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blazehedgehog · 2 years ago

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And Now: Thoughts on Sonic Prime (1-8)

I am hot and fresh off watching episode 8 of Sonic Prime -- it's the end of the current batch of episodes we have, with the promise of more to come.

And to some degree, I guess I went in with low expectations. For starters, this show has been kind of shrouded in mystery. I guess to some degree I'm used to more lead in time on these things, where there's a steady drip feed of teasers, and trailers, and previews for 9-12 months leading up to its release. Sonic Prime had nothing, for the most part -- just some concept art leaks, until about three months before it premiered. It didn't help that the streaming landscape as it stands today is sort of on fire; not just Warner Discovery slash-and-burning HBO Max, but a swathe of Netflix Animation layoffs cut through the industry during Sonic Prime's production. It was, and is still a scary time for the industry.

The pervasive theme from some I follow on social media also was kind of lukewarm. I get the feeling a lot of people had the same experience with Sonic Prime as I did with Samurai Jack back when that premiered. For me, Samurai Jack came at the peak of the anime boom, when Americans were getting their first taste of truly serialized animation. Jack set itself up as a serialized adventure, but very, very quickly devolved in to a typical American cartoon format, with episodes made to be syndicated and aired out of order. Or, to put it in terms that make my comparison more clear: I expected something more and instead got a show that was comfortable resting in an existing format.

And the prevailing complaint I've heard against Sonic Prime is that it's "just a kids show." The complaints aren't very loud and most people are fine with this, but the disappointment is still there, because, again: they expected something more and received a show that was comfortable where it was. That's fair.

Sonic Prime is definitely a cartoon show for children. The original pitch was that it is "Into the Spider-verse for Sonic", and that's definitely true, but it makes sure to go as slowly as possible and explain the concept of a multiverse over, and over, and over again just to be positive that the six and seven year olds in the audience understand the concept of alternate dimensions, and the fact that Sonic is crossing between them. A lot of early episodes are taken up by Sonic being confused by what's going on, despite the fact that DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths popularized the idea of the multiverse back in 1985. But hey, kids today weren't alive in 1985 (heck, I was barely alive in 1985).

Even though, y'know, Spider-verse itself was a comic book in 2014, and a movie in 2018, with a sequel due next year, which is to say nothing of the Marvel Cinematic Universe dabbling in the multiverse with Spider-man: No Way Home and Dr. Strange in The Multiverse of Madness. And then there's Fortnite, perpetually one of the biggest games in the world for the last half-decade, which has positioned itself as the center of all multiverses ever created, in its quest to transcend and graduate to a metaverse.

Heck, even Sonic himself: between Sonic Generations, Sonic Forces, and the 24 year run of the Archie Sonic comics, this isn't Sonic's first multiversal rodeo.

But I can swallow that. Like it's been said, it's a show for kids, and they're just trying to make absolutely, totally sure even the youngest are able to digest what's happening. Eventually you get past the show feigning a sense of "I don't know what's going on!!" and it starts to hit a stride.

Sort of, anyway. By the end of episode four, when Sonic Prime has fully and finally committed to admitting this is a multiverse, you're halfway through this first batch of episodes, and the pace suddenly goes from zero to sixty as Sonic starts more rapidly popping around dimensions.

I'd really like to see the original, unedited pitch for this show. Because there are clear vibes in Sonic Prime that suggest something much closer to what a "Spider-verse" really is: namely, different sub-franchises coming together. More specifically, the Spider-verse movie goes out of its way to suggest that its Peter Parker is, in fact, the same Peter Parker from Sam Raimi's movie trilogy, as during his origin story, you see shot-for-shot recreations of famous Raimi-Spider scenes. Now, with its sequel, Across the Spider-verse, fans are going wild pointing out cameos in recent trailers.

All of this is me saying I think Sonic Prime was probably pitched to be a show where Sonic visits known dimensions -- alternate universe versions we know from other pieces of Sonic media. In the Sonic Prime show we have now, Sonic visits three dimensions:

The Red Sky Dimension: A grim, dark universe where Eggman ("The Chaos Council") has already won. A rebel band of freedom fighters works underground to fight back against the dictatorship. One of the characters is a half-robot woman with telescoping arms and legs.

The Jungle Dimension: A tribe of natives are suffering from a small civil war after temperament changes over how they are maintaining their balance with nature.

The Pirate Dimension: The entire surface of the planet is covered in nearly endless water, leaving most people to sail the high seas in galleons.

Parts of each dimension map pretty well to existing things we already have (or had) in the Sonic franchise. Some more than others, and maybe it's just a sign that Sonic's been interpreted so many ways over the years, but I can't help but wonder if there was a version where this was pitched as:

The SatAM Dimension: Named for the fact this was the Saturday Morning Cartoon Sonic (Saturday, in the AM), this was part of the second wave of dark kids shows following in the footsteps of pioneers like X-Men: The Animated Series and Batman: The Animated Series in 1992. Dark kids shows truly kicked off in 1993, with Sonic joining the ranks with Swat Kats, Exosquad, and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. SatAM put Sonic in a team of freedom fighters lead by Princess Sally Acorn as they fought back against Robotnik's dictatorship. One of the characters is a half-robot woman with telescoping arms and legs. The show became the basis for the Archie Sonic comics, which went on to become the longest continuous licensed comic book in history. The "red sky" in Sonic Prime isn't necessarily a reference to SatAM itself (which often use colder blue hues), but the "red sky" is often a general term for the grim dark period of cartoons in general, used in particular when the 80's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon rebooted to become darker and more serious, entering what fans call the "Red Sky Era." That, or, y'know, Eggmanland from the actual Sonic games.

The Boom Dimension: This one's admittedly a big stretch, but what really grabbed my attention was the way Knuckles acts in this world. Here, he exists in a nearly identical role to Sticks the Badger from Sonic Boom. Basically, all he does is interrupt when the dialog gets too serious to spout off over-the-top conspiracy theories as a way to lighten the mood. Plus, um, wood huts...? Like I said, it's a stretch.

The Sol Dimension: This is the home of Blaze the Cat, introduced in the Sonic Rush games. These games are, in themselves, also suggestive of a multiverse: in the first Sonic Rush, we meet Blaze, who is kind of the Sonic of her own dimension. In the sequel, Sonic is temporarily stranded in Blaze's world, which is mostly covered in water and dominated by pirate factions. A great deal of the gameplay is Sonic gathering materials so Tails can build watercraft able to reach many of the game's most scattered islands. Blaze isn't in Sonic Prime, obviously, but there's nameless background rebels in The Red Sky Dimension that are almost a dead ringer for her in a way that feels like a deliberate wink. (Re-scanning the episode, there's also Raccoon-styled background characters clearly using visual cues from Marine, too)

I could definitely see this show being pitched where these references were maybe a little more overt. Especially the first one, considering production is being handled by WildBrain, aka Cookie Jar, aka DiC, the original production company behind SatAM in 1993. The first thought I had when I heard the legacy was that if they were going to pull a "Spider-verse" as they originally announced, they needed to do an episode where Sonic visits SatAM, and given the Red Sky Dimension is the first (and seemingly most important) of the three so far, it seems they were at least thinking in the same direction, to some degree. I just assume Sega wouldn't let them commit, so they had to pick and choose what they liked about those worlds and adapt them to fit a mainline-centric cast.

As for what they did with it... yeah, it's fine. It's not the greatest Sonic show ever created, but it's a step above things like Sonic Underground, Sonic X, and even Sonic Boom, I'd say. Sonic Boom was also very "fine" from everything I've seen (I never saw most of Season 2), but it's really hard to look back on nowadays when you see Sonic Prime's vibrant colors and fluid animation.

I'm hesitant to judge too much of the story yet, given we know Netflix apparently ordered 24 episodes and we're only 8 episodes deep in to that run. Assuming they keep to 8 episode batches, we still have two more "drops" left to go -- the series is still clearly getting warmed up.

I will say I echo what some others have said, namely the fact that they treat Green Hill Zone with such a comical amount of reverence as if it has all these iconic locations, when it turns out to be... like, one tree. Out of many. Or a single loop-de-loop. Every time Sonic goes to a new dimension, he has to be like "aw man, there's the loop" like we're supposed to feel something with him, when Sonic games show us loops everywhere, in every level.

As I said in another blog, though, I really appreciate Sonic's characterization here. He has the personality I always thought he should have: carefree to a fault, very hyperactive, and obnoxiously cocky. Sonic is used to going where he wants, when he wants, and doing what he wants, and we're lucky he's one of the good guys because he's basically unstoppable when he really puts his mind to something. He just, uh, doesn't put his mind to very much, because he just kind of casually wanders into and out of trouble at his leisure. His friends love him just as much as they put up with his ADHD impulses. Sonic Prime just shows us a moment where that devil-may-care attitude bites him particularly hard. But I've definitely been of the mind that more Sonic games should be about Sonic stumbling in to something dangerous by accident, and that's definitely what happens here.

So, in general, I feel like I am living my best life when I watch this Sonic bumble his way around, lost in worlds he doesn't understand. This is my guy. This is how I'd write him. There has not been a single moment in the entire show so far where I have wavered in this thought. This is, 100%, my Sonic. He is perfect.

Everyone else I'm not so sure of. Shadow shows up here generally to repeat the same things that got him pushed out of the IDW comics, where he's treated more as a hyper-aggressive one-dimensional rival to Sonic who can't stand being seen as a second-banana. It's a flimsy reason to make a character punch Sonic (something that happens a lot in Sonic Prime). I know I've complained about Shadow being too serious before, but there used to be more nuance to his characterization than "I am always going to be mad at Sonic for petty reasons."

Rouge is also a weird addition to the main cast; namely making her part of the core team along side Tails, Amy, and Knuckles. I get that they probably wanted more gender diversity and probably didn't want to (or couldn't) introduce a new female character, but she always struck me as someone who was always off doing her own things and didn't necessarily care about what Sonic was doing unless their paths accidentally intersected.

I'm already getting tired of The Chaos Council. This is probably the thing that feels the most like a kids show -- instead of having one character with depth and nuance, you break them down into a group of easy-to-digest stereotypes. Here's the trendy one! Here's the dumb one! Here's the apathetic one! Here's the old one! Here's the leader! It's the same line of thinking behind The Deadly Six from Sonic Lost World, and being so basic and toyetic is one of the reasons people rejected those things. The council seems like they're going to be the central villains for the rest of Sonic Prime, but I'd like them to combine back in to the real Eggman at some point.

Though speaking of Chaos, I'm pleasantly surprised how little Chaos Emeralds have factored in to this story. Sure, they have a different type of jewel to worry about, but it's nice that the emeralds aren't so important just yet. I assume they will be, since Shadow finds an emerald in one episode and his ability to use Chaos Control seems to tie in to the dimensional shenanigans, but it's still good to have Sonic media where the answer isn't instantly just "we gotta find the Chaos Emeralds because Super Sonic will stop this." We get to have some fun, first.

Definitely interested in seeing where the rest of this series goes, but at the very least, these first eight episodes have dashed any hopes of legitimate alternate-universe crossovers. Perhaps SatAM, Sonic Boom, and the Sol Dimension were never in the cards, and they chose these as the first three dimensions to showcase as a way to tell people like me that they can't and won't be crossing over with any existing Sonic media. Because, I mean, they can't do SatAM and the Red Sky dimension, right? It's an easy way to set expectations.

Fingers crossed it finishes strong.

#sonic prime #sonic boom #sonic the hedgehog #netflix #sega #sonic team #wildbrain #man of action #this was way longer than I expected

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redorich · 3 years ago

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I absolutely adore the hermit canyon au both because you have such a fun writing style and because it just makes it so blatantly clear how much of a different level the hermits are on compared to the dsmp folks. Power mad admin who's effectively a god on the server? Just vore him, it's fine! Spooky egg that brings madness and suffering to everyone who interacts with it? Grian can handle it, give him 30 seconds. It's such a good portrayal of their differences and I'm absolutely delighted by it

thank you!! i try very hard to cultivate a writing style that's fun, rather than a slog. and yes, the difference in power level is absolutely one of my favorite tropes, so i'm glad so many people enjoyed it! speaking of the hermits' casual wielding of insane levels of power.....

"So, how are you going to fix the Era Three life system anyway?" Cleo asks. She and Xisuma are casually walking down the main hall of the canyon.

Xisuma never goes anywhere alone anymore. Even though a survivable amount of magic has been returned to the Dream SMP server and Xisuma is no longer infirm, all those months of staying by his side have left a lasting impression.

"Hm, it basically comes down to a charisma check-- have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons, Cleo?"

"Not really," Cleo admits, "but Joe does and he's talked about it before. Charisma check?"

Xisuma stops walking, opening the door to the small meeting room in the heart of the canyon and holding the door open for Cleo. As she passes through, he explains.

"We have a source of magic, and we have a plan to implement it. The only obstacle is convincing Mojang that they should; hence, charisma check."

"Hey, Xisuma," Joe greets as the admin follows behind Cleo.

"Hello, Joe," Xisuma returns, surveying the room. The chair at the far end of the table has been left open for the admin, and unlike the meeting with the Dream SMP representatives, the Hermits don't give a fuck about who sits where and what that says about their status.

Doc is sitting in the place two seats from Xisuma's spot, leaning back in his chair so that only two of its legs are on the ground and his croc-clad creeper toes are kicked up on the edge of the table. A few spaces down is Joe, minding his business and reading a book (upside down-- it's more of a challenge that way) and across from Joe is Etho, sitting patiently.

With a shrug, Cleo snags the nearest chair and turns it around so she can sit in it backwards and still face the table. No one planned on her being here, and she has no idea what's going on, but no one has really told her to leave, so that's pretty much implicit permission.

After making his way to his seat, Xisuma addresses the table. "Are we all ready? Etho, do you think you can convince whoever shows up?"

Etho hums in thought for a moment. "Yeah, I can do that. Still need to actually get one of the gods here, though."

"I'm on it," Doc says, already on his communicator.

Cleo squints at Doc. "You have the gods on speed dial?"

Doc shrugs. "We text sometimes."

"About what?!" Cleo says.

"Basketball."

Cleo squints at Doc. "Don't you, like, hold a grudge or something against Dinnerbone? I mean, he did literally rip off your arm."

"Got a cool robot arm out of it, though," Doc says placidly. "It's got a screwdriver in it."

"Like a Swiss army knife?" Joe chimes in, putting down his book.

"Yeah," Doc says proudly, "bottle opener too-- for beer."

"As fascinating as Doc's Sonic Screwdriver arm is, we do have something to be doing," Xisuma reminds the group wryly.

"Oh yeah," Doc says. "Agnes is coming."

Cleo drums her fingers on the table. "When will she be here-- oh!"

A radiant figure emitting soft yellow light appears on top of the table; although the figure is bright, it doesn't hurt to look at. The glow dims and the light coalesces into a small woman with pale yellow hair. The woman-- presumably Agnes of the Mojang pantheon-- opts to sit side-saddle on the table instead of in a chair.

"Hello! It's nice to see you again, Doc," she says, "oh, and Etho as well-- and Herobrine?"

"I go by Joe now," the man says simply.

Agnes smiles. "My bad, Joe. Now, what did you need me for, Doc?"

"Er, it's actually about the three-life system," Xisuma cuts in.

"Yes? What about it?" Agnes tilts her head.

"It was... a good system, doing what you could with the lack of magic," Xisuma says diplomatically, "but we think we've found a way to fix things. Joe?"

Joe takes over, setting his book down on the table after carefully bookmarking his place. "So the issue is the lack of magic, right? You couldn't support updates and player respawns after Notch took what he did."

"This is correct," Agnes says with a service industry smile, likely not appreciating the reminder of her pantheon's failure.

"So, use the In Between," Joe says. "It's got so much extra magic that it keeps sending people back in time; I was stumped on a way to fix it, but if you can give the magic to the players it's a win-win."

Eyebrows raising to her hairline, Agnes's face falls into a considering moue. "I'd much rather use it to push the next update," she says. "The Caves and Cliffs update is one of the biggest yet."

Cleo's unbeating heart sinks in her chest. Is this it? Is their only way to help these people going to be appropriated by well-meaning yet selfish gods?

"People are dying!" Cleo shouts. "Isn't that more important than your stupid update?!"

Agnes turns to look at her for the first time, and Cleo refuses to be afraid.

"I know it must sound callous of me, but... well, people die," Agnes says gently. "They always do. Even Era One players aren't immune. The better thing to do would be to improve their quality of life while they can still live it."

Shoulders rising in anger as she suppresses the urge to bite and kill and devour, Cleo takes a breath to rage when Etho of all people cuts in.

"Remember that IOU you gave me?" he says. There's a twinkle in his eye that only intensifies when Agnes groans.

"Don't tell me," she says. "You're seriously going to use that now? On this? I gave it to you centuries ago, I thought you'd forgotten!"

"Nope," Etho crows, "just saving it for a special occasion."

Agnes sighs, bringing a hand to her temple. "And what am I supposed to do about the Caves and Cliffs update?" she says tiredly.

"Cut it in half?" Etho shrugs.

"...Fine." Agnes disappears, dimming the room from the lack of her godly presence. Within a few seconds (relatively speaking, as time is more of a suggestion than a rule when you're powerful enough), a wave of magic washes over the group. It explodes outward from the table like ripples from a cannon ball, washing over the entire server. The change is palpable.

"Etho, I could kiss you right now," Cleo says, relieved beyond measure.

"Please don't," he says with a smile. "After all, I don't know where your mouth's been."

Cleo raises an unimpressed eyebrow, pretending to mull the situation over.

"Yeah, you make a good point," she says, and the group bursts into laughter.

#mcyt #hc x dsmp #hermit canyon au #zombiecleo #xisuma #joe hills #docm77 #ethoslab #me.cpp

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solalunar-eclipse · 4 years ago

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Sonic Boom - S3E1

Episode title: Friendship 101

Word count: about 3000 words

Author’s Note: I’m trying a rather new format for this fic, since it’s based on a TV show with various songs and camera angles. If you have any comments about whether it works well or not, please let me know!

(Also, the theme song choice is all thanks to khinesthetic, who used it here and inspired me to put it in this fic.)

[cue Mr. Blue Sky by ELO (0:00-3:45)]

[The show opens on a zoomed-out view of Hedgehog Village from above. Stone walls separate the village from the wilderness outside. There are large spaces at several points throughout the structure for entry and exit. A large patch of grass with benches scattered about sits at one end of the village, and a marketplace made up of wood-and-cloth stalls runs along one of the walls. Houses are grouped in seemingly random clusters throughout the town, and the (in)famous Meh Burger stand sits all on its own, with picnic tables spread across its wooden flooring. As the music progresses, the camera begins to zoom in on the village- then on one of the streets in particular- and rotates down to eye level to face…]

Sonic the Hedgehog walked through the streets of Hedgehog Village with a bounce in his step, occasionally dancing to the music playing through his earbuds. As he wandered throughout the town, he passed the usual people running their stores, arguing over botched orders at Meh Burger, and, at one point, Aqua the Rabbit absolutely freaking out over the loss of a single follower on Angstagram (the latest social media network for moody teens).

He did a 360-degree spin before winking and pointing finger guns at Amy Rose when he spotted her haggling with the local grocery store owner. She paused briefly to wave at him with a smile. “Hi, Sonic!” she called, completely ignoring the irritated fennec in the process.

Then, the music froze and changed to something extremely ominous as she turned around to face the shopkeeper once more. A dangerous gleam appeared in her eyes as she pulled out her signature hammer. “Now then, about those prices you’ve been setting lately…”

The song cut back in as the view switched back to Sonic, who was now moving away from the scene at a slightly faster pace.

Really, though, he was more than happy to see his other friends not long after. Knuckles and Sticks were currently busy rummaging through the town’s garbage together, excitedly chatting about the latest piece of interesting junk they’d found, while Tails was fixing someone’s broken rain gutter (and attempting to ‘improve’ it in the process, which meant that it could now measure the amount and intensity of rainfall in a storm- a very useful, though unfortunately unwanted improvement).

Surprisingly enough, as he continued on his way through Hedgehog Village, he managed to get people from a few different places to wave back at him when he said hello. Although perhaps it wasn’t quite so surprising when one considered that this was one of the most cliched opening sequences that could possibly happen in any movie or TV show. Ever.

And of course, the only logical outcome of this scene led to everyone beginning to stop their usual activities and gather in one of the few open spaces in the town, clearly prepared to break into a fantastic musical dance number straight out of Broadway. Incredibly, this was one of the few moments in which everyone in the village seemed to be able to get along…

...until Eggman’s latest giant robot slammed feet-first into the ground, sending everyone off-kilter and scrambling for cover. Shrieks of panic rose in place of the music as the villagers fled the scene to hide in their houses. The dramatic entrance didn’t just ruin the mood, it absolutely crushed it with the sheer force of its impact.

And that was, obviously, when the show really began.

[cue In Your Face by Shockwave Sound (0:00-1:04)]

[Each of the five members of Team Sonic appears on a black screen with their name spelled out in their signature colors (blue, yellow, red, pink, and green) and does a couple of cool fighting moves, followed by snippets of scenes featuring them from previous episodes of the show for about eight seconds each. All five of them then appear together in their usual fighting stances, emphasizing their status as a team.

The Eggman logo then appears in an ominous, glowing red, backlighting the doctor himself and all his creations- before the lights flick on to reveal him alone in his evil lair with a green screen behind him, at which point he shrieks and covers the camera with a hand. Then, neon blue electronic lines begin to appear across the screen and the camera spirals to follow them, selecting one particular line to trace. Not long after, said line ends at a circle which, with a flash, turns into the words ‘Sonic Boom’. Beneath the title, it says ‘Ancient Secrets’ in neon blue.]

[Then the music ends, at which point the episode title- “Friendship 101”- appears for a few seconds in the same color before the show itself returns.]

Sonic scrambled to his feet and zipped over to Tails, pulling him up from where he’d fallen after the robot’s overdramatic arrival. Amy managed to do the same with both Knuckles and Sticks simultaneously, which let Sonic stare for a moment, startled, and then promptly resolve to remember not to get on her bad side anytime soon.

Soon enough, the team had scrambled into their usual positions, ready to fight. Amy and Sticks kicked the battle off by handling the various smaller robots that threatened to get too close to their team, never faltering (and in fact seeming a bit gleeful in the badger’s case) despite the sheer number of enemies. Knuckles, meanwhile, launched Sonic bodily into the air for Tails to catch, before picking up a boulder about the size of a house and lobbing it directly at the robot’s chest.

“Hey! Easy with the boulders- QuakeBot took a lot of effort to make, you know!” Eggman shrieked from above, hovering in the relative safety of his Eggmobile.

(Relative, in this case, was of course in comparison to mixing absurdly volatile chemicals in a lab, bothering Shadow at any and/or all hours of the day, or being on Tails’s bad side when the fox had a glue gun. The doctor still remembered that situation all too well, and currently ranked it as far more terrifying than merely being punted into the stratosphere by kids under half his height and about a third his age.)

Sonic paused to stare at Eggman from where he was currently dangling in the air. A smirk began to spread slowly across his face. “…what did you just call it?”

“You heard me the first time!” the doctor roared, now incredibly embarrassed. “I named it that since it makes the ground shake when it moves, like an earthquake??”

General laughter came from the heroes assembled on the ground and in the sky.

