#elias is just trying to find his robot boy so they can talk

[jonahfagnus]

in other news im thinking about my (very very vague) portal jonelias au again

[mobius-prime]

249. Sonic the Hedgehog #180

Oh, come on, cover page! There's no way in hell Sonic would end up as friends with Eggman! This has the same vibes as when older cover pages would try to tease something like "Has Sonic the Hedgehog actually died? Find out in today's issue how super dead he is!" Like oh, sure, of course he's dead! I totally believe you, Cover Page of a Sonic the Hedgehog Comic!

Preparations for War!

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Jason Jensen

Eggman is back to take revenge for his victory being stolen away from him last week, hoping to use his latest invention to upload a virus to Nicole's systems to take her out and leave New Mobotropolis vulnerable. Sonic, however, isn't even totally interested in fighting Eggman, as there's something more pressing to worry about right now.

Inside the castle, the Council of Acorn is having their first meeting to hear Dimitri's testimony about the danger of Enerjak. By the way, it's worthwhile to list off who's on the council: Elias of course, then Uncle Chuck, Rotor, Rosemary, and to round it off, Hamlin, Penelope, and Dylan! Nice to see these guys again, it's been a long time! No sign of Arlo, unfortunately, but he was the only one out of these four to end up injured outside of battle, so we can assume he had to retire and go back to being a civilian. Anyway, Dimitri tells the story of his initial transformation into Enerjak and how he was eventually stripped of his powers, a story which to his credit he tells frankly and with no attempts made to minimize what a power-hungry tyrant he was. He then admits that once his cybernetics started to fail after Knuckles' sacrifice to save him from Mogul, he in desperation went to Finitevus in the hopes of continuing to hold onto his life and regain his former power. However, when he realized that Finitevus betrayed him and was looking for a different candidate to become Enerjak, he came straight to New Mobotropolis, hoping they'd be able to put up a sufficient fight against this ancient and evil force. Sally, who's standing down on the floor to help hear Dimitri's testimony, immediately offers to mobilize the Freedom Fighters to go to Angel Island, but the council vetoes this in favor of keeping their own city safe first. Dimitri then suggests the Chaotix since Angel Island is their home, but the council still seems reluctant - and Charmy, who's been listening to the proceedings the entire time from within an air vent, reports all this back to Julie-Su, who adorably is using her cybernetic dreadlock as some kind of communication device.

Outside the city, Sonic has finished relaying what he knows of Enerjak to Eggman, who true to form is mostly concerned with the idea of someone else finishing off the Freedom Fighters before he himself can get to them. An exasperated Sonic offers Eggman a temporary truce - to work together to defeat Enerjak as a greater threat before going back to being at each other's throats. Eggman decides to agree in the creepiest and least-trustworthy tone possible, which of course makes Sonic leery.

Sonic is somewhat disgusted with himself for even agreeing to form an alliance with Eggman in the first place, but with that problem out of the way, he begins to rush back into the city to let everyone know of the new situation. However, Nicole pops up to warn him that the Chaotix are currently busting some heads at the airfield looking to jack a plane to Angel Island, so he runs over there to do some damage control. Meanwhile on Angel Island, Fiona (sporting a new black leather look) and Scourge call Finitevus with an update on the situation between the island's various factions. The dingoes, still led by General Kage, are making a move on the last of the echidnas, while the Flame and Frost Legions of the Dark Legion have called a truce between themselves to go after Finitevus, feeling he's a bigger threat to their plans. Finitevus thanks them for the update and tells them they can basically do whatever they want from here on as he doesn't need any more info, so Scourge dutifully sits his butt right down against a tree to "enjoy the show" while Fiona becomes frustrated that he's not taking this seriously, as she thinks Finitevus is way too creepy to trust. Maybe should have considered the kind of company your new boy-toy is keeping before running off with him, huh, Fiona? Back in New Mobotropolis, Sonic does his best to subdue the Chaotix without actually hurting any of them, while trying to convince them that they need a plan before they rush to Angel Island. Wow, if Sonic thinks you're rushing a little too quickly into things, you know it's serious. However, Julie-Su doesn't feel his opposing them is justified.

At this moment Sally shows up to talk to them all, agreeing that running off to Angel Island without a plan is a bad idea and informing them that Nicole's sent a probe there to gather information. Julie-Su becomes hostile and angry, certain that Knuckles has already been captured or worse by Enerjak and that waiting for info from a probe isn't going to help, but Sally isn't finished speaking.

Well there ya go, Julie-Su! See where a little waiting gets you? However, things are a bit worse than they perhaps realize - as Scourge and Fiona suddenly find themselves with a front-row seat to Enerjak returning in a blast of golden light - but if it isn't Dimitri in that golden armor, then who is it…?

Sonic Rush Adventure (High Stakes on the High Sea)

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Stingray GW

Welcome to yet another one of those "we're gonna tease this upcoming game and make a version of it canon within the comics but not actually adapt the entire game into comic form leaving people who haven't played the game totally lost" stories! This time, we're looking at the very beginning of Sonic Rush Adventure, starting off with Sonic and Tails waking up feeling woozy after a storm caused the Tornado to crash onto a beach. Out of nowhere, a small raccoon zips up and immediately tries to recruit them as her "swabbies" so that they can all sail and explore the high seas. Literally, this happens within half a page, this girl ain't messing around. Sonic and Tails are understandably baffled and get her to slow down long enough to explain what she's going on about, so she introduces herself as Marine and tells them that they've landed on Seagull Island, and that there's a band of roving pirates that's been looting this island in search of treasure, something that actually gets the two Freedom Fighters' attention.

Who is the individual that's stolen this giant pretty gem? Why, Johnny the Robot Pirate Shark, duh! Apparently he's some… speedy guy or something, blah blah blah, look at this point we know that Sonic's designated rivals tend to always be Fast Guys with a penchant for proving that they're faster than Sonic, and clearly this Johnny is just the next in a long line of other speedsters looking for a challenge. Naturally, Sonic is ready to go to battle for the Chaos Emerald (hey, how did it get out of Feist's clutches within the Special Zone, anyhow?), and… the end?! Come on, I know these little adaptions are always incomplete, but they didn't even show Blaze! She's literally one of the main characters of the game! I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, though. Sonic Rush Adventure has always baffled me because every single promotional description I've ever seen for the game makes it seem like some random action romp where Sonic does nothing but fight pirates, instead of an actual sequel to the first Rush game where Blaze is an integral part of the plot. The good news is that I think this is the last one of these weird non-adaptions, as far as I can remember at least - from here on they're replaced with the "In Another Time, In Another Place" stories, which we're not gonna bother covering due to their non-canon status.

[blyanten]

THE DUCK AVENGER PK2: #14 THE LAST HUNT

This is a good one! Issue opens with the description of a cat hunting for its bowl of milk. Turns out Lyo is feeding all the stray cats. The Avenger appears, and Lyo is glad he’s back after being missing for two days. The crazy AI from the previous issue claimed it had only been one, so this is either a tiny continuity fail, or Lyo and the AI is counting the hours slightly differently.

