jokes. Protective sibling shadow🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 And manic just awesome and want to be flirty and affectionate 💚💚💚💚but since the bro is there he just try to not show it XD. That part was so cute and hilarious at the same time XD I think it’s my favorite part of that chapter, shadow being like " wtf is going on with those two".  Like always its perfect ^^ - @marydragneell

Note: I love you too, Mary! ^^ It’s always fun writing for you and Ember! You’re so sweet and I always work hard so I can see your happy comments. You’re adorable, my friend!

Paid amount: 50$ (This price was offered by the Customer, I’d like to thank her for her generous decision. ;//wn//;)

Product preview (ROUGH DRAFT ONLY, with permission fo the customer):

The Fire’s Scourge.

Commission for the lovely Marydragneell

By: Cutegirlmayra

Dear Manic,

Your song lyrics are so funny, not everything has to rhyme or sound like a poem. But I appreciate it, it’s great to read. I’d rather hear it though! Or at least sing it! When do you plan to visit me? It’s gets boring here sometimes… especially when Shadow bosses me around about being all ‘responsible’ and ‘acting my age’. I’m the same age as him! I was even created before him! I’m practically the oldest… anyway, I’m grumbling on paper, haha! Send me a mix-tape sometime and don’t be afraid to write back. I enjoy these letters.

I enjoy scrapping my claws against the thin paper as I write to you.

Sincerely, The most epic wolf you’ll ever know! Ember

P.S: Ember is easy to make songs out of, try and be more creative next time!

It was the last letter she had written Manic… before the letters stopped coming.

Ember lightly made sure her claws wouldn’t crease too much of the paper, deciding to write another letter in hopes he may respond this time. Like he used too…

The letter folded neatly into an envelop as Ember sealed it with a lick. She held it close to her face, letting it touch her nose as she excitedly withheld herself from getting her hopes too high.

Again…

She had been pen-paling Manic The Hedgehog, Sonic’s brother, for a little while now. Ever since Rouge gifted her a writing kit, trying to make peace with her since they sometimes had to work together, she’d been writing him back and forth like this.

She hopped down from the G.U.N HQ’s desk she was at and went to put it in the mail chute when Shadow stormed up to her.

“Where were you?”

His voice sounded annoyed, not like his normal, causal brooding…

“I was… um…” she hadn’t told Shadow about her little crush…

He looked at the letter in her hands, but she quickly stuck it in her tail and smiled nervously to him, “I’m just writing Santa!”

“Hmph.” He shot air out of his nose at her humor. “When are you going to start-“

“Acting my age?” Ember rolled her eyes, “Get to work? Be nice to Rouge? Hang out with people? I thought we were passed this already, I’m a grown woman! Let me live my life!” she folded her arms before exaggerating her independence, “I do jobs for G.U.N, don’t I?”

“Speaking of which, there’s been a portal breach near where you’re supposed to be patrolling.” He glared her down, seeing her trying to wiggle the letter out of her fluffy tail and get it in the mail chute.

When she saw him staring, she pretended she was just wagging her tail in excitement.

He pinched the middle bridge of his nose, “What am I to do with you?”

“Love me?” She moved back a bit, not sure if he’d find that funny.

His look certainly showed he didn’t.

“If you’re not going to take this mission seriously, I’ll go myself.” He grabbed what looked like a brown, dirtied cloak with rips all throughout it, but Ember immediately reached forward, grabbing a bit of it.

“No!”

“No?” he pivoted, “What do you mean, no? I thought you were ‘enjoying your life’?” he seemed to be spitting the same wording she had used in previous discussions right back at her.

Ember sweated a bit, seeing how angry he really was at her, but realized he was trying to cut her some slack. “You’re a good brother, Shadow. Whether you want to be or not.”

He raised an eyebrow, but she slowly began to tug the cloak off of him.

“And you do make a valid point… I need to prove I can handle this. You’re always worried about me-“

“-And for good reason.” He fully faced her, his tone full of distain.

She gulped, folding the cloak in her arms and continuing as she draped it over her arm. “B-but that’s why I’m going to show you I can do it! I’ve done big missions before, I can do some recon too.” She stood confidently, placing the cloak back on the hanger and tugging her own tighter onto her back, flexing it forward. “Trust me a little, I won’t let Eggman kidnap me again!”

Shadow’s eyes turned softer then, his shoulders going limp.

“Sonic said you passed out, turned insane again… how can I-?”

“I do reckless things, but most of the time, I’m only trying to make you proud.” She took his hand, shaking it lightly. “And do what’s right.”

“…Do you even comprehend what’s right?” He muttered the sentence out, but worried about her maturity level…

It was more tender a question than she had realized, and she quickly was caught off-guard.

Not wanting to continue the topic further, feeling a bit of hurt by those untrusting words, she let his hands go and tried to look chirpy.

“Well, brother. I promise to at least try and not get into trouble… of my own accord… if I can… deal?” her inputs made it all the more unbelievable.

He shook his head but conceded with a shake.

“I just don’t want you getting hurt…”

“I won’t!” She embraced him, knowing he wouldn’t embrace her back but still.

Shadow flinched at the touch, but relaxes after a moment, knowing this is just how Ember shows her affections.

She only gave hugs like this to him, anyway.

He was about to put a hand up to her head, attempting to reciprocate some family love before Rouge intervened, flying down with a sweet smile on her face.

She stretched her wings out a moment before retracting them back behind her. “Aww… look at the cute little siblings… finally getting along?” she teased.

Shadow quickly turned his head and hand away. “Ugh…”

Ember released him and glared at Rouge, sticking her tongue out. “You ruined our moment!”

“Oh? Did I?” Acting innocently, Rouge placed a finger up to her mouth. “Hadn’t noticed.” She winked, being playful. “Shadow, command wants to know about that portal…”

“Ember’s on it.” Shadow looked over his shoulder at her, and then back to Ember. “I hope.”

“Hope is enough!” she waved him off and dug through her tail, getting the letter she stashed out and dumping it in as quick as lightning.

“What was-?” Shadow peered down the mail chute but Ember was already booking it away.

“Bye, bro!”

“Wait! Ember!” He called after her, but she had already raced out.

“Wild one. How ever are you going to tame her to be a good little soldier like ourselves?” Rouge put her hands together and struck a very fake pose, she was clearly mocking the fact that Shadow was in charge of Ember’s training.

He sighed, still watching where she had run off too. “Sometimes… I worry I don’t know her full strength… as well as I pretend too.”

“You of all people should know her best. She doesn’t hide anything from you.” She walked up next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, showing more comradery than teasing now. “To her, you’re family.”

“…She is the only thing I have to an actual family.” He muttered out, as though admitting it aloud for the first time.

“Oh my! What a declaration.” Rouge took her hand off him and covered her mouth, but smiled at his tender comment. “Such a softy under all those quills…”

“Hmph.” He moved away from her, trying to signal he was done talking but she flew off after him anyway.

“Do you know who she’s writing with my little present?”

He froze, looking back at her.

“Someone who may be close… but differently, compared to you.” She fluttered her wings and took off, giving him just enough to drive him crazy with questions.

He openly showed his teeth, frowning deeply. “At least she has a friend… that’s what she meant… wasn’t it?”

However…

Below where the letters are delivered, a few shadowy figures lurked. One suddenly caught the falling mail and tapped it against his shoulder, opening it up and pretending to barf. He shredded the letter and snickered, writing his own back with a click of a pen.

“Hehehehe… Dear Manic… Get lost.”

The other shadowy figures snickered a moment.

The mailman came and the new letter was sent, as the old one’s remains drifted down in steady, shredded pieces…

“And now, boys… let’s go catch a spark of flame~” A devious voice spoke through the darkness, and the gang all raced out to follow Ember’s figure disappearing into the woods…

----

Ember couldn’t remember much, which she wasn’t used to with such a profound memory. She could only recollect something hard had struck from behind, knocking her out pretty hard and leaving her mostly unconscious. Now, as she woke up, she noticed the jerking of a brown, dirtied bag squishing and bobbing her between mysterious footfalls that carried her in the bag.

“She’ll probably have portal-lag. Might as well set her down here till she wakes up.” The voice wasn’t familiar to her. It wasn’t from Sonic or from his gang, so she figured she was just kidnapped.

‘Kidnapped!?’ she plugged her mouth immediately after thinking that awful thought. ‘No, no, no! I just told Shadow I wouldn’t be kidnapped! Ohhh! Now I’m mad!’ She squirmed a bit in the tight space, her tail taking up most of the free space. ‘I’ll thump’em! I’ll trounce them! I’ll- I’ll-!’

“Are you mad?” Suddenly, she did pick up on a voice. Her bag was gently lowered and she could feel the swinging weight of her body finally rest upon cold ground.

Was that… Sonic?

Was this a joke!?

“We have a powerful entity on our hands… I just want the fiery babe to feel comfortable enough to not burn the whole place down to smithereens!” His sudden tone change,… that sarcasm,… the joke about the portal-lag…

Was she in another dimension?

“Tsk. I don’t see why you’re so fixated on chaos power again.” Another voice spoke out a grumbly tone, feminine this time. But…

Could she maybe..?

She tried to wiggle her finger around the opening of the bag, seeing if her claw could get the band on the bag a few more inches loose.

“…You don’t get it?” Sonic’s voice turned dark again, and she flinched a minute as her ears tried to adjust to the strange rhythm it had. Sonic was always full of life, vigor, and general velocity in his actions and words to match his quick feet. This… couldn’t be Sonic.

She felt a shift and the bag toppled over. Ember had to keep silent but could feel a breathy ‘yelp!’ escape her lips just barely. She instinctively plugged her mouth again, and quickly.

“What do you think I’m running here, Fi? You worthless Destructixs are in this for me. Got it? We broke out of jail for the sole purpose of lighting this world on fire with my iron fist pounding it into submission! To light the world… we need a match.” Ember could hear a fist pound into something, probably the other hand, but felt the shift in atmosphere… as though eyes were on her.

‘Light the world on fire..?’ She thought a moment, ‘Destructixs? Where have I heard… Ah!’ Ember suddenly recognized this speech pattern wasn’t Sonic’s at all! She remembered perfectly the name, where she had heard it too. Immediately, she decided she couldn’t—No, wouldn’t stay quiet and hide forever!

She had faked her unconsciousness to get information, but now, she was getting impatient.

‘Gerald Robotnik created me for good! To defend! I know who these guys are now…’ She flexed her claws, getting ready...

It only took a moment of further silence before the bag was shredded in seconds, and Ember rose up with a quick swipe toward where Sonic’s voice had previously come from.

“Scourge!” she cried out, “You rascal!”

“Woah. The kitty’s awake.” He smirked, stepping back to dodge her assult before tugging on his black, flaming jacket. “Boys?” he gestured to the gang as Ember’s arms were thrown behind her.

“Pfft. Who thinks they can hold me down—Ohhhhh…” She struggled a moment before turning her head around to look up at a large, imposing figure. “A big boy.”

The extremely large and tall giant growled down at her, at least, that’s how she saw him.

“Simian, make sure our guest knows her place.” He began to walk toward what looked like a stone throne. Around Ember was a large, black and blue stoned castle, or the remains of what looked like one.

She was able to fight a bit back and get her arms almost away from her back, but Sgt. Simian’s strength was certainly a match for her.

“Okay… Not so easy to break out of.” She grumbled, disliking the change in the situation.

“Stone, babe.” Scourge tapped the stone beneath them, looking at her over his shoulder. “Want to have a go at making this place light up?” he teased, moving over to his throne and sitting rather reclined in it. “Welcome to my realm. Not much. But all mine.” He put a hand up to his chin to rest his head on, “Well… anymore.” He snickered as the rest of the team seemed to chuckle back.

He motioned for the rest of the gang to come forward. “You know how hard it is to track down a little firefly like you?”

Ember spat on the ground, “Call me a firefly one more time…” she tried to resist being dragged forward from behind, her feet scuffing at the stones below her, but there was no traction strong enough to withstand Sgt. Simian’s brute strength. He basically dragged her towards Scourge at his request like a vacuum cleaner across a rug.

“Tsk. Like I care!” Scourge responded, watching as she was pushed forward towards him.

In protest at being man-handled, her feet began to spark against the stone, but no fire was produced.

‘Shoot!’ she thought to herself, ‘I’m surrounded! And on top of that? I’m not even in my own realm! Guess back-up’s out of the question…’

“You think we have time for a new carpet? This place is fireproof, baby! Hahaha!” He leaned his head back and laughed and laughed.

“Whoo… I have to hand it to ya. You’re one hard dame to find…” he clapped a little with his hands, as though congratulating her and rubbing some ‘tears’ out of his eyes after his such a good laugh. “Had to send every mercenary I could intimidate on the hunt for you. Glad you remember me though.” He winked.

“So… I was kidnapped, I’m in a different world, and you’ve sent spies to figure out where I was. Am I missing anything?” Ember raised an eyebrow, being rather composed as she relaxed. She was hoping it would make Sgt. Simian’s grip on her arms loosen, at least let his guard down, but that didn’t seem to be the case…

A red fox walked up to Scourge, turning around to face Ember and folding her arms, clearly not liking the other girl’s presence. Ember assumed this was the girl he called ‘Fi’, simply because she was the only girl in the group. So? Deduction stands that she must be the feminine voice she had heard previously...

“Show some manners and don’t directly talk to the king.”

“Wow. You even got her playing pretend.” Ember snapped a quick line back as the girl tensed up, her tail flicking in rage but Scourge just raised a hand.

“Feisty, feisty, feisty… I like it. But you’d do well to remember what situation you’re in.” he took his raised hand and leaned forward, snapping. “Snap!”

Suddenly, there was a harsh spark of pain in her arms. Ember was lifted up in a painful hold as Sgt. Simian held her suspended in the air.

Her eyes flinched, but she kept any grunt or utterance of pain at a minimum.

“Aaaaannnddd… Hold for dramatic effect… Snap!”  Scourge reclined again and snapped, having Sgt. Simian put her down again.

Her arms twitched under the uncomfortable position, and she swore a few jerks would have had her shoulders pop out of their sockets.

“Do I have your attention now, little spark?”

“It’s Ember.” Ember gritted her teeth. “And when Shadow finds out what you’ve done-!”

He suddenly rose to his feet, “I’ve defeated Shadow! And Sonic! At the exact same time!” he swiped his arms out, growing annoyed. “Don’t you dare think you can threaten me!!!”

“Tsk.” Ember emoted, not seeming to have known that before. She sweatdropped, nervous now if Shadow could even jump realms… ‘Maybe I should have laid low a little longer…’

“Scourge.” A hawk stepped forward, as though gently reminding his leader of his purpose.

“Hmph. I know!” Scourge dismissed the comment, swiping a hand at him, “In my own due time!”

He turned back to his throne, “As you recall, I was trying to lure out Sonic through a staged ‘setup’ if you will…”

----

It was a vivid memory—though Ember’s memory never failed her anyway. No matter… how hard she would try and forget.

Scourge had run into her vigilante G.U.N attire, not having fully recognized her as she continued to foil his criminal activities of trying to seize control over the world. Sonic and his friend would naturally call upon the Freedom Fighters to put a stop to his plans, but this time was different.

G.U.N had actually assigned her to stop a village fire,…

Little did she know it was a trap.

The citizen’s screamed in terror as wood and falling debris littered the skies, their homes and city collapsed around them in the flames.