“Argh! Nobody appreciates my genius around here! Now, QuakeBot, stop standing around and start attacking!”

“I suggested TerraBot, since it still has to do with earth and is a play on the word ‘terror’, but nobody ever listens to my ideas, now do they?” Orbot muttered irritably to himself, tucked inside the Eggmobile.

“I listen to all your ideas!” Cubot offered encouragingly.

Orbot’s mouth shifted into a small smile. “Thanks, Cubot.”

Meanwhile, Sonic had been pulled into a spin by Tails, who whirled the hedgehog around before letting him shoot downwards toward the robot in a spin dash- only for him to get caught and sent flying into the nearest house.

He shook off the surprise quickly (and apparently sustained absolutely zero damage despite having literally crashed through a house, because superpowered teenagers), darting back over to the group. “Well, uh, guess it’s time for Plan B then!”

Crickets chirped in the ensuing silence. Even the robot had stopped moving to hear what he had to say.

“And the plan is…?” Amy prompted.

Sonic folded his arms with a huff. “I dunno, I thought you guys would have one!?”

The pink hedgehog rolled her eyes at that.

Tails piped up. “I have an idea! Sonic, you’re going to need to be curled up for this, okay?”

The hero promptly did just that, before emitting a muffled “mmhmm?” from inside his layers of quills.

“Alright then, Amy, I need you to hit Sonic with your hammer right at the side of this house.”

Sonic’s blood ran cold. “Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second can we maybe rethink thiaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

He ricocheted all over the palace like a pinball, slamming into several key points of the robot thanks to Tails’s rapid calculations. However, the robot was sadly unaffected by his screaming at a pitch that came dangerously close to shattering glass.

The robot was easily disabled and the attack overall quickly repelled after that. Thankfully, it took Sonic only a moment to recover from his impromptu stint as an out-of-control projectile and get back to fighting with the others…complete with a “Let’s do that AGAIN!” moment, which was met with a resounding no from both Amy and Tails.

Their ears were both still rather sore from last time, after all.

After Eggman was punted all the way back to his island by a well-placed kick from Sticks, though, the crew was about to head over to Meh Burger for a post-battle meal when they discovered that they had an entirely different problem to take care of. The villagers, who were beginning to come out of hiding after the attack, were furious upon seeing the damage dealt to their homes and stores.

“How could you let this happen?” one shouted.

Before long, the villagers found themselves a more specific target when the owner of the house that Sonic had smashed into pointed her finger directly in his face. “This mess is awful!” she cried. “And it’s all his fault!”

Within seconds, a mob of people had descended upon the overtaxed teen.

“I’ve never known a hero so irresponsible.” one fumed.

“How dare you!” the fennec from earlier roared.

The elderly wolf of the village shook her cane at him. “Shame on you!”

Sonic could feel himself beginning to tense up as the villagers turned their ire on him. Whether or not he’d admit it to anyone, he needed two main things in order to be his usual heroic, cheerful self: open space and positive reinforcement. Right now, he was getting exactly the opposite of both of those.

And he was not feeling good about it.

He looked briefly over to his friends for help, but Sticks had already vanished, Knuckles and Tails looked more nervous than anything, and Amy was already walking towards him with that look in her eye…

“Sonic, next time you do need to work on making sure the robot doesn’t catch you, you know-”

A streak of blue shot out of the village, leaving nothing but a scorched trail of grass and the snap of a sonic boom behind.

Sonic didn’t slow down until he reached the mountains- which technically wasn’t very far from the town at all, so he ran quite a bit more after that until he ended up in the middle of the jungle. Then, he sat down with his back to a tree and his arms around his knees, feeling very unheroic and overall pretty lame.

The blue hedgehog frowned at the dirt. Honestly, some days it really did feel like nobody seemed to like him. The only person who ever even suggested he was important on a regular basis was Tails, and Sonic didn’t blame him at all for not jumping into the middle of that crowd. Tails was only thirteen to his seventeen and a half years old- not exactly an age when he should be expected to go toe-to-toe with a crowd of angry adults.

Still, though. When being a hero got him all risk (no matter how low) and no reward...it was difficult for him to keep hold of that core feeling of “I can make the world a better place to live in!”, which, despite all his other claims, was truly at the center of what had motivated him to start fighting against Eggman so long ago…

[The scene morphs in a manner which shows the lighting shifting so that the sun is overhead. A sound effect of birds chirping plays over the scene change. This implies that it’s been several hours since he first fled the village.]

Sonic was still lost in thought when the snap of a twig in the bushes made him jump to his feet in surprise. The surrounding vegetation rustled ominously for a moment...only to reveal the four members of his team in front of him. He watched them all cautiously, his expression tense. More than anything, he looked ready to run at a moment’s notice- something which only served to make his friends(?) seem a little more distressed. “Uh…hey, guys?” he began tentatively.

“Sonic, I…” Amy began forcefully, before stopping herself. At first, it looked like she was about to scold him again, but then suddenly her face fell. “Listen, Sonic, we’ve all been talking a lot about what happened back at the village…and there’s something I want to say.” She gave a slightly tired sigh.

“I know we usually like to make jokes and witty commentary, but...sometimes, the world’s just a difficult place to be in.” she said. “...so we really do need to talk about serious stuff occasionally, even though I know it’s tough for you to even mention how you’re feeling. Unless, you know, it’s ‘great!’ or ‘cool!’ or something like that.”

Sonic cringed at the mere idea, looking more and more like he thought running away was the preferable option here.

“So what I wanted to say was that in a world where there are too many people trying to beat you down...what I was trying to do was tell you how to be more tolerant, because I thought that would help. I figured you can’t change how other people are going to be, just yourself, so I hoped that might make things better.

“But...I’m not actually a licensed therapist- yet, anyway. So I might have been wrong on how I went about that. Maybe...instead of telling you off for not being able to stop all those people...in the future I’ll pull out my hammer and tell them to knock it off already. Does that sound better to you?” she asked.

The blue hedgehog froze. “Ames…I...” he croaked, trying his best not to think about why exactly it felt like his throat was so tight all of a sudden.

Sticks folded her arms. “I like that plan! Those people are way too crazy sometimes…and you guys know I have a verrrrry high tolerance for crazy.”

“We can make the villagers quit bugging you together, just like how we fight Eggman!” Knuckles added encouragingly. “It’s always better that way, isn’t it?”

There was still one person who hadn’t spoken yet, though.

Suddenly, Tails crashed full-force into Sonic, squeezing him in a hug that for once he didn’t pretend to hate. “You know I’ve always, always, always got your back, right, Sonic? No matter what?” he asked, looking up at his older brother. “Even if I don’t always know how to do it right.”

The blue hedgehog simply nodded, not trusting his voice to help him maintain his ‘cool guy’ status.

“It’s okay if you don’t feel up to talking about it now, though.” the fox added understandingly, stepping back but still leaving a hand on his arm.

“But!” Knuckles added. “We won’t tell anyone if you ever decide you do need to get some stress off your chest every once in a while!” He smacked his own chest with a fist for emphasis.

“Nobody needs to know.” Sticks growled, the camera suddenly showing a dramatic angle of her face as the lighting dropped noticeably.

“Uh…that’s kinda dark.” Sonic said, holding up a finger with a bit of a confused frown, which let the lighting and camera angle zip back to normal.

“Anyway!” The pink hedgehog clapped her hands together, turning to face the group as a whole. “What do you guys think about heading over to my house and watching some movies? I’ll even…” She sighed, her whole body slumping. “…make some messy, simple, unprofessional chili dogs. In my state-of-the art kitchen. I know Sonic probably could use a pick-me-up right now, after all.”

“Thanks, Ames! You’re the best!” the hedgehog in question said cheerfully, the promise of good food and great companionship boosting his mood significantly.

Then, his posture shifted once again into something a little more vulnerable. “And thanks to all you guys. For, y’know, everything.”

“Of course!” Amy chirped.

Tails smiled at him. “No problem, Sonic.”

Sticks folded her arms. “That’s what a team’s for, ain’t it?”

“Of course it is!” Knuckles said, in that rather confusing manner where nobody was actually sure if he understood anything about what had just happened.

The echidna actually walked over to Sonic after that particular declaration, though, placing a hand on his shoulder as his face became uncharacteristically serious for a second. “Really, Sonic, we can all help you out, alright? Nobody gets to yell at our leader without getting yelled at back!” he declared, punching a fist into his other hand.

The hedgehog blinked twice before looking up at his friend. “You…just called me the leader?”

“Well, duh! That’s why everyone calls it Team Sonic, right?” Knuckles asked with a smile, letting an awkward (but genuine) grin spread across Sonic’s face.

Within seconds, the hero found himself squeezed in a big hug from all sides by his friends- and then actually lifted off the floor through a joint effort from Knuckles and Amy.

“Guys- come on! I can’t even move here!” he cried out, his legs flailing so quickly they made a vibrating noise in the air. “Guyyyyssss….” he whined, though nobody seemed to care much about his halfhearted complaints (judging by the happy expressions on their faces).

Then, the episode began to end, as evidenced by an iris out transition. The slowly shrinking circle paused for a moment on Sonic’s current expression, highlighting it against the otherwise black screen. He now sported a sheepish, if slightly pleased smile, complete with a faint pink blush on his face from all the positive attention.

Clearly Sonic liked being, well, liked far more than he let on.

Then, the circle snapped closed with a pop, and the credits began to roll.

[Voice Actors:

Roger Craig Smith

Colleen Villard

Travis Willingham

Cindy Robinson

Nika Futterman

Mike Pollock

Kirk Thornton

Wally Wingert

Bill Freiberger

Original creation by:

Evan Baily

Donna Friedman Meir

Sandrine Nguyen

Bill Freiberger

Takashi Iizuka

Writer/editor:

Solalunar “Sol” Eclipse

Thank you for watching reading.]

#sonic boom #sonic the hedgehog #miles tails prower #knuckles the echidna #amy rose #sticks the badger #i really really hope this new format was a good idea #i just had some very clear ideas about this fic that couldn't be expressed in the usual medium of character actions and dialogue #because sonic boom is very different from the sonic games and often uses camera and music-based references #(i may not roll credits every time though- just thought i'd give it a shot haha)#anyway!#i also wanted to ask: is there a particular way people would like me to use for replying to the wonderful comments i get in the tags?#because i want to let the people who take the time to leave comments know how much i appreciate it #but i'm not sure how to go about that #any suggestions?#and finally:#next time...shadow's going to show up! i can't wait to write him #as always #thanks so much for reading!#:D #sol's fanfiction

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mahizli · 4 years ago

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Still Learning (There Is No Ignorance, There Is Knowledge)

Art by tallterror and second chapter of Threading The Way (Jedi June).

32 BBY.

“Thank you, Anakin.”

Master Ti’s voice was gentle, and Ani met her warm, brown eyes before he bowed, like Padawans were supposed to, like Obi-Wan had taught him at the very beginning of his stay here, almost a month ago.

“It’s okay.”

His voice sounded strange. Like there was not enough air in is lungs. And his heart was beating all fast, too. It felt like… like the day he had left Mum, and Ani did not want to go there in his head. Instead, he followed the other Initiates out of the door and into the corridor.

“Hello, Master Obi-Wan…”

It sounded like a song, all his fellow-Initiates greeting his Master who stood there, leaning against the corridor walls, waiting for him. But Ani didn’t join in, didn’t say a thing: he knew just how eager they were to catch a glimpse of him, the one who lost his Master, the one who killed a Sith and was training him, him whom Qui-Gon had called the Chosen One. They were still wary of him, and he had not made any real friend, save Senior Padawan Quinlan who was going to become a Knight very soon and was actually Obi-Wan’s friend. And Master Luminara and Master Kit, who were also Obi-Wan’s friends.

Ani loved spending time with Master Quinlan, because he knew Tatooine and understood things even Obi-Wan didn’t know. And he loved Master Luminara because she had been there, with him, when Obi-Wan had started bleeding from his nose, talking funny, and had fallen down in the training grounds. She and Master Quinlan had taken Obi-Wan to the Halls of Healing, and there, Master Vokara Che had told them the bond between him and Master Qui-Gon was still bleeding, because it had been broken and not closed, and because Obi-Wan had pushed everything tight behind his shields.

Master Che, Master Yoda and Master Billaba had brought Obi-Wan back into the Force and had closed the injury in Obi-Wan’s mind. And Master Quinlan, Master Luminara and Master Kit had tried to help him with the sadness inside, even though Obi-Wan was still missing Qui-Gon fiercely and would still go very silent whenever he was thinking of him.

Ani watched his fellow-Initiates swarm through the corridor, and checked out his Master, because it had only been a week since Obi-Wan came back from the Halls, all thin and still somewhat shaky. A week since they had cleaned and tidied up Master Qui-Gon’s stuff, and Ani still had a hard time to believe how much steadier Obi-Wan felt in the Force now.

He was no longer pale, no longer looking like he would be gone any minute, vanishing like the images people saw when they got sun-sickness on Tatooine. Obi-Wan was better now, Ani could feel it through their bond, but he still grabbed the hem of Obi-Wan’s robe, just in case, rubbing his thumb against the rough fabric.

Hello there, Padawan.

Ani didn’t smile, because people were still around, and because he still felt weird from what he had just managed to do, during Master Ti’s class. But inside, it felt like something opening up, and when Obi-Wan started to walk them back to their quarters, Ani quietly slid his hand into his and squeezed.

“How was class, Anakin?”, Obi-Wan asked, once their doors slid shut.

Ani took off his boots, shrugging out of his bag.

“Okay, Master.”

Obi-Wan never asked many questions. He never pried, like some Initiates did. He just let it go, waiting for Ani to find him. And Ani wanted to tell him, about the way he had listened to him and accepted to tell Master Ti and the other Initiates about Tatooine, about why he hadn’t been taught to read and write, about the way slaves were forbidden to do some things and to enter some places.

But Ani also knew it would make Obi-Wan sad to talk about such stuff, and he didn’t want him to be sad anymore, he just wanted to hear him talk and marvel about the way he felt so smart and quick and witty through their bond.

And he never seemed to be bothered, when Anakin asked him questions, not even while he cooked, chopping off tubers, and cutting odd orange stuff that was called pumpkin to mix them together in some kind of soup that had a nice, sugary flower.

And so Ani got to know all about Obi-Wan’s day. About the subjects he was still studying, despite no longer being a Padawan, about the way he had trained with Master Luminara because they were both specialising in a form called Soresu. About the people in the Temple Obi-Wan had talked to, and that Ani still struggled to remember.

“I like that soup, Master. It’s nice.”

Obi-Wan smiled at him.

“It’s the nutmeg. I think you have a weak spot for spices, Padawan.”

Obi-Wan knew so many things. Ani didn’t have a clue what a nutmeg was, but Obi-Wan showed him the small, brown nut, and let him grind a bit of it into his soup – and it was delicious.

They talked some more, and then Ani was sent into the fresher to shower. He knew how to use the taps and the pressure now – it wasn’t complicated, actually, much less complicated than the ventilation system on the back of Watto’s shop, or the ignition of his old speeder. But Ani still tried to be quick, because it was no sonic – no carefully harvested water from a moisturizer, but water flowing like springs from the very faucets, and it still felt like such a waste.

Obi-Wan loved showers, though. He wasn’t long about it, but sometimes, Ani heard him hum quietly through the fresher’s door, and he always felt relaxed in the Force afterwards.

That evening, Obi-Wan didn’t shower, though. He was sitting cross-legged on his bed, barefoot yet still wearing his leggings and tunics, and Ani crawled up next to him, looking at the green picture that hung across Obi-Wan’s desk. It was a landscape from Stewjon, Obi-Wan’s planet, and Obi-Wan had painted it some years ago, because his Master was very skilled at drawing, and had filled whole journals with his sketches.

“What are you doing, Master?”, he asked, his tooka-doll Spikes closely tucked to his chest.

Obi-Wan sighed, turning tired grey eyes towards him.

“I’m trying to make sense of an essay of a currently very famous yet completely unintelligible philosopher, Padawan.”

“Why?”

Ani lifted a very puzzled face towards his Master, and Obi-Wan smiled again, deftly carding his fingers through Ani’s loosened braid, undoing it before he started braiding it again for the night.

“Because he claims to be an expert about the topic I’m supposed to study, and write an essay about.”

“But why do they need you to write essays and to read boring stuff? You’re no Padawan anymore, Master. You’re one of the best Jedi ever – everybody keeps talking about you in the Temple.”

Obi-Wan’s eyes clouded for a moment, but when he lifted his face towards Anakin, his gaze was clear.

“Because the only thing I know, Padawan mine, is how little I do know and how much I have still to learn.”

Ani hung his head, letting Obi-Wan closing his braid, watching the way his Master’s knees melted with the rough fabric of the sheets.

“I know the feeling, Master”, he whispered.

I feel like that all the time.

Obi-Wan’s hand travelled from next to his cheek to his shoulder, and soon enough, Ani was pulled against his side, breathing in the smell of clean linen, of soap and Obi-Wan.

“I did it, Master. I told them. About the slaves, on Tatooine. About what it meant, to read ‘no slaves allowed’ or ‘keep out’. About the dangers out there. They didn’t ask any questions, though. I don’t think they understood much, anyway.”

Obi-Wan stayed silent, for a while, data-pad and reading forgotten.

“I am not sure one can truly understand, Padawan. I still struggle. And sometimes… sometimes I think about what you have been through, and I wish…”

His Master didn’t go on, words ending into something that was both a breath and a sigh. There was no need, though. Ani understood.

“But, Anakin… I think that the reason the Initiates stayed silent was… because they were in awe. Because they felt very ignorant, compared what you were forced to experience.”

Ani shrugged, face still buried into Obi-Wan’s side.

“I’m very proud of you, Padawan.”

Obi-Wan’s voice was even softer, and Ani wrapped his arms around his waist, wordlessly. For a while, he listened to the quiet way Obi-Wan was breathing, focusing on the way Obi-Wan’s belly was meeting his forearms, whenever he was drawing in air or letting out a sigh.

His Master had resumed reading, and it didn’t seem to make him happy, because there was a thin crease between his eyes Ani had learned to recognize. What was more, Valentine, Qui-Gon’s old plant, was hissing quietly on the windowsill, flowers turning an electric form of blue and getting all spiky. Ani closed his eyes and sent a soft Force-tendril towards her, trying to stop her hissing.

Nervous-Pointless-Anxious-Enough.

Valentine’s projections in the Force were always really helpful with Obi-Wan, and Anakin sent back Okay-Got It-Thank You-Calm Down.

“Master… I think you should stop reading. I don’t think that feel-low-something is worth it.”

Obi-Wan’s eyebrows shot up, and he turned towards Ani.

“He’s making your head ache. And I think… I think anybody who writes stuff that is so hard to understand that even you don’t manage it, well… it’s not someone who cares about sharing what he knows.”

“Anakin, I’m not the standard by whom you should… I don’t think you… It’s not supposed to be difficult, it’s just that I…”

“Master, I don’t know much. I know I don’t. But… But I know you’re so smart that every teacher here loves you. There’s not one who’s hasn’t spoken about you, and I’ve only been here four weeks. So… I don’t think you should read that stuff. I think you should stick to those who want to share what they know, not just… show off or something.”

Obi-Wan stared at him for some seconds, and then his Master did something very unexpected. Ani watched Obi-Wan’s shoulders start to shake in silent laughter, until it broke out of Obi-Wan’s very signature, in quiet bubbles of amusement.

“Oh, I think that fellow really wanted to show off…”, his Master sighed. “I’m not sure I read anything that dense for… I don’t know, probably ever?”

Anakin started to giggle as well, watching Obi-Wan close the data-pad, leaning against his headboard, still laughing quietly.

“It was… I kept reading the same page over and over, wondering what in the Galaxy was wrong with me – it felt like… it felt like… Oh Anakin, you are so right – it is some incomprehensible, self-satisfied babble, and it is positively useless!”

Obi-Wan sounded both amused and amazed by his own defiance, and though Ani had no clue about what his Master truly meant, he could feel how relieved and lighter he felt through their bond.

“I’m not going to read that”, Obi-Wan whispered, eyes growing somewhat wide, and Ani couldn’t help hugging him again, because he looked like the way Kitster did, whenever Ani convinced him to do something he was afraid of yet kept dreaming about.

“I’m going to… I’m going to focus on ignorance and knowledge instead. About the way they are sometimes mistaken for the other. There are very knowledgeable people out there who still manage to stay very ignorant, Padawan. And there are others who think themselves ignorant and who are so wise they make the world a better place.”

His Master’s hands rubbed gentle circles into his back, and Ani hugged him tighter, feeling his heart swell because of Obi-Wan’s words.

“That’s wizard, Master”, he whispered – and then he lowered his head back on Obi-Wan’s chest, because it was warm and comfortable there, and because his Master was the best Master ever.

And on the windowsill, Valentine curled on herself, flowers in the hue of a soft, tender green, projecting soft contentment into the Force – and turning still once more.

#jedi june #jedi appreciation #jedi culture #JEDI goodness #star wars fanfiction #Anakin Skywalker #young anakin #Obi-Wan Kenobi #hurt/comfort #fluff #master and padawan

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rawiswhore · 4 years ago

Text

Various WWF Wrestlers x Fem Reader- "Back That Ass Up"

The 1990's...a time when most rock bands and singers didn't sexually objectify women in their songs and music videos.

A time when popular female singers, from female singer-songwriters to lead singers of bands to R&B singers, barely ever showed their bodies off and used sex to sell themselves.

A time when it seemed like women who defined the decade were sarcastic, deadpan, nonsexualized alt girls like Janeane Garofalo, Juliana Hatfield and Daria from the titular MTV cartoon.

A time where you had riot grrrl bands like Bikini Kill angrily protesting rape and sexual assault.

A time when Gwen Stefani, who was then known for being the lead singer of a band, stating how she's "had it up to here" with sexism while she points to her forehead.

A time when Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon asked "Are you gonna liberate us girls with your male white corporate oppression?" and Queen Latifah making diss tracks towards misogynistic men.

But then...as the 1990's come to a close, just when you thought professional wrestling had dwindled in popularity when so many of their top stars during the 1980's left the World Wrestling Federation, pro wrestling made a comeback in 1996 and 1997 due to Hulk Hogan turning heel and a wrestling company known as WCW was beating the WWF (World Wrestling Federation, not World Wildlife Fund) in the ratings.

What was the WWF to do?

Instead of having a kid friendly product that seemed like a live action Saturday morning cartoon and had their faces of the company not using profanity or adult-like things despite having lots of charisma and being fan favorites with the audience, the WWF by the end of the 1990's became edgier, more violent, sexualized, shocking, trashier, vulgar and "adult like" than ever before.

You could say that the WWF was growing up with their audience who were kids watching the WWF when Hulk Hogan, Macho Man and even Bret Hart and Razor Ramon were the faces of the company that were now transitioning into teenagers who love sexualized women, middle fingers, sexual innuendo, violence and profanity.

Speaking of sexualized women, during the 1990's, when you had hardly any sexualized female recording artists save for a few and rock bands who barely sexually objectified women, by the end of the decade, the World Wrestling Federation would have their women's roster, be it from valets like Debra and Terri Runnels to legitimate wrestlers like Ivory and Jacqueline, participate in bikini contests where they'd be judged for their beauty and dressed in bikinis that left nothing to the imagination, and worse, the women's roster would participate in the infamous "bra & panties" and evening gown matches where women would tear each others clothes and dresses off in the ring until they were down to a bra and thong, or they'd wrestle in bikinis in pools of mud or pudding.

