#this might help me jive him...

[mama-qwerty]

Second Chances v1

Okay, here's the start of my de-aged Knux story. I like the beginning, but am not thrilled with what happens after she finds little Knux. I don't know what's bothering me about it, but it's just not jiving with me.

But I wrote 6200 words, so I'mma post it. I might rework it once I can figure out just where the problem is.

Calling it 'version 1' in case I tweak it and post again later.

~~~~~

The fire burned down, leaving just a few soft flickers of flame against the burning embers at the bottom of the fire pit. Two figures sat around it, on opposite sides. They sat in silence, watching as the last of the flames died down, the darkness of the night around them moving in to replace the light.

“All I’m saying is you could have come to me, and I would have helped you.” Callie’s voice was soft, but edged with frustration. “You aren’t out in those arenas anymore. You’re not on your own anymore. I’m here, and I can help you.”

The echidna across from her frowned, scratching at the bandage on his arm. It was sloppily applied; he’d injured himself during one of his training sessions, and tended to it himself without her assistance.

“No need,” Knuckles said, waving a hand. “I am capable of taking care of myself.”

She sighed. “I know you are, but you don’t have to. I’m here. All you have to do is come to me.”

He let out a huff, giving his head a shake. “I do not need your help.”

Callie rolled her eyes. This was a sensitive subject, but one she had tried again and again to instill upon him in the months since he’d come to live with her. Yes, he was the most dangerous warrior in the galaxy. (Or had been, anyway.) But that life was behind him now. She was going to make sure that life was done, and he never had to feel alone and hunted again.

But he was a stubborn kid. Very, very stubborn. There’d been times when he’d come home looking as though he’d gone three rounds with a pissed off gorilla, and only offered a wave of his hand when she was, understandably, a bit freaked out by that. “I was training,” was his only explanation, which only raised further questions in her mind.

He was still acting like he was on his own, expecting an attack at every turn. She supposed it was second nature to him by now, having been on the run since he was so little, and it was unreasonable to expect that to fade. At all, let alone after only a few months.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t be frustrated by it. And that she couldn’t try to show him that he didn’t have to take care of himself anymore. Not like that.

“Look,” she said, rubbing her eyes beneath her glasses before looking back at him. “I’m not saying you’re some little kid who needs his boo boos kissed. I just want to make sure you’re okay. I would hope that you trust me enough to let me know if you slice yourself open on one of your training runs.”

Knuckles clicked his tongue. “It was a minor wound. I’ve had much worse.”

“That’s not the point, and by the way, the blood all over my towels says otherwise. I thought you’d lost an arm with the mess you’d left behind.”

“You are overreacting.”

“Actually, I think I’m being quite calm and collected, all things considered,” she said, leaning forward to rest her forearms on her knees. “You’re not a child, but you’re still a kid who’s under my care, and I don’t think it’s out of line for me to want you to, you know, tell me when you nearly cut your arm off.”

He rolled his eyes and gave out a huff. “I did not—��

“Can you focus on what I mean instead of what I’m saying?”

“And can you not treat me as though I were some foolish child who needs supervised?”

“I’m not—“

“Enough!” Knuckles stood, rolling his shoulders. “I do not need tending like a puggle. I am a fierce warrior and do not need your coddling. I am grateful for your guidance and support, but your concern is misplaced.”

She sat up, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “For cripes’ sake, Knux, I don’t want to coddle you—“

“I am going to bed. Good night.”

And with that, the echidna stalked toward the house, leaving her by the dying fire.

Callie heaved a deep sigh, rubbing her temples with both hands.

“. . . I just want you to let me take care of you. At least a little.”

She heard the kitchen door slam, and gave a little groan.

That could have gone better.

~X~X~X~

Ridiculous.

Unnecessary.

Condescending.

Knuckles didn’t quite stomp, but didn’t quite not stomp up the stairs, pushing the door to his room open. He kicked it closed behind him, a soft growl in the back of his throat.

Take care of him. She wanted to ‘take care of him’? He took care of himself. He didn’t need her help for that. The only reason he was still alive after all these years was because he was strong and tough and self-reliant.

He tore open the velcro straps at the base of his gloves, giving his arms a sharp flick to send the heavy mitts flying. They bounced off the wall, landing on the floor with two solid thuds. The woman didn’t like when he did that, and would call out to remind him not to when she heard it.

Well, she wasn’t here right now, was she? He was a warrior. He didn’t need such rules.

With a grumble, he sat heavily on the mattress on the floor, shoving aside the curtain that hung over it in a tent-like covering. A few quick movements and his boots were loose enough to toe off. He used more force than necessary, sending them cartwheeling heel over toe into the door. More loud thuds as they settled on the floor, one on its side and the other upright.

He didn’t depend on others. He’d been shown time and time again that trusting others was a recipe for treachery and betrayal. Everyone he’d trusted had hurt him. Turned him in for rewards, used him for their own gain. Yet he continued to trust, continued to hope that someone would help him. Would be his friend.

His mother had praised his kind heart as a child, but now he wondered if it were more of a hindrance than advantage.

Flopping onto his back, he looked up at the ceiling, his eyes floating over the little painted dots there. Back when he first agreed to stay with her, Callie had brought Tails over to try and get as accurate a sky map as possible for those little dots. The clever fox had somehow found the positions of the constellations and stars over Knuckles’ village, and he and Callie had painstakingly painted each one to match those Knuckles had seen in his childhood.

It was a touching gesture. No one had ever gone so out of their way to make him comfortable. To give him a bit of familiarity to his home. He appreciated it.

But it made a tight knot twist behind his ribs when he looked up at them.

Because he couldn’t remember what the constellations were.

The knowledge seemed to flick at his consciousness, teasing the back of his mind, but when he tried to pull the names forward, wrap his tongue around them and throw them out, they disappeared back into his fading memories.

He was losing his connection to his people. His tribe.

The language that he’d been raised on, the words that once rolled off his tongue with ease, now took more effort to get right. Callie had encouraged him to share his mother tongue with her, which he appreciated, but sometimes when he said a word, it didn’t feel right on his lips. As though it were something he had no right to speak anymore.

He had learned a number of different languages in his travels—how many, he wasn’t sure, as there was a certain degree of overlap in a few—and sometimes it felt as though these new languages had almost pushed out his first. Smothered it.

And now, like the fire just a few moments before, there were only a few little embers left of what he remembered. His tribe. His customs. His language. His heritage.

Slowly dying.

He was the last. It was his duty to keep his culture intact. To not lose sight of who he is, what he is. To do so would dishonor the memory of his entire species.

His father.

Knuckles stared at the ceiling, at those little blobs of glowing paint, brow furrowed. He knew those stars, he knew them. He could hear his father naming them as he pointed. Could hear his voice, feel his father’s hand on his shoulder as he sat close by. Felt the soft breeze of the night as it rippled through his quills, while the others sat and chatted by the village fire.

He remembered all of this.

But the words, the syllables, refused to form.

A low growl rumbling in his chest, Knuckles rolled over to crawl into his artificial burrow. Yanking the curtain closed, he bundled himself beneath the thick blanket inside, curling into a tight ball. Shame burned in his belly, because it had taken so long to find the Master Emerald. It had taken nearly ten years to hunt it down. And in that time he had been so concerned with his own survival, he had lost his tether to the very reason he was doing it in the first place.

He missed his tribe. He missed his father. He missed feeling part of something, of being cared for. This planet was fine, one of the more comfortable ones he’d been on, but it wasn’t his home. This house wasn’t his home.

He wanted to go home. Back to when he didn’t feel so lost. So afraid.

So alone.

After a long moment, Knuckles drew in a deep breath, letting it out in a long, slow exhale. He’d been rude to Callie. She’d opened her home to him, and had never expected anything from him except courtesy in return. It was so different from what he’d experienced before—any other time he’d trusted others, they would have turned on him by now. She’d been nothing but kind to him.

Still. That seed of doubt poked at the back of his mind. Maybe it was time to stop being so trusting. To stop expecting anything other than betrayal. Despite her kindness, she could still turn on him. He had to be vigilant.

Soon after, his eyes began to close, and Knuckles the Echidna, last surviving member of his race, and guardian of the Master Emerald, fell asleep.

~X~X~X~

She should have handled that better.

Callie dumped a pitcher of water over the glowing embers in the fire pit, stirring it in with a poker to douse the last of the heat. As the wood hissed and smoked, she cursed herself for coming on too strong with Knuckles.

He was a proud kid. A fighter. A survivor. She knew that.

She really should have expected this reaction, honestly. Suggesting he needed to come to her simply because he’d injured himself? No matter how much blood she’d found in the bathroom—which had been a lot, and she may or may not have freaked out a little bit—she should have just let him come to her when he was ready.

But she didn’t. She pushed. And now she’d pushed him even farther away than he already was.

Once she was satisfied the fire had been adequately extinguished, Callie stood and pushed against the small of her back to produce that familiar crack. Massaging the area, she turned, and headed into the house.

She paused by Knuckles’ door as she headed down the hall to her own room. Leaning in, she heard a soft growl as he moved around. She supposed it was lucky he even came in instead of just wandering off into the trees surrounding her home. Sometimes he stayed out all night, and though she tried not to worry—he could take care of himself, after all—she did.

Her fingers curled into a fist, and she raised it to knock. It hovered near the wood for a moment, before lowering back to her side.

He didn’t need her checking on him. He was a big boy, capable of taking care of himself. He could take care of himself. She just had to keep reminding herself that.

Maybe it was time for her to just back off. He wasn’t like Sonic or Tails. He hadn’t been looking for a family. A home. He’d been looking for that magic rock. And now it sat in his closet, protected by a high-tech security system concocted by Tails. Knuckles sometimes sat before it, meditating. She was glad he had found the thing that had been driving him for most of his life, but saw the question in his eyes on the rare occasions he sat still.

Now what?

She wished she could tell him.

She wished she could help him.

But he didn’t want her help. Didn’t need it. Had said as much not fifteen minutes ago.

Maybe it was time she started listening to him.

With a sigh, Callie turned and headed to her bedroom, trying to convince herself she was worrying for nothing.

~X~X~X~

The night wore on. The house grew quiet.

Inside the middle bedroom, a faint green glow seeped from the closet.

~X~X~X~

Sunlight filtered in through the curtains, and Callie blinked against it.

God her head hurt. Sitting by the fire last night had dried out her sinuses something awful, and she uttered a grunt in the back of her throat as she pushed herself to sit up. She had to peel her tongue off the roof of her mouth.

What a night. After collapsing in bed, she’d tossed and turned for a while, eventually falling into a restless sleep with really, really weird dreams. Something about an egg and trees and a giant owl?

She shook her head. Weird. She didn’t normally remember her dreams.

With some effort she managed to push herself out of bed, shuffling to the bathroom to pee, splash some water on her face, and drag a brush through her hair before folding it into a loose braid. Tossing on a t-shirt and jeans, she pulled her glasses on and headed toward the stairs.

She stopped at Knuckles’ door once again, and this time quietly pushed it open to peek inside. The door thudded against something, and she looked down to see his boots lumped right behind it. She rolled her eyes. Probably got pissed and tossed them again.

Despite his differences, he was still very much a teenager.

Glancing up, she could barely make out a moving shape beneath his blanket. It was unusual for him to still be in bed (well, his artificial burrow, anyway) this late. Normally he was up with the sun to train or patrol or whatever it was he did with himself when he left the house.

Her heart gave a clench when she realized she didn’t really know what he did when he wasn’t here. “Training” was a pretty vague term, and she didn’t know if that meant exercising or running some death course he’d built himself up in the mountains. She could honestly believe either one.

With a sigh, she pulled back, leaving the door open a crack. She’d make some breakfast, and maybe the lure of a hot meal will draw him down so she could apologize for last night.

Her cats’ cries hit her once she reached the bottom of the stairs, and she rolled her eyes as she headed toward the kitchen.

“Yes, yes, I know,” she said with a sigh. She reached into a cabinet to pull out a can of cat food, popping the lid off to shlorp the stuff onto a plate. “You’re starving. Just wasting away. However did you survive on only the dry food you always have available to you since yesterday’s breakfast?”

The cats responded with excited meows as she placed the plate on the floor, before attacking the food as though they weren’t lazy housecats who did nothing but sit around all day before occasionally getting underfoot just as she decided to walk down the hall.

Another eye roll and Callie moved to start her coffeemaker. She’d forgotten to set it last night. With practiced ease of a daily ritual, she cleaned yesterday’s pot, refilled the water and grounds, and let it do its thing.

A yawn escaped her as she leaned back against the counter, massaging her temple, her eyes closed. The soft crunches of dry cat food came from the other side of the counter, as the coffeemaker hummed behind her.

She’d messed things up last night. Once she’d had her coffee, she’d make some bacon and eggs, maybe toss a few sausages in as an apology for overstepping. As he ate—if he ate—she’d tell him she would just stay out of his way, and let him come to her if he needed.

It went against everything she wanted, but this wasn’t about her. It was about Knuckles, and his comfort.

He could take care of himself.

That just needed to be her mantra for a while. Until it stuck.

Bloom and Suki argued a bit over the last bits of moist food, just like they always did every morning. She mostly ignored them. For sisters who’d been adopted at the same time, they really hadn’t bonded, or even seemed to like each other all that much.

A louder growl floated to her, and she called a quick “Knock it off�� to them. It faded to softer hissing, as though they were arguing over whose fault it was they were yelled at. Callie sighed, rubbing her temple again, when a thought came to her.

She could still hear the crunch of dry cat food.

That . . . wasn’t right.

Opening her eyes, she leaned over to catch a glimpse of both cats—her only cats—still scarfing down the moist food on one side of the kitchen island.

And still, the crunching continued.

Great.

She hadn’t had her coffee yet, and there was already a problem. Some animal must have gotten into the house and was helping itself to her cats’ food. Mouse? Rat? Squirrel? Not exactly something she wanted to deal with at not quite 8 AM on a Saturday morning.

Moving slowly, Callie grabbed a dish towel, hoping to surprise the whatever-it-was and nab it before it had a chance to run or bite her. Would it work? Probably not. But she had to do something.

She moved slowly, coming around the counter making as little noise as possible. Inch by inch she rounded the island, before she could see the cat food bowl, and the creature having a free lunch. Or breakfast, as it were.

And she froze.

Sitting in front of the bowl, grabbing handfuls of dry cat food and shoving them into its mouth, crunching loudly, was a . . . little red echidna.

“What the . . .”

She spoke without realizing, and the little thing froze, whipping his head around to look at her, eyes wide. Violet eyes. Ones that looked so, so much like those of the echidna upstairs. Her eyes flicked down and took note of the white patch of fur in the shape of a crescent moon on his little chest.

Oh god.

It couldn’t be.

Was that . . . ?

They stood there, staring at each other, frozen in shock for a long moment.

Then the little echidna—what were they called? She couldn’t remember at the moment—reached forward, his eyes never leaving hers, and grabbed another handful of cat food to bring to his mouth.

That got her moving.

“NO!”

Her voice was louder and sharper than she intended, and when she reached for him, he gave a little squeak, turning to scramble away from her. He ran on all fours, a kind of loping half-crawl, half-gallop kind of gait, and he was fast. Callie hurried behind him, her socked feet threatening to slip on her laminated floors.

“No no no,” she muttered as he ran beneath the kitchen table. She slid to a stop and yanked a chair away, falling to her knees to try and grab him, just as he scooted through the other side and made a beeline for the living room. Getting to her feet once more, she followed, trying to keep him in sight. He was about as large as one of her cats—bigger than a kitten, but not a full on adult—which meant he could fit in places she couldn’t reach.

Like behind the computer desk where her laptop sat. He squeezed between it and the wall, and Callie hurled the rolling chair out of the way as she threw herself beneath the desk. The little echidna—what the hell were they called again??—skittered along the back, getting tangled in the cord for the lamp and pulling it down with a crash as he bolted from behind the desk and headed for the side table by the couch.

“Stop!”

He gave another little squeak at her order, but never slowed. Scrambling behind the side table, he latched onto the curtain, climbing deceptively fast for a little guy his size. Realizing she was still holding the hand towel, Callie threw it toward him, not necessarily thinking through what that was supposed to accomplish. But she never expected his reaction.

He launched himself off the curtain and flew across the room.

No, not flew, exactly. More like glide. Like a flying squirrel.

But still.

“Are you kidding me??”

While gliding seemed to come naturally to him, landing did not, and he bounced off the TV, tumbling down to the floor with a few grunts. She hurried over to him, and caught his leg just as he was trying to scurry beneath the TV stand.

“Gotcha!”

He did not like being caught, wiggling and twisting his body like a live wire, uttering little grunts and growls as he did so. Callie kept having to rearrange her grip on him, alternating between grabbing a limb before switching to a different one when he jack-knifed his body to try and hurl himself out of her hands.

It was like trying to hold doll filled with Jell-O, if that doll hated you and was trying to bite you and poke you with its quills.

In desperation, she tried something that usually worked when her own son was cranky and fighting all those years ago.

She tickled him.

At first she wasn’t even sure if he was ticklish. Did creatures with fur have tickle triggers, or did their fur absorb that touch before it could work? It wasn’t exactly a question she’d ever thought to ask Maddie, and certainly not something Knuckles would ever let her know about. Weaknesses and all that.

Her fingers danced over his sides, seeking out the spots that most humans found ticklish, and he continued to fight her. A little more juggling, and she ended up holding him by an ankle, the rest of him dangling. She brought her other hand up and went for the bottom of his foot.

And he giggled.

Her fingers wiggled, barely touching the pads on his foot, and now he wiggled and twisted for a different reason, laughing and giggling at the touch. A smile curled her lips and she gave a little amused hum of her own.

“There, that’s not so bad, is it?”

When his laughter went a little wheezy, she stopped her tickle attack and carefully adjusted him so she held him beneath his arms. He giggled a little more before looking up at her, his eyes big and wide. She felt his little chest heaving from the laughter, and gave him a good look over.

Same eyes. Same moon mark on his chest. She moved him so she could see the arm that was bandaged last night. There was still a tiny wound there.

“Holy . . . ohmygod . . . you’re him. Knuckles?” He didn’t respond to his name. Could he understand her at all? “You’re a . . .”

“Knock knock, MacPhersons!” a voice called as the kitchen door opened. Wade came in, carrying a bag from Dough Ray Me Bakery. “I brought breakie! Or snackie!”

“Baby,” she said, looking at the deputy over her shoulder.

“Yes, dear?” He snickered, amused by his own joke. “Ah, kidding, what are you—”

“BABY,” she said, louder and more urgent. She turned and held the little echidna out.

Wade stopped, his eyes going wide. “Did . . . did Knux have a baby?”

“Knux IS the baby,” she said, moving closer. The boy turned his head, looking between the two adults. “I woke up and he was like this.”

Silence settled for a moment, before Wade rubbed the back of his neck. “So . . . is this something space echidna do? Like a phoenix kinda thing?”

Callie opened her mouth to answer, before closing it again. She looked between echidna and man, before giving Wade a look. “I think my smoke detectors would have gone off if he’d burst into flames to revert to a . . . joey. No, that’s kangaroos. Damnit. What are baby echidna called?”

Wade shrugged. “Think the other boys are like this?”

Her eyes went wide. YES! Verifying Sonic and Tails were babies too wouldn’t exactly make this okay, but would go a long way into making her feel less . . . weird about it. Shared experiences and all that.

“I’ll check.” She thrust Knuckles toward Wade, who looked distinctly unsure about taking him. “C’mon, Wade. I have to make a phone call.”

“I dunno, I’m not really great with—“

That’s as far as he got before she practically dropped the little echidna into his hands. She rushed to the counter, grabbed her phone, and punched Maddie’s contact. It ran twice before she picked up.

“Hey, Cal!”

“Hey, Mads, uh, sorry to call so early, I just have a quick question.”

“Shoot.”

Callie glanced over at Wade, who had pulled Knuckles to cradle against his chest. Knux gazed up at the man, playing with the buttons on the hideous Hawaiian shirt he liked to wear on days off.

“Your kids wouldn’t happen to be, I dunno . . . babies?”

A slight pause.

“It depends on the situation, really.”

“RUDE!” A certain hedgehog’s voice called out in the background.

Oh. Oh no.

“That seemed an oddly specific question for this early in the morning,” Maddie continued, seemingly ignoring her hog son. “Why do you ask?”

A soft, not quite sane laugh escaped Callie, and she switched from an audio call to video. “Because, funny story . . . Today I woke up to . . .” She turned the phone to show Wade holding little Knux. “This.”

Silence. Then, “OH MY GOD! HE’S SO CUTE!”

Wade blushed. “Aw, thanks, Maddie!”

Callie rolled her eyes, and pulled the phone back around to herself. “Maddie, he’s a baby. Why is he a baby?”

“Why are you asking me? I don’t know any more than you do about his species.”

“Don’t tell me you think he’s like some space phoenix thing, too.”

“What?”

“Nevermind.” Callie sighed, reaching beneath her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose. “I haven’t had my coffee yet.”

“Hang on, lemme ask Tails.” Maddie’s voice went a little muffled as she blocked the mic, turning to call for her younger son. There was some back and forth between the two, when Tails came on screen.

“Hi, Callie!”

“Hey, Floof,” she said, dropping her hand and giving him a weak smile. “Your mom fill you in?”

“Yeah, and I’m not completely clear on echidna physiology but am pretty sure they don’t spontaneously revert to become babies overnight.”

“Wait a minute, Knux is a baby???” Sonic’s voice started faint but got louder as he pushed forward, sticking his nose in the camera. “LEMME SEE!!”

Callie sighed, and turned to show the hog. A gasp, followed by laughter, and she pulled the phone back around with a cocked eyebrow.

“Hey, see if you can remove the stick from his butt now, so he’ll be more fun when he grows up!”

“Sonic!”

A warning call from Maddie, who wrestled control of her phone from her older son.

“So,” Callie said, trying to redirect the conversation. “Any ideas how this happened, or how to change him back?”

“Tails?” Maddie asked, turning the phone slightly to get the fox in frame. He rubbed his chin slightly, before looking back up.

“The Master Emerald is said to be able to change reality, based solely on thought alone,” he said, before shrugging. “Maybe that has something to do with it.”

Callie could have slapped her forehead. Duh. She knew the Master Emerald could do that, that’s what the whole trouble with Robotnik was when Knux first came. That should have been her first thought, honestly.

She blamed the lack of caffeine.

“That’s a good call, Tails,” she said, glancing over at Wade. He’d pulled Knuckles up and was currently dancing with him, making silly faces. The boy laughed, kicking his little feet, and Callie’s heart just about melted. She looked back to Tails. “I’ll see if I can, I dunno, convince the Emerald to change him back.”

The fox looked hesitant, but nodded. “Probably your best bet. Just . . . be careful.”

“I will. Thanks, guys. I’ll keep you in the loop.”

The Wachowski’s said their goodbyes, and she hung up, putting her phone back on the counter.

“You sure you wanna use that?” Wade asked, pulling Knux back to hold against him. He still swayed back and forth, seemingly without realizing he was doing it. “Could make things weirder.”

“Not sure we have much of a choice, Wade.”

She paused, looking up the stairs toward Knuckles’ room. She tried not to think about having a magic rock capable of altering reality in her house. One that allowed Robotnik to create a giant robot out of cars and trains and who knew what else. One that apparently worked through thought alone.

Because if she thought too hard on it, it really, really, really freaked her out.

“We can call Sonic and Tails to come over,” Wade said, his voice softer. “They know a little more about it and maybe could help.”

Part of her wanted to say yes, because this was way too much to deal with. At all, much less before her morning coffee. She turned and looked back at Knuckles, who was seemingly fine hanging over Wade’s arm.

She sighed.

“No,” she said, giving her braid a little tug. “We don’t know for sure that’s what changed him. What if the other boys come over and BOOM, they get babified? Then we’ll still be on our own and Maddie will be pissed. No thanks.” She sighed again, steeling herself. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

She made her way upstairs, into Knuckles’ room, and opened his closet door. The Master Emerald sat in its little glass box, its ever present soft glow illuminating the otherwise dark room. With a few calming breaths, she reached forward and pressed her thumb on the little square plate at the base. There was a soft beep, and a little recording of Tails’ voice filled the air.

“Identification code, please.”

Callie leaned forward to speak toward the mic. “Callie MacPherson, 7322-07.”

A second later there was another beep, and Tails’ voice again.

“Access granted! Hi, Callie!”

There was a click and a hiss as the top of the clear box opened, swinging back to allow access. The material the container was constructed with looked like glass, but Tails had called it some sort of polymer that was stronger than steel—a recipe he’d concocted back on his home planet when he was five, and at that point she’d stopped listening because it sounded like a lot of tech talk, and frankly she got the feeling that some of Tails’ inventions were borderline illegal no matter what planet he was on.

She reached into the box now, and carefully took hold of the Master Emerald, lifting it out slowly. She’d only touched it once before, as Tails was installing the security system.

She didn’t like touching it.

It was warm.

Not warm as in ‘a rock that had been sitting in the sun’ warm. But warm as in ‘something that was somehow generating its own heat’ warm.

It was almost a living warmth.

And beyond that, it seemed to . . . thrum in her hands.

She tried to tell herself she was simply feeling her own heartbeat through it, that somehow the gem was amplifying it back to her.

But considering how her heart was pounding in her own ears right now, the gem’s . . . well, pulse didn’t match the rhythm.

She tried not to think about it.

She tried not to think about anything, considering the powers the gem held.

Having her house turn into gingerbread because of the ones she used to make with her mother at Christmas popped into her head was the last thing she needed right now.

(damnit stop thinking about that)

Hurrying downstairs, she found Wade entertaining Knuckles by tossing him in the air before catching him. The little echidna laughed, his soft voice squeaking with his happy giggles.

Callie was only a little jealous that Wade could coax such happy sounds from the boy. She didn’t think she’d ever heard teen Knux sound that free. That happy. Sure, he’d been through hell in his quest to find the gem now in her hands, but she thought she had given him a nice safe place to stay. A home.

Maybe she’d just been fooling herself.

Focus.

“Keep doing that and he’s gonna barf on you,” she said, in what she hoped sounded like her usual snark.

Wade caught him one last time, before giving the boy a little nose nuzzle. “Ah, he’s okay. He’s a cute little guy!”

“Yeah, well, why don’t we see if we can change him back—PUGGLE!” The word came out loud and suddenly, and Wade and Knuckles both jerked. She gave them an embarrassed smile. “Sorry, I’d been trying to think of that word all morning. Anyway . . .” She held up the Master Emerald. “Shall we give it a try?”

Wade nodded, turning Knuckles around so they both faced Callie. She stepped forward, holding the gem up in front of the little puggle.

Nothing happened.

She gave the Emerald a little shake. “C’mon. Change him back. Uh, please.”

Nothing.

“Think maybe it’s like a genie kinda thing?” Wade offered, and Knuckles turned his head to look at him. “Like, you gotta wish for it or something?”

“Tails said it works by thought,” Callie responded, watching as the puggle turned back and began chewing on the nearest edge of the Emerald. “But I’m not exactly sure how to do that. And kinda worried about a monkey’s paw kinda situation.”

“Oh, like you wish for something and it grants it in the most horrible, twisted way possible. Like instead of changing him back to his normal self he’s a . . . I dunno, an eclair or something.”

Callie gave him a look. “Why would he be an eclair?”

Wade shrugged. “It kinda sounds like echidna. And maybe it sounds so much like echidna that you think of eclair instead and now he’s a delicious pastry and—”

“I’m not going to think of an eclair instead of echidna,” she snapped, before pulling her lips in tight. “Well I wasn’t before you said that, now that’s all I can think of, thank you very much.”

Closing her eyes, Callie drew in a deep breath, before letting it out slowly.

Okay.

She opened her eyes, and met Wade’s gaze. “I’m gonna try picturing him like he was yesterday, and see if that works. Ready?” Wade nodded, holding Knuckles out. “Okay. Here goes.”

Callie closed her eyes again, squeezing them shut tightly as she pictured Knuckles, teenage Knuckles, and definitely not an eclair, standing before her and giving her that typical scowl, his arms crossed. She kept that image in her mind, her grip tightening on the Master Emerald.

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting to happen. A feeling of some sort of energy or something flowing through her as the Emerald did what she wanted. A sudden shift of the air around her. Something.

That didn’t happen.

What did happen was little Knuckles sneezing, spraying the Master Emerald—and her—with little puggle snot. She jerked, opening her eyes.

“Well, that’s just grand, that is,” she said in her best Wallace impersonation. She turned and walked to the hand towel she’d thrown at Knuckles while he was hanging off her curtain, and picked it up to wipe the spray off the most dangerous and powerful gem in the entire galaxy. Then she turned the towel to herself, wiping her face and heaving a sigh.

“At least he’s not an eclair,” Wade offered, tucking Knux into his elbow. “What now?”

Callie cocked an eyebrow at him, tucking the Emerald against her hip. Her eyes flicked behind him, and found her coffee pot nice and full. “Coffee,” she said, heading toward it.