The Avenger goes to the roof to get some air, then he plans on heading home. There’s another cat on the roof, and for a second the Avenger wonders what it would be like to see through their eyes. He might see what Everett and Juniper is up to, or maybe find Korinna… but he’s a duck and he has to go to work.

At work, Fitzroy gets on Donald’s case by telling him that he’s late by two days. Donald informs him he’s already talked to the boss, AKA the man that matters, AKA not Fitzroy. Fitzroy claims it’s only a matter of time, especially with Tempest out of the running.

If you’re gonna trap yourself on a roof, get a big one.

Tempest has been overworking herself, getting nervous and fighting with her colleagues, boss included. Bad move, that, as anyone with a job can tell you.

In the security room, Fitzroy decides it’s time to do some spying. 

How this guy gets to work security is beyond me.

On the roof, Tempest hands Donald a delivery note from a catering agency. The agency is a familiar one that often gets supplies from Duckmall.

Tempest flashes back to a few nights ago, when she was talking to one of the guys from the agency, who was bragging about all the important people he met in his job. Cool, huh, babe?

She’s unimpressed, but when the guy mentions that they’re currently working for the multinational corporation Criospher, she gets interested. She asks if he’s ever talked to Ed Morando, the owner of the company, but catering guy says no. Morando has an errand boy deal with them, some guy named “Fog”.

This is nice. She’s having an very emotional moment on the edge of a roof and he’s joking. Can’t really do that with a stranger, you don’t know how they’ll react.

Donald naturally has no clue who that is, but Tempest is feeling more talkative now, so she keeps going. It’s very obvious this has been eating away at her for probably at lot longer than the last few days, the recent events just seems to have brought it to the surface.

Years ago, she signed up to join Seaducks, a private paramilitary force that often acted on behalf of the government.

Bullshit.

One of the people in charge of her training was a man named Elias Fog.

Donald interrupts to make sure it’s the same guy, and Tempest tells him to shut it, this isn’t some movie flashback.

As part of her training, she’d have to pass an operational exam, and Fog decided to team her up with Stevros The Cat, who specialized in incursions and was the best. Man was a loner, and Tempest got the job of making sure he got in and out of the places he needed to go.

Younger, enthusiastic Tempest is cute though. 

After a while the became friends, and Stevros told her he wanted to go back to Greece someday. After his contract was up, I’m guessing.

Of course, this ended badly. When Tempest finally got to the night of her operational exam, they were going to penetrate the research center of Criospher Industries. Ed Morando might be an arms-dealer, and the need to confirm or deny that he’s making weapons in that research center.

This went to hell rather quickly, as something interfered with their communication, and Tempest was attacked in her surveillance van, while Stevros… well, there was a big explosion and he hasn’t been seen since.

Tempest was found miles away the next day and was blamed for what happened. She walked before they could kick her out, and now, now Fog turns out to be Morando’s new best friend, and Tempest is freaking out, with no clue what she should do or what she can do. A single signature is worth very little against that sort of people.

Donald tells her the first thing she should do is get some sleep, and Tempest, coming down from that emotional high, agrees.

Fitzroy, having recorded everything, thinks he can find a use for that story.

Later that night, the Avenger goes on a mission to the catering agency, and we get a pretty funny description of him, done the same way the description of the cat was done earlier. The Avenger’s is much less impressive.

He doesn’t find much, until the people who work there conveniently arrives, and lets him follow them and their truck straight to Fog. After an hour, the Avenger is starting to wonder if the catering guy knows where he’s going, but decides to keep following him anyway. He needs to confirm Tempest’s story. In fact, he was in such a hurry to do that, he ended up bringing the Star Corp uniform along.

The finally arrive at what is essentially a small fortress, a large house surrounded by forest with a big wall surrounding that again. Fog steps out to welcome the truck, along with people with guns. Someone’s feeling paranoid, and the Avenger decides to park the Duckmobile in the treetops and hope nobody notices.

Someone does notice, and a single eye opens, hidden in a tree.

The Avenger realizes that using the shield will make to much noise, and uses the Star Corp uniform to make a rope, climbing down form the car to the trees. He jumps from there to the roof of the house and goes unnoticed, except for the tree-eye, which turns out to be a floating metal eye.

The more I look at this, the more grossed out I get. It looks like it has eyelids! Which might be useful for cleaning the camera lens, but ewww.

At the roof, the Avenger takes a look in through the attic window, and finds an operation center, but with no operators. He also sees himself on one screen, from the back.

At least they’re sticking to the theme.

The floating eyes don’t set off any alarms, which makes alarms go off for the Avenger. It’s like they’re keeping him in place until…

Judging by what he did to the roof, he should just have landed on the Avenger. Squish, no more Avenger.

The robot cat, who is definitely Stervros, that’s not even open for debate at any point, just stands there staring, until the Avenger summons the shield. Then kitty uses its shoulder canons to shoot him. The Avenger blocks with the shield, then runs.

On the ground, Fog tells his men to hold back. He can tell from the sound of the shots that the predator is hunting.

The Avenger makes straight for the Duckmobile, barely avoiding the cat’s literal claws, but the Star Corp uniform is torn as it was still hanging there on the outside of the Duckmobile since he used it as a rope.

Surely that won’t be a problem, unless of course the part the cat tore of was the one with the Star Corp logo on it.

Oh, come on, you have cameras if you need evidence. That’s taking the cat theme a bit too far. 

Fog has a minion bring him a list of names of everyone who works for Star Corp, and predictably finds Tempest’s name. Since she’s the one with an actual reason (that he knows if) to come after him, Tempest doesn’t show up for work the next day.

I feel sorry for Bloom sometimes. Donald is generally a good worker, but might up and vanish for days, Fitzroy shows up, but is an untrustworthy dick, Rupert spends hours sighing over Stella, and now Tempest has apparently lost it too.

This morning, Bloom can’t find Tempest, Donald has ruined his uniform and Fitzroy is trying to be sneaky about sharing something with him. Bloom tells him he doesn’t care, so Fitzroy tries to use the recording he made of Tempest to make Donald withdraw from the race to become to new boss.

Donald, unimpressed, steals the tape, hides it in his hat, mocks him, and shoves Fitzroy away by literally sticking his foot in his face.  He won’t use his skills over chips, but for a friend?  No hesitation.

Though considering that his hat is soft fabric, I have no idea how a double bottom is going to help anything, since a cassette is big and you can easily feel that by grabbing the hat. Assuming someone gets their hand on the hat, which is a whole job on its own.

Unfortunately, Fitzroy doesn’t seem too upset by this.

Bloom tells Donald that, since he’s ruined his uniform and his partner isn’t at work, Bloom will take over for him, and Donald will go and check on Tempest.

