#one year i'll make art. this is not that year

[ckret2]

So a while ago some friends were talking about fans who claim the Same Coin theory is canon. And I made the mistake of saying:

Do you know who also has tons in common with Bill? Mabel. Yet nobody claims Bill reincarnated as Mabel. …wait now I want a "same coin but it's Mabel" AU. Funniest Bill reincarnation option. The all-seeing arsonist is making macaroni glitter art. The omnipotent tyrant is crying because a unicorn called her a bad person.

And then I overthought it for two months.

So—AU where after death, Bill's soul shoots 13 years into the past and reincarnates as Mabel. I'll call it ✨ Sparkly Coin AU ✨

Don't leave yet. Lemme show you why it works. Behold the eerie amount of parallels in their personalities, dialogue, behavior, mannerisms, tastes...

I could have kept going but my attention span ran out. All right, we all on board now? Convinced we could segue from one personality into the other? Great. Now here's why you should be interested: the juicy post-Weirdmageddon angst potential.

As long as a small fringe of the fandom still thinks Weirdmageddon is Mabel's fault, why not amp that up x100 and have some fun with it?

Is everyone sold now? Great. Let's get into the details. I've got 8 more pieces of art under the read more.

So the AU starts the instant Bill dies. Thanks to invoking his deal with the Axolotl—one way to absolve his crime, a different form, a different time—the Axolotl gives him a new shape and shoots him thirteen years into the past. Apparently, the Axolotl thought it would be very funny to stick Bill in the family that defeated him.

Which probably made for a jarring transition.

(It's fine, she's like 10 minutes old, she probably can't even tell who she's looking at. Not being able to tell who she was looking at is what got her into this situation ayyyy)

When Dipper & Mabel come back from Gravity Falls complaining about this triangular jerk Bill, their parents mention that Dipper's name was nearly Bill. See, after they knew they were going to have a boy, one night their mom dreamed about a visitor—some kind of magic pink salamander??—calling her child "BILL." Then at the next sonogram they found out they were having twins, the girl must've been hidden at a weird angle the first time, and they wanted matching names, so they thought, Bill and Bell. But they didn't really like Bell; but eventually they stumbled on Mabel, so to keep the names matching they switched from Bill to Mason. Isn't that the darnedest thing?

(Of course, Mabel and Dipper assume Bill harassed their parents to try to trick them into naming a kid after him. To be a jerk.)

When Bill meets Mabel, he's unaware that she's his future self—Bill's notably bad at doing things like, say, double-checking to see whether he's going to die anytime soon—but like... he can tell something's up.

Naturally, before visiting Gravity Falls, there were echoes of who Mabel used to be—but nothing anyone would be able to identify without context. All her Bill-ish quirks either smoothed out with time (see: how between second grade and fourth grade Mabel went from being the "freak" to the popular girl in class), or else they were accepted by her family as Mabel-ish quirks.

After they meet (and kill) Bill, they have the context to understand some of Mabel's behaviors... and unfortunately, some of Mabel's latent Bill-ness starts surfacing after she's been directly exposed to her prior incarnation.

The part of the Pines family familiar with Bill thinks the worst case scenario is that maybe Bill's survived and is slowly possessing Mabel; but far more likely, they think this is just some weird way of trying to subconsciously process last summer. Mabel doesn't think she's being weird, you guys are being weird, stop giving her weird looks. They get attacked by one triangle and now she can't wear yellow or pick up macrame as a hobby??

(It's not all red flags and uncomfortable triangle imagery, though. When Stan asks her what she'd like as a gift for some important event, she shyly admits that she thinks she's starting to outgrow her plastic gem jewelry and maybe she's old enough to get her first piece of real gold jewelry, if that's not too expensive? And Stan's never been so proud of her. Thirteen years old and already thinking about buying gold!)

But of course, the real fun starts when Mabel finds out.

That's the face of a girl who's just discovered that she tortured her great uncle. Now imagine running into the brother she possessed.

But I've already spent a million words and thirteen images on this post. If enough folks are interested in the AU maybe I'll expand on it later. Let me know what y'all think.

[zweiginator]

hey bestie could I request patrick and art taking turns eating the reader out (or at the same time)????? feel like that would be my dream fr. love your writing!!!

OH.

patrick and arts' confidence had been struggling. they had just lost their fourth doubles match. in a row. this was uncommon--no, it had never happened before. one loss happens. two is bad luck. three is shaken confidence. but four, four becomes a habit.

and you heard their coach yelling at them after their loss. you, expecting your best friends to win, had promised to take them out for wings at their favorite bar after their win. of course, they didn't win, but their dejected little puppy dog eyes made you feel so bad. so you took them out anyway.

you would never tell them this, but they look so cute in their matching outfits. snug black shorts that hug their muscular thighs. a t-shirt adorning their beloved tennis club. art wore his ball cap backwards; patrick's was worn the normal way.

and they were so sad. barely talking to you, sighing as they sucked and bit on their wings, pushing their fingers into their mouth. you kind of just watched them eat.

and the thing about your relationship with art and patrick was that it had teetered and almost bled over the line for the one and a half years you all had been friends. nothing about your relationship was traditional. on the road, you would all share a bed. and sometimes you wore art's shirt to bed and patrick's boxers. you commented on how handsome they look multiple times a week, and laughed at how flustered they would get. the boys ogled at your ass when you played your own matches, the wind pushing your tiny skirt up as a gift to them. but you had never, ever fully committed to pushing those boundaries. none of you had ever kissed, nor had you indulged in your sexual fantasies.

but that doesn't mean you didn't have them. and you knew art and patrick talked about them when you weren't there.

so you had an idea. it was stupid, and maybe you were feeling cocky at how pathetic they looked sitting across from you in a silence that was bordering on uncomfortable. but you gave them a deal.

"your guys' confidence is wavering." you tell them, pushing your finger into their basket of wings. you suck some of the sauce off. patrick and art are listening; it's the first thing anyone has said at this celebratory-dinner-turned -depressing-pity-party. "and hey, you're both incredibly good at tennis. so it makes sense that you're this upset."

they nod, and reach for the same fry. art pushes the basket towards patrick, and he happily shoves a handful in his mouth.

"but if you sit here and let it get you down, you're both gonna get in your head and keep losing."

"how do we avoid that? it may be too late." patrick takes a sip of his drink. art has his arms crossed over his chest.

"have something that drives you to want to win so bad, that you don't have a choice but to win." you lean forward. their eyes are big and confused.

"we always want to win." art shrugs.

"and if you do," you begin. "i will give you both a present of sorts."

"which is?" patrick's interest is piqued. but you can tell he's pissed at you insinuating they don't want to win enough.

"if you win your doubles on thursday, i'll let you do whatever you want to me." you whisper it, and hear them gulp.

your promise alluded to a conversation you had overheard six months prior. you weren't even supposed to be at their apartment, but you had had a bad day and wanted to watch a movie with them. they were talking loud in the living room, and you quickly realized it was about you.

"i wouldn't purposely ruin our friendship, is what i'm saying." art said. "but if she let us fuck her--i would do it immediately."

patrick interjected. "i would do disgusting things to her. and i would let her do them right back to me. seriously, anything."

the word anything was the kicker here. because ever since that conversation, you wondered what anything would be for them. how they would fuck you. what their fantasies were.

patrick wipes his mouth with a napkin and leans forward. "both of us together? or we separately can do anything we want?"

you shrug. "whatever you both want. that's the promise. i don't have any stipulations on how it's done."

"holy fuck." art is flustered, maybe because he realizes you know he is just as perverted as his best friend.

you all shook on it, like it was a stupid bet. it kind of was.

and by thursday, you were nervous. they were playing some of the top-ranked players in the nation. of course, art and patrick had good rankings, respectively, but they had been steadily dropping down the ranks since their losing streak began.

everyone at the match was rooting for art and patrick, but they didn't expect them to win. and you didn't know what it meant for your friendship with the boys that you were on the edge of your seat with your fingers crossed, praying they would win. for you.

they came out strong, waving to the crowd, but especially to you. and when the match began, you had never seen their reflexes so fast, their hits so precise. the other boys were gaining on them, but the deep grunts coming from art and patrick, the sweat running down their necks, it all showed they wanted this so fucking bad.

they won like it was easy. of course, they had actually tried incredibly hard--but they made it look nonchalant. and they looked at you as they hugged each other, celebrating a win that signified much more than fans saw on the surface.

they decided to cash in their prize that same night. that's what they said when they came up to you, beaming. their chests heaved, but their smiles were big. and nobody around knew exactly what they meant.

so you lay on patrick's bed, in your little skirt and a tank top, resting up on your elbows so you can watch them. you notice how they are both there; they didn't decide to go separately.

neither of them really say a word at first. patrick slips one of your shoes off and art the other. they look at each other as their hands run up your bare leg, until they reach the waistband of your skirt.

"do you wanna do the honors, artie?" patrick asks.

art quickly pulls your skirt down your legs. they admire the pink lacy panties you're wearing.

"take off your shirt." art tells you.

you do, quickly. you aren't wearing a bra. their breath hitches.

"fuck me." patrick lunges forward and sucks your nipple into his mouth, his teeth grazing against the sensitive bud. art goes for your neck, pressing open-mouthed kisses along your jaw and down to your collarbones. his strong hands feel your breast. you're trying not to moan, not to give them the satisfaction that this is for anyone but them. but you do.

art returns the favor by turning your face to his. he kisses you desperately, moaning into your mouth, his spit wet on your chin. patrick feels left out. he moves up your body by kissing your jaw on the other side, before he forcefully kisses your mouth. he is hungry. at a quick glance, you see how hard they are. but they don't pull out their cocks. they don't pull your hand to feel their erections. and they don't tell you to suck them off.

ininstead,stead their mouths travel downward, each of them pulling one of your legs apart. they press sloppy kisses down your chest, licking down your stomach, until they are laying on their own stomachs, looking up at you. patrick kisses your inner thigh. he pulls your panties down your legs.

"her pussy is so pretty." art admires. they're talking like you're not even there.

"look how fucking wet she is."

your legs shake as you bite your lip.

"should we take turns, or should we share?" art asks.

patrick is greedy, and he hooks both of his arms around your legs, his hands on your ass. he presses wet, hot kisses to your cunt and licks at your clit. your hips buck, and art pushes them down, cooing in your ear. you can tell he's jealous, that he wants to help too.

"good girl." art praises. his breath feels good against your ear, and you move to kiss him, your hands tangled in his pretty blond hair.

patrick's fingers move inside you. they're fat and soaked and his tongue feels good as it moves in circles over your swollen clit.

art pulls away from your mouth and patrick pulls the hem of art's shirt.

"come taste her."

your mouth hangs open as patrick pulls his fingers from you and offers them to art. and the moan you let out as art sucks them into his mouth is fucking pornographic.

and then art's mouth is on your cunt. his fingers press into your thighs and it hurts in the best way. art is louder than you expected, and louder than patrick. he spits on your cunt and spreads it open to admire your hole, soaked and pretty for them. he hums and moans and groans into your pussy, and patrick can't take it.

so they share you. their tongues touch and their spit mixes as they eat your pussy, their hips bucking into the bed.

"tastes so fucking good." patrick moans, his thumb pushing into you.

art looks up at you, at how fucked out you look. you cum on their tongues--both of them. and you watch as they continue to lap at your sensitive clit, begging you to cum just one more time for them.

they don't want this to be over. and you think about how this was what they wanted, this is what they decided on when you gave them that choice. this was their anything.

[queensunshinee]

Time Of Our Lives || Part 17

Part 17:

The silence in Liana and Patrick's room had a static tint. Like hearing a sound from an old song over and over again but not knowing which song it is. A familiar but distant feeling. A repression that explodes in your face. Over and over and over again.

The knowledge that she was alone made it easier for her to release the tears, as if in this characterless room, in the fancy hotel, she could allow herself to be well…herself. And all she wanted right now was to lie on the bed in a fetal position and cry over the years she wasted. Over the time that won't come back. Over wrong choices. Over mistakes. Mistakes. Mistakes. So many mistakes. Why couldn't she be one of those people who shout "bingo" after exactly three rounds? Why does everything have to be complicated? Why does someone else always win?

Patrick came in late. As if he wasn’t even trying to hide what he did. Liana fell asleep easily, it was past midnight, and he expected her to be asleep. To his surprise, the light was on and Liana was packing a suitcase. "Lilo, what's going on?" He swallowed hard. He didn't see her face but his heart was racing, 'You know what's going on.' "Lilo," her voice was quiet, and sarcasm washed over her like the last of the cynics as she chuckled while repeating the nickname.

"Where were you, Patrick?" She turned to him, and he swallowed hard. She was swollen and red from crying and anger, and like always, all her emotions were displayed on her face like a billboard. He had seen her contempt for him before, but not like this. Not with such determination.

"Liana," he closed his eyes and tried to regulate his breathing. "Be a man and say it," she said, not moving, continuing to look vaguely at him, past him. He was silent. "Pussy," she rolled her eyes and went back to the suitcase. She sounded like Tashi for a moment, and Patrick wanted to die. Sweet, gentle Liana. The one who thinks eight times before saying something, sounded like Tashi. "Liana, look at me for a second. Wait a minute." He wanted to throw up. He didn’t know how to stop her anger. How to minimize the damage. How to make sure she stayed where she was. How to make sure she would let him get close to her again. "If you touch me, I'll stab you in the eye." She said with feigned indifference when she heard his steps approaching her. "Please look at me." He begged. "Liana." His voice was more authoritative, knowing she wouldn’t withstand it. That her desire to feel needed and good was usually greater than her anger. "It won't work. Not this time. Not when it comes to Tashi Duncan." She said, as if knowing in advance what his strategy would be. What he would try to do.

"Let me explain. Please." He would get on his knees if he had to. She couldn't leave this room without knowing that he loved her. That he would leave his entire life for her. As he had done once before.

"Thank God I don’t have your baby. God, what a mess would that be." She muttered to herself as she closed the suitcase. Patrick took a few steps back. "What are you talking about?" He also had tears in his eyes, and he felt like he couldn't breathe. "What the hell are you talking about? Hey, look at me!" He approached her, raising his voice with every word he spoke.

"Do you really think I would have kept your baby, Patrick? As if this whole life isn’t a mistake anyway," she shook her head from side to side, saying the most venomous and painful things she could think of. "What baby?" His voice returned to being quiet. Like a child who was promised a puppy and then told he hadn't behaved well enough. "Ask Tashi." She scoffed and walked past him towards the door.

Patrick didn't stop her.

Art couldn't look at Tashi. They were supposed to go over videos of his competitor and do a short practice before today’s game, but he couldn’t look at her, and he couldn’t hide it either. "Did you tell her?" she asked after 20 minutes of awkward silences and business as usual. "Huh?" he didn’t understand. "Liana, did you tell her?" she asked more slowly. Sometimes it took Art a moment to understand. "What did I tell her?" His heart started to race. "Oh my God, Art, you saw me and Patrick yesterday. Don’t tell me you didn’t tell her." She reacted as if it was obvious. "You saw me?" he asked. "Of course I saw you. You wore green and stood out like a traffic light." She rolled her eyes. "And you still went with Patrick." He didn’t understand.

