#molinaskies

[molinaskies]

It's time to bring this journey home! The Epilogue of Just Three Days is up on AO3 and FFdotNet!

New to the fic? Curious? Start here!

Thank you all so, so much for reading this absolute labour of love. This was such a powerful piece to work on, and I'm so grateful at the opportunity to share it all with you!

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...are they gone? the ravenous ones? good, because they might get mad at me for this.

You know how, last week, I said TODAY was the final drop?

I lied :)

I've got one more gift for you. See you tomorrow!

[dnydoesart]

You know, reading Just Three Days by @molinaskies on AO3 really made me reflect on Sonic & Amy's personalities, specifically on how they mirror each other.

Despite both being kindred spirits, Ames is the type to find solace in life & love through her treasured company, but learns about how much strength she individually possesses on her own. It's not like in an "alone" way, but like some kind of solitary door connecting to her company; that way, she's acquiring self-love w/out the hyper-prioritization trap that some of us fall into. Sonikuu kind of teaches her this through a sort of forward encouragement.

Whereas, Sonic already learned about his resilience & value in his private time, but it's only when he gets tired and kind of scared of how much it's been isolating him that he likely wants to find the same solace in company that Amy has. But instead of shaming him (like most probably would towards someone who's become tragically allergic to vulnerability), she gently invites him in w/ a balanced sort of honest compassion.

So in a way, they're kind of like opposites that have enough length between them for building a bridge across to find something in the middle w/ each other. As someone who holds in high regards the Japanese tradition of their dynamic, I'm starting to REALLY like this interpretation (so, big kudos to Molina for making me think about this, lol).

On a similar note, ever since the last couple chapters, I've had three-ish imaginations for some end credit song that leaves it riding off into the sunset. Though, I'm not sure how accurate they would tie in...

1) The resilience of friendship & surprise of (ever)lasting love is something that's waiting to be found; so why waste your one whole life just allowing changes to consume you?

2) Literally referring to your love as "home"

Or 3) a duet between two souls; one who's woundedly afraid of his own heart & the other who just wants her own heart to be a safe & loving place for theirs.

But who knows? Perhaps the author might have a theme song for the story themselves? 👀lol

[molinaskies]

THE HEALING BALM THAT IS chapters 15, 16, and 17 of Just Three Days are up on AO3 and FFdotNet!

Next release will be on January 13th, Canada time!

New to the fic? Curious? Start here!

[molinaskies]

Chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Just Three Days are up on AO3 and FFdotNet!

Next release will be on December 16th, Canada time!

New to the fic? Curious? Start here!

[molinaskies]

Just Three Days

AO3 | FFdotNet

Once I leave tomorrow, she’ll once again be free to fall into trouble with this city, this island, and the rest of the world. 

And one day, she will come to me and say that she wants to move across the planet and live a life so disconnected from my own, and I will not have the heart to stop her. 

But after she reclaims this part of herself—after Tails finds his footing as the genius he is, after Knuckles settles into his well-earned freedom—I may not have a heart at all.

The thing Amy once called “boredom” is closing in, and this time, I don’t think I can run away.

—

Amy’s been solo-travelling for months, now, but when the distance gets to be a bit too much, Sonic pays her a visit.

The hedgehogs reunite in Blossom Heights, an animal settlement filled with beloved mystical and occult traditions. Amy fits right in as a fortune-teller reconnecting with her roots, but Sonic finds himself conflicted by just how bright she shines in this new place. And when she starts floating the idea of a move…

This is a fic about family of all kinds, embracing the past, and picking up the pieces that were lost along the way.

70k Words. Rated T.

TAGS: sonamy, they're not dating but they might as well be, Romance, Friendship/Love, Best Friends, First Love, Knuckles and Tails appear and play minor roles, an exploration of Sonic's trauma, Sonic the Hedgehog Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, life in sonic's world, Badass and supportive Amy Rose, Protective Sonic the Hedgehog, Major Original Character(s) (for world building), Emotional Growth, Action/Adventure, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a happy ending, Fluff, Travel, Post-Game: Sonic Frontiers, Set during Amy's trip, POV First Person, Sonic's POV, No beta we die like Chip, Found Family, Death, Mortality, Abandonment

After I wrote “I Love You - Come With Me” four years ago, I didn’t think I’d write another book-length fic ever again. I didn’t think I had it in me.