So Donald finds himself at the docks, and confused about where Tempest lives. There’s only boats there!

I’ve been told that, assuming you somehow gets your hands on a boat, this is actually a pretty cheap way to live. No idea if it’s true.

Tempest’s neighbor tells Donald she does live there, but that he wishes he hadn’t sold her to boat. She always makes so much noise, like the incredibly loud screaming last night.

And this is why bystanders aren’t to be relied upon. 

Inside, the boat is pretty much turned upside down. Like it was ransacked, or as if there’s been one hell of a fight.

Donald goes directly to Century and changes into the Avenger costume, telling Lyo only a small army could take down Tempest, and that it has to be Fog. He tries to find something useful equipment that Astrongman left behind, and Lyo takes him to the secret room behind the library, where the good stuff is.

Or he would, if he could remember how to get in there. Good thing he marked the key to open it with “secret passage”. They find some broken stuff, and the Avenger asks Lyo for a favor.

At his mansion, Ed Morando is entertaining guests.

Or as he likes to call them, potential buyers. He has a new weapon to show them, a revolutionary prototype: The Predator.

Obvious joke is obvious.

I like that he seems to still have duck feet, despite everything. It’s a nice detail, considering who he really is.

The predator has two flying eyes, is 80% bionic and masters 16 types of unconventional weapons.

The prey has traditional weapons, good training and can’t escape.

The most dangerous game is on.

Tempest recognizes some elements of the set up from her Seaduck exercises, and decides to get out of there as quickly as possible.

Morando and his buyers are all watching from the party room, while Morando cheerfully explains that after Tempest is dead, they’ll get to buy the tech and also the cat.

In the attic, the operators are complaining that they don’t have anything to do, except watch and listen to Tempest get murdered. The Avenger arrives and knocks them out, and starts looking for a way to actually find Tempest. The estate is too big to just go looking.

Fog arrives, helpfully directing him to a small screen where a satellite follows their every move.

“In weapons and bones” is a very cool line. Also, the guy on the right looks like a plague doctor.

Outside, Tempest is now dodging weapons fire. Morando quickly explains to the buyers that the cat is just playing with her, she’ll be dead soon.

Upstairs, the Avenger uses the equipment he got from Astrongman’s storage to bluff Fog into standing down by threatening to blow them all up. And Fog thinks he tricked the Avenger in to thinking he’s standing down, while the Avenger is well aware of the snipers positioning themselves on the roof.

The Avenger decides to start at the beginning, with Stevros. Fog happily explains that Stevros is busy pursuing Tempest as they speak.

Turns out that the explosion Tempest saw years ago when it all went to hell was caused by Stevros, who was trying to void capture. Obviously, he failed, and was transformed into the bionic cat now hunting Tempest. Of course, in order to make Stevros actually work for them, they needed to get inside his head, and used Tempest to do that, convincing him that she had betrayed him.

After the sheer trauma of nearly dying, and then being forcefully transformed into something that’s mostly a robot, this was still surprisingly difficult, but after years of trying, Fog succeeded.

This is probably the worst thing a normal human has done in this series. They just took him apart and rebuilt him and then went out of their way to break him. 

And now, even if Tempest figures things out and try to explain, Stevros is in no place to actually understand it.

Fog asks if the Avenger wants to ask why he did it, or should he just show him his paycheck?

The Avenger says no thanks, and throws Astrongman’s not-bomb on the floor, then shoots it to make it blow up anyway.

Downstairs, all the illegal arms-dealers freak out, thinking the police has arrived.  You’d think professional arms-dealers would have cooler heads, but no.

Tempest, meanwhile, has gathered her wits, and is preparing to fight.

Lots of cool visuals in this one.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t know what she’s up against.

I love this page. First panel: Tempest running. She looks serious, and her pose makes her look really solid. Panel two: Realization, but more “there you are” than “Oh shit”. Panel three and four: She shoots while turning around and hits a moving target about the size of a head. Damn. Also, oh shit. 

Panel five: The cat hovering over her like a monster from a horror movie and Tempest looking tiny in comparison, and she’s clearly scared now, but the focus isn’t really on her fear, it’s on the sheer difference between them. Size, weapons... Tempest was never meant to win this, and it shows. Which also highlights how cool it is that she’s lasted this long.

And it’s also fucking tragic, because Stevros isn’t the monster here, it’s all based on lies and he’s seconds away from doing something he’d regret forever if he knew.

The cat knocks her down, but it seems like Morando was almost right, though this isn’t about playing with his prey, as he hesitates long enough for Tempest to ask why he’s attacking her. Stevros then puts on his old Seaducks hat, letting Tempest know who he is, and from his perspective, explaining why he’s trying to kill her.

At the mansion, the Avenger has barricaded himself in the operations center. Fog tells someone to get a bazooka so they can get in, but the Avenger can’t worry about that now. Tempest is about to die and he needs to do something.

Then he remembers. The two operators from earlier mentioned something about having audio-video contact with the predator, and the Avenger has an ace in his hat.

Another page I really like. This seems like a point where someone might have added images of Tempest’s flashback, which would be fine. But instead the smalles “screens” are of Tempest telling the story, and how she’s reacting to both what happened back then and also how she’s reacting to Fog being in league with Morando. I get the impression that while the story she’s telling is important when it comes to convincing Stevros, so is how strongly she reacted to it, especially the new details about Fog and Morando.

Getting Tempest’s side of the story directly into his brain, the cat stops. He brushes her hair aside, and then leaves.

Back at the house, Fog has managed to break into the operations center, but the Avenger is gone. Morando is also there, losing it as someone seems to have called the PBI, and they’re bursting into the estate, finding all kinds of interesting, highly illegal things.

One of the cat’s mechanical eyes float in and focus on Morando and Fog. Morando keeps panicking, but Fog calmly accepts that Stevros knows what really happened and has picked a new, more deserving prey.

Well, can’t say he’s not reacting like a pro.

Lyo asks if that was it, but the Avenger explains that Fog and Morando surrendered to the PBI to escape Stevros. Lyo notes that the anonymous call the Avenger asked him to make was helpful, and the Avenger agrees. Certainly for Fog and Morando. Fog was so sure Stevros wouldn’t listen to the truth, and yet. Lyo says that some bad guys just don’t get human nature.

Speaking of bad guys, at Duckmall, Fitzroy just finished showing the copy of the recording he made of Tempest to Bloom, who sees right through his bullshit. Bloom also has the same rosy view of the Seaducks as Tempest does, telling Fitzroy that if Tempest was good enough for them to consider hiring, then she’s certainly good enough to have Bloom’s job.

The Avenger is back on the roof, talking to the cat from the beginning of the issue. He’s got the same questions as before, what are the Ducklairs doing, but now he’s also got a new one. Where did Stevros go?

Hopefully, he found a way back home.

