#DAMN I WISH I COULD HAVE BACK TO BACK SONIC DREAMS

[blu-ish]

HELLO I HAD ANOTHER DREAM

My dream was that it was discovered that in SA2, there was a second ending cutscene that nobody had ever seen before

It was discovered by a speedrunner that if you were fast enough throughout the level (or it may have been the entire game, not sure), and pressed "B" at the precise right time, during the moment after Sonic and Shadow yell "Chaos Control!" but before Shadow started falling, you would get a new ending where Sonic grabs Shadow's arm and manages to save him from falling to Earth, pulling him back to safety, and then when they got back with everyone, everyone rushed towards the both of them and hugged them

Rouge still asked if Gerald created him to carry out his revenge, but Shadow stayed quiet and refused to answer.

In the last moments, instead of "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog", it was replaced with Sonic waving and a "C'mon Shadow! Let's go home!"

And instead of the picture of Shadow on the moon, it was a picture of Sonic with his arm around Shadow

I have absolutely NO idea why my brain created this alternate happier SA2 ending for my dream, but there you go!

The Ultimate Gaymer 😔

[walkintomymystery]

Fall Into Me

(Set after Sonic 3) Defeated, world-weary, and impossibly lost, Shadow allows himself to be taken back into G.U.N custody. While they decide his fate, he is housed in a secret facility hidden deep in the heart of one of the country’s National Parks. Still reeling from the heartbreaks that have shaped his life, Shadow never expected to find the closest thing to a home he’d known in over fifty years.

Pairings: Shadow the Hedgehog x Original Female Character

Warnings: i’m gonna be putting this hedgehog in some situations so expect existential dread, guilt, self-hatred, depressive tendencies but also a lot of love and friendship

A/N: cringe is dead, i am risen. i am still very much an entry-level fan, so bear with me if there are any mistakes! this story will include bits from all kinds of Sonic media. hopefully, this will be cute, and i love reading questions and comments, so let me know your thoughts!

//

Chapter One

Evening had fallen. That was all Shadow could glimpse of the outside world. That, and the dizzying blur of trees flashing by.

The transport van was cramped and uncomfortable, but that was all Shadow had known for the past fifty years. He’s spent his whole life in captivity, his current circumstances weren’t novel in the slightest. Perhaps he should have relished the opportunity to stretch his legs and breathe in the fresh air while he had the chance. Too late now.

The metal walls that blocked him in rattled and shook as the van trundled down seemingly endless narrow roads. The whole vehicle vibrated at a bone-trembling pitch; Shadow’s body had started to feel numb after just a few minutes into his journey. G.U.N cared little for his comfort.

Time passed with agonising lethargy. When there was nothing but the constant, sluggish drone of the engine and one image out the window to occupy his mind, the minutes dragged by as if through molasses.

More trees rushed past. The small, opaque window in the side of the van was high above his head and granted him a limited view, but Shadow could catch glimpses of their rounded, bulging bases. They were tall, far taller than he would’ve thought possible, and their branches stretched and reached for each other like grasping hands.

A forest, then. It had to be. Shadow closed his eyes and tried to summon a map of the area. His limited knowledge of the surrounding terrain irked him.

He wished he’d taken more time to memorise the roads, the towns, the whole damn continent, but he had some vague idea of where he was. Or he used to. He couldn’t remember seeing a forest on any map. But then, it hadn’t seemed important at the time.

He opened his eyes again and stared out of the tiny window. So many trees. Had he ever seen so many? They were different from how he’d imagined them. The flat, lifeless images in the books he had once studied hardly came close to the towering pines that rushed by.

In all the information he and Maria had devoured about the Earth, in all their wildest dreams, he was sure neither of them could have imagined how these giants would look up close. They were so full of life. So green. He was a long way from the ARK.

Shadow curled his fingers into tight fists, making the thick handcuffs that bound him stretch and creak. One of G.U.N’s soldiers had nervously slapped them round his wrists, possibly thinking he’d fight back. He was right to be nervous, but for some reason, Shadow let him, then allowed himself to be led into the back of this van to head off into the night.

Shadow eyed the van doors. They were heavy and firmly sealed, but surely not strong enough to hold him. Even if he did try to escape, it would be difficult to find his way. They would locate him, capture him, and shove him back in this van with much less civility than they had the first time.

He sank back in his seat, a painfully hard wooden bench attached to the wall with thick chains.

An uncomfortable thought settled onto Shadow’s weary shoulders. Even if he weren’t completely lost, he had nowhere to go. Even if he did get away, even if he could figure out where he was, he had nothing, no mission to urge him onwards, no reason to keep going at all.

If he wanted to, if he really wanted to, he could be free. He could run and run until his body finally failed. But what was the point? What did it matter? Freedom to him was as nebulous and vague as a dream. Even in his youth, when Shadow thought he had the whole world at his feet, autonomy had been an illusion. He had always been owned, bartered over, and controlled.

Silent and hollow, he watched as any hope of breaking out, of finding his own way, slipped like sand through his fingers.

He had nothing. He was nothing. And he’d never known any different. There was nowhere to go. No one to run to. He was aimless, directionless, completely without purpose. Whatever the humans wanted with him, perhaps he should just let them do it.

One of Shadow’s ears flicked. The slightest whir of hydraulics, pads pressing against rotating discs. Grinding metal. Friction. Brakes. Silence finally cut through the roar of combustion and the old engine sank into sleep.

They’d arrived.

His whole body tensed instinctively. This was the moment. This was where he decided if he was going to fight tooth and nail to get away from these awful, violent humans, or stay docile, let them put him back into that godforsaken tank, and allow them to switch him off for another fifty years.

It would be easier. It would be so much easier. Shadow could be alone with dreams once more, a peaceful place where there was no noise, no tang of copper on his tongue, and no one wanted anything from him.

In his dreams, it was just him and his sister, laying side by side in a meadow of stars. Shadow had nowhere to be, no one to answer to, just the deep navy sky and her gentle voice. He’d never know a heaven, but he was sure that was as close as he would get.

A sudden shout caught his attention.

Through the thick walls of the van, he could interpret very little, even with his excellent hearing, but Shadow’s ears swivelled in the direction of a second voice. The muffled sounds rose suddenly, then fell silent again.

Shadow straightened his back. He waited. Nothing. He held his breath.

A sudden, shrill hiss split the monotony in two. Shadow whipped his head around, eyes wide, to find a thick, grey gas spilling in through the crack between the van’s doors.

He jolted, instincts kicking in, and scrambled to his feet. They’d taken his shoes when he was arrested, but even if they hadn’t, there wasn’t nearly enough room to build up the momentum and speed he’d need to burst out of the van.

The thick, curling gas pooled on the floor around his feet, rising quickly like water until it was up to his neck.

Blind with panic, Shadow swung his bound hands against the driver’s cabin, sending a shockwave through the van’s metal sides.

He stumbled and fell into the wall, the gas obscuring his vision, his thoughts. He tried to shout but his tongue was heavy in his mouth.

“Hey!” Shadow swung his hands against the cabin again, throwing his whole weight behind it. “Hey! Anyone!”

But there was no response.

Shadow stumbled back and fell into the bench. All he could see now was a grey haze. Though he tried to hold his breath, it seeped into his lungs, his racing heart forcing his body to pull in more and more of the toxic oxygen.

His head felt foggy but he had just the wherewithal to climb up onto the bench, trying in vain to get away and find a pocket of clean air, but there was none.

Shadow’s eyes began to grow heavy. He fought against sleep but his body felt clumsy and unresponsive. He swung his hands one final time against the side of the van and barely made a sound.

He felt his head loll against his chest as the world blurred all around him. At the edges of his vision, a darkness crept steadily closer, until it had overwhelmed his acute senses.

Gravity turned on him, and the last thing Shadow knew was the floor rushing up to meet him, before the world went black.

/

He was in the medbay. He knew before he opened his eyes. The reek of disinfectant, the squeak of rubber shoes against the polished tile floor, the constant noise of the machines. He knew it all by heart, a symphony of pain and longing.

Shadow woozily raised his heavy eyelids. His whole body ached. It was a familiar feeling but not one he’d known for some time. The doctor used to send him for evaluation every month or so, then every two weeks as Maria grew weaker-

Maria.

Shadow’s eyes widened as she suddenly appeared before him, floating above his hospital bed like a pale spirit. She was sickly white, practically translucent. Ghostly and faint, her wide blue eyes gazed down at him emptily.

“Shadow…”

Hardly able to catch his breath, he tried to raise his hand up to touch her but his body refused to cooperate. Shadow tried to blink but an age seemed to pass between his eyes closing and opening again.

“Shadow, you’re hurting me…”

Panic tightened his chest. He looked down, following the cannula as it ran down her chest to where it tangled with another.

With agonising sluggishness, Shadow tried to raise his hand to help her, and found the other cannula attached to his own nose.

“Shadow, it hurts, please…”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Shadow wrapped his fingers around the plastic tube and tried to rip it from his nose but it was stuck fast. With every sharp tug, the cannulas only seemed to tighten and twist further, until they were impossibly intertwined.

“I’m sorry, Maria, I’m trying. I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

Hot tears began to fall from her dull eyes, hitting his cheeks, his forehead and his jaw like bullets.

The more he tried to pull at the tubes that connected them, the more Maria cried and the more suffocated he felt, until Shadow was clawing for breath.

He could only watch, paralysed, as a thin river of scarlet blood began to dribble from her nose, staining his white fur, the bed-

The transport van tripped over a dip in the road, forcing Shadow into consciousness with a jolt.

He gasped for breath, pulling in a huge lungful of air to steady his pounding heart.

Four blank walls stared back at him. He was still in the van. Shadow stared at the doors, then lifted his head to the roof. No sign of any gas. He couldn’t smell any trace of it. Just a dream. It was all just a bad dream.

Slowly, his tensed muscles began to relax, and Shadow sank back against the wall behind him.

It wasn’t like him to fall asleep like that. He didn’t need to rest, his power made sure of that. It was only something he indulged in when he needed to pass the time, or when Maria would beg him to snooze beside her in her hospital bed. He could only allow himself to sleep when he was sure that he was completely safe, and he definitely wasn’t now.

Shadow pushed down the anxious uncertainty that rose in his chest and forced himself to focus on the present.

The transport van was freezing. It had crept up on him slowly. Nothing at first, then a gnawing chill. Shadow found he had to keep tensing his muscles to encourage some warmth into them.

Worry nagged at the back of his brain again, an unfamiliar emotion. He couldn’t remember the last time the cold had affected him.

He tried to rub his eyes but found he could hardly lift his hands. He looked down.

The stiff, black cuffs were gone. In their place were a pair of thick, brass rings that covered his own inhibitors. Heavy and clumsy, they seemed to have some kind of mechanism hidden within. He could feel a faint hum of static reverberating off of them, tapping into his bones and sending a faint current throughout his body.

Shadow frowned. Where had they come from? Had they put them on while he slept? Surely not. On the rare occasion he did rest, he was a light sleeper. He would have felt it. Why couldn’t he remember?

He turned his wrists fractionally, examining the rings and testing their strength. They were broad and heavy, and felt cold against his skin, even through his fur. With a sinking feeling, Shadow wondered if they might be the reason he felt so weak.

As he studied the rings with sharp eyes, he wracked his brain, trying to remember if he’d ever seen anything like them before.

Shadow lifted right his index finger and gingerly hooked it under one of the rings.

Before he could make another move, a voice snarled at him from the corner,

“Keep still.”

A soldier was sat propped up in the very corner of the transport van. Half shrouded in darkness, Shadow couldn’t get a good look at his face, but he could tell that the soldier was tall and broad, and so relaxed that he must think he had nothing to fear.

Had he been there this whole time? Shadow couldn’t remember. He was having a hard time summoning back his short-term memories. His thoughts were in complete disarray, his nightmare still clouding his mind.

The blue hedgehog, his friends, defeat, this van - but the details were fuzzy, and the more he tried to grasp for them, the further they slipped away.

That worry gnawed away at him again.

All of Shadow’s senses felt dull and distant, as if the sights, scents and sounds that often threatened to overwhelm him were now nearby, but just out of reach. He felt as if he was in one room and his soul was in another, disconnected from the world around him. He didn’t feel right, he couldn’t feel anything.

Shadow shifted in his seat, testing the waters. The guard sat in the corner didn’t move but he knew behind his dark sunglasses, a pair of keen eyes were trained on him.

Shadow disregarded him and turned his attention back to the window. More green blurs. They were still in the forest. Where could they possibly be taking him?

He twisted his wrists again and focused on moving his hands. Static coursed through his veins, making him flinch, but he kept going. Though his body still felt heavy and unresponsive, Shadow was able to raise his clenched fists from his lap.

“I said, keep still,” the soldier muttered, and this time, he lowered one hand to rest against an impression in his jacket.

He was armed and probably more than happy to shoot. But they couldn't kill him. If they wanted to, they would have done it already. They wouldn’t bother driving him out to the middle of nowhere just to do away with him. No, he was too useful for that.

And then, it stopped. Unlike in his dream, the van gently rolled to a standstill, then the driver switched off the engine.

Shadow looked back at the doors. The guard assigned to watch him was speaking again but he barely registered his presence.

Where was he? It had taken hours to arrive, but logic dictated he couldn’t be too far from civilisation if they were going to keep him contained.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. He was pulled to his feet.

Shadow ignored the twist in his gut and just tried to focus on his next move. They needed him, but for what? It could be anything. They could use his blood for testing, extrapolate his DNA for an all manner of projects, send him out on missions, use him as an attack dog.

It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered now, apart from getting out of here.

Another soldier dressed all in black opened the van from the outside and Shadow was led out into the night.

They’d stopped at the edge of a clearing. Just a few feet away, a huge hill rose up out of the ground, rolling backwards and backwards, growing and forming into a distant mountain. Beneath his bare feet, the earth was cold and damp and unpleasant.

It was so dark, Shadow could only see a few paces in front of him. Another of his usually sharp senses had been dulled.

He tried to remember everything he’d learnt, everything Gerald, and then G.U.N had taught him. Keep your eyes up and keep your head down. Run and run and run, and never ever look back.

The hand was heavy on his shoulder. The two guards that flanked him chatted amongst themselves, swapping stories about the long drive as they guided him towards a low, squat building that appeared to be dug into the side of the towering hill, which seemed almost as tall as the pines that surrounded it.

A door opened. Burning orange light spilled out, pushing through the black night and illuminating his path. Two figures stood in the doorway, just silhouettes, contrasting shapes that didn’t make sense to him.

The cold air awoke something in Shadow’s brain. A spark ignited, a glint of hope.

He wouldn’t let them take him. He wouldn’t just give in. He was the ultimate lifeform, he was the descendant of a great power, he could go wherever he wanted. And he didn’t want to be trapped, he didn’t want to be locked away under layers of earth and metal and rock for another fifty years while the humans decided what to do with him. He wanted to be free.

With a rough cry that began in his belly and tore from his throat, Shadow ducked under the hand that held him down and swung his leg round, knocking one of the guard’s feet out from under him.

The other made a grab for him but Shadow jumped and swung his arm around the man’s neck, knocking his sunglasses off as he dragged him to the ground. Shadow untangled himself from the soldier before he could even think to reach for his gun.

He stumbled to his feet, chest heaving, and sprinted towards the tree line. But he only made it a few steps.

He felt all the breath leave his body as some invisible force clapped down on his back and knocked him off-balance. Shadow grunted as he hit the leafy ground, hard, his heavy hands awkwardly jammed beneath his chest.

