#actually he was probably staying with tails and then amy showed it to him while she was visiting lol.

[tobsart]

guys help i'm hopping on the bandwagon

[shadamyheadcanons]

Been thinking a lot about this and wanted your thoughts. Isn't it strange the only character shown to not be openly afraid or judgemental of Shadow is Amy? I think the only one that comes close to that is Rouge but even then

A lot of characters are easily intimidated, scared of, not trustful or even judgey of Shadow a lot of the time. Which given some past actions and his general vibe is understandable but it never seems to apply to Amy

Even when she mistook him for Sonic she wasn't immediately scared afterwards just confused and later encourages him to save the world because she believes that he is a good person deep down. It's especially prominent in the Sonic takeover video, like when it's revealed that both Shadow and Amy enjoy Taylor Swift?

Sonic is surprised that Shadow the Edgy boy likes a pop artist and treats is a semi big deal. Amy meanwhile is just happy they have something in common, not even a 'oh that's surprising coming from you', just general happy they share similar music tastes

I might be thinking too deeply into it but it occurred to me that Amy never treats Shadow as someone to be scared of and treats him as no different from anyone else right from the start.

Tbh, I don’t think it’s strange at all. It’s standard Amy behavior. Metal Sonic is a scary robot who kidnapped her as a kid, but she still helped him without hesitation in that Sonic Mania short, even after he startled her. Gamma was an armed robot who was keeping her in a cell, but she didn’t show any fear toward him; she stood up to him to protect a Flicky, then befriended him immediately. She saw Silver nearly murder Sonic with incredible powers she’d never encountered before, and she still jumped in front of him to protect Sonic anyway. The werehog was big and scary, but not only did she accept Sonic in that form, she hugged the werehog the first time she saw him and showed no discomfort about it, merely expressing confusion at having hugged the wrong person even though she actually got it right that time.

She just doesn’t see anyone as a monster. And while that’s wonderful and wholesome, it’s a little worrisome, too. Rouge likes and trusts Shadow, but I don’t think she’s unaware of the extensive damage he could do. Omega probably feels the same way. That’s the wise way of looking at it.

But Amy? It’s not just her faith in the goodness of others, it’s straight-up naiveté. Her upbringing was rife with violence, kidnapping, danger, and death, and now she doesn’t know what’s normal. This is the same girl who somehow waltzed onto Prison Island with the intention of casually rescuing Sonic from a high-security prison by herself. If Tails hadn’t shown up, she easily could’ve died! She’s honestly lucky she’s gotten this far without being seriously injured or worse.

I’m sure Shadow loves that she doesn’t fear him and truly values her for that, even if he doesn’t say so, but he’d worry about her, too. I can picture him thinking, “She clearly has no sense of self-preservation. I’ll have to look after her to make sure nothing happens.” Maybe he already does. It could figure into their interactions at Cryptic Castle in ShTH. This sweet girl takes one look at him, of all people, as terrifying as he knows he is--on the darkest story routes you can take, no less--and she says, “Friend? :D” before running off alone into a dangerous, haunted castle to save a child and a Chao. So he follows her. Because she clearly doesn’t know how to stay safe. And she’d be safer by his side than pretty much anyone else’s not only because he’s as strong as you can get in this universe, but because he’ll go farther than anyone else to protect the ones he loves. He knows how it feels to lose someone important, and he won’t let it happen again. It’s time someone put Amy first!

Still can’t figure out how Sega made these two characters so perfect for each other *by accident.* Most movies I’ve seen can’t craft things so well even on purpose.

[soncrunning]

Hey Sonic!

What are your best Good, the Bad and The Ugly memories when you first took in Tails? Certainly a traumatized fuzzball with teeth surely has some memorable moments.

Hes certainly grown a lot in your care (who can blame being raised by the best ami right? Lol)

The Good: Almost all of them, to be honest. But I think my favorite one is when Tails actually learned sign language for me. Or when he first called me big brother. I couldn't help but feel proud,,

The Bad: Probably not having enough money to buy little Tails the things he needed. It is totally not his fault, or mine. We were both really young and I barely knew what I was doing, but as always, I figured things out.

Tails would also tend to overthink things, even if he was just a little kit. Sometimes I'd tell him to stay put while I go deal with Eggman and what not, and there'd be time where I'd come back to him crying. Back then I didn't understand why, but now I see he was scared of me leaving him behind.

Seeing someone as young and pure as him suffer like that was not easy. Thankfully, I like to think I've showed him enough love to demonstrate he's not the freak those bastard convinced him he was, and that just like everyone, he deserves a home.

The Ugly: Eggman kidnapping him. Chaos, that was definitely the most horrible of them all.

I was already used to his company, so being without him, and with the constant thought that Eggman was probably hurting him and shit, I went through a pretty hard time.

There's also that one time when the Government began to bother us. I was a minor, Tails was a minor, neither of us had any responsible adult to watch out for each other.. they tried taking Tails away from me multiple times, but I never let them.

I can't stress enough how exhausting it was to fill all of that god damn paper work just to show that yes, I am capable of taking care if my little bro, can you leave me alone now???

[metal-harbor]

Aghhh I want to hear everything about it!! Sonic and Amy's friendship is so important to me in this au, especially when his former friendship with Knuckles (and even Shadow) is so fractured, and his one with Tails now so different (if still positive). His place with Amy hasn't been replaced!

Do you see things coming to a head in any way wrt the dynamic between Shadow, Tails, and Sonic now? It has to be rough walking on eggshells around Shadow in this situation.

I think he definitely appreciates it more than he’s able to show, in return I think she finds his smile and upbeat attitude refreshing (especially since living with team dark…)

I think Sonic actually feels a little jealous - something he really isn’t used to feeling. At this point Shadow has actually been in Tails’ life for longer than Sonic had before his disappearance, and he knows that means that the two have inevitably grown closer.

The weirdest thing is the three of them trying to navigate being in the same house. Shadow is frequently away on excursions which makes things easier, but it also just makes it feel so much stranger when he is around. Sonic doesn’t really know what to say to him when he comes downstairs in the morning to see Shadow sat at the table. Usually, Shadow will immediately just get up and leave whatever room Sonic is in which leads to some tension between Shadow and Tails. Tails thinks Shadow isn’t making enough of an effort to be civil, and if he could just get past this attitude then everything would be a lot smoother. Shadow thinks he is already asking too much in asking him not to beat Sonic to a pulp, and that he should understand that is only because he has come to respect Tails. While their closeness is strange, Sonic still feels bad coming between them.

Sonic also has the uncomfortable feeling of being indebted to Shadow; he saved Tails life at the sacrifice of his own anatomy, he has given up his voyaging lifestyle to stay in once place to keep his brother safe, and he comforted him when Tails accepted Sonic wasn’t coming back. He can’t even thank the guy because Shadow won’t talk to him.

The realisation that Shadow and Tails have similar interests is also unfamiliar; he had never really imagined Shadow as a guy with hobbies. They have a truck they’re fixing up together in their free time or when they need time away from a project. They talk about quantum physics, the mathematical probabilities of time travel, theoretical chaos energy studies - things Sonic had no idea Shadow knew anything about. Tails stands in Shadow’s personal space and no one seems to notice; he’s allowed to grab Shadow’s robotic arm with no reaction, Shadow will take Tails’ goggles straight off of his head when he needs to borrow them, Tails is the only other person allowed to work on the dark rider. I think it makes Sonic feel a little replaced in Tails’ life, as he will now go to Shadow with any problem he’s having instead of Sonic. In turn he feels guilty for disrupting the peace that Shadow has come to feel - he feels like an intruder in what was once his home.

There will come a point in the story where Shadow has to rely on Sonic, and it becomes clear Shadow still acknowledges and respects Sonic’s abilities. There also may or may not be a point where, after a particularly long day, an exhausted Shadow opens up to Sonic about how tired he really is. Maybe he’s even a little glad Sonic has returned, it means that in the disturbingly realistic scenario that Shadow can no longer fight, at least there will be someone around to keep the safe.

[saline-coelacanth]

So since I've been in a Gateway to the End mood lately, I figured it be fun to make a bit of an info dump post (Though I feel like most of this is just gonna talk about End Sonic)

End Sonic's voice is layered. It mostly sounds like The End's usual voice, but with Sonic's voice layered in as well

End Sonic show no emotion, at least visibly. Their tome of voice changes but they very rarely show any expression that isn't a blank one

The End is able to access Sonic's memories and use them to their advantage, usually when it comes to taunting his friends or finding information that would be useful

The End is actually in control of Sonic for quite a while as they need time to regain their energy due to being trapped in cyberspace for so long

In this version of events, the reason The End possessed Sonic was to make sure he wouldn't be able to stop them from achieving their goals of destruction after seeing all the feats Sonic achieved by looking through his memories

While End Sonic is busy doing End things, Sonic himself is trapped within his own mind, completely unaware of what's going on around him

The End is able to convince Sonic that everything is normal due to Sonic's amnesia that he got from the cyber corruption (I explained these two notes in an ask but I figured I'd mention them again)

Tails, Amy and Knuckles end up having to team up with Eggman and Sage (similar to how Sonic teamed up with them in game) and they have to go out and gather the Chaos Emeralds so that End Sonic doesn't get them

I like to think that Tails and Sage would bond a bit during this whole ordeal, but they would probably disagree a bit over how to deal with End Sonic, Sage believing that there may not be a way to save Sonic while Tails is adamant that they find a way no matter what

I feel like Eggman would also be the type to pester Tails over the possibility of Sonic not being able to be saved, but of course he'd be much less sympathetic towards Tails compared to Sage

I also think for the most part Tails would stay back to work on repairs to the Tornado while Eggman and Sage also work on any technical issues and Knuckles and Amy would be the ones mainly looking for the Chaos Emeralds

There's still a lot of story aspects that I need to figure out. Ideally, I'd like to write a fic for this story, it's just the "figuring out the plotpoints" part that I'm struggling a bit to figure out. I know for a fact that I'm still gonna make comics/art for this au, but hopefully I can eventually get around to writing a fic for this au.

[bluebunnyears-08]

Another Nine Analysis: Warped Senses And Tragedy

Yay, another Nine analysis! It's been a while, huh? But I have more thoughts about him I need to write out so here I am. So now let's begin.

Alright, so let's start with the fact that while the other variants are devoid of the things that represent them (empathy for Amy, and Honor for Knuckles), Nine's is actually not only enhanced but WARPED in a more twisted way.

Amy's lack of empathy is shown through Rusty (a robotized Amy) and Thorn (while she wanted to protect the Jungle she didn't try to understand or find common ground) and Knuckle's lack of honor is shown through Dread.

But Nine is rather different. Yes while he didn't stay and help the Rebels, and abandoned them, he choose to save Sonic instead. In fact earlier during the battle between the Rebels and Dr. Deep, I noticed that he only helps Sonic during the battle. He's the first one to notice Sonic's in danger and stops to help him, but only him, he doesn't do it for the others. Watch closely at how Nine contrasts against the others in the fight.

The others help out each other, but Nine only helps Sonic. I thought it was an interesting detail, and it also proves my theory. Not to mention he's surprised when Sonic saves him and pleased when he learns about a high five.

Another thing is how he chooses to abandon the rebels, choosing to save the shard, the shard that took Sonic. He once again chooses Sonic over everyone else.

The battle during the Rebellion, once again, Sonic.

I disagree that Nine isn't loyal, that he's a Tails that lacks loyalty, but a Tails whose sense of loyalty that's starting to become deluded and damaging towards others and possibly himself. A dedication and commitment that does more harm towards others and himself than it helps. A self-destructive and dangerous obsession.

