#and y'all are about to get spammed with sonic fics

[crusherthedoctor]

It's really sad how people keep going after your group just because you defend yourselves

Apparently, the statements "I'm generally content with the quality of my personal stories" and "I spot many issues with this comic" justify getting spammed with graphic death threats and ableist insults

Yet it's insisted that you're the ones who are too harsh? It's straight up unfair.

Who would have thought that a group of people might occasionally get upset after being crucified and ridiculed by countless strangers?

Funny how they NEVER have a justification beyond "well shut up no one wants to hear you"

Somehow, it's always YOUR fault that a part of the fandom goes rabid whenever someone doesn't conform to the current "right" opinion, and YOU'RE to blame for THEIR ungodly behavior. That doesn't make any sense, does it?

This fandom is vain and abhorrent to the nth degree and y'all deserve better. That's all I wanted to say.

Par for the course, innit. They'll lash out at us. They'll hand out death threats. They'll make disgusting ableist comments about my autism, and similarly terrible comments towards my friends. They'll threaten to bomb SEGA HQ and stick Iizuka's head on a pike, among other wild declarations of violence. But don't you dare make a goofy meme about Surge not living up to her hype. And whatever you do, don't even think about criticising the unprofessional antics of the IDW crew. What are you, a monster?

They dismiss us as insignificant one minute, then fearmonger so hard that they see fit to give us a boogeyman-esque moniker the next. I'd be surprised if they could walk in a straight line without contradicting themselves.

As for "You talk so much about your fics!" ...No shit. I'm a guy with a blog. This isn't a movie production with a budget, I don't have a team or advertisements backing me up. And unlike fanartists, I don't have my own art to catch people's attention. I kind of have to talk about my writing in order to get it out there and inform people of its existence, and while I try not to sound too much like an unskippable YouTube ad, what else am I supposed to do? Upload them silently and then never refer to them again? How is showing passion for my work any different from official creators showing passion for theirs? Just because fanfic tends to get less attention on here than fanart doesn't mean it's not worth sharing, do they want fandom to flourish or not?

When I compare my work to a certain comic, I do it to highlight the dissonance. If fanfic writers - plural, not just myself - can understand the importance of keeping the characters recognizable, and making the universe faithful despite any necessary differences, then what excuse do official writers who have been involved with the series for over a decade have? If someone who doesn't even love Sonic that much compared to other characters, finds him annoying and unfunny half the time (no, not just in the Pontaff games, in general), and even finds it a pain in the ass to write for him at times and has more fun writing other characters because of this, can still attempt to write what made him appeal to fans... why do writers who supposedly love him so much keep fumbling so hard with him?

I compare for the sake of highlighting why these off-kilter portrayals are so easy to spot. If Sonic Twitter only gets "He's just stroking his own dick" from all of that, then they haven't been paying attention.

The most ironic thing about it all is that they've only gotten more vitriolic as most of us have mostly moved on from the height of IDW discourse (cause the comic goes in circles at this point, and is very likely to be running on fumes due to IDW's financial troubles, so there's no point). Yeah, I'll still criticise it now and then, and make a meme on occasion, but I rarely make lengthy ted talks about it or participate in ongoing Lanolin Is A Bitch/Silver Is Uwu-ified/Whisper Is Trauma Bait/etc back and forths anymore, because it's just tiring now. And since most current Sonic stuff has been putting me off in general, combined with growing fatigue and frustration at not being able to criticise certain games without people waving the finger at me (especially SA2, since the Year of Shadow has made it the center of attention yet again...), I've took a step back from intense Sonic discussion to focus on Stellar, as well as other fandom projects, like my recent brainstorming for Paper Mario or: How I Learned To Insert Eggman and Love The Vivian™.

In no way can you say I've been up in their faces as of recent. Yet they continue to cry otherwise, because they want people like me gone completely.

[randomfandomfamily]

Did somebody say “Sonic and Maddie bonding time”?

No? Well, you’re getting some anyways!

Mostly fluffy cuteness. With a side of angst, of course. (are you guys surprised? this is me we’re talking about.) It’s only a little angst, I promise. The angst is very brief. It’s mostly fluff. Like, ninety-five percent fluff.

“Hi, Pretzel Lady!”

Maddie smiled. “Hey, Sonic.” She glanced up from her video to see a familiar blue blur racing up the steps. “You just missed Tom. Crazy Carl needed help with something.”

Disappointment flashed briefly across Sonic’s face. Then he shrugged. “Ah, whatever. I can hang out with him later.” He noticed the mat she was sitting on and gasped. “Oh! You’re doing that weird thing you do every day.”