Whatever had pushed him down had enough force behind it to knock the wind out of him. One of the guards? Surely not. The blow had felt all-encompassing and formless, as if the sky had fallen down on his head. Shadow groaned as his ribs smarted. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt real pain.

He tried to get up but something weighed on his back, pressing him down into the earth, though he couldn’t actually feel anything, as if he were just an ant under the heel of an enormous boot. He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t think. Then he felt his body move without his say so, and he was turned over onto his back.

Shadow lay there, staring up at the black sky. There were thousands of stars, almost as many as he’d been able to see on the ARK.

A memory, faint and ephemeral as breath on a cold day, floated through his mind. Maria had countless astronomy books. She would point out the constellations to him, one by one, until they had almost mapped out the whole cosmos. There were still countless systems they’d never got around to learning about.

Shadow closed his tired eyes.

If this was the end, if this was how his lonely, painful life was finally ended, maybe it wasn’t so bad. The ground was hard and cold but he’d never known anything else. His chest ached, but again, that was nothing new. If the stars Maria had given him were the last thing he ever saw, he could make peace with that.

“The Ultimate Lifeform, huh?”

Footsteps crunched through the dry leaves that littered the ground all around him, growing steadily closer and closer, until they finally stopped by his head.

“Says who?”

Despite every instinct telling him not to, Shadow opened his eyes.

A Mobian stood over him. Dark, dark fur, a black jacket that was two sizes too big, and almost comically large ears were all Shadow could make out against the sparkling night sky.

”Hey. I’m Kit.”

Even though she was shrouded in twilight, Shadow could still pick out a self-satisfied smile.

“I’ve heard a lot about you.”

The Mobian flicked her fingers and Shadow felt his body rise off the ground as if he weighed nothing at all.

Once his feet were safely back on terra firma, the Mobian sighed and shook her head.

“Please don’t try to run again. It’s pointless and honestly, I can’t manage more than a fast walk, and even then I’m out of breath. I’d much rather we got to know each other over dinner.”

She nodded towards the rectangle of orange light in the distance, still smiling.

“Shall we go inside?”

//

Next Chapter

Master List

[thelediz]

Could you maybe outline the pilot episode of your theoretical Sonic Underground reboot?

Mmm... pilot I'm not sure about, because they're important marketing tools and I can't claim to know what a producer would want to see!

But a first episode? Sure!

In my theoretical reboot, the first episode would be establishing the triplets' backgrounds. So I'd spend:

Five minutes with Sonic, showing him fighting Robotnik independently with just his speed and spikes, and Trevor and Uncle Chuck in his earpiece. Through them talking to him, while he's busy dodging lasers, we learn that this is the third mission he's been on this week, he helped out with Sanctuary yesterday, and someone wants to know if he's still willing to help out at the fundraiser tonight. Presuming he survives of course, ha ha ha. We see that he's capable, he's dedicated, he's flippant, and he's getting tired.

Five minutes with Manic, showing that he steals from middle-class mobians. Showcase his skills in picking locks, getting around security systems, smooth-talking when he gets caught. He's funny, he's charming, he's snarky... and then we go back to the thieves' hideout with him and see him engage with some crying kids, stopping their tears with the shinies he stole and then offering to show them his drums. He's sweet and well-meaning, too.

Five minutes with Sonia. Bartleby is visiting her and Lady Windemere, and they're discussing Robotnik's latest ball as Sonia plays piano. It showcased his new SWATbot designs, and oh, weren't they horrible, yes, they should look ghastly to keep the rabble in line, but don't you just wish Robotnik could make them look nicer for his well-paying patrons? They also gossip about another aristocrat's new robotocised servant, showing that Sonia and Bartleby don't agree with it, but Lady Windemere quickly hushes them, reminding that it's "not polite to say such things". When Sonia objects, pointing out that there are better ways, Windemere gestures to what is clearly a surveillance camera. They are always under watch. So this not only shows us that Sonia is rich, snobby, and fashion-focussed, but also hints that she disagrees with Robotnik's laws and would fight them. It also does some heavy world-building about the two faces of the aristocrats.

Next we cut back to Sonic and Uncle Chuck coming back from somewhere, and Chuck is worried about Sonic's health. He claims to be fine, and just needs a nap, but as soon as he's behind closed doors, he drops to the ground and admits only to himself that this is all getting a bit much. Cue the Oracle.

The Oracle tells him he's a hero, admired by all of Mobius for his power, and Sonic's preening under the ego, until the Oracle adds "such a fine prince of the realm" and it's the last damn straw. Sonic's patience snaps, and he starts reeling off all the things he has to do just to keep people safe, and now the Oracle is telling him he's supposed to rule as well? "No! No way, no how, take a hike, you creepy glowing whatever you are, I'm going to bed!"

Oracle watches this outburst with a smile, and then reminds him he shouldn't have to fight alone. He's heard of Queen Aleena, his true mother? Sonic is unimpressed - she disappeared, she's why he has to fight so hard. Ah, but has he heard of his brother and sister, who are destined to rule, once they have learned how to fight as he has?

Now that he has Sonic's attention, he explains that together, they will make the Council of Four: champions of Mobius, united by the Power of Harmony. When Sonic mocks that cheesy title, the Oracle points to the medallion Sonic doesn't wear - the one he keeps on his bedside and can't bring himself to throw it away. It's a marker of his place in the Council, and if he wore it, while playing a song from his heart, he would understand.

Cue the song, which is basically the same theme but updated to whatever Natewantstobattle can do with it (this is my theoretical reboot, I can dream as big as I want to!). It calls out to Sonia and Manic, and Sonic realises he DOESN'T have to be alone.

The Oracle warns they are not ready to take their place yet, and will need his help to become leaders. But if he is willing to take on that task (on top of his others), then he should go to the market square, and play for the people.

And that should bring us up to the twenty-ish minute mark, which means we're running low on time. He plays, and Sonia and Manic join him as they do in the series, only for the market to be attacked by SWATbots. Through them, we get our first glimpse of Robotnik, who finally recognises Sonic as one of the royal triplets. These must be his brother and sister! The prophecy is coming true!

Fine, if the Oracle is finally making his move, then perhaps it is time for Robotnik to do the same. But he'll need assistance to keep things running while he prepares to wipe the royal family from the face of the earth. "Bring me Sleet and Dingo. They have a job to do, if they value their lives!"

And we end, Sonic carrying his siblings away from a massive firefight, Robotnik laughing ominously, to be continued...!

[egg-emperor]

Seeing people try to speculate that Eggman is going to become good or stop being a villain after Frontiers , it's so obvious they're just packaging what they WANT to happen as if it's a sensible estimate of Sonic Teams decisions. Anyone could see by actually looking at the content of the Games, let alone the official social media content, that Eggman isn't going anywhere and he's not going to stop being THE villain. But they want him to not be, and because that's what they want they'll reject reality and assert their desires as fact as if that'll bring them into reality. And then when they're proven wrong they pretend it never happened so they never have to admit they have no idea what they're talking about, and then go right back to doing the same thing all over again =P

Yeah it's all wishful thinking :P All the people I knew who were believing and praising an Eggman that simply does not exist in the games, already had those nonsensical beliefs about his character looong before Frontiers ever existed. I'm talking over a decade for some of them. When they've wanted to believe or have something changed to that preference they've had for so long, or at least just want it hard enough even if they've only been a fan for five minutes, of course they're gonna believe it's finally happening/they're getting proof of it being what they want. It's always stemming from wanting to something to be true for so long that they believe it or being new and completely misinformed.

That's why I don't think Frontiers is to blame for this. People always wanted nice Eggman, people always wanted wholesome Eggdad, and people always wanted Eggman to become a better person. So when the game at least explores one of those themes in the form of him getting a daughter but in an in character way instead of the wholesome kind they want, people are just going to see what they want, ignore what makes it different and in character instead, and say it's something completely different as they dreamed of instead. Same goes for anything else they can twist into seeming like he's becoming a better person. But it requires so much ignoring and denying key moments, details, writer commentary, and downright facts that go against it, and that's what they do.

And I get it, when all the people doing that are the loudest voices in the fandom, it can seem like that's what the official media is really going for because how can so many people get it wrong, right? That's why I myself was tricked into thinking that they were taking Eggman in directions I really would've disliked. But when you shut out what all of the fandom is constantly screaming in your face, trying to drill into your head, and telling you how to think and feel about it constantly and let all the official stuff speak for itself instead, you'll see that it's not what they're saying it is at all. Eggman is still very obviously a bad guy and he will always be in the games. He's one of the most iconic villains ever!

And at this point I really couldn't give a damn about fans insisting otherwise at this point, they don't get a say in what the actual canon is and nothing they say can change what's really true about it. When I'm left to my own devices playing the games and seeing and analyzing what is actually happening in it and what writers say without considering what random people online are saying, I really enjoy what I see and I know that Eggman isn't going anywhere, so I'm happy and that's all that matters. Not caring about what the fandom is saying has been very freeing, I've been happy and at peace ever since I started going out of my way to avoid it and just focus on all the games, including Frontiers.

And now I actually really love how Eggman's role and the implications of his actions and dynamic with Sage require deeper thought and analysis to fully understand because I love doing that shit. Though I would argue that MOST of it is extremely in your face obvious, when you aren't letting the voices of fandom drown it out. Could they have rephrased certain lines and emphasized certain aspects a bit more to avoid confusion or make that wishful thinking a little more difficult? Perhaps. But even when they depict something in the most solid undeniable in your face ways, people still take away something completely different if that's what they want to see. It's always happened with Eggman.

That's just what the Sonic fandom does and we should all know that by now lol. The games, their stories, and their characters are great and they'll always be there to enjoy and will keep all the things we love intact, so what fans are saying that isn't accurate to it at all but will have no say or power in changing the actual media itself is of no concern to me anymore. I'm blessed to love game canon and its Eggman and while the most popular fanon version is waaay different and people are acting like Frontiers supports it, the truth is that canon is still exactly all the things I fell in love for it for and fans' wishes and misconceptions don't take away my beloved Eggman in the games, he's here to stay! 💜

[julie-su]

Bumbling

In the dead of the night, a small, black nose sniffed delicately, belonging to a miniscule, baby-pink puggle. A miniscule Julie-Su had awoken to the sound of a door opening, her tiny, still-blue eyes blinking as she sniffed inquisitively, her eyes meeting with the icey-blue eyes of her half-sister. Unbeknownst to the cruel circumstances she had inherited by birthright, she giggled, reaching towards her new visitor.

Lien-Da stared at the child in disdain, as if her giggles were poisonous. She loathed this child, and eveything which she represented. She hated how her father had avoided her gaze ever since her mother had passed; he had handed her and her brother off to his lackeys, deeming twins too much work, alongside being the Grandmaster. So why, if he had no time for them, was he having a child with this woman? Moritori Rex had reckoned that her father wasn't much of a Grandmaster in his occasional visits. She wished that Moritori might spend longer at the base; then he could take over as Grandmaster, or better yet, take over as her father. She had much preferred Moritori as her father, anyways… Even though he was busy on such long intel missions, he had always had time for her and Kragok.

So, now, staring down at this miniscule echidna that was supposedly her half-sister, she felt no love in her heart. And then she started chugging a blunt, and it was so dank. just stanky. and it was like, totally choking out the baby and shit. Like damn, girl. What's wrong with you? Anywhomst! She realised that she felt no love in her heart. The tiny echidna gazed up curiously with her big, dark eyes, a tiny smile still causing her nose to wrinkle up in a way which might be seen as cute; Lien-Da had found it to be quite disgruntling. She bared her teeth, showing her fangs. “I don't know why you're so happy.”

Then suddenly, using the time stones, (modern) Vector appeared. He wandered down the corridor rizzfully. He walked right up to Mari-Su. “Sup, Femroid” he winked, giving finger guns to her. “Heard you're a mother now.” he tipped his fedora, his flame-print button-up shirt flowing with his movements. He grinned, which happened to eccentuate his pube-like beard. For some reason, this was working on her; perhaps it was her terrible taste in men, seeming that she was married to Luger.

Vector winked; he was so confident, for somebody who doesn't even know what the 'M' in 'sex' stands for. Mari-Su giggled, finding him interesting. Vector waggled his eyebrows, then noticed behind Mari-Su, a portal. Silver stepped through, alerted to an anomaly which may cause catestrophic circumstances for the future; Vector hitting. By the rules of the universe, Vector cannot be allowed to hit. It had been deemed a topic of unimportance, given how rizzless he truly was; but nobody, NOBODY could have accounted for just how terrible Mari-Su's tastes could be.

Unhindered, Vector slicked his scales back, grinning at Mari-Su. “Hey, baby, you got blow?” He winked. As he flirted, Kragok, step-son of Mari-Su, showed up, looking not unline Whitney Chewston. He squinted, opening his mouth. “Pack it up, Skittles Squad” he growled, in true Chewston fashion. As they all stood there, they hoped that Mario might appear. Luckily, Thevius added a SM64 Generations mod to Sonic Generations, allowing Mario to appear. He flew in, zooming in.

-Mandatory Thevius Pipe SFX-

Lien-Da pondered for a moment how Luger had left us all alone, just how Kyle had left N'Oni, Puppy, Ry, and Jenzel alone in the Voice Chat. She wondered why she knew these names for a moment, but it semeed that they may be discussing her unfortunate happenstances. Wait, no, this isn't about baby Julie-Su!

Back in the corridor, mommy Mari-Su was getting increasingly enamoured by Vector; if only some strapping young lad who may call her 'mommy' may step in. Unlike how Thevius could not get past this roadblock in SM64 Generations, Ry's dreams came true; he teleported into the scene. Mari-Su's attention immediately pivoted. Vector gasped, knowing that he could not beat this beautiful worm man. Mari-Su gasped in delight. “My, what beautiful eyes you have” She gasped, as Vector realised how truly Rizzless he was. He was distraught; truly, he was unable to hit it. He knew this from the days he had spent on his favourite chatroom, (insert after asking Ian what Mobian 4Chan is called) - he saw this coming. Always some chad with no limbs; no room for femroids to love crocodiles. And he was jealous of Zori, for reasons unknown. He felt like Mario flying in horrendous spinning circles, unable to land.

He felt as if he were Mario being asked to pick up rings; “It just ain't correct.” Mario was right there in the corridor, chugging the fattest ol' joint your eyes have ever seen. It was sort of flooding out the room with smoke. Ry blinked one eye, then the other. Mari-Su nodded. “I agree, Ry. Mario is an incredible man. But not more incredible than you” She nodded; Luger had left her unattended, just like how Kazzie and Jenzel went to bed at a reasonable time, leaving the BumbleBoys unattended. Eggtaint. She needed a new adventure; a backwards-cap based adventure. Ry blinked in a way, which seemed to say, “I'm happy to help, just like how I helped Puppy to write this, and how I help to make N'Oni sigh. It's what I dream of.” Mari-Su, of course, could infer all of this; she had somehow connected the Echidna Soul Touch, despite Ry not being an echidna.

In the end, Mario chuffed a fat dart, chugged, even, Lien-Da got addicted to blow, Kragok kept up being Whitney Chewston-Esque, just like Moss from Pikmin 4. Ry and Mari-Su eloped. Puppy got ready to go to sleep. All was beautiful. Eggtaint. Wait, who's watching the baby?

[flowergirlmiwa]

games I wish I had when I was a kid!

