#THEY HAD A RANDOM SONIC BALLOON

[blu-ish]

Sonic just appearing in random bits of media is hilarious. Like he’s always on the most unexpected ones

HELPPP HE RLLY DOES, I just spent the last 20 mins watching some pretty funny cameos the blue blur had in other media. It's really surprising just how many times Sonics appeared in video game movies like Ready Player One (never seen it but I was shocked to learn he was there xD) or of course Wreck-it-Ralph, (WHEN LIL ME SAW HIM IN WRECK-IT-RALPH I WAS THE ONLY KID QUIETLY FREAKING OUT LMAO) Sonic 06 apparently even made a cameo in BREAKING BAD???

He's appeared in different franchises comics, that one progressive commercial, the Simpsons for some reason hsjshsj AND SCOTT PILGRIM OF COURSE

Sonic has been such a big influence on the gaming industry, even just in peoples lives in general, It just makes any surprise cameo so much sweeter for us Sonic fans!!!

[sparkles-rule-4eva]

Happy birthday, Tails!

"Fevers Can't Ruin Birthdays"

based on this post by @niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian :)

AO3 version

Sonic didn’t have to be a genius to know that Tails had never had someone celebrate his birthday before they’d met. The kid had been the littlest outcast there ever was, for the dumbest of reasons. He’d been shunned and abused for what Sonic in all seriousness considered to be one of the coolest things about him— his extra tail that let him fly. On top of that, Tails was an absolute genius.

Too bad Sonic had to be the first one in the entire world to notice all this. Or maybe not so bad, because that meant he got to keep him. Which was quite possibly the best thing that had ever happened to him.

They’d been with each other for years now. Things were familiar between them. Familial terms flew from both their mouths in reference to each other all the time without hesitation. Tails had grown so much and now had a level of sass that rivaled Sonic’s. And now the kit was approaching his tenth birthday.

Sure, Sonic had made plenty of efforts in past years to celebrate his little brother. He’d thrown parties, bought out hardware shops in the hopes that whatever he brought would be useful to Tails, and even once made a horrendous attempt at making a birthday cake. (He hadn’t tried again since that first time, although Tails had at least appreciated the thought.)

But this year? This year was extra special somehow. Not only was Tails finally entering double-digits, it was going to be his first birthday after coming back from his extended time of solo adventuring. His “going it alone,” as he’d told Sonic he’d wanted to do back on Starfall Islands.

Sonic had missed him to no end during that time, although they’d still texted most days. Now, Tails had been back for a few weeks. He hadn’t said a word about his upcoming day, but there was no way Sonic would ever forget it.

He’d made plans, alright. Conspired with Knuckles and Amy, Vanilla and Cream, the Chaotix, even Silver and Blaze (though that had been a bit of a challenge). He’d convinced Tails to head out to one of his live-in labs that was closest to all of their friends, to make it easier for them all to come together. He’d spent an entire week shopping (with help from Amy), looking for anything that Tails would even potentially like. Mechanical stuff, computer stuff, bags of mints, lego sets the size of a dining table, video games, a collection of tiny metal airplanes he found at a thrift store, etc.

He had the entire day planned out (which was something that he usually never did). He’d hidden the giant assortment of gifts in a bunch of random secret places and connected them all with strings (although the arts and crafts store had been pretty ticked that he’d bought out their entire supply of yarn). Amy was going to make a giant, absolutely gorgeous cake. Knuckles was helping Cream decorate banners and blow up balloons. Vanilla and Vector were helping him organize everything. Sonic was going to take him to all their favorite places and they’d have races and go sightseeing and maybe dive off a cliff or two. It was going to be perfect. Sonic was absolutely determined to make sure that fox knew exactly how much he was loved.

… So if he woke up on the morning of the long-awaited day feeling a little more lethargic than usual, if he had some kind of tension in his head and felt a little congested and a little rough in the throat, well, he would keep that to himself.

Correction: he would try.

—

“Hey, Taaaaiiilllsss.” The voice was teasing and familiar, but surprisingly gentle for being an apparent wake-up call. Tails barely stirred from his dream, making the slightest of humming noises in acknowledgement.

A hand gently shook his shoulder. “Happy birthday…” the voice went on to sing, albeit quietly.

Still mostly asleep, Tails barely rolled over and automatically finished with a sleepy, “To yoouuu.”

The voice— Sonic, no doubt— snickered. “Nuh uh, lil dude. It’s your birthday!”

Tails smiled as he finally started waking up for real. “To meee,” he corrected, opening his eyes halfway as he began pushing himself to sit up.

“There ya go!” Sonic laughed, reaching out to ruffle Tails’s already-messy bangs. “Welcome to double digits! Just wait till you…”

Tails paused in his climbing down from bed as his brother trailed off in his sentence, instead ending with a sneeze.

“Bless you.” Tails hopped off the bed and grinned.

“Eh. Thanks.” Sonic shook his head and smiled back. “Sorry. What was I saying?”

“Just wait till…” Tails prompted.

“Aw, yeah— just wait till ya see everything I’ve got planned!” Sonic dragged him in for a tight hug, then a noogie, and Tails squealed with fake protest.

Sonic let him go, grabbed the end of the yarn lying on the floor near the bed, and shoved it in Tails’s hand. “Just follow the string!”

Tails laughed, but obliged. “Wait, what? What is this, birthday edition of the Wizard of Oz?”

Sonic shrugged. “I woulda built a yellow brick road, but I didn’t think you’d appreciate me messing up your floors like that. Didn’t think the public would be much of a fan, either.” He turned his face away and sneezed again.

“Whaddaya mean the public? Bless you.” Tails frowned a little when Sonic didn’t immediately turn back towards him, instead reaching up to rub his nose, then his eyes. “You good?”

At the concerned inquiry, Sonic quickly snapped back towards him. “Yeah, I’m good! Now come on, your day awaits!”

Tails kept an eye on him even as he smiled and started walking alongside the string, which he now noticed was stretched out across the floor and tucked in random places out of sight. “Are you getting sick?” he asked Sonic, who scoffed.

“‘Course not. You know colds are too slow to catch up with me.” Sonic gave him an exaggerated wink. Tails rolled his eyes.

“Lame joke, but you sound all stuffy.”

Sonic rolled his eyes right back and put his hands on his hips. “Maybe your ears need cleaning out again.”

“Just like your immune system needs cleaning out?”

“Stop sassing me, or there won’t be any cake.”

“Fine.”

Tails knew Sonic was joking about the cake bit. He still wasn’t sure if Sonic was actually sick or not, but if he was, there was no way he was going to just admit it and go to bed. He was one of the most stubborn people Tails knew, and he hated to be vulnerable in front of other people.

So, deciding to hope that Sonic wasn’t lying and maybe was just sneezing excessively for no reason that morning, he went along with the plans Sonic had created, which admittedly were all pretty fantastic.

“Yooo, is this the newest game from AGES?” he squeaked as he flew up into a tree after the string and found the tenth gift tucked in the branches.

“You bet!” Sonic called from the ground, although his voice sounded extra raspy when he raised it. “Pre-ordered it ‘n everything! I dunno if you watched the trailers for it, but it looks sick. Hoped you’d like it!”

Tails hovered back to the ground, picking up the previous gifts alongside the video game case that he’d left at the base of the tree. Sonic turned his head and coughed a couple times.

“Speaking of ‘sick,’” Tails mumbled, eyeing his brother worriedly.

Sonic waved him off. “I’m fine, I said. Besides, there’s still so much left to do!”

Tails sighed. He was beginning to think that his initial intuition was right, but was Sonic going to care? Nope.

They headed into town next, and Tails finally understood what Sonic had meant earlier about the public. If they hadn’t been world-renowned, Sonic probably would’ve gotten in trouble with the local government for leaving string and random computer parts in cardboard boxes all over the parks and roofs.

The sun was high in the sky at this point. They met with a few of their friends in the streets, too many to be a coincidence, but Tails didn’t mind one bit. While all the effort was definitely heartwarming, it would’ve been easier to enjoy it all if he weren’t so worried about Sonic, who was looking more tired by the hour. Every now and then he’d catch him rubbing his head when he thought no one was looking, as if trying to ward off a headache, and every couple minutes Tails heard him sniffling.

They had lunch with the Chaotix, and Tails of course chose chilidogs. It may have initially been Sonic’s favorite, but his love for them had rubbed off on Tails over the years. The taste of them always brought warm, pleasant memories, and almost for the sake of those memories alone, they were one of his favorite meals.

And he would’ve had an easy time enjoying them now, but it was hard when Sonic was barely picking at his, in the seat next to him. He’d taken a small bite or two, but was now doing nothing more than staring at them with slightly glazed eyes.

Trying not to make a scene, Tails nudged him a little. “Not hungry?”

Sonic blinked and looked back at him, his eyes clearing. “Um. I dunno.” He picked up his chilidog, immediately set it down again, then twisted aside to cough again, as quietly as he could.

Tails caught Vector eyeing the hedgehog from across the table and winced. “You good there, Sonic?” their older friend questioned.

Sonic looked back at the crocodile, almost uncomprehending for a moment. Tails looked between them. Sonic waved a hand. “Not you, too. I’m fine,” he sighed, even though his voice cracked when he spoke.

Espio looked towards them, away from his whispered argument with Charmy that no, Tails was not obligated to share his three new lego sets with him. “You don’t sound well,” he pointed out.

Sonic glanced back at him, squirming under the sudden scrutiny of everyone else at the table. “Hey, quit staring,” he complained, then smiled way too big and nudged Tails. “This is Tails’s day. Give him all the attention!”

Tails gave him a look, deciding that it might be better to be upfront about this than to spare Sonic’s dignity. “I’m not the one who needs medical attention,” he said with a tiny shrug, smiling apologetically when his brother shot him a pleading look.

Vector sat up straight. “Wait, are you sick?”

“No,” Sonic protested, his ears flattening slightly.

Espio leaned down and started fumbling through one of their bags under the table. “I think we still have flu medicine leftover from when three of us had it a few weeks ago. You can take it if you need it.”

“Noooo, thanks.” His big brother looked like he wanted to disappear, although at this point Tails couldn’t tell if the redness on his face was from embarrassment or an oncoming fever. He looked meaningfully back at Espio and nodded, and the chameleon quietly slipped him the bottle under the table.

They managed to go the rest of the meal without bringing up the sickly elephant in the room, but Tails couldn’t brush off his worry. More and more he wanted so badly to just take his brother home, tuck him into bed, and take care of him until he was healthy again, but with the way Sonic was, such a thing would be immensely difficult.

“Ready for a hike with the gang?” Sonic asked him, with about as much energy as he could summon at the moment.

“A hike?” Tails echoed, brows rising. “Why don’t we just fly in the Tornado? Where are we hiking?”

Sonic laughed, then immediately started coughing again. It was sounding rougher every time it happened, and Tails automatically reached to put a hand on his brother’s back. “M’fine,” Sonic reassured him, trying and failing to clear his throat. “There’s this one spot out in the mountains nearby with an awesome view at the top. The hike is an hour or so, and yeah I know we could just fly, but I thought it would be nice to catch some scenery in the woods along the way. Knux and Amy are coming along, is that okay?”

“That’s— it’s fine that they’re coming.” Tails paused, trying to sort through his immediate concerns. “Um… I just think…” With a quick breath, he went on, “Sonic, this has all been awesome and the hike does sound exciting, but… I really think you need to go home and rest.”

Sonic sighed, glaring at the ground for a moment, before dragging his gaze up to meet Tails’s with a frustratingly relaxed gleam. “How many times do I gotta say it today, I’m fine! Nothing can keep me down for long. I’ve been waiting to do all this with you for months; please just let me have this?”

His brother wasn’t as good with the puppy dog eyes as Tails was himself, but it somehow worked— for now. Tails groaned, conflicted still but not knowing how to convince the stubborn hedgehog that walking around all day and hiking entire mountains and spending all energy for the sake of birthday fun was not going to let him feel better. Especially if he refused to take any medicine.

“Okay, but—”

“Awesome!” Sonic didn’t let him finish. “I told the others to meet us at the parking lot in twenty minutes or so— whaddaya say we beat them to it?” He swallowed with a grimace as he finished speaking, then sniffled.

Tails stared at him regretfully. “Okay.”

They made it to the parking lot in under five minutes. Tails decided not to say anything about how much easier than usual it was to keep up with the speedy hedgehog, who didn’t seem to be purposefully moving as slowly as he was. As they reached the sparsely populated lot, Sonic stumbled over his feet and all but fell against someone’s car, struggling to catch his breath as he started coughing again, even harder than before.

“Sonic?” His worry ramping up a decent amount, Tails hurriedly dropped down beside him. “You alright?”

Sonic gave him a tired grin, even as his chest heaved for air. “Just catching my breath,” he wheezed.

Tails stiffened, looking at his brother with blank eyes as a haunting memory surfaced in his mind.

“Just catching my breath,” Sonic tried to assure him, even though he was near entirely covered in flickering, red and black cyber energy, had just been coughing, was clearly in pain. Tails stared at his own transparent, glitching hands, realizing he had no corporeal form and could do nothing to help his brother feel better.

And then he’d spent the next few days watching Sonic get sicker and sicker, watching him limp tiredly around instead of run with his trademark smile, watching him hold his arm and his hip and his head until he could barely walk. Tails had come back to his real, solid form, only to find Sonic paralyzed, unresponsive, all but dead, because he’d cared more for their lives and their comfort than for his own health.

This wasn’t the same, he reminded himself in the present; at least, it wasn’t as dire. This was just a bug. Just the flu. And it was just a birthday.

But Sonic was still rejecting his health in favor of making sure that someone he loved was having a good time.

Tails wasn’t sure how to articulate his feelings on that to him right now. So he chose to step closer and throw his arms around Sonic instead, holding him tightly.

Sonic paused for a moment, evidently taken aback, then silently hugged him back. Pressed up against him, Tails could hear and feel the raggedness in the hedgehog’s breathing, and feel the unnatural heat radiating off of him.

“Whoa, are we interrupting something?” a deeper voice called, and immediately Sonic pulled back as if nothing had happened.

“Brother stuff, Knux,” he told the echidna, as Tails fought his internal annoyance at missing his chance of actually convincing Sonic to go home and go to bed. “You wouldn’t get it.”

Knuckles eyed the hedgehog ruefully. “I think I would, somehow.”

Beside him, Amy laughed. “You guys ready for this?”

“The view won’t compare to Angel Island. But I suppose it’ll be nice in its own way.”

“The scenery on the way is supposed to be really cool, too,” Tails put in, remembering what Sonic had said earlier.

“It is!” Sonic agreed, then pointed to a sign by the woods nearby. “That’s the start of the trail. Let’s do this thing!” Without waiting for a response, he half-ran, half-stumbled off towards the aforementioned sign.

Tails just sighed, shook his head, and ambled after him. As he did, Amy headed closer to walk beside him.

“Is Sonic… sick? Or something?” she whispered, looking concerned after their friend ahead of them. “He seems off, somehow. And he sounds all raspy.”

“…Yeah,” Tails mumbled guiltily. “He’s been coming down with something all day. I’ve tried to talk him into going home and resting, but he won’t listen.”

“Sounds about right.” Amy groaned. “I’ll help you keep an eye on him while we walk. If he still won’t go home to sleep by the time we’re done the hike, I’ll just drag him there myself.”

Tails couldn’t help a laugh at the mental image. “Thanks, Amy.”

“Of course!” The pink hedgehog beamed at him. “Now then— how’s your birthday been going, mister ten-years-old already?”

“It’s been good otherwise!” He grinned. “For the first half of the day he just dragged me around town following a string to all sorts of gifts. I had to drop them all off at the lab, or else we wouldn’t have been able to do the hike.”

“Ooh! What’d you get so far?”

“Mm, a lot of computer parts, three new lego sets, a couple new video games, a skateboard, a weighted blanket, a box of mint tea—”

“Wow,” Amy cut in with a giggle. “I helped him do some of the shopping, but he really went all out, it sounds like.” Tails nodded with a soft smile. “I’ll never get over how much he just adores you. How much you both love each other,” she added, watching the fox kit’s eyes shift to check on the hedgehog ahead of them.

Sonic had paused beside a tree, leaning heavily against it, panting with eyes glazed over again. “Sonic?” Tails called, hurrying ahead to catch up with him.

“What?” Sonic jolted upright again, eyes brightening but not clearing as they passed over Tails. “I’m fiiine,” he drawled, and staggered back onto the trail. Knuckles grabbed him by the arm to keep him from tripping down the hill on the other side of the path.

Tails glanced back to exchange a look with Amy, then sighed and tried to stick closer to his brother. Knuckles glanced back and gestured questioningly at Sonic behind the hedgehog’s back at Tails, who mimed coughing into his fist in response. Knuckles rolled his eyes, then silently exhaled and nodded.

All of them were unfortunately familiar with the way their friend would put up a front for them. As Tails had earlier recalled, it hadn’t been too long since they’d seen this kind of thing with him.

It fooled none of them.

The farther they hiked, the more it became abundantly clear that Sonic was getting worse, and the more Tails and the others worried. The hedgehog couldn’t walk in a straight line to save his life, instead stumbling in a sort of zig zag pattern back and forth across the trail, giggling here and there. He’d gone from being pretty quiet and tired out in the first half to jabbering nonstop in the second half, except it was almost pure nonsense coming out of his mouth.

“Looook, Tails,” he snickered, pointing shakily at a flicky in a tree nearby. “Toldja dragons’r real.”

“Sonic, that’s a flicky. And we’re literally friends with dragons. Remember Trip?”