He's only loyal towards Sonic, he's only dedicated to Sonic, he's only attached to Sonic, he only smiles with Sonic, and no one else.

If Nine wasn't loyal or committed to Sonic, then why did he wait weeks for Sonic, and why did he come back for Sonic?

It's understandable why too, to him Sonic is a person from another world who gave another version of him a life he always dreamed of. To him, Sonic is his only friend, the only person who accepts him for his Tails, the only person who gave him a reason to let his walls down. So it's understandable that he'd only care for Sonic.

Unlike the others, Sonic can bring him something he dreamed of, unlike the others Sonic was bright and bubbly and not yet damaged by the horrible world around him, and unlike the others, Sonic is the only one who can make his heart melt with that unrelenting optimism and blinding faith and allow another in.

Unlike the others, Sonic gave him something to live for, to fight with blood and sweat for.

A WORLD and LIFE to hope for.

It's no wonder the poor kid latched onto the first person who showed him kindness and affection. Before Sonic meet him, he probably hasn't made contact with anyone in YEARS after he fought back his bullies.

Just look at his face after he tries to ignore Sonic in the top left. His face softens, and with the slightest bit of hesitance asks what else they did in this wonderful dream world just out of reach of his gloved hands.

Which makes my next thought worse.

Guys, you'll hate this but...

I don't think Nine's going to get his happy ending. It'll most likely be very bittersweet at best.

DON'T GET ME WRONG, HE DESERVES THE WORLD! But the world he wants can't ever be achieved without Sonic. Sonic, just wants to get home no matter what. A home that isn't Nine's. A home Nine can't ever go to.

Nine wants Sonic to stay, being unable to be happy in a world without him. Sonic wants to go home, being unable to be happy without his FRIENDS. Like he said earlier in the pilot, his FRIENDS make Green Hills HOME. Which makes it clear he won't be happy living in the Grim.

Both of them have opposite goals, goals that can't be achieved at the same time. This is originally mentioned by @animatedjunkfood, but I agree that the Grim scene reflects this extremely well with its visuals.

Look at the sky, a strong blue, starting light but darkening as the sky gets further and further away from the sandy bottom, stars twinkling with lost dreams. The ground is deep orange with grey crystals shooting out of it, crystals a faded grey reflecting shimmering hope reaching to grasp the sky to come true, never making it.

On the distant horizon, there's a light gleaming from the distance, somewhat reminding me of a rising sun.

I think there are three things this represents.

It might be reflective of Sonic and Tails' relationship. Sonic, while better on the ground always lives carefree, running like the wind, sometimes resulting in being easily distracted. Tails, who can fly, ironically is the more grounded of the two using his tech and being more focused.

Sonic is the sky and Tails is the earth. That's how it's always been.

But this could also reflect Nine's dream. Notice how the sky is blue like his eyes and Sonic's fur, how the ground is orange like his fur, and how the grey crystals reflect Nine's tails. But what's missing?

Emerald green. The emerald green of Sonic's eyes. This isn't the world he wants, it's what NINE wants. Hence why green isn't anywhere present. It's not HIS ideal world.

Lastly, and my favorite, this could reflect their different goals and how they can never be achieved simultaneously. Nine wants this world to be home, hence why the ground is orange. Sonic however wants to go home, a place beyond Nine's reach, which is reflected wonderfully through the blue sky that twinkle with stars. Stars are often thought of as dreams and hope, which makes sense, as Sonic can bring Nine that.

Another thing I REALLY like is how the grey crystals could reflect Nine's mechanical Tails, reaching to try and grasp Sonic, to grasp that happy dream, the earth reaching out for that sky of sweet hope.

But the ground and the sky can never touch...

Ouch...

[valleyfthdolls]

Hi. Skater Sonic headcanons. I'm thinking about him rn cuz I got a skateboarder acct on my YouTube recommended.

He's one of those guys who can get up to like. absolutely INSANE speeds on a skateboard. I saw a guy on YouTube who gets up to like 40-50 mph on a longboard? Which I know is different but in my head Sonic does that regularly. Maybe he does both.

Most of the reason he actually wears gloves is to protect his hands so he doesn't scrape his fucking palms off if he has to use his hands on the ground.

He takes just fucking gnarly falls all the time. His board wobbles and he ends up throwing himself the fuck down a giant hill at 50+ mph picking up speed as he goes and lands on his face. This is a regular occurrence for him.

He's got a bunch of broken ass boards Tails will take apart to use for other things. He used to just glue the wheels back on and shit but one day he managed to break one in half and Tails asked him "hey if you can't use that anymore can I have the axels and wheels?" so now they all get pawned off to Tails if they get broken too badly.

His skateboards are covered in stickers and drawings as well. They've got a lot of character- you can always tell they're Sonic's just from the amount of energy to them.

In my head Sonic skateboards and Shadow inline skates (rollerblades). Idk what Silver does unfortunately. Only other type of skating I know (aside from roller skating, but that doesn't rlly fit him) is ice skating, and while that is talented, it's not as useful for getting around most climates as skateboarding or inline skating is.

He knows all sorts of tricks and he kinda loves to show off. You can often find him at any nearby skate park (or, if there isn't one, whatever will best substitute a skate park).

Someone- be it Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Shadow, or even Eggman- is always on his case about wearing proper gear. He doesn't think he's invincible, but he also doesn't think about consequences, so oftentimes he just neglects protection aside from gloves to, again, keep his palms from getting scraped off. And sometimes goggles/glasses to protect his eyes (like when using the Extreme Gear).

His ass could not pick up roller skating/inline skating easily. He probably thinks he could because he sees Shadow doing it all the time and he already knows one type of skating, how hard could another be?

Very hard. Very fucking hard. He can't stay on his own two feet on roller skates, let alone inline skates. He can barely stay on his butt on them.

The remedy for his bruised ego here is that the most Shadow can do on a skateboard is go like ten to twenty feet in a wobbly straight line.

[minipisi-is-dumb]

alright so ive been genuinely thinking about tails' safety while doing his machines in his workshop because as far as i remember is not something very touched upon??

considering that he started since he was 1) a little kid 2) being raised by sonic and all the recklessness that it implies 3) thinking about an immediate threat aka eggman. i think it's safe to say that as much of a little genius he is. he probably had a lot of accidents because that's just how experimentation and science work, you need to fail a thousand times to get half a thing right and maybe that half right thing might even be up to change in the future

so i just really think about how many times there could've been an explosion, a fire, something falling off or even as little as a very pointy thing scratching him. like he can get hurt badly at any given time

yea i know that's kinda the point sometimes, that is so impressive that such a young kid can make so many great things, but i still feel that it wouldn't be as neat if he hadn't failed so many times and he still was clever enough to pull it off in a faster and more efficient way than anyone could think of

so it might seem weird but the sonic boom show actually does this really well (im about to ramble about my favorite episode alright i swear im going somewhere with this and that eventually my long analysis of it as well as my least fav one will be separate posts nothing to do w this but i need to talk about it)

the episode is "everything you do i can do it worse-er" and is Very good since it's basically tails and sonic having a bet on if sonic is actually impossible to catch since eggman is constantly failing and tails says that there has to be a way so might as well have a competition about it because that's really the most siblings thing to do

im not gonna get as excited as i want but. in order to make a good payoff, tails has to slowly try over and over to catch sonic (also duh because if not the episode would be over), learning from every mistake in what works and what doesn't, this also becomes really interesting because he knows sonic very well and can easily think of clever bases for ideas that can be a decent trap

so #1 is the chili dog one,where is a really obvious one at first glance, with the cage in plain sight and an obvious bait, but sonic takes it, falls into the secret pit and tails celebrates before sonic just gets out in a spindash and turns the tables on tails to make him end up in the cage. there he learns sonic is strong and needs to be caught off guard

where sonic finds one in his house and catches it and gets thrown into a succession of traps that lead him to a bamboo cage. but sadly, the process is too slow compared to sonics time perception so he realizes midway through the trap what's happening and gets out. there he realizes he should be caught off guard, but that should stay, he doesn't need a time to breathe or he would lose the bet

im not gonna write any every trap but in the one with knuckles he realizes he has some extent of easiness to be manipulated into helping or comforting tails. with Amy he realizes, even in the middle of his frustration, that he can actually use natural environment to his advantage. and with sticks, even if brief, it shows the audience that ultimately, any trap that involves sonic being on the ground is bound to fail.

(go watch the silly episode if you HAVEN'T because is really entertaining and the animation is dope bc is season 2 and i don't wanna spoil it more it's literally just 10 minutes im sure u can watch it because is really just a well written episode imo)

so what does he do with all this information? he puts it in use in a logic way in the final act where he eventually catches sonic! sure, tails learns a lesson in the story and all but the amount of satisfaction the last trap gives away, after seeing him fail so much and yet being able to find the most clever way of solving situations, it really shows how much he deserves the title of kid genius. because even if he can make machines his intelligence doesn't end there-unlike arguably eggman's does most of the time- so it even works as a way to characterize his intelligence, as well as perseverance and commitment to projects and also how much of a threat he could've been if he was in the wrong side.

and even if in some not-as-good chapters he's just there to do the "joke" of smart people needing to say nonsensical "smart" words that not even the writers care to understand just to sound smart to little kids. i do not like that. if boom tails of all shows can be used for that good characterization im pretty sure the more main storylines should acknowledge it at least Once

so back to his safety measures ignoring that the boom series (oh god minipisi shut up about boom we get it you like the show) made a joke about how lacking they are with the CHAINSAW IN THE CEILING (im never getting over that btw). we really need to think about how much tails could have himself hurt in his workshop. nevermind getting hurt fighting badniks and such that could be an entire separate thing btw.

like mainly i think about how his hands are. like yeah my boy uses gloves 24/7 as much as the next guy but considering how much hurt he could be those are most definitely not even close to his first pair

just picture how it would be that tails constantly has to replace his gloves because something happens while working. even more because those gloves are more likely made out of fabric, not in any way proper for crafting anything safely.

like my boy must get himself scars all the time or have his hands all wrecked by small things that he has accumulated over time but doesn't want anyone to know so he hides them and cures them himself until they heal but the scars are always there. he doesn't want to be a burden to anyone, specially sonic, so he just pretends he can do the impossible with no repercussions

also i believe it made him act purposely with an elevated ego for a while to cover his mistakes and insecurities YES I AM TALKING ABOUT THE PAPERCLIP LINE IN LOST WORLD OH MAN I HATE THAT LINE AND JUST WANT SOME EXCUSE FOR IT TO BE IN CHARACTER

but of course sonic himself is not stupid and even if tails is competent at hiding it you can't tell me he wouldn't find out and get all wrecked up by the entire concept of his little bro getting hurt and then he confront him and get some cool angst about it.

you know ive been thinking about this all day it is destroying me slowly because literally anything even remotely close to hurt - confort regarding these two is free real state for me

i got a few couple little ideas and mental images that i am too lazy to describe but they mainly need me to actually sit and draw them and that would take time

unless i actually drew them before even writing all of this checkmate procrastination

tbh this is Mainly something that first came to mind because i myself constantly get hurt for no particular reason im just that much of a dummy who fails to properly take precautions for stuff so for any silly or not reason i get scars. so i really wanted an excuse to give tails scars and i was about to write this as a haha funny joke headcanon but then i realized while writing that there was actual material and ideas that can contribute to it and ended up making several headcanons and I'm considering to do a fic so, good for me getting my hands all hurt ig?

obviously none of the places have any real lore grounded place i just gave him the scars and burns n such that i got and one or two more that make a bit of sense if i follow the scar logic

hope you enjoyed my ridiculously long thing i will not stop doing these bc they're way too fun to do lmao

[scorpiolight-madd]

I just want tons of info abt ur paracosms as they look coolio

AAAAHSBSYAHSQH???? THANK YOU???

aaaaa I’m prolly gonna talk a lot so under a readmore we go wheeee

OK SO REBELLION IS MY MAIN BBY RN i love itttt

I’ve mentioned earlier taht it’s gone by a few names at this point like Sonic Boom: Underground (sb:u) and Trouble Keeps you Running Faster (tkyrf) but Sonic Rebellious is prolly gonna be the finalized name 💙💙💙

ANYWAYS it’s a continuation of both Sonic Underground and Sonic Boom, where the events of Sonic Boom take place 10 years after Underground.