Yu-Gi-Oh The Eternal Duelist Soul

This was one of the best selling games on the GBA, but I got Dark Duel Stories on GBC instead. Eventually I got 7 Trials to Glory, a mixed bag of a game I nonetheless hold dear to my heart, but I wish I had EDS as a kid. EDS is the perfect game to be the first YGO game on GBA. The spelltraps are massive blowouts, caveman Yu-Gi-Oh is in full effect, and the cardpool is both small and nostalgic. EDS (or the original Japanese release) was the first video game that actually tried to follow the rules of the real world OCG/TCG card game and it did a pretty good job along with a clean presentation, great music and flavorful decks to grind against. Plus the packs you pull from are mostly based on real Japanese card sets! Basically I admire a lot about what this game did in 2002 and in a potential world where I got it alongside my GBA SP in 2003 I would have been set for years. Instead I got... Dark Duel Stories in late 2003 around the time I got my GBA SP, and that game is .. not as worth investing time into. Oh yeah and it has a cute calendar system with weekly matches at the duel shop and oooo it's just such a cute game!

Goldeneye 007

I didn't have a lot of N64 games as a kid, but out of all my regrets on the console, I easily missed out the most not owning Goldeneye. Now I can appreciate it as basically the Super Mario 64 of first person shooters and imagine that, even though I only owned one controller, those levels would have kept me coming back again and again obsessively for hours. I can just imagine how I would have organically find the island on Dam by myself and wondered what was out there. I never had that chance

Super Smash Bros Melee

Throughout the early 00s I had various nostalgic experiences playing the original Super Smash Bros, and eventually I craved very dearly to play it's sequel. Literally all I could tell you is that it had (Scott the Woz voice) "a freaky STORY MODE! now that's cool!" and you could play as Bowser. It looked so damn cool but I didn't have a GameCube. I would have dreams about playing this game I knew very little about. I actually can guarantee I read about the Sonic and tails in melee rumor before I had seen more than an hours worth of gameplay in my life (all through playing demos in 2002).

When did I actually get a GameCube? 2007. I actually remember visiting Nintendo World NY in 2006 right before release of the Wii and playing Melee on one of their demo kiosks (and wind waker for the first time ever, notably). I got my hands on a GameCube in summer 2007 thanks to a friend of my dad's and pretty much the first thing I did was go to the still surviving Hollywood Video in The City and rent melee. Now considering I was 12 the first time I got to extensively play melee and really enjoy it, you could say I was still a child and that's true. I wish I somehow had a GameCube around 2004 and got to play it then though. Look, things felt different in my life then, it wasn't the same kind of feeling to me. By the time I got to play it I didn't really have that childish exuberance and excitement. Plus I got a Wii that same year for Christmas so my overall excitement for the GameCube was muted lol.

The Simpsons: Hit and Run

I would have gobbled this up as a kid even if not the biggest fan of the simps, if I had gotten this at release for PS2 I could imagine I would have spent many hours playing it

Pokemon Stadium 2

As a kid I desperately wished I had this game and rented it a bunch of times. When I discovered you could emulate N64 I spent most of my time doing so playing this game. I eventually got my own real copy around 2019 but considering I would leave the first game on for days on end I would have loved to have had stadium 2 as a kid. Plus it actually has single player content and provides plenty to people without use of a transfer pak too! I was fascinated by the updates as a kid renting the game

[hanayanaa]

oops I slept all day again but i had some really cool ass dreams and I wanted to finish them lmfao

1) i was al and he had killed himself and came back as a ghost and the majority of the dream was just floating around random places and into them. we did so many home invasions.

i went to his old school to traumatize his old bullies with his ghostly form

i think he comes back to life maybe at the end im not sure because i remember rosie supporting him walking cuz he wasn't too stable on his feet for some reason

also we went to sheldons house for some reason and he lived in this gas station looking thing and you had to go down stairs and through security and gates like damn dude who's coming here

2) ame was in octo ex except she skipped levels so this one was like, practice which was bullshit

anyway we were in a mall and we got to explore around and it was a reused brain location it was cool as hell i wish it was real! anyway it was all a simulation and no one could actually interact or see her but she had a really fun time running around the mall, couldn't really buy anything though. all the exits and shops were barried off invisible force field style

she got some money for bao to eat before she started the test

the test was weird it was timed and the tasks were like "pet this frog" "brush this turtle" warioware ass shit...

the one I remember specifically was the final one where she had to finish this meal which was a burger. she (me) asked if she could not eat the tomatoes and tartar disembodied ai voice was like sure but you have to eat all of the rest of the burger. and like she dropped some onion rings on the floor somehow and had to eat it off the floor as per the rules 😭

also there was a side of bulgolgi with the burger idk why. No rice just meat. She took it to go it was good i think

anyway she successfully passed but was obviously grossed out by having to eat public floor onion rings, but she got money and food for passing so...

also for some reason as she was on her way to the elevator to leave the mall testing area she was chased by a creepypasta sonic that was kinda scary as shit okay!

also there were ads for the bulgolgi burger place in the elevator LMAO

3) same setting, ame is in octo ex, but the task this time was to like, scoop as much random shit from these barrels with a pair of tongs as u could. however this was knockout style, there were 3 other people, and one of them was ame's mom. Actually my mom in the dream but via dream logic it was ames mom. the other two were random hs classmates i think they're unimportant and I forgot lmao. anyway the winner got to move on but everyone else would be executed...

the supermarket was like hmart but one that doesn't exist. it was kinda like one i frequent but the layout was fucked up. anyway the shit in the barrels was literally random, there was sushi and watermelons and bottles of tea and frozen food but if u could pick it up you won and also you'd get to keep it although the stuff in the barrel was decoys. Allegedly. It was definitely real food being fumbled around but whatever.

anyway I developed a method to pick them up fairly easily which was to actually just balance them instead of using the giant ass tongs which thinking back should be a worse strategy but whatever 🤷🏻‍♀️ dream logic ig

i had piles and piles of stuff while the two randos were fumbling and my mom was doing fine, but ended up helping me instead of finishing hers

i ran out of stuff to pick up and started picking up random shit from nearby shelves and tartar yelled at me

in the end i (ame) won and so everyone else was to die and then I got distracted thinking about how i could incorporate these dreams into ame's canon story somehow bc they gave me emotions but i don't think it would make sense for her to have a dead mom in my story idrk. anyway cuz of that I never really finished that dream properly and that's probably a good thing bc it'd be weird to see your mom die via goop telephone

that's it I think lmao it's pitch black now oopsie. i actually woke up at 10 and then went back to sleep #fuck

wait bonus dream from proper sleep hours:

4) i was chasing my friend mozzy around in alterna, she had a squeezer and i had this fucked up in-between gun of splash and jet squelcher and it looked like a hand drill. moz could self heal but it was like potions so she was kinda fucked if it ran out HOWEVER! some dude who was a capybara came over and set me on minecraft fire and i was so flabbergasted I just stood there and died 👍

and that was the entire dream it was the shortest one I've ever had

[majestydeerakuma]

My Bad Gaming Opinions

(Spoilers for...Mario, Sonic, Pokemon, OMORI and Touhou)

-NO! Luigi is not better than Mario....NO! Mario is not better than Luigi...they are both equally adorable and I wish I could be friends with both of them

-Sonic games past Sonic Heroes really took a turn for the worst with storytelling...the music in Sonic games is fire though and gameplay is done well (for the most part *glares at Sonic 06 and Rise of Lyric*)

-I actually like the plots in newer Pokémon games, Pokémon in general is just fun to play and even if the story in games is a little ridiculous at times, the games are still really fun

-The best character in OMORI is not Kel...not including side characters, I would say Sunny is the best character. Though this is just my dumb bias and...I relate a lot more with Sunny than Kel...AND I NEED A SUNNY PLUSH! I NEED TO HUG HIM AND TELL HIM EVERYTHING IS OKAY AND THAT HE IS A GOOD PERSON!!!

-Metro Kingdom in Mario Odyssey really isn’t the best kingdom. If you really think about it, the kingdom is quite small and it was really hyped up in advertisements. There are so many kingdoms that are better in terms of design in my opinion with just aesthetic and how the kingdom’s size is used to its advantage. Yeah, in Metro you can enter various buildings but compared to other kingdoms, it just feels like you’re imprisoned in a sand box for the most part while Sand Kingdom and Wooded Kingdom for example don’t feel like this to me

-Can Sega like...develop their Sonic characters to not be a single character trait? I swear, Tails is just a nerd, Knuckles is a brawn with no brain, Amy is an obsessed fangirl, Shadow is edgy and Eggman is...probably the only character aside from Sonic who actually has character these days. Like...I miss how Sonic characters were portrayed in Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes. Tails learned to be independent and it showed afterwards in Adventure 2 where Tails actually did shit on his own and then in Sonic Forces, he’s back to being a coward! Knuckles guards a damn emerald and yet he’s now portrayed as stupid?! Knuckles, while hotheaded, he is naive at times and is caring of those around him...not he’s sort of just reduced to being an idiot with nothing for the most part. Amy, like Tails, also learned not to be so dependent to Sonic and in Adventure 2, she was upset about being left behind all the time after her adventure in Adventure and the fact that she literally got Sonic out of prison. I mean, without Amy, Adventure 2’s plot wouldn’t have gotten to the points it did. Shadow had a change of heart because of what Amy told him in the Last Story. Which moves into Shadow, Shadow, while more aloof and whatnot, he did genuinely care for people, Maria. Shadow was never truly “evil” towards Sonic. He may have been a rival to Sonic but he wasn’t flat out evil. Now he is mostly portrayed as an edgelord and a bit of an ass towards other characters...when he isn’t supposed to be! He is literally friends with Rouge and evident in the Team Sonic Racing animation SEGA released, he just flat out abandons her! SEGA...please...I want character development, I want a good story, I wanna see characters shine for who they really are (okay, sorry this one is long as balls, lol)

-Pokémon Gen.5 and Gen.6 have some of the best music in my opinion in the Pokemon series. (Also, while ranking Pokémon OSTs, I sobbed when I heard Gen.4 music because it unlocked memories of 7-8 year old me playing Pokémon Pearl before the DS I was playing on broke). But anyways, Gen.5 music and Gen.6 music is amazing! (Also, Gen.8 gym leader fight song)

-I prefer the Dream World in OMORI. That’s probs because I prefer fantasy to reality, even in stories most of the time but aside from that, the characters in the dream world are just awesome

-Man...Koishi is awesome

[borrelia]

okay so like i said, i didn't catch much of the show. i spent the first part of the dream thinking "oh damn that new sonic series sounds CRAZY good, but I can watch it later." and spent my time putting a movie in my dvd player and the menu music was very loud and i turned it off so i wouldnt wake up my family. that kind of stuff. but i DID catch a couple clips of the finale--one that was out of context human characters i don't know having some kind of muted celebration over the credits, and one earlier on in the finale of sonic.

so roger craig smith has gotten fired. like in-universe. which means sonic himself is fired, in a way. sonic is aware of who roger is and that he's his voice okay. so the scene opens on sonic, exhausted, wearign a brown bomber jacket, interviewing for a job at a bar. but he can't say certain things or they'll be taken as a reference to the Sonic the Hedgehog IP, which roger (fired) isn't allowed to do. so he is just miserable, struggling to communicate anything without referencing the fact that he is literally Sonic the Hedgehog.

then AFTER this, i was thinking "god this is sooo good, i can't wait to wake up and actually watch it... wait... does this show only exist in my dreams? it does, doesn't it? fuuuuck i gotta watch it NOW" and i caught a clip of a much earlier episode.

without sonic noticing, his human father is murdered downstairs in their house. brutal. decapitation. the police come in and check it out and remove the body but fsr not the head??? sonic comes down and theres this bit where he's talking to some other characters, just casual, and he looks over and sees his father's head laying against the wall (with a photo stuck to it--the killer was leaving a message). and this visual i thought "i NEED to remember" of sonic and his human stepmom both asking "why is his head so far from his body" and realizing in unison that the killer carried the freshly-severed head across the room. and she just starts SCREAMING in agony on the floor while sonic, who STILL CAN'T CRY BTW, is stuck sitting at a kitchen bar chair with the most distressed and tense posture/expression imaginable as he tries to hold on to ANY sanity, staring at this bloody head on the floor.

like HORRIFYING expression, so good. he goes for a run after this btw.

also just before this scene, he is visited by hitmen who don't kill him right away. they instead instruct him to go to a Plot Location (a garden or amphitheater or something…. with a cult presence?). the lead guy hands sonic a gun clip, with the warning that when the time comes, he will take that back from sonic and use it to kill him. sonic is like "haha alright!" and then he sees his fathers head and so on.

and SADLY that is all i remember but GOD i wish i could watch this show for real, are you KIDDING ME??

absolutely insane dream tonight lads. about a sonic tv series that was an INCREDIBLY good drama, like better call saul kinda acclaim situation, which i thought "i'll get to it later, itl always be around" except turns out it WOULDNT bc its a DREAM and NOT REAL!!!!! so i only saw bits and pieces, incl of the finale but ohhgg my god

[viacursecasting]

Sonadow Scenario #43

{ Warning: Heavily inspired by Spider-Man: No Way Home spoilers }

Illuminating the void was the frail, core form of the Flames of Disaster, floating in Sonic's cradled hands.

"Since we defeated Solaris," he explained, "the only thing left to do is to make sure it never comes to exist." He offered the flame to the lifeform. "Would you like to do the honors?"

Shadow hesitated. "Blowing out this flame means that we'll never have been assigned this mission," he realized. "We'll never have bonded and"—he tinted slightly—"formed a relationship."

"I know," Sonic replied, his ears folding back. "But it has to be done."

Shadow clenched his fists. "No," he stated. "I refuse to forget about us. Not again."

"It'll be okay," Sonic reassured him, putting a hand to his partner's cheek. "I'll come find you, and somehow I'll explain everything."

Shadow sighed, leaning into the hero's caress. "Promise?"

"I promise."

Their foreheads gently touched, Shadow's muzzle a breath away from the hero's lips. The flickering flame made the lifeform's eyes shimmer.

Then he grunted in pain, clutching his side.

Sonic helped keep him upright by holding his elbow. "I wish you hadn't blocked that last meteor for me. You were low on rings. You could've gotten killed!"

But Shadow gave him a small smile. "I had to, Sonic. I..." He swallowed:

"I love you."

The hero's breath hitched. How many times had Sonic dreamed of this moment? Too many to count.

Damn it. To finally hear those words from the person he admired most—only to have it all erased in a few mere moments. Like it never happened.

It was so unfair.

Sonic sniffled. "And I—"

Shadow cut him off by putting a finger to the hero's peachy lips. "You can tell me when you find me."

Sonic nodded, hoping the motion would mask his welling tears, before they both pursed their lips to blow out the flame.

~

"I know this sounds crazy because we're rivals and everything, but there was a timeline where you and I dated."

As Sonic read his scribbled note aloud, he shook his head. "No, no, no. This makes me sound like a lunatic."

He paced back and forth outside the bar for most of the evening, changing and omitting lines on his crinkled piece of paper.

Finally he sighed. "Screw it. I'll just wing it."

Right as Sonic grabbed the door handle, he caught a glimpse through the window, and there, sitting on a barstool, was Shadow.

Sonic stood frozen in place, stunned to silence by the lifeform's handsome features as if he were seeing him for the first time. His steely gaze, his firm build, his collected demeanor...

But there was something else.

Layers of gauze were bound tightly around his chest. He kept his movements to a minimum because whenever he did move, he winced.

Sonic watched with a pang in his heart.

After what felt like an eternity, he took a long, shaky breath, letting go of the door. Then, before he could change his mind, he sped off into the distance in a streak of cyan, teardrops staining the sidewalk.

~

The bat's ear flicked, detecting an almost inaudible noise. From behind the counter, she glanced toward the entryway.

Shadow caught her concerned expression. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Strange," Rouge said as she continued to wipe the inside of a glass. "I thought I heard a customer about to come in."

