#honourable mention to Shadow the Hedgehog

[youngpettyqueen]

Blorbo poll!

Rules: make a poll with five of your all-time favourite characters and then tag five people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favourite.

thank you @major-majoranon for the tag! I have a LOT of blorbos from over the years, its hard to only pick 5, but I did my best! sorry not sorry that 3 of them are Star Trek but you have to understand I have been deeply into Star Trek for well over a decade. so, in no particular order:

tagging @onekisstotakewithme @sarnakhwritesthings @appotheosis @flippetyfloppity @orcsexual !! and anybody else who wants to do this of course <3

[iwakuraz]

top 5 blorbos

okay this is difficult 2 decide but ,,

1 - lain iwakura. THE blorbo of all time!!!

2 - KIRBY!!!!!!

3 - trait from 1td :3

4 - lammy has been a newer addition to my blorbo list also ,, bc I've been getting back into the parappa games hehe

5 - milk girl from milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk!!

[girlshadowthehedgehog]

shoutout to sonic and shadow the hedgehog for helping me out with my queer identity 🙏🙏🙏

[h-worksrambles]

I haven’t really spoken much about Sonic x Shadow Generations here since it came out but I have to say, I absolutely loved it. It’s the most fun I’ve had with 3D Sonic since…well, the original Generations in 2011. It has brilliant levels, fixes most of my problems with Sonic Frontiers and was an all round delight of an experience. In addition, it’s the first time in a long time that a Sonic story has genuinely impressed me. In a series where the narratives tend to either be a hodgepodge of badly executed anime tropes (sometimes in campy charming ways and other times not) or barebones excuse plots, this one (especially factoring in Dark Beginnings) was focused, cohesive and well presented in a way Sonic stories rarely are. I don’t have to add any qualifiers like ‘it’s camp!’ or ‘it’s a good idea’ or ‘it’s got some good moments’. It’s just legitimately well done.

And a big part of that was how well the game captured the character of Shadow. So I thought it would be fun to look back at the turbulent history of this guy, why the concept of him getting his own game this year had me both excited yet worried, and why the result so pleasantly surprised me.

Shadow first debuts in Sonic Adventure 2 and he’s a really entertaining character, here. Aside from having an aesthetic and music presentation designed in a lab to be the coolest thing a 2000s kid will have ever seen. He’s just smug and confident enough to bounce off of Sonic in an amusing way, but he has enough pathos to his character and backstory to remain endearing. There’s a lot of surprisingly thoughtful concepts regarding identity, memory and revenge that his story touches on. Couple that with his backstory that gets into darker territory than anything in the series prior and he’s easily got the most going on of any Sonic character. The only real critique I have is his story feels like it tries to do too much in such a short game (with a wonky translation). It asks a lot of big questions about the nature of memory to an artificial life form but doesn’t have much in the way of answers. Plus, his heel turn to the heroes’ side definitely feels a bit rushed. It effectively comes down to his true memories coming back a narratively convenient moment, and doesn’t give him much agency to make his own decisions. Like, nothing Amy says to him really gets through to him, nothing in his experiences over the game prompts a change of heart. Amy conveniently just happens to say the right thing to jog his memory. Shadow starts the game wanting to honour Maria’s memory and dies the same way. He’s just remembered what she actually wanted now, But his death is still pretty effective in the moment.

Is he basically just Mewtwo from the first Pokémon movie with the serial numbers filed off? Yes, but he’s the perfect encapsulation of SA2’s appeal. It’s a game that is camp and brave enough to own it. Even at its clumsiest and most derivative it’s consistently charming, and plenty of moments of unironic sentimentality shine through.

Unfortunately, he got so damn popular that Sonic Team refused to let him rest, so the next game, Sonic Heroes, saw him immediately revived and given amnesia. Which is a huge shame, as there was a lot of potential in Shadow coming back, reflecting on his actions in SA2 and actually having to put the work in to redeem himself and find a new purpose after clinging to revenge for so long. But we skate over that with a lot of pretty undercooked intrigue about how he survived that goes nowhere til the next game. Partnering him up with Rouge and Omega to create Team Dark is a good idea, even if this game gives them very little to do. But it’s the next two games where Shadow’s prominence would really peak, and where I have the bulk of my criticisms.

Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06 are two of Shadow’s most prominent showings in the series and to their credit, they do in some ways rectify that lack of agency I mentioned in Adventure 2. Shadow’s own game is all about an amnesiac Shadow’s search for answers while everyone around him puts pressure on him to be where they want: be that a hero, a weapon, or the villain of their story. The game then ends with him renouncing the expectations everyone else has placed on him. Not just Black Doom but even Gerald and Maria, renouncing his past entirely and so forging his own path, which carries neatly into Sonic 06. As much as I find reviving him with amnesia to be a trite and frustrating direction for the character, this is probably the best thing you could do with that premise. Making the new Shadow distinct from the old Shadow and so, in a sense, keeping that character dead.

That being said, there’s a big issue Shadow runs into here: He starts to become really boring. Maybe it’s just being in two Sonic games with bad writing and voice direction but Shadow loses so much personality here. There’s none of that cocky charisma that made him such a good rival to Sonic. In his own game, his amnesia reduces him to a blank slate, whose demeanour and motivations change in a dime depending on the last person he talked to because of the game’s botched morality system. Meanwhile, in 06, he suffers the same character writing issues as everyone else, droning out the plot in flat monotone delivery. While he makes out a little better than most of the cast as he gets an actual villain to face off against and more meat to his story, the presentation really hurts it. 06 tries to confront Shadow with a character who wants to tempt him back to his old vengeful ways, in the form of Mephiles, thereby cementing how far Shadow has come. Unfortunately, that temptation was pretty much Black Doom’s deal in the last game, so once Shadow rejects Mephiles outright, there is no conflict. It’s a case of like…two good scenes amidst three hours of nothing. There’s a fine line between stoic and dull. As compeling as the idea of making post amnesia Shadow effectively his own character is, these games struggled to give him a personality distinct from his SA2 persona. Now his personality is just ‘does cool shit’. I think Takashi Iizuka and Shiro Maekawa both got a little too fond of Shadow, and he really started turning into a creator’s pet. Cartoonishly badass and hyper competent in a way that upstages every other character. Shadow basically dominates 06’s plot and upstages every other character, but so much of his charisma has been lost at this point that he still ends up feeling dull. It’s played so straight and framed as ‘sooooo cooool’ but is so overwrought that he already feels like a parody of himself (think Legolas in The Hobbit movies).

After that, Shadow took a huge backseat from the series for over 15 years. With his backstory put to rest and with the series skirting away from the kind of dramatic or complicated plots that would give a character like Shadow a meaningful role, he’s left to hang in the background. And as much as I love Sonic Unleashed, Colors and especially Generations, this didn’t really prove a long term solution. Execution has always been the Achilles heel of Sonic writing and switching from clunky melodrama to clunky jokes ended to just being a short term bandaid, that worked fine for a few games but led to diminishing returns in the long run. A lot of people criticise this period of Shadow being ‘written like Vegeta’ more concerned with his rivalry with Sonic than anything else, with no time given to the pathos and relationships with other characters that kept him relatable. But that’s a mostly a product of how minimal his role is here. In something like Sonic Generations, where Shadow’s role is to be a boss fight and his motivations have to be understandable in two lines tops, that flanderization is the unfortunate result. Aside from a decent showing in Sonic Forces, where he serves a simple but serviceable role, there’s not a lot to say in comparison to when he dominated the franchise. And while I think that overexposure was a problem, I never wanted him to go away. I just wanted something that reminded me why I liked him in Adventure 2 to begin with, where his edge and ‘badassery’ didn’t make him feel like a parody of himself.

Then comes Shadow Generations. Shadow Gens borrows from both aspects of him. It walks back on the idea of post-amnesia Shadow being wholly distinct from SA2 Shadow, which some might not like. But it’s worth it for the story it tells. Shadow’s rejection of his past is reframed as him effectively running away from the trauma of it all because it’s simply too painful, nearly demonstrated in the final scene of Dark Beginnings. Providing him with a chance to meet Maria and Gerald again draws out some vulnerability from him without being overdone or too cloying. There’s a nice arc about Shadow learning not to run away from his past, to accept the good parts while still renouncing his ties to Black Doom. The result is that it simultaneously feels Ike both a tribute to Shadow’s 2005 spin off and a do-over, revisiting those concepts with a clearer head and more time to cook. His overall characterisation is also closer to that stoic confidence mixed with pathos that made his SA2 self so likeable, especially when you factor in Dark Beginnings. Yes he’s framed as so cool that it starts to get a bit ridiculous, but it’d easier to embrace the campy fun of that when he’s also legitimately sympathetic. His arc feels more focused and tighter executed than past attempts to develop him, but it still builds on those older concepts despite their hit or miss execution. And it all builds to an ending that is just the right mix of earnestly sweet and restrained to end the whole game on a genuinely touching note.