A LITTLE is changed abt underground, but for the most part, unless it comes up in the current day of the story (like the backstory between manic and rouge) its probably the same. The backtory for the story, though, is that shortly after the events of underground, the triplets adopted tails as their little brother, before Manic goot killed defending them (he's not actually dead, just captured, but they don't know that.) The grief tore Sonic and Sonia apart, Sonic wanting to run away from the war to keep Tails safe, while Sonia felt bound by a sense of duty. They ended up parting on bad terms, both feeling hurt at the other's descision (Sonia felt it was selfish for Sonic to run, while Sonic felt that Sonia didn't care enough about them to come with).

Meanwhile, Knuckles, guided by a spirit of his people (Tikal) ends up shattering the Master Emerald in a ritual designed to nullify the Chaos Emeralds' power until it can be reformed, in order to keep any from falling into Robotnik's hands again. Unfortunately, the ritual was originally designed so each member of the tribe would have a piece of their mind linked to a shard so they could recover their piece when the time came to rebuild the Master Emerald. However, since Knuckles is the last, his sole mind took on the responsibility of the entire tribe, shattering across the planet along with the shards. As long as he kept one piece, he could retain his mind and memories, but he didn't trust himself to keep it safe in his state, and so he entrusted it to Sonia, losing his memories in the process.

Timeskip to ten years later, Sonic and Tails have made their way and settled into Bygone Island, as has Knuckles, and they, along with Amy, a resident of the island, teamed up to continuously take down Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik, the son of Dr. Julian Robotnik. (They're two seperate characters bc I didn't want to deal with the logistics of making them the same and I felt it would be a neat dynamic. Eggman also mentions having a dad in the show, and it's implied he doesn't have a good relationship with him, so I felt it would work to make them father and son. I'm gonna mention them a lot so from here on: Eggman is the one from Sonic Boom, and Robotnik is the one from Underground).

They've become a pretty close-knit group, with on-again-off-again member Sticks, when suddenly Sonia shows up out of the blue and kinda throws a wrench in everything simply by being there. Meanwhile, Shadow, who works for and believes himself to be created by Robotnik, has grown fed up with his treatment of Manic, who he has secretly bonded with over the years, and breaks him out of his prison. The events of the finale of Boom, where Shadow tries to destroy the multiverse by trappng the two alternate versions of Eggman in his cave hideout, was a test. If they failed, then the multiverse would be destroyed, which Shadow saw as a potentially favorable outcome, but the more likely (as well as his preffered) outcome was that they succeed, and Shadow would be able to trust them to take care of Manic, as he knew he wouldn't be able to for long, since he works for Robotnik (Shadow doesn't know they're siblings at this point)

So Shadow breaks Manic out of prison and has him stay in his cave hideout for a bit while he recovers, and then Shadow goes back to get his medallion. However, Robotnik catches him as he gets it, and so he has to get back to the village as fast as he can. Unfortunately, when Sonic sees Shadow with Manic's medallion (WHo he still presumes is dead), he assumes the worst and flips out and they get in a huge fight. Shadow ends up trying to get back to Manic, only for Sonic and SOnia to chase him down, resulting in their reunion.

Eventually, though, Robotnik catches up, and the village is destroyed. The team does their best to evacuate the villagers, but its only when Eggman is convinced to help do they manage to escape with minimal casualties. (Its for complicated reasons; he says it's because he can't rule over the village if there's no villagers to rule over, but in actuality he's grown attached to Sonic and his friends, and also wants to make a stand against his father and step out of his control).

As they leave the island to return to Robotropolis, Sonia returns the Master Emerald shard Knuckles gave her, restoring a piece of his memory.

ANYWAY thats the beginning of the story and theres a LOT more after that but I haven't decided on an order for everything past that yet RIP

HERES all the characters i have refs for so far (This isn't all the characters, obvi, it just takes a long time to draw refs for every character), and another one with concept art (and stock art for Aleena and Robotnik, since i dont have anything else for them yet rip)

(from left to right, Sage, Cosmo, Tails, Zooey, Amy, Metal Sonic, Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Knuckles, Shadow)

(From left to right, Charmy, Cosmo, Tails, Sticks, Amy, Espio, Maria, Silver, Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Aleena, Rouge, Stone, Sleet, Robotnik, Vector, Knuckles, Eggman, Shadow, Dingo)

ALSO YEA mobians in this au have the same average height that humans do bc i thought itd be funny and i like playing with character designs

Cursed Planet / Ruined World

OKAY so these two are techincally the same paracosm with two different casts of characters, one being all fully original characters, the other being mostly canon characters from different media and a handful of fancharacters. HOWEVER, since there's no real plot, I'm gonna talk about the setting, because that's the actual important thing in these two.

The City exists in a pocket dimension, created by an entity that feeds off of the despair and suffering of the living. While she can change and control the entire City on a whim, and create literally anything in her domain, she can't feed off of what she creates, and so she pulls beings from other dimensions to be transported to The City.

The City itself is constantly changing, and only exists as an actual city in its current iteration. It is warped, eldritch, and twists itself to the perception of its inhabitants. The more people fear a place, the more twisted and horrifying it becomes, to match its perception.

Fears increase at night, and so the City becomes more dangerous. That shadow out of the corner of your eye is always exactly what you fear it to be.

While the City itself is entirely under the entity's control, the people she summons to inhabit it aren't, and so she cannot just cause them to suffer. She must use the city to bring them to despair, but the human spirit is indomitable, and hope always has the chance to win out.

(Here's where the main difference in the two lays, the original characters one is mostly cynical assholes with one or two rays of sunshine like Alice Read and Sveta, and their groups tend to struggle a lot more with keeping morale up. Meanwhile, the fandom one has Sonic the g-ddamn Hedgehog, who will literally kill g-d to bring hope to his friends, so, like, the entity's kinds fucked with him around)

Don't Split the Party

heehooheehooheehoo dungeons and dragns :]

this is the one ive had for like, the longst, and its just me putting every character ive ever liked in a dnd settign. It's so big at this point that it doesn't really have one plot, it's an entire world where every person has their own thing going on. The main ones I can think of are Sonic Wachowski, an Elven Ranger going off to save his adopted parents, only to find out that his fox familiar is a shapeshifting Artificer boy, and the misadventures of the Red Guild, particularly Scout as he runs around with Justice and Alyx, a Tiefling Bard and a Fairy Artificer. There's also my parame Rua, the Half-Elf Ranger, and their adventures with their adopted sisters, and their boyfriend Barney Calhoun, a Human Paladin.

There's a LOT going on in that one, so I can't really go over all of it here. A lot of it also follows storylines of other paracosms, just switched to a DnD setting.

Forces: Reloaded

Honestly shoud be called Sonic: Reloaded at this point, as it's gone from a simple Sonic Forces rewrite to an entire paracosm spanning from 06 to Frontiers, and even further, as I even included an adapted version of the Metarex Sage from Sonic X, which is currently the final point in the timeline, though I'm sure that'll change soon enough.

A lot of the changes are about adding or swapping characters around, such as the plotline of Sonic 06. I've written this one up already, so I'll paste it here:

OKAY so Stella replaces Elise as the vessel for Iblis, her father purposefully using them to house the deity, all while Elise stealthily watched. So Elise KNOWS that Stella holds Iblis, and so does everything in her power to keep it contained.

When Stella gets kidnapped by Eggman, Elise wants to go after him to keep Iblis from being unleashed, but can’t leave her station as monarch, and so she sends one of her guards, not knowing that a. Sonic is already on it and b. Stella is having a blast making Eggman miserable and breaking out on their own.

So Elise's role is pulled back to be a lot more of an authority figure, she's the royalty while Stella (the oc) is the 'damseled' one. One major difference this brings is there's no romance between Elise and Sonic, transferring over instead to Stella and Dusk (the guard Elise sends to rescue Stella). I haven't played 06 in a long while, so all this may be subject to change. I just wanted Stella (my self-insert) to be introduced in Sonic 06, as it was my first Sonic game and was what got me into the series in the first place.

Skipping ahead to Forces, as it was the original main focus of the paracosm and as such is the most in-depth, the story starts out the same, with Sonic being very abruptly defeated by Infinite. Except, unlike the game, where he just summons illusions of Shadow, Metal Sonic, Chaos 0 and Zavok before kicking him around for a bit, he... oh i dunno...

CONJURES PERFECT CHAOS, BEFORE CREATING A WHIRLPOOL OF WATER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SQUARE TO DROWN HIM???

Obviously he doesn't kill Sonic, just incapacitates him, but, like, Sonic's got a whole thing about water, why not take advantage of that?

Tails takes just a bit too long trying to figure out Infinite's deal before he creates the whirlpool, and Tails tosses his datapad aside and rushes in to try and save Sonic, only for Infinite to take him down almost instantly.

The story proceeds as normal for a bit after that, with Eggman taking over, Tails going AWOL, and a resistance being formed by Knuckles. Rather than being stationed in Green Hill Zone, however, the headquarters is on Angel Island, meaning only the people Knuckles trusts enough to be near the Master Emerald is allowed in the headquarters. They have other rebel camps stationed all over South Island, but they're small, and they can quickly be overpowered by Eggman's forces.

Meanwhile, Starburst and Sun's parents get killed in the initial attack on Seaside Hill, and they get seperated in the chaos. Starburst finds her older brother buried under a pile of rubble, but Infinite gets to her before she can reach him, taunting her and letting her escape with her life if she leaves her brother to die and flees in terror.

Later, Starburst gets rescued by Amy, and decides to join the resistance.

Meanwhile, Tails has gone a bit off the deep end, and seeks out an old model of Metal Sonic that was destroyed in a battle years prior, and brings it back to his makeshift lab to rebuild and reprogram it. He affixes the fake Chaos Emerald he made back in SA2 to him, using it as a power source, and sets out to train him to be essentially Sonic's replacement. (This guy later becomes Shard.)

Sun actually survived being crushed by a building, and gets fished out by two girls, Flare the Bear and Echo the Fox. They end up getting along like a house on fire, and they agree to help Sun search for his missing sister.

The rebellion discovers that Sonic is alive, and after they launch a rescue mission, Starburst is the one that ends up finding him (This plays out pretty much exactly like the game).

They come back to the base below Angel Island, and take Sonic to the infirmary, only to discover that there's barely any room left. Amy decides that they need to liberate an actual hospital, and fast. Much to Sonic's disappontment, she sends Shadow and Starburst on the mission, as Sonic is still too injured. While Shadow is initially unimpressed and uninterested in working with Starburst, during the mission he warms up to her a little.

Meanwhile, the Metal Sonic that was repaired by Tails has been feeling uncomfortable, both with Tails' insistance at him being essentially a Sonic replacement, and Tails' obvious fear and discomfort towards him. He ends up running away, and though he still defends and protects the people he comes across, they aren't exactly appreciative. He still looks like Metal SOnic, and people are terrified of him, until he encounters one girl.

Aryl's a mechanic and an outcast, with a pet Buzz Bomber that she reprogrammed herself, and she offers to help repair his battle damage. He agrees, and they end up having a mutually beneficial friendship, where he protects her as she scavenges for parts and she repairs any damage he gets as he fights off other badniks.