To add insult to injury, this was considered "women's wrestling" by the late 90's and some women would end up winning the World Championship belt for participating in matches involving them tearing their clothes off or "wrestling" in bikinis in pools of pudding or mud.

Plus, the World Wrestling Federation during the late 90's was also a time when you had wrestlers playing pimps that would have groups of prostitutes following them and men who would have half naked women cuddled with them.

And worse of all...some wrestlers played characters that would degrade women, from the Rock telling Chyna she "belongs on her knees", Jeff Jarrett being a misogynistic asshole who thinks men are better than women, some racially insensitive Asian men degrading his wife and someone drugging a woman and marrying her through a drive through wedding whilst unconscious.

After a time where you had feminist-esque female recording artists that almost never used sex to sell themselves, wrote their own music and played their own instruments who performed at those Lilith Fair concert tours (tours that featured all female recording artists), male rock bands and singers who didn't sexually objectify women, the NBA launching the Women's NBA playing legit basketball like men and not dressed in skimpy outfits, and the list goes on for days, the World Wrestling Federation now had most of their female roster participate in bikini contests where they were judged for their beauty and women were mostly there to be portrayed as sex objects and nothing else.

It was like this was a backlash towards Lilith Fair and nonsexualized, feminist female singer-songwriters, rock bands that didn't objectify women, and nonsexualized women in the 1990's in general.

Then again, the WWF's Attitude era as it was known as was a product of its time, popular around the same time other trashy pop culture like the Jerry Springer show, Jenny Jones and Ricki Lake's talk shows, Howard Stern, "South Park", Tom Green, Eminem at his most shocking and Marilyn Manson was at the height of his popularity.

Granted, the 1990's weren't completely wholesome, considering this was also the era of gangsta rap that sexually objectified and sometimes even degraded women, "Baywatch" was a popular show that was just an excuse to see beautiful women with silicone breast implants running on the beach in slow motion in tight red swimsuits, Playboy playmates like Pamela Anderson, Jenny McCarthy, and Anna Nicole Smith were popular sex symbols, Howard Stern was a pop culture icon infamous for sexually objectifying women, and there were even some female singers who used sex to sell themselves during the 90's like Madonna, Janet Jackson, Salt N Pepa, TLC, Adina Howard and more, and by the end of the decade we had the Spice Girls, Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown, Mariah Carey becoming more sexualized, Britney Spears, and Jennifer Lopez getting a record deal.

However, for every oversexualized Adina Howard, there was a Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston. For every oversexed Madonna, there was a Tori Amos. For every band that objectified women, there was a band that didn't objectify women.

Speaking of sexualization, you were one of the many bricks in the wall of the oversexualized women's roster during the WWF's Attitude era.

Not only did you participate in a few of those bikini contests, bra & panties and evening gown matches as well as those mud/pudding/gravy matches where you and another woman wrestled in a bikini, but your character you will always be remembered for playing was a scantily clad, nymphomaniac-like slut who was basically the wrestling equivalent to Madonna during her early 90's sex era and a female Val Venis.

From seducing wrestlers while you wore outfits that left little to the imagination, entering the ring wearing nothing but wrestling belts covering your bathing suit areas, cutting wrestling promos while being gangbanged (though your private parts weren't shown on television), rubbing cum on your body like it's lotion (though it wasn't really cum), wearing outfits that exposed your uncovered breasts not even being covered by pasties, wearing shirts that read "Pervert 69" on the back (parodying Janet Jackson's "Pervert" shirt she wore at the 1995 MTV VMA's), and Ministry Undertaker sacrificing you for being a whore, to roleplaying as a urinal while wrestlers jerk off in your mouth or on your face, becoming one of the Godfather's hoes (and you don't mean "The Godfather" as in the Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece), Triple H and Shawn Michaels undressing you until you lay in the ring wearing nothing but a thong and they pulled a bottle of lotion out and squeezed it to simulate ejaculation, and to top it all off, having actual sex in the ring with Val Venis while over 1000 people watched this in the audience and it was broadcast on television.

The WWF was nearly rated TV-MA almost because of you, and was getting boycotts and protests partially because of you.

However, despite many shocking moments that made headline news and caused controversy and nearly got you arrested for obscenity charges, this particular moment was slightly tame in comparison.

Almost near the end of 1998, during one of those "up next" vignettes that had the guitar riff to Slam Jam's "We're All Together Now" playing, you were on all fours on your knees on top of a bench in the locker room.

While you were on all fours on top of this bench, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Billy Gunn, Val Venis, Christian, Test, Jeff Hardy, Steven Regal and Kane were circled around you, standing on your sides.

Triple H had his long blond hair hanging down, not with a ponytail in the back, Shawn Michaels didn't have his hair tied back in a ponytail, and Billy had his hair hanging down, not tied back in a ponytail or in little braids.

You were wearing nothing but a bra and thong and being filmed from behind, and as you were being filmed, you rolled your ass backward and arched it up a few times.

Your thong was buried and snug in between your ass cheeks, your pantyline covering your vulva.

Thankfully, you were shaved down there, not a single bit of pubic hair peeking out from your panty line or your panties, and you didn't have any bumps on your bikini line and thighs.

These aforementioned wrestlers around you were just staring at your ass rolling back, they all smiled from ear to ear, nearly salivating at your mouths.

These wrestlers surrounding you were cheering for you, Shawn even put his fingers into his mouth and wolf whistled at you.

Jerry Lawler sitting at the commentary table was going nuts, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head.

Grown men and underage boys in the audience are getting a massive kick over seeing you roll your ass to the camera, cheering for you and a few of them wolf whistling at you.

Triple H put his hand in one of his jean pockets and pulled out a dollar, where he slipped that dollar in between one of your thong straps.

Shawn, too, put his hand down the pocket of his slacks, where he pulled out a few dollar bills and his other hand stretched out one of your thong straps, putting that money at your hip, only to let go of your thong strap afterward, letting your thong hold that money.

Val and Billy really wish they could have some money to pull out and make it rain on you, though Billy wears those Mr. Ass shorts and Val is known for wearing a Speedo and a towel over it, neither of their outfits have pockets.

"Is that money!?" Jim Ross asked at the commentary table.

"Somebody better get her a pole!" Jerry Lawler exclaimed, his voice shrill as usual.

Indeed, you could use a stripper pole for this moment, but there sadly aren't any poles in the locker room.

You pulled yourself up from the bench, placing your feet on the bench and standing up on top of the bench, but after you got yourself up, you still continued dancing and shaking your ass.

Somebody come get her, she's dancin' like a stripper...

Some of these wrestlers surrounding you pretended to be shocked by when you assembled yourself up from the bench, their eyes bugging out and their mouths dropping open as well as walking a few steps back as if to act like they're shocked, only for them to smile after their mouths were agape.

Once you stood on top of the bench, you placed your hands on your knees and stuck your ass out, rolling your ass backwards and sometimes even shaking and bouncing your ass, basically twerking.

You smiled and your head was slightly turned looking at your rear whilst you rolled your ass backwards, hands on your knees, shakin' ass on your thot shit.

Triple H, Billy, Shawn, and Val were looking at you, smiling from ear to ear, especially Billy Gunn who placed one of his hands on your ass cheeks and squeezed it.

Hey, his nickname is Mr. Ass, that's why he did that.

You turned your body around and gyrated your ass and hips around in a circle, rolling your hips to the beat of the guitar riff of that Slam Jam song, and as you did that, you lifted your hands off of your knees and grabbed one of your bra straps, where you slid that bra strap down on of your arms, teasing the audience.

You looked at the camera filming in front of you with this "come hither" expression on your face.

Just as it looked like you were gonna take your bra off, the camera then cut to commercial.

Bah.

You wanted to do so much during this moment; besides spin around a stripper pole, you also wanted lie on your back on the bench with your legs spread up and shaking your ass, squat down on the bench and spread your legs out with your hands on your knees, but this moment was short.

Y'know, since you were roleplaying as a stripper and some wrestlers were pulling money out and sticking it in your G-string, you're surprised Vince McMahon, the CEO and boss of the WWF and pretty much the Ted Debiase Sr. of the Attitude era (and Ted DeBiase Sr. was known for playing a millionaire in the 80's and early 90's) wasn't in this segment pulling dollar bills out on you.

Though, Vince McMahon is a snake, even when the cameras aren't rolling.

#triple h #shawn michaels #billy gunn #val venis #test #wwf #attitude era #wwf attitude #1998 #90s #fanfiction #jeff hardy #steven regal #christian

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writer-k-pop · 4 years ago

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I Would

왜나하면 나는 우리의 모든 데이트가 우리 둘 모두에게 행복하고 즐거운 시간이 되길 원하기 때뭉이야. Because I want our every date to be a happy and fun time for both of us.

Description: During a live TV interview, Jeonghan is faced with a comment from a particularly problematic host. With the need to defend himself and you, you watched for the first time as Jeonghan sternly, and slightly angered, puts someone in their place during a live show. Warnings: Swearing Genre: Angst, Fluff ending, Idol!Jeonghan x Fem!Reader Word Count: 2.6k

Seventeen Masterlist | Masterlists

You brought your knees up to your chest, attention focused on the TV where a live broadcast of your boyfriend, Jeonghan, and his group mates, Seventeen, was airing. Jeonghan was always super excited to do any show but this show had him, and the entire group for that matter, on edge.

The reason being that one of the hosts was a very questionable person. The host, Jack, made comments that made many of the public feel uncomfortable and even with all the outcry, he was still appearing on TV. The night before as I sat with the members, talking and trying to relax for the night, the boys couldn't stop worrying about how they were going to handle any concerning comments that came from that particular host. Seungcheol and Jeonghan were trying their best to give words of encouragement and disperse the worry but you could tell Jeonghan's mind was running a 100 miles per hour with the same worry as the other members.

They finished with their introduction segment and moved onto the first topic. During the entirety, you tried to focus on what was being said but all you could really focus on was Jeonghan. The other members had taken Seungcheol and Jeonghan's advice to just do the interview as normal and for the most part, Seungcheol looked like he had also taken his advice. But Jeonghan was a different story.

He sat between Jun and Dino but you could tell his mind was analyzing every word coming out of every mouth in preparation to combat any wrong comment. Jeonghan was physically there but mentally fighting a war that hadn't even happened yet.

You pouted in concern but that was all you could do. The broadcast was live. All you could do was sit and watch and hope that the rest of the broadcast went without a hitch.

But of course, your hope was soon crushed.

It was the third and final segment called 'I Adore.' You knew about this segment because the some of the members had asked your opinion on if their items were 'okay' as an item/hobby/thing they adored. And because Jeonghan had asked your permission to use a picture of the two of you. You didn't care, the public already knew about your relationship. One more picture wouldn't hurt.

The members went through their 'I Adore' stories one by one and somehow Jeonghan was picked to go last. Probably because of the picture.

A picture of you and Jeonghan out on a date a few weeks ago pops up on the screen and the two other non-problematic hosts, Hangyeol and Kwangho, cooed at the picture.

"Would you like to explain, Jeonghan?" Hangyeol gestured towards Jeonghan.

You watched as he pulled himself out of his war with a deep breath.

"Yes, well, I adore (y/n)." Jeonghan leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. "I adore her a lot but I couldn't bring her here so I brought a picture instead."

"This is a good alternative." Kwangho commented, "When was this taken?"

"A couple weeks ago." Jeonghan answered right away, "We were out on a shopping date looking for Dino's birthday gift, I think. She was feeling cute so we took a lot of pictures."

"They took so many pictures." Dokyeom agreed, "Like hundreds and hundreds." He exaggerated.

You rolled your eyes and smiled at his antics. The hosts and the members laugh.

"So why did you pick her for this segment?" Hangyeol asked, glancing down at his cue cards.

"Ever since we started dating, she is always supporting and encouraging me. And just when I think I know all of her little ticks, she surprises me with another one." Jeonghan explained and your heart fluttered. "(y/n)'s really cool and she always knows what I'm thinking and it's nice having someone to talk to like that."

"Ah, you must really love her." Kwangho nodded, "I can see it in your face."

Jeonghan smiled widely and blushed.

"He does." Dino agreed with the host. "Sometimes he'll ditch us to go see her."

"But wouldn't you if you had that kind of girl by your side?" Hangyeol defended Jeonghan.

"How long have you been dating?" Jack, the problematic host, questioned which made your breath hitch. The members also went silent for a second and a nervous glance was thrown between them.

"Uh, about a year or so now." Jeonghan answered confidently.

Jack nodded and let the other hosts continue. You breathed a sigh of relief with that hurdle passed.

"Actually, that's not the only picture we have of you two." Hangyeol said sheepishly.

Jeonghan looked at the hosts with a questioning look.

"We found some pictures on Twitter capturing you on your date." Hangyeol explained and a few pictures popped up on the screen.

They were of the same date but from farther away and a little later into the date after some shopping had been done.

"Fans must've taken them." You muttered to yourself not bothered as it happens sometimes.

They pull up one and focus on it. You're walking backwards talking to Jeonghan while he holds the couple of shopping bags and your bright pastel purse. You smile remembering the day with fondness.

"What's going on in this one?" Kwangho asked with genuine interest.

"Ah," Jeonghan lifts his head in remembrance of the moment, "We were leaving the shopping center and she was talking about something that I completely forget now. But I do remember having to yell at her millions of times because she was about to run into something or someone." He chuckled.

"Wait a minute," Jack chirped up and the nervous glances returned. "You said you were getting a gift for Dino, why do you have so many bags?"

Jeonghan sat up straighter, "One of the bags was Dino's gift, one was a shirt that (y/n) said I would look good in, and the other is her purse."

"Woah, he even carries her purse!" Kwangho cooed to Hangyeol in admiration of Jeonghan's act.

"Yah, he such a cool guy." Hangyeol agreed.

"He does that all the time." Seungcheol added on.

"Honestly, he's a really great boyfriend." Mingyu commented and Jeonghan hid his face in embarrassment.

"Ah, stop." Jeonghan whined and his members chuckle, Dino even patted his shoulder.

Across the interview table, Jack lowered his head and muttered something meant to go unheard. But Jeonghan's super sonic hearing heard him and he immediately snapped his head up, staring hard Jack.

"What did you say?" Jeonghan asked, his tone causing confusion between the members.

"I didn't-"

"No, please say it." Jeonghan cut Jack off and gestures for him to continue, "You said it for a reason."

Jack'glances around the studio and towards his fellow hosts for support, but they offer him none. Hangyeol and Kwangho, having heard his comment, were finally done putting up with his attitude.

"I just think that she should be able to carry her own purse. Why do you have to carry it when she obviously has her own arms." Jack shrugged nonchalantly.

You scoffed and rolled your eyes at his misguided opinion. From the TV, a few members also scoff while others lean back and cross their arms with stares as sharp as knives.

"I would carry her purse even if she had 8 arms and I had none." Jeonghan said in a slightly tensed tone. "Because I love her."

A feeling of 'yeah, you show him' was soon followed by a gut punch realization that Jeonghan just said that he loves you for the first time on TV. Ever.

"Still I don't get why she would make you carry all the bags and her purse." Jack continued his warped train of thought.

Jeonghan shook his head, "I told her to give me the bags. She actually didn't want me to carry them but I insisted."

"You shouldn't have given in then." Jack scoffed, crossed his arms, and leaned back in his chair. "You can't be that weak."

At this comment, you sat up and angrily grumbled at the TV.

"Who does he think he's calling weak? How can a person be this awful?" You wondered.

While you grumbled, the members also all leaned forward in anger at Jack's comment and the hosts started to lean away from Jack in an attempt to separate themselves from him. The entire atmosphere of the interview, even through the TV, turned icy in a second. Even as you sat on your couch at home, a shiver ran down your spine.

Jeonghan put a hand on Dino's arm, telling him to sit back down.

"I don't think it was weak." Jeonghan said with a 'you want to mess with me?' look in his eyes. "I think it's very strong of men and people to offer to carry other's things when they care for said person. You see," Jeonghan cleared his throat, "If I didn't take the bags from (y/n), she wouldn't have been able to walk backwards and talk to me so animatedly. Then I wouldn't have been able to smile and laugh at her like I am in the picture." He gestures to the screen where the picture was still up. "Then I wouldn't have been able to enjoy her enjoying herself on our date. And that would've made me disappointed. Because I want our every date to be a happy and fun time for both of us."

Listening to his defense, Jeonghan's words touched your heart and for a split second you forgot your anger and only felt love for the man you get to call yours.

Having been defeated, Jack sat silent in his chair. Kwangho and Hangyeol have successfully moved their chairs away. The other members listened intently and were all nodding their heads in agreement.

"I think we would all do the same." Hangyeol commented, trying to diffuse the tention. He then turned to the other members, "Wouldn't we?"

The other members nodded while Seungcheol actually spoke.

"Without hesitation." He nodded, giving one last glare towards Jack.

"Well, we have run out of time. But thank you for stopping by and giving us your time." Knwagho said to the members. They all nod and give their thanks except for Jeonghan. He was just staring at Jack with a glare as deadly as lasers.

Seungcheol led the group in their exit greeting and Jeonghan barely managed to make the ending bow before the show cuts off.

As commercials ran past the screen, you just sat on the couch, scrolling through posts and comments of the interview. Many expressed anger at the problematic host but a greater number were praising Jeonghan for his eloquent response to such a comment.

And not 10 minutes after the interview ended, a call from Jeonghan lit up your phone.

"HI there." You answered, already forgetting most of the annoyance you had from earlier.

"Hey." Jeonghan replied, his voice sounding tired with a hint of anger around the edges. "What are you doing right now?"

"Me?" You asked, "I'm sitting on the couch scrolling through my phone."

Jeonghan breathed out, "So you watched it, huh?"

"Yeah, I saw it." You said with a nod.

"Ugh, I was really hoping you didn't." Jeonghan muttered.

"Why not?" You wondered. You could see him running a hand through his hair.

"It was just so ridiculous. What he said." Jeonghan groaned.

You chuckled, "Yeah, it was pretty ridiculous but you handled it like an absolute pro." You offered, "Made me extremely proud, too."

"Really?" He asked, his voice perking up slightly.

"Oh totally." You answered, "You put him in his place and made me feel like a princess. I swear I think my heart exploded."

Jeonghan finally laughed and you felt relieved to hear his laughter.

"Where are you?" You asked after a couple seconds.

"In a taxi." He answered.

"Where are you going?" You questioned, "Shouldn't you be with the others going back to the dorm?"

"I should be." Jeonghan said, "But after that interview, I really needed to see you so I sort of ran off."

"Jeonghan!" You scolded him.

"It's fine!" He defended himself, "I told Seungcheol so I didn't entirely ditch without telling anyone."

"Did you even get out of your interview clothes?" You asked, knowing it takes Seventeen ages to get into and out of outfits.

There was a pause before Jeonghan answered.

"...No." His answer made you laugh.

"You're lucky you have clothes here." You told him before moving to the bathroom to retrieve some makeup removing supplies.

"I'm lucky I've got you." He said softly.

"Yes you are lucky you've got me." You joked and Jeonghan chuckled.

"I'll be there in like 20 minutes. Wait for me." He told you.

"I'll be here with makeup remover and open arms." You said before hanging up.

And as he said, 20 minutes later, Jeonghan punched in the lock code and strode into your home, straight into your arms. He rested his chin over your shoulder while squeezing you tightly.

"Hey superhero." You smiled and cuddled into his hug.

"Hey." Jeonghan relaxed and his shoulders sagged from exhaustion.

"Go get changed and then I'll take off your make up for you." You instructed him and he followed without a moment's hesitation.

You sat on the couch, set the make up wipes near your lap, and waited for Jeonghan to come back. After many of his schedules, his make up would be wiped off or he'd be with the members. But on occasion, he'd come to yours, make up on, and you would take off his make up for him. It was one of his favorite things. You often offered when you knew he had a stressful day because it was something that helped him to relax.

After a few minutes, Jeonghan returned out of his interview outfit and in pajamas. He flopped onto the couch and rested his head in you lap, eyes closed, ready for his make up to be removed.

As you wiped away the layers of makeup, his bare face that you loved so much began to show.

"Did you see the comments?" You asked, wiping down his cheek.

"No." Jeonghan said, "The members were blowing up my phone with texts so I had to pay attention to them."

"Well, people are very impressed by you and your comments." You told him, "I'm sure people will be talking about it tomorrow."

"Eh, I just said what needed to be said. That host needed to be put in his place." Jeonghan scrunched up his nose and you wiped that area to soothe out the skin.

"And you did just that." You told him. "So what do you want to do?"

"Lay here forever." Jeonghan answered.

You threw away the makeup wipe and reached for another, "I can do that."

"Forever?" Jeonghan glanced up at you with a questioning look.

"Forever." You smiled and leaned down to give him a kiss.

Happily, Jeonghan snuggled deeper into your lap and you resumed wiping his face.

"Next time bring me." You said absently mindedly.

"And let you be attacked like that? No way." Jeonghan shut down the idea immediately.

"But then you wouldn't have to be in a situation like you were today." You explained, wiping away the last bit of stubborn foundation.

Jeonghan opened his eyes and looked up at you. "(y/n)."

"Jeonghan." You copied his sentence type.

"I would go through that alone on national TV a million times over before I would even consider letting you go through it." Jeonghan told you. "I would go through it again if it meant I got to come home to you."

You smiled at his sincere words, "Then keep coming home to me."

He smiled widely and pulled you down for another kiss, one deeper than the one you had given him. One full of 'I love you's' to last a hundred years. And they all belonged to you and you alone.

#seventeen #seventeen imagine #seventeen jeonghan imagine #yoon jeonghan imagine #jeonghan imagine #yoon jeonghan #jeonghan #seventeen jeonghan

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makeste · 4 years ago

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BnHA Chapter 286: VESTIGE ANTICS ARE A GO

Previously on BnHA: Deku was all “what’s the record for most consecutive bone breaks within the span of a single minute” and, without waiting for an answer, proceeded to unleash roughly 17 Smashes onto Tomura. Kacchan was all “THAT DOES IT, I’M TAKING THE REINS OF THIS SHITSHOW” and carried Endeavor and Shouto up to where the action was so Endeavor could hit Tomura with a Prominence Burn. AFO was all “Tomura would you rather burn to death or let me take over your body” and Tomura was all “...” and so AFO TOOK OVER and was all “STABBITY STABBITY” and used his Stabbing Quirk to do some Good Old Fashioned STABBIN’. First he stabbed Endeavor, and then he was all “hee and now I’m gonna stab Deku”, but Kacchan was all “SIR THAT’S MY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT RIVAL” and so he rushed on in AND GOT HIMSELF STABBED INSTEAD. And so basically THIS PAST WHOLE WEEK HAS BEEN A RIDE, LET ME TELL YOU.