"Oh my God, Art. Just answer me, did you tell Liana or not?" She was starting to lose patience completely. "Yes..." he turned red and couldn’t look at her, "I’m sorry, I couldn’t hide it from her, Tash-" he started a monologue, hoping it wouldn’t cost him his friendship with Tashi. He had gotten used to her presence more than he was willing to admit, and she really did make him a better player. "Good, did you seal the deal?" she asked, and he blinked at her, not understanding anything anymore.

"Tashi, what?" he asked, feeling like they were having a conversation between a deaf person and a mute one, at this point. "Art, God help me, did you fuck her?" she asked directly for a change, reaching the conclusion that she couldn’t hint at anything with him. "What? No!" he was startled by her accusation. He would've jumped out of the couch if he hadn’t been more concerned about his composure in front of her.

"Why the hell not?" she asked in disbelief. "I don’t understand this conversation." He voiced his thoughts aloud. He was maroon-colored at this point. "I made it so easy for you, Arthur, what else needs to happen for you to claim what is yours?" She looked him in the eyes and saw him swallow hard.

"Liana is not mine." He said. Loser. "She’s not Patrick’s anymore. That’s for sure." She replied. Tashi really and truly didn’t understand what was holding him back. For a year she had seen him fumbling in the dark with the girl he looked at with hearts in his eyes. A year. Who doesn’t give up after a year?! Maybe someone who carries the key to her room for five years like a pathetic fool while she’s in a relationship with his best friend. But Tashi knew more than Art. Tashi saw Liana up close as a woman sees another woman. She saw the dark circles around her eyes and the despair. She saw so much despair.

And Patrick has this ability, Tashi thinks. To be the best and the worst at the same time. Like an electric current throughout the body, there are places where it feels good and places where it burns. Patrick mostly burns. And Tashi saw Liana six months ago, almost completely burnt out. Almost begging for a lifeline.

So she gave a push. She gave a little shove in hopes that everything would sort itself out. If Art had enough balls, everything would have been sorted out yesterday, but in the meantime, everyone keeps suffering and paying for his mistakes from five years ago.

"Okay," she sighed. "Let’s go back to the video and leave this until we get back from Atlanta, alright?" she asked. "But Tash-" he tried to resist. There were so many questions on the tip of his tongue. "Art. You are going to win this tournament. You are going to be the winner of this week, do you understand me?" she asked in the most authoritative and serious voice she could find. Art had no choice but to nod.

Hey, can we talk? -Patrick-

Liana -P- Hey, not sure if you saw, but I won the Atlanta Open, wish you were here. How are you? -Art- Hey girl, you haven’t answered your phone for a few days, should I be worried? -Melissa- Liana, if you don’t answer me, I’m coming to America and staying in your shitty apartment until I grow old. -M- Patrick and I broke up. -L- Do you want me to come? -M- Always. -L- I miss you. -P- Liana. we need to talk, we can’t leave things like this. -P- Just tell me you're okay. -P- You weren’t at the construction site today, can I call you? -A- I packed all your things, when can you pick them up? -L- Liana, can we talk like adults? Please. -P- Lilo, I’m begging you. -P- Okay, tomorrow at 8 PM, is that okay? -P- Leave the key in the closet outside when you’re done. -L- You won’t be at the apartment? -P- Hey, can I come over tomorrow around 8 PM? -L- Of course. Here’s the address. -A-

Liana heard a knock on the door at two in the afternoon and got annoyed. She didn’t want to see Patrick, and they had agreed that he would come to get his things at eight in the evening. Why couldn’t he just do one thing properly for once?!

“We agreed you’d come at eight, so what the fuck is this?!” she asked as she opened the door, seeing Tashi standing there. “I decided to come early,” Tashi replied sarcastically. “Can I come in?” she asked and entered without waiting for an invitation.

Liana was dressed in an oversized T-shirt and shorts. If Tashi had to guess, and she didn’t really want to, the shirt probably belonged to Patrick. Her hair was greasy, and she looked like she hadn’t slept since Tashi last saw her briefly in Atlanta, three weeks ago.

“You don’t have a couch in your living room,” Tashi said. The small space that could barely be called a living room looked empty, filled with boxes that Tashi assumed were Patrick’s, but the absence of the couch was noticeable. “I paid the neighbor $150 to get rid of it or burn it. I don’t know. Why are you here?” Liana asked, looking at her with complete disinterest.

“You and I, we’re not friends, you remember that, right?” Tashi said. “You came to my house to tell me we’re not friends? You slept with my boyfriend, I figured out we’re not friends on my own.” Liana rolled her eyes. Indifference was the only thing evident in her voice. Maybe also exhaustion. “I just remember you sitting across from me in a café, me asking if you wanted to be friends, and you saying something like ‘God no’. We were both there, right?” Tashi reminded her of their conversation when Liana had asked her to accompany her to the clinic.

“Well done, Tashi, you did a good deed for a complete stranger, and now what? You won’t rest until we all remember that you’re actually a bitch?” Liana asked, looking at her. “Look at you, how much character you’ve developed in these weeks,” Tashi replied and chuckled. “What the fuck do you want? I’m busy.” Liana said, turning her back to her. “With Self-pity?” Tashi asked. “Do you need something? Did you come to gloat? What’s the purpose of your visit? How do we finish this faster?” Liana ignored her question.

The truth was, Liana pitied herself a lot. She had ended a relationship with someone she really loved, who had hurt her so much there was nothing left. And she probably still loved him. And she probably always would. And what did it say about her if she was willing to love someone who treated her like gum stuck to the sole of his shoe? But Tashi didn’t need to know all that.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry if you got hurt.” Tashi sighed, and Liana turned to her, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t think you’re supposed to get hurt, but I’m sorry if you did,” she added quickly. “I’m not supposed to get hurt by the fact that my boyfriend of the last four years slept with someone I trusted enough to ask for help when I had no one else to ask?” Liana asked in response. Her leg started to shake uncontrollably.

“You’re not in a relationship with me, I don’t owe you anything.” Tashi shrugged. “Do you want to hear what I think, Liana?” she asked.

“No, not really.” “I think you chose wrong. I think one of them thrives when you’re with him, and one of them withers when you’re with him. You chose wrong. And now you’re dealing with your choices. Because we both know Art worships you, and when you stand next to him, he’s the best he can be. He proves to you he’s the best he can be. He’ll be the best for you because you’re there, next to him. Watching.” She paused to catch her breath but looked at Liana with a gaze that made it clear she wasn’t finished.

“Patrick, on the other hand. He’s at his best when he needs to prove to you that he deserves your attention. The moment he got it, he lost it. He lost interest. He lost the reason to prove himself. He stopped striving higher. He wilts. You think he’s draining your will to live? Just by agreeing to be his, you took away his reason to live. It’s too comfortable for him now. He doesn’t need to impress you anymore, and who is Patrick Zweig when he doesn’t need to impress Liana Levy? A shadow of the person he was. You chose wrong, and you know it.” She finished, examining Liana, who just looked at her with tear-filled doe eyes.

“Buy a couch, Liana, or better yet, leave this shithole. It smells like mold here. Art’s apartment is nice, and I think he’d be happy to have you as a roommate.” Tashi applied what looked like hand sanitizer, patted Liana’s shoulder twice, and left the apartment.

All Liana could do was sit on the floor, crying. She didn’t have a couch to hold on to for the remnants of her self-respect.

heyyy :) kinda shorter chapter but I felt like it was a needed one. also, once again, we have more Tashi 🤭 as always, talk to me, the askbox is very open <3

taglist: @soberbabes @nina357 @lamoursansfin @marley1773 @ruyaas-world @apolloscastellan @primlovesdilfs @fangirl-kimora @serenadingtigers @imbabycowboy @do-it-for-kicks @izzywags478 @4deline08 @igotmajordaddyissues @jackierose902109 @ganana @yoitsme-04 @swetearss

[kozachenko]

(Click the image for better quality)

Yipeeee that Keiki and Mayumi fanart I posted the WIP of is finally done woooo- This piece was a very experimental one that I'm kind of OK on. Maybe because I've just gone insane looking at it for so long and I'm my own worst critic lol.

Artist's Notes;

So I've once again been playing around with my rendering style, mainly because I have been wanting to improve my lighting for a while now and as I was just scrolling through Tumblr, I saw some of the official art for that one webcomic-turned-animated-TV-Show Lackadaisy and was immediately inspired. I also have seen a technique a few times in the past where the lineart and shading are merged together, so I've been meaning to try that for a little while.

I did some experimentation on this one sketch of Keiki I posted in my sketch dump and I really liked the results of it, so I carried those over to this piece.

I ended up scaling up Keiki and Mayumi from the original WIP because I felt like they were both getting lost in the composition, and I'm glad for that because I think it works a lot better. I'm not a fan of how Mayumi's sword turned out at all, but it's not really meant to be the focus of the piece so eh. Overall, I think I could do better with my colours, probably because with Keiki and Mayumi's colours, I did them flat in greyscale and then used a brush on the overlay blend mode to colour all of them over, after which I changed the base layer for their colours from white to yellow and then lowered the opacity so it all went together better. I also decided to use gradient maps for a lot of the background elements, mainly to experiment with getting in my values first to make them pop out more. I ended up finding a really nice sky gradient on Clip Studio Paint that I really liked, and that kinda helped to establish the colour scheme of the background a lot. I think the whole "start in greyscale then colour" thing really works better with painterly styles rather than more illustrative ones, and while it is good at making sure your values are more readable, I honestly don't think I have the skill level to pull that off yet. Honestly, I think I've been looking at this drawing too long or maybe I added too much to it, but I wish I could've made the colours less monochromatic, but I'll just save that for the next piece I do.

I do love how the flame (...well it's more of a weird space rift than anything in this piece) and the lighting turned out, those were fun to do. I was initially struggling with the flame and how Mayumi is positioned in front of it before realizing "Oh wait! This is a weird abstraction of a weird creature! I don't have to follow the laws of anatomy!" and just dislocated it's flamey bottom jaw from the main body. I also changed the colours of it since I was really not liking how incredibly bright it was when it had lighter colours. Again, the gradient maps served the more painterly style of the flames well.

I also love how Mayumi turned out. I could do her sleeves better but that's more of just me needing to study how those types of sleeves fold in that position more. I'm also very happy with the posing, the technique I used for that was taking photos of myself in the positions I wanted, blocking in the silhouette and then modifying that by adjusting it to my lines of action that I drew on top of the original photos, and then sketching over the silhouettes and drawing in the shapes of the hands overtop of the photo if I needed to get the fine details right. As for what I do to take the pictures myself, I use a tall chair I have, prop up my phone with a phone stand, put on a ten second timer and scramble to get in position. Yes, I did have to use a bunch of thin markers I had to try and get the hand positioning on Keiki's pose right, yes I do have a fake sword that I used to get the positioning of Mayumi's arms and hand right, the sword was for an old Halloween costume from several years ago. I really like how both Keiki and Mayumi turned out in this drawing, I'll have to play around with these designs for them more in future drawings.

Also, if you wanna know why I draw buildings like that, when I watched Fantasia 2000 as a kid (One of the Disney movies where they make really beautiful animations to classical music) the way they drew the buildings in the first few sections Rhapsody in Blue segment (the jazz one with the cities) changed my brain chemistry and now whenever I need to draw buildings really quickly, I refer back to that. Since the buildings aren't really the main subject, I didn't put much thought into them.

As you can tell I am very tired of this piece, mainly because I made things harder for myself by overcomplicating the process compared to what I usually do, mainly with the whole "starting in grayscale then adding colour." I'd honestly just prefer having a black layer set to colour that I can just toggle on and off when I need to see the values, but it was good to experiment. And that was mainly the point of this whole drawing, to experiment. I'm definitely going to have to play around with this new style I'm going for, mainly because I liked how it turned out a lot in the augmented Keiki sketch, and also because I want to find ways of making it suit my style more. I also really want to keep experimenting with my lighting like this, it's very fun. Last but not least I am never starting in greyscale again because dear god I do not like the workflow it forced me into. I don't have a problem with the method itself it's mainly just a skill issue lol.

If you wanna read my headcanons for these two, I put them in my WIP post, so you can read them there if you want to. The more I look at this the more I prefer the simplicity of my WIP. I might go back to this and just take away the fancy colours and effects to see what it looks like without all of that stuff and reblog this post with that drawing, but for now, I don't think I can look at this drawing again for a while.

[erinwantstowrite]

Let me just quickly say, cross-overs can sometimes get REALLY difficult to map out and write in a cohesive way but you have absolutely NAILED IT!! I absolutely ADORE LoF!!! I usually don’t even bother reading fics with the ‘Richard Grayson is Richard Parker’ premise cause I felt like they were super confusing and overcomplicated but this fic?? SUPERB. ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. OH MY GOD I ADORE IT. Everyone’s characterizations are so nice and wonderful aaaaaaah!!!! <33333

Ok ok I did actually have a question as well: would you be willing to share what your writing process looks like in terms of a chapter you’ve already posted? I was just wondering since I’m also currently working on my own fic (it’s been a few years but I managed to get fixated on an idea and it grew legs lol) and I’m currently fighting the organization of it haha.

How do you keep track of the plot points and/or foreshadowing you want to get a ‘lightbulb!’ moment for later? Do you have any tips?

Thank you so much! I absolutely adore your writing AND your art is so gorgeous omg it adds so much to the incredible story :DDD I hope you have a good day!!

I have a secret: I actually didn't like "Richard Grayson is Richard Parker' tag for a while for the same reason. Sometimes they felt like they missed the mark or it's just. A thing that's there? I almost didn't include it for LoF, but I'm glad I did because it changed the direction in such a big way.

Another secret: this made me incredibly happy because I have read so many wikis and scoured the internet to make sure that I had enough info on both fandoms so LoF could make sense to anyone who's reading it, whether they know Spider-Man, Batfam, or neither at all. Sometimes I worry a lot before I post that I'll miss a mark and will confuse people.

As for the question: I definitely am willing to share what my writing process looks like!

Be prepared for under the cut, I love to yap. It's in my blood to yap. And that's why it took a minute to get to this ask haha

(Spoilers for Leap of Faith!! Everything mentioned has already been published ((Chapters 1-11))

I had to go and find out which chapter I wanted to use as an example and I think we're gonna go with Chapter 5 for the most part :)

My writing process is, as described by alighterwood:

I think the description fits because while I'm all over the place, I have to be very detail oriented and I store everything in one spot.

Starting with the overall process, what I find is most helpful for me, when organizing, is having a notebook rather than doing it all digitally. I've been using a 70 sheet notebook that I had lying around waiting to be used, and as of yesterday, I officially filled the entire thing front to back. It's been an incredible help, for a lot of reasons, but mostly because it's a lot easier to remember something I physically wrote down than it is to remember something I typed. I'm now on to my second notebook for LoF, and I might even have to get a third.

In another ask, startupkat asked me this:

And I shared a little about my outline process there, but I'll try to go into a little more depth here. Emphasis on little because this is so long.

I write a truly insane amount of outlines in this notebook.

