#Underground X-Amount Of Comics

[darkfairiefey]

MK Halloween Smut x AFAB!Reader

Witch!Jade x Reader

pairing: jade x afab!reader

content warning: gore, nsfw, love potion

You were lost. More than just lost, you felt like you had nowhere to go. The dark grass green fields and tall trees of the woods make it hard to see through the path in the nighttime, and it has been hours since you first entered the woods and stepped out of the comforts of home to investigate the silhouette of what seemed to be someone riding on a broom in the sky. Now the same figure was nowhere to be seen, and you have been searching for the same shadow for hours at a time. Feeling lost like this has never felt so mysterious until now, but you weren’t alone for long. Soon enough, you find what appears to be a set of stairs underneath the ground, a place where no normal set of stairs would be, especially not in the middle of the woods. Feeling intrigued by such a mysterious set of stairs, you decide to investigate the underground path awaiting you. Minutes of walking down the underground stairs later, you find a strange-looking lair filled with shelves and a big cauldron filled with many different kinds of fluids. Along the many oddities in the lair included an attractive-looking woman with dark skin and black, braided hair. She was wearing a tall, ragged wizard hat, and in her hands, she was holding a comically large spoon, the perfect size for a witch’s cauldron. You can’t help but stare in awe at such a magical sight. She notices you walking down the stairs to the lair, and she is quite surprised, as she hasn’t had any guests come over to her witch’s lair in a long time. She introduces herself as Jade, the head of the witch’s council. You take a look closer into the huge cauldron in front of you. Inside the cauldron were the cut flesh of snakes, spiders, eyeballs, and even fingers. You can’t help but wonder what exactly Jade is cooking inside that cauldron. You reach into the cauldron, but she pulls you back, not wanting the recipe to be messed up. Patience is the key to a successful dish, she philosophized, continuing to slowly stir the cauldron. 

A few minutes later, she finishes stirring the cauldron, and the gross stuff from inside the cauldron has been fully dissolved. She takes a flask from the shelves as well as a regular-sized spoon and uses the spoon to dip the cauldron’s fluid into the flask in her other hand. When the flask has filled to the top, she closes the flask using a wooden lid. She then writes down the name and details of the flask in ink and places the flask onto the shelf with all the other flasks. Many of the strange flasks included “Regeneration”, “Night Vision, “Strength”, and the oddest one of the bunch, “Love Nectar”. Jade notices you checking out the “Potions” section on the shelves and offers you a sip of her love potion, now that you’ve both gotten to know each other well enough. You weren’t alone in this new experience, fortunately, as she offered to take a sip of the potion as well. You slowly and nervously poured the potion down your throat, nervous and curious about the effects of the potion. You felt fine for the first few minutes, most likely because the taste was amounting to warm milk. But after a few more minutes passed, you started to feel... weird. Your mind felt hazy in mushy feelings and couldn’t think straight without your heart melting in your chest when you made eye contact with her. Jade was also feeling the effects of the potion, but not as much as you were, as she was already used to drinking potions in her own lair. You couldn’t help it. The longer you sat down and stared at her, the more you could feel the wetness between your legs. She then offered you to sit on her face as relief, and you could not help but accept such an offer...

Jade had laid down on her back as you slowly sat down on her head. The wetness of your pussy drips onto her face as she slowly lowers your legs over to her mouth. You were nervous, but she didn’t mind that much. Once you have properly sat down on top of her, she takes her wet tongue out and starts to insert it into the wetness of your hole, licking profusely like a cat drinking from a bowl. You can’t help but whine at the sensation as her tongue slicks back and forth in your dripping wetness. As she is licking your pussy, Jade spanks your ass a few times, leaving a hot, dark mark on your skin. You try not to scream in pleasure as Jade laps deeper into your wet hole using her tongue, making sure every inch of your insides gets touched. You just couldn’t hold in your pleasure any longer, and your moans echo through the lair, and Jade smiled, just for a moment, before getting back to pleasuring the insides of yours. You cum in her face and mouth, and Jade moves off of your wetness to catch her breath, but she isn’t done just yet. She removes her panties and clothing, lies down in front of your naked body, and the both of you began to rub the wetness of each other’s pussies together in a dripping wet scissoring position. You whine at the feeling of her wetness between your own legs, trying to keep up with her pace, but your mind is starting to go blank at the sensation, and you can’t really think without stimulation kicking in. The wet rubbing gets faster, and soon enough, both of you reach orgasm, cum spilling out of your clits and all over the floor. Both of you were tired after the effects of the love potion wore off, and you were just about to walk back home, but Jade insists that you stay here until morning in case you get lost in the darkness. You lie down in her bedroom, all comfy and cozy, as Jade slowly closes the door behind you as you fall asleep…

Vampire!Bi-Han x Reader

pairing: bi-han x afab!reader

content warning: blood, nsfw, yandere themes, blood kink, blood play, monsterfucking

It was a dark and stormy night inside your village, and the night was cold and empty. The comforts of your home were not enough to keep you safe and warm from the loud thunder and freezing cold air from outside. The only thing keeping you cozy was your large cardigan you begged your life that you would keep forever. Feeling lonely late at night was the worst feeling you’ve ever experienced. No one to huddle with for warmth, no one to share your moments of joy with. As you lay in bed trying to get to sleep, you wondered if spending nights alone like this was the norm for such dark and mysterious places like these. As you attempted to close your eyes, however, you suddenly heard a knock on the door. Tired and confused, you slowly got up out of bed and walked right over to open the door, with the sound of knocking getting louder every minute you took to shuffle over to the door. You open it slowly to reveal the presence of a tall, handsome-looking man with jet black hair, done up in a low, messy bun. His skin was paler than the average Earthrealmer, almost as if the cold embrace of death was tugging at his body by strings. He introduces himself as Bi-Han, the current patriarch of the centuries-old Liang family. Unsure with who you were dealing with, you ask for his age. His response equals to a whopping 332. You could not believe it. Hundreds of years old, and somehow centuries of age have not inhibited his good looks. He asks you if he can bring you to his home, and you can’t help but accept the invitation, as you have been waiting for moments like this forever. 

He offers a carriage ride over to his house, with horses carrying the two of you through the streets of the village. A few moments in, he can’t help but feel a little playful, so he takes the time to flirt with your desires by peppering kisses onto your neck and chest, teasing you with his hands, as you tried not to squirm in front of crowds of people. When both of you arrive, Bi-Han takes a hand of yours as you step off the carriage, and that was the moment you realized that his house was a castle instead of just a regular house. It towered over both of you, making you look like an ant in comparison. He opens the front door to the castle, and both step inside as the wind shuts the door behind you. The kisses he peppered on your neck and chest a while ago had quite the effect on you, as you were now feeling wetness between your legs from the desire. You both go upstairs to the highest point of the castle, and you sit down near the window. As you undo your pyjamas in front of him, he slowly walks up to you, licking his lips to reveal pointy fangs, fangs reminiscent of a vampire. This reveal surprises you more than it should, and you think to yourself that maybe inviting him into your heart wasn’t the best idea. You try to pull away, but Bi-Han grabs you by the arm, preventing you from escaping. He asks why you would pull away so easily if the fun hasn’t started yet, so you have no choice but to stay in line with him, as it was your choice to follow him into his clutches in the first place. He arches his back to reveal some huge bat wings that sprout out of his back, dropping his act of normalcy altogether. He looked like he could kill at any moment, but your heart’s desires could not resist such supernatural beauty...

Slowly drawing closer to his semi-naked frame, you placed your hands on his bare chest, feeling a sense of lust and belonging in him. Bi-Han walks behind and sits your nude frame onto his lap. He could feel you panting beneath him as he slowly guided his fingers near your drooling pussy. You whine slightly as he inserts his two fingers into your hole, massaging it slowly and gently. As he is doing so, he unhinges his jaw, biting into your shoulder as he continues to finger you to distract you from the sudden pain in your neck. You squirm in place trying to relieve yourself from the pain but he grabs your hands you attempt to reach over and touch yourself. You can’t really form a sentence without pain or pleasure taking over your senses as he continues to give both to you at the same time. His fingers and sharp nails dig into your waist, leaving both cuts and bruises from the pressure he puts into it. Soon enough, he digs his fingers deeper into your pussy, and moves his fangs up into your neck, silencing you, but just for a moment, as you continue to whine at the sensation. He rubs faster now, playing with your insides as if they were small patches of soft silk. Your pain contrasts to his pleasure, even with your moans for more and your head spinning inside your brain as he continues to play with your wetness. 

Although Bi-Han slowly slides his fingers out of your clit, that doesn’t mean he’s finished with you. He grabs both your legs and raise them way above your head into a full nelson. He slides his cock right into your ass, continuing to bite into your neck as he wraps his arms over your legs and grabbed your head using his hands to keep you place as squirmed in pleasure. He coos at your efforts to escape from his clutches as he roughly fucks into you through your hole, straining you of your flexibility and strength to resist him. You couldn’t think, you couldn’t move, all you could do is moan loudly and writhe from the pain of the feelings of his fangs inside your flesh. His fangs have been in your long enough for consciousness to start slipping away from your body, and you attempt to tap onto his arm to get him to slow down, but he can’t hear you the sound of him sapping blood from your body through your neck. Your eyes roll to the back of your head in both an orgasm and slip from consciousness to unconsciousness. He cums inside of you after seeing your orgasmic face, and slowly lowers your legs down once he notices your slip of consciousness. He slowly slides his cock out of your anus, and you almost hit the floor with how exhausted you are after he removes his fangs from your neck. He grabs you just in time for him to hold your unconscious body with only one arm. Bi-Han’s wings start to flap as he and your body ascend of the ground and into the windy night skies above. As you both fly high into the sky, Bi-Han dives in for one last bite…

Werewolf!Tomas x Reader

pairing: tomas vrbada x short!afab!reader

content warning: blood, gore, body horror, nsfw, monsterfucking, size difference, breeding kink

The full moon was out tonight gleaming brightly in your eyes as you lay so silently and peacefully in bed, as it illuminated your body frame perfectly in the darkness of the night. Despite the peaceful look in your eyes, you still couldn’t sleep. Need was filling your senses, although you couldn’t quite figure out what you needed so desperately at this time late at night. You slowly got out of bed and slowly opened the door to the living room, hoping to walk off the sudden rush of energy keeping you awake. The moment you opened the door, however, you were welcomed to a tall, dark figure standing right in front of you. Spooked by the arrival of the shadow, you quickly grabbed a flashlight and shone the light right at the figure to reveal a tall man with grey hair and golden yellow eyes. It was your boyfriend, Tomas. He was waiting for you this entire time. He stands up on his two feet, slowly walking over to you, inspecting your delicious scent and small frame. He sniffs your hair and smiles delightfully as he exhales in pleasure. His tallness both scares you and excites you at the same time, as if desire were grabbing you by the throat and your mind tried to resist, but your heart kept begging for it. A few moments later, he starts to twitch lightly into a partially wolf-like transformation, with wolf ears growing from his head, a tail forming out of his lower back, and his feet morphing into hind legs, all while he moans and writhes in pleasure on all fours. Once he’s finished, he stands up on two feet again, taller than before, completely in the zone. You trip over your own desire, falling down on the floor with only your elbows holding you up. Licking his lips sensually, he comes down to your eye level on all fours again, slowly crawling up to you. Your eyes widen in both fear and excitement as he draws closer, and you could feel wetness between your legs the moment he touches you. He can’t believe it. You’re already wet for him? How cute. You’re wet enough for him to fill you with his pups in an instant…

His claws tear through your pyjamas, revealing your squishy chest, and he starts to lick the sensitive nipples of yours like a hungry dog. Your head spins at the sensation, and you wrap your arms around his back, as if to tell him to dig deeper into the feeling. He bites at your nipple playfully, leaving a dark mark onto the spot. Tomas then moves up to your neck, marking and biting the airways, making you whine and squirm at the feeling. A few minutes of placing marks down your throat later, he slowly plants his bites closer and closer to your drooling clit. He enjoys the aromatic smell of your clit as he slowly digs his nose into the scent of you, sniffing it gently before lapping up the wetness of your pussy. You whimper loudly in pleasure as the sensation of his wet tongue inside of your pussy becomes more and more pleasurable, with you grasping his head of short hair closer to your sensitive hole. As he laps up your pussy desperately, an itching sensation to fully give in to desire dwells in his mind, causing him to pause his action and resume his transformation. His nose grew into a big snout, and fur grew out of his skin rapidly. You could not help but feel even more excited as he mutated into an even bigger, furrier creature. It’s almost impossible to believe he’s either human nor wolf no more, as his hind legs remained bipedal and muscular frame swelled in size. Tomas hunches over to your level, grabbing your legs and holding you right into a mating press position. His giant monster cock slides right inside you, as you whine effortlessly at the feeling of his now enormous cock fucking in and out of your puffy clit. He growls in your face as you beg to him for more, sliding against you at a violent speed as the sound of your pussy squelching fills his ears. He leans down slightly and pulls you close to lick your face before cum shoots outside of his cock and into your clit, and the sensation of his milky semen makes you cum as well. He doesn’t stop, however, as he continues to milk you through your greedy ass clitoris, while your seeds start to drip out onto the wooden floor. Turns out you’re not going anywhere until his heat has diminished. Your mind goes completely blank at the sensation, pussy puffy and wet. A while later, after him scratching through your skin and biting your flesh, he lets of your legs, letting drop down to the floor as his cock softens inside of you. Tomas slowly, but while twitching, slides his seed out of your limp body. He then slowly yet painfully morphs into a regular wolf, and lays his head onto your lap and falls asleep, still with the white mess all over the floor. You could not help but smile softly as he lay next to you calmly, and you, with all the strength you had left, carried him to the bedroom and laid him onto your bed. Let’s hope he isn’t too embarrassed when he finds out what he did last night!