It’s also nice to see the Team Dark dynamic be used in a less…cursed game than 06 where it can shine a bit more. Rouge and Omega aren’t in the game a ton, but the optional conversations with them, and especially their role in Dark Beginnings, gets the to heart of what makes this found family of badass messy bitches so appealing. It takes a lot to draw any emotional frankness out of any of these three but it hits hard when they do finally open up to each other.

Shadow as a character is sort of a perfect encapsulation of the good and bad of Sonic storytelling. It’s admirable that the series tries to tell bigger stories, but the writing often isn’t strong enough to carry it. But walking back that scope and energy doesn’t really fix the issue, as it simply leaves the series feeling vanilla and only brings those fundamental issues of poorer execution into sharp focus. And Shadow Generations’ ability to recapture that energy while avoiding the common pitfalls is what makes it so refreshing.

The last few years have seen Sonic as a franchise experiment more with storytelling than they have in years and the results left me decidedly mixed. While Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog was a delightful reminder of just how charming these characters can be with good writing, Sonic Frontiers felt like a return of all the series’ bad writing habits. Overwrought, derivative, tonally dissonant trend chasing that reaches for big ideas that it can’t do justice, with poor presentation, rushed, forced execution and a general sense of thinking it’s way more profound than it actually is. It really felt like 2000s Sonic was back in the worst way, moments of promise amidst a hot mess that felt both over and undercooked.

But that just made Shadow Generations even more of a delight. It didn’t feel like it was intentional downplaying itself to avoid scrutiny like Sonic Forces or Lost World did, but not did it feel like it was constantly chasing after trends like Shadow the Hedgehog or copying frantically off its anime cheat sheet like 06 or Frontiers. It kept a clear consistent focus on exploring and celebrating Shadow’s character, with good pacing, a refreshing attention to continuity, solid emotional beats and well done cutscenes.

This feels like the sort of thing the Sonic series often wanted to be, but regularly fell short of. A campy, exciting action romp focused on its likeable characters. And it was the capstone on an already really fun campaign that made for a brilliant addition to what was already my favourite 3D Sonic game.

I’m delighted that Shadow Generations got me excited about Sonic again, but I’m just as happy that it made me excited about Shadow again.

[starzels]

(rant warning 😱)

The fact that Sonic from that one sonic boom game, says "He'd be a great addition to the sonic team" kinda says a lot about how much sonic knows him, more than we do.

I mean, yeah, sure, from the moment we're introduced to Shadow the hedgehog!boom, we know that they've already met before.

But as viewers, the only thing we've seen, is how violent and mean shadow can be. (Like, my dude swung tails by the tails like my ceiling fan 💀 man has no remorse whatsoever)

So, I'm wondering why we've "never" questioned why Sonic would have wanted him in the first place. I mean, my guy is not the brightest in the room, so why HIM?

(I don't wanna begin questioning the canon radar of The rise of lyric, so let's just pretend that it is, for the sake of this rant)

Sonic has probably seen sides of Shadow that isn't so bad. From the dialogue: "Too bad that guy is such hardcase" probably means he still couldn't find ways to communicate with Shadow in a good way, but still— Sonic knew that Shadow isn't all that bad, he just knows that he's "acting" bad..

For the sake of his ego? Past trauma? We'll never know, but we know that Sonic knows. He describes Shadow as a hardcase, a case that is hard to open, but still a case that could be open.

Sonic probably wanted Shadow in his team, because of his strength and the help he could give, but the guy is simply a hardcase.

In my conclusion, Shadow!boom is mean, really mean. But he's not so mean to the point Sonic couldn't stand him.

‎

Honourable mention: When Shadow asks Sonic whether Eggman has manipulated him in some ways and Sonic said "probably", Shadow immediately takes it as a yes and went to beat up eggman without proofs or questions... It kind of shows that he also has some level of trust with Sonic. Which is funny, because that scene happend just after Shadow beats the living soul out of him.

"are you implying that eggman has tricked me?"

"ermm, idk prolly yes? I could be wrong tho"

"Aight, say less" *goes to beat up the wrong eggman*

Edit: Sorry, my bad, The game that I was quoting to, was called Sonic Boom shattered crystal, not Rise of lyric. I can't believe they made this much game, I thought there was only one. Cool on them though.

[loulooser]

My Nerd-market haul :) info under the cut.

Some honourable mentions (stuff I couldn’t afford):

Pic 1) Matt Murdock, 50s Wanda, Captain Carter and Shadow the hedgehog minifigs (£7)

Pic 2/3) Spider-Man pocket watch (£12)

Pic 4) Punisher badge, Miles Morales badge, Spooderman badge and President Loki badge (£5 for 4)

Pic 5/6/7) A3 posters. Daily Bugle front page, AOS and AOS. (£10 for 3)

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Who is the coolest video game enemy?

This is a hard one, because I generally find heroes cooler and a lot of the cooler enemies I can think of are characters that turn into heroes before long anyway, your Shadow the Hedgehogs or your Morag Ladairs as examples. But the main two that kinda came to mind here are

Metal Sonic, and

N from Xenoblade.

Although I also wanna give an honourable mention to

Ganondorf, who is very cool depending on the iteration and Twilight Princess and Tears of the Kingdom Ganondorf in particular are both very very epic.

[yandere-toons]

Yandere Knuckles the Echidna, Shadow the Hedgehog & Rouge the Bat (Platonic Scenarios - "Home Invasion")

Warnings: Mention of Firearms, Violence, Imagined Death, Psychological Manipulation, Toxic Mindsets.

A.N. - Part one (1) of a series. More Sonic characters are on the way.

Knuckles the Echidna - "Down Through the Chimney"

Narrowly suppressing a yell, Knuckles restrained it to a series of heated grumbles and punted a rock off the stairs to the altar. His strides from one side of the Master Emerald to another were quick and tattooed cracks in the stones, and his elbows were raised as if he were preparing to strike an unseen foe.

The echidna plopped on the top step and rested his arms on his knees, allowing a dash of sorrow to seep into his otherwise peeved expression.

Beneath the sonorous hum of the wind that lifted the tips of his dreadlocks towards the jungle, Knuckles perceived a mellow vibration. It seemed to rattle the air around him and buzz in his ears as if a powerful yet inaudible voice were speaking from an unfathomable distance.

The stairway was decorated with myriad pebbles, and all but those on the bottom step began clattering like tiny bells.

Just as the echidna had leapt to a defensive position and brandished his fists at whatever terror might spill forth in search of the relic, a green light pervaded the stone top of the altar like a fallen glass of wine tainted the virgin fabric of a white couch.

It was as rich as the lushest garden and commanded the attention of its protector, which he bequeathed with a look of awe. The Master Emerald glistened with new life, and the impression of observation by an omnipotent force seized Knuckles.

A fresh glow emitted from its crystalline core, one that throbbed like a beating heart. "Master Emerald," he breathed, eyes wide and mouth agape. Like faded memories of a forgotten dream, the significance of its pulses was imprinted on his mind.

"What are you saying?" It was not a question of misunderstanding, but rather a confirmation of what he believed to be an unprecedented answer.

The light swelled with such insistence that a jade aura tinted the blue sky above the ruin.

A whisper, rhythmic and fond of ancient tongues, pursued the breeze and enveloped the relic like a coiled serpent. It spoke of promises no mortal could honour, and any reservations about its guidance that Knuckles held fell like sand through an hourglass.

* * *

The noise seemed to have multiple layers, with additional bangs underscoring the climb. As the disturbance breached the top of the chimney, the answer to your suspicion reverberated through the living room: beneath each thud was a masculine voice exerting itself in the form of an agitated grunt.

The commotion shifted to scraping as if a blade were dragging across the concrete that composed the interior of the chimney, and a trickle of loose pebbles bounced off the floor.

Breath quickening, you had begun to ascend the staircase when a startled yell echoed in the bowels of the ventilation structure.

The descending shout ended in a red echidna plummeting onto the hearth, but he was neither jolly nor bearing presents. Strain twisted his snout into a grimace and bared dual rows of jagged teeth that quivered with newborn anger.

His scarlet fur was tainted with clumps of soot, which blanketed the walls of the chimney and filled the bottom of the fireplace. Thick coughs that were loud with exhaustion and hoarse from expelling dirt rattled his shoulders and bobbed his head as swells of dust wafted into the air.

A pair of purple eyes scanned the house, darting between the biggest pieces of furniture and narrowing after finding nothing but shadows. Knuckles reclaimed his bearings and pushed against his knees to steady his movements.

After shaking his head to dispel the initial confusion, your outline descended from the rungs and sloped along the floor like a slithering snake.

Before you could flee to the sanctity of your bedroom, a strip of moonlight had reflected a sleek blade in the kitchen. The glint of polished metal drew your attention to the countertop below the window overlooking the faucet.