“Ah, yyyyeahh!” Sonic laughed way harder than he should’ve, breaking into yet another coughing fit. “Y’know, I could probably breathe fire too, with how on fire my lungs feel right now.”

He staggered on ahead and proceeded to trip over a tree root.

Tails shot an anxious glance at Amy, then leaned closer and whispered to her, “Would you mind heading back and bringing the Tornado out here? I’d do it myself but I don’t want to leave him. Once you get it here, I’ll bring him home.” He bit his lip. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay!” Amy whispered back. “You got it. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Amy wasn’t quite as skilled as he was with flying the Tornado, but he’d given her enough lessons that he felt confident at least trusting her to fly it out a short distance. It would be worth it, to be able to take Sonic back home with ease and make him get the care he so desperately needed, whether he wanted it or not.

“Where’d Amy gooo?” Sonic whined a few minutes after she’d hurried off.

“She’s just getting something for me,” Tails told him, patting his shoulder reassuringly, although he jumped at how hot to the touch his brother was.

“Izzit a surprise for youuu?” The hedgehog smiled deliriously. “Tha’s cool. Happy birthdaaayy!”

“Thank you, Sonic.”

“Yerrr welcome! Hey… did you dye your fur or somethin’? Ya look way more orange than usual.” He peered at Knuckles and his eyes blew open wide. “Whoaaa, you too!”

Tails facepalmed. “Dear Chaos, he’s even worse than I thought…”

Knuckles looked back and forth between them, having clearly never dealt with a person as sick as Sonic currently was. For Tails, it had been a while, but he’d definitely experienced things like this before. He’d known Sonic for most of his life, had seen him at his highs and his lows. He picked up his pace to match Sonic’s, and Knuckles dropped behind slightly.

“Sonic, you really need to rest,” he told him firmly.

Sonic giggled. “Yes, I’m a pest! Egghead agrees with that!”

Tails facepalmed. “That’s not even close to what I said.”

Abruptly, Sonic jumped and pointed excitedly at a patch of sunlight ahead in their path. Probably the end of the path, Tails figured, but instead of saying that, his brother exclaimed, “Look! A giant duckling!”

“…What?”

“Izzo cute.” Sonic all but dragged himself up to the patch of sunshine and fell over into the grass. “Can I keep ittt?”

“Uh.”

“Please? Hey Knucklehead, can I keep th’duckling?”

“There’s no duckling,” Knuckles said bluntly.

Looking genuinely disappointed, Sonic shoved himself back to his feet and staggered up to the boulder with the view, the end of the trail indeed. “Taaaiiilllss, canna buy a duckling?”

“Sonic—”

“Whoaaaa, lookit th’vieeww!”

He’d been right, the view here was spectacular. There was no shield from the wind up here; they’d passed above all the trees. They could see hawks soaring below them, and in the distance, they could see the town they’d been in earlier as nothing more than a silent, tiny setup of buildings with microscopic moving specks that they knew were people and cars. For a moment, Tails paused as he surveyed the view. It was fascinating to see something like this and not be flying somehow.

Sonic was grinning in absolute delirium as he whirled sideways to see them, eyes half-closed. “See, wasn’t it worth it…” He frowned suddenly, stumbled, then started swaying. “Whoa.”

“Sonic?!” Fueled by panic and adrenaline, Tails realized what was happening, and lunged to grab the hedgehog by the wrist right before he keeled over— nearly off the edge of the cliff. Panting in suppressed fear, he pulled Sonic back up onto the boulder and sank to his knees, all but cradling his brother as he lay there, barely conscious.

“No more excuses. You’re burning up,” he said, hugging him close to calm his racing heart. “I sent Amy to bring the Tornado. I’m taking you home as soon as she gets here.”

Sonic blinked blearily up at him, then groaned and mumbled, “…Okay.”

Tails blew out a breath. “Good.”

“Jus’ one thing…”

“What’s that?”

“Can I still get a duckling.”

“…I’ll buy you one when it’s your birthday. Now stop talking and rest.”

Sonic grinned wearily, closing his eyes and resting his head down against Tails’s chest fluff. “Okay.”

—

Amy arrived shortly afterwards, and Tails carried his feverish brother up to the Tornado as it circled around them. He set him down in the seat behind the cockpit, then he and Amy switched out as Amy leapt back down to the boulder.

“We’ll head back on our own,” Knuckles called, waving to them. “Go on ahead.”

Tails waved back in acknowledgment, then set the course for the quick flight back to the workshop, barely a minute’s trip.

He thought he heard Sonic mumbling something behind him, but it was difficult to hear him over the wind. He hit a button to bring the overhead windshield over the seats (a feature he usually reserved for rainy days), and said, “What was that?”

“I’m sorry.” Sonic was slumped sideways in his seat, staring sullenly out the window.

Tails frowned as he returned his gaze to the path ahead. “Why are you sorry? You didn’t—”

“I wanted to give you a perfect birthday. After everything.” It was probably due to the sickness, but Sonic sounded downright miserable. “And I ruined it.”

Tails sighed. “You didn’t ruin anything. No one can control when they get sick. It was still a great birthday, Sonic.” He twisted around again and smiled, making sure Sonic saw him before he turned back towards the front. “Thank you.”

Sonic hummed a little in response, but said nothing.

—

They set down at the workshop, and Tails opted to leave the Tornado in the runway for a while so he could take Sonic straight inside and set to doing what he’d wanted to do all day: just taking care of him.

He settled him comfortably on the couch, brought him a couple blankets, made some soup, and brought him some orange juice and a couple slices of bread. After he’d eaten, Tails gave him some of the medicine he’d gotten from Espio earlier. Sonic still seemed kind of depressed, but he was looking a little better, at least, now that he was finally getting to rest.

As he nibbled on the bread, Tails sat down with him and handed him the orange juice glass. “You know,” he said slowly, beginning to smile, “I think I prefer this gift over the others.”

Sonic blinked at him as he accepted the glass carefully and took a tentative sip. “What… which… I haven’t gotten you anything since we got back.”

“Just…” Tails shook his head and smiled, then reached out and rubbed his head between his ears, like Sonic always did to him. “Just this. Being together. You letting me take care of you. I always like that.” Sonic stared back at him in surprise as he spoke. “You have no clue how much this means to me. How much I’ve wanted to do this, basically all day.”

The hedgehog sighed, but smiled back. “Sorry it took all this for us to properly hang out.” He shifted. “Although, as nice as this is… I’m not sure if you really wanna be this close. I might get you sick.”

In response, Tails scooted closer and hugged him tight. “I’ll take my chances.”

Sonic was still tense. “It’s on you if you do get sick,” he warned, although his tone was hardly serious and didn’t match with his affectionate grin.

“I know. Just shush it and let me hug you.”

“…Alright. You win this round, bud.”

💛-----------------the end-----------------💙

tagging, as requested, @star-stages and @yogacatdeskknit

[ghostofbambifanfiction]

Taking a leaf out of @bcdaily's book, enjoy this random excerpt from a fic I started years ago and will definitely never finish.

When Sirius lead the way back inside the house, which the collective household had spent the better part of a day decorating—a testament to how much they loved Remus, or how much James enjoyed drawing Adipose faces on square balloons—James followed, and split off near the living room, where he found most of the guests, and his mum, who beckoned frantically for him to come over.

"There's a girl waiting for you by the front door," she told him, pointing towards the door that opened into the hallway. "I think she's here to deliver something."

"Probably Beatrice with the cake."

"No, she said her name—wait, no, come here!" cried his mum, as he turned and made to walk away, her hand closing tight around his forearm. For reasons that were utterly beyond him, she began to brush invisible crumbs from his suit jacket—he'd gone full Tennant for the sake of the party, red Converse and all—with such force that he felt as if he was one wrong move away from a violent pummelling.

"What are you—" he began, then cried out in pain as she caught him hard in the chest. "That was a rib, woman!"

"Stop whinging, I'm just trying to help you."

"Help me with what?"

"You'll want to look presentable before you go out there."

"Why?"

"Just trust me, you silly boy," she said, and made as if to grab his tie, but James darted out of the way. "I'm just trying to fix it!"

"Ten always wore his tie tucked in!"

"It's leaning to the left!"

"Yeah, well, so am I."

"A tie should look smart, not—" his mother began, to which James turned and fled at a flat-out run, bursting into the hall with unnecessary speed and startling a girl who, until that point, appeared to have been examining a painting of the Santorini coastline that his parents had mounted on the wall.

Correction. A very beautiful girl examining a painting of the Santorini coastline.

She'd jumped when he came running into the hall, but seemed to recover fast, and bestowed upon him an extraordinarily pretty smile.

"That was some entrance," she said, sounding amused. "Are you training for a marathon?"

He was still wrong. The word 'very' was sufficient for most things, but it fell short in this instance, because this girl, this lovely, pink-cheeked, ivory-skinned miracle, with waves of dark red hair and incomparably stunning eyes, was clearly the most beautiful girl James had ever laid eyes on in his life.

The most beautiful girl in the world was standing in his parents' hallway, for some reason, while he, like an idiot, was fully dressed as the bleeding Doctor and couldn't pretend that he wasn't, because she'd very likely heard him yelling to his mother about the favoured position of Ten's tie, and he had a sonic screwdriver tucked behind his ear.

"Um," he said. Um. That was it. A sound. He'd made a sound. Well done.

Maybe he'd get really lucky, and she'd know nothing about Doctor Who, and he could pretend that the screwdriver was a really fancy pen. Woman liked fancy pens. A fancy pen meant a fancy man.

"Are you dressed as the Doctor?" she said, eyeing his costume curiously.

The fancy pen idea shat a brick and ran for the hills.

"Er, no," he lied, his brain twitching frantically. He wished there was a way to rid himself of the screwdriver in an inconspicuous manner. "This is just how I dress."

"Are you sure?"

"Totally sure."

"Oh," she said, and the tiniest crease appeared between her eyebrows. "It's just, there's a two-foot tall Dalek cake sitting outside in my van right now, and that's telling me a different story."

Were James as pale as her—and it was particularly fortunate at this moment that he wasn't—his face would have been redder than his trainers.

"You're from Lily and Bee," he said, burning with shame. "I mean, from the bakery."

The girl nodded, pointing to her own chest. "I'm Lily, if you hadn't guessed, since you've already met Beatrice—if you're James Potter, that is, which I hope you are. He's the one I'm looking for."

She was looking for him she was looking for him she was looking for him she was—of course she was looking for him, she was delivering the cake he'd bloody commissioned. "I'm him. I'm James."

"Not the Doctor?"

"Well, yeah," he admitted, and glanced down at his outfit. "But only on very special occasions."

She smiled politely, an image he wished he could record and play back when he remembered this conversation, so he could let his mind linger on the one thing he'd done right in all this ugly embarrassment. "I'm sorry if there's been any confusion—it's actually me who made the cake. I was on holiday for the week when you consulted with Beatrice and now she's on holiday and it's a whole thing, but it's all finished and ready, so no harm done."

"Ah, okay." He could do better than this. "Nice romantic week away, was it?"

Not like that.

"I was in the Lake District with my parents," she replied, regarding him with some curiosity. "So no, not particularly. Can't really sneak boys back to a Windermere-adjacent cottage with really thin walls, though I got to hear them going at it, which was horrifying." She pulled a face. "Anyway, I assume you're going to need this cake, yeah?"

[junkydrawr]

Well, it's been a while, so here's another Snively scene for ya'll. Just a little bit of Snively's childhood.

Oh yeah, I'm learning Spanish so I just tossed some random thing in there. Lol

"How come you don't use your real name?" Tails twirled in the water.

"I don't like it."

"What was it again?"

Snively lifted one foot from the water, watching the silt slide from his toes. "Colin."

"How come you like Snively better than Colin?"

"I wouldn't say I like it better. But it's the lesser of the two evils."

"Colin isn't that bad," said Tails. "My real name is Miles...now that's just dorky!"

"No, it's fine. It has sophistication." Snively wiggled his toes back into the mud. It felt nice.

"What's sophistication?"

"Class. Polish." Snivey rolled his eyes. "I realize Sonic is your idol, but must you emulate his vocabulary incompetence...?"

"I got no idea what you just said." Tails splashed one of his namesakes into the water, sending spray Snively's way.

It honestly felt nice too. He wiped his face. It might be pleasant to simply sit down, let the water flow up to his chest. He'd probably be covered in sand afterwards. Not so pleasant.

"I think you should use Colin." Tails nodded seriously. "Snively sounds like a joke. Like...sniveling."

"...but isn't that what I do?" Snively smiled crookedly. Hazy memories surfaced like the glittering sand beneath the water.

-

He was nine and his father was the Minister of Justice. Father attended galas and parties and meetings and other boring things. Usually, Colin Jr stayed home. Tonight, his father decided to drag him along. 

Snively was not pleased. He'd have to don his suit and tie, those stupid shiny shoes that hurt his feet...and be around droning, pretentious rich people for endless hours.

At least the food was usually good.

Father stopped by the leather armchair where his son was lounging with a book.

"Hijo, tienes que hacer listo." (Son, you have to get ready.)

Snively sneered without looking up. "Yo no entiendo." (I don't understand.)

Father insisted on his enrollment in Human Multicultural Languages. It was another class to nap through. Father liked to grill him with random phrases in various languages of Earth. (Of course, random phrases was all Father knew.)

When Snively had asked to drop out, his father had gone on a tirade.

"We must preserve our heritage," he growled.

"But we're from England."

"The heritage of our species! The glory of Homo Sapiens!" Colin Sr tilted back his head arrogantly, his fire-hued hair gleaming in the chandelier lights. "Our people are meant to conquer the stars, boy!"

Oh Gods. Snively resisted an epic eye roll. It'd only earn him a slap.

Father loathed the fact that Common Mobian was prioritized over Human languages on all levels of schooling. They were both fluent, naturally. When your species was only 3% of the population, you had to assimilate or remain insular, and that was not an option when the majority controlled all of the resources as well.

"You do understand me, Snively! Now answer properly!"

He sighed and struggled for the words. "Um...Que hora hace lo empiezar?" (What time does it start?)

"It starts at seven. You have an hour to get ready and you look a mess." Colin Senior fisted a handful of his son's shirt, drawing him close. "You had best not disgrace me, Snively."

Snively cringed. "No, daddy."

-

The gala was some stupid fundraiser, something to do with raising money for the Overlander cause - the group that believed they shouldn't bow to the Mobians.

War was on the horizon, but such things were surreal to a nine year old boy who had his hands full with a critical, loveless father, schoolyard bullies, classwork and studies.

Snively managed to snag a glass of wine from a passing server.  He sipped from it, brushing his hair from his eyes. Oh, it made him feel burning and tingling. He liked it.

The air was thick with the scent of rich hors d'oeuvres, silver confetti, gold balloons, clashing perfumes. He scratched at the red tie at his neck and sat at an empty table.

Look at this silly lot. He eyed all the men in their suits, the women in their fancy dresses and overdone makeup, all the breasts pushed up and begging for attention. A server paused and offered him delicacies from her silver tray.

Oh yes. Small weiners wrapped in brioche, pinky-sized shrimp, and tiny snack cakes!

"Thank you, I will." He took the entire tray.

"Excuse me, young sir-" she huffed and he aimed a finger across the room. There was Father, shaking hands and blabbing with other stick-up-the-ass bigwigs.

"Oh, would you like to tell my daddy on me? He's right there."

She blanched, hurrying off.

He smiled in bratty enjoyment, then sampled the plate. Well, perhaps it was worth being dragged here. But after a while, he was full and bored, and this dreck of a party was still carrying on.

I wish Uncle Julian were here. He sighed, leaning back in the chair. Uncle would have so many witty and funny things to say of all this! Snively giggled. He imagined Uncle's commentary in his deep voice. Look at this group of overstuffed turkeys, my dear boy. Ah, has that woman over there smuggled melons into her brassiere?

I wish Julian was my father instead...

He tried to squash the frequent, sorrowful thought and stood, restlessly wandering the gala. He ended up passing near his father, still chatting with other pompous arses. People of wealth and influence.

"Oh my," cried an elderly woman showing too much skin. "Is this not your son, Minister?"

"Jolly right!" Another man, decked out in Overlander military garb, pulled Snively in by the shoulder. "This is the lad."

"Ah yes." Colin Senior beamed with false pride. An equally fake hand of affection patted his son's other shoulder. "My darling boy, my golden child."

"What a fine-looking young man."

Snively resisted a sneer. Think that's the first time I've heard that one.

"My pride for him knows no bounds."

"And what is your name, son? Named after your father, are you?"

Colin Senior nodded, drawing his son closer, his hand kneading on the back of his neck. You'd best not disgrace me.

I hate being named after this clod.

I hate how he's pretending to love me.

The golden child smiled sweetly, his blue eyes sweeping the group. "Oh yes, sirs and madames. My name is Colin as well...but honestly, I far prefer Father's nickname for me."

Father's hand tightened on his nape. A warning.

"Oh, and what is that?" The elderly woman leaned forward.

Colin Jr beamed radiantly. "Why, Sniveling Bastard, of course. Snively for short."

The old woman gasped, and all the assembled eyes stared at his father. Colin Senior sputtered, red creeping up his brawny neck, as he fumbled for an out.

"Um...ah...heh...ah...the boy is such a joker. Such talent for wit."

There was forced laugher, and Snively slipped away as his father desperately tried to save face.

He retreated to the bathroom, where in the stall, he bent over and laughed until tears streamed down his face.

-

He shed a different sort of tears later in the privacy of their manor home.

It had been a while since Father had thrashed him with his belt, and he struck especially hard tonight.

Snively curled painfully in bed, sniffling and wiping tears. His rear and thighs burned with swollen welts...but inside...he glowed.

