#marsupial madness

[joeycbang]

tattoo-esque thylacine

[zekreet]

The cancer started this January, spreading to my brain over the months, damaging it further and further until I lost my ability to think independently like a functioning member of society. My entire being demands that I, at the very least, think about these parasites. It is in my nature that they are brought up every five seconds. I've begun hallucinating them everywhere I go. The meds aren't working.

turned them into furries.... or rather baldies ....

[thegreatopossummigration]

Hi, this post of mine made me abuse my ability to draw things :^|

[efraart-mix]

Finally, after 3 months of waiting, I have finally finished the new design references for my boys Escáloz and Elmet, and together with these, we are launching their own profiles in Toy house together with their updated data and STORY 😁😊.

Escáloz profile Elmet profile

[sleepymccoy]

I hear everyone on the mind meld soul bond type of Vulcan relationship Spock and McCoy have got going on being a way for them to transmit sexts to each other on the bridge and I LOVE it, no notes, but also. I think they continue fights in their brains constantly and it drives Jim mad

<in the turbolift>

Spock: ... ambassador was sufficiently clear in her-

McCoy: as clear as mud, she was implying that the transplantation of the xxrplerg people was-

Spock: there was no such implication, and the actions taken since show that the translated summary I supplied is correct

McCoy: absolutely not, they-

<turbolift doors open>

<walking down the corridor>

Jim: hello, Ensign

<at medbay entrance>

<doors close behind them in medbay>

<Spock double checks they're alone>

Spock: ... will supply you with-

McCoy: if you give me homework again I'm going to call my union. They are a form of marsupial life, and-

Spock: there is only one intelligent marsupial species, which you well know-

McCoy: you cannot believe that's a one and done, and it does impact the ambassador's words I don't care what you say

Spock: you should care, for I am correct. Captain, please

Jim: I'm pretty lost here actually

[jfs-worldbuilding-and-art]

Spectember day 9: Marsupial Madness

Around 25 Millions of Years in the future, after the collision of Australia into the Asian Continent and a great Faunal Interchange that caused many animals who never met each other to now live closely, making for many extinctions and speciations, such as that of Tree Kangaroos, who managed to survive the interchange and actually thrive in the future forests and jungles of Asia.

One such clade of Kangaroos evolved to closely resemble the now extinct lemurs from Madagascar, with a form similar to that of *Megaladapis spp.*. With long arms, a short tail and long legs adapted for both walking and jumping from tree to tree. These animals do live like that, eating the leaves of trees and bushes, but also feeding on ground animals such as invertebrates, reptiles and small mammals.

However the lemur comparison is not the only to be made here, as the long arms and fingers of the so called Marsupial lemurs are also adapted for brachiation, with somewhat flexible shoulders almost like those of the now also extinct apes.

[verashalurks]

I know this is like dying but I’ve waited so long to post this cuz I wanted to get as much as I can but since I haven’t seen another alternate m*leven ship name in forever, I’ve decided to post all the alternate m*leven ship names I’ve seen.