~~~~~

And that's where I petered out because it's just not working. UGH

[xxsycamore]

✨The Sunshine Syndrome

╰┈➤ 🎂 "Do you remember what you wished for, last night when you blew the candles?"

Sebastian x Reader; ft. all the mansion residents • rating: G • tags: Birthday Fluff; Humor; everyone being silly goofy • wordcount: 1,453 • masterlist

a/n: and again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY INKY!!!! 🎉🎉🎉@inkys-garden I was wondering what to tell you about Sebas celebrating your birthday, and it suddenly turned into fic plot so here we are :DD HOPE YOU LIKE ITTTT!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH ❤❤❤

It's another beautiful day of your life in 19th century Paris, in the neat little mansion up the hill that you call a home, just you and your lover and your 8 housemates who are reincarnated vampires and your sugar daddy landlord whose wealth you all live off. A day like any other, it might seem, except, today is the day you were born. Well, the day you will be born, if you have to take the time travel into account… your suggestion to place a minus in front of your age on the cake this year was met with disapproval by your lover Sebastian. "We can do the same for your age!" You said, but Sebastian wasn't really interested.

Content and excited for the day to unfold, you've already put your cutest outfit on, made a little spin in front of the mirror and exited your room to head downstairs. Strangely, Sebastian didn't wake you up earlier this morning, despite your wish to come help him with chores like always. He must have let you get some more shut-eye because it's your special day. He really shouldn't have to!

Huh. It's strange, you can swear you're hearing a cheerful melody coming from the dining room. Speeding up your step that already had a bit of spring to it, your curiosity makes you push the doors open without a second thought.

"YOU CAN DANCEEE!"

"YOU CAN JIVE!"

"Having the time of your lifeee!"

Wait, what! Why is everyone here, spreading jam on toasts, smiling at each other, why is Mozart smiling at all, and why on earth are they singing Abba?! "Oh, you're awake! We've been all waiting for you!" Sebas suddenly notices you, giving you the softest smile while gesturing you to come closer.

"There's the birthday girl. Heh, had a good night's sleep, cara-mia?

Previously, you thought you did. Now you're wondering if you're STILL sleeping.

"I, uh, I guess so? I did sleep very well… I thought I'd be awake much earlier though! But that aside, what are you-"

Theo interrupts you, thrusting a plate with warm pancakes into your hands.

"Good morning, kuiken, this is for you, I left some pancakes for you. Happy Birthday. Sorry I wasn't around to wish you a Happy Birthday last night, I hope you had fun with the others."

"Oh! That's- Theo, please, I understand you're a busy man- wait, how did you call me?!"

"A baby chick. I figured hondje might be a bit too rude so I'm switching to kuiken. It suits you more."

H-Huuuh!

"Okay then, thank you for being so considerate! But still, what are you guys all doing here, singing and all?!"

Jean of all people speaks up, pulling out the chair next to him so you can take a seat. You do so with curiosity, seeing his sincere little smile.

"It happened spontaneously, mademoiselle. It seems like we all had the same sudden idea to have breakfast together for a change. I was a bit reluctant about joining, but Sebastian showed me how easy it is to make these toasts with jam. I think I should consider joining you around the table more often."

You're utterly moved by Jean's sudden change of heart, and his face is so angelic in this moment. You've been waiting for him to take this step for so long, and here he took a leap!

"Amazing, isn't he?" Dazai startles you by placing a hand on your shoulder from behind. "I want to seal this version of our Jean in one of my future writings. I feel like writing something happy and light for a change, I wonder why is that?"

You understand Dazai's sentiment, as surprising as it is to hear the last part of what he said. With a mood like this, it seems like everyone's in good spirits.

"They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away, yet here you are…" Isaac rolls his eyes at Arthur, holding up an apple in his hand as if to emphasize his point. Arthur blinks at him, not used to the physicist weaponizing the very same thing that has been used against him so often before. He feels inclined to ask, trying his best lighthearted but simultaneously teasing tone, without a real bite to it.

