#at least sonic is self aware right? right?

[0vergrowngraveyard]

Surprise villain au oneshot

———

It had only been about three months since he took the little fox kit he found on some rich folk’s porch under his wing and Sonic had already heard the little guy apologize to him more times than he could count.

Most of the time it was for no reason, like if the kit dropped something and Sonic looked back at him. Just little things that required no apology but he always got one anyway. The hedgehog always waved it off, telling him that there was nothing he needed to apologize for.

Sometimes, however, it was due to how Sonic himself responded to him.

Sonic tended to experience pretty extreme mood swings, going from practically bouncing off the walls to the bottom of the barrel to being ready to kill someone who looked at him wrong all before a moment's notice. It wasn’t uncommon for him to be pleasant to be around one second and then suddenly snapping at anyone who breathed too loudly the next.

He knew it happened, he just didn’t know what to do about it. It was like he was stuck and could only watch himself slowly fall apart.

And worst of all, he’d begun to snap at Tails.

He didn’t mean to — he didn’t want to scare the little guy away, not when this was the first friend he’d ever had and they’d just started getting closer — but he couldn’t stop himself.

Sometimes the kit’s crime was asking a question at the wrong time or simply talking to him. It’s not like he ever knew when Sonic would suddenly get mad at him, the little guy was just trying to communicate with his new friend and was being punished for it.

Everytime it happened, the fox would get quiet and walk a few steps behind him. He’d only speak when spoken to until something got him excited the next day.

But he never left, he always stayed somewhere behind him and was still there in the morning.

It was a cycle.

They were walking down the street during the later hours of the evening, trying to think of somewhere to settle that night. Today was slow, Sonic usually got their money by pickpocketing off random people and he hadn’t been able to find anyone with more than $5 on them. It’s like all the richer mobians stayed inside today or people were starting to realize that money was being stolen and got smart.

Don’t get him wrong, $5 was great and he’d take it but deep down, some part of him was still used to the lavishness of Eggman’s bases…

They’d made it near the outskirts of Station Square. There’d been nowhere in the city for them to sleep with all the anti-homeless shit they’d been putting up. Spikes on benches, blocking off alleyways, the works. Sometimes, he considered just getting the two of them arrested so they could sleep in the juvenile detention center for the night or two.

But then they’d be separated and Tails could be sent back to his so-called parents.

He didn’t understand why they even bothered to file a missing person report and hung up fliers, they obviously didn’t care about the kid like he did. If they had been good parents, then Sonic wouldn’t have found the kit sitting on a porch in the rain, saying that his parents had kicked him out of the house for the night.

If they didn’t want to take care of their own kid, fine. He’d do it for them.

As they made it to the train station, Sonic put his hands on his hips and hummed. He looked back, “Hey, kid. What do you say we camp out in the Mystic Ruins tonight? Y’know, sleep under the stars and all…that…” His words trailed off as he looked at the kit.

He was holding one of the missing person posters.

Now, you wouldn’t be able to tell he was the kid in the flier unless you squinted and maybe turned the paper on its side. It was a terrible picture and the description said nothing about his twin tails. As long as the kid kept his hood on, he was in the clear.

But that wasn’t the problem.

An indescribable fear gutted him, dread opening up a pit in his stomach as his breath hitched. It was irrational, he knew it was irrational, but that didn't change anything.

“Why do you have that?” He asked

Tails blinked at him and looked back down at the paper, “Oh, uh- I found it yesterday. I meant to throw it away earlier but I forgot-“ The kit tried to explain before Sonic cut him off.

His body moved on autopilot as he snatched the flier right out of the kid’s hand, completely missing the way the kid flinched. Sonic’s gaze narrowed, glaring down at the wide blue eyes now full of fear staring up at him. He looked down at the flier again and ripped it into four pieces with an annoyed tsk.

“Forgot to throw it out, huh? You sure you weren’t just planning on going back to your folks and leaving me in the dust?” He practically spat out.

Tails’ eyes got wider and his breath hitched before he frantically shook his head, tears building in his eyes as they squeezed shut. “No! No, I wasn’t!” He cried out, “Honest!”

Sonic stared at the kit as he rubbed his eyes with the back of his paws to stop any tears from falling in public. Self awareness suddenly barreled into him full force as he remembered that they were, in fact, surrounded by people. He could feel their eyes on him.

He anxiously clenched his fists and turned around, “Good...” he simply said, “Let’s get going.”

The kid nodded and scurried behind him, still willing to follow him.

The train ride was quiet. It was pretty late so that wasn’t too surprising. Sonic looked out the window behind him, watching as the city lights faded into deep greens as they approached their destination.

Instead of leaning against his shoulder as he usually did, Tails sat a little bit away from him, namesakes curled around his legs as he stared at the floor. His ears were down, resting against the back of his head. His eyes were covered by his hood, Sonic could only see the small frown on his muzzle.

He sighed. He could only imagine what his little outburst looked to random people walking by. A thirteen year old scolding a six year old for holding a piece of paper. What a great look.

It’s not like anyone did anything about it anyway. No one ever did anything about it.

“I’m sorry.” The kit mumbled.

“You’re good.” Is what Sonic should’ve said, because it was true. He was all good, he didn’t do anything wrong.

But instead Sonic just hummed, unable to bring himself to speak. He didn’t know if it was embarrassment or if part of him was still unreasonably mad at the kid. He felt his heart break all the same when he saw the kit make himself smaller.

The kid didn’t deserve this, he didn’t deserve any of this. If Sonic knew what was good for him, he would’ve dropped him off somewhere with nice people who didn’t randomly snap at him and push him away only to love bomb him a day later.

Tails didn’t deserve any of it and yet Sonic couldn’t let him go. He didn’t want to be alone, the thought terrified him.

Eventually, they made camp near a cliff overseeing the ocean in the Mystic Ruins. The stars were shining overhead and the waves crashed against the shore beneath them. The wind rustled the trees and danced with their little campfire that lit up their faces.

Neither had said a word to each other since the train station, but that was normal.

Sonic looked at Tails out of the corner of his eye. The little kid just sat there, his blue eyes were still downcast as the fire’s warm glow reflected off of them. While his ears weren’t pressed against the back of his head anymore, they were still wilted, not quite standing up to full height.

The hedgehog sighed before looking back at the campfire, “You…you weren’t lying back there, were you?” He asked, “About not leaving…you weren’t just saying what I wanted to hear, right?”

Tails shook his head, “I wasn’t lying”

Sonic stayed quiet for a moment and just watched the fire dance, listening to each crackle as his words from earlier echoed in his head.

“I’m sorry.” He said.

“It’s okay, Sonic.”

Soon they would go to sleep and wake up the next morning. Everything would go back to how it was. Sonic would spoil the kit as an attempt at an apology and they'd be fine until the next time he lost his temper. Maybe it would take a few days, maybe a few weeks, maybe even a whole month, but it would happen again and the cycle would repeat.

That was their normal.

[chiropter36]

Three or More Foxes Form a 'Skulk'

Read on Ao3

AN: Oh my god it has been so long since I've actually finished a fic, I'm just going to post this before I overthink it too much.

So... watched Sonic Prime, wanted to give my boy Nine some interactions with Mangey and Sails, plus explore the immediate aftermath of where things were left with him and the other Shatterspace folks, and... here we are.

(There's a reference in here to a headcanon from @the-knucklesverse, specifically one regarding Gnarly. He doesn't feature much in this and it's not the focus, but I like the headcannon and felt it worked with something I wanted to have happen here, so I included it. I'm not involved with that blog, but check out their stuff for fun multiversal Knuckles shenanigans!)

---

Nine wasn’t sure exactly when he’d closed his eyes, but he really didn’t want to open them right now.

A small groan escaped his lips as he halfheartedly fought against whatever stupid self-loathing part of his brain kept trying to drag him back to full consciousness.

What had… happened? Disjointed images whirled through his head, and he weakly struggled to force them into a coherent order.

The Grim…

The Prism, gone…

Sonic… Sonic fading away, because of him...

The pink jungle hedgehog taking him on her bird mount, then her two counterparts leaving with Shadow on the Kraken…

They all got too far away to see…

A blinding flash of light from the distant Green Hill portal…

And then…

Nine didn’t remember passing out, but that was the only explanation he could think of. (Urgh, thinking, why did thinking hurt?) With no more imminent threat to deal with or time-sensitive problems to solve, everything he had been through over the past… had it even been a full day?...must have just hit all at once.

Another groan – this one almost more of a whimper – slid involuntarily out of his throat.

With consciousness returning came the awareness of just how exhausted he felt in every way imaginable. His head still ached from the strain he had put on himself using so much Prism energy so indiscriminately. (Idiot, you idiot, you should have known there would be consequences for that, but you just couldn’t stop, could you.) He doubted he could lift himself a centimeter off the ground right now with how sore his flesh-and-blood tails felt. His right cheek was still throbbing horribly from the sucker punch that damn echidna had got in, which had felt more like being smacked with a concrete block – judging by the taste of blood still in his mouth, Nine was pretty sure he could count himself lucky if just one of his remaining baby teeth had been knocked loose.

And then there was the awful ache in his chest that had nothing to do with any physical injury he’d sustained.

Not having to think or feel was such an enticing prospect right now…

At least, for some reason, one thing Nine wasn’t feeling was the hard floor of his base. Logically, that should have been what he’d collapsed on, but instead he felt almost like he was floating on air without moving his tails; his body gently swaying from side to side, trying to lull him back to sleep. It made no sense, but it felt so nice that he didn’t feel like questioning it.

Conversely, it seemed strangely as though gravity was pressing harder than usual against his body, but in an oddly pleasant, comforting way. Like a heavy blanket, sort of; warm and soft and–

Wait.

Gravity seemed to be breathing.

Nine forced his eyes open.

The first things he saw were the leaves of his two palm trees, their trunks stretching directly above him. So he was still in the Grim then; that made sense, but… wait, was he in the hammock? Had he climbed into it before blacking out…?

Before he could ponder that too much, his gaze turned down to where the soft, snuffling breathing sounds were coming from… and his brain froze in confused disbelief at the sight that greeted him.

One of the fakers. The one from the jungle world. Fur slightly more orange-ish with red-brown stripes and clearly having never once seen a brush; no cybernetic tails; gloves and shoes made of leaves and vines; but otherwise so nearly identical to himself in appearance that he could have been looking in a very distorted mirror.

And it was laying on his chest.

“What the- Hey! Get off me, you flea-ridden--”

The other fox let out a surprised yowl as Nine shoved him, leaping off and landing on all fours. The sudden movement sent the hammock swaying, and Nine overbalanced and tumbled off the other side. His tails instinctively extended out to catch him before he hit the ground; he set himself on his feet and immediately ducked into a defensive crouch, glaring at the offender and preparing for a counterattack–

“Oi, you’re awake!”

The sudden adrenaline rush throwing his self-defense instincts into overdrive cut off as abruptly as it had hit, replaced with a surge in the throbbing pain in his head. Nine put a hand to his head, groaning miserably as he waited for the hammer apparently inside of his skull to stop bashing his brain over and over.

A few moments and the pain faded to more-or-less the background level Nine had woken up to; able to think slightly more clearly, he turned to focus on the new speaker.

Ah, of course, the other one. Pirate-him. That ridiculous bandanna over one ear, cutlass hanging from his belt, the odd mechanism extending from his back that Nine supposed made a passable prosthetic tail, though nothing as sophisticated as his own of course. He stood next to where the feral one was still crouched and watching Nine warily, but in contrast was sporting an easy grin that instantly put Nine on guard. Meeting Nine’s eyes, he raised a hand in a hesitant wave.

“What did you…?” Nine stammered, his brain still struggling to catch up with the events of the past minute. “What… how did I…?”

“Oh, er, we put ye up in yer hammock there after ye conked out a bit ago.” The young pirate shrugged, smiling sheepishly. “I’ve taken me fair share of naps on a hard deck floor, an’ I figured ye’d prefer somethin’ a mite more comfy.”

“You…?” Nine did not know what he was supposed to do with that, so he pushed it aside in favor of addressing his other point of confusion.

“And why was that one sitting on me?”

The pirate fox shrugged again, patting his jungle-dwelling duplicate on the shoulder. “I guess he just thought ye could use some company after… everythin’.”

Nine frowned, glaring suspiciously at the two of them. Did they really expect him to buy that? More likely the rebels just had the idea to place one of their allies in position to hold him down in case he was faking sleep to lull them into a sense of security.

Wait, where were all the others?

Making sure to keep the other two foxes in his peripheral vision, he took a quick look around. They seemed to be mostly alone in the main room of his base, save for one other: the echidna pirate (“Dread”, he vaguely remembered Sonic referring to him as), who was leaning casually against the wall just inside the hole that had been blasted through the crystal pillars. He raised his eyebrows slightly in acknowledgment when Nine met his gaze, but otherwise seemed to be off in his own world, not paying him or the other two much mind.

Out past the echidna, on the other side of the hole at the start of the vast, featureless plain of the Grim, Nine could see a large gathering of all of Sonic’s friends and allies from across the Shatterspaces. Among the various rebels and pirates milling about, he picked out the other two echidnas, the three bats, the cyborg Rusty Rose and her two pink hedgehog counterparts...

Wait, if those three were back…!

Nine jerked his head back to the other hims, this time ignoring how the sudden movement aggravated his headache.

“Did… did he make it? Sonic…?”

The pirate and the wild child both pulled their ears back and exchanged a look.

“Well… can’t say for sure either way. Black Rose- that is, Cap’n Rose, she said that Thorn Rose’s Birdie got injured not ‘alfway there, so the Kraken picked ‘em up and took ‘em further. Then the ship got damaged too, so Shadow said he’d take ‘im the rest o’ the way. Rusty Rose says she saw Shadow make it to the portal; ‘twas too far for her t’ see for certain, ‘specially with how, well... faded Sonic was by then, and then there was that flash o’ light, and…” He shrugged helplessly. “She didn’t see either of ‘em after that.”

Nine swallowed, trying to hold back whatever emotion was trying to claw its way out his throat.

Pirate-him looked at him with... concern?... in his eyes, then put on a reassuring smile that somehow managed to look mostly genuine.

“If’n ye ask me, though, I’d say there be no doubtin’ he made it home. That hedgehog be tougher ‘n gristle an’ barnacle grit! No matter what any of our worlds – or any of us, truth be told – threw at ‘im, he always took it, got back up an’ kept runnin’ – heck, even when there weren’t any ground t’ run on!” He shared a grin with the jungle fox. “Not bad for a landlubber. Aye, an’ with that Shadow fella backin’ him, the Devil himself couldn’t stop ‘em! He made it home, we’re all sure of it.”