[sage-nebula]

When someone tries to downplay how important Sonic and Tails* are to each other I just . . . on the one hand, I can understand it depending on what Sonic media they grew up on. Shows like Sonic Underground or SatAM (and likely the comics that spawned from SatAM), or even more game-accurate ones like Sonic X, were shows where Tails' importance was greatly watered down, or Tails wasn't present at all. Even in the "dark era" 3D games, the cast was often too robust to focus on Sonic and Tails' relationship. If these shows, games, and comics were someone's first exposure to the series, I can kind of understand thinking that Sonic and Tails don't really have THAT close of a relationship.

But just because it can be understandable . . . doesn't really make it right lol, especially if you look at other things surrounding the "dark era" and the current iteration of the characters.

SatAM shoved Tails to the side, but AoStH had him as a main character Sonic would let the world burn for, and the OVA had him as an important character, too. 8bit Sonic 2 is all about Sonic collecting the Chaos Emeralds as ransom for Tails's safety, and the second scene in Sonic's story in SA1 has him bolting to Tails's side after a plane crash. In both Colors and Lost World, Tails was used against Sonic by their enemies; in the second movie, Sonic panics when Tails is injured and switches rapidly between begging Tails to wake up and yelling at the G.U.N. soldiers to get medical attention. In the IDW comics, Sonic yells at Silver to release him so he can make sure Tails is okay after a crash, and Tails protects Sonic from Kit and Surge more than the other way around. Oh, and lest we forget, the Chaos Emeralds gave Sonic a vision of West Side Island to make him go there in Origins (and the Sonic CD ending implies Amy also predicted this meeting with her fortune cards), and Ian Flynn has said, "Sonic needs Tails, and that's just a cosmic truth."

So I don't know, man. I can understand if you grew up on media that downplayed their bond that you don't care about it as much, or maybe you don't like Tails very much so you have trouble seeing how important he is to Sonic's story. But it always kind of just boggles my mind a little bit, when people downplay it. And saddens me, too, because it's one of the few actual examples of a platonic love story in media, and I love that. We don't have nearly enough platonic love stories in media.

But those are just my midnight musings. It's sleep time now 😴

(*I seriously mean how important they BOTH are to EACH OTHER. Sonic needs Tails every bit as much as Tails needs Sonic. They each have their own hobbies and their own individual relationships with others in the cast, but they're each other's family and best friend and they mutually benefit from their relationship the same amount. "Tails idolizes Sonic while Sonic just sees Tails as another friend" just isn't true on either side. Tails hasn't idolized Sonic for years and years; the only characters who still mistakenly think he does are the villains, and Tails HIMSELF says in Frontiers that he KNOWS Sonic isn't perfect. In that same game, Sonic expresses how weird it feels not having Tails with him and shows hesitation over letting Tails go solo that he quickly tries to cover so he can support Tails instead, because he knows this is important. Additionally, in the IDW comics, when Sonic's feeling antsy before the showdown at Angel Island, he flat out says that the one person he wants to be with when feeling that way is his wingman: Tails. Theirs is a mutually beneficial partnership. Tails deserves to have that recognized. He's earned it.)

[blingusdlingus]

The Start of the Post-Modern Sonic Era

As time passes... Sonic Frontiers feels unreal to me. I still feel the psychic ripples that game made in the minds of thousands. Hearing about the physics nonstop. the buzzwords echoed in my brain for months... the rips at the English script-writing. It drove me to near madness. It was hard talking to people who weren't as deep in it as I was at that time... But I look back these days and I can't help but feel like the madness was exactly what I wanted. I can't make peace with this game like many others have, but I can't hate this game, I can't act like I'm indifferent to it. It did something to me that I can't dissect into a science. I don't feel like it's fair to try and categorize the feelings I have about it's writing into the set of ideals I've made for what I want these characters to be. I can't rule this one out... it broke the stagnant mold for me. An "Open-Zone" Sonic game with hyper-realistic environments, patch-worked with floating platforms and rails in the sky, janky camera movements and overtly flashy attacks for an unbalanced combat system, reused level design for one minute stages, hamfisted self-referential dialogue that had me groaning at points, a narrative that felt spread thin and disjointed, answering questions that didn't need answering. And it didn't even have Momentum. And yet... it is everything to me. AND NOW FOR THE CHILDHOOD HISTORY OF BLINGUS For the 20 years I've been alive, about 18 of those years I have spent with this deeply rooted attachment to Sonic. I was deeply fortunate as my cousin and my half-brother both had a Genesis with each of their own collection of games respectively, which of course, meant a lot of Sonic games. I was also gifted with having two brothers, who I dubbed as "the one with the GameCube" and "the one with the PS2". From age 2 (2006) to age 6 (2010), I had already created formative memories with the following: Sonic 1 Sonic 2 Sonic Underground Sonic 3D Blast Sonic Rush Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Sonic Spinball Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine Sonic Heroes Sonic CD Sonic Adventure DX Sonic X Shadow The Hedgehog Sonic Rush Adventure Sonic Riders Sonic Unleashed Sonic Colors

These aren't even counting the games and shows I had learnt of online as a child who ABSOLUTELY shouldn't of been on the internet at such a young age but I digress. I just want to highlight the sheer amount of Sonic I took in in that time-frame. I think this chapter in my life planted the ideals that I hold to this very day, even throughout the madness. The problem is that... I don't even truly know what those ideals are. As I've grown I've played these games countless times, along with every game coming out after. I read the comics, I watched the shows, I got invested into the rom-hacking scene, and from there, the Fangame scene. My life changed and grew and my opinions of these games have shifted time and time and time again. Those roots never grew dry for me though, and I feel as if I owe my young self a lot for making memories with these games. Maybe it's a fear of losing innocence? It could be because I'm autistic as fuck? Maybe it's just love. Love for what these games represent for me, Love for what could've been. Loving it for what it is, what it was, loving it because people made it and that's all that matters. Loving to draw it, to find why others love it, and to open my mind to interpretation. Loving it to hate it, to write about it and talk to your friend's about it. To find out what made it tick, what's been lost over the years and how it's found again. Loving it because Super Sonic is raw as fuck and Shadow likes nu-metal hell yeah Oh yeah this was about Sonic Frontiers Well okay yeah the game is kinda mid but It's raw as hell and it's representation of growth and change is as prevalent in the narrative as it is in the eyes of the people. It made a ripple. Did Sonic Lost World make a ripple? Yes it did you fucking asshole

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

Your posts are making me excited for the sonic movie even though I’ve never seen or played a sonic thing in my entire life and my entire knowledge of the franchise comes from you. Tumblr has even started recommending me sonic fanart what the heck

Hell yeah! Special interests are magic.

If you wanna get into Sonic, a lot of the older stuff is pretty cheap on Steam- you can get the Sonic Adventure games for 10 dollars, for instance. Old consoles and games can be relatively cheap too depending on what they are- Wiis are like twenty quid, but Dreamcasts cost a fortune, It’s also really easy to emulate the old Mega Drive games if you’re okay with piracy and have a half decent computer. Hell, you could just play fan games if you’d like, there’s so many and Sega is extremely lenient with them (which is in part bc they’re incompetent as shit and mismanage their gaming division to focus on gambling but that’s beside the point) so it’s got a really vibrant community of very good programmers and rom-hackers. Hell, there are people developing actual official Sonic games now that got their start doing that.

Or, if you want content outside the games, there’s a ton of weird Sonic continuities out there that exist and most are like 20 years old and defunct so they’re super easy to find online bc no one cares to take them down anymore. There’s the old 90s sonic movie, which never gets enough credit it’s so good and it’s also in copyright limbo so you can find it super easy online literally it’s on YouTube. There’s the old cartoons, there was like three of them running at once for some reason some of them aren’t so great (sonic underground I am looking at you) but one of them was apparently really good? Idk i last watched them when I was literally six years old but like most decades old cartoons they’re not super hard to find on certain websites. on that note there’s the Archie comics, which are notoriously weird, very long, and also have been defunct for a decade so you can just find them online too. In Britain we had sonic the comic which was equally weird but finished way earlier you can find that one online easy as well. There’s also the IDW comics which are apparently genuinely amazing but they are ongoing so you might actually have to buy them. Then there’s Sonic X which is a genuinely really good anime that also has Sonic Adventure adaptations apparently? Which I never saw as a kid and I’m sad about. There’s also a show on Netflix I keep forgetting to watch L but if you have Netflix that’s there.

Anyway like. TL;DR there’s an absurd amount of sonic shit out there that’s all either really good, entertainingly bad, or both, and a lot of it’s really fucking easy to pirate and no one really cares. There’s probably something you’d like out there!

[keepsmagnetoaway]

X-Men 34 (July 1967)

Roy Thomas/Dan Adkins

This issue was apparently another one of Werner Roth's breaks from drawing, being taken over by Dan Adkins instead, who likes to draw people standing entirely normally, just normal standing. Also extremely normal talking. Hmmm.

Generally the art in this issue is great for backgrounds and details - I love the amount of darkness and contrast Adkins uses, as in this panel - but his figures remain horribly stiff.

When there aren't any people cluttering it up by standing around like they awkwardly arrived at a party too early, the art is gorgeous.

I'm talking at this length about the art because the actual plot for this issue is batshit. In the space of 20 pages, the X-Men get lured underground and captured while trying to save a genius scientist who has himself been kidnapped as part of a war between two subterranean supervillains, Tyrannus and the Moleman: this leads to the X-Men themselves losing their memories and becomign pawns in this war before escaping with the scientist at the end.

None of this makes a damn bit of sense but the whole issue seems to be a loving tribute, from the vantage of 1967, to the then-fading age of 30s-50s science fantasy, which was by this time fully giving way to the harder-edged science fiction of the 60s and 70s: this is an issue full of Jules Verne-esque adventure (explicity referenced by Bobby, as you can see), giant drills, Morlocks and the like.

Best of all it has not one but two giant underground robots in contrasting styles, one robo-classical (and probably an explicit reference to Talos in Jason & the Argonauts)...

...and one robo-deco, like something out of Metropolis.

They fight, of course, and it's great, but weren't there supposed to be some X-Men in this comic?

In the end the strength of the art and the sheer richness and love of a fading kind of story makes me like this issue way, way more than most of the other genre-dabbling ones, despite the absolutely nonsense plot.

[morguemaw]

I rarely see you post and Daddy Gitchy severely outnumbers the amount of times you post, at least when I see it so I saw one of their posts that said to go bother you so!

I'm here!

Wgatcha planning on doin' with that comic?