"You do understand that's just a saying, Isaac? It hasn't been scientifically proven."

Isaac smiles at him, shrugging his shoulders. "I was just joking."

You watch the exchange with the same bewilderment as everything else happening around you, and that's when the door opens again to reveal a yawning Napoleon. Oh, you didn't realize he was missing from the impromptu house meeting!

"'Morning. I don't remember the last time I slept so much…"

"Good Morning, Monsieur Napoleon! We all decided to let you sleep in for as long as you want to today. Your second life here is all about relaxing, after all. It seems like you've enjoyed it!"

"Oh, that's strange, last time I checked it wasn't my birthday today?" Napoleon smirks, running a hand through his unruly hair, and winks at you.

"Why did we stop singing? I need to remember the rhythm for my composition. Otherwise, I'll have to let you all in my music room later and… well, maybe if you agree to behave we can move our choir there actually." Mozart smiles behind his cup of tea, surprisingly considering the idea.

"Yay, I've been waiting for a chance to visit the music room!" Exclaims Vincent, just a tad louder than how he usually shows his joy.

Watching them all be so happy, to the point where even Comte cares little about keeping his chuckles in the usual gentlemanly tone and Leonardo barely bickers with him over it, you find yourself overwhelmed with the giddy feeling that fills the room. All you want to do right now is join in the good mood, enjoying this moment to the fullest, but you want one last grounding moment with Sebastian before you do that. So you pull him to the kitchen, away from the rowdy residents, and ask once again how did this happen.

"I taught them Dancing Queen because I thought it was fitting of the mood."

"I'm not asking about this!!"

Sebastian smiles at you, gently tucking your hair behind your ear.

"Do you remember what you wished for, last night when you blew the candles?"

The memory floods your mind at once, all confetti and the sound of several people singing you Happy Birthday. They quite literally bombarded you with wishes, compliments, telling you how big of a sunshine you are, how you're the most cheerful and bubbly person they know. In the heat of the moment, you said you wish they could all feel how happy you truly are in this moment. You wished it could stay like that forever; all smiles and fun and games.

You gasp.

"Am I… infectious?!"

"I'm afraid you are. Look around you. My dear, your sunshine syndrome could reach faraway kingdoms and melt the heart of any cold-blooded prince, turn the ruthless tiger into a playful little kitten. This is how you are."

"S-Sebas!! This could be very bad, what about-"

"Let's not think about the future. Things are amazing the way they are right now. We have to live in the moment."

"Sebas!!"

"You and I won't be doing any chores today. Or tomorrow for that matter. Or the day after. We should focus on enjoying life and partying."

"THE MANSION IS GOING TO CRUMBLE TO DUST!!"

***

"My dear, are you alright? Just what kind of dreams are you having? Why is the mansion going to crumble to dust?"

You wake up to Sebastian caressing your face, trying to shake off your dreams. Your…dreams?!

"Sebas… oh my god…"

"Was it a nightmare? It's over now." Sebastian leans down and places a kiss on your forehead, before standing to his feet. "You can lounge around for a little longer, but come to the kitchen when you're ready. It might be your birthday but we still have a long day ahead of us!"

You rub your closed eyes, still finding it hard not to mix dreams with reality. You're almost glad to see him so much… like himself, even if it means doing chores with him again. "Mm, I'll be there in fifteen minutes…"

"I'm supposed to keep this a secret, but… I want to be selfish and see your surprised and happy face while we're still alone. The residents all promised to come to breakfast today, and even help preparing it!"

You blink.

No.

This can't be.

"…Could we sing too?"

"Perhaps we can. If our masters are feeling up to it."

"YAAY!"

Taglist: @arsnovacadenza @kimi00twin @g-kleran @thesirenwashere @devonares @galaxyprison @starshards26 @thewitchofbooks @acethephoenix256 @ikevamp-shrine-2 @nad-zeta @crystal13unny @lordsister @ikemen-banshou   @themysticalbeing @otome-scribbles @rhodolitesrose @coornn @kpop-and-otome @queen-dahlia @kisara-16 @chaosangel767 @ikemenlibrary @queengiuliettafirstlady @aurora-morning @ikemenlover24 @mcofthemansion @joy-the-reader @katriniac @ikemen-writer @tele86 @lovely-bubb1es @aria-chikage @babyblue0t7 @rhodoliteschaos @shrimpy-kitsune @nightghoul381 @xbalayage @lucyw260 @kittygrimm88 @lokis-laugh @natimiles @completelyshatteredbrokenmschf @groovylita @justpeachyteastea Let me know if you want to be tagged/untagged!

[queen-of-deans-booty]

Thin Lizzie: Part Two

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.4k

Warnings: canon angst and violence, extra angst, feeling broken and utterly helpless to the point of depression

Summary: What you think is a routine ghost case turns out to be much more. Amara is back and she is planning something but you're not sure what it is. You know one thing for sure: you might be in danger and are at risk of becoming the one thing you fear: the Scarlet Witch.

Season Eleven Masterlist

Author’s Note: For the sake of this rewrite, we're all going to pretend that the Lizzie Borden House is located in St. Louis.

x

Sam and Dean take the bags to a room that is unlike anything you've ever seen. Flowers. Flowers... everywhere. The wallpaper, the bed sheets and blanket, the carpet, and even the upholstery of the chairs. It's like someone's grandma was the interior decorator.

"I don't know where to put my eyes. I think I'm gonna throw up," Dean says. "We're surrounded by doilies. They're everywhere. You'd think the innkeeper might have mentioned this before he ripped us off."

"I guess you're gonna have to get yourself another room because this was Lizzie's original room and I'm not giving it up."

"What are you, four?"

Sam grabs his EMF reader and turns it on. Noise comes from the small box and it lights up like crazy. Dean walks into the bathroom to check it out while you stay by the door, unsure of how to help. I feel useless. Why am I even here? You hate thinking these thoughts and wish they'd stop, but you don't know how to get better. You don't know where to start.

"Look at that. That jives with what people online have been saying about the upstairs--crying in empty rooms, footsteps, and buzzing lights." Sam walks into the closet and the EMf reader immediately stops. "No secret panels or passageways in the closet."

Dean walks out of the bathroom. "The world's smallest bathroom is clean." Dean scrunches his nose in disgust. "What is that smell?"

"I think it's this." Sam holds up an old-timey perfume bottle with a squeeze pump. "It's like lavender toilet water."

"Bottled toilet water?" Sam squeezes the pump several times and Dean looks at him like he's crazy. "Why do you keep spraying it?"

"I just wanted to see of the squeezy thing worked." You can't help the snicker that escapes your mouth. You look away but Dean sees the smile on your face. It's been a long time since he's seen that smile of yours and it's beautiful. "I think it was supposed to be a perfume or something."

"I think Y/N and I are gonna go check downstairs because now I've got grandma all over me. Come on, sweetheart."

Just like that, the moment has passed. You leave the room and follow Dean back downstairs where the Lizzie Borden memorabilia are.

"It's been a while since I've seen that smile of yours."

"Yeah," you sigh.

"So, now that I have a moment alone with you, and after some time thinking about it, I wanted to talk to you about that were-pyre case we had last month."

"What about it?"

Dean stops right in front of you and tucks a strand behind your hair.

"Sweetheart, you were shot. You nearly died. You have magic that can heal you and you didn't use it. You haven't used magic since you got your soul back."

"I don't know how to anymore," you whisper. "I'm afraid of turning back into her if I do."

"That will only happen if you lose your soul, and that's not going to happen."

"Something in me is broken, and I don't know how to fix it."

Suddenly, the lights start flickering on and off, interrupting the very touching moment. Dean rolls a chair over to the chandelier that is flickering so he can check if the bulbs are loose. He taps the side of the lamp when a flash of white pops up. You walk over to the window to see where the source of the light is coming from when it happens again. There is a man with an old-looking camera that is used by draping a cloth over the person's head so they can take the picture that way. You knock on the window which startles the man.

"Hey!" The man grabs his camera and runs off clumsily without another word. You roll your eyes and look at Dean who shrugs. "I don't think this place is haunted."

"Me either."

Dean returns the chair to where he found it before you two head back to the room. He rummages through the drawers as if he's looking for something and even moves the dresser back to peer behind it. He laughs and reaches down to grab something back there. He holds up a machine that looks like a remote of some sort. He presses a button and the lights inside the room start to flicker. He sets the box down and starts taking the room apart piece by piece. There is a picture of Lizzie on the wall that when removed shows a gaping hole where a speaker is. He reaches in and pulls out a recording device--on it are sounds of crying women and other noises.

"What fucking frauds," Dean scoffs.

Just then, Sam walks into the room.

"No Lizzie in the attic, but I did find a homemade EMF generator. I turned that beast off and what do you know? No more signal."

"Shocker." Dean holds up the remote for the lights. "The flickering lights are just wired to timers either buried in the wall or behind dressers." He walks to the hole in the wall and points to it. "Pictures are covering up our very own sound system. I fished this out of the wall."

He plays the recording of the crying woman.

"Crying in empty rooms," Sam scoffs.

"There's more like running footsteps and creepy whispers you can't make out. The whole place is a hoax, man. It's a tourist trap just like I said."

"Yeah, but we still don't know how the couple got axed. I mean, how did the killer get in and out?"

"I don't know. Why don't we Sherlock that over a beer or something and a lobster roll. I got to get out of this doily coffin."

You three don't get to enjoy your meal for very long because shortly after you leave, Mason's mother is killed. The police are already on the scene when you arrive back at the inn, and they let you in when they see your badges.

"Detective Madsen? Agent Collins."

"You weren't Feds earlier!" Mason exclaims.

"My partners and I were undercover investigating the original murders."

"Where the hell were you when my mom was being... Oh," Mason cries.

"I'm so very sorry, Mr. Kemper."

"We're gonna find the son of bitch who is doing this," the detective says. You look at Dean who is off to the side using his EMF reader but it's not going off. Whatever or whoever did this wasn't a ghost. "He had just finished locking up. No one was inside but him and Mrs. Kemper. The staff went home hours ago."

"You don't have any suspects for the first murders?"

The Detective shakes his head just as Dean appears. 

"Listen, I saw a guy hanging around earlier snapping some photos, and he ran away when I tried to make contact," you say.

"Let me guess. Short. Chunky. Baby faced?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, that's Len. Total teddy bear. I went to high school with him. He's obsessed with ghosts but harmless."

"Ghosts? Is that a real issue around here?"

"According to the Chamber of Commerce, absolutely. I'll send an officer to Len and get a statement from him."

"You know what? You got your hands full. We'll drop by."

"Okay, thanks."

You three leave and get into the car after getting the address from the detective. Dean pulls onto the road and starts the short drive to Len's house.

"So far we got squat that says ghost or anything remotely us."

"Maybe it's not our usual kind of gig. Maybe we're dealing with a serial killer?"

"You'd love that, wouldn't you?"

Sam rolls his eyes and his phone rings.

"Agent Collins," he answers.

"This is Detective Madsen. There's been another victim."

"Another victim? Really?"

"It was an accident in the next county. I'm there now."

"Thanks for letting us know." He hangs up and looks at his brother. "There's another axe victim. This one is miles from the B&B."

"Lizzie left home."

"Apparently. I'll take the crime scene. You two take Len."

Dean does a one-eighty and heads to the newest crime scene to drop Sam off. You take his spot in the front seat and Dean drives over to Len's house.

"Okay, what do you mean you're broken?" Dean asks, remembering your last conversation before you were interrupted. "You're not broken."

"I don't know, Dean." You sigh. "I feel like how I felt when I first discovered magic. I want to use it. I wanted to heal you and myself. I wanted to take that spell out of Castiel, but every time I think about using magic, I lock up. I'm terrified of hurting people with it."

"That's exactly why you'll never be her again." You look at Dean with tears in your eyes. "You'll find your way again. I know you will."

I'm not so sure this time. Dean arrives at Len's house and manages to get inside Len's house after asking one question about Lizzie Borden. Len is eager to talk about her and loves that someone came to his house to ask him questions. It's a one-story house but it's completely filled with Lizzie items. There's even an entire mannequin of her that looks homemade, no doubt done by Len himself.

"I didn't expect to see her here," you say about the mannequin.

"Well, gotta live your bliss."

"Boy, you are a Lizzie Borden... I don't think fan covers it."

"That's superfan and curator."

"What were you doing that night I caught you at the B&B? Curating?" you ask. Len stutters as he tries to think of an answer. "Len, it's best just to go with the truth here."

"I was trying to get a picture of Lizzie's ghost," he sighs.

"Is that what I saw you with?" you ask and point to his antique camera.

"Yeah, it's what the Victorians used for spirit photography."

"Uh-huh. Have you captured any Caspers on that thing?" Dean asks.

"I've seen Lizzie at her house. She's this wispy, gray shadow, but she never shows up on film. Maybe I should go high-def."

"Why not go inside?"

"I'm not exactly allowed at the inn anymore. There's a minor restraining order, and there's a gag order not to talk about the restraining order but you two are Federal Agents."

"Tell us about the restraining order."

"It was Lizzie's 155th birthday and I couldn't get Lizzie's room, so I stayed in the basement for a couple of days." You raise an eyebrow at him like how a mother would to her child. "Weeks! I wasn't bothering anybody."

"So, it's safe to say that you know the inn pretty well?" Len nods. "Let me ask you, did anything about tonight strike you as weird?"

"Just her banging on the window." A noise comes from Len's computer on the table and he groans in annoyance. "Oh God, no. I'm supposed to lead a live chat about the axe murders in St. Louis. I'm not Lizzie CNN!"

"Yeah, I don't know why anyone would think that," Dean says sarcastically.

"I'll close it down. Be right back."

While Len is busy, you decide to take a look around the place out of curiosity. There are a bunch of magazines and newspapers on the table but something underneath them all catches your eye. You grab the envelope that is sticking out from underneath all the shit, and your heart drops ten feet into your stomach. The Mark of Cain is etched onto the back of a blank envelope, and you turn to Dean with wide eyes.

"Dean, look." Dean's face hardens at the thought of this being yet another ploy for the Darkness. "Amara is everywhere. We can't... I can't escape her."

You both turn to see Len standing right behind you with his eyes wide with fear. Dean takes the envelope from you and shows the Mark of Cain to him.

"Where did you see this?"

"A site about ghosts? The paranormal?"

"Len, you might be the worst liar I've ever met. Tell me where you've seen this symbol." Dean walks toward Len who backs away in fear. "I could just take you down to the station and ask you there, but then we'd have to involve the local police and your restraining order."

"Okay!" Len sighs. "I was outside Lizzie's house a couple of nights ago trying to catch a picture of her. I saw this young woman... girl... standing by the window looking in. She was curious about Lizzie and her parents, but something wasn't right. I walked closer to her and noticed that mark on her collarbone." You touch the spot where your Mark was and close your eyes in pain at the memory of having it. "She said Lizzie definitely hacked her parents because she had serial killer eyes. I ditched her quickly after that."

"You didn't call the police?" you ask.

"Did you not hear me earlier? Restraining order? What was I supposed to say? I was hanging out talking murder with a little twelve-year-old girl in the middle of the night."

"What did this girl look like?" you ask.

"I don't know. A girl. Her name is Amara." You can't help the sob that comes out of your mouth. You cover your mouth and turn away from the men. "Do you know her?"

"You said she was twelve?"

"Maybe a little younger or older. Who is she?"

"She's a runaway. Do you know where Amara is now? Is she still in town?"

"I don't know. Why are you looking for her?"

"We're not at liberty to discuss that."

"You have to tell me. Please. I need to find her!"

"Why?" you ask.

"You won't believe me."

"Try us."

"Before I could leave, she grabbed my face. I don't know what she did, but she sucked something white out of my body. I haven't been the same since. I can't eat or sleep. I don't dream. All the things I used to love like my Lizzie blog and the ghost conventions leave me cold. I put this whole collection on eBay last night. Now it belongs to some machinist in Ohio."

"What about superfan, curator living the bliss?" Dean asks.

"I'm just playing the part of what I used to be. You know, fake it til you make it or in my case, feel it."

"Is that what you were doing at the inn tonight? Faking it?"

"No. I was looking for Amara. I want her to put me back. I've always been odd and quirky, but I had a life and friends. I remember how to talk to people and what to say, but I feel like I'm acting and going through the motions. I'm like a robot puppet man."

