#and for what problems shadow the hedgehog has i don’t think that’s one of them. it’s pretty good with shadow's mental health

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

it’s still deeply funny to me that sonic heroes of all fucking games manages to depict abuse better than anything ken penders wrote over a decade.

[writingtraumaforever]

'Green' Justice: A Courtship Mini-Sequel

Notes: I really hope you guys like this introduction to Rouge! Don't worry, there will be more of Amy in the future. I took creative liberties on why and how the other characters begin appearing, taking inspiration from Sonic X's reasoning in the show.

Summary: More and more Mobians are showing up on earth, and Sonic is super excited about it!.. Until a certain bat shows up and gets a little too close to Shadow for his liking.

Courtship Masterpost!

Link to my AO3!

Start:

Sonic has officially decided. He hates bats.

Yup. What’s good about bats?? They’re scary, they carry diseases, they can fly, see in the dark–

Okay. Bats are kinda cool.

Oo! And Batman!!

Anyway. So maybe he doesn’t hate all bats.

But he doesn’t like this one.

See. Turns out that when he and Shadow use Chaos Control to go Super?? It creates connections between worlds. Kinda like the warp rings but instant. So after the ARK battle, more and more “aliens” like Sonic, Knuckles and Tails started showing up from other worlds. This has been mostly kept under wraps by GUN since some humans feel threatened by Sonic and those like him’s very existence, thinking they’re too powerful and only seem to bring trouble wherever they appear.

Which is kinda fair.

But they literally saved the world from being crashed into by a giant space station like– a year ago?? So what’s the big deal??

Anyway. Sonic’s entire family pretty much is partnered with GUN at this point because of this. They’re started a whole new program called the ‘Mobian Project’: Mobian being the new term coined for their kind. Mobo-Sapiens being the scientific term. Knuckles came up with ‘Mobian’. Said it sounded like the words ‘mammal’ and ‘alien’ had a baby, so it made sense.

It all essentially meant that if a new Mobian showed up on GUN’s radar, Sonic and Team were dispatched to welcome them and help them assimilate to earth’s culture safely. Shadow came along if the Mobian had special abilities like Sonic’s speed or Tails’ flight, taking record of them to report back to GUN. Surprisingly, though, most Mobians were pretty basic. Just your regular anthropomorphic animal beings. 

The only one who had any sort of new abilities so far was a pink hedgehog Sonic had found named Amy. She was like. Crazy strong. And she could summon this giant and terrifying hammer out of thin air! And she was like. A witch or something, Sonic was pretty sure. She did palm readings and tarot card stuff, and she was rarely wrong– if ever.

He met her when Eggman used the quill Sonic gave him in exchange of working with him to fight Shadow awhile back to create a robotic version of him called Metal Sonic. Eggman had managed to pick up her arrival on earth on his radar before GUN had, and sent Metal Sonic to kidnap her. Long story short, Sonic saved her, and she was practically a part of the family now! She lived with Randall and Rachel, pretty much an honorary Handel now. And JoJo got a sister!

Sonic liked her. And she liked him. Her and Maddie really hit it off, too. And Shadow. He told Sonic once she reminded him a lot of Maria..

Anyway, Sonic was pretty happy about this little project they had going with GUN. And with Maddie, Tom and Shadow all keeping a close eye on the organization to make sure they don’t do anything sketchy, he had zero problems working with them. Especially if it meant helping more lost Mobians like him find their home..

He hadn’t met a single one he hadn’t liked yet, even though they were few and far between..

That is.. Until the stupid bat came along.

He doesn’t even know where she came from! Apparently it’s classified, but Shadow told him GUN caught her infiltrating their facility. She nearly got away with a chaos emerald! And evidently that’s all it takes to get on GUN’s good side, weirdly enough, because next thing Sonic knew, she was working for ‘em.

And partnered, specifically, with Shadow.

Shadow hadn’t seemed too mad about it, which just irritated Sonic more. Shadow always said he preferred to work alone, so what made this girl so special?? 

“She’s good at incognito field work, which is good because that’s my weak point,” Shadow explained, “And she can fight. Really well. I wasn’t sure about her at first, but it doesn’t look like I’ll have to worry about her holding me back.”

“I’d really like to meet her,” Sonic had so foolishly beamed back, excited about having yet another of their kind on earth, “She sounds super cool!”

She, in fact, sucked.

He met her nearly a week later when he was at GUN waiting on Shadow. He had been away a few days, but Sonic wanted to surprise him by being there to greet him when he came back. It was while he was waiting that he saw her for the first time.

And she was… blessed. Blessed is a good word for it. One that Aunt Rachel often uses to describe ladies with large- ahem, how does he put this like a gentleman?… Knockers.

She was all curve and confidence, looking absolutely stunning even after a long mission with full makeup and a few cool piercings on her left ear. Her GUN suit was very sexist in Sonic’s opinion– who authorized such a revealing and tight uniform for a field agent??? It wasn’t practical at all.

But none of that is what really got his attention.

What got his attention was the way Shadow was smiling while she talked to him. They were walking out of the building, Shadow’s arms crossed and an amused look on his face.

And her gloved hands— why do her gloves go all the way up her arms?? Who does she think she is?? The Queen???— are all over him as she walks beside him. One arm is interlinked with his own, the other hand moving to rest on his bicep as she talks about something that’s obviously just soooo funny.

Her pink lipstick makes every word she’s saying seem vibrant, but Sonic is sure she’s surely not that interesting.

He should go save Shadow from such a boring conversation. Yup.

He’s gonna do it.

He’s gonna go over there and stop her from harassing Shadow any further.

Even if he is smiling… and seems perfectly comfortable with her arm around his.. and hasn’t even noticed Sonic is there like he usually does the second he catches a whiff of his scent..

Sonic’s tail sags behind him, his ears folding back. He suddenly feels silly. Stupid. Foolish. Embarrassed.

He takes a few steps back, the need to run suddenly becoming overwhelming and suffocating. In the process of turning to leave, he finds himself tripping right over a parking bumper and falling with a little gasp. His eyes shut for the impact—

Except it doesn’t come. Instead, black arms cradle his body right above the concrete. Emerald eyes open and look up to see Shadow staring down at him with knitted up brows.

“Are you alright??” 

Sonic hates how concerned he sounds. How his chest thumps from his heart pounding inside it.

“Uh-huh,” the blue hedgehog nods with an awestruck look in his eyes. Shadow looks right back at him, taking a moment to examine him as if to make sure Sonic truly is just fine before he offers a small huff and amused curve of his lips.

“What are you doing here??”

“Waiting for you,” he answers honestly as Shadow helps him to stand back up properly, Sonic offering a bashful smile at how Shadow’s hands linger on Sonic’s arms even once he’s standing.

“You didn’t have to do that, I was coming to see you..,” he rubs his hands down Sonic’s arms, fingers brushing along the backs of Sonic’s hands before he lets him go. Sonic shivers.

“I know— I just wanted to be here to welcome you back,” Sonic explains with a little blush on his muzzle.

Then his eyes catch movement behind Shadow.

The bat.

She’s standing there smirking with a hand on her hip. Watching them.

Shadow follows Sonic’s gaze to the bat, clearing his throat and quickly stepping aside to introduce them properly, “Oh, Rouge. This is—“

“Sonic the Hedgehog,” she finishes knowingly, reaching her hand out to shake Sonic’s, “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Aw yeah?” Sonic forces a smile and shakes her hand despite his twisting stomach at her acknowledgment, “All good things, I hope.”

“Mostly,” she winks, “I’m Rouge.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard about you too! Agent Rachel is my aunt. She talks about you sometimes.”

“Oh?” Rouge’s ears perk at this, but then a playful pout is placed on her rosy lips as she directs her attention back to Shadow, “You don’t talk about me?”

And Shadow, the absolute idiot, nods immediately and dumbly confirms, “I’ve told Sonic of our partnership.”

“I’m flattered,” the bat grins, her smile full of mischief and coquet. Sonic’s stomach twists more.

 “Did you trip??” Shadow’s gaze returns to Sonic, seemingly dismissive of the previous conversation and still worried over the fact he just prevented Sonic from cracking his head on the concrete.

“Oh, um— yeah, I was just— I forgot I had promised mom I’d pick up another bag of Ozzy’s dogfood. He’s out, so… I was gonna go.. get that..”

Shadow’s frown looks uneven, eyes observing Sonic in a suspicious sort of way, “I could go with you??”

“No, no! That’s fine. I didn’t mean to interrupt you guys’ uh-..,” he awkwardly gestures both his hands to Shadow and Rouge before clearing his throat and, “cool-spy-conversation.”

“We were just debriefing and saying our goodbyes,” Shadow replies simply, looking at Rouge again, “I’m sure Rouge has her own life to get back to.”

“Hardly,” she shrugs nonchalantly, “Haven’t had the time to really make any friends here yet. Or get to know the town..”

And Sonic, the poor, unfortunate dummy he is, absolutely word vomits with zero thought behind it, “You should come bowling with me and my family tonight!”

He mentally facepalms.

Rouge blinks at his sudden loud and aggressively inviting voice, Shadow staring at Sonic now with a confused sort of look.

Sonic flounders a moment before offering a wide grin and awkward chuckle, “I just mean— we’re going bowling tonight. There are tournaments coming up, and my big brother is on a bowling team, so we’ve been going to practice a lot.. You could come?? Since you don’t.. have any friends here yet..”

Shadow’s brows furrow a bit at this. Sonic may be trying his hardest to seem cool and friendly, but Shadow knows better. Knows him.

Something’s up.

“That’s mighty nice of you, Blue,” Rouge smiles, Sonic’s nerves grating at the unauthorized nickname, “But I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“You wouldn’t be imposing at all! In fact, with you and Shadow there, it would even out the teams! Whuddo’ya say??”

Shadow looks at Rouge, Rouge looking back at him before shrugging with a smirk, “I guess I could use some fun.”

“Great!” Sonic beams, sounding way too enthusiastic about her agreeing to come. Very forced. “We’ll be expecting ya! Anyway, I’d love to stay and chat some more, but I gotta run. Y’know how dogs get when they’re hungry!” Sonic laughs so damn awkwardly, his teeth feel weird in his mouth. “See ya!”

Shadow opens his mouth to tell him to wait, but he’s already gone. Only thing left of him is the small patch of dust he kicked up in his leave.

Rouge snorts behind him, “Sheesh. I know you said he was a ball of energy, but I didn’t expect him to be so skittish.”

“He’s not normally like that,” Shadow mutters, brows furrowed and eyes still looking in the direction Sonic disappeared off to.

“Well I’m not hatin’. He’s your man. Who am I to judge?”

Shadow just sighs, crossing his arms and his mind racing with possible explanations of Sonic’s odd behavior.

•••

“And then I invited her to come bowling with us!!” Sonic horrifically concludes, groaning as he collapses onto the couch face-first dramatically.

“Nnmf-mm-mm-mmf-mm.”

Maddie blinks amusededgy but sympathetically at the sight of her poor, destressed middle child with his mouth buried in the cushions, “…Didn’t catch that, sweetie.”

Sonic lifts his head just enough to clearly pout, “I said I need to get longer gloves,” his face splats right back into the cushion.

“Oh Sonic,” Maddie moves to sit on the couch, rolling her boy so that his head is resting in her lap rather than buried in the couch, “There’s nothing wrong with your gloves.”

“They’re not cool enough. They’re basic,” he grumbles with a little furrow of his brows at his hands, as if the white gloves he’s currently sporting have personally offended him.

“Not cool enough??” Maddie scoffs, “Oh honey- green is not a good color on you.”

“I’m blue, Mom. Blue. Have you seriously thought I was green this whole time??”

“No—“ Maddie sighs and rolls her eyes hopelessly, her hand resting in Sonic’s quills to soothingly pet through them, “It’s an expression. Someone who is metaphorically green means they’re green with envy. Jealous.”

Sonic gasps dramatically, “I am not jealous!”

“You sure sound jealous,” she points out with a quirk of her brow, “Not to mention- where has that classic Sonic confidence gone?? I’ve never heard you sound so insecure and down on yourself!”

“I’m not insecure,” Sonic defends with a huff, crossing his arms defiantly as he pouts up at his mother from his spot in her lap, “I’m just-… needing some changes. Upgrades! I’m finding myself.”

“You already know yourself,” Maddie reminds him with a little poke to the middle of his forehead, “And Shadow knows you too. And he likes you. Not some batty version of you.”

A sigh escapes Sonic’s nose at this, averting his eyes with a grumbled “I know”. Why’d she always have to be right??

He’s quiet a moment. His ears folding back and a vulnerable look in his eyes as he looks back to his mom, “But what if he likes her more..?”

“Well..,” Maddie sighs and then shrugs, “then it’ll be okay. You can’t fault him for how he feels or her for being the one to make him feel that way.. you care about Shadow, right??”

Sonic nods slowly, “He’s my best friend..”

Maddie smiles all soft and empathetic, “Then you have to be prepared to be okay with whatever makes him happy..”

Sonic frowns at this, looking down at his gloved hands with a knit in his brow as he ponders this. 

Is he ready to step aside if it means Shadow will be happier without him?? Is he ready to lose the guy he’s spent so much time with, so many conversations with, so many adventures with.. if it means Shadow will be better off?..

Yes. He is. It’ll kill him, he thinks. But he could do it for Shadow.

“But just to be 100% clear??” Maddie adds with a hand tilting Sonic’s head back up to look at her, “I seriously doubt that’s gonna be the case, kiddo.”

Sonic offers a tired sort of smile at this, “Thanks, mom..”