This is just what I can show you, but a good chunk of the notebook is just outlines. Over and over and over again. That's because they're always changing/adapting based on so many different factors. Sometimes I get to a chapter I thought I had fully planned out and then realize it just doesn't work anymore. Other times, I get to the chapter and realize I don't want to write that anymore/isn't as interesting as I thought it would be. A few times I got halfway through a POV of a scene I was struggling on and decided to switch POV's, which will change up the outline for a chapter every now and then.

Which is why I don't write incredibly detailed outlines and try to keep it vague until I actually get to that chapter. It's a lot less daunting to rewrite a chapter outline than it is to rewrite the entire outline.

Fic outlines and Chapter outlines look a lot alike.

This is what I said in the other ask, but I didn't elaborate on it all the way.

I make a list just like that, and then I try to put it in chronological order/in an order that makes sense. I keep the Fic outline vague by writing down "Goals" for a chapter rather than scenes. But I also keep notes to myself if I really think something is important. The more important I think a scene needs to be, the more details I write down to make sure my future self recalls what I had in mind when I thought it up.

Really simple example:

Chap 1 Goal: Peter gets to Gotham and meets Babs while running around. Meet Nightwing too? Get shelter.

Chapter 2 Goal: Bats are like "???" about Peter. Batfam dynamic important... Peter stalking Batfam back? Peter meet Batman >:)

When I get to a chapter, that's when I make a far more detailed list of wants/needs/goals. It's the Step 2 from the Step 1. Here are some examples from Chapter 5:

Needed to have:

More POV's from universe 1299 (Peter's home universe)

Tony's POV more specifically, how he's doing/feeling, what he's figured out

What they've figured out on 1299 side vs what's going on in 1300 (Gotham)

Explaining more about Peter's trauma/his past

Dick learning more about Peter, and vise versa

Wanted to have:

Ned being a more central character

Natasha :)

Loki being a little shit

Tony and Cap bickering

Peter talking to Nightwing again

The last name Grayson

Gymnastics!!

(This is the shortened list, because the chapters are so long)

When I looked at this list before writing my outline, I had to figure out how I could incorporate everything. If I needed more 1299 POV's, and I wanted Ned, Natasha, and Loki, there's one scene accounted for. I had to get their side of things and wanted that trio together. I needed a Tony POV, and I wanted Tony and Cap bickering, so those went together, plus I got 1299's POV of Ohnn and his plans explained.

I needed to have Peter explaining more about his trauma, and Dick and Peter to talk/get closer. I wanted a Nightwing POV, to have Peter say his last name, and them doing gymnastics. I knew Peter wouldn't willingly talk about that, so I had him have a nightmare. Not only did it give readers perspective but it made Peter more susceptible to talking to Nightwing because he was more emotionally vulnerable/lonely, and that's how that scene came together.

That's when I would write down the chronological order of these events by writing out "Scene Blocks." (This is what I wrote down but my handwriting was so bad I can't subject y'all to it):

scene 1- Ned talking to Loki. Natasha should be nearby and observing Loki's behavior. They are not on friendly terms. Ned is more worried about Peter than he is as to what Loki could be up to, so Natasha takes on that role.

scene 2- Tony is freaking out about Peter being in an alt dimension. He should attack Ohnn when he's not prepared for it. Beat his ass? Beat his ass. Cap there too.

scene 3- Peter's nightmare. "Ben, where do you go when you die?" "Where do you think?" "With you. Where you went."

scene 4- Nightwing and Peter.

Of course, things come to attention when writing. Like originally, Tony and Cap were arguing in the Tower. But it was a little too much like his and Natasha's argument, and I kept in mind that Tony is smart. Sometimes I forget that the characters are smarter than I am, so I have to account for what they would figure out. So Tony would have picked up the puzzle pieces and come to more conclusions than I originally thought about, and I figured he'd be way more proactive about it than just. Being in the Tower and waiting.

Which means that that scene ended up being as listed above: having a squabble with Cap, learning more about Peter's dynamic with the Avengers in this universe, and seeing how Tony is reacting to it by throwing himself head first into trying to capture Ohnn.

I'll realize I need something else to be mentioned or put in and I'll have to shimmy things around, but that's basically how it goes.

As for other forms of organization:

Keeping a timeline is so important because it tells you a lot about the environment your characters are in. It's also important to remember what a character has on them, what money they've spent, who they've met/who you have mentioned, every alias that is being used, to read your work and write down edits you want to make before you make them, to write down ideas beforehand of situations you can use, and, most importantly: MAKE A MAP!! This has saved me so many times. Sometimes your brain WILL trick you or make it harder on you to envision a scene. Make a map of where your characters are physically!! It will save you too!!

As for foreshadowing and plot points, I'll let you in on yet another secret:

Your subconscious is doing a lot more than you think it is.

Sometimes when I foreshadow something, I didn't even know I was until I got to it. I very often go back to read chapters that came before this to see what I've mentioned and what I haven't, and when I do, I'll see something and go "I have to bring this back" or "I almost forgot about that!"

Other times, I am very aware of what I'm foreshadowing, and that's because I follow a mystery plot formula. You have to keep in mind everyone's intentions, all the time. How are they feeling? What are their motivations? And: what are they doing right now, while this character is doing this?

Like Beck and Ohnn. From the very beginning, I knew I had to make sure that it was obvious Ohnn wasn't working alone. From there, I had to weave through the story and slowly build him up as someone who's working behind the scenes. Even from Ned's first POV, I made sure to mention that this person knows Tony and is tech savvy.

My biggest tip is to make sure you reread your work or at least skip through it, because sometimes you don't even know that you placed something there.

And sometimes, it's very purposeful. :)

I hope this helped! I really tried to keep it short but I am insane and the process is sooooo long. It sounds complicated but it really is simple when you're actually doing it I swear

[shepherds-of-haven]

I've been wanting to ask this for a while but this story has stayed in me and my bff heads for literal years (this rarely happens)

How did you learn to write!? This is like a brainworm that won't leave. Sometimes I'd lay in bed and remember something from this story. It'll flash before my eyes like a mirage

You're magical wtf. Tell me your writing secrets.

This is one of my favorite messages! 🥹 You have no idea how gratifying it is for a writer to hear their story has taken up residency in someone else's head :') Thank you so much for the lovely message!!!

I learned to write the conventional way, I think: by reading my Favorite Things voraciously, and then chipping off little bits and fragments of them to plant in my own garden, where they mutated into their own variants and permutations over time. (This was everything from fantasy novels to manga to fanfiction to story-heavy video games and martial arts films, by the way, all of which you can see flavors of in Shepherds.) After that, it's just a matter of time, practice, and persistence!

For the sake of answering your question fully, though, I'll note that I did attend writing workshops at different colleges from a young age, then got my undergraduate degree in Creative Writing, then my MFA in Fiction, then taught writing at the university for a handful of years. But I don't want to make this sound like a deterrent of any kind! I genuinely think you don't need any of that to write or to be good at writing (I am also somewhat notorious in my programs for having stubbornly done my own thing for years and not really incorporating anything from my coursework into my writing, haha). But writing is truly special in that I think a lot of fiction from "amateurs" or hobbyists with no special background or degrees in writing can far surpass published works from established academics and professionals. So I don't think the path I took was necessary to learning to write at all: in fact, I think it can sometimes be dangerous, which is a ramble for a whole other day.

But my writing secrets? Patient and diligent practice. Absorbing and observing the writing you want to emulate, figuring out what about it you like and what speaks to you and how to replicate it in your own work. And! Telling a story that you are excited about, even if that's not the consensus from other people. The passion and love you have for a story will always shine through, whereas it will always be equally obvious if you're listlessly toiling away on something that fits others' desires, but not your own vision.

I hope that answers your question, or helps anyone else who's been thinking about writing out there! And thank you so much again for your lovely message!

[wolfinitethewolf]

It's here!

Alright! After a long time I can reveal my fic for @sthbigbang, Memories in the Sky!

Really hope you'll all enjoy it, and a really big thanks to the amazing artists who've all done an amazing piece for it! Please do go and check them out! I'll be rebloggin' their amazing work here, but I declare that you go and see it yourself! Actually, another thanks to 'em for putting up with how long it took for me to actually finish it, :D Asides from that, here is the lovely talent behind the amazing artwork for this:

@fleetways Their art @grimly-arts Their art @bittersweet-cj Their art

Heres the link to the AO3 version: MEMORIES IN THE SKY

But if you wanna read it here, a small summary, and under the cut shall be the fic itself :D

Sonic and Tails have had many adventures over the few years that they've known each over. Of course, when you have so many battles, even the painful, adrenaline boosting, and heartfelt battles are easy to move on from.

After battling against Dr. Eggman once again, the classic duo Sonic and Tails sit down together to catch a break and relax. However, as the two look up to the sky, some certain star formations begin to emerge, alongside with a few of their past adventures.

For the STH Big Bang 2024!

Sonic and Tails were sitting together on top of one of the many floating platforms that occupy green hill. Some stray blades of grass were gently blowing in the breeze. The sun was setting, casting its final orange light over the sea right before Sonic and Tails’ eyes. The stars were beginning to come out as the darkness rose over the horizon.

“Haha that was fun, wasn’t it lil’ buddy?” Sonic turned his head towards Tails, smiling in joy at the thrilling conclusion of another battle. “Yeah! Eggman stood no chance! Not when we are both around!” Sonic laughed, sitting up straight, shuffling the grass underneath him. “Haha, right you are! Besides, a few bots is nothing compared to literally anything else you and I have taken down without a problem!”

Tails gives Sonic a cheeky grin. “Oh really? You sure nothing at all has been a hassle for you?” Sonic grins, crossing his arms. “I am certain of it! Nothing can beat me! Now or ever!” After giving his statement, he picks up a blade of grass and fiddles with it in between his fingers.

As the two had their conversation, the sun was finally out of view. Only black with various shades of purple behind the many stars sitting in the sky. Time seemed to freeze, with Sonic and Tails being the only ones still moving and awake.

“Well… What about that time when Knuckles one shot you and took all the Chaos Emeralds?” Sonic gave a short laugh. “Well to be fair, I did not use them as much as I do now. Also he got me by surprise really…” Tails rolled his eyes. “Ok… What about the various races you lost to Jet?” “Hahaha I won a lot more races than he did! Besides, I was letting him win. After all, gotta let him think he won something.” Tails looks over at Sonic with a doubting look. “Ok. Then what about Mecha Sonic? That was more recent.” “C’mon, I had a broken ankle, you can’t count that! Also to make it fair, didn’t you also lose to him when trying to save me?” Sonic grinned, jabbing an elbow at Tails too quick for him to block with either of his tails.

“Haha, well why don’t you ask Mecha what he has to say about that?” Sonic lowered his eyelids. “Ehh, don’t want to bother him, y’know?” Sonic let go of the blade of grass he was playing with, letting it glide through the air into the ocean below them. “Whatever you say…” Just as Tails was about to add on something else, he held his breath, lowering his ears slightly. Changing his mind on whatever he was about to speak.

“Hm? Tails, you all good?” Tails perked back up. “Yeah! I’m all good!” Sonic gave a doubtful look, but moved on anyway. Tails closed his eyes, relaxing and enjoying the quiet.

The stars began to shine and sparkle, illuminating the night as the clouds covered the moon in a blanket.

“Heh. Hey Tails, don’t you think those stars over there look like the Chaos Emeralds? Like, the basic outline of them.” Sonic held a finger up to a group of stars, as Tails opened his eyes and followed where he was looking. “Huh, I guess they do kinda look like them…” Sonic and Tails stare at them in silence before Sonic speaks up. “They sure have come in handy, huh? I mean, we’ve done so much with them! Took down Eggman with them, multiple times may I add. Chaos, Time Eater, Dragon looking Metal Sonic- twice, all the Titans and the End on Starfall Island, and got rid of the Metal Virus! That's just to name a few!” Sonic had both hands on his hip, grinning in pride looking at Tails.

“Well yeah, but- wait, most of your victories were won due to the Chaos Emeralds! So you did technically get help after all!” Tails grinned at Sonic, mimicking what Sonic was doing and placing his hands on his hips in a similar manner. They both sat there in silence for a brief moment before Sonic came up with a response. “Well I mean, who wouldn’t want to fly around golden and all? C’mon, admit it, it's super cool. Pun intended.”

Tails gave Sonic an annoyed look. “First. You did need them. There is no way you would have otherwise. Second. Yeah, it is really cool. Third, That was a really bad pun. I would give that a 2/10.” Sonic gave Tails a dramatic response, pulling a “disheartened” face and resting his palm on his head. “Oh c’mon. That's quite the harsh review. I guess I’ll never do a pun ever again. This world is too cruel to say anything without judgment!” Sonic fell back onto the grass. “I guess that's the end of Sonic. His true enemy is a bad critic review.”

Sonic closed his eyes and smirked. “A bad critic review indeed.” Tails flicked a round stone at Sonic, landing on his forehead. Sonic got up, the stone falling back onto the ground from where Tails picked it up. “Ah. Enough of that. Truth is I am glad to have your help. You, Knuckles, Amy, heck even Shadow! You are all my friends! There is no one else I’d rather have my back than you all!”

“I knew that. Just waited for you to admit it.” Sonic gave a small laugh, smiling. “Ah well. You win some and you lose some.” Just as Sonic said that a stray leaf glided in out of nowhere and smacked itself into Sonic’s face, catching him off guard. Just as quickly as it landed, it took off, following the breeze. Sonic and Tails sat there for no less than a second before going into a fit of laughter, despite it not overall being that funny to begin with.

“Woah! Look at the ocean!” Tails joined in with Sonic gazing at the sea to see the beautiful sight of the stars reflected by the ocean's surface, with various ocean life illuminated underneath submerged by water. “Wait, aren't you supposed to be afraid of water?” Tails gave Sonic a sly side glance. “Well when I am in it. I mean, it can be beautiful. But from afar, and not too close to me…” Tails snickered. “I mean, you say that while we are sitting on a small floating platform almost right above the ocean…” Sonic wrapped one arm around Tails’ shoulder. “Ahh shut it you. You’ll make me wanna run off.” “Don’t be dramatic…”

Sonic and Tails continued to admire the stars as Tails decided to turn Sonic’s earlier comment into a game of sorts. “Look! Don’t those stars look like Trip’s helmet! When you look at it reflected in the water!” Sonic pointed his head downwards. “Yeah they do buddy!”

Sonic picked up a stone off the ground and skilfully tossed it at the ocean, as it skipped across the sea. “The highlight of it all was I remember in Cyber Station when Knuckles knocked me down a platform and sent me flying! Man, now that I think back on it that happened quite a bit, with you having to catch me. Heh. What fun…” Tails gave Sonic an irritated look. “I am pretty sure that was you being stubborn and just leaping before you looked, which then led me to having to catch you…. Quite a few times…” Sonic shrugged. “Eh, same story…”

“Well what about in Speed Jungle when you ran off so fast you were stuck having to beat that robot at the end of the zone all by yourself? You were having a hard time until me, Amy, and Knuckles arrived.” Sonic held a finger up to his chin, rethinking the scenario. “I don’t believe that exactly happened. More like that Knucklehead could not keep up…” As Sonic said that he tossed another stone at the sea, skipping like the previous one. “Oh yeah? You sure about that? Why don’t you sit back and think for a minute?” Tails questioned, as Sonic sat there with his arms folded, reimagining the event.

