#Chronic Sonic

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

Me: ima give my wrist a break

Me, five minutes later: mwehehehehe chronic sonic…

1. I had the urge to draw an older design for Tails and here we are, Sonic with chronic pain. Tails gloves probably have tasers in there.

2. I imagine after a very dramatic spiral Sonic would eventually admit some things are a little off and Tails would make him some mobility aids, some things to help with joint pain, headaches and something to monitor his heart and help regulate the overabundance of chaos energy in his body.

3. Tails scratched out the “manageable, severe” labels because Sonic kept arguing that 7 was not “unmanageable” and he could handle it so it was more of a 2 when his pain was a 9. They focus on the descriptions now.

[unmarred pain scale under cut]

[stardella]

Maria and her little alien brother sketchbook dump from the last few weeks

Minor spoilers for Sonic 3 ig

[p1lk]

maria and shadow 🥲

If I had to live in space because of a chronic health condition and I looked at the earth the same way people on earth look at the stars I wouldn’t be cool about it

[nagichi-boop]

Gerald’s Journal - Disability representation

I read scans of Gerald’s Journal and I have to talk about it. Not the lore or anything like that, but the disability rep. I didn’t expect to cry reading this.

Please don’t look at this post if you don’t want to be spoiled about what’s in this journal. If you do want to read it, you can find scans here. Credit to this Twitter/X thread for the images I’ll use.

I don’t have much to say about this image, but it is nice to see Maria using a mobility aid. It’s not often we get representation for an ambulatory wheelchair user.

I do wonder about Maria’s relationship with her parents. They weren’t happy with Gerald’s wish to bring her to the ARK so that he could research a cure for her, but they let her go anyways? Maybe Gerald got some sort of order to get her to go or Maria decided she wanted to go with him, but it seems a little odd to me. I’ll expand on this a little later.

Quote from right page: “[Maria] is growing into a lovely young woman. It breaks my heart that someone as bright and energetic as her is diminished by disease. There are no visible effects, and I’ve caught my fellow researchers muttering to each other, doubting her illness. It is infuriating. I find all my reason and restraint vanished when she’s slighted.”

Oh my days, I’ve never felt so seen by a piece of media and it just so happens to be my special interest video game. I am tearing up again thinking about this. Maybe that’s silly but to have a character express his frustrations about people doubting the invisible disability of his grandchild is so touching. I wish people in my life were more like Gerald. People with invisible illnesses get doubted so much because we “look fine”, but it’s so invalidating to have your struggles questioned just because the symptoms aren’t as visibly obvious.

Quote from left page: “[Maria] doesn’t know the full scope of what [Shadow] has been designed for, but she understands he will be under tremendous strain. She’s helped me conceptualize a number of accessories that will help focus his power and aid in his mobility.”

So we now have confirmation that Shadow’s air shoes and inhibitor rings are akin to mobility aids. I headcanoned this but I didn’t know they’d flat out confirm it like that. My favourite character is canonically disabled physically (and I’d argue mentally given his PTSD). I don’t have much to say about this besides being happy that my favourite character is now even more relatable.

It also makes a lot of sense for Maria to help create them because she has experience with her own disability and can offer a perspective that an able bodied person couldn’t. That and it makes Shadow’s connection so much stronger. His mobility aids were designed by Maria. He didn’t just help her with her disability - she helped with his. He wouldn’t be able to function without what she and Gerald created for him.

Quote from the right: “Back on Earth [Maria’s?] parents have been blessed with another little girl. They’re already run tech(?) and she has none of the genetic markers like to [Maria’s] condition. While this was welcomed news, the unspoken commentary was received loud and clear.”

(I am assuming they’re talking about Maria’s sister, but I guess they could also be talking about her cousin.)

So did Maria’s parents see their new daughter as a replacement? If I’m reading that correctly, it’s so sad. Do you think Gerald told Maria about her sister/cousin? If she did know about it, I bet she was excited to meet her. But I get the feeling that her parents back home didn’t really care about her anymore given what Gerald says in his journal. It hurts that much more when you consider how much Maria wanted to go home, perhaps even return to her family.