Maddie hums and leans down to place a kiss to his forehead, “Anytime, sweetheart.”

It’s about that moment Knuckles strolls in to grab some snacks from the kitchen and finds them like this, blinking at them a few times before immediately having a determined glare overcome his face, “Is it time to enact my duties as eldest of the sons of the Wachowski tribe and bring harm to the Utmost Being of Life??”

“Not yet, Knucks,” Sonic sighs with an eyeroll.

“Mm. I shall be at the ready,” and with that, he goes back to gathering his grapes.

•••

The family arrives at the bowling alley promptly as always, very good at always being on time despite their constant chaos. Wade is already there with a lane booked and warming up, Knuckles immediately going to greet his bowling partner merrily. 

Sonic feels like a pile of nerves, standing in line with his folks as they wait to get their bowling shoes. His eyes are darting around. No sign of Shadow or Rouge yet, but if he knows Shadow, he’ll be here any second—

“Boo.”

Sonic nearly jumps out of his quills, spinning around with wide eyes and a yelp to find Shadow standing there snickering.

Sonic’s glares at him, asserting a playful shove to his chest as he scolds, “Personal space, man! That’s a good way to get yourself knocked out!”

“As if you could ever,” Shadow rolls his eyes, still looking amused at his successful scare. Then he’s pausing to eye Sonic up and down with a small smile, “You’re wearing my jacket..”

Sonic blinks and looks down at himself with a light blush, “Oh! Yeah, it-.. it said it would be a bit chilly tonight, so I figured—“

“It’s 85 degrees outside,” Shadow smirks knowingly.

“I meant in the bowling alley!” Sonic lies with his blush deepening as he looks behind Shadow and shifts the subject, trying not to sound too hopeful, “Where’s Rouge?? She not come??”

“I imagine she’s on her way,” Shadow shrugs with a quirk of his brow at Sonic.

“Oh- you didn’t come with her??”

Shadow blinks, “..Why would I do that??”

“I just thought-.. nevermind,” Sonic shakes his head dismissively, turning to the alley worker now that he’s at the front of the line and asking for his shoe size. Shadow brings his own shoes because he refuses to put his feet where other people’s feet have been.

Which. Fair.

They make their way to where the others are waiting, already putting their shoes on at lane 13. Tails and Tom are making silly faces with the alley screen so that the tvs will play the silly bobble head skits between each turn. 

Maddie is helping Knuckles tie his shoes. Again.

Sonic swears having giant mittens instead of gloves cannot be that great.

Sonic can feel Shadow’s eyes on him as they walk, choosing to ignore it and do his best to keep his casual smile on his face. 

“..Are you alright??” Shadow eventually asks, grabbing Sonic’s arm just before they joined the others as to have a more private conversation, “Did something happen when I was gone??”

“Huh?? No! No,” Sonic chuckles with a shake of his head, “Well— not outside Knuckles traumatizing squirrels in the backyard by trapping them and having them compete with Ozzy for the title of  ‘Wachowski Tribe Pet’, again. Ya’know, I still don’t think he understands what a pet is—“

“Sonic,” Shadow says firmly, making Sonic’s smile disappear, “…I’m serious.”

“Nothing’s wrong, Shads,” the blue blur reassures with a soft look, “Everything is totally chill.”

“You’ve just been acting strange since I got back, and—“

“Hey boys!”

Sonic and Shadow’s eyes each turn to see Rouge approaching, now dressed in a simple hot pink v-neck and black leggings with matching pink heels.

Who wears heels to a bowling alley???

Her super cool piercings shimmer in the disco lights..

Sonic should get super cool piercings.

No…

No, don’t be green, Sonic.

She approaches with a friendly wave and smile, her hand resting on her hip, “So this is a bowling alley, huh?? Pretty nifty.”

Right. She probably doesn’t even know what bowling is. Makes sense.

“Hello, Rouge,” Shadow politely greets.

“Hey! You made it!” Sonic grins, smile spread far too wide.

“A lady never bails on an invitation,” she smirks, her eyes shifting to Sonic’s attire, “Cool jacket.”

“Oh, uh— thanks, it’s actually—“

“So this is the infamous Wachowski family, huh??” Rouge interrupts before Sonic has the chance to get it out that it’s Shadow’s jacket that he gave him, the bat looking behind them at their group preparing for their match, 

“Uhh infamous??” Sonic’s head tilts with a quirk of his brow.

“Everyone knows you guys. Especially at GUN. You all are who started all this, after all,” she explains.

“Oh..,” Sonic says a bit sheepishly, “Yeah, well. We’re just a normal family.”

They look over at the Wachowski’s and their two other Mobian sons preparing for the bowling match, Sonic having a fond little smile as he watches Maddie help Tails stretch and Knuckles and Tom search for the appropriate ball sizes for them all.

“Yeah.. normal,” Rouge smirks with a quirk of her brow, her eyes lingering on the echidna..

“Come on! I’ll introduce you,” Sonic offers with a nod of his head towards the group, the three joining them now at their lane.

Shadow places the duffle bag with his personal bowling ball and shoes down on the bench next to where Tom sits, beginning to unpack his things as Sonic stands with Rouge before them all,

“Hey guys! This is Rouge. She works at GUN too.”

“Rouge!” Maddie immediately grins, moving to shake her hand, “I’ve heard so much about you from my sister.”

“Handel, right??” Rouge smirks, shaking Maddie’s hand, “She’s a fun gal to work with.”

“Try growing up with her,” Maddie mutters back sarcastically before politely adding, “I’m Maddie.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Maddie.”

Tails peeks out from behind Maddie’s legs before stepping out and holding his own hand out now, “Hi! I’m Tails.”

“Aw yeah, the boy genius!” the bat gives an impressed little smile, “I’ve heard you give our technologies division a run for their money.”

“Heh,” Tails removes his hand from hers and humbly rubs the back of his neck, “I just tinker a bit.”

“You’re too modest,” she winks, Tails blushing a bit and quickly scurrying away all shy.

Tom is sitting next to Shadow— who is now putting his shoes on. He offers Rouge a little wave and smile from his seat, “Tom.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Tom,” she nods, “Donut Lord, if I’m correct?”

Tom chuckles at that, “Sonic tell you about that??”

“Shadow, actually.”

Tom quirks a brow at Shadow to which Shadow merely shrugs in response, continuing with perfectly lacing and tying his shoes.

Knuckles approaches now, having been conversing with Wade through most of this. He eyes her suspiciously, Rouge seeming to share whatever curious vibe he’s giving if the way she eyes him up and down is anything to go off of.

“And you’re the echidna,” she observes aloud, smirking slow at the older brother.

“I am. The last,” he says honest and proud, “And you are??”

“Rouge,” she answers, holding her hand out for him to shake—

Uh oh.

Sonic should stop her. 

Warn her.

Instead, he just watches with a knowing smile.

Knuckles reaches a hand out to take hers, “I am Knuckles of the Wachowski clan—“

“HEY!” she’s immediately jerking her hand away, trying to shake the pain out of it and causing everyone’s eyes to snap to the two at the sound of her yelp. 

Knuckles just stands there unphased. As if this is just how every introduction on earth is meant to go.

Sonic honestly doesn’t know if he knows any different.

“What’s the big idea?!” she glowers at him, Knuckles seeming a bit thrown off by her assertiveness, “You nearly broke my hand!”

“I was simply offering a courteous earth handshake. It is custom to this world to squeeze the hand of another when meeting them,” he explains as if he’s making perfect sense, and she’s the crazy one.

“Not enough to turn my hand into mush, you Knucklehead!”

Knuckles’ cheeks puff angrily at this, “Why does everyone call me that?? That is not my name! I clearly stated it was Knuckles—“

“It’s called an insult, genius,” she huffs, still clutching her throbbing hand.

“Insult??? You dare to insult me?! I demand a duel to the—“

“Woahwoahwoah—.” Maddie quickly steps between the two before things can get too out of hand, “no duels. No battles, no death arenas, no.”

Knuckles is still glaring at Rouge when he huffs out a, “Fine. We shall settle this with a game of bowling.”

“How am I suppose to bowl if my hand is broke??”

“That is not my problem. It’s not my fault you are fragile.”

“FRAGILE—?!”

“Okay! Why don’t we all simmer down,” Maddie tries again, gently ushering Knuckles away to create more space between them. He does the thing where he points two fingers at his own eyes and then points them at Rouge as he turns to return to Wade. Sonic taught him that.

Sonic can’t help but bite back a little snicker as he watches Rouge turn away with a huff, still clutching her hand.

His amusement immediately dissipates when he finds Shadow at him with a disapproving frown.

Sonic clears his throat and looks away, pretending not to notice.

Shadow stands with his bowling shoes now on and laced up, moving to Rouge to place a hand on her back and gently usher her away, “Come on. Let’s get you some ice for that..”

Sonic watches them with a frown, his ears bending back and a pout working its way onto his lips.

Well.

That backfired.

•••

They split into teams. Knuckles and Wade competing against one another for tournament practice’s sake, picking between the Wachowski’s and Shadow and Rouge.

Wade picks Rouge right of the bat (pun intended). Sonic is fairly certain this is because Knuckles demanded he have her on his team since Rouge has never played a game of bowling in her life.

“I’m Wade, by the way,” the deputy introduces as she approaches his side of the lane, holding out his hand to shake hers only to immediately put it back down when he only receives a glare from her in response. 

Too soon.

Knuckles picks Shadow, the most precise bowler of the amateurs.

Wade picks Tom.

Knuckles picks Maddie for “equality’s sake”.

Wade picks Sonic, meaning he’s on Rouge’s team. Yay.

And it ends with Knuckles picking poor Tails who doesn’t seem to yet have the strength to get the ball to go down the middle quick enough to do any real damage to the pins, resulting in usually a 4 or 5 on his first bowl.

Taking lane 14 next to 13, Team Wade starts the match.

Wade is their first bowler, going through his typical routine before rolling the ball down the alley and receiving an easy strike. The team cheering, though not surprised by his skill.

Knuckles steps up then, amethyst eyes locked in a glare with Rouge as he stands right in front of the lane and chunks the ball. He never looks. The pins nearly exploding from the impact of the strike. Rouge huffs. His eyes narrow further. 

He steps away to allow Rouge to go.

Stepping up to pick up her ball, Sonic notices her heels are still on.

“Oh, uh- Rouge?” she turns to face him, “As much as I’m lovin’ your bowling chic, you can’t step out there with those on. They get mad if you damage their floor, trust me—“

“I won’t touch the floor, no worries,” she winks, Sonic frowning in a confused way as he watches her turn back around to bowl.

Her wings spread before she steps out on the slick wood, flapping just enough to allow her to hover as she rears the ball back and then tosses it down the alley. 

And she’s strong because that ball flies!

It barely even touches the ground before hitting the pins, knocking them all down from the sheer impact of her bowl. She smirks at this, turning to meet Knuckles’ eyes with a sassy little “hmph” before she sashays back to her seat.

Knuckles is fuming. Sonic would honestly love her for this is the circumstances were different.

Instead, he finds himself feeling ill at the impressed look on Shadow’s face.

The game goes on like this. Wade, Knuckles Rouge and Shadow getting a strike every time, Tom and Maddie getting a few in here and there and Sonic and Tails getting mostly spares or high numbers. Sonic would much prefer to curl up in a ball and spindash down a strike, but the manager said he couldn’t do that anymore since his quills were scratching up the floors..

The game is close, and typically Sonic would be playfully smack-talking the opposing team, but he’s strangely silent. Emerald eyes always watching the bat, observing her movements and attitude and form..

How she always gets a stupid strike.

And while he obsessed over her, ruby eyes watch him. Concerned and curious by his uncharacteristically quiet nature.

Sonic stands in the back leaning forward against the wall the bowling balls are nestled in, watching the game but not really watching the game. His mind is elsewhere. That much is obvious to Shadow. That along with the fact he isn’t sitting by Shadow and chatting him up after Shadow has been gone away on a mission is.. odd. He’s barely spoken to him all night.

 Approaching Sonic quietly as Tails takes his turning bowling, Shadow leans next to Sonic and keeps his eyes on the fox bowling as well. 

“You’re sweating,” Shadow eventually says from Sonic’s side.

“Huh?? I’m not sweating,” Sonic snorts with a roll of his eyes, a small shake of his head.

“You are,” Shadow mutters, “You should take the jacket off. Your cheeks have been flushed most the night. You’re likely overheated.”

“My cheeks are not flushed,” Sonic frowns defiantly.

“They are,” Shadow pushes, now looking at Sonic and frowning at his defensive tone, “What’s got you so uptight??? Why Don’t you just take the jacket off and come sit with me for a bit—“

“Why do you want me to take your jacket off so bad??” Sonic argues with a little glare at Shadow, making the hybrid blink in surprise at the sudden hostility, “I can keep it on if I want.”

Shadow pauses and then frowns, his own patience wearing thin. He doesn’t deserve this sort of snippiness, he hasn’t done anything. “Hey. I’m just worried about you. There’s nothing wrong with me worrying, especially when you’ve been acting like a fool since I saw you at GUN earlier.”

Sonic huffs at this, rolling his eyes and looking away with an angry little frown and annoyed shake of his head. His cheeks are flushed darker again. 

“You’re the one that’s been acting different.”

“Me???” Shadow scoffs with wide eyes, “Oh please do inform me on how I’ve been different.”

“You’ve been with her,” Sonic’s eyes dart daggers at the bat who is giggling to herself as she watches Knuckles take his next bowl. 

Shadow follows his eyes to Rouge and blinks in confusion before returning them to Sonic, “Rouge??”

Rouge’s ears twitch at hearing her name.