Their city was deep within a crater formed in the earth, with sharp, jagged cliffs encircling them. There seemed to be a drainage system in place for floods, but for some reason, the drains had been clogged and the fire had no where to escape too. If they tried using water to put out the massive fires, which started up sporadically in different locations, then they would be trapped within the crater.

What made matters worse is that the fires had burnt the electrical powers, so even their way out was blocked besides long, carved stairwells which would be too dangerous for a mass of panicked people to scale in an efficient manner.

So what was Ember to do..?

“Help! Someone!” A woman cried from within a building as Ember quickly leaped up and scaled the tall skyscraper with her claws.

“Haaannnggg ooonnn!!!” she ripped through the flaming surroundings and grabbed the woman, rushing down and helping her to safety. “Does anyone know who started this?” Ember set her down lightly as the woman frantically turned around, wanting to aid as much as possible now that she was out of harm’s way.

“They called themselves ‘Destructix’. They said-“ as the woman began to cough and mutter, a voice suddenly rose from the flames atop a hill.

“Too bad! Looks like Blue didn’t have time to save any of you. Guess you’ll just burn straight to the underworld then!!!” A figure stood looming above on a cliff. He looked like a light green hedgehog with bright sunglasses, having the city’s flames dance in their shades, tugging on his jacket. He flicked his wrist as a few other figures came up: a monkey, red fox, frog, dog, hawk, and wolf. They stepped ahead of him and poured what looked to be gallons of gasoline down onto the streets below.

Like a skillet having oil poured on it, firing up everything for a split second of pure horror. The flash blinded the citizens as the heat swept their breaths up and burst the rest of their hope they had at survival.

People shrieked as he smirked, turning away before Ember’s rage couldn’t contain itself anymore.

Her fingers twitched, head pulsed with trauma as she saw children rushing away from the quickly moving flames…

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

She couldn’t control it. It was too much on her heart.

The cursed emerald pulsed, cloaking her in a bright white as her eyes covered in pitch black smoke that rippled along her eye sockets. In this hysterical super form, she covered herself in chaos energy and burst through the trailing gasoline.

It was like an arrow through water, she would thrust one hand out and burning gasoline would splash out of her way onto the buildings and away from the cowering citizens. One hand at a time, she propelled herself through the streets. Her power turned the flames into nothing more than burnt oil stains against the city’s skyscrapers, extinguishing them as fire swarmed her being. With enough force, she had spared the majority of the city while they continued to evacuate. Some had burns, but it looked as though no one had died, miraculously.

“B-Boss!” The shaking hand of the Wolf gestured behind him towards the powerful streak of Ember’s power charging like a swift beam of light towards them.

“…Hmm?” Scourge turned around, his glasses suddenly shining with the light she was emitting as he strode back up to the edge and peered down at her. He smirked, his eyes completely consumed in the image of her magnificent flaming display of power and skill.

She scaled the ledge, climbing in a ferocious tantrum towards them. Below, people cheered and huddled close to their loved ones, scaling the escape route out from their precious homes now destroyed to mere ash.

Some of Scourge’s men got ready to fight, but he rose a hand up to stop them. “Wait!” His sharp teeth glistened when his tongue licked over their dry frames. The chaos energy and the flames left a streak of dry wind, smoky to the smell, and excited Scourge for a moment.

“Well, well… I think I remember you.” He backed off, “We’ll meet again, little spark!” he then escaped in the nick of time, just before Ember ripped through the skyscraper in her way, leaping straight through it, and landing off into the mountain’s cliffside. She attempted to pursue him in her fury, but his buddies and him had portal capabilities, and were gone without a trace.

Ember huffed and puffed, standing away from the fires still licking at the lightly fuming city before she collapsed and gripped her head. “How could… How could people like that still exist..? I thought… G.U.N was the only organization capable of being so cruel… I’ll find them. I’ll stop them no matter what it takes!!!” Ember’s oath was never forgotten, but she hadn’t found a rumor about the mysterious Destructix’s since.

----

So while Scourge finished his recollection of the story, Ember was still locked inside her own perfect memory of the event. The smoke that rose from that black pit… the reports of missing individuals that some witnesses say they saw escaping up the stairs… the families being left with nothing but soot on their faces and half-burnt clothes on their backs…

Scourge didn’t seem to notice her shaking pupils, but did see how quiet she was, staring off at the ground as she began to realize what a mad man he really was.

He took off his sunglasses, his eyes widening in glee. “That power was something else, babe. Mind telling me why you’re not summoning it now?”

She flicked her nose up, ‘Is that what he’s after?!’ and looked away. ‘At first it was to find Sonic… but now he might do something horrible like that… to find me.’ She couldn’t bare to think about it, biting her jaw tightly shut as she tried to hold in her rage. ‘What… what awful things did he do while he searched for her instead of Sonic..? Was it her fault..? That more people were hurt by his crazy, terrorist attacks?’

“Playing coy?” He teased, jumping down from his throne and walking over to her, standing by her side and checking her out. “That power’s not asleep, is it? Hate to wake it up…”

His threats fell on deaf ears, which she twitched to show her ignorance of his roaming eyes…

Her tail maneuvered itself between Sgt. Simian’s legs… waiting for a good opportunity…

“I remember how you looked, sweetheart. Covered in the light of flames and spouting oil this way and that.” He gestured with his hands, flinging them out left and right to show a live demonstration of her feat. “You almost made me think you cared for all those people down there…”

She growled.

After seeing his eyes light up at her reaction to him, she forcing her mouth shut again, but she refused to let him taunt her.

He wanted a fight, but she wouldn’t give it to him.

He put his glasses back down over his eyes, his smirk fading slightly. “You’re not one to talk back or pick fights, are you? Caution is the most annoying trait, babe.”

Ember sighed, “You want my power. That’s annoying in and of itself too.” She lowered her head, playing into the ‘I give up’ motive and waiting for Simian to drop his guard.

She felt his hands loosen with her bending body and knew the moment wouldn’t be too far off now.

Just a little longer…

“Well, yeah. I find it hot.” He suddenly lurched forward, straight at her face. It startled her, but he reached directly at her chest and grabbed her emerald, sticking just slightly above her shirt as she felt the Master Emerald’s power suddenly rejecting it, inflicting Ember’s essence with its powerful, pure chaos energy.

“AHHHH!!!” she flung her head back as he poured some of his chaos energy into her, causing immense pain as the cursed emerald seemed to be repelled when it wanted to fight back and defend itself.

“Hahaha! So it is cursed!” Scourge kept his grip tight, laughing as the fox girl saw where his hands were and quickly grew defensive.

“That’s enough, Scourge!”

Her jealous burst made him stop laughing, turning to look at her with a frustrated expression as his hand released Ember.

She fell to her knees, taking a moment to recover from that torture before she felt Sgt. Simian’s hand let go of her, now holding her with one. He did so to avoid falling with her, since he was much larger than her anyway.

Now was the time, she just needed her strength first.

“Fiona, baby, I’m working here.” Scourge began to walk up to her, seeming calm but Fiona knew his act all too well.

She stepped away a moment, seeing him immediately grow hostile and grab her neck.

He screamed in her face, dipping her down and gripping her to him, hollering down her throat. “Don’t interfere!”

When he let her go, she fell and coughed, clutching her sore neck before pointing towards Ember, “She’s nothing! You’ve seen me take down stronger foes than her! Let me fight her! I’ll prove how useful I can be-!”

“Pfft. Save it, toots. You and I both know little spark’s far more devastating than some freaky kung fu moves.” He waved her off, making Fiona look down and slam her fist to the ground.

“She’s the freak with the moves… I can do it. I can beat her if you’ll let me just-“

“Quiet!” He swiped an arm out, silencing her again. “You’re getting on my nerves. Take a chill pill and walk, Fi!” Immediately, as though understanding the context of his words, some of his men came up behind Fiona. She looked behind her, getting upset as she struggled and glared to Ember.

Ember didn’t have anything against the girl, besides that she followed a lunatic, but the look she gave her made Ember feel even more irritated.

Fiona shook off the men’s arms and got up, silently walking away with the men, clearly having some resolves.

“Hmph. Women, am I right?” he folded his arms and then looked back to Ember with a joking, sinister smile.

Now!

Ember tripped up Sgt. Simian, wrapping her strong tail around a leg and pulling him back to fall down behind her. He was already bending over to keep one hand on her, it was his own fault for thinking she couldn’t recover fast enough.

She got her arms back and pounced towards Scourge, raising a clawed hand up. “HAAA!!!”

“Oh! Something interesting!” he chimed, jumping back and out of her way as her claws dug into the concrete of the old castle, near his throne.

The stone bricks flew out of place and crashed all around, tink, tink, tinking onto the ground as rubble and chalky dirt launched everywhere into the open air.

Scourge wiped his mouth of the grey dirt and readied himself, looking thrilled at some violence. “Finally… I was thinking you were just gonna lay down for me, sparkz.”

“Ember.” She growled.

“Right, right. Well, you either have two options. As far as I see? It’s join me-“ he flicked off some rubble that was sticking to his shoulder, “Or death.”

Ember also got into a fighting position, summoning all her strength she had regained from resting a moment to her hands and feet.

“And it’s not really a request…”

Ember felt her power soar through her being, the cursed emerald still pumping chaos through her in a means to recover after that last attack.

She flung her arm out again, but it was a feint. Soon as he tried to dodge, she gripped the ground and swung a foot into his stomach.

“Offph!” She watched him recline back from the pain, his lips pushing forward at the intensity of the hit.

“Heh.” She had the advantage and wouldn’t let it slip away! “Here’s a taste of my power you want so badly! Have itttttt!” she roundhouse kicked, knocking his head back but he lifted an arm up to grab her other leg as she circled for another blow and threw her down.

Quickly getting back up, she saw his hands come together and slam down on the concrete where she had just rolled away from.

‘This is gonna take more than strength…’ she recognized that his strength was equal to that of her powered cursed emerald. He must have been powered by the Master Emerald too… but how?!

She didn’t have time to dwell on that. She wanted to prove, not just to herself but to Shadow too, that she could complete a mission on her own!

She summoned some power to her chest and filled her claws with chaos energy, making them grow out like beams of light. “Try dodging this, don’t underestimate me!” She leaped up and feinted a swipe as though about to cast Shadow’s Chaos Spears.

It worked. Scourge recognized the familiar motion and went to dodge what he thought was the onslaught of chaos energy spears, but she pushed off the wall nearest to her, her eyes twitching, ‘There! An opening!’

She kicked off the wall and threw herself fully at him, “Haaaa!!!!” she slashed his already permanent scar with fresh new claw marks across his chest.

“Agh!” he was blasted back, the pulse from her Chaos Claws sending the cursed emerald’s power through his body and having it repel his own stolen Master Emerald power.

The two didn’t mix well, the power kept blasting the other back, but at least she knew she could push him back if she summoned her power faster than he could counter it.

He still had that advantage… but for that moment, he wasn’t using it at its full potential. Even Ember could see that…

She landed a bit away from him, watching him grip at his chest. He seemed surprised to see no blood. “The damage was more to your energy.” She slowly rose up, the power in her claws fading as she returned to her usual twitch of sharpening her nails. “But I still got’cha…”

Indeed, she saw the wounds reopen on his chest, only a little blood oozed out but just enough for Scourge to look down and see the delayed reaction.

His face shifted to lines of anger stretched up from the dip in his narrowed eyebrows.

As though refusing to let loose his full power just yet, his energy subsided and he just looked back up at Ember, fixated on her form.

“Interesting…” he licked his lips, getting up. “Very interesting…” he still held his chest, some blood on his glove now, but the bleeding would stop momentarily as the chaos energy began to reform again.

She disengaged and stepped away, feeling the power in her claws slowly dwindle. “Tsk.” She kept sharpening them as sparks flew around her. ‘His attack on me from before weakened the cursed emerald… I can’t do what I normally can now… is that why he so directly attached the Master Emerald’s power to it? By doing so, he probably knew it would cripple me somewhat… I’ll have to play a bit of a waiting game to get my lost power back.’

She smirked.

‘Perfect. I’ll keep him talking…’

“So? You really think you’re going to somehow get me to join your little uprising?” She decided to play along, swishing her tail and moving back as to lure him up and think she wasn’t going to strike anymore.

“Heh… do you really think me that stupid?” He growled. She could feel his own chaos power recharging, and knew he was probably adopting the same strategy.

“You’re lucky, you know… I haven’t even begun to fight!” he suddenly let loose a Chaos Blast, shattering the ground and exploding outward as Ember couldn’t react fast enough to block against it.

She was blown into the wall, crashing hard against it and getting a headache when she landed back to the ground with a hard thump!

She groaned, trying to sense her surroundings again when a foot was pressed on her back, keeping her down.

Then… she felt a hand move through the back of her hair, gripping some strangled strings as smoothly as moving through water. But then her head was ripped back, forcing her to turn toward him.

“Erk!” it hurt like none other, but she could hear him shifting his muzzle through her hair, pulling her head back to lean and press against it.

“My, my… Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” he mocked with an alluring pleasure to his voice. “I’m not.”

“Back off!” she threatened, flailing a moment but his touch never wavered.

“You’re so enticing, Ember… like a warm fire that burns anyone who dares to touch it.” His words hissed in a pleasure-seeking tone that made her uncomfortable. What was that? Some sort of intimidating praise or actual flirting?

From back in the front of the castle, the gang watched on, having all scattered back after that fight.

They knew when not to intervene with Scourge, but Fiona couldn’t contain herself.

She lurched forward, only to have a hand grip her shoulder and the frog shake his head. This time she gritted her teeth, seeing how they all weren’t keen on Ember, but wouldn’t dare disobey Scourge again.

She held silent reservations, but looked on and held herself back. “I hate her…” she mumbled.

The rest of the team sighed in tense pockets of air, letting them go gradually. They seemed to be silently agreeing with her.

Maybe this girl was more a problem than a useful pawn…

“You know what’s crazy good about you, Toots?” Scourge smelled her hair in a deep, creepy whiff. Ember reached her hands back to get him off her hair but he gripped her wrists and spun her around, pinning her on the ground.

“Ack!” she felt the cruel stone scrape against her back. Her clothes survived the Chaos Blast, but some of it had ripped somewhat.

“You know what..?” He moved close to her face, his fangs skimming her forehead as his tongue taunted her eye.

It was disgusting, she twitched her eye and finally turned away, giving into some fear deep inside herself.

“After I broke out of jail for the hundredth time… I decided, hey, wonder how my dear emotionally distraught castaway was doing.” He pulled back and winked. “Found you again… a dog to those goody-two-shoes, and it’s been sparkz ever since, Cinder~”

“Ember.” She growled, as though cursing loudly, she tried to push against his strength.

For a moment, it was working. She could feel her power returning to her, inching him off little by little and getting her hands to lock in his own and steadily push him away.

But he only smiled, watching her struggle must have looked like a game to him.

“Whatever. Still on fire.”

“Ugh, What is?”

“My heart and your body, babe.”

She rolled her eyes, “I’ll make a fire in you, alright… one that burns you to a crisp!” she started to summon her own Chaos Blast, struggling under him.

However… his head jerked down and his fangs gripped her emerald.

“Ack!” she blushed before another huge wave of the Master Emerald’s power shot through her and electrified her body. “AHHH!!!”

Again, Fiona could not remain still, so as she went to leap forward, about to call out his name when the rest of the Anti-gang grabbed her and pulled her back, covering her mouth.

“Tolerate it.” the Lynx threatened. “He’s only getting what he wants.”

Her eyes were green with jealousy, but her face was red with anger and revenge.

Scourge let go and Ember collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily as it felt her entire insides had been fried.