milkvan

macarena

mumble

miley cyrus

melvin 

milkshake

mitochondria 

Keke waka 

milkdud

Misaligned Fallopian Tubes

machine gun

milkcurd

mildew

milkman

moonshine

menstruation

midleven 

Macroeconomice

microwave

Macadamia nut

monkeyvenom

masturbation

mythology

Minotaur

malware

malnutrition

Minecraft mobs

moon landing conspiracy

margerine

murmers

milkyway 

mcchicken

monsoon

melted marshmallows

mango

maroon 5

Of Mice and Men

Madagascar

Marty McFly

melville

Milk of Magnesia 

Milkwaukee

Milkchocchip

M-1 Rifles

Meerkats

Mlvn

M&Ms

McDonalds

McVans

Milehighclubs

Mitskivans

Mychemicalromance

Monsterhighs

Millennials

Malnourished Skin

Mona Lisa

Mushroom Raviolis

MK-16

Mascara

Monoclonal Antibodies

Mamma mia

Mealworm

messenger

mentoses

milkweed

microbe

mimetite 

morsels

mozzarella sticks

milkchicken

minestrone

macaroni

Methamphetamine

Markiplier

milkbag 

machine gun kelly

zoo wee mamas

Milevensies

molotov

mismatches

mandalorian

mildred

magdalena bay

milulu

Milkmaids

minimum wages

mailman

malt vinegars

moshimonsters

mids

mocha monsters

Marley and Me

Mitosis

three musketeers

milkshit

Miranda Sings

motorola

mobility exercises

Malnourished Foreskin

miscellaneous

McNuggets

microfungus

minnie mouse

millipede

milkmonsters

monkey ooh ooh ah ah

martians

milquetoast

Manicure

milkbone 

Meryl Streep

macadamias

Maple Syrup

mildew

multivitamins

mascarpone

mikeisdefinitelyisdefinitelyahetrosexual

magnesium

magician

mickey mouse clubhouse

Macaulay Culkin

Molotov Cocktail

meatball choppers

milky cereal cup

monkey see monkey do’s

meth lab

millyrocks

Milklovers

midvans

mac and cheese

mindflayer

Marvin martians

malteesers

minivan

MilkTit

milk and cookies

milklords

Tickle Me Elmos

minnions

mad mothers

mariposa

Milkbag

mitskivan 

Mucinex

mixed signals

Milkytitty

mighty morphin power rangers

🥛🚚

Milkvillains

Mosquito bites

Mug cakes

Moldy milks

micropenis

maggots

Machupichu

mephistopheles

malted milk

musculoskeletal

Mcdonald's happy meals

moose mooses

macaroni n cheese

maternity leave

moustache mountain

mocha cake a la goldilocks

Mcstuffins

Mcmuffin

Nickleback

MonkeyBall

mistletoes

moo moo

microphone

master of puppets

middleman

Monster of Men

Melted Cream Cheese

milkythooth's

meltdowns

mosh pits

Mikinam 

Megatron Titty

MontyPhyton

malaria

michigans

malibubarbie

Mockingbird

Machine Gunner

Milkbone

Milftits

Mcflurry

mangos

metric system

milkydudes

milk cartons

milklevel

Milan champions league

mcladdles

mustard

malfunctioning minotaurs

moaning myrtle

meep city

mount vesuvius

millyrocker

mango salsa 

milkspill

Mitochondrial Disease

m'leven

michigan

Machine Gunner

Maybelline

Mascot

Moldy Mozzarellas

malt powder

machine gun kelly

Manila papers

Merlin’s Beard

mackerel

Moldymilk

mariachi

mein kampf

melevenene

Miku

mediocre meat loaf

Mambo Jambos

Microscope 

my little pony

Menstrual cup

Mothman 

Megamind

Msg

Marvins 

Mesopotamias

Meralco

misanthropic villains

Mishawaka

Moldy bread

Marsupials

Marvin

Melon rinds

Moondance

Moldy macaroni

Magical miscarriages

Mauled maggots

Machine gunners

Moscova

Mondays

Momento Morí

mitochondrion

Megatron

Misused toilet

meeting micky mouse

melatonin deficiency

Minions

Milkovitch

Manly-man

McLovin It

Mexico

milkytruck

molars

Married Salamanders

mister mustard

Mario Kart

Mouse rat

marshal mathers

militia

milebin

Mewtoo

Margaritas

Mick Jagger

Elr 

Milkwaffers

Milkweven

Mud Stain

Mileperson

milerescent

Milanese

Manatee Turd

Magistrate

Mario run

Mint-chip icecream

Milkwaffers

Microsoft

miléveune

Mesothelioma

Moomoos

matchstick

malteser

morallysus

Macronutrient 

Miel

Milanese

milkies

Microsoft11

mineral water

multiplier

Mario Kart Wii

mild salsa

Minnesota

motorcycle

Minecart

Maltodextrin

muffin mans

Midlife crisis

Mortadella

Matcha

Microdickvan

Mac & cheese

Middle aged vans

Super Mario 64

Metamorphosis

Malcom in the middle

Magic Mike

711

Marijuana

mozzarella

Microbial virus

MySpace

Materasso Eminflex

microsoft software protection platform

Micheal Jackson

Mistyped

Miscarriage

Magnetic dipole

Marble Countertop

Michelin star

Milkkawaii

Mathematics

Microgodzilla

Milkchunk

milktruck

malooban

Masachussets Institute of Technology

Mango Juice

Mary had a little lamb

Menthols

Mark of Athenas

mendocino

milwankas

[super-smash-bracket]

ROUND ONE

Crash Bandicoot

Pit: What kind of animal is that, Lady Palutena? Palutena: That's Crash Bandicoot. As you can tell by the name, he's a bandicoot, a small marsupial. Viridi: THAT'S a bandicoot?! But Bandicoots are supposed to be small and cute, not... THAT! Palutena: Well, he was experimented on by Doctor Neo Cortex. After being blasted by his Evolvo-Ray, Crash was mutated into the intelligent life form you see now. Viridi: Grr... Those stupid monkeys just don't know when to quit! I'LL NEVER FORGIVE THEM! Palutena: Well, luckily for you, Viridi, Crash here also hates Doctor Cortex, and has dedicated his life to taking him down. You two may have goals that align. Pit: Right... Um, fighting tips? Palutena: Oh, right. Crash's Tornado Spin is his signature move, but it leaves him in free fall when used in midair. Use this to your advantage!

Iron Valiant

Pit: That's... A Paradox Pokémon! Palutena: That's right, Pit. Iron Valiant, the Paradox Pokémon. Some say a mad scientist created it to be the world's most powerful Psychic Pokémon. Viridi: So this is the future of Pokémon, is it? Can I personally see to it this thing will never exist?! Pit: Hey! It may be a cold and unfeeling machine, but it's STILL a Pokémon! Palutena: Cold, yes. Unfeeling... Merciless might be a better word. What makes it powerful it its raw precision and skill with its blades. Pit, if you're caught at the tip of its blade when you're hit with its Spirit Break, you'll be sent flying off the stage. Try your best to space it out!

[ingek73]

A kingfisher shows its disdain for pettifogging rules in Kidderminster, UK

Photograph: Lee Hudson/Alamy Live News

via

[thegreatopossummigration]

A raccoon and opossum furry trying to figure out how to break into a cybertruck because they think it's a dumpster.

[genderlesssinner]

"everyone who doesn't wanna sleep with the Nightmare King can weigh in" -TRAVIS

Okayokay recruiting Ira good good

And Nana Morri that is gonna be so much fun oohhhh I love all the Fey stuff

69 gold

Nice

"I made out with him" *Waylon leans in*

Oh my gods ASHLEY (/FEARNE)

She's gonna try to steal it

Wow okay yeah before I could type it

TRAPPED

"I'm being so honest with you" I fucking love her

Ooohhh she made him like *mad* mad

Travis' face oh my god

Chet's gonna bite it I just know it it won't be battle because they can rez he's just gonna croak one night ESPECIALLY if Travis makes it between 100 and his level holy shit

C-poppers are gonna start a cult and turn into like a pyramid scheme somehow

Not bringing in the fandom oh no "if a fandom ever turns on you-"

Kiki being able and willing to burn Restorations to get rid of exhaustion points for Fearne and Ash is so clutch

I wanna know what Scalan has been up to dammit WHERE IS HE

Ooh Orym with that potion of Invulnerablity maaann hell yeah

I also wanna know what that Truthbearer armor does man that was a big peice of paper

Fearne has a point though, in a world where you *know* there are multiple gods, it's so interesting that everyone (that we know of) is worships one god

Aah see okay. Thank you Matt. Casual worship of multiples is normal but for like clergy it's not

Okay guys damn the poly convo damn okay

I think kiki would have fun at Nana's place for sure

Back into the Fey we go!

