#I love how this is just him one upping Sonic’s vampire fit

[glitchedcosmos]

The ultimate Halloween style 🦇

[kingprinceleo]

Hi there! Playlist anon again. I listened to the whole thing and here are my thoughts. I hope this isn't over reaching cause I really enjoyed it overall and would love to see the rest 🙏🏽. Buckle in this is longgg

Rivers is a Vampire- Sonic would dance fight Shadow to this song (like in the original puss in boots, look up the scene I swear it's great).

Loose Cannon- it's both so Shadow and Sonic coded but it's funnier if it's Shadow realizing he likes Sonic. More likely it's supposed to be Sonic @ Shadow and it really fits. 10/10 putting it on my personal playlists.

Genius - this is Sonic having a jam sesh in his bedroom. 7.5/10 very in character, you're going to make me start liking rock music.

Assassin- 9/10 Shadow in his emo boy bag. The verses feel like Shadow in his head thinking he's hot shit (he's right), but the chorus feels like Rouge trying to talk him down. Overall big fan.

Lost- Honestly really love the vibes of this one. It sounds like Sonic and Hoax fighting/ talking or just Sonic debating with himself. Love the jaunty music with the sinister undertones.Fading World- 7/10(<- could be higher depending on personal taste) A nice interplay between Sonic's cheery friendliness and Shadow's.... everything. A nice world building song if that makes sense. If vamp au! were a level in a game this would play.

Moon Trance- A vampire nobility song if that makes sense. Kinda gives off Blaze if Sonic were dropping in with EDM beats. World building song.

Phantom of the Opera Overture- Shadow once again in his emo bag. Listening to this I imagine him dramatically posed as Ophelia in the river as Rouge looks on utterly unimpressed. Another world building song.

Dear Wormwood- 10/10 Devastating. This feels like when Shadow discovers Rogue is a vampire (if that's still canon?) and could work for the Sonic/Hoax reveal but to a much lesser extent.

Galacta Knight Theme- 5/10. Not bad but I'm not entirely sure how it fits. Feels like a world building song but lacks the rock and goth roots of its predecessors. I wanna say it feels like an Eggman song?

Trouble- Rouge song very fun (Shadow if you get a microscope). Good for a chase scene or playful fight.

Look What You Made Me Do Remix- Shadow after Sonic sneaks an extra sip of blood. 8/10 Shadow wouldn't be a Swiftie but he would bop to a song or two.

Bodies- GODDDDD 10/10. Shadow tracking a vampire to a party in his vulture outfit and having to maneuver his way to stealthily kill them (can't remember clearly if Shadow's actively a vampire hunter in the au rn but you get the vibe /pos).

Vampire Culture- like I said before Shadow being a hater /pos. Somebody get this boy a weighted blanket he needs to chill 8/10. I imagine he plays this as he puts on each vampire repellent stud and piercing.

The Magic 8- A very Sonic song in message but also Amy with the talk of magic. Funky duet? They'd probably sing this at Shadow 9/10.

Who's in Control- 10/10 Another Sonic/ Hoax talking song (I interpret their dynamic to be that Hoax has less inhibitions than Sonic and is overall allowed to be looser. hopefully that's close).

Why Do I- Sonic after Shadow realizes he's Hoax and they have a falling out. It feels do very Teen Beach Movie /pos. He'd get a whole musical number with backup dancers and rad sad choreography.

Blood Red Moon- World building song. Funnily enough I think you'd introduce Shadow with it. Dark foggy night, random vamp running away/ person being attacked by one, cut to Shadow standing ominously with a lightning strike for good measure. Lowkey has cowboy vibes.

Born of a Star- Feels like a happy future. The type of track that would play towards the end of a boss fight.

Drumming Song- 8/10. Very much an Amy song I like it a lot plenty of witchy vibes. Feels like it would play when she performs a powerful spell/ ritual (not sure exactly how her magic works). The chorus especially also sounds like Shadow describing the effect Hoax has on him :).

You've Created a Monster- Shadow. That's the review. This plays during a hunt or just during his morning routine. Just goofy enough to hide the emotional turmoil but serious enough to show his issues 8/10.

This is Why- Shadow whenever he sees Hoax. He's his biggest hater. Also Shadow at his job with Knuckles (he's about to punch someone's teeth in).

Figure 8- Sad Shadow hours. Probably around the time he just met Hoax and made the deal. Sounds like he's questioning his whole identity :(.

Shoot to Kill- 6/10 World building song. It's giving gathering of elders in the vampire kingdom.

Punching Bag- I've been associating the Set it Off songs with Sonic so far so at first I was thrown for a loop, but honestly? I can see him singing this after someone (Shadow) tries to kill him. It can also be a Shadow song but I find the Sonic angle very interesting.

Vampire- 9/10. ROUGE SONG. She's about to rob a man, GOOD FOR WOMEN.

Sirens- Not sure exactly this would apply to but very fun. Sounds like Shadow falling in love in a very overdramatic way but could also be Sonic. 8/10

Again sorry for the length and I hope I didn't interpret anything egregiously wrong 😭

I think the band In This Moment and their albums GODMODE, Mother and Ritual could maybe fit.

Thanks again for sharing :)🙏🏽

~🩸🎵

anon i am literally kissing you on ur nonexistent smooth gray mouth HHJDFHHSDH this is the nicest thing anyones ever given me im so giddy about this DHFSHFHSDJDSF that being said this is gonna get so long so i am adding the under cut LOL

Rivers is a Vampire- youre so fucking right for this and i wanna draw it so bad ... JKDFJKSJKF

Loose Cannon-set it offs elsewhere album is a whole banger and highly recc the whole thing >:]]] and this song is a shadow centric one ! about how hes always on the edge around everyone bc of his paranoia, and esp around hoax lol, he gets mad about being called out </333

Genius - sonic jamming to this is also so correct fdjghjdfg contrary to shadow, sonic in vampire au is just here to have a good time LMAO (u should get into rock :} BDSFBH its fun here)

Assassin- this one is rlly interesting to me bc the ENTIRE thing is intended to be a shadow callout post from sonic/hoax pov. i would not have considered this being shadow reflecting on himself at all ! but damn the rouge pov also works out really well too, i never considered that either! (originally i figured the only rouge mention would have been 'you hear whispers when were just talking' which would have been sonic and rouge talking to each other and shadow thinks they are conspiring </3)

Lost- this one is a lil complicated in my rat brain shdfhj !! this one is shadow pov! its like. about his perspective shifts across the plot in vampire au- first trying to hide from the scary vampires </3 and the screams are getting louder line ....is about maria...... i eated that part up.... "please dont find me im not ok" is a very shadowcore line and the final lost chorus meant to rep shadow eventually becoming 'lost' in what scared him but like. embracing it. this one. is hard to convey JJSDFJSD prob would need art to get across what i mean i suppose Fading World- this one is a Maria and GUN song ! :]c (dont worry about the fact its bass boosted. i am just guy who likes bass......)

Moon Trance- close !!! silver and mephiles :3333 jbhdfjdj(meph is blazes royal advisor so it does tie back to her kingdom ehe). boys who prowl and will bash your head in to this in the woods somewhere

Phantom of the Opera Overture- "Shadow once again in his emo bag. Listening to this I imagine him dramatically posed as Ophelia in the river as Rouge looks on utterly unimpressed. Another world building song." I NEED TO DRAW THIS SO FUCKING BAD AHAHH u are SO FUCKING RIGHT FOR THIS. side note, a general rule of thumb (not always but a lot) anything that sounds this fucking dramatic is shadow pov and how he imagines vampires, the real guys are just chilling dfbhgfhsd with their nerd music. shadow is vampires #1 hype man without even realizing

Dear Wormwood- this one is Primarily a shadow and GUN song !! tho there are little tidbits of others who he has discovered lied to him like rouge eggman and sonic !!! (and yes shadow finding out rouge is a vampire is still canon >:])

Galacta Knight Theme-close with the eggman bit !! a theme for geebo <333(Lance)

Trouble- very correct vibes !! primarily rouge but i would add sonic in there too !! they both have that fun playful air to them tbh that i think a lot of people overlook in their canon dynamic hfgdhj

Look What You Made Me Do Remix- Shadow @ everyone tbh !! buttt primarily this is during his GUN arc when hes just so fed up with being lied to (he doesnt even know) i think if u remixed enough taylor swift into rock or metal he could get down to it fdgbjgdhjf

Bodies- YOURE SO RIGHT FOR THISSSS. esp the vulture part :]c... and the vampire hunter part is .. a little complicated ! he kinda is sometimes? theres a specific circumstance that makes him more willing to actively hunt and kill

Vampire Culture- he is absolutely blaring this in his mind while he gets ready lmaooo . big fan of weight blanket shadow tho dhgfdjg....something to draw.... fun lil fact tho... i imagine that smooth voice to be the head of GUN....

The Magic 8- i think sonic is the one singing it! but its all about amy! about her arc with her desperation to prove herself, getting consumed by her ambitions, and working with dark magic :)

Who's in Control- the sonic and hoax angle is SOOO interesting to me! i would have never thought of it bc frankly they are chill af, he does not have much turmoil about it! this has always been a HUGE shadow song esp 'living in fear, living afraid, hysterical everyday"

Why Do I- this is actually shadow @ sonic !!! reverse hehehe. this is one of the more accurate songs lmaooo, like 'wake up in cold sweats screaming your name" this song is the canon point in time where shadow first realizing he has a crush on sonic !! sonic is the reason the bastard drinks </3333

Blood Red Moon- absolutely obsessed with your version of it oughhhh, but its always been an eggman song to me (esp with that laugh lol)! and one of his silly little schemes. defo gonna draw that shadow idea tho thats so sick (and it is SO cowboy. do not be surprised if it winds up in the desert vampire playlist)

Born of a Star- this one is a death song ! self reflection and "how did we get here"

Drumming Song- close with the chorus part ! but the entire thing is Sonic pov about how yummy yummy shadows blood is 😋 shadows heartbeat drumming in his mind !

You've Created a Monster- i was SO fucking confused when i saw this bc!!!! youtube is hiding that video from me "its not available" !! and apparently you can see it but i cant!!! im so mad but i also owe you my life bc i found the song again and it BANGS SO HARD and it is 100% shadow wanting to kill maim <3333 its also a 3 way song for shadow @ everyone/ Hoax @ shadow about how shadow seems to be forcing hoax to be the monster he fears to justify his hatred/ uh oh amy fucked up !!!!

This is Why- THE JOB ANGLE IS SO CORRECT AND FUNNY, obsessed with that. but also yeah shadow doesnt like outside </3 rouge is the one saying the coast is clear </333

Figure 8- the deal interpretation is so good...... thats all im ever gonna think about now. honestly "all for your sake, became the very thing that i hate, i lost my way, spinning in an endless figure 8" was meant to be a shadow talking about maria line! but thats all i really got from the song, the deal idea is so good.......

Shoot to Kill- i personally saw this as a shadow GUN song !! bro is more intense and focused than usual

Punching Bag- THIS CHANGED ME WTFFF, i was struggling to see it as shadow and GUN, but oh my fucking GOD, the sonic pov is so raw and i am OBSESSED with it. pissed him off one too many times !!!!!!!

Vampire- WE SUPPORT WOMENS WRONGS !!! YAY ROUGE!!!!

Sirens- this is a shadow and GUN song !! solace in their song is propaganda !! shadows ready to shoot !!! shake off some blues kill vampires !!! HES BACK IN THE NOOSE!!!! SONIC GIVE HIM ALL YOU GOT BECAUSE IF NOT THEYRE GONNA DROWN HIM OUT !!!!!!! ehe :]

i listened to Mother and couldnt immediately feel anyone out with it but ill look thru their other stuff and rack my brain !!! ty for the suggestion !!!! but omg ty SO MUCH this was so fun if u ever wanna hmu for the other playlists...... i am looking so hard.. (but no pressure !! this was already so much and im so grateful !!!)