Shadow followed her gaze, finding nobody. He hummed, idly twirling a drink in his palm. "It was probably just the wind."

[orphancookie69]

Car Cleaning & Maintenance 101

Most people drive a car or drive in a car. While you are getting to be a passenger, I wish I would of asked more questions about rules, mechanics, streets, etc. Things you know more in looking back but not so much in the moment. But then eventually comes the day you have your own car, usually some (relatively) inexpensive starter car, or a family members car heavily used. 

This will kind of read like an overview post, not unlike my makeup post, because while I would like to say I am a mostly functioning and successful adult, I am not a car expert. I find I know more about cars than most people, but I come from a car loving family/mechanic family. But even then, the important thing is to keep your car safe for not only you, but anyone you have in your car with you. 

Maintenance: 

There will be maintenance on your car, whether you are playing the short term game or long term game. It is helpful to put some money aside each month in a “rainy day fund”, because you could be totally careful but “when it rains it pours”. There is always some force you can’t control, like a cheap city that doesn’t fix its streets and need new tires. I would have at least two mechanics you maintain a relationship with: Dealership (good for later on if you trade your car in and they already know you/vehicle) and a local/family member. The smaller shop person may not be able to do the bigger stuff, and be careful with family-just because you are related doesn’t mean they know what they are doing OR will do a good job for you. Treat your car well, take care of it when you see a light, and save up money. If there is anything you can DIY, like having your own tire pressure machine in your trunk, do so. Keep up your insurance, and AAA roadside is never a bad thing to have for emergencies. 

Cleaning: 

Why is clean important? On the outside of your car, visibility. You just mean windows right? Nah, your headlights too, when was the last time you cleaned those? You probably have not. Your headlights and windows make it so you can see the road. Inside, is a health thing. You can totally eat in your car, if you are in it long enough it happens. But food can get caught there, attract bugs, and then germs. Besides the fact that wiping down the inside of the car, not having dust if your allergic to that, is so damn nice. You can use basic cleaners or get car cleaning stuff and just leave it in the trunk of your car. To clean some parts of the car, you will need specialized items, like to clean leather. Try cleaning once a month, in the afternoon when the sun is starting to go down. Make it a party, do a couple at once! 

One of my favorite things to do in life is to slide into my driver seat, turn on my car, listen to my music too loud, and vrooooom along side my engine. It just takes me out of my head and into the moment. I would also say, if you love your car, it will love you back. Name it, if it feels right. My first car was a PT Cruiser, my mom would not let me have a mini cooper-Amore (french for love). She put in her time, and I got the “new car experience” with a Chevy sonic and it was not a love match. I finally got into my teenage dream car, Mini Cooper Clubman named Ami (Mon Ami-my friend). She just celebrated her 5 year birthday with some hefty repair bills, but the only way I say “Adios” is if I get a plug in, but is it worth it to not be able to vroom? 

[fleetsonourgecentral]

So. I like your blog so far. I wish there was more content for these two. This is a great ship, and you write their dynamic in a really nice way. If you’re still taking requests, would you wanna write a fic for prompt 11?

Ah, you and me both, buddy. Sadly this ship's content is nothing but an empty picnic basket, one very few are willing to cook food for. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying what I'm doing with them, though!

11- “I said pass it to me, not throw it in my general direction!”

Scourge, Sonic had come to realise, was a little shit.

Not that Sonic's friends couldn't be little shits when they felt like it. Amy, in particular, enjoyed doing so, because "someone needs to knock you down a peg" or something like that. But Scourge was the very definition of a little shit, at all hours of the day, like it was a job he was determined to earn overtime on 24/7. And sure, Sonic's friends could be little shits. But someone who was a little shit constantly? That was new, even for Sonic.

If asked, he might say it pissed him off. Maybe. Depended on who was asking; can't have his adoring fans and devoted civilians thinking Sonic the Hedgehog was anything but cool and collected at all times, after all. His close friends were an exception. They'd seen him pissed off - and the destructive consequences that came with it - enough times for him to at least admit those feelings to them.

In truth, though, what pissed him off was the way it didn't really piss him off. By all rights, it should. Scourge went out of his way to make a fool out of Sonic or irritate him as much as possible. Deliberately mishearing instructions, talking back at every possible opportunity, turning his own Freedom Fighters against him to play stupid pranks. The level of disrespect he had towards the Hero of Mobius, of all people, wasn't something Sonic encountered often outside the villains he had to fight, and he would've thrown the bastard out of his dimension already if he could just find a damn portal to open.

It was... kind of refreshing, though. Having someone look at his shit and throw it back at him instead of giving him strained laughter or telling him off for being insensitive. So he looked past the disrespect, the pranks, the attitude in general. Looked past the way Scourge was the biggest little shit Sonic had ever met.

Really, forgetting that, even for a moment, was a mistake that was entirely on him.

His second mistake was letting Scourge in the lab when he was working with Tekno to give Kintobor better equipment to run on.

"Hey, Scourge, pass me that monitor."

His words were harmless, but left him wide open for danger. Danger he didn't realise until it was too late. Three seconds after the (nicer than normal, he might add) request left his mouth, he jumped out of his skin as something soared over his shoulder and smashed into the wall. Something with glass and wires and delicate looking components and oh that motherfucker.

Because Scourge, the little shit with a tendency to deliberately mishear instructions, wasn't content with just throwing Sonic's metaphorical shit at him.

"I said pass it to me, not throw it in my general direction!"

Scourge grinned, mischievous and sharp, just like the rest of him. He was leaning carelessly against a pile of boxes containing discarded scraps from Kintobor's old computer. A pile of boxes that was not very well stacked. It wasn't very heroic of Sonic to hope the pile toppled and sent Scourge sprawling, but hey, who was gonna police his thoughts for unheroic hopes?

"You're all the way over there," Scourge said, not quite in a lazy drawl but definitely bordering on it. He pushed off the boxes before they could wobble and collapse. Damn it, there went Sonic's hopes and dreams for the day. "Couldn't pass it to you without moving. Figured throwing it would be quicker."

All the way over there. AKA, two fucking meters away.

"And you couldn't have walked over here and handed it to me? What, your speed disappear when you have to actually carry something other than your own ego?"

"You're the one always bragging about your quick reflexes. Not my fault you couldn't catch it."

"We needed that, you prick-"

"Oh, nice!" Tekno cut into their argument discussion without batting an eyelash, burying herself in the pile of scrap that remained from the demise of the monitor. "I've been looking for this component for ages, it's just what I need for my newest invention! Thanks, Scourge!"

Sonic scowled at her for the blatant backstabbing, then turned back to Scourge to scowl at him, too, but Scourge was smirking an even wider smirk.

A new monitor was in his arms.

"Don't you fucking dare."

Scourge dared, and it was only Sonic's lightning fast reflexes, thank you very much, that saved the new monitor from the same devastating fate as its predecessor.

"Do you have to try and smash everything you can touch?" Sonic snapped. It would've been an extremely intimidating snap, he was sure, if only the monitor he was trying to clutch to his chest wasn't so big. As it was, he was sure the way his arms couldn't fully wrap around it made him look just ridiculous enough for Scourge to laugh away any scolding words. Not that he didn't do that, anyway. "Do you know how long it takes to find the shit we need?"

"To steal the shit you need, you mean."

"When Robotnik isn't in control of every damn store on Mobius, I won't need to steal shit."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, you can chill the fuck out. I threw the old monitor at you. That's the new one."

Sonic's scowl upgraded to a glare. "Why the fuck did you throw the old monitor at me?"

"You said pass that monitor. You never said which monitor."

Sonic flipped him off, pointedly ignoring Tekno's amused giggles and Scourge's self-satisfied smirk. He wasn't going to waste oxygen responding to that.

If asked later, he'd say Scourge spent the whole time they were reconstructing Kintobor's equipment pissing him off. Because he was a rude, disrespectful little shit.

If asked, he would definitely not admit, not even to his closest friends, that he spent the whole time fighting the upward twitch of his lips. Because Scourge was a rude, disrespectful little shit, 24/7, and paraded that around like it was his damn job.

Sonic, as a fellow (and apparently only other) employee, respected that.

[txlesfromtheblxksun]

Flowers from A Dead Man

( Intro for my love )

What’s the reason for my writings?

All this rhyming makes my words sound exciting. Though the truth within don’t quite fit your liking. Nor does it fit mine, tho still I mine. Still I climb this mountain, dreaming of scaling this beautiful stallion. Saddled up for the ride, once I closed my eyes and took a leap of faith as I was placed, on the back of that horse. Rode it through the door, this unicorn’s horn pierced the sheer blackness of fear and spoke clear to me in every language there is, to be sure i could still comprehend. After that accident, that brought a mass of trauma to the brain. A heavy weight the child had to sustain, nights without sleep, were something more frequent than a routine. More like a state of being, more like a way of keeping the heart beating. Especially if opening your eyes, couldn’t be guaranteed. So fuck it, why sleep?

Why weep for you, while knowing what you’ve done to me. The words of a innocent victim, for the suspect, facing time in a penitentiary. Though who’s really caged in? Both hurt by their situations on this earth. I figured we were, both birthed in that mirror. The pain cracked that egg of arrogance and heir, went with the yolk that made us brake fast. His sentence, was similar to mine. I’m writing from within these cells, his rite in a cell. Uneventful tales, that don’t bring in any applauds. No one to say good job.

Those boys in blue, choose to issue the lord with the law. The word, to the god who’s words describe us all. Still we stall. Belly of a beast rumbling, so he falls. Upset by the things he loves best. The only thing known to be poisonous. Love, that sweet delicious dream that brings stability to my world of lopsidedness. All my pics taken with a slant, left eye can’t, quite, make it there yet. Wherever it is the other is looking, I be sure to slow down the attention. Span the object or subject from both sides, whether it be left and right, or positive and negative. I can’t tell you whether something is good or bad, when I have feelings for yall….

“ SO WHATS THE POINT IN LISTENING TO U, AT ALL? “

Beats me, I’ve been wondering the same thing since you called. What is there to converse about? What is there to share? What is there to teach? Damn sure don’t have anything to preach. I’ve just been describing what I think I see, something…..

Something rather strange to say the least, hoping that maybe if I looked at thee artistry I’ve become heavily invested like I stare at me, from the left retina, and the right. Maybe eye, can see the point in which we meet….

“ You know, the meaning? “

Sorry if these years, I’ve been seen as a meany as I continue to operate under these alias names. The only thing about me to ever change. Tho the spelling still describes the same guy, or gal. Depending on how you live, and what belief system you standby…

“ IN THIS GENERATION WE SAY A LOT OF OUTRAGEOUS SHIT! SUCH BOLD STATEMENTS IN ORDER TO MAKE IT SEEM LIKE WE, IS SO DIFFERENT FROM THE ONES WE HATE! “

What a mistake mistook. Cut, and run it back from the top. We only got one shot, and I’m running out of aim. The director of this game, never came to lay down the true purpose in playing. So we just ran with the roll that was given to our souls by the camera, the sun holds on us. As we begin actin after our sin, has developed us in the black room. That gloomy space, in which our heartaches print upon our skin. So the rays make us blind to our blemishes, with makeup sex on set. Cherish and blush, with our star crush. Those who know nothing, about what’s goin on behind the curtain. Tho be certain, to show curtesy curtsying in front of the audience. That don’t know of the chatter, goin on in the front row.

Ironic, this platonic life of sound and sonic. Voices, that move the haunted halls housed vacant, in us all. Truly dark to see behind, or in front of something, that doesn’t wish to present its gif. The big pic, that’s sure to get a laugh, once you feel how heavy it is.

“ So, just you wait. One day imma getcha and the motion we’re moving in, will one day have no choice whether to loosen its grip or not. It’ll suddenly stop, death to a insanely diabolical plot. “

Though with such thoughts like these, I’m wondering, again. How is it that, I can know so much, about something that seems to great or, no way to be true. Though, somehow, still, resonates within U. As if I wrote the navy’s mission statement, that made it easy, to row a boat, through the earth that’s soaked in blood. Neck deep, in fulfilling the ocean’s waves with the blueprint, that’s a perfect depiction of Pangea. The world or, whatever it was b4 there was a leader.

“ B4 there was a need to pose, b4 there was a need to post. B4 the need to boast, like a god. B4 the knowledge of the staff and the rod. B4 the student, ever knew his heart. “

B4 I began to start this journey of journaling, there was a rose. Who too held up a boat, pedals to float in a direction that wasn’t self selected, but paved by our generation. Though beauty was a understatement, to describe a child of god. Only a flow-er, that reflected her stature and felt the strain on her brain that dimmed the stem, and caused a slight walk with a limp. Would’ve, maybe, or even surely could’ve possibly been, the one to chase down that aisle.

“ I’ll be waiting in this life, and, or, the next for, however much love or, whatever the fuck it is you got for me.

If you promise to bring the rosey cheeks, I’ll be sure to leave the poetry. For the pen won’t be needed, for I am already deep in…..

Your love branding me.

[joel-millerr]

Kijimi

Chapter One of We Are One When Together  (formerly A Mandalorian and a Smuggler)

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 8.5K

Warnings: Reader cauterizes a wound, so read with caution if that makes you uncomfortable

Summary: You've become quite a good spice smuggler. You always managed to evade capture, and now the New Republic is getting desperate. After meeting a friend on Kijimi, you planned to get the hell off that planet quietly, but you've never had to deal with someone like The Mandalorian. // This chapter establishes the reader and is more of an introduction than plot driven tbh 

A/N: I’ve never written a second person POV before so pls be gentle. Also, this story takes place after Chapter 12. 

You're sitting in a booth at the back of the cantina. Periodically, you take the time to scan your surroundings. There’s a steady flow of individuals coming in and out, therefore it’s hard to keep track of everyone, but you try to monitor their movements anyway. Being in such a crowded area is risky right now, but when Tye asked you to meet him on Kijimi, you couldn’t pass up the opportunity to catch up. Besides, you’re currently on a work hiatus, and now seemed like the perfect time to get back into the spice smuggling game.

It’s not that you wouldn’t have been able to do anything else. You’re quite skillful with your hands because you used to help your father fix ships back on Tatooine. Theoretically, you could have kept doing that for the rest of your days, but there was always a part of you deep down that made you believe you were meant for more important things. Granted, this isn’t exactly what you had in mind, but it is considerably more exhilarating than just cleaning and fixing ships.

It was Tye who first mentioned this “job”. You were busy fixing a T-14 hyperdrive generator that had been destroyed during a dumb gambling game of chicken. Why people would purposely charge at each other in space, you’ll never understand.

Anyway, he knew you were starting to get tired of the same routine every day. He could see it in the way your shoulders slumped while you were working, and how your voice grew tired of talking about re-wiring, and the maintenance of spaceships.

Ever since you were a child, your father had taken you with him to work and you loved it. You loved being able to spend time with your father and also learn the ins and outs of any spaceship. You could probably take a whole ship apart and put it back together in less than a week, but ever since your parents died, the work became mundane and repetitive. You no longer enjoyed doing the work. You did it just to get by.

“It’s a fairly easy job,” He started to say. You were sitting with your legs crossed, hyperdrive in your lap, rewiring the chunk of metal. “We meet the manufacturer on Kijmi and then come back to Tatooine and bring it to the client.”

“I don’t know, Tye,” You craved adventure, but your friend had a bad habit of getting into trouble. Unlike you, he didn’t have a steady job. Instead, he took whatever was offered to him, no matter how legit it was. You were usually the voice of reason and tried your best to get him on a straight path, but his spirit always craved danger, and while you fantasized about going on epic adventures, you tried to keep it on the legal sides of things.

