#Tails to me doesn't need to be the guy who is never allowed to achieve his goal and finish his growth

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Still blows my mind the disparity between the Eng and the JP localization of Sonic Frontiers

So in the og English Tails expresses that he needs to part ways from Sonic so he can grow into a hero on his own, right? That he can't grow by being with him?

But like. The director of the game, who worked with Ian Flynn, worked on the JP localization and it's like. You're telling me that when they localized that scene for the Japanese audience

That it was about Tails learning that there are things only he can do? That instead of concluding that he needs to part ways from Sonic and become a hero, he just comes to realizes the ways in which he and Sonic fill each other's gaps? He learns that he already is on equal footing with Sonic. The two of them are just heroes who save people in different ways?

[sleuth-draws]

LOVESICK (part 3) - She Can Never Know! < prev | next >

As the sun begins to rise, the time for morning patrol follows suit. Every morning, the Lion Guard assembles at the base of Pride Rock to greet one another a good morning and decide who should hit which part of the lands. 

Imara has to admit she's not entirely used to sleeping in a dark, cool den full of other lions; it's a far cry from sleeping in the dust of the Outlands, the rising sun hot on her pelt, tail and ears flicking away the termites that crawled over her. She can't complain though. There's an easy comradery in it that living in Zira's pride had never achieved, to be able to lean into the nearest warm, slumbering body when needed without worrying you'll be kicked away antagonistically -- kind, almost familial.

Since the migration to the Pridelands, Imara has come to like the lions in it, despite all her raising to despise them. It had taken quite a bit of healing and talking with the other lionesses -- from both groups -- to finally admit that. She used to be one of the skinniest of the Outlanders, something of a runt as a cub and always shoved from what little food could be scrounged up, the surprising generosity of the others allowed her to finally eat without worry to her heart’s content and build more body weight than she could've ever dreamed of having. She feels safe and supported here.

So these days, when she rises, bright and easy, stretching her ever-growing muscles and shaking her ears out, she's happy to pay it forward.

Today, she hops down the Rock and is the first to be at the base.

Next is Tazama, who greets her quietly yet warmly; then Shabaha, whose limp from the war has become hardly noticeable now; then, ironically, Kasi, who grumbles as they slink down the Rock.

"Nice of you to join us, Kas," Imara chuckles. "What kept you up so late last night?"

Kasi grouses, grooming a paw, "Noth --"

"I know what," Shabaha butts in, snickering, "You were up talking to Zuri last night, weren't you?"

From the way Kasi bristles, they can all tell Shabaha's right on the money. "...No, I wasn't . I can't even stand tha brat, let alone hold a conversation with her."

Shabaha laughs that wild laugh of hers, as if that's the funniest thing in the world. "Oh, please! I could hear you two giggling like cubs in the corner of the den! Who knew you could be such a charmer?"

"That -- you --" Kasi fumbles for words, their ears flattened in embarrassment, obviously caught. "Sh-Shut up, Shabaha! I-It was just…just idle conversation, nothing to gawk abou --"

"Yeah, you sure like gawking at her, don't you --"

"Why, you -- "

"Um, not to interrupt," Tazama says, distracted but clearly disturbed by their noise, "but it's past sunrise already; where's Vitani?"

The group falls silent as they realize she's right; they're far past their usual patrol time and their leader is nowhere to be found.

"Gosh," Imara says, "you guys don't think something happened to her, do you?"

"She might be sick?" Shabaha suggests. "Did you guys notice her looking strange yesterday?"

"Not me," Kasi says, shrugging. “‘Zama?”

"Hm," Tazama ponders, "I did notice something…odd last night at supper. Vitani looked quite anxious and didn't seem to eat much. In fact, she ended up giving the rest of the meat to Princess Kiara."

Imara's ears perk up at that. "Hey, yeah, now that you mention it, she didn't really say anything at supper. Neither of those things are really like her."