[badlydrawnmanic]

more stuff from my paint folder under the cut with varying levels of explanation

my owlfolk rogue d&d character as a shitty little baby because baby birds look miserable and it's funny

shut up

a square full of bugs

weird arcade cabinet thing from a dream i had. i didn't draw it on here but it had sonic underground decals and stuff and as prizes it'd print off stickers and random screenshots from the show that'd come out that side thing. i don't know why but it had a trackball

i was doodling a bunch of critters for some reason. i think it was low-key inspired by @mossworm's art and in my head it was for some kind of critter collection game idea

i forget what this is about but i think it speaks for itself. despite being in the paint folder it was very clearly not drawn in paint

dinosaurs in love

again not a paint drawing but a manic i drew on drawception

tails lost in the sauce (a plant poofed a fuck ton of pollen right in his face and he is not having a good time)

i drew this while sleep deprived and proceeded to break down into a laughing fit. no i don't know what it is and it's called god.png

a miscellaneous character i have named gordy gatorman. he's gay and owns a bakery

the same doodle of my owlfolk rogue plus two more things (she hates everyone)

i don't have an explanation for this one i just thought the belt attached to scourge's coat was stupid (you know this is old because of my "colored lineart only" phase)

i think the original text for this was slightly nsfw but this is funnier actually

"hjpt ;leg.png"

one of my many interpretations of a human sonic, this one leaning more into "grumpy teenager" than anything else. i usually don't draw humans so this is surprisingly nice looking

there's 3 more panels to this but i just wanna acknowledge those sad lobsters in the dirty ass tank at the grocery store. they looked so sad and i always wanted to take them home

it me

me and my @kinslee-the-normal-human's oc. we used to rp a lot and they'd get into all sorts of bullshit with mr. tall echidna always being like i told you this would happen and being generally upset about it but his teeny tiny girlfriend could not care less. this time it was about vampires but he's just vibing

one of my ocs just kinda turns into fire when he goes super and i thought the idea of his clothes burning off was hilarious

hard to explain but my friend made an au where like every possible fusion of two characters that could exist did exist all at once in a weird little sci-fi society and we roleplayed it a ilttle bit. my main character for it was an amy/manic fusion named pippin and they had anxiety

in the background you can see salyut (he was actually made for this au as a shadow/biolizard fusion), maroon (a shadow/knuckles fusion), and... man i forget his name but he was a sonic/shadow fusion. the character in the second to last panel is a mephiles/tikal fusion who was part of the evil sci-fi government or whatever and she scared pippin a lot. i might repurpose pippin because they're very cute

@kinslee-the-normal-human told me that you can tell if someone is a furry based on how they draw dogs so i drew a dog and she said i was a furry based on how i drew the back legs. she was right but i don't get the test lmao

one of my ocs sort of got sucked into amy's family unit and he's in a sort of younger-ish sibling role to her (despite being older) and she makes him very happy and he loves her very much. they are friends :)

pov you are talking to razor on discord and he is happy to see you

this is called "scourge peep.png". i don't know why it's holding a knife

me and my friend drew pokemon from memory at a sleepover. i think from the different art styles you can tell which ones i drew nsjkdgs

i was playing the sims and made a version of gyro on it and he just kept getting abducted by aliens. i couldn't stop him

[salami-dono]

Edgy OC asks for Dr. Jester!! 2, 4, 10, 22, 23, 24, 25.

>w> aaaand 13 n 7

Thank you for sending some questions. It took a while to answer.

2. What's something about your OC that people wouldn't expect just from looking at them?

This will be hard to answer, because what I’ve observed about Dr. Jester seems normal to me. Hm, I could think of a few things. 1) He thinks he’s cute. He’s very confident. 2) He likes dinosaurs. 3) He can speak to the small animals Sonic rescued in the classic games. He took a liking to a bird called Chicky (like the Flicky.) Instant friendship.

4. When scared, does your OC fight, flee, freeze or fawn?

When I read this question, I didn’t know what it meant by fawn? I looked it up and I still don’t get it. Anyway, he usually fled when confronted directly. I don’t know if that’s true fear, or if he’s just avoiding unnecessary damage by retreating. Fighting is Saturn’s job… Why should he be scared of a dozen super-powered children?

(Send in the minions so you can escape. Predictable.)

Knuckles blasted through the windshield of his flying machine and he responded by lunging at him. He simply accepted his demise when the Egg Carrier failed catastrophically. Do you think he was scared then?  

Back when I first revisited the story in August of 2022, I wanted Eggman to punish what he saw as disloyalty from Dr. Jester, and destroy him. I thought they'd fight since Dr. Jester had a chaos emerald, but that didn't go anywhere. Now I think he would freeze. Sure, he’s used underhanded tricks when he thought Eggman had wronged him, but he’d never kill him. He had been holding on to the friendship they had long ago. I guess freeze is the answer?

He is not immune to sentimentality.

10. What's an AU that would be interesting to explore with your OC?

He’s already from an alternate universe. My sibling suggested an alternate storyline where Dr. Jester gets to the Dark Emerald first and frees Chaos. He doesn't like things he can't control.

I think Dr. Jester should be in a vampire AU! 

22. What character alignment would you consider your OC to be?

Neutral Evil.

23. What emotion is the hardest for your OC to process? How about express?

I think the answer is surprise, or fear. 

He can express anger just fine. He’s been dejected, elated… He's animated.

24. What is an alternative life path your OC might have gone down? How different would their life be if they'd made those decisions?

I’ve thought about this before. No matter what, he would have been interested in synthetic body parts. He could’ve been a prosthetist (one who makes and fits prosthetics), or developed very reliable pacemakers. What if he didn’t take it too far? He could’ve been a generous doctor that helped a lot of people live full lives--highly recommended! Such a shame.

25. What is your favorite thing about your OC?

He’s so funny. 

13. If you met your OC, would the two of you get along?

He can be civil. That doesn't mean he’d like me. However, he’d gain nothing from hurting me. That’s good for me, I guess. 

Dr. Jester did meet a version of me in the story. He ignored me! I cared about him a lot! As a kid, I avoided writing/showing scenes in which he got hurt. Isn't that love?

Since it’s still fresh on my mind, he would’ve offered to save my cat. Or, maybe he’d put it as “extending her life indefinitely.” No matter how good his designs are, he will never make a robot that looks, sounds, and feels like a real cat. He wouldn’t understand this. He's so detached. He’d take it personally. 

7. What's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them? 

He used to be alive. That’s the biggest change. I had an old drawing of him that kinda felt like a “what-if?” scenario. I drew two Dr. Jesters, one of them was NOT a robot. He looked so friendly! What happened to him? I spent so much time keeping his design the same, so appearance-wise, little has changed. At least he has a bit of a background now.

[aj-the-idiot]

Soo , how many ocs do you have?

OH MY GOD I FORGOT ABOUT THIS D:

Here's all of them! (And a box to cover up an unrelated drawing)

More details and closer photos under the cut!

Perish, my beloved grumpy bastard. He's an Error/Nightmare child. He's short-tempered and might come off as rude. At his core he's a very curious and determined monster. His birthday is 25 October (2018)

Felony, who is a Lust/Killer child. He is a bit of a dare-devil and very passionate and caring about those he cares about. Technically, he is a yandere but I always forget to do something with it lmao. (If you look at the photo over the cut, you can see him looking at Perish!) He wears his heart on his sleeve and has no issue speaking his mind. His birthday is 7 November (2018)

Chalk, who is a self-proclaimed Cross/Ink child (he is a fusion of their magic and what the creator of his AU did with it). He is a bit of a scatterbrain and loves to see people be passionate. At times it seems like he cannot shut up if his life depended on it. He can get incredibly protective over those he cares about. His birthday is 1 February (2019)

Azul, who is a Swap/Ink child. He is sweet and caring and is seemingly very naive, believing that there is something good in everyone. He is very eager to help and speaks a lot. He is Felony's latest ex. (If you look at the photo over the cut, you can see him looking at Felony) His birthday is 2 April (2019)

Light, who is a Silvaze child. She one of the few things I have left from my time in the Sonic fandom (not really lol). She was supposed to be really similar to Maria and parts of Mephelis were in her soul, waiting to be released and manipulating her in her head. I created her August 2016.

Darka, my first ever OC (As may be evident by her name. In my defense, I was just starting to learn English). She was an overpowered vampire and one of two beings to keep the balance between negativity and positivity. (no wonder I'm this drawn to Dreamtale) Her counterpart turned out to be a child and she couldn't kill him even though it was prophesized. For some reason it "never felt right to give her a boyfriend." (Guess why, younger me. You created her after seeing Marceline from Adventure Time once) I created her some time in 2015.

And my background characters. The first one is how I would personally draw an anon, then two of Felony's friends, some merchants, Elian, a character @canyougimmecoffeethx and I never really did much with and lastly Mr. Woodpecker (he's a pigeon) who is a teacher togehter with Charlie and Tobias. They wouldn't fit but you can see them on the other pic anyways.

If you want to see more of my background characters you can see some old art here and here!

If you made it this far into the post, thank you so much!! <3

[pre1ude]

@comicbookcreature , sent 👫 for four headcanons about our muses' relationship.

i'm gonna do this for LBM/main verse. they're just.. on my mind <33 and at this point i'll be putting a read more on these hc posts... They get long.

1.

To start off with, combine the fact that we haven't figured out a solid meeting point for these two with my general penchant for dramatics. Consider: they try to off each other first thing. Danny's out and about around the unfortunate time Mr Big Bad Bat prowls around for a snack, and push happens to come to shove. There's something about our leather-bound posturing biker that sets Daniel's tongue on edge and his snub stings a bit too much for Michael to turn a deaf ear. One thing, then another, then the human sonar and vampire at at each other's throats. For no good reason other than 1. I just think it fits this dynamic of theirs wonderfully. 2. Daniel can canonically use his sonomancy to defibrillate someone to death, but with sound vibrations rather than electric pulses, and I'd love to see his face when that backfires because Michael does not have a working heart for him to squish. It's just.. thematic and also my favourite type of neat, tropey interaction that very quickly clues them in that they've both simultaneously fucked with the wrong guy. And no, it may not kill Mikey, but a sonic gut punch probably hurts a lot, even if you're already dead.

2.

Suffice to say it's ardent dislike at first sight. But this whole verse is the story of how Dan meets a vampire in possibly the only verse we have where he's unaware they exist. So colour him fascinated. And horribly affronted at the idea of almost becoming something as plebeian as 'a snack' to the creature. He keeps his click-clacky metal lighter handy and an eye on Michael at all times, but he ventures to explore the mysteries of the supernatural regardless, precautions at the ready. Turns out not all vampires are from the 1800s and Mikey's less of a Bela Lugosi and more of a Marlon Brando (be still his beating heart). Maybe Dan likes the motorbike. He'll never admit it and he only gets on once out of sheer necessity. Those things are dangerous and he is neither immortal nor stupid. And don't call him 'babe' unless you're cruising for a disembodied smack over the head.

3.

It takes a whole long while for them to warm up beyond snipping at each other's heels with varying levels of severity (and vitriol in Danny's case, no he doesn't catch on to Michael's flirting at all, good luck buddy). Dan can never let a jab go and oddly enough I think that helps a whole lot to push first them forward and toward communication. He asks questions, he holds Michael accountable, he doesn't turn a blind eye and most importantly he isn't afraid. He can unflinchingly match Mikey's snarling and hold his own and you bet he doesn't let the vampire walk out of a fight; sure, there's probably a certain comfort and luxury in negligent hedonism, and Daniel imagines it would be blissfully preferable to facing his own problems, but he doesn't indulge in it and refuses to let Michael do it either. Not in his presence. The city they live in is in shambles at the time and, damn it, Danny isn't sitting idle about it, so neither is Michael. It's a mostly thankless venture, but at least no progress goes unrewarded between them. Daniel's default is sweet and gentle, which is what he is when Mikey allows him to be. I can imagine quiet talks by a crackling bonfire on a calm night, indoor voices outside. A standstill in all the havoc. If trusting each other in a pinch or coming to one another's aid builds the bridge between them, then I like to think little moments of conversation between the humans behind the sonar and the vampire would be the very founding pillars. They are opposites, but they do have points of similarity at their fundamental core and that's the very human need to belong. Michael thinks that's best achieved with rampant chaos and Danny - with frigid order, together they achieve a good, solid balance. (Because yes, Danny does in fact learn to have a little bit of fun. He will begrudge Mikey the fact. One day.)

4.

In the end, Daniel likes the relationship they have. Self-indulgently, he likes having the affections of a man who doesn't give them easily, to just about anyone. He likes a puzzle and a mystery and he likes reading between the tough, growly lines. Sometimes he overindulges in it, maybe even shows off.. Listen. He likes having a frowny bulk of indomitable muscle, curls and fangs in his lap and knowing which gears to press to make it release its pressure, it feels a whole lot like he's done well by his partner. Michael wouldn't have it easy either; just like Dan consciously picked him, tough shell and all, he'd have saddled himself up with the prim proper priss who's impossible to please, with an equally as molten middle to reward his efforts. It would be a bumpy road for them both. They'll have been through a lot by then: breaks and wounds and awful revelations and brushes with death, aging and not aging, and still a sizeable chunk of caution towards anyone who isn't them, but what's love if not tough work and building it all together, brick by brick of trust? They're still harsh-lined, mean-mugged and haughty-eyed apart but so very soft together. I love them very much.