The jungle fox nodded emphatically.

Nine just stared as the other fox made this declaration. It was not escaping him the similarity between the pirate’s words and ones he himself had spoken to Mr. Dr. Eggman back at the Yolk, and he didn’t like it.

Grimacing through his headache, he tried to parse through his whirling too-many-thoughts and focus on the factual data that pirate-him had provided. Silly optimism that blatantly ignored the realities of the hedgehog’s deteriorating physical state aside, it sounded like there was a decent chance that Shadow had successfully gotten Sonic back to Green Hill before he faded completely. That… that was something, at least. He just wished there was a way to know for sure...

“Um, so…” the pirate broke the silence, shyly scratching the back of his head when Nine looked up at him again. “Don’t think we ever got rightly introduced. The name’s Sails, formerly of the Angel’s Voyage, from No-Place, and this here’s Mangey, from Boscage Maze. No ship, but we don’t hold that against ‘im.”

The jungle fox chittered happily and gave Nine a wave.

Nine stared at them blankly. “Okay,” he said with a dismissive shrug.

An awkward silence ensued, and both other foxes’ smiles dimmed slightly as Nine held their gaze, stubbornly refusing to engage them any further.

“And, erm, ye be called Nine, aye?” Sails finally broke the silence.

Nine rolled his eyes. He glanced over at the pirate echidna again, then back to the other foxes.

“Look,” he said with a tired sigh, “I get it. You three got put on watchdog duty – keep an eye on the traitor to make sure he doesn’t go all crazy again…” Not that he could really blame them for that. “But frankly I really just want to be alone right now. So if you could go tell your friends” – he gestured to the crowd outside – “to get off my world and go back to theirs already, I’d really appreciate it.”

“Wha- no, that ain’t–” Sails stammered. “Well, aye, some o’ the others thought that maybe… but that ain’t why…”

The pain in his head flared up again, and Nine couldn’t help the pathetic whine that came from him as he shut his eyes tight and gripped his head in both hands.

“Are ye okay?” Sails’ concerned voice cut through the pain. “Do ye need…?”

“I’m fine,” Nine growled out. He extended two of his tails threateningly in the direction the voice came from, just in case either doppelganger got any ideas about trying to approach him in his moment of weakness. “Just a headache. It’ll pass.”

And it did, or at least died down to a more tolerable level, though the process could have gone much faster in Nine’s apparently inconsequential opinion. When he could think clearly again he opened his eyes, only to see the same two uncomfortably-identical foxes still in the same spot where he’d left them, looking at him with twin looks of concern and… and sympathy, and still there even though they had no reason to be.

Nine scowled, trying to ignore the more confusing emotions in favor of one more familiar to him: annoyance. Why hadn’t these people left yet? They had promised Sonic they’d leave him alone, yet here they all were still invading his space, and the two he least wanted to interact with seemed inexplicably invested in doing so.

Sails cleared his throat awkwardly before speaking again, keeping his voice soft as if trying to be… considerate of Nine’s headache or something.

“No one told us to stay with ye. Th’ fight’s over, we know that. It’s just that… well…” He shrugged awkwardly. “You’re… and we’re…” He gestured somewhat helplessly between himself and Mangey as though that would articulate his thoughts better, smiling apologetically.

Nine didn’t smile back. “We’re what?” he asked coldly.

Sails wilted slightly at his tone.

“I mean, there’s differences, t’ be sure,” he continued hesitantly, “but... well, we all three of us got the tails” – he gave his own a demonstrative helicopter twirl – “an’ the brains, an’–”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Nine muttered, looking pointedly at Mangey, who had chosen that moment to sit on his haunches and scratch at his ear with a hind leg. “Not sure your little pet there knows how to use a toilet, let alone basic mechanics.” He allowed himself a small smirk. “Unless you mean he knows some hacking, but I think that’d be more the hairball variety than computer, you know?”

For the first time since they’d started talking, Sails’ expression turned angry. He scowled and took a protective step in front of the jungle fox, glaring at Nine.

“Mangey figured out your fancy-pants gizmos just as quick as me,” he snapped. “Fresh out o’ the jungle and an’ ne’er seen any contraption more complicated ‘n a vine bridge before, an’ he was pickin’ out the right bits from yer bots to build the bomb what took out a whole platoon of ‘em like he’d been at it all his life. An’ then ‘twere a two-man job pilotin’ that Catfish bot o’ yers, and I’m fair sure yer metal Birdies could tell ye how the both of us handled that… if’n they weren’t piles o’ scrap at the moment.”

Taken slightly aback by the vehemence in the pirate’s retort, Nine averted his eyes… and caught Mangey’s downturned gaze instead.

The upset frown and, well, puppy eyes the other fox was giving him made Nine instantly certain of two things: he had understood the insult, and was hurt by it.

A sickening guilt suddenly bloomed in his chest and began clogging his throat, suffocating him, as he stared at that pitiful face.

His face. The face Nine must have had in the early days, before he’d hardened himself, before he’d built his defenses; when the older foxes had thrown names before graduating to throwing punches, a variety of epithets but all telling him essentially the same thing: your existence is wrong, you are less than a person so it’s okay for us to hurt you. And him just curling up and waiting for it to stop and wishing he knew what he could do to be acceptable to them, but not wishing for someone to come to his defense (like Sails was right now for Mangey) (like Sonic had for Tails but not him) because even then that notion had been so outside the realm of possibility that it had never entered his mind…

He wrenched his eyes away from Mangey’s face. He felt like he was going to throw up. Is that what I’ve let myself become now?

To distract himself, he latched onto the last thing Sails had said. “How… how did you even manage to take over the Grim Big?” His voice trembled despite his efforts to sound composed and unaffected. “There should have been built-in safeguards against anyone but me taking control.”

Sails shrugged, scowl lightening only slightly. “Aye, that there were, but really ‘twere a simple matter o’ rewirin’ the computin’ base with an improvised Prism-energy redirector. All yer bots seemed to work on th’ same system, so while ye thought we were out o’ the action we took a closer look at th’ broken ones t’ figure ‘ow they worked, then scavenged enough scrap t’ put together a rudiment’ry adapter that could block out yer programmin’ long ‘nough for us to hack into th’ system an’ take control – an’ with no hairballs involved from either of us,” he finished with a smirk, crossing his arms defiantly.

It took a moment for Nine to realize his mouth was hanging open dumbly, and he quickly clamped it shut.

“Oh. Uh, yeah, I guess… that would do it. Um… that’s impressive. I guess. Of you. Both. I mean, I wouldn’t have expected…” He felt his face heating up, and cut off before he could embarrass himself more with his stammering. “That, well, that was smart. What I would’ve done in that position.”

He hesitantly made himself meet Mangey’s eyes again. The other fox met his gaze, and his upset expression turned into a small, almost bashful smile. Nine had to clamp down on a sudden urge to return it. The nausea in his throat faded slightly.

Another awkward silence filled the space, and Nine looked back at the rest of Sonic’s rescue party. He noted in particular the bat and echidna from New Yolk – Rebel and Knucks, he remembered vaguely – in the middle of what looked like an intense conversation. At something Rebel said, Knucks shot a look at Nine; his scarred face melted into a scowl as he met Nine’s eyes, before turning back to grumble something to his companion.

“But anyway, as I were sayin’…” Sails’ voice – less testy now – drew Nine’s attention back. “Ever since we first saw t’other in No-Place, I’ve… well, I’ve had ye on me mind. Wonderin’ what yer life be like, if it be anythin’ like me own…”

Truth be told, Nine had also been thinking about these foxes since their initial brief encounters, speeding through the Shatterspaces with Sonic on the way to Ghost Hill (where one other fox had also butted into his headspace). Putting together what their existence implied about his own; what had happened when the Prism had shattered; the reality of what the Shatterspaces were truly hitting him for the first time…

“...An’ then I met Mangey here in the egg-heads’ city, an’ we started gettin’ on, an’, well… Didn’t have much time ‘fore things got all…” He started awkwardly fiddling his thumbs, not meeting Nine’s eyes. “An’ then everyone was focused on goin’ after Sonic, an’ people’s blood was runnin’ a bit hot for a while there, but… now that things’ve calmed down a bit, I thought that maybe…”

He bit his lip nervously.

“Well, t’others all have three of ‘em.”

Mangey, who had been looking back and forth between Sails and Nine, now flicked his gaze over to the crowd gathered outside. Nine followed his eyes, and noted that he seemed focused specifically on the three Roses. The pink hedgehogs were huddled close together, the pirate’s hands on each of her duplicates’ shoulders. Presently, she was making some remark that had the bird-tamer laughing out loud and even brought a small smile to Rusty Rose’s normally impassive face.

Nine looked back at his own duplicates, the anger he had felt at their presence not moments earlier now fading in place of confusion and… something else, something he didn’t want to couldn’t give a name to, but seemed to be coming from the same place as the steady ache in his chest that he had woken up to and, unlike his headache, hadn’t been fading at all since.

When he managed to make himself respond to Sails, he couldn’t keep the incredulity out of his voice. “I literally tried to kill both of you just like an hour ago.” Another wave of guilt crashed over him, and he fought to keep his expression neutral.

Tried to kill them, yeah, and thought he had succeeded – even if the bomb had been their own, he had specifically targeted them with the robot assault that had forced them to use it at such close range – and had felt nothing but spiteful satisfaction at the notion of their deaths hurting Sonic.

Or at least, told himself that was all he felt. Anything else, any shock or sickening horror at the notion that he was responsible for ending the lives of two actual real living people, had been easily drowned out at the time with yet another channeling of Prism energy to send his brain into a manic power high.

After all, there was only one him.

(He’d yelled at Sonic that he was just as real as Tails, but he’d looked at these two and from the start seen only feeble, insulting copies of himself.)

“Aye, ‘tis a fact,” Sails said with a careless shrug, seemingly oblivious to Nine’s inner turmoil, “but we’re no worse for wear now!” He shot Nine a devil-may-care grin, putting his hands on his hips and puffing out his fluffy chest. “Ain’t th’ first time I’ve cheated Davy Jones’ locker, an’ I’m fair sure it won’t be th’ last! S’no reason to be holdin’ a grudge.”

Nine had been fairly dismissive, back on Ghost Hill, in his first impression of “Tails”; the friend Sonic had shared so many happy adventures with may have shared his face, but his bearing was too sunny, his eyes too bright, his whole demeanor just too… obviously cared-for, to have anything in common with him outside the superficial. Granted, all Nine had seen was a faded reflection of Tails repeating just one moment over and over, but even just that had made it clear that having had Sonic in his life from early on had made all the difference.

Except... here was this other two-tailed fox, also his own person separate from Tails and with no blue hedgehog in his past, but clearly nowhere near as beaten-down and cynical as Nine.

“How are you so… perky?” he finally asked, shaking his head. “You didn’t have a Sonic to… to protect you on your world either, right?”

Sails blinked, looking surprised at the question.

“Well, no… but I had me crew.” A small, nostalgic smile came to his face as he spoke. “They found me when I was just a kit, all alone on an island, strugglin’ just to find food every day without it bein’ stolen by the birds... They took me in, gave me a place, a home. A name.” There was something more vulnerable in the fox’s voice at that last admission than Nine had heard from him to this point. “Adventure on the high seas, an’ a share o’ the salvage to build me contraptions. Wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t for them. Prob’ly wouldn’t be here today.”

He frowned, his ears drooping a bit as he looked at Nine. “Ye… ye never had a crew, aye?”

Nine swallowed a lump in his throat, not meeting the other fox’s eyes, and just shook his head.

“Well… maybe that can change now!” Sails exclaimed, his ears popping up again hopefully. He gestured over to the pink hedgehog trio still chatting happily outside. “Look at the Roses! Th’ worlds they all come from couldn’t be more different, an’ I heard ‘em callin’ each other ‘sisters’ earlier.” He put a companionable arm around Mangey’s shoulders. “Why, I’ve hardly known me mate Mangey here for more’n a day, but we’re already thick as thieves!”

Mangey yowled a happy affirmative, leaning against his double’s side affectionately.

“What d’ya say, Nine? The three of us… could we be friends?”

Mangey nodded in agreement, bright blue eyes wide and earnest… then to Nine’s shock, opened his mouth and echoed:

“Fuh-rends.”

His voice was rough and growly, clearly not used to forming words, but that he made the effort to use it at all implied a deep sincerity that Nine couldn’t convince himself was faked.

A snide remark informing them exactly what they could do with their “friendship” immediately jumped to the tip of Nine’s tongue… but when he opened his mouth, it didn’t come out. Maybe it was Sonic’s influence getting to him once again, maybe he was just still so exhausted that he didn’t have the energy to keep being hostile, but all that he could manage was a tired sigh, his shoulders slumping despondently.

He hadn’t been able to handle this kind of openness from Sonic when he had offered it so freely; how could this new scenario possibly come to any better end?

“I-I’m… I’m not really good at… friends.”

“Yeah, no kiddin’,” a harsh voice scoffed.

Nine’s neck smarted as he whipped his head to face the voice, an adrenaline spike instinctively snapping his tails into a threatening defensive configuration as his heart suddenly burst into frenzied hammering in his chest.

The speaker – Knucks – was already raising his fists in response, glaring at Nine from behind them. Nine tried to glare back, but between his ragged, agitated breathing and his limbs trembling from a combination of frayed nerves and exhaustion he doubted he managed to look very intimidating.

“Woah, hey, hey, it’s okay!” Sails exclaimed, waving his hands and moving forward as though to interject himself between the fox and echidna. “Nine, ye be fine, they just want t’ talk to ye!”

At the same time a hand was placed on Knucks’ shoulder, and Nine became aware of the other person who had entered the space without him noticing: the bat resistance fighter, Rebel. She gave the echidna a pointed look, and he scowled but lowered his fists, though clearly with great reluctance, and not taking his eyes off Nine.

“Sails is right,” she said, stepping forward to stand slightly in front of Knucks. Behind her, Nine could see that the rest of the crowd was now watching them, though they remained outside. Dread was still in the same place Nine had last seen him, looking completely unperturbed.