Sonic looks back to Shadow now, eyes growing glossy and face heated with growing shame and embarrassment for his behavior, but it’s like he just can’t stop himself—

“Yes, Rouge.”

“What about her??? I can’t help that I have to work, Sonic—“

“I saw you two,” the blue blur hisses out, face dangerously close to Shadow’s now in a daring and angry sort of way, “At GUN. I saw how yall were laughing together and holding arms and being all couple-y.”

Shadow is so lost at Sonic’s words right now, having been oblivious but now slowly beginning to snap pieces together, “‘Couple-y’???”

“You know what—“ Sonic now begins aggressively stripping the jacket off his arms, fumbling a bit at his wrists as they get caught on his gloves but eventually getting it off with a huff and shoving it at Shadow, “Take your stupid jacket since you don’t want me wearing it so bad.”

Shadow’s hands go up rather than taking the jacket being held out to him, looking hurt by Sonic’s sudden rejection of his gift, his scent, “What?? No! That’s yours—“

“Hey, boys, heard my name—“ Rouge is there, now. Looking cool as always but there’s a bit of awkwardness in her stance.

“Fine!” Sonic huffs, ignoring her words and moving to instead shove the jacket at her. Tossing it this time so that it hits her rather than waiting for it to be taken, “She can have it!”

Then he’s storming out, turning and stomping out of the bowling alley and leaving Shadow and Rouge both staring wondering what the hell just happened.

“Hey!” Wade calls with a frown, “It’s almost Sonic’s turn! We only have three more rounds!”

“Ha! Dishonor! He left your team before inevitable defeat because you suck!” Knuckles boldly mocks with a booming laugh, oblivious to the drama unfolding.

“We do not suck, we’re winning by six!” Wade argues.

The two continue their competitive bickering as Rouge looks down at the jacket with a frown and then at Shadow who is staring off in the direction Sonic had gone looking absolutely distressed. 

The pieces fall pretty quick.

”I need to go talk to him,” Shadow says determinedly, worry laced in his voice. But as soon as he makes a step, Rouge is reaching out to stop him.

“No..,” Shadow turns and looks at her with knitted brows, “Let me..”

Shadow isn’t sure for a moment. She is what has made Sonic so upset, after all.. but after Rouge gives him a reassuring smile, he gives with a nod, watching as the bat walks off in the direction Sonic left with jacket still in hand.

Maddie and Tom exchange worried looks before Maddie stands up from her seat and moves to comfort Shadow, having a little more insight on Sonic’s rash behavior than he seems to.

“Hey, sweetie..,” she says softly as she approaches him, her heart aching at this sweet boy’s almost scared eyes looking down at his hands as if they had done something wrong..

She’s grown very fond of Shadow over the past near-year. He and Sonic are a perfect match, even if they’re not official yet, and they balance each other out so nicely.. Almost as if they were made for one another, Maddie has often thought.

She’s learned Shadow has a deeply sensitive heart, one that’s quite larger than most people’s. He feels things so much deeper than others, with so much more intensity and devotion. He unapologetically tries. Harder than she’s seen anyone else ever do in her lifetime..

He’s simply stunted on how to properly project these emotions.. he struggles with getting those overwhelming feelings out properly, with sharing them in a way others can comprehend and understand. But he’s grown. Sonic has helped him with that..

Sadly, Sonic himself struggles with big emotions, too, now and then.. and he struggles with not letting them out in a whole new way. He simply bundles them up and suppresses them inside rather than messily letting them out like Shadow. Let’s them all build until he inevitably explodes. Like he just did..

“What did I do??” Shadow frowns, eyes slowly lifting to the woman who has now become a mother figure to him as well in many ways, “How do I fix it??”

He looks terrified.. like he’s losing Sonic. 

He can’t lose anyone else. He can’t lose Sonic.

“Oh honey..,” Maddie sighs sympathetically, crouching down to his height to wrap her arms tight around him and hug him to her, “You didn’t do anything..”

“He’s so upset..,” Shadow mutters, immediately leaning into her hug but wrapping his own arms around himself. 

“This is a Sonic problem,” Maddie reassures, “Not something you did. He is dealing with something he hasn’t really dealt with before, and we know how he can be with changes..”

Sonic hates change, especially when it’s something he’s unfamiliar with or can’t predict the outcome of. Her mind immediately goes back to how betrayed he had been when Tom had initially planned to move away from Green Hills. The decision to stay was certainly the right one, but it was also a sneak peek of how Sonic finds new and sudden things a bit overwhelming.

He’s matured over the years, of course. But he’s still a kid. And he’s still processing all sorts of new emotions– especially since Shadow came into the picture.

“But what changes have even occurred??” Shadow questions, tilting his head back to look at Maddie properly, his ears twitching like they want to fold back but refuse.

“Well..,” she sighs, trying to find the right words without making anyone any sort of bad guy or victim in this situation. It’s all just a lack of communication, not so much a legitimate conflict. “Up until a few weeks ago, Sonic had you all to himself..,” she explains softly, hand lifting to gently brush down Shadow’s upsettingly raised quills. Mellow him out some from his distressed state. This is a hedgehog thing, she’s noticed. Both Shadow and Sonic’s quills seem to raise slightly and get pokier when upset. Like a cat raising its fur.

“Now he’s having to share you with someone he doesn’t really know well,” she continues, watching as Shadow’s eyes look down in thought as he processes her words, “Someone he obviously thinks is cool enough to compete with his own charisma..” “Rouge,” Shadow states quietly, eyes lifting in realization to Maddie, “He’s envious of her..?” “Moreso jealous than envy,” Maddie winks with a small smile, “He doesn’t want to be her necessarily, but I think he might feel threatened by her new place in your life..” “But Sonic can’t be replaced in my life,” Shadow assures with a knit in his brow, trying to understand why the hedgehog might be so upset by this. It seemed silly to him. Sonic should know Shadow would never replace him..

“Maybe he doesn’t realize that,” she says gently, “He’s a pretty straight forward guy, Shadow.. A lot goes over his head if it’s not put out in the open. Maybe you two should talk a bit more firmly on where he stands with you and what exactly you two mean to each other..” Shadow ponders her words a moment, looking at her before nodding slowly, “We communicate poorly when it comes to emotions.” “Your words, not mine,” she giggles with a little shrug, “..you’re not at fault here, though, okay?? I need you to understand there’s nothing wrong with you having friends outside of Sonic. And he knows that, too. He’s just thinking a little too into it right now, and a little more insecure than he likes people to believe. He’ll snap out of it eventually, and just be happy you’re branching out some. This is a big step for you: making a friend on your own. And I, for one, am proud of you.” Shadow’s brows knit tight at this before a relieved sort of smile forms on his lips, “Thank you, Mrs. Wachowski..”

“Don’t let this discourage you from making more friends in the future,” she gently rubs a hand over his ear before cupping his muzzle softly, “You did nothing wrong, and Sonic will be okay.” Shadow nods against her palm before glancing towards the door, “I should go talk to him, shouldn’t I?” “Absolutely,” she smiles with a wink, standing once again just for him to look back to her with a grateful nod before walking towards the exit.

Knuckles watches this all unfold, a little scowl on his face and mind venturing away from the bowling match. Instead now focused on his little brother that is obviously very upset because of the dumb bat. 

The group decides to pause the game and grab some snacks while waiting for things to simmer some with Sonic, Shadow and Rouge, Knuckles taking this opportunity to go and find the bat for himself and show no mercy for inflicting pain on the Wachowski tribe. 

Outside, Sonic is pacing back and forth on the roof, hoping he wouldn’t be followed or found up there. He’s muttering scolds to himself, fingers running through his quills irritably and eyes full of guilt and regret at how he just acted.

“Stupid, why’d you have to be so stupid,” he hisses to himself, closing his eyes in annoyance as he drops his arms to his sides with a huff, “His face.. He looked so hurt..,” he frowns and opens his eyes to spot a rock on the floor, scowling at it before bending down to pick it up and glare at it as if it had personally offended him, “Why do I have to be so annoying!?” He turns and chunks the rock off the roof with a growl, a spark of blue in his quills and eyes as his powers are triggered by his high emotions and the rock is sent flailing towards space.

“Wow,” Sonic flinches and spins around at the unexpected voice, “And here I thought Shadow was the one with anger issues.”

“Look,” Sonic immediately huffs, trying to keep his cool but sounding a bit out of breath as his hackles rise, “I know I shouldn’t have thrown the jacket at you, and if you give me time to cool off, I’ll offer a way better apology. But right now, I’m soo not wanting to look at you.” Rouge blinks at that, landing from where she had just flown up to the rooftop upon hearing his little tantrum up there, “Mwah??” She places a hand on her chest as if to clutch her pearls, scandalized by his hostility towards her. Except she’s not, immediately letting the facade fall as she smirks and, “That should be a crime. I’m easily the best thing to look at in this boring, little town.” Sonic’s eyes just narrow at her, growling under his breath before turning away from her to cross his arms stubbornly, “Then why don’t you just leave??” Obviously offended by her insult to Green Hills.

“No can do, Blue. My new friend invited me here, and it would be a real shame to ruin a new friendship over a silly jacket,” she offers, taking a few steps towards him but not getting too close in case he still is too angry.

Sonic pauses a moment, turning his head slightly to look at her over his shoulder, “You think I’m your friend??” “Well, I was hoping,” Rouge chuckles, now approaching him fully to stand behind him and watch with slight relief when he turns to face her properly again. This time he doesn’t look like he wants to chunk her off the roof like he just did that rock. Instead he looks… guilty. Embarrassed.

“...Why would you want to be my friend after how I just acted??” “Because you just had a diva moment,” Rouge shrugs, “Trust me, I have plenty of them. And if I was held accountable for every time I had one, I’d never make any friends.”

Sonic looks down, rubbing his arm sheepishly with a small frown as he eyes the jacket she’s holding in her arms, “..I didn’t mean it. Snapping at you. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or anything..” “Oh hun, you didn’t hurt my feelings,” Rouge smirks reassuringly. “I didn’t??” Sonic blinks, looking up at her. “Sticks and stones, Blue,” she shrugs with a wink, “Not the first time I’ve had someone not like me simply because they’re intimidated by me.” Sonic wants to defend himself, argue with her that he wasn’t intimidated by her.. But..

“Yeah. I guess that’s my problem, huh?? Kinda seems unfair you have to be treated bad simply because you’re so cool.”

Rouge puts a hand on her cheek to feign bashfulness, “Oh stop. You’re making me blush.” “You are! You’re– you have cool piercings, and you’re pretty like– all the time, even after long missions! And you fight really good, and don’t seem to let things bother you–” “Now who said all that??” Rouge tilts her head with a little quirk of her brow.

“Well… I just kinda.. Assumed.”

“Hey. That’s where you went wrong. Everyone knows to assume is to make an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’.”

Sonic blinks.

“What??”

“I’m saying,” Rouge sighs, moving to sit on the edge of the roof now, jacket settled in her lap, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover. I’m not as perfect as I make myself out to be. Hard to believe, I know.” Sonic looks at her a moment before moving to join her on the edge, settling beside her with a foot propped up on the ledge and his arm resting on his knee. Overlooking the bowling alley’s parking lot.

“Besides, you’re pretty damn cool, too, Blue,” she adds with a small smirk, “Hero of earth? Fastest thing alive?? Look around, you have tons of people who care about you. That can’t be for nothing..”

Sonic shrugs, “I got real lucky, I guess.” “That ain’t luck, sweetheart,” she corrects firmly, Sonic glancing at her suddenly more stern tone, “People aren’t drawn to luck.. They’re drawn to good. And you’re probably the good-est thing anyone here has had in a long time..”

Sonic looks down again, thinking about her words. In a large way, he did bring them all together. They love him, he’d never doubt that. Maybe she’s right.. Maybe it’s not luck. Maybe it’s just.. him..

“I know Shadow certainly thinks so,” she adds with a knowing smirk, peeking at Sonic out of the corner of her eye to see him blushing a bit and his eyes widen slightly.

“Shadow-... Shadow’s biased. All he knows is me. The second he finds something new and better, he’ll… he’ll see I’m not as great as I’ve told him I am.”

Rouge snorts at that, “That’s some pretty selfish thinking.” Sonic looks at her confused, “How is me admitting I’m lame selfish???”

“It’s not. But you putting words in Shadow’s mouth for him is. You can’t think for the guy, kid, you gotta let him come to his own conclusions. Shadow knows a lot, okay?? He’s not some sheltered puppy. Hell– he’s seen more than you or I combined, I’m pretty sure..”

Sonic stays quiet, looking at her as she turns to look at him and continues.

“And he’s seen you. He knows a good thing when he sees it, and that’s all he sees when he looks at you. Good. And I think he knows he’s hit the jackpot managing to coral a good thing like you.”

Sonic blushes a bit and looks away again, fighting a small smile as he looks up at the half-blown up moon..

“He’s not looking at me, Sonic,” the bat adds with a little bump of her elbow to his arm, “He’s only got eyes for you. And I think you know that.. You just needed a reminder.”

Sonic sighs at that, looking back to Rouge and offering a small smile, “...I like you.”

Rouge just laughs at that, rolling her eyes at him and shaking her head, “I give you a whole speech on self worth and not being intimidated by false assumptions, and all I get is a ‘I like you’???”

“Hey! That’s an honor,” Sonic chuckles, “I’m the good-est thing in this town!” Rouge snorts at that, grinning as she shakes her head, “Gee. Glad it’s not gonna go to your head.”

They laugh another few moments before their giggles die down and they’re left sitting there content with one another.