+ 1

So. Listen. Daniel can feel sound waves like a physical sensation, with its own texture and hardness and even temperature, and that very much applies to certain distinct or familiar voices. It's an odd little detail he very rarely and giddily shares, only with those curious and not in danger of offense (sometimes people sound like broken glass, he can't tell them that). The point is, Dan adores Michael's voice. It's full, textured and warm, like inverted leather or thick oldschool denim, heated by recent wear. Listening to him speak is like shoving your hand in the denim pocket of someone else's jacket, or placing it over a jean-clad thigh. Cosy, sturdy, a little bit frayed at the edges. Dan keeps an ever-growing collection of songs and music that has the exact same texture; they remind him of Michael in more than one way and he listens to them whenever he misses him. He confesses as much one darling, tipsy night far, far into their relationship and makes him dance to the slower songs of that particular playlist.

(There's a half-finished violin arrangement that captures the essence of Michael's voice shoved in a drawer somewhere and named something ridiculous and embarassing like Hymne Angelique. The only way it's ever seeing the light of day is if Michael happens to find it by accident. (Or if First Love does, since that applies to our dream verse more than this one).)

[fubukiswifenoimnotjoking]

I desperately want a OPM twilight AU. Think about it!

Genos is Edward bc duh, brooding af, and Saitama is Bella just cuz. (Oh and he has hair just cuz that’s how I’m picturing it). They’re both in high school, maybe it’s at Forkes or somewhere else, like some Japanese school. I prefer it in Forkes bc brrrr the aesthetic it gives twilight is beautiful. Same plot, but tiny differences.

Genos is only like, 10 or 20 years older than Sai as a vampire bc Edward’s 100 year age gap was way creepier and we don’t want that here!!

Saitama starts hanging w Genos after Genos saves him from a car crash I guess? Not sure if I should keep that or change it to something else. Maybe Saitama has super strength just cuz in this AU and saves Genos, making Genos wanna follow him bc wow!! So cool plus I wanna suck his blood zBdjakdhaihs. Anyway, Saitama thinks Genos is super cool and wants to see what’s up with him, though almost instantly regrets it when Genos talks his ears off. Gets used to it of course and slowly falls for him but it takes time.

When Genos makes shitty and immature decisions like when Edward says sum like “I’m trying so hard not to suck your blood rn” Saitama is just like nope, back that up. Let’s talk about this like adults. Genos’ fixation on drama and brooding makes him more immature in certain cases and Saitama calling him out makes him grow into a more mature and understanding guy so he doesn’t do toxic shit like Edward did.

Oh and I’m imagining at the famous scene where he’s like “say what I am. Say it!” Saitama turns really dramatically to him like Bella does in the movie and is like....a mothman. Genos is like ye—wait what?? And Saitama’s like wait,,,you’re not moth man...? And Genos is just like 🧍🏻

Genuinely don’t know who Jacob would be. Maybe Sonic, but it’s the rival dynamic instead of a love triangle? Like Sonic is constantly trying to kill Saitama and Genos is fighting him and Saitama is like ugh teenagers, stop FIGHTING ALL THE TIME!!

I think Genos’ adopted fam would be Fubuki as Alice bc though Fubu is not clairvoyant I think it would still fit to make her Alice, Tatsumaki as Rosalie bc she’s mean, Kuseno as Carlisle, Bang as Esme (bc of course I support the Bang x Kuseno ship), idk Psykos as Jasper?? Cuz then it’d be Fubuki x Psykos, but also would be fucking weird bc they’re all a family. Or maybe just make Badd Jasper so Badd can be a part of the fam but dissolve the Alice and Jasper relationship for this AU. God idk. Cant think of who to make Jasper 💀 oh and Garou is Emmet, except I can’t see him as a vampire so he’s just gonna be the stray werewolf they adopted.

When Saitama finally gets turned into a vampire everyone is confused bc nothing changes?? He’s the exact same except paler. Saitama’s like so when do I get my moth wings 😏😏

I haven’t seen twilight in forever so maybe if I brush up on it I can actually make a solid funny AU of this. What y’all think lol

Bonus:

Genos: *sparkling in the sun and looking off dramatically* this is what I am

Saitama: *near one of those big mossy rocks in the scene* dude haha you gotta see this, there’s a cute little mushroom grove over here on the moss >:0

[bellaslilpapercut]

Eclipse reread part 2! This is gonna cover a lot of chapters because I forgot to include stuff from chapters 4, 5, and 6 in part 1 (in my defense your honor, this book is very grating to read). Awayyy we go:

1. so chapters 4-6 really could have been one chapter tbh since the plot is: Bella ditches work at Newton’s Outfitters to hang with Jake and then writes some graduation invites with Angela. She pushes her rusty old behemoth as fast as it can go through driving rain but then hangs outside with Jake the whole time so I don’t really know where the rain went. She also manages to hear Jake gasp through her closed car door! Super sonic! Anyway, Bella insists that Edward is a good guy, Jake makes Bella hold his hand, Jake explains imprinting (yuck we can skip that), and then Edward drives threateningly past Bella while she’s on her way to Angela’s house. Angela reminds Bella that, at his core, Edward is a teen boy who is Totally Jealous of how Ripped and Sexy her 16 year old best friend is. Then Alice kidnaps Bella. Fun times!

2. During the imprinting convo it becomes very apparent that Meyer thinks the worst thing that can happen to a girl is getting broken up with. Somehow Leah got the “worst end” of the Sam/Emily/Leah fiasco despite Sam turning into a “monster” and Emily getting literally mauled in the face. What’s worse is later in the book, during the “Legends” chapter, when Bella wonders if Leah thinks Emily’s scars are a form of “justice.” Yea, Bella, that’s justice. 

3. I love this Rosalie quote but hate the entirety of they way meyer writes her story. Others have mentioned it before but Meyer writes Rose's dialogue there as if Rose is an author and not like...a person telling a story. An easy fix would be to format Rosalie's story "flash back" style rather than have her narrate all the way through. Then you can include all the superfluous details of exactly what everyone's voice sounded like and all the excessive dialogue tags you want.

I also Violently Abhor this quote here:

Yea, meyer, the Hot Girl hates your self-insert because her stupid ass brother didn't have the hots for her. It just reads like weird middle school revenge fantasy "I only hated you because you were so Special!!!" Sure, sure. Also "all those females!" People don't talk like that @stephanie

4. I do love the scene when Bella “escapes” from Alice with Jake (I don’t know why i put escape in quotes, Alice could definitely murk Bella) but then that whole adventure ends with Jake telling Bella he’d rather she die than turn into a vampire. And yeah, fair buddy, but also you’ve known Bella for a long time. This should not be a surprise to you at all even a little bit. a) she mentioned it before, b) you knew she would never get over Edward even if your plan in NM had worked, and c) you’ve known that she’s fully obsessed with the Cullen’s since you started hanging out with her again. The last time you guys hung out she went on an impassioned rampage about how lovely and good and fantastic Edward is (footage not found) I really don’t know why you’re surprised that this hard-headed girl is prepared to commit to vampirism for him. She is not normal lmfao.

5. The legends chapter. Oh boy. Stephanie, Meyer, Smeyer. Honestly it might have been less offensive if she had just made up a whole new tribe to give these backstories to, for all that they have in common with real Quileute legends but actually that would still be offensive and terrible anyway. I don’t know how to describe this adequately but if you’ve ever seen G.I. Joe’s portrayal of indigenous people that’s exactly what meyer made Old Quil and Billy’s dialogue sound like. Just absolutely dripping with Mystical Native/ Magical Native trope from the content to the tone. https://mthg.org/ Because it can’t be plugged enough.  

6. The legends chapter ends with this Wuthering Heights quote:

I have no qualms with it's inclusion, if you really want to push the Edward is Heathcliff and Bella is Cathy agenda, I don't believe it but fine, whatever. But those last two paragraphs are such a dumb way to end a chapter. Every chapter ending should make the reader want to turn the page: this makes me want to shut the book (actually I did take a long break after this lmfao). Anyway, just end the quote on "drank his blood," bold those three words, and end the chapter there. Don't go back and say "the three words that stood out were... Anyway it could have fallen to any page I believe in coincidence teehee!!" That's just annoying.

7. Okay guys I hate to say it but Edward does get a lil bit of ~character growth after the first few chapters. He comes home after having Bella kidnapped (she decides not to be angry, surprise surprise) and is all "so I've been thinking about it and you're right my Beloved Angel Face or whatever, please hang out with Jacob but also wear a helmet on your motorcycle my Beloved Dumb Idiot or whatever" (paraphrase). And he also says this in chapter 12:

Which is like, man I hate when I agree with Edward but I agree with Edward here. Now I know from MS that he only wants Bella to stay human because he's creating an Unfolding Drama in his head but this bit of dialogue is really sweet. And it's funny that he thought Bella didn't want to marry him because she just wanted to use him for immortality but it's also a Dark Reminder that he's literally only romantic with her because he can't read her mind and can't tell that she's just as obsessed with his looks as the other Teen Girls TM.

8. uuuh Jasper’s Backstory Time. This is so infuriating to read for so many reasons. So we know that smeyer got Jasper’s name from a confederate memorial/ listing (from a New Moon Q&A but the link isn’t secure so I can’t share) so I know that his backstory was always meant to be Confederate Soldier which makes everything else about his characterization just baffling. Again, he was the only Cullen that was genuinely kind to Bella besides Carlisle for the entire first book and he’s still incredibly kind during Eclipse (which is another issue I have though because no one mentions again that Jasper tried to eat Bella and they stand close to each other and hang out and Bella’s never like “this is scary, this dude tried to kill me” but i digress). The point is: smeyer knew he was going to be a confederate from book 1. She never addresses that this was bad, she never has Jasper mention that he regrets his role in the war, he is the only Cullen that’s actually capable of empathizing with humans anymore (Carlisle cares but I would not categorize him as empathetic), it just... None of these pieces fit together. This is a fraught and bloody history that smeyer throws in with no thought to how it might alienate black readers (though tbh she constantly emphasizes “white beauty” throughout the series so I doubt she cares) and the editors don’t question it either. No one, at any point in time, said “Hey, steph, you know confederates fought for slavery, right?” Every black american deserves reparations. White women and men who glorify the civil war should be the first to pay up. 

9. I’m gonna jump back to chapters 9 & 10 here (target & scent, respectively) to say: no tension is being effectively built. I get it, someone stole your clothes. You’re annoyed because you have nothing to wear and Victoria is scary. But where is she? Where is the volturi? Move it along, please! This is one of the challenges of 1st person narrative because the author is stuck in the eyes of, usually, the person who knows the least. Meyer is not a talented enough author to make this interesting. Not to bring up THG again but Suzanne Collins really knew how to work 1st person. Everything that Katniss asserts with certainty throughout the series gets either confirmed or denied by the narrative, keeping it interesting. She assumes the worst of the people around her so we’re pleasantly surprised when people violate those assumptions. We’re kept on edge by how little Katniss knows and SC never gifts Katniss with more knowledge than she could be expected to have. Bella is constantly gifted with knowledge and her assumptions are rarely proven wrong. You can dig into the canon a little bit more, read the lexicon and the guide, and find all the examples of Bella being unreliable or making wrong assumptions. But within the narrative she is rarely incorrect. She doesn’t get opportunities to grow out of her false assumptions (while Edward does, at least in Eclipse). So to keep the Victoria debacle interesting, smeyer has to plant seeds like- during these two chapters- Bella thinking of Laurent and Victoria while the cullens discuss who could have been in Bella’s room. That just doesn’t cut it for me. 

This is hella long and I’m only halfway through the book. I probably should split the second half into two parts as well but based on how talented smeyer is at stretching out the mundane, especially just before the climax, I probably wont need to. 

[ultraclops]

Day 3: Be True To Yourself

Aka me literally just infodumping about my Ocs because I love them ♡

Brought to you by Colorvision! Yep, I decided to get off my lazy butt and color traditionally today :)

First off, Tiara Depurrnaire (She/Her)! A Sweetypie cat who's partially related to the Snugglemagne family and, in my timeskip AU, Adorabat's future girlfriend. Like Adorabat, she lost her leg to a monster while wandering the King's dungeons. She aspires to be just as brave as Adorabat but lacks the gall, being content to watch and learn from the sidelines. As they both get older Tiara realizes that she is a lesbian, and develops a mutual crush on Adorabat that turns into a relationship. As she ages, Tiara' aspirations to become a hero fade, and she settles for becoming a ballet teacher. She learns to be brave in her own way and unconditionally supports her monster-slaying adventuring partner, no matter how their paths diverge.