Tazama nods fervently, "Yes, yes, and also , I swear I heard her leave a little after everyone settled in to sleep. I think I could hear pacing just outside. It doesn't seem like she came back in."

Imara hums, then sniffs the air, then the ground. "Well, she's nearby. C'mon, guys, I think she's in the lair."

Sure enough, when they enter the lair, they find a lanky figure curled on the ground, breathing gently.

"Vitani?" Kasi calls.

No movement.

"Vitani, are you alright?" Tazama asks, as they all approach.

Still, nothing.

"VITANI! " Shabaha belts loudly, shaking her shoulder. Vitani bolts awake, eyes wide and growling, her stance defensive, fur standing on end. The four take an appeasing step backward.

"Whoa there," Imara attempts to soothe, "It's just us, Vitani."

Their leader freezes and blinks, eyes clearing. Her muzzle unwrinkles and her jaw goes slack. "Oh...jeez, I'm sorry, guys. I thought -- um --"

"It's alright, Vitani," Tazama placates, and Vitani drops her stance to lay on the ground again, yawning. "You didn't show for patrol --"

"Shit, what time is it!?" Vitani jolts up again but the Lion Guard blocks her path. "We gotta --"

"Absolutely not, dude," Kasi says.

"Indeed," Tazama agrees, "Patrol can wait for just a bit."

"But --"

"We can tell there's something wrong, Vi," Imara says. "What's eatin’ you? You didn't have much food last night and Tazama heard you get up and pace outside. And now we're finding you slept in here last night? C'mon, fess up."

Vitani, caught, gapes at her former squadron. "I..." And realizing there's no sense in making up excuses, she sighs heavily. Gone are the days where they were emotionally unavailable with one another in order to remain tough. They can all admit that they need this vulnerability now to survive after everything Zira had done to them. 

She starts slowly and quietly, "Yesterday...when we were done with evening patrol, I met up with Kiara to hang out like usual. But it was…different this time."

She doesn't look at them, looking conflicted and frustrated.

"Different how?" Imara gently presses.

Vitani heaves a sigh. "I think..." She trails off before growling voicelessly. Her friends nearly back away again -- they know how she can get when angered -- but in an instant the anger drains away, leaving shame in its wake. She squeezes her eyes shut. "I think I...I'm in love with Kiara."

All their ears point sideways and they gape in astonishment.

"Ah." Tazama is the first to speak up. "That is quite the conundrum."

"Wait, I'm confused," Shabaha says, "How did that make you eat less and lose sleep?"

"Shabaha..." Kasi says exasperatedly, knocking their shoulder into her.

"She's my brother's girlfriend, that's why! Ugh, how could I be so --" She lays her head flat on the the ground and covers her eyes with her paws, looking humiliated. "I'm such an asshole."

"Don't say that," Imara says, kneeling in front of her. "C'mon. Tell us how you know."

"How I --"

"How you know you're in love. "

Vitani lifts her paws away, staring up at her Strongest. "I...Well...Sh-She's just so kind to me and -- and brave and strong. I think the war was the first sign. Her standing up to her father like that, standing between him and us, gods, I have so much respect for her. Whenever I see her, I just...can't help but feel happy." She softens entirely. 

The rest of the Guard are shocked. Vitani is not the soft type. Though she may have let her eyes linger, she has never once swooned over any lioness ever. They can tell that even thinking about Kiara has an effect on their leader. 

"Yesterday, we were play-fighting and she pinned me so quickly. No one has ever done that, not even an Outlander. That's what made me realize that -- that --"

Anxious fright floods her expression, the realization that she's in deeper than even she realized, and she covers her face again, groaning. "She can never know!"

Imara, feeling sorry for her, asks, "Well, why not?"

"'Why not? '" Vitani mimics, suddenly lost in her own head, "It's embarrassing, it's -- it's disgusting! I'm weak for this. How could she -- How could I feel this way for -- What would my mother think?"

The mention of Zira sends a chill through all of them.

"Your mother isn't here," Kasi reminds firmly. And thank the gods for it, goes unsaid.