“Ever since you raged from that burning town,” He wiped the spit off his mouth, letting her go and looming over her. “I’ve always had the hots for ya.”

She coughed and breathed heavily, sliding herself out from under him and leaning against the stony wall. She gripped it for support, rubbing her imbedded cursed emerald before gathering enough strength to speak again. “Me? Or my power?” she turned back to him, playfully folding her arms, faking that she was fine.

“Boo, it’s all in the same body.” He lowered his sunglasses down to get a better look at her. “What’s the difference?”

He must have called her bluff, because he moved right back where he was, pinning her against the stone and letting his nose skim her muzzle. He whispered, “What to do… what to do…” As though taunting her feeble state. “What ever should I do to you first..?” he smirked, looking back at her.

Ember ignored the power-plays, quickly changing the subject and trying to restore her strength back, struggling to push him away again. “My power isn’t me. I-I mean… I’m more than my abilities!” Her head rolled a moment, feeling nauseated from the two chaos powers conflicting each other.

“Sure, sure. But my abilities could send you to a whole new world…” He gave her a suggestive eyebrow movement.

Ember couldn’t let him just toss her around like a ragdoll! No matter how much his chaos power repulsed and diffused her own… she would have to fight!

Ember chuckled, trying to still play cocky as best as she could, even if she was stuck against a wall and a madman. “I’m already in another dimension.”

“I know, right? Exciting, isn’t it?”

He suddenly let her go.

It was then that Ember felt her body fall back to the ground. Was she unable to keep going?

She tried to slide her feet under her, but they skid back to being weakly shaken upon the ground.

She began to panic. ‘No… No-no-no, get up! You can’t let him win!’ She was growing more and more anxious and worried, but he just watched her face as her internal struggle grew more and more dire.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Someone can’t admit when she’s beat.” He chuckled right back, turning his head a bit upside down to get a better look at her. She hid her face and he gripped it with his hand, forcing it back into view and up to look at him.

He stroked with his pinkie the side of her cheek, still humming a bit of gleeful victory before flicking his head, flirtatiously. “Join me and we can have a bonfire later tonight~”

He moved dangerously close to her lips, “You and me… no sounds but the constant cries of you wanting more…”

She gagged. “Do you honestly think girl’s fall for that?”

Fiona had been taken away, pushed against another wall by her comrades, her fierce rage rising with each sentence she heard from the other room. She gripped at her captors backs and threatened to scratch and peel their skin off, but for her sake, they didn’t let go. “Sorry, not into ‘green’ fads.” Ember spat out.

“Ouch.” Scourge’s smirk was replaced quickly with a frown. “Touchy, touchy.”

“You seem to be.” Ember tried to bite at his wandering hands, but he pulled them back, apparently turned on her by actions as his eyes widen with intrigue.

His head perked up, and he mimicked a cat’s ‘rawr’.

“Ohhh… look who’s talking back. I like you.”

“Clearly…”

“Only… my love’s a little conditional. Pricey as it seems, I’m a man of material desire.” As he slipped a hand around her waist, she punched him back, summoning everything into that blow that forced him away.

“Grrk!” he gripped his eye, where she had punched.

Ember rose up and began to deal more hits, taking him off-guard as she spun and whacked him with her foot, leaving him prone before diving onto him with her knee, continuing the onslaught.

As though summoned by the sudden shift, the Anti-gang pounced and let Fiona go.

“W-what!?” Ember was tackled down, fighting for her life again as the Anti-gang began to beat down on her, protecting their so-called, ‘king’.

When they moved away, Ember was left utterly beaten and weak. Bruises forming along her muzzle and arms now… The only visible ones, anyway.

“Y… You cheated.” Ember stated, gritting through the pain as she crawled to try and get back up again, but was failing miserably. “I overpowered you… overcame… I would have won if-!” she was kicked across the room by Fiona, leaving her rolling along the cobble floor. “You… played fair.” She finished her sentence, but at what cost? She gripped her stomach and got up to her knees, panting as Fiona’s face looked like seconds away from murder. The Anti-gang turned to Scourge, who was getting up with a wobble in his step, gripping a hand over his eye.

“I’m starting to lose patience with you…” he muttered under his breath. “You say you don’t like green… but I know a certain hippie drummer boy you tend to write through G.U.N’s mail delivery service..! Too bad most of those letters don’t always end up in his hands…”

Ember was confused at first, not understanding before her eyes widened. “Are you talking about..?”

He didn’t let her finish, “I’m not one to be jealous, honestly. Only possessive. Which brings me back to my earlier demand…”

Suddenly, the Chaos Emeralds floated out from behind Scourge’s flowing jacket, revealing themselves as they gently swayed in a circle around his body. He approached his throne but stopped, turning his head back to her with another evil look of desire and pre-victory gloating.

“I want you… but all of you.” He turned back around and spread his arms out, the emeralds stopping their turning and remaining still… his presence was extremely intimidating, and Ember could feel she wasn’t at full power yet… The healing would need more time!

‘He knew about Manic? What else did he know!?’ She couldn’t continue on like this. Her panic was reaching its maximum capacity. She could feel the Cursed Emerald wanting to retaliate with the dark madness she knew all too well. ‘He knew how to reverse the Cursed Emerald’s power onto me… He knew about G.U.N, Shadow… what else is he hiding up his sleeve?!’ she felt the world caving in on her. ‘Shadow… Sonic… Manic…’ she closed her eyes, remembering her dear friends she had collected along the way. ‘What if they can’t save me..? He clearly gathered and stole all the Chaos Emeralds from our world… he’s… so powerful now. He can trump me at every turn!’

She looked to his team, slowly withdrawing with a sick sense of gloating in their boss’s power, staring at her and waiting for him to deal a finishing blow. ‘I… I can’t do this, can I? Shadow was right…’

Then… a letter returned to Ember’s memory.

Those words…

“Won’t happen.” She suddenly felt a courage spark in her.

“I won’t let you win.” She felt her fist tighten. The words her friend wrote her sang in her ears now, the last letter she had read from Manic…

Dear Ember,

What’s up? Sorry I haven’t written in a while! I hear it’s been pretty rough for you. Shadow sounds a bit like a downer, man. In all honesty, you gotta keep your head up. No matter what rain falls in the summer, it just turns to snow in the winter, and then a pleasant shower in the spring. I guess that’s super poetic, heh. But you like that kinda stuff, right? Anyway, what I mean is, don’t let things that seem hard keep you down. You have a really unique spirit, Ember. Kinda like your name, you’re a spark to the flame. Riding and gliding, you’ll always be the same, but evolve toward your name. Ember, Ember. Spark and shine. Embers and cinders, lighting the night! It’s hard not to write lyrics for ya, I know you laugh at me when I do, but it’s so easy for me to get inspired off of ya. You must be some kind of muse to me. Is that okay? Whatever, I’m not a very good letter writer, but I hope you know…

You aren’t just the embers, but the spark to the flame.

- Manic The Hedgehog

Her head reared up, his lyrics giving her strength as her heart pumped rapidly and her power swiftly returned to her.

“You want to see fire and brimstone?” She blasted her energy out, her super form taking effect again. It would cost her this time… but for once, she felt her mind just a little more clearer—it peeked through the haze of crazy power, and gave her the confidence to remain calm.

“We’ll see about that.” Scourge’s evil, scheming smirk reappeared. He lowered his eyes, attracted to her rebelliousness but also trying to not get frustrated again. “I’m not very patient.”

“I’m not very outspoken, and yet, here we are.” She smirked back, unwilling to be intimidated by his confidence. She proved she could beat him once. Time to do it again…

“This time, I’m going to push you around!” She took a few steps forward, her power sucking away at her now, like one last shot of adrenaline to end it all or be ended herself. “I’m speaking out against your bad fashion sense.” She egged him on.

“That’s it! I’ve put up enough with this! I’ll just take you here and now!” he blasted a deep purple, much like her Cursed Emerald’s power. His chaos had turned negatively charged and dangerously unstable.

At least she had some practice with being an uncontrollable mass of destruction.

“Bite me.” She threw her hand out, spiking out artificial chaos claws a few inches ahead, glowing purple in radiance once again. Her white form and black eye-sockets fanned like a raging fire, waiting for him to come at her.

“I’ll try!” his smile turned devilishly crazy, as though it was blood-hungry now.

The two clashed in what looked like an array of lights, flashing and blinding the other Anti-gang members as they held their arms out to shield themselves from the aftermath. The force tossed them back and around, skidding on their feet to avoid falling back.

“They’re gonna kill each other!” One of them shouted out, but it was hard to tell who with the constantly clashing lights that blinded their sights, and the rapid whipping of force pounding them in different directions as Ember and Scourge duked it out with everything they had.

“Dang it, Scourge! He’s going to take the whole fort down with him!” That one sounded as though it was Fiona, but before anyone could say anything more…

There was a large explosion, blasting the stone walls as Scourge shoved stones off of himself. He looked enraged, huffing and puffing a moment, wiping some blood off his chin.

“Heh… heh… Okay, doll. You’ve got my attention.” He breathed as though exhausted, bruised up and singed in different locations on his fur. “That power has a kick to it. Mind if I take a bit of it?” He shot up through the air, “Or how about all of it!?”

He rocketed down to Ember who had let her super form take over her actions. Though she was conscious and aware of herself, her reflex was stronger than her mind could keep up with. It was the ultimate instinct, a great offense to his aggressive—and unconcentrated—attack style.

She was battered and bruised though, but countered most of Scourge’s hits. This wasn’t looking good for either of them. They had different ways of utilizing chaos energy, both in dangerous ways, but with grave consequences on both of them. Especially mentally…

“Urk!” Under his sunglasses, which had fallen with the swing of his head down to his eyes, he suddenly winced in a bit of fear. “W…What-what gives you all this power!? Why won’t you just give in to me!?” It was almost pathetic, his sudden realization of how far Ember’s power could take her, but Ember liked to hear she was getting the advantage again.

She strained against his energy, him charging at her again, her pushing him back and holding her own as she tried to summon enough strength and sanity to speak again.

“It’s… because…”

Shadow… Sonic… Rouge.

“I have…”

Cream, Amy, Knuckles, Tails…

“P-people…”

Her memories, Maria… Dr. Gerald Robotnik.

All of her experiences.

All of her strife and happiness, pain and sorrows.

…Manic…

“I want… to protect!”

She sent a large energy wave out of her, rippling through the air as he remained stunned at the intensity of her Cursed Emerald’s power.

It was almost as though her very chest was shaking, the Cursed Emerald looking as though it was being rocked from her very core. Her soul taking full swing at him, him locked in her grip as she refused to let go.

“How’s that possible!?” he cried out, but it was too late now…

“I have all 7 Chaos Emeralds! You have only one!”

“Guess you didn’t do your research, but this little emerald was cursed for a reason!” She formed a beam at the tip of her protruding emerald, Scourge’s eyes glazed over with its wild radiance as he pulled his head back, whincing as he knew…This was gonna hurt. A lot.

“HAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

She spread a beam of dark purple energy out from her chest, propelling it into him as she held his fighting hands in place. A direct shot. A finishing blow. All she had left to give.

 She left him with nowhere to dodge.

 She had grappled him, causing his flimsy form to fly out in front of her, being forced to remain in the shock-blast of her immense power.

To keep from having the power push her back against the wall, she dug her feet into the ground of the cobble floor.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” the hit finally died down and caused Scourge to fall flat down on his face when she released him and backed away.

She gripped her arm, feeling the fatigue as her form disappeared and she fell down too. “You may be ticked… hah… hah… but no amount of fighting… hah… will keep me from forgetting… hah… hah… my friends.”

That was all. The last of everything. At least, she thought it was. Her vision so blurry and her body so numb.

The Cursed Emerald faded… as though Ember was left only to her mortal capabilities now.

“Grr…” he gripped the ground beneath him, “…Ow.” feeling the Chaos Emeralds shoot out from him, he forced his crisp self to get up, still steaming from the hit.

 “YOU LITTLE-!” he reached out to her. “Whether you join or not, I’ll just kill you and dance on your corpse!”

While the two were distracted, they didn’t notice a portal open and his Anti-gang getting beaten in their attempt to block out their powerful and heated light energy.

“You can’t win! Ahh! Ow! Hot! You can’t burn me! I’m raw to the core, babe! I’m-… I’m not done,… I’m well done! Haha! Ouch… Get over here…” he began to crawl to her, and it was pretty impressive that he had even survived her attack.

‘How?’ Ember’s eyes were too exhausted to shake in fear, her body too tried to fully react to his advances toward her. ‘He’s totally beaten… He can barely move… the Chaos Emeralds… He must have used them to block some of the attack… but they’re drained too. How… How powerful is this guy?’

“I won.” She countered.

He fidgeted in his painful crawl towards her.

His face and belly were scraping against the floor, his knees skidded with fresh burns that only made the stone sting further against the cold, rough touch. The surface was like sandpaper on his blackened hide, but he kept moving, he kept crawling… his gloves ripped and his sunglasses blasted like a comic book page’s BAM. He kept coming. He wouldn’t back down.

“I’m not just gonna lie down and die! I’ll take you with me!” he raised a crazy eye and gripped her head.

She was powerless to stop him, she could barely move her body, let alone keep her eyes open.

“You… cheated.” She muttered again as he attempted to use her head to push him off the ground, but she didn’t have enough strain and just toppled with him.

“Dang it…” he finally let out what sounded like his own acceptance of his defeat. “You and I… we’re too alike.” He just managed a smirk. “You and I… we’re bad to the bone.”

“No…” Ember breathed out and managed to look him in the eye.

“I’m nothing like you.”

Then…

“Scourge!”

Scourge stopped in his pursuit, still gripping Ember’s head. She was so close to fainting that she couldn’t move out of his grasp.

He turned to the sound and noticed his gang tied up and on their knees, looking ticked at three figures who walked into the shadows of the room.

Scourge quickly removed his hand and grabbed Ember by her neck, forcing himself up while pulling her with him.

He wobbled to his feet, clearly annoyed and struggling to find a joke in the situation. “So much interference… Can’t a man feed his ambitions first?” he licks his lips. “What is this, the Calvary?”

The figures halted.

“Heh. Might as well make a lasting impression, hmm? Fire girl’s mine! You’re too late to save anyone!” He was fibbing. It was all a fake show to mask the fact that he knew he was beat. He couldn’t do anything and neither could Ember now. His strength to rise to his legs was nothing but a mortal attempt to look like a god. He was really just a rag-doll with his stitches coming undone, the fluff of powerlessness inches from snapping out of him and spreading like dandelion fuzz around the air.

For a last kick, a final punch, icing on the cake of trying to reclaim an authoritative stance, he leaned in to kiss her…

“I… won’t… lose…” his façade was failing him, he was about to collapse. He pushed his thumb up to get her chin to rise…

A moment away from some petty form of victory… not willing to admit defeat…

But a noble drumstick hit the side of his cranium.

His eyes blinked, dazed and confused.

One figure stuck a hand out into the light where Ember and Scourge had made the ceiling fall apart, but some of it dared to stay intact.

One pointer finger rose up and wagged itself in broad daylight. “No, no, no… that’s no way to treat a lady, dude.”

Scourge squinted his eyes as Ember slowly began to go limp in his hold.

She was too exhausted to try and look and see who it is, but ever ounce of her felt it knew that voice. Like a steady drum beat… like a rhythmic pound within the sound of the man’s voice.

“And you are?”

“When Ember’s letters started turning sour, I figured something wasn’t right.”