She raised an eyebrow. ”Yoga?”

“I’ve been meaning to ask-” Sonic interrupted himself. “Yeah, yoga, that’s the word. Anyway, where are your bones?”

Maddie laughed. “In my body? Where they’re supposed to be.”

Sonic put his hands on his hips. “No. Way. I’ve tried that yoga stuff before, you definitely can’t do that if you have bones, they don’t bend that way.”

Picking up her phone, Maddie clicked out of the video she was getting ready to work with. “Well, I’ve been at this a lot longer than you have. You’d need to start on something a little bit easier than what I do.”

“Easier? There are levels? What level are you on? Does Donut Lord do yoga? I feel like he doesn’t.” Sonic watched Maddie scroll through some videos. “His bones are not as bendy as yours.”

“There aren’t really levels, you just learn new positions as you go and challenge yourself every once in a while.” She held up the phone so he could pick one. “And no, Tom does not do yoga with me.”

Sonic glanced between Maddie and the phone. “I don’t know anything about this. Why are you holding the phone up to me?”

“Pick a video,” Maddie said. “Yoga will be a lot easier to learn when you have someone to help you.”

He looked surprised, but excited. “Really? You’re gonna teach me?”

“Sure am,” Maddie said, “I’ll be like your Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

Sonic’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “No, I don’t think so.” Before Maddie could ask, Sonic was sitting next to her on the map. “Okay! What’s first? Do we stretch? I feel like this is one of those things you should stretch for.”

Maddie leaned forward and touched her toes with her fingertips. “You’re not wrong. It is a good idea to stretch, especially if you’re not very experienced.” She pulled in her legs and pushed down gently on her knees. “Try this one. It’s like a butterfly.”

Sonic studied her movements carefully and copied her almost exactly. He couldn’t push his knees down as far as she could, obviously, but he seemed to enjoy moving them up and down so that his legs looked like flapping wings. “Oh, I get it! That’s the butterfly part!”

“Look at you go!” gave his shoulder a playful nudge. “You’ll be a master in no time.” Knowing he wouldn’t be able to focus for long, she went ahead and started the video. He hadn’t stretched all that much, really, but she’d be impressed if he just made it through the fifteen minute video. They could always do another cool down stretch afterwards.

It was a beginner’s video, so Maddie was prepared for the basics. Sonic, however, was absolutely delighted by the upward and downward-facing dog positions. “Dog? Like Ozzy!” He watched the lady in the video tilt her head back to look up at the sky. “I’ve never seen a dog do this before.”

Maddie considered for a moment. “You know, I’ve never really seen a dog do this either. It’s more like a seal if you ask me.”

“Awesome,” Sonic said, “This is officially the upward-facing seal position now.” They both laughed as they started to transition into downward facing dog. “Now this I’ve seen Ozzy do.” He shifted his hands underneath him. “I wonder if I could do a handstand.”

“Maybe we’ll try that later,” Maddie said. “We’re doing yoga right now, remember?”

Sonic shifted again and then held still. As still as it gets for Sonic, anyway. “Yoga. Got it.”

“You’re doing great,” she told him.

He grinned. “I know, right? This is way easier than whatever you were doing, Pretzel Lady.” They shifted into the next position as Sonic continued talking. “I used to sit on the rock over there, the one behind all the- well, actually, you probably can’t see it. But I used to try and copy you. Man, it hurt sometimes. You can do some really neat stuff.”

She ignored the part where he basically admitted to spying on her. “I’m glad you think so.”

“Why do you do it, anyway?” Sonic asked. “You could be doing so many other things! Like running or playing baseball, but you do this instead.” He glanced over at her. “It’s cool and everything, don’t get me wrong, but just- y’know. Why?”

Maddie gave him half a shrug. “I feel more at peace when I do it.”

“At peace?”

“Yeah, kinda like you with running, I guess.”

Sonic frowned. “Running doesn’t make me feel peaceful.”

“It doesn’t?” Maddie asked as they stood, stretching their arm up into the air. “Then why do you run everywhere?”

“Why do you walk everywhere?” Sonic responded. “It’s just how I get around. I mean, it’s fun, but I wouldn’t say it gives me peace or anything.”

Maddie reached over and stopped the video. “Okay, color me curious. What eases your mind after a tough day?”

Sonic paused, his arms still in the air from the yoga pose. “I like playing with nunchucks, I guess.” His arms fell to his side. “Well, no, that’s not very peaceful. Does ping-pong count? Ping-pong is fun.” He crossed his arms. “Wait, that seems wrong too.”

