#both Silver and Espio can't say no to her haha

[true-blue-sonic]

Aaaaand 🎯 + Lilac and Espio & Silver

Take your own time, of course 😉

Written as procrastination on my thesis presentation (the best kind of writing) :> 😂

🎯 for a story about a big (or small!) achievement

“Lilac!!” Silver cheers. “I knew you could do it!”

Proudly Lilac clutches the little golden trophy against her chest. The Chao races had gone in her favour today: no cliff had been too tough to climb, no lake too big to swim through and the sky had been the limit. Even the karate competition had gone well, her opponent tackled with the fiercest Chao battle cry she could muster and the resulting scuffle ending in her victory. Sure, at that part Espio had looked a bit embarrassed, but Silver had been cheering her on just as loudly as he is now: swooping her up in his arms the hedgehog nuzzles her delightedly, a smile beaming on his face. “Espio, look at our little winner!”

“Indeed. You did very well out there,” Espio praises her also, Lilac cooing at him with a heart above her head. Because they’d been training her so well! Proudly the Chao holds up her trophy for the chameleon to see, an impressed nod following. “What a marvellous reward. You deserve it for how hard you worked.”

“We gotta put it somewhere nice. Where everyone can see it! And Lilac’s gotta get lots of fruits and candy because she did amazing,” Silver decrees, Lilac peeking up eagerly at that. Sounds good! Even if Espio chuckles, a lithe finger booping Silver right on his nose.

“We can’t give her a sugar rush, tenshi.”

“Chao,” Lilac pouts at him, though the chameleon boops her little face next.

“My tiny, it’s not nice to have a sugar crash. Especially not on a day like today.”

She knows Espio is right, but Lilac still pulls the cutest angy face she can manage. At least one fruit and some candy, then! She can’t eat this trophy, her little nubs bapping at it to show just that. “Okay, okay, we’ll get you something tasty when we get home,” Espio caves as expected, Lilac promptly reshaping her orb into a heart. Yes!!

“She deserves it,” Silver backs her up. “I’m sure she broke some records here and there. Definitely ones she set in previous competitions.”

“Well, you’ve been working very hard to help Lilac with her flying. She was faster than Sonic out there,” Espio smiles at Silver, who laughs back warmly.

“You’ve been helping her with fighting, though!”

“…Yes, indeed. Though I think that going right for the opponent’s throat is something she got from you…”

Innocently Lilac chirps, far too tiny and cute for her papa to scold her on that matter. “Eh, surely not,” Silver shrugs with mischief in his eyes. “Anyway, we gotta go celebrate! And tell everyone!”

“That we must,” Espio agrees, Lilac lovingly petted over her head and the Chao nuzzling into the touch delightedly. Though, she would be lying if she said she wasn’t tired… “Or maybe get some rest first,” the chameleon adds as a yawn slips past her lips, though Lilac still murrs in protest at that statement as her orb forms into an irked spiral. She wants to have fun!!

“Lilac, we can party later after you napped. Otherwise you’re just going to sleep through it,” Silver does his best to be responsible this time, tucking her plus trophy away into his mane. “You can rest while we go home and Espio and I can set things up in the meantime, okay?”

Rubbing at one eye Lilac sighs, orb going back to normal again. Not what she wants, but what can she do… She can’t tell Silver and Espio, and even if she could, no doubt the duo would be far too worried over her to listen. Oh well, it means she’s loved, the Chao knows very well. Because Espio and Silver adore her, and it shows in everything they do and say. “Shouldn’t we hold the party tomorrow?” she can hear Espio whisper, Silver’s answer far more obvious.

“Lilac won’t want that.”

“So stubborn…”

“She got that from you.”

“What?!” the chameleon shoots back quietly, fond affrontedness clear in his voice. “Tenshi, if there is anyone-!”

“It’d be you,” Silver interrupts, before laughing and darting away, and Lilac sleepily coos into his chest fluff as he and Espio banter while making their way home. She’s very much loved, and not just because she won a big Chao competition, but because she’s got the best and sweetest Chao guardians in the whole wide world looking after her.

And thus she’ll be the best and sweetest Chao for them in turn, and they’ll all be very happy together forever, she is certain.