I can't wait to tell Uncle about the look on Father's face. He giggled softly, gingerly rolling to his other side with a pained gasp.

Yes, he would be sore for days...but he was full of appetizers and the darkness of pleasurable spite. Welts would fade, but the memory would never lose its sweetness.

-

The recollection of Daddy's humiliated, fumbling face made him chuckle. Colin Jr had fully embraced his hateful nickname from then on, stabbing it like a needle into his bastard father.

He sloshed his hands in the cool water. "No, I shan't ever use that name." He let his hands still, seeing his pitiful reflection staring up. "Snively is who I am."

Tails twirled again. "Maybe you can make up your own name! Something you like!"

The small man grinned. "All right. Snively the Grrrrreat."

"Yuck! No way!" Tails splashed more water his way.

----

A/N: So that's my take on why Snively sticks with his nickname instead of given name. He really should make something else up though hahaha. (Also, I just realized I didn't make it clear, that Colin Sr only called his son 'Snively' (and variants of) in private.)

(Also Humans being 3% of the population might be an overestimation. In my storyline Mobius and Earth are seperate and the Overlanders immigrated from Earth to Mobius over a period of several hundred years until they ended up blowing up their home planet. Bummer. Lol. Anyway, it's a minor detail since that shit's in the past, right?)

[dracarialove]

📄F it, I'm posting my finished fics here, too 📄

Heartfelt Holidays

*Check the 'heartfelt holidays' tag if you haven't read chapter 1

[Chapter 3: Irish's Lucky Picnic]

Irish the Hedgehog hosts a Lucky Clover Day picnic, which Sonic and his friends happily attend. Rouge goads Shadow into going with her, as well.

Happy, upbeat Celtic music poured from the open windows of a wood cabin, floating through the chilly air of an expansive clover field while a chipper green hedgehog danced around his living room.

Making up his own lyrics to accompany the instrumental flutes and bagpipes, he tapped the soles of his shoes against chestnut floorboards and finished sealing up the last of a hundred large green envelopes.

One of them, he sent off to a specific friend – the others, he tossed into a wicker basket before donning his black top hat and jauntily strolling outside.

His peppy stride took him to the hot air balloon parked near the backside of his home, which he climbed into and got to work lifting from the grassy ground.

The balloon boasted a bold orange color with a stark white stripe across the middle, carrying the blue-eyed hedgehog in a thick woven basket only big enough for one passenger.

With fire lifting heated air into the round nylon envelope, his transport escaped the clover-ridden pasture, then floated off in whichever direction the wind blew.

It wasn't long before the letter that'd been mailed ended up on the doorstep of Sonic the Hedgehog's modest home. When he opened the front door, he saw the green rectangle lying on the stone step; curious, he grabbed it and ripped open the flap, then pulled out a mint green sheet of paper.

While scanning emerald eyes over scribbled letters, his conscious read the words, "Dear Sonic – Get yourself ready for some fun, lad! To celebrate Lucky Clover Day, your friend is hosting a Lucky Picnic in that grand old park outside the city. Swing by, enter the raffle, enjoy the music, and bring your friends! Oh, and don't you forget to wear somethin' green if you don't wanta get pinched! Cheers – Irish the Hedgehog"

"Well, I'll be!" Sonic said out loud, grinning at the invitation. "I haven't seen Irish in a while! I'd better tell the others."

The Blue Blur rushed off to recruit his friends for another holiday event, all the while his acquaintance was floating towards the city in his simplistic vehicle.

Irish kept the balloon lower than normal, wanting to just barely clear the buildings for his plan to better succeed. He'd been over a few other towns, where he'd dropped the invitations from the basket, letting them float down or be taken by the wind towards citizens at random.

Now, the cheerful young man did the same as he drifted above the city, repeatedly flicking envelopes from the remaining stack of fifty at the open space below. They gently fell and were wafted in different directions until they touched the ground or were caught by the people walking about.

In the downtown area, Rouge the Bat had begun her day, preparing her club to be opened whenever the employees arrived. She held onto a walkie talkie while taking extra care to dust the statues that dotted small sections of the casino lobby; and when she heard the crackle of a male voice come through the small speaker, it was her cue to meet with the staff.

She opened the big double doors and smiled at the bouncers who were waiting on the other side, then greeted the DJ and bartender as they walked in. Her bartender, a dark green fox, walked beside her and held up a sheet of mint green paper.

"Hey, Rou, look what just happened up town – someone was dropping these fliers from a hot air balloon." A laugh escaped his youthful voice and he handed her the paper. "I know you like parties – well, I guess it's not really a party, but... I thought you might want to know about it, anyway."

The shapely woman perused the paper as they approached the first-floor bar, then she smiled and looked up at him. "This is great! Thanks for bringing it in; I would've never known."

The two shared a chuckle and the fox took his place behind the bar. "Have fun! Tell me all about it later."

Rouge gave him a brief thumbs-up before heading back upstairs to the loft she'd made into her personal bedroom. And after flying up through the hatch that sealed off her private space, her silver heels thumped lightly on the thick wooden boards and across the small area to near the window, where her companion Shadow the Hedgehog lied eerily still on the extra twin mattress.

He was faced away, but the business owner suspected he was awake, standing next to the quiet lifeform with one gloved palm on her hip. The other hand briefly shook the green paper, rustling it while she cleared her throat to get her friend's attention.

After a silent moment, his deep voice asked, "What?"

"We've been summoned," she responded, her own tone smooth and lightened by a glossy smile.

His body turned slightly, enough to look at her with a single ruby eye. The dark hedgehog looked tired and already bored with the day, but not much grumpier than usual. "A job?"

"A party-"

An immediate groan from Shadow interrupted her statement, his form turning away again. She rolled her eyes, not surprised at his reaction, and folded the paper to be left on the nearby end table which occupied a corner. Her free hand gravitated to the other hip, both arms resting bent while Rouge looked down at him.

The irritable man grumbled, "Didn't we just go to one a couple weeks ago? What is it with you people..."

She sensed he wanted to say more, but he trailed off instead. With a sigh, she spoke, "Shadow, you've been in bed all morning. It's time to get up and do something with the day!"

He sighed as well, rather heavily, then groggily sat up and swung his legs to the side of the mattress. With the furrowing of his brow, he looked up at Rouge and replied, "Let me get my bearings. I wasn't planning on following your lead today."

"Take your time, hun." She watched him stand from the bed and stepped aside to let him pass, then turned towards him as he walked away. "By the way, slip on something green; the party invitation mentioned it's a tradition."

Shadow scoffed and knelt down to open the hatch. "Fuck that. If I'm going to this thing, I'm not wearing another stupid costume."

Rouge's eyebrows rose in surprise at his harsh reply, watching the hedgehog drop down through the open hatch to the floor below. 'Well, then... he's in a grouchy mood.'

Just outside the city, Sonic and his friends were arriving to the park where Irish was hosting the Lucky Picnic event. The area was a large, lush plot of land, with signs along the perimeter declaring it an authentic landmark.

The trees, bushes, and flowers were cared for by inhabitants who had a passion for the planet's natural beauty, allowing them to thrive in an environment where the buds would soon bloom. Each one of the gang were wearing something green, per the letter's suggestion.

The blue speedster himself had thrown on a thin, forest-green jacket to be shielded from the brisk breeze. Amy Rose sported big silk bows on both wrists, Tails wrapped an emerald-colored bandana around his neck, and Cream wore a crown made of clovers.

The group of four took in the sights of various picnic setups, seeing handfuls of green-clad people resting on blankets and sharing light meals from twined baskets.

A short wooden platform was planted near the center of the park, bearing a standing microphone and three thin podiums covered with blankets. Accompanying the platform was a speaker that played joyful, mystical music.

Amy carried the woven container with all of their food in it – and Tails held onto the blanket they would be sitting on. Now they just had to scope out the space and find a spot to lay out their own setup.

Sonic led them farther into the grassy place, and before long, he heard a familiar voice nearby. Looking to his left, the Blue Blur easily recognized his friend Irish by the loud, accented tone he spoke in; he was chatting jovially with a couple of guests not far from them.

"Hey, there's our host!" Sonic exclaimed with a smile. He took a step in Irish's direction, saying over his shoulder, "I'm gonna go say hi – you guys can choose our picnic spot and I'll catch up later."

Amy watched with dejection as her crush left their group, but was soon distracted by Tails pointing ahead and announcing, "Look, guys, that must be the table for the raffle."

The girls trailed their gazes over to a little table covered with a white cloth, erected a few yards away from the speaker. Walking over to it, they looked over the box-like contraption with a label stating, "Give coin – Get ticket," as well as the small sign next to it that read, "Raffle Entry – Feed the box a coin and take your ticket! Three lucky winners will be picked at random to receive an auspicious prize!"

Tails smiled and turned to his friends. "What do you think; should we enter?"

"It doesn't say what the prize is," Amy answered, "but if it's something really good, we don't want to miss out!"

Cream added, "It's only one coin. I think it could be fun!"

"Let's just get one ticket," suggested Tails, retrieving his coin. "That way we don't waste money if we lose, and we can share the prize if we win!"

With sweet smiles, the girls nodded and he slipped the gold disk into the slot in the top of the box. Something briefly whirred inside, then a ticket with the number 12 slid forth from the slit on the front of the box.

Tails took it and they all turned back around to search for a decent spot to set down their picnic supplies. Meanwhile, across the park, Rouge and Shadow arrived, devoid of picnic items but readily scoping out the atmosphere.

The white-haired bat showed mild interest in the venue as they walked farther in, wearing shiny jade studded earrings near the bottom of her large ears. Her partner detested the festivity almost immediately, cringing at the cheery music and disliking the overly-social aspect of a picnic event.

"This is already a waste of time," he sneered, gaining Rouge's attention. "There's nothing here for us."

"It is a little brighter out than I expected," mused the lady, "but there has to be something worthwhile to this holiday. It's not fair to hate it already."

"Hmph. We should have forced Omega to come along – at least then I would've had common ground with someone here."

Officially annoyed by his dour tone, Rouge stopped walking and turned to the hedgehog, causing him to stop, as well. "Alright, Mr. Doom and Gloom, I've about had it with your attitude today. You really woke up on the wrong side of the bed, but try turning it around and not being a complete downer."

He scoffed again, defiant of his teammate's statement, and dragged his crimson eyes away from her in a display of contempt. But the aversion of his gaze brought a mischievous smile to Rouge's face as she saw the chance to get what she wanted.

She pulled a pair of ring-shaped handcuffs from their hiding place, a tool she'd foreseen needing. Swiftly, the clever thief snapped one gold cuff around Shadow's right wrist, directly above his inhibitor ring.

The clinking sound of the clasp attaching drew the lifeform's attention, a mere second before Rouge quickly snapped the other cuff around her own left wrist.

Shock took over his demeanor and he glared at her, raising his voice to ask, "Handcuffs? Are you insane?!"

"If I am, it's because you're driving me crazy," she retorted, accusatory.

Her expression turned back to irritation as Shadow jerked his hand away, making her exclaim in an offended tone when her arm was brought along. She balled her fist and pulled back, locking her gaze to his and speaking sternly while she stood firm. "Don't forget, I can be stubborn, too. You shouldn't test me if you don't want to see it."

The hedgehog's brow furrowed more and his scowl deepened, then he reached behind his back to retrieve his Chaos Emerald – but was shocked again when he realized it was gone.

Rouge smirked, looking devilishly smug and revealing, "No way you're teleporting out of this one, Shad. Don't worry about the emerald, it's safe; I just swiped it and left it at Club Rouge."

"Damn you," Shadow grumbled. "I should've known to keep my guard up around a pickpocket."

"You have to admit I'm good." Her sly intonation was returning, the bat wrapping her cuffed hand gently around his arm. With her other hand, she began teasingly circling an index finger along the outside of his glove. "And since I'm the boss here, if you behave yourself, I won't force you to dance."

"Don't push it," replied the indignant man, who scorned her condescending flirtation by pulling his hand away.

A red and white checkered blanket was being spread out and set down by Tails in a spot with a decent view of the raised platform, where he assumed the raffle winners would be announced. He made sure not to be too near other groups, allowing plenty of space to set down their things.

But when he looked to Amy for help straightening the blanket, he saw she was distracted by something else. The pink hedgehog was gazing off with a curious expression, watching Sonic and Irish having a conversation in the distance.

When the pair broke into raucous laughter, her lips parted and she asked aloud, "What do you think they're talking about over there?"

Tails briefly looked over his shoulder at the chortling hedgehogs, then back to Amy. "They're probably catching up – after all, it's been a while since Sonic's talked to Irish."

"Hm..." wondered the girl, her mind wandering a bit too much for her own good.

Then Cream piped up, her sweet voice saying, "Amy, I think we should set up the food to be ready when Sonic comes back!"

Finally tearing her gaze away from the energetic exchange, Rose smiled down at Cream. "You're right, let's get started."

After the young rabbit grabbed the basket of food from Amy's hands, the other two finished straightening their blanket on the ground. Around the same time, the Blue Blur's empty stomach decided it was time for a meal. He wiped a single tear of laughter from the corner of his eye and grinned at Irish, then stuck out one gloved hand.

"Well, I'd better get back to my group before they miss me too much," he said, shaking the green hedgehog's hand once their palms connected. "It was great seeing you again!"

"Always a pleasure!" replied Irish, who used his free hand to raise the top hat from his head in a polite gesture.

When the speedster made his way to the picnic his friends had set up, he commented, "Man, that Irish is one funny guy! His jokes gave my stomach a workout, and now I'm hankering for a chilidog!"

Amy's eyes lit up at his statement, immediately thrusting her hands into the picnic basket to pull out a plastic box with two chilidogs inside. "Here, Sonic! I brought them just for you."

"Hey, thanks!" He took the box from her hands and sat down in between the pink lady and his fox friend, removing the box's lid while the others dug into their own prepared snacks.

A little while later, the event's festive host hopped up onto the platform that served as a small stage, stepping up to the microphone and clearing his throat before speaking into it.

"Thanks a million to ya all fer showing up to this Lucky Clover Day celebration!" he started, his accented voice reverberating across the park and gaining the guests' attention. "I hope yer all having the craic – just wanted to announce the raffle startin' in t'irty minutes! So, grab a ticket while ya can and have a chance to win one of t'ree glittering prizes!"

He gestured to the three blanketed podiums behind him, taking the microphone off of its stand and walking over to them. With dozens of people's gazes on him, the blue-eyed hedgehog began pulling off the short blankets, revealing the contents underneath as he spoke, "Beautiful as they are: ornamental Chaos Emeralds!"

Sitting in glass boxes atop the podiums were emeralds of powder pink, icy blue, and tea green. They shimmered when the coverings were removed, sun beams bouncing off the pastel colors and giving off the illusion of luminescence. A few people were audibly dazzled by the reveal, including Rouge, who was instantly interested by the gleam of the faux gems.

Irish continued cheerfully, "Now don't get ahead of yourselves! These jewels don't bear the same strength as the authentic emeralds; but their beauty is bewitching, and they're still a touch useful if you're of a powerful sort!"

With stars in her eyes, the treasure-hunting bat snapped her gaze to the raffle ticket table and pulled Shadow in its direction. "Ooh, I've got to get my hands on one of those gorgeous gems!"

Her companion grumbled apathetically as he was forced to follow, and his frustration grew a bit more as he stood next to her while she gleefully paid for a ticket.

The unhappy lifeform had his attention drawn elsewhere when he felt a sharp pinch on his left arm, crimson eyes blazing with agitation as he whipped around to face a nearby guest, yanking his arm back and balling his fists.

The beige panther jumped backwards, a bit startled by Shadow's aggressive reaction, but held a cocky expression while his pinched victim bared teeth and began shouting.

"You've got some nerve putting your hands on me!" He heard the other man snicker, then growled in response, "You think it's funny? You'll be lucky if I don't take you down for provoking me."

Rouge was familiar with the hedgehog's rising hostility and stood holding the balled fist that was trapped with hers, alert and ready to stop him if he tried to fight. But the stranger only antagonized Shadow further, replying obnoxiously, "Jeez, what's your damage? You should've worn green if you didn't want to get pinched!"

"Shadow..." uttered the ivory bat in a warning tone, her teal eyes trailing over to his irate expression.

Before the powerful man could commit to acting on his anger, a young tigress walked up to the panther, firmly planting one hand on his bicep with urgency in her eyes. "Babe, stop picking fights with people! Let's go!"

The rude guest's smirk dropped when his girlfriend flashed a stern look, and he walked away without another word while Shadow held his battle-ready stance and silently seethed. His posture didn't relax when Rouge slipped her free hand onto his right shoulder, squeezing and speaking in a smooth tone.

"It's alright, Shad," she said, trying to soothe the tension – though, she was starting to regret dragging him to the event. "That guy was an asshole. Just let it go... let me see if I won the raffle and then we can leave."

"I told you this was a bad idea." Her dark friend kept his fists clenched, straightening his stance and glaring at her. "Or do you just enjoy the needless discord?"

"Relax..." replied Rouge, dragging out the word and squeezing again. "I didn't know you were going to be this irritable."

"Then take off the damn handcuffs," Shadow hissed, shaking his imprisoned fist and causing her to let go.

His teammate shifted uncomfortably and her expression twisted to one of unease; the suspicion of her large ears lowering a bit made him apprehensive about what she was about to say. She responded, "Well... I can't. Not right now, anyway. I... I left the key back at my place."

Shadow's eye twitched at her confession, and for a moment, the woman feared he would simply start walking out and drag her along to the exit.

He was so still, his stare intense – and she stood in confusion at what he might be thinking, until the black and red hedgehog broke his silence to groan while slapping one palm to his face in frustration.