That voice… She knew that voice…

“Sonia said they were forged when we compared handwriting with previous other letters she had written me.”

It couldn’t be… but Ember’s eyes struggled to force themselves open just a little longer…

Hoping for a glance of him…

Of…

“I went to Sonic for some answers. Turns out Shadow was looking for her too and well,” he shrugged, but his voice was immediately recognizable to Ember.

 “M-…Man...ic?”

 “Well, now we’re saving my luscious lady from your filthy little hands!” Manic, Sonic, and Shadow both stepped out of the shadows, revealing their forms as Shadow narrowed his eyes, a deep glare upon his broad brow as he noticed the state Ember was in. Sonic was also acting a bit more serious than Ember had ever seen him look before, but that soon changed to a proud smile when he noticed Scourge was thoroughly beat-up by her before they had even gotten there.

“L…Luscious?” she could barely get any air to escape her throat and respond to him, but he seemed to be proceeding with caution, noticing her frail state. Still, it made her want to chuckle, bringing a corner of her lips up to a smile at hearing his ridiculously outdated talk start-up again. It wasn’t nearly as annoying as Scourge calling her ‘spark’ or ‘baby’. She’d rather hear Manic say it than him.

“It means you’re rocking!” Manic drummed the air, hearing her faintly whispered reply to his shenanigans. “But in a- ‘pretty and wonderful personality’ kinda way.”

“This is annoying.” Scourge lowered his eyelids, tilting and trying to regain his lost balance again. It was clear he wasn’t ready for a round 16… as he had previously already taken Ember on a good number of times.

“This is the bozo I have to rival with?” he looked comically to Ember, as if not understanding her taste. He pulled on her hair again to get her to look up at him, and through the pain, she laughed a moment.

“He’s the right… shade of green.”

Scourge showed his fangs on that comment, not liking it one bit.

“I can still take him.” Ember protested, but weakly pawed her claws at him. This only made the scene funnier and more desperate.

“Right. Don’t mean to steal your thunder, babe, but let me and my bros handle this.” Manic turned back to the Anti-Gang as Sonic and Shadow leaped forward.

Scourge’s eyes widened, not ready for this new encounter at all.

With that last comment, Shadow darted up and launched a Chaos Spear, which forced Scourge to jump back. He released Ember, leaving her to drop like dead-weight on the ground, flopping a bit and not even trying to stop the fall… even just a little bit.

She wouldn’t call out for help though, she just tried to keep breathing and keep her eyes from fully shutting. She wanted to see this. Shadow kick some butt, Sonic do his thing, and Manic… she just wanted to stare at him as long as she possibly could.

It was good to see him again. So, he didn’t hate her? All those sent letters never reached him? What awful things was Scourge writing to him, under her name?

Scourge was injured and woozy, so when Shadow’s feet hit the ground, he was still unsteady.

Shadow dealt a number of powerful blows, causing more noticeable blood to spit out from Scourge’s mouth, revealing the internal injuries were getting just as bad as his outer appearance…

The Chaos Emeralds were flung from his being— Pik, pik, pik!

They bounced against the ground, tumbling, and finally rolling through a half-demolished wall’s jagged holes where stones had been hit out of place.

Sonic watched the emeralds scatter and raced along the still remaining walls, letting his hand skim their grainy exterior before rolling into a ball and ducking into the holes of the same wall after them.

“I’ve got Scourge, you get Ember!”

Sonic’s voice rang out as he sped through the barely hanging walls of the destroyed castle, revealing his super from as he blasted the remaining structure away. With that wall gone, the whole place started to shake and loosened stones began to fall around them.

The Anti-Gang looked up, realizing the whole place was about to go down.

Scourge’s super form immediately faded with a knee to the face as Sonic easily began to pummel him down while Shadow turned his attention back to Ember.

Right before she fainted, she felt Shadow quickly scoop her up. A tight, firm grasp upon her sides made her flinch a bit in pain, but his words made her happy in their weird way. “Stupid girl, what did I tell you about making enemies!?”

“Only twice a day?” she joked, and then her eyes rolled and she fell unconscious.

She only vaguely remembered voices. Shouting from Scourge, mostly. She did hear Manic and figured he must have been the one who rushed over, skidded to his knees, and felt her face…

But she could have imagined it…

The next morning, she admitted what she had done was reckless, and should have tried to escape instead of fight.

Manic had tended to her wounds with Rouge and other G.U.N officers, but Sonia was the one who helped create the portal to get her out of that mess.

She personally thanked her before Sonia had to return and govern her own kingdom that Sonic and Manic willingly gave off to her. Neither wanted to rule, but Sonia was a natural leader who was born for the role, quite literally.

Laying on the gurney, she slowly blinked her eyes to adjust to the light, having taken a long rest since then. Shadow, Sonic, and Manic had stayed at different times to check on her as she dozed off repeatedly back to her deep, recovery slumber. However, this time, they all seemed to be in the room.

She immediately opened the conversation, weakly and groggy at first, with a gentle explanation of her behavior for why she didn’t try to run but fought instead.

“I just wanted to see how far our little ‘game’ would go.” She withdrew herself back from Shadow’s glare as she rose from the gurney. “Who defeated him in the end… might I ask?”

In her heart, she still believed she succeeded. “Cause honestly,” she began, unable to keep it to herself. “He cheated.”

The men had different reactions to that. Sonic chuckled while Manic rolled his eyes with a smile on his face, and Shadow just grumbled something under his breath… probably a curse she was glad she didn’t hear. Maybe he was holding back..? Due to her condition?

Shadow turned to Sonic, who looked back at him and then over to Manic. They seemed to be thinking the same response…

“We all kinda chipped in.” Sonic stated, before Shadow shook his head and sighed.

“Far to modest… I completely obliterated him.” Shadow immediately bit back at Sonic’s rather ‘humble’ comment.

“What!?” humbleness went out the door as Sonic suddenly spun to confront Shadow’s claim, “We all fought him! And besides, I beat him up waaaaaay before you or Manic stepped in!”

“I believe you have failed to recall how I dealt with him swiftly first. You’re the one who called me off to get your own share of the action.” Shadow folded his arms, turning at an angle away from Sonic’s childish behavior. “Honestly, you’re no better than her at claiming all the glory…”

“You’re the one making a fuss!” Sonic pointed an accusing finger before looking over to Manic, “Well? Am I right? Or am I right!”

“I’m a peacemaker, yo. A pacifist at heart.” Manic drummed the side of the gurney, refusing to be apart of the contention. “But for you, I couldn’t help but summon my old drum set. Sent beats of righteous justice his way.” He winked to Ember, admitting that he did join a little bit in the fight, even if it was indirectly and through the power of his sick, twisted beats.

“You were ranged, but still effective.” Shadow still didn’t know how to address the fact that his so-called ‘Sister’ was writing a complete stranger. To him, anyway, he didn’t know anything about this ‘Manic’ fellow but trusted him after all he’d done to find and save Ember. “However, you have yet to explain your side of the story…” Shadow turned to Ember again, “How exactly do you two know each other?“

“It’s been a while since you’ve fought, Manic.” Sonic smirked, turning his attention away from Shadow’s stubborn crossed-arms, not willing to admit it as a team effort, but also avoiding his brother and his possible girlfriend from having to admit anything.

“I did most of the work, though…” Sonic muttered through the side of his mouth, pulling up a hand to side-mouth the statement towards Ember, grinning widely as he winked to her.

This only made Ember smile, seeing them all try to lighten the mood for her.

“You merely distracted him as I got Ember to safety and defeated him only after I had stepped in.”

“I had to let you have a few blows, you were acting like the angry big brother all the way there! And what? Are you trying to look ‘cool’ in front of your sister now or something?” Sonic teased, calling Shadow out with a hint of casual backstabbing.

He leaned towards Shadow, lowering his eyelids with a wicked sense of pleasure on his face, waiting to see Shadow’s reaction to his words.

“Why?” Shadow closed both his eyes, refusing to give Sonic what he wanted. “I have no need for that. She already looks up to me far more than she should.”

“Yeesh, what a double-edged sword.” Sonic sweat dropped a bit, flinching back at how arrogant Shadow could be when provoked.

But… Ember noticed that he didn’t protest Sonic’s words too severely… It made her heart lighter than air… hearing him accept her being called his little sister without too much of a complaint.

“We searched a few realms before finding the right one. Sorry for being a tad late—not so fashionably—But it was far out and about, man.” Manic twirled his drumsticks into a holster and walked over to Ember, subtly reminding the other men in the room that it was about Ember, not them.

He leaned on her bedside, “Just glad you’re alright.”

His smile melted her worries away, and she tilted her head towards him, wishing to be closer to that positive aura his smile gave off. She tilted her chin down with a faint blush…

Then something crossed her mind, just as quick as her blush disappeared.

“T-those letters, though… the fake ones. W-wha-what did they say?” Worriedly, Ember’s face turned sorrowfully up to him with regret. “If I had known…”

“Don’t worry about it.” He flicked a finger under her chin, tapping it playfully but remaining at a distance. Especially with Shadow around… she took a quick glance at him before pulling a bit away from Manic, respecting that he was just as nervous with being affectionate around her with Shadow in the room as she was towards him. “I’m just glad we were able to nab that bad dude. He should be in prison now, right?”

“Him and his goonies.” Sonic nodded as Shadow took a few more turns looking back and forth between Manic and Ember.

‘Just what the heck are you two, anyway!?’ was the expression on his face, leaving Ember to awkwardly look away and wag her tail as Manic scratched behind his head and nervously laugh the constant double-glances Shadow gave him away.

----

Far away, and in a dusty jail cell, Scourge and his team were separated.

He was thrown into quarantine with a ripped-up jacket that freed his arms from their insanity hold around his waist, gripping the bars. “I vow to never rest till Ember’s blood is burning on my hands, or at least something of hers..! I will have my REVENGE!”

“Keep it down over there!”,

“Ahhh, shut up!”,

“Is that..? Ah, man. Why’s he back with us?”

The other inmates could hear his ranting cries clear across the courtyard, where Fiona and the gang pop some bubble gum. She stuck it to a nail file and threw it up over the wall. Quickly moving through the bars of his small, rectangular window, it flipped a few times before descending and clinging its gummy, pink, and spit covered substance against the wall.

It stuck to the inside of his cell, slowly being pulled down by the weight of the nail file and stretched towards him. Finally, with Scourge leaning up against the wall, grinding his teeth together in frustration, he heard it tink just above him.

He stopped scowling and looked up, seeing the metal gleam in his eyes, his sunglasses upon his head also reflecting their bright, silver exterior.

“First freedom.” he smiled with evil glee.

“And then, that day… will come soon.”

Laughter echoed the walls of the isolation unit.

End.

[roughandtumble-r]

The 2019 Annual that just came out, so I figured I may as well talk about it! Because it has five mini-stories included in it, I’ll be talking about each one individually!

Bonds of Friendship - Tangle and Whisper are hanging out at Tangle’s hometown of Spiral Hill Village, and Tangle introduces Whisper to her friend and curator of the Mineral Meuseum, Jewel. After they talk for a bit, the Babylon Rogues show up and steal all of the gems in the meuseum, and Storm grabs Jewel mistaking her for... a jewel. Tangle and Whisper follow them to their airship, where they save Jewel, grab all the stolen gems, and make it back to the meuseum safely. I really like this one because it does a good job introducing new characters like Jewel as well as the Babylon Rogues and establishes the relationships and dynamics between them. I also think that this one also helps lead up to the Tangle and Whisper mini-series pretty well, and makes me look forward to it even more!

Jet Set Tornado - Sonic is flying the Tornado with Tails so they can test out a new booster that Tails added, when they find a Stealth Balkiry carrying stolen resistance supplies. Using this new booster, Sonic and Tails destroy the Balkiry and retrieve the stolen supplies! Not as much happens in this one, but I think that seeing Sonic flying the Tornado for the first time in a while is pretty cool (especially because I often forget it’s HIS plane and not Tails’).

Victory Garden - Blaze is looking for Silver in the rubble of a war-torn city when she finds him trying to make a garden, to little success. She helps him by turning the soil he’s using into ash to act as a fertilizer, and together, they make a garden that flourishes! This one is also pretty short, but it’s still really good for what it is. One aspect of Silver’s character that I’ve always really liked is how fascinated he is by nature and plants due to him being from a future where nature doesn’t really exist, and this story really showcases that. I also really like it when Silver and Blaze are shown together, because they’re a really natural duo that I like seeing together.

Curse of the Pyramid - Rough and Tumble go to Dusty Desert to find the pyramid of maguffin, and although Tumble is skeptical about going in it, Rough is eager to find the treasure that’s rumored to be inside. After going through many traps and perils, Rough and Tumble run into Rouge, who’s also looking for the treasure. After Rough and Tumble beat the Egg Golem (from Sonic Adventure 2!), they find Rouge covered in bandages, and she says that if she touches them, they’ll get cursed, to which Rough runs away faster than Sonic himself. It turns out Rouge was faking the act to make them leave so that they wouldn’t find out about a group of wolves taking refuge in the pyramid, and they offer her the treasure in return she never tells anyone that they’re there. This one is definently my favorite, mainly due to the really funny scenes with Rough and Tumble, but also because of all the conspiracy theories it gives me. For starters, this pyramid is in the Dusty Desert, which is the same stage from Sonic 06, but it also is the same pyramid from SA2 because of the Egg Golem, meaning this entire time, the pyramid stages in SA2 took place in Dusty Desert from Sonic 06. Then again, Rouge mentions that it’s AN Egg Golem, meaning there’s probably more than one, so maybe it isn’t the same pyramid, but it’s still pretty interesting to think about. Also, the wolves that live in the pyramid also strike an uncanny resemblence to Whisper the Wolf, so they’re probably her relatives that are going to be more important to the plot later down the line.

Sonic Fan Club - A bunch of kids hanging out in the woods have started a Sonic Fan Club, but they all finght over who should be the leader. One of them poses the idea that they should see which one is the most like Sonic, and that kid should be the leader. And so, they all begin running around acting like Sonic until they run into an Egg Pawn, and they try to beat him. Tangle shows up and starts trying to show off so that they make a Tangle Fan Club only to get tangled up by her own tail, and while she’s distracted, Sonic comes by to beat the Egg Pawn for her. Not a whole lot happens in this one either, but it’s still really good and was a good story to end on.

One thing that I also find really interesting about all the stories in the Annual is when they each take place, because David Mariotte said that they all take place somewhere between Issues 12 and 15, which I kind-of assumed from the beginning. The main thing that made me think it took place after the Battle for Angel Island is the fact that Tangle and Whisper already know eachother, and they never even met until the Battle for Angel Island, and the main thing that made me think it took place before Issue 15 is the fact that both Sonic and Rough and Tumble haven’t been infected the the Metal Virus yet. I also think that Bonds of Friendship takes place before Tangle and Whisper Issue 0 because Jewel mentions in Issue 0 that she hopes the Babylon Rogues don’t come back again, meaning the encounter with them in Bonds of Friendship must have already happened at that point. 

My conspiracy theories aside, I really liked the Annual, and I’m looking forward to upcoming Issues of IDW and Tangle and Whisper as well as future Annuals!

[sonic-wildfire]

Aftermath: A Sonic Forces AU Fanfiction - Chapter 3

One Year After the War

“Welcome, Sonic. Glad you could make it to your funeral!”

It was a bright, sunny day in Metropolis. Sonic had arrived on one of the rooftops to confront Dr. Eggman. By the hedgehog’s side was the two-tailed canid and his oldest friend—Tails—and accompanying the doctor were his two robot servants Orbot and Cubot, and Infinite.