You look at Dean with a horrified look on your face. Amara is sucking out people's souls. That's what's happening to Len. He's soulless because she was able to grab his face and suck his soul out easily. You look down at your hands with pure terror on your face because your fear of becoming like her again is now a very real chance. If Amara sucks out your soul, you'll end up becoming the Scarlet Witch and you know for a fact you won't be able to come back after that.

x

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[weeb-polls-with-pip]

Autistic Anime Boys Prelims - Propaganda Division - Group 7

Propaganda:

Ash -

"he just has those vibes ya know?"

Charce -

"Has a very hard time understanding the emotions of others along with his own emotions. Others claim that he acts in a very strange way before it's confirmed that most of the things others thought were weird of him were either because it had to do with biology, his special interest, or it was him acting like how he thinks normal people act when he doesn't understand the way neurotypical people act in the slightest."

Setsuna -

"recent scientific developments find that autism might just be stored in the hair."

Nicol -

"A constantly expressionless boy who does not show his feelings, Nicol is quiet and tends to be distrustful. He is fiercely protective of his sister, and though his pretty face makes him popular, he resents that it means that those outside of his friend circle only see him for his looks."

Galo -

"HIS SPECIAL INTEREST LITERALLY HELPED HIM SAVE THE EARTH FROM EXPLODING!!! HE STOPPED MID FIGHT ON TOP OF A BURNING HIGH RISE BUILDING TO SHOW A TRIO OF ARSONISTS A PROJECTOR POWER POINT PRESENTATION OF EDO PERIOD FIREFIGHTING!!!! HE COULDN'T PILOT THE ORIGINAL DESIGN OF A GIANT ROBOT BECAUSE IT DIDN'T LOOK COOL AND HE COULDN'T JIVE WITH IT! AND ON TOP OF EVERYTHING HIS REACTIONS AND MANNERISMS TO FRUSTRATING SITUATIONS (ANGRILY SHAKING HIS HAIR WITH HIS HANDS AND RUNNING OFF IN A SITUATION THAT UPSET HIM IN A MANNER AKIN TO SENSORY OVERLOAD, COMBINED WITH HIM ESCAPING TO A QUIET AND COLD PLACE WITH LITTLE TO NO OUTSIDE STIMULUS TO CHILL OUT) PLUS HIS INCREDIBLY BLUNT WAY OF THINKING AND ODD MANNER IN SOCIAL SITUATIONS!!!!! THIS IS PEAK AUTISM! THE AUTISTIC ANIME BOY WITH A BURNING SOUL!"

Yuuji -

"The entire manga is about the mc moving to a new school and getting helped out by Yugami and then being like 'hey who is that guy' and all her classmates are like 'oh that's Yugami. He sucks.' And then she's like 'oh how sad everyone's bullying this guy :( I bet he's actually rlly nice since he helped me out' and then she tries to interact with him and. No actually he just sucks. The title is a reference to the fact that. He flat out refuses to make friends. People try a lot and he just rejects them. He's the ace of the baseball team but everyone hates his guts, INCLUDING his battery partner, who is just. Totally exasperated all the time. Anyways Yugami has a special interest in rakugou and will just. Recite rakugou. He does it in order to calm himself down during baseball games and everyone's like 'what.' He also jumps interests quite a bit? But every time he gets OBSESSED. There was a period where he was obsessed with building furniture. He cannot read social cues and he does not care. Like at all. He really likes structure! He makes a list every day of all the things he has to do and then checks them off. They have a school festival and he goes to every single exhibit. Just to check them off his list. Not even an actual visit. He pops in and immediately leaves. Someone will talk about some relationship issue and he's like 'just like in [rakugou].'"

Yasutora -

"People think he’s intimidating, but he’s one of the kindest characters in the show! He comes across as having a fairly flat affect with few expressions, and he’s often misinterpreted as being scary by others who don’t know him. He used to be aggressive, but chose to never fight unless protecting someone due to his abuelo’s influence, and I think he’s a low empathy flat affect icon!"

Taiyou -

"He befriends the main character through the power of autism (being completely unaware of the social cues telling him to avoid her and being extremely straightforward when complimenting her). He’s able to inadvertently twist any conversation by misinterpreting what people say, often taking things literally. The idea that someone doesn’t like this girl just Does Not Compute in his head. He’s astoundingly hyperempathetic, just the idea that he may have hurt someone made him burst into tears; and yet he seems to have difficulty reading other people’s emotions. And he has no sense of personal space at all. He’s a sweetheart and he makes up for every shitty “neurotypical person proves how nice they are by befriending the autistic person” trope."

Kai -

"I don’t think I can explain this in a convincing manner, but trust me it makes sense. For an (ex)assassin he is so bad a lying, he brings up details no one was talking about and ends up getting himself into trouble because of it. This is a massive spoiler, but I do think it’s really important to the point; during the first main game the cast are discussing the kitchen incident and whether or not Kai actually threatened Nao, causing her to attack Sou. During which they ask the question why? Why would Kai want Nao to do that, what would he get out of it? They eventually come to the conclusion that it’s because he was trying to steal the computer that Sou had found, and this immediately dooms Kai to his unfortunate fate. But the only reason they are able to get there is because Kai himself says ‘to steal something perhaps?’ when being questioned why he’d have it out for Sou. At that point it’s not even being bad a lying, there was no attempt to lie there he just said what happens in front of everyone and doomed himself. I love him but he’s not always the wisest. There’s something about even the main character thinking openly that he’s a bit weird. One of his first lines after being introduced is him worrying about the laundry he left hanging outside. They’ve been kidnapped and put in a death game and he’s worried about laundry. There something relatable about his limited facial expressions. His face doesn’t really change much unless he’s showing really big emotions, which makes him come across as really aloof and mysterious. The classic ’are you okay? you look sad’ face. Kai also won the most autistic Yttd character - excluding Gin- poll, so there’s that."

Albedo -

"Poor boy does NOT know how to be social with people and spends most of his time drawing stuff on a freezing mountain so he can avoid any kind of social interaction. Also he eats spiders and it's funny."

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

Hello, it's ok to send another Nimloth ask? Since you were the one remembering me that Galadriel and Celeborn WERE married before the second Kinslaying (for some reason i thought that they got married later ... ): do you have some hc about Nimloth's relationship with Galadriel? Or with her uncle and aunt in general? I think that's interesting that Dior and Nimloth marriage got mentioned in the same line where we're told about Galadriel and Celeborn's one!

YES IT'S ABSOLUTELY OK TO SEND ANOTHER NIMLOTH ASK. and now that you mention it, tolkien didn't have to say that celeborn was married to galadriel when bringing up nimloth's relation to him. he could have just stopped at "nimloth, kinswoman of celeborn." hmmmm. realistically he might have just wanted to give readers a reminder of celeborn's position in relation to other major characters in the verse, but i say this is my excuse to hc that nimloth and galadriel are close!

so tangent here that'll be relevant when i talk about my thoughts on their relationship: i fully subscribe to the, ahem, non-teleporno version of galadriel's history (though i do like the name alatariel very much). imo in that version there's reasonable room to argue -- and is something christopher tolkien stated is a natural enough assumption, i believe -- that galadriel was present in doriath during the second kinslaying. in my books she doesn't stick around with elwing in the havens of sirion, but she alongside celeborn do help elwing and the other iathrim refugees escape menegroth and ruins of doriath.

anyway back to nimloth and galadriel. my hc as i mention in one of my earlier nimloth hc posts is that nimloth was born around the time construction of nargothrond and gondolin was completed, so ~f.a. 102-116. that means she's younger than galadriel by a significant margin, and in fact the house of finarfin has already been well settled in doriath by the time of her birth. nimloth and galadriel's earliest meetings happened when nimloth, still a pretty young child, visited and stayed in doriath with her parents. i don't see galadriel as someone who likes kids that much, so there wasn't too much meaningful interaction between them at that time. celeborn did love to dote on his niece though, so galadriel spent more time around young nimloth than she would have most children. and nimloth was one of those super friendly and inquisitive kids, so while galadriel would sometimes come away from interactions with her feeling a bit drained by her enthusiasm, she was definitely fond of nimloth!

they become a lot more meaningfully close when nimloth gets older and enters her late teen / early adult years. she has the same competitive drive that galadriel has, and she loves to learn and try new things. she's also diligent and hardworking -- all things galadriel finds endearing about her -- and has a very academic streak, which jives well with galadriel too. they spend lots of time together, one-on-one or with others (celeborn, melian, luthien, etc.), when they're both present in doriath. nimloth, for her part, admires how knowledgeable and competent her aunt is. i like to imagine she learned a good bit from galadriel! maybe some enchantments, and maybe about the history of ea and arda. nimloth doesn't go out of her way to learn about aman or valinor, as she's not super interested in the west, but she does pick up some tidbits of knowledge about it, and about the valar, while listening to her aunt. they also spar together, and nimloth -- who really loves hunting -- drags galadriel along on hunting trips. (galadriel doesn't dislike hunting, it's just not on her list of 'best ways to have fun' like it is for nimloth. she does enjoy the opportunity to spend time with her niece, though.)

last hc is that galadriel definitely recognizes that nimloth has ambitions, and is not at all surprised when she and dior step up to the task as the new ruling couple of doriath despite the difficult odds. she's one of the people nimloth turns to for advice during her tenure as queen. and while she's worried for her niece -- they first met when nimloth was a child after all -- she's also proud to see how well nimloth fills the role of one of doriath's two highest-ranking people in such difficult circumstances. galadriel having one of those "they grow up so fast" moments anyone?

anddddd you know since we talked once about how celrond parallels dior/nimloth... maybe galadriel got a sense of deja vu as she watched her silver-haired daughter take the hand of a dark-haired peredhel...

[whyohwhydoris]

Silver(hand) is the new Black(hand)

I'm going to get the glaring hole at the heart of this idea out of the way first: How does our Johnny know about the dog tags? I don't know. Although, it also feels weird that the tags and other stuff are still there anyway, after 54 years. But, it is none the less and obvious flaw in my theory. Anyway: In Cyberpunk 2077, we end up with Rockerboy par excellence, Nightcity's very own Don Quixote, the one and only Johnny Silverhand, chippin' in to our very own brain stack. He might be very much plugged, but he's still got all the raw edge of MTV's most famous acoustic set. But, we also know that our Johnny isn't the Johnny.

See, we know that the real Johnny was in the Arasaka basement - at the original Mikoshi, basically. We know he got shredded by Adam Smasher's shotgun. We know he was left there by Spider and Rogue and the rest as they fled. We know the building was dropped on him, and that his body was hauled out by full cyborg firefighter Samantha Stevens. And, we know that body eventually was eventually given to Angel (Who is strongly suspected to be a clone of Alt uploaded with her soul-killed consciousness.)

Which is really awkward, because the story we see from our Johnny shows him up top, planting the nuke. Show him fighting Smasher. Show him getting recovered - alive - by Arasaka, and soul-killed by the emperor himself. And that just doesn't jive. Because, rockerboy thorn in their side or not, Johnny never meant shit to Arasaka.

But, do you know who might have meant something to them? The greatest Solo to ever live: Morgan Blackhand. The Solo's Solo.

So, here's what I'm thinking: the core of our Johnny is Morgan Blackhand. See, I think Arasaka is trying to take the next step with soulkiller - something that Nightcorp is doing to Jefferson Peralez - the ability to re-write the human soul. It's the next arms race, the next corpo war. The ability to control entire puppet empires. Because that's who wants Relic - the rich and powerful. They need to be soulkilled to do it too. So, what if you can reliably re-write them in the background?

What if the general in some army gets a great deal on the protect your soul program? He doesn't know the way it works. No, instead, he goes into an Arasaka clinic, gets soulkilled, has his own consciousness immediately reuploaded, and goes home. All the while, Arasaka gets to work, tweaking the backup. Changing this or that. Extracting important info. And then, one day, when they're done - they assassinate the original, and flash their sleeper agent back in their place. But, why Morgan and Johnny? Well, they have a solid copy of Blackhand from when they dragged him out of the tower. And they know Alt is out there - is a threat. So, they start to do something really big. They try to graft Johnny on to Blackhand using all the records they have. Bootlegs of concerts, news reports, 'Saka intel after they klepped the original Alt. They use their latest security records - why he's suddenly got long black hair for years, even though he was blond for so long. See, the project wasn't finished. The personality is so radical because that's who Johnny was in his music and his manifestos.

And that's why Yorinobu wanted it. He needed proof that Saburo was going to re-write everyone. He needed to be able to show others exactly what they were facing, if he was going to topple the old-man once and for all. Because Yorinobu is no saint, but he sure isn't satan himself either.

And I think that's why Alt doesn't care about anything other than trashing Mikoshi - destroying that perversion. She won't make things worse for us. But she doesn't care to help. Because Johnny isn't Johnny, and we're just another gear in the machine.

For me, I think the big thing is that, to me as a player and to my V as a person, it doesn't matter. Because it's our Johnny. And my V loves her Johnny. It's a little like the end of Ghost in the Shell, when project 2501 and the Major merge. They become something more. Something greater. That's my V and her Johnny.

I'll need to revisit this and really flesh out some parts of it, but it feels somehow right to me. There's a lot of details swirling in my brain case for this one.

[twoidiotwriters1]

Almighty (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)

A/N: We love a mature love interest -Danny Words: 2,600 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter // Next Chapter Listen to: 'Feels Like' -by Gracie Abrams

XLI: Lester My Man, You're Scaring the Hoes

"The Throne of Memory, we need it now!" Lester exclaims while Peaches carries in Meg. "Calypso—Notepad?"

"Got it!"

"Stay with me, Meg, you're among friends now. You're in the Throne of Mnemosyne. Speak your prophecy!"

Meg opens her mouth, an oracle voice coming out smoothly.

The words that memory wrought are set to fire,

Ere new moon rises o'er the Devil's Mount.

The changeling lord shall face a challenge dire,

Till bodies fill the Tiber beyond count.

"Oh, no," Lester winces. "No, no, no."

"What?" Leo asks.

"We're going to need a bigger notepad."

"Surely the prophecy's done—"

Yet southward must the sun now trace its course,

Through mazes dark to lands of scorching death

To find the master of the swift white horse

And wrest from him the crossword speaker's breath.

To westward palace must the Lester go;

Demeter's daughter finds her ancient roots.

The cloven guide alone the way does know,

To walk the path in thine own enemy's boots.

When three are known and Tiber reached alive,

'Tis only then Apollo starts to jive.

Meg slumps forward and Lester holds her, shaking like a leaf.

"What was that? Buy one prophecy, get three free? That was a lot of lines." Leo scoffs.

"It was a sonnet. May the gods help us; it was a Shakespearean sonnet."

"That was all one poem?" Thalia frowns. "But it had four different sections."

"Yes. The sonnet conveys only the most elaborate prophecies, with multiple moving parts. None of them good, I fear. We will parse our doom later. We should let Meg rest—" Lester collapses next to the girl suddenly, having run out of energy.

"I'm sorry about Festus..."

Leo grins. "Nah, man. I can put him back together easy enough. I redesigned him so he's like a Lego kit, built for quick assembly!"

Lester nudges her discretely and speaks in a whisper. "Did you tell him what happened at the cave?"

"Yeah," Ara sighs. "He's made his decision. And it's fine, really. He's right, trying to foresee what the right choice is, that's exactly why Janus had so much fun harassing me all these years. You can't opt out of heartache."

Lester hums, eyeing her carefully. "So what now?"

"Now I gotta figure out my new body settings. I still feel like sleeping, but I don't know what will happen if I do. What if I wake up in Olympus? Or worse, what if I combust and die?"

"Many humans have turned into gods," Lester says simply. "You'll be fine."

"You have no empathy towards my issue," she says and continues before he can deny it, "I get it, it feels unfair to you. Just don't try to comfort me, you won't do it right. Not even I know what I'm sad about, I'm having trouble recalling what I lost."

During the funeral rituals for Heloise the griffin, Ara stands with Thalia, needing to speak with someone who might know what she's feeling. "When you became a hunter," she says, "weren't you scared about the whole immortality bit?"

Thalia chuckles. "To be honest, no. I've got no hopes of living long either way, you know?"

Ara looks at her, now taller than the hunter. "I was twelve when I met you, now we're the same age. You've done well so far, so why not consider you might live a few centuries?"

Thalia puts an arm around her shoulders. "To me, you're always going to be a kid, just like Percy. Immortality doesn't change how I feel, it only messes up time, which is something I was already used to since I was a tree for years."

Ara sighs. "Right."

"I'm sorry I can't help you, Birdy," Thalia says empathetically.

"It's almost like you were fated to be where you are," she shakes her head. "I don't feel that way. I feel used."

