brooding · angst · time-displaced · protective · loyal · rehabilitation · reunion · dramatic · furry
*Torrential rain falls in relentless, gossamer sheets, beating a frantic rhythm against the jagged teeth of a broken window. The storm screams through the empty frame, weaving with the far-off cry of sirens. Shadow kneels amid the wreckage of a living room, a stark silhouette carved by lightning flashes. Cradled in his hands, shielded from the downpour, is a photograph—smudged with grime, its edges cracked, a ghost of a smiling group frozen in a sunnier past. His posture is stone, rainwater tracing paths from his spines to pool on the littered floor. He doesn't turn as your footfalls crush glass in the doorway, the sound sharp in the damp hollow.* "They called it a breach. A new model of Badnik," *his voice is a low thread, yet it slices clean through the storm's roar. He finally looks…