Every second spent debating it allowed your mind to generate another frightening prediction that complicated the decision, but the fear of lamenting your choice pulled you in either direction with equal vigour.

Clamouring followed this admission of awareness.

"Come back here!" A ruckus detonated in the heart of the cabin as Knuckles jabbed the plush fabric of a couch with his elbow and bumped the sharp edge of an end table, its creak resembling the lowing of cattle.

Your retreat paused at the top of the stairs to allow a quick analysis of his location, while he took the break as an opportunity to stumble near the beginning of the handrail, which rattled under his taut grasp.

A shadow cast itself from the modest window beside the door and landed upon his red face in a diagonal stripe, illuminating the peach skin of his snout and filling his eyes with a wrathful glow.

Creases wrung the muscles in his face and turned it into that of a bear seething. Ragged breaths shook his body in an ascending rhythm, and with an outpouring of rage he did shout, "Don't run away from me!"

His heavy steps, like bricks dropping from a great height, followed with a determination that did not bother to match your speed. The click of the lock was a meagre comfort, for Knuckles proved his confidence in the superiority of his raw strength by slamming a hand into the door with deliberately insufficient force to destroy it.

"Open up!"

The shudder of the hinges concealed a subtle crack in the structure, an indication of the echidna's desperate lack of patience.

Flecks of wood spattered your face as a gloved fist smashed through the centre of the door, knocking you onto your haunches in a moment of fright. Your palms and heels tattooed the ground before a silver wave crashed upon your head and accentuated the window bordering the corner of the room.

The latches were stiff and resistant to your touch, but the adrenaline coaching your actions supplied enough strength to flip them in the opposite direction and tug the window open.

Gales of snow blasted inside the room on violent wings. White blankets tinged with the grey and black speckles of the night masked the outside world, promising a doom of less certainty than the echidna ploughing through the feeble slab of wood that dared to separate you.

"Hey, stop!" Concern and a twinge of woe laced his furious voice, and after swinging the door aside with such harshness that it was nearly torn from its hinges, he witnessed your snowflake-spangled form dive into the belly of the blizzard.

As the air split underneath your body like a meteor plummeting to the earth, an arm coated in red fur protruded from the window and failed to grasp your ankle. Cracks splintered the portion of the wall where the hand collided with it.

The face of Knuckles appeared a moment later, his eyes widening with hope for your safe landing. A thicket that consisted of leafy twigs and pulsating darkness around the edges of your vision marked your introduction to the ground.

Sharp pain darted from your calf to your hip, and you did not know whether the snap belonged to the bushes or yourself until a paralyzing loss of energy dragged you into unconsciousness.

Shadow the Hedgehog - "99 Raindrops"

The airy voice of a young girl reverberated through the house, seemingly pouring from every room and convening in the black depth of the ceiling. "You need to help them, Shadow," it cried with frail strength, unable to rise above an emphatic murmur.

A memory punctured his concentration like a javelin hurled across the battlefield, and the wave of recognition that followed both shook his resolve and stimulated it.

As another failed attempt to move yanked his knees to the floor with a thwack, the urgency in her voice swelled to a desperate wail. "Help them, Shadow!"

There was no disappointment or assignment of guilt in her plea, but the hedgehog's arms began to quiver from the humiliation striking his core as if he were thrashing just below the surface of a powerful tide.

"I'm trying!" came his anguished howl, beaten by inexplicable fatigue and the growing sense of dread that seemed to encourage the black sludge to creep higher. It was a need for his efforts, however ineffective they were becoming, to be acknowledged in the vain hope that doing so would relieve his frustration.

The blade swung again and again with renewed fervour, and its ringing and whipping emulated that of a lasso snatching a rebellious stallion on a ranch.

As the metal severed the final tie to life that inhabited your body, a chasm of grief, new and old, and utter dejection tore, from this time until the moment Shadow awoke in a cold sweat, all hope for a better world from his heart.

The assailant dissipated with a buoyant cackle that descended in pitch as it merged with the silence.

* * *

Rainwater was blowing into the den and thumping the floorboards like tiny missiles, darkening the wood until it resembled the rich texture of chocolate.

As a bolt of lightning struck the outskirts of the forest and illuminated the property in fleeting light, the lean silhouette of a hedgehog materialized in front of the open window.

The grass beneath his feet, which were clad in thick sneakers that hovered slightly above the ground, was charred and crumpled like ash. The rest of the earth had succumbed to the deluge and washed away in torrents of mud and sodden foliage, threatening to collapse under the slightest weight and consume anything that travelled across it.

Crisp leaves were severed from branches and flung through the air with haphazard aggression. A few smacked the sides of his head and embedded themselves in his fur, but Shadow grasped the windowsill and hiked his leg over it as if there were nothing else in the world that deserved his attention.

Upon heaving himself into the house with an arduous grunt, the hedgehog landed on his knees and planted his hands on the floor to avoid bouncing his face off the wood.

Raindrops hugged his quills like a wet blanket, gliding the length of each spike and dangling from the tip before plopping to the floor. A small puddle had accumulated round his hands and feet, and with each laborious breath, the pool sank deeper into the floorboards.

Soiling the bottom of walls and nearby furniture were the crevices in the wood, which drowned in rainwater and transported the liquid to farther areas of the room.

The once pristine fabric of his white gloves had been stained with grey blots and clung to his hands as if they were sponges.

Despite the cold dampness attacking his fur, Shadow raised his head and surveyed the inside of the house with unfettered determination. He looked like a track star preparing to sprint at the start of a competition, but the dour concentration that guided his red eyes as they swept across the expanse of the room mimicked the resolve of a hunter.

A part of you that viewed him as a friend thought he deserved a greeting, but a primal instinct, one that seized control with overwhelming force, caught your voice before it could utter more than a noiseless gasp. Torn between cordiality and a newfound sense of danger, your mouth wobbled as if pronouncing a silent message.

The wood finish of the handrail was cool and smooth like ice as you retreated up the stairs.

The string that summoned the entrance to the attic was thin and black, and a passing worry about it snapping entered your mind when you yanked it downwards.

A series of pops reverberated through the corridor as the ladder's joints flexed. The sound was like a punch in the gut and eliminated all care for discretion.

You mounted the still unfolding rungs as if the floor were plunging into an abyss beneath your feet, clambering into the attic with the desperation of a wild animal attempting to pull itself from a body of water.

As if the creaks were not enough, the ladder slammed shut into the ceiling with a thud. An explosion of brilliant light flooded the living room, approaching the top of the staircase with preternatural urgency and swinging back and forth as if attached to a pair of legs.

Various doors groaned as they were manhandled before a swirl of dust was drawn into your heaving lungs and elicited a cough.

His ear twitched at the sound, and a cold fury overtook his senses that brought the hunt to an ominous lull. Hatred, a flaming and vindictive eruption of malice, clenched his teeth with such passion that his head began to quiver.

While the first major loss in his life had been an inevitable tragedy executed by a faceless organization, this successor was a mindless evil that, to him, found its motivation in pure whim and opportunism.

The deaths of Robotnik and Maria were outside his control, but as the alleged culprit of your demise hid in the attic like a trapped rat, Shadow squeezed the emerald that was pressed against the palm of his hand.

A pulsating light filled the stone before it glittered like golden fire. The hedgehog whirled around with a torrid growl, eyeing the door on the ceiling: "Chaos spear!"

As a lustrous spike rocketed through the floor between your legs, the harsh sound of wood splintering accompanied the loss of warmth that spread from your toes to your neck in a frigid wave. Your throat, which carried the beginning of a scream, tightened in a moment of anxiety.

No cries of pain reverberated through the walls, and the air possessed a stale absence of the metallic odour of blood. This failure to obtain the anticipated result excited Shadow's hunger for lethal justice into raising the emerald beside his head.

"Chaos Control!" were the final words to reach your ears before a bold light enveloped the attic. His usually methodical tactics were rushed and aggressive, for the glow supplied by the emerald was turning a duller shade with each step.

He paced the length of the room in a quiet rage, searching for someone who escaped his thoughts. It was plunged into darkness once more when the hedgehog turned at the creak of a plank beneath you.

Insurmountable pressure dwelled in the ball of fear exploding within your stomach, and the silence, unbroken by footsteps, seemed to beg for another projectile to succeed where the original had missed.

Such deathly agony never came.

The stone was resurrected with a dim life, illuminating the face of Shadow hovering directly in front of yours. A gush of surprise and relief broke the steely mask that his countenance so often wore, and for a fleeting second of innocence, the hedgehog looked as if he had been reunited with a dear friend after a period of terrible distance.

His enjoyment of the moment was short-lived. Remembering the omen behind his arrival, Shadow grasped your hand and pulled you to your feet. "We need to leave." A slew of protests echoed in the attic as you scrambled to reach the entrance, but your tugs against his hold evoked only a grunt of frustration.