His cheek throbbed even worse as he continued staring down the echidna, and he was more aware than ever of the coppery taste on his tongue. For a second he was back on the top of his tower, cowering behind his forcefield as punch after punch tried to batter through to get at him, which had itself sent him back even further to a time where he had no forcefield to protect him, trying in vain to shield himself from blows and words that just wouldn’t stop–

He shook his head sharply, actually welcoming the throbbing pain as a distraction. Trying to reclaim some semblance of dignity, he forced his tails to relax and focused on getting his breathing under control. He looked up and met Rebel’s eyes, already resigning himself to whatever this group had decided his fate would be.

“And here it comes. Without Sonic around to make everyone play nice, all that talk about leaving each other alone goes out the window.” He tried to sound droll and unconcerned, but all the eyes on him were just reinforcing how utterly helpless he was now, and his false bravado faded almost as soon as he could summon it. Dropping his gaze down to the floor, he muttered gloomily, “Just do whatever you want to me. I don’t care anymore.”

“Nine, that ain’t what…” Sails began, his ears drooping sadly.

“We promised Sonic we would leave you be, and I for one intend to stick to that,” Rebel spoke up, her voice calm and level. “Unless you plan to break your side of the deal?”

Nine looked back up at the bat. She was looking down at him with her arms crossed but her expression didn’t appear actively hostile. He sighed and shook his head.

“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t anymore.” He looked over at the still-empty platform that had once held the Paradox Prism. A harsh fact that he had been trying not to think about since he woke up shoved its way to the forefront of his mind. “The Prism is gone; without it, I can’t reshape the Grim. It’s a clean slate, but now that’s all it’ll ever be.” He sighed morosely. “Probably for the best. No one should be trusted with that kind of power. It messes with your head. Makes you think you’re invincible. You’ve got so much power you can do whatever you want, so you should do whatever you want. And if you cause any harm it doesn’t matter ‘cause you can just fix it later once you have just a little more power…”

Nine almost didn’t realize he had been muttering all that out loud until out of the corner of his eye he noted Dread’s ears suddenly perk up.

“That’s actually something we wanted to discuss with you,” Rebel said, pulling Nine’s wandering thoughts back to the present. “When we all made that agreement with Sonic, it was under the assumption that you would continue to have access to the stabilized Prism. Without it… will you even be able to survive here?”

“I…” He shrugged, trying to look unconcerned. “I have some food and water stored. Once I go through that… I’ll figure something else out.”

Except, there wasn’t really anything else to figure, was there? The Grim only reacted to Prism energy. Without the Prism itself to harvest from, he wouldn’t be able to alter it to create supplies and sustenance.

He found his eyes migrating from the empty platform to the palm trees, the empty hammock strung up between them – out of the Grim’s endless potential, the first things he had chosen to make.

What did it matter if he was doomed to waste away here once he ran out of supplies? Even if he could figure out a new way without the Prism to turn this place into a paradise, it would still be empty.

“Well. Several of us have been talking, and taking the changed situation into account, we would like to propose an alternative.”

“For the record, this is a very generous interpretation of the word ‘like’ for some of us,” Knucks added.

Rebel elbowed him sharply. Knucks rolled his eyes, but stepped back to give her the floor.

“It’s honestly hard to believe that the Chaos Council is finally defeated for good – or at least, they’ll be out of the picture for a long while. Thanks for your help with that, by the way; seeing them float away into the void was immensely satisfying.”

The bat’s lips briefly twitched up in a small smirk as though replaying the scene in her head.

“But now we have the responsibility to take charge of our own world and heal what they broke. Once we return, we plan to start working on dismantling however much of the city we can manage safely at this point, and restore the natural environment. And… much as I hate to admit it, the Chaos Council’s tech would probably be useful for a lot of that, if we can repurpose it. Plus it would be prudent to build some sort of defense in case they ever do return. And while I’m sure we’ll be able to work it out on our own… the work would go a lot faster with someone who already understands that tech.”

Nine hardened his expression and squared his shoulders in preparation for what he could already see was coming.

“We have Rusty Rose, of course, and she’s already agreed to help however she can, but she told us that her expertise is more focused on weapons and vehicle operation and her personal system maintenance. She still has a better background than the rest of us, so it’ll help, but…” here Rebel gave Nine a significant look, “we could also really use the help of someone with a broader understanding of the city’s tech and the creativity to adapt it for new purposes.”

Nine scoffed tiredly. “There it is. Thanks, but no thanks. I had enough of my help being used when I was captured by the Chaos Council.”

“We ain’t the Chaos Council!” Knucks barked angrily. “We’re tryin’ to make a better world for everyone, not just ourselves! Though I guess that ain’t a concept that’s really on your radar.” He crossed his arms heatedly and turned to Rebel. “You’re wastin’ your breath. I told ya. He ain’t gonna help.”

Rebel held up a hand to cut Knucks off, still keeping her calm demeanor.

“The rebellion is over,” she went on. “It’s not going to be easy moving past all the paranoia and mistrust that we needed to survive in that environment… but we need to try. Or else, what was the point? The whole goal was to create a better world, one where all that wouldn’t be necessary.”

She sighed, a bit of exhaustion showing in her eyes. “Maybe as part of that… we can accept having misjudged you a bit.”

Nine’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.

“We followed Sonic here to help him because we assumed that you weren’t intending to keep your word after he gave himself up,” she continued. “Now… I’m thinking we may have been wrong about that.”

“Not that ya gave us any reason to buy that you wouldn’t betray us again,” Knucks grumbled. Then his scowl softened ever so slightly. “But Sonic… well, even after everything, he never seemed to doubt that you were on the level. And, well, he sometimes had good instincts.”

‘Even after everything you've done, everything we've been through – together, against each other – you're still my friend, Nine.’

Nine’s breath hitched, and he had to bite his lip against the something he felt building in his chest.

“I never wanted to harm your worlds,” he said, voice thick and shaky despite his efforts. “I swear. I-I know that I did, and I don’t… I don’t have any excuse for that. But I was certain that I could fix all the damage I caused, and I intended to. Even when… even when I was still angry at Sonic. My only goal was always just to build my own world here, and for everyone else to leave it alone.”

He swallowed thickly, avoiding their gazes.

Rebel nodded. “And honestly, after everything that’s happened… I am inclined to believe you now.”

“Don’t get us wrong, I ain’t gonna hold back if ya do turn out to be pullin’ somethin’ on us, but…” The echidna shook his head and sighed. “Whatever. I’m tired of fightin’ for now. And I never thought I’d say that.”

Rebel tried to meet Nine’s eyes again, but he stared resolutely at the floor.

“Look,” she spoke up again. “We don’t know you very well. But we are from the same world, the same home, we all lost the same things thanks to the Chaos Council. And if we-”

“Well, you’re right about not knowing me at least,” Nine interrupted sharply. A tiny spark of anger had fizzled into existence at the bat’s words, and he latched onto it, nurturing it into a tiny candle flame and slowly fanning it larger and larger; and he knew, he knew he shouldn’t because anger was what had gotten him to where he was now, but anger at least overwhelmed the something festering underneath. “I hated the Chaos Council as much as anyone, but I didn’t lose anything thanks to them. Can’t lose what you never had in the first place.”

Neither Rebel or Knucks seemed to know how to respond to that. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Sails and Mangey both looking at him with concern. He chose to let that fuel the flame in his chest even more.

“I used the Paradox Prism to restore New Yolk alongside the other Shatterspaces. I fixed what I broke, and a lot of what the Chaos Council broke too. Consider that my contribution to the rebuilding effort. But there’s nothing you could offer me that would make me go back there. It’s your home, you take care of it. I’m not letting anyone use me for their own ends anymore.”

That actually seemed to get Rebel mad. She grit her teeth and took a deep breath before speaking in a clipped tone, “We are not trying to use you, and we’re not going to force you to come with us if you’re so insistent on staying here on your own–”

‘We’re all on our own.’

“–but Sonic made a sacrifice to save all of us, you included, and somehow I don’t think the spirit of the agreement he specifically insisted we make with you involved leaving you to starve and waste away here. If that’s what you really want, though, fine. We’ll head back home without you and–”

The flame exploded.

“That city, that world, never gave me anything but pain! Why do you think I did this to myself?!” He flared out his cybernetic tails; Knucks flinched and raised his fists defensively, but Nine ignored him. “Why do you think I lived underground, away from everyone?! No one in that world ever wanted me. They made that abundantly clear for as far back as I can remember. I may have been born on that world, but it was never home.”

And then just like that the flame had completely burned itself out, leaving Nine with nothing but a horrible cold emptiness just as vast and pointless as the Grim. Standing was suddenly too difficult; he stumbled back against one of his palm trees, and slid down to sit so he could hide his face behind his knees, his tails falling limp on the floor.

“I-I don’t h-have a home. I don’t have anything.” He hated himself for how his voice hitched and shook, but he just couldn’t muster any energy to fight it. “S-sonic’s gone, the Grim is empty. I have nothing. Just like before, only now it’s my own s-stupid fault.”

He pressed his forehead against his knees, trying desperately to resist the pressure he could feel building behind his eyes, although part of him wondered what the point was – it wasn’t like these people could possibly think any less of him.

No one spoke, which only made Nine’s stomach start twisting into knots waiting for some sort of fallout from his outburst. After a moment he chanced a brief glance at the bat and echidna, and was vaguely surprised to see neither looked angry or harsh like he had expected; Rebel was frowning uncertainly at him, a trace of sympathy in her turquoise eyes that just made Nine feel even more pitiful, while Knucks was awkwardly averting his gaze, fiddling with his glove spikes.

Over to the side, there was sudden movement as Mangey, eyes wide and glossy like he was close to tears himself, took a few steps toward Nine, only stopping as Sails’ mechanical arm-tail settled on his shoulder, the pirate giving him a small head-shake, even as he bit his lower lip like he was struggling not to come over himself and try to administer some comfort that Nine knew he wouldn’t deserve.

He looked back at his knees, but could still feel everyone’s eyes on him – Sails and Mangey, Rebel and Knucks, the entire crowd of rebels and pirates and jungle-dwellers.

He wished they would all stop staring at him, wished he could just disappear, wished someone would say something so he didn’t have to listen to his own pathetic ragged breathing…

He wished Sonic were here.

A gruff throat-clearing cut through the lull.

“If I may.”

Nine’s ears twitched in surprise at the sound of the echidna pirate speaking up up for the first time, his tone light but clearly conveying that he intended to speak regardless of any objections. He looked up to see Dread strolling casually to stand beside his resistance fighter counterpart.

“What do you want now?” Knucks grouched, his scowl reasserting itself.

Dread shot a patronizing smirk at the other echidna.

“As entertainin’ as all this jabber be, I find meself itchin’ to get back to No-Place at some point in, oh, the next decade. So in the interest of speedin’ this up…” His flippant tone changed to something more serious. “I may have some smidgen of understandin’ what th’ lad is goin’ through right now, is all.”

Oh do you? Nine wanted to spit out, but he didn’t trust himself to speak right now without losing the fight to hold back tears, so he just forced a glower that he was sure wasn’t fooling anyone.

Dread stepped forward so he was a bit in front of Rebel and Knucks but keeping a polite distance from Nine. Briefly, he glanced over at Sails, his expression unreadable; the fox frowned uncertainly, but gave his ex-captain a hesitant nod. Then the pirate turned to look down at Nine, and spoke.

“Ye’ve lost it. The one thing in the whole wretched universe ye thought mattered. That if ye just managed to get yer paws on it… ye’d finally be satisfied. Finally be happy.”

His words were blunt, but spoken with a depth of emotion that despite himself Nine was certain they were born of intense personal experience.

“An’ now that it’s slipped from yer grasp… ye feel there’s nothin’ more what matters. Nothin’ t’ strive for, nothin’ t’ do but mope yer days away dreamin’ of what ye could’ve had.”

Dread looked away from Nine for a moment, staring off at something only he could see, before breathing a wistful sigh and meeting Nine’s eyes again.

“I got no business tellin’ ye what course t’ set for yerself now. I still be figurin’ that out for meself. All I’ll say, lad, is that whatever ye choose… don’t define yerself by what ye lost. Find somethin’ what matters to ye, and make a new goal t’ strive for. Or ye’ll just find yerself forever chasin’ somethin’ – even if only in yer dreams – that was never goin’ t’ give ye what ye truly wanted, an’ makin’ the same bloody mistakes each time ye grasp for it.”

With that, the pirate backed off and returned to his previous spot, leaning against the crystal pillar wall as if he’d never moved.

Leaving Nine to sift through a confusing swirl of emotions that had replaced the emptiness but still gave him no relief.

Disdain and anger were the easiest for him to parse out at first, naturally.

What could that idiot pirate know? What Nine truly wanted? He wanted the Grim. He wanted to be left alone, in his own perfect world. He wanted… he wanted...

He felt the hard bark of the palm tree against his back.

‘So… what else did we do?’

“I used t’ have nothin’.”

Nine looked over at Sails, his vision a bit watery despite his efforts. He quickly wiped his eyes with the heel of his palm as the other fox spoke.

“Then I had the crew, but… I didn’t quite know how I fit in with ‘em, at first.” His voice was soft and hesitant, like he was forcing into words something he usually kept very private. “Weren’t certain I was truly a crewmate, or just a… a temp’rary cabin boy they’d be ready t’ abandon again if’n I became more trouble ‘n I was worth. Ev’ry mistake I made, in those days, I thought were gonna be th’ final straw for ‘em, an’ they’d leave me at some village or maroon me on an island or just tell me t’ fly off an’ ne’er come back, an’ I’d… I’d be back were I started, alone.”

He swallowed thickly, then continued. “Took some time, an’ getting’ t’ know ‘em, an’… lettin’ ‘em get t’ know me. Which were really th’ scariest part. Didn’t happen all at once… but now, all these years an’ adventures an’ troubles later, I know they be where I belong.”

He turned to scan the crowd outside, passing in turn from the bat, cat and hedgehog in pirate garb, who each smiled fondly at him (the giant cat in particular was unabashedly wiping at his clearly watering eyes); even Dread gave Sails a small nod of acknowledgment when the fox caught his eye.

Mangey pressed his face against Sails’ side, before catching Nine’s gaze with wide, imploring eyes. He started looking pointedly back and forth between Nine and his fellow jungle-dwellers in the crowd. Nine suddenly found himself wondering what the wild-child’s story was, what he was trying to convey with those big blue puppy eyes that he couldn’t with words.

Disdain and anger faded to the background noise in his head, the wall that he had actively cultivated them into over long merciless years crumbling apart, and Nine finally forced himself to examine the less-familiar, uncomfortable feelings that just one evening with an aggravating blue hedgehog had managed to bring out in him.

What would Sonic do…?

