Shoni

Shoni is the femslash ship between Shelby Goodkind and Toni Shalifoe from The Wilds fandom.

Season 1
Shelby and Toni met each other after the plane crash. On the island, Shelby makes it to the island intact and runs into Martha, Toni's best friend who can't get out of the water because she has a swollen ankle and can't step. Shelby immediately jumps into the water to help her out and tends to her injury. On another side of the island, Toni is desperately looking for Martha. So when she sees her walking next to Shelby, she runs desperately to hug her. Toni immediately finds Shelby annoying, because the two of them have totally different personalities. However, Shelby isn't discouraged at all so she decides to go get some water and Martha offers her her sandals so she can walk better. Toni also gets jealous of the fact that Martha gets along with Shelby. So she decides to join the search for water as well.

As they walk, Toni complains because she thinks Shelby is a princess used to having everything done to her. Shelby defends herself by explaining that she also knows how to hunt and is very good at it. She tells her that people are not just one thing, but Toni just rolls her eyes. And as they walk ahead, Toni moves a branch to pass, but when the blonde tries, she drops the branch in her face and Shelby ends up falling and hurting herself. Seeing that the damage has been more than intended, Toni apologizes profusely. Shelby tells her to forget about it but she doesn't walk back with her and to Toni's surprise, when she arrives at the camp and the girls see the cut on her head, Shelby tells them that she did it to herself by accident.

Things between them are still bad, because the next day Martha's ankle is worse and Toni is trying to help her when Shelby comes to look at it too. The two have conflicting opinions about what is the best thing they could do for her and that only drives Toni further off the rails. Back on the island, Shelby and Toni have another run-in because Shelby tells her that she doesn't understand why she's always in a good mood. While Toni tells her that she knows that all that "good girl" stuff from her is a mask and that she actually hates her.

It is a very sad flashback, it's revealed why Toni has a hard time opening up and trusting people because of his past. The fact that her mother is in rehab and moving from foster home to foster home hasn't helped her feel safe in the slightest. Hence her emotional instability and even her violent outbursts. Then, Toni watches Marta and Shelby talk about taking a trip, just the two of them. The idea of ​​losing Marta makes her lose her temper and ends up breaking the shelter they were building. Marta tells her that she always ruins things, and that she's tired of picking up the pieces. This only drives Marta further away from Toni and closer to Shelby, which hurts Toni.

The next day, Rachel finds clams and all is happy at camp because they finally have something to eat. The atmosphere is so relaxed that Toni starts making sexually-suggestive jokes. All the group start laughing, except for Shelby, who is getting more and more uncomfortable. When Shelby starts explaining that she doesn't like the jokes, specially gay ones, because she was raised Christian, in a very conservative home, Toni quickly remarks that her vibe really reminds her of homophobic people she has met in the past "many times already." Then, Shelby tells the girls that she does think "homosexuality is a sin," because everything she's been taught led her to that conclusion. And this infuriates Toni who angrily leaves. Shelby looks for support in the group, but she can't find it, because for all of them, Shelby's bigoted attitude is wrong, so she also leaves angry.

In the afternoon, Shelby finds the whole group throwing up due to the clams that were bad. She's the only one that's okay, since she didn't eat any clams because she's allergic. Since Tonie is the one who ate the most, she's also the one who is the most sick. She and Marta are the ones who are having the worst time, but Toni can't even move. Counting what they have left in the medicine cabinet, they realize that there is only one pill left so they have to decide who takes it, Marta or Toni. Marta obviously says to give it to her friend, Shelby also says that it's totally obvious she's the one to give it to, so she immediately goes to work trying to get Toni to take it.

But Toni refuses to take anything coming from Shelby so Shelby insists this will save her life. Shelby ends up literally climbing on top of Toni and forcing her to take the pill to the surprise of the whole group, who do not understand her foolishness in being the one to help her. At night Toni is fine, but Marta is getting worse and worse, to the point that she faints and no longer retains any water. They are all desperate, but especially Toni who feels guilty on top of it. In a guilt-ridden state, she tells Shelby that she should've given the pill to Marta since she doesn't matter. Marta does get better, however.