Today on BnHA: Kacchan is all “sup Deku lemme just downplay how I totally took this fatal blow for you just now” before he dramatically passes out and is caught by Todoroki “BTDUBS I CAN FLY NOW” Shouto, who is also carrying his dad because the kids really are just doing it all, here. AllForRaki Tomura For One is all “HAHA BAKUGOU IS PRETTY DUMB”, at which point Deku just LOSES IT ENTIRELY and ASCENDS INTO A NEW PLANE OF FURY LIKE A LITTLE GREEN RAGE BUDDHA. But then like two seconds later Tomura is all “ANYWAY, SO” and FUCKING TOUCHES DEKU’S FACE, CAUSING THE TWO OF THEM TO ASTROPROJECT INTO THE FREAKY OFA/AFO MINDSCAPE BECAUSE THIS CHAPTER IS BANANAS. Vestige!AFO is all “reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated but aren’t you glad I saved your life though, Tomura”, while Tomura is all “!!” because he’s hopefully starting to get A Clue, and meanwhile Deku just stands there watching all “what the fuck.” The chapter ends with SHIMURA MCFUCKING NANA showing up all, “HI, I HEARD SOME BITCHES WERE TRYING TO HAVE A GIRL POWER ARC, AND THEY DIDN’T INVITE ME.” Go on, Nana. Give ‘em hell.

you guys. I’m not normally one to take pleasure in another human being’s misfortune. BUT THAT SAID, there are exceptions to every rule, and so let’s just say certain events have transpired early this morning which have PUT ME IN A VERY, LET’S JUST SAY, NOT-TERRIBLE MOOD which this chapter will hopefully improve upon!!

oh my god Deku’s one non-fucked-up eye that he still has control over is SO WIDE YOU GUYS

hmm I know I shouldn’t be all (゜▽゜) while the two of them are all (； ▼ Д ▼) (⁰ Д゜;) ... and yet here we are. btw I’m worried tumblr’s formatting will ruin those two emojis which I worked so hard to get just right so I’m gonna repost them on another line here just in case

(； ▼ Д ▼) (⁰ Д゜;) that’s them. Kacchan and Deku. my boys

HERE COMES THE CHEESY “JUST GOT STABBED BETTER PLAY IT OFF ALL COOL!!!” ONE LINER OH MY GOD

(ETA: really love how my son, with what for all he knows could be his dying breaths, decides that the absolute most important thing is to preserve his selfish asshole facade so as not to fuck up his status quo with his rival. “LOOKEE HERE I GOT MYSELF ALL STABBED AND SHIT FOR YOU, BUT I TOTALLY JUST DID IT BECAUSE I WAS TIRED OF YOU GETTING ALL THE COOL HERO MOMENTS” yeah, that’s right! SELFLESS MOTIVATIONS, WHAT ARE THOSE sob.

also tbh I’m glad they didn’t delve any further into their feelings right here and now because this really isn’t the place or time for it sadly. WE WILL JUST PUT THOSE ON HOLD UNTIL AFTER THE ARC ENDS, when they are all recovering from their various wounds and traumas and have time to catch up and have some long-overdue heart-to-hearts. it deserves its own chapter or two or three. maybe time to head back to Ground Beta once they’re healthy? “healthy” perhaps being a relative term given their current condition fjsdjkf.)

by the way it looks from here like only the ones through his torso and shoulder actually hit, so that’s something at least. WE’VE LOST ENOUGH LEGS TODAY. I need to conserve my remaining puns

MEANWHILE TOMURA IS HAVING A CRISIS

ARE YOU MAD AT YOUR EVIL DAD TOMURA. HE JUST WON’T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER WILL HE, THAT GUY

anyway so it looks like Kacchan might have caught a break here because AFO/Tomura is pulling the stabby quirk activation tendril things back out! rip, “Kacchan vs. Deku part 3″ theories

p.s. I got ALL CAUGHT UP IN THE DRAMA and thus glossed over the chapter title which is “one among us”! hmmm this is definitely AFO/OFA related, calling it now. ooh lord I am excited

NOW MY SON IS DRAMATICALLY FALLING

THE BLOOD FROM THE MOUTH OOF NOT GOOD AHHHH. DEKU’S FACE AHHHH. HIS BODY JUST WENT TOTALLY LIMP DID HE PASS OUT AHHHH. SOMEONE CATCH HIM!!

BY HIS FOOT, SHOUTO?!

well NOT EXACTLY THE MOST GRACEFUL THING I’VE EVER SEEN, but we’ll allow it because HOLY SHIT BOY. ARE YOU ALREADY CARRYING YOUR DAD ON TOP OF THAT?? HORIKOSHI PLEASE CONFIRM, IS TODOROKI MOTHERFUCKING SHOUTO FUCKING FLYING AROUND UNBALANCED AF ON HIS ONE FLAMEY LEG, CARRYING HIS 500 LB POP AND NOW HIS FLOPPY PASSED OUT BEST FRIEND AS WELL?!? HOLY SHIT TODO?!?!

LADIES AND GENTLEFRIENDS OF THE VILLAIN STANDOM, FEAR NOT, TOMURA’S HAIR IS THE FIRST THING THAT GREW BACK LOL

even before his eyeballs kfldkakjk. which, btw, how does he even know what’s going on right now? “this fight has shed a lot of useless blood” sdkmkjl okay well (1) WHOSE FAULT WAS THAT, AGAIN??, (2) SERIOUSLY THOUGH, HOW DOES HE EVEN KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING. DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO YOU STABBED?? ARE YOU EFFECTIVELY BLIND FOR THE NEXT FEW SECONDS HERE, WHAT’S GOING ON, and lastly (3) I seriously can’t tell if this is AFO or Tomura talking right now. or are they going back and forth?? help this is so confusing

HEY

THE DISRESPECT. I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW KACCHAN ANGST IS NEVER USELESS!!

AND NOW HE’S BACK TO THE STABBING JFKJLKJLF I AM NOT TOO HAPPY WITH YOU RIGHT NOW MISTER

okay and now we’re cutting to some quick panels of the unconscious Aizawa, Gran, and Ryuukyuu, along with the “still conscious but in a very real sense might as well not be counted” Manual who is really having a day, that poor guy

anyway but then there’s also some dialogue boxes being all “if you act out of rage your power will respond accordingly, the most important part is to keep your head clear.” which I’m like 90% sure is Deku/OFA related, but honestly NOTHING ABOUT THIS CHAPTER IS CLEAR SO FAR YOU GUYS. except for the Shouto-is-a-badass part anyway

HMM YEP I’M GONNA GO WITH DEKU-RELATED

it must be a callback to some line I’m forgetting. maybe Lariat explaining Blackwhip to him that one time. probably should have been in italics if it was a flashback quote, but hey. anyways the point is Deku is absolutely, 100% following this advice to the letter (/s)

(ETA: yep I’m almost positive this is the same quote from chapter 213. “listen, when you use this power out of anger, it’ll really start working for you. what really matters is controlling your heart.” which is still one of the weirdest pieces of advice in the entire series, but basically I think he was just trying to tell him it’s okay to get mad, so long as it’s calmly mad. like, controlled fury, as opposed to this white-hot berserker nonsense he’s been running on as of late. anyways I do still love me some shounen rage all the same but Lariat has a point.)

...

it took me a minute to realize THOSE WERE DEKU’S EYES. holy --

AND ANOTHER MINUTE TO REALIZE THAT DEKU FUCKING GRABBED THE ACTIVATION TENDRIL WITH HIS BUSTED UP OFA HANDS AND BIT INTO IT WITH HIS RABID OFA JAWS AND SNAPPED THAT SHIT LIKE A FUCKING KITKAT KLJLKSJDLKJFLK WOOOOOOOO I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING BUT GODDAMN. POWER MOVE

(ETA: this is a two-page spread omg. I didn’t even realize at first. this scan ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT DO THIS BADASS PAGE ANY KIND OF JUSTICE but I can’t wait to see the real deal on Sunday holy shit.)

LMAO

DEKU RAGED SO HARD HE TURNED INTO AN ANGRY GHOST SONIC THE HEDGEHOG FKLSKG

(ETA: he actually looks a bit like the Vestiges/Kurogiri tbh.)

meanwhile Tomura basically has the exact same face I would have had in his position. yeah for real man. I don’t even know

p.s. WHEN will people learn to STOP INSULTING KACCHAN IN DEKU’S PRESENCE. WHEN, I ASK!!

WHAT IN THE CINNAMON TOAST FUCK

if this was a physical page I was holding I would have FLUNG THAT SHIT AWAY LIKE THERE WAS A SPIDER CRAWLING ON IT. WHAT THE FUCK

HOT DAMN. well uh. so that’s SUPER DISTURBING, what a lovely panel of Tomura’s melted face slowly growing back while his ears lag behind, and meanwhile that little scar that had been growing and growing and which at one point certain people (ME) thought might turn him into a BEAUTIFUL BUTTERLY instead RIPS HIS FACE IN HALF to reveal the KINDER EGG AFO SURPRISE UNDERNEATH AHHHHH TAKE IT BACK

THIS IS WHY YOU DON’T LET MAD SCIENTISTS PERFORM EXPERIMENTS ON YOU, KIDS. PSA. JUST SAY NO

-- NO!!!

HORIKOSHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fuck

oh my god. I almost would have rather cut away right after the Kacchan incident than freaking cut away NOW of all times, jesus. THAT’S JUST A BITCH MOVE, IS WHAT THAT IS. if we don’t cut back within the next three pages I SWEAR TO GOD

anyway so GUESS WHAT GIGANTOMACHIA’S DOING YOU GUYS. if you guessed “the exact same thing he was doing last time we saw him” then you are absolutely right, because it was actually PRETTY EASY TO GUESS

anyway but he says he detects “master’s scent”, except that there’s apparently two of them. interesting! one in Tartarus and one in Jakku, right? lol Horikoshi has burned me so many times already with his excruciatingly slow reveal of this that I’m not gonna hold my breath just yet, but I’ll get the hype train warmed up JUST IN CASE

okay so meanwhile in downtown Jakku, the heroes are handing off the civilians over to the police and rescue forces while they prepare to engage with “the villain”, by which I assume they mean Gigantomachia. does this mean Iida and Ochako are gonna fight Machia you guys omg

OOH!!!

“PLEASE INFORM THEM ON FOOT” well I know a certain SPEEDY BOI who would be PERFECT for that job oh my. make haste, Tenyar FastmLeggy

WAIT WHICH WAY ARE THEY HEADING

ARE THEY HEADING TOWARDS MACHIA OR TOWARDS DEKU AND AFO

so rather than answering my VERY PERTINENT question, Ochako is instead spending an entire page thinking about how their complete clusterfuck of a life keeps getting exponentially worse all the time! well but she’s not wrong though

NOW SHE’S ALL “GUYS...!” and, rather than explaining ANYTHING AT ALL, Horikoshi is again cutting back to THIS, OMG AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

(ETA: good thing Kacchan wasn’t awake to see his dramatic “I’ll just get myself impaled for Deku’s sake” plan result in this outcome ALL OF TWENTY SECONDS LATER smdh.)

I ACTUALLY PREFER MY DEKUS NON-CRUMBLED, THANKS. ALSO JUST ON A SIDE NOTE, POOR SHOUTO THOUGH. THE LAST NINETY SECONDS OR SO HAVE BEEN ENOUGH NIGHTMARE FUEL FOR A LIFETIME HAVEN’T THEY

so now he’s all “MIDORIYA!!!” because OF COURSE HE IS. his best friend just got impaled, and his dad too, and now he fully expects to see his other best friend crumble to dust right before his eyes holy shit. T R A U M A ™

-- !!!

somehow in the excitement of the moment I forgot his actual goal for a sec lol. meaning I instantaneously switched from HORRIFIED to GRINNING LIKE A MANIAC :D :D :D come on OFA time to show him what’s what

AND NOW WE’RE SWITCHING OVER TO EVERYONE’S FAVORITE TRIPPY DREAM LANDSCAPE FOR ADDITIONAL DRAMA, WELL OKAY

I’M ON BOARD WITH THIS, WHATEVER. also it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Deku is in fact nekkid underneath that mystical cloud bs, so let’s hope one of his remaining yet-to-be-unlocked quirks is a pants-conjuring quirk lulz

“this place...” yeah we all fucking know what this place is son, let’s get on with this. by my count we’ve only got four pages left so PLEASE BUDGET THEM WISELY

OH MY

holy shit. I have so many screaming thoughts about this lol but I just want to keep on reading lkjlkjlkjl okay I’ll come back later and edit them in, how’s that

OR MAYBE I’LL JUST RANT ABOUT THEM NOW GODDAMMIT

shit. okay let me just try and sum this up as quick as I can

so just in case it wasn’t already crystal clear, AFO’s soul being roommates with Tomura’s seems to be just about 100% confirmed now. good for you, All For One For All theory!! the “Kacchan loses his quirk” theory died so that you might live on in glory

AFO does seem to have almost fully taken control now. it looks like Tomura’s still fighting back, but AFO clearly has the upper hand now if their body language is any indication. Tomura on his knees with AFO calmly holding him down and ignoring his struggles... not looking too good for him at the moment

people seem to have somewhat lost sight of this in the midst of the great “heroes vs. villains Who Is Right Who Is Wrong What Are Morals” debate of 2020, but just a friendly reminder that AFO is in fact responsible for 100% of all of Tomura’s suffering from pretty much the moment he was born up till this very moment we’re now witnessing!! like, you can go ahead and blame Nana and Gran and The Complacent Apathy Of Hero Society and whatever the fuck else from here till Sunday, but All for One is the reason Kotarou was orphaned. All for One is almost certainly the reason why the seemingly quirkless Tenko suddenly just magically developed THE MOST FUCKED UP QUIRK OF ALL TIME at the worst possible moment. All for One is probably the reason why no one helped Traumatized Baby Tenko in the immediate aftermath (I can and likely will write a separate post about this in the near future). All for One is definitely the reason why no one helped Tenko at any point after that. All for One is the reason why Tenko grew up all fucked in the head (“HERE’S YOUR DEAD FAMILY’S HANDS, MERRY CHRISTMAS”), and the reason why he grew up blaming Heroes and Society rather than the sole person who was actually responsible who was literally standing right in front of him the entire time. and lastly, All for One is the reason why Tomura has now been manipulated into unknowingly sacrificing his own body and possibly even his mind. so THANKS A LOT FOR THAT. more like jerk for one amiright

basically what I’m trying to say is that Deku and Tomura are not actually enemies here, and they never have been. the two of them have a common enemy, and I’m convinced Tomura’s story is about him eventually coming to realize this. and this looks to be the first step towards that, for two reasons. one, because AFO is finally starting to out himself to Tomura as the rat bastard he has always been. and two, because Deku is catching a glimpse of this now for the very first time. up until now he didn’t have a damn clue lol. but this is now something for him to file away in the back of his mind, and perhaps follow up on at a later date, once all of this craziness finally subsides and he has some time to process

anyway, so that’s basically it! tl;dr AFO is the final villain and unless I’m very much mistaken, this scene is going to finally start to set that up. let’s read on!

OMG

NANA?!?

lKDSJFLKSHGLISHDOGIHOLRKL

NOOOOOO I can’t believe it fucking ended there I can’t fucking believe it, fuck everything

smdh. what a place to end it. didn’t confirm a damn thing. not even whose mental landscape all of this is actually taking place in! like, don’t mind me though Horikoshi, it’s not like THE FATE OF THE WORLD HINGES ON THIS QUESTION OR ANYTHING except oh wait it really kind of does. kljkj

but seriously. because if it’s Deku’s mind, it means that Tomura’s attempt to take his quirk wasn’t successful. but if it’s Tomura’s mind, though... well... hhhhhhkhfff

or it could be both, I guess. more of that “AFO and OFA are the same quirk and thus linked” goodness. oh man. anyways stay tuned for next week when Nana presumably helps Deku out with the rest of that black fog and also hopefully finds him some pants. or maybe Nana can just go fight AFO herself. a little payback for everything he’s done to her protege and to her grandson. either way I CAN’T WAIT omg. VESTIGE ANTICS ARE A GO

#bnha 286 #midoriya izuku #shigaraki tomura #all for one #bakugou katsuki #todoroki shouto #shimura nana #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #never thought we'd be this close to getting to see nana punch afo in the face #please horikoshi I beg of you please let this happen #if this holds up next week pretty much every single lady of bnha will have gotten their chance to shine in this arc #well except for ochako #but things are looking up on that front too!#what a time to be alive

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eyayah-oya · 4 years ago

Text

Carry You With Me Always

Buckle up everyone, because I have three prompts today!

Cloneship Week 2021 - Tattoos - @cloneshipweek

Rex/Echo

Rating: G

Warnings: very vague references to something bad happening to Tup and Dogma in the past

Ao3 link--Ao3 has some world building notes about Tup, Dogma, and Mom Echo if you want to check those out!

Lazy days were Echo’s favorite. They always had been. Especially the days when Rex didn’t have to be a commander masquerading as a captain. (Echo still didn’t understand how hard it was to sign off on a promotion for Rex. Skywalker knew how to sign his own name.) It was the third day of leave on Coruscant, just when the duties required of the commanding officers tapered off to allow them time off just like their men.

Rex entered the officer barracks with two cups of caf and a datapad tucked under his arm. He must have recently taken a water shower, as he looked cleaner than the sonics were able to achieve. For a moment, Echo mourned the opportunity to shower with Rex but they figured there would be plenty of opportunities in the future.

“Morning,” Echo called, their voice deep and raspy from sleep.

He looked up, though Echo noted he didn’t actual startle. Rex only got that jumpy when he hadn’t been sleeping, so he at least got some rest since the 501st arrived on Coruscant. That was good. Echo had been worried when Rex hadn’t shown up the past two nights to the bunk they shared when not on the Resolute.

A warm smile, reserved just for Echo, softened Rex’s face and filled Echo with happiness. “Morning, Echo,” he responded. With ease, he set the two caf cups down on his desk without spilling a drop, the datapad following immediately after. Then, with slumped shoulders and tired eyes, he fell onto the bed beside Echo and nuzzled their shoulder.

“Meetings go badly?” they mused as ran their fingers across the closely cropped blonde hair.

“Eh, not too bad. Just long. General Mundi preached about the value of life again and Gree got into an argument with General Fisto over some obscure plant the 41st found on their last campaign. I think if they’d been in the same room, it would have become a physical fight.”

Echo snorted. “That would definitely be interesting to watch. What did General Unduli do?”

“I’m 90% sure she was either sleeping standing up, or talking to General Kenobi telepathically. Kenobi kept snickering every once in a while, so I wouldn’t put it past them.” Rex shook his head as best as he could from where his face was smooshed against Echo’s shoulder. “Anything big happen with the boys?”

“Denal and Attie got arrested again. I’m pretty sure they’re trying to court the intake officer in the Corrie’s brig. I escorted Dogma and Tup around the city the first day and ended up taking them to Tatta. You know, the vod who gives the best tattoos?”

Rex hummed in acknowledgment. “Can’t say I’ve ever had the pleasure, but I’ve heard he’s one of the best on Coruscant. Did Tup and Dogma end up getting any tattoos?”

“Tup got a little tear below his eye and Dogma got a really cool one over his face. Kix is gonna have a conniption when he sees that; you know how he is with large facial tattoos,” Echo said with amusement. “Dogma struggled a bit at first, but Tup talked him through his anxiety and held his hand.”

“That’s good. I’ll make sure to pair them up on campaigns. Aren’t they twins?”

Echo nodded. While not numerous, there were several sets of twins in the GAR. Commanders Thire and Thorn in the Corrie Guard, Kix and Captain Keeli, Tup and Dogma, Lupis and Canis in the Wolfpack, and of course Echo and their twin Fives. Commanding officers tried to keep twins together as much as possible, though it doesn’t always happen, like with Kix and Keeli.

“You could have warned me they were former Corries,” Echo grumbled. “Technically I was escorting them, but it was mostly them dragging me all over the city. Although, they did take me to this diner with the most amazing nerf burgers. I’ll have to take you sometime. They’re sweet kids, but they also could use a lot more support than the average vod. Something happened to them when they were with the Guard.”

Rex sighed. “I know. Fox briefed me on their situation. I won’t tell you what happened exactly—they should do that themselves—but it was bad. We’ll take care of them, I promise.”

“Good.” Echo nodded once and wrapped their left arm around Rex’s shoulder and pulled him in closer. Rex flung his own arm back over Echo. Immediately they hissed as their right pec flared with a stinging pain.

Immediately, Rex sat up in concern. “Echo? What’s wrong?”

Echo grinned sheepishly. “Well, Tup and Dogma were really nervous to get tattoos since the Guard isn’t allowed to have tattoos. And I might have gotten a tattoo to help them be more comfortable.”

“Really?” Rex grinned. Without hesitation, he gently placed his hand over Echo’s pec, exactly in the same spot he had left a handprint on their first set of armor. He didn’t have to guess what tattoo they had decided to get. Echo arched into the touch, the sting sharp and pointed and somehow exactly perfect. “Can I see it?” Rex asked softly.

“Help me get the shirt off, and yes,” Echo answered. They surged upwards, ignoring the pain from his tattoo, so they could press a heated and soft kiss to Rex’s lips.

With far more reverence than they usually have time for, Rex slid his fingers under the hem of their loose shirt, trailing over the firm muscles and warm skin. Echo shivered deliciously and lightly sucked on his lower lip, rather than help their boyfriend in any way. Inch by inch, more skin was revealed until Rex pulled away to tug the shirt over Echo’s head. They helped, lifting their arms over their head to allow the shirt to slide free.

In the exact same placement as their armor, a handprint had been tattooed completely in a darker blue than they used for their armor. The dark blue color the Rishi eel’s blood had been. The permanent mark on their skin was a bold proclamation of who Echo belonged to. A way to inform everyone who they went home to and who they would always go back for. That day on Rishi was life-changing for both of them for more than one reason. It was the day Echo had lost their batchmates, save for Fives, and the day they had both joined the 501st. It was the day Echo had first met Rex, a young shiny who was in awe of the legendary captain. And it was the day that began Echo’s journey of falling completely in love with the man behind the legend.

Rex traced the edges of the tattoo gently, barely ghosting over the skin. It was still swollen and red from the needle, but that would go away in a couple more days. Echo didn’t mind a little bit of pain if it meant they could wear Rex’s mark in his skin as well as their armor.

“Do you like it?” they asked cheekily, already knowing the answer.

“I love it. They did a really good job. Does it hurt a lot?” Rex asked.

Echo wobbled his head from side to side. “A little, but it’s not bad. Barely noticeable, really.”

“Good.” And with that, Rex pressed his hand against the mark and pushed Echo back onto the bed until he was leaning directly over them. “Because I need to show you exactly how much I like it.”

They eagerly reached up and wrapped their arms around Rex’s neck, pulling him down against them, though they both were careful not to dislodge his hand from its place on Echo’s chest. Echo pressed their forehead against Rex’s, letting them bask in the peaceful moment instead of the hurried seconds they only managed to snatch while out on the front. Eventually, the keldabe shifted to the more traditional type of kissing, their tongues tangling together languidly. They had all day and the rest of the tenday to relax and enjoy. They could take their time, and Echo couldn’t be happier.

“I love you,” they whispered between kisses.

“I love you, my eyayah. My Echo with my mark,” Rex answered before diving back into their mouth and showing them exactly how much he needed and loved them.

Echo shivered with delight, the intimacy of the moment barricading everything else from the Captain’s quarters. For a time, they existed in a bubble, cut off from the galaxy and perfectly at peace together.

Then, the bubble popped.

“Does the Captain really have to know? I mean, it’s not like he’d be surprised.”