Tch. Sonic would recklessly jump into things without any thought. He’d take it upon himself to help everyone, and in the end make a huge mess of everything.

...And then, once he realized he had done that… he would try to make amends however he could.

And he would always put his trust in other people.

Even if past experience might have made that trust difficult to give.

What Nine truly wanted…

Sonic was gone, but maybe… maybe what he had offered to Nine was still something he could find for himself.

But if it was… it definitely wouldn’t be here in the Grim.

Slowly, Nine pushed himself to his feet, setting his tails back in their relaxed non-combat configuration. He stepped forward to stand in front of the resistance leaders, forcing himself to look up and meet Rebel’s eyes; and, taking a deep breath that only shuddered a little bit, he spoke.

“...Back in New Yolk, before all this, I had a lab in the underground. I’m sure the Council ransacked it when they tracked down the shard I took, so I can’t really live there anymore, but it was… my sanctuary. A safe haven. If I do this, if I agree to come with you and help restore that world… I get a place of my own. I’ll put it together myself, you don’t need to do anything, but I get a place, outside of the city, away from everyone. And it is off. Limits. Whether I’m there or not, no one else is, unless I give explicit permission.”

He swallowed, trying to ease the scratchiness in his throat. “Deal?”

Rebel shared a quick look with Knucks, who frowned but shrugged in answer to her unspoken question.

“That sounds reasonable. Deal.” She held out her hand. Nine stared at it silently for a moment before reaching out his own, and they shook.

“Don’t make me regret this,” Nine stated. He tried to make his voice sound stern, but was pretty sure he just came across as tired.

“Same,” Rebel responded in a similar tone.

Releasing Nine’s hand, she straightened up and turned to look out over the rest of the eclectic collection of beings.

“Now with that business over with, let’s start working on coordinating getting us all back to where we’re supposed to be. Black Rose, how’s the Kraken looking?”

The hedgehog pirate stepped forward from the crowd, grimacing. “She jus’ barely limped us back here on one engine an’ a prayer. An’ it’s been slow-goin’ tryin’ t’ patch her back up. Ain’t sure if she’s got enough left in ‘er to make it to one world, let alone three.”

“Um… I could… take a look at it?” Nine offered hesitantly. Everyone turned to stare at him, and he again had to clamp down on the instinct to bare his tails. “A-and we can probably salvage some parts from the Council’s mothership, enough to at least get it working long enough to get everyone to where they need to be.”

“Aye, and the Catfish bot still be flyin’,” Sails proclaimed. He moved to stand just behind Nine’s shoulder, Mangey still at his side; Nine flinched slightly but actually found their proximity not as distressing as before. “It ain’t exactly speedy, but if we can take the engines for the Kraken that could boost it enough t’ keep it goin’ the whole trip.”

Rebel nodded decisively. “Alright, sounds like we have a plan.” She raised her voice to speak authoritatively to the crowd. “Everyone, let’s get out there and help them gather the parts we’ll need. Rusty Rose, do you think you can help with that?”

“Affirmative,” came the monotone reply. The cyborg hedgehog gestured out to the debris-strewn plane. “Come, sisters.”

As the gaggle of beings began to disperse, Nine found his eyes drawn from the hedgehog trio still sticking together like glue, to the jungle echidna running up to walk beside Knucks, to the other two bats fluttering over to join Rebel as she took flight.

He looked to his side, to Sails and Mangey. The other foxes shot him identical soft smiles, and while Nine couldn’t quite muster up one of his own, he found that the something in his chest was somehow no longer as painful as before; that the presence of these two people who maybe understood more than he had given them credit for was… comforting.

But noticing that, he also realized what was nagging at him, and a heavy knot formed in the pit of his stomach.

“Wait!” he called out, running over to the hole in the wall where everyone was exiting, Sails and Mangey on his heels. “There’s, there’s one more thing…”

Everyone stopped in their tracks and turned to look at Nine again; ears pinned back against his head, he swallowed nervously and tried to stand tall.

“I-I should tell you, just… to make sure you’re all on the same page. Without the Prism or any stored energy, there’s no way to create the portals the Chaos Council used to travel between worlds. Once you return to your respective worlds… you won’t be able to leave.”

Everyone’s faces fell as they absorbed this information. The three Roses looked particularly devastated as they exchanged crestfallen looks between themselves (Nine wouldn’t have ever guessed the cyborg was capable of such expressiveness). The jungle echidna rubbed his arm and bit his lip, looking at Knucks with dismay; the other echidna placed a hand on his shoulder, his own face determinedly stoic. Mangey whimpered and sidled up next to Sails, who put a comforting arm around the other fox’s shoulders.

“I… suppose that’s the way it has to be,” Rebel said, glancing around at her fellow bats. “Those portals were what started the collapse on all the worlds; even if we still had the Prism it would be too dangerous to start it up again.”

There were reluctant nods from among the crowd.

“Well,” Thorn Rose pronounced, her face set, “then it has been an honor to know you, sisters.”

“Oi, we ain’t splittin’ up yet!” Black Rose exclaimed, managing a grin despite everything. She slapped Thorn on the shoulder. “Save the heartfelt goodbyes for th’ actual goodbye!”

The mood slightly dampened, the crowd nevertheless began splitting into groups to begin scavenging.

As Nine prepared to follow, he stumbled as his foot slipped on one of the myriad broken crystal shards scattered around the opening in his fortress wall. Frowning, he kicked the shard away, and prepared to take flight over to the Kraken to see what he could do about it…

...But the glimmering of the crystal as it skidded along the floor of the same substance, bopping against other shards before coming to a stop, caught his eye.

Something niggled at the back of his mind, the same feeling he got when he had his ideas for inventions; arresting his take-off, he knelt down to examine the shards more closely, ignoring the remaining traces of his headache as he wracked his brain trying to get a lead on what had drawn his attention.

Something to do with the physical crystalline structure of the Grim? He’d done an analysis when he’d first arrived, of course, but then he’d been thoroughly distracted by the applications of Prism energy and had subsequently pushed any data not pertaining to that to the back of his mind...

Wait. What if…?

He was belatedly aware of Sails and Mangey beside him. Mind racing as he ran equations and factored in variables, he grabbed two shards then straightened and turned to his fellow foxes.

Both wore confused frowns as they looked at him, but as Nine worked the problem out further and further in his head and started arriving at some very promising conclusions, he found himself somehow feeling lighter than he had since waking up.

For the first time, he looked into those two pairs of identical blue eyes and a small but genuine smile came to his face.

“Here.” He handed each a shard. “Take these. Bring them with you to your worlds, keep them intact.”

Mangey curiously turned his shard over in his hands a few times, sniffed at it a bit… then gave it a good lick.

Nine felt his right eye twitch, but he gritted his teeth and pushed down the urge to snap at him and snatch the shard back.

If he was really going to attempt this whole friends thing, he supposed, he should start getting in some practice at not judging the other fox’s scientific process.

“What’re ye thinkin’?” Sails asked, staring inquisitively at his own crystal.

Nine reached down and picked up a third crystal for himself, then looked past his two counterparts out to the pitch black sky above, and the shimmering, far-off Shatterspace gateways floating through it like planets. The light green radiance of the farthest gateway seemed to shine the brightest to Nine’s eyes – a faint beacon in the dark to guide him on this new path.

“I have a theory. Don’t tell anyone yet, it’s nothing definite. But maybe… the Grim can still be useful after all.”

---

~ Several months later ~

Even before Knucks had noted where the light show was coming from, he knew it had something to do with Nine.

Normally he would have taken some time to appreciate a stroll through the countryside outside the city boundaries. Just spend a few moments taking in the soft green of the grass regrowing over the rolling hills, kneel down to look at the tree saplings slowly but surely pushing their way up into a world that would welcome and nurture them now, feel the sun on his face shining down from a sky no longer dreary red with smog but a shade of blue that he had almost forgotten. He would revel in the sweetness of breathing air not heavy with pollutants and the smell of ozone and slag, and just the simple joy of being able to see the horizon unobstructed by a skyline of ugly, pointless buildings.

He may have had to get used to the city life during the days of rebellion, just out of necessity, but Knucks had been hatched and raised in the untamed wilderness, and with said wilderness finally making a comeback, he was never going to take it for granted.

But right now he was an echidna on a mission, and that mission involved a certain arrogant antisocial fox brat, and the searing flash of light that had all of a sudden burst into existence over his house not twenty minutes ago.

A beam of light had suddenly crackled into the sky off in the distance, but loud and large enough to draw the entire city’s attention, and probably most of the folks who had moved out to settle in the countryside as well. For an entire minute it had remained as a pillar reaching up into the heavens, swirling with an admittedly rather beautiful rainbow of colors, then had faded away as inexplicably as it had appeared.

There had been some panic as civilians wondered what it could have been, but Rebel had managed to mostly calm people down, especially when she put Knucks on the case to investigate. They had shared a significant look at that, because they were both aware of a fact that the general citizenry were not.

Namely, that there was only one person who lived around the area where the light had appeared to be coming from.

And so Knucks stomped his way past the sapling forest, leapt from a large rock to give himself some height to glide from, swiftly making his way toward where the hilly grasslands met the beach, and soon enough had arrived at the entrance to the fox’s house.

Well, it was really more of a bunker than anything. The fox had claimed one of Dr. Don’t’s hidden underground labs close to the former city’s outer boundary and repurposed it. That part of the city had been the first to be deconstructed – the work going faster through the use of reprogrammed Chaos Council bots – and as the city boundary retracted further and further, Nine had soon attained the private sanctum away from the city that he had been promised.

With nature slowly reclaiming the area – aided in no small part by the seeding and terraforming machines Nine had developed – the entrance (at least, the one Knucks and Rebel had been made privy to; they were both fairly certain the fox had multiple other entrances and exits he kept to himself) was difficult to spot unless you were right in front of it. Built under an unremarkable grassy hill and looking out over the shifting sand dunes, nothing about it really drew the eye...

Save for one prominent landmark that seemed oddly inconsistent with the fox’s clearly-stated desire for people to stay away.

Two palm trees, with a homey-looking hammock hung between them, planted just a little ways off from the entrance.

The fox hardly ever left the place – or at least, was not often seen doing so. The rare times he emerged, to gather food and materials or discuss plans and issues with Rebel and the rest of the reconstruction council, there was some… animosity from the general populace. Many of them had seen Nine’s giant image in the sky, taunting Sonic to save them all as the world turned sideways, and few had been present at the final confrontation in the Grim. Rebel had so far managed to spin their arrangement with Nine as the fox’s “community service” to anyone who started making noise about locking him up or… anything further. So far there hadn’t been much more than grumbling and distrustful glares, but the decidedly unfriendly atmosphere clearly didn’t give the fox much incentive to come out of his hole any more than necessary.

Knucks frowned thinking about that. He was far from Nine’s biggest fan, but some of the folks passing judgment on the fox were… well, ‘unreasonable’ was probably a polite way of putting it.

Especially the ones who obliquely implied that Nine’s past actions were somehow related to his… unique physical traits.

Finding himself wanting to punch a face in on behalf of the fox kid during that one particularly heated council meeting had definitely been a new and unexpected experience.

(Ugh, why couldn’t this fox just be a complete unrepentant bastard like the Chaos Council? Feeling sympathy for someone who had once callously abandoned him and his teammates to die, and later almost destroyed everything he held dear, was not something this echidna was built for.)

Though, it was a big city, and there were some who were willing to give the kid a chance. There had been one instance where a little rabbit girl and her mother had hesitantly come up to Nine and thanked him for all he was doing to help restore the world, and even given him some home-cooked food as a gift.

The look on the big bad aloof super-genius fox boy’s face as his big bad aloof super-genius brain apparently short-circuited and he stammered out an awkward “You’re...welcome?” had been priceless.

Hey, Knucks wasn’t supposed to fight the jerk anymore, he had to take what he could get.

But who knew, maybe that was about to change. Maybe the lights from Nine’s home had come from some superweapon he was building, and the situation could just be nice and straightforward and solvable through punching.

With that happy (if, admittedly, unlikely) thought, Knucks began banging loudly on the metal door.

“Hey, Nine! We all saw the fancy light show, what’re ya up to in there?! Open up!”

His yelling was interrupted by a life-size holographic image of the brat in question suddenly vwip-ing into existence in front of the entrance.

The flickering semi-transparent fox looked down at him – the hologram floated in the air so that its head was about a foot above Knucks’, which the echidna was certain had been done deliberately to spite him – and put on a lazy smile.

“Always a pleasure to have you stop by for a visit, Knucks.” He spoke in the bored, mildly patronizing tone that never failed to get Knucks’ hackles up. “As it seems you’ve forgotten some of the details of our arrangement – understandable, as they involve several multi-syllable words – I’ll remind you of the parts relevant to the current situation–”

“Just shut up and let me in, fox! You got some things to explain!”

“–and provide you with aid regarding the environmental restoration, and in exchange, my personal space shall be respected–”

“Okay, ignorin’ me, fine, whatever, you’re only delayin’ the inevitable, brat.”

“–without my permission. Now, with the understanding that issues requiring my technological expertise will not always conveniently come up when I am outside my home, I have invented a radical new piece of technology to facilitate communication in such an event. You may have noticed, next to the door, a simple-looking square-shaped panel, but it is in fact so much more. When only a mild amount of pressure is applied to it, you see, it causes a musical tone to sound within my dwelling, thus politely alerting me to any visitors without any unnecessary banging or shouting.”

“Alright, alright, I get it–”

“Or, to put all that in layman’s terms…”

The hologram suddenly leaned forward directly into Knucks’ face, glowering darkly down at him.

“Ring. The doorbell. First.”

It straightened and resumed its casual tone. “Now, shall we try this again?”

Another vwip, and the image vanished.

Knucks growled, taking several deep breaths as he debated the pros and cons of just punching down the fox’s door.

Glowering for the benefit of the hidden cameras he was certain were showing Nine his every move, he reached one fist to the blue panel, moving exaggeratedly slowly. With his entire fist, he pushed it inwards and held it for several seconds longer than necessary, then finally released it. A muffled musical tone sounded from behind the door.

Knucks quietly seethed as he counted the seconds, certain that the fox was taking his sweet time opening the door just to annoy him. Finally, the metal panel slid to the side, revealing Nine standing in front of him, hands clasped nonchalantly behind his back, all nine tails swishing casually behind him, and looking up at him with a lazy smirk that Knucks desperately hoped he would have an opportunity to wipe off by the end of this interaction.

“There, now was that so hard?”