"Vitani..." Tazama steps closer. "Kasi's right. This isn't the Outlands; there's no reason to feel ashamed for loving Kiara." 

They all know that it isn't loving Kiara specifically that's the issue; it's loving, period. In their childhood, Zira liked to instill the belief in their heads that love was a fickle, weak thing. Something that makes you soft and distracts you from the ultimate goal of overthrowing Simba. As adults, they now see what a hypocrite she was, obsessed to extreme ends with her past lover, and understand it was simply a manipulation tactic to get them to focus on being her soldiers full-time, giving more attention to their physical prowess with the added goal of stunting them emotionally.

Once upon a time, Vitani had let herself stray. As a teenager, despite her best efforts, she fell for another of Zira's followers -- a defiantly kind lioness named Kuuma who always, always shared her rations with Vitani and whose laugh sent a wave of butterflies through her stomach. She never got the chance to pursue anything with her; Zira had been observing her closely, saw how her eyes would linger, how they got lost in one another while together.

One less soldier was an easy price to pay for teaching her foolhardy daughter a lesson.

It was Vitani's mistake, her fault. How dare she, her mother's most loyal confidante, lose sight of their cause?

Maybe if she had just been stronger, kept her base desires in check, Kuuma would still be…

Vitani swallows, finds herself close to tears. She tries to bite them back, shoulders shaking. The four at last lie down beside her in comfort. Imara gently nuzzles her cheek. Shabaha touches her paw to Vitani's. Kasi leans their head on her back. Tazama leans a foreleg on her side.

The affection makes Vitani break, sobbing quietly.

They stay like that for a long moment, before Vitani's breathing evens out again and she's stopped shaking. The Guard wait patiently and occasionally groom her in consolation.

"I would never do anything to come between her and Kovu. Never." Vitani sighs. "He’s my brother. I promised myself I’d never hurt him again. And…even if she weren't with Kovu," she mumbles lowly, "There's no way she'd want to be with...someone like me. And what if she's disgusted? Then I'd lose someone I consider my best friend. I...I can never tell Kiara."

The Guard is quiet for a long time. Imara is the one who breaks the silence.

"Vitani, you know Princess Kiara better than we do. Do you really think she'd stop being friends with you over this?"

Vitani looks sorely down at the dirt between her paws. "...No."

Tazama smiles. "We all saw the bravery and kindness that ended the war. If you told her, even if she didn't feel the same, even if she doesn't like lionesses, I think she'd appreciate your honesty."

Shabaha and Kasi make sounds of agreement. Their leader thinks about it for a moment.

"I...I'm not ready to tell her. But I won't let it change anything between us. You all are right; I don't think she'd be that cruel." She lets out a final sigh. "I'm going to be mature about this. Thank you, guys, for listening to me and giving me advice."

Vitani rises from their emotional support pile, shakes the dust from her fur, and stretches, before puffing her chest out in determination.

"Now c'mon. We've got some patrolling to do."

--

i don't see much delving into trauma that revolves around zira's treatment of her kids and the other outlanders. i'm super into exploring that and showing how these characters are healing in their own ways. vitani's got some issues because of her mom's bs, especially because she seemed to be her number one grunt.

for timeline sake, at the end of tlk2, kiara, kovu, and vitani are young adults, equivalent to 18-year-olds, the rest of the guard being early 20's-ish. in this story, kiara, kovu, and vitani are about 21-22 and the guard are mid-20s, maybe 25-ish. much more mature and working things out. for further reference, kion is still age group behind, just now growing his mane out (and yet still married before kiara who has the sense to take things slow lmao).

and of course, the designs used here are from my older post which has them redesigned! >:P

[shushiyuii]

tiny avian tommy getting put in a specific time out for being a little gremlin by a giant sbi member of your choice bonus if its his first time so he doesn't know its safe

Ooop-

Warnings: Self esteem struggles and Soft vore

Words: 1.6K+

Aren't I good enough?!