“..I really am sorry for being a jerk,” Sonic says after a moment, turning to her to hold out his fist, “We cool?” She looks at his fist then him, offering a smirk as she fistbumps him, “We’re cool.”

Sonic nods, feeling way better already.

“Besides. Would be a damn shame if the two hottest kittens in this town weren’t friends,” Rouge adds with a shrug. “Oh, for sure. We’re gonna be such an iconic duo– earth doesn’t know what’s coming,” Sonic agrees matter-of-factly with a nod of his head.

“Agreed. So what’s up with your older brother??”

“Dude, ain’t that the question of the hour,” Sonic snorts with a helpless roll of his eyes.

“He doesn’t have much goin’ on in his head, does he?”

“He’s actually really smart! Just.. only with the things he already knows about.” “Obviously, he doesn’t know about manners,” Rouge huffs.

“Yeahhhh, that’s not his strong-suit, no,” Sonic rubs the back of his neck. “Guess someone will have to teach him,” Rouge shrugs, leaning back on her palms with a mischievous little smirk.

Sonic’s head whips around to look at her with wide eyes, “...Ewwww, that’s my brother.” “Hey. All is fair and all that jazz,” she shrugs, giggling at Sonic’s obvious disgust. 

“Ugh. Just leave me out of it,” Sonic shivers, Rouge humming a little chuckle.

Her ears then twitch, hearing something from behind. Turning to look, she smiles softly and then slowly moves to stand up, “Well, I’m gonna get back in there. Let you two chat..” “Two??” Sonic’s brows furrow as he turns to look around and sees Shadow standing there looking… very upset.

It breaks Sonic’s heart, that guilt immediately rising in him again as he swallows on the lump in his throat.

“Oh..”

Rouge walks to Shadow, pausing beside him to hand his jacket off to him with a little wink, “Go easy on him. His cute makes up for the stupid.”

Shadow merely gives a grunt in response, taking the jacket as it’s handed to him with his eyes locked on Sonic’s.

Rouge flies back down below to the entrance, reaching to pull the door open only to freeze at the sound of someone clearing their throat.

She looks to her left to find the echidna stepping out from the shadows where he had obviously been eavesdropping. 

“Hasn’t anyone ever told you it’s rude to sneak up on a lady??” she huffs, crossing her arms as she faces him, shifting her weight on her leg to stand all sassy with her hip out.

Knuckles ignores her words, stepping in front of the door beside her as he eyes her.

She almost feels nervous at this. How he’s sizing her up like he’s judging a pie at a county contest or something. But she doesn’t show it, merely leaning forward and narrowing her eyes at him with a quirked brow. “Take a picture, echidna, it’ll last longer–” “Thank you for comforting my brother.” She blinks, standing up straight again as her stance tenses at the unexpected appreciation.

“What?” “Sonic. My brother. I am not the best at knowing how to handle when my tribe is upset.. I am glad you were here to ease his mind,” Knuckles explains, his fists limp at his sides to show his openness. No hostility.

“Oh..,” she raises a hand to her chest, a slow smile forming on her lips, “Well in that case, you’re welcome.” “I will not forget this good deed you have performed for my clan,” Knuckles nods formally, a hand lifting to heavily rest on her shoulder and squeeze, “I am in your debt.” Rouge grunts a bit at the heavy weight of his fist on her shoulder, shrugging it off with a, “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Dusting her shoulder as if he might’ve gotten dirt on it before pausing and then forming a mischievous little smirk on her lips as she looks at him, “I can think of a few ways you could repay me..” “Anything,” Knuckles says so dang nonchalantly. Like he doesn’t know what that deep voice promising that word can do to a girl. Probably because he doesn’t.

She just hums at this, reaching to grab the tip of one of his front quills hanging over his shoulder and give it a little tug so that he’s down to her level.

He crouches a bit hesitant as she leans up to whisper in his ear..

Then his eyes go huge and his muzzle matches the color of his quills, quickly pulling away with an absolutely scandalized look on his face, “MY INNOCENCE! My sweet innocence– I will not perform such an act, you batty woman!” He’s already rushing inside in an attempt to get away, Rouge laughing as she moves to follow after him with a shrug. “What??? Girl’s gotta eat..”

The door shuts and above on the roof, Sonic and Shadow are still staring at one another as if unable to make the next move.

Sonic swallows hard, slowly pushing himself up to stand from the edge and face him properly.

Shadow doesn’t move. Just stares at Sonic with this.. strange look on his face. A mix of hurt and fear and anger and… something else. Determination maybe??

Either way, Sonic is the first to speak, knowing he’s the one that owes the apology here.

“Shadow, I–.” he swallows hard, feeling the lump in his throat grow bigger with each word and finding it harder to speak, “I’m so sorry. I was really stupid in there..”

Shadow starts walking towards him, and Sonic just keeps word vomiting as he always does, his feet feeling frozen in place as the hybrid stalks towards him.

“I was being dumb and insecure and assuming things and I should’ve just talked to you about how I was feeling instead of being all dramatic about it and I just really care about you and am scared that maybe you’ll think I’m like super lame one day and won’t want to be around me anymore and are you gonna punch me?? Because I totally get it if you do, but also, my precious face–” Shadow reaches Sonic and shuts him up.

And by ‘shuts him up’, he means he grabs him with his face cupped in his hands and jerks him to him to crush their mouths together.

Sonic squeaks, eyes going huge and tail immediately wagging so fast that he might take flight like his little brother does. Shadow’s eyes are clamped shut, keeping his lips firmly pressed to the hedgehog’s and his hands holding him in place as he kisses him.

It’s awkward. Very inexperienced and firm and not at all soft and romantic like movie kisses are. Sonic can feel Shadow’s fangs peeking through his lips against Sonic’s own mouth from how firmly they’re pressed to his, but he is soooo not complaining.

And in his shock over this entire moment, he forgets to kiss back, standing there like a stiff noodle with his hands flexed in surprise at his sides and not touching Shadow.

A few moments pass and Shadow pulls back with a quiet ‘smack’ of their lips parting.

Sonic is still staring at him all frozen and tail wagging giddily. Shadow opens his eyes to look at him as well now, a deep blush dusting his cheeks as he clears his throat and looks down a bit awkwardly, “Just, um– just to make myself clear on where we stand,” he explains, lifting a fist to his lips to clear his throat–also to rub over where he can still feel Sonic’s on his.

“Oh,” Sonic croaks, voice sounding shaky and breathy and higher than normal.

“I hope that’s okay.”

“Yup.” “And we’re.. clear then?”

“Crystal.”

Shadow breathes out an amused puff of air at Sonic’s short answers, rolling his eyes before finally finding the courage to look back up at him and finding Sonic is now smiling like the stupid idiot he is.

Shadow just offers a soft smile back, moving to then take the jacket all this mess derived from and gently drape it back around Sonic’s shoulders. Straightening the collar, he looks back to Sonic’s eyes and finds the hedgehog’s pupils are still blown but his gaze has softened from shock to something akin to lovestruck.

“This belongs to you,” Shadow says firmly once the jacket is on Sonic properly, “Only you.”

Sonic melts a bit.

He’s got a feeling they’re not talking about the jacket anymore.

[marvell-07]

Merry Christmas everyone!! In honor of the holidays, here is one of my more extensive headcanons about the Sonic 3 Movie. SPOILERS ahead so be warned! 🎄

—————————

At the end of the Sonic three movie, Shadow gets nerfed to hell and dies in an explosion. Except we never see his death on screen and we know the movie is based on Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog. In those games Shadow managed to eject himself from the ARK and escape alive. However he suffers from amnesia and now has a fragmented memory. He can only remember his name and Maria’s death. So you know I’m about to write some angsty hc off of this.

Shadow would wander around aimlessly, trying to find remnants of who he was and what his life was before he lost his memory. The problem is that there’s barely anything left. Even if he manages to return to the site of the lab, he had set off the mini black hole in there. Any evidence of what happened, any evidence of Maria, was destroyed in that blast.

The only person who would know about Maria and what Shadow did afterward would be sonic. Sonic was in that lab, he heard the story and saw what happened. He was also the one to spend the most time with Shadow and hear about his pain and loss before teaming up.

Except I have a few ideas regarding this. What if something did survive the explosion of the black hole? The picture of Shadow and Maria. While exploring the lab Sonic found Maria’s room and saw the fort and picture. It was a family portrait, and to him it felt too special, too important, to be left behind in an abandoned lab. It reminded him of the drawing he made of him and Longclaw in the cave. It was all he had left of a family member he lost… just like Shadow. So what if he took the photo with him? Sonic intended to give the photo back to Shadow after they made up, but never got the chance. So now he keeps it as a way to honor and remember both Shadow and Maria.

Now keeping Shadow’s most likely survival in mind, what if after Sonic and Shadow see eachother again, Sonic shows him the photo to convince Shadow to at least hear him out. It leads into Sonic getting slammed into a wall by a very paranoid personification of Hot Topic who demands answers. I think even after hearing the story, Shadow would be confused and apprehensive. So Sonic hands him the photo and tells him that he knows what it’s like to be lost, and that Shadow has a friend if he needs it.

With the amnesia, Shadow would have almost a constant source of anger and guilt and sadness for things he doesn’t even remember. It drives him crazy that he feels so much and doesn’t even know why. When Shadow gets too caught up in his own head, Sonic asks him to tell him about Maria. It’s the one thing he can reliably talk about and it’s some of the only good memories he has.

Shadow chooses to trust Sonic not just because of Maria’s photo or the kind words, but because he can feel that Sonic is a good person. Sitting on that moon with Sonic and watching the stars was the beginning of closure and resolution to all of Shadow’s pain and trauma. And then immediately after that he shared the power of the chaos emerald in harmony with Sonic. That connection remains to be something familiar. However, in a way, that feeling of comfortability and kindness is foreign. He hadn’t felt that since Maria and look how that turned out. Part of it scares Shadow and he doesn’t know how to handle not being constantly alert.

Even if Shadow does permanently join up with the team I don’t see him living with them. He doesn’t have that family dynamic with Tom and Maddie like the others, and I’m not sure he wants to yet. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles had lost their families a while before they met Tom and Maddie, they had time to grieve and find that desire to want and accept a family again. Shadow doesn’t have that, not yet. With that being said, there isn’t really anywhere else for him to go, both the lab and the ship were destroyed.

So what if he lives in Sonic’s old home? Just until they can find somewhere better for him. It’s secluded and private but not so far away that they wouldn’t be able to go see him. Shadow doesn’t have anywhere else to go so why not. Sonic decks it out for him and even finds a picture frame for Maria’s photo.

[shadamyheadcanons]

Do you have any ideas for how Shadow and Amy’s relationship would change if Sonic had managed to get Shadow back on the ark in SA2? I’m working on my own little self-indulgent fic myself, but I’d be curious to hear your thoughts.

Interesting thought! See, this is a tricky one for me because they canonically act like his brush with death never happened, which is super weird.

There should have been a scene on the ARK where Amy was really upset and possibly even cried after it happened, maybe blaming herself for encouraging him.

There should have been a scene in Sonic Heroes where she latched onto him and gushed about how relieved she was to see him alive while he just stared at her like “???” because he still had amnesia.

She should have been the one to reach out and befriend him, and he should have accepted; not only does she remind him of his late best friend, but she’s seen him at his most murderous and still supported him unconditionally.

She should be even clingier with him than she is with her other friends after what happened. She should have been right with him all throughout Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), guiding him and keeping an eye on him the way one would expect given her personality.

And...maybe this is controversial, buuuuut...it’s always felt a little arbitrary to me that he wound up spending a ton of time with Rouge and Omega and basically none with Amy.

I’m not saying I have a problem with Team Dark. I adore their dynamic and I’m glad he has them, but it kind of feels like they just happened to be there. Sure, he got along with Rouge alright for much of SA2, but she seriously hurt him by spying on him--something she’s never apologized for, as far as I know--and she left him behind to help the others get to the Cannon’s Core.

And that, I think, is where the biggest difference would be.

Shadow isn’t the forgiving type. By the time he’d regained his memories in canon and remembered how she’d betrayed his trust, she’d proven in the interim that she’s ultimately a good and loyal friend. If she hadn’t had that chance, I don’t think she could’ve gotten her foot in the door so easily. And if Shadow hadn’t fallen, he wouldn’t have been picked up by Eggman, so he wouldn’t have met Omega. In fact, I’d go even further than that. Team Dark’s opening cutscene in Sonic Heroes implies that Omega’s there strictly to guard Shadow. Not only that, but I’ve always gotten the impression that that’s why Omega was created in the first place. Mephiles all but confirms this in Sonic 06 by pointing out Omega is perfectly built to defeat and capture Shadow.

“This only proves you were created to stop Shadow, the ultimate life form. Don’t tell you didn’t know.”

So Omega would probably never have been built, at least not in his current form :(

With our favorite murder robot out of the picture and Shadow not trusting Rouge, Team Dark would be kaput, and Shadow really needs someone who’ll reach out to him.

And we all know it would be Amy, right?

It’s not even conjecture. In Sonic Battle, she eagerly seeks him out, even getting irritated when Rouge keeps her away:

On top of that, Amy latches onto Shadow because he’s a hero. I’ve pointed this out before, but the second Shadow becomes the protagonist in ShTH, she’s smitten with him...

...and the same happens in IDW issue 59:

And we can’t leave out The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog:

The social media team gets it.

She’s got a subtle little crush on him already imo even with the few interactions they have. If Amy spent lots of time with Shadow, that little crush could grow to rival another crush of hers ;)

As for Shadow, if she’d reached out to him right away without the time gap from his amnesia, I think his feelings for her--romantic or otherwise--would have been fostered and allowed to grow, fueled by his gratitude. She changed his entire life and would have introduced positivity and companionship into his world. You can’t not feel strongly about someone who does that for you.