"Fine..." he spoke, his voice low. With the hand still on his face, he opened one eye to look at her and added, "I'll try to keep it together. But I won't be quick to trust you again after this."

While they talked, Sonic was finishing his meal and gazing around the venue; and when he looked over at the raffle table in the distance, he saw the pair's exchange as Shadow became more aggravated.

He could see them just well enough to recognize the handcuffs shackling them together, chuckling to himself as he deduced that Rouge had forced his rival to attend the Lucky Picnic.

The soft laugh caught Amy's attention, and she asked, "What's funny, Sonic?"

He finished the last bit of his food and pointed casually in Team Dark's direction. "Rouge and Shadow are here. Looks like he's got a bug up his butt, though; she must've convinced him to show up. I might call 'em over!"

The pink lady's eyebrows upturned in an expression of concern as she saw the black and red lifeform facepalm. "Please don't invite them to ruin our picnic... we're having such a nice time."

Sonic's muzzle was plastered with a smirk as he made up his mind to pester his long-time adversary. Feeling the mischievous spirit of the holiday, the speedster brushed off Amy's request and stared in Rouge's direction until she noticed him, then waved and flashed his teeth in a grin that beckoned her to approach. The bat ruminated for a second, then let her selfish nature take over before tugging Shadow towards the group.

"Where are we going now?" he asked when she started walking without a word.

Looking ahead, he noticed Sonic's crew directly in their path and instantly pulled back, saying, "No, Rouge, do not force me to interact with those-"

"I'm not," she interrupted, using all her strength to continue onward. "You can ignore them – I'm going to say hi. I might as well do something while I wait for the raffle to start."

They struggled against each other the whole way, which made everyone but Sonic nervous. Tails looked over at his blue friend with worry and spoke, "Uhh, Sonic? Shadow looks really unhappy..."

Still feeling daring, the green-eyed hedgehog chuckled again and said, "Yeah, he looks pissed. I wonder if anyone else noticed he's not wearing green."

Amy wanted to speak out, as well, but didn't have time before the dastardly pair reached the edge of their blanket. Shadow stood as far from them as he could, his brows deeply furrowed as he looked away; Rouge allowed her cuffed left arm to be pulled in her partner's direction so long as he wasn't fighting her.

Energetically, Sonic jumped up from his spot and exclaimed, "Hey, Rouge! Funny to see you and Shadow here. I really didn't expect you guys to attend an event like this!"

"I'm just here for the raffle," the bat claimed. "Can't miss out on the opportunity to take home a beautiful gemstone."

He nodded, his eyes trailing up to the jade studs adorning her ears. "Nice jewelry – I see only one of you knew to wear green."

In a flurry of motion, three actions occurred at once: Rouge opened her mouth to reply, Sonic bounded over their picnic blanket to land an impish pinch on the Ultimate Lifeform's right arm, and Shadow turned to counter the Blue Blur after hearing his mischievous comment.

In the split second after provoking his rival, Sonic just barely avoided an attack by swerving to the left when Shadow's free hand swung around. Amy yelped at the worrying sight and held onto Cream, ready to pull her away from the action while Tails jumped to his feet.

As the enraged hedgehog's fingers – positioned in the shape of a claw – strained towards the speedster, Sonic quickly slinked behind Rouge and chuckled cheekily while she struggled to hold her friend back.

Wrapping her gloved arms tightly around Shadow's right limb, the jewel hunter pushed her shoulder into his chest and extended her wings to either side, planting both heels firmly into the ground.

"Stop!" she shouted, then glared over her left shoulder at the blue hedgehog. "Sonic, you asshole! Just had to annoy him, didn't you?"

"Yikes," uttered Sonic, his crooked grin remaining as he scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, Rouge, didn't know his fuse was that short!"

The half-assed apology did nothing to stop Shadow from struggling against Rouge's brace, fiery eyes burning with fury at the smug hero. His compatriot raised her free hand and placed it against his furry chest, pushing heavily to move him backwards and raising her voice. "Alright, let's go, this is only getting worse! Stopping by was a bad idea – come on, Shadow!"

The infuriated man relented enough to walk backwards as Rouge pushed him, shouting at Sonic, "You'd better watch your back, coward! Cross my path again and you'll regret it."

Slightly embarrassed at the conflict he'd caused, the speedy prankster turned back to his friends, his awkward smile fading as they all stared with disapproving looks. He walked over to the blanket again and plopped down in his previous spot, saying, "Heh... I'll, uh... I'll just stay here."

While the pair got farther and farther from the group – being watched by nearby guests and the host himself – the stressed bat spoke to Shadow, "Okay, you made your point. You were right about not going over there, happy?"

The hedgehog stopped in his tracks and grabbed Rouge's wrist, halting her and staring a blazing gaze into her teal eyes. "Happy? You've lost it. And I'm losing it, being here. This is your fault, as stubborn as you are to have dragged me here; denied me the right to leave; forcing me to hang around on your time."

His grip tightened and Rouge leaned away, her expression turning shameful. He was right on all accounts, and she had to concede that she'd pushed too much. "Y-Yeah, okay... look, I just want my prize-"

"You don't even know if you'll win," Shadow said sternly, then raised his cuffed hand to position his thumb and index finger closely together. "Rouge, I'm this close to tearing my hair out over something so stupid. And if you make me stay much longer, I'll drag you back to the club, get these fucking cuffs off myself, and disappear for as long as I want."

The intensity in his tone was almost scary, even as he held back from lashing out. Rouge knew she couldn't physically keep him there, and she didn't want him to avoid her entirely due to her self-serving actions; so, it was either lose both the coin she'd given up and the chance at owning another emerald, or let Shadow reach his limit and possibly lose him as a friend.

Just as she was parting her lips to relinquish her material desires, they heard a few solid taps against the microphone that stood atop the wooden platform. Her teammate's red eyes gazed past her towards the green hedgehog preparing to speak, which made the bat turn around to look, as well.

"Attention, all ye lads and lasses: 'tis time to pick the t'ree lucky raffle winners," announced Irish, holding his own top hat filled with numbered strips of paper.

The ivory bat looked back at Shadow, but his eyes didn't move as he let go of her wrist. He stood still while the Clover Day host rummaged around in the hat and pulled out the winning numbers: "6... 14... and 17!"

Rouge's eyes widened and she swiftly pulled the ticket she'd bought from her chest piece, looking down at the number 14 and letting a grin spread before snapping her glittering gaze back to the silent being. Shadow's ruby eyes dragged down to hers; he still seethed a bit on the inside, but he nodded nonetheless, allowing her to retrieve the prize.

Sonic's crew shrugged at the minor loss of not winning one of the emeralds, instead clapping and watching along with the other guests as the lucky ones stepped up to claim their gems. As Irish congratulated them, Rouge lifted the glass box enough to take the icy blue emerald, then turned to Shadow.

"My, isn't it beautiful?" she asked, turning it back and forth to admire the way it reflected light.

She hadn't expected Shadow to rapidly reach for the faux jewel, snatching it from the bat's hand and holding it above his head. "Chaos Control!"

Rouge had just enough time to exclaim and stare in shock before white light surrounded them, blinding the other guests briefly. And in an instant, the bright flash disappeared – along with Shadow and Rouge.

A wave of awed murmurs stammered out from the small crowds, many of them confused while Sonic's group had expected nothing less from the incensed hedgehog.

Tails was the first to speak up about it, addressing his best friend. "You really pushed him this time, Sonic. I'm surprised he didn't leave sooner; handcuffed or not."

The blue man chuckled and leaned back to rest his weight on outstretched arms. "Yeah... I guess I feel a little bad. Sunny days and social crowds really aren't Shadow's thing – I can see how he'd end up being so angry."

"Didn't you have to apologize to Knuckles at the last party we went to?" asked Amy, sitting with both fists against her hips. "Looks like it's becoming a pattern with you."

"Hey, that was different! I just wanted him to have fun." He rolled his eyes and added, "Shadow, though? He's grumpy all the time. Ya can't blame me for that!"

In the downtown area of the city, the powerful lifeform had successfully teleported himself and his companion back to Club Rouge. They appeared in the treasure hunter's loft, where the white shine of the lesser emerald faded into nothingness; Shadow looked at her and tightened his grip around the gem.

"Tell me where the key to these cuffs are, or I'll break the emerald," he spoke, his voice monotone and serious.

Offended by his actions and his tone, Rouge furrowed her brow and replied, "Jeez, you don't have to threaten me! It's in the night stand, top shelf."

She half-heartedly pointed at the small table sitting next to her own bed, and Shadow carelessly tossed the gem into her hands. While he retrieved the key – along with his stolen Chaos Emerald – the annoyed bat disappointedly studied the drained jewel, noting that it no longer shone and now held a dull pastel hue. "Ugh, you tarnished its beautiful glow..."

"Hmph. I'd say that's a price you deserve to pay," Shadow retorted flatly, twisting the small key inside the golden cuff.

The curved prison snapped open and fell from his wrist, followed by the indignant hedgehog placing the key atop the nightstand before leaving Rouge's side.

She stared with an unhappy pout as he dropped his body lazily onto the spare mattress at the other side of the small room, closing his eyes and lying with his hands behind his head.

But even as she felt dismayed by the effacement of her prize, the disheartened woman didn't desire to argue or kick him out, instead allowing Shadow to rest as he wished.

[latin-dr-robotnik]

I'm sad to report Sonic Superstars completely falls apart during the second and final campaigns. The worst of the Advance syndrome of cheap difficulty, bottomless pits, bad enemy placement and confusing level design gets combined with levels that already overstay their welcome in the main game, bosses that were already too damn long and now are even longer, with long phases and, in the case of the final bosses of each campaign, no checkpoints between those 4+ minute phases.

I'm heartbroken. I wanted to love Superstars, and I kinda did during the main campaign, but playing the extra campaigns just made me hate it and brought back flashbacks of the worst experiences I've had playing 2D Sonic games. Frustration, bad design (a booster into a wall that insta-kills you, for example) and having to re-do fights that easily balloon up to 10 MINUTES and beyond.

Honestly, I don't know what they were thinking, and the worst part is that those campaigns are required to reach the True Final Boss, which might be the worst Sonic boss fight ever. It's broken, you lose rings during cutscenes, you will be hit with cheap shots and deaths, the game will give you rings whenever it feels like, the boss will take you out of the ring collecting phase at random, forcing you to wait another full timer to get rings from your friends, and it ends with a wonky QTE that you have to nail several times without taking a single hit and without running out of rings. THE ONLY QTE OF THE GAME, and it's here. It's no Frontiers QTE, it's closer to Forces in concept but that game did it better. Oh, and if you don't have like 20 rings or so after beating the boss, the game will kill you and you'll have to do the entire thing again. I know, it happened to me. I had to re-do the entirety of that shitty fight like 3 times. Awful.

It feels like a repeat of The Final Horizon's flaws, but this time with none of its good parts. I could sit here and say that Superstars is a nice 8/10 based entirely on my first campaign experience, but I can't pretend like the rest of the game doesn't exist, because you'll have to experience those extra campaigns if you wanna get your Super Sonic fight and fully beat the game.

There's a good game in Superstars, but it's buried very deep under tons of idiotic decisions and core issues that I don't know if could be resolved with patches. Cheap artificial difficulty killed this game for me.

[skrooy]

So I Was Bored

I got bored and decided to make more character AI yandere Sonic characters. I put every Sonic character, even the robots into a random wheel picker and now whenever I'm bored I just spin the wheel and create whichever one it lands on. I already had created a couple before this but now I've created 23 in total. When I create them I try to make them as accurate as Character AI will let me by putting in the characters entire wiki page. I also let you pick your own scenario but I would highly recommend that you don't let the AI choose the scenario as 99% of the time the AI will pick a terrible scenario. So far I've created Yandere Bark the Polar Bear, Yandere Fleetway Tails (Though I'm still tweaking him a bit), Yandere Sonic Underground Stealthbot, Yandere Balloon from Sonic Frontiers, Yandere Badnik Horde Pre-Super Genisus Wave, Yandere ART (Artificial Robot Technology from Sonic Underground), Yandere Cubot, Yandere Cyclops (Mechanoid robot of unknown origins from the Sonic Archie comics), Yandere Decoe, Yandere DUFUS (Design Unit Flexible Underling Substitute from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog), Yandere Egg Libra (from Sonic Rush), Yandere Eggephant (from the Sonic Archie Comics), Yandere Flybot (from Sonic Underground), Yandere Ifrit, Yandere Sir Charles, Yandere Uncle Chuck, and Yandere Tikal being the new ones I added in the past 3 days. I tried putting a link but for some reason it wouldn't work but if anybody's interested my Character AI name is the same as my Tumblr name with picture of a Gazimon from Digimon as well........... I do whatever this wheel tells me to do. Currently working on more as well.

[bluepoodle7]

#TheLegendOfZeldaWindWaker#WindWaker #ToonLink #VideosIRemember#Nostalgia #VidsILike#MyThoughts

Just some vids I liked and using this screenshot of windwaker/toon link holding that glowing rock communicator as a place holder image.

I remember seeing this glowing rock communicator and wondering if it shows up again in the game but my guess is that it was dropped later in the game.

Image and video not mine but link is there.

27:02

The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition (Wind Waker Demo) (youtube.com)

I wanted a gif of Toon Link pulling out the glowing rock communicator out his pocket.

https://gifmaker.me/video-to-gif/viewimage/20241003-09-ySkn5LM6y8GysmIo-cOXtl3-hnet

All unlockable secrets guide: Mad Mode, Swimmer Mode, Big Eyes, etc. - Blue Stinger (Dreamcast) - YouTube

Illbleed- Side A (Michael Reynolds') - YouTube

Blue Stinger- Side B (Shinya Nishigaki) - YouTube

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile- Side A - YouTube

Klonoa on vinyl - YouTube

18 juin 2024 - YouTube

EGG ON PUPPY COIN BANK #toys #trending #youtubeshorts - YouTube

Dog House Money Saving Box Money Bank For Kids Beautiful(Purple Lucky Dog) | eBay

Tatsuro Yamashita - 08. Your Eyes - YouTube

Keyboard Glep (youtube.com)

Roundabout by Yes (to be continued meme music) - YouTube

Yes - Roundabout (Original 1971) - YouTube

This song gives me Animal Crossing vibes like walking around your town just chilling out maybe with a sunset in the background.

Date of Birth- greenish - YouTube

This song gives me N64DD vibes like from Mario artist talent studio.

Date of Birth- alien in the dream - YouTube

Chimera's Gettin' a Pizza (youtube.com)

Nightmare Ned - The Puberty Song! (Fan Art) - YouTube

Nightmare Ned Game - Uvula Song - YouTube

My favorite house music track so far.

Feels like walking down a street by yourself just wandering in a town.

Riviera Love Affair/Reuse 35 - YouTube

Way To Paradise - YouTube

Pretty Ballerina - YouTube

Smoothly Love/Reuse 929 - YouTube

This gives me Sonic stage vibes like on the Sega Genesis.

The Big Babbler/Original Archive Version - YouTube

A helpful guide to working with your Realtor! (Analog Horror short based on House Hunted) (youtube.com)

This sounds like a old black and white cartoon that has song lyrics in it.

Ritzy Glitzy Mitzi - YouTube

Sweet Home - YouTube

From Now On/Heavy Bass Booster Version - YouTube

Please Stay With Me - YouTube

Farewell My Love - YouTube

Sounds like Cuphead tutorial music to me.

Butterfly - YouTube

Found this video but don't know if the voice is AI or not.

Take the risk. - YouTube

DHDJykfyo:#{)90eDJlv883SVHO98hosonJ99u{=¢∆mxkksklalSBO•√¢÷¢×¶%I8JSjjsksoozox - YouTube

Can you remember data without a face? PC Shift (youtube.com)

I like it that in Illbleed there are three patterns the game will randomize in with the shock events moved around in different places.

Seems to me the A, B, and C patterns are mixed up so player wouldn't know which traps are on easily.

Illbleed Speedrun Tutorial Stage 4: Killer Department Store - YouTube

Illbleed - Let it Bleed (youtube.com)

ILLBLEED - MrCantinfla - YouTube

I like this person's character model like it's corrupted.

Yet another dream was cast (René plays Illbleed part 5) - YouTube

Illbleed Hidden Minigame TOP SCORE - YouTube

Worst customer service - YouTube

🎮 Super Nintendo controller you've never seen before - YouTube

My favorite Nightmare Ned track and I didn't know it had lyrics.

Nightmare Ned -- Balloon World (deleted song) - YouTube

I hope someone finds this song.

Unidentified Song - (“Jenny”) - YouTube

[BIG DREAMS] - As For Dreams x BIG SHOT Mashup (youtube.com)

Ongezellig (Part 1 + 2) - YouTube

The Best Web Animation You Never Seen - YouTube

Above The Clouds: A Lost Song From a Pirated DVD - YouTube

Templeton Thompson - This One’s Gonna Fly (2011) - YouTube

This song is pretty good and so is the Letter to Juliet movie to bad it is obscure.

You Got Me - Colbie Caillat - Lyrics (youtube.com)

IXxuSmw2HFNWXLUyJFO7xKIT3E7diFUSa86wgFiMI413xtfZga5hClZ/AgdzP33dhpj+0qc1d5sK2jyH5EqK6g== - YouTube

Spoiled Soda :3 (youtube.com)

All SPECIAL HORROR EVENT scares [ILLBLEED] - YouTube

My favorite song from Dynamite Headdy.

Dynamite Headdy OST: Sega Genesis - 21 - I Sing - YouTube

When I heard the bad news about the Magiswords man and it slapped me back to the third joke in this video from the incomplete Oney Plays Illbleed let's play where they are on the woodpuppets level and saying that the dad isn't free from what he did.