Six seconds guys, six seconds

Oh poor Dorian he's gonna be traumatized by this

Even the flowers are creepy here man

Ooooo Braius what are you hiding

Nana is gonna scare the bejeezus outta Dorian

You know that thing that went around that was the reduce / reuse / reanimate. I get those vibes from Nana and Launda (especially Launda) except for Nana it's just crafting not reanimation

Oh no Nana and Braius

I am unsettled thank you Matt and Sam

(I love it but also pls stop)

"You smell like shadow and bad choices." hot damn

How's the legend doing, indeed

The marsupial pouch is enough Ashley please don't give Fearne extra freaky faces too jeezus (I love her)

Liam and Laura are children and I love them it's been great having the twinsies sitting together

Ooh Nana is excited to see Ira,, interesting

Liam motherfucking O'Brien. "It's the cheerful smile" I'm gonna cry. Bountiful luck is cool as hell tho

I am.. Concerned and curious about what kind of experiments Nana could / would do with the alien fetus.

Is it just me or is Ash / Tal paying closer attention when Fearne talks and stuff? Like he was never ignoring her but it seems like he's more invested and I love it

Let's goooo creepy Fey reunion

I always forget how.. Spidery Ira is

Oh she's totally going to play Braius and Ira against each other I'm here for it

This is the weirdest romantic drama I've ever seen and i love it

THIRTEEN FEET. hate

BOYS

Oh my god

Ooohhhhhhjshdjhcjf Orym's little face talking to Nana my heaarrtttt

Ooo spooky Fey horses? Nice

Time is a weird soup

Never thought I'd be this glad they brought Ira

He's a minotaur not a centaur Fearne 🤣

Break time!

Go get your snacks and drinks and go to the bathroom folks

I'll be back with more rambly bullshit in a bit

[echidnapower]

A Light in Darkness - Chapter 1

As I continue bringing back my fics here onto Tumblr, here's one that has been in-progress for quite some time, and shall continue to be until I find the time to finish it, which I will someday. A story featuring the only Sonamy fanchild I could ever accept as canon, due to how much work and effort went into making her feel real. @e-vay's own Aurora the Hedgehog. I hope she - and everyone else reading this - enjoys!

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

An old and broken down warehouse can be the location for many different shady operations. In many old cartoons, the villains would often keep their secret hideout in an abandoned warehouse on the edge of a town. Sometimes criminals would keep their hidden stash of illegal drugs and their ill-gotten profits to try and avoid detection by the local police. And in some extreme cases, insane psychopaths will hide the bodies of their tortured victims in warehouses such as these.

In this case, an old abandoned warehouse holds the last hope for all of Mobian kind.

"So we're all agreed?" Shadow the Hedgehog, leader of the newest incarnation of the Freedom Fighters, leaned his palms against the surface of the old and rusted metal table as he looked at each member of his war council.

"We don't really have much of a choice now, do we?" That reply came from Silver the Hedgehog, a psychokinetic hedgehog who had joined up with the Freedom Fighters as soon as he'd learned of their existence. "I gotta say though Shadow, I hate the idea of this being our last chance."

"Unfortunately, this is our final option." Blaze the Cat - a Princess from another dimension and born with the power of pyrokinesis so that she could one day become the guardian of the source of power in her own dimension: the Sol Emeralds - spoke grimly at her fellow Freedom Fighters. Unfortunately, soon after the event that caused the devastation of her world, the emeralds were taken from her, and with them, any hope of restoring things to the way they were. "If we are to undo this madness, we cannot fail. If we do, we won't even be alive to see the results of our failure."

A fist slammed onto the table in frustration, startling the group as the owner of the fist glared angrily at the others. "If you had just listened to me in the first place, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess!" Sticks the Badger, a wild jungle girl who'd been forced out of her burrow by the disaster screeched at her teammates. "I tried to tell you that he was acting strangely, but you thought I was CRAAAAAAZY!" she pointed accusingly at Shadow. "You of all people should've noticed Mr. Ultimate Life Form!"

The black hedgehog lowered his head and closed his eyes a moment before looking back at the young badger with an intense gaze. "I was a fool not to notice, but I intend to make up for that grave error right now." Shadow turned his attention to a lanky marsupial who had for the most part kept his focus on a set of blueprints laying on the table. "Have you figured out the best way into the stronghold Yukon?"

Yukon, a young Sugar Glider who had been rescued by Sticks the day the apocalyptic disaster struck, nodded at Shadow and placed his index finger on the blueprints. "I looked over the blueprints Tails had in his lab of Dr. Eggman's old Fortress, and with a little input from Sticks, I think I've managed to find the safest way in."

"There is no safest way in." Sticks scoffed and rolled her eyes. "With evil machines guarding every possible entrance, it won't matter where we try to go in, we'll still be seen!"

"That's a risk we'll have to take." Blaze nodded at the Sugar Glider, "Please continue."

Yukon nodded back and dragged his finger over to the right side of the middle of the map. "This leads to Eggman's old vault, that's probably where Ba'Gan is keeping the Chaos Emeralds." He dragged his finger down the map near the bottom of the blueprint. "It looks like there's an old passageway Eggman installed that leads to the vault, and from the looks of things, it's hidden behind a wall that's since been sealed off, and the other end of the passageway appears cut off too." Yukon looked up and glanced at Shadow. "You know Eggman best, is that passageway still there?"