Thalia raises a brow. "Ara, whether the gods tricked you into it or not, you do good in the world, and it doesn't matter how it came to be."

"I guess," her voice cracks, "I just wish I hadn't been stripped of my own sense of self in order to do so. I'm not Ara anymore."

Thalia hugs her. "You've never been anything other than who you've always been, you just haven't gotten the time to get to know your new body, but trust me—If you weren't you, Leo wouldn't have looked at you the way he did after you fought Commodus."

"My moms told me you might be my dad," Georgie says, staring at Lester's shoes.

"I—I might be, Georgina," Lester blushes down to his neck. "I don't know."

"'Kay. Made this for you. You can take it with you when you go away."

She hands him a doll made with pipe cleaners. "Thank you. Georgina, if you ever need me, if you ever want to talk—"

"No, I'm good." 

Lester is slightly hurt as the girl runs back into Jo's arms. Ara pats his shoulder. "Don't take it personally. If my dad—" her voice catches in the word. "If my progenitor had shown up claiming to be part of my life... that's just stupid. A parent looks after you when you're vulnerable, not when you're old enough to not need them."

"Those visions in the cave... you met your dad?"

"Must've been primal memories," Ara frowns. "From the day he left me at the orphanage."

"But you know his face now, you could—"

"He's dead." Saying it out loud feels like taking off the heaviest winter coat. "Killed by one of you."

"A god?"

"He died within the day of abandoning me—not a chance of vindication for that guy... his car stopped working."

Lester scowls. "Well, it must've been Aphrodite."

"She would've told me," Ara shakes her head. "I mean, why wouldn't she? A man who rejects her gifts isn't worthy anymore."

"Who, then?"

"Maybe he pissed off someone else on the way, maybe the fates kill off the parents of abandoned demigods. Thalia's mom died after she gave away Jason..."

"So he's dead."

"Yeah..." And then she sniffs, crying softly.

Lester stiffens. "I'm sorry..."

"I'm happy," Ara admits, "I've feared for years that one day he'd try to take me away from my parents and I wouldn't be able to say no because I'm underage..." she sobs. "I was scared of a man that didn't even care enough to feel anything towards me... I get it now, why I cling to my title."

"You don't wanna feel like your father was right," Lester concludes, deeply understanding her. "That you were a curse."

"Now I find out he's been dead all along, that giving me away was a mistake..." She crumbles and clings to Lester, who wraps his arms around her, slightly shocked. "I think knowing would've been enough."

The Waystation is packed with cheery-looking people, even Meg and Lester look that way. Even Ara.

"Okay," says Calypso. "We've interpreted some of these lines, but we need your help, Apollo. Maybe you could start by telling us what happened at the Cave of Trophonius."

Meg is quick to hand over the responsibility. "Don't remember much. You two go ahead." 

Lester and Ara take turns talking.

"I don't mind the Oracle being destroyed, but I worry about Georgie. She's always felt connected to that place. And Agamethus... she likes him a lot." Emmie says.

"The last thing I want is to cause more pain to Georgina. I think, though, the destruction of the cave was necessary. Not just for us. But for her. It may free her to move forward."

"We cannot remain," Ara adds. "Agamethus told you that the other day, didn't he? You told me that."

Lester remembers. "True. Maybe he was ready for this." 

"All right, then," Jo continues. "About the prophecy..."

"The first stanza mentions the new moon," Thalia comments.

"Time limit," Leo sighs, draping one arm around Ara's shoulders. "Always a dang time limit."

"But the next new moon is in only five nights," the hunter frowns.

"Bodies filling up the Tiber," Emmie quotes, "I assume the Tiber refers to the Little Tiber, the barrier of Camp Jupiter in California."

"Yeah. The changeling lord... that's gotta be our homeboy Frank Zhang. And the Devil's Mount, that's Mount Diablo, right near the camp. I hate Mount Diablo. Ara and I fought Enchiladas there once."

"I got hit by lightning," Ara winces. "Not fun."

Jo glances at them with concern. "So the demigods of New Rome are about to be attacked."

"I believe the first stanza is all of a piece. It mentions the words that memory wrought. Ella the harpy is at Camp Jupiter, using her photographic memory to reconstruct the lost books of the Cumaean Sybil. The details aren't important right now. My guess is that the Triumvirate means to eliminate the threat by burning down the camp. The words that memory wrought are set to fire." Lester explains.

Calypso scowls. "Five days. How do we warn them in time? All our means of communication are down."

"We gotta send someone," Ara replies. "Can't be the hunters, they'll attract attention. That without mentioning they've done too much for us already."

"Damn right," Leo nods at the girl. "You've done enough for us, T."

Thalia glances at Ara with a little grin. "All in a day's work, guys. But you do owe me a bottle of the Texas hot sauce you were telling me about, Valdez."

"That can be arranged," Leo smirks.

"Well and good, but we're left with the same dilemma. How do we get a message to California in five days?"

"Me," Leo declares casually.

"Leo," Calypso shakes her head. "It took us six weeks just to get here from New York."

"Yeah, but with four passengers. And... no offense, one of them was a former god who was attracting us all kinds of negative attention and had no means to deal with it. Ara and I were dragging your butts until you got your magic back. I'll be fine."

Everyone looks at Ara like waiting for the bomb to explode, but instead, she smiles. "You sure you got this?"

"I travel fast and light," he taps the table with eager digits. "I've covered that much distance before by myself. I can do it."

"I believe you," Ara says. "But you told Lester you wanted an easy life..."

"I'll just enroll late for the spring semester! Cal can help me catch up. Besides, it'll be good to see Hazel and Frank again. And Reyna, too, though that girl still scares me."

"I love Reyna," Ara says, maybe too fancifully, because Leo glances at her with a scowl.

"Yeah, well," he reaches for a piece of her hair and tugs to regain her attention. "My point is, I've got plenty of time to start that life. You guys don't."

Lester sighs heavily. "No, we really don't."

"So we've got one stanza figured out. Yippee," Thalia puts away her knife. "What about the rest?"

"I'm afraid the rest is about Meg and me."

"Yep," Meg nods while still eating. "Pass the biscuits?"

Josephine gives her the entire basket. "So the line about the sun going southward, that's you, Apollo."

"Obviously. The third emperor must be somewhere in the American Southwest, in a land of scorching death. We get there through mazes—"

"The Labyrinth," Meg offers.

Ara groans. "I hate that place. I don't care how dormant Chiron thinks it is."

"We must find the crossword speaker," Lester insists. "I believe that refers to the Erythraean Sybil, another ancient Oracle. I... I don't remember much about her—"

"Surprise," Meg taunts him.

"But she was known to issue her prophecies in acrostics—word puzzles."

"Sounds bad. Annabeth told me how she met the Sphinx in the Labyrinth once. Riddles, mazes, puzzles... No thanks. Give me something I can shoot."

"I remember the Sphinx," Ara tilts her head. "Whiny."

"And the third emperor? Do you know who it is?" Emmie questions.

"Meg," Lester looks at the girl. "what about the line Demeter's daughter finds her ancient roots? Do you have any family in the Southwest? Do you remember ever going there before?"

Meg hesitates a millisecond before replying. "Nah."

Lester and Ara share a knowing look. "Hey, though," Leo pipes in. "That next line, The cloven guide alone the way does know. That means you get a satyr? They're guides, aren't they, like Coach Hedge was? That's, like, their thing."

"True," Jo nods. "But we haven't seen a satyr in these parts since—"

"Decades," Emmie sighs.

"I'll find us one," Meg burps.

"How?" Lester frowns.

"Just will."

"I wouldn't mind a satyr. My friend Grover is one," Ara ponders. "Haven't seen him in months..."

"That just leaves the closing couplet: When three are known and Tiber reached alive, / 'Tis only then Apollo starts to jive." Calypso reads again.

Leo wiggles in his seat doing a funny dance. "About time, man. Lester needs more jive."

"Hmph." Lester adopts a haughty expression. "I believe those lines mean we will soon know the identity of all three emperors. Once our next quest is complete in the Southwest, Meg and I can travel to Camp Jupiter, reaching the Tiber alive. Then, I hope, I can find the path back to my former glory."

"By... jive talkin'," Leo sings out of tune.

"Shut up," Lester grumbles.

Leo and Ara watch the hunters from the rooftop as they leave, riding the army of ostriches.

"Man, this never gets old," the boy grins, leaning against her. "By the way, you know Lester has a crush on you, right?"

Ara snorts so hard she coughs. "Yeah, right," she glances down at the aforementioned, currently bickering with Meg as they return to the Waystation. "He can't stand me."

"He can't stand how nervous you make him," Leo retorts. "Trust me, that guy is hanging by a thread."

"His soul light ignites for others."

"I said he's got a crush, not that he's happy about it," the boy clarifies. "Soul lights only show people's positive emotions. I wasn't happy to be crazy about you after like a day of knowing you. You saw mine until I gave in."

Ara shifts in her place uncomfortably. "Is that why you volunteered to travel to Camp Jupiter? To make sure I'm not left alone with Lester for long?"

"Nah, it's never gonna happen between you two," he laughs. "He's all spectacle and you're all substance. He would fizzle out the moment he tried to touch you."

Ara blushes. "Don't be dumb..."

"Reyna, on the other hand," he raises his voice teasingly, turning sideways against the railing to face her. "That's a conversation we gotta have out. I don't see no soul lights, but I practically heard you moan her name."

The girl gets even redder. "Leo!"

"Listen, I won't hate if you tell me you feel some kind of way about her. I also love a girl that can step on me, Ripley from Alien could get it—"

"Leo!"

"I just feel like... like you're no longer mine to keep. And if you feel more in tune with her than with me... I just... I want to know."

Ara stares at him, shocked but not angry. "Are you serious?" 

"About 90%."

She doesn't even know what to answer. "Just because I'm... whatever I am, doesn't mean I suddenly developed an interest in dating multiple people at the same time!"

"Yeah, no, but I don't know, I feel like I'm hoarding too much real state that needs more than one person to look after it—"

"Are you calling me property right now?" 

"I'm calling you a freaking goddess on earth," Leo huffs, "who is worth so much more than I can offer. I won't give you up, but if you... if you feel like you want something better, or different, I—"

"Leónidas," Ara holds his face. "Yes, I have a crush on Reyna, but this is crazy talk."

"You're only saying that because you haven't settled into power yet," he grumbles through a pout. "Let it simmer and see if you're still happy having me as your only partner."

"You're crazy. But I knew that since the start." She kisses his nose. "I can't believe Lester sent you spiralling like this—We've been dating for more than a year, Cracker."

"Technically, it's been nine months. I went missing for six."

"You were my boyfriend, weren't you?"

"Was I?"

"Duh."

That's a good enough response for Leo, so he kisses her.

Next Chapter –>

Taglist.

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[billpottsismygf]

Rogue

Oh wow, I have some complex feelings to work through with this one. Up front, really fun idea and very funny script and performances. There were quite a few moments that had me laughing out loud (the shed, the OK exchange) and I love the whole set up of these aliens who want to cosplay as humans in the regency era. It also connects nicely with Rogue's love of DND. I feel like I might have missed something when they seemed to know that the Duchess was a Chuldur, but I'll see if I catch that on rewatch or not.

As always, I adore Ncuti here. He's so funny and charming as the Doctor, but I particularly loved that we got to see his darker side here. It was only a glimpse, but that line about 600 years being a long time to suffer was quite chilling and very reminiscent of the "he was being kind" speech from Family of Blood. Indeed, it is quite a ruthless end for the Chuldur! They're sent to a random "barren" different dimension! It reminds me quite a bit of the relocation gun from Rosa and how much it was shown to be one of the worst things you could do to someone (and Ryan uses it on the white supremacist guy). Brutal!

Ruby and the Doctor didn't get to spend much time together this episode, which is a shame because we haven't seen all that much of them together for three episodes in a row now. I can't help but think it's a sad consequence of the tiny episode run that we barely get to see this Doctor and companion interact, so although I loved the Doctor calling her his best friend, and I especially loved her giving him a hug at the end and making him deal with his emotions, I don't feel that connection as much as I'd like to. Equally, when he's devastated to think she's been killed, it would have hit so much harder if we'd seen them build up a real relationship. They have a lot of natural chemistry, so you still very much believe them as best friends, but it feels like we're missing a bit of the depth there.

Okay, now, the romance! I was quite apprehensive about this one because it looked like there might be something going on between the Doctor and Rogue, and that was further fueled by a comment Millie Gibson made in an interview about this episode showing a different side of the Doctor. The reason that made me apprehensive is entirely down to my personal preference, which is that I like it when the Doctor is more a-spec. As it turned out, this episode managed to be both better and worse than I worried. Better in that it was beautifully acted, had fantastic chemistry, and I loved the scandalous gay dancing (very reminiscent of the Torchwood episode Captain Jack Harkness). Worse in that it wasn't just something happening to the Doctor, that he's swept up in, but instead something he's actively pursuing.

Again, this is entirely down to my personal preference for the Doctor's characterisation, but the way that this pushes further than other instances of romance/kissing/etc. upsets me a little. It reminded me somewhat of The Girl in the Fireplace in places - inviting him to see the stars; the tragic ending - but the difference with that one is that she kisses him. I don't know, it's a relatively small distinction but one that matters to me. The Doctor has had romances before, and the more overt they are the more I dislike them (eg. all the River Song stuff), and nowhere has the Doctor more actively flirted with someone new, expressed attraction to them numerous times and deliberately kissed them than here.

On the other hand, it's very gay and I have to like it at least a little for that. It gives us a more obviously queer Doctor than Thirteen and Yaz and they had a whole arc! (Not to bash Thirteen and Yaz; I actually quite liked how that went down in the end, but again that's due to my preference for an a-spec Doctor, which jived very nicely with Thasmin.) Obviously, this doesn't invalidate any readings of the Doctor as aro and/or ace, especially as that can mean many different things, but it messes with my personal view of the Doctor's sexuality, and how I prefer them to be portrayed. For me, if the Doctor is going to participate in sex or romance, I'd rather it be understated and uncertain or unintended from the Doctor's end. Now I know what to expect from this one, I may become desensitized to it with time and enjoy it more for its merits. Still, I can't change the fact that it's just fundamentally not what I want from Doctor Who the character.

Misc

I love that the battle mode for the earrings came back. I wondered if it would when it was first mentioned, then promptly forgot about it entirely.

The comparisons between Rogue and Captain Jack Harkness are obviously numerous, and it's very funny to me that Jack would definitely be pissed off that he lost out on kissing the Doctor like that to someone who was basically a carbon copy of him.

More singing, since people are taking note of that. Love a bit of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!

I was cringing a bit while the Doctor was dancing to Kylie, but also glad he got to do that after the Master has had several camp pop dancing moments.

Speaking of Kylie, I wonder if the Doctor has ever noticed her uncanny resemblance to Astrid Peth.

We got a nice little flashback with Carla telling him to keep Ruby safe as well, which reminded me a lot of Jackie.

The faces of the Doctor's various incarnations looked a little strange. I couldn't actually tell who some of them were meant to be. Am I crazy or was one of them Richard E Grant, like from Scream of the Shalka (and the Great Intelligence)?

I said this already in another post, but it was dedicated to William Russell and I criiiiiied!

[randomthefox]

Why do some people dislike the characterization from Frontiers?

They will say stuff like:

"But Amy already shares love with the world! It doesn't make sense for this moment to be sad!"

Me: You don't get it. Amy is going to be own hero and not rely on Sonic entirely anymore. She will help and heal others, even if that means she won't see Sonic that much anymore.

"Knuckles HAS been off of his island to do fun things! It doesn't make sense!"

Me: You don't get it. He's struggling between duty, and happiness. How can you live your own life and not be selfish? He is the last of his kind, but does that mean he won't get the chance to live how he wants? This next chapter for Knuckles is going to be interesting.

"Tails did stuff on his own! He defeated Chaos and Eggman! It doesn't make any sense!"

Me: You don't get it. Tails is going to find out what he'll be without Sonic. He called himself a "burden" to his best friend; now he needs to find the confidence to let go of that pain by proving to himself he is amazing. Overcome the fear of failure he had in Forces, and realize he isn't a "side kick" but a best friend who is the coolest. He is going to find out who to be without Sonic, because there might be a day....when his best friend won't be there.

But nope. SEGA and Sonic Team and IIzuka are stupid. They wouldn't put ANY god damn thought into the story and characters, right? Why do they think this? BECAUSE THEY DON'T GET IT.