A lot from this point is similar to the game, with some exceptions, like Shard being the one to fight the Metal Sonic illusion with Sonic on the bridge rather than the rookie, and the Null Space scene being a LOT longer and more impactful on the story, but im starting to get a headache and cant type for much longer so have some art instead

THERES ALSO A WHOLE THING WITH SEEDRIANS and tails cosmo and omega make up a team for a little while and omega goes I HAVE ONLY HAD TAILS AND COSMO FOR A DAY AND A HALF BUT IF ANYTHING HAPPENED TO THEM I WOULD KILL EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM AND THEN SELF DESTRUCT.

and oh man i didnt even mention the time traveling twin children of infinite from an alternate future where he took over and crowned himself king thats THESE GUYS

[mobianxcycle]

What are some of the most notable differences between various characters between what would be considered a single timeline and a version that recalls more? Who is the most different between both versions? Who is the most similar?

Unprompted

Imma do this none in regard to canon characters, as OCs would be a bit harder for others to comprehend until they get a bit more establishment on the blog.

I'll start with characters that seem to be less affected by the multiverse overall. They are still, clearly, affected. However, these characters don't seem to be too outwardly affected by the events, and tend to try to not think too much about any of it. This includes Big, Blaze, Charmy, Storm, and Wave most commonly. A lot of their personalities tend to stay the same, if not simply gain new information most of the time.

However, some of the most affected characters would be closer to Amy and Tails, as they are some of the people most commonly trying to actively work against the threat more than the other characters.

Amy tends to get anxiety when she has to think about it too much, and finds herself with extreme PTSD after a certain point. But at the same time, she knows it's something she can't quite control, and there are still people existing within this time, unaware of it all. She is one of the easiest characters to break in this regard, as the amount of anxiety of knowing, eventually, there's a good chance everything will end affects her to her core.

As Tails recalls more, he finds himself more and more determined to try to see if there is a cause of the scenario that is happening, and as such, learns more and more about science. Tails eventually becomes quite the science person, and focuses more on theoretical sciences in regards to time loops and time in general, instead of mechanics. He's still plenty good at it when he chooses to be! But he prefers the other sciences to be able to try to help and find answers to many of the big questions.

Similar to Kiwi, I am focusing on the canon muses here, rather than the OCs, since we have yet to establish them as an actual key part of the story for the blog.

At any rate, it's a pretty similar case across the board here. Most of the characters that usually only have a brief, or minor role in the games won't really be the ones to experience much of any changes in their behavior. After all, why would they, they're not all that involved in anything that happens most of the time. Characters like this, from my set, would be Jet and Omega. As much as Omega helps Shadow, he's not as much of a major character as the others.

However, you take a look at Shadow, Sonic, or Silver, and you realize that they do change. Not necessarily for the better, but they change.

Shadow becomes a little more aggressive in almost everything he does, including what affection he might eventually start showing to others. He also starts as being more hostile, even when he doesn't remember. After all, while his mind may not have his memories of the previous lifetimes, his soul certainly would.

Silver, on the other hand, becomes more confident with time. He comes to realize that he can handle that the cycle throws at him, regardless of how many times it comes their way. So, until they find a fix, he knows that he can largely keep going, no matter what may happen.

And of course, Sonic. He's probably one of the more drastic ones to change, but it also depends on how many iterations pass by. A small handful of things going down, he's fine. A couple dozen, or rather a few dozen? He's still going, sure. Not the slightest bit tired/exhausted. But one that count starts hitting the hundreds, or, Chaos forbid, the thousands? Then things are gonna be getting questionable for him.

And that's not even considering what all might change, given the general rules of the multiverse. Let alone the fact that that is just Sonic, Shadow, and Silver by themselves. That's not considering Knuckles, Espio, Vector, or others who get involved and even resolve certain crises on their own.

[themetalvirus]

probably something that you've talked about before, but how do egghog shadow and silver feel about sonic staying with eggman?

like im sure its obvious that after they left he kinda. got worse. so how do they feel about his insistence in staying and his behaviour just in general? also. pats on the heads for egghogs theyre really going through it

they appreciate the pats, they are indeed going through it

they do try to talk him down after staying with amy for a while. sonic and eggman show up somewhere for eggman reasons and they assume it's the perfect opportunity to talk to him about what's actually been happening. they try to explain why and how eggman is hurting him, but trying to "help" someone like this when their abuser is still in control can actually make it a lot harder for everyone involved.

of course, shadow and silver don't really think about that; they're just desperate to help their brother. they LOVE sonic. they know him better than anybody else. when they were all little, sonic talked for them; they were always a bit too shy. sonic helped them form their own personalities, confidence, identities, but sonic himself still hadn't found himself. he knew some of the things he liked, enjoyed, some of the people he loved, but he never considered himself one whole person. he's always considered himself just a part of the empire, one gear ticking away in time with everything else. he fancied himself an important part, but he was not the one controlling his own spin. dad was the engine. without him, he wouldn't function.

shadow and silver know this. trying to cut that umbilical cord is impossible. they've even tried to convince amy it's impossible, trying to get her to stop trying to brainstorm how to make him change. but seeing sonic for the first time in several weeks, seeing his relief and joy, getting hugged so tightly and told that he found them so they could finally go home... they can't stand breaking his heart. but they can't stand the thought of going home even more.

so they beg him to come to tails' place, run away from dad and free himself from the machine, become his own person. they have a new home, and they'd be happy to welcome him into it.

sonic doesn't understand. he already has a home. they already have a home. why would they need a new one? why did they want him to leave dad? he was important and dad needed him and he needed dad! he has a role and he can't just abandon it, he doesn't know why he even would. he's good at it. he likes it. sonic has seen what eggman has said about shadow and silver once they left. he doesn't want to hear those things said about him and he didn't want to be hunted down and he didn't want to be repossessed like an object and he didn't want to die if he didn't comply. even then, he thinks he would deserve to die if he gave up on achieving their noble goal of shaping the earth into eggman's version of paradise.

sonic begs them to just go back to the lair and hug eggman and act like nothing ever changed, but they can't. he doesn't want to fight them, doesn't want to treat them like enemies, they're family. if they denounce the eggman empire, they denounce eggman, and therefore they aren't his sons anymore, and therefore they're not his family. he can't take that.

shadow and silver say they're still family, nothing can ever change that. sonic thinks things have definitely changed a lot, but he still sees his brothers when they say eggman isn't a part of it any more. not to them.

sonic doesn't know what to say. he really is heartbroken. he doesn't understand. he runs away.

so they feel pretty bad about it.

he really, really can't be saved, not like this. i've said this before, but the only way that shadow and silver had their brainwashing cracked was through learning fundamental contradictions to their belief systems that eggman had lied about to keep them stupid and subservient. eggman's only lie to sonic was that he loved him.

sonic would end the world before he realized the truth. and it breaks him so fully that all he can do is crawl right back to his abuser and beg for mercy. change would mean accepting that something was wrong. that would make his whole belief system and identity crumble into nothing. he has nothing of his own self left. so he refuses change. the alternative is just too painful to bear.

silver and shadow hurt for him. they wish they could have helped him form his own identity like he helped them. but they didn't and now they can't. they're mourning him and he's still alive. they'll be mourning him for the rest of their lives.

[tenebraevesper]

Sonic the Hedgehog Analyzer, Issue #37: Test Run (Part 1)

Moving on, I wish to welcome you to our new arc, The Test Run! Arc, featuring the return of one of my favorite characters, Tangle, as well as the exploration of Belle’s story (even though I’m sure that at this point, we all know who her creator is).

We start off with Sonic and Tails showing Belle the way to the Restoration HQ, which was rebuild after the disastrous collapse it experienced during the Metal Virus Saga. It is nice to see that that fiasco still has consequences that are felt long after it happened rather than everyone just glossing over it.

Belle appears to be a little nervous, unsure whether the Restoration will take her in, but Tails assures her that they will, as they’re here to help those impacted by the Metal Virus and they’ll also help her find her creator (I suggest checking the closest Eggman Base).

Belle is also confused that the Restoration HQ would be at a ruined place like this, the three entering a tool shed, which appears to be the same shed Silver used to work on his garden. To quote Yzma, “Pull the lever, Tails!”

Once Tails pulls one of the tools, they start descending down into the underground. Tails explains that this is the back door and they decided to preserve the towns ruins as a memorial to what people had lost.

The actual Restoration itself is bustling with life, and honestly, my first impression was that it looked like a shopping mall. They are found by Amy, with Sonic wondering how the hell does she always find them (she probably has a built-in hedgehog radar).

Sonic notes that he thought Amy was done with being the leader of the Restoration, but Amy responds how she had some stuff to wrap up and make sure Jewel was fine. Tails introduces Belle, noting how she needs a place to stay, witch Jewel welcoming her happily, noting how everyone here pitches in to help the Restoration, sending her to the machine shop... or rather, calling Lanolin to guide her there.

Meanwhile, Amy and Jewel give Sonic and Tails a grand tour around the place, with Jewel being quite prideful of their accomplishments. One of the volunteers then calls Jewel, noting there’s something they need to see.

Back with Belle, we see that she’s kind of uncomfortable being around other people, mostly because she’s a robot and is seen as creepy. Lanolin brings her to the machine shop, the guy in charge being quite relaxed and accepting of Belle, asking her to help him out.

Unfortunately for Belle, she isn’t exactly the best helper at the machine shop, even doing the classic mixing up of salt and sugar. It is obvious that she’s rather worried about what people think about her. Things get worse when her tail gets pulled, causing an automatic kick that sends the box she was carrying flying across the room and knocking over a boat. Fortunately, the day is saved by Tangle, who wraps her tail around the boat, securing it.

The guy in charge is angry at Belle, calling her a liability, basically wanting to kicker her out, but fortunately, Tangle takes over, leading Belle away. It turns out that Tangle is actually banned from the machine shop, but she’s okay with it. Belle, on the other hand, laments her disastrous first day.

Tangle then asks Belle about her ability, with Belle explaining that it is automatic, happening whenever her tail gets pulled. Tangle looks excited, calling them “weird tail buddies”, while Belle asks her to just not pull her tail. They introduce each other, with Tangle being happy to have a new friend. Tangle notes that she wants something exciting to happen, overhearing something about freak storms and breaking into a devious grin.

She grabs Belle and rushes into the room where Sonic, Tails, Amy and Jewel are already discussing what is going on with the freak storms. Sonic, Amy and Tails decide to handle whatever is going on, figuring it’s Eggman, with Tangle wanting to join in.

While Tangle and Jewel argue in the background, Tangle being annoyed that Jewel reminded her how she’s on inventory duty and Sonic trying to cheer her up by saying how they’ll call her once Eggman does something again. As for Belle, she figures her creator might be there, inviting Tangle to join her as she has an idea.

We quickly cut to Sonic, Tails and Amy on the Tornado, approaching the tower, with Sonic taking quick care of the Badniks guarding it and Tails and Amy helping him bash in the door.

They literally fly inside, passing a green portal. Back at the Restoration, Belle shows Tangle an old hover bike, deciding to fix it so they can use it to follow Sonic, Amy and Tails. Tangle admits that she joined the Restoration to support Jewel, but now she hardly sees her. She notes just how hard Jewel works and figures that maybe they should go back, only for Belle to finish fixing the bike and the two flying off.

While Tangle and Belle are en route to the center of the freak storms, Sonic, Tails and Amy realize they broke the portal, hoping that it didn’t cause any alarms. Sonic tells them that they can worry about it later and to go inside and find some answers.