Shadow stood tall and crossed his arms, his eyes closed as he pondered for a moment. "Knowing the doctor, he likely would've left it available for him in case of an emergency." Shadow opened his eyes. "No doubt that room contained some rather extreme security measures as well."

"I bet that's where he keeps his stash of violins that he used to torment me in my sleep!"

The others looked at Sticks oddly for a moment before continuing. "So what exactly is the plan?" Silver asked.

"The first thing we'll need to do is disable the guards posted at that position. If they're Eggman robots, then we'll need to destroy them quickly so they don't send out a signal to alert the rest of the guards that we're attempting to breach the stronghold." Shadow's expression became grim. "If they turn out to be some of them..." Shadow frowned deeply as the others around him lowered their heads in sadness. "Hopefully there will be a way to save their hosts...but if it's necessary, we will have to destroy them as well."

"The idea of having to murder innocent bystanders..." Yukon shook his head and shuddered. "It goes against everything I believe in...maybe if Silver could hold them still, I could strike a few nerve points and knock them out for a while."

"I could try, but these things have shown they can resist my psychokinesis to a certain extent." Silver looked at his hands and sighed, watching as they pulsated with cyan energy. "Maybe if I'd spent more time honing my skills, I'd be able to handle more than one at a time."

"You mustn't blame yourself Silver, none of us were even remotely prepared for what has taken place." Blaze spoke up. "What matters now is that we fix it."

"Weeeeeell actually, I was prepared." Sticks ran off a moment and returned with crude looking armor that appeared to be made of some form of wood and tied together by vines. "These may not look pretty, but I spent years building sets of armor for me and my friends in case a zombie apocalypse happened." she began handing out the armor to everyone around the table, until she was holding only two sets. "This armor is made out of nothing but wood from the Steelwood Forests and some good ol' fashioned wilderness survival skills." she placed the last spare set on the ground and put on her own, beaming proudly at her teammates. "Wearing these, you could get hit by one of those laser beams of theirs and not even feel it!"

Shadow rolled his eyes and decided to humor the young badger by putting on the armor. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't even entertain the thought of being with this mishmash of personalities, let alone being their leader. But then again, their circumstances weren't normal. "Thank you Sticks." Shadow nodded with a neutral expression before continuing. "Once inside, it should hopefully be a simple matter of finding the Chaos and Sol Emeralds. Once in our possession, Silver and I will use Chaos Control to open up a time portal, and then we can stop this from ever happening."

"And if something goes horribly wrong?" Sticks asked.

"It won't go wrong."

The badger crossed her arms and raised a skeptical eyebrow at Shadow. "You seem a bit too sure of yourself."

"Not at all." Shadow replied. "I say it won't go wrong because it can't go wrong...if it does go wrong...well...then they've won." Shadow stood tall and looked at each of his teammates. "These mechanical nightmares have absorbed our friends and families, turned them from those we love into instruments of destruction; their sole purpose to absorb all other organic life and add them to their hive mind. Some of us...admittedly...have lost more than others, but we all feel the same passion and desire to right the wrongs and stop this threat from completely overtaking Mobius...and then the rest of not one, but two universes." He looked at Blaze when he said that. "You know what's at stake. After tonight, we will either succeed and live to fight another day, or we will be absorbed like the rest of them." Shadow rubbed at his golden power inhibitors before giving a heavy sigh. "We will move out at 0300 hours...in the meantime, get some rest, you'll need it."

"You get some rest too Shadow, we're gonna need you too." Silver said sympathetically.

The black hedgehog simply nodded and walked away from the table, leaving the rest of his team to their own devices. He ran a hand through his ebony quills as he tried to amp down from the constant adrenaline high he was feeling. While he'd recently gotten used to being around other people, he was by no means built to be a leader...that was more his specialty. He cursed under his breath in frustration at the thought. That confounded blue hedgehog had let himself be the first one to be absorbed, and he never even knew it was happening. "Of course, I should have noticed to begin with. If anyone would know what that looked like, it would be me."

As he continued walking, he spotted a distinct form, colored in an even more distinct shade of pink sitting on a pile of crates in the back of the warehouse. Sighing once more, Shadow walked over to the girl and tried to get her to look at him. "How are you doing Light?"

The bright pink hedgehog just shook her head and sobbed a bit before looking up at the black hedgehog with tears evident in her emerald eyes. The bands on her clothes were glowing dimly to match her somber mood, and it broke the black hedgehog's heart to see her so reduced. "I still can't believe it Shadow...how could they...how could they just..." she sobbed a few more times and buried her face in her hands.

Shadow moved in to embrace the hedgehog girl, stroking her quills in an attempt to comfort her. "They did what they felt they had to do, they wanted to try and protect you." He used his finger to tilt her head up at him so she could look at him. "They didn't volunteer to be absorbed Aurora, they fought to the bitter end, like true heroes should...even your father fought it until there was simply nothing left of him to fight back."

Aurora the Hedgehog, the final member of the Freedom Fighters...and more famously...the daughter of Sonic the Hedgehog and Amy Rose, cried into the chest of her boyfriend as she continued to mourn the loss of her parents and extended family. Her Uncles Tails and Knuckles, they'd been absorbed fighting off the monsters while trying to get them the blueprints to Eggman's former fortress, only Shadow had managed to escape, albeit barely. Her Aunt Rouge had been absorbed trying to gather information from the G.U.N. Headquarters about the current threat they were facing, and those were just the ones she knew about regarding their fates.

"Aurora." Shadow said consolingly as he gently tilted her head up again. "We'll save them, we're going to save them. All of them. You have my word." The black hedgehog then leaned in and gently kissed the pink hedgehog's forehead. He never imagined falling in love with the daughter of his greatest rival, but after twenty years of travelling the world in search of a better understanding of himself, and also to find someone he'd met during his greatest adventure, he'd come home to find that the ones he once called his friends had reached adulthood, and now had families of their own, most with grown children even.