Sonic had blazed through the jungle, scattering vines, fog, and leaves everywhere. He skillfully jumped in between platforms or walls, not coming to a halt for even a mere second. While he was having a fun time, the rest of his crew was not.

Tails, Amy, and Knuckles were trying their best to keep up with their blue friend, as he left them behind in the dust. It was very easy to see where he was going due to his speed leaving quite the trail behind him. Vines he used to get across were still swinging, wooden bridges still swaying wildly.

“Sonic! Wait up!” Tails cupped his hands around his mouth in an attempt to make himself louder. However, the hedgehog was either ignoring him, or was too far ahead to hear anything the group was saying. Tails spinned his namesakes faster, in hopes of catching up. “Sonic!”

After many failed attempts to catch up, the trio came to a halt to catch their breaths. Amy had her hands on her knees, Tails was gasping for air, and Knuckles stood there, not out of breath but irritated about being left behind. Amy let out a sigh of defeat. “Why does Sonic keep running off like that?” While she finally had the chance to stop running, she picked out stray twigs from her quills and dress, scratches all over her.

Knuckles had his nose to the ground, not saying anything more than a grunt, leaning up against a tall and rounded off rock. Tails was sitting on the ground plucking out all the twigs tangled in his tails’ fur, mattered and rough. “Hopefully he’ll be alright until we reach him…” Amy said as she sat down to catch her breath.

The sound of leaves crunching and twigs snapping echoed around as the blue blur slowed to a walk when in a darker space. Of course, he was speed walking. But nonetheless walking. There was only a little light source guiding him. Only just enough to see his own hands and legs in front of him. For the most part he was feeling his way around.

The jungle surrounding smelt damp and moist; thick warm air making it somewhat hard to breathe. As Sonic guided himself using the smooth stones and rough bark of the trees, he saw a small light up ahead. Getting excited, he dashed forward, finally about to get out. But just as he was halfway there, he tripped over a loose stone, which sent him flying into a vine, launching him upwards as he smacked himself into an overhanging platform. The sound of stones cracking against each other rang out as pebbles and dirt fell alongside Sonic.

Sonic fell with a thud. He got up and tried wiping away the dirt that had gotten into his eyes. He shook any remaining dirt and stones that had gotten stuck to him. Coughing out what had gotten into his mouth, he went at a steady pace towards the exit, rubbing his watering eyes.

Stumbling over his own footing as he readjusted to the dark terrain, eyes still watering, he finally made it out of the dark space, sneezing out the dust that had gotten up his nose. “Gah!” He had to shield his eyes as he stepped out into the sunlight. Shaking it off, he sprinted forwards, only to immediately bump into something cold and smooth. A badnik. It was shaped as an egg, (to no one’s surprise) and had two robotic arms coming out of it.

Sonic grinned, standing up straight as he dashed forwards, trying to get a hit only for it to grapple the above terrain and lift itself up much too high for Sonic to reach. As it gripped the branches of some trees and vines, some fell down gently onto the ground, which would include an oversized leaf falling onto his face, blocking his view.

Unfortunately for Sonic, that was much more than enough time for the badnik to throw itself back onto the ground and send a nasty hit right at him with one of its arms, sending Sonic soaring through the air, rings scattering across the ground. He hits the side of some terrain, cracking the wall underneath him as he tumbles amongst chunks of earth, crunching, sliding and cracking. He lands on his chest, getting buried alive.

Before Sonic could even get out of the rubble, he was grabbed with force and slammed into the ground. A web pattern formed underneath him in the terrain as it cracked open, dust and dirt flying up into the air. Sonic trembling, tries to get back up only for a flurry of hits to keep coming at him. The smell of dust and earth becoming more clear with each his as the sound of earth splitting apart booms through the jungle.

Amy was fidgeting with her hammer while Knuckles and Tails sat together resting up a bit before some loud sounds burst out from up ahead. Clearly Sonic got himself into trouble. “Looks like he needs our help again…” Knuckles mumbled out as he started to walk forward, with Amy getting up to follow along. Tails was already spinning his tails madly, trying to reach Sonic as fast as he could. “Tails wait!” Amy called out as her and Knuckles followed along, the three following the sounds of earth shattering.

Sonic was receiving hit after hit, sending him further into the ground as the small crater in the ground got deeper and deeper. It felt as if in slow motion that a window opened; astray grass speeding through the wind came to a halt, the dust and debris froze, and the robot paused. Quickly, Sonic curled up into a ball, spinning as fast as he could.

The robot sent another hit, however that would be its downfall as once it made contact with the hedgehog, its arm was sawed clean off, sparks and metal flying through the air with a loud screech. An upside for Sonic which he was not prepared for was that the pressure from the hit also sent Sonic flying out of danger, like a slingshot. Still curled tightly in a ball, he cleaved a line of trees right in half until he landed harshly into the ground.

Sonic got up almost in an instant, ignoring the pain all over his body and the sharp ringing in his ears and pumped his fists into the air, happy that he disabled one arm. He sped right back to the fightzone, ready to hit it again when another arm took place of the damaged one and hit Sonic midair. Sonic let out a startled yelp as he was hit once again, tumbling through the ground.

By now due to all the attacks on the poor terrain, there was a very thick cloud of dust going through the air, which was making Sonic’s throat dry and giving him the urge to sneeze more and more. Determined to win, Sonic leapt at the robot once more, attempting to smash clean through another arm.

Carefully navigating the dark, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles safely made it to the exit, where they could already see that quite the fight was going down. Debris was soaring everywhere, a thick coating of dust was making it harder to breath in the area, and the ground was trembling wildly. To top it off, the group could hear Sonic’s iconic spindash bouncing off metal and making an impact in the ground. “We have to help him!” Amy shouted out over the chaos as she grabbed her piko piko hammer out and charged forward, as Knuckles and Tails followed into the battle.

Sonic could not even see where he was going anymore; there was too much dust and dirt fogging the field. While stumbling around to get his footing he was getting attacked from every direction and slammed back into the ground. It was getting far too intense for him to deal with at this rate, with the ground looking like a minefield, and the wildlife facing the consequences. Just as the robot prepares for another blow, it’s knocked right over, landing in one of the many craters in the terrain below, dense, hollow metal making a low clang as the ground shifted beneath it.

“There you are.” Knuckles made his way towards Sonic, head turned down. “Look what happens when you run off.” Amy ran into the scene, treading lightly over gaps in the ground or smoking pits. “Knuckles, don’t be like that, just help him up.” Knuckles grunted in response, waving his arm through the thick smoke as he went to lift Sonic up. However, his arm was shoved aside as Sonic struggled to get up himself, coughing out smoke that he had inhaled during the fight.

As he stood up, shaking under the pressure of the cuts and bruises he had received from the attacks, he turned to face Knuckles, annoyed with the idea of needing help. “M’kay, dealt with worse.” Once up he shook his head and body off, as stones and debris rolled off and clattered on the ground. Coughing too much, he gestures with his hand to the robot getting back up.

Gears and metal clacked together as the metal frames grinded in its strain to get back up. A curved, smooth dent in the side of its body from the hit Knuckles delivered. Lighting up its eyes, the engines whirred loud and fast, as it prepared for the new opponents.

Amy sprinted ahead, mad at it for harming Sonic. Before she could get a swing with her hammer however, the robot grabbed an overhanging tree that had been knocked right down and lifted itself up high, far out of reach from Amy. “Hey, that's not fair! Get back down here!” Amy pouted helplessly as she stared furiously at it.”Tails! Lift me up there so I can give him a taste of my hammer!” However, Tails was instead gazing up at it with a finger up to his chin, lost in thought.” Sonic dragged his right foot through the rubble, the terrain crunching with each step. He put a hand over his friend's shoulder and tilted his head. Tails looked at him, his tails swaying softly in the dirt, dust sticking to his fur and glinting in the lighting. “I think I-”

Tails was pushed out of the way by Sonic when one of the arms launched at them. More dirt flying into the air and all over the group. Tails had protectively shield him and Sonic with his namesakes in reaction to the sudden movement. All the fur on his tails became rough and mattered, feeling like cotton candy as more dirt clung onto them.

Knuckles’ eyes lit up in rage as he lifted up a chunk of rock and threw it at the badnik’s arm, snapping it as the sound of static popping and crackling rang out. The rest of the arm hangs limp, shards of metal falling onto the rest of the arm like rain; static springing out of both ends. It retracted the arm as two new ones took its place.

“Great! How do we disable this thing!” Knuckles clenched his fists and glared at the badnik with pure rage. Another arm launched itself at where Sonic and Tails had landed, as they narrowly dodge it by a hair, jumping opposite directions. Recoiling the new arm fast, as it snapped back to its base.

Amy, Knuckles, and Sonic start dodging the fast attacks, rolling out of harm's way. However, Tails was focusing on the robot more, analyzing its movements. Everything was moving in a pattern for him. Seeing outcomes and logic to use against it.

Sonic was running as best as he could, due to the beating from before. However, his shoe skidded across a loose stone, and he face planted into a deep crater. Seeing another arm target him, he rolled onto his side just in time. The gears clicked over and over as it struggled to pull the arm back. Tails looked closer, and saw what had happened. Because of the crater taking in a lot of damage, there was still loose rubble and terrain that was barely holding up at the edges. So when the arm had dug itself into the ground with force, all that rubble had come down and buried the arm.

The only downside to that was that Sonic had not rolled fully out of the crater, and had his left leg and arm buried. Tails knew what to do. “Knuckles! Climb up the arm and attack the robot from where you impacted it before!” Knuckles nodded, not hesitating for a second, stumbling in small gaps or indents in the ground.

Gripping onto the cold, silky surface of the arm, he dragged himself upwards, digging the tip of his shoes into the small gaps so he did not slide or slip. As the badnik tried to free itself, shaking and jolting, Knuckles pressed himself closer, so he would not go free falling with every movement.

He got higher and higher to the base, his leather shoes squeaking with every step, it became easier to move up, as the base was more stiff and solid unlike the middle and end where it's unstable. Almost able to stand, he started to run up, seeing the small dent on the side of it.

Jumping into the air, he threw a huge hit at the mark, a loud boom as a giant hole revealed gears and wires, metal sheets rattling inside it, resting at the bottom.. Static popped as the robot's arms stopped moving. Knuckles seeing it shut down gilded off it, gracefully landing on the damaged ground as the robot creaked and loosened its grip on the above canopy. Falling with a massive thud that shook the nearby ground, the lights illuminating the eyes dimmed.

Knuckles grunted, as Amy and Tails helped get Sonic’s limbs out of the rubble. “Well that takes care of it.” Brushing off dust, he made his way to the three and grabbed Sonic with one hand, lifting him out without any effort. “This is what happens when you run off. Next time, wait.” Knuckles left it at that and turned his back away, waiting for what they would do next.

Tails ran in front of Sonic, worried. “Are you alright Sonic, that looked like a pretty nasty beating…” Sonic merely closed his eyes and grinned, holding a thumbs up to his pal, assuring he was ok. Sonic then gestured to the path ahead, ready to move on.

Relaying the memory, hand cupping his mouth, he turned to Tails, as his buddy finished ‘correcting’ what Sonic had ended on. “Well I don't remember Knuckles having to step in. Are you sure you remembered that correctly?” Tails rolled his eyes, knowing that Sonic was just lying to keep up his ego. “Regardless, you needed our help when you faced it off alone.” “Ehhh, I think I still had dust in my eye…” Tails laughed it off. “Whatever you want to believe, since I’ll have the correct memory here.” Tails tapped his forehead, taunting Sonic with the fact that he was very much going to bring it up another time.

“Actually another thing I really remember was that giant dragon thing!” Tails shifted. “Do you mean Trip’s superform, or the one you fought?” Sonic picked a stray quill out of his head. “The giant purple one. Don’t really remember much of it now, since it was a while ago, but yeah.” Sonic flicked the quill out of his hand, falling into the ocean with a small splash. Sonic slouched over a little, resting his face in his hands.

Tails gave Sonic a confused stare for a solid 10 seconds. “You mean to tell me you remember Speed Jungle more than something you fought in your superform?” Sonic laughed, his warm breath visible in the cold, sharp air. “Yeah. Wasn’t the coolest thing I fought…” Tails still in disbelief moved on, thinking about how Sonic could forget that so easily.

A cold sharp breeze blew by, raising the fur on Tails’ back. He wrapped both of his tails around his torso. Sonic sat back upright. “Gettin’ pretty cold, huh?” Tails’ ears perked up a little. “No, just a cold breeze. Nothing much…” Sonic looked down at the sea, and behind him at the terrain. “Well I mean I would get something warm like a blanket, but we are sitting on a platform high up so…” Tails glanced down at the scenery below. “Nonono it’s fine! Like I said, just a small breeze.” Sonic shrugged. “Eh, if you say so…”

As the night went on, a small, thin sheet of fog covered the ground and sea, made visible by the various lighting all around. Only just visible.

“Oh Tails, don’t you think that looks like Chaos when he consumed all the Emeralds” Tails corrected Sonic, unfolding his Tails from his body. “You mean Perfect Chaos?” Sonic rolled his eyes at the correction. “Same difference…” “No not really…” Sonic folded his arms. “Moving on from that…” Tails sighed.

“Man, now that I think about it, Chaos did a heck lot of damage. Like, he tore down all of Station Square, huh?” Tails drew in a breath. “I mean, he was like, very big and the flooding did not help. He also drained all the Chaos Emeralds too.” Sonic and Tails both visualized that very event, looking up into the stars as if they were watching the event right before their eyes.

Everything was in ruin. Towers and skyscrapers had tilted over and banged into other buildings, causing collateral damage. Flames from gas stations and electronics flickered and spread, smoke rising through the air and making it hard to breathe or see, as it burned everyone's eyes.

Lights from street lamps and stores flickered on and off, reflecting in the rising water. Streets and pathways had crumbled and caved in, sinking beneath the water. Car alarms were blaring all around, making a loud and distressing sound. However, above all was the deep, piercing roar that Chaos let out as he laid waste to anything still standing, turrets of water blazing through the streets.

G.U.N helicopters circled around, whirring and piercing through the wind.Attempting to disarm the creature, they had sent missiles and rockets at it, screeching as they sped past. No explosions or bangs were heard however as they did no damage to the creature made of water, sinking down to the base of him and floating out to sea.

Finding the attackers, Chaos sent sharp and precise jets of water at the vehicles occupying the skies, cutting clean through. Each one making a loud bang or pop as they all blew up, whatever was left of the frame falling into the water or structures and causing further damage.

Everyone was screaming and running in terror, hiding in toppled buildings that could no longer fall, or evacuating the area, footsteps rippling the water.

However, a few did not flee; standing on a fallen road was Sonic, watching Perfect Chaos continue his reign of terror. As the water levels rise, the smell of salt water and oil becomes more overwhelming by the second, burning at Sonic’s throat. His fur had become damp and heavy, pointing more downwards. His gloves and socks were soaked, darker in color.