Tye laid a hand on your shoulder, and in turn you looked up at him. His eyes were gentle, inviting and trusting. More often than not, you attempted your best to avoid his gaze whenever he tried to reel you into something because you knew as soon as you’d look at him, your walls would come crumbling down and whatever he asked you to do would get done. You crossed your left arm over your torso, placed your hand over his, and let a deep breath escape your lips.

“What are we transporting?” You asked, rising to your feet to look at him properly.

He hesitated to answer. Biting down on his bottom lip, his eyes broke contact and shifted down to his feet.

“Tye?” You inquired, leaning down to try to catch his eyes again.

“Uh…” His hand began rubbing the nape of his neck. You came to the conclusion by his behavior that this job wasn’t going to be something along the lines of transporting pieces of scrap metal and he knew you very rarely took on an illegal job. You had done maybe one or two over the years but if you could avoid it, you tried to keep your employment on the side that wouldn’t get your ass thrown in a cell.

“What’s the transport, Tye?” Your voice was more stern this time. This seemed to snap his mind back into reality and he finally met your eyes.

“Spice,” His voice was barely above a whisper and if you weren’t entirely focusing on his tone, you wouldn’t have heard him at all. Your muscles went rigid and you swallowed the lump in your throat you didn’t know was there. Once the empire fell, the New Republic had the impossible task of trying to keep the peace as well as police the entire galaxy, and wherever they were unable to properly govern, spice runners thrived. You had heard stories about spice runners. How every single one was a highly wanted criminal but were almost impossible to find. They worked quietly and discreetly and were able to smuggle spice on pretty much every corner of the galaxy.

“It’s foolproof. They supply the ship and give the location. All we have to do is meet the supplier on Kijimi and then bring the product back here. It’s simple enough,”

You began shaking your head immediately. The risk of getting caught was too high, and spice running was a hard limit for you.

“No, I can’t. What you’re asking is insane, Tye. Spice running?” You emphasized the last two words to make sure you heard him clearly.

“I wouldn’t have offered it to you unless I was absolutely sure nothing bad would happen.” Tye reached out and gently pressed his palm to your elbow, begging you to hear him out. “I can see you don’t love doing this anymore. Ever since your parents passed, I could see the passion disappear. It’s completely drained out of you. We do this one job and then you can go back to fixing hyperdrives in this kriffing hangar.” He waved his arms around the store. “Don’t you want to see what else is out there?”

You opened your mouth to protest but the words never came. He was right. Since you were a child, you dreamed of leaving Tatooine. You were tired of the sand, of the heat, of the kriffing dryness that was always eating at your skin. You dreamed of worlds where lush green ran rampant. Trees that grew so high you couldn’t make out the top. Grass that would tickle your hips as you travelled through it. Clean, fresh oxygen instead of the dry, dirty air you had grown accustomed to here. You had heard stories from travelers whose ships you’d fix about waterfalls, lakes, beaches. A large body of water? All these things you couldn’t even fathom. How beautiful must it be to live on a planet where water wasn’t fucking scarce. What did an actual shower feel like? Not some sonic shower that merely got you sterile enough to do about your daily business, but an actual shower, with water.

So yeah, you wanted to get the fuck off of Tatooine, but was this really the only option you had?

Tye could sense your apprehensiveness, but he knew the idea was tempting. Closing the gap between you, he wrapped his arms around your body. He was much larger than you, and you almost disappeared in his embrace. Taking a deep breath in his chest, you let yourself imagine a better life.

A life where you got to visit new worlds, encounter people from different walks of life, an existence where you truly got to experience the greatest things the galaxy had to offer. As a child, you’d lie in your cot and wish for an extraordinary life. One you could recount to your kids with awe, not wasting your years away on a desert planet that no longer had anything to give you. When your family passed away, you worked yourself to the bone, trying to lose yourself in repairing ships. You wished someone; anyone, would help you escape off this godforsaken wasteland one day.

You’d regret not taking the risk, you thought to yourself.

Before you knew the words had slipped from your lips, you were agreeing to the job.

You’ve been a spice runner ever since, and you were pretty damn good at your job too. Since your frame was relatively small, it was easy for you to slip in and out of towns without ever being seen, and because you had been working on crafts your whole life, you had become pretty good at flying them too. You had made an impressive name for yourself. Even if you had someone on your tail, you were always able to lose them once you left the port. Your movements were sharp as a tack and was always thinking one step ahead. It enabled you to outrun any hunter or whatever sad, inexperienced New Republic officer that tried to snag you. When you first joined, all your runs were with Tye, but soon after getting accustomed to how runs operated, you were able to go solo. After realizing how much quicker the job went by without having to rely on another person, you became a strict lone wolf. On your own, you could take higher risks, and that made the thrill of the job even more exhilarating. You had become quite the adrenaline junkie, taking some chances even your fellow smugglers would find questionable.

On one job, you were purposely sloppy and let some officers tail you right up to the moment you fought them off in your ship just because of the way the blood in your veins fired through your body. The threat of being caught ignited every nerve-ending in your body, and you constantly chased that feeling.

You were staying on a quiet, uneventful planet when you had gotten a hologram from Tye asking to meet you on Kijimi. “For old time’s sake” he said. Since you had no other run lined up, you figured it was a good time to meet him. It had been a couple months since you last saw him, and now seemed like the perfect time to catch up. Maybe he had a job in mind, too.

The life of a spice runner typically wasn’t very long. It was a physically exhausting profession, and often times a spice runner would get captured by either a bounty hunter or an officer of the New Republic, or die at the hands of a rival smuggler. You knew your days as a runner was limited, so you made sure to have the time of your life while you had the opportunity.

Lately though, a lot of your peers were getting caught by some highly skilled hunter. Whoever it was had managed to trap four of your closest counterparts and you were on high alert. No one had ever been able to snatch that many smugglers in such a short period of time, and your particular crew was starting to get anxious. The runs were beginning to get more sporadic, and spending more time underground, only going out when absolutely necessary, hence the reason you were camping out on lightly populated planet. Technically, you shouldn’t even be in this cantina right now. You should be laying low, waiting for the right moment to jump back into action, but because you now have a taste for the wilder things in life, you take the chance anyway. Plus, if Tye is still walking around then it couldn’t be that bad. He had become a lot more cautious than you, so you’re not all that worried.

You continue to keep your head down, only peering up whenever you hear the door opening. From the corner of your eye, you catch the glimpse of a dark maroon shape coming through the door. Tye. He preferred to wear dark colors, as not to draw any attention to himself. Tonight, he’s wearing a dark maroon jumpsuit, a long-ranged rifle strapped around his back. You—on the other hand, believed hiding in plain sight. You tended to wear neutral, earthy colors. It permitted you to blend in with your surroundings. Every run, you’d switch your uniform according to the conditions of the planet. White for cold environments, dark clothes for desolate, bleak planets, and so on.

He stands in the doorway of the cantina, taking a scan of the bar. He knows you usually like to sit in the back so that you have eyes on everyone that comes and goes, and it doesn’t take long for him to spot you. He walks over to your booth with a kind of swagger you’ve grown to love about him. He’s a pretty confident man, without being cocky. The way he carries himself has always fascinated you. His shoulders are always back, arms swaying at his sides, never looking down. He takes long strides as he saunters over to where you’re sitting. As you both have grown, he also has become a pretty well-respected member of your crew and he exudes that in his every step.

You scoot out of your booth to meet him as he gets closer to your table. Big toothy smiles are exchanged between the two of you and he just about runs to close the space between you. His large arms quickly pull you to his chest and all the air nearly punches right out of your lungs. He actually lifts you a couple inches off the ground in your embrace.

“Tye! I have a reputation over here. You can’t just pick me up like that,” However, you’re unable to hide the joy in your tone. You’ve missed him more than you realized. Yeah, you prefer doing jobs alone, but sometimes the solitude can get the best of you. Having someone to banter with, play sabacc with—you miss it, but you both have very different ways of transporting the product, so you know the days of you working together are long gone.

Tye finally lets you down and you both slide into the booth, sitting opposite of each other. You still have a clear view of the door.

“You couldn’t have picked a better shithole to meet?” You remark.

It’s not that Kijimi was a total shithole, it’s just that it was the biggest shithole of a planet you could ever set foot on. The weather was brutal, the people even more so. The New Republic wasn’t able to control the crime here, so criminal activity ran rampant here. Luckily, the main interest in the city was spice smuggling so you had the respect of most of the local spice lords, but there was always the threat of some travelers who couldn’t care less who you were or how important you were to come after you; to kill without mercy and take your corpse to the New Republic. Therefore, you tried to limit your visits unless they were absolutely necessary.

“I figured since we haven’t been together on Kijimi in a while, it might be worth the visit,” Tye answers honestly. Lifting a hand to the bartender behind the bar, they rushed over holding an empty cup in one hand a jug of bright blue liquid in the other. They place the jug between the both of you. Tye reaches into his pockets and places come credits on the table, giving the tender a small nod before they excuse themselves, grabbing the credits and stuffing them in a small bag that was tied to their waist.

“How nostalgic of you,” You mock, lighthearted enough for it to make him chuckle.

Despite trying to keep your mind focused on Tye, part of you is still observing the door behind him. In the short time you’ve been smuggling, not only had your reputation amongst other smugglers grown, but so had the price on your head. The last few jobs had been particularly difficult. Not only were you trying to fight off New Republic officers, but several bounty hunters had been tracking you. Apparently, you had become a huge pain in the ass. Unfortunately for them, that just made the game way more interesting, and honestly it really fueled your ego.

“Any news on the next run?” You inquire. It had been a few weeks since you last had a contract, and the itch for adventure was starting to get under your skin.

Tye’s eyebrows furrow. He looks at you quizzically. “I didn’t ask you to meet you to tell you about another run. I just wanted to see my best friend.”

“Oh come on. There’s always another job. Always someone who needs spice and someone who wants to get rid of it.”

He looks at you like he doesn’t know you. Leaning back in his seat, he begins shaking his head in disbelief.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” You can feel beads of anger building deep inside you. He was the one that got you into this, and now he has the audacity to look at you like he doesn’t know you?

“You’ve changed.”

You scoff and let out a laugh, a laugh that drips with irritation. “Of course I’ve changed, Tye. Did you really think I was going to stay the doe-eyed girl you met on Tatooine?”

Tye reaches over and pours spotchka in both cups before taking his and throwing his head back to swallow every bit of it. “No,” He begins to say, using the back of his tunic to wipe his mouth clean. “I think those two young kids who grew up on Tatooine are long gone.”

Your lips form into a firm line, not entirely sure how to respond without sounding too cynical.

“I’ve heard stories, you know.”

“Oh have you, now?” Your eyebrow raises, and elbows firmly plant on the tabletop. The joy seems to drain from his face. Smile disappearing, and his eyes begin wandering, looking everywhere but into yours. Curiosity is starting to get the best of you, your eyes squinting and burning into him. Testing to see how he reacts; you push him again. “And what have you heard, Tye?”

Green eyes still refusing to meet yours, he’s busy eyeing his fingers that are fidgeting on the piece of wood that separates you. “That you’re becoming too reckless,” His voice is steady, but much lower than his usual tone. “You’re taking too many risks and causing problems where there doesn’t have to be.”

Your hard expression scorches into him. He starts squirming in his seat. Back on Tatooine, it would have been the other way around: you succumbing to his will, but now you’re the one with authority.

“Look,” He says, leaning in towards you. “I’m not gonna sit here and tell you how to do the job. I know you’re good at it.” There’s regret in his voice. It hasn’t gone unnoticed how he looks at you occasionally, almost like he’s ashamed of what he’s done to you. If it wasn’t for that day, you wouldn’t have turned out the way you have. You think he wants to take it all back. Wishing that you stayed some nobody who lived their life fixing and repairing shit.

“But I’m told you have a high bounty on your head. Maybe it’s best if you continue to lay low for a while. Just until the heat cools down.”

You chew on your bottom lip, and your body relaxes into the booth behind you. Deep down you know he’s right. He just wants for you to be safe and admittedly, the way you’ve been acting lately is as if you think you’re invincible. You chase the thrill and the danger but it’s just making everyday life so much harder. Some merchants are too scared to sell to you, locals steer clear of you, and those who aren’t scared get too confident and try to pick fights with you. Despite your size, you’re able to carry your own surprisingly well during a fight. You don’t quite understand it yourself. Each time you’ve had to defend yourself, there was an energy you conjured that came from deep inside you that helped you manipulate your opponent. This energy allowed you to levitate objects or people in mid-air, assisted you to kill them without ever touching them, or even influence them to say and do what you wanted them to.

It was after a late night of sabacc. You were on your way back to your ship when three male figures blocked your path in a nearby alley. Three blasters pointed directly at you.

“Can’t let you pass, sweetheart.” One of them sneered.

Bounty hunters.

One hand slowly glided to the blaster strapped to your upper thigh, the other extending in front of you. “Okay, fellas. I’m sure we can make a deal here.”

“Don’t try that shit with us. You couldn’t possibly come close to the price the Republic is offering.” The man in the middle—a Twi’ you realize, warned.

“The bounty asks to bring you in alive, so let’s not compromise that, okay sweetheart?”

Adrenaline and wrath were starting to seep into your muscles. If there’s one thing you hated, it was chauvinistic men calling you ‘sweetheart’.

“Call me sweetheart again, and it’ll be the last thing you ever say.”

All three men’s cackle echoed through the stone walls.

“I’d hate to ruin a pretty hair on that head, but if you’re going to act like a little bitch then maybe—”

Cutting him off, one of their blasters wiggled out of their reach and smacked the first hunter right in the face before he could finish his threat, blood spraying from his mouth. Your blaster found its way into your hand, raising it to strike him straight in the chest. Simultaneously, your left hand targeted the second assailant’s throat, your hands violently gripping around the pressure of his neck. The hunter attempted to scream, his hands wrapping around his throat as your grip tightened. Fire consumed you, and as your grip on the man’s throat intensified, his body started to lift off the ground. The Twi’ eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets; horror plastered on his face.

“What the fuck are you?!” The Twi’s voice bellowed, spitting as he charged at you, a vibroblade in each hand. Your eyes shifted to him coming right at you with pure fury in his eyes.

“Come here, you little bitch!” He roared.

You let your hold of his partner relax slightly, then your arm swung to the right, forcing the hunter to lift completely off the ground. Once he became jelly in your grasp, you launch him towards the Twi. Both men slammed into the concrete wall next to them. You heard the sound of skull making contact with the cement, then watched them fall to the ground hard. The Twi cried out, “Please don’t!” but you blasted him right between the eyes before he could say anything else.

You stood there, chest heaving. Your eyes examined the men in front of you, not fully understanding how you were able to fight them off. You were outnumbered and they were much larger than you were. Holding out your hands, you stared down at your palms. Squeezing your eyes shut, you tried to focus on the power that expelled from your fingertips. Where did it come from? How do you control it? What was happening to you?

You had never felt such power before. For a moment, you were no longer in control of your movements. In that split second where you gave into that rage, it bended you to its will, driving you to do cause more harm than necessary. This voice inside of you wanted them to hurt, for them to suffer, and you couldn’t resist it.

Tye repeatedly calling you brings you back to the present. “You okay?”

Shaking your head, the corner of your mouth curls into a smile. “Fine.”

The rest of the evening is much more lighthearted. After the initial awkward tension between the two of you, you’re able to enjoy a couple drinks of spotchka and reminisce about old times. You’ve definitely missed his company. Tye is the closest thing you have to family and you cherish him deeply. Your energies mesh together so well, and you have to admit, sometimes you daydream about settling down together, living on a quiet planet and drinking spotchka for the rest of your days until you’re finally arrested. Those are quickly replaced by reality, because the reality is, it’s just not attainable anymore.