I feel like all of this makes Maria’s death more tragic for both Gerald and Shadow. For Gerald, he did so much reason and sacrificed so much in order to try and find a cure for Maria. He supported her when no one else did. And from his perspective, despite her illness and the judgement of others, including potentially her own family, she was still positive. And yet she was killed, and he only found out about her death because of a report that had her name on it (I think anyways?).

From Shadow’s perspective, she is the person who gave his name meaning. Despite most being distant and weary of her, she was immediately friendly to him and helped teach him about the world. She helped created the devices used to reduce his pain and control his powers. He quite literally carries part of him with her. She was his sole reason for existing for a long time. And despite being this super supportive, kind, loving person, she was killed. I can imagine him being mad at Gerald for messing with his memories, but I figure there’s a degree of understanding, even if he doesn’t fully agree with what Gerald did. The difference between them both is Shadow’s purpose shifted beyond Maria while Gerald’s did not. Anyways, I digress - this post is about disability rep, not Shadow lore.

I love this and Dark Beginnings for their direct and indirect disability rep. My love for Shadow and Maria has only grown and I have a deeper appreciation for Gerald. I wish more people were as understanding as he is towards people with invisible disabilities.

I don’t really have a conclusion. I just really wanted to yap about the journal entries.

[just-a-hooman64]

I've come to make an announcement. Agent Stone is a cool ass motherfucker, he took over my whole brain. That's right, he made his gay ass lil latte art and he took over my fucking brain. So I'm making an appreciation post on my tumblr dot com

[cafeyote]

working on some sonic designs because i'm 10 years late on my sonic autism /j

wip of a tails design and i'm gonna make some more for team sonic :3

[atsushi-oncrack]

I enjoyed making this.

Edit AGAIN: GUYS I LIED I DIDNT KNOW @supd00dle WAS ON TUMBLR THATS WHO MADE THE AU CHAT

[eggseabutters]

(sketch) I probably will never finish this, but basically, Sonic and Shadow are sent to rehabilitation center in the Sol dimension.

[chowadoe]

My metamy fankid serving emo boy realness.

[Dusty Rose]

[vulcan-moon]

have some sketchbook scribbles (:

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

Chronic Sonic pt 2

So I know I said i was taking a break but next thing I knew this was in front of me I can’t be held responsible for this—

1. This Tails is very used to looking after sonic during really bad episodes. He has to stay calm cause he’s the only one who knows what to do about it. And he does his best not to make a big deal about it or act stressed because then Sonic won’t come to him when it happens. He's a lot better at dealing with his big sibs dumb tendencies now but he also knows Sonic can't just stop helping people.

2. Sonic doesn’t feel any pain when he’s in super sonic mode but it does serious damage to him in the long run. Too much chaos energy through too small an outlet (his body) or something along those lines my head is too empty to explain rn But its his winning play so he will continue to use it if necessary wether it makes things worse for him or not and boy does it make things worse

3. Sonics aids glow green when theres an overload of chaos in his body

[daily-metalsonic-and-others]

Day 52

Today's mood was Sonic getting beat up with a side of chronic pain Sonic

[chubbidust]

i think kris and big would be a chill duo

[nagichi-boop]

If you ever feel ashamed of using mobility aids, just remember that Shadow the Hedgehog uses them and he is cool as hell.

[avoidmint]

I did some spur of the moment sketch requests over on Twitter last night! I was having fun playing with a new brush. I asked for characters or ships people wanted to maybe see me tackle after I did Whispangle.

Here's the requests I got! Mostly!

[marrowthefairy]

i really need yall to understand that we, the sonic fandom, have made up most of Maria's NIDS symptoms. in SA2 it pretty much doesn't fucking exist. it's not explored at all. it's just an answer to the question "what the hell is a little girl doing in a space station." it's a contrived plot device on a female character conceived to be fridged for a male one.

not to say you can't see yourself in her- lord knows i do- but what you feel connected to is characterization the *fandom* gave her, not the games. the hospital gowns, medication, medical equipment- none of that shit is ever shown in canon. we gave her those characteristics because we actually care about her.

shadow generations tries to rectify it- that was the FIRST TIME she was ACTUALLY SHOWN IN A HOSPITAL BED (and wheelchair) and i definitely appreciate the attempt, but it's definitely not enough to fix what had already been written for her.