He watched as Eggman’s ship slowly flew in, the engines working at a high pitch. “Eggman! Looks like he’s after the Chaos Emeralds too!” Unable to do anything from down below, he watched as Eggman flew in closer to the main scene. Static rings out at a high frequency before they adjust, Eggman’s voice blaring though. “This Egg Carrier Two was made because something like this could happen. You have defied your master, stupid beast. Now you must be destroyed at all costs!”

Facing Perfect Chaos, Eggman prepares to launch something, alarms going off. Chaos sees this and opens his mouth wide open. A ball of energy grows at quick speeds, before a massive laser of blue and purple goes forth, cutting the stress and towers in half as he raises it up to the Egg Carrier, not stopping until it’s facing the sky. Smoke bellows out from the gaps of the Egg Carrier, as sparks follow suit. Purple particles fade out from where the laser was last.

Emergency alarms go out as the ship begins to fall downwards, gliding in between structures, no longer in sight. Last thing to be seen of the ship was the giant ball of fire that shot out from wherever it landed, a giant boom rattling the skies. Before Sonic could make a taunt about that bening the end of him, a small scream is heard as he goes flying high up into the sky, seated in his Eggmobile.

Sonic had seen too much damage in one day for his liking, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth. “I’ve had enough! Who do you think you are anyway?” Chaos however, could not hear his angry shouts as he was too tall and too far away. What he did not prepare for was a small, red neon orb to gently fall from the sky towards him. Red particles flickered off the light, fading into the air.

Shuddering above the ground, Sonic holds his hand underneath it, palm facing upwards. “Oh, it’s you, the one who sealed Chaos… In the Master Emerald! Tikal!” As the red light hovered there above his hand, red light reflected with ease over Sonic as water dripped down his fur, glinting and highlighting the dark shadows. Despite his senses burning under the intensifying smell of salt water and smoke, he kept his focus on the moment happening right before him.

A bright flash consumed Sonic’s line of vision as it died out to reveal Tikal standing in front of him, grasping both of her hands. Drawing in a breath, she spoke to the hedgehog. “My heart has always been in the Master Emerald along with chaos’. Now he is filled with anger and sadness.” She looks up at Chaos, in fear and worry, voice quivering. “If it goes on, he’ll eventually destroy the world like he did before!” As she says those final words, Chaos lets out a long, ear-splitting roar as the Chaos Emeralds emerge from him, circling above him.

Lowering his head as he let out a low rumble, the Emeralds blast forward like shooting stars, scattering everywhere. Dark blue plummeted down, clattering like an empty glass bottle as it hit the pavement, scraping the concrete as it rolled on its side, resting at Sonic’s shoe. Before Sonic could even dare to pick it up, the light diminished, dulling to a dark and lifeless gray. Any energy radiating from it faded as its neon pulse slowed. Its final breath was visible in the vivid blue static that bounced off it and onto the ground, jittering across the water.

Tikal in pure dismay, stared down at the cold Emerald, covering her mouth with her hands. “He’s absorbed the Emeralds power! He must be sealed in the Master Emerald, now!” Sonic, looking down at his reflection in the glass Emerald, shook his head. “How can that help?” Sonic looked up to face Tikal, clenching his fist in front of his chest as he stepped forwards, scuffing the Emerald on the ground. “It won't change how he feels inside. His heart will still remain in turmoil and his anger just won’t vanish! He’ll just be trapped forever!”

As he finishes his sentence, the ground below shakes and quivers as Chaos does more damage close by, bellowing cries of rage. Tikal, trying to talk over the commotion, steps closer to Sonic, making herself more easy to hear. “What choice do we have?” Her voice becomes more filled with worry each time the sounds of something being torn apart echoed through the scene.

Nearby, while Sonic had his conversation to Tikal, his friends had seen the displaced Emeralds shoot out and had gone after them. Big had found one by pure chance, as it had drifted through the water and plinked against the cold metal hook of his fishing rod. Neon red fizzling out as if the water was draining it and fading off to sea. Grabbing it out, as water slid down the smooth Emerald, he calmly made his way towards his dear blue friend.

Tails, knowing very well about the situation, did not hesitate to go and fly towards the one that had fallen closest to him. Finding it wedged between the windshield of a car. Glass fragments lay atop the Emerald and hood. Tails grabbed it firmly and yanked it out, small shards of glass flying outwards from the force, chattering on the ground. He brushed off any remaining glass with the side of his hand briskly. With no time to lose, he sped towards Sonic, his tails whirring behind.

Amy had been watching Chaos from afar, standing on a relatively straight tower watching him ditch the Emeralds. Various colors reflecting off of the metal structures and flooding water. In a mere second, a blinding streak of cyan light whipped right past her head and landed with a bang as small chunks of rubble bounced off her hand, protecting her face in reaction.

Opening her eyes and moving her hands to her sides, she saw cyan static pop and fizzle as a darkened Chaos Emerald was left behind. No longer warm or pulsing, but dead and gray. Grabbing it in her palm, she swiftly went to find Sonic.

Knuckles had already known beforehand. So in advancement, he already had a stale Emerald in one hand, clenching it firmly to assure that it would not be going anywhere else. Using only one hand to cling onto the surface of an unstable pillar, he located the other Emerald.

It was drifting away from the city as the water levels had risen. Retracting his namesakes that he had dug into the pillar, as concrete burst outward, he glided downwards towards the lost Emerald. Nabbing the last one, he landed with a splash. To his luck, the water was shallow since he was standing on a sunken bridge. Slowly, he began to make his way back to his friends, water above his waist.

Sonic and Tikal had stood there in silence as Sonic watched Tikal fear the worst about the situation. Hearing slow footsteps, he turned to see Big with an Emerald in hand. Big, oddly calm and happy, reached his arm out, a Chaos Emerald in hand. “Sonic! I found this in the water and thought you could use it!” Big's low voice rattled off the Emerald as Sonic carefully took it out of his hand, not knowing what to say as he saw his other friends arrive with the rest of the Emeralds.

“Hey, Sonic!” Amy cheerfully waved to him as she ran up with another Emerald. “Here, take this!” She enthusiastically shoved it into his other hand, hoping that he could fix everything. Knuckles casually dropped in with two in tow, grinning. “Hey guys, what's up?” Tails joined in next to Knuckles staring at awe at the ones he had collected.

Another loud roar rippled the water as the skies shook and trembled. Tails, seeing this as his chance, walked closer to Sonic, explained what needed to be said. “Chaos only used the negative powers of the Chaos Emeralds.” Locking eyes with Sonic, as Knuckles moved in closer, he continued. “Sonic, you should be able to harness their real power!” Knuckles drew in a heavy breath, stubbornly agreeing. “As much as I hate to admit it, I think Tails is right about this.”

Tails nodding to what he said, finished what he was saying. “Negative forces aren’t the only way to empower the Chaos Emeralds. Our positive feelings toward each other can make them work. Our hearts together form a stronger power!” Knuckles walked up to face Sonic, as he handed over both Emeralds. Sonic cradling them in one arm as he reached over to pick up the one that had fallen beside him earlier.

He looked up to face Tails, as the last Chaos Emerald was offered in the base of both his hands, arms outstretched. Sonic reached out to grab it, holding on for a second. “Thank you.” Gripping onto it and lifting it from Tails, the Chaos Emeralds began to pulse in their lost colors, like a heartbeat.

In a mere second after, a golden light spiked outwards from the hedgehog, growing stronger and bigger each second. A burst of energy sprang outwards, a loud boom as Sonic was no longer on the ground. Rather, he was hovering above it. His now golden quills turned upright. Warmth radiated off of him as the water on his shoes slid onto the ground. A golden aura covered him as the air surrounding him quivered and became disoriented. Looking up to the sky, his eyes now a crimson red, he took, knowing what to do.

Flying above broken streets and upturned roads, he blasted across the terrain, dodging broken glass or metal that was sticking out from every direction. Darting in between buildings searching for Chaos, his golden light trailing behind. Each time he zoomed across the water, it split at the very surface, spraying outwards, fizzling if the water droplets came in close contact to Sonic.

Blazing through a cloud of thick smoke, he spotted Chaos’ emerald eyes. Making a sharp turn, he made a straight beeline at him. Halfway there, he started to drift off and feel dizzy. He was losing the energy to keep going. He needed more rings. Almost bouncing off the water, he spotted a group of golden rings. He took a detour and grabbed them off the ground, cold metal contrasting the warmth of his aura. Feeling a boost of energy, he picked back up the pace, hovering higher up over the sea, he made his way back to Chaos.

Reaching Chaos, he collided with the base of his form, water spraying outwards from where he went blazing into it. Now inside the body of water, he started to spiral right around his base, going higher and higher up, bubbles bursting out from behind in a cyclone. He held his breath deeply, not certain on his ability to breath underwater in a Superform. Sonic’s golden light illuminated Chaos from the inside, bouncing around and making him look like a night lamp. Reaching his neck, his spiral narrowed, until he reached his mind, floating stiffly above his eyes, the only organic things visible inside Chaos.

Chaos screamed in pure agony as Sonic spin dashed into his brain, being vulnerable and out in the open. Loud, high-pitched wails rung out, over all the alarms going off and fire crackling. Flailing his head around, as water gushed out, he slunk into the water, retreating from the scene. Sonic had burst out of Chaos before he sunk down with him too, his gloves and socks heavy from the water absorbed into them.

Sonic looked around in between the toppled towers for where he had gone. A stiff silence filled the air as nothing but the warm buzz off the Chaos Emeralds energy radiated from him. Seeing a tall figure reform in the distance, Sonic shook his head. “Gonna take more than that to leave the battle.” He went forwards, ducking inbetween buildings and windows, not letting anything stop him from reaching Chaos.

Enraged by the attack, as he saw Sonic rapidly jet towards him, he began to act out. Raising his head to the sky, screeching slow and deep, he summoned golden orbs of light around him, launching them forwards at the hedgehog, looking similar to Sonic dashing about in his form. “Well that's not good!” Rolling around in the air, he dodged the attacks, as they collided with the background instead. Since Chaos was not being direct with where they hit, rather, sending them in one general direction, some collided into the buildings ahead of Sonic.

Groaning under the weight of the many walls of metal, as one energy blast hit a tower, the top of its frame began to slide downwards, before the sound of metal screaming against metal rumbled. It came falling down, metal wires and poles snapping as it crashed into the side of another tower. Glass blew outwards from the pressure, bouncing off of Sonic as he sumersalted just quick enough to avoid being crushed between the two structures.

Now with nothing stopping him, he made his way towards Chaos’ head, instead of trailing up the base of him like last time. Curled into a ball, he sliced clean through the water as he made a direct hit to his brain once again, causing more wails and screams. More water gushed out of Chaos as his head dramatically dangled around, banging into the sides of structures. He slowly slunk back down once again, disappearing into the water. From all the chaos and screams, Sonic’s ears had begun to ring loudly, muffling the sounds of anything else.

While Sonic floated there in the spot, arms crossed as he scanned the terrain for where Chaos had popped back up, the water underneath him bubbled. Out of nowhere, Chaos’ tentacles had burst out of the water, attempting to grab Sonic. Sonic merely batted an eye as he watched Chaos grab him, only for the tentacle-shaped water to fizzle and evaporate, not even touching him. Sonic laughed at the attempt, as he whipped his body right around to see Chaos had rised back up behind the attack.

Not even bothering to curl up and hit him with force, he zoomed right up to him, and sent a kick right at his head once more, dealing the final blow. All the water-formed tentacles had burst, falling back into the sea as Chaos screeched once again in a high pitch, much longer than the last two. Water dripped back down into the ocean, as if he was melting. Going down, he faced his head high up into the sky, letting out his final cry as he sunk back down. Once gone, a giant blue flash filled the air, blinding Sonic, and everyone watching nearby.

Sonic, feeling light-headed, knew that his Superform was coming to an end, raced across the landscape to reach his friends, watching as the water flooding the area started to sink down. Only just making it to his friends, he fell through the sky, as Knuckles and Tails caught him, watching as their friend's golden glow almost melted off, fading away along with the warmth of the Chaos energy. “You alright Sonic?” Tails softly asked, wanting to know if he had sustained any injuries from the fight.

Sonic, getting up and leaving his friends grasp, stood up, dusting off some rubble that was stuck in his quills. “I think if anything my shoes took more damage than I did.” Laughing it off, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, turned to see Chaos in his regular form confronted by some chao. “Chaos has changed again. This time, for the better.” Knuckles filled in, seeing him peacefully watch the chao happily call out to him. “Yeah! Super Sonic must have neutralized it, so it’s nice again.” Tails added, watching the happy conclusion.

“Well at the end of the day, I was left with having to buy new gloves, since they forever more smelt like salt water.” Sonic had joked to Tails, as they finished recapping the memory to each other. Tails just laughed at Sonic’s remark, cold air soothing his throat. “At least you had your Superform, that kept you dry. We all got soaked. My tails looked all thin and shaggy!” That time they both laughed.

While sitting there in silence, Sonic took a long breath. “2 to 1.” Tails turned around, hummed in confusion. “I mean, I’ve spotted two shapes in the sky, and you’ve seen one. So that means I am in the lead.” Tails lowered his eyelids in a skeptical way. “Oh really? I can make it 2 to 3, just watch.” Sonic grinned. “Heh, let's see then.”

Both were intensely staring up at the sky for another cluster of stars that were shaped in the image of something familiar to them. As the night moved on, the wind gently whistling by, fog receding back into the air, Tails almost jumped, pointing right above him and Sonic. Sonic squinted his eyes, leaning back as he could not crane his neck up that far. “Don’t you think that looks like Starline’s glove?” Now on his back to see it clearly, Sonic could indeed make that out to be the doctor's glove. “Yeah, but how’d you see that? It’s right above us?”

Tails held up a finger. “I told you I’d get you 2 to 3!” Sonic shrugged, letting out a long exhale. “Well actually 2 to 2.” Sonic said under his breath before saying something else on top of that. “He sure did a lot of messed up things while he was around. Even went after you, didn’t he?” Tails hummed in response, nodding his head stiffly. “What even happened back there? Since me and Shadow were outside dealing with other things. “Honestly not much, he just tried to grab me again, which failed.” “Surely he did more than that!” Sonic doubted Starline turning over just like that. “Honestly, apart from when he had me tied up on the rollercoaster, he did nearly nothing.”

The chateau’s smell of pine wood wafted through the air as Tails, Belle, Rouge, and everyone else there evacuated the people staying to a safer location, as Starline had sent down an avalanche as part of his plan. The ground was faintly rumbling, already giving the warning to leave. Footsteps echoed around the fancy building as everyone ran out. However, while the main crowd was going one way, someone was walking forwards, towards the group of heroes.

Omega’s static voice rang out as he ‘encouraged’ the guests to leave. Tails was covering his ears since he was right beside him. He could, however, hear Rouge. “We should get going, too.” Before they could even take a step, someone announced themselves. “No, you’re not going anywhere.” Starline was standing there, facing down Tails.