Or

How's....uh....life?

GHAAHAHA THE DADDY CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD [ my bro never likes being called that last i remember ] AND YOU ARE VERY RIGHT!!! Its mainly because lack of motivation and also cos whatever i wanna post is just oc stuff x,D Also!! [ this part is long ]

The Comic is the start of the Lusttale Canon Comics im wanting to do, at some point ill fizzle off the story when it becomes Slice of Life saga, which at that point ill maybe do more lore drops until i can figure out a good way to continue the comic, which rn im thinking that maybe Frisk ends up exploring more of the underground!

So the timeline [ Roughly since rn its still floating around but also since i dont wanna spoil ], i gotta figure out the times better but ik this all will occur over just barely the first year, as trying to add years to it feels. .. weird? idk! Theres lots of days in a month, thats more then enough time. Day one - Frisk falls down, same day meets Toriel, and soon lives with her 3 month time jump - Frisk hasnt tried the reset button at all during this time [ Magic was weak in the ruins since ykno,, i dont see alot of magic going to that area ] Last day of 2nd month - Frisk finds out about the tunnel under the house that went to the doors to the Forrest outside First day of 3rd month - Frisk hands up leaving the underground, Sans is already aware of this First few days of 3rd month will be where the adventure starts :3 Im keeping it short bc i dont wanna drag out too many things, but also to flesh out and explain things too :3c

[budgetaus]

*HTSS (3)

HORRORTALE STORYSWAP

PARTIALLY FINISHED: ALPHYS, OVERSEER OF LAVA LABYRINTH

Lava Labyrinth replaces ruins and is designed after the core, Hotlands, and specific Sonic levels which names I don't know lol. It has magma running all along through it and is teeming with deadly puzzles and traps.

(The underground has magma, which used to be fueled with magic and powered the underground until Ruined Runes magical runes broke.)

"Toriels home", Home is replaced by Alphys house

(also works as a workshop and security.)

Alphys is possessive and moody due to major depression, guilt, and loneliness. She craves friendship and blames herself for Undynes death, even if it were to be expected. She blames herself for the failure of the Runes and for the humans that make it past her. She isolates herself inside of Lava Labrynth.

She has killed/evacuated/and or threatened most of the original residents there as she doesn't want ANYONE to interfere with her affairs. (Most of them were just maintenance or janitory crew.)

Alphys forces Aliza to be reliant on her by rigging the puzzles. Especially since the puzzles are deadly and only Alphys knows where certain traps are. She still has a lot of working machinery as she uses solar energy to power things. However this is not a reliable source as only a small shaft of sunlight casts into the underground for a short amount of time.

She COULD'VE gotten a collective effort to drill more holes into the mountainside to get more light but she's not a good public speaker especially with her stutter and social anxiety and stage fright paired with her self doubt and insecurities...well. Sort of doomed the underground.

She's SUPPOSED to be responsible for maintaining and finding power sources for the underground.

Alphys LOVES having Aliza reliable and dependant on her, finally having a friend. She guilt-trips Aliza into staying longer by weaponizing her patheticness and instilling fear into Aliza by telling her the dangers that lie outside the labyrinth and that THEY will EAT YOU ALIVE.

After Cheshire explains Alphys manipulation and prompts Aliza to leave Alphys attempts to stop Aliza using more weaponized guilt but Aliza doesn't fall for it and after a scuffle with Alphys ends up taking the elevator to leave the Labyrinth.

(I will probably make a comic/write a story of this event so stay tuned for that! Also why I'm purposefully being vague trolololo~)

Don't have a drawn design for her yet, sos sorry sos sorry. I do have ideas though and will reblog this post when I get it drawn out.

Notes/Facts:

She HAD a major crush on Undyne until Undyne died and now she regrets it all because she will never be able to ask Undyne out or be her girlfriend and she ridicules herself due to this. Just adding on to the sadness and insecurity.

She used to be friends with Mettaton. And misses him. She doesn't know his condition yet.

She IS friends with Asgore and has a crush on him and he's her only friend but she's afraid that Asgore might leave her too because of his marriage with Toriel or that Toriel will find out about their meetings and....well...it just wouldn't work out that well. She helps come up with some of the puzzle designs for Asgore.

Abilities:

Bombs: Depending on the sign when the bomb explodes it will take the shape of that symbol. Like X will make an X explosion and + will make a + shaped explosion.

Lightning: She can expel a blast from her hands and summon lightning bullets.

Blocks(???): Barriers she can make that look like blocks. Can be stacked or formed into rows or walls.

Lasers: Blue, Orange, and white primarily.

Traps: She has control over the function of the labyrinth with a control panel she keeps on herself at all times. This allows her to activate traps and lock certain areas or cause a full lockdown. (This was supposed to help with maintenance.)

*Please keep in mind that this AU is currently a work in progress and some bits may be subject to change.

[herora-nuva]

Toa Mata's Second Favorite Masks

So even after the Mata collected all of their various Great masks they clearly all preferred using their first masks primarily. But which of the other masks did they enjoy using? Here's my ideas for it, from most to least canon consistent.

Lewa- Mask of Speed. I think Lewa really enjoys using the mask of speed, he loves moving around quickly. This one actaully has some canon support, as the Kakama is the secondary mask we actually see him use the most. I think he'd really enjoy using the Kakama to build up speed, then launch into the air and switch to levitation to get real flight.

Kopaka- Mask of Shielding. Maybe its because its the first mask he after washing ashore, maybe its because of his first adventure with Pohatu, maybe subtle rivalry with Tahu, or maybe he just likes extra protection considering his shield, but I think Kopaka might like using the Hau. (I'll bet he's also tried using the Miru to get some alone time up in the air, but he found out this is a surefire way to attract Lewa's attention, who comes floating up to him at high speed)

Onua- Mask of X-Ray Vision. He'd use it to be able to see through the tunnel walls of Onu-Wahi. Very useful, especially for rescuing Matoran who might get trapped in the mines! (Might also enjoy the Kaukau, to navigate underground streams and rivers, or to explore sea caves).

Pohatu- Mask of Levitation. Maybe kind of ironic for a Toa whose element is rooted to the ground, but I think with the amount that Pohatu goes rock climbing on cliffs, having a Miru on as backup probably appeals to him. (He might also like the mask of strength, if for no other reason than to see if he can clear the whole island with 1 bounder kick)

Gali- Mask of Strength. I think she might enjoy using the Pakari's strength increase in creative ways, such as boosting her swimming, cliff climbing, and agility. She did once wish she had a Pakari when fighting a giant squid. Also, can't you totally see her coming up to a beached whale and just picking it up to gently carry it to the water? (I also think she might enjoy the mask of speed, just to become a motorboat)

Tahu- Controversial pick I know, but I'm going to say Mask of Water Breathing. After famously proclaiming "water is for wimps" when it comes to surfing Gali challenges him on that, and Tahu, who can't back down from a challenge to save his life, tries out water surfing. Its harder than he realized, but also surprisingly fun. During his regular lava surfing trips where he redirects the lava to flow into the sea, he's taken to just surfing straight from the lava rivers into the ocean, switching to the Kaukau as he goes. (This one is by far the most speculative, but I had to give SOMEONE the Kaukau. Sorry Gali, but not many people would really like your mask. At least this idea does have a little canon, as Tahu was actually shown surfing on a wave with Gali during the Rahkshi comics).

These are just some of my ideas, I'd love to hear if you guys have any, this was kinda fun an cute to think about.

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

so. relatively new sonic fan here! i’ve watched the ova and caught up with the idw comics, in the process of watching sonic x with my brother (school’s kinda thrown a wrench in that though), and i was wondering if you had any recommendations for what to do next? there’s a huge amount of content and i’m kinda lost as to what to do next, but i’m absolutely in love with what i’ve seen so far. big, knuckles, and silver are my favourites <3

well first off, big recommend you watch Sonic X in the og japanese with subtitles if at all possible. 4kidz really fucked it over; if you have Hulu they have both the sub and dub! If not, I've got links ;)

Second, I'd watch the movies, those are sooo good! Watching playthroughs on YouTube is also helpful– I have all of them here but just know you dont need to see all of them to get the plot lol. I also have Sonic Shuffle twice (English + Japanese) because the English video is long as fuck w/ gameplay added in, but the Japanese video I found is just the important cutscenes.

Then if you want to watch the 90s TV shows– they are all on YouTube and Paramount+, though Paramount+ has the episodes out of order, which is a major problem for SatAM which is story-based! Important context you'll need tho is that the early 90s shows happened before a lot of Sonic canon dropped– SatAM and AoSTH pre-date Knuckles, Amy and Metal Sonic! Sonic Underground I will say is a fun time but it is not a good show objectively, though if you wanna riff on it with a sibling that is always a joy to do. SatAM is legitimately super well-written, and AoSTH is fun slapstick comedy!

[idw-sonic-fan-blog]

The Mandates

Just wanted to share my thoughts on the pro-ported mandates because they cast a shadow on this comic.

“Game characters cannot have relatives unless they were estabilished in the game canon, i.e. Cream and her mother.”

This one is understandable and you can blame Penders for this. Mind you that most licensed comics of gaming franchises don’t actually delve too much in personal family relationships or expand on them. So this is expected and honestly Sega should have put the screws on Archie decades ago about this.

“Game characters can not die. There are workarounds for this, such as being Mistaken for Dying or "Mistaken For Dead”

Again. Yes. Not a big deal.

“Game characters cannot have wardrobe changes unless approved. Chao Races and Badnik Bases has some characters (mainly the female game characters) wear different clothes for extreme conditions. Male characters remain the same.”

This is a useless rule but whatever. I mean Sega, you are the ones putting bad wardrobe choices on the characters so again it’s whatever.

“Sonic can't be shown getting too emotional (i.e;cry)”

This is one that it complained about because it really wouldn’t matter unless it is called attention to. A lot of superheroes don’t cry. But that doesn’t prohibit them from expressing themselves. IDW Sonic has been sad. He has been pissed. He has been furious.

Is this not too emotional?

Is he not expressing himself appropriately?

I don’t even know why this is brought up. When in this comic has Sonic not been expressive or displaying the appropriate amount of emotion? When did Sonic needing to cry be necessary?

“Game characters cannot enter in a relationship.”

Oh GOD YES. Don’t threaten me with a good time.

“All major Character Development must be approved by SEGA.”

Yeah, of course. Let me remind you that Penders and Archie ruined any strand of trust Sega could have in comic media. They played loose at first and all of the sudden, they are involved in a lawsuit about characters in a Sonic comic that they didn’t even know about. They probably lost a video game business relationship because of it. If they want to be involved in the comics, fine. That means that they are now forced to World Build. They have to invest in it now and not just be like Lucas Films and let anybody do anything with their flagship title.

“Much like the post-reboot of the Archie comic, the words "Mobius" is banned—the planet is simply called "Sonic's World". Unlike the Post-Boot, which allowed the names "Mobian" and "Mobini", anything related to Mobius is banned in this comic.”

…Of course but how about you throw the writer’s a bone and I don’t know, name the fucking planet. If it is not Earth, give it a name.

“Sonic must always win at the end. Even if he and his friends are at the losing end in an overarching story (the Metal Virus arc, for example), they must come out on top when it concludes.”

I don’t even get this rule and the knee jerk hatred for it. Why even have it? Why even share the existence of this rule? Archie Sonic didn’t really lose too bad. It’s more on how you frame a victory. The fact of the matter is that Eggman is still actively trying to conquer the planet. Sonic stops him but Eggman still has control of land and has military installations all over.

This rule is offset by this. While Sonic can’t lose, Sonic can’t completely win.

“Characters and material from other licensed properties (Sonic the Comic, Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)', Sonic Underground, the OVA, Sonic X and the Paramount films cannot be used. This rule extends to characters and redesigns done by the current writers. The only exception is Sticks from Sonic Boom, and that's because she was created by SEGA themselves and showed up in non-Boom media, but any ideas regarding her use still need to be okayed by SEGA.”

First off I am glad that Sticks was spared by this rule and I look forward to her eventual inclusion. Second, again, this is not much of a big deal as it was expected. Sorry Freedom Fighter fans but honestly deal.