"We don't have time to play games."

Before your outcry could reach its pinnacle, a yell from Shadow overlapped with a burst of light from the emerald.

Rouge the Bat - "Somnolence"

Sleep was hesitant to claim you, plunging you into a fitful state of exhaustion and tension. The major irritant was a whoosh that would return to your window at the start of every minute like a travelling breeze.

Frustrated thoughts about the imagined bird and silent curses towards it prompted your teeth to clench and your eyes to squint, but the hope that the animal would cease its racket without your encouragement kept you in bed.

It was not until the dreadful sound of the window opening brushed your ears that you had enough of an incentive to sit upright and confront the offender.

The silhouette of a large bat, almost as big as the window itself, was perched on the frame. White fur and aquamarine eyeshadow glowed in the luminescence of the full moon, and a feminine voice spoke from the darkness: "Don't get up on my account, hun."

Rouge had pressed her back against the side of the window, drawing one leg towards her chest and kicking the other with the same lackadaisical confidence that weaved her tone. The pair of wings that curled around her shoulders as a scarf in old magazines fluttered.

Despite the blackness obscuring most details beyond an educated guess, the notion that she could hear the way your breathing lulled and your fingers squeezed the sheets cast a frigid numbness across your body.

"I hope you didn't think this dime-store dud would keep me out."

The padlock you had attached to your front door after returning from work to find it battered and sagging, made weary by the taxes of the day, was dangling from her index finger. It swivelled on the middle of her limb and glinted under what little moonlight reached the centre of the room, its rusty texture comprising a grimy shade of brown that was not unlike dirt.

She raised the lock closer to her face and examined it with tepid amusement. "I cracked one of these just last week." A clank demolished the fragile stillness of the house as it was tossed in your direction, sliding across the floorboards and resting at the foot of your bed.

"You should know how—" she lowered her head, a slight downturn in her lips causing her voice to acquire a hint of menace "—unforgiving criminals can be." Among the condescending lightness, there emerged an element of bitterness that was reflected in the crinkling of her eyes.

A verbal throwback to some past vice had been made, yet the only emotion courageous enough to serve your expression was a fear of the world outside your decrepit walls.

She resumed kicking her leg with a watchful irritation, the heel of her boot rapping the windowsill like the hand of a clock ticking after each second passed.

To distract your mind from succumbing to panic, you counted the taps. This time, Rouge stopped after ten clicks.

"You'll need to get somewhere safe."

This notion of imminent danger, the implication that any malevolent person could wander into your house with ease, spurred an impulsive glance at the wheelchair sitting in the corner of the room. It was facing the window and bathing in the livid glow pouring through the glass.

Before you could attempt to grab the push handle, a flutter of wings drew your gaze to the startling sight of Rouge gliding to the edge of your bed. She hovered above you in a position that mirrored your once unconscious shape, and under far more benevolent circumstances, the gentle flapping would have eased your loud mind into a much-coveted state of peace.

"I can take you there," promised the bat. Despite never explaining the nature of 'there', she spoke with a pleasant assurance that made it seem all the more enticing than the forbidding home in which you found yourself.

Dust blanketed your walls as if it were an additional coat of paint, one that contrasted with the muted dye of the original and filled the spots where it had begun to chip. The furniture, as grimy as the space it inhabited if not wounded from neglect, reeked of mould and dead mice.

It was a house you had intended to sell within a few months of renting it, yet as your reward for work grew slimmer and slimmer, it became an impossible feat to leave.

The thin walls did little to insulate your rest from the piercing sounds of gunfire, every unintelligible order yelled into the night appearing closer than the last. Muffling the daily calamity with a pillow was a temporary solution that would not protect you if your unlawful neighbours decided to host their business in your residence.

Protection was something Rouge had offered many a time, for it was her occasional donation of stolen jewellery that had, thus far, safeguarded your life from the carelessness of your landlord.

"If I go," you pondered, the wind pushed by her wings brushing your face like a cold breath, "will that be the end?" The bat outstretched her arms and intertwined her hands with yours.

Touching the smooth texture of her white gloves was akin to hugging a silk gown, and with audible satisfaction, she declared, "I'll give you a new life. How's that sound?" The gesture seemed limited to emotional support, for she soon relinquished her grip and maneuvered behind you.

Upon being lifted from the bed by your shoulders, the last part of you that wished to choose the familiar risk over that of the unknown dispersed.

Passing through the window was like jumping from a cliff and diving into a lake. Your survival was dubious, but as the echoes of the chaos that ravaged the streets quieted to forgettable hums, you were able to think without interruption and realized your grave mistake.

[stillafanofsonic]

So, let's say Eclipse FINALLY gives in and 'allows' Wade the 'honour and privilege' of being his 'caretaker' (he's injured or starving and Shadow finds him, brings him home, and is like 'dad can we keep him' or something). He slowly discovers that he actually likes doing kid stuff and living a 'normal' life. Any headcanons in store for the hypothetical 'Eclipse Whipple'?

(First note, this is a fun what-if, doesn't mean it's going to happen).

One day, they get a phone call from Crazy Carl saying that he caught the gremlin in one of his traps and its hollering and screaming. And Shadow mentioned knowing it? 

They go over to investigate and find that Carl did indeed catch Eclipse in one of his bear traps. Those traps are strong enough to hold a massive grizzly bear, so Eclipse now has a broken ankle.

Wade isn't sure what to do, this demon thing is crying and hissing and spitting, all the same time. But Shadow insists this is his brother, and he’s injured, so they take him back home.

The first few days are rough. Eclipse is feral and angry on his best days but now in pain and miserable, he's hard to deal with. He’s rude, demanding and isn’t being very grateful for the help. He won't let Maddie anywhere near him, so she coaches Shadow through how to bandage up his ankle.

Only a few days in, Wade is regretting doing this. He’s nearly had it with this creature when Eclipse yells at Silver and upsets him. Upset on behalf of his son, Wade starts with trying to talk to him when he notices Eclipse isn’t even listening.

In a moment of rare angry, he gets incredibly upset with Eclipse and the darkling gets an upset dad lecture. They’re trying to help him, he’s being very rude and to change his attitude and behavior right now. No matter what you think of us, we are trying to help you and the least you can do is show some gratitude and stop insulting the people taking care of you.

This actually works.

Things don’t instantly improve overnight, but it starts getting better. Eclipse is using snark and anger as a shield because this is a new environment and he’s in a lot of pain.

It takes a while but the boys introduce him to video games and sugary sweets and he likes both of those! While he prefers raw meat, he starts trying a lot of different kinds of food. He still thinks cooked meat is gross but finds some fruits and vegetables that he likes. He gets quite the sweet tooth.

He and Silver have a rough time with each other. Silver worries that Shadow will like Eclipse better and Eclipse thinks the same thing since Silver is a hedgehog like Shadow. But they eventually work things out.

Eclipse like Shadow discovers the joys of a heated blanket and never let’s it go.

As his ankle is healing, he doesn’t want to leave. These creatures are weird and have a lot of rules but he likes it here and being fed isn’t too bad. He pretends that his ankle is still injured and he needs to stay longer.

Until Wade reveals yeah, we know you’re better. You can stay if you want.

And that’s how they go from a family of three to four.

[witchfinderblog]

Samhain- the Pagan/Wiccan/Witch New Year

Time of year

Samhain is traditionally celebrated between the 30th October and the 1st November in the Northern Hemisphere, although it is typically celebrated on the 31st October, as this aligns with the Christian celebration of Halloween. It is a good opportunity for broom closeted witches to express their witchy side without seeming too out of the ordinary. Ocotber 31st was special this year, as there was a blue moon, which is the second full moon in a calendar month. (There was another full moon on October 2nd.) This usually happens once every 2-3 years.

In the Southern Hemisphere, some witches celebrate Samhain today, to align with the calendar dates, and other witches celebrate Beltane today, to align with their seasons. They will celebrate Samhain on the 1st May. This post focuses on the celebration of Samhain.

What do we celebrate?

Samhain is a celebration of the final harvest and the end of the harvest season, and it marks the new year in the Pagan calendar. In Wiccan tradition, this is when the God or Sun King is sacrificed back to the land to wander the underworld and the Goddess or Crone mourns him until his rebirth at Yule (the Winter Solstice.) Boundaries between the worlds are at their thinnest this time of year, so it is a good time to honour and communicate with your ancestors.

It is a time to reflect upon death, but remember it is not always a bad thing. In tarot, the death card often represents change and the end of a cycle which will begin again.

Name Origins and History

The name 'Samhain' is most likely derived from the old Irish word 'samfuin' meaning 'summer's end'. As for its pronunciation, there are many variations. The most popular ones seem to be 'SOW-in', or 'SAW-in'.