One way to describe Tommy Danger Kraken Innit Minecraft? Ultimately awesome! Not only was he siblings with the famous and righteous Technoblade! A warrior, no a God! Who tore down his enemies so easily nobody stood a chance! Then there was the musician of the seas.

Wilbur Soot Minecraft, his older brother, and talented musician, known all throughout the world for his talented music, just a simple word he utters makes you fall under his spell like a siren.

And his father, the legend, Philza Minecraft himself, God was he awesome. He was known throughout as the angel of death, everyone cowers before him as the lover of death, but also with his accomplishments of defeating the Enderdragon.

To say his family was a big deal was really the honest truth, but what was to be said of Tommy? That he was an asshole gremlin child? The probably weakest hybrid around? Or the fact he couldn’t eat meat due to the fact that he was in fact part hummingbird?

Which made usually eat flowers like his friend Tubbo? It wasn’t his fault he was born this way! Eventually, he’d be just as terrifying, legendary and talented as everyone else! They just had to watch!

That was what he thought as he was in a field, tending to nearby flowers and snacking on some on occasion. He thought to himself, “What do I have?”. He didn’t see himself particularly talented at anything besides his weird sense of humour and being able to mend clothes, it made him think a lot about what was to come of himself.

“Tommy!”. His friends called him from across the field, he could see the bee hybrid Tubbo flying towards him, at least Tubbo could fly, Tubbo couldn’t even fly himself. “You okay, Big man?” Tommy snapped out of his thoughts, whatever sorrowful expression on his face faded in an instant as he yelled excitingly, “Course I am! Why wouldn’t I be?!”.

“For a moment there you lo-“, “Tommy Danger Kraken Innit Minecraft has never felt or looked like such a thing known as sadness! Only women! Disks! And you Big man!”.

“What about me?”. Ranboo said amusingly as he teleported over to the two, “With some exceptions…” Tommy muttered, quietly showing his affection towards Ranboo before switching it up, “I don’t give two-shits about you Ranboo!”. To which made Tubbo and Ranboo laugh.

The two walked through the field of flowers for a while until sitting down on the flowers to allow Tubbo to snack on them. The three of them conversed until Tommy slowly stopped to respond so much or adding more to the conversation.

He began to go deep into thought again, wandering about his strengths that were easily outweighed by the negatives, The two laughed but stopped when Tommy asked, “Hey guys, what am I good at?...”.

Tubbo looked over to Ranboo a bit confused by the question but answered, “You’re uhm… Funny!”. “And you’re great at insulting people?”. But that ultimately failed, “I mean seriously.”. And the two didn’t answer, seeming to think of an answer when Tommy took it as nothing to say.

“Don’t worry about it then”. As he stood off and walked to a nearby edge, the two stood and ran over to Tommy to try and stop him from jumping off, telling him to “Wait!” but it was too late, he was already gone.

He opened his wings into a gliding position as he couldn’t fly and gliding slowly towards the forest below. He thought about what his family would say but probably would just get laughed at.

He landed with a thump as he abruptly ended his flight, walking to the nearby pond and sat down. Then proceeded to throw stones into the said pond until dawn as he made his way home.

As he entered the house, he was greeted by his family, but he ignored them in favour of going up to his room, all attempts at conversation as they approached his room asking for either assistance or whatever was the matter with the gremlin but to get no response.

The next day everybody was meeting up in the said flower field, he was in previously. But this time Tommy seemed a lot more obnoxious than usual, any attempts at getting his guard down would only be met with more of his uptight yelling and boasts about himself.

For some reason, nobody could get through to Tommy as he ran around annoying everybody, so in order to find a solution he approached his brother’s best friend, to find Tubbo looking just as confused, “Hey Tubs”. Tubbo snapped out of whatever thoughts of losing his sanity were happening and smiled at Wilbur, “Hey Wil!”. “Do you know what's happening with Toms?”.