“Infinite, do it!” Eggman commanded the jackal.

“Take this!” Infinite exclaimed, materializing a portal in mid-air as he backed away from the swirling vortex.

“That, my spiky little frenemy, is null space,” Eggman informed Sonic.

“Null space?” he interrogated, motioning for Tails to keep his distance.

“It's a little something that the Phantom Ruby cooked up, a closed-off space where absolutely nothing exists! Goodbye, Sonic, my soon-to-be-eradicated nemesis. Enjoy all the nothing!”

As Eggman finished speaking, the portal swelled and the vortex began to suck Sonic in. No problem, he thought. He knew that Gadget—the rookie wolf that had been assisting him throughout the war—would be sucked in as well, giving Sonic the opportunity to escape with a Double Boost.

But nothing grabbed his arm. Sonic was going to be sucked in. Alone.

Suddenly, Sonic shrieked as he woke up in the safety of his own bed. He had broken into a cold sweat and his heart was aggressively palpitating. He could almost feel it launching itself out of his chest.

Still trembling from the nightmare, Sonic reluctantly ambled out of bed, out of the house, and down the street for twenty minutes to reach Amy’s place of abode. It was 2:45 AM, but he knocked on the door regardless. Luckily for him the fuchsia hedgehog was still up, reading a book. After a moment she got up, walked over, and opened the door.

“I’m really sorry to do this right now, but I just had a really bad night terror related to… you know…” explained Sonic.

“That’s okay.” Amy spoke with solace. “Did you want to crash on my couch for the night?”

Sonic responded affirmatively and thanked Amy for her altruism. She then went to fetch him a blanket. In a couple minutes she returned with a spare wool blanket, draping it over Sonic.

“I also kind of wanted to talk.” Sonic said tentatively.

“Are you sure?” Amy asked, setting her book aside. “You look really tired; I think it’d be best if you got some sleep. Perhaps we could talk tomorrow?”

Sonic mulled it over for a moment before he agreed with her. Amy continued reading as Sonic’s eyes closed and sleep overtook him.

The next morning, Sonic woke up in another cold sweat. This time, though, he wasn’t exactly sure why; he didn’t have another nightmare, so why was he sweating? The cerulean hedgehog slowly rose from the couch and saw Amy sitting at a table in the kitchen across the hallway, a cup of what appeared to be tea in her hand. Sonic, still wrapped in a blanket, sauntered into the room.

“Morning, Ames,” he buzzed.

“Good morning,” Amy yawned. “I guess we’re both up pretty early, huh?”

Sonic looked up at a clock on a wall somewhere in the room. 6:30 AM, it read.

“Wow,” he laughed, scratching the back of his head. “I didn’t even know it was this early.”

Amy chortled. “Hey, didn’t you tell me you wanted to talk about something last night?”

“Oh, yeah,” Sonic answered. “I did.”

“What was it about?”

Sonic’s mind went blank. He completely forgot.

“Uhh…”

“It’s okay if you don’t remember,” Amy assured him. “You can tell me if you remember later.”

“Alright,” Sonic admitted.

It was actually quite a while since Sonic had eaten; he ran on empty all of yesterday and skipped breakfast and lunch the day before that. He was ravenously hungry and was about to ask if Amy minded that he went to grab something to satisfy his hunger.

“I was planning on meeting up with Silver for breakfast this morning,” she said. “Wanna tag along?”

He chuckled. “Amy, you can read my mind. I’ve been starving for something to eat.”

Two hours later, the small array of hedgehogs were sitting at a booth in a small restaurant. It was practically empty, save for a few elderly patrons who paid the three no mind.

“So, what’s been going on lately with everyone?” Silver queried.

“Sonic slept over at my house last night because he was having night terrors,” Amy informed the argent hedgehog. “He also said that he wanted to talk about something, but he forgot what he wanted to talk about.”

“Now that you mention it,” Sonic butted in, “I do remember what I wanted to talk about.”

Amy and Silver both set down their forks and listened intently.

“It’s something that’s been bothering me quite a bit for a while now. Survivor’s guilt, I think they call it. Y’know how in movies, when someone survives a disaster or something, they’ll sometimes ask themselves why they lived when others didn’t? That’s what I’ve been going through. I never really felt the need to bring it up until now; I just thought it was normal until recently.”

“What do you mean by ‘you thought it was normal’?” said a perplexed Amy.

“I mean...I thought maybe it was just one of those things that naturally happened after an event like the war,” Sonic mused. “Other than craving chili dogs, of course ...heh heh…”

Silver grinned at Sonic’s joke, covering his mouth as he tried to hold in his laughter.

“...But really,” the blue hedgehog continued with a faint smile, “I think a lot of it ties into the whole torture thing with the Death Egg…”

Sonic momentarily floundered.

“Sorry, I’m… still not used to saying… that…” he stumbled.

“Oh no, take as much time as you need,” insisted Amy. “We’re not in any rush.”

Sonic breathed a huge sigh. “Listen… I understand this is really not something you guys want to listen to right now, so I guess I should just zip it until Amy and I return home…”

“Now why the hell would we want you to do that, Sonic?” Silver blurted out before quickly realizing what he had just said. Luckily the few other patrons that had been there were already gone. Other than the three of them, the place was completely empty.

He apologized. “Pardon my language. I meant to say that… sure, it might not be something we want to listen to but it’s something we need to listen to.”

Then Silver came up with an idea.

“Hey, Amy, do you mind if Sonic and I step outside for a moment?”

“Not at all,” she admitted.

The two male hedgehogs got up and filed out the front door into the parking lot. It was a windless morning and somewhat chilly. Clouds rolled through the area, but no sign of an imminent storm.

“There’s something that Amy and I have been meaning to tell you for months now,” Silver confessed.

Sonic’s eyes ballooned. “Which is…?”

“Survivor’s guilt, PTSD, depression—you said you’ve been suffering from these, right?” Silver asked.

Sonic wordlessly nodded his head in response.

“Well, we’ve all been going through the same,” Silver revealed. “You’re in the same boat as everybody else: me, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy—heck, even Tails—we’re all dealing with the same devils.”

Sonic was thunderstruck. He was completely frozen in disbelief, unable to speak. His eyes were as big as watermelons and his mouth gaped open.

“Do you remember the rookie, Sonic? The wolf that accompanied you during some of the missions during the war?”

Sonic nodded. “Yes,” he confirmed.

“He’s been done a great deal of pain, too. Last we heard, he was residing in Station Square. We don’t know anything else about what he’s been up to beyond that.”

Sonic slowly lowered his head. “Now I just feel bad.”

“For what?”

“For not knowing. If I had known you guys were feeling blue, I would’ve sacrificed a lot of my time to help you guys feel better. That’s my fault for not knowing. I should be less ignorant about these sorts of things.”

“No, no, no! It’s completely fine!” Silver quickly assured the blue hero, raising both hands in the air with his palms facing away from himself. “You did nothing wrong. I’m just saying that everybody’s been having a rough time; you aren’t alone, that’s all.”

Sonic took a deep breath. “I know that, it’s just...it’s been nearly three decades that I’ve been in a chronic state of altschmerz—always gnawing away at the same old shortcomings, the same old insecurities—and the world has gotten significantly greyer for me since my capture. I’m no longer the person I used to be, Silver. And I fear I’ll never figure it all out before our time is up. I’m scared I may never find my way.”

Silver placed his hands on Sonic’s shoulders.

“Sonic...you’ve never let negativity bog you down before—not to this extent, anyway. While I’ll admit I don’t fully understand how you’re feeling, I want to at least try. I know there’s still a part of you that’s reminiscent of who you were; I can feel it. And you’re 15 years old, man; you’ve still got your entire life ahead of you. Your friends have stuck with you through thick and thin, just like you’ve done the same for them.”

A ray of hope flashed before Sonic’s eyes.

“We’re going to make it, alright? I promise you, we’ll figure this out.”

At this point, Sonic was trying his absolute hardest not to bawl. His lips quivered, he clenched his teeth, he shut his eyes as tight as he could while tears poured down the sides of his face. He was breathing heavily, stifling any sound he might make.

“We’re all pulling for you, Sonic. Don’t ever forget that.”

Finally, Amy had walked out the front door of the restaurant and saw Silver embracing Sonic in a bear hug, patting him softly on the upper back as the blue hedgehog quietly wept on the other’s shoulder.

“I told him everything.” Silver immediately said to Amy.

“You told him everything?”

“Yes, Amy. Everything.”

[Prelude]  [Previous Chapter] [Next Chapter]

[rnainframe]

every! single! one!

can you tell my mood dropped hard like halfway through

angel; do you have a nickname?at the moment lars is pretty much just a nickname because my mom won’t let me get a name change

awe; how old are you?19!

baby; favorite color?red!

bloop; spirit animal?that’s not a very good term iirc but i guess wolf?

blossom; favorite book/movie/song?book: wolves of the beyond is very near and dear to memovie: the world’s end, the thing 1982, the incredibles, deadpoolsong: i have... so many

blush; what was your stuffed animal as a child?

her name is baby, she’s dressed up, and i still sleep with her to this day,

breeze; most precious childhood memory?sitting behind my dad and watching as he plays games on the psx and gamegear, i mainly remember ristar and sonic on the gamegear and silent hill on the psx

bright; mermaids or fairies?both!!!

bubbles; do you have a best friend?@aceiou @gruvu

buttercup; showers or baths?showers, submerging my body freaks me out

butterfly; dream destination?a road trip to visit all my frands

buttons; are you religious or spiritual?spiritual, mainly superstitious

calm; favorite scent?a kind of cologne my dad used to wear

candlelight; what did you dream about last night?my brain reminding me of my deep-seated desire to reconnect with an asshole i used to crush on despite me wanting to bury it for good

charming; have you ever been in love?yes

cozy; eye/hair color?i think the name of my hair color is light ash brown? people confuse me for ginger and blond though somehow

cuddly; what’s your favorite time period?80s/90s, also the aesthetics of the 20s~50s

cupcake; favorite flower/plant?succulents, roses, lilies

cute; what did you get on your last birthday?clothes, something useless from my sister, a panic attack

cutie pie; most precious item you own?baby, my phone, my sketchbook, a paw print from sadie the people that put her to sleep sent us

cutsie; what makes you happy?i’m too numb rn to really know

daisies; describe a moment when you felt free.i think the last time i got to go anywhere with friends and without my mom involved was last summer

daydream; how do you want to be remembered?like my dad, where people try to remember him fondly while ignoring the glaring bad shit about him, hhhH

daylight; favorite album of all time?smoke + mirrors from imagine dragons, in silico from pendulum, no culture from mother mother

dear; zodiac sign?sagittarius on the traditional zodiac, ophiuchus on the updated zodiac, my animal is the rabbit

delightful; concerts or museums?museums, concerts get me overloaded unless it’s a band i really like

dimples; have you ever written a letter?yeah

dobby; dream job?i don’t know anymore

doll; how do you like to dress?comfortably, ideally masculine

dovey; any paranormal/magical experiences?my dad haunts my house

dreams; do you want or have any tattoos?i wanna get either an eye coming out of my shoulder of a shamrock in memory of my dad, something simple and space (and/or wolf) related in white ink, uhhhhmaybe the pokemon league symbol somewhere

drizzle; do you believe in aliens?they’re out there

euphoric; talk about someone you love.ace is adorable!!!! i love them so much, their voice, their face, their fashion, their art, their writing!!!!!!

fairy; do you have a pet?ginger morkie named rusty, i wanna get another lab sometime

fluffy; ocean or mountain?mountain

forever; where do you feel time stop?sitting outside at night when it’s snowy, it’s so quiet and magical feeling

froglet; are you a good plant owner?unfortunately no

garden; how many languages do you know?one, trying to learn german or danish or irish

gem; who are your favorite tumblrs?aceiou, gruvu, bunjywunjy, bogleech, weirdmarioenemies, uuhhhh

giggles; what is your aesthetic of choice?either space or red+black glitch stuff

glittery; do you like anons? why/why not?when they’re nice

glow; list the top 5 things you like about yourselftoo numb for that rn

heart; silk or lace?silk feels nice to touch but i wouldn’t wear either

honey; coffee or tea? how do you take it?coffee, cappuccino mixed w/ hot chocolate and a lot of creamertea, raspberry or peach iced tea

hugsy; do you enjoy people watching or bird watching more? why?birds don’t judge you

hunnybunch; what sounds help you sleep?white noise - the sound of a fan, the sound of rain, etc

jewel; what’s your favorite kind of weather?rain, especially stormy

jiggly; what do you usually like to do on weekends?every day is a weekend. i have no life. i am rotting

joy; do you laugh loudly or giggle more?i wheeze or silently laugh. i used to have an ugly loud laugh

kinky; do you blush easily?i blush when embarrassed or crying

kisses; what romantic cliché do you wish for most?spending every moment loving on the person i’m with, every day being like the first day we met

kitty; what’s your favorite time of the day?sunset to night

ladybug; what’s your favorite artist to listen to when you’re sad?mother mother

love; what is your favorite season and why?autumn. it’s not as depressing as summer

lovey; what is your favorite flavor of macaron and ice cream?i’ve never had macarons, but i love bunny tracks and peanut butter cup and bear creek caramel and

magic; what are five flaws you have?you think i can narrow it down to just five

moonlight; do you prefer soft pastels, warm neutrals, or cool darks?warm pastels, warm neutrals, warm and cool darks

munchkin; what do you look for in your significant other?idk but i got it

paddywack; how would you describe a perfect date?wandering around mainstreet and old town st charles, eating at rt weilers, getting ice cream at riverside sweets, then having sodas from the old soda shoppe, ideally in autumn

pebbles; how do you spend free time by yourself?sleeping, wasting away on the internet, the likes

precious; what is something valuable that you learned in your life?don’t get attached, everything will go bad someday

pretty; do you like to cook or bake more?baking is easier but i feel more in control when cooking

prince; how would you describe your handwriting?horrible, illegible

princess; do you play any instruments? if not, are there any you wish you could play?i used to play the recorder, then the flutei want to learn the guitar but i’m so bad at it that when trying to tune a very expensive guitar i got as a gift when i still had passion for it i broke a string

prinky; how do you relieve stress?i don’t

pumpkin; what is your favourite kind of fruit/vegetable?strawberries, raspberries, bananas, pomegranates, pickles, broccoli, tomatoes, pumpkins

rainbow; what was the last line of the last book you read?i can’t focus on reading anymore

roses; what is the most significant event in your life so far?my dad’s death.

smile; what is one thing that has greatly affected you?my dad’s death.

shine; art or music?i’m not good enough at art to deserve picking it, and i’m an audiophile (not! a! fetish!), so

shimmer; do animals tend to like you?i get too rough without realizing it. rusty probably doesn’t like me. he just licks me and sleeps by me whenever he doesn’t have my mom to love on.

smitten; do you collect anything?bottle caps, can tabs, pokemon merch, empty pill bottles

smoochies; how many pillows do you sleep with?four at the head of my bed (two go unused), one plain blue body pillow to hold, like five other pillows to add pressure to my legs

snuggle; what is your favourite candy?peppermint kisses

snuggly; do you have a camera? if so, what kind?phone

sparkle; do you wear jewelry?i used to wear necklaces all the time. they all break because of how i stim with them. my mom doesn’t trust anything around my neck anymore

spooky; sunrise or sunset?sunset

sprinkles; do you like to listen to music with headphones or no headphones?headphones

starlight; what was your favourite show as a child?crashbox, digimon, power rangers, pokemon, total drama

soft; describe your favourite spot in your house.my room. 

soothe; digital or vinyl?digital

squeezed; who do you miss right now?read over some of the questions and ask me again

sugary; what traits do you value most in friends?can i trust you

sunshine; do you prefer for things to be practical or aesthetically pleasing?both

sweet; do you find it easy to open up?too easy

sweetie; do you like kids? if so, do you ever want to have any?they are sensory nightmares

thimble; is there somebody you look up to? who are they?edd gould is dead

toot; what is something you find unique about yourself?my ability to get completely numb over the dumbest bullshit

tootsie; what kind of friend are you?a bad one

treasure; what was something that made you smile today?nothing so far

velvet; are you an early bird or a night owl?night owl

whiffle; if you could have a magical power, what would it be?shapeshifting or invisibility or mind reading

whimsical; do you prefer doing stuff at home or going out?ideally i wanna go out but only if i trust whoever i’m with to understand that i burn out fast anymore

whiskers; do you usually wear makeup?no

wiggly; are you a messy or tidy person?i obsessively organize things but am very messy

wispy; do you like the place where you grew up? do you think you will live there when you get older?i have no choice, i legally own the house i’m in now. i can’t go anywhere without dragging my mom along. i’m trapped

wobbly; have you ever wished upon a star?i wish to have good birthdays. they never come true

[kelkat-9]

Kelkat9 Master Fic List

In Progress - all stories will be linked to AO3 unless only on Teaspoon/ Thanks for reading my stories!