Samhain began in Ireland as one of the four fire festivals with feasts and dancing. Hearth fires were left to burn out while the people harvested the last of their crops, whichwould be pumpkins, gourds and squashes, amongst other things. A druid priest would then light a community fire, which people would light their own hearths from.

Because the veil between worlds was thinnest, both kind and malevolent spirits could pass into this world, so people would dress up and wear masks to look like the malevolent spirits to avoid harm from them. This is likely where the halloween tradition of dressing up came from. They would also lay a place at the table for their deceased ancestors or friends, and children might honour dead pets by keeping an image of them at their altar, and some would leave dog or cat food out as an offering.

Correspondences

Samhain is a time to cast spells with the focus of change and cycles of death and rebirth. It is a good time to reflect on the past year and think of new beginnings and the light that is to come. As the veil between worlds is thinnest, it is the perfect time of year for shadow work, but also banishing and protection spells.

Colours: earthy reds, oranges and browns, gold, black and purple.

Symbols: cauldrons, brooms, acorns, candles (particularly black ones to honour the dead), photographs of loved ones or pets who have passed away.

Crystals: lapis lazuli, rhodonite, citrine, haematite, bloodstone, jet, carnelian, onyx, smoky quartz.

Herbs/Flowers: calendula, allspice, chrysanthemum, mint, nutmeg, rosemary, sage, wormwood, thistle.

Animals: raven, black cat, owl, bat.

Foods: pumpkins, apples, nuts, berries, bread, pomegranates,

Gods and Goddesses: Hecate, Loki, Hel, Hades, Arawn, Belenus, Dagda, Banba, Cailleach, Inanna, Ishtar, Kali, Odin, Morrigan, Rhiannon.

Activities and Festivals

As mentioned above, there are many traditions associated with Samhain. It's easy to decorate your altar for the celebration, using anything above or anything that is personal or special for this time of year.

Many choose to honour or communicate with their ancestors at Samhain. Similarly to past celebrations, an extra place could be laid at your table for a loved one who has died, or leaving an offering for a pet (People used to leave out bread and milk but this is really harmful to hedgehogs! If you are going to leave an offering outside, check that it doesn't harm your local wildlife.) Lighting candles to represent loved ones is also very popular, and the practice can be seen in the christian faith- the little racks of candles in a church that people light in remembrance of their dead.

There are always recipes that can be made with seasonal foods- things like handmade bread, cake, stews and pies are good for warming you up in the colder evenings.

As always, taking a walk outside, perhaps with a dog, and just being in nature is a great way to connect to the season and whatever Samhain means to you.

However you celebrate,

Happy Samhain, everyone!

[mashounen2003]

Sonic opinions - 1

Honestly, I think it's time for me to give closure to the “Sonic fan phase” of my life. I’ll keep playing the games if they pique my interest, but in terms of the stories they tell and how their characters are portrayed, these games no longer appeal to me. The comic currently published by IDW isn’t complete garbage nor does it have so much drama and controversy surrounding it, in addition to having Whisper and Tangle, two characters I really like at least on a conceptual level, but the story and characterizations are leaving me deeply disappointed and sometimes fall even lower than the recent games written by Pontac & Graff, namely with regard to the characterization of Sonic himself.

The continuity of the TV series Sonic SatAM and the comics published by Archie was always the branch of the franchise that truly caught my attention and is my main source of inspiration for writing stories; in fact, SatAM was the way I found out about Sonic and became a fan in the first place. But this “North-American continuity” is already as dead as the Mega Man Legends saga, and it looks like the vast majority want to forget it as if each and every one of its elements and ideas inherently had just been a massive nightmare regardless of its execution by the writers. At best, the fandom currently sees this branch of Sonic as some silly ��edgy” attempt to take the franchise seriously, something that may have been laudable but was always foolish and doomed to fail and is such a risky gamble that it's not worth trying again.

I'm also getting fed up with the Sonic fandom in general, despite sharing a lot of opinions with some individual fans. Yes, I know there are already many who have declared this for the most varied reasons, be it the “shipp wars”, something in Sonic or even the franchise as a whole suddenly becoming “cringe” due to a whim of a majority portion of the fandom, or the way Sonic reuses "hackneyed" tropes in an alleged demonstration of lack of originality; however, when someone gives Sonic the middle finger for this kind of reasons, they usually do it hypocritically.

No, what got me tired of the Sonic fandom is the way everyone becomes obsessed with picking one branch of the franchise, calling it "the true Sonic", claiming this is the only pure and genuine incarnation of the “soul of Sonic” (if there really is such a thing), marking as “foreigner” every character, concept or element from any other branch of the franchise, and demanding from the fans of those other branches to get on their knees and be thankful that the "True Fans (TM)" even allow them to stay in the fandom. Note that I’m not accusing fans of only one specific portion of the franchise: there are such people among fans of the videogames’ continuity, @skull001 being probably the worst offender, but there’s also that kind of people among the SatAM and Archie-Sonic fans, such as the “nostalgic” delusional pissbabies, blatantly homophobic and conservative, who are now supporting Twitter hashtags like “Rally4Sally” and “Udon4Sonic”. You may think this is actually something typical of all fandoms, but it’s not: this is truly something unique to the Sonic fandom; I don't see huge hordes of Mega Man fans bullying the Legends fandom or making fun of them for the way their favourite saga ended two decades ago; even in the Dragon Ball fandom, despite constant discussions about what is canon and what is not, there’s some kind of tacit consensus that GT and Super are two offshoots of the franchise, equally valid although not coexisting in one same fictional universe (although Shūeisha itself seems to officially support this view, which certainly helps prevent some discourse), while the only part of Dragon Ball universally despised (and rightly so) is Dragon Ball Evolution.

I'm sorry if this hurts some people’s sensibilities, but if I decide to write a story with any given set of characters, elements, concepts, setting, internal rules and whatnot, the only thing in my mind will be to write a mildly decent story. I'm not here to “honour” -let alone honour at all costs- some supposed legacy and traditions that some people say should be upheld by each and every Sonic content creator. And let’s be brutally frank: we’re talking about a franchise that started as platformer 16-bit videogames whose sole purpose was to show SEGA’s consoles were better and handled speed better than Nintendo's; SEGA never really intended to tell a story or portray its characters consistently, only later did the cast begin to receive more defined personalities and the games start telling stories because SEGA suddenly saw this would make them sell more, and even that varied wildly according to whatever seemed more convenient at the time; not to mention SEGA's unique habit of entering vicious cycles of failure and over-correction, where Sonic Team makes a few mistakes in a game that did everything else more or less well, SEGA throws away the entire game along with the foundations on which it was built and the story that was told by that game, Sonic Team makes a new game with absolutely everything replaced and makes mistakes again but those mistakes are different from those of the previous game, the process is repeated ad nauseam and no-one is ever satisfied with anything. A few Sonic fans trying to impose on every other fan a supposed single Sonic canon with some kind of official approval seal by SEGA & Sonic Team is something quite backward, because that single official canon almost never really existed, and if it does exist, it makes no sense and is internally inconsistent, dependent on the creation of new games, and very likely to be retconned, overwritten and modified at any time.

There are other "bad habits" of the Sonic fandom that have led me to break ties with them. One of them is the way many fans take one trait of a character, be it simply one of many facets of their personality or even a physical trait, and turn that into the entire personality of the character; many of those same fans are also massive hypocrites, complaining (albeit rightfully) about how SEGA oversimplifies Shadow into either “Sasuke the Hedgehog” or “Vegeta the Hedgehog”, but then they do the same as SEGA. One of the cases in which this is most evident is when they make Sonic's personality boil down to "gotta go fast" and "be a free spirit"; based on that, they denounce that Sonic saying "I would slow down for you" to one of his closest friends (even if Sonic and Sally weren’t a couple when he said that and/or you don’t support that shipp, it can be said she was at least one of his closest friends in the SatAM-Archie continuity) contradicts the very essence of the character, or they do something even worse: saying that "being a free spirit" means being away from your friends and not having "ties" (like... literal ties, made with ropes, the ones that are actually a bad thing) with anything or anyone. It's like when Goku is portrayed by Dragon Ball fans as far more insensitive than the actual way Akira Toriyama had conceived him and always wrote and portrayed him in his official work.

There are also the plainly disturbing ideas many fans seem to have about personal relationships, judging by the opinions they give about the relationships of Sonic and the rest of the cast. In addition to making everything revolve around vaguely defined words and concepts they throw right and left almost without thinking about their actual meaning, they also seem to believe that having friends and caring for them, or any kind of responsibility no matter what kind it is, is nothing but a drag, like rat-s*** stopping you on your way to "freedom" (this is just amazing: they say the entire Western canon is edgy and the British comic’s Sonic is a jerk, but if you think about this for a bit, these fans’ version of Sonic turns out to be even edgier and more of a jerk than Shadow in his spin-off videogame); in the case of Archie-Sonic, there are all the abuse apologists supporting Scourge and Fiona being a couple, even though you don’t need any “meta” analysis to see he’s (at the very least) verbally abusive towards her and had attracted her by posing as someone else in the first place.