“I am having a very long day, so I’ll keep this simple. All I need is young master Prower there… Hand him over and you can go. Deal?” Amy clenched her hammer tightly. “Dream on, jerk!” Amy and Rouge jumped forward to attack the deranged doctor, floorboard creaking as they both stepped forward. Belle just watched, mouth open as she became confused. “Who is that guy?” “Dr. Starline? An Eggman wannabe.”

As Tails says that, Starline presses something on his glove, as a red, loose aura forms around him, deflecting both Rouge and Amy’s attacks easily. Belle, getting worried, steps back a little, the wooden planks on the ground groaning under her weight. “That doesn't look like a wannabe to me…” “Don’t worry. Nobody can beat Amy when she’s made up her mind!” As if to show, Amy gets a direct hit to Starline’s jaw, cracking loudly. Rouge also gets some pretty good hits in too, winding him as she gets him in the chest with a kick.

Getting irritated with the halt in his plans, he pressed something on his glove again, as a blue aura danced around his body. In a flash, he was in front of Tails, a loud boom as he came to a stop. Even Tails had jumped in shock, his namesakes wildly spinning behind him. Starline grabbed onto said tails, pulling at his fur roughly. “Time to go, fox.” He said that last word with a hind of venom, clearly annoyed. Tails, gritting his teeth so hard that he heard them click. “I dont think so.”

Quickly facing Belle, he grabbed her tail, rough rope rubbing against his gloves as he tugged it. Wooden gears clicking into place as the sound of a thin, tight rope quivered. Starline only just noticed her presence right then. “What in the world…?” Belle got scared, voice shaking. “Ah, my tail-” Before she could finish, her legs jumped up in front of her, getting Starline right under the jaw, teeth clashing up as they gritted against each other painfully.

Tears welled up in his eyes, as he grasped his bill, shaking from the shock. “Oh come on! What even was that!” He started to see stars, the hit being a lot more powerful than Tails expected. As the three stood there, with Amy and Rouge approaching fast, the ground shook violently, as rumbling got closer to where they were. “Wait, what is that Sound?” Starline muttered, still feeling sore, a metal taste filling his mouth.

Rouge, Amy, and Tails ran out of the scene as fast as they could, with Tails holding onto Belle’s arm. Starline however, was still disoriented, and could not get out of the way, head beginning to ring, and still seeing stars, making it impossible for him to tell where to go. As Tails and co were safely out of the way, the snow began to build up on the giant glass windows, pressure building up in seconds as more and more snow, trees, and debris piled up.

Starline then realized what would happen, shielding his face with his palms. As if on queue, the glass and wooden beams gave in, snapping like a twig as glass shattered and mixed in with the snow, clattering against the wooden roof and remaining walls. As the snow reached Starline, along with all the shards of glass and splinters of wood, giving Starline nasty cuts, he yelled out as he was buried alive. Underneath the cold, he began to shiver violently, frostbite starting and making the pain in his bill worse. It did not help that some snow had lodged itself up his fancy jacket, giving him a nasty shock.

Tails and everyone else, including the guests, were safe on the higher floors, looking outside as everything down below was buried in thick, solid snow. Even some trees had snapped and fallen down with it. All the fresh snow, being high up the mountains, gave the air a cold, damp, metal smell.

“Huh, I guess not much really happened after all…” Tails just nodded. “Yeah, thankfully his avalanche backfired at just the right time.” Sonic just burst out laughing, almost choking as the night air made his throat dry and hoarse. Coughing a little, he grinned, still chucking. “But you and Belle gave him a good hit! He had it coming if he tried to mess with any of you!” Tails just gave a small laugh, avoiding hurting his throat from the piercing cold. “Yeah, Belle can defend herself much more than she’ll give herself credit. After all, her frame is pretty sturdy and can withstand a lot of damage.”

Sonic sat upright shivering, pressing his knees to his chest and wrapping. “Wow, getting a lot more cold than before!” Tails had his namesakes lightly pressed up to his sides, as he had thicker fur that was withstanding the cold much better. “Well yeah, it's late at night and the sun has gone down. It’s not like there's going to be warm rays of moonlight.” Tails sassed off Sonic, in a know-it-all voice, winding him up.

“Well with all the crazy things going on around us, there might be a moon that acts as the sun!.” He had his hands to his hips, grinning. Of course Sonic was just saying that to be annoying. But Tails played along. “Whatever floats your boat…”“Ahh Tails, why so mean!” They both sat there, as they laughed.

All the fog that was on the ground disappeared, making the reflections in the water much more clear. Sonic and Tails were still holding their heads up to the sky. While the glove and helmet were still fairly easy to see, the stars appearing like Chaos had disappeared somewhere else. Sonic opened a single eye to the glove, lying back down on the ground with his arms propping his head back up. “Well, Starline did much more than try to take you.”

Rather than answering, Tails just focused primarily on the glove. “I mean, he did some pretty bad things. He brought Eggman back to his old self, which then brought the Metal Virus, he then, like we just talked about, tried to take you. He then kidnapped Belle until the Chaotix got there. To top it all off, he then did something to Surge and Kit. It’s a shame that we still don’t know the full story to that either, only that he used a bunch of stuff to make them…”

Sonic’s face had gone from calm to more focused and thoughtful, still not happy with Starlines actions. “Well I am pretty sure he also broke Zavok, Mimic, and Rough and Tumble out too…” Tails had his finger to his chin while Sonic sat upright. “Wait, he was the one who did that?!” Sonic, genuinely confused, stared at Tails with his mouth agape. “Yeah, I thought you knew that already…?” Tails lowered his eyelids as Sonic shook his head. “Nope, too focused on other things to realize that…”

“Well now you know…” Sonic just hummed. “Well I guess it's good now that he is gone.” Sonic held his breath as he stared down into the water. “Do you think Surge and Kit rea-” “Warp Topaz!” Sonic turned an ear to Tails in confusion. “I don't recall Starline using the Warp Topaz on them-” Tails shook his head frantically. “No, I can see the Warp Topaz! When reflected in the water, the stars look like the Warp Topaz! So now it’s 2 to 3, putting me in the lead!” “Oooh. Wait, if you see the Warp Topaz reflected in the water, would that not make the stars show an upside down version of it?” Tails shook his head, humming a no.

“It’s like when you flip a drawing, it looks odd or incorrect one way, and perfect another way.” Sonic squinted his eyes, darting from the sky to the sea. “I mean they both kinda look the same either way-” “Nope!” Tails butted in. Sonic looked up to Tails. “Well I mean, can we really say you get another point? There are a whole heap of stars that look round. You could say any of them are the Topaz.” Rolling his eyes, Tails pointed to the silhouette in the water. “No look, there is the spiral, curling inwards, and the smaller stars further apart look almost like a gradient, which makes sense given the material it's made of.” Sonic, letting out a long sign. “Well I guess that makes me second place now…”

Tails pumped his fists discreetly, whispering under his breath victory. Sonic had leaned back into the soft grass, feeling it brush up against him lightly. Resting with his eyes closed, and taking in another breath, he turned his head to face Tails. “Didn’t we use the Topaz to get all the Chaos Emeralds at once during the Metal Virus?” Tails turned his face down to Sonic, picking off fluff and dirt stuck in his glove. “Yeah, me and Amy had gone after Zomom, while everyone else went after different Zeti.” “Oh yeah! I kinda forgot since I was getting tired. Although I think I only got Cream’s side of the story when she jumped in to help Gemerl with Zeena.”

Still keeping his eyes shut, he turned his head back to the sky, repositioning his head as his quills settled behind his head in an odd way, sticking out in funny angles and poking at his head. “That's an idea. Why don’t you tell me about Zomom? See how you and Amy fought him compared to me?”

Tails stared down at him in a funny way. Sonic did not notice though as he still had his eyes closed to the sky. “Well he had an Emerald and we were not too experienced with fighting him…” “You came back to us, can’t have been that much of a hassle. I mean, it’s Zomom of all people.” “Ok, but still, remember when you fought him he had no Emerald!” Chuckling, Sonic nodded, agreeing.

Wind was whirring by, ears buzzing as he and Amy fell out of the warp portal. His skin was prickling and his fur was standing on end. Getting back to his senses, he reactively grabbed Amy by the arm with both hands, just before they fell onto the ground. “Woah! That was pretty close!” Amy quietly said, looking down to the ground. Smashed glass bottles were scattered everywhere, light glinting off them. Tables were turned or snapped, objects broken on the ground nearby.

“What happened here?” Tails, darting his eyes around until he found a spot on the ground that had no broken glass, flew over slowly, his tails chopping in the wind. “Looks like either the Zombots tore this place apart, or Zomom.”

Landing on the concrete path they both looked around for any signs of Zombots. Something clattered and smashed behind Amy, as she turned around, gripping her hammer tightly, ready to hit the incoming attacker. “Amy wait! I just knocked something over when I landed on the ground with my tails.” He whispered, hand on her shoulder as she dropped her arms downwards. “Tails! You gave me a fright!” Grinning sheepishly, he put a hand behind his head, scratching it. “Sorry…”

Amy sighed as her hammer disappeared from her hands, looking around. “So, where is he?” “Well…” Tails’ ear swiveled around to his right, picking up something. Watching closely, he saw a small group of Zombots inside a crumbled building walking in a line, carrying small plates of food. He pointed to them, catching Amy’s attention. “Judging from the fact that he likes to eat, we follow that.” He whispered at her, as the two stepped around broken glass, heading towards the door of the building they were in.

Tails led the way, ducking under toppled tables and chunks of stone that had fallen from some kind of structure. Using his soft tails like a duster, he briskly shoved aside glass or objects that they could stand on and cause a bit of noise. Only soft scratching of the glass could be heard, scraping against other glass shards or the rough stone underneath them. Amy was pinning her dress down, worried of it snagging onto something and getting caught or dragging it down and making a loud sound.

“Ok, gotta be even more careful here.” He whispered almost under his breath, with Amy only just hearing him. Grabbing the door knob he froze, feeling the inward metal patterns on the fancy handle through his thick glove. He shook his head lightly as he gestured with his hand for Amy to follow.

Walking along the wall, he found a broken window that reached the floor to the ceiling. Pressing their shoes firmly against the ground, leather squeaking with the slow pressure, they both darted towards a vending machine, hiding behind the side of it as they saw the Zombots leaving through another broken door, hanging by a single hinge. Tails had his hand out, stretched in front of Amy as he waited a few more seconds before giving a thumbs up as the two cautiously jogged down the hallway, reaching the door frame and looking outside.

There was Zomom, in the far end of the room, eating non-stop as the group of Zombots they followed dropped their plates down in front of Zomom, leaving almost instantly in their sluggish walk. Confused on what to do, Amy shrugged, holding her palms up to the ceiling. Tails shrugged too, not having a plan as they could not just sneak up on him in the open. They both turned their heads towards Zomom again, watching as they tried to come up with a plan.

Tails sighed, looking at Amy. She gave him a confused look before Tails stepped forwards, brushing debris away with the side of his shoe. “Um…” Tails cleared his throat, as Amy gave tails a concerned look. “Hey Zomom. Long time no see…” His voice was all over the show, shaking in fright of not having a better idea.

He turned his head at a freakish angle, facing the two as Tails bumped his shoulder into Amy, trying to get her to play along. They both took one step forward, sweat trickling down their heads. Zomom, with his mouth full, spoke to them with his thick voice. “Huh? Oh. You’re Sonic’s friend with the weird tail.” He had his gaze on Tails’ shifting namesakes, as he folded them behind his back, keeping them stiff. Uncertain, Tails wiped his head with the side of his glove, trying to put on a fake smile. “Uh yeah, sure. Listen, Zavok sent us to find you.”

In the middle of chewing he spat out; “He did?” Amy looked to Tails, more sweat dripping down the sides of their heads. She too put on a nervous fake smile as she spoke up. “That's right! He needs the Chaos Emerald back. If you give it to us, we’ll take it to him for you.” Her voice was shaking, and Tails could even hear her heart starting to race. He added on to Amy’s sentence. “You won’t even need to stop eating!”

Clutching his fists, Zomom yelled out, angry. “No way! I’ve got Zombots bringing me food from all over!” Standing up, towering over Amy and Tails, spitting out food from his mouth as he yelled. “You two already interrupted my post-lunch pre-dinner snack! So now, I’m gonna squash you!” Tails and Amy backed up, as Tails bumped into an upright bottle on a bench, falling to the ground and smashing, getting the attention of nearby Zombots.

“Run!” Tails and Amy both jumped over the bench, and through the hallway they came through as Zomom jumped after them, swinging his arms around like crazy. Almost out the window that they came through, Zomom landed, caving in the ground he was on and thundering the area, sending the two running away to the ground. Tails banged his head against one of the toppled tables, as a throbbing sensation grew at his temples.

“C’mon Tails, we gotta get out of here!” Grabbing Tails by the shoulder, she lifted him up as she ran, avoiding the further collapsing building as Zomom’s arms hit the walls around, caving in the roof. As he and Amy made it out, Zomom jumped through the hole above, soaring through the air as he chased after the duo.

“How is someone that big that fast?” Amy yelled out as the jumped over obstacles blocking their path on the road. Zomom landed with a thud on the ground once again, toppling Amy and Tails, sending astray items flying. Tails, getting up on his own, hand pushing against his knee, turned to Amy. “Just keep running! Amy grabbed her hammer, swinging around to face Zomom. “No! We came here to get that Chaos Emerald and end this nightmare!” As she ran up to the Zeti, her footsteps heavy as she carried her weapon over her shoulder, Tails flew up. “Wait! Amy, no!” He pinned his ears back, hand outstretched as he tried to get her to stop.

Swinging her hammer, scraping against the tiles on the floor, upturning them as they flew alongside her hit, she got Zomom right in the face, digging into his skin. Holding her hammer in place, looking to Tails as he landed besides her, she gave a confused glance. “I… I can’t believe that worked!”

Raising his head upwards, Zomom had his mouth wrapped around her weapon, teeth scraping against the sturdy material. “Hrmm… Weird flavor…” Tails was starting with his mouth hanging open, not having anything to say, as Amy went pale with disgust and anger. Digging her heels into the tiles on the ground, she pulled really hard on the handle, trying to get it out of his mouth. “Stop that you gross weirdo!” Tails sighed, as he jumped into the air, spinning his tails hard at the back of Zavok’s head. Yelling at the sudden hit, Amy fell backwards, the force of her pulling it out slingshot her onto the pavement, scattering the tiles she hit before.

“Ow! I’m gonna chew you extra hard before swallowing!” Spit flew out of his mouth as he spoke. Amy looked up, her ears tilted back. “Hes… He’s being metaphorical, right?” Tails just smiled, eyes closed, folding his arms. “Why bother with us when you can have my lunch?” Zomom froze as Tails flew up, closer to his head. “I dropped it while you were chasing us. Which is too bad, because it looked really yummy!” Getting up he thundered down the path that he came from, ground shaking with each step. “Ooh! Where?! Where?! I’m starving!”