“Male characters, sans Eggman, can't wear pants, which was also a thing in the Post-Reboot, albeit never explicitly stated. The inverse is also true; female characters have to have some form of lower clothing.”

Okay this is a pedantic rule. It is so weird with how precise it is. Like…huh?

“Classic characters such as Mighty, Ray, Nack/Fang, Bean, and Bark won't appear in non-Classic issues, as Sega doesn't want Classic and Modern Sonic to mix.”

One of the most bullshit mandates fueled by the nostalgia boner fans created. Like this is stupid because Archie Modern Sonic has added more character and depth to all of these mentioned characters than any of the Sega Sonic games they appeared in which only amounts to 1 or 2 at most. Why neuter your own potential stories with this stupid limitation?

“According to Ian Flynn, a specific incident involving Shadow's characterization when he's exposed to the Zombot infection was written in a specific way because of Sega mandating that he be written as an "overconfident asshole rival" character, similar to Vegeta. He later followed up with an explanation that out of every character, Shadow has the most mandates and notes attached to how he's portrayed. According to the podcast, Sega says that Team Dark is no longer a thing. The three members are not a team and they have never worked for G.U.N.; Shadow also doesn't even consider them friends.”

This is my opinion is the worst rule. First it’s contradictory to the character Sega introduced us to. Stop trying to be like Dragon Ball for once and actually be your own thing. It’s one thing if we are changing it because Shadow was unpopular because of his personality. But no one likes this Shadow. People miss the somber but reserved Hedgehog that continued to fight in spite of the world betraying him. Hothead Shadow is a cheap Knuckles. And I don’t even understand why Shadow even has so many mandates when he wasn’t the most egregious offender. Knuckles was.

Also, Team Dark aren’t a thing and Shadow doesn’t even consider them to be his friends. First off that doesn’t even fly in your own games. Who outside of Sonic does Shadow interact the most? Rouge. They have teamed up and were a packaged duo since their inception. When Shadow appeared, Rouge appeared right next to him. If Rouge was in a game, so was Shadow.

Team Dark or just Rouge has fought alongside Shadow in every game they appeared in. Who else does Shadow talk to if not Rouge?

“Sega has stated to Flynn that only male hedgehogs are allowed to go Super with the Chaos Emeralds.”

Except in Sonic Mania.

“Ian isn't allowed to directly reference a game, since the comic is supposed to be its own thing.”

Okay. Not only is this rule stupid. But it’s untrue.

This references the end of Sonic Forces.

The first page of comic.

It has referenced Sonic Adventure, SA2, Sonic Generations , and Sonic Unleashed.

This referencing Shadow the Hedgehog.

I don’t believe this rule exists and even if it did, it is dumbest rule since the whole point of this comic is to base it off the games more. The dumbest rule.

“Knuckles is not allowed to leave Angel Island unless he has a very good reason to.”

For decades, people have complained that Knuckles routinely leaves the island. For decades. Now does this mean Sega is going to 1. Use Knuckles and 2. Amplify the importance of Angel Island and the Master Emerald? No. Again, this criticism should be levied at Sega because they often conveniently forget Knuckles purpose and just hand wave it instead of giving Knuckles more to do on the island like I don’t know, have other entities invested in attacking him.

In summary, here is what I think is going on. Do I think most of these mandates are real? Yes. Given what happened to Archie, I do think Sega is doing some brand alignment. I think they got the clamps on.

But what I think is going on is a Japanese cultural thing called Power Harassment. It is normalized abuse of power. Sega of Japan is normally laxxed about their brands. They don’t mind blatant rip-offs of their mascot nor do they get stiff about fandom creations or mods. The comic division, however, is getting tough love because not only did it cost them a publishing deal, but ruined a relationship with a high end developer. So the IDW writers and staff are being subjected to intentionally hypocritical rules and strict mandates that they know don’t make sense until they’ve shown to be obedient.

A lot of the mandates aren’t strict. But some are so asinine that I don’t think they aren’t aware with how stupid they sound imposing those rules. Like Shadow is the most narratively complete Sonic character and yet, Sega puts this tight mandate as if Archie Shadow was the most egregious thing. Archie Shadow was overpowered. He wasn’t out of character like Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails were. They can’t be that stupid or be that intentionally dense. So they want to see if the writing crew can follow orders. That’s it.

But that’s just my take.

[thatsgay-writes]

Leah x reader who is know to be the calm and nice one until she snaps when she found out Rachel held Leah underwater

You were the yang to Leah’s yin. The eye of Leah’s own personal hurricane. Literally one of the only reason Leah had managed to stay some what sane after everything that happened with Jeff. Overall, you were her saving grace. You fell, literally fell, into her life on a cloudy but bright Sunday afternoon.

---

You had just been jogging through the park, training for a marathon that your father made you run. Your dad was an over the top sports fanatic and forced you to do sports or things you didn’t want to do. If you didn’t comply, you got beat. One thing he never taught you was wrestling or MMA fighting because he didn’t need you to learn how to defend yourself. So you got it taught to you and joined an underground fighting ring to make money since your dad wouldn’t let you get a job. Fighting was a way to let out all the pain and anger in your life in a productive way, it also let you get out all the pent up negativity in your body. Outside of the fighting cage you were a bubbly person, you had decided from a early age that the world had enough negativity in it and that you wouldn’t participate in it.

Anyways, you had been jogging through the park on Sunday finally hitting your five mile mark and were ready to turn around when you ran smack into a person. You wrapped your arm around the girl, you could tell it was a girl after practically body slamming her, and turned your body so you would hit the ground instead of her. “Oof...” You let out as the gravel digs into your back. “Are you okay?” You ask as you look up at the girl laying on top of you. The brunette above you shook her head a little before looking at you. Her eyes widened comically as she took you in. A blush shone through as Leah realized she was laying on top of a beautiful girl... Laying on top? Laying on top! Leah realized she was still on top of you and immediately got up. “I am so sorry!” Leah says as she puts out a hand to help you to your feet. “Oh shit.” Leah says as she realizes her ice cream cone had been crushed between the two of you. Not even caring about her own ice cream covered shirt, she uses the napkins that had survived the fall to wipe your stomach clear of ice cream. You look at her in shock as this random girl you just ran into was now wiping your bare stomach clear of ice cream. Leah froze after a few minutes as she realized what she was doing. “I--- Um...”

---

You ended up getting a beating that night for taking too long on your run but you didn’t care. You had gotten the number of one of the most pretty girls you had ever met. After the first meet, you and Leah started seeing each other a lot more. You didn’t know how you missed that Leah went to your school but you definitely surprised her one day when you came up to her in the hallway, abandoning your jock friends and invited her to spend lunch with you. The rest was history.

---

You had only been on the island for three days before you got into a fight. It had started as a normal morning. You woke up next to Leah and gave her a kiss on the head before getting up. You sat down next to Fatin near the fire as Dot kept it going. “You two are cute.” Fatin said with a smirk. You feel your face heat up and gave a small shrug with a smile. “Well I love her so...” Fatin gave you a nudge causing you to laugh. Your brightness was one of the only things that kept some of the girls sane. Sure, Martha was bright as well and Shelby tried to stay upbeat, but something about you had seemed so pure and good and it put all the other girls at ease... Except for Rachel. She seemed to have a problem with you for no reason. Rachel just didn’t believe in your enthusiasm about staying positive. She also didn’t like Leah because of what happened with the phone and how suspicious she seemed of everything.

There had been a few moments where Rachel had angered you and made you mad but you managed to calm yourself down, like with what happened on the mountain. But you had remained calm after Leah reassured you multiple times that she was okay. Leah still didn’t know about your underground fighting but she would soon. “Rachel is fucking psychotic.” Leah mumbles to you as every sat in their own little groups doing whatever. Fatin and Dot sat with the two of you. “What happened?” Fatin asked, over hearing Leah. “She almost fucking drowned me for that black box.” Leah continues in disgust. “I tried to come back go back up for air after we had gone up and down twenty times and she grabbed my ankle and pulled me back down.” “She what.” You state deadly calm as Rachel finally hit the last straw of your patience.

All three girls looked at you in shock, they had never seen you so serious or quiet as you were at that moment. Leah was surprised to see anger flash through your eyes before you stood up. “Oh shit.” Fatin mumbled as she they watched you walk towards Rachel. The three girls you were just with stood up, concerned about what was going to happen. You walked by Martha, Shelby, and Toni as well who all watched you in concern as they noticed the other girls had stood up. Now you had a whole audience as you walked up to Rachel and Nora and tapped Rachel on the back. “What?” Rachel ask annoyed at being interrupted by you. “Stand up.” You said trying to seem as calm as possible. “Why?” Rachel asked, really testing your patience. Don’t break her nose, don’t break her nose... You kept repeating over and over again in your head as you repeated yourself. “Stand up.” Rachel rolled her eyes and stood up right in your face, eye to eye. Nora had stood up as well but moved away some when she noticed the tension between you and Rachel.

Without warning, and to everyone’s shock, you reared your fist back and punch Rachel hard across the face causing her to fall. You shook your hand as you started to walk away from her. “What the fuck!” Rachel roars as she stands back up. “What the fuck was that!?” You stop walking and turn around to face Rachel, ignoring the shocked and frozen looks from the other girls. “Well you almost drowned Leah earlier today at the plane wreck, that wasn’t about to let that go unchecked.” You stated, voice still icily calm. “It’s not my fault she can’t hold her breath long or whatever. Maybe she should learn how to swim correctly or some shit.” Rachel fires back annoyed. “Oh yeah? Says the girl who lied about going to Stanford for diving.” You say in a mocking tone as Rachel’s eyes got wide. “Yeah, you and Nora talk kind of loud.” You say with a smirk that got bigger as Rachel attempted to bum rush you out of anger. You dodge a upper cut aimed at your face and move to the side as Rachel stumbles past you.

You let out a chuckle and grin from the adrenaline rush you were getting, you hadn’t fought someone in weeks. “This is going to be fun.” You state with a big smile, causing Rachel to get even angrier. You took off your shirt, not wanting it to get ruined, and Fatin let out a low wolf whistle getting a elbow to the stomach from Leah. Leah on the other, not gonna lie, was turned on. Her girlfriend fighting for her, shirtless? Leah was in paradise. Rachel bum rushed you again but this time instead of dodging, you caught her fist and gave her a solid punch in the stomach. The two of you fought for what seemed like seconds but what was really a few minutes as Rachel tried to get the upper hand on you. Finally, you had gotten Rachel pinned down again and was holding her arm in position that could dislocate it if you pulled to hard. “Tap out.” You grunted as Rachel tried to get out of your hold. She had blood dripping out of her nose and on to the sand and also sported a black eye. You had gotten her good but made sure not to hit place that would cause anything to break. Nora had wanted to help her sister but had backed up after Rachel sent her a deadly glare. “Tap out or I’ll dislocate your shoulder.” You state again, you knew how to put it back in so it didn’t scare you to do it. “5... 4... 3... 2...” You start counting down and slowly pull on Rachel’s arm.

“Alright alright! I give up!” Rachel screamed out as the pain got too much for her and you immediately got off of her. “Good, now don’t do some dumb shit like that again... To any of the girls, got it?” You ask as Rachel nods her head and holds onto her shoulder. You gave a nod and walked to pick up your shirt that had gotten sand on it during the fight. “Damn...” You stated as you went to the ocean to wash your shirt off and cool down. The ocean salt stung some scrapes you had gotten but was cool against your hot skin. It took a while but the girls all split away after the crazy event they just witnessed. Leah opting to give you some time before talking to you.

---

You had been in the ocean for a concerning amount of time. You honestly didn’t want to return to the girls in fear that their opinions about you might have changed. The other girls, void Rachel and Nora, were worried about you. “I think you should go talk to her.” Fatin says as she whispers to Leah. “I think she’s cooled down enough.” Fatin continues as she see’s Leah bite her lip in thought. Leah nods her head and gets up before heading towards you. “Tell y/n I want boxing lessons while your down there.” Toni throws out, being completely serious and ignores the glare she gets from Rachel.