T H E Y (Also I need to post my full adult Adorabat design sometime)

Next up is Sherbet (They/Them), a Sweetypie rabbit who makes ice cream for a living! I don't really have a backstory for them but I believe they realized they were nonbinary in their younger years (around early middle school age) and have fully embraced their identity! They don't let anything get them down and are eager to cheer up the citizens of Pure Heart Valley, one ice cream cone at a time. They're also good acquaintances with Badgerclops and Adorabat, for obvious reasons. Their eyes function similarly to Badgerclops', as they only open when they feel strong emotions.

Next (and honestly one of my favorites) is Moa Nola (Xe/Xem), an agender Oriental Shorthair cat who, surprisingly, isn't related to the Mao clan. Xe originally started off as a joke character based on the misspelling of Mao Mao's name in "I'm Mao Mao", but I eventually grew attached to xem and gave xem a full-fledged backstory. Xe comes from a family of fishermen, but after xyr father was killed in a monster attack, xe decided that xe wanted to become a legendary monster hunter. Xe created xyr cloak after xyr first successful monster fight. After being mistaken for the son of Shin Mao too many times, xe used it to xyr advantage and began going under Mao Mao's title for a while. However, after being stopped by Mao Mao himself, xe dropped the act and began looking for a new sense of purpose. Ironically, xe starts collecting antique ventriloquist dummies similar to Mr. Din Danalin.

Following up on the "based on a misspelling" theme is Rhapsody (She/They), a femme-aligned nonbinary Sweetypie vampire bat inspired by Adorabat's name being mistranslated as "doorbat" in YouTube autocaptions. She is Adorabat maternal cousin, as their mother is Sonara's sister. Rhapsody was heavily impacted by Sonara's death, but rather than becoming tough like Adorabat or overprotective like Eugene, she became more reserved out of fear that they could be next. In other words, she became a doorbat (haha funny). With the arrival of Mao Mao and Badgerclops, plus the defeat of the monster that killed their aunt, Rhapsody begins to come out of her shell and indulges in their biggest passion - music. Like Adorabat she learns to use their voice as a weapon, but hers is more of a siren's song than a sonic screech. In my timeskip AU, they leave Pure Heart Valley to become a popstar, writing songs inspired by her childhood memories and their home. It's obscured by the flag but the marking on her chest is a bleeding heart, emphasizing her passionate drive.

(Rhapsody's kid and adult forms [kinda old])

+ OCs of mine I didn't feel like making alternate drawings for:

Buzz-Buzz (Zhe/Ze/Zhey), a demigender Sweetypie bumblebee bat who protects the bees of Pure Heart Valley! Despite zer small stature, zhe is actually an adult, just naturally small. Zhe also grows herbs on the side and volunteers at the Pure Heart Valley hospital. Primarily because zhe has a crush on the head doctor there... (I did not make zer to selfship with Cuddlestein. Nope. Not at all.)

My Badgermao "fankid", Sai (They/He/It)! I say "fankid" in air quotes because they're from an AU where Badgerclops' spare arm became corrupt and gained a conscience. Their robot arm is actually their body - the rest of their body is a projection of light, similar to the gems from Steven Universe! They have masculine programming (as their AI was made using Badgerclops's DNA a la Cortana from Halo), but identify as agender and use they/he/it pronouns. Originally they began as a blank slate with no personality aside from the programmed personality Badgerclops gave them, but they eventually grow their own personality and moral compass as they analyze the Sheriff's Department's work. Just like Badgerclops, they have a passion for building robots and weapons, and can even modify themselves to fit the situation! Most of their creations are usually for fun, though.

Anf the last one I have a reference for but not the least, Karma Vesper (She/They)! This one is actually my self-insert, lol. She is a biro-ace demigirl Javanese Cream-Point Cat! Her necklace was a gift from her family, and her hood was a gift from her mentor. After her village was ambushed by criminals, she became a wandering hero, and accidentally stumbled upon Pure Heart Valley while following a report of increased monster activity. At some point during her adventures alone she realized that she was biro-ace, since she felt no sexual attraction but still felt romantic attraction. Around the time she came to Pure Heart Valley she realized that she never really felt, like, 100% a GIRL girl (if that makes sense) and began identifying as a demigirl. (Yes this is my hidden self-actualization story :>) She enjoys researching gemstones and ancient artifacts, and the Ruby Pure Heart immediately caught her attention once she laid eyes on it. While she is still a wandering hero, she has a temporary residence in Pure Heart Valley, where she stays to research the Heart's powers as well as assist the townspeople. Her and the Sheriff's Department didn't start out on the best terms since Mao was worried she was trying to replace them, but they tolerate each other now.

+ the OCs I don't have references for:

I did have a reference for these guys but idk where it is rn ;-;. Anywway, my most recent OCs and also some of my favorite OCs are Bernard and Pierre, a black bear and polar bear respectively (both use He/Him)! They are both gay and in a healthy relationship & live in a cabin in the forest together. They are just. Two old gay granddads and I love them. Anyway! They both met after an accident which caused Bernard to blow out his left knee and Pierre to lose his left hand; they had been best friends since, and boyfriends later on! Bernard is a baker while Pierre is a wood carver, although they indulge in each other's interests as well. For the most part they just stay in their cabin in the forest, but they leave to buy groceries and sell their products.

And the final OC I'm gonna talk about is Storm Mao (They/Them)! They're from an AU where Mao was born in a litter of five, like his sisters. Ever since Storm were young, they felt like weren't "normal" compared to their siblings. They didn't feel like a girl or a boy. After Mao came out as a trans boy, they began questioning themselves further. Eventually they decided to ask Contacts Sister for help, as she was among the smartest of the Mao children. Contacts explained to Storm that there are people who don't identify as a boy or a girl, and Storm realized they weren't alone. Since then, they started identifying as nonbinary and began using they/them pronouns, and their family supported their decision. Aside from them and Mao, their litter siblings are also LGBTQ+ - Mamoru (He/Him) is AroAce, Bernadette (She/Her) is bi and Zhijun (He/Him) is gay. I'd talk about the AU more in a separate post, if anyone wants me too^ ^;;

If I remember any other LGBTQ+ OCs I have, I'll reblog with them ✌

[kingprinceleo]

BET YOU DIDN'T EXPECT ME SO SOON

I did the dessert vampires playlist first since it was the shortest!

Stampede- very good interplay with the characters. Gives the vibe of I respect you but we fundamentally disagree on some big issues. Would be fun to play in the background of like a joint operation scheme? like they've gone undercover at a fancy party and this is them working together during it

Vulture- this is such a Shadow backstory song like- i don't know exactly what happens with GUN and Maria in this au but THIS is the song you play to express his feelings. The first verse at least low-key also sounds like Knuckles during or immediately post transformation to Rouge. He's very angy

Welcome to the Circus- a jaunty little tune. bar/saloon coded, probably plays wherever Amy works i think?

Recommend songs for this playlist: Desperado by Rhianna and maybe the entire Anti album based on vibes alone.

Blood Like Lemonade- strong vibes

Trouble Valerie Broussard- more Rouge centric i think

For other playlists:

Like a Vampire Catrien Maxwell, for vamp au Sonic

A Little Wicked - im thinking of Rouge for it but if it fits a different character i wouldn't be surprised

Little Girl Gone Chinchilla - very vamp au Shadow coded imo

Eve Precious Pepala- Shadow coded

All up in your mind- feels like Shadow thinking about Sonic's effect on him in vamp au

Hope these are good and have a nice timezone 🫶🏽. I go to sleep now

~🩸🎵

welcome back fhbghbjfdfdg !!

This playlist is a little more tough to explain bc i havent shared the major plotpoint that changes the whole title of the au fjgfjghf, but ill get there eventually !! Stampede- idrk know how to explain this one beyond its just Them, their conflicts their compromises, how the two are trying to work together in the situation theyre in, big time agree on the respect with huge disagreements tho, thats one of their major sticking points Vulture- RAHHHHHHH THIS IS IS KNUCKLES @ SHADOW !!!!! the entire time its knuckles rage and defiance !!! and im slamming my head into a wall so fucking hard i prommy it makes so much sense when i share the plot Welcome to the circus- its a rouge @ knuckles song ! like i said the subject itself is kinda weak but it hits on some of their core dynamic pieces --- Desperado- this one i could see being very rouge @ shadow but its a bit too forward and honest ! rouge would defo more take the angle of "im following you bc ur hopeless without me <3" Blood Like Lemonade- strong vibes on its own but doesnt particularly fit with anyone at least right now, i might come back to it after fleshing more people out (also i am sadly biased against songs that are kinda slow sob. i need that constant stimulation music {i almost didnt include vulture in the playlist bc of its speed but it was just too accurate and picks up with some heavy hitting stuff near the end}) Trouble- very correct w the rouge part !! defo eying this one up in consideration

---

Like a Vampire- defo not vampire au sonic , it actually lines up more with desert vampires rouge (i adore the singers voice btw omg) idk if its going in any of the au playlists but it sure is going in mine ! dfhhdfhg A little wicked- shrug tbh ! i see it for rouge but it feels like its missing something, her spunk, her 4kids saxaphone (im assuming if you dont specify an au you just mean for the canon gamers !) Little Girl Gone- THIS IS SO VAMPIRE AU SHADOWCORE LITTLE UNHINGED BASTARD !!! the blood on my teeth line caught my attention....and then the screaming part sold me HDSHDHF hes sooo silly <333

Eve- im so sorry im really biased against love songs so i dont see it personally !! esp not for shadow </3 All up in your mind- eeh there are a few lines there that work, but overall just misses slightly. big fan of the idea that shadows just making up all those lines tho and sonics never said any of it, thats funny fdgjfjdgfg i feel bad for not enjoying all of them wahh, but i am just really picky tbh,,, its gotta bounce the braincell right... but i appreciate the suggestions sm!!!! tyyy!! have a good sleep !!!

[doctorwhoformybestie]

11 x reader

°A very special holiday°

A story in which the Doctor wants to make a very special day just for you

2k words

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

It was just another not normal day in the Tardis. You both just finished running away from a very crazy Marilyn Monroe that you accidently ran into at one of Frank Sinatra's famous parties. She was chasing the Doctor around trying to convince him that they were certainly and most definitely married. 

He quickly stood from his chair and walked over to yours. 

Once safely inside the Tardis you and the doctor both fell onto the command chairs by the console. 

"Doctor you did not tell me that you knew Marilyn Monroe!"

He just laughed and smiled, "Well you weren't supposed to find out like that!" He sat there and started laughing. Which made you laugh even more. Which just resulted in a gigantic laughing fit. Once the laughing died down, you decided that it was time for a quick nap. 

"Well Doctor, I must say you keep me on my toes. But right now I'm exhausted from running away from famous people." 

"Well my good lady I bid you a good night." He smiled and outstretched his hand for you to grab and lift yourself up to your feet. He smiled and sorta awkwardly waved goodnight as you walked to the corridor your room was on. 

When you reached your bed you fell on top of it and fell asleep with a smile on your face. 

The Doctor on the other hand had a gigantic smile and was laughing and dancing around the Tardis console singing fly me to the moon when an idea sparked in his head. He's been making you run around with him for continuous days. Why not make a special day for you? Including all of your favorite things. 

First he had to make a stop at a 21st grocery store. Now of course he would have loved to do this with you but this was a special surprise for you and he had to make it as extravagant as possible. 

He parked the Tardis in the parking lot and started his journey for operation special day. Now he couldn't think of a better name so he just went with that till something better would come around in that big brain of his.

"Walmart" he said in a curious tone. "Walmarty. Walmat. Wallmot." He tried pronouncing it in different tones til he found his favorite fake accent, Texan. He quickly had another idea and ran back inside the Tardis and grabbed his Stetson and wore it inside the store. 

Now he thought he was ready to move onto the next location. But that was until he saw matching pjs that had tiny elves on them. Now the Doctor knew you hated cringy things like that because he's tried it before. Once at a halloween party he tried to make you both go as a werewolf and a vampire (who was supposed to be who? Only he knew) but you REFUSED to that for many reasons. Many of which the Doctor did not understand at all. But he grabbed them anyways just in case you were feeling a little bit generous in wearing them someday. 

Now usually when the Doctor goes to places like this he has his companion come with him. But he had to do this alone and quickly because you would not sleep for long. At least not as long as the normal human being.