Yeah, we all do. 

I normally think that these issues are exactly as long as they need to be, but I’d love for this one to have been a double or something, so we could include Stevros viewpoint and more about Tempest friendship with him. 

I do like the kind of ambigous ending. Is Stevros fine now? Mentally, obviously, physically, he’ll never be the same. Will he be okay when he gets home? What is he going to do then?

Same with Tempest. She’ll be fine, but if this were to get a follow up of some kind, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be another thing that kept gnawing on her, or that it’d be revealed she’d been trying to find him again.

[entamewitchlulu]

Homura’s Flash Reviews [Winter Season - First Impressions Edition]

so for the first time in my life, I’m watching seasonal anime as they air.  Mostly it’s because TeamFourStar are doing a show called Anime FMK, where viewers vote on the shows they watch each season and they talk about them, with the opportunity to “fuck” or “kill” each anime each week.  Up to one anime per week can be killed permanently, or removed from the watchlist for the rest of the season, if it gets two or more kills from the three panelists (please check out FourStarBento, the show is honestly excellent and their discussions are amazing to listen to)

Anyway, I watched their first ever season in the fall and I hadn’t watched a single show and didn’t know what they were talking about despite still enjoying their discussions.  So this season, I’ve decided to at least get a taste of every anime they’re watching, though I will get to kill it immediately for myself if I don’t like it.

Without further ado, here’s my First Impressions of this season’s Anime FMK shows, along with my “Love At First Sight/Kill At First Sight” rating.

Ancient Magus Bride

Depressed and alone, Chise decides her only recourse is to sell herself into slavery, as she is a coveted entity known as a Sleigh Beggy, humans who produce endless amounts of magic.  She is bought by the strange mage Elias, who understands little of humanity and human emotions.  Despite their strange relationship, Chise finds a strange new home among Elias and the rest of his household, finding her own strength and will to live in the process.

With beautiful visuals, incredible world building, haunting soundtracks, endearing characters, and a marvelous examination of a less than ordinary (or even desirable) relationship, this show is probably easily one of the strongest from the fall season, and I am SO looking forward to continuing it after having caught up last season!!

Love At First Sight, will def watch this one to the end.

Hakyu Hoshin Engi

What is this one even about?  I guess some…demon slaying kid who got his family slayed by demons is going to go slay a whole list of demons so that he can defeat the demon empress.

Anyway I quit halfway into episode 1.  The character designs are DISGUSTING and have no sense of good, clean designs, opting instead to clutter everyone up with a billion things, the story was rushed and they had to spell everything out for you, and the only female apparent in the show is the Evil Seductress Demon, I guess.  Put this one back in the early 90s where it belongs.

Kill At First Sight

Junji Ito Collection

HAHAHAHAHA YEA RIGHT I’M NOT STUPID ENOUGH TO PUT MYSELF THROUGH THIS I WOULD NEVER SLEEP AGAIN

I DIDN’T EVEN WATCH A SINGLE EPISODE SORRY GENTS

Kill Before First Sight

Kokkoku

Juri is the only member of her family who’s really trying to make something of herself, with her brother being a NEET and her father recently laid off.  But when her brother and nephew are kidnapped, her grandfather activates a magical time stopping artifact to go save them, dragging them into the attention of some kind of occult cult.

have only gotten through one episode of this one, but I’m very intrigued; this is an eerie, creepy sort of anime with probably some good family stuff coming up later, so I’ll keep with it for now.

Tentative love

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens

Set in a city where three percent of the population are professional hitmen, a private detective investigates a mayor’s corruption with the hitman who was hired to kill him, but instead decided to protect him.

Ehhh from one episode, I’m not really feeling it?  I’ll watch a bit more, but idk.  They threw a FUCK ton of characters at you in episode one, and tbh the show feels a little like Durarara, which did the same thing, and I didn’t finish that one.  I was more interested when I thought that the main character was a woman, but no, turns out it’s a cross dressing man, which is...interesting, I guess.  So far they haven’t made a man in a dress joke so I’m tentatively on board with it.

But other than that, it’s a ridiculously bloated cast, a gritty setting, already quite a bit of violence against women, and I’m not really sure what the Point is.

Tentative continue

citrus

LOL YEA RIGHT LIKE I’M ABOUT TO WATCH THIS GARBAGE I CAN’T WAIT FOR TFS TO KILL THIS ONE

Kill Before First Sight

Hakumei to Mikochi: Tiny Life in the Woods

A charming slice of life about Mikochi and Hakumei, two young women who are only 3.5 inches tall, living in a tiny world with other tiny people and regular sized, talking animals, and a society populated with the most endearing and lovely magical elements.

This show!!!!! Is Pure and Wholesome!!!!!!!

Hakumei and Mikochi are like This Married, and even besides that, it’s literally just The Best show to kick back and relax to.  There’s barely any conflict, and any conflict that does arise is solved within half an episode, as each episode contains two short stories about the idyllic life of these two lovely young ladies in the woods.

Love At First Sight, will continue this one to the end!

Killing Bites

I guess this one is about a world where rich people bet on blood matches between animal people, which sounds fascinating in concept but in practice…..nah

I noped out halfway through episode one, despite some interesting animation and fight choreography, there’s was a graphic attempted sexual assault scene in the first two minutes (VERY graphic, even though the perps get murdered violently in the next couple of minutes it made me Very Uncomfortable).  Male animal people get full on animal transformations, but the girls only change enough to keep their faces cute and their boobs visible.  It’s very much straight up fap material, which if that floats your boat, whatever, i guess, but I’ll be skipping this one this season.

Kill At First Sight

Darling in the FranXX

A mech anime that’s sorta like Pacific Rim if Pacfic Rim was an ecchi.  That’s about all I’ve got to say on the summary.  There’s something about robot dinosaurs and a girl who has their blood in her who can’t keep a drift compatible partner before her very nature causes them to die in the cockpit, but I forget.

Honestly, this is the one that disappointed me the most.  The animation is fucking incredible, the character design is God Tier, and the presentation is literally one of the best I’ve ever seen in an anime.  The mood, tone, and atmosphere are all done amazingly, and every character, despite having very little on screen time, feels unique.  I found the girl with the robot dinosaur blood incredibly fascinating and endearing, and the main male character was actually a very soft boi that I was enjoying.  Something about this show was very, very entrancing and I kept finding myself becoming super engaged in it during episodes one and two.

But every time my engagement was high, I’d be knocked out of it violently by some ridiculous fanservice.  Main Boy picks up Main Girl’s underwear for some reason by accident, Main Girl is straight up naked in their first encounter (to be honest, I actually wasn’t too upset with this part, I thought it was done artistically if that makes sense? but what all comes after it kind of detracted from that).  And then the partner ship piloting?  The girl is standing in a bent over, very suggestive position with the boy right behind her, and the boy’s piloting handles protrude from the girls’ butts.  And not to mention all the off color jokes they made about such positioning in the show itself.