Coincidentally, the very girl he'd quested to find for over twenty years turned out to be Sonic and Amy's daughter, which naturally added a whole new dimension to the "friendly" rivalry he and Sonic shared. But just as Sonic was beginning to accept the fact that Aurora truly loved Shadow, the disaster struck. Now, there was no time for simple pleasures such as going out to watch a movie and have dinner, there was only slight lulls as a war raged. The speed at which the takeover had occurred was staggering. Just one week before, Shadow was contemplating how to celebrate his and Aurora's one-year anniversary as a couple, and now, he was leading a small band of troops into battle, one from which they might never return.

"Shadow...do you think...we'll be able to save them?" Aurora asked, her voice was almost that of a frightened child, as she looked up at Shadow in uncertainty.

Shadow sighed and frowned as he ran his hand through his quills once more. "I don't know Light...but I swear to you, I will either find a way to do so, or I will die trying."

Instead of comforting her, that had the opposite effect on the pink hedgehog as she clutched tighter to her ebony boyfriend. "I know you're trying to help, but please don't say stuff like that...I already lost my family...I can't...I can't lose you too." She buried her face into his chest and shook her head in defiance of the thoughts invading her mind. "I can't...can't lose you too." she mumbled.

Shadow stood in silence for a few moments, contemplating what to do next. Aurora was usually incredibly upbeat and enthusiastic, and her bubbly personality infected everyone around her, admittedly even himself - to a degree anyway. But ever since the invasion of the mechanical creatures taking over the bodies and minds of her family, she'd been...just the opposite. There had to be a way to make her crack a smile at least, and a recent memory popped into Shadow's mind in answer to that thought.

"Aurora."

"Hmm?"

"Do you remember the look on Blaze's face when she saw that Cream was now over ten years older than her?"

That finally got the pink hedgehog to give a weak yet sincere laugh. "What's weird is that I have memories of the real Blaze coming to visit from her dimension. I never thought I'd meet one of my aunt's best friends and be older than her." She laughed a bit at the remembrance. A time displacement caused by the appearance of the creatures had merged the past of Blaze's world with the present of Mobius, and as a result, Blaze had appeared as well, only still as a young teenager as opposed to the adult that Aurora was more familiar with.

When Aurora had shown the teenaged Blaze a photograph of Cream the Rabbit as an adult, her jaw had dropped clear to the floor. But it didn't take long for the Sol Emerald Guardian to make the mental adjustment and get down to business. All the better for the Freedom Fighters, as her flames would come in handy when the battle began. Upon thinking of the upcoming battle, Shadow spoke up once more. "Aurora...we have a plan. We're going to infiltrate the fortress and steal back the emeralds from Ba'Gan, then we'll open a time portal so we can make sure none of this ever happens. We need your help."

The offspring of Sonic the Hedgehog and Amy Rose looked up at Shadow and got up off the crates so she could stand tall. Taking a deep breath, Aurora nodded with determination and held up a fist. "Let's go stop those Droids. No one messes with my family and gets away with it."

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

With their operation planned out to the smallest detail, the small band of Freedom Fighters stealthily made their way to Eggman's former fortress. It was a huge building with walls and lasers and every scientific method of defense one could think of protecting it. However, since the evil scientist had abandoned the lair, the most elaborate defenses had been removed so that they could be installed at his next base. Unfortunately, the creatures called Droids had more than made up for it by making several hundred Mobians their mindless slaves, and given them all orders via the hive mind that they should defend the fortress with their lives.

Upon reaching the fortress, the Ultimate Life Form peeked his head out from behind a bush, and he looked around to scope things out. "All clear." Shadow stepped out of the foliage and gestured with his hand to summon his teammates. As they began emerging in single file, the black hedgehog took note of the two guards standing watch in front of the wall they were targeting. "Generic Egg Pawns. Excellent. It should be easy enough to disable them. Silver, Blaze, go!"

Acknowledging Shadow's signal, the lavender cat leaped up into a tree and looked for a good vantage point. Once she felt she had a good shot, she looked down at Silver and nodded at him, and moments later Silver advanced on the robots. "Uh, hi, take me to your leader?"

The robots immediately made a move to contact more guards, but a giant fireball struck them from above, and less than a second later, a psychic shield appeared and surrounded the blast, keeping the sound of the explosion from being detected. "Nice work Silver." Blaze said as she hopped out of the tree, her palms still smoking from the attack. "So what's the next step?" she asked as Shadow and the others walked up to her and Silver.

"Well," Yukon stepped forward and began feeling the wall carefully. "If I read the blueprints properly, there should be a switch that'll open up the secret passage." Moments later, Yukon's eyes widened slightly, and the wall opened up, revealing an old and dusty passage. "There ya go, they don't call me Houdini for nothing." Yukon pointed at himself proudly.

"The easy part is done, now we get to the real tough stuff!" Sticks seemed almost excited at the prospect. "Those machine maniacs will think twice before attacking my friends again!"

Shadow chose to ignore the badger and nodded at his girlfriend, who immediately understood his unspoken request and nodded back, as her suit began glowing brightly to allow her friends to see. "We've made it this far, but Sticks was right. This was the easy part. Now we've gotta find a way to stay undetected. Let's go." Shadow led the team into the dark passageway, Aurora's unique photokinetic powers lighting the way for them, just enough so they could see where they were going.

As they continued, a sense of unease began to envelop the Freedom Fighters. They had yet to encounter any form of resistance, and while that could be interpreted as a good thing, they couldn't shake this feeling that something was wrong. "I understand that this was the way we wanted the plan to go, but doesn't this seem a bit too easy?" Blaze whispered.