When he walked in he was very curious at all the displays around the store, movies for only $5, a tub of flip-flops, every checkout aisle containing gum and other fun candies and his most favorite section was the giant tall box containing all different sorts of balls. Let's say he may have spent a few minutes taking one out and trying to toss it back in.  

Thankfully he decided to travel at night so there weren't too many people there, but a few strange faces did show up. But he decided just to smile and continue walking, these people looked quite normal, other than that one man wearing a chicken onesie, which may or may not resulted in him asking the man where he got it he wrote it down so he could get one in the future. 

Finally the Doctor decided to get the items he came for instead of exploring the wonders of the modern day store. 

He first went over to the small section of Christmas decorations, he somehow managed to travel to the summertime and not winter, but it worked all out for him. He grabbed 10 enormous boxes of white Christmas lights, stacking them all in his arms. 

He started walking to another section of the store, but then he fell. Yes the famous Doctor fell, because his laces became untied. Y/N always said that it would happen, but thankfully she wasn't here to see it play out. It resulted in boxes becoming smushed because he landed on top of them. 

The Doctor jumped up and started patting his face and his body, making sure that none of his bones were broken. When he finally had himself settled down, he saw a cart shoved into an aisle. He quickly and nonchalantly grabbed the cart and rapidly placed all the boxes of lights into it. 

When he reached his next destination, he had a tough decision to make. Fluffy socks, or fluffy blankets. "What the heck" he said as he grabbed two pairs of socks and two blankets. 

Now he continued on to the next section. Finding the most perfect hot chocolate for you was a must. It was the most make or break situation he had in the past two minutes. So many different brands, so many different flavors. After looking at all the packages he went with the most prettiest packages and decided to get 3 different flavors, just in case you didn't like one of them. 

"Oh no. I don't have mugs" he said this very quietly under his breath while tapping his chin. So he ran with the cart all the way over to the coffee mug section. He grabbed two simple blue mugs (to match the whole aesthetic going on in his spaceship) 

Then he remembered he had to grab some milk and cookies and then some candy to go along with it all. 

But of course as the Doctor does he forgot to grab candy until he was in the checkout lane. So he had to grab what was left, m&m's and skittles two of the most iconic round candies in America. 

When he was putting all his items on the checkout platform the lady gave him a very strange look. She was quite confused on why this man was buying all this stuff in the middle of June. All these items were used in the winter and here was this strange man buying it all in the summer. 

"Got big plans?" The lady asked as she scanned all the items and bagged them.

"Well you see, my friend has been working ever so hard. And I thought. Well why don't we have a celebration!" He laughed as he finished the sentence. The lady just stared at him and continued to scan the items. She now thought this man was out of his mind.

Once he paid for all the supplies he rode the cart out to the Tardis. When he got to the Tardis he placed all the bags inside as quietly as he possibly could, trying not to wake you with one sound. When he finished with all the bags he decided to travel up to the stars just to have an amazing view from the window. 

When you woke up you smelled something baking in the air. Something that you haven't smelled in a long time. You decided to jump up and run to the control room, thoughts running through your head on why the Doctor would be baking at this early of an hour. 

When you were getting closer to the control room you could hear music playing. What was going on? Before you walked into the room you called the Doctor. 

"Doctor what in the world are you…" you stopped mid sentence when you walked into the room. Your face filled with joy as you saw what was around you. 

Christmas lights were strung all around the Tardis, circling you making you feel warm. There was a couch facing the door(that the Doctor moved from the library) with fuzzy blankets thrown on to it. There were mugs and a tall black jug next to them. 

And then there was the Doctor. Sitting down on the ground using his screwdriver to fix a few strands of lights. But yet he was also trying to fix a box of some sort, almost like a radio. Once he finished the light he threw them onto the console. He then put the radio on the ground and jumped up. 

"Oh my goodness you scared me!" He yelled. "You're supposed to be asleep!"

"And you're supposed to be not doing whatever this is?" He smiled and grabbed your hands. 

"Oh but I thought that sense. Oh I don't know. That you've missed Christmas I would bring it to you!" He sounded delighted and was truly excited. 

"Doctor when did I tell you that?" 

He just smiled, and continued on with his mysterious ways of knowing things. 

He showed you everything. From the fuzzy socks to the beautiful Christmas lights. He did not show you the "cringy" pj's because he was quite honestly scared of your opinion on them

Once he showed you around at all the things he did he led you to the couch. 

"Here these are for you" he said, handing you a pair of fuzzy socks. Your face lit up with amazement at how well he knew you. He then proceeded to hand you a fuzzy blanket. Then an alarm went off, "My cookies!" He yelled as he ran down the hallway to the kitchen. He came back about 5 mins later with a plate full of warm baked chocolate chip cookies.

He handed you the plate as he walked over to where he put the warm milk and hot chocolate packets.

"Now I got 3 different packs. So if you don't like any of them you will just have to settle with one of them" 

He showed you the different kinds, dark chocolate, peppermint and milk chocolate. 

"Peppermint please" you replied. 

He smiled and poured out the warm milk and made two hot chocolates. He then proceded to grab his sonic and aim it at the radio box. It started playing White Christmas. He walked over to the couch and sat down. You placed the cookies in your lap and grabbed your mug from the Doctor. He snapped his fingers at the door and it opened to a planet filled with snow. It was thankfully very warm inside the Tardis but every once in a while you could feel a cool breeze flow in. 

The Doctor reached out of his coat pocket and grabbed the candies that were half way melted. 

"Sorry about them being melted" he gave a half grin and handed you a somewhat melted bag of m&m's. You smiled and just laughed placing them in your lap. The Doctor slowly put his arm around you, being a bit nervous as he always is when showing any signs of affection. You placed your head on his shoulder as you both looked out into the cold planet, snuggling underneath the fuzzy blankets. 

"Doctor?" 

"Yes y/n?" 

"Thank you for the best Christmas ever" 

He just smiled and took hold of your hand. 

"Anything for Miss l/n" he smiled and dreamed of how he wished every day could be like that day. 

[cyberramblings]

Sonic & Tails: Ideas for a new Sonic Plot and Partner System

So, first off, there is a game called Sonic & Knuckles. It is basically just the second half of the overly ambitious Sonic 3. It is not Sonic 4, but it is a standalone game. Anyways, there isn’t a game called Sonic & Tails yet, so let’s make that happen.

Regardless of that, I wanted to talk about my vague conceptualizations of a Sonic game plot. I WANTED to continue my thoughts on other Sonic characters, but my stupid brain can’t stop thinking about “what if Sonic and Tails fought?” Again, this is getting into some borderline fanfiction territory, but I write the blog AND the rules.

Piggybacking off my previous post detailing my thoughts on Tails, I had said that I liked the idea of Tails taking over Robotnik’s lab after he is defeated once and for all (or temporarily, I don’t expect Sonic Team to kill off the main villain, as much as I’d pseudo-ironically love Sonic Adventure 3 to open with Eggman’s funeral while Sound of Silence plays like the overly edgy funeral scene from Watchmen 2009).

Now, this is also getting into some serious Marvel Civil War or Batman v. Superman territory, but stick with me. I feel like one of the most underutilized aspects of Sonic as a series is the cast of characters. Maybe it is just me, but I feel like Sonic fans want to see their favorite obscure character return or see as many characters as possible. Even the most trivial characters have a cult following in the weird Sonic fandom. It was really cool to see the obscure Sonic the Fighters characters return for a boss fight in Sonic Mania, even if they were just an illusion. I am proposing a Sonic game where nearly every characters returns to make up the boss fights.

Now, the first issue with this idea is that typically the “rival” battles in Sonic are a bit hit or miss. Fights against playable characters in the Adventure IMO felt pretty flat and uninteresting. Now, 2D Sonic has some better boss battles against the likes of Metal Sonic and Knuckles and the same goes for Generations, so maybe those could be emulated. Regardless of gameplay, I’d like to see all the weirdies like the playable cast of Sonic Heroes, The Fighters, Emerl, Blaze, Gamma E-102, etc. return at least as boss fights, if not as playable characters, even if they are just piloting the mechs that would typically be piloted by Eggman. I get zero excitement from fighting Eggman anymore, but just put Rouge’s model in the cockpit and suddenly its way cooler with more potential for unique boss dialogue.

So far I have proposed a Civil War-style plot where Tails goes a little bit off the deep end and a Sonic game where the boss fights are all the beloved recurring characters. It should be obvious how these two parts fit together. Perhaps the dual story structure of Adventure 2 is overplayed by this point, but obviously it would fit in with these ideas.

To get into the nitty gritty and provide an example of what I am imagining, consider Metal Sonic. I can easily see a plot that starts with Tails reconfiguring Metal Sonic to be “good”. This bring back a classic character in a new way and allows for a lot of angles for the plot to go, of course borrowing from various Iron Man plots and the Buffy-bot from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

One idea from Sonic Adventure that I would really like to see return is the ever-evolving nemesis concept. Even if Sega never really brings back Chaos, I’d love to see a rival that increases in power as the game goes along. This could totally tie in with my previous idea, with Metal Sonic becoming more powerful over the course of the game, possibly with the acquisition of the Chaos Emeralds like Chaos does. Metal Sonic already has been shown to take on a few different forms, such as at the end of Sonic Heroes.

Another story beat that I’d like to see replicated is the end of Adventure 2 where Sonic and Shadow have to team up. Now, in this hypothetical Sonic & Tails game, that would obviously be Sonic and Tails teaming up, but I’d also love to see them bust out Mecha Sonic as a kind of retconned prototype of Metal Sonic from Sonic 2/3 as a last resort too.

I also love the story beat of all the playable characters at the end of Sonic Adventure bringing the depleted Chaos Emeralds to Sonic for the final fight. I would love to see something like this but a little more weighty. I have a clear mental image of something like the Breath of the Wild loading screen that shows your level of progress though the game, but instead with Sonic endlessly walking towards the camera as the game loads, surrounded by more and more characters walking towards the screen as you rescue/recruit them.

Personally, it seems like Sonic games struggle to balance multiple playable characters, so I’d settle for something like Advance 3 where you pick a partner that enables new moves. I would prefer to find a way to include every possible character as playable, but I would settle for a 3D Sonic game where Sonic (and maybe characters that control near identically like Metal Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Blaze, etc.) is the only playable character, with characters like Tails, Knuckle, Amy, Big, etc. are relegated to the partner role, but swappable.

Playable Characters:

Sonic: Everything normal

Metal Sonic: Just make him control like he does in Adventure 2: Battle, so faster than Sonic but with less moves. I don’t think Metal Sonic has ever been canonically playabe, only appearing as a boss fight or playable in racing games or bonus modes, so that would be my biggest request.

Shadow: Just Sonic but slipperier and please give him a teleport instead of a homing attack

Silver: Again, just Sonic but make his double jump more offensive to represent his telekinetic abilities

Blaze: Her name is BLAZE and she has FIRE POWERS in Rush and Rush Adventure, so please just make her control like Sonic but with a fiery homing attack or her fire hover from Rush

Espio: Just give him some kind of limited invisibility or maybe the tornado attack as a reference to Heroes

Mighty: He could probably be thrown in with his moves from Mania, but this is reaching

Jet: Probably asking too much, but he’s never been playable in non-racing game, so even seeing him with his board in a main game as a kind of joke would be cool

Assist Characters:

Tails, Cream, Charmy: Obviously, limited flight with slightly different characteristics. Cream could alternatively have the Chao attack from Advance

Knuckles, Rouge, Tikal: Either a limited glide or the digging

Amy: Piko Piko Hammer as an attack or as a big jump. She could also maybe be a Sonic-like characters, but I feel like she was shoehorned into the speed role in Heroes

Big: I just like seeing this dumb idiot return. It seems like asking a lot for the fishing rod to be used as a grappling hook, so maybe he could just have a big area attack

Fang/Knack, Bark, Bean: I mean, maybe just show up and fistfight some enemies?

Vector: Something music based, realistically

Chaos: Again, this is reaching, but maybe this ties into Tails taking over Eggman’s research

E-1XX Alpha, Gamma, Omega, etc: It is asking a lot to have all the robots return, but I’d love to see them all as slight variants of “shoot a bunch of missiles” or limited hovering

Omochao: Personally I’d love to see this little guy as an assist who just never shuts up, maybe with some hidden secret-unlocking potential

Vanilla: She doesn’t have a lot of game appearances, I’d take anything

G.U.N. Commander: Again, I just think this would be kinda funny. He could summon robots or just fire missiles

Eggman Nega: Not sure why he would help the main characters, but I’m always rooting for weird stuff like this

Wave, Storm: They could function like Tails/Knuckles or grant a temporary board for tricks or whatnot, maybe like the skateboard powerup from Sonic Generations

Tails Doll: This is dumb, but it would be fun to see as a little throwaway easter egg

So, that was a bunch of random nonsense directly from my brain, but you probably get the idea: find a way to include a lot of characters in the plot and the gameplay. Do I expect any of this to ever happen? No. And honestly, I’d prefer to see another game where I can actually play as characters like Rouge, the robots, Amy, and Cream.