After that, I put it down, but I’m actually really disappointed, because what atmosphere and mood I did enjoy from the show was incredibly well done.  This could have been an excellent show.  I feel like it might be something I attempt again sometime, because I do like Studio Trigger’s works and there was some grain of goodness in it that made me want to keep watching, but for now, I’m leaving it to focus on the other shows on the list.

Kill, but it’s reluctant

Pop Team Epic

The only way to describe this show is meme culture incarnate; it’s based on a 4 panel manga and it’s just…..WEIRD.

But it’s a GOOD WEIRD and oh my god, this show is the fucking best; this show is going to save all of anime forever.  I love the kawaii artstyle, I love both Pipimi and Popuko (and their gay shit), I love the fucking OFF THE WALL shitpost humor.  

Honestly the only thing I don’t really like is the Bob Team Epic segments, mostly just cause I’m very sensitive about weird art styles and the art style makes me uncomfyyy haha.  Other than that!!! EXCELLENT show and I’m looking forward to continuing.

Love At First Sight

A Place Further Than the Universe

Mari Tamaki always chickens out when she tries to do something different with her life, but she’s determined to make her second year of high school different! When she meets Shirase, the daughter of an Antarctic scientist who went missing on an expedition, she ends up joining Shirase’s quest to get to Antarctica!

Oh god this show is literally the fucking cutest????  All of these kids are so sweet and determined and I’m super invested in their quest from just the first episode!  It’s super charming in both writing and animation, and I can’t wait to see what happens when they finally make it to Antarctica!!!

Love At First Sight

[nothesc]

@ultrachaoticsymmetry said:  “ A prompt:  Balloon squad witnesses Noora joking again, how Sana is so lucky. "Sana can just marry a nice muslim boy and avoid all the hard stuff like crushing on someone, falling in love and having her heart broken". How do the boys react? I'm specially interested what Elias and Yousef will say/do, naturally :). “

-x-

Well here it is. I really hope you like it.

Like I told you, I’ve set it at the time of the last clip, like if I was rewriting what happened. So the fight never happened and the kiss (the hideous kiss) never happened either. I started after Noora tells Sana about William. Also I’ve focused on Yousef and Elias because it was what made sense to me. I hope you don’t mind. 

I really realy hope you like it and that you don’t hate me for changing it a little bit

Thank you for trusting me with your idea

-------------------------------------x------------------------------------------------------------

“William has a new girlfriend”

Sana stayed quiet for a moment. How was she supposed to tell Noora that she already knew that? Maybe if she didn’t say anything…

“You knew that?” Noora asked noticing Sana’s silence.

Again, Sana didn’t know what to say.

“You knew that?” Noora repeated

“I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you but…”

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me” The blonde girl said

“I’m sorry, we all wanted to tell you but we didn’t want to hurt you…we thought he was the one that needed to tell you…”

Noora thought for a moment. As angry as she was in that moment at her friends for not telling her, she could understand it. She had been in that same situation last year when she found out that Jonas was dating someone and she hadn’t told Eva because she felt like Jonas was the one that needed to tell her.

“It’s okay…” she sighed “I get it…It just…hurts”

“I know, come here” Sana said hugging her friend

“I feel so stupid right now, you know?” Noora said almost crying.

“You’re not stupid Noora, he is. You’re better than him and if he can’t see that then it’s his loss, okay?” Sana said pulling away from the hug and making her friend look at her.

“Thank you” Noora said

“Now, you can stand there and talk shit about him all you want, I’ll be here to listen” Sana said

“I’d really love that” Noora laughed.

“Start then” she said nodding.

“Well…I…” Noora started but was interrupted by two intruders.

“Hey, girls!” Elias said approaching them with a smile

Next to him there was Yousef adjusting his snapback self-consciously. Sana looked at him and he smiled instantly making her heart jump.

“Elias, we are talking” Sana told her brother

“It’s okay Sana, they can stay” Noora said smiling at the boys.

“See, sis? The girl wants us here” Elias teased his sister

“Whatever” Sana said rolling her eyes

“We can leave if you want to talk” Yousef offered

“It’s fine. I was complaining about my ex-boyfriend” Noora said.

“Interesting, continue” Elias said nodding

“I just found out he has a new girlfriend and well, Sana was comforting me like the great friend she is”

“Good, old, Sana” Elias said putting an arm around his sister but she pulled away from his embrace quickly rolling her eyes

“You’re always there for everyone, aren’t you?” Yousef asked with a smile

Sana just shrugged and blushed.

“Anyway, let’s talk about something else. I don’t want to keep digging in my heartbreak.” Noora said, then she added looking at Sana “Maybe I should start to consider the Islam idea again”

Sana’s answer was only a forced smile, she didn’t like that topic and especially not in front of her brother.

“What idea?” Yousef asked confused

“Oh, I was telling Sana the other day how lucky she is because she doesn’t have to worry about heartbreak and that maybe I should become muslim too to avoid it” Noora said chuckling.

“Wow, ignorant, much?” Elias asked raising his eyebrows

“Elias…” Sana warned him, she didn’t want to start a fight.

“You seriously are not going to say anything about that comment?” he asked her confused, his sister would always call out everyone on their bullshit.

“I’m sorry, have I said something wrong?” Noora asked confused

“You really think that because she’s muslim she doesn’t suffer?” Yousef asked bitterly

“Yeah, like what do you think she is? A robot? She has feelings just like everybody else” Elias added

“Oh, that wasn’t what I meant. I was just saying that you know since she’s not really into the dating thing she doesn’t have to go through crushes and heartbreaks. I was only joking, like maybe I could be muslim too and find a good muslim boy for me and avoid all the suffering.” Noora tried to explain herself.

Yousef closed his eyes in disbelief and shook his head lightly.

“It’s okay, Noora, I get it” Sana said hoping that her brother would just drop the topic

“It’s not okay” but of course, he didn’t “Do you really think it’s that easy? Just go find a good muslim boy and she doesn’t have to suffer at all. Seriously? What if she falls in love with a bad guy, even if he’s muslim? What if she doesn’t fall in love at all? Or, what if she falls in love with a non-muslim guy?” Unconsciously, Elias pointed at Yousef with his hands in the last question. The conversation he had had the previous day about his sister liking his best friend was still in the back of his head.

“Elias!!” Sana yelled at him noticing what he had done.

Yousef, who had also seen Elias’ hands pointing at him, looked from Sana to his friend and back to Sana trying to find an explanation.

The scream made Elias look at his sister and then at his hands, realizing that he was in fact, still pointing at Yousef. He quickly dropped his arms by his sides and widened his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Sana I…” Elias started but was interrupted by Noora, who was oblivious to the whole thing

“Sana, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you with my comment. Of course I know you have feelings and that you can also suffer. I was just joking but it was definitely a bad and ignorant joke. I’m sorry” Noora said

“It’s okay…I just…I need some air” Sana said leaving the club without looking at anyone.