“Can it, brat.” He stomped past the threshold into the bunker proper. “What was with the light show? I know it didn’t have nothin’ to do with the world repairs. You up to somethin’ out here? Some schemin’?”

Truthfully, as aggravated as he was right now, the accusation wasn’t quite as serious as it might have been months ago. Knucks was still far, far from ever calling the fox boy a friend, but “ally” had slowly but surely become slightly less begrudging. There had been no signs over the past months of the fox going back on his word, and with how much faster the restoration efforts had been going thanks to his help, Knucks had to admit that Rebel had made a good call. He wasn’t to the point of letting his guard down around Nine… but he could see maybe getting there someday.

(Plus... there had been the whole uncomfortable revelation that the kid was not, as Knucks had originally pegged him from his overall demeanor, just a rather short teenager, but in fact not yet even past single digits.

(He still hadn’t worked out how he felt about… certain actions he had taken during the Grim battle in light of this information.)

The fox boy in question just shrugged at Knucks’ accusation.

“Welp, I guess you got me. I’m actually enacting my evil plan to betray you all again and eventually crush every world under my heel.”

“Ha ha. Look, ya didn’t warn anyone about any experiments you were doin’, so ya can’t blame us for–”

“Relax, Knucklehead. It’s–”

“Don’t call me that!”

“It’s nothing dangerous.” The smirk on his face softened, into what Knucks would almost be tempted to call a genuine smile. “I just... invited a few friends over for a brainstorming session.”

“‘Friends?’” Since when do you have friends?, he barely managed to keep from blurting out. (And Rebel said he couldn’t be diplomatic.) “Who-”

“Ahoy! City Dread!”

Knucks looked around with a start. The voice had come from another hologram – one that he at first mistook for Nine again, and briefly wondered if the fox was experimenting with creating a horde of holographic duplicates, before spotting a few more… pirate-y details that made his eyes widen in recognition.

“Wait… that’s…”

Another holographic fox bounded into view on all fours and drew his attention with a wave, this one dressed in leafy attire and with a semi-feral look to him. Both were full-color and life-sized, only their transparency and the slight crackle in the pirate’s voice betraying what they were.

“Wait… are they actually…”

“Here?” Nine finished for him. “Well, not yet, but this is actual real-time audio-visual communication. We’re still in the early testing stages, but if this continues to hold, it looks like we’ve finally cracked it.”

There was an understated pride in his voice that Knucks didn’t think he’d ever heard from the fox before.

Shaking himself out of his shock, Knucks belatedly noticed two small beams of light extending from each fox’s form and leading to a mechanical contraption over in a corner. Knucks’ first thought was that it looked like some sort of high-tech chimney more than anything, with a portion of it extending up through the ceiling – probably connected to some hidden antenna or something that had been the source of the light pillar, he now suspected. A circular opening in the center contained a shimmering cylindrical crystal shard floating in some sort of force field. It was from this shard that the beams of light were projecting.

“The ‘light show’ you saw was a side effect of the energy necessary to boost the signal through the Shatterspace gateways,” Nine continued explaining. “We’ve been testing it on smaller scales, but this is the first time it was large enough to be noticeable. Hopefully we’ll be able to fix that in the future.”

“Sorry ‘bout that, by the way” Sails chirped. “We be sailin’ uncharted waters with this here tech, it ain’t always easy to predict what the effects’ll look like. I be on an island right now ‘cause th’ first time I tested this on my end th’ flashes ended up attractin’ a glowin’ sea leviathan from the depths what almost capsized us!” He gave a little self-deprecating chuckle. “Cap’n Rose an’ I both agreed that maybe I should do me experiments from a greater distance movin’ forward.”

“Wait, all of you’ve been workin’ on this?” Knucks asked incredulously. The three foxes nodded. “How’d you… I mean, if this whole thing is new, how’d ya even manage to work all this out between you three?”

“Not easily,” Nine admitted. “It took over a month to even establish reliable two-way auditory communication. But now that we’ve worked through those problems it should be easier to coordinate our efforts going forward.”

Knucks nodded, stepping around the other two foxes (he supposed he could have walked through them, but that just seemed kind of rude) to scrutinize more closely the contraption that was projecting their images. Nothing about any of this looked sinister, but Knucks had never been the type to take such things for granted.

“So, ya say you’ve been workin’ on this for a while?”

Nine nodded. “Whenever I’ve had free time, for the past couple months. And before you say anything,” he added, rolling his eyes, “this project is entirely irrelevant to the restoration efforts so I was under no obligation to disclose it.”

Knucks frowned. “I thought you said we wouldn’t be able to communicate between worlds without the Paradox Prism.”

If Nine heard the suspicion in his tone, he didn’t acknowledge it. “I thought we couldn’t. And we can’t, really, at least not with methods utilizing the Prism. But before we all left the Grim, I… had an idea for a potential alternative.”

He gestured at the crystal in the heart of his machine. “The Grim’s physical structure is… well, I won’t bore you with the details, but essentially it’s one giant crystal with a strong elemental plasticity. Even when parts of it are separated from the whole, they still share a morphic resonance with each other and the entirety of the Grim itself – even, as we’ve confirmed over the past months, when transported to completely separate worlds. And it turns out it’s not only Prism-energy they react to.”

Knucks raised his eyebrows as Nine paced around, gesticulating excitedly with both his hands and tails as he spoke. He didn’t think he’d ever seen the fox brat like this, so eagerly showing off how his tech worked – heck, he didn’t even sound like he was deliberately trying to patronize Knucks by “dumbing it down”, which Knucks honestly would have fully anticipated.

“With these physical pieces of the Grim sharing the same energy signature, we figured out a way of using the Grim itself as a sort of ‘signal tower’ to project communications through. The biggest hurdle was honestly figuring out what energy to project with, since most forms physically can’t penetrate the Shatterspace gateways without an open portal.”

He stopped pacing and stood beside the two other foxes, nodding slightly toward the jungle-dweller.

“Mangey here had the breakthrough that allowed us to get to this point. Thanks to your counterpart on his world, actually.”

Knucks started, the image of another red echidna popping into his head, smaller and malnourished and with wild eyes constantly darting around, but still very much like him in so many ways.

“Wait, you talked with Gnarly?”

He hadn’t had much time with the jungle echidna, but after his interactions with Dread it had been an immense relief to encounter a version of himself whose nature didn’t utterly offend him to his very core. During their time sheltering in the Yolk together Gnarly had awkwardly gravitated towards him, and they’d shared words; from what Knucks gleaned from Gnarly’s stammered stories, the kid (he didn’t actually know if Gnarly was younger than him, but he just gave off that vibe) had never known any other echidnas on his world, which had… hit uncomfortably close.

Knucks had quickly found himself feeling rather protective of the other echidna (especially with their “allies” in the Chaos Council making snide remarks about his “unsophisticated” origin and mocking his skittishness). Gnarly was a good kid; a little off, yeah, but with a good heart, and loyal to his friends and allies (unlike certain pirates Knucks could name).

Plus, just… talking with a fellow echidna.

He had largely resigned himself to the notion that it wouldn’t be possible for them to see each other again.

“Not directly,” Nine answered. “Mangey’s been our go-between.”

“I thought Mangey didn’t talk.”

Nine shrugged.

“There are ways to communicate aside from words. Mangey knows how things work, even if he can’t always articulate it.”

The wild-child fox ducked his head bashfully and waved a hand as if to say “aw, shucks.”

“Anyway, apparently with the Paradox Prism stable again, Gnarly’s been picking up on some previously unknown form of ambient energy that he’s sensitive to, and Mangey was able to devise a means of utilizing it with the Grim shards. It’s taken a while – this energy is, well, chaotic and hard to pin down to make it work for us – but combining it with these” – he gestured again to the floating crystal – “we’re able to utilize it to produce similar effects to the Shatterspace portals.”

Huh. Knucks wasn’t certain what that was about – if it was an echidna thing, it was nothing he’d ever felt. But thinking about Gnarly brought up another thing that was bothering him.

“And did ya consider that some of us might wanna know that you were workin’ on a way we could talk with our friends in the other worlds again?”

And apparently Knucks was just going to keep having novel experiences today, because Nine bowed his head and actually looked genuinely contrite.

“I… I wasn’t one hundred percent certain whether this would even pan out. I didn’t want to give people false hope until we had something definite to show.” He settled his face and looked up to meet Knucks’ eyes again. “There’s still things the three of us need to work on right now while we’ve got this communication going, but I’ll come out to the city later and explain everything to Rebel and Rusty.”

Knucks shrugged, uncomfortable with the kid being so… agreeable. “I mean, I’m gonna be tellin’ ‘em anyway, but, yeah, that’d be appreciated. They’ll want the details from you, at least.”

Nine nodded, then turned back to look at his machine, his expression turning pensive.

“But anyway, once we can fine-tune this process and make sure it won’t cause any degradation like the Prism-energy portals did – it shouldn’t, since it’s not actually using Prism-energy, but we still want to be safe – we think we can probably eventually crack actual physical transportation between our worlds.”

“That be one of our two long goals,” Sails said in aside to Knucks.

Knucks frowned. “And what’s the other?”

The three foxes all shared a meaningful look between themselves.

“Finding a way to communicate with Green Hill.”

Knucks’ eyes widened. For a second he was back on the Grim, a washed-out hedgehog leaning against his shoulder for support, his seemingly endless vitality drained through his sacrifice to save them all…

“Oh.”

“Aye, this only worked ‘cause we each got a shard of the Grim to be actin’ as a connective point between worlds,” Sails said. “We been battin’ around a few ideas, but… well, even if’n we get a signal through, someone on t’other side needs to be there to pick it up.”

Nine again got a pensive look on his face.

“Yeah, that’s the major issue. Best case scenario, though, it’s possible – maybe even likely – that our counterpart in Green Hill will have the tech to pick up our signal if we can manage to force it through their gateway. And if Sonic…” He broke off, grimacing, and took a deep breath before continuing. “If Sonic’s okay, and if he’s told his friends there about us, then… Tails might be actively investigating the Shatterspace himself, which would make it easier. I mean, if he’s anything like us…”

The other two nodded in agreement.

Knucks… felt very much on the wrong foot here. None of this was what he had expected when he’d set out to this place. He couldn’t make himself feel upset about it though. Frankly, he was finding himself imagining the future with the foxes’ new tech – the chance to see Gnarly again; heck, even the prospect of meeting up with Dread too, if only because he’d been itching for a good fight…

And, of course, finally getting confirmation whether or not Sonic had made it home.

“You really think you can pull all this off?” he asked quietly.

“Well…” Nine turned to look at his fellow foxes.

He smiled then, and it wasn’t the insufferable smirk that Knucks had become used to seeing on the fox’s face when he wasn’t scowling. It was something hesitant, but soft and genuine and… happy.

He turned back to Knucks, Sails and Mangey on either side, identical blue eyes shining and each matching his smile.

“With the power of our three brains together, there’s nothing we can’t do.”

[dilfsonic]

Okay so, unpopular take that applies specifically to my Service Animal AU: Shadow and Maria are not siblings/“sibling coded.”

If you’ve read the notes on the original lore post describing them, you probably already know what I mean. While they can and will have moments of inspired ‘sibling’ like love for each other, that’s simply too disingenuous a way to describe them. They’re so much more. They’re each other’s only friend, they’re charge and ward, they can mimic the attitudes of siblings but never fully understand them, they have no romantic interests (until sonic shows up) and so mimic certain attitudes in that way with each other as well. But all of these are mere approximations and mimicry without fully encompassing any of those relationships. Shadow’s “affections” can be easily misconstrued for holding more weight than they actually are intended, as gestures such as hand holding/cuddling/purring are all utilitarian expressions meant to ease Maria’s physical discomfort or anxiety in accordance to his job as her service animal. Nothing more, nothing less. Maria knows this, but others can and do easily make their own assumptions.

I’ve been a little nervous to express this interpretation as I feel it can be really easily misunderstood, and I don’t want to give people the idea that even the immensely “”romantic”” or affectionate gestures or affiliations applied to them are actually meant to be shippy. Their love is an all encompassing one, and to call it sibling-like or romantic are both incorrect, as they’re neither. Ultimately applying any real world label to this au will be incorrect and a little too extreme in either direction; the closest possible relationship that may most accurately describe them is that between a service dog and their owner, if such a service dog was as intellectually capable of their human.

They’re what you get when you’re the only two people in your whole world. They’re what you get when you pair together someone who’s indebted to the other for their existence, which goes both ways. And by normal relationship standards, I would disagree to consider it a ‘healthy’ dynamic, but it also cannot be judged by the milestones of what a normal and healthy dynamic even looks like.

Shadow is nothing without her (in his own mind), and this lends itself to an inability to conceptualize a ‘self’ to even express. Maria hates how Shadow views himself — a tool, a trained dog, a guard, a companion of necessity — but she also can’t avoid using him accordingly. That means having no choice but to treat him not as a person, but as her crutch. Shadow is little aware of her internal struggle with the dehumanization of him because they communicate this almost never. Nor does he mind being dehumanized, he has never been a ‘person’ since the day he was created anyway.

Maria would love nothing more than to call Shadow a little brother, her best friend, someone who she could’ve had take her to prom because nobody at her school wanted to indulge the sickly child, nor did anyone even know her well enough considering she spent most of her time out of school than in it. She’d love to call Shadow these normal things, but she can’t. Not yet at least. Sonic will slowly change them and the way they can view friendship and the world and what it means to belong to each other, but it’s hard work on Shadow and Maria’s part.

They are something that can’t be easily defined, because it’s complex, and messy, and while there are bright moments of wonder and joy, is also overwhelmingly dark in its implications, and they can feel utterly alone even when standing right next to each other. Shadow owes Maria everything, and Maria owes Shadow everything, but each underestimates the full gravity of how their own existence touches and expands the other. They consider themselves worthless compared to the other, and that’s what gets in the way of them truly being able to open their hearts to each other. The way Sonic later teaches them HOW to open their hearts.

So yeah. I hope this concept of blurring the lines doesn’t scare too many folks, but this is based on my personal interpretation of how I feel a continued existence between them in canon or a canon adjacent world might have been like. I know it’s easy and delightful to see em like wholesome siblings — which is also an interpretation I wholeheartedly endorse and adore, particularly the way my bud @ratrrriot draws them (please go follow them if you don’t already, their shadow and maria artwork is to die for!) — but this is just a slightly different and admittedly darker take on them that I hope won’t ruffle too many feathers. Sibling coded relationships between characters are so wonderful, but in this case doesn’t feel satisfying or like it can possibly cover the scope of them for this particular au. I dislike labeling them or comparing them to another dynamic, like Sonic and Tails who are very explicitly brotherly with one another.