But then, I wrote something. And when I read it back weeks later, I realized this was a story I needed to tell.

This story contends with the facts of abandonment, mortality, and death. If these topics make you uncomfortable, you may find aspects of this story upsetting. Every effort has been made to engage with this story’s various subject matter with the utmost research, courage, and respect.

I want to thank @bigklingy, my very encouraging internet friend, for 1) being my accountability partner, and 2) keeping this project a secret since August 2025. He is a big reason this fic got finished, at all—and he hasn’t even read a word. He is a testament to the power of just showing up.

Hopefully, so is this book.

I dedicate this work to all the young people who struggle to face their emotions because something in life taught them it was dangerous. You are loved, and you deserve to be loved.

You also deserve to love.

[molinaskies]

Chapters 18 and 19 of Just Three Days are up on AO3 and FFdotNet!

We're almost done, gang!! The final release will be on January 20th, Canada time!

New to the fic? Curious? Start here!

[molinaskies]

What We Get Wrong About Dark Sonic

I find Dark Sonic incredibly interesting.

I’ve said this before, but Dark Sonic represents an overflow of Sonic’s negative emotions, the ones he usually suppresses: anger, sadness, and fear.

However, many people believe that Dark Sonic is somehow a betrayal of Sonic as a character (even Ian Flynn, reportedly, but I’ve yet to see an official source). Sonic is meant to be a beacon of optimism. Sonic is meant to be the pillar of hope when all else fails. Sonic is meant to be the last one standing, no matter what.

In this sense, sure, Dark Sonic contradicts the notion that Sonic is “uncorruptable,” but I think that depends on how we define corruption.

I see it two ways:

1) Corruption by way of losing faith, through dishonesty and fraud. 2) Corruption by way of a forceful shift from one state of being to another.

In the first sense, corruption occurs when someone’s paradigm is shifted through lies, cheating, or manipulation. It’s a conscious mental shift. In the second sense, corruption occurs when something (or someone) is co-opted and changed without its will or influence, like data corruption, or a shift in the meaning of a word or image. It’s a literal, physical and/or metaphysical shift.

There’s a saying that floats around the fandom that says, “Shadow is just ‘Sonic, if Sonic had one really bad day’,” and I think that makes sense. Shadow is jaded and cynical because of how the world has hurt him, but he still wants to do right by people—just like Sonic. What separates Sonic from Shadow, however, is Sonic’s tenant optimism and positive paradigm. Without those differences, Sonic has endless reasons to be as cynical as Shadow, or even more so.

So, Sonic doesn’t let himself feel those feelings for very long, and especially not when other people are around. He pours everything into a clean, neat bottle, with a tight screw-on cap, right?

What happens when something tampers with that bottle?

Dark Sonic is a forceful corruption of body but not of mind. Let’s talk about it.

How Dark Sonic Works

What I think people misunderstand most about Dark Sonic is that it’s not an intentional state of being. It never was.

Dark Sonic is the polar opposite to Super Sonic, which is achieved when Sonic harnesses the positive energy of the Chaos Emeralds. If Sonic wanted to harness the power of the emeralds for the wrong reasons and his heart accessed the negative energy rather than the positive, he could possibly bring about Dark Sonic willingly. This, however, would likely never happen because that is the betrayal of Sonic’s character that everyone worries about.

That said, the only reason Dark Sonic ever appears is because of a mix of Sonic’s pure rage over Black Narcissist physically assaulting Chris and Cosmo and the presence of hundreds of the Metarex’s fake Chaos Emeralds, which possess an aura clearly shown to impact Sonic and make him ill.

Sonic’s first interaction with negative Chaos energy from the fake emeralds is filled with discomfort and even disgust. Sonic reacting to the negative Chaos energy poorly is critical, as it showcases that it’s seeking him out, not vice versa.