“Fives, don’t be an idiot. You know he always needs to know when we brawl with the Wolfpack so he can keep Commander Wolffe from killing us.”

“But if we go in there, Echo will kill us.”

“I’d rather die by Echo’s hand than by Commander Wolffe’s! He’s scary!”

“Oh, lighten up, Jesse! I wouldn’t mind fighting with the Commander!”

“ . . . Hardcase . . . “

“What? It’s true!”

�� “I’m gonna tell him!”

“Fives, don’t you dare!”

With matching, heavy sighs, Echo and Rex broke apart and turned to the door. Yes, Echo loved lazy days. But those days never lasted long, and they loved their brothers just as much.

“I’ll go deal with Hardcase’s unacknowledged romantic feelings for Commander Wolffe. You need to get some sleep,” Echo said, giving Rex a soft kiss on the cheek as they grabbed their t-shirt. “Think I can make Jesse prefer he’d faced the Commander?”

Rex smirked and flopped down by Echo’s side instead of on top of them. “I know you will. I’ll be here when they’re all suitably punished. Come back and we can finish what we started.” His eyes were dark with hunger and love, sending a shiver through Echo. That was a promise they wouldn’t pass up for anything.

“I’ll be back after I finish wrangling the children. I’ll probably drag Dogma and Tup along so they can laugh at Fives, Jesse, and Hardcase,” Echo said with a grin. They pulled their shirt over their head and climbed over Rex to stand up. “They could use the enrichment.”

Rex only laughed. Lazy days really were the best.

#clone/clone #recho #rex/echo #captain rex #arc trooper echo #clone trooper echo #mentioned tup #mentioned dogma #rex and echo really are concerned parents #mom echo #non-binary echo #cloneshipweek2021 #day 3 | tattoos #cloneshipping

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beybladefanfictions · 3 years ago

Text

Ryuga x King Chapter 12 - Return of the King

(Cover art by Zadi Jyne)

(Author’s note: Yes, this pun was incredibly obvious and no, I haven’t read or seen Lord of Rings.)

Ryuga's POV

“Libra! Sonic Shield!” Yu called out.

Flickers of green light appeared around Libra and Eagle. Before L-Drago and Sagittario could reach them, the flickers materialized into a sphere of energy around the two beys. Ryuga and Kenta’s beys scraped off the ball of energy. They spun in opposite directions around the stadium as the shield around Eagle and Libra disappeared.

“Yeah!” Yu exclaimed, throwing his hand in the air. “It finally worked!” He held his hand out, catching Libra as it flew toward him.

“Good job, Yu!” Kenta replied, snatching up his bey as well.

Ryuga and Tsubasa did the same.

Yu smiled. “Thanks for helping us practice for the tournament,” he replied, putting his bey away.

“You two would make a really good team,” Tsubasa added, nodding to Ryuga and Kenta.

“They would,” Yu agreed with a shrug. “But Ryuga’s totally gonna pair with King.”

“If he ever gets here,” Ryuga grunted. It had been a few months since King left and he’d said nothing about coming back even though the tag team tournament was in a few days now.

“And I’ve agreed to be on a team with Gingka,” Kenta added with a shrug.

“Fine, fine,” Yu replied, “But you two really gotta consider teaming some other time.”

“Apparently Ryuga can’t team with anyone that doesn’t have a left rotating bey,” Tsubasa replied, his voice thick with sarcasm.

“That’s not why…” Kenta started to protest.

Ryuga glared at him in a warning. Across from them, Yu was giving Kenta the “cut it out” signal.

“Why then?” Tsubasa asked, raising an eyebrow.

Kenta looked away. “Uh, nevermind.”

“Anyways, thanks for training with us,” Yu cut in swiftly. “We really appreciate it!” He started to walk toward the exit to the coliseum, gesturing for Tsubasa to follow.

“No problem, Yu!” Kenta replied, clearly forcing a smile. He went around the stadium and walked to Yu’s side. Ryuga trailed after them.

“We still on for GX tomorrow?” Yu asked.

“Of course!” Kenta exclaimed, with a smile. “I want to see the end of season three! It’s been so crazy…” His smile faded and he shivered a little.

“That’s what makes it fun,” Ryuga remarked, with a smile.

Kenta let out an exasperated sigh. “Why do you only like Yugioh when it’s messed up?”

Ryuga shrugged. Maybe it made him sound terrible, but the show was the most interesting when it was dark and messed up.

Yu chuckled. “See you then, guys!”

He and Tsubasa walked away, waving. Kenta waved back. Ryuga gazed at L-Drago. His bey had several scratches on its fusion wheel. He rolled his eyes. Ryuga hadn’t had many intense battles lately, he’d mostly spent the last few months training, mostly on his own but sometimes with Kenta and Yu. *Where did these scratches even come from?* He started to make his way toward the bey shop.

“Where you off to Ryuga?” Kenta asked, remaining at Ryuga’s side. Ryuga showed him the scratched up L-Drago. “Oh… meet you back home?”

Ryuga dipped his head.

Kenta giggled mischievously. “Okay, see you then.” Before Ryuga could ask what that was about, he turned and walked away in the direction of the house.

He continued toward the bey shop. A cool breeze blew through the air, taking some crinkled dead leaves with it. Ryuga readjusted his black jacket. His thoughts wandered toward King, as they so often did these days. The two had managed to keep contact during these past months despite the absurd time difference between them.

Ryuga hoped he would come to visit soon. The WBBA announced that they were hosting a tag team tournament a few days from now, although sign-ups still hadn’t begun. Ryuga found that odd. Usually, sign-ups for bigger tournaments started at least a week in advance. He wasn’t complaining though. He would need a partner in order to sign up and Ryuga only wanted one partner: King, who hadn’t said anything about coming back to Japan yet.

Ryuga pushed the door of the bey shop open. It was empty, thankfully, save for Madoka who was standing at the front counter.

“Hey, Ryuga,” Madoka greeted him with a wave.

“Tsubasa's not here for once I see,” Ryuga replied, placing L-Drago on the counter.

“He has been over here a lot lately,” Madoka admitted, looking away. She twirled a strand of her hair around in her finger. “Not that I mind. Tsubasa's a good guy. He's so… you know?” Madoka smiled as her cheeks turned red. “Er- well, no. I guess you wouldn't know.”

Ryuga rolled his eyes. “Yeah, he’s not my type.”

It took him a second to realize what he said. Then he stiffened. Ryuga looked away, trying to stop himself from shaking.

Madoka’s eyes widened. “Wait… You…?”

Ryuga nodded. There was no point denying it now, after all.

“…King?”

Ryuga let out a sigh. “Yeah…”

“I thought so,” Madoka admitted, her gaze shifting to L-Drago. “But I didn't want to assume.”

Ryuga finally looked up to glare at her. “Because it's weird, I get it.”

“I don't think you're weird for liking King,” Madoka replied, evenly meeting his gaze. “You’re weird for other reasons.”

Ryuga chuckled a little. “How dare you.”

“Anyways…” Madoka took L-Drago in her hand and gazed at it. “I guess L-Drago’s scratched up again.”

Ryuga shrugged. “Apparently.”

“You ever think it’s because your idea of training is destroying rocks?” Madoka asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Is that not normal?”

“Not really.”

“Good.” Ryuga smiled, leaning against the counter. “Wouldn’t want people thinking I’m normal.”

Madoka let out an exasperated sigh. “Oh my gosh.” She held up L-Drago and stepped out from behind the counter. “Well, I should be able to fix this quickly.”

Ryuga nodded. Madoka went downstairs while Ryuga walked out of the shop. Tsubasa was just outside.

“Ryuga?!” He looked startled for a moment before his eyes suddenly narrowed in suspicion. “Why are you here?”

“Why do you care?” Ryuga rolled his eyes as he passed him.

“You were just with Madoka.”

“Yeah, she’s my friend.” Ryuga whipped around, suddenly annoyed. “Will you get over yourself?!”

Tsubasa looked taken aback for a moment. He bit his lip. “Just… a friend?”

Ryuga’s jaw dropped. “Uh, wait-” He burst out laughing. “Wait, you thought- you thought-” He failed to catch his breath, exploding into laughter again.

Tsubasa let out an annoyed grunt.

“Oh, I get it!” Ryuga exclaimed, gripping his stomach. “You're into her! You think-” he paused to chuckle. “You think I'm stealing her from you, don't you?!” Ryuga continued to cackle.

“No!” Tsubasa exclaimed, turning redder than a cherry. “It's not like that!”

Ryuga managed to catch his breath. “Because clearly, two people of the opposite gender can never just be friends,” he remarked, sarcasm dripping into his voice. “Wow, Tsubasa. Great outlook to have.”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Tsubasa grunted, looking away and pushing his hair in his face. “It was dumb. I'm sorry.”

The door to the shop was pushed open.

“What's going on out here?”

“Gah!” Tsubasa staggered back. “Ma-Madoka!”

Ryuga bit his lip, trying not to laugh. *Oh this is perfect…*

“Is everything alright, you two?” Madoka asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Um…” Tsubasa stared at her, taking another step back.

“Do you have something to say, Tsubasa?” Ryuga asked, smirking as he took a step toward him.

“Shut it, Ryuga,” Tsubasa growled, glaring at him.

Ryuga just smirked harder. “Or maybe I should tell her for you?”

“Madoka, I think you're really smart and pretty!” Tsubasa exclaimed.

“Um…” Madoka looked away, turning red and twirling her hair around again. “Thanks. I think you're pretty too…”

“Um… Do you want to go out sometime? …together?”

Madoka smiled. “Sure. I'd like that. That tea shop recently opened up. Wanna go try it together?”

“Y-yes!” Tsubasa nodded. “That-that sounds good…”

“Great! I'm gonna finish up L-Drago’s repairs but we can go after that! See you then!” Madoka called, walking back to the shop.

Ryuga was frozen for a moment. *Did I just hook those two up?* He raised an eyebrow. *Is that the weirdest thing I’ve ever done or just on the list somewhere?* Ryuga shrugged. Tsubasa was staring at the ground, trembling from happiness.

“Smooth,” Ryuga teased, starting to walk away.

Tsubasa glared at him. “Well, I'd like to see you do better.”

“Hi, Ryuga!” Ryuga yelped in alarm as arms were suddenly flung around him. “I was looking for you!”

Ryuga gazed at his attacker, his heart bursting out of his chest when he was met with a pair of shining blue eyes.

“King?!” Ryuga stared at him for a moment, barely able to believe what he was seeing. But here he was. King had his arms around him and was staring right at him. “W-when did you get here?!”

“Heh, surprise!” King gave him that bright smile. “I’m here for a week for my sixteenth birthday!”

*He was planning to surprise me the whole time?!* Finally, registering the whole situation, he pried King off him and took a step back.

King glanced at Tsubasa. “Oh, hey Tsubasa!”

“Hey…” Tsubasa stared at them in confusion.

“Aren’t you happy to see me, Ryuga?” King asked, turning back to him with that cheerful smile.

“I… I…” Ryuga suddenly didn’t know how to form words anymore. His mind was a completely blank slate. All he could do was stare thoughtlessly at King.

“Heh, still shocked?” King smirked as he raised his eyebrow. “You shouldn’t be, you know. Seeing you again is the best birthday gift I could ask for.”

Ryuga’s face heated up. “Great, great,” he grunted, looking away. “We can start training for the tournament then.”

“Oh yeah! That’s on the same day as my birthday. Anyways, I saw this tea place on the way here, I don't think it was there the last time I was here. Wanna go try it together?”

Ryuga’s heart skipped a beat. “Right now?” he asked, struggling to bite back his panic. “Can’t we go somewhere else?”

“Oh…” King tilted his head to the side. “Not a tea fan?”

“I'm not in the mood for it right now.”

Tsubasa cleared his throat. “Because that's where Madoka and I are going.”

“Wha- Tsubasa!” Ryuga glared at him.

Tsubasa just grinned and snickered into his hand.

“Oh, you guys wanna come with us?” King asked, smiling innocently.

“King n-” Ryuga started to protest.

“Sure,” Tsubasa cut him off, smirking triumphantly. Ryuga could only glare at him in response.

“Great! We’ll meet you there.” King gestured for Ryuga to follow him before prancing off like a deer in a meadow.

Ryuga let out an exasperated sigh. However, he swallowed his pride and followed King.

“Did you really have to invite them?” Ryuga grunted once he’d caught up to King.

“Why not?” King asked with a shrug. “I thought Madoka was your friend. Besides, it’s been so long since I’ve seen anyone here.” He smiled. “You’re not the only person I missed, you know.”

Ryuga’s eyes narrowed. Unwanted jealousy instantly rose within him.

“Of course I missed you the most though,” King remarked, as if he somehow knew what Ryuga was thinking. “You just gotta be the best at everything don’t you?” It was clear he was teasing.

Ryuga rolled his eyes.

King smiled. “I missed you too.”

He suddenly stopped walking to hug Ryuga from the side. Ryuga stopped walking. Before he could say anything, King shifted to hug Ryuga properly, resting his head on his chest. Ryuga rested his hand on King’s head. He gazed at the scruffy blue hair, suddenly overcome with the temptation to ruffle it. King giggled as he did.

“Nice jacket by the way,” he informed, resting his hand on the sleeve of Ryuga’s black jacket. “Where’d you get it?”

“I stole it,” Ryuga replied, starting to walk again.

King giggled. “No, really?” Ryuga didn’t reply. King’s smile suddenly faded. “Ryuga, come on man. That’s not funny, stealing is illegal.”

“Relax. It was Kenta’s mother’s,” Ryuga replied with a shrug.

King sighed in relief. “Oh thank goodness.” Then his eyes widened. “Wait, you still shouldn’t be stealing from your mom!”

Ryuga just chuckled. He didn’t bother correcting King; he seemed determined to always refer to Kenta’s parents as Ryuga’s parents. It was too much effort to get him to quit. When they reached the tea shop, King leaned on the wall outside, waiting for Tsubasa and Madoka. Ryuga leaned on the wall beside King. A few people passed them every now and then, coming in or out of the shop. Eventually, Ryuga spotted Tsubasa and Madoka approaching.

“Hey, guys!” Madoka greeted with a wave.

“Um… I forgot to ask, who’s paying?” King asked as they approached.

“Can’t you all pay for your own tea?” Madoka asked, casually handing Ryuga the repaired L-Drago.

King looked down at the ground.

“I don’t have money,” Ryuga replied with a shrug.

“I do,” Tsubasa answered, “I’ll cover it.”

“I’ll help,” Madoka added, pushing the doors of the shop open. She and Tsubasa walked in first, while King and Ryuga followed. The four of them placed their orders and got a table near the back of the shop, right beside a window.

“How long are you staying in Japan?” Ryuga asked, gazing at King.

“Just a week… and um…” His gaze suddenly dropped to the table. “We couldn’t get a hotel this time…”

“Where will you be staying then?” Madoka cut in, tilting her head to the side.

“Masamune is staying with Gingka. Toby and Zeo aren’t sure yet…”

“And… you?” Ryuga prompted, raising an eyebrow.

King suddenly went red. “Um… I was thinking…”

“Oh…” Tsubasa’s eyes went wide.

“I mean…” King bit his lip, shivering a little. “If it’s okay…”

Madoka turned to Tsubasa. “Does he mean…?”

King glared at her. “Not in the same bed or anything!” he exclaimed, his face getting even redder.

Ryuga stiffened, realizing what he was asking.

“Oh…”

King stiffened. “Or… maybe not. It’s fine, I can just ask Gingka.”

“The couch is free,” Ryuga replied with a shrug.

King was silent for a moment before smiling. “Thanks.”

The group fell silent as a waiter walked by and handed them their tea. Ryuga took his, jasmine tea, and immediately took a sip. King tried to do the same. He yelped the second his lips touched the tea, sliding his cup away.

Madoka chuckled into her hand. “It’s still too hot, you know.”

“Ryuga’s drinking it,” King grunted, gesturing to him.

“That’s because Ryuga’s insane,” Tsubasa replied, with a shrug.

Ryuga glanced at King. “Shouldn’t you know that by now?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Tsubasa turned to Ryuga. “So… you’re admitting it?”

Ryuga shrugged. “I see no reason not to,” he replied, taking another sip of his tea. In reality, he just had a higher tolerance to heat than most people. He wasn’t entirely sure why. It was just something that had always been for him.

“Anyways…” King pushed his cup of tea aside and gazed at Ryuga. “Since I’m here, can we watch the Battle City finals?”

“We need to train for the tournament,” Ryuga replied, his eyes narrowed.

“We can train tomorrow!” King insisted, scooting his chair closer to Ryuga. He stared at him with those huge puppy dog eyes. “Come on, I held off watching those finals for like a month for you. I wanna know what happens, dangit!”

“It’s that important to you, huh?” Ryuga asked, raising an eyebrow. He chuckled a little. “You nerd.”

King’s face turned red. “Hey, you’re the one who got me into the show in the first place!” he exclaimed.

Ryuga took a sip of tea.

“Aren’t you also watching the sequel with Kenta and Yu?” Madoka asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ryuga froze. Placing his cup down, he glared at her.

“…shut up.”

King giggled into his hand. “There is no escape from magic cards. They will consume our souls one piece at a time until there is nothing left.”

Ryuga froze. *He’s joking but it’s entirely true…*

“That’s a little overdramatic,” Tsubasa replied, taking a sip of his black tea.

King chuckled into his hand. “I just thought it was funny, man.” He smiled as he took a small sip of tea.

The four of them continued to chat idly as they drank their tea. Once they finished, Tsubasa and Madoka paid and the four of them made their way out of the shop.

“Well, this has been fun.” Madoka’s tone was upbeat.

Tsubasa gazed at her. “We should do this again sometime…” His gaze suddenly shifted toward the ground. “Just the two of us.”

King giggled. “We were that annoying, huh?” he teased, raising an eyebrow.

“N-no…” Tsubasa replied, looking away.

Madoka gazed at him with a smile. “I’d love to, Tsubasa.” The two of them smiled at each other in this sickeningly sweet way.

Ryuga rolled his eyes. “Alright, King, let’s give the lovebirds some space.” He gestured for King to follow.

However, King froze, his wide-eyed gaze shifting between Tsubasa, Madoka, and Ryuga.

“Wait, they’re-”

“And that would be your cue to leave,” Tsubasa cut him off, his eyes narrowed.

“Shoo, both of you.” Madoka shooed King away with her hands, who flinched back with a yelp.

“Okay, okay.” King shuffled away.

Ryuga smiled as he trailed after him.

“When did those two become a couple?” King asked, tilting his head to the side.

Ryuga shrugged. “Today.”

“You were there?” Ryuga stiffened. “Ryuga…” King suddenly grinned. “Did you hook them up?” Ryuga looked away, not wanting to answer. King started giggling. “Oh my gosh, you totally did.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Ryuga insisted, his eyes narrowing.

“How did this happen? I wanna know.” Ryuga let out a warning growl. King just shrugged. “Well if you’re not gonna tell me, I’ll go ask them.”

King turned to walk away. In the blink of an eye, Ryuga whipped around and grabbed King’s hand to stop him. King froze. He stared at Ryuga with wide eyes. Ryuga froze as well, only now processing what he did. He let go of King.

“Okay…” King sounded a little taken aback. “I won’t ask… sorry…”

*That’s not what it was…* Ryuga realized. In that split moment of impulse, Ryuga was thinking only one thing: don’t leave.

“Do what you want,” Ryuga grunted, turning away. “But I’m going home.”

He walked away. King trailed after him, catching up to him quickly.

“You can just tell me you don’t want me to leave,” King replied, a smirk growing on his face. “You don’t have to grab me.”

Ryuga’s face heated up. *Stop reading my mind!* The two of them fell silent as they made their way toward Ryuga’s home.

Ryuga pushed the door open. Kenta and his parents were all sitting on the couch.

“Hey, Ryuga-” They spotted King, swiftly switching languages. “And King!”

“Hi, King!” Kenta greeted, waving.

“Hey…” King bit his lip, his gaze suddenly dropping to the floor. “I’m staying for a while…”

“He couldn't get a hotel,” Ryuga informed, closing the door.

“Oh…” Kenta’s mother dipped her head. “Well, he can stay here. How long will you be here?”

“Just for a week. For the tag team tournament.”

“Tag team tournament, huh?” Kenta’s dad gazed at his son. “Kenta, Ryuga, you two are a team right?”

“No…” Kenta shook his head. “I’m on a team with Gingka, he’s with King.”

“Oh…” Kenta’s dad almost sounded disappointed.

His mom raised an eyebrow. “You and King seem… close.” Ryuga stiffened at the suspicion in her tone.

“Yeah, we’re the only people with left rotating beys,” he explained swiftly. “It makes us a good match.” King stepped up beside Ryuga, nodding vigorously.

“How old is he?” Kenta’s mom asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m turning sixteen in a few days.”

Kenta’s dad smiled. “Oh, happy… early birthday, King.”

King smiled. “Thanks.”

Kenta’s parents stood up, letting King and Ryuga sit next to each other on the couch. Kenta scooted toward them.

“Hey, when is your birthday Ryuga?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.

Ryuga looked away. “Um…”

“You don't know?” Kenta’s mom cut in, sounding concerned.

“I know the month,” Ryuga shrugged, “It doesn't really matter.”

“Wanna just pick a day?” Kenta's dad asked, switching to Japanese.

“Why?”

The conversation completely switched to Japanese now.

“So we can do something for your birthday, of course,” Kenta's dad answered.

Ryuga rolled his eyes. “So you can all make a big deal out of something trivial? No thanks.”

“It's not trivial,” Kenta’s mom insisted, her eyes narrowed.

“We won't make a big deal out of it but we want to at least get you something.”

Ryuga let out a sigh. “Fine, November… November twenty-fourth is my best guess.”

“Early happy birthday.” Ryuga was surprised to hear King speaking Japanese. He turned to him.

“You understood all that?” Ryuga asked, switching to English.

“Most of it. Told you my Japanese is improving.” A grin grew on his face. “And I know what would make it even better.”

Ryuga let out an exasperated sigh. “Yugioh?” King nodded. “Fine,” he grunted, grabbing the remote.

“Woohoo!” King cheered, throwing his hands in the air. “Battle City Finals here we come!”

(Author’s note: Yes, I ship TsuMado and have been for a while now. Reread that scene from Ryuga’s Return where Tsubasa checks on Madoka and Ryuga with this context and you’ll see what I mean. Also, “November twenty-fourth” is an easter egg for something revolving around the show, brownie points to whoever can figure out what it is.)

#beyblade #beyblade metal fight #beyblade metal saga #ryuga #ryuga kishatu #king #king beyblade #kenta yumiya #tsubasa otori #madoka amano #yu tendo #ryuga x king #ryuga and king #king and ryuga #royaltyshipping #fanfiction #writing #I feel like I tag a lot more characters per chapter in this story #than any of my previous ones

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agentnico · 4 years ago

Text

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) Review

It all started with Sonic’s teeth. Ever since fans successfully bullied a studio into reanimating their titular hedgehog character after the abomination shown in the first trailer, fans realised that rallying together (on Twitter) can make a difference. So you’d think it would mean we could all come together to restore world peace and get rid of racism, injustice, poverty, war and negativity of all kind? Nope, nope it does not. But at least we get a better version of a bad DC movie that came out in 2017. I mean, baby steps I guess.