“Sana…” Noora called her and was about to follow her but Elias stopped her.

“I think she wants to be alone now” Elias told her

“I’m sorry, Elias. I really am, it wasn’t my intention to hurt anybody”

“I know, and I’m sorry too for getting that angry. It just pisses me off when people assume things about us” he apologized

“It’s okay, I totally understand it, I just…” she stopped when she noticed that someone else was missing “Where’s Yousef?”

Elias looked around and saw him going outside the club.

“Hopefully, where I want him to be”

Noora looked at him confused not knowing what he meant with that

“It’s okay. Why don’t we start over? Let’s sit and talk about love. It seems like you need some lessons” he said

“And you’re going to teach me?” she asked raising her eyebrows

“I’m an expert in love” he said winking at her “come on”

She laughed and followed him to the back of the club where the couches were.

  She was sitting on a bench outside the club. She was trying to calm herself but so far it wasn’t working. How stupid could Elias be? He basically told Yousef that she liked him. Well, maybe he hadn’t told him but he pointed at him suggesting that she was in love with a non-muslim. She rolled her eyes and shook her head remembering it.

Maybe Yousef hadn’t realized it though, maybe he hadn’t noticed how Elias was pointing at him, maybe he wouldn’t think anything of it, maybe…

“Hi”

She looked up and there he was, standing in front of her, hands in his pockets and his permanent smile on his lips.

“Hi” she said

“Are you okay?” he asked

“Yeah, just wanted to take some fresh air”

“Can I sit?” he asked

She just nodded without looking at him. Sana felt him sitting next to her, leaving enough space between them so they wouldn’t touch each other.

“Are you sure you’re okay? That comment was so out of order”

“It’s okay, I’m used to it by now” she said shrugging like it wasn���t a big deal

“Do you have to deal with comments like that often?”

“Yup”

“And you don’t say anything about it? I mean, you have a right to fight back”

“You know, I used to fight back. Last year every time someone would say something ignorant I would call them out but lately…I’m just tired, you know? Like it reaches a point when you are just tired of fighting back…”

“It shouldn’t be like that” he whispered

“But it is…”

They both stayed quiet for a moment until Yousef broke the silence

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure…” she said afraid of where the conversation could go

“What Elias said back there, about you falling in love with a non-muslim…do you think that could work?” he looked at her biting his lip nervously.

Sana looked back at him and thought about her answer for a moment. She smiled and stood up.

“I don’t know…I’ll tell you if that ever happens to me” she said shrugging and turning around to leave.

She started to walk away but then stopped, considering whether she should ask the question she had in mind or not. She turned around and looked at him. The look in his eyes was all she needed to take the plunge and ask him

“What about you? Do you think you could ever fall in love with a muslim girl?”

A smiles spread on his face as he stood up and walked towards her stopping far enough to respect her personal space but close enough to make sure she would pay attention to his next words

“Maybe I already have”

A smile as wide as his appeared on Sana’s face, showing her dimples. They both stood there, looking at each other and smiling, knowing that no more words were needed in that moment to understand what was going on between them.

---------x----------

So this is it, as you can see I’ve added some yousana because well, I can’t help myself. 

I really hope you’ve liked it

Please know that I’m not trying to demonize Noora, just following the prompt and also I hope you don’t think this fic is disrespectful in any way

Thank you so much for reading!!

[rachelbethhines]

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 137

“Line of Succession Part 2″ - Line of Succession II - Sonic the Hedgehog #156

I’m back! 

Been real busy as of late and things are about to get even busier for me so I might have to reschedule what days I post the reviews on. Though for now, I had a real tough time with this particular issue. I feel like I covered most of the points I wanted to talk about in the last review and I didn’t really want to repeat myself so here are the edited highlights. 

Antoine and Sally go through with the wedding ceremony while Sonic runs off to see a “mysterious” person about helping him stop it. This person chooses not to help and Sonic rushes back to find out he’s too late. 

I want you to remember this line right here viewers because I’m going to come back to it at the end. 

He crashes the reception and “Antoine” has him thrown out and we see just how whipped Sally has become. 

I’ve defended Sally’s actions or lack there of in the past mainly because of her father’s involvement. Bowing to the wishes of you’re abusive dad is one thing, blindly following the orders of a childhood friend is entirely another. Marriage or no, Sally wouldn’t just sit and do nothing while “Antoine” bossed everyone around instead. The only explanation I can come up with is that she’s regressing into depression again. Something she struggled with back when Sonic was lost in space. She’s both mentally and emotionally “shut down” so to speak.         

But what of the “mysterious stranger” Sonic spoke to? 

I’m more interested in the how more then the why honestly. Sonic has super speed, that’s how he got back in time for the reception, yet Elias makes it back in time for the reception as well despite taking the the time to have a serious talk with his wife and riding back on “horse back” (or what ever Penders calls those things). He was literally only ten minutes behind Sonic, meaning he must have changed his mind pretty damn fast.  

Though it’s interesting to hear that Elias’s motivation for taking back the throne is because he doesn’t trust Antoine. Remember no-one knows that it’s really Patch in disguise yet, and at this point Elias only knows Twan as a Freedom Fighter and Sally’s friend.So really there’s no real reason for Elias’s suspicion and even Sonic is taken aback by this assumption. But oh how Elias will reverse this opinion once he get to know the real Antoine. But that’s much later folks. 

However this exchange causes Sonic to start questioning “Antoine” and his motivations. 

 And once again Patch just proves how competent he is a villain because even with this upset in his plans he still never drops his facade. Sonic still can’t quite believe Elias’s assumptions. In fact the only time Patch screws up is when he gets too impatient. 

I’m not entirely sure what Patch’s line of thinking is suppose to be here. First, it takes more then one dose of that poison to kill a person. Second, why try to poison him in front of everyone? Why not just wait until a more opportune moment when you’re alone with him and set up an “accident”?  After all one of Patch’s greatest strengths as a character (and Antoine’s as well for that matter) is his perseverance. Both are persistent in their goals and patient enough to stick with it despite multiple set backs and failures. The difference between the two is how they apply that strength, Antoine to better himself and Patch to further his ambitions.  

Anyways this leads to Sonic figuring out who Patch really is. 

Boy that sure is a lot leaps in logic there, Sonic. Yeah, he is technically right but none of those points he made lead naturally to that conclusion. For starters Antoine is very much a competent fighter and has been for years; kicking both Scourge’s and Sonic’s asses on some occasions and fighting robots for heaven knows how long. He totally did have a killer instinct when thought you were Scourge and almost did you in. Though granted before his time on Anti-Mobius he wasn’t prone to violence but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that character development could be in play here. And last off, while the scar is the most tangible physical difference between the two it’s still not much in the way of evidence. No one on regular Mobius knew that Patch’s eye patch was fake and just because Bunnie didn’t know where he got the scar doesn’t mean he couldn’t be the real Antoine. 