When Sonic was as triggered as he was, the negative energy from the fakes harnessed his emotions and corrupted him. It was a complete, freak accident.

This situation is very similar to Darkspine Sonic, the in-game equivalent to Dark Sonic from Sonic and the Secret Rings. Darkspine Sonic only surfaces when Sonic is severely triggered after Shahra starts to betray him, Erazor Djinn murders her (she sacrifices herself for Sonic), and he sees Erazor Djinn’s final form about to destroy the storybook world. In his shock and anger, the Secret Rings of Sadness, Rage, and Hate target him, painfully turning him into Darkspine Sonic. Once again, external energies corrupt him at the height of his emotional vulnerability.

Sonic never seeks out the negative energy of the Chaos Emeralds because his heart is good. When the negative energy seeks him out in such overwhelming waves, it corrupts his abilities, alters them, and pulls them out to play.

But—

If it’s simply a matter of fake Chaos Emeralds, then why can Sonic use Tails’ fake Chaos Emerald in Sonic Adventure 2 without any problems? I posit this to the fact that Tails might have a better understanding of the balanced nature of the Chaos Emeralds (in that they are powered by both good and evil), while Eggman and Dark Oak have only ever used (or desired to use) the Chaos Emeralds for evil.

Recall Eggman’s laser at the beginning of Sonic Unleashed and Perfect Chaos in Sonic Adventure. Both uses of the chaos emeralds drained them of their power—their negative power, that is. (Albeit through different means based on the lore of each game), Sonic is still able to restore and harness the emeralds’ power because he relies on the positive energy of the emeralds. As intelligent as he is, I imagine that Eggman (as well as the Metarex) has a hard time replicating the intricate nature and balance of the Chaos Emeralds because their hearts are filled with hatred and turmoil, so unwilling to heed the perspectives of others. The power is there, sure, but not the heart.

~Chaos is power. Power is enriched by the heart~

Tikal's Prayer

I think the difference between Tails’ fake emerald and every other fake emerald we’ve seen in canon is marked by the fact that both Eggman’s and the Metarex’s fakes disintegrate after excessive use (i.e., Chaos Control), but Tails’ fake remains intact.

The Metarex's emerald disintegrates upon excessive use

Eggman's fake emeralds can't hold their form upon excessive use

Tails' fake emerald is intact and ultimately used to stop the Eclipse Canon from firing

In short, Tails’ emerald is simply a better fake, more accurate to the originals.

also, I refuse to talk about how dumb it is that Sonic was able to use a fake Chaos Emerald to do Chaos Control for the first time. However, it is canon, and therefore relevant to my point.

Another key problem cited in Sonic X is just how many fake emeralds there are. One emerald pales in comparison to hundreds. Sonic feels all the latent negative energy consume him because that energy is a corruption, itself.

It’s not that Sonic gets so angry that he just gives in to darkness, it’s that darkness captures him when he’s in extreme emotional distress and his guard is down. Dark Sonic is the result of negative, unstable, potent Chaos energy clinging to him, using his latent Chaos powers as a vessel when he least expects it and, thus, is powerless against it.

I think I can best prove this by contrasting Dark Sonic with Sonic’s other intimate encounter with darkness…

Sonic Unleashed, Dark Gaia, and the Werehog

I’ve spoken at length about this game and this specific scene, already, so kindly forgive my hyper-brief summary this time around!

When Dark Gaia’s “weight issues” cause its essence to disperse around the globe, many people fall influence to Dark Gaia’s despair, losing faith and hope in the world. Nothing like the influences of Chaos energy, but enough of an influence that much of the world feels it. A core aspect of the game’s plot is that Sonic, distinctly, does not. In the cutscene No Reason, Sonic asks Chip why he stays the same despite the darkness inside his heart while so many others change at night. Chip answers simply, saying that Sonic’s too strong to lose himself and that part of his good will is because he never doubts himself, even when he’s on his own.