Plot: Fuelled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists newfound ally Diana Prince to face an even greater threat. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to recruit a team to stand against this newly awakened enemy. Despite the formation of an unprecedented league of heroes -- Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and the Flash -- it may be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

I recall my younger simpler self in 2017 at the early age of 20 soon to be 21, sitting down and watching the new Justice League film with zero to no expectations, as by that point the DC Extended Universe was a trainwreck and was a franchise that was literally falling apart before out unblinking red hay fever filled eyes. However, after watching Justice League I was baffled at the fact that I still managed to be disappointed after having zero expectations! With zero expectations this film took me into the minuses, and we all know I’m not great at mathematics so boy are we in the danger zone when we hit the minuses! Looking back at my review of the film back then, I used extreme yet fitting comments like “generic”, “predictable” “messy” and plain “dogsh*t”. Which is what it was. 2017′s Justice League is exactly how I’d imagine a dog’s poop would look if it was turned into an abstract film! It was truly abysmal. After that I thought I’d never have to talk about this film again. How wrong I was. But, in a rare turn of tables, I am glad that I was wrong...

A little history lesson first. Alright, settle down kids, settle down.... Rob, put the paper plane down, do not throw it, I said DON’T THROW IT! NO! Stop! Stupid child!! Headteacher’s office right now! Also, say hi to your mother for me, okay? I’m having brunch with her on Saturday and you better not be there as you should be doing your homework watching the 4 hour cut of Justice League and questioning your life choices!! Anyway, now let’s have ourselves a history lesson. The topic is - What In The Flying Fudge Happened Behind-The-Scenes Of Justice League For DUMMIES: Condensed Edition. A really condensed version as honestly none of us have the attention span to read loads and I’m probably losing the vast majority of you due to this overlong rambling session. So anyway, to the last couple of readers left, here we go! Following the success of Man of Steel, Warner Bros. gave Zack Snyder the reigns to oversee and create a DC cinematic universe to rival the success of Marvel. And so came Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, which turned out to be a bit of a hodgepodge, receiving mixed to negative reviews and though was a box office success, earned diminishing results to what Warner Bros. originally anticipated. However, by the time Batman V Superman released, Zack Snyder was already hard at work on the big superhero team up film Justice League (which was meant to set up many characters and future films for the DCEU) with a lot of filming already underway, so Warner Bros. couldn’t particularly pump the breaks on it by that point, even though they evidently lost trust in the Snyder formula. To be honest, at that point I too lost trust in Snyder’s vision and the DCEU as a whole, but my opinion doesn’t class for a single dime, whilst the opinions of Warner Bros. executives make millions, so there aren’t any hard feelings on my behalf for them not enquiring on my thoughts. Anyway, midway through production Zack Snyder was hit with a family tragedy with his daughter committing suicide, so Snyder naturally had to depart the project to be with his family during this grieving time. Warner Bros. had the option to pause production and await for Snyder’s return, or progress at their own accord. Naturally they decided to do their own thing cause they are a business and want that dollar dollar bill baby!! So they hired Joss Whedon who was riding fresh off the success of two Avengers movies and obviously had experience in cinematic universes and such, to rework the Justice League movie by condensing it into a 2 hour film (from the over 4 hour material that Snyder shot) and reshoot scenes to fit the smaller runtime. So you cannot particularly blame Whedon for taking out so many great scenes as he had a contract to fulfil with Warner Bros, but then you look at the many forced jokes and unnecessary reshot scenes and you realise how self-indulgent Joss Whedon was during filming, as he basically was spitting on everything Snyder did and was trying to do his own thing. Low and behold, the mess that is the 2017 movie is created, where its the visions and creative minds of two director with evidently different styles clashing and not really mixing well at all, and as such we have a messy movie that doesn’t really make sense and is a bit of a middle finger to DC fans and honestly everyone and all. Also, there was that little aspect of Henry Cavill’s deformed upper lip due to the fact that during reshoots he had a moustache that he’d grown and was contractually obligated to have for his Mission Impossible role, so the visual effects team had to digitally remove it in post production and the result is, well, see for yourself...

Yes, they made the dashing handsome my-sexuality-questioning Henry Cavill look stupid, and that is UNFORGIVABLE. Funny, yes, very funny but unforgivable!! So for this and many other reasons the 2017 film turned out horribly. Then after that many months later, Zack Snyder and cast and crew members began teasing of this mythical version of the movie that was befit of Snyder’s original vision. You see, apparently before he left the project, Snyder actually filmed everything he wanted and it was only awaiting to be reworked with visual effects and edited properly, but then Whedon came in with his scissors and cut everything mercilessly with a cheeky grin and his ginger beard. Speaking of his ginger beard, is Joss Whedon Irish? Or has Irish roots? Honestly, I would Google it, but wait, I don’t think I really care. So anyway, Snyder still had all of his filmed scenes saved on his ridiculously oversized hard drive just waiting to be looked at again. This is where the fandom did its magic by creating a Twitter hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut and began spam posting for Warner Bros. to let Zack Snyder release what he originally intended to. Honestly, who would have thunk it, but this actually worked!! Warner Bros. allowed this, and not only that, but gave Snyder an additional $70 million to finish up the visual effects as well as to film a couple of additional sequences and gave it the prestigious honour to debut it on HBO Max, so as to boost the subscriber rating on Warner Bros. new streaming service. And here we are.

Honestly, I thought seeing this Director’s Cut of sorts wouldn’t bring much to the table as I didn’t believe that a film that was so broken had originally been in any way good. After finishing this 4 hour Snyder vision I must admit though that I was pleasantly surprised. Completely baffled by the studio and Joss Whedon, but really happy for Zack Snyder. The guy was fighting for it and finally was able to accomplish and bring out his true original vision, and though Zack Snyder’s Justice League has its flaws, its so much better than what we got in 2017, and in fact is a soaring science fiction sci-fi epic that literally feels epic!! It takes time establishing the characters and every single plot point as well as building out this rich mythology of this world of the DC Extended Universe, and so as you move into the second half of the film, there’s a feeling of pay off. You actually care about the characters and understand the plot points and it doesn’t feel rushed. Its truly astounding that there are producers out there who thought it was a good idea to get rid of all of that and instead bring out whatever the heck Joss Whedon did with the 2017 version. Look, I quite enjoy Joss Whedon’s work, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel to Cabin in the Woods and his work on Marvel, the guy obviously has a talent, but also he obviously does not belong to the dark and brooding style of DC. Zack Snyder on the other hand, though makes his mistakes, truly embraces the epic feel of the DC material. And it seems once you give Snyder enough time and space, he can actually bring out something like this:

The main characters are all given so much more to do, or at least those that got side-lined in the 2017 version are given more to do here. One of my complaints with the original was how pointless the League turns out to be. Basically in the theatrical version the main team all end up being useless and only once Superman shows up he saves everyone’s asses and literally does EVERYTHING. Might as well have called the film Man of Steel 2 (feat. Justice League). However in this new version, every main character serves a purpose. Well most of them do at least. Cyborg and Flash are much more compelling characters with more layers and backstory, and in fact are a prime reason to defeating the great evil in the end. You now understand why Cyborg actor Ray Fisher was pissed at Joss Whedon, as the guy literally got rid of his best stuff. Superman strikes a cool black suit and is still powerful, however as the finale shows, he isn’t all-powerful and does need the help of the rest of the team. Wonder Woman gets a lot more to do in this theatrical cut, and in fact this is probably Gal Gadot’s best performance as Wonder Woman and she really shows herself as a powerful female superhero! Aquaman’s role stays largely unchanged, however to be honest Jason Momoa’s character was one of the only ones who didn’t suffer in the theatrical cut. That’s unsurprising seeing as Jason Momoa is such a naturally cool dude! A big panda that is friendly in real life, but when necessary can turn into a roaring bear. To be honest, the only League member that ends up a bit pointless is actually Batman. He still serves a purpose in the film in that he’s the one who assembles the team, but otherwise the rest of the group is so overpowered compared to him that in the end you do kind of think that he doesn’t really belong there. Still, Ben Affleck is great in the role and it’s a shame we won’t see much of him past Flashpoint film that will be released in the next few years.

There are a lot of characters in this film and one can still say the movie is overstuffed, but also seeing as the movie was originally intended to spring board the DCEU properly, all these teases are actually welcome. There are an abundance of cameos, and to be honest so many characters are so well cast that you do end up wishing that Snyder was given the opportunity to make his entire Justice League planned trilogy, but nevertheless at least we have this. There are truly an abundance of cool appearances here, from the menacing villain Darkseid (played by Ray Porter) to Willem Dafoe doing what Dafoe does best, only in this case underwater and I’m certain that’s gonna span many comparison memes with The Lighthouse. Joe Morton as Cyborg’s dad is given a lot more to do here and in fact is pivotal towards building up Cyborg into the important character that he is. There’s also a cameo from Jared Leto’s Joker, who in some ways redeems himself after his appearance in Suicide Squad. Also, we need to talk about Steppenwolf, who’s the main baddie in this film. In the theatrical cut the guy was the most generic one-note villain who also looked like a PS2 character. It was honestly embarrassing the way he was animated. Luckily in this version he’s been put through enough Skyrim mods to looks much more intimidating and is also given a better motivation. As we find out, the reason he does what he does is because he wants to go home. He’s been banished and he simply wants to earn his place back home, so it’s actually kind of sweet. Steppenwolf is a sweetie. I mean, yeah, he wants to destroy half of the world to fulfil his dream, but hey, haven’t we all taken something extreme measures to get what we want?

The film is far from perfect though. At the end of the day, the movie is just about a guy hunting down a bunch of magical boxes. That was the premise of the theatrical cut and its the same here too. Yes, there is more substance and gravitas to the proceedings, but at the end of the day the story doesn’t really surprise much. And with the entire thing running at 4 hours, it is definitely too long and there is the element where there is simply too much in this thing. Also visually, though the movie has plenty of gorgeous shots and Zack Snyder’s signature slow motion sequences are on full display here, there are still many sequences where the CGI and green screen are super obvious and look really fake. That being said there’s still so much visual goodness in this, and also I have to mention Junkie XL’s new music score that does reiterate the epic feel of this movie, in comparison to Danny Elfman’s weak uninspiring notes in the theatrical cut.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a massive surprise and completely changes the perception of what we saw in the original 2017 theatrical cut. It’s a sprawling massive adventure that’s a dream come true for any comic book fan. It shows how vital film editing is, and how important it is to have a cohesive plan when making a movie. Gone too are the silly forced jokes, and though there is still some humour here, it feels more grounded and fit of the setting and scenario. This is Snyder’s vision through and through, and though at times it is clunky, it overall is incredible to behold, as it’s this one guy’s mind and his love for the DC lore. It’s a credible achievement, and I’m actually sentimentally happy for Snyder that he finally managed to complete this. He even during the credits dedicates this to his daughter Autumn that passed away, and I found that to be truly bittersweet. Justice has indeed been served.

Overall score: 7/10

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cutegirlmayra · 4 years ago

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I'm a simple person with simple needs: angst, dark sonamyy, hurt/comfort. Please Mayra only you can do this (claps hands in prayer)

(NOT MY ART! Found here (x) Please support the artist!)

PROMPTS ARE ON SHUTDOWN, do not send me any! This also means Commissions are closed too. (I’ve got a waiting list, sorry!)

Asks that follow the Blog Rules are okay though (x)

Find this prompt discussed on Pajama Blogs (x 26:11)

Prompt:

Due to a Chaos Rift that shook the very fabric of space and time, the Master Emerald being severed in two and trying to attempt to mend it back into one again was Sonic.

Since he was the only one that had connected so many times to the power of Chaos, channeling it into his very core, it was almost like he was a being of pure, controlled chaos energy.

However, this was not the case.

As Knuckles performed the act of combining the Master Emerald’s power to link it to Sonic, which was whole at the time, it ended up reversing the effects...

Instead, once Sonic was perfectly linked to the Master Emerald, the Master Emerald didn’t combine it’s energy to match Sonic, but Sonic’s soul ended up matching the Master Emerald...

Two Sonic’s were created, one with a darker hue and the other with a much lighter hue than the original Sonic.

They both seemed off from Sonic, one possessing more of an anger and the other a quiet justice that sporadically meant being protective over his friends.

This meant that Darker Sonic, the one with anger, also was more emotionally unstable and his actions didn’t seem to make much sense other than lashing out.

Lighter Sonic, the one with a serious look always to his face, valued heroism almost to the point of excessivism. Although not as emotional as his dark brother/other half, he was almost stoic but deeply loyal and passionate to his idea of ‘right’ and extremely merciless in destroying what he considered ‘wrong’.

Unable to stand each other, the two would often fight unless separated. It was almost as though the two conflicting sides of Sonic’s personality and very being were constantly at odds with each other, resulting in Knuckles never being able to get them to work together to conjoin back into Sonic--and consequently--bring the Master Emerald back into a whole state of being as well.

Chaos, the God of Destruction, tried to fight the two Sonic’s into joining together again, shoving them up against the other and using his power to force a fuse, but Amy was the only one to hear Darker Sonic state that Lighter Sonic would never accept him, and therefore, never merge successfully back into what they once were.

She felt she had found a clue... but as they defeated Chaos in his weakened, torn state, they vanished...

As everyone tried to find the Lighter Sonic, Amy... went for the Darker.

She knew he was staying in an abandoned mansion somewhere in the woods, one he would talk about back when he was dealing with being a werehog... she had heard his ghost stories and about a camera flashing to help him fight, then his frustration and tearing through the home... but she wondered if that’s where his other self had run off too...

She wasn’t wrong...

Creaking open the door, after passing the gates, it was clear the ‘ghosts’ that used to live here were too afraid to re-enter the home. Unable to fully communicate to her, they played charades to retell the events that had occurred. In his emotional coldness, Darker Sonic must have gone into a fury and kicked the three out of the mansion, wanting to be alone...

Amy put a finger up to her mouth, worried about him... the Lighter Sonic seemed to be the hero-side of Sonic... but he also seemed crueler.

She didn’t want to believe that this Darker Sonic was apart of Sonic’s true self either... he seemed too unstable and emotional... but she’d rather try and reason with that than stoic stubbornness...

She wondered if the Chaos Rift had split and twisted Sonic’s personality traits... their was no way Sonic could be so torn between these parts of himself all the time... wouldn’t someone break under all that stress? Did he really, truly struggle with two sides of himself..?

Did he discipline himself to act one way, but truly desire another? Or have the tendency for it?

She shook her head from her thoughts as she passed the gate and had already walked through the door, peeking in to see what she could find.

It was once a lovely home... she could tell by the woodwork, the remains of the furniture... it could have been a very luxurious estate...

“...Sonic?” She called out quietly, seeing something turn it’s head in the dark.

Leaning rather relaxed but frighteningly still on a banister upon the large staircase that split into three,... was his shadowed self.

Sonic was too free-spirited to have internal conflicts this bad... right?

Was chaos energy promoting such division? Was the Chaos Rift more than just some attack Shadow used back then... did it actually continue to chip and crack away at the Master Emerald every time it was used to create... this?

Shadow was already fine with never using such an ability again, but everyone was convinced this Sonic was like the evil tendencies of man within Sonic,... but Amy couldn’t help and see some suffering in him...

Lighter Sonic had dismissed her in a cold way... and she knew that couldn’t be... exactly... her Sonic either...

Could she see... Sonic in this light?

She froze at the foot of the three-splitting stairway... her hand up by her chest as she scanned his form delicately... careful to try and read his body language and figure out what was going on.

“...Sonic?” she called again, but he didn’t respond, only huffed and quickly sped to the far right stairway, raising a hand to the rails.

“Amy Rose... I should have known you wouldn’t know better.” He mocked under his breath... But he turned his face away from her, suggesting that maybe he thought she was in danger of himself... it almost seemed like the mock was a double-edged sword cutting into his own pride.

“I’m here... to talk.” She narrowed her eyes, tilting her head and trying to see him in the light. There wasn’t much of it... but some open windows on the bottom floor made her seeable, so... if she could get him to come down...

“Talking only ever ends with someone being proved right.” Darker Sonic gestured out his arm, haphazardly. He took two powerful steps down the stairway, eyeing her as he moved to the center and let go of the rail. His shoulder pointed to her intimidatingly, as though a warning... “And I’m not here to be proven anything.”

The harsh growl to his voice made her realize he was still compromised, and she closed her eyes to inch away. “I know you’re not bad, Sonic... So I know you wouldn’t hurt me.” She tried to be brave, taking her shaking hand by her chest and gripping it strongly with her other one, but it made her look more afraid...

“If you are Sonic... then I know there’s no evil in you. Not even a little bit.”

She jumped back when he sped all the way down to her, standing directly to her face with a strong presence of critique.

“Of course you would say that... while everyone else follows like lapdogs after my other half... you would come to the unwanted side.” He smiled as he moved closer, but she immediately paced herself back and adverted her eyes.

He stopped then, standing tall. “...Are you afraid?”

She shook her head, “I could never be afraid of you...”

A smile crooked to the side of his muzzle, but disappeared quickly. He moved forward again, “Then why not try to convince me... that I should fuse with my other half... and not the other way around.” he reached out to her, and she looked at his hand to see what he’d do.

He smirked and suddenly gripped behind her neck, pulling her back as the door smashed through and Lighter Sonic walked bristly into the room, dusting himself off in a pompous way from the dust and debris.

“Give her back.” He stated without much tone or even emotion. “Kidnapping never was something I admired.” he joked, but it completely lacked Sonic’s charm.

Having Sonic’s charm, Darker Sonic lowered his eyes and held Amy out in front of him, “So like you to jump to conclusions... As though you actually care about her.” Darker Sonic then threw Amy over his shoulder, pointing accusingly to his Lighter Self. “Let’s end this! I won’t be repressed anymore!”

“...You’re so impish.” Lighter Sonic shook his head, “Rash, a real bore. Let her go and I’ll prove I’m the only Sonic that need remain.”

“Now you sound like Metal.” scoffed Darker Sonic, letting Amy roll off his shoulder and arm to land to the floor.

She wasn’t hurt, just spun up a bit as she landed on her hands and knees.

When that happened though, Lighter Sonic’s expression finally changed and he twitched to hold a hand out to her, “Can’t you let her down a little easier!?” he demanded, “She’s a girl, after all!”

“She’s taken worse tumbles.” Darker Sonic stood in front of Amy, as though showing he wouldn’t let Lighter Sonic play the hero this time. “All you see me as is a villain to control... A urge to suppress... You’re embarrassed by how you are!” he hunched himself down, “Well, I’m not gonna take the backseat this time... I’m you, smart-one! And you can’t get rid of me that easily!” he took off and rammed a fist into his blocking arm.

“You’re endangering my friends... you think that’s acceptable!?” Lighter Sonic threw a kick out that Darker Sonic flipped over and landed with a bit of style.

“I didn’t do anything...” Darker Sonic grumbled as Lighter Sonic disregarded him and headed over to Amy, looking at him from over his shoulders as he was still rearing to fight. “Don’t ignore me!” he shouted out, which was like a loud boom that caused Amy to plug her ears.

She had never heard Sonic’s voice with such ferocity before...

Lighter Sonic bent to a knee and took her arms, helping her up. “You should get out of here.” he checked to make sure she was fine, and then like before, completely turned away from her.

It was strange... though he seemed caring, he didn’t really express it well. The Darker Sonic...

She remembered him reaching out to her, then pulling her to him to get away from the door blasting open...

They both cared... but in different ways, expressed that they didn’t want to hurt her...

Then they clashed into each other, Chaos energy slashed through the air as they collided each time, cutting some wood in the mansion and making the ghosts cower and the girl shriek at her home being so torn up.

Amy emphasized but she didn’t know what she could do... She knew that Darker Sonic had taken the two pieces of the split Master Emerald with him... so she started up the stairs, bracing against each deadly beam of light that exploded from the two’s fighting.

She had already learned there was no way to reason with them to stop fighting... from the previous times they had clashed, it was just no use no matter what anyone did.

How did Lighter Sonic know to come here..? Was there still a sliver of connection between the two..?

That would mean...

As she tried to climb the stairs, Darker Sonic saw her and immediately rushed to stomp a foot down by her reaching hand.

She gasped, withdrawing her once reaching hand as the blasts got so forceful that they shoved her to the ground.

“Where are you going?” He seemed so angry... but there was hurt in his eyes. “You’ll find nothing up here!”

Lighter Sonic then tackled into him, rolling and crashing them through the already rotting wood railing as they and the splintered remains of that side of the stairway gave out.

“Sonic!” Amy cried out, seeing the stairway collapsing and rushed to jump to the edge as half of it came down.

She pulled herself up and breathed hard, looking down to see them throw off the rubble and continue pounding into each other in an alarmingly hostile rate.

She then wondered... could it be Sonic?

“You almost hurt her!” Lighter Sonic argued, getting a punch in before Darker Sonic returned the same.

“You know full well I wouldn’t do that!” He then shoved against him, and they were evenly matched as their arms gripped the other’s shoulders and tried to push them back.

They gritted their teeth, one looking overly justified and the other with unbridled rage.

“Sonic... your emotions... your ideals... they clash too often, don’t they?” She whispered to herself, realizing that Sonic was a good man, but one that was like the rest of humanity... constantly dueling the two sides to yin and yang. One with passionate cause and the other with selfish needs.

She quickly continued her climb, though she desperately wanted to fall down with them and unlock them from their deadly feuding, she knew she couldn’t match the chaos power they both wielded at the moment.

Darting from room to room, she threw the doors open, not bothering to close them as the Sonics naturally followed in their brawling, trying to reach her.

“No!” Darker Sonic reached out to her but was blocked off and hit back by Lighter Sonic.

“Amy, get out of here!” Lighter Sonic gestured a hand out that slashed across from his chest, “It isn’t safe!”

Darker Sonic actually took the initiative and bolted pass Lighter Sonic, attempting to grab her and take her out of the mansion and warzone himself, but Lighter Sonic quickly intercepted.

They brawled down the hallway in vicious rolls and slams against the sides of the wall as they continued to pursue Amy, both with a similar goal but different ways to go about it.

‘There’s Sonic...’ Amy felt her eyes get watery in her fright at the mansion not able to handle the two fighting Sonics powers, but another part of her was determined to put them back together again.

She finally found it, at the end of the hallway, she burst open two large doors that revealed the Master Emerald on a balcony... upon closer look... she marveled that there was still a small piece that was conjoined, not severed yet.

She nodded, realizing this meant that they were, both, Sonic.

She turned around and spread her arms out, seeing the Sonics tackle into the balcony room and used her hammer to separate them from their wrestling, childish squabble and threw each of the other to opposite sides.

“That’s enough!”

The two panted but got up from the ground.

“This doesn’t concern you...” Lighter Sonic went for a gentler approach, but there was still somewhat a condensing hint in his actions. “Just leave this to me.”

“Stop!” Amy shoved her hammer towards him, making him pause in his pursuit to her. “I’ll get to you in a minute.”

He was stunned to hear that, his eyes actually emoting the look of being talked back too.

She glared at him, “I’ve had enough of your self-righteousness for one day.” she then looked to Darker Sonic, who was holding his arm and spat out to the side of himself.

“My thoughts exactly..!”

“And you...” Amy stepped in-between the two, making sure she could only see one side of Sonic at a time. “I never thought I’d say this to Sonic... but you need to calm down.” held out her hand without the hammer in it, gently trying to appease him looking tenderly towards him. “You’re hurting... you don’t want to fail, but you hate not being the hero... even though at times, you’re just a boy, and you want to do things your way, not the heroic way that everyone idealizes you to be.”