Yeah honestly the complaints about the writing in Frontiers always seem really stupid to me. Like they're inventing things to complain about for lack of anything genuine that's bad about it.

I can understand not really jiving with the way Frontiers is handling its story. The game is very slow paced and dialog heavy and introspective, it's characters mostly just talking about their feelings. If that's boring to you I totally get that. If you prefer the more story light and action oriented plots of Sonic Heroes or Sonic Colors, or if you prefer the more theme focused stories of Sonic Adventure and Adventure 2, or if you'd rather be along a roller coaster that's more about the situation the characters are in like with the storybook games or Sonic Forces, or if you're more down for the vibes of an experience like you get out of Sonic Unleashed. Then that's totally fair.

Personally I'm up for whatever Sonic wants to do regardless of what it is lol. And Frontiers being more navel gazing and dialog oriented is something I can be very engaged by. If it doesn't engage you then I get that - we all have different tastes. But when you say it isn't a matter of taste and start acting like the writing of the story itself is lacking, that's when I'm gonna be holding your reasoning to scrutiny and often the complaints about Frontiers do not hold up under that scrutiny.

Amy and Tails's character stories in Frontiers are about them wanting to set out on their own and figure out how to define themselves separately from Sonic. And you can't really argue against the fact that they're both very much satellite characters who are defined almost entirely by their relationship with Sonic. Realizing due to the experience of cyberspace that they kind of don't like that about themselves and wanting to strike out on their own to figure out who they are when Sonic isn't in the room seems like a reasonable character conflict to explore from where I'm sitting.

Knuckles' story as far as I'm concerned is addressing a hole that has existed with his character ever since the ending of Sonic Adventure, where his story concluded with him deciding ignorance was bliss and he was content with just living as a guardian for the master emerald without getting embroiled in the wider world around him. There was never really a direct in text explanation for why he's going and running around doing stuff with Sonic instead of guarding the master emerald after that. You could argue that them finally addressing that is too little too late but I say better late than never.

You could nitpick by saying that Tails and Amy spend PLENTY of time on their own without Sonic around so realistically this shouldn't be a question they're burdened by and that Knuckles obviously DOES leave his island to go on adventures so having him address the limitations of his guardian duty is a moot point. Obviously it's very meta writing, it's the characters sort of confronting their narrative roles rather than acting like three dimensional individuals who continue to exist whenever the camera isn't looking at them. But since when has being meta automatically been a bad thing? Sonic has always been meta from the very beginning. And going in a different direction with the narrative to have the characters confronting the way they're conventionally written as an in universe attribute of their characterization is a fun experiment for them to take to coincide with a video game that is experimenting with a new system of gameplay.

If that experiment didn't really work out for you, then that's okay

But that isn't a problem with the story.

[the-crystal-one]

Nicest Kids In Town

~Chapter 6~ As Sandra gained her detention for the day, this time for her hair being...rather larger than life, she gazed out of the dirty windows in the dimly lit hallways. She never did understand why blacks were seen as 'inferior' and whites were supposedly better. Heck. She could think of a few great examples where that logic fell through, but that was neither here nor there. When she finally reached the detention room, down the hall where the 'assistant principle's' office was, she heard a rather familiar voice.

"Yes do you know where I might find her?" A smooth, animated like voice echoed against the walls. Saucy's eyes grew to the size of dinner saucers, Corny! She couldn't believe he was here...why was he here?! Her hair had been picked to perfection yet she could not shake the feeling of embarrassment she was developing. Not embarrassed of her afro, that was never the case, embarrassed because she knew it was seen as unkept so people would stare. That. That is what she was embarrassed about. She quickly ducked into the detention room, her back against the door as her chest heaved with...joy? Excitement? Fear? She couldn't pinpoint it exactly but if she had to pick, it might be all three. "Why you all shaken up Saucy?" Her big headed little brother chuckled as he grooved to the jams on the radio. She shook her head, taking her seat at the "teacher's" desk. She tapped her nail along with the instruments.

"Sandra?" The melodic voice traveled to her ears causing her head to the door, seeing...Corny. "Mr.Co- Corny." She stood up from her seat, dusting her her dress off, "What brings you here? Oh you must be looking for Amber or Tracey, they are on the other side of the-" He quickly shakes his head, "No no, I'm actually here for you. I wanted to talk to you but I couldn't wait until the show. I hope that's alright." He grabbed her hand, looking into her eyes

Sandra couldn't believe it. He actually wanted to see her. "Well I- I don't mind at all, what is it that you need from me?" The man started but in walked Link Larkin and Tracey Turnblad, having their own little conversation. "You didn't have to do that, Link." He shrugged his shoulders as if it wasn't a big deal, "Hey, no prob." He surveyed the room, watching all of the teenagers dance and jive to the tunes, "Besides, looks like a cool scene down here." Saucy decided to hold off on the conversation and slowly but surely, let go of the man in front of her, walking over to Tracey and embracing her, "Hey Trace, I'm startin' to think you like coming to see us in here." They both giggled in sync and broke the hug. The bell rang and Seaweed, with Penny right behind him, "Listen, man, you ain't gotta stop now." As he spoke, Saucy made her way back to Corny, "How about you come with us? My ma is having a little get together at the store, I don't think she'd mind." A smile grew across his face accompanied with a nod, "I'd appreciate that very much Ms.Stubbs." Corny grabbed the eldest Stubbs' hand, laying a gentle kiss on the back of it.

Apparently, as Saucy was getting her groove on with Mr.Collins, Link, Penny, and Tracey had also been invited to this funky shindig, but if anything Link was worried about their neighborhood. Penny and Tracey on the other had were elated!

"I've never been to North Avenue before," Link scratched the back of his neck nervously, "Uh, well, would it be safe?" Sandra couldn't help but chuckle at him, she wondered if he knew that's how they felt everyday. Seaweed looked over at his sister, looking Corny up and down before smirking, "San, tell cracker boy to calm down. He ain't got nothin' to worry about." Saucy walked over to the blue vest wearing boy and pat him on the shoulder, "It's all cool, y'all will be just fine."

Right next to them, Penny made her way towards Tracey, a wide grin plastered across her doll like cheeks, "Wow! Being invited places by colored people!" The black and white haired girl reciprocated her friends emotions, "It feels so hip!" They squealed in excitement while Saucy and Seaweed gave each other a look as if they were communicating to one another. The boy started, "I'm glad y'all feel that way," His sister wrapped an arm around his shoulder, "'Cause, uh, not many people do, y'all know what I'm sayin'?" She turned her head around to her peers, the people she's know since childhood. Each and everyone of them were different, her brother included, yet to white people they were one in the same.

They all lifted their heads or nodded along, a strew of, "Yeah that's right." "Mhm!" "Don't we know it"'s rang through the class room. Saucy shook her head, turning back to their caucasian counter parts as her brother began, "Heeeeeeey! I can't see why people look at me and only see the color of my face!" Saucy nodded along with him patting him on the shoulder while stepping in front of him then extending her pointer finger up to the air, "Ah yeah, and then there's those who try to help God knows, but always have to put me in my place." She slid next to her brother so they could both address the group, "But we won't ask you to be color blind," They began to shuffle along the floor, feet tapping rhythmically. Sandra didn't notice it yet, but Corny's eyes hadn't let her since she began talking, how could he? The girl was just so..enchanting, but he also knew her and her brother's word were true. "Cause if you pick up the fruit child, you're sure to fiiiind." "The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice." Seaweed leaned his head on Saucy's shoulder in a playful manner, as if he wasn't speaking the truth, "I could say it ain't so but darlin' what's the use?"

Saucy jokingly pushed Seaweed off of her, now finally making eye contact with Corny, "The darker the chocolate, the richer the taste." She left him with a wink before returning to her sibling as the spoke together, "And that's where it's at! Now baby run and teeell that." The students behind the waved at them like church mothers do at the end of a Sunday server, "Run and tell that!" The began walking out of the class room because they knew in fact this conversation was going to take them longer than they had, "Hey, yeaaaah!" Seaweed strutted down the hallway, knowing that no one but the janitors was here. "I can't see why people disagree, Each time I tell em' what I know is true, oh no," Saucy turned around, grabbing Corny's hand, pulling him along with her as her brother broke in once again, "And if you come and se the world I'm from, I bet your heart is gonna feel it tooooo!"

Tracey began shimmying along with Seaweed while Link and Penny stood back, taking in all of the information being given to them.

Seaweed, turned to face Trace, his new found friend of many differences, yet she did not view him any different than her. "I could lie but baby, let's be bold, vanilla can be nice but if the truth be told!"

Saucy broke away from Corny, her brother embracing his sister as she addressed everyone, "Blacker the berry! The sweeter the juice!" The children began running out of the double doors, out to the "grassy" area where the bus came to pick them and Saucy began to shuffle in the grass, "I could say it ain't so but darlin', what's the use?" The Stubbs boy had made his way over to the slightly taller red haired girl, gazing up at her with a look all too familiar to Saucy, "The darker the chocolate, the richer the taste!" Saucy rolled her eyes, grabbing her brother by the collar, yanking him back towards her. Not because she disapproved of what he was doing, heck, she was on the same boat as him, but she didn't what him to get hurt, like she was fixin' to do. "And that's where it's at! Oh baby, baby, run and teeeelll that." Once again, the response was echoed amongst the teens who pranced around, right along with Saucy and Seaweed.

Finally they had arrived to the bus stop waiting patiently, still engaging in such a riveting conversation, in Sandra's opinion. From her peripheral vision, a brown skinned girl bouncing over to the two of them, the youngest Stubbs sibling. In the back ground, Amber Von Tussle could be heard yelling, "Link! Link Larkin!" Yet it was not acknowledged, not even by Link himself.

"Oh y'all this is our sister, Little Inez, say hey baby." Sandra kissed her sister on the top of her head, smoothing out her bangs then letting her go. "Mr.Collins? What are you- Hey! I know Tracey Turnblad! Good for you girl you got on the show!" Seaweed patted her on the back as Tracey pipped up, "Well you better be next!" Inez's head got a little higher as she thought about it, Saucy knew that she'd been dreaming of the day she could dance for a real audience, she just hoped she'd be there to see it.

"Ya got that right!" Seaweed broke in and ushered everyone to back up, all but Saucy moved because she knew exactly what was about to happen and she couldn't help but jump in. "You better show em' girl!" The eldest sibling got into ready stance, waiting for her sister to lead the way as the other began to form in the back of them.

"I'm tired of coverin' up all my pride!" Inez began to move in a way, not even Tracey had seen before, she was amazed! "So give me five on the black hand side!" "I got a new way of movin' and I got my own voice!" "So how can I help but to shout and rejoice!" Inez grabbed her siblings' hands, bouncing about like a rubber ball that had been shot out of a football stadium, passionately speaking, "Oh the people 'round here can barely pay their rent! Then try to make a dollar outta, fifteen cents!" The bus had pulled up and opened its doors, all of them including Link, Tracey, Penny, and Corny hopped on, intently listening to the young girl, "But we got a spirit money just can't buy, It's deep as a river and soars to the sky, to the sky!" They hadn't even taken their seats because of how excited they all were. Saucy help onto the chair back, stabling herself as she made eye-contact with suit wearing man in front of her, "Hey! I can't see the reason it can't be the kinda world where we all get our chance!"

"The time is now! So we can show 'em how, so turn the music up and let's all dance! " In this moment, Sandra took this opportunity to sit neck to Corny, her hand now on top of his and a soft grin on her face, "Cause all things are equal when it comes to love." Seaweed's hand came down on his sister's shoulder, startling her as his head came between her and the slick haired man next to her, "Well that ain't quiet true, when push comes to shove!" "The black the berry! The sweeter the juice! They say it so but darlin' what's the use. The darker the chocolate, The richer the taste!"

Seaweed grooved his way towards Penny, gyrating and shimmying in all the right ways that caught her attention. "And that's where it's at! Now baby, baby, baby, run and telllll that!" ~As the bus went through the suburban neighborhood, the scenery began to change significantly from wide houses, to tall apartment buildings that look like they have been in use for a while. Men, women, children, heck even dogs were out on the streets, dancing, singing, laughing, or just having a grand ol' time~ One by one they all filed out, some going home, some prancing to the store, others staying right there. As Seaweed hoped out of the bus, he gave Johnny some skin and began making his way to Penny Pingleton. Slowly, he took her blowpop out of her mouth, winking at her and putting a two fingered kiss on her lips as she fell back from excitement. Tracey and Link looked at one another before quickly rushing to her aide.

[konigsblog]

Ma’am, thank you for the part 2 of Yandere Ghost 🫶🏻 👁️👄👁️

Am wondering, would this be part of a series or one-shots? 🥺

this is gonna be a series but im planning on making a few one-shots + headcannons!

yandere ghost x singer!f!reader

warnings: yandere behaviour, violence; gun wounds, stab wounds, simon is an abusive yandere when you misbehave, being chained and tied up, love bombing, reader does not like simon, and never will throughout this series (unless i make a separate oneshot about reader liking simon, but it won't be apart of the series.)

masterlist

-simon riley, is a yandere who lovebombs on you, he isn't clingy but makes it his goal to get you to love him, yet fails and fails.

you know this, you know what he's doing. ever since the day he met you, it seemed that he was obsessed. addicted to you. all the words that came out his mouth gave you shivers up and down your spine.

when you woke up, cuddled into him forcefully, you knew that your suspicions were right. you couldn't help but slightly blame yourself. would you have been better if you told someone? told security for another bodyguard? even throughout the guilt you felt for yourself, you made it your goal never to like him.

-punishments. oh boy, he has a list of them. from forcing you to kiss him, to cutting you up and breaking your nose. it mattered on the severity of your actions.

cried when he touched you? you're being forced to sit on his lap and kiss him, "be a good girl.' he whispered, low and husky in your ear as disgust filled your veins.

to attempted escaping, that would result in a more severe punishments. smashing your head against a wall, making sure to not go too hard so he could keep you as his pet, his doll.

you remember once, you slapped him, harder than you'd ever. you tried to kick him in the balls but he caught your leg and turned you around as he smashed your head against a wall. the blunt force causing blood to rush up your throat as you threw up blood. the ruby colour liquid dripping down your face and staining the wall. a reminder to watch your tone.

-i see him not calling you human. maybe he'd call you a doll, or his puppy, or his toy. why? if you were human you would be considered equal, and you are not equal to him.

depending on your attitude, he might lock you in a cage. forcing dog food down your throat, holding your mouth closed so you wouldn't be able to throw it back up. "if you vomit, i'll force you to eat your vomit."

he might drug you up, so you're nice and calm. or atleast calm enough not to feel him touching you up.

-thinking back to the day you first tried to escape. the pain you felt was nothing compared to the pain you felt as he shot two gun wounds in your fathers skull, and stabbed your mother countless times. forcing you to watch everything.

"stop, please! take me instead, please simon!" you begged, the guilt you felt afterwards. parts of you blamed yourself, you should've told someone, why didn't you? maybe simon thought you liked him like this? or maybe he just likes to see you suffer. "no, pet. you're mine."

-he loves seeing you cry, in a way it turns him on. he knows he's evil, he's not delusional. he wants you to be scared, scared enough to morph you into his toy.

you fight back against this, making sure never to fall that far. you know he wants this, you know what he wants, and you will never listen.

who knows? maybe one day he'll realise that there's no hope, or maybe he'll start to love how resistant you are.

-he'd let you call his friends, you could beg to them, "help me, simon kidnapped me. i need your help." but it's hopeless, they're friendship with simon matters more than whatever you're complaining about, it falls to deafs ears.

@lauraliisa

@bittersw33t-lotus

@thedevillovesflowers

@thriving-n-jiving

@kiruoris

@radishdoodles

[ripplestitchskein]

Brace yourselves Stolitz fans, I think it’s gonna get bumpy. We kind of already knew that but I think it might go longer than we hoped?

So last night I shared my Stolitz pic with my DnD group, I’m doing art for their characters and we have an art space in our game discord and a few of them watch Hazbin and HB. An IRL friend who is also an HB fan asked about the OC in the pic and I shared it was based on the rumor that Stolas is getting a new boyfriend, they could be a parrot potentially voiced by Harvey Guillen but that this was not confirmed or anything. He said “HMMMM that jives with what her assistant told us.”

I’m like “What! Tell me. “

I guess while waiting in line for her to sign for the person in front of them at Mega they were chatting with an assistant and said they loved Look My Way and were interested in where the Stolas and Blitzø story was going. The assistant said they had seen the rest of Season 2 and “You may not love the way it goes if you like the coupling”.