The cantina never empties, no matter what time of day it is, and given that there aren’t any windows, you have no clue as to what time it is anymore. You came in just as the sun was setting—what little sun is even offered on Kijimi. It’s easily been a couple hours since then, and you begin to feel the fatigue creeping up on you.

“Where are you staying?” You ask, stretching your arms and your back as much as you can in the booth.

“I have a place not too far from here. It’s tiny, but it’s not like I spend enough time on this planet to need anything bigger. You can stay with me for the night, if you want?”

“That’s okay,” You start to say, shaking your head. “I’m probably going to leave first thing in the morning anyway. I don’t like to linger.”

Tye’s head bobs a few times. “Sure. I have a couple things I need to take care of here before I can leave.”

You cock your head to the left. What could he possibly have to do? You don’t ask though. It’s a common thing for smugglers not to ask questions. Staying in the dark about your crew’s whereabouts and jobs make it easy not to catch too many folks in the same squad. It’s how smugglers have been able to evade capture. If one person is snatched in a team, it’s almost impossible to catch another because chances are, they have no idea what anyone else is up to.

“I should probably head back to my ship then,”

After announcing your leave, you both shimmy out of the booth and rise to your feet. Tye is the first to move into your body and wrap his biceps around your entire torso. Quickly, your arms find their way around his back and you allow yourself to sink into his body. You’ve missed the warmth of another person. For a second, you allow yourself to be vulnerable and really appreciate the physical intimacy. Tye’s the one who finally breaks the embrace, but he keeps you at arm’s length, both hands squeezing your shoulders. Yours drop at your sides and you can’t stop the grin that forms on your lips.

“Sometimes I can hardly believe we used to be a bunch of nobodies on Tatooine,” He says. Before you can come up with a snarky remark, he leans in and presses a gentle kiss to your forehead.

“Bye, kiddo.” Slapping some credits on the table, he turns on his heel and heads to the door. “You’re not even a year older!” You shout, and you’re not entirely sure he hears you given the amount of noise in the cantina, but you see his shoulders bounce, so you assume he heard you. You linger for a couple minutes, finishing off the remaining spotchka on the table. Once you’ve downed the final drop, you thank the bartender for their kind service, toss them some coins and head out the door.

It’s in the late hours when the cold Kijimi winds hit your face. The freezing air is a drastic change from the heat of the cantina and the cold immediately sends chills down your spine. Pulling your hood over your head, you cross your arms across your chest, trying to conserve a little bit of heat. The streets are dimly lit and dirty with mud and snow. It’s a long, dangerous trek back to your ship, so you keep your head down but still keeping an eye out for any potential mercenary or hunter who might want that pretty bounty on your head. Keeping your hand close to the blaster strapped to your thigh, you dart through stone made arches, and small huts. Instead of taking the straight route, you opt to zig-zag through the city, knowing it would be more difficult to track your footsteps this way. It takes more time, but you know this is the safer way to go.

The cold is starting to really get to you, now. Despite wearing gloves, the tips of your fingers are starting to go numb and you thank the Maker once you catch a glimpse of your ship not too far into the distance. You fight the urge to walk straight towards it, instead listening to your gut. You come to an alley, lit only by a small streetlight that’s flickering slowly.

“I can’t wait to get off this shithole of a planet,” You whisper to yourself.

Just as you turn the corner of the alley, you suddenly feel a presence behind you. The adrenaline pumps through your veins, causing your heart to pulse quicker than you’ve felt in a long time. Any sound person would be afraid, knowing they were in for a bout, but not you. No, you chase this feeling on your runs. This is when you thrive.

You stand tall, straightening your shoulders and slowly turn to where you assume the figure is behind you. At the end of the alley, you see the shape of a man—what you think is a man, anyway. The light bounces off the blob in front of you, and realize they’re covered almost head-to-toe in shiny armor. A droid?

“Can I help you?” You question. Your hand rests directly over your blaster, slowly flicking the safety off.

The mystery man/droid doesn’t say anything. He stands completely still, and for the first time in a long time, panic prods at you. Swallowing the lump in your throat, you take a deep breath, hoping it’ll calm the nerves in your stomach.

“Can I help you?” You say through gritted teeth.

Again, you hear nothing.

You stand your ground, refusing to run from the figure. You’ve never been one to run from a fight, and you’re not about to start now. “I’m going to give you one more chance to tell me who the hell you are before I blast you on your ass.” Your voice is stern, now becoming more annoyed with the fact that they haven’t said anything. What the hell is this thing’s problem?

The figured dressed in armor takes a small step forward and finally speaks. “I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold,” His voice comes out low, but is nothing short of terrifying.

You suddenly realize who stands fifteen feet in front of you. It’s him. The hunter who’s created quite the name for himself. The bounty hunter who almost every smuggler has grown to fear. The one who never lets a bounty get away.

The Mandalorian.

As much as you are terrified right now, you can’t help but let a little bit of pride consume you. For the New Republic to have him come after you, it means they’ve gotten desperate. It also means they see you as a threat, and that makes you feel good. So good in fact, that you accidentally let a chuckle escape you.

“How much are they paying you?”

No answer.

You know he’s going to blast you any moment, and you’re trying to buy yourself some time.

“Oh come on. If I’m gonna go down, I should at least know how much I’m worth, don’t you think?”

Your ship is a quick sprint away (if you go straight ahead) but you’re not stupid enough to do that. He’s probably none the wiser and thinks you would, so you have that advantage. Instead, you know running to your left is the safer option. Even though there’s no actual street to your left, you did notice a split in the foundation just big enough for your body to slide through and make it to the next adjacent path, but you’ll need to do it quick. You gauge your assailant’s body language. He’s standing with his legs shoulder-width apart and you think you see his hand resting on his blaster, but you can’t be sure. You do catch the shadow of a rifle strapped to his back, and you know that that armor looks expensive which means it’s probably beskar, which unfortunately for you is basically indestructible. No amount of blasts will penetrate that armor.

Thinking impulsively, you grab the blaster out of your holster and shoot the light, hoping he’ll struggle to find your shape in the dark and praying to the Maker that it’ll give you enough time to wiggle through the stone walls. You sprint for the wall and see blaster fire shoot passed your head. Fuck, he must have night-vision with that helmet.

You manage to squeeze through the crack and end up on the other side. Most likely he’d come by the right, so you avoid that side entirely. Breaking into a sprint, you run down the cobblestoned road. It’s horribly uneven and you trip a few times, but always manage to recover without actually falling.  The air cuts at your face and makes it harder to breathe but you persevere. If you were to stop, even for a moment, you risk getting caught. Your mind is running a million miles a minute, trying not to look back but also trying to imagine the more tactical way to capture you. Before you can think of your next move, the door to a hut opens and someone seizes your left arm and pulls you into the house with such force, it almost feels like your arm was ripped right out of its socket. The door shuts behind you immediately but before you can make a sound, Tye’s hand comes to cover your mind.

“Shh,” he warns, pressing a finger from his free hand to his lips.

You nod and he releases the grip he had over your mouth.

Tye crouches near the window by the door, checking to see if the hunter is out there.

“I can’t see him,” He says, turning his gaze towards you. You move from the doorway and crouch next to him by the window. Both of you continue to scan the street, looking for any sign of the attacker.

After a few minutes of looking with no luck, you conclude that he’s lost you. You retreat from the window to examine the room. It’s tiny, the bed almost immediately to your left and you wonder how anyone could possibly sleep there. The door is just a few feet away and you can assume the cold penetrates the door easily enough. Sleeping there must be miserable. The only source of light emanates from a few candles scattered throughout the room.

“This is my place,” Tye explains before you can ask. “It’s not much but it’s better than sleeping in one of the taverns.” He passes you and lowers himself in an armchair, rubbing the palms of his hands against his face.

“How did you know?”

“Call it intuition.”

The adrenaline is slowly wearing off and now you feel an ache in your bicep. You look down and notice a section of your coat has been ripped right off. Then you notice blood, a lot of it.

“Maker!” Tye all but jumps right out of his seat and rushes to your side. Gently grabbing your elbow, he inspects your wound. It’s pretty deep and will need to be cauterized.

Realizing it at the same time, your eyes meet. “Just do it.” You whisper to break the silence.

“I can use bacta spray instead. It’ll hurt less,” He says, before turning towards the cupboards, rummaging through the shelves and tossing whatever he can find, on the ground. You carefully remove your coat without touching the gash on your arm.

“Bacta spray will hard to find at this hour,” Your voice is barely above a whisper. The pain is starting to disorient you, and you manage to sit down on the bed before collapsing. “Just do it, Tye.”

Your friend stops searching for the spray, and he’s quickly by your side again with a clean cloth. He begins wiping the blood away. It stings and you swear under your breath.

“If you think this hurts…” His voice trails off. Yeah, you both know cauterizing it will hurt even more.

Trying to lighten the tension, you force a laugh. “Don’t worry. I’m a big girl, I can handle it.”

It’s true. You’ve broken bones and you’ve been hit a lot worse. If you ever manage to successfully make a run without injuring yourself, it’s a miracle. This is nothing new.

Tye leaves your side to warm up his vibroblade on one of the candles nearby. Once the blade is steaming, he returns to you. He holds out the blade, and you take it from his hand. Releasing a deep breath, you hold the blade to your arm and press it into your flesh. It sizzles and smells awful. Tye squeezes his eyes shut, like he thinks it’ll stop the whole ordeal. You stifle down the scream that desperately tries to come to the surface, and groan instead. Pressing the blade to your skin in short bursts, the blood slowly stops spewing and the pain from the actual blast begins to subside. Once the sting begins to slow, you drop the blade on the ground. Tye’s eyebrows relax as he inspects your skin.

“You should still put some bacta spray on that, to avoid getting it infected.”

Nodding slowly, you let out another deep breath through your lips. “I have some on my ship. I’ll head out in the morning and hopefully get to it before metal man out there can get me.” You try to be lighthearted with a joke. Tye either doesn’t catch it or think it’s funny because he’s shaking his head at you. He meets your eyes and whispers your name. “Having a Mandalorian after you is serious business. Those guys don’t fuck around.”

You sit up straight and look at his defensively. “Yeah, I know Tye.”

“Do you? Because you’re still making jokes. Do you know that Mandalorians are like the best killers in the galaxy?”

That sends daggers through your entire body. You rise to your feet, slowly until you’re almost towering over him. “I’m well aware of their abilities, Tye.”

“Why do I get the feeling that this is just a giant ego boost for you?”

That you actually scoff at. “Kriff…” Taking a step away from him, your hands rest on your hips. “Am I a little proud that they had to get a Mandalorian to arrest me? Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to act reckless and change my tacti-“

“But you are reckless!” Tye pushes against his knees to stand eye level with you. “You always do this. This is why no one wants to work with you!”

Your eyes widen, mouth dropping. “I don’t want to work with anyone because they slow me down!”

Immediately, your friend’s shaking his head. “No, that’s not why. Everyone’s deemed you too dangerous to actually work with. It’s a miracle you haven’t been caught yet.”

You try to interject but Tye holds a hand up to stop you. “I’m not done. Yeah, you’re good at smuggling, probably one of the best, but at what cost? Where’s the girl that was gentle, kind? Where’s that girl who would fix ships with her dad and play in the sand dunes with me? That girl who nursed an injured womp rat back to health because you saw some stupid kids shoot at it? Where did my best friend go?”

The laugh that erupts in the room is anything but joyful. It’s resentful, it’s anger. Your best friend stands inches away from your face, insulting who you are. Who he essentially created.

“She grew up, Tye! My parents died and left me all alone on a planet that shouldn’t even exist. I had no choice. You think a ‘gentle, kind’ girl can survive in this galaxy?”

Tye’s fists ball up at his sides. “I miss that girl. Who you are now, it’s not who I remember. This job has tainted you.”

“Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you dragged me into this world five years ago!”

“Don’t do that…” His shoulders drop, his head hanging in defeat.

“I love you Tye, but I can take care of myself. I’m not scared of some Mandalorian. I’m not afraid of anything.” A lie, but you refuse to look weak.

“I know…” He admits, his head still looking at the ground. “That’s the problem.”

A few moments pass in silence. Neither of you try to break the apprehension in the air. You can sense that Tye’s been waiting a long time to admit that. That he doesn’t like what you’ve become, and maybe he’s right. Maybe you do act impulsively, maybe you do put yourself at risk unnecessarily just to fill this void inside of you. A void that’s been eating at you since you were a child, but it’s not something you want to hear right now, or maybe ever.

“I’m heading to my ship.” Grabbing your coat off the cot, you slip into it, groaning as the material slides against your sensitive flesh.

That appears to snap Tye out of his thoughts because he looks right into your eyes.

“Please don’t. He’s probably still out there.”

“Well it’s like you said,” Usually, your voice is soft. You’ve never spoken to Tye with such anger before, but something inside of you now sees him in a different light. You resent him. “I’m too reckless.” You growl.

Tye mouth is agape and it almost looks like tears are forming in the corners of his eyes. He takes a step back like he’s been stabbed, which I guess is true. Your tone said it all.

You both realize at the same time that this is probably the last time you’ll see each other.

Turning on your heel, you head towards the door. “Take care, Tye.” You say over your shoulder before pressing the button to open the entrance. It lifts off the ground and you step out, not even looking at your surroundings before throwing the hood back over your head and heading straight for your ship.

If you want me, come get me, Mandalorian.

You’re not careful about the walk to the ship. You’re not careful passing corners or getting to the port. You’re behaving stupidly on purpose. You want to fight him; you want to prove to everyone and yourself that not even a Mandalorian can catch you. It’s extremely naïve but your blood’s boiling and its currently clouding your judgement. You spot your ship and march towards it, without a damn care in the world. Clicking the button on your bracelet, the ramp opens, and you begin to walk towards the slope. Once your foot touches the metal, you catch a glimpse of something shiny at the very top of the ramp. A sly smile creeps on your lips.

“You know, it’s rude to hijack someone’s ship.” You peer up at him.

The Mandalorian’s tense, with his hand hovering over the blaster strapped to his right thigh. Legs once again spread shoulder width apart, he oozes authority. The metal—beskar, glistening against the moonlight. You fight the submissiveness that begins to creep up on you. You refuse to show him weakness. If you’re gonna get caught, you’re gonna make sure you put up a fight.

Your strides up the ramp get smaller and smaller. Adrenaline fully pumping now through your entire body. You wonder how close he’ll let you get to him before blasting you right off your feet.

“I do have to admit, getting caught by a mandalorian is pretty admirable.” You taunt.

His hand gets closer to the blaster and you think this is your moment. Just as he rips the blaster from its holster and fires at you, your right hand comes up, catching the blast mid-air and deflecting it. It hits one of the cargo boxes and explodes. Before he can fire another shot, the blaster is ripped right out of his hand and goes flying into your palm. As soon as you get both blasters in your hands, a grappling line exits his vambrace and wraps tightly around your ankles, causing you to slightly lose your balance. He pulls hard on the rope and it sends you flying backwards. Your head hits the metal hard, and for a second your vision begins to fog. You blink repeatedly, trying to get your damn vision to clear, but before you can even begin to push yourself to the ground, the Mandalorian is hovering over your body. One leg on each side of your thighs, he leans down and grasps both your wrists with one hand and straps some binds around them. You give it one last ditch effort and try to kick up at him, but his reflexes are surprisingly quick and catches your calf with his free hand.

“Maybe if you stayed with your friend, you might’ve gotten away without me catching you.” He says through the helmet. The baritone of his voice immediately causes your breathing to hitch. Your heart is pounding in your chest and heat begins to form in your stomach.