Updated 4/13/18

Following Are My Series/Verses

Dark!Ten Verse - Series is numbered for reading order (Dark!Ten x Rose) ADULT/NSFW

Victorian Verse - TenII x Rose - These are historical time travel in Pete’s World - Teen but one story (a one shot is NSFW)

Forever is Full of Twists and Turns - Eleven x Immortal Rose thus far - more might be added later with Twelve - this is one you should probably read in order - Teen until story #5 the some NSFW parts

Through the Void and Darkness - Ten x Rose - reunion and AU at JE - it would be best to read this one in order as well.  NSFW bits in Story #2

Lordstorm and His LiveJournal Adventures - TenII x Rose - some are NSFW - I wrote these early on so they need polishing - CrackFic and humor

Time, Eternals and the Domestic Life - TenII/Rose Adventures in Pete’s World domestic and otherwise - some are kidfic and some NSFW

Greek Gods - The Adventures of Hades and Persephone and their Friends - AU Peter V/Rose - NSFW mostly - modern mythology

Dark, Dangerous and Otherworldly - Ten/Rose AU - Ghost Verse NSFW

Dark Journeys - Ten/Rose UA - Dark!Ten

Santa Baby - Ten/Rose AU CEO/Employee  BDSM NSFW

Sir Alec and Lady Rose - Alec H/Rose AU Historical

Eleventh Doctor - Eleven/Immortal Rose  AU one NSFW

AUs

A Dark Path to Redemption - NSFW in one chapter but otherwise adult.  This is a Dark!Ten x Rose mythology AU

A Girl and Her Frog - Ten x Rose - fairy tale AU  Teen

A Sip of Darkness, A Taste of Light - Adult - Hades/Perspehone type Nine x Rose AU

Blood Death & Shagging - Peter Vincent x Rose the slayer - vampire/Fright Night AU - NSFW and copious cursing - it’s Peter Vincent!

Claimed by Moonlight - NSFW - Darker Dom Ten x Rose - He’s an Alpha ;)  Sort of a wolf au

Definitely Not a Debutante - Ten x Rose  spy/mystery woman AU - NSFW part

Doctorella -  Ten x Rose  Fairy Tale AU  Teen

Finding Harmony - Ten x Rose   Rock Star Rose AU  Teen to Adult for language

Happily Ever After Isn’t Just a Fairy Tale - Ten x Rose  Royal AU.  NSFW - 2 chapts.  A King and his braid with much going wrong in his kingdom except for a blonde lady who steals his heart

Legend of the Traveling House - NSFW in one chapt so far.  Nine x Rose.  Sort of like an altverse reimagining of Gallifrey

Tardis Toys - Ten x Rose Teen - very sweet romance.  toy shop au

The Academy - Ten x Rose   Super Power Teens/Mutant Teens AU - Rated Teen

The Blue Box Case - Ten x Rose   Adult Spy AU - my first of this kind so it’s a little rough but it’s cute and flirty with a touch of angst

The Doctor and The Hidden Wolf - Nine x Rose   Futuristic Detective Nine AU

The Exes - Ten x Rose - Divorced couple repairs their broken relationship AU   Ten x Rose with many others.  Adult for cursing.  Drama, angst and a touch of humor.

The Lord of Gallifrey - Ten x Rose Regency/Georgian historical AU One chapt has a NSFW thing in it but the rest is pretty Teenish to Adult rating.

Under The Sea - Teen - Ten x Rose - Merman AU - cute with a side of angst

Not Just An Ordinary Call Boy - Adult-NSFW - Ten x Rose - Bad prossy Ten

Vinification - Teen - Ten x Rose - winemaker Ten meets business woman Rose

A Ghost Story - Adult-NSFW - novel length.  Ten x Ros - Unit student Rose moves into an allegedly haunted house with a mystery she must unravel

Anti-Soul Mates - Adult NSFW - Nine x Rose - Professor and student meet on a lecture about soul mates

Santa Baby, He’s No Gentlemen - Adult NSFW - Ten x Rose, dark and powerful CEO falls for an executive assistant - read the tag warnings

Ramifications of Bachelor Bidding - Adult NSFW - Ten x Rose and Olicity - crossover with Arrow - Bachelor Auction, competitors falling in love and mayhem

A Sip of Darkness, A Taste of Light - Teen - some violence - Nine x Rose - inspired by Hades/Persephone myth

In You I Have Found Paradise - Adult NSFW - Missing scene from Sip of Darkness

Legend of The Traveling House - Adult NSFW - Nine x Rose - re-imagining Time Lords and Gallifrey in a new verse

Bacchanalia - Adult NSFW - Ten x Rose - An accidental meeting at a Masquerade Ball leads to something more

Smith’s Book Store - Nine x Rose Teen - Victorian Book Store AU/Historical

A Lady’s Choice - Alec H x Rose Teen courtly AU

Bad Wolf Salon - Ten x Rose Teen hairdresser AU just over a drabble

New Las Vegas - Peter V x Rose Adult space vampires AU

Torchwood Symposium of Temporal Displacements Protocol - Adult Ten/Rose Adventure-Human AU Rivals to Lovers

A Night in Venice - Adult Ten x Rose - Spy AU

231 Farrington - Ten x Rose NSFW Dragon AU

The Wedding Planner - Ten/Rose based on the movie AU

Being A Gorgon Can Be So Annoying - Nine/Rose Mythology AU

Smith’s Bookstore - Nine/Rose  Historical AU

Bad Wolf Salon - Ten/Rose Salon AU short prompt fic

New Las Vegas - Peter V/Rose space vampire AU

TenII x Rose Fics

A Closet To Remember - NSFW - TenII proves himself to Rose - romance/humor

Accusation - Teen  - Angst/Romance TenII has a hard time adjusting to Pete’s World

A Not So Typical Torchwood Mission - Explicit TenII/Rose undercover at an alien sex club

A Not So Typical Valentines Day -  Teen - Fluff Valentine’s Fic

Applegrass - Teen fluff, romance - a day with TenII and Rose

An Unexpected Shearing - Teen - fluff, humor cracky fic -Rose gives the Doctor a trim

Beginning - Teen Angst/Romance - a bit prosey

Broken - Explicit - Angst - PTSD Rose, hurt/comfort

Denial - Teen - angst - romance - Rose pregnant fic

Evil Elves and Cranky Reindeer - It Must Be A Torchwood Christmas - Teen Adventure/humor - things go a bit pear shaped at Torchwood’s Christmas Party

Flame - Explicit - TenII is tired of waiting

Look - Teen - humor and fluff

Nakedness - Teen - Domestics, nudist colonies and evil scientists - fun/adventure

Nothing Says Valentines Day Like Star Wars - Teen fluff and humor

Silver - Teen - humor/adventure/romance disco and aliens!

The Banning of Cosmo - Explicit - crackfic -TenII likes to read Cosmo

The Well Prepared Multiversal Traveler - Explicit - what does Dimension Hopping Rose have in her pockets

Huddling For Warmth - Teen - trapped in a cold cellar

The Ginger Solution - Adult - drunk!TenII; adventure - post Bad Wolf Bay coming together fic

Everything is Better with Toys - NSFW - sexy times adventures

Even a Baby TARDIS Needs a Special Friend - Teen - fluff

Bed Shopping Adventure - Teen - fluff

Huddling For Warmth - like it says on the tin Teen

Ten x Rose fics

A Cinematic Reunion - NSFW Dimension Hopping Rose Reunion Fic

A Visit to Mos Eisley - Teen - Star Wars crossover

Blame it On The Poxatalen Brandy - Mature so many tropes in this one - crackfic

Corruption Never Felt So Good - NSFW Rose saves Ten in an unusual way

Cupcake Wars Doctor Style - Teen - crossover with reality tv show cupcake wars - fluff/humor

Dimension Cannons and Drunk Time Lords - Explicit - drunk pervy Ten - reunion - crackfic

Family of Blood - Explicit - AU FoB/HN, Reunion fic, humor, vampires, Peter Vincent

Fever - Explicit - reunion/dimension hopping Rose - song fic

Formal - Angst/Romance - post GitF - Ten takes Rose to a ball and she is mistreated

Halloween Is Us - Explicit - Adventure/Smut//Humor and Peter Vincent

Haze - Teen - Angst - Romance - Reunion

Is It All Nothing But a Dream - Teen - Universe Alteration at DD - Angst/Romance

Midnight Reunion - NSFW - Explicit - Reunion fic set at the end of Midnight

Phantom of The TARDIS - Teen - Tardis room ficathon - humor - drama

Prepared - Teen - angst - romance - suprise kid fic

Respect The Wolf - Explicit - reunion fic - humor/adventure and dragons - bamf Rose

Rudolph The Evil Reindeer - Teen Crackfic - humor - Ten and Rose save Rudolph from his evil ways

Secrets of an Alpha Class Pleasure Slave - Explicit - reunion/slave fic trope/shag or die

Shudder - Teen - prompt word fic - Doctor Whump and bamf Rose

The Forgotten Moment - Explicit - AU post JE/DoD Moment Rose/Bad Wolf Rose

The Land of Misfit Toys - Teen - sweet fluffy story

The Oncoming Sperm - Explicit - crackfic all the way

The Perils of Repression - Explicit - kind of jekyll/Hyde fic

The Seduction of Rose Tyler - Explicit  Humor, Romance, slight crackiness

The Tale of the Holy Pear and the Prophet Bob - Teen - crack/adventure/humor

The Victorian, The Bookstore and The Fireplace - Teen - reunion fic pre JE

Wind - Teen - humor - Ten, Rose, Donna with the Master

White Wall - NSFW post doomsday wall shagging

An Addiction to Knowledge - Adult - crackfic escaping a  hospital

The Wolf is Free - Adult - Idris as the TARDIS - slightly spooky

When Time Lords Wander Off - Adult drugged!Ten - Donna and dimension hopping Rose

Unexpected Unicorns - Rose and Ten get turned into unicorns

An Ode to Hope - Doomsday UA/Reunion/Adventure/Babyfic

An Addition To Knowledge - Adventure/crack fic  Adult due to streaking

Nine x Rose fics

A New Kind of Sonic Setting  - Teen - lactation and sonics hmmm

Companion - Explicit - sex pollen cliche

Dalek - Explicit - so cracky/ep rewrite - funny

Fifty Shades of Skaro - Explicit - short version of Dalek

His Wicked Mistress - Explicit - slave trope

Order - Explicit - Sex Pollen Trope - humor

Peace, Love & Hippy Aliens - Teen humor/adventure/a bit of crack

Pychedelic Pollen and Dalek Squirrels - Explicit - Cracky Adult Adventure with Nine, Rose and Jack

Restless - Teen - Trapped on Earth - Nine needs to run

Snowflake - Teen - Nine and Rose play in the snow

Summer - Teen - fluff and humor

Dr. and Mrs. Tyler - Adult NSFW - Fake Married/Adventure in Regency Era

First Kiss - Teen - like it says on the tin

The Bairn Bubbalo Baby Store - Teen - babyfic

Breaking His Resolve - Teen - Nine in a Tux

A Platoon of Judoon on the Moon - Teen - hiding in a closet

Trapped - NSFW - trapped on a lift - wall shagging

Daddy Doctor - Teen sweet fluff - baby fic

The One Time They Watched That Channel - NSFW for them watching porn

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night - Haunted House with a twist - Teen

A Platoon of Judoon on the Moon - Royal Hope Hospital - Teen

Trapped - standard trapped in a lift let’s shag trope NSFW

Daddy Doctor - fluff babyfic General

Multi Era

Knowledge - Teen - Rose through the Doctor’s eyes

Move - Teen Ten/Tenii - how the Doctor and Rose dance

Transformation - Teen - How Rose healed the Doctor and became so much more

Thanks - Teen - Rose perspective on Nine regenerating into Ten

Drabbles

A Blue Leather Jacket - Drabble about Dimension Hopping Rose rated Teen

It Burned In His Eyes  Drabble about TLV  - rated Teen

[smashmusicideas]

October 2: Fighter 44 - Wolf

Wolf was the last Brawl character, and like with R.O.B. and Toon Link to a lesser extent, fans placed a lot of focus on him. What I mean is that unlike Melee (but like Smash For), most of the newcomers were starters, which makes sense; they’re new and exciting. But fans didn’t realize most of them were starters, because they were reading from the Melee playbook. Expectations of what Brawl could or should do were obscene, and not tempered by Sakurai’s masterful showmanship and the game’s long two year hype cycle. The game “had” to have more, more, more content. There was even a fairly prominent assumption in the community that the game “had” to double the Melee roster the way that game more than doubled the Smash 64 cast, which is absolutely nuts in retrospect.

So Wolf, who most people unlocked last along with a notice they had all the fighters, represented the limits of the roster, and for some players the game as a whole. He was a highly requested character, but he was one among a huge number. Ridley wasn’t playable. Neither was King K. Rool, or Daisy, or Isaac or Geno or Mega Man, or dozens and dozens of other fighters. Brawl had eighteen newcomers, and a lot of them were fan favorites, but there was an expectation for so much more. It didn’t help that Wolf was initially seen as “just” another Fox clone. Truthfully, Wolf wasn’t a straight Echo - he was more of a Frankenstein monster, stealing animations from, like, a dozen characters - and he doesn’t fight like Fox. But the early footage from him, most infamously a hilarious YouTube video of him landing the game’s third (and that was also a sticking point) Landmaster Final Smash into a bottomless pit, cemented that image. People wanted so many things, and for a lot of people this ostensibly less interesting fighter was kind of the end of the line for that.