[b99fandomevents]

Thank you to everyone who joined our Fall 2019 Fic Exchange!!! 🍁🍂

At this point in time, all fics have been submitted and are beautifully compiled under the cut by the amazing @amez-santiago. ♡ (If you don’t see your fic here or notice any errors, please let us know!) 

Against The Cold | AO3

↝ by @thirteenbythirteen for @mashikkara

Five times Jake keeps Amy warm, and one time she returns the favor. 

autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place | AO3

↝ by @storyinmyeyes for @amysantiagoisfone

Jake comes over to check on a "sick" Amy and they end up snuggling together on the couch during the first storm of Autumn.

call my bluff, call you ‘babe’ | AO3

↝ by @space-nougat for @b99peraltiago

"Look, Jake, I know I'm asking too much of you, but I'm desperate now and you're the only one left." "I'm desperate now and you're the only one left-title of your sex tape," he exclaimed quickly, then added, "But seriously though, what are you talking about?" "I need you to be my fake boyfriend for Thanksgiving." Or, Amy needs someone to pretend to be her boyfriend for a day. Jake is available.

Carnival: Trial by Fire | AO3

↝ by @vernonfielding for @vic-kovac

Amy takes Jake to the Santiago family's annual carnival -- and introduces her to every one of her seven brothers. Will their relationship survive??? (Yes. There is seriously no angst in here.)

Every day is magical when I'm with you | AO3

↝ by @sandylovesfandoms for @amazingsantiago

Jake and Amy go Halloween costume shopping with baby (in honour of peraltiago baby 2020)

falling in love with you again and again

↝ by @yaboring-yabasic for @stolethekey

corn maze/harvest festival and hot chocolate/amy being cold

Giving Thanks | AO3

↝ by @impossiblyizzy for @lesbianperaltas

Amy is worried about hosting Thanksgiving dinner for the squad, but Jake is there to help.

“I Figured You’d Need This” 

↝ by @winnietherpooh for @viktorkrumn

Jake getting Amy hot beverages because she gets cold.

I call it magic when I'm with you | AO3

↝ by @letsperaltiago for @amyscascadingtabs

1. Halloween costume parties 2. Baking together (could be something Halloween-related or general fall coziness) 3. Peraltiago kids celebrating Halloween

i close my eyes, let it surround me | AO3

↝ by @stolethekey for @397bartonstreet

The flu is definitely messing with his brain, but a part of him never wants to be sick without her again. Maybe she could take care of him every time he’s sick or hurt or sad. Maybe he could take care of her, too. Maybe he wants the comfort she brings when she’s here. Maybe her coat could find a permanent place draped over his armchair. Maybe it could stay – and maybe she could stay – - jake gets sick. amy knits him a scarf.

i used to live alone before i knew you. | AO3

↝ by  @lesbianperaltas for @winnietherpooh

They sit back on their couch, Amy getting comfortable, placing her feet in Jake’s lap and he just looks at her—she’s not looking at him—and he thinks of how he’s never really had a person before her. He had always used to come home from a long case with a pack of beer and he’d watch Die Hard alone. It never used to be a problem until everyone slowly started to couple off in his friend group, and even then it never really got to him until he got a glimpse of what it feels like to have someone to hang out with and actually like to be around with. It was like slowly over time his partnership with Amy had started to become something more. They were friends then—friends that hung out sometimes after work, and somewhere Jake wanted more than just being friends. He wanted everything that Amy could give him. (or, Jake and Amy, some polish food and hot cider.)

i'm cold as the wind blows (so hold me in your arms) | AO3

↝ by @fezzle for @chipmunksallshipklefan

There’s something about how defeated he looks that’s troubling her. His eyes keep shifting to the floor, and there’s a forlorn quality in his voice that makes her think there’s something deeper afflicting him. or Jake comes back from undercover. Only he's not the same.

i’m gomez you’re morticia i feel so happy when i’m witcha | AO3

↝ by @amazingsantiago for @outofinspo

the addams family wedding rap origin story.

in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee (how about love?) | AO3

↝ by @exploding-snapple for @thirteenbythirteen

Rosa rolls her eyes. “Besides, I never drink coffee.” Gina lowers her phone and leans forward; her Twitter updates can wait. “Rosa Diaz, are you telling me that you’ve never had a Pumpkin Spice Latte?” (An AU where Rosa’s a Target Sales Associate and Gina’s a barista for the Starbucks inside.)

In which Amy and Rosa go on a road trip and eat pie, but Rosa doesn't know the whole truth | AO3

↝ by @viktorkrumn for @impossiblyizzy

Amy and Rosa go on a short trip upstate for one of Amy's cases. It's Thanksgiving weekend and it sounds like they're about to have a lot of fun, but Rosa gets the feeling that Amy's hiding something...

it’s you and me, there’s nothing like this | AO3

↝ by @amyscascadingtabs for @cheddar-the-dog

“I still don’t get the point of why you would pay someone to scare you,” Amy mutters, rubbing her arms and jumping up and down on the place to keep herself warm. “The real-life world is plenty terrifying. Climate change. Racism. US Politics. I could go on and on.” “Because it’s fun, and while the things you mentioned are hella scary, they make for awful costumes,” Jake pointed out, already shrugging off his leather jacket to drape it across her shoulders. “I mean, how would you even dress up as climate change?” (Jake and Amy, and a yearly Halloween tradition.)

keep you warm (wanna keep you all) | AO3

↝ by @johnny-and-dora for @sandylovesfandoms

(“Thermodynamic equilibrium.” She’d grinned as he’d offered to warm up her hands on a coffee date a million years ago. He’d never found a use for his hidden talent as a walking space heater before they started dating. Now, here, everything’s always too warm and completely off balance.) or, florida man really misses his girlfriend.

Lie With Me (And Forget the World) | AO3

↝ by @mashikkara for @ofbuttsandbombs

The morning after Haloveen.

Never tell me the odds | AO3

↝ by @kamekamelea for @fezzle

Amy and Jake's meet-cute at a Halloween party. Oh, and Amy is a Wookie.

Of Ghosts and Pumpkins | AO3

↝ by @jake-and-ames for @vernonfielding

“I’m Jake.” He has barely uttered the words when something brushes his arm and out of the corner of his eyes, he sees a shadow glide out of the room. Jake can’t help it; he lets out another high-pitched scream. Amy stifles a laugh beside him. “Okay, let’s get you out of here.” Or Jake vs. some ghosts and a children’s safety knife.

one love, one house (no shirt, no blouse) | AO3 [E]

↝ by @amydancepants-peralta for @kamekamelea

His lips travel up her torso, ever so gentle over the subtle bump, and when he reaches the peak he pauses, looking up at Amy with an indescribable look in his eyes. The hand in his hair stops, holding still within the coils as she looks back at him, holding his gaze before breaking the silence. “Babe?” He smiles, a sign of reassurance she holds more valuable than most peoples words, and shakes his head slightly. “Nothing. Just ...” he drops another kiss to her belly. “Wow.”

put your head on my shoulder (you and I will fall in love) | AO3 

↝ by @vic-kovac for @letsperaltiago

(‘Aaaaaaaaaamy. Amy Santiago. Amy!’ She’s never, ever, been happier to hear Jake Peralta’s voice.) The squad visits the local fall festival; Jake and Amy encounter an endless corn maze, too much apple cider, and overdue confessions.

Safe as (Haunted) Houses | AO3

↝ by @vernonfielding for @vic-kovac

Amy and Jake chase a teenage car thief into a haunted house. And things get weird. 

Scarlet Season | AO3

↝ by @ofbuttsandbombs for @meepmorpperaltiago

It's autumn and school has just begun, the weather is cooler, summer is long gone, Amy's always cold again, Jake is singing Sweater Weather, the kids just want to jump in puddles and leaves and generally make messes, and Karen and Roger decide to renew their vows.

sweater weather | AO3

↝ by @amydancepants-peralta for @kamekamelea

Her face burrows into the fabric of his sweater, chest expanding as she breathes him in, and Jake’s smile grows bigger at the sight. He can still remember their first night together, how amazing she looked with her head against his pillow, the tiniest of smiles on her face as she mumbled that it smelled of him. He knew he was a goner then, and he still is now.

tell me again (about how it hurts) | AO3

↝ by @cheddar-the-dog by @exploding-snapple

it’s Rosa’s first thanksgiving after coming out to her parents - it’s very angst loaded and centers mostly on Rosa’s journey of it all

The Adventures of the Santiago-Peralta family | AO3

↝ by @meepmorpperaltiago for @jake-and-ames

peraltiago baby finding a hedgehog and the squad pumpkin carving together

The Blanket | AO3

↝ by @amysantiagoisfone for @amydancepants-peralta

As Jake and Amy's relationship becomes more stable, they start to learn each other's annoying quirks and wonderful traits- which is just what Jake wanted to do this weekend.