“Then again,” He begins to say, pulling you to your feet. “because you’re so careless, I’d find you again.”

In any other circumstance, you’d have a sly comment, but right now you can’t even remember how to speak. Once on your feet, you notice just how big he actually is. Sure, the armor might add to his demeanor, but you can’t help but be intimidated now. He towers over you, and you have to strain your neck just to look at him. You try to see his eyes through the ‘T’ of his visor, but it’s too tinted. He loops his forearm around your bound arms and guides you down the ramp.

“I can walk on my own, you know?”

The Mandalorian doesn’t answer. He simply continues to drag you whichever way he wants. As you make your way to his ship, your heart is still hammering in your chest. The way he carries himself, you’ve never seen anything like it. He’s definitely intense, but nothing short of fucking mesmerizing. Most of the hunters you’ve encountered were cruel and mouthy. But the Mandalorian? He barely spoke to you; he didn’t let his any emotion come through. You can outtalk any hunter, but you couldn’t do that with him. He was one step ahead of you, which you have to admit has never happened before.

Once you reach what you assume is his ship, you can’t help but be taken aback by it.

“Whoa, is that a pre-Empire ship? I didn’t think those things still existed.”

He says nothing, as per usual. In the very short time you’ve known the Mandalorian, you noticed he’s a man of few words.

You’ve spent your whole life around ships, but you’ve never seen one quite like this. It’s pretty dated and looks in pretty shit condition, honestly. Several panels are completely dented, and whatever isn’t dented is scratched up badly. You can tell it’s been in a good number of shootouts. It’s a miracle this ship is still operational.

He presses a button on his vambrace, and the ramp opens up, creaking as it lowers to the ground. The Mandalorian lets go of the grip he had on you, and gently pushes you in front of him, instructing you to walk ahead of him. You head up the ship, turning back to look over your shoulder one more time. In that moment, reality hits you. You’ve been caught. You’re going to live the rest of your days in a cell. Actually, with your reputation, you’d be lucky if you get a cell. The New Republic will probably have you sentenced to death. While you didn’t expect to live to an old age, you didn’t think you’d die this young, but it comes with the job description. Everyone’s gonna get it sooner or later, and unfortunately for you, it seems like the former.

You take notice of the three other quarries in carbonite to your right. Heating beating so fast, you’re sure it’ll burst out of your chest, you start babbling.

“Please don’t put me in carbonite,” You plead, turning around to face your captor. He’s already closed the ramp and is busy removing the rifle off his back, placing it back on the wall of the ship. “You already have me in binds, I can’t go anywhere. I won’t cause any more trouble. Just please, no carbonite.”

At first, he doesn’t bother to look at you. He lingers there for a few seconds, probably arguing with himself on the best way to handle you. Your eyes burn into his helmet, praying to the Maker that he’ll give into you. You’re chewing down on your bottom lip so hard, you’re sure you’ll break skin. Eventually, he turns to face you and begins a slow, tantalizing walk towards you. Panic overwhelms you, and you begin to shake your head frantically. Since when did you become such a submissive? Under any other circumstance, you’d be throwing insults, trying to get under his skin, manipulating words in an effort to aggravate them. You might even try to manipulate him into doing what you ask but your brain is shut off. You can barely form a coherent thought. Therefore, you resort to begging and pleading with the Mandalorian.

You can’t stop your body from trembling, and as he reaches to grab your wrist, you shudder at his touch. You swear his glove is on fire because how the hell is it possible that his touch burns into your skin? You keep your head down, not having the strength to meet his visor. You’re crumbling under him, letting him take absolute control of you.

“Up,” is all he says, as he gestures you to the ladder that goes up to the cockpit. Swallowing the lump in your throat, you nod and let him guide you to the ladder. It’s hard to climb with your hands bound but you do your best.

Once you reach the top, you wait for him to catch up. Putting a hand on your lower back, your breathing hitches when he touches you. His hand nearly cover your entire waist and you can’t help but imagine that thick hand wrapped around your throat.

Maker this shouldn’t be turning you on. He captured you.

He guides you into the seat that’s to the right of the pilot, and then sits himself in the pilot’s seat. He begins the take-off sequence, and the ship’s thrusters roar to life. As the ship lifts off the ground, it creaks and makes you shift in your seat. You take one last look at Kijimi as his ship climbs higher and higher into the air, realizing that for the first time ever, you lost.

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff: Best of 2020

I don’t need to say much about how this year sucked. What matters is that if you’re reading this, congrats because you made it through and you’ll know that animation in 2020 has certainly made its marks as much this year as it did the last. Effort was still made to provide some of the best entertainment imaginable, and I’m here to provide the TOP TEN BEST entertainment I’ve experienced and loved this year. With that said, let’s get to it…

10. Sonic Rebuilt

I’ll admit, I don’t like the Sonic Movie. It was not a good film to me & while I’m holding out for the sequel, I genuinely never want to see it again. But like Biden to Trump, the people behind Shrek Retold gave us a reanimated telling of the Sonic 1996 OVA. Like Shrek Retold, it offers a compelling new light to the OVA and while the original is much cleaner, and it’s not the most hype thing to come from Sonic overall, the imaginative cauldron of artists that put into this makes it far more rewatchable. 

9. Central Park

I knew after watching Bob’s Burgers that creator Loren Bouchard would eventually make a musical cartoon and I’m glad I was right. Central Park is a first for me where it’s an animated musical that isn’t a film or only occasional like Steven Universe or Adventure Time and while it isn’t the best plotwise, the numbers themselves were heartfelt and sometimes catchy. There’s a struggle in being episodic and serialized, and it’s a slow burn to connect with the characters, but this was admirable in its experimentation and I’m interested in the direction season two will go.

8. Interspecies Reviewers

The first horny anime I can safely say was never an off-putting or one-note gag fest; that’s gotta count for something. The momentum of this series never truly dies and even when there were a couple times where I just wasn’t feeling it, they pull me back with something ten-fold entertaining. Fresh variety is what I can describe this series at its best, it knew how to keep things going and growing even when it’s otherwise formulaic. All the while, this series never felt tasteless; it really felt structured and gallantly clear-minded in what it wants to show. Plus, it has Crimveal who next to Steven Universe is the best boy of 2020. Of course this show ain’t for everyone but my god, it does so much right for me upon most ecchi stuff.

7. Primal

I wanna believe this was what Genndy Tartakovsky always wanted to make after Samurai Jack ended (well, the 2nd time). This show really exhibits his many techniques in direction, like you can tell this is his work if you’ve seen his other shows. Primal always feels like the culmination of all that’s he towards as a man of animation. Even with the roars and the harsh sounds of violence, this is the only cartoon that never says anything but conveys everything so vibrantly. This admittedly isn’t my favorite piece from Genndy, but it definitely made it’s way to the top three.

6. Team Fabulous 2 Reanimated/Suponjibobu Anime

We got a tie here because these I especially felt brought people together. Suponjibobu brought people together to celebrate Spongebob Squarepants like never before, making it as legendary this year as Mr. Krabs Overdoses on Ketamine. A beginning to a series long in the making and can hopefully go for more as animation on Youtube has certainly delivered. 

The Team Fabulous 2 Collab was where a community came together to honor the creator to one of the most recognized fanworks for a game that has stood the test of time. Like Sonic Rebuilt, it’ll never replace the original but god damn it’s like the stars aligned, especially after we were dealt with another loss this year, where we could appreciate TF2 for the culturally powerful game that it is.

5. Crash Bandicoot, It’s About Time

I’ll say again but this game feels like a dream. A good, fresh looking, fun to play Crash Bandicoot game that feels like the gamiest game this year after all the discourse surrounding Last of Us 2 and plenty other shit surrounding the game industry, Nintendo included. Like, I just gotta appreciate this. It’s by no means the greatest Crash game, the completion journey is horrifying, but my god it was a great game to jump into again and again. It feels like a testament to what Crash can be in the modern era and I certainly want more of it. Bugsnax is objectively game of the year if not Hades, but Crash 4 is my personal GOTY. 

4. Glitch Techs

It’s the gamer equivalent to Men in Black, that’s enough of a seller. From the people behind Fanboy & Chum Chum, it’s genius well-animated, realized, and not immediately dated. It’s a mind-boggling crime Nickelodeon isn’t treating this show better because it deserves recognition as an innovative idea. It does a lot right and it’s a worthwhile action series up there with Rise of the TMNT that’s worth the risk to give it more of an audience as opposed to just thinking it’ll be the next Spongebob. If it’s future is anything, I enjoyed this series and there’s nothing like it.

3. Wolfwalkers

This was an animated film with the most personality to me in a long while, with the most memorable look to it, compelling leads, and animation that really made its mark in the moments that mattered. I’ll agree with other reviewers that, outside Mebh who is the greatest and besterest girl of 2020, it's a simple story but it’s effectively simple. Beside the 3rd act which was noticeably long, the moments flow one after another fluently and you really get the struggle between two immediate friends that are shackled with responsibilities their parents didn’t want to put on them. Like Netflix’s Klaus, it all comes together like a beautifully seasonal tapestry. Worth watching and supporting is the best I can tell you for this film.

2. Elinor Wonders Why

This is my most personal of personal choice for the list; like True and the Rainbow Kingdom, it’s the one that helped pick me up after being in a slump for most of this year. I’ve always had an interest in understanding the fundamentals of nature, and this show encourages thinking about the wonders of science, where something as simple as a feather can make you wonder of its many shapes, abilities, and functionality. It appealed to me in the best way that it does more than represents your existence but deep down represents why you are the way you are with your interests and the flexibility of your outlook. I wish it was number one but it did enough to make the top of this list.

1. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken

I mean what else could be number one? This is the most ‘anime’ anime I have ever seen. The story, characters, and world building are at their most realized. I can’t imagine anyone other than Science Saru, with the based Yuasa, animating this with the style it has. Every episode is an engaging puzzle to every 4th episode where it all culminates with the in-universe final product of our Eizouken trio. It’s so compellingly meta it hurts as I could gush about every single detail that went into this series both in universe and the real behind the scenes. But what makes this the greatest is how nothing feels contrived, everything in this anime exists for something and the obstacles our characters face are things you’d definitely face in you were in there shoes. It’s energy is what really carried me through this year and I can safely say this is one of my all time favorites. And it really says don’t give up believing and working for better things to come, because if art like this can be made nearly flawlessly, it’s always worth carrying on to see something just as great if not greater. That’s why this is a masterpiece to me...

Then again...

[popculturebuffet]

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: The Last of the Clan McDuck!  Review “It Was Worth THE Dime”

This is one of my faviorite comic book stories of all time. Given i’m a massive comics nerd, for both books and strips, that is the highest praise I can give this wonderful, epic, beautifully drawn and deeply emotoinal story. I first discovered it in the local library that had the second volume, and found the rest online at a now long dead fan site. And while it took me longer than I care to admit to really dig into Duck Comics, and even now i’ve only scratched the surface, I can say without a doubt this story is the reason I’m so deeply attached to Scrooge as a character, and that I was excited as  I was for Ducktales 2017. This comic showed me just what Scrooge McDuck should be at his core as a character, and showed me what a wonderful character that is. So with all that glowing praise as you can guess i’ve been wanting to cover this for years, and even considered though back when I was more primarily a comic book reviewer last year. Any time i’ve reviewed stuff before now, i’ve considered it, and with Scrooge’s Sisters Hortense and Matilda presumably and definitely debuting on Ducktales soon, and it’s about damn time, the timing could not be better or clearer to dig into this utter triumph.  But before we can take a look at the story itself we naturally have to take a look at the man behind it: Writer and Artist Don Rosa. Don Rosa is easily one of the best Duck Comics writer out there, seen by many as only second to his own faviorite duck comics writer and God of Ducks, Carl Barks. For those 1 of you who do not know, Barks was the man who created pretty much everything in the duck universe comics wise and a bit in animation too: He created Daisy, Scrooge, Gladstone, Magica, The Beagle Boys, The Junior Woodchucks, Gyro, Little Bulb, Glomgold, Rockerduck, and the list goes on. While he didn’t make EVERY duck, he made so many that it’d be impossible to imagine either version of Ducktales being possible without him.  So of course Rosa was a fan and while he took up the family buisness, he was also an artist and duck comics fanboy on the side. So when, even if it meant a paycut, the opportunity to actually write and draw them came up, he lept at it and thus became one of their publishers go to guys, even if said publisher published the stories overseas where the Duck Comics are far more popular and still going to this day, and ironically where most duck comics printed nowadays get their stories from. Rosa was known for his meticous historical research and gorgeous art that he took his time drawing to get just perfect and showed on the page. The man has easily some of hte best and most detailed duck art around and I still haven’t found a duck artist that can match him.. and if you have or found one close i’d genuinely love to see that. He is a genuinely talented, spirited guy who was sadly mistreated by disney and that, coupled with tragically failing eyesight, eventually ended his career. He’s still around and I genuinely hope to meet him some day as he still does conventions.  The man is not without fault: I don’t get his hatred of superhero comics, as while I get them overshadowing funnybooks and that around the time of his career they were in decline, but it’s just as unfair to write off Superhero comics as mindless.  garbage as it is for people to write off the Duck Comics as “only for kids” and I genuinely wish he’d see that and see how the medium has evolved so much since then. I also grumble a bit as his refusal to allow anything besides barks into his bubble, and having to be forced to include fethry on the family tree, but that’s more personal preference. I like using as much material as you got. IT’s why i’ve wanted to, and hopefully will eventually get around to, write a sonic fanfic using bits of all the various universes that for legal, ken penders being an absolute waste of a human being, and sega being stupid reasons can’t be used anymore. I like taking everything in a franchise and putting it in a blender and it’s why I love the reboot. But there’s nothing wrong with taking things as is, not stepping on toes canon wise, but still being awesome. We’re just diffrent people and that’s okay.  And a lot of his fanboy showing actually lead to REALLY good things: Goldie O’Gilt was a one off character, and while used ocasoinally overseas, didn’t really pick up as a character again until a combination of Ducktales 87 and Rosa’s work with her, as he always loved the character, and fleshing her out lead to her being used more, and gaining a sizeable fandom. He also gained the Cablleros an even bigger fandom by giving them two stories of their own, and fleshing them out a bit more.  And this very comic is the peak of that, taking EVERY mention of scrooge’s past from various backstories to set up adventures, every tiny scrap, and to his credit going to both Barks Himself and various other Barks Experts Rosa was friends with to check his work, especially difficult given he likey had to find these stories in issue or pullt hem from disney archives, and complied it into one long epic that not only uses all this info effortlessly, but spins a compelling story that gives us a clear vision of what Scrooge should be, how he became the man he is, and how he lost himself only to find himself again with the help of three precocious boys and a cynical 30 something duck. So taint all bad is what i’m saying.  As for how this got started, thankfully rosa himself provided the origin story for this project in the back of the volume of his works that contained the first 7 chapters of life and times, as well as detailed notes for every chapter. At the time Rosa was working for Egmont, the big european publisher who handles Disney’s much larger european comics market, hence why most of his stories appeared years earlier in Europe before debuting here. The american publisher at the time , and an old friend of his, called Rosa with an idea: A 12 issue Maxi-Series focusing on Scrooge’s history, since at the time they were all the rage.. and really even today mini series are still a viable market and many indie titles just have several minis instead of an ongoing. So it wasn’t a bad idea, Rosa just simply offered a tweak: He’d tell his publisher at Egmont about the idea, and let her get a crack team of writers and artists to do this proper, and thus Disney could publish it for free once it was done and for no extra cost. Rosa gave his publisher a fax detaling both the idea and the fact that it needed to be done right, given to the best person possible, and done with the greatest care. She agreed.. and naturally handed it to him, as he admits he hoped. She made the right call, a legend was born and here we are.  One last bit before the read more and before I get to the first story itself at last: Since barks wrote a lot of side stories that fit into the canon, I COULD slot them in between chapters, but have instead chosen to review the original 12 part story as was, and do the various side stories and two epilogues, the utterly fantastic “Dream of a Life Time”, easiliy one of my faviorite comics ever, and the also really great “Letter From Home”, which will likely on some level be the basis for the upcoming at the time of this review “Battle for Castle McDuck!”, after completing the story. In other words i’m probably going to be at this for years. so join me under the read more won’t you as I begin the journey of a thousand miles with a single step as we look at the humble start of a legend. 