ONE LAST THING: There should really be a Sonic rhythm game. They have so much music, both the classic songs as well as the Crush 40 songs, with tons of remixes of both already existing and even more possible. It would fit perfectly with the gameplay of Sonic, you could just have the notes appear as obstacles or powerup boxes. There are a million different ways to slice it, but it just makes too much sense to ignore. I don’t have enough ideas to make a separate post, though. Maybe I’ll make a playlist sometimes of songs I’d like to see included, but the issue is that it would be way too many songs. As with the main point of this post, I would love to see many different playable characters with very slight changes to their properties.

ONE LAST LAST THING: Since Sega hates localizing Puyo Puyo games, they should just make a new Mean Bean Machine with HD graphics and all the various Sonic characters represented somehow and then release it internationally either as Mean Bean Machine or just Sonic Puyo Puyo. Again, I didn’t have enough ideas for a whole post.

FINAL FINAL FINAL RAMBLES: I kinda wanna play Sonic 06 since I actually just recently found out that Rouge, Omega, and Blaze are playable, but the disc is 20 bucks at gamestop for 360. I also kinda wanna play Unleashed, but not enough to buy it. I really get more excited when more characters are playable, which makes me wish I enjoyed playing Sonic Battle more. I also have my eye on Chronicles if I can ever get the patience to actually sit down and play it. At this point, I should just make my own dang original game or story inspired by the things I like about Sonic.

[glapplebloom]

Wow, if I had a nickel for every time two animated series I love did a literal battle of the bands between Rock and Pop where one genre is used for mind control, I'd have two nickels - which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

Welcome to the Battle of the Bands. In one corner, standing 11 Minutes and 45 seconds, we got Sonic Boom and their “Episode Battle of the Bands” In the other corner, standing in a combine time of 22 Minutes and 41 Seconds, Lauren Faust’s DC Super Hero Girls. Can Sonic recover from this month after upsetting loses to Wally West and Black Panther? Or will this be another case of Lauren turning generic girly into award winning series?

Round 1 - The Set Up

Sonic Boom begins with explaining how Justin Beaver (yes, I know) is super popular. Especially for the female demographic. The boys and Sticks don’t buy it because he’s just yet another Bubblegum Pop Icon being shoved down their throats. But when Amy played them a song, Sticks strangely becomes just as addictive to the music as Amy is. This gets them suspicious so they begin to investigate the singer and what’s the deal.

I do like the idea of them figuring out something is wrong when Sticks suddenly becomes obsessed with him. She’s all conspiracy theories and all that and a boy band would normally trigger that. So that is a nice set up to their story.

DC Super Hero Girls begins with Supergirl excited because today the League of Shadows (yes, Ra's al Ghul leads a rock band in this universe) is playing tonight and she got two tickets to see them. Nobody really volunteers to go, especially not Bumblebee who is more of a fan of a boy band group called Up Past Eight. She got tickets to see their concert tomorrow. Like Supergirl, nobody volunteers to go with her. So Supergirl decides to take Bumblebee against her will to listen to actual cool music. 

At the concert, Bumblebee is fitting it as well as a sheep would fit in a stampede of buffalo. But it seems Ra’s Aal Ghul has a liking to Supergirl. So inviting her backstage before the concert, he gives her a gift. I enjoyed that neither the League of Shadows or Up Past Eight were liked among the rest of the cast. It shows how dynamic the entire group can be when they all have their own unique taste. Granted, they’re all watching that vampire movie that looks like its making fun of Twilight.

Round 2 - The Build Up

Back in Sonic Boom, the dudes believe that the Producer is behind this Beaver Fever, but the only way to get back there is to be part of the music industry. So Sonic’s plan is for them to form their own Boy Band: Dreamboat Express (coming up with the name was more difficult than doing choreography). The name works and they got it. Luckily, thanks to meta jokes, the Producer reveals his evil scheme while they happen to be in the backstage.

Yep, Mind Controlling Females with Music. And the newest song is going to be even more Mind Controllering. They try to tell the girls but they don’t believe it. So their only option is to get up on stage and find a counter frequency to reverse the brain washing. Sonic Boom’s greatest strength is its Meta Commentary. While its more effective for Sonic fans, there are some that anyone can get behind: like finishing sentences after you take them back to your place.

Now with DC Superhero Girls, Ra’s also decided to use mind control in his music. But unlike the Producer above, he’s more selective of his targets. Somehow figuring out Supergirl’s identity, that gift he gave her was really Red Kryptonite: which allows Kryptonians to be more subjective to Mind Control. And also unlike the above, the Mind Controlling Song is frikkin good! They gave it an awesome music video visual with its own animation style. And now completely under the control of Ra's al Ghul, Supergirl steals Bumblebee’s tickets to destroy Up Past Eight.

You know the really messed up part: despite acting a lot more agro than usual, no one really thinks Supergirl is acting out of the ordinary. But Bumblebee does and figures out Ra’s plans and made her own counter plan to prevent it. The advantage DCSHG has over Sonic Boom is that this episode is twice their normal running time so they can have a lot more meat behind it and rely less on gags.

They get on stage thanks to the Security Guard still believing they’re the opening act and compete with Justin in a sing off so they can stall for time and analyze the frequency. And its terrible. Sonic and crew’s music is so on the nose and their singing is not as good. Meanwhile Justin’s is generic and while certainly better, still not that good. Tails figured out the counter frequency is Rock and Roll and Dreamboat Express becomes Dude-itude and frees them with the power of Rock.

It also frees Justin Beaver from singing to being a reality TV Celebrity. Yeah, their Rock Song is definitely better than their Pop Song, but still not as good as Ra’s singing. And that’s how the episode ends, with them finishing their song. It is an enjoyable episode and regardless on who wins, you should see both of these episodes.

Bumblebee’s plan is much simpler: call the others, get the guys to replace Up Past Eight and get the girls to keep Supergirl from killing them. And the strongest advantage for DCSHG is that both main songs are very good. The problem is Supergirl is also pretty good and the Girls are just not strong enough to defeat her. Bumblebee figures out its because the song is still stuck in her head and the only way to free her is to make her feel something.

And thanks to Aqualad holding a note (and the group hug from the girls), Supergirl is freed and turns out really enjoys Up Past Eight. It also ends with them ending the song (though they do have fireworks). Again, you should see both episodes. But if one has to win its definitely the DC Superhero Girls. Its longer, has more meat to it, and the music is MUCH better than Sonic Boom’s.

I really hope in the future they release the singles like they did for Teen Titans Go.

[maxsmusicmacrology]

Album Analysis: Best of Crush 40

Halfway through the 90s, everything changed. The PlayStation came out in 94, allowing games with 3D graphics and high-fidelity (for the time, that is) audio. Big Red came hopping onto the scene with Super Mario 64 in 96, and Sonic Adventure came onto the scene at the very end of 98. As a latecomer to the 3D party, arriving over 2 years after Mario had such a successful romp, they needed something special. They needed…

Children’s media! I’m of the opinion that there are two main categories that children’s media can fall into: there’s media that is specifically made for children, like Blue’s Clues or Peppa Pig or those licensed Sesame Street games. Then there’s kid-friendly media that, while made for and marketed towards children, can still appeal to adults. This would be most Pixar movies, shows like Phineas and Ferb, and the object of today’s article, the Sonic franchise.

While there’s some pretty huge differences between children’s media and kid-friendly media, one thing they both have in common is the goal of teaching children a moral lesson. With varying degrees of success. This can be something simple like “stealing is bad”, but oftentimes there’s some greater nuance, like how the protagonist of Inside Out learns to value sadness and other “negative” emotions. But when working with hardware that has some intense limitations, like the NES or Sega Genesis, telling a complex story isn’t easy, which is why Save the Princess plots (Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, the opening to Final Fantasy) were so common: it allowed for a moral hero without requiring any deeper discussion. Sonic the Hedgehog went with a bit more of an environmentalist message- saving animals from an evil scientist- which was easy enough to portray in only 16 bits.

Halfway through the 90s, everything changed. The PlayStation came out in 94, allowing games with 3D graphics and high-fidelity (for the time, that is) audio. Big Red came hopping onto the scene with Super Mario 64 in 96, and Sonic Adventure came onto the scene at the very end of 98. As a latecomer to the 3D party, arriving over 2 years after Mario had such a successful romp, they needed something special. They needed…

I’m going to review this album out of order. This is a “Best of” album, so rather than being a picture of the band’s musical vision at any given time, it contains some of their best work from over a decade-long span. What I’m especially interested in is how the music interacts with its respective game and how it evolves with the franchise, so let’s take a look at song #15 first.

Open Your Heart kicks off Sonic Adventure with a bang. It’s the first thing you hear when you boot the game up and it accompanies the final battle. Well, most of it, anyway- part 1 of the battle gets Open Your Heart and part 2 gets generic “tense orchestral music”, which is a flat-out awful decision, but I digress. Tonally, it’s perfect- it starts out tense, preparing you for the fight ahead, and then the guitars kick in to pull you forward. But more importantly… this is why I brought up the moral conflict earlier. The story is simple, so the game leans on the song to deliver its message.

Much of the lyrics are as relevant today as they probably were for most of human history: the quieter intro bit describes various catastrophes, and describes the fear and confusion that follows (much like the one we’ve been living in for the past few months). The song’s chorus is built around a dialectic: Can’t hold on much longer/but I will never let go, but then ends with Open your heart, it’s gonna be alright. Together, these components combine the fear of catastrophe with the innate desire to make things better. It instills the idea that it’s okay to have conflicting feelings about a course of action, then promises that your heart will make the right choice.

Live and Learn is the main theme of the direct sequel, Sonic Adventure 2, and fills the same roles as Open Your Heart. The opening riff plays when the game is launched, the full song plays over the final battle, and it delivers the moral lesson of the game. If Open Your Heart introduces a lesson about conflict, then Live and Learn teaches you what to do when you’ve made the wrong choice. What happens if you trust the wrong people, stay when you should’ve run or run when you should’ve stayed, let something important fall into the wrong hands?

The very title of the song hints at its message- you learn from your mistakes and do better- but to me the line that really hits comes in the second verse. But you can’t save your sorrows/you’ve paid in trade. It recontextualizes all the regret someone feels from a mistake as a sort of currency: it’s not to be saved, kept in your mind and dwelled on- you’ve exchanged it, traded it for valuable life experience. If you focus on the mistake instead of the lesson, you’ll never grow, and it’ll all have been a waste. Not only is it a natural progression from the last song, it’s an absolute banger of a track.

Next up is Sonic Heroes, the intro track to… Sonic Heroes. That won’t be confusing. I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one, it’s not the big moral apex of the game and it’s much more of a title theme than the song the game wants you to walk away from. It’s goofy as hell to listen to, but it always puts a smile on my face.

What I’m Made of is the final battle theme to Sonic Heroes and is, in my opinion, the finale of the Open Your Heart trilogy. Looking at the three songs is a sort of rudimentary 3-act structure: you have the introduction and first conflict, the dark part at the end of act 2, and the triumphant closer. The protagonist takes the lesson they learned through the story and uses it to defeat their opponent. What I have in my two hands is enough to set me free. Use the lessons you’ve learned through hardship to better yourself. The songs form a very nice trilogy when viewed like this that parallels the games quite nicely, and I’m confused as to why they’re all out of order on the album.

That finishes off the Adventure and Heroes saga, and now onto… Shadow the Hedgehog… god. I Am… All of Me is the opening track to the game and also the first song on the album, and it’s so goofy. It tries to be all dark and intimidating because Shadow is the dark and edgy character, who has guns and says “damn” because he has a tragic backstory, and the character isn’t edgy because he’s a cartoon hedgehog and and the song isn’t edgy because it’s a song about a cartoon hedgehog.

That doesn’t mean it’s bad, mind you. I enjoy it, and in a way it’s a perfect fit for the game. It’s like a kid wearing a vampire costume on halloween: they can try to scare you all they want, but the worst they can do is make you smile.