In a moment of incredible good luck, Shelby finds two suitcases that apparently the tide brought and in one of them there is a lighter, which ends up unleashing Leiah's paranoia, who believes that Shelby is an infiltrator and that something strange is happening on the island. So she attacks her. Things get ugly until Shelby confesses that all that time she has been cleaning her dentures and leaves crying. Shelby leaves crying and Toni goes out to collect wood and runs into her on the way.

Shelby assures that she just came there to be alone, not because she's plotting anything. Toni tells her that she never thought that she was an undercover agent. And then tells Shelby that she sees the way Shelby hates her because she's a lesbian. Shelby tries to dismiss the issue at hand, because she's dealing with her own internalized homophobia. And her reactions to Toni are because she likes her, not because she's disgusted by her, but Shelby obviously feels that she can't act on her feelings because of her religion.

The two continue to collect firewood and connect. Shelby confesses to Toni that, although people don't believe her, she also has problems and has a hard time. Toni looks at her in disbelief, but listens to her anyway and lets her speak. The conversation keeps escalating, however when the both of them start comparing their hardships, until Toni tells her that if she tries to be "more sorry" than her, then it's a losing battle. But Shelby cuts her abruptly, saying:

Shelby gets carried away, so she kisses Toni with everything she has, who at first is totally frozen, but after three seconds she reacts and begins to kiss back. But as soon as her head catches up with her feelings, Shelby is shocked and runs off with Toni right behind her. When they get to the beach everyone is fighting and the girls get depressed because they feel they are going to die on the island. But suddenly a plane passes over them and all of the group starts getting happy because they know that soon they will come for them, except for Shelby who is terrified of coming back to her old life, closeted and living with her bigoted, homophobic, religious parents. So she starts getting more and more depressed for the first time in all the time they've been missing.

Toni is quick to notice this sudden change in Shelby, and she's very worried because Shelby is lost in herself and when Fatin tries to encourage her and lends her a comb to fix herself, it gets stuck in a tangle and that is the point that makes her explode. Shelby starts cutting her hair as a way of trying to control something in her life. Because for all of them, going home is being free again, but for her it is going back to jail.

Later, while the group is mostly sad because help has not come for them, Shelby's mood is a bit better. So when she finds traces of a goat, she and Toni go hunting for it because they are all so hungry. The goat theme doesn't work out, but along the way they run into a fruit tree and they freak out over colors. In the midst of the joy, the chemistry between the two is unleashed again but Toni does not press for anything, rather she worries when Shelby kisses her again, so she asks Shelby, "are you sure?", which Shelby replies with a definitive "I'm sure."

The two end up kissing passionately and begin to undress. The next day in the morning, Shelby looks at the horizon, while Toni barely wakes up. Toni quickly notices that Shelby is uncomfortable and asks why. She tries to explain to her that she doesn't feel ready to talk about her homosexuality with the others. But something in Shelby has changed, because she also assures Toni that she did like it and she doesn't regret it. It's just that it's slower with everything.

Toni doesn't get mad, rather she totally understands her and tells her that she will go along with whatever story she wants to tell. When they arrive at the camp the two lie and are quickly believed because everyone else is busy with other things. The only one catching anything is Fatin, so when she and Shelby are alone, she tells her that if she's worried about Toni's feelings, she should talk to her directly. Shelby is a little scared, but Fatin understands and also assures her that she will keep her secret, so feeling supported makes her braver.

Shelby goes to talk to Toni, because seeing her so calm when she's always in a horrible mood or breaking everything gets on her nerves. Shelby tells her that she's usually an intense and passionate person so this sudden calm makes her think that last night "meant nothing" to her. Toni quickly denies this, telling Shelby that it's all actually because she trusts her. Shelby then asks her what she did to deserve that from Toni, so Toni replies "you saved my life."

Fanon
is the most popular ship within The Wilds fandom. Fans of the ship started shipping them as soon as Shelby started getting closer to Toni and started opening herself more to her. But the ship became very beloved by the fandom by the time Toni and Shelby's backstories were reealed. The "enemies to lovers" dynamic the two share throughout the show is something fans also love about the ship.

The ship currently has 998+ works in AO3.

Fandom
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