Fandom-wise, Shadamy is already extremely popular considering how little time they’ve spent together in canon. It’s the third most popular game ship on AO3, only beaten by Sonamy and Sonadow.

There are more fics for Shadamy than Knuxouge. That’s kind of ridiculous, right?! Shadow and Amy have maybe ten minutes of screentime together! I also think Shadow might have gotten along better with Sonic if he’d gone right from saving the world with him to becoming one of Amy’s favorite people, so I’m willing to bet Sonamyshad would’ve skyrocketed in popularity, too. Not my cup of tea, but I know a lot of other fans like it.

Or...more interestingly...Shadow could’ve been really pissed once he saw up close and personal just how often Sonic ran away from Amy. The Dark Era right after SA2 was when it was worst, too. I imagine Shadow would be furious if he knew the full extent of how badly his favorite hedgehog was being treated. He could have been a godsend for her. You think he’d have put up with this if he’d seen it?

(Tangentially, I think it’s weird that Knuckles was fine with this stuff. I think of him and Amy as sibling-adjacent at times, but sometimes I feel like I have to fudge some details to make it work.)

And how many times did Sonic hurt her or make her cry back in the day?

Shadow’s punched Sonic for less than that. He’s way too loyal to sit there and watch while someone hurts his sweet, kindhearted best friend.

People think of Amy as the clingiest Sonic character, but I 100% believe Shadow rivals her in that respect. I really do. He nearly destroyed the Earth for a friend he knew for less than a year. He latched onto Team Dark like a security blanket the second he was dropped on their doorstep. He would have done the same for Amy, and she really could have benefited from that loyalty. Amy lashed out in that era because of frustration and insecurity from being repeatedly snubbed by her favorite person. I honestly think someone stable and steadfast like Shadow was exactly who she needed. He really could have turned her life around and gotten her the respect she deserved, either by standing up for her or proving to her that she deserved better.

And I definitely think he could have dealt with the Black Arms’ invasion much better if he’d had Amy to help guide him through it. She’s reminded him of who he is before. The Miracle of Love ending proves without a doubt that she could do it again.

It would have been great for both of them. I’m sad Sega never let them have that.

Also, Shadow standing up for Amy and later dating her would make this weird scene from Archie #149 absolutely hilarious:

Granted, that applies to shadamy in general.

Ken Penders & Friends: “Ha, wouldn’t it be hilarious if we had Sonic make a skeevy, totally age-appropriate comment in our kids’ comic about Shadow ‘finding a girl?’”

Shadow: “I found Amy Rose”

Sega: “THAT’S NOT FUNNY”

Sonic: “Idk, I think it’s kinda funny :) ”

Penders: “I have never played a Sonic game”

[kaylatoonz]

This was originally a scrapped Movie Amy AU but I’m bringing it back for funzies.

I think this AU was inspired by strange things to some extent (which might be one of the reasons I scrapped it).

Context

What if that farmer in Green Hills from the first movie took Amy in.. and failed to tell the Wachowski family?

There is not much known about the farmer from the first movie so I’m just gonna make stuff up🤷🏾‍♀️😋. Also don’t remember if the farmer had a name so I’ll call him Rob for now.

-Rob doesn’t always know when to ask for help or when to tell someone something important. It’s not that he doesn’t want any help or is incapable of saying things that need to be said. He just has horrible timing when it comes to these things. It was a thing that he was working at. Unfortunately for Rob fate was never on his side when it came to this habit evidently when a certain pink hedgehog found her way into his barn.

-Amy Rose is a hedgehog echidna hybrid who resided in Knuckles’ old tribe. She was born from a fortune teller hedgehog and a “traitorous“ echidna warrior. When the tribe learned of their comrade’s treachery both he and the hedgehog were deposed of. Amy would have met the same fate that day if it weren’t for the gift she inherited from her mother. So She was hidden by the chief and elders of the tribe to use for their own gain. Not many of the tribe members outside of the chief and the elders knew of Rose’s existence, though their whispers of her presence. Those whispers never held enough weight to investigate or challenge their respected leader or wise elders.

-Amy was mistreated and used by the tribe for most of her captivity until one of her fortune tellings led to the tribe’s end.

-When she finally realized her captors were no longer there she escaped to the outside world. For a while she fought, hid, and survived in the sometimes unforgiving worlds she traversed until she arrived in Rob’s barn.

-Since the pink hedgehog’s arrival, Rob has been trying to find the right time to tell Tom about her. Unfortunately, it was never the right time or place. First, it was cuz the Wachowski family was adjusting to Sonic then tails and knuckles, and then the shadow incident ( this AU is assuming Ames isn’t in 3). He just couldn’t bring himself to unload another situation on them while the fam was adjusting or handling new problems.

-Eventually, Rob does tell Tom but he unfortunately didn’t consider that it wasn’t the right time for Amy, Especially when a certain blue hedgehog overheard the conversation. Leading said hedgehog to excitedly rush over to the barn where an unprepared, skittish, and slightly feral pink hedgehog resided. Oops.

Bonus:

-Amy arrived a couple days after the events of the first movie.

-Knuckles was not aware of Amy’s existence, though he might’ve had an encounter with Rose in his youth that he suppressed.

-Due to her upbringing Amy is feral and very skittish. Despite being wary of newcomers she’ll fight if she feels backed in a corner or if she feels something/someone she cares for is being threatened. She’ll run or hide first then fight and defend if necessary. (Don’t worry this version of Amy still grows into the bubbly girly hothead that we all know and love. It’ll just take a while to get there).

- I’m not sure if I want it to be intentional or not that Amy led the echidnas and Longclaw to their demise. Either way, Amy would feel extremely guilty about her actions once it becomes clear what her final reading to the tribe had caused.

- Amy has most of the appearance of a hedgehog but she has red hands and feet, clawed knuckles, and a longer tail from her echidna side.

- Amy has central heterochromia.

- due to her hands and feet appearing like they're stained with blood she becomes self-conscious of these features. So she later wears gloves and boots to cover it.

-Rob or Sonic (maybe both) got Amy her first dress while Sonic made her a flower crown.

[maxilsmaster]

au where eggman adopts sonic

now i know what you’re thinking, “there are already sonic villain aus out there”, but i’m here to tell you, this ain’t no sonic villain au! sonic is still a hero here! the difference is backstory.

the tl;dr is that eggman adopts sonic and tails but they’re not evil and he is, but he’s a good dad anyway

eggman finds little baby sonic (by baby, i mean somewhere in the 4-7 range) all alone on christmas island. the hedgehog doesn’t speak, when asked if he has a family all he does is shake is head, he’s quite obviously abandoned. so eggman adopts this little blue hedgehog! he learns sign language, teaches it to sonic, puts his kid in school, and overall is actually a really good parent. but there is one problem: he’s still evil. he still wants to conquer the planet. sonic disagrees with this. when he fails to convince his dad through words, he ends up taking action and destroying robots. eggdad is not pleased by this, but he supposes that it was inevitable that his kid might not turn out to be evil like him. he still continues his schemes of course, but sonic also continues to stop him. eggman does make sure to program his robots to not target sonic, too.

at some point, eggy creates metal to be an artificial brother for sonic. metal matches sonic’s speed, and is also mute. sonic is overjoyed at his new brother :)

and then he meets tails. the two immediately take a liking to each other, and sonic learns that tails’ situation is similar to how his own used to be. immediately sonic takes tails to eggy and demands he adopt the fox. eggdad accepts and now there are three brothers :)

at some point, sonic and tails arrive on angel island. sonic gets the emeralds punched out of him by knuckles, who has NOT met eggman and just doesn’t like intruders. when eggman learns about this, he’s pissed and steals the master emerald. after this whole situation is resolved, sonic tries to get eggman to adopt knuckles, but knux won’t allow it, so he’s an unofficial brother

at around 12 years old, sonic starts speaking verbally (though in periods of excitement or stress he’ll still go back to sign) (this is just how i headcanon sonic normally but it’s still relevant)

i have the plots written down for a lot of the games, so i’m gonna go through the mainline modern ones briefly

sonic adventure: eggman tries to keep chaos out of sonic’s way, fails miserably

sonic adventure 2 is a fun one! the beginning is mostly the same, eggman finds shadow, sonic gets arrested, etc, but then eggman finds out sonic got arrested and is PISSED, so he has shadow rescue sonic. sonic is pissed about the false arrest and fights shadow, shadow is forced to use chaos control to bring sonic to eggdad before the island explodes, and now sonic is with the dark story for the rest of the plot. eggdad brings sonic to space, tails, knux and amy follow, sonic learns shadow is technically his (uncle? second cousin once removed? it’s one of them, idk which), sonic is NOT launched off the ark bc eggy wouldn’t do that to his son. plot happens, shadow “dies”, and adventure 2 is done!

at some point, eggy finds shadow, and sonic and tails are aware of this. they don’t tell anyone shadow is alive though (and eggman doesn’t tell them about the androids)

sonic heroes happens bc metal thinks he’s better at being evil than eggman, now everyone knows shadow is alive yay, and also sonic and tails are immediately sus of this plan

rush happens too but i don’t know enough about rush to accurately change the plot, but i’m sure the plot changes at least a bit

we’re not gonna talk about 06 bc it gets retconned by itself

unleashed has shadow as the protag instead of sonic

colors is almost entirely unchanged except 1, yacker gets hypnotized in the one cutscene instead of tails, and 2, eggdad did his best to make the amusement park enjoyable for his kids :)

generations! hoo boy! eggman doesn’t get invited to the birthday party (it’s his birthday too) so he causes Issues! oh and shadow gens happens lol

lost world… oh boy. this one is traumatic for everyone involved. there’s less arguing involved, but sonic is still an impulsive dumbass (leading to tails getting kidnapped, which traumatizes sonic and eggdad) and eggy presumably falling to a fiery death (only sonic is around to see this). so sonic is having a Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day all around, and the zeti are also trying extra hard to kill him to spite eggface. luckily it all works out, except that therapy Will Be Required

forces is another fun one! for me ofc, not the characters. infinite betrays eggman early on, locking him up, then also defeats sonic, locking him up too. bc i am merciful, i am reducing the time the war takes down to one month (mainly bc really, that’s more than enough time for everything to go to shit). sonic and eggman are NOT tortured (bc that was just a weird translation thing), but more therapy will def be required. also rookie/gadget saves both sonic and eggman

at some point, eggdad creates sage. he does not intend for sage to become his daughter. but also sonic and tails both know sage from the start, which is relevant for this next bit

frontiers happens next, and really, the main issue is that sage Refuses To Properly Communicate With Sonic. eggy doesn’t want to put his kids in danger so he tells sage not to run any simulations where that happens. in the end though, sonic still has to get involved. and also now there is a Sister :)

tmosth also happens because i fucking love tmosth. the train is sentient which is why sonic gets knocked out

will add some links to character descs and stuff when i post more about this au (and i’ll also try to come up with a name while i do that)

[weirdozjunkary]

I need to share my two cents on Prime!Sonic because I feel that he’s getting unnecessary hate from people (mild spoilers for season 2)

First off, I get it if you don’t like him for your own reasons. How he talks, how he acts, what he looks like, ETC. I am in no way judging you for your own opinion

What I hate about this is people saying that he is ‘not sonic’. He doesn’t act like how sonic would be. I’ve seen people say he rude or selfish, and I feel that they’re comparing him too much with his other selves.

Sonic Prime isn’t game sonic; despite the creators saying it’s ‘as close to cannon as it gets’. Sonic Prime isn’t the same as Cannon Sonic. The only reason why the series is ‘close to cannon’ is the fact that we have badniks, rings, power ups, ETC; things from the games. That’s the only thing that is like cannon in the story

But for Prime!Sonic’s character… he IS not sonic, not the one like his game counter part. BUT I think he is not far off from the original. Yes, he doesn’t act like his cannon self, but I think that’s kind of the point? I am a little biased, I love a characterization like this on him, I love me a little bastard. But to me, Prime!Sonic is more of a parody than the real deal. Similar to how Sonic Boom was. An over exaggeration of his character.

Now, yes, I agree that how he acts is… weird. He doesn’t listen to his friends, he messes things up greatly, he causes a lot of problems for himself and others. But I think that this kind of characterization is sort of a… reset of his character? At least for the story. It’s a character arc, the whole show is a character arc for him. We’re seeing a version of sonic grow from start to finish.

This idea is most prevalent in the episode ‘double trouble’, he says in response to Chaos Sonic annoying him: “Ugh. If I’m half as annoying as this guy, I really need to make some changes.”

And while I know that he does come off as selfish and rude, I think those words are a little harsh for him.

He isn’t selfish and rude, he’s dumb and impulsive. He leaps before he looks and assumes by only what he sees in front of him. Even in the final episode he assumes that Nine would be even just a smidge like his Tails, the ‘real’ Tails, but he ISNT Tails, he is Nine.

But the whole thing about all of this, is that he is learning. Shadow calls him out on trusting the fox to much, Rebel- heck- everyone says he comes to cause trouble, and they’re right, he does.

From what I’ve seen from the start of season 1 to the end of season 2, I have seen this hedgehog learn through his mistakes, even just slightly. Remember, each season is like 8 episodes. Pretty much right after his tussle with Chaos Sonic, you can see him become a little less annoying and a little more serious. He’s still a little shit, but he’s working to lessen that so things like this doesn’t happen again.