Sonic eventually comes across a Badnik making a line on the wall via chalk and quickly destroys it. He and Amy figure they must be close to something, but Tails wonders what it was doing with the chalk. At first, they’re all excited, Amy and Sonic especially, but ten minutes later, Sonic is frustrated that the place never ends, Amy annoyed and Tails still observing the chalk.

Tails decides to try something out, drawing an arrow on the wall and asking them to follow him, drawing more arrows as they go through the corridors. Once they’re back, it turns out that the line Tails made is gone and instead of going in circles, the place changes around them as they go through it.

Amy wonders what they should do, with Sonic telling them he’ll try an experiment of his own. He grabs both, deciding to see if the place shifting can keep up with his speed. The scene turns really trippy and we see them running through multiple differently-colored corridors.

Amy tells Sonic to run faster, noting that they can out-pace the maze and break through it, throwing her hammer. Suddenly, they’re sucked into another dimension.

Links:

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[amyscascadingtabs]

the way you keep the world at bay for me

post-the set up, a.k.a jake taking care of hungover amy, hungover amy taking care of sad jake, and mac caring mostly about himself because he’s a baby 😌

read on ao3

Jake doesn't get a lot of sleep that night, and for once, it's not even Mac’s fault. It's not even due to the pizza parlor simulator game either, although he does play a couple of rounds when Amy's finally snoring next to him after ranting to herself about the babysitter’s club for a solid ten minutes, but not even that can fully distract him from the dull sense of doom that's made itself at home deep in his chest. 

This is bad. Holt wants to see him tomorrow, and Jake knows there will be consequences. There has to be. There should be. He made a mistake, and he's going to get punished for it, and there is nothing he can do but accept his defeat. He already knows what he has to do; the nerve-wracking thing is the fact that it's still hours away, and his brain is spinning too fast for sleep.

He really wishes he could talk to Amy. She's sleeping on her stomach with her mouth open, arms straight out to the sides like she’s trying to push him out of bed, but he still can’t be mad at her. He hasn’t seen her this drunk since before she got pregnant, and he’s seriously worried about the hangover she’ll be sporting tomorrow, but he also knows she did it for him. Because they’re a team. Because she trusts him, sometimes even when it turns out he was wrong.

He wrongfully arrested someone. The sentence keeps repeating in his head, appears pasted in bold font on the inside of his eyelids if he tries to go to sleep, and displayed in luminescent letters on the ceiling of his bedroom when he gives up and opens his eyes again. He should have known better, has learned his lesson time and time again since his early days of constantly glorifying his job and letting his impulsivity get the best of him, and he still made a mistake.

  /

He just wants someone to tell him it doesn’t make him a bad person. If only Amy wasn’t so drunk he’s scared to wake her up right now, Charles wasn’t so devotedly biased in all questions involving Jake’s role as a detective, and Mac wasn’t, well… so completely unable to grasp any of the concepts involved in the question.

Amy lets out another mighty drunken snore, and Jake hopes she will consider it a testament to his love for her that he doesn’t voice record it. He turns his head instead and picks up his phone to go back to the pizza game. Maybe just a few more virtual customers will be able to lure him to sleep.

 ~

 He must have fallen asleep eventually, because when Mac does start babbling to himself over the monitor, the morning sun is shining through the windows, and Amy’s stopped snoring. She’s only moaning uncomfortably to herself now, and Jake’s guessing from her strained grimace that the headache has kicked in hard.

“I’ll get you coffee and aspirin as soon as I’ve checked on Mac,” he whispers to her with a kiss to her neck, and he thinks he sees the hint of a smile as she reaches out for him in what’s probably an attempt of a pat on the back, but ends up more of an unintentional slap to his butt. Or maybe she’s still drunk, and it is intentional. It’s hard to tell.

  /

Mac may have no clue about what’s currently going on with Jake, but at least it’s impossible not to smile when he hauls himself up and rocks back and forth on unsteady feet in excitement over the fact that someone’s coming to get him. He greets Jake with that wide grin that shows off all of his four teeth – two up and two down, and they’ve kept everyone up at night for weeks, but they’re so pearly white and cute so maybe it was worth it – and a laugh that’s been Jake’s favorite sound on Earth since the first time he heard it.

“Good morning, bud,” Jake tells his son as he lifts him up in his arms. “What do you say we get you a bottle and mama some coffee? Hmm?”

“Bah,” Mac repeats. Jake decides to give him the benefit of the doubt and say it means he agrees on the bottle.

“Bottle, exactly. You're so smart,” he says, booping his little nose and smiling as it makes Mac giggle. “Let's try another one. Dada.”

There's a tense moment of them both just staring at each other, and then finally, his son goes,

“Bah.”

“One day,” Jake says with a sigh as he carries Mac out of the nursery. “As long as you say me first, okay? We’ll get there. We’ll practice.”

  /

He puts Mac in the high chair while he tries his best to work the coffee machine and the bottle warmer at the same time. It's trickier than to be expected on almost no sleep, but at least he manages to pour the breast milk from the freezer bag into the bottle and not into his coffee this time. He's only made that mistake once (fine, maybe twice, and he kind of liked how sweet it tasted but he's never gonna tell anyone), but he suspects Amy's never gonna let him live it down. He gets Aspirin from the medicine cabinet while he waits, and puts a couple of slices of toast in the toaster. His own day feels already pretty much beyond saving, but at least maybe he can improve Amy's.

  /

Though, when she stumbles out of the bedroom, still in her pajamas with her huge glasses and hair on end and looking like she's either seconds from being sick or going straight back to sleep, he worries whether she might just be beyond saving, too.

“How are you feeling?” He asks as she gives him one drained look before walking up to the couch and face-planting on it with another pained groan.

“I think I might be dead.”

“That's called a hangover, babe. I think you used to be familiar with the concept once upon a time, but I guess it's been a while.” Jake grins at Mac, who only reaches his chubby hands out for the bottle out in response. “Toast?”

“Do I have to?”

“It's going to help.”

“Fine.” Amy pushes her head off the pillow to look at Mac. “He's not drinking the milk I pumped yesterday, right?”

“I poured that out for you. I know they say moderate amounts of alcohol are fine, but, well, you were speaking British.”

“Good call,” Amy mumbles as he puts the coffee, aspirin, and toast down in front of her. “See, this is why I married you.”

Jake just hums, but he does smile to himself as he goes to grab his own cup of coffee.

  /

“I wish I could call in sick to work today,” Amy says between bites of toast, and Jake looks up from where he’s absentmindedly brushing crumbs off the countertop while finishing his own. “My head feels like it’s going to explode.”

“I mean, you did very much go through contractions while managing an entire precinct during a blackout once. You could think about that?”

“No, this is worse than giving birth,” she states confidently, and Jake has to try very hard not to laugh. “Don’t tell my past self I said that. Or my future self if I ever give birth again.”

“Yeah.” He grimaces. “I’m pretty terrified to go, too.”

“Why?”

“Because yesterday? All of it?”

“Ohh.” Amy sighs. “Right. Maybe we should both just stay home.”

  /

Jake’s about to tell her how much he wishes that was an option when Mac drops the finished bottle against the tray, immediately starting to twist in his seat. Jake unclasps the belt and lifts him out before he manages to rock the chair – that kid’s shockingly strong – and Mac immediately crawls away towards the walker. He doesn’t use it to move yet, but he’s been pulling himself up with it for over a month, and the anticipation is high every time he lets go with one hand only to sit back down on his booty the next second. Sometimes Jake could swear his son does it for attention. At least Mac doesn’t seem to have inherited his impulsivity, Jake thinks, and then he’s back to beating himself up in his head.

  / 

“I just don’t know why I did it,” he mutters as he sits down on the floor next to Amy’s head on the couch. She nods slowly, and Jake takes it as a sign she might actually be able to listen to him now. “I should know better, right? These are, like... the kind of mistakes I used to make. I thought I’d gotten better at this kind of stuff. Smarter. Less impulsive. Less of a bad cop. But instead I arrested and tailed an innocent man, all because I thought I had a gut feeling and thought I was being set up.” He shakes his head. “I guess that FBI jerk was right about gut feelings.”

“You’re a great detective,” Amy says without missing a beat. “A lot of the time, your gut feeling is right.”

“That doesn’t excuse it. I still shouldn’t have done it.”

“No.” Amy sighs. “You shouldn’t have.”

“It sucked.”

“Yeah. It did. But there’s nothing you can do to change it now.”

“Do you think I’m a bad person for it?” The question comes flying out of him, and Amy frowns.

“Why would I think that?”

“Because it was a shit move! And because I’m definitely gonna get suspended for it, and that’s going to lose us money. And then we’re not going to be able to save as much for Mac, or pay for his baby music class or baby gymnastics. And then he’s going to end up broke and untalented and it’ll all be my fault, and then you’ll be ashamed of me and leave me and I’ll die sad and alone in a ditch.”

“And you don’t think you’re spiraling just slightly right now?” Amy asks. The smile on her lips is one of amusement, and it humbles him, bringing him out of his cycle of self-pity.

“I don’t know. I didn’t get a ton of sleep last night.”

“I don’t think you’re a bad person,” she says, and that does make him feel a bit better. “I think you made a really stupid mistake. There's no getting away from that. I’m not happy about it. But… I know you'll take responsibility for it. That’s already a whole lot further than a lot of people care to go.”

  /

Her fingers brush through her hair, calming him as she speaks. The hangover has made her voice a little scratchy, Jake notices when she's this close. It reminds him of mornings after long evenings out before they were parents, a time that always feels far longer ago than it was. Sometimes he thinks everything before Mac might as well be another lifetime.

  /

“And we'll work it out if you do get suspended,” Amy continues, talking over the obnoxious melody playing from a toy Mac has found. “It's not great, of course. But we can save lots of money on daycare if you stay home with Mac. That helps.”

“Like a paternity leave,” Jake says. He does like that thought.

“Oh yeah.” Amy laughs. “You’ll be just like one of those hip Scandinavian dads who get to stay home with their kids because they live in countries where they don’t hate people for having kids. And you two can go to all of the cool classes and playdates together. You’d be the sexiest dad at baby swim class for sure.”

“Wouldn’t I also be one of the only ones?”

“Good point. Make sure to mention your wife a lot. But hey, Mac’s going to love it.”

 /

As if wanting to confirm Amy’s point, Mac crawls over to Jake and tries to climb up on his knees to sit in his lap. He does this sometimes when he’s playing on his own; retreats to their arms for a hug or a quick cuddle, only to try and wriggle out of their grip and go back to whatever it is he’s doing in the next moment. Jake thinks it might be one of their son’s sweetest qualities. Mac rests his head against Jake’s chest, almost hugging him like that, and he wonders, not for the first time, how a person that’s not even one year of age can make every other issue in the world seem so insignificant. Even if it's just for a moment, it's a pretty damn good moment.

 / 

Fueled by the most powerful motivation of all – their son’s love and attention – Amy sits down on the floor too, patting her knees.

“You want to come to mama, Mac?”

Mac squirms for a moment in Jake's arms, and Jake lets go of him. Using the couch as support, for a second it looks like he’s almost about to take a step toward her. Both parents gasp in anticipation, and it must confuse him, because he reacts by giving Amy a shocked look and sitting right back down on his butt. Jake laughs as their son crawls away again, heading for the soft building blocks outside the playpen.

“He's such a tease.”

“He gets that from you,” Amy says, and Jake huffs in mock-offense. “Are you sure we shouldn't just stay home from work?”

  /

Jake thinks of his upcoming meeting with Holt. He's been fearing it for so many hours now, and he's starting to wonder if the anxious anticipation might just not be worse than the meeting itself. He already knows what he has to do; the only thing left is to rip off the band-aid.

“I don't think it will make anything better if we don't.”