[true-blue-sonic]

if we're talking about things in the Sonic Central that were kind of worrying/annoying: did i hallucinate, or did shadow use a move that looks suspiciously similar to Silver's PK in that Shadow Generations trailer? Like he glowed green, the debris around him glowed green, and then it went flying into Metal Overlord?

Because idk, I think I'll be pretty irked if it turns out that's what it is. Both because it might be trying to hint at Dadow being canon (which I'm super not a fan of for various long reasons) and more pettily because I'm a little bothered by the way Silver's move pool has by now seemingly shrunk to just shields and moving things with his mind, despite him once having had more abilities (teleportation, his Rivals ESP, stunning enemies in 06) whereas a character like Shadow continues to be granted new shiny powers game after game - now possibly including Silver's (I assume the Doom powers at least are going to be a temporary thing but y'know. still)

No, I think you're right. I would argue it's almost the exact same shade as Silver's PK, even.

But then again, it seems like this ability uses the same colour as well? It seems like a time-stop of sorts? Interesting🤔

But no worries about Dadow: Takashi Iizuka has gone on record very bluntly stating Shadow is not Silver's father. Besides, at least in '06 it's impossible: Shadow is too busy being trapped forever to be able to start a family in any way, haha. As for Silver... I guess we simply don't see him enough to really give his abilities a chance to shine? In Generations he could do the teleporting and create Psychic Knives (and Meteor Smash, my beloved!), but in Forces I'd say that none of the characters really got a chance to let their abilities show. At most they're just kinda punching away at Infinite's clones in the final battle in a way that makes sense for each character (e.g. Amy with her hammer, Espio with ninja posing); it's just that for Silver his lack of other abilities is far more noticeable because he is the one fighting Infinite. And since after that his appearances have stuck to mobile games, TSR, Sonic Channel stories that I guess most Western fans don't know about, and the IDW comics that have nerfed him completely, there's not been any time to show off what he can do in a better way.

I think this discussion is much larger than just Silver, though. Shadow's simply getting a ton of attention currently, arguably at the expense of/overtly so compared to other characters (afaik there was no Year of Knuckles to tie in with the second Sonic movie, for example). It makes sense because Shadow is among the most popular characters in the franchise ever, who even was more popular than Sonic for a while in the 2000s iirc, but it also means that other characters just don't get the same spotlight and can't show off what they can do as much as he can. So I don't think Sega is deliberately trying to give Shadow all the cool new powers while Silver and the others are losing theirs: I figure it can be attributed to the fact Shadow is mainlining in a game right now, so it makes sense he'll get new abilities to engage players, whereas the rest of the cast is just not so important and thus there are no opportunities for them to show off their own powers. Overall, I think Silver still has all those abilities (such as his ESP), there just hasn't been any room to show them. Perhaps someday in the future again!

[true-blue-sonic]

Blaze not having any of her own knowledge on deep relationships but still trying to help Silver out is both endearing and funny to me. And so is the idea of Silver going to her for romantic advice at all. Blaze may not fail an open book test on relationships the way I presume Silver would but I can't see her faring too much better on a standardized exam

We don't know too much about Blaze and Silver's relationship in the games, except the fact they're allegedly good friends these days? In TSR they're on great terms and Blaze is the one actually listening to Silver, and vice versa Silver opens up to her with his concerns. So I think they've got a close enough friendship that they can discuss these things more easily between the two of them compared to with other characters (since I would say there's even less clear details on Silver's relationship with most of the cast other than 'they're friends', alas). But that being said, I think Silver has a high opinion of Blaze, so he might overestimate her abilities to help him somewhat, haha. Here it does not help that Blaze is both still rather socially awkward and doesn't seem interested so much in romance, as much as the Sonic franchise dabbles into that. So she might definitely struggle to lend Silver help! She absolutely does her best, but it is indeed not something that she knows a lot about, and I figure the topic might make her flustered if pressed too much about it. Good thing for her that Silver doesn't know how to press because he has no idea about romance either XD

For the fic, I actually dove a bit into Sonic Rush and what Sonic told Blaze there: I figured it would be nice for Blaze to repeat the advice he provided, since it was so important to shape her into who she is now. So with her taught knowledge on how to act to be friendly and Silver's tenacity and positive attitude, I think they'd at least get far together. Definitely not as far as someone like Amy could go, but far! And Blaze was right in that Silver just had to be honest with Espio, because Es absolutely reciprocated the moment Silver came to him <3