Oney Plays Animated: Pillopio Roleplay... 1 + 2 + 3 - YouTube

Maybe have Prohyas be Pinocchio say that to the creator that he isn't free from what he did.

If I knew how to animate I would.

Oney Plays Animated: Pillopio Roleplay... 3 - YouTube

Someone found the Dog of Bay Ps2 game ost with English lyrics.

I wish this weird game was on steam or ported to other consoles.

Dog of Bay Sing-along OST - YouTube

知性のゆめにっき - YouTube

Continental House Shaped Stress Ball - YouTube

Title Theme - Kirby's Pinball Land (youtube.com)

Marth's Huge Grab (and why it's completely fine) - YouTube

Finale (Unused Mix) - Undertale - YouTube

Finale - Undertale - YouTube

Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans (OST Version) - Undertale - YouTube

I watched this person's let's play and it was pretty good.

I like the review and explains the game.

Illbleed: Road to the True Ending (Sega Dreamcast) - YouTube

Welcome to Michael Reynolds Virtual Horror Land - Illbleed - YouTube

A certified Illbleed classic - YouTube

A Vlog in My Pants - Illbleed - YouTube

Illbleed (02/2001) - YouTube

Eyestrain Warning // Illbleed // Couture (youtube.com)

Fatboy Slim - Put It Back Together - YouTube

[Vinesauce] Vinny - DOODLE DIP - YouTube

[Vinesauce] Vinny - This is my Doodle Dip Time Capsule - YouTube

Vinesauce Vinny: Space Kids [The ATDQ Cut] - YouTube

This felt a early 2000's song that would be at the end of a Shrek movie before the Minions were a thing in the credits to me and this is my first video hearing this song.

[Vinesauce] Vinny (Pre-Stream) || Deep Doodle, Vinesauce Fan Games, Weirds - YouTube

SpaceKids Soundtrack (MS-DOS AdLib) (youtube.com)

This sounds like Johnny Bravo singing to me.

I Feel Love (Fantastic Plastic Machine Remix) - YouTube

Some really good FPM remixes.

FPM Remix Works Best Mega Mix mixed by okadada - YouTube

FPM Best Mega Mix mixed by okadada - YouTube

I wish Mischief Makers was ported to the switch or the new Nintendo console with Dynamite Headdy.

Mischief Makers - Trouble Maker - YouTube

The Jerma he looks like Freddy Fazbear noise in this video gave me Illbleed sfx vibes.

Now I want both noises side by side.

Jerma- You look like Freddy Fazbear - YouTube

Illbleed fright/shock SFX - YouTube

Found this T-Rex ninja turtles like cartoon.

The adventures of T-Rex 1.1 - YouTube

Kirinji - Goodday Goodbye (FPM Mix For Nightfly) - YouTube

A look back at Crazy Games and Shinya Nishigaki - YouTube

Been looking for this FPM song.

Kenji Jammer - Daddy's Delight (FPM Talker Vocal Mix) - YouTube

This one is a great FPM mix.

松田聖子 / あなたに逢いたくて (FPM MIX for Lovers) - YouTube

【That Handsome Devil】Charlie's Inferno【English Lyrics】 - YouTube

Friday Night Funkin' - V.S. Mike The Hardcore + Awesome [Mike & Melissa] - FNF MODS [HARD] - YouTube

Friday Night Funkin' - Khonjin House (One-Shot) - FNF MODS [HARD] - YouTube

Blue Khonjin House/Supermental Remix [Friday Night Funkin] (youtube.com)

John doe fnf fan song: sliced - YouTube

Charlie's Inferno (That Handsome Devil Remix) (youtube.com)

This song is really good and the artstyle gives me OK KO vibes with the sound of this song.

nobonoko - Sylvester the Cat (Lobinho Telesoccer 3000) - YouTube

This cool Spongebob music video.

네, 선장님! - YouTube

A Not So Joyful Lobotomy - A Chicken Little Instrumental Fan Song (youtube.com)

Randomly found this and I love the luscious listings name and it gives me REALTORs monster house dating vibes like that would be another website name for it.

I know it's Kurtis Conner faceless channel.

The Most Ridiculous Houses You'll Ever See - YouTube

The "Faceless YouTube Channel" Plague

[alln64games]

Diddy Kong Racing

PAL release: 21st November 1997

JP release: 21st November 1997

NA release: 24th November 1997

Developer: Rare

Publisher: Nintendo

N64 Magazine Score: 90%

Pretty much all racing games on the N64 so far have the same problem: there’s not a lot of progression for a single player, and you can do everything in a couple of hours. Some of them focused on being great in multiplayer (like Mario Kart 64) but there wasn’t a lot of choice for singleplayer.

Which is where Diddy Kong Racing comes in, as it has a very meaty singleplayer campaign with an adventure mode where you find tracks within its hub world.

It’s a neat area to explore, although a lot smaller than I remember it being. You’ll find four doors with balloon requirements (which you get from winning races or finding them in the world), with a fifth world hidden until you defeat five bosses. They start out simple at first: you have to win each race individually then defeat the boss in a race. Do that, and it gets much more challenging.

You’ll be tasked with finding 8 coins in each race. However, finding them isn’t enough as you still have to win, and then defeat a harder version of the boss. Diddy Kong Racing is a difficult and brutal game and you’ll need to learn its tricks (such as letting go of the accelerator just before boosting) to have a chance of winning. Once you defeat a boss a second time, you then complete in a tournament across the four tracks. There’s also a key hidden in one level of each world to unlock a battle mode challenge. Oh, and also time trail challenges.

Once you’ve done all that and defeated the evil Wizpig, it’s time for Adventure Two. This is a mirror mode version of the game, although the silver coins are now in more difficult places. Of course, this amount of content wouldn’t be anything if the game wasn’t fun to play.

And thankfully, it is fun. Levels use three vehicles: car, hovercraft and plane. The car and plane are very easy to use, while the hovercraft is more difficult. When you repeat tracks (or choose to play outside Adventure mode), some levels let you pick your vehicle – with some restrictions on a per-level basis – and it’s great having multiple types of vehicles racing alongside each other.

One let-down in DKR are the characters. None of them are bad in terms of a design perspective – and this is the first appearance of Banjo (without Kazooie, although some of his voice clips sound like her) and Conker, but they’re a bit too varied in terms of ability, so the game’s difficulty will very a lot based on who you pick, with Pipsy being the best for hitting boosts (plus the silver coins).

The weapon system sets itself apart from other kart racers. Instead of giving you random items, the balloons providing items are colour coded for specific items. Collecting one of the same type you already have will also upgrade the item.

Diddy Kong Racing is still a great game, and the only kart game that’s come close to it for single-player is Sonic Racing Transformed (which also had three vehicle types, but it was specific to the part of the track you were on). It set itself apart from Mario Kart 64 and I actually prefer this one.

And if re-thinking the whole racing game ‘thing’ wasn’t enough, Rare have set a whole new standard for in-game graphics. Even the simplest tracks positively bulge with background extras, from lumbering dinosaurs to beautiful timber-framed houses to wallowing whales.

- James Ashton, N64 Magazine #10

Remake or Remaster?

If not a sequel, then Diddy Kong Racing deserves a remake. It would look gorgeous with a Mario Kart 8 style sheen to it and some updates to the control and balance would be great, with some additional options. While it would be nice for all characters to return, I’d still be very happy with the game even if they had to replace most of them. The Switch seemed perfect due to the system’s potability and how it doesn’t have its own Mario Kart.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Diddy Kong Racing

Re-releases

2007: Diddy Kong Racing DS (Banjo and Conker replaced with Dixie Kong and a tall, teenage Tiny Kong, coin challenges replaced with tapping balloons).

[blazehedgehog]

With that Sonic anniversary comic they just put out, the second story I feel they way overdid it with cramming references into every inch of every page and the third story had none of that but I felt was a funnier story overall. Does Sonic stuff overdo it with references these days?

I mean, to some degree, yes, Sonic has been overbearing with nostalgia for a long time now, but I also think that recent Sonic stuff is getting better at nostalgia, too. Starting with Sonic Mania, we’ve been seeing a greater outpouring of real, genuine love for Classic Sonic that doesn’t feel cloying like it did in, say, Sonic 4.

But I also think the second story in the 30th Anniversary book has other problems. I didn’t really mind it at first, but the more I roll it over in my head, the more it starts to sour a little bit. If you didn’t know, it’s written by Justin and Travis McElroy (and their dad, Clint, too). They do a series of podcasts and other things that have made them so mega-popular that the weight of that popularity is threatening to crush their business. 

I am indifferent to that. I listened to a lot of MBMBAM back in the day, and I always intended to try listening to The Adventure Zone (one of their other podcasts), but I ran out of time and places to listen to any podcasts. I liked MBMBAM a lot and I thankfully missed out on all the anguish and drama that would come to hound The Adventure Zone. I would not classify myself as a lover or a hater of the McElroy “brand” at this junction.

But if you told me that Justin and Travis set up a microphone, recorded themselves doing improv, and then transcribed that recording to text, I’d 100% believe that’s how this script got written. Because, like, I’ve listened to a fair amount of MBMBAM in my time, and that’s all this is. This is Justin and Travis riffing off of each other -- nothing more, nothing less.

It is so specifically their voices that I can tell you that Justin is Sonic and Travis is the driving instructor. And, like, let's be fair: this is what these guys do. The fact they probably wrote this in the way that was comfortable for them is fine. I'm not going to say they need to change anything about the process. But when I read this story, I don't hear Sonic characters. I hear Travis and Justin doing a MBMBAM bit, and then it's like somebody drew Sonic the Hedgehog artwork over the top of that, like it was one of those Youtube animatics people sometimes make of their podcast goofs. Sandwiched between two extremely loving, extremely nostalgic stories, this "Sonic Learns How to Drive" detour sticks out like a sore thumb. It doesn't line up with the vibe in the rest of the book. Seasons of Chaos? Absolutely gorgeous to look at, and it's a pitch-perfect example of how you use Classic Sonic to tell a story. There's a hard-to-describe tone to this, like somebody reached back in time to 1994 and pulled out the perfect adaptation of the Genesis games that never actually existed. Against all odds, they took the example set by Ian Flynn and Tyson Hesse's "Sonic: Megadrive" miniseries at Archie and actually made it better. Every page and every panel is like official 90′s Sega artwork come to life. At 50 or 60 pages long, it has a chance to stretch out and tell a longer contiguous story with more characters than the Megadrive mini could muster. It may not be deep or dramatic, but it doesn't need to be. It's fun, and that's what is important.

And then the book ends with "Dr. Eggman's Birthday," a sweet, endearing story where the badniks are just trying to show appreciation for their creator, who is predictably grumpy about celebrating his birthday. It's short and simple but it just made me feel good. In the middle of these two high points is a story where Sonic acts in a way that's deeply out of character, and 75% of most pages are taken up by word balloons and 30 different angles of a minivan interior. It doesn't fit. The book is a celebration of what we love about Sonic, but the McElroys don't strike me as particularly connected to the Sonic franchise and that comes through in the tone of the writing. It feels more like stunt casting. Which is where all these references come from, I think. The art is essentially trying to do all the heavy lifting. So you'll get a page that references the original announcement poster for Sonic 1, concept art for "Dr. Badvibes," the strange girl poster from Sonic Adventure, Sonic's Schoolhouse, the SegaSonic Popcorn Shop, G-Sonic, the glider from the Sonic Spinball intro, the prototype version of the Tornado from the Saturn version of Sonic Adventure, the flickies from Sonic 3D Blast, etc. All on one page. Heck, everything I mentioned is just in one panel of one page, and I didn't even cover everything. That's just the stuff I could personally identify. Basically, since the story itself wasn't going to do it, the artist went hog wild cramming in as much referential material as possible. And it's impressive, because there are cuts so deep even I didn’t know where they came from. But it doesn't really make the writing fit in any more with the rest of the book. That’s what bothers me, and the more I think about it, the less I like it. It feels down right random.

[welcome-to-green-hills]

Don’t know if there can be any headcanons for this but... Rachel and Sonic? If not enough, how about Rachel and the Wachowskis?

Hmm... Sonic and Rachel... AND THE BAKED GOODS SQUAD?! How about a “Two for the Price of One” deal? I can do Rachel engaging with all three Wachowski members for these headcanons. Seems fair? Alrighty, let’s see what I’ve got:

After Rachel got past the fact that Sonic destroyed her car in downtown San Francisco, as well as wreck her kitchen, Rachel realized that Sonic was an orphaned child looking for a place of belonging in the world and that he was perfectly harmless. She is very protective of him and often tries to engage Sonic in the many family activities that she, JoJo, and her sister in. (Tom is welcomed to come also, but the two always butt heads).

Rachel does not 100% hate Tom. She’s very, very cautious around him due to her own experiences in the past with her ex-wife cheating on a man. Think of it as a defense mechanism.

Both Rachel and Maddie are twins. They both will tell you that they are the prettier twin.

Rachel is a real-estate agent during the day, but at night she prides herself in being an aspiring contemporary minimalist artist. (Think of Rothko or of Eva Hesse). She proudly sells her art in many pop culture museums downtown.

Rachel also enjoys fine wines, cheeses, and fruit plates to share with her sister on movie nights.

Rachel and Maddie grew up with two mothers: one was a lawyer and the other one was an artists. Both grew up partaking in BLM marches and Pride parades in San Francisco.

Rachel is very protective of Sonic, just like Tom and Maddie are. However, Rachel and Maddie are not afraid to tag-team together and make Sonic’s Wachowski’s bullies feel their wrath.

Sonic does like Rachel. He doesn’t like how defensive and intimidating she is of Tom and asked her to stop. Maddie had to explain that Rachel’s divorce with her wife was heartbreaking, they were as tight as her and Tom are in their relationship. Sonic felt bad for not understanding the whole story and apologized to her for getting angry. Since Rachel;s talk with the Space Hog, Rachel makes sure to control her anger and evaluate why she is upset with Tom.

Sonic and Rachel secretly share a love of going to the spa. Sonic, Maddie, and Rachel will go to get a massage, their nails done, get a facial, and get their hair styled. Maddie and Rachel always tell Sonic that it’s okay to treat himself to something nice every once in a while.

Rachel and Sonic also love to go shoe shopping together. They, along with JoJo and Maddie, will spend hours in Springvalley--a very wealthy town--visiting various boutiques and buying shoes of all kind. Tom, hating his visit to “the land of the rich, home of the snobs” the most, will spend time at the local diner and munch on donuts. He’ll check up on them on occasion and return to his spot at the diner.

Whenever Rachel and JoJo make a special trip to Green Hills, Montana, Sonic likes to turn it into a big event. The house is decorated with streamers--Sonic likes to throw ribbon and glitter all over the place--and balloons, a pizza with a side order of lasagna is ordered and a movie is rented, and Sonic shows them where they’ll be sleeping for the stay. He’s a very good host and caters to their needs.

Sonic and Rachel will bond over watching reality T.V. shows, shows like The Bachelor. Sonic will make a remark, saying that some of the men on the show are plastic and too flashy, Rachel cracks up and they both talk smack about the contestants on the show.

Rachel has tried to teach Sonic how to make food inn the kitchen, other than living off of donuts and dinosaur chicken nuggets. Sonic is really good at burning food, as well as making a big mess in the kitchen--he burns boiling water and random foods on the stove top will catch on fire. He’s not very good at making a dish, but he tries very hard. Plus Rachel likes to reward him with golden stat stickers every time he doesn’t set food on fire.

Rachel always carry a brand new package of flavored gum that she gives to Sonic every time he sees her. He gets a big kick out of it and tells her that she’s the best aunt ever.

Rachel and Sonic both share a huge love for flower of any kind. Both Rachel and Sonic are very knowledgeable to the healing properties, the symbolic meaning, and the gentle care of each flower in order to grow. Sonic--his favorite being sunflowers without a question--loves to leave a bouquet of them for Tom, Maddie, and Rachel any chance he collects them. Rachel will leave Sonic a flower crown made of daisies, lilacs, hydrangeas, and gardenias.

Rachel, even though she is hard on Tom, will sometimes call him and thank him and Maddie for adopting Sonic, as well as raising him. Not only has he made good friends with JoJo, but he has helped make him and Maddie stronger couple. Sonic was given to them in a period of time when major events were happening, he was the good ending that came from it. Sonic has also helped Rachel in a sense with understanding why Maddie trusts Tom with her heart, Rachel has also helped Sonic understand more the value of family and why the bonds shouldn’t be broken when something good happens to them. They all needed each other and she is happy to be blessed with having Sonic in their lives.

I’d like to thank @movie-robotnik-positivity , @the-brucest-fan , and @writersonicfan91 for helping me come up and bounce some ideas off for these lovely headcanons. Thank you for your help, you’re all wonderful. Also, thank you for the suggestion! I am always up for making more Sonic headcanons, I love that you all are interested! Thank you❤️

Stay safe for me, okay?

You matter❤️

[sonicringbond]

Sonic Ring Bond: the Journey - Scene 23

And with a lengthy little scene, we have moved away from the exposition for now. Or at least most of it. Rosy still has some exposition to give every scene just due to the story structure, but we actually have things getting started started again in this scene so i hope everyone enjoys...

    ~The biggest thing I love about adventuring is all the new people I meet and all of the wonderful places that I see. Sometimes though the people I meet need help, or just want a favor in exchange for a service. Tee-hee~♥ This time the people I met are little meaner though.