"Maybe...we're just a lot better at this than we thought?" Silver's voice betrayed that he definitely didn't believe his own words.

"They're here...I know they are." Sticks hissed lowly, looking around frantically. "I'm not exactly sure where, but we're not alone."

"We're almost at the end of the passageway." Yukon took a few steps so that he was ahead of Aurora, but he suddenly gave a terrified yelp when he ran into something. Looking down, the Sugar Glider saw that he had merely bumped into a piece of scrap metal from one of Eggman's old badniks, and he placed a hand over his rapidly beating heart as he tried to catch his breath. "Sorry...guess I'm a little on edge." He looked up again. Then he screamed in mortal terror.

"We've been detected!" Shadow launched a Chaos Spear which struck where the heart would have been for the tall Droid soldier that had been staring coldly at them in the dark, and the former Mobian fell to the ground with his mechanical parts sparking violently from the hit. "Aurora, light up the room!"

Aurora concentrated and strengthened the output of her powers, and soon the room was bright enough that everything could be seen. "There's no one else here?"

"They will be soon, I hear them! Hundreds...thousands of 'em!" Sticks exclaimed as she stared at the ceiling above them.

"Then we've no time to waste, we must get to the vault before they do!" Blaze was about to rush forward, when she turned suddenly at the agonized cry Aurora had given out. "What's the matter?!" She looked to the ground and saw the pink hedgehog trying desperately not to burst into tears, as she was staring at the unmoving corpse of the Droid that Shadow had just destroyed. "Oh no..."

The dead Droid was quite clearly Miles "Tails" Prower.

"Uncle Tails!" Tears began to flow from Aurora's emerald eyes, as she mourned the loss of her beloved Uncle. "Why did it have to be you? Of all the Droids they had, why did it have to be you?!"

"I should've realized." Shadow cursed under his breath. "When Tails was absorbed, the Droid Hive Mind obtained all of his knowledge and all of his memories, including his knowledge of our plan to use the passageway!"

"So then they knew we'd be here!" Silver's eyes widened in horror.

"But then why send Tails down here by himself if they knew we were here? Why not bring a whole army?" Yukon wondered.

"There's no time to think! We've already spent too much time thinking!" Sticks shouted. "They know we're here? So let's stop acting like they don't! Let's storm this place!" The wild Badger gave a shrill battle cry and pulled her Bow Staff out from behind her back, and she charged down the corridor shouting expletives, which was soon followed by the unmistakable sounds of battle.

"Looks like we're doing this the hard way!" Blaze rushed forwards with Silver hovering right next to her, and Yukon followed to the best of his ability, as his speed was nowhere near that of Blaze and the flying silver hedgehog.

Shadow was about to join them when he took note of Aurora's state. The pink hedgehog was kneeling next to the body of what used to be her uncle, mindlessly staring at all the wires and gadgets that ran through and around his body. A mechanical eyepiece had been placed where his left eye used to be, and his right arm was now a form of claw with a laser at the end of it. "Aurora, we can fix this, but we need your help!" he said as gently but as urgently as he could. "If we get to the Chaos Emeralds, we can open a time portal, and reverse all of this!" he held his hand out to her. "I can't do this without you."

Aurora looked up at Shadow, then back down at Tails. Taking a moment to fold his hand and robotic arm over his wire filled chest, she got up and nodded at him. "Let's go. I want my family back."

Shadow nodded and took off running, Aurora matching him stride for stride with the speed she inherited from her father. They soon reached a light at the end of the passageway, and once they went through it, they saw the floor littered with Droids that had been knocked unconscious by their teammates. "Looks like you've got this handled."

Sticks snorted. "Like these dummy Droids had any chance against real flesh and blood!"

"Um...they used to be flesh and blood." Silver pointed out.

The badger narrowed her eyes at the psychokinetic hedgehog. "Stop trying to confuse my brain with details."

"Enough." Shadow took a few steps forward and examined the glass cases that held the Chaos and Sol Emeralds. "It won't take long for reinforcements to arrive so let's do this quick." the black hedgehog reared his fist back and shattered the glass with his punch, setting off an alarm throughout the fortress. "The alarm is moot, they already know we're here. Silver, grab an emerald!"

"This oughta slow the Droids down a little!" Yukon gave a sharp kick to the electronic panel and destroyed it, effectively locking the Droids out, at least for the moment. "I doubt that'll make a difference for long, make it fast you two!"

Shadow and Silver nodded at each other and held up a Chaos Emerald each. "Chaos Control!"

With the combined efforts of the two hedgehogs, a swirling vortex of energy slowly began to form. "It's working!" Silver cheered. But then the door burst open, sending Yukon and Blaze flying backwards, and they slammed into the wall and crumpled to the ground from the impact. Upon seeing the Droids beginning to march in, Silver stretched out his free hand and attempted to put up a psychic barrier to hold them out, but the cyborgs quickly changed tactics and started opening fire on the barrier. "I can't hold it!" Silver strained.

Moments later, the barrier shattered, and the psychic backlash sent Silver crumpling to the ground just as the time portal was finished forming. But instead of advancing, the Droids merely stepped aside and allowed something to walk past them, and the sight made Shadow, Sticks and especially Aurora tense up. "So Shadow, you've managed to avoid absorption. You always were a pest." Standing in front of them was none other than the form of Sonic the Hedgehog himself, but unlike the Droids, Sonic's body had been left unmutilated by internal or external machinery. Instead, the only sign that anything was wrong with Sonic was the glowing red eyes and the distorted voice. "I compliment you on making it this far, but you must know resistance is futile. You will be absorbed into the hive mind and serve me, and assist me in achieving my goals."