Now, virtually every fighter goes through this period of adjustment amongst fans, but Wolf managed to go through it far more smoothly than that initial impression would imply. People really dug his more feral and scrappy personality, his goofy Southern accent, and just getting another villain. Despite being comparatively last minute, that lack of polish honestly kind of helped him in a way it didn’t Sonic; his roughness was more pleasing. While it was obvious fans would mourn the Ice Climbers and Snake’s being cut years later, it ended up being surprising how much and how vocally players missed the Star Fox baddie. There’s a reason he was one of the last characters shown on the “Everyone is Here!” trailer; people turned to Wolf in a huge, undeniable way. With us slowly getting to the end of the cycle for Ultimate - and the prospect that we may only have two unannounced characters left in the base game - we’re going to place a lot of value or criticism on the last few things we get. It’s important, I think, for us to look to Wolf’s history as a fighter as a reminder of what these pre-release periods can do to us as fans, and how we change with the game’s actual release. All told, we’ll probably end up pretty happy by the end of things.

(Link to my writings on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

[happymetalgirl]

Myrkur - Mareridt

When Myrkur’s debut album hit buzz status riding the wave of ambient black metal made by Deafheaven, I found myself moderately disappointed when I checked it out. What I heard was, while often very pretty and with a few folk-y twists thrown in, a very on-the-fence commitment to a heavy black metal style, like a few preliminary dips of the toes into the pool of black metal’s harshness. From a stylistic standpoint I was able to get past this, but once past it, none of what Myrkur was doing on her debut was all that new stylistically (the prominence of her female vocals almost the sole selling point of the record) and the writing on the album was so meandering and didn’t seem to be addressed with much of a sense of musical purpose. While debuts, especially hyped debuts, can often be rough around the edges, Myrkur’s seemed to be getting this hype simply for its relative monopoly on the phrase “female solo black metal project” rather than that project actually making a bold and confident impact on the genre.

Mareridt is a step in the right direction, improving on the song-writing issues the debut had, but improvement seems to be coming slowly. Myrkur (Amelie Brunn) seems more sure of herself on this sophomore full-length, its deluxe edition being significantly longer than her debut, and her delving into black metal is less tiptoed on this album. Even so, the intensity of the heaviest moments on the album seem like they could use more, and the spaces between them are large and don’t do much to build anticipation or maintain focus. I’m not trying to pigeonhole Mareridt as a black metal project, but the mildly heavy black metal bits are the most thrilling parts of the record as the folk-y songs on the record play like extended interludes with the same lack of direction so much of the debut had. When the two seamlessly intertwine, the album shines, but briefly. Chelsea Wolfe, another talented female vocalist and cutting-edge artist of whose work I am a massive fan, makes two appearances (one being on a track on the deluxe edition) on the album, and while I was pleased to hear her voice as an element of sonic diversity (as I’m pleased to hear it just about anywhere), it’s not like vocal talent was this album’s greatest need, and Chelsea blends into the mesh of unorganized sounds here more than she would probably anywhere else. What the album could have used would be perhaps a guitarist feature or even a drummer feature, just to bring in a different set of ideas to spice up the album.

Overall I felt like I was just listening to a slightly more solidified and more confident continuation of M; even with a somewhat more focused direction, this album didn’t sell itself as well as the publications upping it have. I will still probably put this on occasionally in the future because it does have some unique sounds on it, and I will most likely look forward to whatever Myrkur does next with moderated anticipation. My only worry with the lauding Myrkur has been receiving even since M, is that it halts or slows her ambition with the idea that she’s at her best. I think more cohesive and captivating folk-y, ambient black metal albums of this style can be made and I think she can do it. And I hope that the many publications that have continued to praise her aren’t just going easy on her or doing so because they preemptively built hype around her in the first place and don’t want to backtrack, because that helps no one. It doesn’t help Myrkur improve and experience genuine hard-earned applause, and it doesn’t help the fans of the music who can easily see through it. Perhaps I’m just an outlier too, as there usually are, and the metal community really does dig this album. For Myrkur’s sake, I hope the latter is the case.

[chocolatequeennk]

The Doctor Tells the Truth

This is a deleted scene from chapter three of Gold Can Stay. If you were on Tumblr at the time, you know this story gave me fits. Right from the start, it refused to do what I wanted it to do, and chapter three was no different. Originally, I wanted to include the Bad Wolf revelation in this story. It was part of the reason I made a point to mention that Rose could hear the TARDIS from inside the cabin. 

So, here’s an early version of that conversation. Some of this got repurposed into Believing and Knowing, where they do end up talking about her telepathy.  

With the rain beating against the windows of their mountain cabin, it was the perfect day to stay inside and make apple butter. The pot bubbling away filled the room with the warm scent of cooking apples, and the patter of rain on the windows added a countermelody to the slight hiss and pop of simmering liquid.

The Doctor was leaning against the counter flipping the sonic screwdriver in the air. Rose looked up at him through her lashes, then down at her nails. “So,” she said nonchalantly. “Have you been sleeping in my bed every night since the Coronation?”

He sputtered and nearly dropped the sonic, catching it at the last minute. “What… how did you…” Realisation dawned on his face. “You were awake last night.”

“Yep.” She leaned her weight back on her hands. “So, have you?”

He pushed his tongue against the side of his mouth, and Rose wondered if he knew how many tells he had. Finally, he nodded. “Is that all right?”  

“Yeah, it’s all right.” Some of the tension eased out of his shoulders. Rose wasn’t ready to let it go completely though, and after some consideration, she said, “I’ve been sleeping better this week than I normally do when we’re away from the TARDIS. I thought it was just because we’re close enough that I could hear her, but maybe it’s you, making me feel safe.”

She watched as his neck and ears turned a dull red. Making her appreciation of his actions clear was a calculated risk; such a pointed statement could easily push the Doctor away. However, after the way he’d been acting recently, she didn’t think he wanted to be pushed away, which meant it might just draw him in instead.

He opened his mouth, then his eyes narrowed. “Hold on. You hear the TARDIS?” Rose nodded. “Here, in this cabin?”

“Well, yeah. I have to admit, I’m glad we parked so close. I had an awful time sleeping at Mum’s last month when I couldn’t hear her.”

“And you can hear her hum when you’re in your own bed?”

“Of course I can.” Rose chuckled. “It would be pretty silly to not be able to hear her while I’m in the TARDIS, wouldn’t it?”

But the Doctor didn’t join in the laughter. “How long have you been able to hear her like that?”

Rose started to tell him she’d always heard the TARDIS, but she realised it wasn’t true. She furrowed her brow and thought back. “I heard her back when I first started travelling with you,” she said slowly, “but only sometimes.”

“And now you hear her hum constantly in the back of your mind?” She nodded. “Does it change pitch sometimes?”

“Yeah. Sometimes—this’ll sound daft, but don’t laugh—sometimes it sounds sorta like she’s laughing.”

“Sometimes she is.”

Rose’s eyes widened. “What do you mean, Doctor?”

Instead of answering, he went back to flipping the sonic in the air. This was not a conversation he wanted to have. The cowardly part of him had hope he would never have to tell Rose the whole truth about what had happened on the Game Station. She’d been glorious when she’d stepped out of the TARDIS, surrounded by the light of Time, but it had also been one of the most terrifying things he’d ever seen. Of all the times he’d thought he’d lost her, none had affected him as much as this one.

Rose wouldn’t let him escape the conversation though. “Oh no you don’t.” She jumped down from the table and snatched the sonic out of his hands. “You can’t just… quit the conversation halfway through. You know something.”

He leaned back against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest, striving for a nonchalance he didn’t feel. “I know lots of things.”

Rose gritted her teeth. “Something specific about why I can hear the TARDIS’ hum from here.”

His fingers clenched around his arm, then relaxed. So, no getting out of it then. “The TARDIS doesn’t hum, Rose.”

“Yes she does!”

The Doctor shook his head. “Not audibly.”

He stepped around her to the stove, not wanting the apples to scorch and needing something to occupy his hands, since she’d so rudely taken the sonic away. He watched her with out of the corner of his eye while he stirred the cooking fruit. Rose was clever; it wouldn’t take her long to pick up on what he was hinting at. He only hoped her reaction would be positive when she figured it out.

“She communicates telepathically.”

“Yep.”

“And that hum is her… talking?”

He rubbed at the back of his neck. “More or less. The hum you constantly hear is just her presence. Telepaths can sense each other, the way you can look at me and see me standing here.”

Rose crossed her arms over her chest, and her expression was inscrutable. “Explain.”

The Doctor pointed at the kitchen table, and she sat down across from him. “What do you remember about the Game Station?” he asked.

Pain crossed her face. “You sent me away.”

His jaw dropped open a little. He hadn’t expected that answer, or the obvious difficulty with which she’d said the words. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice rough. “But if I hadn’t, well…” He shook his head; he was getting ahead of himself. “Do you remember how you got back?”

Rose nodded. “Mickey and Mum helped me open the heart of the TARDIS, and then…” She frowned. “It all goes a bit hazy after that, until I woke up just before you regenerated. There was this… golden light, and I remember seeing your face, but not much else.”

The Doctor turned and leaned against the counter. “When you opened the heart of the TARDIS, you… well, you merged with her,” he said with quiet reverence. The image of Rose as Bad Wolf had been terrifying, but it was also beautiful and humbling.

The words triggered a memory locked away in Rose’s mind. I looked into the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked into me. “I am the Bad Wolf,” she said, the words feeling both right and strange on her tongue.

She almost regretted them when fear sparked in the Doctor’s eyes. “The two of you managed to fly back to the Game Station, and then…” He pressed his hands against the table and looked down.

“And then what, Doctor?” she asked sharply. “Don’t stop there, now that you’re finally telling me the truth.”

He sucked in a breath, and the muscle in his jaw twitched. “You were… you were the closest thing to a goddess I’ve ever seen.” He looked at her again, and this time, she saw reverence mixing with the fear. “A goddess of Time, with the power of the Vortex running through you. You used it to destroy the entire Dalek fleet.”

Hazy images from dreams came into sharp focus. “The Time War ends.”

“You did what I couldn’t. You ended the War.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before? You told me you sang a song, and the Daleks ran away.” Of course, she’d known from the start that wasn’t what had happened, but she’d figured he didn’t want to tell her what he’d really done to chase the Daleks away.

Looking at his face, so white his freckles stood out starkly, Rose realised something she hadn’t expected.

“You were afraid.”

“Do you have any idea how dangerous that was, Rose?” he asked, his voice hoarse. “You had the full power of the Time Vortex running through your body. It could have killed you—it should have, really.”

And here is where that deleted scene ends. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get this conversation about telepathy to work in this chapter. I could never segue gracefully into the next part of the conversation. That’s the main reason I changed direction with this chapter, and I really like how the final version of chapter three runs.

[theseventhhex]

Operators Interview

Operators

Photo by Brit Kubat

Operators is a Montreal based project created by Daniel Boeckner, (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits), Devojka, and Sam Brown (Divine Fits, New Bomb Turks) in 2014. The band released an EP in 2014, and released their first LP in 2016. Operators supported these releases with a series of international tours across North America, and Europe. Their latest release, ‘Radiant Dawn’ consists of nine tracks that meld raw analog hardware with Boeckner's distinct voice to create an immersive cinematic sound. Interspersed between the tracks are instrumental intertitles that amplify the album’s 1970s sci-fi dystopian feel. ‘Radiant Dawn’ maintains a completely fresh energy for a band very much in top form… We talk to Dan Boeckner about working in an isolated setting, the VHS era and HBO’s Chernobyl …

TSH: How would you sum up your creative partnership with Devojka in the lead-up to ‘Radiant Dawn’?

Dan: Once the ‘Blue Wave’ touring cycle ended and I had time off from Wolf Parade, I started putting together some basic ideas for what I thought would turn into ‘Radiant Dawn’ tracks. We had this sort of unspoken understanding that we weren’t going to limit ourselves to the same gear that we used to write ‘Blue Wave’, so I’d set up a few limited combinations of synths and drum machines and just started carving out patterns and chord progressions I liked. I had a lot of false starts. It wasn’t really until Dev and I began working on things together in our studio that the aesthetic of ‘Radiant Dawn’ revealed itself. We did a few days of free form jamming direct to 2 track cassette with Andrew Woods (who ended up mixing the album) processing the entire mix through a table of guitar pedals. When we were listening to the playback, it pretty much set the tone for the sonic aesthetic of the album. Dev and I got to work on building a kind of psycho-geography for the songs to live in. I got obsessed with the idea of a kind of Irradiated Pastoralism. These banal landscapes made completely unrecognisable by an “event”. Maybe a visitation, nuclear fallout, the effects of extreme climate change. Not post-apocalyptic but post-post-apocalyptic. Everything has grown back, the sun is shining, but the landscape and objects have been changed. The foliage has changed. Everything is unrecognisable. Dev and I worked really quickly after that. I felt like once we built the world, it was easy to fit the songs into it.

TSH: As you guys fleshed out new material, what was the level of focus in the studio like?

Dan: We’re pretty intensely focussed when we’re writing. One of the great things about having Dev as a writing partner is that we’re both completely comfortable and happy to play 4 bar bass sequence for hours and just reach a kind of trance state, adding and subtracting melodies and trying out different vocal lines. It’s really my favourite part of the process because it feels pure and totally removed from the world of the “intellectual”. Usually we’d record voice memos and then go over them, pick out the exciting moments and work those moments into a structure.

TSH: You’ve touched on this album pushing you forward into a new chapter of writing. Can you tell us more about auditioning your lyrics…

Dan: I’ve never really done it before, so it was a bit nerve wracking. I wanted the lyrics on this album to function like a bridge between the different narrators and protagonists in the different songs. To reinforce the narrative and show that they all lived in the same world that we’d built. Once I got over my initial uncomfortableness about sitting in a room and reading/singing lyrics to Dev, it was a blast. We got to dig into the songs and try a bunch of different things out. I filled an entire notebook with lyrics for this album and used probably 10% of them.

TSH: Also, what were the benefits in working in a really isolated setting?

Dan: Our studio is down the street from our house, on a semi bustling street…but the studio itself feels like a space station. Walking in the door for me is like walking through an airlock. There’s the outside world where linear time exists, people are getting drunk at the bar below, cars driving by, occasionally I look out the window and see someone I know…inside the studio, time stops, everything is calm, it’s a blank space where you just work and build something. I like being able to access both of those things. To spend a whole day isolated and working and then shut the door and go back to normal city life.

TSH: Was ‘Days’ identified early on as the album opener?

Dan: When I finished the first, extremely rough pass of ‘Days’ and played it for Dev, we both knew that it should be the first song on the album. The protagonist wakes up in the woods mumbling the lines of the chorus and the whole song rushes forward to a collapse where the drum machine and pads just start falling apart. The album ends in the woods with the protagonist of ‘Low Life’ watching his small town become unstuck in space/time and there’s a similar disintegration of the track. There’s a kind of loop there. I also really liked the idea of the first melodic thing you hear on the album being just Buchla bass and smeared out vocals.

TSH: Moreover, what sort of motivations do you draw on to pen a track like ‘Faithless’?

Dan: ‘Faithless’ is about the hallucinatory nature of reality (online and offline) under late period capitalism. The same grotesquely funny reality bending force field that happened in the USSR during the last years of its existence. When I wrote it, I was thinking about the absurd effects of 80s GOSPLAN (a factory that makes 10s of thousands of platform shoes that no one wants, based on calculations made by state bureaucrats) and the existential horror of watching verified fast food chain twitter accounts “interact” with each other about depression and how they’re pretty much the same thing. The failure of an ideology, political system and ecumenic ideal creating this gradual psychedelic effect on our daily lives. Accepting that. Not really knowing or caring if anything is true because…our last individual agency in this collapsing system is being able to believe something ridiculous like the earth is flat or that vaccines are a government conspiracy. Losing faith in pretty much everything. I wanted to write a song about that ending up being a liberating force for change.