The two looked over to Tommy to confirm both their thoughts to see a screaming gremlin in Technoblades arms, being held back from attacking Ranboo for whatever reason Ranboo did to somehow anger him.

“I’m not really sure, he seemed upset about something yesterday.”, “Did he tell you anything in particular?”. “Uhm, I mean- He did ask if he was good at anything, like a serious question and me and Ranboo was thinking about it, then he ran off!”.

Wilbur thought about it for a moment, but before he could come to a conclusion all hell broke loose as Tommy was inevitably causing more chaos than needed, yelling profanities at the top of his lungs for no reason in particular.

“Right”. Philza raised his voice at the boy. “What is going on with you?!”. Tommy looked at him perplexed for a moment until letting his guard down for a moment, looking down guiltily and Phil looked at him in concern until he yelled out.

“Absolutely fine Philza Minecraft the legend! Amazing at everything he does!”. There seemed to be something in particular about that statement, something oddly specific. Despite him often praising his father for whatever he does it was never as specific as that. Just small praises.

But before they could continue more, Tommy had run off the ledge again into obscurity. Nobody really knowing where the avian was going to go, but somebody did know, Wilbur knew. It was a spot he took Tommy to when he was younger and would always go there when upset.

So, Wilbur ran off to find him.

Wilbur took a different route, one that allowed him to hide under the surface of the water, you see Wilbur’s words were actually able to send you under a spell since he was actually a siren. A size-shifting siren to be specific.

He transformed when he touched the waters surface, his legs turning into a beautiful scaly tail and his hands turning claws, his eyes becoming more fishlike as they looked more dilated and fish-like. He swam forwards until he found the avian sitting under a tree, looking miserable.

An old trick should do the trick, when Wilbur and the family would take Tommy on adventures, especially when he was younger, in cases of danger he’d be sent to one of their storage stomachs for protection, but that wasn’t the only thing it was used for, if he was being particularly annoying or wanted comfort, he could also be sent there, as a form of comfort.

He quickly swam upwards, quickly breaching the surface and growing gigantic. Tommy screamed as he was scooped but although quickly, was also careful as he threw Tommy into his mouth and quickly swallowed, sending him to his brood pouch.

When Tommy landed safely within, he could feel the boy kick and punch as he yelled “Unhand me you- you prick!” Wilbur couldn’t help but burst into laughter at this.

“Wil? What the fuck man! You scared me!”. Wilbur hummed in response, still giggly about the situation. “Well, sorry gremlin but you’ve been on everyone’s nerves today!”. Then he went silent much to Wilbur’s confusion, “What’s wrong? You’ve been acting weird all day?”.

There was another moment of silence when Tommy asked, “Wil, am I good enough?”. Which caught Wilbur completely off guard, why would Tommy even think such a thing, he laid a hand over his stomach and rubbed circles soothingly. Completely confused.

“I- Toms, of course, you’re good enough! Why wouldn’t you think so?!”. He yelled somewhat concerned and confused at the fact his brother was thinking such things. “I- I’m not good at anything like all of you..”.

“What are you on about Toms?! Of course, you’re good at-“ He was cut off when Tommy yelled, “I mean like talented! You can sing! Techno can fight! Dad- Dad is Dad! He can do so many things! He’s-“.

The stomach walls pressed in on him, cutting him off. “Tommy, you listen to me now. You may not think much as such, but I think you’re a natural-born leader, you’re able to sway so many and command accordingly when so many people need it, remember that time you stopped everyone from fighting? You did all that by yourself!”.

“You may not be as strong as Technoblade but you’re smart and crafty and can hold your own just as well, you’ve impressed Techno so many times with what you’ve achieved. All of us couldn’t be more proud of you as a brother! We all care about you.”.

He could hear soft sobs, and he continued to rub circles, hushing the boy as well. Soon after, they were found by Phil and Techno who joined in the efforts of comforting the boy shortly. And all laid there for the night, keeping Tommy safe like they used to.

Maybe his family did have the answers after all.