This is why I claim Patch’s defeat as a plot contrivance. First there’s Elias’s unfounded suspicion being the catalyst rather then coming from someone who actually knows Antoine like Sally or Sonic. Second there’s that out of character lapse in judgment where Patch gets caught trying to kill Elias in front of everyone. And then Sonic figuring everything out in two minutes using flimsy deduction despite Patch fooling everyone one, even his own father, for over six months.     

It’s a pretty weak conclusion to a very potentially interesting long running development. However not all is wasted as Patch is a delight through out, Elias becomes the new ruler of the kingdom, a decision that would ultimately prove to be for the best, and we finally get the real Antoine back. 

Unfortunately, all of this good will I have for this story is nearly completely thrown out the window by Penders’ dumbass ideas involving romance. 

Not only is the Fiona/Sonic pairing poorly developed and badly established but it clashes narratively with the on going story. Remember just ten pages ago when Sonic was claiming how he should be with Sally? Remember how preventing her from marrying someone else was his enter motivation for two issues now? Remember how he kept going on and on about how Sally should have communicated with him better back in 155? Well Penders sure as fucking didn’t! 

 I mean what kind of logic involves him completely ignoring the object of his affections and forgetting his primary goal of the story, only to go out with someone else? Someone he barely fucking knows. The least he could have done was go talk to Sally. See how she was doing, maybe discuss their relationship first and the problems they’ve been having, like he’s clearly been wanting to, before going off with another girl. 

Blah! 

The second story continues Dulcy’s origin story. It’s boring and pointless. Fortunately will be moving on to some good stuff after this. See ya’ll later. 

[pocmuzings]

UNI SEMESTER IS COMING TO A CLOSE AND I AM READY FOR 1X1 AGAIN!!!

so pls find underneath, some muses- a mixture of all genders and pronouns, and hmu if u wanna plot or rp with them!!!!

MUSE A, CHARLOTTE ROWAN (dichen lachman fc): tough as nails, a fighter in an apocalyptic world, kind of like the walking dead. charlotte and her sister were separated when the world first went to shits, and now charlotte is determined to find her sister. however, she’s stuck with your character and the two find themselves not getting along but begrudgingly protecting each other from zombies and others, at all costs. a strange camaraderie, that may even turn into something more.

wanted: male muse. in early or late twenties. is a bit of a dork and loveable, and continuously tries to break past charlotte’s silent exterior. the two gain respect and friendship with each other. and then maybe something a little more, because hey- it’s the end of the world.

MUSE B, ELIAS ASFOUR (rami malek fc): a total recluse. he’s basically exactly like his character from Mr Robot, and i shipped him hard core with Shayla, so that’s the sort of relationship i’m going for. Both characters are messed up and dealing with their own problems, but they’re neighbours, and what starts as a friends with benefits to help each other cope with life in general, it begins to turn into something a lot more

wanted: female muse. early to mid twenties. an absolute sweetheart who has been dragged through the mud but still shines brighter then anything. she’s persistent in having elias in her life.

MUSE C, KI KWAN (arden cho fc): an assassin. flirty, but tough. this is based off mr and mrs smith. both characters are given the other to assassinate, but they’ve been together for a long time  and love each other deeply. they don’t know that the other one is an assassin as well.

wanted: female or male muse. late twenties. basically exactly like ki in that they’re both charming and persuasive, but also can be lethal and dangerous. but they love each other incredibly hard.

MUSE D, JESSICA BROOKS (nathalie emmanuel fc or negotiable): a single mum. an absolute sweetheart, and willing to do anything for her daughter. she’s had a bit of a rough life. a burnt cinnamon roll, who’s still trying her best. she works two jobs and is always running about, but is mainly see at the late night diner where she works, studies and eats. its basically a second home to her.

wanted: male muse. mid to late twenties. charming and sweet. he has a bad boy, rough exterior, but is the kind of guy that lets jessica’s daughter colour in his tattoos, or sit on his motorbike. he’s a secret marshmallow, and is convinced he wants to take jessica out, just to help de-stress her. he’s a frequent customer at her diner and they often bump into each other.

MUSE E, MAX HENDERSON (justin hartley fc or negotiable): CEO of a company, extremely successful and young. although it’s mainly all been inherited, people often doubt or second guess him because he seems like a ‘dumb jock’. whilst he may say foolish things, he has the right mindset and heart, but in order to stop people from doubting him- he needs a girlfriend. or... seeing as he doesn’t really have time to date, he kinda needs a sugar baby, to put it nicely.

wanted: female fc. early to mid twenties. radiant, charming, and easy to get along with. she’s struggling at uni when she finds max’s advertisement basically saying ‘if you come with me to events, talk me up, make me looks good, and give me head every now and then- i’ll pay for everything for you’. what more could there be?

MUSE F, KYLE POWLING (Herman Tømmeraas fc or any fuck boy looking fc lol): basically ruination. a complete fuck boy. a disaster and a mess, and an asshole. but somehow he has people falling for him all over the place because he knows how to be charming when he wants to be. he gets away with anything, and basically hurts everyone he touches.

wanted: female fc. late teens to early twenties. the sweet girl who obviously fell in with the big bad wolf. their relationship will be highly toxic, and kyle will be an asshole to her. they fight, fuck and break up. he does love her, he just has a lot of trouble showing it properly.

MUSE G, MIRA POLANCO (dianne guerrero fc): an exotic dancer because she needs to pay her way through college. she’s also been a bit of an airhead but she works extremely hard and is determined as anything. she often finds herself following her vagina instead of her brain tbh.

wanted: male fc. late twenties.  he frequently visits mira at her work place and watches her. the two often ogle each other, and finally one day they end up having crazy sex in the bathroom. when the new semester begins, mira realises her frequent customer, and part-time-fuck-buddy is her new professor at uni.

MUSE H, MADISON DAUGHTRY (alisha boe fc): always trying to build the ladder. hurt at a young age, madison has a very unhealthy relationship with men. madi believes being popular means she’ll finally be happy, although she is nice, and kind and caring, and loyal. she never gives up on people, which will be her downfall.

wanted: male fc. late teens to early twenties. trash. their relationship is trash. he treats her like crap and she keeps coming back. she gets jealous and yells. they fight and fuck and break up. he’s ruining her, and she’s letting him.

MUSE I, IAN POLLING (jon bernthal fc): a sad, broken, angry man. he’s a boxer, a fighter, and he never knows when to quit. a big part of him likes the pain of being hit and feels he deserves it. he probably wouldn’t care too much if he died in the ring. he’s fiercely protective, and has an anger like a match stick. he drinks a lot. sulks a lot. doesn’t speak a lot. but he cares deeply, even if he pretends he doesn’t.

wanted: a female fc. late twenties. absolute sunshine. she is warm where he is cold. they’ve been friends for a long time, and the pair have always clearly loved each other but for some reason are stubborn and have never seen it. they both care for each other deeply, and she’s always been the number one in his life above all else. 