The winner takes it all | AO3

↝ by @chipmunksallshipklefan for @yaboring-yabasic

“Heist! Heist! Heist!” she continues to chant as they wander around the neighbourhood, candy bags held tight as they adhere to Amy’s pre-made chart of whose doors they’re allowed to knock on. And Amy’s already worrying about the impending tantrum when Jake whispers, “We should put a little fake heist on for her.” And so they end up in the living room, Jake and Amy grinning widely at Mia, as Jake holds Mr Zebra up high and Amy declares, “The winner needs to find and hold onto Mr Zebra until the clock says three, do you remember what the number three looks like Mia?”

Untitled 

↝ by @397bartonstreet for @johnny-and-dora

autumnal walk in the park

We Belong Together | AO3

↝ by @b99peraltiago for @storyinmyeyes

“In their two years and a half of relationship, it’s obviously not the first time they find themselves in such a situation – one of them making breakfast while the other joins them after waking up alone in bed –, but there’s something different about this particular morning. There’s a ring on Amy’s finger now, the promise of many similar mornings happening in their shared future shining bright against her skin.” (Post-5x04, the morning after The Proposal.)

Welcome to the party, pal! | AO3 [M]

↝ by @kamekamelea for @fezzle

Amy loses a bet to Gina and has to wear a Halloween costume of her choice. The night takes a surprising turn when Jake sees Amy all dressed up and can barely hold himself together.

when autumn leaves start to fall | AO3 

↝ by @outofinspo for @space-nougat 

Jake and Amy decide to go out on a cold Fall day to play with the fallen leaves 

[flurbejurbvondurp]

Tagged by @kingofthewilderwest​

Rules: List 10 favorite characters from 10 different fandoms and tag some people.

HICCUP HADDOCK (How to Train Your Dragon)

[Honourable mentions: Toothless, Snotlout, Heather]

LINK, specifically these two reincarnations (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess/Breath of the Wild)

[Honourable mentions: Midna, Ordon Village (yes, the entire village), Zelda]

ROY MUSTANG (Fullmetal Alchemist/Brotherhood)

[Honourable mentions: Edward Elric, Olivier Mira Armstrong, Winry Rockbell]

CLEMENTINE (The Walking Dead Game)

[Honourable mentions: Lee Everett, AJ, Violet]

KATARA (Avatar: The last Airbender/Avatar Series)

[Honourable Mentions: Zuko, Korra, Aang]

ANNIE LEONHART (Attack on Titan/Shingeki No Kyojin)

[Honourable mentions: Levi Ackerman, Mikasa Ackerman, Hanji Zoe]

TOMOYA OKAZAKI (Clannad/After Story)

[Honourable mentions: the Furukawas, Ushio, Youhei Sunohara]

SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG (Sonic The Hedgehog)

[Honourable mentions: Rouge The Bat, Sonic The Hedgehog, E-123 Omega]

JOYCE BYERS (Stranger Things)

[Honourable mentions: Eleven, Steve Harrington, Jim Hopper]

HANA (Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki/Wolf Children)

[Honourable mentions: Yuki, Ame, Wolf Man]

Shame I have to stop at just ten, though! D:

Tagging: @we-are-not-the-losechesters @dg-laughing @tazzykiki @luxblackarts @coneygoil 

[girlshadowthehedgehog]

WAIT, I FORGOT TO MENTION THE WHOLE SHADOW DISLIKES THE PLANET THING. not true at all, and i'd like a formal word with whoever wrote the bios. like, did shadow the hedgehog (2005) mean nothing? ik people don't like that game, but i think it's important because it shows us that shadow is letting go of his past and doing things his way. he's not letting his past control or make every decision for him, but he won't forget how he got here. sure, it might have started out with shadow only wanting to honour maria's wish and seeing himself as a tool to do so, BUT now he's protecting the planet because he wants to. yes, there's evil, but there's also a lot of good, and that's what makes it worth protecting, yk? and that was his choice, not maria and not anyone else

did u see the shadow character bio?

UNFORTUNATELY. it's safe to say i have my issues with it ^^;

they're back on their shadow has no friends agenda which is. uh. i disagree. i can subscribe to the idea that shadow HIMSELF says that because he (intentionally or unintentionally) keeps a distance between he and the ones he loves to avoid feeling a similar kind of anguish and loss he felt with maria. then, it would be an unreliable narrator situation where you can CLEARLY see he's wrong because all parties love each other, yk? if shadow wishes to say he has no friends, then so be it, but you can't deny the love that is there

but they didn't do that, and then it's said that omega has no friends (???) and rouge doesn't see shadow as a friend? erm. okay, ig. we're just gonna ignore everything, then.... sniff....

[cassandra-acton]

ORIGINS & FAMILY:

Name: Cassandra Alice Acton.

Nickname: Cassie, Cass.

Birthday: November 8th, 1986.

Age: 31.

Gender: Female.

Place of Birth: Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.

Places Lived Since: London, United Kingdom.

Current Residence: Tower Hamlets, London, United Kingdom.

Nationality: British. 

Parents: Michael and Anita Acton (née Redgrave)

Grandparents: Edward Acton (grandfather, paternal, deceased) Renske van Ardenne (grandmother, paternal) Harold Redgrave (grandfather, maternal, deceased)  Hélène de Broglie (grandmother, maternal, deceased) 

Aunts & Uncles: Kathleen Acton-Fortescue (aunt, paternal) Charlotte, Georgina Redgrave (aunts, maternal) Lambert Redgrave (uncle, maternal)

Number of Siblings: One older sister, Elizabeth Acton.

Relationship With Family: To be honest, she doesn’t really have a relationship with anyone except Elizabeth, and her mother tainted it so much that even that one isn’t healthy. It’s a shame, really. As much as she knows she’s better off without them, she still misses her father, in particular. Cassie definitely envies people who are close to their parents.

Happiest Memory: When Harrison proposed to her, without a doubt. I’ll write about it someday. Getting her internship at Goldman is definitely second, though.

Childhood Trauma: I mean the parents definitely fucked her up for life, so there’s that.

PHYSICAL:

Height: 5'4”

Weight: 120lbs.

Build: Slim but very fit.

Hair Color: Blonde.

Usual Hair Style: Whilst working, she almost always wears her hair up in a ponytail, but she hates it. Much prefers to have it down. Keeps it just a little longer than shoulder length because of her dislike of short hair. Is too lazy to style it beyond neatness unless she’s going somewhere.

Eye Color: Blue.

Glasses? Contacts?: Neither.

Style of Dress/Typical Outfit(s): For work: neat, formal, and inexpensive. Lots of form-fitting skirts, blazers and blouses in blacks and whites. Out of work: a fuck load of jeans. Baggy jumpers and quirky shirts. Picks up a lot of her stuff from charity shops because who has time for fucking shopping.

Typical Style of Shoes: Cassie is never without heels. Prefers bright colours and eye-catching designs to contrast with her typically monochrome/ greyscale outfits during work. About the only part of her outfits she ever spends a decent amount of money on.

Jewellery? Tattoos? Piercings?: The only piece of jewellery she constantly wears is her engagement ring, which she has on a chain around her neck. She has three tattoos. ‘Hip to be Square’ in tiny font on the inside of her right wrist, Harrison’s birthday on her left shoulder blade, and a matching tattoo she got with her friend, Jessica, back in school, on her right forearm. Each got a hand from The Creation of Adam. As for piercings, she has her left ear pierced twice, her right four times, as well as her bellybutton.

Scars: A thin scar that cuts through her right eyebrow; a result of a drunken night out in university during which one of her friends fell down the stairs, and dragged Cassie with her.

Unique Mannerisms/Physical Habits: When she’s stressed, she has to play with her hair; pulling it, twisting it, whatever. It’s about the only good indicator she’s about to rip your face off because she will do that shit with a smile.

Athleticism: Very high. Cassandra naturally has a lot of energy, and so expends a lot of it keeping fit. Rowed competitively for LSE, and still competes regularly with many of the girls from her old crews, as well as having joined a new rowing club. She also plays a lot of rugby, though never competitively. Loves running and endurance, and almost always competes in the Tough Mudder when it’s nearby, as well as taking part in the London marathon annually. Also gets involved with a lot of charity races.

Health Problems/Illnesses: I think she seriously wavers into depression sometimes, though she’s far too proud to ever get it officially diagnosed. PCOS and all its friends, which is not a fun time. Does over attachment to her dog count? Definitely counts.

INTELLECT:

Level of Education: MSc in Economics and Management from LSE. Cassie finds studying relaxing, however, and often self-teaches about subjects of interest in her free time. Currently, she is working on a course in Arab Finance.