“Um…”

“No, hang on, I got this.” Sonic started pacing back and forth across the mat. “I definitely do things that put me at peace. Probably. I do, don’t I? What are you asking me for? Because I don’t know! Well, I don’t know either, moron. Oh, shut up. You shut up!”

“Sonic,” Maddie interrupted.

Still pacing, he looked up at her. “Huh?”

She wanted to ask why he had started talking to himself, but decided against it. “Why don’t we… why don’t you show me where you live, huh? Maybe that’ll help you think of something.”

He halted. “You wanna see my cave?”

“Sure,” Madde replied. “Lead the way.”

“Awesome!” Sonic darted into the woods before Maddie could so much as blink. She grabbed her phone and swiped the video away before putting it in her pocket. Sonic reappeared moments later. “Sorry. I forgot.”

Maddie rolled up the yoga mat. “No worries.” She stood. “Now. Lead the way, but a little slower this time.”

“You got it, Pretzel Lady.” Sonic started off again, much slower this time, leading Maddie into the woods. Every so often he’d dart off, but he’d always come back after a few seconds.

The cave ended up being a lot farther into woods than she thought it’d be. “You’re pretty far out here, aren’t you?”

“Had to be,” Sonic said. “Couldn’t let anyone figure out where I was.” He pointed out a small hole. She never would have noticed it if he wasn’t there. “There it is.” Ducking inside, he called, “Come on! I’ll give you the tour!”

Maddie struggled for a moment to get in, but the inside of the cave was a lot bigger than it seemed, so she was able to stand, kind of.

Sonic zipped about the cave, excitedly talking about everything. There was an old dryer in the corner that Sonic claimed was an in-home gym of some sort. The bean bag in the middle of the floor was surrounded by comic books, exclusively The Flash. She watched Sonic demonstrate his nunchuck skills, wincing as he whacked himself in the face.

She walked over to the ping-pong table and picked up a paddle. “Wanna play a round?”

“Yeah!” He picked up the ball and the other paddle. “Ready?”

“Hit me, SpaceHog.”

Sonic served the ball and immediately darted to her side of the table. He watched Maddie for a moment and said, “Wait, I’m doing this wrong.” He went back to his side just in time to hit the ball back to Maddie. “Sorry ‘bout that. Not used to playing with others.”

She laughed. “No worries.” They played back and forth for a while. “You’re pretty good at this.”

“I’ve had a lot of practice,” Sonic said. “When I wasn’t in town messing with Crazy Carl or watching movies with you and Donut Lord, I was down here doing… this.”

Maddie was still trying to adjust to the whole ‘spying on them’ thing, but it was becoming less and less surprising the longer she hung out with him. The poor thing had nothing else to do. “I’m gonna go ahead and assume you didn’t have any friends over.”

Sonic snorted. “Me? No. I’ve never had any friends here on Earth.” He didn’t seem saddened by the statement, it was just a fact. “But now I have you and Donut Lord! We’re friends, right?”

“Of course we are,” Maddie assured him. “What about the planet where you’re from? Have any friends there?”

“Kind of.” Sonic said. “I was just a kid, and I wasn’t exactly allowed outside much. There was one person, though. She looked out for me. Kinda like a parent.” He smiled to himself. “She was great.”

Maddie noticed the past tense. “She couldn’t come with you?”

“I wanted her to,” Sonic said, “But she wouldn’t. She stayed behind and… well, you know, I came here.”

“Do you know what happened to her?”

“Yeah.” He didn’t elaborate. He didn’t seem to want to.

Maddie almost missed the ball on the next pass. Sonic seemed to be picking up the pace a little. “Is she the one that told you that you needed to stay hidden?”

Sonic nodded. “She said someone would always want my powers. Which meant no one could know about my powers, which meant no one could know about me.”

“I don’t know,” Maddie said, “I mean, the people of Green Hills know about your powers and nobody wants to use them.”

“They don’t, but that psycho doctor sure did.” Sonic frowned. “A lot of people almost got really hurt because of that.”

“You got really hurt because of that,” Maddie pointed out. “Could have been avoided if someone had known you were out here. We could have helped you. The government never would have even known.”

Sonic waved his free hand flippantly. “Yeah, sure, I got hurt, but that’s not important. It was my own fault for causing the power outage that led them here. Because I couldn’t keep a lid on my own feelings.”

Maddie was having trouble understanding the reasoning behind all of this. “That’s what I’m saying, though. You wouldn’t have felt so alone if there was someone you could turn to. And if you hadn’t felt alone, you wouldn’t have caused the power outage, meaning the government wouldn’t have found you.”