Tails, looking shocked, as blood rushed to his head,he landed besides Amy; “That was.. A lot easier than I thought it would work out!” Amy was holding her hammer briskly in front of her, watching in disgust as a thick coating of saliva dripped off it and onto the ground. She lowered the head of it to the ground, keeping it away from her. “Tails, what are we going to do? Zomom is too strong for us to take down, and too stupid to outwit!” Cupping his mouth, Tails looked around for where he had run off too. “I don’t know. Sonic made this look way easier before.”

Tails darted an eye behind him, thinking he heard something. “He seems easily distracted. What if one of us baited him while the other grabs the Emerald?” Tails scratched his head, focusing on the scene around him. “It’s risky, but it's worth a shot!” A loud scream shook the ground as Amy whipped her head around, still keeping her hammer a spaced distance from her. Tails’ pupils shrunk, heart racing and blood rushing around, making him go warm.

Watching Zomom smash everything around him in a fit of rage, buildings clattering and rumbling as he hit the walls and pillars, everything crumbling down besides him. “There's nothing here!” Ripping a door right out of its frame, he threw it at Tails, rolling out of the way as it split in two, skyrocketing through the air. “You lied to me!”

Tails and Amy backed up, watching Zomom. “Now you made me hungry and angry. I’m hangry! You wouldn’t like me when I’m hangry!” As he says that, a group of Zombots begin to emerge from the sides of buildings, groaning. “Ah! Time to get to higher ground!” Tails grabbed Amy swiftly, as he lifted her up by the arms. “I don’t think that's going to work!” Amy called out, as Tails glanced down. All the Zombots were climbing the walls of the building Tails was trying to land on. “Grr. Hang on!” Tails flew even higher up, soaring through the sky as he tried to get away.

Holding Amy up was straining his arms, as he started to tire, falling slowly. “I’m gonna have to land!” Before he could, his arms gave out, blood flowing through them fast. Pins and needles were stabbing at his forearm as he watched Amy fall. “Gah!” His namesakes chopping through the air came to a slow halt as he too started to fall downwards.

Amy used her hammer to wedge the head between a chimney and the side of the roof, dangling off the handle. She looked up to see Tails falling slowly. “Hang on, I got you!” Moving her hammer out of the gap, she jumped up, catching Tails in both of her arms as she landed on her feet, a small thud as the leather soles on her shoes absorbed the impact.

“Thanks.” Tails slid out of Amy’s arms, hovering above the ground before landing back down, wind pushed outwards. Tails looked behind Amy’s shoulder, seeing shiny green glint behind her. “Look out!” Without even looking back to see what it was, she swung her hammer around her torso, getting the Zombot right in the chest as the substance formed a giant hole where she hit it. “We gotta keep moving!” Amy nodded as the two started to navigate the buildings, watching as a wave of Zombots followed behind.

Launching her hammer onto the ground, as she propelled herself upwards onto the tiles of a red roof, she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. Nearly out of breath, she saw Tails fly in besides her, staring at her sudden stop. “We can’t keep this up!” Hearing a Zombot grab a tile, as it slid down and clattered on the ground, she ran forwards, alongside with Tails. “I’m thinking! I’m thinking!”

Zomom, watching from the ground, clenched his fists. “Argh! You two are so annoying!” Jumping up into the ground, he lowered his fists into the pavement, shaking the whole town. Tables, tiles, and stones all flew upwards, alongside the Zombots, Amy, and Tails.

Amy was tripping over, about to fall off the roof she was on. “Tails!” As the ground continued to shake, Tails flew in and grabbed Amy under her arms, straining to lift her up. Flying above the commotion, he dropped Amy on some stable ground, collapsing besides her. She looked down at him. “Are you ok?” Tails got up, dusting off the glass that had launched into his tails. “Yeah, just worn out.” “But we got to kep moving!” “No, we need to stay right here!” His voice quivered, as he stood up.

He looked down to the ground, as the dust settled. They were standing atop of the portcullis, the walls connecting to it cracked and damaged. Hearing Zomon run up to them, Tails signaled for Amy to stand at the left wheel, while Tails stood at the right wheel. Holding his arm out, he watched Zomom get closer. “Hold it… Wait for it…”

Zomom, almost underneath them, ground shaking each step. Tails’ namesakes twitched. “Now!” Curling up and smashing into the wheel, chains clattering against the wall as they broke apart. Amy hit her hammer right into the wheel, spinning wildly. With both doing it at the same time, the gate closed at a rapid speed, almost hitting the ground in a mere second.

Zomom cried out as he got winded, the gate closed with him underneath it, metal bars jammed into the ground. Tails grabbed Amy as he flew down, almost feeling pity for the Zeti crushed in such a way. Almost. He was dazzled, groaning as he lay there, not even trying to get back up. “How do you like that? Overpowered.” Tails patted the blue Emerald, adding onto what Amy said,, “and outsmarted!”

Tails yanked out the Emerald, scratching against the metal that had it held in place. Tails and Amy ran off, heading back into the portal. “Hey! Get back here! Without that I can’t control the-!” Zomom cried out, only to be interrupted by the Zombots groans as they circled him.

Tails and Amy jumped into the Warp Portal, feeling their senses become distorted as their vision blanks out, only to be met with the sight of emerald green grass, falling down. Tails landed on his soft namesakes, cushioning his fall.

“Ha! He stood no chance against my lil bro!” Sonic had his arm around Tails, beaming as he listened into Tails’ story. “Well Amy was there too…” He sheepishly grinned, looking away as he had a hand to the back of his head. “But you also did it! Neither of you could pull it off solo!” Looking up to Sonic, Tails smiled, nodding.

“Wait what is the score so far?” “Uhh… I’m in the lead with 3, and you have… 2?” Sonic jumps up to his feet, darting his head back and forth, scanning the sky cartoonishly. “Welp, gonna have to change that-” Tails shook his head. “I don’t think rapidly looking around is going to help push you in the lead…”

Sonic crossed his arms, pressing them close to his body, feeling the warmth from his breath brush up against his chest. “Well I don’t see you pointing out any more soo… I’ll go ahead and say this is a good method!” Sonic had his hand over his head, scouting the sky. “Well I’d like to see that happen…” Sonic pouted, in a mocking tone; “I’d like to see you get one over me!” Tails’’ namesake whacked Sonic’s leg.

Most of the shapes that the duo pointed out had scattered into the distance, no longer visible. At this point, the sky was clear of any clouds, none above, around, or below them. Glaring down was the moon, acting like a beacon. Tails, by this point, had slumped forwards, in a light sleep. It had only been 10 minutes, but as it was late into the night, it became very hard to stay awake.

Something stood tall over Tails, wrapping him in darkness. “I found one!” Sonic burst forwards, over Tails, as he jolted upright. Tails froze for a second, before turning his head around to see Sonic. “C’mon, was that really necessary?” “Haha sure was, since now I have 3 points!” Tails cocked his head. “Oh really?” Sonic pointed up over the horizon.”I present to you, the Chocolate Chipped Cream Sundae Supreme!”

Tails sat there, looking up at where Sonic was pointing, confused. “What Cream Sundae?” “Right up there! See?” Tails lowered his eyelids. “Yeah, I see the ice cream, but what did you say?” Sonic froze, looking down at Tails, eyes open, before laughing into the night. “Oh yeah! You weren't there! Me and Chip met someone who was making some sundaes! Chip really liked them. Heh, actually that's why I nicknamed him that while he had his lost memory.”

Tails lit up. “Oh Chip! I miss him…” Sonic jumped down, crossing his legs as he looked up to the sky. “Yeah, me too. A real big shame too that we know for a fact we can’t see him again, since he won’t be here for a good few hundred years, but that’s why our time interacting with him was even more special.”

“I guess that is true. But like, what kind of sundae is called that?” Sonic hummed a confused sound, shrugging gently. I guess explaining it all in the title? Either way, I just called it a supreme sundae, since that name is far too long for me to bother ‘round with.” “I mean it would be a pain to write out, but saying it is not exactly a problem…” “Says the one who writes in advanced code hourly!” Sonic quipped in.

“Yet here you are, unable to.” Tails remarked to himself, holding up three fingers to his forehead. Sonic stared back at him, holding his breath in as he thought of a reply. Letting his breath go, releasing the small strain on his chest as he took another breath in, his throat dry from the cold air. “Ehh, sure. I mean, after all, I’ve never done anything at all that is so much cooler than being able to read a buncha 0’s and 1’s. Yet let’s both agree on that.”

Tails had pressed his knees close into his chest, wrapping his arms around them, his namesake’s folded in against his sides. Most of the cold air was not affecting him much to any degree, the only shivers he would get were down his spine, as it was more exposed to the sharp air. Sonic managed to somehow sit there with his legs dangling down the side of the platform, rubbing up against the dirt on the sides of the platform, rough small clusters of dirt, sticking to the back of his legs.

“How’re you not cold at all?” Tails looked directly at Sonic, a cloud of fog escaping his mouth. “Well when you think as much as I do, that's enough willpower to fight off against any kinda weather.” Tails frowned. “With actual facts.” Tails unfolded his left tail to gently whack Sonic’s arm. “Well then I dunno, I just don’t notice it I guess?” Tails shrugged, but before he was able to turn his head back to the sea, Sonic added on, “I even remember Chip asking me that haha!”

Tails pressed himself even more closer, as the night air dropped in temperature. “Was that when you were in Holoska?” “Indeed it was! I explicitly remember Chip’s wings freezing up badly whenever he followed behind me, so sometimes I carried him over to where we were heading off.” “Really?” “Yeah! We were looking for a Moon Medallion to open up the gates to get to the next temple, but it was taking a while to get through since the ice was making it hard to run.”

Sonic and Chip were making an advancement through the white blurs of snowfalls whizzing by as they ran, no sounds other than the piercing wind and Sonic’s footfalls. Running down the path through the thick snow, Sonic only left faint footprints behind, running at such high speeds that he left near no weight for each step as he burst forwards.

Chip’s little wings were slicing through the snow, beating fast as he tried to keep up with Sonic. Although he was not going full speed, the snow and frost was making it difficult for Chip to manage flight at all. Constantly wavering alongside, he came to a sudden slow, lowering to the ground. Sonic felt a change in winds, as he dug his heels into the snow, sinking down slightly as his weight settled atop of the fluffy powder.

Turning his head around, he looked for his companion, only to see Chip submerged in the thick snow, facedown. “Hey, you alright there Chip?” Sonic crouched down on one knee, resting his palm atop of his leg. Sticking his hand out of the snow, as it crumbled down to the sides, Chip held a thumbs up. Freeing his other hand from the snow, he attempted to drag the rest of his body out from the snow.

Sonic sighed, as he went ahead and lifted Chip out of the ground, some snow falling down his palms. “There you go.” Sonic dusted off some of the remaining fluffy powder from his friend's back, using the side of his other hand. “All good?”

Chip cartoonishly shook himself off, standing back up, as some astray snow went flying. Sonic lowered his eyelids, flinching away as some snow flew right at his eyes. “Much better!” Sonic let out a soft laugh, as some snow fell down his head. “Alright then, lets get goin’!”

Just as Sonic went to turn around and continue with their path, Chip grabbed Sonic’s glove tightly. “Sonic wait!” Sonic paused himself, whipping his head around. “Yeah?” Chip, expecting Sonic to not have heard him in time before running off, loosened his grip on his glove. “I don’t think I can fly any further, it’s too cold.”

“Huh, well hold on!” Chip looked up at Sonic, confused. “What do you mean by that-” Just as he said that, Sonic held Chip firmly in both hands, as he blasted off, snow getting kicked up as he ran forth, leaving behind a big pile of snow where he stood.

“Woohooo!” Sonic began to slide down the slope of the mountain, big chunks of snow falling down with him. Echoing through the terrain were the loud booms and rolling of snow, kicking up trees, snapping and bending to the force of the avalanche. Digging his heels into the snow, as he maneuvered around large stones and trees, he went further and further down the hillside. Behind him were feint marks that were left behind his shoes.

Sonic had Chip held secure in his hands, pressed up against his chest. Chip was holding onto Sonic’s arms as hard as he could, frozen in fear. “Wooo! Isn’t this fun Chip?” Sonic called out, over the commotion following behind him. Chip dared to turn his head around, feeling the wind whipping past him as Sonic advanced further down. “I dunno Sonic, what if we get hit by the avalanche?” Chip’s voice quivered, getting cut short with the velocity that Sonic was going down at.

“Huh? I can’t hear you over all the noise behind me!” Sonic shouted out, looking downwards at Chip, keeping his head forwards. “Try speaking up a bit!” Chip turned his head to face Sonic, then down to the ground. “Uhh, nevermind!” He called out, the pitch of his voice unstable. Chip sunk down further into his hands as he heard something loud crash down near where they were sliding down.

Looking back, Chip saw the snow and ice catching up to the duo, nearly at Sonic’s heels. “Uh, Sonic-” Before Chip could warn the hedgehog however, an upturned log soared through the air, landing a few feet ahead of them. “That's no good. Hang on!” Sonic called out, as he fell down to his side, skidding across the snow, as he held Chip up from the ground. Positioning himself, he quickly slid right through the hollowed out segment of the log.

Chip, as he had his eyes firmly shut, opened them up to see that he was fine. “Oh, that wasn’t so bad-” Wind whistling, the avalanche catched up, mere inches away from the two. Branches from toppled trees flung outwards, as a big boulder went soaring right at the two. Crashing into the snow, Sonic had lost his grip on Chip, flying through the air, along with Sonic. Chip was quick to use his wings to the best of his ability, managing to avoid a big fall.

Trying to keep up with the head of the falling snow, he darted his eyes around to find the blue blur. “Sonic! Sonic, where are you?!” His voice echoed through the mountains, until he spotted his friend tumbling out of control amongst the avalanche. Flying as fast as he could, he approached Sonic, hovering nearby. “Sonic, you gotta find something to hold onto!” Still rolling, he yelled out; “I don’t think that’ll be of much hel-'' Shaking his head, Chip spoke over him. “No, the mountain is coming to an end! You’re about to fall!” Although dizzy, Sonic tried to look ahead of him, focusing despite spinning about the snow.

Attempting to slow his descent, he dug his heels back into the snow, finding an open window once his body stopped ragdolling around. Seeing the debris kicked up, he grabbed onto the branch of a pine tree, the strong, fresh smell of it’s leaves and bark filling his senses along with the violent spinning. Climbing on, he ran up the base of the trunk, jumping up and landing on another falling tree, repeating the steps until he saw up ahead some stable ground.

Rolling up into a ball, he propelled himself forwards, only just landing on the safe platform. Falling on his back, Chip landed beside him. “Sonic, are you alright?” Looking at the hedgehogs face, he had his eyelids lowered. “Uhh yeahh, just very dizzy…” Chip looked down to see the remains of the avalanche fall down the slope of the mountain. Sonic shook himself off, as he got back up, wobbling a little. “Ok, let's get back.”

Chip flew up to his face. “But what about the moon medal we need?” Sonic messed around with his quills, pulling out the said medal. “Saw it falling down along with the snow and grabbed onto it. Don’t know how it ended up there though… But anyways, we got it!” Sonic held it up triumphantly. Chip just looked at him awestruck, seeing the mess of his quills, with snow and sticks stuck into his spines. “Alright.”