We begin, after a fun short teaser with present Day scrooge saying his past is no one’s buisness only to get hit with an oh yeah?,  with a scrap book title for the issue, something I want to bring up since while I got that’s what it was what I never got, and  must’ve glanced over when I first read rosa’s notes when I got this copy, was that it isn’t SCROOGE’S scrap book, but his sister Matilda’s who dutifully and happily catologued her brother’s adventures. It’s a really sweet moment.. and something that will hit VERY hard when we reach Chapter 11. If you haven’t read this story or heard of it.. .that’s this story’s equilvent of “Last Crash of the Sunchaser” and clearly Frank and Matt drew from that story a bit for it, but we can get more into the parallels when we get there. A smaller but fun note is that Rosa had specific coin drawing templates, for different indentions and what not he used, and used them for the coins in these intro bits. Yes he admitted he has a problem and yes that’s damn impressive anyway. 

It’s Scrooge’s 10th birthday, and his father Fergus has taken him up to see the family land, Dismal Downs to tell him of the mighty Clan McDuck and show him the ancestral lands, graveyards and Castle. He admits to having taken this long because the Clan McDuck currently lives in Glasgow so it’s kind of a long trip just to show your son “Hey look at the decay and rot that’s our ancestral homeland”. The Clan is on hard times, as a bad shipping deal, the backbone of a rather good barks story and I wont’ be interjecting for every barks reference as it’d get rather tiring though for what it’s worth Rosa provided tons of detailed footnotes in the back of each Fantagraphics collection, so good on him. Speaking of which though they do include 10 pages of Mc Duck family history that was supposed to open this story.. until Rosa’s editor wisely pointed out the story isn’t about them but scrooge and having read his roug draft, yeah.. there’s a good gag here and there, as well as “Dirty” Dingus McDuck, scrooge’s Grandpa and the reason Dewey is cursed with that middle name. Why anyone thought Dingus was a good name is beyond me, nor why Donald thought that was a good middle name back in 2009 is again, beyond me. Good on Don though for getting that past the censors.  But yeah with no money they can’t buy the land back and they were scared off it years ago by a mystical ghost dog, the hound of the whiskervilles. There is treasure in the castle, Sir Quackly’s gold, but he accidently sealed himself into a wall while sealing his treasure in there. Their interrupted by the town assholes, the Whiskervilles who have been grazing sheep on the land and are naturally behind the hound, using the sound of it to scare off Fergus once they realize he’s a McDuck. Because apparently you can keep a Scooby Doo style hoax up for Centuries if you don’t have meddling kids around. Who knew.  Back in Glasgow, we meet the rest of Scrooge’s family: His Uncle Jake, his sisters Matilda and Hortense, and his mother Downy. Jake hasn’t really been mentioned at all in Ducktales and I know next to nothing about him, which given I share a name with the guy you’d THINK I would. I mean I know a decent amount about this Jake. 

But nothing about who the hell Jake McDuck is or why he lives with his brother and his family. Here, you guys watch the dancing Jake, i’m going to probably do that for hours after this review is done, i’m going to go sort this out.  Okay one google and finding the Scrooge Mcduck wiki page on him, Jake shows up here likely because he was referenced in the story “A Christmas For Shacktown” and apparently borrowed from Scrooge and never paid it back. Otherwise.. there’s not a lot about him and unlike the rest of Scrooge’s family he really dosen’t do much that I can remember. Except like 2017 Scrooge, he apparently has become extremely long lived, as Scrooge and Donald STILL think he’s alive in the 1950′s.. and likely is STILL alive in some form in the Don Rosa stories, given his take place after Barks and thus in the 40′s and 50′s where Barks stories were set. Hence why unlike the Reboot, Scrooge isn’t inexpecilbly over 210. But Jake McDuck sure as heck is. Maybe this highlander is a highlander.. you know the movie and tv show type. Maybe someone cut off his head. That’s what i’m going with.

This does bring me to another point about this story: While Barks gave all of scrooge’s family their names, it’s where Rosa got them after all, it’s Rosa who really made them into characters. Fergus as a loving father ashamed his family legacy has fallen and wanting his son to do better than him, Downy as an equally loving wife and mother, Matilda as his sweet and caring sister and later her brother’s moral center, and Hortense.. well here she’s just a babbling baby but her character will become clear and glorious as we go. She is adorable here though and we do get some great bits with her.  Getting back to the plot now i’ve made my points, Jake is riled up wanting to understandably kick the Whiskerville’s asses with Scrooge, who even as a sweet innocent ten year old still has the family temper already, agreeing.. but Downy gently shoots them out pointing that two middle aged-ish men and a 10-year old just aren’t enough to fight an army of them and while she doesn’t mention it the fight would just tire them out for work and accomplish nothing as while it is the McDuck’s land the combination of the hound and the lack of money to move back means it’s pointless. She also mentions their younger brother Pothole, who went to America. This will be important later. 

Scrooge storms off and Fergus laments, in a scene that’s more painful the more I think about it, how his clan has fallen, with he and his brother lamenting their chances at glory are long gone.. but Fergus has hope his son can do better, and for his son’s birthday makes him a shoeshine kit in the hopes of inspiring him to greatness. This scene still resonates since many of us are poor, struggling and not doing so good money wise. I’m sure many parents have doubts and regrets about not being able to do more for their kid.

 Not only that but the story carefully avoids the trap of Fergus accidently being abusive by you know, pinning his family’s future on one 10 year old. While yes he is asking a lot of Scrooge, to restore their family name.. it’s very clear he mostly just wants his son to do better than him. Even if Scrooge was just slightly more successful, Fergus would likely be happy with that. He’s not using the legacy as a “This what you must be” like say the Gems in steven universe did for Steven with Rose’s Legacy, the kind where it sort of suffocates you till youc an make it your own. He’s just saying “this is what you can be” He believes his child can be great and simply once him to reach his full potetial and is simply giving him a means to hopefully do so, a simple home made shoe shine kit. While Jake scoffs, the narration notes the idea isn’t worth a dime.. it’s worth THE dime. The dime that would set Scrooge’s destiny in motion. 

The next morning, Fergus goes to check up on his son and his new buisness but Scroogey’s having no luck and about ready to just quit, the poor child. Also Matilda is dragging her baby sister around like a doll and it’s entirely precious as it is funny. 

But as for those Dorty Boots, Matilda wonders why her dad dosen’t just tell Scrooge that Burt the Ditch Digger is coming. Fergus tells her to quite and then explains his plan: he’s sending Burt to scrooge, with an American dime Fergus and Matilda found, to teach his son a lesson: By giving him a hard days work, he’ll teach him what hard work truly means.. and by having Burt “cheat” him with the American dime, it’ll give him the motivation to keep going and to nto be as wide eyed and trusting. It’s a well meaning if harsh lesson, and the kind you’d expect from 1900′s parenting and fits the origin well: Scrooge still earned his first money square, as he still did work.. but his getting cheated being a lesson dosen’t diminish what it taught scrooge, and helps flesh out what I talked about above, Fergus knowing his son has great potential he just needs inspiration to reach it. And instead of just telling him that he does a con job but it’s the 1900′s. This orign, and Fergus’ part in it would be entirely untouched in Ducktales 2017, the first scrooge based adaptation since this comic came out, and I bless them for it. Frank even said this comic was used as a bible by the writers and while theirs clear deviations, and we’ll get to that, they were mainly done for good reason, and it’s very clear that while scrooge’s history is very VERY diffrent in the reboot, the core of his past is still there. 

So the plan is on and young scrooge spends half an hour killing himself to get Burt’s shoes clean before getting his dime.. and realizing he’s been had, makes this proud decleration that will be the bedrock of his entire life and character. 

Scrooge being naturally stubborn as you can see takes his cheats a leson: There will always be hard honest work, and he will be there to do it and he’ll be tougher and sharper than anyone trying to cheat him out of his pay. Fergus’ plan has the intended effect, and Scrooge having learned a hard lesson now has the drive and determination we know him for. As for why it gives it to him.. I had to think on it a bit but it makes sense: For some a setback like this would make them quit.. for Scrooge it’s just proof he CAN find customers, he CAN do this job, or any at his hardest and instead takes this as a lesson to be prepared ot out think and outfight anyone who dares cheat him again, and to not earn his money by being the kind of guy who cheats a kid out of an honest days pay, but as a good honest duck like his father and his father before him. =He will make his money square so he can be the kind of person this seeming stranger SHOULD have been. Granted we’ll see Scrooge doesn’t end up as the best person at times but .. we’ll get there.  So with the fire inside turned from a spark into the flame Scrooge soon got to work, and by the next panel we see he’s eventually worked his stand up from a small box given to him by his dad, to a three seater shoeshining bench, who he wipes all at once by stretching one of his mother’s girldes over a light pole, a detail I didn’t get the first time around but now love. Naturally being a good kind boy much like his Nephews, Scrooge always gave his proud father a portion of his earnings, if with a full receipt for tax purposes. Because he’s still scrooge after all. His dad wonders he did too good a job while Hortense glxbit’s in agreement. 

As the years go on, a now tween Scrooge is eventually able to save up for a horse cart, and starts selling Fire Wood up in the city. He eventually realizes Peat, an earthy subtance found in bogs I only know about because I had to look it up for this review, is more profitable and with some snappy marketing moves into selling Peat for the rich instead, also showing the young lad already has a grasp of how to sell to obnoxious rich people. 

But while his business is booming, our young hero can’t resist visiting his family’s ancestral home and longing for it, hoping one day to have it for himself and in a nice show of how despite his temper and tenacity forged over the last few years he’s still at hear the kind, sweet optimistic lad he was just a few pages ago, he decides to tidy up the Clan’s Cemetary while he’s here. 

Unfortunately as proof that Donald and Della’s terrible luck comes from both sides of the family the Whiskervilles are sub-glomgold levels of human beings.. or Dogfaces in this case, and are digging up the McDuck Clan’s graves to hunt for treasure. Scrooge tries to simply do the smart thing and flee, but the asshole brigade catch sight of him and mistkaing him for a peat burgalar chase after him.. and spend WAY too much time and energy chasing a teenage boy over some fucking bog grass you clearly aren’t selling yourselves. I mean spare a thought for how dumb this is: They could easily sell of of that peat to put up a fence or chop down some trees to get the material if their really that concerned about someone getting in the bog. Then again this isn the 1800 and 1900′s where the child death toll was simply “Yes”, so they likely thought whose gonna notice one more dead child on our property?

Scrooge heads toward the castle and is gestured in by a friendly mystery duck who gladly shows him around and can tell he’s a McDuck just by look, showing the castle is still in glorious condition as the whiskervilles are too spooked to go in, hence why they didn’t chase Scrooge inside. I’d say being afraid of ghosts but not murdering a child is weird but these are the same guys who thought murdering a child was plan A. We’re not dealing with a brain trust is what i’m saying.  So the mystery duck shows Scroogey around, showing off some colorful stories about his ancestors recycled from that scrapped prologue I mentioned. THe mystery man, who brushes off Scrooge thinking he’s a McDuck asks Scrooge what he’s doing to restore the family glory and while Scrooge points out he’s already working on it, Mystery Duck points out he’s still missing something: He has the drive and the dream, but peat and shoeshining, while getting him good money for his family, aren’t the thing you can build a fortune or a future off of. He then points out where Scrooge’s dime comes from: America.. and that gives the boy the idea to head to the states. As for what he could possibly DO there to start, the mystery guy mentions his uncle pothole. So Scrooge has the dream, the drive.. and now a plan: Go to america, work for his uncle on the riverboats, and work his way up from there till he finds his fortune and restores his family name.  But while his future is settled, the present is still an issue and Scrooge wants to teach the child murder club a lesson and thus borrows, though MM wisely points out it’s all his property a horse and some armor, and stuffs the armor with peat. As for what his plan is.. welllll

That.. is fucking awesome. And far from the last fucking awesome moment in this thing. It also shows off even as not quite a teen yet, Scrooge is still a badass already, and while he doesn’t have his trademark strength or fighting skills quite yet, his ingenuity is already there.. and that will always trump both. The Whiskervilles run away and into some quicksand and Scrooge vows to return one day as laird and reclaim his family land. But that’s a story for a few chapters down the line. As for who the mystery duck is, he’s naturally Sir Quackely himself, or rather his ghost, who was simply guiding Scrooge and didn’t give him the treasure as simply handing him the money wouldnn’t restore their family’s good name or continue their bloodline now would it? 

For now Scrooge returns to work for a bit before finding his way to America: A cattleboat to New Orleans looking for a Cabin Boy. And so Scrooge bids farewell to his family. His Dad, feeling bad he can’t even give his boy shilling, gives him the family pocketwatch with jake pitching in with the family gold dentures. While Scrooge naturally refuses to sell the watch, he does plan to sell the teeth as soon as possible for good reason. We then get some sweet goodbyes with him, his sisters (With hortense uttering her first words to everyone’s astonishment) and loving mother as he wonders just what awaits him in America. 

And there he stands on the bow of a ship, heading for a new land, in New Orleans he can be a new man. And we’ll see just what kind of man he becomes as this series continues. For now this is the end of a chapter but the beginning of a lifetime. 

Final Thoughts on Last of the Clan McDuck:

This story is excellent. While there are even better chapters to come, this one is still one of the most memorable and most joyous, showing just how Scrooge became what he is, where some of his values come from, others will be instilled along the way , and beginning to flesh out his family. We see Scrooge’s love of wealth comes from starting from the bottom, growing up with a family that barely had anything and badly needed everything, but was loving and instilled fine morals in him. We also see a Scrooge far removed from the bitter old man he is in present day, an optimistic naïve young lad who only wants best for his family. It’s a nice stark contrast to who he’ll become, good and bad, and a nice way to both compare him to Huey Dewey and Louie and break your heart as his own hardens before briefly turning black later on.  The art, as is standard for this series and Rosa, is breathtaking, and the story isn’t lacking in good jokes, their just downplayed so the story itself can take center stage. There’s nothing really more to say: it’s an excellent start to an even more excellent tale and stands proud among an already stellar story as one of it’s finest outings. 

NEXT RAINBOW: Scrooge goes down to the mighty Missipi to work on the riverboats and meets one of his signature Rogue’s for the first time in their first form, as well as Gyro’s dad.. or grandpa.. or possibly both I don’t know his family tree. Point is, tune in next time for some riverboat hyjinks.  Until then if you’d like to comission an episode of any animated show, especially ducktales and the various other duck related disney shows, or another Duck Comics story you really like from Rosa, Barks or whoever you want really, I take commissions for 5 dollars a review, with 5 dollars off your full order when you put in for more than one episode or issue. You can also follow me on patreon.com/popculturebuffet and for just two bucks a month get access to polls (which i’ll start once we have at least three patreons), and my exclusive discord server. And if you liked this review be sure to reblog it to show off. My self promotion done until next time: There’s always another rainbow.