MUSE J, MARCUS HEMMINGS (chris evans fc): a single dad. trying desperately to make ends meet and have life go on. he loves his daughter more then anything in the world and will often make a fool out of himself if it means making her laugh. he’s a bit of a mess, with a stain on his t shirt, and his apartment a mess. 

wanted: a female fc. mid to late twenties. neighbours with marcus, and often sees him running around like an idiot. she takes it upon herself to try and help out whenever she can, whether that be by doing his washing, or making him a coffee in the morning. she’s basically his saviour, and of course he has a crush on her. how could he not, she’s basically perfect. 

[mobius-prime]

144. Sonic the Hedgehog #79

The Discovery

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: FRY Colors: Frank Gagliardo

Welcome to the beginning of the Sonic Adventure adaption! Now, as you know, the world of the comics is very different from that of the games, which means right away we're faced with the task of finding a way to fit the story of the game into the world of the comic. We have three stories ahead, two of which do just that, and the third of which is the conclusion to the long-standing Tales of the Great War arc. Time to dive in!

Sonic awakens from his sleep early in the night to find Nate tapping away at his computer, explaining that he's trying to hack into Robotnik's computer network to spy on his current doings. At that moment he's successful, and finds a worrying message about invading the Mystic Ruins, prompting Sonic to immediately take Nate to warn the king about this situation. Apparently Nate is even more familiar with what's going on than he let on, telling the king that Robotnik appears to be invading the Hidden City of the Ancients.

Despite Sonic's worry, the king insists he's fine and merely tired, walking off to get some rest, which Sonic does as well. The next morning he awakens to find his house full of his friends, all working together to cook a huge breakfast, as they've all been chosen by the king to go to this city and act as official liaisons from the Kingdom of Knothole. Amy, being part of the group helping to cook breakfast, has a fairly reasonable request given the situation.

Now, can we just recall that Tails joined the Freedom Fighters at its inception when he was like, four? I get that the others tried to shelter him from dangerous missions and whatnot even back then, up until the events of his miniseries, but now Amy is asking, based on a precedent set by someone her age, if she can be allowed to prove herself as well, and immediately finds herself getting shot down. Honestly, I'm with her that they're being totally unreasonable here.

While everyone packs up for their trip, the king and Elias watch from a high up walkway among the trees, noting how happy and carefree Sally seems at this moment. The king is happy for her, wanting her to have a little bit more time to feel happy before he tells her about her mother's worsening illness, and is surprised when Elias already knows due to overhearing him and Dr. Quack talking about it previously. Elias then suddenly gets an epiphany, realizing there may be something he can do to help cure the illness, and rushes off as a suspiciously Overlander-looking group of girls fawn over him from the sidelines. (I know they're not Overlanders, but damn, they could have at least added extra fur or something to make it more obvious.)

Oh, boy…

The Chaos Factor

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Frank Gagliardo

Knuckles has found himself plagued with dreams lately - nightmares, more like - of a strange, watery being absorbing the Master Emerald, the Floating Island falling into the sea, and everyone he cares about on the island perishing because he failed in his duties to protect them. He wakes up with a jolt, still perturbed by what he saw in his sleep.

Well, that's probably not good. Man, Knuckles must be the heaviest sleeper of all time if he somehow slept through his entire island the size of Delaware plunging violently into the ocean from eight miles up. Back in his HQ, Robotnik is ecstatic at how well his plan has gone so far, conveniently recalling it all in detail for the benefit of us readers. Apparently, he found all his information on an obscure data file that his previous self overlooked, about a mystical being with immense power made of living water, locked within… yeah, you thought I was gonna say the Master Emerald, right? Nah, man, this is the comics! No one's in the Master Emerald except ol' Mammoth Mogul. The being is locked instead within a black emerald hidden in the Mysterious Cat Country, which if you'll recall all the way back to the map in Sonic Super Special #2 is located at the equivalent of South America's east coast. Robotnik had his roboticized slaves excavate the emerald for him and smashed it to let the being out…

Well, he let something out all right. He decided that looking for seven Power Emeralds was totally lame, and instead decided to fly to the Floating Island, where he found himself briefly surprised to see Echidnaopolis filled with, well, echidnas, since his data files indicated Knuckles was the only echidna on that island. Yeah, your files are a liiiiiittle outta date, buddy. He broke through the force field erected to keep intruders out of the Chaos Chamber with ease, and shattered the Master Emerald before anyone could retaliate, flying off with the pieces as the island fell from the sky. But remember who we just said was in the Master Emerald in this universe?

Once again, with feeling: oh, boy…

Tales of the Great War (The Conclusion): Life Under-Ground

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Chris Allan Colors: Frank Gagliardo

It's time to finally finish up this story, still being told by Jules and Bernie around the campfire to their eager listeners. When Uncle Chuck left to start up his chili dog stand, Bernie still tried to reason with him that he should try to find a cure for her husband's robotic state, but he was firm in his feelings of failure and refused to try anything for fear of making it even worse. Frustrated, Bernie tried to take matters into her own hands by heading to the lab, only to see Julian using her husband as a lab rat. She yelled at him for being so disrespectful, but Julian, true to form, had other plans.

That's honestly horrific. Chuck went looking for Bernie when she went missing, and found her as a robot within the lab, where Julian "helpfully" informed him that she tried to mess with the roboticizer but foolishly set it off while inside. Of course, this only ensured he was even more guilt-ridden than before, and now he faced the daunting task of trying to raise Jules and Bernie's infant son, trying to figure out how to explain to him when he was older what had happened to his parents. In the end, we already know that his explanation of them being "lost in the war" stuck with Sonic throughout his life, and that his uncle was roboticized as well before he got any real answers. When Chuck regained his free will, however, the first thing he did was take a power ring to a handful of other roboticized individuals within Robotnik's factories, including Jules, to help them regain their free will as well. He built a small secure base within the sewers of the city for his new spies, and soon freed Bernie's mind as well, leading to a tearful-in-spirit (because they're robots, remember) reunion between the two. They both told Chuck not to tell Sonic of their state, wanting him to remember them as they had been when he was young until the war was over, which as we know kind of ended up being a bad idea given how betrayed Sonic felt as a result. But hey, everything is all right now - well, I suppose not everything, since Chuck is a slave once more…

Two problems - first of all, y'all had months to dig into this zip disk when Chuck was still a free man, during the period of peace in between the two Robotniks. Why the hell didn't he help you decode it then? Second of all, this disk is never mentioned again in the comic. They just completely forgot about it and never brought it back. I suppose it was full of nothing but him talking about random goings-on within Robotropolis while he was a spy or something, since it ended up not being important at all. Ah well!