    ~To people who rely on Rings, they are irreplaceable. They do so much, and we rely on them so much. I don’t even think I really thought about it until I ended up in these strange lands with that little planet watching me every day. When I first discovered that most people here didn’t trust Rings it was so unnatural. Yet to them it was perfectly normal. Or so I thought until I met the Engineers.

    ~They were the first people here who actually used Rings like I was used to, but when Rings are treated as bad, they have to keep it a secret. It makes Ring Thieves even worse than they are back home. Stealing Rings is so hurtful, even helping a Ring Thief will get you hurt. I’ll have to talk Gill into changing his way of life when I finally catch up with him.

    ~Fortunately, though I was afraid that knowing Gill would have lost me an opportunity to catch up with Zooey, the cloud sailors were very understanding. They just didn’t trust me, or Draw, so they sent us out on a little quest to prove that we were trustworthy.

    ~Hmph! I think it’s ridiculous since they saw the photo with me and Zooey both in it. It should be obvious. But Gill did steal Rings from them, so it makes sense to help them gather Rings. I’m kind of excited too as I haven’t had a Ring gathering job in what feels like forever! Hee-hee! It’s what I used to do back home so it’s a nice little reminder of who I am. Which is fortunate too under the circumstances.~

    An airship that was barely more than a deck, cabins, and a hold wrapped around a metal balloon and further wrapped in sails, rigging, propellers, and wings soared across the jagged terrain. The mountains were unusual in that they almost appeared like domino tiles that had fallen on top of each other. The geography resulted in the top side of the mountains being covered as far as the eye could see in lush grasslands where sheep roamed, and Rings spun about on their axes arranged in any number of patterns. Despite being high enough for clouds to drift across the meadows the temperature was warm and balmy. From the deck railing Rosy watched the scenery passing by below with a huge and excited smile.

    “Ooh~! It’s so perfect! There are so many places to run, and so many Rings too! I bet there are all sorts of interesting things to find down below the cliffs too!”

    “You’re awfully excited considering they’re making you do their work,” Draw looked at Rosy wryly before a smirk adorned his face. With a shrug he closed his eyes and turned away. “But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when dealing with a weirdo girl like you.”

    “How many times do I have to tell you stop calling me names!”

    Rosy complained and Draw snickered before Rosy stuck her tongue out in retaliation. It earned them both a good laugh, but Rosy felt it would be rude not answer the implied question from her koala companion. Wiping a tear from her eye she explained her excitement.

    “Believe it or not, but this is what I did back home,” Rosy demonstrated vaguely drawing a doodle in the air with a finger. “My job was to collect Rings and I went all over the place doing it. Me and my best friend. Ooh~ I haven’t seen Tails in forever and I miss him so much. I really hope he’s okay.”

    “I’m surprised you haven’t forgotten him with how long you’ve been searching. It seems like something you’d forget.”

    Hopping off the railing, Rosy sat down on the deck beside Draw and pulled her knees to her chin. It made her look very small, even next to the younger and smaller koala.

    As Draw continued to clean his bow, he looked at Rosy wondering if she was upset about something. The mischievous grin she wore hidden behind her knees told him otherwise and he leaned in closer as she motioned to him with a wave of her hand.

    “Well that’s the thing,” Rosy whispered excitedly, her wagging tail thudding against the deck giving away her enthusiasm. “I’ve noticed that the things I’m most likely to forget are things that aren’t associated with what I normally do. I think that’s why it’s so important for everyone to have the defined roles that they do. It helps you stay you, I think. But adventuring is what I do, and what my friends do too so most of those memories are just kind of fuzzy now, but I can still remember them. That’s why I’m not worried about helping the Engineers out.”

    “I get it,” Draw contemplated as he absently rubbed down his bow. “They aren’t trying to have you repay the stolen Rings, they’re trying to use how everyone always forgets things to make you loyal to them.”

    “That’s what I was thinking too,” Rosy beamed as Draw had caught on. “But I know it won’t work on either of us. First and foremost, I know that the Rings will always remember. Secondly, they think we’re dumb because we’re kids.”

    “Well you’re certainly a weirdo girl,” Draw countered Rosy’s attempts to build up their confidence. She puffed up her cheeks at him and he simply flashed her another playful smirk. He did not prompt her to go off topic however and stayed quiet.

    “But they shouldn’t look down on us like that. I know you’ll be fine too because practicing to hunt golems is what you do, and I’ll be fine because I’m going to be doing what I always do. They won’t beat us so easily, and we’ll still help them and get to hear more about where Zooey is.”

    ~I felt like my belief was spot on. Why wouldn’t it be? This strange land may steal people’s memories, but I’ve been doing my best to pay attention and protect my precious memories as best as I could. I had gotten Draw involved too so it was important that I protect his memories too. The thing is though, I wasn’t prepared for how bored I was going to be. And after it looked so exciting too.

    ~Overlooking one of the best views I ever saw of the wide openness of the world was a weird little tower that was as much a part of an old ruin as it was something that looked like it grew out of it. It was like a smashed together building built from a windmill, a water tower, a lighthouse, and a giant boiler chimney. There were pipes everywhere and covered almost as much as the ivy and other plants that covered the stone brick building. But there was nothing else of interest.

    ~A kitchen, bedrooms, and a lookout post. Even the weird little arch that served as the airship port was just quaint. The old guy who worked at what they called an Engineer’s waystation was nice enough too, but he laid down a very strict rule about never going further out than he could see. And so, by the afternoon of my second day there, I was so bored and turned desperately to Draw to help me chase away the boredom.~

    “It’s your fault for collecting the Rings so fast,” Draw remarked dismissively as he fired off a practice shot into a target he carved into the side of an old tree within the outer wall of the ruin that held the waystation.

    “I know, but I get so excited!” Rosy whined. “It really is like back home. Rings show up in random places and patterns every day and I just can’t help myself. It’s so much fun but being limited on where I can run makes it so boring. I know they don’t trust me, but it’s still unfair.”

    “And why do you think I can change their minds?” Draw asked as he fired off another arrow.

    “I don’t,” Rosy admitted as she clasped her hands behind her back and began swaying her body back and forth. “I was just hoping you could help me chase off my boredom for a little bit.”

    “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” Draw asked as he eyed Rosy wearily.

    Her cheeks puffing up, Rosy energetically defended herself. “It isn’t anything bad! Really! I just want to practice my fortune telling. I may consult the cards every morning, but I know so many other ways of reading fortunes too. Like I can do a really simple one right here and now. All I need is for you to show me you hand.

    “And if I say I don’t want to?” Draw challenged.

    “Don’t be like that!” Rosy fussed and snagged Draw’s hand in both of hers.

    “Why do you care about my future anyway?” Draw pressed as he yanked his hand away, not noticing that Rosy drew her thumbs along his palm as he did. “Or do you think I can’t beat your golem–?”

    Draw stopped short as he noticed Rosy’s mischievous grin had returned and he frowned in disgust and fear. “What did you just do?”

    “Nothing,” Rosy swayed playfully, teasing the poor koala. “Just read your fortune is all~♥”

    “What! That easily?”

    “I’m really good at it,” Rosy laughed as she shook a playful finger at the bewildered Draw.

    “No way! What did you learn!”

    “Well…,” Rosy started enthusiastically, but she seemed a bit perplexed and looked down at her thumbs. Draw swallowed loudly afraid something bad lay in store for him, but Rosy dismissed it as she reached into one of the shoulder puffs of her leotard. “It’s kind of confusing so I’m going to ask my cards to help clarify for me.”

    Without missing a beat, Rosy flopped onto the ground, her legs forming a “W” like shape in front of her as she withdrew the small waterproof container. Carefully extracting her tarot cards Rosy split the deck and paused a moment before shuffling. Giggling, she lay the two halves on the ground in front of her. “I better give them a Ring first. I don’t want them getting worn out. They’re my oldest friends you know.”

    Draw gave Rosy a doubting look, but she ignored him and cheerily pushed a Ring into her cards. With a twinkle of golden motes of light, the Ring vanished as quickly as it had appeared from Rosy’s person. Her cards seemed no different, but it was obvious that they still looked brand new. Testing the snap of the cards Rosy smiled wider as she began to shuffle them.

    It was a mundane action, but a sudden breeze blew one or two free and Rosy gasped in apologetic surprise.

    “Ah! I’m sorry!”

    Scrambling to catch the errant cards, Rosy looked like a child chasing butterflies and Draw hung his head and sighed. The sudden urgency in Rosy’s voice as she spoke to him again though caused him concern as he looked back up at her.

    “Draw, we have to go.”

    “Eh! What!” Draw stepped back surprised, but Rosy’s face was desperate with seriousness. Still, he needed clarification as she hurried to put her cards away. “But if we leave… I mean won’t they never help us find your friend if we go now.”

    “They probably won’t,” Rosy conceded, but did not linger as she offered Draw her back so she might carry him piggyback. “But I know seeing them and how protective they are that Zooey is safe. I want to see her. Really, I do. But… but right now, someone else needs our help and we have to hurry before it’s too late!”

    “How did come up with that?” Draw guffawed at the absurdity of what Rosy claimed.

    “The cards told me!”

    Rosy’s claim baffled Draw even more and he gave her a doubting look and began to mouth a response but Rosy cut him off with a stern look as she forewent an explanation. “I know you don’t believe me, no one ever does at first, but my cards never lie to me. And right now, someone needs our help more than Zooey, so we have to go.”

    “Well… If you… argh! Fine!”

    With a shout Draw gave in and soon found himself whisked away at speeds he could not comprehend across the meadowed mountain sides.

Scene 23 · CLEARED A Tiny Voice, to be continued

-----

And with that, Rosy is chasing after trouble yet again. Draw seemed to have mellowed out this scene, but hopefully not jarringly so. I definitely need to get some excitability into him again. But we’ll leave that for the future.

Thank you for reading everyone! i hope you enjoyed!

-----

Special Thanks to Cutegirlmayra Story by @JoshTarwater/SonicFanJ Inspiring Song – What Makes the Sky Blue – Tsutomu Narita – Granblu Fantasy Original Soundtrack: Promise

Fair Use Disclaimer

Sonic the Hedgehog and all affiliated characters and logos are the express property and Copyright© of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS used without permission under Title 17 U.S.C Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 in which allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. “Fair use” is use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be considered copyright infringement. The Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey alternate universe (AU) consumer written work of fiction is a non-profit transformative work primarily for personal use and can and will be taken down without warning or prior notice at the request of the copyright holder(s) should it not be recognized under “fair use”.

*Sonic Ring Bond logo created by DEE Art – twitter.com/daryliscute.

Sonic Ring Bond AU and Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey are the creation of Joshua David Tarwater/ynymbus/sonicfanj/@Joshtarwater and is to be, including all contents herein considered for all legal purposes the property of the Sonic the Hedgehog intellectual property (IP) and copyright owners, SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS. All story contributors via prompt, suggestion, written scene, art, and all and every other contribution acknowledge that all contributed material is forfeit for legal purposes to SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS upon official request from SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS.

[heyyylittlemo]

Ask game

1. Where did you hide the body??

Me: *pause* No, where did you hide the body—

*police stare at me with disbelief*

Me: there’s no—there’s not a single body here—well stop looking at me like that, you’re the cop! You should know! Why are you asking me for! Body? Whaaaaaat. Ahaha.

*cops shake head*

*whispers to my friend* Guys I think I pulled that one off

Police: you know we can hear everything you’re saying

me: 👁👄👁

2. Favorite rock? The 1975. Dominic Fike. Arctic Monkeys. Bad Suns. The killers. Pale Waves. Etc. That good good shit 👌

3. Most aesthetic season? Fall. Love them orange colors. The leaves falling. Though spring is also neat if you have a bunch of flowers bloomin in shit and winter is only aesthetic when it’s snowing. Boring ass summer tho just be heating me up.

4. When texting do u shorten words or spell out? I used to write stuff out all the time mostly but now it’s like half and half bcuz its just faster and nobody got time for it 🤣🤣

5. Vintage stuff? Hell yeah, but maybe not anything too expensive since some old stuff IS hyper expensive.

6. Colors that pop or blend? Not sure I understand what u mean abt them blending ahaha u mean like when they’re so similar to another?? Well I think it’s nice but honestly I prefer a pop and a bang, y’Know?

- At this moment I realized I was answering the last few questions from a completely different ask and felt like a dumbass 😂 anyways the actual number we’re on is three so imma just kickback

3. Worst dream u have ever had? I had sleep paralysis but was imbetween that and a lucid dream. At first I was paralyzed and could see my bed but my eyes felt closed and open at the same time?? A giant dark demon looking dog had towered over me and began to tear at my neck. It looked and felt very real I started to try to scream and it felt like a scream was coming out but no sound exited. Then I went into a lucid dream where I was being chased by this dog and running for my life I was running by and nobody could save me nobody in the dream when it caught up to me I was back in my bed and it was trying to eat me again. I was so terrified I couldn’t sleep for a whole week.

4. Lyric that comes to your mind? “And I don’t think I can be there. I’m paralyzed,I’m terrified of being alone. When you said I deserved what had happened.”

5. Blood make u uncomfortable? Yes, I passed out once when getting my finger pricked and a VERY small blood sample and another when dissecting a fish.

6. Even or odd numbers? Well I like the number 5,7,9, 3 so odd. (Like me 🤣🤣)

7. Something I hate that I love? Anything I’ve ever loved becuz love can be frustrating. Bruh.

8. 1st initial of someone I hate? Hmm...do I hate someone tho? Not that I can think of...

9. *Skipping down the lane* NOPE

10. Corn dogs? It’s funny cuz when I think of corn dogs my mind will always go to when we first moved to our current house because at our initial town we never had Sonic and while we were getting the house fixed up and moving stuff we use to always get Sonic since it was the closest to us most times to eat and that was a bunch of corn dogs and hotdog days 🤣 so thnk u corn dogs for ur service

11. I’m not a huge movie person so...I looked up movies from 2005 and movies Inlike from this time are Brokeback mountain bcuz it’s gay af, Shark Boy and Lava Girl damn I rewatched the shot out of it when I was younger, Narnia and the Chocolate Factory(although it low key creeped me out as a kid, and idk why).

12. Least fav music genre? Most country, most EDM, dubstep, screaming/really hard rock, some pop music, mumble raping.

13. As someone who waits on tables, my job is my least favorite restaurant experience 🤣🤣 just dealing with ppl...like ok, I’m half Hispanic right?? But I look white. Well, I work at a Mexican restaurant and so sometimes racist costumers will say shady shit just bcuz I guess they think it’s appropriate to say it to me just bcuz I’m not Hispanic in their eyes?? But it pisses me off and I feel like I can’t say anything without causing a drama which I hate and when the “costumers always right” it can be hard to budge and stand up and say “bitch wtf did u just say??” And there’s just folks who take things the wrong ways or ask too much at once or give u a hard time or just say something that sticks onto you for the whole day. One bad move can turn my whole day upside down.

14. 3 things never come near me? Cockroaches, Needles, and close mind ppl

15. Worst way to die? With regrets. Something really brutual, random, or where something just happened to go wrong (accident). Being killed by someone u love.

16. Unusual habits? Doing a Michael Jackson esque “hee-hee” after every sneeze I make, being extremely clumsy and making every task 100% more difficult, having the ability to talk as if I have an accent that comes from nowhere in particular just stupidity also I can’t speak my own language half the time 🙃getting words confused or misusing them in a sentence so I sound dumb having a very weird imagination and thoughts, I swear it like I never went to school and don’t know how the world works, plus many many more

17. Clothing style u want? I want to dress in a way that screams who I am and is a blend of both femininity and masculinity. A little vintage. Grunge. Urban maybe?? What do I know abt fashion 🤣🤣

18. Song or artist that deserves more? Dijon, hands down. I love his stuff. He’s like Frank Ocean meets light-singing beautiful lyricist with a more rock vibe?? Hidden gem. I also think Durand Jones & the Indications needs more love along with BadBadNotGood they sound like old-times but are new!! Oh, and Pale Waves is like a female The 1975 and kicks it. Bad Suns is a good alt rock band that no one seems to recognize :,D Toro y Moi too! His song with Flume “The difference “ is a banger!! Kid Cudi is my man when I want a blend of rock and rap. Also Dominic Fike,King Krule, and Roy Blair, who are all amazing!! Ok I need to stop 🛑

Duck I answered the past questions from a different post I’m sorry 😐

17. Emoji never used? There’s a bunch since I reuse the same over and over again. Lmao

18. 3 sentence Gatorade horror story? A faint quiver overtook the small freezer the Gatorade lay in; no one had come by in days, hours, weeks; when was the last time he met the lips of a thirsty body? They’d forgotten about him, as his last sips remained glued to his hollowing entrance. ‘Help, ‘it wanted to say, but it’s frozen lips could not be moved; It’d stay here, die here...just like the rest.” What am I doing with my life 🤣🙏

19. Do u know what an old bay is? A bay that is old? And old ocean? Idk!!!

20. Can u dance? Sometimes I dance when I’m alone but nothing spectral lol

21. What first comes to ur mind when u see ropes? 2 extremes. Sex and death. Hm. Ok. Moving on.

22. Make an obscure reference. “Even a bra couldn’t hold these nipples” *Holds a water gun to chest*

23. Fav balloon color? Pink or yellow.

24. If u were in court would u be innocent or guilty? Depends, what am I in court for 🤣 lmao jk honestly idk bcuz I don’t think I’d wind up in there

25. Are u hungry ? Nope

26. Unlucky number? Hm I don’t think so but I have a lucky number “123”

27. What’s “JMD”stand for? I’m guessing...Jamming my d—- 💀lol jk ahaha why am so dirt

28. Random inside joke? *chirpy squeak* I’m making a double batch of cookies

29. What sends chills up ur spine? Seeing disgust food or smell disgust or talking abt disgust things like gore

30. How many questions are in ur inbox? A pathetic zero ahaha no one want to ask me anything 😂

31. Someone real who scares u. 2 of my ex friends. One when I was 10 said disturbing things and I was kinda forced onto the friendship and everything they said make me fear for others lives...and then a different ex friend who seemed normal at 1st but became both low key psychopath cult leader type stuff and I booed out of there—-.