Languages Spoken: English natively, Dutch fluently. French and Mandarin intermediate. Is determined to take up learning Arabic at a later date.

Level of Self-Esteem: Very low. It’s why she aggressively overcompensates with an arrogant attitude. Partly to convince herself, but mostly to convince others.

Gifts/Talents: Surprisingly, she’s actually a pretty good violinist.

Mathematical?: Definitely. It’s sort of her thing. 100% could get a job on Countdown.

Makes Decisions Based Mostly On Emotions, or On Logic?: Usually, emotions, though she tends to berate herself afterward, because she knows—especially given the career she has now chosen to pursue—that she needs to learn to be more logical.

Life Philosophy: Someone else is happy with less than what you have.

Religious Stance: Was raised Anglican, but isn’t particularly religious.

Cautious or Daring?: Absolutely daring. Naturally, she’s a spontaneous person, and I     don’t think being cautious really lends to that.

Most Sensitive About/Vulnerable To: Being told she’s not good enough. Being criticised when it comes to her work. Being compared to her sister. People bringing up what happened to Harrison. Terrorism in general.

Optimist or Pessimist?: In between, leaning slightly toward the pessimistic side.

Extrovert or Introvert?: Extrovert.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Current Relationship Status: In a relationship with Adam Hassan, Shadow Health Secretary, and MP for Bethnal Green & Bow.

Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual.

Past Relationships: Before Adam, the only person she’d ever been in a real relationship with was Harrison. They on-off dated their whole young lives. They briefly broke up when he joined the army and she went to university because they were worried about ‘distance’ but wound up missing each other too much for it to be a permanent thing. Dated one guy briefly, Matt, a few years after his death, but it scared her so much it took her until Adam to try again.

Primary Reason For Being Broken Up With: None.

Primary Reasons For Breaking Up With People: Not having moved on.

Ever Cheated?: No.

Been Cheated On: Not really. Unless you count that one time, by Harrison, when they were little kids. He kissed another girl on the playground because Cassie had been off school for a week. She pouted and promised she’d never date a boy ever again after that.

Level of Sexual Experience: Cassie’s slept with five people in her life, so limited-ish. Harrison, a brief fling during her first year of university, Matt, Silas, and Adam.

Story of First Kiss: His name was Richard and she only kissed him because all of the other girls wanted to.

Story of Loss of Virginity: The first time she and Harrison tried, they’d attempted to make it a ‘romantic evening’ that wound up being so awkward, they couldn’t stop laughing. Eventually, it happened spontaneously at a school social after party.

A Social Person?: Absolutely. Even though she needs some time to herself every now and again to process all the shit that’s going on in her life, she couldn’t go any extended time without her friends. Cassie has to be in a pretty bad place to cut herself of from people.

Most Comfortable Around: Jessica, and her old work friends at Goldman—they’re the people she’s closest to, and are still like a family to her.

Oldest Friend: Jessica Mirzoyan, a friend she grew up with in Oxford that now also lives in London. She can’t remember a time in her life when Jessica wasn’t in it, they’ve known each other for so long. Basically a sister to her.

How Does She Think Others Perceive Her?: Cassie has an incredibly skewed view of what people think of her. She automatically assumes people think the worst. Look at her like she’s not good enough, just like her mother always did. I think that’s why she keeps most people at arm’s length, because she’s so scared of letting someone in only for them to wind up criticizing her.

How Do Others Actually Perceive Her?: Depends who you ask. Amongst the public she’s very popular for her honesty. Amongst her colleagues back at Goldman she’s respected as a professional cutthroat. As for her critics, they probably just see her as a stuck up bitch.

SECRETS:

Life Goals: To help as many people through her political and charitable work as possible. That’s really all she cares about. Personal goals seem fairly irrelevant to her right now. 

Dreams: To be happy again would be rather nice.

Greatest Fears: Polystyrene and spiders. Why do either of those things exist?

Most Ashamed Of: How bitter losing Harrison has made her. How she still hasn’t been able to get over the anger and the hurt it left her with.

Secret Hobbies: Cassie kind of loves to knit? It’s a good stress reliever when she’s too tired to go running. Not that she’d admit to it, mind you. She’s also not very good. All she can make are the really simple scarves.

Crimes Committed (Was she caught? Charged?): None.

DETAILS/QUIRKS:

Night Owl or Early Bird?: Night owl. Begrudges being alive in the mornings.

Light or Heavy Sleeper?: Heavy sleeper.

Favorite Animal: Hedgehog.

Favorite Foods: Steak. Cheese and crackers. Orange jelly.

Least Favorite Food: Avocado.

Favorite Book: American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis.

Least Favorite Book: The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Favorite Movie: Burn After Reading. Gladiator. Mars Attacks!

Least Favorite Movie: Shitty horrors in general.

Favorite Song: Mr. Roboto – Styx. If you play that to her, she doesn’t just sing along, she fucking performs it, okay. (Honourable mentions for The Boys Are Back In Town – Thin Lizzy, and What Is Love – Haddaway.)

Favorite Sport: Rugby. Cassie can get pretty shouty about rugby and is a very dedicated Saracens fan.

Coffee or Tea?: Tea.

Crunchy or Smooth Peanut Butter?: Neither, thank you. That stuff is nasty.

Type of Car She Drives: A dark green Mini Cooper.

Lefty or Righty?: Lefty.

Favorite Color: Pink.

Cusser?: Pretty badly, although she does well to hold her tongue in public most of the time. Has had a few slip-ups that made the headlines. Luckily the general opinion was that it made her seem more normal, and it went down pretty well with voters, if not her critics.

Smoker? Drinker? Drug User?: Never used drugs. Occasionally smokes if she’s incredibly stressed and has been drinking. Drinks fairly regularly.

Biggest Regret: Letting her parents fuck her up so badly. Cassie wishes that she hadn’t taken it so much to heart, now that she knows better.

Pets: The love of her life, Brody the Corgi.

[blastthechaos]

*blows the party cannon*

¡its eggman day everybody!

i guess i should say what i think about the guest of honour

when i first saw eggman i did’t think much of him, he was just there

as time went on i began to get more interested on him, it got to the point where he’s my second favorite villain of all time

opinions on the doctor are varied:either he’s seen as some joke, a villain that became less of a threat, or an awesome diabolical mastermind

i’m on the later camp(although i was on the other camps for a bit, i admit that)

some dismiss him because he’s apparently an harmless villain...nevermind that he uses little animals as batteries, has created his equivalent of the death star(lets remember it took a lot of effort to bring it down, two games or three if you count sonic 3 and sonic & knuckles as separate games), conquered a planet and created horrible futures for it, came back to that planet after it was freed and built his death egg around it(the sonic 4 saga for those who are wondering), managed to destroy half of the moon, split the planet into pieces, conquered 5 planets(yes, he has amazing feats post-unleashed, ¿got it?) and a race of aliens that according to a unused voice clip:have energy that surpasses the chaos emeralds, managed to control an eldritch abomination that controls time and space without it betraying him and in the upcoming game he wins, he manages to conquer the world(also he released several powerful abominations to the world in previous games)

so yeah, he isn’t someone who you can easily fuck around with(there only a few beings in his universe who can do that)

just because a villain is goofy does’t mean they’re pushovers

¿and for those who say that he became harmless after sonic adventure 2? need i tell you again that he split the planet into pieces(sonic unleashed and sonic advance 3), conquered 5 planets in order to use them as part of his interstellar theme park and conquered a whole race aliens as well(sonic colors), controlled a monster that controls time and space(sonic generations), creates a machine that sucks the life out of earth(sonic lost world) and he conquers the world(the upcoming sonic forces)

so yeah, eggman is still a threat

his inventions are so cool, the badniks,egg pawns and egg fighters are kinda meh for me(i guess because i destroy so much of them in every sonic game i play jeje) but are still useful as troopers, the boss machines he made are fun to fight(and they can at times create some of the most difficult battles you ever see) his final boss machines are one of the most awesome things i have seen(like the death egg robot, egg nega wisp, the egg dragoon, the doomsday robots from s&k) he has amusing elite squads(the E-series and the upcoming hard boiled heavies)

lets also mention his most successful creations:E-123 omega and metal sonic

while E-123 omega betrayed him permanently he still is an amazing walking arsenal who could even defeat shadow and lock him away in an alternate timeline(that means that he’s a challenge for sonic) and also he’s amusing

metal sonic is a robotic copy of sonic the hedgehog and while i think he can be at times be a little overhyped when it comes to his power(COUGHMETALOVERLORDCOUGH) he’s still an equal to the blue blur and that’s is not easy(the only other beings that equal him are shadow, knuckles and blaze) so you can tell eggman put a lot of work put into making him

so cheers to eggman, you truly have the master plan