He looked up as though confused how she knew that.

“You were happy... weren’t you? When I was the one to turn my attention to you instead of to him, right?”

He remained silent, as though ashamed as he calmed his breathing, and looked away.

His eyes were scanning the floor wildly... as though worried she could see right through him.

There was a gentleness to the Darker Sonic she hadn’t seen before... but after putting the two on different sides of her eyes... she could start seeing traits line up.

“You’re neither good nor bad, either of you!” She looked back to Lighter Sonic. “You are duty bound, that’s why you hate the selfish freedom the other desires to the point of not listening to reason, but enacting your own idealistic views only makes you suffer too.” She saw him pause and as though swallowing his pride, lower his head and stare intensely at her.

“You can’t pretend you know me...” He seemed to be letting the words bounce off of him, or trying too.

While Darker Sonic was taking it to heart.

Realizing she couldn’t get through to Lighter Sonic so quickly, she turned back to the vulnerable side, “You both admitted you didn’t want to hurt me, right? Is that the only thing you two have in common?”

She saw the piece that was still intact, way at the bottom of the emerald’s pointed center... she knew the real Sonic was still poking out somewhere... and she had to find it.

Otherwise... she didn’t want to imagine what would become of him.

“It’s not all reputation, is it?” Amy looked to Lighter Sonic, seeing Darker Sonic close his eyes to shut this all out, as though too shy to admit and ashamed to admit his jealousy over the praise and admiration his other self, a mask he put on to be adored, always seemed to receive. “And you, carefree and usually always up for an adventure... you’ve been angry too long.”

She was trying to comfort both, but the hurt between both sides was so immense... he had been playing both sides all his life... how could she mend something so incredibly torn and damaged?

“But if I know anything about Sonic... it’s that his natural self is a hero.”

The two turned back to her, their heads moving as though that hit something deep within them.

She closed her eyes, trusting they wouldn’t punch each other out for at least a few seconds while she spoke. “The Sonic I admire... is like the wind. He can be cold at times, but also warm and inviting... he races through the fields and enjoys every second of his life. There’s never a dull moment, and as long as you can keep up, he’ll carry you along for the ride... He’s kind, but he’s also a force to be reckoned with.” she gestured her hammer and hand out to each of them, then looked at her own hands. “One hand grips a powerful speed and anger...” she grasped her hammer, “The other one... can’t stand to hesitate and leave someone in need. It can’t help but want to save and lift others up.”

The two seemed to be stilled a moment... and behind Amy... the torn Master Emerald began to respond to Sonic’s soul... it began to fuse slowly it’s torn self into a glowing, invisible torch that was repairing itself.

Amy turned around to see it, and both Sonic’s instinctively raced to either one of her sides, holding a hand out as though defending her from the sudden heat and lighted sparks from the Master Emerald.

Looking at them, she smiled.

Looking at each other, a slow roll of their eyes, they parted immediately. Walking away, Lighter Sonic put one hand to his hip as though trying to remain cool, while the other folded his arms and tsk’ed to the side of himself, not wanting to play nice.

Amy sighed, seeing that they still were a bit different... but very much the same.

“Will you at least try and find a happy medium?” She moved towards them and took their hands.

Darker Sonic let her gently sink her hand into his folded arms and coax out, very gently, his hand...

Lighter Sonic pulled away, sharply, but seeing Amy’s hammer disappear from being pointed at him... and now her hand pleading for his approval... he looked away and lightly placed his hand to her own...

Lighter Sonic looked nervous and tried to distance himself from the emotional tension... but also the overwhelming love that Amy was showing to both conflicting sides as Darker Sonic used his other hand to flick his own nose, sniffling as though trying to not look dorkish either.

Amy giggled at their familiar responses, “I think I see you for who you truly are now, Sonic.” she liked this, not having him hide his emotions, but being unable to stop his two sides from revealing themselves. “There’s a saying.” She gripped both their hands in a loving embrace, jolting them down a bit in her newfound cheeriness at them not fighting anymore, but actually listening. “That there’s two wolves inside the heart... and the one you feed, will be the winner and devour your heart.” She put their hands together, “However... Some asked, why not starve the two wolves? And another few asked, why not feed both equally, keeping an equilibrium between the two...”

The two Sonic’s saw their hands glowing... much like the light from the Master Emerald, slowly healing.

They finally looked at the other one of them... and Amy saw a neutral expression in each of their eyes...

She smiled and looked to each of them before back down to their hands, placing her hands below and above them, making sure they stayed together.

“But you know what the chief said? Feed your heart... and it will be too large for the wolves to devour.”

The Sonics looked back to her.

“I heard a different tale.” The Darker Sonic stated, “One is good and the other is bad.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that too.” Amy nodded, “But in this case.” She raised her head, “I think the wolves are just our conflicting personalities. One side of me, for example, loves to stay at home and get some chores done. Strange, for you and maybe most, right?” She giggled, watching the mending of the Master Emerald slowly increase in speed, and noticed at the corner of her eyes the two Sonic’s delicately intrigued and hanging off every word she uttered, as though this was the missing meaning they had always longed for in their chaotic inner-life. It gave her courage to continue, hoping that her words would feed Sonic’s soul, and let it form as one again. “But I enjoy cleaning, tending my garden, or even going out to shop for little things I may need in the week.” She then clasped her hands more firmly, but with added love over the two’s hands, as they looked down to action.

One acted a bit surprised, but the other grew flustered and adverted his eyes at her newly adjusted strength for keeping them together.

“However, sometimes I don’t have the energy for staying indoors all day or going through sales racks... sometimes, I really want my life to be less boring, more exciting, and so I race along after you and the others, wanting to do my part to be... even a small change... in helping the world be a better, safer place to live in.”

The Sonics... together... smiled.

In a strange noise, their voices seemed to overlap each other when they chuckled at her words, and she knew by the look of the Master Emerald that if she just kept their hands together for a bit longer... the Master Emerald would fuse his heart together again.

“Those two wolves... don’t devour me.” Amy stated, “Neither one is bad, it’s just the one I choose to pamper that day.” She nodded to her words. “Sometimes I don’t want to do either of them, and that’s not bad either! It doesn’t mean I’m lazy, but lazy days aren’t a bad thing too.”

She watched as she removed her hands... and both Sonics kept their hands on or under the other... letting them remain together.

“You two aren’t wolves,” She put her hands up to her mouth as she giggled more prominently now, “You’re just stubborn hedgehogs that don’t know what to do with yourselves! One of you wants to be aloof and peaceful, while the other wants to fight bad guys and save the world with his friends. Neither is bad, and both of you... are the sides of Sonic’s heart.”

She placed her hands to her chest and closed her eyes as the two Sonics happily stepped in unison towards each other, and with the last light of the Master Emerald fusing itself together, Amy kept her eyes closed with the giant beam of light till it faded.

“...Amy..?”

Amy slowly opened her eyes, and looked up to see her beloved’s face again.

“Thank you.” He stated, earnestly, putting a hand to his hip and looking tenderly towards her. “I never knew I needed that... pep-talk... thing.” he admitted, but goofily moved his hand in a funny way.

She giggled again, and he chuckled to her laughter.

“Let’s let the others know it’s all good now.” He nodded in the direction that made most sense, but then also tilted his head as though changing gears. “I thought no one would accept the silent, selfish desires of my heart like that, Amy... but you’ve shown me that I’m not bad for wanting certain things... I just want them... at different times.” his gentle smile was the one she loved to see, his new humility and self-awareness made him open but complete again, and she was overwhelmed with her feelings once again.

“Ahh!” She squealed in delight, covering her face and twisting her body away from him, lifting her leg up slightly and letting the tip of her boot keep her somewhat balanced.

“H-huh?” He looked curiously confused at her behavior, and leaned towards her, turning his body left and right to try and see why she was acting this way. “What’s the matter? Amy?”

“You’re so handsome!” she cheered, then parted her hands to flirtatiously lean her nose up by his, but still watching him pull back and not daring to touch hers with his. He made a face but she found it funny, seeing him wincing his mouth back like that, “Especially when you’re thanking me~” she teased, and he looked away, groaning at her antics and then rubbing his nose slightly with a wink towards her.

“You would still be you, even split in two, wouldn’t you, Amy?”

“Oh, one part would definitely be all over you, that’s for sure.” Amy leaned back and put her hands behind her back as Sonic suddenly looked a bit frightful.

“O-oh?” He was definitely turning sheepish, starting to walk passed her as the Master Emerald and him were still linked, so it up and lifted itself into the air and floated after him. “You don’t have to tell me the rest of it.” He kept his head down and eyes closed as Amy trotted off after him.

“Well, actually, without my self-restraint, I’d have probably carried you tied to the chapel by now.”

He groaned again as she skipped after him.

“Hmm... Maybe I should split myself. But would that mean you’re only married to a part of me... or..?” as she thought teasingly out loud, he finally turned around and gave her a scolding look, shaking his head as though she was taking the joke too far as Amy then laughed at him.

He seemed to give up and throw his arms up, shrugging, “Remind me to make sure that never happens to you then...”

“If I’m ever linked to the Master Emerald... and Shadow breaks his promise--which I know he wouldn’t!--but if he did... would you... do what I did for you and help put me--and the Master Emerald, of course--back together again..?” she asked, cutely, as he stopped to think a second.

“Ah! Really! You have to think about it!?”

“No... not that.” Sonic mused as he suddenly grinned back to her, “Just thinking... is there even a part of you that wouldn’t be all over me?”

Amy blushed and held her tongue after that, as Sonic laughed and laughed while making it out of the mansion, apologizing in a deep, forward bow to the ghosts, and then taking Amy’s hand to help her keep up his fast pace as they made it back to Knuckles to cut off the link.

Amy wanted to ride the Master Emerald, so he helped her up on top of it, and although it did float a little closer to the ground, she was able to hang on as Sonic took off at lightning speeds...

Later, when Amy was dusting off some of her home, the doorbell sounded off.

Leaning on her home’s sign, Sonic jokingly pretended he was looking at his nails.

“Which part of your heart are you feeding today, Amy?” He acted as though uncaring, but Amy was already growing in excitement at seeing him there, at her home, unexpectedly. “The part that likes to clean all day... or the side that likes a little excitement every now and then.” He put his hands behind his head, smiled cheekily to the ground with his eyes closed, before turning his head to her with a proud look on his face as he opened one eye to a subtle ‘winky’ expression~

#dark sonamy #dark sonic #sonamy #sonamy prompt #dark sonamy prompt #amy rose #sth #sonicxamy #sonic the hedgehog #cutegirlmayra

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everybodyscupoftea · 4 years ago

Note

more frat jj plsssss 🥺

okay it’s kinda late but i’m rolling now, so let’s do this :)

(warnings: cursing and drinking per usual, not proofread)

so one afternoon, you’re really feeling yourself and you decide, fuck it, belly button piercing. summer was right around the corner and you figured, no better time. it’ll heal through the rest of the semester and be ready to go for your beach trip late May.

one of your friends recommended a tattoo shop that did a really good job with piercings, and you picked a saturday afternoon to go. jj was intrigued, we wanted to see the process and you were slightly nervous, so honestly you were thrilled when he asked to come with.

jj drove, one hand on the wheel, the other on your leg to stop it from nervously bouncing. he glanced over at a red light, “it’s gonna be alright, sweetheart, they’re professionals.”

“professionals fuck up sometimes.”

“they’re highly recommended professionals. don’t think i didn’t see you anxiously reading yelp reviews at breakfast this morning.”

“fuck off,” you muttered, crossing your arms over your chest.

he laughed and pulled into the parking lot across the street, “time to go, you ready?”

“no,” you told him honestly, but got out of the car anyway. you were here, may as well go for it.

the lady inside the shop was nice. she gave you a consent form to fill out and then glanced over your id. you went to sit in a chair to fill it out, not noticing that jj hadn’t followed you. palms sweating, you signed your name at the bottom and looked up to where your boyfriend was standing, still talking to her.

“i have a short line, right now. i’ll come get you in about 20 minutes and we’ll get it done.”

there was only one chair in the waiting area, and jj sat down, letting you sit on one of his legs. he wrapped both of his arms around your waist and ran a finger over your hip bone, calmingly.

“i bet it’s barely going to hurt, hon.”

“you don’t know for sure.”

he laughed, “i suppose not.”

the two of you sat in silence for the rest of the waiting period and she called your name. you clutched onto jj’s hand and pulled him up after you. he followed you back to the room and the lady smiled, “you ready?”

your hands trembled a little, “um, how much is this going to hurt?”

“this was my least painful piercing, it’s going to be so easy, i promise. plus, i’m really good at my job, you won’t feel a thing!”

while that shouldn’t have been reassuring, it was, and you breathed out a sigh of relief, “that’s good, thank you.”

“no problem,” she responded cheerfully, “so which one of you is going first?”

which what. jj laid down on the table, “i’ll go, that way you know for sure how much it hurts.”

“wait what?”

no one answered you as you stood frozen. the lady sanitized the area and dotted where she was going to pierce. he approved and she picked up the needle. jj held his hand out, “can you hold it for me.”

wordlessly you grabbed his hand and he squeezed as she stuck the needle through. the jewelry followed through and jj was making a face like he was trying to not look in pain. that didn’t bode well for you, he had a higher pain tolerance.

the lady twisted the ball on the end until it was shut and let jj up. he sat on the edge of the table and looked in the mirror next to it. with a proud not he said, “this looks fucking sick, not gonna lie.”

he had a yellow flower on one end and you begrudgingly had to agree. and then it was your turn. she repeated the steps she did to jj and you held your hand out for him to hold. jj obliged immediately and you squeezed your eyes shut.

when the needle went through it was a dull pain and the spot felt immediately warm. it wasn’t the most pleasant thing you’d ever felt but appendicitis a few semesters ago was definitely worst.

the jewelry was matching jj’s and he held his fist out for you to bump when you sat up to check it out in the mirror. you bumped it and he said, “look at this power couple with the matching belly button rings.”

numbly you hopped off the table, stumbling a little bit. jj caught you, looking a little concerned and you shook your head, hoping to clear it. the lady put one of her hands on your shoulder, “why don’t you sit down, i’ll bring the card reader in here.”

“i’m okay,” you tried to reassure, but your shaky voice betrayed you.

jj laughed, “take it easy, champ, you just had a needle shoved through you.”

“i’m good,” argued trying to stand.

rolling his eyes, jj backed up to give you room. when he was satisfied you were fine, he pulled out his wallet and looked at the piercer, “how much?”

“for both or for one?”

“both.”

“jj, let me pay for my own,” you interrupted.

“no.”

he held you back with one arm and she swiped it before you could break free. you slumped into his grip, “i’ll pay you back.”

“babe, it’s my treat, please just take it.”

“fine,” you grumbled. he poked your cheek repeatedly until you smiled at him.

“there’s that smile i love.”

you blushed, “fuck off, j.”

he led the two of you out of the room, card back in his wallet and to the car. opening the door for you, he helped you step up before gently closing it and jogging around to his side to crank it up and get the AC blowing.

“fuck, it’s hotter than hell outside,” he complained, trying to get some of the heat out.

“can we get slushies from sonic?” you asked, craving something sweet and cold.

jj hummed, “i’ll do you one better, there’s a party tonight so let’s go pick up daiquiris.”

and fuck yes, that sounded amazing. you nodded eagerly, “yes, much better plan. big brain jj this afternoon.”

“i’m always big brain,” he said with a mock pout and you rolled you eyes, patting his shoulder as he pulled out of the parking lot.

“sure, babe, whatever helps you sleep at night.”

by the time you got the daiquiris and some food from the whataburger drive-thru, the party was in full swing. you weren’t really dressed for it, but your shirt didn’t rub against your new belly button ring so you weren’t too keen to change.

it was a little sensitive, but jj didn’t seem to feel a thing. he held your hand and swung them back and forth between the two of you. you sipped from the daiquiri and the two of you entered the front door, immediately running into a wall of people.

“beep beep,” jj called out, trying to get a path cleared for the two of you.

it worked and jj followed you to the kitchen where john b and pope were standing, waiting for a beer pong table to open up. john b saw you first, “fuck, dude, there you are. where have the two of you been.”

jj grinned widely, “dude look how sick!” he lifted his shirt to show john b the piercing.

pope whistled, “damn, maybank, hate to say it but you kind of pull it off.”

you laughed and lifted yours slightly, “came as a support system and really took that above and beyond.”

“matching,” john b cooed mockingly, “can’t believe one of my best friends is literally king of the simps.”

pope made a whipping sound and you cracked up. jj rolled his eyes, “yeah yeah, you two are just mad you wouldn’t look this dope with a belly button piercing.”

sarah walked up in time to hear the rest of jj’s sentence and she turned to you excitedly, “you did it?!”

you laughed and lifted your shirt to show her, “yep! and jj here decided to take one for the team and get one too since i was so nervous.”

jj kissed you on the cheek and said, “bold of you to assume i didn’t offer to come with you for the sole purpose of stealing your thunder.”

pope made another whipping sound and jj cut your laughing off with a kiss, flipping pope off over his shoulder.

#frat!jj #jj maybank #jj maybank x reader #jj maybank request #sigma chi!jj

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bimboamyrose · 4 years ago

Text

Unfamiliar (Ch. 10)

Unfamiliar - A Metamy Fanfic

First two chapters

Previous (Ch.9)

Chapter 10: Indebted

“You told Knuckles, right?” Amy nervously held her communicator at eye level as she adjusted her scarf in the camera.

“I told you I did,” Tails responded. He was making the final preparations to his plane for takeoff. “Can you just come over already?”

Amy groaned. “I don’t want a repeat of last time!”

“Knuckles isn’t going to kill Metal.”

“Right…” she looked over to Metal, who was shifting his weight between feet impatiently. His jacket was draped over one arm.

“Just fly over. I’m almost ready for takeoff.”

“Are you sure you can fly with one hand?”

He shrugged. “Probably.”

It did little to ease her stress. “Okay, we’ll be there in a few.” Tails gave her a thumbs up before disconnecting, leaving Amy to look at her own troubled reflection in the dark screen. She sighed deeply, worried for what was to come. “Are you ready, Metal?”

Sensing her distress, he stopped his fidgeting to give a nod. They would be flying to Angel Island that morning to meet with Amy’s friends- no, her team. Metal had already met most of them individually, but as a team, they had been his enemies for nearly a decade. It would be tense. First, however, they had to get Tails’ lab so she could board his plane.

Amy returned the nod and the pair got ready to take off outside. “I’ll take that for you.” She reached out for Metal’s jacket. “So it doesn’t wrinkle.” He handed it to her to fold neatly, though she held it so tightly that it creased under her anxious grasp anyway.

Metal picked her up delicately. Since their encounter with Sonic, he treated her with kid gloves, afraid of causing another injury. Amy had noticed this and was tactfully avoiding bringing it up, even going as far as to cover her bandaged arm whenever they were together. It was sweet that he was being considerate, but his gingerly grip on her made her more nervous than a silly cut on her arm. “Metal, do you think you could hold me tighter?” Color rushed into her cheeks when she realized how forward it sounded. “So I don’t fall, I mean! Oh, not that I think you’ll drop me-” Take your foot out of your mouth, she scolded herself.

The same nervous excitement from a day earlier hit him and he stiffened suddenly. She was right, the fragility with which he was holding her could cause him to lose his grip if he wasn’t careful. Metal’s arms tightened around Amy as she settled into him, her red face buried in his jacket. She looked oddly… endearing that way- what a clumsy feeling.

“I’m ready when you are,” she mumbled, her voice muffled by the fabric.

They propelled into the sky at a much slower pace than usual. Amy peeked out from her satiny hiding place when she noticed. They were running late as it was. “Um, you can go a little faster. I’ll be okay,” she assured. Metal obliged, though she was well aware that they still weren’t moving as quickly as they could. Luckily, their destination wasn’t far.

Tails was already hurrying Amy along the moment they landed on the runway. “Come on, you know how Knuckles gets,” he insisted.

“Okay!” she huffed, climbing into the back seat of the small plane. Amy was still scrambling to get her goggles on as the engine started.

“Ready for takeoff. Try to keep up, Metal,” Tails grinned.

“Tails!” Amy snapped before Metal could so much as make a noise.

He snickered as the plane accelerated forward and lifted off the end of the runway, Metal following closely. He hovered near Amy’s seat as they flew, though she nervously looked straight ahead for most of the flight. As they approached their floating destination, Tails pointed out the landing site- a spacious clearing at the edge of a dense forest. Metal cut ahead of them, doing a flashy set of loops in the air before spiraling to the ground and looking back up at Tails expectantly.

“Psh. Show-off.” Tails remarked. “Think we can beat that?”

“No!” Amy felt sick enough as it was. Tails seemed to be enjoying himself though, laughing in response.

Once on the ground, Amy unbuckled herself and exited hastily. The tall plane was harder to jump out of than it was to climb into, but she’d done it dozens of times- not that knowing this would have stopped Metal from hurrying over to offer her a hand.

“See?” Tails said smugly. “Told ya I could fly with just one hand.”

Amy rolled her eyes at Tails as Metal helped her down. “Thanks. Here,” she offered Metal his jacket and smoothed down her hair and scarf while he slipped it on. She moved on to smoothing out the wrinkles in the satin across his shoulders and adjusted the collar, looking Metal up and down. “There. I think you look pretty friendly.” Taking each of his hands in hers, her brow curled anxiously. “Remember what we talked about, ‘kay?”

Metal had spent much of the morning listening to Amy as she got ready, rambling the team dynamics and how their meetings usually went. “We work with some other people, but usually discuss things between ourselves before getting anyone else involved,” she’d told him. “So it’s kind of a big deal that you’re coming. Thanks for agreeing to it.” Then she’d flashed her usual sweet grin, though she let out a sigh at the same time. “So, just sit and listen, and get to know everyone! I really think you can get along well.” Metal wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince him or herself.

Just having someone new at the table might cause tension, but he had a feeling that who that someone was would factor into the strain more than anything. He couldn’t remember any of their encounters or battles- but they could. What’s more, the threat they were discussing was Metal’s very creator; he didn’t know how he would feel or if he’d agree to help if asked. There were too many unanswered questions and he knew he couldn’t follow Amy around forever; at some point he would have to learn about his old life. It was only fair to be informed about how it could affect the people that showed him kindness. How it could affect her.

Now they were minutes away from this meeting, the importance of which couldn’t be overstated for Amy. She wouldn’t say it directly, but she was anxiously putting her faith in Metal, hoping he wouldn’t have another outburst akin to their encounter with Sonic. After recalling how they’d all met, his actions, though well-meaning, were admittedly threatening. He would have to show more restraint.

“Oh! Here,” Amy fished a little notebook and pen from her coat pocket. “In case you need it. Sorry, the whiteboard was a little cumbersome for the flight.” Metal took them with a nod, tucking them away in his jacket.

A gust of wind blew Amy’s hair over her face and caused her scarf to whip around uncontrollably. Sonic had rushed in, skidding to a halt just past the trio. “Hey! What took ya so long?”

“I just fixed this,” Amy groaned, combing down her quills. Tails made his way over to greet Sonic as she readjusted her scarf for the third time.