“That’s…” Sonic looked distracted, but he was still hitting the ping-pong ball just fine, which was kind of surprising. Then again, he was used to a much faster game. “That doesn’t- no, what would have stopped the government from finding me would be going to the mushroom planet like I was supposed to.”

“You said you didn’t want to do that,” Maddie reminded him.

“I didn’t want to do that,” Sonic said, “And I’m glad I didn’t have to do that, but it’s what she told me to do.”

Maddie was barely keeping up with the game at this point. “But why would she tell you to go somewhere you didn’t want to go? Did she just assume no one would want to help you? She helped you, didn’t she? Why did she think no one else would?”

Sonic’s expression looked conflicted. “Because… I don’t- she was…”

Maddie hit the ball back to Sonic. “I’m just saying that maybe she was wrong to-”

“She was not wrong!” Sonic shouted. Maddie had to duck to miss the ball the Sonic that Sonic had just hit full force. He slammed the paddle down and put his hands on the table to steady himself. “She wasn’t wrong. Of course she wasn’t wrong.” He glared at the space between his hands. “She was never wrong. I was wrong. I’m always wrong. I never listen, I should have listened to her, why didn’t I- I should’ve just-”

Blue flickered dangerously around Sonic. Which would be worrying in an open area, but even more so here in the cave. “Hey,” Maddie tried, “Sonic, I’m-”

His head snapped up. “No,” he said angrily. “You just- you… no.”

“Sonic, I’m not saying this friend of yours wasn’t trying to protect you,” Maddie amended, “I’m just trying to explain-”

“Well, don’t!” Sonic exclaimed. “Don’t explain it to me! I don’t wanna know!”

Maddie felt bad for pushing, but she had to know, “Why not? She told you that you needed to be by yourself-”

“No,” Sonic interrupted.

“And that wasn’t true,” Madde finished.

“No.”

Maddie knew Sonic was stubborn, but most of the time it was endearing. Now it was almost frustrating. “Why is it so hard to believe that she-”

Sonic hands curled into fists. “Because it means I spent ten years alone for nothing!”

The cave was completely silent. Maddie didn’t dare say anything else.

Sonic suddenly gasped and backed away from the table, the sparks of blue dissipating. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean- I…”

Maddie set down her paddle and walked to his side of the table. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed so hard.” She knelt beside him. “Why don’t we go back to the house, okay? We can do some more yoga. And Tom will probably be home soon.”

He looked up at her in surprise. “Really? But I just yelled at you.”

“Well, I kinda earned it.”

“No, you didn’t,” Sonic insisted, “I shouldn’t have yelled.”

They started towards the entrance of the cave. “And I shouldn’t have made you upset.”

“Yeah but-”

Maddie held up a hand. “You know what? Why don’t we agree to disagree on this one, huh? I’m sorry for making you mad, you’re sorry for shouting. We’ve both apologized and now we’re even. Okay?”

Sonic hesitated. “Okay.” They started their trek back home and Sonic asked, “Can I still try to do a handstand?”

“After yoga.”

“Okay, cool.” He was quiet for a moment. “I really am sorry.”

“I know,” Maddie said. But he would never be as sorry as she was. Everything he said was starting to set in, and she had several issues with it.

Had he really said ten years? Ten years of being alone? There was no way Sonic was more than fifteen, and she didn’t want to imagine a five year old wandering around by himself.

Earth was beautiful, but it could also be a terrible place. She hoped to God Sonic had stayed in the woods for most of his time on Earth, because there was so much, too much, that could have gone wrong.

And, of course, because she didn’t want to think about it, she couldn’t think of anything else all the way back to the house. Sonic unrolled the mat while Maddie found the video they had been using earlier. She’d tell Tom what had happened after Sonic went home for the night.

Except she didn’t want him to go back.

The thought hit her in a surprising moment of clarity while they followed along with the video.

She didn’t want Sonic to go back to that lonely cave in the middle of the woods with no one to talk to but himself, she wanted him to stay.

No, more than that. She needed him to stay. It wasn’t just that she couldn’t bear to think of how desperately lonely he was, and how that must be torture for such a sociable kid like him, but she also couldn’t imagine going a day without telling him not to run in the house.

It wasn’t enough that he visited every day. Sonic shouldn’t have to be alone for even a second, not after being alone for so long.

But it’s not like she had an immediate solution for that. Would Tom even… actually, yes, Tom probably would be okay with it. More than okay with it, really.

“Hey, Pretzel Lady?” She glanced down at Sonic, who was in a completely different position. “You okay? The chic in the video already moved on.”

Maddie moved into the next position. “I’m okay, Sonic. Just thinking.”