The difference is that while Sonic undergoes a physical transformation, he never loses faith or gives up hope—made especially clear by the fact that Professor Pickle, once as hopeful as Sonic, eventually does lose hope.

Also key to note that Amy also never loses hope.

Unleashed is just another fun, high-stakes adventure for Sonic; there’s never a moment where he’s aggressively triggered by something or when his personal morals are ever tainted. Irritated, maybe. Flustered, even. Never at a loss. The closest we see Sonic come to this is when he loses the werehog form to Dark Gaia before the final battle. He falls to his knees, worn and exhausted, and tells Chip to run because he doesn’t want him to get caught up in the mess. Yet even then he’s not giving up.

That’s why Sonic’s heightened emotional state is so important to the conversation. When Sonic’s will is intact, he’s much stronger, but when he’s triggered by something and his defences are down, it’s much easier for corrupting forces around him to take hold.

Mind over Matter

Even with the parameters for Dark Sonic’s appearance established, something that stands out to me about Sonic’s encounters with dark energies, and something I see as additional evidence that Dark Sonic is only a literal, physical corruption and not a corruption of his paradigm, is that Sonic is still in control of himself—to an extent.

Even as he seethes in his amplified rage, Dark Sonic never inflicts harm on the innocent. After Gold and Silver are destroyed, it’s not expressly clear if Sonic intends to stop or fight Black Narcissist, but Eggman implies that Sonic was fighting Gold and Silver until there was quite literally nothing left. Sonic was given a target to attack, and he kept his focus there, even when other enemies presented themselves.

This also goes for the Werehog and Darkspine Sonic.

He also has the mind to listen to reason—from Eggman, of all people—and stop when it’s clear that he’s finished what he set out to do. Sonic channels his anger to where it needs to be, and it’s clear that Sonic’s moral code and paradigm on life are thoroughly intact.

The only thing that changes is that he’s no longer imposing his usual limits. Sonic is stupidly powerful, even without any power ups. If he ever wanted to kill Eggman, he would have by now. If he ever wanted to kill anyone, he would have by now (and technically, he has).

Sonic throws Erazor Djinn's lamp into a pit, never to resurface, effectively trapping him and ending his livelihood indefinitely.

However, Sonic holds back because he doesn’t want to be an arbiter of justice—he doesn’t want to deprive someone’s chance to be good unless it’s been clear that they cannot be redeemed.

Why I Care About This

It is no secret that I believe that Sonic is a highly emotional character—far more emotional than many give him credit for. It bears repeating that Sonic’s emotions are very big and can be cataclysmic when left unchecked…

…but that’s just part of growing up—growing up as a hero and, damn it, even just a kid.

Dark Sonic isn’t a case of Sonic giving himself to darkness, nor is it a perversion of Sonic’s character. It’s an energetic, chaotically-charged version of Sonic when he is at his angriest—and even then it’s not enough to change his morals or make him lash out unjustly.

Dark Sonic is cathartic, in a way, and I definitely think it deserves its place in canon.

[molinaskies]

Silver the Hedgehog: Refugee of a Future Lost to Time

I don’t find myself thinking about Silver a lot, and that’s a bit of a crime honestly. But when I do, I’m struck by how in the weeds I become about his existence. Silver the Hedgehog starts as a young boy with psychokinesis* born into a world on fire. He wants to fix it but doesn’t know how.

*worth mentioning here that while Lore™️ consistently refers to Silver’s power as psychokinesis (the ability to control minds and conjure specific actions from people), his powers in practice are actually much more aligned with the definition of telekinesis (the ability to control objects and manipulate their movement in space).

He despairs with Blaze over the life they live and the nerve-ending cycle of it all, then meets a mouthless hedgehog who claims to have all the answers. In his desperation, Silver clings to the sliver of hope he provides… and this is something I think we often find ourselves forgetting.

Silver never had the power to travel through time—at least, not independently. Mephiles did. Later on, the game establishes that two people can open a time portal through the power of our favourite plot device, the Chaos Emeralds, via Chaos Control.