I may make a separate post on Sonic’s impact in this world and how he touches the lives of Shadow and Maria, Helen (when she comes along), and this world’s version of Robotnik (Julian) if people are interested in that. I take a lot of inspiration from his characterization in the Adventure games and Sonic X for this AU, as he’s most closely canon-aligned compared to Shadow and Maria who are a little different; though I’m gonna try my best to fit their “canon” personalities into a completely different scenario. Such as, Shadow lacks the innate hatred he has for mankind as he never loses Maria, but he will retain the “my body is a tool” mentality and the general uncaring of others opinions of him, etc.

[ojamayellow]

Earthspark spoilers. It's time for my opinions and theories.

Before I start, I am aware of the writers changing. I will put that into consideration in this. And for the record, I did enjoy Season 2 so far, but I admit it has nothing on S1 for now.

First two episodes were really good, I loved the Breakdad moments, I love Aftermath and we get a glimpse on how the Decepticons have been operating. 2nd episode with the Quintesson gave us some lore and suspense, and I always love a Mo and Thrash tag team. These episodes felt... right for Earthspark, but not as Season 2 starters? If that makes sense.

Hashtag's alt mode is neat, but I miss her chunkiness in robot mode. Made her feel more distinct you know? But I'm with the others saying VAL being an AI in Hashtag's mind is really weird considering what Mandroid did. Maybe she's coping? I have a theory that this VAL might be manipulated in a future episode to control Hashtag, but for the sake of Hashtag's well-being, I HOPE this doesn't happen. (Also, hi Shockwave).

Carnival episode. Is Schloder reduced to an incidental now? I hope not and that he becomes important as well. But also, I figure its a traveling carnival/circus, which makes sense to why we haven't seen this Fairemaestro before, and the little interaction with Swindle shows up 'oh yeah he's a bad guy' already. But you can't just tease a GIANT COSMOS-LOOKING RIDE AND THEN 'OH BTW ITS COSMOS' LAST FEW MINUTES. If Cosmos doesn't show up in later episodes I'll be so disappointed, like...it's freakin' Cosmos! <-Perfect design though. *chef kiss*

I do think the Robby crush on Izzy was cute, but it being involved with the plot felt....eh? It was like, nothingburger to me.

JBAM episode. I LOVED THEM. Jawbreaker has clearly gotten more comfortable with himself and such since Grimlock, but him not taking a hint from Aftermath (who was being direct) reminds me of my younger self. <-Was an insane chatterbox and would not shut up no matter what was said to me.

But the contaminated energon stuff like, yeah callback to that weird bear. Sorry if I forgot, but back in S1, was there a reason GHOST was just leaving it around? I don't remember. And what's with the horrific energon mushrooms, and those poor animals? I know people who are going to be turned off from this show just from that alone, but at least it's 'off screen'? But also Aftermath betraying Jawbreaker hurts, I was hoping he'd like, impress Breakdown with the stolen water BUT NOPE, NO MORE AFTERMATH AND BREAKDAD STUFF. (I know Aftermath was like, not 'what did you just call me' when he was called Son but, cmon!!)

Spitfire episode. I personally think this episode went hard. Gave me Sonic VS Metal Sonic vibes. The fight scenes were really done well, and the tension was so good! To me, Spitfire wanted to be superior but felt inferior when not chosen for the mission, so that desire to be the best consumed her. I'm personally a big fan of this episode, and Alex is awesome. And so was Spitfire, I'm kinda obsessed with her.

Bodyswap episode. Always love a good bodyswap scenario, but somehow this felt... weak. It's plausible for the others to believe Spitfire (as Twitch) had a scrambled processor from the previous episode BUT the fact Wheeljack was the first to catch on? Before a Malto? I'm SO GLAD they referred to Dad2 again but, IDK, feels... strange to me.

Trailer episode. Was kinda nothingburger again? It felt like they needed to add SOMETHING before the horrors of the final two episodes, but maybe I just need to re-watch it because I didn't feel much from it. Optimus was clearly getting aggravated and uncomfortable, which was making me uncomfortable. But also, OPLITA? COMPLICATED? If they don't ever bring this up again I might be a bit...bitter.

And finally, the Witwicky 2-Parter. My anxiety was through the roof here, but I also kinda figured it out early that a Titan was involved. Was still surprised though, and her design is awesome?! But what was making me panic more than anything was Hashtag was going to see Starscream. Yes I know, a one-episode bond may not mean much, but we all had hopes, yeah? Anyway, I love nasty bitch Starscream. It's what makes him Starscream. And I do think what he did was in-character. But it would feel off if Earthspark was someone's introduction to Starscream, you know? This specific one, who's attitude told the audience 'I hate Megatron he abused me so I'd be a better leader than him'. But also...

The scene with him killing the Chaos Terrans was a fucking horror movie. It does a lot when I am SCARED OF STARSCREAM. I wish he didn't do it, but he also needed the shards. If the Autobots/Maltos needed the shards from the Terrans, how would they do it? Would they hesitate to find a safer way to keep the Chaos Terrans alive? Or would there be some sort of urgency? It really makes me think, but Starscream wanted those shards ASAP, he does what he need to do to get what he wants, he's Starscream. A manipulative, traitorous bitch who almost never gets his way in the end.

But you might be wondering, "Kit did you feel like the character development was thrown away for Starscream?" Well, yes and no.

It's really upsetting how Starscream twisted his advice to Hashtag. Truly upsetting. But it also does feel like something a Starscream would do. I keep flip-flopping between "yeah this makes sense" and "um what the FUCK writers". See what I mean by "yes and no?" And Hashtag calling Starscream worse than Megatron AND Screamer taking it as a compliment? Again, very Starscream thing to do, but I think ES! Starscream should've been at least a bit offended?! And out of all bots to call him the worst... Why did it have to be Hashtag? I guess it has more 'meaning', but still...

My theory (or moreso, hopeful thinking) is that Starscream re-invented his advice to Hashtag so he could get detached from her. Starscream had a mission, a personal selfish goal, and he needed to take care of HIMSELF, no friendship. Only comrades willing to follow him, and the Maltos were not those comrades.

My other theory (which I gained from seeing someone on twitter saying this) is that the Chaos Terrans DIDN'T GREY OUT FROM DEATH. Therefore, there is a chance they can return. Maybe something from the Allspark or Matrix or some kinda macguffin will help?! And I sure hope they come back, because they could learn to be good (but still cheeky) and we can bring back the messages and theming from Season 1! Right, right?

As for 'Starscream the child killer'...look, it's upsetting I know. But like I said, selfish goals. And while I am not familiar with every Starscream from different canons, I've met enough versions. Other Starscreams have have committed war crimes, blew up a human hospital, threatened to kill innocents, committed war crimes, wanted to kill everyone to end a war, squished humans in his servos... (yes I know Skybound is more for an adult audience than kids but I'm just saying). War crimes. I am not excusing Starscream's actions here, but when he needs something, he'll do what it takes to get it, for his own selfish goals. It makes sense but I also feel its wrong and I agree with other fans who were quite upset with this scenario. If the Chaos Terrans don't come back I'll be really sad.

Again, I've considered the fact this show has new writers, which is unfortunate. I saw someone on here say that Season 2 (so far) feels like a bootlegged version of S1, which is how I feel about it. I did enjoy the episodes, but they were a bit messy. Also, the lack of Nightshade and honorary family member Bumblebee really made me sad. Was it a script decision, or could they not afford Danny Pudi enough because they used the money on the new cast like Flea? (Don't quote me on like, celebrity net worth here). The lack of Nightshade though is very suspicious though, considering how big of a deal it was for them to exist as a non-binary character.

Side note, Shockwave. I'm glad he finds Cybertron itself more important than creating a New Cybertron, it feels right for him to not care about Earth. But if he going to attempt to lead now? Or something?

If you read this, thanks! If you have any responses feel free to reply or reblog. Feel free to reblog in general, I love hearing opinions and such.

[bigfemboyenergy]

self indulging in the sonic x dp x dc thing

tails and/or knuckles could make an appearance. also i have no idea who or what to put for like. the dc part? im not super into dc except for batjokes lore (in technicality) and fics

Danny finds himself in a strange place. He has a lot of questions. After all, it was only a second ago that he was with his family. Where am I? he thinks to himself. What happened? Sadly, he doesn’t have time to dwell on these thoughts, because he sees something awfully “funny” and even potentially dangerous only a few feet away..

Sonic opens his eyes, and blinks several times in shock. He was with Amy, Knuckles, and Tails, but now he’s..wherever this is? He’s gone through some bullshit today, enough from Egghead, and he’s completely over it. Silently, he shrugs as he thinks, well shit, stuff always wants to keep happening.

With a sigh, Sonic uses this moment of what seems to be calm to look around. He blinks repeatedly, shocked. What he sees does not cease to surprise him. Growing up and living in open, bright greenery did not get him ready for the gloomy, dreary city he’s appeared in. He murmurs, vaguely, “what the absolute fuck.” It’s only then that he notices the guy next to him.

Both him and the stranger flinch, as if only just noticing each other. This person..is a human, certainly. Or, well, he looks like one. He looks terribly shocked to be seeing an..oversized blue hedgehog cryptid? Or a 3’ furry? His face shows that he has no idea what he’s seeing.

Danny narrows his eyes, observing the thing, concern and fear melting away. After all, he’s seen worse; who hasn’t, with internet access? He speaks, questioningly, “So, what are you, and have you also been mysteriously brought here without notice?” The creature says, coolly, “Isn’t it more polite to ask for a name first? But I digress; first of all, hedgehog, and secondly, yep.” Danny nods, interested by the way this creature knows English and is oddly human, for something that is, well- a hedgehog, they said? With a small chuckle, Danny speaks once more; “Well then, what’s your name?” The hedgehog grins and proclaims, “Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog.” It is only then that Danny realizes this bad boy is, well..recognizable? He isn’t quite sure why he’s heard of him or where. He awaits his realization with much impatience. It feels awful to be only halfway to a conclusion.

Sonic looks up at the human, no recognition in his eyes. He doesn’t know him, it seems. With a playful shrug, he begins, “I’ve told you my name, so tell me yours,” he edges closer. “Come on, don’t be shy.” He almost sees the gears turn in the human’s head, before they say, “It’s Danny.”

Sonic looks Danny up and down, taking him in. He seems like an average guy, Sonic thinks. Nothing too unusual about him, probably. “I have a quick question, Dan- can I call you that?- is it..weird for hedgehogs to be walking around this place?” Danny shrugs in response. “I mean, before being brought here, I would’ve thought so, yeah? Pretty odd, if you know what I mean,” he states. “And sure, ‘Dan’ is fine.”

Carefully, Sonic drinks in the new information. He’ll have to consider the fact that bad crap will probably go down around him. He ain’t no normal guy, not in this place, it seems. Might even have to go into hiding, he thinks. That’d suck balls. He sighs to himself, wondering how he’ll even get home.

Danny notices Sonic’s dilemma, but can’t do anything about it. After all, he’s just a halfa, what can he do? He doesn’t have illusion-related powers; at least, he’s not aware of having any, that is. But since he himself has a very good reason to be sympathetic..he makes an offer. “We both got sent here randomly, right? So, why not find a place to crash together? Not sure you could even get a job here, so you’ll definitely need someone’s help.” Sonic snickers softly and holds out his hand for Danny to shake. “That sounds good to me, if you don’t mind,” he says, a bit calmer now. Danny doesn’t hesitate to shake Sonic’s hand as he says, “Hello, new partner in crime.”

Upon noticing that two people supposedly teleported here for no reason..the batfamily was in a state of worry. Now that they have tried to research these people, get a little info on them- they, uh..are quite shocked to learn that nobody fits their descriptions and/or the names they go by. Well, except for something they aren’t sure whether to deem it a coincidence or a completely mind-boggling disaster. More on that later.

Now that Danny and Sonic have gotten fairly acquainted, all that’s left is for them to find a place to spend their time, and hopefully some work.

WELL THATS IT FOR THIS TEST THING TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT 💀 and yes i am calling it “The Worst Crossover To Ever Cross Over” it’s a good pun imo ok

[the-heart-of-a-monster]

I’ve been gone for so long but I have so much to say and idk how to say it so please be prepared for an absolute mess of an ask lol

First, I just really wanna give appreciation for Super Emeralds (The comic creator) and their dedication to THOAM. I’ve been on Tumblr for just a little more than a year at this point, and I only joined in the first place because of this comic. I got into it way back in… What was it, 2020?? 2021? And I fell in love immediately with the concept! Sonic feeling insecure about his new Werehog form? Chip being an active member of the team and a great friend?? TEAM DARK??? SONADOW DONE RIGHT?????????? Ohohoho! You can bet I was completely on board! I tried my best to comment on every page, because I just love giving positive feedback for things I enjoy, and took note of how Super Emeralds evolved their style as the years went on. I wasn’t there during the beginning, and I really wish I was, but the time I’ve spent following this fun little comic has made me feel so much appreciation not just for Super Emeralds as a person, but for the entire Sonic art community as a whole! Art is a creative endeavor, a passionate career, and sometimes it’s really hard to just. Draw. Comics are especially hard as I’ve discovered. So just… Good job to Super Emeralds for sticking around all these years and for giving us such an incredibly thought out and beloved series. And thank you.

…

ALRIGHT ENOUGH OF THAT MUSHY GUSHY STUFF AND LET’S TALK ABOUT THE BLUE BOY HIMSELF THAT IS NOW NO LONGER JUST BLUE MUAHAHAHAHASHEHEHEKEFHEOFHFFPWEHFLFHD

I’ve been a bit absent from Tumblr for the last few weeks due to sickness and lack of interest so I am undoubtedly missing a page or two from the equation but OH MY GOSH. POOR SONIC. Bro wakes up from like a 2-day long nap and the first thing he sees is his little brother screaming in his face at 3AM. He’s so confused haha! I noticed he isn’t as insecure or he isn’t really freaking out as much as I assumed he would way back during the exposition pages. This is obviously due to the confusion and whiplash after waking up as his “Normal” self again, but I feel like it’s just him putting on another fascade around his friends. To an extent, at least. He isn’t aware of the new pink markings all over his body and he isn’t aware of just how worried all his friends were. All he knows is that they know about his new form and they for some reason aren’t acting weird about it, so he’s likely just playing along to make sure nobody gets overly concerned. It just seems like something he’d do. Or maybe I’m just grasping at the angst straws, idk.