“Don’t worry, Ames, it’s just us.” Sonic turned his attention to Metal momentarily. “And you, I guess. Hey, isn’t that Amy’s jacket?”

Metal crossed his arms and chimed indignantly. “It’s, uh, his now,” she replied sheepishly.

“Oh-kay. Hey, Tails, why don’t you take Metal and go ahead. I wanna catch up with Amy real quick.”

The two hadn’t spoken since the incident. Neither of them wanted the meeting to be any more uncomfortable than necessary, and apologies were no doubt in order. “Do you mind, Metal?” she turned to him with her gentle request. He shrugged nonchalantly with a hand at his hip, doing a poor job at concealing his annoyance.

Tails beckoned to him. “Come on, it’s not far.” Metal joined the boy, following him on the path ahead. He took a quick look back at the pair just in time to spot Sonic placing a hand on Amy’s shoulder.

“You alright, Amy?”

She nodded, her cheeks turning rosy. “Mhm. I’m sorry about the other day- I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that...”

“Come on, we both know I’m used to your temper by now,” he teased. “But, you know, sorry if I sounded like I don’t trust you.”

“Do you, though?”

“Of course! But Metal Sonic- I mean, he just flew off with you- like before. I was worried, Ames.”

It was reassuring to hear him admit his concern. Amy understood that Sonic cared for her- but after all their years of friendship, she wondered if he’d ever feel any other way about her. When she recalled the hand she’d drawn at her reading so many years ago, Amy couldn’t help but ponder over her interpretation of it. Lately, it felt more and more like her crush would never be anything more than that. Still, hearing him admit any kind of affection for her made Amy melt. She met his eyes and smiled sheepishly. “Thanks, Sonic. I know you’re worried, but Metal’s been doing great. It sounds silly, but I think he was trying to protect me.”

“That so?”

She shrugged. “Well, he didn’t do it for shock value.”

Sonic’s usual grin returned to his face. “Well, either way, I can’t be too worried; I’ve seen you knock him around pretty good since the first time he kidnapped you,” he snickered.

Amy smiled along, though being reminded made her uncomfortable. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Look, I think what you’re doing is great. Just promise you’ll keep your guard up, alright?”

“Sure,” she agreed. Amy sincerely felt that she was safe with metal, but it wasn’t worth continuing the argument. She was sure that Sonic would see that soon enough.

“Anyway, we’re late. Let’s get going before Knuckles loses it.”

The two set off on a well-worn path through the thicket of trees that grew denser as they went. A rocky clearing led into a burrow, where they found the others waiting for them. A pile of pillows and cushions were laid out against one wall in a circle- their usual seating arrangement on the floor. Knuckles and Tails had taken their usual seats, studying some documents that lay before them. Tails picked up a map to take a closer look. Metal was standing cross-armed near the entrance as the chilly air spilled in from the outside. Though Amy was strung tighter than a mandolin, she still did her best to give him a reassuring look on her way in.

Knuckles looked up as the duo entered. “About time. Amy, c’mere and sit next to me.”

“Oh, um, sure.” She usually sat next between him and Sonic anyway; it was odd he asked her to sit with him specifically. She took a seat on a cushion next to his and he immediately threw an arm around her, pulling her in close. Amy sensed Metal was putting his guard up.

“Amy, care to tell me why you’ve brought a killer enemy robot to my home?”

Despite the chill, Amy was beginning to sweat. She laughed softly in an attempt to lighten the mood. “Stop kidding around, Knuckles. We’re all friends here.”

Knuckles didn’t find it so funny. “Am I the only one who remembers when your ‘friend’ stole the Master Emerald and sent my home plummeting to the ground?”

Sonic sat next to her, grinning. Amy ignored him, looking instead toward Metal and making a patting motion with her hand, signaling to keep calm. “Come on, Knuckles, that was years ago. Besides, Metal doesn’t remember doing that.”

“That doesn’t make it okay!”

She pushed him away. “Ugh! Would you calm down? You’re yelling in my ear.”

“I think the situation warrants some yelling, Amy!”

Sonic was snickering nearby; payback for all the times she and Tails teased him and Knuckles about their petty bickering. If looks could kill, she would have harpooned him with her eyes. Sonic cleared his throat, quickly gathering himself. “Relax, Knuckles. Amy says Metal’s safe, so he’s safe. Right, Tails?”

“Huh?” Too entranced in the map to notice the argument, Tails looked up upon hearing his name. “Oh, yeah. We took his weapons, anyway,” he shrugged.

Amy turned her deadly glare to Tails, who quickly hid behind his map again. “Who’s ‘we’? You did that.” Trying to avoid antagonizing Metal, Amy hadn't exactly made it known that Tails went beyond repairs when he was working on him. This wasn’t the gentlest way for Metal to find out.

“I think it was a good call,” Sonic remarked. She scoffed back indignantly.

Metal was looking to Amy, who turned back to him with an apologetic expression. They hadn’t been there for two minutes and the meeting was already a trainwreck. He’d expected the heightened reactions, but learning that whatever weapons he was once equipped with were just taken from him without consent was an unpleasant surprise. Despite not remembering what he’d lost, he felt somewhat betrayed. Perhaps Amy still had her guard up along with the others.

Taking a deep breath, Amy addressed the room. “Guys, let’s settle down, there’s business to discuss. Metal, come sit with us,” she motioned to him. Narrowing his eyes in Metal’s direction, Knuckles grumbled something under his breath. “Quit it already,” Amy elbowed him. He conceded, letting out an exasperated breath as Metal sat across from them, remaining further out of the circle than the others.

The team all turned to Sonic expectantly while Metal sat watching Amy. Her anxiety grew again as she felt his eyes on her and she was reminded of their first meeting.

“Well, now that that’s out of the way,” Sonic began, “Let’s talk shop. Tails?”

He nodded. “So, last time we encountered Eggman, he ran off before the fight was finished.”

“So, we decided to go after him,” Sonic interjected. “I went looking for him the next day, but there were no flashy hideaways or ‘secret’ factory- none of his usual antics.”

“Then I saw this.” Tails tossed a newspaper into the center of the circle and Amy and Knuckles leaned in for a closer look. Magic City Under Way, read the main headline. Concept art of three tall, tower-like buildings was illustrated, followed by a smaller photo of a crew breaking ground at a construction site. A familiar rotund figure stood at the center proudly.

“Eggman?” Knuckles picked up the paper for a better look. “What’s he building?”

“Some kind of theme park by the looks of it,” Tails suggested.

Knuckles scoffed, tossing the paper aside. “That’s his usual schtick- let’s just go after him already.”

“Nothing to go after,” Sonic replied. “He’s usually building these things in secret, right? Using some weird tech to pull off his evil scheme. And now, he’s just out in the open. What’s that about?”

Amy picked up the newspaper, skimming through the article. “Magic City. I heard about this project- is Eggman really behind it? He usually sticks his face on everything, but this looks normal.”

“Yeah, that’s cause there’s nothing out of the ordinary going on there. I spent the better part of a week hanging around that construction site. I even talked with some crew members and snooped around the place, but it was just your average build site. Everyone acted totally normal-”

“Pah, sounds like some mind control junk to me,” Knuckles interrupted.

Tails leaned in. “That’s what we thought, too. But none of the crew seemed brainwashed. And look at this,” he pulled up some photos on a digital tablet, scrolling through. “Budgeting sheets, payroll…”

“Just like any other jobsite,” Sonic confirmed. “Why would you need HR if you’re using mind-control?”

“Sonic even found blueprints for the buildings. The one on the left is basically just a hotel. There’s a few restaurants, a casino on the bottom floor... This one has a nightclub and an indoor amusement park,” he pointed out. “And none of his usual traps, either. Everything looks totally normal. It’s just… an entertainment complex?”

Amy looked puzzled. “So, what, he’s an entrepreneur now?”

Knuckles leaned back against the wall, looking up in thought. “He’s gotta be hiding something.”

“Yeah,” Tails agreed. “And by the looks of it, this photo was taken on the day we battled- you know.”

The team turned to look at Metal. He gazed at each of them momentarily, noting their concerned expressions. “Metal,” Amy said, “Do you remember anything from that day? Before Tails and I found you?” He’d scanned what little was left of his memory enough times to know the answer. Metal shook his head right away, being met with disbelief from Knuckles.

“I don’t buy it. Metal Sonic has to be a spy- why else would he be here?”

“Knuckles, there's no way,” Amy looked to Tails for support. “You searched through all his stuff, right? He doesn’t remember anything.”

Tails half-nodded. “Well, yeah- to my knowledge. There was a lot of encrypted data- but it’s inaccessible in theory. He definitely can’t be tracked, though.”

“So how can we be sure then?” Knuckles returned.

“I trust Amy’s judgement,” Sonic said with a matter-of-fact tone. Surprised to hear him admit it to the team, Amy’s face softened into a look of admiration as she faced him. He probably should have felt grateful for the support, but Metal was displeased with Sonic’s playful wink back at her. “Besides, what’s Eggman gonna find out if he is spying? That we have no clue what he’s up to?”

Sonic had a point. There was silence as the team sat in thought, each pondering about possible scenarios or trying to come up with a plan of action. Metal could see this going on for an hour. He didn’t remember anything from that day, but he might if something jogged his memory. So, he tapped his sharp fingers against the ground and Amy’s ears perked up.

“Oh! That’s right,” she sat up straight. “Metal was able to remember the day Sonic and I met him when I told him about it. Maybe we can tell him about...” Her posture immediately became hunched when she realized what it meant. She recalled how broken his body still was inside, a sense of guilt casting down on her.

Tails’ eyes widened with excitement. “No kidding? I gotta take a look at him again!”

“More importantly,” Sonic added, “we gotta tell him about that battle and see if he remembers anything.”

Knuckles chimed in. “How do we know Metal Sonic won’t suddenly remember some objective to, I don’t know, kill us?”

The way they spoke about him like he wasn’t in the room did nothing to make Metal feel welcome. He knew he’d be far from their acceptance, but being viewed as an object to be poked and prodded was far more demeaning. Trust could be earned, but would they ever see him as something other than a machine? Amy kept calling him a friend. So what did it mean that she kept his “modifications” a secret?

“Metal,” Amy interrupted the boys’ musings, “would you be okay with that?” She side-eyed her teammates as she continued. “We wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

He returned with a lazy shrug, looking away from the others. Reliving a defeat at the hands of these people- the people he was meant to associate with, who were suddenly giving him reasons to be distrustful- he wasn’t sure how he’d feel. It wasn’t about losing his weapons; after all, he hadn’t needed them since Amy found him. If asked now, he would disarm himself willingly as long as he was staying with her. But perhaps his debt of gratitude amounted to more than accompanying her on trips and helping her down from high places. Now, it felt like Amy’s kindness could come at the expense of his autonomy. It was hardly a fair choice. Metal wished he was anywhere but that burrow.

“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Amy assured him. Knuckles looked like he was about to say something but she jabbed her elbow in his side again, rendering his complaint into an intelligible grumble. Metal wasn’t responding. He looked aloof, casting his gaze sideways to avoid eye contact. Amy had seen that look in him before, quickly recognizing his discomfort. She picked herself up and crossed the circle to meet Metal at the other side, kneeling next to him. “Hey,” Amy placed a hand on his shoulder, “remember that you can choose from now on, right?” She leaned in close to whisper. “We’ll talk about the other stuff after the meeting, promise.”

There was something in her kind voice and gentle touch that continued to stir him. Amy’s warmth seeped into Metal’s steely joints and melted his icy façade until he could no longer guard himself against her. She could give him all the choices in the world, but obliging Amy was quickly turning into a compulsion; one that, he suddenly realized, was about more than just his gratitude. Pleasing her seemed to bring him an unexpected and immeasurable satisfaction; It was inexplicable. He would endure any manner of painful memory if she only asked him to- but she wasn’t asking. She wouldn’t. Metal had to decide for himself. He considered all her kindness, yet wasn’t any happier about the “other stuff,” as she put it. It was as painful as it was confusing.

Tails’ worried voice shook Metal from his daze. “Hey, is he okay?” The uncomfortably long silence that had filled the room was impeded only by the whirring crescendo of Metal’s engine. He caught sight of Amy’s concerned stare first, then the vexed faces of the rest of the team.

“Do you... need a minute?” she asked hesitantly.

Metal quickly shook his head, wanting to get all their peering eyes off of him.

Amy sighed as her hand left his shoulder. “Metal, do you want to hear about the battle the other day? It’s okay if you don’t.” He nodded hesitantly to no one in particular, reasoning that he may as well remember what he could. It wasn’t the answer Amy was hoping to hear. A grimace spread across her face as she immediately began thinking of tactful ways to approach the story. Before the pause had a chance to become awkward, Sonic chimed in.

“Alright, so here’s how we kicked your-”

“Sonic!” Amy sent her piercing glare at him once more.

“What? That’s what happened,” Sonic grinned. He caught Metal rolling his eyes.

“I can tell it, Amy,” Tails chimed in. Amy responded with a begrudging nod and he continued. “So, late afternoon, we received a distress call about Eggman and Metal causing a fuss close to town. We expected to find more of his badniks hanging around, but it was just you and him there. You’d set off a few missiles at some rocks-”

“Eggman said you were just doing ‘target practice,’ trying to sound innocent” Knuckles scoffed.

“Right. So, we told him to get lost, but he said he wasn’t doing anything wrong and ordered Metal to continue-”

“I intercepted and shot the next missile right back at you,” Sonic cut in with a smirk. “Really set you off.”

Tails nodded. “Then you two started fighting. Eggman said something about you finishing practice on your own and took off, which was weird, ‘cause he usually sticks around. Anyway, Sonic and Metal headed into the valley, so I sort of followed you…”

“Then you broke Tails’ wrist,” Sonic commented, looking directly at Metal. “Right, Ames?” Amy frowned apologetically and answered with a shrug.

“Yeah...” Tails continued. “But anyway-”

Knuckles interrupted impatiently. “You flew up the hillside and Amy knocked Sonic into you with her hammer. End of battle,” he grunted. “So do you remember anything or what?”

An immense guilt befell Amy the moment her name left his lips. Metal watched as she avoided looking at him, fidgeting with the tassels on her scarf anxiously. Battles aren’t friendly- Metal didn’t fault her for attacking him when they were enemies. The story actually impressed him where she was concerned, but it didn’t give him the epiphany that Amy’s tale had. He remembered nothing.

“Well?” Knuckles insisted.

Metal turned to him and shook his head plainly.

“Tch. What a waste of time…”

“Back to the drawing board,” Sonic remarked.

Tails looked back at the newspaper with a smiling Eggman on the cover. “The battle was probably just to keep us from crashing this party. Eggman knew we’d come after him if he caused a racket, then he ran off when we were distracted so we couldn’t interrupt. I guess he really wasn’t doing anything other than making noise, though.”

Sonic yawned lazily. “You make it sound like we started the fight.”

“We kinda did,” Amy mumbled under her breath.

Sonic stood up, stretching his arms. “Well, nothing we can do about this now. We’ll just have to keep an eye on it.”

“Calling a meeting with no plan,” Knuckles followed, “typical.”

“Hey, I want us all to be on guard. There’s no telling what scheme this could lead to. We’d better be ready.”

“I’m always ready!” Knuckles boomed. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve been away long enough waiting for all of you to show up.” He marched across to stand over Amy, offering her a hand. She pulled herself up with Metal following her lead. “So you’re keeping an eye on Metal Sonic.” he grinned at her proudly. “Pretty brave, kid.” She clicked her tongue at him, giving him a lighthearted shove. Knuckles turned his attention to Metal’s looming figure with narrowing eyes. “I’d better be wrong about you.”

Metal knew that her teammate’s suspicions were justified and it would be hard to prove him otherwise. He crossed his arms and gave Knuckles a single nod. Knuckles returned with a nod of his own before glancing down at the rose-shaped patch on the front of Metal’s jacket with an amused scoff. He waved himself out before Amy had a chance to become aggrieved over it.

“Long way to fly for such a short meeting,” Tails sighed from across the room. He gathered his things hastily and booked it toward the front. “Let’s head back, I have something I gotta finish.”

“Right behind you, buddy.” Sonic made his way across. “Ames?”

She leaned her body towards Metal. “Actually, could you give us a minute?”

Sonic’s brow furrowed. “Shouldn’t you guys get going?”

Before Amy could respond, Metal draped an arm over her shoulder. Their eyes met and he cocked his head sideways confidently. Amy got the message. “Well, if you’re sure…” she turned back to her teammates. “Why don’t you guys take the plane? Metal can give me a ride.”

Tails and Sonic looked at each other in confusion. “I guess,” Tails said. “Do you want a ride?”

Sonic shifted to look back at Metal. How the robot managed to look cocky even with his usual expression, he did not know. At the risk of losing another staring contest, Sonic gave Amy a wave and started toward the exit. “Sounds good. Catch ya later.” Amy returned the wave as he and Tails went off, Metal straightening himself back up once they were out of sight.

Amy then exhaled so severely that her entire body slumped. She didn’t think she’d ever feel so tense around her friends, and having kept the meeting mostly civil was an incredible relief. Unfortunately, there was another can of worms to deal with. She just managed to suppress a groan before addressing it.

“Thanks for coming, Metal. You did great today; But I thought Knuckles was gonna lunge at you for sure,” she chuckled. In a rather puffed up manner, with a hand at his hip, Metal gave her a sly shrug. Amy couldn’t keep from snorting at how pleased he looked with himself. “Don’t look so smug, he’s beat you up before,” she teased. He turned back to her with a resentful chime. It was incredible to Amy how comfortable they were together- she never would have expected to become such fast friends with a former (and very recent) enemy. But there they were, a few days into their new relationship, cordial and playful as if lifelong friends. All this even as they both knew a serious topic was approaching. She braced herself, her eyes cast down nervously.

“I’m sorry, Metal. I know taking your things was wrong. I blamed Tails, but I never really said anything, and then I kept it from you- but I’ll make sure you get everything back.” She twiddled her fingers together.

The sincere apology made Metal want to forgive her immediately, but the strange hurt he still felt didn’t allow him to. It didn’t make sense- he wasn’t angry anymore, she apologized, he understood their fear was not unfounded; so why couldn’t he feel okay about it? It may have been the realization that being autonomous wouldn’t be the same for him- how could it be? As quickly as she warmed up to him, even Amy didn’t see him as a person right away. Maybe some never would. It wouldn’t be fair to rely on her advocacy, either- counting on her to mediate every tense situation was hardly freedom. And then there was the worry that his only affection for Amy was out of an innate need for guidance.

Pulling the notepad from his pocket, Metal scribbled some words down. He ripped the leaf from its binding to hand to her. Amy glanced up at him momentarily before taking it. “You didn’t ask,” it read.

“I know I’m sorry,” she sighed. “Do you think you would’ve said yes?”

Metal pondered for a moment. He would have weighed his options at the time, but the moment had passed and he wasn’t so sure now. One thing was certain, however: if she’d asked him now, he wouldn’t think twice before agreeing. Metal handed her the next note with some hesitation as he admitted this. “You can ask for anything” was written neatly on it.

Amy didn’t know what to say. It was incredibly kind, but only made her feel more guilty that she had betrayed his trust early on. “Then, I guess I’ll ask you to forgive me- if you can.” Her ears drooped as the words grew ever remorseful. “And for hurting you, too. I feel like it's my fault you lost your memory in the first place.”

But that wasn’t something he would have to forgive her for. Instead, he carefully wrote his feelings, tearing the leaf from its binding gently. Metal locked eyes with her as he nervously placed it in her hand. “Thank you for finding me.”

She didn’t have an opportunity to respond. The second Amy looked up, Metal closed the gap between them, pulling her close into a hug. Her face flushed as a small gasp escaped her lips. Before she knew it, she was returning his embrace tenderly. “Dummy- I’m trying to apologize here,” she protested, though her swishing tail seemed to contradict any complaints. There were few things Amy enjoyed more than friendly affection, and considering the incredible embarrassment she felt after their last hug, she relished in his readiness to hold her. “I’m glad we found each other, too.”

As they slid away from one another, Amy combed through the front of her hair, pulling it over to conceal her blushing cheeks. “You know, this isn’t even the first time I find you in the snow…” Metal tilted his head curiously, so she continued. “Well, first time, it was a couple of years after we met. You’d been laying there a while- actually, I think it was after Knuckles took back the Master Emerald from you. He can really throw a punch,” she chuckled. “But you know, you seemed so sad. We were enemies then, but I helped you get back home because, well, I guess I thought it would change things. Don’t know if it really made a difference, though.”

Defeat. Snow. Amy’s mercy and kindness. It was like déjà vu; Metal could suddenly remember each encounter individually, the earliest of which was just as vivid a memory as the most recent. He dropped the notepad and pen and took her hands excitedly, looking into her widening eyes. An exuberant smile spread across Amy’s face in realization.

“You remember!” Her fingers tightened around his delicately. “I don’t know what happened after that, but, I hope it’s a happy memory for you.”

He recalled how indifferently he acted toward her help then. He knew who Amy was, but whatever memory he possessed of their first encounter had been gutted. All he remembered as she dragged him through the snow was holding her captive and being defeated. No empathetic smile, no tarot reading, no kind words- she was just a footnote in his files by the time she found him; just like had been a few days ago. Though he had scarcely tried to communicate with her, the unfamiliar comfort her care provided compelled him to relent. And despite how unresponsive he had been Amy still lent him her aid. She’s offered him a hand time and time again without holding it over him. Perhaps that was why all the small ways in which he returned the favor brought him such pleasure.

Metal nodded. He didn’t remember anything after she left his side then, but finally understanding the mixed emotions that went through his head that cold day did bring him joy. It was close enough.

“I’m glad…” Amy sheepishly unlatched her fingers from his and clasped her hands in front of her face, concealing her rosy cheeks. “I guess… we should head home? We can take off from where we landed.”

Metal turned toward the exit, impulsively offering Amy his arm. She looked astonished for a moment before latching onto him with a giggle.

“Where did you learn to be a gentleman? I’m surprised you have it in you.”

Metal’s smug tones and exaggerated head-bobbing gave her more to laugh and tease him about as they made their way out and through the forest. He didn’t mind. Every time they started back to Amy’s house together, it felt more like home.

---

Everything in the burrow echoed and could be heard from the outside if one knew where to listen from; And Knuckles knew just the spot. “About time,” he grumbled, watching as the pair sauntered out of sight from behind a thick tree trunk. He re-entered the space to find Metal’s pen and notepad left behind on the ground. So that’s how he was communicating. Annoyed that they had left their trash behind, Knuckles picked up both items with the intention of throwing them in the bin, but stopped when he noticed a short note written on the first page. He grinned as he read it. Probably knows I was listening, he thought. It didn’t really come as a surprise that Metal left it behind for Knuckles to find, but the words and their sentiment were unexpected.

He ripped the page out of the book to keep. Knuckles would have to hold Metal to his word: “I will prove you wrong.”

..................................................................................................................

hi babes~ how are you all doing this cursed election week?

i’m uhhh not 100% satisfied with this chapter but i’m sick of looking at it so here she is! also obviously i’m obsessed to death with the mania adventures short because where else are we getting our canon metamy crumbs

((yes i could have picked one of several canon names for the amusement park yes i decided to call it magic city because i’m from miami (: fight me abt it))

#metal sonic #amy rose #metamy #metal sonic x amy rose #unfamiliar

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