Through Contrivance’s Paradise, Silver (and company) were just… able to time travel because that’s what the plot needed, but Silver, as an individual, never had the embedded power to travel through time.

I’m still endlessly annoyed that this anniversary game didn’t shoehorn an excuse to bring back the time stones from Sonic CD, but alas.

Silver was barely a figment in the canon imagination after Sonic 06. His appearances in Rivals are just excuses to reintroduce him into the series (because, remember, Sonic 06 removes itself from the timeline by the end of its story), and his appearances there don’t mention his time travelling at all. He appears (for kinda no explainable reason) in Generations, but then… nothing! Absolutely nothing… for FIVE YEARS.

And yet, in 2025’s mainline canon, Silver is just the Time Traveler™️. Since Sonic 06 never happened, the nature of Silver’s time travel beyond Sonic 06 has always been vague, at best. 

The running logic seems to be that Silver, through no intentional act of his own, is sent into the past when something catastrophic needs to be stopped. Silver is a being somehow tied to the fate of the world. Silver has been chosen by Time itself to protect it… which is something I kind of love, to be honest.

If Sonic is just a hedgehog who showed up one day and decided to do good, then Silver is a sort of divine guardian of his travels.

It’s taken canon a bit of time to settle into this interpretation, but the IDW comics have taken pretty much any opportunity they can to establish this fact as fact.

In issue 3 of the Sonic Forces prequel comics, Silver returns from the future to warn Knuckles about the Eggman Empire’s success, which implies that Silver has some sense of control over his time travel.

In mainline IDW 8, Silver returns to the present after winning the war didn’t save his future, under the same pretense that he can just… do that.

However, by the end of the Meal Virus comic arc (IDW 12-29), in a pretty monumental move for his story, Silver’s future is officially saved.

IDW 31

Now, having done the damn thing and guaranteed a Good Future™️, Silver is free to be a kid again… and for his efforts, as I intend to argue, Time rewards him…

…by sending him back to the past where all the bullshit is happening lmao. Hear me out.

In the IDW Sonic 2022 annual, Silver returns to the present, but this time he has no idea why or how*. This is when canon decides to remove the pretense of Silver having active control of his time traveling. It’s largely implied that Silver will be in the present for the foreseeable future (no pun intended).

*I’ve included the proof for this below as it’s more directly relevant to another point I’m making in a moment.

With the inauguration of Fast Friends Forever, the SEGA initiative that champions friendship through a lore-centric focus on Sonic and his friends in and out of the games, Silver’s time travel is explicitly explained as external to his control.

By IDW 58, Silver is roped back into the mainline plot, and it’s made abundantly clear that he no longer has  never had the ability to travel freely through time.

So, Silver’s arc becomes about finding his place and trying to live life without the demand of proactivity—to enjoy the moment while making the most of the life he has.

But… why? Why must he do this? Why take him down this road?

Silver the Hedgehog starts as a young boy with psychokinesis born into a world on fire. That world no longer exists.

Silver the Hedgehog became a young boy with psychokinesis born into a world dominated by the Eggman Empire. That world no longer exists.

Silver the Hedgehog further became a young boy with psychokinesis left behind by a world decimated by metallic disease. That world no longer exists.

With every trip to the past, every day saved, Silver rewrites his own life for the sake of his world—so much so that there’s nothing for him when he returns. His entire world has changed. People he might have known before cease to exist as they once were.

When Silver saved his future, he sacrificed his place within it—because once he saved his future, his future ceased to exist. Instead, a new future curates itself in Silver’s absence because he wasn’t there to be a part of it.

Returning to the IDW 2022 annual:

It seems that Time has sent him back to the place—the time—he belongs… where he has unwittingly planted his roots.

Something which Espio so elegantly points out.

Thanks to his sacrifices, Silver is no longer the Omen of Disaster. He’s Silver the Hedgehog: the psychokinetic. Silver the Hedgehog: the kid.

He is Silver the Hedgehog: Refugee of the Future, and he deserves nothing more but to blossom in the garden of most significance to him, among the flowers he loves so dear.