32. Run or hide? Uhh probably hide because I’d say even if ppl say “u can run but u can’t hide” u CAN just hide! that’s the point of hiding they not find u xD also why not combine them? Hide then run somewhere far away once I got them off the trial.

33. Last person who made u angry? A frickin beetle that flew at me and pinched me in the middle of singing in the shed xD also my autocorrect

34. What’s going on in ur head? I should probably pee soon—

35. Little thing that makes u Smile? A lot of little things bruh.

36. Are u a descisive person?

Not sure.

*pAuse *

Ok, I guess I’m not then 🤣

37. Would ppl say I’m paranoid? Hm maybe about certain things social situations, singing in front of others what ppl think abt me etc etc

38. Store least likely in? Any southern clothes shop, Abercrombie & Finch types shit, lol

39. Do I like hats fave type? Hm not wear many hats but I think they’re cool any type is cool for different ppl and their aesthetici just can’t rock a hat.

40. Bow ties or ties? Don’t really care but now want to see more bow ties

41. Who? You.

42. What? Reading this shit

43. Where? In ur ass

44. When? Now.

45. Why? Not even u know why.

46. How? We all want to know

47. Do u collect anything? Vinyl records.

48. What tome is it? Time to get a watch

49. Fav transportation? My car or walk is possible

50. Would u ever kill someone to save someone? Don’t want to think about that

51. Make a joke. Yo, it’s time to make a joke—so the other day I was working. And I was practicing my Spanish, yes? Anyone whose trying to learn anew language k n o w s that sometimes words can be so close to another u just confuse then! So apparently churros in Spanish is a desert but if u say it more harshly (it literally sounds almost the same) it makes a whole different meaning—diharrea, but like I didn’t know that so I legit just walked up to this person and asked if they would like some shit to eat. So yeah, that was great. Let’s not forget that I mixed up blood, watermelon, and sangria which is a wine. I legit once said I had mixed wine in my vines and another time watermelon 🤣

52. I’m really confused so I skip

53. Would ur dash be confiscated SFW? By dash do u mean this account? Um not 😬

54. Do I like to cuddle? Hell yeah and manhandle ppl all the time it’s my affection

55. What makes u angry? Close minded ppl or ppl who jump too fast to conclusions, strict schedules just dumb stuff that people try to force when I just want to be carefree 😭✌️

56. How many voices are in ur head? 😐

57. Do U consider urself mentally stable? 😐

58. Are u easily offended? Well U just called me mentally unstable and asked it there was voices in my head!!

59. What’s wrong with taking the backstreets? Uhm...

60. Any questions u want ppl to ask u? Nothing in particular but it’s be nice if someone care to ask me something abt me from personal question to my opinions on shit to 19 days fandom related junk 😌

Woooo I’ve finished this game! Thanks to @seiji-amasawa for introducing me to this ^^

[thegraytalon-blog]

Nostalgia is a Hell of a Drug

Remember Chewbacca, everyone? Oh I ‘member!

Remember Stormtroopers everyone? Oh I ‘member!

Remember Darth Vader everyone? Oh I ‘ member!

Remember the Millennium Falcon everyone? Oh I ‘member!

Remember Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda on Nintendo? Oh I ‘member!

Remember the original Game Boy and Game Gear? Oh I ‘member!

Remember Indiana Jones? Oh I ‘member!

Remember Sonic the Hedgehog and the Sega Genesis? Oh I ‘member!

Remember Mario Kart, Starfox and Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64? Oh I ‘member!

Remember the Sinbad pirate movie that we all swear exists but in reality doesn’t? Oh I ‘member!

 Above are just a few of the many vast examples of nostalgia in the form of media and entertainment for some of us who grew up in the 80’s and the ‘90’s. Now you might be asking yourself, how can a handful of random pop culture references have anything in common? The answer lies in that they all share one crucial thing that is very similar. That being they all represent a form of nostalgia for the most of us who grew up within this era. This is the era that represented the iconic heroes, symbolic artifacts and the rise of video game dominance that we all know and love today. Even such entities that do not really exist and are part of what is called the Mandela Effect, such as that Sinbad movie from the 90’s that we all swore a blood oath existed but have no concrete evidence backing up such a claim. Well, other than the fact that Sinbad himself used to dress up like a pirate and wear some really baggy pirate looking pants in the 90’s. 

So what is it about nostalgia that is such a driving force behind what compels our minds today in such forms of life as decision making and even to the point of crucial thinking? Well, let’s start from the beginning. The majority of the memories that we have stem from early childhood and carry on over into adolescence and lessen by the time we reach and are in our full adulthood. When humans are born and are children from the age of about 3 or 4 we begin to develop our brains more and begin to retain moments that transpire in the world and capture them into an ethereal bubble and store them in our memory banks to recall at anytime we want. That is, if the memory is worth recalling at all. While most forms of nostalgia are positive some memories are not always as pleasant as that moment when you picked up a Nintendo controller for the first time to play the very first level of Super Mario Bros or when you went into that creepy cave and an old man gave a wooden sword to a child because it was too dangerous to go alone into the wilderness in The Legend of Zelda. However, they are still considered nostalgic because they caused such a tremendous impact on one’s life. 

Let’s say Timmy is 5 years old and is learning how to ride a bike without training wheels. During his trials one day he happens to lose balance, fall off and cuts his knees and sprains both ankles at the same time. Timmy then decides he will never learn how to ride a bike again. It’s not a pleasant memory, but little Timmy may carry on this memory for the rest of his life as it had a big impact on his childhood. When he is older and if people ask him if he knows how to ride a bike, he can not only say no but recall the traumatic experience that shaped his bike riding fate into the present day. Now let’s say little Timmy started riding a bike with training wheels at the age of 5 and nothing went wrong and he eventually graduated to riding a bike with two wheels like a champion. Later on during his life if the topic of riding a bike came up, Timmy may not recall the exact moment when he learned how to ride a bike or even his age, just that he knew how to ride a bike and learned when he was a child. The devil is in the details so to speak and the more prominent the events that transpire in your life, good or bad, the more you will recall and retain them and with great detail. 

Now let’s shift our focus back to the positive aspect of nostalgia and what kind of effect it has on our psyches and even physical attributes over a prolonged period of time. I will be using many examples in the form of video games and media for the rest of this entry so strap in and brace yourselves for some serious nostalgic moments! 

Petey is a pre-teen boy in the late 90’s who indulges in a plethora of video games. Sometimes on a weekend he goes over to his relative’s house to enjoy the competitive elements that gaming offers in the form of racing and shooting. He partakes in numerous races of Mario Kart 64, dogfighting matches in StarFox 64 and the tactical espionage shooting of GoldenEye 64. After hours of racing, dodging shells, popping balloons, aiming true and losing friends with that infamous blue shell in Mario Kart and shooting down enemy starships in StarFox and cursing out the kid who picked Odd Job in GoldenEye (even though we said NOBODY PICKS ODDJOB IN GOLDENEYE you cheating, miserable fucks), Petey leaves his relatives house and returns home. The next day at school Petey is in class doing his assignments when he notices out of the corner of his eye a pencil about to roll off the student’s desk that is to the left of him. Immediately Petey jerks his arm to the left and catches the pencil before it falls off and reaches the floor. Petey did not realize it, but by him dodging those shells, lasers and bullets in the games he played the day prior, it allowed him to have a slight form of heightened reflexes as his brain and body worked in unison to move his arm and catch the object before it reached the floor more so than a person who did not attune their senses by engaging in a hobby that tested your hand to eye coordination like video games do. In most video games, repetition is key. By performing various tasks over and over again, a person trains their mind and body to react in ways that are almost considered unnatural by the laws of man. Now I’m not saying that gamers are all Spider-Man or Jedi Knights, but their critical thinking does improve as well as their reflex actions and allows them to think and perform outside of the box more than others from time to time. 

Speaking of critical thinking, let’s say that it’s a bright and sunny Saturday morning in spring of 1987. You are 7 years old and wake up, have your Cookie Crisp or Fruity Pebbles while you pop on some Transformers or Thundercats as you prepare for your day off from school. Then in the early afternoon proceed to your room and take out the gilded cartridge crafted with great care by the Hylian warriors of future’s past, proceed to take a deep breath and blow deeply into the bottom of the cartridge. You then insert the cartridge into your Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and start to hear the whimsical and delightful music of The Legend of Zelda. As your adventure continues across the vast land of Hyrule, you seem to discover many dungeons along your path in which require you to solve puzzles and obtain keys to open your path to venture forward. Most of the puzzle solving includes memorizing geometrical squares or blocks to move them in such a pattern that they will allow secret passages and doors to open so you can continue your hero’s journey. After spending countless hours dungeon crawling , slaying mythical beasts, solving numerous shape shifting puzzles and obtaining the Master Sword to defeat the mighty evil lord Ganon, you put the game to rest for a little while. The next day, Sunday, you go over your friends house to hang out and he has something cool to show you. His mom bought him a new puzzle game called Simon. In this game you have to remember color patterns and memorize them to not fail and go back to the start of the puzzle. Your friend, who is not into video games as much as you, and proceeds to try out the Simon game with you. He gets a score of 4 turns without failing and you happen to score a whopping 12 turns without failing. Could it be that his memory is not as attuned as yours because you just spent the previous day playing The Legend of Zelda and solving pattern memorization puzzles in a plethora of different dungeons? It is indeed very possible and almost factual. Once again, repetition is key and it shapes the mind to retain and remember glimpses of imagery that will help you in such tasks as doing well in a memorization game or exam.  

Video games such as The Legend of Zelda are prime examples of how nostalgia not only plays a factor in critical thinking but also how our minds are shaped for when we become adults and how our way of thinking is affected by experiencing games like this in the past in our childhoods. For the most part, The Legend of Zelda series is aimed at a child base with it’s whimsical characters and environments and tunes. However, deep, beneath it’s surface, those games may contain such a deep nostalgic presence in the form of a darkened and twisted tone, that it can only be harnessed and resonated years to decades later as we reach adulthood and see how we use our intellect and minds to either provide rational thought or even something as trivial as conversing with someone and describing your likes and desires. For example, why do some of us migrate towards TV shows or comics or movies with such dark messages or that have a really sick and twisted meaning? I’ll use The Punisher and Fight Club as examples here. Could it be that our love for these 2 embodiments of physical and psychological warfare on the mind, body and spirit stem from our interaction with let’s say The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy and/or The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask for the Nintendo 64? I know I am singling our Zelda games a lot but there’s a reason and method for my madness here, I promise. You see, both of these games in particular in the series have a deeply disturbing underlying message. In Link’s Awakening you play as the famed hero Link who awakes on an island with no memory of how he got there so his goal is to find a way off the island and get back to his homeland in Hyrule. Now SPOILER ALERT because I am about to fast forward to the game’s ending. At the end of the game, Link encounters the Wind Fish, who is a mythical creature and king of the island that informs Link he is part of some kind of deep REM like fever dream that once he wakes up from all of the creatures and inhabitants of the island he is presently on will cease to exist and die pretty much. The game’s theme and message here then becomes somewhat complex. It twists the plot and forces one’s mind into a psychosis that cannot necessarily determine fiction from reality. The same is present in that of the film Fight Club. Again, SPOILER ALERT here as the entire movie we cannot tell what is fact from fiction as the main character slips in and out of a deep schizophrenic psychosis that plays the duality of himself with a character who he may or may not have created, Tyler Durden, who was everything the main character was not. Like seen in Link’s Awakening, the focus of the story is shifted from reality to fantasy in the blink of an eye where you, the player and the main character in Fight Club and Link as well are uncertain whether the world they are living in and characters around or within them are all real or simply part of some kind of imaginative force. Nobody can really pinpoint the truth of the matters, only that there may be multiple outcomes for their unique situations. 

The Punisher and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask are also similar in their own diverse ways. Now before I continue I want to go on record for saying I feel Majora’s Mask is the copyrighted and trademarked property of not only Nintendo, but Lucifer as well. That’s right folks, this game is possessed by the devil and I can prove that with hard concrete evidence. Just Google or YouTube “Ben Drowned” after finishing this and I promise you that you will not sleep well tonight after seeing that. Now for a hefty third SPOILER ALERT here as in Majora’s Mask many feel and believe that the story takes place with Link having failed in all his endeavors to stop Ganondorf from taking over the world, Princess Zelda, who he loved, was enslaved and Link himself was dead and the game takes place in the Hylian afterlife where Link has a finite amount of time to save that world from collision with a moon face who kind of looks like he is in the middle of taking the most constipated crap known to man. Now my point is here that Link is dead, he knows his world has ended as he knows it and is now just running through the motions doing what he can to survive while expelling the evil around him, doing and making whatever he can right, until death knocks on his door. The same can be said for the Punisher. The man known as Frank Castle is dead and has been since his family’s cold blooded murder, leaving behind a shell of the former man he once was and he is just simply doing what good he can, righting the wrongs of the world, while being consumed in the hell on Earth he is living in, the same as Link in Majora’s Mask, until that fateful day when the grim reaper comes beckoning. 

Therein lies our attraction to such nostalgic elements of the past to that of the present in a nutshell. But it is only a mere taste of the many nostalgic elements of the past that carry on into our present and future, forever shaping and molding both conscious and subconscious  states of our minds determining our focus and reality. 

Now in conclusion I would like to leave you all with a disturbing thought about a form nostalgia that can pander to even the most enlightened thinkers as hazardous and demeaning. How many of us grew up idolizing Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Han Solo and Princess Leia from a galaxy far, far away? How many of us used to cherish those films and even used to dress up like those characters for Halloween or even go to extreme lengths to cosplay at shows such as Comic-Con or just for fun and create videos and role play as them for blogging purposes? George Lucas created something unlike the world has ever seen and even with his infamously criticized prequels, the Star Wars franchise was still a force to be reckoned with and like the Force itself was a powerful ally of nostalgia indeed. Now fast forward a few decades to where we are now. That nostalgia of Star Wars with what once was so illustrious and fruitful has caused us to sheepishly support the ongoing cancer of the new modern world that is known quite simply as the sequel trilogy. The soulless embodiment of corruption, greed and rape of the Star Wars franchise known to man and the majority of us continue to witness the horror, which is the equivalent to watching a train wreck I guess because some of us just cannot look away. And why you may be wondering? That devil is in the details here. Nostalgia is a pathway to many abilities, like I stated earlier, and some are considered to be unnatural. The most frightening ability nostalgia gives us is the ability to go and pay hard earned dollars to experience something that is completely unworthy, unholy and just plain unnecessarily bad for our souls because nostalgia said it was a good idea! This is not only present in such forms of media as Star Wars but in other forms of entertainment as well. How many of us saw Batman VS Superman because we as teenagers or adolescents read Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and thought it would be an exact rendition of that piece of art? Who saw Man of Steel only because they saw the Nolan Brothers names in the credits and thought it would be just as good, if not, better than The Dark Knight? How many of us flocked to theaters to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull because we loved Harrison Ford in the original adventures of Indiana Jones trilogy? Give me the total number of cattle who grazed their way to the theaters to see The Hobbit after the renowned success of The Lord of the Rings trilogy? And even in video games, who ran out and bought The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask because it took place in the same world and timeline as the famed The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time? The same with Nintendo and their consoles can be said. How many of you owned a Nintendo Game Boy and had to wait on line for 3 hours to obtain a Nintendo Virtual Boy due to the nostalgia caused by the Game Boy? On the other side of the fence, how many countless people purchased Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox 360 because of their fond recollections of Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast? The list goes on and on and on. 

All of these newly released end resulted products listed above have ended in disappointment over their predecessors in some way, shape or form. These letdowns that I just stated cannot hold a candle to their nostalgic ancestral entities  of the past that brought us such warmth and joy. Simply stated, they just do not make them like they used to! So why do we continue to follow this systematic pattern? Does nostalgia alone drive our state of mind or is it something deeper and something even more psychological? I feel that there is another driving force that goes hand in hand in tandem with the nostalgia factor. I strongly believe that married to nostalgia is F.O.M.O. or the “Fear of Missing Out”, which is a syndrome created by chemicals in the brain that develop such an emotional fear that if they were ever to stop witnessing a piece of intellectual property they have invested so much time and energy into that they became terrified as to what the outcome may be, even if there would be no harm done to them physically. Emotionally speaking, these people are frightened to the point of stasis that if they were to miss out on viewing or playing or experiencing something they have dumped a large chunk of their lives to, their minds may collapse into themselves like a neutron star! It fascinates the very mind and can even warrant further study to what drives an individual to such lengths of commitment, with nostalgic fear being one of the leading factors and causes. A prime example of this would be the television show The Walking Dead, based on Robert Kirkman’s comic series. The show has been renewed for it’s 11th season and has long since lost my interest so I simply stopped watching. But I know people who continue watching even though the show has turned stale. Why? F.O.M.O! Godforbid they miss out on a morsel and crumb of walking down a barren road! And what about the next Star Wars movie? Episode IX is due out in December of 2019 and the majority of people I know are committed to seeing it even after they claimed Episode VIII ruined the franchise for them. Why? F.O.M.O!

  I will leave you all with this final thought to ponder: If one is to break away from the sheepish herd, they must first act and lead like a member of the wolf pack.