I spiraled immediately, like full on upset. Bitch I cried. I’ve spent hours analyzing this cartoon and that broke me a bit. I’m not necessarily concerned with my ships being “endgame”, I’ve shipped lots of couples that rarely interact just for interesting dynamics. Or couples where one half is literally dead in canon, where they are mortal enemies and not in an enemies to lovers way etc. It just seemed so final and is contradictory to everything the show has setup so far and what I’ve been enjoying about the show and it really fucked me up if I’m honest. I also have a really bad brain though and I know this. I’m not equipped to rationally think about it.

I hesitated to even share what was said because I dislike bumming anyone out but as a speculation and spoiler goblin I’d also like people to share with me so I can prepare myself?

Ive had some time to sit and process and cope a bit “is that information really that different than what we have already?” And the short answer is no, not really. It’s also like their job to tease fans. It was also one sentence I didn’t even actually hear with my own ears lol. My brain just did what it does and took it to the worst place. I took it as “they are killing it completely” and are about to destroy the only reason I enjoy this show so much. Which maaaaay have been an over reaction but I can’t like, help that.

I just honestly cannot fathom how they could so sharply pivot at this point and have it make sense? I can’t fathom why they even would. I don’t even know what role Stolas could possibly have in that scenario. I think that was what upset me the most, Stolas is my favorite and his entire character within the world of the show is completely dependent on his ties to Blitzø to be part of the narrative because he has no ties to IMP outside of it. The idea of him being shelved, even temporarily, is upsetting to me. The show so far is not setup to view characters lives outside of Blitzø and IMP so I can’t see them having Stolas go off and do his own thing without removing him from the narrative completely.

I’m just sad about it and I think I’m putting too much thought into it. Maybe they just meant what we’ve thought all along and that we wouldn’t be happy because of the boyfriend character, and as I’ve said before the split up absolutely has to happen for them to reconcile and come back together. It is actually a good thing story wise for that to happen but the phrasing (though second hand) just depressed the fuck out of me so I wanted to vent a bit and maybe get some outside perspective from people who’s brains work better than mine. It’s possible this is a situation where i know a thing “Stolas is getting a new boyfriend” because I am terminally online and gobble up every like react and ambiguous emoji and assign meaning to it, and the assistant was just talking about that same information assuming my friend didn’t know that (he didn’t) but because I already knew it I’m assigning new meaning to it as if it’s additional different information. That’s a distinct possibility.

Even if it’s the worst case scenario, I’m not a hate watcher, if I don’t like the direction something is going I bitch a bit in mourning and then remove myself completely. So I’ll see how it plays out and see if it makes sense narratively. Maybe I’ll love the direction, who knows. If it what’s we originally speculated based on the narrative setup so far, the boyfriend character is a catalyst to help Blitzø reconcile his feelings and to let Stolas do his own healing and character development but it all that leads to the completion of the story they’ve been telling up to this point that’s perfect. If it leads to less Stolas and a completely different direction than what we’ve spent 1.5 seasons on so far, I don’t know how I would feel about that. I want it clear though I wouldn’t be mad at the creators, it’s their story they can do what they want, and I’m sure others will enjoy whatever they offer up but I personally would just quietly move on to something else.

I’m interested in how others view the response. Just a tease about the boyfriend, and thinking we’ll be unhappy because of that but ultimately it’s going how its been setup? Or should I break out my violin and start up “Nearer, my God, to thee”. I just really need some better brains to give me some perspective,

[thistle-caster]

POINTS AT YOU. TALK ABOUT VAMPIRE AU

- @transgenderfabianseacaster

OMG YES THANK YOU I WAS WAITING FOR AN EXCUSE

this got very long very quickly so I'll put a post break

still trying to figure out if this is alongside canon, pre-canon, or a secret third thing and just a complete divergence. kind of leaning towards pre-canon or divergence. either way though, I want to draw a bit from d&d mechanics and alter it! one of my big things is trying to change their race mechanics might get a little dicey, and there's a lot I'd want to preserve regarding their races. so we'd have to see.

as for characters and what I know abt them:

adaine hails from a legacy of vampires. she's one of the "rare" ones where vampirism is passed down through biological means rather than receiving the bite. her parents were ruthless. they did not care about the lives they harmed, and they tended to use violent means for their "prey."

adaine hates being a vampire. she has so many pent-up feelings towards having to drink others' blood, and she absolutely does not jive with the way her parents handle vampirism. since she was able to form her own opinions about it, she devoted herself to searching for a cure, which her parents are unsurprisingly not happy about.

kristen goes through a very similar arc as tracker did pre-canon, in that she gets kicked out of the house when she gets the bite, probably in her freshman year. in this au, really not sure if she'd be taken in by jawbone's family, all things considering, but instead the thistlespring family takes her in (gorgug & kristen are siblings. to me.)

riz gets the bite when he's investigating — penny luckstone perhaps, if we're keeping close to canon. he's out late when it happens. he doesn't even notice that much of a change in his schedule at first, considering that he doesn't sleep usually, but his endurance is shocking to him. he's able to stay up for multiple days at a time without issue, and he honestly can see more benefits than disadvantages.

I'm still on the fence about how gorgug gets turned. but I do feel like if it was a canon divergence it would probably be him turning shortly after his death. it takes a bit for the thistlesprings to take in what happened to him, but they do so much research for him. they make a binder for Vampirism that is significantly thicker than all the other binders they've made, and it's a hefty one. gorgug doesn't like the idea of drinking blood from someone who's just died, and the thistlesprings get him (and kristen too, once she moves in) a fridge specifically for blood pouches.

fig gets turned shortly after her horns come in, in her rebellious phase. it's a lot for her to adjust to. her body's changing in so many ways — it's already a lot to adjust to the fact that she's not a wood elf, but getting turned immediately after she realizes her dad's actually a devil? she doesn't really take it well at first, but eventually, similar to how she embraces being an archdevil, she embraces being a vampire too.

as mentioned, Fabian is an honorary vampire. he doesn't get turned, but he hangs out with the bad kids all the time. I just think it would be really funny if he adopted like 5 vampires in one night yk. I think he'd also potentially help the 5 of them find blood sources too

anyways YEAH sorry that was so long I hope you enjoyed though

[mamawasatesttube]

YJ all living in the same dorm/frat house in college would be amazing. What do you think everyone’s majors/clubs/athletics would be?

assuming this is still like... main universe-adjacent and they all still have powers etc. yknow i think cassie has a giant existential crisis because she doesn't know what she's gonna do with her life other than be wonder girl and that will NOT fly with her mom bc helena absolutely wants her to have a normal life as much as she can. late-night conversations at the kitchen counter where she confides that she has no idea what she wants to do and helena sits with her and tells her she has time but she does expect her to go to college and do something, even if she doesn't have to have it all figured out right yet. all of this to say i think cassie goes in undeclared. also i think she should be on the volleyball team.

tim in college is smth i was actually talking abt with moss and britta just the other day. he of course is an insane engineering major who skateboards to class with a naruto-themed energy drink in hand only to fall asleep there 14 minutes into the lecture. also he's wearing a blazer and formal shorts bc he's like I Am Getting A Good Grade In Presentable Student :) and theres just something wrong with him. he has to join an engineering student study group bc its the only thing that actually gets him to bother doing his homework even if hes a whiz at the actual content. hes a disaster but he cant drop out he wants to hang with his besties plus lucius was like listen you can work at WE r&d and tinker with shit to your heart's desire but you do need at least a bachelor's of mechanical engineering to do that even if i know you know your stuff. and tim was like well i guess that's fair :/ hey squad i can sugar daddy us an apartment near met u lets all get an education

kon... well i think he also has a crisis (see also: sotm) but eventually i do like him going into teaching or stuff with kids in general. im always bouncing btwn him being a childrens librarian or a high school biology teacher. he WILL tell all these kids about star trek or so help him god. i feel like he wouldn't really go for most athletics bc he'd be too worried about making sure he doesn't excel too unnaturally BUT just for me, i think he and bart should join the ballroom dance team together. i think they would have so much fun doing jive in particular

as for bart. well the thing about bart is that he could literally do anything he wants to? the real question is what subject would hold his attention consistently over several years. i think the answer is either computer science or theoretical physics. possibly both i think he might double major. he's also terrible at remembering to do his homework etc but he flies through it when he bothers to. and he and kon join the ballroom team together :)!!!

[blueikeproductions]

It’s looking like Pokémon Horizons might be coming to an end due to recent episode titles and the story finally seeing the Six Heroes come together.

Now I want to emphasize MIGHT, because I have no idea if it is, this is just me guessing based on trends I’ve seen other series do.

The story has been built entirely around Rakua, the Six Heroes, Terapagos and the freaky crystals of Rakua.

We have no indication as of typing they have concrete plans beyond Terapagos, with the Giga Leak only offering rough, but seemingly scrapped ideas they considered such as Friede joining the villains to find his long lost kid brother we never heard of.

So if HZ is ending, prematurely, in the final year of SV’s life span, what do you replace it with?

I think we all know where I’m going with this.

This might be Ash’s return.

It’s becoming undeniable fans aren’t jiving with HZ, with many rejecting the show, to the point PokeTubers who cover the anime have admitted covering it doesn’t give them views anymore. There’s still a huge demand for Ash to return, with recent Japanese fan art opting to instead focus on Team Rocket to celebrate the year of the snake over Gibeon and Zygarde. Western fans, in particular UK fans, have outright rejected LDR and have demanded Ash come back or else they aren’t watching anymore. Apparently the Giga Leaks also mentioned HZ is being written based only on fan reaction instead of truly focusing on the plot, something Ken Sugimori hates. Game Freak apparently didn’t want Ash to leave, with HZ originally intending to continue using him, until an anime staff member instead wanted to focus on Liko to give girls a role model. Now that is a good idea on paper but it means nothing if she’s given nothing to do and the show clearly struggled on what to do with her (Roy, Dot and the adult cast). I’m not asking for Jenny Wakeman or Kim Possible here, but a somewhat meek wallflower type wasn’t the best idea for a major character change if she isn’t going through decent, coherent character development to grow out of that.

So if the anime is scraping LDR in favor of going back to Ash & Team Rocket, what can they do for the remainder of the SV life span?

Realistically I don’t know. Speculatively on the other hand…

It would have to be an abridged version of the game’s events HZ skipped over, and HZ skipped over A LOT.

The games’ events are implied to have happened off screen, Arven (until the final school episode) and Kieran were both absent from the school and Kitakami mini arcs as are the professors, Okidogi’s group, and bike dragons. Team Star is also implied to have been dealt with off screen as recent as the Geeta episode, and I might be mistaken, but the robotic Paradox Pokémon haven’t appeared yet in story in favor of the prehistoric ones.

The solution seems pretty simple. Ash and Team Rocket swing by the school and enroll for their own reasons, Ash competes in the Tera class LDR did, but has a better go at it, and gets involved in fighting Team Star among other things. Notably his friend/roommate is Arven, and the two hang out a lot, explaining why he wasn’t around when Liko was there. Perhaps during LDR’s time, Ash and Arven were off helping his Mabosstiff or dealing with the four treasure Pokemon.

This is where the robotic Paradoxes come in, as they could be stand ins for Team Rocket’s mecha in this scenario. I’m sure at some point they’d find a way to Combine Iron Treads, Iron Hands, and a Meowth mecha to make a Paradox Meowth to mirror the Mega Meowth from XY.

Okidogi, Fezandipiti and Munkidori also feel like they’re made with Team Rocket in mind, and they’d be associated with them also in a Kitakami scheme, while Ash & Arven meet Kieran.

I’ve neglected contributing a female companion but I’m not sure who that’d be. Nemona, Iono and Penny are pretty heavily associated with LDR. and while they likely would meet Ash, I don’t see them contributing as much to his story officially. I feel like Raifort would be involved more heavily, but I don’t think she’d constantly be with Ash either unless she was also working for Giovanni. The simple answer would probably be Juliana, a return to the female player character traveling companion. The out there answer would be Poppy because I think that would be funny, and Ash would be shocked a kid younger than him is an Elite Four member. Now Poppy is also fairly involved with LDR, so she probably hangs out with Ash and Arven the most, but has to excuse herself when duty calls involving LDR.

Now what Pokemon would Ash have with him? I’m still partial to my fanon of Pikachu, Miraidon, Primeape, all three Paldean Tauros, Baxcaliber, Kilowattrel, Orthworm and Fuecoco.

I feel like the splitting of the difference would likely be Pikachu, Pidgeot, Charizard (or Lucario), leaving three slots open for Paldean Pokemon. Who those would be is a coin toss, but popular choices are Annihilape (evolved from his returning Primeape), Lokix, and Flamigo. Quaxly comes up a lot for the Starter pick, but I feel like that ship has sailed due to Dot.

Team Rocket is also a coin flip they’re either just using their old Pokemon like Ash possibly would or they just have brand new ones. Again I like my fanon of Scovillain, Oinkologne for Jessie and Grevard and Maushold for James, but what other Pokemon they’d have I’m not sure. I don’t think I’ve seen other fans speculate that much on Jessie and James, though I’m fairly certain I’ve seen Scream Tail brought up for Jessie before.

If they are ending LDR, and switching over to Ash to buy time and reignite interest in the anime makes sense. Gen 10 would either be a full return to Ash or another try with a new lead kid, but with how apathetic fans have become to LDR, I’m not sure if another brand new kid lead would make sense here…

[shadamyheadcanons]

Headcanon #292

Cross-posted on AO3.

So...I just finished the Zombot arc of the IDW comics. It’s incredible and heart-wrenching! Unfortunately, Shadow is...well, I’d heard he was bad in IDW thanks to Sega’s restrictive mandates on the character, but man, it hurts! Normally I just write him based on his best iterations, but this time, I wanted to see if I could make their dynamic work even while staying in-character with the worst. Something about Tails’ redemption in Frontiers working with his weakness in Forces--instead of pretending it didn’t happen and moving on, which is what many of us would’ve been content with--inspired me.

Spoilers through IDW issue #30. Also, I haven’t read any further than that, so this headcanon probably won’t fully jive with later issues.

--

Amy’s hand shook as she signed yet another piece of paperwork. She sighed and set it aside. Her heart stung as she looked back at the pile in front of her.

One hundred down, one thousand to go.

She gritted her teeth and picked up the next sheet. The words started to run together as she read. She shook her head and squinted past it to keep reading.

No time for complaining. If it needs to be done, I’ll do it.

She doggedly scanned the page, counting up the numbers and types of Wispons listed in their inventory and matching them up with any newly-recovered recruits they had available after the plague.

She heard whispering outside the door. She grumbled.

Great. A distraction. Just what I need.

Without lifting her head from her work, she snapped, “You know I can hear you, right? If you’re going to gossip, you might as well come in.”

A small, fluffy head peeked into her doorway, followed by a tiny blue Chao.

Amy’s shoulders relaxed a bit. “What is it, Cream?”

Cream shuffled fully into the room. She dug her toe shyly into the floor. “We’re just checking up on you, Amy. You’ve been in here an awfully long time.” Cheese nodded along.

Amy sighed. I don’t have time for this. “There’s a lot to get done, Cream. Even if there weren’t a ton of cleanup to do from the war and the plague, the Zetis are still out there. We can’t let our guard down.”

Cream started stroking one of her enormous ears, hiding halfway behind it as she protested. “But you haven’t left this room in days. You need to rest!”

Amy’s fingers tightened around the pen she was holding. She tried to go back to reading as she replied, “I don’t have a choice, Cream. We don’t have enough help. I’ll rest once things are under control, but I just can’t do that right now.”

She was forced to look up when Cream placed her hands on the desk, soft but insistent. “But...you have to!” Cream insisted, her face pained. “You need sleep, Amy!”

“I told you, I can’t!”

Cream flinched back, letting out a tiny whimper. Amy winced. She reached over the desk and took one of Cream’s hands. “Cream, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s just...between everything that’s been happening...almost losing everything...and...with Sonic being...”

Her words died in her throat.

Cream gently squeezed Amy’s hands in her own. “That’s why you need to rest, Amy!”

“No, Cream, that’s why I can’t!” Amy argued. “If I give up now, then everything Sonic was fighting for could fall apart. He ran and fought for all that time with that virus in his system! I can’t let his work go to waste.”

“But what about you, Amy?”

“What about me, Cream?!”

Before their argument could escalate further, the sounds of another dispute from outside the office met Amy’s ears.

“Oh, no. Not yet. Not when I just found you again.”

A surly voice grumbled something in reply.