OMEGA IS FIXED BY THE WAY I DO NOT WISH TO GLOSS OVER THAT FACT. THE BOY IS BACK!! THE ROBO BOYO IS BACK!!! I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE ALL THE CRIMES HE’LL BE ABLE TO COMMIT ONCE TAILS GETS THOSE ROCKET LAUNCHERS WORKING AGAIN HEHEHEEE

Also let’s not gloss over how Omega doesn’t care that Sonic mauled him to death. Let’s not gloss over the fact that Omega clearly cares for the others because of his ignorance to Sonic’s rampage.

Yeah if you couldn’t already tell I’m a sucker for this kinda stuff-

Uhhhhh I don’t really have much else to say, honestly. Maybe I will later, but right now I’m on a time crunch so I gotta keep this all pretty concise. Thank you so so much for reading all the way through, I know this was a really really long one. And again, thanks to Super Emeralds for being able to last this long and not losing motivation for the comic. I know I would’ve given up after just 5 pages! (I actually tried to make a comic of sorts and I literally gave up after 5 pages I am not kidding.)

Aight I gotta go now bye bye!! 👋

ur gonna have a field day in 2-3 weeks depending on when u decide to go on rampage haha

[dizzyhslightlyvoided]

honestly, not that it's probably a surprise that Metal Gear Solid Delta is a shot-for-shot remake, and like honestly it's kind of a relief insofar as it's not a "contempt for the original and/or the players thereof" remake or a "completely missed the boat" remake. but good lord in Outer Heaven that "overview" was so soulless.

like the absolute best-case scenario here is that when Konami said "hey, remake MGS3", they were saying it to a bunch of creatives who stayed behind after Hideo Kojima left Konami and they didn't feel confident about living up to Kojima's Creative Vision,™ so they didn't want to mess with the existing stuff, and it was the marketing-wonks who chose to make the "overview" what it was. but the sum total of what I know about Metal Gear Delta is that it's the kind of "remake" which is just a port with extra steps, and that this was explained in an "Advertisement For Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater, Featuring Advertiser David Hayter Who Did The Voice Of Solid Snake And Big Boss (as portrayed by actor David Hayter, also known for doing the voice of Solid Snake and Big Boss)". the worst case is that Konami said "no changes except Making It More Modern" and nobody was allowed to say no. Probably a mix of the two, really, or somewhere in between. and even if it is completely the creatives' own decision, I'd say it's a bad decision. I really don't feel like "there's a modern third-person shooter mode, and the graphics are More Advanced so you can see the individual hairs on Naked Snake's beard and tits really justifies this port's existence to me. A bad remake/sequel/adaptation is far and away better than a boring one. Just look at the fact that we're still talking about Sonic 2006 to this day!

What I think Metal Gear Delta should instead do is, they should do the self-aware bait-and-switch-pseudo-sequel thing that's all the rage these days. Just go full FF7R, make "it's a remake" part of the plot and have things go off the rails. If there was ever a video game series for which that specific brand of obnoxiously-meta fuckery would be appropriate, it would be Metal Gear, which had a character say "Turn off the game console right now!" in dialogue to Solid Snake in the very first game in 1987, let alone the "player 2 controller" thing MGS1 did eleven years later.

Of course, that isn't incompatible with The Sequel To Rereleasing for the first couple three installments; lull the fans into a false sense of security by going "it'll be The Same". But things should start to diverge, and at least hint at changes as early as the first game, even if the plots are largely the same and happen for the same reasons. the Metal Gear Solid 4 remake should end completely differently. women are treated much better. the Metal Gear 1 and 2 remake should be called "Metal Gear Solid 6". Raiden comes out as a trans woman onscreen or fully transitions offscreen between two installments, no in-between.

[sonicboomseason3]

sonic boom: choose your own adventure game PART 6

previous: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5

"Eight months."

You snap out of your daze when you hear your companion speak. "Sorry, what was that?"

Shadow's eye was twitching, and he was clenching and unclenching his fists like he was just itching to punch something to death. "You and I have been standing here… with you refusing to make a decision on where we should go… for eight months. Eight. Months."

Yeah, you heard him the second time; he really didn't need to say it a third. Also, was it eight months or nine? Does that first month count as part of the duration? You begin counting with your fingers and somehow end up with not eight, not nine, but all ten of your digits raised. You stare for a bit before shaking your head. That can't be right. You count again and get the same result.

Shadow glowers at your fingers, seemingly all too aware of what you were counting. You can sense that his anger levels have risen even higher, which you didn't think was possible.

Contrary to popular belief, you do have at least some semblance of self-preservation, so you know you need to make a decision, and pronto. You look around and point at the first noteworthy thing you see. "Let's go there," you say.

Shadow takes one look at the menacing, creepy, evil-looking island you're pointing towards, and his scowl dissolves into something much more unreadable. "You're not serious."

You nod. "I am."

Honestly, you're not, you're just trying to keep this guy from blowing his top. You've made the assumption that any answer is better than no answer, so you may as well pull something out of your behind while you work on where you actually want to go.

You get the sense that you may have miscalculated somewhere in said assumption when Shadow generates a flashy spear out of nowhere and hurls it at a nearby tree. Points for flashiness, you suppose.

—

Much to your surprise, Shadow actually teleports you to the island and its fortress, despite his initial reaction to the idea. You get the feeling that your story would have ended right there if sonicboomseason3 didn't feel bad for abandoning it for so long.

You walk up to the huge metal fortress door and knock while Shadow stands in the background with his arms crossed. Not a second later, the door opens to reveal a human man shaped like an upside-down egg.

He looks down at you with those goggles of his and groans. "Ugh, more solicitors. Look, kid, I'm not interested in your weird lotions or whatever. Now scram before I activate my defense system."

[randomthefox]

I have a question.

How do you view Eggman and Amy's relationship?

I actually find their relationship FASCINATING

Eggman ALWAYS refers to her on a first name basis. Not "that annoying pest" or "sonic's hanger on" or "twerp" or "miss rose" to be condescending or anything like that. He ALWAYS refers to her as "Amy."

I dunno I just think that's really interesting. Like, Team Rocket NEVER calls Ash by his actual name. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy are on last name basises with each other. The Pillar Men call Joseph "JoJo" because that's what they heard Ceasar call him.

The way antagonists refer to the protagonist is something I always think about. And the fact that Eggman KNOWS what Amy's name is, and CALLS HER THAT is something I can't help but rotate in my brain like a rotisserie chicken.

The only time he ever calls her something disparaging is right here, when he's PUTTING A GUN TO HER HEAD

You'd THINK this kind of demeaning nicknaming would be more common from him. But it just isn't. He pretty much always just calls her "Amy."

I dunno what that says about their relationship but it sure does say something! If it wasn't for that, I'd think that Eggman just sees Amy as another insignificant insect - to be ignored at best and have its legs torn off for his amusement at worst. But clearly there's more to it then that. The memo in Frontiers seems to imply that he thinks highly of her (for lack of a better term), which would feels fitting.

Even in the memos where Eggman is talking about the other characters, he's REALLY just talking about himself =P look at the traits he recognizes as admirable about Amy. "Cleverness". "Tenacity." Things that Eggman has in spades. And then he makes a quip about "self identification" being a "challenge" and the way Mike Pollock reads the line - it just speaks to me that he's poking fun at the idea because Eggman has ALWAYS been very comfortable with his own sense of self identity, and is reasonably self aware too barring some blind spots (such as accusing Sonic of having a big ego when naturally that's just projection from the biggest egomaniac on the planet).

It sounds weird to say, but it could be that Eggman sees a little bit of himself in Amy? Maybe not in terms of intellect. But he seems to like her moxie at the very least. She's got spunk. I have to assume he views her favorably, otherwise I doubt he'd even bother learning what her name is let alone use it.

(It's hard to explain thinking that Eggman has a positive view of someone, because the limitations of the english language and natural human bias lends one to believe that I'm implying that Eggman WOULDN'T crush her skull under his boot if he felt like it. Which is definitely not what I'm saying. Because he absolutely would.)

[frostythefrostedfox]

I don't even have a witty caption to make, y'all know this is true, stop coping, I've seen Fallout cutscenes with better animation than this show, putting same 8 characters in the same 4 locations for 23 episodes aint funny.

Boom wasn't trying to take itself seriously and that's why it was funny, but y'all doing the same shit that Boom made fun of and acting like Kojima directed the show, Idris Elba voiced Shadow and Nolan North voiced Sonic

Nine is as threathening as an Ipad kid at Walmart

Alexa Rose gave a minute long speech to a robot like it was able to understand anything.

I can already hear y'all yapping "m-muh mandates", "r-rushed production", "b-budget", how about y'all get a new argument for a change, I can watch Liar Liar every day of my life until I die and still crack my ass off laughing at it, but y'all aint Jim Carrey so get new material, please.

BTW, where is your lord and saviour Ian "Jesus" Flynn preaching his gospel? Because last I heard this man wasn't shutting his trap about how "Prime is 420% canon my dude, how? I can't tell you lol xd because it would be a spoiler, but trust me bro, I know shit... How do I know? Because I made it up like everything I say!", y'all been real quiet ever since the middest of the mid, the ultimate corporate gobslop, dropped

Sonic X wasn't the peak of the peakest-est peak-er either, but damn, it was enjoyable and consistent with itself, at least have some self awareness.

I'm glad I only saw like 2 episodes of this thing before watching S3, and guess what, I didn't needed to watch the whole thing because the exposition dump in this show makes backwatching unnecesary.

And don't think I am going to agree with the other side either, people acting like that bunch of mismatched sprites in one of the introductions killed your grandma or something, dude chill out, is a cartoon blue hedgeheg, yeah it was cringe as fuck but y'all acting like Sonic just said something like "Team Magma did nothing wrong, N was right", you can criticize something without acting like its the end of the world, stop overrreacting, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but by doing this, you aint making Sonic want to come to your birthday party.

Stop pretending this show is Edgerunners 2

Stop pretending this show is The Room 2

[jocelynships]

✨💕 Promo Time 💕✨

Hi hi hi, my name is Jocelyn and I’m your local disaster bi who likes cartoons, let’s be friends!!

💚 My main interests are TMNT & Sonic, I’m also into X-Men, the Disney Afternoon and 80s movies despite not focusing on them much, but I’ve been fixated on the Trolls movies lately!

💜 My main F/Os are Kurt Wagner from X-Men and Baron Draxum from ROTTMNT. I’m not comfortable sharing either of them, and no hard feelings if you do as well! I have my space set up and y’all are valid too! I’m okay sharing all my other F/Os though!!

💛 However I’m mainly focusing on Clay & Bruce from Trolls: Band Together as for some reason I’ve fallen HARD for both lol (and in case anyone worries I have different S/Is for both)

🩷 I get anxious having fandom blogs interact with me due to bad experiences in certain fandoms I’ve had. I’m not a fandom blog. If you’re okay with self shipping/inserting you’re welcome to follow but please be aware that’s most of what you will see

💙 Last but not least, I’m probably more intimidated by you than you are of me lol. I don’t bite! Feel free to message me! Just know I have a busy life irl so I may not respond to messages right away, but I love making friends!

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

AMY ROSE (SONIC THE HEDGEHOG)

1.) Amy’s characterisation has experienced several generations of misogyny, right from her genesis: She was designed as a girlfriend, but it eas then decided they didn’t want Sonic to have a girlfriend. First instance she’s a damsel in distress that he resents for being there and crushing on him, and this is echoed in the comics. She is then presented as pathetic, chasing and stalkerish, as well as sidelined in the games in favour of other characters despite being very strong. Her stories are often those with the most emotional weight, but the reading is coloured by other characters underestimating her importance there. She then enters a pushy and blind era where she becomes a mockery of her past self. A universe reset rebranded her as a feminist, but that often comes off as a bit pickme, and they frequently failed to hold her femininity and also combat capabilities in hand at once. She is finally getting a bit more stable characterisation and treated a bit better, but I still don’t trust the writers with her. Ultimately, it often felt like the creators didn’t like her, and only had her there because they were made to; and that sucked as a little girl sonic fan.

2.) She started out as the token Girl One in a 90’s property, and her first appearance was as a damsel in distress, which isn’t great to begin with, and she wasn’t playable for a long-ass time outside of spinoffs. The Sonic Adventure games redesigned her, made her playable, let her fight back against her would-be kidnappers, and gave her a major role in saving the world by letting Shadow talk to someone not game with destroying it. Then from Sonic Heroes to Sonic and the Black Knight, and the anime Sonic X, her character was reduced to ‘hehe funny obsessed fangirl is obsessed’ a lot of the time, losing her compassion and a good deal of her social awareness. In Sonic 06, she literally said that she’d sacrifice the rest of the world for Sonic, which, my girl would NEVER in SA2. The Archie comics weren’t kind to her either, as their explanation for the redesign was that Amy wished to become older, so they aged up her body, BUT NOT HER MIND EW EW EW. I’m sure there are other crimes the Archie comics did to her, but that’s not my knowledge base. THEN the writers tried to backpedal in the early 2010’s, but by attempting to undo all the 'crazy’, they took out Amy’s drive and convictions (Sonic Lost World just letting Amy sit and watch Sonic do all the work my beloathed). The Sonic Boom spinoff series tried to pivot and make their version of her a girlboss, but Rise of Lyric was SO BAD. Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice made an alternate version of her a damsel in distress, again, which while technically true to Amy’s roots, does not fit her Boom characterization AT ALL. The Sonic Boom cartoon was a screwball comedy, and they at least lampshaded a lot of Amy’s previous writing problems, but they didn’t give her much to do either, mainly making her 'the sensible one’ whenever Sonic wasn’t available for deadpan responses. They’ve been doing a bit better lately, with Amy usually involved in world-saving matters, and she was prominently featured in Sonic Frontiers, even if she was trapped in Cyberspace. The IDW comics are also treating her wonderfully, from what I’ve seen.

3.) when she was created as a character, she was made solely to be sonic’s love interest. in sonic adventure, they tried to rewrite her and flesh out her character more by making her realize she’s more than her crush on sonic and she finally realizes she’s strong enough to do things without him. sonic team IMMEDIATELY undid that in sonic heroes which came out soon after. they made her entire character in that game obsessed with sonic and based her entire story around him. she was obsessed with him unhealthily in that game because god forbid team sonic let’s a strong female character exist. many of the sonic games took away her quality of being strong without sonic by writing her to only be obsessed with him and not do anything without him. in many modern games, she’s improved more, but misogyny has really screwed her over as a character.