And for his actions towards people. One prevalent example I’ve heard people complain about is that he goes in for affection, when cannon sonic doesn’t do that. And while they are right, I think him going in for his hug with Shadow and Nine make sense for the story.

During the events of Prime, Sonic has been more or less alone, not truly alone, but alone. He has his friends stripped from him, distorted into alternate versions of themselves that have no idea who he is. And this, seeing all of this, it’s hurting him. He wants his friends back, he wants them to be fixed and everything to be back to normal. But right now they aren’t, and it’s getting harder for him to let go of that (proof with his thoughts on Nine).

When he sees Shadow again, he thinks he’s like the others, some other version of him that somehow came into the void with him through one of the Shatter spaces. But when he realizes that he remembers him, that he is the real shadow, he is absolutely ecstatic. FINALLY someone who hasn’t changed, someone who isn’t split into three or more other versions of himself, finally he has the real deal.

I view him hugging shadow out of pure joy and impulse, grabbing onto him and hugging him because finally he has someone who remembers their world before it was broken. Plus, I think Sonic is a tiny bit more physical with Shadow anyways (mostly through violence). I think he’d straight out hug whoever else was in shadows position if they also were the ‘original’ version of themselves.

In conclusion; I think that this little dumb fucker is getting too much hate and too much comparison to his cannon counterpart when he isn’t his cannon counterpart, mostly because the creators said that this show is very cannon accurate, when there’s only a few things to be cannon.

Criticize him all you want, I know I do. But don’t shit on him just cause he does things OOC when (at least I think) that’s not the point of him in the show.

Damn, that was a lot of writing. I just really like this dork

[wolfqueen66793]

‼️Sonic Prime Spoilers‼️

Warning: LONG!

Putting my thoughts together on this new season, overall I found it very enjoyable! Definitely my favorite season.

Loved the Sonadow! Lots of great moments from the two hedgehogs, it’s so very important to me that we got to see a softer more concerned side of Shadow, even if you don’t ship Sonadow you have to admit him not being a asshole was great!

However I do wish we got to see more of him, I’m definitely fine with the amount we got, not only for the season but the show overall! But I hate the trend Sega has made where they put Shadow in a show and he quickly gets put to the side lines.

I think a great thing they could have done with Shadow is when he’s separated from Sonic still have episodes with him! We could have seen him recover from the fall into the ravine and fight his way out as a episode, or it could have been a prisoner situation! (Or both) Nine could have some how contained Shadow after being weakened by the Grim Bots, that would let the writers keep a power house like Shadow out of the fight but not out of the plot. Anytime we cut back to Nine we would also be cutting back to Shadow.

There was also the 3-4 Episode fighting, now honestly I didn’t care but I did notice it. Did the fights get a repetitive? Yeah, It was a lot of repeating the same stuff but I forgive it because during this long fight was all the lovely character interactions and growth, which is what I think we should focus on. Dread choosing his crew over Treasure, The Roses, The great moment between New Yoke Knuckles and Sonic vs Nine (though that probably should have been given to Shadow honestly, he was in the fight but we saw him the least it feels) and I loved the relationship between Mangey and Sails.

But I do have a small problem with how they handled Mangey and Sails in the fight, the writers gave them a “Death” scene. Now that I was really down for, but looking back on it It just makes me think “why?” Now logistically it was probably the writers wanting to take some characters out to write less, which honestly fair enough! They had a lot of characters to juggle.

But I wish there “Death” meant something more than just to get them out of the fight until the end where they come back with the Grim Big Bot, now I’m a BIG sucker for Sonic and Tails moments! And I love everything for them, I love there happy moments and I love there sad moments. Sonic and Tails’s relationship is my absolute favorite thing about the Sonic series! And because of that I wished there “death” was something more important, we got to see Sonic be actually hurt about there deaths and I love that! But I wish it just had a little bit more time, have it be the moment where he really starts to see Nine as someone dangerous, someone who can do some real damage, I know sonic is a guy who believes in second chances, and I’m not at all asking sonic to go into a blind rage and attack Nine, that just wouldn’t make sense. But I’d like a moment where Sonic would just yell up to Nine with anger but also sadness, he just had to watch other variants of his little brother die from another one of his brother, because he was too slow. (Or maybe I’m just a big sucker for angst and just like watching Sonic suffer)

And lastly there is the ending, now honestly all the other things I’ve mentioned before this point are things that I actually don’t mind but I’d probably just change a bit. And this also applies to the ending, just a tad less. I found the ending to be very unsatisfying and confusing, we were told we were supposed to understand why prime was so strange for the Sonic canon but we got 0 answers, and the ending is very open (which is a thing I don’t like for show finales, almost entirely) but, we we’re supposed to get 8eps this season but the season only had 7, that’s what Netflix ordered, so where is the last episode? What I’d like and what seems to be what others would like or at least have speculated is that Sonic Prime will get a extra long episode or Movie later down the line, to properly wrap everything up.

I’d definitely be down for something like that, it reminds me what Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles did with their show, after there show was put on a indefinite pause they were given the opportunity to make a Netflix movie to wrap up the story. And it’s one of my all time favorite movies! There is most definitely more that they can do with this show, and I really wish this turns out to be the case, because if this is where Netflix actually leaves the show off it will kinda suck ngl, a bad ending kinda can put a whole show off for me (not that this show will end up like that for me but still) and it would also mean Sega pretty much lied to us about understanding the timeline.

So I hope the strange cliffhanger we got with shadow taking the prism shards, the shatter spaces still being a thing and that random (most likely) prism energy blast with what looked to be a shadow of a large ship (probably the eggmen) appearing in the sky we will get that last episode Netflix ordered as a longer special that will help us understand things and give us a more satisfying ending!

But there we go! My thoughts and critiques on prime season 3. I definitely loved the season and I’ll be thinking about the Sonadow scenes we got pretty much every day just like the metal virus arc!

Here are some Sonadow pics for making it this far!

[sonicboomseason3]

Sonic Boom - Theft

NOTE: Here you guys are, a random excerpt from the larger Sonic Boom Season 3 project I've been working on! If people like this one, then I'm down to share more in the future as well (but only occasionally because I don't want to clog up any of the tags). But yeah, I'm not usually someone who's super confident in my writing, but I genuinely did like how this one ended up, and I want to test the waters with this so. lol.

Some context for this: Shadow has a part-time job at Meh Burger. and it's a running bit for Sonic to have a shitty time every time he tries ordering from him, but people who have been on my blog long enough already know about that particular lore. Also, sometime before this, Meh Burger replaced all of their menus with thin slabs of steel with words etched into them due to Reasons. Don't worry about it. Smiles.

--

“Uh…” Sonic faltered when he noticed that Shadow’s expression was visibly stormier than it usually was. “You… okay?”

“Where are my gloves.”

“Come again?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, hedgehog,” Shadow snapped. He pointed an accusatory finger right between Sonic’s eyes, causing him to go cross-eyed. “I haven’t been able to find them since this morning, and so I’ve had no other choice but to wear a backup pair provided by Meh Burger. Where are they.”

It took Sonic another moment to register the words coming out of Shadow’s mouth. Indeed, the latter was wearing the standard white gloves that everyone else wore instead of those weird gauntlet things. Aside from the golden rings clamped around his wrists, Shadow’s whole look was suddenly looking very, very plain.

“I… don’t know?” Sonic slowly replied, pushing Shadow’s finger back towards its owner. “What makes you think I have anything to do with that?”

Shadow scoffed and crossed his arms, clearly not believing him. “Because you are the one who would gain the most out of stealing from me. You want my gloves to enhance your own gear, which will in turn make your battles more efficient.”

“Are you serious, Shadow? I don’t even know where to begin with any of that,” Sonic said, beginning to get annoyed at all the hoops Shadow was jumping through just to blame him for his personal problems. “One, if I really felt like upgrading anything, I would’ve just asked Tails instead of going through all that trouble. Two, I have a perfectly good pair of gloves that I’ve been wearing for years, and I have zero problems with them. No holes, no chafing, no nothin’. I don’t even see what makes your gloves so special.”

“Of course they’re special. They’re the only pair in existence, unlike your inferior ones.”

Sonic’s eye twitched. “Yeah, well, at least mine don’t make me look like I’m wearing a couple of toilet plungers on my hands.”

“What?”

Honestly, Sonic didn’t really think that Shadow’s gloves were that bad, but he had his limits to how much he would take lying down before dishing right back. While he was definitely getting better at the whole ‘ordering Meh Burger when Shadow was on his shift’ thing, there were still times when he lost his patience. This was one of those times.

“Hey, can you exchange insults somewhere else?” Dave, showing up out of nowhere to stand next to Shadow, whined. “I’m sick of doing overtime cleaning up after your fights.”

Sonic supposed he should feel some semblance of gratitude towards Dave for preventing the fistfight that had definitely been about to happen, but he was still too irritated at being falsely accused. “Dave, tell Shadow it makes no sense for me to steal his gloves.”

Dave turned to Shadow with an eyebrow raised. “Your gloves are missing?”

“Since this morning. And if it truly wasn’t Sonic who took them—”

“Dude, for the millionth time, it wasn’t.”

“—then I will hunt down this unknown thief if it’s the last thing I do,” Shadow finished, completely ignoring Sonic. “And they will pay for daring to steal from me.”

“Wow, it’d sure suck to be them then,” Dave yawned, raising a hand to cover his mouth. The other two immediately took notice of the fact that he had on a very familiar red, black, and white gauntlet. “Too bad I don’t know anything.”

Sonic stared at Dave’s hand shielding his yawn, and then stared at his other hand hanging by his side. Sure enough, there was Shadow’s other glove. “Seriously?”

“David,” Shadow ground out through clenched teeth as he reached for one of Meh Burger’s steel menus.

To Dave’s credit, he didn’t even flinch at the realization that he had been found out. Instead, he closed his eyes in acceptance right as Shadow smacked him in the side of the head with the menu, the CLANG resounding throughout the entire restaurant. He fell to the floor, out cold.

“What’s wrong with you, Shadow?” Sonic asked in exasperation. “You’ve been here with him for hours at this point. How in the heck did you not notice until now?”

Shadow didn’t reply, only gazing down at Dave’s unconscious form with open disdain. Something else in the corner of his eye caught his attention, and his scowl deepened. “Sonic,” he snarled, his mood worsening even more. “My air shoes are missing.”

“Come again?”

Shadow, growling like a wild animal and possessing more flexibility than a limp pool noodle, kicked his leg high up in the air and slammed it down on the counter for Sonic to see.

Thankfully, he had socks on, but Sonic still could have gone on with his life without the increased proximity to Shadow’s unshod foot. “Oh my god, dude, don’t—”

“I said my air shoes are missing,” Shadow repeated dangerously, his leg still resting on the counter. The counter where food was supposed to be served. “If you have something to do with this, say so now.”

Sonic threw his hands up in the air. “We’ve already proven I didn’t steal your gloves, so why would I steal your stupid shoes?! And again, how do you go around not noticing this stuff?!”

Shadow opened his mouth say something, but the sound of an evil laugh coming from above cut him off. They both looked up at the sky and saw Eggman hovering in the air… with some newly acquired footwear and not his Eggmobile. Sonic slapped a palm to his forehead as Shadow’s eyes narrowed into slits.

“There you are, Sonic! Behold, my greatest plan yet!” Eggman announced smugly, descending to the ground and striking a pose in front of his foe. He was trying to look cool, but the effect was slightly dimmed by how he was clearly in pain despite all his gusto. Of course he was, given that Shadow’s shoes were a few sizes smaller than his own. “I’ve figured out a way to match your speed, and now I can finally defeat you, thanks to my new roller skates! Don’t even try to stop me—”

“Trust me, I don’t have to,” Sonic sighed, hand running down his face.

“Wait, what?”

“They’re air shoes,”came three menacing words from right behind Eggman. Eggman barely had the chance to realize that Shadow had teleported from his spot at the counter before another CLANG even louder than the last one rang out. Down the street, a few villagers in their homes opened their windows, poking their heads out in confusion.

“This pathetic island is populated by trash and trash only,” Shadow sniffed. He threw the menu off to the side and bent down to take his shoes back. When he couldn’t remove them so easily, he growled again and resorted to yanking on them with so much force that Sonic was surprised that Eggman’s feet didn’t pop off with them. Putting them under one of his arms, he stomped back over to Dave’s body to do the same with his gloves. With all his gear now back in his hands, he glanced over his shoulder at Sonic. “I’m out of here. You can go get your swill elsewhere. Or starve. It makes no difference to me.”

He teleported away to who even knew where, leaving Meh Burger completely unmanned by anyone still lucid.

Sonic stood quietly for a second before looking down at Eggman, who was face down on the floor with his butt in the air, his toes red from being crammed into ill-fitting shoes, and his hands covering the rapidly forming bruise on the back of his head. “You okay, Egghead?”

“Mombot…” Eggman whimpered, dazed. “I want Mombot…”

“Yeah, I dunno how you thought that could’ve ended any other way, to be honest.”

[phasesgurl]

Sonic: Shattered

So basically, Eggman gets the prism again. Sonic and Tails and everyone come to fight him, and Eggman hits Sonic with the prism. If it were any other rock this wouldn’t be a huge problem, but this leaves what looks like a large glowing crack in Sonic’s chest.

the others continue to fight. As the cracks start to grow and new ones form in his face, arms and legs, the prism starts glowing brighter.

then, all of a sudden, Sonic screams out in pain and he and the crystal sort of… explode.

Shadow is the first one to come to. Everything looks more or less normal, other than the fact that everyone’s unconscious and the prism has turned into a swirly rainbowy portal-looking thing.