Rouge stepped in through the doorway, dragging Shadow along with her by the arm. “Morning, girls. Hope you’re having as much fun as I am.”

Amy’s eyes lit up. “Shadow! I’m so glad to see you!”

Shadow just stared at her. “Why?”

She let out a breath of relief. “I heard about what happened in Sunset City. I was really worried about you.”

He immediately hunched up his shoulders. “I didn’t come here for sympathy.”

She remained silent for a moment, feeling more tiredness set in.

What happened to you?

She crossed her arms. “Well, I’m still glad to see you’re safe, whether you like it or not. So there.” She nodded firmly.

He glared at her for several seconds. Evidently unable to come up with an effective comeback to her odd brand of stubborn compassion, he just rolled his eyes. “Hmph.”

Rouge gave him an unimpressed look.

Amy shook her head. “Do you two need something?”

“We’re looking for Omega,” Rouge explained. “There isn’t a huge rush, but once G.U.N.’s back on their feet, I’m sure they’ll have a mission for us.”

“Sorry, Rouge, but I’m not the one to ask,” Amy replied, skimming the document in front of her. “Tails said he’ll get to rebuilding him once things are a little more under control. You’ll have to find him.”

Shadow growled. “I told you, if you’d just let me...”

“We’re not doing this again,” Rouge snapped. “You just recovered from the Metal Virus, and then you immediately snuck off alone and tried to fight Metal Sonic.”

Cream gasped. “By yourself?!”

Shadow’s mouth was set in a frustrated grimace. “Did anyone else notice Eggman was getting away? No. Was anyone else there to chase him down? No. It needed to be done. And if I could just try another approach--”

Amy felt her heart soften, seeing herself in Shadow. He must be so frustrated. This isn’t the right way of going about it, but...I do understand.

Apparently, Rouge disagreed. “And then what? You’ll do something reckless and get yourself hurt again? Shadow, do you have any idea how...” She trailed off and grimaced. “What about the rest of us? We need you! Think about someone else for a change!”

“UGH!” Amy cried. She rubbed her temples. “No offense, but if you guys are going to argue, then can you take it somewhere else? I can’t work like this.”

Rouge looked down at her. She cringed, though she still didn’t let go of Shadow. “Now that I look at you, Amy, you look terrible. You shouldn’t be working like this.”

“She hasn’t slept in days!” Cream blurted. “She needs to stop!”

Rouge’s eyes bugged out.

Shadow had been averting his gaze, but now she could feel his eyes on her, though they remained unreadable.

“What I need is some space,” Amy spat, tapping her pen against her desk. “Someone needs to do the paperwork on weapons distribution, and I’m the closest thing to a weapons expert the Restoration has right now.”

“What about Miss Whisper? Doesn’t she know a lot about Wispons?”

“I had to send Whisper to Spiral Hill Village to do cleanup with Tangle,” Amy explained, trying to be patient with Cream. “I can’t separate those two again. You saw the state she was in when we had to leave Tangle behind.”

She tried to go back to the forms, but Rouge’s smooth voice cut in. “What about Tails? He’s the tech guy, isn’t he?”

Amy’s fists clenched, and she gritted her teeth. “He’s working on tracking down the Zetis. Everyone else is off fighting, rebuilding, or doing search and rescue. There isn’t anyone. It has to be me right now.”

“Cream’s right, Amy. You can’t keep this up,” Rouge argued. “You’ll burn yourself out at this rate, and then you won’t be any help to anyone. You need--”

“What I NEED is some peace and quiet!” Amy snarled, glaring back and forth between Cream and Rouge. “I’ll never get this done with everyone bothering me like this.”

She’d just gone back to the forms when she was interrupted again--but this time, it was a lower, more calming voice.

“You want peace and quiet? I can provide that.”

Amy blinked up at Shadow in surprise. “Really?”

He nodded and wrenched his arm out of Rouge’s grasp so he could join Amy behind the desk. “If this has to get done, then it has to get done. I’ll bring you somewhere quiet.”

Rouge choked. “Shadow, you can’t just--”

“Yes I can. Didn’t you want me to ‘think about someone else for a change?’” he sneered.

Amy glanced from Cream’s worried eyes, to Rouge’s disapproving look--and then to the pile of papers. She gathered them up and smirked at Shadow. “You know what? That sounds like exactly what I need.”

He nodded and took her hand. Cream and Rouge balked.

“Amy--!”

“Shadow--!”

“CHAOS CONTROL!”

In a flash, the two hedgehogs were gone. Cream sighed, and Rouge held a hand to her forehead.

“What am I going to do with that guy?”

--

Amy blinked her eyes open. “Where are we?”

“My place.”

He released her hand to turn on the light, decreasing the intensity shortly thereafter with a dimmer switch. She gazed around at her unfamiliar surroundings and cocked her head in confusion. “Did you guys move...? I visited you one time, but I don’t recognize any of this.”

Strictly speaking, Rouge had invited Knuckles over, but he’d been too nervous to go alone. Amy had pulled Shadow into the kitchen to help bake a cake with her to give Rouge and Knuckles some privacy at one point, and she’d had a nice, low-key talk with Shadow while they did so. He’d actually asked her advice on something.

That really was a nice visit...but it’s been a long time since then.

“Rouge and Omega still live in the same place, but I moved out,” Shadow explained, kicking off his air shoes. “G.U.N.’s been sending me on more solo missions recently. They moved me closer to HQ.”

Amy started to pull off her boots, then stopped. “Wait...you live alone?”

“Yes.”

A pain made itself known in Amy’s chest. “Doesn’t that get lonely?”

“I’m fine on my own.” He started walking farther into the house.

She dropped her boots off and jogged after him. “Why would they need you to be closer for that? Can’t you just teleport whenever they need you?”

“You ask a lot of questions for someone who wants peace and quiet,” he pointed out. Amy laughed tiredly, unable to argue with that.

Shadow walked past a couch with clutter piled high on two of its three cushions. He stopped beside a nearby desk and picked up the laptop and cord from on top of it to make space. “You can work here.”

“Phew!” Amy dropped the stack of paperwork on the desk and flopped into the chair. She smiled up at him, tired but grateful. “Thank you, Shadow.”

He gave a curt nod and walked off.

Amy watched him go. Her ears drooped sadly.

Poor Shadow. He can say he’s fine all he wants, but...

Shadow sat down on the one available spot on the couch and opened up his laptop. His face was set in the stalwart scowl he’d been wearing recently, a far cry from the solemn but relaxed expression she was used to.

I know he’s hurting.

Amy sighed and returned to her work. Not much I can do to help, especially not right now. I need to make the most of this.

She was only two forms in, but her eyes were struggling to stay open. She shook it off and bit the inside her cheek, hoping the pain would help keep her alert.

“Here.”

Amy jumped at the deep voice over her shoulder. “Huh?”

Shadow was placing a mug next to her on the desk. “Coffee.”

She looked back and forth between him and the mug blearily, then brightened up. “Thanks, Shadow! This is exactly what I needed!”

He brushed it off as he walked back to the couch. “I was making some for myself anyway. It wasn’t any extra effort.”

“I still appreciate the thought!” she sang, unperturbed by his lack of response.

She sipped the beverage, sighing in relief as warmth seeped into her bones. He makes a mean cup of coffee, too! Has coffee always tasted this good?

She signed off on a few more pages. Despite the coffee, she felt a headache coming on. She squinted at the letters on the page. “Shadow, don’t you think it’s a little dim in here?”

“I don’t like bright lights.”

He didn’t elaborate further. She pursed her lips and looked around, frowning when she couldn’t find a lamp. Guess this is the best I’m gonna get. Well...beggars can’t be choosers, I guess.

She yawned and continued with her work. She almost nodded off a few times but managed to hold it together for a while longer.

Eventually, the sound of Shadow shifting and standing up to leave the room made her jump, cluing her in that she’d fallen halfway asleep. She shook her head and blinked her eyes wide open. Keep it together!

She’d just finished another sheet when she heard footsteps from her left. A tantalizing smell wafted in under her nose as a plate was placed on the desk next to the stack of papers. She looked up at Shadow, baffled. “What’s this?”

“Turkey. It was taking up space in my fridge, so you can have it.”

Her eyes went wide. He looked away and crossed his arms insistently. “I’m not gonna cook anything. Don’t expect anything else.”

Her responding smile was gentle. “I wouldn’t expect that. Thank you so much!”

He nodded and returned to his laptop. Amy started in on the turkey. Her tail wagged happily.

I had no idea how hungry I was! It’s only frozen turkey, but man, did I need this!

She tried to keep working, but her gaze kept drifting back to Shadow. She watched as he lit up some incense and left it on his coffee table. You were always quiet and serious, but you were never prickly back when I met you. You let me hug you. You listened. You weren’t afraid of letting people know you cared. Did G.U.N. do this to you?

Amy’s eyes burned in anger past their lids. Her grip on the pen tightened as she filled out another form.

If I ever catch wind that G.U.N. hurt you, that commander will have a date with my hammer.

Once her anger died down, however, Amy started to lose focus. The dim lighting and Shadow’s quiet keystrokes didn’t help, nor did the calming scent of lavender from his incense. The letters blurred. The pen left extra lines on the paper whenever she dozed off in the middle of writing something. It wasn’t long before her consciousness faded out, coffee be damned.

The last thing she registered was a feeling of weightlessness as someone lifted her from the stiff chair, reassuring her in a low, calming voice.

--

Amy’s eyelids fluttered open some time later. She blinked and rubbed them a few times, then stretched and took stock of her surroundings.

The bed she was lying in was soft but unfamiliar. A bit of light shone in from around the edges of the heavy curtains on the window, illuminating the warm black bedspread comfortably swaddling her as she gazed around a room she didn’t recognize. Books were piled on the nightstand. She idly basked in the relaxing scent on the pillows, trying to place where she knew it from...at least until she noticed the digital clock.

1:00.

Her eyes shot open.

One? One pm or am? What day is it?!

Amy burst out of the room and dashed in what she hoped was the direction of the front door. “SHAAADOOOWWW?!”

She skidded to a stop in the first room she’d entered the night before, but no one was seated on the couch. She stayed quiet as she scanned the area.

“Walk of shame, huh, Amy? Thought you had work to do.”

“Eep!”

Amy jumped in surprise and turned around to see Rouge sitting on the counter in the open kitchen behind her, legs crossed. She winked at Amy.

Amy sputtered and straightened out her dress, the same dress she’d been wearing last night. “I-I wasn’t--!”

Rouge chuckled. “Just a joke, Amy. If you’re gonna sneak off with the guy I’m trying to keep track of, the least you can do is let me have a little fun with it.”

Amy tensed up, suddenly embarrassed by the memory of their hasty departure. “Ah, riiiight...sorry, Rouge.”

She uncrossed her legs. “It’s not a big deal. I at least knew he wasn’t doing anything reckless if he was looking out for you.”

Amy smiled wryly. “So where is he?”

Rouge sighed. “Your guess is as good as mine. He already left,” she said, nodding to where hers and Amy’s boots sat alone by the door. Rouge stepped around the counter to join her. “He was gone when I got here. It was just you, looking awfully comfortable in his bed. Should I ask what happened last night?” She snickered.

“Nothing like...that!” Amy huffed and combed her fingers through her quills to straighten them out. “I was getting work done. He was nice enough to make me coffee and give me food, but I still fell asleep. He must’ve carried me to bed after that.” She sighed.

Rouge just stared at her, baffled. “Really?” Amy nodded. “Huh. He’s normally a terrible host.” She stepped back into the kitchen and picked up a bag of coffee grounds. “I gotta ask, though; why’d you ask for decaf when you wanted to stay awake?”

Amy stopped. “What?”

Rouge held up the bag to show her. “See? Decaf.”

Amy squinted at it. “I didn’t ask for coffee. He just made it for me. He said he made some for himself and just gave me some while he was at it.”

But Rouge shook her head. “Shadow doesn’t drink coffee, he just eats the beans,” she explained, nodding to a plastic container full of coffee beans next to the fridge. “If he bothered to brew coffee, it was just for you.”

Amy’s eyes softened. “Really? So he...wait a minute...” Her eyes narrowed. “He gave me decaf coffee, fed me turkey, kept the lights dim, stayed quiet, burned lavender incense--” She gasped, scandalized. “He sabotaged me! He totally let me fall asleep on purpose!”

Rouge burst out laughing.

Amy turned on her. “What’s so funny?!”

Rouge wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and tried to hold back her laughter. “Oh, hun, I’m sure it wasn’t anything bad! He was just worried about you, like Cream and I were!”

Amy tapped her foot rapidly. “What do you mean?”

Rouge calmed down. “You looked like you were ready to collapse yesterday, Amy. Tell me: how much work were you actually getting done at that point?”

Amy averted her eyes.

Rouge placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “All Shadow did was spare you a stiff neck. He does have a sweet side, you know.”

Amy tried to remain firm, but after a moment, a light laugh escaped her. “Yeah. I do know.” She exchanged a meaningful nod with Rouge, then wandered back over to Shadow’s desk and looked around in confusion. “I thought I left the forms right here. Did you do something with them?”

“He probably brought them back to HQ for you with Chaos Control so you wouldn’t have to carry them all by hand.”

Amy found the pen she’d been using. She picked it up and smiled wistfully. “He’s very thoughtful. In his own way.”

“Heh. Don’t tell anyone, or he’ll never hear the end of it,” Rouge mock-whispered. Amy giggled and pocketed the pen.

Rouge walked her outside. “Do you know where you are?”

Amy squinted past the bright sunlight. She peered around, finding she recognized some of the buildings around her, even in their crumbled state from after the war and the Zombot plague. “Yeah. HQ should be...that way.”

Rouge nodded. “It’s not too far, but do you want a lift? I’m flying that way anyway,” she offered, extending a hand.

“Oh, thank you so much, Rouge!” Amy gushed, happily taking her hands. Rouge lifted her and took off in the direction of HQ.

Amy gazed down at the ruined city below her. It had clearly been hectic and crowded before the destruction. She frowned, remembering the time she’d spoken with Shadow about their mutual love of nature.

He must hate it here.

“Hey, Rouge?”

“Hm?”

“How long has Shadow been living by himself?”

Amy heard a sigh above her. She peeked up.

Rouge’s face was surprisingly weary. “It’s been about a year now.” Amy flinched, so Rouge added, “I insisted on getting a spare key immediately. I visit whenever I can, like this morning.”

Amy sighed. “Thank Chaos! He says he’s fine on his own, but...”

“He’s lying,” they spoke together. The two exchanged a sad smile.

Amy bit her lip. “Shadow wasn’t always...like this. He used to be different.”

Rouge just kept flying. Her silence spoke volumes.

Amy tried again. “Did something happen?”

Silence.

“Was it something G.U.N. did?”

Amy could see the way Rouge’s jaw clenched. Finally, she responded.

“Even if I knew the full story, it wouldn’t be mine to tell. You’ll have to get it out of him.”

“I’m going to.”

Rouge’s eyes widened.

Amy grinned up at her, determined. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this and make things right. I’ll never give up on him!”

Rouge’s surprised look softened into an encouraging smile. “I believe it. If there’s anyone who can get through to him, it’s you.”

--

Rouge dropped her off at the entrance to HQ. Amy thanked her and dashed down the hallway toward what remained of her office, waving to the other Restoration members along the way. She slid to a stop at her desk.

Just as Rouge had predicted, the stack of papers was waiting for her, with another pile already growing beside it. She sighed and sat down.

I guess it’s better that I got the sleep after all. I could never get through all of this without--

She stopped and stared at the first sheet from the previous night.

What?

The form was complete--and not in her tired, messy scrawl, either. She flipped to the next page, only to find that it, too, had been filled out with neat, decisive pen strokes.

She kept flipping pages, feeling relief and wonder fill her chest. Every form in the stack was blessedly complete--and properly, too. Whoever had done it possessed just as much weapons expertise as she did, if not more. They’d even included an extra sheet with suggestions and improvements for some of the defensive formations she’d laid out for HQ.

Amy knew that handwriting. It was the same penmanship that had written her an encouraging letter when she was sad. It matched the frosting calligraphy on the cake they’d baked together. It had spelled out a phone number for her years ago when she’d asked on a piece of paper right underneath the name “Shadow the hedgehog.”

All the emotions from the past few weeks rushed out of her. She held herself and wept silently in gratitude and relief.

I know you’re still in there somewhere. And I’m not going to give up until we get you back.

--

((I have more sympathy than ever for the IDW writers. I can’t stand writing him like this X_X))