ABBIE MILLS (SLEEPY HOLLOW) (CW: Racism)

1.) Abbie starts out as one of the two protagonists of the show, only to get almost entirely sidelined as early as season 2, getting less and less screen time and allowed no relationships, either platonic or romantic, while the other lead Ichabod Crane has a seemingly infinite amount of them. It got bad enough that her actor wanted to leave the show, which they did by having her sacrifice her soul in the season 3 finale for the male lead to live, and then they ended the show after season 4 anyway, because guess what, it’s a bad idea to entirely sideline and eventually kill off one of your leads!

2.) She was killed by the narrative to advance her white male co-protagonist’s plotline and I’m still mad about it, Abbie deserved so much better. This is an example of racism in the narrative too and it extended to the production of the show, see news coverage:

3.) Look, I only watched the first season but they killed her off the show SHE was a co lead of!! Misogyny AND racism, all rolled into one. I remember seeing the fan reactions and I was so mad on their behalfs. They wrote her off her own show and from what I recall, gave her less and less screentime leading up to that. Truly, she deserved so much better and I will always be upset by this.

[yanderes-galore]

Sorry to bother, but i wanted to share some opinions about Self-aware AUs. I think it's a fascinating topic in horror stories due to traumas it may cause to the character who suddenly realizes their world is false, just like their friends, family, even enemies. It's such a drastic realization, bringing the character to an existential crisis, slowly driving them insane.

Every character in any movie, cartoon and game has a set of recorded voicelines they say exactly when they have and repeat once they need to say it again. Knowing that, i think about three scenarios that could happen in an self-aware case:

The one affected is the only one who can think by themselves, and not by a code or script. But this leaves them alone, since whenever they will talk with other people, the only answers are the same, repetitive phrases and movements, no matter what the question was.

(This is a variation of 1) Character A is self-aware and goes to B to explain everything. But, instead of saying what they were programed to say, B stops, frowns and says a simple "What?". Those actions look insignificant, but they are already the start of B's self-awareness. They already broke the code by saying something that shouldn't be there, and soon, they will understand what A means. So one self-aware character consequently would make everyone else also self-aware of their situation.

(This one is the most grotesque and violent. Let's use Sonic for this, since this is an AU, there's no problem changing his personality, right? This could be a continuation of 1) A self-aware character like sonic would become insane eventually. Being forced to live in that limited, small world, hearing the same things every day. Does time even pass? He can't tell when he hears Tails asking his help to gather the Chaos Emeralds by the hundredth time. Why should he care about "saving the world" anymore if the cycle will repeat exactly as it happened before? Nothing he does really matters. This fills the hedgehog with anger, which brings a psychotic desire for anything exciting. When he looks at Tails, the only idea on his mind was killing the fox (like Sonic could even say "kill". His best friend is not real, he was a bunch of codes in a game and he'd come back later, of course. There would be no consequences). The next thing Sonic knows, is that he's brutally punching Tails into a pulp, letting out all his frustrations on his virtual friend, staining his white gloves with Tail's blood. At least now he has something different to do with his "friends".

(Well, those were my ideas. I think i've put more tought on the third one than i expected. Sorry if it looked weird and creepy, or that i hate Tails. I don't, this was just a example of what could happen in a self-aware story, i don't wish to make anyone uncomfortable)

Self-Aware stories are not my favorite to write, but they are fun to read.

I do like your ideas even if they weren't entirely Yandere ^^

That does seem really accurate to how things would go.

[sunnimint]

What if Metal was just controlled by his mobian self and his entire consciousness is inside of Metal while his mobian self is basically lifeless and has little consciousness..(If he had found out about his mobian self,he would atleast tell him that he is having a fine life and wouldn't want Sonic to discover)

Very interesting concept!!! In this case, it would imply that Eggman sought out a mobian- who is LOYAL to Eggman, blackmail or coercion wouldn't work- to transfer the mobian's consciousness into the killing machine that is Metal.

I feel like, at this point, it wouldn't be Metal. At least, not the one we're familiar with. Because the Metal in this situation is a mobian. A mobian who is already aware he's sentient and has the capacity to feel emotions right from the beginning. He's also aware he's NOT Sonic, which is essential to his character too (Unless there's some brainwashing involved, which is a whole different story).

Part of the reason why I like writing Metal so much is because of the endless possibilities you can write about HOW he becomes self-aware and learns how much emotions can bring him both joy and pain. Not to mention the identity crisis Metal has because he thinks he's the real Sonic, but very aware that he's not, in a way (like the one iconic scene from Sonic IDW where Metal touches the metal virus and sees that he's not affected by it like how Sonic is).

[spacemagicandlaserswords]

The Clone Wars 2x6 ‘Weapons Factory’ and 2x7 ‘Legacy of Terror’ Reaction

So this whole Point Rain arc was an interesting one. Back on Geonosis so soon after Attack of the Clones and it’s somehow going even worse than before. If there’s a Third Battle of Geonosis then it’s going to end up with the planet imploding and taking everyone with it. I talked about this in my reaction to 2x5 ‘Landing at Point Rain’ but the immense number of clones that are killed is beyond horrific. They’re just cannon fodder at this point. All of the groups (regiments? brigades?) take heavy losses. Sure, the Republic ends up just winning the day, taking the capital city of Geonosis, stopping the droid forge, capturing Poggle the Lesser and taking out the Geonosian queen and her horde of zombies. But at what cost? So many clones were just blasted to bits or Thanos snapped out of existence by the Geonosians' sonic blasters. I’m surprised there were any clones without plot armour left. 

The part that really rubbed me up the wrong way was when Ki-Adi-Mundi was leading his group (platoon? company?) through what looked like the Geonosian equivalent of a spooky forest. Clones were constantly being atomised left, right and centre and all he’s doing is telling them to keep going and forge ahead through the shortcut that he found?! It’s a pretty rubbish shortcut if none of you make it out alive. Yes, I get that this is a vital campaign whose success hinged on all three groups (legions? corps?) making it to their positions on the battlefield. This was made abundantly clear at the start of the arc in 2x5 ‘Landing at Point Rain’. But at some point you have to reassess, use some of that apparently famed jedi logic, reasoning, and divesting-thine-self-of-emotions, and consider if you’re going about this the right way. Probably just before the last of your men, and you, are ruptured to bits by a swarm of angry Geonosians with sonic blasters. Of course the jedi and clones won in the end. Can’t have the hero’s not saving the day. But it was only by the very thinnest of margins. I was wholly unimpressed with Ki-Adi-Mundi’s approach, and he wasn’t the only new jedi that I was disappointed by.

(I’ve since realised that I should’ve included this paragraph in my reaction to 2x5 'Landing at Point Rain' because Ki-Adi-Mundi doesn’t actually appear in either of these episodes. I wrote a good chunk of this as a reaction to the characters introduced in the Point Rain arc rather than addressing specific episodes and it makes more sense in this context so it’s staying here.)

I did not like Luminara Unduli’s characterisation at all. I can see from a narrative perspective why she, and Ki-Adi-Mundi, are written the way they are. They’re both there, Luminara especially, as narrative and character foil to Anakin. An example of the Perfect Jedi. Calm, at peace, one with the Force, not driven by emotions. The complete opposite to Anakin’s bold and rash actions, emotions clouding his judgement, and attachment to his padawan. Or at least they’re trying to frame it in this way. I know at one point Luminara specifically says to Anakin that he’s misjudged her on thinking that she doesn’t care about her padawan Barriss most likely being dead. But it really did not come across like that. When it appeared that Ahsoka and Barriss were squished under the rubble of that explosion, it seemed like Luminara just gave up, immediately accepted without hesitation or thought that her padawan was dead and didn’t even bother to try and see if she could save her. It was just like ‘well that one’s kicked the bucket, fetch me a new child soldier from the nursery’. I am fully aware that this is probably not how it was probably intended to be portrayed. This is my viewing experience of TCW and that is how her characterisation and actions came across to me and how I interpreted them. And it really rubbed me up the wrong way. There was a lot of that in this arc. I guess this is another example of The Clone Wars tackling fairly weighty, tough, difficult topics where there’s not always a right or good answer, even though it’s “just a kid’s tv show”.

Anakin has many, many, many problems and is absolutely by no means even close to being a good or vaguely decent person. Yet in this particular specific singular instance, at least he had a bit of fight and passion about him and actually seemed to care about the wellbeing of the literal child that is under his care and who he is responsible for. He didn’t just give up immediately and actually tried to see if he could save her. There’s a difference between acceptance and giving up and I think Luminara’s characterisation fell too far towards the latter. 

Her characterisation also wasn’t helped when, after the Republic has saved the day and finished leading clones to the slaughter, she promptly does a philosophical 180 and hares off into an oncoming sandstorm on a reckless pursuit after Poggle. Luminara seems particularly obsessed with trying to capture Poggle, which is in complete contrast to her portrayal earlier as the Perfect Jedi who would never be affected by such base things like emotions. She’s so driven to go after Poggle that she makes reckless decisions and her actions result in the unnecessary and completely avoidable death of more clones and puts the lives of even more clones and her fellow jedi in danger. That’s not particularly Perfect Pious Jedi now is it, and just makes her apparent initial abandonment of Barriss even more hypocritical. 

(Editing me has also realised that I may come to reassess my opinions on these characters. I'm coming back to this quite a while after writing it and now I'm not as sure about what I originally wrote. However, I need to post something so it's staying for now and may be a useful comparison for when I eventually, hopefully, rewatch TCW again.)    

We’re also introduced to Barriss in this arc and this character just makes me so, so sad, though for a purely personal reason. Barriss is portrayed as the model student, the perfect padawan. She follows orders to the letter, doesn’t dare to even consider contradicting her master, goes above and beyond in everything, like memorising the catacombs. She’s terrified of failure and is so desperate to please. Everything has to be perfect and done exactly as her Master said it had to be. Barriss is the Gifted Kid. And I saw so much of my younger self in her. I just wanted to hug her and tell her that she’s ok just as she is. She doesn’t have to try and impress everyone and be the perfect model student. She can just be herself and that’s all that matters. Because it never ends well. It doesn’t end well for Barriss (I know what happens and I’ve got plenty to say about that when I get to that episode). And it didn’t end well for me either. My body, mind and soul are now completely crushed and destroyed and a lot of it started with that Gifted Kid nonsense. I was tearing up writing this paragraph remembering it all and to see it all reflected in Barriss was just as heartbreaking.     

I don’t know how to transition to this next paragraph without it being a completely record scratching change of tone. So just imagine that as some sort of transition. Plus we need some humour after 1000+ words of general grimitude.

The scene in the lair of the Geonosian queen Karina the Great had me absolutely cackling. I always enjoy Obi-Wan and Anakin sassing each other and there was plenty of that here. Especially the part where Anakin steps on the brain worm and Obi-Wan just looks so sad and dejected about not being able to study it and then Anakin tells him to study the bottom of his boot. Obi-Wan you absolute nerd. 

Look at him. He's so sad he can't study the brain worm.

In the lead up to this, where Luminara is being menaced with the brain worm, I did have a brief moment of thinking that Obi-Wan was actually going to watch one of his fellow Jedi be controlled by a brain worm just because he wanted to see what would happen. Evil Scientist Obi-Wan?

Luminara is being held captive and being threatened with essentially being brainwashed and Obi-Wan and Anakin just wander straight into the evil lair and start idly chatting about what they think will happen to her. They’re both absolute little shits but in entirely different ways. I’m not sure Obi-Wan had as much control of the situation as he thought he did.

Was 2x7 ‘Legacy of Terror’ the first proper horror themed episode? Or as proper horror themed as an animated kids tv show on Cartoon Network is going to get? Maybe horror homage is a better description. Basically like episode 2x11 ‘Metamorphosis’ of The Bad Batch where they reenact Alien while discovering the Zillo Beast. The fandom seemed to lose their collective minds at that reveal so I’m looking forward to finally finding out what all the fuss is about. I think I’m going to have to rewatch The Bad Batch, or at least certain episodes, after finishing TCW and Rebels to get a greater sense of some of the reveals that happen. 

Random Thoughts Having encountered Poggle the Lesser, could this imply the possible existence of a Poggle the Greater or Poggle the Better?

As Geonosians have sonic blasters and sonic canons, could that possibly mean the existence of Geonosian sonic screwdrivers? The Doctor would not be pleased.

Obi-Wan’s quip to Cody about the first time he was on Geonosis was peak sass and flirting. Don’t tease the poor Marshal Commander with a good time that he wasn’t there to enjoy.

(Editing me has also only now realised that this moment was also from 2x5 'Landing at Point Rain'. This is why I need to finish these reaction posts much sooner after watching the episode.)

Occasionally there are some utterly ridiculous and unbelievable moments even by TCW standards and Luminara and Anakin “climbing” under the bridge planting bombs was one of them. How are you dangling vertically under the bridge and somehow managing to hold onto the rocks with the tips of your fingers like that? What are you, Force geckos?

I know I’ve said this before but I am now definitely just here for the clones. The jedi can go wave their glow sticks somewhere else. Just give me everything to do with the clones. 

[antirepurp]

Re: Recent Sonic Posts. Sonic Colours scrapping actually writing was due to Sega, technically, listening to fans...which was a vocal group of dudebros who thought everything that wasn't Sonic, Tails, Eggman, and marvel movie one liners were boring or annyoing. it fucking suuuucks i want them to go back and hopefully ian flynn is giving us that. As for writing Pre-06 Sonic...Unironically, I use Goku Dragonball as a basis for that specific era of sonic. He's a bit more intelligent for sure, but they both share that hopeful naivete.

that's hella unfortunate if true. i don't really have any intricate knowledge on colors' development and what the general opinions about sonic games were post unleashed/black knight nor what sega's like financial situation was at the time which is one of those things that tends to explain a surprising amount sometimes, so it's hard for me to add anything beyond "wow that was stupid and would explain a lot". i also don't really have many opinions on flynn's writing because i don't read the comics, i just remember him writing a boom episode i didn't like very much and that frontiers was good and a big favorite flaws and all which isn't that big of a sample size i don't think lol. even then frontiers is definitely a step into the right direction of what makes sonic games so compelling in the first place, at least to me. the kind of self-aware cynicism of colors is the polar opposite of what sonic games are in the first place and only has a place in sonic boom really

im not very familiar with dragonball at all but that did give me an idea to check if i have other sonic-esque characters in my arsenal that i could reference to in this dialogue scene that could either go perfectly fine or really badly if i don't have a good grasp on things akjshdk