“Yeah.” Amy sighs, closing her eyes and leaning on his shoulder. “I love you.”

“Love you too. And you should probably shower and put on makeup unless you want everyone to know exactly how hungover you are.”

“I know you're right, and I hate it.”

Jake grins and strokes her hair before getting up from the floor. “I’ll go get Mac ready for the day.”

  /

“Jake?” Amy calls out before he can leave for the nursery with Mac in his arms, and he turns around. Her voice is still a little hoarse.

“Yeah?”

“It's going to be okay, babe. We’ll figure it out.”

 / 

Jake brushes his fingers through Mac’s already unruly curls. He thinks of playground dates, the storytime for toddlers their library holds every Wednesday, and how much time he’ll have to make sure Mac says his name first now. Then he thinks of the bigger image; of daring to set a good example for this child, even when it's hard. If he wants the world to be a better place for his son, he's going to have to start by taking responsibility for his own actions.

“Yeah. I know.”

  /

For the first time that day, he dares to believe it.

[cutegirlmayra]

Random AU Sonamy cause you know what?

Prompt:

It was time to go.

That other dimension… I didn’t figure I’d come back, but I couldn’t let my friends know that.

They each saw through me though, first with Tails and that Team Chaotix. Although Tails tried to send me off with as much hope as he could muster without shedding a tear, his entourage were wiping their tears without holding back or hiding. I respected them for it, but Tails even more, for how brave he wanted to be for me.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take of this…” I slowly raised my hand, expecting myself to say, ‘See ya around!’ but couldn’t muster it this time… instead, I just held it up… and let it flop down as though trying to act just as cool as my little dude.

I kicked the ground with a hop in my step as I moved back and raced off, heading to the next group, which were waiting to hold the portal for me when it opened.

“You’re a brave soul, Sonic… I’ve admired you for that.” Was probably the only directly nice thing Shadow ever said to me. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a swell guy! If you minus all the shady things he did in his ‘awakened’ life outside of Dr. Gerald Robotnik, but I could tell he was trying to be respectful too.

“Hey, it’s not that big of a sacrifice. Besides! With me gone, you’ll finally have a reason to show up!” I gave a goofy grin and put my hand to his shoulder, swaggering up with a wobble of my head and jerked upwards a thumbs-up from my hand.

He actually gave me a crooked smile for a moment… before dispersing off again with Rouge and Omega, looking disheartened.

Rouge looked like she wanted to say something, maybe ‘Be careful, Sonic’ but she didn’t quite get it out in time.

She stepped forward and put her hands to her chest, but as Shadow passed, looked down and decided not to say it. ...Probably for the best, I was getting sick of half-meanings. I wasn’t coming back, and the slim chance I could, I would be barely alive to tell the tale.

As she turned, something triggered in my mind. ‘Oh yeah… I’m forgetting someone.’ I felt myself getting reluctant. The person she reminded me of… the person that would definitely not be okay with any false hope, generalized chit-chat, and who wouldn’t hold her tongue back on how she felt about it.

Neither her tears… She would be the one to say, ‘Come back, Sonic.’ without a shred of regret.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and lifted my head up from that realization that I would have to face her… and convince her… of letting me leave…

For good this time.

“It’s not like you to look so gloomy, Sonic.” Knuckles… the only one who really wouldn’t put on a front that was fake.

I turned to him and flicked my nose, as we stood and faced each other, saying more with our stares into the other’s soul then any ‘not saying it’ goodbyes everyone else was trying to hold back.

He shakingly held up a hand, and seeing him about to lose himself, I took it immediately, giving him strength to help him rise up and stay strong.

He nodded, but couldn’t look back in my eyes… he was probably gonna cry somewhere off on Angel Island… and I… preferred it that way.

I gave a strong pull and tightened my grip on the embraced hands, giving him a strong look, and he finally smiled with a ‘tsk’, realizing I wasn’t gonna let him go till he could do it.

He returned the gesture and smirked, narrowing his eyes back into mine.

‘That’s it, buddy. Don’t falter the good fight.’ I thought to myself as we held that position for a moment, and finally… he let me go.

“Safe travels… but that would be an understatement.” He folded his arms, still smiling, before looking his head to the ground and concealing his smile… “Tails told me he wanted to say more to you… I would let him.”

“...Haa..!” I breathed out and arched my back towards the ground, not really wanting to face another hard goodbye so soon… but if it meant holding off from confronting Amy… I would do it. “Guess everyone’s taking my vacation kinda hard, huh?” I joked, but Knuckles just grabbed my head and started rough-housing his glove against my spiky quilled head.

“Get in a tan while you’re at it! You’re too pale skinned!” he gruffed.

I tried to push my head up but he kept it down, “H-hey! Knuckles!” but I did get a glance up… and let him keep my head down…

I could see water streaming down his muzzle like a cascading waterfall… guess I was bound to see it. No use keeping it all together and within.

With Knuckles and Tails… I embraced them, closing my eyes as Tails finally said what he really wanted to.

“I won’t forget you!” He cried out, gripping my back tightly. “I will be everything you believed me to be! I will protect the planet and things we love most, and I won’t let Eggman get away with this!”

‘Hang in there, buddy.’ I just lightly patted his back, about two or three, but was really starting to feel the toll now.

My eyes felt droopy, I was losing energy…

“You’re not gonna be alone! In that dimension, I’m sure you’ll meet others that look like us too! They’ll be there to support you, I’m sure of it!” Tails’s comforts only gave me a greater stone in my heart, but I knew he was only trying to help.

“Thanks, buddy. Take care of yourselves.” I pulled away but felt Tails resisting.

I paused as Knuckles saw I couldn’t show Tails my face… and took his arm.

“Come on, kid. He’s got a whole galaxy and then some to save.” Knuckles helped pulled Tails off and redirect his tears and anguish onto himself, having him coil up with his tails around Knuckles and start banging his chest.

“He doesn’t have to go alone! We could go with him!” he cried out, as I froze in my spot… tired. Too tired to even walk ahead… to be away from hearing it… to be away from my friends who were as close as family to my lonely self now… though I’d never admit it out loud.

“...Then who’d be here, Tails? Guarding the Master Emerald? Saving this world?” Come on, don’t give him--or me--that.” He patted his back strongly, “Stay strong, kid. We’ve gotta show him off with strength, it’s that strength he’ll need for the coming battle.”

“R-right…” Tails fought through his tears and turned around, “Sonic… We’re with you. You have our strength.” he held up his fists,... but I didn’t feel strength.

I felt so… weak.

I felt my body wanting to just submit but I wouldn’t let it.

I gave a sharp nod behind me, letting it linger, showing my friends nothing was going to phase me… and took off.

I couldn’t face Amy.

How could I?

I almost collapsed to my knees unable to move from everyone else!

However… my feet brought me to her home, and by now, it was pretty late at night.

She had no idea.

She didn’t know I was leaving, how long I’d be… how I needed her to move on.

A part of me hated to imagine that. But as I approached the home, the lights were out, and I felt a moment of relief.

‘Sleeping…’ my eyes lowered, as I tenderly and sorrowfully looked up to her window. ‘Quietly… peacefully… I shouldn’t disturb it.’

I felt so weary… tired of saying so many goodbyes without actually saying the stupid word.

I hated it.

The tears… the fear no one was admitting… the unknown was now looming over my fate, and at first I felt prepared… but now… I just wanted to get it over with.

‘Keep my friends safe first, then move on.’ I tightened my fist, finding a resolve. ‘I’ve gotta at least see her… Even if it is the last time…’

I felt power rising back to my bones, my muscles tensing and getting ready. I zoomed off to pick a flower, one I had always found to be Amy’s favorite--and well, might as well admit mine too--and took off to a tree branch right at her window.

I was off-balance, flailing a bit as I only had the tip of my shoe to steady myself on the ledge of her bedroom window, but putting the flower in my mouth I started to squeeze my fingers through the small crack under the plane.

It gave way, at last, not being locked.

I slowly rose it up after a few tugs and darted in, rolling on the ground with my quills as a cushion to make sure I landed swiftly but didn’t cause a stir.

Not much of a sound, besides the tumbling of my feet back to the ground.

I rose up and looked to my side…

Even in the night air, her quills swayed in blissful ignorance of the current situation. Her soft breaths lured me in and back, as my feet began to softly tread forward towards her.

I passed her nightstand, with a picture of us holding up peace-signs and hearts with our fingers and thumbs, just something goofy we did at some park or whatever.

Near it, a vase of the flowers I usually brought her. Some were wilted, yikes. I had kinda hoped I would visit at least enough times so she could switch them out frequently enough to not keep the dead ones.

I flinched at that imagery and thought… she kept the dead ones… when I didn’t replace them fast enough… and visit her often.

I took the flower out of my mouth and gently was about to place it on her nightstand… but stopped.

Time froze then, as my eyes darted up.

I won’t accept this.

I pulled back the flower to me and squinted my eyes, turning away from the picture and bent flowers, balding as their petals lay around the vase’s bottom…

I was getting irritated. Amy was the last, I had to do more than this. It wouldn’t be fair… no matter how much I dread it… I can’t just leave her without her final words…

I lightly pressed the freshly picked flower up to my muzzle… taking in it’s scent and thinking how I was going to do this… efficiently… without her suspecting this was my final farewell…

To lose her… to knowly have her lose me…

How to word this… how to even plan this?

All of that faded when I took another glance at her.

My serious expression was replaced with silent admiring.

She was so loyal. Any man would be crazy not to see her fidelity.

...She’d move on without me…

Find someone to love, Amy? I couldn’t say that, it almost made me gag to think about it. Plus, I’d think about it in hindsight once I’m floating in the nethersphere and realize that was too boldly assuming Amy could find anyone besides her miraculous gift at always locating me.

Be loved, Amy? As if no one does, that’s just cruel. She’s constantly surrounded by people and friends that adore her. No… No, I couldn’t say that.

She’d stir and think something was wrong with either of those lines…

I tapped the flower against my muzzle, further watching her quills sway gently in the blowing breeze, as though comforting her from the heat of the moment she was so innocently unaware of.

‘Alright,’ I finally said, having taken long enough time to figure this out. I hadn’t thought about any of my goodbyes this long because the people were already awake and holding up fronts. No fronts here… Just Amy. Sleeping. Waiting patiently for me to come by and replace a dozen of her dying roses…

Man, this was hard.

I leaned my head back and felt myself wincing at the idea I had come up with. Fool her into thinking she was dreaming? It could work, since Amy often daydreams and would go, ‘Is this a dream?’ quite frequently.

Yeah… That outta do it.

I sighed, this would still be faking it unless…

I twirled the stim of the flower between my two finger tips…

Unless I put the front down.

I looked away… I knew what I was talking about, duh.

But… that would be hard. I’m normally really shy about expressing my feelings, especially when it comes to receiving admiration or… Well, or this.

I lightly kissed the flower for good luck, winked to try and get myself into a romantic mood, but also took a long breath in and harshly let it out in a bit of stubbornness to prepare myself for speaking with my heart over my image…

Her hero… deserves to send himself off after wishing her goodnight.

I moved to her bedside and decided it was best to bend to one knee, at least, she may find it endearing.

Lightly, I teased her awake gently by brushing the rose over her eye, twiddling it before lightly stroking her face like it was a paint brush.

She gave little, soft groans of discomfort, tenderly waking up as I smiled in eagerness to see her again.

I didn’t want to think this was the last time, nor play it out like that.

I wanted, at least this one, to be genuine but disguised as a wishful, whimsical dream she was having. I could… send myself off knowing she was happy.

That was the way I wanted it to be. An ideal.

Amy crying in my arms and me having to hold her till it was time to go was too painful to even bare a thought of!