Tails is next to wake up. He realizes Sonic is gone and flies into a panic. He runs off, Shadow goes after him to make sure he doesn’t do anything too impulsive.

after a while, they sort of find Sonic. He looks like a hologram, pays no attention to anything, and keeps repeating the phrase “What you see is what you get—just a guy who loves adventure!”

Tails is confused and alarmed, but Shadow knows what’s going on. It’s a repeat of Sonic Prime, sort of. But Sonic seems to be the only thing that was shattered—Big and Froggy are normal, Eggman’s normal, almost everything is normal. Not even the prism was shattered this time, it was more blended together.

Shadow tries to comfort Tails, and they decide the solution is to go into the void and see what they can see.

of course, they have no way to get into the void because no one has any prism energy inside. They decide to go talk to Knuckles, Amy and Rouge (who have tied up the still unconscious Eggman.)

They don’t have any ideas either. While they’re talking, Tails’ eyes drift to the swirling light that used to be the prism. He stares for a while, thinking. Wondering.

then surprises everyone by jumping into it.

The others panic and end up going into it themselves. It turns out, the prism has turned into a portal into the void, complete with a rainbowy gateway to their world. Tails is standing on a crystal, awestruck.

After a brief explanation from Shadow on where the heck they are, they run off toward a random gateway to hopefully find sort of clue.

Also Tails is going to feel really guilty about what happened to Sonic.

they end up finding these guys, who were written in by the prism in a way that they wouldn’t change what happened with the original Sonic when he broke the prism:

More info on them and their friends:

The New Yolk City Sonic I think has the best backstory. He was friends with that world’s Amy before the Chaos Council took over. When they did, the two hedgehogs tried to fight back, but both were captured and turned into cyborgs. For a while, he and her were a matching set of enforcers, Rusty Rose and Scrappy Sonic. Then, he found a chaos emerald while patrolling and it restored his free will. He panicked when he saw his robotic body and ran off to look for Amy. When he found her, however, she recognized that he was no longer under the Council’s control and ordered some robots to terminate him. He survived, but did take some damage.

Ghost, Zip and Crash were a second resistance group with no knowledge of the existence of the first. They operated on Angel Island and protected the Master Emerald. They would also sneak down and cause trouble the council in new yolk.

They were sneaking in the sewers when they came across an unconscious blue cyborg. They decided to wake him up. Half asleep, he said “Amy-bzzrt-Rose…” they asked what that meant, but he found himself unable to say anything after that.

Since he couldn’t tell them his name, the Chaotix nicknamed him “Lucky” because he was very lucky to get free of the council’s control.

He still can’t talk, but his new friends have gotten very good at understanding his charades. Especially Ghost, who can practically read his mind.

Nine was overjoyed when he met Lucky, although didn’t show it. This was a guy who was just like the hedgehog who had tried to be his friend, who was nice to him when no one else was, almost identical in body and in personality! And his home was right here. He could stay with him. He was mute, but Nine felt like Sonic talked too much anyway.

In Boscage Maze, there was another group of scavengers that was more mindful of the jungle, so Thorn let them stay. They had their own version of her, named Briar. He was also a protector of the forest, and even had the power to control the plants. Imagine Gnarly’s confusion when a vine grabs his ankles and lifts him upside down. Poor echidna nearly has a heart attack.

Briar means well, though. He just likes to put newcomers through their paces.

Poison Ivy does have her fire powers, but being in the middle of a bunch of trees rarely uses them. Most people don’t even know she has them, so that comes as a shock when she comes to the void and fights the Eggforcers.

And finally, No Place. These three sail on a ship called The Chaos. Just them. Polly is a flicky that refuses to leave the ship.

One day, the Chaos is attacked by what the crew thinks is a kraken. Shipwrecker recognizes it as a version of iblis that is made of water rather than fire, and that flooded the planet years ago. Shadow gets knocked overboard and sees a chaos emerald underwater. He tries to get it, but is knocked unconscious by a rock to thrown by iblis. Sapphire panics, since he is terrified of water, but summons the courage to dive in and pull his captain back onto the ship. He sees the emerald, and thinking that Shipwrecker was trying to get it grabs that too before returning to the surface.

When the captain comes to, he reveals to his crewmates that he now has all of the chaos emeralds, and he and his crew go into super form and defeat iblis, restoring the water to its original level. As they explore their new surroundings, they see hedgehog's pass and the loop-de-loop. Sapphire ends up falling flat on his face because the loop was damaged by Dread's submarine. They fix it by making a replacement section with wood. It's like a bridge that curves.

then, they race. The starting line is drawn, the route is set, and they're all determined to prove they're the fastest of the bunch.

3..2..1.. GO!

Shiver falls behind pretty quickly. For the rest of the race, it seems like it's going to be a photo finish between Sapphire and Shipwrecker. Then, the captain stumbles over something. allowing sapphire to take the lead. He's about to win when he sees Amy, then same way Sonic sees Shadow when he's running really fast in prime. She grabs him and pulls him through the gateway.

From Shiver and Shipwrecker's perspective, Sapphire just sort of popped out of existence, so they're confused and angry. This group is for this au what Nine was for prime. Sapphire is also being really uncooperative and slowing their progress to get the original Sonic back.

Which they still have no idea how to do, by the way. Wait a little longer to find that out, I'm still deciding weather to write this story as a comic or a fanfic.

[atschoolunfortunetly]

Wholesome Sonic and Tails Wednesday Once Again

Based on me and my brother's interactions. Fic is under the cut! Enjoy!

“Tails, I’m bored.”

“Well, that seems like a you problem.”

Sonic sighed as he laid down on the floor in Tail’s workshop. The fox was working on something that he says isn’t going to be important. Just a fun little project for him to indulge in his hobby. Sonic, on the other hand, has nothing to do. That leads into the situation that is currently happening.

“Tailssss, give me something to do!”

“Why don’t you go for a run? Or check up on the others?”

“I already did! Everyone else is doing other things right now!”

He wasn’t lying. Amy was babysitting Cream, the Chaotix were working on a case that they wished to do by themselves, Knuckles was busy with the Master Emerald, Rouge is trying to steal it, and Shadow said he was busy working on something and told Sonic to leave him alone. Tails was the only person Sonic could think of bothering.

“Eggman isn’t-” “Available to beat up? Yep. You’re the only person I could think of bothering.”

“Darn…alright, fair enough. I sorta can’t leave this gizmo unattended though otherwise-” “You’ll lose motivation to work on it?”

“Yeah! How’d ya know?”

“Mmmmaaagiicccc~” Sonic chuckled before sitting up, “Guessing what you’re going to say before you finish your sentence is easy though.”

“Really? I find that hard to-” “Believe?”

Tails shot the hedgehog a look, “That one was an easy one!”

“Then give me a harder one!”

“Alright, how about,” The fox cleared his throat, “The-” “The fitness gram pacer test is a-”

Tails chucked a pillow right at Sonic’s face, interrupting the blue hedgehog, “That wasn’t what I was going to say!”

Sonic let out a couple of laughs, “Then what were you gonna say?”

Tails opened his mouth and left it open as his brain searched for something to say. He then closed his mouth and sent Sonic a glare that made the hedgehog nearly begin laughing again.

“What were you going to say, Tails?”

“...Shut up.”

“I was right wasn’t I?”

“Do you want another pillow to the face?”

Sonic looked at the pillow in his lap, “Why do you have pillows in here anyway?”

“So I can use them to take naps, duh.”

“...Bro, why don’t you use your bed?

Tails froze solid in his chair as if Sonic just caught him eating all the mints. Sonic got up from the floor and walked over to Tails in a joking, yet menacing fashion.

“Answer the question, Tails,” He spoke, on purposely lowering his voice to be “threatening”.

“...Chair comfy?”

Now, normally Sonic would agree with that statement. However, he is trying to be a good role model as an older brother so he simply raised a brow instead.

“That’s the excuse you’re going for? Buddy, if you keep this up you’re probably going to get some good ol back pain and trust me when I say that won’t be fun.”

Tails looked away from Sonic as the hedgehog let out a sigh, “By the way, when did you last take a break?”

“Uhhhh, does eating breakfast with you count?”

“That was five hours ago.”

Tails blinked in shock before looking at the time. His stomach growled and he shot a glare at Sonic.

“How dare you make me aware of my bodily functions.”

Sonic chuckled, “Ooo, you need to eat food and hydrate! Oooo!”

Tails jokingly let out a hissing noise as Sonic picked him up with ease, “How are you gonna grow up to be a big and strong boy, huh?”

“Hey, put me down! I’m not five!”

“You’re right, you’re eight! Nice job counting there, bro!”

“...I am going to bite you the moment you put me down.”

Sonic grinned, “Like you could catch me, Mr. I forgot to eat and my stamina is probably in the negatives.”

“...Okay, I’m going to straight up fight you now.”

“Wow, I am so scared.”

“I know where you sleep!”

“I know where I sleep as well, you ain’t special!”

“Sonic!”

[bobbybutterfly]

It’s been over 2 weeks since I last posted. Well. I hope that these four pieces were worth the wait.

Mulori! Boy I’m proud of this piece! I tried experimenting with colour by using warmer colours for shadows and cool colours for lights. She’s really giving angel of war descending from the heavens.

What to say about Mulori? Her death! You’re telling me that scout Gosemdouchi got a whole ass music video dedicated to him and Mulori gets NOTHING?! I’m outraged. But her edition of In the Years I Spent Far From Home is just so beautiful. Now I’m writing about it, I’m not sure if they made a separate cover for when she sings it in Operation White Snow or she was always singing it. Non the less it slaps.

Interesting was to see she’s shown often with Commander Gosemdouchi. He personally sends her off on her mission to stop the weasel spies (I’m sorry I don’t remember the name of their group). He cries when she dies, proclaiming they should fire their missiles for Mulori. The reason why I find it interesting is that when I went to write a short story about Mulori’s time in the military, I made them have a let’s say weird relationship. Maybe it got saved in my unconscious memory. Just like with Udochi being scout Gosemdouchi’s younger brother LOL. I thought I made that up but no!

I should maybe go back to that story sometime. Probably change Commander Gosemdouchi to a lower rank hedgehog that still has authority over her. A country leader would not have time to bully some low rank scout. Even though it is quite funny when I think about it.

Oewepali! I got told that this piece lacks depth because I use the same colours in the foreground and background. That’s a problem in all my pieces. It’s my fault for trying to use a very limited colour palette. Also what happened to his left arm and now that I’m looking at it, where’s his tail? The lighting too is… With the lighting in these pieces I wasn’t thinking about where it would logically go. I just made the lighter parts where they would look good compositionally. Yeah. I’m not that proud of the last two pictures.

As for what I think of this character… I originally thought that he got some developmental disability. I thought it would be interesting to write about a character during war that doesn’t really understand what’s going on. Kinda like Forest Gump. After rewatching the series (I still have to rewatch last two episodes) I came to the conclusion that he’s neurotypical but bullied by his brothers into thinking that he’s stupid. In the later episodes he’s shown to be actually quite capable. If I ever write a story featuring him I might give him like dyslexia though. I imagine he and his brothers went through a lot of trauma. Because he was the youngest and maybe had difficulty with learning they picked on him to let their frustration out.

Mulsajo! That’s right! I know his name now! I drew his paw like that because it was like that in the reference. I don’t really like it but I don’t have an idea how I would change it. I did change though, his teeth. My mom shown me rodent teeth because she didn’t like the mice have cat fangs. So he is a little more anatomically correct. Ignore the dog nose and that he’s anthropomorphic. LOL.

I took just so many screenshots! I should sometime post them. I love how they’re drawn in this picture! SO CUTE!

Mulsajo has one of the best designs in the show. The ripped up purple shirt is iconic. It was a while since I’ve seen the episodes with him. Before rewatching the show I thought he was a decent guy. Then I rewatch the show and he’s so mean to poor Oewepali. Dude can’t get a break. My head cannon still is that he’s nice but because they were starving, he’s aloud to be a bit grumpy. He’s also spiritual. Giving us one of the funnier jokes when Oewepali asks if he can eat the big fish only to be told no and then complain that Mulmangcho should have died earlier. This show’s dark humour is pretty great.

I want to develop my own mythology for my AU. Such as the mouse kings being descended from the sea god because Mulmangcho (he’s a king in exile in my AU) is often shown by the sea. It’s something I was thinking about when I drew this piece. It’s also inspired by Mulsajo’s death. Now if we’re talking about a main side character dying, Mulsajo has it the worst. He is never mentioned again in season 1. If you didn’t pay attention you wouldn’t have noticed he died. He is only sort of mentioned in season 2 episode 1. Mulmangcho is in disguise as a squirrel making up stories about what the wolves did to him and his family. He mentions his twelve dead brothers and how they cut off his tail. You begin to realise that he’s talking about what Flower Hill did to him. Obviously the moral is to never trust strangers no matter what they tell you. But I like to view it as a rare sympathetic scene for Mulmangcho. If someone was to write a continuation of season 2 I would like to see them expand on that scene.

Also fan art idea to design Mulmangcho’s 11 other dead brothers?

Last one up is Scout Gosemdouchi. Please don’t pay much attention to the plane. I really got to do some airplane studies. For the background I tried something more graphic and non literal. Lots of people I shown it to think he’s jumping out of the plane.

I actually have some trauma dumping I want to do. I swear it’s related to Squirrel and Hedgehog. If you don’t want to hear me whine about my catholic trauma then skip the next paragraph.