All Hail Shadow is the next Shadow the Hedgehog piece. This one was originally by a group called Magna-Fi, and was covered by Crush 40 for use in later games when the band broke up. Shadow the Hedgehog features multiple paths and multiple endings, and this is the “true hero” ending when the player makes all the heroic choices. This song does a good job painting Shadow as Sonic’s foil: both of them are heroes from this point forward, but while Sonic is more of a classical hero, Shadow is an anti-hero. Somewhere in chaos we all find ourselves/this destruction is the only tale we tell. The game features Shadow trying to recover his memories and find his true self, figure out who he really is, and this is the song that has him rediscover himself as a hero.

Finally, Never Turn Back is the true ending theme for the game, and the last Shadow the Hedgehog song in the album. This is the “moral lesson” song I’ve been on about so much, and it’s a damn good one. It starts with a slow cover that samples I am… All of Me, then it gets a powerful kick that rings in the rest of the song. The message in the song is similar to Live and Learn about not repeating mistakes, but Never Turn Back gives a sense of a much more arduous period in one’s life. If Live and Learn is about recovering from a mistake, Never Turn Back is about recovering from a long series of them. It’s been a long rough road but I’m finally here/Move an inch forward, feels like a year. It’s very much about cutting yourself free of a bad period in your life and how difficult it can be to even stay put, but the positive vibe of the song reminds us to celebrate the small victories. It’s a bit more mature of a message for a game that… at least tried to be more mature.

I haven’t talked a whole lot about how the music interacts with the events of the game partially because this is a music review, but partially because it’s gone perfectly hand and hand with the music so far. There hasn’t been much dissonance between “rock music that gives life advice” and “young-ish hedgehog learning how to live life”. That’s about to change, though, because it’s time for Sonic 06. At the end of Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic declared that he was no one special, “just a guy who loves adventure”. This is when that ceased to be true.

The first three songs we discussed weren’t about Sonic. The singer was a nameless narrator occasionally fighting a nameless opponent. They were relevant to the series, but they could be about anyone. That’s what made them so versatile. His World is the main theme of Sonic 06, and where the other 2 versions of the song existed more to hype up Sonic as a character, the Crush 40 cover was more about the events of the game. As a song, it’s pretty good: it’s a more intense version of the original song, and it’s got a slower but steadier pace to it. But here’s what sets it apart from the other main themes: it’s about Sonic. It’s not a lesson about facing conflict and overcoming adversity wrapped up in an upbeat rock song, it’s about the events of the game and how awesome Sonic is. He isn’t the everyman anymore, he’s an important figure, a chosen one to save the world from this point forward. The music reflects that.

To really drive home this new direction they were going, Sega released two games for the Wii called “Sonic Storybook” games, where Sonic would become the main character of two classic stories: Arabian Nights and the legend of King Arthur. They’re both terrible in… just about every aspect, but the first entry Sonic and the Secret Rings is godawful. The main theme Seven Rings in Hand wasn’t written or originally performed by Crush 40, but for some reason they decided to cover it for their album, so I have to talk about it: it’s trash. It’s a bunch of empty lyrics about nothing with some pretty subpar mixing.

While Sonic and the Black Knight isn’t much better, it at least has a killer main theme. Knight of the Wind as a song is pretty badass, but it suffers the same issues as His World. There’s no more important meaning, it’s just about Sonic being a knight and saving people. It has a few familiar “never give up” themes, but it doesn’t do anything as well as Open Your Heart or Live and Learn. It falls into the Sonic Heroes mold where it’s fun to listen to and less fun to really take apart and analyze. The ending theme (which strangely precedes Knight of the Wind) Live Life samples Knight of the Wind, but that’s pretty much the coolest thing it does. It’s slow and pensive, making a sense of faux-thoughtfulness to cover mostly shallow lyrics.

With Me (Massive Power Mix) is the last Sonic and the Black Knight theme here, and was originally written by Crush 40 and performed by singers from the band “All Ends”. The album features a version performed by the band itself, and the song is unique in that it’s sung from the POV of the game’s villain. As a result, it features a look into a character who walked a “dark path”, weighed down by the mistakes they made. Don’t blame [me] for what I have become. It’s an ideological clash against the values in the other songs, arguing that anyone can be tempted to become evil. It’s deeper than anything in the game, but it’s shockingly good considering its source material.

That does it for the main series themes, but there’s a few others on here- a couple tracks for the racing games, an oddly placed cover of Fire Woman, and a too-slow ballad-sounding original song called Is It You. However, I think I’ve gone on long enough, and I’ve discussed everything I wanted to: how the songs showcased on this album elevate the messages given in the games.

Ultimately, all these songs are mirrors of the game they’re in, for better or worse. For that, I have to applaud the band’s versatility- even if most of the songs are the same genre, they cover a wide range of moods and messages depending on what the game demands. They can write a kick-ass guide to getting over failure or a fun little romp to introduce a game. Even divorced from their source material, many of the songs stand well on their own, and there’s a very good reason why fans of the franchise want Crush 40 to return for future installments.

Videos cited:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJYxYzxFyZw Peppa Pig - Caddicarus (warning: weird shit)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWYDUYqhlc&list=PL5F29F0909BF08B56&index=15 - Best of Crush 40 Playlist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voI-9TdS0Jw - Seven Rings in Hand (Crush 40 Ver)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HrOjyltyEM - With Me (Massive Power Mix)

[cypher-of-the-night]

Information about Subaoki Kids~

Mun!Yuki: Okay so I’m just going to be like “Fuck it. I’m showing them now.” Let me introduce you my new grandchildren. :D I don’t have proper bios of them but I can always show what they are like here.

Let’s start off with the oldest to youngest.

~

Ichiru Sakamaki (逆巻 一縷; Sakamaki Ichiru)

Age: 14 (Pre-Timeskip) -> 18 (Post-Timeskip)

Birthday: September 5th

Height: 160 cm (5’3") -> 177 cm (5’10”)

Weight: 53 kg (119 Ibs) -> 67 kg (147 Ibs)

Occupation: Next heir to the throne, Model, 3rd year High School Student (Post-Timeskip)

Seiyū: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka ( Akashi Saginuma from M3: Sono Kuroki Haagen ) (Talking / Singing)

English Voice: Daman Mills ( Varma from Taboo Taboo ) (Talking)

Personality:

Very similar to his father, Ichiru is a silent loner that is quick-tempered and is capable of causing a lot of damage, such as breaking things, even if it is accidental; However, he can also be sweet due to the influence of his mother, whom he loves very much, very similar to how his father loved his own mother. He is said to be a tsundere like his father, which he often denies. However, he is not a DO-S (extreme sadist) like his father; Due to the damages he caused when he was much younger, Naoki taught him to not damage things when throwing fits by teaching him many ways to calm himself whenever he is angered; Eventually, Ichiru chose to vent out his feelings by writing out his feelings in a private journal in the garden (very much like his mother when she is writing lyrics to her raps). Not wanting to make his mother worried whenever his father damages things, Ichiru is the one that often fixes it, which he later finds as a hobby.

Like his mother, Ichiru loves food to a point of eating anything, and like his father, He dislikes nothing when it comes to food. Very much like his mother, He has a disinterest in studying despite holding higher-than-average intelligence. Like Naoki, Ichiru has a golden heart, and is strong-willed and honest (but in his case, it’s brutal honesty). And also like her, He is understanding, caring, hardworking, and helpful. Despite his tsundere personality, Ichiru was taught to be a gentleman to women; Very similar to his mother, Ichiru is eccentric and is highly curious, to a point of having a strange way of thinking.

Despite admiring his father, Ichiru calls him “Old man” and snarls whenever someone comments about him being similar to him. This is due to the fact of learning about his mother’s time with Subaru when she was still human, and became protective of her as a result; This has caused a rivalry between Ichiru himself and his own father. Regardless, it is revealed by Naoki that Ichiru truly does love his father, but he’s just very stubborn to admit it due to his own pride, like his father.

~

Trivia:

• Just as Tsundere as his father; But still has a kind heart like his mother.

• As the oldest, He often scolds his sister and the damages she causes; However, the dismissiveness for the scoldings resembles their father’s dismissiveness of the scoldings he received from their Uncle Reiji.

• Because He is to be next-in-line for the throne, Ichiru is has to keep his composure and restrain himself from losing his cool; Even resorts to healthier ways suggested by his mother on how to calm himself down.

• At the age of 14, Ichiru was scouted to work as a model; While he initially plan to decline, Ichiru accepted in order to make money for himself without having to rely on his parents financially, especially his father, the Vampire King.

• While he inherited his father’s strength, Ichiru doesn’t take advantage of it due to not inheriting any destructive traits or tendencies.

• Despite his father and sister being left-handed and his mother right-handed, Ichiru is ambidextrous.

• Despite inheriting his black hair from his mother, Naoki herself attests that he inherit most of his looks from Subaru due to an incident where she witnessed Subaru’s hair dyed black from an incident involving an octopus ink.

However there was one incident that happened to Ichiru where his hair was bleached for a whole month because of his sister; Ichiru looked exactly like his father to a point where even Naoki can attest that they would’ve looked like twins.

• In Naoki’s HDB Brute Ending, only Ichiru was born through her becoming mentally broken from Subaru’s sexual assault; Where a cycle begins where an insane Naoki starts failing to differentiate between people, mistaking Ichiru as Subaru himself due to him sharing the same face as him, and, as a result, deemed him as “filthy”, despite loving and doting him when not mad; Very much like the relationship between Christa and Subaru himself and how Christa becomes mentally broken because of Karlheinz.

~

Tsukika Sakamaki (逆巻 月下; Sakamaki Tsukika)

Age: 12 (Pre-Timeskip) -> 16 (Post-Timeskip)

Birthday: June 8th

Height: 149 cm (4'11") -> 158 cm (5’2”)

Weight: 49 kg (108 Ib)

Occupation: Idol, 1st year High School Student (Post-Timeskip)

Seiyū: Taeko Kawata ( Amy Rose from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise ) (Talking / Singing)

English Voice: Amanda Lee ( Zero from Grimoire of Zero ) (Talking / Singing)

Personality:

While she inherited her mother’s bubbly cheerfulness, Tsukika inherited her father’s strength and tendencies to break things near her, including walls; However, this is mainly whenever she is happy and excited, as there has only been a very few times she has ever used her strength in anger and/or intentionally; Due to this, her older brother, Ichiru, always has to clean up after her and often scolds her for the damages she caused, which she prefers to ignore; The same way Subaru ignores Reiji whenever he is being scolded. Unlike her mother, Tsukika isn’t exactly smart when it comes to school work no matter how hard she tries as she only barely passes, very much like her father. Tsukika is rather girly, sometimes boy-crazy/girl-crazy (not often taken seriously), and fashionable, and is just as extroverted as her mother.

When annoyed, Tsukika shows to have also inherit her father’s temper, but shows it in a tranquil fury way just like Asher when he is angered. While she is temperamental and stubborn in private, Tsukika, as an idol, presents herself to the public as an fragile, air-headed star. Due to watching Kou’s performance as an idol, Tsukika wanted to become an idol when she reached of age. While it was difficult to handle at first, She admittedly enjoyed performing as she loved to sing and dance; This is something she inherited from her mother with rap music. As an idol, Tsukika is very cautious about using her strength in public and to keep herself in-character as a normal girl.

However, unlike her brother, Tsukika has Do-S tendencies due to her vampiric nature that she fully embraces, to a point where she has taken advantage of using her strength and her looks to do as she pleases, and feels no remorse in the things she does. Her victims would always be obsessive stalkers that happen to be cute to Tsukika, Men or women, and would often be broken down and tortured into mindless dolls by Tsukika, by shattering their pure image of her and themselves feel disgusting. On the full moon, She becomes a seductive temptress, turning from a playful flirt that often jokes around to a shameless flirt that has no shame for doing the things she does. Tsukika holds the belief that she would rather embrace her vampiric nature than to suppress it like her brother does, as she takes pride in being a vampire and doesn’t see any reason to hold back who she is behind closed doors; Alas, she would be forced to keep her activities secret to keep her job as an idol and her pure image from being tainted.

~

Trivia:

• By timeskip, Tsukika is not a virgin as she has had sex with her victims once she got older.

• Despite her history of sexual activities, she has never genuinely been in love before; But it is hinted that, when she does genuinely fall in love, she becomes rather yandere-ish. (Very much like Satou Matsuzaka from Happy Sugar Life)

• She has a crush on Rini (by @adiabolikpastel), as Rini is her first real friend; As a result, she genuinely cares for her and is heavily clingy/overprotective of her. It is implied that she established a secret fanclub for her in which Tsukika herself is the leader of.