I didn’t want to waste my time trying to comfort when this wasn’t something that anyone could be comforted on!

Strength… Knuckles spoke of strength?

I tsked, I didn’t want to leave Amy with ‘strength’ or take anyone else’s strength when they needed all the help they could get!

They already mustered everything together to see me off, I wouldn’t bare it again, I would never let Amy bare that either…

Maybe she’d hate me when she fully came too, realized what had happened, and sob for centuries…

I felt something stab at my throat, and I forced myself to swallow after a few failed attempts.

‘Don’t cry, Amy… I want to make that very clear.’ I thought I could do this, but seeing her blink her eyes open made me realize how I really just wanted to flee from this whole ordeal.

I didn’t want to break Amy’s heart. Even knowing she’d cry later was just as equally tormenting than having her do so in front of me now.

I wouldn’t break her heart… but I probably should. I wouldn’t dwell too much on it. Amy’s a big girl now, she’ll have to come around and realize that I’m not coming back-

I couldn’t finish my thoughts as she rubbed her eyes and yawned, looking over to me.

“...Emm… Sonic?”

Now was my last chance… to tell her everything or… at least, not put up the charades anymore.

“Heya.” I whispered, finding a smile I didn’t realize I still had. “Long time no see.”

She looked a bit confused, maybe still half-way through dreamland, but relaxed back and took my hand holding the flower, “Flowers~” she giggled, and suddenly my entire night was made.

“Yeah, just for you.” I played, dangling the flower above her head and watched her drowsily paw at it like a cat would a string. She scrunched her nose up, still snickering as though trying to laugh but her lungs hadn’t woken up that far yet.

“I like it.” she yawned again, and her batting reach grew lesser and lesser until I handed her the flower. “I missed you.” her grip on my hand was so light… I didn’t realize how the touch would send me into such immediate, gripping grief.

My heart was being choked, man, I’m so dramatic! I never knew I could feel this intensely about something like saying goodbye to everyone!

It wasn’t goodbye… If I told myself that, I could do it!

“I-” I felt my voice get constrained and had to take a moment to wipe my own face and get a grip. ‘Keep it together, Sonic… or she’ll know.’ I pep-talked myself and shook my head, “I thought you would.”

“Hehe… You’re still funny.” she let her sluggish finger poke and slide around my face, making me watch her with a puzzled but funny look that continued to keep her laughing.

“Am I still in a dream?”

That… made me so happy.

“Well, depends.” I stated, getting comfortable as I moved from my knee to squatting by her side, inching closer and pulling my hands back to give my heavy head some leverage… more than what I could do for my heart at this point. “What was going on in your dream?”

“Hmm…” she thought a second, almost closing her eyes and drifting back to sleep.

Maybe that was for the best… but…

I kinda didn’t want it to end.

“Amy..?” I lightly called out to her as her eyes twitched slightly and she graced me again with their vision… green… darker than mine, but emerald like the sea below Angel Island… highlighted by it’s chaotic glow.

“We were… having a picnic… in Spagonia, maybe?” she rubbed her eyes, still having the other hand holding mine.

“Ah, I remember that!” I instantly found myself looking up, and my spirits soar. “You were so obsessed with the architecture! You barely ate, you had so much to say about how beautiful it all was.”

“Well, it was..!” she lazily commented, her eyes trying to fight the sleep. I didn’t feel bad about keeping her somewhat awake though… I realized… I needed this. I needed this too.

“Amy… You were beautiful there too.” My words I had never uttered allowed, now made me think back and remember all the times I’ve thought it, but wouldn’t dare speak it out loud. “But you know that, don’t you?” I smiled even wider, seeing her pause a second as though falling back to sleep or in disbelief.

“This is a dream!” she exclaimed and started laughing as though evilly, “Then come to bed. I need a good cuddle…”

I looked away and had to hide my snickering, I never knew Amy could be scandalous! ...scratch that, I never knew she would DREAM of something so ridiculous!

“How about just your hand?” I cradled it with both mine, seeing her fiddle with the flower and press it right up to her nose. I worried it’s strong scent would wake her up… but it didn’t. I tossed her dead-weighted hand around and toyed with her a moment, before lowering my head to it, and letting her own scent trail its way into my memory and feel her warmth from the bed’s covers override my own heated anxiety.

“Amy… I-” I felt my eyes growing sleepy too… All the times I could have just teased her by climbing over the covers and laying beside her… how I wanted that more than ever, to just… take a nap and let each other hold the other… No images, no expectations… just.... Tired. “I missed you too.”

“Hmm?” she was waking up more, I needed to make this quick.

“Heh,” In the moments I had had with her… this was bound to be the best, though bittersweet, of my favorites. “I’m gonna miss you… but I need you to go back to sleep now, finish that wonderful dream of yours… and never stop having it.” I couldn’t tell her to move on. Gosh dang it, I couldn’t!

I was holding her hand, I was letting it rest right up against my face and I- … I-!!!

I was getting to invested in this goodbye.

I speedily let go of her hand and got up, startling her awake.

“H-huh?”

I gripped my fists tightly, “This was a mistake.” I looked away, “I can’t stay here… I can’t say these things anymore.”

“Sonic..?”

“I have to go away now, Amy.” I couldn’t be sweet to her, I’d ruin her!

“What… why?” she started to turn on the bed, “Is this… real?”

A real nightmare. I was gonna die. I knew it. Even if I lived, I would be stuck in another dimension with no way out.

Tails… Even if there was another Tails, Knuckles, and-... And Amy! I would owe it to her but..! But..!

“If I find you again… I won’t hold back anymore, alright?” I didn’t want to make a promise.

“What..? N-no…” She started to sit up on her bed, and I rushed to put the covers back over her, hoping to convince her to go back to bed.

“No other will do… that’s wrong, isn’t it?” I had seen people who looked like my friends in other dimensions… it was foolish of me to think that would suffice. Amy… if she knew what I was saying, she’d probably stomp the ground and cry out that it wouldn’t be fair, that none of those other girls were still her… it would be too cruel. I’ve messed up. I’ve gotta go-!

I felt her suddenly grapple me and turn me onto the bed.

“A-Amy!” I was absolutely startled, I didn’t expect her to be so strong while she was still getting up.

“I’m cold.” she lied, holding me down and tightly. “Don’t go.”

“Amy, I can’t do this. I can’t do this anymore..!” I tried to fight it, but she was absolutely strong, and I even questioned if she was faking being asleep.

But I waved my hand over her eyes and watched as they closed and she was slowly falling back to sleep.

“You make this so challenging.” I huffed, but smiled and chuckled at how even in her sleep, she was a rascal. “I can’t stay…” I lightly put my hand to the side of her face, which she leaned into, and tried to move her head to my chest. “But trust me,... if there is a way… I won’t fail you twice.” I cupped her adorably sleepy but scarily strong head in my hands as she tried to resist it a bit, but was able to move and lower her back to her pillow. Slyly figuring out a way to not disturb her, I pushed the other pillow to have her hold it, and made my way out of her grasp. “Phew…”

Memories of Amy’s antics swarmed me… then Tails… then Knuckles… then everyone…

I ended up falling to my butt and spending a good minute trying to conceal my tears without a sound.

She fell asleep… thank goodness.

I got up and picked up the flower that was slightly crushed from under her back, and placed it back on the counter. I took two petals that had fallen and placed one in her hand… then the other I tucked under my glove and held in the space between my bare palm and glove.

“Don’t wait for me anymore.” I tugged the bottom of my glove down, making sure the petal wouldn’t accidentally fall out and that it was secure. I gave one final, good look over to her…

“...But dream of me… always…”

-A New Day-

I woke up immediately when I groggily read the text from Tails that Sonic was badly injured, but somehow, used the last of the Chaos Energy inside his body to locate the Master Emerald across dimensions, and jumped!

“Jumped!? W-woah-woah!” I fell out of my bed and crashed hard on my chin, but adjusting to the pain, I kept scrolling through the updates.

He was Chaos Controlled directly from the Master Emerald with the help of a confused Knuckles who reacted at once and used his own influence over the Master Emerald to channel it’s power to wherever Sonic was reaching from.

He apparently came back, half-alive…

My eyes shook in terror, “Oh, Sonic!” I felt my heart leap out of my chest as I quickly wrote back as I spoke the words aloud. “Where is he!? I’ll house him. Tell Vanilla and Cream to bring everything to my house! Food, medicine, the works! We won’t lose him again!”

My eyes were still red from countless, sleepless nights of waiting for him to come through my window and surprise me again. I really had thought I imagined it… but I woke up with a petal from a new flower in my hand, and looked to see the one from my hallucinations that night on my nightstand.

When the others told me what he had done, I bashed the trees down and ranted with a mighty thunder in my step and tone how they should have believed in him more, should have given him hope, and the strength he needed wasn’t their undying love for him but their support in that he could do the impossible!

I kept telling myself, ‘Of course, he’ll come back!’ but my anger was from knowing that when he was trying to take my hand and say goodbye… he couldn’t.

He needed me! Oh, how my Sonic needed me to pull him in and shout out to the universe that he was going to be alright, that he was going to return, and that none of this was necessary!

I should have woken up and seen more clearly! I should have… I was the only one who could have contested their naysaying and cheered him up. I would have… I would have gotten so many words out that would be completely incoherent due to my rushing tears…

They brought him to me right away, and I was upset I couldn’t reach them in time to have helped moved him, but they insisted I stay put.

When I saw him… on a white gurney and barely able to stay awake… looking rough and completely done for… I felt my whole being cry out that he would make it… but my whole being slid down the door’s frame at just seeing him look so badly… so drained of life... 

He was out for days… but he had been gone for so long…

I was replacing his bandages, starting with the cooling rag, I was just gonna wipe him down from the sweat. I put him in my own bed and was sleeping by the side of the bed with my head to his side at night… sleeping in my chair, nursing him back to health.

He didn’t make much noise expect for awful twitches that would make me think he was dying… it scared me so much… but I held his hand as he would groan in his sleep, as though trying to move and wake up … but couldn’t.

Couldn’t… shouldn’t… wouldn’t… 

Could, would, should…

These words were infuriating me lately.

I dipped the cool rag into the water on my nightstand, which I had used to replace the vase with flowers, but kept the last flower in a see-through box, letting it sit on my windowsill as I waited through endless nights for him…

My eyes must have made me look like a raccoon rather than a hedgehog by now… but as I wiped them and patted his darling, but hurt face… I finally saw him breath out and roll his head towards my touch.

My eyes widened, was this his last breath or first real moments of consciousness?

“S-…” I felt my voice break against a dam of emotions. “Sonic?” Then flood my mouth, “Sonic!?” the sound vibrated to every cell, sparking me to life as I jolted up and hung over him. “Sonic, can you hear me!?”

His eyes were blurred, but he opened them, looking around as though unable to see me.

“Sonic! Sonic, you’re alive! You’re here!” I said that to assure him of him, not for myself.

I embraced him with restrained joy, trying to not hurt him further, as I heard him cough and try and reach his hand up.

I immediately pulled back and helped him up, hearing him hiss at the pain but fighting it.

“S-sorry! I’ll let you rest more-” I was gonna lower him back down but he put a hand out to my shoulder, as though telling me not too.

He adjusted himself to leaning back and I put pillows in his way to give him some comfort as he was somewhat up now.

“How are you feeling? You okay?” That was stupid to ask, but I was so worried… one peep, one little, measly sound would drown out all this panicking… anything!

He coughed again, and looked around.

Seeing where he was, his eyes widened and he looked back to me, as though stunned.

“You’re home… Sonic, you’re…” I covered my mouth, bursting into tears and dropping to my knees, holding myself up with my other hand gripping the bed.