Alright then. Let’s get on with it. So I was like 8 years old. Our whole catholic school went to church. The priest starts preaching about this “real” story from China. The communists were cracking down on Christians. Some soldiers trashed a church. Taking special care the throw the Eucharist on the ground and stomp it with their muddy boots. Later a little girl would sneak into the boarded up church and lick the Eucharist off the ground. One day a soldier noticed her doing that AND SHOT HER ON SIGHT! Lesson? Be willing to die for your god.

I guess I like the cartoon because it reminds me of my childhood. LOL. Be sure to share your stories of childhood indoctrination in the comments! For real though, scout Gosemdouchi’s and Mulori’s deaths are to me the grossest parts of Squirrel and Hedgehog. Luckily I’ve got my head cannons that sort of fix that for me.

Originally this was the first picture I talked about but I found what I had to say was quite depressing. Plus religion is a touchy subject. I hope I didn’t offend anyone. I’m just talking about my own experiences. Also it’s good to have it off my chest. Now I don’t have to think about it anymore! YAY!

[sideblogforsonic]

Headcanons about Sonic characters that I haven’t talked about or haven’t talked about enough:

- Sonic is asexual gray-romantic/bi-or-panromantic flux. And also still questioning everything romantically.

- Elise is asexual heteroromantic, and has a specific “type” of boy (and that type is hedgehog who is slightly gender non-conforming.)

- Silver sometimes uses xi/xem/xier in addition to he/him/his.

- Sonic is autistic. Also an ADHDer.

- Tails is autistic.

- Elise is autistic.

- Knuckles is autistic.

- Shadow is allistic but has social problems…but it’s better explained by PTSD, depression, bipolar disorder, BPD, IED, social anxiety, etc. Poor Shadow. He’s got about half the dang DSM in his brain.

- Tails has an anxiety disorder, but it’s mild and is mostly under control.

- Elise has depression and anxiety in the 06 timeline.

- Rouge suffers from chronic backaches. She hides it well and doesn’t talk about it, but there is no way her back feels good. (I speak as a woman with a similar build.)

- Rouge was born red with slightly tan skin on the parts that don’t have much fur. She has full-coverage vitiligo. This also explains why her face is slightly darker in SA2 than in any other appearance. It started with small patches, but as she grew up, got more intense.

- Amy is heterosexual biromantic. (I’ve seen the way she is with Blaze sometimes.)

- Amy has mild balance problems.

- Amy’s small nose is a rare trait for hedgehogs in Sonic’s world. (See: Sonic Forces’ avatar creator.)

- Silver has a really intense guilt complex. He blames himself for his parents dying, even though he was too little to possibly be able to do what it would take to save them at the time.

- Silver is an early bloomer in terms of hair and quill development. He would have his mom style his quills for him when he was tiny.

- Silver’s father would look a lot like Shadow, but with a few key differences. His stripes would be light blue, and he wouldn’t have any on his arms. He would have a prosthetic leg (because one of his OG legs would have been burned off when he was around Silver’s age). He would have brown eyes, similar to Prime!Shadow. And he would have gloves and boots similar to his son’s, because he is where the telekinesis genes are from.

- Silver’s mom would be named Pearl, because she looked like one. Her eyes would be very light blue. She would have been deaf in one ear, but would have been able to hear slightly better with a hearing aid. Also, she would be blind. (Often, albino animals and humans have vision and hearing disabilities, and Pearl would be no exception.) She would style her quills - and Silver’s quills - by feel, and Silver would always want his quills like his mom’s quills. Oh, yeah, and Pearl would have the tiny ears.

- Movie!Tails is a huge fan of Kidz Bop. (Watches every single one of Savvy’s sign-alongs, got emotional when Eagan announced he was quitting, loves the covers but loves the few original tracks even more - he especially loves "Life of the Party" and "KIDZ BOP Never Stop".) Movie!Sonic and Maddie like them okay, but they aren’t as into it as Tails is. Movie!Knuckles thinks most of the Kidz Bop tracks are a little weird, but he likes older KB CDs. Tom is annoyed by many of the older batches that Knuckles prefers. One of the older KB tracks that everyone, even Tom, can vibe with is "Chariot". Tom sings along with that one teenager, Knuckles sings along with the "Oh, yeahs!", Sonic and Tails love to sing along with the younger backup singers, and absolutely everyone comes together with the chorus. Furthermore, Tom is impressed that they managed to make “Cake by the Ocean” into a kid-friendly song by changing most of the words and the entire context around so it’s actually about sharing some actual cake by an actual ocean (though there is one line that still didn’t age well but we’re not gonna mention that because at the time KB did the song nobody knew what we know now.) With that said, this is Sonic’s least favorite track…because even if there is cake involved, he doesn’t like thinking about being too close to the ocean. Tails is sensitive enough to listen to that track with headphones by himself only, knowing that, you know, Sonic is scared of the ocean.

- Sonic in most continuities is physically incapable of swimming.

- Tails would have been able to fly faster than he does if the bullies never pulled on his tails.

- Amy has cyclothymia, but it’s well-controlled.

[blazehedgehog]

Over the years, people have asked you about characters like Knuckles, Shadow, Blaze, etc., with the common response you typically give being that these characters don’t really need to keep showing up anymore because their arcs were completed a long time ago.

Out of curiosity, what do you think the cast should be shortened to?

My controversial statement is that I'm totally fine with a Sonic game that depicts Sonic mostly by himself 80% of the time. Or maybe not even alone, but like

Sonic's an explorer. A world traveler. Given the "long time no see" meme, you get the feeling Sonic actually bumps in to people like Knuckles or Tails pretty rarely because he's always off on his next run.

I know people like Sonic to be this guy who values friendship and I think he can still be that way, but I've said it before but to me Sonic is the kind of guy who is sort of friends with everyone. He knows somebody in every corner of the earth, and if he doesn't, he'll make a friend pretty quickly.

So in my ideal Sonic game, Sonic is traveling the world by himself and if he has a problem, he goes to someone local and they're introduced as a friend Sonic hasn't seen in a long time. Not as a permanent new cast member, but just as a guy Sonic has met before. Maybe Sonic checks in with them once or twice over the course of the game, but at some point they exit the plot permanently and we never see them again.

If there's a really big problem, maybe then Sonic tracks down Tails or Knuckles. Like there's a tech problem he needs to solve, or he needs a lot of extra muscle, or extra information on the Chaos Emeralds, etc. But this idea that they go on adventures together? Like they all pile into The Tornado because they are all neighbors or whatever? I dunno about that.

As much as I did not like the game or its story, there's this vibe in the ending of Sonic Forces. Sonic wins the war and everybody goes back to Freedom HQ (or whatever their base of operations was) for one last meeting before everybody parts ways.

Tails is giving his big "We'll be friends forever!" speech and Sonic's not even there. He's leaving early, already chasing the sunset. That's Sonic the Hedgehog. Nobody is going to see that guy for months. And that doesn't mean he's not friends with them anymore, he's just off doing his own thing.

So I'm fine focusing just on Sonic with Tails, Knuckles and Amy being "sometimes" cameos, and then the wider cast beyond that being even rarer cameos. Like Sonic pings Tails for something and one time out of five he goes "actually we need to consult the Chaotix for this" or "Rouge has connections here, we should ask her" etc.

[thesillygoosecompany]

very scattered sonic the hedgehog 3 thoughts (spoilers obvs, go watch it like right now)

-generally one of my favourite movies. - I’m OBSESSED WITH THAT THEME it keeps popping up and every time it goes so hard it’s like DUH DUH DUH and it’s SEMITONES (I love semitones they are so frickin cool) it’s that one from the title in the trailer like, I love it so much. -egg man and his assistant (idk his name) are so gay like let’s be fr. -that assistant one is a really interesting character like, egg man has left him so many times but he’s still obsessed with him idk he deserves his own spin off show

-my heart broke when he sacrificed himself and had that last speech honestly they’re gay ur honour trust me bro

-I love how incredibly deep and well written the characters are for a “””””””kids movie”””””””” like especially shadow

-knuckles speech patterns will never grow old

-I was there for the sonic villain arc that was cool

-I love the setups and payoffs (my favourite thing in any movie

-the special affects were so cool like THOSE DRAGON BALL Z LOOKING FIGHT SCENES???

-obsessed with sonic calling shadow “hot topic”

-Jim Carrey is a gift to the earth

-UNPOPULAR OPINION i would have been fine if they left it there. That would have been a really solid trilogy. I was kinda hoping there wasn’t going to be an end credit scene

-that mid credit scene where we now have Amy…my biggest problem is I think they're going to make Amy really boring. I can see it. It’s a big problem movie studios have now where they’re so desperate to be not sexist that they make all their women characters without any flaws. They're just perfect and it’s so boring. The biggest example off the top of my head is marvel. Captain marvel bombed at the box office, was a rubbish movie because captain marvel doesn’t have any major flaws. Same with She Hulk and all the other new female leads. Studios don’t want to be sexist so they make every female character a baddass doesn’ttakecrapfromanyonebecausetheyresooverit and you can’t get attached to them because you can’t see them grow because THEYRE NOT FLAWED. Prime Marvel character development was Tony Stark. He starts out a narcissist who doesn’t care about anyone but himself, to sacrificing his life to save the universe. HE STARTED FLAWED BUT GREW AS A CHARACTER! PEOPLE DONT LIKE HIM BECAUSE HES COOL, PEOPLE LIKE HIM BECAUSE HE CHANGES FOR THE GOOD The characters in Sonic so far ARE FLAWED but they overcome that and that’s what makes a great movie. I’m just praying they make Amy a real character and not the crap we’ve been fed recently

-sorry that last one was long

-IN CONCLUSION this is one of my favourite movies, I was hooked, THE THEME OH GOD THE THEME THE SEMITONES THE DUH DUH DUH IS SO COOL

[drplantboss]

I think that Sonic media could benefit somewhat from an approach to canon similar to what the SCP Wiki does.

For those who don’t know, the SCP wiki uses a “choose-you-own-canon” style of universal consistency. This makes sense for it in particular because it’s a community writing project. It’s hard to get everyone on the same page when “everyone” encompasses literally thousands of writers. What this has done is created a system where there are general elements that will almost always be internally consistent — the SCP foundation itself, the other groups of interest, the containment classes and danger levels — while still allowing people the freedom to bend the rules in order to make their stories work. Some entries are written from the perspective of the foundation hundreds of years into the future. Some of them take place in alternate realities or the places in-between. As stated, this works very well because it allows authors to craft their own stories, and it also allows readers to choose what kind of story they want to see.

Obviously, this can’t have a 1-to-1 translation to Sonic. There have been a whole lot of Sonic writers through the years, but nowhere near the level that the SCP wiki has. It’s also an official product, licensed and produced by a company that pays people. Nevertheless, I think some elements of this fluid canon approach could still be applied to Sonic given the right execution.

At this point in time with Sonic “lore” for even just the games, there’s a whole lot of confusion about what the timeline of events is, what events actually happened, and whether they even happened to the characters we think. Generations and Forces did a lot of this because of the introduction of the “classic” timeline, which is apparently separate and distinct to the “modern” timeline — essentially, the timeline splits after Sonic 3&K. This is something that has been extremely unclear, and even what I just said is still just the idea that has been most widely accepted from “official” tweets. The problem is that this makes understanding what is happening, when, and to whom very nebulous.

This is something that was an issue for one game in particular, 18 years ago: Shadow the Hedgehog (2005). Shadow has 11 different endings, and 326 possible ways to get to each of the 10 primary endings. Each of these paths is a pure hypothetical; the game is posing the question and then answering: “What would Shadow do if this happened?” Only the final, “true” 11th ending is a concrete addition to canon — the rest is up to speculation. Obviously, some chain of events leads to Shadow betraying Black Doom, remembering his memories, discovering he isn’t an android, and quieting his inner turmoil. We just don’t know what those specific events are.

While this has been infuriating to some Sonic fans who want to have a concrete canon, I think this might actually be a fairly good approach to use for basically every Sonic story. Does this take place in the same universe as [other piece of Sonic media]? Unless it otherwise states it, that’s up to you! This would give each writer the freedom to choose what aspects of the Sonic world to bring with them into the narrative they want to tell — universe consistency be damned. It would also allow fans to interpret the works as they see fit; something a lot of Sonic fans already do in spite of blatant contradictions. This would make the differentiation of the “classic” and “modern” timelines pointless, and it would allow for integration with external media. References to the IDW comics, Sonic Prime, or other adaptations of the character could be mixed and matched.

One of the main issues I see arising from this would be a bit of an increase in difficulty when writing a Sonic story. While having rules may be restrictive, having the freedom to do what you want can be a bit of a headrush when writing. It’s easy to trip over your own narrative coils when you don’t have a neatly laid out thread with which to start. I wouldn’t envy being a Sonic team writer in that instance. But, hey — if fanfic writers can do it, I’m sure they could make it work.

The other issue would be fandom reception. Sonic fans are notoriously fickle, and I don’t really think this would “help,” per se. The key to success would come with the fandom’s willingness (or unwillingness) to accept that not everything is canon to everything else. I know that the infamous tweet “everything is canon” gets a lot of mileage, but I don’t think it was meant to be interpreted the way many people do. I think it’s more meant along the lines of what I’ve been saying here — even if the events aren’t consistent within the universe as a whole, the events that are meaningful in that interaction are true to themselves. In Shadow the Hedgehog, the events of those 10 endings and the buildup may not have actually come to pass, but that is how Shadow and the other characters would have behaved if they were to happen in that order. Getting over the hurdle of simply not having a defined canon would be very challenging for a lot of people.

To summarize my thoughts, I think it boils down to this:

Sonic struggles with canon because of a multitude of inconsistencies already, so the writers should embrace the inconsistency and let the individual writers and fans determine how they wish to perceive the events of the world as they see fit.