TSH: How key is it for Operators to continuously have a strong visual element?

Dan: It’s become really important to the way we want to present the band. When we started, it was more of a stark, Fugazi style minimalism where we wouldn’t think about lighting onstage or a constant aesthetic, but with this record Dev and I are so invested in the world we built for ‘Radiant Dawn’, we felt like it was important to invite people into it with short films, projections onstage… to give people an immersive experience.

TSH: Speaking of visual elements, when you think of the VHS era, what sort of nostalgia and memories come to mind for you?

Dan: When I think of the VHS era I think of one thing: McQuinns Video. I grew up in a very remote rural community in Canada. We had one video rental store and it was in the basement of this guy Dick McQuinns house. You’d go in his front door, walk down a hallway and open another door. You’d walk down a flight of stairs and be greeted by a massive poster for the movie Maniac, which is an oil painting of the titular Maniac holding the severed head of a woman and a giant bowie knife. His stock was probably 50% “regular” films and 50% insane horror movies. I loved going there and wandering through the stacks of VHS tapes, looking at the covers. My brother and I would rent a bunch of horror movies and spend summer afternoons with the blinds closed mainlining Lucio Fulci and John Carpenter. I think it broke my brain in the best possible way.

TSH: Is the notion of being adaptable one that you’ve had to master being an artist over the years?

Dan: I’m not sure if I’ve mastered it, but it’s a really important skill to cultivate. One thing I do know is that in 2019, no one who works on the business side of music has any fucking idea what’s happening. All the models that “worked” 5-10 years ago are obsolete and irrelevant. That coupled with the fact there seems to be this weird, Lovecraftian shadow of the “good old days” still guiding a lot of the decisions that get made about how to direct an artist’s career means that WE as artists need to trust our instincts and experiences on the road/in the business more and more. If you’re a working musician and you’re paying attention, you’re going to know what works and what doesn’t more than any of the management class people around you. Being fluid and adaptable to this new paradigm is the way to stay happy and working.

TSH: You’ve touched on how ‘shooting stuff around on the internet can be really damaging’. Do you feel that today’s technology is information overload and that real communication is crumbling?

Dan: I don’t feel like communication and engagements are suffering but I do feel like the networked nature of these systems and the way they’re a perfect vector for political brain poisoning has been incredibly damaging to social and political life, even here in Canada.

TSH: Having some German in you, do you have any strong attachments to German ways of life?

Dan: Haha! Not at all. I do love krautrock though! And, now that I think about it… currywurst.

TSH: What do you and Devojka bond and laugh over most whilst on tour?

Dan: Late night forced karaoke in the van, whatever weird regional American gas station items we come across, terrible hours long comedy riffs (usually based on a single word) that are just the product of the collective insanity of being in a van for 6-10 hours day.

TSH: Does your dog Archie still sleep on your suitcase when you need to access it?

Dan: Yes. Every single time we leave on tour. Always my suitcase. Probably because it’s bigger and more comfortable than Devs. We used to bring him out on the road with us and it was great… he’s an incredible equaliser. Say you’ve got a surly promoter or stage tech…it’s incredibly hard to be a complete asshole when there’s a little, friendly dog wandering around and charming everyone.

TSH: What impressed you most about HBO’s Chernobyl? And what else have you been watching lately?

Dan: I loved Chernobyl. I’m a huge fan of Jarred Harris. It’s jarring to watch something produced in the West in 2019 that’s not just ultra-reactionary and critical of Russia in general, even though the story itself is an indictment of late period Soviet bureaucracy. I liked how the director acknowledged how much of the series was lifted from Svetlana Alexeivichs incredible book, as well. I’d recommend that anyone who enjoyed Chernobyl go out and buy her latest work Secondhand Time - one of the best things I’ve ever read. Some other things I’ve watched lately: Neon Genesis Evangelion (still great), The Wailing (amazing Korean horror film), The Dark (the German Lost but good), Stranger in a Strange Land (1987 Nick Cave in Berlin doc), Marketa Lazarova (Czech new wave and the most black metal film ever made) and Ian Nairn - Nairn Across Britain. The whole series is up on YouTube and I think I learned more about UK social geography from it than anything I’ve ever read. A lot of the locations seem bleak (it’s always raining and grey) or run down (it was filmed between 71-78) but the way he imbues these places with magic and history makes you feel like you’re listening to Alan Moore talk about sacred geometry. It’s a deeply odd and very British documentary series. There’s an entire episode about Wolverhampton that’s completely gripping, if that’s any indication of how charming this guy is.

TSH: Devojka has previously made drinks for her neighbourhood – do you get treated to some cocktail specials on tour?

Dan: Without a mobile full bar, it’s hard to get the same quality of drinks out BUT, we did a pretty big booze buy on the last tour and had a box full of some top shelf liquor that just came with us into every backstage.

TSH: Finally, what’s pleased you most about the band’s progression to date?

Dan: The fact that we got to the point where we could make a record like ‘Radiant Dawn’. I’m not discounting our other stuff but to me ‘Radiant Dawn’ was one of those “signpost albums” you get to make once every 5 years or so. A record where you push through into another phase of your creative life and discover some new tools, new approaches, new language for making music and everything becomes challenging and exciting. For me, that’s really only happened twice before in the last 15 years and I’m glad we kept pushing at our song writing process. Evolving as a live band has been really rewarding too. To be so linked and tuned into each other on stage you can be in the middle of a set and just throwing new things, flourishes, new parts back and forth at each other and playing off them. Those moments are the closest I get to pure, mindless joy.

Operators - “I Feel Emotion”

Radiant Dawn

[erinturnerwrites]

Perilous Creatures: SSP #1

In the winter, the road up Mt. Mansfield was closed and unplowed. Cars had to stop at the little parking lot a few hundred feet from the closure and turn around if they went that way unknowingly. Over the winter, the accumulated snowfalls made a wide white path, packed by the many feet of hikers and cross-country skiers and dog-walkers who used the snowy road as a hiking trail when the temperatures were reasonable.

Thea, who had been coming to Stowe for years now, knew it would be a good place to view the planetary alignment (once every three thousand years! raved the papers, her professor, the clickbait articles on the internet), so she had rolled out of her warm bed back at the inn and, leaving her disinterested friends asleep, had made the solitary pilgrimage to this place. But as fascinating as the physics of the alignment was, and as beautiful as the cold, clear, starlit morning was, there’s only so much one can do without a telescope or some kind of problem to work out.

I came, I saw, I observed with my eyes, Thea thought, turning the car off and putting on her red fleece ski hat. She got out of the car and zipped up her coat, tucking the keys into the pocket. It was a little after six, sunrise was still an hour away, and she felt strangely restless. She was going to hike up the path a little way – not far, not so far that she could get lost or freeze or anything. Not so far that she was too far from civilization, either. Unconsciously, she touched the space on her chest where her little silver cross hung, a gift from her uncle the priest.

The stars were bright, though the moon was down, and the reflection of the white snow gave Thea plenty of light to see by as she clambered up the slope rough-formed by hundreds of clambering feet. Then she was on the snowpack, standing about three feet higher than the road. Before her stretched the smooth white road, leading, it appeared, straight towards a rocky outcropping of mountain, rounded and dark purple and dusted with snow that had settled into its cracks and crevasses.  

 The predawn morning was cold, but not too cold. The air stung Thea’s cheeks and burned her lungs; it felt good after sitting in the stuffy, over-heated car. Thea set a good pace for herself, and took care to scan the trees for any sign of movement. Rising from the snow like a flooded forest the spindly trunks obscured little of her visibility, even in the dark. All was bare, clean, monochromatic. Thea paused and adjusted her scarf a little, appreciating the lack of noise, sonic or visual. Living in Boston was a great experience, but she tired of the never-ending vitality that spilled out at all hours, of the city glow that obscured the stars. Here, her red hat and scarf were the most colorful things around.

 Except she wasn’t.      

 Thea’s brisk pace slowed, then halted. She was about three-quarters of a mile from the car. In front of her, dull red splashed across the snow like a Jackson Pollock painting. To the right, near the tree line, a dead body.

 Thea took a deep breath. In, out.

 She walked closer. That much blood meant an animal attack, probably. Yes, as she thought. The throat, heart, intestines all gone, the arms and legs torn. Shredded. The remnants of a person scattered across the path, a dark stain on the otherwise pristine snow.

What could have caused this? From the looks of things, it had happened hours ago, at least. Since nightfall, because otherwise somebody would have discovered the body. Somebody else, anyway.

Thea stared down at the frozen corpse, hands tucked in the fleece-lined pockets of her old grey ski jacket, fascinated. She thought about this body that had once been a person, laying here all night, the only witnesses the uncaring trees and silent stars. No death vigil for this person, not from them, with such a brief, tiny life in the massive span of years the stars witnessed. It was curious, how little the universe cared about death, Thea thought, tearing her gaze away to scan the scene for any information she could gather.

There were no clear tracks around the body, but the snow here was so hard packed that nobody left clear tracks. Thea pulled out her phone to call 911 and frowned at the NO SERVICE message. She wasn’t that far up the mountain, but her phone had started acting up last week. Well, the body would keep just fine for a little longer.

Thea tucked the useless phone back in her pocket and turned around. Then, struck by a sudden thought, she pivoted on her heel and walked back, getting as close to the body as she dared. The attack was bloody, violent, yes, but far too clean for a bear-mauling. And it was January. All the bears were asleep.

Three-quarters of the way around the body, Thea found what she had been looking for – a wolf print. Well, sure, it could have been the print of a huge dog, but she didn’t think so. Except by this point Thea was pretty sure that the animal who made that print was no ordinary wolf.

“Remember, a werewolf kill is bloody, but rational. No frenzy. The animal will go for the throat to kill, then hit the major organs. It always takes the heart.”

Her dad was a professor of folklore at Amherst who had a bit of an edge on his colleagues’ knowledge thanks to some interesting life experience. He had been very clear in his lessons. Thea had always believed he was accurate and honest, but now knew this as fact based on evidence. And – yes, of course, it had been the night of the new moon. All the old lore only had it half right (to be fair, half right was a pretty good track record when it came to old lore, so garbled and confused it had become); werewolves changed at the full and new moons. 

And they usually guarded the kill until sunrise, when they changed.

Thea touched the silver cross again and looked up. It was supposed to protect against werewolves and skin-changers and revenants, but who knew?

There was nothing in front of Thea but the dead body. Carefully, slowly, she turned her head, first to the left. Nothing but trees. Then the right. Still nothing. Then, scarcely breathing, a quarter turn at a time, she turned around.

Six yards away, just where the road looked like it disappeared into the mountain, was a wolf. Thea swallowed, but kept her breathing even.

“If you ever see a shape-changer, it’s just an animal.” They had such strange conversations over the holiday dinners, weird mixes of physics (from Thea and her mom) and theology and literature and lessons on How to Survive a Brush with the Supernatural™.

“An intelligent animal,” her uncle had interrupted her father, who had waved his hand like that didn’t matter. Mom passed the mashed potatoes around again, and Thea took a big scoop.

It did look intelligent. It sat there, looking at her, its head cocked to one side. The gesture would have been cute if the thing hadn’t been the size of a Great Dane. Its dark grey coat bristled. It looked well-fed. Was that from the wolf or the human beneath? How on earth was a silver cross the size of her thumbprint supposed to stop that?

 “It’s just an animal. It senses fear. Sudden movements will spook it. If it’s a predator, that might provoke an attack.”

 “Don’t run, is what he means,” her uncle had broken in again.

“Yes, that. Keep your breathing even. Walk away slowly. Let it follow you – then you know where it is. The closer you get to civilization, the more timid it will be.”

 Well, she was about to discover how good her lessons had been, and how accurate the lore was. Thea turned around again, and walked down the trail at a snail’s pace. It had grown just a bit lighter, the sky more grey than blue, the stars fading. The crunch crunch of Thea’s footsteps in the snow, though faint, was enough to obscure any sound the wolf might be making. She glanced over her shoulder, and thought she didn’t see anything. Then she caught a glimpse of motion to her right.

The wolf was now eight or ten yards away, keeping pace with her as it walked along through the trees. She could feel it watching her.

Thea was kind of impressed. She knew from experience that if she walked off the packed snow, she would fall right through, up to her thighs or waist. But somehow the wolf stayed on top of the snow, its paws only sinking an inch or two with each step. It was leaving deep footprints. What would the police think? How would they explain this?

It grew even lighter. The different shades of the trees were now distinguishable, along with the paler patches on the wolf, at its shoulders and the tip of its tail. And the deep red smears at its muzzle and chest.

Thea was no longer afraid. Dawn wasn’t far off; the wolf was bound to know that. She didn’t think it would attack. Maybe it could sense the silver she wore, but for some reason, she doubted it was a long-distance charm. It seemed more curious than anything. Or watchful, maybe. Not that she wanted to go pet it or anything. It was still a wild animal, and dangerous.

As she rounded the last bend in the road, the wolf dropped back and left her behind. Thea kept walking, which meant she didn’t see it shudder and writhe and twist back into a human kneeling in the snow, naked and male and tired.

She got back in the car and turned the heat on before she called 911. She stayed until the police arrived to take her statement, their violently flashing lights breaking the neutral stillness, further shattered by yellow crime tape and a hive of warm bodies swarming up the snow-packed road. She gave her statement and her contact information, for the inn and for her dorm back at BC. The sun was full up, the sky bright and cloudless and blue only as a winter’s day can be, before she was released.

 It was strange, the police woman had offered trauma counseling, and warned her about PTSD. An EMT had checked her out, and seemed surprised when she showed no signs of shock or trauma. And they didn’t even know about the werewolf. Thea had been surprised by their expectation. Her encounter with the body and the wolf had been anything but traumatic.

The werewolf. Not what Thea had imagined. The movies had gotten it wrong. They weren’t snarling, slavering beasts, nor were they poor, misundersood creatures who just wanted love. They were human, and animal. A force of nature. A touch of magic. Perilous creatures. Perilous, and beautiful. Not good or bad, just – neutral. Natural. Like the stars.

She would tell her dad about the wolf, Thea decided, but ask him to have his hunter friends suggest it move, instead of killing it. Somewhere farther away from lone hikers, where its only prey on the round moon nights would be deer and rabbits. As she pulled into the parking lot of the inn, with its broad view of snow-covered Mt. Mansfield, Thea wondered if it was too late, as a junior, to add a bio major to her physics one. Surely the world could use a cryptozoologist.                   

Staring at the mountain, savoring the last bit of silence before she was buried under another round of questions from her curious friends, Thea realized she finally understood that poem her lit prof had been going on and on about last year. The one about the stars, by that guy . . . what was his name? Robert Frost.

He had lived in New England somewhere, Thea remembered. What was the probability he’d run into a werewolf? It certainly made one a bit more reflective about humanity and nature. Thea felt that she was hovering on the edge of a profound realization about life when her best friend Ella, blonde and bubbly Ella, starfished on the driver’s door before yanking it open, talking all the while, and the moment was lost.

This story is 100% mine; please don’t share without including my handle. 

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Prompt by V: Urban fantasy, female MC, and the below poem

“Stars” by Robert Frost

 How countlessly they congregate

O’er our tumultuous snow,

Which flows in shapes as tall as trees

When wintery winds do blow! –

 As if with keenness for our fate,

Our faltering few steps on

To white rest, and a place of rest

Invisible at dawn, --

And yet with neither love nor hate,

Those stars like some snow-white

Minerva’s snow-white marble eyes

Without the gift of sight. 

Photograph by me, of the actual location of the story.