You sat in a shallow part of the ocean, staring out into the endless sea. “Penny for your thoughts?” Leah asks as she sits beside you, as close as she can without touching you. You give Leah a quick glance before looking straight ahead. “Are the girls mad at me?” You ask, voice filled with nerves. “Just Rachel and Nora but that’s understandable.” Leah let’s out a laugh, “Toni does want you to teach her how to fight though.” You smile and turn to look at Leah before getting serious again. “Are you okay with what happened? I know I kind of went all Incredible Hulk and all but hearing what she did was just the last push...” Leah cupped your face with her hands. “I am okay with what happened... It definitely shocked me but, not gonna lie, it was kind of hot.” Leah says with a smirk and your face heats up immediately. “I, um... woah.” You say with a nervous laugh as Leah lets go of your face and leans her head against your shoulder instead. “Thank you though, for protecting me and defending me... Even before the whole place crash happened.” Leah said as she let herself fully relax against you for the first time since the plane crash. “Always.”

NEXT

[crusherthedoctor]

Can you list anything you unironically like in the games (and cartoons and comics) that you don't like?

I won't bother mentioning music, since that goes without saying and is to be expected for a Sonic game... unless you're Chronicles.

Sonic Adventure 2 (mixed gameplay-wise, annoying story-wise) - While I prefer Sonic's SA1 levels for a number of reasons, I still think his and Shadow's gameplay in SA2 is fun on its own merit. I also don't mind the treasure hunting gameplay returning or how big the levels are this time around, since Knuckles and Rouge are still fast and not '06 levels of slow. It's mainly the gimped radar that creates the unfortunate domino effect of making them a problem.

- Introduced Rouge, one of my favourite characters for how playful she is and how she's a lot more nuanced and intelligent than you'd expect.

- Some genuinely good scenes, like Eggman's trap on the A.R.K and Sonic escaping from the G.U.N. helicopter.

- Had some good ideas going for it, like the Pyramid Base and the Biolizard as a scientific monster instead of an ancient one.

- Despite my thoughts on the backstory itself (or rather, its execution), Shadow has enough depth and subtle qualities and occasional unintended hilarity to stand out from the typical dark rival characters you see in media.

- The Last Scene's music in particular is one of my favourite cutscene tracks in the series.

Sonic Heroes (mixed gameplay-wise, loathed story-wise) - The gameplay is fun when you're not being screwed over by repetitive combat, overly long levels and/or ice physics.

- Boasts some of the most consistently Genesis-worthy environments in the 3D games, up there with SA1's and Colours'.

- The in-game dialogue that isn't the same tutorial drivel repeated ad nauseam can be interesting, funny, etc.

- Reintroduced the Chaotix, which provided me with another character I quite like in the form of Vector.

- Bringing Metal Sonic back in full force and front and center in the plot after a long absence (not counting cameos and the like) is a perfectly fine idea. Just... not like this.

Sonic Battle (decent yet repetitive gameplay, mixed story-wise) - Emerl's arc is compelling, and it earns the emotional weight of having to put him down at the end.

- While some characters are iffy (read: Amy), other characters are extremely well-handled. Shadow is probably the prime example.

- Gamma's belly dance healing animation is fucking hilarious.

- When I was young, and the game was first announced, I was really excited about being able to play as Chaos. This proved to be my downfall when it turned out he was arguably one of the worst characters in the game due to being slower than me during the writing process, but I still recall that excitement fondly.

Shadow the Hedgehog (comedy classic) - The sheer amount of legendary stupidity this game has going for it makes it practically impossible to actually hate. It helps that it's not quite as white-knighted on the same level as '06... usually. You know you're in for a unique experience when you hear a gunshot every time you click something in the menu.

- By extension, Black Doom never gained an unironic fanbase like Mephiles/Scourge/Eggman Nega did, which means I'm a lot more willing to take Doom's dumbass brand of villainy in stride. He even has a unique design... a terrible one that rips off Wizeman granted, but alas, even that is a step-up from Fridge Shadow and Bumblebee Eggman.

- Despite being... well, Shadow the Hedgehog, some of the environments would fit right in with any other Sonic game, like with Circus Park, Lava Shelter, and Digital Circuit. Even the Black Comet levels look pretty cool.

- This game understands amnesia better than IDW does.

Sonic '06 (what do you think?) - The obvious one: Shadow's character was handled pretty well, even if it came at the cost of everyone else being a dummy and being forced to interact with Mephiles.

- Like SA2, there are some good moments, like the Last Story ending sequence with Sonic and Elise.

- In the greatest form of irony ever, I like Solaris as a concept and design(s), and its backstory has potential to serve as a parallel with Chaos without being a complete ripoff. Iblis sucks, Mephiles sucks, but I'm fine with Solaris.

- Introduced legendary characters like Sonic Man, Pele the Beloved Dog, Hatsun the Pigeon, and Pacha from The Emperor's New Groove.

The Rivals duology (apathetic outside of Nega-related grumbling) - There were some cool zone ideas in both games that were sadly let down by the restrictive and limiting gameplay. I particularly like Colosseum Highway for thus far being the only full-on Roman level in the series instead of merely having a couple minor hints of Roman, and Meteor Base for the unique scenario of the space station being built into an asteroid. These level concepts and others deserve a second chance IMO. (At least Frontier Canyon got a second chance in the form of Mirage Saloon, amirite?)

- Ifrit has a better design than Iblis. Not saying it's amazing, but the Firebird motif it has going on is a lot more interesting for a fire monster than the Not-Chaos schtick they had with Iblis.

Sonic and the Secret Rings (a very frustrating gaming experience) - Erazor Djinn, A.K.A. Qui-Gon Djinn, A.K.A. Dr. N. Djinn, A.K.A. I'll Take It On The Djinn, A.K.A. Not From The Hairs On My Djinny Djinn Djinn, is one of the best villains not associated with Eggman in the series. He's a Mephiles-type character done right, and there's actual weight and reason to his actions, however sinister or petty.

- I don't have strong opinions either way on Shahra as a character, but the Sonic/Shahra friendship is sweet and well-handled.

- The ending is one of Sonic's greatest moments. The sheer contrast between how ruthlessly he deals with Erazor and how comforting he is towards Shahra speaks volumes... Still gonna make fun of the mountain of handkerchiefs though. (Before anyone lectures me, I understand the significance of it and can even appreciate it from that angle... doesn't mean I'm not allowed to poke fun at it. :P)

- Another game with some redeeming environments. I love the aesthetic of Night Palace, and Sand Oasis looks gorgeous too.

Sonic Chronicles (my personal least favourite game in the series) - Uh...

- Um...

- Er...

- I like Shade's design?

Sonic Unleashed (overrated game and story IMO) - The obvious two: the opening sequence and the Egg Dragoon fight deserve all the praise they get.

- Seeing Eggmanland come to life was an impressive moment to be sure. While part of me does feel it didn't quite measure up to what I had in mind (ironically, the Interstellar Amusement Park ended up being closer to what I had in mind), it still looks badass and works well for what it is. I also don't mind the idea of it being a one-level gauntlet... key word being idea.

- Obviously, the game looks great. Not a fan of the real world focus (real world inspiration is fine, but copy-pasting the real world and shoving loops in it is just unimaginative), but it can't be denied that the environments look good.

- This game pulled off dialogue options a lot better than Chronicles did, since they didn't rely on making Sonic OoC.

Sonic and the Black Knight (just kind of boring all around) - Despite my gripes with the story (Merlina wasn't nearly as fleshed out as her unique anti-villain status deserved, which ends up severely undermining the ambition of the plot in more ways than one, and the other characters go from being useless yes men for King Arthur to being useless yes men for Sonic), I will admit it provides interesting insight into Sonic's character.

- Like '06 and Secret Rings, the ending is very nice... well, aside from Amy being an unreasonable bitch ala Sonic X at the very end.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (apathetic) - The admittedly few new concepts sprinkled within had promise. They may not have been as fleshed out as they could have been, but level concepts like Sylvania Castle and White Park, bosses like Egg Serpentleaf and the Egg Heart, and story beats like the Death Egg mk.II being powered by Little Planet, all could have been brilliant had they been better executed.

SatAM (apathetic outside of SatAM Robotnik-related grumbling) - I'm not a fan of the environments on the whole due to them looking too bland or samey, but there are some exceptions that look pleasant or interesting, like the Void.

Sonic Underground (apathetic) - The character designs make me feel better about myself.

- Does "large quantities of unintentional meme material" count as a positive?

Sonic X (mostly apathetic outside of Eggman's handling) - Helen was a better human character and audience surrogate in her one focus episode than Chris was throughout his entire runtime.

- Actually, most of the human characters not named Chris were legitimately likable. Including everyone in Chris' own family not named Chris. Hilarious.

- Despite arguably having the most Chris in it, I actually don't mind the first season that much, partly due to slight nostalgia from seeing it on TV when it was new, but mostly because Eggman actually acted like a villain for the most part, and certain other characters weren't quite as flanderized yet. It's season 2 and onwards where things started going off the rails IMO. (Incidentally, Helen's episode was part of season 1...)

The Boom franchise (apathetic) - Along with Chronicles, the games provide yet more proof that just because someone isn't SEGA/Sonic Team, that doesn't mean they're automatically more qualified to handle the series.

- The show had some good episodes here and there, and Tails' characterization was probably the most consistently on-point out of the cast.

- Despite not exactly being favourite portrayals for either character, even I'll admit that many of Knuckles and Eggman's lines in the show on their own were genuinely funny.

Archie Sonic (pre-reboot is mostly terrible, post-reboot is mostly... bland) - Whenever I doubt myself as a writer, I think back to Ken Penders, and suddenly I'm filled with a lot more confidence.

Sonic the Comic (apathetic) - Fleetway isn't a comic I tend to recall much of aside from how much of a loathesome cunt Sonic is, but IIRC, Robotnik's portrayal is pretty good. Different, but good.

IDW Sonic (stop pissing me off, comic) - Putting their handling aside (and being too obviously "inspired" by MGS in the latter's case), Tangle and Whisper are good characters IMO.

- Same goes for Starline, before he was killed off-screen and replaced with Toothpaste Snively.

- Execution aside (noticing a pattern?), the zombot virus was a fine concept on its own and an interesting new scheme for Eggman.

- I get to remind myself that I've never drawn scat edits and posted them publicly on Twitter.

[alirhi]

Loki ranting

Okay. I had this thought in my head of like just compiling links of all the Loki shit I've posted/reblogged so far so that when I get into a conversation about the show and how it fucking disgusted me, I can just be like "here. here's this masterlist post, go read all this shit. This is my entire argument, and not only mine, but a lot of stuff posted by people far more intelligent and level-headed and eloquent than I am, whom I happen to agree with." Because the alternative is constantly getting fired up all over again, and that is exhausting.

BUT! I'm stupid and don't know how tumblr works. Apparently I can't just be like "give me all the Loki-tagged shit I've got" I can only search all the Loki-tagged shit on all of tumblr. And I'm not scrolling back through all of my posts. I talk too fucking much for that shit 😂

So, I'll try to remember all of my grievances with how the MCU has treated Loki, and all of the excellent posts made by other, equally upset fans, and put it all together here under this nice, neat little cut for everyone else's sanity and scrolling convenience...

For people who actually read my shit fairly regularly - bless you, you crazy, patient people. I love you! - this is going to be a lot of repetition of shit you've already read. Probably at least twice. I'm passionate and I have a terrible memory lol. Sorry.

Anyway, first, for those who don't know me and haven't been following my explosions of rage for the past couple of months, some quick background: I do not read comic books, so Loki's Marvel comic canon means nothing to me. I know almost nothing about it. The reason I'm so in love with the character in the MCU is because I am an eclectic witch and the deity I've actively loved and worshiped the longest in my life (literally for as long as I can remember) is Loki. So when he was mentioned in The Mask, I squeed. When they named Matt Damon's character after him in Dogma, I cheered.

When Thor came out in 2011, I just about died from happiness. I was hungry for any representation of this underappreciated god, no matter what it was. I didn't even bitch about how underpowered he was, because at least he was there. But I'm getting slightly ahead of myself.

I can hear anyone reading this going "Why Loki? Isn't he, like, evil? Like basically the Norse version of The Devil?" Because I heard all this shit irl all the fucking time. And no. So let me give you a quick rundown of who Loki actually is.