• Tsukika has an immense love for cute things and sweets to a point her room is filled pastel colors and colorful plushies and a mini-fridge containing her sweets.

• Tsukika has a soft spots for animals, and even has memories of herself as a child being surrounded by animals with her father.

• Tsukika’s real name is “Měi-Rén”/“美人”, meaning “Beautiful Person”.

Tsukika’s name comes from the two first characters of “月下美人” (Gekka Bijin) or "Beauty under the Moon", which is what the Queen of the Night is known as in Japan for its rich history.

• Tsukika admits that Kou was the one that inspired her to become an idol herself. She even declares him her favorite uncle, despite the fact that he is not related to either of her parents by blood.

• Tsukika is actually pansexual and demiromantic.

• While She has a good relationship with her mother, Tsukika loves her father and cherishes the times she spends with him as a child; As much as she wishes to spend more time with him, she understands him being busy as the new Vampire King. Although, it could be said that, while having Naoki’s eyes, Subaru gets reminded of his mother due to the physical resemblance Tsukika has with her.

~

Images used for references:

Ichiru -> 1/2

Tsukika -> 1/2

[miserylovescompanyfanfic]

MLC Ch: 1

Summary + more tags + warnings here 

Chapter 1

When does one decide that they are happy with who they are? Is it a gradual course, or is it rather sudden? Do they just wake up one day and love who they are as a person? Or, does it take work, time, and patience? 

For Amy Rose the telling moment when she realized she didn’t like who she was when, during the final showdown with Eggman, their small group: Herself, Rouge and Knuckles, Tails, and of course Sonic himself came out of the flying airship. Everyone had bangs and bruises, maybe a couple broken bones but nothing detrimental. 

The mobian’s of New Mobotropolis came out of their bunkers cheering and crying, there were minimal casualties but casualties regardless-- but still, the mobian’s cheered for them. They cheered for them more than they mourned their dead. They cheered for the lives that were saved, that the nightmare was over, that Sonic saved them. 

Sonic was at the forefront, barely dirtied and scratched from the fight, Knuckles and Tails right by his side with a bit more bulk of the injuries, Knuckle’s ribs were patched up with parts of gauze and Amy’s dress; Tails’ had patches on his arm and over his eye. Rouge, firmly planted at Knuckle’s side with her arm around his shoulder, had the worst injury of all of them- a hole, clear through her left wing. 

Amy, she was behind the group, small compared to them even though her hammer was larger than any of them. She only had scrapes and bruises and a singed quill… that they knew of. She covered the deep gash on the back of her arm with only her gloves, she didn’t want to worry Sonic. 

Their pictures were taken, Sonic’s chest had been puffed out as he waved and graciously accepted the praise, receiving handshakes and crying people falling into his arms. 

And there was little Amy Rose, 16 at the time the picture was taken. Looking battered, scared, and at the back of the group peeking from over Tails’ shoulder. Her only concern in that moment was seeing Sonic. Making sure that Sonic was ok. 

That he didn’t get terribly hurt. 

That Amy Rose didn’t seem to care too much about the hole in Rouge’s wing, the crushed and cracked ribs on Knuckles, or the possibility that Tails’ might be blind in one eye. She didn’t care that she and Tails were children in this war. 

It was Sonic. 

It was always about Sonic. 

It was then, in that moment, that a little voice finally broke through the wall she put it behind however many years ago, screaming and fighting that she should be a lot more concerned about a lot more than fucking Sonic who doesn’t even seem to be concerned about her. 

Amy and the voice in her head fought for days, arguing constantly back and forth about how Amy needed to rethink her priorities, how she needed to be more concerned about her friends whose lives were on the line to save others and what was she doing? Fantasizing over Sonic, on how much he would have to love her if they won. If he only saw how strong she was, he would be head over heels for her. 

That Amy Rose was gone once, at the reception of their victory only weeks after Eggman’s defeat, she saw Sonic with Sally Acorn, leader of the Freedom Fighters. Arm in arm, him in a tux with a shiny black bowtie and a medal of Honor bestowed upon him by King Acorn himself and Sally in her pretty blue dress with a crown sat atop her auburn hair. 

They shared a kiss together, in front of everyone. Amy Rose wanted to cry, she wanted to die, she even fled to the bathrooms and cried her pretty little green eyes out and fuck did she feel pathetic. 

Anger, burning hot anger welled inside her. Not at Sonic, no-- she could never be mad at Sonic. No, it was at herself. Herself, for being so pathetic and so naïve and so god damn selfish. She knew Sally loves Sonic and vice versa, but still she left the Freedom Fighters to fight with Sonic directly, hoping to steal his heart from Sally who held it since they were children. Amy Rose hoped beyond hope that Sonic would break Sally’s heart and come flocking to her, come bestowing flowers and confessing his undying, undeniable love to her but just couldn’t say anything sooner until Eggman had been defeated. 

Her nails bit into her fists and her teeth bit into her lip, drawing blood from both. 

She didn’t rejoin the party. 

It had taken Amy days to finally leave her house, striking a deal with herself to rejoin everyday normal life. Going to school like normal kids her age, visiting her friends in the hospital, picking up a new hobby. 

Rouge was doing better, Knuckles was in recovery, and Tails… well, Tails unfortunately lost his right eye. But, he was optimistic as Amy expressed an interest in his inventions and technology-- and even after having a few detailed discussions with him, he offered for her to help him design a new optical implant. She even took over the main construction of it while he oversaw it, seeing as he was lacking… depth perception. 

Turns out, she was pretty good at it-- the whole building aspect and incorporating technology into it. Little tweaks here and there but there was a working prototype oculus implant by the end of 4 months with Amy having found a new passion in life that could actually help people. 

Of course Amy was no doctor and only a novice when it came to the technology, but with Tails’ help she was well on her way to becoming an apprentice, but when it came time to put the implant in, Amy could only wait. In fact, Tails’ and Amy traveled to Empire City for the operation to happen. 

While Tails’ was in recovery, sporting his new first generation implant, Amy explored the city. Among the twinkling lights, expansive park, bustling life that didn’t seem to be touched by the horrors of war, a college sat unassuming towards the edge of town. Apparently some of the oldest buildings in the city resided on the campus. 

Amy didn’t realize in that moment that she enjoyed architecture, it had never really held any significance in her life beforehand. Though now, gazing at the intricate weavings of some buildings, one even looked like a gothic mansion that a vampire would reside in, she could appreciate it. Was one able to fall in love with a building? She felt like it as she gazed up at it, walking along the paved way as mobian’s wandered aimlessly around campus. She didn’t fit in, but she didn’t stand out either. 

It was then that the realization that Amy never put much thought of going to school stared her straight in the face, would she even enjoy college? What would she want to go for? Amy sat in a gazebo behind the mansion-like building and overlooked what could only be a court yard with other buildings surrounding it. She contemplated then, not sure what she wanted to do with her life. 

Would she be happy in a structured schooling environment? In fact, when was the last time Amy was in school? Aside from the times Tails had helped her study or they learned something together… Amy hadn’t been since she was just a young hedgehog. 

It was a decision for another day.

Though the campus and the city had been behind the two of them for weeks, months even it still sat heavily on Amy’s mind. What was there for her? Days continued to pass by, most of them spent with Tails during his recovery and tweaking the implant now that it was usable. 

Though what really solidified the idea of Amy moving away, starting over in a new life was when Sonic came a few weeks after Tails had surgery while Amy was there but in the back of Tails’ home in the indoor work area; Tails was taking a snack break since Amy brought over cookies she made that morning when Sonic had knocked on the door. Tails had a cane to help him while his implant was with Amy, and she heard him banging around before getting to the front door. 

“Sonic!” Tails was of course excited to see his best friend, while Amy… she had stilled in her movements, but ended up shocking herself with an instrument to test currents through the device. She decided to finish up what she was working on. 

“How are things going?” she could hear Sonic’s voice even though it was muffled. Tails said something but she tuned it out, instead focusing on the sparks flying and the sound they were making. 

She was at a good stopping point, but sat on the stool in the workroom as she could hear Tails and Sonic continuing to chat. She didn’t want to get up, she would rather hole herself up in that room forever and just continue to tinker if it was allowed. 

“Not loving him anymore doesn’t mean you hate him.” She reasoned with herself, because it was true. She could never hate Sonic, but she could be uncomfortable at seeing him again. 

She sighed the breath she was holding, instead she scooted back from the workstation, removed her face mask, and emerged finally. 

Sonic and Tails were sitting at the table in the middle of the kitchen, worn and knobby legs barely held the poor thing up but it had yet to collapse despite the clutter on it. Though Amy noticed that Tails had at least cleaned out a spot for her plate of cookies. 

“Amy!” Tails was excited to see her, grinning ear to ear as he sat facing her; Sonic though had his back to her. He turned slowly, before standing up to give her a surprised look but a smile regardless. 

“Ames, I didn’t know you were here.” Sonic said easily, smiling and scratching his cheek. He stood with a rigid back and a pinch to his eyebrow, and Amy knew enough to tell he was uncomfortable. 

“Yeah,” she smiled easily instead, leaning against the door frame with arms crossed. “I’ve been helping Tails out with his new implant.” 

“Really? Like, just cleaning up and stuff?” Sonic asked casually, scratching his nose as he looked around the home closely this time. Amy’s brows pinched as she tilted her head in confusion. 

“No?” She was going to ask him what he meant, but Tails spoke up before she could finish. 

“Actually Sonic-- Amy has been a big help with the designing of the implant along with the first generation of actually designing the mechanics of it. She was just finishing up some of the modifications I had asked for during our initial test of it since I have the doc already implanted in my head, so removing the device to make modifications is super easy.” 

Sonic looked at Tails like he grew two heads but still only had the one eye; Sonic looked between Tails and Amy, finally looking at Amy’s oil spotted quills, dirty overalls, ruined and cropped shirt, and the bandana holding her bangs out of her face. 

“Yup, I’ve been helping Tails for 6 months… But, who’s counting.” She shrugged. Sonic was still looking at her with a suspicious look on his face. 

“What’s wrong, Sonic?” Amy asked him, trying to keep her voice even though she wanted to snap at him. 

“I never figured you for the technology kinda gal,” he shrugged, rubbing a finger in his ear. Amy’s nose twitched with a slight disgust. Had he always picked his ear or his nose when having conversations? “Kinda always figured you were the more ‘at home’ type, you know cleaning, tending to the garden…” he cast a glance at the cookies on the table before lifting his eyes back to her. “... baking.” He shrugged, looking disinterested now with the conversation. Amy tried to calm her expression but her shoulders tensed and her hands tightened around her arms. 

“Well, I like those things too, Sonic.” Amy said in a clipped tone. “There’s nothing wrong with having a clean, beautiful home, or baking sweets for my friends.” She emphasized the word, the daunting realization that the gap between Sonic and her had been larger than she ever knew. All the sweets she baked for him gone uneaten; while the plate of cookies sitting between them was nearly gone. 

He rubbed the back of his head, casting a glance back to Tails. Amy sighed, moving up to the table. There was a tense and awkward silence between them as she stared up at Sonic, who tried to give her a bored and disinterested look but she could see the pulse in his neck, she broke the contact first by leaning by him and grabbing her own cookie. She pulled her goggles from around her neck back up to her eyes and went back into the back room. 

A pit was in her stomach, writhing like worms in the mud since she felt so much like dirt. Here she was so blinded by how she felt by him, obsessed with him, that she didn’t even realize how… uncomfortable she made him. Suddenly her concern was not about him not being a good friend… but instead on how she wasn’t a good friend, either. 

That was the final nail in the proverbial coffin; Amy decided then that not only would she commit to her studies, but she would get Tails to help her more so with technology. Ultimately she wanted to help people, and she wanted to leave. 

She just couldn’t get Empire City out of her head, even as she focused once again at the replica of Tails’ blue eye and watched as the pupil dilated; Amy completely forgot that Tails could still see out of the eye even as it was detached due to the data it was able to transmit back to the main doc that was implanted in his head as well, so she didn’t realize that he could see her lip quivering and tears sliding down her cheeks. She didn’t realize he could see her as she ripped her goggles off of her head, threw them off to the side and held her head in her hands as she tried her best not to sob too loud. 

The cookie sat abandoned on the bench next to the eye, forgotten for the time being. 

With Tails' help, and he didn’t comment on her tear-stricken face or half eaten cookie, the updated oculus implant was finished late into that evening. He helped his dear friend to the couch for sleep, too drained from the day to make the drive home; he was unaware of the decision she made to throw herself into her studies, and then to leave… 

For Empire City