"No!" Aurora rushed over to Sonic's body before Shadow could stop her, and she stood in front of him with desperation all over her face. "Daddy it's me! It's your Tiny! Please, you've got to fight this! Don't give into Ba'Gan! I know you're strong enough to beat him!"

Ba'Gan chuckled and grinned evilly at the pink hedgehog. "There was a time long ago when that would have worked...but that time has passed. Now, there is only me." Ba'Gan took a step forward and Aurora immediately took two steps back. "Your father is gone Aurora, I am all that remains."

"I don't believe it." she dropped her head and shook it in weak defiance.

The alien creature just chuckled again and looked over at the emeralds. "This has gone on long enough." he said casually. "Now I shall capture you and have you all absorbed into the hive mind...but first, I think I'll have some fun by giving you all a beating you'll never forget...unless I want you to, that is." the emeralds began glowing black, and Aurora moaned as the negative energy began to radiate from the emeralds. "Does that energy bother you Tiny?" he asked with a condescending sneer. "I'm so sorry. I'll make it all stop soon."

Aurora growled at the now pure black-hued hedgehog that she once knew as her father. "Don't call me that ever again, only my father can call me that."

"Oh? Well in a sense, I am your father. So treat me with respect little girl!" Ba'Gan grabbed Aurora's wrist and began squeezing tightly as he lifted her into the air, and she gave a brief cry of pain from the pressure. Then the monster brought Aurora as close to his face as he could without actually touching hers. "Welcome to the family." he chortled.

"No!" Without warning, Ba'Gan was knocked back by a golden figure, and the pink hedgehog's savior caught her and gently put her down as he glared angrily at the leader of the Droid army. "Are you okay Light?"

Aurora shook her head to get her bearings, clutching at her hurting wrist as she looked up to find her boyfriend now in his golden super form, the positive energy emanating from him quickly making her feel stronger. "I'm okay, but what do we do now?"

Shadow kept his eyes locked onto Ba'Gan, who now seemed to be glaring at him despite the lack of any pupils, as customary for Sonic's dark super form. "Take the others, go through the portal, I'll hold off Ba'Gan long enough for you to escape!"

"What?!" Aurora's eyes widened in horror. "That's crazy! You can't beat them all by yourself!"

"I don't need to beat them." Shadow twisted the bracelets off of his wrists, and they fell to the ground as the golden hedgehog prepared to unleash his true power. "I just need to slow them down."

"But our plan! We need you! I need you! You'll die Shadow, please don't do this!"

Shadow looked into Aurora's pleading eyes for just a moment, and suddenly his own eyes widened in an apparent revelation. "Of course." he couldn't help but chuckle to himself. "Aurora, you have to go, if you don't, your family is doomed, and I will be too."

Before Aurora could inquire as to what his meaning was, Ba'Gan surged ahead and tackled Shadow into the wall of the vault, growling viciously at him as if he were a wild animal. "You're already doomed! I will obliterate you Shadow the Hedgehog, but not before I make you watch each and every one of your so-called friends be absorbed in the most agonizingly painful way possible!"

Instead of returning the threat, Shadow turned his head to look at his young girlfriend. "Hurry Aurora! Time's running out!" he maneuvered his arm so he could keep Ba'Gan at bay for just a moment, "I promise, you will see me again! Just go through the portal! Change history for the better!"

"No, you won't take away my victory!" Ba'Gan was about to move in to destroy the pink hedgehog, but Shadow quickly grabbed hold of the dark beast and held him tight in a headlock. "Let go of me you miserable parasite!"

"Takes one to know one." Shadow quipped with an effort-filled growl. Then he looked up at Aurora, who was gathering her friends and leading them to the portal. "You caught us off-guard once Ba'Gan, but it looks like you got more than that blue faker's body, you also got his infernal cockiness. Now, it's gonna cost you."

Only Aurora had yet to leave, and she looked over at her boyfriend who seemed to be fading fast as the removal of his power inhibitors had caused his energy to drain at a rapid pace. "Shadow..."

"I love you Aurora, promise me you'll light up the darkness when you get to the past!"

"Huh? W-What does that mean?"

Shadow grunted as he almost lost control of Ba'Gan, whose rage had kept him from realizing that his Droid army was still awaiting commands. "Just promise me Light!"

"O-Okay! I promise!"

Shadow smiled. "Good...now go!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ba'Gan finally broke free of Shadow's grip, but he was just a split-second too late to stop the pink hedgehog from diving headfirst into the portal, and it disappeared seconds later, much to the alien being's rage. He glowered at the now once again black hedgehog and picked him up by the throat, squeezing it as tightly as he could. "Your time is up, Ultimate Life Form, you have not won this battle."

Shadow could feel his consciousness fading as Ba'Gan strangled him, but despite the extreme pain, he was able to give a faint and triumphant smile just before death took hold of him. "She's safe...I've already won." With that, the Ultimate Life Form fell to the ground as Ba'Gan dropped his now lifeless body, that same triumphant smile on his face even in death. The mission had been completed.

[traxanaxanos]

Seven/Sam Wildman for the ship bingo!

Yayyy thank you!

I think about them so much, and yet it took me like three days to express anything coherently.

Really, I flip-flop on what sort of relationship between Seven and Sam is most fulfilling for me. It mainly depends on what part of Seven's actual arc in Voyager I'm most mad about that day - that the crew and the show pushes her towards romantic relationships as the end-all be-all of human relationships and necessary to being a human at all, when she's still figuring out the very basics of any sort of relationship, or that. OR. That the crew and the show pushes her towards specifically heterosexual romantic relationships as the end-all be-all of human relationships and necessary to being a human at all.