Loki is a Trickster God. He's often referred to as the God of Mischief. He is not and never was evil, simply chaotic and hedonistic. Loki Laufeyjarson was the son of Laufey (that's mama; they changed her to a man for some reason in the movie) and Fárbauti. Right from the start, from his name, we get a sign of how Loki goes against traditional norms of the time, because in Norse culture, families were patrilineal, and surnames were "son/daughter of father" (which would have made him Loki Fárbautitason), not the mother. But Loki's surname is matrilineal. Feminist icon woo! lol

Though he's a Jotunn, Loki is counted among the Gods (Aesir) in Norse tradition. Depending on his mood, he is alternately helpful or disruptive to the other Gods. I'm not gonna sit and teach a whole text class on him lol but I'll use my favorite example of Misunderstood Loki - the conception of Sleipnir!

So, get this shit. This is also part of why I DO NOT follow Odin and never fucking will (a very small part, but still part of the reason). So, the other Norse Gods are petty motherfuckers, and they wanted some shit built but didn't want to pay the dude doing the building. So they were like "okay, if you can get it done in X amount of time, we'll pay you, but if you can't manage it NO MATTER WHAT, this whole thing is free." And they made sure he had NO help, nothing but him, his materials, and his Very Good Horsey. And this guy and his horse were fucking BAMFs. So it was looking like he was definitely gonna get it done in time, and Odin was like "nah, fuck that shit. I'm cheap." and so he sent Loki to distract the work horse. Loki transformed into a mare and lured the horse away, got fucked, got pregnant, gave birth to the 8-legged (for some reason) horse Sleipnir. Odin rides Loki's son into battle. Um. Kay.

So Loki helped Odin be a petty mf, and Odin got himself a new pet out of the deal.

Oh, also, because he's smart af and a shapeshifter and a master magician and genderfluid, Loki "fails" to fit the super fucking toxic and narrow Norse/Aesir view of "a real man". He prefers intelligence and manipulation to solve problems rather than violence, he's not afraid to behave like a clown if it gets shit done, and that grosses the Aesir out, so they constantly ridicule him for being "less than a man".

Loki is the God of the outcast and the misunderstood. The marginalized people from all walks of life. He is the God of the LGBT community. In modern terms, he's pansexual, polyamorous (married to Sigyn and they are deeply in love, but boy gets around and I've never seen any indication that Sigyn gives a shit) and genderfluid.

Okay. Focus, Ali. This is part of why I usually post multiple rants instead of one big long one XD The longer I ramble, the more I get sidetracked and forget the original point.

So. Loki's awesome, and being a Trickster, is powerful as all fucking hell. There's not much he can't do.

And now we come to Thor (the movie, not the deity). Loki's there! 24-year-old Ali is spazzing! All is right with the world!

Oh lord, they've actually done him justice?! Amazing! He's complex and nuanced and emotional, just like the real Loki! I loved this movie. Loved. It. The climactic thing with trying to blow up Jotunheim never really made much sense to me until someone made an excellent point the other day about Loki being raised in a racist society that was racist against his own race, he just didn't know it yet, poor child. Baby Thor was never corrected when he pledged to commit mass genocide, so Baby Loki probably absorbed the lesson then that Jotunns=evil and killing them all will win his father's love. Anyway, 2011 Loki was a beautiful, heartbreaking portrayal of the God I've loved all my life and spent 24 years longing to see depicted on the big screen.

Then The Avengers happened. And I saw another Loki very close to Norse mythology - mainly, how he's treated. In the beginning of the movie, he's sick, exhausted, and in pain. He can hardly stand, he stumbles and needs help when he walks. He was very obviously tortured, and the sickly blue light of the scepter's control is in his eyes. That gets less and less pronounced as the movie goes on, showing Loki working his way free of it, but in the beginning, he's a mess. Because he was tortured and used by Thanos. Marvel directly confirmed this, and that he was under the scepter's/Mind Stone's control. Loki's actions are not his own in The Avengers. He's under both threat and Thanos' direct control. The movie actually shows The Other directly threatening him to keep him on task, because this is not Loki's plan. It is not what he wants. He's being used and villainized... Just like in real life. It hurt to see this done to him, but the accuracy was too beautiful to ignore.

Thor: The Dark World comes out. I've heard people complain that this movie is the weak link in the Thor trilogy. I disagree. I think that's Ragnarok, for a bunch of reasons, but we'll get there. (And for the record, I loved Ragnarok, too. It was a funny movie. Infinity War and the Disney+ series are the only portrayals of Loki in the MCU that I truly fucking hated.) Anyway, good, fun movie. Had its faults, as all movies do, but it still followed Loki's real-life arc in a way. How? By having Loki dragged back to Asgard in chains and imprisoned underground. Again, not super happy that this happened to my love, and having to see it on screen was painful, but at least in the MCU he's not chained to a rock with venom dripping on his face for eternity, so there's that. (poor Sigyn. how tired do her arms get, holding up that bowl? best wife ever, amirite?)

In TDW, we're shown Loki's love for Frigga, who favored him and taught him magic as a child. We see his bravado; his attempts to mask his true feelings, especially grief. We see him slowly coming back to himself after the events of The Avengers, and slowly mending his relationship with his brother. He accepts that Odin will likely never love him, but Thor just might, because they were close when they were young. "I didn't do it for him." No, no my sweet, you did it for your brother, and a little out of guilt for what happened to your mother.

At the end, Loki fakes his death and escapes, taking the throne, and I have mixed feelings about this. Not the writer's choices here; I love that completely! A natural progression in Loki's story. But my joy is tainted by how closely they're following the Eddas now. Because Loki's escape from his prison heralds the beginning of Ragnarok. And Loki will die in Ragnarok. I don't want to see that play out in front of my face. I won't be able to handle the grief (spoiler alert! IW broke me. I almost walked out of the theater. Loki's death was legitimately fucking traumatic for me. I don't even care how pathetic that is. That grief was real, it was intense, and I still shake and cry when I think about it.)

Marvel announces that Thor 3 will be called Ragnarok. The internet treats this as a shocking revelation. I roll my eyes and mumble "duh" to myself and move on XD

Then they say Ragnarok will be a buddy comedy. I throw up a little in my mouth and no longer want to live on this planet. If they're going to make something called Ragnarok, could they at least treat it with even a fraction of the respect they've shown these characters thusfar? Jfc. I mean, I'll see it anyway, because I'm a whore for Tom Hiddleston lol. But come on, people!

I hated that they made Hel the long-lost older sister and Fenrir her fucking pet/attack dog. Those are my favorites of Loki's children! Hel is such an incredible badass that the early Christians named their dimension of eternal torture after her! They were terrified of her, to the point of naming the place that terrified them most after her. That's awesome! And Fenrir's just the best. I love wolves. Those two details, and Odin's retcon of "we're not Gods! ...lol, except your sister. she's totally a Goddess. and def gonna kill literally everything, so... good luck! byyyeeeee" pissed me off royally.

The rest was great. I genuinely liked this movie. Still do. And they finally used The Immigrant Song! That was pretty cool. If they'd thrown in Bring the Hammer Down and Thunderstruck, I might've called this movie perfect. XD

I wasn't totally in love with their portrayal of Loki in Ragnarok. Yes, the falling for 30 minutes line was funny, as was "I have to get off this planet" and "YES! That's how it feels!" And "Get Help" was funny as hell. But also, like... There is no way Loki would have been the dumb one in that first encounter with Hela. Also, he can teleport and project copies of himself and shit, so... He would not have been that desperate to go straight back to Asgard and bring her right along with them. Loki's not stupid. But whatever. Movie's gotta movie.

What I did love was seeing the slow mending of his relationship with Thor continuing, and the badass fighting on the bridge. I also loved that, like Real Loki, Movie Loki helped when help was needed, was quick and clever, and while he was carrying out the main plan, he was also planning ahead and grabbing the Tesseract. Yes, that drew Thanos right to them, but that's a whole other thing. Loki never would have left that thing on Asgard to be destroyed or lost.

And now Infinity War. Hooooly fucking shit. You know what? No. I'm not going into this. He was killed, years of character growth were erased forever, my heart fucking shattered. The end.

Endgame. IW hurt me so bad I didn't see Endgame until this year. I actually watched Civil War first (for context: I had actively avoided all Cap movies until this year because I fucking hate Steve Rogers. I find him insufferable. Did not realize what I was denying myself until I watched CW and finally saw the charms of Bucky. When he appeared in IW, I was so lost. XD I was like "...who dis? Murder Jesus?" also I just... didn't care. I was numb by then from crying through most of the movie over Loki)

So, anyway. Endgame. Loki picks up the Tesseract in alternate 2012, escapes, fans go "yay! he didn't actually die!" I go "yes he fucking did. Five years of his life, gone. Five years of growth and change, erased. Loki is dead. This will not be the same."

I was more right than I could have predicted. Now we come to the point of this rant. Sorry it took so long, but you were warned lol.

The Loki series makes me so angry I actually get sick to my stomach. It was fucking TRASH. When I praised Marvel for following Norse mythology so faithfully earlier? Yeah. I DID NOT MEAN TREAT HIM THE WAY THE OTHER GODS DID. I did not mean paint him as a pitiful clown, a joke, a caricature of who he truly was, with his pain and suffering played for LAUGHS.

This is supposed to be 2012 Loki, newly freed from Thanos' control. The Loki we saw in the beginning of TDW - snarky, exhausted, nihilistic. The Loki who rolled his eyes and said "get on with it" expecting to be killed.

The bumbling clown flipping on a dime from posturing to calling himself weak is not 2012 Loki. That is not ANY Loki. That is Tom Hiddleston in a black wig doing what he's told by a shitty writer who had no fucking idea what he was doing and was salty about his (bad) original script (for something totally fucking unrelated) getting killed.

In Episode 1, Loki is mocked, imprisoned, stripped against his will, tormented, belittled, and given a flippant summary of all the trauma Actual MCU Loki suffered that this one skipped out on, with no context, no acknowledgement of the trauma he's already lived quite fucking recently, and with the narrative twisted to not only erase all the abuse he's suffered, but to make it all his fault. And this is supposed to make him want to help these people?

And worse, IT FUCKING WORKS. WHAT?! I CAN'T- FUCKING WHAT?! Remember when I said LOKI IS NOT FUCKING STUPID?! So why is he STUPID?

Episode 2, he's a child. Mentally, this Loki is a fucking child. Now we've erased all the growth and development of his entire adult life. He's dopey, impatient, impulsive, desperate for a pat on the back and actually shows it. Yes, abused and neglected children crave the positive attention we never received, and we often grow up to be a bit emotionally stunted. But not all of us, and not Loki. Not as we've seen him EVER in the rest of the MCU. Playful and a bit callous at times? Absolutely! But not a big dumb fucking puppy.

Episode 3, a ray of hope, despite Sylvie! (I hate Sylvie) Loki casually admits he's pan/bi; labels never come up, but he admits to being with both men and women! He sings! Not really relevant to whether I approve of his portrayal or not lol but Tom has a beautiful voice, Norwegian ("Asgardian" lol) is a gorgeous, entrancing language, and I could watch that one bit on loop for eternity and never get bored. And then, finally, we see a glimpse - a glimpse - of Loki's power! He stops a falling building and pushes it right back up! Are we finally getting to see what he can really do? Will the next episode bring us Loki in all his glory?

Nope. 4 and 5 we see him mocked and pushed around and utterly irrelevant. Again. We see tiny reflections of what he could maybe theoretically do in other random Loki variants, but the "main" (lawl. main. it was the Sylvie and Mobius show. Loki was never the main anything.) Loki? Nothing. He wears his heart on his sleeve for no reason, bonds with the man who imprisoned, taunted, and gaslit him, is killed, and continues to be a moron and a joke. Always the clown. Always the dumb one. The one with the bad ideas. The inferior Loki.

Don't even get me started on that finale. I can't. This already took so much out of me. Fuck Marvel. Fuck this fucking show. I just... I'm done.

[themattress]

Assorted Robotnik/Eggman Opinions

Because he’s my overall favorite character in the Sonic franchise.

