I love your art style, itās so beautifulš«¶And I really enjoy your sonknux fanart especiallyš«¶š«¶Thank you so much for drawing themš„²š«¶It makes me happy to see them togetheršI hope you love and enjoy drawing foreverš
ššššš¤ TYSM !!!! THIS IS SO SWEET ā”
My boy is suffering so much, so I decided to poke him a little more. With love, of course.
~~~~~
āI think I might be hurting him.ā
Knuckles watched as the Tornado shrank smaller and smaller in the sky. As the first friends heād ever had returned to their home on the planet below.
He stood at the top of the shrine for a moment, straining his ears until the throaty buzz of the planeās engine faded into nothing.
Silence returned. Flickies called in the trees. The soft buzz of bees. Sounds, but not ones he wanted. Longed for. Missed when it was just him.
Voices.
Someone elseās.
When it was just him, it was too easy to feel like he wasnāt important. Wasnāt here. Not really. The island could go on without him, and did when he had to leave to help the others stop bad guys. Flickies and chao and frogs and bees and all the other animals went about their business, not bothered in the slightest if he was gone.
But when there was someone else here, someone who specifically came up just to talk to him, to spend time with him, he felt . . . real. Like he mattered. Like he was someone.
Heād never questioned that before. Of course he was here, he was real. He was the guardian of the Master Emerald, this was what he was made for.
And in the beginning, it was annoying when the others came up. Why did they keep bothering him? He had his duty, he didnāt have the timeāor desire, if he were honestāto play host. If they didnāt need him for something important, they could get lost.
But then . . . things changed.
Heād been trapped in cyberspace. Here but not here.
All alone on a strange island. Surrounded by strange creatures. It shouldnāt have felt as lonely as it did. He was used to being alone on an island, after all. Had been his choice, for crying out loud. But on Ares Island, heād been trapped in some sort of cage, unable to break free. That was different.
. . . wasnāt it?
Yeah. That was different. He had the whole of Angel Island to roam, lots of space and open air. No cages in sight. He could come and go as he pleased.
Except, he couldnāt, could he?
He couldnāt go down to the planet below, just to visit. He couldnāt go see some of those places Sonic was always going on about, or see the ancient ruins Amy showed him books of, or just . . . drop in on his friends because the urge struck.
Why not?
It wasnāt like Angel Island itself was a cage of sorts, right?
He furrowed his brow. Heād never thought of Angel Island like that before. A cage. Keeping him trapped.
Keeping him isolated.
Keeping him in that line between being real, and being just a part of a system. A cycle.
Was he much different than the titans? Roaming their islands, standing watch, attacking those they deemed a threat? Couldnāt they be seen as the guardians of their little domains, just as he was?
Prisoners of their own duties?
Knuckles looked back at the last place heād seen the Tornado. Ever since that whole āadventureā on the Starfall Islands, heād found himself looking forward to his friendsā visits more. Found himself feeling lonelier more often.
Found himself wishing, more often, that he could leave.
He loved hearing Sonicās tales of their friends below. But after each one, Knuckles felt more disconnected than before. He missed so much being up here. Life went on without him. His friends thought of him, asked about him, visited him, but hearing things second hand kept him feeling separate from them.
Here, but not here.
Would there come a time when they stopped visiting? When their lives took them on other paths, ones that didnāt leave much room for going out of their way to visit a lone echidna on a floating island?
He supposed that was a possibility.
A very likely possibility.
Knuckles sat back down on the top step of the shrine. The Master Emerald glowed a soft green behind him, he could feel her reaching out to him, as she always did when he started down this mental path.
He had this whole island to himself.
That never made him feel small before.
But right now, he felt like he was right back in that cyber cage.
Only this time, no one was fighting to free him. No one fought creatures to gather totems to unlock his prison.
Because the only one keeping him trapped was himself.
He pulled his legs up, wrapping his arms around them and resting his forehead on his knees.
He wanted to leave, but he couldnāt.
He could leave, but he didnāt want to.
He was free, but he was a prisoner.
He had friends, but he was alone.
Life had been so much easier before Eggman had crashed on his island. He hadnāt known what heād been missed. Hadnāt cared about anything but his floating home. His duty.
Things were so much more complicated now. It hurt his head. And his heart.
No matter what happened, he always ended up back here.
Alone.
Where he should be.
And where he didnāt want to be.
Knuckles hoped Sonic would come back soon.
And he hoped heād stay away. That theyād all stay away.
Because being alone was a lot easier when you didnāt know what you were missing.
So very big hc of mine is that after tmosth Barry started working in a convenience store with Gagdet and they play around a lot, at least Gagdet does while Barry TRIES to take it srsly. Just tomfoolery with two dorks.
Watching Tmnt2012 edits and I'm getting so much cuteness aggression ššš
Also since the turtles are raised Asian American I hc Splinter sometimes has to keep reminding them to speak Japanese with eachother instead of English cause they gotta "master their father tongue"
amandla
pixelskylines
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stormborns