“About what?”

She smiled. “Nothing much. Just how awesome you’re gonna be when you do that handstand.”

He grinned. “Dude, it’s gonna be so awesome. I’m gonna show Donut Lord when he gets home! Can he do a handstand? I wanna see him do a handstand.” He suddenly stood upright, yoga pose forgotten. “Oh! I figured it out!”

“Figured what out?” Maddie asked.

Sonic resumed the pose, his grin growing a bit. “I figured out what makes me feel at peace.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

He beamed up at her. “You guys.”

Maddie had to fight the urge to pull Sonic into a hug. She was certain that if she did, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from crying tears of paternal happiness. “Tom and I put you at ease, huh?”

“Well, yeah.” Sonic glanced at the video to make sure they were still on the same position. “You know how long I’ve been running? Like, all my life. You guys make me feel like I don’t have to run anymore.” He paused. “I mean, I’ll still run, obviously, but only because I want to. Not because I have to.”

That did it. Maddie’s heart had officially melted.

Her and Tom were definitely having a discussion later.

[bitter-sweet-coffee]

ok attention all follow you readers: i'm gonna need some hiatus-breaking advice because the burnout is hard, but my academic work is harder... and i need a distraction

if you don't read my fic, skim this anyways because it isn't just infinadow, and i'm infamously a rarepair shipper, so you have a solid chance of getting content you like!

so, idk if i have made it clear or not, but the initial fic outline had over 100 chapters (each about 3-4k words each) so um. yeah we arent doing that!!! i'm already making a separate folder/fic for all the timeskips and filler i was too burnt out to write so i don't take a billion years to update (it's supposed to be slow burn, not spending multiple cycles of the universe hoping that oxygen molecules will get hit with a warm breeze to create a spark)

HOWEVER! this is, unfortunately(?) only one instalment in this series. there's a sequel, a couple spin-offs, an epilogue, and some other shit stuffed in there too. this means there is a lot of content still to create, and i want you guys to feel heard and satisfied so here are a couple options for what i post next:

1. my collection of chapters that take place during/after Forces with all characters (literally everyone! resistance members, the rogues, metal, maria... i also take requests/prompts for this so it's very participatory on your end.) some mandated chapters involve silvjet, espave, vectilla, sallaze, sonamy, knouge, charmy and cream being besties, the return of Mighty and Ray (cough and Mighty's boyfriend, take a wild guess who), and even eggman and infinite interactions! this one is great because you can read what you want and avoid stuff you don't like

2. a flash forward of established shadfinite/infinadow/dog&hog. it's not "giving the people what they want because i am impatient" but after all this pining, i feel like i should show y'all where they end up (it makes the journey much more thrilling)

3. a random, tumblr-exclusive release of ONE (1) pre-written chapter from either the friends or lovers arcs. some limits apply, but i'll be picking the chapter anyways. not as fun as these other options but i can literally do it in 2 seconds (i have written a lot just not the right order)

4. an infinite flashback fic. i keep teasing at his childhood but i could actually post something stand-alone for some insight!

5. a shadow flashback fic. my STTO5 fic that i uploaded here is universe-compliant, but i can ALWAYS do more of these

6. i could start the Chaotix & Rogues spin-off... like, it is very ready to go right now. super ready. has a playlist and everything. the only reason i haven't posted is because it is espio and wave centric, and that's basically a me-exclusive ship with two characters who aren't even popular in the first place! it still has stuff like silvjet and vectilla and infinite being an honorary babylon rogue, reflects on Espio and Mighty's breakup, Scourge is there because now that i'm aware other people ship Mightourge i'm ecstatic to write it (FINALLY I HAVE A SHIP OTHER PEOPLE ENJOY WITHOUT MY PANDERING) and like. a lot of cool fun dark shit about both parties with some Forces lore explanations!!! idk, i'm passionate about this but i keep shoving it away because i can't bribe people with fan-favourite characters or popular ships, but it's based on my first ever fanfic from when i was a kid (with somewhat improved prose) so it's something i can write with ease

7. literally anything else (which is weird because no one knows my personal sonic canon besides me, but it's worth a shot if you wanna suggest something because it might fit or be something i had planned anyways)

8. i shut the fuck up and just write the next 2 chapters so i can spam-post the set i've already written since they come come right after 🤡

NOTE: i am literally okay with everything here. like, all of it. i would not offer if i would hate writing one of these, so don't let some of my biases sway what YOU want from me.

first 5 votes via comment or ask (anon or not) will form my decision! i'd normally say 13 bc lucky number but i don't usually get that much interaction 🥴