- I did a post showing his various looks, and I want to be on the record as saying that each and every one of them has some validity to them...except for the 2006 one. It’s just trash. In fact, that incarnation of the character might just be the worst ever, as he’s just a bland, one-note “realistic” take whose M.O of constant princess-napping is a carbon copy of Bowser’s.

- Sonic Boom’s design is the best-looking one, being a great balance of realistic and cartoony in a way that hearkens back to the character’s roots as a Theodore Roosevelt caricature, and with an outfit that screams “scientist”. With that said, the incredibly bumbling character it’s attached to only really works within Sonic Boom’s super light-hearted and comedic setting.

- Archie Comics’ version of Robotnik, in all three of his incarnations (Robotnik Prime, Robo-Robotnik, and post-SGW!Robotnik), is not only hands down the best comic book version of the character but is a strong contender for the definitive incarnation of the character, in the same vein many villains from the Pokemon game series have their definitive incarnations in the Pokemon Adventures manga. He’s simply everything one could want in an Eggman.

- When it comes to the three purely Western Sonic cartoon shows made in the 90s, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog had the best Robotnik, Sonic Underground had the worst, and Sonic SatAM’s was squarely in the middle, having a fair amount of pros and cons.

- With that said, if I really was pushed to say whether I have an overall positive or negative outlook on SatAM’s Robotnik....I would have to say negative. He was little more than a standard 90s cartoon baddie overall (AoStH’s Robotnik ironically felt more like a 80s cartoon baddie which honestly suits the character better), but in the first season he was at least a good standard 90s cartoon baddie. Season 2 ripped away his mystique and credibility, and after sabotaging his own master plan he went out like a punk bitch in order to prop up other villains who went nowhere because the show got cancelled. And it’s really hard to watch him without thinking about the identical-looking Archie version and just how much better he is.

- I don’t hate the Sonic X and IDW Comics versions of Eggman. I’m just very disappointed in them. They both had promising starts, but then devolved into the misconception of Eggman as a “Harmless Villain”, which is antithetical to the Sonic franchise’s very conception.

- The trend of “Eggman gets upstaged by some bigger, more powerful adversary” that started when the games transitioned to 3D isn’t inherently bad. It was done well in the Adventure games and Unleashed, the basic idea of how to do it in Lost World and Forces which both end with Eggman as the final boss anyway was good even if the execution was shaky, and the subversion in Generations was excellent. It’s all a matter of the character maintaining his dignity and relevancy. If those just disappear once he’s upstaged, then it’s bad writing. 

- Sonic CD (US) and Sonic 3 & Knuckles have the best boss themes for Robotnik/Eggman. They perfectly encapsulate his evil and threatening yet weird and whimsical nature.

- Robotnik/Eggman has never had a bad voice actor. And yes, I am including Garry Chalk here - he was misdirected (or more accurately, the version of Robotnik he was voicing was misdirected) but he’s a talented guy who clearly has what it takes to do a great Robotnik voice judging by some of his other roles, and it’s a shame that he never had the chance.

- Jim Carrey was the most goddamn perfect choice to play Robotnik in live action and his version of the character is one of my favorites, not to mention my absolute favorite out of all the roles Carrey has ever played. He’s just so much fun to watch and I love to hate him.

[wing-ed-thing]

Fraternizing and Spineless (Kabuto x Reader, Part V)

Synopsis: Kabuto has a fixation and you sometimes apologize to inanimate objects. Ever since one fateful day, you’ve been drawn to each other from opposite sides of the battlefield.

Word Count: 2,799

Warnings/Tags: Physical Bullying, Minor Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Threat of Kidnapping/Attempted Kidnapping, Foul Language, Derogatory Language, Fem!Reader, Would y’all classify pining as angst?@tiktoktheclockisticking​ 

Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Finale

Notes: This chapter is fairly violent. Nothing’s gory it’s just violent so please be warned. I kept it as vague as I could while still getting the point across. 

If you’re dissatisfied with what you’ve had in the past, you can just find other things and just add them to yourself from here on out.

Kabuto never had much to begin with, nothing he could truly call his. And even then, they were, for the most part, gifts. His glasses were a gift. His first name was a gift as was his last name. Much like an equation, Kabuto could always simply add and he always knew some semblance of the outcome.

But now there was you and Kabuto once again found himself unsure. He remained on the very edge of your bed all night, almost afraid to sit comfortably. He shook his leg anxiously, wired by the lack of sleep. Kabuto plus you. He didn’t know the answer. To add you meant to subtract other things. He had gotten used to those other things. And now, he was unsure if they even fit in the first place. Kabuto thought that maybe by the time morning came he would know, but dawn was just beginning to break. And much to his dismay, he found himself just as unsure as when night enveloped the sky.

You loved him. No one had ever told Kabuto that in his life. You loved him, and for what? He didn’t think he did a lot for you. He lounged on your furniture. He read your books and liked to make you flustered. Kabuto dared to gaze down at your unconscious form. His hand ghosted the outline of yours underneath the covers. He bit his lip. He liked being here. He liked to read with you. He loved your smile when you cooked together, when you read the comic section of the paper, when you stayed up late to talk… But was a life with you something he deserved? He didn’t think so.

You began to stir. Kabuto weaved a few hand signs. He didn’t even look as his palm made careful, yet swift, contact with your forehead. He couldn’t. Kabuto buried his face in his hands. He bought just a bit more time to think. Just a bit more time. Just a bit more time.

And by the time you woke up, you woke up with a start. You jumped, gasping as the blanket flew off of you. You glanced wildly around the room. Kabuto was nowhere to be found. Your heart beat rapidly in your chest. Kabuto had been wrong. The morning was here and you didn’t feel better.

***

You had plenty of time in your career as a ninja to properly map out the Hokage building. But even still, you never did and found yourself, per usual, lost. The halls looked the same for the most part. The rooms still went by the same number system used back with the first Hokage. And really, you didn’t have the mental energy to figure it out, not today. Despite the amount of alcohol you had last night, you could remember what happened vividly. Iruka, the good time you had, your teammates, and the burning humiliation. Kabuto. You wouldn’t have been here if you could help it.

You let out a sigh of relief halfway up the stairs as you spotted the sign at the top. You were almost on the right floor. Swinging open the door with a heave, you were met with the administrative assistant. You followed the curve of the hallway with your eyes. You could see the door to the Hokage’s door. The administrative assistant paid you little to no mind, sitting quietly behind his large, cluttered desk. You approached, tense.

“Hi, uh, I’ve been summoned?” You peeped. He didn’t look up from his work. You opened your mouth, then closed it. More silence. You tried again “I was summoned by L—” His head snapped up in annoyance and rolled his eyes.

“Name?” He asked forcefully, lugging a large book out from underneath a stack of others. You told him your name quietly and anxiously. The assistant stopped and let out a vexed grunt. You stood completely still, tense. You folded your hands neatly in front of you. He slammed the book back on the pile he got it from, causing you to jump, and instead began to rifle through one of his drawers.

“This is for you.” He held a small envelope to you. You stared for a second at the small rectangle confused before the assistant began to shake it. You apparently did not take the document quickly enough. The assistant turned straight back to his work. Confused, you opened the letter. You scanned the page, eyes widening in shock as you glanced up.

“Under investigation?” You gasped, the notice shaking in your hands. “A-And I’m suspended? For how long?” As if you didn’t have enough to deal with today.

“I don’t know, okay?” The assistant huffed. “All I know is that you’re not seeing the Hokage today.”

You had so many questions, but knowing that none of them were going to be answered, you left. And as you departed from the Hokage building, you were completely unaware that you were being stalked from the shadows.

***

Kabuto was running on fumes. Too wired to sleep, too tired to think. He felt the need to do something, so once again, he found himself in the lab. But after looking over his selection of possible specimens to study, Kabuto quickly decided that creating plans for experiments required much more effort than he had in him. He turned to cleaning and reorganization, a simple and mindless task. He had already made his way from the main laboratory to a few minor storage closets to yet more old exam rooms. Kabuto always took pride in a clean workspace, though Orochimaru had never been as dedicated.

Once again, his thoughts returned to you and he restrained himself from physically hitting his head against the nearest hard surface. He adjusted the gloves on his hands and picked up a labeled bin. Kabuto couldn’t help but wonder about what you were doing right now or if you had forgiven him. He knew perfectly well from day one that he had grown completely attached, but never had he expected for things to turn out like this. Kabuto stacked the bin with a few others in a corner of the extensive space. He leaned against the wall with a sigh, silently defying his better judgement by asking himself if you were truly happy in the Leaf. Helplessness washed over him. Yet another thing he didn’t know. He hated that feeling.

Kabuto slammed his fist against the wall next to him and a hollow reverberation echoed through the room. He blinked at the space under his wrist, giving it another strike. He turned to fully face the panel, hands spread across the cold surface. Kabuto tapped at it, shifting to his left and right to find where his tapping felt solid and where it felt empty. But with a few hand signs in the right spot, the wall disappeared to reveal a small back room.

Kabuto wandered in, kunai drawn. In the center of the room sat a lone examination table, straps sewn to the sides. Papers lay strewn around. A few vials were randomly shoved onto makeshift shelves. A chakra test kit sat at the foot of the table. Kabuto spotted a file under the single lamp that swung from the bare ceiling. Flicking it open, he found what he dreaded most. He felt a presence at the doorway. Kabuto’s shoulders dropped.

“I thought we weren’t going to pursue the girl.” He tried to make his voice as emotionless as he could. Anyone else and he would have been convincing.

“I put a lot of effort into safeguarding this room, you know.” Kabuto scoffed.

“Well, what can I say, Lord Orochimaru, you taught me well.” He turned to face the Sanin. Orochimaru stood, leaning against the doorframe. “I must say that I’m surprised. There never has been a whole lot you’ve kept from me.”

“Sure there has,” Orochimaru laughed, a certain amount of bite in his tone. “And you’ve been far too invested. I had to take things into my own hands.”

A pause. Kabuto stared at his mentor and a life changing choice stared back. All of his previous thoughts confronted him at once and he quickly came to a realization. He was out of time. For the whole day he had been putting off his decision by staying up all night, by avoiding strenuous work. But now, he stared the embodiment of his questions in the face.

“She’s protected in the village and well loved,” A lie, but one Kabuto tried his best to convince himself of. “She wouldn’t be an interesting test subject anyway.” Orochimaru frowned, eyes half lidded.

“Kabuto, your girlfriend leveled the entire eastside base.”

Kabuto did remember. He remembered the ambush at the base. How regretfully your team of Leaf shinobi had gotten the better of him. He remembered waking up without a scratch in a mile-wide crater, your body half flung over his torso. The underground base had been completely excavated and decimated to smithereens. The laboratories were gone. The many rooms and hallways were gone. All that remained were the two of you. And that’s how Kabuto Yakushi met you.

“She gave you what you wanted in exchange for the scroll.” The kunai in his hand hung by the loop on his finger, but not put away. He methodically fiddled with it’s handle.

“A few tests for a fake scroll is a measly trade,” Orochimaru rolled his eyes, though the mischief in them wasn’t lost. “Nothing I did warranted what you gave her.”

“I just gave her what you promised.” Kabuto narrowed his eyes, “So why does it look like you’re going to perform an extraction? She’s not even here.”

“And that, Kabuto, is where you’re wrong.”

***

You took your usual shortcut home. You could always tell how close you were by the number of trees. The Hokage building had always been around the epicenter of all the bustle in Konoha, and for good reason. But most of the time, you enjoyed a break from the intensity of ninja life and settle into your apartment near the outskirts of town. You cut through a thick patch of trees. A trail had been beaten into the ground long ago. The area felt like a park and served to remind you of the scenery just outside of the village. But you couldn’t enjoy your walk this time. You sensed a presence.

You began to walk faster and that was when four figures jumped out at you from the treetops. Their hitai-ate gleamed in the interrupted lighting. Sound ninja. You immediately disappeared, a jutsu you no longer needed hand signs for, and camouflaged into the scenery around you. But despite your fast-moving efforts, you were still grabbed and thrown to the ground. Your fragile jutsu broke, but you scrambled up quickly, kunai in hand. You turned on your heel, lowered in a defensive position.