Sonic looked at Chip. “You all good though, I feel that was a little much when it caught up…” Chip shook his head frantically. “No! That was really fun! Well not at first, but nonetheless exciting!” Sonic let out a breath of relief. “Oh, that's good to hear… Want to do it again?” “Yeah!”

Sonic squinted at Chip, scratching his head, with some of the remaining snow rubbing off onto his gloves. “Since when did you have eight wings?” Chip froze for a moment, holding his breath. “We should probably sit down for a moment before heading back…” Sonic looked at his hands confused, nodding his head, as he sprung himself down. “Yeah, that would be a better idea…”

“...I mean, we got the moon medal in the end! Just cost my ability to see an object as just one object haha!” Tails was just looking at Sonic oddly. “Even when covered in a heft of snow and ice, you were not cold, but you ended up dizzy?” “I mean I was spinning about for a good while until I did some totally cool platforming to safety!” Tails rolled his eyes. “Another great mystery yet to be solved…”

“Eh, but anyways now I’m tied with you, so the actual mystery to be solved here is who is going to get the next point and end the tie!” Sonic held his arms up in a dramatic fashion, determined to win the game that Tails forgot they were playing each and every time Sonic rambled on about an adventure. “Oh yeah! Lucky you were keeping count, I nearly forgot about it…”

Tails put both of his arms above his head, stretching upwards as he let out a yawn. Sonic smirked, cocky. “I thought you were all in it for numbers?” Shutting his eyes, Tails turned his head the other way. “Only the important numbers…” “Now that is harsh.”

In the distance some birds were chirping, the sounds faint, echoing through the high mountains. Above the line of the sea, some orange was glistening, stars fading away. Tails was sleeping on his back, in a deep slumber, curled up. Sonic was snoring, leaning forwards , back arched and arms dangling down. As the warm sun rose from the sea, light hitting the two, Sonic and Tails’ communicator went off.

Sonic jolted upwards, startled as Tails calmy got up. Sonic, regaining his balance, throwing his arms up into the air. Avoiding his fall into the water, he crawled back, keeping his shoes on the ground. “Oh man, we fell asleep!” Tails rubbed his eyes as Sonic continued on. “That;s a shame, I didn’t get to break the tie… Oh well.” Moving his glove back, Sonic fiddled with his communicator.

“Hey Tails, looks like Egghead is already back!” Tails let out an annoyed moan. “Well we should’ve seen that coming…” Sonic shrugged it off. “Well I guess that leaves our little game for later to break the tie.” Jumping back up, Sonic waved his hand at Tails for him to follow. “We can have round two tonight, but not all the way until morning.” Tails replied, standing besides Sonic. “Well let's get going!”

Jumping down, wind whipping through Sonic’s quills, Tails followed suit. Whipping his Tails in the air, he caught the hedgehog, as the two took off, speeding away, orange light hitting their backs. As the last of the stars died out, two vague shapes simmered. A hedgehog and a fox, playing together, standing out from all the little stars scattered near the ocean.

[doobnnoob-tf2]

Hey, guys.

So I think it's about time I just sit down and accept something.

I'm just not as into TF2 as I used to be. I have a new hyperfixation and I've realized it's kinda scratching that itch that I've just not been able to reach in a long, long, long time.

TF2 has been my biggest hyperfixation since it's initial release. I feel so old admitting that, but it's not like I haven't said it so many times before lol. But it's been over a decade, and I never really thought I'd ever get over it. I'd laugh and say I'd be the only person still thinking about that game once it inevitably met it's neglected end.

But the truth is, I'm not going to be.

I think my lack of having anyone to talk to about TF2 combined with a very unfortunate set of events last year that led me to hyperfixate on another game has led me to this. I still love the game, I still will forever hold it near and dear to my heart. But I think it's time I officially say it: I probably won't be updating this blog or my side one ( @ask-the-tf2-mercs ) anymore unless I just really feel inspired.

Is this a stupid, pointless post to make about a couple of stupid, pointless Tumblr blogs? Sure. But this game has been an integral part of my life for a VERY very long time. And I also didn't want to leave anyone waiting for me to get out of this denial phase.

These two blogs have been a help on my mental health for the admittedly short time I was active on them. And seeing how happy they've made people have made me happy. So thank you. For giving me this outlet, and for enjoying what I did.

I may pop in from time to time to still make posts, but for now if anyone would like to still keep up with me, I have @hey-doobnnoob as a personal blog and @doobnnoob as an art blog. Unfortunately the personal one is a side blog attached to this one here, but I'll figure it out lol.

Have a good one. - Daniel

[emberunderscore]

I've been deep diving into the symbolism of flowers recently so have my thoughts on what Wither Roses would symbolise in the world of Fable - and other flowers at the end (most of which already exist but I have thoughts anyway)

yeah this is really long btw

to start, wither roses are black roses so first the symbolisms of roses and black roses respectively

Roses (general): love, beauty, royalty, achievement, perfection and secrecy Black Roses: Positive - strength, a triumph over the inevitibility of death Negative - death, mourning, revenge, hatred, sorrow, mystery

Now Wither Roses, I'll do a summary of the meanings then I'll ramble a little bit

Wither Roses: Positive - Familial love, determination, triumph over the inevitability of death, a sign of "get well soon" or "even the worst sickness can be cured", the good nature of destruction, soulbonds and love unseprable by death Negative - Terminal/deadly illness, death itself, loss of a family member/loved one, doomed love

Wither Roses are associated with Soul and Athena. Despite the many negative meanings of black roses, wither roses have many more postive meanings, especially for a deadly flower. The godess Soul's previous state as the Wither is a well known one, and the story is a well told one, the story of Athena, her child, working so hard over so many years to cure her. Thus the familal love and determination meanings. The Wither curse and sickness were both diseases that would've been considered deadly and uncurable until Athena, on both fronts proved that they were not. So the triumph over death and worst sickness can be cured meanings. The get well soon meanings, come from a similar nature. Soulbonds and love unserprable by death go hand in hand as the flower is a symbol of Soul herself, the good nature of destruction as well, Netherum is dead but the story of Soul and them is still told to this day. That Soul calmed them. And with Athena being the vessel of destruction and also a ray of sunshine that meaning has multiple origins.

The meanings of terminal/deadly illnesses is pretty intuitive, the flower coming into contact with the skin can cause death or sickness, one that is very difficult to cure. Death itself, for a similar reason, this also links with it being a variant of a black rose. Loss of a loved one, because Athena lost their mother for a long time and he very nearly died from a similar sickness. Doomed love is less intuitive, but something I've found with flower symbolism is all of them have to include love in some version of the meaning (and familial love is mentioned) but I think doomed love would be a very common interpretation for this flower, since roses are such common symbols of love, and black roses ones of such sorrow, it only makes sense that a black rose with the actual capacity to kill would be a symbol of such a thing as doomed love.

Also I want to mention, despite how most flower meanings are made for when giving flowers to others, wither roses are an exception. They are not commonly given to people as gifts due to their tendancy to cause death. Most of the symbolism comes from stories, poetry, and many other forms of art. A common way to use wither roses in something like a play is to use a black rose and dip the tips of the petals in a dark grey paint and/or to paint the thorns in grey/black. Sometimes though, artists like to leave it amiguious and up to the viewer to decide if the rose is inteded to be a regular black one or a wither rose. Due to this common substitution, sometimes the symbolism of the two similar roses becomes blurred and thought of as interchangable.

To talk a little more about why i chose the meanings, i really like the fact that wither roses symbolise familial love, i've looked at so many flower meanings and almost every single one of them talks about romantic love or some form of love and so few of them talk about plantonic or familial love and its sad to me that those forms of love don't get as much appreciation. There are a few flowers that symbolise love between friends, but if you look in the right places there will be a source that lists romantic love in some way.

If you made it this far, here are the other flowers. Didn't have as many thoughts about these but still some of them

Torchflowers would be a big symbol of rebirth and change (heavily associated with Fenris)

Oxeye Daisies would be known to mean love that lasts beyond death, due to the nature of Centross and Fenris' relationship

Blue Orchids (specifically after Icarus gets back) would become associated with family (unconventional ones specifically, with half or steps siblings and divorced/unmarried/remarried parents), and forgetting/remembering a loved one

Sunflowers become a symbol of home - being lost/finding your way home. Follow the sunflowers becomes a common phrase meaning to follow your heart and you will always find home and memory/rememberance of loved ones. Or a way to say "I will never forget you"

And a bonus not related to flowers, I think Athena would be an icon for disabled people like how Hephastus is, maybe Alliums are too because of their association with her

[azalawa-scroggs]

On why I think the "Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth Chooses Death" note was meant literally

I've had this in my drafts for a while after seeing a poll that elicited a little discussion on the topic. I know this is the fandom's majority take on the subject so I'll probably be preaching to the choir, but there (rightly) is discussion about it nonetheless so I felt like giving my arguments.

I'll put it under a read-more just in case people missed the warning in the tags. Considering the topic, naturally, here's a warning for discussion of suicide. Please take care of yourself!

The thing is that Justice For All is very, very ambiguous on that. It does what Ace Attorney is really good at doing - brushing a serious topic then waffling on it until it really doesn't say anything about it, giving itself the benefit of doubt but never making a statement. Both Phoenix and Franziska's dialogue strongly hint that they have a certainty that Edgeworth is still alive, and they're proven right. The narrative doesn't try really hard to sell us the idea that Edgeworth died - Edgeworth is even on the game's box art. I've watched a few JFA walkthroughs hunting for people's reaction to all the Edgeworth talk and his apparent death, and nobody really seems to buy it - either going through great confusion or immediately going like "oh he can't be dead there's no way - he's so coming back."

However. However. It's just impossible to ignore all the subtext that points at the note being real.

The game textually sets up Adrian Andrews as a foil to Franziska. In the parallel Edgeworth draws, Celeste is supposed to represent Manfred - a mentor she admired and whose guidance she lost. But it was a deliberate choice from the writers to have Celeste die by suicide. In the same game that spent a whole game-wide subplot on slowly revealing Edgeworth's apparent death by the exact same means. Edgeworth is the one who gives Phoenix the information about Adrian and Celeste's backstory. And Franziska revealed to us she wasn't seeking revenge for her father, but for her "little brother" - in the parallel between her and Adrian Andrews' stories, it's easy to see Celeste paralleling Edgeworth, not Manfred.

And in fact Adrian is also a clear parallel to Edgeworth himself. He, too, lost the guidance of his mentor and was left questioning everything. In the infamous scene where he interrogates her in the first phase of the trial, he even puts his own words in her mouth.

If you're going to say you would "choose death", that is of no concern to me.

If you consider Rise from the Ashes, Edgeworth's dialogue leaves even less room for doubt regarding his mental state. Compilation:

Edgeworth: Hmph. Some people need very little excuse to think ill of others. It's a fact of life. Impossible to stop. Some of them even go so far as to present me with toys like this… They think it's funny. (Referring to the award he was just given)

Edgeworth: Why, I ask you? Why!? All along, I've done only what I believe is right. I have nothing to be ashamed of! But still... Phoenix: (Wow, I've never seen him this out of sorts...)

Edgeworth: Hmph. I've had to live the past two years with rumors flying around. What's another allegation to me? Ema: Cheer up, Mr. Edgeworth! I'm rooting for you! Phoenix: (That's Edgeworth for you... Always trying to hide his real feelings.)

Edgeworth: There's no excuse for what I've done. Two years ago, I used false evidence to obtain a guilty verdict. That's what it all breaks down to, and nothing I do can erase that fact.

Edgeworth: I'm tired, Mr. Wright. I feel as if… something inside me has died. [...] I know the path I've walked. You don't need to tell me. And the path I've walked... hasn't been a just one. I can't forgive myself for what I've done... and no one else should forgive me either. Phoenix: (Uh oh. I think he's serious!)

Edgeworth: ... It's too late for me. No matter what anyone may say, I realized today that I can't change my own mistakes! Not only that, but I don't even trust myself anymore. Chief Gant was right...

And of course:

Edgeworth: If you'll excuse me… there are still some loose ends that need wrapping up. Take care, Chief Prosecutor. Phoenix: Edgeworth! What will you do now? Edgeworth: ... Phoenix: Well, whatever you do, just remember. What happened in this trial can either make or break you as a prosecutor. In the end, it's up to you. Edgeworth: I know... It seems I owe you my thanks too, Wright. But what I face now... is my problem. Phoenix: Edgeworth... I'll be waiting for you in court. Edgeworth:... Farewell.

I've pulled all my quotes from the wiki, which I believe takes the DS version, but the retranslation of the port makes things even more blatant. Instead of "either make or break you as a prosecutor," the line was retranslated as "You can let what happened kill the prosecutor in you, or you can let it help you grow."

I don't know how much more literal you can get.

Of course, none of this dialogue strictly refers to anything but a professional crisis for Edgeworth. But it is a true crisis, one he takes very deeply and personally - it is his entire moral system that is crumbling down. And the phrasing of some of those lines is downright chilling. "I can't forgive myself, and nobody should do it either" "I feel like something inside me has died" "It's too late for me" or even those ominous "loose ends"... Whatever his final conclusion, he is not doing well. That's one thing RftA makes abundantly clear.

But then why are Phoenix and Franziska so angry, you'll ask me? Grief, of course. Why is Franziska adamant he still lives? Grief, of course - specifically denial. Why does Gumshoe know Edgeworth still lives? Several options. Edgeworth contacted him knowing he'd need someone to help him come back once he decided to come back, or Gumshoe is the one that prevented his note from turning literal, or Edgeworth contacted him at some other point for another reason - it could have happened at any point in his little mental health gap year.

It just makes much more sense to me than the alternative. Why leave a note saying he "chooses death" so unambiguously only to rely on a play on words? He was shown writing a perfectly good resignation letter right before that - the note was meant to be one step further from resignation. And why leave his loved ones in the dark, mourning him, for one entire year if he just deliberately left for soul-searching purposes? The man is obtuse when it comes to feelings, and honestly I could see him pulling this, but... not in conjunction with everything else.

And his arc just makes it make so much sense as well. Depression is often a comorbidity of PTSD, which Edgeworth has, as close to canonically as possible without it being spelled out. He is in an extremely fragile place psychologically - two months earlier his trial dragged him across the coals emotionally, his traumatic past revisited and revealed in an extremely public way. His quest for "perfection" was shattered not just through the losses he suffered at Phoenix's hand but through the sudden, deep and complete betrayal of the man who taught it to him. He only had one moral high ground left - the fact that he never knowingly forged evidence - only for that to be ripped away from him too. Of course he could be nothing less than unstable.

So anyway I don't have any fancy conclusion but yeah I can't imagine "Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth Chooses Death" wasn't meant literally. Even though I'm pretty sure that wasn't the authorial intent, I think it must have been somewhere in the works anyway, otherwise there wouldn't be so many hints to it.

[captainshyguy]

dimentio's been dead 17 slutty, slutty years

[nosnexus]

Glad the kids got to have an ice cream party before everything goes to shit

[wardingshout]

Zelda goes mushroom girl

[sualne]

more about the AU!

(timeline)

[thornrings]

new letter :D

[nipuni]

Once again I bring you some Eriks 😊