[smilingperformer]

SM073 - Thoughts

I think I’ve calmed down from Friday enough to write this now... let’s see. I’m not sure you guys even need me talking about this episode. It was so good!

It is finally time for Rocket Gang to go get themselves their very own Z-Ring! I’ve been waiting for this ever since I started watching this series almost a year ago now, and I was so god damn happy to finally see it happening. This also marks the start of Ula’Ula Island Arc, and I found it brilliant to start with Rocket Gang instead of Satoshi. Who, btw, is absent until the very last 10 seconds of the episode! This hasn’t happened since Diamond & Pearl’s first episode, if I remember correctly.

(This post is getting so god damn long because there’s lots to discuss so, I’m actually gonna put a cut here! To save your dashboards from this freaking long post! I hope it works for mobile people as well, if not, I apologize. I think I’ll continue on doing this in the future as well!)

Anyway, they head to Ula’Ula Island in search of Island King/Kahuna Kuchinashi/Nanu, who appears to be old acquitances with Rocket Gang Boss Sakaki/Giovanni. This is a detail I didn’t expect to be canon in Pokeani until the news hit, and I’m looking forward to learning more about this! Sakaki told the Trio (and Sonansu :D C’mon, it’s how Narrator said it) that they might be able to get a Z-ring from him, which prompted them to go on the Air Balloon ride. Which hasn’t appeared in Sun & Moon after it’s very early appearance in episode SM005! Great to see them still having it! (They did reference it in last episode so I guess it was expected!)

We then cut to a local Island Library to get us introduced to the character a lot of people had been waiting for to appear: Meet Acerola! She’s shown to be working at the said Library, and starts reading a book about the Greedy Lapoo to two young kids, who, according to VA cast list, are called Nene and Piko.

I must say, I love the designs of these two, and even if they seem to end up being CotD types, I’ll most likely be enjoying whatever screentime they’ll give us of them.

But, this scene also serves as a plot element teller as well, in addition to introducing these three characters to the story. In short, it’s a story about a ghost that stole people’s items, who then ended up being hated by people, because of it’s greedy nature. Thus, the name the Greedy Lapoo. It was then sealed away by a local Island King, and was never heard of again.

Anyway, we cut back to Rocket Gang, who are preparing to make good first impression with the Island King with some Malasadas. They get their disguises on because of the place they’re heading to being a Police Station, and when they get inside, oooooh boooyy. It’s what we’d expect from Ula’Ula Police Station.

It’s filled with dozens of Alolan Nyarths! Talk about over-kill. And they all get their eyes on one thing: the Malasada. Poor Rocket Gang.

That’s when we get to see the Island King thou! Meet Kuchinashi/Nanu! Or well. We know he’s the guy, but our dear buffoons don’t. So when they ask to see the Island King, well... you know what happens. I made a huge screencap post on it, but to put it short: he outright lied to them that Island King is away and may not be coming back for possibly a year! What a jackass! But I already fell in love with his characterisation at this point, so full points on perfect introduction. He clearly likes to avoid his Island King/Kahuna duties, which fits the game profile as well.

So, Rocket Gang loses all hope and head off. We then cut back to Acerola and co., who have finished reading the book, and decide to head to the tomb stone that is said to be the fairy tale’s Greedy Lapoo’s. However, Rocket Gang has decided to mourn their bad luck at the very same place, and when Musashi loses her temper and breaks the tomb...

Meet The Greedy Lapoo the Gengar! The fairy tale turned out to be true, and the Island King’s seal on the ghost is now broken. Way to go Musashi! Thou, tbf, she had no idea of such tale. I originally though it’d be a Totem Gengar, but then I realised that there’s no such thing in the games, so it’s probably something else that makes it so much bigger. Pokeani can do some interesting stuff with the Pokemon Universe anyway!

Anyway, Gengar steals Rocket Gang’s Dark Z-crystal, and then heads to Acerola and co, who had just arrived to the place. While the two kids are scared as hell, Acerola shows that she’s not.

I just noticed I’m rambling about all episode details again, but it’s hard not to. New characters were introduced, and as a huge fan of Acerola, I was stoked when this episode had so much focus on her! it’s great! Anyway, she gets kidnapped by the Gengar, who then proceeds to go steal stuff from random people around the Island. Acerola’s Mimikyu, who she calls Mimi-tan, tries to rescue her, but to no avail.

Mimi-tan gets thrown into air by Gengar, and while falling, Acerola jumps to catch it. Why thou?! I haven’t said it yet, because it’s actually revealed at the end of the episode, but Acerola’s Mimi-tan is an actual Ghost of a Mimikyu. So it wouldn’t really get hurt, would it? Then again, this is the first time Pokeani explores actual ghost pokemon, so there’s much we don’t know. We might learn more during this arc thou! I certainly hope so!

But y’know, this is where we start to see the good side of the Greedy Lapoo Gengar. It shows to be worried about Acerola after her fall, and when Acerola shows it she’s fine, he’s quite happy! Turns out, Gengar very much likes Acerola, and when Acerola tries to tell him to take her back home, he selfishly refuses, and tries to convince her to stay. When Acerola keeps on denying it thou, even when gengar shows the Dark Z-crystal that it stole from Rocket Gang, Gengar loses it. This is where I’m actually kinda spooked.

WHAT IS IT DOING??? Trying to put Acerola inside it? How rude is that??? Mimi-tan is unable to do anything, oh boy am I proud of the following moment:

Musashi came in and actually saved Acerola! Considering her dialogue earlier about how she can’t stand Gengar being so selfish with his liking to Acerola, I want to believe she actually did this to both save Acerola, and get the Z-crystal back. And it was really well done! Kinda reminded me of Satoshi and Pikachu thou lol. The pararrels between Satoshi and Musashi are increasing! They then mock the poor Gengar in hilarious ways, seriously, Rocket Gang’s writing in this episode is top notch and I have never loved them more in an episode.

Gengar then starts chasing after fleeing Rocket Gang (which actually seems like a lure plan???) and when Nyarth tries to counter-attack, Gengar possesses him. Spooky stuff. Musashi quickly orders Mimikyu to do something, who uses Wood Hammer on Nyarth. Ouch. Musashi cares for Nyarth, but she’s always been rough on rescue plans.

But then Gengar posseses her! And this honestly looks sort of scary at this screenshot. It kinda reminds me of a certain ghosts from Sonic Adventure 2 thou... : D Kojiro is shown shook, and he definitely doesn’t do hasty moves when it comes to rescuing Musashi. This is definitely something Satoshi’d do as well, and god damn it. Kojiro does come up with a perfect plan, and it shows how good of a trainer he is: Hidoide’s newly learned Dark-move Knock-Off is perfect counter for Ghost type, so he orders Hidoide to hit Musashi with it, gently. Musashi only gets a headbump from this so, all good. Except Gengar is mad as hell now. XD GG!

Then the best scene starts! Kuchinashi comes to see the situtation with Acerola, tells the Rocket Gang Trio that they’re actually better than he initally thought, so he throws them a Z-Power Ring! And then we get to see the god damn gorgeus Dark Z-move! it’s darn powerful looking, and man, the faces Musashi, Kojiro and Nyarth have while seeing Gengar get sucked into the Blackhole Eclipse is very, very well done. It shows both amaze and spookyness in them. This is the first time they’ve done the Z-move now, and oh am I glad they actually did it together. Even if Kojiro was the one to wear it, the energy def came from all three of them. This is the best outcome I could have hoped for the Z-move and I’m pleased. Very pleased.

Acerola then realises that Gengar was actually lonely instead of being greedy, so she decides to be friends with it. A happy end and all! Judging from Kuchinashi’s dialogue, this seems to be a norm to Acerola. Acerola also spills the beans about this old man being the Island King Kuchinashi to Rocket Gang, who aren’t very pleased with his trick. But Rocket gang also spills beans on being from the criminal organisation, where we realise Kuchinashi does indeed know Sakaki. And yet, he lets Rocket Gang keep the Z-Power Ring. Fits him.

In the end, Acerola’s Mimi-tan rewards Musashi with the Mimikkyu-Z crystal, which I bet is because Mimi-tan is greatful for Musashi saving Acerola earlier. It makes sense in my head at least. And imo, she deserves it. So, Rocket Gang ends up with a double-prize this episode: Z-Power Ring, and a new Z-crystal! Ii Kanjii indeed!

At the end of the episode, we finally have our appearance of the real main character of the show, who’s finally heading to Ula’Ula Island himself as well! It’s time for his third island adventures!

I’ll cya all next week, when Satoshi gets to battle Kuchinashi (all thanks to Acerola convincing him), Kuchinashi gets a call from Sakaki himself, and Lugarugan’s Red eyed Beast mode returns! Until then!

[minaminokyoko]

Pacific Rim: Uprising (A Spoilertastic Review)

This movie should be the ultimate lesson for Hollywood on why you shouldn’t just replace a director who has vision with someone who just wants to make a quick buck in a lazy sequel. My God, I can’t remember the last time I’ve been this utterly annoyed by a sequel. I mean, late sequels have a serious tendency to suck for many reasons: hiring different writers/directors from the previous film, changing the tone, removing important characters and awkwardly jamming new ones in there, relying on boring sequel clichés, or misunderstanding the entire reason why the first movie was a hit. Pacific Rim wasn’t a mega-hit stateside—it did $101 million domestically and did much better in the foreign market with an additional $309 million—but it was easily a fan favorite. Even if I had the full story on what went down between Legendary Pictures and the delightfully talented Guillermo del Toro, there is no excuse why Pacific Rim Uprising is such a pathetic pile of nothing. With del Toro, we had some excellent world building, a basic understanding of the premise, a loose but still adequate story, and characters that were easy to remember and enjoy. We also had a fun cameo from the incomparable Ron Perlman, a fantastic score, and some truly imaginative fight sequences of the Jaegers vs. the kaiju. I’ve said before that I think PacRim is a good movie, not a great movie, only because I felt you could have simply removed Raleigh entirely and focused on Mako and Stacker instead since they were both ten times more interesting and easier to connect with on an emotional level. However, after seeing this nonsense, I have a whole new appreciation for the first film, because at least it told a goddamn story and its characters had personality traits and arcs. Uprising is honestly an affront to what the first film established, not only for retconning things with Stacker’s forgettable son, but just botching every single enjoyable element from the first film.

I’ll get right to the point—yes, the Jaeger/kaiju fights are the main draw for this franchise. Even though I’m going to list why this sequel is godawful, a lot of people really just want to see it for the big fight scenes and that’s all they might want to take away from any reviews. Well, I’m here to tell you, I still don’t think Uprising is worth your hard-earned cash, because it’s frankly a bait-and-switch. The trailer shows you a monstrous kaiju made of three other kaiju, and that sounds amazing, right? Well, it’s intentionally misleading. If you want the full story, check below the spoiler line.

Overall Grade: D

Pro:

-Seriously, the only positive thing to note about this entire film is that the fight scenes were at least adequate. Not good, not great, adequate. When the fights finally do happen, there’s plenty of smashing, and the idea of the kaiju melding into one huge kaiju was at least a nifty idea. It was easily the only thing about the trailer that got anyone’s blood moving and could have built any hype.  However, judging by the movie’s poor opening weekend, enough people could tell something was off about it.

Cons:

-The trailer is misleading. How? Well, there are no kaiju in this movie until the last fifteen minutes. Seriously. They pulled a Huntsman sequel on you guys—promising something that only appears at the end of the fucking movie. All other times, you are stuck with the bland protagonists training or trying to figure out how the rogue Jaeger attacked Sydney. IIRC, there’s only the fight of Gypsy Avenger vs. the rogue Jaeger and then the end with all of them fighting. There’s a brief chase sequence in the beginning with Bland White Child and Stacker-lite, but it’s barely five minutes long and it’s just them rolling away from the full sized Jaeger like Sonic the Hedgehog. Look, if that still excites you, hey, go see it. But to everyone else who doesn’t want to feel ripped off, I’m begging you to sit this one out for this and many other reasons I’m going to outline below. There are only kaiju at the end of the damn movie. It’s Godzilla 2014 all over again—a magnificent creature that is advertised heavily as being in the film, but isn’t actually in the damn thing.

-The dialogue is so painfully cliché that you will roll your eyes so many times they might eject from your skull. Jesus Christ. I swear, it’s like they had a checklist of every action movie cliché they could think of and they made sure to check off every single one. Every line of dialogue in this movie is a sickening cliché. There is not one original thought. Not. One. Every character is flat and some form of a lazy archetype. No one gets any development. It’s Michael Bay-levels of incompetent writing. The movie couldn’t have been any worse written than if there was a room of chimpanzees hammering away at the screenplay. It’s just plain embarrassing. Every moment there isn’t a kaiju smashing something or a Jaeger beating wholesale ass, you will be in massive amounts of pain.

-The fights are mediocre. Remember how carefully staged the fight scenes were in the first movie? Hell, most of the time we can list them off the top of our heads because those fights were so damn memorable. We had the opening montage, the Knifehead fight, the two kaiju vs. the Jaegers, Gypsy Danger vs. Otachi, and then the final brawl underwater at the Breach. Each fight was staged well and paced well throughout the film. You didn’t have to wait too long between fights during the film, and it also entertained you with smaller bits like Mako and Raleigh training or the flashback to Mako’s childhood with that scary crab kaiju. Uprising is a bottom-heavy film, much like the equally terrible Jurassic World (God, talk about another late sequel that entirely misses the fucking point of the original property.) The only difference is at least Jurassic World had enough sense to deliver a powerhouse ending to an utterly stupid film, and Uprising doesn’t. The fights don’t have clever staging, great music, or very much creativity to them. After suffering through two hours with these annoying paper cutout characters, you should deliver the best damn fights we’ve ever seen, but no, they’re just standard hacking and slashing. Punctuated by the intensely annoying, shrieking helium balloon shaped like Charlie Day shouting inane dialogue in his squeaky voice. The fights have zero weight, too, because no one has a character, so you don’t give a shit if they live or not during the fight either.

-Like many terrible sequels, they kill off a main lead from the previous film in order to give the new protagonist some pathetic kind of Mangst. If there is one thing I am sure of, it’s that most fans of the original movie are going to be LIVID they dragged the actress playing Mako all the way back on set just to kill her fifteen minutes in. It’s just insulting. Mako was the fan favorite from the first film. Seriously, she has most of the fandom in her back pocket, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the immediate backlash is because the movie’s disgusting use of Fridging the main female lead from the first movie to make way for Bland White Child and Stacker-lite. It’s possibly the most insulting thing about the entire sequel. Mako deserved better. I’d rather she was out of the movie entirely, like Raleigh mysteriously is, than for them to kill her in such a cheap, stupid way. What a waste of a good actress and a great character.

-Making Charlie Day the villain. Yes, because nothing is more intimidating than a tiny man with the voice of Bobcat Goldthwait spouting dialogue so corny you’d expect it from an Austin Powers movie. Are you kidding me? Look, I get it, Charlie Day is a fan favorite so of course they were going to bring him back, but what the actual fuck made you think he should be the bad guy? It’s weaksauce. It sounds like they were just bored and out of ideas for the villain, as if the fucking kaiju or the Precursors weren’t good enough somehow, and just slapped this idiotic role in his lap. It’s such a bad idea. I hated his character in the first film and wanted him removed entirely, but at least he served a purpose. Here, it’s just lip service. Anyone who liked him in the first one is going to be pissed off at this random turn of the character with no indication of changing him back.

-Thin, boring leads. Let me be clear: John Boyega is not to be blamed for any of why this movie is failing critically and financially. The kid is talented and sweet and I want to pinch his cheeks and feed him apple pie in my kitchen. But he couldn’t save this film because of that rancid excuse of a script. Boyega is a darling on screen in almost everything else, but here, he has nothing to work with. Stacker-lite is just a cobbled together mess of leftover script notes from Chris Pine’s portrayal of Captain Kirk in the Star Trek reboot. He has nothing going for him at all. No motivation, no skillset, no charm. This character is completely empty inside. Bland White Child is the exact same as well; basically just every Little Miss Badass/Underdog stereotype only done amazingly poorly. She has nothing to offer the audience and while she has slightly more motivation than Boyega’s character did, it doesn’t mean anything. Then we have Generic Good Looking White Guy Lead, because for fuck’s sake, it’s not like it’s 2018 and we aren’t tired of seeing him, Generic Latina “We couldn’t get Michelle Rodriguez to do this bullshit so here’s someone else instead” Tits and Ass (who made me even angrier because normally when they have the Hot Latina Military Lady, she gets at least ONE badass moment, but this chick seriously serves no fucking purpose and is relegated to the laziest Hot Girl/Potential Love Interest role of all fucking time), Generic Cadets Who are Carefully Ethnically Diverse (you are fooling NO ONE, sequel; if you’re gonna bother to make them diverse, GIVE THEM ACTUAL CHARACTERS FIRST), Kick Butt Asian Lady (seriously, why the fuck did you cast this lady and kill off Mako? It would make more sense if Mako was in this role, like maybe Raleigh died in the Jaeger and she wanted to make automated Jaegers so no one would ever lose their partner again, there, ah fixed it, you morons), and finally Returning Cast Member Who Looks Tired AF But Needed the Money. It is a headache spending two hours with these characters. You don’t care about any of them and they have nothing to offer you. They’re just constantly stumbling around bumping into things and spouting dialogue from 30 years ago.

If you can overlook all of those flaws for the promise of Jaeger vs. kaiju fighting, have at it. Everyone else, don’t bother. If you’re that curious, wait until this hits a premium channel. I’m extremely glad I saw it for free, because I’d have been pissed paying $10 for this lump of expired crab meat. Save your money and go buy another copy of the first movie.