If it's the first then that justifies the "in a relationship. Not sure what the relationship is but they're in one" square, where Seven just gets absorbed into the Wildman family structure as a nebulous family member. Is she Naomi's aunt? Naomi's adopted sibling? Samantha's adopted sibling? Something unnamed and unnameable but still familial? It doesn't matter, she's just there. Samantha rolls up to Ktaris after 7 years presumed dead, and introduces her husband to their daughter and their deactivated borg drone. Don't worry about it. (Greskrendtregk is stoked on both fronts). I like this as a thematic bookend to Seven's narrative, given she pushed so hard against Icheb needing to be with his biological family who sucked and her own issues with Annika's biological family (who sucked), and the entire nature of Voyager's crew and Voyager as a show. Seven gets to find and make her own family that values her and her priorities, whether or not they are correctly "human" (read: white American nuclear family).

However, I do think I tend more towards shipping Seven and Samantha romantically, on the whole. This does still follow the trend in the above paragraph of Seven making her own way and Samantha valuing her specific choices rather than telling her they're wrong and she should really be doing x instead, only there's more kissing involved.

I like the idea that the Borg, for all their assimilation of whole cultures, are of course only interested in tech and the specific biological uniqueness of the assimilated species - information like poetic styles, linguistic uniqueness, etc, all either gets coded as junk data and retained but not prioritized, or is fully ignored/deleted. The same thing would stand for the flora and fauna of an assimilated specie's homeworld - the Borg don't care that the Brunali's homeplanet had 46 million grasshopper species or that Species 8177 had a domesticated companion animal that was some sort of native burrowing marsupial. So Seven, when she gets yanked from the hive mind, maybe retains this "junk" data, or maybe never had it, and for all she's a genius with tech and in astrometrics, life sciences don't even figure for Seven and her worldview, except as it pertains to tactical advantages.

Samantha, however, would care so much about the grasshopper species, and domesticated marsupials, and every stupid worm or ant on every Delta quadrant the Voyager has a stupid away mission to. And I like that the pairing consists of them as thematic opposites. Seven is intense and tech oriented, Samantha (from what we see of her) seems very mild-mannered and easy-going, and she's probably miserable when she has to cover a non-life sciences shift due to Voyager being understaffed. And Seven probably thinks this is odd, and an inefficient use of limited crew research for Captain Janeway to keep letting Ensign Wildman spend time documenting some weird birds they saw. But she maybe stops complaining about it, because Samantha lets her hang out with Naomi and doesn't even seem worried about her as a Borg being near her daughter, and keeps inviting her over to the Wildman quarters for dinner, and she does talk about the weird birds she's writing a report on for way too long, but Seven tracks their conversations and realizes Samantha also let her talk about a nebula they passed for about the same amount of time, and she's been tracking all her crew conversations to improve at interpersonal interactions, and the majority of the crew (96%) would have changed the subject or left at minute 13 on average, but Samantha kept prompting her about the nebula, and oh, she's looking forward to seeing her again and talking about their different interests, she even hopes Samantha will talk about the differences in feather pigmentation across bird species some more, might as well shut down that life-simulation holoprogram she's got that's not as interesting as having dinner with Samantha.

A thing I love about Seven is she hits a certain point in her development, after the Voyager keep insisting to her that non-violence should be the first step, that strangers should be met with friendliness not hostility, and the general ethical underpinnings of Starfleet, where its almost like a switch flips and Seven becomes this fairly consistent staunch defender of life (even when she's being an ass or patronizing or condescending about it). It happens with her reviving the Vaadwaur, in her hesitancy in Tsunkatse, and with Iko (albeit with some prompting). These are all obviously in relation to other people. But I like the idea of like some of this coming from her interactions with Sam who sees the value in all living things, and sees things from this big networked, ecosystem viewpoint, and extends compassion and understanding to the life of the smallest creatures, and that off-screen Seven's compassion also starts to develop more broadly due in part to her interactions with Samantha.

I think I've maybe talked around why I ship them this whole time, but to boil it down, I like that they're opposites in demeanor and interests, I like that romantic or not, it allows Seven to explore ways of being outside the priorities foisted on her by the show and its various Seven romance lines, and I like that it would mean their meet-cute is Seven barreling into Samantha having a conversation with the Doctor about Naomi's growth spurts with horrifying Borg maturation chamber facts.

[doesyourshipmakeyouabadperson]

Even if it is between an anthropomorphic mutated marsupial and his mad scientist creator?

No.

Your ship doesn't make you a bad person! Anthros are awesome!

[chanquokka]

🎵🍪🙃☕🦖 🤎

last song you listened to: becomes the color by emily wells!! obsessed w it always bcs of the lyrics and how grittily desperate that song is

if you were a cookie what kind you'd be?: how do i say i didnt realise there were cookies of different kinds bcs ive never much had them since they are not really common here until i forced myself to think logically abt it. pls assign me a cookie yourself giys apologies!!!

what’s a weird fact that you know?: that a giraffe's long necks is not the evolutionary gift for easy sustenance like one might likely believe. its there so that they can use it to beat the shit out of each other like a whipping lash when they're mad. and they must be mad a lot bcs their heads are also heavy as a club all of which is to say the thing that reels me the most here is that u can be granted upgraded weapon for limbs by mother nature if ur species as a whole show enough violent tendencies

tea or coffee?: the adhd rite of passage when u discover coffee makes u calm, anxiety less and sleepy when u try it out the first time before bed. and then u never look back

favorite extinct animal? (such cool question!!): toolache wallaby bcs they're yet another small marsupials we need more of in this world. and tasmanian wolf/tiger bcs u look at that animal and think ok it looks more like smth you'd have in ur fantasy book. which is why ofc when humans landed on australia, many cool creatures became stuff of imagination

whats the color of ur hair?: black <3

thank u for the questions jess, they were so fun!!!

ask game