I turned my hand around to show him the palm of my hand, tucked into my gold bracelet was his petal he had left in my hand, ripped and torn, crinkled and decaying… I never let it go.

He smiled and let out a puff of relief and--what I assume to be--joy as he scratched weakly at his own glove.

“Y-you want it off..?” I was speaking through tears, and blinked several times to see what I was doing, and wiping my tears away before lifting his glove up and seeing…

Not even tarnished. It was as though the petal in the palm of his hand was eternal, as though the dimension was only a blink in time, but it was still a vibrant rosy color, pinkish hue, but leaning more towards the red.

I dipped my head to his hand and just cried, kissing the palm and the petal as I knew what it meant.

“I missed you too.” I finally broke my voice and wailed in my tears.

I knew he hated goodbyes and crying…

But I knew how much he loved ‘hellos’.

(resisted Italics this time lol  Better with or without them? -meaning both Bold, Underlined, etc.-)

(ALSO! I remembered I was gonna do kissing but I was so wrapped and enthralled in the drama that I forgot o-o; Eh, makes it more in-character XD)

[latin-dr-robotnik]

Sonic, Knuckles, Cream, Infinite :P

Sonic - Favourite game?

You know I keep Sonic Adventure and Sonic Unleashed very close to my heart, maybe Sonic CD too. But there’s the one that rules over them all, the almighty Sonic the Hedgehog 3 🙌🙌🙌

Knuckles - Favourite level/location?

Look at these places and tell me you wouldn’t want to live there :P

I’m going through a kind of Apotos fanboy phase right now (that concept art is soooooooooooooo good), but I also love Adabat, Stardust Speedway, Studiopolis, Twinkle Park (also favorite SA1 level), Mystic Mansion, heck I even love Green Hill Zone when only staring at its beauty and not playing through it time and time again. I actually wrote an article about places I’d wanna live in the Sonic universe, too. lol.

Cream - Any Headcanons?

Lots. 

Most of my headcanons are shipping-related, like the ones I shared with Cel on Sonic looking for other ways to show his feelings (like the hidden meaning behind flowers, staying up all night on a call and so many other little things, we literally peaked right there lol), but some of my favorite headcanons are actually location-related. For example, there’s my Flying Battery Good Future headcanon, one of my all-time favorites; or how about this underrated (if I do say so myself lol) headcanon on Holoska’s Canned Horror being suspiciously absent from markets across the world, or Stardust Speedway actually playing lounge music during the day! I do love my headcanons :P

Infinite - A character you think needs more love?

Instead of picking one underrated character, I think I’m gonna pick one character that has been all over the place in recent years. I want my boy Knuckles to get more love in future stories (yeah completely unbiased coming from “the Knuckles guy” in Tumblr Sonic Heroes lol). Also, unpopular opinion right here, but I want them to keep the “guardian of the Master Emerald” bit as a secondary thing in favor of more Heroes!Knuckles energy. I love that “I’ll destroy anything that stands in my way” kind of energy from him, rushing head-first into adventure with Sonic and Tails (and add Amy, for good measure.) Yeah, this takes away most of his established identity, but there are only so many ways in which you can tie Angel Island and the Master Emerald into a plot before it feels stale. I want my boy to be constantly bantering with Sonic and protecting Tails and Amy like they are his younger siblings, while also discovering entire new places that may challenge his understanding of the world, since he spends very long periods of time floating in the sky alone. Like I said, I want more Sonic Heroes-like love for my boy... and probably the entire cast that took part in that game.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #444

“the monster you made is wearing the crown  /  i’ll be the king, and you’ll be the clown”

Do you take off from school, or work for your birthday? Ha, I used to try to talk Mom into letting me stay home from school... It only sometimes worked. Have you ever created ‘open when’ letters for someone? No. That'd be cute for an s/o, though. What is the best thing about being in the relationship you’re in right now or about being single? Not having to fear my partner leaving because of the struggles I'm going through. Not having to worry about not being enough for another person, because I'm not even enough for myself. Do you have a favourite painting? Not by a historical artist, no, but there is a piece by a deviantART artist called "Denialism" (by NukeRooster/Tatchit, if you're interested) that I adore so much I've actually gotten her permission to get it tattooed one day when I can afford a brilliant artist to do it. What are some of the best life hacks you know? /shrug What makes you smile without fail? MARK LAUGHING laj;sdkafjwlk;erj Do you know what you’ll be getting your loved ones for the holidays this winter? No clue. That's still a whiles off. What is your biggest short-term goal (within the next month)? Just lose a decent amount of weight for a month's time. What will your next tattoo be of? It depends on what cash I have available, really. As much as it sucks, I think my next tat is a whiles off because I just have more pressing things to pay for. Has anyone very close to you ever died? Besides pets, the closest human to me that's ever died was Jason's mom. If you were throwing your significant other/best friend a themed party, what would the theme be? Uh, Frieza-related, obviously. Do you feel prepared for the apocalypse? I don't believe in the apocalypse in the biblical sense of it being determined by an ultimate power, so this isn't something I really think about. Whenever humanity ends, it ends. I don't have a say, so I may as well not obsess over it. Do you think you will have children naturally, adopt, or forgo having children altogether? I'm not having kids, but if I did, I know that either I'd have to give birth to them or my hypothetical wife would for me to feel *properly* connected to them as a mother should. Oh, or if my male partner had a kid from a previous relationship, but I'd have to be REALLY in love with him to feel like that child is also my own. Do you take pictures of yourself on a daily basis? Oh god no. Do you believe in angels? No, but rather just spirits. Is there anything in your past that you used to regret, but now you don’t? Hm, maybe? Does your knee hurt? My knees always hurt. Has anyone ever called you sexy? Yes. Do you like raisins? omg nooooo What is your favorite bug? Butterflies! :') Do you like Scrabble? Sure, it's fun for a board game. Do you have a printer? Yes. What is your favorite food? Cheeseburgers or pizza, probably. I know, so American. Have you ever overheard a conversation you weren’t supposed to? Yes. Do you like ants? They are very fascinating when you really think about it, but I still find them incredibly annoying. Did you like the movie Antz? I loved it as a kid. Have you ever drank goat milk? No, I don't believe so. What’s your favorite video game? Silent Hill 2 and Shadow of the Colossus. Do you like cats? I love kitties!!! :') Are goldfish your favorite fish? No. I think my favorite is probably the lionfish. Do you like vanilla pudding? No. I only like chocolate pudding. What is your opinion on gay marriage? I 100% support it and would fight to the death for it. What is your opinion on gay adoption? Don't even fucking look at me if you see a problem with a parentless child finding a home with two people in love. Who was the last person you had a crush on? Sara. What’s the most expensive piece of clothing you own? I have zero clue. Why do you drive the car you have right now? I don't have my own car. Have you ever seen your best friend cry? Omg yes and it sucks. Are you friends with your neighbors? No. What is your current desktop picture? One of my favorite pictures of my late pup, Teddy. What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen out the window of an airplane? Mountains! Does your neighbor have any pets? *shrug* Have you ever swam in a mountain lake? No, but that sounds VIBIN'. Has a cat/dog ever thrown up on your bed? alksdjflk;a;jdfalwe yes Have you ever had a concussion? One or two. Do you know anyone who has a pet gecko? Not currently, I think? I want a fat-tailed gecko, though. :( Would you ever go bear hunting? I wouldn't dare hunt ANY animal. Have you ever seen two movies at the theater in a row? I have not. How many teenagers do you know who have babies? I know no teen personally that has a child, but there were some pregnant students in high school. If you could keep your parents or trade them for other parents, which would you pick? I would NEVER change my parents. Is there a piggy bank in the room you’re in? It's not a "piggy" bank, per se, but my sister got me a skull one that she says is for my tattoo funds. :') How many sets of twins do you know? Two, off the very top of my head. If you have younger siblings, are you very protective of them? Yes. No one fucks with her for as long as I live. If you have older siblings, are they very protective of you? Not especially. Who is your favorite Disney Channel person? Uhhh, maybe Raven Symone? How many pets do you have? Just two. Do you think you will be successful in life? No. :/ What do you have pierced? My earlobes, twice, and my bottom lip. I have been dyinnnnggg for some new ones lately. :/ Does techno annoy you as much as it annoys me? No, I actually enjoy quite a bit of techno. What’s your comfort food? Ice cream. Do you like paranormal stuff? YES. Do you have a favorite stuffed toy? Rebel, my adorable meerkat plush from Jason, and Brownie, my moose from Cabela's. What’s the most exciting project you were given? In a way, my senior project since you got to choose your own topic, but I dreaded the presentation. Do you have a good sense of direction? Not at ALL. What are your favorite colour for a cat? Orange! If you had to live your life carrying a shield, what would its design be? This is gonna sound super, super cheesy, but probably a heart to symbolize how love should and could block the effects of hate and general evil and that we should pursue that instead of violence. Out of all the cancers, which one do you think needs to find a cure first? Oh god, they all do. If I had to pick one though, it'd be one of the inevitably fatal kinds, like pancreatic. What are your general afterthoughts when you’ve finished a book? I feel accomplished for actually reading to a story's completion. How many pairs of glasses (not sunglasses) have you owned? Two, I think? What color is your flash-drive? Hot pink. Have you ever built a sand castle? Yeah. How many houses have you lived in? Six. One I have no memory of. Do you shut off the water while you brush your teeth? Yes. What video game should everybody play at least once? Amnesia: A Machine for PIgs for the symbolism. It blows my mind how most horror fans hate it; it's like they totally miss the point. 100 years from now, what modern things will people look back on and say, “WTF?” Hopefully things like homophobia, racism, misogyny, concepts like those. What is impossible to understand until it happens to you? Mental illness, to name only one thing. What fictional food item from a television show, cartoon, movie, or video game have you always wanted to try? Hm. There's a lot that has looked super good, really. What’s something that gets much more hate than it deserves? Nickelback, lmao. What phrases or sayings drive you crazy? "Everything happens for a reason," "it could be worse/some people have it worse," "it's all part of God's plan," "just think positive"... a lot of stuff. Do you have a deviantART? I do, even though Eclipse made it fucking suck. I only really stay because I cling to the dying hope of being at least somewhat successful on there, and I enjoy keeping tabs on the artwork of the hundreds of people I watch there. Who is your favorite character in your favorite movie? Mufasa, even if he doesn't last long in the movie. :''''''( Have you ever been to Germany? No, but I'd love to! What is your favorite holiday? Christmas. Have you ever been ice skating? No. The blades on the skates scare me. Have you ever taken a karate class? No. Do you have any nieces or nephews? I have a lot, if you include my half-siblings' kids. Do you own an Xbox? Nah, I've always been a PlayStation gal. Would you date someone who’s well-known for cheating? Nope. Would you break up with someone your parents didn’t approve of? No. I'd consider their reasons, but ultimately, it's about me loving the person. Could you be in a relationship without sex? Yeah, sure. It's not ideal, but I mean if the other person is just very opposed, I'm certainly not forcing them. Emotional intimacy is more important to me, anyway. Have you ever been “friendzoned”? Yep. :') Briefly, anyway. Jason tried for my sake, but it was VERY short-lived by no one's fault but my own because all I know how to do is fuck shit up when it comes to him. Which “famous couple” is your favorite? LOOK Mark and Amy are FUCKIN GEMS Have you ever “destroyed” a relationship? Pretty fucking much. Are you the “dominant” or the “submissive” part in a relationship? I'm submissive by nature. Do you think Valentine’s Day is overrated? No, I think it's a cute holiday. Which do you feel is worse of the two to smoke: weed or tobacco? Well, weed has more carcinogens, but at least it has actual health benefits. Who did you last see that you haven’t seen in ages? *shrug* Are you photogenic at all? God no.