“Please go away,” You nearly whimpered, “I’ve had such a rough week. Try again next week!” You argued as if that mattered to your band of attackers.

“Lord Orochimaru has explicitly expressed that we are not to leave without you.” As the words left his lips, you couldn’t help but wonder if this had been Kabuto’s doing. Though, if he had wanted to abduct you, he could have done so last night and perhaps that wouldn’t have been so bad. But you didn’t have enough time to wonder. Out of the corner of your eye you saw a volley of projectiles. You leaped to the ground, arms coming to wrap over your head.

An uproar above you. Weapons clashing and pained cries. Your head stayed down. And as the bodies of your old problem hit the ground, you heard the voice of your new problem.

“I knew you were a traitor.”

***

Kabuto refrained from gritting his teeth.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Orochimaru only smirked smugly.

“A healing chakra that can pack the power of lightning and you wonder what we can do with that?” The Sannin shrugged. “We don’t know if it’s a kekkei genkai. Perhaps a new breed of ninja but that kind of power could do many things. One could even say—” He met Kabuto’s eyes, antagonism built up and glittering in his own, —“that power could restart a heart. With enough control, that is.” Kabuto moved forward to walk back out through the doorway, but Orochimaru blocked his path.

“What is it, Lord Orochimaru?” He asked with as much restraint he could muster.

“You’re not planning to go to her are you? She’ll be here any minute.” Kabuto hesitated and for once told a most vulnerable truth.

“I really don’t know what I’m going to do.” And he was allowed to pass.

***

“Thank you for saving me!” You scrambled up to your feet, eyes wide and on the fallen bodies of your attackers. But before any of the situation could process you heard a shout of warning.

“Don’t you come any closer, Sound ninja bitch!” The kunoichi from your team stood in front of you, weapon pointed in your direction. Your head turned towards her, confused and surprised.

“What?”

“I said don’t come any closer!” You held your hands up, truly not wanting any trouble. The patch of forest didn’t dare to make a sound and neither did you. Your teammate circled you, coming closer with every circulation. Her stance never faltered. “I knew you were a lying rat from the very beginning. We all did.”

“I think there’s been a misun—”

“Keep your fucking hands up!” You listened, spreading your palms to the air. Your neck scrunched downward into your collar as you flinched. “You’re pretty fucking dumb to meet with your buddies in the open like this, even if you are close to village limits.” You kept your lips folded in a thin line. The kunoichi snarled at you. “Pick up your kunai.”

“I’m not going to fight you,” You expressed with a certain amount of reluctance and your response only served to further anger her. She sheathed her weapon and shoved you to the ground.

“What? You think you’re better than me, you sellout?” She grabbed your hair, forcing you to meet her eye. Her hand crossed right across your cheek, the sting prickling on your skin. Even so, you refused to fight a comrade. “When the others get here we’re going to take care of you—” She continued to whale on you with her fists. Your nose began to bleed. —“And we’re going to take care of that boytoy of yours too!”

And as you bled, all you could mewl was, “Please stop.” You felt a warmth spreading over your face and an uncomfortable mending. The kunoichi stared down in disgust from her vantage over you. A blue aura spread across your skin, not of your own control.

“The fuck do you think you’re doing?” She landed another blow to your face, her fist coming in direct contact with the blue air. A spark of chakra and she recoiled her hand with a growl. “You think you’re going to shock me? You think you’re going to hurt me with some weak ass lightning jutsu. Show me some respect and fight me like a ninja!” She punctuated each word with a strike. You sat up quickly only to be pushed back down. “Oh you finally got some fight in you, traitor?” She repeated the name like a mantra.

She didn’t notice how you had stopped bleeding or how the energy around you began to violently fluctuate. You had become completely resigned, quiet, and silently crying. You couldn’t help but wonder if you deserved this. Perhaps you shouldn’t have tried to save someone who wasn’t your own. But he turned out to be the only one who actually cared about you, unconditionally. You knew that you could never have had a happy future in the Leaf. Your heart ached for your new friends, for Iruka’s friendship, peace between shinobi nations, and for Kabuto. The tears streamed down the side of your temples but you didn’t say a word. You could feel the energy build up within you.

You tried to warn her, but one last punch and you knew it was over. The blue aura shrunk against your skin all over your body and then, in an instant, burst. An electric wave shot out from your being. The ground cracked. The trees snapped. You saw her eyes widen as the energy shot through her chest. The kunoichi looked at you, eyes wide in fear and you knew that by the time she hit the ground that she was dead.

Notes: Very dramatic, no? I didn’t know where this series was going from chapter 1. I thought maybe a slice of life but it’s taken a turn. Next chapter will be the finale! Woop woop!

Thank you to everyone who liked, reblogged, and followed. Your support means so much and is greatly appreciated.

[maxwell-grant]

What would a spider man: life story look like for the shadow?

Now that I've actually read Spider-Man: Life Story I can give this one a response. I'm gonna obsess about this question for a while because man what a ride Life Story was.

To those not in the know, the premise of Spider-Man: Life Story is: "In 1962, in AMAZING FANTASY #15, 15-year-old Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and became the Amazing Spider-Man! Fifty-seven years have passed in the real world since that event — so what would have happened if the same amount of time passed for Peter as well?" and basically it tells the story of Spider-Man as one continuous narrative spanning 57 years, from his beginnings to a potential future, allowing Peter Parker and his cast and world to age in real time and factor in elements from the character's major stories over the decades.

And it's got a lot into it that the premise doesn't convey and there is no way I can even begin tackling a project like this for the 90 goddamn years of The Shadow's history without seriously just writing an entirely different fanfic continuity (and I already have 5, plus multiverses, possibly more) and tipping off way too much about my own plans for the character. Even I have my limits.

So instead, what I'm gonna do is go over the broad strokes of The Shadow's history as it would look like if you could try and condense it all under a consistent narrative, if you could focus on each decade's highs and lows, what kind of story would arise if a deranged Shadow maniac like me were to try and build a basic skeleton for a The Shadow: Life Story story.

Basic rules first: I'm sticking to the idea of Life Story and spanning every decade from the beginning of the character's life to the end of it. The aging and death parts are important so I’m sticking to those. The character's canonical birth date is 1892, so he's not making it intact to the 2000s. We're capping this off in the 90s, although it doesn't mean no further stories can be told. I will avoid mentioning specific historical events like Vietnam and 9/11 for this post to instead focus on The Shadow's trajectory. I will also not be including other characters, only somewhat referencing whatever aspects I deem relevant. I'm not sticking to any continuity, I'm pulling literally everything I can for this one

And putting this one below the cut

The 1930s: The golden years. In 1930, after a long line of life experiences in the Great War and traveling around the world under dozens of names, the man formerly known as Kent Allard has taken to fighting crime in the Great Depression. This chapter would be more of a standard narrative showcasing the trajectory of The Shadow's 30s career, how he's started off as a urban myth fighting gangsters and then progressed to urban avenger with dozens of allies fighting spies and supervillains. Despite being in his home element, he is restless. Another war is on the horizon. We gotta know where he starts, to get a clue of where he's going.

The 1940s: Despite it being the "family friendly American hero" Shadow era, shit gets very, very chaotic in the 40s, way more so than The Shadow could have anticipated. The pulps were relatively tame for this period, by this point instead you have the radio with it's constantly rotating writers and sensibilities, and comics that had far less reservations about either being really boring or really wacky. Far more encounters with the supernatural than before and with supervillains like Devil Kyoti and Monstradamus and Solaris, plus Khan is still around. The Shadow is forced to spend a lot more time traveling the world to deal with the war, spending a prolonged period establishing headquarters in Japan to aid Japanese underground organizations opposing the military. The agents perform rescue missions on concentration camps, and this is the period where you could have the "real" Lamont Cranston start filling in for The Shadow a bit while he's overseas.

There's a particular blurb that got released during this period that explains The Shadow acquired the power to cloud men's minds not by training, but by journeying to Tibet in an unrecorded adventure that forced him to beg the monks to grant him assistance in saving the world. I have some very mixed feelings on this whole backstory but I think there's something to this idea. Some shit went down in the 40s that was way beyond what The Shadow could have anticipated, and to protect the world from it he had to tap into forces that perhaps should have been left untouched.

The 1950s: The Shadow has dissappeared from America alltogether. He gathered up his agents and announced he wouldn't return for at least a decade, and left them with enough money to last a lifetime and retire should they feel like it. Burbank and Cliff Marsland dissappeared with him, and this chapter would probably be told from the Agents's perspective as they face the 50s while we get snippets from Marsland on what The Shadow's been up to. Some of it involves The Shadow helping protect Tibet after Mao's takeover of China. The real Lamont Cranston doesn't put on the costume anymore and instead operates as a fairly regular detective, although he's training on the skills and powers he's picked up overseas. Whatever fantasy madness haunted the 1940s is all but gone.

The 50s had basically nothing in Shadow content other than the last legs of the radio show, which are 200 episodes from 1950 to 1954 that currently don't exist anymore outside of a few scripts. During this time, The Shadow's sole appearence in US content was a parody in MAD Magazine. Overseas however, there were original Shadow novels published in Norway (a story for another day), as well as a Mexican radio and film series, which also featured Cliff Marsland. I have little information on either.

The 1960s: The OG Shadow is still embroiled in conflicts overseas, but the rise of the criminal organization CYPHER forces him to mobilize Burbank and agents old and new alike to deflect CYPHER away from where he's at, although most of them have retired by now. He still cannot return, but he has been secretly instructing Lamont Cranston on furthering along his own latent abilities if he intends to take over in his stead, and Cranston's powers have grown and developed to a point that, although he is pushing 60, he is able to do things even the original Shadow could not. He also invests a lot in merchandising and costume changes, which...doesn't pan out. Nothing in this era really pans out. It's just a really, really frustrating period of bad luck and supervillains that the aging superpowered detective Cranston is able to stop. Lamont Cranston seems to die in this decade.

The 1970s: Inspired by The Shadow's DC series, and most importantly Michael Kaluta's spiffy redesign.

The original Shadow returns to a crime-torn America, intent on starting anew, and sets to rebuilding his network. But something is off about him. He's leaner, meaner, less compassionate and trusting. Just as what happened the first time he returned to America following years abroad, what happened in his sojourns overseas has fostered something inhuman in him, another sacrifice of his own identity for the sake of a world where the weed of crime has only proven more insidiuous. His powers have grown and so have his resources, but despite that, he's bordering on 80 years old by now, and cumulative trauma deep within his bones hampers his effectiveness. He's doing a lot better than he should, by any rights, but he can't keep this up and he knows it. And so, as before, he starts planning for it.

The 1980s: This was the decade where Walter Gibson died with his final Shadow story incomplete, all the movie plans from the 70s were canned, and Howard Chaykin happened, plus the other DC runs. It's the SHIT decade, basically, where everything goes to hell. Whatever plans The Shadow had blew up, dipshit copycats start ruining everything, his network crumbles, and this is probably the ideal decade to kill off Kent Allard.

But this is also the decade where something weird started happening outside of the story: The Ghost of Gay Street hauntings, where visitors on the hotel Gibson wrote the stories in repeteadly claimed to see a ghostly visitor looking exactly like Lamont Cranston, and Gibson himself claimed that to be a tulpa he created by accident.

Kent Allard may have died. But death can never claim The Shadow.

The 1990s-onwards: Somehow, The Shadow is still active. Still elderly, in a much more limited fashion, but still as sharp as ever if not more so. His powers have grown more so than ever before, even blossoming into a limited form of telekinesis. Is he a ghost? Did he somehow survive the events of the previous decade? Somehow, both Lamont Cranston and The Shadow linger on, but is it Kent Allard or Lamont Cranston? Is it someone else?

Who knows?

This is the decade in particular where he's going to be interacting with more prominently with a new generation, whether it's descendants of the original agents, or new heroes that have found themselves in his orbit. Inspired mainly by the Dark Horse Shadow comics, Ghost and The Shadow, and Peter Straub's Mystery and modern takes on the character like Batman x Shadow and the 2017 mini that play up the miserable immortal and ghost teacher aspects, also inspired by my recent realization that The Shadow's ideal future in-universe may be getting to age and mentor the next generation in some capacity.

Anything beyond that, only The Shadow Knows.